euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 2, issue 1, august 2015, pages 107-109 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.2.38 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2015. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. de la mano de dos expertos en formación de profesores de español como segunda lengua, los profesores agustín vera luján y mercedes blanco rodríguez, se ha publicado recientemente un manual sobre cuestiones de pragmática en la enseñanza del español como 2/l. como es sabido, una de las cuestiones clave de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras reside en el interés creciente hacia el dominio lingüístico de la pragmática, considerada en la metodología comunicativa de la enseñanza de lenguas como uno de los aspectos esenciales de la competencia comunicativa. en este volumen la pragmática se concibe como una teoría de la acción lingüística que tiene en cuenta unidades discursivas jerárquicas de diferentes niveles, desde las más elementales –es decir, los enunciados– hasta la más compleja –esto es, el texto-, pasando por unidades intermedias como el párrafo y la intervención. con esta visión de la disciplina pragmática, los autores inciden en la necesidad de ahondar con rigor en la caracterización de todas las unidades discursivas orales y escritas, tanto en la unidad mínima (el enunciado) como en la unidad máxima (el texto). solo de esta forma, insisten, es posible describir y explicar con suficiente precisión y profundidad algunos aspectos o recursos pragmáticos de la lengua en la enseñanza de segundas lenguas o lenguas extranjeras. con este planteamiento, pues, se distancian de la concepción de la pragmática de los modelos comunicativos actuales que, en ocasiones, parecen carecer de exactitud descriptiva. como prueba de dichas creencias, los autores hacen continuas referencias a uno de los documentos institucionales de referencia, el plan curricular del instituto cervantes (pcic) (2006), con el objeto de poner de manifiesto las lagunas metodológicas de esta obra en ciertos aspectos pragmáticos. el manual que reseñamos, de 191 páginas, se articula en cuatro capítulos estructuralmente homólogos, que comienzan con una argumentación teórica seguida por una serie de ejemplos ilustrativos del fenómeno en objeto. todos los capítulos engloban un epígrafe en el que se indaga en el pcic con el objetivo de averiguar si se abordan los distintos hechos pragmáticos estudiados, y en qué medida. asimismo, cada * contacto: angela_mura@yahoo.it vera luján, agustín y blanco rodríguez, mercedes (2014). cuestiones de pragmática en la enseñanza del español como 2/l. madrid, españa: arco/libros g. angela mura* universidad de alicante book review received 20 april 2015; received in revised form 6 june 2015; accepted 8 june 2015 abstract es el volumen que reseñamos trata de las repercusiones de los fenómenos pragmáticos en la enseñanza del español como segunda lengua. se lleva a cabo una reflexión sobre el dominio lingüístico de la disciplina pragmática, y se propone una concepción abierta de dicha disciplina que se denomina teoría pragmática ampliada. esta nueva visión tiene en cuenta una amplia gama de unidades discursivas diferentes -desde la unidad mínima (el enunciado) hasta la unidad máxima (el texto) que se miran bajo el prisma de la teoría de los actos de habla. tras llevar a cabo un análisis pormenorizado de los fenómenos observados en el plan curricular del instituto cervantes, los autores aplican los conceptos planteados al proceso de enseñanza/aprendizaje del español como 2/l, y proponen una batería de actividades amplia y rigurosa que el lector puede llevar al aula. palabras clave: pragmática, español, segundas lenguas, actos de habla. en the reviewed volume considers the repercussions of pragmatic phenomena in the teaching of spanish as a second language. reflecting on the linguistic domain of the discipline of pragmatics, it proposes an open conception of said discipline that it terms expanded pragmatic theory. this new vision takes into account a wide range of different discursive units—from the minimum unit (the utterance) to the maximum unit (the text)—and examines them through the prism of speech act theory. in a detailed analysis of phenomena observed in the curriculum plan for the instituto cervantes, the authors apply the concepts they have outlined to the process of teaching/learning spanish as a second language, and propose a wide battery of rigorous activities that the reader can take to the classroom. key words: pragmatics, spanish, second languages, speech acts. it il volume che abbiamo recensito tratta delle ripercussioni dei fenomeni pragmatici sull’insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua seconda. gli autori sviluppano una riflessione sul dominio linguistico della pragmatica e propongono una concezione aperta di tale disciplina, chiamata teoria pragmatica ampliata. questa nuova visione considera un’ampia gamma di unità discorsive – dall’unità minima (l’enunciato) a quella massima (il testo) – viste attraverso il prisma della teoria degli atti linguistici. dopo una dettagliata analisi dei fenomeni osservati nel piano curricolare dell’istituto cervantes, gli autori applicano i concetti presentati al processo di insegnamento e apprendimento dello spagnolo come l2 proponendo un’ampia e rigorosa batteria di attività che il lettore può usare in classe. parole chiave: pragmatica, spagnolo, lingue seconde, atti linguistici. http://www.e-journall.org/ mura e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 107-109 108 capítulo incluye un apartado dedicado a la aplicación didáctica de las cuestiones planteadas, pues se propone una serie de actividades para la enseñanza/aprendizaje de segundas lenguas o lenguas extranjeras que contemplen los problemas abordados en el volumen. finalmente, todos los capítulos se cierran con la solución a dichas actividades. el primer capítulo, el nacimiento de la pragmática, es el que da cuenta de la percepción que los autores tienen acerca de la pragmática lingüística y donde proponen una orientación pragmática que denominan teoría pragmática ampliada. se trata de una concepción abierta que caracteriza a esta disciplina como un terreno en el que confluyen mecanismos diferentes, procedentes tanto de la semántica como de la sintaxis. según esta visión, a la disciplina pragmática le correspondería una serie de tareas distintas que, en conjunto, son capaces de explicar los valores discursivos de los fenómenos lingüísticos. en el segundo capítulo se indaga en el objeto de la pragmática: los actos de habla, y se argumenta la concepción de la unidad texto, explicado y descrito a través de la disciplina pragmática como un acto de habla. los autores insisten, en esta sección, en las implicaciones de la teoría de los actos de habla en el desarrollo de la metodología de enseñanza de lenguas de orientación comunicativa y su utilización en los criterios de selección de contenidos en los libros de texto de enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera. con el tercer capítulo, dedicado a la dimensión ilocutiva del texto: actos y secuencias de actos de habla, se indaga en la estructura sintáctica de las unidades discursivas, tanto en los textos escritos como en los textos orales, y en las relaciones entre las secuencias de unidades. a partir de este planteamiento, vera y blanco se sirven del concepto de macroestructura textual de van dijk (1978) para ilustrar la utilidad de ciertas actividades que potencian el desarrollo de las destrezas discursivas, en concreto de la comprensión oral y escrita y de la producción escrita. el cuarto y último capítulo se titula la teoría de la cortesía, y está encaminado a explicar el funcionamiento de los actos de habla en la comunicación humana a través de los fundamentos de esta teoría. para ello, los autores se apoyan en el concepto de imagen formulado por brown y levinson (1978), que representa el principio de dicha teoría pragmática. los cuatro capítulos están precedidos por una introducción clara y exhaustiva que adelanta los contenidos de las páginas que siguen. quizás se echa en falta un capítulo de conclusiones, donde se recojan las ideas esbozadas en la introducción y desarrolladas a lo largo del libro. la estructura paralela de los cuatro capítulos que componen el manual sirve de guía para el usuario y lo acompaña en la lectura. asimismo, la elección de corroborar las cuestiones teóricas planteadas mediante unas propuestas didácticas permite asentar los conceptos tratados y nos lleva a la realidad del aula, ofreciendo una aplicación práctica de conceptos que, en ocasiones, resultan abstractos y arduos de explicar. aunque los ejemplos ilustrativos propuestos pertenecen a la lengua española, los fundamentos teóricos se abordan con tanta profundidad que los conceptos planteados se pueden aplicar sin dificultad a cualquier situación de enseñanza de segundas lenguas. se trata, pues, de una obra de fácil consultación tanto para los docentes de l2 (principalmente del español) como para estudiantes de posgrado que quieran ahondar en las cuestiones pragmáticas relacionadas con la enseñanza de lenguas. todo ello, junto a una prosa fluida y nítida, permite una lectura ágil y fructífera del manual y lo convierte en una obra de referencia en la enseñanza de los aspectos pragmáticos de segundas lenguas o lenguas extranjeras. referencias bibliográficas brown, penelope & levinson, stephen (1978). politeness. some universals in language usage. cambridge: cup. instituto cervantes (2006). plan curricular del instituto cervantes. niveles de referencia para el español. madrid: biblioteca nueva. van dijk, teun adrianus (1978). la ciencia del texto. barcelona: paidós. reseña: pragmática en la enseñanza de ele e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 107-109 109 g. angela mura, universidad de alicante angela_mura@yahoo.it en angela mura es doctora en lengua española por la universidad complutense de madrid, posee un máster en enseñanza de español e inglés como segundas lenguas/lenguas extranjeras por la universidad de alicante y se licenció en lengua y literatura por la università degli studi di sassari (italia). es profesora asociada en el departamento de traducción e interpretación (italiano) de la universidad de murcia, y miembro del grupo de investigación griale y del proyecto frasytram de la universidad de alicante, y del proyecto cola de la universidad de bergen (noruega). sus líneas de investigación son la fraseología contrastiva español/italiano, la fraseodidáctica, i/le, e/le, y la ironía y el humor. es angela mura has a doctorate in spanish from universidad complutense de madrid, a master’s degree in the teaching of spanish and english as second or foreign languages from the universidad de alicante (au), and a bachelor’s degree in foreign languages and literature from the università degli studi di sassari (italy). dr. mura is associate professor in the department of translation and interpretation (italian) at the universidad de murcia and a member of the research group griale at au, the cola project at the universidad de bergen (norway), and the frasytram project (au). her areas of research are spanish/italian contrastive phraseology, the didactics of phraseology, italian as foreign language, spanish as foreign language, and irony and humor. . it angela mura dottoressa di ricerca in lingua spagnola presso l’università complutense di madrid, master in insegnamento dello spagnolo e dell’inglese come seconde lingue/lingue straniere nell’università di alicante (spagna) e laureata in lingue e letterature straniere presso l’università degli studi di sassari (italia). attualmente è professoressa associata presso il dipartimento di traduzione e interpretazione (italiano) dell’università di murcia e membro del gruppo di ricerca griale e del progetto frasytram presso l’università di alicante; partecipa, inoltre, al progetto cola dell’università di bergen (norvegia). le sue linee di ricerca includono la fraseologia contrastiva spagnolo/italiano, la fraseodidattica, italiano come lingua straniera, spagnolo come lingua straniera, ironia e umorismo.. insegnare una lingua: l’arte del reimpiego euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 2, issue 1, august 2015, pages 110-111 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.2.32 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. corpus-based sociolinguistics: a guide for students by eric friginal and jack a. hardy is a 312-page reference book which maps out a clear and systematic path for corpus applications in sociolinguistics. the book is divided into three sections, which introduce basic concepts related to corpus-based sociolinguistics, survey the main studies of the discipline, and offer ideas on how to conduct corpus-based sociolinguistic studies, respectively. section a, introduction to corpus-based sociolinguistics, is made up of five parts. the first focuses on sociolinguistic investigations of variation, and after defining the concept of variation and introducing the linguistic and societal variables in sociolinguistics, overviews the main applications, investigations, and approaches in corpus-based sociolinguistics. the second, third, and fourth parts offer an in-depth account of corpus linguistics by defining the discipline and its historical development and describing the main types of corpora, the common linguistic constructs investigated using corpora, and the software tools and corpusbased techniques which can be applied to sociolinguistic analyses. in these parts, the authors also take into account important issues in corpus design and representativeness. finally, the fifth part considers the modern expansion of corpus work, as well as its limitations and likely future directions. section b, survey of corpus-based sociolinguistic studies, offers concise but detailed information about studies in corpus-based sociolinguistic research. in the six parts making up this section, readers will find a kaleidoscopic compendium of corpora and of studies in language variation related to regional dialectology, gender, sexuality, age, politeness, stance, workplace discourse, diachronic change, and social media and web registers, among others. section c, conducting corpus-based sociolinguistic studies, is the most practical of the sections. although it is worth highlighting that the whole book is characterized by a constant and valuable zooming in * contact: pierfranca.forchini@unicatt.it friginal eric & hardy, jack a. (2014). corpus-based sociolinguistics: a guide for students. new york and london: routledge pierfranca forchini* università cattolica del sacro cuore book review received 27 february 2015; accepted 13 march 2015 abstract en this review highlights the content of corpus-based sociolinguistics: a guide for students by eric friginal and jack a. hardy, which maps out a clear and systematic path for corpus applications in sociolinguistics. key words: corpora, corpus tools, language variation and change, variation in discourse. es la presente reseña realiza un repaso por lo más destacado de corpus-based sociolinguistics: a guide for students, obra escrita por eric friginal y jack a. hardy que pretende ofrecer al lector pautas claras y sistemáticas en la aplicación de corpus a la sociolingüística palabras clave: corpus, herramientas de corpus, varación lingüística y cambio lingüístico, varación en el discurso. it l’obiettivo dell’articolo è mettere in rilievo i punti principali di corpus-based sociolinguistics: a guide for students, di eric friginal e jack a. hardy, che delinea un percorso chiaro e sistematico per l’applicazione del corpus in sociolinguistica. parole chiave: corpora, strumenti del corpus, variazione e cambiamento linguistico, variazione del discorso. http://www.e-journall.org/ review: corpus-based sociolinguistics e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 110-111 111 and out from theory to practice and vice versa, section c provides the most practical advice on how to conceive and develop corpora to conduct sociolinguistic research. in the first of the four parts of the section, the authors provide guidelines on not only how to collect and organize a corpus, but also on what to do before collecting one. the remaining parts amply illustrate issues such as multidimensional analysis of linguistic variation, diachronic research, and applications, such as keyword analysis, the linguistic inquiry and word count, and using pos-tagged data in sociolinguistic research. the volume offers more than it promises: it not only succeeds in providing an up-to-date account of using corpora in sociolinguistic research, but it also succeeds in providing reflective breaks, text samples, sample research questions, case studies, further readings, interviews, trivia, vignettes, discussion questions, activities and applications, which are stimulating resources both for students and non-students. although it is primarily intended as a guide to corpus-based sociolinguistics in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses, the book is also a must read for professional researchers who are interested in a current, wideranging overview of corpus-based sociolinguistic research. the authors successfully synthesize a representative body of studies, concepts, and tools in sociolinguistic research, as they weave their way through a variety of topics, devices, and perspectives. pierfranca forchini, università cattolica del sacro cuore pierfranca.forchini@unicatt.it en pierfranca forchini has an ma in foreign languages and literatures, an ma in theoretical and applied linguistics, and a phd in linguistic and literary sciences. her interests are the lexico-grammar interface of spoken and movie language, american english phraseology and phonology, corpus linguistics, contrastive linguistics and audio-visual translation. she currently lectures in english linguistics at università cattolica del sacro cuore, milan, italy. es pierfranca forchini tiene un máster en lenguas y literaturas extranjeras, un máster en lingüística teórica y aplicada y un doctorado en ciencias lingüísticas y literarias. sus intereses giran en torno a la interfaz léxico-gramática del lenguaje hablado y cinematográfico, la fraseología y la fonología del inglés americano, la lingüística de corpus, la lingüística contrastiva y la traducción audiovisual. actualmente es profesora de lingüística inglesa en la università cattolica del sacro cuore de milán (italia). it pierfranca forchini ha un master in lingue e letterature straniere, un master in linguistica teorica e applicata e un dottorato di ricerca in scienze linguistiche e letterarie. il suo campo di studio abbraccia l’interfaccia lessico-grammaticale dei linguaggi parlati e cinematografici, la fraseologia e la fonologia dell’inglese americano, la linguistica dei corpora, la linguistica contrastiva e la traduzione audiovisiva. attualmente insegna linguistica inglese presso l’università cattolica del sacro cuore a milano. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 2, issue 2, december 2015, 106-109 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.3.61 www.e-journall.org © fionda 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: maria.fionda@gmail.com austin, jennifer, blume, maría, & sánchez, liliana (2015). bilingualism in the spanish-speaking world: linguistic and cognitive perspectives. cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. maria i. fionda*1 the university of mississippi book review received 30 august 2015; accepted 27 october 2015 abstract en the book reviewed here may serve as an excellent resource for advanced undergraduate students of linguistics, as well as graduates and scholars in the field and related disciplines. it comprises five chapters that explore, through three spanish bilingual communities, the following topics: basic concepts in bilingualism, such as code-switching and language transfer; a brief historical review of spanish bilingualism; proposed definitions of bilingualism and the different ways in which bilinguals may be classified according to factors such as language competence and age of acquisition; the effect of bilingualism on the brains and minds of bilingual speakers, such as increased cortical activation and enhanced literacy; and, finally, the development and outcomes of bilingualism on the linguistic representations of bilingual speakers. the authors cover a breadth of research, rendering it accessible by succinctly reviewing findings, and further identify areas for future research. key words: spanish bilingualism, spanish-english, spanish-euskara, spanish-quechua, bilingual outcomes, neurolinguistics, cognitive linguistics. es la obra revisada aquí se presenta como un recurso excelente tanto para estudiantes de últimos cursos del grado de lingüística como para posgraduados y académicos que trabajen en el campo objeto de estudio y áreas afines. se compone de cinco capítulos que exploran los siguientes temas a través de tres comunidades bilingües donde una de las lenguas es el español: conceptos básicos del bilingüismo, tales como la alternancia de código y la transferencia; una breve reseña histórica del bilingüismo en español; definiciones propuestas en torno al bilingüismo y las diferentes formas en que puede clasificarse a los hablantes bilingües, atendiendo a factores como la competencia lingüística y la edad de adquisición; los efectos del bilingüismo en el cerebro y en las mentes de los hablantes bilingües, entre ellos el aumento de la activación cortical y una alfabetización mejorada, y, por último, el desarrollo del bilingüismo y sus resultados en las representaciones lingüísticas de los hablantes bilingües. las autoras dan cabida a un extenso ámbito de investigación, y lo hacen accesible a través de un recorrido conciso por los hallazgos, identificando asimismo otras áreas de interés para futuras investigaciones. palabras clave: bilingüismo en español, español-inglés, español-euskera, español-quechua, efectos del bilingüismo, neurolingüística, lingüística cognitiva. it il libro recensito qui è una risorsa eccellente non solo per studenti universitari di livello avanzato di linguistica, ma anche per dottorandi e studiosi del settore e delle relative discipline. il volume include cinque capitoli che attraverso l’analisi di tre comunità ispanofone bilingui, esplorano i seguenti argomenti: concetti di base del bilinguismo, come la commutazione di codice e l’interferenza linguistica; un breve ripasso della storia del bilinguismo ispanofono; definizioni proposte di bilinguismo e categorizzazione dei bilingui in base a fattori quali, tra tanti, la competenza linguistica e l’età di acquisizione; gli effetti che il bilinguismo produce sul cervello e sulla mente dei bilingui, come, per esempio, l’aumento dell’attivazione corticale e la maggiore alfabetizzazione; e, infine, lo sviluppo e i risultati del bilinguismo sulle rappresentazioni linguistiche dei bilingui. parole chiave: bilinguismo ispanofono, spagnolo-inglese, spagnolo-euskara, spagnolo-quechua, effetti del bilinguismo bilingui, neurolinguistica, linguistica cognitiva. http://www.e-journall.org/ review: bilingualism in the spanish-speaking world e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 106-109 107 1. summary as its title aptly indicates, bilingualism in the spanish-speaking world: linguistic and cognitive perspectives (cambridge university press, 2015, pgs. 225+) has as its scope the exploration of research on the vast topic of bilingualism in communities in which both spanish and a second language are spoken. the book is made up of five chapters. in the introduction, austin, blume, and sánchez state the goals of the book, which include reviewing research on the effects of bilingualism on language representation and the minds of speakers of more than one language, examining how theoretical assumptions have affected research on the effects of bilingualism on linguistic and cognitive development, and discussing the concept of degrees of bilingualism within a community based on amount of input and types of communicative interactions. these issues are explored primarily through three main bilingual communities: spanish-english bilinguals in the usa, spanish-quechua bilinguals in peru, and spanish-euskara (basque) bilinguals in spain. the chapter also introduces basic concepts that emerge in the field of bilingualism, such as code switching, language transfer and convergence, borrowing, minority and majority languages, diglossia, language shift, language maintenance and death, models of bilingual education, pidgins, and creoles. the chapter ends with a brief grammatical overview of each of the four languages that participate in the bilingualism of the three communities explored, as well as a brief historical synopsis of how spanish came into contact with each of these languages. chapter 1 begins with an exploration of various proposed definitions of bilingualism, including such notions as proficiency, competence, and fluency. the authors look at how the evolution of the definition of bilingualism and the methods of testing language proficiency have impacted, and continue to affect research and education policy. the chapter moves from the early days of bloomfield's (1933) "native-like control of two languages" to more comprehensive, current-day definitions of bilingualism that include proficiency in the various linguistic subcomponents (phonology, syntax, etc.), as well as in the specific mode of communication and sociolinguistic context. the chapter then proceeds with a discussion of the various criteria used to classify bilinguals, followed by a review of the research on how second languages are acquired, addressing differences from first-language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis. the chapter ends with a brief look at the results of bilingualism, such as language loss and the development of the first and second language in heritage speakers. chapter 2 examines bilingualism from the perspectives of mind and brain of speakers of two or more languages. after briefly introducing neurolinguistic and neuroimaging methods, the authors review the research in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and linguistics, focusing on results that show greater brain gray matter density in bilinguals, as well as increased cortical activation during language processing, which varies according to age of acquisition, proficiency, and continued exposure. the authors also review research that shows how the bilingual brain displays responses to syntactic and grammatical errors during real-time processing and discuss models of bilingual lexical and syntactic processing. the chapter also addresses research that shows that bilingualism may afford benefits in the development of literacy and phonological awareness in children acquiring languages with alphabetic scripts. finally, chapter 3 addresses linguistic development in bilinguals, from a cognitive and linguistic perspective. this chapter deals with key questions such as the nature and organization of the bilingual's lexicon(s) and grammar by considering research on whether the words and associated concepts in each of the bilingual's languages are stored separately or together, and how they are accessed. the authors also address two hypotheses regarding whether bilingual children's syntax for each language is developed in one system or separate systems for each language, and look at more nuanced explanations in the literature that point toward autonomous syntax development with degrees of cross-linguistic influence at the morphological level and at the syntax-discourse interface. the book ends with two pages of concluding remarks that summarize the entirety of the book, as well as the main topics explored in each chapter. 2. evaluation bilingualism in the spanish-speaking world: linguistic and cognitive perspectives is appropriate for several audiences. written in a straightforward and comprehensible manner, the book serves as an introductory textbook on bilingualism involving the spanish language for graduate students as well as advanced undergraduates with prior knowledge of linguistics. likewise, it may serve as an excellent reference tool for scholars in the field and other related disciplines. given the large amount of published fionda e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 106-109 108 research on bilingualism, the authors do an excellent job of achieving their goals of examining theoretical assumptions of bilingualism and their effect on research in the field and looking more in depth at the concept of varying degrees of bilingualism and how these degrees relate to input and different types of communication. in the first chapter, for example, after thoroughly reviewing the many forms of bilingualism according to factors such as language competence, use and age of acquisition, the authors rightfully address some of the crucial and difficult questions in the field, such as the lack of consensus in defining what it means to be bilingual, along with related concepts such as “native-like” and “near-native” and the implications of this lack of clarity for research. in addressing these concerns, the authors note that researchers must be cautious about overgeneralizing the classification of the participants in their studies, and should look closely at the differences between bilinguals as seen in the aforementioned factors, and others like type and place of exposure to each of the languages for reporting of bilinguals with respect to all (extra)linguistic variables. in the same chapter, the authors also do a great service to all bilinguals by calling forth the issue of viewing native language (l1) influence as a deficiency. while this viewpoint has largely been abandoned by scholars in linguistics, researchers in related fields, such as education, will benefit greatly from this call to a more scientific view of the phenomenon. perhaps the greatest strength of the book is the large amount of information it provides in just 234 pages and the ease with which the reader is taken through the material. the authors do an outstanding job of distilling the essence of what has been found in the huge body of research in the different subfields of bilingualism while also calling attention to what questions must still be investigated. for example, the second chapter provides a concise overview of the diverse methods of investigation used in psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic research, and reviews studies on the differences found in the brains of bilingual speakers when compared to their monolingual counterparts. these results are presented along with the theoretical models of language representation and processing that accompany such research, and the cognitive benefits of being bilingual. for scholars interested in making significant advances in the field, the chapter notes, for example, the lack of studies that examine adult second-language (l2) attrition. for the more unseasoned reader, the authors provide necessary explanations of linguistic phenomena, such as a clear yet succinct explanation of ergativity in the first chapter. while there is no doubt that the book will serve scholars and students alike, it does have some slight shortcomings. in the third paragraph of chapter 3, the authors state that they "espouse a view of language that assumes the existence of different language components: a lexicon, a phonological component, a syntactic component, and an interpretive component" (p. 127). in short, the authors adopt a generative grammar perspective. while choosing a particular theoretical perspective is certainly not a shortcoming, this claim comes, perhaps, a little too late. in fact, an informed linguist is able to discern the authors' theoretical position from the very beginning of the book, in such sentences as "as in other indo-european languages, movement is overt, with, for example, wh-words (qué, quién, cuándo, etc.) being moved to the beginning of sentences for question formation" (p. 17). the notion of movement is, of course, associated with transformational theories of syntax. although the majority of studies in bilingualism involving spanish are indeed conducted from a generative grammar approach, the authors do draw on many studies of bilingualism involving other languages in their examinations of various phenomena. thus, the book would be enriched if it also reviewed studies that took a usage-based perspective of (second) language acquisition, such as gries and wulff (2005), paradis, nicoladis, crago and genesee (2011), and ulbrich and ordin (2014). a broader view on bilingualism would add value particularly to chapter 3, in which issues such as bilingual syntactic development and cross-linguistic influence are addressed. the reader would thus benefit from added information and insight on theoretical approaches adopted in the study of bilingualism. nonetheless, this relatively small oversight does not diminish the quality of the product. in a book whose scope might seem quite large at first, the authors have succeeded in reviewing and examining research in a great deal of subfields, bringing together the many angles from which research in bilingualism in the spanish-speaking world has been approached and offering insights on the current state of the subfields in question. the reader will find that bilingualism in the spanish-speaking world: linguistic and cognitive perspectives provides information for both the seasoned scholar as well as the more inexperienced learner. review: bilingualism in the spanish-speaking world e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 106-109 109 references austin, jennifer, blume, maría, & sánchez, liliana (2015). bilingualism in the spanish-speaking world: linguistic and cognitive perspectives. cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. bloomfield, leonard (1993). language. london, united kingdom: george allen and unwin. gries, stefan th., & wulff, stefanie (2005). do foreign language learners also have constructions? evidence from priming, sorting and corpora. annual review of cognitive linguistics, 3, 182-200. paradis, johanne, nicoladis, elena, crago, martha, & genesee, fred (2011). bilingual children's acquisition of the past tense: a usage-based approach. journal of child language, 38(3), 554-578. ulbrich, christiane, & ordin, mikhail (2014). can l2-english influence l1-german? the case of post-vocalic /r/. journal of phonetics, 45(jul), 26-42. maria i. fionda, the university of mississippi maria.fionda@gmail.com en maria i. fionda earned her doctoral degree in spanish linguistics at the university of florida, where she researched individual differences in second language processing among low-proficiency adult native english learners of spanish. her areas of interest include cognitive linguistics, specifically the effect of general cognitive abilities such as working memory on second-language processing and individual differences in morphosyntactic processing at various levels of proficiency. es maria i. fionda es doctora en lingüística española por la universidad de florida, donde ha investigado las diferencias individuales en el proceso de adquisición de una segunda lengua por parte de aprendientes adultos de español básico cuya lengua materna es el inglés. la lingüística cognitiva es una de sus áreas de interés, concretamente el efecto de las capacidades cognitivas generales tales como la memoria de trabajo en el procesamiento de una segunda lengua, así como las diferencias individuales en el procesamiento morfosintáctico a distintos niveles de dominio lingüístico. it maria i. fionda ha conseguito il dottorato in linguistica spagnola all’università della florida, dove ha svolto una ricerca sulle differenze nell’elaborazione della seconda lingua tra apprendenti anglofoni adulti di spagnolo con un basso livello di competenza. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono la linguistica cognitiva, in particolare l’effetto di abilità cognitive generali come la memoria di lavoro sull’elaborazione della seconda lingua, e le differenze individuali nell’elaborazione morfosintattica a vari livelli di competenza. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 5, issue 2, august 2018, 88-92 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.152 © bacon 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. gramling, david (2016). the invention of monolingualism. new york, new york: bloomsbury academic. chris k. bacon*1 boston college book review received 8 june 2018; received in revised form 27 june 2018; accepted 1 july 2018 abstract en this piece reviews david gramling’s the invention of monolingualism (bloomsbury, 2016), winner of the 2018 american association for applied linguistics book award. with the prevalence of academic discourse on bi/multilingualism, this book takes on the under-explored notion of monolingualism. drawing from a range of disciplines, including applied linguistics, literary studies, translation studies, and comparative world literature, gramling raises important questions about monolingualism, how the term is used, and understandings of language itself. key words: linguistics, language ideologies, monolingualism, multilingualism, literary studies, translation studies, world literature, citizenship es este texto es una crítica sobre the invention of monolingualism de david gramling (bloomsbury, 2016), ganador del premio 2018 de la american association for applied linguistics. en un momento en que el discurso académico se enfoca en el bi/multilingüismo, este libro explora la poco investigada noción de monolingüismo. utilizando datos de varias disciplinas (lingüística aplicada, estudios literarios, estudios de traducción y literatura mundial comparada), gramling cuestiona la noción de monolingüismo, el uso del término y la comprensión de lengua en sí. palabras clave: lingüística, ideología lingüística, monolingüismo, multilingüismo, estudios literarios, estudios de traducción literatura mundial, ciudadanía it questo articolo è una recensione del libro di david gramling, the invention of monolingualism (bloomsbury, 2016), vincitore del premio 2018 dell’american association for applied linguistics. in un momento come questo, in cui il bilinguismo e il multilinguismo sono al centro delle riflessioni accademiche, il testo affronta la nozione di monolinguismo, ancora poco studiata. attingendo da una vasta gamma di discipline, tra cui la linguistica, gli studi letterari, la scienza della traduzione e la letteratura mondiale comparata, gramling solleva questioni importanti riguardo il concetto di monolinguismo, l’uso che viene fatto del termine e la comprensione del linguaggio stesso. parole chiave: linguistica, ideologia linguistica, monolinguismo, multilinguismo, studi letterari, scienza della traduzione, letteratura mondiale, cittadinanza 1. counting what counts as language “how many languages do you speak?” applied linguists revel in the assumptions embedded in such a question. what does it mean to “speak” a language? is there a target number of words, a bar of sorts, that earns a space at the table of knowing? moreover, what counts as a “language” in this question? do dialectal varieties count? is a computer programmer bilingual for her ability to code in python? in discussing how many languages one speaks, there is enough to interrogate in the latter half of the sentence that it’s possible to overlook the beginning—the seemingly innocuous “how many.” deceptively simple, all but invisible, one may forget that this “how many” belies the assumption that there exists an 1 *contact: chris.k.bacon@gmail.com http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.152 review: the invention of monolingualism e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 88-92 89 established a cartography of language, a bounded grid in which ways of communicating have finite borders that render “language” a system of namable, countable entities. this cartography of language forms the basis for david gramling’s the invention of monolingualism (2016), winner of the american association for applied linguistics 2018 book award. gramling, associate professor in the department of german studies at the university of arizona, tucson, opens the book by discussing his own educational experience “immersed in an undergraduate liberal arts culture that prized foreign language learning, as a matter of pride as much as one of profit” as compared to the broader norms of u.s. schooling centered on “the brute power of monolingual [english-speaking] privilege” (p. iii-iv). seeking scholarship on monolingualism itself, gramling found a rich, emergent body of work on multilingualism and bilingualism, but monolingualism itself seemed merely an implication against which bi/multilingualism was set up as an object of study. monolingualism somehow seemed to escape the gaze of research in humanities and social science methodology. gramling’s text thus seeks to explore the history of monolingualism as a concept “in hopes of displacing the positivistic pedestal upon which the word ‘monolingual’ currently rests: derided and derivative, yet left relatively undisturbed in theory, policy and practice” (p. 29). 2. wrangling monolingualism monolingualism indeed faces little academic scrutiny as compared to its more exoticized cousins of bilingualism, plurilingualism, and translingualism. ellis (2006) reviewed scholarly literature on monolingualism, identifying three major representations: 1) monolingualism as the “unmarked case,” or a norm against which multilingualism is set as the exception; 2) monolingualism as a limitation on cognitive, communicative, social or vocational potential; 3) monolingualism as a dangerous phenomenon with detrimental effects on social and educational policy. ellis (2008) subsequently edited a special issue of sociolinguistic studies on the topic of monolingualism, calling for a research agenda of more systematic exploration of the topic. yet monolingualism continues to receive little attention in academic scholarship and linguistic discourse at large. gramling’s work acknowledges the ‘unmarked’ status of monolingualism, but operates outside any particular category of ellis’ framework. as ellis found, the small body of scholarly literature on the topic often approaches monolingualism as inherently problematic—either as a disadvantage for individual speakers or as an ideological force by which to undermine the language use of those who don’t fit into constructed monolingual norms. gramling, however, takes a step back to approach monolingualism as “the logic by which language can be made enumerable in the first place” (p. 11). outlining this logic in the book’s introduction, gramling frames monolingualism as the bounding and enumerating of language, considered finite, transferable, translatable, and as a concept tied to nationhood. the book traces the emergence of the concept of monolingualism in western europe between the 17th-18th centuries, a time during which enlightenment thinkers began converting language from god’s unwieldy prerogative to humanity’s own, pluralizable panfunctional grid of rational extension … a unified, possessable object called “a” language, whose essence inhered in its promise to know everything, say everything, and translate everything. (p. 2) gramling describes monolingual ideologies, or other systems of belief surrounding language, as related to, but distinct from, monolingualism itself. monolingualism, therefore, becomes less a system of beliefs and more of a structure underlying these systems that allows an ideology to be connected to “a” language in the first place. while scholarship in language ideologies explores the maintenance and reproduction of ideologies by which language users are positioned in relation to linguistic, social, and racialized hierarchies (rosa & burdick, 2017). for gramling, most of the underlying features of monolingualism reproduce themselves…far beneath the threshold of individual belief and articulation, and even beneath the kind of terrain easily recognized as ideological. monolingualism’s “ideology” is precisely to become transparent and plain, unworthy of comment or critique, and thus impervious to the ascriptions of racism, nationalism, purism, and elitism often leveraged at “beliefs about language”…. [instead, m]onolingualism is primarily invested in erasing its own history of production. (p. 18) bacon 90 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 88-92 drawing on a broad mix of fields, disciplines, and methodological approaches, the invention of monolingualism seeks to uncover this history of production and to document how monolingualism manifests in modern day social, linguistic, and literary arenas. 3. overview of chapters as monolingualism has been an undertheorized concept in all fields of research, studying the phenomenon requires an interdisciplinary methodological approach. gramling thus situates his book (and organizes its chapters) across the disciplines of applied linguistics, literary studies, comparative world literature, and citizenship studies. the arguments of the book are developed through historical analysis of philosophical and literary work stretching from 16th century europe to the 21st century united states. a strength of this approach is that gramling is clearly working from a body of scholarship in which he is wellversed by nature of his academic fields of study. however, this also means that readers must keep in mind that the book’s analysis, and the title’s assertion of “invention,” are context dependent. in other words, the book may be best described as a specific study of monolingualism as developed in western europe and the united states. though this contextual specificity facilitates a cogent argument, curious readers will benefit from seeking further sources on monolingualism in other national and historical contexts (e.g. park, 2008). within this analysis, each chapter demonstrates masterful methodological plurality. the range of data sources might, in another author’s hands, make one’s head spin. gramling, however weaves a complex network of literary, linguistic, policy, and media sources together into a cohesive argument—namely that the underexplored, undertheorized derision which greets the notion of monolingualism constrains our understanding of language use and its societal implications. chapter 1, monolingualism: a user’s guide, compares how monolingualism is framed in academic discourse with how the phenomenon actually operates in practice. this chapter includes gramling’s most explicit pushback against the ill-defined, essentialized notions of monolingualism that pervade academia and other literary circles. methodologically grounded in applied linguistics, this chapter will be of particular interest to readers of this journal due to the range of data sources, drawn from a variety of political, social, and technological arenas. drawing on sources from government communiques to google translate, by the end of this chapter, what may have been assumed to be a simple linguistic designation becomes excitingly complexified in all its possibilities. chapter 2, kafka’s well-tempered piano, explores monolingualism in the literary realm across the seemingly unlikely pairing of bach and kafka. the chapter develops a musical analogy, recurrent throughout the book, between monolingualism and musical transposability illustrated through bach’s “well-tempered” clavier. in introducing this chapter, gramling posits that, “the wager of monolingualism was also bach’s wager: that the sacrifices one makes in achieving transposability, say from the key of e to the key of a flat… were negligible when compared to the pragmatic benefits of exchangeability across keys” (p. 24). this concept is further developed through an analysis of kafka’s the missing person, a novel in which the protagonist is gifted a well-tempered piano just as he is struggling to fit into the monolingual language norms of his new homeland. the literary and musical analogies thus frame monolingualism as a technology which, like the well-tempered clavier, allows for transposability across keys or languages, but sacrifices the distinctive, nuanced individuality of a more untamed system. the analogy of transposability extends to the modern market of world literature in chapter 3, the passing of world literaricity. gramling contrasts kafka, a multilingual individual who largely published monolingual works, with authors such as orhan pamuk, junot díaz, and terézia mora who push back against literary monolingualism, producing confoundingly “untranslatable” works through their multilingual writing. this chapter grapples with the degree to which the increasingly popular “soft multilingualism” (noorani, 2013), which has proven highly marketable in current world literature, actually disrupts literary monolingualism, or whether this trend merely reifies the concept of monolingualism by commodifying its opposition. chapter 4, a right of languages, pulls together the concepts of previous chapters to develop to a broader civic argument. drawing on german language policy and migrant regulation, gramling argues that notions of citizenship have begun to shift from an emphasis on blood-rights and territorial rights toward a system in which demonstrated linguistic competency has become a key criterion of belonging. through the lens of citizenship, monolingualism not only impacts communication, but in the symbolic connection of language to nationhood. gramling is quick to assert that pre-modern europe was in no way a peaceful, panlinguistic utopia, but that individuals at this time did not necessarily have the entrenched notion of language as indicating belonging to a political entity such as a nation. thus, as nations today become more broadly diverse in terms of review: the invention of monolingualism e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 88-92 91 race, ethnicity, and national origin, language use becomes increasingly scrutinized and regulated as a vehicle for symbolic allegiance and purported social cohesion. 4. applications and implications in its entirety, the invention of monolingualism, offers a rich analysis of monolingualism as a theory of language. as gramling himself notes, he often stops short of discussing the material consequences of this theory. early in the text, for example, gramling seeks to disaggregate monolingualism from its historical role in imperial projects. not initially prone toward domination or purification, the monolingual imagination in the seventeenth century did little more or less violent than to perceive a global grid of discrete, namable, rationally extensive languages…. monolingualism manages other languages; it does not oppose them. (p. 11) therefore, gramling’s work is productively read alongside other texts that document the connections between language, imperial projects, and social control (e.g. heller & mcelhinny, 2017). however, the principles of monolingualism gramling highlights—viewing language as enumerable, translatable, and tied to nationhood—are fundamentally connected to understanding how these connections are applied and enacted. in this way, the book has major implications for applied linguists exploring the underlying logics by which language hierarchies are created and maintained. if monolingualism frames the boundaries of language varieties as finite and measurable, for example, this has substantial explanatory power for investigating the notion of standardized language assessments or documenting how certain dialectal varieties become idealized as more “standard” or “academic” than others. gramling’s work also provides a foundation to further interrogate monolingualism. for example, if monolingualism is omnipresent in undergirding our modern understandings of language, does this presence affect all language users in the same way, or are the linguistic and material implications of monolingualism moderated based on positional factors such as race, class, and gender? for whom is monolingualism a choice and for whom is monolingualism never an option? histories of linguistic profiling (baugh, 2003), brought to the forefront through recent incidents involving u.s. immigration enforcement (cullinane, 2018), bring these questions into stark relief alongside the connections gramling establishes between monolingualism and contingent notions of citizenship. the oath taken by those becoming naturalized citizens of the united states begins with “i absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which i have heretofore been a subject or citizen” (u.s. citizenship and immigration services, 2016). when language is tied to nationhood through monolingualism, this renunciation becomes implicitly tied to language as well. whether two tongues or two passports, monolingualism and nationalism intersect to inform a monolingual ideology which questions the national loyalty of an individual using what is framed as a forbidden language (gándara & hopkins, 2010). as such, gramling’s work provokes a timely conversation around the intricacies between language, belonging, nationhood, and power. 5. conclusion throughout the text, gramling offers a rich analysis of an otherwise overlooked linguistic distinction. this work adds a productive dimension to scholarship that examines complex ties between language, literature, and citizenship. in exploring not only how monolingualism is discussed, but also how language users leverage it, this book provides an applied analysis of a phenomenon that is generally oversimplified—if it is discussed at all. an exemplar of methodological interdisciplinarity, the invention of monolingualism provides a necessary contribution to the field of applied linguistics, exploring an undertheorized notion with widely pervasive implications. bacon 92 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 88-92 references baugh, john (2003). linguistic profiling. in s. makoni, g. smitherman, a.f. ball, & a.k. spears (eds.), black linguistics: language, society, and politics in africa and the americas (pp. 115-168). london, united kingdom: routledge. cullinane, susannah (may 23, 2018). border agent demands id from woman in montana after hearing her speak spanish. cnn. retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/22/us/montana-border-patrolspanish-trnd/ ellis, elizabeth, m. (2006). monolingualism: the unmarked case. estudios de sociolingüística, 7(2), 173-196. ellis, elizabeth, m. (2008). defining and investigating monolingualism. sociolinguistic studies, 2(3), 311-330. gándara, patricia, & hopkins, megan (eds.). (2010). forbidden language. new york, new york: teachers college press. heller, monica, & mcelhinny, bonnie (2017). language, capitalism, colonialism: toward a critical history. north york, ontario: university of toronto press. noorani, yaseen (2013). hard and soft multilingualism. critical multilingualism studies. 1(2), 7-28. park, joseph, sung-yul. (2008). two processes of reproducing monolingualism in south korea. sociolinguistic studies, 2(3), 331-346. rosa, jonathan, & burdick, christa (2017). language ideologies. in o. garcía, n. flores, & m. spotti (eds.), the oxford handbook of language and society (pp. 103-124). new york, new york: oxford university press. u.s. citizenship and immigration services (2016). naturalization oath of allegiance to the united states of america. retrieved from: https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/naturalization-test/naturalizationoath-allegiance-united-states-america chris k. bacon, boston college chris.k.bacon@gmail.com en chris k. bacon is a doctoral candidate at the boston college lynch school of education. his research explores language ideologies, bilingualism, and critical literacies. he has taught courses on teacher education and linguistic diversity at boston university and wheelock college. es chris k. bacon es un doctorando en el boston college lynch school of education. sus líneas de investigación exploran las ideologías de lenguas, el bilingüismo y la comprensión lectora. ha impartido cursos de pedagogía y diversidad lingüística en boston university y wheelock college. it chris k. bacon è dottorando al college lynch school of education di boston. i suoi campi di ricerca includono le ideologie linguistiche, il bilinguismo e l’alfabetizzazione critica. ha insegnato corsi sulla formazione degli insegnanti e sulla diversità linguistica alla boston university e al wheelock college. https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/22/us/montana-border-patrol-spanish-trnd/ https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/22/us/montana-border-patrol-spanish-trnd/ https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/naturalization-test/naturalization-oath-allegiance-united-states-america https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/naturalization-test/naturalization-oath-allegiance-united-states-america euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 2, issue 1, august 2015, pages 84-89 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.2.37 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. 1. the manual the manual of language acquisition, edited by christian fäcke (639 pages, english) is the second volume in the “manuals of romance linguistics” (mrl) series. the series, edited by günter holtis and fernando sánchez miret, adopts a modular approach to updating two authoritative reference guides to romance linguistics, lexicon der romanistischen linguistik (1988-2005, volumes 1-8) and romanische sprachgesichte (2003-2008, volumes 1-3). in publishing the mrl in series form—and thus publishing each volume as soon as it is complete—the series editors aim for each manual to cover current and cutting edge research on central issues in romance linguistics. accordingly, the aim for the manual of language acquisition is to survey current and central issues in the acquisition of romance languages and cultures. it does this in 28 chapters, divided into five sections: language acquisition (chapters 1-6), first language acquisition (chapters 7-9), second language acquisition (chapters 10-18), acquisition of romance languages: contexts and characteristics (chapters 19-25), and language acquisition in the romance speaking world (chapters 26-32). * contact: kbernstein@asu.edu fäcke, christian (ed). (2014). manual of language acquisition. berlin/boston: de gruyter katie a. bernstein* mary lou fulton teachers college, arizona state university book review received 19 april; received in revised form 13 may; accepted 15 may abstract en this review introduces readers to the manual of language acquisition, edited by christian fäcke, and part of the “manuals of romance linguistics” series. the manual surveys current and central issues in the acquisition of romance languages and cultures, as well as raises important questions about the relationship between romance languages and with other languages—immigrant languages, local dialects, english—across the romance–speaking world. key words: language acquisition, second language acquisition, romance languages, romance linguistics, handbook. es la reseña presenta a los lectores la obra manual of language acquisition, editada por christian fäcke y enmarcada dentro de la serie "manuals of romance linguistics". el manual ofrece un análisis de temas actuales y centrales en torno a la adquisición de lenguas y culturas románicas, y destaca importantes cuestiones referentes a las lenguas romances y a su relación con otras lenguas (a saber, las lenguas habladas por poblaciones inmigrantes, los dialectos locales y el inglés) dentro de las comunidades de habla romance. palabras clave: adquisición de lenguas, adquisición de segundas lenguas, lenguas romances, lingüística romance, handbook. it questa recensione presenta ai lettori il manual of language acquisition, a cura di christian fäcke e parte della serie “manuals of romance linguistics”. il manuale analizza questioni importanti e di grande attualità riguardanti l’acquisizione delle lingue e delle culture romanze e la relazione tra queste e altre lingue, come quelle dei migranti, i dialetti locali e l’inglese. parole chiave: acquisizione delle lingue, acquisizione lingue seconde, lingue romanze, linguistica romanza, manuale. http://www.e-journall.org/ review: manual of language acquisition e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 84-89 85 the volume begins with fäcke’s introduction, which provides both an overview of the book and the answer to a pressing question about the volume: why is a volume of the manual of romance linguistics written in english? fäcke gives a two-fold explanation: in addition to the simple fact that, for better or worse, english allows access to a wider audience, the decision to use english serves a more intentional purpose here. fäcke points out that in some circles, “sla” (second language acquisition) has become synonymous with “tesol” (teaching english to speakers of other languages). he writes, “näive observers whose reading is limited to english might believe that teaching and learning languages is only a matter for the english writing and reading world” (p. 3). this volume is meant to counter the encroachment of english as the only “l” that counts in “sla,” to create a stronger presence for romance languages in the field, and to introduce the major issues in romance linguistics to english-speaking researchers. 2. chapters on language acquisition theory the first three sections of the manual—language acquisition (chapters 1-6), first language acquisition (chapters 7-9), and second language acquisition (chapters 10-18)—are composed of chapters that seek to provide overviews of current theoretical topics relevant to language acquisition. the best of the chapters also align with the aims of the larger series to provide these overviews within a framework of romance linguistics. in this regard, particular standouts in this half of the book were chapters on language policy, language socialization, plurilingual education, learning to write and spell, and the history of romance language teaching in europe. the first of these, f. xavier vila’s chapter on language policy, management, and planning (3), usefully defines policy, explains key processes like dialectalization, standardization, and restoration, and discusses language policy management at all levels, from states to corporations to café owners in catalonia. following fäcke’s introduction, with its critical and explicit stance on english dominance in sla, the framing of vila’s chapter is helpful and fitting: he outlines the historically dominant, anglo-centric view of language policy and management (lpm), which places the origins of the field in the 20th century, pointing out that lpm discussions were instead already taking place in rome nearly two millennia ago, in the writing of dante and others in the 13th century, and in the creation of the académie française and the real academia española in the 17th and 18th centuries. vila shows how current approaches to lpm have shifted from neo-classical, consensualist, “modernizing” approaches to critical, neo-marxist, poststructuralist approaches, which emerged in romance language lpm in the 1960s and 70s. vila ends with a call for a critical, multilingual awareness within the field. another excellent chapter was kathleen c. riley’s chapter (4) on language socialization (ls), which briefly traces the non-romance-language origins of ls theory, a social theory of joint language/culture learning, before quickly moving into the burgeoning field of romance language socialization (rls). she paints a vivid picture of the state of the field through current studies in rls. it is worth noting that her survey takes us beyond europe to montréal, new york, california, haiti, st. lucia, and cameroon, places outside of the imagined community of romance languages, but where romance speakers reside and where romance language learning is being documented through rls work. chapter 9, michael fayol’s account of “learning to read, write, and spell,” represents another wellexecuted work. fayol maps the elements of learning to read in french as a first language, noting the particularities of french phonology and orthography as well as how they map onto one another. a particular strength of fayol’s account is that it serves as a useful introduction for those unfamiliar with the processes of learning to read and spell in an alphabetic language, yet it remains interesting to readers who already know a great deal about early reading in another language, but would like to learn about what this looks like in french. franz joseph meissner’s chapter (12) examines plurilingual education at multiple scales—in european union policy, in national planning, in local schooling, and even in students’ first-hand experiences. meissner outlines the shifting definitions and attitudes toward plurilingualism in these contexts, and he points out disparities in what counts as plurilingualism (speaking multiple romance languages or english) and what does not (speaking less valued “immigrant languages,” like turkish or albanian). meissner concludes with a timely and eminently reasonable list of suggestions for plurilingual education, drawing on lessons from rl teaching and learning. one of the most helpful of these—the teaching of intercomprehension, or the use patterns and knowledge from one language to make educated guesses about another—may be a new contribution from romance linguistics for those work outside of that field. bernstein e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 84-89 86 finally, marcus reinfried’s history of romance language (rl) teaching (14) outlines ideologies and methodologies in rl teaching from the time that rls diverged from one another in the early middle ages. in this succinct and useful chapter, reinfried also succeeds in one of fräcke’s missions for the volume: bringing non-english research to the english-speaking sla scholars. the chapter draws on 50+ references written in languages other than english, effectively introducing an entirely new body of work to english-only readers. the two chapters that provided a broad survey of theories and perspectives in first/second language acquisition (6, 10) were also helpful, if somewhat less current than other chapters. alessandro benati’s chapter (10) offers an overview of research and theory in sla by way of posing key questions and then providing the answers that sla has given us. he asks, for instance, how l1 and l2 learning are similar, whether there is such a thing as “innate” language capacity, if there is a role for individual differences in language acquisition, and whether input, interaction, and output affect sla. although there are of course other, newer questions to be asked in sla these days, benati’s questions are indeed foundational and deserve a place in a handbook on language acquisition, as they are still being asked and answered by new theories and approaches. yet, benati sticks to the foundational answers to these questions. he unequivocally pronounces that “children are usually considered to be better learners that adults” based on “neurological, cognitive, and psychological differences” (p. 138), although the nuances of this question have been up for debate for quite some time (bialystok & hakuta, 1999; marinova-todd, marshall, & snow, 2000) and mounting work suggests that when all else is equal, experience trumps age (consonni et al., 2012; de carli et al, 2014; luk, de sa, & bialystok, 2011; sheng, bedore, peña, & fiestas, 2013). benati also presents the ideas of chomsky on universal grammar, krashen on comprehensible input, gass and long on interaction, and dörnyei on motivation, without the work that has questioned, built on, and expanded these ideas (i.e. van lier’s “from input to affordance,” 2000; norton on “investment” rather than “motivation,” 1995, 2000; and then kramsch, 2009, on “desire” rather than investment). van patten’s chapter on language acquisition theories (6) also takes a traditional approach to surveying the field, dividing it into three broad domains of language acquisitions theories— linguistic/psycholinguistic, cognitive, and socio-interactive. although he concludes with a call for the use of multiple theoretical perspectives, and for less competition between theoretical approaches, he does not highlight any of the recent approaches that already cross paradigms, such as chaos/complexity theory (larsen-freeman, 2012), dynamic systems theory (de bot, lowie, & verspoor, 2011), vygotskian socio-cultural theory (lantolf & thorne, 2006), sociocognitive theory (atkinson, 2002, 2014), and systemic functional linguistics (byrnes, 2009). (for a good overview of these efforts to “bridge the gap,” see hulstijn, young, ortega, bigelow, dekeyser et al., 2014.) van patten also describes emergentism (ellis, 2006, 2011) as a strictly cognitive theory, yet emergentism is one of a family of usage-based theories of language learning that seeks to explain how exposure to linguistic forms through social interaction structures an individual’s language knowledge (in addition to r. ellis’s work, see the work of tomasello, bardovi-harlig, eskildsen, among others). while benati and van patten stick to classic theories and divisions, throughout the manual, other authors do discuss new conversations in sla: in chapter 19 (“language learner”), for instance, rio and brudermann introduce chaos/complexity theory and socio-cultural theory. in chapter 20, (“french”), spaëth and narcy-combes discuss translanguaging (creese & blackledge, 2010; garcia & wei, 2013) and codemeshing (canagarajah, 2007), ideas that highlighting the hybridity and fluidity of multilingual language use. 3. chapters on teaching and learning in romance-language contexts the last two sections of the manual move from language acquisition theory to overviews of where and by whom romance languages are spoken, taught, and learned. chapters 19-25 each tackle—and are titled after—one romance language (or rl family). some, like joan juilà-muné’s chapter on catalan (19) and antônio robert monteiro simões’s chapter on portuguese (22), focus on the micro-linguistic processes of these languages. these authors lay out the characteristics of the two languages, at the phonological, morphosyntactic, and lexical levels. juilà-muné also carefully outlines which of these elements give catalanas-an-l2 learners of varying l1 backgrounds the most difficulty. other chapters take a wider, sociopolitical view of the teaching and learning of their languages. valérie spaëth and jean-paul narcy-combes (“french,” chapter 20) use france’s colonial history to frame their discussion of french’s status in various locations, like vietnam or north africa. in some locations, french remains an official language and an l1 of many people, review: manual of language acquisition e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 84-89 87 where in others, it may be an official language, but one that is not learned until school. spaëth and narcycombes use this discussion to then account for who learns french in these locations and in what context. janice aski’s chapter on italian (21) takes a sociolinguistic approach to understanding who speaks and learns italian and how. she gives a brief history of the relationship between italian dialetti (really, languages) and italian standardization, and she highlights some recent changes to this relationship, as elements of dialect and of casual spoken italian are increasingly incorporated into an italian “neostandard.” aski then explores what this means for teaching and learning italian, both for l1 speakers in italy and for fl learners in other places. she provides useful suggestions for how some of the recent changes to the standard might be taught in fl classes. roland verra and christiane fäcke’s chapter on rhaeto-romanic (23) focuses on three related languages—friulian and ladin in italy and romansh in switzerland—that have had three very divergent trajectories in their history, geography, and legal status. the authors use these histories to illustrate how a language can become crowded out by the dominant languages around it, or can remain a vital language alongside more dominant ones. based on these analyses, verra and fäcke argue for a unified approach to language preservation, through families, schools, cultural groups, and policies protecting language rights. the final chapters in the book, 26-32, also address where, and by whom, romance languages are spoken, taught, and learned, but they do this through a focus on places—france, canada, peru, romania, italy, portugal and brazil, and spain—and the ecologies of languages in those places. these chapters dovetail with verra and fäcke’s chapter, showing how history continues to shape ideologies, policies, and education. terry nadasdi’s chapter (26) takes a variationist sociolinguistic approach to discussing the varieties of french spoken in canada. he shows how distinct social and political histories in montréal, ontario, and acadia have shaped the varieties of french spoken there as well as the statuses of these varieties. nadasdi also emphasizes the role of group identity in these processes. several chapters take an appropriately critical stance on the histories that they recount. in the chapters on spain (32) and brazil (30), for instance, authors ana halbach (“spain”) and filomena capucho and regina silva (“brazil”) highlight the cost of linguistic unification in both places, in spain under franco, by force, and in brazil, through “state violence [...] in the form negligence, omission, or police brutality, and the violent class struggle that was historically fought and is still ongoing’ with repeated massacres of indigenous people over disputed land” (p. 578). many of the chapters also highlight a disconnect between national policy and on-the-ground language practices, particularly in terms of what counts as l2 learning and who counts as multilingual. in chapter 28, rita francheschini illustrates that italy and the italian speaking regions (including croatia and slovenia) have always been multilingual, with italians speaking standard italian as well as regional languages. yet, as she points out, these competencies are never included in statistics of how many italian speakers speak an l2, nor are they considered to fulfill the aim of the eu’s common framework for languages that calls for all european citizens speak three european languages. francheschini argues that “authorities do not focus on the factually lived and historically present local multilingualism as a means of addressing the requirements of a new globalized world. english is superimposed” (p. 545). capucho and silva note a similarly uneven valuation of bilingualism in brazil, where bilingualism in indigenous languages+portuguese is seen as problematic while elite bilingualism in european languages+portuguese is considered prestigious. this phenomenon is one that will also be familiar to readers working in a north american context, where english speakers who learn an l2 are applauded, while speakers of other l1s are encouraged to abandon them as quickly as possible in favor of english. 4. the verdict presented with the monumental task of selecting work to represent current and significant language acquisition work in romance linguistics, editor christian fäcke has done a remarkable job. this manual would be a valuable for anyone looking for english-language—but not english-centered—resources regarding language acquisition. it would also be an excellent source for those looking for language or countryspecific overviews. and while manual and handbook chapters generally read well as stand-alone pieces, reading these chapters in sequence proved to be enjoyable and fruitful. together, the chapters in this volume not only paint a detailed and clear picture of the field, they reveal important similarities and contrasts between perspectives and contexts. bernstein e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 84-89 88 references atkinson, dwight (2002). toward a sociocognitive approach to second language acquisition. the modern language journal, 86(4), 525–545. atkinson, dwight (2014). language learning in mindbodyworld: a sociocognitive approach to second language acquisition. language teaching, 47(04), 467–483. bialystok, ellen & hakuta, kenji (1999). second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis. in d. birdsong (ed.), second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis (pp. 161–181). new york: routledge. byrnes, heidi (2009). systemic-functional reflections on instructed foreign language acquisition as meaningmaking: an introduction. linguistics and education, 20(1), 1–9. canagarajah, suresh (2007). lingua franca english, multilingual communities, and language acquisition. the modern language journal, 91, 923–939. consonni, monica, cafiero, ricardo, marin, dario, tettamanti, marco, iadanza, antonella, fabbro, franco, & perani, daniela (2013). neural convergence for language comprehension and grammatical class production in highly proficient bilinguals is independent of age of acquisition. cortex, 49(5), 1252– 1258. creese, angela, & blackledge, adrien (2010). translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: a pedagogy for learning and teaching? the modern language journal, 94(1), 103–115. de bot, kees, lowie, wander, & verspoor, marjolijn (2007). a dynamic systems theory approach to second language acquisition. bilingualism: language and cognition, 10(01), 7–21. de carli, fabrizio, dessi, barbara, mariani, manuela, girtler, nicola, greco, alberto, rodriguez, guido, salmon, laura, morelli, mara (2015). language use affects proficiency in italian–spanish bilinguals irrespective of age of second language acquisition. bilingualism: language and cognition, 18(special issue 02), 324–339. ellis, nick c. (2006). language acquisition as rational contingency learning. applied linguistics, 27(1), 1–24. ellis, nick c. (2011). the emergence of language as a complex adaptive system. in j. simpson (ed.), the routledge handbook of applied linguistics (1 edition, pp. 654–667). new york: routledge. garcia, ofelia, & wei, li (2013). translanguaging: language, bilingualism and education. palgrave macmillan. hulstijn, jan h., young, richard f., ortega, lourdes, bigelow, martha, dekeyser, robert, ellis, nick c., lantolf, james, p., mackey, allison, talmy, steven (2014). bridging the gap. studies in second language acquisition, 36(03), 361–421. kramsch, claire (2009). the multilingual subject. oxford university press, usa. lantolf, james p., & thorne, steven l. (2006). sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. oxford university press. larsen-freeman, diane. (2012). chaos/complexity theory for second language acquisition. in the encyclopedia of applied linguistics. london: blackwell publishing ltd. luk, gigi., de sa, erik, & bialystok, ellen (2011). is there a relation between onset age of bilingualism and enhancement of cognitive control? bilingualism: language and cognition, 14(04), 588–595. marinova-todd, stefka h., marshall, d. bradford., & snow, catherine e. (2000). three misconceptions about age and l2 learning. tesol quarterly, 34(1), 9–34. norton, bonnie (2000). identity and language learning: gender, ethnicity and educational change. harlow, england: longman. norton peirce, bonnie (1995). social identity, investment, and language learning. tesol quarterly, 29(1), 9– 31. sheng, li., bedore, lisa m., peña, elizabeth d., & fiestas, christine (2013). semantic development in spanishenglish bilingual children: effects of age and language experience. child development, 84(3), 1034– 1045. van lier, leo (2000). from input to affordance: social-interactive learning from an ecological perspective. in j. p. lantolf (ed.), sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 245–260). oxford university press. review: manual of language acquisition e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 84-89 89 katie a. bernstein, mary lou fulton teachers college, arizona state university kbernstein@asu.edu en katie a. bernstein recently completed her phd in language, literacy, and culture education at the university of california at berkeley. she has taught at the university of pittsburgh and boston university, and will begin work in fall 2015 as assistant professor in the mary lou fulton teachers college at arizona state university. her research focuses on peer interaction, social identity, and second language acquisition in early childhood classroom contexts. es katie a. bernstein ha finalizado recientemente un doctorado en educación cultural, lingüística y alfabetización en la universidad de california (berkeley). ha impartido clases en las universidades de pittsburgh y de boston, y comenzará a trabajar en otoño de 2015 como profesora asistente en el mary lou fulton teachers college de la universidad estatal de arizona. su investigación se centra en la interacción entre iguales, la identidad social y la adquisición de segundas lenguas en contextos escolares de primera infancia. it katie a.bernstein ha da poco completato un dottorato di ricerca in educazione linguistica e culturale presso l’università della california, berkeley. ha insegnato presso le università di pittsburgh e boston e da agosto 2015 inizierà a lavorare come assistant professor presso il mary lou fulton teachers college dell’università arizona state. i suoi ambiti di ricerca includono l’interazione tra pari, le interazioni sociali e l’acquisizione di seconde lingue durante l’infanzia in un contesto scolastico. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 2, issue 1, august 2015, pages 101-106 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.2.36 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2015. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contatto: n.santeusanio@unistrapg.it bertocchi daniela, ravizza gabriella e rovida letizia (2014). metodi e strumenti per l’insegnamento e l’apprendimento dell’italiano. napoli, italia: edises nicoletta santeusanio* università per stranieri di perugia book review received 15 april 2015; received in revised form 10 may 2015; accepted 13 may 2015 abstract it nella presente recensione verrà presentato il volume metodi e strumenti per l’insegnamento e apprendimento dell’italiano di bertocchi daniela, ravizza gabriella e rovida letizia, pubblicato presso la casa editrice edises di napoli nel 2014. i destinatari a cui si rivolgono le tre autrici sono futuri docenti di italiano o docenti già esperti. il volume, al tempo stesso teorico e pratico, è articolato in quattro capitoli dedicati a concetti fondamentali quali l’educazione linguistica, le competenze, le abilità (in modo particolare quella della lettura), la riflessione metalinguistica e alla presentazione delle indagini nazionali e internazionali sulle competenze di lettura degli studenti. il volume è caratterizzato, inoltre, da una ricca bibliografia specifica relativa alle tematiche affrontate in ogni capitolo e da una sitografia ragionata. parole chiave: didattica dell’italiano, educazione linguistica, abilità, competenze, riflessione metalinguistica, indagini nazionali e internazionali su competenza di lettura (invalsi, ocse pisa, iea pirls). en this review presents the book metodi e strumenti per l’insegnamento e apprendimento dell’italiano (methods and tools for teaching and learning italian), by bertocchi daniela, ravizza gabriella, and rovida letizia, published by edises in naples in 2014. the book, written for both prospective and experienced teachers of italian, combines theory and practice in four chapters. it addresses basic concepts such as linguistic education, metalinguistic reflection, competencies, and abilities, drawing in particular on italian and international surveys on students’ reading competence. the book also provides an annotated webography and extensive bibliographic references on the topics covered within each chapter. keywords: teaching italian, linguistic instruction, abilities, competencies, metalinguistic reflection, international surveys on reading competencies (invalsi, ocse pisa, iea pirls). es en la presente reseña se presenta el volumen métodos e instrumentos para la enseñanza y aprendizaje del italiano, de daniela bertocchi, gabriella ravizza y letizia rovida, publicado en 2014 por la editorial, de nápoles. los destinatarios a los que se dirigen las tres autoras son los futuros docentes de italiano o docentes con experiencia. el volumen, a la vez teórico y práctico, se divide en cuatro capítulos dedicados a conceptos fundamentales, como la enseñanza de idiomas, competencias, destrezas (de manera particular la lectora), la reflexión metalingüística y la presentación de estudios nacionales e internacionales acerca de la destreza lectora de los estudiantes. el volumen se caracteriza, además, por contener una rica bibliografía específica relativa a los temas afrontados en cada capítulo y una meditada lista de recursos en internet. palabras clave: didáctica del italiano, enseñanza de idiomas, destrezas, competencias, reflexión metalingüística, estudios nacionales e internacionales en destreza lectora (invalsi, ocse pisa, iea pirls). http://www.e-journall.org/ recensione: metodi e strumenti per l’italiano e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 101-106 102 1. introduzione nel 2014 è stato pubblicato presso la casa editrice edises di napoli il volume metodi e strumenti per l’insegnamento e l’apprendimento dell’italiano di bertocchi daniela, ravizza gabriella e rovida letizia, destinato “a chi già insegna italiano nella scuola di base (primaria, secondaria di primo grado, primo biennio della secondaria di secondo grado) e a chi spera di insegnarlo in futuro” come si legge nella premessa. si tratta di un testo allo stesso tempo teorico e pratico in cui vengono riportati sinteticamente e in maniera accessibile riferimenti alla normativa, in particolare alle indicazioni nazionali per la scuola dell’obbligo, teorie relative a modelli linguistici e cognitivi fondamentali per quanto riguarda la didattica dell’italiano, esempi di buone pratiche e proposte concrete di curricoli con lo scopo di offrire ai docenti degli spunti di riflessione per progettare e rivedere le attività proposte in classe. nel primo capitolo ci si sofferma su alcuni concetti fondamentali come l’educazione linguistica, le competenze e le abilità. in particolare, vengono presentate le abilità orali e l’abilità di scrittura. all’abilità di lettura viene dedicato l’intero secondo capitolo, considerata l’importanza che riveste il saper leggere nello studio non solo dell’italiano, ma anche delle diverse discipline. nel terzo capitolo si affronta la riflessione sulla lingua e sulla grammatica e vengono illustrati alcuni modelli grammaticali. infine, nel quarto e ultimo capitolo vengono descritte le indagini nazionali (prove invalsi) e internazionali (ocse pisa e iea pirls) relative alla competenza di lettura e vengono portati degli esempi concreti di prove. il volume è corredato, oltre che da un’ampia bibliografia, strutturata capitolo per capitolo, da una sitografia ragionata con un elenco di siti utili per gli insegnanti di italiano raggruppati in due blocchi: 1) i siti principali di istituzioni e associazioni professionali, 2) i siti di riviste on line e di singoli studiosi o insegnanti. 2. contenuti del capitolo 1 nel primo capitolo, intitolato la didattica dell’italiano: fondamenti linguistici, competenze e abilità, dopo aver descritto sinteticamente la situazione linguistica italiana dall’unità fino agli anni ’60 e aver illustrato come veniva insegnata la lingua italiana in quegli anni nella scuola di base, le autrici (gabriella ravizza e daniela bertocchi) presentano la nascita dell’educazione linguistica democratica con la redazione del documento del 1975, dieci tesi per un’educazione linguistica democratica, ed esaminano l’incidenza che tale educazione ha avuto negli apprendimenti linguistici degli alunni. nel ripercorrere brevemente la storia dell’educazione linguistica in italia, le autrici citano anche la normativa che a partire dal 2007 ha introdotto i concetti di competenza e di certificazione, sottolineando quanto siano poco diffusi nelle scuole italiane i curricoli per competenze e quanto invece sarebbe importante progettarli per poter attuare un’educazione linguistica più efficace e vicina ai bisogni e agli interessi degli studenti. dopo aver fatto cenno a tali momenti fondamentali della storia dell’educazione linguistica, le autrici passano in rassegna le diverse abilità linguistiche (le abilità orali e l’abilità di scrittura), proponendo dapprima i riferimenti normativi (indicazioni nazionali per il curricolo della scuola dell’infanzia e del primo ciclo d’istruzione del 2012, regolamento relativo all’obbligo di istruzione del 2007, linee guida, ecc.), poi i risultati della ricerca e infine alcune indicazioni su come progettare concretamente curricoli che abbiano “traguardi e obiettivi correlati a un appropriato uso della lingua in una varietà di situazioni comunicative, scolastiche ed extrascolastiche, e allo sviluppo di strategie di comunicazione, con grande attenzione a quelle che, in quanto utilizzabili anche al di fuori della scuola, entrano stabilmente a far parte delle competenze per la vita e per continuare ad apprendere” (bertocchi et al., 2014, p. 38). a tal proposito vengono forniti, per le abilità orali, suggerimenti per la predisposizione di ambienti sociali di apprendimento al fine di sostenere lo sviluppo della competenza linguistico-comunicativa come, ad esempio, l’interazione tra pari e con l’insegnante, la ricerca di significati, la condivisione di conoscenze, ecc. anche per l’abilità di scrittura , dopo aver esaminato la varietà delle scritture, i processi, le fasi, i prodotti e i modelli di testo, vengono esemplificati “attività, contesti, modalità e strategie relative ad alcuni aspetti del curricolo verticale di scrittura” (bertocchi ravizza e rovida, 2014, p. 79). 3. contenuti del capitolo 2 il secondo capitolo, diventare lettori: i processi di comprensione e la didattica della lettura, come è stato già evidenziato nell’introduzione, è interamente dedicato all’abilità di lettura, dal momento che lo sviluppo di tale abilità riveste un ruolo centrale nel curricolo di tutte le discipline. è importante che gli allievi apprendano a “leggere bene” per la loro crescita sia come individui che come cittadini, che imparino a santeusanio e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 101-106 103 sviluppare spirito critico, a valutare l’affidabilità delle fonti (soprattutto oggi, con la gran quantità di informazioni reperibili on line), a leggere tra le righe e a compiere inferenze. l’autrice di questo capitolo, daniela bertocchi, dopo aver definito che cosa si intende per lettura , ovvero la capacità di decifrare i segni della scrittura e quella di comprendere i significati dei testi scritti , e dopo aver analizzato alcune definizioni di lettura riportate nei quadri di riferimento (qdr) delle indagini nazionali (invalsi) e internazionali (ocse pisa, iea-pirls e piaac) sulla lettura e sulla comprensione dei testi da cui emerge che il “saper leggere” è un’attività sociale e una competenza chiave per la cittadinanza, si sofferma sulla lettura come interazione tra lettore e testo. riporta modelli di comprensione del testo ed evidenzia che in tutti, cognitivisti e costruttivisti, sono di fondamentale importanza le conoscenze enciclopediche del lettore. descrive, inoltre, i processi cognitivi che permettono di comprendere appieno un testo (ad esempio, compiere inferenze) e le competenze metacognitive che consentono di scegliere quale strategia applicare e come tenere sotto controllo la propria comprensione. la studiosa presenta anche le caratteristiche di un testo (i sette principi costitutivi di de beaugrande & dressler, 1981) e le diverse tipologie testuali, proponendo il modello funzionalistico-cognitivo di werlich (1976) e quello più recente di sabatini (1990 e 2011), definito “pragmatico” in quanto “il testo non viene visto in sé e per sé, ma nel rapporto tra l’intenzionalità dell’autore e l’interpretazione del lettore, quindi nel concreto dell’atto e del contesto comunicativo” (bertocchi et al., 2014, p. 128). per ciascuna delle due tipologie vengono messe in evidenza le ricadute didattiche. oltre a ciò si pone l’attenzione su tre fattori che vanno considerati nella scelta di testi che siano adeguati ai lettori: 1) la leggibilità (cfr. la formula gulpease del 1988), 2) la complessità, 3) le caratteristiche del lettore a cui proporre il testo e il “compito” che lo stesso deve svolgere. anche per l’abilità di lettura, così come per le abilità descritte nel primo capitolo, vengono opportunamente analizzate le strategie cognitive che possono essere sviluppate negli allievi per fare in modo che diventino “lettori competenti”, e viene esemplificato un curricolo verticale “non prescrittivo né rigido”. infine, dopo aver illustrato alcuni casi in cui i problemi di comprensione del testo dipendono dal testo stesso, vengono evidenziate le difficoltà che hanno studenti con dsa, in particolare con dislessia. 4. contenuti del capitolo 3 nel terzo capitolo, dal titolo la didattica della riflessione sulla lingua: fondamenti e proposte, l’autrice letizia rovida all’inizio prende in esame la normativa scolastica e il quadro di riferimento invalsi per cercare di comprendere meglio che cosa si intenda per “riflessione sulla lingua”, notando che essa non riguarda solo la grammatica intesa in senso proprio, ma anche la testualità, la sociolinguistica e la pragmatica, e osservando che i contenuti vengono riproposti in maniera ciclica nei diversi ordini e gradi senza che vi siano dei sillabi dettagliati ed espliciti relativi ai crescenti livelli di competenza. la studiosa si sofferma inoltre su che cosa significhi “fare grammatica” a scuola attribuendo una particolare importanza al processo di scoperta che avviene quando si riflette sulla lingua e che concorre a sviluppare capacità logiche. anche in questo caso, così come per le abilità linguistiche, vengono descritti alcuni modelli teorici di riferimento alternativi a quelli tradizionali; in particolare, vengono illustrati i principi della grammatica nozionale introdotta in italia da simone (1984) e quelli della grammatica valenziale di tesnière (1959), tradotti in italia soltanto nel 2001. per quanto riguarda la prima, viene fatto notare come essa abbia riscosso più successo nell’insegnamento delle lingue straniere che in quello dell’italiano e, per quanto concerne la seconda, si fa presente come essa potrebbe essere un modello molto valido, nell’applicazione didattica, per la descrizione della frase semplice e complessa. all’interno del capitolo viene evidenziato più volte il fatto che manchino dei sillabi dettagliati per i diversi ordini e gradi e che gli insegnanti, spesso, si limitino a proporre quanto presente nei manuali, seguendone pedissequamente l’ordine dei contenuti, senza effettuare una vera e propria programmazione che tenga conto della complessità degli “oggetti” da presentare. a tal proposito viene fornita una distribuzione dei contenuti morfosintattici sui tre livelli della scuola dell’obbligo (scuola primaria, scuola secondaria di primo grado, biennio della scuola secondaria di secondo grado) “a partire dalla sintassi” e viene utilmente offerta un’esemplificazione concreta di come si possa affrontare la sintassi già nella scuola primaria. a conclusione del capitolo viene presentata una carrellata di grammatiche di riferimento per studenti, specialisti e docenti che vogliano approfondire la descrizione della lingua italiana apparse a partire dal 1988, e vengono riportati i risultati di un’analisi condotta da laura vanelli (2010) da cui emerge che “le grammatiche che utilizzano le categorie tradizionali continuano a essere non solo più numerose di quelle che recensione: metodi e strumenti per l’italiano e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 101-106 104 per semplicità chiameremo ‘moderne’, ma soprattutto le più diffuse e, in particolare, sono in pratica l’unico punto di riferimento per le grammatiche pedagogiche e per i manuali scolastici […]” (vanelli, 2010, p. 8-9). 5. contenuti del capitolo 4 nel capitolo 4, le valutazioni nazionali e internazionali, l’autrice gabriella ravizzi, dopo una premessa relativa alla nascita, nel 1958, delle indagini comparative internazionali, passa in rassegna dapprima le prove nazionali invalsi e in un secondo momento le indagini internazionali ocse pisa e iea pirls. le prime sono prove elaborate dall’invalsi, un ente di ricerca di diritto pubblico che ha il compito di “attuare verifiche periodiche e sistematiche sulle conoscenze ed abilità degli studenti” nelle classi seconda e quinta della scuola primaria, nella classe prima e terza della scuola secondaria di primo grado e nella classe seconda della scuola secondaria di secondo grado. l’autrice, dopo averne evidenziato le caratteristiche essenziali, ne descrive i riferimenti teorici e i criteri utilizzati nel costruire, in modo particolare, quelle di italiano (relative alla competenza della lettura e alla competenza grammaticale). inoltre fornisce dei dati simulati e, sulla base di questi, propone dei suggerimenti per riflettere e attuare degli interventi migliorativi. l’indagine condotta dal programme for international student assessment (pisa) dell’ocse ha come scopo quello di “rilevare in quale misura i quindicenni possiedano gli strumenti per «affrontare efficacemente problemi e sfide della vita reale» e per «continuare ad apprendere nell’arco della vita», non ha l’obiettivo di valutare l’acquisizione di conoscenze scolastiche in sé e per sé” (bertocchi et al., 2014, p. 260-261). anche in questo caso l’autrice si sofferma sulle prove di lettura, spiega come vengono analizzati i risultati, riporta la scala di literacy articolata in sette livelli e presenta alcuni esempi di domande ai diversi livelli di difficoltà. infine, lo studio progress in international reading literacy study (pirls), promosso dall’iea (international association for the evaluation of educational achievement), ha come scopo quello di valutare comparativamente le competenze di lettura dei bambini al quarto anno di scolarità (tra i nove e i dieci anni di età), quando hanno imparato a leggere e cominciano a leggere per imparare, tenendo in considerazione anche le esperienze familiari e scolastiche che possono condizionarne l’apprendimento. come per le indagini precedenti, anche per lo studio pirls viene illustrato il framework di lettura che vi sta alla base, vengono descritti le prove di lettura, i risultati e le scale di apprendimento. tale panoramica si rivela di estrema utilità: permette al lettore di districarsi meglio tra le diverse tipologie di indagini a cui vengono sottoposti sempre più gli allievi della scuola dell’obbligo e di capirne gli scopi. 6. conclusioni come si è avuto modo di sottolineare sia nell’introduzione che nella descrizione dei singoli capitoli, il volume in questione è uno strumento prezioso per i docenti di italiano della scuola di base per il suo carattere al tempo stesso teorico e pratico, per i rimandi continui alle indicazioni ministeriali e alle ricerche nel campo dell’educazione linguistica, per le esemplificazioni riportate che tentano di concretizzare quanto potrebbe rimanere vago proprio nei riferimenti alla normativa, per la ricca bibliografia rivolta a chi volesse approfondire i temi presentati e per la sitografia che, anche se non esaustiva, fornisce per ciascuno dei siti menzionati una breve descrizione particolarmente utile per chi lavora in questo settore. oltre che dei docenti di italiano della scuola dell’obbligo, il testo potrebbe suscitare l’interesse anche di quanti si occupano dell’insegnamento dell’italiano come l2, considerando l’importanza che riveste l’educazione linguistica, come disciplina, e l’attenzione dedicata allo sviluppo delle diverse abilità, pur tenendo conto delle differenze che ci sono tra l’insegnamento dell’italiano a parlanti nativi e l’insegnamento dell’italiano a stranieri. in modo particolare, potrebbe rivelarsi utile a coloro che insegnano nei cpia (centri provinciali per l’istruzione degli adulti), attivati, in base al dpr 263/12, dall’anno scolastico 2014/2015, i quali devono confrontarsi con le indicazioni ministeriali e le linee guida per la creazione dei percorsi di istruzione di primo livello (primo e secondo periodo didattico) e di alfabetizzazione e apprendimento della lingua italiana da parte di studenti stranieri in cui i risultati di apprendimento sono declinati proprio in termini di competenze, abilità e conoscenze. santeusanio e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 101-106 105 sitografia utile dieci tesi per un’educazione linguistica democratica. consultato il 15 aprile 2015 su: http://www.giscel.it/?q=content/dieci-tesi-leducazione-linguistica-democratica indicazioni nazionali per il curricolo della scuola dell’infanzia e del primo ciclo d’istruzione del 2012. consultato il 15 aprile 2015 su: http://hubmiur.pubblica.istruzione.it/web/istruzione/prot5559_12 istruzione degli adulti. consultato il 10 maggio 2015 su: http://hubmiur.pubblica.istruzione.it /web/istruzione/dg-ifts/area-ida ocse pisa. consultato il 15 aprile 2015 su: http://www.invalsi.it/invalsi/ric.php?page=intocse piaac. consultato il 15 aprile 2015 su: http://www.isfol.it/piaac/che-cos2019e-piaac pirls iea. consultato il 15 aprile 2015 su: http://www.invalsi.it/invalsi/ri/timss2011 /documenti/rapporto_pirls_timss.pdf qdr invalsi prova d’italiano. consultato il 15 aprile 2015 su: http://www.invalsi.it/snvpn2013/documenti /qdr /qdr_italiano_obbligo_istruzione.pdf regolamento relativo all’obbligo di istruzione del 2007. consultato il 15 aprile 2015 su: http://archivio.pubblica.istruzione.it/normativa/2007/dm139_07.shtml riferimenti bibliografici beaugrande de, robert-alain, & dressler, wolfgang ulrich (1981). einführung in die textlinguistik. tübingen, germania: max niemeyer verlag [trad. it. introduzione alla linguistica testuale (1984). bologna, italia: il mulino]. lucisano, pietro, & piemontese, maria emanuela (1988). gulpease: una formula per la predizione della difficoltà dei testi in lingua italiana. scuola e città, 3(31), 110-124. sabatini, francesco (2011). sistema e testo. dalla grammatica valenziale all’esperienza dei testi. torino, italia: loescher. simone, raffaele (1984). per una grammatica nozionale. in: aa.vv. l’educazione linguistica dalla scuola di base al biennio delle superiori. atti del convegno cidi/lend di viareggio (pp. 131-147). milano, italia: bruno mondadori. tesnière, lucien (1959). éleménts de syntaxe structural. paris, francia: klincksieck [trad. it. elementi di sintassi strutturale (2001). torino: rosenberg & sellier]. vanelli, laura (2010). grammatiche dell’italiano e linguistica moderna. padova, italia: unipress. werlich, egon (1976). a text grammar of english. heidelberg, germania: quelle & meyer. recensione: metodi e strumenti per l’italiano e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 101-106 106 nicoletta santeusanio, università per stranieri di perugia n.santeusanio@unistrapg.it it nicoletta santeusanio, specializzata in didattica dell’italiano l2 presso l’università per stranieri di perugia, ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca in linguistica e didattica dell’italiano a stranieri presso l’università per stranieri di siena. ha insegnato in germania presso il romanisches seminar dell’università di colonia come lettrice di italiano per diversi anni. attualmente lavora presso l’università per stranieri di perugia, dove svolge varie attività: insegna nei corsi di lingua e cultura italiana e si occupa della formazione e dell’aggiornamento degli insegnanti di italiano a stranieri sia in italia che all’estero. all’interno del master in didattica dell’italiano lingua non materna coordina l’attività di tirocinio guidato (practicum) e vi lavora come tutor. presso il cvcl cura la promozione, l’elaborazione, la somministrazione, la correzione e valutazione delle prove d’esame relative alla certificazione in didattica dell’italiano lingua straniera (dilspg). ha pubblicato articoli relativi all’utilizzo dei testi autentici in classi di italiano per stranieri, ad alcuni fenomeni diffusi nell’italiano contemporaneo, alla formazione degli insegnanti e alla certificazione glottodidattica dils-pg. è autrice di manuali di italiano per stranieri. en nicoletta santeusanio after the specialization school in teaching italian as a second language at the università per stranieri di perugia, earned a doctorate in linguistics and teaching italian to speakers of other languages at the università per stranieri di siena, both in italy. she taught at the romanisches seminar of universität zu köln in cologne, germany, as lecturer of italian language and culture for several years. she currently works at the università per stranieri di perugia teaching courses of italian language and culture, courses of training and professional development for teachers of italian as l2/fl both in italy and abroad. within the master’s degree program in teaching italian as a language different from l1 she coordinates the activities of the practicum and tutors students. for the centro per la valutazione e le certificazioni linguistiche (center for linguistic assessment and certification) of the same university, she coordinates promotion activities, composition, administering, marking, and assessment of the tests of the certificate for teaching italian as a foreign language (certificazione in didattica dell’italiano lingua straniera dils-pg). she published several articles about the use of authentic texts in italian language courses, popular phenomena in today’s italian language, teachers’ preparation, and dils-pg language teaching certificate. she also authored handbooks of italian for speakers of other languages. es nicoletta santeusanio, especializada en didáctica del italiano como lengua extranjera por la universidad per stranieri de perugia, posee el título de doctorado en lingüística y didáctica del italiano como lengua extranjera en la universidad per stranieri de siena. ha enseñado en alemania en el romanisches seminar de la universidad de colonia, como lectora de italiano durante varios años. actualmente trabaja en la universidad per stranieri de perugia donde lleva a cabo diversas funciones: enseña lengua y cultura italianas, se ocupa de la formación y actualización de docentes de italiano como lengua extranjera tanto en italia como en el extranjero. dentro del máster en didáctica del italiano como lengua no materna coordina las actividades de prácticas (practicum) de las que es tutora. en el cvcl (centro de evaluación para la certificación lingüística) se encarga de la promoción, elaboración, suministración, corrección y evaluación de las pruebas de examen relativas a la certificación en didáctica del italiano como lengua extranjera (dilspg). ha publicado artículos relativos al uso de textos auténticos en clase de italiano como lengua extranjera, a diversos fenómenos extendidos en el italiano contemporáneo, a la formación de profesores y certificación glotodidáctica dilspg. es asimismo autora de manuales de italiano para extranjeros. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 5, issue 2, august 2018, 81-87 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.137 © belpoliti 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. lingüística hispánica actual: libro de texto, guía didáctica y portal digital flavia belpoliti* texas a&m university-commerce received 24 may 2018; accepted 20 july 2018 abstract es esta reseña describe los tres componentes centrales del proyecto editorial lingüística hispánica actual, que incluye el libro de texto introducción a la lingüística hispánica actual: teoría y práctica (muñoz-basols, moreno, taboada, & lacorte, 2017), la guía didáctica lingüística hispánica actual: guía didáctica y materiales de apoyo (muñoz-basols y lacorte, 2018), y el portal de lingüística hispánica / hispanic linguistics portal www.hispaniclinguistics.com (muñoz-basols, dir., 2017). los tres componentes se integran para presentar de manera práctica, dinámica y actual los temas centrales de la lingüística hispánica actual y sus áreas disciplinares asociadas. palabras clave: lingüística hispánica, enseñanza del español, adquisición de segundas lenguas, investigación pedagógica, humanidades digitales en this review describes the three main components of the editorial project lingüística hispánica actual, which includes the textbook, introducción a la lingüística hispánica actual: teoría y práctica (muñoz-basols, moreno, taboada, & lacorte, 2017), the teaching guide, lingüística hispánica actual: guía didáctica y materiales de apoyo (muñoz-basols y lacorte, 2018), and the web portal, portal de lingüística hispánica / hispanic linguistics portal www.hispaniclinguistics.com (muñoz-basols, dir., 2017). the three components are integrated to present the central themes of hispanic linguistics and its neighboring disciplines in a practical, dynamic, and up-to-date manner. key words: hispanic linguistics, spanish language teaching, second language acquisition, pedagogical research, digital humanities it questa recesione descrive i tre componenti principali del progetto editoriale lingüística hispánica actual, che comprende il libro di testo introducción a la lingüística hispánica actual: teoría y práctica (muñoz-basols, , moreno, taboada, & lacorte, 2017), la guida docente lingüística hispánica actual: guía didáctica y materiales de apoyo (muñoz-basols y lacorte, 2018), e il portale digtale portal de lingüística hispánica / hispanic linguistics portal www.hispaniclinguistics.com (muñoz-basols, dir., 2017). i tre component sono integrati con l’obiettivo di presentare i temi centrali della linguistica ispanica e delle discipline associate a questo campo in modo pratico,dinamico e attuale. parole chiave: linguistica ispanica, insegnamento dello spagnolo, acquisizione di lingue seconde, ricerca pedagogica, umanistica digitale 1. introducción la lengua española continúa ocupando un lugar fundamental entre las lenguas del mundo, tanto por su extensión geográfica como por la creciente cantidad de sus hablantes (instituto cervantes, 2017): (…) 477 millones de personas tienen el español como lengua materna. a su vez, el grupo de usuarios potenciales de español en el mundo (cifra que aglutina al grupo de dominio nativo, el grupo de competencia limitada y el grupo de aprendices de lengua extranjera) supera los 572 millones. * contacto: flavia.belpoliti@tamuc.edu http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.137 http://www.hispaniclinguistics.com/ http://www.hispaniclinguistics.com/ http://www.hispaniclinguistics.com/ belpoliti 82 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 81-87 comprensiblemente, el interés por avanzar en el conocimiento del español tanto de aprendientes de segundas lenguas como de los nativo hablantes crece a la par que la expansión de esta lengua global, y ha acrecentado, en los últimos años, el interés disciplinar en la lingüística hispana por parte de investigadores, docentes y estudiantes. en este contexto, la propuesta de javier muñoz-basols y colegas viene a ocupar un lugar especial en los estudios pedagógicos de la disciplina. el proyecto lingüística hispánica actual se constituye de tres componentes claramente interconectados, tanto en sus objetivos generales como en su organización y secuenciación, incluyendo el manual introducción a la lingüística hispana actual: teoría y práctica (ilha), de los autores javier muñozbasols (university of oxford), nina moreno (university of south carolina), inma taboada (university of illinois at chicago) y manel lacorte (university of maryland); la guía didáctica linguistica hispánica actual. guía didáctica y materiales de apoyo (lhagd) de javier muñoz-basols y manel lacorte y, finalmente, el portal de lingüística hispánica (plh, http://hispaniclinguistics.com), de acceso libre y gratuito. la integración de estos tres recursos permite acceder de manera directa a los temas centrales que actualmente son relevantes para el estudio de la lingüística hispaníca, al tiempo que la claridad con que se desarrolla el contenido permite profundizar el conocimiento sobre el español de aprendientes. los tres componentes del proyecto integran una sólida aproximación explicativa a los temas centrales para el estudio de la lingüística del español. la revisión que sigue a continuación se centra en cada componente de forma aislada y concluye con una revisión integradora considerando las posibilidades metodológicas que ofrece el empleo combinado de los tres recursos. 2. introducción a la lingüística hispanica actual: teoría y práctica (ilha) el texto de ilha se organiza en una introducción general para el instructor y ocho capítulos dedicados a las áreas centrales de la lingüística hispana; cada capítulo sigue un formato unificado: a) una breve introducción al tema y los objetivos; b) desarrollo del contenido conceptual divido en secciones, cada una de las cuales incluye actividades de comprensión y expansión; c) proyectos de investigación sobre los temas tratados; d) bibliografía fundamental, brevemente anotada; e) un listado español-inglés de los conceptos clave del capítulo, y f) bibliografía complementaria especializada. las secciones, junto con sus objetivos, están específicamente presentadas en la tabla ‘estructura de los capítulos’ en la página 5 de la introducción. esta organización sistemática facilita el abordaje pedagógico de los distintos temas y presenta un buen balance entre el desarrollo teórico, la reflexión y la práctica. los primeros seis capítulos presentan el estudio de la lingüística hispana en términos generales a partir de los campos tradicionales que van desde las unidades mínimas hasta la lengua en uso: conceptos centrales de lingüística general y sus áreas disciplinares en el capítulo 1, fonética y fonología del español en el capítulo 2; morfología española en el capítulo 3; sintaxis en el capítulo 4; semántica y pragmática en el capítulo 5, y la historia de la lengua española en el capítulo 6. de manera innovadora, el texto incluye dos capítulos que se centran en temas de interés actual: en el capítulo 7 se desarrolla una visión integral de la variación en el mundo hispanohablante, mientras que el capítulo 8 se enfoca en la adquisición del español como segunda lengua. esta organización y selección temática logra el objetivo que sus autores plantean: “al escoger los temas sobre los que versa cada uno de los ocho capítulos de los que consta este libro, se ha pretendido elaborar una introducción a la lingüística hispánica que sea amplia y estimulante (muñoz-basols, moreno, taboada, & lacorte, 2017, p. 2). a continuación, se describe de manera breve el contenido y actividades de cada capítulo. en primer lugar, el texto se inicia con el capítulo general sobre conceptos centrales en lingüística, dividido en siete subsecciones; estas incluyen definiciones centrales, el estudio del lenguaje y la comunicación, las áreas disciplinares de la lingüística, y los enfoques contemporáneos transdisciplinares. las explicaciones cuentan con gráficos y tablas para esquematizar los contenidos centrales. se integran también actividades para los aprendientes que incluyen identificar, comparar y contrastar, definir y analizar los conceptos expuestos. el capítulo, como todos los capítulos subsiguientes, culmina con la presentación de cuatro “proyectos de investigación”; los proyectos se describen posteriormente en la reseña. el capítulo 2 se enfoca en temas de fonología y fonética del español; las primeras secciones describen integralmente el sistema vocálico y consonántico del español y su sistema silábico para luego concentrarse en temas de fonética articulatoria. el capítulo incluye instrucciones precisas para el trabajo de transcripción fonológica y ejercicios de práctica. las secciones finales se centran en los rasgos suprasegmentales, incluyendo la acentuación. el tercer capítulo trata de temas generales de morfología española; una vez que se presentan los conceptos centrales de morfema, raíz y afijo, se pasa al análisis de la formación de palabras en español, las categorías léxicas y gramaticales, para concluir con temas relevantes de flexión del sustantivo y del verbo. de particular interés es http://hispaniclinguistics.com/ lingüística hispánica actual e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 81-87 83 el estudio sistemático de la morfología verbal, que desglosa cada una de las particulares propiedades formales del verbo —un tema que usualmente presenta grandes dificultades para los aprendientes— con una buena selección de ejemplos y soporte gráfico para clarificar la complejidad del sistema verbal español. el capítulo 4, sintaxis: la estructura de las oraciones, se inicia con una breve explicación sobre las operaciones para determinar el estatuto de los constituyentes, proveyendo a los aprendientes con herramientas básicas del análisis sintáctico. el capítulo explora la constitución de sintagmas y funciones oracionales, claramente descriptos por medio de representaciones arbóreas. las siguientes secciones exploran las estructuras oracionales complejas y presenta una breve síntesis sobre el orden de constituyentes svo en diversas estructuras oracionales del español. el capítulo 5 se centra en la lengua en uso, incluyendo los enfoques teóricos actuales de semántica y pragmática. el recorrido incluye una revisión prolija de la conceptualización del significado, incluyendo denotación, connotación, relaciones semánticas, papeles temáticos y los significados figurados. las secciones de pragmática repasan los modelos analíticos fundamentales del campo (los actos de habla en austin y searle, las máximas de grice, la teoría de la relevancia) con ejemplos útiles para comprender los procesos de intencionalidad, codificación, ostensión, inferencia, y contextualización. las secciones finales se centran en la investigación sobre la cortesía lingüística y los estudios sobre la ironía y el humor, ambos temas de gran interés actual. el capítulo 6 describe la evolución del español por medio de conceptos centrales de la lingüística diacrónica; de especial interés resultan las secciones 6.4, el cambio de las sibilantes y de la yod en el devenir de la lengua del castellano medieval al español moderno, y la sección 6.6 que explora los préstamos léxicos que han ingresado al vocabulario español a lo largo de su historia. el capítulo 7 examina uno de los temas fundamentales de la lingüística hispánica contemporánea: la diversidad del español. el capítulo explora de manera amplia los distintos tipos de variación que presenta el sistema del español, enfatizando su estatuto de lengua global. se exploran las características dialectales de la lengua en españa y latinoamérica, que son consolidadas por medio de actividades con ejemplos auditivos de diferentes corpus. la sección final se enfoca en el español en y de los estados unidos, e incluye información actual sobre la formación y características de esta variedad, las generaciones sociolingüísticas de sus hablantes, y los fenómenos característicos de la alternancia de códigos que subyace al popular término espanglish. el texto concluye con el capítulo dedicado a la adquisición y los procesos de aprendizaje y enseñanza del español como segunda lengua (l2); las primeras secciones desarrollan los conceptos interrelacionados de adquisición y aprendizaje de primera y segunda lengua, bilingüismo y multilingüismo, y factores que impactan al aprender otras lenguas. las secciones siguientes revisan sucintamente los modelos pedagógicos que históricamente han influenciado la pedagogía de segundas lenguas, para concluir con una sección sobre marcos institucionales, evaluación y tecnología en la enseñanza-aprendizaje del español como l2. 3. linguistica hispánica actual. guía didáctica y materiales de apoyo (lhagd) el segundo componente de este proyecto es lingüística hispánica actual: guía didáctica y materiales de apoyo (muñoz-basols & lacorte, 2018; lhagd), cuyo objetivo primario es servir como suplemento de los materiales presentados en el manual ilha para facilitar su implementación pedagógica en diferentes contextos. al mismo tiempo, “este libro pretende ir más allá, al estar concebido como material de apoyo para complementar explicaciones teóricas sobre las principales áreas de la lingüística […] o integrar tareas adicionales en cualquier curso sobre lingüística hispánica.” (2018, p. ix). esto es, lhagd no es simplemente un ‘libro del instructor’ o un compendio de respuestas a las actividades del manual, sino que integra explicaciones específicas para resolver dichas actividades, a la vez que añade actividades de ampliación a cada uno de los ejercicios del manual, para profundizar o complementar el conocimiento en desarrollo. estructurada en ocho capítulos que reflejan la estructura de ilha, la guía incluye en cada capítulo las siguientes secciones: 1) cada actividad del manual con su respuesta, presentada de forma elaborada y completa; 2) actividades de ampliación para complementar las actividades iniciales; 3) los proyectos de investigación del capítulo correspondiente; 4) preguntas de ensayo; y 5) un glosario bilingüe español-inglés de los conceptos centrales de la unidad para una rápida referencia. el texto finaliza con una prolija bibliografía muy actual, que complementa de manera efectiva las referencias que ofrece ilha al final de cada capítulo. los ejercicios de ampliación son, en su mayoría, actividades interactivas orales para desarrollar en parejas o en grupos, y cuya implementación otorga mayor dinamismo a la clase mientras que se consolida la comprensión de los temas. al completar las actividades de ampliación los aprendientes tienen la posibilidad de explorar, de diferentes maneras, los conceptos teóricos expuestos y comprobar su valor explicativo al analizar el español en uso. como ejemplo, en el capítulo de semántica y pragmática, se ofrece la siguiente belpoliti 84 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 81-87 consigna de corte lúdico para expandir la comprensión de las relaciones semánticas entre palabras (muñozbasols & lacorte 2018, p. 160): se puede anunciar a los estudiantes que, en parejas o grupos, activarán vocabulario que ya conocen pero que posiblemente hace un tiempo que no emplean. de esta forma, el profesor dirá un hiperónimo en voz alta, por ejemplo ‘herbívoro’, y los estudiantes tendrán que escribir el mayor número de hipónimos que puedan recordar en 1 minuto. ganará el equipo que mayor número de hiperónimos haya sabido encontrar. como se ha descripto anteriormente, lhagd ofrece en la sección 4 de cada capítulo una lista de consignas para la escritura de ensayos; estas consignas pueden fácilmente constituirse como parte de la evaluación, tanto formativa como sumativa, de los aprendientes, o puede incluirse como suplemento al trabajo de los proyectos de investigación. cada consigna puede fácilmente modificarse para cumplir con los criterios evaluativos del curso en cuestión y por esto simplifican el trabajo del docente a la hora de organizar la programación del curso. es importante notar que los autores han dedicado especial atención al soporte gráfico en los dos textos: tanto ilha como lhagd contienen tablas, gráficos, mapas y modelos visuales para apoyar el desarrollo explicativo de los temas más complejos y para guiar con ejemplos prácticos el trabajo del estudiante con las actividades. por ejemplo, la actividad sobre el uso de sufijos derivativos (ilha, actividad 16, p. 87) incluye un cuadro central en el que se anotan varios sufijos de derivación nominal y adjetival; a continuación, una tabla en blanco permite que los estudiantes clasifiquen los tipos de sufijos y propongan ejemplos. esta organización facilita que el aprendiente se concentre en la tarea y al mismo tiempo la tabla misma, ya revisada, le sirva como material de referencia. en cuanto a los gráficos con valor explicativo, se han incorporado diferentes diseños para señalar relaciones, indicar procesos o simplemente describir la constitución de un cierto concepto. por ejemplo, en ilha, p. 294, un simple esquema de relaciones de dependencia muestra la extensión de lenguas europeas a partir del nodo central indoeuropeo, mientras que un mapa de europa indica la distribución de las familias lingüísticas en la región. 4. portal de lingüística hispánica (plh) el tercer elemento de este proyecto es el portal de lingüística hispana (plh), desarrollado por javier muñoz-basols (university of oxford) con la colaboración de elisa gironzetti (university of maryland) y el auspicio de una beca hispanex (dirección de política e industrias culturales del libro, ministerio de educación, cultura y deporte del gobierno de españa, 2016). este proyecto de humanidades digitales se presenta como un espacio virtual novedoso, cuidadosamente integrado y alineado con los dos recursos mencionados anteriormente, ilha y lhagd. el portal, de acceso libre y gratuito, se centra en los ochos temas descriptos anteriormente y los complementa por medio de lecturas, materiales audiovisuales, actividades y un gran número de enlaces hacia sitios especializados en las diferentes temáticas de la lingüística hispana. aunque es un complemento valioso de los dos textos del proyecto, el phl puede utilizarse de manera autónoma ya que cuenta con una extensa lista de recursos y referencias bibliográficas, lo que permite trabajar cada tema de forma independiente. el enlace inicial al plh dirige al lector a una breve introducción que describe sucintamente su objetivo central, “contribuir a la difusión e investigación de la lingüística hispana”, y presenta las ocho secciones en que se organiza el sitio (conceptos fundamentales; fonología y fonética; morfología; sintaxis; semántica y pragmática; historia de la lengua; variación; adquisición). se ha optado por un diseño limpio y simple, con uso cuidadoso de tipografía y colores para facilitar la navegación entre las diferentes secciones; este diseño es consistente en todos sus componentes, y el acceso a cada sección se realiza intuitivamente por medio de una selección de enlaces internos. el menú de navegación ubicado en el margen superior derecho lista los enlaces a los ocho temas centrales ya presentados, e incluye en la sección final enlaces a la presentación del portal, el glosario, y la información de contacto. cada sección temática se integra directamente con el contenido presentado en el capítulo correspondiente de ilha, lo que crea una transición muy clara entre el material gráfico y el contenido digital. cada una de las ocho áreas temáticas del portal se subdivide en siete secciones que incluyen: 1) una breve presentación del tema, 2) las actividades del libro, 3) recursos prácticos, 4) temas de investigación, 5) grupos de investigación, 6) conceptos clave, y 7) bibliografía fundamental, como se ve en el menú abierto de la sección 3, morfología, en la figura 1. lingüística hispánica actual e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 81-87 85 cabe destacar dos áreas en las que los autores han logrado un muy buen balance entre contenido, aproximación pedagógica e inclusión de recursos. en primer lugar, los recursos prácticos han sido cuidadosamente seleccionados para, por una parte, completar la información sobre el tema de la sección, y, por otro lado, hacer accesibles recursos digitales diversos (que incluyen enlaces a proyectos de investigación en marcha, videos con transcripciones, atlas interactivos, corpus digitales de distinto tipo, listservs, etc.) simplificando el trabajo docente de encontrar materiales audiovisuales y/o digitales para suplementar el desarrollo del tema. los distintos recursos incorporados son también una valiosa herramienta para la investigación, al presentar contenidos actualizados que facilitan el acceso directo a estos; por ejemplo, se incluyen enlaces a programas especializados como ser un ‘silabeador’ del español (fonología y fonética, http://hispaniclinguistics.com/fonologia-fonetica/recursos-practicos/) o a corpus digitales, como coremah (semántica y pragmática, http://hispaniclinguistics.com/semantica-pragmatica/recursos-practicos/). figura 1. menú inicial y subsecciones bajo el tema 3, morfología. en segundo lugar, los temas de investigación están basados en las cuatro propuestas de investigación con que se concluye cada capítulo de ilha, integrando de manera efectiva la aproximación pedagógica basada en la investigación guiada (guided inquiry-based approach, justice et al., 2007). cada proyecto enfoca un área disciplinar específica, presentando al lector consignas de trabajo dinámicas que le permitan, ante todo “potenciar la reflexión conjunta en el aula sobre la estructura y el uso del idioma” (ihla, p. 6). cada proyecto presentado en el ihla cuenta con su contraparte en el phl, que incluye todas las herramientas y materiales esenciales para completar la investigación. por ejemplo, en la unidad sobre variación y diversidad lingüística del español, el proyecto tres tiene como consigna investigar la diversidad de un país hispanoparlante considerando datos demográficos y variantes de uso; la consigna incluye dos enlaces a ethnologe (https://www.ethnologue.com/) y a la versión digital del libro el español en contacto con otras lenguas (klee & lynch, 2008). ambos recursos son suficientes en sí mismos para completar la consigna, a la vez que son punto de partida para una exploración más profunda del tema. es muy fácil imaginar el contexto de un curso donde los estudiantes, divididos en grupos, se encargan de investigar la variación del español en un país diferente para luego compartir en la clase los resultados obtenidos, ya sea por medio de exposiciones más tradicionales o con presentaciones multimediáticas. es evidente que los proyectos han sido pensados para lograr los objetivos centrales de la pedagogía basada en la investigación, especialmente en cuanto a la integración y profundización reflexiva del conocimiento, así como al desarrollo de habilidades investigadoras, al tiempo que el aprendiente avanza hacia una mayor independencia y autogestión del propio aprendizaje (alfieri, brooks, aldrich, & tenenbaum, 2011). http://hispaniclinguistics.com/fonologia-fonetica/recursos-practicos/ http://hispaniclinguistics.com/semantica-pragmatica/recursos-practicos/ https://www.ethnologue.com/ belpoliti 86 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 81-87 el último componente destacado del portal es el glosario, constituido por más de 500 entradas ordenadas alfabéticamente. además de presentar una definición sucinta del concepto, se ha establecido un proceso de híper-vinculación de dos maneras para expandir la información inicial; por una parte, al seleccionar la opción leer más, se abre una pantalla nueva en la que aparece la definición completa junto con un listado de enlaces a otras entradas en el glosario, reforzando la interconexión entre los conceptos y fenómenos lingüísticos, como se ve en la figura 2. a su vez, en varias de las entradas se incluyen términos subrayados que, al seleccionarlos con el ratón, abren una ventana secundaria que incluye una definición más completa que remite a un autor o fuente específica. figura 2. ejemplo de una entrada completa del glosario, que incluye la opción leer más. 5. conclusiones los tres componentes de este proyecto, ihla, liagd y plh, se presentan como recursos pedagógicos altamente flexibles, lo que permite su utilización de maneras diversas en diferentes contextos académicos; el manual, junto con la guía didáctica, pueden constituir la bibliografía central de un curso de grado sobre lingüística general en el contexto académico hispanoparlante, o en un curso sobre lingüística hispánica en contextos anglófonos. los capítulos, trabajados de forma individual junto con los recursos disponibles del portal, pueden integrarse fácilmente en cursos de gramática española avanzada, sociolingüística o adquisición y enseñanza del español, así como constituir parte de las referencias en un curso de nivel de posgrado. tanto instructores como estudiantes van a encontrar en este proyecto tripartito un trabajo interesado en la claridad de la explicación pedagógica que no deja de lado el rigor de la investigación disciplinar, y que invita a la reflexión y comprensión crítica de los componentes y procesos que configuran la lengua española. al considerar las tres obras en su totalidad, es posible afirmar que este proyecto multimodal se diferencia claramente de otras perspectivas en el estudio de la lingüística hispánica —véase por ejemplo los manuales introductorios de azevedo, 2009 y hualde et al., 2010, o el más reciente de díaz-campos et al., 2017 — tanto por su organización específicamente pedagógica, manifiesta en la precisión y concisión de las explicaciones y las numerosas actividades diseñadas para sustentar el proceso de aprendizaje, así como por las posibilidades didácticas que los tres componentes ofrecen tanto al instructor como al aprendiente. la extensa bibliografía, así como todos los recursos accesibles en el portal digital son una fuente valiosa para investigadores interesados en encontrar información actual seleccionada y organizada con criterios rigurosos. es evidente que el objetivo central de los autores de aunar de manera explícita y eficaz contenidos, metodología y reflexión para crear “un recurso pedagógico, práctico y actual” (ilha, p. 1) para quienes se interesen en profundizar su conocimiento de la compleja realidad de la lengua española, ha sido alcanzado con creces. lingüística hispánica actual e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 81-87 87 referencias alfieri, louis, brooks, patricia, aldrich, naomi, & tenenbaum, harriet (2011). does discovery-based instruction enhance learning? journal of educational psychology, 103(1), 1–18. azevedo, milton (2009). introducción a la lingüística española. upper saddle river, new jersey: prentice hall. díaz-campos, manuel, geeslin, kimberly, & gurzynski-weiss, laura 2017. introducción y aplicaciones contextualizadas a la lingüística hispánica. malden, massachusetts: wiley-blackwell. hualde, josé ignacio, olarrea, antxon, escobar, anna maría, & travis, catherine (2010). introducción a la lingüística hispana. new york, new york: cambridge university press. instituto cervantes (2017). el español: una lengua viva. madrid: departamento de comunicación digital del instituto cervantes. disponible en: https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/espanol_lengua_viva/pdf/espanol_lengua_viva_2017.pdf. justice, christopher, rice, james, warry, wayne, inglis, sue, miller, stephanie, & sammon, sheila (2007). inquiry in higher education: reflections and directions on course design and teaching methods. innovative higher education, 31(4), 201–214. muñoz-basols, javier, moreno, nina, taboada, inma, & lacorte, manel (2017). introducción a la lingüística hispana actual: teoría y práctica. nueva york/ londres: routledge. muñoz-basols, javier (dir.) (2017). portal de lingüística hispánica / hispanic linguistics portal. disponible en: http://hispaniclinguistics.com. muñoz-basols, javier, & lacorte, manel (2018). lingüística hispánica: guía didáctica y materiales de apoyo. nueva york/ londres: routledge. flavia belpoliti, texas a&m university‒commerce flavia.belpoliti@tamuc.edu es flavia belpoliti, ph.d., es profesora asistente de español y directora de estudios de posgrado en español del departamento de lenguas y literaturas de la universidad texas a&m–commerce. entre sus intereses de investigación se encuentran el español como segunda lengua, la didáctica del español como lengua de herencia, el español en ee. uu. y el análisis del discurso. en flavia belpoliti, ph.d., is assistant professor of spanish and director of spanish graduate studies at the department of literature and languages at texas a&m university‒commerce. her research interests include spanish as second language and spanish as heritage language pedagogy, spanish in the us, and discourse analysis. it flavia belpoliti, ph.d., è ricercatrice di spagnolo e direttrice del programma post laurea di spagnolo del dipartimento di lingue e letteratura presso la texas a&m university‒commerce. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono lo spagnolo come seconda lingua, la pedagogia dello spagnolo come lingua ereditaria, lo spagnolo negli stati uniti e l'analisi del discorso. https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/espanol_lengua_viva/pdf/espanol_lengua_viva_2017.pdf http://hispaniclinguistics.com/ mailto:flavia.belpoliti@tamuc.edu euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 1-7 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.166 www.e-journall.org © prada 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. introduction to the special issue: on the transgressive nature of translanguaging pedagogies josh prada*a, tarja nikulab 1 aindiana university-purdue university—indianapolis buniversity of jyväskylä received 17 december 2018; received in revised form 20 december 2018; accepted 21 december 2018 abstract en as translanguaging gains traction in language education, its political and ideological implications are becoming central considerations to researchers and practitioners. in this introductory article to the special issue, “translingual and multilingual pedagogies” for the euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages, we provide a conceptual point of departure on the notion of translanguaging by revisiting li wei’s (2011) threefold description of its prefix trans(i.e., transcending, transformative, transdisciplinary), which we expand by adding a new definitional element, transgressive, to reflect our understanding of translanguaging as politically charged and disruptive by virtue. we then move on to provide an overview of the articles and book reviews included in this special issue. key words: translanguaging, trasngressive pedagogies, multilingualism es a medida que el translingüismo gana terreno en la enseñanza de idiomas, sus implicaciones políticas e ideológicas son cada vez más importantes. en este artículo introductorio del número especial “pedagogías translinguales y multingües” de la revista euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages, proporcionamos un punto de partida conceptual sobre la noción de translingüismo al revisitar la descripción tripartita de li wei (2011) del prefijo traso trans(trascendente, transformativo, transdisciplinario), que expandimos agregando un cuarto elemento de definición (transgresivo) para reflejar nuestra comprensión del translingüismo como concepto con carga política. luego, proporcionamos una descripción general de los artículos y reseñas de libros que se incluyen en esta edición especial. palabras clave: translanguaging/translenguar, pedagogías transgresivas, multilingüismo it mentre il translanguaging trova terreno fertile nell’insegnamento delle lingue, le sue implicazioni politiche e ideologiche stanno diventando sempre più centrali. in questo articolo introduttivo al numero speciale "pedagogie del translinguismo e multilingue" della rivista euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages, forniamo un punto di partenza concettuale sulla nozione di translinguismo rivisitando la triplice descrizione di li wei (2011) del prefisso trans(cioè, trascendente, trasformativo, transdisciplinare), che espandiamo aggiungendo un quarto elemento descrittivo, trasgressivo, per sottolineare la concezione di translanguaging come connotato politicamente e dirompente per natura. forniamo quindi una panoramica degli articoli e delle recensioni dei libri inclusi in questo numero speciale. parole chiave: translanguaging, pedagogie transgressive, multilinguismo 1. translanguaging as transcending, transformative, transdisciplinary, and transgressive theories and practices in language education are gradually shifting to incorporate a more organic and fluid understanding of bi-/multilingual practices and a more ecological perspective of those language users who engage in them (e.g., cenoz & genesee, 1998; garcía, 2009; may, 2013). on the premise that language does not operate in a vacuum, traditional approaches that conceptualize language, speaker, and context as independent are giving way to more dynamic perspectives: a turn that encourages us to think of * contact: jprada@iu.edu http://www.e-journall.org/ prada & nikula e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 1-7 2 the classroom as a space linked to the students who inhabit it, their social and linguistic practices, and their life trajectories, as they interplay with institutional and social-historical elements at a number of levels. undoubtedly, at the core of these developments, the notion of translanguaging has taken off to capture the imagination of researchers and practitioners alike across multiple subfields in language education. often seen in competition with other terms such as metrolingualism and translingual practice, and not without great deal of pushback, it is safe to say that translanguaging has become one of the few terms for the field of applied linguistics to call its own (li wei, 2017). as the notion of translanguaging has become more widespread, gradually more attention has been devoted to the nature, the implications, and the possibilities of multilingual practices in different educational contexts, including (but by no means limited to) complementary schools in the uk, bilingual education in the us, and multilingual institutions in south africa, with examples ranging from world englishes to clil (see e.g. blackledge & creese, 2014; garcía & li wei, 2014; paulsrud, rosén, straszer & wedin, 2017). a starting definition of translanguaging is the ‘‘multiple discursive practices in which bilinguals engage in order to make sense of their bilingual worlds’’ (garcía, 2009, p. 45). elaborations on translanguaging rely on two key components: the notions of flexibility and repertoires. however, stances on translanguaging may vary: some of them are grounded on the idea of deploying elements from two (or more) languages or navigating two (or more) different languages (e.g., canagarajah, 2007; creese & blackledge, 2010), while other perspectives emphasize a more emergent, post-structuralist perspective as multilinguals go beyond common patterns of monolingual language practice (e.g., li wei & zhu hua, 2013; otheguy, garcía & reid, 2015). regardless, they coincide in their emphasis on fluidity and flexibility regarding traditional (socio)linguistic boundaries: boundaries among named languages, boundaries among language modes, and boundaries among social and cognitive spaces where certain practices are considered proper. similarly, central definitions of translanguaging draw on the notion of linguistic repertoire, a basic sociolinguistic concept referring to the “the totality of linguistic resources (i.e., including both invariant forms and variables) available to members of particular communities” (gumperz & hymes, 1972, p. 20) and including “the totality of distinct language varieties, dialects and styles employed in a community” or by a speaker (cook-gumperz, 1986, p. 7). linguistic repertoires encompass “every bit of language we accumulate” in our lives (blommaert & backus, 2013, p. 28). importantly, it is not adherence to normativity that dictates the importance and meaningfulness of these “bits of language” to the speaker, but the relevance they have to the individual’s life. this simple definition of repertoire is, therefore, one that builds on what speakers can do with their resources, treating these resources as continuously evolving and describing the speaker’s skills in relation to contextual specificities/requirements. departing from a perspective that subsumes flexibility (in multilingual practices) and the rich, heterogeneous repertoires of multilingual speakers, translanguaging thinking brings in what multilinguals do when they engage in multilingual practice. to provide an overarching working definition of translanguaging to guide this special issue, we turn to (and extend) li wei’s (2011) threefold take on the meanings of the prefix transto emphasize three levels of flexible multilingual practices. li wei’s take on translanguaging (as ours) derives from the notion of languaging, meaning “the process of using language to gain knowledge, to make sense, to articulate one’s thought and to communicate about using language” (li wei, 2011, p. 1223). by means of this process, ‘‘language serves as a vehicle through which thinking is articulated and transformed into an artifactual form’’ (swain, 2006, p. 97). li wei describes translanguaging as “going between different linguistic structures and systems, including different modalities (speaking, writing, signing, listening, reading, remembering) and going beyond them”, thereby granting multilingual practice “its own transformative power” (p. 1223). among li wei’s (2011) three-way division of different levels of trans-, the first emphasis is on it as transcending: moving beyond notions of single systems, structures, and spaces, as well as beyond the idea that multilingual individuals simply alternate between different systems. instead, translanguaging asks us to consider the entire range of a multilingual individual’s linguistic performance, across modalities and settings. the second level at which the prefix transoperates is in relation to transdisciplinarity, because a translanguaging approach holistically connects cognition, social relations, and social structures. finally, li wei connects the prefix transto the transformative nature of translanguaging, as it brings together various dimensions of the individual’s social, linguistic and cognitive skills, attitudes and beliefs into a constellation of (inter)personal elements that, when taken together, shape the configuration of the individual’s social world into what li wei calls translanguaging space: a space both for the act of translanguaging and which is created through translanguaging. transgressive nature of translanguaging pedagogies e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 1-7 3 to those three levels from which the prefix transdraws its meaning, we add a layer at which translanguaging is a form of transgression. the idea of translanguaging as transgression highlights the potential that translanguaging has to remove language-related hierarchies (e.g. garcía, 2009) and for bi/multilingual individuals to engage in situated practices that challenge traditional normativity of language use. translanguaging can allow speakers to access new positionalities and embrace empowered subjectivities in contexts that are characteristically governed by prescriptivist and/or suppressive views and actions. as garcía and leiva (2014, p. 200) put it, translanguaging “attempt[s] to wipe out the hierarchy of languaging practices that deem some more valuable than others”. we refer to transgression to underscore similar functions but also as an attempt to distinguish them from the transformative nature introduced by li wei (2011), which is more geared towards translanguaging space. to be clear, this transgressive character is contextual, as traversing perceived boundaries between the named languages conforming the individual’s repertoire is often perceived as disruptive in specific contexts only. for instance, when people from higher socio-economic backgrounds engage in similar practices, they are commonly congratulated for trying, often portraying their practices as remarkable, but not transgressive. conversely, when minoritized speakers and/or individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds engage in these practices, they hold additional disruptive value. this is one way that translanguaging moves beyond transformation to transgression: when enabled in a top-down manner (e.g., by the teacher in the classroom setting) translanguaging holds transformative potential; when initiated from the bottom up (e.g., by a student), it can be a form of resistance. because of this transgressive potential, translanguaging can to lead to a reconfiguring of educational spaces through repositioning, empowerment, and transformative action. our extension of the transprefix in translanguaging to place emphasis on transgression reflects our belief that traditional language education models replicate and reify the monolingual bias in the classroom (see prada & turnbull, this special issue for a detailed discussion of this issue). a translanguaging approach instead enables pedagogical strategies which operationalize a diversifying, anti-racist philosophy, first, by generating translingual spaces through the participants’ repertoires, second, by opening opportunities for students to articulate their histories and trajectories, as well as explore their shared and non-shared experiences, and third, by fortifying a positive attitude towards being and becoming multilingual and to engaging multilingually. due to the long-standing ideologies guiding current patterns underpinning the language teaching and learning landscape, radical innovations are necessary to make changes possible. as sriskandarajah, tidball, wals, blackmore, and bawden (2010) argued, these radical innovations in education happen in niches “where dedicated actors nurture alignment and development on multiple dimensions to create ‘configurations that work’ . . . niche-innovations may break through more widely if external landscape developments create pressures on the regime that lead to cracks, tensions and windows of opportunity” (2010, p. 495). we find that the edge of translanguaging pedagogy (and the philosophy underpinning it) has an ability to puncture the systemic normativity, leading to that window of opportunity for renewal in education as a whole, starting by the niche that is language education. but our interest in disturbing the bedrock of top-down activities that bolster the status quo in language education is not new. we build on a tradition that is critical of treating languages as treasured objects that must not be altered, ignoring the realities of language change. we connect with bourdieu’s (1991) critique of structural linguists and their treatment of languages “like an end in itself” (p. 31) and how this approach strengthens purist views on what the ideal version of a language is. at the opposite end of this line of argument stand scholars such as reagan (2004) who claim that there is no such a thing as english or spanish as these are mere social-historical constructions bound to change over time. connectedly, makoni and pennycook (2009) emphasized that it is important to understand the interrelationships among factors, such as metadiscursive regimes, language inventions, colonial history, and strategies of disinvention and reconstruction. these general considerations raise a series of interrelated questions in which we as translanguaging scholars are particularly interested. for example, what is the nature of the above-mentioned boundaries between named languages? how have they come to be, and how can we rethink them to create more inclusive, accessible, and universally-available sociolinguistic spaces? what are the opportunities and possibilities of translanguaging thinking to mainstream education? as these questions show, thinking about translanguaging and its implications is not merely an educational effort. translanguaging captures the sociolinguistic and cognitive dynamics of multilingual speakers allowing to reconceptualize them from the bottom-up. this perspective guides new ways thinking about the standardized patterns typical of an prada & nikula e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 1-7 4 imagined, idealized, monolingual speaker. in doing so, references to this imagined, idealized speaker lose their grip in the dissemination of regulatory and centralizing narratives. from this perspective, standards may be described in socio-historical and political terms, as a mold to be imposed on speakers, and a tool to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. importantly, as others have pointed out (e.g., flores & rosa, 2015) these standards have traditionally been used to covertly subordinate individuals from minority(ized) backgrounds, an issue that deserves attention in language classrooms. 2. this special issue it is common for teachers working in multilingual contexts to become excited about the idea of translanguaging. however, it is often the case that teachers are not sure how to translate theories and philosophies into hands-on practices. in the spirit of the euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages, our goal in this issue is to illuminate this grey area. we have sought to develop a special issue that provides both a panoramic overview of translanguaging as well as its materializations. the discussion above on different dimensions on the transprefix in translanguaging has highlighted the multidimensionality of the concept. this multidimensionality is clear in this special issue’s six original pieces. together, they offer a rich perspective, combining data-driven discussions with critical ones, to highlight the transdisciplinary, transcending, transformative, and transgressive functions of translanguaging. the articles cover multiple socio-political and educational contexts, focusing on both content and language classrooms, from african american english within the us k-12 system to content and language integrated learning (clil) in sciences school class in switzerland, and they address different educational levels from elementary schools to university education. by doing so, they offer insight into the feasibility and applicability of translanguaging in different contexts. while translanguaging is not a one-fits-all approach to language education, the articles in this issue show its great potential across seemingly unrelated settings. the articles are organized according to the following logic: the issue begins with a conceptually oriented article (prada & turnbull), which will help readers who might be less familiar with translanguaging become familiar with how translanguaging connects with and facilitates current shifts in language teaching and learning. the order of the next five articles reflects their position on a continuum from institution-level and institution-affecting perspectives (duarte & günther-van der meij; musanti & cavazos) to a discussion of a multilingual pedagogical approach to language teaching (panzarella & sinibaldi) to articles attending to micro-level translingual classroom practices (durán & henderson; bieri). in what follows, each article is introduced in more detail. while all of the articles address translanguaging as transcending language boundaries, we will pay special attention to how each contributes to an enhanced understanding of the transformative and transgressive potential of translanguaging. the first article, “the role of translanguaging in the multilingual turn: driving philosophical and conceptual renewal in language education,” by josh prada and blake turnbull, provides a frame for the special issue by offering a thorough overview of the central developments that have paved the way for the shifting emphases from monolingual assumptions to the emergence of multilingual turn in education. the authors make a threefold call for transformatory action: 1) arguing for the need to adopt translanguagingbased pedagogy in the teaching of what have traditionally been referred to as foreign and second languages; 2) pinpointing core areas that need to be addressed when translating theorizations of classroom translanguaging into praxis, and 3) arguing how these have the potential to facilitate multilingual turn and open up spaces that can leverage students’ learning in language classrooms. the article, “holistic model for multilingualism in education,” by joana duarte and mirjam günthervan der meij, reports on an ongoing multilingual education project in the north of the netherlands in school contexts with both migrant and minority pupils. the project involves design-based interventions in which teachers and researchers together develop multilingual activities. among the pedagogical activities illustrated in the article are using cognates and translanguaging to support learning and language awareness. from a translanguaging-as-transgression perspective, it worth noting how such activities can give voice to migrant background children, contribute to their sense of ownership and raise language awareness of all students involved. both institutional and teacher perspectives are addressed by sandra musanti and alyssa cavazos in their article, “‘siento que siempre tengo que regresar al inglés: embracing a translanguaging stance in a hispanic-serving institution,” in which they reflect on the effects of their decisions to adopt a translanguaging stance and to engage in language-transcending practices in their undergraduate university courses in a transgressive nature of translanguaging pedagogies e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 1-7 5 bilingual and bicultural region in the united states. their discussion of tensions and struggles involved remind us of challenges that transforming language practices can trigger, yet there are also obvious transgressive aspects through problematization of language and monoglossic views of multilingualism by teachers and their students alike. the authors also showcase translanguaging as a transgressive act to challenge monoglossic norms through their own bilingual academic writing. also set at the university level, but this time in europe and with foreign language teaching in focus, gioia panzarella and caterina sinibaldi’s article, “translation in the language classroom: multilingualism, diversity, collaboration,” addresses classrooms where students are studying italian as part of their degree in a british university. the authors argue that transforming foreign language teaching by adopting a translanguaging perspective to translation as a collaborative and translingual practice can be used to foster multilingual competence and intercultural awareness. they also address transgressive aspects of translanguaging by referring to its potential to shake conventional orientations to language by stimulating critical reflection of forms and functions of both the source and target language and by providing opportunities for problematizing boundaries between languages. moving on to classroom-practice oriented studies, the fifth article by leah durán and kathryn henderson, “pockets of hope: cases of linguistic flexibility in the classroom,” focuses on pedagogical practices of two elementary classroom teachers in texas with predominantly latinx, spanish-english bilingual students. these teachers have chosen to transform the taken-for-granted classroom practices and linguistic norms by crossing both linguistic and dialectal borders and engaging in motivated shifts between academic and everyday language as an integral part of their teaching. the study shows the transgressive power of translanguaging pedagogy that challenges traditional language normativities in order to create more equitable classroom spaces. in these spaces, teachers and students value and take advantage of language diversity, and they engage with language in ways that help to prevent marginalization of emerging bilinguals and their language practices. the sixth and final article by aline bieri, “translanguaging practices in clil and non-clil biology lessons in switzerland,” shifts the focus to content teaching in both clil and regular biology lessons in the swiss upper secondary school context, where apart from the standard german and english, swiss german is also used. through classroom data analysis and teacher interviews, bieri found that in both explicitly bilingual (clil) contexts as well as those framed as teaching in l1, translanguaging occurs and has both content learning and interaction-oriented functions in both contexts. from a transgression viewpoint, the study shows how a translanguaging approach can reveal teachers’ way of drawing on source languages such as a latin and greek to support the negotiation of meaning of technical terms in biology in both clil and nonclil classrooms, and that this challenges monolingual views by showing the presence and important learning supportive functions of translanguaging. taken together, the articles in this issue provide an important contribution to the field, showing how multilingual and translanguaging pedagogies can help change educational realities by introducing new ways of working and thinking. these, in turn, can increase participants’ potential to use their linguistic repertoires in the full and can foster multilingualism, language awareness, and a renewed sense of what it means to know a language. importantly, the articles also illustrate concretely what it means to adopt a translanguaging stance in education, and they make evident the transgressive potential of translanguaging to challenge monoglossic ideologies and normative assumptions that bolster subordinating practices. in addition to the above-mentioned original articles, the special issue also provides reviews of four current publications in the field of translanguaging and multilingual pedagogies. first, laura gasca jiménez provides a critical reseña in spanish of ofelia garcía, susana ibarra-johnson, and kate seltzer’s the translanguaging classroom: leveraging student bilingualism for learning (2017). then, paola guerrero authors a reseña of translanguaging in higher education. beyond monolingual ideologies (2017), edited by catherine m. mazak y kevin s. carroll. in italian, andrea scibetta provides a recensione of la visione eteroglossica del bilinguismo: spagnolo lingua d’origine e italstudio. modelli e prospettive tra gli stati uniti e l’italia (2016), by elena firpo and laura sanfelici. finally, la recensione di valentina carbonara reflects on gerardo mazzaferro’s edited volume, translanguaging as everyday practice (2018). prada & nikula e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 1-7 6 references blackledge, adrian, & creese, angela (2014). heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy. dordrecht, the netherlands: springer. blommaert, jan, & backus, ad (2013). superdiverse repertoires and the individual. in ingrid saint-georges, & jean-jacques weber (eds.), multilingualism and multimodality (pp. 11-32). rotterdam, the netherlands: sense publishers. bourdieu, pierre (1991). language and symbolic power. cambridge, massachusetts: harvard university press. canagarajah, suresh (2007). lingua franca english, multilingual communities, and language acquisition. the modern language journal, 91(s1), 923-939. cenoz, jasone, & genesee, fred (eds.). (1998). beyond bilingualism: multilingualism and multilingual education (vol. 110). clevedon, united kingdom: multilingual matters. cook-gumperz, jenny (1986). literacy and schooling: an unchanging equation. in jenny cook-gumperz (ed.) the social construction of literacy (pp. 16-44). cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. creese, angela, & blackledge, adrian (2010). translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: a pedagogy for learning and teaching? the modern language journal, 94(1), 103-115. flores, nelson, & rosa, jonathan (2015). undoing appropriateness: raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. harvard educational review, 85(2), 149-171. garcía, ofelia (2009). education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century. in tove skutnabbkangas, robert phillipson, ajit k. mohanty, & minati panda (eds.), social justice through multilingual education (pp.140-158). bristol, united kingdom: multilingual matters. garcía, ofelia, & leiva, camila (2014). theorizing and enacting translanguaging for social justice. in adrian blackledge, & angela creese (eds.), heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy (pp. 199– 216). new york, new york: springer. garcía, ofelia, & li wei (2014). translanguaging: language, bilingualism and education. new york, new york: palgrave macmillan. gumperz, john j., & hymes, dell (eds.). (1972). directions in sociolinguistics. new york, new york: holt, rinehart, and winston. li wei (2011). moment analysis and translanguaging space: discursive construction of identities by multilingual chinese youth in britain. journal of pragmatics, 43(5), 1222-1235. li wei, & zhu hua (2013). translanguaging identities and ideologies: creating transnational space through flexible multilingual practices amongst chinese university students in the uk. applied linguistics, 34(5), 516-535. makoni, sinfree, & pennycook, alistair (eds.). (2007). disinventing and reconstituting languages. clevedon, united kingdom: multilingual matters. may, stephen (ed.) (2013). the multilingual turn: implications for sla, tesol, and bilingual education. new york, new york: routledge. paulsrud, bethanne, rosén, jenny, straszer, boglárka, & wedin, åsa (eds.). (2017). new perspectives on translanguaging and education. bristol, united kingdom: multilingual matters. otheguy, ricardo, garcía, ofelia, & reid, wallis (2015). clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: a perspective from linguistics. applied linguistics review, 6(3), 281-307. reagan, timothy (2004). objectification, positivism and language studies: a reconsideration. critical inquiry in language studies: an international journal, 1(1), 41-60. sriskandarajah, nadarajah, bawden, richard, blackmore, chris, tidball, keith g., & wals, arien, e. j. (2010). resilience in learning systems: case studies in university education. environmental education research, 16(5-6), 559-573. swain, merill (2006). languaging, agency and collaboration in advanced language proficiency. in heidi byrnes (ed.), advanced language learning: the contribution of halliday and vygotsky (pp. 95-108). london, united kingdom: continuum. transgressive nature of translanguaging pedagogies e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 1-7 7 josh prada, indiana university-purdue university—indianapolis jprada@iu.edu en josh prada (phd, texas tech university; ma, birkbeck, university of london) is assistant professor of spanish applied linguistics in the department of world languages and cultures, in the indiana university school of liberal arts at iupui, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in applied linguistics. his research interests are in critical approaches to bilingualism and multilingualism with an emphasis on minority/heritage speakers, complex approaches to language education, and translanguaging. es josh prada (phd, texas tech university; ma, birkbeck, university of london) es profesor contratado de lingüística aplicada del español en el departamento de lenguas y culturas del mundo en la facultad de estudios liberales de la universidad de indiana iupui, donde enseña cursos de lingüística aplicada a nivel de grado y postgrado. sus intereses investigadores se enfocan en el área de estudios críticos del bilingüismo y multilingüismo con énfasis en hablantes de lenguas de herencia o minoritarias, sistemas complejos en la enseñanza de lenguas y el translingüismo. it josh prada (phd, texas tech university, ma, birkbeck, università di londra) è professore universitario di linguistica applicata spagnola nel dipartimento di lingue e culture del mondo, presso la indiana university school of liberal arts a iupui, dove insegna corsi triennali e corsi avanzati di linguistica applicata. i suoi interessi di ricerca riguardano approcci critici al bilinguismo e al multilinguismo con un'enfasi sulle minoranze linguistiche e sugli alloglotti, approcci complessi all’educazione e translinguismo. tarja nikula, university of jyväskylä tarja.nikula@jyu.fi en tarja nikula is professor at the centre for applied language studies, university of jyväskylä, finland. her research interests include clil classroom interaction, the role of language in learning, and multilingualism in education. she is an editor of conceptualising integration in clil and multilingual education (multilingual matters, 2016). es tarja nikula es catedrática en el centro de estudios de lingüística aplicada de la universidad de jyvaskyla en finlandia. sus intereses de investigación incluyen la interacción en el aula, el método de aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras (aicle), el papel de la lengua en el aprendizaje y la educación multilingüe. en 2016 editó el libro conceptualising integration in clil and multilingual education (multilingual matters). it tarja nikula è professoressa presso il centro di studi linguistici applicati dell'università di jyvaskyla, in finlandia. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono l'interazione clil in classe, il ruolo della lingua nell'apprendimento e il multilinguismo nell'istruzione. è editrice di conceptualising integration in clil and multilingual education (multilingual matters, 2016). euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 2, issue 2, december 2015, pages 102-105 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.3.60 www.e-journall.org © ruiz-sánchez 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. there has been broad interest and substantial research to learn how children acquire languages; however, investigations of how children simultaneously learn two languages have been less common. silvacorvalán’s book, bilingual language acquisition: spanish and english in the first six years, on the examination of the emerging grammars of english and spanish of two bilingual siblings makes a significant contribution to the study of early bilingual language development. throughout the eight chapters in this work, published under cambridge university press’s “cambridge approaches to language contact” series, silva-corvalán provides evidence of the direct effect of the amount of exposure to and use of two languages on bilingual speakers’ level of proficiency in various grammatical domains. her results demonstrate numerous consequences of language contact, and shed new light on the issue of the acquisition of spanish by heritage speakers. chapter 1 contextualizes the purpose and relevance of silva-corvalán’s study within the field of bilingual language acquisition. in this introductory chapter, silva-corvalán reviews models and issues relevant to bilingual first language acquisition: cross-linguistic interaction, language proficiency and * contact: cr001@aquinas.edu silva-corvalán, carmen. (2014). bilingual language acquisition: spanish and english in the first six years. new york, new york: cambridge university press. carmen ruiz-sánchez*1 aquinas college book review received 25 august 2015; received in revised form 2 october 2015; accepted 7 october 2015 abstract en carmen silva-corvalán’s bilingual language acquisition: spanish and english in the first six years explores the linguistic formation of her two grandsons from ages 0 to 6. this review discusses silva-corvalán’s main findings and the issues related to the amount of exposure and the use of two languages in various linguistic domains in early bilingual acquisition. it also highlights the merits of this extensive and unique research project while at the same time pinpoints some methodological challenges faced by longitudinal studies such as this one. key words: bilingual acquisition, heritage speakers, cross-linguistic interaction, language contact. es el libro bilingual language acquisition: spanish and english in the first six years de carmen silva-corvalán explora la formación lingüística de sus dos nietos desde los 0 hasta los 6 años de edad. esta reseña examina los resultados generales de la investigación de silva-corvalán y sus argumentos con respecto a la cantidad de exposición y uso de las dos lenguas en varias áreas lingüísticas en la adquisición bilingüe temprana. también se enfatiza el mérito de este original y detallado proyecto de investigación, así como se indican algunos de los desafíos metodológicos que conllevan estudios longitudinales como este. palabras clave: adquisición bilingüe, hablantes de herencia, interacción cros-lingüística, lenguas en contacto. it nel volume bilingual language acquisition: spanish and english in the first six years, carmen silva-corvalán analizza la formazione linguistica dei suoi due nipoti dalla nascita ai 6 anni. la presente recensione discute i risultati principali di quest’analisi e le questioni legate alla quantità di esposizione e all’uso di due lingue in diversi ambiti linguistici nell’acquisizione bilingue precoce. si evidenziano inoltre i meriti di questo progetto di ricerca ampio e originale e, allo stesso tempo, si individuano alcune questioni metodologiche proprie di ricerche di questo tipo. parole chiave: acquisizione bilingue, parlanti di lingue ereditarie, interazione cross-linguistica, lingue in contatto. http://www.e-journall.org/ review: bilingual language acquisition e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 102-105 103 dominance, and language input, to name a few. although the author suggests a “theoretically eclectic” (p. 7) empirical approach, her findings are most consistent with a usage-based perspective, which she has often adopted in previous studies. chapter 2 describes the siblings’ social context: their two-language family and patterns of language use, and explains the data collection process and the analytical methods. the language data for this study come from recordings and diary notes regularly taken by silva-corvalán as her grandsons engaged in daily activities, and interacted in english, spanish, or both in various natural contexts and with different interlocutors. this chapter includes information on how the children’s amount of exposure to and production of english and spanish is calculated and used to determine the siblings’ different levels of proficiency in spanish, their heritage and weaker language. the next five chapters examine different aspects of the children’s grammars and lexicon while considering the effect of the amounts of exposure and use of english and spanish and the relationship between the children’s language production and the input provided to them by adults. each chapter compares the siblings’ linguistic behavior with those known for spanish and english monolinguals, and looks for evidence of cross-linguistic interaction. chapter 3 is an overview of how the siblings develop negative structures, form questions, and improve narrative skills in english and spanish in their first six years. although similar paths and rates of development to those of monolingual speakers are identified for the siblings in those areas, cross-linguistic interaction differentiates the siblings’ language production from monolingual speech. silva-corvalán explains these differences in relation to the amount of exposure and use of the language at the time. the chapter emphasizes one of the benefits of language contact: how bilingual children acquire a metalinguistic awareness that is not found in monolingual speakers. chapter 4 focuses on the production of grammatical subjects in english, an overt subject language, and spanish, a null subject language. the author carries out a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of the siblings’ production of overt subjects and examines whether they acquire the pragmatic properties of spanish subjects. she observes that the children’s realization of subjects in spanish seems affected by english, as evidenced in a greater amount of unjustified overt subjects, especially when exposure to spanish becomes reduced. regarding evidence of the siblings’ appropriate use of discourse-pragmatics properties, silvacorvalán finds no instance of pragmatic misuse at their earliest age period. chapter 5 investigates the position of the subject relative to the verb in both english and spanish. the typological difference between the two languages allows the author to address again the question of crosslinguistic interaction and the effect of the amount of exposure to spanish. as expected, the siblings’ english is not negatively affected by being in contact with spanish, but a lower degree of exposure to spanish results in an increase of preverbal subjects, due to influence from english. with regard to the semantic and discoursepragmatic principles of spanish subject placement, the siblings show some control at an early age but this control diminishes as their exposure to the categorical preverbal position of english subjects increases. chapter 6 tracks the siblings’ development of english and spanish copulas. as the author points out, the bilingual child needs to acquire the semantic, pragmatic, and syntactic functions of the spanish copulas while in english the child has the “simpler task of acquiring only one copula” (p.223). silva-corvalán tests the hypothesis that cross-linguistic interactions are more likely to happen when the phenomena in question are at the interface between two or more domains of a language (syntax-semantics, syntax-pragmatics) and when one language “offers multiple interpretations for superficially parallel syntactic construction” (p.220). special attention is given to the use of copulas with predicate adjectives and in other variable contexts that make copula selection more susceptible to cross-linguistic interaction. the differing level of the siblings’ spanish language proficiency proves to have an effect on their correct uses of the copulas. at an early age the siblings start using spanish copulas in lexically specific and complementary contexts that are frequently found in adult input and that are less complex: identification and location expressions. their learning of spanish copulas later expands to a wider range of contexts that are more complex and less semantically transparent, as usage-based approaches would predict. chapter 7 deals with the development of tense, mood, and aspect markers in english and spanish and provides additional support for a usage-based account of language development. silva-corvalán explores the issue of whether grammatical simplification in situations of societal bilingualism is due to incomplete acquisition or attrition of a heritage language. in both languages, verbs enter the children’s lexicon in different tenses, mainly present and imperative, mostly dictated by daily activities and the semantics of the verbs. the siblings’ development of other tenses continues successfully in english with no evidence of ruiz-sánchez 104 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 102-105 influence of spanish. although, up to age 4, the siblings’ developing knowledge of spanish verb tenses is still comparable to that of monolinguals, differences occur when exposure to spanish is reduced and influence from english becomes more evident, especially in the sibling with lower proficiency. a comparison of the children’s performance with that of other bilingual children and adults from different social backgrounds reveals that processes of simplification and loss in adult bilingual spanish are likely to be the consequence of incomplete acquisition of this language between the ages of 3 and 5, when more intensive exposure to english reduces the possibilities of using spanish. the siblings’ production of tenses is also explained in terms of complexity, frequency in the input, and communicative needs: tenses that are more complex and less frequent in the adults’ input are acquired later. chapter 8 consists of final remarks, where silva-corvalán summarizes the major findings of her study and observes that in order to provide adequate explanations for language acquisition, multiple factors such as complexity, language dominance, proficiency, and quality and quantity of the input need to be considered. the cross-linguistic interactions found in the siblings’ linguistic systems support silva-corvalán’s “parallel structure hypothesis” (p. 356), according to which semantic and discourse-pragmatic components in a nondominant language are more vulnerable to being affected by interlinguistic interactions. she closes with a discussion of similarities between developing bilingual children and heritage speakers, and the implications for theories of language contact and bilingual acquisition. although bilingual language acquisition: spanish and english in the first six years is an excellent piece of research, it is not without flaws, most of which the author mentions and addresses. the shortcomings are mostly methodological and typical of longitudinal studies. these include the limited generalization of the outcomes, the author’s personal relationship with the subjects, and the challenging task of analyzing phenomena in which multiple semantic and discourse-pragmatic factors intersect (subject realization and copular choice in spanish, for example). another minor objection is that the author sometimes highlights that the children’s grammars are native-like, whereas other times she recognizes that the siblings’ spanish is typical of second-to-third generation heritage speakers and is highly influenced by english. silva-corvalán’s unique investigation draws upon an impressive corpus of longitudinal data, systematically collected in a naturalistic setting during five years and meticulously examined, and enriches our understanding of the language development of bilingual children. her detailed examination of complex linguistic domains that involve the acquisition of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic factors in spanish provides valuable insights into spanish language acquisition in general and deepens our knowledge of bilingual acquisition and language heritage phenomena in particular. although the book will be of most interest to those working in the areas of bilingualism, language contact, and heritage language, it will also be useful to scholars in other linguistic disciplines such as language acquisition and sociolinguistic variation. the author’s dedication and enthusiasm is evident throughout the book, as is her desire to underline bilingual speakers’ accomplishments and similarities to monolingual speakers. review: bilingual language acquisition e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 102-105 105 carmen ruiz-sánchez, aquinas college cr001@aquinas.edu en carmen ruiz-sánchez is associate professor of spanish linguistics and the coordinator of the lower division courses at aquinas college. she completed her ph.d. in hispanic linguistics at indiana university. before joining aquinas college, she taught upper-division and graduate linguistic courses in the department of spanish and portuguese at michigan state university. her research focuses on the sociolinguistic variation of the spanish pronunciation in southern spain and the caribbean. es carmen ruiz-sánchez es profesora titular de lingüística hispana y coordinadora de los cursos de nivel básico en aquinas college. completó el doctorado en lingüística hispana en indiana university. antes de trabajar en aquinas college, dio cursos de lingüística a nivel de pregrado y posgrado en michigan state university. sus investigaciones se centran en la variación sociolingüística de la pronunciación del español en el sur de españa y el caribe. it carmen ruiz-sánchez è professoressa associata di linguistica spagnola e coordinatrice dei corsi di laurea triennale presso l’aquinas college. ha conseguito un dottorato di ricerca in linguistica ispano-americana presso l’indiana university. prima dell’attuale incarico, ha insegnato linguistica nel dipartimento di spagnolo e portoghese della michigan state university. la sua attività di ricerca si concentra sulla variazione sociolinguistica della pronuncia dello spagnolo nella spagna del sud e nei caraibi. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 2, issue 2, december 2015, pages 1-10 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.3.67 www.e-journall.org © pascual y cabo 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: diego.pascual@ttu.edu understanding the spanish heritage language speaker/learner diego pascual y cabo*, josh delarosa-prada 1 texas tech university received 1 december 2015; received in revised form 23 december 2015; accepted 27 december 2015 abstract en while the linguistic traits and specific needs of heritage speakers have been recognized for several decades, academic interest in the different dimensions of this type of bilingualism has increased exponentially in the last ten years. because of this, significant progress has been made in all areas of inquiry. from formal/theoretical investigations into the mental architecture of the heritage language to explorations of social factors, as well as other pedagogical concerns, numerous research strands are currently shaping our understanding of the field. with this in mind, the goal of this introduction is twofold. first, we aim to provide an overview of the themes and discussions that are currently taking place in the field of spanish heritage-speaker bilingualism. to this end, we will consider key issues pertaining to a wide variety of areas including, but not limited to, sociolinguistic attitudes, identity, language competency, and language instruction. secondly, in so doing, the critical presentation and discussion of each of these areas will also serve to contextualize the articles included in this special issue. key words: heritage speakers, heritage language learners, spanish in the united states, bilingualism. es mientras que los rasgos lingüísticos y las necesidades específicas de los hablantes de herencia se reconocieron ya hace décadas, el interés académico en las diferentes dimensiones de este tipo de bilingüismo ha aumentado exponencialmente en los últimos diez años. por eso, se ha avanzado de manera considerable en todos los ámbitos de investigación. desde investigaciones formales y teóricas acerca de la arquitectura mental de una lengua de herencia, hasta la exploración de factores sociales y otras cuestiones pedagógicas, el actual estado de la cuestión está definido por múltiples ámbitos de investigación. con respecto a esto, el objetivo de esta introducción es doble. por una parte, queremos ofrecer una panorámica de los temas y debates actuales en el campo del bilingüismo de los hablantes de español como lengua de herencia. así, se considerarán cuestiones centrales en el estudio de actitudes lingüísticas, identidad, competencia lingüística y enseñanza de la lengua. por otra parte, la presentación crítica y la discusión de cada una de estas áreas servirá para contextualizar los artículos incluidos en este número especial. palabras clave: hablantes de lenguas de herencia, aprendientes de lenguas de herencia, español en los estados unidos, bilingüismo. it mentre le caratteristiche linguistiche e le necessità specifiche dei parlanti di una lingua ereditaria sono state riconosciute da decenni, l’interesse accademico per le diverse dimensioni di questo tipo di bilinguismo è aumentato in modo esponenziale negli ultimi dieci anni. per questo, c’è stato un progresso significativo in tutti gli ambiti di ricerca. dalle ricerche formali e teoriche sull’architettura mentale di una lingua ereditaria, all’esplorazione dei fattori sociali e altre questioni pedagogiche, questo campo è attualmente influenzato da molteplici linee di ricerca. con questo presente, questa introduzione ha un doppio scopo. in primo luego, si vuole offrire una visione panoramica dei temi e dibattiti attuali nel campo del bilinguismo dei parlanti di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria. si considereranno, con questo obiettivo, questioni centrali nello studio delle attitudini linguistiche, identità, competenza linguistica e insegnamento della lingua. in secondo luogo, la presentazione critica di ognuna di queste aree servirà per contestualizzare gli articoli inclusi in questo numero speciale. parole chiave: parlanti di lingue ereditarie, apprendenti di lingue ereditarie, spagnolo negli stati uniti, bilinguismo. http://www.e-journall.org/ pascual y cabo & delarosa-prada 2 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 1-10 1. general introduction with europe and the united states as its main research hubs, the field of heritage/minority language studies has recently sprung to the forefront of linguistic inquiry. revolving around the study of the home language of families and ethnic groups residing in large, linguistically diverse communities, the attention of european scholars has centered on languages such as arabic, cantonese/mandarin, bengali, berber, punjabi, or turkish (see e.g., creese & blackledge, 2011; dirim & auer, 2003; li wei, 2011) among other languages. within that context, joint efforts have further developed the notion of multilingualism as it relates to multiculturalism. focusing on the dynamics of family language policies and ethnolinguistic minority complementary schools, three main strands of research can be traced: one with educational applications (e.g., baker, 2003), one with an emphasis on the identity-interaction interconnection (e.g., blackledge, 2008; blommaert, 2001), and a third one with formal/theoretical approaches to language acquisition and bilingualism (e.g., flores & barbosa, 2014; kupisch, lein, barton, schröder, stangen, & stoehr, 2014; meisel, 1994a, 1994b; müller & hulk, 2001). analogous research strands have also been developed in the united states, the focus of this special issue. considering the profound impact of recent migration trends, most attention has been directed to the spanish language. this is unsurprising, given that with some 55 million hispanics2, the united states is home to the second largest hispanic population in the world after only mexico, with over 122 million inhabitants. in addition to these already large numbers are the undocumented immigrants who cannot be accurately counted by census reports, but who play a central role as part of the u.s. hispanic community. the vitality of this community has become undeniable across all dimensions of society (e.g., politics, economy, education, and the media). for example, in recognizing its growing importance in u.s. society, great efforts are currently being made to attract the hispanic population via bilingual/bicultural campaigns and advertisings (emarketer, 2009; mccabe, weaver, & corona, 2013; meneses, 2011). this also holds true for media and entertainment, where hispanics have progressively moved to the forefront (e.g., as attested by the latin@ presence in films and tv shows) and, while songs entirely sung in spanish are not the rule, spanish-english code-switching has made its way into mainstream popular music. according to most recent reports, the three largest hispanic communities in the united states are mexicans, puerto ricans, and cubans, with increasing numbers of dominicans and central americans (united states census, 2014), for whom places such as new york, los angeles, or miami have traditionally been preferred destinations. over time, these cities have become epicenters of large intergenerational hispanic communities, from naturalized immigrants and their u.s.-born children to newly arrived families looking for a better future. in some of these areas, knowledge of spanish is not only important, it is necessary to be able to function in certain social settings (e.g., lynch, 1999; silva-corvalán & lynch, 2008). however, other areas that have not traditionally been associated with large latino communities have recently, in a progressive manner, become centers of affluence for hispanic groups. for example, a number of states such as alabama, nevada, north carolina, or georgia have experienced significant growth in the number of hispanic residents in the last years. this trend is not expected to stop any time soon. in fact, according to most census estimations, by 2060, the number of hispanics in the united states will reach the figure of 128.8 million, thereupon constituting over 30% of the nation’s population (united states census, 2014). based on this increase and its effect on the expanding importance of the spanish language to u.s. society, as well as the role of the united states as an international economic powerhouse, we can only surmise the upcoming centrality of u.s. spanish as a language variety in itself. in the united states, the spanish language axiomatically coexists with english. yet, even in this context of language contact, most spanish-speaking immigrants who come to the united states as adults maintain a spanish-dominant linguistic profile and may or may not acquire english (e.g., alba, logan, lutz & stults, 2002). their offspring, however, having been born/raised into a language contact situation, will become dominant speakers of the societal language (english in this case) while their home-language linguistic systems will naturally differ from those of monolingually-raised individuals (e.g., pascual y cabo & rothman, 2012; rothman & treffers-daller, 2014). these u.s.-born children, as well as those child-immigrants who 2 in this text, the terms latino and hispanic will be used interchangeably, to refer to people whose country of origin, or that of their ancestors, make up the spanish-speaking countries of north, central, and south america. understanding the spanish heritage speaker/learner e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 1-10 3 arrive in the united states at an early age, are widely referred to in the literature as heritage speakers (hereafter hss) or heritage language learners (hlls). we now turn to a detailed discussion of these terms. 2. from heritage speakers to heritage language learners 2.1 heritage speakers in the context of the united states, the term hs makes reference to someone “raised in a home where a non-english language is spoken, who speaks or merely understands the heritage language, and who is to some degree bilingual in english and the heritage language” (valdés, 2000, p. 1). as noted in previous research3, the most noteworthy characteristic associated with hss in general is that, despite being exposed to the heritage language naturalistically and from birth, they end up exhibiting linguistic patterns that do not match those considered age-appropriate in monolingually-raised individuals. for example, among others, hss’ grammars have been shown to be particularly sensitive to cross-linguistic interference with regards to tense and aspect (e.g., silva-corvalán, 1994, 2014), mood (e.g., montrul & perpiñán, 2011; pascual y cabo, lingwall, & rothman, 2012), gender agreement (e.g., montrul, foote, & perpiñán, 2008), null subject pronouns (e.g., montrul, 2002, 2007; polinsky 1997; silva-corvalán, 1994), or case marking (e.g., montrul & bowles, 2009; montrul & sanchez-walker, 2013; pascual y cabo, 2013). these domains (and more) have been shown to surface as a simplified version of the monolingual linguistic system, or as a grammar that when measured against age-matched monolingual speakers of the same language/dialect could be deemed as not having reached full development (e.g., montrul, 2008; silva corvalán 1994)4. this course of acquisition has been generally referred to in the literature as incomplete acquisition (montrul, 2002, 2008; o’grady, lee, & choo, 2001; polinsky, 2007), a notion that has generated substantial debate in the last few years (e.g., see pascual y cabo & rothman, 2012; pires & rothman, 2009; putnam & sánchez, 2013)5. notwithstanding generalizations, hss cannot be thought of as a homogeneous group, nor be easily tagged/identified as such given the vast array of characteristics that make up and determine their respective individual profiles. for example, the different sociolinguistic realities in which hss are immersed during the first years of their lives (i.e., timing of exposure to the societal language) have been documented to have a deterministic effect on their linguistic outcomes (e.g., müller & hulk, 2001; pascual y cabo & gómez soler, 2015). considering this, the field of hs bilingualism has undoubtedly sustained an attention shift from the somewhat uniform monolingual model of language knowledge to a multilingual one, bringing to bear new applications for old models and theories (e.g., see benmamoun, montrul & polinsky, 2013, for an overview). for example, as discussed, hss can be found along a continuum of linguistic dominance/proficiency, whereby some may hardly be able to communicate in the hl, while others may pass as monolingual speakers. generally speaking, the differing levels of hl attainment achieved result from a variety of reasons which include, but are not limited to, family language policies and attitudes towards the heritage language, access (or lack thereof) to formal education in the in the hl, generation of immigration, age of onset of bilingualism6, limited exposure to the hl along with limited opportunities to use it productively, or simply, voluntary lack of engagement during the formative years. 3 we refer the reader to pascual y cabo (2015) for a current overview of research findings in the field of spanish heritage speaker bilingualism from a formal point of view and to potowski and lynch (2014) for an overview from a sociolinguistic and pedagogical perspective. 4 as noted in previous research, hs linguistic outcomes can also diverge from monolingual grammars to the same and sometimes even more drastic extent as traditional l2 learners despite the fact that acquisition of the hl usually takes place naturalistically and in early childhood (e.g., montrul 2011). in fact, traditional l2 learners have been documented to have some advantages over hss (e.g., writing skills, metalinguistic awareness) (e.g., mikulski & elola, 2011; montrul, 2010; montrul & perpiñán, 2011). 5the notion of incomplete acquisition as it refers to hs bilingual development has been challenged on the basis that hss’ competence, while often different from monolingual speakers’ competence in the same language, is not incomplete, but simply different for reasons related to the realities of the environment in which hss grow up. we refer the reader to pascual y cabo & rothman (2012) for more on this issue. 6 speakers whose majority language acquisition occurred alongside the acquisition of the hl are considered simultaneous bilinguals. on the other hand, speakers whose first exposure to the majority language occurred after the structural basis of the hl was acquired, at about the age of 4-5, when they first start attending school, are considered sequential bilinguals. pascual y cabo & delarosa-prada 4 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 1-10 such heterogeneity is best captured in polinsky and kagan’s (2007) broad/narrow categorization. a narrow definition of spanish hss would include those individuals who, having grown up in a household where spanish was spoken, have acquired the language and can use it productively even if they are still clearly dominant in the societal language. a broader stance on hss, on the other hand, would necessarily embrace anyone, who, with or without linguistic knowledge, has a cultural ancestry connection to the language. the adoption of one definition or the other depends largely on the specific goals and questions posited by the researchers themselves. for example, in the case of studies that aim to examine linguistic competence in the strict sense, adopting a narrow definition appears more fitting. on the other hand, the broad definition could be adopted for studies that aim to examine other important issues such as the negotiation of identity or the teaching and assessment of particular topics (see for example reznicez-parrado; camus & adrada-rafael, this issue). regardless of the precise definition adopted, as we see it, one of the most puzzling aspects of heritage speaker bilingualism is the widespread intraand inter-speaker variability observed. that is, the same hs can be seen accepting and/or producing the same grammatical property (i.e., tense, aspect, mood) in different ways that may or may not always follow the descriptions found in the theoretical literature (montrul, 2009). in turn, the ramifications that this variability triggers transcend into other domains beyond the purely linguistic ones (i.e., myths, prejudice, and stigma [potowski, 2010]). undoubtedly, this raises questions regarding hss’ linguistic and cultural identities, as well as their needs—and abilities—in the classroom. these issues are addressed in the next section. 2.2. heritage language learners prior to entering kindergarten, hss’ exposure to the societal language is usually minimal and thus, many of them are only able to communicate in their home language. from the start of school on, however, (at least) two important changes are observed. first, it is common for u.s. educational programs to have english proficiency as their goal, and so education and socialization with peers is carried out almost exclusively in the societal language (lukes, 2015). secondly, and perhaps more importantly, opportunities to not only be exposed to, but also to use the hl become gradually reduced to the home/family environment. combined, these changes contribute to the observed linguistic shift. that is, hss go from spanish hl-monolingualism to a state of bilingualism that eventually allows them to function in an english-speaking system. as this process takes place during important formative years for the children, it is also not uncommon to observe the more extreme case, in which monolingualism in the majority language is the end result. years later, however, in recognizing the richness and the added value associated with their heritage (among other reasons), many of these hss start attending spanish classes at the high school or college level7. at this point, they become reacquainted with their home language/culture and are considered heritage language learners (hlls). thus, as we see it, while hss are (to some degree) users of the heritage language, hlls are by definition learners/students of the hl, no matter their linguistic proficiency (or lack thereof in the case of receptive hlls). as discussed, given their linguistic and educational background, most hlls can communicate in the hl,8 but experience difficulties (to varying degrees and in varying ways) when it comes to using the standardized conventions of the written language (i.e., literacy), as well as with the sociolinguistic demands of certain formal contexts. for example, because hss are not usually educated in the hl, it is common for them to lack the linguistic resources required to navigate academic registers (e.g., beaudrie, ducar, & potowski, 2014). thus, in the hl classroom, hss’ needs are necessarily different from those of the traditional second language learner (e.g., beaudrie et al., 2014). that said, more often than not, these two types of students are placed together into “mixed-classes” with little regard to their respective needs, a practice that is usually not beneficial to either learner type (e.g., beaudrie et al., 2014). even though recognition of the pedagogical and educational needs associated with the profile of the hlls is nothing new (see e.g., guadalupe valdés, 1999; or ana roca, 1997), only within the last decade or so have actions been 7 it should be noted that many hss also attend spanish classes before they go to college. for example, programs that focus on dual language instruction in k-8 schools have been documented to address hss’ needs and make a positive impact in their lives (lindholm-leary, 2013). 8 it is true, however, that in the most extreme cases of hl loss, learning a hl can be (almost) like learning a foreign or a third language (polinsky, 2015). understanding the spanish heritage speaker/learner e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 1-10 5 taken at a larger scale to meaningfully address such needs (e.g., beaudrie et al., 2014; beaudrie & fairclough, 2012; correa, 2011; potowski, 2005; potowski & carreira, 2004). but the recognition, and to some extent, the celebration of those traits that make hs bilingualism an exciting field for scholars and practitioners does not necessarily extend to most realms of u.s. society, where monolingualism and monoculturalism are still the norm. from solidly anchored misconceptions about bilingualism to “bilingual” programs promoting monolingualism (bartlett & garcía, 2010), misinformation has not only made its way into education and language policy in the united states, but it seems to be deeply rooted in the people’s conceptualization of what language(s) “must be” like. illustrative of this is potowski’s (2010) list of myths related to being bilingual, which captures some of the general (mis)perceptions of what it means to be a heritage language speaker/learner in the united states. among other false and preconceived ideas, potowski lists the myths that (i) immigrants fail to learn english, (ii) they do not fit in with the american ways, and (iii) language diversity is a problem that threatens national unity. partly due to these unsupported beliefs about language and bilingualism, and partly due to the perceived low socio-economic status of most spanish-speaking immigrants, pervasive negative attitudes about the presence of spanish in the united states can be observed (e.g., montes-alcalá, 2000). as mentioned earlier, this sort of groundless attitudes is not new and has found its way into (language) policy decisions since the early stages of the making of the united states. however, this aversion toward the use of languages other than english, and this minting of a national identity through the rejection and stigmatization of linguistic diversity, has resurfaced only relatively recently. in fact, the second half of the 20th century witnessed a sense of linguistic tolerance (e.g., the voting right act of 1965amended in 1975or the bilingual education act of 1968). this sort of understanding allowed for some languages other than english to be taught, mainly in after-school or weekend programs (garcia-preto, 2005). these programs, normally referred to as “ethnic community schools”, were devised by ethnolinguistic minorities to educate their children in the heritage language more often than not with cultural and religious practices at the core. a study by joshua a. fishman by the name language loyalty in the united states (1966) categorized these schools in three types: day schools providing linguistic, cultural and religious instruction; afternoon schools, or supplementary schools, meeting two or more weekday afternoons throughout the school year; and weekend schools normally meeting on saturdays or sundays. in an attempt to educate students in their home language, these programs strived to promote biliteracy and bilingualism in times when bilingual education was banned in thirty-one states. out of these efforts, coral way school (miami, fl) stands as the oldest public bilingual school in the united states. its curriculum was built on the linguistic abilities brought in by the students themselves, with an emphasis on developing bilingualism, biliteracy, and biculturality, while “promoting self-esteem, respect, and discipline” (pellerano, fradd, & rovira, 1998). this holistic view of bilingualism, however, is still uncommon and a subtractive bilingualism take on education is generally enforced upon hss across most of the united states. yet, with growing sensitivity to the different realities brought about by a globalizing society, a more accepting stance on bilingualism and more flexible views on the values of bi-/multiculturalism, appear to be emerging. resulting from this, and from recognizing hss as a specific language learner profile, bilingual education programs have begun to employ more dynamic approaches to bilingual language development, learning, and teaching. given this context, higher education institutions have started to tackle hss’ specific needs by means of creating and developing hl programs (e.g., beaudrie, 2011, 2012; tecedor & mejia, 2015). briefly put, these initiatives are being forged to afford students increasing opportunities to use the hl in new social contexts, to challenge dominant social hierarchies, to construct positive linguistic and cultural identities, and to serve as a site for hl literacy-development. proof of this new perspective on hlls and a more cognizant/better informed understanding of their (linguistic) needs is the growing numbers of hlspecific programs at u.s. universities (beaudrie, 2011, 2012; tecedor & mejia, 2015), as well as the proliferation of resources, conferences, and workshops centered on heritage speaker/learner issues. this special issue contributes to this growing body of work, by underscoring the scope and relevance of spanish heritage speaker bilingualism, and by illustrating the applicability of the topics tackled within this field. in the following section we specify how the articles in the special issue address these topics. 3. the articles in this special issue the five articles included in this special issue of the euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages contribute to a very active field of research that is still evolving and that continuously brings to light new and old questions regarding not just language (e.g., its nature, its acquisition, its maintenance), but pascual y cabo & delarosa-prada 6 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 1-10 also identity (e.g., student views on re-learning the heritage language, the role they assign to their home variety, affective factors), as well as the most effective pedagogical practices (e.g., service learning, translanguaging, optimal use of technology, mixed-learning, task-based curricula). as a whole, this special issue provides the reader with a rich and wide overview on spanish-english hs bilingualism and builds on what already is an important body of scholarship (among many others, see beaudrie et al., 2014; beaudrie & fairclough, 2012; colombi & roca, 2003; montrul, 2008; potowski, 2005; potowski & carreira, 2004; potowski & lynch, 2014; roca, 2000; valdés, 2001). individually, each of the articles included herein highlights and captures the essence of current debates taking place in the field. their contribution is significant, not only in that they develop new and relevant insights to the continuous development of our understanding, but also in that they lead the way to other questions that future research will need to address. for example, vergara wilson and ibarra’s “understanding the inheritors: the perception of beginning-level students toward their spanish as a heritage language program” contributes to current trends on hs research by offering a student-informed perspective on heritage language education, thereby bridging heritage speaker attitudes and curriculum design. relatedly, perara-lunde and melero-garcía’s “identidades gramaticales: perspectivas estudiantiles hacia el aprendizaje y uso de gramática en una clase de shl” (“grammar identities: student perspectives toward grammar use and grammar learning in a shl”), discusses heritage learners’ attitudes towards grammar and its teaching, and their sensitivity towards register variation. in an examination of heritage speakers’ attitudes about the so-called spanglish (and other forms of us spanish), reznicek-parrado’s “‘spanglish’”: bringing the academic debate into the classroom. towards critical pedagogy in spanish heritage instruction”, reports on the paradoxical disconnect exhibited between hlls’ practices and their negative judgments about the practices in which they themselves report engaging. this disconnect raises questions not only about the ways in which students’ internalized ideologies go unquestioned in the classroom, but also about the potential repercussions, with regards to the students’ identity development, of using this term. in their article “spanish heritage language learners vs. l2 learners: what caf reveals about written proficiency,” camus and adrada-rafael take a cognitive perspective and compare traditional second language learners with hss with regards to their writing abilities (mikulski & elola, 2011). particularly, they examine an understudied construct, namely caf (complexity, accuracy, and fluency) and conclude that, at high levels of proficiency, hlls are able to outperform l2 learners. this finding contradicts what previous studies have found when examining lower levels of proficiency. rodríguez and reglero’s article, “heritage and l2 processing of person and number features: evidence from spanish subjectverb agreement,” delves into the processing (dis)advantages of early bilingualism. the data presented is of importance to current examinations of hs bilingual development as it provides evidence that, despite exhibiting differences with spanish monolingual speakers, hss process basic grammatical structures similarly to those speakers. such a finding adds credence to the position that hss, despite exhibiting a great deal of intra-speaker variability and even performance asymmetries with regards to their monolingual peers, do not necessarily have deficient grammars (e.g., pascual y cabo & rothman, 2012). in addition to the five articles summarized above, this special issue includes critical reviews of three recently published books: (i) heritage language teaching: research and practice (by sara beaudrie, cindy ducar and kim potowski; reviewed by florencia giglio henshaw); (ii) bilingual language acquisition: spanish and english over the first six years (by carmen silva corvalán; reviewed by carmen ruiz sánchez); and (iii) bilingualism in the spanish-speaking world: linguistic and cognitive perspectives (by jennifer austin, maría blume, and liliana sánchez; reviewed by maria fionda). as was also the case with the articles, these three books were chosen for their impact on and contribution to the field of spanish as a heritage/minority language. 4. some concluding remarks unquestionably, the last decade has been a time of dedicated research in the field of what is broadly defined as spanish as a heritage language. key developments have been made in all areas of inquiry and, as a result, our understanding of complex issues that were once considered unrelated has advanced dramatically (as attested by the breadth of topics covered in the articles included in this special issue). that said, as we continue to shape our understanding of such complex issues, new questions of relevance to the field emerge. with an eye on the dynamic and ever-expanding landscape of the field, we would like to suggest more communication and collaboration across subdisciplines and theoretical viewpoints. it is precisely this sort of interdisciplinary examination that will create opportunities to not only see and understand our research understanding the spanish heritage speaker/learner e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 1-10 7 interests from different angles, but also to make them relevant and accessible to each other. by doing this, we will challenge view-points on issues that may have become (or may be in danger of becoming) stagnant and rigid. it is this kind of cross-field collaboration/examination that will contribute to making significant headway in our search for answers to our questions, whatever they may be. references alba, richard, logan, john, lutz, amy & stults, brian (2002). only english by the third 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delarosa-prada 10 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 1-10 diego pascual y cabo, texas tech university diego.pascual@ttu.edu en diego pascual y cabo is an assistant professor of hispanic linguistics and the director of the spanish heritage language program at texas tech university. his primary research interests are heritage speaker bilingualism and second language acquisition. es diego pascual y cabo es profesor contratado de lingüística española y director del programa de español como lengua de herencia en la texas tech university. sus principales áreas de investigación son el bilingüismo de los hablantes de herencia y la adquisición de segundas lenguas. it diego pascual y cabo è professore universitario di linguistica spagnola e direttore del programma di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria della texas tech university. i suoi ambiti di ricerca principali includono il bilinguismo dei parlanti di una lingua ereditaria e l’acquisizione di lingue seconde. josh delarosa-prada, texas tech university j.delarosa-prada@ttu.edu en josh delarosa-prada, maflt, ma, is an instructor and a researcher in the bilingualism and second language acquisition lab at texas tech university, where he is completing a phd in hispanic linguistics. his interests are in the area of heritage speaker bilingualism, bridging language cognition, social identity, and multilingual interaction. es josh delarosa-prada posee un master en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras y otro en lingüística aplicada es instructor e investigador en el laboratorio de bilingüismo y adquisición de segundas lenguas de la texas tech university, donde está finalizando sus estudios de doctorado en lingüística española. sus intereses de investigación incluyen el bilingüismo de los hablantes de una lengua de herencia y el contacto entre cognición lingüística, identidad social e interacción multilingüe. it josh delarosa-prada ha ottenuto un master nell’insegnamento di lingue straniere e uno in linguistica applicata ed è istruttore e ricercatore nel laboratorio di bilinguismo e acquisizione di seconde lingue della texas tech university, dove sta completando i suoi studi di dottorato in linguistica spagnola. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono il bilinguismo dei parlanti di una lingua ereditaria, e il contatto tra cognizione linguistica, identità sociale e interazione multilingue. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 4, issue 1, july 2017, pages 65-68 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.6.100 www.e-journall.org © di gesù 2017. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. la presente obra, escrita por sonia bailini, analiza el fenómeno de la(s) interlengua(s) de lenguas afines — español e italiano— desde una perspectiva bidireccional, lo cual representa una novedad en este ámbito disciplinar, dado que muy pocos, todavía, son los trabajos que abordan el tema desde este punto de vista. tras una breve introducción en la que la autora explica el objetivo y la estructura de la obra, el libro se organiza en dos partes: una teórica y una experimental. la primera parte consta de tres capítulos y se dedica a trazar el estado de la cuestión con respecto a la interlengua del español y del italiano. por lo tanto, a través de un enfoque deductivo, se pasa del análisis de la interlengua y los procesos de adquisición de segundas lenguas, al examen de las lenguas afines objeto de estudio, tanto desde el punto de vista, fonológico y morfosintáctico, como léxico semántico y pragmático. la segunda parte está dividida en otros tres capítulos que analizan la interlengua de dos corpus: el corespi (interlengua del español de los italófonos) y el corite (interlengua del italiano de los hispanófonos) que han sido recopilados y analizados explicitando los criterios de construcción y la metodología, echando mano a un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo de los rasgos lingüísticos de ambos los corpus. el primer capítulo condensa de manera exhaustiva los estudios dedicados al concepto de interlengua, que abarca, además, distintos ámbitos de investigación que están estrechamente conectados entre sí como la psicolingüística, la lingüística teórica, la sociolingüística, la didáctica de la lengua y el análisis de errores. en el apartado sobre el concepto de interlengua como sistema se realiza un atento estudio de la noción de transferencia que, como afirma la autora, “procede de la psicología y entra en la lingüística aplicada a través del análisis contrastivo en los años sesenta” (p. 28). de especial relevancia en este apartado es la referencia al modelo de análisis de la fosilización (selective fossilization hypothesis) postulado por han (2009), que explora la interacción entre el grado de marcado de la l1 y la robustez, en la l2, del input en entrada, considerándolos factores determinantes de la fosilización selectiva. este modelo pretende observar en qué medida el input y la influencia de la l1 determinan la aparición de fenómenos de fosilización. * contacto: floriana.digesu@unipa.it bailini, sonia (2016). la interlengua de lenguas afines. el español de los italianos, el italiano de los españoles. milano: led. floriana di gesù*1 università di palermo book review received 1 april 2017; accepted 18 july 2017 abstract es el volumen del que se ofrece una reseña analiza el fenómeno de la interlengua de lenguas afines: el español de los aprendientes italianos y el italiano de los aprendientes españoles. el objetivo principal del volumen es el análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo de la interlengua de estas dos tipologías de aprendientes, a través del estudio de dos corpus paralelos y longitudinales. palabras clave: interlengua de lenguas afines, lingüística de corpus, análisis de errores en the book reviewed here investigates the phenomenon of interlanguage of related languages and, specifically, the spanish of italian learners and the italian of spanish learners. the principal aim of this book is the quantitative and qualitative analysis of interlanguage of these two types of learners, through the study of two parallel and longitudinal corpora. key words: interlanguage of related languages, corpus linguistics, error analysis it il volume qui recensito analizza il fenomeno dell'interlingua di lingue affini e, nello specifico, dello spagnolo di apprendenti italiani e dell'italiano di apprendenti spagnoli. l'obiettivo che l'autrice ha inteso perseguire è stata l'analisi quantitativa e qualitativa dell'interlingua di queste due tipologie di apprendenti, attraverso lo studio di due corpora paralleli e longitudinali. parole chiave: interlingua di lingue affini, linguistica dei corpora, analisi degli errori http://www.e-journall.org/ di gesù 66 e-journall 4(1) (2017), pp. 65-68 en el apartado 1.3 se describen las variables extralingüísticas que desempeñan un papel relevante en la constitución de la interlengua, tales como la edad, los estilos de aprendizaje, las estrategias de aprendizaje, la aptitud lingüística, la motivación y la actitud hacia la l2. de todos los apartados del libro, éste es el que quizás necesitaría una mayor articulación y desarrollo temático, debido a la importancia que estas variables extralingüísticas han adquirido en los últimos años, gracias también a nuevas disciplinas como la neurodidáctica (compagno & di gesù, 2013; herrmann, 2006; rivoltella, 2012; rosati, 2005). en el apartado 1.4 se profundiza en el análisis de las perspectivas teóricas, considerando, entre otras aportaciones, el modelo de análisis de la interlengua de lenguas afines de schmid (1994) que se basa en la observación del uso que los aprendientes hacen de tres estrategias de adquisición: la congruencia (cong), la correspondencia (corr) y la diferencia (dif). la autora en este primer capítulo llega a la conclusión de que en el aprendizaje de lenguas afines la l1 “tiene un papel mucho más relevante e interactúa de manera significativa con mecanismos cognitivos universales de procesamiento del lenguaje” (p. 57) con respecto al aprendizaje de idiomas tipológicamente distantes. en el capítulo 2 encontramos, como afirma la autora, “una reseña bibliográfica razonada de los principales análisis de la interlengua y de los errores de aprendientes italianos de español lengua extranjera” (p. 59). esta reseña resulta, sin duda alguna, de gran interés para los que se acerquen desde un punto de vista teórico, al estudio del sistema de la interlengua, en cuanto que clasifica, exhaustivamente, la bibliografía sobre estos temas a partir de los años 80 y 90 hasta la actualidad, echando mano, además, a un gráfico de distribución de los estudios de ele por tipo de publicación (p. 60) y a un cuadro de síntesis de los estudios sobre il del español de italófonos (pp. 62-63). los apartados están divididos según los rasgos fonológicos y ortográficos, morfosintácticos, léxicos y, finalmente, pragmáticos. por lo que se refiere a la morfosintaxis, cabe destacar la colocación de las distintas categorías gramaticales por orden alfabético, lo cual resulta muy cómodo a la hora de emprender una consulta, dado que tanto la morfología como el léxico son los ámbitos más trabajados por parte de los estudiosos. las conclusiones que se sacan de este análisis confirman la fuerte influencia de la l1, en este caso italiana, en la adquisición de una competencia lingüística del español como segunda lengua. el capítulo 3 sigue los mismos criterios del anterior, solo se cambia la perspectiva lingüística, dado que los aprendientes son hispanófonos y la lengua meta es el italiano. por lo tanto, de forma especular, se recurre a los mismos criterios de análisis y la misma metodología utilizada en el capítulo 2, estableciendo aquella bidireccionalidad que es la característica principal de este volumen. la consideración final con la que se cierra el capítulo, así como la primera parte, quiere empujar a una reflexión sobre la importancia de considerar la il como sistema, centrado en la contrastividad, en el que la recopilación y el análisis de corpus de forma paralela y bidireccional pueden constituir una nueva frontera de investigación en el capítulo 4 se ofrece una reseña de los corpus de interlengua del español y del italiano existentes en la actualidad, que resulta muy útil para poder colocar a los dos corpus analizados en el panorama de las aportaciones sobre este tema. en el apartado 4.2 se enuncian los criterios de construcción y las características de estos dos corpus, que siguen la división de tono (2003) que identifica tres macro criterios básicos: 1) los criterios relacionados con la lengua, 2) los criterios relacionados con la tarea, y 3) los criterios relacionados con el aprendiente. corespi (con un total de 293 textos) y corite (con un total de 257 textos) han sido recopilados analizando, durante siete meses, la interacción de aprendientes tanto italófonos como hispanófonos en la plataforma e-tándem. el análisis se ha centrado en la producción escrita y el presente volumen reúne los primeros tres meses de interacción, con el examen de las producciones de cuatro niveles de competencia del mcer (del a1 al b2). en el apartado 4.3 se presenta la metodología utilizada y los materiales didácticos para la recolección de datos, los criterios utilizados para la confección del material didáctico estaban finalizados a promover tanto a nivel morfosintáctico como léxico-semántico un abundante uso de palabras. además, las actividades propuestas tenían una estructura libre para abatir cualquier tipo de barrera lingüístico-cognitiva y favorecer la interacción con el compañero. como muestra del trabajo emprendido la autora propone una muestra en ambas lenguas de las cuatro tipologías de escritura: 1) autorretrato, 2) describo mi región: geografía, cultura y tradiciones, 3) el carnaval: tradición y folclore en italia, y 4) recuerdos de mi infancia. el apartado 4.4 nos presenta el criterio utilizado para el análisis de los dos corpus, es decir el análisis del error, aplicando, tanto a nivel fonológico, morfosintáctico como léxicosemántico la clasificación de vázquez (1999) que permite una categorización de los errores según unos criterios que son: el lingüístico; el etiológico, el comunicativo y el pedagógico. review: la interlengua de lenguas afines e-journall 4(1) (2017), pp. 65-68 67 en los capítulos 5 y 6 se presenta un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo de la tipología de error individuada en cada nivel examinado: en el capítulo 5 se analiza la interlengua de corespi con 153 producciones escritas divididas por los cuatro niveles de competencia, y en el capítulo 6 se analiza la interlengua de corite con 137 producciones escritas divididas por los susodichos niveles de competencia mcer. las conclusiones a las que llega la autora confirman la importancia que reviste la l1 en el desarrollo de una competencia léxica; sin embargo, la l1 es también la responsable de la fosilización de unos errores. la presentación y el análisis de los resultados de la investigación de los dos corpus constituyen un estudio detallado y exhaustivo, lo cual resulta ser de gran ayuda a los investigadores interesados en el diseño de herramientas específicas para el desarrollo de una competencia lingüística en las lenguas objeto de estudio. por lo general el volumen destaca por su cohesión y por la coherencia de los temas tratados y se presenta muy completo y de gran claridad expositiva cumpliendo con su objetivo, es decir presentar “un análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo paralelo de la interlengua del español de los italianos y de la del italiano de los españoles” (p. 240). el presente volumen, además de fomentar el interés de la comunidad lingüísticocientífica hacia la visión de la il como sistema, proporciona principios y técnicas que llevan al docente a la elección de materiales y confección de tareas centradas en la explotación lingüístico-didáctica del corpus bidireccional, activando, el docente, un focus on form proactivo, es decir utilizará este corpus para trabajar anticipadamente la ocurrencia del error y su posible fosilización. referencias compagno, giuseppa & di gesù, floriana (2013). neurodidattica, lingua e apprendimenti. riflessione teorica e proposte operative. roma, italia: aracne. han, zhaohong (2009). interlanguage and fossilization: towards an analytic model. en vivian cook & li wei (eds.). contemporary applied linguistics: language teaching and learning (pp. 137-162). londres, reino unido: continuum. herrmann, ulrich (2006). neurodidaktik. grundlagen und vorschläge für gehirngerechts leheren und lernen [neurodidáctica: principios y propuestas para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje]. weinheim, alemania: beltz verlag. rivoltella, pier cesare (2012). neurodidattica, insegnare al cervello che apprende. milano, italia: raffaello cortina editore. rosati, lanfranco (2005). il metodo della didattica. l’apporto delle neuroscienze. brescia, italia: la scuola. schmid, stephan (1994). l'italiano degli spagnoli. interlingua di immigrati nella svizzera tedesca. milano, italia: franco angeli. tono, yukio. (2003). learner corpora: design, development and application. en dawn archer, paul rayson, andrew wilson, & tony mcenery (eds.). proceedings of 2003 corpus linguistics conference ucrel (pp. 800-809). lancaster, reino unido: lancaster university. http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/cl2003/ vázquez, graciela (1999). ¿errores? ¡sin falta! madrid, españa: edelsa. http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/cl2003/ di gesù 68 e-journall 4(1) (2017), pp. 65-68 floriana di gesú, università di palermo floriana.digesu@unipa.it es floriana di gesù es coordinadora del centro lingüístico de la universidad de palermo e investigadora principal de lengua y traducción española. sus líneas de investigación se enmarcan en el campo de la lengua y lingüística española y en los últimos cinco años se ha enfocado sobre todo en las neurociencias y en la neurodidáctica aplicadas al aprendizaje del español como segunda lengua. últimamente se ocupa de temas relacionados con la aplicación de la lingüística perceptiva al análisis contrastivo del español l2 y de la enacción aplicada a la didáctica del español. en floriana di gesù is coordinator of the language center of the university of palermo and researcher in spanish language and translation. her research lines concern spanish language and linguistics. over the past five years, di gesú has focused on analyzing the contribution of neuroscience and, in particular, neuroeducation to this discipline. lately she addresses issues relating to the application of perceptual linguistics to contrastive analysis of spanish as an l2 and of enactivism applied to the acquisition of spanish. it floriana di gesù è coordinatrice del centro linguistico di ateneo (cla) dell'università di palermo e ricercatrice di lingua e traduzione spagnola. le sue linee di ricerca s’inquadrano nel campo della lingua le linguistica spagnola; nel corso degli ultimi cinque anni si è focalizzata sulla neuroscienza e la neurodidattica applicate all’apprendimento dello spagnolo come l2. ultimamente si occupa di temi relativi all’applicazione della linguistica percettiva all’analisi contrastivo dello spagnolo come l2 e della teoria della enazione applicata alla didattica dello spagnolo. microsoft word e-j001-014_balboni_2014 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 1, issue 1, november 2014, pages 1-14 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2014. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivs 3.0 unported license. 1 contatto: balboni@unive.it etica nell’approccio, nel metodo, nelle azioni dell’educazione linguistica paolo e. balboni1 università ca’ foscari di venezia received 14 february 2014; received in revised form 6 may 2014; accepted 22 july 2014 abstract it il saggio si interroga sulla possibilità di definire ciò che è bene, e quindi eticamente sostenibile, nell’educazione linguistica. ovvero, vaglia su quali dimensioni e con quali modalità si debba procedere per una valutazione etica dell’approccio, il metodo e la pratica dell’insegnamento/apprendimento delle lingue. tale valutazione passerà attraverso la disamina di quel settore di studi che in italia prende il nome, con sfumature e riferimenti spesso profondamente diversi, di educazione linguistica. identificare una chiara definizione di questo ambito interdisciplinare di ricerca e del concetto stesso di educazione linguistica, dei suoi elementi cardine e dei suoi specifici oggetti di studio sembra essere un’operazione necessaria e un presupposto indispensabile per una riflessione etica sulle azioni dell’educazione linguistica anche in termini di sostenibilità del sistema glottodidattica. parole-chiave: educazione linguistica, glottodidattica, etica dell’insegnamento, competenza comunicativa. en this paper explores the possibility of defining what is good and thus ethically sustainable in language instruction. that is, it analyzes to what extent and how one would engage in an ethical evaluation of approaches, methods, and practices of teaching and learning languages. this evaluation is carried out via the field of study known in italy--albeit with nuances and meanings that are at times very different--as educazione linguistica, roughly “language instruction.” to undertake an ethical reflection on the actions of language instruction and the sustainability of systems of language teaching methodology, it is first necessary to clearly define language instruction as an interdisciplinary research area and concept, and to identify its key elements and their specific objects of study. key words: language instruction, language teaching methodology, ethics of teaching, communicative competence. es este ensayo plantea la posibilidad de definir lo que es bueno –y, por tanto, éticamente sostenible– en la educación lingüística. esto es, analiza en qué medida y de qué forma habría que actuar para una evaluación ética del planteamiento, del método y la práctica de la enseñanza/aprendizaje de idiomas. dicha evaluación se examinará por aquel campo de estudios que en italia se denomina, con matices y referencias a veces muy diferentes, educación lingüística. la identificación de una definición clara de este ámbito de investigación interdisciplinario y del mismo concepto de educación lingüística, así como de sus elementos clave y de sus objetos de estudio específicos, parece que es una operación necesaria y un requisito imprescindible para una reflexión ética acerca de las acciones de la educación lingüística, incluso en términos de sostenibilidad del sistema glotodidáctica. palabras clave: educación lingüística, glotodidáctica, ética de la enseñanza, competencia comunicativa. balboni e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 2 la morale non complexe obéit à un code binaire bien/mal, juste/injuste. l'éthique complexe conçoit que le bien puisse contenir un mal, le mal un bien, le juste de l'injuste, l'injuste du juste. edgar morin (2004, p. 60) 1. perché una riflessione etica la risposta alla domanda posta nel titoletto può essere trovata, per non sconfinare nell’ovvietà, solo focalizzando i singoli elementi che compaiono nel processo dell’educazione linguistica, chiedendoci per ciascuno di essi cosa significhi operare avendo come fine il ‘bene’ – in cui ‘bene’ significa valorizzare e non mettere in ombra il ruolo e la natura di ciascuno dei singoli elementi, cogliendone e non riducendone la complessità, analizzandolo in sé ma anche in relazione agli altri elementi del sistema. per far questa operazione dobbiamo effettuare alcuni passi: − definire l’oggetto, l’educazione linguistica: concetto apparentemente chiaro, ma interpretato in modi assai diversi nelle tradizioni nazionali, da un lato, e anche su base diacronica, a seconda dell’età e quindi dell’esperienza in cui è maturato ciascuno studioso che la definisce; − individuare gli elementi cardine sia di un progetto di educazione, in generale, sia dell’oggetto specifico di questa educazione, la competenza comunicativa che va perfezionata nelle lingue materne o comunque possedute oltre il livello soglia, o va sviluppata nelle lingue non native; − definire l’organizzazione della conoscenza e dell’azione nell’educazione linguistica; − per ciascuno di questi aspetti cercare di delineare un approccio eticamente sostenibile – nel senso di sua sostenibilità in termini logici, strutturali, non potendo noi fare riferimenti a sistemi etici ripresi da filosofie o da religioni, se non per quanto attiene al principio per cui l’uomo è il fine dell’azione e dei processi, non è l’oggetto o lo strumento degli stessi. sono questi i contenuti che descriveremo nei singoli paragrafi di questo saggio, che è un’evoluzione della parte conclusiva del nostro volume di epistemologia della glottodidattica, la scienza che studia l’educazione linguistica (balboni, 2011). ricordiamo comunque che la riflessione sull’etica – cioè la dimensione che aristotele definisce ‘pratica’ – non è nuova in ambito educativo e in glottodidattica: le scuole religiose cristiane, ebraiche e islamiche, ad esempio, hanno sempre fatto riferimento ad un’etica derivata da testi sacri o dagli scritti di profeti o di vari tipi di ‘padri della chiesa’; le scuole di regime, dalla scuola fascista di bottai alla scuola sovietica, rimandano a un preteso stato ‘etico’ che definisce ciò che è buono e cattivo sulla base di riflessioni di una data filosofia politica. il pedagogista damiano (2007) ha fortemente criticato questa ‘etica applicata’ elaborata all’esterno dell’ambito educativo, cioè in un contesto di pensiero religioso o politico, e poi applicata all’educazione, ed ha proposto invece una riflessione che nasce all’interno dell’agire didattico e mira ad un’etica della responsabilità – ma siamo in un alveo che la riflessione glottodidattica ha tracciato ben dieci anni prima ad opera di shoamy (1997) in gran bretagna e puren (1994) e galisson e puren (1998) in francia, quando questi studiosi hanno richiamato – indipendentemente l’uno dall’altro – alla necessità di contribuire a far nascere quello che davies (2008) chiamerà ambiente etico, la cui caratteristica è quella di non considerare isolatamente le singole scelte e le singole azioni per analizzarne la qualità etica, ma di avere una visione completa dell’intero processo educativo e glottodidattico, inteso come un systéme où tout se tient in una prospettiva di ‘ecologia’ educativa. shoamy affronta il tema di una glottodidattica ‘ecologica’, di equilibrio, interrogandosi sull’eticità di proporre attività (per quanto ottime e giustificate) uguali per tutti gli allievi, quando questi non sono tutti uguali; puren affronta un altro aspetto ‘ecologico’, quello della coerenza metodologica delle azioni svolte dal docente che: en l'absence de cohérence méthodologique globale […] la variation maximale des modes d'enseignement et des modes d'apprentissage proposés devient une obligation morale, puisque l'on sait que le choix et la systématisation de certains modes favorisera automatiquement certains élèves et en défavorisera fatalement d'autres. (1994, p. 60) trattando i vari temi, vedremo che soprattutto quello del testing ha ricevuto buona considerazione in ordine agli aspetti etici, giungendo ad elaborare un codice etico internazionale (i.l.t.a. 2000); ci sono tuttavia anche altre organizzazioni, come la federazione delle escuelas de idiomas spagnole che si sono date codici etici stringenti (f.e.c.e.i., 2003). etica nell’educazione linguistica e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 3 questa nostra riflessione deve molto, come si vedrà nei singoli paragrafi, non solo agli autori visti sopra, ma anche a le moigne (2005), che affronta il problema in modo diacronico, prendendo le mosse soprattutto da vico e da descartes, per giungere a definire la necessità di una modellizzazione che permetta di individuare gli elementi singoli su cui interrogarsi in termini etici, pur considerando la complessità del modello; a crowley (2007), che lega l’insegnamento delle lingue in ambiente accademico all’esperienza diretta in paesi come la bolivia o il ghana, dove l’uso diretto e umanitario delle lingue offre un complemento a quello in aula trovando in questo modo una pienezza ‘etica’; a dickey, che ha curato la riflessione di tesol sulla dimensione etica, ponendosi il problema di come coniugare “the complexity and diversity of individualized ethical systems [to be] reduced to a set of rules which are adopted by professional organizations” (dickey, 2006, p. 17), complessità accentuata a dismisura dalla dimensione globale di tesol e delle sue consociate per le quali elaborare un codice etico; a forestal, che si interroga sulla dimensione etica dei grandi progetti europei di sostegno all’apprendimento linguistico, visti prevalentemente dal punto di vista pragmatico: “les enjeux d'un tel apprentissage ne sont pas seulement économiques mais existentiels, car lies au développement de la personne et à l'ouverture de la société” (forestal, 2007, p. 114); a mangubhai (2007), che apre una prospettiva di ricerca molto interessante: il modo in cui gli insegnanti (nel suo caso sei docenti di lingue in australia) si interrogano e definiscono le linee etiche del loro insegnamento, partendo da quello che effettivamente fanno in classe; a christenbury (2008), che si pone il problema della morale dell’insegnante di inglese come lingua nazionale in un contesto come quello statunitense dove molte scuole sono legate a confessioni religiose e quindi hanno un quadro morale di riferimento esterno alla riflessione pedagogica e glottodidattica autonoma. l’ultima fonte cui abbiamo fatto riferimento costante è iglesiasphilippot (2013), che riprende una dicotomia proposta da christian puren nel saggio citato sopra e la approfondisce, soprattutto in riferimento all’insegnamento delle lingue per fini speciali: si tratta della necessità di distinguere l’etica professionale dell’insegnante in quanto insegnante dall’etica insita nella disciplina, dalla sua essenza e natura alla sua articolazione, che vanno definite con un’attenzione al non tradire la disciplina stessa (ad esempio, un approccio grammaticalistico non è etico nei confronti della verità della lingua). infine, costante è il riferimento a edgar morin, di cui abbiamo citato in epigrafe una riflessione sulla complessità dell’etica moderna, ma che ha riflettuto specificamente anche sull’etica nell’educazione individuando sette linee di riflessione (complessità; consenso; diversità; conflittualità creativa; autonomia; libertà d’espressione; responsabilità dei singoli e dei gruppi), linee che hanno guidato la nostra riflessione (morin, 2000). non faremo riferimenti continui a queste fonti, ma è chiaro al lettore attento quali sono le linee che legano queste poche righe – né possiamo dedicarne di più, nell’economia del saggio – ai vari paragrafi. 2. il contesto della riflessione: l’educazione linguistica 2.1. educazione linguistica nella tradizione italiana, a partire dalla fine degli anni settanta, educazione linguistica significa il complesso delle azioni educative nell’ambito delle lingue (materna, seconda, straniera, classica, d’origine, ecc.). il principale problema nella definizione di ‘educazione linguistica’ è dato dal fatto che è un costrutto diadico e nella riflessione filosofica le diadi sono sempre ardue da afferrare: così come si presenta, l’aspetto di essenza è ‘educazione’ e l’aspetto accessorio è ‘linguistica’, ma è un’analisi che non ci convince perché stabilisce una gerarchia. cerchiamo quindi di proporre una definizione che non utilizzi le categorie della lingua (sostantivo e attributo, che indicano rispettivamente qualità essenziali ed accessorie) ma procedano secondo un’analisi fattoriale. la lingua è essenza dell’homo loquens, la lingua è lo strumento del pensiero: cogito, ergo sum, a nostro avviso, è un’abbreviazione di loquor, ergo cogito, ergo sum. la catena causale è doppia, ed il nodo principale è nel primo ergo, non nel secondo. il loquor è il prodotto di una facoltà geneticamente presente nella specie umana: alcune della facoltà umane emergono spontaneamente (ad esempio quella riproduttiva, fondamentale per la conservazione della specie), altre procedono per imitazione (la letteratura sui ‘bambini lupo’ mostra che la stazione eretta non si sviluppa nei bambini che crescono tra quadrupedi), altre ancora hanno bisogno di una forte interazione sociale che ha una funzione insieme di esempio e di stimolo. è il caso della facoltà di linguaggio. balboni e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 4 per definire educazione linguistica bisogna risalire all’etimo e ducere, cioè guida fuori, cioè rendere attuale quel che è potenziale; e quel che è in potenza è quella facoltà di linguaggio che caratterizza l’essere umano, l’homo loquens. tale facoltà di acquisizione del linguaggio si può realizzare per tutta la vita e per un numero crescente di lingue, possedute secondo gradi diversificati di competenza socio-pragmatica, accuratezza formale, ecc. l’acquisizione può essere spontanea o guidata: noi ci interessiamo del secondo aspetto, quello in cui c’è qualcuno che guida l’acquisizione e che quindi compie azioni, opera scelte – che hanno anche una dimensione etica. per analizzare i portati etici è necessario vedere quali elementi sono attivi e coinvolti nel processo di educazione linguistica (per un approfondimento epistemologico, si veda balboni, 2011). 2.2. un modello delle relazioni nell’educazione linguistica in termini grafici la relazione tra i tre componenti dell’azione didattica può essere presentata in questo modo: figura 1. modello delle relazioni nell’educazione linguistica. il diagramma colloca l’insegnante, sulle cui azioni stiamo riflettendo, su un piano diverso e con una relazione diversa da quella che intercorre tra il soggetto che studia e l’oggetto studiato: l’insegnante sta sul(lo s)fondo, aiuta gli altri due poli – che hanno una canale privilegiato, indicato dalla freccia evidenziata – a mettersi in relazione, ma lo fa in una maniera discreta, da ‘regista’, ‘facilitatore’, ‘tutor’, simboleggiata graficamente dalla freccia tratteggiata. il docente quindi è un veicolo e un gestore di informazioni da un polo all’altro, dove ‘lingua’ rimanda all’intero complesso della comunicazione, verbale e non, che rientra nella competenza comunicativa, nonché la dimensione culturale che la contestualizza; e ‘studente’ indica sia il singolo studente quanto il gruppo e la classe; in questa logica ‘docente’ può essere il sistema formativo, chi predispone materiali didattici, le glottotecnologie disponibili oltre che, ovviamente, l’insegnante persona fisica o il tutor nei corsi virtuali. per agire, il docente deve elaborare una filosofia dell’educazione linguistica, l’approccio, e tradurla in indicazioni operative relative alla lingua materna, seconda, straniera, classica, a seconda del livello e della natura degli studenti, della loro età, ecc., cioè proporre un metodo (sulla natura di approccio e metodo si veda l’articolo che pose i termini, anthony, 1963). 3. la dimensione etica dell’approccio abbiamo detto che l’approccio è la filosofia, l’idea di fondo dell’educazione linguistica, e cioè l’idea dell’oggetto, dello studente e del docente, stando al grafico visto sopra. 3.1 l’oggetto dell’educazione linguistica sopra, nel grafico, abbiamo scritto ‘lingua’, e la cosa è corretta per quanto riguarda la lingua o le lingue materne e i livelli intermedi e avanzati delle lingue seconde, cioè studiate nel paese in cui sono parlate; per le lingue straniere e classiche la focalizzazione sulla sola lingua impedisce di raggiungere la competenza comunicativa, cioè la capacità di interagire con parlanti nativi, nelle lingue moderne, e di comprendere i testi pervenutici, nelle lingue classiche: i francesi, ad esempio, definiscono la scienza dell’educazione linguistica come didactologie des langues/cultures. l’inglese lingua franca pone un ulteriore problema, quello di una lingua deculturalizzata, usata da persone di culture diverse con tutti i problemi connessi alla comunicazione interculturale, problemi che non vengono risolti dalla padronanza di uno strumento linguistico comune, l’inglese. l’insegnamento linguistico che si limita alla lingua e trascura la cultura e soprattutto la civiltà (il complesso di valori che costituisce l’identità di un popolo) è eticamente giustificato o, al contrario, depriva il destinatario, lo studente, di conoscenze essenziali, illudendolo di possedere una competenza che non ha? etica nell’educazione linguistica e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 5 è eticamente sostenibile l’insegnamento delle lingue straniere che riduce la cultura alle sue dimensioni materiali, quotidiane, utili per la comunicazione spicciola, ma non approfondisce, anche in termini comparativi con la cultura materna, la civiltà del popolo che parla quella lingua, cioè i suoi valori, le proposizioni che costituiscono l’identità, il modo di valutare le cose, le persone, le relazioni interpersonali, sociali, politiche, economiche, religiose, etniche? (in questo saggio poniamo domande cui ogni lettore risponde secondo le sue concezioni di ciò che è vero e bene, ma non possiamo esimerci dall’indicare, sebbene tra parentesi, la nostra posizione. secondo me non esiste un corso solo di lingua, in quanto anche il corso base per turisti richiede una dimensione culturale – ma questo caso è di mera istruzione linguistica, strumentale a uno scopo immediato; in una logica di educazione linguistica, la sola dimensione lingua + cultura quotidiana non è accettabile, perché la lingua è il distillato di una civiltà, di un modo di concepire il mondo, la vita, le persone). 3.2 il soggetto dell’educazione linguistica che idea si ha dello studente? è un vaso vuoto da riempire, come nella tradizione più remota in apparenza ma più presente nella realtà quotidiana delle classi, o è una persona con una sua idea di sé, un progetto di vita, delle motivazioni specifiche per voler (o non voler) imparare una lingua? è una monade isolata, che si rapporta solo con il docente e con la disciplina studiata, oppure va considerato come un centro di relazioni tra pari, in classe, ma anche attore in un mondo extrascolastico, dalla famiglia agli amici e ai social network, con i quali deve o vuole o può usare la lingua (materna, seconda, straniera)? proviamo a dare una risposta. abbiamo detto, sopra, che lo studente è una ‘persona’: ciò significa, riprendendo l’ormai consolidata visione della glottodidattica umanistica, pensare ad un soggetto con due possibili modalità di percezione del mondo, olistica e analitica, top down o bottom up; con stili cognitivi e strategie di apprendimento diversi da quelli di molti suoi compagni, con combinazioni differenziate dei sette (o nove) tipi di intelligenza, con tratti della personalità differenziati: è eticamente sostenibile ridurre questa infinita complessità al ruolo di ‘studente della lingua x’ o dobbiamo pensare ad almeno due macro-percorsi di approccio alla lingua/cultura, un approccio che privilegia la visione globale, olistica, multisensoriale, intuitiva di una parte degli studenti, e un approccio che valorizza la propensione all’analisi, alla precisione, alla sistematizzazione che caratterizza l’altra parte degli studenti? (la nostra posizione è che una didattica che non consideri almeno l’opposizione tra personalità olistiche e analitiche, induttive e deduttive, estroverse ed introverse non rispetta la verità della natura delle persone e non cerca il bene di coloro che, nelle diadi sopra, vengono trascurate). una volta operata la scelta tra approccio monoo pluri-dimensionale alla lingua, lo studente può essere visto in due modi, e la scelta su questo piano è eticamente importante: riprendendo morin, citato sopra, può essere considerato o come titolare di autonomia (da sviluppare fortemente qualora non la sappia usare responsabilmente) nel processo di apprendimento e nella relazione con gli altri poli dell’interazione, la lingua/cultura e il sistema di supporto, o come individuo in formazione e quindi incompleto, da ‘formare’, da ‘guidare’, da ‘raddrizzare’, da ‘punire’ nei casi di sua resistenza all’idea che l’insegnante ha di lui. (anche qui la nostra posizione è quella che vede – e quindi compie azioni didattiche che realizzano questa visione – lo studente come persona autonoma e responsabile inserita in un sistema di relazioni sociali). 3.3 il regista dell’educazione linguistica l’insegnante è la figura di supporto all’intero schema grafico visto sopra, colui che evita che si inclini troppo da un lato focalizzando la lingua/cultura e le sue regole, le sue proprietà, le sue convenzioni, o dall’altro lato consentendo allo studente di impadronirsi della lingua, usandola sciattamente, commettendo errori che vanno accettati purché si comunichi, e così via. è un sacerdote che trasmette il testo sacro – il manuale di grammatica, la storia letteraria, le informazioni di cultura e civiltà – o una guida che conduce i suoi studenti nei meandri della lingua/cultura? la risposta è eticamente gravosa. è un giudice che conosce le regole e sanziona gli errori o è un facilitatore che sa che sbagliando si impara e quindi gestisce l’errore per farne il perno di una nuova scoperta? la risposta è eticamente fondamentale. è prim’attore che domina la scena, unico e pieno titolare della conoscenza, o è regista di una commedia in cui lentamente gli attori imparano la parte e ne colgono il senso? anche questa risposta, come le balboni e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 6 precedenti, ha un profondo risvolto etico (e in tutti i casi la nostra scelta è per la seconda opzione offerta in ciascuna delle domande). a livello di approccio, quindi di scelte di fondo, chi opera nell’educazione linguistica – dall’estensore di programmi e curricoli all’autore dei materiali didattici, dal progettista di software glottodidattico all’insegnante che sceglie materiali, software, handout, metodologie per i suoi studenti – compie delle scelte in nome della sua idea di verità (è ‘vero’ che sapere una lingua significa x, y, z?; è ‘vero’ che gli esseri umani, e quindi anche gli studenti, hanno le caratteristiche x, y, z?) e di quello che è bene per i due fattori dell’apprendimento collocati in alto nel diagramma, fattori tra i quali garantisce l’equilibrio. queste scelte di ‘verità’ e di ‘bene’ costituiscono quello che chiamiamo ‘etica nell’approccio glottodidattico’. 4. la dimensione etica nel metodo il metodo nulla ha a che fare con le varie metodologie glottodidattiche, dal clil ai vari cosiddetti ‘approcci’ piovuti dalla gran bretagna (task based, problem solving, peer to peer, focus on form, ecc.); il metodo è la realizzazione operativa di un approccio in uno dei vari contesti dell’educazione linguistica: lingua 1, lingua seconda, straniera, classica; lingua per bambini, adolescenti, giovani, adulti; lingua generale, microlingua disciplinare, scientifica, professionale, letteraria. il metodo si occupa della progettazione curricolare, della realizzazione di manuali e di materiali didattici, dell’impianto globale di un corso di lingua in una data realtà, delle indicazioni operative all’insegnante per la gestione dell’input, della classe, ecc. 4.1. etica e curriculum design e nella progettazione di manuali di lingua 4.1.1. la definizione delle finalità generali dell’educazione linguistica nel curriculum design, ma anche agli altri livelli ‘inferiori’ che abbiamo indicato sopra, uno dei punti eticamente sensibili è l’equilibrio tra le tre mete generali dell’educazione linguistica, che nel nostro volume del 2011 abbiamo sintetizzato e che ripresentiamo qui nella tabella 1, in cui le finalità alte dell’educazione linguistica scaturiscono dalle tre relazioni base degli esseri umani: tabella 1 definizione delle finalità generali dell’educazione linguistica. relazioni di ogni persona ne deriva una finalità educativa: ne deriva un’educazione linguistica che consenta alla persona di: io e il mondo, gli ‘altri’ culturizzazione essere accettata nel proprio gruppo (inculturazione) e in altri gruppi dove vuole/deve vivere (acculturazione) io e i vari ‘tu’ con cui convivo, collaboro e consento socializzazione stabilire rapporti e perseguire i suoi fini e senza problemi linguisticocomunicativi io con me stesso/a autopromozione, realizzare il progetto di sé, ma anche ri-progettarsi in una logica dinamica di ‘muovere in avanti’ mirare all’autopromozione, a realizzare il suo progetto di vita, senza che la lingua (nativa, nel suo ambiente; non nativa in altri contesti) costituisca un ostacolo lo schema si legge in questo modo: un’educazione linguistica è etica se garantisce livelli di competenza comunicativa (ovviamente diversi tra l1 e lingue non native) adeguati a permettere la culturizzazione, la socializzazione, l’autopromozione di una persona nella sua cultura e nelle altre culture in cui sceglierà di vivere. le conseguenze operative di un’etica glottodidattica basata sui tre assi relazionali umani, quindi con livelli di complessità ben maggiori del mero perseguimento della socializzazione proprio dell’approccio comunicativo, sono enormi e possono portare a considerazioni e valutazioni dirompenti come ad esempio: − se la culturizzazione è una meta essenziale, allora un insegnamento della lingua, soprattutto non nativa, che trascuri la dimensione culturale non risulta eticamente accettabile; etica nell’educazione linguistica e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 7 − se la socializzazione è essenziale, allora tutti gli approcci che mirano alla conoscenza sulla lingua e non anche all’uso della lingua non rispondono al requisito etico; − l’insegnamento della seconda lingua straniera solo nella scuola media e solo per due ore settimanali, come previsto nella scuola italiana, non permette la socializzazione e quindi è un atto non-etico che inganna sia l’ue (che chiede lo sviluppo della competenza comunicativa in almeno due lingue) e le famiglie, gli studenti, il ‘popolo’ italiano; − se l’autopromozione è una meta qualificante, allora un’educazione linguistica che non insegni ad imparare, che non sviluppi l’autonomia, che non dia strumenti di lifelong learning è non-etica. crediamo che queste tre linee, che nascono da un modello elementare delle relazioni stabilite da ogni persona ma esplodono poi in una visione complessissima dell’educazione linguistica, possano costituire una prima base per definire un’etica generale dell’educazione linguistica, che si sviluppa sulle tre dimensioni relazionali equilibratamente (è la parola chiave, quella che traduce nei nostri termini il “giusto mezzo” del libro iv dell’etica nicomachea). 4.1.2. la definizione degli obiettivi specifici dell’educazione linguistica passiamo ad un secondo aspetto tra quelli citati come ambiti pertinenti al ‘metodo’: la progettazione di materiali e di corsi. progettare (verbo che indica un’azione, quindi rientra nell’ambito dell’etica) secondo verità (sostantivo che rimanda alla dimensione epistemologica accennata nella definizione di educazione linguistica, ma più approfondita in balboni 2011) significa elaborare o adottare un modello di competenza comunicativa e svilupparne equilibratamente tutte le componenti, pur tarandole sui vari livelli di apprendimento. la nozione proposta da hymes oltre quarant’anni fa (1972) è stata discussa in profondità per un decennio, sia nel mondo che in italia, e in seguito essa si è assestata nella prospettiva operativa del quadro comune europeo, perdendo la sua dimensione di modello teorico – e come ogni modello di tentativo di definire la verità di un oggetto o di un fenomeno. abbiamo dedicato molta attenzione al tema (rimandiamo al nostro volume del 2011) giungendo a un diagramma che sintetizza la struttura dell’educazione linguistica: lo schema si legge come segue: la competenza comunicativa è una realtà mentale; nel mondo essa si traduce in performance all’interno di eventi comunicativi; il processo di realizzazione nel mondo delle competenze mentali è costituito dalle abilità linguistiche: comprensione, produzione, traduzione, riassunto, ecc. nella mente ci sono tre nuclei di competenze: la competenza linguistica, che è insieme semantica, articolatoria, formale (morfosintassi e testualità); le competenze extralinguistiche, espressioni e gesti del corpo (competenza cinesica), distanza interpersonale (competenza prossemica), oggetti (oggettemica) e del vestiario (vestemica); competenze contestuali, cioè quella sociolinguistica, quella pragmalinguistica e quella (inter)culturale. secondo questo modello, qui solamente accennato, non è etico un corso di lingua che non si ponga il problema di quale ruolo e quale priorità assegnare alle varie sottocompetenze: ad esempio, quale equilibrio si mente mondo capacità di agire socialmente con la lingua competenza linguistica competenze extralinguistiche competenze sociopragmatica e (inter)culturale figura 2. la competenza comunicativa. padronanza delle abilità, capacità di ‘fare’ lingua balboni e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 8 propone tra lessico e morfosintassi, quale equilibrio stabilire tra input in varietà standard e regionali, quali tipi e generi testuali privilegiare, se se ne privilegiano alcuni, e così via. e non è eticamente sostenibile un corso di lingue che trascuri le competenze extralinguistiche, dalla gestualità alla distanza interpersonale, dal valore comunicativo di regali, di fiori, ecc., al concetto di vestiario formale o casual. la tecnologia video e le immense potenzialità di internet hanno tolto ogni giustificazione ai curriculum designer che trascurano quella rilevantissima parte della comunicazione che avviene attraverso linguaggi non verbali, che costituiscono tra l’altro l’unica alternativa alla lingua verbale quando non si conosce una parola in lingua straniera. né è possibile ritenere eticamente valido un progetto didattico, un curricolo, un manuale in cui non si giustifichino le scelte in ordine a: − quali abilità introdurre a ogni livello di età e di competenza; − le varianti delle singole abilità: se consideriamo ad esempio l’abilità di traduzione, si può tradurre dalla o alla lingua straniera, da una varietà antica a quella d’oggi, con o senza strumenti di consultazione, con fini strumentali o con fini estetici: ogni livello scolastico, ogni livello di competenza richiede un tipo diverso di traduzione, nel momento in cui questa abilità venga inserita; − la relazione da porre tra la doppia natura di ogni abilità: la dimensione cognitiva che sottostà al comprendere, allo scrivere, al tradurre e così via, e l’abilità operativa dimostrata dal fatto di comprendere, scrivere o tradurre quel testo in quella lingua. l’educazione linguistica che mira solo alla socializzazione lavora sulle abilità in senso operativo, ma se vuole contribuire all’autopromozione della persona deve sviluppare anche le abilità in senso cognitivo; spesso l’approccio comunicativo ridotto a comunicativismo spicciolo ha lavorato e lavora solo sulle prime, con buona pace di tutte le alate parole sul lifelong learning, che si basa sulla padronanza dei meccanismi cognitivi e quindi universali sottostanti a ogni abilità. 4.2. etica nella dimensione operativa dell’insegnamento linguistico la serie di scelte, cioè di atti eticamente sensibili, che abbiamo visto nel paragrafo precedente riguarda solo una delle componenti dell’educazione linguistica, cioè la dimensione linguistica, che nel grafico visto nel secondo paragrafo deve essere equilibrata con l’altra componente, lo studente – il suo cervello, la sua mente, le sue relazioni, motivazioni, strategie cognitive e apprenditive. in questo ambito ci sono scelte di ordine: a. neurolinguistico: è eticamente significativo decidere se seguire o non il modello gestaltico (globalità → analisi → sintesi), quindi decidere di impostare le attività di un manuale in modo da abituare ad una lettura prima globale e poi analitica, sconsigliando l’uso del dizionario o la richiesta di spiegazioni alla prima parola ignota che si incontra (a nostro parere la verità è quella gestaltica, quindi metodologie che muovono dalla riflessione grammaticale, che è una sintesi, sono eticamente insostenibili, indipendentemente dal tipo di intelligenza preferito da una persona nell’accezione di gardner, 1983); è eticamente significativo decidere che ruolo attribuire alla ripetizione, sapendo che giova alla memorizzazione perché attiva i neuroni specchio, quindi aiuta il polo ‘lingua’, ma è rischiosa sul piano motivazionale, intervenendo sul polo ‘studente’ (morosin, 2007; mezzadri, 2014) (a nostro parere, dato che l’attività di rehearsal è necessaria per fissare le strutture, allora si deve agire in modo da coinvolgere lo studente nello sviluppo di una sua autonomia responsabile, chiedendo il suo consenso – in corsivo tre dei principi di morin citati in apertura – in modo che la ripetizione non produca demotivazione); b. psicolinguistico: la linguistica acquisizionale mostra che l’acquisizione procede attraverso sequenze precise: è eticamente significativo rispettarle, o almeno cercare di farlo (in effetti in alcuni casi non è possibile, ad esempio nei testi narrativi, visto che i passati perfetti ed imperfetti sono sempre compresenti), mentre è eticamente inaccettabile quello che emerge anche da una rapida scorsa alle sequenze proposte dalla maggior parte dei manuali di lingua: l’ormai ampia e consolidata letteratura sull’ordine naturale di acquisizione non è tenuta in conto. le sequenze sono quelle della tradizione glottodidattica, quando va bene, e talvolta si ha l’impressione che siano solo quelle dell’ispirazione dell’autore del manuale (quadri di riferimento italiani recenti possono essere rastelli, 2009, e bosisio, 2012); etica nell’educazione linguistica e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 9 c. psico-relazionale: è eticamente significativo scegliere di condurre la riflessione grammaticale (o culturale, o lessicale, o letteraria ecc.) secondo procedure costruttivistiche, che fanno lavorare insieme gli studenti nello sforzo di costruire senso e conoscenza ma richiedono tempo e fatica nella gestione della classe, oppure scegliere di insegnare la grammatica o il lessico o la cultura o la letteratura ecc. secondo la tradizione trasmissiva, che certamente fa risparmiare tempo e perché parte dallo schema preconfezionato ma che altrettanto certamente non abitua al lavoro interattivo, alla (co-)costruzione faticosa della conoscenza (la nostra opinione è favorevole alla prima opzione). d. psico-didattico: è eticamente significativo decidere se attribuire, o no, un ruolo alla considerazione delle diverse forme di intelligenza (gardner, 1983; per un’applicazione glottodidattica, torresan, 2008), dei diversi stili cognitivi, delle diverse strategie d’apprendimento compresenti in classe: un manuale o uno stile di insegnamento analitici escludono o limitano la partecipazione di quella metà degli studenti che è di natura olistica, globale – e viceversa. privilegiare uno o alcuni dei sette tipi di intelligenza ipotizzati da gardner è un atto eticamente significativo e quindi non può essere il risultato di una scelta casuale, che di solito vuol dire privilegiare gli stili cognitivi, le strategie d’apprendimento, i tipi di intelligenza degli studenti simili in questo al docente; e. motivazionale: è eticamente significativo scegliere di impostare il proprio corso su una motivazione basata sul valore pragmatico, utilitaristico dell’inglese, svilendo in tal modo l’interesse degli studenti per le altre lingue, la cui motivazione deve essere basata sulla curiosità, l’interesse, la passione (caon 2006, 2010); scegliere di puntare sulla motivazione utilitaristica significa esaltare la socializzazione, ma significa anche ridurre l’autopromozione alla dimensione lavorativa e abbassare la culturizzazione al livello della semplice cultura quotidiana, togliendole il potenziale dirompente del raffronto tra la propria cultura d’origine e tutte le altre culture e civiltà; f. metodologico-didattico: è eticamente significativo, infine, l’atto di scegliere le tecniche didattiche, le attività, gli esercizi, le forme di verifica e i criteri di valutazione: pur essendo neutre in sé, le tecniche didattiche devono essere omogenee rispetto alle scelte viste nei punti precedenti: è evidente che non si può mirare ad un approccio comunicativo e poi scegliere una traduzione per verificarlo, ma al di fuori di scelte evidenti come queste ci sono molti esempi nei manuali e nella didattica quotidiana di incongruenza tra le dichiarazioni di principio e le realizzazioni operative, le tecniche didattiche utilizzate in aula. uno dei temi in cui le responsabilità di insegnante e studente si intersecano è quello della facilitazione – e ricordiamo che fin dagli anni settanta l’idea di insegnante come facilitatore dell’apprendimento linguistico è stata uno dei cardini della rivoluzione glottodidattica. la facilitazione ha come agente l’insegnante ma coinvolge lo studente in quanto responsabile del suo percorso di studio – responsabilità che la facilitazione, a seconda di come è condotta, può rafforzare o minare. l’atto di ‘facilitare’, infatti, può essere svolto in maniera da rafforzare lo studente, cioè da renderlo autonomo e più efficiente nell’apprendimento (ad esempio, rallentando il ritmo, dando suggerimenti, ma sempre lasciando che sia lui a compiere il percorso cognitivo), da viziare lo studente, dandogli l’illusione che imparare non richieda impegno e, sovente, fatica, o da illudere lo studente di stare imparando quando invece i buoni voti dipendono solo dalla manica larga del facilitatore, o da dare l’illusione che quella che sta imparando è la lingua autentica e non solo una sua versione semplificata per facilitarlo (caon, 2010). in realtà la parola facile è alquanto ambigua: l’insegnante sa quel che è facile per sé, ma non è necessariamente vero che quel che è facile per sé lo sia per gli studenti; quindi una prima condizione perché la facilitazione sia vera è che l’insegnante si decentri, esca da sé, con uno sforzo che rientra nella dimensione etica della professione docente. per il resto le responsabilità ricadono sullo studente, che deve affrontare alcune difficoltà oggettive (il sistema degli articoli in tedesco è oggettivamente più difficile che quello italiano, per la presenza della categoria ‘neutro’ che non è presente nelle lingue romanze; sul concetto di difficoltà/facilità si veda il nostro contributo in caon 2010) e soggettive (una lingua basata sui casi, come il latino o il greco, è più facile per uno studente slavo o tedesco che non per uno di lingua neolatina): la discriminante etica nell’atto di richiesta di sostegno da parte dello studente corre lungo la linea di demarcazione tra la consapevolezza della propria balboni e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 10 incapacità nel superare quel dato ostacolo e la semplice pigrizia; la responsabilità educativa dell’insegnante sta nel far scoprire allo studente, spesso inconsapevole, da quale parte della linea di demarcazione è partita la sua richiesta di aiuto. 4.3. problemi etici nella verifica, valutazione e certificazione la international language testing association si è data un codice etico in tema di verifica e valutazione (i.l.t.a., 2000); quindici anni fa, in tre saggi fondamentali, davies (1997), shoamy (1997) e hamplyons (1998) hanno posto interrogativi essenziali sulla dimensione etica del language testing – settore nel quale è intervenuta in italia monica barni (2010). il tema comune sottostante ai tre saggi è che nel momento in cui si procede alla verifica (cioè la raccolta di dati) e alla valutazione (l’espressione di un giudizio su quei dati) emergono non solo le competenze dello studente ma anche la coerenza o le discrepanze tra approcci e metodi, tra dichiarazioni e prassi. quando poi, come nelle lingue seconde e straniere, la valutazione deve tradursi in una certificazione ufficiale, i problemi etici si ingigantiscono. vediamo separatamente i vari punti. 4.3.1. la verifica e la valutazione come abbiamo visto nel grafico della competenza comunicativa che abbiamo riportato sopra, la competenza è nella mente, spazio che neppure a uno psicologo professionista è pienamente accessibile, mentre la performance è nel mondo, soggetta a tutte le alee e gli incidenti possibili, all’ansia, alla paura di perdere la faccia – a tutto quello che krashen ha reso popolare con l’espressione filtro affettivo. la verifica avviene nel mondo (nell’aula, di fronte alla classe, nella verifica orale, in un test su carta o su computer per lo scritto) e pertanto è passibile di tutti i disturbi accennati sopra. ne consegue che credere che il prodotto di una verifica sia equivalente alla competenza è errato, perché la verifica mostra una versione parziale e spesso distorta della reale competenza. se questo errore si tramuta in giudizio che ha effetti sulla vita della persona siamo di fronte a un atto eticamente problematico: non è necessario richiamare l’abbondante letteratura sul tema per sostenere questa nostra affermazione, tant’è evidente in sé. ciò non significa affatto rinunciare alla verifica in quanto sia il docente sia lo studente devono sapere se e come sta avvenendo l’acquisizione; la considerazione sulla parzialità della verifica significa però essere consapevoli che a. i risultati sono indicativi, approssimativi, quindi da considerare come tali e non da proporre agli studenti come pienamente attendibili; b. la valutazione non è meccanica, come invece lo è la verifica: la valutazione, cioè il giudizio sulla verifica espresso in parole, lettere, numeri o anche in un testo articolato, per iscritto o a voce in un colloquio tra insegnante e studente, riguarda una persona, con tutte le sue variabili di autostima, relazionalità, dominanza emisferica olistica o analitica, stili cognitivi e d’apprendimento, e così via: quindi, come tutte le azioni che riguardano le persone, anche la valutazione va condotta mediando tra l’autenticità dei dati offerti dalla verifica e l’autenticità della persona. ad esempio, se un test dà come risultato di uno studente due terzi di risposte corrette e un terzo di devianze, in una persona molto emotiva e ansiosa questo terzo avrà un peso diverso rispetto alla stessa performance da parte di uno studente bilingue per ragioni familiari, in cui gli errori sono segno di superficialità e sciatteria; tenere in conto la persona significa anche studiarne l’evoluzione: due terzi di risposte corrette da uno studente che mesi prima dava solo il 50% di risposte positive è un successo da incoraggiare, presenta un dato longitudinale da evidenziare nella valutazione; un terzo di risposte errate da uno studente che, come dicono gli insegnanti, “è sempre andato bene”, porta ad una valutazione diametralmente opposta. un approccio etico alla valutazione non deve mirare quindi solo a rispettare la verità dei dati che emergono da una verifica, ma anche la verità della psiche, dell’anima direbbe platone, della personalità dello studente verificato e successivamente valutato. quando la valutazione si traduce poi in decisioni di carattere sociale, come la promozione o bocciatura, che incidono pesantemente nella vita delle persone, la dimensione etica diviene ancora più cogente: etica nell’educazione linguistica e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 11 c. nella fase evolutiva, fino alla preadolescenza, è discutibile applicare rigidamente parametri di merito, di successo operativo, di performance, a personalità in sviluppo con tempi e percorsi diversi: sia la promozione sia la bocciatura, in questo contesto, devono essere educative, mirare cioè all’autopromozione della persona, per riprendere un concetto proposto sopra: alcuni studenti ‘tirano fuori’ (e ducunt) il meglio di sé di fronte a un richiamo forte come una bocciatura o un giudizio negativo a fine quadrimestre, altri vengono distrutti irrimediabilmente; d. con adolescenti e giovani adulti, come quelli di licei e dell’università, la valutazione ha a che fare con personalità più autonome e responsabili, ma ha anche ricadute sociali: non è etico attestare la conoscenza di una lingua a una persona che la sa poco e male ma che, sulla base della nostra attestazione, proseguirà gli studi e chiederà posti di lavoro che implicano la conoscenza della lingua: la valutazione va fatta sempre di più, mano a mano che cresce l’età, sulla base dell’immagine (che, come detto sopra, non è perfetta) che il docente riesce a farsi della competenza globale di uno studente. 4.3.1. la certificazione quanto detto sopra si applica anche alla certificazione linguistica: il messaggio che danno (e che vendono, con tutto il portato etico della compravendita, su cui non entriamo perché ovvio) gli enti certificatori è che il certificato è una fotografia della competenza di una persona in un dato momento, mentre al massimo possono dare un’idea di tale competenza attraverso una performance prodotta nelle peggiori condizioni di stress, fretta, ansia da prestazione, mancanza di relazioni significative con l’esaminatore, ecc. c’è però un problema etico ancor più ampio e profondo: le certificazioni stanno (consapevolmente o inconsapevolmente) consentendo il diffondersi dell’idea che esistano davvero i vari livelli a1, a2, b1 e così via, mentre questi sono, per definizione, assolutamente arbitrari per quanto necessari per attestare approssimativamente una competenza affinché venga riconosciuta nel mondo della formazione e del lavoro. abbiamo detto che i livelli non esistono in quanto tali: in realtà la competenza comunicativa è un continuum non scindibile, se non per le ragioni pratiche che conosciamo, in moduli e livelli e spezzoni. è un processo continuo, individuale, sfumato, con mille variazioni da persona a persona, ad esempio, nella padronanza della dozzina di abilità che realizzano la competenza (e di cui ne vengono ‘misurate’ solo quattro o cinque in una prova di certificazione): spezzare questo processo e categorizzare le sue componenti in a1, a2, b1 eccetera è utile e necessario, ma l’idea questi spezzoni siano veri è sbagliata. ora, il problema etico sta non tanto nell’affermazione positiva (nessun ente certificatore, nessuna ricerca afferma che i livelli siano delle realtà vere, tutti accennano al tema dell’approssimazione, della sfumatura che distingue una performance b1 da un’altra performance b1, ecc.) quanto nella scelta di non contrastare l’idea errata, nel lasciare che si diffonda un’opinione popolare che considera i livelli come veri. drammatico, sul piano etico ma anche semplicemente glottodidattico, è infine un risultato ormai evidente ovunque del diffondersi delle certificazioni: dato un setaccio che definisce i livelli, ne consegue che i manuali, i corsi, le attività dei docenti sono finalizzati non più alla crescita armoniosa della competenza comunicativa, alla socializzazione, culturizzazione e autorealizzazione della persona: sono finalizzati al test di certificazione. per cui se nella certificazione non viene valutata la competenza interculturale e la riflessione sulla civiltà straniera (ma solo, se va bene, quella sulla cultura quotidiana), ecco che la competenza interculturale e la riflessione sulla civiltà scompaiono dal sillabo: sarebbero utili per la persona, ma sono inutili per la certificazione, e quindi la cosa (la certificazione) prevale sulla persona – e qui siamo nella negazione di ogni possibile discorso etico. 5. conclusioni non era nostro scopo attribuire patenti di eticità o non-eticità: la valutazione sulla qualità morale delle proprie azioni compete a ogni persona, secondo i suoi parametri. era nostro compito suggerire una riflessione su alcuni parametri – anche se non ci siamo esentati dalla responsabilità di indicare che cosa, secondo noi, rendeva eticamente sostenibili o non sostenibili alcune linee di azione. il principio base è contenuto in due parole che abbiamo molto usato in queste pagine: complessità, caratteristica primaria del pensiero contemporaneo, secondo morin, che abbiamo posto alla base di molte nostre ricerche da un ventennio, e sostenibilità ecologica, cioè considerazione dell’ambiente glottodidattica balboni e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 12 come un systéme où tout se tient e dove ogni azione deve essere quindi essere sostenibile dal sistema, altrimenti se l’alterazione che produce è eccessiva rischia di essere distruttiva. abbiamo individuato, nel titolo del saggio, la coerenza tra approccio (coordinate filosofiche e ideali, situate nel mondo delle idee) e metodo (realizzazioni operative situate nel mondo delle azioni) il punto critico, lo snodo essenziale per far sì che un’azione possa essere sostenibile dal sistema studentelingua/cultura-docente oppure sia a rischio di essere potenzialmente dannosa o addirittura distruttiva. abbiamo cercato anche di evidenziare situazioni di eterogeneità dei fini in cui azioni intese al bene (ad esempio: dotarsi di un sistema di livelli linguistici da certificare per aiutare la mobilità e la valorizzazione delle competenze) può produrre effetti negativi sull’intero sistema (i materiali e i singoli corsi pensati non per far crescere ogni persona, rendendola autonoma nell’apprendere e capace di adattarsi alle situazioni, bensì per superare un dato livello, quindi con una scelta di contenuti pensati in astratto da un ente localizzato in altri continenti e culture e valido per tutti i continenti e le culture). la conclusione è che è possibile un insegnamento linguistico che tenga conto della complessità e della sostenibilità – ma che ciò sia possibile solo se si presta continua attenzione ai singoli elementi dei vari modelli che abbiamo presentato. tali elementi sono esterni alla persona che riflette, e quindi oggettivi, per quanto sia possibile applicare il concetto di oggettivo a una scienza umana come la glottodidattica. riferimenti bibliografici anthony, edward (1963). approach, method and technique. english language teaching 17, 57-63.2 balboni, paolo e. (2011). conoscenza, verità, etica nell’educazione linguistica. perugia, italia: guerra edizioni. balboni, paolo e. (2012). le sfide di babele. insegnare le lingue nelle società complesse. torino, italia: utet università. barni, monica (2010). etica e politica della valutazione. in edoardo lugarini (a cura di), valutare le competenze linguistiche. milano, italia: franco angeli. bosisio, cristina (2012). dall’interlingua al profilo d’apprendente. uno sguardo diacronico tra linguistica acquisizionale e glottodidattica. milano, italia: educatt. caon, fabio (2006). pleasure in language learning. perugia, italia: guerra edizioni. caon, fabio (a cura di) (2010). facilitare l’apprendimento dell’italiano l2 e delle lingue straniere. torino, italia: utet università. christenbury, leila (2008). a consideration of the ethics of teaching english. the english journal 6, 32-37. crowley, catherine j. (2007). ethical issues and solutions: working with english language learner students. rockville, maryland: a.s.h.a. damiano, elio (2007). l'insegnante etico. saggio sull'insegnamento come professione morale. assisi, italia: cittadella. davies, alan (1997). the limits of ethics in language testing. language testing, 3, 235-241. davies, alan (2008). ethics, professionalism, rights and codes. in elana shoamy, nancy hornberger (a cura di) encyclopedia of language and education. volume 7: language testing and assessment. (pp. 429-443). berlino, germania: springer. dickey, robert j. (2006). assessing ethical standards for efl teaching professionalism. tesol law journal 1, http://www.tesol-law.com/vol_1_2006_rd.php f.e.c.e.i. (2003). código ético para centros privados que imparten enseñanza de idiomas. madrid, spagna: f.e.c.e.i. forestal, chantal (2007). la dynamique conflictuelle de l’éthique. pour une compétence éthique en didactique des langues-cultures. etudes de linguistique appliquée 145, 111-123. galisson, robert & puren, christian (a cura di) (1998). de l'éthique en didactique des langues. etudes de linguistique appliquée, 109. 2 spesso citato come 1972, anno in cui fu ripreso e diffuso in ambito di ricerca in harold allen, robert cambell (eds), teaching english as a second language. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. etica nell’educazione linguistica e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 13 gardner, howard (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. new york, new york: basic books. hamp-lyons, liz (1998). ethics in language testing. in david corson, carolin clapham (a cura di), encyclopedia of language and education. volume 7: language testing and assessment. (pp. 323-333). dordrecht:, olanda: kluwer academic publishers. https://www.aytojaen.es/portal/recursosweb/documentos/1/0_7878_1.pdf hymes, dell (1972). on communicative competence. in john b. pride e janet holmes (a cura di), sociolinguistics (269-293). harmondsworth, regno unito: penguin. iglesias-philippot, yannick (2013). l’éthique dans l’enseignement-apprentissage des langues de spécialité: le cas de l’espagnol en économie. cahiers de l’apliut, 2, 82-103. i.l.t.a. (2000), ilta code of ethics, http://www.iltaonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&itemid=47 le moigne, jean-louis (2005). les enjeux éthiques de la didactique des langues et des cultures n'appellent-ils pas un ‘nouveau discours sur la méthode des études de notre temps’? etudes de linguistique appliquée, 140, 421-433. mangubhai, francis (2007). the moral and ethical dimensions of language teaching. australian journal of education, 2, 178-189. http://search.informit.com.au/fulltext;dn=05851988 mezzadri, marco (in press). tra la glottodidattica e le neuroscienze: ponti in costruzione. rassegna italiana di linguistica applicata, 1-2. morin, edgar (2004). éthique (la méthode 6). parigi, francia: éditions du seuil. morin, edgar (2000). les sept savoirs nécessaires à l’éducation du futur. parigi, francia: éditions du seuil. morosin, simona (2007). mirror neurons, meaning and imitation: facts and speculations on language acquisition. studi di glottodidattica 4, 90-112. puren, christian (1994). éthique et didactique des langues. les langues modernes 3, 55-62. rastelli, stefano (2009). che cos’è la didattica acquisizionale. roma, italia: carocci. shoamy, elana (1997). testing methods, testing consequences: are they ethical? language testing 3, 340-349. torresan, paolo (2008). intelligenze e didattica delle lingue. bologna, italia: emi. balboni e-journall 1 (2014), pp. 1-14 14 paolo e. balboni. università ca’ foscari di venezia. balboni@unive.it it paolo e. balboni è professore ordinario di didattica delle lingue presso l’università ca’ foscari di venezia. dirige un ampio e accademicamente prolifico gruppo di ricercatori che collaborano con il centro di ricerca sulla didattica delle lingue di cui è fondatore e direttore. balboni è anche vicepresidente mondiale della fédération internationale des professeurs de langues vivantes. è inoltre presidente della società scientifica di didattica delle lingue e linguistica educativa delle università italiane. en paolo e. balboni is full professor of language education at ca’ foscari university in venice. he is head of a wide and academically productive group of researchers who work in the research center on language education, established and directed by professor balboni. he is also the worldwide vice president of the fédération internationale des professeurs de langues vivantes and president of the scientific society of language teaching research and educational linguistics of italian universities. es paolo e. balboni es catedrático de didáctica de las lenguas en la università ca’ foscari di venezia. dirige un grupo amplio y académicamente prolífico de investigadores que colaboran con el centro de investigación sobre la enseñanza de lenguas, del que es miembro fundador y director. balboni es también vicepresidente mundial de la fédération internationale des professeurs de langues vivantes. además, es presidente de la sociedad científica de didáctica de las lenguas y lingüística educativa de las universidades italianas. e-j103-115_brazzolotto euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-journall  volume  1,  issue  1,  november  2014,  pages  103-115   issn  2376-905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.13 www.e-journall.org   copyright  ©  2014.  this  work  is  licensed  under  the  creative  commons  attribution-­‐noncommercial-­‐noderivs  3.0  unported  license.   1  contatto:  martinabrazzolotto@gmail.com   insegnare  l’italiano  nelle  classi  multilingue  attraverso  la  matematica.   una  riflessione  sulla  linea  del  tempo  attraverso  operazioni  matematiche   con  studenti  della  scuola  primaria   martina  brazzolotto1   università  degli  studi  di  padova   received  4  march  2014;  received  in  revised  form  16  august  2014;  accepted  25  september  2014   abstract it dalle recenti ricerche di psicologia dell’apprendimento della matematica è emerso che tutti, indipendentemente dalla cultura e origine, possiedono una rappresentazione dei numeri paragonabile alla linea dei numeri (dehaene, 1993). questo articolo presenta uno studio pilota che confronta i dati emersi da due classi di lingua: una classe sperimentale, dove i tempi verbali dell’italiano sono stati introdotti attraverso i numeri e le operazioni matematiche, e una classe di controllo, dove gli stessi argomenti sono stati affrontati senza ricorrere alla matematica. dai dati emerge che effettivamente l’introduzione della matematica in italiano l2 migliora la riflessione linguistica e aumenta il successo scolastico. inoltre, dato che il piacere è uno dei pilastri motivazionali che supporta l’apprendimento di una lingua (balboni, 2006), si avanza l’ipotesi che introdurre delle associazioni tra numeri e riflessione linguistica possa costituire un divertimento e quindi favorire l’apprendimento linguistico nelle classi multilingue. parole chiave:   insegnamento di lingue straniere, matematica e lingua, numeri e verbi, linea dei numeri e parole. en the latest research into the psychology of the mathematics learning demonstrates that everyone, independent of their culture and origin, possesses a representation of the numbers comparable to the number line (dehaene, 1993). this article presents a pilot study that compares the data obtained in two language classes: one experimental, in which italian verb tenses are explained through numbers and mathematical operations; and a control class, in which the same material is taught without the use of mathematics. the data demonstrates that the introduction of mathematics in italian l2 instruction improves linguistic reflection and increases academic success. also, since enjoyment is one of the pillars of motivation that supports language learning (balboni, 2006), this article poses the hypothesis that the introduction of associations between numbers and linguistic reflection could be enjoyable and thus promote language learning in multilingual classrooms. keywords: foreign language teaching, mathematics and language, numbers and verbs, number line and wo es las últimas investigaciones sobre la psicología del aprendizaje de las matemáticas muestran que todos, independientemente de su cultura y origen, poseen una representación de los números comparable con la recta numérica (dehaene, 1993). en este artículo se presenta un estudio piloto que compara los datos obtenidos en dos clases de lengua: una clase experimental, donde los tiempos verbales del italiano se explican a través de números y operaciones matemáticas, y una clase de control, donde se abordan los mismos temas sin recurrir a las matemáticas. los datos muestran que la introducción de las matemáticas en italiano l2 mejora la reflexión lingüística y aumenta el éxito escolar. asimismo, ya que el placer es uno de los pilares que soportan la motivación en el aprendizaje de una lengua (balboni, 2006), se plantea la hipótesis de que la introducción de asociaciones entre los números y la reflexión lingüística pueda representar una diversión y, así, promover el aprendizaje lingüístico en aulas multilingües. palabras clave: enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, matemáticas y lengua, números y verbos, recta numérica y palabras. brazzolotto   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115 104 le  finalità  della  scuola  devono  essere  definite  a  partire  dalla  persona   che  apprende  con  l’originalità  del  suo  percorso  individuale  e  le  aperture   offerte  dalla  rete  di  relazioni  che  la  legano  alla  famiglia  e  agli  ambiti   sociali.  (indicazioni  nazionali,  2012,  p.5)     1.  introduzione   dalle   recenti   ricerche   in   psicologia   dell’apprendimento   sulla   matematica   (spelke,   2004;   spelke   e   kinzler,   2007)   è   emerso   che   tutti   noi,   indipendentemente   dalla   nostra   cultura   e   origine,   possediamo   una   rappresentazione  dei  numeri  che  potrebbe  essere  paragonata  alla  linea  dei  numeri  (dehaene,  1993).  inoltre,   alcuni   studi   di   glottodidattica   (balboni,   2008;   titone,   1992)   hanno   mostrato   come   il   piacere   sia   uno   dei   pilastri  motivazionali   a   supporto   dell’apprendimento   di   una   lingua.   per   questo  motivo,   abbiamo   ipotizzato   che   introdurre   delle   associazioni   tra   numeri   e   riflessione   linguistica   possa   costituire   un   divertimento   e   favorire  l’apprendimento  linguistico  soprattutto  nelle  classi  multilingue.     nella  breve  sperimentazione  oggetto  di  questo  articolo  abbiamo  introdotto  la  linea  dei  numeri  per  far   capire   agli   studenti  di   italiano  l2   le   funzioni  di   alcuni   tempi   verbali   del  modo   indicativo.   sono   stati   quindi   spiegati   i   concetti   di   anteriorità   e   di   posteriorità   abbinandoli   rispettivamente   alla   sinistra   e   alla   destra   rispetto  a  un  verbo  scritto  sulla  linea  dei  numeri.  per  facilitare  l’associazione  tra  verbo  e  nome  del  tempo  (per   esempio   “ho  mangiato  =  passato  prossimo”),   la   sua   funzione   (indicare  un   evento   accaduto  nel   passato   con   qualche   relazione   con   il   presente)   e   la   sua   forma   (tempo   composto),   abbiamo   inoltre   affiancato   delle   operazioni   matematiche   che   potessero   essere   usate   per   esprimere   i   medesimi   concetti   grammaticali   attraverso  segni  matematici  e  risultati  numerici.   l’intervento  glottodidattico  è  stato  rivolto  a  due  classi  quinte  di  una  scuola  primaria  della  provincia   di   padova,   con   una   media   del   25%   di   alunni   di   diversa   provenienza   e   lingua   madre,   per   un   totale   di   46   studenti.   confrontando   i   dati   emersi   dalla   classe   sperimentale   -­‐   in   cui   abbiamo   introdotto   gli   argomenti   grammaticali   avvalendoci   di   numeri   e   operazioni   -­‐   con   quelli   della   classe   di   controllo   -­‐   in   cui   abbiamo   affrontato  gli  stessi  argomenti  senza  avvalerci  dei  numeri  -­‐  è  emerso  che  effettivamente  l’introduzione  della   matematica  migliora  la  riflessione  linguistica,  oltre  ad  essere  considerata  dagli  alunni  un  piacevole  elemento   di  novità.     2.  teoria  di  riferimento   secondo  piaget  (1952)  l’idea  di  numerosità  si  costruisce  su  capacità  basilari,  tra  le  quali  la  capacità  di   ragionare  in  termini  transitivi  (cioè  se  a>b  e  b>c  allora  a>c),  la  consapevolezza  che  il  numero  di  elementi  in   un  insieme  si  conserva  (se  spostiamo  degli  oggetti,  la  quantità  non  cambia)  e  infine  l’attitudine  ad  astrarre  le   proprietà  percettive  degli  elementi  di  un   insieme  (colore,   forma  e  dimensione  non  modificano   la  quantità).   tuttavia,  contrariamente  a  quanto  ipotizzato  da  piaget,  le  recenti  scoperte  neuropsicologiche  della  cognizione   numerica  (collignon,  leclercq  e  mahy,  1977;  grewel,  1969)  sostengono  che  i  bambini  riconoscono  proprietà   numeriche  anche  senza  avvalersi  del   linguaggio,  del  ragionamento  astratto  o  della  percezione  di  particolari   caratteristiche  fisiche  degli  oggetti.     sulla  base  di  questi   studi,  nel  presente  articolo   ipotizziamo  che,   se  si  associano  numeri  e  proprietà   numeriche   alla   grammatica,   probabilmente   si   ridurrà   il   carico   cognitivo   della   comprensione   verbale:   spiegando   la   grammatica   attraverso   la   matematica,   gli   input   linguistici   diminuiscono   a   favore   di   quelli   matematici.   ai   fini   dello   sviluppo   della   competenza   sintattica,   specifica   per   il   riordino   di   sintagmi,   la   comprensione  del  ruolo  del  verbo  gioca  un  ruolo  fondamentale:  che  tempo  usare?  perché?  la  associazione  di   numeri   e   operazioni   matematiche   ai   tempi   verbali   dell’indicativo   pretende   facilitare   questo   compito   complesso,  relativo  alla  scelta  del  tempo  giusto.     il  modello  neurolinguistico  di  riferimento  è  quello  della  teoria  di  x-­‐barra  (chomsky,  1981);  l’assunto   di  base  è   che   i   sintagmi   siano  proiezioni  dei   contesti  morfosintattici   richiesti  dalle  parole.  precisiamo  che   i   sintagmi   sono   strutture   generate   dalla   natura   argomentale   delle   parole   e   che   proprio   il   verbo,   specifico   oggetto   del   nostro   intervento   glottodidattico,   ha   un   ruolo   essenziale   nella   composizione   frasale.   la   fase   di   integrazione   sintattica   risulta   complessa   e   delicata   perché   richiede   l’attivazione   di   un’estesa   rete   neurale   prevalentemente   lateralizzata   a   sinistra   che   coinvolge   regioni   frontali   (la   porzione   dorsale   della   pars   opercularis   e   la   porzione   ventrale   della   pars   triangularis   del   giro   frontale   inferiore   sinistro,   insieme   alla   porzione  posteriore  del   giro   frontale  medio   sinistro),   regioni   temporali   (polo   temporale,   porzione  media   e   laterale  del  giro  temporale  medio,  porzione  anteriore  del  giro  temporale  superiore,  porzione  posteriore  del   insegnare  l’italiano  con  la  matematica   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115     105 giro   temporale  medio   e   porzione   posteriore   del   solco   temporale   superiore)   e   persino   nuclei   sottocorticali,   come   dimostrato   dall’attivazione   del   nucleo   caudato   dei   gangli   della   base   in   corrispondenza   del   riconoscimento   di   anomalie   sintattiche   (moro,   tettamanti,   perani   et   al.,   2001).   di   qui   la   domanda:   perché   associare  la  grammatica,  e  nel  nostro  caso  i  verbi,  a  numeri  e  operazioni?     il   lobo  parietale  dell’emisfero  sinistro  è   fondamentale  sia  per   l’elaborazione  del   linguaggio   (marini,   2010,  p.  37)  sia  per  l’elaborazione  della  quantità  numerica  (piazza,  pinel,  le  bihan  e  dehaene,  2007).  questo   non  significa  affermare  che  quando  proponiamo  l’analisi  di  un  verbo  mediante  la   linea  numerica  si  attiva  la   medesima  area  di  brodmann,2  ma   conoscendo   la   funzione  del   corpo   calloso  –   integrare   il   lavoro   svolto  dai   due   emisferi   -­‐   sappiamo   che   il   nostro   cervello   integra   tutti   gli   input   ricevuti,   compensando   eventuali   fraintendimenti  e  confusioni  di  un  codice  con  un  altro  (marini,  2010):  in  questo  senso  altri  codici  potrebbero   facilitare  la  comprensione  della  lingua.  la  matematica  quindi  potrebbe  fornire  un  ponte  verso  la  grammatica:   la   prima,   contrariamente   alla   seconda,   può   infatti   essere   capita   senza   bisogno   di   essere   verbalizzata;   per   esempio   non   è   immediato   capire   la   differenza   tra   presente   e   passato   prossimo   se   non   si   sollecitano   delle   riflessioni  grammaticali,  mentre  è  più  intuitiva  la  differenza  tra  due  numeri,  come  3  e  5.     butterworth   (1999;   2005),   uno   dei   sostenitori   della   tesi   innatista   del   “cervello   matematico”   (butterworth,   2005,   pp.   3-­‐18),   ritiene   che   nel   nostro   cervello   esistano   dei   circuiti   specializzati   per   categorizzare   il  mondo   in   termini  di  numerosità.  egli  paragona   la  percezione  di  numerosità  alla  percezione   dei  colori:   entrambi   i   processi   sono   automatici:   non  possiamo   evitare  di   vedere   che   le  mucche   in   un   campo  sono  bianche  e  marroni,  né  possiamo  evitare  di  vedere  che  ce  ne  sono  tre  […].  la  mia   tesi  è  che  il  genoma  umano  contenga  le  istruzioni  per  costruire  circuiti  cerebrali  specializzati   che  chiamerò  “modulo  numerico”.  la  funzione  del  modulo  numerico  è  quella  di  classificare  il   mondo   in   termini   di   quantità   numerica   o   numerosità,   cioè   del   numero   di   oggetti   di   un   insieme.  (butterworth,  1999,  p.  17)     butterworth  sostiene  pertanto  che  le  abilità  matematiche  di  base  siano  geneticamente  determinate  e   presenti  fin  dalla  nascita.  tutti,  quindi,  fin  dalla  nascita,  possediamo  un  nucleo  innato  di  capacità  numeriche   che  ci  consente  di  classificare  piccoli  insiemi  di  oggetti  (fino  a  quattro-­‐cinque  elementi),  mentre  le  differenze   da   persona   a   persona   riguardano   capacità   più   avanzate,   che   si   acquisiscono   attraverso   l’istruzione.   la   numerosità  si  riferisce  al  numero  di  oggetti  che  costituisce  un  insieme  e  quindi  la  capacità  di  distinguere  due   insiemi   in   base   alla   quantità   associata   (a   è   diverso  da  b  poiché   la   sua  numerosità   è   diversa),  ma   anche  di   ordinarli  (a  <  b  poiché  ha  una  numerosità  minore  di  b).   il  processo  sottostante  alla  numerosità  è  definito  subitizing  (atkinson,  campbell  e  francis,  1976):  tale   processo   consente  di   determinare   la   numerosità  di   un   insieme  visivo  di   oggetti   in  modo   immediato,   senza   contare;   il   numero   massimo   di   oggetti   percepibili   in   questo   modo   sembra   essere   di   circa   quattro.   indipendentemente  dalla  cultura  di  riferimento,   tutti  nasciamo  dunque  con  delle  abilità  matematiche,  come   appunto  riconoscere  una  piccola  quantità  senza  contare  gli  elementi.     la   letteratura   psicologica   più   volte   ha   cercato   di   scoprire   se   esistano   delle   interdipendenze   tra   conoscenza  numerica  e  altri   sistemi  di   conoscenza,   in  particolare   tra   il   sistema  di  elaborazione  numerico  e   quello   linguistico   (collignon,   leclercq   e   mahy,   1977;   grewel,   1969).   dalle   ricerche   è   emerso   che   esistono   alcune   somiglianze   tra   i   due   sistemi:   per   esempio,   come   i   suoni   del   linguaggio,   anche   le   quantità   sono   esprimibili  attraverso  il  canale  uditivo-­‐vocale  con  il  codice  verbale,  e  attraverso  il  canale  visivo-­‐gestuale  con   diverse  modalità  come  quella  arabica,  grafico-­‐analogica  e  gestuale  (lucangeli  e  mammarella,  2010).   inoltre,   come  ogni  segno  linguistico,   i  numeri  all’interno  del  codice  verbale  hanno  un  rapporto  convenzionale  con  il   significato  di  quantità   che   sottintendono.  anche  nella  modalità   scritta,   il   linguaggio  matematico  può  essere   veicolato  attraverso  il  codice  verbale,  la  cui  scrittura  tipica  è  quella  del  codice  arabico.  infine,  alcune  ricerche   hanno   dimostrato   che   la   rappresentazione   numerica   avviene   in   modo   topografico   su   una   linea   mentale,   paragonata   alla   linea   dei   numeri   (umiltà,   priftis   e   zorzi,   2009).   riteniamo   quindi   che   il   passaggio   per   facilitare  la  comprensione  della  grammatica  possa  coinvolgere  non  solo  numeri  -­‐  espressi  in  codice  arabico  -­‐   ma  anche  la  linea  numerica.                                                                                                                         2  per  ragioni  di  spazio,  in  questo  articolo  ci  limitiamo  a  parlare  di  lobo,  regione  cerebrale  che  comprende  molte  aree.     brazzolotto   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115  106 3.  metodologia   la  presente  ricerca  si  è  svolta  dal  9  al  21  ottobre  2013  presso  due  classi  quinte  della  scuola  primaria   di  borgoricco  (padova,   italia),  dove   -­‐  come  descriveremo  nel  dettaglio   -­‐  era  presente  un’alta  percentuale  di   alunni  di  diversa  provenienza  etnica  e  differenti  competenze  culturali.   coniugando   saperi   glottodidattici,   tra   cui   l’introduzione   di   elementi   di   novità   per   promuovere   l’apprendimento   autentico,   e   principi   emersi   dalla   psicologia   dell’apprendimento   della   matematica,   già   descritti,  abbiamo  predisposto  delle  attività  didattiche  supportate  dalle  seguenti  ipotesi:     1. l’introduzione  dei  numeri  durante  le  lezioni  di  italiano  facilita  la  riflessione  linguistica  nelle  classi   multilingue;   2. l’introduzione   dei   numeri   migliora   i   risultati   in   termini   di   prestazioni   rispetto   alle   lezioni   di   riflessione  linguistica  senza  numeri;   3. i  numeri  aumentano  il  piacere  e  l’impegno  in  classe.     3.1  i  partecipanti   i   destinatari   della   sperimentazione   sono   stati   46   alunni   di   dieci   anni,   che   frequentavano   la   classe   quinta   della   scuola   primaria,   suddivisi   in   due   diverse   sezioni:   la   5a  a   e   la   5a  b.   la   5a  a   era   composta   da   23   alunni  di  cui  il  22%  non  italofoni  (il  grafico  1  mostra  la  cittadinanza  degli  alunni)  ma  residenti  in  italia  da  più   di  cinque  anni.  la  classe  5a  b  era  composta  da  23  alunni  di  cui  il  30%  non  italofoni  (per  la  cittadinanza  degli   alunni  di  questa  classe  si  veda  la  figura  2),  residenti  in  italia  da  almeno  cinque  anni  ad  esclusione  di  un  solo   alunno,  arrivato  in  italia  da  meno  di  un  anno.       tabella 1 nazionalità degli studenti. nazionalità 5a a 5a b italiana 18 16 romena 4 4 albanese 1 0 marocchina 0 2 moldava 0 1 totale 23 23 la  5a  a  ha  avuto   il  ruolo  di  gruppo  di  controllo   (gc):  a  questi  alunni  abbiamo  spiegato  alcuni  tempi   dell’indicativo  senza  utilizzare  i  numeri.  la  5a  b,  invece,  era  il  gruppo  sperimentale  (gs).  in  questa  classe  sono   state  proposte  spiegazioni  e  attività  di  riflessione  linguistica  utilizzando  i  numeri  e  la  linea  numerica.   come   emerge   dalla   tabella   1,   le   nazionalità   di   provenienza   degli   alunni   non   italiani   sono:   romena,   albanese,   marocchina   e   moldava.   è   importante   notare   che   la   maggioranza   dei   non   italiafoni   –   i   romeni   -­‐   possiede  una  lingua  e  una  cultura  poco  distanti  da  quelle  italiane,  perché  la  lingua  è  di  origine  neolatina.  per   quanto  riguarda  invece  i  due  alunni  di  nazionalità  marocchina,  la  distanza  socioculturale  è  maggiore  perché   provengono  da  un  paese  dove  cultura  e   lingua  sono  molto  diverse  dalla  nostra.  entrambi  però,  al  momento   della  sperimentazione,  vivevano  in  italia  da  cinque  anni  e  non  hanno  manifestato  alcuna  difficoltà  a  capire  le   consegne.  lo  studente  di  origine  moldava  in  5a  b  possedeva  un  livello  di  competenza  della  lingua  italiana  pari   al   b1,   come   riferito   dagli   insegnanti,   che   hanno   informato   anche   delle   sue   numerose   difficoltà   di   comprensione  e  produzione  in  italiano.     3.2  le  attività   sono   stati   svolti   cinque   incontri   per   classe   per   un   totale   di   dieci   ore   di   sperimentazione   didattica.   tutti  gli  incontri  si  sono  svolti  seguendo  delle  fasi  ben  precise:     -­‐ brainstorming  sul  tempo  verbale  previsto  per  quella  lezione;   -­‐ spiegazione   con   i   numeri   e/o   le   operazioni:   le   informazioni   emerse   dal   brainstorming   venivano   confermate  e  consolidate  con  la  matematica  nel  gruppo  sperimentale;   insegnare  l’italiano  con  la  matematica   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115     107 -­‐ spiegazione   con   materiale   autentico:   la   riflessione   linguistica   proseguiva   con   l’analisi   di   alcuni   tempi  a  partire  da  testi  di  narrativa;   -­‐ verifica   finale:  per   il  gruppo  di  controllo,   la  verifica  consisteva   in  due  parti:  una  domanda  chiusa   inerente   le   definizioni   e   un’altra   relativa   all’individuazione   dei   tempi   in   un   brano,   o   all’abbinamento  tra  definizione  e  tempi  verbali  presentati  in  una  tabella.   l’oggetto  di  insegnamento  -­‐  i  tempi  dell’indicativo  -­‐  è  stato  concordato  con  i  docenti  di  lingua  italiana   delle  due  classi  quinte  della  scuola  presso  la  quale  è  stata  proposta  la  sperimentazione  di  materiali  progettati   per  questo  contributo.  è  stato  scelto  l’indicativo  in  quanto  è  l’unico  modo  verbale  in  cui  i  tempi  sono  suddivisi   in   base   ai   tre   fondamentali   punti   di   riferimento   cronologici:   l’anteriorità   (imperfetto,   passato   prossimo,   passato   remoto,   trapassato   prossimo   e   trapassato   remoto);   la   contemporaneità   (presente);   la   posteriorità   (futuro  semplice  e  futuro  anteriore).  i  suoi  tempi  possono  essere  semplici  come  il  presente,  il  passato  remoto   e  il  futuro,  oppure  composti  come  il  passato  prossimo,  il  trapassato  prossimo,  il  trapassato  remoto  e  il  futuro   anteriore  (dardano  e  trifone,  2011,  p.  352).   di  seguito  proponiamo  una  tabella  riepilogativa  delle  attività  svolte  nel  gruppo  sperimentale  (gs)  e   nel  gruppo  di  controllo  (gc).     tabella 2 attività gs e gc. classe incontro attività gs 1 brainstorming sul tempo presente. introduzione dei numeri. gc 1 brainstorming sul tempo presente. gs 2 brainstorming sul passato remoto. introduzione della linea dei numeri e collocazione del tempo. operazione di riferimento. gc 2 brainstorming sul passato remoto. gs 3 e 4 brainstorming sul passato prossimo (per il terzo incontro) e sul trapassato prossimo (per il quarto incontro). linea dei numeri. operazione di riferimento. lettura di un testo e individuazione dei tempi al passato prossimo/trapassato prossimo. gc 3 e 4 brainstorming sul passato prossimo (per il terzo incontro) e sul trapassato prossimo (per il quarto incontro). lettura di un testo e individuazione dei tempi al passato prossimo. gs 5 brainstorming e discussione guidata sul futuro semplice e sul futuro anteriore. linea dei numeri. operazione di riferimento. verifica finale con formule. gc 5 brainstorming e discussione guidata sul futuro semplice e sul futuro anteriore. verifica finale.   3.2.1  il  presente  e  i  numeri   durante  il  primo  incontro  è  stato  proposto  il  tempo  verbale  indicativo  presente.  se  si  pensa  al  grande   universo  della  matematica,  questo  tempo  semplice  e  frequente  potrebbe  essere  paragonato  a  numeri  semplici   che   si   usano   prevalentemente   nella   quotidianità.   in   questo   senso,   il   tempo   presente   dell’indicativo   è   stato   paragonato  ai  numeri  naturali  (n).  da  questo  paragone  si  ricava  la  seguente  equivalenza:  “lui  nasce”=  3;  “tu   mangi”=5;  “noi  leggiamo”=7.   il  numero  abbinato  al  verbo  è  stato  scelto  in  modo  casuale:  ci  interessava  però  che  fosse  un  numero   naturale  e  possibilmente  non  troppo  elevato  perché  i  nostri  destinatari  erano  studenti  di  dieci  anni,  e  quindi   non  abbiamo  voluto  complicare  il  ragionamento  usando  cifre  troppo  elevate.     3.2.2  il  passato  remoto:  divisione  e  linea  dei  numeri   durante   il   secondo   incontro   è   stato   proposto   il   passato   remoto   come   tempo   che   indica   un’azione   conclusa   nel   passato,   indipendentemente   dal   suo   svolgimento   e   dai   suoi   eventuali   rapporti   col   presente   (dardano  e  trifone,  2011,  p.  355).   in   termini   matematici,   se   l’azione   espressa   da   questo   tempo   verbale   avviene   prima   di   quella   al   presente,   significa   che   è   rappresentata   da   un   numero   che   precede   il   numero   abbinato   al   tempo   presente.   brazzolotto   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115  108 come  accennato  nel  primo  paragrafo,  il  modo  più  intuitivo  per  rappresentare  i  numeri  precedenti  e  successivi   rispetto  a  un  numero  dato  è  con  una  linea  numerica.  quindi,  per  definire  il  passato  remoto  bisogna  scegliere   quell’operazione  che  come  risultato  ci  fornisca  un  numero  minore  del  primo  numeratore.  per  queste  ragioni  è   stata  scelta  la  divisione,  in  cui  il  quoziente  è  sempre  minore  del  dividendo.  così  facendo,  il  risultato  potrebbe   rientrare   nell’insieme   dei   numeri   razionali   (q),   poiché   se   dividiamo   un   numero   dispari   il   risultato   è   un   numero   decimale.   tuttavia,   nella   nostra   proposta   non   è   tanto   importante   la   buona   esecuzione   delle   operazioni   indicate,  quanto   la  riflessione  sui  possibili   risultati  e   il  paragone   fra   linea  dei  numeri  e   linea  del   tempo.  l’operazione  quindi  sarà:  n÷2.       figura 1. presente e passato remoto sulla linea dei numeri. un  esempio  dell’uso  della  divisione  per  rappresentare  il  passato  remoto  è  il  seguente:  “lui  nacque”=   8÷2;  “tu  mangiasti”=  10÷2;  “noi  leggemmo”=  6÷2.     3.2.3  il  passato  prossimo  con  le  parentesi  tonde   il   passato   prossimo   è   stato   l’oggetto   di   apprendimento   del   terzo   incontro.   essendo   un   tempo   composto,  si  è  proposto  di  rappresentarlo  con  un’addizione:  per  far  capire  che  c’è  l’aggiunta  di  un  ausiliare  si   può   aggiungere   un   numero   naturale.   questo   è   inoltre   un   tempo   del   passato,   quindi   “viene   prima”   del   presente:  per  questo  motivo  l’operazione  aritmetica  continua  con  una  divisione  (come  già  detto  nel  paragrafo   precedente,  utilizzando  la  linea  dei  numeri  questa  operazione  “ci  porta  indietro”).  l’operazione  sarà  quindi:   (n+1)÷2.  riprendendo  come  riferimento  il  numero  8  per  rappresentare  un  verbo  presente,  si  ottiene:     figura 2. operazione relativa il passato prossimo.   per  esempio,  si  otterrebbe:  “lui  è  nato”=  (8+1)÷2;  “tu  hai  mangiato”=  (10+1)÷2;  “noi  abbiamo  letto”=   (6+1)  ÷2.   è  interessante  inoltre  riflettere  sul  risultato:  nel  passato  prossimo  si  otterrebbe  un  numero  più  vicino   al  numero  di  partenza  abbinato  al  presente  (8+1)÷2=4.5,  mentre  il  risultato  del  passato  remoto  è  un  numero   più  distante   (8÷2=4);   infatti  4.5>  4.  questo  significa  che   il  passato  prossimo  viene  rappresentato  un   tempo   più  vicino  al  presente,  come  prescritto  dalla  grammatica  italiana.     insegnare  l’italiano  con  la  matematica   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115     109 3.2.4  il  trapassato  prossimo  con  le  parentesi  quadre   l’ultimo  tempo  verbale  passato  dell’indicativo,  oggetto  del  quarto  intervento  glottodidattico,  è  stato   il   trapassato   prossimo.   anche   questo   tempo,   come   il   passato   prossimo,   è   composto,   ed   è   formato   dall’imperfetto  di  un  ausiliare  (essere  o  avere)  e  dal  participio  passato.  il  trapassato  prossimo  serve  a  indicare   un  fatto  del  passato  anteriore  a  un  altro  fatto,  anch’esso  del  passato.  a  differenza  del  passato  prossimo  però,   non   vi   è   un   rapporto   diretto   con   il  momento   dell’enunciazione.   la   formula   generale   per   rappresentarlo   è:   [(n+1)÷2]÷2   per   rappresentare   in   un’unica   operazione   il   rapporto   tra   il   trapassato   prossimo   e   il   presente   è   necessario  usare  un’espressione  con  le  parentesi  quadre:     figura 3. operazione relativa al trapassato prossimo.   il  trapassato  prossimo,  quindi,  risulta  equivalente  a  questa  espressione,  come  riportato  negli  esempi:   “lui  era  nato”=  [(8+1)÷2]÷2;  “tu  avevi  mangiato”=  [(10+1)÷2]÷2;  “noi  avevamo  letto”=  [(6+1)÷2]÷2.     3.2.5  il  futuro  semplice  e  la  moltiplicazione   durante   l’ultimo   incontro  è   stato  presentato   il   futuro   semplice.  questo   tempo  verbale,   se   collocato   sulla   linea  dei  numeri,  è   il   risultato  di  un’operazione  che   lo  situa  a  destra   rispetto  al  primo  numero  (quello   riferito   al   presente   semplice):   il   risultato   è   quindi  maggiore   del   numero   iniziale.   perché   ciò   si   verifichi,   si   richiede  una  moltiplicazione,  proprio  perché   il  prodotto  di  qualsiasi  moltiplicazione  è  sempre  maggiore  del   primo  fattore;  infatti:  n×2an.  per  esempio:  8×2=10,  10>8   figura 4. futuro semplice sulla linea dei numeri. attraverso  la  moltiplicazione  si  può  dunque  esprimere  il  concetto  di  posteriorità  rispetto  al  presente,   e  così  si  otterranno  gli  esempi  seguenti:  “lui  nascerà”=  8×2;  “tu  mangerai”=  10×2;  “noi  leggeremo”=  6×2.       brazzolotto   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115  110 3.  risultati  e  analisi   come   spiegato   nella   sezione   3.2,   durante   l’ultimo   incontro   abbiamo   sottoposto   agli   studenti   una   verifica   finale  e  un  questionario  di  autovalutazione.   in  questo  paragrafo  riportiamo  i  dati  più  significativi  al   fine  di  dimostrare  l’efficacia  delle  strategie  utilizzate.   per  la  verifica  finale  sono  state  proposte  due  tipologie  di  esercizi:  nel  primo  esercizio  si  chiedeva  agli   studenti  di  abbinare  il  tempo  verbale  alla  definizione  corretta;  nel  secondo  occorreva  invece  collegare  il  verbo   dato   (per   esempio,   loro   dormirono)   al   tempo   verbale   corrispondente   (in   questo   caso   il   passato   remoto).   i   risultati  del  primo  esercizio  sono  rappresentati  nella  figura  5.       figura 5. errori nelle definizioni dei tempi verbali nel gs e nel gc. come  era  già  emerso  in  precedenti  verifiche,  nel  primo  esercizio  i  risultati  migliori  sono  stati  ottenuti   dagli  alunni  del  gruppo  di  controllo,  che  hanno  dimostrato  di  conoscere  la  definizione  dei  tempi  meglio  degli   alunni  del   gruppo   sperimentale.  nel   gruppo   sperimentale,   gli   errori   nelle  definizioni  dei   tempi   interessano   soprattutto   il   passato   remoto   e   il   passato   prossimo;   nel   gruppo   di   controllo,   invece,   interessano   prevalentemente  il  trapassato  prossimo  e  il  futuro  anteriore.     la  figura  6  a  continuazione  raccoglie   i   risultati  delle  due  classi  nel   secondo  esercizio,  nel  quale  gli   studenti  dovevano  abbinare  un  verbo  dato  al  tempo  verbale  corrispondente.         figura 6. errori nell’abbinamento verbo-tempo nel gs e nel gc. se  si  prende  in  considerazione  l’esercizio  relativo  all’abbinamento  verbo-­‐tempo,  si  nota  invece  che  il   passato   prossimo   è   stato   sbagliato   da   sette   studenti   nel   gruppo   di   controllo   e   solo   da   quattro   alunni   nel   gruppo  sperimentale.   per  quanto  riguarda   il  questionario  (vedi  appendice),  questo  comprendeva  otto   item.  le  prime  due   domande  erano  mirate  a  conoscere  il  patrimonio  linguistico  degli  alunni,  italofoni  e  non,  e  di  comprendere  le   attuali  abitudini  linguistiche  a  casa.  non  avendo  osservato  differenze  significative,  non  abbiamo  approfondito   l’analisi.   il   terzo   item   conteneva   una   domanda   chiusa   relativa   alle   eventuali   capacità/utilità   di   effettuare   insegnare  l’italiano  con  la  matematica   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115     111 collegamenti  fra  lingua  d’origine  o  dialetto  e  l’italiano,  più  una  domanda  aperta  per  stimolare  la  riflessione  e   scoraggiare   le   risposte   non   ponderate   alla   prima  domanda.   il   quarto   item,   una   domanda   a   scelta  multipla,   voleva   sondare   quali   fossero   gli   strumenti   preferiti   dagli   alunni   per   lo   studio   della   grammatica   italiana.   il   quinto,  invece,  riferito  all’eventuale  sensazione  di  noia  avvertita  in  classe  durante  le  lezioni,  si  proponeva  di   rilevare  se  questa  eventuale  sensazione  fosse  rimasta  stabile,  se  fosse  diminuita  o  aumentata.  il  sesto  era  una   domanda   aperta   per   lasciare   spazio   di   esprimere   cosa   avevano   apprezzato   di   più   delle   lezioni.   infine,   il   questionario   comprendeva  un   item  di   autovalutazione  e  uno   inerente   la  quantità  di   fatica  per   sottoporre  a   verifica  l’opinione  che  il  ricorso  alla  matematica  e  ai  numeri  possa  porre  delle  difficoltà  aggiuntive  durante  la   riflessione  linguistica.   analizziamo  ora  il  quarto  item  del  questionario  inerente  le  preferenze  di  medium  per  apprendere  la   grammatica  italiana  (libro  di  grammatica,  libro  di  narrativa,  computer  e  numeri).         figura 7. preferenze relative alla modalità di apprendimento della lingua italiana nel gs e nel gc. come   si   può   osservare   nella   figura   7,   in   entrambe   le   classi   emerge   una   preferenza   per   il   libro   di   grammatica,  forse  perché  è  lo  strumento  prevalentemente  utilizzato  e  di  conseguenza  conosciuto  dai  ragazzi.   nel   gruppo   sperimentale   sono   tre   gli   alunni   che   prediligono   i   numeri   rispetto   alle   altre   alternative.   nel   gruppo  di  controllo  invece  nessun  alunno  ritiene  possibile  l’apprendimento  della  lingua  italiana  attraverso  i   numeri,  molto  probabilmente  perché  non  è  mai  stata  proposta  loro  questa  nuova  modalità.   passiamo  ora  all’analisi  dei  dati  qualitativi  emersi  dalle  risposte  fornite  al  sesto  item  del  questionario   di  autovalutazione  e  rappresentati  nella  figura  8.           figura 8. preferenze degli alunni del gs e del gc. in  questo  caso  è  importante  sottolineare  come  il  gruppo  sperimentale  abbia  apprezzato  soprattutto  il   ricorso  ai  numeri.  al  gruppo  di  controllo,  invece,  è  piaciuto  il  modo  di  spiegare  dell’insegnante,  definito  come   molto  interattivo.   brazzolotto   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115  112   4.  discussione  dei  risultati   questa   breve   sperimentazione   ha   permesso   di   confermare   alcuni   principi   glottodidattici   già   noti,   come  per  esempio  l’importanza  di  un  approccio  interattivo,  di  favorire  dei  transfer  tra  l1  e  l2,  di  introdurre   novità   e   attività   interessanti   (balboni,   2008;   krashen,   1982)   e   di   proporre   nuove   tecniche   utili   all’insegnamento   dell’italiano   nelle   classi   multilingue.   si   è   infatti   dimostrato   che   l’introduzione   di   alcune   novità,   come   i   numeri,   rendono  piacevole   l’apprendimento   linguistico.  tuttavia,   si   potrebbe  pensare   che   le   esperienze  scolastiche  passate  si  siano  basate  su  un  insegnamento  esclusivamente  in  italiano  senza  riflessioni   interlinguistiche,   e   ciò   potrebbe   avere   influenzato   i   giudizi   e   le   attuali   modalità   di   apprendimento   degli   studenti.  inoltre,  bisognerebbe  anche  considerare  la  giovane  età  degli  studenti,  i  quali  possono  non  essere  del   tutto  autonomi  nei  processi  di  metacognizione.     per   quanto   riguarda   le   nuove   tecniche   proposte,   dai   dati   emerge   che   i   risultati   di   apprendimento   sono   lievemente   migliori   con   l’introduzione   dei   numeri,   delle   operazioni   e   della   linea   dei   numeri   per   insegnare   la   grammatica   italiana:   gli   errori   commessi   nel   riconoscere   il   passato   prossimo  nei   bambini   che   hanno   utilizzato   la   matematica   sono,   infatti,   inferiori   al   gruppo   di   controllo   di   un   14%.   questo   conferma   l’ipotesi   iniziale   secondo   la   quale   offrire   spiegazioni   con   termini   matematici   aumenta   la   comprensione   di   concetti   grammaticali   che,   se   espressi   solo   con   parole,   rischiano   di   rimanere   astratti.   i   dati   della   presente   sperimentazione   indicano   che   quando   si   spiega   utilizzando   solo   definizioni   verbali,   gli   alunni   tendono   ad   imparare  mnemonicamente,   senza  saper  applicare   il   concetto  appreso,   come  si  è  osservato  nei   risultati  del   gruppo   di   controllo,   mentre   se   si   affiancano   anche   spiegazioni   che   utilizzano   altri   codici,   come   quello   matematico,  si  promuove   la  comprensione  profonda  e  si   facilita   la  rielaborazione  che  sfocia   in  una  corretta   riflessione  linguistica,  come  si  nota  dai  risultati  emersi  nel  gruppo  sperimentale.   una   sperimentazione   più   approfondita   è   però   necessaria   per   confermare   queste   nostre   considerazioni:   va   infatti   sottolineato   che   i   risultati   emersi   da   questo   studio   sono   relativi   alle   ore   di   intervento   (cinque   ore   circa   per   classe),   decisamente   poche   per   affermare   con   certezza   la   validità   dei   materiali  proposti  nonché  l’ipotesi  che  la  matematica  possa  facilitare  la  riflessione  metalinguistica.     dal  momento  che,  almeno  a  nostra  conoscenza,  non  esistono  sperimentazioni  analoghe  che  possano   contribuire   in   qualche  modo   alla   ricerca,   speriamo   che   questo   studio   sia   spunto   di   riflessione   per   tutti   gli   insegnanti   che   vogliono   migliorare   la   qualità   dell’apprendimento   e   dell’insegnamento,   consapevoli   che   l’introduzione   di   elementi   di   novità   sia   veramente   la   chiave   del   successo   per   ogni   alunno.   auspichiamo,   inoltre,  che  altri  vogliano  replicare  la  presente  sperimentazione,  introducendo  la  linea  dei  numeri  e  semplici   concetti  matematici  per  offrire  un  ulteriore  modo  di  riflessione  sulla  lingua.         riferimenti  bibliografici     atkinson,   john,   campbell,   francis   e   francis,  murray   (1976).   the  magic   number   4±0:   a   new   look   at   visual   numerosity  judgments.  perception  5,  327-­‐334.   balboni,  paolo  (2008).  le  sfide  di  babele. 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di)   (2006).  l’italiano.  contesti  di   insegnamento   in   italia  e  all’estero.   torino,   italia:   utet.   schumann,  johann  (1999).  the  neurobiology  of  affect  in  language.  oxford,  regno  unito:  blackwell.   schumann,   johann   (2004).   the   neurobiology   of   learning   perspectives   from   second   language   acquisition.  los   angeles,  california:  erlbaum.   spelke,   elizabeth   s.   (2004).   core  knowledge.   in  nancy  kanwisher   e   john  duncan   (a   cura  di).  attention  and   performance,   functional   neuroimaging   of   visual   cognition.   oxford,   regno   unito:   oxford   university   press.   spelke,  elizabeth  s.  e  katherine  d.  kinzler  (2007).  core  knowledge.  developmental  science  10.   titone,  renzo  (1992).  grammatica  e  glottodidattica.  nuove  prospettive.  roma,  italia:  armando.   umiltà,   carlo,   priftis,   konstantinos   e  marco   zorzi   (2009).   the   spatial   representation  of   numbers:   evidence   from  neglect  and  pseudoneglect.  experimental  brain  research  192,  561-­‐569.                                                     brazzolotto   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115  114     appendice     questionario   segna  con  una  crocetta  (x)  la  risposta  che  secondo  te  è  corretta.   1.  sei  di  origine:   o italiana   o albanese   o rumena   o polacca   o moldava   o marocchina   o altro…………………………………...............................................................................................................…..     2.  parli  prevalentemente  la  lingua  dei  tuoi  genitori  (dialetto  per  gli  italiani)?   o sì   o no   3.   secondo   te,   per   capire   meglio   la   grammatica   è   utile   fare   dei   collegamenti   con   la   lingua   che   parli   prevalentemente  in  casa  (lingua  d’origine  o  dialetto)?   o sì   o no   o perché?................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..............................................................................................................................................................................................   4.  secondo  te,  è  più  piacevole  imparare  la  grammatica  italiana  con:   o il  libro  di  grammatica   o computer   o libri  di  narrativa   o numeri   5.  ti  sei  annoiato/a  durante  questi  5  incontri?   o molto   o poco   o per  niente   6.  cosa  ti  è  piaciuto  di  più  di  queste  lezioni?   ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...................................   7.  secondo  te,  da  1  a  10  quanto  ti  sei  impegnato  (1  è  il  voto  minimo,  10  il  massimo)?   o da  1  a  3   o da  7  a  9   o da  4  a  6   o 10   8.  quanta  fatica  hai  fatto  per  seguire  queste  lezioni?   o come  sempre   o un  po’  meno  del  solito   o nessuna  fatica   o un  po’  di  fatica  quando  ....................  ............................................................................................................................………   ……………………........................................................................…………................................................................................           insegnare  l’italiano  con  la  matematica   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  103-­‐115     115   martina brazzolotto, università degli studi di padova martinabrazzolotto@gmail.com it martina brazzolotto ha svolto un master in didattica della lingua italiana a stranieri presso il dipartimento di scienze del linguaggio (università ca’ foscari-venezia). collabora con il dipartimento di psicologia dello sviluppo e della socializzazione (università degli studi di padova) dove si occupa di psicologia dell’apprendimento della matematica, disturbi specifici di apprendimento (dsa) e di giftedness. inoltre è tutor alla didattica per il corso di pedagogia delle migrazioni nel dipartimento di scienze delle formazione e scienze psicologiche (università di bologna). en martina brazzolotto has a master’s degree in the teaching of italian as a foreign language from the department of language sciences at università ca 'foscari venezia. she collaborates with the department of evolutionary psychology and socialization at università degli studi di padova, where she studies the psychology of mathematics learning, specific learning disabilities (sld), and giftedness. additionally, she is teaches a course on migration studies in the department of education and psychology sciences at università di bologna.   es martina brazzolotto ha cursado un máster en didáctica del italiano como lengua extranjera en el departamento de ciencias del lenguaje (università ca’ foscari venezia). colabora con el departamento de psicología evolutiva y de la socialización (università degli studi di padova), donde se ocupa de psicología del aprendizaje de las matemáticas, trastornos específicos del aprendizaje (tea) y de giftedness. además, es tutora en el curso de pedagogía de la migración en el departamento de ciencias de la educación y ciencias psicológicas (università di bologna).     euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 3, issue 2, december 2016, pages 1-2 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.5.80 www.e-journall.org © attardo 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. despite much research on the role of humor in the l2 classroom (see bell, 2017; bell & pomerantz, 2016 for reviews), the conclusion of several major meta-analyses of the field of humor and teaching (martin, preiss, gayle, & allen, 2006; banas, dunbar, rodriguez, & liu, 2011; mcmorris, boothroyd, & pietrangelo, 1997) is that, as bell and pomerantz (2016) plaintively put it, “it has been difficult to connect the use of humor to increased learning” (p. 101). the reason behind that difficulty is, as martin et al. (2006,) state: “although students report enjoying learning and they report that they believe they have learned course material, objective measurements of the recall associated with humorous lectures are rather minuscule” (p. 305). banas et al. strike a marginally more optimistic note, concluding that "the empirical evidence for the effects of humor on learning is considerably more mixed, with some scholars finding that humor enhances learning (. . .) and others finding no relationship between learning from humor” (2011, p. 131). one of the fundamental points that emerge from the metanalyses mentioned in the previous paragraph is that humor is not a monolithic object. there are different kinds of humor, such as affiliative and disaffiliative humor, i.e., building an inor out-group, respectively (attardo, 1994, pp. 323-329). humor may also address taboo topics (sex, death, class membership, and racial or ethnic membership, for example). humor may be aggressive or soothing. the people involved in the humorous exchanges may have different personalities, preferences, and interests. thus, one cannot help but agree with kirsch and kuiper's conclusion that, “any further implementation of humor in the classroom (. . .) should first be validated by research which more clearly elucidates the exact nature of sense of humor as a construct” (2003, p. 35; see also kuiper & olinger, 1998). this special issue collects the selected works of scholars who participated in the north-east texas humor research conference on “humor and pedagogy” (see www.tamuc.edu/humor) in february 2014, and comprises three articles and three book reviews that represent the efforts and interests of researchers in the united states, mexico, italy, and australia. the articles in this issue try to move forward the agenda on humor, language, and pedagogy, looking at various ways in which humor may happen in the classroom, while also considering such parameters as age and social class. in the first research article, “is this a joke? metalinguistic reflections on verbal jokes during the school years,” karina hess zimmermann analyzes the metalinguistic reflections of children and adolescents on different types of verbal jokes. the author shows how humor production and comprehension develop during the school years and highlights differences between participants’ ability to identify, understand, and analyze different types of jokes. the results of this study confirm previous findings on humor and irony development and will inform future teaching practices regarding the use of humor in the classroom, as the results constitute a useful set of parameter for selecting the most appropriate types of jokes based on students’ cognitive abilities and age. in the second article, “the risks and rewards of teaching with humour in western sydney: adapting pedagogy to complex demographics,” by adrian hale, the focus shifts towards the pedagogical value of humor as a motivator and as a topic in the language classroom. hale presents his experience using humor as a topic as well as a delivery method to teach linguistics courses in sydney, australia. in this article, the author describes the benefits and pitfalls of such an approach regarding students’ enrollment, retention, motivation, and engagement in a region characterized by low income households, social disadvantage, and low english proficiency. a comparison of data from institutional student surveys, students’ grades, and attendance rate on courses taught with and without a specific focus on humor reveals that humor was instrumental in improving students’ experience and outcomes. * contact: salvatore.attardo@tamuc.edu humor, language, and pedagogy: an introduction to this special issue salvatore attardo*1 texas a&m university-commerce http://www.e-journall.org/ http://www.tamuc.edu/humor attardo 2 e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 1-2 in the third article, “humor in the teaching of writing: a microethnographic approach to developing critical thinking,” hempelmann discusses the value of humor as the central topic in three critical thinking and writing courses for undergraduates in the united states. the author begins by highlighting the benefits and risks of using humor in the classroom and then describes in detail the design of the first original course and its subsequent adaptations, the materials used, and some of the students’ outcomes. the goal is to provide l1 and l2 teachers with a set of resources that can be used in their own classes. these resources include: the evidence to support the pedagogical decision of integrating humor in the course design, the materials to do so, and some possible student outcomes to assess the pedagogical value of humor. the three book reviews cover recent publications in the field of humor studies. forabosco reviews the encyclopedia of humor studies, which i edited. banas reviews nancy bell's groundbreaking we are not amused: failed humor in interaction. finally, i review delia chiaro and raffaella baccolini's edited collection gender and humor to wrap up the issue. references attardo, salvatore (1994). linguistic theories of humor. berlin/new york: mouton de gruyter. banas, john a., dunbar, norah, rodriguez, dariela, & liu, shr-jie (2011). a review of humor in educational settings: four decades of research. communication education, 60(1), 115-144. bell, nancy (2017). humor and second language development. in salvatore attardo (ed.), the routledge handbook of language and humor (pp. 444–455). new york, new york: routledge. bell, nancy, & pomerantz, anne (2016). humor in the classroom: a guide for language teachers and educational researchers. new york, new york: routledge. kirsh, gillian a., & kuiper, nicholas a. (2003). positive and negative aspects of sense of humor: associations with the constructs of individualism and relatedness. humor: international journal of humor research, 16(1), 33-62. kuiper, nicholas a., & olinger, l. joan (1998). humor and mental health. in howard friedman (ed.), encyclopedia of mental health, vol. 2 (pp. 445-458). san diego, california: academic press. martin, diane m., preiss, raymond w., gayle, barbara m., & allen, mike (2006). a meta-analytic assessment of the effect of humorous lectures on learning. in barbara gayle, raymond preiss, nancy burnell, & mike allen (eds.), classroom communication and instructional processes: advances through meta-analysis (pp. 295-313). mahwah, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. mcmorris, robert f., boothroyd, roger a., & pietrangelo, debra j. (1997). humor in educational testing: a review and discussion. applied measurement in education, 10(3), 269-297. salvatore attardo, texas a&m university-commerce salvatore.attardo@tamuc.edu en salvatore attardo holds degrees from università cattolica of milan and purdue university. he has published extensively on pragmatics, semantics, and the linguistics of humor, primarily on issues relating to implicatures, irony, and on neogricean pragmatics. he was the editor in chief of humor: international journal of humor research for 10 years and has recently edited the encyclopedia of humor studies (sage, 2014) and the routledge handbook of language and humor (2017). es salvatore attardo completó sus estudios en università cattolica de milán y purdue university. ha publicado extensivamente sobre pragmática, semántica y lingüística del humor, principalmente acerca de implicaturas, ironía y pragmática neogriceana. ha sido el editor jefe de la revista humor: international journal of humor research durante 10 años y ha editado la encyclopedia of humor studies (sage, 2014) y the routledge handbook of language and humor (2017). it salvatore attardo ha completato i suoi studi presso l’università cattolica di milano e la purdue university. ha pubblicato nell’ambito della pragmatica, della semantica, e dellla linguistica dell’umorismo, principalmente su temi relativi alle implicature, all’ironia e alla pragmatica neogriceana. è stato capo redattore della rivista humor: international journal of humor research per 10 anni e ha curato l’edizione della encyclopedia of humor studies (sage, 2014) e the routledge handbook of language and humor (2017). e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 2, issue 2, december 2015, pages 31-49 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.3.44 www.e-journall.org © camus 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: pac72@georgetown.edu spanish heritage language learners vs. l2 learners: what caf reveals about written proficiency pablo camusa*, sergio adrada-rafaelb ageorgetown university bfairfield university received 13 may 2015; received in revised form 28 october 2015; accepted 15 november 2015 abstract en recently, great interest has emerged in identifying the learning needs of heritage language (hl) learners. in comparing hl and second language (l2) learners, research suggests that l2 learners outperform hl learners when examining writing abilities (montrul, 2010; potowski, 2013). however, complexity, accuracy, and fluency (caf) have been overlooked when examining hl learners’ writing proficiency, and it could provide a better picture of their writing skills in a spontaneous untimed assignment. to address this issue, 28 l2 learners and 18 hl learners completed an untimed written production task on a non-academic subject and their written proficiency was assessed through caf measures (norris & ortega, 2009). results showed hl learners significantly outperformed l2 learners on two complexity measures: accuracy and fluency. a possible explanation for these findings could be the type of task used (more spontaneous, less-controlled), which taps into a more implicit type of knowledge, favoring hl learners (bowles, 2011). key words: heritage language learners, writing, caf. es en los últimos años ha habido un mayor esfuerzo para identificar las necesidades de los aprendientes de una lengua de herencia (lh). los resultados de estudios comparativos indican que los aprendientes de una l2 superan a los aprendientes de una lh en pruebas de habilidades de escritura (montrul, 2010; potowski, 2013). sin embargo, a la hora de analizar la producción escrita en la hl, la complejidad, la precisión y la fluidez (caf por sus siglas en inglés) han sido ignoradas, a pesar de que podrían ofrecer una descripción más precisa de las habilidades de escritura en la hl en tareas espontáneas no cronometradas. con el objetivo de aportar esta perspectiva, 28 aprendientes de l2 y 18 aprendientes de lh completaron una tarea de producción escrita en ámbito no académico y no cronometrada, y sus habilidades de escritura fueron evaluadas según los parámetros caf (norris & ortega, 2009). los resultados muestran que los aprendientes de hl superaron a los de l2 en dos parámetros, complejidad y fluidez. una posible explicación de estos resultados puede estar relacionada con el tipo de tarea (más espontánea y menos controlada), que requiere un conocimiento más implícito y favorecería así a los aprendientes de hl (bowles, 2011). palabras clave: aprendientes de una lengua de herencia, escritura, caf. it i bisogni di apprendimento di apprendenti una lingua ereditaria (hl) sono recentemente diventati oggetto di un crescente interesse. nelle ricerche che hanno confrontato apprendenti di una hl e di una lingua seconda (l2), il secondo tipo di apprendenti consegue risultati migliori del primo nell’abilità di scrittura (montrul, 2010; potowski, 2013). tuttavia, nell’esame della capacità di scrittura nella lingua ereditaria, complessità, precisione e fluidità (caf nell’abbreviazione inglese) sono spesso sottovalutate, mentre potrebbero fornire un quadro più accurato delle loro abilità di scrittura in compiti spontanei non a tempo. a tal fine, 28 apprendenti l2 e 18 apprendenti hl hanno svolto un compito di produzione scritta non a tempo su un argomento non accademico. valutata la loro capacità di scrittura sulla base di misurazioni della caf (norris & ortega, 2009), gli apprendenti hl hanno superato gli apprendenti l2 in due misure, precisione e scorrevolezza. una possibile spiegazione è da ricercarsi nel tipo di compito (più spontaneo e meno controllato) che fa leva su un tipo di conoscenza più implicita favorendo gli/le apprendenti hl (bowles, 2011). parole chiave: apprendenti di lingue ereditarie, scrittura, caf. http://www.e-journall.org/ camus & adrada-rafael e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 32 1. introduction there has been great interest in the second language acquisition (sla) literature in identifying the differences between heritage language (hl) learners and second language (l2) learners. the validity of this comparison is not only significant on theoretical grounds, which can potentially provide insight into the role of age and input in bilingual language acquisition, etc. (montrul, 2005; 2011; 2012), but it also has very important pedagogical implications. researchers and practitioners alike debate over whether it is more advantageous to enroll adult l2 and hl students attending post-secondary education in the same classes or in different classes that meet their specific needs (bowles, 2011a; lynch, 2008; mikulski, 2010; potowski et al., 2009). hl and l2 learners’ linguistic systems have been found to differ in terms of age of acquisition, learning context, language variety, or connections to language and culture. in addition, hl learners’ linguistic backgrounds differ among themselves as hl learners are strikingly notorious for their heterogeneous profiles and, often, strict comparisons are hard to make (montrul, 2010). valdés (1997, 2001) pointed out that hl learners’ language competence can vary to a great extent based on different factors: language use, bilingual education, socioeconomic status, or native variety. however, lynch’s (2008) findings suggested that spanish hl learners are not very different in their grammatical and lexical performances with respect to advanced l2 learners’ performances, despite the fact that hl learners are exposed to the (heritage) language from birth. he stated that similarities among hl and l2 learners are related to language use (how much they use it at home, time spent listening to tv or radio in spanish, language usage in personal relationships, at work, etc.). with these findings in mind, he suggested that mixed classes could be justified, but other studies’ findings seem to contradict this idea. the present study intends to probe deeper into the issue of difference among hl and l2 learners, by presenting both hl and l2 learners with an untimed semi-guided written task in order to further elucidate any potential differences on their written performance. in the following sections, a more detailed review of studies that have examined both hl learners’ writing and hl vs. l2 learners’ writing skills is offered, identifying the areas in need of further research, which will lead to the research questions that motivate the present study. 2. hl learners’ writing in general, the literature agrees that heritage speakers tend to have stronger oral and aural skills (i.e., speaking and listening), as these two skills are more often practiced in an informal, conversational setting (jegerski & ponti, 2014; montrul, 2008, 2010, 2012). however, when it comes to comparing hl and l2 learners’ writing skills, most researchers agree that l2 learners tend to outperform hl learners. potowski (2014) stated that heritage speakers often display underdeveloped literacy skills (i.e., reading and writing) in the hl. this could be due to the fact that their exposure to the hl has occurred primarily in informal, conversational contexts, and they lack a formal classroom instruction (carreira, 2004), unlike l2 learners, who have learned the language primarily in the classroom. colombi and roca (2003) pointed out that “one of the most important yet difficult aspects of spanish language development for heritage speakers is academic writing” (p. 9). these shortcomings on literacy skills are not only pointed out by scholars and practitioners, but also deeply recognized by hl learners themselves. when asked about which language skills they considered more important, spanish hl learners emphasis on their spanish literacy skills was decidedly more pronounced than speaking or listening abilities (hedgcock & lefkowitz, 2011). when asked about which skill they needed to improve the most, hl students identified writing, whereas l2 learners identified speaking as the skill that required further improvement (hedgcock & lefkowitz, 2011). therefore, it is not surprising that many researchers are interested in examining hl learners’ writing performance and development. in martínez (2007), 13 spanish hl students completed two writing assignments: a free writing assignment and a formal writing assignment on the variation between overt and null subject pronouns. martínez based his study on the context of two different writing tendencies observed in the literature: one where writing follows the traditions of the l1/dominant language, and another where learners break with those traditions and reveal a strong influence of their hl on their writing. results showed that hl learners tended to use subject pronouns more often in free speech than in formal writing. the author suggested that the role of transfer is multidimensional, drawing from hl learners’ multiple literacies, and depending on the context students use different resources from both languages to express their ideas in spanish writing. caf and written proficiency e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 33 nichols and colón (2000) also found interesting results with regard to the role that english plays on the hl (spanish) in enhancing writing development in the hl over time. the researchers observed the development of a group of 50 high school students over a period of four years by analyzing videotaped class presentations as well as writing samples produced over the course of the said period of time. overall, the fact that students were allowed to use both languages during class time maintained spanish as the main language employed in the classroom. the analyses of the writing samples revealed that hl learners gained more confidence and consistency in their writing over time, and were able to produce final drafts of higher quality in terms of content and organization. these studies lend support to the influence that hl learners’ dominant language might have on enhancing their writing skills in the hl. other studies have recently sought to understand whether participants’ cognitive processes might offer an additional explanation for their writing performance. one of the studies that examined the cognitive processes of spanish hl learners by using think-aloud protocols was schwartz (2003). she conducted a case study with three participants who first reported in a questionnaire the perception of the four skills in the hl language. after that, participants completed a descriptive writing task during which they employed think-alouds. finally, participants were individually interviewed by the researcher. the analysis of the verbal protocols revealed, first, that participants mainly thought aloud in english, but they also tried to find the right words in spanish, as if they were drawing upon their l1/hl internal system, and second, that participants’ thinking aloud affected their writing process, at times disrupting it. another way to examine writing abilities is by exploring the notions of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (caf). researchers and practitioners have employed these measures in order to appropriately operationalize the constructs of l2 performance and l2 proficiency, which are believed to be multidimentional in nature (housen & kuiken, 2009). caf provides other advantages as it provides us with a quantitative approach (using ratios, frequencies, and formulas) to assess l2 written and oral proficiency as well as to measure progress in language learning. while assessments with caf have been used extensively in the l2 literature, its employment in the hl literature to date is rather scarce. addressing different variables, such as caf, rather than just one or a few specific target forms, could provide us with a more complete overall picture of hl learners’ writing skills, and how these compare to l2 learners’. a few studies have addressed caf in hl learners. schwartz (2005) examined the writing performances and strategies of two different types of hl learners, differing in their level of academic skills in spanish. she also assessed six different linguistic measures: number of words, number of t-units, number of clauses divided by the number of t-units, number of errors divided by the number of t-units, and the number of error-free t-units. again, think-aloud protocols were used to account for the strategies employed by participants. no noticeable differences appeared at any of the linguistic measures, although it is important to note that there were only 5 participants, and no statistical analyses were run. with regard to the strategies employed, those with very low academic skills in spanish relied more on translation than those with higher academic skills. the author concluded that many factors seem to affect hl learners’ writing skills, and that assumptions should not be made about their writing proficiency based on their oral proficiency or on their participation in previous academic courses. mikulski and elola’s (2011) findings had similar implications. they sought to explore the writing behaviors of spanish hl learners in english and spanish. more specifically, they examined planning time, execution time, monitoring time, accuracy, and fluency in twelve spanish hl learners enrolled at an intermediate-level spanish class. the learners wrote two short essay-like questions in spanish and two in english after watching a short film. results indicated that in their dominant language, english, students showed more fluency and accuracy and spent less time planning between sentences. in spanish, on the other hand, participants spent significantly more time planning between sentences. the authors suggested that instructors should be aware of the pedagogical implications of these findings: instructors (1) should take advantage of students’ previous experience writing in english (i.e., the role of transfer), and (2) should adapt their curricula so that students move from informal to more academic assignments in order to become gradually familiar with the writing process in formal spanish. yanguas and lado (2012) used caf in order to investigate whether thinking-aloud in english or in spanish affected performance positively or negatively while carrying out a semi-controlled writing task, where participants had to create their own story based on three different comic strips. participants were 37 college students whose hl was spanish. the measures assessed were fluency, accuracy, and lexical complexity. the researchers found that thinking aloud while writing in the hl benefited fluency and accuracy camus & adrada-rafael e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 34 (i.e., positive reactivity) when their performance was compared to participants’ silent writing. the authors argued that think-alouds should be used with caution when trying to gain insight into learners’ cognitive processes. in sum, the general picture that emerges from the previous studies is that hl learners’ writing process in the hl can be more complicated and heterogeneous than at first expected, as they rely on their stronger writing skills in english and seem to use different learning strategies because their academic skills in spanish vary. hl learners also appear to take advantage of the strong oral skills in the hl as well when they immerse themselves in a writing exercise, and, as martínez (2007) discussed, hl learners appear to perform better in writing tasks that are free rather than more academic. while these studies provide us with a better idea of how hl learners behave when facing a writing assignment, further assumptions regarding whether they are at an advantage (or disadvantage) when compared to their l2 peers remain to be investigated. the next section will review how these two groups of learners compare to each other. 3. l2 vs. hl writing in recent studies, it has been argued that the differences in writing between l2 and hl learners might be related to the type of knowledge that the two groups possess. montrul (2010) and potowski (2014), among others, have claimed that l2 learners outperformed hl learners in writing tasks that required high levels of explicit metalinguistic awareness. potowski, jegerski, and morgan-short (2009) have made similar claims, suggesting that both hl and l2 learners could benefit from being exposed to different types of instruction (traditional output-based vs. processing instruction), as both l2 and hl learners showed significant improvement in interpretation and production tasks. the authors argued that hl learners can benefit from focused grammar instruction as well as l2 learners, provided they receive sufficient practice. bowles (2011) also investigated l2 and hl speakers who were both enrolled in intermediate spanish language classes. she found that l2 learners, who learned spanish mostly in an academic context, scored higher in explicit knowledge tasks whereas heritage speakers, who learned spanish in a naturalistic context, scored higher in implicit knowledge tasks. she concluded that hl learners have less explicit knowledge than l2 learners, due to the environment in which they learned spanish. montrul et al. (2008) probed deeper into hl and l2 learners’ use of gender agreement, and their results showed that hl learners had an advantage in oral tasks but were less accurate in written recognition and comprehension tasks than l2 speakers. the authors stated that “accuracy scores of the written tasks could be taken to reflect ability with metalinguistic, explicit knowledge (typically acquired later)” (p. 514). these findings seem to corroborate those reported earlier (bowles, 2011; montrul, 2010; potowski, 2014). along these same lines, montrul (2011), examined whether morphological variability differed significantly when comparing l2 and hl adult learners. her findings showed that the incorrect use of affixes for nominal and verbal inflections are as common for l2 learners as for hl learners, but, again, for heritage speakers morphological errors are more frequent in written than in oral tasks. however, it is important to keep in mind that some of the tasks employed in the last two studies did not require hl learners to produce their own writing, which is the ultimate goal of the present study. even though the results found in these studies are relatively conclusive, and provide us with greater insight into the knowledge that l2 and hl learners carry with them, the whole picture is less clear when it comes to mapping the writing abilities of these two groups. the claim that l2 learners outperform hl learners in writing skills has been assessed in studies whose main research questions were not measuring writing proficiency as a whole, but rather the interpretation/production of specific grammar forms. in addition, the tasks employed in these studies have been relatively short written and oral experimental tasks, which are very useful to tap into the knowledge of a grammatical target form that is challenging for hl learners (often a morphosyntactic form such as tam [tense, mood, and aspect] or the spanish direct/indirect object marker “a”), as well as untimed grammaticality judgment tasks (gjt), written narrative tests, etc. however, they fall short when it comes to measuring written proficiency in a more holistic, less controlled way. it is also noteworthy that it has not yet been tested whether these findings will extrapolate to the hl population when assessing heritage/l2 written performance and/or proficiency. the only study that made participants produce writing samples of this kind was escalante (2002). she analyzed rhetorical and linguistic skills on written material in english and spanish from a pool made by heritage speakers, bilingual (l1 english) speakers, and bilingual (l1 spanish) speakers. she found that heritage speaker writing has unique characteristics which are different from the other groups. in addition, contrary to what the previous studies’ findings suggested, escalante found that the spanish writing samples from hls were closer to spanish native caf and written proficiency e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 35 speakers than those of l2 spanish learners with regards to verbs, type of sentences, t-units, and length of sentences. 4. the present study the present study intends to present both hl and l2 learners with an untimed semi-guided written task in order to contribute to a better understanding of the differences between these two groups regarding complexity, accuracy, and fluency. caf is a triad that has been addressed in the literature to measure progress in language learning and language proficiency, as there is evidence that caf is related to interlanguage knowledge (housen & kuiken, 2009). in addition, ortega (2003) suggested that syntactic complexity is an objective measure of progress from oral-based proficiency to advanced literacy. to our knowledge, no study has compared written proficiency between hl and l2 learners by analyzing caf. to date, only schwartz (2003, 2005), mikulski and elola (2011), and yanguas and lado (2012) have analyzed fluency and accuracy in hl learners on a writing task, but they did not test those measures with an l2 group, which prevents us from making any strong comparison between these two groups of learners. keeping this in mind, the present study seeks to contribute to the hl writing development literature by addressing some particular issues that have been omitted in previous research, namely, the difference in written proficiency, as measured by caf, between l2 and hl learners of a similar level of self-assessed proficiency. while previous studies would suggest an advantage for l2 learners in a writing context, it remains to be seen whether this advantage holds when the writing task is untimed and semi-guided, rather than controlled. in order to fill these gaps found in the literature, the following research questions were formulated: 1) do advanced hl and l2 learners differ in writing proficiency as measured by complexity when exposed to an untimed semi-guided writing task? 2) do advanced hl and l2 learners differ in writing proficiency as measured by accuracy when exposed to an untimed semi-guided writing task? 3) do advanced hl and l2 learners differ in writing proficiency as measured by fluency when exposed to an untimed semi-guided writing task? 5. methodology and design 5.1 participants at the time of the data collection, all participants were enrolled in spanish language classes at a private research university on the east coast of the united states. from an initial pool of 48 participants that volunteered to participate in the study, 46 were included for subsequent analyses. two participants were excluded from further analyses, as english was their l2 and spanish their l3, which could cause a potential confound in the interpretation of results. of the 46 remaining participants, twenty-eight were l2 learners (n=28) and eighteen were hl learners (n=18). all participants completed a linguistic background questionnaire through which we gathered information concerning language use, language of instruction in primary and secondary education, self-rated proficiency, and classes taken in spanish as the language of instruction in their post-secondary institution. all participants reported that english was their language of instruction from primary to secondary school. four hl learners claimed they had attended a bilingual preschool, and two reported having completed two years in a bilingual primary school. in order to ensure similar levels of proficiency, at the time of the study, all participants were taking either advanced language classes in spanish or advanced content courses in spanish (e.g., business spanish). the l2 learners group consisted of native speakers of english who used this language exclusively at home as children and who began learning spanish as a second language around puberty (more specifically, from the ages of 12 to 16). the average age for this group was 19.3 (range: 18–21). all of these l2 learners learned spanish in an instructional setting, with basically no naturalistic exposure to the language, and none of them had ever traveled to a spanish-speaking country for more than two weeks. the average number of spanish classes taken in college was 1.79 (range 1-3 classes). the hl learners’ group consisted of 13 second-generation heritage speakers who were born and schooled in the united states, and five who arrived in the united states at the ages of 6-111. all of them were exposed to english before the age of five (i.e., in preschool). table 1 summarizes the patterns of language use 1 they are also known as “generation 1.5” (silva-corvalán, 2014). camus & adrada-rafael e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 36 for these hl speakers, in both spanish and english during childhood and at the time of testing. most of the heritage speakers spoke spanish (72%) or both (22%) during childhood (ages 1–5), but by the time they reached college, the majority was using predominantly english (50%) or both (45%). the largest amount of spanish spoken during childhood and at the time of testing was with parents only, whereas english or the use of both languages (code-switching) was mainly employed with siblings and friends. the average number of spanish classes taken in college (both language and content courses) was 1.81 (range 1-3 classes). the age of onset in english ranged from 2-5 years old, whereas their age on onset in spanish was at birth. table 1 estimated frequency of spanish and english language use by heritage speakers (n = 18) context spanish english both ages 1-5 72% 6% 22% ages 6-12 11% 27% 61% ages 13-18 6% 39% 56% at time of testing 5% 50% 45% table 2 summarizes the heritage speakers’ self-assessed proficiency in english and spanish. all heritage speakers continued to use spanish during their lifetime, but 56% rated their spanish proficiency as native-like, whereas 34% rated it as advanced and the remaining 11% as intermediate. by contrast, 95% rated their english proficiency as native-like and the remaining 5% as advanced. forty-five percent of the heritage speakers listed spanish as their native language, 16% listed english, and the remaining 39% listed both languages. when asked about their dominant language, 67% of the heritage speakers listed english, 22% listed both languages, and the remaining 11% listed spanish. table 2 self-perceived proficiency ratings of heritage speakers (n = 18) language none basic intermediate advanced nativelike spanish listening 6% 6% 6% 83% speaking 5% 11% 22% 61% reading 22% 33% 45% writing 5% 33% 28% 33% overall 11% 34% 56% english listening 5% 95% speaking 100% reading 100% writing 5% 95% overall 5% 95% 5.2 procedure at the end of the academic semester, one of the researchers visited two spanish language and content classes and explained to participants that they were going to perform an assignment in a language laboratory. the assignment consisted of one untimed writing exercise for all participants. they all completed a spontaneous task (see appendix a) related to a current topic (cellphone use in young adults and their perceptions of this usage). the topic of the task was chosen taking into account its relevance for participants in the present study (university students) and was considered to be an ideal task to elicit a variety of grammatical aspects, such as different tenses. nowadays, a vast majority of university students have a smartphone and most of their social lives revolve around their phones as an essential component in their caf and written proficiency e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 37 lives. therefore, this was considered an appropriate topic that would encourage participants to think about the positive and negative consequences of using smartphones (and to express their thoughts in writing). participants used microsoft word on the laboratory computers to complete the task. the researcher made sure the word self-corrector and spelling checker options were off, so that microsoft word did not automatically correct their morphosyntactic errors as well, and walked around while the task was being completed to ensure participants were not using any online dictionary or similar software. participants were urged to employ approximately 5-15 minutes to prepare an outline, and 35-40 minutes to write an essay about the given topic. they were also instructed to write about 300-350 words. upon completion of the task, the document was saved on the computers, and participants proceeded to complete an online background questionnaire. after that, they were thanked for their participation in the study and left the language laboratory. the total duration of the session was approximately 50-60 minutes. 5.3 caf analysis participants’ writing performance was analyzed based on three different measures: complexity, accuracy, and fluency. norris and ortega (2009) defined complexity as a “multifaceted” construct and recommended an approach to its measurement based on several criteria. the criteria employed in the present study to measure complexity were therefore the following: 1) overall complexity (mean length of t-unit); 2) complexity by subordination (mean number of clauses per t-unit), and 3) complexity by phrasal elaboration (mean length of clause by word). norris and ortega (2009) pointed out that the complexity measured by subordination could be considered an index of complexification at intermediate levels, while phrasal elaboration could be considered an index for more advanced levels. according to norris and ortega (2009), l2 spanish learners will first be able to produce subordinate clauses, and as they move up to a more advanced learning stage, they will then be able to further elaborate their clauses without employing subordination. therefore, all three of these measures were used in order to have a clearer picture of this construct. accuracy was measured as error-free clauses (percentage of clauses with no morpho-syntactic errors), following housen and kuiken (2009). orthographic/spelling errors were not considered. although there are different ways to measure accuracy, the authors of the present study thought error-free clauses would be a good way to give an initial whole picture of l2/hl differences. initially, the authors also considered employing the percentage of correct verb forms in terms of aspect, tense, mood, number, and person. however, we soon discovered that the results of these two accuracy measures (i.e., number of errorfree clauses and percentage of correct verb forms) were highly correlated for all participants, and, therefore, as one measure subsumed the other, only one—error-free clauses—was considered for inclusion in the statistical analyses. finally, fluency was measured by accounting for participants’ productivity, that is, the total number of words produced in the essay, given the same allocation of writing time for all participants. this way of looking into fluency in writing is an alternative to counting syllables per minute. most studies that have measured the total number of words have found striking differences between “better” writing, usually longer, and “weaker” writing, typically shorter (jarvis, grant, bikowski, & ferris, 2003). 5.4 coding each of the researchers coded half of the written tasks following the criteria detailed above. given the qualitative nature of the data, both researchers discussed any discrepancies prior to coding that could arise in the coding to ensure that coding criteria were consistent throughout all essays for the three measures examined. in addition, each researcher coded about 20% of the data coded by the other researcher to calculate inter-rater reliability (irr). the resulting irr was very high: 97%. once the coding was finalized, results were added to an excel spreadsheet, and then exported to spss 22 for further analyses. the following are two writing samples from a heritage learner and a l2 learner respectively, which display how the data were coded: camus & adrada-rafael e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 38 l2 learner sample2 <[hemos perdido mucho con el (la) llegado (llegada) de (la) tecnología. ]> <[en el pasado, las personas hablaban cuando cenaban, ]> <[pero ahora, todos usan sus smartphones ]> <[y no conocen (a) sus familias. ]> <[por el otro lado, necesitamos (de la) tecnología ] [porque usamos smartphones para cada actividad en el día. ]> <[si no tengamos (tuviéramos) smartphones,] [nuestras vidas cambiarían. ]> < [por ejemplo, sería más difícil para buscar información en el momento] [si no tengamos (tuviéramos) smartphones. ]> <[por ejemplo yo no sabría ] [nunca qué hora sea (es). ]> <[está claro ][que no podemos vivir sin los smartphones. ]>  9 t-units  13 clauses  38% (5/13) error-free clauses  91 words heritage learner sample <[la llegada de los teléfonos inteligentes ha traído más comunicación entre la gente y con más facilidad.] ><[también hay desventajas con el progreso de la tecnología] ><[y hay estudios ][que enseñan ][que el setenta y cinco por ciento de personas con un smartphone escriben menos a mano.] ><[también hay datos ][que demuestran] [que los jóvenes usan sus smartphones con más frecuencia para (tomar) notas.] ><[un smartphone debe conectar a personas] ><[pero al mismo tiempo, quita un aspecto personal de (al) comunicarse con alguien.]><[la presencia de la tecnología ha cambiado ][como vivimos.] ><[con (los) teléfonos móviles, puedes hablar con parientes en otras (otros) lugares del mundo] ><[pero también no tienes que ir a la casa de tu amiga ][si quieres hablar.]>  9 t-units  16 clauses  19% (3/16) of error-free clauses  114 words 6. results in this section3, results for the research questions proposed at the end of section 4 of this manuscript will be reported. all statistical analyses were performed using spss 22. the alpha level was set at 0.05 throughout all analyses. effect sizes (η2) and observed power are reported following larson-hall (2010) and cohen’s (1988) guidelines of .01 (small), .06 (medium), and .14 (large) for effect sizes; and of .20 (small), .50 (medium), and .80 (large) for power. 6.1 response to research question 1 do advanced hl and l2 learners differ in writing proficiency as measured by complexity when exposed to an untimed semi-guided writing task? rq1 addressed three different measures within complexity: 1) mean length of t-unit, 2) subordination (mean number of clauses per t-unit), and 3) phrasal elaboration (mean length of clause). 2 clauses are separated by brackets ([ ]) and t-units by angle brackets (< >) 3 as suggested by one of the reviewers, the same analyses presented in this section were run excluding the 5 hl learners who were categorized as generation 1.5 to account for any potential difference between groups when having a more homogeneous hl sample. results did not differ from those presented in this section. a second analysis excluding participants who were not enrolled in upper-level courses was suggested to obtain a more homogeneous sample for the interpretation of results. however, this eliminated 26 participants, leaving a final sample of 21 subjects (12 l2 and 9 hl), and rendering very low effect sizes and power. caf and written proficiency e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 39 three separate one-way anovas were conducted for each of these measures, with conditions (hl and l2) as independent variables, and the aforementioned measures as dependent variables. the first one-way anova, addressing mean length of t-unit, revealed a significant effect for condition, f (1, 44) = 14.428, p = .00, η2 = .28, observed power = .96, (see table 3 for descriptive statistics). the box plot in figure 1 shows how the hl group significantly outperformed the l2 group in mean length of t-unit. also, the distribution of scores between the 25% and the 75% quartiles4 appears to be more homogeneous for the hl group. table 3 descriptive statistics for somplexity (mean length of t-unit) group n m sd hl 18 17.31 2.16 l2 28 14.50 2.61 total 46 15.60 2.79 figure 1 overall complexity results by mean length of t-unit the second one-way anova, addressing subordination, also revealed a significant effect for condition, f (1, 44) = 11.042, p = .002, η2 = .20, observed power = .90, (see table 4 for descriptive statistics). a closer examination of the box plot (figure 2) shows how the hl group produced a significantly higher number of clauses per t-unit than their l2 counterparts. in line with the previous analysis (mean length of tunit), the number of clauses per t-unit produced seems to be more homogeneous among hl learners than l2 learners when considering the 25-75% quartiles. table 4 descriptive statistics for complexity (subordination) group n m sd hl 18 2.03 .29 l2 28 1.73 .30 total 46 1.84 .33 4 in a box plot, the upper and lower quartiles refer to the percentage of scores that fall below that specific quartile (75% and 25% respectively). they help us better understand the distributional characteristics of a group of scores. camus & adrada-rafael e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 40 figure 2 complexity results by subordination the third one-way anova, addressing phrasal elaboration, yielded no significant difference in the mean length of clause produced by either group, f (1, 44) = .332, p = .57, η2 = .007, observed power = .087 (see table 5 for descriptive statistics). the box plot (figure 3) reveals how both groups (hl and l2) performed equally well when observing the median and the distribution of scores in the 25% and 75% quartiles. table 5 descriptive statistics for complexity (phrasal elaboration) group n m sd hl 18 8.62 1.10 l2 28 8.44 .94 total 46 8.51 1.00 figure 3 complexity results by phrasal elaboration caf and written proficiency e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 41 6.2 response to research question 2 do advanced hl and l2 learners differ in writing proficiency as measured by accuracy when exposed to an untimed semi-guided writing task? in order to respond to rq2, a one-way anova was conducted with condition (hl and l2 groups) as independent variables, and error-free clauses as the dependent variable. the analysis revealed a significant effect when the production of error-free clauses by both groups was compared, f (1, 44) = 14.345, p = .00, η2 = .25, observed power = .96 (see table 6 for descriptive statistics). the hl group appeared to significantly outperform the l2 group in the production of error-free clauses, as shown in figure 4. the 25-75% quartiles yielded a more even distribution for the hl group, with a roughly similar number of participants above and below the median. table 6 descriptive statistics for accuracy (error-free clauses) group n m sd hl 18 68.04 19.60 l2 28 49.66 13.35 total 46 56.85 18.28 figure 4 accuracy results by error-free clauses 6.3 response to research question 3 do advanced hl and l2 learners differ in writing proficiency as measured by fluency when exposed to an untimed semi-guided writing task? a one-way anova was performed with condition (hl and l2 groups) as independent variables, and total number of words as the dependent variable, in order to examine whether the number of words produced by each group significantly differed from each other. the analysis yielded a significant difference, with the hl group outperforming their l2 counterparts, f (1, 44) = 9.815, p = .003, η2 = .18, observed power = .86 (see table 7 for descriptive statistics). the box plot (figure 5) reveals a higher median in the production of words by the hl group, and it also shows a more even distribution of word production for this group when looking at the 25-75% quartiles, while the l2 group production seems to be more homogeneous when observing these same quartiles. camus & adrada-rafael e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 42 table 7 descriptive statistics for fluency (total number of words) group n m sd hl 18 427 90.12 l2 28 360.14 54.93 total 46 386.30 77.25 figure 5 fluency results by number of words. 7. discussion contrary to some of the findings in the literature published to date, the current study suggests that spanish hl learners outperformed l2 learners of spanish in written production when exposed to an untimed semi-guided written task. analyses of complexity showed that spanish hl learners significantly outperformed l2 learners in two of the three measures employed: mean length of t-unit and subordination. it has been claimed in previous studies that one of the sturdiest tools that hl learners have at their disposal to develop their writing skills are their strong oral skills, and that drawing from these would put hl learners at an advantage over l2 learners. however, as chevalier (2004) pointed out, syntactically, conversational and informal speech are very different from writing, as they are characterized by the use of coordination rather than subordination, and they often display “a loose stringing together of phrases without connectives” (chafe, 1982, p. 37) in which ideas are grouped into intonational units that do not express more than one idea at a time. contrary to what the findings of chevalier and others would predict, in the present study, hl learners were able to produce a great amount of subordinate clauses (an average of 2.03 clauses per t-unit), in contrast to the average of 1.73 produced by l2 learners. therefore, strong oral skills would be unlikely to predict the complexity by subordination that hl learners’ writing displayed in this study. one of the possible explanations for these results could lie in the population targeted in this study. these hl learners were advanced students attending post-secondary education and taking advanced classes in spanish. they had taken an average of 1.81 classes in spanish in a post-secondary institution; therefore, all of them have been exposed to academic spanish and have completed written homework and assignments prior to participating in this study. this could suggest, as montrul (2010) stated, that if hls have “time to develop the underdeveloped skills through instruction, they should be able to catch up with educated native speakers if that is what their linguistic goal is” (p. 18). also, while it could be hypothesized that hl learners outperformed l2 learners because they might have dedicated more time to achieve native-like proficiency caf and written proficiency e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 43 through instruction, another possible explanation lies in hl learners’ early exposure to spanish, which could give them an initial advantage over l2 learners. in addition, the fact that these hl learners are taking spanish language and content courses at the college level might reflect a desire to improve their spanish skills by achieving biliteracy. that said, any assumption regarding l2 development throughout time should be interpreted with caution, as this is not a developmental study and data were collected at one point in time, with no pre-post design. another possible explanation for these somewhat unexpected results could lie in the intersection between the knowledge that hl and l2 learners possess and the type of task employed in this study. as has been discussed previously in the literature, l2 learners who have learned spanish in the classroom setting tend to outperform hl learners on written tasks that require high levels of metalinguistic awareness. as stated before, hl learners are better at oral tasks that minimize metalinguistic knowledge (bowles, 2011; montrul, 2010). high levels of metalinguistic awareness and explicit knowledge might not have been relevant for the type of assignment employed in this study: a non-academic, semi-guided and rather spontaneous written assignment in which both l2 and hl learners had to write about a topic quite familiar to 18-21 year old college students. therefore, the type of task might have played a role in the findings obtained, and it could be possible that this more spontaneous type of task could have tapped into more implicit knowledge, for which hl learners have been empirically shown to have an advantage over their l2 counterparts. hl learners might have also felt less intimidated to talk about a familiar subject, which could have led to a more syntactically complex, accurate, and lengthy piece of writing. it is also important to remember that with regard to accuracy, only morphosyntactic errors were taken into consideration, and not spelling or orthographical errors. the inclusion of these aspects could show a more detailed picture of a learner’s writing proficiency. additionally, previous research has shown that hls write differently when dealing with free or with academic writing. martinez (2007) showed that in free writing, hl learners use overt-pronouns (not very common in spanish) less often than in academic writing. in that study the author attributed this difference to the effects of transfer, and in the case of this task, hl learners relied more on the native-like knowledge of spanish rather than on the rhetorical traditions of the dominant language. even so, while the type of knowledge used by l2 and hl learners in long written assignments (rather than in oral tasks) remains an empirical question to be addressed, it would be safe to assume that an untimed composition would pose an advantage for l2 learners, especially with regards to accuracy. hl learners are notorious for deviations from standard registers in spanish. specifically, hl learners tend to have many deviations from spanish formal registers when it comes to the use of the subjunctive, clitics, or tense, aspect, and mood (tam). on the other hand, l2 learners would have been expected to have an advantage in this area, as their metalinguistic knowledge might have helped them avoid this type of mistakes. given the present findings, it could be argued that l2 learners were not committing much attention to accuracy, as the assignment was not part of the curriculum of the class they were taking. however, as skehan (2009) pointed out, a trade-off hypothesis would predict that attention to one area would cause lower performance in another. this could have predicted that if hls and l2 learners had a similar written proficiency, hl learners would have outperformed their l2 peers in some areas, while the opposite would have happened in other aspects of language. for example, l2 learners’ lack of attention to accuracy would have resulted in longer texts. however, results in this study show otherwise, as hl learners produced longer texts and still outperformed l2 learners in most of the measures, contradicting skehan’s hypothesis. another explanation for why hl learners might have outperformed l2 learners could be related to the fact that this particular population of heritage learners possess a higher explicit metalinguistic knowledge than hl participants in other studies, as they attend advanced content and language classes in spanish, and they have been exposed to a certain amount of explicit grammatical instruction (although all the classes employ a communicative approach in which explicit grammatical instruction is reduced to a minimum). as hl participants in many previous studies were enrolled in classes of a lower level of proficiency, it is hard to establish a firm comparison with the findings at hand, but a higher proficiency level appears to be indicative of better overall results. l2 learners, on the other hand, having acquired the language through formal instruction (none of them had studied abroad or learned the language through immersion), could have tried to approach the task with the same tools they approach other academic tasks. however, it should also be noted that despite the focus on more academic tasks at the most advanced levels, l2 learners have previously gone through more basic levels (i.e., beginners), where the type of tasks/activities employed is rather non-academic. therefore, camus & adrada-rafael e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 44 the type of task, academic vs. non-academic, could play a role in the results observed, but it is unclear whether a more academic task would benefit l2 learners over hl learners. to conclude, the proficiency level of hl learners, the type of knowledge elicited, and the type of task employed in the present study could have all played a role in the overall advantage that hl learners showed over their l2 peers. 8. pedagogical implications the findings of the present study have strong implications for l2 and hl teaching practitioners and program directors alike. first of all, the significantly different results obtained in all but one of the measures examined reveal that under the same type of task (untimed semi-guided writing task), hl learners performed better than their l2 counterparts. thus, it would seem reasonable to suggest that each group might need language curricula/programs tailored to their specific needs, or at least different types of written assessments and tasks should be tailored for these students, as exposure to the same task in the present study elicited different performances. previous research has warned about the necessity to differentiate between these two groups of learners (e.g., acosta, 2013; beaudrie, 2006; chevalier, 2004) when designing language course curricula, as it is becoming gradually the norm (and not the exception) to implement hl programs alongside regular l2 programs (bowles & montrul, 2014; valdés, 1997). in this study, hl learners who were at a comparable curricular stage as l2 learners, benefited from a less controlled type of task. however, as previous studies have shown (e.g., bowles, 2011), in more controlled type of writing tasks, hl learners appear to be outperformed by their l2 peers. one implication of these findings is that a bigger emphasis should be placed on those areas where l2 and hl learners each struggle the most. in this case, l2 learners could benefit from further practice with less controlled writing tasks of a non-academic topic. in the same way, hl learners could benefit from being engaged in extra-practice in more controlled writing tasks with a focus on grammar (bowles, 2011; potowski et al., 2009). providing each group of learners with the practice necessary to improve in particular areas could potentially reduce existing differences. finally, any pedagogical implication derived from this study should keep in mind participants’ advanced proficiency level, where both groups have had several semesters of exposure to spanish in a formal setting. this may have helped to level out prior differences in proficiency. any curricular design adapted to hl or l2 learners’ needs should be aware of the proficiency level. finally, as mikulski and elola (2011) suggested, heritage courses should begin with less academic writing tasks and gradually move towards the inclusion in the course curricula of more advanced, academic tasks, once hl learners have mastered the use of other complicated structures (e.g., subjunctive, clitics) that they might need to incorporate in their writing. 9. limitations and further research one limitation of the present study is found in the pool of participants and the courses they were enrolled in. for hl learners, more than half of the sample was enrolled in upper-advanced (content) courses, while about two thirds of the l2 learners were enrolled at advanced (language) courses at the time of data collection. this difference in the number of participants enrolled in one or another level might have possibly benefited the hl population, as a higher percentage of them was enrolled in upper-advanced courses. a second limitation is related to the way in which accuracy was measured. while it can be argued that all approaches to measuring accuracy have their drawbacks, in the present study the methodology employed did not account for the difference between a t-unit with one error or with more than one, and it did not distinguish between minor or severe errors. an additional limitation concerning the pool of participants is found in the variability within the heritage learners, as five of them were 1.5 generation (those who arrived in the united states at the ages of 6-11), and the remaining 13 were second generation hl learners. as in many other studies involving hl learners, their linguistic background is usually more heterogeneous than the l2 population. also, although it was attempted to maintain the same level of proficiency in both hl and l2 participants by inquiring about language use, using self-perceived proficiency questionnaires, and enrolling only those attending advanced language courses, actual enrollment in these courses was determined by an oral proficiency examination for the heritage speakers, while more rigorous criteria for l2 participants were required. a proficiency examination prior to data collection would have been ideal, but was not possible to administer due to time constraints. an additional and final limitation resides in caf and written proficiency e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 45 the use of caf to measure writing proficiency. for instance, we can take a closer look at the following writing excerpt produced by one of the hl participants: sin los teléfonos celulares, tendríamos que esforzarnos más para completar cosas cotidianas de las cuales ya ni nos damos cuenta, como conseguir el teléfono de mi compadre para invitarlo a la carne asada o encontrar la dirección de un restaurante en un pueblo que no conozco. certainly, this is a highly syntactically complex and accurate paragraph, but it might fall short on a lexical analysis (i.e., vocabulary), like the use of “cosa” (thing) instead of a more appropriate word, and if this happened to be a more academic type of task, the use of “compadre” (buddy) would be incorrect for the expected register. therefore, it is important to take into consideration that language learning and language use is much more complex than the measures of caf are capable of accounting for, as these two lexical elements were not captured by these measures. it is important to note that this is not just a limitation affecting this study, but rather, any study that employs caf measures to obtain an overall idea of an l2/hl learner’s writing skills. further research could build from the present design and take different directions. first, a future study could consider hl learners’ type of courses completed (language vs. content), the hl generation (first, 1.5, second, etc.) or other bio-data reported in the background questionnaire and analyze them in relation to the results obtained. such an approach could offer the reader with a finer-grained analysis where he or she could actually see how caf findings break down when these background characteristics are added to the equation. as it was argued in the discussion section, the type of task used in this study could have tapped more into learners’ implicit knowledge, and thus may have benefited hl learners. further studies could add a more academic task into the design and examine whether the findings observed differ in relation to the type of task employed and the target population. additionally, further studies could go beyond caf and address other linguistic components, such as lexicon or spelling errors. while previous studies have looked into these aspects of language with hl learners (e.g. beaudrie, 2012), no study to date has examined them together with caf. an analysis of other linguistic levels could present us with a richer perspective of the learner’s overall writing proficiency. finally, it seems natural to want to have ratings of writing quality so as to be able to address an interesting additional question: can we say that teachers or human raters (blinded to the hl or l2 membership of the writers) score the hl writing higher than the l2 writing, given the findings for caf? so, a good addition to the caf measures would be a measure of writing quality by human raters/teachers, to actually observe whether the human assessment actually supports the ratings obtained by caf. ideally, those human raters should not be familiar with caf measures or with its related literature, to make the writing correction and rating more objective. 10. conclusion the present study addressed the issue of caf, that is, complexity, accuracy, and fluency, comparing how two different groups of learners, heritage vs. l2, performed on a writing task. results yielded an overall significant advantage for the hl group, as it outperformed the l2 group in two of the three measures analyzed within complexity (mean length of t-unit and subordination), as well as in accuracy and in fluency. the importance of the present findings lies in the fact that this is the first study to date to examine the issue of caf in hl learners on a written task, thus contributing to the existing literature on the specific needs of hl learners in academic contexts. more specifically, these results suggest that at a high level of proficiency, hl learners are able to outperform l2 learners, which contradicts what previous studies have found when examining learners with lower levels of proficiency. this trend, which should be interpreted in light of the limitations detailed in the previous section, will hopefully open new paths of research for future studies that want to further investigate the issue of heritage learners, so that a more complete picture of their acquisition process can be obtained. camus & adrada-rafael e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 46 references bowles, melissa (2010). the think-aloud controversy in second language research. new york, new york: routledge. bowles, melissa (2011). measuring implicit and explicit linguistic knowledge. studies in second language acquisition, 33(02), 247-271. carreira, maría (2004). seeking explanatory adequacy: a dual approach to understanding the term “heritage language learner.” heritage language journal, 2(1), 1-25. chafe, wallace (1982). integration and involvement in speaking, writing, and oral literature. in deborah tannen (ed.), spoken and written language: exploring orality and literacy (pp. 35-53). norwood, new jersey: ablex. chevalier, jean-francois (2004). heritage language literacy: theory and practice. heritage language journal, 2(1), 1-19. ellis, nick (2005). at the interface: dynamic interactions of explicit and implicit language knowledge. studies in second language acquisition, 27, 305-352. hedgcock, john, & lefkowitz, natalie (2011). exploring the learning potential of writing development in heritage language education. in rosa m. manchón (ed.), learning-to-write and writing-to-learn in an additional language (pp. 209 – 233). amsterdam, holland: john benjamins. housen, alex, & kuiken, folkert (2009). complexity, accuracy, and fluency in second language acquisition. applied linguistics, 30 (4), 461-473. jarvis, scott, grant, leslie, bikowski, dawn, & ferris, dana (2003). exploring multiple 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(eds.), the handbook of spanish second language acquisition (pp. 404-422). malden, massachussets: john wiley & sons. potowski, kim, jegerski, jill, & morgan‐short, kara (2009). the effects of instruction on linguistic development in spanish heritage language speakers. language learning, 59(3), 537-579. reichelt, melinda, lefkowitz, natalie, rinnert, carol, & schultz, jean marie (2012). key issues in foreign language writing. foreign language annals, 45, 22-41. roca, ana, & colombi, maría cecilia (eds.). (2003). mi lengua: spanish as a heritage language in the united states, research and practice. washington, district of columbia: georgetown university press. schwartz, ana maría (2003). heritage spanish speakers’ writing strategies. in ana roca & cecilia colombi (eds.), mi lengua: spanish as a heritage language in the united states: research and practice (pp. 235– 257). washington, district of columbia: georgetown university press. silva-corvalán, carmen (2014). bilingual language acquisition: spanish and english in the first six years. new york, new york: cambridge university press. skehan, peter (2009). modelling second language performance: integrating complexity, accuracy, fluency, and lexis. applied linguistics, 30(4), 510-532. valdés, guadalupe (1997). the teaching of spanish to bilingual spanish-speaking students: outstanding issues and unanswered questions. in m. cecilia colombi & francisco alarcón (ed.), la enseñanza del español a hispanohablantes: praxis y teoría, (pp. 8–44). boston: houghton mifflin. valdés, guadalupe (2001). learning and not learning english: latino students in american schools. new york, new york: teachers college press. valdés, guadalupe (2005). bilingualism, heritage language learners, and sla research: opportunities lost or seized?. the modern language journal, 89(3), 410-426. yanguas, iñigo, & lado, beatriz (2012). is thinking aloud reactive when writing in the heritage language?. foreign language annals, 45(3), 380-399. camus & adrada-rafael e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 48 appendix a writing task 1 actividad de escritura: los teléfonos móviles en un estudio realizado por la empresa surcoreana samsung se estimó que la mayoría de las personas escribe casi a diario con el teléfono móvil (o smartphone), superando a la escritura a mano. entre algunas de las conclusiones del estudio, podemos destacar las siguientes: datos: sí no escribir menos a mano desde adquisición de un smartphone. 75% 25% usar smartphone como bloc de notas con mucha frecuencia. personas menores de 30 años. personas mayores de 30 años. enviar largos mensajes románticos a través del teléfono. 20% 80% (escribe a mano) echar de menos abrir cartas. 85% 15% imagina que trabajas para el periódico local, y te piden que escribas un artículo sobre los cambios que la sociedad ha experimentado desde la llegada de los teléfonos inteligentes. en este texto debes incluir lo siguiente:  introducción: incluye los datos del estudio, da contrastes.  nostalgia: comenta sobre todo lo que creas que hemos perdido debido a la presencia de la tecnología y en especial los teléfonos móviles, puedes hablar de temas sobre la nostalgia, pero también sobre la pérdida de privacidad.  advertencia: aquí debes opinar sobre cómo sería la vida si no tuviéramos teléfonos, y cómo crees que cambiaría tu rutina sin los smartphones y la tecnología de hoy.  conclusión (el futuro): ¿cómo crees que estos cambios seguirán evolucionando de aquí a una década o dos? caf and written proficiency e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 31-49 49 pablo camus, georgetown university pac72@georgetown.edu en pablo camus is a ph.d. candidate in applied linguistics at the department of spanish and portuguese at georgetown university, usa. in that department, he also serves as assistant director of the spanish language program advanced level. his research interests include second language acquisition, acquisition of phonology, heritage language acquisition, and second language writing. he has presented his research at internationally renowned conferences in the field of second language acquisition, such as eurosla and slrf. es pablo camus es doctorando de lingüística aplicada en el departamento de español y portugués y director del programa de lengua española avanzada de la georgetown university, en los estados unidos. sus intereses académicos incluyen el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua, el aprendizaje de la fonología, el aprendizaje de una lengua de herencia y la producción escrita en una segunda lengua. ha presentado los resultados de sus investigaciones en conferencias internacionales sobre aprendizaje de segundas lenguas tales como eurosla y slrf. it pablo camus è dottorando di linguistica applicata presso il dipartimento di spagnolo e portoghese della georgetown university, u.s.a. è anche vicedirettore del programma di lingua spagnola avanzata dello stesso dipartimento. i suoi ambiti di ricerca includono l’apprendimento di una seconda lingua, l’apprendimento della fonologia, l’apprendimento di una lingua ereditaria e la produzione scritta in una seconda lingua. ha presentato i risultati delle sue ricerche durante convegni di importanza internazionale dedicati all’apprendimento di una seconda lingua, come eurosla e slrf. sergio adrada-rafael, fairfield university sadradarafael@fairfield.edu en sergio adrada-rafael is an assistant professor of spanish and linguistics at the department of modern languages & literatures at fairfield university, usa. in that department, he also serves as the director of the spanish language program introductory and intermediate levels. his research interests encompass second language acquisition (sla) and pedagogy, heritage language acquisition, psycholinguistics (with an emphasis on sla), technology applied to sla, and second language writing. he has presented his research at internationally renowned conferences in the field of second language acquisition, such as aaal, eurosla, and slrf. es sergio adrada-rafael es profesor contratado de español y lingüística en el departamento de lenguas modernas y literatura de fairfield university, en los estados unidos. además, es también el director del programa de lengua española de esa misma universidad para los niveles inicial e intermedio. sus intereses académicos incluyen la adquisición de segundas lenguas (sla por sus siglas en inglés) y su pedagogía, la adquisición de lenguas de herencia, sicolingüística con énfasis en sla, nuevas tecnologías aplicadas a sla y escritura en una segunda lengua. los resultados de sus investigaciones han sido presentados en conferencias internacionales del ámbito de sla, tales como aaal, eurosla y slrf. it sergio adrada-rafael è assistant professor di spagnolo e linguistica del dipartimento di letterature e lingue moderne della fairfield university, u.s.a. per lo stesso dipartimento, dirige il programma linguistico di spagnolo ai livelli principiante e intermedio. i suoi interessi di ricerca ricoprono l’acquisizione della seconda lingua (sla) e la sua didattica, l’acquisizione della lingua di origine, la psicolinguistica con enfasi sulla sla, le tecnologie applicate alla sla, e la scrittura nella seconda lingua. ha presentato la sua ricerca nelle maggiori conferenze internazionali nel campo dell’acquisizione della seconda lingua, come aaal, eurosla e slrf. microsoft word padilla_ 7.2.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  7,  issue  2,  october  2020,  112–115   issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.12.219   www.e-­‐journall.org       © padilla 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       reseña:  macedo,  donaldo  (ed.)  (2019).  decolonizing  foreign  language   education:  the  misteaching  of  english  and  other  colonial  languages.   routledge.         lillie  vivian  padilla   sam  houston  state  university         book  review     received  2  august  2020;    accepted  after  revisions  28  august  2020   abstract es el libro reseñado considera las diferentes maneras en las que se puede descolonizar la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en el salón de clase. el libro incluye 11 capítulos que examinan las diferentes ramas de la enseñanza y propone sugerencias para lograr esta descolonización. palabras clave:  descolonización, lenguas extranjeras, enseñanza en the book under review presents different approaches to decolonizing foreign language education in the classroom. the book includes 11 chapters, each examining a different branch of teaching and proposing suggestions aimed at realizing decolonization. key words: decolonization, foreign languages, teaching it il libro recensito tratta dei diversi modi possibili per decolonizzare l’insegnamento delle lingue straniere in classe. gli 11 capitoli che lo compongono prendono in considerazione i vari rami dell’insegnamento e danno suggerimenti per il raggiungimento della decolonizzazione. parole chiave: decolonizzazione, lingue straniere, insegnamento   *  lillie  padilla,  sam  houston  state  university                  lvp005@shsu.edu http://www.e-journall.org reseña:  decolonizing  foreign  language  education   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  112–115 113   en  una  oleada  de  la  lucha  contra  la  brutalidad  policial,  el  racismo,  la  desigualdad  y  las  violaciones  de   los   derechos   humanos,   el   libro  decolonizing   foreign   language   education,   editado  por  donaldo  macedo,   no   podría   haber   llegado   en   mejor   momento.   este   libro   le   reclama   al   campo   de   lenguas   extranjeras   la   descolonización  de   la   enseñanza.   en   el   sentido   estricto  de   la  palabra,   el   término  descolonización   implica   el   proceso  de  desconstruir   las   ideologías  coloniales  sobre   la  superioridad  del  pensamiento  occidental.  en  este   sentido,   el   libro   explora,   en   varios   contextos,   los   planteamientos   que   priorizan   las   lenguas   occidentales   a   costa  de   las   lenguas  extranjeras,   indígenas  y   lenguas  no  estándares.  este   libro  es  un  recurso  excelente  para   educadores,  docentes  nuevos,  profesores,  lingüistas  y  todos  aquellos  que  manifiesten  interés  en  la  enseñanza   de  lenguas.   en   cuanto   a   la   estructura,   el   libro   tiene   287   páginas   e   incluye   11   capítulos   escritos   por   diversos   expertos  en  el  campo  de  la  lingüística  y  la  educación.  la  progresión  de  los  temas  ofrece  una  visión  global  de  la   realidad   sobre   el   campo.   empieza   con   un   prefacio   escrito   por   michael   degraff,   que   le   provee   al   lector   la   información  relevante  para  que  este  conozca  /  se  oriente  en  el  estado  actual  de  la  enseñanza  de  las  lenguas   extranjeras.  degraff     plantea   la  necesidad  de  descolonizar   la   enseñanza  de   lenguas   extranjeras,   que,   según   este,   es   una   nueva   forma   de   racismo   en   la   sociedad.   para   apoyar   su   planteamiento,   degraff   describe   la   situación  en  haití,  donde  actualmente  se  usa  la  lengua  de  colonización  (francés)  en  vez  de  la  lengua  materna   (kreyol)  en   la  enseñanza   institucionalizada  del  país.  al  enseñar  en  francés,  no  solo  se  están  erradicando  las   lenguas  nativas,  sino  que  también  se  está  otorgando  una  educación  eficiente  a  unos  pocos  privilegiados.  con   esa   introduccción,   el   lector   está   consciente   de   las   complejas   interrelaciones   entre   el   colonialismo   y   la   enseñanza  de  las  lenguas  extranjeras.   el   primer   capítulo,   “rupturing   the   yoke   of   colonialism   in   foreign   language   educaton:   an   introduction”,  escrito  por  donaldo  marcedo  (el  mismo  editor  del  volumen),  presenta  una  oportunidad  para   reflexionar  sobre  las  creencias  y  prácticas  actuales  en  la  enseñanza  de  las  lenguas  extranjeras.  él  presenta  un   análisis  de  los  conceptos  erróneos  que  rodean  la  enseñanza  de  lenguas,  por  ejemplo  la  supuesta  superioridad   de  la  lengua  colonial  contra  las  lenguas  indígenas,   las  lenguas  criollas,  pidgins  y  translanguages,  así  como  la   supuesta   superioridad   de   la   lingüística   pura   contra   la   lingüística   aplicada,   entre   otros.   resulta   particularmente  interesante  que  el  autor  dedique  una  sección  en  la  que  proporciona  varias  recomendaciones   para   romper   el   yugo   del   colonialismo   en   la   enseñanza.   el   autor   menciona,   por   ejemplo,   la   inclusión   de   materiales   curriculares  que  demuestran  que   los   errores   son  normales   y  parte  del   proceso  del   aprendizaje.   también   sugiere   que   en   vez   de   tener   a   los   profesores   enseñando   clases   generales   de   lingüística,   ellos   deberían  enseñar  clases  en  sus  áreas  de  especialización.      el   segundo   capítulo,   “between   globalization   and   decolonization:   foreign   languages   in   the   cross-­‐ fire”,  está  escrito  por  claire  kramsch.  en  este  capitulo,   la  autora  expone  las  dificultades  que  encuentran  los   educadores   al   descolonizar   la   enseñanza   de   las   lenguas.   por   ejemplo,   aunque   los   profesores   luchan   para   descolonizar  la  enseñanza,  deben  responder  a  la  necesidad  de  desarrollar  la  competencia  comunicativa  entre   los  estudiantes.  además,  algunas  de  las  cuestiones  destacadas  en  este  capítulo  conciernen  al  nuevo  panorama   político   (desde   el   colonialismo   al   neoliberalismo)   y   al   uso   de   la   lingüística   aplicada   y   del   aprendizaje   de   segundas   lenguas   para   solucionar   los   problemas   que   plantea   la   globalización.   los   temas   tratados   en   este   capítulo  son  importantes,  porque,  no  solo  sacan  a  luz  los  problemas  a  los  que  los  profesores  se  enfrentan  en  el   salón  de   clase,   sino  que   también  proponen   ideas  para   solucionar  dichos  problemas.  de   especial   relevancia   para  los  profesores  es  el  ejercicio  sobre  la  traducción  cultural  en  la  página  67.   en   el   capítulo   tres,   los   autores   timothy   reagan   y   terry   osborn   hacen   llamado   a   un   cambio   de   paradigma  sobre  los  motivos  detrás  de  la  enseñanza  de  las  lenguas  extranjeras  en  los  estados  unidos.  en  este   capítulo,   titulado   “time   for   a   paradigm   shift   in   u.s.   foreign   language   education?   revisiting   rationales,   evidence   and   outcomes”,   se   presentan   las   justificaciones   tradicionales   de   la   enseñanza   de   las   lenguas   extranjeras  y  se  explica  detalladamente  por  qué  estas  justificaciones  son  inadecuadas.  en  este  caso,  son  muy   importantes   las   tablas   en   las   páginas  75   y  77,   que   los   autores  usan  para  presentar  un  panorama   claro  del   declive   en   la   matrícula   en   los   cursos   de   las   lenguas   extranjeras.   a   continuación,   los   autores   exploran   los   conceptos  de  globalización  y  neocolonialismo  y  sus  impactos  sobre  la  enseñanza  de  las  lenguas  extranjeras.   desde  el  punto  de  vista  didáctico,   este   capítulo   es   especialmente   relevante  porque  presenta  un  argumento   convincente   sobre   la   necesidad   de   crear   nuevas   narrativas   sobre   la   importancia   del   aprendizaje   de   las   lenguas  extranjeras.   el   cuarto   capítulo   está   titulado   “sla   for   the  21st   century:  disciplinary  progress,   transdisciplinary   relevance,  and  the  bi/multilingual  turn”.  este  capítulo,  escrito  por  lourdes  ortega,  se  centra  en  los  avances   en  el  campo  de  adquisición  de  segundas  lenguas  en  los  últimos  quince  años.  subraya  los  avances  importantes   padilla   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  112–115 114   como   la  diversidad  epistemológica,   la   adopción  de  prácticas  basadas  en  el  uso  de   la   lengua,   el   aumento  de   libros   que   cubren   el   diseño   de   métodos   de   investigación   y   la   ampliación   de   contextos   y   poblaciones   de   estudio.   a   pesar   del   éxito,   la   autora   identifica   la   falta   de   un   enfoque   interdisciplinario   y   la   necesidad   de   reconsiderar   las  metas   del   campo,   sus  marcos   conceptuales   y   sus   impactos   en   las   comunidades   exteriores   como  áreas  que  todavía  necesitan  atención.  este  llamado  hecho  por  la  autora  es  fundamental  porque  nos  abre   los   ojos   ante   la   importancia   de   prestar   atención   a   la   configuración   de   las   disciplinas   y   encontrar   aquellos   enfoques  que  mejor  se  ajusten  a  nuestros  estudiantes.   el   capítulo   cinco   está   titulado   “towards  decolonizing  heritage   language  teacher   education”.   este   capítulo,  escrito  por  theresa  austin,  se  centra  específicamente  en  la  enseñanza  de  las  lenguas  de  herencia.  la   autora   examina   los   métodos   de   enseñanza,   los   desafíos   en   la   formación   de   docentes   y   los   esfuerzos   encaminados   a   lograr   la   descolonización   en   este   campo.   además,   usando   su   propia   experiencia   como   estudiante   de   una   lengua   heredada,   ella   aborda   las   complejas   cuestiones   relacionadas   con   las   lenguas   de   herencia,   por   ejemplo   cómo   definir   un   idoma,   la   alfabetización   y   la   cultura.   estas   cuestiones   son   muy   importantes  porque  influyen  mucho  en  las  prácticas  que  adoptamos  en  el  salón  de  clase.   en   el   capítulo   seis,   titulado   “decolonizing   foreign,   second,   heritage,   and   first   languages:   implications   for   education”,   la   autora,   ofelia   garcía,   sostiene   que   las   raíces   de   ciertas   construcciones   (por   ejemplo,   las   vinculadas   con   los   conceptos   de   lenguas   extranjeras,   segundas   lenguas,   lenguas   heredadas,   inglés,  español  castellano)  se  basan  en  los  deseos  de  las  potencias  occidentales  para  consolidar  su  poder.  por   lo  tanto,  en  este  capítulo  la  autora  se  remonta  a  las  raíces  de  dichas  construcciones  para  mostrar  que  fueron   las  piezas  fundamentales  para  la  colonización  y  la  opresión  de  mucha  gente.  además,  según  la  autora,  muchos   programas   de   lenguas   fallan   porque   siguen   las   ideologías   de   dichas   construcciones,   en   vez   de   reflejar   la   realidad   lingüística   de   los   estudiantes   en   el   salón   de   clase.   de   esta   manera,   la   autora   propone   ejemplos   basados   en   las   realidades   vividas   por   estudiantes   latinos   en   los   estados   unidos,   para   demostrar   que   las   ideologías  de  los  programas  no  cumplen  con  sus  necesidades.  la  autora  menciona,  por  ejemplo,  el  hecho  de   que   los  programas  no   toman  en   cuenta   los  diferentes  niveles  de  bilingüismo  y,   en   cambio,   clasifican   todos   como  aprendices  de  inglés.   los   dos   capítulos   que   siguen   hablan   sobre   el   concepto   de   translanguaging.   en   el   capítulo   siete,   titulado  “from  translanguaging  to  translingual  activism”,  el  autor  alastair  pennycook  pide  un  cambio  en  la   manera  en  que  se  concibe  el  bilingüismo.  sugiere  un  movimiento  desde  “bilingual  advantage”  a  “translingual   advantage”   (p.   170).   según   el   autor,   el   reconocimiento   de   translanguaging   evita   el   uso   de   etiquetas   como   bilingüe,   hablante   de   segunda   lengua,   entre   otros   y   permite   apreciar   la   diversidad   de   los   hablantes.   esta   distinción  que   sugiere   el   autor   es  un  paso   importante  hacia   la   valoración  de   la  diversidad   lingüística   en   el   salón  de  clase.   en  el  capítulo  ocho,  el  autor  jeff  macswan,  evalúa  las  teorías  de  bilingüismo  y  sugiere  una  perspectiva   multilingüística   con   respeto   al   concepto   de   translanguaging.   en   este   capítulo,   titulado   “a   multilingual   perspective   on   translanguaging”,   el   autor   propone   tres   puntos   de   vista   sobre   el   multilingüismo   de   un   individuo:  dual  competence  model,  unitary  model  e  integrated  model.  según  el  autor,  el  tercer  punto  de  vista   es  el  que  ha  sugerido  de  las  investigaciones  de  codeswitching.  el  autor  ofrece  un  diagrama  (p.  199)  y  ejemplos   claros  para  explicar  cada  punto  de  vista.     en   el   capítulo   nueve,   “english   language   learning   in   globalized   third   spaces:   from  monocultural   standardization  to  hybridized  translanguaging”,   los  autores  david  hemphill  y  erin  blakely  sostienen  que  el   colonialismo  en   las  escuelas  se  origina  en   la  normalización  del   inglés  en  la  educación.  según   los  autores,  es   importante   desarrollar   la   enseñanza   de   inglés   como   una   segunda   lengua   en   terceros   espacios   donde   los   estudiantes  pueden  desarrollar  sus  competencias,  sus  identidades  y  sus  lenguas.  los  autores  presentan  varios   ejemplos  de  interacciones  en  el  salón  de  clase  para  mostrar  como  esto  puede  volverse  posible.  por  ejemplo,   los  autores  sugieren  que  los  profesores  integren  las  conversaciones  de  los  estudiantes,  sus  chistes,  y  jergas  en   el  plan  de  estudios.  esta  creación  de  los  terceros  espacios  es  un  gran  avance  para  ayudar  a  los  estudiantes  que   no  se  identifican  con  los  estados  unidos  ni  con  sus  países  de  origen.   el   capítulo   diez,   titulado   apropiadamente   “mapping   the   web   of   foreign   language   teaching   and   teacher  education”,  está  escrito  por  hatice  çelebi.  en  este  capítulo,  usando  la  situación  de  la  enseñanza  del   inglés   en   turquía,   la   autora   explora   la   manera   en   la   que   el   inglés   da   privilegios   a   ciertos   países   (e.g.,   inglaterra,   estados   unidos,   canadá)   en   detrimento   de   otros   países.   por   estos   privilegios,   hay   una   cierta   presión   en   turquía   acerca   de   un   buen   dominio   del   inglés.   sin   embargo,   según   la   autora,   hay   muchos   problemas   con   la   manera   de   entrenar   a   los   profesores   y,   como   resultado,   muchos   no   tienen   la   fluidez   necesaria  para  la  profesión.  aunque  la  autora  describe  la  situación  en  turquía,  los  mismos  problemas  pueden   reseña:  decolonizing  foreign  language  education   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  112–115 115   ocurrir  en  cualquier  país  donde  no  se  preste  mucha  atención  a   las  políticas  de   la  enseñanza  de   las   lenguas   extranjeras.     el   último   capítulo,   capítulo   once,   explora   los   desafíos   relacionados   con   la   descolonización   de   los   idiomas   a   nivel   mundial.   en   este   capítulo,   titulado   “decolonizing   world   language   education:   toward   multilingulaism”,  el  autor  propone  cuatro  estrategias  para  lograr  esta  descolonización.  primero,  él  critica  las   nociones  sobre  el  estatus  de  un  idioma,  la  importancia  de  las  lenguas  francas,  la  hegemonía  y  la  globalización.   segundo,  los  profesores  de  lenguas  deberían  dejar  de  utilizar  sus  roles  y  pedagogías  que  apoyan  los  sistemas   de  indoctrinación.  tercero,  hace  falta  una  evolución  de  los  idiomas  del  mundo,  es  decir,  desde  el  pensamiento   industrial  y  técnico,  que  impide  la  creatividad,  a  un  pensamiento  que  otorgue  libertad  a  los  profesores  para   que   puedan   adaptar   el   currículo   a   las   necesidades   de   cada   estudiante.   cuarto,   se   propone   un   cambio   de   mentalidad,  desde  un  sistema  que  ve   las   lenguas  extranjeras   como  puras  estructuras  y   reglas  a  un  sistema   que   aprecie   los   beneficios   de   la   enseñanza   de   lenguas   extranjeras   (por   ejemplo,   la   comprensión   de   otras   culturas).   el   autor   explica   que,   con   estas   cuatro   estrategias,   sería   posible   descolonizar   la   enseñanza   de   lenguas  extranjeras.   en   su   conjunto,   cada   autor   en   este   libro   demuestra   con   éxito   los   aspectos   problemáticos   en   la   enseñanza  de  las  lenguas  extranjeras  y  ofrece  sugerencias  de  mejora.  además,  el  libro  contiene  información   valiosa   para   la   enseñanza   de   lenguas   en   el   siglo   veinte   y   los   estilos   de   escritura   hacen   la   lectura   fácil   de   entender.  en  gran  medida,   las   ideas  que  se  presentan  en  este   libro  contribuyen  significantemente  al  avance   del  campo  de   la  educación.  este  es  un   libro  muy  útil  para   la  enseñanza  de   las   lenguas  extranjeras  en   todas   partes  del  mundo.         lillie vivian padilla, sam houston state university lvp005@shsu.edu es lillie padilla es profesora asistente en sam houston state university en huntsville, texas. tiene una licenciatura en español y sociología de la universidad de ghana (en 2013), un grado asociado en español de la universidad de cienfuegos carlos raphael, en cuba, y una maestría y doctorado en español de arizona state university (2020). sus intereses de investigación incluyen la sociolingüística, la pedagogía de las lenguas de herencia, la traducción y la adquisición de segundas lenguas. en lillie padilla is an assistant professor of spanish at sam houston state university in huntsville, texas. she holds a bachelor’s degree in spanish and sociology from the university of ghana, an associate degree in spanish from la universidad de cienfuegos carlos raphael in cuba, and a masters and doctorate degree in spanish from arizona state university (2020). her research interests include sociolinguistics, heritage language pedagogy, translation, and second language acquisition. it lillie padilla è ricercatrice presso la sam houston state university di huntsville, in texas. è laureata, con abilitazione all’insegnamento, in spagnolo e sociologia presso l’università del ghana (2013). possiede una specializzazione in spagnolo all’università di cienfuegos carlos raphael a cuba, un master e un dottorato in spagnolo presso l’arizona state university (2020). le sue ricerche riguardano la sociolinguistica, la pedagogia delle lingue ereditarie, la traduzione e l’acquisizione di seconde lingue. ole_link2 ole_link1 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 3, issue 1, september 2016, 43-63 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.4.28 www.e-journall.org © torresan 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: piroclastico@tin.it 1 seleprot, estudos de semiótica, leitura e produção de texto (uerj). insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato. appunti a partire dall’osservazione di cloze morfolessicali della certificazione di italiano per stranieri celi paolo torresan* alma edizioni; universidade federal fluminense1 received 5 october 2014; received in revised form 28 december 2014; accepted 15 january 2015 abstract it l’indagine che conduciamo ha per oggetto due cloze morfolessicali inclusi nella prova di competenza linguistica di livello b2 della certificazione di italiano come lingua straniera celi dell’università di stranieri di perugia, sessione estiva 2007 (cvcl, 2007a). i cloze sono analizzati nei loro diversi elementi: le istruzioni, il punteggio, il testo, i singoli item (vale a dire le espunzioni che il candidato è tenuto a integrare). l’analisi di alcune criticità consente di avviare un ragionamento ampio sulle insidie che la confezione di un cloze, sia in sede di testing che nella normale prassi didattica, può comportare. parole chiave: valutazione della competenza grammaticale, valutazione della competenza lessicale, lettura, cloze, didattica dell’italiano come lingua straniera. en the study we are conducting focuses on two morpho-lexical cloze tasks included in the linguistic certification test of the certificate in italian for speakers of other languages celi of the università per stranieri di perugia, b2 level, summer session 2007 (cvcl, 2007a). each cloze task is analyzed according to its various elements: the instructions, scoring, text, and individual items (namely the deletions the candidate is required to fill). the analysis of several critical issues allows us to begin to think through potential dangers of a cloze task, both in exam settings and in standard teaching practice. key words: grammar competence assessment, lexical competence assessment, reading, cloze, teaching italian as a foreign language. es la investigación que presentamos tiene por objeto dos pruebas cloze morfoléxicas de nivel b2 incluidas en la prueba de competencia lingüística de la certificación de italiano como lengua extranjera celi de la università per stranieri di perugia, convocatoria de verano de 2007 (cvcl, 2007a). se analizan diversos elementos de la prueba cloze: el texto, la puntuación, los enunciados y cada ítem (incluidos los huecos que el candidato tiene que rellenar). el análisis de algunas cuestiones críticas nos permite reflexionar ampliamente sobre los problemas que puede acarrear la creación de una prueba cloze tanto para el examen como para una clase normal. palabras clave: evaluación de la competencia gramatical, evaluación de la competencia léxica, lectura, cloze, didáctica del italiano como lengua extranjera. http://www.e-journall.org/ torresan e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 44 1. la certificazione celi la certificazione celi, certificato di conoscenza della lingua italiana, è allestita dal centro per la valutazione e la certificazione linguistica (cvcl) dell’università per stranieri di perugia. tale certificazione rientra, assieme alle certificazioni cils (università per stranieri di siena), it (università roma tre) e plida (società dante alighieri), nel progetto cliq, certificazione lingua italiana di qualità, siglato nel 2013 tra il ministero degli affari esteri e i rappresentanti degli enti certificatori. la certificazione consta di prove mirate alla valutazione delle singole abilità (lettura, ascolto, produzione orale e produzione scritta) e, in misura minore, di prove centrate su aspetti della competenza linguistica (morfologia e lessico in particolare). di seguito, nella tabella 1, illustriamo la corrispondenza tra i livelli della certificazione celi e quelli del quadro comune europeo di riferimento (qcer, consiglio d’europa, 2001). tabella 1 celi e qcer: corrispondenza dei livelli di competenza livelli certificazione celi livelli qcer celi impatto a1 celi uno a2 celi due b1 celi tre b2 celi quattro c1 celi cinque c2 recentemente è diventato un prezioso strumento per la costruzione delle prove il profilo della lingua italiana, allestito da un gruppo di lavoro facente parte dell’università per stranieri di perugia (spinelli & parizzi, 2010)2. il profilo, in continuità con documenti analoghi prodotti in ambito francese (beacco, 2005; beacco, bouquet, & pourquier, 2004; beacco, de ferrari, lhote , & tagliante, 2006), tedesco (glaboniat, müller, rusch, schmitz, & wertenschlag, 2005), spagnolo (instituto cervantes, 2006), norvegese (carlsen, 2013) e inglese (green, 2012; harrison & barker, 2015; hawkins & filipović, 2012; north, 2014; salamoura & saville, 2009; saville & hawkey, 2010), e all’interno di un’iniziativa promossa dalla divisione delle politiche linguistiche del consiglio d’europa, declina i descrittori del quadro in contenuti linguistici, dando risposta a domande del tipo: quali testi, quali funzioni, quali elementi morfosintattici, quale lessico l’allievo è in grado di produrre, esercitare, dimostrare di gestire a un certo livello? la certificazione celi è riconosciuta dall’alte, l’association of language teachers in europe, di cui l’università per stranieri di perugia fa parte assieme ad altre 31 istituzioni europee. l’alte fornisce un quadro per l’equiparazione di certificati di diverse lingue. 2. il cloze morfolessicale della certificazione celi l’oggetto del nostro studio è costituito da due esercizi di completamento del testo (open gap-fill exercises) di livello b2, presenti nella sessione estiva 2007. il motivo della scelta di questi cloze è determinato dal fatto che, al momento della stesura del saggio, essi fanno parte della prova di livello b2 esibita sul sito dell’ateneo perugino quale esempio. le strutture linguistiche vengono valutate, nell’esame celi (escluso celi impatto, e in misura ridotta in celi uno e celi due), attraverso scelte multiple, attività di completamento del testo, espansione di frasi, individuazione e correzione di errori. novello (2014) indica che l’attività di completamento prevede l’inserimento delle parole mancanti in un testo; è generalmente utilizzata per verificare la comprensione, il lessico e la grammatica. nel caso della lettura è bene tenere a mente che l’esercizio è maggiormente focalizzato sulla conoscenza lessicale piuttosto che sulla comprensione del testo, anche se in realtà, rispetto al numero di parole che si dovrebbero conoscere a un dato livello, questo tipo di task è poco indicativo. (novello, 2014, p. 65) 2 il cloze oggetto di analisi non presenta problemi di calibrazione in termini morfolessicali. pertanto, un eventuale confronto con le indicazioni del profilo (pubblicato comunque posteriormente rispetto alla data di confezione del cloze) esula dall’analisi attorno a cui ruota il nostro saggio. https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_2?ie=utf8&text=martin+m%c3%bcller&search-alias=books-de&field-author=martin+m%c3%bcller&sort=relevancerank https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_2?ie=utf8&text=martin+m%c3%bcller&search-alias=books-de&field-author=martin+m%c3%bcller&sort=relevancerank https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_4?ie=utf8&text=helen+schmitz&search-alias=books-de&field-author=helen+schmitz&sort=relevancerank insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 45 a onor del vero, nella didattica delle lingue le attività di completamento del testo sono ben più note con il termine cloze. si tratta di uno slittamento semantico, tuttavia, dato che il cloze, in sé e per sé, riguarda un’espunzione regolare di parole in un testo. così perlomeno venne originariamente inteso, sessant’anni fa, quel test secondo il quale se un nativo, a seguito della cancellazione di una parola ogni sette, riusciva ancora a comprendere il testo, il brano di lettura – si diceva – vantava un alto indice di leggibilità (soudek & soudek, 1983; taylor, 1953). l’esercizio ebbe presto successo nell’educazione linguistica come risorsa da usare sia in aula che in ambito valutativo (aitken, 1977; bialystock & howard, 1979; oller, 1976). nella stagione dei test integrativi (non orientati a rilevare singole competenze mediante item decontestualizzati, ma tesi a ‘fotografare’ la capacità dell’allievo di lavorare con più dimensioni della lingua allo stesso tempo), se ne esaltarono le potenzialità, in quanto strumento in grado di attivare l’expectancy grammar, vale a dire la capacità del lettore di prevedere il vocabolo espunto sulla base della ridondanza co-testuale (irvine, parvin, & oller, 1974; oller, 1979). in altre parole, si riteneva che la prova avesse un carattere olistico, dal momento che – si pensava – restituiva un’immagine affidabile della competenza linguistica generale (chavez-oller, chihara, weaver, & oller, 1985; fotos, 1991; jonz, 1990; oller, 1973). eppure, non sono mancate, nel breve volgere degli anni, osservazioni critiche. esse sono così sintetizzabili: l’attenzione del lettore è circoscritta al livello della singola frase, senza la necessità di una perlustrazione a più ampio raggio (alderson, 1979; kobayashi, 1995; markham, 1985; porter, 1983); pur essendo un test integrato (che valuta diverse competenze allo stesso tempo: lessico, sintassi, ecc.), è difficile stabilire se, nella risoluzione di un dato item, una competenza possa avere una maggiore incidenza rispetto alle altre (chiari, 2002); inoltre i risultati non sono correlabili con una competenza linguistica generale (chapelle & abraham, 1990); la validità e l’affidabilità dell’esercizio sono sensibili alla difficoltà e alla lunghezza del testo (alderson, 1979; brown, 1993), allo stile di apprendimento del candidato (ne esce favorito lo studente dallo stile analitico, si veda: carroll, devine, & eskey, 1959; hansen & stansfield, 1981, 1982, 1983; lado, 1986), alla sua età e al suo grado di istruzione (ilyin, spurling, & seymour, 1987); determinate espunzioni possono risultare difficili da colmare, a prescindere dalla competenza linguistica dell’apprendente (così, può essere per un nome proprio o per un vocabolo specialistico), al punto da mettere in difficoltà anche un nativo (alderson, 1980). al fine di ovviare a tali difficoltà, a partire dalla seconda metà degli anni ’80 il cloze, nella sua versione tradizionale, con espunzioni a intervalli regolari, venne via via sostituito da forme di completamento mirato (gap-fill exercise, alderson, 2000, pp. 207-211): le parole che l’item writer elimina hanno una stessa natura grammaticale: può trattarsi di un certo genere di aggettivi, per esempio, o di un determinato tipo di verbi. l’abitudine invalsa al di fuori dell’ambito del testing (e pure assunta da molti item writer) di chiamare cloze ogni esercizio che impone il ripristino di un testo soggetto ad espunzione, fece sì che, benché il termine risultasse improprio nel caso di item definiti secondo un criterio grammaticale, esso continuasse ad essere mantenuto. nell’ambito dell’inglese, per rappresentare un completamento mirato prese a diffondersi il termine rational-deletion cloze, a cui in italiano corrispose quello di cloze mirato (chiari, 2002). è l’ampia condivisione di questo secondo termine che ci ha spinti ad adottarlo anche in questa sede. 3. la ricerca la nostra ricerca intende accertare la validità dei cloze mirati oggetto di studio. ci siamo concentrati, in particolare, sui seguenti elementi che vengono esplorati individualmente nei paragrafi a seguire: le istruzioni (§ 3.1.), il punteggio (§ 3.2.), il testo (§ 3.3.) e gli item (§ 3.4.). per quanto riguarda gli item, in particolare, ci siamo avvalsi delle risposte di un campione (n=50) di nativi esperti (d’ora in poi ne), vale a dire di madrelingua italiani che possiedono un titolo di laurea e che usano quotidianamente l’italiano per motivi professionali (hulstijn, 2011; mulder & hulstijn, 2011). la quasi totalità del campione è costituita da insegnanti di italiano (n=44); il resto, pur operando nel contesto dell’italianistica, non svolge attività didattica, occupandosi piuttosto di editoria, ricerca e formazione. la raccolta dei dati è stata svolta nel primo semestre del 2014. le risposte dei ne consentono di sondare la validità cognitiva di una prova: se un numero consistente di ne risponde disorientato a un item, l’item, a nostro parere, dovrebbe essere cambiato3. 3 le risposte inattese dei ne possono segnalarci difficoltà che si devono a diversi fattori, come si evince nello studio in oggetto. è necessario valutare, caso per caso, le cause delle risposte divergenti. ad ogni modo, se oltre il 10% di un torresan e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 46 3.1. le istruzioni le istruzioni per la compilazione della prova paiono chiare e pertinenti e si riferiscono ad entrambi i testi; il primo cloze (in figura 1) include i gap da 1 a 11 e il secondo (in figura 2) include i gap da 12 a 23. la dicitura delle istruzioni è la seguente: “completare i testi (da 1 a 23). scrivere nel foglio delle risposte la parola mancante negli spazi numerati da 1 a 23. usare una sola parola”4 (cvcl, 2007a, p. 1). si badi: il candidato è tenuto a usare una sola parola. vien da presumere, quindi, che non venga assegnato alcun punto a chi completa il testo con più di una parola, anche se si potrebbe considerare l’inserzione ortograficamente e semanticamente corretta. 3.2 il punteggio i cloze mirati di cui ci occupiamo hanno una struttura bidimensionale: valutano paritempo il lessico e la morfologia. nella prova celi il sistema di punteggio è unico: “punti 1, per ogni completamento corretto; punti 0 per ogni completamento errato” (celi, 2007b, p. 1). tuttavia, in purpura (2004) si mettono in guardia i certificatori che impongono agli esaminandi di ragionare su due piani allo stesso tempo. il fatto che un candidato, come può avvenire nel nostro caso, ometta una risposta perché non sa quale verbo inserire non implica che non sappia coniugare i verbi. grabowski e dakin (2014) acconsentono, invece, a prove bidimensionali a condizione che ci si doti di un doppio sistema di punteggio: […] a limited production item (e.g., cloze) may require the test taker to produce both the correct form (e.g., had run as opposed to run) and the correct meaning (e.g., run as opposed to walk) of a particular verb in a blank. the response can be scored as either correct on two dimensions (i.e., correctness of form and correctness of meaning). in this case, test takers could be given two scores for each blank in the cloze test – each score being dichotomous in and of itself. in this case, right/wrong scores with multiple criteria for correctness would be being implemented. (grabowski & dakin, 2014, p. 761) 3.3. il testo i due testi, si basano su articoli apparsi rispettivamente sulla rivista donna moderna (casalinuovo, 2007) e sul supplemento la domenica di repubblica (granello, 2007), così come si dichiara in calce alle prove (cvcl, 2007a). la ricerca, da parte nostra, del testo originale cui si è rifatto il certificatore per la realizzazione del primo cloze è stata infruttuosa5. disponiamo, al momento, solo del testo originale cui si è ispirato il certificatore per la realizzazione del secondo cloze, intitolato “il cappuccino” (appendice a). dalla comparazione testo autentico/testo modificato, in riferimento al secondo cloze, pare che, più che un adattamento (come avviene invece nei testi di molte prove della certificazione cils; torresan, 2015), si abbia una vera e propria riscrittura, con la ripresa qua e là di alcuni riferimenti tratti dalla fonte cui ci si ispira (appendice a). in figura 1 e in figura 2 riportiamo rispettivamente il primo e il secondo cloze. il testo su cui è stato ricavato il primo cloze comporta problemi di diverso genere; tali problemi sono identificati nel seguente modo con le rispettive chiavi: refuso tipografico (p1), problema di punteggiatura (p2), problema testuale (p4) e problemi legati all’attendibilità delle informazioni (p3, p5, p6). i problemi sono stati marcati all’interno del testo, riprodotto integralmente in figura 3, con le chiavi in grassetto. ciascun problema viene ripreso in dettaglio più sotto. campione di ne (n≥30) manifesta un comportamento divergente, riteniamo che l’item debba essere riformulato a prescindere. 4 il fatto che si usi un infinito con valore deontico, anziché un più frequente imperativo informale, non solleva alcun problema nel contesto del nostro studio (considerato il livello cui la prova si riferisce). 5 la redazione di donna moderna, da noi sollecitata telefonicamente (a fine primavera 2014), non è stata in grado di rintracciare l’articolo, né vi ha potuto l’autrice; il servizio arretrati copre, del resto, solo gli ultimi diciotto mesi della rivista. nell’emeroteca della biblioteca nazionale (roma), presso la quale ci siamo recati il 10.12.2014, su sollecitazione di un revisore, il numero in questione (2/2007) risulta mancante. insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 47 novitá in aereo state per partire per un (1) _______________________ in aereo? non dimenticate di portare il sacchetto di plastica! a partire (2) _______________________ scorso novembre, nell’unione europea sono entrate in vigore, riguardo ai bagagli, nuove (3) _______________________ di sicurezza, che vi permetteranno di stare più tranquilli. le restrizioni valgono solo per la borsa (4) _______________________ portate con voi in cabina: qui acqua, bevande, sciroppi, profumi, gel, dentifricio, (5) _______________________ messi in boccette da 100 grammi e poi imbustate in un sacchetto sigillato. la busta di plastica, una (6) _______________________ per passeggero, non dovete tenerla in borsa ma in mano perché (7) _______________________ sempre visibile e a portata di controlli. via libera, invece, a medicine e cibo per bimbi accompagnati dalla (8) _______________________ del medico. e ricordate che il personale addetto (9) _______________________ sicurezza può chiedervi di assaggiare il latte in polvere o spalmarvi una crema per dimostrare che (10) _______________________ contengano sostanze vietate o pericolose. invece per la valigia che imbarcate nella stiva, ossia quella che consegnate al check-in, non (11) _______________________ nulla. figura 1. testo del cloze 1 (cvcl, 2007a, p. 1). il cappuccino pochi sanno che la bevanda più alla moda del (12) _______________________, il buon cappuccino, non è di origine italiana, ma austroungarica. nel 1683 a vienna (13) _______________________ usava prendere una bevanda dal nome kapuziner, in onore di marco d’aviano, un frate cappuccino italiano che (14) _______________________ organizzato la difesa di vienna. adesso il gustoso insieme di latte e caffè (15) _______________________ proposto in molte maniere, tanto da perdere la (16) _______________________ originarietà. per questo i baristi italiani (17) _______________________ per presentare il nuovissimo “cappuccino certificato”: naturalmente occorre che latte e caffè (18) _______________________ eccellenti. anche la macchina da bar, che è l’artefice della schiuma densa e della giusta temperatura, (19) _______________________ essere adeguata. oggi, (20) _______________________ banconi dei 132mila bar italiani, si servono a colazione circa 11 milioni di cappuccini a persone che chiedono: “scusi, (21) _______________________ fa un cappuccino?”. una curiosità: si può riconoscere la nazionalità di una persona dall’ora in (22) _______________________ sorseggia il suo cappuccino, perché un italiano non concluderebbe (23) _______________________ un pasto con un cappuccino ricco di schiuma. figura 2. testo del cloze 2 (cvcl, 2007a, p. 2). [►p1] novitá in aereo state per partire per un (1) viaggio in aereo? non dimenticate di portare il sacchetto di plastica! a partire (2) dallo scorso novembre, nell’unione europea sono entrate in vigore, riguardo ai bagagli, nuove (3) misure/norme/regole di sicurezza, che vi permetteranno di stare più tranquilli. le restrizioni valgono solo per la borsa (4) che portate con voi in cabina: qui acqua, bevande, sciroppi, profumi, gel, dentifricio [►p2], (5) vanno messi in boccette da 100 [►p3] grammi [►p4] e poi imbustate in un sacchetto sigillato. la busta di plastica, una (6) sola per passeggero, non dovete tenerla in borsa ma in mano perché (7) sia sempre visibile e a portata di controlli. via libera, invece, a medicine e [►p5] cibo per bimbi accompagnati dalla (8) ricetta del medico. e ricordate che [►p6] il personale addetto (9) alla sicurezza può chiedervi di assaggiare il latte in polvere o spalmarvi una crema per dimostrare che (10) non contengano sostanze vietate o pericolose. invece per la valigia che imbarcate nella stiva, ossia quella che consegnate al check-in, non (11) cambia nulla. figura 3. testo del cloze 1 con chiavi previste e taggato per tipo di problema (adattato in base alla lista di chiavi: cvcl, 2007a, p. 2). nel testo del primo cloze completo di chiavi si riscontrano vari tipi di criticità. le riportiamo a seguire: (p1) refuso, “*novitá”; (p2) problema ortografico, la virgola deve essere espunta; (p3) informazione incorretta (si tratta, in realtà, di boccette da 100 millilitri); (p4) problema di coesione6; (p5) informazione inverosimile, poiché la ricetta medica (chiave item #8) può valere per le medicine e non per il “cibo per 6 nella costruzione paratattica, la congiunzione e poi fa assumere al lettore che il soggetto delle due frasi sia lo stesso; in realtà, il soggetto passa dal maschile (“messi”), riferito all’insieme di oggetti descritti (“acqua, bevande, sciroppi, profumi, gel, dentifricio”), al femminile (“imbustate”), riferito alle “boccette”. abbiamo quindi una discrasia: la sintassi ci avvisa che il soggetto è unico, mentre la morfologia allude a due soggetti distinti. torresan e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 48 bimbi”; (p6) informazione inverosimile, poiché il personale addetto alla sicurezza non è autorizzato a chiedere ai passeggeri di assaggiare il latte in polvere o spalmarsi la crema che si portano appresso “per dimostrare che [non] contengano sostante vietate o pericolose”. alcuni di questi problemi sono minori: non esercitano un impatto sulla performance del candidato (es. il refuso in p1). altri invece possono costituire una fonte di confusione. in particolare, il problema di punteggiatura ravvisato in p2 ha comportato un disorientamento a un paio di ne nel momento di completare l’item #5 (§ 3.4.4. e appendice b). analoghe perplessità sono sorte in altri casi durante la lettura dei passaggi contenenti informazioni imprecise o non attendibili (§ 3.4.5. e appendice b). nel secondo cloze non abbiamo ravvisato, invece, problemi di sorta. il cappuccino pochi sanno che la bevanda più alla moda del (12) momento/mondo, il buon cappuccino, non è di origine italiana, ma austroungarica. nel 1683 a vienna (13) si usava prendere una bevanda dal nome kapuziner, in onore di marco d’aviano, un frate cappuccino italiano che (14) aveva organizzato la difesa di vienna. adesso il gustoso insieme di latte e caffè (15) viene/è proposto in molte maniere, tanto da perdere la (16) sua originarietà. per questo i baristi italiani (17) stanno per presentare il nuovissimo “cappuccino certificato”: naturalmente occorre che latte e caffè (18) siano eccellenti. anche la macchina da bar, che è l’artefice della schiuma densa e della giusta temperatura, (19) deve essere adeguata. oggi, (20) sui/ai/nei banconi dei 132mila bar italiani, si servono a colazione circa 11 milioni di cappuccini a persone che chiedono: “scusi, (21) mi fa un cappuccino?”. una curiosità: si può riconoscere la nazionalità di una persona dall’ora in (22) cui sorseggia il suo cappuccino, perché un italiano non concluderebbe (23) mai un pasto con un cappuccino ricco di schiuma. figura 4. testo del cloze 2 con chiavi previste (adattato in base alla lista di chiavi: cvcl, 2007a, p. 2). 3.4 gli item l’analisi degli item è stata condotta somministrando il test a ne e raccogliendo le loro risposte (appendici b e c); da queste si evincono problemi di vario genere (tabella 2). tabella 2 divergenze significative delle risposte dei nativi rispetto alle chiavi: possibili letture cloze 1 cloze 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ca cv pp pps tb pi id nota: ca: chiavi alternative; cv: chiavi vuote; pp: problemi di punteggiatura; pps: problemi psicolinguistici; tb: task bias; pi: problemi legati all’attendibilità delle informazioni; id: difficoltà dell’item. nella tabella 2, i numeri si riferiscono ai singoli gap; le caselle annerite corrispondono a risposte divergenti da parte dei ne rispetto alle chiavi previste dal certificatore. le ultime tre voci dell’elenco (tb, task bias, pi, problemi legati all’attendibilità delle informazioni e id, difficoltà dell’item) rimandano, nel complesso, a problemi di ordine semantico, pur presentando ciascuna una sfumatura diversa. nei sottoparagrafi che seguono consideriamo ciascuna criticità in dettaglio. 3.4.1. chiavi alternative con chiavi alternative (ca) abbiamo indicato quelle situazioni in cui si riscontrano risposte corrette da parte dei ne che non sono contemplate dal certificatore. le sintetizziamo in tabella 3 e in tabella 4, con le corrispondenti occorrenze. insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 49 tabella 3 chiavi alternative nel primo cloze: prospetto riassuntivo item chiavi previste occorrenze chiavi alternative [numero di occorrenze] 1 viaggio 50 2 dallo 48 3 misure/regole/norme 41 disposizioni [6], normative [2] 4 che 49 5 vanno 27 vengono [6], sono [3], verranno [2], saranno [1], andranno [1] 6 sola 27 ciascuno [2], soltanto [1], solamente [1], busta [1], trasparente [1] 7 sia 32 sarà [3], rimanga [1], resti [1] 8 ricetta 26 prescrizione [15], certificazione [4], richiesta [1], impegnativa [1] 9 alla 50 10 non 47 11 cambia 14 serve [12], occorre [4], succede [2], cambierà [1], farete [1], controlleranno [1] tabella 4 chiavi alternative nel secondo cloze: prospetto riassuntivo item chiavi previste occorrenze chiavi alternative [numero di occorrenze] 12 momento/mondo 42 mattino [3], secolo [1], pianeta [1] 13 si 49 14 aveva 48 ha [2] 15 viene/è 48 16 sua 38 propria [11], esclusiva [1] 17 stanno 26 lavorano [3], studiano [3], lottano [2], premono [2], insistono [1] 18 siano 48 19 deve/dovrebbe/sarà 49 20 sui/ai/dai 40 nei [9] 21 mi 50 22 cui 50 23 mai 45 certamente [2], bene [1] va riconosciuto che il repertorio lessicale di un candidato di livello b2 non è ampio come quello di un ne; di conseguenza il certificatore può essersi sentito legittimato a ridurre la rosa delle chiavi a quelle più ricorrenti. vero è però che: in un caso (item #11), le occorrenze delle chiavi alternative sono superiori a quelle delle chiavi previste dal certificatore e sono costituite da un lessico accessibile a uno studente di livello b2; in cinque casi (item #5, #8, #11, #16, #17), le chiavi alternative sono più del 20% delle risposte totali (rispettivamente 26%, 41%, 42%, 24%, 22%); allargare la rosa delle chiavi ammesse significa togliere ogni possibile dubbio allo studente riguardo al fatto che la sua risposta divergente non sia accettabile; le chiavi alternative ricorrono più massicciamente laddove si incontrano:  chiavi vuote (§ 3.4.2.)  problemi psicolinguistici (§ 3.4.4.)  task bias (§ 3.4.5.)  item difficili (§ 3.4.7.) torresan e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 50 3.4.2. chiavi vuote si è registrata la presenza di due chiavi vuote (o nulle): il testo, in loro assenza, non perde in coesione e coerenza (item #6, #23). al tal proposito, in alderson, clapham e wall (1995) si legge: “sometimes a sentence or phrase is equally good with or without the deleted word. for example: ‘it so happened that the man _______________________ i was following turned out to be extremely fit’. such items confuse the students and should be avoided” (1995, p. 55). in questi casi, infatti, il testo funziona bene anche lasciando il gap vuoto, come appare evidente nell’item #6 (cloze 1), a cui facciamo menzione di seguito. di fronte a chiavi vuote può capitare che un candidato non sappia come agire, e dunque eviti di rispondere: la busta di plastica, una (6) ??? per passeggero, non dovete tenerla in borsa o cada in una svista: la busta di plastica, una (6) *per per passeggero, non dovete tenerla in borsa peraltro, il fatto che la chiave abbia una funzione attributiva e non abbia un ruolo chiave dal punto di vista sintattico, determina la possibilità di produzione di soluzioni ridondanti, di cui forse il candidato non si avvarrebbe nelle attività quotidiane di scrittura: la busta di plastica, una (6) ciascuno busta per passeggero, non dovete tenerla in borsa 3.4.3. problemi di punteggiatura il problema di punteggiatura ravvisato nel primo cloze è costituito da una virgola lasciata inavvedutamente dal certificatore al termine di un elenco (“dentifricio,”): “qui acqua, bevande, sciroppi, profumi, gel, dentifricio, (5) _______________________ messi in boccette da 100 grammi”. ciò ha indotto un ne a intendere la lista come incompleta, e ad aggiungere un nuovo elemento: qui acqua, bevande, sciroppi, profumi, gel, dentifricio, (5) * liquidi messi in boccette da 100 grammi può essere, del resto, che anche i due ne che hanno omesso di rispondere siano stati tratti in inganno dalla punteggiatura inadeguata e abbiano manifestato, attraverso l’omissione, la propria perplessità: qui acqua, bevande, sciroppi, profumi, gel, dentifricio, (5) ??? messi in boccette da 100 grammi 3.4.4. problemi psicolinguistici in merito agli item #5 e #7 (cloze 1) si nota un comportamento singolare da parte di alcuni ne. pur essendo avvisati del limite della sola parola da inserire (attraverso una indicazione molto precisa e ben evidenziata), sei ne nel primo caso e sette nel secondo hanno completato il testo con due parole: il verbo modale dovere, coniugato, + l’infinito del verbo essere. tre sono le ipotesi possibili, in parte combinabili tra loro: distrazione: i candidati non hanno prestato attenzione alle istruzioni (“completare il testo con una sola parola per spazio”); interpretazione della congiunzione subordinante in un senso causale, anziché finale; urgenza della costruzione nel lessico mentale. detto altrimenti, la costruzione servile + infinito sarebbe emersa con una ‘forza’ tale da obnubilare i limiti imposti nelle istruzioni. nella tabella 5 mettiamo a confronto i due passaggi con chiavi evidenziate, a sinistra, e risposte divergenti dei ne, a destra. insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 51 tabella 5 problemi psicolinguistici agli item #5, #7 del primo cloze: risposte divergenti dei ne rispetto alle chiavi chiave nativi esperti acqua, bevande, sciroppi, profumi, gel, dentifricio, (5) [►] vanno messi in boccette da 100 grammi e poi imbustate in un sacchetto sigillato. la busta di plastica, una (6) sola per passeggero, non dovete tenerla in borsa ma in mano perché (7) [►] sia sempre visibile e a portata di controlli. acqua, bevande, sciroppi, profumi, gel, dentifricio, (5) [►] *devono essere messi in boccette da 100 grammi e poi imbustate in un sacchetto sigillato. la busta di plastica, una (6) sola per passeggero, non dovete tenerla in borsa ma in mano perché (7) [►] *deve essere sempre visibile e a portata di controlli. le risposte non convenienti dei ne (stando alle chiavi) non ci possono far dedurre che a loro siano sconosciute le forme target presenti nelle chiavi, vale a dire: il valore deontico della costruzione grammaticalizzata, tipica dell’italiano, andare + participio passato; l’esplicita realizzata mediante la congiunzione finale perché + congiuntivo (o più generalmente la morfologia del congiuntivo presente; basti costatare che tutti i ne hanno inserito convenientemente il congiuntivo all’interno di una proposizione completiva oggettiva esplicita all’item #18). piuttosto, seguendo la pista psicolinguistica, possiamo dire che, in entrambe le circostanze, l’immediatezza della costruzione modale dovere + infinito del verbo essere avrebbe ‘oscurato’, nella mente del ne, la possibilità di alternative, e avrebbe portato il ne a violare, suo malgrado, il limite imposto nelle istruzioni (una parola per spazio). a conferma di ciò si possono leggere anche i casi singolari in cui il ne è ricorso al servile, omettendo ‘clamorosamente’ di inserire l’infinito: una costruzione monca, eppur rispettosa del vincolo di una sola parola per spazio. la busta di plastica […] non dovete tenerla in borsa ma in mano perché (7) *deve *dovrà sempre visibile e a portata di controlli. la questione si intreccia, peraltro, con la natura del testo. i testi di cui disponiamo sono contenutisticamente, morfologicamente e sintatticamente semplici. se si raffrontano i descrittori relativi alla competenza di lettura secondo il quadro comune di riferimento in figura 5 e in figura 6, ambedue i testi presentati al candidato sottoforma di cloze paiono essere alla portata più di uno studente di livello b1 che di uno studente di livello b2. comprensione generale di un testo è in grado di leggere testi fattuali semplici e lineari su argomenti che si riferiscono al suo campo d’interesse raggiungendo un sufficiente livello di comprensione. leggere per informarsi e argomentare in testi argomentativi chiaramente articolati è in grado di riconoscere le principali conclusioni. è in grado di riconoscere la linea argomentativa adottata nell’esposizione di un problema, anche se gli/le possono sfuggire i particolari. figura 5. descrittori qcer di comprensione della lettura, livello b1. comprensione generale di un testo è in grado di leggere in modo ampiamente autonomo, adattando stile e velocità di lettura ai differenti testi e scopi e usando in modo selettivo le opportune fonti per riferimento e consultazione. ha un patrimonio lessicale ampio che attiva nella lettura, ma può incontrare difficoltà con espressioni informatiche poco frequenti. leggere per informarsi e argomentare è in grado di trarre informazioni, concetti e opinioni da fonti altamente specialistiche relative al suo settore. è in grado di comprendere articoli specialistici estranei al suo settore a condizione di poter usare di quando in quando il dizionario per trovare conferma di aver interpretato correttamente i termini. è in grado di comprendere relazioni e articoli relativi a problemi del mondo contemporaneo in cui gli autori esprimano prese di posizione e punti di vista particolari. figura 6. descrittori qcer di comprensione della lettura, livello b2. torresan e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 52 si dirà, a ragione, che il cloze non è un test di lettura; piuttosto mira a valutare una competenza specifica. di conseguenza, è ragionato sottoporre al lettore un testo sottodimensionato, in modo da ovviare a difficoltà di comprensione che possono inficiare la valutazione della competenza morfolessicale (constructirrelevant variance). vero è, però, che in un testo sottodimensionato il lettore può non aspettarsi forme complesse quali quelle oggetto di discussione; lo stile semplice e lineare del testo lo spinge, piuttosto, a far proprie altre ipotesi. un problema di ordine psicolinguistico (l’urgenza con cui una certa forma concorre con forme più complesse nella risposta a un item) è, insomma, a nostro avviso, sensibile a fattori contestuali e cotestuali. 3.4.5. task bias (o test method bias, o format bias) ogni strumento di valutazione presenta dei limiti: consente di scattare una fotografia da un’angolatura particolare. tale istantanea offre dati utili per inferire la competenza di un candidato, ma costituisce pur sempre una rilevazione parziale (douglas, 2010). il cloze, in particolare, induce a una lettura segmentata; “the cloze is largely confined to the immediate environment of a blank” (alderson, 1979, p. 225). il lettore è portato a perlustrare l’immediato perimetro frasale all’interno del quale si trova lo spazio da completare, senza essere sollecitato ad una lettura capace di collegamenti estesi (kobayashi, 1995; markham, 1985; porter, 1983). ciò significa che, laddove abbiamo brani caratterizzati da riferimenti intratestuali complessi (dove cioè parti non contigue si richiamano tra loro, attraverso vari dispositivi testuali), la comprensione profonda del testo può venir meno. sul finale del primo cloze, viene presentato l’item #11, che riportiamo di seguito con la rispettiva chiave (cvcl, 2007b): invece per la valigia che imbarcate nella stiva, ossia quella che consegnate al check-in, non (11) cambia nulla il verbo cambia si collega a un’informazione presentata all’inizio dell’articolo, laddove si avvisava il lettore che a) ci sono nuove regole per chi viaggia in aereo e che b) queste norme riguardano solo il bagaglio a mano. riportiamo la porzione di testo per esteso, con le chiavi in grassetto ed evidenziati in corsivo i dati cui abbiamo dato accenno: a partire (2) dallo scorso novembre, nell’unione europea sono entrate in vigore, riguardo ai bagagli, nuove (3) misure/ regole/norme di sicurezza, che vi permetteranno di stare più tranquilli. le restrizioni valgono solo per la borsa (4) che portate con voi in cabina (cvcl, 2007a, p.1) a testimoniare la difficoltà in cui incappa il lettore si riscontrano ben 10 omissioni da parte dei ne (20% delle risposte totali). in altri due casi, i ne commettono errori in termini di coesione testuale: manca un riferimento chiaro al soggetto (a); mentre un ne sceglie una soluzione poco verosimile (b). alcuni ne hanno dimostrato di recepire il contenuto trasmesso dall’autore, ma non hanno recuperato l’informazione presentata all’inizio del testo, come la chiave vorrebbe: invece per la valigia che imbarcate nella stiva, ossia quella che consegnate al check-in, non (11) serve occorre succede farete nulla poco meno di un terzo del campione, quindi, ha riprodotto fedelmente la chiave (si veda tabella 3). la difficoltà semantica che emerge si può configurare, nello specifico, come effetto di un task bias (o test method bias, o format bias), inteso come limite intrinseco del task – nel nostro caso il cloze – quale strumento invece per la valigia che imbarcate nella stiva, ossia quella che consegnate al check-in, non (11) (a) *controlla *dispone nulla (b) *è vietato insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 53 di valutazione: se la coesione avviene attraverso strategie che collegano punti del testo distanti l’un dall’altro, anche il lettore esperto può essere preso alla sprovvista e il termine target può non occorrergli. 3.4.6. problemi legati all’attendibilità delle informazioni il cloze mirato oggetto di analisi è una prova volta a certificare, in maniera contestualizzata (language in use), la competenza morfolessicale. il candidato non deve dimostrare di sapere cosa significa una tal parola o come si coniuga un tal verbo in astratto, ma deve operare scelte linguistiche sensibili al contesto che gli viene presentato, all’interno della rete di significati di cui si compone il testo. nel leggere un qualsiasi brano ogni lettore attiva processi di decodifica (bottom-up processing), che partono dalla parola e arrivano alla frase e processi interpretativi (top-down processing), grazie ai quali il significato di parole sconosciute e il senso di intere frasi vengono ricostruiti per via deduttiva. i due tipi di processo (bottom-up e top-down) si intrecciano continuamente (carrell, devine, & eskey, 1988), con un maggiore impatto degli uni o degli altri a seconda di vari fattori (la lunghezza del testo, il tempo a disposizione, lo stile di apprendimento del lettore, l’integrità del testo, gli scopi di chi legge, ecc.). una matrice invisibile, a sua volta, guida i processi top-down: la conoscenza del mondo (background knowledge), e più in particolare il dominio dell’argomento trattato nel brano; più vasta è la prima e più ricco è il secondo, più profonda e articolata sarà la comprensione del brano (goodman, 1967). un testo non integro, com’è il cloze, e più in generale ogni testo soggetto a danneggiamento, stimola potentemente l’esercizio di strategie interpretative e inferenziali (paran, 1997). ora, l’atteggiamento del lettore comune di fronte ad un testo giornalistico (quali sono i testi su cui si basano i cloze mirati oggetto di analisi) è quello di chi si vuole informare e non necessariamente di chi si vuole intrattenere. in altre parole, in un articolo di giornale ci si aspetta di trovare uno specchio della realtà (perlomeno se il quotidiano non ha, agli occhi del lettore, una visione di parte, tale da costringere a una lettura prevenuta). chi legge un testo informativo, perciò, si può trovare a disagio quando viene esposto a informazioni non attendibili. si verifica, in tal caso, una messa in scacco delle proprie aspettative. nel primo cloze, abbiamo visto (§ 3.3.) che si danno tre informazioni non vere, due delle quali vengono trasmesse in porzioni di testo che comprendono degli item, e che quindi possono condizionare il comportamento degli esaminandi. l’item #8 è relativamente accessibile, data la co-occorrenza, nel lessico mentale, dei vocaboli “ricetta” e “medico” (supposto che si stia parlando di salute e non di cucina); purtuttavia tre ne hanno omesso di rispondere via libera, invece, a medicine e cibo per bimbi accompagnati dalla (8) ??? del medico la nostra ipotesi è che rivolgersi al medico di fiducia per ottenere una prescrizione per acquistare gli omogeneizzati del figlio non costituisca uno script comune. di conseguenza il conflitto, interno al lettore, tra aspettative legate alla natura informativa del testo, la background knowledge, e i significati veicolati dal testo, può generare perplessità. la expectancy grammar (grammatica dell’anticipazione; oller, 1979), che vuole che siamo sempre un passo in avanti rispetto a ciò che stiamo leggendo o ascoltando, sostenuti dalle informazioni in possesso e dalle ipotesi che, a partire da queste, abbiamo costruito, viene in questo caso compromessa. lo stesso si può dire, sebbene con minor evidenza, per l’informazione veicolata all’item #10; il periodo, completo di chiavi, reciterebbe così: e ricordate che il personale addetto (9) alla sicurezza può chiedervi di assaggiare il latte in polvere o spalmarvi una crema per dimostrare che (10) non contengano sostanze vietate o pericolose. è inverosimile, oltre che illegittimo (sarebbe un abuso di potere), il fatto che un addetto alla sicurezza chieda al passeggero di spalmarsi una crema, per vedere se per caso, da lì a poco, scoppierà un eritema. l’informazione non corrispondente al vero può, anche in questo caso, confondere il candidato. viene violata la massima conversazionale della qualità, pilastro del principio di cooperazione, il quale ha una funzione regolativa, a detta di grice (1993 [1975]), in ogni evento comunicativo. detto questo, riteniamo però che le occorrenze inverosimili occorse nelle risposte dei ne in merito all’item #10, possano essere lette come un caso di task bias: il madrelingua si è limitato a fornire una risposta linguisticamente conveniente, pur non prestando attenzione alla coerenza del testo in generale. torresan e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 54 […] spalmarvi una crema per dimostrare che (10) *questi *essi contengano sostanze vietate o pericolose 3.4.7. difficoltà dell’item riteniamo difficile quell’item che è inserito in un co-testo povero, tale per cui perfino un ne non sa cosa rispondere. alderson, clapham e wall sottolineano: “candidates may not be able to think of an answer, not because they have poor language but because the word simply does not spring to mind” (1995, p. 54). mentre in un problema di tipo psicolinguistico, soluzioni più immediate di quelle previste dal certificatore urgono nella mente del candidato, sollecitate dal tipo di testo, un’item povero di co-testo porta il lettore a una situazione di stallo. così succede all’item #17 (cloze 2), contraddistinto da ben 12 omissioni; l’item si caratterizza, inoltre, per varie risposte divergenti, che si configurano come chiavi alternative inducono a pensare che il lettore si sia ricavato un ‘margine di senso’, laddove il senso non è immediato. non si tratta, in tal caso, di un’urgenza, quanto di un ‘accomodamento’: per questo i baristi italiani (17) ??? lottano premono lavorano insistono studiano si adoperano per presentare il nuovissimo “cappuccino certificato” del resto, mancano i preziosi riferimenti, presenti nella fonte, all’evento all’interno del quale il “cappuccino certificato” è stato presentato (granello, 2007): fra barman ortodossi e cultori del nuovo, nei giorni di “pianeta birra beverage & co” in programma il 10 e 11 febbraio alla fiera di rimini, sarà presentato il nuovissimo “cappuccino italiano certificato”, voluto e tutelato dall’istituto nazionale espresso italiano. in sintesi, il comportamento divergente del ne, qui come in altri casi visti, non è accidentale; è sensibile a operazioni (in questo caso, di smantellamento testuale) condotte dall’item writer. scelte inavvedute da parte dell’esaminando possono, quindi, essere determinate da un atteggiamento ‘disinvolto’, da parte dell’item writer, nel manipolare brani tratti dall’attualità. 4. conclusioni attraverso questo saggio abbiamo compiuto una disamina di insidie che possono inficiare la validità e l’affidabilità di un cloze mirato: l’assenza di criteri circa la gestione di chiavi alternative; la presenza di chiavi vuote; una punteggiatura non sorvegliata che può trarre in inganno; la particolare ‘attrattività’ che alcuni item manifestano nei confronti di costruzioni polirematiche; problemi ingenerati dall’organizzazione complessa delle informazioni; la presenza di dati non verosimili e, da ultimo, la difficoltà che alcuni item presentano anche a un ne. in un’ottica più ampia, il saggio costituisce: un protocollo di pre-pretesting (posto che il pretesting sia un’item analysis condotta statisticamente sulle risposte di un ampio campione di studenti, più un’eventuale calibrazione dei singoli item mediante sessioni di standard setting). fondamentali, in tal senso, si sono rivelate le risposte di un gruppo di ne; un impulso a studi analoghi, anche su scala minore, in merito a prove che mirino a indagare competenze specifiche; uno stimolo alla riflessione sul testing in ambito glottodidattico – questione a cui in italia si è data, purtroppo, scarsa attenzione. indagini più approfondite in futuro potranno esser condotte prevedendo una ricognizione metacognitiva circa le ragioni che guidano i candidati (ne o altri gruppi-campione) nelle risposte divergenti da quelle previste dal certificatore. insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 55 riferimenti bibliografici aitken, kenneth (1977). using cloze procedure as an overall language proficiency test. tesol quarterly, 11(1), 59-67. alderson, charles (1979). the cloze procedure and proficiency in efl. tesol quarterly, 13(1), 219-227. alderson, charles (1980). native and non-native speaker performance on cloze tests. language learning, 30(1), 59–76. alderson, charles (2000). assessing reading. cambridge, regno unito: cambridge university press. alderson, charles, clapham, caroline, & wall, diane (1995). language test construction and evaluation. cambridge, regno unito: cambridge university press. bachman, lyle (1982). the trait structure of cloze test scores. tesol quarterly, 16(1), 61-70. beacco, jean-claude (2005). niveau a1 pour le français: un referential. parigi, francia: didier. beacco, jean-claude, bouquet, simon, & porquier, rémy (2004). niveau b2 pour le français: un référentiel. parigi, francia: didier. beacco, jean-claude, de ferrari mariela, lhote gilbert, & tagliante, christine (2006). niveau a1.1 pour le français, publics adultes peu francophones, scolarisés, peu ou non scolarisés: référentiel et certification pour les premiers acquis en français. parigi, francia: didier. bialystock, ellen & howard, joan (1979). inferencing as an aspect of cloze test performance. working papers on bilingualism, 17, 24-36. brown, james d. (1993). what are the characteristics of natural cloze tests? language testing, 10(2), 93-116. carlsen, cecile (a cura di) (2013). norsk profil. det felles europeiske rammeverket spesifisert for norsk. et første steg. oslo, norvegia: novus. carrell, patricia, devine, joanne, & eskey, david, e. (a cura di) (1988). interactive approaches to second language reading. cambridge, regno unito: cambridge university press. carroll, john, carton, aaron, & wilds, claudia (1959). an investigation of cloze items in the measurement of achievement in foreign language. cambridge, massachusetts: laboratory for research in instruction, graduate school of education, harvard university. casalinuovo, flora (2007). novità in aereo. donna moderna, 15 gennaio. chapelle, carol & abraham, roberta, g. (1990). cloze method: what difference does it make? language testing, 7(2), 121-146. chavez-oller, marie anne, chihara, testsuro, weaver, kelley a., & oller, john (1985). when are cloze items sensitive to constraints across sentences? language learning, 35(2), 181-206. chiari, isabella (2002). la procedura cloze, la ridondanza e la valutazione della competenza della lingua italiana. italica, 79(4), 525-540. consultato all’url: http://www.alphabit.net/pdf/proceduraclozeeridondanza.pdf. consiglio d’europa (2001). quadro comune europeo di riferimento per le lingue. firenze, italia: la nuova italia. cvcl, centro per la valutazione e la certificazione linguistica (2007a). parte c. prova di competenza linguistica. in cvcl (2007). livello b2 celi3. certificato di conoscenza della lingua italiana. sessione estiva 2007. perugia, italia: università per stranieri di perugia. cvcl, centro per la valutazione e la certificazione linguistica (2007b). chiavi – celi3 – giugno 2007. in cvcl (2007). livello b2 celi3. certificato di conoscenza della lingua italiana. sessione estiva 2007. perugia, italia, università per stranieri di perugia. douglas, dan (2010). understanding language testing. oxon, regno unito: hodder. fotos, sandra s. (1991). the cloze test as an integrative measure of efl proficiency: a substitute of essays on college entrance examinations? language learning, 41(3), 313-336. glaboniat, manuela, martin, rusch, paul, schmitz, helen, & wertenschlag, lukas (2005), profile deutsch. lernzielbestimmungen, kannbeschreibungen und kommunikative mittel für die niveaustufen a1, a2, b1, b2, c1 und c2 des “gemeinsamen europäischen referenzrahmens für sprachen”. monaco, germania: langenscheidt. http://www.alphabit.net/pdf/proceduraclozeeridondanza.pdf https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&text=manuela+glaboniat&search-alias=books-de&field-author=manuela+glaboniat&sort=relevancerank https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_4?ie=utf8&text=helen+schmitz&search-alias=books-de&field-author=helen+schmitz&sort=relevancerank torresan e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 56 goodman, kenneth s. 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(2011). language proficiency in native and non-native speakers: an agenda for research and suggestions for second-language assessment. language assessment quarterly, 8(3), 229-249. ilyin, donna, spurling, steve, & seymour, sharon (1987). do learners variables affect cloze correlations?. system, 15(2), 149-160. instituto cervantes (2006). plan curricular del instituto cervantes. niveles de referencia para el español., madrid, spagna: biblioteca nueva. irvine, patricia, atai, parvin, & oller, john (1974). cloze, dictation, and the test of english as a fl. language learning 24(2), 245-252. jonz, john (1990). another turn in the conversation: what does cloze measure? tesol quarterly, 24(1), 61-83. kobayashi, miyoko (1995). effects of text organization and test format on reading comprehension test performance. (tesi di dottorato non pubblicata). thames valley university. londra, regno unito. lado, robert (1986). analysis of native speaker performance on a cloze test. language testing, 3(2), 130-146. markham, paul l. (1985). the rational-deletion cloze and global comprehension in german. language learning, 35(3), 423-430. mulder, theo, & hulstijn, jan h. (2011). linguistic skills of adult native speakers, as a function of age and level of education. applied linguistics, 32(5), 475-494. north, brian (2014). the cefr in practice. cambridge, regno unito: cambridge university press. novello, alberta (2014). la valutazione delle lingue straniere e secondenella scuola. dalla teoria alla pratica. venezia, italia: edizioni ca’ foscari. oller, john w. (1973). cloze tests of language proficiency and what they measure. language learning, 23(1), 105-118. oller, john w. (1976). a program for language testing research. language learning, 26(1), 141-166. oller, john w. (1979). language tests in school. londra, regno unito: longman. paran, amos (1998). bottom-up and top-down processing. elt professional, 3, 11. porter, don (1983). the effects of quantity of context on the ability to make linguistic predictions: a flow in a measure of general proficiency. in arthur hughes, don porter (a cura di), current developments in language testing (pp. 63-74). londra, regno unito: academic press. purpura, james e. (2004). assessing grammar. cambridge, regno unito: cambridge university press. salamoura, angeliki & saville, nick (2009). criterial features across the cefr levels: evidence from the english profile programme. research notes, 37, 34–40. insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 57 saville, nick & hawkey, roger (2010). the english profile programme. the first three years. english profile journal, 1, 1-14. soudek, milouse & soudek, lev i. (1980). cloze after twenty years: new uses in language teaching. elt journal, 37(4), 335-340. spinelli, barbara & parizzi, francesca (a cura di) (2010). profilo della lingua italiana. livelli di riferimento del qcer a1, a2, b1, b2. milano, italia: la nuova italia. taylor, william (1953). cloze procedure: a new tool for measuring readability. journalism quarterly, 30, 415453. torresan, paolo (2015). studio su cloze mirati della certificazione cils. livello avanzato. rio de janeiro, brasile: dialogarts. torresan e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 58 appendice a la fonte cui si è ispirato il certificatore per la confezione del secondo test (“il cappuccino”) riportiamo la fonte cui si è ispirato l’item writer durante la confezione del secondo cloze. evidenziamo con un fondino i riferimenti che l’item writer ha inserito nel testo della prova. il bianco e il nero ecco l’italia da bere in un bar di bologna, nanni loy si avvicina agli avventori, sorriso timido, cornetto in mano. «scusi, posso fare zuppetta? il medico mi ha proibito il cappuccino, così lo freghiamo!». una citazione-culto per chi guardava la televisione a metà degli anni sessanta, quando specchio segreto metteva a nudo, con l'arma dell’ironia, angosce e pregiudizi dell' italia del boom economico. quarant’anni dopo, il cappuccino è ancora lì, sui banconi dei 132mila bar che ci soccorrono in tutti i momenti della giornata, a partire dalla colazione, quando ben undici milioni di persone chiedono: scusi, mi fa un cappuccino? da lì in poi, niente è più uguale. l’elenco delle differenze farebbe venire mal di testa al barista più paziente: caldo, bollente, tiepido, scuro, chiaro, con una spolverata di cacao, no, meglio la cannella. e la schiuma? tanta, poca, densa, a parte, su su fino al cappuccino senza schiuma, riedizione in tazza (al posto della tradizionale scodella) del caffelatte d’antan. la colazione più amata dagli italiani, in realtà, è di origine austroungarica, nata al termine dell’assedio di fine seicento, quando alle porte della vienna messa sotto scacco dagli ottomani, poi sconfitti e fuggitivi, vennero trovati grandi sacchi di grani tostati. la curiosità per quella granaglia odorosa fu più forte dell'odio verso gli “infedeli”. trasformata in bevanda e “tagliata” col latte usato con la doppia valenza di contravveleno e simbolo di purezza -, la miscela chiaroscura piacque così tanto da essere battezzata kapuziner in onore del friulano marco d’aviano, il frate cappuccino che aveva organizzato la difesa di vienna. qualche anno dopo, al cappuccino venne abbinato un dolce a forma di luna crescente (croissant in francese), ovvero il nostrano cornetto: mangiare la mezzaluna che altro era, se non un gesto di superiorità nei confronti dell'impero sconfitto? tre secoli più tardi, ancora ci interroghiamo su quale sia veramente il cappuccino ideale. fra barman ortodossi e cultori del nuovo, nei giorni di “pianeta birra beverage & co” in programma il 10 e 11 febbraio alla fiera di rimini, sarà presentato il nuovissimo “cappuccino italiano certificato”, voluto e tutelato dall’istituto nazionale espresso italiano. una descrizione da leccarsi i baffi: colore bianco, con bordo marrone più o meno spesso oppure con disegni dal marrone al nocciola, una crema dalle maglie strette e dall'occhiatura molto fine o del tutto assente, aroma intenso, con soffusi sentori di fiori e di frutta, di latte, di tostato, di cacao, di vaniglia e di frutta secca. naturalmente, perché questa poesia in tazza si realizzi, occorre che latte e caffè siano eccellenti. e invece, a fronte dei tanti soldi che spendiamo ogni giorno al bar (dove vengono serviti, tra val d’aosta e sicilia oltre 70 milioni di espressi, con un fatturato superiore ai 50 milioni di euro) pretendiamo tutto temperatura, colore, aromi tranne la qualità. nessuno chiede con che miscela viene preparato il caffè, magari rivendicando la preferenza per un puro arabica (più pregiato, morbido e dolce dell' economica robusta). stessa ignoranza nei confronti del latte. nella maggior parte dei bar si usa l’insapore uht lunga conservazione al posto dell’intero fresco, previsto nella ricetta del cappuccino certificato. e la dieta? una volta realizzato il supercappuccino, sappiate che l’abbinamento grassi-alcaloidi, ovvero latte-caffè, è tra i più faticosi da digerire (peggio ancora associato alla brioche). eppure, declinato in versione frullata e ghiacciata, il “frappuccino” è il nuovo slim lunch degli adolescenti americani. i nutrizionisti orripilati la chiamano “sindrome da cappuccino”: veloce, nutriente, poco calorico. errore clamoroso. ma nelle pause della giornata, di passaggio al bar, difficile resistere al grande tentatore. sperando non ci sia nessun emulo di nanni loy in agguato. insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 59 appendice b risposte dei nativi al primo cloze (“novità in aereo”) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 viaggio dallo misure regole norme che vanno sola sia ricetta alla non cambia 1 (?) ***dev’essere (?) (?) 2 ***deve essere serve 3 vengono *controlla 4 disposizioni certificazione 5 disposizioni richiesta 6 consentita prescrizione 7 *restrizioni ***devono essere ***deve essere prescrizione (?) 7 disposizioni busta occorre 8 (?) serve 9 (?) prescrizione serve 10 normative ***devono essere (?) ***deve essere (?) succede 11 vengono (?) rimanga certificazione serve 12 prescrizione 13 disposizioni vengono (?) (?) 14 soltanto prescrizione serve 15 ***devono essere *per prescrizione 16 vengono (?) serve 17 prescrizione 18 occorre 19 (?) serve 20 solamente prescrizione cambierà 21 (?) ***a testa 22 normative 23 *liquidi (?) 24 *dovrà occorre 25 sono serve 26 *restrizioni serve 27 serve 28 resti 29 (?) prescrizione (?) (?) 30 vengono *deve serve torresan e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 60 appendice b (cont.) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 viaggio dallo misure regole norme che vanno sola sia ricetta alla non cambia 31 ***dovranno essere ***dovrà essere *c’entra 32 ***devono essere (?) ***deve essere impegnativa ***essi (?) 33 vengono 34 35 *dal (?) (?) 36 sarà controlleranno 37 (?) (?) prescrizione (?) 38 è prescrizione succede 39 disposizioni (?) prescrizione (?) 40 ***devono esser (?) ***deve essere certificazione serve 41 *deve prescrizione 42 *lo disposizioni saranno prescrizione *dispone 43 44 sono occorre 45 verranno trasparente sarà prescrizione farete 46 (?) (?) *dicono 47 (?) (?) (?) (?) 48 verranno ciascuno prescrizione ***è vietato 49 andranno soltanto sarà 50 ***a mano sono ciascuno certificazione *controlla nota: le celle vuote indicano che le risposte coincidono con le chiavi; un asterisco [*] indica una soluzione non corretta; tre asterischi [***] indicano una soluzione con più di una parola; il punto interrogativo [(?)] indica che il ne ha un dubbio o non considera necessaria l’aggiunta di una parola. insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 61 appendice c risposte dei nativi al secondo cloze (“il cappuccino”) 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 momento mondo si aeva viene è sua sanno siano deve dovrebbe dovrà sui ai dai mi cui mai 1 (?) (?) 2 *tutti i 3 lavorano 4 pianeta certamente 5 propria 6 secolo propria premono 7 propria (?) nei 8 9 propria 10 11 ha (?) (?) 12 propria 13 (?) 14 15 16 propria lottano 17 propria 18 19 (?) 20 21 (?) 22 (?) 23 *fu 24 propria 25 propria 26 27 insistono 28 29 (?) 30 studiano torresan e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 62 appendice c (cont.) 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 momento mondo si aveva viene è sua stanno siano deve dovrebbe dovrà sui ai dai mi cui mai 31 32 (?) nei (?) 33 nei 34 35 ***si adoperano 36 studiano 37 mattino premono *sembra 38 *bel 39 40 ha (?) nei 41 propria lavorano 42 mattino propria studiano *qualitativa mente 43 lottano 44 mattino ognuno esclusiva (?) nei bene 45 (?) nei 46 (?) 47 (?) (?) nei 48 lavorano nei 49 50 nei certamente nota: le celle vuote indicano che le risposte coincidono con le chiavi; un asterisco [*] indica una soluzione non corretta; tre asterischi [***] indicano una soluzione con più di una parola; il punto interrogativo [(?)] indica che il ne ha un dubbio o non considera necessaria l’aggiunta di una parola. insidie nella confezione di un cloze mirato e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 43-63 63 paolo torresan, alma edizioni; universidade federal fluminense piroclastico@tin.it it paolo torresan ha svolto attività di ricerca presso seleprot, estudos de semiótica, leitura e produção de texto (uerj), l’università ca’ foscari di venezia, le università complutense e autonoma di madrid e la lancaster university. è stato fulbright visiting scholar presso il santa monica college (california) e visiting professor presso l’università dello stato di rio de janeiro. è autore e formatore per alma edizioni. cura la redazione delle riviste officina.it e bollettino itals. ha scritto: intelligenze e didattica delle lingue (emi, bologna 2008); didáctica de las lenguasculturas. nuevas perspectivas (con manuela derosas, a cura di; sb international, buenos aires, 2011); il noticing comparativo (con francesco della valle; münchen: lincom, 2013), studio su cloze mirati della certificazione cils, livello avanzato (rio de janeiro: dialogarts, 2015); favorecer el desarrollo de la expresión oral en la clase de idiomas (a cura di; istituto italiano di cultura di lima, lima 2016). en paolo torresan has conducted research at seleprot, estudos de semiótica, leitura e produção de texto (uerj), at the università ca’ foscari in venice, at complutense university and autónoma university in madrid, and at lancaster university in england. he was a fulbright visiting scholar at santa monica college, california, usa and a visiting professor at rio de janeiro state university, brazil. he is an author and trainer for the italian publishing company alma edizioni and editor of the journals officina.it and bollettino itals. he co/authored intelligenze e didattica delle lingue (bologna: emi, 2008), il noticing comparativo (with francesco della valle. münchen: lincom, 2013), and studio su cloze mirati della certificazione cils, livello avanzato (rio de janeiro: dialogarts, 2015). he also edited, with manuela derosas, didáctica de las lenguas culturas: nuevas perspectivas (buenos aires: sb international, 2011) and favorecer el desarrollo de la expresión oral en la clase de idiomas (istituto italiano di cultura di lima, lima 2016). es paolo torresan ha llevado a cabo labores de investigación en seleprot, estudos de semiótica, leitura e produção de texto (uerj), en la università ca’ foscari de venecia, las universidades complutense y autónoma de madrid y la lancaster university. ha sido becario fulbright en el santa mónica college (california) y profesor visitante en la universidad estatal de rio de janeiro. es autor y formador para alma edizioni. supervisa la redacción de las revistas officina.it y bolletino itals. ha escrito intelligenze e didattica delle lingue (emi, bolonia 2008), didáctica de las lenguasculturas. nuevas perspectivas (con manuela derosas, editado por sb international, buenos aires, 2011), il noticing comparativo (con francesco della valle; münchen: lincom, 2013), studio su cloze mirati della certificazione cils, livello avanzato (rio de janeiro: dialogarts, 2015), y favorecer el desarrollo de la expresión oral en la clase de idiomas (editado por istituto italiano di cultura di lima, lima 2016). euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 2, issue 2, december 2015, pages 85-101 issn 2376-905x doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.3.52 www.e-journall.org © wilson 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: damianvw@unm.edu understanding the inheritors: the perception of beginning-level students toward their spanish as a heritage language program damián vergara wilson*, carlos enrique ibarra1 university of new mexico received 15 may 2015; received in revised form 13 october 2015; accepted 20 november 2015 abstract en how do students perceive their spanish as a heritage language (shl) program at a large southwestern university? student perceptions of their language classes may be linked to affective needs and motivation (tse, 2000) and a resolution of the potential mismatch between the perceptions of educators and students can lead to greater engagement and student satisfaction (beaudrie, 2015). this study reports on the perspective of beginning-level students in 35 interviews conducted by the authors in order to gain insight into how participants conceive of the shl program. the findings show that the participants respond positively to and comprehend the value of a pedagogical approach that values students’ home varieties. they also recognize both the social importance and pedagogical potential of exploring bilingual community practices, such as code-switching. the findings support an approach that fosters engagement with the participants’ speech communities as a valuable source of linguistic and cultural input. key words: identity, heritage language education, language attitudes, curriculum design, community-based language instruction. es ¿cuál es la percepción del programa de español como lengua de herencia por parte de estudiantes de una universidad grande en el suroeste de estados unidos? la percepción de los estudiantes en cuanto a sus clases de lengua de herencia podría estar vinculada a la motivación y a las necesidades afectivas (tse, 2000); asimismo, resolver la posible discordancia entre la percepción de los docentes y la de los estudiantes puede llevar a un mayor compromiso y satisfacción por parte de estos. (beaudrie, 2015). este estudio presenta la perspectiva de estudiantes de nivel inicial a través de 35 entrevistas llevadas a cabo por los autores con el fin de comprender cómo conciben los participantes el programa de español como lengua de herencia. los resultados demuestran que los participantes cuentan con una actitud positiva y comprenden el valor de un enfoque pedagógico que valora las diversas variedades lingüísticas de los estudiantes. reconocen, además, tanto la importancia social como el potencial pedagógico derivado de la exploración de las costumbres dentro de la comunidad bilingüe como, por ejemplo, el cambio de código. los resultados apoyan un enfoque que cultiva el involucramiento de los participantes con sus comunidades de habla. palabras clave: identidad, enseñanza de lenguas de herencia, actitudes lingüísticas, diseño curricular, enseñanza de la lengua basada en la comunidad. it come viene percepito il programma di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria dagli studenti di una grande università nel sud-ovest degli stati uniti? la percezione degli studenti nei confronti dei corsi di lingua potrebbe essere legata ai loro bisogni affettivi e alla motivazione (tse, 2000); inoltre, risolvere la potenziale discordanza tra la percezione degli insegnanti e quella degli studenti può portare non solo ad un maggiore coinvolgimento degli studenti, ma anche ad un senso di gratificazione degli stessi (beaudrie, 2015). questo studio presenta la prospettiva di studenti di livello elementare mediante 35 interviste condotte dagli autori con lo scopo di capire come i partecipanti concepiscono il programma di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria. i risultati dimostrano che i partecipanti hanno un’attitudine positiva e comprendono il valore di un approccio pedagogico che valorizza le diverse varietà linguistiche degli studenti. riconoscono, inoltre, sia l'importanza sociale, sia il potenziale pedagogico derivanti dall'esplorazione delle consuetudini all'interno delle comunità bilingui, come ad esempio la pratica di code switching. i risultati supportano un approccio che favorisca il coinvolgimento delle comunità dei partecipanti come risorsa preziosa di input linguistico e culturale. parole chiave: identità, insegnamento della lingua ereditaria, attitudini linguistiche, progettazione del curriculum, insegnamento della lingua basato sulla comunità. http://www.e-journall.org/ wilson & ibarra 86 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 1. introduction in a recent examination of the state of the field of teaching spanish as heritage language at the postsecondary level, beaudrie (2012, p. 207) found that there has been an expansion of programs. she found that of 422 institutions surveyed, 169 (40%) offered at least one course for heritage learners of spanish, representing a notable increase compared to findings from 2002 (ingold, rivers, chavez tesser, & asby, 2002), which reported only 17.8% of institutions offered shl courses. the presence of these programs has expanded well beyond the regions of the us with longstanding spanish-speaking communities, such as the southwestern us, florida, new york, and chicago with programs being found in 26 states by beaudrie (2012). when examined overall, there is a positive correlation between the size of the hispanic population in a given university and the availability of shl course offerings (beaudrie, 2012, p. 210). while she recognizes that this is a noteworthy success for advocates of shl, and that this should be commended given the great effort to achieve this expansion, beaudrie also acknowledges that with expansion, there must also be a concomitant research effort in order to insure high quality education and program implementation. in this effort to insure quality education, beaudrie emphasizes research on the student perspective because of its value in informing pedagogical practices and programmatic endeavors. beaudrie (2012) highlights two themes that surface in research on student perceptions: the foreign-language learning environment is not adequate or appropriate for shl learner needs, and discrepancies exist between the expectations of shl students and programmatic offerings. another salient factor that beaudrie (2012) highlights is the dearth of scholarly work on shl learner perspectives available for her to survey (e.g. beaudrie, 2006, 2009; beaudrie, ducar & relaño-pastor, 2009; ducar, 2008; felix, 2004; potowski, 2002; schwarzer & petrón, 2005). beaudrie (2012) goes on to issue the following call to shl practitioners: “because what researchers and educators believe to be most important may not always coincide with what the students expect and need, student voices must be incorporated into the design of shl programs” (p. 214) [emphasis ours]. the present investigation is an attempt to listen to these voices and the rest of this section highlights other attempts to do so. a number of investigations in particular warrant further discussion here due to their similarity with the present research in terms of using qualitative data to put shl student perspectives at the center of pedagogical considerations. one of the earliest attempts came from krashen (1998): he interviewed three shl learners (henceforth shlls). his data focused on problems that shlls faced when interacting in the heritage language within their speech communities and on problems faced in foreign language classes. in the community, his participants recounted admonishment, ridicule, and criticism for their perceived imperfections in the heritage language (henceforth hl). in the foreign language classroom, shll language insecurity may be exacerbated by a focus on explicit grammar, which privileges second language learners who have learned prescribed rules without acquiring substantial communicative competency. krashen’s participants reported that native speaker instructors frequently held higher expectations of students with a latino background. in response to his findings, he proposed the implementation of shl classes that provide rich comprehensible input not necessarily available in the community; to this end he suggested a focus on free voluntary reading (krashen, 1998, p. 47). perhaps one of the studies that bears the most similarities to the present, although more limited in scope, came from schwarzer and petrón (2005) who conducted in-depth interviews with three shlls in order to explore their perspectives in both foreign and heritage language classes. through semi-guided interviews, schwarzer and petrón’s participants elaborated on core themes in a way that enabled the researchers to conduct an emergent thematic analysis of the students’ voices. participants expressed the importance of cultural ties and family as motivating factors in language development. in articulating the “perfect class” (schwarzer & petrón, 2005, p. 574), the participants emphasized the futility of explicit grammar instruction while highlighting the utility of developing vocabulary and oral proficiency through a focus on authentic materials and topics. drawing from the students’ perspectives, schwarzer and petrón proposed an eight-point set of theoretical principles aimed at informing the creation of effective heritage language curriculum in a way that reconciled student needs and educator goals. through their eight principles, the authors highlighted the potential of both sociolinguistic approaches and critical pedagogy in promoting heritage language acquisition. without researching the shll perspective, the authors warn, educators risk student disdain that will be expressed through their avoidance of following spanish classes. however, schwarzer and petrón’s article is limited in that the principles are theoretical and have not been investigated in classroom implementation. understanding the inheritors e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 87 a more recent qualitative study focusing on classroom discourse from a critical discourse analysis perspective by showstack (2012) analyzed the way heritage speakers constructed and represented linguistic and cultural identities. her study found that students constructed linguistic identities by elevating hybrid cultural experiences, but at the same time they questioned the legitimacy of their own linguistic practices. showstack suggested that hl educators need to raise awareness of hegemonic discourses in order to deconstruct them and to foster more empowering discourses among hl learning communities. there have also been investigations into the shll perspective that draw on a combination of survey and interview data. through questionnaire data and group interviews potowski (2002) found that shlls were dissatisfied in foreign language classes because of an internalized feeling of inferiority they felt in the face of higher expectations from teachers and a curricular focus on explicit grammar. in conducting a series of interviews with shlls in order to complement quantitative findings on language use in a 5th grade dual immersion classroom, potowski (2004) highlighted the notion of investment in the heritage language; if identity investments of shlls compete with investment in developing the heritage language, educators will miss opportunities to foster language growth. beaudrie and ducar (2005) combined interview and survey data in order to explore the needs of beginning-level shlls and found that, despite a lack of advanced oral skills, their participants had identity needs related to the hl, possessed cultural competence, and needed confidence building in a way that justified a beginning-level course in the shl sequence. in the first major study to compare shl student and teacher perceptions of instructional effectiveness, beaudrie (2015) once again highlights the importance of student perspectives. beaudrie’s primary data collection came from a 25-item survey delivered to 460 students and 9 instructors, which was bolstered by follow up interviews with 10 students and 2 teachers. while there was much agreement between shlls and instructors, there were divergent opinions in key areas. for example, students indicated that only spanish should be used for instruction whereas instructors indicated that spanglish should also be tolerated. also, students indicated a preference for explicit grammar instruction whereas instructors preferred inductive grammar instruction. there was also divergence regarding error correction and instructor lectures. beaudrie (2015), although recognizing that discrepancies may lead to disillusionment, states that: i do not suggest that teachers should necessarily follow students’ preferences solely for the purpose of increasing their level of satisfaction. rather, i advocate that teachers engage in open dialogue with students on their perspectives on effective practices and address any discrepancies that may arise. (p. 289) there is much more research on student perceptions in foreign language learner settings (see beaudrie, 2015 and brown, 2009 for a more thorough review) and two notable studies come to bear in their relevancy to the present project, brown (2009) and tse (2000). in a study similar to beaudrie’s (2015), brown (2009) collected likert-scale data by surveying 1,606 students and 49 instructors of nine different languages on the effectiveness of various practices. one of the main findings was that while teachers in the aggregate endorsed communicative language teaching, students were less convinced as to its utility and indicated a stronger preference for explicit grammar instruction. however, brown does not advocate for using the information in his study to inform curricular modifications, as does beaudrie (2015). instead, brown concludes by suggesting that educators survey students in order to assess their expectations while using the opportunity to explain the efficacy of the methods behind the course implementation to the students. a qualitative investigation comes from tse (2000) who examined autobiographical essays from fiftyone participants describing foreign language learning. tse (2000) identified three prominently featured categories: “classroom interactions, perceived level of success, and attributions of success and failure” (p. 69). as with the present endeavor, tse argues that the open, unrestricted format of qualitative data allows participants to express views in a richer fashion than in surveys. there were three overarching findings: students did not feel that classes devoted adequate time to oral communication, self-reports indicated that they gained only low levels of language proficiency, and they reported that their own lack of effort was a chief factor in low achievement. tse found that many students expressed expectations that were more in line with traditional language teaching. she took this as evidence that traditional approaches were more common than thought given the growing popularity of communicative language teaching. finally, as much of tse’s discussion revolved around the impact of affective factors, some participants reported that in spanish classes the presence of native speakers or heritage learners caused discouragement. wilson & ibarra 88 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 given the growth in research on heritage language education, it is surprising that there is not more research that examines the perspective of the heritage language learner. the present work seeks to fill an important gap that exists in the field of spanish as a heritage language through examining the perceptions and beliefs held by beginning-level shlls toward the shl program. we also report briefly on a larger-scale effort to collect qualitative data through semi-guided interviews conducted at the university of new mexico, entitled la perspectiva estudiantil ‘the student perspective’ (henceforth lpe). the following section gives a background of the sabine ulibarrí spanish as a heritage language program and its environs. section 3 provides an overview of the lpe project and summarizes the different research endeavors. section 4 focuses on ‘understanding the inheritors’ through 35 interviews with beginning-level students conducted by the authors and describes overarching findings. section 5 discusses implications and section 6 provides concluding remarks. 2. background the interviews for the present project were conducted on students enrolled in spanish classes at the university of new mexico in the 2014-2015 school year by the lpe research team consisting of the faculty coordinator of the spanish as a heritage language program and a group of eight graduate student researchers. 2.1 the state of new mexico and the university of new mexico new mexico is a somewhat anomalous state in terms of the maintenance of spanish and demographic trends affecting the hispanic population. on one hand, new mexico was the first state in the us in which the proportion of the hispanic population (46.3%) surpassed the white/non-hispanic population, as documented in the 2010 census (u.s. census, 2011). because of the notable presence of hispanics in the state, and due to its shared border with mexico, it would appear that new mexico is poised to be one of the states that most successfully maintains the spanish language. however, this is not the case. jenkins (2009) examined census data from 2000 in order to make comparisons to previous census data and found that new mexico was the southwestern state with the lowest overall rate of both intergenerational transmission of spanish and language loyalty (the percentage of hispanics who maintain the heritage language). in his work on the 2010 census, on the other hand, jenkins (2013) found indications that the sociolinguistic outlook for spanish had improved for the southwest in in terms of language maintenance, but he did not individually look at new mexico. however, because he examined aggregated data, we can infer that the observed improvement in jenkins (2013) applies to new mexico as well. therefore, we see a situation that will foster many receptive instead of productive bilinguals and that will instantiate the need for beginning-level shl instruction. the university of new mexico main campus maintains a grand total student population of about 28,000 (unm registrar, 2015) that is reflective of the state’s population in many ways: 46% (n=9,298) of the undergraduate population is hispanic. however, when examining the population of incoming freshmen, this rate rises to 50% (n=1,579). while these figures would appear to be favorable to an shl program, there are many factors that represent significant challenges and obstacles, among them collective misconceptions as described below. 2.2 the sabine ulibarrí spanish as a heritage language program the sabine ulibarrí spanish as a heritage language program (sushl) is one of the largest, most comprehensive, and longest-enduring shl programs in the us with four lower-division levels (span 111, span 112, span 211, and span 212) as well as two upper-division levels (span 301 topics, span 302 writing). the sushl program is one of the few shl programs that serves beginning-level students with the span 111 course. the lower-division maintains a range of 16-21 sections across the different levels, a figure that fluctuates due to various factors. graduate teaching assistants teach all sections. because the program serves a broad range of students, from beginning-level students who tend to enter the program with receptive skills to shlls who use spanish in their daily lives, a broad definition is used for recruitment: “shl learners seek to explore and develop their connection to the spanish language. such a connection to the language may come through community, family, or cultural heritage” (wilson & martínez, 2011, p. 128). student perceptions impact recruitment and misconceptions appear to influence many enrollment decisions leading many potential shl students to enroll themselves in beginning spanish 101 in the spanish as a second language track. three commonly encountered misconceptions are: 1) students think that span understanding the inheritors e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 89 111 is more advanced than 101 because of the numerical difference, 2) students are intimidated because they think that all span 111 students enter the class already proficient in the heritage language, and 3) students enroll in span 101 because they think they can achieve an easy a for their language requirement. one of the common threads behind these misconceptions is a perception that the student’s own heritage variety is fundamentally in need of rectification, which causes the student to pursue what they believe to be ‘correct grammar’ through enrolling in 101. while the in-house placement exam (see wilson, 2012) and outreach to advisors have done much to resolve misplacement, there remains a large group of students who come to class in the first week of the semester in need of rectifying a placement or enrollment issue. what is certain is that the need for exploring student attitudes and perceptions of the sushl program has become increasingly necessary. 3. la perspectiva estudiantil, ‘the student perspective’ the current endeavor, ‘understanding the inheritors’, is part of a larger project entitled la perspectiva estudiantil. this section describes the participants, data, and methods shared by the lpe team (we describe the methods of analysis particular to ‘understanding the inheritors’ in 4.3). furthermore, we provide an overview of the research conducted thus far by the research team: in addition to the principal investigator, there were eight graduate-level researchers on the research team, which has generated five separate investigations to date including the present. with a total of 69 interviews, this is the largest scale effort to compile qualitative interviews with the goal of obtaining the perspective of shlls (or, relevant to shlls in some cases) to date. 3.1 data and methods all members of the research team were given an interview packet that included consent forms, an interview guide, and a template for interview notes. all interviews were recorded and the interviews lasted from 12 minutes to over an hour. participants were informed that they could elaborate in spanish, english, or both in order to honor bilingual code-switching practices. the interview notes served as a resource for identifying the segments of the interviews that were most salient to the individual projects. there were 16 background questions that all researchers asked their participants in order to obtain biographical information, language history and usage patterns, motivations for taking spanish, selfassessment of proficiency, and questions regarding identity (see appendix 1). following the background questions, each research team conducted semi-guided interviews pertinent to the team’s investigation. while targeted data were largely obtained through asking specific questions or prompting the participants in regards to certain themes, researchers conducted the interviews with a dialogic approach in order to give students maximal control in articulating their perspectives. important themes emerged in places where they were not necessarily elicited. therefore, interviews were examined holistically. 3.2 participants and overview of projects participants were recruited from an array of spanish classes according to the goals of the different projects. while most participants were enrolled in lower-division shl classes, others were enrolled in lowerdivision spanish as a second language (ssl) courses or upper-division courses such as span 352 advanced grammar. we recruited participants through in-class presentations and all participants were offered extra credit for their participation. table 1 overview of la perspectiva estudiantil topic (researchers) level sex (number) total 1a) beginning shll’s perspective of the shl program (wilson & ibarra) 1b) assessment of program-specific materials (ibarra & poulin) shl 111 f (21), m (14) 35 2) shlls’ conception of grammar (melero-garcía & perara-lunde) shl 212 f (10), m (4) 14 3) language perceptions in advanced grammar (cisneros & schulman) upper-division, mixed f (6), m (2) 8 4) transformative experiences in the shl classroom (echternach) shl 111, shl 112, shl 211, upper-division f (5), m (1) 6 5) are brazilian portuguese speakers better served in shl or fl classes? (ferreira de faria) ssl f (4), m (2) 6 overall f (46), m (23) 69 wilson & ibarra 90 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 table 1 demonstrates the diversification in the effort to obtain individualized data sets. in examining the overall group of participants, we see that exactly one third of the sixty-nine participants are male and two-thirds female; this is a reflection of the gender distribution of the student body in the spanish department as a whole. cisneros and schulman (2015) interviewed upper-division participants regarding their experience in span 352, advanced grammar, as part of an effort by faculty to revamp this course to rectify the fact that l2 learners habitually earn higher grades than shlls. they found conflicting views toward standard language ideologies in contrast to the validation of local varieties and proposed teaching language variation. peraralunde and melero-garcía’s (2015, this issue) work departed from the observation that shlls hold complicated attitudes toward grammar. in their study of fourth-semester shlls, perara-lunde and melerogarcía found that their participants generally conceived of grammar as a set of prescriptive rules that would help in acquiring a formal register of spanish. at the same time, their participants recognized the value in maintaining the community variety of spanish. echternach (2015) interviewed participants about transformative experiences and found that many students were inspired by the usage of a personally relevant variety of spanish, by meaningful connections made with other students, and by discussions of identity. the work by ferreira de faria (2014) presents an interesting case and focuses on a growing number of brazilian students. while all of her participants stated that they chose to be put into the ssl program, they all reported that they wished for more authentic cultural activities and for the type of contextually meaningful, task-based activities that are implemented in the shl program. the author, a brazilian portuguese speaker herself, took a fourth-semester shl course and found it to be very satisfactory. finally, ibarra and poulin's (2015) work documented attitudes and impressions that students and instructors held towards the program-specific textbook used in span 111, español, nuestra herencia, nuestro tesoro: spanish as a heritage language (gonzales & gonzales de tucker, 2009), and towards the learn packet (schulman et al., 2014), a collection of task-based activities based on the traditions, celebrations, representative locations, and people of new mexico. students appreciated the learn packet for its cultural content and the opportunity to speak about topics they felt close to, while they liked the textbook for the vocabulary, explanations of structure, and new mexican context. about one third of students expressed identification (“saw themselves”) within the textbook, while the rest expressed a stronger affinity with the learn packet. 4. understanding the inheritors in this section we report on the investigation conducted by the present authors that focuses on understanding the perspective of beginning-level shlls. the research question that guided this research is decidedly broad because this is preliminary work and we did not have a set idea as to how the students would respond. because simply offering an shl course is a departure from traditional teaching, and because of innovations in the implementation of this particular program, we wanted to see if students held any cogent or widespread perceptions toward their beginning-level courses. therefore, the guiding question is: how do students perceive their spanish as a heritage language (shl) program at a large southwestern university? 4.1 spanish 111: beginning spanish as a heritage language the sushl program is one of the few programs to offer courses for beginning-level shlls that provide instruction to beginners with mainly receptive skills in order to promote the development of oral competency as well as listening, reading, and writing skills. in addition to these linguistic proficiency-based goals, span 111, like all courses in the sushl program, aims to develop cultural competency of the heritage community, critical awareness of issues facing spanish speakers in the us, and self-confidence in using the heritage language. one of the noteworthy features of this course is the usage of materials specifically designed for this program and this level. the main textbook, español, nuestra herencia, nuestro tesoro: spanish as a heritage language (gonzales & gonzales de tucker, 2009) is a custom publication that uses new mexican culture as a backdrop for instruction and activities. there are many images of important places in the state and readings focus on new mexican themes including vocabulary from traditional northern new mexican spanish. in an ongoing effort to provide contextualized and relevant instructional materials for our students, we have developed a packet of task-based activities‒the learn packet (schulman et al., 2014)‒designed to boost vocabulary and oral fluency. as with the textbook, these materials use the heritage culture to contextualize activities. understanding the inheritors e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 91 a second noteworthy feature in spanish 111 is the attempt to uplift bilingual practices found in the students’ speech communities. new mexico is known for bilingual practices and code-switching represents a bilingual speech mode that is common in heritage language communities (travis & torres cacoullos, 2013). instead of portraying it as aberrant behavior that needs rectification, we attempt to cultivate a positive attitude toward bilingual behavior as a valuable discourse mode. the final project for the course is called the spanglish scavenger hunt, in which students brainstorm on who, where, and when code-switching happens and then follow up on this brainstorming by going into the community in order to overhear, document, and participate in bilingual discourse. we foster the notion that attending to and participating in bilingual behavior can help these beginning-level students in two important ways. first, code-switching is rich in contextual cues because students gain information about the topic of a conversation through segments produced in their dominant language, english, which helps them to understand the ensuing segments in spanish. second, while we recognize that intimate code-switching is a sign of a high level of bilingualism, beginning-level students may take advantage of this speech norm in order to use what spanish they know with interlocutors and revert to elements from the dominant language when needed. we have found this orientation toward bilingual behaviors to be successful in fostering engagement among our students and will return to the topic of bilingual practices below. 4.2 overview of participants the 35 participants (21 f, 14 m) in this perspectiva de los principiantes were between 18 and 33 years old, all enrolled in span 111 over the course of one semester. all except for 2 had lived in new mexico for at least 8 years. in the rest of this paper we use pseudonyms to refer to specific participants. table 2 below shows the geographical origin distribution of the participants. while 14 students were from central new mexico, essentially albuquerque, 12 were from the northern part of the state, and 7 from southern new mexico. table 2 place of origin of participants place of origin n central new mexico: albuquerque 14 total cnm: 14 (40%) northern new mexico: santa fe española chamisal los alamos pojoaque taos las vegas abiquiú gallup 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 total nnm: 12 (34%) southern new mexico: las cruces texico roswell artesia 2 2 2 1 total snm: 7 (20%) outside nm: arizona colorado 1 1 total outside: 2 (6%) wilson & ibarra 92 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 the next table summarizes the identification labels used by these students to express their group affiliation. in terms of identification with a specific group, many students used more than one label; in the spirit of respecting and adhering to the way students expressed their group affiliation, we included all labels even if some may seem redundant or represented a mix (e.g. hispanic and caucasian). while one of the most used labels was ‘hispanic’, we can see in table 3 that the identity of students in shl courses is extremely rich and complex. table 3 identity labels used by participants identity label n identity label n hispanic 21 chicana 1 new mexican 4 arizonian 1 hispanic and white 3 mexican 1 hispanic and caucasian 3 latino 1 white 2 mexicano 1 african-american 2 all american 1 mixed 1 australian 1 spanish 1 hispanic american 1 new mexican caucasian 1 mexican-american 1 anglo-hispanic 1 spanish and irish 1 caucasian 1 non-hispanic white 1 black and hispanic 1 spaniard 1 4.3 interview themes and data extraction methods: understanding the inheritors in addition to the background questions that were common to all iterations of the lpe project, the present investigation focused on questions that had to do with students’ perceptions of the shl program, the program goals, and the student body. additionally, we prompted participants to compare span 111 to any previously taken courses and to compare community and classroom usage of spanish. these research questions were used to encourage the participant to elaborate on the topics highlighted and the ensuing responses were characterized by dialogue between the researcher and the participant. therefore, while we attempted to elicit targeted responses, we also attempted to give participants as much volition as possible in the interview. all of these interviews were conducted in the last four weeks of the fall 2014 semester. table 4, below, provides the targeted interview questions relevant to the present study. table 4 interview questions used across the perspectiva de los principiantes iq 1: if you were going to describe the shl program to someone outside of unm, how would you describe it? iq 2: in your experience, what do you see as the goals of the shl program? iq 3: how would you describe the shl student body? or, what do you think makes someone a candidate for the shl program? iq 4: have you taken spanish in the past? how does this compare? iq 5: do you plan to continue? why or why not? iq 6: spanish in the classroom. does it match what you hear in the community? how do you describe spanish in the community? iq 7: general statements about your experience we transcribed the interviews and examined them for salient themes in a manner largely in line with interpretive analysis as described by hatch (2002, pp. 179-191). the authors discussed the interviews in order to get a sense of the whole set. we then returned to the data to verify whether the themes we discussed bore out in a closer analysis of the transcripts and identified segments that represented these themes. many of the thematic segments were elicited by the targeted interview questions while other relevant segments understanding the inheritors e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 93 were found in other portions of the data. the segments we identified were entered into appropriately tagged columns of a spreadsheet. we then examined these thematically coded segments in order to identify representative trends as well as outliers. what follows is the first iteration of our endeavor to understand beginning-level shlls through qualitative interviews. 4.3.1 perception of the program we hypothesized that due to the potential for confusion stemming from institutional mayhem or other factors, many shl students would not meaningfully understand the program or its goals. therefore, this section focuses on the data targeted by iq 1, iq 2, and iq 3. one of the most important findings is that we found that our hypothesis was mostly wrong and that students had a substantial understanding of the program. when asked to “describe the shl program to someone outside of unm,” answers varied, but the majority mentioned that they perceived that the program tied heritage language learning and heritage culture together. a representative statement comes from marcus: i feel like the heritage class looks not only at the language but the culture itself. a closer look at the traditions... how they are in new mexico and in the southwestern states, how they differ in mexico, central america. so it takes a more broader approach. i feel likes it's a little more enriching because of that. you’re not just learning a language you're learning more. it’s helped me to appreciate my culture a little bit more as well. (marcus) this example illustrates that, for this student, the approach taken by the shl program has been successful in cultivating an appreciation of the heritage culture, which in turn raises motivation to develop skills in the heritage language. only one student did not highlight the appreciation of culture as part of their perception of the shl course (james). in terms of motivation driving skills outside of the classroom, eleven participants (31%) explicitly stated that span 111 had enhanced their ability to communicate with their families or community members. we did not directly ask if participants felt more confident about using spanish in the community as a result of taking span 111 and it is likely that more students than indicated perceived increased competence. a salient theme that arose in describing the program was a sense of community and comfort toward the learning community. erica states: i feel it’s just like community based, and there's like a lot of opportunities, and a lot of people in this organization. i really like it. it's very just like comfortable and homey, you know. very albuquerque. (erica) the statement by the participant that the program is “comfortable” was reflected by eight participants in all (23%). one of the main reasons that this comfort level is worthy of highlighting is due to the general finding by researchers that shlls do not fare well in foreign language classrooms (as highlighted in beaudrie, 2012), often due to high expectations on the part of the teacher or criticism of the student’s heritage variety (e.g. schwarzer & petrón, 2005). while only one participant mentioned overt criticism of new mexican speech communities in foreign language classrooms, a lack of validation is evinced through the conspicuous omission of any reports by the participants that heritage language speech communities were legitimized or recognized in previously experienced classes. by way of contrast, all but one participant (james again) perceived that new mexican and southwestern spanish language communities were uplifted in span 111, and this was a recurring theme in participants’ elaboration of the class being comfortable. the way in which erica used “community based,” “homey,” and “very albuquerque” as part of her construction of the course as a comfortable one was representative of the other responses that described the program this way. because of the community-based approach, and the attention given to affective needs of the students in span 111, erica’s response is not surprising and indicates that students have picked up on programmatic orientations. we did not explicitly ask if this class was more comfortable than foreign language classes but can infer that the almost unanimous recognition of the importance of culture implies at least some level of enhanced comfort on the part of almost all students. despite lacking reports of overt attempts at eradication of heritage variety norms, three participants reported a focus on monolingual speech-community norms while twelve others (34%) mentioned an overt focus on explicit grammar instruction when describing their previous classes (see below). in elaborating on her perception of span 111, cassandra contrasts it to a class she took previously at a community college: “she wilson & ibarra 94 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 [the instructor] was very specific, she had a specific spanish she was trying to teach us. she lived in spain so that's what she was trying to teach us was the spanish in spain” (cassandra). in contrast, cassandra goes on to describe the goals of span 111: [to] learn the background of spanish in new mexico. that's what we've been doing a lot. to give us a better understanding of the language, learning, really learning the language, incorporating our own traditions and our own ways of trying to learn the language. (cassandra) as we see here, the participant does not state that the instructor overtly criticized local speech communities, but, instead, ignored them in favor of a monolingual variety that was relevant to the instructor. cassandra, who gave indications of having passive bilingual skills upon entering the class, mentioned that because of her enhanced enthusiasm for learning fostered in span 111 she was currently attempting to communicate more with her grandmother in spanish. our data provide evidence that shlls feel unengaged or uncomfortable in foreign language spanish classes and it appears that some of this disengagement comes from a lack of validation or recognition of local speech communities. in cassandra’s case, the perception that the sushl program uplifts new mexican speech communities appears to foster language learning. in congruency with the participants’ efforts to describe the program, when asked to describe the perceived goals of the shl program there was a great deal of overlap in terms of highlighting cultural and linguistic learning. the theme of uplifting the heritage variety arose once again in responses to describing perceived goals. as christine reported: the culture of new mexico kind of comes through and... using their language already as like… their language is already such a value, and kind of like projecting that, and like growing culturally and growing their language so they understand new mexico culture and they understand the culture of the language while also learning the language and kind of like getting better at the language. (christine) we see that christine perceives the language of new mexico to be “such a value” and connects it to the notion of culture. she also highlights connection between language learning and understanding the culture of the language. in terms of understanding the program, there was only one student who said that he did not know how to describe it. james, a business major, said that he did not know what the shl program was about. he also stated that he was only taking the class as a requirement and that he did not plan to take any more spanish classes in the future. however, he did state that he would take more spanish if it were offered in his field of study. this student’s response is illustrative of what must be a small number of students who will not be engaged in the heritage language learning process due to a lack of motivation, instrumental or otherwise, to learn the language. as mentioned above, james is the only participant who did not highlight the cultural aspect of span 111. returning to the theme of identity, one remarkable aspect is the uniform concept that students articulated as to who is identified as a heritage learner for the purpose of enrolling in span 111 when responding to iq 3. because most students in our study claimed identity labels such as hispanic we hypothesized that students would perceive the program as catering to a hispanic population. however, only one student had an overtly racialized perception of the program, stating that it is “for people of hispanic descent who want to learn the language and is more specific to that type of people, who have a relation to the culture” (maricela). in contrast, when questioned specifically about the student population in their class, all other participants (except james) tended to indicate the sense of community provided by being around other students with very similar life experiences. as one student (dario) put it, “being with other heritage speakers gives class a sense of community”; along the same lines, marissa expressed that “being with others who share background makes it feel less intimidating, [because we are] all in the same boat.” the general idea as to who is an appropriate candidate for span 111, therefore, centered upon two concepts: growing up with ties to the language and the community, and holding a certain degree of familiarity with the culture of new mexico. one common characteristic was motivation, with all participants (except james) wanting to learn and speak about the land, the language, the culture, and the traditions in class, as opposed to merely satisfying a requirement. ariel summarized this student perspective: “[it is about] wanting to communicate and interact with new mexicans over just getting the credit.” at the same time, 17 participants (49%) recognized the value of knowing spanish for its instrumental value in enhancing employment possibilities. understanding the inheritors e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 95 in all, the participants interviewed held a similar view of the program, which reveals that their instructors are transmitting the orientation and goals of the program to them successfully. these goals are transmitted to the instructors through training and materials provided to them. therefore, we see that the students go from a conspicuous lack of understanding of the sushl program in the recruitment phase to understanding and investing themselves in the program. we must continually strive to communicate these goals to students, as highlighted in beaudrie (2015). we do so explicitly and implicitly through activities that provide communicative opportunities in a comfortable atmosphere that fosters validation of heritage language communities. 4.3.2 comparison to other classes one of the most salient results was a comparison of span 111 to other spanish classes, as elicited through iq 4. all but three participants had taken between 1 and 6 years of spanish courses previously in middle and high school, or in other type of courses (e. g. summer). students were asked to tell us about their impressions in comparing the span 111 course they were taking to previously taken courses. students articulated that the communicative aspect of the course (“hands on,” as dario put it), along with the cultural aspect that emphasized new mexican traditions, fiestas, celebrations, and places of historical significance helped them become more in touch with the structure and vocabulary of the language. in other words, these new mexican cultural elements provided a rich background context that appears to encourage communicative interaction about topics students have in common. one student (christine) stressed the importance of this personalization of the span 111 course, saying that she felt that it was easier for her as a student to speak about places and events with which she was familiar. several students perceived the spanish in their previous courses as not serving a communicative purpose, with one of them (tracy) mentioning that high school spanish was “grammar-based” with “no speaking or saying things to each other. there was no communication, just ‘academic’ spanish,” and another student (desiree) contrasting that “socializing and interacting gets the flow going.” another difference that students highlighted was the focus on writing in previous courses, through cloze and short answer format, and how that did not seem to help them internalize and retain the language. as one student (frederick) put it: “[in previous spanish courses, we] did lots of writing assignments,” “only filled out worksheets,” and used “fixed context-less phrases.”. in the opinion of another student, “high school spanish was all about writing it” (melissa). on the other hand, francisco expressed that span 111 offered “more conversation over just fill-in-the-blank.” rod, a freshman, gauged his experience in terms of his communicative abilities explicitly, and states that “[span] 111 ... helped with being able to communicate in spanish the most.” students put significant value in the real-life situations that were part of the course, in which they had to use their spanish to get information from each other and from people in the community (for their final project). mandy summarized it as having “really learned how to use the language here [span 111], versus learning vocabulary in high school classes and not having the real-life experience.” in this preliminary examination of the data, it appears that the beginning-level students are appreciative of a course that uplifts their home variety and local culture, and provides them with speaking opportunities. being mainly freshmen, it was typical to see students who had been placed into span 111 right after completing one or more years of spanish courses at the high school level. twenty participants (57%) mentioned that their previous classes focused on drills of repetition, filling out worksheets, and other passive learning approaches. it appears that the manner of instruction faced by these participants in previous courses made them hungry for a classroom that focused on contextualized communicative and proficiency-building activities. as with tse (2000), these findings indicate a prevalence of ‘traditional’ grammar-based teaching. what is more, these ‘traditional’ classes do not give their students the skills to begin their university studies beyond the beginner level. 4.3.3 code-switching as described above in 4.1, we foster a positive attitude toward bilingual practices in spanish 111 because of its pervasiveness in communities of practice and its potential as a valuable learning tool. it is not surprising that themes of code-switching came to light during the investigative process in response to a variety of prompts, including iq 6. we did not have prompts directly asking for participants to elucidate on bilingual behavior but systematically encouraged them to do so if they brought it up, which all participants did. in analyzing discourse describing bilingual practices, there were mixed perspectives from the participants: 25 (71%) maintained unequivocally positive views toward code-switching throughout the wilson & ibarra 96 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 interviews, whereas 8 (23%) displayed views that mixed positive and negative evaluations of code-switching. only two participants held only negative perceptions of bilingual practices. furthermore, 30 students reported that they used the heritage language regularly outside of the classroom and, of these, eight claimed that they engaged in code-switching. while we did not get an idea as to usage of “spanglish” in the classroom, it appears that our findings contrast somewhat with those of beaudrie (2015), who found that students dispreferred “spanglish” as a classroom language. among the students who held a positive view toward code-switching, the notion of this practice as a skill emerged, as in christine’s illustrative response: i think code-switching is actually so cool. ... cuz i feel like i’m a very analytical person and i’m just like straightforward. but the fact that people can just like switch back and forth is so cool, i think. i think it’s a really awesome skill to have. ... if it like helps them get their point across that’s even better like. ... that's a unique new mexican thing that we do codeswitching. like that doesn't just happen everywhere. very cool. (christine) christine recognizes that code-switching is a skill that helps speakers “get their point across.” or, as annemarie succinctly put it, “spanglish makes it easier to communicate.” one of the two unabashedly negative views comes from austin, a 20-year-old junior from roswell, nm, who states that “spanglish seems like a lazy language.” this student is an interesting case in many ways as he is symbolic of the wide recruitment effort and inclusiveness of the program. in terms of identity labels, austin states that he is a “new mexican caucasian male.” he is in the army and plans to pursue a military career. in terms of linguistic history, he overheard his father and grandparents speak spanish because they lived for many years in perú. also, austin stated that he was proficient in spanish as a child due to the fact that he had a spanish-speaking nanny from three to eight years of age. in examining the data from austin, we see that he is very enamored of new mexican culture and that he responds positively to the highlighting of the state’s culture presented in the learn packet (schulman et al., 2014). however, while austin maintains notions of correctness in his attitude toward spanglish and in other areas (he claims to know instinctively when speakers “speak spanish the correct way”), he states that he himself does use spanglish in and outside of class. regarding the final project, the spanglish scavenger hunt, many participants commented on this project in their interviews despite the lack of a direct prompt. of the two participants who held negative views toward bilingual practices only one stated overtly that he did not like this project. fredrick, who describes himself as anglo-hispanic and is taking the course for cultural reasons, stated that he had difficulty with the project because “spanglish is stupid” and he could not find a code-switcher. although frederick feels more educated about the topic, he echoes austin’s evaluative term “lazy” as he poses the following: “why would someone who speaks spanish fluently already start using spanglish? it's just being lazy.” therefore, despite our efforts to promote bilingual behavior as a skill and a valuable community practice, some participants will retain a notion of code-switching as a type of deficit. on the more positive end, three students stated that they had never deliberately paid attention to bilingual behavior before and that doing so compelled them to appreciate it more. in fact, evidence of the effectiveness of the scavenger hunt in promoting bilingual behavior as a skill and a community norm comes from the finding that eleven participants (31%) used the term ‘code-switching’ in describing these practices. while we have no indication as to whether or not participants were familiar with the more neutral term ‘code-switching’ prior to span 111 as compared to the term ‘spanglish’, it remains salient that this term would be used by a large portion of them and it is likely indicative of participants engaging critically with the exploration of bilingual behavior. erica, who is taking spanish as a requirement but wishes to pursue it for communicative motivations states: just like... well we're learning it now, code-switching, just between spanish english, pretty much just like phrases you just... there's like triggers kind of... a lot of maybe… emotional kind of like when you're angry it just your spanish comes out. or it just sounds better in english or in spanish. (erica) in all, participants who come from speech communities where it is practiced held complicated notions toward the practice of code-switching. it is precisely this complicated set of notions that makes it crucial to explore bilingual behavior critically in the classroom as it provides another avenue to encourage (re)contact with their linguistically dynamic speech communities. in addition to fostering critical awareness, understanding the inheritors e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 97 the exploration of bilingual behavior encourages students to use it as a vehicle for gaining competence in the target language, spanish. 5. implications while the present study has obvious implications for the sushl program from which participants were recruited, the insights gained here have value for other practitioners of shl. as mentioned above, one of the differences between beaudrie’s (2015) and brown’s (2009) comparisons of teacher and student perspectives was that beaudrie called for entering a dialogue with students concluding that “at a time when student-centered education is a centerpiece in education, students’ opinions should be a critical component in determining effective pedagogical practices” (290). this call for dialogue must be situated in a context in which shl programs are proliferating (beaudrie, 2012) and generating a need for curricular materials, such as textbooks, to aid in this expansion. yet the search for an appropriate textbook in many cases represents the search for a convenient solution to the dilemma of how to best serve the shll population and practitioners run the risk of unwittingly implementing a textbook that presents ideologies that run counter to student experiences. for example, leeman and martínez (2007) found that from the 1970s to the late 1990s the ideologies presented in shl textbooks changed from ones linked to civil rights movements and bringing the chicano/a communities “in from the margin” (p. 61) to an ideology that highlighted spanish as a commodity as a world language. leeman and martínez also found a persistence of the “standard language ideology,” but with modifications. in searches for textbooks for the sushl program, we have found that many textbooks published within the last decade had reverted to portraying the standard language ideology through lists that contrasted standardized forms to stigmatized forms attributed to us spanish speaking communities. because we were unable to identify shl-oriented books that solved the dilemma of how to best serve the curricular needs of first-year courses (span 111 & 112), we have found ourselves trying to fill the void by creating materials specific to the shl program beginning with español, nuestra herencia (gonzales & gonzales de tucker 2009), created by the previous director, and culminating recently with the learn packet (schulman et al., 2014). therefore, we argue that incipient and established shl programs alike should not rely solely on materials from established publishing companies. instead, by attempting to understand our learner populations, we can gain insight into how to create materials, or at least activities, that inspire student engagement. students bring previously shaped notions of educational expectations with them (tse, 2000). we have found our participants to be engaged in their shl courses with an eagerness to explore local speech communities that is partially attributed to the failure of previously taken courses to recognize the validity of local speech communities. for many shlls, span 111 offers new perspectives: it is frequently the first time they are told by an educator that community language varieties are valuable, the first time they critically examine bilingual practices, the first time they see that there are many others in “the same boat” (e.g. marissa), and, unfortunately, the first time they experience a course that promotes communicative competency over memorization of formal rules. practitioners of heritage language education can gain valuable insights into the factors that have shaped their student populations through dialogic research. 6. conclusion as many shl practitioners argue that we must teach the formal variety to students, we would remind such proponents that it could go against their student wishes to discard the community variety of spanish as unworthy of study. we believe that it is possible to promote both the acquisition of formal registers and the maintenance of the heritage variety in a congruent manner. if we listen to the students, we will be more effective in doing this. there is a significant wealth of cultural, social, and linguistic information that is lost in discarding varieties of spanish considered to be non-standard and undesirable. the perspective taken by an shl program will have a strong impact on the appreciation that students have toward themselves, their families, and their communities, where they first experienced and may continue to experience contact with the heritage language and culture. after all, heritage language speech communities constitute spaces where the home variety is used as a valuable tool for communication and transmission of the cultural practices and values that constitute part of the essence of who shlls are, as their direct inheritors. we find evidence here that for beginning-level shlls, reinforcing contact with the heritage language communities is essential so that they may unreservedly access these rich sources of input, code-switching included, as they increase their bilingual range. as in natural learning circumstances, we promote a stance that works from the inner to the wilson & ibarra 98 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 outer spheres. we find evidence here that for this beginner population, students should be rooted in the nurturing environment offered in the community sphere before taking on the trappings of prestige and formalism that will help them attain success in a 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(2012). symbolic power in the heritage language classroom: how spanish heritage speakers sustain and resist hegemonic discourses on language and cultural diversity. spanish in context, 9(1), 1–26. travis, catherine e., & torres cacoullos, rena (2013). making voices count: corpus compilation in bilingual communities. australian journal of linguistics, 33(2), 170–194. tse, lucy (2000). student perceptions of foreign language study: a qualitative analysis of foreign language autobiographies. modern language journal, 84(1), 69-84. u.s. census bureau (2011). the hispanic population: 2010. 2010 census briefs. retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-04.pdf. unm registrar (2015). enrollment reports fall 2014. retrieved from http://oia.unm.edu/documents/enrollment-reports/fall-14-oer.pdf. wilson, damián v. (2012). developing a placement exam for spanish heritage language learners: item analysis and learner characteristics. heritage language journal, 9(1), 27–50. wilson, damian v., & martínez, ricardo (2011). diversity in definition: integrating history and student attitudes in understanding heritage learners of spanish in new mexico. heritage language journal, 8(2), 115–132. wilson & ibarra 100 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 appendix interview guide la perspectiva estudiantil: understanding spanish language learners general interview questions intro: go over the consent form. explain to the participant that this is a project with the purpose of better understanding our student population and that we are looking for sincere, honest answers. let them know that it will take anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour. in the first few minutes, we want to put the students at ease.  do you have questions before we get started?  how are you doing today?  how is your semester going? background: the next questions need to be asked in a fairly regularized manner as they may serve as explanatory variables in some of the upcoming research. as in teaching class, good guiding transitions help the process (“i’m going to ask you some background questions now in order to help us put this interview into context.”) on the research notes, you may refer to these questions as gen 1, gen 2, gen 3, etc… 1. where are you from? is this the same place you grew up? 2. how old are you? 3. what language(s) did you speak with your family growing up? 4. let’s talk about who speaks spanish in your family? father? mother? siblings? paternal/maternal grandparents? cousins/uncles/aunts? 5. with whom do you speak the most? 6. who have you heard speak the most spanish? 7. who have you learned the most spanish from? 8. do you use spanish in your daily life? please tell me about this. 9. what classes/levels of spanish have you taken before this semester? 10. what year of study are you in? freshman, sophomore, junior, senior? 11. why are you taking this class this semester? 12. what are your strengths and weaknesses in spanish? 13. why is it important to you to learn/speak spanish? identity: thank the student for the previous info and let them know that you are going to ask questions about identity. 14. what identity labels do you use to describe yourself? 15. are there labels that you use in some contexts but not in others? 16. in what situations do these identity labels come up? research questions: in the rest of the interview, please refer to the specific questions in your portion of this research. on the research notes, refer to these questions as rq 1, rq 2, rq 3, etc… understanding the inheritors e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 85-101 101 damián vergara wilson, university of new mexico damianvw@unm.edu en damián vergara wilson is an assistant professor in the department of spanish and portuguese at the university of new mexico. he is also the coordinator of the sabine ulibarrí spanish as a heritage language program. his research and teaching focuses on teaching spanish as a heritage language, sociolinguistics, sociology of language, and language change. his work has appeared in journals such as heritage language journal, international journal of bilingualism, and southwest journal of linguistics. he also has published a monograph with brill academic publishers on semantic evolution. es damián vergara wilson es profesor contrado en el departamento de español y portugués de la university of new mexico. es coordinador del programa de español como lengua de herencia sabine ulibarrí. sus investigaciones y enseñanza se focalizan en la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia, en la sociolingüística, en la sociología del lenguaje y en el cambio del lenguaje. sus trabajos se han publicado en revistas como heritage language journal, international journal of bilingualism y southwest journal of linguistics. además, ha publicado una monografía sobre la evolución semántica con brill academic publishers. it damián vergara wilson è professore universitario del dipartimento di lingua spagnola e portoghese della university of new mexico. è inoltre coordinatore del progetto per lo spagnolo come lingua ereditaria sabine ulibarrí. tra i suoi ambiti di ricerca e insegnamento ci sono l’insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua ereditaria, la sociolinguistica, la sociologia del linguaggio e i cambiamenti del linguaggio. i suoi lavori sono apparsi su riviste quali l’heritage language journal, l’international journal of bilingualism e il southwest journal of linguistics. ha inoltre pubblicato un testo sull’evoluzione semantica per la casa editrice brill academic publishers. carlos enrique ibarra, university of new mexico cei@unm.edu en carlos enrique ibarra is a ph.d. student in hispanic linguistics at the university of new mexico. he has taught ssl and shl courses at the university of tennessee-knoxville, the university of texas at austin, and the university of florida. his scholarly and research interests are centered on intergenerational linguistic change in bilingual closed, mostly endogamous communities, with a focus on phonology and phonetics. he is also interested in the development of theoretical models of linguistic inventories using stochasticity, complex adaptive systems, and self-organization concepts. es carlos enrique ibarra es doctorando en lingüística española en la university of new mexico. ha enseñado español como lengua extranjera y español como lengua de herencia en la university of tennesseknoxville, la university of texas en austin y la university of florida. sus investigaciones se centran en el cambio lingüístico entre generaciones en comunidades bilingües cerradas y, en la mayor parte de los casos, endogámicas, con particular atención a la fonología y a la fonética. otra de sus áreas de interés es el desarrollo de modelos teóricos de inventarios lingüísticos utilizando elementos de estocasticidad, sistemas adaptativos complejos y conceptos de auto-organización. it carlos enrique ibarra, è dottorando in linguistica spagnola alla university of new mexico. ha insegnato spagnolo come l2 e spagnolo come lingua ereditaria all'university of tennessee-knoxville, all'university of texas-austin e all'university of florida. la sua ricerca è incentrata sul cambiamento linguistico tra generazioni in comunità bilingui chiuse e, nella maggior parte dei casi, endogamiche, con particolare attenzione alla fonologia e alla fonetica. un'altra sua area di interesse è lo sviluppo di modelli teorici di inventari linguistici mediante elementi di stocasticità, sistemi adattivi complessi e concetti di auto-organizzazione. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 2, issue 1, august 2015, pages 55-69 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.2.29 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. 1 the conceptual contributions of this article are the result of collaboration by both authors. specifically, sections 1-3 written by giuseppe maugeri and sections 4-11 are attributed to graziano serragiotto. * contact: serragiotto@unive.it communication as a strategic resource to promote italian institutes of culture1 graziano serragiotto*, giuseppe maugeri università ca’ foscari di venezia received 16 november 2014; received in revised form 2 february 2015; accepted 1 may 2015 abstract en one of the ways in which italy presents itself to the world is through the italian institute of culture (iic), an institution that aims at offering a cross-section of the italian world and at the same time disseminating the rationale for its own existence. the iic acknowledges and embraces the historical, political, and linguistic evolution of italy and regards these as constitutional factors of its identity. in this article, we first provide background information about the institute and display the key principles that determine how communication with outside communities takes place. next, we adopt a theoretical model of communication in order to show how communication in and of itself has the potential to lead individuals on a path of cultural appreciation, as well as towards an appreciation for and acquisition of the italian language. key words: system, promoting italian language, communication, prosumers. es uno de los medios por los que italia se da a conocer al mundo es a través del instituto italiano de cultura (cii), institución que pretende ofrecer una muestra representativa del mundo italiano a la vez que difundir la razón de su existencia. el cii reconoce y acoge la evolución histórica, política y lingüística de italia, refiriéndose a estos factores como constituyentes de su identidad. en el presente artículo se proporciona, en primer lugar, datos generales sobre el instituto junto a una exposición de los principios clave que determinan su proceso de comunicación con otras comunidades en el exterior. a continuación, basándonos en un modelo teórico de la comunicación, se muestra cómo la comunicación en sí misma alberga el potencial de guiar a los individuos hacia una apreciación cultural, así como a un aprecio por la lengua italiana y su adquisición. palabras clave: sistema, promoción de la lengua italiana, comunicación, prosumidores. it per promuovere sé stessa nel mondo, l’italia ricorre spesso all’istituto italiano di cultura (iic), un’istituzione che ha come obiettivo presentare uno spaccato della cultura italiana e al tempo stesso far conoscere i motivi che giustificano la propria esistenza. l’iic riconosce e fa propria l’evoluzione storica, politica e linguistica dell’italia, considerando tali fattori come elementi fondamentali della sua identità. l’articolo offre, in primo luogo, alcune informazioni generali sull’istituto ed espone i principi chiave che regolano la comunicazione con le comunità esterne. in secondo luogo, adotta un modello teorico di comunicazione al fine di dimostrare che la comunicazione in sé e di per sé è in grado di condurre chiunque su un cammino di valorizzazione culturale, così come verso la valorizzazione e l’apprendimento della lingua italiana. parole chiave: sistema, promozione della lingua italiana, comunicazione, prosumer. http://www.e-journall.org/ serragiotto & maugeri e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 56-69 56 1. the italian institutes of culture one of the ways in which italy presents itself to the world is through the italian institute of culture (iic), an institution that aims at offering a cross-section of the italian world and at the same time disseminating the rationale for its own existence. the iic acknowledges and embraces the historical, political, and linguistic evolution of italy and regards these as constitutional factors of its identity. consequently, the iic has been viewed as a premiere italian cultural and social organization, around the world and in the region of the world in which each iic is located. in this article, we explore two questions worthy of consideration: a. how should the italian institute of culture communicate with host countries? b. to what extent is dialogue between the institute and a host country capable of developing the identity of the iic in specific, local contexts? in order to respond to these two questions, we first provide background information about the institute and then display the key principles that determine how communication with outside communities takes place. we then present some of the results achieved in an action-research at iic in tokyo in order to highlight the advantages of an innovative communication strategy, while noting potential areas for improvement. we adopt a theoretical model of communication in order to show how communication in and of itself has the potential to lead individuals on a path of cultural appreciation, as well as towards an appreciation for and acquisition of the italian language. 2. the organizational model of the iics the methodological introduction to this section describes the organizational model of the italian institutes of culture (henceforth referred to as iics). we draw on specific scientific fields, such as glottodidactics and cultural-and-business marketing, to offer an epistemological definition of the technical characteristics of iics. in so doing, we seek to outline a preliminary theoretical framework and identify the purpose of these institutions. 2.1 the frame of reference efforts have gradually been undertaken at the italian ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation (maeci) to account for the political and cultural complexities of today’s world. new organizational models and tools are being developed to respond to present needs and challenges, and these changes concern the iics’ organizational framework as well, as it deals with the management of the italian language and culture as if it were a system, or even, a network. in the section 2.2 we consider the institutional context to which the institutes belong. section 2.3 aims to properly define the concepts of ‘cultural system’ and ‘network’ in an effort to avoid potential misunderstandings of these terms. this section also works to identify the organizational characteristics implied by each term and simultaneously prompts us to think about the model to which iics belong. 2.2 the diffusion of the italian language the spread of the italian language abroad is one of the primary cultural goals of the maeci. this mission is supported by 89 iics, in addition to italian schools and bilingual programs, 206 lectureships in italian at universities, and the dante alighieri society. for the iic, language teaching represents the principal means to export the italian model (giovanardi & trifone, 2012). maeci signed an agreement with the certificato lingua italiana di qualità (cliq) association in 2012. this association aims to develop a common set of standards in italian language instruction and coordinates efforts by its members to ensure quality instruction, and language programs that adhere to cliq standards are granted a cliq quality certification. cliq standards aim at replacing existing institutional certifications for italian language programs and providing a common benchmark for teaching quality. according to an analytic report from maeci (2014), this unique system of certification is a useful indication for students of italian, ensures quality language learning, and overcomes inconsistencies in past pedagogical models. communication to promote iic e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 55-69 57 2.3 the cultural system and network the cultural programs of the iics are coordinated by the center and governed by law n. 401, 1990 (totaro-genevois, 2005). this regulation affects the systems approach, influencing the organic design and territorial autonomy of iics. moreover, since 2012, efforts have been made to adapt to the contraction of economic resources and to simultaneously and selectively increase financial support for italian culture abroad, where there is potential for economic growth and interest in italian culture. for this reason, the adoption of a cultural and strategic approach is considered crucial. in order to clarify the cultural framework of iics, first, it is necessary to provide a proper interpretation of the concepts of ‘cultural system’ and ‘network’ so as to avoid potential misunderstandings of these terms, identify the organizational characteristics implied by each term, and simultaneously reflect on the model to which iics belong. in response to possible misunderstandings generated by this terminology as it pertains to iics, we would like to outline the main differences between the concept of ‘system’ and that of ‘network’:  system: the system includes a vertical structure, a hierarchic structure of skills related to seniority. besides, the system requires the recognition of the authority and a formalization of the working procedures therefore, in the system standard and defined processes prevail;  network: it is an organic context continuously redefined by contents and objectives to be achieved. in particular, the conditions of organizational and economic balance require a coordinated plan among the organizations which translate a customized management model into a specific location. therefore, network is distinguished by its adaptability to new situations, the integration of the organizations and horizontal communication (decastri, 2014). from this perspective, the relationship that the iic establishes with the surrounding environment becomes the key factor: the more it impacts the local community through use of targeted communication and mitigation of social conflicts, the more successfully it surpasses other competitors and the more value it acquires in the eyes of the local citizens (seddio, 2013: 5). 2.4 the cultural system of the iics the means with which iics analyze the cultural and instructional needs of a local environment together with the results of their intervention, lead us to believe that the cultural system represents an ideal setup model. this organizational model is represented by figure 1 below. figure 1. economy of the cultural system of iics maeci a b d c serragiotto & maugeri e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 56-69 58 the analysis of the systemic model presented in figure 1 highlights the network of relationships that emanate from a pivotal center with the purpose of: a. selecting public resources to be used within an iic; b. enabling coordination; c. centrally handling administrative issues; d. facilitating connections; e. outlining how new projects will be carried out; f. ensuring that activities are within the iic’s budget; g. evaluating the set of activities sponsored by each institute as a whole using the logic of economies of scale. this setup implies that the system is centralized and that the position of the maeci (the italian ministry of foreign affairs) might generate tensions among the iics due to its apparent dominant or autonomous position. therefore, each institute, represented in figure 1 as a, b, c, and d, expresses interests that (a) are an expression of the aims and institutional purposes of the center (maeci) and (b) are noninstitutional, or contextualized, influenced by the local community in which an iic participates. with regard to institutional interests and aims (a), certain events are promoted centrally by the institute; these cultural and linguistic events respond to the institutional objectives that iics activate in all locations. cultural products can be understood as the result coordination between the ministry of cultural affairs (mab) and the ministry for cooperation and development (mcd). on the other hand, non-institutional interests (b) include all projects and initiatives that an iic has managed to put in place locally in order to address specific needs of the target community. these activities and projects reflect the communication and intercultural competence of the iic and its inclination to cooperate with other agents in different contexts. additionally, these projects give rise to new relationships and strategic opportunities, recognizing the role played by all the social actors involved in the creation of local initiatives. in short, the iics deal locally with heterogeneous conditions of governance and needs in order to balance institutional interests and economic necessities with non-institutionalized aims and needs. noninstitutionalized projects represent a final challenge for iics, namely, to understand local requests and transform them into satisfactory and practical solutions, while evaluating their own effectiveness, and designing enhanced procedures for improvement. 2.5 defining features of the iics having identified the organizational model each iic conforms to and described its nature, in this paragraph we can finally outline the fundamental features that define the content of the institution. in analyzing the organization, we will adopt a cultural marketing perspective. the birth and permanence of one or more institutes within a specific geographic area requires certain preparation: a. the meeting of political, economic and cultural interests representing both countries promoting the exchange; b. the selection and development of content; c. perspectives to be cultivated and put in place within a diplomatic network. once these political, economic and environmental conditions for the birth of an iic have are in place, it is then necessary to understand if there are satisfactory conditions to support the development of the institutional entity in the planned location. this is dependent on contingent factors such as whether the economic situation of the sponsors is solid enough; if the economic and cultural relationships between the two countries can still offer new ideas for a partnership that is perceived as useful and advantageous for both parties; if the dimensions of the operation are proportionate to the strategic people and resources put in place both centrally and locally. according to these factors, we can say that the iics stem from the meeting of highly specific interests (seddio, 2013). this juncture of interests is made possible by interdependence between internal and external resources, and thanks to this complementarity, each iic is capable of communication to promote iic e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 55-69 59 addressing the needs of all agents involved in the project of the institute. below is a list of the main conditions that determine the creation and the specific identity of each iic: a. spatial-territorial character. located in a specific geographical area and in a certain territory, each iic is deeply connected to the specific place it serves. within a given context, it builds its own history, communicating its roots so that its activities are connected to its identity, and its identity shapes the environment within which it is working. the specific cultural identity each iic develops becomes a testimony to its dialogue with and welcoming of the local community and culture. the cultural entity that results from this process is a clear, recognizable sign of the iic’s will to embrace the needs and desires of the territory and of its efforts and struggles to offer useful services to a given community. b. durability. today's situation at the ministerial level determines whether a certain iic remains in a given country or not. this phenomenon casts light on the unstable nature of iics: their permanence depends on a complex series of relationships where social, political or economic factors come into play and may force their closure. therefore, the presence of an iic is connected to factors and events that go well beyond the purposes of the system and the needs of a particular context, factors that in fact impact its lifespan and range of operations within a specific environment. c. structure. the structure of each iic is connected to the organizational model that qualifies the iic, which is structured, established and integrated into a network. there is a whole set of physical, institutional and economic rules and regulations that govern the iic’s operations. d. level of autonomy. political and financial ties allow for a specific level of autonomy in determining objectives and selecting projects for each iic. e. balanced spreadsheet. the value of each cultural product, for example a course of italian language, needs to increase through the cooperation with other actors, integrating the resources of each part involved with an interest in the overall project. the success of the cultural product depends on conditions of balance that are both internal and external to the institute, where all the tools mobilized to achieve objectives are optimized. consequently, each institution needs to find the balance between its level of decisional autonomy (either allocated centrally, or acquired locally) and the decisions coming from the central system. the conditions of existence at the foundation of an iic highlight the close relationship between the institutional environment and external factors coming from the target territory, thus setting in motion a process of adaptation and response to the needs of the target community. it is necessary to establish a conceptual, methodological, and operational scaffolding in order to attribute value to each moment of dialogue and cooperation between local entities and the shareholders involved in the project. with this in mind, each iic will be able to express and promote itself through projects largely regarded by the local community as both functional and useful. functionality here refers, on the one hand, to the perceived value and utility of a certain project and, on the other hand, to the methodology by which it is carried out, given that the development of contents and the tools used in implementing projects needs to be consistent with the institutional objectives and pertinent to the needs of the community. this link between the institutional and non-institutional gives birth to effective communication: the more it is finely attuned to the target community, the more successful it will be. therefore, in the next sections we consider the importance of strategically organized communication, that is, communication set up in such a way as to highlight both the institutional background and the operational management of a cultural-language product. 3. the communication strategy of the italian cultural institute in tokyo: a case study in the following sections, we will present some of the data obtained from a case study referred to the iic in tokyo. the selection of this model is determined by the fact that the institute of tokyo uses communication as the heart of its strategy for the management and control of the quality of education; while for internal communication, there is an open strategy that encourages the flow of communication, for external communication there is an approach which considers the five senses as the human retail interaction2. this approach affects the strategy of promoting italian language in connection with the student. for this reason, the iic in tokyo is one of the most productive institutes in terms of the number of courses offered. 2 it is a marketing approach that investigates the interactive effects on shoppers. in this case, atmospheric cues have significant effects on learners. serragiotto & maugeri e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 56-69 60 3.1 internal communication: creating educational events the design of italian courses is aimed at developing the skills of learners, since internal communication is a formative process for the entire learning system, where the students themselves are the main protagonists. the iic, therefore, focuses on the skills of individuals by determining the forms of continuity and evolution of the external and internal learning system; connection with the context and steps to support the dissemination of information and promotion of communication and learning represent crucial efforts. each member of the organization participates and contributes to varying degrees to the stages of development of a project; thus a flow of internal communication that helps to maintain consistency with model development and organizational behavior from the top down is created. the path analysis of the research highlights how each role is contextualized according to environmental characteristics and distinctive features of particular cultural values. the design, therefore, is characterized by a multidimensional nature and an intrinsic human context profile intrinsic both qualitative and quantitative that enriches the course of italian language. the structure develops according to an open system of human and environmental components where an open and circular logic prevails, in relation to communicational pathways and tools. 3.2 the function of the committee as a strategic hub of educational interaction from the inside out the committee, which is composed of the board, four teachers and student representatives, serves as a liaison between the inside and outside environment. the committee works to introduce new ideas, informed by the input of teachers and the point of view of the student representatives. in this way, it seeks to solve the difficulties of the students with the goal of increasing the value of service learning and motivation of teachers and students. finally, the hybrid nature of the committee promotes social interaction and the consolidation of practices and rules shared by all. we believe that, according to the pedagogical purposes and meaning of their mission, the iic uses appropriate tools to prepare students to acquire global expertise and to provide them with challenging learning experiences. the institute presents itself as an open organization able to implement a plan and continue to reflexively evaluate its activities. such a task-oriented structure increases the motivational level and productivity of participants. 3.3 benefits for students of italian japanese students are traditionally oriented towards authority and totally dependent on class (saito & samimi, 1996). by contrast, following iic’s logic, students are encouraged to take part in decision-making and quality control of their learning. in this way, they play an integral role in the cultural entity and are in close contact with native speakers and the course material. consequently, they can cultivate metadisciplinary expertise. the aim is to push students to abandon passivity, empowering them to engage with the iic. this implies a distribution of knowledge and power that is strengthened in relation to the interaction and interconnectedness of stakeholders, the nature of the interdependencies between individuals, and the organizational context (siemens, 2005). 4. external communication language promotion is the core of business of the organization, and courses are designed with the aim to meet the needs of the target community. we will see how external communication is supported by thematic channels such as outdoor spaces, together with methodological training of teachers and new atmosphere. this represents an innovative approach to instruction and external communication. 4.1 outdoor environment tokyo iic has invested in the construction of outdoor environments, which become relevant in the promotion of italian language and culture for the following reasons. the first type of outdoor environments, outdoor spaces, contribute to generate the vision of the italian culture and their design prefigures the valuecomponents of the learning that takes place internally. therefore, they play an attractive and communicative role. the second kind of outdoor environment, break areas or transit areas, such as the entrance and corridors, are where most interactions, interests, barriers and openings are developed. through the organization of the outdoor environments we can understand the concept of communication to promote iic e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 55-69 61 communicative and interactive teaching practiced by the institute. observation of the iic spaces allowed us to reconstruct the contribution of human retail interaction as an achievement through multiple senses. in this way, external communication passes through the external environments by activating an experiential process in which the communication of a particular message is enhanced by the use of the senses. 4.2 non-verbal communication the interaction between the physical structure of the iic building and individual actors is achieved by the simultaneous use of sensory stimuli. the management of the sensory stimuli through the five senses, exerted by the architectural elements on the process of users’ perception, is emblematic in our case. the sensory components comprise sight, sound, smell, and touch. sight includes elements of the setting such as the building’s having been erected in a particular location, or natural and environmental conditions of the garden that contribute to the visual dimension of the building. all these elements contribute to introducing an effect of visual comfort that is both acoustic and climatic. the specific design of the iic spaces contributes to the value of this sensory component. this is evident in the color scheme of the space, which reproduces the colors of the italian flag, and the arrangement of chairs gracing the front hall. sound is limited mostly to italian music, which is audible from outside the iic. as japanese students and visitors approach the main lobby, background music featuring popular arias of puccini can be heard, with the intention of arousing emotions and feelings connected to italian culture. olfactory sensations contribute to visitors’ sensory experience. outside, a rich fragrance is produced by the plants in front of and around the building. the evocative value of smell differentiates the context, and distinguishes it from other physical and sensory components. it is widely known that olfactory stimuli affect the memorability of an event (zaghi, 2012). these fragrances contribute to the well-being of learners and the memorability of their time at the institute. touch is here referring to the sensory experience of the exhibitions that are on display in the atrium space, parallel to the road leading to the institute, whose materials are a symbol of arts made in italy. the visible presence of authentic materials aims to attract visitors, inviting the public to admire their physical characteristics. in conclusion, we argue that the appearance of the iic in tokyo, created through a combination of verbal communication channels (billboards input) and non-verbal input (sense organs), leads to the internalization of the messages delivered to the japanese user, which identify the italian culture through the balance between form and matter, or the verbal and sensory input. 4.3 multimedial communication the high number of students who are over 50 years old and enjoy language courses at the iic in tokyo (maugeri, 2014) suggests that the language promotion should not be built solely for a young age group. as we found out in our research, the tokyo iic invests more on the external area and lesser on technologies to teach italian. therefore, we experience a construction of the italian teaching which uses internal communication as a resource to enable educational services in line with the needs of the people. on the other hand, the potential of the external communication could be strengthened by applying a model that aims at promoting of italian language and culture in the territories with high technological impact. in the following paragraphs we will present a communication model with these characteristics. 5. communication of iics for some years now, the maeci has been committed to the renovation of iics, encouraging a managerial approach to culture so that all those involved in the process may become active contributors to the modernization of the system, and the system may, in turn, better adhere to its mission. from this perspective, the iics are often interpreted as a cultural endeavor with a business sensibility (fraterrigo & maugeri, 2009; solima, 2004) so that resources may be funneled into local branches while maintaining efficiency and maximization of resources (serragiotto & maugeri, 2012). the political and cultural measures taken within the iics are the result of a series of processes and organizational practices based on the concept of brand equity, which also includes communication as a key factor to set up a strategic plan to run the institute. serragiotto & maugeri e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 56-69 62 therefore, in the following section, we will focus our attention on the iics and the communicative factors that require technical and organizational competence, in order to envision a project plan involving the community of the hosting territory. 6. communication in its cultural setting two main points should be clarified before focusing our attention on communication in the iics. first, we adhere to the widely accepted principle that communication must not distort the message intended by those involved in the promotion of the iics. second, we believe that communication should be based on fundamental principles that guarantee the unity and integrity of the iics’ mission. we propose and describe these principles as follows: a. communication is pivotal in settling into the foreign country environment; b. communication allows the institute to assess and address possible cultural needs; c. communication is the means of contact with the local territory; d. communication is centered on the individuals representing the organization’s drive and purpose in a specific socio-cultural context; e. communication is the activation of an interactive process seeking to lay the foundation for dialogue in which differences and similarities between cultures are appreciated; f. communication expresses the culture and behaviors adopted by the organization in the context of its foreign setting. in addition to following these principles, communication must seek to guarantee continuity and feature clear, detectable, and consistent objectives aligned with the mission and corporate identity of the iics. for these reasons, communication must be planned and coordinated so that the iics’ identity may be consistent and allow the public: a. to perceive the iics as a cultural entity; b. to access the system the iics belong to; c. to join the operational platform and system of alliances the iics work within. all of these fundamental features contribute to make available and immediately usable the complex network of knowledge and know-how, leading to the identification of the iics’ history and vision, mission and objectives, contacts and alliances established in the territory (in terms of both quality and typology) and the level of internationalism reached by the organization. in this sense, communication must take advantage of a unified strategy by which the institution operates in the territory following its diplomatic network and implementing a series of consistent initiatives in the host community in order to: a. establish contacts with the hosting environment; b. shorten cultural and geographical distances; c. allow for the birth of lasting cultural relationships; d. create a flow of ideas and positive energy working towards the institute’s mission; e. enhance demand beyond the perceived need and beyond the rational level of purchase. the entrylevel threshold of iics is surpassed by the value of services extended to the customers without the need for cognitive effort when evaluating the price of purchase (anderson, 2009). thanks to the quality and job potential offered by the learning experience, with the benefit of operating as professional consumers (prosumers) both inside and outside the organization’s network. with this in mind, communication creates a bonus, a surplus of emotional-rational material for the use of the cultural product and, at the same time, it ensures integration in focusing on the core values of the cultural identity of a host country, which offers developmental and transformational opportunities to the learning community. communication to promote iic e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 55-69 63 7. guidelines for planned communication according to severino (2007), the guidelines upon which communication is centered are: a. use a language that is understandable and directed at the community it seeks to address, with the objective of increasing trust in the institution; b. familiarize the client with the ideas and reality of the cultural enterprise; c. identify the idiosyncrasies of the hosting territory's culture together with the cultural identity of the guest culture; d. develop a relationship that acknowledges the values, interests and needs of both parties; e. raise awareness about the innovative presence of a new culture; f. give importance to the role, quality and contribution of each individual involved in the exchange, recognizing his or her contribution as a source of ideas and knowledge. with the hope that communication may inspire and produce shared values as ethical intelligence (balboni, 2011), it is necessary to emphasize, first of all, the foundation of the organizational structure as much as the behaviors through which a common vision is expressed. secondly, the will to actively listen to the hosting community and to acknowledge the value of its people putting at their own disposal all the possible technical and cultural tools to appreciate the dialogue and share those motivations and solutions that aspire towards a better quality of life. 8. cultural characteristics of communication to enable an exchange between a guest and host culture means multiplying the opportunities for dialogue and sharing information on both an emotional and cognitive level. in nuancing our understanding of this process, we could connect this intercultural communication to the learning process of the learner at the moment s/he communicates with the organization and develops forms of interaction that connect and bind both parties. adherence to the course of italian language is the result of a communicative process defined as: a. horizontal; b. clear; c. believable; d. consistent; e. proactive; f. original. these communicative features characterize the quality of the interactive relationship between the two parties, resulting in a system where we can identify two co-producers of non-linear meaning whose contributions lead to the construction of a shared cultural experience. in order to welcome the language learner in his or her entirety and complexity, it is therefore necessary to struggle to establish authentic communication that is motivating and differentiated for each community of learners involved in dialogue. such exchange highlights the true needs of all learners and works to cater to their different integrated intelligences. communication therefore is transformed into an experience, revealing the identity of the cultural entity that speaks about itself through colors, visuals, architectural features, technologies and a plurality of forms and initiatives and prompts onlookers to reflect on their own culture and the system of values attached to it. 9. communication mediated by new technologies in this section, we turn our attention to the organization of communication on the internet and on the importance of integrating modern technological resources such as the social networks in language instruction. it would be unreasonable to overlook the potential that these resources can offer; therefore, drawing on their aim to network with and reach out to potential users, cultural organizations such as iics should recognized the potential contribution of online communication to avoid falling behind with technological advancements. technology can allow iics to reinforce the image of the organization and quickly serragiotto & maugeri e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 56-69 64 and allow it to effectively respond to the interests of selective consumers, thus laying the foundation for a dynamic intercultural exchange. 9.1 tools for communication between participants the means and modality of communication may result being a strategic move to facilitate the process of acknowledgment on behalf of the end-users. at this point, the adoption of a particular means of communication reflects the personality and type of relationship that an interlocutor has in mind. different kinds of channels are thus used to improve and personalize communication, linking like-minded communities along with their cultural values to the cultural life of the organization's endeavor. to achieve this objective, the tools and channels selected must be in place, readily available in the hosting territory, and used by the local community so that the communicative aim is deeply understood and results in motivating and enlightening involvement in the project. at present, the development of new social technologies empowers learners to become a surveyor of interconnected information. the internet and all modern social media platforms have different kinds of organization that structure a message in a particular way. consequently, individuals must first learn how to use and manage specific online tool. this technicality aside, the selection of a communicational channel may reveal how an online tool is intended to serve as a flexible support in promoting a cultural initiative. 9.2 considerations for cultural marketing via social media social networks by now play a central role in strategic cultural marketing. in fact, they are considered suitable tools to create interactional environments (vescovi, 2007) within which the cultural initiatives of a certain institution are nurtured. in this perspective, forums and blogs have acquired an especially dynamic function in establishing and sustaining contact with a language learner. indeed, they can contain information, news, opinions, and comments that can inform individuals’ impressions, positive or negative, about the brand and the cultural product being offered. consequently, these channels can convey successful messages, whatever their purposes may be, by means of the influencer (rosen, 2009). the influencer is a person who, more than other readers interacting on the site, seeks to affect the opinions and choices of others, publishing his own feed based on impressions, thoughts, and comments after having experienced the product firsthand or after having participated in an event. this feed aims to persuade or dissuade other users considering a certain product, and attract comments by other users voicing agreement and appreciation of the product in question. the cultural entity must oversee its own profile across the different channels it uses, and in doing so, manage all communicational opportunities with contacts in order to attract and retain faithful high-profile consumers. these same consumers play an increasingly important role as collective force responsible for defining the identity of the cultural entity and shaping its relationship both inside and outside the network. 9.3 the institutes and digital communication after having carried out a brief analysis of digital communication channels, we now examine a series of features of communication that iics should adopt to be able to interact and bond with the host communities via the latest information technologies. the adoption of such technologies should respond to: a. a well-defined strategy; b. a targeted communication plan (accounting for the who, what, where, when, and why’s of effective communication); c. the availability of tools both onand off-line (maimone, 2010) suitable to the speed of development and type of communication envisioned for the host community (wenger, 1998); d. a context supporting informality and open processes: the nature and use of these media underlines the participative and collaborative role of the organization. it would be rather misleading and inconsistent for the institute to be present and operate in these network environments if the organization responded to an inflexible model of relationships and imposed a top-down hierarchical structure (di bari, 2007). it is precisely because the organizational model is dynamic that a collaborative and open system is ideal; communication to promote iic e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 55-69 65 e. praise of culture: through the combined use of different media, the organization shall value the cultural dimension of the organization, which is ever more prone to communicational channels that allow for rapid and shared flows of information; f. the presence of meta-communication skills: organized communication results from the complex coordination of cognitive and behavioral exchanges. centered on the individual and on his or her ability to first learn and then learn to learn, it seeks to give rise to collective knowledge that is evenly spread throughout a community. with all of this in mind, organized communication facilitates interactions and exchanges which may lead to different levels of meta-learning in relation to the objectives and organizational resources that need to be highlighted and made accessible. the purpose of such organized communication is to state the pivotal importance of relationships (argano, bollo, dalla sega, & vivalda, 2009) and to share and support a common objective of cultivating knowledge. following these steps will help to place value on factors of individual and collective change that, in the short run, may lead to behaviors that truly involve acquiring and appreciating cultural products. 10. spinoffs for the organization of teaching italian as a foreign language in this section, we would like to cast light on the possible trickle-down effects that the intercultural approach to communication described above (maimone, 2010) may have on the organization of italian instruction. to this end, we set out to explain the need for consistency in communication, organizational setup (thompson, 1998), and the production of meaning for the student of italian. 10.1 the foundation of didactic communication the iic’s purpose is to convey culture in order to allow for positive changes within the host community, not only in the educational sector. in order to be successful, each iic has to increase empathy towards the organization and spread common organizational values (alvesson, 1996), instilling meaning in the actions of the intellectual capital employed to build a level of understanding suitable to the living and cultural conditions that each iic is working within. the strongholds on which to develop skills must be structured around a communicative culture that makes the relationship with students visible through processes of socialization and integration and positioning of the language-product. 10.2 the importance of communication for the teaching of italian in this article, we have had the opportunity to indicate how communication frames host culture as a factor of identity (anolli, 2002) in a modern cultural organization (argano et al., 2009; boll0, 2012). in this sense, communication confers a functional role to dialogue so that the objectives for which a student has chosen to attend courses within the institute are shared. in developing communicative actions focused on a multi-directional exchange, participation, and the appreciation of equality, authenticity, and the acknowledgment of participants’ intelligences and skills, the iics’ situation mirrors what bettetini (1993) described as complementarity between an organization and its objectives. the factors mentioned above are all regarded as specific conditions that contribute to create and maintain a community (celentin, 2007). the community praises the single individualities present as resources capable of associating the reality of learning with the meanings that the learning has expressed and developed in terms of knowledge and skills for the person. what is taking shape is a triangular dialogical model that highlights the humanistic-emotional perspective (balboni, 2011) in which the relationship is encompassed, making each site of the institution an effective place for learning. 10.3 metacognitive and social values of learning each environment of the iics comes to represent a spatial metaphor of organized learning where each constitutional element has value within a repertoire to be shared and interpreted together. there exist a body of knowledge and values to be built and spread across the community. in this sense, a class is one of the junctures of communication having a participative and interactive nature that goes in several directions and works on multiple levels. specifically, the communicative behavior in class should be consistent with the processes of construction of contextualized meaning and should put students into relation with one another and offer them problem-solving activities with relevance. in this way, what takes place is a truly personalized serragiotto & maugeri e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 56-69 66 learning experience based on a dialogic and interactive approach, ultimately leading to the production and exchange of values in which language transforms the knowledge of the individuals and reinforces their metacognitive skills. therefore, this mode of communication becomes the necessary fundamental unit of change governed by processes of redistribution and reconfiguration of knowledge, and the propelling force that encourages each and every student to become an actor and prosumer of his or her own learning experience. 11. conclusion in conclusion, we may state that communication 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learning assessment, and adult education. his research also focuses on the promotion of the italian language abroad. es graziano serragiotto es investigador y director del laboratorio itals. desde hace años se viene encargando de la formación de profesores de lenguas extranjeras y de italiano para extranjeros. se ocupa en especial de la metodología clil, de la evaluación del aprendizaje lingüístico y de la enseñanza a adultos. la promoción del italiano en el extranjero es otro de los campos en los que se centra su trabajo de investigación. it graziano serragiotto è ricercatore e direttore del lab. itals. si occupa da anni della formazione docenti di lingue straniere e di italiano per stranieri. in modo particolare si occupa della metodologia clil, della valutazione degli apprendimenti linguistici e dell’insegnamento ad adulti. altra area di ricerca è la promozione della lingua italiana all’’estero. giuseppe maugeri, università ca’ foscari di venezia gmaugeri@unive.it en giuseppe maugeri is a research fellow who provides training both in italy and abroad in fields connected to the diffusion of the italian language and culture in the world. his research specifically deals with the strategies of language policy and the promotion of italian culture by the italian cultural institutes. he also researches the didactics of italian as a foreign language. es giuseppe maugeri es investigador y su actividad de formador en italia y en el extranjero está relacionada, fundamentalmente, con la difusión de la lengua y de la cultura italiana en el mundo. se ocupa en especial de estrategias de política lingüística, de la promoción cultural de los institutos italianos de cultura y de glotodidáctica del italiano como lengua extranjera. it giuseppe maugeri è assegnista di ricerca, svolge attività di formatore in italia e all’estero su temi legati alla diffusione della lingua e della cultura italiana nel mondo. in particolar modo, si occupa delle strategie di politica linguistica e di promozione culturale degli istituti italiani di cultura, e di glottodidattica dell’italiano come lingua straniera. e-j117-124_fildokic euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-journall  volume  1,  issue  1,  november  2014,  pages  116-121   issn  2376-905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.8 www.e-journall.org     copyright  ©  2014.  this  work  is  licensed  under  the  creative  commons  attribution-­‐noncommercial-­‐noderivs  3.0  unported  license. 1  contacto:  mfildjokic@yahoo.com   análisis  del  portal  practica  español,  un  sitio  web  para  el  aprendizaje   de  la  lengua  y  cultura  del  mundo  hispanohablante   mirjana  filđokić1   universidad  de  barcelona   technology  review   received  26  december  2013;  received  in  revised  form  9  march  2014;  accepted  8  april  2014   abstract es siguiendo los criterios establecidos en las herramientas de evaluación de recursos multimedia de aprendizaje elaboradas por autores como dudeney (2002), fernández y juan (2012) y marquès (1999), en la presente reseña hemos elegido una página web para el aprendizaje de español que se titula practica español, y la analizaremos teniendo en cuenta sus objetivos, el diseño, los contenidos, los materiales y las herramientas que emplea, su utilidad y su capacidad de motivar al alumnado. palabras clave: recursos web de aprendizaje, aprendizaje activo, interactividad, feedback, motivación. en following the criteria established in the evaluation tools of multimedia resources for learning developed by authors such as dudeney (2002), fernández and juan (2012), and marquès (1999), we analyzed a web page for the learning of spanish entitled practica español, focusing on its objectives, design, contents, materials and tools, usefulness, and capacity to motivate students. key words: online learning resources, active learning, interactivity, feedback, motivation. it nella presente recensione si applicano alcuni dei criteri elaborati da dudeney (2002), fernández e juan (2012) e marquès (1999). questi criteri sono indicati come strumenti di valutazione delle risorse multimediali finalizzate all’apprendimento. si è scelta, quindi, una pagina web per l’apprendimento dello spagnolo dal titolo practica español, e la si è analizzata tenendo conto degli obiettivi, della grafica, dei contenuti, del materiale e degli strumenti utilizzati, nonché della sua validità e della capacità di motivare gli allievi. parole chiave: materiali di apprendimento online, apprendimento attivo, interattività, feedback, motivazione. practica  español       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  116-­‐121   117   1.  presentación  y  objetivos  de  la  página   la  página  practica  español   (www.practicaespanol.com)  fue   lanzada  por  primera  vez  en  2006  por   la   fundación  de  la  lengua  española,  una  institución  privada  de  españa  dedicada  a  la  promoción  y  difusión  de  la   lengua   y   la   cultura   españolas   en   otros   países   del   mundo,   en   colaboración   con   el   instituto   cervantes   y   la   agencia  efe.  aparte  de   los   cursos  presenciales,   la  fundación   imparte   cursos  de  español   en   línea,   así   como   también  proporciona  en  su  página  web  una  serie  de  herramientas  para  practicar  el  idioma  y  aprender  sobre   la  cultura  hispana.  practica  español  es  solo  uno  de  los  innumerables  recursos  que  se  incluyen  en  la  oferta  de  la   fundación,   elaborado  por   esta   con   la   colaboración  del   instituto  cervantes   y   la  agencia  efe.  es   importante   destacar  que   el   instituto  cervantes,   en   su   espacio  multimedia,   lleva   años   recomendando  y  promoviendo   el   uso  de  esta  herramienta  como  recurso  para  el  aprendizaje  autónomo.     el  portal  está  diseñado  con  el  mismo  formato  de  un  periódico  digital  en  el  que  se  publican  noticias  de   distintos  ámbitos,  todo  con  el  objetivo  de  aprender  español  a  través  de  este  medio  de  comunicación.  se  trata   de   un   sitio  web  de   fácil   navegación,   ya   que   directamente   de   la   portada  podemos   visitar   cualquier   sección,   comprobar   nuestro   nivel   de   español,   escuchar   la   radio,   ver   los   anuncios   o   noticias   sobre   el   tema   que   nos   interese  o  pasar  a  las  actividades  y  ejercicios.  de  esta  manera,  además  de  la  fácil  navegación,  se  da  libertad  al   usuario   para   que   adapte   la   página   a   su   estilo   de   aprendizaje.   la   combinación   de   colores   y   el   uso   de   determinadas   fuentes   textuales   ayudan   a   la   presentación   de   los   contenidos   de   forma   mucho   más   clara.   también  es  posible  la  suscripción  a  la  página  a  través  del  correo  electrónico  o  rich  site  summary  (rss),  lo  que   nos   permite   mantenernos   al   día   sobre   los   cambios   que   se   efectúan   en   ella.   cabe   destacar   que,   debido   al   carácter   y   al   objetivo   de   la   página,   es   de   enorme   importancia   su   constante   actualización   y,   desde   nuestro   punto   de   vista,   este   requisito,   en   general,   se   cumple   en   este   portal.   por   tanto,   se   trata   de   una   página  web   educativa   y   al  mismo   tiempo   informativa,   que   permite   un   contacto   diario   con   la   hispanidad,   lo   que   es   un   factor   importante   para   aumentar   la   motivación   de   los   aprendices,   especialmente   de   los   que   no   tienen   la   oportunidad  de  establecer  este  contacto  en  directo,  es  decir,  carecen  de  recursos  económicos  o  no  disponen   de  tiempo  suficiente  para  permanecer  en  algún  país  hispanohablante  durante  un  periodo.   aparte  del  español  como  lengua  vehicular,   la  página  cuenta  con  la  posibilidad  de  navegar  en  inglés,   portugués,  chino  y   francés,   lo  que   implica  que  un  principiante  que  desee  aprender  español  a   través  de  este   recurso  deba  conocer  por   lo  menos  uno  de  estos   idiomas.  en   la  era  de   las  nuevas   tecnologías  y  del  uso  del   inglés  como  lengua  de  comunicación  global,  la  traducción  de  la  información  al  inglés  puede  ser  de  gran  ayuda   a   los  principiantes  que  nunca  han  tenido  contacto  con  el  español  para  saber  cómo  manejar   la  herramienta,   cómo  navegar  por  el  sitio  y  cómo  interpretar  las  instrucciones  de  los  ejercicios.  cabe  destacar  que,  a  pesar  de   la  posible  traducción  de  los  aspectos  formales  de  la  página  (instrucciones,  títulos  de  secciones  y  actividades),   el   material   permanece   auténtico   y   los   ejercicios   siguen   siendo   en   español,   lo   que   consideramos   particularmente  importante,  ya  que  es  bueno  que  los  usuarios  se  familiaricen  desde  el  primer  momento  con   textos  auténticos  y  que  se  acostumbren  a  los  elementos  fonéticos  y  prosódicos  del  español.  asimismo,  de  esa   forma  se  impide  que  el  aprendizaje  del  idioma,  en  este  caso  controlado  por  completo  por  los  estudiantes,  se   convierta  en  una  pura  memorización  del  vocabulario  y  unos  ejercicios  de  traducción.       2.  destinatarios   la  página  web  está  destinada  a  los  estudiantes  de  español  de  todos  los  niveles  (inicial,  intermedio  y   avanzado).  los  niveles  del   conocimiento  de  español  están  determinados   según  el  marco  común  europeo  de   referencia  para  las   lenguas   (consejo  de  europa,  2002)  y   el  plan  curricular  del  instituto  cervantes   (instituto   cervantes,  2006).  en  su  mayoría   incluye  actividades  dirigidas  a  estudiantes  adolescentes  y  adultos,  aunque   existe   una   sección   llamada   adivina   la   palabra   destinada   a   niños.   se   puede   observar   que   el   sitio   contiene   noticias   que   pertenecen   a   diversas   categorías   (españa,   el   mundo,   deportes,   entretenimiento,   viajes,   salud,   negocios,   cultura,   ciencias,  economía,  etc.),   con  el   fin  de  satisfacer  diferentes  aficiones  y  de  responder  a   las   necesidades   particulares   de   los   usuarios.   debemos   tener   en   cuenta   que   el   primer   paso   para  motivar   a   los   estudiantes  es  despertar  su   interés,  y  ofrecerles  una  amplia  gama  de   temas  nos  parece  una  buena  solución   para  ello.  así,  la  organización  general  de  esta  web,  en  forma  de  periódico  en  línea,  responde  a  las  necesidades   del  mundo  moderno   (en  concreto,  da   la   sensación  al  usuario  de  que  está   siempre  al  día  con   las  novedades   actuales).  con  ello  se  estimula   la  curiosidad  del  estudiante  y  se   le  ofrecen  los   instrumentos  necesarios  para   que  sea  capaz  de  buscar  información  y  aprender  por  sí  mismo,  además  de  participar  activamente  en  el  mundo   global  que  le  rodea.       filđokić     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  116-­‐121  118   3.  práctica  de  las  destrezas  lingüísticas     las   destrezas   lingüísticas   que   se   procuran   reforzar   con   practica   español   son,   en   primer   lugar,   las   destrezas  de  comprensión,  tanto  auditiva  como  lectora.  la  página  incluye  un  gran  número  de  vídeos,  audios  y   anuncios  de  diversos  temas  para  practicar  la  comprensión  oral,  así  como  unos  textos  sobre  cultura  hispánica   acompañados  de  ejercicios  para  afianzar  la  comprensión  lectora.  sin  embargo,  hay  que  destacar  que  el  sitio   no   ofrece   directamente   la   oportunidad   de   practicar   ni   la   expresión   ni   la   interacción   orales,   aunque   con   la   posibilidad  de  suscripción  a  las  redes  sociales  (tales  como  twitter  y  facebook)  queda  abierta  la  opción  para   el  conocimiento  mutuo  entre  sus  usuarios  y  los  posibles  contactos,  vía  skype  u  otros  recursos  multimedia.  de   esta  manera,   se   deja   espacio   para   la   práctica   de   la   interacción   escrita  mediante   los   foros   de   participación   (situados  bajo  la  pestaña  participa),  en  los  que,  inmediatamente  después  de  ver  un  vídeo,  escuchar  un  audio  y   hacer  los  ejercicios  para  comprobar  su  comprensión,  se  pueden  compartir  con  otros  usuarios  las  dificultades,   opiniones  y  sugerencias  relacionadas  con  la  actividad  y  el  tema  en  cuestión.  lo  mismo  se  consigue  con  el  blog   (www.practicaespanol.com/es/blog/ent/10/),   creado   como   un   recurso   más   en   este   sitio   web,   que   ofrece   actividades   atrayentes   con   las  que   se   intenta   involucrar   a   los   visitantes.  a   través  del   blog   es  posible  darse   cuenta   del   interés   de   los   participantes,   de   los   puntos   fuertes   y   débiles   del   material   propuesto   así   como   también  seguir  su  implicación  y  su  aprendizaje.  para  un  aprendiente,  los  foros  y  el  blog  son  muy  importantes,   puesto   que   no   solo   le   permiten   interactuar   con   hispanohablantes   de   todo   el   mundo,   sino   que   también   le   ayudan  a  resolver  dudas  recibiendo  el  feedback  de  otros,  con  igual  o  mejor  competencia  lingüística,  con  lo  que   se   promueve   así   la   idea   constructivista   de   construcción   del   aprendizaje   mediante   la   ayuda   mutua   y   cooperación  entre  iguales.       4.  contenidos  y  estructura     en  cuanto  a  la  presentación  del  material  educativo  que  contiene  esta  página  web,  se  puede  notar  que   en  general  se  utiliza  una  estructura  uniforme:  se  ofrece  un  texto  escrito  de  la  noticia,  que  va  acompañado  por   la   audición   de   esta,   un   vídeo   y   unos   ejercicios   para   comprobar   la   comprensión.   en   algunas   actividades   se   incluye   también   información  sobre   los  aspectos  gramaticales  dominantes  en   los   textos.  en   las   secciones  de   apuntes  gramaticales  que  aparecen  debajo  de  cada  vídeo  se  explican  determinados  elementos  de  la  gramática   con  aclaraciones  teóricas  y  ejemplos.  de  la  misma  manera,  se  ofrecen  enlaces  directos  a  otras  secciones  que   tratan   el   mismo   contenido   gramatical.   asimismo,   para   facilitar   la   comprensión   lectora,   se   proporcionan   recursos   léxicos   en   forma   de   enlaces   al   diccionario   de   la   lengua   española   de   la   real   academia   española   (www.rae.es/recursos/diccionarios/drae),   de   modo   que   se   pueda   consultar   cualquier   palabra   que   no   se   comprenda.   también   se   pueden   resolver   dudas   gramaticales   o   léxicas   accediendo   a   otro   diccionario   académico  en  línea,  el  diccionario  panhispánico  de  dudas  (www.rae.es/recursos/diccionarios/dpd).     los   contenidos   que   se   presentan   en   este   sitio   web   resultan   sugestivos   y   atrayentes,   fundamentalmente  debido  a  su  autenticidad.  los  textos  son  originales,  interesantes,  actualizados  y  dinámicos,   y  cada  uno  manifiesta  contenidos  adecuados,  tanto  informativos  como  lingüísticos.  el  elemento  cultural  tiene   mucho   peso   en   la   página;   los   contenidos   culturales   que   se   ofrecen   no   tratan   solo   de   los   países   hispanohablantes  (personas,  instituciones,  premios,  actos,  eventos  históricos,  fiestas  populares,  etc.),  sino  que   también   abarcan   tradiciones   e   innovaciones   de   todo   el   planeta.   este   hecho   es   importante   porque   permite   difundir   una   imagen   completa   del   mundo   hispanohablante,   así   como   también   dar   a   conocer   las   interpretaciones  y  actitudes  que  este  mundo  tiene  de  otras  culturas.     no  obstante,   a  pesar  de   la  presencia  de   la   cultura  hispanoamericana,   es   evidente  que   en   la  página   web  practica  español  se  hace  mayor  hincapié  en  la  cultura  peninsular,   lo  que  se  manifiesta  sobre  todo  en  el   uso   de   determinadas   variedades   lingüísticas.   menos   en   la   sección   de   música   y   en   algunos   vídeos,   no   se   observan  textos  que  muestren  el  uso  de  cualquiera  de  las  variedades  no  peninsulares,  y  en  las  explicaciones   gramaticales   se   hace   alusión   a   las   particularidades   lingüísticas   características   en   el   habla   del   continente   americano  solamente  de  manera  esporádica.  a  veces,  el  tratamiento  de  las  variedades  no  peninsulares  tiene   carácter  despectivo,  pues  se   indica  que  algunos  usos  de   la   lengua  son  irregulares,  a  pesar  de  que  dentro  de   una   cierta   variante   su   uso   es   completamente   legible   y   correcto.   por   ejemplo,   en   algunas   explicaciones   de   gramática  se  habla  del  uso  “anómalo”  del  pretérito  indefinido  cuando  este  en  se  utiliza  en  lugar  del  pretérito   perfecto  en  muchas  variedades  del  español  de  américa.  consideramos  que  eso  es  uno  de  los  puntos  débiles   de  esta  página  web,  dado  que  se  descuida  una  gran  parte  de  la  riqueza  lingüística  de  la  lengua  española.  eso  lo   prueban  también  los  comentarios  en  los  foros  de  discusión,  donde  los  usuarios  demuestran  su  sensibilidad  e   interés   en   cuestiones   sociolingüísticas   haciendo   preguntas   relacionadas   con   las   variedades   del   español   no     practica  español     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  116-­‐121   119   peninsular.  somos  conscientes  de  que  es  imposible  transmitir  en  un  solo  sitio  web  toda  la  diversidad  cultural   y   lingüística  del  mundo  hispanohablante,  pero  opinamos  que  se  han  de   incluir  y  explicar,  por   lo  menos,   los   rasgos  más  generales  de  las  principales  variedades  del  español.   igualmente,  debido  al  género  periodístico  que  predomina  en  esta  web,  en  torno  al  cual  gira  toda   la   idea  de  la  página,  se  han  marginado  otras  variedades  diastráticas  y  difásicas  de  la  lengua.  así,  son  muy  pocos   los   ejemplos   de   la   jerga   juvenil   y   del   lenguaje   coloquial   en   su   uso   diario,   a   pesar   de   su   importancia   en   la   comunicación  cotidiana,  precisamente  dentro  de  los  grupos  que  son  en  su  mayoría  los  visitantes  y  usuarios  de   este   sitio   web.   el   lenguaje   coloquial   está   presente   únicamente   a   través   de   las   expresiones   aisladas   que   aparecen  en  la  sección  titulada  expresiones  populares  y  en  algunos  ejercicios,  donde  se  pide  que  se  relacionen   las  expresiones  con  su  significado,  pero  sin  que  hayan  estado  previamente  contextualizadas.  la  jerga  juvenil   tiene  muy  poco  espacio  en  la  sección  de  apuntes  de  argot.     5.  promoción  del  aprendizaje  activo   a  pesar  de   la  actualidad  de   las  noticias  y  su  extensión  a   los  diversos  ámbitos,  consideramos  que  el   potencial   del   input   lingüístico   que   en   estas   se   ofrece   no   se   ha   explotado   bien.   en   otras   palabras,   las   actividades  que  acompañan  a  los  vídeos,  audios  y  textos  escritos  se  limitan  a  elegir  entre  verdadero  y  falso,   rellenar  huecos  y  relacionar  palabras  con  sus  definiciones  correspondientes.  se  trata  de  ejercicios  de  carácter   puramente   conductista   que   no   dejan   lugar   a   la   expresión   de   la   creatividad   de   los   estudiantes,   en   los   que   predominan  las  frases  aisladas  y  se  impone  la  memorización  del  vocabulario  y  de  las  reglas  gramaticales.  las   explicaciones   gramaticales   que   acompañan   a   las   actividades   son   la  muestra   de   un   enfoque   deductivo,   y   a   veces  son  muy  complicadas  para  los  niveles  iniciales.   los   ejercicios   no   suponen   ningún   tipo   de   vacío   de   información   que   condicione   la   necesidad   de   producción  e  interacción,  y  consideramos  que  en  esas  condiciones  es  muy  probable  que  un  aprendiente,  por   muy  interesado  que  esté  en  aprender  español,  se  desmotive  muy  pronto  después  de  leer  dos  noticias  y  hacer   estos   ejercicios,   bien   por   el   aburrimiento   o   bien   por   la   dificultad   de   comprender   las   definiciones   y   explicaciones   gramaticales.   por   lo   tanto,   consideramos   que   este   recurso   necesita   refrescarse   con   nuevas   actividades  que  sean  más  interactivas  y  más  variadas.  si  los  ejercicios  que  acompañan  a  los  textos  se  limitan  a   los  que  ya  se  han  descrito,  a  lo  mejor  los  estudiantes  continuarán  escuchando  los  vídeos  y  leyendo  las  noticias   del  ámbito  que  les  interese,  pero  es  poco  probable  que  sigan  haciendo  las  actividades.  esto  se  ha  confirmado   por  las  reacciones  en  el  foro  de  discusión,  que  normalmente  se  refieren  al  contenido  de  los  vídeos  y  los  textos,   pero  no  a  los  ejercicios.     sin  embargo,  el  blog  permite  las  producciones  y  aportaciones  individuales  y,  en  nuestra  opinión,  en   esta  parte  de  la  página  se  han  introducido  las  actividades  más  interesantes  y  estimulantes,  como  completar  el   titular  de  una  noticia  de  efe,  buscar  los  errores  en  noticias  o  escribir  una  entrada  del  mismo  blog.  se  trata  de   ejercicios   más   significativos,   que   incrementan   la   participación   activa,   la   producción,   la   creatividad   y   la   interacción.     6.  tipo  de  feedback  en  las  actividades   en   cuanto   al   tipo   de   feedback  que   se   proporciona   a   los   estudiantes,   hay   que   subrayar   que   este   es   mínimo   y   que   en   los   ejercicios   de   comprensión   oral   y   lectora   se   limita   a   informar   del   número   de   errores   cometidos.  no   se   especifica   el   error   ni   se   explica   su   naturaleza,   por   lo   que   es  muy   difícil   que   los   alumnos   sepan  cómo  autocorregirse.  esto  podría  ser  un  factor  significativamente  desmotivador,  como  demuestran  los   comentarios  publicados  en  los  foros,  donde  los  alumnos  piden  soluciones  y  aclaraciones,  pero  en  la  mayoría   de  los  casos  estas  no  se  les  facilitan.  consideramos  que  sería  mejor  ofrecer  algunas  pistas  o  indicaciones  para   que   los   estudiantes   supieran   dónde   se   han   equivocado,   para   que   puedan   reflexionar   y   concentrarse   en   la   búsqueda  de  las  soluciones.     asimismo,   habrá   que   añadir   que   la   participación   en   los   foros   se   tutoriza   en   pocos   casos,   es   decir,   raras  veces  aparece   la  voz  de   los  administradores  de  practica  español  para  aclarar  alguna  duda  relacionada   con  la  comprensión  de  los  textos  y  el  uso  de  la  lengua,  aunque  se  plantean  muchas  preguntas  de  este  tipo  por   parte  de  los  estudiantes.  opinamos  que  esas  dudas  y  necesidades  individuales  se  tienen  que  tener  en  cuenta  y   vigilar  para  poder  tomar  decisiones  y  plantear  temas  de  discusión.  además,  creemos  que  la  gran  parte  de  este   problema  se  solucionaría  si  se  ofreciera  otro  tipo  de  feedback.         filđokić     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  116-­‐121  120   7.  conclusiones   en  el   estudio   se  han   investigado   las   características  más   importantes  del   sitio  web  practica  español   que   tienen   un   papel   relevante   en   la   divulgación   de   la   página   y   afectan   a   su   capacidad   de   atraer   a   nuevos   usuarios.   entre   los   principales   logros   de   este   sitio  web,   destacamos   la   calidad   de   los   textos   auténticos,   así   como  la  actualidad  de  los  contenidos  y  su  distribución  atractiva  en  formato  de  noticias.  del  mismo  modo,  la   página   web   ofrece   una   amplia   visión   cultural   del   mundo   hispanohablante,   que   ayuda   al   desarrollo   de   la   competencia  sociocultural  de  los  estudiantes  y  que,  al  mismo  tiempo,  tiene  un  fuerte  poder  motivador.     por   otra  parte,   subrayamos  que   este   corpus   textual   y  multimedia  no  ha   sido   explotado   en   el   nivel   didáctico-­‐pedagógico  de  forma  satisfactoria.  con  el  fin  de  cambiar  esta  situación,  es  imprescindible  ofrecerle   al   aprendiz   un   feedback   satisfactorio   y   hacer   los   ejercicios   más   interactivos.   por   ejemplo,   la   actividad   de   insertar  palabras  en  el  titular  de  una  noticia  de  la  agencia  efe  del  día  anterior  podría  ser  más  interesante  si  se   organizara  un  concurso  en  el  que  se  eligiera  el  mejor  titular  creado  por  los  aprendientes  y  se  publicara  el  día   siguiente.   también   se   podría   abrir   una   página   con   noticias   escritas   por   los   usuarios.   se   trata   solo   de   dos   ejemplos  de  las  numerosas  posibilidades  de  explotación  que  pueden  convertir  este  sitio  web  en  un  rincón  de   aprendizaje  de  español  más  sugestivo  y  motivador.   en   conclusión,   debido   a   todas   estas   razones,   es   posible   afirmar   que,   por   una   parte,   la   página  web   practica  español  es  una  excelente  fuente  de  textos  y  audios  interesantes  para  los  aprendices  de  español,  pero   por  otra  parte,  no  sería  recomendable  utilizarla  de  manera  exclusiva  para  aprender  español.  a  este  propósito,   es  preciso  hacer  hincapié  en  el  hecho  de  que,  seamos  profesionales,  docentes  en  formación  o  estudiantes  de   español,   en   el   mar   de   recursos   web   dedicados   al   aprendizaje   de   español   es   importante   ser   prudentes,   reflexionar  y  saber  identificar  en  una  página  web  tanto  sus  puntos  fuertes  como  aquellos  mejorables,  con  el   fin   de   aprovecharla   de   la   mejor   manera   posible   para   satisfacer   nuestras   necesidades   de   comunicación,   interacción,  formación  y  aprendizaje.         referencias  bibliográficas     dudeney,  gavin.  (2000).  the  internet  and  the  language  classroom.  cambridge,  reino  unido:  cambridge   university  press.   efe,  fundación  de  la  lengua  española  e  instituto  cervantes.  (2006).  practica  español.  disponible  en:   http://www.practicaespanol.com/.   fernández  pinto,  jimena  y  juan  lázaro,  olga.  (2012).  criterios  de  evaluación  de  materiales  e/le  en  la  red.   cuadernos  cervantes.  disponible  en  http://www.cuadernoscervantes.com/multi_28_criteeval.html.   instituto  cervantes.  (2002).  niveles  comunes  de  referencia.  marco  común  europeo  de  referencia  para  las   lenguas:  aprendizaje,  enseñanza,  evaluación.  madrid,  españa:  anaya,  cap.  3,  pp.  23-­‐47.   instituto  cervantes.  (2006).  plan  curricular  de  instituto  cervantes.  madrid,  españa:  instituto  cervantes-­‐ biblioteca  nueva.  índice.  objetivos  generales.  disponible  en   http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/plan_curricular/indice.htm.   marquès  graells,  pere.  (1999).  entornos  formativos  multimedia:  elementos,  plantillas  de  evaluación/criterios  de   calidad.   facultad   de   educación,   universitat   autònoma   de   barcelona.   disponible   en   http://peremarques.pangea.org/calidad.htm.     practica  español     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  116-­‐121   121   mirjana filđokić, universidad de barcelona mfildjokic@yahoo.com es mirjana filđokić es profesora de español, de origen serbio. tras licenciarse en estudios hispánicos en la facultad de filología de belgrado, trabajó dos años enseñando español en un instituto de secundaria de su país. en julio de 2013 finalizó el máster europeo en enseñanza de español en contextos internacionales, para cuya realización le concedieron una beca de erasmus mundus. ha estudiado en cuatro universidades europeas, en las ciudades de belgrado, bilbao, barcelona y groninga. actualmente trabaja como profesora de español en la escuela internacional de belgrado. entre sus líneas de investigación se encuentran las destrezas orales en el aprendizaje de español, las tic en el aprendizaje/enseñanza de segundas lenguas y la afectividad en las clases de lengua. habla cuatro idiomas y enseña español e inglés como l2. además de dedicarse a la docencia, crea materiales y cursos, y pretende abrir su propia academia de idiomas. entre sus planes para el futuro está continuar su formación realizando un doctorado en lingüística aplicada y abrir su propia academia de idiomas. en mirjana filđokić is a spanish teacher from serbia. after obtaining her degree in hispanic studies at the faculty of philology in belgrade, she worked for two years as a spanish teacher in a high school in serbia. in july 2013 she obtained the european master’s degree in spanish teaching in international contexts, being awarded the erasmus mundus scholarship for this program. she studied at four european universities in belgrade, bilbao, barcelona, and groningen, and taught spanish at the faculty of arts in groningen for one semester in 2012/13. she currently teaches spanish at the international school of belgrade. her main fields of research are oral skills in spanish learning, icts in second language learning and teaching as well as affective elements in a language classroom. besides the language teaching, she creates learning materials and courses. she speaks four languages and teaches spanish and english as second languages. she is planning to start her own language school and to do her phd in applied linguistics. it mirjana filđokić è un’insegnante serba di spagnolo. dopo la laurea in studi ispanici alla facoltà di filologia di belgrado, ha insegnato spagnolo per due anni nella scuola secondaria in serbia. a luglio 2013 ha completato il master europeo in didattica dello spagnolo in contesti internazionali con il sostegno di una borsa di studio erasmus mundus. ha studiato in quattro università europee – a belgrado, bilbao, barcellona e groningen – e, nel 2012/13, ha insegnato spagnolo nella facoltà di belle arti a groningen per un semestre. attualmente insegna spagnolo presso la scuola internazionale di belgrado. i suoi principali interessi di ricerca sono le abilità orali nell’apprendimento dello spagnolo, l’uso di strumenti ict nell’insegnamento/apprendimento di lingue seconde e le componenti affettive nella classe di lingua. oltre all’attività d’insegnamento, produce materiali di apprendimento e corsi. parla quattro lingue e insegna spagnolo e inglese come lingue seconde. ha in programma di aprire una sua scuola di lingue e di fare un dottorato in linguistica applicata. e-j069-084_banzina_hewitt_dillit euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-journall  volume  1,  issue  1,  november  2014,  pages  69-84   issn  2376-905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.9 www.e-journall.org     copyright  ©  2014.  this  work  is  licensed  under  the  creative  commons  attribution-­‐noncommercial-­‐noderivs  3.0  unported  license. 1  contact:  elina.banzina@sseriga.edu   using  synchronous  speech  to  facilitate  acquisition  of  english  rhythm:    a  small-­‐scale  study   elina  banzinaa1, lynne  e.  hewittb, laura  c.  dilleyc astockholm  school  of  economics  in  riga   bbowling  green  state  university   cmichigan  state  university   received  24  january  2014;  received  in  revised  form  5  june  2014;  accepted  17  july  2014   abstract en while appropriate stress and rhythm is of importance for any speaker’s intelligibility, such properties are critical for international teaching assistants (ita), who deliver new and complex information to native speaker audiences. given the limited time available for ita instruction and the need for a time-efficient rhythm teaching method, this article reports findings of a small-scale feasibility study that tested the effectiveness of a synchronous speech component introduced into conventional rhythm instruction. synchronous speech involves teacher and learner speaking in unison continuously, which allows the l2 learner to learn rhythm implicitly and uninterruptedly, and provides rich auditory-visual input, ample motor speech practice and real-time feedback, thereby automatizing rhythm patterns. in a 6-week-long pre-post experimental feasibility study, blind listeners evaluated pretraining and post-training recordings of ita-produced speech. data revealed a trend towards more improvement in l2 rhythm working with the synchronous speech technique. results establish feasibility in both instruction and research. key words:  spoken english, pronunciation teaching, english rhythm, synchronous speech, rhythm instruction. es si un acento y un ritmo apropiados son fundamentales para la comprensión de cada hablante, estas propiedades son indispensables para los asistentes internacionales de la enseñanza (ita), quienes proporcionan informaciones nuevas y complejas a un público de hablantes nativos. dado el poco tiempo del que disponen los ita para su formación y la necesidad de un método de enseñanza eficaz, este artículo transmite los resultados de un estudio realizado a pequeña escala, en el que se ha comprobado la eficacia de la introducción del discurso síncrono como complemento del tradicional método de enseñanza del ritmo. un discurso síncrono implica que profesores y estudiantes hablen al unísono de forma continua, lo que permite al estudiante de l2 aprender el ritmo de manera implícita e ininterrumpida gracias a un fuerte input auditivo y visual, un incremento de la práctica motora y una retroalimentación inmediata, que conducen a la automatización de los esquemas rítmicos. para este estudio, unos auditores anónimos evaluaron las grabaciones de discursos de los ita antes y después del entrenamiento. los resultados muestran una notable mejora del ritmo en l2 gracias a la técnica del discurso síncrono y su factibilidad en la enseñanza y en la investigación. palabras clave: inglés hablado, enseñanza y pronunciación, ritmo inglés, discurso síncrono, enseñanza ritmo. it se accento e ritmo appropriati sono fondamentali per la comprensione di ogni parlante, tali proprietà sono indispensabili per gli assistenti internazionali all’insegnamento (ita), che devono fornire informazioni nuove e complesse a parlanti nativi. dato il poco tempo a disposizione per la formazione degli ita e la conseguente necessità di un metodo d’insegnamento efficiente, questo articolo riporta le conclusioni di uno studio su piccola scala con cui si è testata l’efficacia dell’introduzione del parlato sincrono all’interno del tradizionale metodo di insegnamento del ritmo. il parlato sincrono prevede che insegnanti e studenti parlino all’unisono e senza interruzioni, permettendo agli studenti di l2 di apprendere il ritmo in modo implicito e continuo grazie al ricco input visivo e auditivo, all’incremento della pratica motoria e al feedback immediato, consentendo di automatizzare gli schemi ritmici. nel corso dello studio, durato sei settimane, ascoltatori esterni hanno valutato registrazioni di parlato degli ita prima e dopo il training. i risultati mostrano un considerevole miglioramento del ritmo nella l2 grazie alla tecnica del discorso sincrono e dimostrano la sua fattibilità sia nell’insegnamento sia nella ricerca. parole-chiave:  inglese parlato, insegnamento pronuncia, ritmo inglese, discorso sincrono, insegnamento ritmo. banzina,  hewitt,  and  dillit       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  69-­‐84 70 1.  introduction   appropriate   stress   and   rhythm   patterns   have   been   shown   to   be   critical   for   non-­‐native   speakers’   intelligibility   in  numerous  research  studies  (anderson-­‐hsieh,   johnson,  &  koehler,  1992;  derwing,  munro,  &   wiebe,   1998;   tajima,   port,   &   dalby,   1997).   this   is   especially   true   in   extended   discourse,   such   as   giving   a   presentation   or   teaching   a   class,   which   is   overall   a   cognitively   demanding   context   (hahn,   2004).   use   of   natural  stress  and  rhythm  patterns  is  also  potentially  important  under  degraded  listening  conditions,  such  as   in   large   lecture  halls   and  with  background  noise   in   the   classroom   (mattys,  brooks,  &  cooke,   2009;  munro,   1998;   woodford,   prichard,   &   jones,   1998).   while   this   applies   to   any   non-­‐native   speaker,   the   need   for   producing  appropriate  speech  patterns  is  especially  critical  for  international  teaching  assistants  (itas),  who   often  work  with   relatively   large   american   undergraduate   student   audiences   in   an   acoustically   challenging   environment.  however,   international  graduate  students  often  struggle  with  rhythmic  performance.  there  is   evidence   in   second   language   research   that   non-­‐native   patterns   of   rhythm   and   stress   are   pervasive   in   the   speech  of   second   language   learners   (anderson-­‐hsieh  et  al.,  1992;  flege  &  bohn,  1989;  macallister,  flege  &   piske,  2002;  white  &  mattys,  2007).  these  non-­‐native  rhythmic  patterns  may  result   in  seriously  decreased   intelligibility,  or  at  least  reduce  the  speed  with  which  the  message  is  processed  by  native  listeners  (anderson-­‐ hsieh  &  koehler,   1988;   braun,   lemhofer,   &  mani,   2011;   field,   2005;   hahn,   2004).   unfortunately,   time   for   english   rhythm   training   for   international   teaching   assistants   is   often   limited,   necessitating   a   search   for   an   effective  approach  that  would  lead  to  automaticity  in  a  short  amount  of  time,  maximizing  the  amount  of  both   input  and  active  practice.     the  synchronous  speech  technique,  where  an  instructor  and  a  student  engage  in  reading  of  the  same   text   or   reciting   it   aloud   simultaneously,   was   observed   in   our   practice   to   yield   improvement   in   rhythmic   performance  in  familiar  and  practiced  contexts.  more  importantly,  it  led  to  a  considerable  improvement  also   in   spontaneous   rhythm   use   in   cognitively   demanding   contexts.   the   perceived   benefits   of   the   synchronous   speech   technique   for   second   language   speech   learning   are   the   simultaneously   provided   (i)   rich   auditory-­‐ visual  input,  (ii)  real-­‐time  implicit  feedback,  (iii)  ample  motor  speech  practice,  and  (iv)  uninterrupted  flow.  in   fact,  simultaneity  is  one  of  the  key  factors  that  allows  multiple  goals  to  be  accomplished  in  a  short  amount  of   time,  potentially  leading  to  a  long-­‐lasting  and  consistent  use  of  english  rhythm  and  stress.   despite   the   observed   benefits   of   this   method,   no   empirical   evidence   exists   regarding   the   effectiveness  of  the  synchronous  speech  technique  for  language  rhythm  acquisition.  we  therefore  attempted   to  establish   its  applicability   to   rhythm   instruction  experimentally,   in  a  6-­‐week-­‐long  small-­‐scale  experiment   where   synchronous   speech  was   incorporated   into  an  existing   conventional  pronunciation   instruction   in  an   oral   proficiency   program   at   a   communication   disorders   department   of   a   midwestern   u.s.   university.   the   synchronous  speech  technique,  as  it  was  used  in  this  study,  was  geared  towards  the  needs  of  the  particular   audience—international   graduate   students   (itas)—who   had   to   prepare   for   giving   oral   presentations   and   lecturing  in  front  of  undergraduate  students.  in  our  6-­‐week  experiment,  students  in  the  experimental  group   were  not  taught  exclusively  with  the  synchronous  speech  technique  but  rather  a  synchronous  speech  element   was   added   to   the   conventional   instruction   so   that   students   would   receive   explicit   teaching   as   well.   it   is   generally   agreed   in   second   language   research   that   adult   learners   benefit   both   from   implicit   and   explicit   instruction   (ellis,   2005,   2007;   hulstijn,   2005).   while   synchronous   speech   allows   rhythm   to   be   learned   implicitly,   having  metalinguistic   knowledge   of   the   english   language   rhythm   is   beneficial   in   order   to   notice   rhythmical  differences  more  easily  and  be  able  to  respond  to  corrective  feedback  more  effectively.  moreover,   the  experimental  group  was  an  existing  class  and  we  did  not  want  to  employ  a  new  and  previously  untested   instructional   technique  as  our   sole  approach.  we   therefore  added  a   synchronous  speech  component   to   the   traditional  explicit  rhythm  instruction.  this  allowed  for  a  quasi-­‐experimental  design,  examining  whether  the   addition  of  this  component  resulted  in  better  performance  in  that  group.     the   current   study   sought   primarily   to   answer   whether   it   is   experimentally   feasible   to   test   the   effectiveness   of   the   synchronous   speech   technique   applied   in   pronunciation   teaching   and   what   measures   might   be   appropriate   to   establish   its   effectiveness.   the   other   main   goal   of   this   study   was   to   determine   whether   the   use   of   the   synchronous   speech   technique   can   lead   to   improved   rhythmic   performance   in   a   second   language   in   spontaneous   production.   while   the   focus   of   this   study   was   on   rhythm   teaching   and   learning,   we   also   aimed   to   identify   other   areas   of   oral   performance   that   might   benefit   from   synchronous   speech   practice.   although   the   current   small-­‐scale   study   cannot   establish   definitive   effectiveness   of   the   technique,   we   sought   to   garner   preliminary   data   supporting   its   potential   effectiveness,   both   in   enhancing   performance   in   the   synchronous   contexts,   as   well   as   transferring   improved   performance   to   spontaneous   synchronous  speech       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  pp.  69-­‐84 71 speech.  thus,  the  present  investigation  is  a  feasibility  study,  working  out  a  protocol  to  test  the  method  and  to   establish  whether  preliminary  results  would  justify  further  testing.     2.  literature  review   languages   differ   from   one   another   in   terms   of   prosody   and   rhythm.   the   rhythm   of   the   english   language   features   alternations   of  more   prominent   and   less   prominent   syllables,   the  more   prominent   ones   demonstrating  greater   intensity,   fundamental   frequency,  and  duration   than   the   less  prominent  ones,  which   often  get  reduced  (fry,  1955;  ladefoged,  2005;  lehiste,  1970).  production  studies  have  consistently  shown   that   l2   learners’   production   of   these   suprasegmental   features   in   english   deviates   from   native   speakers’   performance.  this  most  often   is   a   reflection  of  non-­‐native   speakers’   experience  with  patterns  and   features   that   are   employed   and   viewed   as   critical   in   their   first   language   phonological   system   and   subsequently,   transferred   to   learners’   l2,   where   they   are   continued   to   be   used   in   l1-­‐specific   ways.   for   example,   prior   research   has   shown   that   l2   learners   tend   to   apply   phonological   knowledge   of   their   native   language  when   perceiving  and  producing  stressed  and  unstressed  syllables  in  english  (chen,  robb,  gilbert,  &  lerman,  2001;   lee,  guion,  &  harada,  2006;  yu  &  andruski,  2010),  duration  cues  (lehiste  &  fox,  1992)  and  vowel  reduction   (braun,  lemhöfer,  &  cutler,  2008;  flege  &  bohn,  1989;  zhang,  nissen,  &  francis,  2008).     the   use   of   such   non-­‐native   patterns   in   l2   speech   can   have   detrimental   effects   on   speech   intelligibility,  all  the  more  so  in  instructional  speech  that  delivers  novel  and  cognitively  demanding  content.   l2-­‐accented  instructors  are  the  reality  in  many  u.s.  universities  that  are  increasingly  reliant  on  international   teaching   assistants   for   filling   the   instructional   needs   of   u.s.   undergraduate   students   (chiang,   2009).   the   quality   of   instructors’   oral   delivery   should   ensure   access   to   the   academic   content   maximally   quickly   and   effectively,  yet  high  numbers  of  undergraduate  students  experience  difficulties  understanding  or  connecting   with   their   instructors’   speech   (pickering,   2001;  rao,   1995).  according   to   stevens   (1989),   students   cite   the   non-­‐native  use  of  suprasegmentals  as  the  main  reason  for  the  failure  to  decode  their   instructors’  messages.   suprasegmental  accuracy  has  been  long  viewed  as  more  critical  for  comprehension  than  segmental  accuracy   in  l2  pronunciation  literature  (anderson-­‐hsieh  et  al.,  1992;  derwing,  munro,  &  wiebe,  1998;  morley,  1991).   some  of   the  most   common  problem  areas  addressed   in   ita   research   literature  have  been   improper  use  of   stress,  insufficient  vowel  reduction,  inadequate  intonation  patterns,  pausing,  and  speech  rate  (gorsuch,  2013;   hahn,   2004;   kang,   2008;   2010;   pickering,   2001),   which   have   interfered   with   undergraduate   students’   performance   at   some   level.   the   time   for   speech   training   in   the   ita   training   curriculum   is   unfortunately   limited   and   often   needs   to   be   shared   with   other   aspects   of   ita   training   such   as   culture   and   pedagogy   (anderson-­‐hsieh,   1990).   this   calls   for   highly   effective   pronunciation   teaching   techniques   that   yield   immediate   improvements   in   the   suprasegmental   realm.   some   of   the   teaching   approaches   proposed   for   classroom   teaching  of   suprasegmentals  have  been,   for   example,   a   cognitive   approach  with   a  metacognitive   analysis   of   the   suprasegmental   system   and   subsequent   self-­‐study   using   field-­‐specific  materials   (anderson-­‐ hsieh,  1990)  and  a  drama-­‐based  approach  (stevens,  1989).  often,   the   focus  has  been  entirely  on  self-­‐study   after  pronunciation  instruction,  such  as  an  input-­‐based  approach  in  the  form  of  repeated  reading  along  with   an  audio  recording  (gorsuch,  2011),  or  covert  practice  with  self-­‐monitoring  and  self-­‐correction  (dickerson,   2000).  however,  in  order  to  maximize  class  time,  the  search  for  most  effective  teaching  techniques  continues.     the   current   study   was   designed   to   provide   empirical   evidence   for   the   effectiveness   of   the   synchronous  speech  technique,  which  has  been  anecdotally  observed  to  yield  positive  results   in  l2  rhythm   acquisition.   the   exploration   of   this   technique   was   motivated   by   the   empirical   accounts   of   synchronous   speech  being  successfully  used  to  achieve  the  desired  speech  effect  in  the  field  of  communication  disorders,   where  it  is  used  in  stuttering  therapy  for  speech  rate,  prosody  control,  and  fluency  development  (freeman  &   armson,   1998;   ham,   1988;   kalinowski   &   saltuklaroglu,   2003;   kiefte   &   armson,   2008).   while   l2   speech   acquisition  is  an  entirely  different  discipline  and  of  a  non-­‐clinical  nature,  the  shared  speech  intelligibility  goal   justifies   further   explorations   of   professional   practices   used   in   the   speech   disorder   discipline   as   part   of   an   interdisciplinary  quest  for  most  effective  instructional  tools.     in  the  literature,  the  simultaneous  speech  production  by  two  speakers  has  been  referred  to  in  various   ways:  synchronous  speech  (cummins,  2003),  choral  speech  or  chorus  repetitions  (freeman  &  armson,  1998;   kjellin,   1999),   and   unison   speech   (ham,   1988).   it   is   important   to   note   two   things:   first,   the   technique   described  here  does  not  involve  rhythmical,  highly  structured  chanting,  such  as  reciting  poems  and  rhymes,   but   rather   refers   to   any   other   less   structured   text   that   one   would   encounter   in   their   daily   lives.   second,   synchronous   speech,   as   its   name   suggests,   really   denotes   speech   that   is   created   by   two   people   simultaneously,  without  a  significant  lag  in  production.  this  is  different  from  speech  shadowing,  a  related  yet   banzina,  hewitt,  and  dillit       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  69-­‐84 72 different   term,   in  which   one   speaker   attempts   to   reproduce   the   other   speaker’s   speech   after   it   is   uttered,   without  a  text  in  front  of  them,  and  with  no  familiarity  with  the  upcoming  utterance  (cummins,  2003).  while   cummins  (2003)  points  out  that  there  are  lags  also  in  a  synchronous  speech  condition,  they  are  much  shorter   than   the   shortest   lags   in   shadowed   speech.   kalinowski   and   saltuklaroglu   (2003)   describe   the   timing   of   synchronized  speech  as  “one  signal  imitating  the  other  in  a  loosely  defined  temporal  window”  (p.  342).     kjellin   (1999)   has   provided   an   experience-­‐based   account   of   introducing   synchronous   speech   into   second   language  pronunciation   instruction,  where  relatively  short  phrases  were  used   for   teaching  prosody.   he   notes   that   choral   repetition   is   not   passive   audio-­‐lingual   drilling,   but   rather   efficient   active   work   both   mentally  and  physically  automatizing  a  skill,  the  instant  results  of  which  generates  a  high  level  of  motivation   in  the  student,  so  repetitions  never  get  boring.  chela-­‐flores  (1994)  gives  indirect  support  to  the  synchronous   speech  technique  in  second  language  rhythm  acquisition  by  pointing  out  the  need  for  the  student  to  develop  a   feel  for  the  continuous  flow  of  rhythm,  rather  than  working  on  rhythm  on  a  word-­‐by-­‐word  basis  that  does  not   let  the  learner  perceive  it  as  a  whole  and  form  a  general  habit  of  its  use.  in  such  cases,  rhythm  use  is  limited   only  to  the  learned  words  and  phrases  and  does  not  generalize  to  out-­‐of-­‐class  spontaneous  speech  situations.   similarly,   she   emphasizes   the   difference   between   those   mechanisms   that   lead   to   conscious   knowledge   of   language   rules   but   do   not   normally   develop   oral   fluency,   and   those   mechanisms   that   develop   automatic   language  competency,  claiming  that   in   the  traditional  rhythm  instruction  more  attention   is  usually  given  to   the  former.     “conventional”   rhythm   teaching   typically   combines   both   explicit   instruction   and   meaningful   and   communicative  practice   to   gradually  move   from   the  declarative   stage  of   skill   acquisition   to   the  procedural   stage   and   finally   to   the   automatic   stage   (dekeyser,   2007),  which   is   a   relatively   slow  process.   synchronous   speech  could  hypothetically  accelerate  rhythmic  automaticity  by  focusing  on  the  final  automatization  phase,   where  rhythmic  patterns  would  be  internalized  through  their  smooth  and  fluent  use.  the  intensive  nature  of   synchronous   speech   provides   frequent   perceptual   exposures   to   the   feature   learned   and   a   considerable   amount   of   motoric   practice.   thus   the   synchronous   speech   technique   could   minimize   reliance   on   the   metalinguistic  rules  of  rhythm  production  and  the  procedural  stage  of  rhythm  learning,  instead  allowing  the   learners  to  fully  immerse  themselves  into  “assisted”  native-­‐like  rhythm  use.   a   neurological   perspective   on   synchronous   speech   could   explain   why   instant   imitation   of   native   speaker’s   speech   gestures   leads   to   automaticity   and   could   potentially   be   a  more   effective   tool   for   rhythm   acquisition  than  more  analytical  approaches.  kalinowski  and  saltuklaroglu  (2003)  articulate  the  position  that   all  humans  possess  “mirror  neurons”  that  create  an  immediate  link  between  an  observation  and  an  action  (or   perception   and   production)   and   allow   humans   to   imitate   complex   motor   sequences.   while   the   status   of   mirror   neurons   remains   unclear   and   somewhat   controversial,   recent   reviews   indicate   that   there   is   strong   evidence   to   support   their   existence   and   role   in   motor   imitation   and   hence   motor   learning   (molenberghs,   cunnington,  &  mattingley,  2012).  thus  synchronous  speech  could  be  conceptualized  as  a  simple  input-­‐output   reflex   mediated   by   mirror   neurons,   during   which   “the   only   cognitive   tasks   required   are   perceiving   and   attending   to   the   external   signal   during   speech   production”   (kalinowski   &   saltuklaroglu,   2003,   p.344).   regardless  of  whether  such  a  strong  claim  can  be  substantiated,  the  mere  presence  of  a  mirror  neuron  system   can  be  seen  as  evidence  for  the  neurological  importance  of  imitation  in  human  motor  learning.     in  sum,  the  strength  of  the  synchronous  speech  technique  lies   in  the  fact  that  rhythm  is   learned  (i)   psycho-­‐motorically   and   implicitly,   (ii)   uninterruptedly   and  holistically,   (iii)   intensively   and   time-­‐efficiently,   while  (vi)  maintaining  consistency  across  speech.  the  flow  of  rhythm  develops  in  time;  interrupting  the  flow   by   the   instructor   and   the   student   taking   turns   would   be   detrimental   to   rhythm   learning.   therefore,   the   continuity  and  fluency  of  practice  gives  students  an  opportunity  to  use  the  desired  rhythm  in  a  native-­‐like  and   fluent  manner,  forming  a  strong  psycho-­‐motoric  habit  without  much  conscious  awareness.  additionally,  this   lets   students   hear   themselves   speak   according   to   native   prosodic   norms,   which   might   be   a   powerful   motivator.  moreover,  temporal  features  of  rhythm  are  hard  to  maintain  without  a  real-­‐time  metronome  that   is  instructor’s  speech,  and  could  be  lost  if  not  paced  and  aligned  by  synchronous  speaking.  the  outside  real-­‐ time  meter   helps   students   set   their   “inner   clock”.   finally,   automatizing   a   skill   is   the   final   and  most   time-­‐ consuming   stage   of   skill   acquisition,   yet   this   final   stage   of   skill   learning   is   often   cut   short   due   to   time   constraints.   the   synchronous   speech   technique   puts   emphasis   on   the   last   step  —   the   skill   automatization   process  —  from  the  very  first  day,  and  through  fluent  and  intensive  use  could  arguably  turn  the  new  feature   into  a  habit  faster.     synchronous  speech       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  pp.  69-­‐84 73 3.  methods     3.1.  research  design   the  small-­‐scale   feasibility   study  used  a  pre-­‐test  post-­‐test   control  group  quasi-­‐experimental  design,   where  the  control  group  (n  =  3)  worked  with  the  regular  rhythm  instruction,  and  the  experimental  group  (n  =   3)  worked  with  a  synchronous  speech  component  added  to  the  regular  instruction.  the  research  participants   were  audio-­‐recorded  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  6  weeks  of  rhythm  instruction  period  to  obtain  (i)  initial   baseline  speech  samples  and  (ii)   final  post-­‐instruction  speech  samples.  the  last  ones  assessed  the  potential   transfer  to  novel  contexts/spontaneous  speech  as  students  were  giving  short  unscripted  presentations.     the   baseline   and   final   recordings   were   further   subjected   to   perceptual   measures   to   compare   progress   in   rhythmic   performance   in   each   group.   recordings   from   all   six   participants  were   first   low-­‐pass   filtered  with  speech  analysis  software  to  retain  only  suprasegmental   information,   in  order   to  eliminate  any   potential   bias   from   context   factors,   and   further   perceptually   rated   by   three   certified,   licensed   speech-­‐ language  pathologists,  all  naïve  to  the  study,  on  (i)  rhythm  pattern  acceptability,  (ii)  speech  rate  acceptability,   and  (iii)  overall  speech  acceptability  for  instructional  purposes.     3.2.  participants   the  study  was  conducted  within  a  6-­‐week-­‐long  course  of  oral  proficiency  for  international  graduate   teaching   assistants   (itas)   in   a   department   of   communication   sciences   and   disorders   at   a   university   in   midwestern   united   states.   in   this   course,   each   international   student   received   individual   instruction   by   a   speech-­‐language   pathology   graduate   student,   supervised   by   a   licensed   and   certified   speech-­‐language   pathologist.     two  groups  of  participants  were  involved  in  the  study:  first,  six  international  students  (one  female,   five  male),  and  second,  six  native-­‐english  speaking  instructors  (all  female)  who  all  volunteered  to  participate   in  the  experiment.  the  international  students  had  all  been  screened  for  english  language  oral  proficiency  by   esl  experts  during  the  students’  first  days  on  campus.  if  their  speech  patterns  did  not  meet  the  established   fluency  criteria,   they  were   further  referred  to  the  department  of  communication  sciences  and  disorders   for   placement   in   their   oral   proficiency   program.   the   supervising   slp   along   with   the   participating   graduate   students   administered   initial   oral   proficiency   screenings   to   each   referred   student   and   identified   individual   pronunciation  goals.  finally,  those  international  students  who  were  identified  as  having  non-­‐native  prosodic   patterns  were  further  offered  participation  in  the  current  study.     the   six   international   participants   who   volunteered   were   randomly   assigned   to   control   and   experimental   groups,   controlling   only   for   the   native   language   factor:   the   complexity   of   certain   languages   could  affect  the  speed  with  which  rhythm  is  acquired;  therefore,  participants’  native  languages  were  balanced   across   both   groups.   thus,   there   were   two   speakers   of   chinese   in   each   group,   while   the   remaining   two   participants  —  one  speaker  of  nepali  and  one  speaker  of  sinhala  —  were  randomly  assigned  to  the  control   and  the  experimental  groups,  respectively.     table 1 participants’ native language and field of study.   + native language field of study control 1 chinese chemistry control 2 chinese chemistry control 3 nepali geology experimental 1 chinese biology experimental 2 chinese math & statistics experimental 3 sinhala chemistry     banzina,  hewitt,  and  dillit       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  69-­‐84 74 3.3.  procedure   speech  instructors  worked  with  the  itas  on  english  rhythmic  patterns  for  a  total  of  six  consecutive   weeks  during  the  semester,  where  approximately  up  to  30  minutes  out  of   the  regular  50-­‐minute  class  each   week   were   devoted   to   teaching   rhythm   and   stress.   although   each   session   was   conducted   individually,   maximum  measures  were  taken  to  make  sure  that  all  instructors  performed  the  same  way  through  intensive   training   and   constant   monitoring.   before   meeting   with   their   students,   all   native-­‐speaking   instructors   completed   weekly   joint   training   sessions   where   they   practiced   synchronous   speech   with   each   other   and   shared  their  experiences.   instructors  were  provided  with  detailed  guidelines  and   initial   texts   to  use   for   the   rhythm  teaching  part  of  each  session.     each   instructor  met  with   his   or   her   assigned   ita   in   a   quiet   therapy   room   equipped  with   a   video   camera.  one  of   the   researchers   constantly  monitored   the   instruction  process   via   camera  on   a   computer   in   another  room,  and  gave  instant  feedback  and  made  the  necessary  corrections  right  after  the  session  to  ensure   fidelity  of  treatment.     both   control   and   experimental   groups   spent   an   equal   amount   of   time   per   session   on   rhythm   instruction.  within  each  session,  all  students  went  through  controlled,  guided  and  free  speech  activities  (see   celce-­‐murcia,  brinton  &  goodwin,  2006);  however,  the  proportions  of  these  in  each  group  were  different.  the   experimental  group  received  proportionally  fewer  guided  and  free  speech  activities,  which  were  substituted   with  synchronous  speech  activities  instead.     the  explicit   instruction  on  rhythm  that  both  groups  received   involved  work  on  word  stress  (stress   realization:  duration,  pitch,  loudness,  as  well  as  vowel  reduction),  primary  phrase  stress,  content  and  function   words,   thought   groups,   stress   in   compound   nouns,   and   prominence   in   discourse   context   (stressing   new   information  versus  old,  emphatic  stress,  contrastive  stress).  each  session  began  with  word-­‐  and  short  phrase-­‐ level   controlled   activities  with   ear   training   (celce  murcia   et   al.,   2006)   and  modeling   by   the   instructor   and   imitation   by   the   student.   the   following   guided   activities   involved   more   field-­‐specific   content   and   longer   utterances;  still,  the  attention  of  the  student  was  focused  on  rhythm  production.  feedback  at  this  stage  was   explicit   and   immediate.   finally,   the   free   speech   and   communicative   activities   were   aimed   at   developing   automaticity   and   use   of   the   newly   acquired   skills   in   spontaneous   and   also   cognitively   demanding   speech,   which   is   an  everyday   reality   for   teaching  assistants.  these  activities  were  aimed  at   fostering  presentation-­‐ type  of  speech  and  were  made  maximally  meaningful  to  the  itas;  for  example,  they  involved  teaching  some   basic  concepts  in  their  field,  describing  research  conducted  in  their  department,  giving  a  motivational  speech   for  prospective  students  in  their  department,  etc.  feedback  at  this  stage  could  be  instant  or  delayed.     both   experimental   and   control   groups   received   the   abovementioned   instruction,   but   only   the   experimental  group  received  instruction  using  the  synchronous  speech  technique  in  place  of  some  guided  and   free   speech   activities.   the   experimental   group   followed   specific   detailed   guidelines   for   work   with   synchronous  speech.  the  materials  used  working  with   the  experimental   technique  were   field-­‐specific   texts   and  presentation  materials   that  were   either   selected   for   the   student  or,   later   in   the   semester,   provided  by   students   themselves   (e.g.,   descriptions   of   research   interests,   journal   abstracts,   upcoming   presentations).   using   contexts   relevant   to   students’   academic   needs   was   an   approach   selected   to   enhance   student   motivation.  the  texts  used  consisted  of  whole  paragraphs,  and  due  to  their  length  could  be  repeated  several   times  only.  nevertheless,  the  length  of  the  material  also  meant  that  the  flow  of  rhythm  could  be  internalized   more  continuously  and  intensively.   initially,   each   synchronous   speech  activity  began  with   the   instructor  modeling   for   the   student   and   the  student  silently   lip-­‐reading  along  to  familiarize  him  or  herself  with  the  text.  next,   the  student   joined  in,   and  both  student  and  instructor  spoke  in  unison.  depending  on  the  length  of  the  text,  it  was  repeated  three  to   five  times,  with  the  instructor  prompting  the  student  to  gradually  establish  eye  contact  with  the  “audience”,   i.e.,  the  instructor.  this  was  done  in  order  to  minimize  reliance  on  the  script  and  to  create  an  impression  of  a   real  presentation.  looking  up  frequently  at  the  imaginary  audience  also  helped  maintain  thought  groups  and   appropriate  pausing  in  the  running  speech.  often,  the  student  and  the  instructor  would  stand  in  the  opposite   corners  of  the  therapy  room  to  create  distance  between  the  speaker  and  the  audience,  creating  the  effect  of  a   real  presentation  where  appropriate  eye  contact  and  appropriate  volume  needs   to  be  maintained;   this  also   tended  to  increase  the  prominence  of  stressed  syllables  in  speech.  additionally,  to  minimize  the  “crutch”  that   the   instructor’s   voice  might  have   turned   into  during   the   synchronous   speech  activity,   the   instructor  would   significantly   lower  the  volume  of  his/her  voice  at   times  and   let   the  student   take   the   lead  so  students  could   hear   themselves  produce   speech   in   a  near-­‐native  manner  by   themselves.  afterwards,   the   instructor  would   tune  back  in  and  continue  as  usual.     synchronous  speech       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  pp.  69-­‐84 75 it  was   important   for   the   instructors   to  attend   to   several   things  while  working  with   this   technique:   first,  they  had  to  project  their  voices  loudly  enough  that  the  student  could  speak  in  full  voice  and  still  hear  the   instructor’   voice,  which  was   not   always   easy.   second,   the   instructors  were   trained   to   use   expressive   body   language  (e.g.,  raising  eyebrows,  looking  up,  leaning  forward)  to  amplify  rhythmic  patterns.  body  language  is   of  benefit  in  such  instruction  since  it  allows  speech  synchronization  through  peripheral  vision  while  reading  a   text   (cummins,   2003),   alerts   the   student   that   a   new   thought   group   is   coming,   and,   overall,   serves   as   a   reminder   of   the   physiological   aspect   of   stress   production.   in   this   way,   body   language   acts   as   a   real-­‐time   feedback  mechanism,  since  it  can  convey  the  right  timing  and  prominence  without  using  voice  or  any  other   signal.  overall,   corrective   feedback  was   implicit,  delivered  real-­‐time  via  amplified  auditory  and  visual   cues.   for   example,   if   the   student   rushed   ahead,   the   instructor   could   slow   down   her/his   speech   even   more   or   prolong  the  stressed  syllables  if  they  were  of  insufficient  duration  in  the  student’s  production.       3.4.  data  collection   to  establish  the  efficacy  of  the  synchronous  speech  technique,  pre-­‐test  and  post-­‐test  recordings  were   obtained   from   each   group.   recordings   were   made   with   panasonic   rr-­‐us470   digital   audio   recorders   and   shure  c606  professional  microphones  attached  to  them,  which  were  distributed  to  all   instructors.  overall,   students  were  recorded  six  or  more  times  during  the  semester,  but  only  the  first  and  the  last  recordings  were   used  in  this  study  as  we  were  interested  in  the  maximum  result  each  technique  could  achieve  in  the  limited   amount  of  time  allocated  for  rhythm  instruction.  students  were  unaware  of  which  recordings  would  be  used   for   research   purposes,   and   recordings  were   regularly   used   in   class   for  work  with   segmentals,   so   students   were  relatively  comfortable  with  being  recorded.     for  baseline  recordings,  all  participants  read  a  scripted   text   (see  appendix  a).  they  were  asked   to   first  familiarize  themselves  with  the  text  and  read  it  silently,  and  then  read  it  and  say  each  line  aloud,  looking   up,   as   if   presenting   it   to   their   class.   for   the   final   recordings   that   assessed   retention   and   transfer   to   spontaneous  production,  students  were  recorded  as  they  produced  a  novel  and  spontaneous  speech  that  they   had   a   few   minutes   to   prepare.   prior   to   recordings,   students   were   told   to   remember   the   segmental   and   suprasegmental   features   they   had   worked   on   during   the   semester   and   use   them   accurately   in   their   final   speech;   the  very   final   session  was  devoted  entirely   to  assessment  and   involved  no  rhythm   instruction.  the   speech   had   to   be   on   some   concept   from   their   field   they   could   explain   and   then   students   were   asked   to   “present”   it   while   they   were   being   recorded.   the   strong   focus   on   the   content   made   attending   to   speech   patterns  cognitively  demanding,  as  students  had  to  construct  a  novel  text  in  their  minds  and  simultaneously   maintain  appropriate  rhythm.  since  most  of   the  cognitive  resources  were  spent  on   the  challenging  context,   leaving   little   for  attending   to   the  rhythmic  performance,   the  ability   to  maintain  rhythm   in   the  spontaneous   and   content-­‐wise  difficult   speech  was   taken  as   an   indicator   that   a   certain  degree  of   automaticity  had  been   achieved.       3.5.  data  analysis   data  were   analyzed   using   descriptive   statistics   to   assess   the   outcomes   of   the   synchronous   speech   component  in  the  experimental  group  and  establish  research  feasibility  of  this  method  for  future  studies.  the   small   sample   size   of   this   study   did   not   allow   the   use   of   inferential   statistical   methods   or   the   ability   to   generalize   results   to   larger   populations.   selected   recorded   speech   samples   from   all   six   participants   were   randomized  and  presented  to  three  naïve  speech-­‐language  pathologists  who  assigned  impressionistic  ratings   to  the  speech  in  terms  of  (i)  rhythm  pattern  accuracy,  (ii)  speech  rate  acceptability,  and  (iii)  overall  speech   acceptability  as   instructional   speech.  regarding   the   latter,  we  hypothesized   that   there  might  potentially  be   additional  factors  besides  the  first  two  that  could  influence  the  perceived  acceptability  of  speech.     all  speech  samples  were  approximately  30  seconds  long,  and  contained  not  less  than  five  sentences.   such  sample  length  was  deemed  to  be  sufficient  to  appropriately  reflect  the  target  patterns  and  decrease  the   burden  on  raters.  since  the  baseline  recordings  were  all  done  on  the  same  text  for  all  speakers,  the  30-­‐second   portion  was  randomly  spliced  out  of  various  time  points  so  that  the  content  would  not  repeat  itself  and  raters   would   not   develop   familiarity   effects  with   speech   that  would  make   them   rate   samples   later   in   time  more   favorably.  the  final  recordings,  on  the  other  hand,  were  recorded  on  spontaneous  speech  that  was  different   for  each  individual  speaker;  therefore,  the  30-­‐second  speech  samples  were  spliced  out  from  the  middle  of  the   recording  for  all  participants.     to   ensure   that   raters   only   focused   on   the   suprasegmental   aspect   of   speech   and   interference   of   segmental   information   was   eliminated,   all   speech   samples   were   low-­‐pass   filtered   at   1000   hz   using   praat   banzina,  hewitt,  and  dillit       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  69-­‐84 76 speech  analysis  software  (boersma  &  weenik,  2011).  low-­‐pass  filtering  passes  lower  frequencies  and  rejects   higher  frequencies,  making  segmental  information  relatively  unavailable  to  the  listener  as  words  are  almost   impossible  to  make  out.  suprasegmental  information,  on  the  other  hand,  was  all  preserved  and  thus  the  only   quality  information  available  to  raters.   speech   samples   were   presented   to   raters   on   a   computer   via   headphones.   a   100   mm   long   visual   rating  scale  was  used,  where  raters  selected  a  point  on  the  continuous  blank  scale,  marked  as,   for  example,   “non-­‐native  rhythm”  at  one  end,  and  “native-­‐rhythm”  at  the  other  end  (see  appendix  b).  raters  were  told  to   make   use   of   the  whole   scale.   care  was   taken   to  make   sure   that   all   raters   defined   the   notion   of   “rhythm”   identically   and   were   able   to   apply   it   to   the   ratings;   therefore,   they   received   a   short   introduction   to   the   rhythmical   system   of   the   english   language,   followed   by   a   short   training   session   on   random   and   study-­‐ unrelated  low-­‐pass-­‐filtered  native  and  non-­‐native  speech  samples.     raters   could   listen   to   each   speech   sample   twice   and   they   then  marked   the   scale   according   to   the   perceived   performance   in   english.   the   inter-­‐rater   reliability   was   high,   r   (34)   =.71,   p   <   .01.   intra-­‐rater   reliability  on  the  same  speech  samples  that  raters  had  to  rate  twice  was  even  higher,  r   (16)  =   .93,  p  <   .01).   each  individual  ita’s  progress  during  the  semester  was  expressed  as  a  difference  in  scaled  units  (0  -­‐  100  on   the   visual   rating   scale)   between   the  baseline   recording   and   the   final   recording   (i.e.,   final   perceptual   rating   minus  initial  perceptual  rating),  averaged  across  all  three  raters.     4.  results   the  two  groups’  performances  were  rated  on  a  scale  of  1  to  100  for  rhythm  accuracy  in  spontaneous   oral   production,   as   well   as   acceptability   of   speech   rate   and   overall   speech   patterns   in   spontaneous   production.  an  individual  differences  analysis  revealed  that  one  of  the  participants  in  the  experimental  group   exhibited  a  profile  that  matched  neither  the  control  nor  experimental  group:  her  performance  at  the  end  of   the  semester  was  well  below  the  average  in  any  of  the  groups;  therefore,  this  participant  was  excluded  from   further  analyses.     figure   1   presents   results   of   the   perceptual   improvement   in   rhythmic   pattern   use   in   spontaneous   speech,  which  was  the  focus  of  this  study.  the  amount  of   improvement  in  the  control  group  (n  =  3)  was  an   average  of  18.4  units,  while  in  the  experimental  group  (n  =  2)  the  improvement  was  an  average  of  30.7  units.   this   indicates   that,   perceptually,   the   experimental   group   experienced   greater   improvement   in   second   language  rhythm  use  in  spontaneous  production  than  the  control  group,  potentially  due  to  the  addition  of  the   synchronous  speech  technique.         figure 1. difference in speech rhythm acceptability ratings preand post-instruction on a scale from 0 to 100, indicating perceived improvement in speech rhythm in control and experimental groups. synchronous  speech       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  pp.  69-­‐84 77 figure  2  illustrates  perceptual  ratings  for  improvement  in  the  overall  speech  patterns.  a  slight  trend   toward  greater  overall  speech  improvement   in  the  experimental  group  (m  =  33.6),  compared  to  the  control   group  (m  =  19.3),  can  be  observed.         figure 2. difference in overall speech pattern acceptability ratings preand post-instruction on a scale from 0 to 100, indicating perceived improvement in overall speech patterns in control and experimental groups.   finally,  while  both  groups  were  rated  as  having  made  comparable  progress  in  improving  speech  rate,   improvement  was  more  pronounced  in  the  experimental  group  (m  =  37.5),  compared  to  the  control  group  (m   =  20.5),  again  showing  a  trend  towards  greater  benefits  of  adding  the  synchronous  speech  technique.       figure 3. difference in speech rate acceptability ratings preand post-instruction on a scale from 0 to 100.       banzina,  hewitt,  and  dillit       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  69-­‐84 78 5.  discussion  and  pedagogical  implications   the   number   of   international   graduate   students   teaching   at   u.s.   universities   is   large   and   growing.   interactions   between   itas   and   american   undergraduates   have   often   resulted   in   communication   failures,   which   is   hardly   surprising   given   that   the   amount   of   time   allotted   to   ita   preparation,   speech   training   in   particular,   typically   is   short.   various   approaches   for   teaching  english   speech  patterns  have  been  proposed   and   tested   empirically,   but   the   synchronous   speech   technique   so   far   has   not   been   addressed   in   research   literature.   this   study   attempted,   first,   to   establish   the   feasibility   of   testing   the   effectiveness   of   the   synchronous   speech   technique  with  experimental  methods  and  develop  a  protocol   to   test   the  method,   and   second,   to   provide   preliminary   experimental   evidence   for   the   effectiveness   of   the   synchronous   speech   technique   in  l2   rhythm  teaching.  the  hypothesized  benefits  of  using  synchronous  speech   in  pronunciation   instruction   were   the   simultaneously   available   rich   input   and   practice,   as   well   as   implicit,   fluent   and   continuous   rhythm   learning   that   could   potentially   allow   for   automatizing   rhythm   production   faster   than   other  rhythm  teaching  methods  and  techniques.   out   of   the   six   volunteers  who   agreed   to   participate   in   our   small-­‐scale   study   conducted  within   an   existing  pronunciation  course,  one  participant  was  eventually  eliminated  due  to  exhibiting  performance  that   was  well  below  the  average  for  both  the  experimental  and  control  groups,  apparently  failing  to  benefit  from   any   type   of   instruction.   there   could   be   a   range   of   possible   explanations   here,   including   the   fact   that   this   course  was  mandatory   for   all   six   potential   teaching   assistants   and   certain  motivation-­‐related   issues  might   have  played  a  role.     the  study  findings  with  the  five  remaining  participants  partially  confirmed  our  casual  observations   and   intuitions   regarding   the   effectiveness   of   the   synchronous   speech   technique:   observable   differences   between   the   experimental   and   control   groups   were   found,   such   that   there   was   a   trend   toward   more   pronounced  improvement  in  speech  rhythm  acquisition  when  the  synchronous  speech  technique  was  added   to  instruction.  considering  the  small  sample  size  (six  participants  total,  out  of  which  one  was  eliminated  as  an   outlier)  and  the  limited  time  for  instruction  (a  total  of  six  weeks,  not  more  than  half  an  hour  per  week),  it  can   be  considered  an  encouraging  preliminary  finding.  an  added  synchronous  speech  component  thus  has  shown   potential   to   accelerate   learning   of   second   language   rhythm   patterns   and   aid   their   transfer   to   new   and   untrained   contexts.   however,   most   surprising   and   encouraging   might   be   the   fact   that   these   rhythmic   improvements  were   shown   in   spontaneous   speech  production,  which   is   the  ultimate  goal  of  pronunciation   training.   what   is   more,   improved   rhythmic   performance   was   demonstrated   in   cognitively   demanding   contexts,  where  most   of   the   cognitive   resources  were   devoted   to   the   content   of   the   speech.   these   results   indicate   that   automaticity   in   second   language   rhythm  use  may   be   achieved   faster  with   the   addition   of   the   synchronous  speech  technique  than  with  conventional  rhythm  teaching  techniques  alone.   initial  screenings  indicated  that  speech  rate  normalization,  specifically  its  reduction,  was  among  the   many  semester  goals  set  for  these  students.  although  trending  toward  greater  improvement,  the  application   of   the   synchronous   speech   technique   did   not   appear   to   help  with   speech   rate   normalization   considerably   more  than  the  “conventional”  rhythm  teaching  techniques.  neither  baseline  nor  final  ratings  as  assigned  by   the  three  raters  reached  the  maximum  score;  therefore,  the  possibility  of  a  ceiling  effect  was  eliminated.  one   possible   explanation   for   the   clear   lack   of   difference   between   groups   could   be   that   the   time   spent   on   the   presentation   type   of   speech   for   both   groups,   irrespective   of   the   type   of   rhythmic   training   received,   led   to   increased  awareness  of  the  needs  of  the  audience  and  consequently  speech  rate  normalization.     similarly,   the   experimental   group   was   not   perceived   by   raters   as   having   convincingly   more   improvement  in  the  overall  speech  patterns  (intonation,  pausing  and  other  factors  included)  than  the  control   group,  although  a  trend  toward  more  improvement  was  again  observed.  possibly,  the  amount  of  time  devoted   to  working  with  the  synchronous  speech  was  insufficient  to  reveal   its   full  potential   in  this  realm.  the  small   sample  size  and  unequal  number  of  participants  limit  any  conclusions  in  this  regard.     from  our  preliminary  results,  we  can  tentatively  suggest  that  one  aspect  of  second  language  speech   learning   where   synchronous   speech   could   have   superiority   over   traditional   techniques   is   rhythm   pattern   acquisition,   which  was   the   focus   of   this   study.   more   importantly,   the   findings   for   the   experimental   group   indicate   that   30   minutes   of   instruction   over   six   weeks   might   be   sufficient   to   see   the   benefits   of   the   synchronous  speech  technique  for  automating  second  language  rhythm  patterns.  the  presence  of  the  outlier   who   decreased   her   rhythmic   accuracy   and   speech   acceptability   following   six   weeks   of   instruction   is   a   particular   complicating   factor   in   interpreting   the   present   results.   thus   a   larger-­‐scale   study  with   a   greater   sample  size  and  a  longer  instruction  period  is  needed.     synchronous  speech       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  pp.  69-­‐84 79 overall,   our   results   supported   the   feasibility   of   testing   the   technique   experimentally   by   using   the   selected  measures  of  improvement  and  the  efficacy  of  this  method  for  rhythm  training  in  general.  the  use  of   the  low-­‐pass  filtered  speech  and  impressionistic  ratings  as  a  measure  proved  to  be  sensitive  enough  to  detect   differences   in   the   rhythmic   improvement   after   a   limited   number   of   training   sessions.   the   fact   that   the   experiment   was   conducted  within   an   existing   class   dictated   that   synchronous   speech   in   the   experimental   group  not  be  used  in  isolation  but  in  addition  to  more  explicit  rhythm  teaching  instruction  to  minimize  risks   for  the  students;  as  a  result,  the  ability  for  synchronous  speech  to  achieve  the  current  result  independently  is   yet  unknown.  theoretically,  the  explicit  component  of  rhythm  teaching  that  is  needed  to  help  students  notice   second   language   features   could   be   substituted   with   real-­‐time   amplification   of   rhythmic   cues   during   synchronous  speech,  thus  making  rhythmic  acquisition  possible  without  referring  to  metalinguistic  means  of   instruction.     this   study   also   demonstrated   that   synchronizing   speech   for   native   and   non-­‐native   speakers   in   an   instructional  setting  was  feasible,  dispelling  our  initial  concerns.  although  cummins  (2002,  2003)  observed   that  when  two  people  recite  a  common  text  in  unison,  they  rapidly  attune  their  speech  to  each  other  and  are   able   to   successfully   synchronize   their   speaking  with   relative   ease,   these   observations  were   limited   to   two   native  speakers  who  share  the  same  language  and  expectations  regarding  its  prosody.  this  study  proved  that   such  observations  can  be  extended  also  to  native—non-­‐native  speaker  dyads;  however,  it  does  not  allow  for   generalizations   regarding   the   effectiveness   and   implementation   of   the   technique   in   larger   groups,   which   would  require  various  adjustments  and  more  creativity  on  the  part  of  the  instructor.     although  the  population  that  was  targeted  with  the  synchronous  speech  technique  in  this  study  was   international   teaching   assistants,   its   application   is   not   limited   to   itas   or   academic   settings   but   can   be   successfully  used  in  a  variety  of  second  language  teaching  contexts  where  a  more  holistic  approach  to  rhythm   teaching  is  preferred  and  time  for  speech  instruction  is  limited.         references     anderson-­‐hsieh,   janet   (1990).   teaching   suprasegmentals   to   international   teaching   assistants   using   field-­‐ specific  materials.  english  for  specific  purposes,  9,  195-­‐214.   anderson-­‐hsieh,  janet,  johnson,  robert,  &  koehler,  kenneth  (1992).  the  relationship  between  native  speaker   judgments  of  nonnative  pronunciation  and  deviance   in  segmentals,  prosody,  and  syllable  structure.   language  learning,  42(4),  529-­‐555.     anderson-­‐hsieh,   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prichard,   cheryl,   &   jones,   robin   (1998).   listening   conditions   in   higher   education   classrooms:  one  method  of  improving  them.  education,  119(1),  129-­‐134.   yu,  vickie,  &  andruski,  jean  (2010).  a  cross-­‐language  study  of  perception  of  lexical  stress  in  english.  journal  of   psycholinguistic  research,  39(4),  323–344.   zhang,  yanhong,  nissen,  shawn  l.,  &  francis,  alexander  l.  (2008).  acoustic  characteristics  of  english  lexical   stress   produced   by   native   mandarin   speakers.   journal   of   the   acoustical   society   of   america   123(6),   4498–4513.           banzina,  hewitt,  and  dillit       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  69-­‐84 82 appendix  a     scripted  text  for  baseline  recordings     “when  world-­‐class  people  are  invited  to  campus,  and  they  are  important  in  your  discipline,  be  sure  to  attend,   if  at  all  possible.  attend  their  lecture  even  if  they  are  from  a  different  discipline  than  yours.  such  people  come   to   give   seminars   and   to   spend   a   day   or   two   with   faculty   and   students.   often,   they   become   events   to   remember.  you  might  want  to  attend  just  to  see  who  those  people  are.  go  even  if  you  are  not  interested  in  the   topic.   what   you   will   hear,   if   you   listen   carefully,   is   how   they   think   about   the   world,   how   they   approach   problems,   and   how   they   work   on   them.   they   might   change   your   perspectives   about   your   own   areas   of   teaching  and  research.      if   you  want   to   survive   in   a   research-­‐oriented   institution,   publish   as  much   as   possible.  write  most   of   your   articles  for  refereed  journals.  papers  presented  at  meetings  get  you  funds  to  travel.  however,  even  if  refereed,   these  papers  don’t  really  count  for  tenure,  salary  raise,  or  promotion.   your  first  papers  might  be  rejected.  but  remember  –  every  paper  has  a  market,  unless  they  are  real   stinkers.  if  the  work  is  sound,  it  will  get  published.  submit  your  papers  first  to  the  best  journals.  work  your   way  down  the  list  if  a  paper  is  rejected.  in  general,  publish  early  and  often.  begin  writing  for  publication  while   still  in  graduate  school.  data  show  that  people  who  publish  while  still  in  graduate  school  usually  continue  to   publish  at  a  fast  rate  after  they  graduate  –  unlike  those  who  did  not  publish  while  still  a  student.”     (adapted  from  gray,  p.,  &  drew,  d.  e.  (2008).  what  they  didn't  teach  you  in  graduate  school:  199  helpful  hints   for  success  in  your  academic  career.  stylus  publishing:  sterling,  virginia.)       synchronous  speech       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  pp.  69-­‐84 83 appendix  b     visual  rating  scale                                                     banzina,  hewitt,  and  dillit       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  69-­‐84 84   elina banzina, department of languages, stockholm school of economics in riga – riga, latvia elina.banzina@sseriga.edu en elina banzina, ph.d., is an assistant professor at the department of languages of stockholm school of economics in riga. her research interests involve english phonetics, perception and production of foreign-accented speech, intelligibility, and pronunciation teaching techniques, with a special focus on language rhythm es elina banzina. ph.d., es profesora en el departamento de lenguas de la escuela de economía de estocolmo, en riga. sus líneas de investigación incluyen la fonética inglesa, la percepción y la producción de la lengua hablada con acento extranjero, inteligibilidad y técnicas para la enseñanza de la pronunciación, con especial hincapié en el ritmo de la lengua.   it elina banzina, ph.d., è ricercatrice confermata presso dipartimento di lingue della scuola di economia di stoccolma nella città di riga. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono la fonetica inglese, la percezione e la produzione di parlato con accento straniero, intellegibilità e tecniche per l’insegnamento della pronuncia, con particolare enfasi sul ritmo della lingua.   lynne e. hewitt, department of communication sciences and disorders, bowling green state university lhewitt@bgsu.edu en lynne hewitt, ph.d., ccc-slp, is an associate professor and chair of the department of communication sciences and disorders, bowling green state university, bowling green, oh. her undergraduate training was in english and linguistics. she is a certified and licensed speech-language pathologist with clinical and research interests in language assessment and intervention. es lynne hewitt, phd., ccc-slp (certificado de competencia clínica en patologías del lenguaje), es profesora y directora del departamento de ciencias y trastornos de la comunicación en la bowling green state university en bowling green, en ohio. es licenciada en inglés y lingüística y posee certificación y licencia de patóloga del lenguaje. sus intereses de investigación abarcan también la evaluación y la intervención lingüística.   it lynne hewitt, ph.d., ccc-slp (certificato di competenza clinica in patologie del linguaggio), è professore associato e capo del dipartimento  di scienze e disordini della comunicazione, alla bowling green state university sita a bowling green, in ohio. si è laurata in inglese e linguistica ed ha la certificazione e la licenza come patologa del linguaggio. i suoi interessi di ricerca riguardano anche la valutazione e l’intervento linguistici.   laura c. dilley, department of communicative sciences and disorders, michigan state university ldilley@msu.edu en laura dilley, ph.d, is an assistant professor in the department of communicative sciences and disorders, michigan state university. her research is in the area of phonetics, psycholinguistics, and phonology, particularly with respect to speech prosody. es laura dilley  ph.d., es profesora en el departamento de ciencias y trastornos de la comunicación en la michigan state university. su investigación se centra en el area de la fonética, psicolingüística y fonología, con especial interés para la prosodia de la lengua hablada.     it laura dilley, ph.d, è ricercatrice confermata presso il dipartimento di scienze e disordini della comunicazione, alla michigan state university. i suoi interessi di ricerca sono nell’area della fonetica, della psicolinguistica e della fonologia, con particolare enfasi sulla prosodia del parlato.   la russanuzzo_8.2 e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, november 2021, 87–104 issn 2376-905x http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.241 www.e-journall.org © la russa 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. peer corrective feedback as an opportunity for metalinguistic reflection in tandem telecollaboration1 francesca la russa freelance researcher elena nuzzo università roma tre received 18 april 2021; accepted after revisions 5 august 2021 abstract en this paper focuses on peer written corrective feedback (pwcf), a pedagogic device whose potential appears still underexploited in second language teaching in italian schools and universities. specifically, we aim to contribute to the body of research on the benefits of pwcf as a learning activity for the development of metalinguistic reflection in peer-to-peer native/non-native online communication. using a sample of tandem interactions between us learners of italian and italian learners of english, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the explanations of linguistic phenomena provided by native speakers when commenting on errors after giving corrective feedback on their non-native partners’ pieces of l2 writing. the data analysis confirmed that the feedback-discussing tasks pushed native/non-native peers to actively reflect on both source and target language, engaging in metalinguistic discussions and utilizing cross-linguistic knowledge. key words: written corrective feedback, native/nonnative peer interaction, metalinguistic reflection, cross-linguistic awareness, online tandem es el feedback correctivo escrito entre pares es una técnica de enseñanza cuyo potencial parece aún poco explotado en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en las escuelas y universidades italianas. este artículo se centra en los beneficios del feedback entre pares para el desarrollo de la reflexión metalingüística. en concreto, se analiza una pequeña muestra de interacciones entre estudiantes estadounidenses de italiano y estudiantes italianos e italianas de inglés que participan en un intercambio a distancia en tándem. se realiza un análisis cualitativo de las explicaciones de los fenómenos lingüísticos que da el alumnado nativo cuando comenta los errores después de proporcionar feedback correctivo sobre las producciones escritas del alumnado no nativo. el análisis de los datos ha confirmado que las actividades de discusión sobre el feedback han llevado a los participantes a reflexionar activamente tanto sobre la lengua meta como sobre la lengua materna, ayudando a entrenar su conciencia metalingüística. palabras clave: feedback correctivo escrito, interacción entre pares nativos/no nativos, reflexión metalingüística, conciencia interlingüística, tándem en línea it il feedback correttivo scritto tra pari è una tecnica didattica il cui potenziale sembra ancora poco sfruttato nell'insegnamento delle lingue straniere nelle scuole e nelle università italiane. questo contributo si focalizza sui benefici del feedback tra pari per lo sviluppo della riflessione metalinguistica. in particolare, viene analizzato un piccolo campione di interazioni tra studenti statunitensi di italiano e studenti italiani di inglese impegnati in uno scambio di tandem a distanza. viene condotta un'analisi qualitativa delle spiegazioni dei fenomeni linguistici date dai parlanti nativi quando commentano gli errori dopo aver fornito feedback correttivo sulle produzioni scritte dei loro partner non nativi. l'analisi dei dati ha confermato che le attività di discussione del feedback hanno spinto i partecipanti a riflettere attivamente sia sulla lingua obiettivo sia su quella nativa, esercitando la propria consapevolezza metalinguistica. parole chiave: feedback correttivo scritto, interazione tra pari nativi/non nativi, riflessione metalinguistica, consapevolezza cross-linguistica, tandem online 🖂 francesca la russa, freelance researcher franlarussa3@gmail.com 1the present work stems from a close cooperation between the two authors. for the concerns of the italian academy, francesca la russa is responsible for sections § 1 and § 2; elena nuzzo is responsible for sections § 3, § 4, and § 5. la russa & nuzzo e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 88 1. introduction in line with the purpose of this special issue, our small-scale study stems from the idea that good (and bad) teaching practices implemented during the pandemic emergency could help us rethink and revise the way we do second language teaching from now on. we take this opportunity to reflect on a well-known pedagogic device—peer written corrective feedback—from a particular angle. also referred to as “peer response,” “peer review,” and “peer editing,” peer written corrective feedback (pwcf) is the reciprocal activity during which learners provide corrective feedback (cf), i.e., an indication that the partner’s use of the target language is incorrect (lightbown & spada, 1999), on each other's drafts in pairs or small groups (storch, 2019; yu & lee, 2016). it sometimes includes oral discussion in addition to the written comments on the draft. it can involve l2-learner peers, native-speaker peers, and native/non-native peers; also, it can occur in face-to-face or computer-mediated interactions. the focus of the present paper is on the metatalk that occurs in virtual exchanges when implementing pwcf followed by oral discussion between native (ns) and nonnative speakers (nns). specifically, we aim to explore the potential benefits of feedback-discussing activities in terms of metalinguistic reflection, regardless of the correctness and effectiveness of the feedback itself. from a recent survey among foreign language teachers in italian secondary schools and universities, it emerged that almost 50% of the respondents have never or rarely used pwcf during the emergency distance learning (conti, 2021, this issue). this outcome is surprising since pwcf would have been particularly useful in a context where the most penalized aspects of learning were those related to interaction and learners’ autonomy and where teachers have often emphasized the lack of contact with and among pupils, a decrease of participation and motivation, and difficulties in actively involving the class (conti, 2021, this issue). the survey results revealed that pwcf was scarcely used even during in-person lessons before the pandemic, thus suggesting that it is an under-used instrument for second language teaching in italian schools and universities. the limited use of pwcf might be due to the fact that learners are considered not qualified to act as “substitutes for the teacher” (rollinson, 2005). nevertheless, several studies have shown the advantages of pwcf as a potentially valuable aid in l2 teaching for its social, cognitive, affective, and methodological benefits (rollinson, 2005, p. 23). not only can pwcf provide useful suggestions for the improvement of the author’s text (caulk, 1994), but it can also increase feedback givers’ ability to critically revise their own writing, thus offering opportunities for students to develop autonomy in learning (hyland, 2000). the learning potential of peer feedback in l2 writing has been mainly investigated on nonnativespeaker peers and with a focus on the development of students’ composition skills and global aspects of writing (caulk, 1994; hyland, 2000; mendonça & johnson, 1994). with the current study, we aim to contribute to the body of research on the benefits of pwcf by focusing on its potential for the development of metalinguistic reflection in peer-to-peer native/nonnative online communication. the context is that of telecollaboration, or virtual exchange (o’dowd, 2021), a learning environment in which participants from different cultural backgrounds work together in online networks, expanding their opportunities to engage in meaningful and goal-oriented communication and developing their foreign language, intercultural, and digital competencies. in our particular case, the participants worked in pairs in tandem arrangement, that is, they were speakers of different l1s who were learning each other’s language and alternated the use of the two languages (cf. tardieu & horgues, 2020). in the first part of the paper, we will examine the theoretical underpinnings for pwcf from a languagelearning perspective (notably, the interaction hypothesis and the sociocultural theory) and provide an overview of the empirical studies that investigated the effects of pwcf. we will then examine the potential of metalinguistic reflection for language learning. in the second part of the article, we will present and discuss the findings of a small-scale observational study with tandem partnerships involved in feedback-providing-anddiscussing activities. finally, some pedagogical implications will be suggested. 2. background 2.1. theoretical underpinnings and empirical evidence on peer written corrective feedback from a language-learning perspective, the theoretical underpinnings for pwcf rely on two major models, namely the interaction hypothesis (long, 1983, 1996) and the sociocultural theory (vygotsky, 1978). the interactionists (e.g., long & porter, 1985; pica, 1991; pica, young, & doughty, 1987) suggest that the negotiation of meaning in pair or group work may encourage language acquisition by making input comprehensible through explicit corrections, clarification requests, and confirmation checks. peer corrective feedback might also lead learners to notice the gaps in their interlanguage, to test hypotheses, and modify their peer corrective feedback in tandem telecollaboration e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 89 output. sato (2017) points out that, based on the last 30 years of interactionist research (e.g., oliver, 2002; philp, adams, and iwashita, 2014; pica, lincoln-porter, paninos, & linnell, 1996; sato & lyster, 2007; varonis & gass, 1985), peer interaction creates more learning opportunities than teacher-learner interaction since learners receive significantly more cf, engage more frequently in meaning negotiation, and tend to modify their initial non-target-like utterances to make them comprehensible for the interlocutor. furthermore, peer interaction allows learners to freely experiment with language, reducing the anxiety of correction and increasing their autonomy. peer interaction, therefore, seems to provide a rich learning context, creating “an environment in which learners are willing to take up the opportunity created by pcf and to engage in meaningful output practice” (sato, 2017, p. 22). from a sociocultural perspective, cognitive development, including language learning, occurs in social interaction between an expert and a novice. the role of the expert is to provide calibrated assistance (scaffolding) to the novice in order to respond to his or her needs. in the field of second language acquisition, scaffolding occurs not only in teacher–learner interaction but also in peer interaction. in this case, learners provide each other with bidirectional assistance and pool their linguistic resources (collective scaffolding, cf. donato, 1988, 1994) to solve the problems they encounter and co-construct l2 knowledge. peer feedback thus creates “a facilitative socio-interactive environment in which l2 learners receive social support and scaffolding from peers” (hu & lam, 2010, p. 373) and provides “a favorable instructional environment for readers and writers to work within their respective [...] zpd2” (villamil & guerrero, 1998, p. 495). in this view, peer feedback is particularly valuable for language learning. referring to peer feedback delivered during collaborative writing tasks, storch (2019) explains that this kind of feedback is likely to be developmentally appropriate and aligned with learners’ linguistic and cognitive capacities to process it. peer feedback might also be more accessible to learners since it is often accompanied by brief and simple explanations of l2 rules but with little use of complex metalinguistic terms. finally, this feedback modality is timely and contingently responsive to the learners’ needs since feedback is provided when actually needed. empirical studies on pwcf have mainly followed the research orientation of second language writing studies, analyzing pwcf effects on the improvement of students’ general accuracy and writing skills. they have highlighted some concerns about this pedagogic tool, although its benefits seem to prevail. according to certain studies (e.g., guardado & shi, 2007; tsui & ng, 2000; yoshida, 2008), learners may lack confidence in their ability to provide cf and distrust the feedback provided by their peers; hence, they are reluctant to incorporate it in their drafts. other researchers (e.g., hyland, 2000; leki, 1990; lockhart & ng, 1993; mendonça & johnson, 1994; nelson & murphy, 1992, 1993) stress students' difficulties in providing quality feedback. according to them, peer feedback would resort to formulaic comments; it would be overcritical (amores, 1997) or over-focused on surface errors (mcgroarty & zhu, 1997) or on global issues such as content and organization. learners would not focus on grammatical aspects unless the task is designed for this purpose. in spite of these issues, several studies (e.g., caulk, 1994; hyland, 2000; rollinson, 2005) have shown the advantages of pwcf for the development of students’ revising skills and learning autonomy. it is generally agreed (e.g., de guerrero & villamil, 1996; min, 2006; peterson, 2003; rahimi, 2009) that pwcf is beneficial for student writers, as peer readers can provide useful feedback (caulk, 1994) and peer writers can revise effectively on the basis of the comments they received (mendonça & johnson, 1994). pwcf proved even more appreciated or effective than teacher feedback in some studies (nelson & murphy, 1992; zhao, 2010). furthermore, it has been suggested that providing pwcf is beneficial for the provider as well as for the receiver. as rollinson (2005, p. 24) points out, “becoming a critical reader of others’ writing may make students more critical readers and revisers of their own writing” and reinforce their audience awareness (breggen, 2015). a series of studies (e.g., berg, 1999; lundstrom and baker, 2009; min, 2005; yang, badger, & yu, 2006) reports that giving feedback is particularly beneficial in improving global aspects of writing, e.g., organization, development, and cohesion. the reviewed studies generally focused on improving learners’ l2 writing skills. however, a learning activity involving pwcf can also deepen learners’ understanding of form-meaning connections and promote acquisition of target-like structures (storch, 2019), offering learners the opportunity to actively reflect on both source and target language, so as to develop metalinguistic awareness. 2 zone of proximal development (vygotsky, 1978). la russa & nuzzo e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 90 2.2. metalinguistic reflection and language learning defining the term “metalinguistic” is not easy due to its adjectival status that requires supplements carrying different connotations, e.g., “awareness,” “knowledge,” “activity,” “competence,” or “reflection” (watson & newman, 2017). its definition may also vary according to the discipline: in psychology, the focus is on cognition and on how one thinks about language; in socio-cultural studies, the focus is on how meaning is created in social contexts; in linguistics, the focus is on language and metalanguage (myhill & jones, 2015). here, we define metalinguistic reflection as the action of using language reflexively to analyze language itself and the connections between form and meaning (pinto, 2015). for this purpose, a certain awareness of the way language works is needed. metalinguistic reflection is, thus, an activity relying more on the individual’s declarative and explicit knowledge about language—“analyzed knowledge” in bialystock & ryan (1985)’s terms or “metalinguistic knowledge” for gombert (1992)—than on his/hers implicit knowledge implying the procedural ability to use language—“control” for bialystock & ryan or “epilinguistic knowledge” for gombert. the relevance of metalinguistic instruction and knowledge has been a controversial issue in second language classes. in traditional teaching methods (e.g., the grammar translation method, the audiolingual method, the silent way, etc.) metalinguistic knowledge was an indispensable part of second language teaching and learning (richards & rodgers, 2014). these “focus on forms” approaches (long, 1991) generally resulted in good levels of accuracy in grammar tests but learners showed difficulties using the l2 in real-life situations. new approaches focusing on meaning and having communicative competence as the main goal have, therefore, been developed. with the spread of communicative language teaching (clt), thus, metalinguistic instruction and knowledge have been increasingly marginalized. more recently, a certain attention to language structures in programs whose focus is on meaning has been claimed to be positive especially for adult learners. in the field of second language acquisition, the theoretical debate on the relationship between explicit knowledge and l2 learning has also raised doubts about the role of metalinguistic knowledge. some researchers (e.g., krashen, 1981; paradis, 1994) claim that no connection exists between explicit knowledge and l2 competence and performance; other researchers (e.g., dekeyser, 2003; de jong, 2005; johnson, 1997) estimate that explicit knowledge about language can be proceduralized and automatized and, therefore, directly used in real-time language production; others (e.g., ellis, 1994; smith, 1991) affirm that explicit knowledge can make an indirect contribution “to the acquisition of implicit knowledge by facilitating attention to form in the input” (ellis, 2004, p. 228). despite those different positions, the benefits of metalinguistic reflection are of no lesser importance for language learning and have been supported by many researchers. for example, schmidt (1990, 1994) and skehan (1998) underline how, in metalinguistic activities, attentional resources are focused on language facilitating noticing, awareness, and, consequently, learning. according to r. ellis (1994) explicit metalinguistic knowledge may play a facilitative role in l2 acquisition by accelerating the establishment of links between form and meaning. for n. ellis (2008), reflecting on language may make certain grammatical features more salient and hence more noticeable to learners, and explicit knowledge can contribute to linguistic problem-solving and to conscious output production. these claims are supported by many studies on adolescent and adult learners in classroom settings (e.g., ellis, 2006; elder & manwaring, 2004; renou, 2000, 2001; roehr, 2008), which show significant correlations between students’ metalinguistic knowledge and their l2 proficiency. investigating the interactions between learners working in pairs on a text reconstruction task, storch (2008) showed that learners’ metatalk over a range of grammatical and lexical items led to learning/consolidation of the structures they focused on for both members of the pair, especially when they showed elaborate engagement, pooling their linguistic resources, testing hypotheses, and providing each other with useful knowledge about meaning of words, grammatical rules, and conventions. the growing body of empirical evidence on the importance of metalinguistic knowledge in l2 learning (e.g., butler, 2002; dekeyser, 1997; elder & manwaring, 2004; han & ellis, 1998; hu, 2002; klapper & rees, 2003; macrory & stone, 2000; renou, 2000; roehr, 2008) should not be seen as supporting a return to the traditional grammar instruction in l2 classrooms. it should instead encourage reflection on how to fruitfully integrate metalinguistic knowledge into meaning-focused l2 instruction. peer corrective feedback in tandem telecollaboration e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 91 3. aims and methodology in the present paper we aim to observe whether and how metalinguistic reflection occurs in peer-topeer native/non-native (i.e., l1 and l2 english) online interaction stimulated by a particular type of cf, namely indirect written feedback followed by oral discussion. the study is observational in nature and does not involve any experimental manipulation. a small sample of interactions will be qualitatively analyzed to explore one of the potential benefits of feedback-discussing tasks, regardless of the correctness and effectiveness of the feedback itself. 3.1. participants and data collection the data come from a telecollaborative (tc) program that was implemented in the fall semester of 2018/2019 between italian and us (californian) university students (cf. nuzzo & cortés velásquez, 2021). each italian student was paired up with a us partner, and they met regularly on zoom, videorecording their meetings. the participants were between 20 and 30 years old. they had an intermediate to advanced proficiency level in the target3 language, and they often had more than two languages in their repertoire. specifically, many students from the us university had a latin-american background, with different levels of proficiency in spanish. english may not have been the first language of some of them. however, for all of them english was the language of instruction and daily interaction with teachers and peers. similarly, some students from the italian university had an immigrant background, but they used italian as their first language in the academic context. four dyads were randomly selected for the qualitative analysis of this small-scale study (see table 1, where the first three letters of the participants’ surnames were used to anonymize their identities). the tc program aimed at giving learners opportunities for meaningful and goal-oriented communication through a set of macro tasks to be completed collaboratively, but entailing some individual work too (e.g., organizing a trip; reviewing a film; writing a short story). each macro task included several subtasks: students had to interview each other, write a text in the l2, provide wcf on their partner’s text, and then discuss errors and corrections in a videocall. for the present study, we focus on the feedback discussion phase, which was implemented to prevent the participants from misunderstanding or avoiding the correction, a problem emphasized by hyland and hyland (2006). furthermore, this feedback discussion phase was added based on the assumption that the metatalk occurring when learners talk about the language they have produced may deepen their “knowledge about language use, about the relationship between meaning, form and function” (storch, 2008, p. 96). participants received written instructions on how to provide and discuss feedback. as for the written phase, they were asked to signal the errors and explain what was wrong, without giving the correct forms (indirect wcf). during the feedback discussion phase, they were asked to help their partner find the correct form (oral prompt). on several occasions, however, the instructions for the feedback-providing task were not followed consistently in the discussion phase during the video-call sessions. the nss sometimes did not help their partners find the correct form, but instead provided it themselves. language alternation during oral communication was dictated by instructions. the feedback discussion phase was held in the feedback providers’ l1, the language in which the text was written (l2 for the author/feedback receiver). for the present study, four english feedback-discussion extracts have been analyzed (see table 1 for an overview). three of them are taken from session 3, belonging to the macro task of organizing a 3-day trip for the partner; whereas one is taken from session 9, belonging to the macro task of writing a short story4. the extracts, transcribed according to a simplified version of the chat transcription format (macwhinney, 2000), have different durations, as no time limitation was set for the completion of the task. about one hour of conversation in total was analyzed. 3 the target language was italian for the californian students and english for the italian ones. 4 the huge corpus of videorecorded data collected during the program was only partially transcribed when this study was being carried out. therefore, it was not possible to access to extracts belonging to the same sessions for all the dyads. la russa & nuzzo e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 92 table 1 analyzed data extract informants id session minutes and duration 1 gar-mig 3 17:12-25:10 (07:58) 2 gen-ciu 9 00:00-14:06 (14:06) 3 ger-stu 3 09:23-24:38 (15:15) 4 tap-pie 3 01:05-21:15 (20:10) 4. data analysis and discussion in each of the four extracts considered for this study, the language related episodes (lres) were identified (see table 2). according to swain and lapkin (1998), an lre is “any part of a dialogue where the students talk about the language they are producing, question their language use, or correct themselves or others” (p. 326). in our case, each error commented by the ns feedback provider, and the relevant negotiation with the nns partner, was counted as a new lre. the number of lres in each extract is, therefore, related to that of the mistakes signaled by the feedback provider in his/her partner’s writing. similarly, the topics discussed depend on the linguistic items addressed by wcf. as can be seen in the examples reported below (111), the participants focused on different aspects of english morphosyntax, spelling, vocabulary, and mechanics. table 2 number of lres and topic of the macro task in the 4 extracts extract informants id number of lres macro task 1 gar-mig 10 organizing a 3-day trip for the partner 2 gen-ciu 10 writing a short story 3 ger-stu 44 organizing a 3-day trip for the partner 4 tap-pie 29 organizing a 3-day trip for the partner the lres varied in length and in the participants’ contribution to the resolution of language-related problems, or the explanation of linguistic phenomena. referring to the categorization proposed by garcía mayo and azkarai (2016), some showed limited engagement by one participant, like in example (1), or by both, like in example (2), whereas others exhibited elaborate engagement by both – see example (3)5. example (1) from extract 4 (elaborate engagement by ns, limited engagement by nns) tap: i think you start the sentence with therethere right? pie: there yeah tap: ok it is worth to-to say # again the name of the beach or ofor the place cause you have to e:hm # e::hm i don’t # think it’s it’s not correct to use there toto begin a sentence you have <to put> pie: <ok> tap: xx un altro:: soggetto o::r pie: <mmh mmh> 5 the portions of transcribed text corresponding to the written sentences or expressions on which the speakers are commenting have been italicized. peer corrective feedback in tandem telecollaboration e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 93 tap: <objetto> or something # for example you can say this beautiful place or this beach or something like that ok? pie: ah <ok> tap: <(i would suggest you use)> this beautiful place is home like # pie: <((laughing)) yeah> example (2) from extract 3 (limited engagement by both) ger: (you say) the main reason of my choice the preposition ## <i wouldn’t-> xxx (i would say for) stu: <mmm mm> ## okay ger: but again it’sit all still makes sense and then # stu: ok example (3) from extract 1 (elaborate engagement by both) gar: yeah so it’s just a spelling error which is fine ## it costs 30 euros per night and is furnished with two big swimming-pools one cold and one filled with hot spa water # i’ve already been there and believe me it’s a very special flat # that’s perfect ## in the city of forio there are a lot of narrow streets with bars and restaurants and on thon the promenade there’s a chance to sit ehm ok well this is kind of difficult to explain because ## if you are going to use seat # if you use a different eeh verbal tense # or if you want to keep the same structure that you’ve already used you can just simply change the verb mig: ok ## mmm ## o::r maybe mmm i could try to see:to see::to say sorry eee there is a chance seating on benches gar: ehm well if you use that # you can use a gerund as well # <so> mig: <yes> gar: it’s the same verb but toinstead of seating you would use ### sit # to bethere’s a chance to sit ### mig: i don’t know gar: you can use to sit # but if you want to use ththe verb seat the way you spelt it # it can be there’s a chance to be seated # so it’s really you can use either or # it depends on your personal preference mig: oh yeah but i (don’t) understand what is the difference between seat and thethe other verb that you (rethat you write it) gar: ok ehm # basically the verbthe verbal phrase# eh to seat would be be seated because it needs the auxiliary verb to <come along with it ## yeah> mig: <ah ok # ok> gar: yeah while sit it’s just a simple verb so# <it’s up to you> mig: <what does it mean> in italian? ## sedersi gar: eeh sedersi it could be be seated or sit so it has two translations in english for some reason mig: ok ## ah perfect now i understood any of the analyzed lres entailed a certain degree of metalinguistic negotiation. however, the more elaborate the lre, the deeper the level of effort shown by the participants. any time the feedback providers were trying to explain the reason(s) why they provided wcf on a non-target-like linguistic element, the effort they and their partners made to understand and/or fix the problem compelled them to stretch their metalinguistic resources. in the following, two exemplary lres from each of the four extracts will be reported la russa & nuzzo e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 94 and commented on. the examples have been selected so as to give an idea of the different linguistic phenomena addressed by the students. extract 1 – gar-mig in the lre reported in example (4), the ns gar tries to prompt his partner to replace i’ve been with i went in the sentence last summer i’ve been in ischia. in the first part of the lre he uses italian, but then he shifts to english as mig reminds him that they were expected to use english for this phase, according to the instructions. while explaining why i’ve been is not suitable in that context, he refers to the fact that the action is finished. he also uses some grammatical terminology (passato prossimo, imperfect), although inappropriately (his passato prossimo refers to english simple past, whereas imperfect refers to italian trapassato remoto). mig makes an attempt, referring to her experience as an instructed learner of english (i studied this thing), but she fails and eventually gar provides the target-like form (i would personally say i went). interestingly, gar tries to help his partner by comparing the use of verbal tenses in italian and english. his metalinguistic reflection involves cross-linguistic awareness. example (4) gar: ok eehm quindi mmh ## il tuo ok ### last summer i’ve been in ischia also called the green island eemh # qui invece di usare i’ve been mig: <yes> gar: <puoi> usare altro tempo verbale ## che: # como hai già finito questaquesto viaggio è già finito # puoi usare il# il passato prossimo mig: ok ##### maybe we should eeeh speak in english this part of the meeting gar: oh right yes yes i’m sorry # mig: (no problem) gar: basically by using i’ve been mig: yes gar: itit does indicate that you’ve been there but it doesn’t really indicate that the action is finished mig: oh yeah yeah <i remember> gar: <yeah> mig: i studied this thing yes ## so:: eee i-i had been? gar: youe:hm i would personally say i went <meaning that> mig: <i went> gar: yes (that’s what i would use personally) mig: and i had been i::s an error o::r # is a mistake i have been o:r gar: it’s not really an error ehm ## but itit would indicate like i had been there before something else kinda like # it’s similar to the imperfect mig: ok gar: yeah ## so it’s better just to use the past tense ### mig: ok in the example (5) from extract 1, gar comments on the spelling of the word sea, which mig has confused with the homophone see. the ns uses both a technical term (it’s an homophone) and a more simple explanation (it’s just spelt differently) to help his partner understand her mistake. he also resorts to italian to solve the ambiguity between the homophones (you used see … which means ‘vedere’). peer corrective feedback in tandem telecollaboration e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 95 example (5) from extract 1 gar: eeh for the night i was (looking on airb&b) ## ok # so:: basically # for the second sentence ofeh for the night paragraph (the apartment) is very close in fact to the sea # <you used see> mig: <yes> gar: which means vedere it’s an homophone with the <other way to-> mig: <yeah yeah yeah> gar: ### yeah it’s just spelt differently mig: yeah sea with the a extract 2 – gen-ciu in example (6), taken from extract 2, the learners discuss some orthographic differences between uk and us english. the starting point is the feedback provided by the us participant gen on the spelling of the word recognized. interestingly, gen seems to be aware of the issue but not really able to provide an explanation. she makes some effort to recall the rule, and eventually it is her linguistic partner who explains how the spelling works in the two varieties (i think that recognize should be with s in british english and probably yeah with the z in american english). example (6) gen: ok so the first thing that i noticed was # uh the way you spelled recognized # but # the thing is that # i know in american english like ## uh it's different than english english sometimes # like <sometimes ## yeah> ciu: <yeah # the s> and z <often> gen: <yeah> ciu: yeah gen: i'm not sure if ## <in english english> ciu: <yeah i think tha::t> ## recognise should be with s in british english <and> probably yeah with the z # in american english yeah gen: <yes> ### ok then # that's fine ## <um # xxx> if you're using english english but # that just stood out to me again, in example (7), the metalinguistic discussion is led by the italian participant ciu, who refers to his experience as an instructed learner of l2 english. the two are commenting on the sentence she succeeded in focusing the whole nation attention on this event, and specifically on the use of the possessive ‘s’. gen admits she is not able to provide a convincing reason for the need to use the possessive ‘s’ with inanimate objects (i don’t know), so her partner tries to find an explanation referring to the phenomenon of language change. the native speaker accepts her partner’s explanation. whereas in extract 1 the ns shows deep metalinguistic awareness of english and the ability to justify the feedback provided comparing english and italian, in the second dyad the us participant appears far less aware or confident of how her l1 works. nevertheless, the need to discuss with her partner after providing feedback on his writing “forces” her to reflect on the reasons behind her corrections. example (7) ciu: ah ok because i used nation attention without the possessive s gen: yeah exactly ciu: i used it without possessive s because long ago i was told that uh just animated things such as humans beasts animals would be able let's say this to use the possessive s gen: ok ciu: so i mean the bottle mobile phone laptop # nation as i interpreted it # without being animated # would not use the possessive s so that's why i put nation la russa & nuzzo e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 96 gen: <a:h ok but-> ciu: <but you say that> this is correct # i think maybe# i mean nation is composed of people # animated # so::: gen: right ciu: it would probably work yes gen: yeah ciu: i’m not sure about this actually because i mean i was told that u:h ## now for something like <like> gen: <xxx> ciu: twelve years ago so mamaybe thethe:: language evolved in these in these years probably now it's more common to use possessive s gen: <yeah because> ciu: <whenever> a sort of possession # so:: gen: even if you were talking about a something that's not animated like # you said the cell phone like if you were talking about something about the cell phone like oh the cellphone’s # <screen> ciu: <charger> <or screen> gen: <yeah> cellphone’s charger like you’d still put the possessive s ciu: mmh gen: like it would sound kind of weird to say like this cellphone screen like ciu: uhm ok gen: i don’t know ciu: noeh ii mean mmm as all languages evolves that’s probably:: normal because it was rather strange ((clearing throat)) and difficult to remember back way when i learned it # bu::t i think that should # yeah that should make sense i mean it’s an evolution to:towards simpler use of the:: language so gen: right ciu: i think that would be fine because also it's not the first time i actually see an ununanimated thing with the possessive s it’s just that i'm not used to:: # to this use of the possessive s so:: # well ok so good to know that nowadays it's it's good to use possessive s # ok # a::nd ## let’s see ## tutu extract 3 – ger-stu in the first lre reported from extract 3 (example 8), the us participant ger is explaining that the toponym cinque terre, although plural in italian, is singular in english. in her document, the nns stu used it as a plural, and she seems hard to convince that this choice is unacceptable in english. in her view, the toponym should be plural in english too, as it refers to a plural entity (cinque terre are five). ger needs to make some efforts to succeed. in order to further clarify the issue, he refers to another geographical name with plural form in italian (marche), thus showing a noticeable cross-linguistic awareness. example (8) ger: and the:n oh # so for cinque terre # that’s<in english> that’s notit’s a singular thing stu: <mmm mmm> ### ah okay # ii didn’t know that ger: ((smiling)) yeah it’s # i wouldn’t expect anyone too really but it’s just like # just grammatically like # any <location> stu: <mmh mmh> aaa okay ger: <any location xx> stu: <mmm mmm ok> ok # ok ger: ((clearing throat)) the::like if i wanted say # i am going to study in recanati ## and then i would say recanati # is in le marche or <it’s just onexxx and the::n compromise> peer corrective feedback in tandem telecollaboration e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 97 stu: <okay but ## xx> because:: ehm # mm # from my perspective is just that recanati is one village but cinque terre are five # <and ii did in> ger: <ah yeah yeah> stu: in the plural for that reason ger: so i meant to say like i am going to study in le marche ## stu: ah ok yeah ger: <which xx-> even though it’s grammatically plural it’s kinda # yeah <and the:n e:hm> stu: <yeah but it’s> i don’t know because if the name of the region it’s not <something> ger: <right> right right i see what you mean stu: yeah okay <xxx anyway> ger: <it’s still-> it’s still for some reason in english singular ((laughing)) the second example from extract 3, which is reported in example (9), includes a discussion on the use of the comma before the last element of a list. again, ger proposes a comparison between english and italian (which i know is different from italian) to appear more convincing to his partner. stu contributes to the discussion by confirming that italian has a different rule (if you say ‘e’ you don’t have to use the comma). example (9) ger: the:n # local cuisine # wine tasting ((coughing)) so:: whenever there’s a list of three or more things ## stu: <mmh mmh> ger: <(whether)> you are writing in english # before the and you have to have a comma stu: ah okay ger: like between the second to last and last items in a list you have to have a comma stu: yeah # ah # okay ok ger: which i know is different from italian of ## (xx) points <(of)> stu: <yeah> ger: (and the rest) before so <i am aware> stu: <yeah> ## yeah because if you say e # you # don’t have to use the comma ger: right cause for english you do stu: it’s not correct yeah # yeah extract 4 – tap-pie in the lre reported in example (10), the ns tap is trying to explain why she suggested replacing the expression a beautiful country to be visited with a beautiful country to visit. to justify the inappropriateness of her partner’s sentence, tap refers to a general quality of english writing, which she describes as more straightforward. the italian participant contributes with a confirmation check in which she proposes a metalinguistic term for the inappropriate expression (so is not the passive form). la russa & nuzzo e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 98 example (10) tap: i:i would use a different arrangement like for example i would suggest you to use italy is a beautiful country to visit # pie: ah ok tap: like notnotdon’tdon’t say to be visited because it it’s <more like> english is more straightforward # pie: <ah> ### <mmh mmh> tap: <language> so you can just say to visit pie: ok tap: ok? pie: so is not the passive form tap: no no passive # pie: <ok> tap: <it’sit’s> i mean it’s it’s correct, it is ehm there’s nothing wrong with that # e:h em except that we rather say to visit like more straight to the point in the last example (11), tap is suggesting using shorter sentences, which would be more appropriate in english writing. interestingly, when her partner introduces the cross-linguistic reflection, namely a comparison between english and italian about the length of sentences (we italians have the problem to create big phrases), the us participant refers to a third language, spanish, that they have in their repertoire. example (11) tap: ehm mmmm ### the only thing i would suggest is to use # commas o::r separate sentences like # mmm pie: <ok> tap: <(probably)> two sentences divided by a comma and then you can use a period and start a new sentence:: # eh i get you <becaus-> pie: <xx we italians> have the problem to::to::to create big phrases ((laughing)) tap: <yeah i get you becaus-> pie: <about three four> tap: yeah that<that> is the same with spanish pie: <yeah> tap: we tend to create like <huge sentences> without punctuation and it make sense but in english is a little <bit different> pie: <yeah> #### <yeah> tap: you have to have like a sentence and a period and a comma if you’re going toif you’re going to join two sentences you need to have the comma:: or the proper connectio::n it’s a little bit trickier yeah pie: yeah tap: but ehmbut ehm <xx> pie: <i have> this problem i know it ((laughing)) tap: if you want me to help you in that i can help you # for example # in that same paragraph # e::h pie: <mmm> tap: <you have> moreover a fantastic accommodation for the night is the faro bianco gallogallipoli ### you can use a <period> pie: <yeah> tap: and then # just start by <sayin-> it is located ### pie: <yeah> ## it # yeah? tap: it is located one kilometerkilometer # from downtown <e:hm> pie: <ok> tap: ((smiling)) and then we have another period there pie: ((laughing)) ok peer corrective feedback in tandem telecollaboration e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 99 the examples reported show that the english nss often engaged in interesting metalinguistic discussions with their nns linguistic partners. the feedback-discussing task pushed them to actively reflect on their languages. particularly, the need to explain the reason(s) why they had provided corrective feedback on a non-target-like linguistic element led the ns feedback providers to stretch their metalinguistic resources and make their explanations clear and convincing to the partner. in some cases, the nss resorted to grammatical terminology, whereas in other cases they offered less technical explanations. despite what has been claimed in some previous research on pwcf (e.g., guardado & shi, 2007; hyland, 2000; leki, 1990; lockhart & ng, 1993; mendonça & johnson, 1994; nelson & murphy, 1992, 1993; tsui & ng, 2000; yoshida, 2008), our study shows that learners are autonomous and able to provide feedback on (a variety of) language-related issues and to adopt different strategies to make sure that their partner understands the error. hence, the provided feedback tends to be accessible and aligned with the peer’s linguistic and cognitive capacities (storch, 2019). in terms of the benefits for cf providers, the strategies that they have adopted to provide and discuss the feedback— notably, cross-linguistic comparisons among the languages in their repertoires and meta-linguistic reflection through the recalling of grammar rules—can be seen as actual learning strategies. not only might they be used to increase metalinguistic awareness in l1 and gain a better understanding of its formal and functional features, but these strategies might also be applied to l2 learning as self-correction strategies that will considerably increase learner autonomy. on several occasions, comparisons between english and italian were introduced in the negotiation, thus stimulating cross-linguistic awareness. given that most of the participants in the online tandem program also had spanish in their repertoire, this third language was occasionally involved in the cross-linguistic comparisons. those comparisons might encourage the development of metalinguistic skills and a more conscious relationship with linguistic tools, considering that "esercitare la funzione metalinguistica riflessiva attraverso il confronto con un oggetto estraniante è già, direttamente, migliorare l’uso della lingua" (de mauro & boylan, 1995, p. 13). in some cases, it was the nns who led the metaand cross-linguistic discussion. as instructed learners of l2 english, the italian participants could refer to an explicit knowledge of some linguistic features that their ns partners might lack. the feedback-providing-and-discussing task gave the us nss more opportunities to deepen their reflection on the use of english than they might usually have. 5. conclusion in this paper, we started from observing that pwcf is a pedagogical resource whose potential is still underexploited in second language teaching, at least in italian schools and universities. this is rather surprising, as the benefits of peer feedback have been largely outlined in the literature on l2 writing, second language instruction, and education in general. to contribute further to the body of research on pwcf and encourage language instructors to use it more with their students, we decided to explore the potential benefits of this pedagogical tool from a particular perspective. through the qualitative analysis of a small sample of peer native/nonnative telecollaborative interactions, we observed how feedback-providing-and-discussing activities can engage learners in metalinguistic negotiation, regardless of the feedback’s correctness or effectiveness. in order to collaborate in the resolution of a linguistic problem, the participants resorted to different strategies, showing autonomy and creativity. based on our small-scale observation, we can suggest that pwcf and its subsequent discussion in dyads during telecollaborative exchanges is a valuable activity for language learning in terms of the metaand cross-linguistic reflection that it encourages. after the meaning has been communicated in the written text, pwcf leads learners to focus and reflect on the linguistic forms that are particularly relevant due to the presence of the error. considering that the overriding focus of telecollaborative programs is on meaning, with little or no intervention by the language instructor, pwcf activities can represent a fruitful way to integrate metalinguistic reflection into these low-structured learning environments. as previously announced, a rather problematic issue that emerged in our study is that, despite having received written instruction on how to provide indirect wcf accompanied by oral prompts, learners did not always follow the guidelines. in some occasions they directly provided the correction, which generally resulted in limited engagement by both learners and a poor or no metalinguistic reflection. in order to avoid this issue and encourage learners’ metatalk, it would, therefore, be helpful to organize more explicit and exhaustive feedback training sessions before pwcf activities. in those sessions, teachers may give learners more structured feedback rubrics (sato, 2013) or, at least, provide them with some instruction on what errors they la russa & nuzzo e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 100 should or should not correct and how. as a matter of fact, although pwcf activities are mainly autonomously led by learners, their benefits might be maximized by teacher guidance. references amores, maria (1997). a new perspective on peer editing. foreign language annals, 30(4), 513–523. berg, catherine (1999). the effects of trained peer response on esl students’ revision types and writing quality. journal of second language writing, 8(3), 215-41. 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(2017). talking grammatically: l1 adolescent metalinguistic reflection on writing. language awareness, 26(4), 381-398. yang miao, badger richard, & yu, zhen (2006). a comparative study of peer and teacher feedback in a chinese efl writing class. journal of second language writing, 15(3),179-200. yoshida, reiko (2008). teachers’ choice and learners’ preference of corrective-feedback types. language awareness, 17(1), 78–93. yu, shulin, & lee, icy (2016). peer feedback in second language writing (2005–2014). language teaching, 49(4), pp. 461-493. zhao, huahui (2010). investigating learners’ use and understanding of peer and teacher feedback on writing: a comparative study in a chinese english writing classroom. assessing writing, 15(1), 3–17. la russa & nuzzo e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 87–104 104 francesca la russa, freelance researcher franlarussa3@gmail.com en francesca la russa holds a phd in applied linguistics. her research interests include second language acquisition and teaching with a focus on italian as a second language, corrective feedback, and task based language teaching. es francesca la russa es doctora de lingüística aplicada. su investigación se centra en la adquisición y enseñanza de segundas lenguas, con especial atención al italiano como segunda lengua, al feedback correctivo y a la enseñanza de lenguas basada en proyectos. it francesca la russa è dottore di ricerca in didattica delle lingue. i suoi interessi di ricerca vertono sull’acquisizione e l’insegnamento delle lingue straniere con focus sull'italiano lingua seconda, il feedback correttivo e il task based language teaching. elena nuzzo, università roma tre elena.nuzzo@uniroma3.it en elena nuzzo is associate professor of applied linguistics at università roma tre. she teaches and researches in the fields of second language acquisition and teaching, with a focus on italian as a second language. her main research interests are the applications of speech act theory to second language learning and cross-cultural communication, and task based language teaching. es elena nuzzo es profesora titular de lingüística aplicada en la universidad de roma tre. imparte docencia y realiza investigación en las áreas de adquisición y enseñanza de segundas lenguas, con especial atención al italiano como segunda lengua. su investigación se centra principalmente en la aplicación de la teoría de los actos de habla al aprendizaje de segundas lenguas y a la comunicación intercultural, y el enfoque por tareas en la enseñanza de lenguas. it elena nuzzo è professore associato di didattica delle lingue moderne all’università roma tre. svolge attività di insegnamento e ricerca nel settore dell’apprendimento e insegnamento delle lingue seconde, con particolare attenzione all’italiano per stranieri. i suoi principali interessi di ricerca includono le applicazioni della teoria degli atti linguistici all’apprendimento delle lingue e alla comunicazione transculturale e l’insegnamento basato su compiti. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 3, issue 1, september 2016, pages 83-85 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.4.69 www.e-journall.org © monami 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. il volume di pierangela diadori, massimo palermo e donatella troncarelli, docenti rispettivamente di didattica della lingua italiana a stranieri, di linguistica italiana e di grammatica italiana presso l’università per stranieri di siena, rappresenta un’opera di grande respiro e utilità nello studio di queste aree disciplinari. gli autori, nel concepire il saggio, hanno pensato a un pubblico che si trova o si troverà ad operare in contesti glottodidattici diversi, sia in italia che fuori dai confini nazionali. per questi operatori e per tutti coloro che si occupano di italiano l2, il volume costituisce uno strumento prezioso e aggiornato per la formazione dei docenti e per l’approfondimento dei fattori coinvolti nel processo didattico. * contatto: monami@unistrasi.it diadori, pierangela, palermo, massimo e troncarelli, donatella (2015). insegnare l’italiano come seconda lingua roma, italia: carocci. elena monami* università per stranieri di siena book review received 22 january 2016; received in revised form 26 april 2016; accepted 30 april 2016 abstract it il volume recensito qui è il frutto del lavoro condiviso di tre studiosi, docenti di discipline inerenti la linguistica italiana e la didattica della lingua italiana a stranieri. sono questi gli ambiti in cui si muove l’opera di diadori, palermo e troncarelli, insegnare l’italiano come seconda lingua; un saggio concepito come strumento teorico-pratico per docenti, futuri docenti e studenti che svolgono la loro attività nel campo della didattica dell’italiano come lingua non materna. parole chiave: didattica dell’italiano l2/ls, contesti di apprendimento-insegnamento, insegnare la grammatica, progettazione di percorsi didattici, gestione della classe. en the volume examined here is the result of a shared work of three scholars, professors of disciplines connected to italian linguistics and pedagogy of italian language to foreigners. these are the areas addressed in the work by diadori, palermo, and troncarelli, insegnare l’italiano come seconda lingua [teaching italian as a second language] a work intended as a theoretical-practical tool for professors, future professors, and students who work in the field of teaching italian as a nonnative language. key words: teaching l2/fl italian, learning-teaching contexts, teaching grammar, curriculum planning, class management. es el volumen del que aquí se ofrece una reseña es el resultado del trabajo compartido entre tres especialistas que imparten clases relacionadas con la lingüística italiana y la enseñanza de la lengua italiana a estudiantes extranjeros. estos son los campos en los que se centra el trabajo de diadori, palermo y troncarelli, l’italiano come seconda lingua [la enseñanza del italiano como segunda lengua] un ensayo pensado como instrumento teórico y práctico para profesores, para futuros profesores y para estudiantes que trabajan en el ámbito de la enseñanza del italiano como lengua extranjera. palabras clave: enseñanza del italiano l2/ls, contextos de enseñanza-aprendizaje, enseñanza de la gramática, planificación didáctica, gestión de la clase. http://www.e-journall.org/ monami e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 83-85 84 il saggio è suddiviso in tre macrosezioni secondo le aree tematiche trattate: 1) contesti di apprendimento-insegnamento dell’italiano l2, 2) insegnare la lingua, insegnare la grammatica e 3) progettazione e realizzazione di percorsi didattici. nella prima sezione, introdotta da donatella troncarelli e composta da cinque capitoli, si trattano argomenti inerenti ai contesti di insegnamento-apprendimento della lingua italiana. in particolare, i capitoli 1 e 2 offrono un quadro approfondito degli aspetti che caratterizzano l’italiano appreso all’estero e in italia come lingua seconda. i; il capitolo 3 descrive i profili degli apprendenti, i loro bisogni, le loro motivazioni, e, ancora, gli stili di apprendimento, i processi neurolinguistici coinvolti durante il processo di apprendimento stesso, i tipi di input connessi all’apprendimento di una lingua non materna., aspetti che un docente deve tener presente nel progettare e realizzare gli interventi didattici.. nel capitolo 4 gli autori si focalizzano sul concetto di italiano lingua di contatto, sulle caratteristiche dell’input e sui tipi di interazione in classe. il capitolo 5 affronta, nello specifico, i concetti di errore linguistico, di interlingua e di sequenze acquisizionali. interessante, in questa prima parte, la panoramica sul pubblico di apprendenti di italiano nel corso dei secoli scorsi (nobili, letterati e artisti in italia per il gran tour) e la mappatura dei centri di insegnamento dell’italiano in italia e all’estero, aggiornata seguendo i dati riportati nelle più recenti indagini motivazionali svolte anche per conto del ministero degli affari esteri. la seconda sezione del volume, introdotta da massimo palermo e composta da tre capitoli, è dedicata a una riflessione sul ruolo della grammatica nella didattica dell’italiano l2. dopo aver delineato, nel capitolo 6, i punti salienti della “vecchia questione” conoscenza implicita o esplicita delle regole grammaticali? insegnamento tradizionale o induttivo delle strutture linguistiche? quale percorso è il più vantaggioso a livello psicopedagogico? massimo palermo, autore di questo contributo, pone l’attenzione sulle competenze comunicative coinvolte nell’apprendimento dell’italiano l2, facendo riferimento anche ai documenti di politica linguistica del consiglio d’europa e in particolare ai parametri del quadro comune europeo di riferimento (d’ora in poi, qcer) (consiglio d’europa, 2002). il capitolo 7 rimanda infatti ai presupposti fondamentali del qcer in tema di competenze linguistiche ed extralinguistiche così come illustrate dai descrittori del documento stesso. l’intero capitolo 8, l’ultimo della sezione, viene dedicato al tipo di lingua italiana da insegnare in classe. nel complesso panorama sociolinguistico dell’italiano contemporaneo è di fondamentale importanza che il/la docente eviti “l’eccessivo scollamento tra la lingua utilizzata in aula e quella effettivamente presente nelle situazioni comunicative quotidiane” (p. 227). lo/la studente/essa deve essere consapevole che esistono varietà e registri linguistici diversi sin da quando inizia ad apprendere la lingua e quindi già dai primi livelli di competenza, ma si suggerisce che gli/le apprendenti vengano guidati verso una riflessione metalinguistica esplicita su tali fenomeni solo a partire dal livello soglia (livello b2 secondo il qcer). la terza e ultima sezione dell’opera, introdotta da pierangela diadori, è strutturata in quattro capitoli e tratta la progettazione di interventi per l’apprendimento guidato, un processo che vede la presenza del docente in classi reali o virtuali, secondo un preciso modello operativo basato su obiettivi da raggiungere, con linee guida e strategie di azione chiaramente predeterminate per la gestione del gruppo classe. nel capitolo 9, si fa dapprima riferimento alle tappe della “macroprogettazione” didattica, mettendo in evidenza i concetti fondamentali come quelli di curriculo e sillabo e, successivamente, si delineano le diverse tipologie di progettazione didattica: progettazione per obiettivi, progettazione per sfondi integratori, progettazione per compiti (task-based), progettazione per percorso on line. nel capitolo 10 si presentano i modelli operativi a livello “micro”: si inizia dalla lezione di impronta classica e prevalentemente monodirezionale per giungere all’unità didattica, per poi passare all’unità di apprendimento fino al modulo e all’unità di lavoro nei diversi formati. il capitolo 11 affronta i temi della comunicazione didattica, della gestione della classe e del parlato del docente: dopo un excursus storico sui principali studi sull’interazione in classe, gli autori mettono in luce i vari tipi di interazione insegnante-studente, i gradi di intensità dei flussi comunicativi, le caratteristiche dell’interazione istituzionale asimmetrica che si verifica nella classe di lingue e gli elementi che distinguono il parlato del docente – il teacher talk – utilizzato nella didattica dell’italiano l2. il volume si conclude con il capitolo 12 in cui viene presentato un quadro dettagliato sulla verifica e la valutazione delle competenze linguistico-comunicative di italiano l2: la sua natura, i vantaggi e i limiti, il formato e la spendibilità. la medesima analisi viene estesa poi alle certificazioni in didattica dell’italiano a stranieri presenti ad oggi su territorio nazionale e internazionale. nello stesso capitolo, infine, la sezione finale è dedicata ai documenti più recenti (portfolio europeo delle lingue, pel; profilo europeo per la formazione dei docenti di lingue. un quadro di riferimento, profile; portfolio europeo per la formazione iniziale dei docenti di lingue. uno strumento di riflessione, epostl; european profiling grid, epg (www.epg-project.eu) prodotti nell’ambito dei progetti del recensione: insegnare l’italiano come seconda lingua e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 83-85 85 consiglio d’europa nel campo dell’apprendimento-insegnamento di lingue seconde con il chiaro scopo di migliorare, anche tramite l’autovalutazione, la qualità della formazione del corpo docente. alla luce di tutto ciò possiamo senz’altro affermare che l’opera di diadori, palermo e troncarelli costituisce un eccellente strumento nell’ambito della ricerca e della didattica dell’italiano per stranieri: gli argomenti sono trattati in modo rigorosamente scientifico e altrettanto accessibile a coloro che, a vario livello, operano in questo campo. la struttura modulare del volume ne consente, peraltro, l’adozione parziale o totale durante il percorso di formazione accademica e oltre. da non dimenticare che all’interno dei capitoli vengono segnalati utilissimi rimandi a materiali consultabili on line sul sito della case editrice (cfr. icona “computer” a margine del testo) e sono presenti riquadri di approfondimento sui punti chiave dei contenuti proposti. si tratta, insomma, di un’opera a lungo attesa in cui ritrovare indicazioni, spunti di analisi e accurati commenti sui temi affrontati da parte degli autori. riferimenti bibliografici consiglio d’europa (2002). quadro comune europeo di riferimento per le lingue: apprendimento, insegnamento, valutazione. milano, italia: la nuova italia. elena monami. università per stranieri di siena monami@unistrasi.it it elena monami è assegnista di ricerca presso il centro ditals dell’università per stranieri di siena. ha insegnato italiano l2 presso il centro linguistico dell’università per stranieri di siena, l’istituto italiano di cultura di madrid, l’università gaidai di osaka, la university of massachusetts amherst, e l’université de liège. ha al suo attivo varie pubblicazioni sulla didattica dell’italiano l2 tra cui il volume strategie di correzione orale dell’errore in classi di italiano l2 pubblicato nel 2013 dalla casa editrice guerra (perugia). en elena monami is postdoctoral researcher at the ditals center of the università per stranieri di siena. previously, she taught italian as a second language at the language center of the university for foreigners of siena, the italian cultural institute of madrid, the gaidai university of osaka, the university of massachusetts amherst, and the university of liège. her achievements include several publications about italian l2 pedagogy, among them the volume strategie di correzione orale dell’errore in classi di italiano l2 [strategies for oral error correction in italian l2 classes] published in 2013 by guerra (perugia). es elena monami es investigadora del centro ditals de la università per stranieri di siena. ha impartido cursos de italiano como lengua extranjera en el centro lingüístico de la università per stranieri di siena, el istituto italiano di cultura en madrid, la universidad gaidai de osaka, la university of massachusetts-amherst y la université de liège. es autora de varios libros sobre la enseñanza del italiano como lengua extranjera, entre los que destaca el volumen strategie di correzione orale dell’errore in classe di italiano l2 [estrategias para corregir oralmente los errores en las clases de italiano como lengua extranjera], publicado en 2013 por la editorial guerra (perugia). euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 110-113 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.165 www.e-journall.org ©gasca jiménez 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. en la última década, hemos presenciado un giro plurilingüe en la educación que ha suscitado un creciente interés por la adopción de pedagogías centradas en la interacción entre lenguas y la naturalización de las prácticas lingüísticas de los estudiantes bi/multilingües (p. ej., corcoll, 2013; colina & lafford, 2017; gonzález davies, 2014, 2018;). estas pedagogías responden a la nueva conceptualización de que los repertorios lingüísticos de los aprendientes están interconectados, en oposición a la perspectiva monolingüe de que las lenguas se compartimentan de forma independiente que ha dominado tradicionalmente la lingüística aplicada. por ejemplo, el modelo pedagógico propuesto por gonzález davies (2018), basado en una *contact: lgascajimenez1@fairfield.edu garcía, ofelia, ibarra johnson, susanna, & seltzer, kate (2017). the translanguaging classroom: leveraging student bilingualism for learning. philadelphia, pennsylvania: caslon. laura gasca jiménez*1 fairfield university book review received 27 august 2018; received in revised form 29 october 2018; accepted 2 december 2018 abstract es basado en la fundamentación teórica presentada en garcía y li wei (2014), que entiende el translenguar como “un enfoque centrado en el uso de la lengua, el bilingüismo y la educación de los bilingües que considera las prácticas lingüísticas de los bilingües no como dos sistemas lingüísticos autónomos (…) sino como un único repertorio lingüístico con características que has sido socialmente construidas y atribuidas a dos lenguas separadas” (p. 2), el trabajo de garcía, ibarra johnson y seltzer (2017) posibilita la transición de la teoría translenguar a su implementación en contextos educativos bi/multilingües. esta reseña sitúa la obra dentro del giro plurilingüe, ofrece una breve descripción de su contenido y destaca su contribución al campo de la enseñanza. palabras clave: lingüística aplicada, giro plurilingüe, translenguar, enseñanza bilingüe, repertorio lingüístico en based on the theoretical foundation presented in garcía and li wei (2014) that defines translanguaging as “an approach to the use of language, bilingualism, and the education of bilinguals that considers the language practices of bilinguals not as two autonomous language systems (…) but as one linguistic repertoire with features that have been societally constructed as belonging to two separate languages” (p. 2), the work of garcía, ibarra johnson, and seltzer (2017) presents an application of translanguaging theory into practice in bi/multilingual educational contexts. this review situates their work within the plurilingual turn, offering a brief description of the book’s contents and highlighting its contribution to the field of education. keywords: applied linguistics, plurilingual turn, translanguaging, bilingual education, linguistic repertoire it basato sul quadro teorico presentato in garcía e li wei (2014), in cui il translinguismo viene inteso come “un approccio all’uso della lingua, al bilinguismo e all’istruzione dei bilingue, che considera le pratiche linguistiche dei bilingue non come due sistemi linguistici autonomi (…) ma come un unico repertorio con caratteristiche che sono state socialmente costruite come appartenti a due lingue separate” [our translation] (p.2). il lavoro di garcía, ibarra johnson e seltzer (2017) rende possibile la transizione della teoria del translanguaging ad ambiti educativi bi/multingui. questa recensione situa il loro lavoro all’interno della svolta plurilingue, offrendo una breve descrizione dei suoi contenuti e evidenziando il suo contributo al settore dell’istruzione. parole chiave: linguistica applicata, svolta plurilingüe, translanguaginf, educazione bilingue, repertorio linguistico http://www.e-journall.org/ reseña: the translanguaging classroom e-journall5(2) (2018), pp. 110-113 111 metodología socio-constructivista, fomenta el uso de estrategias plurilingües con el objetivo de normalizar las prácticas naturales de los estudiantes y favorecer la comunicación interlingüística e intercultural. como ejemplo de estrategias plurilingües, esta autora propone el uso del translenguar y de la traducción. de forma similar, colina y lafford (2017) apuestan por la práctica de la traducción para fomentar la interacción entre lenguas y contribuir al desarrollo de habilidades de mediación en contextos de enseñanza de segundas lenguas y lenguas de herencia. además, estas autoras fomentan la integración sistemática de la traducción como quinta destreza. en este contexto, la traducción se conceptualiza como un proceso de mediación: we define translation as a cross-linguistic mediation process of, or a product resulting from, transferring or mediating text(s) of different lengths (ranging from words and sentences to entire books) from one human language to another, which generally requires a significant degree of resemblance or correspondence (colina, 2015). we do not restrict the term translation exclusively to written texts, including also language mediation that occurs via oral (referred to in professional circles as interpreting) and hybrid media. (colina y lafford, 2017, p. 5) de forma similar, y desde una perspectiva posestructuralista de la lengua, el enfoque translenguar se aleja de la visión tradicional del bilingüismo como dos sistemas lingüísticos independientes y defiende la existencia de un solo sistema lingüístico. varios trabajos publicados hasta el momento han sentado las bases teóricas de la pedagogía translenguar (p. ej., canagarajah, 2013; garcía, 2009; garcía & li wei, 2014), mientras que otros han adoptado una postura más didáctica al describir contextos educativos que adoptan esta pedagogía (p. ej., garcía & kleyn, 2016). sin embargo, the translanguaging classroom: leveraging student bilingualism for learning, editado por ofelia garcía, susana ibarra johnson y kate seltzer, destaca por ser el primero en brindar un puente entre la teoría y la práctica mediante explicaciones concisas sobre las bases teóricas del translenguar y pautas detalladas para su implementación. se trata de un manual que entra en diálogo con los novedosos trabajos de gonzález davies (2014) y carreres, noriega-sánchez y calduch (2018) que, si bien se basan en la traducción pedagógica, comparten la visión plurilingüe de que los repertorios lingüísticos de los hablantes bi/multilingües están interconectados. dirigido principalmente a educadores de primaria y secundaria (k-12 en el contexto de los estados unidos), el trabajo de garcía, ibarra johnson y seltzer está basado en la fundamentación teórica presentada en garcía y li wei (2014) que entiende el translenguar como an approach to the use of language, bilingualism, and the education of bilinguals that considers the language practices of bilinguals not as two autonomous language systems, as has been traditionally the case, but as one linguistic repertoire with features that have been societally constructed as belonging to two separate languages. (p. 2) este volumen busca posibilitar la transición de la teoría translenguar a su implementación en contextos educativos bi/multilingües. se encuentra dividido temáticamente en tres secciones y once capítulos: dynamic bilingualism at school (capítulos 1-3), translanguaging pedagogy (capítulos 4-7) y reimagining teaching and learning through translanguaging (capítulos 8-11). asimismo, incluye un glosario y un apéndice con diferentes materiales de instrucción y evaluación para usar en el aula. los capítulos, divididos en tres apartados principales, siguen una misma estructura: primero, se presentan los objetivos de aprendizaje, luego el contenido central y, por último, preguntas de reflexión y actividades que fomentan el desarrollo, la implementación y la evaluación de prácticas pedagógicas que se adscriben a la teoría translenguar. los dos primeros capítulos introducen conceptos centrales de la pedagogía translenguar y presentan los tres pilares y los cuatro objetivos de esta pedagogía mediante la combinación de explicaciones teóricas y descripciones de contextos educativos reales. estos dos primeros capítulos son particularmente útiles para aquellos lectores que no estén familiarizados con esta pedagogía. el tercer capítulo presenta materiales y estrategias que permiten identificar a los estudiantes bilingües, documentar sus perfiles lingüísticos y evaluar sus destrezas. el cuarto capítulo ilustra el primero de los tres pilares de la teoría translenguar, la orientación filosófica de los educadores (translanguaging stance). el quinto capítulo, basado en el segundo (translanguaging design) y tercer pilar (translanguaging shifts), describe cómo organizar y abastecer las aulas, diseñar materiales didácticos y poner en práctica estrategias pedagógicas del translenguar. el sexto capítulo se centra en el desarrollo de instrumentos y la puesta en práctica de estrategias que permitan evaluar el repertorio lingüístico de los estudiantes en su totalidad, es decir, tanto el desempeño lingüístico general gasca jiménez e-journall5(2) (2018), pp. 110-113 112 (general linguistic performance) como el específico en una lengua determinada (language-specific performance). el séptimo capítulo describe de forma minuciosa cómo implementar la pedagogía translenguar en el aula. el octavo capítulo explica cómo conciliar la pedagogía translenguar y los estándares educativos. el noveno capítulo se centra en cómo combinar la enseñanza de contenido y el desarrollo de destrezas de alfabetización. el décimo capítulo describe la implementación de un nuevo modelo de bialfabetización y, por último, el undécimo capítulo resalta dos objetivos fundamentales de la educación: el bienestar socioemocional de los estudiantes y la justicia social. escrito en un lenguaje claro y conciso, este libro, además de sintetizar la teoría translenguar con un objetivo práctico en mente, facilita la implementación de dicha teoría en contextos educativos bi/multilingües. resulta particularmente relevante para el campo de la enseñanza de lenguas de herencia, área en la que proliferan las propuestas que promueven el multilingüismo y la inclusión de las experiencias previas de los estudiantes (p. ej., leeman, 2018). además, cabe celebrar el espacio central que se le otorga al bienestar socioemocional de los estudiantes a lo largo del volumen, un aspecto que, a pesar de su transcendencia, suele recibir limitada atención en los manuales sobre enseñanza. numerosos son los capítulos que ofrecen estrategias pedagógicas para reconocer y considerar las prácticas lingüísticas de los estudiantes. por ejemplo, en el tercer capítulo, los autores proponen la creación de perfiles bilingües que incluyan, por un lado, información sobre las lenguas que los estudiantes usan para comunicarse con familiares y amigos, su exposición a las lenguas, escolarización, niveles de alfabetización, lugar de nacimiento y los países en los que han residido y/o estudiado. por otro lado, estos perfiles permiten recopilar información sobre las habilidades lingüísticas de los estudiantes en la clase. del mismo modo, es digno de mención el meticuloso trabajo comparativo que se lleva a cabo entre modelos tradicionales de enseñanza y otros más recientes entre los cuales destaca la comparación que se presenta en el décimo capítulo entre los modelos tradicionales de bialfabetización y el modelo de bilafabetización translenguar. este cuidadoso trabajo comparativo permite que los educadores revisiten y adapten los modelos que tradicionalmente han puesto en práctica. otro aspecto que ensalzar es que las recomendaciones pedagógicas no se limitan exclusivamente a la instrucción, sino que también se cubre detalladamente la evaluación. así, en el sexto capítulo, se presenta un modelo de evaluación holístico y dinámico que, además de evaluaciones formativas por parte de los educadores, incluye autoevaluaciones, evaluaciones por pares/grupos y evaluaciones de familiares. asimismo, el volumen no se centra exclusivamente en la enseñanza de lenguas, sino que trata la aplicabilidad de la pedagogía translenguar en otras áreas de enseñanza. además, cabe subrayar que la atenta estructuración de los capítulos en objetivos de aprendizaje, contenido y actividades y preguntas de reflexión hace de este un volumen idóneo para la formación de educadores. sin embargo, cabe advertir que, si bien el volumen resultaría de suma utilidad para educadores en contextos de educación superior, no se ofrecen directamente pautas para este público. en definitiva, nos encontramos ante un volumen esperado que destaca por su actualidad y originalidad y que, sin duda alguna, constituye una valiosa aportación al campo de la enseñanza. dada su organización temática y su orientación didáctica, se trata de un volumen muy recomendable tanto para profesores que estén formando a futuros educadores como para educadores que busquen, de forma autodidacta, ampliar su filosofía y sus prácticas pedagógicas. referencias canagarajah, suresh (2013). transliangual practice: global englishes and cosmopolitan relations. new york, new york: routledge. carreres, ángeles, noriega-sánchez, maría, & calduch, carme (2018). mundos en palabras: learning advanced spanish through translation. new york, new york: routledge. colina, sandra, & lafford, barbara (2017). translation in spanish language teaching: the integration of a “fifth skill” in the second language curriculum. journal of spanish language teaching, 4(2), 110-123. corcoll, cristina (2013). developing children's language awareness: switching codes in the language classroom. international journal of multilingualism, 10(1), 27-45. garcía, ofelia (2009). bilingual education in the 21st century: a global perspective. oxford, united kingdom: wiley-blackwell. reseña: the translanguaging classroom e-journall5(2) (2018), pp. 110-113 113 garcía, ofelia, & kleyn, tatyana (2016). translanguaging with multilingual students: learning from classroom moments. new york, new york: routledge. garcía, ofelia, & li wei (2014). translanguaging: language, bilingualism and education. new york, new york: palgrave macmillan. gonzález davies, maría (2004). multiple voices in the translation classroom: activities, tasks and projects. amsterdam, the netherlands: john benjamins. gonzález davies, maría (2014). towards a plurilingual development paradigm: from spontaneous to informed use of translation in additional language learning. the interpreter and translator trainer, 8(1), 8-31. gonzález davies, maría (2018). the use of translation in an integrated plurilingual approach to language learning: teacher strategies and best practices. journal of spanish language teaching, 4(2), 124-135. leeman, jennifer (2018). critical language awareness and spanish as a heritage language: challenging the linguistic subordination of us latinxs. en kim potowski (ed.), the routledge handbook of spanish as a heritage language (pp. 345-358). new york, new york: routledge. laura gasca jiménez, fairfield university lgascajimenez1@fairfield.edu es laura gasca jiménez es profesora contratada de español y traducción en la facultad de lenguas y literaturas modernas de la fairfield university. obtuvo un doctorado en lingüística hispánica de la university of houston y un máster en traducción de la kent state university. además, recibió una beca de posgrado de la fundación la caixa. sus áreas principales de investigación son la lingüística aplicada, el bilingüismo y la traductología. en laura gasca jiménez is an assistant professor of spanish and translation studies in the department of modern languages and literatures at fairfield university. dr. gasca jiménez holds a ph.d. in hispanic linguistics from the university of houston and an m.a in translation from kent state university. she is the recipient of a la caixa foundation fellowship. her main research areas are applied linguistics, bilingualism, and translation studies. it laura gasca jiménez è ricercatrice di spagnolo e scienze della traduzione nella facoltà di lingue e letterature moderne alla fairfield university. ha conseguito un dottorato in linguistica ispanica presso la university of houston e un master in traduzione dalla kent state university. ha, inoltre, ottenuto la borsa di studio post-dottorato della fondazione la caixa. le sue aree principali di ricerca sono la linguistica applicata, il bilinguismo e le scienze della traduzione. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 3, issue 2, december 2016, pages 3-21 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.5.33 www.e-journall.org © hess-zimmermann 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: karinahess@hotmail.com 1 the author would like to thank gloria pérez osnaya for her collaboration in gathering and systematizing many of the data reported in this study. is this a joke? metalinguistic reflections on verbal jokes during the school years karina hess-zimmermann*1 universidad autónoma de querétaro received 28 march 2015; received in revised form 29 february 2016; accepted 10 july 2016 abstract en the ability to produce and comprehend multiple meanings in words and expressions, such as those included in linguistic humor, develops during the school years and is directly related to the development of metalinguistic reflection. the purpose of this study is to analyze metalinguistic reflections that children and adolescents present on different types of verbal jokes. participants were 42 children and adolescents in second, fifth, and eighth grades (14 participants per group) from querétaro, méxico. they were presented with four verbal jokes (two lexical and two syntactical) and four non-jokes. participants were asked to determine whether each text was a joke or not and to explain their reasoning. results revealed differences by school grade in the students’ ability to distinguish jokes from non-jokes and in the type and quantity of their reflections. moreover, lexical jokes were easier to understand and analyze than syntactical jokes, especially for younger participants. key words: language development, school, metalinguistic reflection, humor, jokes es la capacidad de producir y entender los múltiples significados de palabras y expresiones, tales como los que encierra el humor lingüístico, se desarrolla durante los años de escolarización y presenta, a su vez, una relación directa con el desarrollo de la reflexión metalingüística. el propósito de este estudio es analizar las reflexiones metalingüísticas de niños y adolescentes ante distintos tipos de chistes verbales. los participantes fueron un conjunto de 42 niños y adolescentes que cursaban 2º, 5º y 8º grado (14 participantes por grupo) en querétaro, méxico. se presentó a los sujetos del estudio un total de cuatro chistes verbales (dos léxicos y dos sintácticos), solicitándoles que determinaran si cada texto constituía un chiste o no, y se les pidió que motivaran sus respuestas. los resultados mostraron diferencias entre el alumnado de los diferentes grados en cuanto a su capacidad de discernir si se encontraban ante un chiste o no, así como al tipo y el número de sus reflexiones. además, los chistes léxicos fueron más fáciles de entender y analizar que los chistes sintácticos, especialmente para los participantes más jóvenes. palabras clave: desarrollo lingüístico, escuela, reflexión metalingüística, humor, chistes it la capacità di produrre e comprendere i molteplici significati di parole ed espressioni, come quelli presenti nel comico linguistico, si sviluppa durante il periodo scolastico ed è correlata in maniera diretta allo sviluppo della riflessione metalinguistica. questo studio si propone di analizzare la riflessione metalinguistica operata da bambini e adolescenti su diversi tipi di comico verbale. i 42 bambini e adolescenti oggetto dello studio, divisi in gruppi di 14 partecipanti, frequentano le classi seconda e quinta della scuola primaria e la terza media, e provengono da querétaro, messico. messi di fronte a quattro barzellette (due lessicali e due sintattiche) e quattro non-barzellette, è stato chiesto loro di determinare se i testi sottoposti fossero comici oppure no e di spiegare il ragionamento che li ha portati a formulare ogni valutazione. lo studio ha messo in evidenza uno scarto a seconda della classe scolastica nella capacità degli studenti di distinguere le barzellette dalle non-barzellettee nel tipo e quantità delle loro riflessioni. inoltre, le barzellette lessicali sono risultate più semplici da capire e analizzare rispetto a quelle sintattiche, soprattutto per i partecipanti più giovani. parole chiave: sviluppo linguistico, scuola, riflessione metalinguistica, comico, barzellette http://www.e-journall.org/ hess zimmermann e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 4 1. introduction 1.1. language development in school in recent years, it has been recognized that language development is an ongoing process that continues throughout the school years and well into adolescence (barriga, 2002; hess, 2010; hoff, 2014; nippold, 2007). several studies have shown that while children acquire the basic skills of their language system during childhood, they still have much to develop in order to become proficient speakers (berman, 2004). a very important ability that children acquire during the school years and adolescence is the comprehension and production of multiple meanings for words that will allow them to interpret linguistic humor (hess, 2014). in this paper, we argue that children’s and adolescents’ ability to reflect on humor, and specifically on jokes, can provide information on the mechanisms involved in later language development. later language development is characterized by significant achievements at all linguistic levels (nippold, 2007). regarding phonology, it appears that the articulation of polysyllabic words is strengthened and that the child adapts to the accent of the community (nippold, 2007). in addition, there is a development of phonological awareness (gombert, 1992; hoff, 2014). in terms of morphology, during the school years new compound words via prefixes and suffixes and the use of multiple morphemes become more complex and there is presence of new derivative morphemes (nippold & sun, 2008; ravid, 2004). this is because these new forms correspond to morphologically complex words that are part of the system of written language that children have access to during their reading and writing experiences at school (nippold, 2007; snow & uccelli, 2009). regarding syntactic development, tolchinsky (2004) recognized that by the age of five, children produce longer sentences, acquire a greater repertoire of syntactic structures, and increase their ability to comprehend and produce grammatical structures, which they had not used before. in turn, sentence complexity, coordination, and subordination are syntactical features that develop in later childhood (barriga, 2002; berman & ravid, 2010). for this reason, children must make adjustments in context, variation of style, and register in order to meet a new set of discourse functions (berman, 2004; tolchinsky, rosado, aparici, & perera, 2005). additionally, during the school years important changes take place in pragmatics. children must be more attentive to conversational interactions with peers and adults outside the family, and therefore create new communicative strategies (barriga, 2002; ely, 1997; ninio & snow, 1996). it is during the school years that children achieve the consolidation of conversational skills, such as turn taking, dialogue, and discourse (blum-kulka, 2004). this implies that children learn to take into account the mental state of the interlocutor (theory of mind) to enter into a continuous interplay with their beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions to be able to influence their actions (miller, 2006; tolchinsky, 2004; tomasello & carpenter, 2007). another linguistic level that undergoes an important evolution during later language development is discourse. the child has to develop a set of skills to select the appropriate linguistic forms according to a specific textual genre (narration, description, or argumentation) in order to take into account the information shared with the listener. additionally, the child must be able to organize discourse that is relevant and appropriate to a given communicative situation and develop a new semantic and syntactic framework that meets the organization of coherent and cohesive discourse (alvarado, calderón, hess & vernon, 2011; hess & gonzález, 2013; hickmann, 2003; tolchinsky, 2004). finally, regarding semantics, during the school years different levels of linguistic progress have been observed. new types of words appear as a result of children’s personal interests and of their access to academic language in school settings (jisa, 2004; schleppegrell, 2004; zwiers, 2008). in turn, the lexicon ceases to be concrete with specific functions and becomes more general and abstract (barriga, 2002). the child is able to make new inferences, assumptions, abstractions, and deductions that will lead to the generation of new meanings for words such as those included in metaphors, idioms, irony (hoff, 2014; nippold, 2007; spector, 1996; tolchinsky, 2004), and, specifically, in linguistic humor. during the last decade, the study of the development of new meanings for words has become an important topic in psycholinguistic research. frequently, children and adolescents encounter linguistic expressions where words may have more than one meaning. the comprehension of these new meanings of words is a very important aspect of language development, because it has been associated with academic achievement, leadership, and creativity (calderón, 2012; loukusa & leinonen, 2008; nippold, 2007). individuals who do not comprehend or use multiple meanings of words appropriately may have difficulties in metalinguistic reflections on verbal jokes e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 5 the comprehension of some academic concepts (milosky, 1994). additionally, the use of many meanings for words is a necessary and highly valued ability for adequate social functioning (hoicka, 2014). the interpretation of several meanings in words implies the development of many linguistic, cognitive, and social abilities. one of the most important ones is to realize that a message may contain or not the intention of the speaker, that is, that words do not always represent intentions (beal, 1988). to be able to distinguish between words and intention, or what is said and what is meant (bonitatibus, 1988), individuals have to be aware that their own thoughts, beliefs, and knowledge are not the same as the ones of the interlocutor (bosco, angeleri, colle, sacco, & bara, 2013; hoicka, 2014; pexman, 2008). only then, they are able to comprehend that an expression can be used by a speaker in order to convey more than one meaning and that linguistic expressions may have more than one interpretation. the ability to produce and comprehend multiple meanings in words and expressions develops during the school years for several reasons. in school settings children encounter new linguistic forms and functions mainly due to the exposure to more formal and demanding oral language in the classroom (hoff, 2014; montes, 2011) and to written language (barriga, 2002; nippold, 2007). in addition, they start to use language games, riddles, and jokes that imply phonological, lexical, or syntactical ambiguity (crystal, 1996; hess, 2014; martin, 2007). finally, the development of new language meanings has been directly related to the development of metalinguistic reflection (gombert, 1992; hess, 2010; howard, 2009; nippold, 2007), as will be explained below. 1.2. metalinguistic reflection it is known that during early language development (before the age of 6), children have difficulty in thinking and talking about their own and others’ language expressions. this is due to the fact that young children are not able to use language in order to talk about language independently of its communicative function (gombert, 1992; hess, 2010; kemper & vernooy, 1993). nevertheless, at about age 6, children start to reflect on the nature and functions of language in order to adjust, modify, and correct language in diverse communicative contexts (ashkenazy & ravid, 1998; barriga, 2002; hess, 2010; nippold, 2004; smith-cairns, 1996) and to play with language in different ways, such as with rhymes, jokes, and metaphors (apte, 1985; cazden, 1976; crystal, 1996). all these new experiences contribute to the development of children’s metalinguistic reflection. according to gombert (1992), metalinguistic reflection appears when children are able to distinguish language form from its content. only then, they can reflect on language as an entity in itself and intentionally monitor and plan linguistic processing in all linguistic levels (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, discourse) (chaney, 1994; gombert, 1992; hess, 2010). during the pre-school years, children have an intuitive knowledge about language (gombert, 1992; montes, 1994), but during the school years they will develop a conscious reflection about the linguistic system and will be able to process linguistic information independently of the communicative context (gombert, 1992; menyuk, 1988). as we stated before, this study will be concerned with metalinguistic reflection on humor and specifically on jokes. 1.3. humor in later language development although humor is related to the appropriation of effective communicative, social, and linguistic competence (attardo, 2008; carrell, 1997; raskin, 1985), the acquisition of humor during later language development has been a somewhat neglected topic in psycholinguistic research.2 in this study, we argue that humor development can provide important insights on later language development because comprehension and production of humorous events follow a long developmental path (ashkenazy & ravid, 1998; bernstein, 1986; ezell & jarzynka 1996; hoicka, 2014; mcghee, 1971a, 1971b; shultz & horibe, 1974) and involve cognitive, linguistic, metalinguistic, and social abilities (ashkenazy & ravid, 1998; bergen, 2003; hess, 2014; martin 2007; semrud-clikeman & glass, 2008; tamashiro, 1979; tennison, 1993). there are several authors who propose stages in the development of humor (see, for example, mcghee, 1971a, 1971b, 1979). regarding humor development during the school years, studies show that around age 6 children will begin to solve implicit incongruities (bariaud, 1989; ezell & jarzinka, 1996; falkenberg, 2010). between ages 7 and 8 they will start to comprehend and produce jokes and riddles that involve phonological, lexical, or syntactical ambiguity (apte, 1985; bergen, 2009; bernstein, 1986; nippold 2 for some exceptions see ashkenazy & ravid (1998), bernstein (1986), ezell & jarzinka (1996), hoicka (2014), klein (2003), klein & kuiper (2006), martin (2007), masten (1986, 1989), mcghee (1971a, 1971b, 1979), mcghee & panoutsopoulou (1990), semrudclikeman & glass (2008), shultz (1974), spector (1996), and tennison (1993). hess zimmermann e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 6 2007; shultz, 1974); they will also start to assess the social models and conventions of their culture in order to understand and produce humor (bariaud, 1983, 1989; feuerhahn, 1993; hoicka, 2014; masten, 1986; southam, 2005). furthermore, during late childhood individuals become able to give higher quality explanations about humor and present better linguistic styles and organization in their humorous productions (ashkenazy & ravid 1998; spector, 1996). finally, during adolescence, they will favor more sophisticated forms of humor that involve abstract themes and higher cognitive challenges, such as irony. humor presented in the form of occurrences or spontaneous anecdotes will also be widely enjoyed by young people, especially when they emphasize social conflict or are of sexual nature (klein & kuiper, 2006; koller, 1988; nippold 2007; tennison, 1993). 1.4. jokes humor has many manifestations and the classification into different types varies according to theoretical perspectives. from a psycholinguistic point of view, martin (2007) believes that humor can be divided into three broad categories: spontaneous humor, accidental humor, and jokes. as jokes represent one of the most common types of humor in social interaction, they will be central to this study. jokes are short anecdotes that present a specific situation that opposes—via the establishment of an incongruity—another alternative situation, all of which creates a humorous effect (attardo, 2005; attardo & chabanne, 1992; martin, 2007). although there are many ways to organize a text as a joke (see, for example, davies, 2004 and raskin, 1985), most authors agree on the fact that prototypical jokes consist of three elements: setting, dialogue, and punch line (attardo & chabanne, 1992; chafe, 2007; martin, 2007). the setting is the initial part of the joke except for the last statement, and serves to create certain expectations about how the situation should be interpreted. the dialogue is short, generally between two characters, and lies immediately before the punch line. the punch line comes at the end of the joke and will be the element that suddenly changes the meaning, leading the individual to a second reading because of the perceived incongruity. there are many taxonomies of jokes (see attardo, 1994). in the literature on language acquisition, various distinctions between jokes have been made under semantic (fowles & glanz, 1977; shultz & horibe, 1974) and pragmatic perspectives (bernstein, 1986). for the purpose of this research, the classification proposed by attardo, attardo, baltes and petray (1994), who distinguish two kinds of jokes (verbal and referential), will be used. this study will center its attention on verbal jokes (for a similar study with referential jokes see hess, 2014). verbal jokes are jokes that present a lexical marker (generally a word or a syntactic structure) that entails at least two readings. in general, verbal jokes can be of two types: those based on ambiguity and those based on alliteration. as these latter ones are very rare (2%) (attardo et al., 1994), this study will focus on verbal jokes due to ambiguity. according to attardo et al. (1994), verbal jokes that are based on ambiguity can be classified into two types: lexical (93%) and syntactical (5%). lexical jokes are based on a semantic ambiguity of a word or linguistic expression. see example 1: 1) un pececito le pregunta a otro pececito: -¿qué hace tu papá? -pues, nada. [a little fish asks another little fish: what does your dad do? well, nothing/he swims] in this joke, the spanish word nada has two readings: nothing and swim. to adequately interpret the joke, it is necessary to see the word nada as a lexical marker for both meanings. in syntactical jokes, on the contrary, ambiguity is based on the syntactic structure of a linguistic expression. in order to interpret the ambiguity it is necessary to decompose the syntactic expression and rearrange it. see example 2: 2) una señora entra en una tienda elegante y pregunta: -¿tiene bolsas de cocodrilo? -depende, señora. dígame, ¿cómo le gustan a su cocodrilo? [a woman enters an elegant store and asks: do you have bags made of/for crocodile? it depends, ma’am. tell me, how does your crocodile like them?] metalinguistic reflections on verbal jokes e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 7 additionally, in prototypical cases, in order to make the ambiguous interpretation possible, verbal jokes include a connector and a disjunctor (attardo et al., 1994). the connector is any segment of the text that can be assigned to two different meanings (as the word nada in example 1 and the phrase cómo le gustan a su cocodrilo in example 2); the disjunctor is a part of the text that plays with the ambiguous element causing the switch from one interpretation to the other (nada in example 1 and cómo le gustan a su cocodrilo in example 2). verbal jokes can vary due to the position of connector and disjunctor. in most cases, the connector and the disjunctor are in different segments of the text (as in example 2), but in some cases connector and disjunctor are in the same position (as in example 1). under the previous assumptions, the purpose of this study was to analyze metalinguistic reflections that children and adolescents present on different types of verbal jokes. the underlying hypotheses were: 1) differences between age groups in the ability to reflect on verbal jokes will exist. 2) lexical verbal jokes will be easier to interpret and reflect on than syntactical verbal jokes because they are more frequent and less complex jokes. 3) distance between the connector and disjunctor in the joke will play a role in its correct interpretation. jokes with the connector/disjunctor in the same segment of the text will be easier to interpret and analyze than jokes with the connector/disjunctor in different segments of the text. 2. method 2.1. participants forty-two children and adolescents between the ages of 7 and 15 participated in the study. they were all students from a school in querétaro, méxico, in second, fifth, and eighth grades. mean ages for the groups were 8.4 (years; months, range = 8-9 years), 11.2 (range = 10-11 years) and 14.4 (range = 13-15 years). fourteen children were chosen for each grade (seven boys and seven girls). all children came from middleto upper-middle-class schools. in order to control the variable of previously knowing or not the jokes, only participants who stated that they were not familiar with the jokes presented in the study were included. 2.2. materials and procedures each participant was presented a total of eight texts: four jokes and four non-jokes (see tables a1 and a2 in appendix a). jokes for the instrument were selected in order to have one joke for each of the following types: a) lexical joke with a connector and disjunctor in the same position; b) lexical joke with a connector and disjunctor in different position; c) syntactical joke with a connector and disjunctor in the same position; d) syntactical joke with a connector and disjunctor in different position. non-jokes were original jokes that were modified by eliminating the disjunctor and therefore were literal, factual, and serious texts. the intention was for all texts to have similar length and to be accessible for all ages in terms of topic and language. therefore, number of words and syntactic complexity were controlled and a preliminary pilot test was carried out. the instrument was introduced in oral and written form. texts were previously recorded for audio presentation and all participants additionally received the written versions of the jokes so they could return to the text to analyze it in greater detail. jokes were presented in random order and participants listened to the eight texts one at a time. in order to assess the familiarity with the jokes, after each text, participants were asked whether they knew the joke before. if they said no, they were asked questions by way of a guided interview in order to see if they thought it was a joke or not and why. during the interview, participants were asked several questions in order to encourage them to state as many metalinguistic reflections on the jokes and non-jokes as possible (examples: why is it a joke? what makes it a joke? how do you know? what part of the text made you think it was a joke? was it a good joke? why? what would you change in the text in order to make it a better joke?). before starting the interview, participants were asked if they wanted to hear or read the joke again, allowing them to hear/read the joke as many times as they needed. all interviews were performed by one graduate student of a psychology and education program who was previously trained for this purpose. participants’ responses were analyzed in two ways. first, correct interpretations of the texts (jokes as jokes and non-jokes as non-jokes) were scored. second, all responses were broadly categorized into three non-exclusive categories: content, form, and impact (see appendix b for more details on the categories and subcategories). responses of content included those in which participants reflected on aspects of the content hess zimmermann e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 8 of the text: plot, events, relationship between characters, etc. (examples: it’s not a joke because the woman didn’t explain to the salesman why she wanted to buy the purse for her crocodile; it’s a bad joke because they [participants in the joke] enter an illegal store; it’s not a joke because crocodiles can’t use purses). responses of form were reflections on the form of the text, independently of the content, such as reflections on text length, words, and structure (examples: it’s not a joke because the dialogue is not coherent; i know it’s a joke because the word has two meanings; it’s a joke because it is short). responses of impact included reflections on the impact of the joke on a potential recipient (examples: it’s a good joke because it makes people laugh; it’s a good joke for children because they are always telling jokes like this one; for me, it’s a joke because it made me laugh). 3. results 3.1. overall results overall results include the responses that participants gave to the question "is it or isn’t it a joke?." many of the participants answered yes or no, although their responses showed that they had not necessarily understood the jokes. a complete understanding was only considered when in the participants’ responses it was clear that they were able to see the ambiguity in the jokes (example: i know it’s a joke because he wears the same shoe size standing and sitting; it’s funny because he says “nothing“ and ”swim”). therefore, for this first analysis only answers where it was evident that the children and adolescents had understood the joke were scored. figure 1 shows these results. as shown in figure 1, there is an important increase in the number of correct answers in relation to school grade in both types of text (jokes and non-jokes). an analysis of students’ t-distribution showed significant differences for jokes (second vs. fifth grade: t = -2.973, df = 26, p < .01; second vs. eighth grade: t = -8.062, df = 26, p < .000; fifth vs. eighth grade t = -3.551, df = 26, p < .01) and non-jokes (second vs. fifth grade: t = 2.696, df = 26, p < .05; second vs. eighth grade t = -6.866, df = 26, p < .000; fifth vs. eighth grade t = -2.530, df = 26, p < .05). figure 1. correct interpretation of jokes and non-jokes by grade. numbers represent number of correct responses to the question “is it or isn’t it a joke?” by all participants per grade for jokes and non-jokes. total of possible correct answers per grade for each text type is 56. note: * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001. 0 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 jokes non-jokes 2nd grade 5th grade 8th grade ** *** *** * * *** metalinguistic reflections on verbal jokes e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 9 3.2. lexical vs. syntactical jokes in the second part of the analysis we explored if there were differences in students’ ability to interpret jokes due to their type (lexical vs. syntactical). results of this analysis are shown in figure 2. as can be seen in figure 2, participants were better at correctly interpreting lexical jokes than syntactical jokes, although differences between lexical and syntactical jokes were only significant for fifth grade (t = 2.188, df = 13, p < 0.05). an analysis by grade showed a significant increase for lexical jokes in second vs. eighth grade (t = 5.871, df = 26, p < .000) and fifth vs. eighth grade (t = -2.333, df = 26, p < .05). in the case of syntactical jokes, there were significant differences between the three grades (second vs. fifth: t = 2.553, df = 27, p < .05; second vs. eighth: t = -6.026, df = 26, p < .000; fifth vs. eighth: t = -2.855, df = 26, p < .01). figure 2. correct interpretation of jokes by type of joke (lexical or syntactical) for each grade. numbers represent numbers of jokes interpreted correctly. total of possible correct answers per grade is 28. note: * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001. 3.3. position of connector and disjunctor in the third part of the analysis we examined whether the position of a connector and disjunctor (same or different) had an impact on the participants’ ability to reflect on jokes. as can be seen in figure 3, there is an increase in students’ ability to reflect on jokes with both types of positions during the school years. in jokes with a connector and disjunctor in the same position, differences in the number of correct interpretations of jokes were significant for grades second vs. eighth (t = -3.942, df = 26, p < .01) and fifth vs. eighth (t = -2.222, df = 26, p < .05). in jokes where a connector and disjunctor were in different positions, there was a significant increase in the number of correct interpretations of jokes between grades second and fifth (t = -2.924, df = 26, p < .01) and between fifth and eighth (t =-3.294, df = 26, p = .01). a comparison between jokes with same vs. different position showed significant differences only for participants in second grade (t = 2.104, df = 13, p < .05) in favor of jokes with a connector and disjunctor in the same position, even though this value was very close to not being of statistical significance. 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 lexical syntactical 2nd grade 5th grade 8th grade *** *** * ** * * hess zimmermann e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 10 figure 3. correct interpretation of jokes by position of connector and disjunctor (same or different) for each grade. numbers represent numbers of jokes interpreted correctly. total of possible correct answers per grade is 28. note: * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001. 3.4. types of responses (content, form, and impact) finally, an analysis of the types of responses given by the participants was performed. because our interest resided in seeing the types of reflections that the participants could make on the texts (jokes and non-jokes), this analysis was completed for all the responses given by participants, independently of whether they had understood the jokes or not and whether the answers were correct or not. as stated in the method section, responses were categorized under three types: content (reflection on text content), form (reflections on text form), and impact (reflections on the impact of the joke on a potential recipient). results for this analysis are shown in figure 4. as can be seen in figure 4, responses for the category of content were the most frequent ones for all grades. this was expected, because the texts did not differ much in length or structure. differences per grade were significant between second and fifth grade (t = -4.532, df = 26, p < .000) and between second and eighth grade (t = -4.151, df = 26, p < .000), although not between fifth and eighth grade. in relation to the responses of form, results showed similar tendencies (second vs. fifth: t = -3.039, df = 26, p < .01; second vs. eighth: t = -3.426, df = 26, p < .01). finally, responses of impact did not show any significant differences by grade. 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 same position different position 2nd grade 5th grade 8th grade *** * ** ** * metalinguistic reflections on verbal jokes e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 11 figure 4. total responses for the categories of content, form and impact produced by the participants per grade. numbers include number of responses provided by participants for each category for all types of texts (jokes and non-jokes). note: ** p < .01. *** p < .001. in order to conduct a deeper analysis on the types of responses given by the participants, all responses included in the categories of content, form, and impact were further divided into subcategories (see appendix b for definitions and examples of responses in each category) and statistical analyses were conducted. results for the category of content are shown in figure 5. figure 5. total responses for the subcategories of content produced by the participants per grade. numbers include all responses for the subcategories of content for all types of texts (jokes and non-jokes). note: * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001. 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 content form performance 2nd grade 5th grade 8th grade *** *** ** ** 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 quote cause-effect world knowledge incongruity ambiguity new ideas moral judgement j. of truthfulness 2nd grade 5th grade 8th grade *** * * ** ** ** hess zimmermann e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 12 results in figure 5 show differences between school grades for many of the subcategories of content. nevertheless, these differences were statistically significant only for the following subcategories: a. responses about ambiguity were more frequent in fifth and eighth grade than in second grade (fifth vs. second: t = -3.919, df = 26, p < .01; second vs. eighth: t = -4.192, df = 26, p < .000). this indicates that during the first school years children acquire the ability to observe that verbal jokes are based on structures or words that entail two readings. b. participants in eighth grade produced more responses about cause-effect and incongruity than participants in fifth and second grade (cause-effect: t = -2.228, df = 26, p < .05; incongruity: t = -2.978, df = 26, p < .01). this suggests that during later childhood there is an important development in the ability to identify relationships between events and incongruity in jokes. results of the analysis for the subcategories of form are shown in figure 6. as figure 6 shows, the most frequent responses were those referring to the subcategories of text structure, ambiguity, and new ideas (see appendix b for further detail). these subcategories, as well as the subcategory of speaker’s expressiveness, showed statistically significant differences by age groups in their average scores: a. participants in second grade presented fewer responses about text structure than participants in fifth grade (t = -2.954, df = 26, p < .01) and eighth grade (t = -2.076, df = 26, p < .05). this indicates a growth in the ability to reflect on text structure during the first school years. b. participants in second grade included fewer responses that refer to the ambiguity present in verbal jokes than participants in fifth grade (t = -3.683, df = 26, p < .01) and eighth grade (t= -4.192, df = 26, p < .000). as with the case of ambiguity in the category of content, these results show a significant increase in the ability to locate two meanings in jokes at around fifth grade. c. participants in eighth grade presented more responses of new ideas than participants in fifth (t = 2.163, df = 26, p = .040) and second grade (t = -4.338, df = 26, p < .000). this finding indicates that during adolescence individuals develop the ability to suggest new ideas in order to improve texts. d. participants in fifth grade included more responses on the speaker’s expressiveness than participants in second grade (t = 3.358, df = 26, p < .01). this suggests that during the early school years individuals become more conscious of the way in which language is expressed. finally, an analysis of the subcategories of impact was conducted. results are shown in figure 7. figure 6. total responses for the subcategories of form produced by the participants per grade. numbers include all responses for the subcategories of form for all types of texts (jokes and non-jokes). note: * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 structure text length speaker's expr. text genre ling. elements new ideas ambiguity 2nd grade 5th grade 8th grade ** *** * *** *** * ** metalinguistic reflections on verbal jokes e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 13 figure 7. total responses for the subcategories of impact produced by the participants per grade. numbers include all responses for the subcategories of impact for all types of texts (jokes and non-jokes). * p < .05. ** p < .01. for the category of impact, statistical differences were found for the following subcategories: a. participants in eighth grade presented more responses in reference to the understandability of the joke than participants in second grade (t = -2.386, df = 26, p = .025) and fifth grade (t = -2.090, df = 26, p = .047). this shows that the ability of taking into account the possible audience of a joke is a late acquisition milestone. b. participants in fifth grade included more responses in reference to the age of a potential listener than participants in eighth grade (t = -2.819, df = 26, p = .009). this suggests that younger individuals center their attention more on the characteristics of a particular person who might interpret the joke, whereas older ones take into account a more general audience, as previously stated. 4. discussion in general terms, results show significant differences by school grade in the ability to interpret a joke as a joke and a non-joke as a non-joke, that is, to reflect on the characteristics that make a text a joke. this suggests that the ability to reflect on jokes as a text type grows significantly during the school years. as it has been shown in previous studies (see, for example, bariaud, 1989; falkenberg, 2010; hess, 2014), the understanding of jokes increases when individuals develop the ability to interpret the implicit incongruity. this growth is especially important at around ages 9 to 10 (ashkenazi & ravid, 1998; bariaud, 1983), as also shown by the present study, for both lexical and syntactical verbal jokes. additionally, as expected based on a previous study with referential jokes (hess, 2014), results revealed an effect of age in children’s increasing ability to make metalinguistic reflections on several characteristics of jokes. data showed that even if responses on the content of jokes were the most frequent ones for all school grades, older participants displayed a larger repertoire of responses about content and form. in regard to the responses of content, our data showed that around fifth grade an important development takes place in the children’s ability to establish cause-effect relationships and to locate the incongruity present in jokes. similar findings were also reported by bergen (2009). by fifth grade, our data showed that other significant changes take place in the responses on the form of jokes: fifth graders are better at reflecting on the structure of the text, on the speaker’s expressiveness, and on the presence of an ambiguity. this indicates that by fifth grade participants are better at analyzing the joke as a text regardless of its content. this aspect was also previously documented with referential jokes (hess, 2014) and metalinguistic reflections on narrative texts (hess, 2010, 2011). our results also show that some other 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 impact on audience age personal taste understandability 2nd grade 5th grade 8th grade ** * * hess zimmermann e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 14 abilities develop between fifth and eighth grade. in particular, adolescents become able to reflect more on the understandability of the joke and less on the specific age of a potential listener, thus being able to think of a more general audience. the adolescent also becomes more capable of stating new ideas in order to make a joke a better text. this means that older individuals are more conscious of the impact that a joke may have on an audience. in regard to responses of impact, our study showed very few in all age groups, whereas in a similar study with referential jokes, hess (2014) reported an increase by grade in the ability to reflect on the impact that a joke may have on a potential listener. the fact that responses of impact were not common in our study with verbal jokes, but were frequent in reflections on referential jokes, indicates that the type of joke (verbal or referential) may have an impact on the types of reflections participants may produce. in the case of verbal jokes, as the ones included in this study, the impact of the joke on a potential listener was not central to the differentiation between jokes and non-jokes. nevertheless, differences between grade groups in the subcategories of impact showed that older participants were more able to reflect on the impact that jokes may have on a more general audience and not on a particular individual in a certain context. this ability to take into account more general and abstract aspects of language during metalinguistic reflection has been documented as a major challenge of language acquisition during adolescence (barriga, 2002; nippold, 2007). as for the results concerning the participants’ ability to interpret different types of jokes (lexical vs. syntactical), the results showed that lexical jokes were easier to understand than syntactical jokes, a fact also documented by bernstein (1986). this finding points to the possibility that jokes in which it is necessary to decompose and rearrange syntactical structures may be harder to understand than jokes in which there is a lexical marker to be disambiguated. this was expected, because the metasyntactical ability to reason consciously on syntactic structure and to intentionally control the application of grammatical rules is acquired during late childhood (gombert, 1992). additionally, literature on later language development has documented that it is easier to process particular words in a local level than to establish relationships between words in a more global level (barriga, 2002; calderón, 2012; hess, 2010, 2014; nippold, 2007). furthermore, the results concerning the position of a connector and disjunctor in verbal jokes seem to support this finding. as this study showed, jokes that have a connector and disjunctor in the same position are easier to understand than jokes in which a connector and disjunctor are in different positions, especially for younger children (second grade). again, locating and interpreting one salient word or structure seems to be easier than establishing connections between two or more parts of the text. in sum, even though the small number of participants and items in this study does not allow for generalizing the results, it is possible to conclude that as children get older they seem increasingly able to reflect on jokes, to argue about them with more elements, as well as to establish relationships between different parts of the joke as a text. these data coincide with studies on later language development (barriga, 2002; berman, 2004; hess, 2010, 2014; nippold, 2007), with findings on humor development (ashkenazy & ravid, 1998; bariaud, 1993, 1989; ezell & jarzynka, 1996; prentice & fathman, 1975; shultz, 1974), and with studies on the development of irony understanding (filippova & astington, 2008). overall, although the present work confirms that metalinguistic reflection on humor continues its development into adolescence, future studies with larger samples and a more complete set of stimuli should further explore the metalinguistic, linguistic, or cognitive abilities underlying the development of metalinguistic reflections on jokes. future investigations should also consider the relationship between metalinguistic reflection and the development of a theory of mind and/or other linguistic abilities, as well as the variations present between individuals. on a final note, the results of this study are also relevant for language practitioners who are using or wish to use humor in their classes. the choice of the humorous texts to be used in the classroom should be made taking into account the age of the students and the types of humorous texts they can successfully understand, while also favoring the cognitive development of the child. jokes can also be explained to children in order to introduce them to metalinguistic reflection, for example, showing them different syntactic functions and meanings of certain parts of speech. at this end, it would be interesting to engage students in creating jokes themselves, playing with the parts of speech to stimulate their ability to use and apply 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lexical jokes syntactical jokes connector and disjunctor in the same position un pececito le pregunta a otro pececito: -¿qué hace tu papá? -pues nada. [a little fish asks another fish: "what does your dad do?” “well, nothing (nothing/swim)”] una señora entra en una tienda elegante y pregunta: -¿tiene bolsas de cocodrilo? -depende, señora. dígame, ¿cómo le gustan a su cocodrilo? [a woman walks into an elegant store and asks: “do you have crocodile bags (bags made out of crocodile/for crocodiles)?” “it depends, ma'am. tell me, how does your crocodile like them?”] connector and disjunctor in different position entra un nuevo maestro al salón y se presenta: -buenos días, mi nombre es largo. interrumpe juanito y dice: -no importa, tenemos tiempo. [a new teacher comes into the classroom and presents himself: “good morning, my name is long.” juanito interrupts and says: “don’t worry, we’ve got time.” ] en una zapatería el vendedor pregunta: -¿qué número tiene de pie? -el mismo número de pie que de sentado. [in a shoe store the salesman asks: “what foot size/size by foot do you have?” “the same one as sitting.” ] table a2 non-jokes presented to the participants non-jokes in spanish non-jokes in english una señora le dice a otra: -¡le pusieron lentes a mi hijo! -¡qué mala suerte! a woman says to another woman: “my son got glasses”. “too bad!” un ratoncito entra en un elevador y un señor le pregunta: -¿a qué piso va? y el ratoncito responde: -al tercero. a little mouse comes into an elevator and a man asks him: “what floor?” “third.” dos caníbales pasean por la selva y uno le pregunta a otro: -¿has visto a mi hermano? -no. two cannibals go for a walk in the jungle and one of them asks the other: “have you seen my brother?” “no.” en un restaurant pregunta un señor: -mesero, ¿el pescado lo sirven solo? -no, viene con arroz. a man asks in a restaurant: “waiter, is the fish served alone?” “no, it is served with rice”. hess zimmermann e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 20 appendix b subcategories for the categories of content, form, and impact table b1 categories of content responses, i.e. responses that referred to the contents of the joke (plot, events, etc.). subcategory definition and example quotes the participant quoted parts of the text. example: when he said “it depends on how your crocodile likes it,” i knew it was a joke. cause and effect refers to the “what” or “what for” of a situation or event that occurs in the joke. example: because the woman didn’t explain to the salesman why she wanted to buy the purse for her crocodile. world knowledge participants relate contents of the texts with their personal experience. example: when it says that she goes into an elegant shop, i imagine that she goes into a restaurant. incongruity situations or events in the joke that are strange or illogical. example: i don’t see what standing in the store has to do with the shoe size. ambiguity the participant states that some information in the text can be understood or interpreted in mode than one way and explains both interpretations. example: because juanito thinks that he is long, because his name is long instead of that his name is long. new ideas the participant brings new ideas to make the joke better in content. example: i would take away the parte in which they say it’s bad luck to give the child glasses, because if he needs glasses to see, it’s good luck. moral judgement the participant expresses moral judgments about the character’s behavior or about the theme of the joke. example: it’s a bad joke because they enter an illegal store. judgement of truthfulness the participant states a judgement on the falsehood or truthfulness of the events taking place in the joke. example: crocodiles can’t use purses. table b2 categories of form responses, responses in which participants analyzed of the text as an object, without mentioning the content. subcategory definition and example structure the participant made reference to the structure of the text and mentioned textual elements: beginning, ending, questions, dialogues, narrator, etc. example: there is no coherence in the dialogue. text length the participant referred to how long or short the text was. example: it’s short. speaker’s expressiveness the way in which the text is narrated was referred to. example: he spoke very slowly. text genre the participant referred to some kind of text genre. example: it’s a sarcastic joke. linguistic elements linguistic elements, such as word categories, graphic symbols, letters, were mentioned. example: i know because the word has two meanings. incongruity participants mentioned that there is an incongruity between the structural elements of the text. examples: because there is no congruity with the last part. new ideas the participant brings new insights into the structural elements of the joke. example: you could include another dialogue to make it a better joke. ambiguity the participant states that there is an ambiguity between structural or linguistic elements of the text and explains both interpretations. example: the response has two meanings, “nada” from “swimming” and “nada” from “nothing”. table b3 categories of impact responses, which show reflections on the impact of the text on a potential audience. subcategory definition and example impact of the audience the participant referred to the impact that the text can have on the listener/reader or the impression that the joke probably leaves. examples: it is a good joke because it makes people laugh. age the fact that the joke is for people of a certain age is mentioned. example: it is a good joke for children because they are always saying jokes like this one. personal taste participants mentioned whether he/she liked the joke or part of it or not. example: for me, it’s funny because it made me laugh. understandability these responses refer to whether the joke is or is not understandable. example: i didn’t understand it, although i imagine it has two meanings. metalinguistic reflections on verbal jokes e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21 21 karina hess zimmermann, universidad autónoma de querétaro, méxico karinahess@hotmail.com en karina hess zimmermann is a full-time professor in the psychology department at the universidad autónoma de querétaro, mexico. she is also the coordinator of a master’s program for teacher education in language and mathematics and has conducted research primarily on later language acquisition, language in schools, language and literacy, and metalinguistic development during the school years. she is the author of a number of books, chapters in specialized books, and research articles. es karina hess zimmermann es profesora titular en la facultad de psicología de la universidad autónoma de querétaro, méxico, y coordinadora de la maestría en aprendizaje de la lengua y las matemáticas. sus trabajos de investigación se centran sobre todo en desarrollo lingüístico tardío, lengua y educación escolar, lengua y literacidad, y desarrollo metalingüístico en años escolares. es autora de numerosos libros, capítulos en volúmenes especializados y artículos académicos. it karina hess zimmermann è professoressa ordinaria presso la facoltà di psicologia della universidad autónoma de querétaro in messico, e coordinatrice del programma di master in apprendimento della lingua e della matematica. i suoi lavori di ricerca riguardano soprattutto lo sviluppo ritardato del linguaggio, la lingua nelle scuole, la lingua e alfabetizzazione e lo sviluppo metalinguistico in età scolare. è autrice di numerosi libri, capitoli in volumi specializzati e articoli accademici. e-j031-047_bell_pomerantz euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-journall  volume  1,  issue  1,  november  2014,  pages  31-47   issn  2376-905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.15 www.e-journall.org     copyright  ©  2014.  this  work  is  licensed  under  the  creative  commons  attribution-­‐noncommercial-­‐noderivs  3.0  unported  license. 31 1contact:  nbell@wsu.edu   reconsidering  language  teaching  through  a  focus  on  humor   nancy  bell1,a,  anne  pomerantzb   awashington  state  university   buniversity  of  pennsylvania   received  9  march  2014;  received  in  revised  form  6  august  2014;  accepted  14  august  2014   abstract en formal language education is often predicated on a series of modernist fictions that greatly simplify the nature of language and the process of communication. acts of linguistic creativity involving humor and language play are frequently either ignored or considered deviant. in this paper, we contribute to ongoing efforts to re-conceptualize language education in ways that make use of more robust (and less modernist) theories of language and communication. we revisit calls for more pedagogical focus on humor and language play and illustrate how more attention to these types of language might help us to move away from some of the classroom fictions that currently constrain teachers and learners alike. specifically, we present recent conceptions of language and of communication, and discuss how, in light of these, humor and language play can be used to increase learners’ metalinguistic awareness and expand their communicative/interpretive repertoires. keywords:  humor, language play, second language pedagogy. es la enseñanza de idiomas formal a menudo se basa en una serie de ficciones modernistas que simplifican enormemente la naturaleza del lenguaje y el proceso de comunicación. los actos de creatividad lingüística que implican humor y juego lingüístico son frecuentemente ignorados o considerados desviados. en este trabajo ofrecemos una contribución a los esfuerzos en marcha para reconceptualizar la enseñanza de idiomas de manera que utilice teorías más sólidas (y menos modernistas) del lenguaje y la comunicación. reivindicamos la necesidad de un enfoque más pedagógico en el humor y el juego lingüístico y mostramos cómo una mayor atención hacia estos tipos de lenguaje nos podría ayudar a alejarnos de algunas de las ficciones del aula que actualmente limitan tanto a los profesores como a los alumnos. en concreto, presentamos recientes concepciones del lenguaje y de la comunicación y analizamos cómo, a la luz de dichas concepciones, el humor y los juegos del lenguaje se pueden utilizar para aumentar la conciencia metalingüística de los alumnos y ampliar sus repertorios comunicativos/interpretativos. palabras clave: humor, juegos lingüísticos, pedagogía de segundas lenguas. it l’insegnamento formale delle lingue è spesso basato su una serie di convenzioni moderniste che semplificano notevolmente la natura del linguaggio e del processo di comunicazione. gli atti della creatività linguistica che coinvolgono l’umorismo o i giochi linguistici sono spesso ignorati o considerati fuorvianti. con questo articolo vogliamo contribuire agli sforzi che si stanno compiendo per riconcettualizzare l’insegnamento delle lingue basandosi su teorie del linguaggio e della comunicazione più solide (e meno moderniste). facendo nostre le richieste di un maggiore interesse pedagogico per l’umorismo e i giochi linguistici, mostriamo come una maggiore attenzione a queste forme del linguaggio possa aiutarci a discostarci da certe convenzioni che in classe ostacolano sia gli insegnanti sia gli alunni. in particolare, presentiamo alcune recenti concezioni del linguaggio e della comunicazione e discutiamo di come, alla luce di queste concezioni, l’umorismo e i giochi linguistici possano essere utilizzati per aumentare la consapevolezza metalinguistica degli alunni e incrementarne il repertorio comunicativo/interpretativo. parole chiave: umorismo, giochi linguistici, pedagogia delle lingue seconde. bell  &  pomeranz     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47 32 today,  the  modern  and  the  late  modern  worlds  coexist  with  increasing   unease.  modernity,  a  product  of  the  18th-­‐century  enlightenment,  is   characterized  by  all  the  features  that  fl  teachers  take  for  granted:  the   existence  of  nation-­‐states,  each  with  their  national  language  and  their   national  culture;  the  existence  of  standardized  languages  with  their   stable  grammars  and  dictionaries  that  ensure  the  good  usage  of  the   language  by  well-­‐educated  citizens  that  fl  learners  are  expected  to   emulate;  the  superiority  of  national  languages  over  regional  dialects   and  patois;  the  clear  boundaries  between  native  and  foreign  languages   and  among  foreign  languages  so  that  one  can  clearly  know  whether   someone  is  speaking  french,  german,  or  chinese,  standard  spanish  or   regional  spanish;  the  codified  norms  of  correct  language  usage  and   proper  language  use  that  language  learners  have  to  abide  by  for  fear  of   not  being  understood  or  not  being  accepted  by  native  speakers.  the   language  teaching  profession  in  this  sense  has  been  a  highly  modernist   profession.  (kramsch,  2014,  p.297)     1.  introduction:  language  teaching  as  fiction   formal  language  education  is  often  predicated  on  a  series  of  modernist  fictions  about  the  nature  of   language   and   the   process   of   communication.   these   fictions   are   not   lies   intended   to   deceive   unsuspecting   students,  but  rather  a  loose  set  of  tacitly  agreed  upon  suppositions  that  make  classroom  language  learning  a   more   concrete,   rewarding,   and  manageable  activity   for   all  participants.  we  might   think  of   these   fictions  as   fabrications  rather  than  falsehoods,  as  teachers  and  learners  alike  are  often  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  what   we  call  “language”  in  the  classroom,  looks,  feels,  and  behaves  a  lot  differently  in  the  wild.   for  example,  in  classroom  settings  the  language  of  instruction  is  often  presented  and  oriented  to  as  if   it  consisted  merely  of  a  finite  set  of  linguistic  forms  to  learn,  accompanied  by  an  agreed  upon  set  of  rules  to   abide   by   for   using   particular   bits   of   language   in   particular   contexts.   utterances   are   deemed   right   or   appropriate  depending  on  how  well  they  conform  to  an  idealized  version  of  how  the  focal  language  is  used  by   an   imagined,   homogeneous   group   of   idealized   native   speakers   outside   the   classroom.   acts   of   linguistic   creativity,  and  in  particular  those  that  play  with  form,  are  either  ignored  or  considered  deviant,  thus  creating   the  sense  that  language  is  a  closed  system  not  subject  to  its  users.   it’s  not   just   language,  however,   that   is  party   to   this   fictionalization  process;   communication,   too,   is   frequently   reduced   to   a   transmission  model   in  which  messages   are   transferred   between  people  with   little   regard  for  the  interpretive  and  interpersonal  work  that  goes  on  in  interaction.  as  guy  cook  (2000)  has  noted,   a  transactional  view  of  communication  has  come  to  dominate  in  language  classrooms,  with  the  idea  that  the   most   important   (or   perhaps   even   sole)   aspect   of   interaction   is   the   transfer   of   utilitarian   information   from   point  a  to  point  b.  indeed,  aside  from  the  framing  of  particular  instances  of  register  variation  as  marked  (e.g.,   tu  v.  vous  in  french  or  lexical  choice  in  academic  v.  non-­‐academic  contexts),  there  is  often  little  attention  paid   in  language  education  to  the  vast  array  of  social  meanings  that  are  constructed  within  and  through  every  act   of  language  use,  as  people  negotiate  their  actions,  identities,  and  stances.     academic   publications   are   rife   with   critiques   of   these   and   other   language   classroom   fictions,   and   professional  conference  proceedings,   teacher  education  programs,  and  on-­‐line  discussion  groups  have  been   equally  passionate  in  calling  for  new  approaches  to  language  and  communication  in  the  classroom.  thus,  our   purpose  here   is   not   to   add   to   the   choir.  rather,  we   are   interested   in   contributing   to   ongoing   efforts   to   re-­‐ conceptualize   language   education   in   ways   that   make   use   of   less   modernist   theories   of   language   and   communication   (e.g.,  block  &  cameron,  2002;  cook,  2000;  díaz,  2013;  kramsch,  2014;  liddicoat  &  scarino,   2013;  magnan,  murphy,  &  sahakyan,  2014).  in  particular,  we  focus  on  the  frequent,  but  underexplored  calls  in   such  work  for  a  broader  acceptance  of  humor  and  other  forms  of  playful  talk.       kramsch   (2008),   for   instance,   suggests   that   teachers   address   “accuracy   and   communicative   effectiveness,   but   leave   room   for   and,   indeed,   encourage   stylistic   variation,   irony,   humor,   subversion”   (p.   404).  in  this  paper,  we  too  recognize  the  importance  and  ubiquity  of  non-­‐serious  talk  in  everyday  life  and  its   many  functions  (cf.  cook,  2000).  humor  is  an  important  and  frequently  used  resource  for  interaction  and  is   particularly  helpful   for  navigating   face-­‐threatening  situations  and  critiquing   inequitable   relations  of  power.   yet,   despite   cazden’s   (1974)   call   to   incorporate   humor   and   language   play   into   language   pedagogy,   instructional  goals—like  helping  learners  to  understand  the  contextualization  cues  that  can  signal  humor— reconsidering  language  teaching  through  humor       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47   33 have  been  seen  as  either  not  important  enough  or  too  idiosyncratic  to  be  deemed  worthy  of  instruction.  here,   we   revisit   these   and   other   calls   for   more   pedagogical   focus   on   humor   and   language   play,   which   we   conceptualize  broadly  as  any  use  of  language  that  is  non-­‐serious,  and  illustrate  how  more  attention  to  these   types  of   language  might  help  us  to  move  away  from  some  of  the  classroom  fictions  that  currently  constrain   teachers  and   learners  alike.   specifically,  we  present   recent   conceptions  of   language  and  of   communication,   and  discuss  how,  in  light  of  these,  humor  and  language  play  can  be  used  to  increase  learners’  metalinguistic   awareness   and   expand   their   communicative/interpretive   repertoires.   throughout   our   discussion,   we   consider  how  humor  and  language  play  might  be  incorporated  into  curricula  for  learners  at  different  levels  of   proficiency  and  in  a  variety  of  learning  contexts  in  order  to  achieve  these  goals.         2.  what  is  language?   as  noted  above,   language   in  l2   classrooms   tends   to  be  presented  as   an   internally   coherent,   stable   system.  in  recent  years,  however,  applied  linguists  have  become  progressively  more  critical  of  the  underlying   theories   of   language   that   have   shaped   the   field   of   language   education.   increasingly,   language   is   being   recognized   as   a   socio-­‐cognitive   system   that   exists   in   a   dynamic   state,   continually   being   constructed   and   changed  by  its  users.  as  hopper  (1998)  describes  it,  “grammar  is  …  simply  the  name  for  certain  categories  of   observed  repetitions  in  discourse.  there  is  no  natural  fixed  structure  to  language”  (p.  156).  this  perspective   not   only   emphasizes   linguistic   variability   and   change,   but   also   the   inherent   tension   between   stability   and   instability   in   the   system.   such   views   are   detailed   particularly   well   in   the   work   of   applied   linguists   using   complexity   or   dynamic   systems   theory   (e.g.,   jessner,   2012;   larsen-­‐freeman   &   cameron,   2008;   van   geert,   2008;  verspoor,  de  bot,  &  lowie,  2011)  and  ecological  perspectives  on  language  and  language  learning  (e.g.,   kramsch,  2002;  2008;  leather  &  van  dam,  2002;  van  lier,  2004).     diane  larsen-­‐freeman  (1997),   for  example,   introduced   the   idea  of   language  as  a  complex  dynamic   system,  rather  than  one  that  is  unitary,  stable,  or  closed.  since  that  time,  she  has  continued  to  articulate  this   position  and  examine   its   implications  for  l2  teaching  and  learning  (e.g.,  larsen-­‐freeman  &  cameron,  2008;   larsen-­‐freeman,  2010,  2011).  from  this  perspective,   the  appearance  of  regularity  and  stability   in   language   emerges  as  individuals  interacting  in  specific  contexts  draw  on  particular  linguistic  resources  to  accomplish   specific  social  actions.  some  forms  (lexical  items,  syntactic  patterns)  are  more  useful  than  others,  and  appear   with  greater  frequency  and  across  a  wider  variety  of  situations,  giving  rise  to  the  perception  of  language  as  a   pre-­‐existing  cognitive  entity  that  is  merely  used  socially,  rather  than  an  open  system  that  is  constructed  in  a   flexible,  bottom-­‐up  manner   in   social   interaction   that   is   in  use.  dynamism   is   inherent   to   the  system  and   the   direction  of  change  is  unpredictable,   in  part  because  the  things  that  will   influence  it  are  also  unpredictable.   these  assertions  require  us  to  take  an  integrated  view  of  language  and  context,  as  the  two  are  not  conceived   of  as  separate  parts.  rather,  they  exist  in  a  dialectical  relationship,  with  one  constituting  the  other.   the  ecological  view  of  language,  of  which  claire  kramsch  has  been  a  strong  advocate  (e.g.,  kramsch,   2002,  2008,  2014),  further  foregrounded  the  interconnectedness  of  language’s  cognitive,  interactional,  social   and  historical  dimensions,  eschewing  the  tendency  within  linguistics  and  language  education  to  see  language   in   discrete,   static,   or   decontextualized  ways.   consonant  with   this   integrated,   holistic   stance   is   a   particular   emphasis   on   language   as   dialogic.   briefly,   bakhtin   (1981)   argued   that   “within   the   arena   of   almost   every   utterance   [either   spoken  or  written]   an   intense   interaction   and   struggle   between  one’s   own  and   another’s   word  is  being  waged,  a  process  in  which  they  oppose  or  dialogically  interanimate  each  other”  (p.  354).  that   is,  bakhtin  conceived  of  utterances  as  fundamentally  in  conversation  with  other  utterances.  he  wrote:   the  living  utterance,  having  taken  meaning  and  shape  at  a  particular  historical  moment  in  a   socially   specific   environment,   cannot   fail   to   brush   up   against   thousands   of   living   dialogic   threads,  woven  by  socio-­‐ideological  consciousness  around  the  given  object  of  an  utterance,  it   cannot  fail  to  become  an  active  participant  in  social  dialogue.  (p.  276)     ecological  approaches  to  language  build  on  this  perspective,  further  invoking  the  idea  of  language  as   embedded   in   multiple,   but   not   necessarily   equally   accessible,   layers   of   synchronically   and   diachronically   organized  context.  blommaert  (2010),  for  example,  underscored  this  point  in  saying  that  whereas  language-­‐ in-­‐use  or  discourse  “occurs  in  a  real-­‐time,  synchronic  event”  it  is  also  “simultaneously  encapsulated  in  several   layers  of  historicity,  some  of  which  are  within  the  grasp  of  the  participants  while  others  remain  invisible  but   are   nevertheless   present”   (p.   130).   he   refers   to   this   as   layered   simultaneity.   for   blommaert   and   other   language   ecologists,   then,   language   cannot   be   divorced   from   its   social   and   temporal   locations.   indeed,   bell  &  pomeranz     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47 34 research  on  interaction  in  multilingual  settings  (e.g.,  creese  &  blackledge,  2011;  kramsch,  2008;  kramsch  &   whiteside,  2008;  rampton,  1999;  rymes,  2014)  has  consistently  illustrated  that:   social  actors   in  multilingual  settings,  even   if   they  are  non-­‐native  speakers  of   the   languages   they  use,  seem  to  activate  more  than  a  communicative  competence  that  would  enable  them   to   communicate   accurately,   effectively   and   appropriately  with   one   another.   they   seem   to   display  a  particularly  acute  ability  to  play  with  various  linguistic  codes  and  with  the  various   spatial  and  temporal  resonances  of  these  codes.  (kramsch,  2008,  p.  400)     such  work  challenges  the  tendency  in  language  classrooms  to  view  the  relationship  between  l1  and   l2  as  “simply  a  matter  of  code  replacement,  where  the  only  difference  is  in  words  and  structures”  (liddicoat   &  scarino,  2013,  p.  14).  an  ecological  approach  to  language  encourages  teachers  and  learners  to  move  beyond   a   view   of   language   as   a   structural   system   to   one   that   sees   language   as   variable,   dynamic,   dialogic,   and   situated.   not   surprisingly,   these   views   on   language   radically   change   the   object   of   instruction.   first   and   foremost,   they   function   to  dispel   the  persistent   fiction  of   a   stable,  universally  accepted   (national)   standard   form   of   each   language.   this   has   major   implications   for   learners’   metalinguistic   development,   as   an   understanding   of   language   as   variable,   dynamic,   dialogic   and   situated   is   quite   different   from   the   view   of   language  that  is  usually  constructed  in  classroom  contexts.  moreover,  rather  than  teaching  “a  language,”  we   might   instead   think  of   our   goal   as   the  development  of   learners’   communicative   repertoires.  briefly,  rymes   (2010)  defines  communicative  repertoire  as  the  aggregate  of  ways  that  individuals  “use  languages  and  other   means  of   communication   (gestures,  dress,  posture,   and  other  media)   to   function  effectively   in   the  multiple   communities   in  which  they  participate”  (p.  528).  an  individual’s  communicative  repertoire   is  not  simply  an   array  of  multiple,  fully  formed  (national)  languages,  but  rather  an  ever-­‐changing  assembly  of  various  genres,   speech  styles,  pragmatic   routines,  and  other  reoccurring  chunks  of   language,   complemented  by  an  array  of   resources   (e.g.,   gestures,   dress,   posture,   etc.)   for  making  meaning.   this   repertoire   emerges   organically,   in   bottom-­‐up  fashion,  as  an  ever-­‐changing  product  of  an  individual’s  life  experiences,  with  each  new  addition  to   the  repertoire  existing  in  a  dialogic  relationship  with  its  other  components.  here,  it  is  important  to  note  that   we   are   not   saying   that   educators   must   do   away   completely   with   any   focus   on   more   patterned   or   stable   aspects  of  the  language  of  instruction,  as  language  consists  of  an  interaction  between  stability  and  dynamism.   rather,   we   are   advocating   for   an   approach   to   pedagogy   that   recognizes   characteristics   like   variability,   dynamism,   dialogism,   and   situatedness   in   its   underlying   conception   of   language   and   aims   to   help   learners   develop  this  kind  of  metalinguistic  awareness.       3.  connecting  new  understandings  of  language  to  humor  and  language  play   how  might   a   focus   on   humorous   and   playful   language   help   to   illustrate   this   view   of   language   for   language  learners?  how  might  an  infusion  of  language  play  help  learners  recognize  that,  contrary  to  the  way   textbooks   portray   language,   variability   and   change   are   fundamental   features   of   complex   systems   and   not   aberrations  or  “exceptions”  designed  to  confound  them?  in  what  ways  does  humor  illustrate  the  dialogic  and   situated  nature  of  language?  below  we  discuss  how  each  of  these  features—variability,  dynamism,  dialogism,   and  situatedness—is  illustrated  in  humorous  and  playful  uses  of  language  and  how  a  focus  on  such  talk  can   be  a  resource  for  the  development  of  metalinguistic  awareness.     3.1.  variability   language  play   illustrates  the  continual  push  and  pull  between  creativity  and  formulaicity,  between   variability   and   patternedness   in   language   use   and   at   all   levels   of   structure.   to   be   considered   amusing,   language   play  must   exhibit   some   creativity.   too  much,   however,   and   the   humor  will   be   unrecognizable   or   incomprehensible.  too  little  and  it  will  be  considered  stale.  to  achieve  this,  many  instances  of  language  play   derive  their  humor  from  unexpected,  but  appropriate  changes  to  formulaic  sequences  (see  veale,  2012  for  an   extended  discussion).  as  a  simple  example,  one  could  say,  “i  feel  great!  i  really  got  up  on  the  right  side  of  the   bed   today!”   this   slight   alteration   to   the   formulaic   phrase   get   up   on   the   wrong   side   of   the   bed   illustrates   knowledge  of  a  common  phrase  while  playfully  conveying  information  about  one’s  mood.  learners  might  be   introduced   to   other   types  of   alterations,   such   as  avril   lavigne’s   song  runaway,  which  begins  with   the   line   “got   up   on   the   wrong   side   of   life   today.”  with   these   examples   and   some   encouragement,   students   might   choose  additional  formulaic  sequences  and  create  their  own  playful  alterations  to  express  various  nuances  of   reconsidering  language  teaching  through  humor       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47   35 feeling.   this   technique   might   be   used   for   any   formulaic   sequence,   including   similes   (e.g.,   as   angry   as),   common  collocations  (e.g.,  take  your  time)  or  conversational  gambits  (e.g.,  to  make  a  long  story  short  as  a  way   of   introducing  a   summary).  moreover,   such  an  activity   can  be   adjusted   for  use  with  both  novice   and  more   advanced  language  learners  through  selection  of  particular  formulaic  sequences  requiring  varying  degrees  of   lexical  and  syntactic  sophistication  to  engage  in  this  playful  manipulation.2     in   addition,   playful   examples   of   linguistic   forms   and  patterns   that   “break   a  particular   rule”   can  be   deployed   to   help   learners   understand   that   such   instances   are   a   normal   and   regular   part   of   language.   for   example,   language   educators   and   language   learning   materials   often   characterize   forms   that   break   with   particular   morphological   patterns   as   “irregular”   or   as   “exceptions”   to   some   kind   of   pre-­‐existing   rule.   language   play,   however,   can   be   used   to   counter   this   kind   of   prescriptivist   orientation,   by   illustrating   the   bottom-­‐up  ways   in  which   certain   linguistic   forms   come   into   being.   language   learners  might   be   presented   with   a   new  word   from   the   domain   of   technology,   like   ping   (the   act   of   sending   a   test  message   to   another   computer  or  user  to  check  for  responsiveness  or  measure  response  time),  and  be  asked  to  speculate  on  what   its  other  forms  might  be.  would  this  word  follow  “regular”  verb  morphology  as  in  “the  computer  pinged  me   back   immediately”   or  would   it   follow   an   “irregular”   pattern   like   “the   computer   pang  me   back”?   learners   could  then  engage  in  a  data  collection  exercise  in  which  they  asked  other  users  to  generate  the  forms  of  ping   or  asked  them  which  past  tense  form  they  preferred  and  why.  such  an  exercise  could  even  make  use  of  corpus   tools  (e.g.,   the  corpus  of  contemporary  american  english  or  google  n-­‐grams)  and  some  simple  quantitative   analysis   to   identify,  measure,   and   reflect   upon  actual   instances  of  ping   in   action.  additional   forms   that   are   either   new  or  whose   forms   are   in   flux  might   be   added   to   the   investigation   (e.g.,  dived/dove   or  whether   to   “unfriend”  or  “defriend”  someone  on  facebook)  in  order  to  illustrate  the  lack  of  consensus  among  language   users.   such   activities  would  no  doubt   be   appealing   to   adult   learners   at   the   high   intermediate   or   advanced   levels,   though   we   would   argue   that   even   young   learners   (9+   years)   could   easily   conduct   this   kind   of   sociolinguistic  research  provided  that  they  had  sufficient  language  proficiency  and  appropriate  scaffolding.       3.2.  dynamism   furthermore,   humor   and   language   play   can   be   used   to   illustrate   language   change   at   various   timescales  across   the  system.  diachronic  change   is  clearly  apparent   in  examples  of  humor   from  the  middle   ages  or   the  victorian  era;  however,   it   is  not  necessary  to  reach  that   far   into  the  past   to   find  humor  that  no   longer   appeals   to  most   of   us.   television   comedies   from  40  or   50   years   ago   can  usually   furnish   samples   of   humor  that  is  now  seen  as  dated  and  unfunny,  often  because  of  the  language  used.  topics,  styles,  and  forms  of   humor  are  not  only  subject  to  personal,  but  also  societal  preferences,  and  these  change  over  time.  not  only   can  examples  easily  be   found  for   illustrative  purposes,  but   for  a  small  project  on   language  change,   learners   may  be  able  to  provide  and  explain  their  own  examples,  either  from  the  media  or  from  personal  experience,   perhaps  from  utterances  they  have  heard  from  parents  or  grandparents.  these  are  often  memorable  precisely   because  they  have  failed  to  elicit  laughter  from  the  younger  generation.   dynamism  can  also  be  illustrated  through  attention  to  the  kinds  of  changes  that  happen  over  shorter   timescales,  such  as  within  the  course  of  a  conversation.  humor  often  derails  ongoing,  serious  talk,  and  as  such   is  recognized  as  being  potentially  disruptive  to  conversation.  a  switch  from  a  serious  key  to  a  playful  key  can   persist,  altering  not  only  the  mood,  but  subsequent  uses  of  language.  to  highlight  this  type  of  change,  learners   might  be  presented  with  a  short  dialog  in  which  they  are  asked  to  examine  how  participants  enact  different   orientations   to   the   acceptability   of   a   humorous   interjection,   as   in   the   following   interaction.   here,   jason   attempts   to   (seriously)  discuss  a  painting,  but   is  derailed  when  margaret  breaks   in  with  a   supportive   (and   still  serious)  move  to  provide  the  title  of  the  work.  upon  hearing  the  title,  roger  begins  joking.  jason  attempts   to   correct   him,   but   the   others   continue   to   create   puns   (yawl/y’all,   port/port)   and   laugh.   jason   withholds   participation  and  is  only  able  to  return  to  his  topic  after  roger,  whose  apology  suggests  that  he  has  seen  his   punning  as  disruptive,  asks  seriously  about  the  artist:     jason:   that  painting  in  our  living  room  of  the  boat  in  the-­‐   margaret:   yawl  in  the  channel?  maine?   jason   there’s  a  little  boat  and  an  island.   roger:   y’all  in  the  channel?  {laughing}                                                                                                                   2  not  only  can  this  make  for  a  fun  activity,  but  mixing  serious  and  humorous  examples  may  also  increase  the  memorability  of  the  new   terms  (see  bell  2012  for  a  review).   bell  &  pomeranz     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47 36 jason   yawl.  yawl.   margaret:   it’s  a  boat,  y’all.   roger:   what  are  y’all  doing  in  the  channel.  {laughing}   margaret:   i  need  a  little  port.   roger:   {laughs}   trudy:   {laughs}   margaret:   y’all  in  that  channel  {laughing}.  what  are  y’all  in  that  channel  for.  i  know.   roger:   sorry.  who  painted  yawl  in  the  channel?   jason:   it’s  a  painting  by  a  painter  named.  .  .   (norrick,  2003,  p.  1340)     reflection  on  talk-­‐in-­‐interaction  such  as  this  helps  to  illustrate  the  ways  that  language  is  constructed   and  changed  by  its  users.  more  advanced  learners  can  even  be  encouraged  to  record,  transcribe,  and  analyze   humorous  episodes  on  their  own  to   further  explore  this  dimension  of   language.  finally,   instances  of  humor   that  develop  among  intimates  can  also  be  used  to  illuminate  the  diachronic  dimensions  of  language  at  a  more   intermediate  timescale.  classrooms  often  generate  their  own  in-­‐group  jokes.  teachers  can  draw  attention  to   this   by   building   on   shared   humor   in   the   weeks,   months,   and   years   that   follow   and   pointing   out   how   the   group’s   language  practices  have  changed.  new  meanings   for   the  played-­‐with  phrases  may  emerge  and  new   students  may  become   socialized   into   this   particular   humor  practice   and  participate   in   it   even   though   they   were  not  present  for  the  original  joke.     in  demonstrating  how  linguistic  humor  and  language  play  change  at  various  timescales,  we  can  see   how  some  of  this  humor  continues  to  be  used  today,  as  new  types  of  playful  utterances  are  constructed  using   recognizable  bits  of  previously  used  language—perhaps  from  movies  or  advertisements,  but  also  fragments   of  intimately  shared  discourse.  this  is  also  an  important  illustration  of  the  dialogic  nature  of  language.     3.3.  dialogism  and  situatedness     humor  and  language  play  can  also  be  utilized  as  a  way  to  counter  the  tendency  in  language  education   to   view  meaning   in  monologic   and   decontextualized  ways.  much   humor   depends   on   highlighting   and   then   traversing   boundaries   between   particular   national   languages,   language   varieties,   registers,   genres,   and   speech   styles.   for   example,   bilingual   sound   play   can   be   used   to   illustrate   that   the   line   between   national   languages  is  not  as  rigid  as  it  may  seem  (particularly  in  classroom  contexts).  the  sounds  of  one  language  can   take  on  new  meaning  when   they  are   recontextualized.  even  novice   learners  may  delight   in  noting   that   the   spanish   word   quizás   shares   some   phonetic   semblance   to   the   english   phrase   kiss   ass,   but   only   when   the   english  is  uttered  in  according  to  the  phonetic  rules  of  spanish  [kis  as].  likewise,  emergent  english/hebrew   bilinguals  might  enjoy  playing  with  the  homonymy  across  the  two  languages’  pronoun  systems.  the  hebrew   word   for  who   and   the   english   word   for  me   have   similar   phonetic   realizations   [mi],   thus   creating   ample   opportunities  for  language  play  akin  to  abbot  and  costello’s  famous  “who’s  on  first?”  routine  or  even  simpler   pairings   like   “do   you   watch   dr.   me   (dr.   who)   on   tv?”   given   that   such   play   requires   not   only   access   to   multiple   national   languages,   but   also   access   to   various   levels   of   context   and   timescales   to   be   funny   (themselves   not   limited   by   national   borders),   it   presents   a   fine   example   of   dialogism   and   situatedness   in   action.     with  respect  to  more  advanced  learners,  belz  (2002),  kramsch  (2009),  and  canagarajah  (2011),  for   example,  all  detail  projects  in  which  adults  were  given  the  opportunity  to  compose  and  reflect  on  multilingual   texts  in  language  classrooms  as  a  way  to  explore  the  resonances  across  (national)  languages.  while  many  of   the  resultant  texts  were  serious  in  tone,  some  also  had  a  playful  element  to  them,  particularly  with  respect  to   the   places   where   “border   crossing”   took   place.   while   these   projects   involved   highly   proficient   bi/multilinguals   with   respect   to   the   languages   of   composition,   novice   language   learners   can   be   asked   to   compose  texts   in   their  l1  that   integrate  smalls  bits  of   the   language  of   instruction  and  be  asked  to  critically   reflect  on   their   rhetorical   choices.  the   resulting   texts—whether  humorous  or  not—will  no  doubt   illustrate   language  play  in  action  and  will  be  rife  with  dialogism.     indeed,  boundary-­‐crossing  humor  can  also  be  used  to  foreground  the  porousness  of  other  forms  of   linguistic   organization.   in   educational   settings,   for   example,   it   is   not   uncommon   to   hear   people   speak   of   “academic   language”   as   a   stable,   discrete   register   that   is   used   by   academic   people   to   do   academic   things.   what   often   emerges   from   such   talk   is   a   belief   that   particular   words   or   grammatical   constructions   are   inherently  academic  and  used  only  in  school  settings,  while  others  are  not,  when  in  fact  the  borders  are  much   reconsidering  language  teaching  through  humor       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47   37 more  porous,  with   “everyday   language”  used  at   times   in   classrooms  and   “academic   language”  appearing   in   casual  conversations  (zwiers  &  crawford,  2009).  register  humor  is  a  powerful  way  to  problematize  some  of   this  thinking,  as  it  presents  learners  with  opportunities  to  play  with  the  boundaries  between  registers  and  to   re-­‐examine  some  of  their  ideas  about  constructs  like  academic  language.  to  do  this,  learners  can  be  asked  to   match  samples  of  conventional  and  non-­‐conventional  registers  to  specific  situations  and  discuss  why  some  of   the   non-­‐conventional   choices   are   often   so   funny.   whereas   such   examples   might   be   more   appropriate   for   learners  with  more  advanced  levels  of  language  proficiency,  less  linguistically  complex  forms  of  register  play   can  be  used  to  introduce  novice  learners  to  this  concept.  for  example,  greetings  are  a  powerful  way  to  show   how  the  same  person  might  use  different  registers  to  construct  different  levels  of  hierarchy  and  intimacy  with   his/her   interlocutors.   learners  might   be   asked   to   “guess   the   relationship”   between   interlocutors   based   on   their   greetings,   with   some   options   testing   the   boundaries   of   conventional   language   use   by   introducing   humorous   pairings.   likewise,   learners   might   be   presented   with   an   array   of   greetings   ranging   from   very   “formal”  to  very  “informal”  and  then  be  asked  to  invent  a  humorous  scenario  in  which  these  greetings  might   be   viewed   as   “normal”   or   “appropriate,”   despite—or   perhaps   because   of—the   dialogic   echoes   of   other   situations   that   the   language   evokes.   here,   it   is   important   to   note   that   while   playful   and/or   humorous   elements  introduced  into  these  activities  will  no  doubt  serve  to  make  classroom  language  learning  more  fun,   this   is   not   and   should   not   be   their   only   purpose.   when   the   instructional   goal   is   squarely   on   developing   learners’  metalinguistic  awareness,  humor  and  language  play  become  valuable  pedagogical  resources.     4.  what  is  communication?   the  theories  of  language  described  in  the  previous  section  also  push  us  to  reconsider  what  we  mean   by   communication.   these   theories   force   us   to   acknowledge   a   wide—indeed,   infinite—range   of   cognitive,   social,  and  environmental   factors  that  can   influence  communication  and  draw  our  attention  to  the  dynamic   ways   in  which  meaning  emerges   in   interaction.  as  noted  above,   common  social   situations  become  strongly   associated  with  particular  uses  of   language  (e.g.  greetings  occur  upon  encountering  someone  and  greetings   beget   greetings   as   responses),   known   as   attractors   (larsen-­‐freeman  &  cameron,   2008).   these   patterns   of   language  come  to  be  used  regularly  as  they  ease  the  cognitive   load  on  interlocutors  and  their  predictability   helps  social  interaction  proceed  smoothly.  at  the  same  time,  we  must  remember  that  the  system  is  dynamic.   meanings  are  not   fixed  and  communication   involves  constant  renegotiations  as  speakers  make  moment-­‐to-­‐ moment  mutual  adaptations  (larsen-­‐freeman  &  cameron,  2008).   work   in   ethnomethodology   and   interactional   sociolinguistics   has   been   central   in   shaping   these   contemporary   dynamic   views   of   communication   (e.g.   erickson   &   schultz   1982;   goodwin,   1981;   jacoby   &   ochs,   1995;   kendon,   1990;   linell   1998).   linell   (1998),   for   instance,   proposed   that   words   and   utterances   should  be  regarded  as  having  meaning  potential.  while  the  situation  at  hand  helps  to  prime  the  meanings  that   are  most  likely  to  be  relevant,  he  and  others  emphasize  that  participants  work  together  to  jointly  construct  or   negotiate  which  aspects  of  the  interaction  are  relevant  and  how  they  should  be  understood.  here,  the  work  of   john  gumperz  (1982)  on  contextualization  cues  remains  a  valuable  way  of  understanding  how  these  situated   interpretations   take   place.   gumperz   defines   contextualization   cues   as   “any   feature   of   linguistic   form   that   contributes   to   the   signaling   of   contextual   presuppositions”   (p.   131).   cues  may   include   linguistic   elements   such  as  intonation  and  lexical  choice,  as  well  as  paralinguistic  features  such  as  gesture,  gaze,  timing,  etc.  while   some   cues   may   have   conventional   interpretations   (e.g.,   smiling   is   strongly   associated   with   signaling   an   attempt  at  humor),  each  cue’s  meaning  must  be  negotiated  between   interlocutors  each   time   it   is  used.  the   moment-­‐by-­‐moment   presentation   of   and   reaction   to   cues   helps   speakers   and   hearers   to   coordinate   their   action,  adjusting  their  talk  as  meanings  emerge  in  real  time.     in  addition,  in  order  for  interactants  to  engage  in  these  sense-­‐making  activities  they  must  have  access   to  some  shared  frameworks  for   interpreting  communication.  in  this  way,   it   is   important  to  understand  that   meaning   is  not  only   jointly   constructed  and  emergent,   but   also  mediated.  we  must  be   careful,   however,   in   how   we   understand   this   mediation   process,   particularly   if   we   are   to   embrace   a   view   of   language   that   foregrounds   dialogism,   situatedness,   and   layered   simultaneity.   language   classrooms,   for   example,   often   conflate  shared  ways  of  making  meaning  with  the  idea  of  national  or  ethnic  culture.  from  this  perspective,   cultures  then  are  the  lens  through  which  people  mutually  create  and  interpret  meanings  and   the  frame  that  allows  the  communication  of  meanings  that  go  beyond  the  literal  denotations   of  the  words  being  used.  (liddicoat  &  scarino,  2013,  p.  20)     bell  &  pomeranz     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47 38 while   we   agree   that   the   idea   of   shared   interpretive   practices   is   central   to   the   notion   of   communication   as   mediated,   we   maintain   that   these   shared   interpretive   practices   are   much   more   fluid,   dynamic,   and   incoherent   than   terms   like   “culture”   or   “lens”   or   “interpretive   framework”   might   suggest.   indeed,   gumperz   (1982)   himself   emphasized   that   contextualization   cues   are   learned   and   show   some   patterning  across  social  groups,  but  as  in  the  theories  of  language  use  we  have  been  discussing,  the  variability   and  dynamism  of  cues  must  also  be  acknowledged,  particularly  as  we  can  no  longer  see  languages  as  located   within  clearly  defined  cultural  and/or  national  spaces.  perhaps,  then,   it   is  more  useful  to  think  of  people  as   relying  on   loosely  organized  and   constantly   changing   “interpretive   repertoires”   as   they  negotiate  meaning.   much  like  the  idea  of   language  as  communicative  repertoire,   the  notion  of   interpretive  repertoire  moves  us   away   from  static,   unitary,   and   simplistic   views  of  meaning  making.  as  liddicoat   and  scarino   (2013)  put   it,   “this  means  that  meanings  are  not  simply  shared,  coherent  constructions  about  experience  but  rather  can  be   fragmented,  contradictory,  and  contested  within  the  practices  of  a  social  group  because  they  are  constituted   moments  of  interaction”  (p.  21).  moreover,  as  noted  in  the  previous  section,  we  must  always  remember  that   meaning   is   as  much   a   synchronic   concept   as   a   diachronic   one.   thus,  we   encourage   language   educators   to   move  away  from  a  transition  model,  to  one  that  embraces  the  idea  of  communication  as  jointly  constructed,   emergent,  and  mediated  across  timescales.     this   view   of   communication,   much   like   the   view   of   language   embraced   by   complexity   theory/   dynamic  systems  theory  and  an  ecological   approach,   serves   to  disrupt  many  of   the   fictions   that   find   their   way  into  language  classrooms.  when  communication  is  understood  as  interpretive  rather  than  transactional,   the  focus  moves  from  questions  about  particular  instances  of  language  use  as  “correct”  or  “appropriate”  to  a   broader  concern  with  how  we  make  meaning  within  and  through  language.  this  does  not  mean  that  teachers   should   not   teach   the   kinds   of   vocabulary,   grammar,   interactional   routines,   or   genres   that   might   be   conventionally   associated   with   certain   contexts;   rather,   it   entails   teachers   and   learners   going   beyond   memorization  and  mimicry  to  critical  reflection  on  what  the  use  of  these  and  other  communicative  resources   might  mean  in  terms  of  the  actions,  identities  and  stances  they  construct.  and,  in  terms  of  instructional  goals,   it  means   focusing  on   the  development  of   learners’   communicative   and   interpretive   repertoires   in   terms  of   their  pragmatic—or  meaning-­‐making—competencies.       5.  connecting  new  understandings  of  communication  to  humor  and  language  play   the   introduction   of   humor   and   language   play   represents   one   way   to   accomplish   this   shift.   communication,  as  described  above,  is  much  less  predictable  than  language  textbooks  make  it  out  to  be.  once   language  use  is  seen  as  an  act  of  interpretation,  humor  becomes  a  kind  of  language  use  that  should  be  central   to   language   teaching,   not   ancillary.   humor   not   only   creates   and   relies   on   unpredictability,   but   also   often   communicates  multiple  meanings   simultaneously   and   in   indirect   and   ambiguous  ways.   to   illustrate   these   points,   we   discuss   several   ways   that   humor   and   language   play   can   be   used   to   help   foreground   a   view   of   communication  as  jointly  constructed,  emergent,  and  mediated.     5.1.  joint  construction  and  emergence  of  meaning   an  accumulation  of  research   into  the  ways  that  humorous   intent   is  signaled   in  conversation  shows   that   this   information  normally   lies   below   the   level   of   consciousness   and   is   not   likely   to   be   something   that   classroom   learners   will   pick   up   on   their   own.   such   findings   can   be   used   not   only   to   raise   learners’   metalinguistic   awareness   of   how   meaning   is   co-­‐constructed   and   emergent   within   interaction,   but   also   to   expand  their  communicative  and  interpretive  repertoires.  for  example,   laughter,  as  a  contextualization  cue,   has   always   been   intuitively   associated  with   humor   and   play,   and   in  many   cases   it   is   also   indicative   of   an   attempt  to  joke  (glenn,  1989;  jefferson,  1979).  at  the  same  time,  however,  it  must  be  recognized  that  laughter   is  also  a  common  cue  of  conversational   instability  or  trouble  (e.g.,  glenn  and  holt,  2013;  partington,  2006).   smiling,   in   fact,  may   be   a  more   conventional  means   for   cuing   humor   than   laughter   (attardo,   pickering,   &   baker,   2011;   pickering   et   al.,   2009).   beyond   confirming   or   dispelling   these   common   assumptions   about   laughter  and  smiling,  students  can  be  introduced  to  additional  communicative  resources  that  can  be  used  as   cues  to  humor.  code,  style,  and  register  switching,  for  instance,  are  often  used  to  contextualize  an  utterance  as   humorous   (holmes,   2000;   kotthoff,   1999;   norrick,   2007).   these   encompass   a   wide   variety   of   linguistic   resources  (phonological,  lexical,  syntactic).  some  cues  are  also  associated  with  specific  types  of  humor,  such   as  the  “blank  face”  as  a  signal  of  ironic  intent  (attardo,  eisterhold,  hay,  &  poggi,  2003)  or  the  use  of  a  third-­‐ person  pronoun  to  tease  an  interactant  who  is  present  (straehle,  1993).  furthermore,  the  use  of  cues  changes   reconsidering  language  teaching  through  humor       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47   39 according  to  the  relationship  between  interlocutors.  in  more  intimate  relationships  it  is  more  likely  that  the   content  alone  will  be  used  to  signal  humor  (flamson  &  barrett  2008;  flamson,  bryant,  &  barrett  2011).   the   knowledge   of   these   conventional   cues   can   be   presented   in   the   classroom   in   order   to   help   l2   users  identify  some  ways  that  hearers  might  be  able  to  identify  an  utterance  as  humorous  or  playful.  film  and   television   clips   seem   to  be  a   fairly   reliable   source   for   this   type  of   activity,   as   scripted   interaction  has  been   demonstrated  to  represent  well  the  pragmalinguistic  aspects  of  utterances  with  respect  to  compliments  and   compliment   responses   (rose,  2001),   apologies   (kite  &  tatsuki,  2005),   request  modification   (martínez-­‐flor,   2007),  and  teases  (janney  &  bell,  2014).  that  is  to  say,  the  presentation  of  these  speech  acts  in  films  closely   resembles   the   form  and   content   found   in  unscripted,   everyday   talk.  thus,   examples  of   scripted   interaction   can  be  shown  to  students,  who  can   then  attempt   to   identify   the  contextualization  cues.  the  cues  described   above  for  humor  are  also  used  for  other  keys  or  functions,  which  allows  for  additional,  serious  examples  to  be   shown  in  order  to  emphasize  the  situated  nature  of  interpretation.  teachers  can  easily  adjust  the  complexity   of  the  examples  and  the  saliency  of  the  contextualization  cues  to  meet  their  students’  needs,  making  this  kind   of  work  appropriate  for  both  novice  and  more  advanced  learners.     moreover,  opportunities  for  production  can  also  be  highlighted  so  that   learners  go  beyond  noticing   particular   contextualization   cues   to   the   use   of   them   in   re-­‐contextualizing   interactions   as   funny   or   serious.   here,   the   instructional   focus  can  be  not  only  on  which  contextualization  cues  might  be  used   in  a  particular   context,   but   also   on   how   learners   might   adjust   their   use   of   such   cues   in   real   time   depending   on   their   interlocutors’   responses.   similar   to   canale   and   swain’s   (1980)   notion   of   strategic   competence,   such  work   helps   learners   to   understand   that   communication   is   jointly   constructed   and   emergent.   moreover,   it   helps   them  to  see  how  they  might  marshal  existing  communicative/interpretive  resources  or  perhaps  even  access   new  ones  over  the  course  of   interaction.  spontaneous  role-­‐plays  and  other  forms  of  drama-­‐based  pedagogy   that   encourage   a   humorous   or   playful   element   are   particularly   suited   to   these   instructional   goals.   taken   together,   such   activities   not   only   contribute   to   the   development   of   learners’   metalinguistic   awareness   by   introducing  them  to  the  notion  of  contextualization  cues,  they  also  serve  as  repertoire-­‐building  exercises   in   terms  of  learners’  communicative  and  interpretive  capabilities.           5.2.  mediation   in   addition   to   proffering   a   view   of   communication   as   jointly   constructed   and   emergent,   humor,   in   particular,   can   be   used   to   highlight   the   idea   of   communication   as   mediated   by   people’s   interpretive   repertoires.  specifically,  humor  is  especially  well  suited  to  addressing  what  díaz  (2013)  calls  “languaculture   dissonance.”3  briefly,  languacultural  dissonance     refers   to   any   aspect   of   ‘language   practice’   that   originates   either   intentionally   or   unintentionally,   and  which,   on   the  part  of   the   interlocutor(s),   comes  across   as  unexpected   within  an  array  of  evaluation  that  may  range  from  the  slightly  incongruous  to  the  extremely   out  of  place.  (p.  37)       whereas  díaz  (2013)  goes  on  to  elaborate  the  ways  in  which  such  dissonances  may  lead  to  negative   stereotyping,  we  argue   that  particular  attention   to  why/how  someone  might   find  such  moments   funny   is  a   particularly   rich   starting   point   for   discussion.   that   is,   humor   opens   the   door   for   talking   about   how   communication   is   mediated   by   peoples’   interpretive   repertoires.   rather   than   focusing   on   what   makes   dissonance  problematic,  a  focus  on  humor  shifts  the  conversation  to  how  mediation  works.       for  example,  much  humor  is  predicated  on  violations  of  shared,  widely  circulating  “cultural  scripts”   that   form   part   of   many   peoples’   interpretive   repertoires.   this   humor   may   poke   fun   at   expectations   for   actions,  identities,  or  stances  in  a  particular  situation  or  indicate  something  about  the  kinds  of  scripts  that  are   even  available  for  playful  manipulation  in  a  given  context.  an  examination  of  humor  asks  one  to  engage  with   both  what  is  actually  present  in  an  interactional  moment  and  one’s  assumptions  and  expectations  about  what   should   have   been   there.   again,   clips   of   scripted   interaction   can   provide   a   way   to   access   and   reflect   upon   dissonant  sequences  of  talk.  while  the  studies  of  scripted  and  naturally-­‐occurring  discourse,  cited  above,  have   suggested   that   film   and   television   talk   provides   a   fairly   good   representation   of   the   pragmalinguistics   of   speech  acts,  they  have  also  suggested  (with  the  exception  of  martínez-­‐flor,  2007)  that  these  sources  do  not   accurately  represent  conventional  language  variation  according  to  social  factors,  such  as  how  speakers  alter                                                                                                                   3  díaz  draws  here  on  the  work  of  agar  (1994)  and  zamborlin  (2007).   bell  &  pomeranz     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47 40 the  forms  they  use  according  to  factors  such  as  their  hearer’s  age,  gender,  or  social  status.  in  other  words,  the   sociopragmatics  of  speech  may  not  be  well  represented  in  scripted  discourse.  often,  however,  these  unusual   patterns   are   used   as   a   source   for   humor,   and   in   doing   so   implicitly   index   the   cultural   scripts   that   inform   conventional  linguistic  choices.  because  of  this,  humorous  film  and  television  talk  can  still  be  used  to  develop   learners’   understanding   of   communication   as   mediated,   through   identification   of   and   reflection   on   the   cultural   scripts   and   their   violations.   likewise,   as   in   our   discussion   of   contextualization   cues,   such   noticing   activities   can  be   adjusted   to   the   linguistic   proficiency   and  maturity   of   the   students.  moreover,   they   can  be   aligned  with  production  activities,  ranging  from  the  scripted  to  the  unscripted,  so  that  learners  have  a  chance   to  create  their  own  humorous  episodes.     6.  conclusion:  humor  and  postmodernist  language  teaching   as   we   noted   at   the   outset   of   this   paper,   we   are   certainly   not   the   first   to   highlight   and   critique   modernist   models   of   language   and   communication   that   have   long   guided—and   many   would   argue   constrained—language  education.  although  the  alternative  conceptions  of  language  and  communication  that   we   discuss   have   become  widely   accepted   in   applied   linguistics,   their   application   to   l2   pedagogy   remains   underdeveloped.   this   paper   represents   an   attempt   to   remedy   that   gap.   to   this   end,   we   have   described   several  ways  in  which  humor  and  language  play  might  be  used  to  counter  particular  fictions  about  language   and   communication,   while   simultaneously   serving   to   develop   learners’   metalinguistic   awareness   and   communicative/interpretive  repertoires  (for  additional  ideas  and  examples  see  gardner,  2008;  lucas,  2005;   tocalli-­‐beller   &   swain,   2007;   tin,   2012,   2013).   humor   and   language   play   provide   ample   opportunities   to   illustrate  the  variability,  dynamism,  dialogism,  and  situatedness  that  scholars  emphasize  in  their  accounts  of   language.   likewise,   humor   and   language   play   allow   for   and   even   require   learners   to   adopt   a   view   of   communication  that  is  predicated  on  joint  negotiation,  emergence  of  meaning,  and  mediation.  moreover,  we   have   shown   how   pedagogical   activities   designed   around   non-­‐serious   discourse   can   contribute   to   the   expansion  of  learners’  communicative  and  interpretive  repertoires.  in  this  way,  we  have  attempted  to  build  a   case  for  using  humor  and  language  play  in  the  classroom  that  goes  beyond  the  “fun  factor”  as  an  instructional   goal.  this  is  not  to  say  that  we  think  enjoyment  and  pleasure  have  no  legitimate  place  in  language  pedagogy— our  stance  could  not  be  farther  from  this.  however,  we  are  focused  here  on  the  broader  goal  of  contributing   to   the   development   of   approaches   to   language   teaching   that   connect   theory   to   practice   in  meaningful   and   productive  ways.     readers,   for   example,   may   recognize   that   many   of   our   pedagogical   suggestions   for   incorporating   humor  and  language  play  into  the  classroom  have  their  origins  in  both  cognitive  and  social  approaches  to  l2   development.   focus   on   form   (e.g.,   doughty   &   williams,   1998;   swain,   1998;   swain   et   al.,   2009;   williams,   2001),  the  importance  of  noticing  (e.g.,  philp,  2003;  pica,  1996;  schmidt,  1990),  and  opportunities  for  output   (e.g.,  swain,  1985;  swain  &  lapkin,  1995)  all  figure  centrally  in  our  activities.  at  the  same  time,  our  repeated   emphasis  on  engaging  learners  in  the  process  of  critical  reflection  is  rooted  in  the  field’s  gradual  embrace  of   notions   like   agency   and   identity   (e.g.,   atkinson,   2011;   block,   2003;   norton,   2000;   pavlenko   &   blackledge,   2004;   zuengler   &   miller,   2004).   in   our   pedagogical   approach,   the   idea   of   the   learner   as   an   empty   vessel   waiting  to  be  filled  with  target  language  forms  and  rules  has  clearly  given  way  to  a  view  of  the  learner  as  an   active   constructor   of  meaning   (e.g.,   kramsch,   2008,   2009,   2014).   and,   in   foregrounding   the   ambiguity   and   polysemy  inherent  in  much  humorous  and  playful  talk,  we  pay  tribute  to  the  ways  in  which  learners’  multiple   and   ever-­‐changing   identities,   histories,   and   desires   mediate   both   their   access   to   and   use   of   particular   communicative   and   interpretive   resources.   for   us,   the   goal   of   language   education   is   not   to   produce   individuals   who   use   and   understand   “a   language”   in   exactly   the   same   way,   but   rather   to   help   emergent   bilinguals   to   recognize,   expand,   and   critically   reflect   on   the   various   communicative   and   interpretive   resources  they  have  at  their  disposal.   indeed,  in  recent  years,  ecological  and  intercultural  approaches  to  language  education  have  begun  to   emerge  that  build  on  precisely  the  theories  of  language,  communication,  and  the  learner  that  we  discuss  here   (e.g.,  díaz,  2013;  kramsch,  2014;  liddicoat  &  scarino,  2013).  liddicoat  and  scarino  (2013),  for  example,  posit   that  the  goal  of  language  education  should  be  the  development  of  an  intercultural  orientation.  they  write:   an   intercultural   orientation   focuses   on   languages   and   cultures   as   sites   of   interactive   engagement  in  the  act  of  meaning-­‐making  and  implies  a  transformational  engagement  of  the   learner  in  the  act  of  learning.  here,  learning  involves  the  student  in  a  practice  of  confronting   multiple   possible   interpretations,   which   seeks   to   decenter   the   learner   and   to   develop   a   response  to  meaning  as  the  result  of  engagement  with  another  culture  (kramsch  and  nolden,   reconsidering  language  teaching  through  humor       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47   41 1994).  here,  the  borders  between  self  and  other  are  explored,  problematized  and  redrawn.   (p.  49)     to  us,  it  is  not  just  the  interactive  and  transformative  aspect  of  their  framework  that  stands  out,  but   also  the  emphasis  on  “confronting  multiple  possible  interpretations”  and  “decentering.”  humor  and  language   play  are  frequently  predicated  on  ambiguity  and  polysemy  in  both  their  structure  and  their  functions.  they   are   clearly   dialogic,   addressed   to   immediate   aspects   of   the   linguistic   and   social   context,   and   also   to   our   expectations  about  what   should  or   could,   as  well   as  what  has  previously  been  a  part  of   the  dialogue.  they   push  us  to  consider  multiple  interpretations  simultaneously  and  to  imagine  various  perspectives.  in  this  way,   humor   and   language   play  would   seem   to   be   prodigious   resources   for   language   education   and   not  merely   distractions   from   the   serious   business   of   learning.   moreover,   the   emphasis   on   critical   reflection   and   the   development  of  metalinguistic  awareness  complements  our   interest   in   language  classrooms  becoming  sites   not  just  for  the  learning  of  particular  languages,  but  also  for  learning  about  language  itself.  as  liddicoat  and   scarino   (2013)   put   it,   “[…]   developing   the   intercultural   includes   not   only   developing   awareness   but   also   developing   the   ability   to   analyze,   explain,   and   elaborate   this   awareness;   that   is,   it   involves   a  meta-­‐level   of   awareness  (or  meta-­‐awareness).”  (p.  50)   as  we  have  illustrated  throughout  this  paper,  humor  and  language  play  offer  ample  opportunities  to   engage   in   and  develop   just   this   kind  of   critical   reflexivity.  and,   in   thinking   about  what   language   education   should  look  like  in  a  postmodern  world,  kramsch  (2008)  suggests  that     we   teach   our   students   less   the   ability   to   exchange   information   precisely,   accurately,   and   appropriately   in   monolingual   conversations   with   speakers   of   standard   national   languages,   but,  rather,  that  we  develop  in  them  a  much  more  flexible  capacity  to  read  people,  situations   and   events   based   on   a   deep   understanding   of   the   historical   and   subjective   dimensions   of   human  experience.  (p.  391)       it  is  precisely  this  kind  of  capacity  that  we  hope  to  develop  in  our  students,  and  we  hope  that  we  have   demonstrated  that  humor  and  language  play  are  particularly  well  suited  to  this  task.   there   are,   of   course,   risks   involved   in   using   playful   or   humorous   talk   as   a   focus   for   language   instruction.  chief  among  these   is   the   fear  that   learners  will  not  get   the   joke  and  that  the  teacher  will  suffer   some   loss   of   face   and/or   credibility,   or   even   that   some   learners   will   see   humor   as   inappropriate   for   the   classroom  and   resist   its   implementation.  while  we   recognize   these   as   legitimate   concerns,  we  believe   that   such  obstacles  can  be  overcome  through  careful  planning  and  presentation.  the  types  of  activities  we  have   proposed  here  do  not  rely  on  the  students’  finding  them  amusing  for  their  success.  rather,  they  are  primarily   language   learning   and   awareness-­‐raising   tasks   that   happen   to   incorporate   a   playful   or   humorous   element   that  students  may  or  may  not   find  enjoyable.4  teachers’  primary  consideration  should  be  what  needs   to  be   taught.   if   the  elements   to  be  addressed   lend   themselves   to  a  playful   lesson  design,   they   then  must  prepare   that  lesson  by  thinking  through  the  pieces  of  linguistic  and  contextual  knowledge  that  learners  might  need  in   order   to   work  with   a   particular   example,   and   strive   to   put   these   pieces   into   place   as   part   of   the   lesson’s   overall   design.  at   the   same   time,   teachers   should   recognize   that,   even  more   so   than  with   serious   language   use,   humor   and   language   play   always   entail   some   degree   of   unpredictability   and   thus   teachers   should   be   prepared   to  deal  with   such   issues  as   they  arise.  furthermore,  we  also   suggest   that,   rather   than   fearing   the   unknown,  teachers  might  use  some  of  the  ideas  we  have  presented  here  to  think  about  how  they  can,  either  in   the   moment   or   at   some   later   point,   capitalize   on   the   spontaneous   humor   that   arises   in   their   classrooms,   including  in  particular  that  which  involves  moments  of  languacultural  dissonance.   a   second,   and  equally  pressing   concern,   is   the   fear   that  particular   instances  of   humor  or   language   play   might   be   perceived   as   offensive   by   the   learners   or   lead   to   the   construction   of   negative   stereotypes.   whereas   the   former  may   be   dealt  with,   at   least   in   part,   through   the   careful   selection   of  materials   and   the   sensitive   management   of   classroom   discussion,   the   latter   presents   a   more   challenging   scenario.   here   we   would  advise  teachers  to  again  engage  with—and  not  shy  away  from—such  teachable  moments.  a  teacher  of   spanish,   for   example,   once   asked   us  what  we  would   do  with   types   of   humor   that   one   cultural   group,   as   a   whole,   would   typically   find   funny,   but   other   groups   might   perceive   as   morally   suspect.   the   example   this   teacher   gave   was   of   a   scene   where   someone   slips   and   falls   and   the   spectators   start   laughing.   first   of   all,                                                                                                                   4  see  tocalli-­‐beller  and  swain  (2007)  for  excerpts  of  student  interaction  around  a  riddle-­‐based  activity.  as  students  worked  to  decode   the  ambiguity  that  created  the  humor  in  the  riddle,  they  exhibited  signs  of  varying  degrees  and  types  of  pleasure  and  amusement.   bell  &  pomeranz     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47 42 humor  preferences  are  known  to  be  highly  idiosyncratic  (tannen,  1984),  and  students  need  only  look  to  the   variety  of  humor   that   is   available   and  appreciated  within   their   own  extended   circles   in  order   to   recognize   that   it   would   be   foolish   to   assume   that   all  members   of   a   particular   cultural   group   find   the   same   kinds   of   humor   amusing.   at   the   same   time,   however,   humor   preferences   are   also   strongly   held   and   are   used   as   important  identifiers  of  in-­‐  and  out-­‐group  status,  particularly  along  cultural  and  class  lines  (kuipers,  2006a,   2006b).  in  fact,  individuals  often  express  their  distaste  for  certain  comedians  in  vehement  terms,  and  extend   their  scorn  even  to  fans  of  these  comedians  (friedman  &  kuipers,  2013),  something  not  seen  in  responses  to   other  cultural  realms,  such  as  attire.  because  of  this,  instances  of  languacultural  dissonance  involving  humor   can   certainly   be   used   to   raise   awareness   and   engage   in   some   critical   reflection   around   competing   value   systems   and   the   dangers   of   stereotyping.   davies   (2004),   for   instances,   recommends   a   middle   ground,   in   which   we   alert   our   students   to   the   possibility   of   dissonance,   while   also   emphasizing   the   impossibility   of   delineating   national   styles   of   language   use.   she   suggests   that   abstract   statements   about   the   l2   “must   be   constantly   linked   in   the   classroom   with   specific   instances   of   language   use.   cultural   styles   have   to   be   differentiated   in   relation   to   the   kind   of   action   being   performed”   (p.   213).   using   german   and   american   english,   she   provides   examples   of   potential   touchstones   for   the   examination   of   languacultural   dissonance,   including  joking,  and  how  abstractions  about  language  behavior  can  be  linked  to  specific  instances  of  situated   interaction.   furthermore,  moments  of  languacultural  dissonance  involving  humor  that  is  offensive,  discomfiting,   or   simply  not  amusing   to   some  or  all  of  our   students   can  serve  as   catalysts  vis-­‐à-­‐vis  our  goals  as   language   educators.  if,  as  liddicoat  and  scarino  (2013)  and  others  have  argued,  the  purpose  of  language  education  is   the  development  of   intercultural   language  users,   then  such  examples  provide  us  with  opportunities   to  help   learners  find  “a  personal  intercultural  style  and  identity”  (p.  25).  work  in  pragmatics  has  demonstrated  that   using  a  language  does  not  require  taking  on  all  of  the  values  that  other  users  of  this  language  hold,  and  that   even  when   familiar  with   the   norms   of   the   l2,   learners  may   choose   not   to   abide   by   them   (dewaele,   2008;   hinkel,   1996,   siegal,   1996;   rampton,   1987).   as   part   of   the   process   of   becoming   intercultural   speakers,   l2   users  must  come  to  terms  with  the  fact  that  they  can  never  become  “native  speakers”  and  must  develop  their   own  ways  of  using  and  understanding  the  language  of  instruction,  both  seriously  and  playfully.   this   last   point   brings   us   to   a   vast   and   important   area   that   we   have   not   discussed   in   the   present   paper,   that  of   teaching  about  humor   itself.  as  we  noted   in  opening  this  paper,  serious  talk  has  traditionally   been  privileged  in  the  l2  classroom.  this  is  understandable,  as  it  is  usually  associated  with  the  expression  of   transactional,   utilitarian   needs,   which   l2   users   are   imagined   as   requiring.   non-­‐serious   communication   is   thought   of   as   extra   and   thus   can   be   developed   at   a   later   date   and   outside   of   the   classroom.   yet,   playful   discourse  can  have  an  equally  important  role  in  communicating  practical,  mundane  information.  skill  in  using   humor   can  make   navigating   certain   social   situations  much   smoother.  many   face-­‐threatening   situations   are   made  less  so  when  the  threat  is  framed  as  play.  humor  is  regularly  used  to  manage  refusal  sequences,  to  do   indirect   critiques,   or   to   respond   to   teasing   or   bullying.   the   ability   to   join   in   humorous   discourse   eases   an   individual’s  entry  into  a  new  social  group.  it  is  also  crucial  to  recognize  that  although  we  have  been  discussing   this   in   dichotomous   terms,   discourse   is   not   either   serious   or   non-­‐serious,   and   the   ability   to   construct   and   detect   utterances   that   are   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(2012).   freedom,   constraints   and   creativity   in   language   learning   tasks:   new   task   features.   innovation  in  language  learning  and  teaching,  6(2),  177–186.   tin,  tan  bee   (2013).  towards  creativity   in  elt:  the  need   to  say  something  new.  elt  journal,  67   (4):  385– 397.     tocalli-­‐beller,  agustina,  &  swain,  merrill  (2007).  riddles  and  puns  in  the  esl  classroom:  adults  talk  to  learn.   in   alison  mackey   (ed.),  conversational   interaction   in   second   language  acquisition:  empirical   studies   (pp.  143–167).  oxford,  united  kingdom:  oxford  university  press.   van   geert,   paul   (2008).   the   dynamic   systems   approach   in   the   study   of   l1   and   l2   acquisition:   an   introduction.  the  modern  language  journal,  92(2),  179–199.   van   lier,   leo   (2004).   the   ecology   and   semiotics   of   language   learning:   a   sociocultural   perspective.   dordrecht,  netherlands:  kluwer  academic.   veale,   tony   (2012).   exploding   the   creativity   myth:   the   computational   foundations   of   linguistic   creativity.   london,  united  kingdom:  bloomsbury  academic.   verspoor,   marjolijn,   de   bot,   kees,   &   lowie,   wander   (2011).   a   dynamic   approach   to   second   language   development.  amsterdam,  netherlands:  john  benjamins.   bell  &  pomeranz     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47 46 williams,  jessica  (2001).  the  effectiveness  of  spontaneous  attention  to  form.  system,  29,  325–240.   zamborlin,   chiara   (2007).   going   beyond   pragmatic   failures:   dissonance   in   intercultural   communication.   intercultural  pragmatics,  4(1),  21–50.   zuengler,   jane,   &   miller,   elizabeth   r.   (2006).   cognitive   and   sociocultural   perspectives:   two   parallel   sla   worlds?  tesol  quarterly,  40,  35–58.   zwiers,   jeff,  &  crawford,  marie  (2009).  how  to  start  academic  conversations.  educational  leadership,  66(7),   70–73.       reconsidering  language  teaching  through  humor       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  31-­‐47   47 nancy bell, washington state university nbell@wsu.edu en nancy bell is an associate professor and coordinator of the esl program in the english department at washington state university. her research interests center mainly on the discourse analytic investigation of conversational humor and language play, especially with respect to second language users. her work has appeared in such journals as applied linguistics, humor: international journal of humor studies, journal of pragmatics, language learning, and intercultural pragmatics. she is also the author of a student’s guide to the m.a. tesol. es nancy bell es profesor adjunto y coordinadora del programa esl en el departamento de inglés de la washington state university. sus intereses de investigación se centran principalmente en la investigación analítica del discurso del humor conversacional y el juego lingüístico, especialmente con respecto a los usuarios de una segunda lengua. su trabajo ha aparecido en revistas como applied linguistics, humor: international journal of humor studies, journal of pragmatics, language learning e intercultural pragmatics. es también la autora de a student’s guide to the m.a. tesol. it nancy bell è professore associato e coordinatrice del programma esl presso l’english department della washington state university. le sue ricerche si concentrano principalmente sullo studio analitico dell’umorismo nel discorso e dei giochi linguistici, soprattutto in riferimento agli utenti di lingua seconda. i suoi lavori sono apparsi in riviste quali applied linguistics, humor: international journal of humor studies, journal of pragmatics, language learning e intercultural pragmatics. è inoltre autrice di a student’s guide to the m.a. tesol.     anne pomerantz,  university of pennsylvania apomeran@gse.upenn.edu en anne pomerantz is a senior lecturer in the educational linguistics program at the university of pennsylvania, graduate school of education, where she teaches classes on language and identity, second language pedagogy, and intercultural communication. her work has appeared in applied linguistics, critical inquiry in language studies, journal of language & identity in education, journal of language & intercultural communication, modern language journal, and multilingua. es anne pomerantz es profesor titular en el programa de lingüística de la educación de la university of pennsylvania, graduate school of education, donde imparte clases sobre lenguaje e identidad, pedagogía de segundas lenguas y comunicación intercultural. su trabajo ha aparecido en applied linguistics, critical inquiry in language studies, journal of language & identity in education, journal of language & intercultural communication, modern language journal, y multilingua. it anne pomerantz è lettrice senior (professore associato) del programma di educational linguistics presso la university of pennsylvania, graduate school of education, dove tiene corsi su linguaggio e identità, pedagogia della lingua seconda e comunicazione interculturale. i suoi lavori sono apparsi nelle riviste applied linguistics, critical inquiry in language studies, journal of language & identity in education, journal of language & intercultural communication, modern language journal e multilingua.   euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 114-118 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.164 www.e-journall.org © guerrero-rodriguez 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. hasta hace menos de dos décadas, la preponderancia de las ideologías monoglósicas representaba una constante (makalela, 2013, 2015) que dominaba en los contextos educativos bi/multilingües (garcía & torres-guevara, 2009). sin embargo, distintas perspectivas y metodologías educativas recientes, tales como el translingüismo, la pedagogía crítica o la justicia social, pretenden contrarrestar estas ideologías monoglósicas, centralizando el bi/multilingüismo y alejándose de la concepción de las lenguas como unidades aisladas (makalela, 2017). en este sentido, translanguaging in higher education muestra, a través del trabajo de distintos autores, las prácticas translinguales que caracterizan diferentes ámbitos geográficos y áreas disciplinares, yendo más allá de la enseñanza de lenguas y contribuyendo así al naciente campo del translingüismo como práctica educativa. el volumen está dividido en diez capítulos. el primer capítulo presenta no sólo la introducción al libro, sino también a las diversas conceptualizaciones del término translingüismo como un acto que va más allá de ser algo “natural” para los hablantes multilingües (canagarajah, 2011), un acto relacionado con cuestiones identitarias, de transmisión de información y transmisión de valores (li wei, 2011, p. 1223), y un acto que representa una ideología lingüística, apoyando el desarrollo de una nueva teoría del bilingüismo, a la par de un conjunto de prácticas y una postura pedagógicas (p. 5). en este primer capítulo introductorio también se presenta, de manera sucinta, el contenido del libro y algunos trabajos previos en el campo del translingüismo (sayer, 2013). *contact: joanapaoguerrero@ufl.edu mazak, catherine m. & carroll, kevin s. (eds.). (2017). translanguaging in higher education. beyond monolingual ideologies. bristol, united kingdom: multilingual matters. paola guerrero-rodriguez*1 university of florida book review received 4 october 2018; received in revised form 28 november 2018; accepted 2 december 2018 abstract es esta reseña se centra en el volumen translanguaging in higher education, el cual ofrece un panorama global que muestra distintas prácticas translinguales en diferentes puntos geográficos a través de distintos autores y en áreas que van más allá de la enseñanza de lenguas, contribuyendo en gran medida al naciente campo del translingüismo como práctica educativa. palabras clave: translenguar, panorama global, práctica educativa en this review focuses on the volume, translanguaging in higher education, which offers a global perspective showing different translingual practices in a variety of geographic spaces through the eyes of different authors. the book goes beyond language teaching, substantially contributing to the emerging field of translanguaging as educational practice. key words: translanguaging, global perspective, educational practice it questa recensione riguarda il volume translanguaging in higher education, che offre una prospettiva globale sulle differenti pratiche translinguistiche in varie aree geografiche e attraverso gli occhi di differenti autori. il libro va oltre l’insegnamento della lingua e contribuisce in modo sostanziale al settore emergente del translanguaging come pratica educativa. parole chiave: translanguaging , prospettiva globale, pratica educativa http://www.e-journall.org/ reseña: translanguaging in higher education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 114-118 115 el segundo capítulo ilustra las prácticas de translingüismo como método de enseñanza innovador en la educación superior de sudáfrica adoptando el mantra de las prácticas lingüísticas sudafricanas conocidas como ubuntu, en las que se establece que “i am because you are, you are because we are.” en este capítulo, makalela presenta la investigación que realizó con 20 estudiantes de enseñanza de sepedi como segunda lengua en la escuela de educación de la universidad de witwatersrand, sudáfrica. la premisa fue adoptar un enfoque comunicativo multilingüe que valoraba lo que los estudiantes hacen con las lenguas que hablan. a través de focus groups y entrevistas, makalela encontró que el uso del ubuntu representa la creación de un microcosmos multilingüe en el que los repertorios lingüísticos de los participantes se vieron incrementados y, al mismo tiempo, contribuyeron a la creación de diferentes identidades (norton, 2000; pavlenko & norton, 2007). en el capítulo tres, daryai-hansen, barfod y schwarz examinan las prácticas translingüísticas en la universidad de roskilde, dinamarca, a través del diseño de una actividad centrada en los perfiles lingüísticos de los estudiantes. en este capítulo se conceptualiza al translingüismo como una “práctica que integra otras lenguas y se basa en el principio pedagógico que deliberadamente toma ventaja de las competencias plurilingües de los estudiantes” (p. 30). partiendo de esta definición, los estudiantes de humanidades y ciencias sociales de la universidad de roskilde trabajaron en sus perfiles lingüísticos en el marco de un programa de alemán (de un máximo de 20 créditos por semestre). daryai-hansen et al. analizaron el programa de alemán y en este capítulo discuten como este contribuyó a promover un espacio en el que se logró una interacción social eficiente y no problemática. del mismo modo, los autores analizan las actitudes de los maestros y de los estudiantes del programa hacia las prácticas translingüísticas y muestran una tendencia hacia las prácticas monolingües por parte de los estudiantes. esto, sugieren los autores, es un indicio de que las prácticas translingüísticas pueden tomar un tiempo antes de ser percibidas como un recurso o una estrategia eficaz fuera y dentro del aula (p. 47). la ecología del translingüismo en la universidad ucraniana alfred nobel es el tema central del capítulo cuatro elaborado por goodman. a través de las notas de campo, transcripciones de clases y eventos escolares, fotografías y entrevistas obtenidas como parte de un estudio etnográfico llevado a cabo durante el año escolar 2010-2011, la autora analiza las prácticas translinguales de tres grupos de estudiantes y sus profesores. goodman presenta información sobre el translingüismo no sólo como medio oral sino también escrito (p. 63). a partir de estos datos, y en relación a la implementación de una perspectiva pedagógica translingüística, la autora propone que los académicos se pregunten: ¿quién está realizando el translingüismo, de qué lengua a qué lengua y con qué propósito?, ¿qué modalidades del translingüismo están siendo utilizadas?, ¿en qué eventos comunicativos ocurren ciertas formas del translingüismo? (p. 66). solo cuando den respuesta a estas preguntas, sugiere la autora, estos docentes podrán planear e implementar una pedagogía del translingüismo en sus clases. en el capítulo cinco se presentan tres casos de profesores que adoptan la práctica translingüística en la universidad de puerto rico, recinto de mayagüez (uprm). mazak, mendoza y pérez mongonéz observan el translingüismo como una práctica pedagógica mediante la cual los profesores de uprm crean oportunidades para que los estudiantes desarrollen un lenguaje académico en español y en inglés, a la vez que fomentan la creación de affordances para la comprensión de la clase (p. 70). es necesario hacer hincapié en que las clases analizadas en este estudio no eran de lengua, sino de agricultura, biología y psicología. la recolección de datos se llevó a cabo a través de observaciones de clase, entrevistas con los profesores y los estudiantes y encuestas completadas por los estudiantes. mazak et al. encontraron que los tres profesores participantes adherían a una ideología translingüística que promueve prácticas translingüísticas a través de la atención y validación de los bagajes sociolingüísticos, culturales e históricos de los estudiantes (p. 88). en el capítulo seis, he, lai y lin investigan las prácticas translingüísticas y la transemiotización implementadas por el profesor liu, de origen chino, en un seminario de matemáticas en hong kong. las preguntas de investigación que guiaron a este estudio giran en torno a dos temas. por una parte, el translingüismo como facilitador de la comunicación intercultural en una comunidad bi/multicultural y, por otra parte, la relación entre el translingüismo y la transemiotización (p. 95). mediante el análisis de textos escritos y orales —la presentación de power point usada por el profesor liu y el audio de la grabación de la presentación— los autores muestran como el uso estratégico de recursos bi/multilingües, así como de multimodalidades en un contexto bi/multilingüe, puede facilitar la comunicación intercultural y el desarrollo de un lenguaje académico por parte de hablantes bilingües emergentes (p. 177). en el capítulo siete, groff ofrece una mirada hacia las políticas y las prácticas lingüísticas en la india. de acuerdo con la autora, en este país asiático, a pesar de la diversidad lingüística, el inglés se ha impuesto guerrero-rodriguez e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 114-118 116 como la lengua dominante. groff divide su capítulo en dos secciones: la primera ofrece una visión sobre las políticas lingüísticas en la educación superior en la india que datan de la época de la colonia, cuando “la educación debería impartir los valores y el conocimiento europeo” (annamalai, 2005, p. 21). así, la educación primaria y secundaria se impartián en lenguas indias (krishnamurti, 1990) mientras que el inglés era como la lengua de instrucción y evaluación en las escuelas preparatorias, los institutos y las universidades (p. 123124). sin embargo, de manera oficial y extraoficial, las lenguas indias han seguido presentes en el ámbito educativo indio. mediante el análisis de observaciones y entrevistas obtenidas durante nueve meses de investigación etnográfica en la región de kumaun, en los campus de la universidad de kumaun (almora) y y de la universidad de delhi (nainital), groff concluye que las prácticas lingüísticas de estos contextos educativos reflejan una ideología multilingüe (p 138). el capítulo ocho, de carroll y van den hoven, presenta las prácticas translingüísticas en los emiratos árabes unidos. el objetivo de este capítulo es lograr un mejor entendimiento de cómo estas prácticas son percibidas en los eau. para ello, los autores entrevistaron a 6 participantes, de los cuales tres eran profesores de educación superior y tres restantes eran empleados administrativos en el nivel educativo superior. los seis participantes eran hablantes bilingües de inglés y árabe con doctorados obtenidos en universidades occidentales (p. 146). los resultados de esta investigación muestran que en contextos educativos en los eau, el inglés es la lengua a la que se le atribuye superioridad y prestigio (p. 153). continuando con el estudio de la percepción de los docentes hacia las prácticas translingüísticas, en el capítulo nueve doiz y lasagabaster presentan las opiniones de 13 maestros de inglés del país vasco, españa, con respecto al uso de la lengua materna en un contexto donde el inglés es el medio de instrucción (pp. 162-163). los autores llevaron a cabo grupos de discusión en español con los participantes para conocer su actitud hacia las prácticas translingüísticas. los resultados muestran que la mayoría de los maestros participantes tienden a evitar el uso de la l1 en sus clases, aunque sí admiten recurrir a ella en ciertas ocasiones, sobre todo cuando el tema no es familiar para los estudiantes o existe una posible brecha en el entendimiento (pp. 172-173). de esta manera, el translingüismo no representa una práctica habitual en este contexto, por lo que los autores sugieren futuras investigaciones que incluyan un componente de observación de clases y permitan ver lo que realmente sucede en el aula. finalmente, en el último capítulo del libro el editor, carroll, presenta las conclusiones y una recopilación de las diferentes perspectivas hacia el translingüismo ejemplificadas y analizadas en los diferentes capítulos. carroll propone que una de las necesidades fundamentales en la educación superior, sin importar el lugar geográfico, es promover el prestigio de las lenguas no dominantes (p. 177) e indica que para que este objetivo se pueda lograr es necesario recurrir a prácticas translingüísticas, tal y como como sugieren carroll & mazak (2017). carroll finaliza el capítulo planteando que éstas prácticas se deberían promover, entre otras formas, a través de la contratación de profesores con bagajes lingüísticos similares a los de los estudiantes, mediante la publicación de investigaciones en lenguas distintas al inglés o la inclusión de prácticas translingüísticas en los cursos de preparación de profesores para que puedan experimentarlas de primera mano. de manera general, translanguaging in higher education provee al lector con una visión genérica, informativa y, hasta cierto punto, global sobre el translingüismo y su concepción en diversos contextos bi/ multilingües que van más allá del aula de enseñanza de lenguas. este libro representa un buen recurso para lectores sin conocimiento ni experiencia previa en el campo del translingüismo, ya que los autores llevan al lector desde la mera conceptualización del término hasta la presentación de prácticas translingüísticas en contextos. las referencias usadas a través de los distintos capítulos del volumen (e.g., garcía, 2009; swain & lapkin, 2000; canagarajah, 2011; garcía & li wei, 2014; cummins, 2014) fungen como fuentes adicionales a las cuales el lector puede recurrir para ampliar su conocimiento o expandir las posibilidades de adentrarse en el translingüismo a través de sus distintas conceptualizaciones. de particular interés resulta el hecho de que los capítulos presentados en translanguaging in higher education muestran las actitudes de diferentes hablantes en puntos geográficos diversos, yendo más allá de ofrecer una perspectiva occidental hacia el bi/multilingüismo. reseña: translanguaging in higher education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 114-118 117 referencias annamalai, elay (2005). nation building in a globalized world: language choice and education in india. en angel lin, & peter martin (eds.), decolonization, globalization: language-in-education policy and practice (pp. 21-38). clevedon, reino unido: multilingual matters. carroll, kevin, & mazak, catherine (2017). language policy in puerto rico’s higher education: opening the door for translanguaging practice. anthropology and education quarterly, 48(1), 4-22. cummins, jim (2014). rethinking pedagogical assumptions in canadian french immersion programs. journal of immersion and content-based language education 2, 3-22. garcía, ofelia (2009). bilingual education in the 21st century: a global perspective. malden, massachusetts: wiley/blackwell. garcía, ofelia & li wei (2014). translanguaging: language, bilingualism and education. london, reino unido: palgrave macmillan. garcía, ofelia, & torres-guevara, rosario (2009). monoglossic ideologies and language policies in the education of us latinas/os. en enrique g. murillo, sofia a. villenas, ruth trinidad galván, juan sánchez muñoz, corinne martínez, & margarita machado-casas (eds.), handbook of latinos and education: theory, research, and practice (pp. 182-193). london, reino unido: routledge. krishnamurti, bhadriraju (1990). the regional language vis-à-vis english as the medium of instruction in higher education: the indian dilemma. en debi p. pattanayak (ed.), multilingualism in india (pp. 1524). hyderabad, india: orient longman. li wei (2011). moment analysis and translanguaging space: discursive construction of identities by multilingual chinese youth in britain. multilingual structures and agencies 43(5), 1222-1235. makalela, leketi (2013). translanguaging in kasi-taal: rethinking old language boundaries for new language planning. stellenbosch papers in linguistics plus 42, 111-125. makalela, leketi (2015). moving out of linguistic boxes: the effects of translanguaging strategies for multilingual classrooms. language and education 24(4), 406-414. norton, bonny (2000). identity and language learning: gender, ethnicity and educational change. harlow, reino unido: pearson education/longman. pavlenko, aneta, & norton, bonny (2007). imagined communities, identity, and english language teaching. en jim cummins y chris davison (eds.), international handbook of english language teaching (pp. 669680). new york, new york: springer. sayer, peter (2013). translanguaging, texmex, and bilingual pedagogy: emergent bilinguals learning through the vernacular. tesol quarterly 47(1), 63-88. swain, merrill, & lapkin, sharon (2000). task-based second language learning: the uses of the first language. language teaching research 4, 251-274. guerrero-rodriguez e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 114-118 118 paola guerrero-rodriguez, university of florida joanapaoguerrero@ufl.edu es paola guerrero-rodriguez es una estudiante de doctorado en la faculta de español y portugués en la university of florida donde estudia lingüística hispánica. ha conseguido el master en lenguas romances en la texas tech university en 2017. sus áreas de investigación incluyen las lenguas hereditarias, la pedagogía de la lengua, la dialectología y la lengua como práctica social. en paola guerrero-rodriguez is a doctoral student at the university of florida in the department of spanish and portuguese studies, where she studies hispanic linguistics. she earned her ma in romance languages from texas tech university in 2017. her research interests include heritage languages, language pedagogy, dialectology and language as a social practice. it paola guerrero-rodriguez è dottoranda nella facoltà di spagnolo e portoghese alla university of florida, dove studia linguistica ispanica. nel 2017 ha conseguito il master in lingue romanze presso la texas tech university. le sue aree di ricerca includono le lingue ereditarie, la pedagogia della lingua, la dialectologia e la lingua come pratica sociale. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 8-23 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.151 www.e-journall.org e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 the role of translanguaging in the multilingual turn: driving philosophical and conceptual renewal in language education josh pradaa*, blake turnbullb**1 aindiana university-purdue university—indianapolis bkyoto university received 28 june 2018; received in revised form 9 december 2018; accepted 18 december, 2018 abstract en the multilingual turn refers to a recent series of shifts in the core philosophical underpinnings in traditional foreign and second language classroom practice. these changes promote the normalization of processes and practices characteristic of bi/multilingual speakers. this, in turn, has stimulated new ways of teaching and learning in the classroom. the goal of this article is twofold: first to chart the central developments that have led to the emergence of the multilingual turn thus far, and second to provide an account of how classroom translanguaging is fundamental to present and future developments. we present the conceptual framework undergirding the multilingual turn, before providing an overview of traditional tenets of foreign and second language education. we then examine translanguaging and its implications for language education, and end with a presentation of strategies that may facilitate the implementation of the multilingual turn in the additional language classroom. key words: translanguaging, foreign language education, second language education, additional language education, multilingual turn es el giro multilingüe hace referencia a una serie de cambios que afectaron a los fundamentos filosóficos de las prácticas pedagógicas en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras o segundas. estos cambios promueven la normalización de los procesos y las prácticas propios de los hablantes bi-/multilingües, estimulando nuevas maneras de enseñar y aprender en el aula. el objetivo de este artículo es doble: en primer lugar, se delinean las principales causas que han llevado a que el giro multilingüe se fuera afirmando; en segundo lugar, se ofrece un resumen de como el translingüismo es fundamental para los desarrollos presentes y futuros. antes de ofrecer un panorama general de los principios de la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras y segundas, se presenta el marco conceptual en el que se apoya el giro multilingüe. se examina después el translingüismo y sus repercusiones para la educación lingüística y, para concluir, se presentan las estrategias que podrían facilitar la implementación del giro multilingüe en una clase de lengua adicional. palabras clave: translingüismo, enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, enseñanza de segundas lenguas, enseñanza de lenguas adicionales, giro multilingüe it la svolta multilingue si riferisce a una serie di cambiamenti riguardanti fondamenti filosofici nelle pratiche didattiche delle lingue seconde e straniere. questi cambiamenti promuovono l’uniformazione dei processi e delle pratiche caratteristici dei/delle parlanti bi-/multilingue e al contempo stimolano nuovi modi di insegnare e apprendere. l'obiettivo del presente articolo è duplice: in primo luogo, tracciare gli sviluppi principali che, fino a questo momento, hanno portato all'emergere della svolta multilingue, e in secondo luogo fornire un resoconto di come il translanguaging nella classe sia fondamentale per gli sviluppi presenti e futuri. presentiamo qui il quadro teorico che sottende alla svolta multilingue per poi fornire una panoramica dei principi tradizionali della didattica delle lingue seconde e straniere. quindi esaminiamo il translanguaging e le sue implicazioni per l'educazione linguistica. il lavoro si conclude con la proposta di strategie per facilitare l'implementazione della svolta multilingue nell'aula di lingua aggiuntiva. parole chiave: translanguaging, didattica delle lingue seconde, didattica delle lingue straniere, didattica delle lingue aggiuntive, svolta multilingue * contact: jprada@iu.edu @gmail.com ** the authors contributed equally to the writing and content of this article and are listed in alphabetical order. http://www.e-journall.org/ the role of translanguaging in the multilingual turn e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 9 1. introduction recent years have witnessed the beginning of a gradual paradigm shift, often labeled as the ‘multilingual turn’ (e.g., conteh & meier, 2014; may, 2013), towards the incorporation of multilingual and translingual perspectives in foreign (fl) and second (l2) language learning environments. this shift has provided us with new tools to critically analyze common practices, typologies, and assumptions that continue to guide language teaching and learning. crucially, to move forward and reflect this emerging paradigm shift in an expanded fl/l2 classroom typology, teachers, curriculum designers, policy makers, and teacher trainers will need to reposition themselves and reformulate their practices in an organic expansion, rather than linear addition. in exploring strategies to facilitate such a change, we argue that translanguaging—or “the deployment of a speaker’s full linguistic repertoire without regard to watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named languages” (otheguy, garcía & reid, 2015, p. 281)—may serve to articulate multilingual education philosophy and praxis in what have been traditionally considered fl and l2 classrooms. this comes as we incorporate recent proposals that cut across ecological understandings of bi/multilingualism, equity and social justice, and an overall decentralization of monolingual practices as a standard (e.g., canagarajah, 2014; carreira & kagan, 2018; garcía, 2009; ortega, 2017; shohamy, 2011; turnbull, 2018). the possibilities of this form of multilingual thinking are wide-ranging, creating room for expansion on (at least) four levels: an ontological one (i.e., processes of categorization), an epistemological one (i.e., the further development of knowledge), a methodological one (i.e., the ways to explore and expand knowledge) (schulze & smith, 2015), and an ethical one (whom or what our research benefits) (ortega & zyzik, 2008). fundamentally, these different levels are not mutually exclusive, as engaging, for example, epistemological change calls for new ways of investigation (methodologies). in this theoretical paper we explore the possibilities of multilingual thinking in the language classroom, particularly in what are normally conceptualized as l2 and fl classrooms, and we focus on the potential role and possibilities of translanguaging in materializing the philosophy of this paradigm shift in pedagogy. we acknowledge that debate does exist about translanguaging theory regarding traditional system-based notions of language and its role in language pedagogy (see, for example, macswan, 2017). however, alongside other scholars (e.g., otheguy, garcía & reid, 2018), also counter such claims on the basis that psycholinguistic research has shown that all of a bi-/multilingual speaker’s languages remain active to some degree, even when only one is in verbal use (kroll & bialystok, 2013) and that lexical items belong to an expanded holistic network (costa, 2005). a speaker’s languages, therefore, cannot belong to separate internal systems that can be “set aside” at will, but rather, are part of a single unitary system on which speakers draw selectively and strategically to navigate communicative contexts. our argument is rooted in current conceptualizations of multilingualism and incorporates the epistemological perspectives characterizing them (e.g., cenoz & genesee, 1998). broadly speaking, li wei (2013) defines multilingualism as the “coexistence, contact and interaction of different languages” (p. 26). crucially, bi-or multi-lingual individuals and contexts are qualitatively variable, with different degrees of discursive and socio-pragmatic values defining speakers, communities, and practices. such conceptualizations of multilingualism follow what otsuji and pennycook (2010) refer to as metrolingualism: the “creative linguistic conditions across space and borders of culture, history and politics” (p. 244) that allow language users to incorporate their own hybrid, fluid linguistic practices to communicate and create meaning. accordingly, the boundaries between named-languages are viewed as transient social-, cultural-, political-, and historical-constructs of the nation state (makoni & pennycook, 2007), and language itself is understood as a non-monolithic set of linguistic features, styles, and resources that speakers mobilize in accordance with communicative events. the multilingual turn in fl/l2 teaching and learning reflects the above working definition of multilingualism and brings this complex perspective into the classroom setting. this conceptualization of the fl/l2 classroom as multilingual, therefore, asks us to move from thinking of multilingualism as an object of pursuit to consider it as a central strategy to pursue (and to promote), stimulating philosophical renewal. this renewal is not without obstacles. these obstacles are in keeping with traditional views of language separation, ideologies regarding language purity, and the centralization of monolingual speakers as the standard for linguistic mastery. traditionally, fl and l2 education have suffered from the dogma of the monolingual bias, or the aim of ultimately developing double monolingualism, with the native speaker constituting the idealized target model (auer, 2007), particularly in countries where monolingualism is the perceived norm. since the 1990s, grosjean’s (1989) staple argument about “the bilingual” not being “two prada & turnbull e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 10 monolinguals in one person” has gradually grown into a foundational notion in applied linguistics research, however it has remained peripheral to language classroom practice. the conceptual limitations characterizing the native versus non-native speaker contrast have been addressed in the literature (e.g., llurda, 2009; rampton, 1990), with recent proposals for the use of lx in lieu of labels of second-, third(etc.) language speaker (dewaele, 2017) as well as critical takes on the epistemological bases of popular taxonomies (meier, 2018). these conceptual developments bring to light what we identify as the second obstacle: fl/l2 learning as linked to processes of (self-)otherization. otherization refers to the “binary of us versus them” (jamal, 2008, p. 116) and assumes (racial, religious, cultural) teachable/learnable differences between the learner’s world and the world of the target language natives. when languages are presented as foreign or second, learners are socialized into the notion that the target language is less pertinent to their everyday realities. perhaps more importantly, this presentation bolsters the notion that l2/fl learners are second to native speakers, as they are epistemologically construed as ever-learners whose communicative potential is summarized by their status as l2/fl speakers. similarly, this nomenclature also ignores the realities of those learners who have “multiple native languages” (rothman & treffers-daller, 2014, p. 1), perpetuating misconceptions that do not coincide with today’s societies, and continuing to promote the one-fits-all view of learner profiles in the fl/l2 language classroom. regarding this issue, we adhere to dewaele’s (2017) perspective and operate under the assumption that terms such as fl and l2 teaching and learning, as well as fl and l2 learner and speaker represent obstacles to conceptualizing and articulating the multilingual classroom. while the terms fl and l2 are commonly used interchangeably, there have been distinctions between the two, mostly bearing on differences regarding context. l2 learning, for example, occurs in contexts where learners are exposed to the target language (tl) both inside the classroom and out (e.g., students learning english in the us or uk); whereas fl learning, on the other hand, refers to contexts in which students learn a language in the classroom that is not widely spoken by the outside community (e.g., students learning japanese in canada). we instead propose to refer to contexts of additional language (al) teaching and learning. this label functions not only as an umbrella term to encompass fl and l2, but as a conceptual tool to capture our problematization of conceptualizing languages and speakers as foreign or second versus native speakers. moreover, importantly, we incorporate in our understanding of al dewaele’s (2017) argument that order of acquisition does not correlate with fluency or communicative abilities, given that individuals learning als may experience shifts in dominance resulting from life events such as relocation or immigration (e.g., montrul, 2016). what is more, at times, individuals may identify with an al more closely than with the first language they were exposed to/acquired, in terms of functionality, communicative skills, or sociocultural fluency. for these and other reasons, we find that al teaching and learning promotes a more organic understanding of language learning than chronological order or foreignness to the geographical learning context, incorporating a systemic, dynamic view as opposed to the additive/linear one that characterizes current perspectives. these obstacles often combine with other context-specific ideological, attitudinal, and political-historical factors, which taken together bring linguicism to the fore in many decisions shaping language education. linguicism refers to the “ideologies and structures which are used to legitimate, effectuate and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources (both material and non-material) between groups which are defined on the basis of language (i.e., their mother tongues)” (skutnabb-kangas, 1988, p. 13). the recognition of monolingual normativity has increased in the last few years, leading to discussions concerning its implications. this normativity operates across levels, from socio-political (cruickshank & wright, 2016) to the educational (ortega, 2014; meier, 2018; lindholm-leary & borsato, 2006), permeating research, practice, and policy. in order to facilitate the reproduction of multilingualism as currently defined in the multilingual turn in al classrooms and support a move away from the monolingualism-as-standard default model, a set of changes is required. this monolingualism-as-standard default model partly builds on a set of assumptions, which, fundamentally draws on attitudes and ideologies about linguistic purity, language ownership, and unrealistic expectations for learners (e.g., makoni & pennycook, 2007; pascual y cabo & prada, 2018). crucially, we call for a shift from treating languages as discrete, bound objects to an understanding of language as a social construct belonging to a speaker’s integrated linguistic system (otheguy, garcia, & reid, 2015). a multilingual classroom with such an orientation would also incorporate cook’s (2002) view of language learners as language users with multicompetence: a notion that helps us rethink the negative connotations associated with the deficiency of being a learner, as well as a shift of focus away from idealizing the native speaker as the target model of the role of translanguaging in the multilingual turn e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 11 successful communicative competence. against this background of epistemological renewal, in this paper we set out to provide an overview of the multilingual turn and its core components, with an emphasis on the role(s) of and possibilities for classroom translanguaging in further centralizing or normalizing multilingualism. having introduced the epistemological underpinnings of our argument, the following three sections offer (1) an overview of traditional fl and l2 education; (2) a description of translanguaging and its implication for al teaching and learning; and (3) a presentation of strategies/protocols/stages that may facilitate an alignment philosophy defining the multilingual turn and classroom praxis that mobilizes translanguaging. the article closes with a brief conclusion and suggestions for future developments and possibilities. 2. philosophical underpinnings of traditional fl and l2 education l2 and fl teaching practices have traditionally perpetuated the concept of double monolingualism as their primary aim (scott, 2010). as a result, the languages in which learners possess competence have been treated separately with little or no acknowledgement of the natural interaction between them, both internally (cognitively) and externally (interpersonally) (cook, 2001). the dominant al teaching methodologies throughout the late 20th century, including the direct method and communicative language teaching (clt), tended to ignore, discourage, or actively exclude the use of learners’ home languages in favor of exclusive use of the tl (cummins, 2007; de la campa & nassaji, 2009). this exclusion has been fundamental to the aforementioned notion of the native speaker as the idealized target model: a seemingly impossible and unnecessary goal for learners to approximate. however, the term native speaker not only connotes an individual who has grown up speaking a certain language since birth, but also one who has experienced a monolingual upbringing (ortega, 2014; also see rothman & treffers-daller, 2014). in contrast, al learners may encompass individuals from an array of backgrounds and linguistic contexts, who bring with them a diverse set of language experiences and knowledge. in idealizing the monolingual native speaker, al learners’ lived linguistic experiences are not recognized, nor are learners viewed as the emergent bilinguals that they are. rather, they are viewed as deficient for not reaching native-like competence in the tl (grosjean, 1989); in other words, they are framed in terms of what they are not, rather than what they have already achieved. critically, in addition to underscoring deficiency, rather than proficiency, this perspective promotes the achievement of monolinguallike standards among speakers who are, by definition, not monolingual to begin with (pascual y cabo & prada, 2018). it is, at least partly, based on this pursuit of monolingual proficiency that target-language only policies find their philosophical rooting. fl and l2 teaching has been guided by the maxim that teachers should use only the tl and avoid students’ dominant language (chambers, 1991; littlewood & yu, 2011). as a reaction to this, we position al teaching as a conceptual turn that takes as its point of departure the multilingual nature of the al learner. the last 20 years have seen an acknowledgement of the possibilities of using students’ dominant language in the classroom. although some scholars (e.g., antón & dicamilla, 1999; butzkamm, 2011; lin, 2015; littlewood, & yu, 2011; macaro, 2005; scott & de la fuente, 2008; storch & aldosari, 2010; storch & wigglesworth, 2003; turnbull & dailey-o’cain, 2009) have advocated for the use of what is commonly referred to as the learners’ home language in the fl/l2 classroom, these arguments remain based predominantly in monolingual perspectives of language separation. fundamentally, as we see it, the mere inclusion of the learners’ home language(s) in the al learning environment does not necessarily work to frame said learning as a bilingual event. in keeping with this issue, turnbull (2018) advocated for an epistemological reform in traditional fl education, claiming it to be a form of bilingual education. he argued for a change in the mindset surrounding fl learners to recognize their emergent bilingual status in an attempt to disrupt the construction of fl learners as unsuccessful monolinguals. in a response, garcía (2017) took a critical, poststructuralist approach to further suggest that the active use of translingual practices is a key concept to facilitate this turn. she added that cross-linguistic pedagogies are required to leverage the entire linguistic repertoires of emergent bilinguals in al learning contexts and facilitate their development and assimilation of bilingual languaging1 strategies. however, al 1 languaging refers to the continuous process of becoming oneself through the use of language and interaction in one’s linguistic and environmental surroundings. translingual practices, then, are those languaging practices that transcend between and beyond the socially constructed boundaries of languages in which a speaker holds multi-competence. prada & turnbull e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 12 education has traditionally failed to accept the notion of developing language skills in cooperation with preexisting language knowledge, focusing instead on language separation and language development in competition. the overarching goal of al learning is not merely to obtain linguistic competence in the tl as a monolingual of that language, but to appropriate new bilingual languaging strategies in association with old ones for use in an individual’s everyday life. hence, our emphasis is on organic expansion, as opposed to linear addition. it is ironic, then, that attaining a level of functioning bilingual ability through al education is so firmly rooted in monolingual encounters with the tl (scott, 2010). butzkamm and cadwell (2009) blame this on the instructor, who they suggest fails to “master the sophisticated and powerful bilingual techniques necessary to harness the linguistic resources of the learners” (p. 16). to their argument we add that teachertraining programs are a critical piece in the perpetuation of these ideologies, and the educational enterprise as a whole has exerted too sharp a focus on teaching the language (and its associated elements: cultural, ideological, postcolonial), instead of developing the learner (as an individual citizen). in fact, changes on this front have begun to be incorporated in mainstream thinking. for example, the centennial issue of hispania, the journal of the american association of teachers of spanish and portuguese (aatsp) has included current works that reference, if still through a language separation lens, the potential of using spanish as a pivot language in the teaching of third languages within the us context (donato, 2018), and in doing so, brings to bear tenets of the multilingual turn. in line with this way of thinking, new voices have begun to advocate for the inclusion of translanguaging practices in the fl/l2 classroom, supporting our conceptualization of an al classroom. in broad terms, translanguaging refers to the flexible linguistic practices multilingual individuals engage in their interactions (garcía & li wei, 2014). in acknowledging the value of such fluid practices, the implications and possibilities seem vast. indeed, a translanguaging approach to al extends beyond the classroom as it aims at the “development of different language practices to varying degrees in order to interact with increasingly multilingual communities in a global world” (garcía & sylvan, 2011, p. 388). for us, it is important that the ability to engage in multilingual practices in “contact zones” (pratt, 1991) move to the forefront of al education, which we conceptualize below as the inclusion and promotion of “translanguaging as (meta)skill.” similarly, cenoz and gorter (2011) proposed a focus on multilingualism (fom) as an alternative to the traditional perspective of language separation in the al classroom, hinging on three distinct elements: (1) the multilingual speaker; (2) the linguistic repertoire as a whole; and (3) the social context. when combined, these three components offer a framework that captures the multilingual speaker employing their complete linguistic system to create meaning in various social contexts. just like we used al teaching and learning as a conceptual tool to rearrange assumptions about the chronological axis and its implications, we view fom as a holistic lens to approach the learner as a speaker in context. taken together, al and fom offer a philosophical bedrock to entertain the possibilities of translanguaging as a legitimate and potentially transformative classroom practice. cenoz (2017) notes that the inclusion of translanguaging practices lies at the heart of the multilingual turn, and although recent publications have supported this in a specifically fl learning context (e.g., turnbull, 2018), the notion has yet to become widespread on a global scale. against this background, we identify the possibilities of classroom translanguaging not only as a central component in the reconfiguration of fl and l2 into al in terms of linguistic practice, but we also stress the transformative potential in terms of ideologies and attitudes among learners and teachers. moreover, we highlight the role of classroom translanguaging to open the classroom to real-life discourses and needs that characterize our multilingual world. while a deep discussion of the social justice component is beyond the scope of this discussion, we consider it a critical issue in traditional conceptualizations of fl and l2 education. the brief examination of some of the philosophical underpinnings of fl/l2 education presented above unveils ways in which l2/fl users are often constructed as ever-learning, underperforming individuals who seek to meet a standard that is external to their experience. these conceptualizations, however, are usually extended to also encompass speakers who have already achieved multilingual fluency. these individuals include, but are not limited to, speaker categories taxonomically incorporating some degree of built-in subordination and/or a need of further development, such as english language learners (in us bilingual education settings), heritage speakers, new speakers, and members of linguistically-diverse communities who seek literacy development in an official language. just like we support bottom-up (as opposed to deficit-based) conceptualizations of these speaker types through their bi-/multi-lingual profiles, our argument accommodates the idea that those individuals who display communicative proficiency but have traditionally been construed as fl/l2 learners are best understood as al users/speakers. this conceptual shift helps materialize a will to move stigmatized the role of translanguaging in the multilingual turn e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 13 and unprivileged practices from marginalized positions to discursive spaces where acknowledgement, understanding, and empowerment become possible. 3. translanguaging in the al classroom before delving into a more detailed account of translanguaging as a facilitator of the multilingual turn in language classrooms, an overview of classroom translanguaging as presented in the current literature is in order. the term translanguaging originated from welsh educationalist cen william’s notion of trawsieithu, a central element to his (1994) unpublished doctoral dissertation. williams framed translanguaging as the “planned and systematic use of two languages for teaching and learning inside the same lesson” (lewis, jones, & baker, 2012, p. 643), whereby languages were deliberately alternated for receptive and productive use (baker, 2011). for example, learners could read a text in welsh and discuss it in english or listen to a passage in english and write about it in welsh. this is what garcía and lin (2017) refer to now as weak translanguaging, whereby both languages are employed to various degrees and the barriers between them are softened but remain intact. in contrast, they propose the term strong translanguaging as a conceptual expansion that accounts for the complex, semiotic language practices and pedagogies of bi-/multi-lingual communities who transcend between and beyond the systems that make up their complete linguistic repertoires (also see creese & blackledge, 2010; garcía & li wei, 2014; hornberger & link, 2012). within a strong translanguaging framework, language is viewed not as a closed, bound structure in the speaker’s mind, but as a fluid practice in which speakers engage to make meaning (pennycook, 2010). the barriers between these languages, those that have traditionally fueled the idea of language separation in fl and l2 learning, are considered a construction of the nation-state (makoni & pennycook, 2007), and the languages in which a speaker possesses competence as a set of linguistic features. these features belong to a single, integrated linguistic system on which bilingual speakers draw in accordance with the rules of socially-constructed languages to make meaning of their bilingual world, to express themselves, and to learn. although the original concept of translanguaging was specifically designed for use in bilingual education settings—see williams’ (1994) explanation in the welsh bilingual context—, translingual practices can also be implemented in a multitude of learning contexts with slight conceptual differences. whereas traditional bilingual education programs have varied goals and structures, they are generally united by the notion that learning is conducted in two languages with bilingualism as the intended goal. other contexts that have not traditionally been considered as sites of bilingual education, such as those in which a target language is presented/learnt as second or foreign, have conventionally operated under the assumption that immersion is most beneficial for students’ learning, with translingual practices being construed as problematic and deviant. against this baseline, recent counterarguments have emerged. for example, kleyn (2016) suggests that translanguaging is a “multiway street to learning and integrating language practices” (p. 217) in a variety of different contexts. she identifies a number of different classroom types (including english as a second language, content and language integrated learning, and foreign language learning) as well as program types (including those bridging content areas and grade levels) as potential sites of pedagogical experimentation, although few specific details concerning how to enact translingual practices in such contexts are provided. garcía and li wei (2014) emphasize that, regardless of context, language learners are not learning a separate language; instead, they are taking control of their own learning to appropriate and assimilate new languaging strategies and unique meaning-making resources. they identify seven ways in which translingual practices can be used to leverage students’ learning in the al classroom: (1) to differentiate among student levels and adapt instructional approaches accordingly; (2) to build background knowledge; (3) to deepen understandings and develop new knowledge and critical thinking; (4) to encourage cross-linguistic transfer and metalinguistic awareness; (5) to promote cross-linguistic flexibility for competent language use; (6) to encourage identity investment; and (7) to disrupt linguistic hierarchies and social structures. in the case of al learning, teachers and students alike should consider how they can leverage their home language(s) and linguistic experiences to facilitate the development of languaging skills in the tl. translingual practices can be used in situations even when instructors cannot speak the learners’ home languages (garcía & li wei, 2014) so long as they are willing and able to relinquish some power to students, enabling them to take control of their own language development. this results in the development of a translanguaging classroom, which garcía, ibarra johnson and seltzer (2017) describe as “a space built collaboratively by the teacher and bilingual students as they use their different language practices to teach and learn in deeply creative and critical ways” (p. 2). in allowing for creativity and criticality (see li wei, 2011), a translanguaging classroom prada & turnbull e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 14 is a place in which learners of linguistically diverse backgrounds can integrate social spaces and language codes previously practiced in separation. moreover, in the process, they may contest the language separation ideologies of traditional monolingual-based al education. turnbull (2017) also refers to the way in which translingual practices may be used in the al classroom for assessment purposes from structural-, task-, and knowledge-based perspectives. in an attempt to dismantle the construct of al learners as double monolinguals, he argues against the summative monolingual-based assessment formats that have thus far dominated traditional fl/l2 education, instead underscoring the importance of translingual models that holistically evaluate al learners’ complete linguistic repertoires. such models help to reveal the ways in which students employ their unique linguistic repertoire to make meaning of their bilingual world, to express themselves as emergent bilinguals, and to learn in various bilingual contexts. garcía (2017) perhaps summarizes the issue best: “as long as language learning is conceptualized as l2 skills, we will be left with l2 learners, and not with emergent bilinguals who are constructing and expanding their own bilingual repertoire” (p. 9). so long as traditional practices grounded in educated monolingual native-speakers as the idealized target model continue to reign prevalent in al classrooms, we will not be able to make the jump required to modernize al education by way of the multilingual turn. the inclusion of translingual practices can be adapted to fit the state of every language classroom regardless of the kind of learners, teachers, and/or educational context involved. translingual practices teach us that al learning is not simply additive, nor is it dual; bilingualism is resignified as unitary, connoting a single integrated system to which all linguistic features of so-called “named languages” are stored (garcía, 2009). it is important that we harness the integrated power of al learners’ complete linguistic repertoires to leverage their current and newly emerging bilingual languaging strategies as they aim to assimilate and develop new practices in combination with old ones, hence our focus on an organic ecological expansion of the speakers’ communicative abilities, as opposed to a linear additive approach. currently, practices emphasizing organic expansion are rarely encountered in the traditional al classroom, but that is not to say we cannot realize this goal. the multilingual turn in al education is the bridge between traditional monolingual-based forms of al education and a future in which al learners are recognized holistically as emergent bilinguals with particular personal trajectories and multiple experiential resources. this understanding stimulates ideological restructuration that equips learners to be sociolinguistically fluent in a plural and diverse world. considering the above account of classroom translanguaging, we identify three core factors to bear in mind when endeavoring to translate theorizations of classroom translanguaging into praxis: (1) deforeignizing the al learner; (2) understanding hybrid forms as emergent; and (3) developing translanguaging as skill (figure 1). we now provide a brief description of these three areas and their interfaces. figure 1. three areas of activity to support/enable classroom translanguaging. the first area to address revolves around the de-foreignization of als and their speakers. this notion is not new. the teacher training literature, for example, has developed a solid line of argumentation concerning the pedagogical abilities and communicative value of non-native language teachers (e.g., braine, 2013; llurda, 2006). similarly, research on english as a lingua franca (e.g., cenoz, 2017) and world englishes (e.g., canagarajah, 1999, 2006; nikula, 2007) as well as heritage speaker bilingualism (e.g., pascual y cabo & rothman, 2012; rothman & treffers-daller, 2014) have asked us to rethink speaker types that have traditionally fallen outside of the native speaker standard through a multilingual perspective. a commonality the role of translanguaging in the multilingual turn e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 15 cutting across these proposals, which move away from deficiency descriptions, is a challenge to the assumption that non-(monolingual)-native speakers are somehow incomplete. more importantly, this perspective lays out epistemological foundations to tackle traditional ontological building blocks. for example, notions such as world/global/new english(es) refer to multilingual english varieties spoken across the world in places such as africa, asia, and the caribbean (for an in-depth treatment see jenkins, 2006). this line of work allows us to approach the multilingual individual through a multilingual perspective—a notion that, while seemingly commonplace, has generally eluded al practitioners. this epistemological change, while seemingly theoretical, offers multiple applications in terms of classroom policy, objectives and goals, and thematic components for classroom discussions (we discuss some of these in section 4). recent proposals such as gorter and cenoz’s (2011) fom, described in section 1, become useful conceptual tools that can guide language practitioners and researchers in repositioning themselves and their al students in light of the multilingual turn. by incorporating the multilingual profile of al learners in our conceptualization, we seek to move away from perpetually representing them through deficit and otherness. the second area is focused on the flexible linguistic practices engaged in by bi-/multi-lingual speakers and their sociolinguistic value. there is a vast body of research on hybrid (for lack of a better term) varieties such as spanglish (ardila, 2005; otheguy & stern, 2011; zentella, 1997) and chinglish (qiang & wolf, 2003; wenzhong, 1993). while the scholarly literature on this topic—despite its theoretical orientation— often treats such practices as communicatively valuable, this is arguably the case at the broader social level (macswan, 2000). these practices are most often construed as a sign of deficiency, a lack of education, or an effect of linguistic impairment (fuller, 2013). it is, therefore, fundamental that al students in particular (and language (arts) students in general) be exposed to and have opportunities to explore these practices from an informed perspective. by training future teachers in the emergent nature of linguistic repertoires and, therefore, linguistic practices, we can position them to create learning spaces where students can investigate and normalize multilingual practices. along these lines, the third area centers on enabling al learners to acknowledge their own emergent multilingualism as a resource. ruiz (1995), in connection with the previous conceptual works of others (e.g., fishman, 1991; jernudd, 1999) and by drawing on khun’s work, proposes the understanding of language-as-societal resource. over the years, the understanding of language-asresource has become a site of contradictory perspectives, whereby some (e.g., petrovic, 2014; ricento, 2005) argue that positioning bilingualism as a resource unveils (and bolsters) a neoliberal perspective in which language constitutes a commodity. more recently, ruiz (2010) revisited his language-as-resource corollary to explicitly move away from this neoliberal vein. in light of these discussions, we posit a translanguaging-asresource perspective, whereby the ability to manipulate linguistic repertoires and semiotic resources becomes a central component of dexterous multilingual communicators in the 21st century. this particular ability, which we refer to as translanguaging as skill, is the third area of activity that we identify. at the core of translanguaging as skill is the ultimate goal of helping language learners develop translingual abilities to successfully navigate contact zones. pratt (1991) defined contact zones as “social spaces where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power” (p. 34). at present, a more organic understanding of these clashes has been advanced, partly due to increased global mobility and the internet as a site for everyday interactions. canagarajah (2013) offered a compelling theorization of translingual abilities for contact zones in his proposal that viewing writing as translingual requires a shift in our orientation to literacy (i.e., from autonomous to negotiated). we align with this perspective and situate an understanding of translanguaging as skill as a signature element in al education within the multilingual turn. importantly, translanguaging as skill transcends methodological boundaries among traditional al skills in pedagogy, enabling learners to mediate among and move beyond them. it revolves around the meaning-making capacity of multilinguals, understood holistically, instead of restricting practices that frame skills according to proficiency (and therefore deficiency) scales. in light of the above discussion, it should be easier to understand the potential of classroom translanguaging and its implications and possibilities for al educational contexts in particular, and for education and policy-making in general. before turning our attention to explicit ways whereby translanguaging acts as a facilitator of the multilingual turn, a recap of some central points is in order. first, traditional (and current mainstream) perspectives on fl and l2 teaching and learning position the language of study as foreign to the learner’s needs and repertoire, accentuating the belief that fl and l2 learners/speakers and their experiences are secondary to those of monolingual native speakers. second, the use of alternative categories, such as al teaching and learning, situates learners’ repertoires as central to prada & turnbull e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 16 processes of teaching and learning. third, moving away from imagined monolingual standards requires the undoing of post-colonial structures that sustain everyday conceptualizations about what is good and right in language use and teaching. al classrooms (and the training of al teachers and language arts2 teachers in general) would do well to contest old/static paradigms that position the al learner as receiver and mimicker of monolingual patterns, thereby creating spaces for multilingual interaction and stimulating new ways of using language critically, creatively, and accurately. finally, at its core, translanguaging teaches learners not only about language, but also about how to use language effectively (i.e., how to language) in different contexts. to this end, the promotion of cross-language learning and the use of related strategies in al classrooms to which learners are sensitized can work to address a real need in today’s society. we are not arguing that translanguaging represents as a more necessary skill than the ability to, for example, access monolingual texts in the target language, or produce narratives in the target language; rather, we argue that, as a communicatively purposeful activity with the potential to transform social spaces, it can promote multilingual practices (and their speakers). we now offer a detailed discussion of how translanguaging may help facilitate the multilingual turn in the al classroom. 4. facilitating the multilingual turn in al education through translanguaging we view translanguaging as a metaprocess that connects linguistic practices, promotes sociolinguistic equity, allows al learners to express their true identities, and leverages their overall bilingualism so they may act as whole people in their bilingual worlds. practical guides for enacting translingual practices in bilingual classrooms have been provided in the past (see, for example, garcía, ibarra johnson & seltzer, 2017; garcía & kleyn, 2016); however, these guides are normally offered within the framework of bilingual education and are less common for al learning contexts. the main difference between al classrooms and other forms of bilingual education (including heritage and minority language classrooms, in which, traditionally, translingual practices have arguably been more common), is that the goal of the latter is specifically to teach one named target language (garcía, 2017), conventionally through the exclusive use of said language (see leeman & serafini, 2016; pascual y cabo & prada, 2018). however, that is not to say that translingual practices cannot be employed in al activities as support for the development of the tl. as garcía et al. (2017) suggest, “if we limit students to the use of only part of the linguistic repertoires—especially the part that is considered their weaker language—we also limit their ability to learn” (p. 105). research has shown that translanguaging pedagogical and learning strategies can be used in activities involving any or all of four main language skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) in the al classroom to enhance the learning and development of the tl by students of all ages and proficiency levels—see poza’s (2017) review of previous studies on translanguaging. in fact, translanguaging is, perhaps, a most powerful resource at the interface of different skills, as it stimulates skill transfer from the more dominant (more rehearsed/practiced/automatized) language(s) to support the weaker one(s). in the al classroom, the acceptance and enactment of a translanguaging instructional design (i.e., the strategic way in which teachers plan and implement a lesson within a translanguaging space) is a pivotal step toward facilitating the multilingual turn in al education. a translanguaging instructional design connects students’ home language practices and identities with those typical of the tl. garcía, ibarra johnson, and seltzer (2017) refer to five key stages of the translanguaging instructional design cycle: (1) explorar; (2) evaluar; (3) imaginar; (4) presentar; and (5) implementar, which form the basis of a model from which teachers can plan and create translanguaging spaces in support of the multilingual turn. in this framework, explorar refers to having learners explore new content and themes from a variety of viewpoints and in multiple languages as a means to spark interest in a given topic. evaluar refers to the assessment of what learners have learnt and the simultaneous encouragement of their creativity and criticality, a step that contributes to the next stage of the translanguaging instructional design cycle: imaginar. imaginar encourages al learners to employ various translingual practices to process and integrate new information in multiple languages, and to support and foster the development of new and imaginative ways of thinking in their bilingual worlds. in the fourth stage, presentar, al learners are able to engage in peer-feedback, group discussion, and finally presentation of their work to pairs, groups, teachers, or the entire class so that they 2 the term language arts refers to the study of the systems and structures of language and of language conventions, including grammar, punctuation, and spelling. additionally, students explore how language conventions vary across contexts. in this context, language encompasses visual communication, spoken and written forms of expression (ncte & ira, 1996). the role of translanguaging in the multilingual turn e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 17 may reflect on, and become aware of, their learning and language practices and adapt them to relevant circumstances and interlocutors. finally, the implementar stage provides al learners with a space to show all that they know and can do through the employment of their complete linguistic repertoires for meaningful and authentic purposes. students learn contextualized ways of using their language practices to communicate and make meaning with various interlocutors and in various contexts, thus showing themselves to be effective emergent bilinguals. in terms of productive language activities within this model, translanguaging can be employed as students build background knowledge on a given topic before demonstrating this knowledge in the tl (i.e., in the explorar stage of the translanguaging instructional design cycle). for example, al learners may discuss a topic in groups or pairs, or interview people in their community, in their home language(s) (referring to the structures and features the learner mobilizes at home and in the community beyond named languages) to gather ideas and develop an outline before giving an oral presentation in the tl. they may also write stories with bilingual characters using two languages, search on websites in their various languages to research a topic, or annotate texts with important vocabulary and ideas in their home language(s) before composing an essay or report in the tl. translanguaging allows al learners to brainstorm, plan, draft, edit, and revise oral presentations or written compositions in one language, or a combination of languages, before producing them in the target language; translanguaging practices can also be used during receptive language activities in al contexts of learning. learners may, for example, listen to a passage in the tl and then discuss the meaning in their home language(s), or watch a tl video with subtitles in their home language. they may also read and compare different texts on a given topic in various languages or discuss the meaning of a given tl text in their home language(s) after reading it to deepen their overall comprehension (also see activity guides by garcía et al., 2017; garcía & kleifgen, 2018; garcía & li wei, 2014). al teachers may also assign translanguaging tasks such as projects in which learners may, for example, produce bilingual posters or books/pamphlets about a given topic and present to the class in the tl or language inquiry tasks where learners metalinguistically compare and contrast different aspects of their home language and the tl. learners could also be required to engage in problem solving through translanguaging, both academically (e.g., textual analysis) and practically (e.g., acting out a response for various situations, such as being lost in a city), with the potential to extend translanguaging strategies beyond the al classroom to other subjects, such as problem solving in math and science (also see lin & lo, 2017; nikula & moore, 2016, for work on translanguaging in clil classroom contexts). for a more holistic approach to assessment in the classroom, teachers may provide learners with a deeper sense of the class direction and goal by means of translations of lesson objectives and key words distributed prior to activities. they could also employ translanguaging following activities, in the evaluar stage of the translanguaging instructional design cycle. for example, assessment instructions or questions may be provided in learners’ home language(s), with answers requested in tl. alternatively, learners could be asked to paraphrase information they have learnt in one language in the other. furthermore, various forms of translingual-based alternative assessments, including bilingual portfolios, journals, reading logs, role plays, and exhibits, can work to explore the process of languaging as well as learners’ development as emergent bilinguals, challenging the traditional “one-answer” notion of standardized monolingual-based assessment in the al classroom. another possibility is the exploration of the multilingual linguistic landscape of a street, town or neighborhood. broadly speaking, linguistic landscape refers to the publicly displayed signs, billboards, and posters in a particular area (landry & bourhis, 1997). elola and prada (forthcoming), propose a course of action for the implementation of a linguistic landscape-based unit in an advanced composition spanish course at a us university, and explore its effects in terms of critical (socio)linguistic awareness. more specifically, a mixed group (composed of l2 and heritage language learners) worked in pairs or triads to explore the spanish linguistic landscape of the surrounding city. in doing so, many of the students noticed and reported how spanish and english were used in combination, beyond simple translations, to create complete messages. strategies such as this expose students to the linguistic practices of others and facilitate their development of informed perspectives on bi-/multilingualism, and ultimately working to normalize multilingualism in the classroom. due to the continued dominance of traditional perspectives that position l2 and fl education as a monolingual event, the bilingual status of al education and the emergent bilingual status of al learners are too often overlooked. moreover, the individual trajectories and experiences of learners are neutralized, and at times, problematized, particularly in the case of students from diverse racial and linguistic backgrounds and low socio-economic status. the undoing of the archaic constructs of monolingual-based pedagogies is prada & turnbull e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 18 dependent upon a focus on multilingualism (see cenoz & gorter, 2011), an understanding of the al learner as a multilingual speaker who employs their full linguistic repertoire to create meaning in various social contexts, and the introduction of a translanguaging instructional design cycle in the al classroom. teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum designers, policy makers, and al students themselves should come to recognize the development of bilingualism as the ultimate goal of al learning. it is only through the employment of translanguaging in the al classroom that we can facilitate the over-due multilingual turn in al education and move towards a holistic understanding of al learners as emergent bilinguals. in doing so, we engage the transformative nature of translanguaging (see prada & nikula, 2018; li wei & zhu hua, 2013) to promote social justice in the classroom, that is, a non-threatening equality between bi-/multi-lingual speakers’ languages and associated identities. this is important for al learning as it “brings together different dimensions of the multilingual speakers’ linguistic, cognitive, and social skills, their knowledge and experience of the social world and their attitudes and beliefs” (li wei & zhu hua, 2013, p. 4; also see garcía & leiva, 2014; skutnabb-kangas, 2009). in the process, we promote equality and harmony between the languages in which learners hold multicompetence and their associated identities, allowing them to draw upon their full linguistic repertoires in developing the tl, to express themselves as individuals, to make meaning of their bilingual worlds, and to learn. 5. conclusions the bilingual education arena, as addressed by the work of garcía and colleagues has pioneered the use of flexible language policies in the classroom. similarly, in the uk, creese and blackledge documented translanguaging in complementary schools in birmingham, and canagarajah’s work has focused on translingual practices in english literacy development. building on their ideas and those of others, and drawing on our own previous research, this article has presented the potential role, possibilities for implementation, and opportunities for learners that translanguaging may mobilize to facilitate the multilingual turn in the al classroom. we have focused on al teaching and learning, a concept aimed to encompass but also to transcend the conceptual and philosophical boundaries of fl and l2 education. we understand translanguaging as a metaprocess and view it as fundamental to the reconceptualization of old perspectives, the normalization of bi-/multilingual practices and experiences, and the leveraging of sociolinguistic backgrounds and skills in the classroom and beyond. three issues were identified as key to the adoption of a translanguaging pedagogy: a need to deforeignize the al learner (their practices, their identities, and their experiences), to understand translanguaging as (meta)skill (and the ability to engage in meaning-making processes that are may align with monolingual patterns but are communicatively purposeful and nuanced), and to understand so called hybrid language forms as emergent (as opposed to the addition of incomplete parts, or strategies to counterbalance semilingualism). the development of translanguaging as a metaskill in al contexts does not preclude the employment of traditional practices in other contexts, such as the language arts classroom, where monolingualism and monolingual ideologies are perpetuated. changes in other spaces, however, may occur over time. in developing our argument, we have emphasized the role of existing conceptualizations of being and becoming bi-/multi-lingual in educational contexts. in doing so, we described how standard monolingual ideologies may impede the cultivation of translanguaging in language classrooms. there is a need for early socialization into models of sociolinguistic behavior that are representative of 21st century global citizenship in our connected world. global citizenship (banks, 2014; 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(2009). first language use in second and foreign language learning. bristol, united kingdom: multilingual matters. wenzhong, li (1993). china english and chinglish. foreign language teaching and research, 4, 18–24. williams, cen (1994). arfarniad o ddulliau dysgu ac addysgu yng nghyd-destun addysg uwchradd ddwyieithog [an evaluation of teaching and learning methods in the context of bilingual secondary education] (unpublished phd thesis). bangor, united kingdom: university of wales. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2018-0020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367006910379298 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14790710903414331 http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/b86110060 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362168810375362 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3588224 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1238866 the role of translanguaging in the multilingual turn e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 8-23 23 zentella, ana c (1997). growing up bilingual: puerto rican children in new york. oxford, united kingdom: blackwell. josh prada, indiana university-purdue university—indianapolis jprada@iu.edu en josh prada (phd, texas tech university; ma, birkbeck, university of london) is assistant professor of spanish applied linguistics in the department of world languages and cultures, in the indiana university school of liberal arts at iupui, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in applied linguistics. his research interests are in critical approaches to bilingualism and multilingualism with an emphasis on minority/heritage speakers, complex approaches to language education, and translanguaging. es josh prada (phd, texas tech university; ma, birkbeck, university of london) es profesor contratado de lingüística aplicada del español en el departamento de lenguas y culturas del mundo en la facultad de estudios liberales de la universidad de indiana iupui, donde enseña cursos de lingüística aplicada a nivel de grado y postgrado. sus intereses investigadores se enfocan en el área de estudios críticos del bilingüismo y multilingüismo con énfasis en hablantes de lenguas de herencia o minoritarias, sistemas complejos en la enseñanza de lenguas y translingüismo. it josh prada (dottorato presso la texas tech university e master presso la birkbeck, university of london) è ricercatore di linguistica applicata spagnola presso il dipartimento di lingue e culture del mondo all’indiana university school of liberal arts dell’indiana university-purdue university-indianapolis, dove insegna corsi di laurea triennale, magistale e post lauream in linguistica applicata. i suoi interessi di ricercar vertono sugli approcci critici al bilinguismo e al multilinguismo con un’enfasi sulle minoranze linguistiche e le lingue ereditarie, sugli approcci alla linguistica educative e al translanguaging. blake turnbull, kyoto university turnbull.blake@gmail.com en blake turnbull is an english instructor at ritsumeikan university, and a ph.d. student in the department of foreign language acquisition and education at kyoto university, japan. he completed his ma degree in applied linguistics at the university of otago, new zealand. his research interests include language education, bi-/multilingualism, and translanguaging. es blake turnbull es profesor de inglés en la ritsumeikan university y estudiante de doctorado en el departamento di enseñanza y adquisición de lenguas en la kyoto university, japón. ha conseguido el máster en lingüística aplicada en la university of otago, nueva zelanda. sus áreas de investigación incluyen la enseñanza de la lengua, el bi/multilingüismo y el translingüismo. it blake turnbull è docente di inglese alla ritsumeikan university e studente di dottorato nel dipartimento di insegnamento e apprendimento delle lingue straniere alla kyoto university, giappone. ha conseguito il master in linguistica applicata presso la university of otago, nuova zelanda. le sue aree di ricerca includono l'insegnamento della lingua, il bi-/multilinguismo e il translanguaging. figure 1. three areas of activity to support/enable classroom translanguaging. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 2, issue 1, august 2015, pages 20-54 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.2.27 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contatto: piroclastico@tin.it oppure esh@unive.it analisi (classica, rasch, dei distrattori) di una prova di lettura a scelta multipla della certificazione di italiano per stranieri cils paolo torresan* alma edizioni received 5 october 2014; received in revised form 13 february 2015; accepted 13 march 2015 abstract it nell’articolo che segue svolgiamo un’analisi degli item di una prova di lettura a scelta multipla di livello b1 della certificazione di italiano per stranieri cils (centro cils, 2009), allestita dall’omonimo centro dell’università per stranieri di siena. operiamo inoltre uno studio della manipolazione del testo autentico avvenuta per mano del certificatore; da tale studio emerge una criticità di rilievo che, a nostro giudizio, pregiudica la coerenza del testo. nel suo insieme, l’indagine consente al lettore di prendere coscienza delle difficoltà che la progettazione di un’esercitazione ampiamente usata, sia in sede di testing che nella didattica di ogni giorno, qual è il quesito a scelta multipla, comporta. parole chiave: didattica dell’italiano come lingua straniera, valutazione della comprensione scritta, quesito a scelta multipla, item analysis. en in the following article, we carry out an analysis of the items from a multiple choice reading test for cils (italian as a foreign language certification) (centro cils, 2009), run by the università per stranieri di siena.we also examine the way in which the original text was modified for the test by the certifying body, leading to what we identify as a critical issue which, in our view, detracts from the text’s coherence. this study illustrates some of the difficulties in designing an exercise used widely in both testing and teaching context, that is, the multiple choice question. key words: teaching italian as a foreign language, assessing reading comprehension, multiple choice questions, item analysis. es en el siguiente artículo hemos llevado a cabo un análisis de los ítems de respuesta múltiple en una prueba de lectura de nivel b1 de la certificación de italiano como lengua extranjera cils (centro cils, 2009), realizada en la universidad para extranjeros de siena. asimismo, hemos observado el modo en el que el texto original ha sido manipulado por el examinador; de dicho estudio emerge una criticidad relevante que, a nuestro modo de ver, afecta a la coherencia del texto. en su conjunto, el estudio permite al lector tomar consciencia de la dificultad que supone diseñar un ejercicio que se utiliza ampliamente tanto en la evaluación como en la didáctica de aula; las preguntas de respuesta múltiple. palabras clave: enseñanza del italiano como lengua extranjera, evaluación de la comprensión escrita, preguntas de opción múltiple, análisis de ítems. http://www.e-journall.org/ torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 21 1. la certificazione cils la certificazione cils, certificazione di italiano come lingua straniera, elaborata dall’omonimo centro di ricerca facente capo all’università per stranieri di siena, è una tra le quattro certificazioni di italiano ls riconosciute dal ministero degli affari esteri italiano all’interno del marchio cliq (certificazione lingua italiana di qualità), finalizzato a garantire standard comuni di valutazione. dalle linee guida della stessa certificazione cils leggiamo: “[…] è rilasciata dall’università dopo un esame costituito da test sulle abilità comunicative. la competenza in italiano come lingua straniera viene descritta, misurata, valutata e garantita con criteri scientifici. la certificazione cils verifica la capacità d’uso della lingua in situazioni comunicative e in rapporto alle loro caratteristiche socio-culturali e sociolinguistiche” (barni et al., 2009, p. 9). la suddetta certificazione attesta la conoscenza dell’italiano facendo riferimento ai livelli descritti dal quadro comune europeo di riferimento per le lingue (d’ora in poi cefr; council of europe, 2001; tabella 1). tabella 1 cils e quadro comune europeo di riferimento: corrispondenza dei livelli di competenza livelli certificazione cils livelli quadro comune europeo di riferimento livello a1 a1 livello a2 a2 cils uno b1 cils due b2 cils tre c1 cils quattro c2 ad ogni livello vengono misurate le quattro abilità linguistiche; inoltre – ad eccezione delle prove di livello a1 per bambini e dei “moduli per l’integrazione”, vale a dire le prove di livello a1 e a2 per apprendenti adulti in italia, (barni et al. 2009, p. 9) – la certificazione rileva competenze specifiche: morfolessicali sin dal livello a1, sociopragmatiche ai livelli b, testuali ai livelli c. 2. la prova oggetto di studio novello descrive in maniera sintetica le caratteristiche di un test a scelta multipla (novello, 2014, p. 63; il corsivo è nostro): l’item a scelta multipla prevede che lo studente scelga tra più opzioni, in genere tre o quattro, l’alternativa corretta. è particolarmente impiegato nella verifica della comprensione scritta e orale […] e della competenza morfosintattica. la scelta multipla permette di testare molti elementi, tra i quali inferenze e opinioni, in modo più controllato rispetto alle domande aperte. è un tipo di esercizio adatto a tutti i livelli di competenza comunicativa in quanto può essere costruito in molti modi, prevedendo l’utilizzo di immagini, singole parole, frasi brevi o frasi complesse. la costruzione di un item a scelta multipla si dimostra particolarmente complessa in quanto necessita della creazione di tre o quattro opzioni adatte al compito, senza possibilità assurde (che non porterebbero a nessuna riflessione, ma solo ad una scelta per eliminazione) o che il candidato possa intuire senza aver letto/ascoltato il testo1. 1 nell’appendice a rimandiamo a una serie di indicazioni pratiche relative alla confezione di un test a scelta multipla. analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 22 il test a scelta multipla oggetto di analisi si compone di sette item, con quattro opzioni ciascuno, riferiti a un testo scritto relativo a fatti d’attualità. assieme all’individuazione di informazioni (che è una forma elaborata di vero/falso; torresan, 2014) e all’incastro o riordino di testo (noto anche come anche jigsaw o sequencing task; torresan, 2015), il quesito a scelta multipla contribuisce a definire il set di prove di cui si dota il certificatore per valutare l’abilità di lettura del candidato. testo e item sono stati confezionati in modo da accertare le competenze di un candidato di livello b1 (cils uno). la prova è stata presentata nella sessione estiva del 2009 (centro cils, 2009). la nostra indagine mira ad accertarne la validità. per validità intendiamo la capacità di misurare effettivamente ciò che la prova si propone di misurare, vale a dire la comprensione di un testo scritto da parte di uno studente di italiano (per un prospetto generale sulla questione della validità, d’este 2013). in particolare l’abilità di comprensione va rapportata al profilo di uno studente di livello b1, così sintetizzato nelle linee guida cils (barni et al., 2009, p. 30) “il candidato sa comprendere il senso globale e le principali informazioni presenti in testi scritti con scrittura lineare di argomento quotidiano e generale”. ci concentriamo, in particolare, sui seguenti elementi:  istruzioni e input (paragrafo 2.1.)  item (paragrafo 2.2.) 2.1. le istruzioni e l’input le istruzioni risultano chiare e precise, come si può osservare nel seguente esempio estratto dal test: completa le seguenti frasi. scegli una delle quattro proposte di completamento che ti diamo per ogni frase. il testo della prova di lettura presenta consistenti modifiche rispetto all’originale da cui è stato tratto, ossia un articolo del corriere della sera (taglietti, 2007). le modifiche operate sul testo originale (d’ora in poi to) sono tese a:  un ‘alleggerimento’ del testo di arrivo, con l’espunzione di informazioni (probabilmente) ritenute accessorie o ridondanti  una semplificazione della lingua del testo di partenza (in termini morfosintattici e lessicali) nella presentazione affiancata dei testi – to e testo modificato (d’ora in poi tm) – illustriamo le modifiche occorse. evidenziamo, inoltre, criticità che emergono nel tm. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 23 tabella 2 testo originale e testo modificato a confronto testo originale testo modificato cils tendenze alla fiera di bologna arrivano narratori giovanissimi. rigorosamente under 20 «e adesso i libri ce li scriviamo da soli». la nuova generazione di autori adolescenti ragazzi che (forse) leggono poco, ma certo scrivono molto. per rendersene conto basterà fare un giro tra gli stand della fiera del libro per ragazzi che domani apre i battenti a bologna, tradizionale appuntamento dove si vendono e comprano i diritti e rituale occasione per fare il punto sulla situazione di un mercato sempre sull’orlo della crisi. l’offerta di romanzi per i cosiddetti young adults è sempre ampia, i dati dell’aie (associazione italiana editori) quest’anno sono addirittura più confortanti (rilevano un aumento della lettura nella fascia che va dagli 11 ai 17 anni), ma ciò che emerge come una tendenza nuova è la crescita di una giovane leva di autori che sanno parlare ai loro coetanei affrontando, con ambizioni ed esiti diversi, qualunque genere. così se una delle iniziative di maggior successo della prima edizione del fantasio festival di perugia è stato il concorso «g.a.s. al minimo» che ha raccolto le storie brevi di oltre tremila giovani aspiranti scrittori tra i 17 e i 23 anni (37 sono state scelte e pubblicate in un volume), a bologna autrici come la ventunenne sara boero al suo terzo romanzo con piume di drago (piemme) o la ventiseienne licia troisi, bestsellerista affermata con la trilogia delle cronache del mondo emerso (mondadori), sono ormai delle veterane. l’editoria sforna continuamente giovani autori (anzi più spesso autrici), così il nuovo caso letterario è la sedicenne valentina f., autrice di tvukdb, cioè «ti voglio un kasino di bene», diario di un anno nella vita di una ragazza romana tra scuola, amicizia, amori. «io scrivo da anni un diario che faccio leggere solo alla mia amica del cuore, marta, la ragazza di cui parlo anche nel libro. insieme abbiamo pensato che era fico farlo pubblicare» spiega valentina. il libro non ha nulla di spinto o di pruriginoso, valentina f. non è melissa p. e il massimo a cui si può arrivare è un bacio; il cognome di valentina, il suo aspetto, persino la sua voce sono rigorosamente protetti dalla famiglia che non vuole gettarla nel circo mediatico (al punto da fa pensare che valentina sia solo un nom de plume), eppure in due settimane il diario ha venduto 12 mila copie costringendo l’editore fanucci che lo pubblica nella collana teens a una ristampa. per valentina il livello dei libri per ragazzi è abbastanza buono (l’ultimo che ha letto è io sono di legno di giulia carcasi, tre metri sopra il cielo lo ha letto addirittura tre volte) e si possono «trovare un sacco di storie che parlano di noi, anche se spesso non raccontano come siamo e viviamo veramente». tuttavia i ragazzi non scrivono soltanto di loro stessi, del loro mondo, dei loro bisogni e desideri, ma si cimentano anche su temi forti, difficili da raccontare. basti pensare a randa ghazy nata a saronno da genitori egiziani che, nel 2002, appena quindicenne, sconvolse la fiera con il suo sognando palestina, all’indomani dell’11 settembre. quest’anno, ormai diciannovenne, ripropone un altro titolo forte, forse oggi non ammazzo nessuno, storia di jasmine, «una giovane musulmana stranamente non terrorista» che, con l’arma dell’ironia riesce a stare a cavallo tra due mondi, quello musulmano e quello occidentale, senza appartenere pienamente a nessuno. un tema difficile, soprattutto da raccontare a un pubblico di adolescenti, è “e adesso i libri ce li scriviamo da soli”. la nuova generazione di autori adolescenti secondo recenti indagini in italia i ragazzi leggono ancora troppo poco, ma certo scrivono molto. per rendersene conto basta fare un giro tra gli stand della fiera del libro per ragazzi a bologna, aperta dal 27 aprile , dove arrivano scrittori giovanissimi, rigorosamente sotto i 20 anni . la fiera di bologna è l’occasione per fare il punto sulla situazione del mercato dell’editoria. l’offerta dei romanzi per i giovani è sempre ampia. i dati dell’aie associazione italiana editori quest’anno rilevano un aumento della lettura nella fascia cha va dagli 11 ai 17 anni, ma ciò che emerge come una tendenza nuova è la crescita di una giovane schiera di autori che parlano ai loro coetanei e affrontano qualunque genere letterario. una iniziativa di successo per i giovani è il concorso letterario g.a.s.giovani aspiranti scrittori, che si svolge ormai da due anni all’interno del festival fantasia di perugia. nel 2008 g.a.s. ha raccolto le storie brevi di oltre tremila giovani aspiranti scrittori tra i 17 e i 23 anni. la casa editrice pim ha pubblicato in un volume 37 di queste storie, molti altri racconti sono invece disponibili, con relativa scheda identificativa dell’autore, sul sito internet www.fantasiafestival.it. l’editoria sforna continuamente giovani autori, più spesso autrici. il nuovo caso letterario è la sedicenne valentina f., autrice di [ptm1] tvukdb “ti voglio un kasino di bene”, diario di un anno della vita di una ragazza di roma, tra scuola, amicizia, amori. “io scrivo da anni un diario che faccio leggere solo alla mia amica del cuore, marta, la ragazza di cui parlo anche nel libro. insieme abbiamo pensato di pubblicarlo” spiega valentina. valentina non è il suo nome , la analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 24 anche quello affrontato da erika silvestri, ventenne di ladispoli. nel suo il commerciante di bottoni (fabbri), introdotto da una prefazione di walter veltroni, racconta la storia di piero terracina, sopravvissuto ad auschwitz, conosciuto quando aveva 14 anni. «il libro è una raccolta di incontri, di conversazioni quasi private. non volevo che l’esperienza di piero, a cui sono legata come se fosse un nonno, andasse perduta». erika racconta di aver sempre amato scrivere, e anche leggere: «ma non ho mai letto i cosiddetti libri per ragazzi. leggo i libri “normali”, molti saggi, perché amo i temi storici, in particolare quelli legati all’olocausto». erika di federico moccia ha soltanto sentito parlare. «non lo conosco perché non è il mio genere, ma probabilmente il suo successo sta nel fatto che ha trovato un linguaggio adatto per parlare ai ragazzi». anche maurizio temporin, diciottenne di novi ligure, non legge la cosiddetta letteratura per ragazzi, non considera il suo romanzo, il tango delle cattedrali (che uscirà da rizzoli il 2 maggio) appartenente al tanto popolare genere fantasy, nonostante la presenza di un gargoyle nelle prime pagine («se proprio dovessi scegliere un genere direi che è fantascienza», spiega). il tango delle cattedrali è un libro dall’architettura complessa e dalle grandi ambizioni, che parla di tango, di arte, di immortalità, che mescola mondi paralleli e giochi letterari, oscar wilde e gli amici dell’autore. maurizio ha interrotto gli studi al terzo anno del liceo scientifico, a 15 anni è andato a vivere con la sua ragazza, scrive da quando ne aveva 12. se gli parli di federico moccia risponde con fabrizio de andré, ray bradbury, tim burton e federico fellini. * * * erika erika silvestri, 20 anni,1 vive a ladispoli e studia storia medievale alla sapienza di roma. ama dipingere e disegnare * * * maurizio maurizio temporin, 18 anni, vive tra novi ligure e barcellona. ha interrotto gli studi al liceo scientifico, ama il tango e gli scacchi * * * valentina valentina f., 16 anni, romana, studia al liceo scientifico. non vuole rivelare la sua vera identità (la foto è stata ritoccata) * * * la kermesse la fiera internazionale del libro per ragazzi di bologna è aperta da domani al 27 aprile . vi prendono parte circa 1200 editori, provenienti da 54 paesi. al paese ospite, il belgio, è dedicata una sezione speciale della mostra degli illustratori che quest’anno propone 85 artisti provenienti da 23 paesi. informazioni e programma si possono trovare al sito www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it. famiglia vuole mantenere nascosta la sua vera identità, la sua immagine, persino la sua voce. il diario in due settimane ha venduto 12 mila copie e l’editore ha dovuto fare anche una ristampa. per valentina il livello dei libri per ragazzi è abbastanza buono: “ci sono molti scrittori grandi che scrivono buone storie che parlano di noi, ma spesso non raccontano come siamo e come viviamo veramente”. [ptm2] anche il diciottenne maurizio t. [ptm3] di novi ligure non legge la letteratura per ragazzi, ma scrive romanzi. il suo ultimo libro, il tango delle cattedrali [ptm4] è un libro complesso, che parla di tango e di arte, che mischia mondi letterari e amici dell’autore. maurizio scrive da quando aveva 12 anni e ora ha anche interrotto la scuola per dedicarsi interamente alla scrittura. legenda. testo originale: blu barrato parte soggetta a espunzione (informazioni eliminate); grassetto grigio parte soggetta a manipolazione significativa. testo modificato cils: blu sottolineato inserzioni (informazioni aggiunte); ptm problemi nel tm (testo modificato); riquadrettato le informazioni equivalenti su porzioni distinte dei testi sono poste all’interno di riquadri. le criticità presenti nel tm riguardano, per la maggior parte dei casi, la punteggiatura. in un caso, a nostro giudizio di particolare rilievo, l’espunzione di informazioni presenti nel to produce incoerenza nel tm (ptm2). nella tabella 3 presentiamo in dettaglio il prospetto delle criticità presenti nel tm (gli emendamenti da noi suggeriti vengono rappresentati, di volta in volta, in grassetto). http://www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it/ torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 25 tabella 3 criticità presenti nel testo modificato testo modificato emendamento suggerito commento ptm1 il nuovo caso letterario è la sedicenne valentina f., autrice di [] tvukdb “ti voglio un kasino di bene”, diario di un anno della vita di una ragazza di roma, tra scuola, amicizia, amori. il nuovo caso letterario è la sedicenne valentina f., autrice di [] “tvukdb [] . ti voglio un [] kasino di bene”, diario di un anno della vita di una ragazza di roma, tra scuola, amicizia, amori. occorre racchiudere il titolo per intero tra virgolette, inserire un punto tra titolo e sottotitolo, rendere in minuscolo l’iniziale della parola “kasino”. ptm2 [] anche il diciottenne maurizio t. di novi ligure non legge la letteratura per ragazzi, ma scrive romanzi. anche il diciottenne maurizio t. di novi ligure [] [non legge la letteratura per ragazzi, ma] scrive romanzi. il dato di cui si parla (il fatto che maurizio t. non legga libri per ragazzi) si raccorda con quanto è stato espunto dal to (il fatto che erika silvestri non legga libri per ragazzi) e non con il dato che invece precede l’informazione nel tm (valentina legge libri per ragazzi). l’emendamento che suggeriamo, posto che sia plausibile alterare il testo come il certificatore ha fatto, è l’espunzione dell’informazione. ptm3 anche il diciottenne maurizio t. [] di novi ligure non legge la letteratura per ragazzi, ma scrive romanzi. anche il diciottenne maurizio t. [] , di novi ligure [] , non legge la letteratura per ragazzi, ma scrive romanzi. l’inciso andrebbe compreso tra virgole. ptm4 il suo ultimo libro, il tango delle cattedrali [] è un libro complesso, che parla di tango e di arte, che mischia mondi letterari e amici dell’autore. il suo ultimo libro, il tango delle cattedrali [], è un libro complesso, che parla di tango e di arte, che mischia mondi letterari e amici dell’autore. è necessaria una virgola a chiusura dell’inciso. riportiamo ora le nostre osservazioni in merito alla scelta del testo (to) e alle operazioni che su di esso sono state eseguite (tm). per quanto riguarda il testo, il certificatore ha agito in conformità alle indicazioni presenti nelle linee guida cils (barni et al., 2009). il testo di riferimento è infatti un articolo informativo-divulgativo e come tale rientra nei generi testuali relativi al livello b1, secondo le suddette linee (barni et al. 2009, p. 30: “lettere, brani narrativi, articoli informativo-divulgativi, regolamenti”). nello stesso documento (barni et al., 2009, p. 30), peraltro, “si presume che i testi”, in una prova di lettura rivolta a un candidato di livello b1, “siano comprensibili ad un italofono con istruzione di base”. questo secondo aspetto non è, a nostro avviso, evidente nel to: vi compaiono infatti riferimenti culturali che possono risultare di difficile presa per un italofono con istruzione di base. se poi lo confrontiamo con i descrittori del cefr relativi alle competenze attese da un lettore di livello b1, il to non risulta adatto. è lungo, sintatticamente complesso, tutt’altro che lineare, e l’argomento di cui tratta (l’editoria giovanile) non è considerabile familiare per un candidato-tipo. ciò può aver spinto il analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 26 certificatore a operare un rimaneggiamento sia a livello micro (operazioni lessicali, morfologiche e sintattiche circoscritte) che a livello macro:  riorientando il tema: alla fiera di bologna viene dato un rapido accenno;  espungendo parti ritenute accessorie: i resoconti dell’attività letteraria di un paio di autrici vengono eliminati;  riorganizzando le informazioni: si riprendono dati presenti nei box laterali e li si incorpora nell’articolo. l’operazione, tuttavia, è da considerarsi non riuscita. il tm risulta infatti diviso in due blocchi, il blocco a (la fiera di bologna e il concorso di perugia) e il blocco b (due autori, valentina f. e maurizio t.), ciascuno dei quali presenta delle difficoltà. nel blocco a:  gli eventi paiono giustapposti (sia a causa dalla modifica del layout in virtù della quale le informazioni vengono compattate, sia per la mancanza di dispositivi coesivi che mettano in relazione quanto descritto);  l’informazione iniziale (“i ragazzi leggono ancora troppo poco”) mal si accorda con quanto emerge dai dati dell’aie (“un aumento della lettura nella fascia che va dagli 11 ai 17 anni”). nel blocco b:  l’informazione di apertura (“l’editoria sforna continuamente giovani autori, più spesso autrici”) pare non adeguatamente sviluppata. in sostanza, mentre riceve una giustificazione nel to (dato che ad essa segue la menzione dell’attività di scrittura da parte di tre ragazze), nel tm pare avere una scarsa tenuta con l’intero blocco (perché seguita dalla descrizione della produzione letteraria di una ragazza e di un ragazzo);  si dà un cortocircuito logico, come già visto:  “per valentina il livello dei libri dei ragazzi è abbastanza buono”;  “anche il diciottenne maurizio t. di novi ligure non legge letteratura per ragazzi”. le guidelines for writers of reading test (d’ora in poi gwrt) allestite dal british council ungherese (alderson & cseresznyés, 2002) e punto di riferimento per molti item writer2 invitano a non manipolare in alcun modo le fonti: do not make any changes to the original text. do not delete words, sentences of paragraphs from the selected body of the text. if text contains any offensive words that you think should be replaced, only change these with great care and always seek the advice of a fellow teacher or a native speaker as to the acceptability of the changes you have made. (paragrafo 3.1.10)3 una posizione meno intransigente può ammettere operazioni superficiali, puntuali, che non comportino uno stravolgimento della struttura testuale. nel caso in esame, come abbiamo visto, le manomissioni sono, invece, consistenti. il passaggio dal to al tm presenta i caratteri di una giustapposizione poco sorvegliata, con pesanti ricadute sulla resa del testo di arrivo. il problema alla base, secondo noi, sta nella scelta della fonte; è infatti evidente che operazioni micro sono possibili solo se la fonte presenta caratteristiche testuali in accordo con quelle previste dal cefr per quel dato livello. in altre parole, se il testo di partenza avesse presentato i caratteri di semplicità e linearità e se l’argomento fosse risultato familiare (come previsto per il livello b1), il certificatore non sarebbe dovuto 2 si possono consultare all’interno del progetto into europe (alderson & cseresznyés, 2002). 3 circa la legittimità/opportunità della semplificazione dei testi in ambito glottodidattico, rimandiamo a humphris in derosas, torresan, 2009; spinelli, 2000; urbani, 1989; wilkins, 1972, 1976. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 27 intervenire così massicciamente e, con grande probabilità, non sarebbe incorso in un risultato così poco soddisfacente. 2.2. gli item nella sezione che segue consideriamo:  la distribuzione delle corrispondenze delle chiavi nel testo (paragrafo 2.3.1.);  l’analisi statistica (classica e rasch) delle risposte agli item da parte di un campione di studenti (paragrafi 2.2.2.; 2.2.3.);  l’attribuzione di livello degli item da parte di un gruppo di formandi esaminatori (paragrafo 2.2.4.);  l’analisi dei distrattori (paragrafo 2.2.5.). 2.2.1. la distribuzione delle corrispondenze delle chiavi nel testo le corrispondenze delle chiavi paiono adeguatamente distribuite lungo il testo, coerentemente con quanto si legge nelle gwrt: “items must follow the text sequence” (punto 2.3.2.). tabella 4 la distribuzione delle corrispondenze delle chiavi nel testo testo modificato item [1] secondo recenti indagini in italia i ragazzi leggono ancora troppo poco, ma certo scrivono molto. per rendersene conto basta fare un giro tra gli stand della fiera del libro per ragazzi a bologna, aperta dal 27 aprile, dove arrivano scrittori giovanissimi, rigorosamente sotto i 20 anni. [2] la fiera di bologna è l’occasione per fare il punto sulla situazione del mercato dell’editoria. l’offerta dei romanzi per i giovani è sempre ampia. i dati dell’aie associazione italiana editori quest’anno rilevano un aumento della lettura nella fascia cha va dagli 11 ai 17 anni, ma ciò che emerge come una tendenza nuova è la crescita di una giovane schiera di autori che parlano ai loro coetanei e affrontano qualunque genere letterario. [3] una iniziativa di successo per i giovani è il concorso letterario g.a.s.giovani aspiranti scrittori, che si svolge ormai da due anni all’interno del festival fantasia di perugia. nel 2008 g.a.s. ha raccolto le storie brevi di oltre tremila giovani aspiranti scrittori tra i 17 e i 23 anni. la casa editrice pim ha pubblicato in un volume 37 di queste storie, molti altri racconti sono invece disponibili, con relativa scheda identificativa dell’autore, sul sito internet www.fantasiafestival.it. [4] l’editoria sforna continuamente giovani autori, più spesso autrici. il nuovo caso letterario è la sedicenne valentina f., autrice di tvukdb “ti voglio un kasino di bene”, [5] diario di un anno della vita di una ragazza di roma, tra scuola, amicizia, amori. “io scrivo da anni un diario che faccio leggere solo alla mia amica del cuore, marta, la ragazza di cui parlo anche nel libro. insieme abbiamo pensato di pubblicarlo” spiega valentina. valentina non è il suo nome, la famiglia vuole mantenere nascosta la sua vera identità, la sua immagine, persino la sua voce. il diario in due settimane ha venduto 12 mila copie e l’editore ha dovuto fare anche una ristampa. per valentina il livello dei libri per ragazzi è abbastanza buono: [6] “ci sono molti scrittori grandi che 1. ricerche recenti sull’editoria hanno rilevato che in italia sono in aumento a) i giovani scrittori. b) i lettori di romanzi. c) le pubblicazioni per ragazzi. d) le case editrici di piccole dimensioni. 2. la fiera del libro di bologna offre l’occasione per a) intervistare molti autori contemporanei. b) conoscere le nuove tendenze letterarie. c) comprare libri a prezzi scontati. d) acquistare testi rari e originali. 3. il concorso letterario g.a.s. ha permesso a diversi giovani di a) farsi conoscere dal grande pubblico. b) riuscire a guadagnare qualche soldo. c) partecipare a festival letterari internazionali. d) vedere pubblicati i propri racconti. 4. un dato che emerge nell’editoria è che a) prevalgono le autrici straniere. b) molti scrittori preferiscono pubblicare su internet. c) gli autori amano diffondere immagini di loro stessi. d) le ragazze scrivono di più dei ragazzi. 5. valentina f. ha pubblicato un diario a) in cui racconta un anno della sua vita. b) redatto a due mani con la sua amica. c) dove parla del suo rapporto con la famiglia. d) scritto per sfuggire alla depressione. 6. secondo valentina f. gli scrittori adulti a) non sanno raccontare il mondo degli adolescenti. analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 28 scrivono buone storie che parlano di noi, ma spesso non raccontano come siamo e come viviamo veramente”. anche il diciottenne maurizio t. di novi ligure non legge la letteratura per ragazzi, ma scrive romanzi. [7] il suo ultimo libro, il tango delle cattedrali è un libro complesso, che parla di tango e di arte, che mischia mondi letterari e amici dell’autore. maurizio scrive da quando aveva 12 anni e ora ha anche interrotto la scuola per dedicarsi interamente alla scrittura. b) usano uno stile troppo elaborato. c) non conoscono la scrittura abbreviata dei giovani. d) scrivono romanzi lunghi e noiosi. 7. maurizio t. ha scritto a) storie per ragazzini. b) un romanzo sul tango. c) un manuale sul ballo. d) racconti fantastici. 2.2.2. analisi classica degli item un item ‘funziona’ nella misura in cui discrimina gli esaminandi in base alla competenza, vale a dire distingue i candidati abili da quelli che non lo sono, in riferimento al livello per il quale il test è stato confezionato. se l’item risulta troppo facile (e quindi non discrimina a sufficienza) o, al contrario, troppo difficile, la prova è in disequilibrio rispetto al livello al quale viene riferita (mcnamara, 2000, pp. 60-61): where the text purpose is to make distinctions between candidates, to spread them out in terms of their performance on the texts, the items should be neither too easy nor too difficult. if the items are too easy, then people with differing levels of ability or knowledge will all get them right, and the differences in ability or knowledge will not be revealed by the item. similarly if the items are too hard, then able and less able candidates alike will get them wrong, and the item won’t help us in distinguishing between them. un indicatore utile, in tal senso, è la percentuale di studenti che hanno risposto correttamente ai singoli item, il cosiddetto facility value (d’ora in poi fv). quale fv considerare per stabilire l’appropriatezza di un item rispetto al livello dichiarato? per un proficiency test, mcnamara sostiene quanto segue: ideal item facility [i.e. facility value, ndt.] is 0.5 [i.e. 50%, ndt.] but of course it is hard to hit this target exactly, and a range of item facilities from 0.33 [i.e. 33%, ndt.] to 0.67 [i.e. 67%, ndt.] is usually accepted. (mcnamara, 2000, p. 67) poi precisa: even though […] items that are very easy (item with high item facility) do not distinguish between candidates, it may be useful to include some at the beginning of a test in order to ease candidates into the test and to allow them a chance to get over their nerves4. (mcnamara, 2000, p. 67) rita green riconosce margini più ampi: the most useful information about a test taker’s proficiency comes from facility values which are around 50 per cent (see popham, 2000) as this value suggests that the item might be discriminating between the test takers (though it is not always the case); 40 to 60 per cent (see bachman, 2004), which are the values many test developers use when making initial decisions about whether an item is working or not. facility values between 20 and 80 per cent can also provide useful information provided the items still discriminate and contribute to the test’s internal consistency […]. facility values of below 20 per cent and above 80 per cent in a proficiency test suggest that most of the test population is either answering the item incorrectly or correctly respectively, which reduces the chance of gaining useful information about the test takers and/or the items. (green, 2013, pp. 26-27) abbiamo somministrato la prova a 179 studenti di livello b1, avvalendoci della disponibilità di colleghi che operano sia in italia (in prevalenza nelle scuole private) che all’estero (in prevalenza negli istituti italiani di cultura e nelle università). nel prospetto che segue abbiamo raccolto gli fv (tabella 4) ed evidenziato le risposte nulle (omesse o doppie). posto che il nostro campione di riferimento sia significativo per numero e tipologia (179 studenti, 4 per il ruolo esercitato dal placebo effect sulla motivazione, cfr. geers et al., 2005. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 29 di nazionalità diversa) e soprattutto per livello (b1, stando all’individuazione di livello da parte della ventina di docenti coinvolti)5, abbiamo riscontrato la presenza di due item (#1 e #7) molto facili (fv>90), e di un item (#4) particolarmente difficile (fv=31,3). l’item #4 e l’item #6 presentano, inoltre, un elevato numero di risposte nulle. tabella 5 fv e risposte nulle item fv risposte nulle 1 92,2 0 2 81,6 3 3 57,0 1 4 31,3 7 5 64,2 3 6 81,6 6 7 92,2 0 il seguente istogramma (figura 1) illustra la distribuzione dei punteggi complessivi raggiunti dal campione. la maggior parte degli studenti a cui il test è stato somministrato (51) ha risposto correttamente a 6 item su 7 (la colonna in riferimento al #6 sulle ascisse è, in effetti, la più alta). si tratta di un profilo con disallineamento negativo (negatively skewed; in sostanza, la coda della curva a campana punta verso lo zero, quindi idealmente verso i valori negativi): il test è, cioè, relativamente facile per il campione a cui è stato somministrato. figura 1. punteggi dei candidati alla prova di lettura a scelta multipla, certificazione cils, sessione giugno 2009, livello b1. 5 l’individuazione del livello delle singole classi è stata operata dagli stessi insegnanti che hanno collaborato alla raccolta dati. è ad essi, dunque, che ci siamo affidati. nel caso in cui singoli docenti manifestassero perplessità, abbiamo fornito loro le indicazioni del cefr, e ci siamo sincerati del livello attraverso l’analisi del manuale di italiano in adozione. analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 30 per quanto concerne la discriminazione, ovvero la capacità del test di distinguere gli studenti abili da quelli meno abili, l’indice di riferimento è la correlazione del totale item corretta6. questo indice oscilla da +1 a -1. valori superiori allo 0.30 (o 0.25 a dipendere dal grado di rigore, cfr. henning, 1987) ci informano che il test discrimina adeguatamente; vale a dire, il candidato che risponde correttamente all’item ha maggiore probabilità di rispondere correttamente agli altri item. valori inferiori allo 0.30 (0.25, vedi sopra) o addirittura negativi ci indicano il contrario: l’item non discrimina adeguatamente (può capitare che a rispondere correttamente siano i meno abili, per via di strategie di guessing). un indice di discriminazione basso (inferiore allo 0.30/0.25) può essere dovuto a:  sotto o sovradimensionamento dell’item;  cattiva qualità dell’item (doppia chiave, ambiguità della chiave, ecc.);  comportamento divergente dell’item rispetto agli altri; l’item cioè sta verificando qualcosa di diverso rispetto agli altri7. si ha, in tal senso, un caso di construct-irrelevant variance: una variabile esterna al costrutto esercita un impatto sul comportamento del candidato (nel nostro caso ciò significherebbe che per rispondere correttamente alla prova di lettura non è coinvolta solo l’abilità di comprensione scritta ma anche altre competenze, come per esempio il background culturale). un item con un basso indice di discriminazione deve essere, in ogni caso, scartato. nella tabella sottostante riportiamo la correlazione del totale item corretta degli item in questione. da notare il valore basso di tre item, #2, #4, #7 (evidenziati in grigio). tabella 6 correlazione del totale item corretta item correlazione del totale item corretta 1 ,258 2 1,69 3 ,293 4 ,145 5 ,265 6 ,249 7 ,078 risalendo a quanto detto sopra, e anticipando i risultati dell’analisi degli item che verranno discussi nel paragrafo 2.3.5:  l’item #2 presenta caratteristiche di construct-irrelevant variance, le quali inficiano, a nostro dire, la validità della prova;  l’item #4 è sovradimensionato;  l’item #7 è sottodimensionato. 6 non ci occupiamo dell’affidabilità dei singoli item (alfa di cronbach). il numero esiguo degli item non ci permette, infatti, di pervenire a dati attendibili; imporrebbe indagini fattoriali che esulano dalla ricerca in corso (si veda green, 2013, pp. 39-40). 7 in sostanza, la correlazione del totale item corretta ci restituisce informazioni sulla ‘compattezza’ della prova: sappiamo cioè se un item ‘lavora’ in sinergia con gli altri o ha, per così dire, un comportamento a sé. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 31 2.2.3. analisi rasch sul rapporto tra la difficoltà degli item e l’abilità dei candidati l’analisi rasch è un modello di calcolo probabilistico in cui l’abilità dei candidati viene messa in relazione alla difficoltà degli item. il modello si basa sulla premessa secondo cui la possibilità di un candidato di rispondere correttamente a un item è una funzione della sua abilità e della difficoltà dell’item (henning, 1987, pp. 107-8). riprendiamo da mcnamara quanto segue: consider the case of a dichotomous scored item [com’è il nostro caso, n.d.a.], that is one in which the responses may be ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’. if we know how an individual has performed on other items (we have some estimate of his or her ability), and if we know how other individuals have performed on the item in question (we have an estimate of how difficult the item is), then we are in a position to make an estimate of how likely it is that the individual will respond in a particular way –that is, to choose either the ‘correct’ or the ‘incorrect’ answer. if an item is easy, and the individual ability is high, there will be a high likelihood of a correct response. on the other hand, if the item is difficult, and the individual ability is low is unlikely that he or she will make a ‘correct’ response […]. note that we are talking about expectancies, either outcome (‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’) is theoretically possible for each response to each item, but in proportions that will differ as function of the item and the estimated ability of the candidate. (mcnamara, 1996, p. 160) un esempio. immaginiamo che i candidati a e b abbiano ottenuto il medesimo punteggio, avendo risposto correttamente a una batteria di 5 item, e quindi totalizzando 5 punti ciascuno, uno per item. consideriamo però che l’item #5 sia di diversa difficoltà: più difficile nel caso di b (figura 2). in un’analisi statistica classica, questa differenza non viene apprezzata. in realtà, nonostante il punteggio sia equivalente, la competenza che b ha modo di dimostrare è maggiore. figura 2. diverse abilità degli studenti a parità di punteggio (raw score) una rilevazione rasch tiene conto di questi fattori, distinguendo il punteggio osservato (obs. average nella tabella 7), che di fatto equivale al fv (si veda tabella 5, paragrafo precedente), dal punteggio atteso, ovvero determinato secondo l’analisi della probabilità (fair average, nella tabella 7) e sensibile al rapporto difficoltà dell’item/abilità del candidato. nella tabella 7 emerge la notevole discrepanza tra il punteggio osservato dell’item #4 (0.31) e il punteggio atteso (0.15). in sostanza, posto che il nostro campione sia rappresentativo, un candidato di livello b1 ha un 15% di probabilità di rispondere correttamente all’item #4, che risulta con evidenza un item analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 32 sovradimensionato (l’item è evidenziato in grigio). gli item più facili, invece (pur’essi evidenziati in grigio), hanno un punteggio atteso che ne accentua il carattere sottostimato (#1 e #7, rispettivamente 0.94 e 0.95)8. la fit statistics, rappresentata sempre nella tabella 7, accerta inoltre l’adeguatezza (fit) dei dati raccolti a un modello di discriminazione secondo il quale è più probabile che (si veda bond & fox, 2007):  un candidato risponda a un item semplice rispetto a uno difficile;  i candidati più abili rispondano correttamente ai diversi item, a differenza di quelli meno abili. se non si verificano queste premesse, possiamo dedurre situazioni di divergenza, vale a dire di superuniformità (overfitting) o di variabilità eccessiva (misfitting). per i candidati, tali divergenze sono rappresentabili in termini di:  overfitting, assenza di variabilità nelle risposte (es. un candidato che dia sempre la stessa risposta, del tipo: 1b, 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b);  misfitting, variabilità eccessiva delle risposte (es.: candidati abili che rispondono in maniera scorretta a item facili, o viceversa, candidati poco abili che rispondono correttamente a item difficili). per gli item, le divergenze si traducono così: overfitting, assenza di interdipendenza tra gli item (i.e. ridondanza9); misfitting, variazioni nella performance dei candidati in riferimento a quel singolo item, che risultano inesplicate per il modello, cioè inattese (dovute per esempio a item bias, a trascrizioni errate delle risposte10 o a multidimensionalità per via di fattori esterni a quelli previsti 11 ). nella nostra indagine, ciò cui prestiamo attenzione non è il comportamento dei candidati. l’oggetto dello studio è la prova; pertanto torna utile concentrarci sul ‘funzionamento’ degli item. i risultati ci confortano: i valori di riferimento (la zstd, standardized fit statistics, con un campione n<200, come nel nostro caso) rientrano nella norma, vale a dire tra +/– 2, con zero come valore atteso; come è stato messo in luce da linacre, 2012b) 8 come già detto, la nostra analisi si basa su una distribuzione con disallineamento negativo. la statistica conferma (significatività pari a zero nel test di normalità secondo il metodo shapiro-wilk). una misurazione rasch può perdere in affidabilità con una distribuzione non-normale, come sostiene wright (2001), “in general, skew reduces reliability, so your reliability should have increased a little with the normalized sample” (p. 786). linacre tuttavia contempla la possibilità di una distribuzione tale e quale appare nel nostro caso (il corsivo è nostro): “persons: we usually expect a normal distribution, or a distribution skewed in a certain way. […] items: we usually expect the items to be uniformly distributed (like marks on a ruler) or clustered at pass-fail points” (2012a, slide 36, punto 1). 9 scrive linacre (2000): “for measurement purposes, we want an item that focuses on the same thing as the other items, but produces one item's worth of new information. a useful item is «as similar as possible, but as different as possible». including the same item twice in a test is nearly always redundant. such items do not provide two item's worth of new information, since responses to one are overly predictable from responses to the other” (p. 755). 10 scrive linacre (1995): “one item may be cuing another or an item may be miskeyed. a response form may have been unintentionally scanned twice or may have been mis-scanned” (p. 6). 11 per esempio le strategie di guessing costituiscono una dimensione ‘altra’ rispetto all’abilità del candidato, sicché le risposte che derivano da quelle ‘inquinano’, per così dire, la nostra lettura dei dati; si veda a tal proposito linacre (1998); o ancora il fatto di disporre di un costrutto complesso, com’è il caso di un test di abilità integrate, come il riassunto, previsto per esempio nella certificazione ise del trinity college o nella certificazione celi dell’università per stranieri di perugia. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 33 tabella 712 fit statistics riferita agli item tot score tot count obsvd average fair (m) average measure model s. e. infit mnsq infit zstd outfit mnsq outfit zstd estim. discrm corr. ptmea corr. ptexp it 55 179 .31 .15 2.82 .21 1.16 1.4 1.37 1.3 .74 .51 .52 i4 102 179 .57 .50 1.11 .18 .92 -.9 .88 -1.0 1.17 .60 .54 i3 115 179 .64 .61 .66 .19 .95 -.6 .87 -1.0 1.14 .57 .53 i5 145 179 .81 .84 -.52 .22 .92 -.6 1.00 .0 1.07 .47 .44 i6 147 179 .82 .85 -.61 .22 1.06 .4 .92 -.2 .97 .42 .44 i2 164 179 .92 .94 -1.69 .29 .89 -.5 .54 -1.1 1.11 .40 .33 i1 165 179 .92 .95 -1.78 .30 1.13 .6 .96 .0 .92 .26 .32 i7 tot score tot count obsvd average fair (m) average measure model s. e. infit mnsq infit zstd outfit mnsq outfit zstd estim. discrm corr. ptmea corr. ptexp it legenda. model, populn: rmse .24 adj (true) s.d. 1.51 separation 6.41 strata 8.88 reliability .98; model, sample: rmse .24 adj (true) s.d. 1.63 separation 6.93 strata 9.58 reliability .98; model, fixed (all same) chi-square: 288.1 d.f.: 6 significance (probability): .00; model, random (normal) chi-square: 5.9 d.f.: 5 significance (probability): .32 va rilevata comunque la presenza di numerose risposte inattese in corrispondenza all’item #4 (tabella 8). è un’item difficile, abbiamo detto, a cui un numero discreto di studenti meno abili (n=6) ha risposto convenientemente (le risposte inattese sono evidenziate in grigio). tabella 8 risposte inattese cat score exp. resd stres num per it 1 1 .0 1.0 5.3 110 110 i4 1 1 .0 1.0 5.3 166 166 i4 0 0 1.0 1.0 4.8 89 89 i4 0 0 1.0 1.0 4.6 50 50 i7 0 0 1.0 1.0 4.6 56 56 i7 0 0 1.0 1.0 4.6 57 57 i7 0 0 1.0 1.0 4.6 75 75 i6 0 0 1.0 1.0 4.6 164 164 i7 0 0 1.0 1.0 4.6 173 173 i6 0 0 1.0 1.0 4.6 179 179 i6 0 0 1.0 1.0 4.4 98 98 i1 1 1 .1 .9 3.5 13 13 i4 1 1 .1 .9 3.5 59 59 i4 1 1 .1 .9 3.5 92 92 i4 1 1 .1 .9 3.5 162 162 i4 cat score exp. resd stres num per it 12 per approfondimenti sulle singole voci, si rimanda a green (2013, pp. 218-219). analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 34 nella figura 4 (vertical ruler, pagina 37) è rappresentata una mappatura complessiva del rapporto difficoltà degli item/abilità dei candidati, espresso in logit. la scala logit è determinata da intervalli costanti, attorno ai quali sono rapportati, da un lato, gli item secondo il loro grado di difficoltà, dall’altro, i candidati, secondo la loro abilità. per rendere più immediata la comprensione, nella figura 3, qui sotto, abbiamo immaginato di costruire una scala analoga, a intervalli regolari, tratta da mellinson (2001). su questa scala si è messo in relazione l’impegno che un’attività fisica comporta con il grado di energia di vari soggetti. una persona allo stremo delle forze (con un grado di energia pari a 1) è assai probabile sia in grado di svolgere compiti leggeri, come alzarsi dal letto o farsi la doccia; meno probabile abbia energia in quantità sufficiente per curare il giardino, e ancora meno per giocare a pallone. al contrario, sarà quasi scontato che la persona con il grado di energia maggiore (11) possa alzarsi dal letto e farsi una doccia; potrà forse aver la forza di radere l’erba e presumibilmente –anche se è meno evidente –sarà in grado di stare in campo per l’intera durata di una partita di calcio. figura 3. mappa del rapporto tra il grado di impegno di attività fisiche e i livelli di energia della persona (tratta da mallinson, 2001). riprodotta con il gentile permesso di trudy mallison. una scala a intervalli regolari costruita secondo una logica rasch definisce pari a 50% la probabilità di una persona di svolgere con successo un compito che ha un logit equivalente al suo grado di energia, abilità, intelligenza, ecc., a dipendere dal parametro che si osserva. venendo a noi, la scala cui facciamo riferimento (figura 4), è disposta verticalmente (vertical ruler):  nella prima colonna abbiamo la scala logit;  nella seconda sono distribuiti i candidati a seconda dell’abilità (quelli più abili sono disposti nella parte superiore mentre quelli meno abili nella parte inferiore); torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 35  la terza si riferisce agli item, a seconda del grado di difficoltà (gli item più difficili sono distribuiti nella parte superiore mentre quelli più facili sono distribuiti nella parte inferiore). seguendo la logica espressa sopra (in riferimento al rapporto impegno fisico/grado di energia del soggetto), candidati allineati all’item #6 (cioè che condividono lo stesso logit con l’item #6), evidenziati dalla linea rossa sempre nella figura 4 hanno il 50% di probabilità di rispondere correttamente a quell’item (e a item di pari difficoltà): quell’item, in altre parole, costituisce una sfida possibile, non troppo facile né troppo difficile; la probabilità aumenta in riferimento all’item #1 (1 logit circa di differenza; 75% di probabilità; è quindi molto più probabile che i candidati in questione rispondano correttamente ad esso), mentre diminuisce in maniera drastica in riferimento all’item #4, spostato verso l’estremità superiore della scala (3,5 logit di scarto; 3% di probabilità). queste percentuali sono calcolabili mediante tabelle di convergenza (green 2013, p. 165), che riportiamo qui sotto (tabella 9). tabella 9 tabelle di convergenza valori positivi valori negativi differenza tra l’abilità del candidato e la difficoltà dell’item probabilità di risposta corretta differenza tra l’abilità del candidato e la difficoltà dell’item probabilità di risposta corretta 5.0 99% -5.0 1% 4.6 99% -4.6 1% 4.0 98% -4.0 2% 3.0 95% -3.0 5% 2.2. 90% -2.2 10% 2.0 88% -2.0 12% 1.4 80% -1.4 20% 1.1 75% -1.1 25% 1.0 73% -1.0 27% 0.8 70% -0.8 30% 0.5 62% -0.5 38% 0.4 60% -0.4 40% 0.2 55% -0.2 45% 0.1 52% -0.1 48% 0 50% 0 50% il dato che emerge dalla rappresentazione nella figura 4 è un mismatching tra l’abilità dei candidati e la difficoltà degli item: la maggioranza dei test taker è spostata verso la parte superiore della scala (sopra lo zero), mentre quattro item su sette risultano concentrati, invece, nella parte inferiore. si tratta di una conferma della relativa facilità della prova rispetto all’abilità dei candidati, di cui abbiamo parlato nella sezione precedente. spicca, ancora una volta, la situazione atipica dell’item #4, al limite dell’accessibilità, così come si nota il sottodimensionamento degli item #1 e #7. analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 36 +--------------------------+ |logit| candidati | item | | | più | diff. | | | abili | | |-----+-----------+--------| | 3 + ***. + | | | | i4 | | | | | | | | | | | ********. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2 + + | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | *******. | | | | | i3 | | 1 + + | | | | | | | | | | | | i5 | | | | | | | ******. | | | | | | | | | | * 0 * * * | | | | | | | | | | | | | | **. | i6 | | | | i2 | | | | | | | | | | -1 + + | | | | | | | | | | | *. | | | | | | | | | | | | | i1 i7 | | | | | | -2 + + | | | | | | | | | | | . | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | -3 + + | |-----+-----------+--------| | + candidati| item | | + meno | facili | | + abili | | |-----+-----------+--------| | | * = 6 | | +--------------------------+ figura 4. vertical ruler esempio torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 37 2.2.4. attribuzione di livello degli item abbiamo sottoposto la prova a 36 formandi esaminatori, chiedendo loro di ragionare sul livello dei singoli item, con il cefr alla mano. l’attribuzione è avvenuta considerando paritempo il testo di riferimento e i singoli item, come indicato dal manuale collegato al cefr: it is essential to consider both the question of the level of the source text and the difficulty of the individual item(s) associated with it. a text does not have a “level”. it is the competence of the test takers as demonstrated by their responses to the items that can be related to a cefr level. the most that can be said about a text is that it is suitable for inclusion in a test aimed at a particular level. (council of europe, 2009, p. 61) l’attribuzione di livello costituisce l’azione principale di un’operazione di standard setting, vale a dire di calibrazione degli item. la calibrazione concorre a garantire la qualità di una prova: un test sottoo sovradimensionato non consente di formulare giudizi attendibili sulla competenza del candidato (si vedano bejar, 2008; bejar, braun & tannenbaum, 2007; cizek & bunch, 2007; hambleton & pitoniak, 2006; näsström & nyström, 2008; zieky, perie, & livingstone, 2008). nella figura 5, tratta da green e spoettl (2011), illustriamo come la calibrazione si inserisca all’interno del processo di costruzione di un test. figura 5. l’attribuzione di livello all’interno di un processo di calibrazione degli item (green & spoettl 2011). riprodotta con permesso di rita green e carol spoettl. durante una sessione di standard setting, i giudici sono tenuti a (freunberger, bazinger, & itzlingerbrunefort, 2014): a. familiarizzare con i parametri di riferimento (nel nostro caso, descrittori del cefr relativi all’abilità di lettura); b. svolgere la prova e confrontare le proprie risposte con le chiavi; c. attribuire un livello a ciascun item sulla base dei parametri di riferimento (cfr. punto a); analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 38 d. confrontare il proprio giudizio con quello degli altri giudici e prendere visione dei risultati dell’analisi statistica classica; e. confermare il proprio giudizio o attribuire un nuovo livello sulla base di quanto emerso nella fase precedente . nella nostra esperienza ci siamo limitati alle prime tre azioni (a-c). il giudizio che ne deriva manca quindi di quel raffinamento che si sarebbe potuti avere grazie al confronto collettivo. cionondimeno, riteniamo utile condividere con il lettore i risultati dal momento che costituiscono un dato ulteriore da triangolare con quelli già in possesso. nell’appendice b riportiamo i giudizi occorsi durante la sessione. nella tabella 9 illustriamo una sintesi delle occorrenze dei giudizi degli esaminatori. in grassetto sono evidenziati i soli item riguardo al livello dei quali il giudizio degli esaminatori collima con i dati raccolti. tabella 10 occorrenze delle attribuzioni di livello operate dagli esaminatori solo per gli item #3, #6, #7 il giudizio degli esaminatori conferma i dati che provengono dall’item analysis (fv). diversamente:  l’item #1 è ritenuto calibrato, mentre dalle analisi statistiche risulta sottodimensionato  l’item #4 è considerato calibrato, mentre dalle analisi statistiche risulta sovradimensionato  l’item #5 è reputato sottodimensionato, mentre dalle analisi statistiche risulta calibrato è assai probabile che se i rater avessero condiviso i giudizi e avessero avuto modo di confrontarsi tra loro, per procedere poi a una seconda valutazione, le divergenze in merito al livello di alcuni item (#2, #3, #4, #5, #7) si sarebbero ridotte. la questione viene ripresa nella sezione che segue. 2.2.5. analisi dei distrattori consideriamo in dettaglio il comportamento dei distrattori durante la somministrazione della prova al campione di studenti. item a2 b1 b2 fv 1 8 23 5 92,2 2 2 16 18 81,6 3 1 16 19 57,0 4 12 19 5 31,3 5 26 10 0 64,2 6 4 29 3 81,6 7 16 18 2 92,2 torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 39 item #1. è tra gli item più facili, non discrimina a sufficienza. il distrattore (d) non assolve al suo ruolo, non ‘distrae’ (un solo studente l’ha scelto); rappresenta, in effetti, un dato di cui non si ha notizia nel testo. tabella 11 analisi dei distrattori dell’item #1 frequenza percentuale percentuale valida percentuale cumulata validi a = chiave 165 92,2% 92,2% 92,2% b 7 3,9% 3,9% 96,1% c 6 3,4% 3,4% 99,4% d 1 0,6% 0,6% 100,0% totale 179 100,0% 100,0% legenda. item #1. ricerche recenti sull’editoria hanno rilevato che in italia sono in aumento: a) i giovani scrittori. b) i lettori di romanzi. c) le pubblicazioni per ragazzi. d) le case editrici di piccole dimensioni. rileviamo un’imprecisione nella formulazione dello stem. nel tm si dice che ci sono molti scrittori giovani: “secondo recenti indagini in italia i ragazzi leggono ancora troppo poco, ma certo scrivono molto”. questo però non significa che ci sia un “aumento” rispetto al passato, come si sostiene invece nello stem “ricerche recenti sull’editoria hanno rilevato che in italia sono in aumento i giovani scrittori”. (su questo genere di problemi, si veda peirce, 1992). in merito ai dati che provengono dall’attribuzione di livello, l’item è stato reputato, dalla maggioranza degli esaminatori, come adeguato al livello b1. tabella 12 giudizio dei rater in merito al livello dell’item #1 in effetti, se scorriamo i riferimenti al quadro, alla voce “leggere per orientarsi” troviamo una rappresentazione delle strategie richieste e del tipo di testo che si confà alla prova oggetto di studio. b1 leggere per orientarsi è in grado di scorrere testi di una certa lunghezza alla ricerca di informazioni specifiche e di reperire in punti diversi di un testo […] le informazioni necessarie per portare a termine un compito specifico. la facilità dell’item (fv=92,2) si può allora giustificare, a nostro avviso, per:  la debolezza dei distrattori;  l’ancoraggio stem/testo mediante la ripresa del lessico “ricerche recenti”/“recenti indagini”; il lettore è, quindi, condotto alla risposta corretta. item a2 b1 b2 fv 1 8 23 5 92,2 analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 40 item #2. è un item relativamente facile per il campione cui è stato somministrato (fv=82). tabella 13 analisi dei distrattori dell’item #2 frequenza percentuale percentuale valida percentuale cumulata validi a 10 5,6% 5,7% 5,7% b = chiave 146 81,6% 83,0% 88,6% c 17 9,5% 9,7% 98,3% d 3 1,7% 1,7% 100,0% totale 176 98,3% 100,0% mancanti nessuna risposta 3 1,7% totale 179 100,0% legenda. item #2. la fiera del libro di bologna offre l’occasione per a) intervistare molti autori contemporanei. b) conoscere le nuove tendenze letterarie. c) comprare libri a prezzi scontati. d) acquistare testi rari e originali. si dà comunque, a nostro avviso, un problema di logica nella costruzione. la chiave recita: “la fiera del libro di bologna offre l’occasione per conoscere le nuove tendenze letterarie”. nel tm si legge: “la fiera di bologna è l’occasione per fare il punto sulla situazione del mercato dell’editoria”. il fatto di “conoscere nuove tendenze” (chiave) è un possibile risultato del fare “il punto sulla situazione del mercato dell’editoria” (tm). scrive giacomo pierini, responsabile marketing alma edizioni (comunicazione personale, gennaio 2014): “fare il punto [in un contesto editoriale] è un calderone e vuol dire: tendenze; vendite; canali distributivi; prezzi; ebook […]; nuovi generi, come il comic”. chiave e rimando nel testo non sono, in sostanza, perfettamente sovrapponibili. e in ogni caso, anche ammesso lo siano, l’associazione delle informazioni rischia di dipendere da conoscenze specifiche, che non è detto un candidato possegga (construct-irrelevant variance, cui abbiamo accennato al paragrafo 2.2.2). del resto, proprio la difficoltà legata a questo processo di inferenza può aver guidato i formandi a ritenere questo item collocabile tra b1/b2. l’alto fv (82) fa supporre comunque che, nonostante la criticità della chiave, l’item non abbia comportato difficoltà significative al campione di studio. a ciò ha contribuito, molto plausibilmente, la scarsa attrattività dei distrattori, (a) e (d) in particolar modo. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 41 item #3. l’item si presenta come impegnativo (fv=57); così emerge anche nel giudizio degli esaminatori. tabella 14 analisi dei distrattori dell’item #3 frequenza percentuale percentuale valida percentuale cumulata validi a 44 24,6% 24,7% 24,7% b 3 1,7% 1,7% 26,4% c 29 16,2% 16,3% 42,7% d = chiave 102 57,0% 57,3% 100,0% totale 178 99,4% 100,0% mancanti doppia risposta 1 0,6% totale 179 100,0% legenda. item #3. il concorso letterario g.a.s. ha permesso a diversi giovani di a) farsi conoscere dal grande pubblico. b) riuscire a guadagnare qualche soldo. c) partecipare a festival letterari internazionali. d) vedere pubblicati i propri racconti. balza all’occhio il comportamento del distrattore (a) che raccoglie molti consensi (quasi il 25%). si può pensare che il test taker possa esser stato confuso da questo distrattore, dal momento che esso si sovrappone, in termini di logica, alla chiave (d). dire cioè che la fiera di bologna consente “a diversi giovani” di “farsi conoscere dal grande pubblico” (distrattore a) è una naturale conseguenza del fatto che i loro racconti siano stati oggetto di pubblicazione (chiave). oltretutto c’è da riconoscere che abbiamo due tipi di pubblicazione:  una a stampa, di cui si fa carico l’editore pim (e di cui trae vantaggio un gruppo ristretto di giovani scrittori);  una online sul sito del festival (a favore di un gruppo più ampio). noi non sappiamo se il test taker che ha scelto il distrattore (a) avesse in mente gli aspiranti scrittori il cui racconto è stato pubblicato online, e i quali, grazie a ciò, hanno avuto modo di “farsi conoscere dal grande pubblico”: una iniziativa di successo per i giovani è il concorso letterario g.a.s.giovani aspiranti scrittori, che si svolge ormai da due anni all’interno del festival fantasia di perugia. nel 2008 g.a.s. ha raccolto le storie brevi di oltre tremila giovani aspiranti scrittori tra i 17 e i 23 anni. la casa editrice pim ha pubblicato in un volume 37 di queste storie, molti altri racconti sono invece disponibili, con relativa scheda identificativa dell’autore, sul sito internet www.fantasiafestival.it. (centro cils, 2009) rupp et al. (2006) mettono in evidenza, la correlazione negativa tra la somiglianza delle opzioni e il fv (maggiore è la prima, minore il secondo). carr, da parte sua, ammonisce sulla necessità di disporre di chiavi precise e incontrovertibili (2011, p. 90): “there should be one option that is clearly correct, not two or more that are partially correct”. http://www.fantasiafestival.it/ analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 42 item #4. l’item si presenta come molto difficile (fv=31,3). due terzi dei volontari hanno optato per i distrattori (b) e (c). si registra un numero significativo di omissioni (3) e di risposte doppie (4). dall’analisi rasch emerge un numero discreto di comportamenti disattesi: candidati poco abili che indovinano la risposta. l’intero quadro ci informa di una generale confusione tra i lettori. tabella 15 analisi dei distrattori dell’item #4 frequenza percentuale percentuale valida percentuale cumulata validi a 16 8,9% 9,3% 9,3% b 49 27,4% 28,5% 37,8% c 50 27,9% 29,1% 66,9% d = chiave 56 31,3% 32,6% 99,4% m 1 0,6% 0,6% 100,0% totale 172 96,1% 100,0% mancanti nessuna risposta 3 1,7% doppia risposta 4 2,2% totale 7 3,9% totale 179 100,0% legenda. item #4. un dato che emerge nell’editoria è che a) prevalgono le autrici straniere. b) molti scrittori preferiscono pubblicare su internet c) gli autori amano diffondere immagini di loro stessi. d) le ragazze scrivono di più dei ragazzi. va segnalato, in primis, che il passaggio del tm cui l’item fa riferimento è espresso con un lessico di bassa frequenza: “l’editoria sforna continuamente giovani autori, più spesso autrici”; il verbo “sfornare” rimanda a una competenza avanzata (livello c). si potrebbe ribattere che il fatto di non conoscere la parola “sforna” non inficia la comprensione del passaggio, posto che un allievo di livello intermedio riesca a dedurre il significato di una parola sconosciuta, facendo leva su indizi contestuali. è vero però che, da un lato, si registra un co-testo povero, dall’altro, se ci rifacciamo al cefr, una lettura di tipo top-down, a un livello b1, è legata alla familiarità dell’argomento (il corsivo è nostro). b1 individuare indizi e fare inferenze è in grado di identificare in base al contesto parole sconosciute, relativamente ad argomenti che si riferiscono al suo campo di interesse. è in grado di estrapolare dal contesto il significato di una parola sconosciuta e ricostruire il significato della frase, a condizione di avere familiarità con l’argomento in questione colleghi che insegnano italiano ad augsburg ci hanno fatto notare, poi, che la chiave e il rimando del tm non si sovrappongono perfettamente; dire che le ragazze scrivono più dei ragazzi (chiave) non significa che i loro scritti siano i più pubblicati (tm). in effetti, scrivere è condizione necessaria, ma non sufficiente, per la pubblicazione. i colleghi segnalano, inoltre, la possibilità che uno studente di livello b1, in virtù di una lettura inferenziale, sia portato a dedurre che se è vero (tm) che le donne pubblicano di più sul cartaceo (“editoria”) potrebbe essere, allora, che i maschi pubblichino più sull’online, come appunto vuole il distrattore (b):“molti scrittori preferiscono pubblicare su internet”. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 43 quest’ultima osservazione andrebbe verificata sottoponendo un questionario metacognitivo a ulteriori candidati, attraverso il quale indagare i processi che li hanno guidati nella scelta dell’opzione. questo, infatti, non è confermabile con i dati che abbiamo a disposizione (difficoltà del lessico nel tm; possibilità di letture inferenziali, per un livello b1, legata alla familiarità dell’argomento; risposte inattese da parte degli studenti meno abili e non da parte dei più abili). va comunque riconosciuto il grande rischio legato a ‘finestre’ di plausibilità che un distrattore può comportare, e tale eventualità va ridotta al minimo. a tal proposito buck annota che “it is difficult to say with certainty that any inference is completely wrong. after all, we are free to infer what we want” (2001, p. 148). da parte nostra siamo convinti che l’attrattività del distrattore (b) sia stata determinata dal fatto che i lettori si siano lasciati ‘distrarre’ da un dato riportato in precedenza: la casa editrice pim ha pubblicato in un volume 37 di queste storie, molti altri racconti sono invece disponibili, con relativa scheda identificativa dell’autore, sul sito internet www.fantasiafestival.it. l’editoria sforna continuamente giovani autori, più spesso autrici. (centro cils, 2009) una lettura attenta avrebbe fatto cogliere che non si tratta di una preferenza (da parte degli autori), quanto di un’opportunità (o condizione, a seconda dei punti di vista) riservata a coloro le cui storie non hanno avuto modo di essere pubblicate a stampa. per quanto riguarda, invece, il distrattore (c), “gli autori amano diffondere immagini di loro stessi” la scelta dei candidati può essere giustificata dal fatto che, immediatamente dopo la corrispondenza della chiave nel tm (“l’editoria sforna continuamente giovani autori, più spesso autrici”), si fa riferimento a una ragazza che parla di sé attraverso un diario: l’editoria sforna continuamente giovani autori, più spesso autrici. il nuovo caso letterario è la sedicenne valentina f., autrice di tvukdb «ti voglio un kasino di bene», diario di un anno della vita di una ragazza di roma, tra scuola, amicizia, amori. (centro cils, 2009) c’è da riconoscere che si tratta di una circostanza particolare, relativa a una specifica autrice, e non di un “dato che emerge dall’editoria” (come recita lo stem). sono pochi gli esaminatori (n=5) che hanno ravvisato la difficoltà dell’item. l’item è stato giudicato, dalla maggioranza, come collocabile tra il livello a2 e il livello b1. tabella 16 giudizio dei rater in merito al livello dell’item #4 l’attribuzione di livello, in tal caso, non considera la scarsa familiarità dei test taker con l’argomento in questione né dà conto dell’esiguità del co-testo nel quale l’informazione è contenuta; infine alla maggioranza degli esaminatori sfugge la non sovrapposizione tra chiave e rimando nel tm. assai probabile, come già detto, che se l’attribuzione di livello si fosse completata con un confronto tra i giudici, come vuole una sessione di standard setting, tali difficoltà sarebbero emerse, e quindi probabilmente si sarebbe raggiunto un giudizio finale complessivo diverso. item a2 b1 b2 fv 4 12 19 5 31,3 http://www.fantasiafestival.it/ analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 44 item #5. l’item ha un fv pari a 64,2. tabella 17 analisi dei distrattori dell’item #5 frequenza percentuale percentuale valida percentuale cumulata validi a = chiave 115 64,2% 65,3% 65,3% b 55 30,7% 31,3% 96,6% c 5 2,8% 2,8% 99,4% d 1 0,6% 0,6% 100,0% totale 176 98,3% 100,0% mancanti nessuna risposta 2 1,1% doppia risposta 1 0,6% totale 3 1,7% totale 179 100,0% legenda. item #5. valentina f. ha pubblicato un diario a) in cui racconta un anno della sua vita. b) redatto a due mani con la sua amica. c) dove parla del suo rapporto con la famiglia. d) scritto per sfuggire alla depressione. il distrattore (b) è stato scelto da un terzo del campione. l’attrattività può essere dovuta alla bassa frequenza del lessico con cui è stato formulato: “redatto a due mani”. tale chunk può essere confuso con “insieme abbiamo pensato di pubblicarlo” (tm), riferito alla complicità con l’amica, da parte di valentina f., nell’inoltrare il diario a una casa editrice (il corsivo è nostro). il nuovo caso letterario è la sedicenne valentina f., autrice di tvukdb «ti voglio un kasino di bene», diario di un anno della vita di una ragazza di roma, tra scuola, amicizia, amori. «io scrivo da anni un diario che faccio leggere solo alla mia amica del cuore, marta, la ragazza di cui parlo anche nel libro. insieme abbiamo pensato di pubblicarlo» spiega valentina. c’è da chiedersi se sia legittimo servirsi di opzioni formulate con un lessico sovradimensionato rispetto a quello che si suppone di certificare. la nostra risposta è negativa, dal momento che l’obiettivo è la comprensione del testo e non dell’item. segnaliamo, inoltre, il fatto che il distrattore (d), il quale allude a un’informazione di cui non si ha traccia nel testo, sia stato scelto da un solo allievo. molti esaminatori hanno sottostimato l’item; è parso loro corrispondere a un livello a2. si sono avvalsi delle seguenti scale. a2 comprensione generale è in grado di comprendere testi brevi e semplici di contenuto familiare e di tipo concreto, formulati nel linguaggio che ricorre frequentemente nella vita di tutti i giorni o sul lavoro. a2 leggere per orientarsi è in grado di trovare informazione specifiche in semplice materiale scritto di uso corrente che gli/le può capitare tra le mani, quali lettere, opuscoli e brevi articoli di cronaca. in realtà, dal nostro punto di vista, il testo cui l’item fa riferimento non è né “breve” né “semplice”, non costituisce un “materiale scritto di uso corrente” né si riscontra l’impiego di un “linguaggio che ricorre frequentemente nella vita di tutti i giorni”. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 45 item #6. l’item è risultato piuttosto facile (fv=81,6). il distrattore (d) ha costituito un’opzione plausibile solo per un paio di candidati. da notare, un numero significativo di risposte nulle. tabella 18 analisi dei distrattori dell’item #6 frequenza percentuale percentuale valida percentuale cumulata validi a = chiave 146 81,6% 84,4% 84,4% b 15 8,4% 8,7% 93,1% c 10 5,6% 5,8% 98,8% d 2 1,1% 1,2% 100,0% totale 173 96,6% 100,0% mancanti nessuna risposta 5 2,8% doppia risposta 1 0,6% totale 6 3,4% totale 179 100,0% legenda. item #6. secondo valentina f. gli scrittori adulti a) non sanno raccontare il mondo degli adolescenti. b) usano uno stile troppo elaborato. c) non conoscono la scrittura abbreviata dei giovani. d) scrivono romanzi lunghi e noiosi. item #7. l’item si rivela molto facile (fv=92). il distrattore (c) non è stato scelto da nessuno. scarse sono state pure le convergenze sugli altri distrattori. tabella 19 analisi dei distrattori dell’item #7 frequenza percentuale percentuale valida percentuale cumulata validi a 8 4,5 4,5 4,5 b = chiave 165 92,2 92,2 96,6 c 0 0 0 0 d 6 3,4 3,4 100,0 totale 179 100,0 100,0 legenda. item #7. maurizio t. ha scritto a) storie per ragazzini. b) un romanzo sul tango. c) un manuale sul ballo. d) racconti fantastici 3. bilancio conclusivo la nostra indagine si è concentrata sul testo e sugli item della prova. la natura della ricerca, abbiamo visto, è illustrativa: lo scopo è quello di indurre il lettore a considerare possibili insidie durante le fasi di confezione di un quesito a scelta multipla. la prova della certificazione cils, in tal senso, ha valso da ‘pretesto’ per una riflessione ampia sulla validazione di una prova oggettiva di comprensione. l’analisi è articolata in diverse fasi e, oltre al nostro personale giudizio, conta su una serie di informazioni raccolte mediante strumenti di vario genere. quale premessa delle riflessioni cui giungiamo alla fine, vanno riconosciuti margini di approssimazione durante: analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 46  la raccolta dei dati: l’attribuzione del livello delle classi-campione è stata affidata a colleghi; da parte nostra, abbiamo operato un controllo esterno piuttosto limitato, come dichiarato in precedenza; un volume maggiore di dati avrebbe inoltre garantito una maggiore affidabilità alle indagini;  l’attribuzione di livello degli item: una procedura più precisa e significativa sarebbe stata garantita se avessimo contemplato l’intero arco di azioni cui si compone lo standard setting; la stessa sarebbe stata ottimizzata, peraltro, se avessimo disposto, al massimo, della metà di giudici convocati. riconoscere tali limiti, significa per noi, contestualizzare i dati raccolti, definire un perimetro all’interno del quale attribuire un valore alla ricerca. ad ogni modo, tali limiti, non invalidano le conclusioni cui siamo pervenuti e che presentiamo a seguire, distinte a seconda dell’oggetto: il testo e gli item. testo. si rileva che, per quanto riguarda il testo, sono state operate: a. una scelta poco avveduta della fonte (to) sia per quanto riguarda il tema – che risulta poco familiare che in termini di struttura, poiché il testo è lungo e complesso; b. una manipolazione poco sorvegliata. il testo cui giunge il certificatore (tm) presenta disequilibri e ‘salti logici’: la coesione e la coerenza risultano, in parte, compromesse. item. dalle indagini condotte emergono criticità diffuse nella costruzione degli item. tali criticità sono riassunte nella tabella 20 in corrispondenza dei rispettivi item. tabella 20 criticità dei singoli item item criticità distrattori inefficaci #1 imprecisione nella formulazione dello stem. d) #2 non sovrapposizione tra chiave e informazione presente nel testo: la chiave rappresenta una “informazione parziale” rispetto ai contenuti corrispondenti nel brano e inferibile in virtù di conoscenze specifiche. d) #3 sovrapposizione tra chiave e distrattore (i.e. distrattore ambiguo). b) #4 complessità del testo cui la chiave rimanda: lessico sovradimensionato per il livello target. non sovrapposizione tra chiave e informazione presente nel testo. #5 complessità di un distrattore: lessico sovradimensionato per il livello target. d) #6 d) #7 c) numerosi sono i distrattori inefficaci. carr, al riguardo, sentenzia: “implausible distractors are a waste of space on the test” (2011, p. 92). haladyna et al. (2002) sono dell’idea che questa situazione si presenti spesso nei test a scelta multipla con quattro opzioni e concludono che tre opzioni sono più che sufficienti nella maggiore parte dei casi. per quanto riguarda il dimensionamento della prova, segnaliamo, in particolare, la facilità degli item #1 e #7 e la difficoltà dell’item #4. a uno sguardo conclusivo ci risulta opportuno, anziché un rimodellamento (i.e. intervento sul tm e riscrittura degli item), ripensare la prova da capo. mettendoci nei panni del certificatore, adotteremmo un testo che presenti caratteristiche di livello b1, secondo quanto indicato dal cefr, quali fattualità, semplicità, linearità, familiarità dell’argomento da parte del candidato. insomma, pur considerando il triplo ordine di problemi – afferenti rispettivamente a to, tm, item – ci pare poco proficuo ragionare su come ‘riparare’ le conseguenza degli ultimi due, se la scelta di base, abbiamo detto, non è adeguata. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 47 riferimenti bibliografici alderson, charles (2000). assessing reading. cambridge, regno unito: cambridge university press. alderson, charles (1990). testing reading comprehension skills. reading in a foreign language, 7(1), 465503. alderson, charles, clapham, caroline, & wall, diane (1995). language test construction and evaluation. cambridge, regno unito: cambridge university press. alderson, j. charles, & cseresznyés, mária (2002) appendice guidelines for writers of reading and use of english tests del volume into europe project, british council, hungary, 2002. consultato su: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/examreform/media/gl_reding&use.pdf bachman, lyle f. 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(1993). passage dependence on the new sat reading comprehension questions. college board report, 93(3), 1-18. consultato su: http://research.collegeboard.org/ purpura james e. (2004). assessing grammar. cambridge: cambridge university press. rupp, andré a., ferne, tracy, & choi, hyeran (2006). how assessing reading comprehension with multiplechoice questions shapes the construct: a cognitive processing perspective. language testing, 23(4), 441-471. schedl, mary, & malloy, jeanne (2014). writing items and tasks. in antony j. kunnan (ed.). the companion to language assessment (pp. 1-18). hoboken, new jersey: john wiley and sons. spinelli, barbara (2000). l’utilizzo dei materiali autentici nell’insegnamento dell’italiano ls. in roberto dolci & paola celentin (eds.). la formazione di base dell’insegnante di italiano a stranieri (pp. 133-147). roma, italia: bonacci. taglietti, cristina (2007, 23 aprile). ‘e adesso i libri ce li scriviamo da soli’. la nuova generazione di autori adolescenti. corriere della sera. p. 29. consultato su: http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2007/aprile/23/adesso_libri_scriviamo_soli_nuova_co_9_0704230 56.shtml e http://www.fantasiofestival.it/fantasio_2007/documenti/rassegna/corriere_della_sera_23_04_2007. pdf thorndike, robert l., & hagen, tracy (1969). measurement and evaluation in psychology and education. hoboken, new jersey: john wiley and sons. torresan, paolo (2014). il test a individuazione di informazioni della certificazione di italiano per stranieri cils: aspetti critici. rassegna italiana di valutazione, 18(59), 104-123. torresan, paolo (2015). insidie nella confezione di un sequencing task quale test di lettura: uno studio a partire da una prova della certificazione cils. el.le educazione linguistica [di prossima pubblicazione]. urbani, stefano (1989). testo, autenticità, grammatica. in christopher humphris (ed.), atti del i seminario internazionale per insegnanti di lingua (pp. 9–26). roma, italia: dilit. weir, cyril (1993). understanding and developing language tests. new york, new york: prentice hall. wright, benjamin d. (2001). separation, reliability and skewed distributions: statistically different levels of performance. rasch measurement transactions, 14(4), 786. wilkins, david (1976). notional syllabuses. oxford, regno unito: oxford university press. wilkins, david (1972). linguistics and language teaching. london, regno unito: arnold. zieky, michael j. perie, marianne, & livingstone, samuel a. (2008). cut-scores: a manual for setting standards on educational and occupational tests. princeton, new jersey: ets. consultato su: https://www.ets.org/media/research/pdf/cut_scores_primer.pdf analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 50 appendice a indicazioni per la confezione di un quesito a scelta multipla ai fini della valutazione delle abilità ricettive riportiamo le caratteristiche relative al quesito a scelta multipla e una serie di indicazioni pratiche relative alla confezione. tabella 21 quesito a scelta multipla: vantaggi, limiti, attenzioni richieste commenti vantaggi rapidità di correzione la tabulazione dei dati e la correzione dei test sono rapide da eseguirsi (balboni, 1999, p. 181). flessibilità l’esercizio si adatta a diverse strategie di comprensione (for a gist, detail-mapping, ecc.). duttilità l’esercizio è confezionabile in diversi formati: esercizi elettronici (per esempio attraverso il software hotpotatoes), a video (attraverso blubbr; edupuzzle; educanon), ecc. non è richiesta la scrittura a differenza delle domande aperte o delle attività di completamento, una scelta multipla non prevede attività di scrittura (quindi si limitano questioni che possono insorgere, in tal senso, in termini di construct-irrelevant variance, vale a dire di interposizione di fattori esterni al costrutto che ci si propone di misurare). limiti difficoltà di costruzione i distrattori devono essere, idealmente, di pari plausibilità: un distrattore che non viene scelto da nessuno è inutile (alderson et al., 1995). abbinamento a certi tipi di testo la scelta multipla si accompagna a testi densi, dettagliati, non a testi lineari e/o che si riducono a una lista di informazioni (orientativamente, quindi, vale per testi dal livello b2 in su). nei livelli più alti un quesito a scelta multipla può prestarsi a rilevare la comprensione di contenuti impliciti, che il lettore può cogliere attraverso processi inferenziali (weir, 1993). va mantenuta però un’attenzione particolare, in questo caso, all’appropriatezza dell’item, specie nelle prove di ascolto, dato che “it is difficult to say with certainty that any inference is completely wrong. after all, we are free to infer what we want” (buck, 2001, p. 148). effetto ombra come per tutte le prove oggettive (compreso il vero/falso), gli item non consentono di indagare i processi che hanno guidato il test taker nella risoluzione del compito (alderson, 1990). si tratta di una caratteristica inversamente proporzionale alla rapidità di correzione; scrive alderson (2000, p. 212): “if candidates were required to give their reasons for making their choice […], the problem [i.e. l’effetto ombra] would be mitigated, but then the practical advantage of multiple-choice questions in terms of marking would be vitiated”. attenzioni richieste linearità occorre far in modo che la progressione degli item rispetti la progressione del testo. logica si evitino opzioni che si autoescludono (chiave vs distrattore, o distrattore vs distrattore). attinenza al costrutto gli item devono misurare l’abilità come descritta nelle test specifications. nei test di ascolto, bisogna evitare che gli item misurino la memoria anziché la comprensione del testo. più in generale, se la comprensione è intesa come un processo interpretativo e non di puro riconoscimento, si evitino chiavi che ricalcano tale e quale il contenuto corrispondente nel testo di comprensione; si procederà piuttosto attraverso una parafrasi del contenuto. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 51 immediatezza evitare di scrivere item più difficili da comprendere del testo stesso (thorndike & hagen, 1969; kirschner et al., 1992). occorre evitare l’uso di negazioni (del tipo: “scegli l’opzione non corretta”, o formulazioni di item o stem al negativo), che costringono a contorsioni logiche (haladyna et al., 2002). occorre ricordarsi che si sta misurando la capacità dell’allievo di comprendere un testo, non quella di comprendere l’item. brevità è meglio se stem e opzioni siano succinti, specie per i livelli bassi (a1-b1). indipendenza è bene evitare item la cui risposta dipende da quella a item precedenti. l’interdipendenza degli item sortisce un effetto negativo sull’affidabilità della prova (hughes, 2003). esclusività due item non devono prevedere una risposta simile (carr, 2011): in caso di risposta scorretta, uno studente verrebbe penalizzato due volte. precisione la chiave deve essere precisa (totalmente sovrapponibile, e non solo in parte, all’informazione del testo cui fa riferimento) e unica (non ci devono essere due chiavi). occorre, in questo senso, controllare che a un distrattore non corrispondano informazioni presenti in una porzione del testo a cui non si aveva pensato. allo stesso modo, occorre che lo stem, nel modo in cui è formulato, non anticipi la chiave. riferimento al testo vanno evitati item a cui si può rispondere correttamente con la sola logica o in virtù di conoscenze previe (senza far riferimento al testo oggetto di comprensione; i.e. background knowledge; cfr. powers & wilson, 1993). allo stesso modo non sono ammissibili item che facciano capo a informazioni non presenti nel testo (schedl & malloy, 2014). e infine occorre essere molto cauti nella scrittura di distrattori che sono falsi, stando al testo, ma veri nella realtà delle cose (cangelosi, 1990). uniformità occorre gli item siano di pari lunghezza. “no options should ‘stick out’ from the others. item options should look like a coherent set” (grabowski & dakin, 2014). si consideri, a tal proposito, che gli studenti tendono a scegliere l’opzione più lunga, la quale spesso, nel caso di item writer poco esperti, coincide con la chiave (cfr. heaton, 1988). anticipazione vanno anticipate nello stem le informazioni comuni alle opzioni. cautela nell’uso delle immagini l’uso delle immagini, benché intuitivamente (in quanto a codice più universale della lingua) si potrebbe supporre faciliti il lavoro dello studente, va limitato il più possibile nei test di comprensione. le immagini possono essere percettivamente poco chiare (specie quelle pensate per la didattica e la valutazione), avere margini di ambiguità, presentare bias culturali, sociali, di genere, di religione, ecc., non essere percepite come utili dagli studenti né risultare un codice familiare. la regola d’oro quindi è: “do not include visual materials unless it makes real contribution. make sure that it is clear and informative, and does no cause more problems that it is worth” (harding, 2011a). layout i distrattori vanno disposti verticalmente, non in blocchi orizzontali, al fine di facilitare il lettore (haladyna et al., 2002; purpura, 2004). calibrazione item poco calibrati non consentono di misurare ciò che ci si propone di misurare; di conseguenza compromettono la validità della prova. occorre, a tal proposito, considerare che più sono sottili le differenze tra le opzioni, più l’item si configura come arduo (rupp et al., 2006). familiarità come ogni strumento di indagine, il quesito a scelta multipla deve risultare familiare ai candidati. in caso contrario, la non familiarità con il format può incidere sul risultato in quanto a construct-irrelevant variance. analisi di una prova di lettura della cils e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 52 positività del punteggio e uniformità dei valori si evitino punteggi negativi in corrispondenza di risposte errate, al fine di non compromettere la validità e l’affidabilità della prova (torresan 2015a). si assegni ad ogni item lo stesso punteggio (gwrt). validazione esterna è bene presentare il test a un collega o un nativo esperto che non ha presieduto alla confezione e considerare il suo feedback (davidson & lynch, 2001; hulstijn, 2011). dispersione specie nei test di ascolto, è bene evitare item relativi a porzioni di testo troppo ravvicinate. a uno studente può sfuggire la risposta, perché impegnato nello scegliere l’opzione corretta dell’item precedente (novello, 2015). allo stesso modo, sempre nei test di ascolto, va evitato che ci siano pause troppo lunghe, tra un item e l’altro: lo studente può smarrirsi e pensare che la risposta all’item sia stata fornita durante quella pausa (cfr. harding, 2011b). fattualità specie in riferimento a test di ascolto, “prestare attenzione a non testare le emozioni (in quanto si interpretano in modo diverso anche a seconda della cultura)” (novello, 2015). fanno eco le guidelines for writers of listening test (gwlt) allestite dal british council (alderson & cseresznyés, 2002), le quali invitano a sollecitare “factual information, and not […] subjective judgment”. disponibilità di tempo si calcolino esattamente i tempi, onde evitare che lo studente, per la fretta, sia portato a tirare a indovinare. per l’ascolto, le gwlt raccomandano il rispetto dei seguenti tempi: prima della prova: “allow enough time for students to familiarise themselves with items before listening to the text. intermediate: 4 seconds per item; advanced: 3 seconds per item”. dopo la prova: “allow enough time for students to finalise their answer after the text is finished: 3 seconds per item”. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 53 appendice b risultati della sessione di attribuzione di livello riportiamo l’esito finale della sessione di attribuzione di livello condotta con 36 formandi esaminatori, in merito degli item della prova oggetto di studio. tabella 22 giudizi dei rater item formandi esaminatori 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 fv 1 b b a b b c b b b b b b c a b b b b b b b a b c b b c c b a a b b a a a 92,2 2 b a b c b b b b c c c b b c c b b b a c c b c c b c c c c b c c c b b c 81,6 3 c c b b c c c c b b b c b b c c c b c b b b c c b c b c c c b a c c b b 57 4 b a a a b b b b c c a b a a b b b a a b b b c b b b c b b a c a b a a b 31,3 5 a a a a a b a a a a a a a a b b b b a a a a a b b a b a a a b b a a a a 64,2 6 b b b b a a b b b b b b b b b c c b b b a b b b b a c b b b b b b b b b 81,6 7 a a b a a b b b b b b b a a a c b b a a b b a b b b b c b a a a b a a a 92,2 legenda. a= a2; b= b1; c= b2. torresan e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 20-54 54 paolo torresan, alma edizioni piroclastico@tin.it; esh@unive.it it paolo torresan attualmente insegna didattica delle lingue moderne e didattica dell’italiano a stranieri presso l’università di catania (struttura didattica speciale di lingue e letterature straniere, sede di ragusa). ha svolto attività di ricerca presso l’università ca’ foscari di venezia, le università complutense e autonoma di madrid, la lancaster university. è stato fulbright visiting scholar presso il santa monica college (california) e visiting professor presso l’università dello stato di rio de janeiro. è autore e formatore per alma edizioni. cura la redazione delle riviste officina.it e bollettino itals. ha scritto: intelligenze e didattica delle lingue (emi, bologna 2008); didáctica de las lenguas culturas. nuevas perspectivas (con manuela derosas, a cura di; sb international, buenos aires, 2011); il noticing comparativo (con francesco della valle; lincom, münchen, 2013), studio su cloze mirati della certificazione cils, livello avanzato (dialogarts, rio de janeiro, 2015). en paolo torresan teaches courses in modern language pedagogy and teaching italian to speakers of other languages at the university of catania (special school of foreign languages and literatures based in ragusa). he has conducted research at the university ca’ foscari in venice, complutense university and autónoma university in madrid, and at lancaster university in england. he was fulbright visiting scholar at santa monica college, california, usa and visiting professor at rio de janeiro state university, brazil. he is author and trainer for the italian publishing company alma edizioni and editor of the journals officina.it and bollettino itals. he co/authored: intelligenze e didattica delle lingue (bologna: emi, 2008); il noticing comparativo (with francesco della valle. münchen: lincom, 2013), and studio su cloze mirati della certificazione cils, livello avanzato (rio de janeiro: dialogarts, 2015). he also edited with manuela derosas, didáctica de las lenguas culturas. nuevas perspectivas (buenos aires: sb international, 2011). es paolo torresan enseña actualmente didáctica de las lenguas modernas y didáctica del italiano como lengua extranjera en la universidad de catania (centro educativo especializado de lenguas y literaturas extranjeras, sede de ragusa). ha llevado a cabo labores de investigación en la universidad ca’ foscari de venecia, las universidades complutense y autónoma de madrid y lancaster university. ha sido becario fulbright en santa mónica college (california) y profesor visitante en la universidad estatal de rio de janeiro. es autor y formador para alma edizioni. supervisa la redacción de las revistas officina.it y bolletino itals. ha escrito intelligenze e didattica delle lingue (emi, bolonia 2008); didáctica de las lenguas culturas. nuevas perspectivas (con manuela derosas, editado por sb international, buenos aires, 2011); il noticing comparativo (con francesco della valle; lincom, münchen, 2013), studio su cloze mirati della certificazione cils, livello avanzato (dialogarts, rio de janeiro, 2015). euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 2, issue 1, august 2015, pages 90-95 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.2.57 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. 1. introduzione il volume fondamenti di glottodidattica. apprendere e insegnare le lingue oggi a cura di marina chini e cristina bosisio è stato pubblicato da carocci editore nel 2014. il libro si articola in sei capitoli. nel primo capitolo si ricostruisce il quadro storico-epistemologico della glottodidattica. il secondo capitolo tratta teorie e concetti nel campo dell’acquisizione e dell’apprendimento di una lingua (l1 e l2), tra i quali l’interlingua e il trattamento dell’errore, le varie fasi di sviluppo di una lingua, l’ordine e le sequenze di acquisizione in vaire * contatto: marilisa.birello@gmail.com chini, marina e bosisio, cristina (2014). fondamenti di glottodidattica. apprendere e insegnare le lingue oggi. roma, italia: carocci editore marilisa birello* universidad autónoma de barcelona book review received 20 april 2015; received in revised form 4 july 2015; accepted 15 july 2015 abstract it nella presente recensione viene presentato il volume fondamenti di glottodidattica. apprendere e insegnare le lingue oggi curato da marina chini e cristina bosisio e pubblicato presso la casa editrice carocci editore nel 2014. il volume è dedicato primariamente a insegnanti di lingua straniera di formazione iniziale e continua; si articola in sei capitoli in cui viene ricostruito il quadro storico-epistemologico della disciplina, concetti fondamentali come l’acquisizione della l1 e l’acquisizione e apprendimento della l2, le diverse componenti dell’educazione linguistica, la didattica della l2, la valutazione e l’accertamento delle competenze e infine la formazione dei docenti. il volume contiene una bibliografia completa e aggiornata sulle tematiche affrontate nei vari capitoli. parole chiave: glottodidattica, acquisizione l1/l2, metodi di insegnamento, formazione degli insegnanti, valutazione. en the present paper is a review of fondamenti di glottodidattica. apprendere e insegnare le lingue oggi [fundamentals of language teaching: learning and teaching languages today], edited by marina chini and cristina bosisio and published by carocci (rome, italy) in 2014. the volume is aimed at prospective and in-service teachers of foreign languages. the volume consists of six chapters that cover: the historical and epistemological development of language teaching as a discipline; fundamental concepts such as l1 acquisition and l2 acquisition and learning; components of linguistic education; theories of l2 teaching; evaluation and assessment of competencies; and finally, teacher education. the bibliography is comprehensive and up-to-date on the topics featured in each chapter. key words: language teaching, l1/l2 acquisition, teaching methods, teacher education, assessment. es en la siguiente reseña se presenta el volumen fondamenti di glottodidattica. apprendere e insegnare le lingue oggi [ fundamentos de glotodidáctica. aprender y enseñar las lenguas hoy], a cargo de marina chini y cristina bosisio, publicado por la editorial carocci editore en 2014 y dirigido a profesores de lenguas extranjeras de formación inicial y continua. se articula en seis capítulos, en los cuales se reconstruye el cuadro histórico-epistemológico de la disciplina, conceptos fundamentales como la adquisición de l1 y la adquisición y aprendizaje de l2, los diferentes componentes de la educación lingüística, la didáctica de la l2, la valoración y evaluación de las competencias y, por último, la formación de docentes. contiene, además, una bibliografía completa y actualizada sobre las temáticas abordadas en los distintos capítulos. palabras clave: didáctica de la lengua, adquisición de una l1/l2, métodos de enseñanza, formación de los profesores, evaluacion. http://www.e-journall.org/ recensione: fondamenti di glottodidattica e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 90-95 91 lingue (inglese, francese e italiano). il terzo capitolo affronta l’oggetto del triangolo che compone lo spazio didattico, ovvero la lingua da apprendere, e si sofferma sulle componenti fonetiche, grammaticali, semantiche, testuali e pragmatiche della competenza linguistica. nel quarto capitolo si analizzano gli elementi del curricolo, i vari approcci e metodi di insegnamento e l’uso delle tecnologie. il quinto capitolo analizza temi relativi alla valutazione e all’accertamento delle competenze. oltre alle certificazioni di competenza linguistica dell’italiano, si prendono in considerazione anche le certificazioni per altre lingue (inglese, francese, tedesco e spagnolo). nel capitolo sesto, che conclude il volume, si commentano le disposizioni italiane e le raccomandazioni europee che hanno come obiettivo la formazione degli insegnanti di lingua. 2. capitolo 1 il capitolo 1 si prefigge l’obiettivo di “introdurre il lettore ai fondamenti della glottodidattica attraverso una riflessione di carattere storico-epistemologico” (p. 15). dopo una breve introduzione, nel primo paragrafo, i fondamenti della glottodidattica come scienza si parte da una definizione di glottodidattica e si disegna il percorso della disciplina dalla sua nascita fino alla focalizzazione sull’educazione linguistica in cui viene presentata l’opera del 1975 dieci tesi per un’educazione linguistica democratica. il secondo paragrafo, dalla linguistica applicata alla glottodidattica in ambito italiano, porta il lettore a riflettere sul passaggio da una glottodidattica intesa come linguistica applicata all’insegnamento, a una disciplina centrata sulla persona e che mette in rilievo la “saldatura tra lingua e cultura/civiltà” (p. 31). il terzo paragrafo, la glottodidattica oggi: scienza (interdisciplinare) dell’educazione (pluri)linguistica situa, invece, il lettore in una prospettiva attuale mettendo a fuoco la natura metadisciplinare della glottodidattica, cioè “una scienza che riflette su sé stessa e sui propri principi, che si trasforma e si plasma in continuazione, arricchendosi di tutti gli apporti interdisciplinari” (p. 40). seguono delle riflessioni su concetti fondamentali come la competenza plurilingue e interculturale. chiude il capitolo un breve paragrafo di letture consigliate per approfondire i temi trattati nel capitolo. 3. capitolo 2 come sottolineano le curatrici del volume nella premessa, il volume si costruisce attorno ai tre fattori dello spazio didattico (allievo, insegnante, lingua). il secondo capitolo, acquisizione e apprendimento di una lingua, si sofferma su due dei tre fattori: l’allievo e la lingua. il capitolo inizia con un inquadramento teorico e delle precisazioni terminologiche che riguardano sia la l1 sia la l2. nel paragrafo 1, apprendere l1 e l2: elementi a confronto, vengono riassunti gli studi a disposizione che vertono su questa tematica mettendo in risalto i tratti comuni e le principali differenze tra i due processi. il secondo paragrafo approcci teorici all’acquisizione di l1 presenta i principali modelli teorici che si sono sviluppati a partire dalla nascita della psicolinguistica. si descrivono quindi i tre filoni di teorie acquisizionali: le teorie innatiste o nativiste, le teorie cognitiviste e le teorie ambientalistiche. il paragrafo 3 è dedicato completamente all’interlingua e la questione dell’errore, nozioni chiave che hanno cambiato il modo di concepire l’apprendimento e l’insegnamento di una l2. il paragrafo 4, approcci teorici all’apprendimento di l2, descrive i principali filoni teorici dell’acquisizione di una l2: i modelli innatisti, i modelli cognitivo-funzionali, i modelli ambientalisti e i modelli integrati. nel paragrafo 5, fasi di sviluppo delle varietà di apprendimento, viene presentato un altro concetto chiave: varietà di apprendimento. il paragrafo comincia con dei brevi cenni alle fasi di sviluppo di una l1 e poi passa a descrivere le fasi di sviluppo che sono ricorrenti in varie l2 e che sono valide anche per l’italiano l2: la fase iniziale (varietà pre-basica) in cui l’apprendente comincia a produrre brevi enunciati per lo più privi di verbo; la seconda fase della varietà di base in cui compare il verbo; e la terza fase in cui si trovano varietà postbasiche “che si caratterizzano per la presenza di frasi organizzate secondo i principi sintattici di l2” (p. 88). il paragrafo continua con la presentazione di ordine e sequenza di acquisizione in inglese e francese l2 (pp. 8992) e prosegue con la presentazione di sequenze acquisizionali in italiano l2 (pp. 92-93). il capitolo si chiude con alcune riflessioni sui possibili contributi della linguistica acquisizionale alla glottodidattica. anche in questo capitolo è presente una sezione finale di letture consigliate. 4. capitolo 3 il capitolo 3 si sofferma sull’oggetto del triangolo didattico: la lingua. la prospettiva scelta è quella della linguistica educativa, “settore delle scienze del linguaggio che ha per oggetto la lingua (una lingua, ogni lingua) considerata in funzione dell’apprendimento linguistico e del più generale sviluppo delle capacità semiotiche” (p. 103). in quest’ottica vengono presentate le varie componenti della competenza linguistica: birello e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 90-95 92 fonetico-fonologica, grammaticale, lessicale e semantica, testuale e pragmatica. come asseriscono le curatrici, l’obiettivo del capitolo non è descrivere in modo esaustivo i vari livelli della lingua, ma focalizzare l’attenzione su alcuni aspetti ritenuti centrali o problematici. il paragrafo 2 ne è un esempio. la grammatica, il suo insegnamento e la competenza metalinguistica sono stati e sono tutt’oggi al centro di molti dibattiti. il motivo per cui insegnare la grammatica e quale grammatica insegnare al discente di italiano l2 così come la nozione di competenza metalinguistica sono questioni di importanza basilare nel processo di insegnamento e apprendimento. nel paragrafo si difende un insegnamento della grammatica come osservazione del funzionamento della lingua che il discente conosce ed usa senza tralasciare l’approccio normativo. si incoraggia però all’osservazione della lingua materna e della lingua seconda come metodo per ricavare regolarità di funzionamento. il capitolo è arricchito con riquadri che analizzano in profondità alcuni aspetti come le varietà linguistiche (riquadro 1, pp. 109-110) e l’approccio lessicale (riquadro 2, p. 142). 5. capitolo 4 il quarto capitolo, la didattica della l2, si sofferma su contenuti teorici e operativi della didattica. utilizzando i termini del triangolo didattico, in questo capitolo si tratta la relazione insegnante-lingua mettendo in rilievo alcuni aspetti quali: gli elementi del curricolo, l’unità didattica, gli approcci, i metodi, le tecniche e le tecnologie per l’acquisizione linguistica. il capitolo si apre con una definizione di curricolo, descritto come un piano di lavoro che “definisce mete e obiettivi da raggiungere in rapporto al contesto sociale e alle caratteristiche degli apprendenti, indica i materiali, i sussidi e le tecniche di lavoro da mettere in gioco, descrive le forme di accertamento e valutazione” (freddi, 1994, p. 9). in seguito vengono descritte le variabili imprescindibili della pianificazione curricolare, arrivando alla definizione di sillabo, programma, modulo, unità didattica e unità di acquisizione. si tratta quindi della descrizione del percorso da seguire per passare dalla macro alla microprogettazione. il secondo paragrafo “approcci, metodi e tecniche” focalizza l’attenzione sulla metodologia che renderà possibile l’organizzazione dei contenuti da trattare nei moduli e nelle unità didattiche. nel paragrafo vengono definiti i concetti contenuti nel titolo e vengono presentati i vari approcci seguendo un criterio misto che fonde diverse chiavi di lettura: cronologica, scientifica (che permette di caratterizzare gli approcci in base alle teorie dalle quali hanno tratto spunto), fattori costituivi dello spazio didattico (apprendente, insegnante, disciplina), tecniche e strumenti tecnologici usati e aree di sviluppo. la descrizione degli approcci risponde alle domande: quando, perché (facendo riferimento all’eventuale teoria scientifica), chi (fattore dello spazio didattico), dove (area di sviluppo), che cosa (contenuti privilegiati) e come (metodi, tecniche e strumenti tecnologici previsti). nel paragrafo 3, tecnologie per l’educazione linguistica, dopo aver fatto una distinzione tra glottotecnologie, tecnologie glottodidattiche avanzate e tecnologie per l’educazione linguistica, si descrivono le varie risorse a disposizione dell’insegnante. il capitolo è arricchito da riquadri che approfondiscono alcuni aspetti, come il riquadro 1 (p. 205) in cui si spiega il modello speaking di dell hymes e il riquadro 2 (p. 119) in cui si presenta il livello soglia (galli de’ paratesi, 1994). il capitolo si conclude con un breve paragrafo in cui il lettore può trovare suggerimenti per letture in modo da approfondire gli argomenti trattati. 6. capitolo 5 il capitolo 5 tocca il tema del controllo delle competenze dei discenti e mette quindi in risalto la relazione docente-apprendente del triangolo didattico. si trattano i concetti di verifica, valutazione e certificazione e le varie modalità e finalità di uso. nel primo paragrafo, verifiche, valutazione e testing in l2, vengono messi in luce limiti e caratteristiche del testing e la necessità di una valutazione centrata sull’apprendente. vi è un riferimento al quadro comune europeo di riferimento (qcer) (consiglio d’europa, 2002) che offre i parametri più seguiti in europa e importante per il cambio nella valutazione. infatti, grazie a un effetto waskback positivo, il qcer ha influito e influisce nella progettazione di corsi e creazione di materiali in cui si tiene conto anche di obiettivi, livelli e procedure e non solo della morfosintassi. il paragrafo 2 descrive le certificazioni più diffuse per l’inglese, il francese, il tedesco e lo spagnolo; si apre con una definizione di certificazione e ne spiega l’utilità e le caratteristiche. prosegue poi con una descrizione dettagliata delle certificazioni per le diverse lingue. prima di tutte l’inglese per la quale sono descritte le certificazioni erogate dall’università di cambridge: inglese standard (key english test, preliminary english test, first certificate in english, certificate in advanced english, certificate of proficiency in english, certificate in esol skill for life), inglese professionale e inglese accademico. per il francese si descrivono le certificazioni ministeriali: dilf (diplôme initial de langue française), delf (diplôme d’études en langue française) e dalf recensione: fondamenti di glottodidattica e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 90-95 93 (diplôme approfondi de langue française), e il tcf (test de connaissance du français). oltre a queste certificazioni sono descritte anche le certificazioni specifiche rilasciate dalla chambre de commerce et d’industrie de paris, il tef (test d’évaluation du français), il primo test standardizzato del francese risalente al 1998 e oggi reperibile in versione online e le certificazioni della competenza comunicativa nel francese professionale. seguono le descrizioni delle certificazioni per il tedesco l2 erogati principalmente dal goethe institut per i livelli a1-c2. vengono inoltre presentati anche i certificati rilasciati da altri due enti: il deutscher volkshochscul-verband. che eroga un certificato di didattica della lingua tedesca. e l’österreichische sprachdiplom deutsch per il diplomi austriaci di lingua tedesca. per lo spagnolo sono presentati i diplomi dele (diplomas de español como lengua extranjera) nei vari livelli a1-c2. per l’italiano l2 sono descritte le certificazioni cils (certificazione di italiano come lingua straniera), celi (certificato di conoscenza della lingua italiana), it (certificato per la conoscenza dell’italiano) e plida (progetto lingua italiana dante alighieri). per ogni certificazione, oltre a una breve descrizione, vengono indicati i livelli di competenza e i destinatari. il paragrafo si conclude con la descrizione delle certificazioni per la didattica dell’italiano l2: ditals, dils, cedils e cefils. 7. capitolo 6 il capitolo 6 è dedicato alla formazione degli insegnanti di lingua. il tema è affrontato dal punto di vista della normativa italiana e da quello delle principali linee guida europee. nel paragrafo 1 si descrive il quadro normativo italiano facendo enfasi sui cambiamenti più recenti che incidono sulla formazione degli insegnanti. il paragrafo si apre con la descrizione delle siss, scuole di specializzazione per l’insegnamento secondario, nate nel 1990 che hanno segnato un importante momento di cambiamento nel panorama italiano. il paragrafo descrive il modo in cui venivano e vengono reclutati gli insegnanti: attraverso un concorso (periodo pre-siss), frequentando un biennio di specializzazione (periodo siss), laurea magistrale e tirocinio formativo attivo della durata di un anno (periodo post-siss). in seguito viene descritto il percorso di formazione per gli insegnanti clil, cioè quel percorso volto a formare insegnanti di una disciplina non linguistica in lingua straniera. all’apprendimento integrato di lingua e contenuto è dedicato il riquadro 2 (p. 290) in cui viene descritta la metodologia del content and language integrated learning (clil), l’obiettivo di tale metodologia e i fattori che entrano in gioco. nel paragrafo 2 si presentano in prospettiva diacronica ed evolutiva le raccomandazioni europee in materia di formazione degli insegnanti. si descrive il progetto lingue moderne che è sfociato nella pubblicazione dei “livelli soglia” primo tra tutti l’inglese (van ek, 1975), in seguito per il francese (coste et al., 1976) e tra le altre lingue anche per l’italiano (galli de’ paratesi, 1994) in cui si individuavano le funzioni e le nozioni utili per lo sviluppo della competenza comunicativa. questo progetto e i livelli soglia furono la base per il successivo progetto il qcer che costituisce “il primo risultato di una effettiva unificazione in tema di politica linguistico-educativa” (p. 292). il qcer incoraggia la diversità linguistica sulla base di una migliore intercomprensione indispensabile in una europa multilingue. il qcer a livello teorico promuove l’idea di una educazione plurilinguistica e interculturale e a livello operativo omologa i livelli di competenza linguistica nelle principali certificazioni europee. il risultato successivo è il portfolio europeo delle lingue (pel) (consiglio d’europa, 2000) che permette di registrare i livelli raggiunti nel processo di apprendimento di una lingua secondo i parametri del qcer. il pel è composto da tre sezioni: il passaporto linguistico, la biografia linguistica e il dossier. nel paragrafo 2.2 si presenta un excursus delle raccomandazioni e indicazioni europee relative alla formazione degli insegnanti a partire dal consiglio europeo di lisbona del 2000 e in cui si fa riferimento ad alcune pubblicazioni di importanza fondamentale come la guide for the development of language education policies in europe (béacco e byram, 2007). il terzo paragrafo introduce e analizza dei documenti essenziali per organizzare dei percorsi formativi aggiornati per insegnanti di lingua e le ricadute che questi possono avere per il docente di lingua italiana l2. innanzitutto si prende in esame il profilo europeo per la formazione degli insegnanti di lingue (kelly e grenfell, 2004) il cui obiettivo era tracciare delle linee guida che potessero servire ai vari paesi a impostare dei percorsi di formazione iniziale e continua. un altro documento è il portfolio europeo per la formazione iniziale degli insegnanti – pefil (newby et al., 2007) in cui il futuro docente registra i progressi, le esperienze e gli attestati ottenuti durante la formazione iniziale. tra il 2007 e il 2011 vengono pubblicati anche strumenti rivolti ai formatori degli insegnanti di lingua: il the trained kit, il qualitraining, la griglia dei descrittori equals (european association for quality language services) e il quadro europeo per la formazione degli insegnanti clil. la tabella 4 (pp. 325-326) costituisce un ottimo strumento guida per districarsi nella varietà di documenti presentati e descritti in questa parte del capitolo. birello e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 90-95 94 8. conclusioni il volume molto interessante e completo è un’ottima guida per tutti coloro che si dedicano o si dedicheranno all’insegnamento delle lingue straniere, inclusi sia i futuri insegnanti che stanno seguendo corsi di formazione iniziale, sia coloro che invece hanno già una esperienza nel campo. in questo volume si dà un’idea completa di come è nata ed evoluta la glottodidattica e degli aspetti fondamentali che un insegnante deve tener presente quando entra in classe, che sono utili sia per chi si trova di fronte al gruppo classe per la prima volta, sia per chi invece è stato indotto a porsi quesiti grazie all’esperienza della classe. interessante in questo senso è la sezione di letture consigliate presente in ogni capitolo. l’ultimo capitolo può essere di interesse anche per coloro che si dedicano alla formazione degli insegnanti. riferimenti bibliografici béacco, jean-claude & byram, michael (2007). guide for the development of language education policies in europe. division des politiques linguistiques. strasbourg, francia: conseil de l’europe. consultato su: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/guide_niveau3_en.asp? coste, daniel, coutillon, janine, ferenczi, victor, martins-baltar, michel, papo, éliane, & roulet, eddy (1976). un niveau seuil. strasbourg, francia: conseil de l’europe. freddi, giovanni (1994). glottodidattica. fondamenti, metodi e tecniche. torino, italia: utet. galli de’ paratesi, nora (1994). livello soglia per l’insegnamento dell’italiano come lingua straniera. strasburgo, francia: edizioni del consiglio d’europa. giscel (1975). dieci tesi per un’educazione linguistica. in aa.vv., l’educazione linguistica. atti della giornata di studio giscel padova, 17 settembre 1975. padova, italia: cleup. consultato su: http://www.societadilinguisticaitaliana.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13&it emid=14 kelly, michael & grenfell, michael (2004). european profile for language teacher education. a frame of reference. southampton, regno unito: university of southampton. newby, david, allan, rebecca, fenner, anne-brit, jones, barry, komorowska hanna, soghikyan, kristine (2007). european portfolio for student teachers of languages. a reflection tool for language teacher education: epostl. graz, austria: european centre for modern languages. council of europe education committee (2000). european language portfolio (elp). principles and guidelines. strasbourg, francia: council of europe. consiglio d’europa (2002). quadro comune europeo di riferimento per le lingue: apprendimento, insegnamento, valutazione. milano, italia: la nuova italia. van ek, jan ate (1975). the threshold level in a european unit/creditsystem for modern language learning by adults. strasbourg, francia: council of europe. recensione: fondamenti di glottodidattica e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 90-95 95 marilisa birello, universidad autónoma de barcelona marilisa.birello@gmail.com it marilisa birello dopo la laurea in lingue e letterature straniere conseguita presso l’università di ca’ foscari a venezia, ha frequentato il master di formazione di professori di spagnolo come lingua straniera all’università di barcellona. nel 2006 ha conseguito il titolo di dottore di ricerca in scienze dell’educazione presso l’università di barcellona con una tesi incentrata sull’analisi delle interazioni tra studenti nei corsi di italiano ls. ha organizzato e impartito corsi di formazione per insegnanti di lingue straniere presso diverse istituzioni in italia e all’estero. ha pubblicato vari articoli sull’insegnamento e apprendimento di una lingua straniera in libri e riviste e vari materiali didattici di italiano ls. dopo aver insegnato per molti anni italiano presso l’escuela de idiomas modernos dell’università di barcellona, attualmente insegna alla facoltà di scienze dell’educazione dell’università autónoma di barcellona. en marilisa birello after receiving her bachelor’s degree in foreign languages and literatures at ca’ foscari university in venice, marilisa birello earned her master’s degree in spanish foreign language education at the university of barcelona. at the same university in 2006 she earned her doctoral degree in education; her research focused on the analysis of students’ interactions within italian as a second language courses. she has designed and taught courses for foreign language teacher education programs in different italian and foreign institutes. she published numerous articles and book chapters about teaching and learning a foreign language along with pedagogical materials for italian as a second language. after many years teaching italian at the escuela de idiomas modernos at the university of barcelona, at present she teaches in the department of education at the autonomous university of barcelona). es marilisa birello después de la licenciatura en filología otorgada por la universidad de ca’ foscari de venecia, ha obtenido el título de máster de formación de profesores ele en la universidad de barcelona. en el 2006 ha obtenido el título de doctor en ciencias de la educación en la universidad de barcelona con una tesis centrada en el análisis de las interacciones entre estudiantes en los cursos de italiano le. ha organizado e impartido cursos de formación para profesores de lenguas extranjeras en diferentes instituciones en italia y en el extranjero. ha publicado artículos sobre la enseñanza y aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera en libros y revistas así como materiales didácticos de italiano le. después de haber enseñado durante muchos años italiano en la escuela de idiomas modernos de la universidad de barcelona, actualmente enseña en la facultad de ciencias de la educación de la universidad autónoma de barcelona. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 2, issue 1, august 2015, pages 1-19 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.2.55 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. 1 i would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions that greatly impacted the final version of this article. all errors remain my own. * contact: flavia.belpoliti@tamuc.edu moving forward: revisiting the spanish for high beginners course1 flavia belpoliti*2 texas a&m university—commerce received 3 june 2015; received in revised form 20 july; accepted 26 july 2015 abstract en this paper presents a case study on the redesign of a spanish for high beginners (shb) course at a large metropolitan university in texas, usa. the first section presents a discussion on the diverse nature of students who can benefit from an intensive first-year spanish course and the challenges that these learners’ mixed abilities pose for instruction. the second section describes the redesign process of the shb course, including placement procedures, the spanish language program sequence, and changes in the syllabus to integrate communicative and transcultural competences by implementing a combination of focused instruction, collaborative learning and task-based approaches. the last section introduces a short presentation of four activities implemented in the redesigned course, which provide paths for future development of advanced beginners’ integrative tasks. the final section focuses on the results of an exit survey measuring students’ perceptions of the course. the successful implementation of changes and its outcomes demonstrate that this course could be a relevant solution for spanish programs at tertiary institutions with diverse populations, helping to solve challenges of placement, articulation, and time-to-graduation effectiveness. key words: intensive spanish, spanish for high beginners, course redesign, collaborative learning. es este artículo presenta un estudio de caso sobre el rediseño de un curso de español para principiantes avanzados (shb) en una universidad metropolitana del estado de texas, ee.uu. la primera sección plantea una discusión sobre la variedad de estudiantes que pueden beneficiarse de un curso intensivo de español de primer año, así como los retos que la hetereogenidad de niveles entre el alumnado conlleva. en la segunda sección se describe el proceso seguido para rediseñar el curso shb, incluyéndose aquí los procedimientos de admisión, la secuenciación de contenidos, así como los cambios efectuados en el plan de estudios con vistas a integrar competencias comunicativas y transculturales la enseñanza mediante una combinación de instrucción centrada en la forma, aprendizaje colaborativo y enfoques basados en tareas. en la última sección se presentan cuatro actividades implementadas en el nuevo diseño del curso que promueven el desarrollo de tareas integradas para principiantes avanzados. la sección final se centra en los resultados de una encuesta de salida donde se valoran las percepciones del curso por parte del alumnado. la implementación con éxito de los y los resultados obtenidos demuestran que ese curso podría ser una solución satisfactoria para los programas de español en instituciones con un alumnado diverso, ayudando a resolver los retos que plantean la nivelación, la implementación y la efectiva temporalización del curso en la obtención un grado universitario. palabras clave: español intensivo, español para principiantes avanzados, rediseño de curso, aprendizaje colaborativo. it l’articolo presenta un caso di studio sulla rielaborazione di un corso di spagnolo per principianti di livello avanzato (shb) in una grande università in texas, usa. la prima parte presenta un’analisi dei tipi di studenti che possono trarre vantaggio da un corso intensivo di spagnolo al primo anno e delle sfide che le diverse competenze di tali alunni rappresentano per l’insegnamento. la seconda parte descrive il processo di riprogettazione del corso in termini di procedure d’inserimento, organizzazione dei contenuti e cambiamenti al piano didattico, al fine di integrare competenze comunicative e transculturali attraverso un insieme di insegnamento mirato, apprendimento collaborativo e approccio task-based. nell’ultima parte si presentano quattro attività ideate nel corso che aprono la strada al futuro sviluppo di task integrati per studenti di livello intermedio. infine, l’ultima parte si sofferma sui risultati di un’indagine che rileva le percezioni degli studenti sul corso. il successo dei cambiamenti proposti e i risultati ottenuti dimostrano che il corso può essere una soluzione importante ai programmi di lingua spagnola nelle università con utenza diversificata e che può contribuire a risolvere questioni di efficacia di inserimento, di articolazione e di tempi di conseguimento della laurea. parole chiave: spagnolo intensivo, spagnolo per principianti di livello avanzato, riprogettazione del corso, apprendimento collaborativo. http://www.e-journall.org/ belpoliti e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 2 1. introduction a quick look to the 2013 catalog of spanish courses recognized by the board of texas higher education coordination board finds that span1305: intensive beginning spanish was scheduled for deletion in fall 2014. the thecb simply states: “the following courses were under review and are now deleted. the courses are ineligible for state funding if offered after august 31, 2013” (thecb, 2013, p. 10). in other words, the course is no longer part of the official spanish courses of texas and cannot be, therefore, used for transfer among higher education institutions. the decision was reached in the august, 2012 draft description of courses and learning outcomes mandated by the thecb. the recommendation for deletion of span1305: intensive beginning spanish from the catalogue was based on low enrollment: only 385 students had enrolled in that course in texas in 2010. a second argument supporting the removal was “lack of applicability to a degree” (thecb, 2013, p. 5). many degree plans in tertiary institutions of texas include a foreign language requirement, which calls for completion of two semesters at the intermediate level; therefore, language courses dealing with beginners’ levels are not counted toward the requirement, i.e., they are not “applicable” for a degree. coincidently, this state-level administrative decision was reached at the same time that a large metropolitan university in the south of texas was redesigning that precise course, intensive spanish for high beginners. the motivation for the redesign was related to changes in the student population, uneven enrollment in the spanish courses, and the re-organization of the four-semester spanish course sequence. instead of choosing the easiest solution (i.e. eliminating the course from the catalog, thus reducing the number of offerings), the department of hispanic studies at the university of houston (main campus) approved a proposal to re-design the course to solve some of the issues. the goal of this article is to describe the redesign and re-organization process of a spanish for high beginners course, seeking to address the wide diversity of incoming college students in a large spanish program in a metropolitan university in texas, usa. the course redesign was based on collaborative learning and task-based approach, taking advantage of the particular strengths that a diverse population brings to the classroom, while enabling learners to move up in the proficiency scale. the main goals of the redesign included: a) creating an inclusive learning context for a very diverse group of learners; b) incorporating integrative tasks, with an emphasis in oral communication, that motivate students and advance their proficiency to the next level; c) aligning goals and outcomes with the spanish courses sequence, and d) encouraging development of learning strategies that relate already-known content to a more performative access to the spanish language, with particular emphasis on oral skills. the redesign objectives were multifaceted and related to instructional and administrative areas; the changes were planned to: ameliorate placement problems based on inconclusive assessment of spanish for high beginner (henceforth, shb) learners (hudson & clark, 2008), accelerate time to graduation, help transitioning of transfer students into the spanish program, and provide learners with an attractive curriculum whose tasks and content motivated them. the redesign process was conducted via constructive alignment (biggs, 2003; livingstone, 2014), which offers a dynamic framework to ensure the connection among learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and evaluation process: “it is an approach to curriculum design that optimizes the conditions for learning, where the teaching activities of the teacher and the learning activities of the student are both directed towards the same goal” (livingstone, 2014, p. 5). modifications in all components of the course curriculum, including placement procedures, teaching framework, assessment and teacher preparation were carried out with successful results: students participating in the pilot not only satisfactorily reached learning outcomes but expressed deep satisfaction in the exit survey. the article is divided in three main sections: first, a discussion on the concept of “high beginner,” including the description of the profile of learners who can be placed into the shb course; second, a sequential explanation of the redesign process which was developed in summer/fall 2012, including changes in enrollment procedures, course content, assignments and assessments; third, a introduction to the language tasks students completed during the pilot semester and a short presentation of the students’ comments gathered in an exit survey. 2. high beginners in the college spanish classroom literature in language learning defines “false beginners” (in this article high beginners, hb) as those language learners who are placed or register themselves in beginner language classes but have already spanish for high beginners e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 3 acquired some knowledge—declarative or procedural—of the foreign language in different contexts (frantzen & magnan, 2005; kuriyama, 2014; nakamura, 1997; sohn & shin, 2007). richards and schmidt (2010) provide a general definition generally found in most of the literature on hb: “false beginner: a learner who has had a limited amount of previous instruction in a language but who because of extremely limited language proficiency is classified as at the beginning level of language instruction” (p. 216). this definition does not include learners whose contact with the language happened in naturalistic environments—for instance, in the contexts of heritage language acquisition or when traveling extendedly abroad—which is the case of many spanish students. there are many individuals entering spanish language programs at the college level who possess such experience. some of them have previous formal instruction at the secondary level, where spanish continues to be the most popular choice (72% of all foreign language students in high school decided to register in spanish classes, according to the actfl foreign language enrollment survey, 2011). others have been in contact with spanish in a naturalistic context, for instance at home where a relative speaks the language, or in the workplace (beaudrie & ducar, 2005; sohn & shin, 2007). and still others have lived abroad for a period of time or have traveled extensively without necessarily receiving formal instruction. richards and schmidt’s initial definition can be modified considering that hb, although located “at the beginning level of language instruction” (p. 216), constitute a very heterogeneous group with diverse abilities and needs. shb are as diverse as their backgrounds and present unique challenges for course design and instruction. this diversity affects all interacting components of the course: the students; their abilities, motivations and needs; the goals, content and structure of the course; the instructional intervention; and the instructor’s role. gascoigne lally (2001) summarizes this description, seeking to help instructor recognize the diversity found in beginning classes: many instructors facing an heterogeneous mix do not consider the various sources of ‘prior language experience’ that may composite their classes: in the case of ‘false beginners’, the group may include: students who have a spanish-speaking background; english students who lived and were educated in a hispanic context; students who completed a number of spanish courses at the high school; students who are transferring language credits from other tertiary institution. (p. 18) the presence of hb learners in beginning foreign classes has been studied since the early 1960s, and continues to be an unresolved issue3 with the potential to become more acute: as more and more foreign languages are offered in high schools and more colleges require them for entrance, the potential for bringing false beginners to college classes grows. for spanish the situation is aggravated by its rising popularity. heritage learners, who might be considered a special case of false beginners, provide a new dimension in spanish and in other languages as well. (frantzen & magnan, 2005, p. 172) an answer to this issue could be the careful implementation of an intensive hb course designed to accommodate a diverse population, maximize time and costs, and provide a clear pathway to more advanced proficiency without boring or overwhelming the students. as arnold (2007) summarizes: despite several years of fl study in high school, students often return to beginning language study in college. while some of them take first-semester classes together with true beginners, many universities have created specific review courses for these false beginners. (p. 113) a few tertiary institutions in texas currently follow this recommendation and offer such a course: texas tech university offers spa1607: intensive spanish first year, described as a comprehensive, onesemester review of first-year spanish. university of texas at austin created in 2013 the intensive spa601d, which is indicated for true and false beginners; baylor university offers spa1412: accelerated elementary spanish to students who had previous spanish coursework at high school; texas a&m university includes 3 this study does not focus on the issues of elementary language courses with a mixed population of true beginners and high beginners; this topic has been studied in different academic contexts, considering issues of motivation, student anxiety, language achievement, assessment and pace of instruction (see frantzen & magnan, 2004, 2005; klee & rogers, 1989; magnan & pierce, 1996). belpoliti e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 4 spa140: alternate beginning spanish, which presents an accelerated review of first-year content. in spite of this list, most colleges and universities do not offer first-year spanish in an intensive course, and the modification of the official state catalog would surely discourage institutions that could benefit their students by offering this course. determining the proficiency level of this diverse group is not an easy task and there are no clear guidelines to determine their level. helgesen (1987) describes hb students’ can-do abilities considering that “false beginners understand the meaning of a great deal of language and are able to engage in controlled, form-based (accuracy) activities, but their skills are very limited when they get into meaning-focused (fluency) situations” (p. 24). in the particular case of spanish, this description mostly includes secondlanguage learners (collentine, 2007; frantzen & magnan, 2005; gascoigne lally, 2001; harlow & muyskens, 1994). these students have taken two or three years of spanish at high school and are therefore familiar with basic content of the language. they have written in the language, are able to produce some sentence-level answers and can understand heavily manipulated passages in the target language. their skills are essentially receptive, but they are able to follow classroom instructions, introduce themselves and provide basic information on immediate topics. they can remember and recognize some structures and vocabulary, and more importantly, they may have developed initial strategies for language learning. however, they are not well prepare for advancing to the intermediate level, which is commonly the level needed to complete the foreign language requirement for most degrees. this issue regarding “misplacement” has been noted not only in texas but in different areas of the usa: parents and the general public are disturbed by the inefficient use of educational resources when students unnecessarily repeat coursework. for example, schwartz found that 43% of california students who had completed two years of language study in high school began study of the same language at the introductory level in college. a more recent investigation in florida revealed that 38% of students in beginning spanish courses at the post-secondary level had successfully completed two or more years of spanish in high school. (gascoigne lally, 2001, p. 18) another group of students who may be included in shb courses, normally as a minority (10% of students in the actual course here described), are international students whose native language belongs to the romance family; speakers of italian, portuguese and even french can test out of basic classes because of their overall knowledge of common structures and words, but are not able to move beyond the beginner level. however, their command of a romance language makes them different from true beginners; they “do well” in controlled form-based activities and are also able to understand and respond to some target language input when it includes cognates and similar structures to their native languages. finally, a third group of learners may be included in shb courses: spanish heritage learners (shl) at the low end of the bilingual proficiency continuum (valdés, 2001), also labeled as “receptive” (beaudrie & ducar, 2005) and “passive” heritage learners (arnhart, arnold, & bravo-black, 2001). these are learners who possess very limited spanish proficiency but maintain strong connections with their cultural background. they normally register in spanish classes seeking to strengthen that connection, although “their acquisition process will most parallel that of a regular second language learner” (beaudrie & ducar, 2005, p.13). they are often able to understand spoken spanish and manage to communicate in basic situations but are not familiar with spanish literacy and struggle with simple reading and writing tasks. the number of shl has continually increased in the past two decades (ennis, ríos-vargas & albert, 2011; fry & lópez, 2012; lacorte & canabal, 2003), as more hispanic students continue their education and enter college. for instance, texas’ population includes a 38% of people from hispanic origin, most of them self-reporting as spanish-speakers; 41.6% of the harris county population, where the university of houston is located, is hispanic (u.s. census bureau, 2013). these percentages highlight the increasing enrollment of hispanics in college classes in houston. while it is possible to offer a number of dedicated spanish classes for shl with more advanced proficiency, “receptive” or “passive” learners can benefit of l2 instructional approaches and interactions with non-native speakers in shb courses if their particular language abilities, needs and motivations are recognized and valued: “respect and interest in the language and cultural experiences that these students bring to the classroom may have a positive effect on the overall levels of motivations and attitudes among participants” (lacorte & canabal, 118, p. 2003). the two most relevant frameworks for language learning and teaching, the american council of teaching foreign languages’ (actfl) standards and the european common frame of reference (cefr) do spanish for high beginners e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 5 not specify a level of competency directly related to high beginners; however, the descriptors used to define the a1 (cefr) and the novice high (actfl) levels can be considered a good account of hb linguistic abilities when they start the language course:  a1: can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. can introduce him/herself an others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and thins he/she has. can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. (cefr, 2001, p.24);  novice mid (speaking): communicate minimally and with difficulty by using a number of isolated words and memorized phrases limited by the particular context in which the language has been learned. when responding to direct questions, they may utter only two or three words or an occasional stock answer. they pause frequently as they search for simple vocabulary or attempt to recycle their own and their interlocutor’s words. when called on to handle topics by performing functions associated with the intermediate level, they frequently resort to repetition, words from their native language, or silence. (actfl, 2012, p. 9) considering these descriptions, it is evident that hb learners cannot simply be placed into an “spa 101” language course designed for true beginners, as their different abilities are well beyond initial content, they have started to perform in the language and, in some cases, they have strong cultural connections and personal experience with the language. intermediate level classes, however, are beyond their skills, which need to expand before attempting a more complex curriculum. although there is no consensus among researchers on the need of separating “false” and “true” beginners (christiansen & wu, 1993; frantzen & magnan, 2005; loughrin-sacco, 1990), the particular context of college level spanish in the us and the kind of students entering these courses requires such separation if the intended goals of foreign language education are to be met. despite administrative and instructional issues—which may encompass advising, placement, course content, assessment and particularly, instructors’ training—a specific course to accommodate this heterogeneous group of learners is a logical and sensitive answer. 3. redesigning for diversity the redesign process and subsequent implementation of a shb course was conducted in the spanish language program at the university of houston (central campus), the flagship campus of the houston university system in texas, us. this large metropolitan institution has more than 40,700 students registered in 300 graduate and undergraduate programs. the student body is one of the most ethnically diverse in a research university in the usa, with large percentages of hispanics (27%), asian americans (20%), african americans (10%) and international learners4 (10%). the spanish language program (slp) offer courses for those students pursuing a major or minor degree in spanish, as well those students who need to complete the foreign language requirement for their individuals degrees. considering the students’ ethnographic diversity, the slp is divided in two tracks: spanish for second-language learners and spanish for heritage learners. students are initially placed into these tracks by means of a short survey, which separate them to take different placement exams: spanish second-language learners complete the s-cape5 test while spanish heritage learners complete the spanish for heritage speakers placement exam, developed in-house. table 1 presents the different levels where students can be placed; table ii shows enrollment trends. 4 these numbers correspond to the fall 2014 semester, the most current available data. 5 s-cape is a spanish computerized adaptive placement exam developed by brigham young university. its main focus is on lower-divisions courses and it includes items to measure grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension. belpoliti e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 6 table 1 spanish language program structure sequence spanish second language program spanish as heritage language program first year beginning spanish i beginning spanish ii spanish for high beginners -- second year intermediate spanish i intermediate spanish ii spanish for shl i spanish for shl ii third year spanish oral communication advanced spanish public speaking in spanish written communication for shl table 2 enrollment 2009-2012 course 2009 2010 2011 2012 beg. spanish i 388 421 471 518 beg. spanish ii 324 342 387 449 spanish for high beginners 189 164 89 82 intermediate spanish i 493 534 528 547 intermediate spanish ii 392 449 449 457 the existing shb course underwent an extensive redesign in 2012, which was piloted in the fall of that year and later in spring 2013. the redesign process was the response to several issues. the first was declining enrollment and high attrition rates in the existing shb. as table ii shows, registration for this course declined by almost 57% between 2009 and 2012, reducing the number of offered sections and causing last-minute cancellations. a second issue related to the growing number of spanish heritage learners with receptive abilities who could not be placed into the heritage track as their spanish abilities would not reach an advanced intermediate level. third, instructors noticed an increasing number of students who found themselves in the “beginning i” course although they had previous experience with the language. finally, instructors were concerned about student engagement and interest in the shb course, which could explain to some degree the notable decrease in enrollment. the redesign sought to create a receptive context for the shb diverse population and to give students a different approach to basic spanish, as proposed by tomlinson (2007): an obvious example is the false beginners, whose apparent lack of competence belies the time he/she has spent trying to learn the language. such a learner needs a fresh start with a different approach rather than being asked to do the same thing all over again. (p. 324) carrying out a “fresh start” was the main drive to redirect instruction and learning towards a taskbased model, while seeking to create an inclusive classroom for the diverse shb population. modifications in the areas of advising, placement, objectives, activities, and assessment were implemented, as follows. placement and advising: in order to implement the redesign, a first step was taken in the area of placement. the traditional shb course was open to any student with two or more years of spanish at the high school level, and to any spanish heritage learner whose oral and written competency were below the expectation for the spanish for heritage learners i (second-year) course. enrollment in the shb course was changed to allow multiple entry-points, which matched the diverse population the course was aiming for. the key change was to combine the placement exam score with students’ language experience in order to provide different entry points. in addition, entrance to the class was also open to native speakers of romance languages (mostly portuguese, french and italian) who had obtained similar scores in the s-cape exam; this inclusion attracted a number of students majoring in world languages who saw the course as a great opportunity to complement their degrees. the following lists the placement requirement to enroll in the shb course: spanish for high beginners e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 7  s-cape: 250-315 + two or more years of spanish high school in the past three years.  s-cape: 250-315 + two or more years living abroad in a spanish-speaking country.  s-cape: 250-315 + romance language proficiency [italian, french, portuguese].  receptive heritage learners [39 points or less in the spanish for heritage learners placement exam’s lexical recognition task]. several meetings were conducted with undergraduate academic advisors to discuss the new placement procedures and to request their collaboration in detecting and assisting prospective shb students in the enrollment process. advisors agreed that one-semester intensive course would help students in the graduation process because of the reduction in time and costs, and it was also a good transition for those transfer students who felt unprepared for taking the intermediate spanish courses. instructors teaching the beginning spanish i class also received information about the course and were encouraged to contact those students who did not fit the true beginner profile. these meetings were also important to continue demystifying the “easy a” conception that affects enrollment in basic language courses. as loughrin-sacco (1990) reports, “for many false beginners, retaking elementary foreign language in college is an opportunity to enhance their grade point average” (p. 89). he refers to previous studies which had showed these students placed themselves in lower courses or even willingly tested poorly in placement exams so they could be included in the beginner class. informing advisors and instructors of the multiple issues that false beginners bring to a true elementary course, as well as promoting the shb course as the most adequate setting for these learners, was a fundamental step in the redesign process. course objectives and content: a review of the learning objectives focused on the proficiency level required for successfully advance to the intermediate level (the equivalent of a2 level [cefr] or novice-high level [actfl]). main goals were consolidated in order to: 1) advance previous spanish knowledge, 2) introduce and reinforce language learning strategies, and 3) foster self-confidence in a collaborative context. after completing the course, learners were expected to: 1) be able to communicate effectively in everyday life situations, including basic interactions such as greeting, talking about daily activities, making purchases, ordering a meal, making basic travel arrangements, giving simple instructions and recommendations, and reporting information. 2) be able to understand simple oral and written passages, and infer specific information from simple texts including news excerpts, advertisements, short interviews and cultural reports. 3) develop basic writing skills to report information, describe people and places, and elaborate a sequential narration. 4) gain familiarity with the spanish-speaking cultures and communities both in the usa and abroad, by reading and discussing information on different spanish-speaking countries and by connecting with the hispanic community in the houston area. the shb course was organized in seven main units which included linguistic, functional and cultural topics that directly relate to the course objectives and the progression towards the intermediate level. the following table summarizes the course content organization. belpoliti e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 8 table 3 shb content and sequence unit functions vocabulary structures culture 1 greetings introduce yourself request personal information talk about pastimes personal information personal interests pastimes & hobbies present tense basic nominal phrase agreement basic questions free time activities in the spanish speaking-world 2 requesting information talk about preferences expressing agreement /disagreement transportation, travel and lodging tours and excursions hours, dates, calendar sentence structure present tense verbal phrases adjectives ecoturism in central america 3 talk about your family describe your house talk about your daily routine family and personal relationships household items & chores reflexive verbs direct complement adjectives ii families and personal relationships in the spanish speaking-world 4 talk about foods and meals explain basic recipe interact in a restaurant meals and food items cooking instructions & methods. measures restaurants & bars future tense direct and indirect complements traditional latin-american ingredients. a national recipe 5 talk about courses, disciplines & professors provide information about your school/ university discuss plans for the future academic disciplines & subjects university and school spaces professions preterite tense affirmative and negative words verbal phrases ii two latin-american universities 6 talk about fashion and clothing shop for new clothing narrate best/worst shopping experiences stores, shopping clothing & fashion sizes, styles, prices preterite tense imperfecte tense traditional caribean clothing shoppings in spain, venezuela and chile 7 plan a celebration invite people to event narrate childhood celebrations celebrations & traditions holidays preterite tense imperfecte tense past tenses contrast comparing holidays and celebrations in the us and the spanish speaking-world activities and assessment: the shb course met five hours per week, in a twoor three-day schedule. the number of hours allowed students enough time for interaction with the instructor and peers, to have access targeted instruction on lexical, grammatical and functional areas, and to carry out different activities that prepared them to fulfill the more complex tasks required in the course. incorporating the integrative tasks, as discussed in the following section, was the most relevant change to the curriculum; until the redesign process, the shb course followed a more traditional approach to language learning based on the four skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. another relevant component of the redesign was the addition of independent oral practice outside the classroom. students were required to attend five sessions of the “spanish conversation table” at the student support center. tables were organized in two levels (beginner and intermediate), with a maximum of 6 students per session, and were conducted by graduate students of spanish. each session was 50 minutes long and provided a sequence of different oral activities: after brief reviews of target vocabulary, participants played memory games, create dialogues, read short news from different spanish countries and connected with other spanish learners broadening the classroom community. the conversation tables provided a unique opportunity to increase learner autonomy, and their performance was solely measured by active participation. this provided learners with a more relaxed environment to try out their spanish and engage in different interactions with other learners from the spanish program. spanish for high beginners e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 9 additionally, three formative tests were conducted in the semester, replacing the former six exams based on the textbook chapters. the three tests included listening and reading passages as the foundation for pre-communicative activities, which were necessary in the organization of the advanced tasks, and included highly contextualized questions. writing was reduced in these exams as students were already producing a fair amount of writing in the preparation activities and advanced tasks. lastly, the final examination was extensively modified to reinforce oral communication outcomes. until the redesign implementation was conducted, the final exam was a traditional pencil-and-paper, comprehensive written assessment covering all content of the course. this exam was replaced with an oral examination where students needed to tap into their overall language proficiency in order to fulfill an oral task tied to their language level. the assessment was performed in two steps: first, students completed an individual short interview with the instructor (about 5 minutes); then students were paired up to complete an oral task (about 10 minutes) focused on information exchange. the oral examination was video-recorded by the instructor, who then assessed and graded each performance individually. the implementation of this final exam was very successful, expanding students’ oral skills and showcasing the advancement of their spanish proficiency. the following section describes the articulation of collaborative work as a key classroom component for success. 3.1 collaborative learning in the shb classroom creating a learning environment where cooperation frames all interactions (student-student, student-instructor, student and class) was a fundamental piece in the successful development of the redesigned shb course. cooperative activities were included since the first day, and promotion of group work strategies was integrated into the course content. activities were designed to ensure group interaction in each session, to prepare students to carry out the more complex tasks, and to encourage higher participation rates, regardless of their specific abilities and knowledge of the target language. as thomas (2006) explains in her approach to french for hb, activities such as group investigation are likely to encourage shy and low performance students since they have the advantage of requiring the participation of all group or pair members to carry out a task, allowing each member to do something according to one’s abilities. (p. 153) as the shb course was made up of learners with mixed abilities because of their prior linguistic experience, heterogeneous grouping was considered the most beneficial approach to tap into their diverse skills in spanish and to facilitate collaboration. the benefits of cooperative learning are more tangible when it comes to written work. involvement in cooperative dyads can improve the quality of students’ performance on a written task. weak students can use more advanced learners as sources of information, commenting on and critiquing each other’s drafts in both oral and written formats. (xanthou & pavlou, 2008, p. 4) by assigning learners with different ability levels in the same group it was possible to provide learning opportunities for low-level students as well as more advanced students, as the activities reinforced what they already knew or provided new perspectives on the content. for instance, shls can easily understand basic spoken discourse in spanish, and could provide vocabulary definitions or model oral production to l2 learners. when it comes to writing and structures, the roles reverse: as l2 are more familiar with metalinguistic vocabulary and grammar structures, they were able to coach heritage learners in the focus-on-form activities or when editing a writing piece. in other cases, students in the group had the same ability level, but the diverse experiences with the target language provided access to different strategies for learning and communicating. the number of learners (n=20) in the redesigned section surpassed size recommendations for language classes (adfl, 2001; schiming, 2013; zarker morgan, 2000), but still allowed a number of groupings in which each student had the opportunity to interact with all classmates. in order to ensure a collaborative environment, information about each learner was gathered beforehand. before the first day of class, students registered in the shb course completed an online survey about their background on the language, their goals and their expectations for the class, and basic personal belpoliti e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 10 information6. this survey was a first step into getting to know each student and finding out their previous contact with spanish. a set of questions was designed to measure such experience, including a list of known languages, years of spanish courses at the high school level, use of the language at home and abroad, and selfreporting competence in understanding the language. the population of the class (n=20, 14 females and 6 males) included a majority of l2 learners (n=12) who had taken two or three years of spanish in high school. five students were shl with basic levels of competency in oral spanish, and one student had taken two semesters of spanish at another tertiary institution but wanted to “refresh” her knowledge before moving to the intermediate level. the class also included two international students whose native languages were french and italian, and who had lived for some time in mexico, venezuela and colombia. regarding university level, 60% of students were sophomores, 20% juniors and 20% seniors. the majority indicated they normally spoke english (n=13) while the five shl indicated they spoke some spanish with their grandparents but not “at home.” the two international students reported their common usage of french, italian and english for communication. regarding expectations, most of them answered with very general comments such as “learn spanish,” “improve my spanish,” “get ready for the last spanish classes”; some of them indicated they wanted to complete the requisite for graduation. the responses to the question 16 about their interest in different spanish skills were mostly focus on “speaking” (n=17), “culture” (n=10) and “listening” (n=8), showing that learners considered oral communication the most relevant component to develop. during the class period students were divided in different pairs or small groups (three to four participants) considering the particular activity they were performing; this distribution gave the students the opportunity to closely work with several classmates through the semester, creating a low-anxiety environment as they got to know each other very well. the distribution in groups for the different tasks was based on the student survey responses; each group combination, which changed by task, included l2 learners with high-school experience, heritage learners who had experience with the language at home, and students transferring from another tertiary institution. in some cases, the group included international students with a romance language background. this rotating combination of backgrounds facilitated access to different types of knowledge which were needed to complete the task, and provided students with a richer learning experience. interdependence was modeled into the tasks to promote participation, interaction and communication; individual students could not complete the task without interacting and collaborating with peers. this cooperative format typifies johnson, johnson, and smith’s (1991) description of interdependence, which aligns individual attainment with group work success: “there is positive interdependence among students’ goal attainments and students perceive that they can reach their goals if and only if the other students in the group also reach their goals” (p. 13). from the decision-making initial steps (planning for the task) until the final product delivery, students needed to actively participate in the group, negotiate responsibilities and collaborate in the task development and completion. as cohen (1994) posits: “the objective is to ensure that a group will be created because members are dependent on one another to achieve group goal (positive goal interdependence) and will need to use each other’s resources to attain that goal (resource interdependence)” (p. 21). in addition, interactional skills were included in the assessment process: learners’ ability to cooperate with classmates and actively participate in each group project was weekly evaluated in a four-point scale: great, good, weak and no-interaction. students received this brief evaluation as part of their overall participation grade, and they could discuss with the instructor and classmates different strategies to improve their collaborative work. 4. moving forward: task design for the shb course this section describes four tasks designed and implemented by the instructors of the shb course during the semesters of fall 2012 and spring 2013. each task was related to the topics developed in the course and the overall outcomes described in the previous sections. although the syllabus was not completely restructured with a task-based language teaching (tblt) approach, the use of tasks became a central component in the design. one of the greatest strengths of this approach in the beginner language class is the diversity of options it offers, and how its flexible design can be reshaped to promote particular outcomes and language development (brown, 2007; norris, 2009). “tblt is not monolithic; it does not constitute one single methodology. it is a multifaceted approach, which can be creatively applied with different syllabus types and 6 see appendix a. spanish for high beginners e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 11 for different purposes” (willis, 2004, p. 3). as gonzalez-lloret and nielson (2014) emphasize, there are several ways to implement tblt and the proximity to real-world task can be adapted according to learners’ needs and interests, as well as course general objectives. furthermore, norris (2009) points out that “tasks also have the advantage of offering learners some reason for communicating, beyond practicing to do so, in that they came replete with actual outcomes, criteria for success or failure, even tangible results” (p. 587). tasks designed to target the diverse shb learners require a clear structure and differentiated support, according to individual needs. learners at this level have need of clear description of assignments, step-by-step instructions, collaboration from peers, and direct instructional intervention to succeed in completing communicative tasks. sequencing each task in several sub-tasks as well as providing diverse supporting material, such as charts, check-lists, online content, rubrics and models helped them achieve each task. students conducted different guided activities, including activities for understanding—“estas actividades demuestran la comprensión de textos escritos u orales, puede ser dirigidos a la comprensión denotativa o la connotativa, pueden demostrar comprensión de información explícita o implícita y sirven para hacer resúmenes o evaluaciones7” (moreno garcía, 2011, p. 135)—as well as developmental activities—“which provide opportunities for meaningful language production based on the learners’ representation of a text” (tomlinson, 1999, p. 63). providing the mixed-ability class with activities which demanded all students to communicate with their classmates in order to give and receive new information proved to be helpful for these learners with different spanish skills. in order to provide students with consistent support, all tasks were clearly described and modeled with examples: providing a final product as a model (for instance, a restaurant review, a comedy script or a short story) helped learners to focus on what was needed to complete the task and what resources each individual and the group needed to collect. in particular, presenting culturally relevant materials to exemplify task’s development and outcome, served very well as a development guide for more independent performance. as an example, the second writing task required students to visit and review a hispanic business in order to compile information for a brochure. as part of the preparation activities, students read current online advertisements of different types of hispanic businesses in houston, and summarized the information they found: location, hours of operation, products/services provided, costs, etc. they evaluated the information found on the website and then compared their findings with their group to decide which was the best place to visit. this activity prepared them for the actual visit as their initial review would utilize similar vocabulary, structures and functions as the development activity. each task was completed in a period of about three weeks, with most of the work done outside the classroom. each class period included 15 minutes dedicated to the tasks, which allowed students time to work in groups organizing materials, planning the activities, designing the presentations or writing. these 15-minute sessions were structured as a workshop and the instructor become an advance resource, coach or audience, depending on particular needs of the groups. having this time available allowed students to fulfill the preparatory sub-tasks and evaluate what work needed to be done outside the classroom. although an important part of the work was completed by the team, students were graded individually in each task. all final products included some individual production which made easier to evaluate each student individually; there were also “group points” added to the final grade. in addition, the final examination was based on an individual oral performance, which targeted the topics and activities each student developed during the semester. 4.1 sample tasks8 this sub-section presents a description of some tasks implemented during the redesign period. students completed four tasks during the semester targeting oral and written communication, and instructors modified them in subsequent semesters according to their own interest and resource availability. for instance, an interesting variation to the “show and tell” oral description was implemented in spring 2013. after a field trip to a latin american art exhibition in a local museum, the instructor modified the initial task: instead of describing a personal 7 “those activities that demonstrate comprehension of oral or written texts, can be directed to understanding denotative or connotative meanings, can demonstrate understanding of explicit or implicit information, and serve to write summaries or evaluations” [my translation]. 8 i would like to thank emily bernate, mercedes fernández-asenjo and eugenia ruiz, instructors of the spanish for high beginners course, who collaborated in the redesign process and successfully implemented the changes in their classrooms. belpoliti e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 12 object, students had to describe their favorite painting in the exhibition after doing some online research on the artist, painting style and cultural context of the work. this activity was particularly popular among students, who presented their descriptions with rich visual information and spoke more extensively than in previous activities. escritura a: “de compras en houston” task: promote hispanic businesses with a brochure objectives: find information about hispanic business in the houston area; write a review; design a promotional brochure. instructions: part a: your group will decide what relevant stores you will present in the brochure. you have to make sure there are different type of stores (for instance, restaurant, general store, market, boutique, shoe store, etc.), and all of them are part of the hispanic community. you will write a short review of one of these hispanic businesses following this plan: first, visit the place and talk with clerks, managers or waiters to find out more information about the business. take some pictures showing interesting areas or objects. then, describe your visit using the present tense. provide information about location, hours, prices and activities. recommend (or not) the place. part b: you and your team will prepare the promotional brochure to promote the hispanic business industry. write a brief introduction providing information about the city and then arrange the reviews to showcase what the hispanic bossiness offer. include photos, images or websites to complete the brochure. assessment: the brochure will be graded on: content (30%), organization (20%), target vocabulary and structures (30%), original design (10%). escritura b: “contando historias” task: narrate a story about a comic character objectives: transfer visual content into linguistic discourse; write and perform a dialogue; recreate a story from a dialogue. instructions: part a. after reviewing the three comic options, discuss and select one per group; this visual material will be the basis for the dialogue and narratives. talk about the characters (names, physical traits, personalities, etc.) and explain what happened in the graphic story. look for unknown word to describe the situation. working together, create a dialogue (about 5 minutes) among the characters, imagining what they would say to each other; make sure you use formal or informal forms of addressing according to the characters’ relationship. practice and represent your dialogue in class. part b. now that you know more about the characters, select the one you find more interesting. using the information from the dialogue and the visual cues, write a short story (about 300 words) telling what happened with the character after the conversation was over. the story should include background information, a sequence of events and some time-markers. share your story with your group and compare characters’ ‘lives’. assessment: the story will be graded on: content (40%), organization (20%), target vocabulary and structures (20%), originality (20%). spanish for high beginners e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 13 presentación a: “show and tell” task: describe a personal object objectives: present detailed information on a personal object; explain relevance of object in life instructions: you will present in front of the class a favorite object, and describe what it is, when /how you acquired it and why is important to you; you can bring the object itself or bring a photo. to start your description, you need to look for specific words that will allow you to provide a full description of the item. the presentation is about 3 to 4 minutes. although you are expected to practice, you may not read during the presentation. your partner will be your first audience and he/she will comment on your presentation to improve it. assessment: the presentation will be graded on: content (40%), organization (20%), target vocabulary (20%), structures (20%). presentación b: “¿dónde puedo vivir?” task: promoting housing options to freshman students objectives: describe a house /apartment / dorm. list and describe household items; provide pros/cons of living on campus; give general recommendations on housing instructions: you and your classmate will produce a short video to promote the housing options uh offers to new international students. you can base your video in the two options provided, or select your own alternative. the presentation should last 5 to 7 minutes. although you are expected to prepare and practice the presentation, you may not read cue cards for the video. if it appears that you are reading, you will be asked to present your project in class. housing option 1: uh dorms. you and your partner will visit any of the new uh dorms and showcase the facility. present a very detailed description of the space, rooms, household items, furniture, etc. provide costs and benefits. include information on services students’ can access. housing option 2: you are hosting a foreign exchange student at your house. describe your household and give a tour of the home. if you choose this option, you will need to use a house that is large enough to present several rooms, their contents, and talk about the activities you usually perform in each space. assessment: the video will be graded on: discourse content (25%), vocabulary (25%), structures (25%), fluency (10%), and creativity (5%). 4.2 student voices a week before the end of the semester students completed an open-ended, seven-question, anonymous survey9 in order to evaluate the course outcomes, activities, materials and their personal gains. students (n=20) answered the exit survey with very positive comments regarding instructional effectiveness, content, activities and materials, and they recognized the fundamental role of the instructor in the successful development of the course. most students (70%) agreed that working in groups to complete complex communicative tasks was highly beneficial as the group provided support and helped lessen anxiety and stress during interactions. critical evaluation of aspects they perceived as incomplete or inadequate was welljustified with statements that presented some kind of solution, which indicates the degree of interest and commitment to the class. we include below a representative selection of comments offered by students who successfully completed the course: 9 see appendix b. belpoliti e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 14 1) regarding expectations: “the class met my expectations, i was taught a great deal of spanish.” “yes, i really enjoyed this class! i really liked when we learned as a group.” “the class was great! i expected it to be even more accelerated so it made it easier to manage.” “i liked it very much. i enjoyed when we worked in groups and spoke with each other.” 2) regarding content and activities: “the course covered all topics well. we had great group discussions and field trips.” “i think the class covered what was meant to be covered very well. i enjoyed talking about the spanish countries.” “it was great when there were guest speakers and they talked about their country. i would recommend this class because of lots of good content.” 3) regarding instruction: “the class is very well taught and the instructor speaks a good deal of spanish.” “i learned a lot because my professor was great; she took the time to explain and gives time to practice.” “i would recommend the teacher to anyone, she was very good and fair, she knows a lot about spanish,” although the exit survey served to corroborate positive aspects noticed during the implementation, analysis of students’ comments present limitations: low number of students, incomplete answers, and the survey optionality are limiting factors. however, it should be noted that the two sections implemented the following semester (spring 2013) showed similar results both in terms of point average grade and positive comments in the exit survey, indicating the changes made to the course had produced notable outcomes. 5. conclusion the main goal of this paper was to detail the redesign process and the integration of cooperative pedagogy in a shb course. the diverse group of shb learners needed an approach that was flexible, dynamic and attentive to their distinct skill levels and spanish backgrounds. placing these learners into an adequate course and providing such an approach became an important task that prioritized learning needs beyond clerical considerations. loughrin-sacco (1990) warns of the far-reaching consequences of “misplacing” language learners: “students’ experiences at the elementary level often influence their decision to pursue or terminate further foreign language study” (p. 90). gascoigne lally’s (2001) frank statement regarding the impact of misplacement in students’ performance echoes this statement and emphasizes the relevance of placement in language courses at the higher education level: “the poorly placed student, for instance, often finds him or herself in a classroom where she or he is overwhelmed or under-challenged. in either case, the misplaced student generally loses interest in the subject and eventually abandons language study” (p. 18). this is particularly true for the shb learners, and their interest and commitment to the language can rapidly be extinguished when entering an unfitting spanish course. more research targeting linguistic, cultural and socio-affective aspects of these particular learners is clearly needed. few studies have focused on this particular group of learners, and consideration of different pedagogical approaches needs to be investigated to conform to specific instructional models for diverse learners who are progressing towards the intermediate level. furthermore, longitudinal studies comparing progression to advanced levels considering true and high beginners as well as 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(eds.), heritage languages in america: preserving a national resource (pp. 37-77). washington, district of columbia: center for applied linguistics. willis, jane (2004). perspectives on task-based instruction: understanding our practices, acknowledging different practitioners. in betty lou leaver and jane r. willis, (eds.), task-based instruction in foreign language programs (pp. 3-41). washington, district of columbia: georgetown university press. xanthouh, maría, & pavlou, pavlos (2008). strategies for accommodating mixed ability classes in efl settings: teachers armor in an ongoing battle. humanizing language teaching, 10(1). retrieved october 17, 2014 from www.hltmag.co.uk/jan08/mart04.htm zarker morgan, leslie (2000). class size and second-language instruction at the post-secondary level: a survey of the literature and a plea for further research. italica, 77(4), 449-472. spanish for high beginners e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 17 appendix a spanish program student survey 1. please type ‘yes’ to indicate that you understand the following statement: ______________ if a roster audit, at any point during the semester, reveals that the information provided by you in this survey is incorrect or misleading, you will automatically be dropped from this spanish course, and will not receive credit and/or reimbursement. 2. your full name: 3. your university id: 4. your contact phone number: 5. your university email: 6. your major(s) is: 7. please select your university level: 1. freshman 2. sophomore 3. junior 4. senior 5. other 8. have you taken spanish classes before? please list the courses you have successfully taken: 9. if you have taken spanish classes before, please indicate semester and year of your last course: 10. if you have lived and/or studied in a spanish-speaking country, list the places where you lived/studied. if you have not, please enter ‘na’: 11. what language/s do you speak at home? 12. what language/s do you speak with your parents? 13. what language/s do you speak with your grandparents? 14. what do you expect from this class? 15. what are your favorite activities in a language class? 16. what spanish areas are more relevant to you? (select all that apply): 1. speaking 2. listening 3. reading 4. writing 5.culture 17. i acknowledge that i meet all the prerequisites for this spanish class by the following (please circle): a. placement exam (bring results to your instructor the first day of class). b. completion of required courses of spanish (‘c’ or better grade). c. valid transfer credits (bring a copy of your records to your instructor the first day of class). belpoliti e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 18 appendix b spa1505 exit survey please take some minutes to answer the following questions. this survey is a great help to improve the class. 1. did the class meet your expectations? please explain your answer. 2. what activities were the most interesting for learning spanish? 3. were there some topics you would have liked to see in the class? 4. in your opinion, this class needs more… 5. did the book and materials facilitate the class objectives? 6. did you instructor promote learning spanish? please explain your answer. 7. would you recommend this class? please explain your answer. spanish for high beginners e-journall 2(1) (2015), pp. 1-19 19 flavia belpoliti, texas a&m university‒commerce flavia.belpoliti@tamuc.edu en flavia belpoliti, ph.d., is assistant professor of spanish and director of spanish graduate studies at the department of literature and languages at texas a&m university‒commerce. her research interests include spanish as second language and spanish as heritage language pedagogy, spanish in the us, and discourse analysis. es flavia belpoliti, ph.d., es profesora asistente de español y directora de estudios de posgrado en español del departamento de lenguas y literaturas de la universidad texas a&m–commerce. entre sus intereses de investigación se encuentran el español como segunda lengua, la didáctica del español como lengua de herencia, el español en ee. uu. y el análisis del discurso. it flavia belpoliti, ph.d., è assistant professor di spagnolo e direttrice del programma post laurea di spagnolo del dipartimento di lingue e letteratura presso la texas a&m university‒commerce. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono lo spagnolo come seconda lingua, la pedagogia dello spagnolo come lingua ereditaria, lo spagnolo negli stati uniti e l'analisi del discorso. e-j048-068_friginal_walker_randall euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-journall  volume  1,  issue  1,  november  2014,  pages  48-68   issn  2376-905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.4 www.e-journall.org   copyright  ©  2014.  this  work  is  licensed  under  the  creative  commons  attribution-­‐noncommercial-­‐noderivs  3.0  unported  license. 1  contact:  efriginal@gsu.edu   exploring  mega-­‐corpora:  google  ngram  viewer  and  the  corpus  of   historical  american  english   eric  friginala1,  marsha  walkerb,  janet  beth  randallc   adepartment  of  applied  linguistics  and  esl,  georgia  state  university   blanguage  institute,  georgia  institute  of  technology   camerican  language  institute,  new  york  university,  tokyo   received  10  december  2013;  received  in  revised  form  17  may  2014;  accepted  8  august  2014   abstract en the creation of internet-based mega-corpora such as the corpus of contemporary american english (coca), the corpus of historical american english (coha) (davies, 2011a) and the google ngram viewer (cohen, 2010) signals a new phase in corpus-based research that provides both novice and expert researchers immediate access to a variety of online texts and time-coded data. this paper explores the applications of these corpora in the analysis of academic word lists, in particular, coxhead’s (2000) academic word list (awl). coxhead (2011) has called for further research on the awl with larger corpora, noting that learners’ use of academic vocabulary needs to address for the awl to be useful in various contexts. results show that words on the awl are declining in overall frequency from 1990 to the present. implications about the awl and future directions in corpus-based research utilizing mega-corpora are discussed. keywords:  google n-gram viewer, corpus of historical american english, mega-corpora, trend studies. es la creación de megacorpus basados en internet, tales como el corpus of contemporary american english (coca), el corpus of historical american english (coha) (davies, 2011a) y el visor de ngramas de google (cohen, 2010), anuncian una nueva fase en la investigación basada en corpus, pues proporcionan, tanto a investigadores noveles como a expertos, un acceso inmediato a una gran diversidad de textos online y datos codificados con time-code. este artículo explora las aplicaciones de estos corpus en el análisis de listas de vocabulario académico, en particular, coxhead’s (2000) academic word list (awl). coxhead (2011) hizo patente la necesidad de seguir investigando las aplicaciones del awl con corpus más amplios, al apuntar a que el uso de vocabulario académico por parte de los aprendices necesita ser considerado para que el awl sea útil en diferentes contextos. los resultados muestran que la frecuencia de uso general de las palabras contenidas en el awl está disminuyendo desde 1990. asimismo, se tratan los efectos de esta tendencia en el awl y las futuras líneas de investigación de estudios que utilizan megacorpus. palabras clave: visor de ngramas de google, corpus histórico de inglés americano, megacorpus, estudios de tendencias it la creazione di mega-corpora basati su internet, come il corpus of contemporary american english (coca), il corpus of historical american english (coha) (davies, 2011a) e il google ngram viewer (cohen, 2010), inaugura una nuova fase della ricerca basata su corpora che permette a ricercatori e ricercatrici junior e senior di accedere a un’ampia gamma di testi on-line e dati con codifica time-code. l’articolo esplora le applicazioni di questi corpora nell’analisi di glossari (word lists) accademici, in particolare, l’academic word list (awl) di coxhead (2000). coxhead (2011) ha sollecitato ulteriori ricerche sull’awl tramite corpora di estensione maggiore, sottolineando la necessità di considerare l’uso del lessico accademico da parte degli apprendenti affinché l’awl sia utile in molteplici contesti. i risultati mostrano che dal 1990 a oggi la frequenza generale dei lemmi dell’awl è diminuita. seguono considerazioni sulle implicazioni riguardanti l’awl e i futuri orientamenti della ricerca basata sull’uso di mega-corpora. parole-chiave: google n-gram viewer, corpus of historical american english, mega-corpora, studi di tendenza. friginal,  walker,  &  randall       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68   49   1.  introduction   over  the  past  several  years,  research  in  corpus  linguistics  has  produced  generalizable  and  accurate   linguistic   information   that   has   been   useful   in   analyzing   variation   in   language   (biber,   conrad,   &   reppen,   1998).   enabled   by   major   advancements   in   computational   technology,   software   design,   and   the   internet,   corpus-­‐based   approaches   have   continued   to   explore   specialized   corpora   and   extensive   applications   of   quantitative   data   which   would   otherwise   be   infeasible   in   traditional   research   methodologies.   as   a   result,   researchers  using  corpora  are  able  to  pursue  a  dynamic  set  of  research  questions  that  often  result  in  radically   different  perspectives  on  language  variation  and  use  from  those  taken  in  previous  research  (biber,  reppen,  &   friginal,   2010).   in   addition,   the   number   of   corpora   freely   distributed   online   has   increased   tremendously,   allowing   both   novice   and   expert   researchers   the   opportunity   to   obtain   relevant   linguistic   frequency   and   distributional  data  immediately.  searchable  corpora  and  databases  with  built-­‐in  interfaces  that  provide  part-­‐ of-­‐speech   (pos)   tags,   demographic   information   of   writers   and   speakers   of   texts,   and   register-­‐specific   comparative  charts  can  now  easily  be  retrieved  online.  this  opportunity  has  made  the  domain  of  web-­‐based,   corpus   research   user-­‐friendly   and   accessible.   developments   such   as   these   have   redefined   the   nature   of   linguistic   research  with   corpora,   which   has   traditionally   been   associated   only   with   a   specialized   group   of   linguists  in  academic  settings.               biber,  conrad,  and  reppen  (1998)  define  “corpus”  and  “corpus  representativeness”  as:   […]  not  only  a  collection  of  texts.  rather,  a  corpus  seeks  to  represent  a  language  or  some  part   of  a  language.  the  appropriate  design  for  a  corpus  therefore  depends  upon  what  it  is  meant   to   represent.   the   representativeness   of   a   corpus,   in   turn,   determines   the   kind  of   research   questions   that   can  be   addressed  and   the   generalizability   of   the   results   of   the   research.   (p.   246)     this   definition   and   operationalization   of   a   corpus   and   its   inherent   representativeness   were   especially  relevant  during  pre-­‐computer  corpus  linguistics  and  were  broadly  emphasized  in  earlier  periods  of   computer-­‐based  corpus  design,  such  as  during  the  development  of  the  brown  corpus  and  its  cognates,  known   as   the   first   family  of  corpora  (svartvik,  2007).  researchers  have  debated  the  need  to  delineate  how  large  a   corpus  must  be  in  order  to  accurately  represent  the  language  of  a  particular  population  of  writers/speakers   or   the   distribution   of   certain   grammatical   features   (e.g.,   biber,   1990,   1993;  mcenery,   xiao,   &   tono,   2006;   miller,  2011).  the  corpus-­‐driven  approach,  which  prescribes  formulating  an  overarching  research  question  as   a   primary   step   before   initiating   the   collection   of   a   corpus,   follows   corpus   design   principles   and   standards   based  on   the   concepts  of   representativeness   and  generalizability  of  data   and  anticipated   results   (mcenery,   xiao,  &  tono,   2006).  at   the   same   time,   however,   texts   intended   to   represent   varieties   and   sub-­‐varieties   of   languages   have   been   compiled   over   the   years,   producing   large-­‐scale   general   corpora,   such   as   the   british   national  corpus  (bnc)  and  the  american  national  corpus  (anc),  which  can  be  said  to  represent  two  national   varieties   of   english,   and   the   international   corpus   of   english   (ice),   which   purportedly   represents   international/global  varieties  of  educated  english  (bautista,  2011;  nelson,  1996).  these  three  corpora  will  be   discussed  further  in  the  sections  below.   the  successful  collection  of  internet-­‐based  mega-­‐corpora  (>300  million  words)  such  as  the  corpus  of   contemporary  american   english   (coca),   the   corpus   of  historical   american   english   (coha)   (davies   2005,   2011a,  2011b),  and  the  google  ngram  viewer  (cohen,  2010;  hotz,  2010;  michel,  shen,  aiden,  veres,  &  gray,   2011)   may   signal   a   new   phase   in   corpus   design   in   which   sampling   texts   in   order   to   achieve   statistical   representativeness  will  no  longer  be  required.  mega-­‐corpora  have  the  potential  to  cover  an  entire  population   of  texts  in  a  particular  register  instead  of  only  presenting  a  sample,  as  in  the  current  efforts  of  google  books   to  scan  and  compile  books  and  manuscripts  produced  since  the  1500s  across  many  languages  (toor,  2010).   the  clear  message  here  is  that  technology  will  eventually  enable  researchers  to  have  easy  access  to  most,   if   not  all,  texts  in  a  register.  for  example,  access  to  all  internet-­‐based  texts  (e.g.,  social  media  language  through   facebook  and  twitter  posts,  personal  blogs,  news  reports,  etc.)  could  be  entirely  and  automatically  obtained   without  the  need  for  sampling  or  manual/selective  crawling.       1.1.  analysis  of  large  electronic  corpora   studies   based   on   large   electronic   corpora   began   in   the   late-­‐1960s   with   the   brown   corpus,   a   one   million  word   collection  of  published  written   texts   in  american  english,   compiled  by  kucera   and  francis.  a   parallel  corpus  of  british  written  texts,  the  lancaster-­‐oslo-­‐bergen  (lob)  corpus  was  published  subsequently.   exploring  mega-­‐corpora   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68  50   kucera  and  francis  pioneered  extensive  work  on  word  frequencies  and  distributions  of  grammatical  part-­‐of-­‐ speech   categories   using   the   brown   and   lob   corpora   (biber,   1995).   in   the   early   1980’s,   the   increasing   availability  of  personal  computers,  electronic  corpora,  and  corpus  tools  such  as  concordancers,  taggers,  and   parsers   facilitated   wide-­‐ranging   linguistic   analyses.   in   those   years,   descriptive   studies   featuring   the   distributions  of  linguistic  features  (e.g.,  passives,  verbs,  formulaic  sequences,  nominalizations)  across  corpora   were   conducted   and  published.  during   the   same  period,   dictionaries,   such   as   the   collins   cobuild  english   language   dictionary   (1987)   and   the   longman   dictionary   of   contemporary   english   (1987),   intended   for   language   learners   and   based   on   the   analysis   of   large   electronic   corpora,   began   to   be   published   (biber,   reppen,  &  friginal,  2010).     from   the   late   1980’s,   biber   developed   quantitative   studies   of   tagged   texts   using   advanced   multivariate  statistical  techniques  (e.g.,  factor  and  cluster  analyses)  and  focusing  on  the  concept  of  statistical   co-­‐occurrence   of   linguistic   features   across   registers.   biber’s   comparison   of   large   volumes   of   texts   representing   sub-­‐registers   of   speech   and   writing   in   cross-­‐linguistic   settings   provided   new   approaches   in   simultaneous   explorations   of   general   and   specialized   corpora   (friginal,   2009).   the   longman   grammar   of   spoken  and  written  english  (biber,  johansson,  leech,  conrad,  &  finegan,  1999),  for  example,  provided  wide-­‐ ranging   distributional   comparisons   of   linguistic   features   from   spoken   and   written   british   and   american   englishes.   these   descriptive   data   on   lexico-­‐grammatical   variation   have   also   been   used   in   the   design   of   classroom  activities  for  english  language  teaching,  especially  for  non-­‐native  speakers  of  english.         exponential   developments   in   internet   technology   in   the   last   decade   have   positively   altered   the   nature   of   corpus-­‐based   research.   collecting   written   texts   such   as   newspaper   articles,   published   academic   papers,  opinion  columns,  and  weblogs  became  easily  manageable,  as  more  and  more  types  of  specialized  texts   have  been  uploaded   and  distributed  online   (grieve,   biber,   friginal,  &  nekrasova,   2010;  herring  &  paolillo,   2006).  although  there  are  still  many  challenges  in  the  collection  of  various  specialized  corpora,  especially  in   the   domain   of   spoken   discourse,   the   current   set   of   freely   available   online   corpora   shows   how   corpus   linguistics  has  progressed  from  the  1960s  to  the  present  (preiss,  coonce,  &  baker,  2009).  the   internet  as  a   corpus   (crystal,   2006)  not  only   covers  english   texts  but   also  other   languages  used  online  by  an   increasing   number   of   users.   automated   transcriptions   of   online   audio   and   video   clips   and   translation   services   (e.g.,   dragon  dictation   software,   google   translate   from  google   labs)   have   also   been   introduced   and   developed,   showing  promising  applications   that  could  help   in   the  collection  of  spoken  texts.  these  online   tools  greatly   contribute   to   how   corpora   are   now   collected   and   may   necessitate   new   models   in   corpus   design   and   compilation.             1.2.  development  of  english  electronic  mega-­‐corpora   since   its   release   in   the   early   1990s,   the   100  million  word  british  national   corpus   (bnc,   including   recent  xml  version)  has  been  used   in  more  corpus-­‐related  studies   than  any  other  english-­‐language  corpus   (davies,   2009).   the   bnc,   with   its   web-­‐based   interface,   bncweb,   (http://bncweb.info/)   provides   a   client-­‐ program   for   searching   and   retrieving   lexico-­‐syntactic   and   textual   data   from   available   metadata   of   writers’/speakers’  demographic   information  and  registers.  the  bnc  served  as  the  model  for  the  creation  of   the   american   english   parallel   corpus,   anc   (http://americannationalcorpus.org/),   which   has   released   two   versions  of  component  sub-­‐corpora  totaling  over  22  million  words.  work  on  the  anc  is  has  progressed  slowly   and   there   is   currently   no   user-­‐friendly   client   program   available   for   automatic   database   online   searches.   however,  the  anc  has  freely  downloadable  texts  totaling  over  15  million  words  and  the  annotated  versions  of   the  corpus  also  include  grammatically-­‐tagged  data  and  other  xml  annotations.     davies  (2009,  p.  59)  pointed  out  that,  valuable  as  it  is,  the  bnc  “is  beginning  to  show  its  age  in  some   respects.”  he  noted  that  while  files  and  demographic  information  on  some  registers  have  been  corrected  or   updated,  substantive  additions  to  the  corpus  have  been  very  limited  since  1993.  because  there  is  no  currently   planned   expansion   to   the   bnc,   it   may   become   increasingly   out   of   date   with   respect   to   recent   changes   in   english  and  the  need  to  represent  additional  registers  such  as  texting/sms  language  and  the  online  language   of  social  media  and  blogging.  similarly,   the  anc’s  collection  of   texts  reflects  work  done   from  early-­‐   to  mid-­‐ 2000s  with  no  continuing  contributions  that  allow  for  diachronic  comparisons  across  registers.     the  corpus  of  contemporary  american  english  (coca),  developed  and  published  online  by  davies,   was  released   in  early  2008.   it   covers  a  diverse  collection  of  american  english   texts   totaling  more   than  385   million   words   from   1990–2008   (20  million   words   each   year)   across   registers   grouped   into   the   following   categories:  spoken,  fiction,  popular  magazines,  newspapers,  and  academic  journals.  since  its  release,  coca’s   online  interface  has  been  widely  used  by  researchers,  teachers,  and  students  for  various  purposes,  including   friginal,  walker,  &  randall       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68   51   producing   materials   for   teaching   collocations,   lexico-­‐syntactic   features   of   english,   and   diachronic   word   frequency   changes   across   registers.   coca   is   comparable   to   the   bnc/anc   in   terms   of   text   types,   though   it   deviates   from  them  in   the   types  of  spoken  data   it   includes:  coca’s  spoken  texts   (20%  of   the  corpus)  come   mainly   from  television  news  and  interview  programs,  rather  than  from  the  types  of  conversation  data  (e.g.,   face   to   face   conversation,   service   encounters,   and   telephone   interactions)   available   in   the   bnc   or   other   corpora   such   as   the   longman   corpus.   davies   (2009)   maintains,   however,   that   coca’s   overall   balanced   composition  means  that  researchers  can  compare  data  across  registers  and  achieve  relatively  accurate  results   that  show  patterns  of  change  in  the  language  from  the  1990s  to  the  present.   in  addition   to   these   three  corpora,   the   international  corpus  of  english   (ice)  has  also  been  created   and   made   available   since   the   mid-­‐1990s.   the   ice   consists   of   one   million   words   per   spoken   and   written   variety  of  english  produced  by  each  of  over  20  research  teams  worldwide  (http://ice-­‐corpora.net/ice/).  for   most   participating   countries,   the   ice   project   served   as   the   first   systematic   investigation   of   the   national,   “educated”  english  variety   (nelson,  1996).  each   component   corpus   follows  a   common  corpus  design  and  a   similar   scheme   for   grammatical   annotation,   as   the   ice  was   primarily   intended   for   comparative   studies   of   emerging  englishes   all   over   the  world.   for   example,  asian   varieties   of   english   available   for   free  download   from   the   ice   website   include   sub-­‐corpora   from   countries/territories   such   as   hong   kong,   the   philippines,   india,   and   singapore,  where   english   has   been   used   extensively   as   the   language   of   business   and   education.   written   registers   in   the   ice   range   from   student  writing,   novels   and   stories,   social   and   business   letters,   to   published,   professional   texts.   the   spoken   data   component   features   face-­‐to-­‐face   conversations,   broadcast   speech,   spontaneous   commentaries,   telephone   calls,   parliamentary   debates,   and   legal   cross-­‐examinations,   among  other  groups  of  texts.   finally,   and   as   the   primary   focus   of   this   paper,   the   internet   has   paved   the  way   for   google  ngram   viewer   and   coha,   two   large   online   databases   of,   specialized   categories   of   texts,   released   in   2010,   which   reflect  current  academic  and  corporate  efforts  to  freely  distribute  corpus-­‐based  data  to  the  public.  these  two   mega-­‐corpora  are  both  designed  to  address  diachronic  analyses,  but  can  also  be  used  for  synchronic  studies   due  to  the  size  of  data  representing  recent  published  texts  (davies,  2011a).  both  of  these  applications  aim  at   continuing   to   periodically   add   texts   to   their   databases.   a   number   of   studies   exploring   these   corpora’s   potential   usefulness   in   language   analysis   and   corpus   linguistics   were   initiated   in   the   months   after   they   became   publicly   available;   a   review   of   three   recent   conferences,   including   the   2011   and   2013   american   association  for  corpus  linguistics  conference,  shows  that  over  25  papers  were  presented  using  either  coha   or  google  ngram  viewer.     2.  exploring  mega-­‐corpora     2.1.  google  ngram  viewer   google  ngram  viewer   is   comprised   of   over   5.2  million   books   from  google   books,   a   subdivision   of   google  inc.  that  has  conducted  an  extensive  scanning  of  published  manuscripts  in  order  to  create  a  database   of  electronic  or  digitized  texts.  the  number  of  currently  scanned  books  comprises  approximately  4%  of  all  the   books   ever   written   in   english   (bohannon,   2011).   this   mega-­‐corpus   contains   over   500   billion   words;   the   majority  of  them  are  in  english  (361  billion).  other  available  languages  in  the  corpus  include  french,  spanish,   german,   chinese,   russian,   and  hebrew   (bohannon,   2011;   keuleers,   brysbaert,   &  new,   2011;  michel   et   al.,   2011).   the   ngram   viewer   contains   data   that   span   from   1550-­‐2008,   although   texts   before   the   1800s   are   extremely   limited  and  often   there   are  only   a   few  books  per   year.   from   the  1800s,   the   corpus  grows   to  98   million  words  per  year;  by  the  1900s,  it  reaches  1.8  billion,  and  11  billion  per  year  by  the  2000s  (michel  et  al.,   2011).  hence,  texts  collected  for  google  ngram  viewer  represent  the  largest  corpus  to  date.     google  ngram  viewer  is  composed  of  raw  data  that  is  encoded  by  the  number  of  n-­‐grams,  adjacent   sequences  of  n  items  from  a  text.  the  n-­‐gram  was  developed  as  a  response  to  the  concerns  of  peter  norvig,   the   head   of   research   at   google   labs,   about   developing   the   online   viewer   interface   due   to   many   pending   lawsuits  about  google’s  book  digitizing  initiative  (bohannon,  2010).  in  order  to  avoid  further  problems  with   publishers  and  copyright  owners  of  published  materials,  the  ngram  viewer  makes  use  of  texts  converted  into   various  n-­‐grams  so  that  data  from  the  whole  corpus  cannot  be  downloaded  as  complete  books,  and  in  effect,   “cannot   be   read   by   a   human”   (michel   et   al.,   2011,   p.176).   the   process   of   converting   google   books   into   n-­‐ grams  has  been  tedious,  and,  as  result,  just  5.2  million  of  the  15  million  google  books  have  been  converted  so   far.  google’s  conversion  procedure  is  as  follows:   exploring  mega-­‐corpora   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68  52     -­‐ raw   texts   extracted   from   different   sources   are   pre-­‐processed   by   tokenizing  white-­‐spaces;   upper   case  letters  are  converted  to  lower  case.     -­‐ numbers   are   retained,   and   no   stemming/inflection   are   performed.   the   n-­‐gram   lms   (language   models)   are   word-­‐based   backoff   models,   where   the   n-­‐gram   probabilities   are   estimated   using   maximum   likelihood   estimation   (mle)  with   smoothing   (gao, nguyen,   li,   thrasher,   li,   &  wang,   2010).     -­‐ the  viewer  is  composed  of  n-­‐grams,  from  1-­‐gram  to  5-­‐grams.  n-­‐grams  represent  how  many  words   are  in  a  lexical  bundle:  1-­‐gram  =  1  word,  while  5-­‐grams  =  5  words  (bohannon,  2011).  once  the  n-­‐ grams   are   saved   as   raw   data   in   excel   files,   the   n-­‐grams   can   then   be   searched   using   the   online   viewer.     -­‐ search   results   are   displayed   by   frequency   for   each   n-­‐gram   determined   per   year   following   the   formula:  total  number  of  instances  of  the  n-­‐gram  /  total  number  of  words  in  that  year.     it   is   important   to   note   that   google   ngram   viewer  was   not   created  with   research   in   linguistics   or   corpus   linguistics   as   its   primary   application   (michel   et   al.,   2011).   the   developers   of   the   viewer  wanted   to   create   a   new   approach   to   humanities   research   that   they   coined   culturomics.   culturomics   (www.culturomics.org/home)   is   a  way   to   quantify   culture   by   analyzing   the   growth,   change,   and  decline   of   published  words   over   centuries.   this   would  make   it   possible   to   rigorously   study   the   evolution   of   culture   using  distributional,  quantitative  data  on  a  grand  scale  (bohannon,  2010).  in  an  effort  to  prove  the  adequacy   of   and   to   provide   clear   impetus   for   google   ngram   viewer,   google-­‐affiliated   researchers   have   conducted   a   series   of   studies   to   validate   the   usefulness   and   various   applications   of   their   new   program.   one   study,   for   example,   showed   that   over   50%   of   the   words   in   the   n-­‐gram   database   do   not   appear   in   any   published   dictionary  (bohannon  ,  2010).  in  addition,  it  is  argued  that  patterns  and  cultural  influences  of  words  could  be   clearly   established   and   tracked   across   timeframes.   the   use   of   google   ngram   viewer   and   culturomics,   therefore,  contributes  academic  and  technical  value  to  the  study  of  culture,  making  it  arguably  a  new  cultural   tool  that  has  several  possibilities.  figure  1  displays  the  default  search  screen  of  google  ngram  viewer  as  of   september  2014.       figure 1. default search screen of google ngram viewer (http://books.google.com/ngrams) 2.2. corpus of historical american english (coha) like  the  google  ngram  viewer,  the  corpus  of  historical  american  english  was  debuted  in  2010  with   limited  functionality.   information  available   from  coha  has  been  continually  updated  since  then  with  major   upgrades   in   its   data   and   search   features,   including   interesting   information   on   visualization   techniques   as   applied   to   coha’s   diachronic   distributional   data   (hilpert,   2011).   coha   was   developed   by   mark   davies,   professor   of   corpus   linguistics,   from   brigham   young   university.   as   noted   earlier,   davies   also   created   the   friginal,  walker,  &  randall       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68   53   corpus  of  contemporary  american  english  and  many  other  interactive  online  databases  for  corpus  analyses,   such  as  the  corpus  do  português,  corpus  del  español,  and  corpus  of  lds  general  conference  talks,  which  can   be   accessed   from  his   personal  website   (http://davies-­‐linguistics.byu.edu/personal/).   coha  was   funded   by   the  national  endowment  for  the  humanities  as  part  of  its  "we  the  people"  initiative  (davies,  2011a).     coha  has  just  over  400  million  words,  compared  to  google  ngram  viewer’s  500  billion  words.  davies   argues,  however,  that  this  substantial  difference  in  corpus  size  does  not  necessary  affect  reliability  of  results   when   these   two   corpora   are   used   and   compared   across   a   range   of   linguistic   distributions.  when   searches   were   performed   between   coha   and   google   ngram   viewer,   similar   results   were   found   once   data   were   normalized   (davies,  2011a,  2011b).  to  date,  coha’s  data  cover   the  period   from  1810  to  2010,  and  specific   registers  such  as  fiction,  magazine,  non-­‐fiction,  and  newspaper  texts.  following  the  functionalities  established   by  coca,  coha  also  provides  pos  lists,  collocates,  list  and  chart  options,  and  various  sorting  and  comparison   options.  figure  2  displays  the  default  search  screen  of  coha.         figure 2. default search screen of coha (http://corpus.byu.edu/coha/)   according   to   davies,   coha   can   do   exactly   what   google   ngram   viewer   does,   with   the   addition   of   specific   features   that   directly   apply   to   linguistics   and   corpus-­‐based   research.   this   includes   the   ability   to   employ  concordancing  tools,  display  data  in  context,  and  limit  results  by  register,  characteristics  not  available   on  google  ngram  viewer.  in  addition,  coha  allows  more  powerful  searches,  for  example,  for  synonyms  and   word   comparisons   across   historical   periods   -­‐   which   may   produce   insightful   analyses   about   cultural   and   societal  shifts  (davies,  2011a).  the  types  of  detailed  coha  searches  include:   -­‐ lexis,  through  mass  comparison  between  historical  periods,   -­‐ morphology,  via  wildcards,   -­‐ syntax,  from  pos-­‐tagged  data  included  in  the  program,  and   -­‐ semantics,  via  collocates,  synonyms,  and  customized  lists.     2.3.  davies’  google  books  interface  (2011c)   in  mid-­‐2011,  davies  launched  an  early  version  of  an  interface  for  the  google  ngram  viewer  database   that   allows   a  more   extensive   search   of   the  massive   google   collection   than   the   basic  ngram  viewer.  while   davies  points  out  that  his  interface  is  not  an  official  product  of  google  or  google  books  (davies,  2011c),  this   search  platform  is  very  similar  to  the  standard  coca/coha  structure  providing  options  for  wildcard,  lemma,   part   of   speech,   synonyms,   and   collocates   searches.   this   interface   is   more   advanced   than   google’s   online   viewer,  with  presentations  of  frequency  data  that  go  beyond  simple  line  graphs  or  figures.  in  addition,  davies’   interface  allows  users   to   copy   the  data   to  other  applications   for   further  analysis   (davies,  2011c),   a   feature   that   is   not   currently   possible   in   the  google   interface.   the  davies   version   is   based   on   155   billion  words   of   american   english   from   1810-­‐2009,  with   future   plans   to   integrate   other   google   books   collections   into   this   new  interface,  including  texts  from  british  and  american  english  texts  from  the  1500s-­‐1700s,  as  well  as  texts   from  spanish,  german,  and  french  (a  grant  application  to  support  this  endeavor  was  submitted  in  mid-­‐2011).   davies’   interface   also   provides   a   guided   tour   of   the   site   (http://googlebooks.byu.edu/)   showing   its   major   exploring  mega-­‐corpora   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68  54   features  and  an  intuitive  search  form.  a  click  for  each  search  query  automatically  fills  in  the  form  and  displays   the  results  obtained  from  actual  american  english  books  collected  by  google  books.       2.4.  recent  linguistic  analysis  of  data  from  coha  and  google  ngram  viewer   one  way  to  explore  mega-­‐corpora  such  as  google  ngram  viewer  and  coha  is  to  conduct  diachronic   and  trend  studies  comparing  the  distribution  of  various  linguistic  features  across  specific  time  periods.  davies   (2011a),   for   example,   presents   frequency   changes   in   lexical   items   (e.g.,   fellow,   teenager,   sublime,   global   warming,   steamship)   used   in   published   texts   from   1810   to   the   present.   hilpert   (2011)   uses   visualization   techniques   using   google   visualization   (or   google   code)   and   the   statistical/graphical   software,   r,   to   show   language   change   through   coha.   sociolinguistic   time   series   studies   on   semantic   shifts   (semantic   changes)   across  its  designated  registers  can  also  be  conducted  using  coha,  although  this  could  be  improved  if  corpora   were  to  include  demographic  information  about  speakers/writers.  while  more  generic  trending  information   is  provided  by  google  ngram  viewer  from  published  books  and  manuscripts,  such  a  dataset  also  allows  for   immediate   macro-­‐level   snapshots   of   quantitative   language   patterns   across   time,   from   the   1800s   to   the   present.     specialized   linguistic   work   from   google   ngram   viewer   has   to   date   focused   on   cultural   trends   throughout  history,  seen  through  the  books  that  have  been  scanned  by  google.  the  culturomics  team  looks   quantitatively  at  linguistic  and  cultural  phenomena  reflected  in  the  language  of  these  texts.  this  reporting  of   linguistic   trends   is   directly   related   to   the   fields   of   “lexicography,   the   evolution   of   grammar,   collective   memory,  the  adoption  of  technology,  the  pursuit  of  fame,  censorship,  and  historical  epidemiology”  (michel  et   al.,   2011,   p.176).   some   lexical   and   culturally-­‐specific   data   intended   for   popular   reading   obtained   from   the   google  ngram  viewer  and  culturomics  include  the  following  (from  cohen,  2010):   -­‐ women  in  comparison  with  men  is  rarely  mentioned  until  the  early  1970s,  when  feminism  gained  a   foothold.  the  two  topic  lines  eventually  cross  paths  about  1986.     -­‐ mickey  mouse  and  marilyn  monroe  do  not  get  nearly  as  much  attention  in  books  as  jimmy  carter.   -­‐ there  are  many  more  references  in  english  than  in  chinese  to  tiananmen  square  after  1989.   -­‐ grilling  has  been  used  frequently  from  the  late  1990s  and  outpaced  roasting  and  frying  in  2004.     michel   et   al.   (2011)   also  measured   the   endurance   of   fame   from   the   1800s,   reporting   that  written   references  to  popular  celebrities  faded  twice  as  quickly  in  the  mid-­‐20th  century  as  they  did  in  the  early  19th.   they  also  found  technological  advances  and  inventions  (e.g.,  telephone,  radio)  took,  on  average,  66  years  to   be  adopted  by  the  larger  culture  in  the  early  1800s,  and  only  27  years  between  1880  and  1920.  they  tracked   the  way  irregular  english  verbs  that  did  not  add  -­‐ed  at  the  end  for  past  tense  (i.e.,  learnt)  evolved  to  conform   to  the  common  pattern  (learned).  and  finally,  as  an  application  of  quantitative,  lexico-­‐syntactic  data,  michel  et   al.  estimated  that  the  english  lexicon  has  grown  by  about  70  percent  to  more  than  a  million  words  in  the  last   50   years  with  direct   implications   to   lexicographic   changes   and  updating  dictionaries   by  pinpointing  newly   popular  words  and  obsolete  ones  (cohen,  2010).     3.  more  research  with  mega-­‐corpora     3.1.  focus  of  the  present  case  study   there  are,  however,  possible  lines  of  research  using  mega-­‐corpora  that  move  beyond  culture-­‐based   analyses  and  diachronic  studies.  the  remainder  of  this  paper  is  dedicated  to  an  exploratory  case  study  that   shows   the   applications   of   google   ngram   viewer   and   coha   in   the   analysis   of   academic   word   lists,   in   particular,  coxhead’s  (2000)  academic  word  list  (awl).  the  goal  is  not  to  compare  these  mega-­‐corpora,  but   to  add  to  the  growing  number  of  studies  that  explore  the  applications  of  new  data  sources  that  may  serve  as   models  for  more  specialized  analyses  of  coha  and  google  ngram  viewer.     word   lists   are   a   conventional   concept   common   in   corpus-­‐based   studies   with   emphasis   on   pedagogical  applications  of  corpus  data  especially  in  the  teaching  of  academic  writing  in  english.  the  study  of   vocabulary  use  predates  other  areas  of  corpus  investigation  (biber,  conrad,  &  reppen,  1998)  and  vocabulary   teaching   materials   developed   from   corpora   have   been   commonly   used   in   many   writing   classrooms   and   incorporated  in  dictionaries  and  textbooks  (mcenery,  xiao,  &  tono,  2006).  the  awl  has  been  widely  used  in   english  for  academic  purposes  (eap)  and  the  teaching  of  second  language  writing  in  english  (reppen,  2010).   coxhead  (2000,  2011)  has  called  for  further  research  on  the  awl  with  larger  corpora,  noting  that  there  is  a   friginal,  walker,  &  randall       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68   55   continuing  need  to  address  learners’  use  of  academic  vocabulary  for  the  awl  to  be  useful  in  various  contexts   over   a  decade   after   its   publication.  google  ngram  viewer   and  coha   could  provide   this   opportunity   for   an   update,  as   these  mega-­‐corpora  have   the  volume  of  words  and  a  variety  of   registers  needed   to  check  actual   patterns  of  lexical  distributions.       3.2.  the  academic  word  list   the   awl   was   created   by   averil   coxhead,   school   of   linguistics   and   applied   language   studies   at   victoria  university  of  wellington,  as  a  rationalized,  more  specialized  extension  of,  or  perhaps  response  to,  the   general  service  list  (gsl).  the  gsl  is  a  list  of  over  2000  words  that  was  developed  by  michael  west  in  1953   and   updated   by   john   bauman   and   brent   culligan   in   1995.   the   list   includes   the   most   frequent   words   of   written   english   collected   primarily   for   english   language   learners   and   esl   writing   teachers.   the   updated   version   of   the   gsl   uses   frequencies   from   the   brown   corpus   (bauman,   1995).  words   from   the   awl   came   instead  from  an  “academic  corpus”  that  coxhead  collected  herself.  the  corpus  contains  a  total  of  3.5  million   words   with   texts   representing   multiple   academic   sources   such   as   journals   and   textbooks   published   from   1993  to  1996.  coxhead  also  included  texts  from  the  brown  corpus,  london/oslo/bergen  corpus  (lob),  and   microconcord  academic  corpus.  the  four  predominant  academic  registers  include  arts,  commerce,  law,  and   science,  and  encompass  28  different  sub-­‐registers  (coxhead,  2000,  2002).     an  automated  search  of  the  academic  corpus  yielded  the  words  comprising  the  awl,  which  consists   of   570   word   families,   and   3,110   individual   words.   the   words   were   selected   based   on   their   specialized   occurrence,  range,  and  frequency,  and  only  included  if  not  already  present  in  the  first  2,000  words  of  the  gsl.   the  total  number  of  words  on  the  list  results  in  10%  of  all  the  words  in  academic  texts.  as  a  rule,  each  word   had  to  be  used  at  least  100  times  in  the  academic  corpus.  table  1  shows  sample  entries  from  the  awl  with   each  lemma  listed  on  the  left  and  all  of  its  lexemes  listed  underneath  each  lemma.  the  bolded  words  were  the   most  frequent  on  the  sub-­‐list.  the  most  frequent  word  in  each  word  family  could  be  the  lemma  (like  the  word   estimate  seen  below)  or  it  could  be  one  of  the  lexemes  (like  the  word  derived  also  below).  the  awl  has  10   sublists,  with  sublist  1  containing  the  highest  frequency  words.     table 1 sample sublist from awl derive derivation derivations derivative derivatives derived derives deriving distribute distributed distributing distribution distributional estimate estimated estimating estimation estimations over-estimate overestimate overestimated overestimates overestimating underestimate underestimated underestimates underestimating function functional functionally functioned functioning functions identify identifiable identification identified identifies identifying identities identity   as  noted  above,  coxhead’s  primary  reason  for  creating  the  awl  was  that  other  word  lists,  especially   the  gsl,  were   limited   in   their   capacity   to  demonstrate  current   lexical  usage  across  academic  registers.  yet,   after  more  than  10  years,   it   is  possible  that  the  awl  may  also  need  some  updating.  for  example,  ming-­‐tzu   and   nation   (2004)   completed   a   study   on   homographs  within   the   awl   and   concluded   that   the   list   should   include   a   wider   range   of   word   families   and   lemmas,   representing   a   range   of   academic   homographs.   in   addition,  nation  and  waring  (1997)  also  argued  that  in  order  to  comprehend  a  text,  95%  to  98%  of  words  in   the  text  must  be  fully  understood  and  acquired  by  learners.  unfortunately,  as  nation  and  waring  found,  word   lists  such  as  the  awl  and  gsl  arguably  do  not  represent  at  least  95%  of  words  in  a  target  text.   exploring  mega-­‐corpora   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68  56   3.3.  data  collection   the   overarching   research   question   of   this   exploratory   case   study   is:   how   are  words   on   the   awl   reflected  and  distributed  across  recent  time  frames  in  google  ngram  viewer  and  coha?  in  pursuing  this  line   of  research,  it  may  also  be  possible  to  answer  whether  or  not  there  is  evidence  that  an  updated  word  list  is   necessary.  the  words   analyzed   in   the   study  are   from  awl  sublist  1.  this   list   contains  60  words   and   their   word   families.   the  most   frequent  word   from   each   lemma  was   selected   for   frequency   searches   in   the   two   mega-­‐corpora  (see  appendix  for  the  complete  list  of  60  words  used).     google  ngram  viewer  was  searched  to  find  words  with  “increase  or  decrease”  counts  from  1998  to   2008   that   are   greater   than   or   equal   to   .0050.   from   these   results,   10   words   were   chosen   to   be   further   analyzed   qualitatively.   one   of   the   ten   words,   for   example,   was   labour,   which   was   found   to   have   a   rapid   decrease  in  the  given  time  frame.  however,  since  labour  is  typically  british  english  and  not  american  english,   it  was  excluded  from  this  case  study  (as  coha  represents  only  american  english).  because  of  that  exclusion,   nine  words  were  ultimately   selected   for   distributional   analysis   using  google  ngram  viewer:  analysis,   data,   economic,  environment,  policy,  research,  section,  structure,  and  theory.  coha,  from  the  same  time  frame,  was   used   for   economic,   evidence,   individual,   major,   percent,   period,   principle,   section,   and   theory.   words   with   frequencies   with   a   difference   greater   than   or   equal   to   20   tokens   per  million   were   selected   for   additional   analysis.   this   was   done   as   coha   lists   actual   and   normalized   frequencies   compared   to   percentages   from   google  ngram  viewer.     4.  results     4.1.  macro-­‐level  distributions  of  15  awl  words  from  google  ngram  viewer   of  the  60  awl  words  analyzed  in  this  study  for  both  platforms,  more  than  90%  are  shown  to  have   declined  in  use  from  the  late-­‐1990s  to  the  present.  fifteen  words  from  awl  were  found  to  have  higher  levels   of  differences  from  the  set  of  results  obtained  from  google  ngram  viewer  and  coha.  these  are:  (1)  analysis,   (2)  data,  (3)  economic,  (4)  environment,  (5)  evidence,  (6)  individual,  (7)  major,  (8)  percent,  (9)  period,  (10)   policy,   (11)   principle,   (12)   research,   (13)   section,   (14)   structure,   and   (15)   theory.   figure   3   shows   google   ngram  viewer’s  word  chart  tracking  and  distributions  of  some  awl  words  from  the  1900s  to  2000s.       figure 3. sample distributional chart tracking of awl words from google ngram viewer, 1900s to 2000s friginal,  walker,  &  randall       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68   57   specifically,   for   the   15   words   listed   above,   figures   4   and   5   show   a   slow   decline   in   their   general   frequencies  from  english  books  from  1998  to  2008  from  google  ngram  viewer.       figure 4. frequency decline of words 1-7: analysis, data, economic, environment, evidence, individual, major from google ngram viewer, 1998 to 2008.     figure 5. frequency decline of words 8-15: percent, period, policy, principle, research, section, structure, theory from google ngram viewer, 1998 to 2008   exploring  mega-­‐corpora   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68  58   the  graphical  frequency  decline  of  these  common  awl  words  as  illustrated  by  outputs  produced  by   google   ngram   viewer   suggests   that   there  may   be   a   need   to   update   awl   and   similar  word   lists,   by   using   mega-­‐corpora.  academic  words  that  are  trending  higher  in  the  past  10  years  should  be  added.  a  quick  search   for   words   such   as   software,   interface,   develop,   and   document   in   google   ngram   viewer   shows   increasing   frequencies  of  these  words  in  english  books.  word  lists  heavily  rely  on  frequency  of  use,  which  could  be  more   accurately  provided  by   larger  and  more  representative  databases.  while  english  books   from  google  ngram   viewer  clearly  do  not   represent   the  entirety  of  academic  writing  registers,   these   figures  give  a  macro-­‐level   look   at   frequency   distributions   and   suggest   how   these   could   be   used   to   gauge   actual   usage   of   words   in   published  texts  across  recent  time  periods.  this  macro-­‐level  data  could  then  be  used  to  further  track  specific   lemmas   in   a   more   specialized   corpus   of   academic   writing   with   clearly   identified   sub-­‐registers   such   as   disciplines,   text   types,   or   other   genres   (e.g.,   research   report,   freshmen   composition,   and   second   language   writing).         4.2.  comparison  of  google  ngram  viewer  and  coha  results   together,  the  results  from  coha  and  google  ngram  validate  an  overall  decline  of  frequencies  for  the   awl   sublist   1   from   1998   to   2008   (from   1990   in   coha).   thirteen   of   the   15  words   from   coha   produced   trending  data  comparable  to  google  ngram  viewer’s  output.  discrepancies  are  found  in  the  tracking  numbers   for  two  awl  words:  research  and  data.  research  shows  a  considerable  increase  in  coha  from  164.16  tokens   normalized  per  million  to  180.91  tokens  per  million.  this  result  is  in  contrast  to  what  google  ngram  viewer   found  for  research  as  shown  in  the  line  graph  (figure  6)  below.  data  in  coha  has  a  very  slight  increase  from   101.00  to  101.60  tokens  per  million  compared  to  google  ngram  viewer’s  declining  line  graph.       figure 6. frequency data for research, 1998 to 2008 from google ngram viewer although  coha  and  google  ngram  viewer  show  similar  overall   trends   for  most  of   the  words   from   awl  sublist  1,  in  addition  to  the  discrepancies  noted  above,  there  are  also  observable  differences  in  the  micro   distributions   of   the   15   words   examined   in   this   case   study.   these   differences   may   be   due   to   the   clear   distinction  between   the   texts   comprising   these   two  mega-­‐corpora  or  possibly   from   the  major  difference   in   total  word  counts.  table  2  lists  words  with  the  greatest  difference  in  each  corpus  (all  declining  in  frequency),   with  the  words  in  bold  indicating  that  the  word  appears  on  both  lists  and,  therefore,  exhibits  a  very  similar   trend.     friginal,  walker,  &  randall       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68   59   table 2 comparison of micro differences between google ngram viewer and coha google ngram viewer coha 1 data section 2 economic economic 3 analysis percent 4 policy major 5 theory theory 6 structure period 7 environment evidence 8 research individual 9 section principle   interestingly,  data,  which  shows  a  slight   increase   in  coha,  displays   the  biggest  decrease   in  google   ngram  viewer.  section  has  the  biggest  decrease  in  coha  -­‐  151  tokens  per  million  in  the  1990s  to  68  tokens   per   million   in   the   2000s   –   while   it   has   the   lowest   decrease   in   google   ngram   viewer.   economic,   which   demonstrates  the  second  biggest  decline  in  both  coha  and  google  ngram  viewer,  and  theory,  which  has  the   fifth  highest  decrease  for  both  mega-­‐corpora,  are  the  other  words  in  common  between  the  two.       4.3.  micro  comparison  of  section,  theory,  and  economic  lemmas/lexemes  across  corpora   a  closer  look  at  the  lemmas  and  lexemes  of  the  three  words  that  showed  similar  waning  outcomes  in   both  corpora  is  presented  below,  in  order  to  show  how  word  families  could  be  tracked  and  compared  further   across   time  periods   and   possibly   sub-­‐registers.   table   3   shows   the   lemmas   and   lexemes   from   the  awl   for   each  of  the  three  words.     table 3 comparison of micro differences between google ngram viewer and coha section theory economy sectioned theoretical economic sectioning theoretically economical sections theories economically theorist economics theorists economies economist economists uneconomical   results  from  the  declining  lemma,  section,  show  that  only  section  and  sections  are  used  commonly  in   coha.  both  sectioning  and  sectioned  did  not  clearly  register  in  the  graphical  outputs,  although  a  closer  look  at   the  numbers   shows   that   the  use  of   sectioned   very   slightly   increased  during   this  period.  figure  7   illustrates   coha’s  data  for  these  four  lexemes,  comparing  distributions  from  1990  and  2000.     exploring  mega-­‐corpora   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68  60     figure 7. coha results for section   the  distributions  of  theory  and  its  lexemes  from  google  ngram  viewer  are  shown  in  figure  8.  theory   is   the   most   frequently   used   word,   followed   by   theoretical   and   theories.   consistent   with   the   overall   awl   findings,   these  words   also   demonstrate   a   general   decline.  theoretically,   theorist,   and   theorists   exhibit   very   minimal  frequencies  of  use  across  english  books  from  this  ten-­‐year  period.       figure 8. google ngram viewer results for theory and its lexemes   figure  9  from  coha  displays  a  comparatively  similar  result  to  data  from  google  ngram  viewer.  yet,   one  of  coha’s  advantages  over  google  ngram  viewer  in  this  kind  of  micro  comparison  is  that  coha  returns   normalized   tokens   that   show   specific   and   easily   interpretable   numbers.   for   example,   the   lexeme   theorist   increased   from   1.25   tokens   per   million   to   1.79   tokens   per   million   from   1990   to   2000,   which   was   not   friginal,  walker,  &  randall       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68   61   observable  from  ngram’s  figures  in  google.  overall,  theoretical,  theoretically,  theorist,  and  theorists  were  not   common  in  the  two  corpora.  for  the  purpose  of  this  paper  -­‐  analyzing  awl  -­‐  both  google  ngram  viewer  and   coha   show   a   decline   in   the   frequently   employed  words   theory   and   theories,   while   less   common   lexemes   stabilize  at  a  very  low  frequency  or  with  an  occasional,  very  slight  increase  in  use.       figure 9. coha results for theory ad its lexemes   unlike  section  and  theory,  economic  is  not  a  lemma,  but  one  of  the  lexemes  of  economy.  economic  and   economy   are   the   two  most   commonly   used   words   in   this   word   family.   the   remaining   words,   economical,   economically,  economics,  economies,  economist,  and  economists  are  not  as  common,  with  less  than  20  tokens   per  million  (except  for  economics  in  1990)  in  coha  (figure  10).       figure 10. coha results for economic and its lexemes   exploring  mega-­‐corpora   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68  62   all   lexemes   in   figure   10   consistently   show   a   decline   (except   for   uneconomical   which   shows   no   change  at   all,   but  did  not   register  bars   in   the   figure  because  of   very  minimal  normalized   tokens   found).   in   sum,  google  ngram  viewer  and  coha  results  indicate  that  the  lemma  groups  of  section,  theory,  and  economic   follow  very  similar  overall  tracking  trends.  the  most  frequent  lexeme  is  followed  by  another  that  is  somewhat   frequently  used,  both  of  which  are  in  decline.  these  two  lexemes  are  then  followed  by  a  variety  of  much  less   frequent  words  in  the  family  that  are  either  rarely  employed  or   in  decline.  the  coha  tables  do  show  slight   declines   in   less   frequent   theory   and   economy   lexemes,   while   for   a   couple   of   lexemes   (e.g.,   theorist,   uneconomical),   a   slight   fall   or   slight   rise   is   also   observed.   overall,   what   can   be   seen   from   these   micro-­‐ comparisons  explored  in  this  case  study  are  patterns  exhibiting  the  consistent  decline  in  use  of  the  words  on   sublist  1  of  the  academic  word  list.       5.  conclusion     this   exploratory   case   study   suggests   that  many   of   the   commonly-­‐used  words   listed   as   part   of   the   academic  word  list  (coxhead,  2000)  are  declining  in  overall  frequency  of  use  when  investigated  on  a  macro   level  using  mega-­‐corpora.  both  google  ngram  viewer  and  coha  generally  confirm  this  trend.  frequency  data   from  these  tools  using  normalized  tokens  and  percentages  support  each  other  when  presented  through  visual   plots  and  estimates,  and,  therefore,  further  attest  to  their  general  consistency.  it  is  reasonable  to  suggest  then   that  google  ngram  viewer  and  coha  are  viable  resources  for  macro  linguistic  research  with  awl  and  similar   wordlists.  further  microanalysis  of  word  distributions  indicates  that  less-­‐frequent  lexemes  have  maintained  a   fairly   stable   rate   of   low   usage.   even  with   very  minimal   tracking   of   normalized   tokens   and   percentages   of   these   less-­‐frequent   lexemes,   both   google   ngram   viewer   and   coha   are   able   to   produce   important   comparative  data  across  a  variety  of  words  useful  in  projecting  vocabulary  shifts  and  changes.       these  results  of  an  overall  decreasing  rate  of  use  of  common  awl  words  are  not  surprising.  linguists   have  long  noted  that  words  have  a  finite  life  span  (crystal,  2006).  michel  et  al.  (2011)  noted  that  word  usage   is   typically   characterized   by   a   spike   at   some   point,   then   directly   followed   by   a   slow   decline.   occasionally,   words  revive  and  have  a  short  comeback  at  times,  again  followed  by  a  decline  measured  through  frequency   distributions.  the  results  from  this  study  adhered  to  these  general  principles.       5.1.  pedagogical  implications   this  declining  trend  in  vocabulary  use,  when  measured  in  a  relatively  short  timeframe  (e.g.,  1990  to   2008)  is  very  relevant  if  applied  to  standard  word  lists  used  for  language  teaching.  as  the  awl  has  been  used   as   a   reference   for   teachers   of   academic   writing   for   a   range   of   learners,   including   non-­‐native   speakers   of   english,  accurate  distributions  representing  the  present  status  of  word  usage  in  specific  contexts   is  of  great   importance.   teachers   and   curriculum   developers,   then,   might   focus   on   these   distributions   to   match   how   patterns   of   vocabulary   are   utilized   currently   outside   the   classroom.   in   fields   such   as   english   for   specific   purposes  (esp)  and  english  for  academic  purposes  (eap),  these  are  very  important  arguments  for  pedagogy.   additionally,  accompanying  the  falling  frequencies  of  these  awl  words  is  the  consistent  rise  of  new   words.  every  year,   there  are  approximately  8,500  new  words  added   to   the  english   language   (michel   et   al.,   2011).   the   constant   influx   of   new  words   gives   a  writer  more   options   in   presenting   ideas   and   structuring   academic  arguments  or  explanations.  such  spread  of  new  words  certainly  contributes  to  the  variation  in  word   lists  and  may  cause  a  slow  decrease  in  overall  usage  of  the  words  similar  to  the  ones  on  the  awl.  coxhead’s   awl  appears   to  be  naturally  heading   in   this  direction,   and   there  may  be  a  need   for  a  new   list,   as  coxhead   herself   proposed   (coxhead,   2011).   at   the   very   least,   the  awl  needs   to   be   consistently   updated,   since   it   is   used  by  many  teachers  for  reference  in  genre-­‐based  instruction,  especially  in  discipline-­‐specific  writing.  with   the   availability   of   mega-­‐corpora   free   to   public   access,   there   is   no   reason   why   a   new,   expanded   word   list   cannot  be  further  developed  by  various  groups  of  researchers.     5.2.  comparison  between  google  ngram  viewer  and  coha   google  ngram  viewer   and  coha  are   tools   that  will   continue   to   inspire   the  production  of   research   studies  on   language  variation  and  use.  although   this   study   found  minor  discrepancies   in   the  distributional   data  of  some  words,  both  corpora  have  shown  consistently  similar  patterns  of  results,  especially  on  a  macro   level,   even  with   the  obvious  difference   in   total  word  counts.   statistically,  when   frequencies  are  normalized   from  these  two  databases  and  the  investigated  linguistic  feature  is  not  extremely  rare,  the  large  word  count   difference   has   very   limited   effect   (biber,   1993).   coha’s   present   structure   and   range   of   features,   however,   friginal,  walker,  &  randall       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68   63   make   it  more   ideal   for   corpus-­‐based   research   than  google  ngram  viewer.   this   database   is  monitored   and   regularly   updated   and  davies   provides   users   extensive   “help”   features   and   a   bibliography   of   coca/coha   published  studies  over  the  years.  coha’s  clearly  defined  registers  and  search  features  such  as  collocates,  pos-­‐ tagged  data,  and  synonyms  are  grounded  in  linguistic  theory  and  are  well-­‐motivated  by  previous  research  in   corpus   linguistics.   in   contrast,   google   ngram   viewer’s   raw   database   has   very   limited   search   options   and   interactive  features  at  present.  however,  while  impossible  to  read  as  individual  texts,  google  allows  users  to   download   n-­‐grams   which   could   then   be   processed   further   using   specialized   computer   programs.   coha’s   database   is  not   available   for   free  download   to  users.  a   sampling  of  google’s   texts  of  published  books   from   1500s  to  the  present  across  major  languages  would  represent  a  very  important,  globally  available  corpus  for   extensive  linguistic  analysis.       5.3.  directions  for  future  research   aside   from  an  exploration  of  awl  word  distributions   in  mega-­‐corpora,  one  of   the  primary  goals  of   this  study  was  to  contribute  to  the  growing  body  of  research  involving  the  use  of  google  ngram  viewer  and   coha.   in   the   past   years,   several   diachronic   language   (vocabulary)   change   studies   used   these   tools   quite   successfully,   but   have   mostly   focused   on   cultural   and   historical   shifts.   however,   systematic,   replicable   research  methodologies  and  various  options  in  framing  research  questions  are  needed  to  serve  as  models  for   how   these   tools   could   be   effectively   applied   in   the   fields   of   linguistics   and   corpus-­‐based   research.   more   validation  through  similar  studies   is  necessary,   including  the  application  of  statistical  significance  testing  in   examining  how  normalized  tokens  and  percentages  compare,  beyond  visual  representations  and  line  graphs.   additional   comparative   research  with   an   extensive   range   of   lexico/grammatical   features   and  demographic   information  from  texts  will  also  have  to  be  explored  further.     keuleers,  brysbaert,   and  new  (2011)   suggest   that  google  ngram  viewer  can  be  effectively  utilized   for  many  types  of  studies  in  psycholinguistics.  there  are  also  potential  applications  of  google  ngram  viewer   for  manipulation  using  other  interfaces  that  aid  dictionary  research  and  linguistic  tagging  approaches 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 2007).  ‘corpus  linguistics  25+  years  on’.  in  roberta  facchinetti  (ed.),  corpus  linguistics  25   years  on,  p.11-­‐26.  amsterdam:  rodopi.   toor,  amar  (2010).  google  ngram  viewer  gives  new  historical  perspective  on  culture,  language.  available  at:   http://www.switched.com/2010/12/20/google-­‐books-­‐ngram-­‐viewer/  (accessed  march  2011).   exploring  mega-­‐corpora   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68  66   appendix   complete  list  of  60  words  used  in  the  study     analysis indicate approach individual area interpretation assessment involved assume issues authority labour available legal benefit legislation concept major consistent method constitutional occur context percent contract period create policy data principle definition procedure derived process distribution required economic research environment response established role estimate section evidence sector export significant factors similar financial source formula specific function structure identified theory income variables     friginal,  walker,  &  randall       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68   67   eric friginal, georgia state university efriginal@gsu.edu en eric friginal specializes in technology and language teaching, applied corpus linguistics, cross-cultural communication, and discipline-specific writing. his primary research program focuses on the exploration of professional, spoken interaction; the acquisition of fluency in esl; and the study of language, culture, and cross-cultural communication. he makes use of corpus and computational tools as well as qualitative and quantitative research approaches in analyzing and interpreting linguistic patterning from corpora. his present work aims to contribute linguistic data that could be used for materials production and the development of training curricula in language proficiency and task performance of esl speakers. es eric friginal está especializado en tecnología y enseñanza de lenguas, corpus lingüísticos aplicados, comunicación transcultural y escritura específica por disciplinas. su principal programa de investigación se centra en el análisis de la interacción oral profesional, la adquisición de fluidez en inglés como segunda lengua y el estudio de lengua, cultura y comunicación transcultural. utiliza corpus y herramientas informáticas, así como enfoques de investigación cualitativos y cuantitativos, en el análisis e interpretación del diseño lingüístico de diferentes corpus. su trabajo actual pretende aportar datos lingüísticos que puedan ser utilizados para la producción de materiales didácticos y planes de estudio finalizados al dominio del idioma y la realización de tareas por hablantes de inglés como segunda lengua. it eric friginal si è specializzato in tecnologia e insegnamento di lingue straniere, linguistica applicata dei corpora, comunicazione interculturale e linguaggi settoriali nella comunicazione scritta. il suo principale interesse di ricerca si concentra sull’esplorazione della lingua parlata in ambito professionale, l’acquisizione della fluidità di espressione in inglese l2, nonché lo studio di cultura e linguaggio nella comunicazione interculturale. allo scopo di analizzare e interpretare le configurazioni linguistiche presenti nei vari corpora fa ricorso a strumenti di linguistica computazionale e dei corpora, basandosi su una metodologia di ricerca quantitativa e qualitativa. alla base del suo operato vi è la volontà di utilizzare dati linguistici nello sviluppo di materiali e programmi di formazione mirati a una conoscenza e una competenza attive dell’inglese l2. marsha walker, georgia institute of technology marsharene@gmail.com en marsha walker teaches various courses at the language institute (gatech) focusing on the areas of student academic writing, reading, and grammar. she specializes in second language acquisition, language and literacy, classroom approaches, and corpus-based studies. her research interests include the application of sla theories, technology, and corpora in language teaching. she also has developed courses specific to her interests in literature and vocabulary, and she continually develops classroom teaching materials and instructional tools primarily intended for international students in u.s. universities. es marsha walker es docente en varios cursos centrados en escritura académica para estudiantes, lectura y gramática en el language institute (gatech). está especializada en la adquisición de segundas lenguas (asl), lenguaje y alfabetización, enfoques didácticos y estudios basados en corpus. entre sus intereses se incluyen la aplicación de las teorías, tecnologías y corpus de asl en la enseñanza de lenguas. desarrolla también materiales didácticos en relación con su interés en la literatura y el léxico, y materiales y herramientas de enseñanza específicas para estudiantes internacionales en universidades estadounidenses. it marsha walker insegna corsi di scrittura accademica, lettura e grammatica presso il language institute (gatech). si è specializzata nell’acquisizione di l2, nelle tecniche di lingua e alfabetizzazione, nei metodi di insegnamento in classe e nello studio dei corpora. tra i suoi principali interessi di ricerca va ricordata l’applicazione di metodologie, tecnologie e corpus per l’acquisizione di una l2 nell’ambito dell’insegnamento di un lingua. vasta è anche la sua produzione di materiali didattici legati al suo interesse per la letteratura e il lessico, e di materiali e strumenti educativi rivolti a studenti internazionali presenti nelle università statunitensi. exploring  mega-­‐corpora   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  48-­‐68  68   janet beth randall, new york university, tokyo randall.janet@gmail.com en janet beth randall specializes in esl/efl pedagogy and cross-cultural communication. her work also consists of administration, curriculum development and pedagogically-oriented programs in english for specific purposes. her current research and teaching interests include the use of corpus tools in content-based instruction and language program evaluation. es janet beth randall está especializada en pedagogía de segundas lenguas, lenguas extranjeras y comunicación intercultural. asimismo, se dedica también a la administración de programas, diseño de currículum e inglés para fines profesionales. sus ámbitos de investigación y enseñanza incluyen el uso de corpus en programas de instrucción basados en contenidos, y la evaluación de programas de estudio. it janet beth randall si è specializzata in didattica dell’inglese l2/ls e in comunicazione interculturale. si dedica inoltre al coordinamento, alla creazione e allo sviluppo di programmi di studio e corsi di inglese per scopi specifici. i suoi ambiti di ricerca e insegnamento includono l’uso di corpus in programmi di studio basati su contenuti e la valutazione di programmi di lingua.   euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 2, issue 1, august 2015, pages 96-100 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.2.39 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: pizziconi.sergio@gmail.com fiorentino, giuliana and bruni, filippo (eds.) (2013). didattica e tecnologie. studi, percorsi e proposte. roma, italia: carocci sergio pizziconi* independent scholar book review received 22 apr 2015; received in revised form 7 june 2015; accepted 7 june 2015 abstract en the volume presents novice and experienced teachers with a sound and concise reflection on the use of the newest technologies in education. the discussion covers e-learning platforms, m(obile)-learning, web technologies (blog, micro-blog, wiki), social networks, video-games and role games, videos, and some basic issues such as (digital) story telling, hypertextuality, multimediality, and identity. many projects brought in as examples of the use of technologies in educational contexts are aimed at language learning. the final section discusses italian and european programs centered on new technologies. the authors balance an enthusiastic attitude with realistic considerations on how the educational use of new technologies requires great accuracy to the design of the intervention and close monitoring. key words: new technologies, e-learning, m-learning. es el volumen, dirigido tanto a profesores noveles como experimentados, ofrece una reflexión detallada y concisa sobre el uso de las nuevas tecnologías en el ámbito de la didáctica. la discusión abarca temáticas como las plataformas de aprendizaje electrónico (e-learning), el aprendizaje móvil (m-learning), las tecnologías web (blog, microblog, wiki), las redes sociales, los videojuegos y juegos de rol, los vídeos y algunas cuestiones esenciales referentes a la narración (digital), la hipertextualidad, la multimedialidad y la identidad. muchos de los proyectos que se incluyen para ejemplificar el uso de las tecnologías aplicadas a la educación se dirigen especialmente al aprendizaje de idiomas. la sección final está dedicada a distintos programas italianos y europeos centrados en las nuevas tecnologías. los autores muestran una actitud entusiasta y a la vez realista, destacando cómo el uso de las nuevas tecnologías en el aula requiere una gran precisión a la hora de diseñar la intervención, acompañada de una estrecha monitorización. palabras clave: nuevas tecnologías, e-learning, m-learning. it il volume, destinato a chi da più o meno tempo insegna, è una concisa e solida riflessione sull’uso delle nuovissime tecnologie nella didattica. la discussione copre le piattaforme e-learning, il m(obile)-learning, le tecnologie web (blog, micro-blog, wiki), reti sociali, videogame e giochi di ruolo, video, e alcuni temi di base come la narrazione (digitale), l’ipertestualità, la multimedialità e l’identità. molti dei progetti presentati come esempi sull’uso delle tecnologie nella didattica riguardano l’apprendimento delle lingue. nella sezione conclusiva, sono descritti progetti italiani ed europei mirati alle nuove tecnologie. il gruppo autoriale bilancia un atteggiamento entusiasta con considerazioni realistiche su come l’uso didattico delle nuove tecnologie richieda un’attenzione estrema alla progettazione dell’intervento e al suo monitoraggio costante. parole chiave: nuove tecnologie, e-learning, m-learning. http://www.e-journall.org/ review: teaching and new technologies e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 96-100 97 1. overview: a balanced introduction to ict in the classroom the book is an introduction to the use of information and communication technologies (ict) tools in the classroom and was published with the financial support of the lifelong learning programme of the european commission. although some of the examples and applications target the use of technologies in teaching/learning second and foreign languages, the scope of the volume goes beyond the interests of the first or second language class. it is composed of six articles, one of which is accompanied by an appendix. the general introduction on technologies and pedagogy is by giuliana fiorentino, one of the editors of the volume and an expert in the field of web writing. filippo bruni, the second editor, is a researcher in the field of technologies for education. his article about hypertexts and multi-media should be read as a complement to the general introduction. it delves into hypertextuality and multimediality as two distinctive features used in any educational technologies, giving details about the use of audiovisual texts, digital storytelling, and video games in educational settings. maria cristina guidone’s appendix attached to the article discusses some issues of role-playing games. the other articles included in the volume cover elearning and its platforms (by fabrizio michele occhionero); mobile learning and its tools (by giuliana fiorentino); the applications of web 2.0 such as blogs, social networks, and wikis, in teaching/learning (by filippo bruni) and an overview of italian and european projects related to ict (by oronza perniola). the editors’ choice of including only technologies that can be exploited both within and outside the classroom explains this selection of technologies and the exclusion of others, such as the interactive whiteboards (iwb). this book is balanced in many respects. first, it balances theory and practice, with the discussion on the theoretical implications in the use of icts accompanied by practical examples of completed or ongoing projects in italy, other european countries, and beyond. second, the assumptions on the readers’ expertise in ict are balanced between beginners and advanced. the only expectation is that readers have some familiarity with the internet and the world wide web. advanced readers are provided with enough cues to envisage technical implementation of icts. finally, the references to traditional sources, namely printed journals and books, are balanced with references to sources accessible on the internet. the latter make up almost 20% of all the listed references and more detailed information on most projects brought in as examples can be retrieved online. 2. contents of contributions the introduction by giuliana fiorentino deals with the general impact of technologies in education. the recommended approach to the use of icts in education is a constructivist framing of knowledge and learning as the result of an experiencer’s or learner’s processing and connecting schemata already acquired from previous experience. this perspective affects much of the discussion on the topic. according to fiorentino, the idea of distributed intelligence, as a distinctive feature of modern icts, is constructivist because it is built on interconnected perceptive and behavioral schemata: first, the interaction between a human being and a machine; then, the face-to-face interaction of a multiplicity of individuals with their competencies; finally, the mediated by technology interaction with remote individuals. it is also constructivist the conviction that educators’ project ability plays a major role in a successful use of new technologies because each step of the process can be assessed against the first planning and consequently revised. drawing from hooper and rieber (1995, p. 3), fiorentino explains that in the traditional perspective, the process of adoption of any new technology entailed the phases of familiarization, utilization, and integration as if it were just a matter of technical tools and procedures. conversely, the contemporary constructivist approach implies two more phases in the process, namely reorientation and evolution, which are activated when the new technology is seen as a novel building block to leverage learners’ ability to generate knowledge. the next chapter, chapter 1, a discussion on e-learning platforms by fabrizio michele occhionero, starts with a concise historical review of distance learning technologies, from mailed courses in the middle 1800s, to courses using television, to today’s digital platforms. occhionero then examines the pros and cons of open source and commercial platforms. concise descriptions of german ilias, australian moodle, canadian and italian atutor, and italian docebo round out the chapter. the theoretical analysis of these platforms is based on their technical specifications as part of the larger category of learning management systems (lms). after this short description, occhionero makes an effort to emphasize a more general principle applicable to present and future platforms, which the reader of the book might appreciate the most. he states that one of the most important features of lmss is their ability to allow for exchange and integration of learning objects or teaching material. to explain the centrality of this feature of lmss, occhionero introduces the scorm pizziconi e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 96-100 98 (sharable content object reference model), a standard that sets “rules to facilitate the re-use, trackability and indexing of the elements that compose a distance learning course” (p. 25). fiorentino introduces mobile learning (m-learning) in chapter two, emphasizing how its two main technical means—cellular phones and tablets—necessarily put students in a more central and autonomous position compared to any other e-learning modality. this statement is supported with the theoretical considerations from sharples, taylor and vavoula (2005), who describe how the features of new learning— personalized, learner centered, situated, collaborative, ubiquitous, lifelong—converge with those of new technologies—personal, user centered, mobile, networked, ubiquitous, durable. fiorentino also argues that the technological flexibility of cellular phones and tablets also supports leaner autonomy and centrality, as they allow users to record sounds, shoot pictures and video-clips, annotate texts, and play music. the author closes the chapter describing some m-learning projects that take advantage of these possibilities, such as british myartspace, swedish amulets (advanced mobile and ubiquitous learning environments for teachers and students), and irish mobile digital narrative. in particular, it is worth mentioning the app lingobee, created within the project simola (situated mobile language learning) of the university of molise, italy, and described by the author as a tool for collaborative language learning. chapter three, teaching between multi-media and hypertexts by filippo bruni, covers videos, digital storytelling, and video games and is a pivotal chapter to the whole book. the first part of the chapter is dedicated to a historical review of the representation of computers in educational contexts. following calvani (2008), bruni states that in the 1980s computers were regarded as tutors and cognitive tools; in the 1990s as multimedia tools; and in the 2000s as cooperative tools. this development is paralleled by the shift of perspective from hypertextuality to multimediality. the technological differences between the two perspectives are well represented by the passage from links (i.e. the possibility to jump from one text to another clicking on hot words/spots in the starting text) to tags (i.e. the possibility to search the net on the basis of annotations added to any type of text by its author or users) to the composite nature of the web 2.0 tools (i.e. social media). the crucial observation of this chapter is on page 54, where bruni expounds the change in cognitive processes that is expected to bring about the most innovative shift in the educational perspective. he first discusses bolter’s (2002) idea that the image has been emancipated from its role subordinated to writing. then, bruni connects the new role of images to giardino and piazza’s (2008) statement that sees in visual demonstration, as in geometrical reasoning, a hybrid cognitive process in which justification—in the sense of organization of pieces of knowledge—and discovery are connected. the role of the user of multimediality is, therefore, increasingly active and requires novel skills. after this theoretical reflection, bruni discusses mayer’s (2009) twelve principles for the design of a multimedia lesson plan: coherence, signaling, redundancy, spatial contiguity, temporal contiguity, segmenting, pre-training, modality, multimedia, personalization, voice, and image. the author presents these principles in a concise though practical way to assist teachers’ reflection when planning and/or assessing a multimedia lesson plan. the chapter ends with three sections in which, with the discussion on videos, digital storytelling, and video games, multimediality is connected to two oppositions: between physical and virtual reality and between analytical and narrative reasoning, à la bruner (2003). the appendix on role-playing by maria cristina guidone deals with its many technological versions, both onand offline and explores the social and psychological issues of an activity that pushes to reshape the meaning of identity. in the fourth chapter, on the use of the web in education, filippo bruni expands many of the issues treated in the previous chapter, focusing specifically on blogs, social networks, and wikis. he concisely describes the evolution of the web, from its beginning to web 2.0, together with the many metaphors that have been used to explain these new means of communication. bruni also discusses milgram, takemura, utsumi, and kishino’s (1994) reality-virtuality continuum in order to further examine the issues connected to identity. the sections dedicated to blogs, social networks, and wikis are rich of examples of the ways in which these tools can be used at school: to simplify administrative organizational issues; to satisfy needs of communication between teachers and students and between peers; and to provide a narrative space through which bits and pieces of knowledge can be retrieved, collected, re-organized, and processed. the final chapter, by oronza perniola, sketches italian and european governmental projects intended to promote the use of new technologies in educational contexts. perniola then discusses the common elements of these projects, including students’ autonomy and new competences, learning objects for sharing, and improvements in foreign language learning. specifically for language learning, european etwinning, italian eclil (content and language integrated learning) and read on! for e-clil are described and discussed in detail. review: teaching and new technologies e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 96-100 99 3. conclusion the volume is mainly written for teachers, educators, and practitioners. the editors and the authors have achieved a more general balance, the one between umberto eco’s (1994) apocalyptic and integrated intellectuals: both reluctant technology users and tech-savvy readers will feel at ease while reading these pages, as the enthusiastic descriptions of software, hardware, applications, practices, and uses are tempered with practical and theoretical realism. throughout the book, the authors maintain that new technologies per se have a motivating effect on learners, derived from what in the previous era of communication studies was summed up by mcluhan’s (1964) famous statement, “the medium is the message.” the motivating effect is also connected to the way social interactions between actors—teachers, learners, and outer society—are shaped by all the media discussed. nonetheless, the authors show awareness that new motivation and new ways of interaction might not be enough to trigger efficient teaching/learning processes. the authors thus suggest models for implementing new technologies in education and for assessing them and their effects, in order to make their use as efficient as possible. bruni, in his chapter on educational uses of the web and social networks, also uses jenkins’ words to put even the most technologically-reluctant teacher at ease: “first, textual literacy remains a central skill in the twenty-first century. youths must expand their required competencies, not push aside old skills to make room for the new. second, new media literacies should be considered a social skill” (jenkins, purushotma, weigel, clinton, & robinson, 2009, p. 28). the contents of the book are ideal to help school planners and actors start a conversation on new technologies and the organizational, practical, and theoretical changes they require. at the same time, the introduction is sound enough to help design research-action plans on specific projects, and researchers interested in icts in education will find the book useful for its literature review and general framing of current debate. references bolter, jay david (2002). lo spazio dello scrivere. computer, ipertesto e la ri-mediazione della stampa [writing space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print]. milano: vita e pensiero. bruner, jerome s. (2003). la mente a più dimensioni. [actual minds, possible worlds]. roma & bari, italia: laterza. calvani, antonio (2008). educazione, comunicazione e nuovi media. sfide pedagogiche e cyberspazio. torino: utet. eco, umberto (1994). apocalypse postponed [selected translation of apocalittici e integrati. ed. robert lumley. bloomington: indiana up. giardino, valeria & piazza, mario (2008). senza parole. ragionare con le immagini. milano: bompiani. hooper, simon, & rieber, lloyd p. (1995). teaching with technology. in a. c. ornstein (ed.), teaching: theory into practice (pp. 154-170). needham heights, ma: allyn and bacon. jenkins, henry, purushotma, ravi, weigel, margaret, clinton, katie, & robinson, alice j. (2010). culture participative e competenze digitali. media education per il xxi secolo [confronting the challenges of participatory culture media education for the 21st century]. milano: guerini. [the english version is retrievable at: https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_download/978026251362 3_confronting_the_challenges.pdf] mayer, richard e. (2009). multimedia learning. new york: cambridge university press. mcluhan, marshall (1964). understanding media: the extensions of man. new york: mentor. milgram, paul, takemura, haruo, utsumi, akira & kishino, fumio (1994). augmented reality: a class of displays on the reality-virtuality continuum. in spie vol. 2351, telemanipulator and telepresence technologies (pp. 282-292). sharples, mike, taylor, josie, & vavoula, giasemi (2005). towards a theory of mobile learning. in h. van der merwe, & t. brown (eds.), mobile technology: the future of learning in your hands, mlearn 2005 book of abstracts (p. 58). cape town: mlearn 2005. pizziconi e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 96-100 100 sergio pizziconi, independent scholar pizziconi.sergio@gmail.com en sergio pizziconi has an italian doctorate in linguistics and in teaching italian as a foreign language and an american ph.d. in english with an emphasis in applied linguistics. he has taught courses in linguistics and composition in both italian and american universities. his research interests are in cognitive linguistics, languages for specific purposes, and first/second language acquisition and teaching. es sergio pizziconi tiene un doctorado italiano en lingüística y didáctica de la lengua italiana para extranjeros, así como un título estadounidense de ph. d. en estudios ingleses con especialidad en lingüística aplicada. ha impartido clases sobre lingüística y composición tanto en universidades de italia como de estados unidos. sus intereses investigadores giran en torno a la lingüística cognitiva, las lenguas para fines específicos y la enseñanza y adquisición de l1 y l2. it sergio pizziconi ha conseguito un dottorato di ricerca in italia in linguistica e didattica dell’italiano a stranieri e un ph.d. in america in inglese con enfasi in linguistica applicata. ha insegnato discipline linguistiche e composizione in università italiane e americane. i suoi interessi di ricerca sono in linguistica cognitiva, lingue per scopi specifici, e acquisizione e insegnamento di l1 e l2. 12a_casentini_kb_ma euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, november 2021, 220-223 issn 2376-905x http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.255 www.e-journall.org © casentini 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. recensione: russel, victoria & murphy-judy, kathryn (2020). teaching language online. routledge. marco casentini sapienza università di roma book review received 15 sept 2021; accepted 29 september 2021 abstract it la presente recensione mira ad offrire una valutazione critica del volume teaching language online di victoria russel e kathryn murphy-judy. nella prima parte della recensione viene introdotto l’argomento generale trattato dal libro, descrivendone brevemente i contenuti di ogni capitolo. nella seconda parte si fornisce una descrizione dei contenuti in prospettiva critica, evidenziandone i punti di forza e le eventuali criticità. parole chiave: didattica delle lingue, insegnamento on-line, addie en this review aims to offer a critical evaluation of the book, teaching language online, by victoria russel and kathryn murphyjudy. in the first section of the review, the general topic of the book is discussed, and a brief description of the contents of each chapter is offered. the second section consists of a description of its contents through a critical perspective highlighting its strengths as well as its weaknesses. key words: language teaching, remote teaching, addie es esta reseña tiene como objetivo ofrecer una valoración crítica del volumen teaching language online, de las autoras victoria russel y kathryn murphy-judy. en la primera parte de la reseña se trata el tema general del libro y se ofrece una breve descripción del contenido de cada capítulo. en la segunda parte se lleva a cabo una descripción de los contenidos desde un punto de vista crítico, y se destacan tanto sus puntos fuertes como sus puntos débiles. palabras clave: enseñanza de lenguas, enseñanza remota, addie 🖂 marco casentini, sapienza università di roma marco.casentini@uniroma1.it recensione: teaching language online e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 220–223 221 come si realizza un buon corso di lingue on-line? quali sono le competenze che un docente deve avere per insegnare a distanza? e quali strumenti possono o devono essere utilizzati? come si può ricreare un ambiente sociale on-line? queste sono solo alcune delle domande a cui il volume teaching language online di victoria russel e kathryn murphy-judy vuole rispondere. i cinque capitoli del libro possono essere suddivisi in due macro-gruppi: nel primo, che corrisponde ai capitoli 1-3, viene spiegato nel dettaglio il processo adottato per la realizzazione di un corso on-line da zero, ovvero il modello addie (analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation) che viene tradizionalmente usato nella creazione di corsi on-line per vari tipi di training. nel secondo (capitoli 4-5), invece, le autrici illustrano le ricerche più recenti relative sia all’insegnamento delle lingue in presenza, sia alla didattica delle lingue on-line. nel primo capitolo viene innanzitutto fornita una descrizione generale e dettagliata del modello addie, anche con schemi e immagini esemplificativi. le autrici proseguono poi delineando le nozioni fondamentali relative alle prime due fasi del processo, ovvero quelle di analysis e di design. per aiutare lo sviluppatore nel processo di ideazione e creazione del corso, vengono, dunque, poste varie domande alle quali si dovrebbe rispondere prima di passare allo sviluppo vero e proprio del corso come, ad esempio, “come progettatore, dovrai creare il corso intero o solo alcune parti?” o “con chi dovrai collaborare? i tuoi colleghi esprimono dissenso su qualche aspetto? cosa puoi fare per renderli più accomodanti?”. successivamente, vengono offerti spunti e informazioni riguardanti differenti applicazioni, siti, piattaforme e strumenti utili in queste prime due fasi del processo, elencandone sia le funzionalità che gli eventuali limiti. nel secondo capitolo, la presentazione del modello addie prosegue analizzando in grande dettaglio la terza fase, ovvero quella di development (sviluppo) nel senso più ampio del termine. infatti, non solo le due autrici procedono ad illustrare come migliorare il corso e il sistema di gestione dello stesso, ma anche a come sviluppare le competenze che uno studente dovrebbe acquisire alla fine del corso, sottolineando le differenze principali tra lezioni tradizionali e a distanza, e le interazioni tra (a) studente e insegnante, (b) studente e studente, (c) studente e contenuti del corso. come per il primo capitolo, vengono inoltre forniti strumenti e risorse (web) utili alla creazione di materiali ausiliari e attività di gruppo virtuali per gli studenti. una volta completata la descrizione delle prime tre fasi del modello addie, nel terzo capitolo viene illustrato come adattare le pratiche di didattica tradizionale (in presenza) già note in letteratura all’insegnamento di una lingua attraverso corsi misti (in presenza e on-line) o solamente a distanza, in particolare per quel che riguarda le abilità orali, notoriamente più critiche. infatti, come affermano le autrici, in un contesto a distanza, un insegnante deve sapere non solo come insegnare una lingua, ma anche come farlo on-line e quali strumenti utilizzare (e come utilizzarli). questo capitolo, dunque, si prefigge di fornire ai docenti tutto il know-how necessario per l’insegnamento di una lingua on-line, tenendo conto dei tre aspetti appena citati, anche in termini di eventuali progetti e corsi a cui partecipare per acquisire specifiche competenze. nel quarto capitolo, le autrici passano in rassegna una serie di strumenti, siti internet e progetti che possono risultare utili per mitigare quegli effetti “nocivi” di un corso on-line che potrebbero ripercuotersi sia sugli insegnanti che sugli studenti (es. stress, solitudine). fondamentale, in questa sezione, il fatto che oltre a tener conto dei bisogni degli studenti, si presti particolare attenzione anche a quelli degli insegnanti, i quali si trovano spesso a sentirsi isolati. a tal proposito, vengono forniti spunti interessanti per lo “sviluppo” di un senso di comunità, sia tra pari (studenti e studenti, insegnanti e insegnanti), sia tra docente e studenti. nel quinto e ultimo capitolo, le autrici analizzano vari contributi sull’insegnamento delle lingue (sia in presenza che a distanza) utili a qualsiasi insegnante che voglia avvicinarsi alla didattica on-line. tutti gli studi presentati in questo capitolo sono descritti dettagliatamente, illustrandone punti critici ed eventuali limiti. inoltre, quando necessario, le autrici integrano i risultati di studi differenti, offrendo così una panoramica completa su ogni argomento trattato. in questo ultimo capitolo vengono inoltre forniti paragoni tra didattica tradizionale e on-line, così che un insegnante che si trovi ad affrontare un corso on-line per la prima volta possa essere a conoscenza di cosa può e non può/deve sfruttare della sua esperienza pregressa in una classe “reale”. infine, il quinto capitolo offre una lista di strumenti e modelli per la valutazione degli studenti, mostrando varie opzioni anche in base al livello degli apprendenti. questo libro è dunque indicato sia agli eventuali sviluppatori ai quali è stato richiesto di implementare, da zero, un corso on-line, sia agli insegnanti che dovranno tenere lezioni a distanza. come indicato dalle autrici, spesso lo sviluppatore è lo stesso insegnante, che non sempre possiede le competenze informatiche necessarie. tenendo conto di questa eventualità, il volume fornisce numerosi consigli, informazioni e risorse per la casentini e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 220–223 222 creazione di un corso on-line efficace e che tenga conto dei bisogni di tutti, insegnanti e studenti, anche di coloro che realizzano per la prima volta un corso a distanza, grazie a spiegazioni minuziose e puntuali per ogni concetto affrontato. i capitoli, così come i vari sotto-capitoli, seguono un ordine logico ben chiaro. infatti, dal primo capitolo, in cui si forniscono gli strumenti didattici per creare un corso on-line ex novo, si arriva al quarto e al quinto, in cui invece si affrontano gli aspetti relativi alle fasi finali della didattica on-line, inclusa la valutazione degli studenti e del corso in sé. l’ordine logico corrisponde dunque a quello cronologico: ideazione > creazione > didattica > valutazione. ogni capitolo è impostato seguendo coerentemente la stessa struttura, composta da un’introduzione iniziale, una presentazione chiara e dettagliata dei contenuti e una conclusione, ed è dotato di una checklist finale che riassume i punti chiave trattati, ad uso del lettore (futuro sviluppatore e/o docente), il quale può controllare di aver tenuto conto degli aspetti fondamentali per la didattica delle lingue a distanza (o mista). in aggiunta, ogni capitolo presenta una lista di ulteriori fonti da poter consultare per approfondire gli argomenti descritti (già in dettaglio) all’interno dello stesso. in merito all'applicabilità delle indicazioni delle autrici ai diversi contesti nazionali, il libro appare maggiormente incentrato sulle dinamiche americane, e nello specifico degli stati uniti. ad esempio, nel terzo capitolo si descrivono alcune criticità dei manuali statunitensi, senza però specificare se queste criticità siano generali e valide anche per altri paesi del mondo. nonostante ciò, le autrici sembrano talvolta tener conto anche di altre realtà, citando, ad esempio, il diritto dell’unione europea o ricerche basate su paesi asiatici; inoltre, nella presentazione dei vari strumenti per l’insegnamento on-line, le autrici discutono anche del caso della censura dei prodotti google in cina, proponendo così piattaforme differenti. in definitiva quindi il volume è adatto agli insegnanti e agli sviluppatori di corsi di lingua on-line in generale, e non solamente di alcuni paesi o di alcune lingue. nella creazione/fruizione di un corso on-line, infatti, non ci sono limiti fisici e geografici. in ogni caso, le autrici sottolineano che bisogna tener conto anche degli aspetti legali, che possono cambiare da paese a paese. a tal proposito, il libro copre ogni argomento relativo alla didattica on-line, inclusi quelli del diritto alla privacy (degli insegnanti e degli studenti) e dei diritti di autore per i materiali utilizzati (foto, testi, ecc.). nel volume, però, non ci si limita a elencare eventuali problemi relativi alle differenti legislazioni, ma vengono forniti anche alcuni esempi di piattaforme on-line che possono essere utilizzate in vari paesi e di siti da cui reperire materiale senza diritti di copyright, tenendo presente che non è la piattaforma in sé a essere importante, bensì le relative proprietà e funzionalità. un altro aspetto rilevante di questo volume è quello di fornire indicazioni differenti in base al livello dell’apprendente (principiante, intermedio e avanzato), anche dal punto di vista della presentazione dei corsi. ad esempio, in base a vari studi, le autrici del volume indicano una preferenza per la lingua nativa (degli apprendenti) durante la descrizione iniziale del corso, nel caso di discenti con un livello elementare della loro l2. al contrario, gli studenti avanzati dovrebbero entrare in contatto con la l2 per il 90% del corso. le due autrici, inoltre, sembrano prestare particolare attenzione anche all’aspetto psicologico della didattica on-line. nel volume vengono dunque forniti consigli su come rispondere alle e-mail degli studenti e su quali strumenti utilizzare per la socializzazione on-line, creando così una comunità virtuale che non faccia sentire soli né gli studenti, né gli insegnanti. una critica che tuttavia può essere mossa è quella relativa ai contenuti del terzo capitolo. se da una parte l’insegnamento e lo sviluppo delle competenze comunicative e pragmatiche sembrano essere analizzati da vari punti di vista, e in modo dettagliato, l’aspetto più formale della lingua non è approfondito, relegando la didattica della grammatica quasi unicamente alle mechanical drill activities, il cui effetto a lungo termine sull'apprendimento è piuttosto limitato. in conclusione, le autrici sembrano essere riuscite nel loro obiettivo di offrire strumenti e consigli per la realizzazione di un corso di lingue on-line efficace, che tenga conto non solo degli aspetti più pratici (strumenti e materiali per la didattica), ma anche di aspetti psicologici e dinamiche internazionali che potrebbero influire sullo sviluppo delle competenze linguistiche negli apprendenti. sebbene tutti gli argomenti affrontati nel libro siano stati già trattati in letteratura (opportunamente citata nei vari capitoli), il volume ha il pregio di integrare in maniera critica nozioni di informatica, pedagogia e didattica delle lingue, rappresentando una risorsa essenziale per tutti i docenti che vogliano avere una visione il più completa possibile dell’argomento, soprattutto considerando le necessità derivanti dall’attuale contesto di emergenza pandemica. infatti, nonostante i limiti strutturali di un libro, le autrici sono riuscite a condurre un’analisi della letteratura esistente puntuale e a toccare vari punti, fondamentali non solo per chiunque voglia creare un buon recensione: teaching language online e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 220–223 223 corso di lingua on-line anche senza esperienza pregressa in questo campo, ma anche per coloro che abbiano il desiderio di accrescere le proprie competenze e conoscenze nel campo della didattica delle lingue. è comunque importante menzionare che, come indicato dalle autrici, il presente volume non può, e non deve, essere sufficiente, dato il continuo sviluppo tecnologico e il continuo cambiamento delle necessità, sia degli studenti che degli insegnanti. infatti, nel libro si afferma che un buon insegnante deve costantemente aggiornarsi, così come il corso in sé che può essere implementato anno dopo anno, in base all’esperienza acquisita e alle valutazioni (necessarie) degli studenti. marco casentini, sapienza università di roma marco.casentini@uniroma1.it it marco casentini è attualmente dottorando presso l'istituto italiano di studi orientali, sapienza università di roma, curriculum "asia orientale". nel 2017 ha conseguito la laurea magistrale in lingue moderne per la comunicazione internazionale (lingue: cinese e inglese) presso l'università degli studi roma tre. da allora collabora con le cattedre di linguistica e cinese dell'università degli studi roma tre nell'ambito di progetti pot (programmi di orientamento e tutoraggio) e pcto (percorsi per le competenze trasversali e l’orientamento). i suoi campi di ricerca sono sintassi, grammatica generativa, acquisizione del cinese come lingua seconda e sviluppo delle abilità linguistiche in italiano come lingua prima. en marco casentini is currently pursuing his phd at the italian institute of oriental studies, sapienza university of rome, with a focus on east asia. in 2017, he obtained his master’s degree in modern languages for international communication (chinese and english), at the university of roma tre, italy. he participates in teaching linguistics and chinese at the university of roma tre for the projects pot (orientation and tutoring programs) and pcto (work-related learning). his research areas are syntax, generative grammar, the acquisition of chinese as a second language, and the development of language skills in italian as a native language. es marco casentini es en la actualidad alumno de doctorado del plan de estudios “este de asia” del instituto italiano de estudios orientales, en la universidad sapienza de roma. en el año 2017 obtuvo un máster en lenguas modernas para la comunicación internacional (chino e inglés) en la universidad de roma tre (roma), italia. ha estado colaborando como profesor de lingüística y de chino en la universidad de roma tre, dentro del ámbito de los proyectos pot (programa de orientación y tutorización) y pcto (programa de orientación y competencias transversales). su investigación se centra principalmente en la sintaxis, la gramática generativa, la adquisición del chino como segunda lengua, y el desarrollo de las habilidades lingüísticas en el italiano como primera lengua. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 4, issue 1, july 2017, pages 62-64 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.6.79 www.e-journall.org © mendizábal de la cruz 2017. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. la mediación lingüística es un campo de estudio que presenta importantes potencialidades tanto desde el ámbito de la investigación como desde una perspectiva didáctica. el autor de este libro ha sabido abordar con claridad y agudeza expositiva uno de los múltiples aspectos que encierra la comunicación tal y como se concibe en la actualidad: la mediación. el surgimiento de entornos multilingües y pluriculturales ha conducido a que la labor de mediación lingüística y cultural sea cada vez más relevante en las sociedades actuales, por lo que esta monografía resulta muy oportuna, ya que viene a cubrir un vacío teórico-práctico en los estudios de enseñanza-aprendizaje de las competencias lingüísticas. el libro que reseñamos consta de cuatro capítulos bien diferenciados en los que se atiende al concepto de mediación, la distinción entre mediación lingüística y mediación cultural, el análisis de las implicaciones pedagógicas que la mediación lingüística puede conllevar en la didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras y del español como lengua extranjera (e/le), el desarrollo de la competencia mediadora tomando como punto de referencia el marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas extranjeras (mcer, consejo de europa, 2002), una sistematización de las tipologías de mediación oral y escrita y, por último, la elaboración y contextualización de algunas propuestas didácticas dirigidas a estudiantes italianos que están aprendiendo el español como lengua extranjera. la colección de cuadernos de didáctica del español/le constituye, desde hace ya algunos años, una serie bibliográfica de referencia y consulta obligada para los estudiosos, profesores e investigadores del español como lengua extranjera. el acierto en cada título de esta colección viene avalado por los autores que reflejan sus experiencias docentes en los temas tratados. en este caso, trovato ha plasmado con esmero y acierto una realidad de la competencia comunicativa que subyace a todo usuario de la lengua, tanto en su * contacto: marianieves.mendizabal@uva.es trovato, giuseppe (2016). mediación lingüística y enseñanza de español/le. cuadernos de didáctica del español/le. madrid: arco/libros. nieves mendizábal de la cruz *1 universidad de valladolid book review received 20 november 2016; accepted 9 march 2017 abstract es la mediación lingüística y cultural es un tema de relevancia desde que el marco común europeo de referencia la incluyó como una destreza más del aprendizaje de lenguas. en esta reseña resumimos la fundamentación teórica y metodología que utiliza trovato en su libro. también destacamos las aportaciones que este autor sugiere para poner en práctica la competencia mediadora en las clases de e/le. palabras calve: mediación lingüística, destrezas lingüísticas, enseñanza de lenguas, subcompetencias en linguistic and cultural mediation have been a topic of interest since the common european framework for languages recognized them as technical skills involved in language learning. in this review, i summarize the theoretical foundation and methodology that trovato uses in his book. i also highlight the suggestions that the author proposes for putting competence in mediation into practice in (spanish) foreign language classes. key words: linguistic meditation, linguistic skills, language teaching, subcompetencies it la mediazione linguistica e culturale è stata considerata un tema rilevante a partire dalla sua inclusione nel quadro comune europeo di riferimento per le lingue come un’ulteriore abilità dell’apprendimento delle lingue. in questa recensione, riassumiamo le basi teoriche e metodologiche utilizzate da trovato nel suo volume e sottolineiamo le raccomandazioni che l’autore propone per mettere in pratica la competenza di mediazione nei corsi di spagnolo come lingua straniera. parole chiave: mediazione linguistica, abilità linguistiche, glottodidattica, sottocompetenze http://www.e-journall.org/ review: mediación lingüística y enseñanza de ele e-journall 4(1) (2017), pp. 62-64 63 papel de mediador como en el de sujeto a quien hacer de mediador. el tema de la competencia mediadora no ha sido tratado en profundidad hasta que en el año 2002 el consejo de europa encargó la elaboración del documento de referencia para las lenguas (mcer), en el que se habla de la destreza de mediación en paralelo a las destrezas de comprensión oral y escrita, expresión oral y escrita e interacción, dentro de la más amplia competencia lingüística y comunicativa. sin embargo, pocos son los estudiosos que se han dedicado a elaborar análisis teóricos y aplicados de esta destreza o “competencia mediadora” como lo ha hecho trovato en este manual, así como en anteriores publicaciones, como se recoge en la bibliografía final. la mediación lingüística, como señala el autor en el primer capítulo, ofrece interesantes motivos de reflexión sobre conceptos de traducción e interpretación, que remiten a la esfera de lo lingüístico, frente a la dimensión cultural, pragmática, social y cognitiva que engarza más con la labor mediadora. la acción de mediar remite a la idea de conciliar y entenderse con alguien que, por barreras lingüísticas o culturales, no puede llegar a ese entendimiento mutuo. el segundo capítulo está enfocado en la mediación lingüística en la didáctica de lenguas extranjeras. la mediación lingüística está concebida por trovato como una herramienta didáctica que sirve para favorecer y afianzar la adquisición de determinadas destrezas. estas habilidades configuran el llamado enfoque intercultural, hecho que, recientemente, ocupa los primeros puestos en las metodologías y enfoques didácticos para enseñar lenguas extranjeras debido al avance de los contextos plurilingües y multiculturales, con el objetivo final de la integración de todas las lenguas y culturas en igualdad de condiciones. las actividades de la lengua que señala el mcer se orientan a la acción, es decir, a la realización dentro de contextos formales, como puede ser el aula, así como los entornos sociales no directamente relacionados con el ámbito educativo. para poner en práctica esas actividades es necesario que los interlocutores cuenten con determinadas competencias y adopten estrategias para activar los procesos lingüísticos y comunicativos, sujetos a dos parámetros específicos: los textos orales y escritos y la temática. trovato defiende que la competencia mediadora se configura como el resultado de la unión de dos competencias: la comunicativa y la traductora. se deben encontrar equivalencias en las dos lenguas, adecuar el registro lingüístico a las personas involucradas en el acto comunicativo y comprender el sentido de las intervenciones, es decir, llevar a cabo un proceso de comprensión, desverbalización y de reexpresión, como señala el autor. desde la perspectiva de profesores de lenguas extranjeras, en concreto de español le, el objetivo no es formar profesionales de la mediación, sino hablantes competentes que puedan actuar de mediadores entre otros hablantes, facilitando el intercambio y la comunicación entre ciudadanos. las actividades planteadas para desarrollar esta competencia pueden ser de tipo intralingüístico (dentro de la misma lengua), como hacer un resumen, parafrasear o adaptar un texto oral o escrito, apostillar, intermediar o negociar, o de tipo interlingüístico (actividades que se dan entre dos lenguas). con ello estamos en condiciones de afirmar, como señala trovato, que la competencia mediadora está configurada por la suma de una batería de habilidades interlingüísticas, pragmáticas, sociolingüísticas y socioculturales. una de las partes más interesantes del libro es la que desarrolla las subcompetencias en la mediación lingüística. dentro de las subcompetencias orales destaca, con un análisis detallado y riguroso, pero a la vez claro y muy práctico para implementar en el aula, las siguientes actividades: resumir y sintetizar, para reconocer el sentido global de una intervención oral; parafrasear, esto es, hacer más inteligible un discurso especializado o complejo; apostillar o añadir datos; realizar comentarios o explicaciones adicionales; intermediar o interponerse entre dos partes para solucionar alguna situación conflictiva; interpretar, traducir oralmente dando sentido a lo expresado y, por último, negociar o alcanzar un acuerdo con el interlocutor. las subcompetencias escritas destacadas por el autor son: resumir o sintetizar, parafrasear, citar, traducir, apostillar y adecuar un texto a la tipología concreta de lectores. en el tercer capítulo, giuseppe trovato lleva a cabo una sistematización de las tipologías de mediación lingüística desde la perspectiva de la didáctica de lenguas extranjeras. para ello destaca la interpretación de conferencias, de carácter monológico y unidireccional; la interpretación de enlace bilateral, dentro de contextos dialógicos con el cambio constante de código lingüístico; la mediación oral de carácter informal; la interpretación de signos, carteles, mensajes escritos y menús, que consiste en la transcodificación y reformulación de la información de la lengua extranjera a la lengua materna a partir de los elementos de comunicación auténticos; la traducción a la vista y la oralización de un texto escrito en lengua a a lengua b. en lo que se refiere a la tipología de mediación lingüística escrita, destaca la traducción general, la traducción profesional, el resumen de textos, la paráfrasis de textos y la traducción pedagógica con fines didácticos, como tipo de mediación entre el contenido gramatical y los aprendices. mendizábal de la cruz 64 e-journall 4(1) (2017), pp. 62-64 el cuarto y último capítulo recoge un corpus de actividades de mediación lingüística de gran utilidad para que los profesores de español como lengua extranjera fomenten en el aula las potencialidades de la mediación lingüística. al comienzo del capítulo, trovato nos ofrece una ficha didáctica de actividades donde se destacan los objetivos formativos, el nivel específico, la temporalización, los materiales y la dinámica del aprendizaje, dentro de un marco teórico de análisis contrastivo y utilizando los recursos de las nuevas tecnologías. las actividades que propone las podemos enumerar en: identificación de claves textuales, es decir, cualquier elemento que marque la secuencia textual como pueden ser los marcadores discursivos o los conectores; identificación de palabras clave, es decir, las que señalen el sentido del texto; rehabilitación léxica y semántica, a través de sinónimos o antónimos; clozing para rellenar oralmente los vacíos de información que ayudan a que el alumno aprenda a expresarse con soltura ante un público; las lecturas graduadas, la improvisación, los debates y los juegos de rol, para desarrollar la toma de decisiones y la socialización. el cuaderno termina con una reflexión sobre el marco didáctico que ofrece la mediación, la propuesta metodológica y el fomento de la competencia mediadora en estudiantes de español como le/l2. los ejercicios que recoge al final del libro, con el solucionario adjunto, son una buena manera de terminar este manual práctico de mediación lingüística, y un punto de partida para el profesor de e/le en este campo tan importante como es el desarrollo teórico-práctico de la competencia mediadora. en definitiva, una monografía necesaria, útil, práctica y llena de sugerencias para todos aquellos que apuesten por fomentar la mediación como vía de acceso a una competencia comunicativa más amplia. referencias consejo de europa (2002). marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas: aprendizaje, enseñanza y evaluación. madrid: mecd y anaya. recuperado de http://cvc.cervantes.es/obref/marco nieves mendizábal de la cruz, universidad de valladolid marianieves.mendizabal@uva.es es nieves mendizábal de la cruz es profesora del departamento de lengua española de la universidad de valladolid, doctora en filología hispánica y premio extraordinario de doctorado. en la actualidad es directora académica del centro de idiomas. imparte docencia en los grados de lenguas modernas (asignaturas de lingüística general) y en el máster de enseñanza de español como lengua extranjera (asignaturas de enseñanza de la gramática, metodología y análisis de materiales didácticos). su investigación se centra en la diacronía del español, los trastornos del lenguaje y la gramática. ha impartido docencia en universidades europeas y ha publicado manuales de enseñanza de e/le. en nieves mendizábal de la cruz is a professor in the spanish language department of the university of valladolid, doctor of hispanic philology, and recipient of the outstanding doctorate award. currently, she is the director of the language center. she teaches in the modern language programs (courses in general linguistics) and in the master’s program in teaching spanish as a foreign language (courses in grammar instruction, methodology, and analysis of pedagogical materials). her research centers on the diachronic development of the spanish language, language disorders, and grammar. she has taught at european universities and has published manuals for (spanish) foreign language instruction. it nieves mendizábal de la cruz è professoressa presso il dipartimento di lingua spagnola dell’università di valladolid e dottoressa di ricerca in filologia ispanica, con conferimento della menzione speciale di dottorato. attualmente è direttrice accademica del centro linguistico. insegna nei corsi di laurea in lingue moderne (corsi di linguistica generale) e nel master in didattica dello spagnolo come lingua straniera (corsi di grammatica, metodologia e analisi di materiali didattici). la sua ricerca si concentra sulla diacronia dello spagnolo, i disturbi del linguaggio e la grammatica. ha insegnato presso università europee e ha pubblicato manuali per l’insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua straniera. http://cvc.cervantes.es/obref/marco e-j085-102_torresan euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-journall  volume  1,  issue  1,  november  2014,  pages  85-102   issn  2376-905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12 www.e-journall.org   copyright  ©  2014.  this  work  is  licensed  under  the  creative  commons  attribution-­‐noncommercial-­‐noderivs  3.0  unported  license. 1  contatto:  esh@unive.it  oppure  piroclastico@tin.it                      from  out  of  the  drill.  margini  di  comunicativizzazione  del  drill   paolo  torresan1   alma  edizioni   received  16  february  2014;  received  in  revised  form  3  april  2014;  accepted  13  april  2014   abstract it i drill rappresentano dei golden oldies: al pari della traduzione e del dettato, sono attività ‘sempreverdi’, soggette a continui rinnovamenti, anche quando pare ne sia giunto il tramonto. con questo saggio intendiamo chiudere, di fatto, una trilogia, avendo già dedicato spazio a come fornire una cornice comunicativa alle altre due classi di attività: dettato e traduzione, appunto (torresan, 2011a; torresan, 2012). anche i drill offrono ampi margini di comunicativizzazione. è possibile impostare drill come esercitazioni che prevedono uno spazio, nel loro stesso svolgersi, per la comunicazione. essi possono, peraltro, costituire la base di percorsi in cui l’attenzione sulle forme si avvicenda con leggerezza, ma al tempo stesso con confini netti, a quella sui significati. parole-chiave: drill, didattica comunicativa, didattica umanistica, lesson plan. en drills are golden oldies: even when their popularity seems to have waned, they still are ‘evergreen’ activities i.e., always open to innovation, like translation tasks and dictation exercises. after having previously examined the role of communicative framing in both translation and dictation activities (torresan, 2011a; torresan, 2012), this article completes a trilogy by investigating the use of drills within a communicative framework. like other activities, drills can also serve as useful communicative tools: they can rely on an interactive communicative space and be based on the relationship between form and content, without being too demanding or lacking focus. key words: drill, communicative teaching, pedagogy of humanities, lesson plan. es los drill representan unos golden oldies: al igual que la traducción y el dictado, son actividades siempre actuales, que se renuevan continuamente, incluso cuando parece que hayan decaído. de hecho, con este ensayo pretendemos cerrar una trilogía, después de haber dedicado espacio a cómo proporcionar un marco comunicativo a las otras dos clases de actividades, es decir, dictado y traducción (torresan, 2011a; torresan, 2012). los drill ofrecen también amplios márgenes de comunicatividad. es posible emplear drill como ejercicios que, durante su desarrollo, preven un espacio para la comunicación. estos pueden, además, constituir la base de programas en que la atención a la forma se acerca –ligeramente y al mismo tiempo con confines netos– a la de los significados. palabras clave: drill, didáctica comunicativa, didáctica humanísta, lesson plan. torresan     e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  87-­‐104  86   1.  fissare  lessico  e  regole:  dallo  strutturalismo  alle  soglie  del  metodo  comunicativo   la   psicologia   comportamentista   che,   alla   metà   del   secolo   scorso,   ha   fornito   una   struttura   epistemologica  alla   linguistica  applicata,   allora  una  neo-­‐scienza,   riduceva   l’apprendimento   linguistico  a  una   serie   di   comportamenti   che   si   fissano   mediante   l’esposizione   ripetuta   a   uno   stimolo.   per   essa   valse   l’equazione  apprendimento  =  comportamento,  ovvero  una  serie  di  sequenze  stimolo-­‐risposta  da  trasformarsi   in  abitudine.     il   metodo   audio-­‐orale   e   quello   strutturale,   che   a   questa   concezione   della   mente   si   ispirano,   riconoscono   nella   ripetizione   la   caratteristica   principale   dell’apprendimento   linguistico.   essi   assumono,   inoltre,   che   la   lingua,   secondo   una   concezione   bloomfieldiana,   sia   facilmente   segmentabile   in   una   serie   di   strutture   discrete.   insegnare   una   lingua,   secondo   tale   concezione,   significa   ripetere   pattern   linguistici   mediante   drill,   vale   a   dire   esercizi   strutturali   (del   tipo   “volgi   la   frase   al…”   oppure   “inserisci   l’articolo   mancante”),   al   fine   di   consolidare   un’abitudine:  memoria   fatta   comportamento.   si   tratta   di   una   ripetizione   sorvegliata,  dal  momento  che  ogni  forma  di  deviazione  può  contribuire  al  consolidarsi  di  un  comportamento   estraneo  alla  logica  della  lingua  di  arrivo.  l’errore  quindi  va  evitato,  prevenuto.     l’etimo  di  drill  ci  riporta  al  passo  militare,  a  rappresentare  la  forma  di  obbedienza  e  di  disciplina  cui   la   mente   dell’allievo   viene   allenata.   nella   logica   del   drill   l’insegnamento   equivale,   in   effetti,   a   un   addestramento.   come   un   colonnello   addestra   le   reclute   o   un   istruttore   addestra   dei   cani,   così   l’insegnante   istruisce  gli  studenti.     in   realtà   siamo   convinti   che   in   epoca   pre-­‐comunicativa   (prima   cioè   dell’approccio   comunicativo),   anche  i  metodi  caratterizzati  da  focus  on  meaning  e  quindi  orientati  alla  conversazione,  come  il  metodo  berlitz   (la  prima  scuola  berlitz  fu  fondata  sul  finire  del  xix  secolo),  facessero  propria  una  ripetizione  che  costringeva   l’allievo   a   un   ruolo   passivo.   la   conversazione,   in   una   scuola   berlitz,   tutt’oggi   gravita   attorno   a   pattern   linguistici  la  cui  ripetizione  è  pilotata  dal  docente:  questi  segue  rigorosamente  un  copione,  mentre  l’allievo  è   tenuto  a  replicare  con  margini  di  libertà  alquanto  ridotti.  si  vedano  dei  modelli  di  conversazione  tratti  da  una   dispensa  usata  per   la   formazione  degli   insegnanti  delle   scuole  berlitz   in  brasile   (treinamento   inicial,  2004,   pp.  5-­‐7).  riportiamo  la  nostra  traduzione  dell’originale  portoghese:     contrasto   il  contrasto  è  usato  principalmente  per  introdurre  contrari.  il  termine  introdotto  è  il  contrario  di  una   parola   che   l’allievo   già   conosce.   per   esempio,   per   introdurre   “piccolo”   una   volta   che   l’alunno   già   conosce  la  parola  “grande”.     insegnante:  il  canada  è  un  paese  grande?   studente:  sì.   insegnante:  cuba  è  un  paese  grande?   studente:  no.       insegnante:  ah!  è  un  paese  piccolo.   il   contrasto   può   essere   utilizzato   per   introdurre   nuovi   termini:   per   esempio,   “mercato”   quando   “banca”  è  già  noto.   insegnante:  il  carrefour  è  una  banca?   studente:  no.       insegnante:  è  un  supermercato.   eliminazione   usando  la  tecnica  dell’eliminazione,   l’insegnante  rivolge  una  serie  di  domande  che  comportano  una   risposta   negativa,   creando   una   situazione   nella   quale   il   nuovo   lessico   può   essere   introdotto   in   maniera  logica  all’interno  di  un  contesto.     per  esempio,  per  introdurre  “coltello”:     insegnante:  tagli  il  pane  con  una  matita?   studente:  no.     insegnante:  benissimo!  tagli  il  pane  con  il  coltello.   sostituzione   la   tecnica   della   sostituzione   è   utilizzata   per   introdurre   sinonimi   di   parole   già   note   e   strutture   equivalenti  ad  altre  già  note,  per  esempio  aggettivi:     insegnante:  il  nilo  è  lungo?     studente:  sì.   insegnante:  benissimo.  oppure  il  nilo  è  esteso.   from  out  of  the  drill       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102   87   oppure   voci   verbali.   [ecco   un   esempio   relativo   alla]   presentazione   della   forma   passiva   quando   il   presente  è  già  noto:   insegnante:  le  persone  parlano  francese  in  canada?   studente:  sì.   insegnante:  le  persone  parlano  francese  in  canada  oppure  il  francese  è  parlato  in  canada.    (treinamento  inicial,  2004,  pp.  5-­‐7,  traduzione  nostra)     la  pratica  ripetuta  di  questi  micro-­‐dialoghi:     è  noiosa:  l’alunno  ripete  come  un  pappagallo  sì  o  no,  al  solo  scopo  di  corrispondere  agli  obiettivi  che   il  docente  si  è  posto;     non  è  stimolante:       § tutte  le  domande  sono  retoriche  (le  risposte  sono  ovvie);     § alcune  domande  sono  assurde  (“tagli  il  pane  con  una  matita?”).       i  contenuti  sono  opinabili  (cuba  non  è  un  paese  grande  se  raffrontato  al  canada,  ma  lo  è  se  messo  a   confronto  con  il  liechtenstein,  con  panama,  con  la  svizzera  o  con  il  libano);     impone  una  comunicazione  di  tipo  verticale:       § solo  il  docente  ha  il  potere  di  aprire  e  chiudere  la  conversazione;     § il   docente   elargisce   complimenti   generici   e   gratuiti   (“il   nilo   è   lungo?   /   sì.   /  benissimo.”);   § il  docente  dimostra  reazioni  inautentiche,  come  espressioni  di  sorpresa  eseguite  a   comando  (“cuba  è  un  paese  grande?  /  no.    /  insegnante:  ah!  è  un  paese  piccolo”).       si  tratta  di  caratteristiche  che  si  ritrovano  anche  nelle  batterie  di  molti  drill.   nella  prospettiva  dei   linguisti  che  si  affidarono  al  comportamentismo  (giggins  &  shoebridge,  1970;   harkness  &  eastwood,  1978;  o’neill  1978;  per  un  prospetto,  si  veda  pedhani,  2012),  s’impone  una  meccanica   dell’apprendere  che  infonde  ottimismo  nell’educatore:  come  il  liquido  si  conserva  completo  nel  passaggio  da   un  vaso  all’altro,  così  l’input  (il  materiale  presentato  dall’insegnante),  che  si  presenta  in  una  serie  di   item,  si   trasforma,  nella  sua  totalità,   in   intake  (in  lingua  appresa  da  parte  dell’apprendente),  a  patto,  appunto,  che  il   processo  venga  consolidato  mediante  il  reimpiego.       una   critica  a  una  visione  dell’apprendere  di  questo   tipo  venne  mossa  nella   recensione  di  chomsky   (1959)   al   volume   verbal   behaviour   di   skinner   (1957).   chomsky   negò   che   l’addestramento   valesse   come   modello  di  apprendimento  nel  caso  del  linguaggio.  se  il  bimbo  genera  ipotesi  mai  udite  prima,  del  tipo  daddy   goed*  out,   com’è  possibile  –   si   è   chiesto  chomsky  –   che   la  mente  apprenda   il   linguaggio   solo   in  virtù  di  un   modello   trasmissivo,  ovvero  mediante   forme  esclusivamente   trasmesse  dall’esterno?  la  capacità  di  generare   ipotesi   fa  supporre  –  ritenne  chomsky  –  che  ci  sia  un  meccanismo  di  acquisizione  del   linguaggio  (language   acquisition   device)   in   virtù   del   quale   un   bimbo   si   trasforma   in   linguista   provetto.   si   tratta   di   un’idea   che   anticipa  –  con  particolare  riferimento  alla  competenza  linguistica  –  la  concezione  modulare  della  mente  di  cui   molti  psicologi  e  neuro-­‐esperti  avrebbero  parlato  a  partire  dagli  anni  ‘80.  ad  ogni  modo,  per  quanto  fondata,   l’obiezione   non   è   bastata   a   contrastare   il   successo   di   cui   lo   strutturalismo,   e   con   esso   la   pratica   della   ripetizione  estesa,  avrebbe  goduto  negli  anni  a  venire.       nuovi  elementi  volti  a  problematizzare   la  visione  meccanica  dell’apprendere  avrebbero,  comunque,   fatto  la  loro  comparsa:     la  rivoluzione  cognitiva,  secondo  la  quale   la  mente,  nell’avvicinarsi  alla  realtà,  non  è   innocente   (tabula   rasa)   ma   legge   il   reale   mediante   schemata,   scripts   formatisi   in   virtù   di   esperienze   precedenti,   e   in   quanto   tale   essa   crea   contesti,   relazioni,   connessioni   ed   è   anzi   essa   stessa   il   frutto   dei   processi   (in   un   linguaggio   piagetiano,   di   accomodamento   e   assimilazione)   che   va   elaborando;   il  concetto  di  lingua  si  sarebbe  modificato  per  via  della  consapevolezza  che  essa  è:   § organismo  soggetto  a  variazioni  (descritte  dalla  sociolinguistica);     § precipitato   di   cultura   (le   riflessioni   interculturali   entrano   a   far   parte   del   curricolo   di   lingua);   torresan       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102  88   § realtà  complessa:   tra   i  vari  aspetti   che   il   linguista  suole  analizzare   (fonologia,   sintassi,   morfologia,   lessico,   testualità)   intercorrono   fitte   relazioni   e   tali   relazioni,   a   loro   volta,   sono  spesso  definite  da  esigenze  di  tipo  pragmatico.  la  lingua  quindi  non  è  solo  segno:  è   azione,  comunicazione.  a  siglare  e  conferire  autorità  alle  indicazioni  che  giungono  dalla   pragmalinguistica   è   il   consiglio   d’europa,   che   negli   anni   ’70   definisce   i   livelli   soglia   (ovvero   livelli   di   padronanza   minima,   che   consentono   a   un   individuo   di   gestire   con   sufficiente   autonomia   la   vita   sociale   in   un   paese   straniero)   proprio   sulla   base   di   una   serie  di  bisogni  pragmatici;       a  discendere  dalla  visione  complessa  della  lingua,  sarebbe  iniziato  un  lungo  dibattito  attorno  alla   questione  dell’autenticità  dell’input;     il  costruttivismo  avrebbe  insistito,  percorrendo  il  solco  tracciato  da  vygotskij,  sulla  dimensione   sociale  dell’educazione:  l’ap-­‐prendere  è,  per  definizione,  un  prendere  qualcosa  da  altri  e  con  altri   (qualcosa   di   mediato,   nel   lessico   di   feuerstein;   si   veda   feuerstein,   feuerstein,   falik   &   rand,   1979).     sulla   scorta   di   un   vasto   dibattito   in   psicologia   che,   discendendo   da   rogers,   avrebbe   posto   un’attenzione   peculiare   alla   qualità   della   relazione   terapeuta-­‐paziente   (nel   lessico   rogersiano:   cliente),   in   glottodidattica   si   sarebbero   avvicendati   i   metodi   umanistici,   i   quali   avrebbero   considerato,  in  tutta  la  sua  complessità,  la  dimensione  emotiva  dell’apprendere  (stevick,  1990).   si  sarebbe  indagata,  altresì,  la  possibilità  di  considerare  la  dimensione  sensoriale  (total  physical   response;   suggestopedia),   di   sollecitare   una   perlustrazione   autonoma   della   lingua   da   parte   dello   studente   (silent   way),   di   indagare   credenze   e   atteggiamenti   di   insegnanti   e   allievi   (suggestopedia;  silent  way),  di  far  leva  sulle  risorse  linguistiche  e  sociali  di  cui  l’alunno  dispone   (community  language  learning)  e  ci   si   sarebbe   iniziati  a  porre   il  problema  di  come  gestire   le   differenze  individuali  nell’atto  di  apprendere  una  lingua.       sulla   soglia   degli   anni   ’80,   si   iniziò   poi   ad   affermare   un   nuovo   modo   di   intendere   l’educazione   linguistica  che  avrebbe  posto  l’accento,  nell’economia  della  gestione  di  una  classe,  più  sull’uso  che  non  sullo   studio   della   lingua,   più   su   attività   comunicative   che   su   attività   pre-­‐comunicative   (le   quali,   in   linea   teorica,   dovrebbero  preparare  a  comunicare).           l’assioma  che  si  diffuse   in  europa  successivamente  alla  pubblicazione  del   libro  the  communicative   approach   to   language   teaching   (1979),   curato   da   christopher   brumfit   e   keith   johnson,   fu   il   seguente:   l’efficacia   comunicativa   ha   priorità   sull’accuratezza.   nella   posizione   di   uno   tra   gli   autori   più   celebri   (e   più   discussi)   del  metodo   comunicativo,   stephen  krashen,   che   per   la   sua   visione   estrema  potremmo  dichiarare   comunicativista,   la   concezione   di   educazione   linguistica   brandita   da   quanti   si   riconoscevano   nel   metodo   strutturale  viene  capovolta.  krashen  non  ha  negato  che  lo  studente  impegnato  a  svolgere  un  drill  apprenda,   ma  si   tratta  –  ha  sottolineato  –  di  un  processo   instabile,   lento,   faticoso,  che  non  produce  possesso  duraturo   della   lingua.   opposta   all’apprendimento   è   l’acquisizione:   nell’atto   di   comprendere   testi   graduati   (“i+1”),   la   mente   assimila   le   regole   in  maniera   stabile,   rapida,   inconscia   (krashen,   1981;   1982;   1985).   in   breve,   non   esiste  per  krashen  un  ponte  che  colleghi  le  esercitazioni  formali  alle  attività  di  comprensione:  svolgere  drill   non  produce  acquisizione.  piuttosto  è  vero  il  contrario:  leggere  o  ascoltare  consente  l’acquisizione  inconscia  e   stabile  delle  forme.     si   tratta  di  una  posizione  soggetta  a  critiche   (per  una  rassegna,   si  veda  santoro,  2011),   tra   le  quali   spiccano   quelle   che   ritengono   che   l’analisi   delle   forme   concorra   comunque   all’acquisizione   (tale   analisi   è   espressa  con  il  termine  noticing,  ovvero  attenzione  consapevole  verso  pattern  linguistici;  si  vedano  schmidt  e   frota,   1986;   schmidt,   1990),   processo   che   del   resto   si   consolida   mediante   ripetizione   (gass,   1997).   in   particolare,   a   tal   riguardo,   va   fatta   menzione   alla   posizione   di   ellis,   a   detta   del   quale   “no   noticing,   no   acquisition”  (1995,  p.  89).  ellis  è  convinto  cioè  che  le  operazioni  di  noticing  producano  conoscenza  esplicita,   la   quale   ha   modo   con   l’esercizio,   appunto,   di   diventare   implicita,   di   essere   proceduralizzata,   di   generare   acquisizione,  ovvero  memoria  stabile.     condivisa   la   posizione   di   ellis,   la   questione   che   si   pone,   soprattutto   da   un   punto   di   vista   metodologico,   è   la   seguente:   possiamo   recuperare   il  drill   all’interno  di   una   cornice   comunicativa?  esistono   margini  di  comunicativizzazione  del  drill?  tra  il   focus  on  form  e   il   focus  on  meaning,  esiste  una  terza  via,  un   “focus  on  meaningful  form”  (liu,  2002,  p.  52)?     from  out  of  the  drill       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102   89   2.  comunicativizzare  i  drill     la  comunicativizzazione  del  drill  richiede  che  si  possa  rispondere  ai  seguenti  quesiti:       come   far   sì   che   i   processi   di   automatizzazione   si   integrino   con   processi   di   sapiente   deautomatizzazione?  (vedi  paragrafo  2.1.)     come  conferire  significatività  e  contesto  ad  item  in  genere  impersonali?  (vedi  paragrafo  2.2.)     come  socializzare  un  drill,  rendendolo  veicolo  di  scambi?  (vedi  paragrafo  2.3.)   come   evitare   che   il   reimpiego   sia   una   parentesi   in   sé   conclusa   ma   si   possa   integrare   armonicamente   con   altre   attività,   diventando   parte   di   un   ampio   percorso   di   apprendimento?   (vedi  paragrafo  2.4.)       di  questi  temi  ci  occupiamo  nei  paragrafi  che  seguono.       2.1.  automatizzazione  e  deautomatizzazione     mentre   la   ripetizione   contro   la   quale  krashen   ha   lanciato   i   suoi   strali   (e   che   affonda   le   sue   radici,   abbiamo  visto,  ben  oltre  lo  strutturalismo)  ha  un  aspetto  passivo  e  meccanico,  in  tempi  recenti  si  assiste  alla   concettualizzazione/operazionalizzazione   di   una   ripetizione   dinamica   e   coinvolgente.   possiamo   pensare,   sostiene   maria   simona   morosin   (2011),   ad   una   “ripetizione   che   si   rinnova   aggiungendo   valore   […]   a   dati   precedentemente   analizzati”   (p.   125).   la   studiosa   fa   corrispondere   a   tale   concetto   un   nuovo   nome,   reiterazione:   la   reiterazione   è   un   atto   di   ripetizione   della   stessa   idea   con   variazioni.   con   il   termine   “idea”   si   intendono  non  solo  il  significato  e  la  forma  della  lingua,  ma  una  concezione  dell’input  linguistico  più   ampia   che   include   i   concetti   e   le   rappresentazioni   distribuite   della  memoria   dell’apprendente2.   per   esempio,  immaginiamo  che  l’insegnante  voglia  introdurre  il  campo  lessicale  dei  colori.  può  spiegare  il   loro   significato   o   la   variazione   del   genere   e   numero   per   attivare   la   memoria   dichiarativa   e   procedurale,  oppure  utilizzare  questi  aggettivi  con  le  loro  collocazioni  (giallo  canarino,  nero  come  la   pece)   e   ampliare   così   il   lessico,   può   ancora   chiedere   agli   allievi   di   rinvenire   oggetti   di   uno   stesso   colore   oppure   utilizzare   acquerelli   o   matite   per   realizzare   dei   disegni,   coinvolgendo   così   la   dimensione  multisensoriale.  (morosin,  2011,  p.  124)     ripetizione  e  novità  non  sono  in  conflitto:  possiamo  ripetere  lo  stesso  contenuto  coinvolgendo  codici   diversi,   quindi   con  nuove   combinazioni   di   linguaggi,   a   beneficio  della   struttura  distribuita  della  memoria   il   ricordo   è   più   stabile,   infatti,   se   le   informazioni   a   cui   siamo   stati   esposti   sono   state   trasmesse   attraverso   diversi  codici  di  rappresentazione  (sabatano,  2004).       la   novità   del   pensiero   di  morosin   sta   nello   spingere   l’insegnante   a   spezzare   l’effetto   ipnotico   che   risiede   nella   ripetizione   automatica   del   drill   facendo   leva   su   elementi   di   sfida   e   di   rinnovamento:   “la   reiterazione  è  un  atto  di  ripetizione  della  stessa  idea  con  variazioni”  (2011,  p.  124).  la  varietà,  oltre  ai  codici,   può  riguardare  il  contesto  sociale  nel  quale  il  drill  può  essere  eseguito.  ne  sia  d’esempio  l’intervista  a  tre  passi   che   segue—è   un   format   dell’apprendimento   cooperativo   (cristoni,   in   stampa)—in   cui   si   reimpiegano   le   prime  persone  dell’imperfetto3.   l’intervistato   parla   di   sé   utilizzando  un   frame   linguistico   che   costituisce   la   base  di  continue  variazioni.       si  divide  la  classe  a  coppie.   lo   studente   a   racconta   come   passava   il   tempo   da   piccolo,   usando   la   formula   “da   bambino   +   prima  persona  singolare  imperfetto”.  lo  studente  b  ascolta.     lo  studente  b  ripete  quanto  detto  da  a:  “da  bambino  +  seconda  persona  singolare  imperfetto”.     scambio:  lo  studente  b  racconta  le  azioni  compiute  da  bambino,  mentre  a  ascolta.   lo  studente  a  ripete  quanto  detto  da  b.   2  morosin  sta  parlando  di  concetti  e  rappresentazioni  come  forme  più  late  del  significare  e  della  grammatica,  che  rimandano  alla  natura   policentrica  dell’intelligenza  e  della   cognizione.  la  mente   in   realtà,   anziché  essere   scorporata   in   tanti   cassetti   (come  alcuni   intendono   secondo  un’interpretazione   ingenua  della   teoria  delle   intelligenze  di  gardner,  1983)  è  una   rete  di   rappresentazioni  neurologicamente   distribuite,  come  avviene  nella  frammentazione  dei  byte  nel  disco  fisso  di  un  computer.  e  così  è  la  memoria,  e  così  sono  le  emozioni.     3  l’attività  ci  è  stata  suggerita  da  chaz  pugliese.     torresan       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102  90   si  formano  gruppi  di  quattro;  a  presenta  b  ai  compagni,  usando  la  formula  “da  bambino  +  terza   persona  singolare  imperfetto”.  idem  fa  lo  studente  b.     in  alternativa  pensiamo  ad  una  presentazione  a  catena  (da  un’idea  presente  in  almond,  2005)  in  cui   uno   studente   si   presenta   agli   altri   dicendo   il   proprio   nome   e   assegnandosi   un   aggettivo   (al   limite,   onde   rendere  l’attività  linguisticamente  più  stimolante,  l’aggettivo  deve  avere  la  stessa  iniziale  del  nome  proprio);   chi  segue  ripete  quando  detto  dal  compagno,  e  aggiunge  la  propria  presentazione.     studente  1:  “sono  massimo  e  sono  magnifico”.     studentessa  2:  “lui  è  massimo  ed  è  magnifico;  io  sono  paola  e  sono  povera”.   studentessa  3:  “lui  è  massimo  ed  è  magnifico;   lei  è  paola  ed  è  povera;   io  sono  stefania  e  sono   silenziosa”.     se   volessimo   adottare   una   strategia   che   rompa   ulteriormente   la   meccanicità   della   presentazione   citata,  potremmo  aggiungere  un  mimo  ad  ogni  singola  presentazione  (paola  ripete  alla  terza  persona  quanto   detto   da   massimo   e   rifà   lo   stesso   gesto,   quindi   passa   a   descrivere   sé   mediante   un   nuovo   enunciato,   simbolizzato  da  un  gesto  che  sia  appropriato,  e  via  ripetendo/recitando).     è   anche   possibile   orientare   pragmaticamente   un’attività   di   ripetizione,   vale   a   dire   assegnare   uno   scopo  all’esercitazione,  al   fine  di   facilitarne   la   ritenzione.  si  pensi,  per  esempio,  a  un’attività  di   lining   in  cui   viene  chiesto  agli  allievi  di  disporsi  in  linea  sulla  base  dell’ora  in  cui  si  sono  svegliati  la  mattina,  o  sulla  base   del  giorno  e  del  mese  in  cui  sono  nati,  ecc.     un  ulteriore  esempio  di  attività  formale  orientata  a  uno  scopo  pratico  è  costituita  dal  sondaggio.  agli   studenti   può   essere   fornito   un   questionario   le   cui   domande   sono   finalizzate   a   sollecitare   l’uso,   da   parte   dell’intervistato,   di   una   certa   forma.  nei   riquadri   che   seguono   si   osservano   gruppi   di   domande  destinate   a   studenti  adulti  di  italiano  ls  di  livello  b1;  le  forme  da  reimpiegare  sono  le  terze  persone  dei  pronomi  diretti   personali,  il  pronome  partitivo  ne  e  il  locativo  ci.  l’insegnante  ritaglia  e  distribuisce  le  tessere,  una  per  ciascun   allievo.   lo   studente   deve   rivolgere   ad   altri   le   domande   presenti   nella   propria   tessera,   controllare   che   il   compagno   risponda   correttamente   (per   il   controllo   viene   aiutato   dal   prompt/dalle   chiavi   segnati   tra   parentesi)  e  annotare  le  risposte.  le  risposte,  alla  fine,  costituiscono  il  materiale  attraverso  il  quale  redigere   una  statistica  relativa  all’intera  classe.       da piccolo/a dove passavi le vacanze? (le passavo…) quale personaggio pubblico rappresenta di più il tuo paese? (lo rappresenta di più…) rifai il letto la mattina, appena sveglio/a, o la sera, prima di andare a dormire? (lo rifaccio…/non lo rifaccio mai) qualche volta vai al cinema? (sì ci vado/ no, non ci vado mai) guardi delle serie televisive? (sì, le guardo/ no, non le guardo) quante volte fai la spesa al mese? (la faccio x volte) guidi la macchina? (sì, la guido/ no, non la guido) a casa tua chi lava i piatti? (li lava x/li lavo io) come trovi l’italiano: facile o difficile? (lo trovo facile/difficile) come mangi gli spaghetti: ben cotti o al dente? (li mangio ben cotti/al dente) bevi il caffè? (sì, lo bevo/ no, non lo bevo) quanti italiani conosci? (ne conosco uno, due, pochi, molti, ecc./ non ne conosco nessuno) mangi spesso la pizza? (sì, la mangio spesso/ la mangio qualche volta/ no, non la mangio spesso) usi facebook? (sì, lo uso/ no, non lo uso) usi la bicicletta? (sì, la uso/ no, non la uso) parli cinese4? (sì, lo parlo/ no, non lo parlo) prendi l’autobus per venire al corso di italiano? (sì, lo prendo/ no, non lo prendo) vai spesso in centro? (sì, ci vado spesso/ ci vado qualche volta/ non ci vado mai) figura 1. tessere di un sondaggio. in  sintesi,  invochiamo  la  possibilità  di  assegnare  al  drill  una  veste  stimolante  grazie  all’introduzione   di   elementi   di   novità,   siano   questi   legati   alla   socializzazione   (vedi   paragrafo   2.3.),   al   ricorso   ad   altri   codici   (pugliese,  2007)  o  all’orientamento  pragmatico  conferito  all’attività.     4  o  una  qualsiasi  altra  lingua  straniera,  rispetto  alla  lingua  parlata  dallo  studente.     from  out  of  the  drill       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102   91   l’insegnante   può   adottare   una   scheda   che   gli/le   consenta   di   archiviare   le   attività   definendo   per   ciascuna  di  esse  caratteristiche  e  obiettivi.  si  veda  il  seguente  esempio,  riferito  all’attività  del  sondaggio  sopra   descritta:       tabella 1 scheda volta alla catalogazione di attività di reiterazione. domande guida esempio quale competenza devo attivare? morfologia quale aspetto in particolare devono ripetere gli studenti? uso dei pronomi diretti, del partitivo ne e del locativo ci in enunciati al presente indicativo qual è l’elemento che può variare? le informazioni personali cui si riferiscono le domande l’esercitazione è scritta o orale? orale l’attività è pragmaticamente orientata? se sì, qual è lo scopo pratico? redigere una statistica coinvolgo altre competenze? quali? sì, sociali l’esercizio si combina con attività motorie? sì   2.2.  personalizzare  le  esercitazioni   le  neuroscienze  insegnano  che  ciò  che  è  carico  di  emozione  e/o  di  significatività,  quindi  di  valore  agli   occhi  dell’allievo,  viene  ricordato  più  a   lungo:   le  vie  neuronali  dell’emozione  si  sovrappongono  a  quelle  che   regolano  i  processi  mnestici  (jensen,  2005).     un  drill  personalizzato  verte  su  contenuti  personali  e,  in  quanto  tale,  sollecita  un  coinvolgimento  da   parte   dell’apprendente.   per   fare   un   esempio,   l’intervista   a   tre   passi   descritta   nel   paragrafo   precedente   è   costruita  in  maniera  tale  che  lo  studente  è  spinto  a  condividere  qualcosa  di  sé  con  l’altro;  nell’atto,  poi,  della   ripetizione  da  parte  dell’altro  viene  promosso  un  senso  di  riconoscimento  a  beneficio  di  chi  ascolta.     un   altro   esempio,  meno   controllato   e   più   aperto   alla   produzione   libera,   è   un’attività   che   abbiamo   presentato   in   naddeo,   torresan   e   trama   (2013,   p.   87)   volta   al   reimpiego   del   condizionale   presente   e   riproposta  qui  sotto:       figura 2. traccia di una produzione orale. da “nuovo canta che ti passa,” di c. m. naddeo, p. torresan e g. trama, 2013, firenze, italia: alma edizioni. copyright (2013) di alma edizioni. riadattato con permesso. è  necessario  che  l’insegnante  abbia  buon  senso  nell’allestire  attività  personalizzate.  se  abbiamo  degli   eccessi,   rispetto   ai   parametri   della   cultura   di   appartenenza   dell’allievo   o   al   senso   di   riservatezza   da   parte   dello  stesso,  l’attività,  anziché  stimolare  il  confronto,  rischia  di  essere  improduttiva  (torresan,  2011b).     torresan       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102  92   2.3.  socializzare  le  esercitazioni   l’intervista  a   tre  passi  descritta   in  precedenza  ha  un  aspetto   interattivo.  possiamo  sostenere  che   lo   stesso   avvenga   in   ogni   attività   personalizzata,   a   meno   che   essa   non   si   riduca   a   una   serie   di   frasi   che   lo   studente  scrive/formula  per  proprio  conto.     tra   le   varie   strategie   che   stimolano   l’interazione   si   distingue   il  vuoto   di   informazione.   per  vuoto   di   informazione   è   da   intendersi   un’asimmetria   comunicativa   tale   per   cui   le   persone   coinvolte   sono   tenute   a   colmare  il  gap  dei  dati  in  possesso.  una  persona,  in  sostanza,  sa  qualcosa  che  l’altro  non  sa;  compito  dell’altro   è  far  sì  che  l’informazione  venga  condivisa  (rixon,  1979;  walz,  2008).     l’esercizio  di   info  gap   che  segue,  presente   in  un  manuale  di   italiano  per  studenti  adulti   (naddeo  &   guastalla,  2011,  pp.  13  e  137),  punta  al  reimpiego  dei  numeri  (figure  3  e  4):     figura 3. attività di reimpiego lessicale. istruzioni per lo studente a. da “domani (vol. 1)” di c. m. naddeo e c. guastalla, 2011, firenze, italia: alma edizioni. copyright (2011) di alma edizioni. riprodotto con permesso. figura 4. attività di reimpiego lessicale. istruzioni per lo studente b. da “domani (vol. 1)” di c. m. naddeo e c. guastalla, 2011, firenze, italia: alma edizioni. copyright (2011) di alma edizioni. riprodotto con permesso. passando  dalla  coppia  al  gruppo,  possiamo  pensare  ad  attività  di  reimpiego  che  si  ispirino  ai  principi   dell’apprendimento  cooperativo,  vale  a  dire:     from  out  of  the  drill       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102   93   l’interdipendenza  tra  i  membri;     l’assegnazione  di  un  ruolo  e  quindi  di  una  responsabilità  individuale;   la  condivisione  di  materiali.     si  pensi,  per  esempio,  alla  seguente  attività  di  reimpiego  lessicale  pensata  per  bambini  e  ispirata  alla   proposta  proviamo   a   collaborare   presente   in   comoglio   e   cardoso   (1996,   p.   128).   l’insegnante   provvede   a   riportare  dei  termini,  facenti  parte  di  campi  semantici  noti  agli  allievi,  su  fogli  a4,  in  colonna,  distanziati  uno   dall’altro.  per  ogni  gruppo  di  vocaboli  ne  evidenzia  uno  che  vale  come  capolista.   per   esempio,   considerando   di   far   lavorare   studenti   principianti   in   gruppi   di   quattro,   si   possono   confezionare  le  schede  qui  sotto:       mare gallo sorella astuccio fiume cane fratello zaino montagna gatto cugino gomma cascata mucca zia penna spiaggia topo nonna matita pianura serpente madre temperino figura 5. scrittura di liste finalizzata a un’attività di insiemistica. l’insegnante   ritaglia   le   singole   parole   e   le   inserisce   a   caso   in   buste   distinte;   in   ogni   busta   (4   nel   nostro  caso)  è  necessario  ci  sia  una  sola  parola  capolista.     si  distribuiscono  le  buste,  una  per  studente:                  a b c d mare gallo sorella astuccio fratello fiume spiaggia cascata temperino montagna cane gatto pianura matita gomma zia cugino penna zaino topo serpente nonna mucca madre figura 6. schede dell’attività cooperativa di insiemistica. ognuno   apre   la   busta,   trattiene   la   parola   capolista   ed   eventuali   altre   parole   facenti   parte   dello   stesso   campo   semantico   e   distribuisce   le   parole   altre   ai   compagni,   a   seconda   delle   parole   capolista   di   cui   essi   dispongono.  si  badi:  non  si  può  richiedere  una  tessera;  si  può  solo  offrirla.       parimenti  ispirato  ai  principi  dell’apprendimento  cooperativo  è  il  seguente  format  che  condividiamo   con  il  lettore:       torresan       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102  94   obiettivo strutturare cooperativamente lo svolgimento di un drill durata dipendente dal tipo di drill partecipanti almeno tre materiali un esercizio strutturale (creato ad hoc o presente in un libro di testo) svolgimento 1. prima della lezione, l’insegnante sceglie un drill su cui la classe deve esercitarsi e lo divide idealmente in tre parti (es. item 1-10; item 11-20; item 21-30). 2. l’insegnante forma gruppi di tre. chiede agli studenti di ciascun gruppo di numerarsi (1, 2, 3). 3. l’insegnante distribuisce, per ogni gruppo, lo stesso esercizio strutturale (un solo foglio per gruppo, in modo che vi sia una condivisione dei materiali). 4. per la prima parte dell’esercizio l’insegnante decide chi è lo scrivente (es. a), chi ha l’onere di risolvere l’esercizio (es. b) e chi controlla (es. c), item per item o alla fine, le soluzioni (suggerite dal secondo – nel nostro caso, b – al primo, lo scrivente – nel nostro caso, a). lo scrivente (nel nostro esempio, a) siede nel mezzo. 5. nella seconda parte dell’esercizio si dà un cambio di ruoli: nel nostro caso, a diventa il suggeritore, c lo scrivente e b il controllore. 6. nella terza parte, si dà un ennesimo cambio: b diventa lo scrivente, c suggerisce, a controlla. 7. alla fine si procede a una correzione in plenum. figura 7. il drill cooperativo. l’esercizio   impone  un’equa  distribuzione  dei   ruoli,   consentendo  un   coinvolgimento  attivo  di   tutti   i   membri,   e  quindi  una  valorizzazione  di   tutte   le   ipotesi.  riteniamo  che  un  esercizio  di  questo   tipo  comporti   un’equalizzazione  delle  zone  di  sviluppo  prossimale,  determinata  dal  contribuito  dei   tre,   tale  per  cui  alcune   lacune  vengono  colmate  dalla  condivisione  dei  saperi.     2.4.  far  produrre  le  esercitazioni     il   drill   diventa   massimamente   ‘attivo’   quando   a   crearlo   sono   gli   studenti   stessi.   in   altre   parole,   quando  agli  studenti  è  demandato  il  compito  di  provvedere  alla  lingua  soggetta  a  ripetizione  abbiamo  ampie   probabilità  che  l’attività  guadagni  in  significatività  (deller,  1990;  marsland,  1998).     gli  studenti  possono,  per  esempio,  essere  invitati  a  gruppi  a  stendere  gli  item  di  un’intervista  volta  a   reimpiegare  un  particolare   tempo  verbale   (es:   il   condizionale);   ciascuno  di   loro   intervista   poi   compagni   di   altri  gruppi  attraverso  le  domande  formulate  in  seno  al  gruppo  di  origine5.     l’attività  può  essere  combinata  con  elementi  che  vengono  dal  tpr:  ogni  gruppetto  scrive  una  serie  di   frasi  volte  a   reimpiegare  un  particolare   tempo  verbale   (per  esempio,  un  gruppo   formula   frasi  all’indicativo   presente,  un  secondo  all’imperfetto,  un  terzo  al  passato  prossimo).  un  rappresentante  del  gruppo  legge  poi  le   proprie   frasi  ai  membri  di  un  altro  gruppo,   ciascuno  dei  quali,   allineato  assieme  agli   altri   lungo  una  parete   dell’aula,  fa  un  passo  avanti  se  la  frase  risulta  vera  per  lui/lei  o  sta  fermo  se  non  corrisponde  a  verità.     un  drill  può  essere  autoprodotto  anche  in  una  classe  di  bambini,  come  nel  caso  dell’attività  che  segue,   pensata  per   il   livello  principiante:   il  domino   lessicale.  ogni  studente  dispone  di  due  fogli  a4  da  piegare  e  da   dividere,  ciascuno,  in  due.  alla  fine  si  trova  quindi  ad  avere  4  foglietti.  su  due  foglietti  scrive  un  sostantivo  a   piacere,  sugli  altri  due  realizza  i  rispettivi  disegni.     5  gli  si  può  fornire,  eventualmente,  uno  schema  semipieno,  con  alcuni  esempi  già  riportati.     from  out  of  the  drill       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102   95   ciliegia   mano   figura 8. schede del domino autoprodotto.   l’insegnante   controlla   che   nessuno   ripeta   sostantivi   scelti   da   altri.   ognuno   consegna   i   quattro   foglietti  all’insegnante.  questi  li  ridistribuisce  in  modo  che  ogni  allievo  disponga  di  due  nomi  e  di  due  disegni   diversi  da  quelli  che  aveva  scritto/disegnato  e  non  abbinabili  tra  loro.  si  procede  con  il  domino:  un  bambino,   riferendosi   a   uno   dei   sostantivi   che   ha   in   mano   (per   esempio:   ciliegia),   chiede:   “chi   ha   la   ciliegia?”;   il   compagno  che  possiede   il  disegno  della  ciliegia,  risponde:  “io  ho   la  ciliegia”  (oppure  “io  ce   l’ho”  oppure  “ce   l’ho  io”).  quest’ultimo  formula  poi  una  nuova  domanda  in  riferimento  al  sostantivo  di  cui  dispone:  “chi  ha  la   rana?”;  e  così  via.     in  quest’attività  l’interdipendenza  è  a  due  livelli:  nella  preparazione  (nel  pre-­‐reimpiego)  e  nell’attività   di  domino  in  se  stessa  (il  reimpiego).  nell’atto  di  ripetere  si  usano  sostantivi  e  disegni  di  tutti:  il  contributo  di   uno  è  di  vitale  importanza  quanto  il  contributo  dell’altro  per  lo  svolgimento  dell’attività.       2.5.  integrare  le  esercitazioni  in  percorsi     altrove  abbiamo  rivendicato  percorsi  didattici  flessibili  e  autonomi,  intesi  a  stimolare  la  curiosità  e  il   senso  di  sorpresa  negli  allievi  (torresan  &  della  valle,  2014).    all’interno  di  questa  prospettiva,  nell’economia   della  programmazione  di  una  lezione  di  lingua,  il  drill  può  essere  gestito  con  disinvoltura:  collocato  prima  di   un’attività  di  comprensione,  per  esempio,  o  usato  come  base  per  un’attività  di  produzione.     in  merito   al   primo   caso,   si   pensi   alla   possibilità   di   far   svolgere   agli   allievi   una   list   poem   (cioè   una   poesia   fatta   di   liste   di   frasi   che   condividono   uno   stesso   stem;   si   vedano   fagin,   1991;   torresan,   2011c)   orientata   al   reimpiego/condivisione  del   lessico   e   all’attivazione  di   conoscenze  utili   ad   accostare   l’allievo   al   brano  da  leggere/ascoltare.     oppure,  nel  secondo  caso,  possiamo  utilizzare  il  drill  come  trampolino  di  lancio  di  produzioni  libere   scritte/orali.   in  questo  caso  il  drill,  da  esercitazione  comunemente  intesa  come  punto  di  arrivo  (è   la  terza  p   della   sequenza   ppp   in   età   precomunicativa,   ed   è   la   s   della   sequenza   gas   che   contraddistingue   l’unità   didattica),   viene   concepito   come   punto   di   partenza.   ciò   imprime   una   comunicativizzazione   del   drill:   si   riutilizza   indirettamente   quanto   era   già   stato   oggetto   di   reimpiego   nel   contesto   di   un’attività   comunicativamente  orientata.  si  pensi  a  un  esempio  rapido:  dividere  gli  studenti  in  gruppetti  ed  assegnargli   un’attività  di  insiemistica  come  raggruppare  i  participi  irregolari  a  seconda  delle  desinenze;  quindi  chiedere   agli   studenti   di   formulare   domande   rivolte   a  membri   di   altri   gruppi   reimpiegando   gli   stessi   item   lessicali   soggetti  ad  un  primo  reimpiego,  nel  nostro  caso  i  participi  irregolari.     dall’esempio  si  evince  come  sia   facile  che  un’attività  di  re-­‐reimpiego,  comunicativamente  orientata,   sussuma  le  caratteristiche  di  personalizzazione  e  socializzazione  di  cui  abbiamo  parlato  in  precedenza.     nelle  attività  che  presentiamo  di   seguito,   condotte   in  classi  di   studenti  di   livello  b1  presso   il  santa   monica  college   (ca),   la  comunicativizzazione  del  drill  non  avviene  per  un’incursione  su  spazi  esterni  al  drill   (es:  contenuti  personali),  bensì  ricade  sul  materiale  linguistico  del  drill  stesso,  occasione  –in  questo  caso–  per   esercitare   il   pensiero   critico   e   il   pensiero   creativo   degli   allievi.   le   tre   attività   sono   state   soggette   a   una   sperimentazione  pilota  che  ruotava  attorno  ai  commenti  degli  allievi  sollecitati  dall’esercizio.  ne  è  emersa  una   divergenza  delle  opinioni  che  reputiamo  assai  proficua,  dal  momento  che  favorisce  e  sostiene  il  confronto.     la  prima  attività  di  re-­‐reimpiego  si  basa  su  un  esercizio  di  matching  presente  in  nocchi  (2011,  p.  87).   l’attività   rientra   nella   logica   dello   structured-­‐input.   nello   structured-­‐input   l’allievo   è   esposto   a   un   input   torresan       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102  96   controllato  in  cui  una  certa  struttura  è  frequente  (nel  nostro  caso,  i  pronomi  diretti).  il  compito  che  gli  spetta  è   quello  di  realizzare  un’azione  mediante  la  quale  manifesta  di  aver  compreso  (matching,  vale  a  dire  incastro  di   frasi),   senza  dover  produrre   lingua.  l’apprendimento  della  regola  si   suppone  avvenga  per  via   implicita  e   in   maniera  incidentale—portando  a  compimento  un’azione  di  altro  genere,  non  centrata  sulla  regola  in  sé  (ellis,   1998,  p.  44).     figura 9. esercizio. da “nuova grammatica pratica della lingua italiana” di s. nocchi, 2011, firenze, italia: alma edizioni. copyright (2011) di alma edizioni. riprodotto con permesso.   una   volta   collegate   le   frasi,   gli   studenti   sono   stati   chiamati   a   giudicarne   il   contenuto   secondo   i   parametri  presentati   in  una  tabella  da  noi  confezionata  (tabella  2).  successivamente  è  stato  chiesto   loro  di   confrontarsi,  in  un  piccolo  gruppo,  sulle  proprie  decisioni.  i  risultati,  come  si  vede  nella  tabella  2,  dimostrano   una  considerevole  divergenza  di  opinioni.       tabella 2 giudizi degli studenti in merito alle frasi dell’esercizio di matching. frasi assurdo verosimile totale studenti banale indifferente interessante la mia fidanzata mi ama e mi vuole sposare 0 5 5 5 15 la multa la prendiamo se guidiamo troppo veloci 2 2 4 7 15 il motorino lo usiamo per muoverci meglio in città 1 3 7 4 15 i vigili ci controllano quando guidiamo 1 3 9 2 15 i sandali li portiamo d’estate perché fa caldo 1 4 4 6 15 le tende le chiudiamo quando vogliamo un po’ di buio 2 2 7 4 15 la mamma mi tratta ancora come un bambino 2 2 4 7 15 il governo ci riempie di tasse 4 5 4 2 15 totale giudizi 13 26 44 37   risultati  simili  sono  stati  riscontrati  in  occasione  di  una  seconda  attività.     agli   studenti   è   stato   fornito   un   brano   attinto   da   nocchi   (2011,   p.   88).   si   tratta   di   un   dialogo   non   autentico,  i  cui  contenuti  sono  inverosimili,   ideato  al  solo  scopo  di  far  ragionare  gli  allievi  sull’esplicitazione   dei  riferimenti  dei  pronomi  diretti.     from  out  of  the  drill       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102   97   figura 10. esplicitazione dei riferimenti dei pronomi. da “nuova grammatica pratica della lingua italiana” di s. nocchi, 2011, firenze, italia: alma edizioni. copyright (2011) di alma edizioni. riprodotto con permesso. terminato  l’esercizio,  gli  studenti  sono  stati  invitati  a  formare  delle  coppie  e,  tramite  la  guida  di  una   serie  di  domande,  è  stato  chiesto  loro  di  giungere  a  un  giudizio  comune.     scorrendo  la  tabulazione  dei  dati  riportati  sotto  (tabella  3)  si  nota,  anche  in  questo  caso,  una  discreta   distribuzione  delle  risposte;  una  coppia,  addirittura,   ‘scoppia’  (è   la  coppia  e,  qui  sotto  rappresentata  spesso   attraverso   i   singoli   membri:   e1,   e2)   nel   senso   che   è   quasi   costantemente   divisa   in   merito   al   giudizio   da   esprimere.     in   sostanza,   anche   in   un   contesto   dove   il   consensus   gap   all’interno   della   coppia   avrebbe   dovuto   portare   a   un’omogeneità   dei   commenti,   assistiamo   a   una   divergenza   che   si   rivela   vitale   per   l’output   successivo.  il  fatto  che  le  coppie  ‘vedano’  le  medesime  frasi  in  maniera  diversa  induce  le  stesse  a  trovare  una   giustificazione  per  la  decisione  assunta  durante  il  confronto  con  le  altre  coppie.                 torresan       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102  98   tabella 3 giudizi degli studenti in merito alla qualità del testo usato come base per l’esercizio di esplicitazione (le coppie sono rappresentate dalle lettere a, b, c, d; la coppia e è rappresentata spesso dai singoli membri). giudizi sulla qualità del testo studenti 1 (poco) 2 3 4 5 (molto) quanto è realistica questa storia? a, d, e2 c b e1 quanto è divertente questa storia? b, e a, d c quanto è linguisticamente interessante questa storia? a, e2 c, d b, e1 quanto è ‘culturalmente corretta’ questa storia? e2 c b a d, e1 quanto è profonda questa storia? e a, d b c quanto è utile per la grammatica questa storia? b a, e2 e1 c, d   nell’attività  che  presentiamo  di  seguito   il  drill  è  costituito,   invece,  da  una  serie  di   frasi  nelle  quali   il   verbo  all’infinito,   riportato   tra  parentesi,  deve  essere  volto  al   condizionale  presente   secondo   il  numero  e   il   genere  adatti  (manella,  2009)6.  in  un  momento  successivo  agli  studenti  viene  consegnata  una  griglia  mediante   la  quale  devono  abbinare,  a  proprio  piacere,   le   frasi  a   ipotetici  personaggi.   in  questo  caso,  anziché  puntare   alla   formulazione   di   un   giudizio,   la   comunicativizzazione   del   drill   poggia   su   associazioni   personali   volte   a   conferire  un  contesto  alle  singole  frasi.  qui  sotto  abbiamo  provveduto  a  riportare  la  lista  di  frasi  (i  verbi  sono   già  coniugati):     a. stefano, mi faresti un piacere, andresti a fare la spesa per me? b. io al tuo posto cercherei di risolvere il problema in un altro modo. c. vorrei un caffè e un bicchiere di acqua naturale, per favore. d. mi piacerebbe fare una vacanza lunga e rilassante: dormirei e prenderei il sole tutti i giorni. e. amore, stireresti le camicie? poi puliresti il bagno e la cucina? prepareresti il pranzo? f. avreste 500 euro da prestarmi? g. con il lavoro che mi hanno offerto guadagnerei molto di più, ma non avrei tempo libero. h. guideresti tu per favore? io stasera ho bevuto troppo alcol e sarei un pericolo per tutti. i. per favore, luciano, mi restituiresti i soldi che ti ho prestato? j. l’isola d’elba mi è piaciuta moltissimo e ci tornerei con piacere anche quest’anno per le vacanze. k. sarebbe bello vivere in un mondo pacifico senza guerre! l. sarei felice di potervi aiutare, ma non so se sarà possibile. m. amo mio marito e farei di tutto per renderlo felice. n. signor giorgi, mi potrebbe aiutare a salire le scale? o. secondo alcuni scienziati le riserve energetiche del nostro pianeta finirebbero tra pochi anni. p. saremmo felici di ospitarvi nella nostra nuova casa. q. luca saresti così gentile da accompagnarmi in centro con la macchina? r. laura rivedrebbe con piacere i suoi vecchi amici tedeschi. s. dareste una parte del vostro stipendio per aiutare i poveri della terra? t. e, visto che sei così gentile, risponderesti al telefono che squilla da almeno cinque minuti? u. sono molto stanca, dormirei tutto il pomeriggio. v. proporrei di cambiare sistema. w. dovreste studiare un po’ di più e uscire un po’ di meno la sera. x. se non vi dispiace, resterei a dormire qui da voi. sarebbe possibile? y. stasera sono stanca: rimarrei volentieri a casa e vedrei un film. z. pagherei con piacere la cena a tutti ma purtroppo sono senza soldi. figura 11. esercizio adattato da mannella (2009). a   seguire   riportiamo   l’esito   degli   abbinamenti   operati   dagli   studenti   (tabella   4;   le   lettere   si   riferiscono,  in  questo  caso,  agli  enunciati  dell’esercizio  sopra  riportato).  anche  qui,  la  notevole  divergenza  di   opinioni  (eccezion  fatta  per  l’ultimo  personaggio),  si  è  rivelata  un  formidabile  incentivo  al  confronto  quando,   sul  finale,  abbiamo  chiesto  agli  studenti  di  formare  due  gruppi  e  scambiarsi  i  pareri.     6  l’esercizio  si  trova  anche  in  rete:  <http://www.progettolingua.it/res/pdf/comeperche1.pdf>.   from  out  of  the  drill       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102   99   tabella 4 associazioni tra drill completati e personaggi immaginari operate dagli studenti. associazioni tra drill e personaggi studenti 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. una frase di una persona anziana a c n r u a y 2. una frase di un mafioso b i i f b b f 3. l’inizio di una pubblicità c j k s m e w 4. una frase tratta dal discorso di un politico d k o o v d k 5. una frase che fa scatenare una lite in una coppia e l e t l e e 6. una frase tra amiche f f p p w p z 7. una frase seduttiva g m q q m x m 8. la frase di un ubriaco h h h h h f h   i  percorsi   riportati  mettono   in  evidenza   la  potenzialità   che  anche   il  drill   apparentemente  più  arido   riserva   in   quanto   a   stimolo   dell’output.   l’abilità   dell’insegnante   si  misura,   in   questo   caso,   nella   capacità   di   costruire  raccordi  leggeri,  che  consentano  di  ri-­‐recuperare  lessico  e  strutture  in  maniera  elegante  e  fluida.  in   questo  contesto,  la  ripetizione  non  è  il  fine  ma  il  mezzo  mediante  il  quale  ciascuno  esprime  la  propria  visione   delle  cose.     vogliamo,   a   onor   di   cronaca,   fare   un   accenno   anche   all’eventualità   di   ricavare   catene   di   attività   di   reimpiego  non  già  comunicativamente  orientate  ma  formalmente  orientate.  nella  didattica  dell’italiano  non  si   tratta  di  un  tema  nuovo;  nei  quattro  volumi  del  manuale  volare  (catizone,  2002;  catizone  &  humphris,  1999;   catizone,  humphris  &  micarelli,  1997;  1998)  si  contano  infatti  parecchi  esempi  (cloze,  in  generale)  di  attività   formali   ricavate   a   partire  dallo   stesso   input   e   somministrabili   agli   allievi   a   distanza  di   alcune   lezioni.   il   re-­‐ reimpiego,  in  questo  caso,  si  può  configurare,  appunto,  come  una  formalizzazione  del  drill  e  può  avvicendarsi  a   un’attività  di  comunicativizzazione  del  drill.  così,  all’attività  di  comunicatizzazione  del  drill  basato  sul  matching   di   frasi   costruite   attorno   ai   pronomi   personali   (tabella   2,   figura   12)   può   seguire   un’attività   di   completamento/ricostruzione   come  quella   che   segue,   volta   a   far   ragionare   l’allievo   su  morfologia,   sintassi   e   lessico.  gli  studenti  devono,  appunto,  ricostruire  le  frasi  su  cui  avevano  lavorato  in  precedenza  e  re-­‐inserire,   nei  riquadri,  i  pronomi  diretti  appropriati.       1. le forbici us _ _ _ o per t _ _ _ _ _ _ e le c _ _ _ e. 2. la mia fi _ _ _ _ _ _ a a _ a e vuole sp _ _ _ _ e. 3. la mu _ ta prend _ _ _ o se guidiamo tr _ _ _ _ vel _ _ i. 4. il motor _ _ o us _ _ _ o per m _ _ _ _ rci meglio in città. 5. i vigili contr _ _ _ _ _ o quando guid _ _ _ o. 6. i sa _ _ _ _ i port _ _ mo d’e _ _ _ _ e pe _ _ _ fa c_ _ _ o. 7. le ten _ e chiu _ _ _ _ o qu _ _ _ o v _ _ _ iamo un po’ di b _ io. 8. la m _ _ _ a tr _ _ ta an _ _ _ a c _ _ e un b _ _ _ _ _ o. 9. il gov _ _ _ o riempie di t _ _ _ e. figura 12. attività di completamento/ricostruzione.   torresan       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102  100   la  questione  rientra  nella  prospettiva,  già  delineata  altrove  (torresan  &  della  valle,  2014),  secondo   cui  è  possibile/auspicabile  una  gestione   flessibile  e  disinvolta  delle   fasi  di  una   lezione.   il  paradigma,  da  noi   sostenuto,  è  quello  della  trama:  più  fili  che  si  intrecciano,  secondo  il  gusto  del  lesson  planner,  dando  origine  a   cicli  ricorsivi  e  dotati  di  profonda  armonia.           riferimenti  bibliografici       almond,  mark  (2005).  teaching  english  with  drama.  londra,  regno  unito:  keyways.   brumfit,  christopher,  &  johnson,  keith  (a  cura  di)  (1979).  the  communicative  approach  to  language  teaching.   oxford,  regno  unito:  oxford  university  press.   catizone,  piero,  humphris,  christopher  &  micarelli,  luigi   (1997).  volare.  corso  di   italiano.  volume  1.  roma:   dilit.     catizone,  piero,  humphris,  christopher,  &  micarelli,  luigi  (1998).  volare.  corso  di   italiano.  volume  2.  roma:   dilit.     catizone,  piero  &  humphris,  christopher  (1999).  volare.  corso  di  italiano.  volume  3.  roma:  dilit.     catizone,  piero  (2002).  volare.  corso  di  italiano.  volume  4.  roma:  dilit.     chomsky,  noam  (1959).  a  review  of  b.  f.  skinner’s  verbal  behavior.  language,  35(1),  26-­‐58.     comoglio,  mario,  &  cardoso,  miguel  angel  (1996).  insegnare  e  apprendere  in 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 the  ‘information  gap’  and  the  ‘opinion  gap’—ensuring  that  communication  games  are   communicative.  elt  journal,  33(2),  104-­‐106.     sabatano,  claudia  (2004).  come  si  forma  la  memoria.  roma,  italia:  carocci.   santoro,   elisabetta   (2011).   despues   de   krashen:   reflexiones   sobre   el   modelo   del   input   comprensible.   in   manuela  derosas,  paolo  torresan   (a   cura  di).  didáctica  de   las   lenguasculturas.  nuevas  perspectivas.   (pp.  93-­‐108)  buenos  aires,  argentina:  sb  international,  93-­‐108.     schmidt,  richard   (1990).  the   role   of   consciousness   in   second   language   learning.  applied   linguistics,   11(2),   129-­‐158.   schmidt,  richard,  &  frota,  sylvia  (1986).  developing  basic  conversational  ability  in  a  second  language:  a  case   study   of   an   adult   learner   of   portuguese.   in   richard   day   (a   cura   di).   talking   to   learn.   rowley,   massachusetts:  newbury  house.     skinner,  burrhus  frederic  (1957).  verbal  behaviour.  cambridge,  massachusetts:  prentice  hall.   stevick,  earl  w.  (1990).  humanism  in  language  teaching:  a  critical  perspective.  oxford:  oup.   torresan,  paolo  (2011a).  il  dettato:  forme  e  usi.  revista  de  lenguas  modernas,  14,  357-­‐379.   torresan,  paolo  (2011b).   “come  barchette  di  carta  su  un  mare  di  emozioni”:  personalizzare   l’insegnamento   dell’italiano.  cuadernos  de  italianistica  cubana,  7,  28-­‐42.     torresan,  paolo  (2011c).  pensiero  divergente  nella  didattica  dell’italiano.  revista  de   italíanistica,  21-­‐22,  93-­‐ 122.   torresan,  paolo  (2012).  uso  strategico  della  l1:  riflessioni  ed  esperienze.  quaderni  di  italianistica,  33(2),  219-­‐ 244.   torresan,  paolo,  &  della  valle,  francesco  (2014).  il  noticing  comparativo:  la  grammatica  a  partire  dall’output.   monaco  di  baviera,  germania:  lincom.   treinamento  inicial  berlitz  –  português.  (2004).  san  paolo,  brasile:  departamento  de  instrução  e  metodo.     walz,   joel   (2008).   the   classroom   dynamics   of   information   gap   activities.   foreign   language   annals,   29(3),   481-­‐494.   torresan       e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  85-­‐102  102   paolo torresan. alma edizioni, roma. esh@unive.it oppure piroclastico@tin.it it paolo torresan ha svolto attività di ricerca presso l’università ca’ foscari di venezia, le università complutense e autonoma di madrid, la lancaster university. è stato fulbright visiting scholar presso il santa monica college (california) e visiting professor presso l’università dello stato di rio de janeiro. è autore e formatore per alma edizioni. cura la redazione delle riviste officina.it e bollettino itals. ha scritto: intelligenze e didattica delle lingue (emi, bologna 2008); didáctica de las lenguasculturas. nuevas perspectivas* (con manuela derosas, a cura di; sb international, buenos aires, 2011); il noticing comparativo (con francesco della valle; lincom, münchen, 2013). en paolo torresan worked as a researcher at the ca’ foscari university of venice, the complutense university and the autonoma university of madrid, and the university of lancaster. he was fulbright visiting scholar at santa monica college (california) and visiting professor at the federal university of rio de janeiro. he now works as an author and trainer for alma publishing. he is editor-in-chief for officina.it and bolletino itals. he wrote intelligenze e didattica delle lingue (emi, bologna, 2008); didáctica de las lenguasculturas. nuevas perspectivas* (torresan & derosas, eds.; sb international, buenos aires, 2011); and il noticing comparativo (torresan & f. della valle; lincom, munich, 2013). es paolo torresan realizó actividades de investigación en la università ca’ foscari de venecia, las universidades complutense y autónoma de madrid y la lancaster university. fue fulbright visiting scholar en el santa monica college (california) y visiting professor en la universidad del estado de río de janeiro. es autor y formador para alma edizioni. trabaja en la redacción de las revistas officina.it y bollettino itals. ha escrito: intelligenze e didattica delle lingue (emi, bologna 2008); didáctica de las lenguasculturas. nuevas perspectivas* (con manuela derosas, eds.; sb international, buenos aires, 2011); il noticing comparativo (con francesco della valle; lincom, münchen, 2013).   e-j000iv-000vi_elilau (finale) euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   ej journall,  volume  1,  issue  1,  november  2014,  pages  iv-vi   issn  2376-905x   doi    http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.1 www.e-journall.org   copyright  ©  2014.  this  work  is  licensed  under  the  creative  commons  attribution-­‐noncommercial-­‐noderivs  3.0  unported  license. 1. crossing  boundaries  and  bridging  disciplines:  e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of applied  linguistics  and  languages   in  this  first  editorial  we  would  like  to  introduce  the  reader  to  e-­‐journall,  its  mission  and  objectives,   and  then  present  the  content  of  the  articles  of  the  first  issue  and  how  they  fit  within  the  scope  of  the  journal.   the   name   of   the   journal   includes   three   aspects   that   were   crucial   in   the   design   of   this   ambitious   academic  publication.  the   first  element   in   the  name  of   the   journal,  euroamerican,   represents  a  geopolitical   concern.   the   complexity   of   language   teaching,   learning,   and   research   is   particularly   apparent   in   america,   where  the  most  frequently  spoken  l1  and  l2  varies  across  the  three  macro-­‐areas  (north,  central,  and  south   america),  and  a  major  role  is  played  by  heritage  languages,  such  as  spanish  in  the  united  states.  on  the  other   hand,  as  a  continent,  europe  has  a  linguistic  diversity  that  is  unmatched  in  many  other  geographical  regions   of  its  size.  the  use  of  the  term  euroamerican  blends  together  the  names  of  two  continents  and  with  them  the   often  different  traditions  that  have  developed  in  language  teaching  and  learning.  europe,  america,  and  their   linguistic   and   cultural   variety   are   represented   together   in   the   name   of   this   journal,  which   aims   at   being   a   place  where   the   research   on,   and   in,   english,   spanish,   and   italian   can   be   shared,   discussed,   and   compared   across  continents.   the   second   element   in   the   name   of   the   journal   refers   to   the   field   of   applied   linguistics   as   the   journal’s  academic  field.  applied  linguistics  is  used  here  in  a  broad  sense  that  has  at  its  core  the  teaching  and   learning  of   languages,  but  yet  also  embraces  other  applications  of   linguistics  that  are  not  primary  teaching-­‐ oriented,  but  have  the  potential  to  contribute  to  the  teaching  or  learning  of  a  language,  such  as  computational   linguistics.   the   last   element   in   the   name   of   the   journal,   languages,   refers   to   the   trilingual   nature   of   this   publication   where   research   written   in,   and   about,   english,   italian,   and   spanish   is   hosted.   by   doing   so,   e-­‐ journall  offers  to  its  readers  high  quality  academic  articles  on  how  these  three  languages  work,  are  taught,   and  learned.     2. our  mission the   creation   of   e-­‐journall   was   motivated   by   the   need   for   a   new   type   of   academic   publication   capable  of  meeting  the  exigencies  and  demands  of  a  multicultural,  multilingual,  and  teaching-­‐oriented  field.   the   characteristics   of   our  new   research  venue   are   its   independent,  web-­‐based,   peer-­‐reviewed,   free-­‐access,   interdisciplinary,  and  multilingual  nature.   e-­‐journall   is   an   independent   publication   that   is   not   owned   or   operated   by   a   publisher   or   other   institution.    this  allows  it  to  be  entirely  free  of  charge.  authors  are  not  required  to  pay  any  publication  fees,   and   readers   are   free   to   download   or   read   the   articles   online   without   any   charge   or   having   to   fill   in   a   subscription  form.  in  response  to  a  fast-­‐paced  research  and  teaching  landscape,  which  requires  researchers   and  teachers  to  keep  up-­‐to-­‐date  with  the  latest  developments  in  the  field  of  applied  linguistics,  the  journal  is   also   entirely   web-­‐based.   all   the   articles   published   in   e-­‐journall   are   immediately   accessible   online.   we   believe  that  this  is  an  essential  feature  of  a  publication  venue  that  aims  at  being  truly  international  and  whose   main   purpose   is   disseminating   and   sharing   knowledge   globally.  moreover,   in   order   to   promote   a   creator-­‐ friendly  environment,  e-­‐journall  operates  under  the  creative  commons  by-­‐nc-­‐nd  3.0  license,  which  grants   1   the   college   of   humanities,   social   sciences   &   arts   and   the   department   of   literature   and   languages   at   texas   a&m   university-­‐ commerce   financially   contributed   to   this   inaugural   issue.   both   the   authors   contributed   equally   to   this  work.  we   thank  dr.   salvatore   attardo  and  dr.  lucy  pickering  for  their  mentorship  and  support  toward  this  endeavor.   2  contact:  editor@e-­‐journall.org   in  this  issue1   laura  di  ferrante,  elisa  gironzetti2   texas  a&m  university-­‐commerce   in  this  issue   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  pp.  iv-­‐vi   v   authors   the   right   to   republish   their   work,   provided   that   its   original   publication   in   e-­‐journall   is   acknowledged.   the   journal   is   represented   by   an   international   editorial   board,   editorial   staff,   and   board   of   anonymous   reviewers   comprising   renowned   researchers   and   active   practitioners   in   the   field   of   applied   linguistics  and  language  teaching  and  learning  from  all  over  the  world.  its  main  disciplinary  areas  are  applied   sociolinguistics,  applied  pragmatics,  discourse  and  interaction  in  the  language  classroom,   language  teaching   methods  and  practices,  applied  phonology  and  phonetics,  and  humor  in  the  language  classroom.     in   line  with   the   highest   quality   publication   venues   in   our   field,  e-­‐journall   is   a   double-­‐blind  peer-­‐ reviewed   publication   in   order   to   guarantee   the   quality   standards   of   an   academic   publication.   every   paper   submitted   to  e-­‐journall   is   first   checked  by   the   editors,   and   then   reviewed  by   a  minimum  of   two   referees   among   the  members  of   the  editorial  board  or   the  board  of  anonymous  reviewers   that  collaborate  with   the   journal.  the  identity  of  the  authors  and  the  reviewers  is  not  disclosed  to  any  of  the  parties  involved  so  as  to   guarantee  an  impartial  and  unbiased  review  of  the  submitted  manuscript.  every  paper  is  also  proofread  twice   by  our  team  in  order  to  ensure  the  quality  of  the  paper  and  a  pleasing  experience  to  the  reader.    we  accept  a  range  of  original  papers  including  full-­‐length  articles  with  substantive  research  findings   or  applications  of  new  methods  and  techniques  for  scientific  linguistic  analysis  and/or  classroom  instruction;   teaching-­‐oriented  papers  about  successful  practices  in  any  of  the  three  languages  represented  by  the  journal   and  informed  by  linguistic  research;  and  technology  and  book  reviews.  with  this  variety,  we  offer  our  readers   a  wide   perspective   on   applied   linguistics   and   language   teaching,   fostering   linguistically   informed   teaching   approaches  and  bridging  the  gap  between  theory  and  practice,  research  and  its  application  in  the  classroom.     finally,  e-­‐journall   is   a  multilingual  publication,   in   line  with   its   international  nature.  e-­‐journall   is   multilingual  because  all   the  disciplinary  areas   concern  both   research  and  practice   in   teaching  and   learning   english,  italian,  and  spanish  as  second  languages  (sl),  foreign  languages  (fl),  and  heritage  languages  (hl),   thus   broadening   the   scope   of   the   journal   beyond   just   one   possible   teaching/learning   context.   e-­‐journall   accepts   submissions   in   any   of   these   languages,   and   our   team   of   professional   translators   translates   the   abstract  and  the  authors’  biographical  notes  for  each  paper  accepted  for  publication  in  the  second  and  third   language.  this,  too,  is  done  with  the  goal  of  increasing  the  dissemination  of  knowledge  and  the  professional   interaction  among  researchers  and  practitioners  across  these  three  languages.     3. presentation  of  the  articles in   this   first   issue,   we   present   original   research   addressing   both   theory   and   practice   in   teaching   contexts.   the   articles  move   on   a   virtual   continuum  where   theory   and   practice,   research   and   teaching,   are   present   at   the   same   time   but   in   different   proportions   from   paper   to   paper.   their   order   of   presentation   proceeds  from  a  more  theoretical  perspective  to  a  more  teaching-­‐oriented  one  in  the  final  papers.       in   the   first   article,   paolo   balboni   posits   language   instruction   as   an   environment   and   a   cohesive   system.   in   such   a   system,   all   the   elements   should   be   eco-­‐friendly:   approach,   method,   and   practice   are   considered   from  an  ethical  point  of  view  and   the  ethical   solutions   to  every   issue  must  allow   the  system   to   hold   together,   and   be   compatible  with,   the   other   processes   involved.   balboni   presents   a   reflection   on   the   approaches,   methods,   and   practices   in   the   interdisciplinary   field   that   in   italy   is   known   as   “educazione   linguistica,”  which  we  have  translated  as  “language  instruction.”  balboni  asserts  the  necessity  for  readers  to   reflect  on  ethical  issues  connected  to  language  teaching  and  learning  in  an  ethically  sustainable  way.  in  order   to   do   so,   he   asks   open   questions   aimed   at   asking   the   reader   to   consider   the   elements   involved   in   the   instruction   process:   how   are   students’   and   teachers’   roles   perceived   by   instructors?  what   specific   choices   should  be  made  regarding  the  curriculum,  the  textbook,  and  the  syllabus?  how  can  these  choices  be  informed   by  the  teaching  context  and  the  teacher-­‐student  relationship?  in  other  words,  balboni  underlines  the  need  to   adopt  an  ethical  perspective,  sustainable   in   terms  of   logic  and  structure,  and  capable  of   taking   into  account   cohesively   all   the   elements   involved,   such   as   student,   teacher,   language,   teaching   practice,   method,   and   assessment.   cohesiveness  is,  in  many  ways,  also  the  perspective  of  the  second  article  by  susana  pastor  cesteros,   in  which  sl/fl  teaching  and  learning  are  not  conceived  of  as  necessarily  confined  to  a  traditional   language   course.   the   author   focuses   on   content   and   language   integrated   learning   (clil),   which   promotes   the   simultaneous   learning  of   the  course  discipline  and  of   the   foreign   language   in  which   they  are   taught.  pastor   cesteros  draws   a   picture   of   how  well   spanish  universities’   curricula   are  designed   to   facilitate   the   learning   experience  of   foreign  students  and  reflects  on  the  lived  experience  of  teachers  and  foreign  students  in  clil   courses.  the  article  offers  examples  that  may  be  relevant  for  universities  and  scholars  interested  in  creating   di  ferrante  &  gironzetti   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  pp.  iv-­‐vi  vi   programs,  curricula,  and  practices  to  satisfactorily  equip  foreign  students  with  the  content  and  the  language   they   need.   pastor   cesteros   applies   the   theory   of   sl/fl   studies   and   clil   to   describe   and   reflect   on   the   challenges,   successes,   and   possible   future   improvements   of   five   academic   spanish   courses   offered   at   the   universidad  de  alicante  and  developed  based  on  the  work  of  the  research  group  acqua.   the  idea  of  language  instruction  integrated  with  other  disciplines  and  teaching/learning  tools  is  also   central  in  the  article  by  nancy  bell  and  anne  pomerantz.  the  authors  demonstrate  how  humor  and  language   play  can  be  integrated  into  pedagogical  activities  to  develop  sl/fl  learners’  communicative  competence  and   interpretive  practice  and  repertoires.  bell   and  pomerantz   frame   their   research  within   the   field  of   language   ecology,  conceiving  of   language  as  a  dynamic  system  that  cannot  be  detached  from  the  historical,   temporal,   and   social   context   in  which   it   is   nested.   they   focus   on   how   humor   and   language   play   can   be   used   in   the   language   classroom   to   enable   students   to   learn   and   handle   the   dynamic   variety   of   language.   the   scholars   provide  examples  of  how  l2  students  can  be  guided  to  produce  and  recognize  humor,  and,  most  importantly,   to  develop  full  pragmatic  competence  in  the  target  language  and  culture.     in   the   fourth   article   of   this   issue,   eric   friginal,   marsha   walker,   and   janet   beth   randall   bridge   research  and  teaching  practice.  they  assess  the  application  of  internet-­‐based  mega-­‐corpora  for  the  analysis  of   academic  word  lists.  the  three  authors  offer  a  thorough  introduction  to  corpus  analysis  and  an  overview  on   the  history,  developments,  current  methods,  and  tools  in  corpus  linguistics.  the  scholars  present  a  case  study   on  the  analysis  of   the  academic  word  list  (awl)  through  google  ngram  viewer  and  coha,  demonstrating   that  the  usage  of  some  words  has  visibly  decreased  in  the   last   few  years.  they  underline  the  importance  of   these  findings  and  suggest  they  should  inform  the  design  of  courses  in  academic  writing,  english  for  specific   purposes,  and  english  for  academic  purposes.     the   fifth   article   in   this   issue,  written  by  elina  banzina,   lynne  hewitt,   and  laura  dilley,   presents   a   study   targeting   a   specific   audience   of   language   teaching   professionals—international   teaching   assistants   (itas)—and  focusing  on  the  acquisition  of  rhythm  patterns   in   the  sl/fl.  many  classes   in   the  united  states   and  around   the  world   are   taught  by   itas,  who  are  non-­‐native   speakers  of   the   language  of   instruction.   for   itas,  having  a  competence  in  the  rhythm  and  intonation  of  the  target  language  may  be  relevant  for  their  job,   since   it   may   affect   communication.   the   authors   of   this   paper   propose   the   integration   of   the   synchronous   speech  technique  in  the  conventional  instruction  of  itas  to  help  them  acquire  english  rhythm  patterns,  and   demonstrate  the  effectiveness  of  this  approach  with  a  small-­‐case  study.   the   sixth   article,   by   paolo   torresan,   is   specifically   teaching-­‐oriented.   torresan   offers   a   fresh   perspective  on   the  use  of  drills   in   the  sl/fl  classroom.  referring   to   the   literature  on   the   topic,   the  author   challenges  sl/fl   instructors   to  experiment  with  new  ways  of  using   conventional   tools   and  offers   concrete   examples  of  drill  activities  intended  to  trigger  creative  uses  of  the  language.  torresan  demonstrates  that  drills   can  be  used  as  communicative  tools  and  socialization  means  within  the  second/foreign  language  classroom.     in   the   seventh   article,  math   is   presented   as   a   powerful   tool   to   enhance   the   teaching   and   learning   experience  of  both  students  and  instructors.  martina  brazzolotto  presents  the  results  of  an  experiment  where   italian   verb   tenses   were   taught   through   numbers.   the   study,   carried   out   in   two   elementary   school   classrooms,   one   serving   as   control   group,   encourages   the   integration   of  math   as   a   technique   to   teach   and   learn  a  foreign  language.     the   inaugural   issue’s   last  paper   is  a   review  of  a   tool  designed   for   learning  spanish,   the  web  portal   practica   español.   the   author   mirjana   filđokić   systematically   describes   and   analyzes   the   aesthetics   and   contents  of  this  portal  and  offers,  on  the  one  hand,  precious  insights  for  teachers  and  learners  of  spanish  as  a   foreign  language,  and,  on  the  other,  an  interesting  model  to  analyze  online  resources  for  language  learning.   euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 91-109 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.142 www.e-journall.org © bieri 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. translanguaging practices in clil and non-clil biology lessons in switzerland aline s. bieri*1 university of basel received 17 june 2018; received in revised form 18 october 2018; accepted 19 november 2018 abstract en studies on translanguaging in content and language integrated learning (clil) programmes have predominately focused on the use of the first language (l1) as a potential resource in clil lessons. this article argues that translanguaging practices that involve more than students’ l1 are valuable, even necessary, pedagogies in both clil and non-clil biology lessons. the qualitative analysis of transcripts from 31 clil (english) and non-clil (german) biology lessons in switzerland reveals that translanguaging involving the source languages of the technical vocabulary represents a particularly useful tool for negotiating meaning. only one of the two instructors who participated in this study engaged in this kind of translanguaging when discussing the semantic content of technical vocabulary. interestingly, this instructor had more extreme attitudes concerning classroom linguistic behaviour, upholding the need for monolingual (i.e., english-only) practices in his classroom. this observation indicates that teachers’ stances towards translanguaging do not necessarily coincide with their practices. key words: translanguaging practices, translanguaging with source languages, biology, content and language integrated learning (clil), switzerland es muchos de los estudios sobre translingüismo en programas del aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras (aicle) se han enfocado en el uso de la lengua materna (l1) como posible recurso para el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de segundas lenguas a través de contenidos. este artículo argumenta que las prácticas de translingüismo que involucran otros recursos más allá de la l1 del alumno constituyen unas estrategia pedagógicas valiosas (quizá necesarias) y eficaces en clases de biología con o sin un modelo aicle. el análisis cualitativo de un corpus de 31 lecciones de biología de aicle (inglés) y no aicle (alemán) en suiza revela que el translingüismo en el ámbito del vocabulario técnico en la l1 representa una herramienta particularmente útil para la negociación del significado. solo uno de los otros docentes que ha participado en este estudio ha empleado translingüismo al hablar del contenido semántico del vocabulario técnico. curiosamente, este docente tenía actitudes extremas relacionadas con el comportamiento lingüístico en el aula, ya que sostenía la necesidad de prácticas monolingües (esto es, el uso exclusivo del inglés) en su clase. esta observación indica que las posturas de los docentes hacia el translingüismo no coinciden necesariamente con sus costumbres. palabras clave: prácticas transliguales, translenguar con las l1, biología, aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lengua (aicle), suiza it gli studi sul translanguaging nei programmi clil (apprendimento integrato di contenuti e lingue straniere) si sono concentrati principalmente sull’uso della lingua materna (l1) come potenziale risorsa nei corsi con metodologia clil. in questo articolo si sostiene che le pratiche translanguaging che integrano altre risorse oltre alla l1 degli studenti sono altrettanto valide e persino necessarie nei corsi di biologia con o senza metodologia clil. l’analisi qualitativa di un corpus di 31 corsi di biologia clil (in inglese) e non clil (in tedesco) in svizzera, rivela che il translanguaging che includa l’uso della lingua di partenza del lessico tecnico nella l1 degli studenti rappresenta uno strumento particolarmente utile alla negoziazione del significato. solo uno dei due insegnanti che hanno partecipato allo studio si è servito del translanguaging per discutere del contenuto semantico del lessico tecnico. è interessante notare come lo stesso insegnante abbia atteggiamenti più estremi riguardo al comportamento linguistico, sostenendo la necessità di implementare pratiche monolinguistiche (ossia, solo l’inglese). nelle sue classi. questa osservazione indica che le posizioni degli insegnanti nei confronti del translanguaging non coincidono necessariamente con le loro pratiche. parole chiave: pratiche translanguaging, translanguaging con l1, biologia, apprendimento integrato di contenuti e lingue straniere (clil), svizzera * contact: aline.bieri@unibas.ch http://www.e-journall.org/ translanguaging practices in biology lessons © bieri 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. 1. introduction traditionally, language education has been dealt with and believed to be best achieved by promoting strict monolingual instruction and keeping languages separated. in other words, the target language (tl) is best learnt without any interference from other languages (hall & cook, 2012). early studies reported in creese and blackledge (2010) show that “moving between languages” (p. 105) was traditionally strongly discouraged in the classroom and seen as a last resort. according to lasagabaster and garcía (2014), this separation of languages is based on two popular ideas: firstly, the fear that the learning of a second language (l2) could come at the cost of proficiency in the first language (l1), and secondly, that more exposure automatically leads to higher proficiency (p. 558). even within second language acquisition (sla) and applied linguistics research, language acquisition and learning have typically been treated as processes that are ideally “uncontaminated by knowledge and use of one’s other languages” (may, 2014a, p. 2). only recently has the field of applied linguistics and educational research begun to shift from a monolingual perspective toward a more inclusive and flexible perspective on multilingualism. this has been coined the multilingual turn, in that it assumes “multilingualism, rather than monolingualism, as the new norm of applied linguistic and sociolinguistic analysis” (may, 2014a, p. 1). even though awareness of the monolingual bias in research is rising and thus shifting, as evidenced in recent publications problematizing this issue (see e.g. conteh & meier, 2014; may, 2014b), in practice this shift is far from complete as the prevalent ideology in classrooms is still often monolingually oriented (cummins, 2005, 2007, 2008). this holds true even for educational approaches such as content and language integrated learning (clil), a european educational model that was originally introduced in 1994 with the aim of promoting multilingualism and multiculturalism through the integration of content and language (coyle, hood, & marsh, 2010; marsh, maljers, & hartiala, 2001). in clil programmes, content subjects such as history or biology are taught in a second or foreign language with the aim of improving both content knowledge as well as language proficiency. since its introduction, clil, in many different forms, has become a firm component of the bilingual education landscape in europe1. however, many clil classrooms, like l2 classrooms, are, from a pedagogical perspective, still frequently monolingually-oriented spaces (gierlinger, 2015; lasagabaster 2013). despite this monolingual orientation, moore and nikula (2016; nikula & moore, 2016) recently showed that translanguaging—the use of languages other than the tl—is actually a feature of many clil classrooms. they further found that translanguaging fulfils a variety of different purposes in the clil classroom, enriching it on multiple levels. yet, moore and nikula, like other scholars, mainly examine alternating language use in clil classes (see section 2.2), focusing not on multilingual practices, but on practices primarily concerned with the use of the l1 as a potential resource in clil lessons. this article investigates the translanguaging practices in clil (english) and non-clil (german) biology lessons in switzerland to show how a broader understanding of translanguaging can shed light on new and potentially valuable and effective pedagogies in clil and non-clil biology lessons. switzerland is an ideal context to investigate translanguaging beyond the simple use of l1 and tl —especially in technical subjects such as biology—due to the many languages present there: the individual linguistic repertoires of students and teachers (swiss german or other l1s), the medium of instruction (standard german or english), and the languages present in the technical vocabulary of the subject-specific language of biology (greek, latin and other languages). further, it is worthwhile to examine how these diverse translanguaging practices reflect teachers’ attitudes to the tl use in their classes, as well as how their attitudes and practices coincide or deviate from each other. 2. translanguaging 2.1. definition there are generally two ways to approach the term translanguaging. the classical approach starts with its etymology. the term is an english translation of the welsh word trawsieithu, which describes a specific pedagogical practice in which, as part of a revitalization programme of welsh, teachers would teach in welsh and students would answer in english (williams, 1994). williams and later baker (2011) reported on the cognitive advantages of this pedagogical practice involving varying language input and output. 1 although clil used to be a predominately european phenomenon, it has established itself as part of bilingual educational programmes all over the world (see e.g. lo & macaro, 2012; mcdougald & anderson, 2015; tedick & cammarata, 2012). bieri e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 92 while for williams and baker, translanguaging remained primarily a pedagogical approach, garcía (2009) expanded the term to denote typical bilingual behaviour (see also lewis, jones, & baker, 2012b, p. 647). according to garcía (2012): translanguaging posits that bilinguals have one linguistic repertoire from which they select features strategically to communicate effectively. that is, translanguaging takes as its starting point the language practices of bilingual people as the norm, and not the language of monolinguals, as described by traditional usage books and grammars. (p. 1, emphasis in original) similar to the multilingual turn, translanguaging in garcía’s sense shifts away from a monolingual perspective, taking practices of bilinguals as the normal mode of communication. further, garcía states that bilinguals have not two separate repertoires that they can switch between, but one single linguistic repertoire from which they choose depending on context. this is in line with canagarajah’s (2011) elaboration of translanguaging as “treating the diverse languages that form their [the students’] repertoire as an integrated system” (p. 401). another way to look at translanguaging, as li (2018) proposes, is to start with languaging, the view that language per se is not a finished product, but an ever-ongoing process to express thought and cognitive and meaning-making processes. adding the prefix transto languaging emphasizes, according to li (2018), the fluid nature of multilinguals’ practices in two aspects: first, these practices do not work “unilingually in a politically named language”, and second, they include all kinds of “cognitive, semiotic, and modal resources” (p. 18). while the first aspect resonates with garcía’s proposition of one single linguistic repertoire for multilingual individuals, li elaborates further by claiming that translanguaging is not restricted to the use of linguistic repertoires, but can include various paraand non-linguistic resources. translanguaging, then, is not simply a synonym for other related terms such as code-switching, codemixing or translation (garcía & li wei, 2014; lasagabaster & garcía, 2014; lewis, jones, & baker, 2012a; li wei, 2018; moore & nikula, 2016; nikula & moore, 2016). although code-switching, code-mixing and/or translation can be part of translanguaging, translanguaging goes beyond by saying that there are not only two separate codes that one switches back and forth, but that there is a multitude of integrated and interacting resources that compose each individual’s repertoire where the individual can choose from in order to communicate effectively. from this perspective, translanguaging is neither a synonym for nor mutually exclusive with the idea of code-switching or code-mixing. instead it adds and expands this notion to all kinds of linguistic and non-linguistic resources2. it is thus not only timely but necessary to investigate the value of such a broader notion of translanguaging with regard to clil. 2.2. translanguaging and clil although translanguaging occurs in everyday communication as well as in school contexts (canagarajah, 2011, p. 401), it is the educational context where it has attracted the most attention, as reflected in the publication of recently edited volumes on that topic (e.g., cenoz & gurter, 2015; garcía & li wei, 2014; mazak & caroll, 2017; paulsrud, rosén, straszer, & wedin, 2017). translanguaging has also become a very prominent and popular theme in current clil research. some studies on translanguaging in clil focus on teachers’ attitudes to and self-reported use of the l1 in the clil classroom. these studies have found that clil teachers seem generally open towards using the l1, however, since they have not been trained on how to use translanguaging as a pedagogic strategy, they feel insecure as to what extent they should use or allow the l1 (see gené-gil, juan garau, & salazar noguera, 2012; gierlinger, 2015; lasagabaster, 2013; méndez garcía, & pavón vázquez, 2012). other studies on translanguaging in clil that focus on classroom data have revealed that translanguaging is not only a feature of many clil classrooms, but also that translanguaging practices do indeed serve various purposes such as facilitating content, managing the classroom, creating language awareness, or signalling alignment, to name just a few (see e.g. gallagher & colohan, 2017; gierlinger, 2015; moore & nikula, 2016; nikula & moore, 2016; paulsrud 2014, 2016; toth 2018). thus, translanguaging practices can enrich the clil classroom on multiple levels. nevertheless, in their investigation of translanguaging practices in the clil context, the above-mentioned studies all follow the paradigm of bilingualism by focussing on practices primarily concerned with the use of the l1 as a potential resource in clil lessons. however, following the exploration of translanguaging outlined 2 see holmström and schönström (2018) and murray (2018) on translanguaging involving sign language. translanguaging practices in biology lessons e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 93 in section 2.1., it follows that one should take an approach to translanguaging in clil that goes beyond the simple use of l1 and tl, but incorporates all facets of the multilingual repertoires of students and teachers. this is exactly what the present study sets out to do. 3. the present study the present study is an exploratory, qualitative investigation of teachers’ and students’ translanguaging practices. this study examines the multilingual resources used in whole-class interactions as well as teacher monologues in 31 teacher lectures in clil (english) and non-clil (german) biology lessons. it analyses classroom transcripts as well as transcripts of semi-structured interviews with participating teachers about their views on translanguaging in the classroom. 3.1. the context in switzerland, the context of the present study, language education can vary considerably among different regions due to its decentralised education system and its complex plurilinguistic situation3. there are no national clil programmes in public schools during compulsory education (grades 1-9), and those schools that employ clil are mostly grass-roots movements based on individual initiatives (e.g. schulprojekt 21, see büeler, stebler, stöckli, & stotz, 2010). the only nationwide implemented form of clil is called zweisprachige matur (bilingual baccalaureate), which can be found at gymnasien, upper-secondary or grammar schools, and is offered in around 70% of 177 schools (skbf, 2014, p. 150). the most common form of the zweisprachige matur is found in the german-speaking part of switzerland with standard german as the mainstream language (ml) and english as the target language (tl) (elmiger, 2008, pp. 15, 26; skbf, 2014, p. 150). the data collected for the purpose of this study are taken from an upper-secondary school that offers the zweisprachige matur in this most common form, with ml standard german and tl english. 3.2. classroom data and analysis data were collected by the author over a consecutive period of four weeks in 2015 at an uppersecondary school in the canton of basel-land. the data consist of 31 video-taped biology lessons (45 min) taught by two teachers, who teach their subject biology in both german (non-clil) and english (clil). baselland is a canton in the northwest of switzerland that shares borders with france and germany and thus belongs to the german-speaking part of switzerland. consequently, the l1 of both teachers and most students is swiss german. students in this study were in grades 10 and 11 and ages 15 to 17 years old. a distribution of the lessons according to the teachers can be seen in table 1. table 1. distribution of video-taped biology lessons according to teachers. teacher 1 (t1) teacher 2 (t2) grade + programme class hours class hours 10 clil 1e 5 1b 5 10 non-clil 1a 6 1f 6 11 clil 2e 3 2b 2 11 non-clil 2d 2 2h 2 total 16h 15h note: 1h indicates one lesson of 45min classroom data include whole-class interactions and teacher monologues. whole-class interactions are defined as “consist[ing] of the teacher conducting a dialogue with the class as a collective conversational partner” (dalton-puffer, 2007, p. 31), whereas teacher monologue is identified as any “[l]onger stretches of coherent teacher talk is the classic lecture-type format for presenting curricular information” (p. 32) that are not part of whole-class interaction and often start with a discourse marker like okay, alright, or now (lemke, 1990, p. 64). 3 there are four official languages (standard german, french, italian and romansh), a spoken variety (swiss german) that differs considerably from the official standard german, and one fifth of the population that has a different l1 than any of the above-mentioned languages (bfs, 2017, p. 32; eda, 2017). bieri e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 94 for the analysis of the classroom data, i draw on moore and nikula’s (2016) broad categories of salient and unmarked translanguaging4. moore and nikula define salient translanguaging situations as those where “participants orient to language in order to facilitate content learning” and unmarked translanguaging as situations where “participants orient primarily to the flow of interaction” (p. 219). that is, in salient translanguaging, the focus is on the language as it serves to clarify technical terminology or subject-specific concepts. moore and nikula found, for instance, that salient translanguaging in the l1 was used by a teacher for the purpose of clarifying key lexis, negotiating its meanings and having explicit reflections on language (e.g. t: “what does x mean in the l1?”). they also found that it can be student-initiated (e.g. s: “what does x mean in the l1?”), or can even be prompted by the teacher asking for students’ expertise and at times, may even foster linguistic creativity (moore & nikula, 2016, p. 219-226). unmarked translanguaging, on the other hand, occurs unnoticed and is used to keep the interaction going without any obvious signs in the interaction that participants are consciously translanguaging. in moore and nikula’s work, unmarked translanguaging was mainly present in the teachers’ regulative register, as a result of teachers managing the classroom, clarifying and checking instructions of tasks and most importantly, signalling alignment with students by switching to the l1 or the tl (pp. 226-231). in the first step of analysis, i identified instances of translanguaging in all clil and non-clil biology lessons by marking them as salient or unmarked translanguaging. since i argued that in this particular swiss context, a more inclusive notion of translanguaging is necessary, i then considered instances of translanguaging that go beyond the use of the l1 and tl in both clil and non-clil biology lessons. since moore and nikula investigated translanguaging practices in a variety of subjects (biology, physics, geography, history, technology and music) in three different contexts (finland, spain and austria), i assumed that similar instances of salient and unmarked translanguaging are present in the clil data at hand. due to the special sociolinguistic context of the study, where swiss german is spoken in addition to standard german in the non-clil lesson, i expected salient and unmarked translanguaging practices to occur in these lessons as well, however, likely to a lesser extent than in the clil classroom. last but not least, due to the technical nature of the subject content, i expected that translanguaging practices also occur involving subject-specific terminology. 3.3. teacher interviews to complement the classroom data, i conducted two semi-structured interviews with both teachers. both teachers are swiss and, thus, non-native speakers of english. both are content and not language teachers, and lateral entrants in the teaching profession, i.e. they worked in a different field before they decided to become teachers. t1 holds a ph.d. and a postdoc in zoology and also worked in the information technology (it) sector. at the point of the interview, he had approximately five years of teaching experience, with three in clil. t2 studied it at a swiss university before obtaining a phd in zoology in britain. he had approximately nine years of teaching experience, with three in clil. even though the primary focus of these interviews was on getting the teachers’ perspectives on the differences between clil and non-clil lessons, the issue of translanguaging arose in both interviews. the semi-structured interviews lasted 35 and 45 minutes respectively, and they were audio-recorded, transcribed, and qualitatively analysed with a focus on translanguaging. 4. results and discussion in this section, i first discuss the results of the classroom data with regard to salient and unmarked translanguaging. when appropriate, i include excerpts from the teacher interviews in the discussion of the classroom data. at the end, i reflect upon the classroom data through the lens of each individual teachers’ perspectives on translanguaging. throughout this section, the following abbreviations are used: l1 = swiss german, ml = standard german, tl = english. 4 i did not use functional categories to classify instances of translanguaging like other researchers (e.g. paulsrud, 2014, 2016; toth, 2018) as such predefined categories might have limited the scope of the exploration and veered from the study’s aim to explore translanguaging practices that go beyond the use of the l1. translanguaging practices in biology lessons e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 95 4.1. translanguaging practices 4.1.1 salient translanguaging in clil biology lessons teachers used salient translanguaging practices in clil biology lessons to clarify and explain key lexis and scientific concepts, exploit more proficient english students’ knowledge, and to allow for linguistic creativity and for students to inquire about key lexis and its meanings. by far the most frequent salient translanguaging practice used by the teachers is shown in the following excerpts, where a technical term is directly followed by a translation in the ml (excerpts 1 and 2, see appendix for transcription conventions). excerpt 1. clil biology lesson 20150507_2e5 1. t1 airways are enforced by rings of cartilage, knorpelspangen. excerpt 2. clil biology lesson 20150507_1b 1. t2 to reinforced concrete that’s stahlbeton in german. excerpts 1 and 2 occur both in teacher monologues, a function of which is “to ensure that all of the listeners are able to follow the message” (moore & nikula, 2016, p. 220). however, translanguaging involving key lexis also occurs in interaction, for instance, as an explicit pedagogical strategy, as shown in excerpt 3. the teacher wants to ensure that his students understand what chickpeas are before starting the experiment, and thus prompts the students to provide the german equivalent for chickpeas to ensure mutual understanding. excerpt 3. clil biology lesson 20150511_1e 1. t2 chickpeas. what are chickpeas? 2. s kichererbsen. 3. t2 kichererbsen, exactly. on the other hand, salient translanguaging in interaction also frequently occurs when students lack a term and thus use the ml equivalent (excerpt 4) or explicitly ask for the translation of the word (excerpt 5). in such cases, it is usually the teacher who provides students with the english term so the students can then incorporate it into their responses. excerpt 4. clil biology lesson 20150521_2e 1. s well, i don't know how, but uhm the big arrow, it just shows that they uhm gleichgewicht? 2. t1 balance. 3. s the balance of the reaction is on the right side. excerpt 5. clil biology lesson 20150507_1b 1. s1 the upper (end) is in general yeah just yeah it’s uhm. was heisst zusammenfassen? [what does summarise mean?]6 2. s2 mh? zämmefasse? ah was heisst das scho wieder? [mh? summarise? ah what is it again?] 3. t2 summarise. 4. s1 yeah, summarise, please. 5 all excerpts in this article are taken from the data that forms the basis of this study. “clil biology lesson 20150507_2e” means that excerpt 1 is taken from a biology lesson in english (clil), of class 2e on the 7th of may 2015. all subsequent excerpts are labelled accordingly. 6 all english translations in square brackets have been made by the author. bieri e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 96 excerpt 5 is interesting with regard to language choice: in line 1, s1 switches mid-sentence from english to standard german to ask for the equivalent in english, whereupon s2 replies in swiss german. the teacher, however, sticks to english, and provides the translation, which is then incorporated by s1 in line 4. sometimes, not only students lack a term, but also the teachers. since in the present case both clil teachers are non-native speakers of english, they occasionally were not sure of terminology in the tl. one strategy to solve this is illustrated in excerpt 6, where the teacher asks the class for the english equivalent of seeroosen. excerpt 6. clil biology lesson 20150528_1b 1. t2 what iwhat is seerosen in english? 2. s (xx) 3. t2 pardon? 4. s wasn’t it water lily? 5. t2 water lily, yes, thank you. water lily. one could argue that, in this situation, the teacher simply uses translanguaging to “reinforce meaning” (moore & nikula, 2016, p. 220), or, similar to excerpt 3, wants to ensure that the whole class knows the term in question in the ml and the tl. however, in this case, the teacher’s thank you in line 5 as well as the intonation from the video-recording indicate that this seems to be a genuine request for information from the teacher. as seen across the above excerpts, a frequent translanguaging strategy to solve a situation where the teacher does not know the tl term consists of consulting and even exploiting students’ knowledge. this occurs particularly when the “class itself is multilingual, in which case it may contain students who are more competent tl speakers than the teacher” (moore & nikula, 2016, p. 223). in fact, t1 and t2 both have clil classes that are very multilingual in nature, including native speakers of english. thus, it seems “only logical that the teacher acknowledge[s] that expertise, and exploit[s] it” (moore & nikula, 2016, p. 223). this is in fact confirmed by t1 (interview excerpt 1), who explains this to be a strategy he often uses. interview excerpt 1. clil biology lesson 20150521_2e7 1. t1 what i do when i’m lacking a word, or i really don’t know a word, then i very openly ask the native speakers in front of the class: “can you please provide a translation for this word?” translanguaging can also be used as a reply to student-initiated clarification requests (“what is x?”). moore and nikula (2016) discuss such cases in terms of the principle of least effort (see p. 223), meaning that it is often easier (and more time-efficient) for teachers to simply translate a term rather than paraphrase it in the tl. however, this is not always an option, especially when there is no direct equivalent in the ml, or if the teacher needs to explain the scientific concept behind a term. take for instance excerpt 7, where the studentinitiated clarification request revolves around the complex concept of affinity. excerpt 7. clil biology lesson 20150521_2e 1. s1 what means affinity? 2. t1 begehren? uhm you can also call it just call simply call it uhm love for oxygen. i mean it really is or eh uhm. anybody have a better word for that? 3. s2 magnet? 4. t1 pardon? 5. s2 magnet? 6. t1 magnet? 7. s2 no? 8. t1 well, you will see soon why magnet is not really appropriate 7 this and all subsequent excerpts from the teacher interviews have been translated from swiss german to english by the author. translanguaging practices in biology lessons e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 97 affinity and the german technical term affinität derive from latin affinitas. thus, it would make no sense for the teacher to merely provide the student with the ml equivalent of the technical term, as it is exactly the same as in english, and will thus say nothing about the actual concept of affinity. consequently, he instead decides to provide the student with a translation of a more everyday term begerehen (desire). he also tries to circumscribe it (“love for oxygen”) and then asks the class for a better word. when s2 suggests magnet as an alternative (line 3), the teacher’s response in line 8 concludes that this is not an appropriate alternative though. interestingly enough, although the teacher mentions in line 8 that the students will soon see “why magnet is not appropriate”, at the end of this very lesson it becomes evident that despite all the teacher’s attempts to explain the scientific concept in question, the students seem to not have grasped it yet. another translanguaging practice that we encounter is when there is a term in the ml that does not have an exact equivalent in the tl. lin (2016) claimed that sometimes, “the l1 of the students might not encode or construe technicality in the same way as english” (p. 49). an example of this is excerpt 8, where the teacher explains what happens to the muscles when one exercises too much, which is a concept incorporated in the term muskelkater (muscle hangover). since there is no direct equivalent for this feeling of sore or aching muscles after exercising too much in english, the teacher chooses to explicitly translanguage by using we—meaning us who speak german—and explaining that we have a term for this concept, which we call muskelkater. excerpt 8. clil biology lesson 20150518_1e 1. t1 this has to do something with muskelkater. we call it suhm muskelkater that your muscles actually hurt after an exercise. this may have something to do with the aforementioned principle of least effort: if there is an existing technical term encoding the whole concept in the ml but not in the tl, it might be easier (although not necessarily pedagogically preferable) to simply use the term already encoding the concept, instead of explaining it to the students in the tl. translanguaging also creates a space that allows for linguistic creativity. in fact, two purposes identified by moore and nikula (2016, pp. 224-226) for salient translanguaging concern joint negotiation of subject-specific language and the creative use of two languages as a resource. excerpt 9 shows a particularly interesting exchange in this regard: the teacher draws on both the tl and the ml to discuss subject-specific language (line 1), which then triggers a linguistically creative exchange (lines 2-3). in this case, subjectspecific language revolves around the word peanuts and how the english and german names are actually misleading since peanuts do not belong to the taxonomy of nuts. this then triggers an exchange where the student, following the teacher’s explanation, attempts to create the taxonomically correct name for peanuts in german (line 2), which is then completed by the teacher’s creative coinage of the german terms erderbsen (earthpeas) and erdbohnen (earthbeans) (line 3). excerpt 9. clil biology lesson 20150528_1b 1. t2 erdnüsse. well, uhm this is all, the also the, the english name peanuts, pea is correct, it belongs to the family of of peas, of beans, but nuts is incorrect. these are not nuts. 2. s peanuts are not nuts. and in german, erdnüsse, erd, earth, is correct, because they (live), they grow underground, but of course, nuts, nüsse, it’s not correct. ja. 3. s so, peanuts in german should actually (be) called erd-, erd 4. t2 erderbsen. ja. something like that or erdbohnen. contrary to moore and nikula (2016,), i have not found any instances of “learners’ joint negotiation of subject-specific language,” where peers are “stepping in with support when their colleagues signal gaps by translanguaging” (p. 224-225). in cases where a student signals a gap by translanguaging, it is the teacher, not the peer, who provides the missing term (as illustrated in excerpts 4 and 5). apart from this, though, i have found salient translanguaging practices in clil biology lessons to be used very similarly to the contexts shown in moore and nikula’s work. bieri e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 98 4.1.2. unmarked translanguaging in clil biology lessons unmarked translanguaging, as explained in section 3.2, refers to situations in the classroom where translanguaging is used, but not explicitly focused on, i.e. the interaction goes on “as if nothing unusual has occurred” (bonacina & gafaranga, 2011, p. 329). with regard to unmarked translanguaging in clil biology classes, most occurrences are found in the regulative register (christie, 2002), that is, in situations concerned with classroom management and not with content teaching. by far the most frequent occurrence of unmarked translanguaging concerns the use of certain established administrative terms in standard german that do not exist as such in english. in excerpt 10, for instance, the teacher closes the lesson by reminding his students that there will be an arbeitswoche next week, which literally translates to labour week, but simply refers to a project work week. excerpt 10. clil biology lesson 20150521_1e 1. t1 next time in a week, we will make a class lesson uhm. so it will not be biology (xx) we’ll talk about what’s coming up soon, namely the arbeitswoche. and then uh the next time uhm the lesson after that we will talk about what’s happening in here in the chloroplasts. in excerpt 11, a student uses the word berufswahltag—literally job choosing day, which is a specific event taking place every year where students can inform themselves about future job opportunities. excerpt 11. clil biology lesson 20150505_2b 1. s (xx) we already we’ve already saw when we were there like berufswahltag? as is shown in the excerpts above, these terms are administrative and not subject-matter related. importantly, these german terms contain highly contextualised meanings known to all participants. following the principle of least effort, it makes sense to simply use these, rather than painstaking circumlocution to convey the same meaning in english. translanguaging can also occur when discourse markers from the whole repertoire are employed, which is a typical bilingual behaviour (see moore & nikula, 2016, p. 229; nikula & moore, 2016, p. 8). although standard german and swiss german share some discourse markers with english such as so or okay—in which case it is impossible to determine the exact source of the discourse marker—i found examples where the discourse marker aso in swiss german (also in standard german) meaning so or that is was transferred to english. excerpt 12 shows the teacher using this discourse marker. excerpt 12. clil biology lesson 20150528_1b 1. t2 the stem is shiny, aso [that is] shiny surface. another unmarked translanguaging practice that is illustrated in moore and nikula (2016, p. 229, extract 22) consists of the teacher using the l1 to make a meta-comment. in excerpt 13, the teacher switches to swiss german to make a meta-comment to himself about his action, before returning to content teaching in english. excerpt 13. clil biology lesson 20150505_2b 1. t2 it’s the sebastian et al. is it (früh)? ah i muess no einisch go luege. [ah i have to look at this again]. it is this one here. thus, i have found instances of translanguaging with contextualised standard german to be the most frequent unmarked translanguaging practice, one that did not occur in moore and nikula’s (2016) data (see for example pp. 226-231). similar to them, i found occurrences of unmarked translanguaging in the form of translanguaging practices in biology lessons e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 99 discourse markers and meta-comments. i did not, however, find any unmarked translanguaging due to signalling alignment or emotional charge (see pp. 230-231). 4.1.3. salient and unmarked translanguaging in non-clil biology lessons translanguaging has received much less attention in monolingual content classes where the ml is the medium of instruction and, thus, the focus is on content learning and not on language. however, looking at the non-clil data of biology lessons, there are in fact instances of translanguaging. on the one hand, this has to do with the sociolinguistic context of this study, where the medium of instruction (standard german) is not the language students typically converse in (swiss german). consequently, it seems logical to find instances of translanguaging in non-clil lessons involving standard and swiss german. on the other hand, this also has to do with the subject matter, as will be seen further below. starting with unmarked translanguaging, there are similar instances as in the clil biology lesson, for instance with regard to the discourse marker aso, as shown in excerpt 14. excerpt 14. non-clil biology lesson 20150505_1f2 1. s uhm aso es hat unten so stacheln und die sind uhm gegen fisch aso dass sie nicht gefressen warden. [uhm so it has spikes down there and they are uhm against fish that is that they don’t get eaten.] similar to excerpt 13 in the previous section, the teachers, swiss german speakers themselves, also use swiss german for making meta-comments reflecting on their own actions, as illustrated in excerpt 15. excerpt 15. non-clil biology lesson 20150505_1f1 1. t1 das mussi no ufschribe dass es richtig esch gsi. uh können hefe können atmung und gärung betreiben wenn sauerstoff zur verfügung steht? [i just have to note that down that it was correct. uh can yeast can run respiration and fermentation if there is oxygen?] both excerpts above include instances of unmarked translanguaging through the use of swiss german discourse markers (excerpt 14) or meta-comments (excerpt 15). interestingly, the most common salient translanguaging practice in the clil biology lessons—translating key terms (see excerpts 1 and 2)—is also found in the non-clil lesson. in excerpt 16, the teacher provides the english equivalent of the term in question. excerpt 16. non-clil biology lesson 20150505_2h 1. t2 deshalb sind ja auch die uh herzsehnen hier heart strings (xx) die verhindern dass diese klappe hier durchschlägt und einfach so auf die andere seite umklappt. [that’s why the uh heart strings here heart strings (xx) which prevent that this valve here penetrates and simply turns down to the other side.] one explanation for this excerpt could be that the teacher provides the translation of the term in order to draw students’ attention to this fact that the language of science is generally english. however, since the english equivalent is directly followed by unintelligible talk, it is hard to come up with a conclusive interpretation for the teachers’ translanguaging behaviour in this specific excerpt. nevertheless, it shows that salient translanguaging from standard german to english is also present in the non-clil lesson. as mentioned in section 3.1, biology lessons in switzerland provide a rich context for the study of translanguaging since there are multiple languages at work simultaneously. while all the previous excerpts involved translanguaging with swiss german, standard german and/or english, the following excerpts illustrate translanguaging practices involving the source languages of the subject-specific terminology. natural sciences in general have a high amount of technical terms, many of which derive from languages such bieri e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 100 as latin (e.g. synthesis, assmiliation) or greek (e.g. photo-, chlorophyll). if we adopt a broader view of translanguaging that goes beyond the simple use of the tl and ml/l1, translanguaging with the source languages of subject-specific terminology must be included in this investigation. an example of this can be found in excerpt 17. the teacher is explaining the term assimilation. in order to do that, he employs all of his and his students’ existing linguistic resources by drawing on related familiar terms from french and english. at the end of his turn, the teacher explicitly asks the students what the word similar/similaire in english or french means in german. a student then provides the correct translation (line 2), and from this the teacher then reconstructs the technical term assimilation. excerpt 17. non-clil biology lesson 20150526_1f2 1. t2 assimilation. gehen wir vom gehen wir vom begriff aus. simile kennen sie aus dem englischen aus dem französischen, also die endung ist ein bisschen anders similar or or similaire. französisch oder englisch similar heisst was? ja? [assimilation. let’s start with let’s start with the term itself. simile you know from english or french, well the ending is a bit different similar or or similaire. french or english similar means what? yes?] 2. s gleich und gleichwertig. [same and equivalent.] 3. t2 gleich ja. gleich. und bei der assimilation werden diejenigen prozesse bezeichnet die stoffe gleichmachen wie die eigenen stoffe, und das ist zum beispiel was die photosynthese macht […] und deshalb wird werden prozesse wie die photosynthese assimilaauch assimilation genannt. [same yes. same. and assimilation is what we call processes that make substances the same like their own substances, and this is for example what photosynthesis does. (…) and this is why processes such as photosynthesis are also called assimila assimilation.] although the term assimilation originally derives from latin assimilare8, the teacher draws on more familiar resources the students may have (i.e. french and english9) in order to break down the meaning of the word itself. this is a good example of the pedagogical strategy of unpacking–repacking (lin 2016), where teachers break down technical terms (i.e. unpacking) and then repack or put everything together in order to show the students how the term is used in scientific discourse. in this example, the teacher then repacks assimilation and shows the students why processes such as photosynthesis are considered processes of assimilation. here translanguaging serves to clarify not only key lexis, but also to help students understand the scientific concept behind the key lexis. it becomes even more interesting when we look at what the teacher does in the following excerpt. excerpt 18 is taken from the same lesson, but this time the teacher explains the opposite of assimilation— dissimilation. he takes a similar approach by drawing on french and english as resources. excerpt 18. non-clil biology lesson 20150526_1f2 1. t2 und die umkehrung davon etwas ungleich machen. jetzt muss ich grad überlegen auf französisch ungleich. das gegenteil von similaire ich muss irgendeine vorsilbe im französischen davorhängen. ich bin nicht nicht, ich weiss, ich weiss nicht aso, der fachbegriff ist dissimilation. disund disuh ist ein vorsilbe übersetzt mit un ungleich. diswas gibts schlaues wort mit disdas mit disbeginnt. kommen nur englische wörter in den sinn. englisch wird sehr die die vorsilbe dissehr oft verwendet für un-. disease. ja disease danke ja. disease. uh ease das bedeutet wohl, dass es einem wohl ist. man ist at ease dann ist es einem wohl, disease das heisst eigentlich unwohl, unwohl sein. [and the opposite of it is to make something not the same. now i have to just think what is not the same in french. the opposite of similar i have to add some prefix in french. i 8 http://www.oed.com/view/entry/11934?redirectedfrom=assimilation#eid. 9 pupils in the canton of basel-land start learning french in grade 3 and english in grade 5 (edk 2013, p. 2). translanguaging practices in biology lessons e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 101 am not, no, i know, i don’t know so, the technical term is dissimilation. disand disuh is a prefix translated as not not-the-same. diswhat clever word is there that with dis starts with dis-. can only think of english words. english the the prefix disis frequently used for not. disease. yes disease thanks yes. disease. uh ease this means well, that one is at ease. one is at ease, then one is well. disease that means actually not well, not being well.] in this example, first, based on the previous explanation, the teacher associates the opposite of assimilation, dissimilation, with making “something not the same.” the teacher then draws on french, but eventually struggles to come up with the opposite of similaire. in the middle of the excerpt, he clarifies that “the technical term is dissimilation.” he then goes on to dissect the word, singling out the prefix disas meaning not. in the end, he comes up with the english example of disease, and he explains how the prefix dis changes the semantics of the word it is attached to, and that, consequently the technical term dissimilation means making something “not the same”. other examples of this kind of salient translanguaging occur in the non-clil biology lessons, as excerpts 19 and 20 illustrate. in excerpt 19, the teacher explicitly asks for the meaning of the greek word chloro, and when the student provides the answer (line 2), the teacher uses this to reconstruct the literal meaning of the word chlorophyll. excerpt 19. non-clil biology lesson 20150526_1f2 1. t2 was heisst chloro? wer weiss es gerade? ja ? [what does chloro mean? who knows this? yes?] 2. s grün. [green.] 3. t2 genau, grün. also chlorophyll heisst auf deutsch blattgrün. [exactly, green. so chlorophyll means in german leaf green.] excerpt 20 deals with the concept of holoand hemi-metabolic metamorphosis. insects can be holometabolic, meaning they go through a complete metamorphosis (e.g., butterflies), whereas hemimetabolic insects do not change considerably in their appearance from larval to adult stage (e.g., locusts). by explaining the literal meaning of the greek prefixes holoand hemi-, the concept of complete and half metamorphosis becomes more graspable. excerpt 20. non-clil biology lesson 20150507_2h 1. t2 imago ist das erwachsene tier. das ist holometabol. holo heisst? [imago is the adult animal. this is holometabolic. holo means?] 2. s1 ganz. [whole] 3. t2 dankeschön, ja. ganz. sollte auf der liste draufstehen. [thank you, yes. whole. should be on the list.] 4. s1 stimmt. [true.] 5. t2 die alternative ist hemimetabol. hemi heisst? [the alternative is hemimetabolic. hemi means?] 6. ss halb. [half] 7. t2 halb. ja das ist wunderbar wie das chunnt. hemi heisst halb. [half. yes this is wonderful how this turns out. hemi means half.] bieri e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 102 if we find this kind of translanguaging in the non-clil biology classes with german, we might also find these in the clil biology lessons with english. and indeed, as the subsequent section shows, this translanguaging practice is also present in clil biology lessons. 4.1.4. translanguaging with source languages in clil biology classes similar to the salient translanguaging examples in the previous section, excerpt 21 illustrates this translanguaging practice in the clil biology lesson. the topic of the lesson is dendrochronology10, the scientific study of dating trees by counting their rings. the teacher uses translanguaging with the greek roots in order to assist students understanding the term and the concept behind it. he translates the first part of the term dendro, then goes on by asking the students whether they have an idea of what the second part of the term—chronos—means. although s1’s answer in line 2 is unintelligible, based on the teacher’s reaction (line 3), it seems not to have been the correct answer. the teacher makes another analogy to chronologer, a word for a stopwatch, which then triggers the correct answer by s2 in line 4. excerpt 21. clil biology lesson 20150518_1b 1. t dendro could you know the word dendro? probably not. dendro is a tree. chronos that's a word you might know chronolog of chronology. 2. s1 (xx) 3. t it's not exactly no, a chronometry that's if therefore what is chrwhat we call a stopwatch was originally called a chronologer, yes? 4. s2 time. 5. t it’s time, time, yes. excerpt 22 works in the same way—the teacher explicitly asks what the term blastoderm means, and the student replies by deconstructing the term into its components blasto and derm and their literal equivalents in english11. excerpt 22. clil biology lesson 20150526_2b 1. t2 blastoderm what is a blastoderm? martina12? 2. s1 blasto means germ and derm skin. 3. t mmh. exactly. in excerpt 23, a similar exchange occurs. the topic revolves around the meaning of the term exodermis. in line 1, the student initiates this translanguaging exchange first by translanguaging herself to swiss german (ah nei) and then directing her question to the teacher in english by asking whether exo actually means outside, which is confirmed by the teacher (line 2). the student then deduces that exodermis in that case must be outside of the epidermis. she then states that she does not know what dermis means. the teacher provides the translation in line 4, and then continues himself by inquiring whether the students know the meaning of epi. although the student does not know the literal meaning of the prefix epi, she knows a german word starting with this prefix. taking up the student’s idea of epicentre and recasting his initial question in line 8, the student (line 9) suggests that deducing from the word epicentre, epi must mean “more in the middle”. the teacher corrects this (line 12) by clarifying that epi actually means “above the centre,” whereupon the student (line 13) concludes that epi is “more outside” than exo, which is then confirmed by the teacher and put into perspective with the technical term endodermis (lines 14 and 16). 10 this is a great example of a technical term that can be broken down by engaging with source languages. the greek word dendro stands for tree, chronos means time in greek, and the greek suffix –logy can be translated as the science/study of. thus, the literal meanings of these three terms already contain all the information one needs— dendrochronology is the study of time in trees. 11 what is not shown in excerpt 22 is the teacher’s repacking of the term, where he, based on the student’s explanation, uses the literal meaning “germ skin” to explain and describe the specific stage of blastoderm in the embryonic development. 12 all names of participants have been changed in order to preserve their anonymity. translanguaging practices in biology lessons e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 103 excerpt 23. clil biology lesson 20150504_1b 1. s uhm (xx) ah nei (xx) and doesn’t uhm exo mean outside? 2. t2 yes. 3. s so it would be outside the epidermis oh now it’s dermis, what does dermis mean? 4. t2 dermis is skin. 5. s aha. 6. t2 and epo what does epi mean that’s the question. 7. s mmh ah epizentrum. 8. t2 mmh it’s an epicentre yes. what does epi mean? 9. s so more in the middle than outside. 10. t2 no. 11. s okay then. 12. t2 epicenter epi has nothing to do with centre, epi is something above the centre. 13. s mmh, so it’s more outside than exo. 14. t2 epi in this at least in this case it’s more outside and then you have exo and exo in many contrast to endo. 15. s ah. 16. t2 there is also the endodermis. all of these excerpts (17-23) show that translanguaging including the source languages of subjectspecific technical vocabulary can be a very efficient scaffolding strategy in clil and non-clil biology lessons. it might have attracted the meticulous reader’s attention that all of the excerpts concerning salient translanguaging in sections 4.1.3 and 4.1.4 come from only one of the two teachers. indeed, only t2 translanguages with languages other than english, standard german or swiss german. 4.2. teacher perspectives although translanguaging occurred in both teachers’ classrooms, only one teacher, t2, engaged in translanguaging practices using the source languages (latin, greek) of subject-specific vocabulary and did so in both clil and non-clil lessons. this section examines both teachers’ attitudes with regard to the use of english in their classes to see whether their translanguaging practices might be reflected in their attitude towards translanguaging. interestingly, in the interviews, both teachers reveal that they imagine their clil classrooms as idealised monolingual spaces. interview excerpt 2. 1. t1 i am consistent in the classroom. as soon as i hear swiss german, i tell them they should talk in english. but this is a sisyphean task. i do it nevertheless, i do it consistently until the higher grades (xx). and i simply remind them. and i also understand that they fall back. that is, back to the mother tongue, this is somehow understandable. uhm yeah. yes, itit is annoying because i consistently have to remind them. because it actually is a concern of mine that they can speak english. and i also make this extra effort since it neither is my mother tongue. and yeah, but it is not disruptive, it simply is an extra effort yeah. in interview excerpt 2, t1 explains that he has to consistently remind his students to speak in english (tl), so that they will not switch back to swiss german (l1). by calling it a “sisyphean task,” he hints at the fact that students very easily slip back to speaking swiss german with each other and that his reminding never holds for long. his statement that “it is actually a concern of mine that they can speak english” particularly reveals his ideology of a monolingual classroom. it shows the teacher’s idea that learning english is directly connected to the amount of exposure; that is, the stricter the focus on the tl english, the more his students will learn. this attitude regarding the use of english is also present, and perhaps more extreme, in t2’s interview. bieri e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 104 interview excerpt 3. 1. t2 outside of biology class, i actually expect and i tell them this in the beginning as well, i expect that they whatever lies within the scope of school, that is here in the school building, here i expect that they speak english. […] this isthis is immersion is diving in. and actually i expect tell them that, but sometimes the implementation is a bit rocky. when they enter this door here inside it’s english. it’s english. in interview excerpt 3, t2 goes as far as requesting that his students talk to him in english even outside of the classroom. he explains this view by saying that this is “immersion,” and immersion is “diving in.” one of the earliest arguments for clil was this metaphor of the language bath (bürgi, 2007), i.e., that simple additional exposure to a language automatically increases the proficiency of that language. this view has largely been rejected, however, as it is convincingly claimed that simple exposure is not enough to enhance proficiency (see e.g. llinares, morton, & whittaker, 2012). additionally, the idea of a monolingual classroom rarely holds true. this is something that both teachers hint at in their interviews. t1, for instance, explicitly says that his students often fall back on talking in swiss german and that he has to constantly remind them to speak in english. t2 says it less explicitly, but hints at the same idea: when he says that “sometimes the implementation is a bit rocky,” he means that the “implementation” of only speaking english is not always easy and does not always work, as was shown in the analyses of classroom exchanges. interestingly, it is only t2, the teacher with the stricter attitude towards english-only use in and outside of his classroom, who engages in translanguaging practices involving the source languages of technical words (see sections 4.1.3 and 4.1.4). this shows that teachers’ attitudes towards translanguaging do not necessarily coincide with their practices. yet, t2 does not specifically discuss the use of vocabulary-specific source languages as translanguaging. since he translanguages using vocabulary-specific source languages in both the clil and non-clil lessons, it may imply that he sees this practice primarily as a strategy to teach biology in general, no matter the programme (clil or non-clil). however, even after the qualitative investigation it seems that t2 does in fact translangauge more frequently, not only with regard to source languages, but also in regards to l1/ml and tl. it would thus be interesting to investigate quantitatively whether t2 indeed uses more translanguaging with the l1/ml in the clil classes as compared to t1, and, thus, whether his extreme attitude towards english-only is really not reflected in his practice. 5. conclusion in this article, i examined the translanguaging practices in two teachers’ clil and non-clil biology lessons. in both teachers’ clil lessons, i found salient translanguaging involving the tl and l1/ml. this kind of translanguaging was used in order to clarify and negotiate key lexis and scientific concepts (teacherand student-initiated), to exploit student knowledge, and to create space for linguistic creativity. unmarked translanguaging was found in both the clil and non-clil lessons, in the form of discourse markers and metacomments, and, in the clil lessons, in the use of highly contextualised ml words. importantly, by looking at the data with a more inclusive view of translanguaging, i also found instances of translanguaging with the source languages of the subject-specific vocabulary. this involved translanguaging with the etymology of technical terminology such as latin or greek. these kinds of translanguaging practices were identified in both clil and non-clil biology lessons, and the excerpts in sections 4.1.3 and 4.1.4 have shown how this practice can enhance and scaffold students’ understanding of scientific terminology and its associated concepts. in fact, these excerpts show that translanguaging with subject-specific terminology, using all linguistic resources available, can be an efficient pedagogy to clarify and negotiate meaning in biology lessons. further research, however, is needed to validate to what extent this kind of translanguaging is actually successful in facilitating content learning.. nevertheless, translanguaging provides a potential tool to help students comprehend complex concepts. for instance, in excerpt 7, when t1 struggled to explain the word affinity to his students, drawing on resources from latin (affinitas) and french (affinité) may at least have provided another possible avenue for students to understand the meaning of this word. this kind of translanguaging—engaging with the source languages of technical terms to deduce and negotiate scientific concepts—can therefore be a pedagogy that is particularly useful in clil. in light of recent research translanguaging practices in biology lessons e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 105 investigating the subject-specific requirements for clil teachers and students (see e.g. hüttner & smit, 2018; lorenzo & dalton-puffer, 2016; mccabe & whittaker, 2017), this study shows the potential of translanguaging as an effective, perhaps even necessary, pedagogical tool in biology lessons. while translanguaging, including source languages of technical terms, is not necessarily restricted to the subject of biology, it does seem particularly useful for subjects with a high density of technical words. it would be interesting to explore translanguaging with source languages in other subjects to understand the value of such a pedagogy for different clil subjects. this article also highlights the need, in research on translanguaging practices, to pair data from surveys, questionnaires, and interviews with transcripts from actual classroom interaction. too often still, researchers rely on self-reported data, as in lasagabaster’s (2013) study, which discusses teachers’ l1 use, but is actually referring to their self-reported li use. as gierlinger (2015) states: the majority of these studies base teachers’ beliefs on code switching on qualitative interviews or questionnaires without any reference to classroom data, and therefore may run the risk of presenting a perspective whose results do not adequately portray the complexity of the classroom code-switching context. (p. 351) while studies that focus on teachers’ reported language use can give us important insights into the attitudes that shape teaching, this study shows that what teachers say they do and what they do are not always the same. while t2 in this study is the teacher with more extreme attitude towards the use of english in, and even outside of, his classroom (based on the belief that more exposure leads to more proficiency), he indeed seems to engage in more translanguaging than t1, using not only the tl of english, the ml of standard german and his l1 swiss german, but also the source languages of the subject-specific vocabulary. thus, studies that draw only on surveys, questionnaires, and interviews may actually tell us very little about actual classroom discourse, and further research linking teacher attitudes and actual translanguaging practices is needed. transcription notes identity of speakers t1, t2 teacher 1, teacher 2 s unidentified student s1, s2 probably student 1, student 2 ss several or all students simultaneously commentary in the transcript (x), (xx) indicates a stretch of talk unintelligible to the researcher (founder) indicates an unclear or probable item [thanks] indicates the english translation of an utterance made in the ml or l1 the cell means zelle bold font shows key terms that are subject of translanguaging, whereas italics show the actual translanguaging practice references baker, colin (2011). foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (5th ed.). clevedon, united kingdom: multilingual matters. bundesamt für statistik (2017). die bevölkerung der schweiz 2016. neuchâtel: bundesamt für statistik. bieri e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 106 bonacina, florence, & gafaranga, joseph (2011). ‘medium of instruction’ vs. ‘medium of classroom interaction’: language choice in a french complementary school classroom in scotland. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 14(3), 319–334. büeler, xavier, stebler, rita, stöckli, georg, & stotz, daniel (2010). evaluation “schulprojekt 21” executive summary. retrieved from http://www.ife.uzh.ch/de/research/ppd/forschung/abgeschlosseneprojekte/evaluationen/schulpr ojekt21.html bürgi, heidi (2007). im sprachbad: besseres englisch durch immersion. eine evaluation zweisprachiger ausbildungsgänge an drei kantonalen gymnasien in der schweiz (1. aufl. ed.). bern, switzerland: hep verlag. canagarajah, suresh (2011). codemeshing in academic writing: identifying teachable strategies of translanguaging. the modern language journal, 95(3), 401–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.15404781.2011.01207.x cenoz, jasone, & gurter, durk (eds.). 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http://e.bangor.ac.uk/id/eprint/9832 translanguaging practices in biology lessons e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 91-109 109 aline s. bieri, university of basel aline.bieri@unibas.ch en aline bieri is a research and teaching assistant to professor miriam locher in the english department at the university of basel. she holds a master’s degree in english and biology from the university of basel and is currently completing her ph.d. project, content and language integrated learning (clil) in the swiss context: the linguistic challenges and implications of teaching a subject such as biology in english. es aline bieri trabaja con la profesora miriam locher como asistente de investigación y enseñanza en el departamento de inglés en la universidad de basel. obtuvo su título de maestría en la universidad de basel en inglés y biología y actualmente está completando su proyecto de doctorado, content and language integrated learning (clil) in the swiss context: the linguistic challenges and implications of teaching a subject such as biology in english. it aline bieri è docente e assegnista di ricerca della professoressa miriam locher nel dipartimento di inglese dell’università di basilea. ha conseguito un master in inglese e biologia presso l’università di basilea e attualmente sta completando la sua tesi di dottorato dal titolo content and language integrated learning (clil) in the swiss context: the linguistic challenges and implications of teaching a subject such as biology in english. ottaviani & vedder_4.2 euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-­‐journall,  volume  4,  issue  2,  december  2017,  pages  97-­‐114   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.7.103   www.e-­‐journall.org   ©  ottaviani  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.       * contact: anna.ottaviani@alumni.unitn.it.       la  protesta  in  italiano  l2:     un  caso  di  autoapprendimento  della  pragmatica       anna  vittoria  ottaviania*,  1  ineke  vedderb   auniversità  degli  studi  di  trento   buniversiteit  van  amsterdam         received  14  april  2017;  received  in  revised  form  29  september  2017;  accepted  16  october  2017   abstract it questo contributo rende conto di un esperimento condotto nell’ambito della pragmatica acquisizionale. in quanto ha compreso in un arco di tempo limitato un numero circoscritto di partecipanti, lo studio ha carattere qualitativo ed esplorativo. sei studenti universitari di madrelingua olandese si sono cimentati, sulla piattaforma multimediale online lira, in un percorso di autoapprendimento della pragmatica relativo all’atto della protesta in italiano l2. i partecipanti sono stati coinvolti nella registrazione, prima e dopo la fase di autoapprendimento, di due role-play ad alto e basso grado di familiarità. l’ipotesi preliminare è che il repertorio di modificatori interni ed esterni, ossia strategie che conferiscono una maggiore efficacia all’atto comunicativo, si arricchisca e si diversifichi. lo studio presenta inoltre alcuni elementi relativi all’insegnamento ed apprendimento della pragmatica, alle caratteristiche di lira, alla protesta ed alle strumentazioni per la raccolta dei dati, tra cui quella da noi prescelta: il role-play. parole chiave: pragmatica acquisizionale, protesta, autoapprendimento, piattaforma lira, role-play en the present article reports on an experiment conducted in the area of acquisitional pragmatics. the study is qualitative and, given its short duration and limited number of participants, it is also exploratory. six university students of italian as an l2 (l1 dutch) enrolled in a self-paced course aimed at the acquisition of pragmatics in italian, specifically in relation to the act of protesting, on the online multimedia platform lira. the participants also engaged in a set of role-plays, involving situations of high and low familiarity, both before and after the online course. the underlying hypothesis was that in the role-plays after the online course, students would use a richer and more diverse repertoire of internal and external modifiers, resulting in more effective communication. the study provides a number of implications for teaching and learning pragmatics, s well as the characteristics of lira, the speech act of protesting and tools for data collection in l2 pragmatics, such as role-plays. key words: acquisition of pragmatics in l2, protest, self-guided learning, lira, role-plays es este artículo presenta un trabajo experimental llevado a cabo en el ámbito de la pragmática adquisicional. este estudio es de tipo cualitativo y exploratorio, debido a su corta duración y al número reducido de participantes. seis estudiantes universitarios de italiano como segunda lengua, cuya lengua materna es el holandés, completaron un curso de pragmática del italiano en línea en la plataforma multimodal lira. el curso era autorregulado y se centraba en el acto de habla de la protesta en italiano. los estudiantes participaron en dos juegos de rol ⎯con un nivel alto y bajo de familiaridad⎯ al principio y al final del curso. la hipótesis preliminar es que el abanico de modificadores internos y externos usados por los estudiantes ⎯es decir, las estrategias que confieren mayor eficacia al acto comunicativo de la protesta⎯ sería más amplio después del curso. el artículo presenta, además, implicaciones para la enseñanza y aprendizaje de la pragmática e información acerca de las características de la plataforma lira, entre las cuales destacan los dos juegos de roles usados en este estudio. palabras clave: pragmática adquisicional, protesta, aprendizaje autorregulado, plataforma lira, juegos de rol ottaviani  &  vedder   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 98 1.  introduzione   capita   che   un   apprendente   di   italiano   lingua   seconda   (l2)   in   contesto   l2   rimanga   facilmente   disorientato  e  a  corto  di  mezzi  linguistici:  cambiare  lingua  significa  anche  cambiare  cultura  e,  di  conseguenza,   consuetudini   pragmatiche.   immaginiamo   i   seguenti   due   casi:   marieke   è   una   ragazza   olandese   in   vacanza-­‐ studio  a  milano  per  un  corso   intensivo  d’italiano.  a   fine  giornata,  mentre  è   in   fila  per  pagare  alla   cassa  del   supermercato,   un   signore   la   supera   senza   darle   spiegazioni.   non   avendo   ancora   acquisito   le   norme   sociopragmatiche  della   lingua  marieke  non   sa  bene   come   comportarsi   in   questa   situazione     e   così   perde   il   posto.  jeroen,  un  compagno  di  corso  di  marieke,  è  al  ristorante  con  amici  italiani.  il  piatto  che  gli  viene  servito   gli   arriva   freddo.   vorrebbe   farlo   notare   al   cameriere   perché   glielo   riscaldi,   ma   teme   di   risultare   troppo   scortese   e   pertanto,   chiedendosi   quale   sia   la   formula   più   adatta   per   esprimere   la   sua   protesta,   desiste   dal   farlo.   durante  lo  studio  da  noi  condotto,  come  vedremo  successivamente  negli  esempi  che  riportiamo,  gli   apprendenti   di  madrelingua  olandese   coinvolti  mostrano   segni  di   insofferenza   e  disagio  pragmalinguistico.   ecco   qualche   breve   esempio   tratto   dall’esperimento,   durante   il   quale   alcuni   apprendenti   rinunciano   a   concludere   l’atto   linguistico  e   così   si   rivolgono  alla   ricercatrice:   “ah  un  po’  antipatico  secondo  me…  non  so   parlare   haha”;   “eee   cos’altro   non   lo   so   eee…   -­‐   si   arrende?   -­‐   eeh   sì,   putroppo   sì”.   tuttavia,   la   difficoltà   di   reperire   le   risorse   linguistiche,   pragmatiche   -­‐   che   cioè   si   riferiscono  alla   capacità  di   fare   scelte   linguistiche   adatte  alla  situazione  comunicativa  -­‐  e  culturali  per  gestire  un  atto  di  protesta  in  l2  e  la  rinuncia  che  spesso   ne  consegue  non  sono  irrimediabili,  come  cercheremo  di  dimostrare  in  questo  contributo.   l'obiettivo   principale   del   nostro   studio   è   di   esaminare   fino   a   che   punto   sia   possibile   imparare   a   protestare   in   un   modo   “appropriato”   e   “felice”,   attraverso   uno   strumento   di   autoapprendimento   per   lo   sviluppo   della   competenza   pragmatica.   la   ricerca   ha   carattere   qualitativo   ed   esplorativo,   in   quanto   ha   compreso  un  numero  circoscritto  di  partecipanti  e  si  è  sviluppata  in  un  arco  di  tempo  limitato,  che  perciò  non   si   presta   ad   analisi   di   ampio   raggio   bensì   solo   all'offerta   di   qualche   spunto   di   riflessione.     sei  studenti  di  madrelingua  olandese,  apprendenti  universitari  d’italiano,  sono  stati  coinvolti  in  due  situazioni   di   protesta   prima   e   dopo   una   fase   di   autoapprendimento   tramite   la   piattaforma   multimediale   lira   (lingua/cultura  italiana  in  rete  per  l’apprendimento).  l’ipotesi  preliminare  dello  studio  è  che  il  repertorio  di   modificatori  si  arricchisca  quantitativamente  e  si  diversifichi  qualitativamente.   prima   di   illustrare   nello   specifico   le   modalità   ed   i   risultati   del   presente   studio   (paragrafo   7   e   8),   renderemo   conto  del   quadro  dei   recenti   sviluppi   nell’ambito  dell’insegnamento   e   dell’apprendimento  della   pragmatica   (paragrafo   2   e   3),   dell’atto   comunicativo   della   protesta   (paragrafo   4)   e   di   una   sintesi   delle   caratteristiche  della  piattaforma  lira  (paragrafo  5).  descriveremo  inoltre  gli  strumenti  a  disposizione  per  la   raccolta  dei  dati  ed  in  particolare  quello  da  noi  utilizzato:  il  role-­‐play  (paragrafo  6).  al  termine  del  contributo   abbiamo  inserito  un’appendice  contenente  le   istruzioni  dei  task  e   la  trascrizione  esemplificativa  dei  quattro   role-­‐play  interpretati  da  uno  dei  partecipanti.  nei  paragrafi  9  e  10  verranno  discusse  le  implicazioni  teoriche  e   pedagogiche  della  ricerca.     2.  il  transfer  pragmatico:  il  fraintendimento  interculturale   come  suggeriscono  gli  esempi  forniti  nel  paragrafo  introduttivo,  da  vari  studi  emerge  che  anche  per   apprendenti  di  livello  avanzato  la  pragmatica  risulta  essere  uno  scoglio  nell’apprendimento  della  l2.  accade   infatti   che   gli   apprendenti,   pur   possedendo   un   livello   linguistico   avanzato,   creino   o   siano   vittima   di   fraintendimenti   interculturali,  ossia  causati  da  una  mancata  capacità  di  comprensione  e  quindi  applicazione   delle  consuetudini  pragmatiche  della  l2  (nuzzo  &  gauci,  2012).  hua  e  kramsch  (2016),  rifacendosi  a  scollon   e   scollon   (2001),   interpretano   il   fraintendimento   interculturale   da   una   prospettiva   interazionale   e   interdiscorsiva,   e   risultante   da   vari   fattori   (sesso,   età,   classe   sociale,   religione,   status,   ecc.).   gli   autori   sottolineano   che   nell’esame   del   fraintendimento   interculturale   è   necessario   prendere   in   considerazione   anche   le   relazioni   di   potere   che   sono  quasi   sempre  presenti   nelle   interazioni   interculturali.  dallo   studio  di   bernstein   (2016)   emerge   che   in   certi   casi   il   fraintendimento   interculturale   non   è   tanto   il   risultato   di   differenze   linguistiche,   pragmatiche   e   culturali,   quanto   una   strategia   conversazionale   adoperata   dall’interlocutore  più   “potente”.    come  dimostrato  da  liddicoat  e  liddicoat   (2016),   anche   le   interazioni   tra   parlanti  nativi  (gli  “esperti”)  e  parlanti  non-­‐nativi,  (i  “non-­‐esperti”)  sono  spesso  caratterizzate  da  un  rapporto   di  asimmetria.     tra  le  risorse  linguistiche  e  le  strategie  pragmatiche  del  parlante  l2,  c’è  anche  la  possibilità  di  ricorrere   (consapevolmente  o  inconsapevolmente)  alla  lingua  materna  (l1).  il  transfer  pragmatico  è  l’applicazione  alla   la  protesta  in  italiano  l2   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 99 l2  delle  norme  pragmalinguistiche  e/o  sociopragmatiche  della  l11  (kasper  &  roever,  2005).  l’influenza  della   l1  può  favorire  un  “corretto”  e  “felice”  comportamento  pragmatico,  se  le  culture  l2  e  l1  condividono  simili   abitudini   e   convenzioni   pragmatiche   (transfer   pragmatico   positivo),   ma   può   al   contrario   costituire   un   ostacolo  se  le  due  culture  sono  distanti  (transfer  pragmatico  negativo).   prendiamo  per  esempio  il  caso  di  un  parlante  di  madrelingua  inglese  che,   in  un’azienda  italiana,  ha   impiegato  un’intera  giornata  per  rimediare  agli  errori  compiuti  da  un  collega  italiano  in  un  ordine  di  merci:   volendo   lamentarsi  con   il  diretto   interessato  perché  questo  non  accada  più   in   futuro,  gli  dice   in   italiano:   “il   tuo  ordine  di  ieri  avrebbe  potuto  essere  un  pochino  migliore”  (your  order  yesterday  might  have  been  slightly   better).   il   parlante   di  madrelingua   italiana   potrebbe   intuire   un   vago   senso   di   rimprovero   dalle   parole   del   collega,   ma   probabilmente   non   ne   intuirà   la   reale   portata   e   gravità.   questo   perché   il   parlante   inglese,   basandosi   su   una   formulazione   che   nella   sua   l1   avrebbe   veicolato   un   valore   illocutorio   perfettamente   adeguato,  ha  pronunciato  un  enunciato  che  in  italiano  risulta  molto  attenuato.  alla  radice  di  tale  fenomeno  si   colloca  quindi  una  mancata  presa  di   consapevolezza  della  distanza  culturale   che  può   intercorrere   tra   i  due   universi  pragmalinguistici.   lo  stesso  può  avvenire  per  quel  che  riguarda  l’allocuzione  reverenziale:  immaginiamo  uno  studente  di   madrelingua   spagnola   che   si   lamenta   con   il   proprio   docente   universitario   italiano   per   un   voto   ricevuto   chiamando  il  docente  per  nome  e  dandogli  del  tu.  lo  studente  spagnolo  sta  inavvertitamente  applicando  alla   l2  le  consuetudini  sociopragmatiche  della  sua  l1.  infatti  nel  contesto  accademico  spagnolo,  diversamente  da   quello  italiano,  tra  studenti  e  docenti  si  usa  darsi  del  tu.  il  professore  italiano  potrebbe  quindi  comprendere   l’ingenuità  pragmatica  dello  studente,  se  è  a  conoscenza  delle  diverse  dinamiche  pragmatiche  della  sua  lingua   di  provenienza,  ma  anche  offendersi  per  l’eccessiva  confidenza  dimostrata  dallo  studente.   è  opportuno  quindi  notare  che,  come  si  evince  dal  fenomeno  del  fraintendimento  interculturale,  una   scarsa  competenza  pragmatica  può  ostacolare  la  comunicazione,  provocando  conseguenze  che  vanno  al  di  là   dei  confini  dell’ambito  pragmatico  stesso.  al  contrario,  un’inadeguata  competenza  linguistica  in  molti  casi  non   comporta   problematiche   gravi   al   di   fuori   dell'ambito   strettamente   linguistico.   in   altre   parole,   un   errore   di   coniugazione  verbale  di  un  apprendente  l2  si  colloca,  nel  giudizio  del  destinatario  l1  di  tale  comunicazione,   principalmente   sulla   sua   competenza   linguistica;   un’inappropriatezza   pragmatica   invece   può   condurre   il   destinatario  l1  a  giudicare  l'intera  persona  del  parlante  l2,  non  solo  la  sua  competenza  pragmatica  (pallotti,   2000).   da   queste   annotazioni   emerge   il   rilievo   cruciale   dell’apprendimento   e   dell'insegnamento   della   pragmatica  in  una  lingua  seconda.       3.  apprendimento  e  insegnamento  della  pragmatica   fraintendimenti   simili   a   quelli   esemplificati   nel   precedente   paragrafo   rappresentano   lo   spazio   d’intervento   dell’insegnamento   della   pragmatica.   diversi   studi   condotti   negli   ultimi   anni   hanno   infatti   dimostrato   come   l’insegnamento   pragmatico   sia   efficace   e   necessario:   la   pragmatica   non   si   impara   “naturalmente”,   può   -­‐   e   deve   -­‐   essere   insegnata   (alcón   soler,   2015;   alcón   soler   &   martínez   flor,   2008;   bardovi-­‐harlig,   2015;   mullan,   2015;   taguchi,   2015).   necessaria   è   quindi   innanzitutto   la   consapevolezza   dell’insegnante  (nuzzo  &  gauci,  2012).  infatti  le  ricadute  didattiche  della  ricerca  pragmatica,  ambito  che  si  è   espanso   notevolmente   a   partire   dagli   anni   settanta   del   secolo   scorso,   non   sono   ancora   state   diffusamente   concretizzate.   pertanto   metodi   e   strumenti   d’insegnamento   pragmatico   sono   ancora   oggi   molto   dibattuti   (nuzzo  &  gauci,  2012;  roever,  2011).   occorre   innanzitutto   considerare   che   non   ogni   aspetto   della   pragmatica   sembra   poter   essere   trasmesso   con   la   stessa   facilità.   come   dimostrano   alcuni   studi,   l’acquisizione   delle   strutture   pragmalinguistiche   presenta  meno   ostacoli   di   quella   delle   nozioni   sociopragmatiche   (barron,   2003).   sia   la   ricezione   che   la   produzione   di   un   particolare   elemento   pragmalinguistico   (lessicale,   morfologico,   ecc.)   avvengono  infatti  più  scorrevolmente  della  ricezione  del  senso  sociopragmatico  dell’opportunità  contestuale.   inoltre,  è  ancora  molto  discusso  se   l’insegnamento  vada   impartito   tramite  una  modalità   implicita  o   invece  esplicita  (nuzzo  &  gauci,  2012).  in  altre  parole,  non  è  chiaro  se  le  attività  proposte  al  fine  di  insegnare   la  pragmatica  della  lingua  seconda  debbano  comprendere  esplicite  spiegazioni  di  carattere  metalinguistico  o   piuttosto  un  percorso  autonomo  di  apprendimento   induttivo.   i   fattori   che   incidono  a  questo   riguardo  sono   infatti   molteplici.   alcune   variabili   sono   rappresentate   dall’apprendimento   della   l2   in   immersione   nel   1 la  pragmalinguistica   indaga   le   risorse   linguistiche   e   le   strategie   utilizzate   dai   parlanti   per   portare   a   termine  un   atto   comunicativo   in   modo   efficace   e   adatto   al   contesto.   la   sociopragmatica   riguarda   invece   le   norme   culturali   che   condizionano  l’agire  sociale,  compresa  la  scelta  dei  comportamenti  verbali  (leech,  1983). ottaviani  &  vedder   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 100 contesto  l1,  cioè  della  lingua  materna,  o  piuttosto  come  ls,  lingua  straniera,  in  contesto  l2,  ossia  della  lingua   in  corso  di  acquisizione  (barron,  2003);  dal  livello  di  competenza  linguistica  e  dalle  esigenze  e  dagli  obiettivi   dell’apprendente  (takahashi,  2010,  2015).   un  altro  elemento  che  contribuisce  ad  alimentare   il  dibattito  sull’importanza  dell’insegnamento  della   pragmatica   in   l2   è   la   difficoltà   di   verifica   dello   sviluppo   della   competenza   pragmatica,   nonché   la   scarsa   disponibilità   di   mezzi   tramite   cui   impartire   simili   insegnamenti.   infatti,   le   modalità   tradizionali   (manuale   didattico,  spiegazione  frontale  della  regola  ed  esercizi)  sono  connotate  da  una  dinamica  meramente  oppositiva   di  giusto-­‐sbagliato  che  poco  si  presta  allo  sviluppo  della  competenza  pragmatica.  quest’ultima  si  dispiega  infatti   piuttosto  su  una  scala  di  appropriatezza.  in  altre  parole,  un  esercizio  grammaticale  sull’uso  delle  concordanze  di   genere   tra   sostantivo   e   aggettivo   può   essere   facilmente   ed   efficacemente   corretto   con   giusto   e   sbagliato;   al   contrario,   un   esercizio   sulle  modalità   con   cui   si   effettua   una   richiesta   necessita   di   una   spiegazione   che   sappia   illustrare  la  maggiore  o  minore  appropriatezza  delle  strutture  utilizzate  in  relazione  al  contesto.   in   tempi   recenti   si   è   aperto   un   campo   di   ricerca   relativo   alla   costruzione   di   strumenti   utili   per   la   ricerca,  lo  studio  e  la  valutazione  della  competenza  pragmatica2.  le  tecnologie  informatiche  e  le  opportunità   offerte   dalla   rete   hanno   spesso   favorito   la   costruzione   di   questi   nuovi   strumenti,   anche   tramite   ausili   per   l'auto-­‐valutazione.   in   particolare,   i   supporti   mediatici   hanno   reso   possibile   l’esposizione   anche   autonoma   (autoapprendimento)   degli   apprendenti   ad   una   varietà   di   situazioni   semi-­‐autentiche,   in   risposta   alle   quali   viene   richiesto   agli   apprendenti   di   reagire   pragmaticamente   tramite   esercizi   di   risposta   multipla,   completamento,  registrazione  vocale.  la  modalità  libera  di  fruizione  di  questa  variegata  offerta  di  materiale   promuove   l'autocostruzione   di   percorsi   personalizzati   in   base   alle   esigenze   e   agli   interessi   del   singolo   apprendente,  come  si  vedrà  nel  paragrafo  5.     4.  la  protesta   l’espressione  dell’atto  di  protesta,  su  cui  si  focalizza  la  nostra  ricerca,  scaturisce  nel  parlante  da  una   trasgressione   compiuta  dal  destinatario  alle  norme  di   comportamento   condivise  dalla   comunità   linguistica.   ciò  differenzia   la  protesta  dalla   richiesta3,  poiché   la   seconda  viene  espressa   in   ragione  di  un’esigenza   tutta   interna   al   parlante   (bettoni,   2006).   l’atto   di   protesta   si   compone   di   due   dimensioni:   la   componente   espressiva,   ossia   di   giudizio   e   censura,   e   quella   direttiva,   che   cioè   esige   una   riparazione   (searle,   1976).   la   presenza  di  questa  seconda  dimensione,  seppure   talvolta  solo   in   forma  di   implicatura   -­‐  ossia   la  richiesta  di   riparazione   viene   sottintesa   -­‐   distingue   invece   la   protesta   dalla   lamentela   (bettoni,   2006;   boxer,   2010;   laforest,  2002).  in  base  alla  definizione  della  protesta  di  olshtain  e  weinbach  (1987),  questo  atto  si  realizza   se  sono  presenti,  anche  solo  a  livello  implicito,  il  comportamento  socialmente  inaccettabile  del  destinatario,  le   sue  conseguenze  negative  sul  parlante,  l’atto  espressivo,  l’atto  riparativo.   la  protesta  si  configura   inoltre  come  un  atto  ad  alto  rischio  poiché  minaccia   la   faccia4  positiva  e/o   negativa  sia  del  parlante  che  del  destinatario:  la  faccia  positiva  del  parlante,  in  quanto  ne  mette  in  pericolo  la   reputazione;   la   faccia   positiva   e   negativa   del   destinatario,   visto   che   mette   in   discussione   sia   la   sua   appropriatezza  che  la  sua  libertà  (brown  &  levinson,  1987).  in  base  a  parametri  quali  la  relazione  di  potere   che   intercorre   tra   parlante   e   destinatario,   la   loro   distanza   sociale   e   il   grado   d’imposizione,   il   parlante   è   portato   a   calibrare   la   durezza   della   propria   scelta   espressiva   attraverso   la   gradualità   delle   risorse   a   sua   disposizione   (brown   &   levinson,   1987;   olshtain   &   weinbach,   1987).   la   forza   illocutiva   della   protesta   è   dunque  strettamente  collegata  all'impiego  di  strategie  di  mitigazione.  una  di  queste  è  l’utilizzo  di  modificatori   interni  ed  esterni  (bettoni,  2006).   con  il  termine  modificatori  interni  si  fa  riferimento  a  determinati  elementi  linguistici  atti  ad  attenuare   (mitigatori),  o  viceversa  intensificare  (rafforzatori),  il  contenuto  semantico  dell’enunciato.  per  questo  studio   abbiamo   scelto   di   prendere   a   riferimento   la   tassonomia   proposta   da   nuzzo   (2007),   ispirata   a   quella   di   trosborg   (1995).   in   questa   classificazione,   i   rafforzatori   raggruppano   in   un’unica   categoria   tutte   le   espressioni   che   conferiscono   incisività   all’enunciato,   dalle   parolacce   alle   enfatizzazioni   come   “per   nulla”,   “tanto”,   “assolutamente”.   per   quanto   riguarda   i  mitigatori,   invece,   la   classificazione   distingue   tre   principali   sottocategorie:  morfosintattici,  ossia   la  scelta  di  particolari   tempi  e  modi  verbali  che  distanziano  o  rendono   2 si  veda  ad  esempio  ferrari  (2016).   3 per  un’indagine  sugli  effetti  di  lira  sullo  sviluppo  della  competenza  pragmatica  della  richiesta  si  veda  santoro  (2013). 4 l’espressione,  elaborata  a  partire  da  un  conio  di  goffman  (1967)  da  brown  e  levinson  (1987),  si  riferisce  all’immagine   sociale   di   parlante   ed   interlocutore.   essa   si   articola   in   due   componenti:   positiva,   ossia   prestigio   e   appartenenza;   e   negativa,  libertà  e  autonomia. la  protesta  in  italiano  l2   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 101 indiretta   l’affermazione,   come   il   condizionale,   l’imperfetto   e   il   congiuntivo;   lessicali,   cioè   l’inserimento   di   determinati   termini   aggiuntivi   che   controbilanciano   l’impatto   dell’affermazione,   come   “gentilmente”,   “magari”,  “credo”;  discorsivi,  espressioni  che  stabiliscono  un  legame  con  il  destinatario  come  “sai”,  “vero?”  o   che  riempiono  le  lacune  d’imbarazzo  come  “praticamente”  (barron,  2003;  nuzzo,  2007;  trosborg,  1995).   il   termine   modificatori   esterni   si   riferisce   invece   a   microatti   non   strettamente   necessari   per   l’espletarsi  della  protesta  ma  tuttavia  spesso  presenti  per  negoziarne  la  realizzazione,  e  perciò  chiamati  anche   atti   di   supporto.   la   tassonomia   da   noi   adottata   li   suddivide   in   base   alle   diverse   funzioni:   l’appello   attira   l’attenzione   del   destinatario;   la   giustificazione   motiva   la   ragione   della   propria   protesta;   il   preparatore   la   introduce  e  ritarda;  il  rabbonitore  la  relativizza;  le  scuse  mostrano  la  disponibilità  del  parlante  a  mettere  in   discussione  anche  la  propria  faccia  (barron,  2003;  nuzzo,  2007;  trosborg,  1995).   da   questa   rapida   panoramica,   che   non   ha   pretese   di   esaustività,   emerge   la   complessa   dinamica   di   negoziazione  attraverso  cui   l’atto  della  protesta  si  svolge.  l’insistenza,  o  viceversa   la  mitigazione,  con  cui  si   conduce  la  protesta  varia  largamente  in  rapporto  alla  cultura,  al  contesto,  alla  relazione  tra  gli  interlocutori  e   al   parlante   stesso.   ci   si   potrebbe   a   questo   punto   interrogare   su   come   un   apprendente   di   italiano   l2   si   comporti   in   relazione   all’atto   della   protesta.   come   dimostrato   da   nuzzo   nel   suo   studio   di   confronto   tra   parlanti  nativi  ed  apprendenti  l2,  “questo  atto  comunicativo  [l’atto  della  protesta],  per  il  quale  non  esistono   in   italiano   espressioni   altamente   convenzionalizzate,   rappresent[a]   uno   scoglio   piuttosto   duro   anche   per   apprendenti   di   livello   intermedio”   (2007,   p.   136).   altri   studi   hanno   evidenziato   che   i   parlanti   della   l2,   sfruttando  meno  le  strategie  di  cortesia,  possono  a  volte  risultare  più  “aggressivi”.  quest’aggressività  spesso   non  risulta  in  una  maggiore  persuasività  ma,  al  contrario,  provoca  un  effetto  perlocutorio  poco  in  linea  con  le   proprie  aspettative  (trosborg,  1995).  è  stato  altresì  osservato  che  i  parlanti  della  l2  tentano  di  compensare   un  inadeguato  dominio  delle  strategie  di  cortesia  con  una  maggior  prolissità  (olshtain  &  weinbach,  1993).       5.  lira,  piattaforma  per  l'autoapprendimento   per   la   nostra   ricerca   abbiamo   deciso   di   utilizzare   uno   strumento   di   autoapprendimento   online.   si   tratta   della   piattaforma   multimediale   online   denominata   lira   (lingua   e   cultura   italiana   in   rete   per   l’apprendimento),  sviluppata  in  collaborazione  tra  le  università  di  perugia,  bologna,  modena  e  reggio-­‐emilia,   e  verona.   lira  è  un  archivio  multimediale  ideato  specificamente  per  lo  sviluppo  della  competenza  pragmatica   in   italiano   l2.   vista   l’importanza   della   dimensione   contestuale,   la   piattaforma   si   avvale   di   una   variegata   offerta   di   materiali   autentici   o   semi-­‐autentici   quali   esempi   di   parlato   spontaneo   e   semi-­‐spontaneo,   come   riprese  video  e  registrazioni  di  role-­‐play,  o  frammenti  di  trasmissioni  radiofoniche  e  televisive.   a   partire   da   queste   risorse,   le   attività   sono   raggruppate   da   una   parte   in   percorsi   con   focus   pragmalinguistico,  come  l’uso  della  forma  di  cortesia  nel  percorso  “dare  del  tu,  dare  del  lei”  o  l’espressione  di   complimenti   in   “parole   per   essere   carini”;   dall’altra   in   percorsi   con   focus   sociopragmatico,   come   l’approfondimento  di  eventi  quali  ad  esempio  il  matrimonio  e  il  funerale  nel  percorso  “occasioni  importanti”   o   della   gestualità   in   “non   solo   parole”.   le   attività   presenti   nei   percorsi   mirano   a   rafforzare   sia   la   comprensione   che   la   produzione   sociopragmatica   e   pragmalinguistica.   a   tale   proposito   le   attività   offrono   diverse  tipologie  di  esercizi  tra  cui  domande  a  risposta  multipla,  esercizi  di  trascinamento  e  di  ordinamento,   oltre  a  brevi  produzioni  orali  e  scritte.   nel  caso  del  percorso  dedicato  alla  protesta  “quando  le  cose  si  mettono  male”  di  cui  ci  occupiamo  in   questo   contributo,   inserito   nella   macroarea   dedicata   alla   dimensione   conflittuale   nella   comunicazione,   l’apprendente  è  guidato  attraverso  una  graduale  successione  di  attività  che  si  concentrano   inizialmente  più   sulla  competenza  ricettiva  delle  strutture  pragmalinguistiche  della  protesta  (“abbina  le  reazioni  dei  parlanti   alle   diverse   battute   del   dialogo”)   fino   ad   alcune   attività   per   lo   sviluppo   della   competenza   produttiva   delle   stesse  (“riformula  l'enunciato  attenuando  la  protesta”).   la   piattaforma   si   contraddistingue   inoltre   perché   offre   una   valutazione   delle   risposte   inserite   secondo   un   criterio   di   appropriatezza,   più   che   di   correttezza:   all’utente   viene   fornito   un   raffronto   con   le   risposte   degli   altri   utenti,   che   possono   anche   essere   selezionate   in   base   a   determinati   parametri   socio-­‐ anagrafici  quali  nativo  e  non,  varietà  regionale,  sesso  e  fascia  di  età.  ulteriore  spazio  di  confronto  è  offerto  dal   forum,  in  cui  utenti  nativi  e  l2  discutono  in  maniera  non  guidata  degli  argomenti  su  cui  hanno  lavorato  nello   svolgimento  dei  percorsi:  per  esempio  in  relazione  alla  protesta,  si  rileva  e  commenta  l’uso  di  strutture  come   “stai  attento”  in  funzione  di  minaccia  o  “hai  capito?”  in  funzione  rafforzativa,  oppure  gli  utenti  si  confrontano   sull’ordine  in  cui  disporre  una  serie  di  termini,  dal  tono  anche  molto  colloquiale  (“imbecille,  scemo,  stupido,   cretino,  pazzo”),  in  base  alla  gravità  dell’offesa  che  arrecano.   ottaviani  &  vedder   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 102 6.  strumenti  per  la  raccolta  dei  dati  pragmatici     quanto  alle  modalità  di  ricerca,  è  necessario  innanzitutto  premettere  che  una  difficoltà  nella  raccolta   dei  dati  pragmatici  è  rappresentata  dal   fatto  che   le  variabili   socio-­‐contestuali  che  caratterizzano   il  contesto   comunicativo  naturale  sono  un  fattore  importante  (gass  &  mackey,  2007,  pp.  129-­‐147).   alcuni  strumenti  che  garantiscono  l’attenzione  al  contesto  sono  le  interviste,  i  diari,  e  le  osservazioni   naturalistiche.  essi  presentano  però  un  limite  comune:  la  raccolta  dei  dati  è  molto  laboriosa  e  d'altro  canto  la   loro  diversificazione  non  consente  la  standardizzazione  utile  al  loro  successivo  utilizzo  (roever,  2006,  2011  ).   prendiamo   il   caso   delle   osservazioni   naturalistiche:   condurre   un   esperimento   sull’atto   linguistico   della   protesta   collocando   un   registratore   nell’ufficio   di   un   capo   azienda   per   intercettare   le   proteste   dei   suoi   dipendenti   può   rivelarci   uno   spaccato   molto   veritiero   sui   costrutti   pragmalinguistici   e   le   modalità   sociopragmatiche   usati   nell’atto   considerato,   ma   ci   costringe   a   perdere   molto   tempo   nell’escludere   il   materiale  irrilevante  (discussioni  che  non  riguardano  proteste  per  esempio).  inoltre  ci  pone  successivamente   di   fronte   al   problema   di   come   relazionare   tra   loro   i   dati   raccolti   generalizzandoli,   poiché   possono   essere   anche  molto  diversi  (i  dipendenti  avranno  magari  un  rapporto  di  confidenza  diverso  con  il  proprio  capo).   al   polo   opposto   si   colloca   uno   strumento   di   immediata   standardizzazione   e   bassa   laboriosità   di   somministrazione:   il   questionario   a   scelta   multipla   o   a   completamento,   che   però   non   si   presta   a   fornire   un’adeguata  contestualizzazione.  i  dati  raccolti  tramite  un  questionario  a  scelta  multipla  sono  infatti  di  rapida   elaborazione:  non  dovremo  perdere   tempo  a   separare   il  materiale  pertinente  da  quello   superfluo;   inoltre   i   dati   sono   facilmente   confrontabili   perché   sono   tutti   elaborati   in   reazione   ad   uno   stesso   stimolo.   tuttavia   questo  strumento  non  è  in  grado  di  riprodurre  un  contesto  di  comunicazione  realistico  e  dunque  di  cogliere  il   comportamento  linguistico-­‐pragmatico  naturale  di  un  parlante.   una  soluzione  intermedia  tra  l’esigenza  di  generalizzazione  dei  dati  e  la  valorizzazione  dell’elemento   contestuale   è   rappresentata   dal   dct   (discourse   completion   task)   e   dal   role-­‐play,   che   risultano   infatti   gli   strumenti  di  più  comune  utilizzo.  il  dct  propone  un  task  che  richiede  di  esternare  che  cosa  si  direbbe  in  una   data   situazione.   può   avvenire   in   forma   scritta   oppure   orale;   la   seconda   ha   il   vantaggio   di   avvicinarsi   maggiormente   al   parlato   spontaneo   anche   se   non   va   trascurato   il   fatto   che,   data   la   mancanza   di   un   interlocutore,   il   parlato   spontaneo   è   pur   sempre   simulato.   la   mancanza   dell’interlocutore   inoltre   nega   la   possibilità  di  una  conversazione  che  si  sviluppi  tramite  forme  di  negoziazione  tipiche  della  performance  di  un   atto  linguistico  in  contesto  spontaneo  (félix-­‐brasdefer,  2010).   il  role-­‐play,  che  abbiamo  scelto  di  utilizzare  per  l’elicitazione  dei  dati  della  presente  ricerca,  prevede   l’espletamento   di   un   atto   linguistico   in   interazione   con   un   interlocutore   presente.   si   tratta   cioè   di   immedesimarsi  in  una  situazione  di  cui  viene  fornita  una  descrizione  più  o  meno  dettagliata  che  solitamente   comprende   luogo,   azioni   in   corso   ed   evento   come,   per   esempio:   “sei   in   un   bar,   urti   il   barista   che   ti   sta   passando  vicino  con  un  vassoio  di  tazzine  che  cadono  per  terra.  ti  scusi”.  l’altro  interlocutore  avrà  a  sua  volta   una  contestualizzazione  speculare  “lavori  in  un  bar  e  stai  portando  a  un  tavolo  un  vassoio  di  caffè,  un  cliente  ti   urta  facendoti  rovesciare  tutti  i  caffè  e  le  tazzine  si  rompono.  gli  fai  osservare  il  danno”.   esistono   due   tipologie   di   role-­‐play:   quello   chiuso   contempla   la   reazione   orale   in   un   unico   turno   in   risposta  ad  uno  stimolo  dato;  quello  aperto  prevede  invece  uno  scambio  dialogico  esteso  al  di  là  della  singola   reazione   ad   un   input   (gass   &   mackey,   2007).   il   role-­‐play   aperto   raccoglie   dunque   un   parlato,   a   causa   dell’ambientazione   indotta,   semi-­‐spontaneo   ma   non   condizionato   strettamente,   poiché   pur   fornendo   l’impulso   iniziale   alla   conversazione   non   se   ne   stabiliscono   i  modi   né   i   tempi   di   sviluppo   (nuzzo  &   gauci,   2012).   ciò   consente   pertanto   di   esaminare   l’evolversi   dell’atto   linguistico   nella   co-­‐costruzione   dei   parlanti   (félix-­‐brasdefer,  2010).     7.  impostazione  dello  studio   7.1.  domande  e  ipotesi   la  domanda  che  ha  guidato   il  presente  studio  riguarda   i  possibili  effetti  dell’autoapprendimento   in   lira  sull’atto  di  protesta.  più  nello  specifico,  ci  siamo  chieste:     1) quali  effetti  dell’autoapprendimento  sono  riscontrabili  in  relazione  all’uso  di  modificatori  interni  da   parte  dei  partecipanti?  si  osserva  nel  tempo  25  un  incremento  quantitativo  ed  una  diversificazione   5 la  registrazione  dei  role-­‐playsi  è  svolta  in  due  fasi  (tempo  1  e  tempo  2).  una  spiegazione  dettagliata  verrà  data  al   paragrafo  7.3  raccolta  dei  dati  e  analisi. la  protesta  in  italiano  l2   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 103 tipologica  dei  modificatori  interni  rispetto  al  tempo  1?   2) quali  effetti  dell’autoapprendimento  sono  riscontrabili  in  relazione  all’uso  di  modificatori  esterni  da   parte  dei  partecipanti?  si  osserva  nel  tempo  2  un   incremento  quantitativo  ed  una  diversificazione   tipologica  dei  modificatori  esterni  rispetto  al  tempo  1?   3) è   riscontrabile   un’influenza   della   distanza   sociale   sull’uso   di   modificatori   interni   e   modificatori   esterni?  in  che  misura  si  riscontra  un  incremento  quantitativo  e  qualitativo  dei  modificatori   interni   ed  esterni  in  proporzione  alla  diversa  distanza  sociale?     sulla   base   di   quanto   esposto   nei   paragrafi   precedenti   in   relazione   alla   conformazione   della   piattaforma   lira   e   agli   studi   condotti   sulla   protesta   in   cui   si   registra   l’acquisizione   di   una   progressiva   padronanza   delle   strutture   pragmalinguistiche,   ipotizziamo   che   si   verifichi   un   incremento   quantitativo   e   qualitativo   dei   modificatori   interni   ed   esterni   e   che   l’uso   di   modificatori   interni   ed   esterni   si   espanda,   quantitativamente   e   qualitativamente,   nel   caso   di   basso   grado   di   familiarità   in   modo   proporzionalmente   maggiore  che  nel  caso  di  alto  grado  di  familiarità.  la  considerazione  di  due  diversi  gradi  di  distanza  sociale,   ossia  bassa  ed  alta   familiarità,   si  propone  di  verificare  eventuali   effetti  di   tale  parametro  sull’impiego  delle   strategie  di  attenuazione,  come  si  inferisce  da  quanto  illustrato  al  paragrafo  4.       7.2.  partecipanti   i  partecipanti  sono  tre  ragazzi  e  tre  ragazze,  tutti  studenti  di  madrelingua  olandese  iscritti  per  l’anno   accademico   2015/16   al   terzo   anno   della   laurea   triennale   in   lingua   e   cultura   italiana   all’università   di   amsterdam.   si   tratta   di   studenti   universitari   al   termine   del   proprio   percorso   triennale   di   laurea   in   italianistica,  regolarmente  esposti  a  contenuti  linguistico-­‐culturali  italiani  tramite  visione  di  film,  interazione   sui   social   network,   lettura   di   libri   ed   articoli   per   interesse   personale   e/o   finalità   accademiche,   lettura   di   giornali.  il   loro  livello  linguistico  si  può  collocare  nella  fascia  intermedia  b1  del  quadro  comune  europeo  di   riferimento   per   le   lingue   (consiglio   d’europa,   2002),   seppure   tra   di   essi   vi   sia   una   forte   variazione   individuale  dovuta  a  vari  fattori  tra  cui  una  diversa  durata  e  modalità  di  esposizione  all’italiano.  infatti  tutti   hanno  trascorso   in   italia  più  periodi  di  qualche  settimana  ma  alcuni  anche  dei  mesi  ed   in  un  caso  anni,  per   diverse  ragioni:  studio,  lavoro,  vacanza.       7.3.  raccolta  dei  dati  e  analisi   l’esperimento  si  è  svolto  nel  corso  di  tre  settimane  successive.  i  partecipanti  hanno  messo  in  pratica   le  proprie  competenze  pragmatiche  in  due  momenti  distinti,  intervallati  da  un  tempo  di  autoapprendimento   sulla  piattaforma  lira,  attraverso  alcune  attività  tratte  dal  percorso  “quando  le  cose  si  mettono  male”  mirate   allo  sviluppo  della  competenza  ricettiva  e  produttiva  dell’atto  di  protesta.   la  raccolta  dei  dati  si  è  sviluppata  con  i  seguenti  scopi:     − tempo  1  (t1):  la  registrazione  audiovisiva  di  due  primi  role-­‐play  (uno  a  basso  grado  di  familiarità  -­‐   con  uno  sconosciuto;  l’altro  ad  alto  grado  di  familiarità  -­‐  con  un  amico)  per  accertare  le  competenze   pragmatiche  dei  partecipanti  prima  dell’autoapprendimento;   − la  fruizione  in  autonomia  di  alcune  attività  della  piattaforma  lira  selezionate;   − tempo  2  (t2):  la  registrazione  audiovisiva  di  altri  due  role-­‐play,  con  script  diversi  ma  affini  a  quelli   del  t1,  per  riscontrare  gli  effetti  pragmalinguistici  e  sociopragmatici  dell’autoapprendimento.     per   quanto   riguarda   le   fasi   di   registrazione   dei   role-­‐play,   va   precisato   che   la   ricercatrice   che   si   è   occupata   di   interloquire   con   i   partecipanti   ha   ricoperto   in   tutti   i   role-­‐play   il   ruolo   del   destinatario   della   protesta:  ha  reagito  in  modo  tendenzialmente  uniforme  ma  non  rigido.  in  particolare  la  sua  prima  reazione  è   stata  in  tutti  i  role-­‐play  di  funzione  giustificativa  all’iniziale  espressione  di  protesta  del  partecipante.  inoltre,  a   livello   di   struttura,   ha   cercato   attraverso   differenti   modalità   di   negoziare   in   maniera   complessa   prima   di   giungere  alla  risoluzione  dell’atto.  per  esempio,  nel  caso  della  protesta  per  un  sorpasso  in  fila  alla  posta:  “eh   vabbè   ormai   son  qua   cosa   devo   tornare   indietro   eh   insomma  non   facciam  perder   tempo   a   nessuno  dai”,   e   ancora  “una  persona  più  una  persona  meno  cosa  le  cambia?”6.     nella  settimana  di  autoapprendimento,   invece,  abbiamo  assegnato  ai  partecipanti   lo  svolgimento  in   6   per   ulteriori   spunti   si   consulti   la   trascrizione   esemplificativa   completa   dei   quattro   role-­‐play   interpretati   dall’apprendente  che  nelle  tabelle  è  contraddistinto  dal  numero  5  riportata  in  appendice.   ottaviani  &  vedder   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 104 autonomia  di  alcune  attività  selezionate  dal  percorso  lira  “quando  le  cose  si  mettono  male”.  la  durata  dello   svolgimento,   che   era   stata   ipotizzata   per   all’incirca   un’ora   e   un   quarto,   è   variata   a   seconda   della   scelta   individuale   riguardo   al   grado   di   approfondimento   delle   attività   dai   30   minuti   alle   2   ore.   la   durata   dell’autoapprendimento,  e  quella  del  role-­‐play,  non  è  un  fattore  che  è  stato  preso  in  considerazione  per  questa   ricerca.   più  nel  dettaglio,   le  attività  di  lira  prevedevano  un’autovalutazione   iniziale  e,  a  partire  da  estratti   video  e  di  lettura,  esercizi  relativi  all’individuazione  delle  strutture  corrispondenti  ad  un  determinato  valore   illocutorio7   (quale   espressione   usa   il   parlante   “per   mostrare   insofferenza”);   la   disposizione   delle   proteste   secondo  il  grado  di  gravità;  la  produzione  orale  in  reazione  a  determinati  input.   per  rispondere  alle  domande  della  ricerca  esposte  nel  paragrafo  7.1.,  abbiamo  condotto  l’analisi  dei   role-­‐play   sulle   trascrizioni,   che  si   sono  effettuate  con  una  notazione  di  base   tratta  dal   sistema  di   jefferson8.   abbiamo   poi   raccolto   i   modificatori   interni,   sia   mitigatori   che   rafforzatori,   e   quelli   esterni   presenti   nelle   trascrizioni  dei  role-­‐play  prima  (tempo  1:  t1)  e  dopo  l’autoapprendimento  (tempo  2:  t2).  per  la  rilevazione   di  modificatori  interni  ed  esterni,  fatta  dalle  due  ricercatrici,  abbiamo  utilizzato  la  classificazione  elaborata  da   nuzzo  (2007).  l’analisi  è  stata  condotta  manualmente  dalle  due  ricercatrici,   che,  nei  casi   in  cui  non  si  sono   trovate  d’accordo  sull’interpretazione  e  sulla  classificazione,  si  sono  rivolte  ad  un  terzo  ricercatore.  sono  stati   evidenziati  e  catalogati  nelle  trascrizioni  tutti  i  modificatori  interni  ed  esterni  utilizzati  dagli  apprendenti  (si   veda   l’appendice).   abbiamo   infine  messo   a   confronto   nelle   tabelle   che   seguono   i   risultati   t1   e   t2   di   ogni   partecipante.     7.4.  i  role-­‐play   in   ciascun   role-­‐play,   il   partecipante   si   è   trovato   ad   interagire   con   la   stessa   ricercatrice,   parlante   nativa,   sulla   base   dello   stimolo   di   uno   script   per   immedesimarsi   nella   situazione   da   inscenare   come   l’ambientazione  e   il   fatto  che  suscita   la  protesta.  lo  script  non  prescriveva   invece  né   le  modalità  né   i   tempi   con  cui  condurre  la  protesta,  che  i  partecipanti  hanno  perciò  realizzato  liberamente.   le   situazioni   prescelte   per   i   role-­‐play   hanno   dunque   previsto,   sia   prima   che   dopo   l’autoapprendimento,  una  protesta  a  basso  grado  di  familiarità  (con  uno  sconosciuto)  e  una  ad  alto  grado  di   familiarità  (con  un  amico).  le  situazioni  sono  state  scelte  in  quanto  affini  ad  altre  presentate  sulla  piattaforma   lira.  i  task  sono  riportati  per  intero  in  appendice.   per  la  protesta  con  uno  sconosciuto,  l’elemento  scatenante  era,  nella  prima  fase,  la  sottrazione  di  un   posto  macchina  al  parcheggio;  nella  terza,  la  prevaricazione  della  fila  alla  posta.  per  la  protesta  con  un  amico,   l’ambientazione  era  data  da  un  contesto  di  shopping  sia  prima  che  dopo  l’autoapprendimento:  per  il  role-­‐play   prima  dell’autoapprendimento,   la   protesta   era   relativa   all’eccessivo   soffermarsi   dell’amico   in   ogni   negozio;   per  quello  dopo,  alle  ripetute  discussioni  con  i  commessi.     8.  risultati     i   risultati   riportati   di   seguito   forniscono   soltanto   una   panoramica   di   tendenze   emerse   nei   role-­‐play.   come  è  già  stato  ribadito  nella  sezione  introduttiva  dell’articolo,  questo  studio  si  connota  come  esplorativo:  il   ridotto  numero  di  partecipanti  (sei  apprendenti),   la  variazione  individuale  tra  gli  apprendenti  e  l’assenza  di   un  gruppo  di  controllo   (i.e.  apprendenti  l2  che  non  hanno  svolto   le  attività  del  percorso  didattico  di  lira)   autorizzano   soltanto   a   sottolineare   aspetti   di   criticità   da   monitorare   ed   approfondire   in   studi   futuri,   rinunciando   perciò   in   questa   sede   ad   affermazioni   generali   che   non   risulterebbero   sufficientemente   documentate.     la  tabella  1  confronta   l'uso  dei  modificatori   interni   che  ciascun  apprendente   (contraddistinto  da  un   numero  dall'1  al  6)  ha  effettuato  dapprima  nei  due  role-­‐play  del  t1  e  successivamente  nei  due  role-­‐play  del   t2.   i  modificatori   interni   sono   stati   suddivisi   in   base   alla   funzione   in  mitigatori   e   rafforzatori.   per   quanto   riguarda  i  mitigatori  sono  stati,  a  loro  volta,  raggruppati  in  morfosintattici,   lessicali  e  discorsivi.  il  conteggio   delle   parole   riguarda   gli   enunciati   proferiti   dall'apprendente   nel   corso   dei   due   role-­‐play.   nonostante   il   numero  di  parole  degli   enunciati   degli   apprendenti   non   sia   identico,   visto   il   numero   ridotto  di   occorrenze,   riportiamo  i  dati  non  in  percentuali  ma  in  numeri  assoluti.  si  noti  che  in  cinque  casi  su  sei  il  numero  di  parole   7  secondo  austin  (1975)  gli  atti  linguistici  presentano  tre  principali  aspetti:  locutorio,  ossia  il  proferimento  delle  parole;   illocutorio,  l’intenzione  d’azione;  e  perlocutorio,  l’effetto  provocato.   8   si   tratta   del   sistema   più   comunemente   adottato   per   l’analisi   conversazionale   poiché   consente   di   riportare   nella   trascrizione  non  solo  che  cosa  si  è  detto  ma  anche  come  lo  si  è  detto.  per  ulteriori  dettagli  si  veda  jefferson  (2004). la  protesta  in  italiano  l2   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 105 nel   t2   si   riduce   rispetto   a   quello   impiegato   durante   il   t1.   dati   i   suddetti   limiti   dello   studio   e   i   numeri   di   modificatori  piuttosto  bassi,  non  sono  state  calcolate  le  medie  e  ci  siamo  inoltre  astenute  dall’analisi  statistica   dei  dati.  per  praticità  e   comodità  di   lettura,  non  abbiamo  riportato   la  distinzione   in   sottotipologie  per  ogni   categoria  di  modificatori.     tabella 1 modificatori interni (mitigatori morfosintattici, lessicali e discorsivi; rafforzatori) utilizzati da ciascun apprendente (a1,a2, a3, a4, a5, a6) nella protesta tempo 1 (t1) e tempo 2 (t2)   a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 t1 t2 t1 t2 t1 t2 t1 t2 t1 t2 t1 t2 parole 169 217 218 140 175 84 152 134 185 174 328 204 mitigatori morfosintattici 1 1 2 1 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 mitigatori lessicali 2 4 3 2 3 0 0 2 6 1 2 1 mitigatori discorsivi 4 9 14 9 1 0 4 5 5 4 11 6 tot. mitigatori interni 7 14 19 12 4 0 5 9 12 5 13 7 rafforzatori 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 2 tot. modificatori 7 15 19 13 5 0 7 9 12 6 13 9   come  si  evince  dalla  tabella  1,  rispetto  al  t1  i  modificatori  interni  nel  t2  sono  aumentati  in  due  casi   e   diminuiti   in   quattro.   il   dato   naturalmente   non   va   preso   in   esame   senza   consapevolezza   della   già   citata   riduzione  del  numero  di  parole  nel  t2.  le  occorrenze   sono  ridotte,  ma  di  diversa   tipologia:   tra   i  mitigatori   morfosintattici   ricorrono   i   condizionali   (“sarebbe”);   fra   quelli   lessicali   attenuatori   (“un   po'”)   e   dubitatori   (“forse”);   tra   quelli   discorsivi   i   riempitivi   (“dai”)   e   i   fatismi   (“sai”).   ma   sono   anche   presenti   incassature   (“chiedere  se..”)  per  la  prima  categoria;    soggettivizzatori  (“secondo  me”)  e  minimizzatori  (“è  solo  che”)  per  la   seconda;  marche  di  cortesia  (“per  piacere”)  e  richieste  d'accordo  (“o  no?”)  per  la  terza.  quanto  ai  rafforzatori,   si   tratta   di   alcuni   intensificatori   (“proprio”),   qualche   richiamo   (“veramente”),   ed   un'unica   espressione   dispregiativa  (“oddio”).   la  tabella  2  confronta  l'uso  dei  modificatori  esterni  che  ciascun  apprendente  ha  effettuato  dapprima   nei   due   role-­‐play   del   t1   e   successivamente   nei   due   role-­‐play  del   t2.   il   conteggio   delle   parole   riguarda   gli   enunciati  proferiti  dall'apprendente  nel  corso  dei  due  role-­‐play  svolti  con  la  medesima  ricercatrice.  come  già   ricordato  per  la  tabella  precedente,  va  osservata  la  riduzione  del  numero  di  parole  che  avviene  in  cinque  casi   su  sei  tra  t1  e  t2.     tabella 2 modificatori esterni utilizzati da ciascun apprendente (a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6) nella protesta tempo 1 (t1) e tempo 2 (t2)   a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 t1 t2 t1 t2 t1 t2 t1 t2 t1 t2 t1 t2 parole 169 217 218 140 175 84 152 134 185 174 328 204 modificatori esterni 11 6 7 4 12 4 9 6 8 5 11 6   come  si  evince  dalla  tabella  2,  i  modificatori  esterni  nel  t2  sono  diminuiti  in  tutti  i  sei  casi  rispetto  al   t1.  giovi  ricordare  ancora  una  volta  la  riduzione  tra  t1  e  t2  del  numero  di  parole  impiegato.  le  occorrenze   sono  ridotte,  ma  di  diversa  tipologia:  molte  giustificazioni  (“però  io  devo  parcheggiare...”),  rabbonitori  (“sì  ha   ragione”),  scuse  (“scusa”)  e  qualche  appello  (“carissima”).   la  tabella  3  confronta  l'uso  complessivo  dei  modificatori  interni  ed  esterni  che  ciascun  apprendente   ha   effettuato  dapprima  nei   due   role-­‐play   ad   alto   grado  di   familiarità   e   successivamente  nei   due   role-­‐play   a   basso  grado  di  familiarità.  il  conteggio  delle  parole  riguarda  gli  enunciati  proferiti  dall'apprendente  nel  corso   dei  due  role-­‐play  svolti  con  la  medesima  ricercatrice.         tabella 3 modificatori interni (mitigatori morfosintattici, lessicali e discorsivi; rafforzatori) ed esterni utilizzati da ciascun apprendente (a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6) nella protesta ad alto (a) e basso (b) grado di familiarità a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 ottaviani  &  vedder   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 106 grado di familiarità a b a b a b a b a b a b parole 156 230 148 210 94 165 130 156 137 222 244 288 mitigatori morfosintattici 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 mitigatori lessicali 6 0 3 2 3 0 2 0 6 1 2 1 mitigatori discorsivi 9 4 10 13 1 0 3 6 6 3 11 6 rafforzatori 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 tot. modificatori interni 16 6 15 17 5 0 5 11 13 5 14 7 modificatori esterni 11 6 3 8 7 9 9 6 11 2 7 10   come  si  evince  dalla  tabella  3,  i  modificatori  interni  sono  più  numerosi  nella  protesta  a  basso  grado   di  familiarità  rispetto  a  quello  alto  in  due  casi  su  sei.  quanto  ai  modificatori  esterni,  essi  sono  più  numerosi  in   tre  casi  su  sei.   riassumendo  i  risultati  delle  tre  tabelle,  contrariamente  alle  ipotesi  da  noi  formulate,   i  modificatori   interni  nel  t2  sono  aumentati  solo  in  due  casi  e  quelli  esterni  in  nessun  caso.  la  bassa  familiarità  ha  registrato   un  uso  maggiore  di  modificatori  interni  in  due  casi  su  sei  e  di  esterni  in  tre  casi  su  sei.  sia  il  cambiamento  tra   t1   e   t2,   sia   quello   tra   alta   e   bassa   familiarità,   non   sono   dunque   generalizzati;   in   alcuni   casi   tuttavia   il   cambiamento   è   osservabile   e   potrebbe   pertanto   essere   ricondotto   al   percorso   individuale   di   ciascun   apprendente.   per   esempio,   l'aumento  dei  modificatori   interni   nel   t2  da  parte   dell'apprendente  1   dimostra   come   l’autoapprendimento   possa   portare   ad   un'espansione   non   solo   a   livello   quantitativo   ma   anche   qualitativo,  per  esempio  per  quanto   riguarda   i  mitigatori  discorsivi   si  passa  da  un  semplice   “cioè”  nel  t1  a   “senta”,  “sinceramente”,  “per  cortesia”,  che  nel  t2  delineano  una  varietà  di  strumenti  più  ricercata  ed  efficace.     9.  discussione   nonostante  la  forte  variazione  dei  risultati  dei  singoli  non  consenta  di  tracciare  tendenze  univoche  in   relazione  all’autoapprendimento  pragmatico,  i  cui  effetti  sono  fortemente  legati  alle  conoscenze  pregresse  e   all’interesse  di  ciascun  utente,   risponderemo  ora  alle  domande  che  hanno  guidato  questa  ricerca   in  base  ai   risultati  appena  esposti.  le  osservazioni  che  proponiamo  ora  non  mirano  comunque  ad  evidenziare  specifici   effetti  dell’autoapprendimento  in  quanto,  come  premesso  nei  paragrafi  precedenti,  la  mancanza  di  un  gruppo   di  controllo  ed  il  ridotto  numero  di  apprendenti  coinvolti  non  lo  consentono.  la  differenza  nella  lunghezza  dei   testi  inoltre  non  permette  di  valutare  in  termini  assoluti  gli  incrementi  e  le  riduzioni  nell’uso  di  modificatori   che  noi  rileviamo.  quanto  affermiamo  ha  dunque   lo  scopo  di  mettere   in  rilievo  per   futuri  studi  una  serie  di   aspetti  critici.   la  prima  ipotesi,  relativa  ai  modificatori  interni,  risulta  confermata  solo  in  relazione  alle  peculiarità   dei   due   casi   di   aumento.   quanto   all'aumento,   inoltre,   esso   riguarda   in   un   caso   il   solo   livello   quantitativo,   nell'altro   anche   quello   qualitativo.   pur   essendoci   una   pluralità   di   cause   possibili,   il   peso   della   componente   individuale  potrebbe  essere  motivato  dalla  pluriennale  esperienza  in  italia  di  un  apprendente  e  dalla  spiccata   diligenza   di   studio   di   un   altro   apprendente.   entrambi   i   fattori   sembrano   indicare   che   l’incremento,   non   automatico,   si   lega   ad  una  maggiore   familiarità   linguistica   e   pragmatica.   va   anche   aggiunto   che   il  mancato   aumento  di  modificatori   interni,   o  anzi   il   calo,   si   traduce  per  esempio  nella   riduzione  dell'uso  di  mitigatori   discorsivi  quali   i  riempitivi,  come  “insomma”,  che  denotavano  esitazioni  e  mancanza  di  ulteriore  capacità  di   negoziazione.  allo  stesso  modo,  la  riduzione  di  mitigatori  lessicali  come  “un  po'  più”  o  “non  proprio  tanto”,  ha   consentito   una   più   diretta   ed   efficace   gestione   della   protesta   e   l'emergere   di   una   maggiore   fermezza   d’intenzione.   la  seconda  ipotesi,  relativa  ai  modificatori  esterni,  è  confutata.  contrariamente a quanto ci aspettavamo, i  modificatori  esterni  infatti  diminuiscono  in  tutti  i  sei  casi.  tuttavia,  come  si  è  ripetuto  più  volte  nel  paragrafo   precedente,  questo  dato  va  associato  a  quello  della  riduzione  del  numero  di  parole  avvenuta  per  cinque  casi   su   sei   nel   t2.   non   si   registra   un'espansione   a   livello   qualitativo   del   repertorio   pragmalinguistico.   questa   diminuzione   non   è   da   leggersi   necessariamente   come   un   impoverimento,   in   quanto   potrebbe   invece   segnalare  la  volontà  di  ridurre,  tramite  una  strutturazione  dell’atto  più  diretta,   la  condiscendenza  derivante   dal  transfer  pragmatico  della  l1.     la  terza  ipotesi,  relativa  all'influenza  del  fattore  della  distanza  sociale,  è  verificata  nuovamente  solo   in  relazione  alla  peculiarità  dei  casi,  in  quanto  si  manifesta  nell’uso  di  modificatori  interni  in  due  casi  su  sei  e   nell'uso  di  quelli  esterni  nella  metà  dei  casi.   tali   conclusioni   non   possono   che   ribadire   l'osservazione   di   nuzzo   (2007)   sulla   natura   particolarmente  ostica,  in  quanto  non  standardizzata,  dell'apprendimento  della  protesta  in  italiano  l2  anche   la  protesta  in  italiano  l2   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 107 per  apprendenti  di  livello  intermedio,  come  quelli  che  hanno  preso  parte  a  questo  esperimento.  in  particolare,   sembra  di  poter  affermare  che   il  numero  di   attività   selezionate  per  questo  studio  dal  percorso  di  lira  e   il   tempo  durante  cui  si  è  svolta  la  sperimentazione  non  siano  sufficienti  per  un  significativo  miglioramento  delle   competenze   produttive   nell'atto   di   protesta.   va   comunque   tenuto   in   conto   che   l'analisi   è   complicata   dall'eterogeneità   del   livello   di   competenza   linguistica   globale   di   ciascun   partecipante.   pertanto   sarebbe   opportuno   condurre   uno   studio   con   un   maggior   numero   di   partecipanti   ed   un   livello   di   competenza   più   omogeneo,   o   in   alternativa   uno   studio   longitudinale   che   possa   indagare   lo   sviluppo   della   competenza   pragmatica  in  un  lasso  di  tempo  più  esteso.     10.  conclusioni   come  dimostrano  le  rilevazioni  di  cui  sopra,  i  benefici  dell’uso  di  lira  si  manifestano  non  soltanto  e   forse   non   tanto   a   livello   di   produzione   linguistica,   bensì   a   livello   di   consapevolezza   pragmatica,   con   conseguenze  sia  sulla  ricezione  che  sull’elaborazione  di  un  atto  di  protesta.  per  quanto  riguarda  la  ricezione,   alcuni  partecipanti  hanno  dichiarato  in  maniera  spontanea  nella  fase  di  post-­‐apprendimento,  senza  per  altro   che   venisse   richiesto,   di   aver   frainteso   per   ironia   l’intenzione   d’offesa   di   alcune   espressioni   presenti   negli   esercizi,  che  richiedevano  ad  esempio  se  determinate  espressioni  presenti  nell’estratto  video  fossero  volte  ad   “offendere  seriamente”,  “offendere  amichevolmente”  o  “ironizzare”.   a   proposito   dell’elaborazione,   invece,   alla   conclusione   della   seconda   fase   di   registrazione   un   partecipante  ha  affermato  spontaneamente  che  egli,  per  scelta  e  indole  personale,  non  desiderava  adeguarsi   al   “modus”   tipico   italiano   d’insistenza   nell’esigere   l’atto   di   riparazione:   “non   è   nel   mio   carattere   insistere   troppo”.  ancora  a  riguardo  dell'elaborazione,  la  tesi  di  una  maggiore  consapevolezza  pragmatica  è  sostenuta   da  alcuni  elementi  impliciti  che  abbiamo  rilevato.  si  tratta  della  maggior  concisione  –  in  termini  di  numero  di   parole  -­‐  di  cinque  su  sei  role-­‐play  del  t2,  che  ci  pare  dettata  non  da  scarsità  di  mezzi  quanto  piuttosto  dalla   volontà  di  veicolare  un  atteggiamento  più  asciutto;  dalla  riduzione  nel  t2  dell'uso  di  mitigatori  discorsivi  di   tipo  riempitivo  che  nel  t1  ostacolavano  l'efficacia  delle  capacità  di  negoziazione  degli  apprendenti  e   la   loro   fermezza;  dalla  diminuzione  nel  t2  dell'uso  di  modificatori  esterni,  di  nuovo   leggibile  non  come  scarsità  di   mezzi  bensì  come  minore  accondiscendenza  in  contrasto  con  il  transfer  pragmatico  della  l1  ipotizzato  per  il   t1.   i   risultati   si   potrebbero   dunque   interpretare,   alla   luce   della   breve   durata   dello   studio,   come   l’acquisizione  di  questa  che  abbiamo  definito  consapevolezza  sociopragmatica,  emersa  come  descritto  sopra   sia  implicitamente  nei  role-­‐play  del  t2  sia  in  qualche  caso  esplicitamente  in  maniera  spontanea.  l’incremento   della  consapevolezza  nella  competenza  ricettiva  precederebbe,   in  prospettiva,  un  più  marcato  ampliamento   delle  competenze  produttive.   va  anche  notato  che,  come  si  evince  dalla  descrizione  nel  sottoparagrafo  7.3.  delle  attività  selezionate   in  lira  per  questo  esperimento,  esse  miravano  principalmente  ad  accrescere  la  competenza  ricettiva  tramite   il   riconoscimento   delle   strutture   pragmalinguistiche   e   le   consuetudini   sociopragmatiche.   l’accrescimento   della  componente  produttiva,  pur  non  omesso,  era  quantitativamente  minore:  si  concretizzava  infatti  in  pochi   quesiti  di  produzione  orale  e  per  iscritto.   in   conclusione   questa   ricerca,   tramite   le   tracce   di  miglioramento   nella   competenza   ricettiva   sopra   descritte,  porta  un  ulteriore  seppur  modesto  contributo  alla  convinzione  dell’efficacia  dell’insegnamento  della   pragmatica.   ne   dimostra   anzi   la   necessità,   poiché   il   mancato   miglioramento   nella   competenza   produttiva   attesta  per  antitesi  l’utilità  di  condurre  percorsi  di  apprendimento  pragmatico  di  lunga  durata.   inoltre,   questo   studio   testimonia   la   rilevanza,   tra   le   varie  modalità   di   apprendimento   pragmatico,   dell’autoapprendimento,   in   quanto   valorizza   le   peculiarità   della   dimensione   personale   di   ciascun   apprendente.   in   particolare,   infine,   come   strumento   per   l’autoapprendimento   pragmatico   lira   pare   presentare  molti  vantaggi,  tra  cui  la  modularità  di  fruizione  dei  percorsi,  la  varietà  e  l’autenticità  realistica  dei   materiali  proposti,  la  diversificazione  delle  attività,  il  confronto  con  i  parlanti  nativi  e  il  dibattito  tra  gli  utenti   della  piattaforma.               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interlanguage   pragmatics.   requests,   complaints   and   apologies.   berlino,   germania:   mouton  de  gruyter.         ottaviani  &  vedder   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 110 appendice     di   seguito   è   riportata   per   intero   la   trascrizione   dei   quattro   role-­‐play   interpretati   da   uno   degli   apprendenti   (a)   che   ha   partecipato   all’esperimento   con   la   ricercatrice   (r):   si   tratta   dell’apprendente   contrassegnato   con   il   numero   5.   abbiamo   anteposto   alla   trascrizione   di   ciascun   role-­‐play   il   testo   del   task   relativo.   i  role-­‐play,  con  annessi  task,  sono  riportati  nel  seguente  ordine:  1)  t1  a  basso  grado  di  familiarità;  2)   t1  ad  alto  grado  di  familiarità;  3)  t2  a  basso  grado  di  familiarità;  4)  t2  ad  alto  grado  di  familiarità.  nel  testo   della   trascrizione  dei   role-­‐play,   i  modificatori   impiegati   dall’apprendente  5   sono   stati  messi   in   luce   tramite   l’uso  del  grassetto  seguito  da  una  sigla  tra  parentesi  che  ne  identifica  la  tipologia:  tra  i  modificatori  interni,  i   mitigatori  morfosintattici  (mm),  i  mitigatori  lessicali  (ml),  i  mitigatori  discorsivi  (md)  ed  i  rafforzatori  (r);  ed   inoltre  i  modificatori  esterni  (me).     t1 a basso grado di familiarità 1) tra estranei: il parcheggio apprendente (a) è più di mezz'ora che stai cercando un posteggio libero nel parcheggio di un centro commerciale. finalmente vedi un'auto liberare un posto, metti fuori la freccia e ti avvicini con la tua auto. un altro automobilista imbocca velocemente la corsia contromano e infila la macchina nel posto che si è appena liberato. gli/le fai notare la situazione. ricercatore (r) sei nel parcheggio di un centro commerciale, vedi un posto libero e ti infili velocemente contromano, pur vedendo che c’è un’auto in arrivo nella direzione corretta. ti senti nel giusto e difendi la tua posizione. a oh ma non avevi visto che avevo messo la freccia che stavo aspettando? r ah mi scusi no guardi non l’ho visto ormai l’ho messa dentro a eh ma non so (md) forse (ml) potrebbe parcheggiare (mm) altrove r ma scusi il tempo che la tiro fuori lei ci entra dentro io trovo un altro posto facciam prima a tenere così guardi faccia un giro del parcheggio che ne trova [subito un altro] a [eh ma è da mezz’ora] che sto aspettando (me) non va bene così r eh non è che c’è il cronometro signora non stia lì a farmi il pelo a cercarmi il pelo nell’uovo eh a eee cos’altro (hhh) non lo so (md) eee r (h) si arrende? a eeh sì (hh) [se tu (hh)] r [(hhhh)] d’accordo a putroppo sì la  protesta  in  italiano  l2   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 111 t1 ad alto grado di familiarità 2) tra amici: shopping lento apprendente (a) stai facendo shopping con un/a tuo/a amico/a che si ferma davanti a tutte le vetrine per almeno 10 minuti. tu devi ancora comprare diverse cose e state camminando già da un paio d'ore. gli/le fai notare la situazione. ricercatore (r) stai facendo shopping con una tua amica, te la prendi con calma e ti fermi davanti a tutte le vetrine. chi ti accompagna sembra infastidito/a, ma ti senti nel giusto e difendi la tua posizione. a eehm ma giulia senti (me) [non] r [eh?] a possiamo fare un po’ più (ml) veloce? perché sai (ml) io devo ancora (me) comprare qualche cosa e poi devo (me) andare a casa e non c’ho proprio tanto (ml) tempo per [g( )] r [sì aspetta] un attimo solo dai (md) lasciami vedere qua che stavo guardando con calma questa tanto non è che ci siam soffermate più di tanto eh? a eh sì lo so (me) è solo che (ml) abbiamo ancora da fare e non c’ho tanto tempo (me) [quindi ( )] r [eh vabbè cosa vuoi] dire? cioè tu ti dividi tu fai le tue cose e io faccio le mie o sei venuta anche per fare le cose insieme con calma? a eh possiamo fare le cose insieme però con calma purtroppo no ee se no ciii dividia eee dividiamo e r vabbè guarda se lo shopping dev’essere uno stress allora non lo so la prossima volta me lo [dici] a [no no] ma non lo volevo dire così (me) è solo che (ml) mmh devo fare altre cose (me) quindi se facciamo se sai già che comunque non vuoi comprare quelle scarpe invece di stare lì a guardare mezz’ora forse (ml) li possiamo guardare due secondi e poi r ma scusa come faccio a sapere che non voglio comprarle se non le guardo prima per mezz’ora? a eeehm r dimmi allora facciam così facciamo le cose che vuoi tu io ti seguo e non guardo nien[te] a [noo] no non dev’essere così dai (md) mi mi fa molto piacere fare lo shopping insieme [però dev’essere svelta (hh)] r [strano non sembra] a eeh r vabbè a vabbè (hh) r vedrò di accelerare un po’ a (hhhh) ottaviani  &  vedder   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 112 t2 a basso grado di familiarità 1) tra estranei: la fila in posta apprendente (a) è più di mezz'ora che stai aspettando in fila il tuo turno per ritirare un pacco. finalmente tocca a te, quando un altro utente ti passa davanti e fa la sua richiesta allo sportello. gli/le fai notare la situazione. ricercatore (r) sei in posta e senza fare attenzione a chi è arrivato prima di te vai al primo sportello libero. ti senti nel giusto e difendi la tua posizione. a oh ma signora (me) che sta facendo? r ma ee cosa scusi? [siamo alla posta] a [ee siamo tutti] qui a fare la fila e lei non r aah mi scusi non l’ho vista mi spiace a eh allora si mette dietro [vero (md)?] r [eh vabbè] a e fa comunque la fila? r ho già cominciato a eh ma non funziona così r ma dai lei è subito dopo di me non le cambia poi nulla a eh no per me no però stiamo qui con dieci persone che stanno aspettando da da non so mezz’ora no [( ) bisogna fare la fila] r [eh ma se ogni cosa ci] si mette due minuti stiamo facendo per tempo appunto alle altre persone [indietro] a [eh è per]chè ci sono persone come lei no sta’ dietro r mi sta dicendo che l’ho fatto apposta [per saltare la fila?] a [eh sì e] non importa anche se non l’ha fatto apposta comunque deve fare la fila r vabbè allora facciam perder tempo anche alla cassiera e tutto e [prego è contenta così?] a [va bene grazie (hh)] r prego la  protesta  in  italiano  l2   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 113 t2 ad alto grado di familiarità 2) tra amici: cliente litigioso apprendente (a) stai facendo shopping con un/a tuo/a amico/a che in ogni negozio discute con i commessi per vari motivi. questa cosa ti imbarazza. quando uscite da un negozio dove il/la tuo/a amico/a ha avuto una discussione particolarmente forte, fai notare all'amica il fatto che non gradisci il suo comportamento. ricercatore (r) stai facendo shopping con un/a tuo/a amico/a, in uno dei negozi ti ritrovi ad avere una discussione piuttosto forte con una commessa a causa del suo comportamento scortese. ti senti nel giusto e difendi la tua posizione. a eeh o ma giulia (me) quello non si dice ai ai commessi [non dai (md)] r [che cosa?] a non fare questi discorsi r ma scusa non hai sentito? mi ha offesa a eh sì lo so però (me) no non va bene così poi offendere questi commessi non va bene lo [stesso] r [ma] cosa con vieni fa qua a farmi da maestra? cioè a nono è solo che (ml) io mi imbarazzo sono con te e fai tutto questo casino nel negozio no [non so (md)] r [allora] devo farmi offendere in sostanza mi stai dicendo? [è stata lei a cominciare] a [eh forse sì sì] sono completamente d’accordo però (me) invece di di but buttarti proprio (r) nell’a nell’attacco [hai pace] r [e cos’è il] pacifismo assoluto così mi faccio calpestare dalla prima commessa che arriva che è qua pagata per fare il suo lavoro non lo fa neanche bene già non ha niente da fare a eh lo so ma (me) non è diciamoooo (md) non sono affari tuoi r oddio ho toccato la tua delicatezza a (hhh) r vabbè la prossima volta cercherò di comportarmi meglio a ok (hhh) grazie                 ottaviani  &  vedder   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  97-­‐114 114   anna vittoria ottaviani,  università degli studi di trento anna.ottaviani@alumni.unitn.it it anna vittoria ottaviani è insegnante di lettere presso il liceo arcivescovile c. endrici di trento. laureata in filologia e critica letteraria ambito classico, è impegnata nello studio e nella divulgazione dell’analisi testuale nelle sue varie declinazioni cronotopiche e contaminazioni metodologiche. è inoltre attiva in numerose iniziative di politica culturale sul territorio. en anna vittoria ottaviani is a high school teacher of italian at the liceo arcivescovile c. endrici in trento. she graduated in philology and literary critics with an emphasis on classical studies. she focuses on the study and dissemination of textual analysis and its chronotopic variants and methodological contaminations. she is also involved in many activities of local cultural policy. es anna vittoria ottaviani es profesora de letras en la escuela liceo arcivescovile c. enrdrici de trento. licenciada en filología y crítica literaria en el ámbito clásico, se dedica al estudio y a la difusión del análisis textual en cuanto a sus caractersíticas cronotópicas y sus “contaminaciones” metodológicas. además, actúa en el ámbito de política cultural del territorio.       ineke vedder, universiteit van amsterdam s.c.vedder@uva.nl it ineke vedder è ricercatrice e docente di linguistica italiana e di acquisizione delle lingue seconde, in particolare l’italiano l2, presso l’università di amsterdam (amsterdam center for language and communication, aclc). i suoi principali interessi di ricerca comprendono la scrittura accademica in l2 e l1; tblt (task-based language learning and teaching); pragmatica acquisizionale e adeguatezza funzionale in l2; sviluppo della complessità sintattica in l2. en ineke vedder is assistant professor of italian linguistics and second language acquisition particularly l2 italian at the university of amsterdam (amsterdam center for language and communication, aclc). her main research interests include academic writing in l2 and l1; tblt (task-based language learning and teaching); acquisitional pragmatics and functional adequacy in l2; development of syntactic complexity in l2. es ineke vedder es investigadora y profesora de lingüística italiana y adquisición de segundas lenguas, en particular italiano l2, en la universidad de ámsterdam (amsterdam center for language and communication, aclc). sus principales áreas de investigación incluyen la escritura académica en l2 y l1, tblt (task-based language learning and teaching), pragmática del aprendizaje y adecuación funcional en l2 y desarrollo de la complejidad sintáctica en l2.   euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 3, issue 1, september 2016, pages 92-95 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.4.75 www.e-journall.org © rodríguez nuero 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. el número creciente de alumnos internacionales que pueblan las aulas de la universidad española es un hecho que no se puede soslayar (organismo autónomo de programas europeos [oape], 2006, 2015), como tampoco las necesidades comunicativas que esos mismos alumnos tienen a la hora de enfrentarse con cierto grado de éxito a las diferentes tareas que dentro de ella tienen que desarrollar en español. el carácter específico de estas necesidades aumenta más, si cabe, si los alumnos en cuestión pertenecen a áreas alejadas de las disciplinas lingüísticas, literarias o humanísticas, con culturas disciplinares y estilos de aprendizaje diferentes. esta realidad ha hecho que las universidades (de origen y destino) desarrollen programas y cursos de e/le especialmente dirigidos a este tipo de alumnos (pastor cesteros, 2010, 2014), cuyas necesidades perentorias determinan tanto los cursos como los materiales utilizados en estos. la consciencia de la especificidad que emana de estas necesidades obligó ya en la última década del siglo pasado a buscar un marco dentro del cual diseñar cursos y materiales, a imagen y semejanza de lo que se había hecho en inglés con fines específicos. se comenzó entonces a hablar de español con fines específicos, y en muchos casos la audiencia de esos cursos era en su mayor parte profesionales y no estudiantes. cualquier docente de lengua extranjera conoce la dificultad que entraña enfrentarse a un grupo de estudiantes con necesidades específicas que emanan de las situaciones y tareas a las cuales deben hacer frente en el desempeño de sus funciones. determinar las necesidades y seleccionar o diseñar materiales y un curso es entonces una tarea difícil y compleja. y ese es precisamente el reto que asumieron las autoras: elaborar un manual que satisficiera las necesidades de los alumnos internacionales que acuden a estudiar a la escuela técnica superior de arquitectura de la universidad politécnica de madrid dentro de los diferentes programas de intercambio. * contacto: salvador.rodriguezn@upm.es úbeda mansilla, paloma y escribano ortega, maría luisa (2015). arquitectura y construcción. español académico y profesional. madrid, españa: edinumen. salvador rodríguez nuero*1 universidad politécnica de madrid book review received 12 april 2016; received in revised form 13 july 2016; accepted 19 july 2016 abstract es en esta reseña analizamos el manual de español publicado por úbeda mansilla y escribano ortega, arquitectura y construcción. español académico y profesional. describimos su estructura y contenidos, así como su metodología, y valoramos sus aportaciones más notables. palabras clave: español lengua extranjera, español con fines académicos. en in this review we analyze the spanish textbook published by úbeda mansilla and escribano ortega, arquitectura y construcción. español académico y profesional [architecture and construction: academic and professional spanish]. we describe its structure and contents, as well as its methodology, and we assess its most significant contributions. key words: spanish as a foreign language, spanish for academic purposes. it in questa recensione, analizziamo il manuale di spagnolo arquitectura y construcción. español académico y profesional [architettura ed edilizia. spagnolo per fini accademici e professionali] pubblicato da úbeda mansilla e escribano ortega,. ne descriviamo struttura e contenuti, nonché la metodologia, e ne vediamo i contributi più significativi. parole chiave: spagnolo come lingua straniera, spagnolo per fini accademici. http://www.e-journall.org/ reseña: arquitectura y construcción e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 92-95 93 el material está dirigido muy acertadamente a estudiantes de arquitectura con nivel b1 del mcer, acorde con el que vienen la mayor parte de los estudiantes y muy distante del deseable b2, que el mcer denomina acertadamente “usuario independiente” (consejo de europa, 2002, p. 26). está compuesto de un libro y una extensión digital, que puede descargase con un código, en la que se pueden encontrar: recursos extra (fichas, las claves de los ejercicios y las audiciones), y juegos y vídeos (uno por unidad). la presentación, maquetación y atractivo visual son notables y no distan mucho de los manuales generalistas. el manual está dividido en siete unidades vertebradas en torno a la experiencia académica que un estudiante internacional de arquitectura tendrá en su estancia en la universidad española. las autoras han abordado el desarrollo temático del manual como un círculo virtuoso, que describe el viaje que hacen los alumnos internacionales de intercambio desde el momento que llegan a la oficina de relaciones internacionales hasta que acaban su periplo y vuelven a ella para completar el proceso, ya sea para proseguir estudios de posgrado o para adentrarse en el mundo laboral. el resto de unidades se vinculan temáticamente a los espacios y tareas más relevantes que los alumnos internacionales deberán llevar a cabo dentro de la escuela técnica superior de arquitectura de madrid, cuya proyección y prestigio la convierten en un centro de atracción de este tipo de alumnos. resulta también interesante y muy apropiado que un manual de español para arquitectos esté organizado alrededor de los espacios comunes (escenarios) que habitan sus estudiantes y las actividades que desarrollan en ellos: desde el laboratorio de materiales, pasando por el taller de maquetas y la sala de ordenadores, hasta llegar a la clase de proyectos. no cabe duda que estos escenarios ofrecen un campo muy adecuado para desarrollar actividades comunicativas atractivas y motivadoras, que los mismos estudiantes habrán desarrollado en su propia lengua, y que, por lo tanto, pueden facilitar el aprendizaje. la experiencia docente e investigadora de las autoras en ese campo juega a su favor a la hora de seleccionar esos escenarios así como los contenidos de arquitectura lógicamente asociados a ellos, algo que debe agradecer el lego en la materia. todas las unidades, con la excepción de la primera, comparten una estructura común que refuerza la coherencia temática del manual. una primera sección, comunicación, dirigida a activar el conocimiento contextual latente, sitúa al estudiante en el espacio concreto y con los objetos, sujetos y actividades con los que se puede encontrar, para posteriormente presentar una comprensión lectora (o auditiva) sobre un diálogo o conversación articulada de formas diversas y que permite poner en funcionamiento el conocimiento activado. hemos de reconocer que, sin restar mérito a los diálogos, nos resulta mucho más interesante el material auxiliar que se puede encontrar en la extensión digital, particularmente los vídeos asociados a cada tema. la calidad, realismo y vivacidad de los intercambios que encontramos en estos vídeos ofrecen un material excelente para explotar didácticamente desde todos los puntos vistas (fonético, gramatical, léxico, cultural y comunicativo). a continuación, nos encontramos la segunda sección, interacción y palabras, en la que se comienza planteando un juego de rol por parejas en la que los participantes deben emular el diálogo presentado en la sección anterior y en el vídeo correspondiente. se proporcionan una especie de muletillas funcionales para preparar y facilitar el intercambio. hubiera sido interesante que se hubiera llegado a ese cuadro de ayuda de manera deductiva (analizando el diálogo de la anterior sección), en lugar de presentarlo directamente. no obstante, las actividades resultan muy motivadoras y tienen un gran potencial en contenidos comunicativos, tanto en temas, situaciones y funciones. esta interacción da paso a la introducción de contenidos léxicos relativos al tema de la unidad. se presenta una variedad de actividades de activación productiva y receptiva, así como de revisión y reciclaje. esta, junto con la anterior, es una de las secciones más atractivas de cada unidad, porque permite a las autoras desplegar su conocimiento sobre el tema (la arquitectura), sus estudiantes (estilos de aprendizaje) y los contextos donde desarrollan sus actividades. la tercera sección, algo de gramática, se centra en los contenidos gramaticales. se utiliza un enfoque eclético a la hora de abordar estos asuntos y, en la mayor parte de los casos, se mantiene una conexión temática apenas perceptible con el tema central del capítulo, con la pérdida de coherencia que esto puede suponer. en esta sección podemos localizar actividades de activación, reconocimiento, ejercitación y consolidación, pero la extensión, selección y secuenciación de estos contenidos y los ejercicios asociados a ellos no parecen seguir un criterio establecido. el cuarto apartado, texto y contexto, presenta un texto y una comprensión lectora en consonancia con el tema de la unidad, precedidos de una actividad de activación de contenido que resulta muy efectiva. los textos, obtenidos de diferentes fuentes, están adaptados y son de una extensión nunca superior a las 500 palabras. las actividades asociadas al texto son en la mayor parte de los casos breves y sin una secuencia y objetivos claros. en algunos casos la actividad de comprensión lectora está esbozada y es especulativa, lo cual rodríguez nuero 94 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 92-95 puede hacer difícil su control y desarrollo. la imbricación de la lectura en el tema de la unidad es una buena excusa para consolidar los conocimientos (léxicos, gramaticales y comunicativos) presentados anteriormente, y echamos en falta que esto no se haga, pero queda, sin lugar a dudas, abierta para la intervención del docente. posteriormente, se procede a la sección aspectos culturales, en la que se abordan temas de cultura. pero lejos de lo que cabría esperar bajo este epígrafe, los temas aquí tratados son variopintos, desde arquitectura y materiales vernáculos (unidades 2 y 3), pasando por costumbres españolas (unidad 1) y lenguaje gestual (unidad 4), hasta llegar a asuntos de difícil catalogación (unidades 5 y 6). abordar temas de la cultura disciplinar resulta un acierto e incide en reforzar el eje temático de cada unidad, pero hubiera sido deseable una mayor coherencia en la elección de los contenidos. la ejercitación de este aspecto está apenas esbozada, a pesar de que, en los casos de arquitectura vernácula, los textos proporcionados para ilustrarlos sean de gran interés y potencial. la sección que cierra cada unidad, lápiz y papel, está dedicada a la expresión escrita. como cabría esperar en un manual de lengua académica, la tipología textual ejercitada comprende las variedades más comunes: el texto expositivo y el descriptivo. la presentación y secuenciación de actividades, sin embargo, es bastante pobre. no se encuentran actividades de reconocimiento y deducción, donde el estudiante pueda mostrar su capacidad de análisis, ni tampoco de ejercitación controlada. en la mayor parte de los casos se ofrecen instrucciones de cómo hacer, o de qué se espera, sin ofrecer las razones subyacentes. los temas y las actividades finales propuestas son muy ambiciosas y parecen exigir al estudiante que redacte un texto de 250 palabras cuando lo más que ha escrito hasta ese momento son oraciones. se confía en la capacidad del estudiante para desarrollar tareas complejas, más si cabe en una lengua extranjera. hubiera sido deseable una secuencia ordenada de actividades que condujeran a la tarea final, trabajando los procesos y los productos intermedios. concluidas las seis secciones, en cada unidad aparecen dos tareas finales (una en grupo y otra individual), una ficha breve de autoevaluación y, a continuación, el manual nos sorprende con cuatro fichas por unidad que las autoras denominan “complementarias de profundización” y que merecen un análisis detallado. si en la revisión de algunas de las secciones de cada unidad notamos cierta parquedad en el número y secuencia de actividades, las fichas vienen a paliar esa carencia y su posición final, accesoria, parece contradecir su calidad y potencial para fomentar la consolidación de algunos de los contenidos presentados a lo largo de la unidad. no solo eso, consideramos que esas fichas ofrecen posibilidades comunicativas que conectan en algunos casos con géneros académicos frecuentes y manejables para esos niveles de lengua (formularios de matrícula, curriculum vitae, plan de estudios, ofertas de empleo, etc.), y cuya explotación sitúa al estudiante frente a tareas reales, ayudándole a contextualizar y poner en uso los aspectos tratados, ya sean estos comunicativos, léxicos o gramaticales. para nosotros estas fichas constituyen un recurso inestimable para el desarrollo y consolidación de lo aprendido, y merecerían una posición más prominente o al menos estar integradas dentro de las unidades de manera más explícita. junto con los vídeos que encontramos en la extensión digital, estas fichas constituyen una joya si no escondida al menos desplazada, que de nuevo da fe del trabajo y experiencia de las autoras en el área de la arquitectura y la universidad. llegado este punto, es necesario recapitular y conceder al manual el mérito que tiene. en la batalla constante entre la especificidad temática y el conocimiento general de la lengua, siempre hay un elemento que acaba destacando. no cabe duda de que para servir como polo de atracción motivador y diferenciador de otros manuales y enfoques, la especificidad debe sobresalir y, en el caso que nos atañe, así ocurre. los que llevamos tiempo impartiendo docencia de lengua extranjera con fines específicos y académicos nos enfrentamos al conflicto casi irresoluble entre la cultura y el conocimiento disciplinar y la competencia lingüística: cuando nos acercamos a un polo parece que nos alejamos del otro. pero la experiencia nos ha mostrado que la especificidad es un vehículo inestimable para catalizar la motivación y dinamizar el aula. si se nos permite la metáfora arquitectónica, este manual es una estructura portante que además de sostenerse a sí mismo es capaz de constituirse como soporte y apoyo de otros elementos que pueden ser añadidos. arquitectura y construcción. español académico y profesional se conforma con una andamiaje muy útil para ayudar a esos estudiantes internacionales a, como decía vázquez (2006), alcanzar una “aculturación eficaz y pasajera que garantice la obtención de los créditos en las materias disciplinares” (p. 132), ya sea en cursos en las universidades de origen, en intensivos anteriores al comienzo del curso, o de forma simultánea a sus materias disciplinares. si, como afirmaba aguirre beltrán (2006), los materiales específicos deben “representar el uso de la lengua auténtica”, “servir de soporte de aprendizaje”, “estimar y motivar”, y “ser referencia del ámbito académico y profesional” (p. 162), el manual aquí revisado cumple esas funciones reseña: arquitectura y construcción e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 92-95 95 sobradamente. felicitamos a las autoras por la empresa y esperamos que continúen la tarea emprendida y nos ofrezcan en breve una continuación del manual para alumnos con nivel y exigencias comunicativas superiores. referencias aguirre beltrán, blanca (2010). consideraciones y criterios para seleccionar, analizar y evaluar materiales curriculares de efe. en actas del xx congreso de asele. disponible en: http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/ asele/pdf/20/20_0159.pdf aguirre beltrán, blanca (2012). aprendizaje y enseñanza de español con fines específicos. madrid, españa: sgel. gómez de enterría, josefa (2009). el español lengua de especialidad: enseñanza y aprendizaje. madrid, españa: arco/libros. organismo autónomo de programas europeos, oape. datos y cifras del programa erasmus en españa 2005-6, 2006-7, 2007-8, 2008-9, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15. disponibles en http://www.sepie.es/comunicacion/publicaciones/erasmus.html pastor cesteros, susana (2010). enseñanza de español con fines profesionales y académicos y aprendizaje por contenidos en contexto universitario. testi e linguaggi, 4. salerno, italia: università degli studi di salerno, 71-88. pastor cesteros, susana (2014). aprendizaje de contenidos a través del español como segunda lengua en la educación superior: un puente entre la lengua y el conocimiento. e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages, 1(1), 15-30. sanz álava, inmaculada (2007). el español profesional y académico en el aula universitaria: el discurso oral y escrito. valencia, españa: tirant lo blanch. vázquez, graciela. (2004). la enseñanza del español con fines académicos. en sánchez lobato, j. y santos gargallo, i. (eds.). vademécum para la formación profesores. enseñar español como segunda lengua y lengua extranjera. madrid, españa: sgel, 1129-1147. vázquez, graciela (2006). un análisis didáctico del discurso académico español como contribución a la movilidad estudiantil europea. en actas del iii congreso internacional de lenguas con fines específicos. disponible en: http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/ciefe/pdf/03/ cvc_ciefe_03_0013.pdf salvador rodríguez nuero, universidad politécnica de madrid salvador.rodriguezn@upm.es es salvador rodríguez nuero es profesor titular de la universidad politécnica de madrid, en la que imparte cursos de inglés y español con fines académicos. posee un máster en romance languages por la university of cincinnati y es doctor por la universidad complutense de madrid. fue director del departamento de lingüística aplicada a la ciencia y la tecnología de la universidad politécnica de madrid de 2004 a 2012 y en la actualidad es subdirector del programa de la lenguas para la internacionalización de la misma universidad. en salvador rodríguez nuero is a full professor at the universidad politécnica of madrid, where he offers courses in english and spanish for academic purposes. he holds a master’s degree in romance languages from the university of cincinnati and a doctorate from the universidad complutense of madrid. he was the chair of the department of applied linguistics in science and technology at the universidad politécnica of madrid from 2004 to 2012 and currently serves as the assistant director of the languages for globalization program at the same university. it salvador rodríguez nuero è professore ordinario alla universidad politécnica di madrid dove insegna corsi di inglese e spagnolo per fini accademici. ha ottenuto un master in lingue romanze presso la university of cincinnati e un dottorato di ricerca alla universidad complutense di madrid. dal 2004 al 2012 è stato direttore del dipartimento di linguistica applicata alla scienza e alla tecnologia della universidad politécnica di madrid e attualmente è vicedirettore del programma di lingue per l’internazionalizzazione della stessa università. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 119-124 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.159 www.e-journall.org © scibetta 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. il volume la visione eteroglossica del bilinguismo: spagnolo lingua d’origine e italstudio di elena firpo e laura sanfelici, edito nel 2016 con edizioni universitarie lettere economia diritto, intende fornire uno sguardo d’insieme sul concetto di educazione bilingue (baker & jones, 1998) focalizzandosi sulle sue applicazioni nel contesto scolastico italiano, e, nello specifico, in quello genovese. l’obiettivo principale del *contact: scibetta@unistrasi.it firpo, elena, & sanfelici, laura (2016). la visione eteroglossica del bilinguismo: spagnolo lingua d’origine e italstudio. modelli e prospettive tra gli stati uniti e l’italia. milano, italia: edizioni universitarie lettere economia diritto. andrea scibetta*1 università per stranieri di siena book review received 3 december 2018; accepted 7 december 2018 abstract it questa recensione intende presentare i contenuti del volume la visione eteroglossica del bilinguismo: spagnolo lingua d’origine e italstudio di elena firpo e laura sanfelici. il libro offre una ricca panoramica sulle politiche linguistiche volte alla promozione del bilinguismo in contesti educativi nordamericani ed europei. inoltre, il volume si focalizza su un progetto di ricerca-azione sperimentale, chiamato li.lo (lingua italiana, lingua d’origine), condotto dal 2013 al 2015 in una scuola di genova con una considerevole percentuale di alunni ispanofoni. l’obiettivo principale di tale progetto era quello di contribuire a valorizzare un’educazione bilingue più inclusiva nei confronti della lingua spagnola (intesa come lingua di origine) attraverso pratiche didattiche basate sul translanguaging. parole chiave: scuola italiana, bilinguismo, visione eteroglossica, educazione bilingue, spagnolo lingua di origine en this review reports on the contents of la visione eteroglossica del bilinguismo: spagnolo lingua d’origine e italstudio (the heteroglossic vision of bilingualism: spanish as a first language and the study of italian) by elena firpo and laura sanfelici. the book offers a rich overview of linguistic policies aimed at promoting bilingualism in north american and european educational contexts. additionally, it details an experimental action research project, "li.lo" (lingua italiana, lingua d’origine, or italian language, first language), carried out from 2013 to 2015 at a school in genoa with a considerable proportion of spanish-speaking students. the main objective of this project was to reinforce the value of more inclusive bilingual instruction that incorporates spanish (students’ first language) through teaching practices rooted in translanguaging. palabras clave: italian school system, bilingualiism, heteroglossic vision, bilingual education, spanish as a heritage language es esta recensión presenta los contenidos del volumen la visione eteroglossica del bilingüismo: spagnolo lingua d’origine e italstudio, de elena firpo y laura sanfelici. el libro ofrece una amplia visión de las políticas lingüísticas que pretenden promover el bilingüismo en contextos educativos norteamericanos y europeos. además, centra la atención en un proyecto de investigación-acción experimental, llamado li.lo (lengua italiana, lengua origen), que se llevó a cabo de 2013 a 2015 en una escuela de génova, con un porcentaje considerable de estudiantes hispanohablantes. este proyecto tiene como objetivo principal contribuir a reafirmar el valor de una educación bilingüe más inclusiva del idioma español (como lengua de origen) a través de una pedagogía basada en el translingüismo. key words: escuela italiana, bilingüismo, visión heteroglósica, educación bilingüe, español como lengua de herencia http://www.e-journall.org/ scibetta e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 119-124 120 volume, infatti, è quello di descrivere le fasi di svolgimento e i risultati principali di un progetto sperimentale di ricerca-azione, intitolato li.lo (lingua italiana lingua d’origine), volto alla valorizzazione del bilinguismo italiano-spagnolo all’interno di un istituto comprensivo di un quartiere di genova dove si registra una presenza considerevole di parlanti ispanofoni provenienti da diversi paesi. il volume è suddiviso in otto capitoli, preceduti da un’introduzione a cura di maite (maría teresa) sánchez, della city university of new york, e seguiti da una breve conclusione. nell’introduzione sánchez menziona la ricerca-azione alla quale li.lo si è ispirato, ovvero quella condotta nelle scuole newyorkesi nell’ambito del progetto cuny-nysieb (city university of new york – new york state initiative on emergent bilinguals). l’obiettivo di tale progetto è infatti quello di valorizzare le lingue di origine degli alunni bilingui emergenti (in particolare ispanofoni) nel contesto scolastico attraverso attività basate sul translanguaging. secondo l’approccio del translanguaging, il repertorio linguistico del soggetto bilingue è concepito come un unicum, e non in modo compartimentato (garcía & kleyn, 2016), ed è proprio questo approccio a rappresentare la risorsa teorico-pratica centrale nello svolgimento di entrambi i progetti (cuny-nysieb e li.lo). i capitoli sono ripartiti in tre parti principali. la parte i, che comprende i capitoli 1, 2, 3 e 4, contiene un esaustivo inquadramento teorico nel quale si affrontano i concetti principali su cui si basa la ricerca descritta nel volume, ovvero l’educazione linguistica democratica nel contesto italiano, il bilinguismo, l’educazione bilingue e le politiche linguistiche per la promozione di un’educazione bilingue di tipo eteroglossico nei contesti educativi europei. il capitolo 1, intitolato la scuola italiana e le generazioni 2.0, si apre con una riflessione sul concetto di educazione linguistica democratica e sulla tutela dei diritti linguistici di tutti i parlanti, partendo dagli articoli 3, 6, 33 e 34 della costituzione italiana e dai pluriennali lavori del collettivo g.i.s.c.e.l., gruppo di intervento e studio nel campo dell’educazione linguistica (g.i.s.c.e.l., 2007). si procede quindi con un esaustivo sguardo d’insieme sulla presenza di alunni stranieri nelle scuole italiane, sulla loro distribuzione nei vari ordini scolastici, sui loro risultati scolastici e sulla scelta degli indirizzi della scuola secondaria di secondo grado. vengono poi fornite informazioni sulle minoranze linguistiche, sul concetto di lingua d’origine (lo), tradotto letteralmente dall’inglese heritage language (potowski, 2005), e sui meccanismi di subordinazione delle lingue minoritarie nei confronti delle lingue dominanti (ld) in specifiche aree politico-amministrative. nella parte finale del capitolo ci si sofferma sul concetto di lingua di studio e, in particolare, sul binomio italbase e italstudio, nonché sul parallelismo fra questo binomio e la distinzione bics (basic interpersonal communication skills) calp (cognitive academic language proficiency) operata da cummins (1979). il capitolo 2 (“bilinguismo”) è dedicato a un’ampia riflessione sul concetto di bilinguismo e alle diverse connotazioni utilizzate per descrivere tale concetto. il soggetto bilingue viene preso in considerazione da un punto di vista sociolinguistico, con un focus specifico sulla distinzione fra abilità e uso (baker, 2011), e da un punto di vista dell’evoluzione dell’individuo, della sua condizione di bilingue e delle variabili individuali che incidono sullo sviluppo della competenza bilingue individuale (come l’equilibrio delle due lingue, l’età, lo sviluppo). vengono quindi fornite definizioni di bilinguismo in relazione all’età di acquisizione delle due lingue (simultaneo, precoce, tardivo) e alla dimensione psicologico-affettiva attribuita alle lingue, nonché al valore sociale ad esse riconosciuto (sottrattivo, additivo). l’ultima parte del capitolo è dedicata all’analisi del bilinguismo dal punto di vista della neurolinguistica: vengono citati i fenomeni di code switching e code mixing in relazione alla competenza bilingue e i vantaggi cognitivi derivanti dall’essere bilingui. una menzione speciale viene fatta in merito al concetto di translanguaging, interpretato come l’evoluzione più recente degli approcci al bilinguismo, ovvero un’ottica secondo cui “il sistema linguistico non sarà né separato, secondo la visione monoglossica, né comune, secondo la visione eteroglossica, ma seguirà un continuum di alternanze di repertorio linguistico e di caratteristiche (f) secondo un ordine fnfnfnfnfn” (p. 45). il capitolo 3 (“l’educazione bilingue”) ha come oggetto l’educazione bilingue, definita da cazden e snow (1990) una “semplice etichetta di un fenomeno complesso” (p. 49). tale concetto viene innanzitutto contrapposto da firpo e sanfelici a quello di “educazione alla lingua straniera o alla seconda lingua” (p. 51); successivamente, vengono proposti due principali modelli di educazione linguistica, ovvero quello monoglossico e quello eteroglossico. secondo il primo dei due approcci, due lingue vengono trattate in modo separato, spesso producendo come effetto un tipo di bilinguismo sottrattivo, insieme ad una gerarchizzazione fra le due lingue. il secondo approccio, invece, prende in considerazione pratiche linguistiche multiple in interrelazione, contribuendo ad attribuire medesimo valore simbolico alle due lingue e conferendo maggiore dinamicità all’uso alternato dei due sistemi linguistici. il capitolo termina con un’importante riflessione sulla recensione: la visione eteroglossica del bilinguismo e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 119-124 121 necessità di progressione e continuità nei processi di promozione del bilinguismo in contesto educativo: “la mancanza di progressione e continuità conduce a uno sviluppo infruttuoso del bilinguismo” (p. 59). il capitolo 4 (“le politiche di educazione bilingue di tipo eteroglossico: il panorama europeo”) presenta alcuni riferimenti alla storia dei più noti provvedimenti di politica linguistica in contesto europeo (promulgati sia da parte dell’unione europea sia da parte del consiglio d’europa). oltre a fornire alcune informazioni essenziali circa le strategie più diffuse per supportare la presenza di lingue minoritarie e per contribuire a mantenere un bilinguismo equilibrato in specifiche aree geografiche (regioni dove viene parlata la lingua sami, catalogna, paesi baschi), le autrici si soffermano in modo particolare sulle politiche di sviluppo bilingue e plurilingue in contesto educativo. viene innanzitutto citato il modello clil, puntualizzando anche sulle sue applicazioni nei sistemi scolastici di diversi paesi europei. successivamente viene offerto un breve sguardo d’insieme sulle politiche per il sostegno linguistico ai bambini di lingua materna diversa da quella ufficiale nel paese di accoglienza. la parte ii, che include i apitoli 5, 6 e 7, descrive i macro-contesti sociali e linguistici da cui prende spunto e a cui fa riferimento il progetto di ricerca-azione li.lo. viene fornita innanzitutto una descrizione dettagliata del modello di valorizzazione del bilinguismo rivolto ai parlanti di lingue d’origine con focus specifico sui parlanti ispanofoni) in contesto statunitense, da cui la ricerca prende spunto. successivamente, le autrici passano ad analizzare la presenza e la vitalità della lingua spagnola nel contesto scolastico italiano, soffermandosi poi sull’applicazione del modello eteroglossico dell’educazione bilingue nelle scuole genovesi. il capitolo 5, intitolato “dagli usa all’italia”, rappresenta il punto di collegamento fra l’inquadramento teorico della parte i del libro e la descrizione del contesto, delle fasi di implementazione e dei risultati del progetto li.lo. all’interno del capitolo, infatti, le autrici iniziano descrivendo il contesto statunitense, prima dal punto di vista della relazione fra la dimensione plurilingue e la storia delle più rilevanti azioni in termini di politica linguistica per valorizzare o altre volte contenere la vitalità e la visibilità delle lingue minoritarie. un focus specifico è dedicato alla storia della presenza ispanofona in contesto statunitense, nonché ai provvedimenti di politica linguistica ad essa connessi, in modo particolare nel campo educativo. emblematica, in questo passaggio, è la citazione ripresa da baker, secondo cui “le scelte dei policy makers non sono solo il risultato di una preferenza pedagogica, ma rappresentano lo specchio del pensiero su rapporti di potere, lingue minoritarie, culture minoritarie, immigrati, pari opportunità, assimilazione o integrazione, pluralità e plurilinguismo” (p. 80). le autrici passano poi a inquadrare alcuni fra i principali modelli a cui chi si occupa di educazione linguistica si può ispirare. per quanto riguarda gli stati uniti, viene condiviso il punto di vista di garcía (2009), secondo cui i tre modelli di educazione bilingue attualmente presenti sono la transitional bilingual education (early exit), la developmental bilingual education e la two way bilingual education (inmersión dual). nelle sezioni successive ci si focalizza sull’insegnamento dello spagnolo rivolto ai parlanti di lingue d’origine nel contesto sociolinguistico statunitense, puntualizzando sulla necessità di prendere in considerazione l’ispanofonia nella sua eterogeneità, complessità e dinamicità (si utilizza l’intelligente definizione “identità transglossica”, p. 88), rifuggendo da una concezione monolitica e iper-generalizzata. si enunciano anche nove principi per una teoria di acquisizione della lingua d’origine riguardante in modo specifico lo spagnolo negli stati uniti, riprendendo lynch (2003). i più rilevanti fra questi, ovvero il purposeful acquisition principle, l’incidental acquisition principle, il variability principle, il simplification principle, il discourse principle, il social identity principle e il language recontact principle, sono stati adottati anche nella ricerca-azione condotta dalle autrici nel contesto genovese, sebbene modificati secondo nuovi e specifici bisogni educativi contestuali. ci si sofferma inoltre sul concetto di spettro bilingue, ovvero “il repertorio bilingue, quel continuum di abilità linguistiche e di strategie comunicative che un individuo possiede in ogni lingua e che varia a seconda dell’interlocutore, del tema e della situazione” (p. 91). in relazione ai parlanti ispanofoni si fanno diversi esempi relativi a strutture linguistico-comunicative tipiche del contatto linguistico fra spagnolo come lingua d’origine e inglese nordamericano. prendendo in considerazione i parlanti di spagnolo come lingua d’origine in contesto educativo, si analizzano alcuni loro fenomeni comunicativi come il code-switching e l’uso di varietà ibride (ciò che da molti viene superficialmente definito spanglish), nonché alcuni schemi percettivi ed emotivi ricorrenti nei confronti della competenza nella propria lingua di origine (la “position of deficiency” che spesso produce come effetto un generalizzato senso di vergogna, cfr. p. 90). il capitolo si conclude con una breve panoramica sull’insegnamento delle lingue e sull’educazione bilingue nel contesto italiano, con focus sulle lingue di origine degli studenti non italofoni. si sottolinea l’importanza della valorizzazione dello spagnolo come lingua d’origine in modo specifico nel contesto genovese attraverso il translanguaging come approccio didattico. scibetta e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 119-124 122 il capitolo 6 (“lo spagnolo nel sistema scolastico italiano”) affronta la situazione relativa alla presenza della lingua spagnola nel sistema scolastico italiano, in particolare nella sua dimensione di lingua di origine di un numero considerevole di studenti ispanofoni provenienti da varie parti del mondo, america latina in primis. dopo una breve panoramica di tipo storico sul contatto linguistico fra italiano e spagnolo, le autrici passano a menzionare alcuni importanti provvedimenti legislativi e documenti di politica linguistica che, in modo specifico a partire dai primi anni duemila, hanno contribuito a valorizzare il bilinguismo e il plurilinguismo in contesto scolastico. particolare attenzione viene prestata al valore del documento la via italiana dell’osservatorio nazionale per l’integrazione (2007) e alla sua innovatività nella promozione dello sviluppo di un plurilinguismo responsabile in ambito educativo. successivamente viene presa in analisi in modo più specifico la presenza dello spagnolo come lingua di origine nel sistema scolastico italiano, e la si confronta con il contesto statunitense in termini numerici, percentuali, di nazionalità degli alunni ispanofoni, e legislativi. interessante è la riflessione sull’ambivalenza di schemi percettivi nei confronti della lingua spagnola: quando essa rappresenta una ls da studiare, essa viene maggiormente apprezzata, mentre quando essa rappresenta una “lingua immigrata” (p. 104), allora diventa più facilmente oggetto di stigmatizzazioni. un’altra significativa riflessione in chiusura al capitolo riguarda la carenza di risorse per rendere strutturate e continuative le varie buone pratiche educative basate sulla valorizzazione del bie del plurilinguismo. la mancanza di sistematicità produce infatti uno svantaggio a detrimento delle numerose buone pratiche ancora troppo relegate ad una dimensione locale. il capitolo 7, che chiude la parte ii del volume, è intitolato “genova e la visione eteroglossica”. all’interno di questo capitolo le autrici contestualizzano il concetto di educazione bilingue italiano-spagnolo nella realtà genovese, ovvero una realtà caratterizzata, negli ultimi decenni, da numerosi arrivi di parlanti ispanofoni provenienti da diverse aree geografiche. ci si focalizza quindi sulla presenza di alunni ispanofoni nelle scuole primarie e secondarie di primo grado e sulla valorizzazione dello spagnolo come lo (español como lengua de herencia) all’interno della didattica attraverso un modello eteroglossico. la finalità principale di tale processo di valorizzazione sta nel fatto di promuovere un bilinguismo equilibrato da un lato e di evitare fenomeni di erosione dall’altro. nel caso specifico di questo pubblico di studenti, la cui lo è tipologicamente vicina all’italiano, si può instaurare un produttivo parallelismo fra plurilinguismo e intercomprensione, intesa quest’ultima come “modalità di comunicazione in cui ciascun interlocutore può usare la propria lingua madre facendo affidamento alle competenze ricettive degli altri” (p. 116, cfr. benucci, 2015). un approccio che valorizzi la dimensione plurilingue dei contesti scolastici con forte presenza ispanofona e che agevoli processi di intercomprensione può essere messo in pratica attraverso l’uso del translanguaging come pratica didattica in grado di “tenere in considerazione l’abilità raggiunta in una named language (in questo caso lo spagnolo) e le general linguistic performances dall’altro” (p. 117). nell’ultima parte del capitolo, in riferimento alla scuola secondaria di primo grado, viene menzionato un progetto sperimentale, dal titolo español lengua de herencia, portato avanti dalle autrici e dalla prof.ssa oliviero nella scuola don milani di genova dal 2006 al 2013, e strutturato su lezioni settimanali di due ore in lingua spagnola basate sulla metodologia clil (content and language integrated learning). inoltre, vengono riportati i principali risultati di un test linguistico somministrato nell’anno scolastico 2014/2015, in una prima fase del progetto li.lo, nella scuola secondaria di primo grado sampierdarena di genova, al fine di verificare da un lato il livello di competenza in lingua italiana di un gruppo di studenti ispanofoni rispetto ad un gruppo di studenti nativi italofoni, e dall’altro il livello di erosione esercitato sulla lingua spagnola (in particolare in relazione alle discipline di studio) degli studenti ispanofoni a vantaggio della lingua italiana. dal test preliminare risulta che gli studenti ispanofoni hanno minori competenze in italiano rispetto ai loro compagni nativi italofoni, e, allo stesso tempo, che la loro competenza in lingua italiana, in particolare quella disciplinare, è superiore rispetto a quella in lingua spagnola. la terza e ultima parte (iii) comprende soltanto il capitolo 8 (“il progetto li.lo”) ed è dedicata alla presentazione del progetto li.lo, alla descrizione delle sue principali fasi di articolazione e all’analisi del suo impatto sugli alunni coinvolti e dei più rilevanti risultati raggiunti. il capitolo inizia con una breve presentazione del progetto, realizzato dalle autrici negli anni scolastici 2013/2014 e 2014/2015 presso l’istituto comprensivo sampierdarena” di genova. l’intervento, rivolto sia agli alunni italofoni nativi sia agli alunni parlanti di spagnolo come lo, aveva tre principali obiettivi: contribuire al raggiungimento della calp nelle due lingue (italiano e spagnolo) da parte degli studenti ispanofoni, il miglioramento delle abilità di studio (accompagnato allo sviluppo di abilità di riflessione metalinguistica) e la conoscenza e l’uso delle tic (tecnologie dell’informazione e della comunicazione). in una prima fase è stato somministrato un test di screening a tutti gli studenti delle quinte elementari dell’istituto comprensivo. il test, composto da una recensione: la visione eteroglossica del bilinguismo e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 119-124 123 sezione dedicata alla biografia linguistica e da una dedicata ad un test linguistico in italiano, aveva l’obiettivo di valutare il livello di padronanza di lessici e contenuti, disciplinari e non, da parte di alunni ispanofoni rispetto agli italofoni nativi. nelle fasi successive, è stata avviata una sperimentazione rivolta agli studenti ispanofoni, sia nell’anno scolastico 2013/2014 che in quello 2014/2015. in queste fasi, li.lo è stato strutturato attraverso incontri settimanali in orario extrascolastico, durante i quali un gruppo di apprendenti parlanti spagnolo come lo ripassava e approfondiva, anche per mezzo dell’uso delle nuove tecnologie, quanto già appreso nelle lezioni curriculari di storia e geografia condotte in italiano (p. 125). il principale approccio di riferimento per la progettazione e la realizzazione degli incontri era di tipo lessicale, focalizzato sui linguaggi disciplinari delle materie in questione, collegato ad una metodologia contrastiva. per quanto riguarda i contenuti, si è tenuto conto di un input che fosse comprensibile e appropriato al livello di padronanza dei linguaggi disciplinari da parte dei destinatari, ed è stato preferito l’uso di materiale autentico e non semplificato (privilegiando quindi le abilità ricettive). sono state incoraggiate inoltre le attività di confronto interlinguistico, in modo da favorire lo sviluppo di abilità legate alla riflessione metalinguistica. l’uso delle tic, infine, ha consentito di strutturare l’intervento anche in chiave multimodale. al fine di verificare i risultati raggiunti attraverso il progetto, sono stati ripetuti test linguistici in lingua italiana, analoghi a quello svolto in fase pre-progetto, sia con gli studenti coinvolti nella sperimentazione sia con un gruppo di controllo di studenti ispanofoni che non hanno partecipato a li.lo e con un gruppo di italofoni. prendendo in considerazione il test condotto in fase preliminare e quelli somministrati alla fine della sperimentazione negli anni scolastici 2013/2014 e 2014/2015, il corpus di apprendenti preso in esame ammonta a 223 alunni, di cui 99 italofoni, 104 parlanti di spagnolo come lingua d’origine e 20 bilingui emergenti parlanti altre lingue. l’obiettivo dei test condotti a fine sperimentazione era quello di verificare progressi nella competenza nei linguaggi disciplinari e nelle capacità metalinguistiche da parte di coloro che avevano partecipato a li.lo. le analisi statistiche condotte sui risultati dei test dimostrano come i destinatari del corso si siano avvicinati notevolmente alle competenze linguistiche disciplinari dei loro compagni italofoni nativi, e, allo stesso tempo, come le competenze disciplinari degli apprendenti ispanofoni del gruppo di controllo risultino essere visibilmente inferiori rispetto ai partecipanti a li.lo in fase post-progetto. il volume costituisce senza dubbio un punto di riferimento per un approccio ai concetti di educazione bilingue e di translanguaging come risorsa per orientare una didattica inclusiva. il ricco impianto teorico esposto nella prima parte guida il lettore verso un’analisi critica dei meccanismi di valorizzazione del bie del plurilinguismo in contesto scolastico, anche grazie a un dettagliato confronto fra il contesto nord-americano (in particolare statunitense) e il contesto europeo in termini di politica linguistica e interventi didattici; da qui si arriva, quindi, gradualmente al contesto scolastico italiano. dal punto di vista delle implicazioni pedagogiche, risulta essere importante il ricorrente focus sul potenziale del translanguaging come pratica didattica in grado di produrre de-gerarchizzazioni linguistiche e accentuare lo sviluppo di identità transglossiche, nonché l’intersezione fra questa prospettiva e quella della tutela dei diritti linguistici di tutti gli apprendenti. per quanto riguarda il progetto li.lo, nello specifico, esso rappresenta uno dei primi interventi strutturati in italia nel quale si utilizza l’approccio del translanguaging in ambito didattico, cercando di trarre il meglio dalla pedagogia e dall’educazione bilingue statunitense per contestualizzarla (in modo decisamente produttivo, secondo chi scrive) all’interno del sistema scolastico italiano. il volume, tuttavia, presenta anche alcuni punti di debolezza. innanzitutto, dal punto di vista della struttura, si ha l’impressione che sia stato dedicato uno spazio troppo ristretto alla descrizione del progetto. pensando ad un pubblico di lettori costituito da insegnanti e facilitatori linguistici, sarebbe stato opportuno approfondire di più sulle tecniche didattiche adottate e, magari, inserire in appendice alcuni modelli di attività realizzate. per quanto riguarda lo svolgimento del progetto, tenendo in considerazione la necessità, sottolineata nel capitolo 3, di progressione, continuità e sistematicità di interventi didattici inclusivi basati sulla valorizzazione del bie plurilinguismo, le autrici non specificano se e come il progetto abbia avuto un seguito, oppure se gli insegnanti coinvolti abbiano continuato ad adottare l’approccio di li.lo. anche in autonomia. una prospettiva interessante potrebbe essere quella di uscire dalla dimensione extra-curriculare, provando a includere sperimentazioni di questo tipo all’interno della didattica formale (cfr. carbonara & scibetta, in stampa). tale prospettiva potrebbe rappresentare un’occasione di sviluppo di competenze linguistiche e metalinguistiche a vantaggio di tutti gli studenti, non solo degli ispanofoni. il pubblico a cui il volume si rivolge può comprendere sia studenti universitari e ricercatori che siano interessati ad approfondire le proprie conoscenze sull’educazione bilingue e sulle sue applicazioni, sia insegnanti, mediatori e facilitatori linguistici che vogliano sperimentare nuove pratiche didattiche inclusive. scibetta e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 119-124 124 riferimenti bibliografici baker, colin (2011). foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. clevedon, regno unito: multilingual matters. baker, colin, & jones, sylvia prys (1998). encyclopedia of bilingualism and bilingual education. clevedon, regno unito: multilingual matters. benucci, antonella (2015). l’intercomprensione: il contributo italiano, torino, italia: utet. carbonara, valentina, & scibetta, andrea (in stampa). “il translanguaging come strumento efficace per la gestione delle classi plurilingui: il progetto ‘l’altroparlante’. rassegna italiana di linguistica applicata (rila), 1, 2018. cazden, courtney b., & snow, catherine e. (eds.). (1990). english plus: issues in bilingual education. london, regno unito: sage. cummins, jim (1979). cognitive/academic language proficiency, linguistic interdependence, the optimum age question and some other matters. working papers on multilingualism, 19, 121-129. garcía, ofelia (2009). bilingual education in 21st century: a global perspective. oxford, regno unito: wileyblackwell. garcía, ofelia, & kleyn, tatiana (2016). translanguaging theory in education. in garcía, ofelia, & tatiana kleyn (eds.), translanguaging with multilingual students. learning from classroom moments (pp. 9-33). new york, new york: routledge. g.i.s.c.e.l. (ed.). (2007). educazione linguistica democratica. a trent’anni dalle dieci tesi. milano, italia: franco angeli. miur (2007). la via italiana per la scuola interculturale e l’integrazione degli alunni stranieri. osservatorio nazionale per la scuola interculturale e l’integrazione degli alunni stranieri. potowski, kim (2005). fundamentos de la enseñanza del español a hispanoablantes en los ee. uu. madrid, spagna: arco libros. andrea scibetta, università per stranieri di siena scibetta@unistrasi.it it andrea scibetta è assegnista di ricerca presso l’università per stranieri di siena. ha conseguito un dottorato di ricerca in “linguistica e didattica della lingua italiana a stranieri” presso l’università per stranieri di siena nel 2017 con una tesi sullo sviluppo di abilità pragmatiche in italiano come seconda lingua (l2) da parte di apprendenti sinofoni. i suoi settori di interesse scientifico comprendono la didattica dell’italiano l2 a sinofoni, la didattica della lingua cinese, i processi di valorizzazione del plurilinguismo (con focus specifico sul cinese) nelle scuole italiane, e le strategie di pianificazione e realizzazione di percorsi didattici inclusivi nelle classi plurilingui. en andrea scibetta is a research fellow at the università per stranieri di siena. he earned a ph.d. in linguistics and didactics of italian language for foreigners at the università per stranieri di siena in 2017, with a dissertation focused on chinese learners’ development of pragmatic skills in l2 italian. his research interests include the teaching of l2 italian to chinese speakers, chinese language pedagogy, strategies to support multilingualism (with a specific focus on chinese) in italian schools, and the development and implementation of inclusive educational practices in multilingual classes. es andrea scibetta es investigador postdoctoral en la università per stranieri di siena. en 2017 consiguió el doctorado en lingüística y didáctica del italiano como lengua extranjera en la università per stranieri di siena con una tesis sobre el desarrollo de competencias pragmáticas en italiano l2 por parte de estudiantes sinohablantes. sus líneas de investigación incluyen la didáctica del italiano l2 a sinohblantes, la didáctica del chino, los procesos de valoración del plurilingüismo (con enfoque en el chino) en las escuelas italianas y las estrategias de planificación y realización de una didáctica inclusiva en las clases plurilingüe. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 24-43 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.153 www.e-journall.org © duarte 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. a holistic model for multilingualism in education joana duarte*ab, mirjam günther-van der meij b1 auniversity of groningen bnhl stenden university of applied sciences received 16 july 2018; received in revised form 12 october 2018; accepted 15 november 2018 abstract en this paper presents a holistic model for multilingualism in education (duarte, 2017), which combines different approaches to teaching and knowledge and places them in a continuum—from the acknowledgement of different languages to their actual use as a language of instruction. the model addresses attitudes, knowledge, and skills related to the multilingualism of both teachers and students (herzog-punzenberger, le pichon-vorstman, & siarova, 2017) and is suitable for different school types and students (i.e., for both minority and migrant students). the model is tested in the northern netherlands in a multilingual education project that combines different approaches to multilingual education for both migrant and minority learners. through design-based interventions, teachers and researchers collaboratively develop multilingual activities in a bottom-up approach (i.e., based on questions from the schools involved). some preliminary results from the project are presented, and the model’s contribution to research on multilingual education is discussed. key words: multilingual education, holistic approach, minority and migrant languages es este artículo presenta un modelo holístico para el multilingüismo en la educación (duarte, 2017), el cual combina diferentes enfoques de la enseñanza y el conocimiento y los coloca en un continuo (desde el conocimiento de la existencia de diferentes idiomas hasta su uso actual como idioma de instrucción). el modelo responde a actitudes, conocimientos y habilidades relacionadas con el multilingüismo, tanto de los maestros como de los estudiantes (herzog-punzenberger, le pichonvorstman, & siarova, 2017), y resulta adecuado para diferentes tipos de escuelas y estudiantes (por ejemplo, para estudiantes minoritarios y migrantes). el modelo se probó en el norte de los países bajos en un proyecto de educación multilingüe que combina diferentes enfoques de la educación multilingüe para estudiantes minoritarios y migrantes. por medio de intervenciones basadas en el diseño curricular, los maestros y los investigadores desarrollan, en colaboración, actividades multilingües en un enfoque ascendente (por ejemplo, basado en preguntas de las escuelas involucradas). se presentan algunos resultados preliminares del proyecto y se discute la contribución del modelo a la investigación sobre la educación multilingüe. palabras clave: educación multilingüe, modelo holístico, lenguas minoritarias y migrantes it questo articolo presenta un modello olistico per il multilinguismo nell'educazione (duarte, 2017) che combina diversi approcci all'insegnamento e alla conoscenza e li colloca su un continuum – a partire dal riconoscimento delle diverse lingue fino al loro uso effettivo come lingue di insegnamento. il modello affronta gli atteggiamenti, le conoscenze e le abilità relative al multilinguismo di insegnanti e studenti (herzog-punzenberger, le pichon-vorstman, & siarova, 2017) ed è adatto a diversi tipi di scuola e di studenti (per esempio, sia per le minoranze che per gli studenti migranti). il modello è stato testato nei paesi bassi settentrionali in un progetto educativo multilingue che combina diversi approcci all'istruzione multilingue per studenti migranti e studenti di gruppi linguistici minoritari. attraverso interventi basati sulla progettazione, insegnanti e ricercatori sviluppano collaborativamente attività multilingue in un approccio dal basso verso l'alto (cioè, sulla base delle domande delle scuole coinvolte). in questa sede vengono presentati alcuni risultati preliminari del progetto e viene discusso il contributo del modello alla ricerca sull'istruzione multilingue. parole chiave: educativo multilingue, modello olistico, lingue migranti e minoritarie * contact: j.duarte@rug.nl http://www.e-journall.org/ a holistic model for multilingualism in education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 25 1. introduction the recent increase in the population of multilingual pupils in european schools has led to a renewed examination of models of multilingual education, or mle (cenoz, 2009; hobbs, 2012) as means to improve school participation and outcomes of multilingual pupils. according to cenoz and gorter (2015), “multilingual education refers to the use of two or more languages in education, provided that schools aim at multilingualism and multiliteracy” (p. 2). it is thus an umbrella term for various pedagogical approaches that utilize several languages of instruction, also for those aiming to foster elite bilingualism. one common feature of many recent programs framed within an mle perspective is the active inclusion of pupils’ family languages as a resource in instruction. some pedagogical approaches have been developed to include pupils’ family languages in instruction even within typically monolingual education settings. however, these approaches have limitations when implemented within complex linguistic settings. this paper puts forward a new form of mle, which we have termed holistic multilingual education, and discusses empirical evidence deriving from the implementation of this approach. we aim to determine whether our development is yet another “new something” or indeed something new. the pressing need for the development of the holistic multilingual education approach derived from the particular context of the research. the study is set in fryslân, a bilingual province in the north of the netherlands, where frisian is a regional minority language. about 55% of the 646.000 inhabitants of fryslân speak frisian as their mother tongue, whilst 30% speak dutch as their mother tongue and 15%, often from a migrant background, speak another language (provinsje fryslân, 2015). native frisian speakers are typically proficient in dutch, since dutch is the dominant language. frisian is typically spoken in rural areas and to a much lesser extent in urban areas, where dutch or dialects are spoken (provinsje fryslân, 2015). english is the most commonly taught foreign language. our setting is thus a typical case of a region still in the process of consolidating the position of a regional minority language in education, while at the same time dealing with increasing migration-induced diversity (duarte & günther-van der meij, 2018). within this complex language ecology, teachers struggle with several issues in relation to language(s) education (herzog-punzenberger, le pichon-vorstman, & siarova, 2017). first, schools are required to help students achieve certain levels of proficiency in the frisian regional minority language, although not all pupils speak the language at home. second, english is increasingly being introduced at earlier grades of primary education and demands for proficiency in this language are rising. third, based on their understanding of the significance of the frisian language for frisian-speaking pupils, most teachers are aware that pupils with an immigrant background should also be supported in using their languages within mainstream education, but state that they are un-prepared to do so (duarte & jellema, 2017). hence, the main challenge deriving from our setting is how to meet the demands of multilingual education in an education system in which a national language, a minority language, a foreign language, and many different migrant languages co-exist. an answer to this challenge is currently being developed within the 4-year project 3m: meer kansen met meertaligheid (more opportunities with more languages). using a design-based research approach (mckenney & reeves, 2013), 24 teachers in 12 primary schools are participating in the project to develop and implement a holistic multilingual education intervention that acknowledges and uses several languages in instruction. as part of this project, the aims for the present article are to a) present the principles of the model for holistic multilingual education, b) to discuss examples of the intervention program developed by participating schools in relation to the model, and c) explore a case-study of the implementation of the holistic approach on the basis of the work of one school. to do this, we will explore the views and opinions of the principal, teacher, and pupils on the holistic approach, as well as provide examples of classroom interaction. the paper starts with an overview of mle approaches and presents the principles behind the model for holistic multilingual education. after the methodology section, examples of activities developed within the project and results of the interviews and scenes from classroom interaction will be discussed in relation to the model. in the conclusion, we will evaluate the utility of the proposed approach. 2. from bilingual to multilingual education traditionally, bilingual education models are aimed at fostering productive and receptive skills in two or more languages (baker, 2011). these programs differ in the target degree of bi-/multiliteracy and whether the languages used in instruction are dominant or non-dominant in the surrounding societal context. bilingual education can be classified into different models, according to the time spent in teaching the duarte & günther-van der meij e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 26 different languages, the pupils they serve, and the degree of support in teaching languages (benson, 2009). bilingual education models for regional minority languages have been implemented in the basque, catalan, and welsh contexts (gorter & cenoz, 2012). likewise, bilingual programs aiming at including migrant languages in education have been widely implemented (review of results in sierens & van avermaet, 2017). furthermore, there is a growing number of bilingual programs that seek to foster two dominant languages (e.g., german and english) and which are typically reserved for a minor group of elite pupils (lindholm-leary, 2001). baker (2011) makes a distinction between weak and strong forms of bilingual education. weak programs only make use of bilingualism to achieve native-like monolingual competence in l2, whereas strong programs aim at full development of the students’ bi-/multilingual competence. in general, the key rationale behind bilingual models draws upon the time-on-task hypothesis (hopf, 2005), which argues that pupils need maximum exposure to the languages of instruction in order to acquire native-like proficiency. in order for this to be operationalized in curricula, materials and teaching hours, these models are organized according to principles of strong separation of the involved languages of instruction (creese & blackledge, 2010). this rigid separation of languages has also been termed the “two solitudes” assumption (cummins, 2008). in addition, traditional bilingual models are also very much based on monoglossic conceptualizations of speakers, language and culture, “developed as part of the rise of nationstates in europe to create structures and goals that normalize monolingualism and erase the bilingual language practices of language-minoritized students” (flores & baetens-beardsmore, 2015, p. 219). in the past decades, increased mobility has also led to more multilingual classrooms, and with these, the realization of plurilingualism rather than balanced bilingualism as the suitable goal for education (jaffe, 2012). recently, several approaches have been put forward in order to move away from traditional bilingual models and take on a more heteroglossic stance in bilingual education (flores & baetens-beardsmore, 2015). horner, lu, royster and timbur (2011), for example, propose the development of a translingual approach, which acknowledges the authority of language users to shape language to specific purposes, recognizes the linguistic heterogeneity of language users, and directly challenges monolingual expectations (horner et al., 2011). the idea of translingualism thus differs from the concept of balanced bilingualism in that it challenges monoglossic ideologies of distinct languages in which pupils must be separately proficient (flores & baetensbeardsmore, 2015). other recent approaches focus on fostering language skills of multilingual pupils, usually in students’ home languages and the (often national) languages of schooling. examples of these are linguistically responsive teaching (lucas, villegas, & freedson-gonzalez, 2008), language-sensitive subject teaching (leisen, 2013), culturally responsive pedagogy (gay, 2010) and continuous inclusive language education (gogolin et al., 2011), which is the most comprehensive and systematic concept. drawing from research on language acquisition of multilinguals, cenoz and gorter propose a “focus on multilingualism” approach (2011, 2015) meaning that schools should take on a holistic perspective “when looking at multilingual students and their languages” (2015, p. 4) by acknowledging the full linguistic repertoires of multilingual pupils. while these approaches have proven successful in raising competencies in the languages of schooling, they often do less well at making use of pupils’ multiple languages and varieties as functional resources for learning. cummins’s (2008) interdependence hypothesis, however, states that successfully acquired knowledge in the home languages can be easily transferred to other languages, as long as there is adequate exposure to and motivation to learn the language. this notion of cross-linguistic transfer can be linked to cook’s (2003) notion of multicompetence, which aims at explaining multidirectional transfer in multilinguals and implies that all the languages of the learners form one shared system, rather than a collection of completely isolated systems. several pedagogical approaches have been put forward in order to include multiple languages in mainstream instruction. one feature of these models is that they include the family languages of their pupils as a resource in instruction. one of these approaches is language awareness. generally speaking, language awareness approaches aim at four dimensions of language competence: (1) the ability to reflect upon and reveal some degree of awareness of their own dispositions and motivations regarding languages (socioaffective dimension); (2) the capacity to manage their linguistic and communicative biography in new interaction situations (management of linguistic and communicative repertoires dimension); (3) the ability to manage acquisition processes (management of learning repertoires dimension); and lastly (4) the ability to reflect upon the interactive processes which characterize language contact situations, (management of interaction dimension) (andrade et al., 2003, p. 489). activities that foster language awareness (candelier, 2010) have the following features: (a) integrated language learning, aimed at establishing associations between different languages (minority, immigrant, instruction and foreign languages); (b) a holistic model for multilingualism in education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 27 intercomprehension, which particularly works with various languages within the same language family, and (c) a pedagogy for awakening to languages, implying attempts to break with the segmentation and isolation of the language teaching methods at schools. the positive academic results achieved in teaching programs that aimed at raising language awareness extend beyond language minority students to all pupils (hélot & young, 2006; oliveira & ançã, 2009; wildemann, 2013). in addition, receptive multilingualism refers to the ability of a speaker to understand utterances or texts in another language, even when they are not able to actively speak it. this skill, often linked to mutual intelligibility of closely related languages, can be used in as a teaching method to raise receptive skills of languages (braunmüller, 2013; ten thije & zeevaert, 2007). within this context, intercomprehension between romance languages in europe has been widely studied (the eurom4 method, the galatea and galanet programs and the euromania manual are well-known examples). in addition, intercomprehension between romance and germanic languages has also been explored (e.g., the ice, intercompréhension européenne and eurocom programs). research has also provided strong empirical evidence for language comparison as a primary learning device bringing about positive effects on conceptual learning in several areas (gentner, 2010; rittle-johnson & star, 2011). the core idea is that when two different units (e.g., objects, problems, languages) are juxtaposed, intentional comparison processes promote deeper processing of their features due to the fact that their similarities and differences become particularly highlighted (ziegler & stern, 2014). furthermore, this procedure helps learners to abstract principles that may be used to solve novel problems (catrambone & holyoak, 1989). in an intervention focused on finding sustainable effects of contrasting early algebra skills such as addition and multiplication, ziegler and stern (2014) found that in the short term, during the training, students actually performed worse under the condition in which these skills were juxtaposed. yet, in the follow-up tests, the contrast group clearly outperformed the group in which the skills were presented as unrelated to each other, which also held true for the replica of the study. the authors conclude that contrasted comparison of similar but conceptually different features results in enhanced long-term learning. based on the view that different communication systems form a single integrated system where languages are fluid, translanguaging approaches have recently been put forward (canagarajah, 2011; duarte, 2016; garcía, ibarra johnson, & seltzer, 2017). translanguaging refers to the use of the learner’s full language repertoire in teaching and learning (garcía & li wei 2014; garcía, ibarra johnson, & seltzer 2017). garcía and kano refer to translanguaging in education as a process by which students and teachers engage in complex discursive practices that include all the language practices of all students in a class in order to develop new language practices and sustain old ones, communicate and appropriate knowledge, and give voice to new socio-political realities by interrogating linguistic inequality. (2014, p. 261) empirical research so far has focused on analyzing classroom interaction by zooming in on the ways translanguaging is used for constructing meaning, acquiring knowledge, and negotiating power in diverse classrooms. an array of studies has underlined the advantages of a translanguaging pedagogy at different levels of school performance and for both migrant and minority languages. these advantages include better lesson accomplishment (arthur & martin, 2006; lin & martin, 2005), balancing the power-relations among languages in the classroom (canagarajah, 2011), protection and promotion of minority languages (cenoz, 2017), increased participant confidence and motivation (creese & blackledge, 2010), maximization of learning (hornberger, 2005; hornberger & link, 2012), empowerment and language learning (latisha & young, 2017), and higher cognitive engagement in content matter learning (duarte, 2016). a more traditional and widely accepted method for using foreign languages in education is the clil approach. clil stands for content and language integrated learning and refers to teaching subjects such as science, history and geography to students through a foreign language (cenoz, 2013), focusing on both content and language. clil approaches are often implemented as a means to provide instruction in recognized foreign languages, such as english, french or german. in sum, several approaches to including multiple languages in education have been shown to bring about positive academic, attitudinal, and socio-affective results for pupils (see cenoz & gorter 2011, 2015; sierens & van avermaet, 2014). however, as herzog-punzenberger et al. (2017) point out: it appears that the most important challenge is not so much a lack of evidence-based strategies in highly diverse classrooms – although clearly more research is needed – but rather the availability of this knowledge and the need for a shift in attitudes of those who duarte & günther-van der meij e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 28 work with highly diverse classrooms on a daily basis, teachers, educators and policy-makers. (p. 33) as a result, the focus of research should be on finding ways to disseminate and implement available knowledge in a sustainable way. in addition to the lack of practical implementation of these approaches, there seems to be a lack of interconnection between them in terms of empowering professionals to combine elements from different approaches, which would allow them to develop tailored approaches for their specific school setting. this may be due to the fact that research and available materials within the different approaches have been developed in isolation from one another. an extra aspect clouding the implementation of different approaches is that they have often been developed with specific groups of multilingual pupils in mind: language awareness programs for newly arrived pupils; trilingual models for minority language maintenance; clil programs in international schools. professionals often have access only to materials and approaches generally used for the target groups of pupils attending their own schools. the current research aims to address these shortcomings, through the development of an approach to explicitly explore the multilingual resources of all pupils for learning in mainstream classrooms. it combines different perspectives in order to acknowledge and use multilingualism of different types of multilingual pupils attending diverse school types in the netherlands. 3. a holistic approach to multilingualism in education the broad consensus across approaches is that effective learning of languages requires a holistic approach. at the level of school development, whole-school approaches focus on creating an inclusive school culture as an important component of multilingual education. when implementing a whole-school approach, a positive attitude towards all languages is fundamental (herzog-punzenberger et al., 2017). an example of such an approach was put forward in the “european core curriculum for teacher education” (roth, duarte, bainski, & brandenburger, 2012). the program proposes that the teaching of academic language skills for both multilingual and monolingual pupils with reduced exposure to the academic register in their home environment should be a whole-school endeavor, addressing the levels of leadership, material development, and language and content-subjects. other approaches focus on the notion of inclusion, operationalized as the intertwining of language aspects transversely in the curriculum, across subjects and in all teaching activities. the multilingualism curriculum (krumm & reich, 2013), for example, spells out a fully inclusive approach from grades 1 to 12 for general and vocational education, both for language and content teaching. in their focus on multilingualism approach, cenoz and gorter (2011, 2015) take a holistic stance on how the full linguistic repertoire of pupils can be used in educational settings. hence, holistic education defines the concept of inclusion as widening the scope of language(s) education in three dimensions: (a) horizontally, across subjects; (b) vertically, across the age span of pupils, and (c) transversally, in terms of encompassing diverse layers of education and educational agents (leadership, materials, curricula, teacher training, parental involvement). however, we claim that, from the perspective of teacher professionalization and sustainable implementation, these efforts are not yet sufficiently comprehensive to offer a holistic approach for multilingual education. our holistic model for multilingualism in education (figure 1) was first developed to address the needs of schools within the official bilingual region of fryslân, in the north of the netherlands. although linguistic diversity in the region is rapidly growing, it contrasts with the persistent monolingual orientation of mainstream schools (kroon & spotti, 2011), in which standard dutch is not only a central subject but also the main language of instruction. large-scale monitoring studies have identified insufficient proficiency levels in the language of instruction as a major contributor to the achievement gap between pupils with and without an immigrant background (oecd, 2016). this gap is also present in the dutch context, where a considerable part of immigrants’ low educational achievement cannot be explained by their differences between their family background and that of natives (schnepf, 2007). although much less investigated, a similar gap has been found for the frisian minority (de boer, 2009). to address this issue, the investigation of both minority and migrant multilingual forms—that due to political reasons deriving from the different statuses of the languages have not been jointly examined so far (extra & gorter, 2001)—has to be combined in order to reach a broader understanding of the potential of the pupils’ linguistic repertoires in the learning process. accordingly, the first principle of the developed model for holistic multilingual education lies on its a holistic model for multilingualism in education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 29 combination of the knowledge and teaching approaches that have proven effective in education of both minority and migrant pupils into one model and is thus suitable for different school types. figure 1. holistic model for multilingualism in education (duarte, 2017). the second principle of the model is its incorporation of the different approaches towards multilingual education mentioned above, by placing them along a continuum that oscillates between the acknowledgement of different languages and their actual use in instruction. this supports teachers in distinguishing between what they can do with languages that they speak themselves and the possibilities for them to engage with languages which they do not share with their pupils. within the scope of the acknowledgment of languages, approaches can be used that convey knowledge about languages and language learning, thus broadening the meta-linguistic knowledge of pupils and teachers. language awareness allows for the exploration of all existing languages and dialects in the classroom and in the surroundings and a reflection about the role of languages and linguistic diversity in society. also, different cultural features can be integrated in the classroom. the aim is to promote positive attitudes towards language learning and linguistic and cultural diversity. in order to foster explicit language learning strategies, language comparison methods can be used both with languages of instruction and the languages of the pupils. language comparison raises knowledge of how languages work as formal systems (grammar, phonology, lexis, etc.) by comparing specific features across languages. pupils can become experts in their own languages and may ask parents to provide extra information when needed. typologically similar languages mastered by the teacher and migrant languages from the pupils can be compared in class. in terms of using languages in instruction, receptive multilingualism stimulates the pedagogical use of situations in which asymmetric communication between typologically similar languages is used to raise receptive skills of learners. this mode, which is characteristic of border regions in europe, can also be applied to the context of learning a foreign or minority language, present in the teacher’s own repertoire. furthermore, clil can be used to convey content knowledge via a foreign language. immersion necessarily entails the use of foreign languages, although for minority and migrant pupils, learning in the official language of schooling is also considered an immersion approach. the third principle of our holistic model is that it addresses multilingual attitudes, knowledge and skills of both teachers and pupils (herzog-punzenberger et al., 2017). teachers are invited to combine different approaches into tailored teaching activities. while experimenting with language awareness, language comparison, and receptive multilingualism can promote positive attitudes of teachers and pupils towards multilingualism, clil and immersion-based activities provide language knowledge. to stimulate duarte & günther-van der meij e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 30 theoretical knowledge of teachers cooperating in the project, there are regular workshops and study days in which several aspects of the frepa, the framework of reference for pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures (candelier, 2010) are addressed. teaching skills are gained through cyclic experimenting (see more in methods below). 4. methods this study is part of a larger project which includes the design, implementation, and testing of the holistic model for multilingualism in education. the 4-year project “3m: meer kansen met meertaligheid” (more opportunities with more languages), financed by the dutch science foundation, intends to test the model within the official bilingual region of fryslân, in the north of the netherlands. the project is at the end of its first funding year, so nothing can be said yet about its long-term effects on attitudes and performance. this paper is concerned with the development and implementation of one intervention based on the model. 4.1. research questions the research questions for the current paper are: 1) what elements of the holistic model for multilingualism in education are implemented by teachers, teacher trainers, student-teachers and researchers in their pedagogical experiments? 2) what are the impressions of all stakeholders at one school working within a holistic multilingual education approach? to answer rq1, examples of teaching activities and materials developed within the project will be presented in relation to the above discussed model. to answer rq2, data from interviews, focus groups, and video observations in one school will be presented. 4.2. study design the 3m-project has an intervention pre-post design. it is based on both a quantitative examination of the effects of the implementation of design-based interventions on attitudes and knowledge of teachers and pupils, as well as on the qualitative exploration of the processes triggered within the schools in developing the proposed holistic multilingual strategies. to answer the research questions in the current paper, we make use of a case-study methodology (yin, 2009) and present different elements of the implementation focused on a specific school. we will mainly focus on providing examples of the activities developed so far within the project and on the impressions of the different stakeholders when engaging with holistic multilingual education. 4.3. design-based research (dbr) the study aims at developing, implementing and evaluating design-based interventions (mckenney & reeves, 2013) for holistic multilingual education. dbr acknowledges the complexity of educational contexts by carefully examining the different processes, levels, and actors involved in carrying out a jointly engineered educational experiment (cobb, confrey, disessa, lehrer, & schauble, 2003). mckenney and reeves describe dbr as situated in real educational contexts, focusing on the design and testing of interventions, using mixed methods, involving multiple iterations, stemming from partnership between researchers and practitioners, yielding design principles, different from action research, and concerned with an impact on practice. (2013, pp. 97–98) as in the case of an intervention, these experiments are based on previously-gathered theoretical knowledge. however, design-based approaches are of formative nature, in that they must possess an iterative, cyclic design intended to systematically improve the original experiment and report back to all participants involved. they are thus well-suited to yield positive results in teacher-training (collins, joseph, & bielaczyc, 2004). as seen in figure 2, conducting educational research from a dbr perspective includes several phases, during which all stakeholders, including teachers, are seen as experts for their own field. after jointly a holistic model for multilingualism in education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 31 exploring theoretical knowledge on one of the approaches for multilingual language instruction by means of a workshop with an expert, teachers analyze their own situation at school and formulate a research question aiming at improving the quality of instruction in terms of multilingualism. together with researchers, teacher trainers and teacher-students, the school team designs a teaching activity and material. small aspects of the experiment might be tested with the pupils. once the activity is developed, it is implemented in class. video observation is conducted during implementation. recordings are analyzed by the research team and a feedback form is filled in by the teachers. at a later phase, each of these first developed activities will be implemented at another school in order to be improved and finally enter the project’s online toolbox. in the current project, we are in the phase of designing and evaluating the first teaching activities with teachers, so we have not yet reached the phase of implementation. figure 2. generic model for conducting educational design research (reproduced from mckenney, susan & reeves, thomas c. [2012]. conducting educational design research. new york, new york: routledge.) 4.4. participants, setting, and data collection in the 3m-project, 12 schools, 24 teachers, about 600 pupils, 4 researchers, 3 teacher trainers, and 4 teacher-students jointly develop the educational experiments, following the holistic model for multilingualism in education. for the current paper, we present the specific case study (yin, 2009) of the implementation of the project in one trilingual primary school in fryslân. in this small rural school, dutch, frisian, and english are the official languages of instruction and the curriculum is divided between these three languages. since 2015, the school has received a considerable number of migrant pupils, mainly of polish and syrian backgrounds. as this school participated in a pilot in 2016-2017 (duarte & jellema, 2017), they have had three dbr developmental cycles. the schools’ overarching research questions for the project are: “how can we integrate other languages in our trilingual concept without speaking those languages?” and “how can we guarantee that minority and migrant languages have an equal position at our school?” data for the current paper consist of one interview with a teacher, one interview with the director, two focus groups with four children, and observation of classroom interaction during two classroom days (12 hours total) recorded via video. in order to provide an overview of the practices and impressions of all stakeholders participating in the implementation of the experiments for holistic multilingual education, key quotes were selected from the interviews and focus groups. excerpts were selected to exemplify the different features of the implemented project activities. in addition, transcripts of classroom interaction will be discussed, so as to provide an insight into classroom activities. duarte & günther-van der meij e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 32 5. results 5.1. development of the activities from a holistic multilingual education perspective the first research question (what elements of the holistic model for multilingualism in education are implemented by teachers, teacher trainers, student-teachers and researchers in their pedagogical experiments?) will be answered by presenting two examples of teaching activities and materials developed in the project in relation to the model presented, using the design-based approach. 5.1.1. meta-linguistic awareness through cognate comparison together with several trilingual schools in the project, the 3m team developed a quiz around cognates in frisian, dutch, and english for pupils aged 7-8. exploring cognates can benefit pupils’ cognate awareness, i.e. the ability to use cognates in a home language as a tool for understanding the language of schooling (pérez, peña, & bedore, 2010). while the three languages are typologically related and share various common features at phonetic, phonological, and morphosyntactic levels, they are typically taught separately from each other and not often explicitly compared. the quiz is intended to foster meta-linguistic awareness about the different levels in which these three languages are comparable to each other and thus expand language learning strategies. the pupils were divided into three expert language groups: frisian, dutch, and english and asked to give the answer to 10 riddles (e.g., “what is the opposite of sour?” yields the answer “sweet”). pupils answered in the language of their expert group. the answers were written down and then discussed to check for differences and similarities at different levels (phonetic, orthographic, etc.). it became clear that sometimes frisian and english words are closer to each other compared to the dutch words, e.g., frisian swiet and english sweet against dutch zoet. figure 3 gives an overview of some of the answers. figure 3. examples of cognate riddle with frisian, dutch and english words. linking this activity to the model presented in section 3, this was an example of explicit language comparison, as common features between the three languages were discovered by the pupils. these features could appear at the phonological, semantic, or orthographic levels. in addition, the activity was also conducted using an immersion approach, as the language of instruction used was english. although pupils used also frisian and dutch in their answers, instructions and answers were mainly provided in english and paraphrased in other languages, allaying teachers concern about reducing the use of english in language comparison activities, since these activities raised awareness of language similarities and differences while still targeting pupils’ english language proficiency. overall evaluation of the activity was very positive. teachers, teacher-trainers, and researchers noted a great engagement of pupils with the activity. through the presence of different language groups, the pressure to use only english decreased; pupils were focused on the task at hand and not on producing correct english sentences. they gradually used the english language more, but as means to communicate their results and not as an end in itself. a holistic model for multilingualism in education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 33 5.1.2. translanguaging with dutch and polish another activity created by the 3m-team for a trilingual school with a high percentage of migrant pupils was a lesson within the subject of natural sciences in which the process of making bread was discussed, from growing the grain to baking. this particular activity was developed for a class of pupils aged 8-9 of which about 15% of the pupils speak polish as home language and one pupil speaks arabic at home. the 3m-team’s polish pre-service teacher performed the activity with the class. the pupils first had a tasting of twelve sorts of bread from all over the world, learning their names and where they were originally produced (e.g., naan from india, or pide from turkey). pupils discussed the differences in color, taste, and texture. then, the teacher explained all the different steps involved in the baking process. she used a translanguaging approach to alternate between dutch and polish. the pupils formed groups of four, and it was ensured that each group had speakers of several languages (frisian, dutch, polish and, in one case, arabic,). however, each group was an expert for one of the languages. the groups had to place the different steps of the breadmaking process in the right order and to match the words in frisian, dutch, english, and polish corresponding to each step (figure 4). the single arabic pupil added the words in arabic to the other languages. at the end the work was checked and discussed with the whole class. figure 4. breadmaking process with steps in four different languages. this activity is an example of the explicit use of translanguaging through the alternation of two languages of instruction, polish and dutch. in its original formulation as coined in welsh by williams (1994), translanguaging referred to the deliberate practice of alternating the language of input and the language of output, the basic idea being that one language reinforces the other in order to raise understanding as well as pupils’ activity in both languages (lewis, jones, & baker, 2012). the activity also included a language duarte & günther-van der meij e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 34 awareness element, as in addition to polish and dutch other languages—such as frisian, english and arabic— were acknowledged in instruction by collecting knowledge from the pupils, even though they were not actively used by the teacher herself. 5.2. interviews with stakeholders and recording of classroom interaction to answer research question 2, (what are the impressions of all stakeholders at one school working within a holistic multilingual education approach?), key data from interviews with the principal and one teacher, focus group discussions with pupils, and a transcript of classroom interaction obtained through video-observation are discussed. 5.2.1. welcoming migrant languages in the whole school the school where the case-study data was obtained is a trilingual frisian-dutch-english school which has recently received polish and syrian pupils. the school’s aim is to welcome all home languages spoken by the pupils and to integrate the holistic multilingual approach in the whole school. as the principal puts it: “to us it is very important to acknowledge the children in their own languages”. she mentions that the polish pupils had reached a minimum language threshold (cummins, 1976) required to speak dutch and by encouraging them to use polish with each other they can now translate important information from dutch, supporting both their language development and their participation in class. before the project, the school was hesitant to allow polish in the classroom, as teachers could not control what the children would be discussing, but as the interviewed teacher said: eventually we felt slightly ashamed for that attitude since it is their language, their way of communicating, and their only way of communicating. if we forbid it, how can they communicate with us? how can they express how they feel, what is going on inside them? so, for us it was important to let them feel, “you’re welcome here, whatever language you speak. and for us it is difficult to learn your language as well.” all teachers now incorporate migrant languages in their lessons. by doing this, they show the pupils that they are trying to understand and learn the pupils’ family languages, which lowers the threshold (cummins, 1976) needed for the migrant pupils to learn dutch and even frisian. in addition, this bidirectionality of learning supports teachers in understanding difficulties of migrant pupils when coping with the three new languages of instruction offered at school. 5.2.2. fostering language transfer the school decided to develop an own operationalization of cummins’s (2008) interdependence hypothesis, based on the idea of teaching for language transfer. after discussion in one of the project’s workshops, the idea that fostering language knowledge in general would reinforce all languages and enhance meta-linguistic awareness was embraced by the school. after one year of implementation, the principal now highlights the fact that languages are not in competition with each other but in fact reinforce each other. as a result, migrant languages are not seen as a threat to learning dutch or frisian. she indicated that: actually, we see that because the pupils are already familiar with certain concepts in their mother tongue, they can more easily link a second concept onto that and that enables us to compare languages in the middle and upper grades. this way, the school makes explicit use of the languages the pupils already know to facilitate learning of the other languages of instruction, as suggested by cenoz and gorter’s focus on multilingualism approach (2011, 2015). in the annual national exams, which are conducted in the dutch language, the pupils of this school attained comparable or slightly higher results to similar schools, although they have a considerable number of multilingual pupils. 5.2.3. awakening to languages from the focus group discussions with four pupils it became clear that the pupils themselves feel positively toward the use of several languages at their school. they feel that it allows them to understand many types of languages all over the world, for example on holiday, and to have contact with other children. they learn arabic words from their classmates and in return teach their peers frisian. as one pupil remarks, “it is very interesting when you visit another country, to be able to speak the language spoken there.” a holistic model for multilingualism in education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 35 they also highly value the multicultural aspect of their school; they find it interesting to have several cultures at their school and to learn about the customs of different families. further, pupils are curious and positive in relation to each other’s languages. when speaking about the arabic alphabet, one pupil mentioned in the focus group, “there is a girl from syria in my class. when she writes in arabic the signs she uses are beautiful.” 5.2.4. integration of migrant languages in classroom routines excerpt 1, the first example of classroom interaction, is from a lesson of the first grades of primary education (pupils aged 4 to 6 learning together). at the day of the recording, the language of instruction was frisian. however, from the start of the lesson onwards it is clear that all home languages of the children are integrated into the school’s daily routines. the class starts with a greeting and welcome in five languages (frisian, dutch, english, polish and arabic) by five different pupils. next, two pupils get the english dolls (pompoms) and speak english. the class asks “good morning pompoms, how are you?” “i’m fine, thank you,” answer the two pupils who have the dolls. then the date of that particular day is discussed (the 14th of december). the whole class recites the days of the week aloud in frisian, dutch, and english, after which the whole class counts to 14 in frisian, dutch and english. the teacher asks the polish and syrian pupils to count to 14 in their home languages: excerpt 1. 1. teacher en iwan dy is hiel knap want iwan syn opa en oma wenje noch yn poalen hin iwan? kinsto ek yn it poalsk telle? [and iwan is very bright because iwan’s grandparents live in poland, right? can you count for us in polish?] 2. pupil ja. [yes] (counts to 14 in polish) 3. teacher do krijst fan ús in hiele dikke duim. [you receive a huge thumbs up from us.] 4. teacher mar wy hawwe ek isra yn ‘e klasse en isra komt fan syrië. isra kin yn arabysk telle hin? mar isra begjint nooit mei de tomme mar isra begjint mei de pink te tellen. moatte jim mar ris sjen. [but we also have isra in the classroom and isra is from syria. isra can count in arabic, right? but isra never starts counting with the thumb but isra starts with the little finger. all of you pay attention.] 5. isra (counts to 14 in arabic) 6. gustavo wat knap hin? [isn’t that smart?] the pompoms return to their homes: “bye bye see you next time” says the whole class. next, in excerpt 2, the teacher introduces a color domino game, using frisian, english, and, for the color name, polish: excerpt 2. 1. teacher gean wy noch in lyts spultsje dwaan hin, hienen we fan ‘e wike al efkes oefene, der sitte allegear kleurkes yn, we will play a little game, with the colors. no moatte jim even hiel goed oplette. ik sil it ris even yn in oare taal sizze. wy begjinne mei niebiesk. [we will play a little game, which we’ve practiced this week, there are several colors in (the box), we will play a little game, with the colors. now you all have to pay close attention. i’ll say it in another language. we’ll start with niebesk. ] 2. pupil níêbiesk. 3. teacher niebiesk, wie hat der niebiesk? [niebiesk, who has niebiesk?] 4. polish pupil (lays down a blue stone) 5. teacher niebieski is blauw. wie hat der noch mear in niebiski, of in blauw or in blue? duarte & günther-van der meij e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 36 [niebieski is blue. who else has a niebiski, or a blue or a blue (stone)?] 6. pupil (indicates she has a blue stone) 7. teacher isra kom mar. en isra kinst ek fertelle hoe’t blauw yn it arabysk hjit? [come here, isra. isra, can you tell what blue is in arabic?] 8. isra azraq 9. teacher azraq hin? azraq is blauw yn it arabysk. [azraq, right? azraq is blue in arabic] 10. teacher wa hat der swart of giel? black or yellow? wolsto de kleur even sizze? wolsto it even yn it ingelsk fertelle? [who has black or yellow? black or yellow? will you name the color? will you say it in english?] 11. pupil red and swart [red and black] 12. teacher hoe hjit dat yn it ingelsk? [how is that called in english?] 13. class black. 14. teacher witsto isra, wat grien yn it arabysk is? [do you know isra, what green is in arabic?] 15. isra akhdir [green] 16. teacher and pupils akhdir. [green] 17. pupil muoilik wurd. [difficult word.] 18. teacher muoilik wurd hin? knap hin fan isra? [difficult word, right? smart of isra, right?] the teacher then asks a polish pupil to name red and green in polish, she repeats the words, and he corrects her pronunciation. the teacher involves the whole class and they repeat the polish words. excerpt 3 highlights a metalinguistic discussion that took place immediately after this repetition. excerpt 3. 1. polish pupil het is in een andere taal. [it is in a different language.] 2. teacher ik vind jouw taal best een beetje moeilijk hoor. [i do find your language slightly difficult.] 3. polish pupil eigenlijk zijn die letters anders gezegd. [actually, you pronounce the letters differently.] the last remark in excerpt 3 illustrates that the pupil is aware that polish is not a transparent language. the above transcription shows that although the language of instruction is frisian, and the main focus is on the english words for the colors, all languages present in the class are involved and moreover, all pupils are encouraged to use all languages. in addition, the aim is that both pupils and teacher learn from each other. 5.2.5. multilingual approach in foreign language teaching the last example of classroom interaction, excerpt 4, was recorded in grade 5 (pupils aged 8-9). the language of instruction was dutch on the day of filming. the class counts to 10 in six languages (frisian, dutch, english, arabic, swedish, and polish). then they play a multilingual version of the wie ben ik? (who am i?) game. one pupil picks a card from a set of cards on which names of characters are written. without looking at it, the pupil shows the card to the class. the pupil then picks a language from a set of cards (frisian, dutch or english) and is provided a paper with questions to ask in the chosen language, in order to try to guess which character was written on the first card. the answers are given by the class, who also choose a a holistic model for multilingualism in education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 37 language card and who can answer only yes or no in that language. in the first round, a picture of santa claus is picked and the pupil who plays the character asks the questions in english, while the class answers in swedish. the teacher supports in english and frisan, as needed. excerpt 4. 1. pupil do i have a hat on? 2. class ja. [yes.] 3. pupil am i on television? 4. class nej. [no] 5. teacher sometimes, soms wel. [sometimes, sometimes] 6. swedish pupil ibland [sometimes] as the game continues, as shown in excerpt 5, the teacher repeats the questions in english, sometimes elaborating on them. the next pupil whose turn it is to play the character picks queen maxima of the netherlands, and dutch as the language to ask questions in. the class answers in english. excerpt 5. 1. pupil ben ik een mens? [am i a human being?] 2. class yes. 3. teacher you are a person. 4. pupil heb ik zwart haar? [do i have black hair?] 5. class no. 6. teacher no, you don’t have black hair. 7. pupil heb ik blond haar? [do i have blond hair?] 8. class yes. 9. teacher yes, you are blond. on each of the class’s yes/no answers, the teacher elaborates: “yes, you are a woman. no, we don’t know. no, you are not a princess, but you are close, je bent dichtbij (you are close).” this scene shows how the multilingual approach is also used in the teaching of english as a foreign language. the teacher oscillates between moments of immersion in the english language with moments in which several languages are used. however, during the multilingual moments, language choice is not always random. while in moments of great cognitive engagement pupils are free to choose the language they wish to discuss in, in moments of practice or summarizing of acquired knowledge, the teacher manages language use and increasingly scaffolds the use of more english. 6. discussion and conclusion the aims of the current paper were to present a holistic model of multilingualism in education, discuss concrete activities developed within a design-based project implementing the model, and provide insight into the concrete activities of one case study school. due to the complex language ecology of our research setting (duarte & günther-van der meij, 2018), which derives both from an increase in different languages and from the tensions in promoting a regional minority language in education, a holistic model for multilingualism in education was developed in order to work with teachers in developing tailored interventions that tackle new needs in language education. the model was labeled holistic, as it aims at being duarte & günther-van der meij e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 38 suitable for (a) both minority and migrant pupils, (b) different school types, (c) combining various approaches towards multilingual education, and (d) tackling attitudes, knowledge and skills needed by teachers to implement multilingual education in a successful and sustainable way. while whole-school approaches (gogolin et al., 2011; herzog-punzenberger et al., 2017; roth et al., 2012) frequently depart from the required conditions for successful language development of multilingual pupils and thus focus mainly on fostering the language of instruction across the curriculum and lifespan of the pupils, our holistic model addresses both the language-learning requirements of pupils and the needs of teachers. it operates at three levels—symbolic, linguistic, and cognitive—tapping into needs of both pupils and teachers. a summary of the dimensions involved in this process, from both the perspective of pupils and teachers, is provided in table 1. table 1 dimensions of operationalization of holistic multilingual education from pupils’ and teachers’ perspectives dimension pupils’ perspective teachers’ perspective symbolic acknowledging all languages in education fosters positive attitudinal and motivational aspects that, according to research, enhance school outcomes in the long run. acknowledging all languages raises teachers’ own language and cultural awareness which has positive attitudinal and motivational aspects towards implementing a multilingual approach. linguistic fostering language comparison and raising meta-linguistic knowledge enhances language learning strategies of pupils. fostering language comparison and raising meta-linguistic knowledge improves language teaching methodology of teachers. cognitive linking multilingual language learning to content knowledge across the curriculum supports high cognitive engagement of pupils in all learning areas. linking multilingual language learning to content knowledge across the curriculum supports higher understanding of teachers for the basic requirement of language education as transversal task. the challenges faced by our teachers in fryslân are similar to those described by little and kirwan (2018) within the irish-english context. they describe the five features of one school’s response to the growing linguistic diversity in dublin: “an inclusive ethos, an open language policy and an integrated approach to language education, a strong emphasis on the development of literacy skills, teaching methods that strive to be as explicit as possible, and respect for teachers’ professional autonomy” (little & kirwan, 2018, p. 317). the activities developed so far within the 3m-project presented here follow similar principles. however, they also add the central aspect of teacher professionalization for mle which is a key aspect in the success of the project. professional development of teachers and language development of pupils thus go hand in hand. as such, the model is not to be implemented without the design-based research methodology for the work with teachers. the cyclic design-based approach (cobb et al., 2003; mckenney & reeves, 2013) allows teachers to develop their own pedagogical experiments and first implement those in their teaching at a small scale. in order for this to succeed, teachers need to (a) create safe spaces in which to experiment with multiple languages in the classroom; (b) operationalize the various approaches for mle for their own context and particular aims, and (c) combine them in ways that allow them to tackle their concrete challenges. so far, this design-based approach has been successful in fostering a sense of ownership of the developed activities in the participating schools and high levels of acceptance of the model, as teachers acknowledge its potential to provide answers for language education in their complex linguistic settings. yet the question remains: is our holistic multilingual education approach really something new or simply another new something? by this question, we wish to reflect on whether the model is transferable to other contexts as a means of enhancing implementation of mle. the answer to this question is not yet a straightforward one. on the one hand, the model does seem to provide a means to tackle several challenges which also appear in contexts outside the province of fryslân. first, it provides one way to address the societal and educational challenge of fostering language development and scholastic achievement for migrant, minority, and majority pupils. second, it addresses the research challenge deriving from the a holistic model for multilingualism in education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 39 compartmentalization of research into the various existing approaches for mle. finally, it also addresses the third challenge, an implementation challenge of mle approaches, which are widespread in mainstream education (herzog-punzenberger et al., 2017) and related to the lack of teacher professionalization for mle. on the other hand, the implementation of the model as described in this study is in the beginning stages and does not yet allow for effects on language proficiency and school attainment of pupils to be assessed. a longitudinal measurement of teacher attitudes is being carried out but has not yet yielded the necessary conclusions. what we can tentatively conclude so far is that it takes time for schools and teachers to adopt the model. in our research design, the implementation phase is therefore planned for two years. this assumes a long-term commitment of schools when adopting the model. this commitment extends to the fact that implementation should be carried out by the majority of the team and not by isolated teachers. as such, the model still has shortcomings related to the lack of quantifiable results and the degree of involvement of schools needed for its implementation. nevertheless, we hope that our research design will provide the needed empirical evidence to allow us to turn our holistic model for multilingualism in education into something new. references andrade, ana isabel, araújo e sá, maria helena, bartolomeu, ines, martins, fernando, melo, silvia, santos, leonor, & simões, ana raquel (2003). análise e construção da competência plurilingue alguns percursos didácticos. in antónio neto, josé nico, joão carlos chouriço, paulo costa & paulo mendes (eds.), didácticas e metodologias de educação – percursos e desafios (pp. 489–506). évora, portugal: universidade de évora, departamento de pedagogia e educação. arthur, jo, & martin, peter (2006). accomplishing lessons in postcolonial classrooms: comparative perspectives from botswana and brunei darussalam. comparative education, 42, 177–202. baker, colin. 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holistic model for multilingualism in education e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 24-43 43 joana duarte, university of groningen j.duarte@rug.nl en joana duarte, ph.d., is an assistant professor in the department of frisian language and culture at the university of groningen and at the academy for primary education at the nhl stenden university for applied sciences. her research focuses on multilingualism and education and, in particular, on the role of immigrants’ family languages for teaching and learning. she previously worked as a senior researcher at the university of cologne and university of hamburg, where she also lectured on multilingualism in the teacher training programs. she co-edited the volume, linguistic superdiversity in urban areas (2013), with ingrid gogolin. es joana duarte, ph.d., es profesora contratada en el departamento de idioma y cultura de frisia en la universidad de groningen y en la academia para la educación primaria de la universidad nhl stenden para las ciencias aplicadas. su investigación se enfoca en el multilingüismo y la educación y, en particular, en el rol de los idiomas de las familias inmigrantes para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. trabajó anteriormente como investigadora principal en la universidad de colonia y en la universidad de hamburgo, donde también enseñó sobre multilingüismo en los programas de formación docente. fue, con ingrid gogolin, coeditora del volumen de linguistic superdiversity in urban areas (2013). it joana duarte, ph.d., è ricercatrice nel dipartimento di lingua e cultura frisone presso la università di groningen e presso l’accademia per l’istruzione primaria all’università nhl stenden per le scienze applicate. la sua ricerca si concentra sul multilinguismo e l'educazione linguistica e, in particolare, sul ruolo delle lingue delle famiglie immigrate ai fini dell'insegnamento e dell'apprendimento. in precedenza ha lavorato come ricercatrice senior presso l’università di colonia e l’università di amburgo, dove ha anche tenuto conferenze sul multilinguismo nei programmi di formazione degli insegnanti. ha curato insieme a ingrid gogolin il volume linguistic superdiversity in urban areas (2013). mirjam günther-van der meij, nhl stenden university of applied sciences m.guenther@nhl.nl en mirjam günther-van der meij, ph.d., is a senior researcher and teacher trainer in the academy for primary education at the nhl stenden university for applied sciences. her research focuses on multilingual language development and on multilingualism and education. she contributes to multilingual education projects and teaches multilingualism for the primary teacher training course. she has previously worked as a researcher at the fryske akademy and the university of groningen. es mirjam günther-van der meij, ph.d., es investigadora principal y formadora de docentes en la academia de educación primaria en la universidad nhl stenden para las ciencias aplicadas. su investigación se enfoca en el desarrollo multilingüe del habla y en el multilingüismo y la educación. contribuye a proyectos de educación multilingüe y enseña multilingüismo en los cursos de capacitación para docentes de primaria. anteriormente trabajó como investigadora en la academia fryske y la universidad de groningen. it mirjam günther-van der meij, ph.d., è ricercatrice senior e formatrice di insegnanti nell'accademia per l'istruzione primaria presso l’università nhl stenden per le scienze applicate. la sua ricerca si concentra sullo sviluppo linguistico multilingue e sul multilingualismo e l'educazione. dr. günther-van der meij contribuisce a progetti di educazione multilingue ed insegna il multilinguismo per il corso di formazione di insegnanti primari. in precedenza ha lavorato come assegnista di ricerca presso l’accademia fryske akademy e l’università di groningen. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 5, issue 1, august 2018, 60-80 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.104 © úbeda mansilla 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. el léxico de la ingeniería y su aprendizaje: estudio exploratorio ana roldán-riejos* & paloma úbeda mansilla universidad politécnica de madrid received 9 may 2017; received in revised form 5 november 2017; accepted 1 february 2018 abstract es este artículo presenta una propuesta de aprendizaje del léxico de la ingeniería dentro de ámbito de las lfe (lenguas para fines específicos) a través de un enfoque fraseológico-cognitivo con el objetivo de proporcionar a los alumnos un medio de aprender vocabulario técnico de especialidad de forma fácil y operativa. el procedimiento que proponemos se basa en el uso de agrupaciones temáticas de palabras y locuciones articuladas por medio de la metáfora y/o metonimia lingüística y conceptual. este estudio fraseológico favorece la comprensión y producción discursiva por medio del establecimiento de nexos y relaciones léxico-semánticas entre expresiones técnicas aparentemente aisladas. al sistematizar el discurso, el estudio del vocabulario se estructura en distintos marcos conceptuales que permiten establecer asociaciones mentales y posibilitan la retención a largo plazo. como ejemplo de categorización léxicoconceptual en el campo de la ingeniería de la construcción, describimos el dominio metafórico de los objetos cotidianos, examinando su uso en español y en inglés. el análisis de imágenes de este ámbito permite inferir relaciones analógicas derivadas de factores perceptivos, funcionales o ambos a la vez. se incluye también un análisis contrastivo españolinglés a fin de establecer la existencia de variaciones léxico-semánticas motivadas por diferencias interculturales. palabras clave: léxico de la ingeniería, enfoque cognitivo y lfe, fraseología, aprendizaje de vocabulario técnico en this paper presents a proposal for engineering lexicon learning within languages for specific purposes, from a cognitivephraseological perspective. the main aim is to provide students with a simple and user-friendly method to learn technical vocabulary in their specialty. the procedure we propose relies mainly on the use of lexical and conceptual chunks articulated by means of metaphor and/or metonymy. in this respect, this phraseological study serves to foster discursive understanding by establishing lexical-semantic links and by relating apparently disconnected words and expressions. discourse systematization can structure vocabulary study into conceptual frames that help create mental associations and facilitate memory retention. to illustrate lexical-conceptual categorization in the area of construction engineering, we conduct a study of the metaphorical domain of everyday objects in spanish and english. an image analysis of this domain reveals that the occurrence of analogical relations can result from perceptual factors, functional factors, or both simultaneously. in addition, a cross-linguistic spanish-english analysis of semantic and lexical variations showcases linguistic differences that seem to result from cross-cultural differences. key words: engineering lexicon, phraseology, cognitive approach and lsp, technical vocabulary learning it quest’articolo presenta una proposta per l’apprendimento del lessico dell’ingegneria nell’ambito delle lingue per scopi specifici (lss) attraverso un approccio fraseologico-cognitivo con l’obiettivo di fornire agli apprendenti un modo di imparare il vocabolario tecnico in maniera facile e operativa. il procedimento che proponiamo si basa sull’uso d’insiemi tematici di parole e locuzioni che ricorrono alla metafora e/o alla metonimia linguistica e concettuale. questo studio fraseologico favorisce la comprensione e la produzione discorsiva grazie alla creazione di nessi e relazioni lessicosemantiche tra espressioni tecniche apparentemente isolate. nel sistematizzare il discorso, lo studio del vocabolario si struttura in cornici concettuali distinte che permettono di stabilire associazioni mentali e rendono possibile la memorizzazione a lungo termine. per esemplificare la categorizzazione lessico-concettuale nel campo dell’ingegneria delle costruzioni descriviamo il dominio metaforico degli oggetti quotidiani, esaminandone l’uso in spagnolo e inglese. l’analisi delle immagini di questo ambito permette di inferire relazioni analogiche derivate da fattori percettivi, funzionali, oppure da entrambi i fattori contemporaneamente. inoltre, lo studio include un’analisi contrastiva spagnolo-inglese che mostra l’esistenza di variazioni lessico-semantiche motivate da differenze interculturali. parole chiave: lessico dell’ingegneria, approccio cognitivo e lss, fraseologia, apprendimento del vocabolario tecnico * contacto: paloma.ubeda@upm.es http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.104 el léxico de la ingeniería e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 61 1. introducción este trabajo aborda el estudio del lenguaje de la ingeniería de la construcción desde una perspectiva cognitiva, profundizando en su fraseología y en el uso de ciertos mecanismos cognitivos lingüísticoconceptuales, como la metáfora y la metonimia, en español e inglés. se plantea trasladar estos fundamentos al aprendizaje del inglés de la ingeniería por parte de alumnos españoles. tenemos que subrayar que el presente estudio expone la fase exploratoria de su aplicación, por tanto, nuestro objetivo aquí no es la presentación de datos numéricos y conclusivos de su validez, cuestión que queda para posteriores trabajos, sino enunciar su potencial en cuanto a flexibilidad e idoneidad para un tipo de aprendizaje específico. tomamos como base el marco teórico de la lingüística cognitiva, que señala la no arbitrariedad del lenguaje tanto general como especializado, y defiende su motivación cognitiva y experiencial (lakoff & nuñez, 2000; littlemore, 2009; radden & panther, 2004). las correspondencias analógicas entre lenguaje técnico y lenguaje general merecen ser estudiadas en profundidad para establecer la naturaleza de los enlaces entre uno y otro ámbito. asimismo, el estudio fraseológico permite facilitar la comprensión y producción discursiva por medio del establecimiento de nexos y relaciones léxico-semánticas entre palabras y expresiones técnicas aparentemente aisladas, problema destacado de la adquisición del vocabulario académico en estudios existentes. así, hyland y tse (2007, p. 251) señalan que “vocabulary is more than individual words acting separately in a discourse”. por añadidura, los procesos cognitivos más importantes que utilizamos al pensar o al hablar son equivalentes a aquellos que se utilizan en la adquisición o aprendizaje de lenguas. como ejemplo de esta similitud podemos citar la manera en que establecemos comparaciones, cómo categorizamos, o el modo en que inferimos, hacemos deducciones o adaptamos los significados (littlemore, 2009, p. 2). en un entorno de lenguas para fines específicos (lfe), los conceptos de adquisición y aprendizaje pueden considerarse como interdependientes (spolsky, 1985). en el entorno del español como lfe en que nos desenvolvemos, partimos de la realización previa de un análisis de necesidades (needs analysis) que nos revela las destrezas lingüísticas que necesitan nuestros alumnos en su entorno profesional, así como el desarrollo específico de cada una de ellas. a este respecto, el resultado del análisis hace hincapié en la comprensión y dominio del vocabulario técnico de especialidad, dada la frecuencia de su uso en el entorno profesional. una de las formas más efectivas de llevar a cabo esta adquisición es a través de tareas centradas en el significado y en el uso real del lenguaje (ellis, 2003; nunan, 2005). consecuentemente, las actividades diseñadas para los alumnos de lfe implicarían tanto el aprendizaje consciente como la adquisición automática del léxico de especialidad. van den branden (2007, pp. 8-9) lo explica con estas palabras: “tasks are supposed to elicit the kinds of communicative behavior (such as the negotiation for meaning) that naturally arises from performing real-life language tasks, because these are believed to foster language acquisition”. a modo de conclusión se podría afirmar que el tipo de actividad que requiere el aprendizaje por tareas es de tipo lingüístico y adaptado específicamente a los requisitos del mundo real. estudios previos sobre el lenguaje técnico de especialidad de la ingeniería de la construcción (roldán-riejos, 2016, 2014) mostraban correspondencias léxico-semánticas (mappings) entre distintos ámbitos conceptuales. dichas correspondencias son susceptibles de ser agrupadas en marcos cognitivos que pueden ser de tipo metafórico, es decir un concepto perteneciente a un ámbito expresado por medio de otro perteneciente a un ámbito distinto, aunque relacionado mediante analogía o similitud, o metonímico, por el cual un concepto es expresado por otro que pertenece al mismo ámbito mediante relaciones de contigüidad. consideramos que la intersección del estudio metonímico-metafórico con la fraseología en el ámbito de la ingeniería representa la novedad de nuestro enfoque. en la literatura revisada no se han encontrado trabajos específicos sobre la motivación cognitiva del lenguaje de la ingeniería combinado con el estudio fraseológico, y que aborden el aprendizaje del lenguaje técnico desde ambas perspectivas. en este sentido, la aplicación conjunta del enfoque cognitivo y fraseológico al aprendizaje del lenguaje de la ingeniería que sugerimos en este estudio es una contribución novedosa y creemos que, a tener en cuenta, dado que enfoques anteriores sobre aprendizaje de vocabulario trataban solamente alguno de estos aspectos por separado. por ejemplo, sökmen (1997) estudia los mapas semánticos y las colocaciones, pero sin relacionarlos entre sí, o bensoussan (1992) defiende el aprendizaje por medio de la presentación de esquemas cognitivos exclusivamente. por su parte, chen y hsiao (2010) propugnan el aprendizaje por medio de la audición de una palabra clave asociada a una imagen mental activadora de su significado en primera lengua, no obstante, la utilidad de este método se reduce a alumnos principiantes. roldán-riejos & úbeda mansilla 62 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 hay que mencionar otros trabajos que se aproximan a la perspectiva sugerida en este estudio por tener una orientación cognitiva y fraseológica, como es el caso de boers y lindstromberg (2008), que ponen de relieve la idoneidad del enfoque fraseológico para el aprendizaje del vocabulario de una lengua extranjera. a su vez, meunier y granger (2008) y handl (2008) apuestan por la relevancia de la fraseología para proporcionar mayor fluidez en la adquisición de una segunda lengua. littlemore y low (2006) recomiendan el uso del lenguaje figurado en la interpretación del significado. como trabajo que reúne una recopilación de colocaciones léxicas del área del medio ambiente adoptando la teoría cognitiva de marcos para su traducción, citamos a buendía 2013. asimismo, en cuadrado y otros (2016) se incluye una extensa compilación comentada e ilustrada del lenguaje metafórico y metonímico de distintas ramas de la ingeniería y del deporte en un diccionario español-inglés/inglés-español. en el presente artículo dedicado a la ingeniería de la construcción, se han podido establecer dos puntos principales a partir del análisis de los datos lingüísticos extraídos de corpus recopilado de géneros textuales de índole técnica: 1)la existencia de unidades léxicas metafóricas encuadrables en el ámbito de los objetos cotidianos, 2) la posibilidad de atribuir su uso en lengua de especialidad a factores de carácter perceptivo y/o funcional que son cognitiva o culturalmente compartidos por la comunidad de los ingenieros de la construcción. particularmente, destacamos en los apartados que siguen 12 ejemplos específicos de categorización léxico-semántica, enumerados a continuación con su traducción literal (no técnica) al inglés: 1) “silla” (chair); 2) “asiento” (seat), 3) “tablero” (tableboard), 4) “cuchara” (spoon), 5) “rodillo” (roller), 6) “relleno” (filling), 7) “bandeja” (tray), 8) “vaso” (glass), 9) “anillo” (ring), 10) “cortina” (curtain), 11) “lecho/cama” (bed), 12) “aguja” (needle). estos ejemplos se encuadran en el marco conceptual de objetos cotidianos, aquellos de los que tenemos un conocimiento cercano. dado que tratamos el aprendizaje del lenguaje técnico en inglés, se examinarán las posibles correspondencias técnicas de los ejemplos de español a inglés, así como un análisis cognitivo de las imágenes que los ejemplos representan, seguido, posteriormente, por unas recomendaciones didácticas encaminadas a familiarizar al alumno con el enfoque propuesto mediante un proceso secuencial de aprendizaje. 2. marco teórico: el enfoque fraseológico-cognitivo el aprendizaje del vocabulario técnico en lengua extranjera representa un problema para los estudiantes de ingeniería, que generalmente sortean por medio de la memorización de listas que ellos mismos se preparan. este enfoque nos parece poco productivo no sólo porque es un esfuerzo que no parece aumentar la motivación del aprendizaje, sino porque a la larga no produce frutos y los términos aprendidos se acaban olvidando. xhaferi (2010) hace notar que para activar la memoria a largo plazo: instead of words being represented alphabetically, concepts are represented according to their associations to one another. an example is the word ‘blue’ and what usually comes to mind is the sky which is closely associated with blue or ‘red’ usually associated with love. (p. 233) igualmente, morgan y rinvolucri (2004) postulan que el aprendizaje de vocabulario no se debe hacer de forma mecánica, sino asociativamente. por otra parte, a los alumnos de ingeniería les cuesta distinguir entre palabras cuyo uso es muy frecuente y las de uso más restringido, entre palabras procedentes del lenguaje general que adquieren un significado específico y aquellas que sólo se encuentran en el lenguaje técnico. ante este complejo panorama, tiene sentido la propuesta de un enfoque que intente discernir y facilite la adquisición del lenguaje técnico de forma organizada al tener en cuenta la incidencia y uso de las palabras. dado que actualmente la fraseología es una disciplina que se encuentra en desarrollo y que aún no existe consenso sobre cómo determinar una unidad fraseológica o una colocación léxica (granger & paquot, 2008; romero, 2007; gries, 2008), es importante destacar las aportaciones recibidas desde otros paradigmas lingüísticos, como por ejemplo de la lingüística de corpus, que pueden resultar esclarecedoras a este respecto. así, en la obtención de concordancias contextuales, colocaciones léxicas y significados de uso frecuente, la lingüística de corpus contribuye cuantitativamente, en razón de la frecuencia obtenida, así como cualitativamente al permitir el análisis semántico y cognitivo de la fraseología. esto último permite asimismo afinar el análisis en la identificación de la metáfora o la metonimia en las colocaciones léxicas. las colocaciones léxicas han sido definidas como “the patterned way that group words together” (biber, conrad & reppen, 2000, p. 24) y se pueden analizar a lo largo de un continuum que abarcaría desde combinaciones libres (benson, benson & ilson, 2009), generalmente de tipo binario, cuya única ligazón sería de tipo el léxico de la ingeniería e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 63 sintáctico y donde cada componente conserva su significado por separado, hasta expresiones fosilizadas cuyo significado es global, al funcionar como un bloque léxico, ejemplo de ello son los modismos o frases hechas. en este continuum, las colocaciones técnicas pueden situarse en distintos estadios o rangos, dependiendo de su frecuencia y de la interconexión semántica entre sus componentes. a este respecto, podemos aplicar principalmente dos criterios, semántico o estructural, para determinar el grado de lexicalización de la colocación. para el criterio semántico se sustituye un componente de la colocación por una palabra parecida. como ilustración tomemos el caso de testigo de sondeo, si lo transformamos a prueba de sondeo, aunque se trate del mismo campo semántico (de la cimentación de obra), el significado de la colocación no es equivalente, ya que mientras que en el primer caso los dos integrantes léxicos contribuyen por igual al significado específico de la colocación, que se entiende de forma global y tiene mayor peso que el de cada componente por separado, en prueba de sondeo no se aprecia esa misma unidad y de hecho sus componentes se pueden entender por separado. en testigo de sondeo se podría decir que el significado individual se ha fusionado o integrado (fauconnier & turner, 2002). por otra parte, el hecho de que testigo de sondeo sea metafórico contribuye a reforzar dicha fusión. el segundo criterio es el estructural, que consiste en insertar un cambio de tipo estructural (morfosintáctico). así, en el caso de residuos urbanos vemos que se trata de una colocación consolidada actuando como un bloque de significado, y si fuera transformada a residuo urbanizado, el significado sería muy distinto. en la colocación ariete hidráulico, si introducimos otra palabra: ariete de acero hidráulico, la combinación no funcionaría como tal y la unidad semántica se vería afectada. se podría afirmar entonces que las colocaciones pueden atravesar distintos estadios en su proceso de lexicalización, si bien esto no implica que todas las colocaciones técnicas se convertirán con el tiempo en lexicalizadas, ya que ese factor dependerá del uso que adquiera en el tiempo. además, los elementos léxicos de estas colocaciones también están sometidos a procesos metafóricos y metonímicos, en este sentido es importante fijarse en la aportación de la lingüística cognitiva a la fraseología (rodríguez & molina, 2007, pp. 177-193). según la teoría de la metáfora conceptual (lakoff, 1996; lakoff & johnson, 1980), gran parte de los conceptos que usamos al pensar y al hablar hacen uso de mecanismos cognitivos como son la metáfora y la metonimia. estos mecanismos permiten conectar distintos ámbitos de la experiencia mediante correspondencias conceptuales y/o lingüísticas cuya estructura es la de ámbito o dominio fuente y ámbito o dominio terminal. en el discurso ordinario se pueden establecer relaciones analógicas, como en la metáfora, de contigüidad, como en la metonimia, de una combinación de ambas o mediante otro tipo de lenguaje figurado, como en la hipérbole, la ironía, el símil, etc. (burgers, konijn, & steen 2016). por regla general, la metáfora conceptual se expresa en términos de: a es b, como ilustración recordamos la conocida metáfora conceptual de lakoff y johnson (1980) el amor es un viaje (love is a journey), donde se conectan conceptos de ámbitos separados, pero perfectamente entendibles, en ejemplos como nuestra relación se ha ido a pique o su matrimonio avanza a todo gas. si bien como indica littlemore (2009, p. 98), la metáfora lingüística no se rige por las mismas coordenadas que la metáfora conceptual, dado que esta última “involve(s) the drawing together of incongruous domains”, mientras que la metáfora lingüística “involve(s) the drawing together of incongruous words”. según esto, la metáfora conceptual representa estructuras que suelen generar gran cantidad de pensamiento abstracto, mientras que la metáfora lingüística sirve principalmente para referirse a algo en concreto. en este trabajo se han identificado una serie de metáforas lingüísticas que se pueden derivar de la metáfora conceptual los objetos de construcción son objetos cotidianos. dichos objetos resultan familiares por pertenecer al entorno doméstico, pero a su vez se usan como elementos de la ingeniería de la construcción. por ejemplo, rodillo (un utensilio común de cocina empleado para amasar, también se refiere a una máquina de compactar carreteras), o de forma similar, cama, cortina, o silla también son utilizados en la ingeniería, como veremos más adelante. hemos señalado que las metáforas lingüísticas pueden estar relacionadas con una metáfora conceptual, si bien esto no constituye un requisito necesario. las metáforas lingüísticas suelen estar regidas por relaciones de semejanza situadas a nivel léxico, que a su vez pueden motivar la creación de unidades léxicas interrelacionadas (evans, 2013, p. 75). por ejemplo, asiento y silla representan unidades léxicas de gran dinamismo semántico, ya que se mueven entre varios subdominios de la ingeniería de la construcción adoptando matices de significado según el contexto, asiento forma parte del subdominio de la cimentación y también puede serlo de los materiales de construcción. el significado de silla puede oscilar desde punto de apoyo de un puente al elemento que recoge los cables de un puente colgante, según el contexto. banqueta (que es un tipo de soporte o sujeción de la estructura) es otro ejemplo perteneciente a la misma agrupación léxico-semántica. según esto, se puede afirmar que la metáfora roldán-riejos & úbeda mansilla 64 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 lingüística o léxica, lejos de ser estática o fosilizada, funciona dinámicamente, contribuyendo a la creación de significado a demanda por medio de mecanismos de compresión, de extensión o de fusión (fauconnier & turner, 2002). en suma, la meta principal del trabajo es formalizar una propuesta de estudio léxico-semántico que facilite la comprensión y el aprendizaje de la terminología técnica en lengua extranjera. como apuntan low y littlemore (2006, p. 37), “learning occurs where there is some guided, explanatory input about basic meanings and/or about underlying conceptual metaphor, and the learners interact actively with the language (by thinking of examples, discussing, or querying).” se persigue con ello que los alumnos se familiaricen con el fenómeno de la motivación lingüística y que puedan usar y manejar frecuentes agrupaciones léxicas de la ingeniería de la construcción (colocaciones, determinados grupos verbales o nominales, etc.), así como comprender los conceptos subyacentes a los que responden (boers & lindstromgberg, 2008). 3. metodología este trabajo se llevó a cabo con alumnos que cursan la asignatura obligatoria comunicación oral y escrita en lengua inglesa que consta de 6 créditos ects. su impartición es semestral y los alumnos la realizan en su segundo curso del grado de ingeniería civil y territorial de la universidad politécnica de madrid. el nivel medio de conocimiento del idioma es de un b2 (mcrel), y este estudio exploratorio se trabajó con un grupo de 70 estudiantes en distintas sesiones durante el curso académico 2016-17. uno de los objetivos más importantes dentro del análisis de necesidades de los alumnos de ingeniería de la construcción es emplear con soltura el lenguaje propio de su especialidad en lengua extranjera, en este caso el inglés, con el fin de comunicarse en un entorno internacional. para ello se necesita alcanzar un dominio profundo del lenguaje específico en primera lengua, que permita establecer comparaciones léxicosemánticas entre ambas. en este sentido, necesitan disponer de una muestra amplia y representativa del repertorio lingüístico de su especialidad tanto en primera lengua como en la lengua objeto de estudio, de manera operativa y ágil para el aprendizaje. como apuntan hyland y tse (2007), acquisition clearly needs to be part of a well-planned and sequenced program, with a mix of explicit teaching and incidental learning, a range of activities which focus on elaboration and consolidation, and sufficient information about contexts and definitions (…) the most appropriate starting point for such a program (…) is the student’s specific target context. (p. 151) teniendo en cuenta el marco establecido en el análisis de necesidades, nuestra labor como docentes es orientar y diseñar material para que los alumnos se puedan desenvolver de forma adecuada en su ámbito profesional. dicho material se compone en más de un 60 % de recopilaciones contextuales extraídas de corpus lingüístico, que a su vez procede de los géneros más comunes de la ingeniería de la construcción en inglés y español. el porcentaje restante se nutre de textos también auténticos procedentes de páginas web especializadas en temas técnicos. para este estudio se ha compilado un corpus que abarca desde 2012 hasta la actualidad compuesto por artículos de investigación publicados en revistas de ingeniería y estudios monográficos de la ingeniería1. proceden de páginas web especializadas y de revistas electrónicas con un total aproximado de 30000 palabras. los archivos obtenidos fueron descargados en el programa de concordancias disponible en internet antconc, que permite extraer concordancias, colocaciones y palabras clave en contexto. a continuación, se ha procedido a la identificación del lenguaje figurado, en especial la metáfora y metonimia, siguiendo las pautas establecidas por expertos en esta temática (deignan, 2005). basándonos en dicho corpus, hemos podido establecer la presencia de metáfora y metonimia lingüística y agrupar sus correspondencias en dominios (mappings) de forma temática. el procedimiento que proponemos incluye los siguientes pasos: 1) partiendo de las principales unidades léxicas encontradas en el corpus lingüístico, se plantean tareas (task-based activities) en grupo o en pareja orientadas a la comprensión del significado, entre ellas se 1 el corpus de los archivos en inglés y español se recopilaron en formato bloc de notas. las revistas de donde se obtuvieron fueron: a) en español: revista de ingeniería hidráulica y ambiental (riha), revista de materiales de construcción, revista de la construcción, revista ingeniería de construcción ric; b) en inglés: journal of advances in civil engineering, journal of civil engineering construction technology, international journal of pavement engineering, open journal of civil engineering, tunnelling and underground space technology journal. el léxico de la ingeniería e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 65 incluye realizar una lluvia de ideas (brainstorming) sobre la temática de ingeniería tratada (por ejemplo, sobre bridges) planteando ejemplos que ayuden a diferenciar las expresiones técnicas literales de las no literales (metafóricas, metonímicas). además, se plantean tareas de clasificación léxica por afinidad semántica y de búsqueda de ejemplos relacionados según el contexto (colocaciones, palabras derivadas, etc.). dichos ejemplos se agrupan de acuerdo con su significado y/o subdominio. las destrezas lingüísticas implicadas en estas tareas incluyen la comprensión lectora y oral, así como la producción oral y escrita. 2) a continuación, se introduce otra modalidad de actividades, esta vez de tipo multimodal trabajando con imágenes (powerpoint, vídeos, pósters) y sus correspondencias de significado. el enfoque multimodal para el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua en la ingeniería es relativamente nuevo y, como apuntan farias, obilinovic y orrego (2010), su aplicación como modelo de aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras se basa en el auge actual de las tic. por ejemplo, partiendo de la búsqueda y selección de imágenes ilustrativas del léxico no literal seleccionado en el paso anterior o con otra temática (highways, concrete, etc.). en trabajo en pareja o grupal se comentan los rasgos más destacados de la imagen reflejados en el significado. de esta forma se introduce el uso de la metáfora/metonimia, por medio de intervenciones de tipo oral comentando las imágenes y cómo estas enlazan con los conocimientos técnicos previos relacionados, destacando la parte perceptiva y/o funcional que las imágenes suscitan a través de la analogía y la representación. esta tarea implica la práctica de las destrezas de comprensión y producción oral. 3) el siguiente paso sería llevar a cabo un análisis contrastivo en español e inglés de los ejemplos seleccionados y comparar las similitudes y diferencias de los mismos en ambas lenguas de forma escrita y/o hablada. ello implica verificar si el lenguaje figurado se mantiene en ambas lenguas o si por el contrario hay que recurrir al lenguaje literal. para esta tarea se utiliza el diccionario y/o glosarios especializados disponibles electrónicamente. las principales destrezas que conlleva esta etapa son la de producción escrita, la comprensión lectora, la expresión oral, así como la práctica de la traducción. durante la realización de las tareas se hace hincapié en la importancia de seguir aprendiendo, practicando y avanzando en el idioma en entornos fuera del aula, ya sea por medio de la lectura o por seguimiento audio-visual, o durante los viajes, al hacer uso del habla en lengua inglesa tanto en contextos profesionales como informales. las tareas mencionadas se insertan en cada una de las siete unidades didácticas de las que se compone el curso, ordenadas por los principales campos de contenido que componen la ingeniería de la construcción y se complementa con el uso de las fichas tematizadas que acompañan cada unidad. todo ello se distribuye en el tiempo total disponible, tanto presencial como telemático, representando en total 150 horas de trabajo del alumno. con el fin de facilitar el aprendizaje del vocabulario, se proporciona a los alumnos abundante material auténtico y ejemplos estructurados secuencialmente, que se compone de: 1) material escrito: tomado de libros de ingeniería, así como artículos de revistas del sector de la construcción en inglés, procedentes de la biblioteca de la universidad, en formato papel y electrónico. 2) material de audio: grabaciones sobre temas técnicos procedentes de podcasts o conferencias en inglés disponibles en la red de la universidad. 3) material de vídeo: vídeos en inglés de tecnología de la construcción encontrados en línea, (por ejemplo, extreme engineering o national geographic). a partir de ahí, se pide la preparación de trabajos acordes con la temática expuesta. los alumnos pueden elegir entre los siguientes: presentación con powerpoint de un tema de ingeniería de la construcción de 15 minutos de duración (trabajo en pareja). presentación de un póster sobre ingeniería de la construcción de 15-20 minutos de duración (trabajo en grupos de 3). actividad de role-play en torno a un tema técnico (actividad en grupo de 4-5) durante 20-30 minutos. con el fin de satisfacer las exigencias concretas de enseñanza de lfe y, al mismo tiempo de trabajo con léxico auténtico, el contexto donde se sitúan las actividades propuestas parte de: − nuestra propia experiencia en el entorno de la enseñanza de lenguas en el campo de la construcción, adquirida a través de contactos regulares y colaboraciones con profesores especialistas y alumnos, y roldán-riejos & úbeda mansilla 66 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 de nuestra observación de los diferentes textos que componen los estudios de nuestros alumnos, junto con el análisis de necesidades para este perfil de alumnos llevado a cabo en el ámbito académico. − materiales de gramática y léxico real de los principales géneros, tanto orales como escritos, que conforman el ámbito comunicativo de los ingenieros, como son los informes de obra, las instrucciones de uso de maquinaria de obra, las presentaciones técnicas, las especificaciones sobre construcción, los artículos científico-técnicos, los informes anuales de las empresas del sector, etc. − los requisitos reales del perfil de egresados para encajar en el mercado laboral en esta especialidad. para aprovechar las ventajas de este enfoque, la presente propuesta juzga importante el incrementar gradualmente la complejidad de las actividades dirigidas al alumno, tanto en lo que se refiere a las tareas activas donde los estudiantes son protagonistas, como en la búsqueda de textos de especialidad más complejos. como afirma robinson (2001, pp. 301-302), “tasks making increasing conceptual/communicative demands increasingly engage cognitive resources, which progressively exploit learning mechanisms leading to greater analysis, modification and reestructuring of interlanguage, with consequent performance effects”. para ello, el enfoque fraseológico y cognitivo que presentamos se fundamenta en el uso de las cuatro destrezas lingüísticas básicas: lectura, escritura, comprensión y producción oral, enmarcadas dentro del contexto profesional de ingeniería de la construcción. nuestra labor es la de ponerlas en práctica de forma que represente una experiencia real, y que se adapte de forma adecuada a los procesos cognitivos y estilos de aprendizaje propios del colectivo. resumiendo, diremos que el enfoque cognitivo está interesado, sobre todo, en la función, el significado y el uso del lenguaje, aunque obviamente, también considera la forma. de ahí la necesidad de considerar todos estos factores a la hora de enseñar una lengua. por ende, recomendamos tener en cuenta los procesos cognitivos más destacados que atraviesa un estudiante de una segunda lengua (mclaughlin, 1987; mcleod & mclaughlin, 1986). el siguiente apartado está destinado a exponer detenidamente la estructura de nuestra propuesta didáctica. 4. análisis y discusión se han seleccionado como objeto de estudio y trabajo para los alumnos una serie de ejemplos de metáforas lingüísticas de uso frecuente en español en el entorno de la ingeniería de la construcción. los ejemplos seleccionados responden a los criterios siguientes: 1) alta frecuencia de aparición en los corpus manejados, y 2) representan lenguaje no literal capaz de ser agrupado en el marco de conocimiento de los objetos cotidianos. estos son: silla, asiento, tablero, cuchara, rodillo, relleno, bandeja, vaso, anillo, cortina, lecho/cama, aguja. evidentemente, se trata de una simple muestra de las metáforas posibles que se pueden identificar dentro de este ámbito. más ejemplos se pueden encontrar en roldán y molina (2015) y en cuadrado et al. (2016). a fin de ilustrar el proceso seguido, más abajo se detallan las tres fases arriba enunciadas. comenzando por el análisis léxico-semántico, seguido del estudio de las imágenes y las asociaciones de tipo perceptivo o funcional que estas generan. el estudio de imágenes se cree necesario en una disciplina moderna como la ingeniería, que aborda gran parte de su comunicación y sus conocimientos de forma multimodal (kress, 2010). la fase última se ilustra con un estudio contrastivo español-inglés que sirve para verificar si la metáfora presenta correspondencias en el segundo idioma. 4.1. estudio léxico-semántico para llevar a cabo el estudio léxico-semántico de los ejemplos anteriormente citados, en primer lugar, se categoriza contextualmente el subdominio al que cada ejemplo pertenece, así cortina está dentro del subdominio de la hidrología, que a su vez está comprendido en el dominio de la ingeniería de la construcción. a continuación, se establece la tipología de cada elemento (si existe) junto con las colocaciones léxicas propias de cada ejemplo, en el caso de asiento se incluye: asiento inmediato o asiento de fluencia lenta. al hablar de colocaciones, nos referimos a grupos léxicos, generalmente compuestos de dos o tres palabras que suelen aparecer juntas con frecuencia, y que aportan otros matices de significado al ámbito original al que pertenecen. el léxico de la ingeniería e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 67 tabla 1 muestra de ejemplos estudiados ejemplo colocaciones léxicas significado contextual asiento categorías: cimentación, geotecnia, materiales tipos: dependiendo del tipo de suelo, arcilla, rocas, arenosos léxico derivado: asentamiento asiento inmediato, asiento de consolidación, asiento de fluencia lenta. dependiendo del edificio: asiento máximo y asiento diferencial. designa el asiento que toma una estructura tras haber sido construida, por tanto, parece haber una relación de semejanza con el significado básico de asiento tal como es familiarmente conocido en la vida cotidiana. silla categorías: puentes, edificación léxico derivado: sillar/es silla de anclaje, silla de tensado, sillas deslizantes. se refiere al apoyo donde descansa una estructura de la construcción; existe analogía con el significado básico de silla. tablero categorías: puentes tablero inferior, tablero de vigas, comportamiento de tablero. si lo comparamos con el significado básico de “conjunto de tablas unidas por el canto” (drae), se refiere al suelo de un puente (parte por el todo, metonímico), pero también tiene afinidad con el significado básico (metafórico). cuchara categorías: carreteras léxico derivado: cucharón cuchara excavadora, cuchara trituradora, cuchara cribadora, cuchara pulpo, cuchara bivalva, cuchara con dientes. alude al mecanismo cóncavo que excava, carga, eleva y descarga terreno; el significado básico de cuchara ayuda a su comprensión. rodillo categorías: carreteras léxico derivado: rulo compactador rodillo compactador, rodillo vibratorio, rodillo liso. el significado contextual de máquina que compacta suelos se basa en el significado básico de rodillo. relleno categorías: materiales léxico derivado: rellenado hormigón de relleno, relleno de hormigón. alude a materiales de construcción que rellenan un hueco, presenta semejanza con el significado básico. bandeja categorías: construcción, estructuras bandeja aislante, muro de bandeja, bandejas exteriores. es el elemento adosado en un muro para portar rellenos y compensar las cargas; existe semejanza con el significado básico. vaso categorías: hidrología vaso de almacenamiento, vaso lleno, impermeabilidad del vaso, vaso de la presa. referido a una parte de la presa cuyo fin es el de retener agua se basa en el significado básico de contenedor. anillo categorías: túneles anillo de hormigón, anillo de revestimiento, anillo reforzado, anillo rígido. es el elemento circular colocado para revestir el túnel; dada su relación con el significado básico como aro pequeño, se considera metafórico. cortina categorías: hidrología estabilidad de cortinas, cortina de inyecciones, cortina de tierras, cortina de enrocamiento, análisis de cortinas. designa una barrera de diversos materiales para atajar un río o arroyo, y está basado en el significado básico de cortina. aguja categorías: estructura tipos: paralelas, horizontales; atraviesan el muro y lo recalzan a través de una serie de aberturas. pilotes-aguja (micropilotes) su significado contextual es de viga horizontal con aberturas capaz de atravesar un muro; se asemeja con el significado básico. cama / lecho categorías: cimentación lecho de rocas, lecho alto, lecho marino, lecho elástico, lecho superior de la zapata. doble cama de refuerzo, cama de arena, cama de soporte, relleno en una cama de apoyo. es la base de hormigón, arena o grava para la colocación de tuberías o similar en forma horizontal; existe analogía con el significado básico. roldán-riejos & úbeda mansilla 68 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 en el ejemplo de asiento, las distintas colocaciones describen que, dependiendo de la velocidad y el modo en que se asienta la estructura, el ingeniero decide actuar de uno u otro modo. las colocaciones léxicas proporcionan significados de gran relevancia dentro del ámbito al que pertenecen, muchas veces funcionando como un bloque léxico. las colocaciones pertenecen al terreno de la fraseología y con frecuencia su uso no es arbitrario, sino motivado (littlemore, 2009, p. 82). por añadidura, se especifica el léxico derivado de cada unidad léxica, punto que resulta fundamental al demostrar que el proceso de creación de significado, junto con su correspondencia léxica, es un proceso inacabado y abierto, que sigue permanentemente en construcción. este punto atañe a la presencia de pautas fraseológicas que aparecen en el significado metafórico de las palabras (deignan, 2005; littlemore, 2009). la parte final del estudio establece la base metafórica de los ejemplos analizados por medio del método de identificación de metáfora del grupo pragglejaz (2007). según este método, el significado de la unidad léxica se determina por el contexto, siendo posteriormente comparado con el significado básico de la palabra manifestado en diferentes contextos. en este sentido, el significado básico se distingue por ser más concreto e inmediato para la comprensión, está relacionado con la acción y la experiencia corporal, y es más preciso y antiguo que el contextual. si de la comparación entre ambos significados se deduce que, si a pesar de las diferencias que presente con el básico, su comprensión se basa en el mismo, entonces sería metafórico (pragglejaz group, 2007, pp. 3-4). a este respecto, debemos subrayar la importancia del contexto (situación, espacio físico, participantes) y del cotexto (lo dicho antes y lo que viene después) para el enfoque cognitivo del aprendizaje (skehan, 1998). en la tabla 1 se muestran los ejemplos estudiados según la estructura arriba citada: a) categoría de la ingeniería de la construcción a la que pertenecen, b) tipología o clase subsecuente, c) colocaciones léxicas y d) léxico derivado y e) su entidad metafórica tras el cotejo del significado básico del ejemplo con el contextual (pragglejaz group, 2007), referido a la ingeniería de la construcción. 4.2. estudio de las imágenes la representación en imágenes2 es de gran utilidad en la ingeniería para clarificar la interpretación del significado. la metáfora relaciona distintos ámbitos de significado y esta correlación se facilita con la imagen, ya que se pueden presentar variaciones léxicas según la lengua (roldán-riejos, 2016; roldán-riejos & molina, 2016). por ejemplo, vaso equivale en inglés técnico a basin, y puesto que léxicamente no son intercambiables, es posible interpretar su significado correcto por medio de la imagen. las propiedades de la imagen van más allá de servir de complemento a la parte textual (moya & pinar, 2009). a este respecto, las relaciones de semejanza entre diversos dominios se pueden captar más fácilmente por medio de la percepción sensorial, en este caso a través de la vista, que permite reconocer una imagen, por ejemplo la del vaso de una presa, mediante sus características físicas, su geometría, su color, su tamaño, etc., o el anillo de un túnel. además de las semejanzas físicas, también puede haber semejanzas funcionales, por ejemplo en la cortina de una presa, que divide el curso de un río. a continuación exploramos estas propiedades en los ejemplos representados. figura 1. asiento. dado que la estructura crea un asiento en la cimentación debido a sus cargas, se trata de una afinidad de tipo funcional. 2 dibujos realizados por carolina del barrio narváez. el léxico de la ingeniería e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 69 figura 2. silla. elemento de un puente colgante donde van insertos o “sentados” los cables de sujeción del puente. afinidad funcional y también perceptiva. figura 3. tablero de puente. en este caso, es el firme o suelo por el que se circula o se camina. semejanza de tipo perceptivo y funcional. figura 4. cuchara. cuchara de máquina excavadora que extrae y transporta tierra. afinidad funcional y perceptiva. roldán-riejos & úbeda mansilla 70 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 figura 5. rodillo. máquina-rodillo de compactación de suelos. similitud funcional y perceptiva. figura 6. relleno de hormigón o mezcla de mortero. afinidad funcional y perceptiva. figura 7. bandeja de muro. para reforzar y sostener el muro. semejanza perceptiva y funcional. el léxico de la ingeniería e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 71 figura 8. vaso (de la presa). función: almacenar agua para diversos usos. afinidad funcional y perceptiva. figura 9. anillo de túnel. función: servir de revestimiento y soporte del túnel. afinidad perceptiva. figura 10. cortina de la presa. pantalla de hormigón o material que recubre la presa. analogía funcional y perceptiva. roldán-riejos & úbeda mansilla 72 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 figura 11. aguja. viga o pilote aguja. elemento que traspasa el muro, enganchándolo. analogía funcional y perceptiva. figura 12. cama o lecho. superficie de sujeción del hormigón que sirve de refuerzo. analogía perceptiva y funcional. como se puede observar en las imágenes de las figuras 1-12, la mayor parte de los ejemplos combinan la afinidad funcional y perceptiva. siendo la primera aquella que se repite en todos los ejemplos, por ello se puede concluir que la metáfora de tipo funcional prima en el dominio de los objetos de estudio. 4.3. análisis contrastivo considerando que nuestros alumnos están inmersos en el aprendizaje de inglés como lengua extranjera, es pertinente realizar un análisis comparativo de correspondencia semántico-léxica en ambas lenguas, que se muestra en la tabla 2. en ella se engloban la siguiente información: 1) la equivalencia en inglés de los ejemplos designados, 2) si se produce metáfora lingüística en inglés, 3) si la metáfora lingüística en inglés pertenece al ámbito de los objetos cotidianos, 4) los distintos dominios y subdominios de las correspondencias en inglés. podemos colegir que el grado de metaforicidad entre ambas lenguas es alto, puesto que el número de metáforas lingüísticas es muy similar (con la excepción de levee, que es una palabra técnica). no obstante, cuatro de estas metáforas en inglés pertenecen a ámbitos totalmente diferentes (hípico, legal y náutico) y tres de ellas, aunque comparten el mismo ámbito de los objetos cotidianos, tienen otra correspondencia léxico-semántica distinta del español (lavabo, cubo y anillo) con varios subdominios (baño, el léxico de la ingeniería e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 73 herramientas, accesorio). estos ejemplos demuestran que aunque se puedan encontrar casos equivalentes, la metáfora lingüística se refleja de forma diferente en distintas lenguas y culturas (kövecses, 2005). tabla 2 muestra de análisis contrastivo entre metáforas lingüísticas metáfora (español) equivalente (inglés) metáfora lingüística en ambas lenguas dominio compartido dominio (inglés) a. silla saddle sí no hípico b. asiento settlement sí no legal c. tablero deck sí no náutico d. bandeja tray sí sí objetos cotidianos e. lecho/cama bed sí sí objetos cotidianos f. vaso basin sí *sí *baño g. cuchara bucket, scoop sí *sí *utensilios h. relleno filling sí sí objetos cotidianos i. rodillo roller sí sí objetos cotidianos j. cortina leeve no no técnico k. aguja needle sí sí objetos cotidianos l. anillo ring sí *sí *accesorios nota: el asterisco (*) indica aquellas metáforas en inglés con una correspondencia léxico-semántica distinta del español y con diferentes subdominios del dominio principal “objetos cotidianos”. 5. implicaciones para el aprendizaje en este apartado se tratan las implicaciones derivadas del estudio de la estructuración motivada del lenguaje de la ingeniería y las ventajas de su adaptación a la enseñanza. anteriormente hemos detallado el proceso propuesto que comprende tres etapas delimitadas y secuenciadas. por otra parte, para completar el estudio fraseológico, el uso de diversas fichas temáticas en la lengua de aprendizaje que recogen el vocabulario y las expresiones lingüísticas de la ingeniería de la construcción en inglés estructuradas en metáforas conceptuales y agrupadas con sus correspondientes manifestaciones léxicas son de gran utilidad. la presentación de estas fichas se puede realizar de forma directa en el aula o por otro medio (virtualmente por internet en alguna plataforma educativa como moodle), pudiéndose realizar su explotación tanto como trabajo presencial como en un entorno fuera del aula. las fichas 1, 2 y 3, recogidas como muestra en el anexo, contienen ejemplos representativos de las mismas y recogen su configuración. en primer lugar, se presenta un apartado etimológico en inglés de la palabra que designa el tema enunciado, con una historia léxico-semántica de su evolución y la transcripción fonológica de su pronunciación, que se practica en clase. se considera importante que el alumno perciba que los enunciados más importantes de su especialidad tienen una motivación etimológica y han seguido una evolución temporal. este aspecto ayuda a la comprensión del significado y a explorar sus posibles conexiones léxicas en distintos idiomas (cognados, palabras derivadas, etc.). a continuación, se exponen metáforas con el formato a es b, que incluyen la presencia de dos o más dominios distintos de significado, pero a la vez interconectados por alguna relación de semejanza. estas metáforas funcionan como grandes marcos que engloban la fraseología y su interacción con la temática tratada en forma de unidades y colocaciones léxicas, palabras derivadas, etc. en las fichas además se insertan imágenes ilustrativas del tema y tareas interrelacionadas con el contenido diseñadas para la participación directa del alumno. cada ficha incluye la práctica de las cuatro destrezas lingüísticas (comprensión lectora y oral y producción oral y escrita). finalmente se incluyen unos enlaces a internet que amplían la información sobre el tema. el objetivo general de este material consiste en proporcionar una base efectiva para la construcción de nexos léxico-semánticos que faciliten el aprendizaje del vocabulario por asociación cognitiva y por campos semánticos, lo que aumenta el grado de retención y comprensión. los alumnos manejan estas fichas y se acostumbran a abordar la fraseología de la ingeniería en inglés de forma sistematizada, en lugar de estudiar los términos de forma aislada y desconectada. aunque los datos manejados hasta ahora no son conclusivos, se está constatando al comparar las puntuaciones de evaluación continua y las finales de dos cursos académicos consecutivos una mejora en la evaluación de los alumnos. además, durante las tareas realizadas, los profesores hemos detectado a través de entrevistas y tutorías que el sistema ha facilitado la retención de vocabulario y que parece haber aumentado el grado de atención y motivación. roldán-riejos & úbeda mansilla 74 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 6. conclusiones este trabajo se ha ocupado de abordar el estudio del léxico en el lenguaje de la ingeniería de la construcción desde el prisma de la lingüística cognitiva y la fraseología, enfoque que considera al lenguaje como motivado y respondiendo a unas pautas léxico-semánticas, con frecuencia formuladas de forma metafórica. por medio del análisis léxico-semántico, el estudio de imágenes y el análisis lingüístico contrastivo, se ha intentado demostrar la adaptación al aprendizaje de lfe del enfoque fraseológico y cognitivo, y la posibilidad de sistematizar el lenguaje técnico, entendido como vocabulario, y hacerlo más manejable y aprendible en lengua extranjera, facilitando así su asimilación y utilización por parte del alumno de lenguas. como se ha recalcado anteriormente, el presente estudio está enfocado a exponer la fase exploratoria de aplicación de este método y en este sentido trabajos posteriores se ocuparán de dar a conocer más detalles y cifras numéricas de su desarrollo. no obstante, los primeros resultados de su aplicación recogidos son satisfactorios tanto en la evaluación continua como durante el transcurso de las tareas realizadas. un objetivo a medio y largo plazo del estudio es lograr que el uso de fichas tematizadas permita al alumno adquirir unas pautas y estrategias organizativas del lenguaje que le ayuden a seguir aprendiendo en el futuro (long-life learning) de forma autónoma y con facilidad. aplicaciones similares enfocadas a otros ámbitos del lenguaje especializado pueden resultar de gran utilidad a estudiantes de otras disciplinas. los trabajos que intentan adaptar la teoría lingüística al aprendizaje de forma práctica exploran la capacidad innovadora de la educación en sus distintos niveles y refuerzan la investigación aplicada. nuestra principal aportación confía en haber podido 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(2008). phraseology and linguistic theory. a brief survey. en sylviane granger & fanny meunier (eds.), phraseology: an interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 3-26). amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. handl, susan (2008). essential collocations for learners of english: the role of collocational direction and weight. en fanny meunier & sylviane granger (eds.), phraseology in foreign language learning and teaching (pp. 43-66). amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. hyland, ken, & tse, polly (2007). is there “an academic vocabulary? tesol quarterly, 41(2), 35-253. kövecses, zoltán (2005). metaphor in culture: universality and variation. cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. kress, gunther (2010). multimodality. a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. london, united kingdom: routledge. lakoff, george (1996). moral politics. how liberals and conservatives think. chicago, illinois: university of chicago press. lakoff, george (1987). women, fire, and dangerous things: what categories reveal about the mind. chicago, illinois: university of chicago press. lakoff, george (2006[1993]). the contemporary theory of metaphor. en dirk geeraerts (ed.), cognitive linguistics: basic readings (pp. 185-238). berlin/new york: mouton de gruyter. lakoff, george, & johnson, mark (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago, illinois: university of chicago press. littlemore, jeanette (2009). applying cognitive linguistics to second language learning and teaching. basingstoke, united kingdom: palgrave macmillan. low, graham, & littlemore, jeannette. (2006). figurative thinking and foreign language learning. new york, new york: palgrave macmillan. morgan, john, & rinvolucri, mario (2004). vocabulary. oxford, united kingdom: oxford university press. moya guijarro, arsenio jesús, & pinar sanz, maría jesús (2009). on interaction of image and verbal text in a picture book. a multimodal and systemic functional study. en eija ventola & arsenio jesús moya (eds.), the world told and the world shown (pp. 107-123). new york, new york: palgrave macmillan. nunan, david (2004). task based language teaching. cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. pragglejaz, group, & semino, elena (2007). mip: a method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. metaphor and symbol, 22(1), 1-39. radden, günter (2003). how metonymic are metaphors? en antonio barcelona (ed.), metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads: a cognitive perspective (pp. 93-108). berlin, germany: mouton de gruyter. roldán-riejos, ana (2016). exploring specific differences: a cross-linguistic study of english and spanish civil engineering metaphors. en manuela romano & maría dolores porto (eds.), exploring discourse strategies in social and cognitive interaction: multimodal and cross-linguistic perspectives (pp. 187213). amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins. roldán-riejos, ana, & molina plaza, silvia (2015). a taste of the technical cuisine: metals and other ingredients. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 178c, 201-206. romero ganuza, paula (2007). la delimitación de las unidades fraseológicas en la investigación española y alemana. interlingüística, 17, 905-914. roldán-riejos & úbeda mansilla 76 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 skehan, peter (1998). a cognitive approach to language learning. oxford, united kingdom: oxford university press. sökmen, anita j. (1997). current trends in teaching second language vocabulary. en schmitt, n. & m. mccarthy (eds.), vocabulary: description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 237-258). cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. spolsky, bernard (1985). formulating a theory of second language learning. studies in second language acquisition, 7(3), 269-288. van den branden, kris (2006). introduction. en kris van den branden (ed.), task based language education: from theory to practice (pp. 1-16). cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. xhaferi, brikena (2010). teaching and learning esp vocabulary. revista de lenguas para fines específicos, 15/16 (2009-2010), 229-255. el léxico de la ingeniería e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 77 anexo modelos de fichas temáticas ficha 1 perspectives on dams i. word history dam (s) / dæm z/ “water barrier,” early 14thc., probably from old norse damr or middle dutch dam, both from proto-germanic *dammaz (source also of old frisian damm, german damm), which is of unknown origin. 12th c. mulnedam ‘mill-dam’’. me demme. ii. look at this: a dam is a container dams retain/store water for drinking, irrigation, industry, hydroelectricity.... they include intake (water to be collected), outlet, storage basin, bucket... dams have volumetric capacity: full/empty/semi full/semi empty... they can become blocked (debris....) they consist of reservoirs that can allow navigation. dams can lower or raise water level: water pressure. dams are useful in drought/flooding periods. a dam is an obstacle/barrier dams divert rivers, can cause the water to slow down and create silting (sediment), can affect fish habitat (salmon), agriculture.... dam’s elements include dikes, cofferdams, foundations, cores, embankments, aprons, crests, curtains, dental works, faces, plunge pools, toes, weirs, locks, chambers, tunnels, abutments.... a dam is a sink dams include the construction of elements that take care of excess water (drainage): spillways, gates.... likewise: canals, channels, pipelines, chutes, culverts, ditches, filters, sluices, trashracks... they serve to control flooding and mitigate dry seasons/regions. dams may have problems like seepage, spills, cracking... water is a force horizontal force of water, water thrust, upstream water pressure, control the flow volume/amount, a hydraulic jump (of water), flooding, falling water... problems: seepage, spills, hydraulic jump.... myponga dam (australia) https://pixabay.com/es/australia-presa-lago-el-agua-r%c3%ado-1908782/ iii. look for examples that match the following mapping in english and spanish, describe them verbally to your partner and write them down (pair work): a dam is a living being e.g. a dam has lifespan/lifetime/life expectancy. a dam can age. it can damage. a dam can be monitored. it has toes, faces, can creep, have aprons, dental works, blankets, curtains, buckets... iv. look for words that frequently appear together and that are connected with the examples above. find other spanish words similar in meaning and compare them with english ones. https://pixabay.com/es/australia-presa-lago-el-agua-r%c3%ado-1908782/ roldán-riejos & úbeda mansilla 78 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 ficha 2 perspectives on highways i. word history highways /haɪweɪz/ old english heahweg: "main road from one town to another” high (adj.) with the sense of "main" + way (n.). high street (old english heahstræte) was the word before 17th c. applied to highways and main roads, whether in the country or town, especially one of the roman roads. the word highway refers to the elevated agger, the mound or hill of the roman road formed by earth thrown from the side of ditches toward the centre. in old england these raised, or high ways were under the protection of the king's peace and open to public, unrestricted travel as distinguished from byways, or private roads. ii. look at this: a highway is a path/network it can have multiple connections: various types of roads, motorways, junctions, turnpikes, intersections, crossovers, roundabouts, connections.... building a highway is filling a cavity we have various layers, lifts or courses. we fill it with concrete, aggregates, crushed stone, asphalt, tar, tarmac, granular material.... it has various parts: median strip, shoulders, lanes, roadway, ditches... a highway is a mound highways consist of embankments, slopes, ditches, elevations, superelevations, uphill/downhill... traffic is a liquid/fluid traffic can be light or heavy, fluid, clear, dense. there may be (traffic) jams, retentions. a road is an artery a road can be congested, blocked, clear, need by-pass(es), have retentions, bangkok (thailand) https://pixabay.com/es/aire-bangkok-ciudad-noche-2178705/ iii. group work. search for more examples for each of the groups above and share it with your partners explaining their main features to each other. more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjaqoswmstu (super highways) https://www.wirtgen-group.com/en/technologies/new-road-construction/ https://pixabay.com/es/aire-bangkok-ciudad-noche-2178705/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjaqoswmstu https://www.wirtgen-group.com/en/technologies/new-road-construction/ el léxico de la ingeniería e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 79 ficha 3 perspectives on bridges i. word history bridge (s) /brɪdʒ//brɪdʒis/ oe brycg, brycgian “causeway over a ravine or river,” old english brycge, from proto-germanic *brugjo (source also of old saxon bruggia, old norse bryggia, old frisian brigge, dutch brug, old high german brucca, german brücke), from pie root *bhru” log, beam,” hence “wooden causeway” (source also of gaulish briva”bridge,” old church slavonic bruvuno “beam,” serbian brv”footbridge”). the original notion is of a beam or log. ii. look at this: a bridge is a path/a platform/ bridges can be used by pedestrians, bicycles, railways, or vehicles. bridges have spans, lanes, a roadway... they must have foundations, abutments, piers... sometimes they need to have a specific shape to be aerodynamic and stable; to resist turbulences, vibrations... a bridge is a link the link can be fixed or movable (bascule, lift, swing, tilting ....) with one or two arms that can open in various directions. they could have cables, wires... they require different construction techniques: piles, caissons, trusses, arches, cofferdams, piers, scaffolding, falsework, keying, lattice, trusses, arches, anchorages, dampers, gps guidance... a bridge is a ship bridges must have suitable shapes. they have decks. bridge elements can be: spars/masts/pylons, stays, cables, wires, ties, saddles, towers, reels... they need anchorage(s), dolphins, special protection against seawater action... they can be subject to wind, water forces, quakes, tides... they must be flexible, slender, light, stable, resilient... seri wawasan bridge (malaysia) https://pixabay.com/es/puente-r%c3%ado-reflexión-el-agua-hito-2633700/ iii. group work. find more similar examples related to bridges and insert them into their corresponding group (s). do the same in spanish and compare the examples with your partners, describing them orally. iv. write down about the different types of bridges that you know. specify how each element is used for and underline the words that collocate together. do the same in spanish. more information: http://pghbridges.com/basics.htm http://www.madehow.com/volume-5/suspension-bridge.html https://pixabay.com/es/puente-r%c3%ado-reflexi%c3%b3n-el-agua-hito-2633700/ http://pghbridges.com/basics.htm http://www.madehow.com/volume-5/suspension-bridge.html roldán-riejos & úbeda mansilla 80 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 60-80 ana roldán-riejos, universidad politécnica de madrid ana.roldan.riejos@upm.es es ana roldán-riejos es profesora titular de universidad en la universidad politécnica de madrid (etsi caminos, canales y puertos) donde imparte docencia de inglés profesional y académico. es coordinadora del grupo de investigación discyt (estudios cognitivos y sociopragmáticos del discurso científico y técnico) y desarrolla su actividad de investigación en el área temática de las lfe (lenguas para fines específicos) y la lingüística cognitiva. es co-autora de los libros the language of architecture and civil engineering (2011) y del bilingual dictionary of scientific and technical metaphors and metonymies spanish-english/english-spanish (2016). en ana roldán-riejos is associate professor at the universidad politécnica de madrid (etsi caminos, canales y puertos) where she teaches professional and academic english. she coordinates the discyt (cognitive studies and sociopragmatics of scientific and technical discourse) research group and carries out research on language for specific purposes and cognitive linguistics. she is the co-author of the language of architecture and civil engineering (2011) and the bilingual dictionary of scientific and technical metaphors and metonymies spanish-english/english-spanish (2016). it ana roldán-riejos è professoressa associata presso la universidad politécnica di madrid (escuela técnica superior de ingenieros de caminos, canales y puertos) dove è docente del corso di inglese professionale e accademico. è coordinatrice del gruppo di ricerca discyt (studi cognitivi e sociopragmatici del discorso scientifico e tecnico) e porta avanti la sua attività di ricerca nell’ambito delle lss (lingue per scopi specifici) e della linguistica cognitiva. è co-autrice dei libri the language of architecture and civil engineering (2011) e del bilingual dictionary of scientific and technical metaphors and metonymies spanish-english/englishspanish (2016). paloma úbeda mansilla, universidad politécnica de madrid paloma.ubeda@upm.es es paloma úbeda mansilla es profesora titular de universidad en la universidad politécnica de madrid (e.t.s de arquitectura de madrid) donde imparte docencia de inglés y español con fines profesionales y académicos. es coordinadora del grupo de innovación educativa aplai (aplicaciones profesionales de lenguas para arquitectos e ingenieros) y desarrolla su actividad de investigación en el área de didáctica de las lenguas desde un enfoque cognitivo. en paloma úbeda mansilla is associate professor at the universidad politécnica de madrid (e.t.s de arquitectura de madrid) where she teaches english and spanish for professional and academic purposes. she coordinates the educational innovation group aplai (professional applications of languages for architects and engineers) and carries out research on language teaching from a cognitive approach. it paloma úbeda mansilla è professoressa associata presso la universidad politécnica di madrid (escuela técnica superior de arquitectura) dove è docente del corso di inglese e spagnolo per scopi professionali e accademici. è coordinatrice del gruppo innovazione educativa aplai (applicazioni professionali di lingue per architetti e ingegneri) e porta avanti la sua attività di ricerca nell’area della didattica delle lingue con una prospettiva cognitivista. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 2, issue 1, august 2015, pages 70-83 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.2.25 www.e-journall.org copyright © 2015. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution4.0 international license. * contact: z.abolfazli1986@gmail.com the relationship between iranian university efl students’ multiple intelligences and their use of language learning strategies: an exploratory study zainab abolfazli khonbi*, mohammad mohammadi urmia university received 10 september 2014; received in revised form 12 december 2014; accepted 20 march 2015 abstract en the present research contributes to an increased understanding of the potential relationships between multiple intelligences and the choice and frequency of use of language learning strategies. forty-one efl students from urmia university (iran) completed oxford’s (1990a) strategy inventory for language learning and the mckenzie (1999) multiple intelligences inventory. data analyses revealed a moderately positive relationship between the participants’ multiple intelligences and language learning strategy use (r = .58). pearson product-moment correlation also showed medium-to-large positive relationships within and among the categories of multiple intelligences and the types of language learning strategies. implications of this study for efl education are discussed, and suggestions to improve students’ performance are provided. key words: language learning strategy, multiple intelligences, students of english as a foreign language. es la presente investigación aporta una mayor comprensión de las potenciales relaciones entre las inteligencias múltiples, tanto en la elección como en la frecuencia de uso de las estrategias de aprendizaje de lenguas. un total de cuarenta y un estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera de la universidad de urmia (irán) contestó a los cuestionarios del strategy inventory for language learning de oxford (1990a) y del multiple intelligences inventory de mckenzie (1999). el análisis de datos reveló una relación moderadamente positiva entre las inteligencias múltiples de los participantes y el uso de estrategias de aprendizaje de lenguas (r = 0,58). la correlación producto-momento de pearson también registró relaciones positivas de media a gran escala en (y entre) las categorías de las inteligencias múltiples y los tipos de estrategias de aprendizaje de lenguas. se incluye una discusión de las implicaciones de este estudio en el ámbito del inglés como lengua extranjera, y se proporcionan distintas sugerencias para mejorar el rendimiento de los estudiantes. palabras clave: estrategias de aprendizaje de lenguas, inteligencias múltiples, estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera. it questa ricerca contribuisce a comprendere maggiormente le potenziali relazioni tra le intelligenze multiple e la scelta e la frequenza d'uso delle strategie di apprendimento linguistico. quarantuno studenti di inglese come lingua straniera (efl) dell'università di urmia (iran) hanno completato il strategy inventory for language learning di oxford (1990a) e il multiple intelligences inventory di mckenzie (1999). l'analisi dei dati ha rivelato una relazione moderatamente positiva tra le intelligenze multiple e l'uso della strategia di apprendimento linguistico dei partecipanti (r = .58). la correlazione prodottomomento di pearson ha altresì dimostrato una sostanziale connessione positiva all'interno e tra le categorie delle intelligenze multiple e i tipi di strategie di apprendimento linguistico. si include una discussione finale sulle implicazioni di questo studio per la formazione in inglese come lingua straniera (efl) e suggerimenti per migliorare la performance degli studenti. parole chiave: strategie di apprendimento linguistico, intelligenze multiple, studenti di inglese come lingua straniera. http://www.e-journall.org/ efl students’ multiple intelligences e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 70-83 71 1. introduction over the past few decades, mainly in western countries, a remarkable shift in focus from teaching to learning (lessard-clouston, 1997; peng, 2002) has taken place within the field of foreign language (fl) or second language (sl) education. individual differences among students, such as learning strategies, learning aptitude, culture, gender, etc., have acquired a prominent role in fl/sl learning (ehrman, 1990; galbraith & gardner, 1988; oxford & ehrman, 1993; skehan, 1989). the present research aims to shed light on the connection between two of these variables: multiple intelligences (mi) scores of learners and their use of language learning strategies (lls). the results of this study may offer a deeper understanding of strategy use among efl learners in general, and in an iranian context in particular. in the next two sections, we provide a succinct account of language learning strategies and multiple intelligences. 2. language learning strategies wenden (1986) pointed out that, in the context of language teaching and learning, if the answers are given to the students, the immediate problem is explained, but if the students are taught the strategies to find the answers for themselves, they are given the authority to be in charge of their own learning. language learning strategies (lls) are the conscious actions or steps taken by the learners to develop and control their language learning (cohen & macaro, 2007; oxford, 1996, 2011). as defined by cohen (1998), llss are "the conscious thoughts and behaviors used by learners with the explicit goal of improving their knowledge of a target language" (p.68). oxford (1990a) also described llss as "specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations" (p. 8). the strategies themselves, however, have been classified differently by o’malley and chamot (1990) and by oxford (1990a). o’malley and chamot (1990) divided them into three groups of metacognitive, cognitive, and social and affective llss. these authors defined cognitive llss as those that "operate directly on incoming information, manipulating it in ways to enhance learning" (p. 44). they referred to metacognitive llss as "higher order executive skills that may entail planning for, monitoring, or evaluating the success of a learning activity" (p. 44). social and affective llss, according to o’malley and chamot, deal with the control of affect and interaction with others. oxford (1990a) instead made a distinction between two broad classes of llss, direct and indirect strategies. the direct llss include memory strategies, used for storing and retrieving new information; compensation strategies, utilized for overcoming gaps in the learner’s knowledge; and cognitive strategies, applied for comprehending and producing language. these direct llss are concerned with "language itself in a variety of specific tasks and situations" (p. 14), while indirect lls deal with "the general management of learning" (oxford 1990a, p. 15). the indirect strategies included metacognitive strategies, which carry out the management and coordination of the learning process; social strategies, which are related to learning through interaction with others; and affective strategies; which concern the emotional regulation of language learning. the distinction between these scholars’ classifications of llss may simply be a matter of perspective, however. oxfords’ categorization was more detailed as it contained multiple specific categories, even though the author gathered llss in two broad umbrella terms, while in o’malley and chamot’s distinction fewer categories are identified, thus making it seem not as comprehensive as oxford’s. in this paper, we have followed oxford’s categorization to get an in-depth understanding of the strategies the participants used and have taken a quantitative approach to this purpose. 2.1 language learning strategies in fl/sl teaching the field of fl/sl teaching was introduced to the concept of lls through the work of rubin (1975). the conduct and behaviors of good language learners became the focus of studies hoping to make recommendations and generalizations about the ways to improve the efficiency of sl/fl learning/teaching programs (naiman, frohlich, & todesco, 1978). llss are often contrasted with communication strategies that, unlike llss, deal with the production of second language output and not its acquisition and internalization. due to their problem-oriented nature, llss are also contrasted with learning styles. brown (1994) differentiates the two by proposing that strategies are applied when learners face specific learning difficulties, hence, their strategic approach may vary with respect to the nature of the particular learning problem while styles are more or less fixed and do not substantially change from one learning task to another. a great number of studies have shown the important role llss play in increasing the efficiency of language learning and in bringing forth a positive impact on the language use of the learners (cohen & abolfazli khonbi & mohammadi e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 70-83 72 weaver, 1998; wenden & rubin, 1987). investigations in this area have established that not all language learners use llss in the same fashion. use of llss is found to be influenced by a number of variables (oxford, 1990a), and the frequency and choice of llss is specific to every individual (chamot & kupper, 1989). the individual differences that have been identified include previous experience, motivation, gender, learning style, different personality types, and intelligence (e.g., cohen, 1990; ehrman & oxford, 1990; macintyre & gardner, 1989; reid, 1989). many researchers have shown that language-course level is also related to learners' use of llss. a study by chamot, o'malley, kupper, and impink-hernandez (1987) revealed that metacognitive strategies were more frequently used among higher-level foreign language learners than was the case with less advanced students. in politzer's (1983) study, higher-level foreign language learners utilized more positive, communicative or functional, and student-directed strategies. in other research, oxford (1990b) reported that students of different ages and stages of learning second language used quite different strategies. he found that special strategies were more frequently used among older or more advanced students than among younger or less advanced students. similarly, green and oxford (1995) discovered that higher-level students took advantage of all types of llss more frequently than lower level students. while this study did not specifically aim to compare higherversus lower-proficiency students in terms of their lls use, it implicitly tried to convey the importance of delving into the patterns of lls use. in other work, bialstock (1981) and huang and van naerssen (1987) found that strategies associated with functional practice were related to proficiency; however, some years later, ehrman and oxford’s (1995) study revealed that successful students used more of the cognitive strategies like looking for patterns or reading for pleasure. in a similar vein, griffiths (2003) discovered that in private schools in aukland, there was a significant relationship between lls use and course level, and additional significant differences were found between these two variables according to students’ nationality. these mixed findings suggest that factors such as context, situation, and sample as well as other individual differences such as intelligence may be important moderating variables in lls use. yet, they also suggest that planning, course work, and teaching practices on llss may contribute to the effectiveness of language teaching programs. 3. multiple intelligences the second source of difference among individuals with which we are concerned in this study is their intelligence, defined as the innate ability of human beings to think, identify, analyze, and work out problems for specific purposes, under their own management and direction, in particular social-historical and physical contexts (chongde & tsingan, 2003). the theory of multiple intelligences (mi) was elaborated by gardner (1993, 1999), who proposed to view intelligence as a synthesis of various elements, which are somehow independent from each other. armour-thomas and gopaul-mcnicol (1998) claim that in this approach, "the human mind is quite modular in design and […] separate and independent cognitive processes seem to underlie the performance on intellectual tasks” (p. 38). according to this model, different types of intelligences are identified. these include musical, linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, spatial, intrapersonal, existential, interpersonal, and natural intelligence. each one of these intelligences has an independent function from the others, and individuals may differ in their weaknesses and strengths in each one of them. gardner (1993) refers to his theory of mi as egalitarian, since no single intelligence type is claimed to be predominant to the others. his mi theory values different manifestations of intelligence in every individual, and tries to provide an inspiring family and learning context which will lead to the growth of these abilities in both children and adults. gardner defines the intelligences as follows: a. verbal/linguistic intelligence, which involves effective use of language or good knowledge of words; b. musical intelligence, or sensitivity to melody and rhythm; c. logical/mathematical intelligence, including effective use of numbers and the ability to deduce conclusions and to see cause and effect; d. spatial/visual intelligence, or sensitivity to color and design and to graphic forms; e. bodily/kinesthetic intelligence, which deals with physical/bodily coordination; f. interpersonal intelligence, or the ability to understand others, their intentions, and moods; g. intrapersonal intelligence, which utilizes the knowledge of the self; h. natural intelligence, which is to know and care about nature; i. existential intelligence, or the ability to meditate on the meaning of life. efl students’ multiple intelligences e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 70-83 73 the constructs of mi and lls both deal with issues of problems and problem solving. they both tap into learners’ reactions and strategies to what they face when involved in a learning task, and they can both lead to enhanced performance in their related areas. thus, taking into account gardner’s recent theory regarding the implementation of mi theory to educational settings, the findings of the present research on these concepts may prove to be of benefit in varied teaching contexts. 3.1 multiple intelligences in fl/sl teaching in 1983, the introduction of the multiple intelligences (mi) theory created much excitement in the educational community, since it shaped a clear contrast to the traditional view that individuals have only one, general intelligence (baum, viens, & slatin, 2005). additionally, rather than emphasizing the needs of society, the mi theory proposed by gardner is focused on the needs of the individual learners. therefore, in gardner’s view, schools should be person-centered and education carried out based on every child’s particular intelligences or aptitudes, not only by looking for courses compatible with each student, but also seeking teaching methods matched to those courses. gardner’s program would therefore allow the capabilities of every individual to flourish. gardner (1993) argued that through receiving this type of education, students would become more competitive and thus in a more constructive way would be able to work for society. in a pilot study, haley (2001) identified, documented, and promoted effective utilizations of the mi theory in second language classrooms. the teachers participating in the study collected the data about their students’ mi profiles and then modified their courses in some classes to stimulate and activate all the intelligences. the results showed that the treatment group expressed keen curiosity in mi concepts and improved diversity of the instructional strategies in their classrooms. however, the experimental and control groups’ classroom performance was not drastically different. some years later, chen (2005) carried out a study on the effect of paying attention to the principles of cooperative language learning and the pedagogical applications of the mi theory on the language proficiency of second language learners. the results showed that on the four language skills of writing, reading, listening, and speaking, the treatment group that was taught based on the principles of the mi theory and cooperative learning out-performed both the group being instructed only based on cooperative learning principles as well as the control group. in a study by razmjoo, sahragard, and sadri (2009) a relationship was found between mi and vocabulary-learning knowledge among english language teacher trainers. their study also revealed that naturalist and verbal-linguistic intelligences made a statistically significant contribution in predicting vocabulary-learning knowledge. saricaoğlu and arikan (2009) investigated the relationship between second language learners’ mi profiles and their performance on writing, listening, and grammar. they found significant correlations between bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and spatial intelligences and these learners’ grammar performance and between musical intelligence and writing performance. however, none of the intelligences were reported to be significantly correlated with listening performance. saadatmanesh (2014) found a significant relationship between efl students’ combination of multiple intelligences and their final english test scores and also between linguistic intelligence and the english test scores. tekiner (2005) and zare-ee and shahi (2010) carried out studies on the relationship between language learners’ mi and their learning styles where significant relationships were found between different intelligence types and learners’ learning styles. all of the above studies emphasize the importance of multiple intelligences and language learning strategies in a variety of educational programs. therefore, to enhance understanding and make more discoveries in learners’ llss use profiles, the individual’s multiple intelligences must be recognized and attended to. the aim of this study is to examine how one important psychological factor, multiple intelligences (mi), might be related to english-as-a-foreign-language (efl) learners’ use of language strategies. in other words, the present research attempts to answer the following questions: 1) is there any significant relationship between students’ reported multiple intelligences and their language learning strategy use? 2) what is the prevalent mi among this sample of iranian efl students? 3) what is the pattern of lls use among this sample of iranian efl students? 4) how does the pattern of lls use among this sample of iranian efl students correlate with the selection of a certain lls? abolfazli khonbi & mohammadi e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 70-83 74 4. methods 4.1 participants the participants were forty-one male and female undergraduate efl students at urmia university, west azerbaijan, iran. they ranged in age from 20 to 23, and were from similar linguistic, academic, and cultural backgrounds. students were in two different classes, although they were in the same semester of their studies and some differences in their proficiency levels would be expected. they were semi-randomly selected following an intact-group design, and were not rewarded for their participation. 4.2 instruments the instruments used were oxford’s (1990a) strategy inventory for language learning (sill) and mckenzie’s (1999) multiple intelligence inventory. the first tool had a five-point likert scale format which measured how often participants used a given strategy, from a score of one, corresponding to “never”, to a score of five, indicating “always.” sill structures learning strategies into six categories: memory strategies (items 1-9), cognitive strategies (items 10-23), compensation strategies (items 24-29), metacognitive strategies (items 30-38), affective strategies (items 39-44), and social strategies (items 45-50). here is an example for each category of lls:  memory strategy: “i think of the relationship between what i already know and new things when i learn english.”  cognitive strategy: “i try to talk like native english speakers.”  compensation strategy: “i make up new words if i do not know the right ones in english.”  metacognitive strategy: “i try to find out how to be a better learner of english.”  affective strategy: “i write down my feelings in a language learning diary.”  social strategy: “i try to learn about the culture of english speakers.” the second tool, the multiple intelligence inventory, covered nine types of intelligences: natural, musical, logical-mathematical, existential, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, verbal-linguistic, intrapersonal, and visual-spatial intelligences. each type of intelligence was assessed through ten items. one example item is given here for each category of mi:  natural intelligence: “i enjoy categorizing things by common traits.”  musical intelligence: “i easily pick up on patterns.”  logical-mathematical intelligence: “step-by-step directions are a big help.”  existential intelligence: “religion is important to me.”  inter-personal intelligence: “i enjoy chat rooms.”  bodily-kinesthetic intelligence: “a fit body is important for a fit mind.”  verbal-linguistic intelligence: “word puzzles like crosswords and jumbles are fun.”  intra-personal intelligence: “i need to know why i should do something before i agree to do it.”  visual-spatial intelligence: “music videos are very stimulating.” the reliability indices using cronbach alpha, a measure of internal consistency or reliability, were as follows: language learning strategy questionnaire: 50 items; α = .86; multiple intelligences questionnaire: 90 items; α = .91. 4.3 procedure the participants were administered the questionnaires and were asked to complete them. they were also required to carefully read the directions along with example items presented in the introduction section of the questionnaires, and they were also provided instructions on how to indicate their responses. following the directions, they indicated their responses to the statements on a scale from one corresponding to “never” to five meaning “always”. efl students’ multiple intelligences e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 70-83 75 4.4 data analysis using statistical package for social sciences (spss, version 19, rf. pallant, 2007), pearson productmoment correlation analyses were carried out between total multiple intelligences and total language learning strategy use. they were also used to investigate the possible relationships among and within the six strategy types and the nine categories of multiple intelligences. preliminary checks were conducted to show there is no violation of the assumptions behind pearson correlation, namely, the existence of a linear relationship between lls and mi, along with no significant outliers, and the approximately normal distribution of the two variables. 5. results the results of data analyses are presented in this section. table 1 below shows descriptive statistics for total language learning strategy use and total multiple intelligences. table 1 descriptive statistics for total language learning strategy use and total multiple intelligences descriptive statistics mean std. deviation n total language learning strategies 169.81 18.351 41 total multiple intelligences 305.68 38.957 41 table 2 below presents the result of correlation analysis between total language learning strategy and multiple intelligences. table 2 pearson product-moment correlation between total language learning strategy and multiple intelligences correlations total language learning strategies total multiple intelligences total language learning strategies pearson correlation 1 .585** sig. (2-tailed)  .001 n 41 41 total multiple intelligences pearson correlation .585** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .001  n 41 41 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). based on pallant (2007), a moderately positive relationship is found between these two variables (r(40)= .58, p= .001). this result means that these two variables are positively correlated, i.e., an increase in mi profiles is associated with an increase in lls use. table 3 shows descriptive statistics for each type of language learning strategies and the component parts of multiple intelligences, in decreasing order from the most-frequently-used to the least-frequentlyused strategies and most common to least common intelligences. abolfazli khonbi & mohammadi e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 70-83 76 table 3 descriptive statistics for language learning strategy types and the categories of multiple intelligences descriptive statistics mean std. deviation n language learning strategy total cognitive 48.58 5.932 41 total metacognitive 34.45 3.906 41 total memory 29.03 6.047 41 total compensation 20.94 3.140 41 total social 19.42 4.395 41 total affective 17.39 2.952 41 multiple intelligences total intrapersonal 38.74 5.621 41 total bodily kinesthetic 36.81 5.449 41 total existential 34.26 8.828 41 total musical 33.97 6.785 41 total visual spatial 33.84 5.580 41 total verbal linguistic 33.10 4.346 41 total logical 32.23 7.740 41 total natural 31.97 6.580 41 total interpersonal 30.77 7.890 41 table 4 below summarizes the result of correlation analysis among the types of language learning strategies and the components of multiple intelligences. all the significant relationships found are positive and medium to large. for the ease of reference, we report the significance of the relationships and the p values in each case in the text. efl students’ multiple intelligences e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 70-83 77 table 4 pearson product-moment correlations among categories of language learning strategies (in black) and the components of multiple intelligences (in blue) correlations tmem tcog tcom tmet taff tsoc tnat tmus tlm texi tinter tbk tvl tintra tvs tmem pears corr. 1 .534** .385* .342 .423* .274 .586** .314 .348 .439* .240 .511** .167 .186 -.022 sig. (2tailed) .002 .033 .059 .018 .136 .001 .085 .055 .014 .194 .003 .368 .318 .908 n 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 tcog pears corr. 1 .491** .315 .442* .435* .238 .488** .327 .315 .211 .534** .245 .581** .340 sig. (2tailed) .005 .084 .013 .014 .197 .005 .072 .085 .255 .002 .185 .001 .061 n 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 tcom pears corr. 1 .021 .398* .181 -.019 .438* .367* .351 .204 .399* .181 .312 .395* sig. (2tailed) .909 .026 .331 .917 .014 .042 .053 .271 .026 .329 .087 .028 n 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 tmet pears corr. 1 .219 .404* .104 .102 .164 .155 .032 .220 .180 .315 -.042 sig. (2tailed) .238 .024 .576 .583 .378 .405 .866 .234 .333 .084 .821 n 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 taff pears corr. 1 .396* .078 .260 .186 .234 .180 .204 .148 .271 .071 sig. (2tailed) .028 .677 .157 .317 .205 .333 .272 .428 .140 .705 n 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 tsoc pears corr. 1 -.047 .482** .352 .326 .253 .226 .031 .322 .080 sig. (2tailed) .803 .006 .052 .073 .170 .221 .869 .078 .668 n 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 tnat pears corr. 1 .124 -.056 .221 .098 .339 .215 .175 .076 sig. (2tailed) .507 .764 .232 .600 .062 .246 .345 .684 n 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 tmus pears corr. 1 .545** .474** .467** .436* -.133 .376* .472** sig. (2tailed) .002 .007 .008 .014 .475 .037 .007 n 41 41 41 41 41 41 41 tlm pears corr. 1 .823** .673** .524** .087 .366* .261 sig. (2tailed) .000 .000 .002 .644 .043 .156 n 41 41 41 41 41 41 texi pears corr. 1 .792** .594** .210 .355* .289 sig. (2tailed) .000 .000 .258 .050 .115 n 41 41 41 41 41 tinter pears corr. 1 .584** .241 .141 .244 sig. (2tailed) .001 .192 .450 .186 n 41 41 41 41 tbk pears corr. 1 .389* .353 .443* sig. (2tailed) .030 .051 .013 n 41 41 41 tvl pears corr. 1 .255 .300 sig. (2tailed) .167 .101 n 41 41 tintra pears corr. 1.1.1 1 .426* sig. (2tailed) .017 n 41 tvs pears corr. 1 sig. (2tailed) n **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). note. abbreviations used in the table: tmem (total memory strategy), tcog (total cognitive strategy), tcom (total compensation strategy), tmet (total metacognitive strategy), taff (total affective strategy), tsoc (total social strategy), tnat (total natural intelligence), tmus (total musical intelligence), tlm (total logico-mathematical intelligence), texi (total existential intelligence), tinter (total inter-personal intelligence), tbk (total bodily-kinestetic intelligence), tvl (total verbal-linguistic intelligence), tintra (total intra-personal intelligence), tvs (total visual-spatial intelligence). abolfazli khonbi & mohammadi e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 70-83 78 from the results summarized in table 4, we found that the relationships among components of language learning strategy were as follows. there was a significant relationship between the frequency of use of memory strategy and the use of cognitive strategy, r(40) = .53, p < .01. moreover, there was a medium effect for the relationship between the frequency of use of memory strategy and compensation strategy, r(40) = .38, p = .03, and a medium effect was also found between the frequency of use of memory strategy and affective strategies, r(40) = .42, p = .01. cognitive strategy use was also found to be related to the frequency of use of compensation strategy, r(40) = .49, p < .01; affective strategy, r(40) = .44, p = .01; and social strategies, r(40) = .43, p = .01. the use of compensation strategies was related to the use of affective strategies, r(40) = .39, p=.026. finally, the metacognitive strategy was related to the use of social strategies, r(40) = .40, p = .02; and the same was true for affective strategies, r(40) = .39, p = .02. regarding the relationships between the types of strategies and the types of intelligences, we found that memory strategy use was related to natural intelligence, r(40) = .58, p < .01; existential intelligence, r(40) = .43, p = .01; and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, r(40) = .51, p < .01. on the other hand, the frequency of use of cognitive strategies was related to musical intelligence, r(40) = .48, p < .01; bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, r(40) = .53, p < .01; and intrapersonal intelligence, r(40) = .58, p < .01. finally, the use of compensation strategy was found to be related to musical intelligence, r(40) = .43, p = .01; logical-mathematical intelligence, r(40) = .36, p = .04; bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, r(40) = .39, p = .02; and visual-spatial intelligence, r(40) = .39, p = .02. social strategy use was only found to correlate with musical intelligence, r(40) = .48, p < .00. regarding the relationships among multiple intelligences, results shows that there was a large effect between musical and logical-mathematical intelligence, r(40) = .54, p < .01; logical-mathematical and existential, r(40) = .82, p < .001; logical-mathematical and interpersonal, r(40) = .67, p < .01; logical mathematical and bodily-kinesthetic, r(40) = .52, p < .01; existential and interpersonal, r(40) = .79, p < .01; existential and bodily-kinesthetic, r(40) = .59, p < .01; and between interpersonal and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences , r(40) = .58, p < .001. medium effects were found between musical and existential intelligences, r(40) = .47, p < .01; musical and interpersonal, r(40) = .46, p < .001; musical and bodily-kinesthetic, r(40) = .43, p = .01; musical and intrapersonal, r(40) = .37, p = .03; musical and visual-spatial intelligences, r(40) = .47, p < .01; logical-mathematical and intrapersonal intelligences, r(40) = .36, p = .04; existential and intrapersonal intelligences, r(40) = .35, p = .05; bodily-kinesthetic and verbal-linguistic, r(40) = .38, p = .03; bodily-kinesthetic and visual-spatial intelligences, r(40) = .44, p = .01; and finally between intrapersonal and visual-spatial intelligence, r(40) = .42, p = .01. considering the findings in this section, we can now respond to the research questions as follows: 1) is there any significant relationship between students’ reported multiple intelligences and their language learning strategy use? there is a significant positive relationship between this sample of iranian efl students’ multiple intelligences and their use of language learning strategies. 2) what is the prevalent mi among this sample of iranian efl students? the prevalent mi among the participants, in decreasing order, were intra-personal, bodilykinesthetic, existential, musical, visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, natural, and inter-personal intelligences. 3) what is the pattern of lls use among this sample of iranian efl students? the pattern of use of llss were, in decreasing order, cognitive, metacognitive, memory, compensation, social, and affective strategies. 4) how does the pattern of lls use among this sample of iranian efl students correlate with the selection of certain lls? the correlation between mi profiles and lls use was as follows: between memory strategies and natural, existential, and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences; between cognitive strategies and musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and intra-personal intelligences; between compensation strategies and musical, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, and visual-spatial; and finally, between social strategies and musical intelligence. 6. discussion this exploratory study examined the relationship between multiple intelligences and language learning strategies. results show that there is a moderately positive relationship between these two efl students’ multiple intelligences e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 70-83 79 variables, indicating that people with a certain mi profile are more likely to use a specific selection of llss. for example, people with a high score in natural intelligence are more likely to use memory strategies, while people with a high-score profile in intrapersonal intelligence are more likely to use cognitive learning strategies. social learning strategies seem to be preferred only by people with a musical intelligence profile. the results also show that the most frequently used strategies among participants were cognitive and metacognitive strategies followed by memory, compensation, and social strategies. the least frequently used learning strategy was the affective strategy. regarding the types of multiple intelligences, the research shows that participants scored higher in intra-personal and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences, followed by existential, musical, visual-spatial, verballinguistic, logical-mathematical intelligences, and, finally, musical and interpersonal intelligences. significant, positive, medium-to-large relationships were also found within and among the categories of multiple intelligences and the types of language learning strategies. musical intelligence was found to have the most relationships with other intelligence types (logical-mathematical, existential, interpersonal, bodilykinesthetic, intrapersonal, and visual-spatial). in second place, logical-mathematical intelligence was related to four other intelligence types (existential, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, and intrapersonal). then, existential intelligence was related to interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, and intrapersonal intelligences. finally, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence was represented with the use of verbal-linguistic and visual-spatial intelligences. the types of intelligence least related with others were interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences, with the first related only to bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, and the second related only to visual-spatial intelligence. these findings echo those of alavinia and mollahossein (2012), who found a statistically significant relationship between efl learners' mi types and lls use. they also found that mi scales had predictive power in using metacognitive strategies. our findings are also in line with akbari and hosseini (2008), whose results indicated that there is a relationship between mi and lls use and second language proficiency, and baleghizadeh and shayeghi (2014), who found significant positive relationships between preferences of mi and perceptual/social learning styles. however, they also found negative correlations among the intrapersonal intelligence and group, kinesthetic, tactile, and auditory learning style preferences. the relations among the mi types may be to some extent justifiable in connection with the kinds of activities with which each type of intelligence is expected to be associated, although, more studies with a specific focus on mi types and activities are required to arrive at robust explanations and claims. it is also believed that ethnicity or nationality can strongly affect the use of llss (bedell, 1993). therefore, further studies should be carried out investigating the relative effect of cultural and social values on the use of lls. further studies are also suggested to simultaneously investigate the different variables such as students’ age, gender, aptitude, and language-learning styles, so that individual differences in a foreign or second languagelearning context can be more comprehensively understood. the findings of the present study contribute to the ongoing debate about multiple intelligences and language learning strategies use in a fl/sl context, although they must be treated with caution due to the limited sample size. however, the study could be replicated using learners from different first language backgrounds to find out whether similar results are obtained. the results of the present study clearly suggest, however, that mi and lls use could be included in any language-learning program, both directly through explicit teaching to students and indirectly through the inclusion and consideration of mi and lls in teaching methods and assessment procedures. 7. conclusion as oxford and shearin (1994) state, strategy use must be individualized in educational settings. in order to offer a productive instruction, teachers should learn to determine and take into account the individual differences among their students, which may in turn result in a shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered curriculums and instruction (tudor, 1996). in this regard, cook (2008) advises teachers in learner-based educational systems to make students aware of the range of the llss they can choose. teachers might consider applying the findings of this and similar studies to build strategy awareness programs for the benefit of the students. at the same time, by employing the theory of mi in the classroom, educators may be able to modify their teaching and learning strategies to consider the individual differences of learners. stanford (2003) proposes that the mi theory would provide an outlet for fulfilling what good language educators were always doing, specifically 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prentice hall. zare-ee, abbas, & shahi, hajar (2010). the relationship between learning styles and multiple intelligences. in l. g. chova, d. m. belenguer, & i. c. torres (eds.), inted2010 proceedings (pp. 2495–2504). valencia, spain: iated. efl students’ multiple intelligences e-journall, 2(1) (2015), pp. 70-83 83 mohammad mohammdi, urmia university mohammadi680@yahoo.co.uk en mohammad mohammdi completed his ph.d. in tesol (applied linguistics) in 2004 at the university of leeds, uk. since his return to iran in september 2004, he has been lecturing and researching as an assistant professor at urmia university. his research interests include vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary use, language testing, l2 reading and writing processes, phonetics and phonology, word association techniques, learner autonomy, lexical inferencing, vocabulary learning strategies, listening, pronunciation, writing, speaking and reading strategies, classroom discourse and task-based approaches to language learning and teaching, involving both experimental/quantitative and descriptive/qualitative research. es mohammad mohammdi concluyó su tesis doctoral sobre la enseñanza del inglés para hablantes de otros idiomas (tesol; lingüística aplicada) en 2004 en la universidad de leeds (reino unido). desde su regreso a irán en septiembre de 2004, lleva a cabo su labor docente e investigadora como profesor asistente en la universidad de urmia. sus intereses de investigación giran en torno al conocimiento y uso del vocabulario, la evaluación lingüística, los procesos de lectura y escritura en l2, la fonética y fonología, las técnicas de asociación de palabras, la autonomía del alumno, la inferencia léxica, las estrategias de aprendizaje del vocabulario, las estrategias de pronunciación así como de comprensión y expresión tanto oral como escrita, el discurso en el aula y los enfoques por tareas para la enseñanza y aprendizaje de idiomas, todo ello a partir de métodos de investigación de corte experimental-cuantitativo y descriptivocualitativo. it mohammad mohammdi ha completato il dottorato in didattica dell’inglese per stranieri (linguistica applicata) nel 2004 presso l’università di leeds, gran bretagna. dal suo ritorno in iran nel settembre del 2004 è insegnante e ricercatore dell’urmia university. i suoi principali interessi di ricerca comprendono le competenze e l’uso della terminologia, il language testing, la composizione e lettura in l2, la fonetica e la fonologia, le tecniche di associazione terminologica, l’autonomia dello studente, l’inferenza lessicale, le strategie di apprendimento terminologico, la pronuncia, le strategie di composizione, enunciazione e lettura, il discorso in aula e gli approcci metodologici di apprendimento e insegnamento delle lingue da un punto di vista sia sperimentale/quantitativo sia descrittivo/qualitativo. zainab abolfazli khonbi, urmia university z.abolfazli1986@gmail.com en zainab abolfazli khonbi is a ph.d. candidate in tefl at urmia university, iran. she has presented at some international and national conferences and has published a book and some articles in refereed journals on alternative assessment, language testing, discourse analysis, and cognitive linguistics. es zainab abolfazli khonbi está cursando un doctorado en enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera (tefl) en la universidad de urmia (irán). ha presentado comunicaciones en algunos congresos celebrados tanto en su país como en el extranjero, y es autora de un libro y de artículos publicados en revistas con revisión por pares que tratan sobre evaluación alternativa, evaluación lingüística, análisis del discurso y lingüística cognitiva. it zainab abolfazli khonbi è dottoranda in didattica dell’inglese alla urmia university, in iran. è intervenuta durante alcune conferenze nazionali e internazionali, ha pubblicato un volume e alcuni articoli accademici su riviste scientifiche con referee che trattano di valutazione alternativa, language testing, analisi del discorso e linguistica cognitiva. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 3, issue 2, december 2016, 22-41 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.5.35 www.e-journall.org © hale 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. the risks and rewards of teaching with humour in western sydney: adapting pedagogy to complex demographics adrian hale*1 western sydney university received 15 may 2015; received in revised form 12 november 2015; accepted 15 november 2015 abstract en the university of western sydney (uws) services australia’s most multicultural region, where a large proportion of students are either migrants or the children of migrants, and many are from non-english speaking backgrounds. it is also an area of chronic social disadvantage. apart from generic literacy issues, there is also what could be termed a deficit in student motivation. thus, teaching in this context requires a more creative approach to engage and retain students at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. humour, as used in topical content and delivery, has been very successful as a vehicle for these aims. this paper will present a summary of central findings over four years of teaching with humour in two courses. it will be asserted that negotiating students’ literacy levels is best performed through effective use of humour: students are more motivated to learn when they feel that humour use is in their best interests. key words: humour, face theory, motivation, affect, social-literacy disadvantage es la university of western sydney (uws) presta sus servicios a la región más multicultural de australia, donde una gran parte del alumnado es extranjero o de padres inmigrantes y, además, en su mayoría, proveniente de contextos no anglófonos. asimismo, se ubica en un área de marginación social crónica. aparte de problemas de alfabetización genérica, se añade lo que se podría denominar un déficit de motivación en el alumnado. enseñar en este contexto requiere un enfoque más creativo para involucrar y retener a los estudiantes en los niveles de grado y posgrado. el humour, tal como se viene utilizando en los contenidos y en la instrucción, ha resultado de gran éxito como medio para conseguir estos objetivos. el presente trabajo proporciona un resumen de los principales hallazgos obtenidos a lo largo de cuatro años de enseñanza con humour en dos cursos. se concluye que la negociación de los niveles de alfabetización del alumnado es más eficaz si se usa el humour de forma efectiva: los estudiantes se sienten más motivados para aprender cuando ven que el humour se usa en su beneficio. palabras clave: humour, teoría de la imagen social, motivación, afecto, desventaja social en la alfabetización it la university of western sydney (uws) serve l’aerea più multiculturale dell’australia, dove una larga fascia di studenti e studentesse è costituita da immigrati/e di prima o seconda generazione e molti/e di loro provengono da contesti in cui non si parla inglese. è anche un’area socialmente svantaggiata. peraltro, oltre ai generali problemi connessi all’alfabetizzazione, esiste, in quest’area, quello che potremmo definire un deficit nella motivazione delle studentesse e degli studenti. la didattica in tale contesto richiede un tipo di approccio creativo che coinvolga e trattenga gli studenti e le studentesse durante i percorsi di laurea e post-lauream. il comico, usato come contenuto disciplinare e come strumento espressivo nell’esposizione delle lezioni, si è rivelato un mezzo molto indicato per il raggiungimento di questi obiettivi. in questo lavoro presentiamo una sintesi dei risultati più significativi ottenuti in quattro anni di insegnamento usando il comico in due corsi. sostengo che la negoziazione dei livelli di alfabetizzazione degli studenti e delle studentesse si verifichi meglio se accostata all’uso efficace del comico: studenti e studentesse sono più motivati a imparare quando si rendono conto che l’umorismo è usato nel loro interesse. parole chiave: comico, teoria goffmaniana della “faccia”, svantaggio sociale e educativo * contact: a.hale@uws.edu.au http://www.e-journall.org/ risks and rewards of teaching with humour e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 23 1. introduction this paper will address the complex problem of humour as a vehicle not only for general, theoretically-informed pedagogical practice, but more contextually as a tool for making an actual difference in what is, effectively a difficult university teaching environment. to do so, demographic information will be provided to frame the specific learning situation for students at the university of western sydney (uws). the paper will then present university-generated statistical data relating to two linguistics-based subjects taught at uws, which will evidence that humour has been instrumental in engaging students. that is, it will be asserted that when humour is deliberately employed both as an attendant-incidental feature of content presentation (often typically improvised) and as a strategic feature of textual choices (often studentdirected), students are heuristically intrigued and motivated to attend classes and to engage with assessment tasks. it will be postulated that this strategy has aided in retention of enrolled students and in pan-cohort grade improvements. this data is more significant, perhaps, because of the diversity and large-scale enrolments involved in the student population. 1.1. uws student demographics uws is a university which serves a unique geographical region of australia. this region, officially referred to as greater western sydney (or gws), comprises around half of the population of australia’s largest city, sydney (or 2.3 million of a total population of 4.39 million), but it occupies around 9,000 square kilometres, or ¾ of the entire sydney metropolitan region by area (nsw trade & investment, 2013). uws is a multi-campus university, which is spread across a large area of sydney’s suburban sprawl, from semi-rural fringes to suburban centres in the wider sydney basin. as a university that is only 25 years old, uws tends to target residents from its catchment area only, and it lacks the lure of the four other publicly-funded, and older, more prestigious, and wealthier universities in the eastern half of the city. it is thus, perhaps by its very nature, more flexible and more responsive to its particular region than these other universities are, or have to be. this is due, at least in part, to the very distinctive demographical features of uws’ student catchment area, to which the university must respond. in many ways, uws’ spatial presence is emblematic of the demographics of its region. spread over multiple campuses separated by significant distances (often 30-40km of suburban separation, and without any direct public transport links), the reality for many students is that they typically need to physically travel long distances, by private vehicle, just to attend lectures and tutorials. sydney’s eastern universities are more typically one-campus based and very well serviced by public transport options, which are also concentrated around the urban hub where general amenities, services and employment opportunities are in greater supply. overall, the eastern half of sydney is typified by a population, which is more educated, ethnically homogenous, and advantaged for economic and employment factors (australian bureau of statistics [abs], 2013; western sydney region of councils [wsroc], 2013). in terms of multiculturalism, eastern sydney is below the national average; in terms of economic and educational advantage, it is well above the australian average (abs, 2013). it is not, perhaps, a generalisation to argue that the metropolis of sydney is a city of two very different halves. greater western sydney is distinctive not only for its below-average household income; it is also the centre of australia’s multicultural society and social disadvantage. it has been, for more than half a century, dominated by large-scale patterns of immigration, social disadvantage (including welfare dependency, lower educational attainments, and poorer options for public transport), and higher diversity for language spoken, culture, ethnicity, and religion than anywhere else in the country (abs, 2013; wsroc, 2013). while this part of the city does attract skilled “immigrant entrepreneurs” (collins, 2006, p. 135), it also attracts the majority of australia’s intake of refugees and family reunion migrants, and these categories of new arrivals are distinguished by high social disadvantage and non-english speaking backgrounds (abs, 2013). indeed, and overall, gws is the single biggest destination of choice for australia’s immigrants, with over 40% of all newly arrived immigrants settling in western sydney (wsroc, 2013). adding to the existing “pool” of decades of migration, these newer arrivals boost the diversity of gws, such that almost 60% of western sydney’s population consists of either 1st or 2nd generation immigrants (collins, 2006, p. 135). the source nations of this population are also linguistically and ethnically diverse, such that gws is a region where 180 nationalities and at least 100 different community languages are represented (uws pocket profile, 2009; collins, 2006, p. 135). a significant number of these migrants arrive in australia with inadequate english language skills (abs, 2013). hale e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 24 1.2. demographics as a deficit-obstacle what this signifies is a population area with a significant number of homes where english is a second or other language. even when english is a first language for the children of migrants, it is frequently not the language spoken in the home. in the 2011 census, for instance, respondents were asked to self-define for english language proficiency: “128,617 [adults] in the wsroc region who speak another language report difficulty with speaking english” (wsroc, 2013). this figure is representative only and it suggests a much wider english language deficit across the region. another figure, which relates to the language spoken at home, indicates that around half of gws’ population, or 42.7%, speak a language other than english in the home (abs, 2013). there is some potential, therefore, for linguistic capital in the english language to be diluted, depending on how bilingually (or multilingually) competent these persons are. this potentiality is extremely difficult to assess, but it is important to consider at this point that the potential for english language deficit, for uws students, is quite high. to exacerbate this deficit-potentiality, there is some evidence from internal uws data that the best students across gws do not choose to study at uws. while there are five universities in sydney, in reality, the prestige and higher-level entrance requirements (for literacy, as rated by secondary school leaving exams) for the four eastern suburbs universities mean that these universities attract the better-performing students from across the entire region (university of western sydney [uws], 2013a, 2013b, 2013c). to put it another way, uws effectively is a second choice university for the more literate, or linguistic-capital-rich, students. by extension, uws is also the only option for students with poorer linguistic capital, since they are excluded by the higher entrance requirements of the other institutions. thus, a general index of inequity is further entrenched by a linguistic-educational divide: “education is political and its relationship to other social institutions is readily defined in a system that works more effectively for social groups that already have cultural and social power” (jones diaz, 2004, p. 98). this divide can be further defined for a type of ethnic “selection.” a corroborating feature of the demographic data produced internally by uws is that while many students are born in australia, they come from families where english is either not spoken at all, or it is only one of two or several languages spoken at home (uws, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c). some of these major community languages include arabic, hindi-urdu, chinese (typically mandarin, but also cantonese), vietnamese, bengali, farsi, spanish, greek and italian (cardona, noble, & di biase, 1998; uws, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c). with up to 80% of all uws students growing up in homes where the english language is a relatively new acquisition, it is apparent that uws’ students are actually more linguistically and ethnically diverse than the general gws population, perhaps even double the rate for either of these distinguishing features (uws, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c). one conclusion is that ethnically “anglo” students from gws are more likely to enrol at an eastern university, rather than at uws, further concentrating this ethnic-linguistic diversity among uws’s student body. it can be meaningfully referred to as a pattern of “white flight” (frey, 1979) which simultaneously dilutes uws’ linguistic capital. that is, the students who are ethnically mainstream, and who typically also have a greater linguistic tradition in the english language (that is, they are more likely to be native speakers and expert users of the language) are least likely to attend uws. the students who are neither native speakers nor expert users of the english language are most likely to enrol at uws. this translates into a major linguistic-capital challenge for both students and educators at uws. what is a little more difficult to quantify is the extent to which these linguistic differences impact academic performance. however, once the failure rate is factored into the equation, there is some more corroborating evidence: at between 25-30% failure rate for all first years (a failure rate 5-10% above the national tertiary average), uws students are clearly underprepared for the linguistic demands of university (grebennikov & skaines, 2008). one explanation for this inflated rate of failure is that there exists an educational under-achievement culture across gws. this culture of under-achievement is tied to various deficits, which are very difficult to dislodge. these include a general cultural deficit of educational aspiration that is linked to a typical lack of confidence, both regionally and individually. this is representative of a culture of deficit which begins with generally poor educational (cohort) attainments prior to commencement at university (uws, 2013c). for example, almost 60% of arw students begin university without having completed high school (uws, 2013c). it is hardly surprising then, that most students (up to 80%) who start at uws in the 1st year cohorts are also the first in their family to have ever attended university (uws, 2013a/b/c). uws students are also more likely to face challenges including a higher than average rate of disabilities or other life circumstances, such as migrant experience of dislocation or refugee trauma; fulltime risks and rewards of teaching with humour e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 25 or insecure casual work responsibility; and transient accommodation issues (uws, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c). it is also probable that uws students are sensitive to being “marked” for difference. apart from cultural or ethnic differences, such markedness might be as simple as an accent or phonic intrusion from another language. accent, even for the competent or expert user of english, is a limiting factor in self-esteem for many people (hale, bond, & sutton, 2011; lippi-green, 2012). in general, the person with a variant accent experiences the “grim reality of limitations imposed by a standard language ideology” (lippi-green, 2012, p. 253). rather than confront this reality for the construct that it represents, uws students may very well decide that they cannot conform or succeed in the wider professional environment. this is despite the fact that, given the general demographics of uws, it is logical to assume that a diversity of accents is actually the norm, or at least it would be generally considered to be un-remarkable, in the university environment at uws. however, uws students are likely to be sensitive to the fact that language/accent discrimination is common in the wider community, and this is true even for the professionally qualified individuals (hale, bond, & sutton, 2011; lippi-green, 2012). if these factors are regarded as a collective challenge, not only to the commencement of tertiary education, but also for the continuation of study, it is hardly surprising that the participation rate for residents in gws in tertiary institutions is at least 20% below the national average (uws, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c; wsroc, 2103). there also appears to be an awareness, or expectation, of educational underachievement for residents of gws, which students are sensitive to. that is, the general australian community, and in particular, the wider community of sydney, considers tertiary success for gws residents as the exception, rather than the rule. this only enhances the student’s chances of being discouraged from pursuing study, since the student, already aware of a wider community expectation of academic failure, is especially prone to feelings of being an institutional “impostor” (following ross, stewart, mugge, & fultz, 2001). collectively, this set of deficits contributes to what can be called an overall deficit in intrinsic motivation. a student at uws is less likely to share in the “optimal experience of individuals being fully engaged in a given task and pursuing whatever they are doing for its own sake” (waring, 2013, p. 192). this deficit, in the context of uws demographics, is even more apparent if we define academic motivation as a student’s ability to achieve autonomous control over—and sustain— study habits and learning where there is clear enjoyment and satisfaction derived from the process and the end result. aspects of motivation include a student’s ability to internalise, personalise, attend classes, be self-directed/autonomous, seek higher grades, integrate, and socialise. whether the student taps into this intrinsic motivation depends largely on whether the student is acculturalised into the university environment at an early stage. general deficits in capital, including linguistic capital, are powerful drags on any student’s ability to acculturalise and to develop motivation (delpitt, 1988; nesi, 2012; waring, 2013). as a form of linguistic capital, this means that many of uws’ potential students will demonstrate competence in the english language, which may not be adequate for the literacy demands of university. 1.3. humour as yet another educational hurdle students at uws are thus largely unprepared for the general literacy demands of the university setting. in addition to literacy demands, however, students may very well find one, additional educational hurdle, which is extremely challenging: the use of humour by educators at university. while there is some evidence for pedagogical benefits from the use of humour in the educational setting (see, for instance, gardner, 2006; nesi, 2012; zhang, 2005), these studies seem to rely on the assumption that students already possess the linguistic capital required to process such instances of humour. in the case of uws students, however, this assumption cannot be made, since a general linguistic capital-deficit in english necessarily underpins the ability to process humour. one important literacy deficit is the ability to process humour as presented by educators in the context of a lecture or tutorial. indeed, for too many students at uws, the presence of humour in the academic setting is both unexpected and challenging. there are various reasons why these students may fail to negotiate humour in this setting. one reason is that students experience an increased cognitive load of university-level subjects in general which demands complex “processes at many different levels [interacting with] reading or listening, syntactic and semantic analyses, knowledge integration, as well as reasoning processes” (kintsch, 2005, p. 127). it is hardly surprising, then, that the processing of humour in this context seems to present an unexpected and additional challenge for uws students. this is because so much humour taps into “a large chunk of semantic information surrounding a [word] or evoked by it” (raskin, 1985, p. 81). that is, students will not necessarily be familiar hale e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 26 with the specific background knowledge of the english language variety they are being asked to reference, especially since this knowledge differs “from culture to culture” and it is, at least potentially, always “local in some way” (vandaele, 1999, p. 265). another reason is that a humorous text makes pragmatic demands on literacy for the processing of schemata, which are complex and non-literal (attardo, 1994; bertoff, 1999; hertzog & anderson, 2000; raskin, 1985). indeed, the contradictory schemata of humour draw on “underlying inferential processes [requiring] a wide range of sources of knowledge (linguistic knowledge, pragmatic knowledge, world knowledge, social knowledge, etc.)” (mayerhofer, maier, & schach, 2015, p. 4). for uws students, an obstacle is found not only in the specificity of general english language background knowledge, but also the cultural styles of humour, which characterise australian humour in the australian variety of english. students lack the experience of many australian cultural references, where schemata rely on culturally specific references. for these reasons, processing the pragmatics of humour, as with other expert-user demands of english, is simply very difficult and intimidating for many of these students. a student who is not capable of processing these demands is likely to experience discouragement in pursuing study. this is because the student who generally feels excluded from the experience of university study will specifically resent the use of humour, which they cannot participate in, thus tainting the overall tertiary experience. 2. theoretical framing taken together then, these aspects of uws student demographics indicate that the average uws student is extremely vulnerable to discouragement. being under-motivated already means that it takes little to discourage a student from persisting with studies in an environment that is already unfamiliar, alien to home culture, and (potentially) toxic to personal and ethnic-cultural identity. any educator’s use of humour which inadvertently or deliberately targets a student in one of these sensitive areas can therefore be viewed as a critical trigger, which, while not necessarily (or primarily) causative, is at least associative (and thus integral) to a student’s acculturalisation and academic success overall. an educator’s use of humour, whether merely insensitive or deliberately caustic, cannot be underestimated for its affective influence on a student’s discourse/motivation. it can be stated that the use of humour by an educator carries enormous weight, and thus the onus of responsibility must be primarily the educator’s. this focus can be rephrased, therefore, as an equation of power in a university lecture-tutorial setting. the success (or failure) of humour can be viewed as a pedagogical outcome, which is, at heart, contingent upon a “power differential” (beck & malley, 1998; delpit, 1988; smith, 2007). for uws students, the power differential is particularly salient. at the macro level, the power differential is embedded in the university’s ideological discursive formations (or idfs, following fairclough, 1985), which are constituted in opaque institutional structures of privileged subject-curricula-study foci and in unfamiliar pedagogical expectations. these idfs prove especially intimidating for uws students because these students have little cultural, personal, or familial experience of australian tertiary education settings. indeed, the concept of idfs seems to be especially pertinent when describing an educational setting where relationships of power are obscured in cultural norms, which are framed, or treated, as unexceptional. that is, uws students are typically underprepared for the acculturalisation demands of university. this is particularly true when it comes to contrasts of power. as per delpit’s codification, uws students encounter a tertiary situation where: 1) issues of power are enacted in classrooms. 2) there are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a “culture of power.” 3) the rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power […] 4) those with power are frequently least aware of—or least willing to acknowledge—its existence. those with less power are often most aware of its existence. (delpit, 1988, p. 282) thus, uws students experience a culture shock when attending classes on campus in their first year of study. as a reinforcing and enacting expression of a power differential, the implicit knowledge-capital gap between the university educator (typically a career educator with multiple degrees, including a ph.d.) and the student (either a first-year undergraduate or an ma first year) is allied with the rather confronting, and typically unfamiliar, institutional nature of university. considering the demographics of the typical uws student, many of whom have not completed secondary schooling, there are multiple cultural-literacy deficits which magnify this potentially enormous power differential. for instance, a complicating factor, which risks and rewards of teaching with humour e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 27 activates the pre-existent and latent power differential is the typical uws student’s general ignorance of student-educator relationship norms. the university setting typically endorses, and thus provides, an excellent example of the latent inverse power relationship between “populations of relatively powerless people” and those who exercise social control or “power [across] many dimensions” (cameron, frazer, harvey, rampton & richardson, 1993, pp. 89-90). it is a setting where the educator can select forms of content, delivery, and discourse style at an autonomous or discretionary level, without being necessarily responsive to student sensitivities. this is generally true when humour is employed by the educator but particularly effective when the educator knowingly, or deliberately, transgresses social taboos. in the case of many uws students, where conservative traditions dominate, these transgressive actions can therefore be especially confronting. as a form of “‘activism”’ or “‘criticality’,” such an application of humour can enact moments of superiority, aggression, and transgression, where “humour involves immorality, reckless and extravagant behaviour, and gaucherie” (carroll, 2014, p. 21). indeed, any such aggressive instance of humour, for at least some students (especially students who are socially vulnerable), will contextually represent authoritarianism, and an educator’s humour may very well be regarded as a token of self-aggrandizing indulgence or, discursively, anti-student militancy. it may certainly be taken personally. in some cases, educator humour, which disregards students’ discursive sensitivities could very well constitute a form of bullying. prime examples include humour topics, which denigrate ethnicity, religion, or social status. this is consistent with koestler’s (1964) reference to humour’s “impulse [for] aggression […] manifested in the guise of malice, derision, the veiled cruelty of condescension [since humour’s] common ingredient [is] the aggressive-defensive or self-asserting tendency” (koestler, 1964, p. 52). to regard humour as benign, or serving a higher pedagogical need to affront in order to engage, is perhaps, therefore, naïve at best or, at worst, a type of class-based arrogance. this naiveté relies on a “mirage of innocent humor” (gruner, 2000, p. 147). a useful frame for measuring the extent to which humour can offend and exacerbate a pre-existing power differential is face theory, as developed by goffman (1967) and expanded by brown and levinson (1987). additionally, partington (2006) offers some insights into the application of face theory to real-life situational humour. thus, the linguistic transaction of an educator’s humorous text (whether deliberate or inadvertent) presents a face-threatening act (fta) since the text, as an act of interpersonal, unexpected aggression—potentially at least—offers a destabilizing challenge to “the public self-image that every [person] wants to claim for [himself/herself]” (brown & levinson, 1987, p. 61). the notion of the fta is generically relevant for situational, negotiated discourse where parties have capital to bargain with or to collaborate in conversational goals under “‘normal’ or ‘unexceptional’” conditions (jaworski & coupland, 2014, p. 41). even under these “normal” conditions, there is a serious potential threat to a person’s face needs, since “face is extremely sensitive, volatile and vulnerable” (partington, 2006, p. 87). it is even more applicable to situations where a pre-existing imbalance in linguistic and social capital is exposed, and amplified, by the humorous actions of educators who cannot negotiate, or accommodate, the face needs of their students for whom “sociological variables” require more politeness and tact (partington, 2006, p. 88). when students are already marginalized across aspects of social-linguistic capital, as is the case with the majority of uws’s students, face loss is especially confronting. ironically, some educators represent more of a fta, since they see themselves as “politically engaged, working [with] disenfranchised social groups” (jaworski & coupland, 2014, p. 29). humour as enacted by such an educator can backfire, because the educator, with every good intention, may draw attention to aspects of life, which students resent being “spotlighted” for; that is, students may simply suffer embarrassment, rather than any feeling of solidarity. on the other hand, careful work performed in building trust, rapport, and solidarity over a space of time across social-economic divides can easily evaporate when an educator presents a failed and highly sensitive blunder with humour. this attempt at humour can be viewed as an act of disloyalty or betrayal, and its failure affects the “in-group” solidarity, which is highly sensitive to any act of negative “affect face” (partington, 2006). in any of these scenarios, it is rare that an educator will lose the most face. that is, in a uws context, fta humour offers a very clear example of a social (or speech) event, which is far more than merely a failed teaching moment. the face investment by the socially vulnerable—in a situation where they stand to lose even more face—is a critical example of where the educator needs to attend closely to the face needs of the students. or, to put it another way, the teaching situation is a site for careful, collaborative, face tending, since it requires consistency and trust in the maintenance of a lop-sided relationship. it is a site of “interpersonal rhetoric—the way speakers and writers accomplish goals as social actors who do not just need to get things hale e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 28 done but attend to their interpersonal relationships with other participants at the same time” (kasper, 1997, p. 105). another aspect of this relationship between students and the educator, which is constitutive of an fta, is the variegated literacy competencies of students, which are rarely in line with the educator who typically qualifies as an expert user of english (following the usage of rampton, 1990). this can be summarized as the gap in pragmatic competence (saville-troike, 2012, p. 3) between students and the educator. in practical terms, this means that when the educator employs humour, students may feel excluded on several counts. the first is a cultural literacy tied to the use of humour as a teaching practice, such that students may be puzzled by the purpose of humour in the educational setting, and may feel alienated by this as a practice that seems to have no explicit pedagogical purpose. that is, much pedagogical humour seems to be completely incidental to the setting and topic, and it is a practice, which is culturally unfamiliar for many students (hofstede, 2001; peng, 2007; rao, 2002). not understanding why humour has been used in the teaching situation is immediately confusing and destabilizing as a fta, regardless of its linguistic accessibility. closely allied to this cultural literacy is the student’s inability to process propositional content when it requires the higher-order, pragmatic-level literacy of an expert user of english. apart from the natural inability of many uws students to process this level of language, there is also the implicit message which they take from the experience, which is that jokes which unintentionally (or even intentionally) exclude persons on the basis of pragmatic competence are explicitly read as exclusive out-group or in-group triggers. humour, in this situation, which might accrue face to the educator, is a linguistic transaction, which is necessarily at the expense of students’ face needs. little wonder, then, that students resist humour when it offers a fta for any or all of these reasons. apart from the natural, discursive hesitance about unfamiliar humorous situations, the student will experience anxiety. discursive resistance to humour has been identified as a type of affective filter where a participant will invoke cognitive-emotional defenses (waring, 2013, p. 192). ineffective humour can not only fail at the cognitive level; it can arouse strong, affective, associative reactions which are very difficult to dislodge and which can be permanent or at least long-term (strick holland, van baaren, & van knippenberg, 2012, p. 219). this is simply more evident, or pronounced, in the context of a student who is only too painfully aware of literacy deficiencies or of discursive-power differentials. such a student, perhaps also feeling coerced into a discursive position which runs counter to their own (say, if a text covers material which is offensive to a student’s conservative background), will respond with natural defense mechanisms to the humorous text which has been identified as an act of persuasion or undermining of a student’s ideology: “resistance stems from a basic need to restore freedom in response to a persuasive attempt” (strick holland, van baaren, & van knippenberg, 2012, p. 213). this perspective provides a possible interpretation for the mixed findings reported by suzuki and heath (2014), who conclude that students respond most favourably to, and have their “recognition performance” improved by, “humor that is relevant” (p. 99), but that there are enormous variables for context and across student samples. this is particularly interesting as an equation of what constitutes relevance, since this would naturally foreground the interpretation from the student’s perspective. it thus applies particularly to the notion of humour as being contextually variegated for uws students, given that there are very significant variables in student backgrounds and discursive formations and that these serve as sites of resistance when confronted by the performance of humour by the educator. simply put, there is much at stake for the less powerful interlocutor in a university setting, and this imbalance is particularly acute for the uws student. humour in this context, as instigated by an educator, is a high-stakes gamble. it is also true that, given these elements of affective, cognitive and discursive defense, the successful outcome of an attempt at humour seems to have the odds stacked against it. however, there is also an opportunity for humour to be productive. if humour is at the service of the student’s discursive needs, rather than those of the educator, it follows that the investment in successful humour can bring about great dividends. it has, for instance, been recognized that in the workplace, the power differential between leaders and subordinates can be managed through humour: “humor, a ubiquitous human interpersonal behavior, can help initiate and perpetuate a cycle of individual and social-level positive affect” (robert & wilbanks, 2012, p. 1072). indeed, it is argued that the careful utilization of humour can overcome language gaps, generate affective links between staff, and facilitate productivity, by “improv[ing] performance… humor creates positive affect [and] suggests a shared set of personal values…and increases trust” (mesmer‐magnus, glew, & viswesvaran, 2012). risks and rewards of teaching with humour e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 29 in the educational context, theoretically at least, this reorientation of affect could be at the heart of the humorous linguistic transaction’s purpose. the focus in much of the literature has been on whether humour is productive in improving memory recall or in directly improving learning. indeed, there is no consensus in the literature that the use of humour can actually achieve this end anyway (see for instance, conflicting results from bryant, comisky, crane, & zillmann, 1980; ennis, 2003; fields, 2011; fowler, 2006; frymier, wanzer, & wojtasczyk, 2008; hellman, 2007; james, 2004; kaplan & pascoe, 1977; kuhrik, kuhrik, & berry 1997; nesi, 2012; powell & andresen, 1985; wanzer, frymier, wojtaszczyk, & smith, 2006). rather, what is generally agreed upon is that the use of humour by an educator can be directly instrumental in an affective re/orientation, so that students are more disposed towards the educator and/or the institution. it would appear then, that the role of student perception of humour is paramount. so, for instance, students report that a careful use of appropriate humour creates “the effect that the instructor took the extra effort [to] make the class more enjoyable [and] reduce anxiety” (garner, 2006, p. 180). similarly, zhang (2005, p. 115) reports that humour can “enhance students’ affective learning, create an enjoyable classroom atmosphere, lessen students’ anxiety, increase affect and liking for the instructor and the course, and facilitate students’ willingness to participate.” in other words, while there seems to be some evidence that an appropriate use of humour can produce the conditions, which are conducive for learning, humour is not causatively linked to the process of learning itself. by extension, it should be a fairly straightforward matter to decide what usages of humour would be counter-productive for the conditions of learning. it is not difficult to define types of humour, which are likely to transgress these student needs. fields (2011) recommends that “put-downs, sarcasm, ridicule, sexual or profane jokes, and sensitive issues should never be sources of humor in an educational setting [including] humor based on disabilities [or] physical appearance.” (p. 63). similarly, wanzer, frymier, wojtaszczyk, and smith (2006) argue that educators should avoid humour “targeting a particular student or group of students [or] joking about a student’s intelligence, personal life/interests, appearance, gender, or religion [or] using sexual or vulgar types of humor” (p. 193). it can be argued, then, that if these conditions are met by the educator, the students will be more likely to feel safe and welcomed in the educational setting with the result that student motivation to learn in a more general sense is enhanced. that is, students are more likely to feel positive about themselves and to be more active learners if the educator uses humour which communicates a sincere concern for their students. indeed, it would appear that humour is not only an asset to teaching, but it can also be endorsed as a powerful motivational tool. a seamless and successful humorous transaction can offer face rewards for students, it can engage for affect, offer scaffolded and accessible literacy learning (cognitive outcomes), and it can provide an incentive for learning at the discursive level. this blend of rewards can result in an internalisation of motivations, producing a more lasting effect of student learning autonomy, where a sense of empowerment through active participation can be developed. the key seems to be in locating the type(s) of humour, which can be productive for both student and educator as a mutually beneficial exchange, where the student is actively involved in the reception of the “joke” and consents to it. this is, after all, by definition (and contextually) the nature of successful humour, where what is “intended by the speaker to be amusing” must be equally “perceived to be amusing” by the student (holmes & marra, 2002, p. 1693). indeed, it is feasible in the educational setting, where uws students are involved, to produce what holmes (2006, p. 33) refers to as “jointly constructed or conjoint” humour. such a collaborative effort is even possible when the educator is performing a purely “monologic” (nesi, 2012, p. 80) lecture, if the educator is actively working to put their humour at the service of their students. it is this premise, which the balance of this paper will address. the study which will be presented offers evidence that humour, when successfully implemented as part of teaching strategies, can be used to engage, to be inclusive, to produce affective connections between the educator and students, and to offer vulnerable students a positive environment in which they can develop motivated, autonomous learning. 3. overview of subjects, method and study the two courses, which are referred to in this paper are both linguistics-based units of study. the discussion of these courses covers the four-year period between 2010 and 2014. one course, english text and discourse, or etd, is a discourse analysis course in the linguistics/interpreting translation program, with an average enrolment of up to 120 students, some of whom are post-graduate. this course is dominated by international students (around 50% of all students), the majority of whom (at least 90%) are from mainland china. the rest of the cohort is very representative of the diversity of uws’ student body. the other course, hale e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 30 analytical reading and writing, or arw, is designed to address literacy issues for 1st year students. it is also offered as an elective across all years of undergraduate study, and is therefore available to students across 15 degree programs (from nursing, to business, law, and arts). during the period studied, it had an enrolment of between 1800-2000 students annually, with an average of 25 students per class/section. this course cohort is highly representative of uws’ student diversity. there are two areas of data collection. the first is the collection of student feedback across four years of the courses being offered. the second is the measurement of grade distributions across the same period for various cohorts. the period of data collection was the calendar period between the start of 2011 and the end of 2014: a period of eight complete semesters for arw and four semesters for etd (which was offered once a year). one variable is the fact that arw was offered across one or two campuses the first two years, and then rolled out across all three campuses in the next two years. this is not considered to be important, however, since the diversity of students across all three campuses is roughly equivalent: ethnic backgrounds might vary by campus, but grade distributions indicate an equivalence of educator abilities. so, for instance, while lebanese and other middle-eastern backgrounds may dominate at one campus, other ethnic-cultural backgrounds dominate at other campuses, and all are surprisingly comparable for educational outcomes and socioeconomic disadvantage (cf. uws pocket profile, 2009; uws, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c). with an enrolment of up to 2000 students per year, there is also the variable of having up to 32 tutors/teaching staff with inconsistent teaching styles across the subject. this can be discounted, however, since the surveys on courses (sfus) are consulted for the unit arw, where almost all lectures are delivered by the same person, and it is the lecture, as emblematic of the course, that students are responding to. surveys on teaching (sfts), by contrast, were not consulted for arw, because most of the teaching was performed by tutors (in tutorials). sfts were consulted for the course etd, however, because this course was taught by only one lecturer and one tutor (the same person). therefore, surveys on course (sfus) and teaching (sfts) are consulted for the course etd, while only sfus are consulted for the course arw. this selection tends to narrow the samples, in order to demonstrate the trajectory in improved results as various aspects of humour are refined and experimented on, as confined to the feedback for one educator. one variable which should be considered is that the collection system switched to online (the link was student-email delivered) from paper in second semester 2013. the response rate fell from an average of 61% to 26% before lifting to 33% in second semester 2014. while this is a significant drop in responses, it still represents, at its lowest point, a minimum of 497 unique student returns, which is considered to be a viable sample. also, the fact that the surveys became more optional for completion tends to indicate that only highly motivated students completed the surveys. considering that the surveys managed a fairly uniform pattern during this period, regardless of medium of return, indicates that they are reliable. 3.1. data from uws institutional student surveys and grade distributions data is supplied from two end-of-semester, uws institutionally-generated student surveys: student feedback on unit2 (sfu for both arw, etd) and student feedback on teaching (sft for etd only). these surveys are standardised across the university for question types and for methods of data collection. data for the unit is then compared against data for uws and the school. reproductions of these 2 different surveys are attached to this paper as appendix a and appendix b. this paper will present data from these surveys for both quantitative results (rating of likert-scale responses across various categories, where the maximum rating is 5.0) and open-ended qualitative results. in both sfus and sfts, the qualitative questions asked if the student had any further comment to make. the actual wording for these qualitative questions, which is identical in both the sft and sfu, is as below:  please indicate the important characteristics of this lecturer/class that have been the most valuable to your overall learning experience.  please indicate the particular characteristics of this lecturer/class that you feel are important for him/her to improve. 2 note that nomenclature at uws may be different to other institutions: unit means course or subject, while course refers to degree or degree major/area risks and rewards of teaching with humour e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 31 note that the wording is quite generic in that there is no explicit prompt for the criterion of humour. student responses to these questions were assessed for the presence of humour as explicitly mentioned without any prompting. this unprompted presence of humour as a variable in the student feedback is asserted to serve as evidence that students notice the presence of humour and report favourably on it as a successful pedagogical/affective factor in teaching. that is, if students consider humour to be an important associative factor in their engagement and learning, then it is. note also, that surveys are conducted well before grades are released to students, so students complete their feedback without actually knowing what their grades will be. this is corroborated by the nature of the wording in the sfu quantitative questions, where student responses were collected using the following question types in the sfu (samples are provided): 1) the unit covered what the learning guide said it would. 2) i was able to see the relevance of this unit to my course. 3) the learning activities in this unit have helped my learning. 12) this unit helped me develop my skills in critical thinking, analysing, problem-solving & communicating. 13) overall, i've had a satisfactory learning experience in this unit. note that none of the questions in the sfus offered any prompts or direct propositional content relating to the category of humour. therefore, the responses offered in the open-ended category of the sfu survey indicate that any student mention of humour was completely unprompted, and not suggested or tainted by association. key words were assumed to be from the semantic field of humour if they included the lexical items or collocations which contextually offered a comment on affect (in references to the lecturer, lectures, or textual items), and included any of the following: fun, funny, humour, laugh, engaging, humorous, enjoyable, easy-going, enthusiastic, friendly learning environment, humour and respect, approachable, inspiring and welcoming, or down-to-earth. humour was found as a constituent of, primarily, positive feedback: instances relating to negative feedback at no stage constituted 1% or greater. further data for rating distributions during the same period are supplied as a comparative item. the following tables split the data between subjects arw and etd. table 1 represents the trajectory of sfu results for arw across the years 2011-2014, or eight full semesters. table 1 student feedback on unit (sfu) for the subject arw with incidence of humour as an explicit item in feedback 2011 2012 2013 2014 term 1 term 2 term 1 term 2 term 1 term 2 term 1 term 2 responses frequency 646 536 950 210 474 84 497 91 percentage 53% 47% 50% 61% 26% 25% 33% 25% average course rating arw 3.9 4.1 4.1 4.2 4.1 4.5 4.0 4.4 uws 3.9 4.0 4.0 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.0 comments mentioning humour positive +0% +9.8% +11.8% +14.7% + +26.4% + +30.4% negative -0% -<1% -<1% -<1% -<1% -<1% -<1% -<1% grade distribution hd (high distinction) 3% 2% 4% 2% 3% 2% 2% 4% d (distinction) 9% 7% 9% 10% 8% 15% 8% 12% c (credit) 13% 17% 21% 26% 23% 22% 21% 27% p (pass) 42% 43% 39% 37% 37% 35% 38% 34% f (fail) 33% 31% 27% 25% 29% 26% 31% 23% hale e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 32 in table 1, the data indicate three general trends. the first is that, as measured against universitywide feedback (uws average for all courses), students’ satisfaction with the course arw is steadily improving, to the point where it is, overall, registering at a level, which is significantly higher than the uws average. the second trend is that positive feedback on the educator’s use of humour has steadily increased as a percentage of all feedback in qualitative responses, such that it constitutes more than 30% of all student responses. this is significant since the sfu does not explicitly solicit feedback for the presence of humour, but students proactively identify it as a factor in their experience. negative feedback for the same criterion during this period has not significantly altered, and it remains a very minor component of overall feedback. the third trend is that during the same period, the number of students failing the course has dropped significantly. related to this figure is the fact that the number of students in the pass range has also dropped, while the number of students achieving results in the credit to high distinction range of results has steadily increased. the data suggest that there is an association between these three trends: student grades are improving, the student feedback on the subject is improving, and students increasingly, and without any prompting, are identifying humour as being a significant factor in their positive experience. there is, at least, an associative likelihood that humour—in lectures and in textual content—was identified by students as a positive aspect of their learning experience (if they perceived it as being present). it is suggested also, that this affective response enabled students to transition to a cognitive engagement with content and in managing their own study. quite simply, if students feel less vulnerable, more welcome, and part of the pedagogical experience through the successfully affective use of humour, they will identify this use of humour as being important to them. as a comparative exercise, data were assembled from a combination of sfus and sfts for the course etd. significant differences in this sample were: a smaller cohort (up to 120 students); the fact that students had the same educator for all lectures and tutorials, and in the fact that the sft contained an explicit question which asked students to evaluate the educator on the basis of humour used in classes. table 2 represents the trajectory of sfu and sft results for etd across the years 2009-2012, which is a period of four full semesters (the subject is taught once a year, and where the maximum course/subject rating is 10.0 and 5.0 respectively). note that, unlike the sfu, the sft had a specific question, which prompted students to respond for the category of humour. table 2 student feedback on unit (sfu) and teaching (sft) for the subject etd with incidence of humour as an explicit item in feedback 2009 2010 2011 2012 average course rating sft 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.6 uws 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.4 average course rating sfu 4.2 4.1 4.2 4.4 uws 3.8 3.8 3.9 4.0 humour rating sft frequency 77 75 35 87 percentage 74% 78% 74% 73% grade distribution hd (high distinction) 2% 4% 2% 3% d (distinction) 15% 13% 12% 17% c (credit) 28% 28% 33% 24% p (pass) 43% 44% 46% 51% f (fail) 12% 11% 7% 5% in contrast with table 1, table 2 assembles data from a course with a much smaller cohort, where the same staff member lectured and tutored all students across four consecutive instances of the same subject. it maps the variations in teaching (sfts) and unit (sfus) survey returns. it would appear that the data in table 2 not only corroborates the trends in table 1, but points to a greater significance for the same risks and rewards of teaching with humour e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 33 trends. that is, firstly, as measured against university-wide feedback (uws average), students’ satisfaction with the course (as measured by sfus) in the course etd is not only steadily improving, it is at least one full percentile higher than the uws average for all courses. secondly, and with greater specificity, the quantitative question from the sft (question 7), which explicitly seeks student evaluation of the educator on the basis of humour used in teaching, also registers a positive rating. indeed, not only does this rating steadily improve over the period surveyed, it consistently registers at a full percent higher than the average across the university for all educators. general feedback from the qualitative questions in the sfu for this course confirms this, with a pattern similar to that in table 1 for unprompted, positive comments on the educator’s humour. one caveat can be imposed here: while sfus are a good indication of results for unprompted student references to humour, sfts explicitly make mention of humour as part of an educator’s teaching style. there is some expectation that because the two surveys were delivered to students at the same time in the course etd, there could be some cross-suggestion which would taint any spontaneity. this can be countered, however, by arguing that if humour was a problem, then it would also be strongly suggested, and thus marked, as a distinctly negative response across both types of surveys. a positive relationship, therefore, seems to be more likely. in the subject etd an even stronger correlation between humour and positive feedback was found, where it was present in up to 50% of all comments. this is also borne out by the third trend, which is that student grades improved during the period surveyed. while there was not a consistent improvement across all grades, there was noticeable improvement across the fail and pass grades: fails were halved and pass grades improved by eight full percentile points. the smaller variations across the higher grades might be merely related to a smaller cohort, or to intrinsic features of the subject itself, perhaps as a matter of academic-course integrity. together, it is possible to claim from these data that there is some evidence for students being more engaged, motivated, and achieving positive outcomes in the subject etd during the period surveyed, and that these data are clearly linked to positive feedback from students. 4. discussion of negative feedback, tables and data overwhelmingly, student feedback relating to the use of humour was positive. however, it should be noted that negative feedback was received and that this feedback was considered to be valuable because it informs best practice for teaching. for instance, even though some minority negative feedback relating to humour (around 1% of all comments) was made, it was indicated by students commenting that they did not understand the humour itself. comments also negatively remarked on the ways in which the respondent surmised that humour might negatively affect others. examples of these negative comments are: a. maybe we should consider the fact that some international students can't understand humour appropriately due to the lack of background knowledge. b. sometimes please talk about something [humorous text] in detail because students sometimes don't understand. this type of comment was valuable in reassessing instances of humour in response to student needs, particularly when students failed to appreciate higher levels of humour. as part of an ongoing reflexive practice, the comments are a valuable resource, but should be contextualised as a minor problem overall. the positive comments in both surveys indicate that students have associated humour with a pleasant learning experience and that they judge it to be a factor in their motivation to learn (samples are offered below, from both subjects): c. the humour used in the lectures was effective [educator identified by name] to ease first year students into what was a fairly difficult subject and this made it pleasurable to attend. this was one of my hardest and most feared subjects at the start of semester, but due to the teaching staff became one of my favourite subjects by the end of semester. d. the excellent lecturer, his ability to present the course material and interact with humour and respect. e. the lectures were interesting because the teacher used humour. f. the humour involved in class really allowed for deeper learning. hale e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 34 one aspect of the descriptive statistics is that, overall, there was a steady but measurable improvement in student responses and in grade distributions over the two subjects and over the period studied. in particular, the number of fails was reduced while the number of passes increased as an overall portion of all grades. higher-order grades, across credit to high distinction, were not substantially different. it is asserted that this reflects the integrity of the subjects’ curricula and marking standards across assessment tasks, so that little difference was made to the grades of students who were already equipped linguistically and motivationally. the difference, it is claimed, was with the students who were “borderline” or “at risk”: for these students the atmosphere of steadily more welcoming humour assisted greatly in their motivation to persist with education. this is especially significant, given that the cohorts’ demographics did not alter substantially in any way over this period, so it is clear that one major factor came into play. allowing for other, unrelated factors, such as ongoing improvements in curricula and in subject delivery, it can be asserted that the difference occurred because the educator learnt from the students how to use humour more productively (not the other way round). the educator moved from a tentative, experimental phase of humour with students in early manifestations of the subjects, to a more confident, and informed, use of humour as the subjects progressed. that is, there were obviously failures and successes in the use of humour initially, but as the educator got to know the students better, and became more sensitive to their face-needs, choices were made to put the educator’s humour at the service of the students. it appears, then, that humour can be an important factor in student engagement and enjoyment of the course, given that the students themselves identify it as relevant and that feedback is overwhelmingly positive when it is present. trends in the data suggest that students’ grades may have been positively affected by the judicious use of humour. indeed, it might be possible to refer to the type of humour, which creates the positive, affective conditions for learning as positive humour. this type of humour addresses the face needs of students such that they are oriented towards their educational environment and their educator/s as a primary focus. another way of defining positive humour is to regard it as humour, which is at the service of the recipient (or interlocutor), and which the recipient can feel some ownership of. 4.1. discussion of textual collaboration as a proposed measurement there is another principle suggested by this research, which is indicative of its potential for future enquiry: the question of ownership of the humorous transaction might be further developed. this extension was prompted by an observation during the period of data collection, which is that students’ confidence could also be measured by their willingness to be interactive in the production of humorous exchanges. for instance, we probably should not assume that humorous exchanges are always unilateral, meaning that they are characteristically initiated by the educator with the passive acceptance of the students. indeed, it was observed during the period studied, that as students felt increasingly confident, they became proactive in the collaboration of humorous text production. that is, it was noted that many students themselves actively contributed to the sustaining of a humorous exchange which the educator had initiated, and that a number of students even felt comfortable enough in the lecture and/or tutorial, to initiate a humorous exchange themselves, without any prompting from the educator. one example, hopefully, will be illustrative of this principle. in the course etd, the educator presents a variety of texts, which are used for discourse analysis (da); many of these are humorous. students are then assigned to find their own text for a final assessment task, which they must analyse at length for da concepts. there is nothing in the marking rubric or in the instructions to indicate genre or if the chosen text should have humour in it. quite unpredictably, therefore, a group of muslim students selected the jeff dunham (us puppeteer-ventriloquist) skit featuring the character, achmed the dead terrorist (dunham, 2015), as a text to demonstrate the positive aspects of humour. the text itself can be regarded as highly face-threatening for muslims in general, since the character presents as a failed muslim terrorist. this was unexpected for several reasons: because of the textual content, because of the american author of the text, and because of the post9/11 global environment in which it occurred. it was felt that the autonomous student choice of such a text was evidence of great trust in the educational environment where students felt entirely comfortable in presenting (and by implication, identifying with both in-group and out-group relating to) a humorous text. the implications of this type of event may be significant, not only for future research into the operation of humour as a positive factor in student engagement, but also for positive humour as a vehicle of wider social engagement. risks and rewards of teaching with humour e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 35 5. conclusion this paper sought to discover if the affective use of humour in teaching could make a real, and positive, difference in student learning—and whether this could be measured. in order to do this, it was necessary to define humour itself, especially in terms of the ways in which humour works as social transaction. using face theory, it was determined that humour works as a transaction of power, and that there is, therefore, no such thing as humour without risk or reward. in other words, for every act of humour, there is also a face-threatening act (fta). this means that, potentially at least, someone must gain face, and someone must lose face, in a humorous exchange. thus, in the educational setting, where the educator typically enjoys an incumbent position of power, and students, almost by definition, are relatively powerless, the educator’s use of humour is a high risk strategy. therefore, if humour is used by an educator in a negative way to further entrench (or even exacerbate) this power differential, the fta will naturally be at the expense of the students, who risk losing what little face or power they had in the first place. we can refer to this use of power as negative humour, in that it removes power from those on the receiving end of a humorous exchange. however, it is also evident that when used appropriately, the fta of humour can be rewarding. if an act of humour by the educator does not target students in unfair ways, but rather seeks to produce rapport, emotional connections, and a supportive learning environment, it can be referred to as positive humour. positive humour invites humorous exchanges, which are produced and used conjointly to establish affective relationships and an environment of collaboration. positive humour also works to minimize the power differential between educator and students. in this sense, the use of positive humour is probably more of an fta for the educator than for the students, since the educator will be allowing students to take more control in the classroom. the question then is whether this performance of humour can be measured, and in particular whether it can be measured as a type of student outcome. in response to this question, it was proposed that we can establish if humour as a classroom strategy is working effectively to improve student satisfaction within a course by measuring student feedback and grade distribution. more specifically, this research paper applied this measurement to a very challenging educational environment: a university setting in the western suburbs of australia’s largest and most diverse city. the students at uws are typically underprepared for the demands of university, with many coming from lower socio-economic backgrounds, refugee and migrant experiences, weaker english-language competencies, and poorer educational qualifications. for these students, the university experience is already challenging enough; to negotiate humour in the context of a university lecture or tutorial is, potentially, an unexpected and even more discouraging obstacle. in terms of obstacles, humour presents an additional fta for these students. it was also asserted that for students with little social and linguistic capital, the humorous act by a capital-rich educator in the university setting can be enormously destabilizing. data were collected from student feedback on courses and teaching (sfus and sfts), and the results were encouraging. quantitative feedback, which specifically solicited responses on whether the educator used humour appropriately indicated that students were more than satisfied with the educator’s use of humour in the educational setting. similarly, quantitative feedback, which sought generic feedback on student satisfaction with the course itself and the educator’s teaching style, respectively, indicated that student satisfaction was well above the average for the university overall. in addition, both areas of feedback indicated that satisfaction improved consistently over the four years of data collected in these areas. perhaps more interestingly, qualitative feedback, which had no explicit prompts for the topic of humour, was dominated by student feedback that explicitly mentioned humour as a positive factor in their experience. the association in students’ minds between a positive overall experience and the positive presence of humour in the educator’s teaching style seems to indicate that, as an unprompted response, students feel that the presence of humour was a significant factor in their satisfaction at university. we can then compare this feedback with the measurable (and more objective) outcome of student grade distributions during the same period. data indicated an upward trend in student grades overall, which coincides with improvements in student satisfaction. this suggests that students who experience positive humour as part of an overall satisfactory experience will associate humour as being contributory to that overall experience. we can argue, therefore, that perhaps the conditioning influence of positive humour will may provide a more welcoming environment for the student, and that this may enable a student to develop more engagement with the courses studied. if students feels as though they have more control over the use of humour in the classroom setting, this affect will probably contribute to an overall feeling of control in the educational experience. the reverse is also likely to be true: if students are confronted by face-threatening hale e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 36 humour in the classroom, it will detract from their overall experience. the significance, therefore, of humour in the university experience is that it can be considered to be a powerful factor in a student’s overall satisfaction. it is also likely to factor in a student’s performance at university. we can contextualise humour, then, as being part of an institutional experience for students at university, but yet part of the experience which students are probably not expecting. if we view the university as an institution, which relies on a type of generic trust between educators and students, then humour becomes more significant. in the context of a university like uws, there is a very fragile bond of trust, which needs to be negotiated between students of more vulnerable social status and the educators who use humour as part of their teaching style. this is a bond of trust, which, it can be argued, is both personal and institutional. at the personal level, students can be quite easily destabilised by humour, which targets them in front of other students. by contrast, humour as used by an educator which positively favours a student’s face needs, is more likely to strengthen the relationship between the student and the educator. since the educator is a representative of the university, it is likely that students conflate their experience with an educator as being their experience of the university. at the institutional level, this experience of trust is very significant. it can, quite possibly, mean the difference between a student feeling disposed towards the institution or feeling alienated by that institution. that is not to say that humour, by itself, is a deterministic cause of affect or trust, but that it is a significant element in that relationship between the educator and the student. there is one other, very significant point of measurement, therefore, which this paper suggests. it is premised that humour as used by the educator is effective if it can be demonstrated that students actively seek out opportunities for, manage, and initiate, successful humorous exchanges between themselves and the educator. these exchanges would be instances of collaborative humour, and they could not occur without the groundwork of positive humour as laid down by the educator. indeed, it can be surmised that if this happens, it is because the students “‘read”’ an environment of positive humour from the educator as an invitation to reciprocate. if this were to occur, it would provide evidence that the educator’s use of humour is at the service of students since they would feel empowered enough to venture an exchange, which presupposes a 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[unit content] the unit covered what the learning guide said it would. 2. [relevance] i was able to see the relevance of this unit to my course. 3. [learning design] the learning activities in this unit have helped my learning. 4. [assessment activities] – the assessments in this unit have helped me learn. 5. [assessment feedback] i was able to learn from feedback i received in this unit. 6. [assessment guidelines] – there were clear guidelines for all assessment tasks in this unit. 7. [learning resources] – the learning resources provided for this unit helped me to engage in learning. 8. [learning flexibility] the unit provided a reasonable amount of flexibility for study. 9. [learning spaces] the teaching & learning spaces used for this unit were adequate. 10. [workload] the amount of work required in this unit was reasonable. 11. [equity/fairness] in this unit people treated each other fairly & with respect. 12. [generic skills] this unit helped me develop my skills in critical thinking, analysing, problem solving & communicating. 13. [overall experience] overall, i've had a satisfactory learning experience in this unit. hale e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 40 appendix b item 2: full list of standardized questions as listed in the uws sft survey learning / academic value (summary) 1. you found the class intellectually challenging and stimulating. 2. you have learned something which you consider valuable. 3. your interest in the subject has increased as a consequence of this class. 4. you have learned and understood the subject materials in this class. staff member's enthusiasm (summary) 5. staff member was enthusiastic about teaching the class. 6. staff member was dynamic and energetic in conducting the class. 7. staff member enhanced presentations with the use of humour. 8. staff member's style of presentation held your interest during class. organization clarity (summary) 9. staff member's explanations were clear. 10. class materials were well prepared and carefully explained. 11. proposed objectives agreed with those actually taught so you knew where the class was going. 12. staff member gave presentations that facilitated taking notes. group interaction (summary) 13. students were encouraged to participate in class discussions. 14. students were invited to share their ideas and knowledge. 15. students were encouraged to ask questions and were given meaningful answers. 16. students were encouraged to express their own ideas and/or questions to the staff member. individual rapport (summary) 17. staff member was friendly towards individual students. 18. staff member had a genuine interest in individual students. 19. staff member made students feel welcome in seeking help/advice in or outside of class. 20. staff member was adequately accessible to students during office hours or after class. breadth of coverage (summary) 21. staff member contrasted the implications of various theories. 22. staff member presented the background or origin of ideas/concepts developed in class. 23. staff member presented points of view other than his/her own when appropriate. 24. staff member adequately discussed current developments in the field. examinations / grading (summary) 25. feedback on assessments/graded material was valuable. 26. methods of assessing student work were fair and appropriate. 27. assessment/examinations tested units content as emphasised by staff member. assignments / readings (summary) 28. required readings/text were valuable. 29. readings, assignments etc. contributed to appreciation and understanding of the unit. overall rating (summary) 30. overall, how does the class compare with other classes at this institution? 31. overall, how does this staff member compare with other staff members at this institution? risks and rewards of teaching with humour e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 22-41 41 adrian hale, university of western sydney a.hale@uws.edu.au en adrian hale is a native of the western sydney region. with degrees across linguistics, discourse analysis, english and applied linguistics, he has taught in the literacy, linguistics and tesol programs at the university of western sydney for the past 10 years. as a successful researcher and practitioner, he seeks to create positive educational outcomes for the students of the most diverse, and disadvantaged, community in australia. one feature of his teaching is the use of humour, which he considers to be most effective when it is used to communicate, educate, and empower. es adrian hale es natural de la región occidental de sídney. sus títulos universitarios cubren áreas de la lingüística, análisis del discurso, inglés y lingüística aplicada, lleva impartiendo docencia en los programas de alfabetización, lingüística y enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera de la university of western sydney durante los últimos 10 años. como investigador y docente de éxito, busca obtener resultados académicos positivos en los estudiantes de la comunidad más diversa y desfavorecida de australia. una característica de su enseñanza es el uso del humour, que considera más eficaz cuando se utiliza para comunicar, educar y capacitar al alumnado. it adrian hale è originario della regione di western sydney. i suoi titoli di studio coprono vari ambiti della linguistica, analisi del discorso, lingua inglese e linguistica applicata e da dieci anni insegna all’interno dei programmi di alfabetizzazione, linguistica e tesol dell’università di western sidney. ricercatore e insegnante di successo, il suo obiettivo è portare gli studenti della comunità australiana più disomogenea e svantaggiata a ottenere risultati positivi in campo educativo. il suo metodo d’insegnamento è caratterizzato dall’uso dello humour, uno strumento a suo avviso particolarmente efficace se usato per comunicare, istruire e responsabilizzare gli studenti. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 6, issue 1, august 2019, 74-77 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.10.194 www.e-journall.org © de los heros 2019. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. shively, rachel (2018). learning and using conversational humor in a second language during study abroad. berlin, germany: de gruyter. susana de los heros university of rhode island book review received 6 may 2019; received in revised form 16 may 2019; accepted 23 may 2019 abstract en this book review focuses on the monographic volume, learning and using conversational humor in a second language during study abroad, written by rachel shively (illinois state university) and published in 2018 by de gruyter. the book offers a thorough ethnographic study of l2 spanish students’ use and appropriation of conversational humor and humorous strategies during a semester abroad in toledo, spain. shively also discusses the pedagogical implications of her study and provides practical examples of how humor can be introduced in the l2 classroom. key words: conversational humor, study abroad, spanish l2, humorous strategies es esta reseña se centra en el volumen monográfico learning and using conversational humor in a second language during study abroad, escrito por rachel shively (illinois state university) y publicado en 2018 por la editorial de gruyter. este libro presenta un detallado estudio etnográfico del uso y apropiación de diferentes estrategias humorísticas conversacionales por parte de estudiantes de español como l2 durante un semestre de estudio en el extranjero en toledo, españa. además, shively discute las implicaciones pedagógicas de su estudio y ofrece ejemplos prácticos de cómo el humor se puede integrar en un curso de segundas lenguas. palabras clave: humor conversacional, programas de estudio en el extranjero, español l2, estrategias humorísticas it questa recensione riguarda il libro learning and using conversational humor in a second language during study abroad, scritto da rachel shively (illinois state university) e pubblicato nel 2018 dalla casa editrice de gruyter. questo libro presenta un dettagliato studio etnografico dell’utilizzo e dell’appropriazione del comico e delle strategie umoristiche da parte di apprendenti di spagnolo come l2 durante un semestre di studio all’estero in spagna nella città di toledo. inoltre, shively discute le implicazioni pedagogiche del suo studio e offre esempi pratici di come l’umorismo si può integrare in un corso di insegnamento di una seconda lingua. parole chiave: il comico nella conversazione, programmi di studi all’estero, spagnolo l2, strategie umoristiche  susana de los heros, university of rhode island sheros@uri.edu http://www.e-journall.org/ review: learning and using conversational humor e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 74-77 75 in the book, learning and using conversational humor in a second language during study abroad discusses l2 learners’ acquisition of humor in a study abroad context from a pragmatics framework. shively provides us with a thorough ethnographic study of l2 spanish students’ use and appropriation of conversational humor and humorous strategies during their semester abroad in toledo, spain. the book also presents an extensive overview of the underpinnings of the varied functions of humor, the different approaches to its study, and the wide-ranging meanings that humor conveys for students and people in general. in addition, it summarizes the most relevant studies in this area. furthermore, the author’s examination of how l2 students of spanish use humor in their linguistic interactions in toledo is done within a solid theoretical framework. it is a remarkable resource not only for researchers, but also for those teaching an l2, particularly spanish, as it offers ways in which to incorporate humor in the classroom. the book is structured in an organized and principled way in six chapters. the first one serves as a general introduction to humor studies in different settings and, particularly, in relation to those which examine humorous use and its acquisition in the l2 classroom and/or study abroad programs. the author positions her study within the framework of language socialization, which stems from ochs’ 1991 work. shively emphasizes that this theory assumes that to be socialized to and learn an l2 means to acquire the competence to become a member of a community. more specifically, she indicates that “[a] basic tenet of language socialization theory is that socialization occurs throughout the lifespan, as individuals enter into new settings and rely on more knowledgeable people to acquire interactional practices.” (p. 23). the author’s objective in drawing on language socialization theory is to explore the kinds of humor l2 students encounter and how they use this linguistic strategy themselves in interactions during their study abroad program to provide “insight into l2 pragmatics, generally, and l2 pragmatics in study abroad specifically” (p. 25). in chapter two, the author provides details about the study, including its length (11 weeks), characteristics of the toledo institute in spain where the study took place, characteristics of the participants, and the types of data collected. the participants were six students from a university in the midwest in the usa who were studying spanish. their proficiency, as measured by an in-house exam from the toledo institute, ranged from an intermediate to an advanced-low level. shively specifies that she collected both discourse and metalinguistic data. the discourse data stemmed from the recordings that students made of spontaneous conversations with host family members as well as with native spanish speaker peers. this yielded 23 hours of usable data employed for the analysis. to make sure data from different stages of the 11week program could be compared and to detect any developments, students recorded at different times according to a schedule the author provided to them. shively explored how frequently humor was used, its success or failure, if students initiated or supported humor, the types of humor topics and targets, the resources employed, and functions it served. in the second set of data, the author collected metalinguistic information using student’s journal entries and interviews with students and their host family about students’ performance in spanish along with field notes. in the third chapter, the author summarizes the types of data she encountered, providing examples and organizing the discussion in relation to the frequency of use, its success and failure, the target of the jokes, the type of humor (teasing, irony, exaggeration, revoicing, playing with language structures, selfrepetition, contextualization cues), the topics of humor (united states or spain cultural reference, personal/daily life, learning l2, traveling), its initiation, and the functions served (amusement, affiliation, discourse functions). to guide readers, there are tables with summaries of information in a visual form. in these tables, one can see that there are commonalities and differences in the linguistic behavior of students. for example, we observe that students tend to tease their peers more often than a member of their host families. there were also only two students who employed deadpan humor. also, contrary to what some may think, most of students’ humorous attempts in the l2 were successful. the center of the book is found in chapter four where the humor productions of four students are presented in a detailed manner. the students selected were those who had made adjustments to their l2 humor strategies over the course of their semester abroad. since two of them did not, their production was disregarded. the comprehensive coverage of the types of humor used by these students underscores the presentation of theory earlier in the book. in some examples where it was difficult to ascertain the students’ and/or the interlocutors’ intentions, the author mentions this ambiguity. as shively employed different methods, the author was able to triangulate and find insightful details on how humor production is closely related to socialization. it also shows how students’ emotional comfort level with their interlocutors could promote or inhibit their humor display. the triangulation is one of the reasons why this study is so unique and insightful. by the end of this chapter, one can observe that humor production is an important factor for de los heros e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 74-77 76 students’ identity construction. it is also evident from the analysis that interlocutors’ reactions to students’ spanish can impact students’ desire to use humor in conversations and be daring with it. the analysis of the humor by the host families and same age peers as well as their perception about the students’ spanish, and their evolution is presented in chapter five. here we realize that, sometimes, there is a mismatch between what students see and what they perceive. the rate and kind of humor used by interlocutors varies by participant. for example, host families teased students more than their peers. however, the author notes that, most of the time, both host family members and same age peers “designed their humor to be comprehensible to students as l2 learners” (p. 233). it was also observed that when interlocutors responded to the participants’ humor, it was mostly to its content and not its form. the conclusions of the study, the pedagogical implications, limitations, and the future research ideas are included in chapter six. an important pedagogical suggestion that stems from the data is that instructors should raise awareness of the use of humor in the l2 to empower students in their use of this strategy which has key personal and social functions. shively further emphasizes the fact that “teachers would do well to avoid basing instruction only on their own intuitions or anecdotes, [and] rather use published studies of humor and gather samples of authentic instances of humor” (p. 253). while this study was well planned and executed, shively is aware that a longer longitudinal study would better inform on the processes taking place in students’ l2 adjustments in relation to humor use. she also indicated that it would have been better to have videotaped the conversations to “capture multimodal aspects of humor” (p. 255). data was recorded by the students, so in the future it should be obtained in more naturalistic settings. overall, shively’s book is very well designed, insightful, and thorough. this study about the acquisition of humor in an l2, particularly in spanish, is an essential reading for those who do research in humor and l2 pragmatics. in conclusion, this book is an excellent resource for those interested in the use and acquisition of l2 humor, researchers or teachers alike, as its academic discussion is accessible to the layperson. references ochs, elinor (1991). socialization through language and interaction: a theoretical introduction. issues in applied linguistics, 2(2), 143-147. review: learning and using conversational humor e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 74-77 77 susana de los heros, university of rhode island sheros@uri.edu en susana de los heros is professor of spanish at the university of rhode island and holds a phd in hispanic linguistics from the university of pittsburgh. she is originally from peru where she obtained her ba from the universidad católica. her main areas of interest are spanish sociolinguistics and pragmatics, more specifically, language ideologies, gender differences in speech, politeness theory, and humor in an l2 and in the media. her publications include the books, lengua y género en el castellano peruano (pontificia universidad católica del perú, 2001), utopía y realidad (vervuert/instituto de estudios peruanos, 2012), and fundamentos y modelos del estudio pragmático y socio-pragmático del español (gup 2012, co-edited with mercedes niño-murcia). her more recent article is “teaching with and about humor in the l2 spanish classroom” (2018). currently she is exploring the construction of bilingual identities in the us media and the use of humor in the medical sphere in spanish. es susana de los heros es catedrática de español en la university of rhode island y obtuvo su doctorado en lingüística hispánica por la university of pittsburgh. es originaria de perú, donde obtuvo su licenciatura por la universidad católica. sus principales áreas de interés son la sociolingüística y la pragmática del español, más concretamente las ideologías del idioma, las diferencias del género en el habla, la teoría de la cortesía y el humor en una l2 y en los medios de comunicación. sus publicaciones incluyen los libros lengua y género en el castellano peruano (pontificia universidad católica del perú, 2001), utopía y realidad (vervuert/instituto de estudios peruanos, 2012) y fundamentos y modelos del estudio pragmático y socio-pragmático del español (gup 2012, coeditado con mercedes niñomurcia). su artículo más reciente es “teaching with and about humor in the l2 spanish classroom” (2018). actualmente está explorando la construcción de identidades bilingües en los medios de comunicación de ee. uu. y el uso del humor en español en el ámbito de la medicina. it susana de los heros è professoressa di spagnolo presso la university of rhode island ed è originaria del perù, dove ha conseguito la laurea triennale presso la universidad católica. inoltre, ha un dottorato in linguistica spagnola conseguito presso la university of pittsburgh. le sue principali aree di ricerca sono la pragmatica e la sociolinguistica dello spagnolo e, nello specifico, le ideologie linguistiche, le differenze di genere nel parlato, la logica della cortesia e lo humor nelle lingue seconde e nei media. le sue pubblicazioni includono i libri lengua y género en el castellano peruano (pontificia universidad católica del perú, 2001), utopía y realidad (vervuert/instituto de estudios peruanos, 2012) e fundamentos y modelos del estudio pragmático y socio-pragmático del español (gup 2012, curato in collaborazione con mercedes niño-murcia). il suo articolo più recente è “teaching with and about humor in the l2 spanish classroom” (2018). attualmente sta indagando sulla costruzione di identità bilingui nei media statunitensi e l’uso dello humor in spagnolo nell’ambito medico. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 5, issue 1, august 2018, pages 46-59 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.124 © gomez-ortiz 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: maria.gomez.ortiz@upm.es estudio comparativo de las metáforas del deporte y el juego en la prensa económica y política española e inglesa maría-josé gómez-ortiz*1 universidad politécnica de madrid received 15 january 2018; received in revised form 27 june 2018; accepted 19 july 2018 abstract es el estudio compara el uso de las metáforas del deporte y del juego en la prensa española e inglesa con el objetivo de hallar las correspondencias conceptuales universales y específicas influidas por el contexto y la cultura de cada lengua (kövecses, 2015). el trabajo se desarrolla en el marco del enfoque lingüístico cognitivo (lakoff & johnson, 1980). los resultados muestran similitudes y diferencias en la selección de deportes para expresar la misma idea política o económica según la lengua, el contexto y el fin informativo. este enfoque cognitivo puede facilitar el aprendizaje de vocabulario de lfe (lenguas para fines específicos) y ayudar a la memoria a largo plazo del estudiante ya que este toma conciencia de las expresiones metafóricas al crear asociaciones mentales entre discursos. parole chiave: metáforas del deporte y el juego, comunicación económica y política, factores contextuales, enseñanza y aprendizaje de vocabulario en the study compares the use of sports and game metaphors in the spanish-language and english-language press with the aim of finding universal conceptual correspondences, as well as conceptual correspondences that are influenced by the context and culture of each language (kövecses, 2015). the work is developed within the framework of the cognitive linguistic approach (lakoff & johnson, 1980). the results show similarities and differences according to the language, the context, and the informative purpose in the selection of sports to express political or economic ideas. results also suggest how this cognitive approach can facilitate the learning of vocabulary in lsp (languages for specific purposes) and help the students’ long-term memory as they become aware of metaphorical expressions by creating mental associations between discourses. key words: sports and game metaphors, economic and political communication, contextual factors, teaching and learning vocabulary it lo studio mette a confronto l’uso delle metafore dello sport e del gioco nella stampa spagnola e inglese al fine di individuare corrispondenze universali e specifiche influenzate dal contesto e dalla cultura di ognuna delle due lingue (kövecses, 2015). il lavoro si sviluppa nell’ambito dell’approccio linguistico cognitivo (lakoff & johnson, 1980). i risultati mostrano similarità e differenze nella selezione del tipo di sport per esprimere la stessa idea politica o economica in base alla lingua, al contesto e alla finalità informativa. tale approccio cognitivo può facilitare l’apprendimento del lessico delle lfs (lingue per fini specifici) e aiutare la memoria a lungo termine dell’apprendente nel momento in cui prende coscienza delle espressioni metaforiche creando associazioni mentali tra i discorsi. parole chiave: metafore dello sport e del gioco, comunicazione economica e politica, fattori contestuali, insegnamento e apprendimento del lessico http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.124 gómez-ortiz e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 46-59 47 1. introducción la metáfora realiza un papel destacado en el estudio del lenguaje y es absolutamente fundamental para descifrar la manera en que este se estructura y la forma en que las personas se relacionan con el entorno que les rodea. así lo manifiesta ortega y gasset (1946, p. 391): la metáfora es un procedimiento intelectual por cuyo medio conseguimos aprehender lo que se halla más lejos de nuestra potencia conceptual. con lo más próximo y lo que mejor dominamos, podemos alcanzar contacto mental con lo más remoto y más arisco. es la metáfora un suplemento a nuestro brazo intelectivo, y representa, en lógica, la caña de pescar o el fusil. no se entienda por esto que merced a ella transponemos los límites de lo pensable. simplemente nos sirve para hacer prácticamente asequible lo que se vislumbra en el confín de nuestra capacidad. sin ella, habría en nuestro horizonte mental una zona brava que en principio quedaría desconocida e indómita. este trabajo sigue la línea marcada por lakoff y johnson (1980, 1986) sobre la metáfora conceptual que también desarrollan otros lingüistas (cuenca & hilferty, 1999; forceville & urios-aparici, 2010; kress, 2010). lakoff y johnson (1986, p. 39) destacan la presencia de la metáfora no solo en el lenguaje, sino también en nuestro pensamiento y nuestras acciones. por otro lado, cuenca y hilferty manifiestan que las metáforas conceptuales son elementos básicos en la estructuración del mundo, ya que se comportan como “plantillas cognitivas que proporcionan campos semánticos enteros de expresiones metafóricas” (cuenca & hilferty, 1999, p. 104). de tal manera que la metáfora está íntimamente asociada a la cultura y al sistema conceptual de un pueblo y se manifiesta en la forma de expresarse sobre el deporte, la economía, la prensa, la política o las cuestiones científicas. algunos autores ponen en relieve el papel del enfoque cognitivo y del aprendizaje de una segunda lengua (dekeyser, 2007; littlemore, 2009; tyler, 2012). este enfoque cognitivo puede fomentar la efectividad del aprendizaje del léxico mejorando la adquisición de vocabulario a través de las metáforas del deporte y del juego. en este estudio pretendo aplicar el mencionado enfoque cognitivo a la enseñanza de las metáforas de la prensa económica provenientes del ámbito deportivo con la intención principal de favorecer un aprendizaje del léxico más efectivo en el ámbito de la enseñanza de lfe. para conseguir este objetivo fundamental es preciso descubrir las relaciones conceptuales entre ambos dominios. por tanto, se analiza la penetración de las metáforas del deporte y del juego en el discurso de la economía y la política actual, en español e inglés, bajo el marco de la lingüística cognitiva y se aborda hasta qué extremo esta impregnación está condicionada por el contexto cultural particular de cada lengua a la hora de seleccionar los términos metafóricos. es necesario mencionar que el lenguaje del deporte y del juego se comporta de manera muy dinámica, debido a que hoy en día tiene una gran influencia social y, por tanto, capacidad para generar nuevas expresiones en otras áreas, como la economía y la política. existen estudios anteriores sobre la metáfora del deporte: sobre el ciclismo (herráez pindado, 2004), sobre la metáfora visual en el deporte (gómez-ortiz, 2004), sobre las metáforas más comunes que emplean discapacitados en el deporte (smith & sparkes, 2004), sobre el lenguaje futbolístico (medina montero, 2009), sobre el discurso deportivo en general (lindsey & halone, 2010) y sobre el tenis (caballero, 2012), entre otros. también hay varias publicaciones sobre el comportamiento de la metáfora en la economía y la política (al-amar, 2014; herrera-soler & white, 2012; moreno, 2005; velasco, 2004; white, 2004, entre otros). así mismo, encontramos estudios que comparan las expresiones metafóricas en español e inglés en las distintas lenguas de especialidad; por ejemplo, en ingeniería (roldán-riejos, 2016; roldán-riejos & molina, 2016; vivanco-cervero, 2001), en economía (bielenia-grajewska, 2009), en ciencia y tecnología (duránescribano & cuadrado-esclapez, 2017), por mencionar algunos ejemplos recientes. también encontramos estudios sobre la metáfora del deporte en relación con la retórica de la economía y la política (charterisblack, 2011; koller, 2004). en lo que se refiere a la enseñanza de la metáfora deportiva, hay aún pocos estudios, pirsl y pirsl (2014) lo abordan de forma/planteamiento general, mientras que stilianou et al. (2013) la aplican a su uso por parte de profesores de educación física. el presente trabajo estudia las metáforas del deporte y del juego en el contexto de la economía y la política y más concretamente en la prensa española e inglesa en los últimos años, coincidiendo con la todavía actual crisis económica y su intento de explicarla por parte de los responsables políticos y periodistas especialistas. a su vez, el estudio contrastivo del lenguaje metafórico destaca los aspectos contextuales las metáforas del deporte y el juego en la prensa económica y política e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 46-59 48 culturales que intervienen en la estructuración y formación de este. con este trabajo, pretendo contribuir con una nueva aportación que destaque la importancia del enfoque cognitivo para favorecer el aprendizaje del vocabulario de lfe a través del estudio de las metáforas. 1.1. aspectos contextuales de la metáfora para realizar el estudio de las metáforas seleccionadas es preciso tener en cuenta los factores contextuales en los que se producen estas. kövecses señala claramente los cinco factores contextuales que intervienen en la creación de metáforas: el entorno físico inmediato, el conocimiento que emisor y receptor tienen del tema y el contexto lingüístico, social y cultural inmediato (kövecses, 2015, pp. 115-116). en este estudio nos centraremos principalmente en los dos últimos, en los contextos cultural y social. cada sociedad desarrolla su propio intercambio comunicativo, social y cultural en la producción de metáforas (richie, 2006). es decir, cada sociedad, al tener diferente base política, social, cultural o lingüística, desarrolla también una percepción de la realidad distinta y lo refleja en la selección de sus recursos lingüísticos, entre ellos, sus metáforas. por otro lado, bielenia-grajewska (2009) destaca el aumento de las metáforas que se emplean en el discurso de la economía y lo justifica por su relación con el lenguaje general. además añade: “we can observe globalising tendencies in technical, political or business vocabulary but national languages tend to keep their own semantic structures, especially figurative expressions” (pp. 47-48). como se ha mencionado anteriormente, los términos metafóricos procedentes del deporte y del juego actualmente están impregnando el lenguaje cotidiano. podemos observar cómo se han difundido a través del deporte mismo de una manera horizontal o transversal, ya que metáforas que son específicas de uno han terminado empleándose en otros. así mismo, se observa cómo estos términos han saltado a otras áreas especializadas para expresar conceptos o ideas de la política o de la económica. este hecho se puede ilustrar con los siguientes ejemplos. con la expresión metafórica procedente del boxeo “fuera de combate”, que se aplica al equipo que ha sido derrotado o a la defensa o al jugador que han sido superados o a un jugador lesionado; esta expresión se ha trasladado a otros deportes por ejemplo, al bádminton o al tenis y a otros lenguajes de especialidad como pueden ser al ámbito de la economía a la hora de hablar de la economía sumergida o de lucha contra paraísos fiscales. un ejemplo más sería la expresión metafórica “nadar en aguas turbulentas”, que en principio aparece en la natación y que se emplea también en otros deportes para expresar la misma idea de dificultad en la acción deportiva. posteriormente, se ha constatado su uso en otros campos de especialidad como en el de la economía o política para expresar también dificultad o problemas. como veremos más adelante, en este estudio encontramos metáforas de gran riqueza expresiva, pero que conservan y reflejan las particularidades del contexto cultural y social del país. 2. relaciones entre los distintos dominios tras presentar el objetivo del trabajo es necesario justificar el ámbito de investigación al concentrarlo en la relación entre metáforas del deporte y del juego y su correspondencia con la economía y la política. 2.1. la relación entre el deporte y el juego es imprescindible aclarar la relación existente entre el deporte y el juego para justificar la razón por la que me propongo estudiar estas metáforas conjuntamente. el diccionario de la real academia española entiende “juego” como el “ejercicio recreativo o de competición sometido a reglas, y en el cual se gana o se pierde”, por ejemplo los juegos de naipes, de ajedrez, de billar, de pelota y también los juegos de azar. por otro lado, la definición de “deporte” corresponde a la “actividad física, ejercida como juego o competición, cuya práctica supone entrenamiento y sujeción a normas”. desde una perspectiva histórica, el juego se remonta a tiempos pasados donde este era lo más popular. según las sociedades progresaban, se producía una transformación natural del juego en el deporte (cagigal, 1975; garcía, 2006; vidart, 1995). más adelante, con la llegada de la industrialización, los deportes de equipo se hicieron más populares y aparecieron el fútbol, el baloncesto, el béisbol y el hockey (mandelbaum, 2004). es en el siglo xx cuando se refleja el gran desarrollo del deporte. tanto es así, que el filósofo ortega y gasset considera el deporte como un elemento cultural propio de las sociedades modernas que coopera en el desarrollo de las mismas e incluso sostiene que es el origen del estado (ortega y gasset, 1983, pp. 609-610). gómez-ortiz e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 46-59 49 garcía ahonda en esta idea al afirmar que “las actividades deportivas practicadas por los jóvenes de las civilizaciones antiguas habían dado lugar al origen de los estados políticos. así pues, el deporte en su origen es juego” (garcía, 2006, p. 86). hoy el juego se considera un elemento del comportamiento humano que se estudia como vehículo transmisor de cultura entre las distintas civilizaciones. es decir, se estudia su papel en la transformación de la sociedad a lo largo del tiempo. según las sociedades progresaban, se producía una transformación natural del juego en el deporte. por esta razón, vamos a considerar conjuntamente el “deporte” y el “juego”, ya que los dos comparten muchas características, entre otras, un fuerte componente de afán competitivo, que es lo que veremos se refleja en el lenguaje metafórico que analizamos más adelante. 2.1.1. los juegos de azar: las apuestas un análisis de las metáforas procedentes del deporte y del juego en la prensa inglesa revela que los dos juegos más populares son los juegos de cartas y los juegos de azar y, más concretamente, las apuestas deportivas. la historia de estas es paralela a la historia del juego. existen evidencias de apuestas en los juegos de la antigua grecia con las competiciones atléticas que más tarde se expandieron con el imperio romano y los combates de gladiadores y carreras de cuadrigas. durante la edad media se apostaba en los torneos de caballeros y en el tiro al arco. en la inglaterra de finales del siglo xviii aparecen locales destinados a apostar principalmente en las carreras de caballos. posteriormente, a principios del siglo xx comenzó su rápida difusión a través de los periódicos con páginas especializadas en apuestas deportivas (anderson, blackshaw, siekmann, & janwillem, 2012). por esta razón y por su riqueza en generar expresiones metafóricas se estudian las apuestas dentro de los juegos de azar, ya que tienen un papel destacado en la producción de metáforas como se verá más adelante. 2.2. la relación entre el deporte-juego y la economía-política la política y la economía representan dos mundos independientes entre los que se establece una relación profunda de interacción e interdependencia. esto es debido a que se necesitan mutuamente, es decir, la economía necesita de respaldo político para poder aplicarse y la política no puede pasar por alto el impacto económico que suponen las decisiones políticas (mochón, 2009) de tal manera que las decisiones políticas tienen implicaciones económicas y las actividades económicas suponen una actuación política. en el discurso de la prensa frecuentemente aparecen estos dos campos conjuntamente para explicar una decisión política o económica. el discurso del deporte-juego y de la economía-política mantiene una relación muy cercana en la cual el deporte y el juego son el dominio fuente de donde se toman los conceptos para el dominio meta que, en este caso, son la economía y la política. se recurre al deporte y al juego con fines informativos y persuasivos para intentar explicar de forma sencilla lo que puede ser muy complejo desde el punto de vista económico y político. gibbs (1994) menciona que muchas de las metáforas que se emplean en política se apoyan sistemáticamente en los lenguajes del deporte y de la guerra. además, kövecses afirma que junto con la guerra, las carreras deportivas y el juego, el deporte es una de los dominios de origen más populares para referirse a la estructura metafórica que tiene a la política en su dominio de destino (kövecses, 2010). igualmente, la economía ha estado construyendo su discurso al tomar sus metáforas del mundo de varias fuentes, de las matemáticas, de los desastres y catástrofes naturales (white, 2004), y de la mecánica (herrera-soler & white, 2012, pp. 3-5). a este discurso, coincidiendo con la crisis mundial y la necesidad de explicar a la gente común las políticas económicas, se ha incorporado también con fuerza el mundo del deporte, en su más amplio concepto, incluyendo los juegos deportivos o recreativos y, por extensión, como explicábamos antes, el terreno de las apuestas. cudd (2007), en su estudio filosófico sobre el paralelismo entre el juego y el capitalismo afirma que: throughout the phases of 19thand 20thcentury, capitalism… has come to value similar skills in its executives, managers, and investors… decision making in games such as poker, chess, and gambling holds many similarities with the decisions made by capitalists and is a rich source of metaphors. (pp. 52-56) además, algunas características del deporte son fácilmente trasladables a la economía. por ejemplo, los deportes y los juegos se practican cara a cara y muchas veces en equipo y se tienen que tomar decisiones estratégicas rápidas; igualmente sucede en la economía y la política. la incorporación de términos las metáforas del deporte y el juego en la prensa económica y política e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 46-59 50 metafóricos del deporte y del juego en la economía y la política se podría explicar con la afirmación de mouton (2012) sobre las proyecciones conceptuales de las metáforas cuando dice que “mappings are not a permanent state in a static process, when it is really just a temporary station in a dynamic process” (pp. 4976). un ejemplo de proceso dinámico lo tenemos en kövecses que explica cómo una idea, en su caso la velocidad se puede expresar de distintas maneras según el contexto (kövecses, 2009, p. 12). en nuestro caso la idea de riesgo y de capacidad de decisión, como se verá más adelante, son características del mundo del deporte y del juego que se trasladan a la economía para expresar acción y competencia continua para arrojar resultados que cambien las cosas. el presente trabajo se centra principalmente en la metáfora estructural (lakoff & johnson 1980, pp. 52-55) la economía/política es un juego con la intención de estudiar las correspondencias conceptuales más frecuentes y su comportamiento mediante un corpus elaborado específicamente para este análisis. así mismo, se estudian qué deportes y juegos son más productivos en cuanto a las metáforas en la prensa económica española e inglesa y los aspectos contextuales que intervienen en su formación. 3. método de recogida de datos para este estudio se han creado dos corpus específicos para los ejemplos en español y para los ejemplos en inglés, con la intención de compararlos. bowker y pearson (2002, p. 3) destacan las características de un corpus para fines específicos, entre las que se cuentan: tamaño, número y tipo de textos, medio, materia, autoría, lengua y fecha de publicación. por otro lado, meyer (2002, p. 32) señala la importancia de que para poder comparar corpus exista igual proporción en cuanto a los ejemplos o textos con los que se trabaja, como así ocurre en nuestro caso. por tanto, aplicando estas pautas, se han confeccionado dos corpus específicos seleccionados para los fines de este estudio, cuyo tamaño y composición pueden considerarse suficientes, según los criterios más comúnmente aceptados para los lenguajes de especialidad (durán-escribano & gómez-ortiz 2008, p. 234). estos corpus están formados por unas diez mil palabras en español y en inglés. en la tabla 1 se reflejan los criterios del corpus creado en este estudio para ambas lenguas. tabla 1 criterios de elaboración del corpus específico de metáforas deportivas en el contexto de la economía y la política español/inglés medio. búsqueda electrónica prensa española e inglesa en soporte informático tipo de textos artículos periodísticos idioma español e inglés tema economía y política fecha de búsqueda desde el año 2000 hasta la fecha n. de términos 100 términos en español; 100 términos en inglés n. de palabras totales corpus español: 10298 palabras; corpus inglés:9967 palabras con la intención de obtener una visión actualizada de los términos en inglés y en español se han obtenido metáforas del deporte y del juego en artículos de prensa económica y política, tanto en inglés como en español, en soporte informático haciendo búsquedas directamente en los siguientes periódicos: abc, cinco días, el mundo, el país, expansión, la razón y ok diario, en español. city a.m., bbc, financial times, money control, the daily telegraph, the economist, the guardian, the independent, press gazette y the wall street journal, en inglés. para la creación de los dos corpus se han tenido en cuenta también la relevancia de la prensa en los que han sido publicados los artículos de economía y política y la actualidad de los textos. a su vez, los términos metafóricos también se identificaron en dos diccionarios especializados en metáforas del deporte y el juego, entre otras áreas. el primero sports talk. a dictionary of sports metaphor (palmantier & ray, 1989) y el segundo el diccionario bilingüe de metáforas y metonimias científico-técnicas (cuadrado-esclapez et al., 2016) en su versión española e inglesa. la consulta se hace como referencia para establecer la naturaleza metafórica de los términos extraídos del corpus. todos los términos metafóricos se trabajaron con el programa informático wordsmith, lo cual ha facilitado la obtención sistemática de las metáforas. mediante esta herramienta es posible contextualizar la metáfora con las palabras anteriores y gómez-ortiz e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 46-59 51 posteriores. la lectura detenida del término metafórico en su contexto y la consulta a los especialistas en las áreas de deporte y economía determinó la selección de 100 términos metafóricos en cada lengua. 4. identificación de deportes y juegos: el dominio fuente en primer lugar se realizó una agrupación semántica por deportes y juegos que mostramos en las tabla 2 sobre el dominio fuente y su término identificador más frecuente en español y en la tabla 3 que refleja el dominio fuente y los términos identificadores más frecuentes en inglés. en este sentido, kövecses (2010, p. 92) denomina vehicle terms los términos identificadores de los campos semánticos y los emplea como primer paso para, a continuación, establecer las relaciones conceptuales entre agrupaciones semánticas. en nuestro caso, tras seleccionar los términos identificadores en español, reconocemos los siguientes deportes o juegos que constituyen los dominios fuente de las metáforas. en primer lugar aparece el fútbol y después, en orden descendente, la vela, las carreras de coches, el deporte o el juego en general, el boxeo, las apuestas y los juegos de cartas. tabla 2 términos identificadores de los distintos deportes y juegos en español dominio fuente término identificador del deporte o juego 1. fútbol (35 %) balón, terreno de juego, gol, defensa, grupo de la muerte 2. vela (15 %) bote, rumbo 3. carreras de coche (15 %) boxes, coche, piloto 4. deporte o juego en general (15 %) jugar, jugador, dopado, arena, competición 5. boxeo (10 %) asaltos, lona, cuerdas 6. apuestas (5 %) apuesta 7. juegos de cartas (5 %) barajar, cortar, dar 8. carreras de caballos (5 %) caballo ganador en el caso del inglés, los deportes o juegos (vehicle terms) identificados son, por orden de frecuencia, los juegos de cartas, los juegos de apuestas, las carreras de atletismo, la vela, el deporte y el juego en general, el ajedrez, las carreras de caballos, las carreras de coches, los juegos de dados y la natación. tabla 3 términos identificadores de los distintos deportes y juegos en inglés dominio fuente término identificador del deporte 1. cards, poker (20%) ace, card, shuffle 2. bets (20%) bets, across-the-board, against all odds, to upp the ante 3. track and field athletics (10%) race, pacesetter 4. sailing (10%) boat, stay afloat 5. sport in general (10%) action, play, player 6. horse riding (10%) horse, galloping, trotting 7. chess (10%) moves 8. car races (10%) automatic pilot 9. swimming (5%) swim, swimmer, dive 10. dice (5%) dice, shake-up los resultados muestran que la variedad de deportes y juegos que se emplea en inglés es mayor que en español. además, los dominios fuente de cada lengua también difieren. en inglés las metáforas provienen preferentemente de los juegos de cartas y de las apuestas, sumando 40 ejemplos en total, y en menor medida de las carreras de atletismo, de caballos, de coches, de la vela, del ajedrez, de la natación y del juego de dados. en español los términos metafóricos del deporte y el juego se concentran más en el fútbol, que suma un total de 35 ejemplos, seguido de la vela, las carreras de coches, el boxeo, las apuestas y los juegos de cartas. las metáforas del deporte y el juego en la prensa económica y política e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 46-59 52 4.1. deportes y juegos específicos de cada lengua hay deportes y juegos cuyo dominio fuente está compartido por ambas lenguas, como son el juego de cartas, las carreras de coches, carreras de caballos, la vela y las apuestas. también se hace alusión en ambos corpus a deportes en general sin especificar uno en concreto. se observa que aunque el juego aparece en ambas lenguas, este aparece menos reflejado en los dominios fuente en español. sin embargo, en la muestra recogida hay deportes y juegos que únicamente aparecen en los ejemplos del corpus en español como son el boxeo y, principalmente, el fútbol. este hecho coincide con los deportes y juegos más populares entre la sociedad española según recientes encuestas de hábitos deportivos en españa. (subdirección general de estadística y estudios, 2015, p. 44). según rivero, a principios del siglo xx la sociedad española modernizaba sus costumbres con nuevos hábitos culturales importados, principalmente del mundo anglosajón. una de las costumbres que mayor aceptación popular tuvo aunque con un poco de retraso, fue el deporte, sobre todo el fútbol, el boxeo y el ciclismo, aunque de este último no se han obtenido ejemplos en el corpus de la prensa económica (rivero, 2011, p. 155). entre los deportes y juegos que solo aparecen en el corpus de la prensa inglesa se encuentran el atletismo, el ajedrez, la natación y los dados. según encuestas de hábitos deportivos realizadas entre la sociedad anglosajona, los deportes más practicados son la carrera, el ciclismo y la natación entre otros (sport england, 2016, p. 13). otras fuentes señalan también una gran tradición en las apuestas entre los juegos más populares (chalabi, 2014). por otro lado, muchos de los deportes que hoy se practican tuvieron su origen en el reino unido; por esta razón, en inglés existe una tradición deportiva y de juego más temprana y desarrollada, por lo que esto explicaría su mayor número de dominios fuente y más presencia y tradición de los juegos particularmente de cartas y de azar con las apuestas. lakoff y johnson (1980), desde una posición universalista, mencionan la existencia de metáforas universales que serían compartidas globalmente, independientemente de la cultura o la sociedad. sin embargo, kövecses (2009, 2015) matiza esta idea enfatizando que existen metáforas culturalmente específicas muy influidas por el contexto de una lengua. esto podría explicar la aparición en el estudio de ambos tipos de expresiones metafóricas, tanto las de tipo general o universal, como las específicas con diferencias en la selección del dominio fuente y de los propios términos metafóricos como veremos. 5. identificación y comparación del dominio meta una vez que tenemos clasificados los deportes y los dominios fuente, es interesante ver la traslación de estos al dominio meta y su uso en el contexto de la economía y la política. a tal fin, se ofrecen algunos ejemplos en las tablas 4 y 5 para ilustrar dichos contextos. tabla 4 ejemplos de relación entre dominios fuente y su traslación al dominio meta en español dominio fuente traslación al dominio meta juego de cartas (póker) la toma de decisiones en la política económica vela la orientación o estrategia económica boxeo la lucha en la política carreras de caballos la estrategia política económica carreras de coches el riesgo en decisiones político económicas la competición y la acción fútbol la competición y la acción la estrategia y la negociación juego de apuestas el riesgo en español, los resultados muestran la preferencia por los términos procedentes del dominio fuente de la vela para expresar en el dominio meta la intención de orientar o explicar a los ciudadanos, en una función divulgativa, cómo se debería llevar el rumbo de la economía y de la política, muchas veces con una idea de incertidumbre en el fondo. para el caso del dominio meta del riesgo y capacidad de decisión, las expresiones metafóricas se nutren principalmente del dominio fuente del juego de las apuestas. sin embargo, cuando se refieren a tácticas o estrategias a seguir por parte de los partidos o de los candidatos, se prefieren términos procedentes del dominio fuente del juego de las cartas o juegos de apuestas. gómez-ortiz e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 46-59 53 en inglés, destaca la idea de liderazgo, que no aparece expresada en español. para liderar o innovar se emplean términos metafóricos procedentes de las carreras de atletismo y del juego de cartas. tabla 5 ejemplos de relación entre dominios fuente y su traslación al dominio meta en inglés dominio fuente traslación al dominio meta juego de cartas (póquer) tener ventajas en decisiones de la política económica liderar la economía juego de apuestas hacer tabla rasa arriesgar negociación política vela trabajar en equipo ajedrez controlar un tema hacer algo sin pensar (piloto automático) carreras de atletismo ser líder en un campo innovar fútbol competición y acción estrategia y negociación juego de apuestas tener mucho éxito en los negocios juego de dados reestructurar una empresa al trasladar las expresiones metafóricas del deporte al contexto de la economía y la política se quieren reflejar ideas de estrategia y de táctica, de acción defensiva, de acción de ataque al contrario, de competición, de búsqueda del rumbo o la orientación, de trabajo en equipo o de rivalidad, defensa de intereses y competición. la intención es la de emplear unidades léxicas metafóricas con componente emocional para así aumentar la capacidad expresiva del mensaje y con esto ganarse la cercanía al lector o al público en general. de esta manera al emisor del mensaje le resulta más fácil explicar su visión de la economía o la política. 5.1. distintos dominios fuente para un solo dominio meta dos o más dominios fuente que confluyen en el mismo dominio meta es lo que ruiz de mendoza denomina cadenas de metáforas (ruiz de mendoza, 2008). en nuestro estudio este hecho se aprecia en los dominios fuente del juego de cartas, la vela, las carreras de caballos, las carreras de coches, el fútbol, las apuestas, el ajedrez o el juego de dados que confluyen en el mismo dominio meta de la estrategia. del mismo modo, los dominios fuente del boxeo, fútbol, carreras de coches, deporte en general, cartas y carreras de atletismo confluyen en el mismo dominio meta de la competición y acción. los resultados muestran que los ejemplos en inglés y en español ofrecen una diferencia en la selección de los deportes para expresar la misma idea política o económica. mientras que los ejemplos españoles tienden a utilizar el fútbol como el principal dominio fuente origen de la metáfora económica o política, los ejemplos ingleses utilizan los juegos, y más específicamente el juego de las cartas, para ilustrar ejemplos de estrategias o decisiones políticas y económicas. esta preferencia está íntimamente relacionada con la cultura particular y retórica de cada país. un ejemplo de este caso es “tenemos que trabajar y no dar un balón por perdido” en español, frente a “the government has upped the ante by negotiating everything” en inglés. en ambos casos la idea que se quiere expresar es la misma, es decir, que se comparten los dominios meta en las dos lenguas, aunque la elección del término metafórico sea distinta; para expresar la misma idea del dominio meta se ha recurrido en cada lengua a un dominio fuente distinto y para ello se ha seleccionado una expresión metafórica distinta. las metáforas del deporte y el juego en la prensa económica y política e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 46-59 54 5.2. un dominio fuente para distintos dominios meta sin embargo, también se observa el caso contrario, que se escoja un solo dominio fuente para expresar ideas distintas en el dominio meta, según la lengua, como se puede ver a continuación en la tabla 6. tabla 6 comparación de diferencias en los dominios meta dominio fuente dominio meta inglés dominio meta español vela trabajo en equipo resistencia orientación, estrategia carreras de coches actuar sin reflexionar revisión de la estrategia precaución ante peligro apuestas equiparar arriesgar negociación conseguir el éxito inversión en rentabilidad deporte en general estar en desventaja mostrar energía y decisión juego sucio en este caso, tanto los dominios fuente de la vela, las carreras de coches, las apuestas y el deporte en general se emplean de forma distinta en español y en inglés para expresar distintas ideas en el dominio meta. como decíamos, kövecses (2005, p. 22) afirma que el uso de la metáfora se ve afectado por influencias culturales. de la misma opinión es caballero (2012, p. 725) al afirmar que la metáfora se ve influida por el contexto que le rodea “the need to take into account all the contextual factors (i. e., participants, topic(s), médium, and spatiotemporal context)”. por otro lado, skorczynska y deignan (2006, pp. 87-104) abundan en esta idea de que “intended readership and the primary purpose of the text are important factors in the choice of linguistic metaphor. differences between these two factors may lead to different patterns, frequencies, and functions of linguistic metaphor in texts even where the topics of the texts are similar. 5.3. comparación de las relaciones conceptuales si tenemos en cuenta la particularidad cultural de cada lengua, en inglés resaltaría principalmente la idea de riesgo y capacidad de decisión en el dominio meta que daría lugar a una clasificación de las decisiones económicas/políticas son apuestas. en español, resaltaría un carácter más conservador, de intención de control de la situación con la idea de estrategia y precaución para la toma de decisiones en el dominio meta. esto daría lugar a una clasificación específica de las decisiones económicas/políticas son movimientos con control. en una clasificación más general y global, la muestra de datos obtenida permite entender el mecanismo cognitivo que subyace al usar las metáforas del deporte cuando se emplean en contextos económico-políticos en la prensa española e inglesa. en resumen, se podrían establecer estas relaciones conceptuales en español: la economía/política es un partido de fútbol, una navegación, una carrera de coches, un combate de boxeo o una apuesta. en inglés se podrían establecer estas otras relaciones conceptuales: la economía/política es un juego de cartas, un juego de apuestas, una carrera de atletismo, una navegación, una carrera de caballos, una partida de ajedrez, una carrera de coches o un juego de dados. las metáforas conceptuales dominantes que abarcan todas estas relaciones conceptuales serían tanto en español como en inglés la economía/política es un juego. las metáforas conceptuales son esquemas abstractos y, mediante el estudio de los resultados obtenidos en este trabajo, observamos los esquemas mentales y culturales que se producen en la percepción del riesgo, de la defensa de las ideas, del trabajo en equipo, del afán competitivo, etc., que en una lengua se asocia a unos deportes y juegos por cuestiones culturales y sociales y en otra lengua con otro deporte y juego por las mismas cuestiones. 6. implicaciones pedagógicas con frecuencia el aprendizaje del vocabulario se ha basado simplemente en inferir el significado de las palabras del contexto y de los morfemas de las mismas. sin embargo, cada vez más estudiosos se inclinan por diseñar tareas orientadas a un aprendizaje de vocabulario basado en un enfoque cognitivo (condon, 2008; cuadrado-esclapez & robisco-martín, 2011; lazar 2003; macarthur & littlemore, 2008). la aplicación gómez-ortiz e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 46-59 55 de este enfoque cognitivo a la enseñanza y aprendizaje de efl favorece la eficacia de la enseñanza de la competencia comunicativa fomentando el uso productivo de la metáfora al hablar y escribir y también ampliando los recursos expresivos del estudiante para mejorar la comunicación. a este respecto, boers y lindstromberg (2008) aseguran que it can help learners attain a more profound understanding of the target language, better remember more words and phrases (owing to greater depth on processing in general and to dual coding in particular), appreciate the link between language and culture and become more confident. (p. 27) el análisis de las metáforas realizado en el presente estudio puede ser útil al facilitar múltiples actividades que se pueden usar en una clase de lfe como las siguientes propuestas para trabajar en lengua inglesa. en primer lugar, nos centramos en la metáfora conceptual la economía/política es un juego como metáfora dominante. para guiar al estudiante y conseguir concienciarle de la metáfora conceptual mencionada se puede comenzar con la agrupación de términos en campos semánticos que después se pueden categorizar. actividad 1: señala expresiones procedentes del deporte en estas frases (dominio fuente). the government has upped the ante by negotiating everything. the bottom line is that trump is proposing to cut taxes at a time when government spending, almost two-thirds of which is on automatic pilot, is projected to increase at a much faster pace than tax receipts, according to cbo. actividad 2: señala de qué deporte crees que se está hablando (dominio fuente). es necesario que el alumno reflexione sobre las características o atributos de los términos del deporte que él mismo ha señalado y la cualidad que se proyecta al otro campo de la economía y la política. actividad 3: señala características o cualidades que expresen los anteriores términos vinculados a distintos deportes (dominio fuente y cualidad proyectada). por ejemplo: vela con orientación; apuestas con riesgo; carreras con liderazgo; boxeo con competición para implicar más activamente al alumno en el trabajo del dominio fuente y la cualidad que se pretende proyectar se le propone esta tarea: actividad 4: busca metáforas en la prensa económica que proyecten cualidades del deporte aplicadas en la economía y la política. para trabajar con el dominio meta y la idea proyectada por el emisor a través de la metáfora se propone la siguiente actividad: actividad 5: ¿con qué deporte y qué metáfora expresarías la idea de estrategia? escribe una frase. actividad 6: ¿con qué deporte y metáfora expresarías la idea de competición? escribe una frase. actividad 7: ¿con qué deporte y metáfora expresarías la idea de riesgo? escribe una frase. actividad 8: identifica en estas frases las metáforas deportivas empleadas y las distintas ideas o cualidades que se quieren transmitir. 1) is it easier to swim in deep or shallow calm water, or are these the same? clinton. las metáforas del deporte y el juego en la prensa económica y política e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 46-59 56 2) the product is another innovation from the telecommunications company which has since commencement of operations been the pacesetter in the industry. actividad 9: explica el significado de estas frases. 1) we’re all in the same boat! we are all going to swim or sink together. 2) perhaps these are the tactics of donald trump as a wheeler-dealer in the world of business, but they certainly do not befit a statesman or president of the leading global power. para implicar más activamente al alumno en el trabajo del dominio meta y la idea proyectada se le propone esta tarea: actividad 10: reescribe las frases anteriores (actividades 7 y 8) usando lenguaje literal. después compáralas las dos versiones y comenta las diferencias en el tono. este enfoque consigue que los estudiantes se expresen con más naturalidad en otra lengua. el alumno puede expresar ideas sobre acción, competición o riesgo de forma natural lo que le aporta motivación en su proceso de aprendizaje de la lengua. a la vez también se refuerza la importancia del contexto cultural demostrando que los lenguajes no son sistemas neutrales de codificación, sino que son dinámicos y que se persiguen fines informativos y persuasivos. además, se favorece que el alumno pueda hacer uso de estrategias comunicativas de un modo más autónomo para él. 7. conclusión el objetivo de este trabajo ha sido realizar un estudio contrastivo del lenguaje metafórico del deporte y el juego en el discurso de la economía y la política que aparece en la prensa española e inglesa para poder estudiar su utilidad en el estudio del vocabulario de lef a través de dichas metáforas. a tal fin, se han tenido en cuenta los factores contextuales que pueden influir en la producción y estructuración metafórica de cada lengua. el estudio revela que aunque existe una metáfora conceptual universal la economía/política es un juego para ambas lenguas, existen paralelamente, metáforas específicas de cada cultura debido a factores contextuales culturales y sociales propios de la lengua en cuestión. al recurrir a términos metafóricos del deporte y del juego se ilustra el mecanismo cognitivo o sistema conceptual al que recurre la prensa española e inglesa para referirse a asuntos económico-políticos. se ha constatado la impregnación de la metáfora de estos dominios mencionados en la prensa económica y política con distintas manifestaciones dependiendo del sentido que el escritor quiere trasladar. en ambas lenguas se intenta expresar ideas sobre acción, afán de competición, riesgo, capacidad de negociación, orientación y estrategia para trasladar las ideas importantes en este contexto meta. de esta manera, la producción y estructuración metafórica varía en las dos lenguas, siendo en inglés más rica, ya que acude a un número mayor de deportes y juegos, aunque fundamentalmente a los juegos de cartas y apuestas. sin embargo, en español, la mayor parte de la producción metafórica proviene del fútbol. esto quiere decir que la conceptualización del mundo que nos rodea puede cambiar según las culturas. este trabajo recoge y compara ejemplos auténticos de metáfora del deporte y del juego en el contexto de la economía y la política en un periodo de tiempo concreto, de la reciente crisis económica. esperamos que esta aportación abra un espacio para que surjan otros estudios contrastivos, teniendo en cuenta otros contextos, también para profundizar en la penetración de la metáfora del deporte y del juego en otras áreas de especialidad. finalmente, creo que el enfoque 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(2015). encuesta de hábitos deportivos en españa. disponible en: http://www.mecd.gob.es/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/dms/mecd/servicios-al-ciudadanomecd/estadisticas/deporte/ehd/encuesta_de_habitos_deportivos_2015.pdf. tyler, andrea (2012). cognitive linguistics and second language learning. new york, new york: routledge. velasco, marisol (2004). metaphor and esp: metaphor as a useful device for teaching l2 business english learners. ibérica, 10, 115-131. vidart, daniel (1995). el juego y la condición humana. montevideo, uruguay: ediciones de la banda oriental. vivanco-cervero, verónica (2001). los animales y los colores: usos metafóricos en español e inglés en las ingenierías. ibérica, 3, 43-60. white, michael (2004). turbulence and turmoil in the market or the language of a financial crisis. ibérica, 7, 71-86. maría-josé gómez-ortiz, universidad politécnica de madrid maria.gomez.ortiz@upm.es es maría-josé gómez-ortiz es doctora en lingüística aplicada por la universidad politécnica de madrid. es miembro del grupo de investigación discyt (http://discyt.etsist.upm.es), con participación en diversos proyectos de investigación. asimismo, es coautora del bilingual dictionary of scientific and technical metaphors and metonymies spanishenglish/english-spanish (2016), publicado por routledge (reino unido). sus principales áreas de interés son el inglés académico y profesional, el análisis del discurso y la lingüística cognitiva. en maría-josé gómez-ortiz holds a phd in applied linguistics from the universidad politécnica de madrid. she is a member of the discyt research group (http://discyt.etsist.upm.es), with participation in various research projects. she is also co-author of the bilingual dictionary of scientific and technical metaphors and metonymies spanish-english / english-spanish (2016), published by routledge (united kingdom). her main areas of interest are academic and professional english, discourse analysis and cognitive linguistics. it maría-josé gómez-ortiz ha un dottorato in linguistica applicata ottenuto presso la universidad politécnica de madrid. è membro del gruppo di ricerca discyt (http://discyt.etsist.upm.es), al quale partecipa con vari progetti di ricerca. inoltre è co-autrice del bilingual dictionary of scientific and technical metaphors and metonymies spanish-english/englishspanish (2016), pubblicato da routledge (regno unito). le sue principali aree di investigazione sono l’inglese accademico e professionale, l’analisi del discorso e la linguistica cognitiva. https://www.sportengland.org/media/11498/active-lives-survey-yr-1-report.pdf http://www.mecd.gob.es/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/dms/mecd/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/estadisticas/deporte/ehd/encuesta_de_habitos_deportivos_2015.pdf http://www.mecd.gob.es/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/dms/mecd/servicios-al-ciudadano-mecd/estadisticas/deporte/ehd/encuesta_de_habitos_deportivos_2015.pdf con frecuencia el aprendizaje del vocabulario se ha basado simplemente en inferir el significado de las palabras del contexto y de los morfemas de las mismas. sin embargo, cada vez más estudiosos se inclinan por diseñar tareas orientadas a un aprendiz... it can help learners attain a more profound understanding of the target language, better remember more words and phrases (owing to greater depth on processing in general and to dual coding in particular), appreciate the link between language and cultu... el análisis de las metáforas realizado en el presente estudio puede ser útil al facilitar múltiples actividades que se pueden usar en una clase de lfe como las siguientes propuestas para trabajar en lengua inglesa. en primer lugar, nos centramos en la... actividad 1: señala expresiones procedentes del deporte en estas frases (dominio fuente). the government has upped the ante by negotiating everything. the bottom line is that trump is proposing to cut taxes at a time when government spending, almost two-thirds of which is on automatic pilot, is projected to increase at a much faster pace than tax receipts, according to cbo. actividad 2: señala de qué deporte crees que se está hablando (dominio fuente). es necesario que el alumno reflexione sobre las características o atributos de los términos del deporte que él mismo ha señalado y la cualidad que se proyecta al otro campo de la economía y la política. actividad 3: señala características o cualidades que expresen los anteriores términos vinculados a distintos deportes (dominio fuente y cualidad proyectada). por ejemplo: vela con orientación; apuestas con riesgo; carreras con liderazgo; boxeo con competición para implicar más activamente al alumno en el trabajo del dominio fuente y la cualidad que se pretende proyectar se le propone esta tarea: actividad 4: busca metáforas en la prensa económica que proyecten cualidades del deporte aplicadas en la economía y la política. para trabajar con el dominio meta y la idea proyectada por el emisor a través de la metáfora se propone la siguiente actividad: actividad 5: ¿con qué deporte y qué metáfora expresarías la idea de estrategia? escribe una frase. actividad 6: ¿con qué deporte y metáfora expresarías la idea de competición? escribe una frase. actividad 7: ¿con qué deporte y metáfora expresarías la idea de riesgo? escribe una frase. actividad 8: identifica en estas frases las metáforas deportivas empleadas y las distintas ideas o cualidades que se quieren transmitir. 1) is it easier to swim in deep or shallow calm water, or are these the same? clinton. 2) the product is another innovation from the telecommunications company which has since commencement of operations been the pacesetter in the industry. actividad 9: explica el significado de estas frases. 1) we’re all in the same boat! we are all going to swim or sink together. 2) perhaps these are the tactics of donald trump as a wheeler-dealer in the world of business, but they certainly do not befit a statesman or president of the leading global power. para implicar más activamente al alumno en el trabajo del dominio meta y la idea proyectada se le propone esta tarea: actividad 10: reescribe las frases anteriores (actividades 7 y 8) usando lenguaje literal. después compáralas las dos versiones y comenta las diferencias en el tono. este enfoque consigue que los estudiantes se expresen con más naturalidad en otra lengua. el alumno puede expresar ideas sobre acción, competición o riesgo de forma natural lo que le aporta motivación en su proceso de aprendizaje de la lengua. a la ve... microsoft word ej 045 stvan final 7 sept.docx euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 3, issue 1, september 2016, pages 1-22 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.4.45 www.e-journall.org © stvan 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. *1contact: stvan@uta.edu learning english bare singulars: data in the l2 classroom laurel smith stvan a*, suganthi johnb11 auniversity of texas at arlington buniversity of birmingham received 14 may 2015; received in revised form 1 october 2015; accepted 15 november 2015 abstract en contrasted with the more typical english bare noun forms of mass and proper nouns, bare singular count nouns comprise a problematic set for many descriptive grammars and thus for many second language learners. although article usage is one of the trickiest areas of english as a second language (esl) to master, bare noun phrases, and bare singulars in particular, are less emphasized in the english language classroom, where much of the focus is placed on learning to produce articles, not learning to exclude them. to investigate l2 sensitivity to bare singular forms, the distribution of bare and articulated nps in corpus data is contrasted, nouns appearing most often without articles are tracked, and a survey of l2 grammaticality judgments by adult learners is gathered. lastly, the combined results of the corpus and survey data are integrated into a lesson on the syntax and pragmatics of bare singular count nouns that is designed for the esl classroom. key words: bare singulars, english articles, esl, corpus assisted language learning, l1 language types es en contraste con las formas nominales indeterminadas del inglés tales como los sustantivos incontables y los nombres propios, los sustantivos contables en singular suponen una dificultad en muchas gramáticas descriptivas y, por ende, para muchos aprendientes de l2. aunque el uso del artículo es uno de los aspectos más difíciles en el aprendizaje del inglés como l2, las frases nominales no determinadas, en especial los sustantivos indeterminados en singular, no suelen recibir un tratamiento extenso en la clase de inglés, ya que la atención se centra en aprender a producir artículos, no en excluirlos. con el fin de investigar la sensibilidad de los aprendientes de inglés l2 a las formas singulares indeterminadas de sustantivos ingleses, se contrasta la distribución de las frases nominales indeterminadas y articuladas en un corpus, realizándose un seguimiento de los sustantivos que aparecen con más frecuencia sin artículo, así como un estudio de juicios de gramaticalidad en aprendientes adultos de l2. finalmente, los resultados combinados de los datos procedentes del estudio y del corpus se integran en una lección sobre sintaxis y pragmática de sustantivos singulares indeterminados diseñada para la clase de inglés como l2. palabras clave: singulares indeterminados, artículos del inglés, inglés como l2, aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por corpus, tipos lingüísticos como l1 it i sostantivi non numerabili e i nomi propri che si presentano spogli, ovvero senza articoli o quantificatori, risultano piuttosto comuni in inglese. al contrario, i sostantivi singolari spogli rappresentano un gruppo problematico per molte grammatiche descrittive e di consequenza per molti studenti di inglese l2. sebbene l’uso dell’articolo sia una delle strutture più complesse da padroneggiare nell’inglese come lingua seconda/straniera (esl), i sintagmi nominali (sn), e nello specifico quelli singolari, sono meno enfatizzati nei corsi di inglese, nei quali l’attenzione è posta sull’abilità di produzione degli articoli e non sulla loro omissione. per indagare la sensibilità verso forme singolari spoglie in lingua seconda (l2), le distribuzioni di sn con e senza articolo sono state messe a confronto in un corpus e sono stati individuati i sostantivi che appaiono più spesso senza articoli. inoltre, attraverso un questionario somministrato a studenti adulti, sono stati indagati i giudizi di grammaticalità in l2. infine, i risultati ottenuti dal corpus insieme a quelli ottenuti dall’indagine sono stati integrati all’interno di una lezione sulla sintassi e sulla pragmatica di sostantivi singolari spogli, progettata per corsi in esl. parole chiave: sostantivi singolari spogli, articoli in inglese, esl, uso del corpore nell’apprendimento della lingua, tipologie di l1 stvan & john 2 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 1. introduction to bare singular count nouns a perennial problem for learners of english is choosing the correct article form. learners must first identify whether a noun is mass or count and then decide whether the context requires a definite or indefinite article for the count nouns. an even subtler sub-task involves noticing and mastering the use of bare singular count nouns (bscns)—count nouns that occur with neither an article nor a plural morpheme. bscns represent an unexpected form for learners or instructors using grammar textbooks, since usually only mass nouns are modeled as appearing bare. it is useful for learners to be made aware of bscns not only due to their lack of count-indexing morpho-syntax but also because of their meaning, which is often pragmatically marked (stvan, 1998, 2007). previous work on aspects of syntax and of pragmatic inferences created by bscn use has been based on naturally occurring data, but only that which was opportunistically gathered. without a more systematic examination of natural data, there has been no way to determine the actual frequency of bscns compared to articulated nouns, and it has remained unclear how many bscns students can expect to receive as input. the present study provides such a systematic examination. after bscns are introduced in section 1, section 2 presents the research questions and methodology that guided this project. in section 3, we build a background profile of the bare singular form in english, using examples from the corpus of contemporary american english (davies, 2008); in section 4, we compare this representation of input to the awareness of bare forms by adult language learners; and in section 5, we suggest l2 classroom tasks to enhance student mastery of these targeted noun forms. example (1) illustrates the expected use of english count nouns based on traditional prescriptive grammars, where, by definition, english count nouns cannot be used in singular form unless they occur with an article: 1) a. he was at the park/*park with the kids b. she studies in the library/*library c. he washed the car/*car d. the store /*store was crowded a small number of count nouns, however, do occur in the bare singular form. this paper suggests that the use of countable nouns without articles is particularly marked, such that the correct use of this form may be more difficult for learners to master than mass nouns or articulated count nouns. some crosslinguistic work on noun phrase typology suggests that english singular count nouns cannot show up without an article (munn & schmitt, 2002). when bare singular forms in english have been discussed, this has generally been to note limits on the form. for example, werth (1980) denies the possibility of bscns occurring in the subject position, and chierchia (1998) suggests that they cannot be used in the argument position. in english grammars, the use of count nouns without an article has been mentioned, but the coverage of these forms is slight, and insufficiently motivated. for instance, quirk, greenbaum, leech, and svartik (1985, p. 277) devote a page to count nouns, simply noting that they can occur in prepositional phrases, typically with reference to a social institution, and listing a handful of forms whose use they claim is “idiomatic.” biber, johansson, leech, conrad, and finegan (1999) devote three pages to the zero article with “nouns which in other contexts behave as ordinary countable nouns” (p. 261), including nouns from such diverse semantic classes as institutions, meals, and times of day, and constructions including predicate nominals, parallel structures, and vocatives. stvan (1998) dedicates a monograph to the particular count nouns that occur bare, sketching a pragmatic mechanism for the contrastive readings they can convey. all of these works conclude that limited types of count nouns occur with a zero article. what is yet to be determined, however, is how (in)frequently bscns occur, and whether their frequency affects their acquisition and their felicitous use by non-native speakers. for a key subset of nouns, the use of a bare singular form signals additional information, as seen in the contrasting bare and articulated forms in (2): 2) definite lou is in the prison = simply located in a known prison building indefinite lou is in a prison = simply located in an unknown prison building bare lou is in prison = being held as a prisoner in this article we focus on the common nouns whose use in the bare form conveys added meaning. this means we will not examine the use of articles in proper names (cf. moore, 2004) or the use of articles with learning english bare singulars e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 3 mass nouns (section 2.1 shows how this plays out with part of speech tags, however). we also leave aside the more transparent bare singular noun uses in time adverbials (at recess, at noon, on break, during dinner) and manner adverbials for viewing and recording media (off camera, on stage, in ink, on film). instead, this paper examines instances where the use of institutional bscn forms can create additional pragmatic implicatures that contrast with the meaning created by articulated forms, an area that we suggest is in need of better mastery for english as a second language (esl) learners. to show that more than just a handful of bscns exist, table 1 lists examples from american english that make up one of the larger semantic subsets—social and geographical places—accounted for by stvan (2007). these bare-form word types represent the complete attested set of location count nouns collected from naturally occurring english from the 19th to 21st centuries. collection of these tokens began before the authors had access to digital texts tagged with parts of speech, so this range of noun types was obtained through a combination of approaches: through opportunistic encounters within printed texts, leading to more methodical pattern-matching searches through a small corpus of wall street journal files in digital form, followed by searches on internet search engines. table 1 attested bscns in english (from stvan, 2007, p. 173) base district mosque slope bed dock office stage camp hall pasture state campus harbor planet stream cellar hill port studio chapel home post synagogue church hospital prison table class island property temple clinic jail river theater college kindergarten school town country kitchen sea university court line seminary work daycare market shore world deck meeting site yeshiva while the anomalous behavior of a few bscns has been documented in earlier grammars (particularly the occurrence of bare home, school, and jail, as in biber et al., 1999; collins, 2007; fillmore, 1992), a sufficient description of the awareness and use of this set of forms by native speakers of american english has yet to be undertaken. further, we suggest that teaching esl learners to recognize and exploit the bscn form can help them master the article system. studies of learner corpora show that article misuse, particularly with mass and count nouns, continues to be the highest error type for chinese learners of english (chuang, 2005; white, 2009). because determiners are a function-word category, they are discussed in grammar class, but grammar mastery is often a lower priority in more communicative-based classrooms (celce-murcia, 1991). conversely, because bare singular noun forms are a low-frequency noun phrase category, they occur less often in natural input and are less frequently modeled for learners. indeed, grammar descriptions suggest that this nominal form is non-existent or quite infrequent in everyday speech (e.g., behrens, 1995; werth, 1980). in addition, there is no complete examination of when and where the bare forms occur—that is, in which grammatical positions or collocations they are found. this paper offers a baseline to show which nouns happen where, in an effort to begin to determine what kind of frequency effects might be at play with bscns. high frequency items have been suggested to be more prone to phonological reduction and fusion as well as semantic generalization and functional shift, while low frequency items are less entrenched and more prone to analogical changes such as regularization (bybee & hopper, 2001). this affects the article plus noun unit in two ways. articles themselves are high in frequency, appearing in the top ten items of any english word index. in some frameworks, this lexical category could be considered even more frequent, since the lack stvan & john 4 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 of a definite or indefinite article is sometimes considered to represent a covert article. for example, master (1997) has argued that a covert article is the highest frequency english item, though berezowski (2009) suggests that a zero article should not be considered and tracked as a consistent lexical item. whether or not one believes that bare noun forms collocate with a zero article, the issue to settle is still collocational, that is, how often do singular count nouns appear without an overt article? and additionally, what other items collocate with bare noun forms? the latter question springs from a second frequency factor, string frequency. krug (1998), for example, looked at bigrams where the second element was have and found the following: [o]f [the] potentially contractible two-word have sequences […] nine closed class items […] account for about half […] of the first element, but they represent 86% […] of the hosts of actually realized contractions. hence, have contractions are not evenly spread across all hosts, but the most frequent potential hosts contract disproportionately more often than less-frequent ones. (p. 293) similarly, if bare forms do not follow articles, can we predict their occurrence based on the frequency of some other limited set of preceding elements? if so, how can this be exploited for language teaching? in corpus work using excerpts from textbooks and news articles, byrd (2005) and master (1987, 1990) explored the range of english definite and indefinite noun phrase types, but these projects did not distinguish bare singulars from other bare forms. pedagogically, the issue of esl learners choosing the wrong article form has been well studied (e.g., chuang, 2005; pica, 1983, 1994; white, 2009), though again, the possibility of leaving a noun without an article is not raised. the current paper draws on these traditions to point out a type of article-less noun form that falls through the gaps of many descriptions of english article use, and to show how understanding its functions may contribute to the mastery of the english article system. 2. research questions and methodology 2.1. identification of bare nouns that are both singular and count in order to find instances of pragmatically marked bscns and to clarify how they are used in natural data, two approaches could be fruitful. we briefly lay out the strengths and weaknesses of each. the first method would involve looking through a corpus for all count nouns, and then comparing the singular forms that appear with and without articles. the problem in utilizing this method is finding a relevant way to identify count nouns. since mass nouns also lack plural forms, to automate the process of finding bare singulars, one first needs a part of speech (pos) tagset that can distinguish between singular mass and singular count nouns. most tagsets, however, do not have this capability,2 and, consequently most— but not all—hits of nouns without articles would be mass (see discussion of table 4). without a more finetuned tagger, the task of collocating instances of bcsns requires so much sorting by hand that one loses the advantage of computer-automated processing, which is normally a strength of corpus work. in light of drawbacks to the aforementioned approach, we chose the alternative method. this involved taking the 56 nouns that were verified as appearing in a pragmatically marked bscn form (i.e., those from table 1), searching for these specific nouns in a corpus, and recording how many times they appear both with an article (in their “regular” count forms) and as bare forms. this was a much more manageable task; it had the downside, however, of not assisting in finding any new types of bscns. nevertheless, it allowed the search for relevant tokens in the corpus data to proceed more quickly, and, for this reason, the current project began with a list of nouns (rather than particular pos tags) to search for. we then explored the distribution of these count nouns from corpus data to determine how many occurred with and without articles, which were the most frequent, what grammatical positions they occurred in, and what other words they collocated with. next, using the corpus data as a representation of the types of bscns that leaners are exposed to, we surveyed adult esl learners from two university programs to explore how sensitive they were to uses of bare singulars, as well as whether the use of such forms correlated to their l1, and, if so, what type of article system their l1 had. finally, drawing on these findings, we propose ways to 2 the pilot sources of data examined here were the brown corpus (francis & kucera, 1964) tagged with the penn tag set and hits from coca, which is tagged with c5 tags. penn’s nn and coca’s noun.sg both capture table and information as example words for this tag, showing that count and mass nouns are both recorded. these tagged texts provide advantages over earlier analyses, which used data not tagged for position; but finding non-mass nouns cannot yet be easily automated even with the use of these tagsets. learning english bare singulars e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 5 better support learning of bscns through exercises whereby students explicitly contrast the functions of count nouns used with and without articles. 2.2. research questions to separate the issues involved, we address the following six research questions: rq1: what is the actual breakdown of bare versus articulated noun phrases? in other words, how (in)frequent is the bare singular form as a noun phrase type? rq2: which noun subtypes of bscns appear without articles most frequently? rq3: what is the bscn distribution across the three grammatical positions of subject, direct object, and object of a preposition? rq4: which preceding lexical items collocate most frequently with bscns? rq5: how aware are second language learners of the occurrence and functions of bscns? rq6: since bare singulars are infrequent enough that reference grammars often suggest that they do not occur in english, we explore the ramifications for esl learners. specifically, we ask: how can corpus data, combined with insights from grammaticality judgments by english learners, be integrated into an esl lesson on the syntax and pragmatics of bscns? 2.3. selection of the dataset to study the distribution of bare singulars, we started with the 56 nouns from table 1, all known to occur in bare singular form, and separated out the 15 most frequent items, based on the frequency word list of the top 5000 words in the corpus of contemporary american english, coca (davies & gardner, 2010). we then searched for uses of these 15 nouns in the singular form and further narrowed the search to occurrences where the nouns did not follow an article. rather than simply picking those nouns with the highest raw number of singular forms in coca, we selected these 15 words as those with the highest ratio of singular noun forms found after a preposition to total number of singular noun form tokens (e.g., the highest frequency word by this calculation was jail, which occurred 7,235 times as a singular form directly after a preposition out of the 12,329 times it occurred as a singular noun). further, to focus on common noun use, we omitted all uses involving the bare nouns as parts of multi-word proper nouns (e.g., camp david, church street, the u.s. supreme court, court tv, school of rock, scotland yard). in other words, in this sample, we excluded definite noun phrases that were capitalized to refer to an identifiable place or person. 3. frequency of the bare forms as input with these methods and caveats laid out, this section presents the findings for the first four research questions, which are based on the corpus data. 3.1. what is the frequency of bare versus articulated noun phrases? in this section we discuss the percentage of times that null forms occur. discussing their automated error correction program, de felice and pulman (2008) noted: [t]he model is successful at identifying cases of misused determiner, e.g., a for the or vice versa, doing so in over two-thirds of cases. however, by far the most frequent error type for determiners is not confusion between indefinite and definite article, but omitting an article where one is needed. at the moment, the model detects very few of these errors, no doubt influenced by the preponderance of null cases seen in training. (p. 175, italics ours) some of the first discussions of bare noun frequency in american english come from data gathered by master (1987, 1990). table 2 shows the results of his 1987 study based on 269 noun phrases from articles in the magazine scientific american and his 1990 study based on 5004 noun phrases found in the magazine newsweek. in each of these sources, nouns without articles emerge as the most frequent noun forms. stvan & john 6 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 table 2 bare and articulated forms (from master, 1987, 1990) definite article indefinite article no determiner scientific american articles 38% 8% 54% newsweek articles 35% 19% 46% as genre might be expected to play some part in the distribution, byrd (2005) expanded on these studies by looking at additional text types. she found a similar breakdown in her examination of nominals in history and accounting textbooks, shown in table 3. table 3 bare and articulated forms (from byrd, 2005, p. 17) definite article indefinite article no determiner history textbook 27.7% 9.4% 54% accounting textbook 32% 9.5 % 48% in both these textbooks, bare forms are the most frequent nominal forms, followed by definite and then indefinite nouns. within bare forms, however, those that are proper nouns and mass nouns—either with abstract referents (e.g., sadness, peace, justice, information) or tangible referents (e.g., furniture, pasta, oatmeal)—are already acknowledged in textbook lessons as examples requiring neither an article nor a plural marker in english. in other words, it is important to subdivide the types of bare forms found. byrd’s more detailed treatment of noun types that collocate with covert articles is shown in table 4. table 4 noun phrase sub-type forms (from byrd, 2005, p. 17) proper plural mass singular history textbook 17.9% 16.2% 11.1% 0.5% accounting textbook 6.4% 13.3% 15.5% 0.3% byrd’s data shows that proper, plural, and mass nouns, make up the majority of the bare forms in english prose. the point to note here is that while some kind of bare form accounts for about half the english nominals, of these, singular count nouns are a much smaller set, occurring less than 1% of the time. one problem with such attempts at coding nouns, however, is that many nouns can be identified that have both mass and count interpretations. our data, for example, included contrasting noun types for daycare, pasture, room, shore, and work, all of which were tagged simply as non-plural nouns. more crucially, as we show below, a number of count nouns show behavior that is both un-countand un-mass-like. to illustrate this, 15 nouns that are normally considered to be count nouns yet also appear in bare singular form were examined in detail. that is, rather than looking at the presence or lack of determination for english noun phrases in general, in this paper we examine particular ostensible mass and count nouns and their distribution with articles. unlike the works of master (1987, 1990) and byrd (2005) therefore, the current study takes a typedriven look at english bare noun distribution. as background on the different noun types, table 5 shows two kinds of noun phrases that are not unexpected in the bare form. on the left are three proper nouns; on the right are three mass nouns. these occurrences are taken from coca, based on material from 1990 to 2009. the nouns have been sorted into four categories: definite, indefinite, attributive, and bare. the first two categories include uses with determiners (i.e., the, this, that, my, our, his, her, their, and possessive –s for definite, and a, an, some, each, and no for indefinite). the attributive category covers uses where the noun in question is a modifier in a compound (e.g., a prison program, furniture warehouses) rather than the noun itself being the lexical item affecting the definiteness and plural morphology. the bare category covers those items where the bare noun is the head of a nominal phrase and lacks both determination and plural marking. learning english bare singulars e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 7 table 5 distribution of expected bare noun types: definite, indefinite, attributive, and bare (from first 100 hits of each in coca) proper nouns mass nouns def indef attrib bare def indef attrib bare liverpool 0% 0% 22% 78% furniture 12% 0% 25% 63% michael jackson 1% 0% 13% 86% information 17% 0% 6% 77% mexico 0% 0% 6% 94% research 17% 0% 26% 57% for the proper nouns, not surprisingly, no hits occurred with indefinite articles and few occurred with definite forms. (of the two nouns found with definite articles, one was used to refer to a type of sandwich called “the michael jackson”; the other was a case of ellipsis: “i think this is the last of the pure michael jackson [songs].”). all the nouns could occur attributively as left-hand members of clusters, as illustrated in examples (3)–(5). 3) dog attired in a liverpool shirt is among a crowd of soccer fans 4) marcia i got to know during the michael jackson trial 5) an april 2003 research seminar on mexico and u.s.-mexico relations mostly, however, as seen in the fourth column in table 5, proper nouns appeared bare. the mass nouns, predictably, could be found with definite articles, but not indefinite articles, unless these were part of larger noun phrases that the mass noun did not head (e.g., “an education resources information center search”). like the proper nouns, these were most frequently found in bare form. on the other hand, nouns normally considered to be countable in english, which are therefore predicted to lack bare singular uses, are gathered in table 6, where they are listed alphabetically. a crucial split, however, is shown between the nouns in the left-hand column, which show the “typical” count noun distribution (i.e., some kind of article is required when the singular noun is used as the head of a noun phrase), and the nouns in the column on the right, which show a more unusual distribution. table 6 distribution of contrasting count noun uses (from first 100 hits of each in coca) regular count noun distribution bscn distribution def indef attrib bare def indef attrib bare book 86% 11% 2% 0% bed 31% 6% 4% 59% box 49% 29% 22% 0% campus 14% 4% 40% 42% classroom 53% 16% 31% 0% church 58% 6% 22% 14% factory 40% 32% 27% 1% class 45% 19% 20% 16% floor 79% 13% 4% 4% college 9% 3% 58% 29% garage 70% 15% 15% 0% court 30% 18% 20% 32% garden 60% 24% 16% 0% deck 61% 14% 15% 10% house 83% 13% 4% 0% home 29% 12% 7% 52% library 45% 4% 51% 0% jail 9% 8% 6% 77% park 45% 29% 26% 0% prison 18% 8% 39% 35% room 80% 13% 5% 2% school 26% 11% 27% 36% station 62% 27% 9% 2% sea 32% 4% 48% 16% store 58% 28% 14% 0% shore 69% 5% 8% 18% yard 71% 14% 15% 0% stage 63% 6% 13% 18% workplace 51% 8% 40% 1% town 42% 17% 4% 37% stvan & john 8 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 our decision regarding which count nouns to track was based on the nouns in the right-hand column, selected for having the highest frequency in coca from the 56 count nouns found earlier to have appeared in bare form (see table 1). we focused on those with highest ratio of singular noun forms found directly after a preposition to total number of singular noun forms. for this exploration, we excluded: those that occur as singular forms, but rarely as bare nouns (e.g., off world, in country, out of office); those that occur as singular, but rarely in a count sense (e.g., work3); and those that occur as bare, but are low in overall frequency (e.g., seminary, kindergarten, post, stage). the goal was to generate a list of the most prototypical bare singulars, those high both in overall word frequency and also in unarticulated uses. to achieve this, we first ranked the 56 nouns according to frequency of occurrence in singular form, then sorted them according to frequency directly after a preposition (i.e., not following an article), and then took the ratio of terms occurring as bare singular forms in a prepositional phrase to the total number of times they appeared as a singular form. in looking for these forms in the corpus, we also eliminated those examples in the first 100 hits used in noncount readings. the alphabetized list of candidate nouns is shown on the right hand side of table 6. as a control, the words in the left side of table 6 were selected to match semantically, i.e., they were count nouns that named locations, used in either predicative and ditransitive constructions. the referents were all, therefore, physical or geographical locations. furthermore, we did not include nouns with animate referents.4 as expected, for the nouns in the first column of the table there was a higher use of definite than indefinite forms, due, at least in part, to the english pattern of introducing a referent with an indefinite form followed by multiple definite forms for each subsequent co-referential noun phrase. this fits the expected profile for english count nouns, which normally only appear bare when they are in plural form. the count nouns on the left side had most of their occurrences with different kinds of determiners or as attributive modifiers, with very few bare forms. some additional discussion is called for, however, regarding which bare form should be considered a marked use for count nouns. for example, all four of the bare tokens with floor and for factory and room were involved in paired sets, as in (6), or serial sets that included more than one bare noun, as in (7): 6) a. the forms fill an entire room from floor to ceiling b. he moved quietly from room to room 7) a. yeah, right in the hallways, these hallways, first floor, second floor. it didn’t matter where b. a scene from the industrial revolution, with milling workers, dim, square factory, rocky hillside, and grimy english sky examples (6) and (7) were included in the counts and marked in the bare column because speakers have the option to use articles here, though such serial sets are often found as bare count nouns (cf. work on coordinated bare forms: ahlgren, 1946; heycock & zamparelli, 2003; jackendoff, 2008; roodenburg, 2004). however, both types of sets occur with low frequency. 3 the word work was included on the list of 56 nouns in part because it has a reading parallel to the other location terms: he’s at school = he is at his school he’s at church = he is at his church he’s at home = he is at his home he’s at work = he is at his work(place) these all show the added meaning of connection to the place affiliated with the located referent. however, unlike the other nouns, work does not also occur in other morpho-syntactic frames as a countable noun with this meaning. the bare form of work mainly appeared in coca with one of these other three senses: work1, countable = a piece of art; work2, mass = activity or employment; work3, countable = employer or workplace; work4, verb = to labor. 4 in pilot studies by the authors, the count noun boy showed additional bare uses tied to the referent being human. for example, four bare uses of boy appeared as heads of nicknames, such as those in (i), or as an address term, in (ii): i) a. he's also affectionately known as “germ boy” for his insistence upon universal smallpox vaccine b. be grateful, tv boy. have respect. have you seen the beginning of a war? in addition, two unmodified bare tokens of boy were also used as address terms: ii) a. consider the risk to his own dignity that douglass is taking here, inviting auld to call him frederick, his former name tied so closely to his former identity—and so dangerously close to boy b. i sed it to him, “boy, you supposed to been at school learning english bare singulars e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 9 in further examining bscn distribution in table 6, we also see that a higher number of definite than indefinite forms were found. roughly the same number of attributive forms was identified for bscns as for regular count noun. but the distinguishing characteristic of this set is that the bare use is quite high—in most cases higher than use with definite articles. therefore, in answer to question 1, which was concerned with the frequency of bare versus articulated noun phrases, one subset of count nouns has a low occurrence in the bare form, with a mean definite + indefinite/bare ratio of 75.6 : 0.71. for another subset of nominals, however, the ratio is reversed, with a bare form that is often equal to, or even higher than, the articulated forms, though with a much higher variation in deviation. in short, this makes a case, based on distribution, for bscns to be considered distinct from regular count nouns in english. 3.2. which count nouns occurred most often without articles? to investigate this split further, we now respond to question 2, which asks which of the bscn types are found most often. since many studies have shown that how much a term begins to lose its inflection, or article marking, and become irregular, in this case becoming a bscn, varies depending on individual word frequency, it is relevant to explore how we might let the current frequency of the overall noun phrase form drive the choice of the particular nouns being investigated. and regarding token frequency, it is helpful here to compare whether any of the bare singular forms are in the top noun lemmas of english. thus, for each of the 15 bscns nouns examined, table 7 shows the words sorted by highest to lowest occurrence in bare form. table 7 bscns from table 6 ranked by frequency of the bare form bscns frequency of bare uses jail 77% bed 59% home 52% campus 42% town 37% school 36% prison 35% court 32% college 29% shore 18% stage 18% class 16% sea 16% church 14% deck 10% from the ranking in table 7, it becomes apparent that bscns can be viewed as falling into two groups: those with the most frequent bare forms (30% of the time or more) and those with bare form counts of 10-18%. an unpaired t-test shows the p value (.00007) to be extremely significant at a 95% confidence interval. the semantic aspects of the lower frequency group of nouns reveal another telling characteristic as well—higher polysemy. for example, count nouns for class were split between meanings of “social class,” “category,” and “room or group of students.” only the latter appeared in bare form. likewise, for the noun stage, the sense meaning “level” did not occur bare, while the “location for performances” did. in addition, shore and sea appeared with both mass and count senses, also confusing the issue of whether tokens were bscns. stvan & john 10 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 3.3. what is the overall distribution of bscns by position? one quickly observable aspect of the bare uses of nouns like jail, bed, and home is that they do not appear with equally frequency in all grammatical positions. many works have examined bare nouns in a single position (e.g., baldwin et al., 2006; stvan, 1993, 1998 on prepositional phrases; borik & gehrke, 2015; stvan, 2007 on direct objects; berezowski, 2009 on nominal predicates). responding, then, to question 3, we illustrate the distribution of each of the 15 most frequent bscns according to their position as subject, direct object or object of a preposition. earlier, opportunistic, naturally-occurring examples have been found for 10 bscn types in subject position and 14 types in direct object position (stvan, 1998, pp. 252-253). in the samples counted from the current coca data, however, shown in table 8, even some of these uses were too infrequent to surface in the bare nouns in the first 100 hits. the nouns bed, court, deck, and sea, for example, appear only in prepositional phrases. in sorting these, home appears with two numbers in the table. these values represent the overt prepositional phrase positions as well as cases when home occurred after linking verbs. these latter uses are not predicate nominal constructions but function as locatives that are even further reduced, lacking a preposition as well as an article: i’m home; he went home. the bare singular use of home, then, appears to have a double dose of erosion, appearing with a lack of both preposition and article. table 8 the different grammatical positions in which bscns were found bscns as subject as direct object as object of preposition bed 0 0 59 campus 0 3 39 church 0 4 10 class 0 2 14 college 0 2 27 court 0 0 32 deck 0 0 10 home 1 3 15/31 jail 0 3 74 prison 4 0 31 school 1 4 31 sea 0 0 16 shore 1 0 17 stage 0 3 15 town 0 7 30 the most frequent position by far for bscns was as the object of a preposition. of the nouns occurring elsewhere in the phrase, prison was the most frequent noun found as the subject of a clause. the most frequent direct objects were town, church, school, campus, stage, home, and jail. 3.4. which preceding items collocate most frequently with bare bscns? given the frequency by which these nouns occur in prepositional phrases, bare forms might be capturable through some other collocations, in this case by checking for the most common element to the left: prepositions. following the contribution of krug’s string frequency (1998), we might expect some predictability if not of [article + noun], then of [preposition+ noun] in attempting to find singular count noun forms. this leads to the fourth research question, in which we look at prepositional phrase bigrams. table 9 shows which prepositions appear most frequently for each noun found in a prepositional phrase, with in being the most common first element. learning english bare singulars e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 11 ta ble 9 r an ki ng o f h ow fr eq ue nt ly b sc n s ar e fo un d in p re po si tio na l p hr as es (p ps ) a nd li st o f m os t c om m on p re po si tio ns bs cn s fr eq . in p ps pr ep os iti on p re ce di ng b sc n jai l 74 in (3 9) to (2 6) fro m (4 ) ou t o f ( 3) be d 59 to (2 5) in (1 7) ou t o f ( 13 ) int o (3 ) for (1 ) ho me 46 ø (3 2) at (1 0) to (2 ) fro m (2 ) ca mp us 39 on (2 7) off (6 ) to (3 ) ac ro ss (1 ) ar ou nd (1 ) fro m (1 ) co ur t 32 in (1 4) to (8 ) int o (4 ) ou t o f ( 4) thr ou gh (1 ) to (1 ) pr iso n 31 in (1 8) to (8 ) fro m (2 ) su ch as (1 ) wi th (1 ) of (1 ) sc ho ol 31 to (1 3) in (1 0) of (2 ) sin ce (2 ) be for e (1 ) fro m (1 ) thr ou gh (1 ) un til (1 ) tow n 30 in (8 ) x* of (8 ) ou t o f ( 5) to (3 ) int o (3 ) ac ro ss (2 ) thr ou gh (1 ) co lle ge 27 in (9 ) to (7 ) aft er (2 ) du rin g (2 ) at (2 ) fro m (1 ) of (1 ) on (1 ) ou t o f ( 1) sin ce (1 ) sh or e 17 fro m (6 ) to (4 ) on (3 ) ne ar (2 ) tow ar d ( 2) int o (1 ) se a 16 at (8 ) to (4 ) by (2 ) fro m (1 ) on (1 ) sta ge 15 on (1 3) up (1 ) to (1 ) cla ss 14 in (7 ) to (7 ) de ck 10 on (8 ) of (1 ) be low (1 ) ch ur ch 10 in (4 ) to (2 ) of (2 ) for (1 ) be tw ee n (1 ) stvan & john 12 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 several trends can be seen in table 9. all the bscns in prepositional phrases appear with more than one preposition, but they also have an unequal distribution. although a sample of more than 100 noun tokens per type would undoubtedly show additional prepositions, from this data we can see that each noun has one or two prepositions with which it is much more likely to collocate. the most flexible distributions were found for college, with ten different prepositions in the same sample; school, with eight; and town, with seven. the most limited distribution was for class, which appeared only with in and to. 4. awareness among l2 learners of english the word type samples from the corpus data give a sense of how often learners are exposed to count and non-count nouns collocating with articles. our next step was to query actual learners to gauge their responses to english sentences containing regular count nouns and bare singular count nouns. to obtain this information, as expressed in question 5, adult language learners in pre-sessional english language programs on two university campuses took part in a survey that asked for their judgments on english noun use.5 4.1. description of the data from site 1 grammaticality judgments were collected from 62 adult esl learners at a u.k. university. subjects were international students attending pre-sessional courses designed for those with conditional admission to the university who wished to improve their knowledge of spoken and written english in preparation for academic study at the university.6 those entering the program scored 4.0-5.5 on the international english language testing system (ielts). (passing the pre-sessional course would allow them entry to an undergraduate program. typical ielts scores are 6.0 7.0 for direct entry to a degree program). using the survey found in appendix a, information was gathered on the following independent variables: the speakers’ native language (l1), sex, and age. the dependent variable was their judgment of the grammaticality of different bare noun forms in 20 sample sentences. a final portion of the survey asked participants to fill in a cloze test section with words or phrases. this was designed to elicit bare versus articulated noun phrases. of those who gave their age, 40 of the participants were aged 18-25, 21 were 26-35, and 1 was older than 35. age of arrival was not recorded since all participants had visas entailing that they arrived at the site specifically for english courses; they were not a population who had lived or studied in the uk previously. the first languages of the students surveyed in this group were arabic, chinese, indonesian, japanese, korean, kurdish, thai, and turkish. five students did not specify their home language. for the cloze test section, l1 was checked against words that should be bare in both british and american english. we also examined whether participants chose to produce a noun phrase form that would not be bare in either dialect of english (e.g., shop and college). 4.2. description of the data from site 2 to increase the number of speakers surveyed from each home language, a second round of grammaticality judgment data was collected from 133 adult esl learners at a u.s. university. participants were again international students attending pre-sessional courses at an intensive english program who wished to improve their knowledge of spoken and written english in preparation for academic study at a university. students who participated in these surveys were from levels 1-5 (out of six levels), so they had incoming proficiency scores ranging from 35 to 77 on the h-j composition evaluation tool, roughly equivalent to 400-520 on the test of english as a foreign language (toefl). this places the speakers across a similar range of proficiency as those on the u.k. campus (vancouver english centre, 2015). using the same survey found in appendix a, information was gathered on speakers’ l1, sex, and age. for this group, 101 participants were aged 18-25, 25 were 26-35, 5 were older than 35, and two did not specify an age. the first languages of the students surveyed at this site were arabic, bangla, chinese, french, japanese, korean, portuguese, romanian, russian, spanish, thai, turkish, and vietnamese. six students did not specify their home language. the combined number of speakers for each home language is shown in table 10. 5 the collection of survey data was approved as exempt under utarlington irb protocol 2013-0214e. 6 thanks to research assistants naomi weiwen lan and sok-hun kim for invaluable research assistance in gathering, sorting, and questioning the categories of noun types in the corpus, and to jessica rohr, darcey browning, and stephen self for inputting and sorting the survey responses. learning english bare singulars e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 13 table 10 combined number of speakers for the two sites language site 1 (uk) site 2 (us) totals arabic 9 44 53 bangla 0 1 1 chinese 33 9 42 french 0 11 11 indonesian 2 0 2 japanese 2 8 10 korean 1 18 19 kurdish 6 0 6 portuguese 0 5 5 romanian 0 1 1 russian 0 1 1 spanish 0 11 11 thai 3 2 5 turkish 1 8 9 vietnamese 0 8 8 unknown 5 6 11 total 62 133 195 4.3. analysis of the survey data for different nouns in this section, we examine the results of pairs of questions from the survey that highlight the expected contrasting judgments of particular noun forms. we use as examples (8) statements 9-10 and 1516, in which only the articulated form, not the bare form, is acceptable. the statements are: 8) 9. *joe likes to study at library 10. jenny likes to study at the library 15. i saw the new exhibition at the museum 16. *i saw the new exhibition at museum we examined whether learners correctly identified the bare forms in (9) and (16) as ungrammatical and the articulated forms in (10) and (15) as grammatical. table 11 shows the results for these questions for the 133 participants at the u.s. site and the 62 participants at the u.k. site. table 11 number of correct responses when bare nouns should be identified as ungrammatical question correct response (uk) correct response (us) 9 (*at library) 32 (52%) 82 (62%) 10 (at the library) 36 (58%) 98 (74%) 15 (at the museum) 45 (73%) 107 (82%) 16 (*at museum) 44 (71%) 90 (69%) for both groups, the greater number of correct responses was given for the articulated forms, while the students at the u.s. site had higher correct responses overall, possibly due to the range in their proficiency level. for the u.k. group, the correct choices for the word library were the least confidently marked—with a stvan & john 14 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 near-random set of responses, while the forms for museum were marked in a manner closer to that of the speakers at the other site. in contrast to the statements examined in table 11, the sentences with bare forms that should be rated as grammatical in any english dialect7 were queried for the following constructions: in prison (1), to school (5), at school (7), on campus (11), at home (13), and at church (19). grammaticality judgments for the 133 participants at the u.s. site and the 62 participants at the u.k. site are presented in table 12. table 12 number of correct responses when bare nouns should be identified as grammatical question correct response (uk) correct response (us) 1 (in prison) 46 (74%) 105 (80%) 5 (to school) 49 (79%) 106 (81%) 7 (at school) 50 (80%) 95 (72%) 11 (on campus) 37 (59%) 101 (77%) 13 (at home) 53 (85%) 112 (85%) 19 (at church) 40 (64%) 84 (64%) in these tables we see evidence that learners do recognize differences in acceptability for a number of english bscns, though with significantly different response rates for two particular nouns (i.e., library and campus). following this look at individual words, our next goal was to tease apart the group responses to determine whether respondents from any given l1 scored better or worse than average on the surveys, and whether this could be explained by the number and type of articles in their first language. the l1 information from both surveys (see table 10) was further combined in order to sort by the article type of the home languages. this organization was intended to enable us to see patterns that might correlate with the noun phrase typology of participants’ home languages, depending on whether their l1 has both definite and indefinite articles, only one, or neither. these l1 types (2-article, 1-article (d), 1-article (i), 0-article) are tallied in table 13. table 13 languages grouped by number of articles they include 2-article 1-article (d) 1-article (i) 0-article language bangla arabic turkish chinese french indonesian kurdish japanese portuguese korean romanian russian spanish thai vietnamese total speakers 35 53 9 87 the survey responses for each of these l1 types are shown in table 14. 7 future work could collect demographic data on the form of english that learners are exposed to by instructors. because of the varieties of english that are taught in their home countries, arabic speakers, for example, may be more accustomed to american english dialect variants, and should rate the in hospital and at university examples differently than chinese speakers, who may be more accustomed to british english variants. in other words, this data would allow us to interpret “correct” answers for each question by l2 subtype. depending on the english that learners were exposed to, there should be some difference with (3) and (17), in which the bare forms are only grammatical for those learning british english, but not for those learning american english. learning english bare singulars e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 15 table 14 correct responses sorted by student’s l1 type question 2-article (n=35) 1-article (d) (n=53) 1-article (i) (n=9) 0-article (n=87) mean per question 1 (in prison) 30 (86%) 38 (71%) 8 (89%) 70 (80%) 81.5% 5 (to school) 30 (86%) 35 (66%) 6 (67%) 75 (86%) 76.25% 7 (at school) 29 (83%) 37 (70%) 6 (67%) 67 (77%) 74.25 9 (*at library) 27 (77%) 38 (71%) 6 (67%) 49 (56%) 67.75% 10 (at the library) 29 (83%) 44 (83%) 7 (78%) 51 (59%) 75.75% 11 (on campus) 30 (86%) 30 (57%) 5 (56%) 54 (62%) 65.25% 13 (at home) 33 (94%) 38 (71%) 6 (67%) 85 (98%) 82.5% 15 (at the museum) 27 (77%) 46 (87%) 7 (78%) 64 (74%) 79% 16 (*at museum) 26 (74%) 38 (71%) 6 (67%) 60 (69%) 70.25% 19 (at church) 25 (71%) 35 (66%) 6 (67%) 52 (60%) 66% mean across l1 type 81.7% 71.3% 70.3% 72.1% from the averages along the bottom row of table 14, we can see that speakers from languages with a two-article system—which is the case for english—perform better overall in identifying correct uses of english bare nouns. however, scores on the questions still vary according to other issues, including particular lexical items. as we saw in table 11, at library is a particularly difficult item to assess, and here we see that, particularly for speakers of languages with no article system, choosing at the library was not a much clearer choice. and as seen in table 12, on campus was a difficult bare form to approve, and indeed it is the lowest scoring form in table 14. the combination at home was consistent—that is, this use of a bare noun was rated highly in table 12 by the students on both campuses, and was correctly identified as grammatical more than all other bare forms in table 14. this result, however, is not purely based on frequency of input, for, if that were the predictor, the ranking in table 7 would lead us to expect campus to rate much better than school or prison. the bare use of at home is a construction whose equivalent is used as a bare form across many languages, and, indeed, this particular english collocation has been analyzed by a number of linguists (collins, 2007; fillmore, 1992; jackendoff, maling, & zaenen, 1993). in short, looking at judgments of bare forms in prepositional phrases, students did not recognize correct uses consistently. some lexical items were easier to select (home versus library), while in some cases the l1 type played a role (e.g., languages with two articles versus those with just an indefinite article). 5. incorporation of findings into a data-driven lesson to help students focus on when these bare forms occur, we now present examples of classroom exercises to be used as part of an advanced grammar and reading course. in addressing question 6, the intent is to find ways to raise students’ awareness of the contrasting uses of count nouns that may occur with and without an article. work by cobb (2004) showed that concordances in the classroom led to improvement in learning new words. we suggest a variation on this: using preselected concordance lines to help focus on noticing contexts for particular contrasting collocations. the exercises involve distributing pre-collected concordance lines that students can work with in small groups. three sample exercises are presented here, each focusing on a bare form in a different distributional slot. these tasks are aimed at expanding the discussion of where bscns can occur and how they are interpreted when appearing in each grammatical position. 5.1. prepositional phrase prompts since we saw that the preponderance of bscns occur in prepositional phrases, the first set of concordance lines helps students to observe and distill contrasting constructions appearing in these positions. first, using sets like those in figures 1 and 2, students are encouraged to discuss what meaning differences they can recognize. all of these concordance lines involve the noun prison. in figure 1, students should observe that the forms do not have articles and are used to provide an adverbial-like description of a stvan & john 16 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 prisoner. in figure 2, the nouns occur with articles, and students should this time pick out an actual building or location of a person who is not a prisoner. as the second step, students receive the prompt shown in (9). the goal is for them to create new sentences that use the intended form/meaning pairing modeled in the concordance lines. in essence, they should write two sentences using prison in a prepositional phrase: one referring to a person’s state (e.g., in prison) and another to the physical location of a person who is not a prisoner (e.g., in the prison). (voice-over) released from prison in 1982, beckwith has spent most the last eight years in tennessee should he end up in prisonor just with a movie deal? i regret those years that i have wasted in prison. nelson mandela, freed after 27 years in prison, made a historic visit to the white house. (voice-over) sheila's date went to prison and she's now super-cautious about the men she goes out with. figure 1. no article in the prison np. scores of federal police could be seen inside the prison and manning guard towers. “groans of anguish” that can be heard across the prison and contrast with the incantory song it was a few minutes after 7 in the morning, at the prison in stark, florida. he was always interested in going to the prison. waiting outside the prison for hammock that morning, roby got an email on his phone figure 2. with articles in the prison np. 9) prompt: write two contrasting sentences containing prepositional phrases that contain the word prison. one should describe the state of a prisoner; the other should refer to the physical location of some person. which one can occur without an article? the goal with the first two sets of concordance lines is to see the contrast between similar constructions appearing in prepositional phrases. while uses with and without an article can both be grammatical, there is a difference in meaning. in essence, for one prepositional phrase they should aim to use prison to talk about the state of a prisoner (e.g., john is in prison), as opposed to talking about the physical location of a person who is not a prisoner (e.g., john was in the prison taking a tour). as a review and production task, students should work in groups with a prompt like the one in (8). there are another dozen institutional nouns that work this way in english (stvan, 1998, 2007); students can discuss the same contrast with school, church, jail, campus, etc. 5.2. subject prompts for bare forms in subject position, another contrast between bare and articulated nouns is highlighted. table 8 showed that prison was the most likely word to appear as a subject. therefore, in these examples, students would first read the lines in figure 3 and 4 and compare notes on the meaning difference between them. in using the bare form here, writers produce statements used to speak generically or characteristically about life as a prisoner (e.g., prison was dull); in using the articulated form, the aim is to talk about a tangible building (e.g., the prison was made of bricks). after some class discussion to make sure everyone understands this contrast, students would next work with the prompt in (10). i know, i know, prison is not an alluring alternative. it can't be simply that prison is such a bad place after all. sexual behavior happens everywhere. prison is one of those locations. i spent over six weeks in prison, and i knew what prison was like. no past, no future. maybe prison was like dope in that way. figure 3. no article in the prison np. the prison was overcrowded. the prison was so full that there was barely room to move. the prison was located within fort jesus, the prison was only eleven miles west of starke on state road 16. the prison has no pharmacy, figure 4. with articles in the prison np. learning english bare singulars e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 17 10) prompt: write two contrasting sentences with prison in the subject position. one should describe the state of life for prisoners, the other refers to the physical building. which one can occur without an article? again, there are additional nouns that work this way in english. as a review, students should be able to discuss the same bare singular versus articulated contrast for other nouns. additional follow-up tasks like those in (11) can help them develop additional meta-linguistic awareness: 11) a. follow-up task 1: compare notes to see if the others in your group can tell which noun phrase meanings must have no article. work together to paraphrase each meaning. b. follow-up task 2: there are another dozen location nouns that work this way in english. look at the next sets of examples and discuss the same no article vs. article contrast with the words school, church and jail. give paraphrases for each contrast. 5.3. modifier prompts in this last set, the key is to contrast the count noun as a head noun with its use as a modifier. here the prison examples show how the presence or lack of an article is not always contingent upon what collocates to the immediate left of the noun; identifying the noun that serves as the head of the noun phrase can also be important. this demonstrates that, rather than simply associating “bareness” in the lexicon with particular nouns like prison, it is helpful for learners to note that nouns used as modifiers in compounds do not affect the choice of determiner. in figure 5, the word prison is used as a modifier. the choice of whether or not to use an article is thus determined by the head noun in the compound, the noun to the right of prison. the head noun may itself be singular (e.g., prison number, prison sentence) or plural (e.g., prison administrators, prison officials, prison services), but the form of the modifier does not inflect. after reviewing the concordance lines, students should work with prompt (12). there has been no study. but prison administrators say there's been a decrease whose iq matches his eight-digit prison number. of 2,000-volt electricity before prison officials were done. legally, they could both end up with the very same prison sentencelife in prison. lagner is delaware's director of prison services. figure 5. prison as a modifier in noun-noun compounds. 12) prompt: for each of the compound nouns, underline the noun that serves as the head of the noun phrase. is that word singular or plural? does the noun phrase have the right article to match the head? why? as a review, students should be able to find the head noun for similar modified examples with campus, school, and so on, such as the lines in figure 6. with these examples, they should try to discuss count/number attributes and choose whether or not to use an article. but it certainly was involved in all campus activities. one of the most vocal activists in the campus coalition against u.s. policy in the gulf. in turn, led to an affair known as watergate. campus demonstrations against u.s. military. i know of at least one campus newspaper which has. make parents and students more aware of campus safety, figure 6. campus as a modifier in noun-noun compounds. overall, the use of the concordance line examples is meant to activate students’ inferential ability in observing patterns of article contrast as well as their ability to produce new sentences containing appropriately bare nouns that work the same way. stvan & john 18 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 6. conclusion we present conclusions for each of the three areas: frequency of input, learner awareness of bare forms, and pedagogical applications. our first conclusions triangulate the corpus findings. there is distributional evidence that some apparent count nouns differ from others based on whether or not they occur lacking both determiners and plural forms: true count nouns are indeed rarely found in bare singular forms, while the group of bscns do appear without articles, patterning more like full noun phrases. however, some of bscn types also have lower bare frequencies and mass uses, which further obscures the polysemy. by hunting for singular noun forms, one can find nouns that are bare and singular without being able to easily verify whether they are count nouns. in the case of bscns, morphology gives no clue for either humans or computers to distinguish mass from count nouns. our first step, then, must be to verify which members of the total set of bare nouns are indeed count nouns and not names or mass noun uses. additional accurate counts are still needed, both with a larger sample, and across different registers. additionally, we suggest that grammatical position should also be considered in finding and coding such noun uses. prepositional phrases contain these forms much more often, although bare singulars can also appear as subjects or direct objects. but the nouns are not uniform in their distribution, with some occurring significantly more often as subjects, for example, than others. of those in prepositional phrases, particular prepositions collocate with bare singulars at a high frequency. future research in this area might entail writing a pos-tagger enhancer to identify bscns by including additional heuristics, such as double-checking number agreement, rather than using a tagging system based simply on probabilities. based on the answers to our research questions, new bscns might be found by machine-learning the syntactic/lexical environment of known types and looking for other nouns in that same environment. earlier scholars have suggested that bare singular forms are not used in english at all, while others noted that they do occur, but are rare, irregular, idiomatic, residual, have not fully grammaticalized into new forms, or represent older forms that have not yet disappeared. certainly, we can concur that their occurrence is striking. by looking more closely at those nominal constructions that appear unexpectedly bare, we have a starting point to examine whether certain token forms are differently productive, which could, for example, suggest that some are eroding while others are formed by analogy. to tackle the possibility of different directions of lexicalization, influenced by different frequencies for different noun types, one next step would be a diachronic examination of individual bare forms. regarding the research question exploring learner awareness of bare forms, we found that speakers from home languages with a two-article system scored better overall in identifying correct uses of english bare nouns. however, scores on the questions varied considerably according to other variables, including particular lexical items. when asked to judge bare form uses as grammatical or not in individual sentences, students had difficulty choosing between bare and articulated forms for a number of words (though a few combinations, like at home, were more easily identified as correct). furthermore, the readings of many of the bare forms can be either definite or indefinite. future research could track which bscns allow for pragmatic inference, and whether multiple interpretations are triggered by the form or by the position of the noun phrase, with attention to the frequency and distribution of those with a definite reading (at home), as opposed to the form and distribution of those with an indefinite, or more incorporation-like reading (in school). this leads to some of the issues that influenced the survey data. though these are undoubtedly concerns of advanced learners, recognizing inferences created by the correct bare forms can have real-world ramifications. thus, lastly, we suggest applications of this information to shape upper-level esl curriculum materials. by assisting language learners in discerning which bare forms are used and to what effect, tasks involving corpus-based material encourage learners to hypothesize about the subtypes of noun phrases in the dataset. consequently, students are guided in developing a more fine-tuned understanding of rules for using bare forms in english and in acquiring greater awareness of the english article system. we demonstrated a method to help train english learners to be able to see patterns, which will help them to correct article discrepancies in their writing and speaking. the goal of these tasks is increased student awareness of both the semantics of bare nouns and the contexts in which they are used, providing a more structured basis for students to try out their own production of english nominals and to develop a more assured sense of when to choose bare forms. learning english bare singulars e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 19 references ahlgren, arthur (1946). on the use of the definite article with “nouns of possession” in english. uppsala, finland: appelbergs. baldwin, timothy, beavers, john, van der beek, leonoor, bond, francis, 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________________________________________________________________ your age: ____ 18-25 ____ 26-35 ____ 35 or older your sex: ____ f ____ m for the 20 sentences below, please circle the number of any sentence that is ungrammatical: 1. john can’t attend the party because he is in prison. 2. when you are in the prison tomorrow, look for the old clock in the entry hall. 3. i saw it yesterday when i was in hospital 4. i saw it yesterday when i was in the hospital. 5. starting next year, students will be able to take their mobile phones to school. 6. residents are encouraged to donate their used computers to a school. 7. my brother learned it when he was at school. 8. the banker and the shop owner will drop off the money at the school. 9. joe likes to study at library. 10. jenny likes to study at the library. 11. i’ll meet you on campus. 12. the man found a place on the campus to catch the bus. 13. sorry, my little sister is not at home, she is still at work. 14. sorry, my little sister is not at the home, she is still at work. 15. i saw the new exhibition at the museum. 16. i saw the new exhibition at museum. 17. i have been at university for just over a year and a half. 18. i went to a concert at the university that was put on by the choir. 19. joan sat next to her cousin that day at church. 20. they left the car in the lot at the church. fill in the blank section: for 21-23, please fill in any words that might be needed to make these into grammatical sentences. if the sentence is fine as it is, please fill in an x. 21. the mayor made the announcement today when he was ___________________ school. 22. we can buy some sandwiches _______________________ shop. 23. are you going to _____________________ college? please include any optional comments you have concerning these sentences: stvan & john 22 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 1-22 laurel smith stvan, university of texas at arlington stvan@uta.edu en laurel smith stvan is an associate professor of linguistics and chair of the department of linguistics and tesol at the university of texas at arlington. her research explores bare nominals, polysemy, health discourse, and applications of corpus linguistics. her work has appeared in the journals lingua, corpora, and communication & medicine. es laurel smith stvan es profesora asociada de lingüística y directora del departamento de lingüística e inglés l2/le para hablantes de otras lenguas en la universidad de texas en arlington. su investigación se centra en los nominales indeterminados, la polisemia, el discurso en el ámbito sanitario y las aplicaciones de la lingüística de corpus. sus trabajos han sido publicados en las revistas lingua, corpora, y communication & medicine. it laurel smith stvan è professoressa associata di linguistica e direttrice del dipartimento di linguistica e tesol presso la university of texas at arlington. nella sua attività di ricerca esplora i sintagmi nominali spogli, la polisemia, il discorso sulla salute e le applicazioni della linguistica dei corpora. il suo lavoro è apparso nelle riviste lingua, corpora, e communication & medicine. suganthi john, university of birmingham s.p.john@bham.ac.uk en suganthi john is a senior lecturer in the department of english language and applied linguistics at the university of birmingham. her primary research interests are in self-representation and identity in academic texts. she is also interested in second language writing and in writing development across boundaries (undergraduate to postgraduate; postgraduate to workplace), including writing for research publication purposes. es suganthi john es profesora titular del departamento de lengua inglesa y lingüística aplicada de la universidad de birmingham. sus principales intereses investigadores son la auto-representación y la identidad en los textos académicos. además, trabaja la expresión escrita en segundas lenguas así como su desarrollo en áreas de transición (de grado a posgrado y de posgrado al entorno profesional), incluida la escritura para la publicación en el ámbito investigador. it suganthi john è professoressa associata nel dipartimento di lingua inglese e linguistica applicata presso la university of birmingham. i suoi principali interessi di ricerca sono nell’ambito dell’auto-rappresentazione ed identità in testi accademici. inoltre, si interessa alla scrittura nella lingua seconda e allo sviluppo della scrittura nei momenti di passaggio (tra laurea e post laurea; tra il post laurea e l’ambito lavorativo), inclusa la scrittura ai fini di pubblicazione accademica. e-j015-030_pastor cesteros euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-journall  volume  1,  issue  1,  november  2014,  pages  15-30   issn  2376-905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.17 www.e-journall.org   copyright  ©  2014.  this  work  is  licensed  under  the  creative  commons  attribution-­‐noncommercial-­‐noderivs  3.0  unported  license   1contacto:  spc@ua.es   aprendizaje  de  contenidos  a  través  del  español  como  segunda  lengua   en  la  educación  superior:  un  puente  entre  la  lengua  y  el  conocimiento   susana  pastor  cesteros1   universidad  de  alicante   received  5  may  2014;  received  in  revised  form  1  august  2014;  accepted  18  august  2014   abstract es este artículo presenta la situación del aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras (aicle), por lo que respecta al español como segunda lengua en la educación superior (esles). en el ámbito del español como lengua extranjera son cada vez más numerosos los estudiantes universitarios que asisten a clases en español sin ser esta su lengua materna y que aprenden así, simultáneamente, tanto los contenidos de la materia como la lengua vehicular en la que se imparten. desde esta perspectiva, abordamos la cuestión en tres apartados. en el primero, se revisa la fundamentación teórica en la que se enmarcan los estudios sobre aprendizaje por contenidos y sobre español académico (ea), ofreciendo un estado de la cuestión. en el segundo, mostramos los proyectos que en esta área se están realizando desde el grupo de investigación en adquisición y enseñanza de segundas lenguas y lenguas extranjeras de la universidad de alicante (acqua). las conclusiones constituyen el tercer y último apartado, en el que resumimos los resultados del trabajo realizado y proponemos futuras líneas de investigación. palabras clave: aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras, español académico, español como segunda lengua en la educación superior, lenguas de especialidad, movilidad estudiantil, internacionalización universitaria. en in spanish universities there are increasingly more students who attend content courses taught in spanish without this being their first language and who therefore simultaneously learn the language in which the course is taught as much as the content of the course, without any specific language instruction. in this article, we address this problematic situation of spanish as a second language in higher education through the lens of content and language integrated learning (clil). first, we review the theoretical foundations of clil teaching methods and academic spanish teaching and learning, offering a state of the matter. second, we show the work being done in this area by the research group in acquisition and instruction of second and foreign languages at the university of alicante (acqua). the conclusions constitute the third and final part, in which we summarize the results of the work done and propose future directions of research. keywords:   content and language integrated learning, academic spanish, spanish as a second language in higher education, specialized languages, student mobility, university internationalization. it questo articolo presenta la situazione dell’apprendimento integrato di contenuti e lingue straniere (clil) relativamente allo spagnolo come seconda lingua nell’istruzione superiore. nell’ambito dello spagnolo come lingua straniera, sono sempre più numerosi gli studenti universitari che seguono lezioni in spagnolo senza che questa sia la loro lingua materna, apprendendo così, simultaneamente, sia i contenuti della materia sia la lingua veicolare nella quale questi insegnamenti sono impartiti, senza esplicite indicazioni di tipo metalinguistico. da questo punto di vista tratteremo l’argomento in tre sezioni. nella prima, faremo un’analisi delle basi teoriche nelle quali si inseriscono gli studi sull’apprendimento attraverso i contenuti e sullo spagnolo accademico, offrendo una descrizione della situazione attuale. nella seconda, vedremo i progetti che sta realizzando in questo campo il gruppo di ricerca in acquisizione e insegnamento di seconde lingue e lingue straniere dell’università di alicante (acqua). nelle conclusioni, che rappresentano la terza e ultima sezione, riassumeremo i risultati del lavoro realizzato e proporremo future linee di ricerca. parole chiave: apprendimento integrato di contenuti e lingue straniere, spagnolo accademico, spagnolo come seconda lingua nell’istruzione superiore, lingue speciali, mobilità studentesca, internazionalizzazione universitaria. pastor  cesteros   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30  16   1.  introducción   este   artículo   tiene   como  objetivo  presentar   la   situación  del  aprendizaje   integrado  de  contenidos   y   lenguas  extranjeras  (aicle,  en  adelante)  por  lo  que  respecta  al  español  como  segunda  lengua  en  la  educación   superior.  sin  duda,  la  enseñanza  de  un  idioma  a  través  de  contenidos  está  adquiriendo  cada  vez  mayor  relieve   en   los   estudios   de   lingüística   aplicada,   fruto   de   la   experiencia   con   el   inglés   como   lengua   extranjera.   en   tal   ámbito,  se  han  popularizado  las  siglas  clil  (de  las  que  aicle  son  una  traducción)  para  referirse  a  content  and   language  integrated  learning,  aspecto  que  ha  sido  profusamente  analizado  en  un  principio  para  el  contexto   educativo   de   primaria   y   secundaria   y,   más   recientemente,   pero   con   igual   intensidad,   en   el   universitario.   siguiendo  esta  línea,  analizamos  el  tema  (si  bien  desde  la  perspectiva  del  español  como  segunda  lengua  en  la   educación   superior)   a   partir   del   hecho   innegable   de   que   cada   vez   son   más   numerosos   los   estudiantes   universitarios   que   asisten   a   clases   en   español   (sin   ser   esta   su   lengua   materna)   y   que   podrían   aprender   simultáneamente  de  este  modo  (si  se  dan  los  requisitos  adecuados)  tanto  los  contenidos  de  la  materia  como  la   lengua  vehicular  en   la  que  se   imparten.  en  este  ámbito  se   requiere  aún  una  gran   labor  de   investigación,  en   especial  en  lo  relativo  al  análisis  de  la  situación  y  la  identificación  de  necesidades  de  los  estudiantes  no  nativos   en   la  universidad,  por  un   lado,  y  al  estudio   lingüístico,   textual  y  pragmático  del  español  académico,  el  perfil   que  deben  tener  los  recursos  y  materiales  didácticos  o  la  intervención  del  profesorado,  por  otro.   en   realidad,   hace   años   que   venimos   señalando   la   enseñanza   específica   de   la   lengua   española   que   precisan  los  estudiantes  extranjeros  que  acuden  a  realizar  una  estancia  en  nuestra  universidad.  este   interés   personal  se  ha  ido  forjando  a  partir  de  diferentes  experiencias:  desde  mi   labor  como  coordinadora  erasmus   (entre  2006  y  2008),  pero  también  desde  la  docencia  al  alumnado  universitario  no  nativo,  tanto  en  cursos  de   español  como  lengua  extranjera  (en  la  entonces  sociedad  de  relaciones  internacionales  de  la  universidad  de   alicante,  actualmente  centro  superior  de  idiomas),  como  en  la  licenciatura  y  posteriormente  en  el  grado,  así   como  en  el  programa  de  posgrado,  donde  se  ha  ido  incrementando  de  manera  significativa  el  número  de  tales   estudiantes.     para   abordar   todas   estas   cuestiones,   hemos   divido   el   presente   artículo   en   tres   apartados.   en   el   primero   de   ellos   se   revisa   la   fundamentación   teórica   en   la   que   se   enmarca   esta   dimensión   de   los   estudios   acerca   del   aprendizaje   por   contenidos   y   el   español   académico   (ea,   en   adelante),   con   referencias   a   los   realizados   en   el   área   de   la   lengua   inglesa   y   también   en   otros   ámbitos   educativos.   en   el   segundo   apartado   mostramos  el  trabajo  que  en  este  sentido  se  está  realizando  en  la  universidad  de  alicante  a  través  de  las  cinco   ediciones  del  curso  de  español  académico  para  alumnos  extranjeros  de  la  ua  (desde  2010-­‐11)  y  de  la  actual   red   de   investigación   en   docencia   universitaria,   que   tiene   como   objetivo   recabar   información,   mediante   encuestas,   sobre   las   necesidades   tanto   del   alumnado   de   movilidad   matriculado   en   asignaturas   del   departamento  de  filología  española,  lingüística  general  y  teoría  de  la  literatura,  como  del  profesorado  que   le  imparte  docencia;  en  relación  con  ella,  comentamos  a  su  vez  algunos  recursos  electrónicos  de  interés  acerca   del  lenguaje  académico.  todas  estas  propuestas  se  enmarcan  en  el  trabajo  que  se  está  llevando  a  cabo  desde  el   grupo   de   investigación   en   adquisición   y   enseñanza   de   segundas   lenguas   y   lenguas   extranjeras   (acqua,   http://dfelg.ua.es/acqua/),  en  su  línea  dedicada  al  español  académico,  sobre  el  que  a  su  vez  está  finalizando   una  investigación  doctoral  uno  de  sus  miembros.  el  tercer  y  último  apartado  lo  constituyen  las  conclusiones,   en   las  que   resumimos   los   resultados  de   las   actividades  que   acabamos  de  mencionar   y  proponemos   futuras   líneas  de  investigación.     2.   la   triple  dimensión  del   español   como  segunda  lengua  en   la  educación  superior   (esles):  lengua  no  nativa  para  aprender  contenidos,  lengua  de  especialidad  y  lengua   académica   si   hablamos   de   enseñanza   de   lenguas   a   través   de   contenidos   en   contexto   universitario,   tal   vez   debiéramos   comenzar   por   explicar   en   qué   consiste   el   aprendizaje   integrado   de   contenidos   y   lenguas   extranjeras,   aicle.   el   diccionario   de   términos   clave   del   español   como   lengua   extranjera   (http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/diccio_ele/indice.htm)   lo   explica   de   modo   acertado,   a   través  de  las  distintas  modalidades  en  que  puede  presentarse,  y  lo  define  del  siguiente  modo  (aunque  con  una   denominación   distinta,   que   no   ha   prosperado:   aprendizaje   de   segundas   lenguas   mediante   el   estudio   de   materias):   el   aprendizaje  mediante   el   estudio  de  materias   (en   inglés   se  usan   las   siglas  cbll:   content   based  language  learning)  es  una  propuesta  didáctica  que  integra  en  una  misma  asignatura   el   aprendizaje   de   una   lengua   extranjera   con   el   de   otros   contenidos   curriculares.   consiste,   aprendizaje  de  contenidos  a  través  del  esles   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30     17   pues,  en  estudiar  en  la  l2  alguna  de  las  materias  del  currículo  (generalmente  de  la  enseñanza   secundaria,  aunque  también  de  la  universitaria  o  de  la  de  lenguas  para  fines  específicos).  las   clases,  por  tanto,  no  las  imparten  profesores  de  la  l2,  sino  especialistas  de  la  materia  elegida,   que  además  son  competentes  en  la  l2.     (http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/diccio_ele/diccionario/aprendizajesegun dasestmaterias.htm)     como  es  sabido,  la  reflexión  sobre  clil  se  inició  alrededor  de  la  lengua  extranjera  más  demandada,  el   inglés,  y,  por  tanto,   la  mayoría  de   las  publicaciones  son  en  y  sobre  dicha   lengua.  en  efecto,  es  muy  amplia   la   bibliografía  sobre  aicle  (o  clil)  que  recoge  tanto  la  fundamentación  teórica,  que  discute  hasta  qué  punto  se   trata   de   un   contexto   de   enseñanza   o   de   una  nueva  metodología   (coyle,  hood  y  marsh,   2010;  marsh,   2000;   navés  y  muñoz,  2000;  ruiz  de  zarobe  et  al.,  2011),  como  la  investigación  sobre  los  resultados  de  su  aplicación   (dafouz   y   guerrini,   2009;   dalton-­‐puffer   y   smit,   2007;   escobar   et   al.,   2011;   lasagabaster   y   ruiz   de   zarobe,   2010).  paralelamente,  si  la  mayoría  de  los  estudios  estaban  enfocados  en  un  principio  a  los  niveles  educativos   iniciales  (primaria  y  secundaria),  en  los  últimos  años  han  proliferado  las  publicaciones  que  reflejan  el  interés   por  el  modo  en  que  se  está  enseñando  en  inglés  en   las  universidades  de  todo  el  mundo  (carrió,  2009;  doiz,   lasagabaster  y  sierra,  2013;  fortanet,  2013;  marsh,  pavón  y  frigols,  2013;  smit  y  dafouz,  2012).   puede  calificarse  de  fenómeno  social   la  situación  que  se  está  generando  en  la  enseñanza  superior  al   implantarse  cada  vez  mayor  número  de  asignaturas  universitarias  (también  grados  completos  o  impartidos  en   parte  en  inglés),  sin  ser  esta  la  lengua  materna  de  la  mayoría  de  los  estudiantes,  ni  la  oficial  del  país  en  que  se   imparte   esta   docencia.   aunque   son   muchos   los   motivos   que   explican   este   estado   de   cosas,   debemos   mencionar,  en  primer  lugar,  la  voluntad  y  necesidad  de  internacionalización  de  las  universidades,  impulsada   por  los  equipos  rectorales,  y  en  segundo  lugar,  el  requisito  de  una  lengua  de  comunicación  internacional  para   la  movilidad  estudiantil,  que  ha  sido  a  su  vez  incentivada  por  el  deseo  de  cursar  parte  de  los  estudios  en  un   país  distinto  del  propio,  por  el  enriquecimiento  lingüístico  y  cultural  que  ello  supone  y  por  el  valor  que  añade   al  currículum  a  la  hora  de  solicitar  un  empleo  con  posterioridad.     así  pues,  actualmente  se  usan  también  las  siglas  ememus  (english-­‐medium  education  in  multilingual   university  settings)  para  referirse  precisamente  al  contexto  universitario  (smit  y  dafouz,  2012)  y  distinguirse   así   de   las   utilizadas   hasta   ahora   para   etiquetar   el   objeto   de   estudio.   cada   una   de   ellas   tiene   implicaciones   distintas,  pues  no  es  solo  una  cuestión  terminológica:  nos  referimos  a  las  ya  mencionadas  clil,  pero  también,   con   el   mismo   sentido,   a   icl   (integrated   content   language);   más   tarde   surgió   emi   (english-­‐medium   instruction),  que  alude  al  inglés  como  lengua  vehicular,  pero  sin  que  haya  tanta  incidencia  en  la  didáctica  tanto   de   esta   lengua   como   del   contenido   de   la   materia,   como   sí   se   supone   en   las   anteriores   denominaciones;   y   finalmente,   junto   a   la   citada   ememus,   también   se   usa   iclhe   (integrated   content   language   in   higher   education).  en  todos  los  casos,  y  centrándonos  en  la  educación  superior,  entra  en  juego  el  incremento  de  las   opciones  de  adquisición  de  la  segunda  lengua  por   la  cantidad  y  calidad  del   input  que  los  estudiante  reciben,   pero   teniendo   también   en   cuenta   el   resto   de   factores:   su   rol   de   no   nativos,   por   supuesto;   la   diferente   literacidad  académica  que  puede  darse  entre  el  alumnado;  las  distintas  regulaciones  sobre  el  uso  de  la  lengua   en  el  aula  (con  presencia  o  no  de  otras  lenguas  además  de  la  vehicular,  por  ejemplo,  en  exámenes  o  trabajos),   o  las  variaciones  en  el  modo  de  concebir  este  tipo  de  enseñanza.   esta  coyuntura  –en  modo  alguno  nueva,  pero  sí  intensificada  en  los  últimos  tiempos–  hay  que  ponerla   en   relación   con   el   papel   del   inglés   como   lingua   franca   de   la   investigación   a   nivel   internacional,   en   la   que   además   se   espera   que   sean   publicados   los   resultados   obtenidos   (kuteeva   y  mauranen,   2014).   por   tanto,   si   tenemos  también  en  cuenta  que  gran  parte  del  desarrollo  científico  se  gesta  en  el  ámbito  universitario,  no  es   de  extrañar  que   cada  vez  haya  más  docencia  en   inglés  y,   consecuentemente,  más  estudios   sobre  el   registro   académico  de  esta  lengua.  aparte  de  los  trabajos  sobre  academic  english  (de  ya  larga  tradición,  con  especial   atención  a  los  géneros,  así  como  al  discurso  del  aula  y  el  rol  del  profesor),  esta  cuestión  está  en  la  base  de  las   decisiones  sobre  el  papel  del  inglés  como  lengua  vehicular  en  la  universidad,  en  especial  en  comunidades  ya   de  por  sí  bilingües,  donde  es   fundamental   la  regulación  sobre  el  uso  de   las   lenguas;  estas  directrices  suelen   quedar  plasmadas  en  documentos  oficiales  y  normativas  que   finalmente  determinan   los  usos   lingüísticos  y,   por   consiguiente,   el   estudio   de   las   lenguas   implicadas.   por   este   camino   nos   adentramos   en   cuestiones   de   política   lingüística  universitaria,  que  sin  duda  exceden   los  contenidos  de  este  artículo,  si  bien  no  queríamos   dejar   de   mencionar   (galindo   y   pastor,   en   prensa).   en   definitiva,   se   trata   de   un   cambio   a   nivel   global   que   supone  actuaciones  que  nos  implican  a  todos.  de  hecho,  marsh,  pavón  y  frigols  (2013)  establecen  veinte  y  seis   claves  para  el  éxito  de  este   tipo  de  programas  en   inglés,  partiendo  de   la  base  de  que  es  un   tema  que  afecta   pastor  cesteros   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30  18   tanto   a   alumnado   como   a   profesorado,   y   que   influye   a   su   vez   en   la   renovación   metodológica   y   en   el   aprendizaje  de  idiomas,  por  lo  que  se  requiere  abiertamente  un  enfoque  institucional  (marsh  et  al.,  2013)   las   consideraciones   previas   nos   sirven   para   ubicar   y   centrar   la   cuestión   por   lo   que   se   refiere   al   español  como  segunda  lengua  a  través  de  contenidos  y  para  interpretar  el  fenómeno  como  un  continuum  del   multilingüismo   que   caracteriza   a   las   sociedades   actuales   (gorter,   zenotz   y   cenoz,   2014;   fortanet,   2013).   porque,   visto   lo   que   está   sucediendo   en   inglés,   cabe   plantearse   cuál   es   la   situación   por   lo   que   respecta   al   español  como  lengua  extranjera  (e/le,  en  adelante).     aunque   en   otra   dimensión   distinta   a   la   de   la   enseñanza   en   inglés   (por   número   de   hablantes   y   prestigio   de   la   lengua),   es   indudable   que   uno   de   los   objetivos   de   la   mayoría   del   alumnado   de   movilidad   internacional  que  acude  a  la  universidad  tanto  en  españa  como  en  hispanoamérica  es,  además  de  la  obtención   de  la  correspondiente  titulación,  el  aprendizaje  de  la  lengua  y  la  cultura  hispanas.  en  ese  sentido,  es  evidente   también  la  ventaja  que  supone  situar  en  paralelo  el  aprendizaje  de  los  contenidos  curriculares  y  el  del  español   como  lengua  vehicular  de  los  mismos,  siempre  que  se  den  unos  requisitos  determinados.  en  efecto,  se  trata  de   un  reto  que  ha  de  convertirse  en  una  oportunidad,  para  lo  cual  se  necesita  buena  disposición  del  alumnado,   implicación   del   profesorado   y,   a  menudo,   herramientas   didácticas   de   apoyo   adicionales.   pues   bien,   toda   la   investigación  por  lo  que  se  refiere  al  e/le  y  el  aprendizaje  por  contenidos  ha  ido  de  la  mano  de  los  contextos   en   que   podemos   hablar   de   tales   circunstancias,   que   repasamos   a   continuación   y,   paralelamente,   de   los   estudios  sobre  español  académico,  sobre  los  que  ofrecemos  también  un  estado  de  la  cuestión.    hay  dos  ámbitos  educativos  desde  los  que  cabe  abordar  la  enseñanza  de  español  por  contenidos.  por   un   lado,  en  primaria  y  secundaria,  para  alumnado  extranjero  con  formación,  nivel  de   lengua  y  culturas  muy   diversos;  y  por  otro,  a  nivel  universitario.  pues  bien,  es  evidente  que  hasta  ahora  se  ha  estudiado  sobre  todo  el   primero   (blanco,   2010,   2011;   pastor,   2006;   trujillo,   2005;   villalba   y   hernández,   2004)2,   de   una   manera,   además,   directamente   relacionada   con   el   fenómeno   de   la   inmigración   y   la   enseñanza   del   español   como   segunda  lengua,  puesto  que  la  afluencia  de  alumnado  no  nativo  en  dichos  niveles  se  viene  dando  desde  que  se   ha  incrementado  el  número  de  inmigrantes  en  nuestro  país,  de  manera  que  se  ha  constituido  en  sí  en  otra  área   de  especialización,  por  su  interdisciplinariedad  y  la  relevancia  del  tema.     obviamente,  nos   centraremos  aquí   tan   solo  en  el   segundo  de   los   entornos  educativos,   la   educación   superior.   y   la   primera   cuestión   que   se   plantea   es   si   podemos   referirnos   a   aicle   en   la   educación   superior   hablando   de   español   como   sl,   puesto   que   no   se   trata   de   clases,   por   ejemplo,   en   francia,   con   alumnado   mayoritariamente  francés,  a  los  que  se  les  impartan  algunas  materias  de  la  facultad  de  medicina  en  español,   pongamos   por   caso;   sino,   por   el   contrario,   de   docencia   universitaria   en   españa   (o   en   cualquier   otro   país   hispanohablante)  a  las  que  acuden  estudiantes  no  nativos  de  español  a  través  de  programas  de  movilidad,  con   diferente  competencia  comunicativa  en  nuestra  lengua,  pero  iguales  necesidades  de  rendimiento  académico.   el  hecho  de  que  estemos  siempre  ante  contenidos  de  enseñanza  reglada  aprendidos  en  una  segunda   lengua   nos  permite  hablar  de  aicle,  puesto  que  este  es  un  modelo  que  admite  muchas  variantes,   entre   las  que   se   incluye  el   contexto  de   inmersión  y   los  niveles  educativos  más  altos.  para  extrapolar   las   conclusiones  de   los   estudios  sobre  clil  previamente  citados  a  la  aplicación  de  aicle  en  nuestro  contexto  harán  falta  todavía  más   estudios  empíricos  de   los  que  ahora  poseemos.  no  obstante,   la  bibliografía  de   la  que  disponemos  señala   las   evidentes  conexiones  de  esta  modalidad  de  enseñanza  con:     -­‐ el  estudio  del  español  como  lengua  de  especialidad3.   -­‐ la  enseñanza  de  español  para  fines  específicos  (efe),  dada  la  complejidad  y  profesionalización  de   los  contenidos  que  se  trabajan  en  la  universidad.   -­‐ y  la  configuración  del  español  académico  universitario  y  la  reflexión  sobre  su  aprendizaje  por  parte   de  no  nativos.                                                                                                                             2   disponemos   también   de   una   plataforma   web   denominada   ticcal   (técnicas   de   la   información   y   comunicación   combinadas   con   el   aprendizaje  de  lenguas),  destinada  al  aprendizaje  del  español  como  lengua  vehicular  en  la  enseñanza  de  disciplinas  no  lingüísticas  (dnl),   con  materiales  disponibles  para  los  contenidos  curriculares  de  secundaria:  http://www.ticcal.org/.   3  gómez  de  enterría  (2009:  19-­‐20)  define  del  siguiente  modo  las  lenguas  de  especialidad:  “son  las  lenguas  de  las  ciencias,  las  técnicas  y  las   profesiones.  estas  surgen  y  se  desarrollan  paralelamente  al  progreso  de  las  diferentes  ciencias  y  técnicas,  y  son  empleadas  para  llevar  a   cabo   la   transmisión  de   los   conocimientos   especializados.   […]  una   gran  parte  de   las   lenguas  de   especialidad   comparten   características   comunes,  lingüísticas  y  funcionales.  […]  además,  también  presentan  marcadas  diferencias  entre  ellas  mismas,  ya  sea  por  su  inclusión  en   un   ámbito   de   especialidad   determinado   (ciencias   experimentales,   ciencias   no   experimentales   o   humanas,   técnicas,   etc.)   como   por   su   realización   en   situaciones   comunicativas   concretas   que   condicionan   su   nivel   de   empleo:   especialización,   semidivulgación,   divulgación,   etc.”   aprendizaje  de  contenidos  a  través  del  esles   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30     19   veamos  en  primer   lugar   lo  que  sucede  en  las  aulas  universitarias  (al  menos,  en   las  españolas)  en  lo   que  se  refiere  al  perfil  del  alumnado,  según  los  datos  de  la  red  de  investigación  que  más  adelante  explicitamos.   si  por  un  lado  hay  muchos  estudiantes  internacionales  que  solicitan  asignaturas  en  inglés,  en  la  línea  de  lo  que   decíamos   anteriormente,   también   son   numerosos   los   que   acceden   a   ellas   en   español,   en   grupos   donde   el   porcentaje  entre  alumnado  nativo  y  no  nativo  es  muy  variable  y  en  los  que,  en  ocasiones  –curiosamente–  es   mayoritario  el  segundo,  con  las  implicaciones  que  ello  comporta.     una   consecuencia   de   ello,   sin   duda,   tiene   que   ver   con   el   profesorado,   que   está   centrado,   como   es   evidente,  en  la  docencia  de  su  especialidad  y  en  su  investigación.  por  tanto,  no  suele  ser  consciente  de  que  en   esta  situación  se  está  convirtiendo  al  tiempo,  indirectamente,  en  profesor  de  lengua  y  de  que  puede  (¿debe?)   utilizar   herramientas   alternativas   para   facilitar   el   acceso   a   los   contenidos   por   parte   de   los   estudiantes   extranjeros  y   la   interacción  con  él  y  el   resto  de  compañeros  (en   forma  de  un  discurso  de  aula  adaptado,  de   materiales  auxiliares,  etc.).     la  segunda  implicación  depende  del  nivel  de  competencia  comunicativa  que  tenga  el  estudiante,  pues   debe  permitirle  entender  las  lecciones,  interactuar  con  compañeros  y  profesores,  y  ser  evaluado  en  la  materia;   es  decir,  que  el  conocimiento  de  la  lengua  vehicular  por  su  parte  ha  de  tener  unos  mínimos,  si  bien  no  siempre   se  cumple  este  requisito  lingüístico.  a  modo  de  ejemplo,  en  la  facultad  de  filosofía  y  letras  de  la  universidad   de  alicante,  la  normativa  de  movilidad  de  2013  exige  un  b1  al  alumnado  extranjero  (lo  cual  ya  de  por  sí  no  es   mucho,   dada   la   complejidad   de  muchas  materias   y   el   hecho   de   que   el   propio   plan   curricular   del   instituto   cervantes  ubique  a  partir  de  un  b2   los  contenidos  de  especialidad  y  académicos).  pero   lo  cierto  es  que  este   requisito,  a  menudo,  no  se  exige  de  manera  taxativa,  pues  lo  cierto  es  que  se  permite  la  matrícula  y,  por  tanto,   se   accede   a   las   aulas   también   con   niveles   inferiores.   además,   en   otras  muchas   universidades   españolas   ni   siquiera  existe  tal  requisito,  lo  cual  contrasta  con  la  certificación  lingüística  que  con  toda  lógica  se  les  exige  a   nuestros   alumnos   cuando   acuden   a   un   campus   extranjero.   esta   falta   de   competencia   lingüística   puede   dificultar,  como  veremos  más  adelante,  el  rendimiento  académico  y  la  tasa  de  éxito  de  los  estudiantes.   por  último,  este  alumnado  asiste  a  las  clases,  pero  no  siempre  conoce  o  es  capaz  de  usar  en  español  la   terminología   de   la   lengua   de   especialidad   de   los   estudios   cursados.   todas   estas   circunstancias   han   de   ser   tenidas  en  cuenta  en  el  aula.  por  otro  lado,  como  decíamos  anteriormente,  el  estudio  de  esta  dimensión  de  la   lengua  está  directamente  relacionado  con  la  enseñanza  del  español  para  fines  específicos,  cuyas  coordenadas   establece  aguirre  en  estos  términos:   la   posición   preeminente   que   ocupa   el   español   en   el   mundo   como   lengua   de   cultura   y   de   comunicación  internacional,  así  como  la  complejidad  del  contexto  socioeconómico  y  político   de   los   siglos   xx   y   xxi,   han   incrementado   la   demanda   de   enseñanza   de   español   para   la   comunicación   en   ámbitos   académicos   y   profesionales.   esta   orientación,   enmarcada   en   la   denominación   de   enseñanza   de   español   con   fines   específicos   (efe),   se   define   como   el   enfoque   del   proceso   de   enseñanza-­‐aprendizaje   que   tiene   como   propósito   mejorar   las   capacidades   de   comprensión   y   expresión   que   se   requieren   para   desenvolverse   en   ámbitos   académicos  o  profesionales  y  exige  una   formación  especializada  del  profesorado,  en   lo  que   respecta  a  los  componentes  de  la  comunicación  académica  y  profesional  y  a  la  organización   del   proceso   de   enseñanza-­‐aprendizaje   para   adaptarlo   a   las   necesidades   reales   de   los   aprendientes.  (aguirre,  2012,  p.  5)     son  ya  numerosos   los   estudios  que   abordan  esta   realidad   (alcaraz  et   al.,   2007  o  robles   y   sánchez,   2012,   además   de   los   citados),   lo   cual   es  muestra   de   su   vitalidad.   y   tendrán   una   presencia   evidente   en   los   cursos  de   español   académico,   pues   cualquier   texto  para   la   práctica   lo   será,   por   fuerza,   de  una   especialidad   determinada  (derecho,  medicina,  economía,  etc.).  no  es,  sin  embargo,  el  único  obstáculo  que  hay  que  salvar,   pues   otra   de   las   carencias   que   suele   presentar   el   alumnado   extranjero   tiene   que   ver   precisamente   con   el   español  académico,  en  su  doble  vertiente:  la  cultural,  de  tradición  educativa,  por  un  lado,  y  la  más  puramente   textual,  con  tipologías  y  expresiones  específicas,  por  otro.     así   pues,   por   su   relevancia   en   la   cuestión  que  nos  ocupa,   procedemos  a   continuación  a   esbozar  un   breve  estado  de  la  cuestión  sobre  español  académico,  que  se  puede  definir  del  siguiente  modo:   el   discurso   académico  no   es   simplemente   la   lengua   que   habla   la   comunidad   científica.   los   programas  de  movilidad  europea  (erasmus  y  sócrates)  han  demostrado  que  la  comunicación   científica  incluye,  además,  como  objeto  de  investigación,  el  código  oral  y  escrito  que  docentes   y  estudiantes  utilizan  en  el  ámbito  universitario,  para  presentar,  discutir,  enseñar  y  evaluar   cuestiones   científicas.   competencia   comunicativa   significa,   en   este   contexto,   la   correcta   pastor  cesteros   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30  20   recepción  de  textos  orales  (clases  magistrales,  conferencias,  discusión  en  seminarios,  etc.)  y   la  producción  adecuada  de  textos  escritos,  especialmente  trabajos  monográficos  y  exámenes.   (vázquez,  2001,  p.  11)     haciendo  un  balance  de  la  investigación  que  se  ha  venido  realizando  en  el  ámbito  hispánico  acerca  del   aprendizaje   del   español   académico,   podemos   decir   que   surgió   con   el   fin   de   ofrecer   a   los   estudiantes   extranjeros  de  intercambio  universitario  que  cursan  sus  estudios  en  lengua  española  un  modelo  de  discurso  y   de  tipo  de  texto  tanto  desde  una  perspectiva  lingüística  como  pragmática  y  sociocultural  (pastor,  2006;  2010).   sin   duda,   la   autora   pionera   en   esta   área   ha   sido   la   profesora   graciela   vázquez   (2001),   quien   desarrolló   el   primer   proyecto   europeo   sobre   el   discurso   académico   en   español,   adieu,   del   que   resultaron   diversas   publicaciones  directamente  aplicadas  a  su  didáctica  entre  estudiantes  no  nativos.     con   posterioridad,   editó   otros   libros   de   reflexión   e   investigación   sobre   el   tema,   que   resultan   de   obligada  consulta  para   los   interesados  en  él   (vázquez,  2004;  2005;  2009).  y  ha  establecido   las  coordenadas   que  definen  la  enseñanza  de  la  lengua  con  fines  académicos  como:   [...]  una  disciplina  que  investiga  las  características  de  los  géneros  académicos  –en  un  amplio   sentido   de   la   palabra–   con   el   objetivo   de   facilitar   a   personas   no   nativas   de   una   lengua   la   adquisición  de  destrezas  que   les  permitan   cumplir   con  éxito   tareas  propias  de   los   ámbitos   universitarios,  entre  otras  producir  textos  y  comprender  clases  magistrales.  la  investigación   se  extiende  a  otras  áreas  relacionadas:  el  currículum,  el  análisis  de  necesidades,  los  objetivos,   los  marcos   teóricos  y   análisis  de  corpora,   el   enfoque  metodológico   (procesos  y  productos),   los   entornos  de  aprendizaje,   la   evaluación,   las   estrategias  de   comprensión  y  producción,   la   gramática   del   texto   académico,   los   materiales   y   otros   estudios,   como   puede   ser   el   de   la   perspectiva  de  la  lengua  materna.  (vázquez,  2004,  p.  1130)       desde  la  universidad  de  valparaíso,  en  chile,  giovanni  parodi  (2008;  2010)  ha  trabajado  también  los   géneros   académicos,   aunque   desde   la   perspectiva   de   la   lingüística   de   corpus.   por   su   parte,   también  daniel   cassany  (2009),  de  la  universitat  pompeu  fabra  de  barcelona,  ha  hecho  alguna  incursión  de  gran  interés  en   los  géneros  académicos.     paralelamente,   ha   habido   otras   aportaciones   al   estudio   del   español   académico,   pero   no   exclusivamente  desde  el  punto  de  vista  de  los  géneros  universitarios,  sino  más  bien  de  forma  combinada  con   los  discursos  profesionales  y  de  especialidad.  en  esa  línea  cabe  mencionar  las  obras  de  inmaculada  sanz  ávala   (2007),  blanca  aguirre  beltrán  (2012)  y  lucía  natale  (2012).  las  tres  constituyen  excelentes  presentaciones   del   tema;   sin   embargo,   por   los   objetivos   que   persiguen,   son   demasiado   generales   y   no   se   adentran   en   las   pautas  específicas  para  el  trabajo  de  textos  académicos  orales  y  escritos,  que  es  lo  que  aquí  nos  interesa.  en   esta  línea  más  concreta,  sí  contamos  con  algunas  obras  útiles  (goethals  et  al.,  2012;  llamas  et  al.,  2012;  varó   et  al.,  2012),  entre  cuyos  contenidos  hay  que  rastrear  para  conseguir  aunar  ambas  perspectivas,  la  lingüística   y  la  de  género.     se  observa,  pues,  un  creciente  interés  en  el  estudio  de  los  géneros  académicos  universitarios,  que  se   traduce   en   recientes   publicaciones   (perea,   2013;   regueiro   y   sáez,   2013).   en   particular,   regueiro   y   sáez   (2013),   de   la  universidad   complutense   de  madrid,   subtitulan   su   trabajo   con   evidente   intención   como  guía   práctica   para   la   elaboración   de   textos   académicos.   partiendo   de   una   reflexión   general   sobre   las   conexiones   entre   lenguaje   académico   y   lenguaje   científico,   hacen   un   exhaustivo   recorrido   por   los   géneros   académicos   tanto  escritos  (resumen,  abstract,  manual,  examen,  artículo  de  investigación,  monografía,  reseña  y  trabajos  de   investigación   tutelado,   que   incluyen   el   de   fin   de   grado   y   de  máster   y   la   tesis   doctoral),   como   orales   (clase   magistral,  exposición  oral  del  alumno  y  defensa  de  trabajos  tutelados).   entre  todos  los  libros  mencionados  con  anterioridad,  los  hay  que  están  destinados  exclusivamente  a   alumnado  extranjero  (los  menos),  al  nativo  de  español  (algunos  específicamente)  y  a  ambos  (la  mayoría).  en   cualquier   caso,   se   trata   del   material   del   que   disponemos   a   la   hora   de   trabajar   la   enseñanza   de   español   académico   en   entornos   universitarios   con   alumnado   de   movilidad.   y   se   ha   de   tener   en   cuenta   que   el   conocimiento  que   tengan  de   este   registro  del   español   tendrá  una   incidencia  directa   en   el   aprendizaje  de   la   lengua  a  través  de  contenidos.     hemos   intentado   mostrar   hasta   aquí   la   especificidad   de   este   contexto,   al   que,   frente   a   otras   denominaciones   en   uso   (e/le-­‐efe-­‐aicle),   podemos   referirnos   como   español   como   segunda   lengua   en   la   educación   superior   (esles).   consideramos   que   encauzar   adecuadamente   esta   subespecialidad   dentro   del   aprendizaje  de  contenidos  a  través  del  esles   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30     21   mundo  de  e/le  puede  tener  importantes  consecuencias  en  la  oferta  y  la  demanda  de  grados  y  posgrados  en  la   universidad  española  e  hispanoamericana.  de  ahí  su  relevancia.   a   continuación,   exponemos   algunas   de   las   acciones   que   en   este   sentido   estamos   llevando   a   cabo   desde  la  universidad  de  alicante.     3.  docencia  e  investigación  sobre  español  académico  en  la  universidad  de  alicante   en  el  marco  del  grupo  de   investigación  en  adquisición  y  enseñanza  de  segundas   lenguas  y   lenguas   extranjeras  de  la  universidad  de  alicante  (acqua,  http://dfelg.ua.es/acqua),  se  han  llevado  a  cabo  en  nuestra   universidad,  desde  el  año  2010-­‐11,  cinco  ediciones  del  curso  de  español  académico  para  alumnos  extranjeros   de   la   ua.   cada   uno   de   ellos   equivale   a   2   créditos   ects   y,   bajo   mi   dirección,   han   sido   impartidos   por   la   profesora  ana  gil  del  moral,  que  se  encuentra   finalizando  su   tesis  doctoral   sobre  el   tema   (gil  del  moral,   en   prensa,   2014).   en   ella,   se   demuestra   con   datos   empíricos   la   utilidad   de   estos   cursos   como   preparación   al   acceso   universitario   o   en   paralelo   al   desarrollo   de   las   clases.   han   participado   en   ellos   estudiantes   de  muy   diverso  origen,  todos  procedentes  de  programas  de  movilidad  y  que  cursan  clases  de  diferentes  titulaciones.   los  objetivos  que  se  persiguen  son  los  siguientes:     -­‐ que  el  alumno  que  ha  estudiado  varios  años  de  lengua  española,  pero  se  enfrenta  por  primera  vez  a   un  curso  universitario  en  español,  desarrolle  estrategias  para  un  uso  adecuado  de  esta  modalidad  de   lengua.   -­‐ que   sea   capaz   de   manejarse   en   español   con   fines   académicos,   tanto   desde   un   punto   de   vista   lingüístico   (comprender   clases   magistrales,   redactar   monografías   y   otros   trabajos   académicos)   como  desde  un  punto  de  vista  sociocultural  (entender  el   funcionamiento  del  sistema  universitario   en  el  que  se  realizará  la  estancia).   -­‐ que  mejore  el  rendimiento  académico  de  su  estancia  en  la  universidad  de  alicante.     los  contenidos  se  articulan  en  torno  a  tres  módulos:  el  primero,  con  un  análisis  de  necesidades  y  una   descripción   del   sistema   universitario   español   (donde   se   incluye   toda   la   información   sobre   competencia   pragmática   acerca   del   modo   de   interrelacionarse   alumnos   y   profesores);   en   el   segundo,   se   trabaja   la   comprensión  auditiva  (la  clase  magistral)  y   la  expresión  oral  (las  presentaciones  de  los  estudiantes);  y  en  el   tercero,  se  aborda  la  expresión  escrita,  a  través  de  trabajos  académicos  y  exámenes4.     curiosamente,  a  pesar  de  que  la  demanda  podría  ser  similar  en  gran  parte  de  la  universidad  española,   no   ha   proliferado   aún   este   tipo   de   cursos.   ello   tal   vez   sea   debido   a   que   esta  modalidad   de   enseñanza   aún   constituye  una  excepción  dentro  de  lo  que  lo  es  el  español  para  fines  específicos,  tal  como  señala  josefa  gómez   de  enterría:   con   respecto   al   proceso   de   enseñanza-­‐aprendizaje   de   español   lengua   de   especialidad   con   fines   académicos,   nos   encontramos   ante   una   situación   condicionada   por   la   demanda   institucional  que  se  desarrolla  en  las  escuelas  y  facultades  universitarias  donde  los  alumnos   extranjeros,   procedentes   de   los   diferentes   países   de   la   unión   europea,   cursan   en   españa,   gracias  a  los  programas  erasmus  y  sócrates,  los  estudios  correspondientes  a  los  últimos  años   de   la   licenciatura   ynecesitan,   por   tanto,   llevar   a   cabo   el   aprendizaje   de   español   lengua   de   especialidad   correspondiente   a   su   ámbito   de   estudio.   también   está   la   demanda   de   los   alumnos  que,  procedentes  en  su  mayoría  de  américa  del  norte  o  de  asia,  vienen  a  nuestro   país   a   realizar   estudios   generalmente   de   postgrado.   […]   sin   embargo,   con   ser   ésta   una   demanda  importante,  no  es  ni  mucho  menos  la  demanda  prioritaria  en  la  enseñanza  de  ele/2   con  fines  profesionales.  [la  cursiva  es  nuestra](gómez  de  enterría,  2009,  pp.  66-­‐67)      creo  que  podemos  decir  que  desde  2009  hasta  el  momento  ha  mejorado  en  gran  parte  la  situación  y   que,  a  buen  seguro,  en  un  futuro  próximo,  veremos  un  incremento  evidente  de  la  oferta  y  la  demanda  de  este   tipo  de  cursos.     paralelamente   a   esta   iniciativa,   durante   el   curso   2013-­‐14,   hemos   constituido   también   una   red   de   investigación   en   docencia   por   contenidos   (español   como   segunda   lengua)   en   el   proceso   de                                                                                                                             4puede  encontrarse  información  detallada  del  programa  en     http://dfelg.ua.es/acqua/actividades/v_curso_espanol_academico.pdf.   pastor  cesteros   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30  22   internacionalización  de  la  universidad  de  alicante,  dentro  del  programa  redes  de  investigación  en  docencia   universitaria  (http://web.ua.es/ice/redes),  que  el  instituto  de  ciencias  de  la  educación  de  la  universidad  de   alicante  convocó  en  su  xii  edición5.  está  coordinada  por  pastor  cesteros  e  integrada  por  otras  siete  profesoras   con  experiencia  en  docencia  con  no  nativos,  tanto  en  cursos  universitarios  de  e/le  como  en  planes  oficiales  de   estudios   (galindo,  timofeeva,  barrajón,  pérez  escribano,  contreras,  comes  y  gil  del  moral),  una  alumna  del   grado  de  español:   lengua  y  literaturas   (cabanes)  y  una  gestora  de  movilidad  de   la  facultad  de  filosofía   y   letras  (botella).  los  objetivos  que  perseguía  esta  red  son  los  siguientes:       1. describir   el   perfil   y   necesidades   del   alumnado   internacional   matriculado   en   asignaturas   de   lengua  y  literatura  españolas  de  diferentes  grados  de  la  facultad  de  filosofía  y  letras  e  identificar   las  asignaturas  que  más  demandan.   2. diagnosticar   los   puntos   fuertes   y   las   dificultades   con   las   que   se   encuentra   el   profesorado   que   imparte  las  materias  que  siguen.     asimismo,  las  preguntas  de  investigación  que  nos  planteábamos  eran  cuatro:     -­‐ ¿cuántos  alumnos  de  movilidad  acogidos  tiene  la  facultad  de  filosofía  y  letras  y  cuáles  son  su  perfil   y  necesidades?     -­‐ ¿cuáles  son   las  asignaturas  más  demandadas?  ¿coinciden  con   las  más  recomendadas  por  parte  de   los  coordinadores?   -­‐ ¿qué   relación   tiene   el   profesorado   de   tales   materias   con   el   alumnado   internacional   (atención   específica,  materiales  especiales,  grado  de  exigencia,  problemas  de  evaluación…)?     la  metodología  de   investigación  que  hemos  desarrollado  es  cualitativa,  y   consiste  en  recabar  datos   directamente  de  los  agentes  implicados  a  través  de  cuestionarios  que  indagan  en  su  percepción  de  la  situación   y   su   experiencia   docente   y   discente,   así   como   los   retos   que   se   les   plantean.   los   informantes   que   han   participado  en  este  estudio,  realizado  durante  el  curso  académico  2013-­‐14,  son,  por  un  lado,  23  profesores  del   dpto.  de  filología  española,  lingüística  general  y  teoría  de  la  literatura  de  la  facultad  de  filosofía  y  letras  de   la   universidad   de   alicante,   que   acogen   todos   ellos   a   alumnado   internacional   en   sus   aulas   y   le   imparten   asignaturas   en   español   (lo   que   constituye   aproximadamente   un   tercio   del   total   de   profesores,   pero   prácticamente   la   totalidad   de   los   que   reciben   un   número   significativo   de   extranjeros).   y,   por   otro,   30   estudiantes   extranjeros   de   diversas   nacionalidades,   que   se   encuentran   cursando  diversas   titulaciones   de   la   universidad  de  alicante,  si  bien  todas  incluyen  asignaturas  ofrecidas  en  español  por  este  departamento.     el  cuestionario  para  el  alumnado  consta  de  doce  preguntas  acerca  del  programa  internacional  al  que   pertenecen,  las  asignaturas  que  cursan  en  la  ua,  los  estudios  en  su  universidad  de  origen,  su  nivel  de  español   según  el  marco  común  europeo  de  referencia  (mcer),  el  nivel  de  lengua  que  se  les  ha  exigido  para  estudiar  en   la  ua,  sus  conocimientos  previos  sobre  las  materias  matriculadas  y  el  porqué  de  su  elección,  si  cumplen  sus   expectativas,   qué   dificultades   les   plantean,   si   disponen   de   los   programas,   si   tienen   claros   los   criterios   de   evaluación   y   qué   información   les   hubiese   sido   de   ayuda   antes   de  matricularse   (asignaturas   recomendadas   para   extranjeros,   impartidas   en   otra   lengua,   niveles   de   dificultad   lingüística   o   de   contenido,   criterios   de   evaluación,  etc.).   por  su  parte,   las  quince  cuestiones  planteadas  al  profesorado  del  departamento  giran  en  torno  a  su   experiencia  en  este  tipo  de  docencia,  la  procedencia  de  su  alumnado  extranjero,  la  opinión  sobre  su  presencia,   el  grado  de  asistencia,  integración  y  participación  en  las  clases,  cómo  les  plantean  sus  dudas  y  las  solucionan  o   qué  nivel  mínimo  de  español  consideran  que  deberían  poseer  para  seguir  el   contenido  de  su  asignatura.  la   última   parte   trata   sobre   cómo   transmiten   los   contenidos   de   las   materias   cursadas,   cómo   les   entregan   los   trabajos   académicos   y   las   prácticas,   cuáles   son   los   posibles   malentendidos   culturales   que   pueden   experimentar   durante   su   inmersión   académica   y,   sobre   todo,   cómo   es   la   evaluación   de   los   conocimientos   teniendo  en  cuenta  el  grado  de  exigencia  particular  de  los  docentes  y  de  la  misma  universidad.                                                                                                                             5  la  explicación  detallada  de  los  resultados  puede  consultarse  en  la  memoria  de  la  red  (pastor,  en  prensa).  morell,  también  del  acqua,  ha   coordinado  otra   red   similar,  pero  aplicada  al   inglés:   la  enseñanza  de   contenidos  en   inglés   en  el  proceso  de   internacionalización  de   la   universidad  de  alicante,  con  el  objetivo  de  determinar  el  estado  de  la  cuestión  sobre  el  tema  en  esta  universidad.   aprendizaje  de  contenidos  a  través  del  esles   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30     23   una  vez  finalizado  el  estudio,  podemos  afirmar  que  los  alumnos  de  movilidad  acogidos  desde  el  dpto.   de  filología  española  durante  el  curso  académico  2013-­‐14  son  205,  es  decir,  la  mitad  de  los  correspondientes   a  toda  la  facultad  de  filosofía  y  letras,  la  cual  reúne  a  su  vez  a  la  mitad  de  los  recibidos  en  toda  la  universidad   de  alicante.  estamos  hablando,  por  tanto,  de  una  cuarta  parte  de  la  población  total.  las  asignaturas  que  más   demandan   están   identificadas   y   coinciden   en   su   mayor   parte   con   las   más   recomendadas   por   los   coordinadores,  desde  el  punto  de  vista  de  la  posibilidad  de  un  seguimiento  efectivo  por  parte  del  estudiante.   además,  son  las  que  aparecen  entre  las  que  están  cursando  nuestros  informantes,  por  lo  que  serán  objeto  de   referencia   indispensable   en   la   elaboración   de   una   futura  guía   académica   para   el   alumnado   extranjero   que   pretendemos  desarrollar  en  la  próxima  edición  del  proyecto  redes.  a  continuación  resumimos  los  resultados   obtenidos.   por  lo  que  se  refiere  al  perfil  y  necesidades  de  este  alumnado  internacional,  lo  primero  que  cabe  decir,   respecto   a   su   competencia   en   español,   es   que   no   todos   reconocen  que   se   les   haya   exigido   un  determinado   nivel,  cuando  la  normativa  de  movilidad  de  la  facultad  de  filosofía  y  letras  establece  un  b1  como  mínimo.  no   obstante,   la   mayoría   afirma   disponer   de   un   b2,   aunque   es   cierto   que   algunas   de   las  materias   con   las   que   hemos   trabajo   requerían   a   su   vez   un   nivel   superior.   la   conclusión   evidente   es   que   si   las   asignaturas   solicitadas  por  el  alumnado  extranjero  están  asociadas  a  un  requisito  lingüístico  concreto,  este  dato  debe  ser   exigido  siempre.  por  otro  lado,  son  varios  los  motivos  por  los  que  los  estudiantes  internacionales  eligen  una   asignatura,   aunque   prevalece   el   interés   por   los   contenidos,   así   como   el   hecho   de   que   sean   objeto   de   una   posible   convalidación.   por   otra   parte,   si   bien   se   cumplen   las   expectativas   del   estudiante   con   respecto   a   las   asignaturas  cursadas,  los  criterios  de  evaluación  constituyen  la  mayor  dificultad  para  ellos,  dado  que  se  alejan   de  lo  que  se  les  pide  en  sus  universidades  de  origen  y  a  menudo  son  evaluados  de  la  misma  manera  que  los   estudiantes   españoles,   a   pesar   de   su   especificidad.   por   ello,   la   información   relativa   a   los   criterios   de   evaluación   debería   estar   destacada   en   la   guía   académica   para   que   el   alumno   conozca   desde   el   primer   momento  exactamente  cómo  va  a  ser  evaluado.  finalmente,  entre  las  informaciones  que  les  hubiera  gustado   tener  a  los  estudiantes  extranjeros,  figura  la  relativa  a  la  elaboración  de  un  trabajo  académico.     la   pregunta   de   investigación   referida   a   la   visión   del   profesorado   que   imparte   las   asignaturas  más   demandadas  sobre  el  alumnado  internacional  y  su  actitud  hacia  ellos  ha  sido  respondida  de  manera  clara.  la   gran  mayoría  percibe  su  presencia  como  un  elemento  positivo  y  estimulante,  por  la  posibilidad  que  brinda  de   contrastar  diferentes  opiniones,   lenguas,  culturas  y  tradiciones  educativas.  y  paralelamente,  constata  que  su   integración  con  el  resto  del  alumnado  es  adecuada.  no  obstante,  ello  no  les  impide  valorar  de  manera  crítica   algunas  de  las  dificultades  con  las  que  se  encuentran.  entre  ellas  destacan,  a  gran  distancia  respecto  al  resto,  el   tema   de   la   competencia   comunicativa   (lingüística   y   pragmática)   necesaria   para   interactuar   en   el   aula   y   realizar   las  prácticas  y  exámenes  de  la  asignatura.  es  en  las  destrezas  productivas  (hablar  y  escribir),  en  las   que  resulta  más  evidente  el  hecho  de  que  son  estudiantes  que  cursan  las  materias  en  lo  que  para  ellos  es  una   lengua   adicional   (es   decir,   no   nativa:   puede   ser   la   segunda,   tercera…).   en   este   sentido,   los   profesores   consideran   en   su   mayoría   imprescindible   proporcionar   materiales   bibliográficos   o   recursos   adaptados   o   recomendados  especialmente  para  ellos.  en  suma,  el  nivel  lingüístico  es  lo  que  más  preocupa  al  profesorado.   por  último,  aunque  en  un  porcentaje  menor,  se  cita   la  evaluación,  para   la  que  se  reclaman  directrices  sobre   criterios  de  calificación  de  los  textos  orales  y  escritos  del  alumnado  extranjero  con  el  fin  de  adoptar  decisiones   coherentes   y   consensuadas   por   parte   de   todos   los   docentes.   en   definitiva,   la   predisposición   positiva   del   profesorado,  tanto  hacia  la  presencia  de  los  alumnos  de  movilidad  en  clase  como  hacia  la  labor  de  adaptación   de   los   contenidos,   materiales   o   de   la   evaluación   para   este   público,   determina   un   clima   de   normalidad   generalmente  presente  en  las  aulas.  no  obstante,  los  docentes  basan  con  frecuencia  su  actuación  en  su  propia   intuición  pedagógica  y  echan  en  falta  unas  pautas  claras  de  cómo  enfrentarse  a  ciertas  situaciones  que  se  dan   con   el   alumnado   extranjero.   de   ahí   la   oportunidad   de   una   futura   guía   académica   que   pueda   resultar   de   utilidad   para   optimizar   la   presencia   de   los   alumnos   internacionales   en   nuestras   aulas   y   aportar   beneficios   para  ambas  partes  del  proceso  docente.     sin  duda,  la  ampliación  de  estudios  como  el  precedente  a  otros  colectivos  y  contextos  universitarios   podrá   arrojar  más   luz   sobre   la   situación   real   del   español   como   segunda   lengua   en   la   educación   superior   (esles)  y  nos  ayudará  a  tomar  decisiones  al  respecto.   para  finalizar  este  apartado,  queremos  simplemente  mencionar  otros  recursos  electrónicos  que  de  un   modo  u  otro  pueden   contribuir   a  una   estancia  del   alumnado  extranjero  más  provechosa  desde   el   punto  de   vista  del  rendimiento  académico.  muchos  de  ellos  existen  desde  hace  tiempo;  sin  embargo,  no  siempre  son  lo   suficientemente  conocidos  o  han  obtenido   la  difusión  adecuada  entre  sus  destinatarios.  nos   referimos  a   las   guías   de   conversación   universitaria,   de   los   servicios   lingüísticos   de   la   universidad   de   barcelona;   al   portal   pastor  cesteros   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30  24   class-­‐talk.   a   university   teaching   phrasebook,   de   la   universitat   politècnica   de   catalunya   (alsina,   2012);   al   corpus  terminológico  higher  education  lexicon,  del  servei  de  llengües  i  terminologia,  de  la  misma  institución;  o  al   portal  argumenta,  respaldado  por  el  conjunto  de  universidades  de  cataluña6.     tras   esta   presentación   de   la   docencia   e   investigación   que   sobre   español   académico   estamos   desarrollando  desde  la  universidad  de  alicante,  establecemos  a  continuación  algunas  de  las  conclusiones  a  las   que  hemos  llegado.     4.  conclusiones   a   lo   largo   de   este   artículo   hemos   presentado   los   fundamentos   de   aicle,   partiendo   de   sus   inicios   aplicados  a  la  lengua  inglesa  en  niveles  preuniversitarios,  para  abordar  después  más  detalladamente  el  interés   actual  por   la   situación  de   la  docencia   en   inglés   como  segunda   lengua  en   la  universidad.  este  hecho,  que  va   camino   de   convertirse   en   un   fenómeno   global,   afecta   tanto   a   su   dimensión   didáctica   (pues   constituye   un   nuevo  enfoque),   como   institucional   (por   su   relación  con   la  política   lingüística  universitaria)  y   social   (con  el   papel  del  inglés  como  lingua  franca  en  la  ciencia  y  la  investigación).     trasladando   este   concepto   al   español   como   segunda   lengua,   mantenemos   que   también   se   puede   hablar  de  aicle  en  el  contexto  de  la  educación  superior,  con  las  consiguientes  implicaciones  para  el  estudio   de   la   lengua  de  especialidad  y  para   la   enseñanza   tanto  del   español  para   fines   específicos   como  del   español   académico,  sobre  el  que  hemos  ofrecido  el  estado  de  la  cuestión.  tras  las  implicaciones  para  el  profesorado  y   el   alumnado  de   este   tipo  de  docencia,   y   ya   en  el   tercer   apartado,  hemos  presentado   las   actuaciones  que   se   están   llevando  a  cabo  en  este  ámbito  desde  el  grupo  de   investigación  acqua  de   la  universidad  de  alicante:   por  un  lado,  hemos  descrito  la  estructura  y  contenido  de  los  cinco  cursos  de  español  académico  hasta  ahora   realizados,  y  por  otro,  hemos  expuesto   los  objetivos,  metodología  y  resultados  de   la  red  de   investigación  en   docencia  por  contenidos  (español  como  segunda  lengua)  en  el  proceso  de  internacionalización  de  la  ua.   algunas  de  las  conclusiones  que  pueden  derivarse  de  todo  ello  son  las  siguientes:     -­‐ programar   de   manera   adecuada   y   consciente   una   enseñanza   universitaria   de   español   por   contenidos  (por  parte  del  profesorado)  puede  mejorar  el  aprendizaje  de   la  materia  y  de   la   lengua   vehicular  del  alumnado  extranjero.     -­‐ hay  que  considerar  la  triple  dimensión  del  esles:  lengua  no  nativa  a  través  de  la  que  se  aprenden   contenidos   (en   contexto   de   inmersión),   lengua   académica   (de   uso   en   un   entorno   universitario)   y   lengua  de  especialidad  (como  reflejo  de  un  área  de  conocimiento  o  profesión  específicos).     -­‐  hacen  falta  más  estudios  empíricos  acerca  de  la  situación  de  la  docencia  en  español  para  alumnado   internacional.   sin   embargo,   de   los   resultados   de   la   investigación   descrita   se   deduce   que   la   elaboración   de   una   guía   académica   para   el   alumnado   extranjero   que   incluya   la   información   que   estos   estudiantes   demandan   (y   que   abordaremos   en   la   próxima   edición   de   redes)   ayudará   al   aprovechamiento   real   de   la   estancia  universitaria,   desde   la  perspectiva  de  un  mayor   rendimiento   académico   y   mayores   tasas   de   éxito.   un   aspecto   sobre   el   que   aún   no   existen   datos   a   nivel   institucional,  pero  que,  en  definitiva,  es  el  objetivo  de  la  movilidad  estudiantil.       sin  duda,  queda  tarea  por  realizar.  una  de  las  posibles  futuras  líneas  de  trabajo  pasaría  por  conocer  el   estado  de   la  cuestión  en  mayor  número  de  universidades,   tanto  españolas  como  hispanoamericanas,   lo  cual   podría   darnos   una   visión   de   conjunto   real   y   no   limitada   a   un   contexto   concreto.   también   habría   de   comprobarse   la   utilidad   real   de   una   guía   académica   para   el   alumnado   extranjero   como   la   que   aquí   proponemos,   desde   el   punto  de   vista   de   la   adquisición  de   la   lengua.  además,   cabría   identificar   los   géneros   académicos  que  presenten  mayor  dificultad  para  este  tipo  de  estudiantes,  con  el  objetivo  de  crear  materiales   específicos   e   innovadores.   en   definitiva,   se   requiere   aún  mayor   investigación   acerca   de  aicle   y   el   español   como   segunda   lengua   en   el   ámbito   universitario,   si   bien   confiamos   en   haber   sentado   las   bases   para   el   acercamiento   a   un   tema   que,   por   su   proyección   futura,   está   destinado   a   ser   vital   en   el   proceso   de   internacionalización  de  la  universidad  en  español.                                                                                                                                   6  en  el  anexo  1  se  recogen  las  direcciones  electrónicas  de  todos  ellos,  así  como  comentarios  sobre  su  utilidad.   aprendizaje  de  contenidos  a  través  del  esles   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30     25   referencias  bibliográficas     aguirre  beltrán,  blanca  (2012).  aprendizaje  y  enseñanza  de  español  con  fines  específicos.  madrid,  españa:  sgel.   alcaraz   varó,   enrique,   mateo   martínez,   josé   y   yus,   francisco   (eds.)   (2007).   las   lenguas   profesionales   y   académicas.  barcelona,  españa:  ariel/iulma.   alsina,  montserrat  et  al.  (2012).  class-­‐talk,  una  guía  de  conversa  per  fer  clases  en  una  altra  llengua.  jornada  d’innovació   docent,   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  de   asele.   fundación   comillas,   117-­‐128:   http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/asele/pdf/20/20_0117.pdf   villalba   martínez,   félix   y   hernández,   maría   teresa   (2004).   español   como   segunda   lengua   en   contextos   escolares.  en  sánchez  lobato,  jesús  y  santos  gargallo,  isabel  (eds.).  vademécum  para  la  formación  de   profesores.   enseñar   español   como   segunda   lengua   y   lengua   extranjera.  madrid,   españa:   sgel,   1225-­‐ 1258.   pastor  cesteros   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30  28   anexo   recursos  electrónicos  sobre  lenguaje  académico   • serveis  lingüístics  de  la  universitat  de  barcelona,  col·lecció  de  guies  de  conversa  universitària.     disponible  en:  http://www.ub.edu/sl/guia/index.php     la  web  de  la  colección  de  guías  de  conversación  universitaria  de  los  servicios  lingüísticos  de   la  universidad   de  barcelona   ofrece   la   guía   hasta   en   19   lenguas   europeas,   desde   las   que   se   pueden   establecer   traducciones   paralelas,   con   su   correspondiente   pronunciación   en   audio.   los   temas,   ordenados  en  veinte  bloques,  giran  en   torno  a   la  matrícula,   la  oficina  del  alumnado,   la  biblioteca,  el   servicio   de   copistería,   la   tutoría,   etc.   puesto   que   se   incluye   la   lengua   española,   en   la   actualidad   se   puede  fácilmente  utilizar  esta  herramienta  en  cursos  de  español  académico  como  los  descritos  en  el   artículo.   las  primeras  ediciones  en  papel  de  la  colección  aparecieron  a  finales  de  la  década  de  los  90  y   su   objetivo   era   proporcionar   a   los   estudiantes   de   movilidad   recursos   para   la   comunicación   en   contexto   universitario   con   el   fin   de   poder   aprovechar   las   prestaciones   que   la   universidad   les   proporcionaba   y   facilitar   su   estancia.   se   trataba   de   guías   bilingües,   catalán/inglés,   catalán/francés,   catalán/alemán…  que  pretendían  incentivar  el  aprendizaje  del  catalán  (lengua  vehicular  en  la  mayoría   de  las  facultades  en  cataluña)  por  parte  de  los  estudiantes  internacionales.  aunque  eran  conscientes   de  que   las  principales  necesidades   lingüísticas  del  alumnado  extranjero  estaban  relacionadas  con   la   enseñanza   (la   intercomprensión   entre   profesores   y   estudiantes   o   una   competencia   suficiente   para   leer   los   textos   de   la   especialidad)   y   se   remitían   a   otras   instancias   para   ese   conocimiento   más   profundo   de   la   lengua,   estas   guías   se   concibieron   como   un   instrumento   de   partida   en   el   ámbito   comunicativo   universitario.   en   2001,   las   universidades   valencianas   se   sumaron   a   este   proyecto   y   editaron   una   adaptación   de   la   versión   inglesa   en   una   guía   de   conversación   universitaria   inglés-­‐ valenciano.  en  la  actualidad,  más  de  una  década  después,  las  opciones  se  han  ido  ampliando  y,  aparte   de  los  libros,  se  dispone  de  la  web  descrita  y  de  una  aplicación  para  móviles.       • universitat  politècnica  de  barcelona:  class-­‐talk.  a  university  teaching  phrasebook.     disponible  en;  http://www.upc.edu/slt/classtalk/     la   web   class-­‐talk.   a   university   teaching   phrasebook,   de   la   universitat   politècnica   de   catalunya   (upc),   ofrece   un   instrumento  muy   práctico   para   el   conocimiento   de   la   fraseología   de   la   docencia   universitaria.   se   pueden   consultar,   en   catalán,   inglés   y   español,   en   la   combinación   que   se   requiera,   las   expresiones   usadas   en   dicho   contexto   docente,   organizadas   en   dos   bloques   (con   alrededor   de   300   expresiones   cada   uno   de   ellos   y   audio   en   catalán   e   inglés).   por   un   lado,   la   clase   propiamente   dicha   (inicio,   desarrollo,   interacción   con   el   alumnado,   soporte   visual   y   documental   y   final);  y,  por  otro,  situaciones  concretas  (primer  día  de  curso,  actividades  en  clase,  en  el  laboratorio,   ordenadores,   trabajos   y   deberes,   exámenes   y   situaciones   imprevistas).   es   obvio   que,   aunque   el   objetivo   inicial  del  proyecto   fuera   la  comunicación  en   las  clases  universitarias   impartidas  en   inglés,   puede   ser  de  hecho   igualmente  útil   para   los   estudiantes   con   conocimientos  de   inglés  que   asistan   a   clases  tanto  en  catalán,  como  en  español.     • servei  de  llengües  i  terminologia  de  la  upc,  higher  education  lexicon.   disponible  en:    http://www.upc.edu/slt/helexicon/menu.php?p_idioma=3     el   servei   de   llengües   i   terminologia   de   la   upc   ha   desarrollado   también   un   corpus   terminológico   denominado  higher   education   lexicon   que   dispone   de  más   de   10.000   denominaciones   del   ámbito   académico  y  el  espacio  europeo  de  educación  superior,  en  inglés,  catalán  y  castellano.  está  enfocado   a   la   comunidad   universitaria,   en   particular,   para   la   comprensión,   redacción   y   traducción   de   documentos   sobre   tales   cuestiones.   no   es,   por   tanto,   una   herramienta   tan   didáctica   como   las   anteriores,  sino  más  bien  de  consulta,  pero  igualmente  útil  y  válida,  para  cualquiera  de  los  hablantes   de  las  tres  lenguas.       aprendizaje  de  contenidos  a  través  del  esles   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30     29   • servei  de  llengües  de  la  ub  i  de  la  universitat  pompeu  fabra  (upf),  argumenta.  competències  lingüístiques   i  comunicatives  en  l’àmbit  acadèmic  i  profesional.   disponible  en:  http://wuster.uab.cat/web_argumenta_obert/     argumenta  es  un  portal  destinado  a  mejorar  las  competencias  lingüísticas  y  comunicativas  en  catalán  en   el   ámbito   académico   y   profesional.   está   respaldado   por   el   conjunto   de   universidades   de   cataluña   y   configurado   como   un   sistema   de   formación   virtual   para   estudiantes   universitarios;   en   realidad,   es   material  multimedia  para  el  aprendizaje  autónomo  y  está  estructurado  en  24  temas:  apuntes,  resúmenes,   fichas,   reseñas,   lectura   rápida,   exposición   oral,   examen,   argumentación,   hipótesis,   póster,   artículo,   informe,  currículum,  entrevista  de  trabajo,  etc.  aunque  es  cierto  que  está  orientado  exclusivamente  a   la   enseñanza  universitaria  en  catalán  como  segunda  (y  primera)  lengua,  puede  ofrecer  innumerables  ideas   para  ser  aplicadas  en  cualquier  otra  segunda  lengua  en  la  que  se  ofrezca  la  docencia  universitaria.                                                 pastor  cesteros   e-­‐journall  1  (2014),  15-­‐30  30   susana pastor cesteros, universidad de alicante, grupo de investigación acqua spc@ua.es es susana pastor cesteros es profesora de lingüística aplicada de la universidad de alicante, donde ha sido docente y coordinadora académica de los cursos de español para extranjeros. especializada en e/le, es autora de aprendizaje de segundas lenguas. lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza de idiomas (2004), así como de la coedición de tendencias y líneas de investigación en adquisición de segundas lenguas (2001) y la evaluación en la enseñanza y aprendizaje del español como l2 y sl (2008). dirige el grupo de investigación en adquisición y enseñanza de segundas lenguas y lenguas extranjeras de la universidad de alicante (acqua). es presidenta, desde octubre de 2008, de la asociación para la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera (asele). en susana pastor cesteros is a professor of applied linguistics at the university of alicante, where she has worked both as an instructor and as the academic coordinator for the spanish for foreigners program. specializing in spanish as a foreign language, she is the author of aprendizaje de segundas lengua: lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza de idiomas (2004), as well as co-editor of tendencias y líneas de investigación en adquisición de segundas lenguas (2001) and la evaluación en la enseñanza y aprendizaje del español como l2 y sl (2008). she directs the second language acquisition and teaching research group (acqua) at the university of alicante and has served as president of the association for the teaching of spanish as a foreign language (asele) since october 2008. it susana pastor cesteros è professoressa di linguistica applicata all’università di alicante, dove è stata docente e coordinatrice accademica dei corsi di spagnolo per stranieri. specializzata in spagnolo come lingua straniera, è autrice di aprendizaje de segundas lenguas. lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza de idiomas (2004), e coeditrice di tendencias y líneas de investigación en adquisición de segundas lenguas (2001) e la evaluación en la enseñanza y aprendizaje del español como l2 y sl (2008). dirige il gruppo di ricerca in acquisizione e insegnamento di seconde lingue e lingue straniere dell’università di alicante (acqua). è presidente, dall’ottobre del 2008, dell’associazione per l’insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua straniera (asele).   walker_4.2 euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-­‐journall,  volume  4,  issue  2,  december  2017,  pages  28-­‐48   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.7.95   www.e-­‐journall.org   ©  walker  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.         politeness  norms:  a  pilot  study  on  the  accomplishment  of     apologies  by  learners  of  italian1       talia  walker*   the  university  of  sydney         received  30  march  2017;  received  in  revised  form  28  september  2017;  accepted  21  november  2017     abstract   en in the increasingly globalised world, intercultural and cross-cultural relations are becoming ever more frequent and significant. within this diverse cultural space, miscommunications tend to arise and have the ability to significantly impact upon intercultural interactions. thus, this paper explores the use of politeness strategies by learners of italian during the performance of the speech act of apology. specifically, the paper examines the presence of italian and australian english politeness norms in the realisation of these apologies, focussing on three principle areas of investigation: (i) the way in which the social variables of the scenario were evaluated by participants, (ii) the participants’ use of formal terms of address, and (iii) the modification of explicit expressions of apology. it was found that although tendencies of both italian politeness and australian english politeness were demonstrated by participants, the latter was more prominent, thus suggesting l1 influence on l2 realisation and some difficulty in the negotiation of the intercultural space. key words: apologies, language learners, italian l2, politeness es en un mundo cada vez más globalizado, las relaciones interculturales e interculturales van cobrando relevancia y son cada vez más frecuentes. dentro de este diverso espacio cultural, los problemas de comunicación van en aumento e impactan de forma significativa sobre las interacciones interculturales. bajo este marco, el presente trabajo explora el uso de estrategias de cortesía por parte de aprendientes de italiano durante el acto de habla de la disculpa. concretamente, se examina la presencia de normas de cortesía de la lengua italiana y del inglés australiano al efectuarse estas disculpas, centrándose la investigación en tres áreas principales: (i) la forma en que las variables sociales del escenario fueron evaluadas por los participantes, (ii) el empleo de fórmulas de tratamiento formales por parte de los participantes, y (iii) la modificación de expresiones explícitas de disculpa. se descubrió que, aunque los participantes mostraron tendencias propias de la cortesía en italiano y de la cortesía en inglés australiano, esta última resultó más prominente, lo que sugiere una influencia de la l1 en la realización de la l2 y una cierta dificultad en la negociación del espacio intercultural. palabras clave: disculpas, aprendientes de lengua, italiano como l2, cortesía it in un mondo sempre più globalizzato, le relazioni interculturali e multiculturali diventano vieppiù frequenti e importanti. all’interno di questo spazio culturale variegato, tendono a verificarsi cattive comunicazioni che influiscono significativamente sulle interazioni interculturali. in questo studio si analizza l’uso delle strategie di cortesia da parte degli apprendenti di italiano durante l’enunciazione dell’atto linguistico della scusa. nello specifico, lo studio prende in esame la presenza di regole di cortesia nell’italiano e nell’inglese australiano nella realizzazione di tali scuse, concentrandosi su tre aree di ricerca principali: (i) come i partecipanti hanno valutato le variabili sociali dello scenario, (ii) l’uso da parte dei partecipanti di termini formali e (iii) la modificazione di espressioni di scuse esplicite. anche se la tendenza alle formule di cortesia nei partecipanti è stata dimostrata sia in italiano sia nell’inglese australiano, i risultati ci dicono che è stata più spiccata in quest’ultimo, indicando l’influsso della l1 sulla comprensione della l2 e una certa difficoltà nella negoziazione dello spazio interculturale. parole chiave: scuse, apprendenti di lingua, italiano l2, cortesia                                                                                                                           *  contact:  talia.walk@outlook.com     1  sincere  thanks  to  associate  professor  antonia  rubino  for  her  comments  on  this  paper.   walker   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48   29   1.  introduction   this   paper   explores   the   performance   of   apologies   as   accomplished   by   learners   of   italian   in   a   university  context  in  sydney,  new  south  wales,  australia.  although  the  apology  is  a  face-­‐threatening  speech   act   (fta)   (blum-­‐kulka   &   olshtain,  1984,   p.   206),   it  has   not   been   investigated   extensively   in   relation   to   the  italian  language  and  from  the  perspective  of  language  acquisition  (nuzzo,  2007).     austin   (1975   [1962])   recognised   that   the   intended   meanings   conveyed   through   speech   acts   are   intimately  connected  with  the  situational  context  in  which  utterances  are  produced.  variations  in  speech  act   realisation   signify   that   individuals   may   have   diverse   expectations   of   the   same   interaction   and   thus   miscommunications   may   arise.   such   variations   are   often   caused   by   personal   or   cultural   factors;   both   the   performance  of  and  response  to  apologies  can  vary  across  cultures  (park,  lee  &  song  2005,  p.  365).  although   speakers  may  produce  any  number  of  utterances,  successful  communication  is  conditioned  by  norms  arising   from  habit   and   general   usage   (bettoni,   2006,   p.   71)   and   all   speech   sequences   are   embedded  with   cultural   information   (wolfson,   1988,   p.   24).   in   fact,   apologies   are   one   of   the  most   culturally   sensitive   speech   acts   (suszczyńska,   1999,   p.   1053)  and   thus   offer   rich   units   of   pragmatic   analysis,   as   will   be   evidenced   in   the   present  paper.   the   data   analysed   here   are   part   of   a   larger   project2   in   which   learners   of   italian   at   different   proficiency   levels  were   asked   to   complete   a  written  discourse   completion  task   (henceforth  dct)3.   in   this   task,   participants   were   presented   with   four   scenarios   to   which   they   could   respond   with   an   apology   formulated   in   an   email.   they  were   also   asked   to   evaluate   each   scenario   in   relation   to   three   variables:   the   social  distance  between  the  participant  and  the  interlocutor,  the  status  of  the  interlocutor  in  relation  to  the   participant,  and  the  degree  of  severity  of  the  offence  for  which  the  apology  was  being  offered.   this  paper  will  specifically  focus  upon  one  of  the  four  scenarios:  accidental  theft  after  having  stayed   with  the  family  of  a   friend  in  italy.  this  scenario  was  chosen  as  the  participants’  responses  demonstrated  a   great  degree  of  variation  and  were  rich  in  intercultural  phenomena.     the   following   analysis   explores   the   impact   of   australian   english   politeness   norms   on   the   participants’  realisation  of  apologies  in  italian,  taking  into  account  the  whole  apology  act  sequence.  as  will  be   shown,  australian  english  social  norms  were  prevalent  in  the  participants’  responses,  specifically  in  the  way   in  which   they   perceived   the   relationships   between   themselves   and   their   italian   interlocutors.   this   in   turn   impacted   upon  their   formulation   of   apologies   in   italian,   including   the  way   in  which   formality   and   apology   modification  were  used.   as   i   will   argue,   this   paper   confirms   the   difficulty   which   language   learners   may   face   when  navigating  the  intercultural  space  (cheng,  2013;  formentelli  &  hajek,  2013;  trosborg,  1987,  1995)  and   thus,   by   implication,   evidences  the   necessity   of   a   pedagogical   approach   to   language   teaching   which   incorporates  pragmatics  and  cultural  awareness.       2.  theoretical  framework:  politeness   in   an   intercultural   communicative   context,   and   in   the   process   of   language   acquisition   specifically,   familiarity  with   the   pragmatic   rules   and   norms   of   a   culture   and   language   are   vital   for   ensuring   successful   communication  (schauer,  2009,  p.  13).    languages  and  cultures  involve  varying  degrees  of  collaboration  and   some  are  more  conflictual  than  others  (rubino,  2011,  p.  12;  rubino  &  bettoni,  2006),  a  reality  that  may  not   align  with  the  expectations  of  language  learners.     theories   of   politeness   are   thus   essential   to   discussions   of   intercultural   speech   act   realisation,   as   politeness  norms  can  have  a  significant   impact  upon  both   the  production  and  understanding  of  utterances.   for   example,   a   particularly   influential   model   of   cooperative   communication   is   grice’s   (1989)   cooperative   principle  and  conversational  maxims,  although   it   is  not   the   theoretical   framework  upon  which   the  present   work  is  based.    this  paper  draws  upon  the  foundations  of  brown  and  levinson’s  politeness  theory  (1987)  in   order   to   explore   the   apologies   of   language   learners.   a   pertinent   concept   in   understanding   politeness,   particularly  when   investigating  culturally-­‐salient  phenomena  such  as  speech  acts,   is   that  of   face,   the  “social   value   a   person   effectively   claims   for   himself   by   the   line   others   assume   he   has   taken   during   a   particular                                                                                                                             2   this   paper   arises   from   an   honours   thesis   project   conducted   at   the   university   of   sydney   under   the   supervision   of   associate  professors  antonia  rubino  and  ahmar  mahboob.   3  in  some  literature,  dct  is  identified  as  ‘discourse  completion  test’;  however,  ‘discourse  completion  task’  was  used  in   this  paper  as  it  is  the  more  common  term.     politeness  norms:  apologies  by  learners  of  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     30   contact”  (goffman,  2003,  p.  7).  politeness  theory  identifies  two  types  of  face:  negative  face  refers  to  the  desire   to  be  free  from  the  imposition  of  others,  while  positive  face  entails  the  desire  to  be  appreciated  and  approved   by  others  (brown  &  levinson,  1987,  pp.  65-­‐67).  ftas  are  speech  acts  which  in  some  way  pose  a  threat  to  the   face  wants  of  any   interlocutor   (brown  &  levinson,  1987,  p.  65).   such  acts   include  complaints,  requests   and   apologies.   as   has   been   widely   recognised,   interactional   understandings   can   vary   vastly   across   cultures   and   languages  (bettoni,  2006;  clyne,  1994;  di  luzio,  2003;  gumperz,  1982;  kecskes,  2012;  kiesling,  2015;  leech,   1983;   peeters,   2013;   wierzbicka,   2005,   2010;   yates,   2010);   hence,   brown   and   levinson’s   politeness   framework  is  relevant  only  when  the  cultural  assumptions  and  presuppositions  made  by  all  participants  in  an   interaction   align.   as   politeness   is   relative,   it   is   intrinsically   linked   to   the   social   and   cultural   context   of   the   interaction  and  the  personal  context  of  each  individual.  however,  despite  the  impossibility  of  a  homogenous   population,   cultural   tendencies   do   permeate   communication   and   are   reflected   in   speech   practices   and   conversational   routines   (meier,   1995,   p.   352;   wierzbicka,   2005,   2008).   taking   these   discussions   into   consideration,  this  paper  approaches  politeness  as  that  which  is  deemed  to  be  socially  acceptable  behaviour   within  a  given   interaction,  as  determined  by  social  and  contextual  variables.  the  phrase   ‘politeness  norms’   therefore  refers  to  these  appropriate  behaviours.   communication   in   a   foreign   language   is   a   constant   learning   process   and   regardless   of   linguistic   competence,   cultural   differentiation   in   the   contextualisation   and   enactment   of   communication   can   cause   language  learners  to  unintentionally  act  inappropriately  (blum-­‐kulka,  1983;  kiesling,  2015,  p.  628;  scarcella   &  brunak,  1981).  learner  awareness  of  cultural  pragmatic  differences  is  therefore  very  valuable,  particularly   in  terms  of  the  necessity  of  understanding  why  certain  speech  conventions  are  appropriate  while  others  are   not  (bataineh  &  bataineh,  2006,  p.  1922;  coulmas,  1981b,  pp.  69-­‐70);  however,  this  has  not  been  extensively   investigated  in  italian-­‐australian  intercultural  contexts.       3.  background  to  the  study   the   apology   is   identified   by   blum-­‐kulka   and   olshtain   (1984,   p.   206)   as   a   post-­‐event   fta   which   recognises   the  violation  of   social  norms  and  acknowledges   the  speaker’s   involvement   in   this  violation.  the   apology  is  thus  a  transaction  which  aims  to  restore  the  relationship  between  the  offending  and  the  offended   parties  (edmondson,  1981,  p.  274;  leech,  1983,  p.  125;  robinson,  2004,  p.  292)  as  well  as  the   image  of  the   offender   (benoit,   1995,   p.   35).   taking   these   definitions   as   a   basis,   this   paper   investigates   apologies   as   expressions   whereby   the   speaker   or   writer   communicates   remorse   for   having   violated   social   norms   and   offended  the  interlocutor,  and  thereby  attempts  to  restore  harmony  within  the  interaction.     although  culture  has  been  widely  acknowledged  to  be  a  vast  and  challenging  concept  (baker,  2015,   pp.  45-­‐46;  duranti,  1997,  pp.  7-­‐8;  knoblauch,  2001;  liddicoat  &  scarino,  2013,  p.  17),  the  significance  placed   upon  the  social  sphere  consistently  emerges  in  the  diverse  definitions  of  culture  offered  by  scholars.  in  this   paper,   kiesling’s   (2015,   p.   621)   conceptualisation   of   culture   as   group   practice   –   rather   than   as   an   innate   attribute  of  a  group  –  is  adopted.    as  culture  is  variable  and  can  develop  over  time,   it   is  seen  by  kiesling  as   encapsulating  the  collective  actions  of  a  group  of  people,  rather  than  being  an  inherent  trait  of  the  group.    this   pragmatic   approach   thus   entails   a   focus   upon   actions   as   performed   through   language,  which   corresponds   with  the  speech  act  theory  framework  of  this  paper.   numerous  cross-­‐cultural  and  intercultural  studies  have  evidenced  the  vast  differentiation  in  apology   performance  across  cultures  (bataineh  &  bataineh,  2006;  chang,  2010;  jebahi,  2011;  márquez  reiter,  2000;   suszczyńska,   1999).   for   example,   the   cross-­‐cultural   study   of   speech   act   realisation   patterns   (ccsarp)   (blum-­‐kulka,   house,   &   kasper,   1989a)   evidenced   that   the   variation   of   social   distance   and   power   between   participants  was  of  importance  in  the  participants’  choices  of  apology  strategies  and  that  the  relative  weight   of  these  factors  was  subject  both  to  situational  and  cultural  variation  (blum-­‐kulka,  house  &  kasper,  1989b,  p.   3).   these   findings   are   well-­‐supported,   for   example   by   trosborg’s   studies   of   the   performance   of   requests,   complaints   and   apologies   among   danish   learners   of   english   (1987;   1995),   and   by   cheng’s   (2013)   investigation  of  the  strategies  used  by  learners  of  english  in  both  spoken  and  emailed  apologies.  the  former   discovered   that   different   interactions   between   the   factors   of   dominance   and   social   distance   in   role-­‐play   situations   resulted   in   demand   for   varying   levels   of   politeness   (trosborg,   1995,   p.   148).   similarly,   cheng   (2013,   p.   102)   found   that   variables   such   as   the   mode   of   communication,   severity   of   the   situation   and   relationships  between  interlocutors  were  formative  in  the  construction  of  learners’  apologies.     walker     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     31   scholars  have  also  noted  differences  in  apology  modification  among  learners  and  native  speakers  of   english.   while   the   uruguayan   participants   in   márquez   reiter’s   (2000,   p.   147)   study   demonstrated   a   preference  for  non-­‐intensification,  the  british  participants  intensified  apologies  in  all  situations,  for  example,   through   the   use   of   adverbs   such   as   very   or   so   prior   to   the   use   of   the   direct   apology   sorry.   similarly,   suszczyńska  (1999,  pp.  1060-­‐1061)  found  that  explicit  apologies  produced  by  native  english  speakers  were   intensified   more   frequently   than   explicit   apologies   performed   by   native   polish   and   hungarian   speakers.   these  results  indicate  “a  ritualised  anglo-­‐saxon  conflict  avoidance  strategy  aimed  at  redressing  the  hearer’s   ‘negative’   face”   (márquez   reiter,   2000,   p.   167),   which   may   have   significant   implications   for   intercultural   politeness.   additionally,   trosborg   (1987,   p.   162)   found   that   learners   of   english   often   appeared   to   be   less   polite  than  the  native  speakers,  as  they  were  unable  to  modulate  their  apologies  in  accordance  with  english   norms.   apology   frequency   may   also   be   influenced   by   cultural   factors,   as   australian   and   british   english   speakers   tend   to   apologise   more   frequently   compared   with   other   cultural   groups   (clyne,   1994,   p.   179;   márquez  reiter,  2000,  p.  168).   in   investigating  the  italian  and  english  languages,  lipson  (1994)  asked  ten  native  italian  university   students  to  transcribe  apology  scenes  from  american  sitcoms  in  italian  and  adapt  them  to  the  italian  cultural   context.  relationships  of  unequal  status  and  authority  were  subject  to  more  restricted  forms  of  apologies  in   the   participants’   representations   than   those   in   the   american   sitcoms   and   textual   differentiation   was   attributed   to   the   participants’   perceptions   of   status,   role   and   authority   (lipson,   1994,   p.   27).   when   addressing  friends,  students  rejected  the  need  to  apologise  (lipson,  1994,  p.  31)  and  jokes,  insults  and  teasing   were   incorporated  more  frequently  as  moves  to  minimise  the  offence  and  restore  balance  (lipson,  1994,  p.   25).  conversely,  these  strategies  were  not  used  when  addressing  individuals  of  a  higher  status.  evidently,  the   students’  understandings  of  interpersonal  relationships  significantly  impacted  their  formulation  of  apologies.   similarly,  nuzzo   (2007,  p.  178)   found   that  among  native   italian   speakers,   situations  of  high   social  distance   resulted   in   a  more   frequent   use   of   intensifiers   than   in   situations   of   low   social   distance.   this   suggests   that   native   speakers   tend   to   use   strong   expressions   of   regret   with   strangers,   though   are   more   comfortable   in   denying  responsibility  when  the  interlocutor  is  well-­‐known  to  them  (nuzzo,  2007,  p.  179).  nuzzo  also  notes   that,  when  modifying  their  apologies,  italian  native  speakers  display  a  preference  for  mitigating  strategies  –   that  is,  lexical  elements  which  alleviate  the  offender’s  responsibility  in  causing  the  offence.   although  apologies  performed  in  italian  have  not  been  explored  within  the  australian  context,  some   studies  have  been  conducted  which   focus  on  other  ftas  (bettoni  &  rubino,  2007;  rubino,  2011;  rubino  &   bettoni,   2006).   in   investigating   complaints,   rubino   and  bettoni   (2006,   p.   355)   concluded   that   italians   and   anglo-­‐australians   differed   both   in   their   perceptions   of   the   offence   and   how   this   was   to   be   redressed.   additionally,   bettoni   and   rubino   (2007,   p.   491)   observed   that   when   responding   to   complaints,   anglo-­‐ australians  tended  to  use  variations  of   the  same  formulaic  expression,   i’m  sorry,  and  intensifiers  such  as  so   and  awfully  were  often  included.  conversely,  native  italians  alternated  between  mi  dispiace  (‘i’m  sorry’)  and   mi   scusi   (‘excuse   me’),   rarely   using   more   elaborate   expressions.   these   strong   linguistic   differences   have   implications  for   intercultural  communication  and  foreign  language  use,  and  thus  will  be  investigated  in  this   paper.     4.  methodology  of  the  study   as  mentioned  above,  this  paper  presents  data  from  a  larger  project  which  investigated  the  politeness   strategies  used  by  learners  of  italian  when  performing  apologies.  a  written  dct  was  used  to  collect  a  series  of   email   responses  which  were   then   analysed   in   regards   to   apology   structure   and   the   three   variables   under   investigation.       4.1.  the  dct   the  data   collection   for   the  project   involved   the   application  of   a  written  dct  whereby  participants   were  asked  to  respond  to  four  scenarios  in  the  form  of  an  email.     in  completing  the  dct,  participants  were  presented  with  the  same  situation  twice,  but  were  required   to   direct   their   responses   to   two   different   interlocutors,   so   as   to   investigate   the   possible   impact   of   social   variables   on   speech   act   performance.   the   format   of   the   dct   involved   a   short   description   of   the   scenario,   followed  by  a  space  in  which  students  were  able  to  provide  a  response,  as  shown  in  figure  1.       politeness  norms:  apologies  by  learners  of  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     32     figure 1. format of the dct   the  task  was  completed  on  campus  under  exam  conditions  without  the  use  of  linguistic  aids  such  as   dictionaries  or  electronics.   special  care  was  taken  in  formulating  scenarios  that  were  relevant  to  the  student  context,  such  as  a   student  exchange  situation  or  an  intercultural  encounter  in  italy.  all  scenarios  were  set  in  italy,  implying  that   students  should  engage  with  italian  politeness  strategies  and  apology  constructions,  and  this  was  emphasised   by   the   fact   that   the  dct  was  written   in   italian  with  only  potentially  challenging   terms  provided   in  english.   the  explicit  construction  of  this  italian  setting  therefore  placed  the  participants  in  the  context  of  the  italian   language  and  culture.     identifying   email   communication   as   the   modality   of   the   dct   also   eliminated   the   possibility   that   variations   in   text   type   across   the   scenarios   could   influence   the   learners’   construction   of   apologies.   the   specification  that  responses  should  be  written  in  email  form  was  thereby  an  important  controlled  variable  in   ensuring  data  consistency.   participants   were   also   given   the   opportunity   to   opt   out   of   responding   to   the   scenarios.   it   is   understood  that,  for  any  number  of  reasons,  an  individual  may  not  apologise  in  all  situations  in  which  another   individual   may   deem   an   apology   to   be   necessary.   opting   out   of   speech   act   performance   is   in   fact   quite   common  (kuchuk,  2012,  p.  128)  and  has  been  identified  as  a  possible  response  to  ftas  in  particular  (brown   &  levinson,  1987,  p.  69).  hence,  at  the  end  of  each  scenario  description,  the  option  to  refuse  to  answer  was   offered  to  participants.     drawing   upon   other   studies   (e.g.  lipson,   1994;  márquez   reiter,   2000;   and  rubino   &   bettoni,   2006,  among  others),  participants  were  also  asked  to  evaluate  each  scenario  in  relation  to  three  variables  –   namely,   the   social   distance   between   the   participant   and   the   interlocutor,   the   status   of   the   interlocutor   in   relation  to  the  participant,  and  the  degree  of  severity  of  the  offence  for  which  the  apology  was  being  offered.   participants  were  required  to  rate  the  impact  of  each  of  these  variables  on  a  scale  of  one  (low)  to  five  (high),   as  shown  below  in  figure  2.   these  three  variables  were  defined  for  the  students  in  the  following  way,  and  these  definitions  were   also  included  on  the  dct  itself  so  as  to  avoid  ambiguity:   social   distance:   how  well   known   the   participants   are   to   each   other,   ranging   from   strangers   to   intimates   status   of   interlocutor:   the   degree   of   power   held   by   the   interlocutor,   i.e.   if   their   social   position   within  the  interaction  is  higher,  equal  to,  or  lower  than  the  speaker   severity  of  offence:  the  ‘seriousness’  of  and  extent  of  damage  caused  by  the  offence  for  which  the   apology  is  being  offered.     walker     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     33       would you rate the severity of your offence as: 1 2 3 4 5 low high figure 2. likert scale from the dct   the  participants’  emails  and  variable  ratings  then  provided  the  data  set  for  this  paper.       4.2.  participants   the   participants   were   students   enrolled   in   one   of   four   italian   studies   courses   at   a   large   public   university   in   australia   and   with   of   proficiency   levels   ranging   from   b1   to   c14,   based   on   student   grading   conducted  by  the  department  of  italian  studies.   the  four  classes  and  their  assumed  proficiency  levels  were:     − intermediate  italian  4  (b1)   − senior  italian  4  (b1/b2)   − senior  italian  6  (b1/b2)   − honours  cohort  (b2/c1)       despite  differences  in  the  proficiency  levels  of  the  students,  it  was  expected  that  all  participants  had   been  instructed  in  the  differences  between  italian  and  english  politeness  strategies,  and  this  was  supported   by   syllabus   documents   (department   of   italian   studies,   2016a,   2016b,   2016c).     although   some  participants   who  were  attending  higher  language  classes  were  more  successful  in  formulating  their  apologies  than  those   in  lower  classes,  this  was  not  always  the  case;  thus,  differentiation  in  student  proficiency  was  not  considered   in  this  study.   demographic   questionnaires   (included   in   the   appendix)   were   also   completed   by   participants   in   order   to   ascertain  whether   such   factors   impacted  upon   the   responses  provided.  however,   few   conclusions   could  be  drawn  from  these  demographic  details.  neither  did  cultural  background  appear  to  be  a  meaningful   factor   in  explaining  participants’   linguistic  choices.  hence,  the  demographic  factors  did  not  form  part  of  the   data  analysis  for  this  paper.   any  problematic  transcripts  –  in  that  they  were  incomplete  or  had  been  incorrectly  completed  –  were   removed  from  the  data  set  and  therefore  had  no  bearing  on  the  results  presented  in  this  paper.       4.3.  data  for  this  paper   the  data  presented   in   this  paper  arises   from  one  of   the   four   scenarios   in   the  dct,  available   in   the   appendix   both   in   the   original   italian   (as   provided   to   participants)   and   in   english.   as   the   data   set  was   too   narrow   to   provide   an   effective   statistical   analysis,   a   descriptive   analytical   framework   was   used.   this   descriptive  method  arose  from  the  data  itself,   thus  was  more  revealing  than  an  imposed  framework  arising   from   another   project,   and   also   allowed   for   a   detailed   consideration   of   the   whole   complex   apology   act   sequence.     the  chosen  scenario  specified  that  upon  unpacking  their  luggage  after  staying  with  a  friend  and  his   mother   in  verona,   the  participant  discovered   that   they  had  accidentally   taken   two  phone  chargers   that  did   not  belong  to  them.  in  completing  the  dct,  participants  were  required  to  write  to  both  the  mother  and  the   friend  in  response  to  the  situation.     the   scenario   discussed   in   this   paper   is   the   email   to   the   mother,   which   was   chosen   for   several   reasons.  firstly,  the  two  alternations  of  the  scenario  demonstrated  high  degrees  of  variance  in  regards  to  the   rating  of  the  social  variables,  indicating  that  many  participants  recognised  social  distinctions  between  the  two                                                                                                                             4  according  to  the  common  european  framework  of  reference  for  languages.   politeness  norms:  apologies  by  learners  of  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     34   addressees.  as  this  scenario  is  quite  different  from  many  scenarios  used  or  undertaken  in  previous  dcts  and   role-­‐play   tasks   conducted   by   other   scholars   (e.g.   chang,   2009;   márquez-­‐reiter,   2000;   suszczyńska,   1999;   trosborg,   1995),   in   terms   of   both   the   offence   and   the   interlocutor   stipulated,   it   provides   a   particularly   intriguing  analytical  focus.  while  most  data  arising  from  the  scenario  incorporated  australian  english  norms,   participants   did   attempt   to   engage   with   italian   pragmatics;   thus,   this   scenario   offers   insights   into   the   interplay  of  the  two  languages  in  the  intercultural  context  of  language  acquisition.     as  five  of  the  42  participants  opted  out  of  responding  to  this  scenario,  the  following  analysis  arises   from  the  responses  of  37  participants.     all  examples  quoted  in  this  paper  have  been  transcribed  exactly  as  they  were  written  by  participants,   including  grammatical  and  lexical  errors.  these  errors  have  not  been  represented  in  the  english  translations.   however,   in   some   translations,   english   grammatical   correctness   has   been   compromised   in   order   to  more   accurately  communicate  the  meaning  of  the  original  italian.       5.  analysis   based  on   comparisons  with  previous   literature   already  discussed   in   this  paper,   the   analysis  of   the   data  revealed  the  frequent  use  of  australian  english  terms  of  address  and  apology  structures,  rather  than  the   consistent  use  of  italian  norms  usually  required  in  the  scenarios  presented  to  participants.  the  prevalence  of   these  features  of  australian  english  suggests  the  application  of  l1  (australian  english)  knowledge  to  the  l2   (italian).  there  are  three  principle  areas  in  which  this  intercultural  negotiation  was  evidenced:  (i)  the  way  in   which   the   social   variables  within   the   scenarios  were   evaluated  by  participants,   (ii)   the  participants’   use  of   formal  terms  of  address,  and  (iii)  the  modification  of  explicit  expressions  of  apology.  these  findings  will  now   be  detailed.       5.1.  the  social  variables   as   outlined   previously,   following   each   scenario,   participants   were   asked   to   evaluate   the   social   distance  between  the  interlocutor  and  themselves,  the  status  of  the  interlocutor  in  relation  to  their  own,  and   the  severity  of  the  offence  hypothetically  committed.  the  three  variables  were  clarified  to  the  students  in  the   dct,  as  mentioned  above.     the  number  of  participants  who  chose  each  of   the   five  ratings  of   the   three  variables   in   the  chosen   scenario  are  demonstrated  in  the  table  and  graph  below:     table 1 participants’ ratings of variables in email to friend’s mother variables rating of the variables 1 (low) 2 3 4 5 (high) social distance 2 14 18 7 1 status of interlocutor 1 1 16 24 0 severity of offence 8 17 13 4 0   it   is   notable   that   the   two   social   variables   (distance   and   status)   as   rated   by   participants  were   not   always   interdependent.  most  participants’  perceptions  of   the   social  distance  between   themselves  and   their   friend’s  mother  were  concentrated  around  the  2  –  3  rating  on  the  scale  (demonstrated  in  bold),  whereas  all   but  two  ratings  for  the  status  of  the  mother  in  relation  to  the  participant  were  between  the  higher  3  –  4  range.   in   fact,   in   assessing   the   individual   responses  of   participants,   it   emerged   that  many  participants   reported   a   relationship   in  which   the   status  of   the  mother  was  higher   than   their   own,   but   the   social   distance  between   them  was  low  or  average.  specifically,  12  participants  gave  equal  ratings  to  the  social  distance  between  the   mother  and  themselves  and  to  the  status  of  the  mother,  27  gauged  the  social  distance  as  being  lower  than  the   status  of   the  mother,   and  only  3  participants   rated   the   status  of   the  mother  as  being   lower   than   the   social   distance.   that  27  participants  (over  64%)  reported  low  social  distance  with  respect  to  the  mother’s  status  (1  –   2   on   the   scale)   aligns  with   the  australian   principles   of   equality   and  mateship,   even   in   socially   imbalanced   interactions  (dyrenfurth,  2015;  formentelli  &  hajek,  2013;  sinkeviciute,  2014).  one  can  therefore  gather  that   the  participants  tend  to  adhere  to  an  australian  understanding  of  this  relationship.     walker     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     35   however,   it   should   also   be   acknowledged   that   this   familiarity   between   the   participants   and   the   interlocutor  may  be  a  situational  effect  of  having  lived  together  (as  it  was  specified  in  the  scenario  description   that  the  participant  was  a  guest  in  the  mother’s  home)  or  may  be  influenced  by  participants’  experiences  with   their  own  friends’  families  in  australia.       5.2.  the  use  of  formal  terms  of  address   italian  has   two  principle   formal  personal  pronouns,  lei   and  loro,  which  are  used  when  addressing   individuals  who  are  not  well-­‐known   to   the  speaker,  or  are  of  higher  status  or  hold  greater  power   than   the   speaker.  for  example,  individuals  who  possess  titles  such  as  doctor  or  professor  should  always  be  addressed   using   these   forms   (musumeci,   1991,   p.   445),   and   titles   are   often   used   in   addressing   such   individuals.   however,   today   loro   is   rarely   used.   these   choices   of   terms   of   address   also   impact   upon   one’s   verbal   conjugation,  whereby  the  verbs  adopt  the  conjugation  of   the  third  person  rather  than  the  second  person   in   order  to  achieve  grammatical  agreement.     in  contrast,  formal  terms  of  address  are  uncommon  in  australian  english,  while  solidarity  pronouns   of  address  and  the  use  of  first  names  are  conventional  and  expected  (brick,  2004,  p.  39;  clyne,  2003,  p.  217).   thus,   engagement  with   grammatical   formality   has   been   previously   evidenced   as   an   element   of   politeness   with  which  australian   learners  of   italian  experience  difficulty   (formentelli  &  hajek,  2013),  a   finding  which   was  also  evidenced  in  the  present  study.     while   some   participants   did   attempt   to   adapt   their   level   of   grammatical   formality   to   the   italian   context  of  the  interactions  presented  in  the  dct  scenarios,  there  was  at  times  a  lack  of  consistency  in  the  use   of  formal  terms  of  address.  some  students  were  able  to  use  these  terms  without  issue,  while  others  did  not   engage  with   them,   and   others   still   made   attempts   to   use   the   forms   but  made   errors  when   doing   so.   this   variability  thus  provides  a  salient  area  of  investigation  in  the  intercultural  context  of  the  study.   in  the  specified  scenario  investigated  in  this  paper,  35.14%  of  all  responses  provided  made  use  of  the   formal   pronouns   and   related   verbal   conjugations,   which   are   fundamental   elements   of   italian   politeness   (musumeci,   1991;   nuzzo   &   rastelli,   2009).   the   social   variables   of   the   interaction   –   specifically,   the   social   distance  and  status  differentiation  between  the  participant  and  their   interlocutor  –  seemed  to   impact  upon   the  use  of  these  polite  terms  of  address.   when  participants  judged  their  interlocutor  (the  mother)  to  be  of  an  equal  or  higher  status  than  their   own  (4  –  5  on  the  scale),  formal  italian  terms  of  address  were  used  more  frequently.  this  is  demonstrated  in   bold  in  the  table  below:  when  responses  were  allocated  higher  ratings,  particularly  4,  they  included  a  higher   number  of  formal  pronouns  and  verbal  conjugations.       table 2 use of formal italian terms of address in relation to ratings of the mother’s status rating of status of the interlocutor total responses responses using formal terms of address percentage (%)5 1 (low) 0 0 2 1 0 0.00 3 14 2 14.29 4 22 11 50.00 5 (high) 0 0   this   trend  was  echoed   in  the  results   for  the  social  distance  of   the   interlocutor.  as  demonstrated   in   bold   in   table   3,   the   percentage   of   responses   which   included   formal   italian   terms   of   address   rose   in   correspondence   with   an   increase   in   the   social   distance   between   the   participant   and   their   interlocutor.   evidently,   participants’   recognition   of   the   social   distance   between   themselves   and   their   friend’s   mother   influenced  their  choice  of  formal  pronouns  and  verbal  conjugations.                                                                                                                                     5  the  percentage  of  responses  in  which  formal  terms  of  address  were  used.   politeness  norms:  apologies  by  learners  of  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     36   table 3 use of formal italian terms of address in relation to ratings of the mother’s social distance rating of social distance total responses responses using formal terms of address percentage (%) 1 (low) 2 0 0.00 2 10 2 20.00 3 18 7 38.89 4 7 4 57.14 5 (high) 0 0   hence,   similarly   to   the  association  between  social  distance  and   the  use  of   formal   italian,   there   is  a   connection   between   the   participants’   perceptions   of   status   and   their   choices   of   formal   italian   forms   of   address.  this  thus  follows  italian  norms  and  evidences  an  awareness  on  the  part  of  participants  of  the  italian   cultural  context  in  which  they  were  writing.     however,   while   some   participants   used   formal   lei   pronouns   and   conjugations,   most   participants   gravitated  towards  informal  grammar  and  terms  of  address.  it  was  also  more  common  for  participants  to  use   formal  pronouns  than  formal  verbal  conjugations  and  the  use  of  either  was  not  always  accurate  throughout   their   responses.   this   variability   may   be   attributed   to   factors   both   internal   and   external   to   the   italian   language.  for  example,  there  is  at  times  a  lack  of  distinction  between  the  use  of  formal  and  informal  terms  of   address  even  in  italian  contexts,  and  this  can  cause  difficulty  in  ascertaining  how  to  appropriately  use  these   forms  (fivela  &  bazzanella,  2014,  p.  114;  nuzzo  &  rastelli,  2009,  p.  22;  rebelos  &  strambi,  2009,  p.  61).     this  uncertainty  was  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  some  participants’  conjugations  of  the  verb  scusare   did   not   seem   to   relate   to   their   use   of   formal   address.   the   verb   should   be   conjugated   as   scusi   when   using   formal   italian,   while   scusa   is   reserved   for   informal   situations.   however,   some   participants   confused   the   conjugated  forms,  using  informal  conjugations  of  scusare  while  using  formal  italian  pronouns  and  vice  versa,   as  in  the  following  example:     (i)   scusa  ma  penso  che  ho  messo  la  sua  caricabatteria  nella  mia  valigia  (2632.6)6     sorry  (informal)  but  i  think  that  i  put  your  (formal)  charger  in  my  luggage     although  it  is  not  possible  to  ascertain  whether  a  participant’s  use  of  informal  terms  of  address  was   due  to  their  conscious  choice  to  do  so  or  due  to  an  inability  to  use  formal  terms  of  address,  the  use  of  both   informal   and   formal   forms   within   the   one   response—particularly   within   the   same   sentence—is   grammatically   incorrect.   these   observations   hence   suggest   learner   difficulty   in   distinguishing   formal   and   informal   grammatical   forms.   this   is   reminiscent   of   what   has   been   reported   by   previous   scholars,   in   that   learners   of   italian   are   often   uncertain   as   to   how   to   accurately   construct   and   use   polite   forms   of   address   (nuzzo  &  rastelli,  2009;  rebelos  &  strambi,  2009).   as  previously  mentioned,  all  students  who  participated  in  the  study  were  enrolled  in  levels  at  which   they  should  have  been  aware  of  how  to  correctly  use  formal  terms  of  address.  thus,  one  possible  reason  for   the  lack  of  proficiency  in  these  forms  may  be  the  infrequent  use  of  formal  italian  within  the  foreign  language   classroom,   particularly   in   australian   university   contexts   (formentelli   &   hajek,   2013).   in   fact,   upon   completing  the  dct,  one  participant  of  the  present  study  expressed  difficulty  in  remembering  when  to  use  the   formal   lei   as   “it’s   not   something   that’s   really   drilled   into   us   much,   because   we   don’t   have   a   lei   form   in   australia”  (personal  communication,  8  august,  2016).  hence,  lack  of  practice  during  language  instruction  may   account  for  the  difficulty  experienced  by  participants  in  using  formal  italian  forms,  thus  encouraging  them  to   gravitate  –  intentionally  or  unintentionally  –  towards  the  less  grammatically  marked  formal  australian  norms   with  which  they  are  familiar.   another  trend  which  emerged  from  the  data  was  the  common  use  of  first  names  when  greeting  the   interlocutor.  12  participants  addressed  the  interlocutor  by  a  first  name,  such  as  in  the  following  examples:                                                                                                                               6  the  numbers  in  the  brackets  correspond  to  each  participants’  unique  identification  code.  for  analytical  purposes,  each   participant  was  assigned  an  identification  number  comprising  of  the  unit  of  study  code  of  the  italian  class  followed  by  a   numeral.   for  example,   the   code  2632.3   refers   to   the   third   student   in   class   itln2632   (senior   italian  4)   to   submit   their   completed  dct.  these  numbers  were  used  to  identify  the  authors  of  the  examples  included  in  this  paper.   walker     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     37   i) ciao  alessia  (3612.8)     hi  alessia   iii) ciao  maria!  (2632.4)     hi  maria!   iv) cara  maia  (2612.3)     dear  maia     this  informal  means  of  address  is  characteristic  of  australian  communicative  norms  (brick,  2004,  p.   39;  clyne,  2003,  p.  217).  the  use  of  first  names  expresses  a  fellowship  between  interlocutors  (clyne,  norrby  &   warren,  2009,  p.  69)  and  this  aligns  with  the  high  australian  regard  for  mateship.    traditionally  in  italian,  the   use  of  first  names  is  a  sign  of  solidarity  and  intimacy  reserved  for  interlocutors  with  whom  you  are  familiar,   rather  than  an  expected  communicative  norm  to  be  used  with  all  interlocutors.   informal  greetings  such  as  those  evidenced  above  contrast  against  the  more  formal  terms  of  address   chosen  by  other  participants:     v) cara  signora  (2632.1)     dear  madam   vi) cara  signora  ambrogio  (h.3)     dear  mrs  ambrogio     these   formal   terms   of   address   are   more   appropriate   in   italian   for   this   communicative   situation.     however,   the   use   of   titles   and   formal   greetings   did   not   always   correspond   with   the   use   of   formal   verbal   conjugations.  for  example:     vii) buongiorno  signora!        come  stai?  (2612.3)     good  morning  madam!   how  are  you  (informal)?     these  tendencies  –  specifically,  the  use  of  first  names  and  inconsistencies  in  formal  terms  of  address   –   are   at   odds   with   the   rigid   realisations   of   social   distance   and   status   which   characterise   formal   italian   language   use   (formentelli  &  hajek,   2013),   thus   indicating   a   pragmatic   transfer   of   australian   norms   to   the   italian  context.    such  adaptation  of  l1  norms  to  l2  language  realisation  is  quite  common  among  learners,  as   has  been  evidenced  in  previous  studies  (keshavarz,  eslami,  &  ghahraman,  2006;  žegarac  &  pennington,  2000,   p.   167).     the   inconsistencies   in   participants’   responses   also   indicate   a   lack   of   competence   in   using   the   linguistic   forms   necessary   for   expressing   formality,   which  may   have   caused   this   reliance   upon   australian   english  norms.       5.3.  the  explicit  expressions  of  apology   explicit  expressions  of  apology  are  those  which  use  routine  formula  such  as  i’m  sorry,  i  apologise  or   excuse   me.   the  most   common   explicit   expression   of   apology   in   the   data   was  mi   dispiace   (‘i’m   sorry’)   (37   instances   in   total   across   28   responses).   several   different   forms   of   the   verb   scusare   (‘to   excuse’   or   ‘to   apologise’)  were  also  used  (5  instances)  and  two  explicit  apologies  involved  the  adjective  spiacente  (‘sorry’).   when   scusare   was   used,   it   was   usually   conjugated   informally   (scusa)   and   in   some   instances   were   accompanied  by  modifiers.  chiedo   i   suoi   scusi   (‘i   ask  your   (formal  pronoun)  pardon’)  was  also  used  by  one   participant  as  a  very  formal  expression  of  apology.  examples  of  these  apology  forms  include:     viii) mi  dispiace  tanto  (2632.9)     i  am  very  sorry   ix) mi  scusi  (h3)     excuse  me  (formal)   x) sono  molto  spiacente  (3612.14)     i  am  very  sorry     politeness  norms:  apologies  by  learners  of  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     38   native   italian   speakers   generally   prefer   to   use   explicit   apologies   which   are   expressed   through   conjugations   of   the   verb   scusare   (‘to   excuse’)   (lipson,   1994,   p.   25;   nuzzo,   2007).   in  my   data,   participants   instead  clearly  favoured  mi  dispiace  over  other  forms.  i’m  sorry  has  been  previously  recognised  as  the  most   common  explicit  expression  of  apology  in  english  (lipson,  1994,  p.  25;  olshtain  &  cohen,  1983,  p.  22;  owen,   1983,  p.  65;  robinson,  2004,  p.  322);  thus,  it  seems  that  the  prevalence  of  mi  dispiace  in  the  data  is  a  product   of   the   participants’   english-­‐language   background   and   that   the   tendency   of   english   speakers   to   use   this   expression  has  been  incorporated  into  their  italian  language  use.   in   the   intercultural   context   of   the   investigation,   the   participants’   modification   of   these   apology   structures  was  also  salient.     two  types  of  modification  were  identified  in  the  data:   − intensification   –   achieved   by   the   use   of   adjectives   and   adverbs   which   strengthen   the   force   of   the   apology;   − reiteration  –  achieved  by  a  phrase  whereby  the  repetition  of  the  apology  is  made  explicit.     in  the  data  collected  from  the  specified  scenario,  54.05%  of  the  explicit  apologies  were  modified  with   intensifying  or  reiterating  adverbs.     as   it  was  by   far   the  most   commonly  used  explicit   expression  of   apology,   the  phrase  mi  dispiace   in   particular  experienced  frequent  modification,  as  shown  in  the  table  below:     table 4 modifiers of mi dispiace (‘i’m sorry’) used in this scenario modifiers gloss frequency molto much 4 moltissimo very much 3 tanto much 3 tantissimo very much 1 di nuovo once again 1 ancora again 4 ancora & tanto again & much 1 troppo too much 1 un sacco a lot (colloquial) 2   examples  of  modified  explicit  expressions  of  apology  include:     xi) mi  dispiace  tantissimo!  (3612.9)     i  am  very  very  sorry!   xii) mi  dispiace  ancora  per  il  disagio  (3612.9)   again,  i  am  sorry  for  the  inconvenience   xiii) scusami  tanto  (3612.8)   excuse  me  very  much   xiv) sono  molto  spiacente  (3612.14)     i  am  very  sorry     the  first  of  the  above  explicit  apologies  involves  a  particularly  strong  intensifier,  tantissimo,  and  the   exclamation  mark  emphasises  the  force  of  the  modifier.  in  the  second  example,  the  apology  is  strengthened   with  a  marker  of  reiteration.  this  participant  also  added  the  phrase  per  il  disagio  (‘for  the  inconvenience’)  as  a   means  of  increasing  the  force  and  specificity  of  the  apology.  the  other  two  examples  both  use  intensifiers  –   tanto  and  molto  –  which  have  the  effect  of  increasing  the  force  of  the  apology.     the  participants’   ratings  of  social  distance  and  severity  of  offence  did  not  seem  to  connect   to   their   use  of  modifiers.    however,  all  participants  who   included  modifiers   in   their  explicit  expressions  of  apology   identified   the   status  of   the   interlocutor   as   a  3  or  4  on   the   scale.    although   these   ratings  were   also  used   in   walker     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     39   responses  which  did  not  include  modifiers,  no  responses  which  identified  the  status  of  the  interlocutor  as  2   included  modified  explicit  apologies.       thus,   it   emerged   that   the   modification   of   apologies   was   perceived   by   many   participants   to   be   appropriate  and  necessary  despite   the   fact   that   they  perceived  the  social  distance  between  themselves  and   the  interlocutor  to  be  low,  a  trend  common  in  australian  english.    this  appears  to  align  with  the  findings  of   previous  scholars  who  evidenced  the  relatively  high  levels  of  apology  modification  with  which  native  english   speakers   engage   and   the   orientation   of   this   trend   towards   appeasing   the   negative   face   of   the   interlocutor   (bettoni  and  rubino,  2007,  p.  491;  márquez  reiter,  2000,  p.  147;  suszczyńska,  1999,  pp.  1060-­‐1061).       6.  discussion  and  conclusions   6.1.  main  findings     this   paper   has   explored   the   politeness   strategies   used   by   learners   of   italian   while   performing   apologies.  these  apologies  were  accomplished  in  the  defined  context  of  an  australian  visitor  to  italy  who  had   accidentally  packed  and  taken  away  with  them  two  chargers  which  belonged  to  their  host  family.     as   previously   mentioned,   all   participants   in   this   study   were   enrolled   in   levels   at   which   they   had   already  studied  formal  and  informal  italian  forms  of  address.    however,  it  is  possible  that  the  results  of  this   study   were   impacted   by   a   lack   of   competence,   particularly   pragmatic   competence,   on   the   part   of   the   participants,  and  that  this  possibly  influenced  their  responses.       while   some   participants   engaged  well  with   italian   pragmatic   norms,   australian   english   politeness   norms  were  evidenced   in   the  apology  performance  of   the  participants.    this   suggests   an   interaction  of   the   italian  and  australian  english  linguistic  systems,  thus  indicating  a  negotiation  of  the  intercultural  context  and   transfer  of   linguistic   features  of  the  l1  into  the  l2  (blum-­‐kulka,  1983;  koike,  1989;  trosborg,  1995).  there   were  three  principle  areas  in  which  this  negotiation  was  demonstrated,  as  presented  below.     firstly,  the  way  in  which  participants  responded  to  the  social  variables  of  the  scenario  reflected  the   australian  tendency  towards  egalitarianism  and  mateship,  as  social  distance  was  often  evaluated  as  being  low   even  when  the  status  of  the  interlocutor  was  recognised  as  being  higher  than  that  of  the  participant.   secondly,  despite  the  fact  that  the  formal  lei  pronouns  and  verbal  conjugations  were  used  by  some   participants  in  situations  in  which  they  would  be  required  of  a  native  italian  speaker,  this  use  was  not  always   consistent,  and  most  participants  gravitated  towards  informal  terms  of  address  and  verbal  conjugations.  this   reflects   the   informality   of   australian   english,   rather   than   the   linguistic   realisation   of   social   constructs   expected  of  native   italian  speakers.    however,  as  mentioned  above,   the   limited  competence  of   the  students   may  have  contributed  to  this  trend.   finally,   the  modification   of   apology   strategies,   particularly   intensification,  was   frequent   across   the   data.     as   such   apology   intensification   is   a   feature   of   english   varieties   (bettoni   &   rubino,   2007,   p.   491;   márquez   reiter,   2000,   p.   147;   suszczyńska,   1999,   pp.   1060-­‐1061),   it   suggests   that   australian   english   politeness  structures  were  incorporated  into  the  participants’  performance  of  italian  apologies.         6.2.  limitations     such  findings,  however,  must  be  taken  with  caution  due  to  the  limitations  of  this  study.    indeed,  this   is  quite  a  small  study,  with  only  42  participants.    a  reduplication  of  the  present  study  with  a  higher  number  of   participants  would   thus  be  beneficial  and  provide  more  reliable  data.    furthermore,  due   to   time  and  space   constraints,  an  italian  control  group  was  not  used  and  the  dct  was  administered  only  to  australian  students   studying  italian,  although  the  data  was  compared  to  findings  of  previous  studies.       another  limitation  is  that  although  the  three  variables  that  were  considered  were  clearly  explained   to  participants  and  definitions  of  the  phrases  social  distance,  status  of  the  interlocutor  and  severity  of  offence   were   provided,   participants  may   still   have   varying   perceptions   of   the   situations   of   the  dct.     for   example,   some  participants  may  have  considered  the  “several  months”  specified  in  the  scenario  presented  in  this  paper   as  a  sufficient  period  of  time  to  become  familiar  with  the  interlocutor  and  thus  use  informal  terms  of  address.     on  the  other  hand,  other  participants  may  have   felt   it  more  appropriate   to  continue  to  use   formal   terms  of   address  as  the  interlocutor  was  an  older  adult.   finally,   individuals  may  gravitate   towards  certain  apology  strategies   regardless  of   their   cultural  or   linguistic   background,   and   a   possible   criticism   of   this   study   is   that   the   analysis   does   not   account   for   the   possible   influence   of   personal   preference   upon   one’s   realisation   of   speech   acts.     both   cheng   (2013)   and   lipson  (1994)  held  interviews  with  participants  following  data  collection  in  order  to  explore  their  linguistic   politeness  norms:  apologies  by  learners  of  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     40   choices.    applied  to   this  study,  post-­‐task   interviews  would  be  an   insightful  element  of  analysis  which  could   provide  an  enhanced  understanding  of  participants’   linguistic  awareness  and  allow   for   the   individuation  of   idiosyncratic  trends.       6.3.  conclusions     in   spite  of   such   limitations,  overall,   the  data  presented   in   this  paper  does  point   to   the   influence  of   australian  english  norms  in  the  accomplishment  of  apologies  by  australian  learners  of  italian.    this   in  turn   suggests   that   this   may   be   an   area   of   pragmatics   in   which   students   require   further   support.   numerous   scholars   have   expressed   the   need   for   more   explicit   instruction   of   speech   acts   and   intercultural   communication  within  the  language  classroom,  as  well  as  a  change  in  how  these  phenomena  are  presented  in   textbooks  (biesenbach-­‐lucas,  2007,  p.  75;  nguyen,  2011,  pp.  26-­‐27;  vaezi,  tabatabaei  &  bakhtiarvand,  2014,   pp.   171-­‐172).   as   discussed   previously,   lack   of   practice   during   language   instruction   was   nominated   by   a   participant   as   a   point   of   difficulty;   this   may   unintentionally   encourage   students   to   continue   to   use   more   familiar  but  less  formal  australian  english  constructions.  therefore,  the  use  of  polite  forms  in  the  australian   italian  language  classroom  may  be  another  way  to  aid  students  to  understand  not  only  the  application  of  the   italian  grammatical   forms  which  communicate  politeness,  but  also   italian   interpersonal  norms  and  cultural   understandings  of  social  distance  and  status.   further   studies   specifically   targeted   towards   understanding   the   negotiation   of   politeness   norms   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pennington,   martha   c.   (2000).   pragmatic   transfer   in   intercultural   communication.   in   helen   spencer-­‐oatey   (ed.),  culturally   speaking:  managing   rapport   through   talk   across   cultures   (pp.   165-­‐190).  london,  united  kingdom:  continuum  international  publishing  group.           walker     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     45   appendix a the dct discourse completion task in this task, you will be asked to respond to four different situations via email. in each situation, there will be two versions of the situation. you are asked to complete both versions, totalling eight responses. all scenarios are set in italy. the following task is written in italian and challenging terms will also be provided in english. at the end of each, you will be asked to rate the scenario in regards to the social distance between yourself and your interlocutor, your interlocutor’s status in relation to your own and the severity of your offence. in this task, the italicised terms are defined in the following ways: social distance: how well known the participants are to each other, ranging from strangers to intimates status of interlocutor: the degree of power held by the interlocutor, i.e. if their social position within the interaction is higher, equal to, or lower than the speaker severity of offence: the ‘seriousness’ of and extent of damage caused by the offence for which the apology is being offered you should respond to the eight scenarios as per the example below: example scenario: you are not feeling well and so you will be absent from today’s lecture. you know that the student who sits beside you will be attending and that she always takes detailed notes. if you were to write an email to her, what would you write? example response: hi elena, sorry to be a bother, but i wanted to ask you a favour. i won’t be in class today because i’m sick, so i was wondering if you could send me your notes from today’s lecture? thank you so much! jessica politeness  norms:  apologies  by  learners  of  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     46   unpacking (accidental theft) you have just returned to sydney after visiting a friend and his mother for several months in verona. when unpacking, you discover two of their chargers caught up amongst your own. if you were to write an email to your friend’s mother, what would you write? please write your email below, using as little or as much space as you feel to be necessary: o i would not write an email would you rate the social distance in this situation as: 1 2 3 4 5 low high would you rate your friend’s mother’s status in relation to your own as: 1 2 3 4 5 low high would you rate the severity of your offence as: 1 2 3 4 5 low high disfare le valigie sei appena tornato/a a sydney dopo un periodo a verona dove stavi a casa di un amico e di sua madre. mentre stai disfacendo le valigie (unpacking), scopri due dei loro caricabatterie (chargers) insieme ai tuoi. se scrivessi un’email alla madre del tuo amico, cosa scriveresti scrivi l’email sulle righe sotto, usando quante righe necessarie: o non scriverei un’email would you rate the social distance in this situation as: 1 2 3 4 5 low high would you rate your friend’s mother’s status in relation to your own as: 1 2 3 4 5 low high would you rate the severity of your offence as: 1 2 3 4 5 low high walker     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     47   appendix b demographic questionnaire demographic information age: gender: degree: unit of study in the department of italian (language): other italian units studied at the university of sydney, if any (either course name or course code): have you studied italian prior to commencing italian studies at university? if so, what level of italian did you study and where did you study? which cultural background(s) do you identify as? if you identify as italian or as italo-australian, please specify your generation: o born in italy o parent(s) born in italy o grandparent(s) born in italy do you rate your ability to read in italian as excellent very good good average basic do you rate your ability to write in italian as excellent very good good average basic do you rate your ability to understand spoken italian as excellent very good good average basic do you rate your ability to speak in italian as excellent very good good average basic have you ever spent time in italy? if so, how long were you there?           politeness  norms:  apologies  by  learners  of  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  28-­‐48     48     talia walker, university of sydney talia.walk@outlook.com en talia walker is an english language teacher and italian language teacher, and has also worked as a research assistant on a number of linguistic and sociology projects. she completed her honours thesis at the university of sydney and graduated with a bachelor of arts (languages) (honours) in 2016. her field of interest is sociolinguistics, specifically, intercultural and cross-cultural communication. in 2018, she will commence her doctoral project in the department of italian studies at the university of sydney. es talia walker es profesora de lengua inglesa e italiana, y también ha trabajado como ayudante de investigación en una serie de proyectos de lingüística y sociología. presentó su trabajo fin de grado en la universidad de sídney, con el que obtuvo el grado con mención en idiomas en 2016. su campo de interés es la sociolingüística (específicamente, la comunicación intercultural y transcultural).   en 2018, comenzará su proyecto de doctorado en el departamento de estudios italianos de la university of sydney . it talia walker talia walker è insegnante di inglese e italiano, e ha collaborato in diversi progetti di ricerca in linguistica e sociologia. ha scritto la sua tesi all’università di sydney e nel 2016 si è laureata col massimo dei voti in discipline umanistiche (lingue). il suo campo di ricerca è la sociolinguistica, in particolare la comunicazione interculturale e multiculturale. nel 2018 inizierà un dottorato di ricerca presso il dipartimento di studi italiani della university of sydney. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 3, issue 1, september 2016, pages 86-90 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.4.76 www.e-journall.org © ferrarotti 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: laura.ferrarottibattino@uniroma1.it farrell, thomas s. c. (2015). reflective language teaching: from research to practice. london, new york: bloomsbury. laura ferrarotti* sapienza, università di roma book review received 11 july 2016; received in revised form 14 july 2016; accepted 15 july 2016 abstract en this book presents a combination of practical suggestions, the latest research findings, and an abundance of case studies concerning reflective language teaching. moreover, each of the 14 chapters in the volume develops and discusses various aspects of reflective language teaching, providing a well-rounded and comprehensive view of the topic. the first seven chapters illustrate what reflective language teaching entails by means of a number of useful techniques that can be profitably adopted to enhance an individual teacher’s self-awareness and to improve his or her teaching practice. the remaining chapters discuss reflective language teaching as an effective tool that can be adopted at an institution-wide level in an effort to guarantee overall improvement in teaching practices, which include monitoring one’s teaching style, sharing ideas on critical classroom events and issues, being informed about the latest teaching techniques, and overcoming a sense of isolation. key words: reflective language teaching, second language teaching, teacher development groups. es el libro presenta una combinación de sugerencias prácticas junto con los últimos resultados de investigación y una gran cantidad de estudios de caso referentes al enfoque reflexivo en la enseñanza de lenguas. de esta forma, cada uno de los 14 capítulos que componen el volumen desarrolla y analiza diversos aspectos de la enseñanza reflexiva en el aula de idiomas proporcionando una visión integra y comprensiva del tema. los primeros siete capítulos describen las implicaciones del enfoque reflexivo en la enseñanza de lenguas mediante la presentación de una serie de técnicas que el profesor puede rentabilizar para mejorar su autoconciencia y su práctica docente. los capítulos restantes se dedican a debatir la enseñanza reflexiva de idiomas como una herramienta eficaz para ser utilizada de forma colaborativa con el fin de garantizar una mejora general de las prácticas docentes. tales mejoras afectarían, entre otros aspectos, el seguimiento del estilo de enseñanza, el intercambio de ideas sobre los sucesos que acontecen en el aula, la puesta al día en las últimas técnicas docentes y la superación de cualquier sentimiento de aislamiento. palabras clave: enfoque reflexivo en la enseñanza de lenguas, enseñanza de segundas lenguas, grupos de trabajo para el desarrollo docente. it il libro presenta una combinazione di suggerimenti pratici, gli ultimi risultati nell’ambito della ricerca e molti casi studio che riguardano la didattica linguistica riflessiva. ciascuno dei 14 capitoli che compongono il volume sviluppa e discute i vari aspetti della didattica linguistica riflessiva e fornisce una visione completa del tema. i primi sette capitoli descrivono ciò che la didattica linguistica riflessiva comporta, con la presentazione di numerose tecniche utili, che possono essere vantaggiosamente adottate per aumentare l’autocoscienza di un singolo insegnante e per migliorare la propria pratica di insegnamento. i restanti capitoli discutono la didattica linguistica riflessiva presentandola come un valido strumento che può essere utilizzato in collaborazione con altri docenti per garantire un miglioramento generale delle pratiche d’insegnamento. tale miglioramento includerebbe, tra i vari aspetti, il monitoraggio dello stile d’insegnamento, la condivisione di idee su episodi critici e problematiche nella classe, l’essere aggiornati sulle ultime tecniche d’insegnamento e il superamento del senso di isolamento. parole chiave: didattica linguistica riflessiva, insegnamento della seconda lingua, gruppi di aggiornamento docenti. http://www.e-journall.org/ review: reflective language teaching e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 86-90 87 1. introductory remarks like most areas of work involving a decidedly pragmatic outlook and the communication of practical knowledge (e.g., healthcare and business), the field of education—and language teaching, in particular—must remain informed/aware of new methodologies and practices. language teaching skills cannot be acquired once and for all, but are part of a life-long learning process. moreover, an important part of language teachers’ knowledge and on-going education should consist in reflecting on their language teaching. farrell’s volume, reflective language teaching: from research to practice, deals effectively with reflective language teaching as a vital practice. first published in 2007 by continuum and, subsequently, in 2008 by bloomsbury, it appeared in an electronic version in 2015. in 2011, farrell published (with cambridge university press) another text, practice teaching: a reflective approach, which developed various aspects and implications of reflective teaching. the present book proves to be yet another noteworthy and valuable tool for both language teachers and language teacher trainers. in particular, the book’s manual-like style and user-friendly presentation make this text a helpful resource for language teachers from different educational and cultural backgrounds, ranging from mother-tongue teachers and experts in applied linguistics, to non-native teachers, to tesol students and trainers, and graduate students in applied linguistics. 2. content and chapter organization each of the 14 chapters contained in the book adheres to the same pattern: an introductory section is followed by a presentation of the relevant research and literature, a case study, and a subsection entitled “from research to practice,” which provides suggestions for teachers based on the research findings. the text then offers a reflection section, a conclusion, and a concise chapter scenario, in which a further case study is presented and discussed. an additional reflection section follows with questions and main points for the reader to consider. in this way, the text provides a well-rounded picture of reflective teaching, considering research data and offering practical suggestions intended to promote reflective teaching as a habitual and fruitful practice. each chapter is devoted to a specific aspect of reflective language teaching and training. in chapter 1, farrell offers a concise yet thorough introduction to reflective language teaching. certainly, there are various definitions of reflective teaching, “however, most of the definitions can be contained within two main stances to reflective teaching, one that emphasizes reflection only on classroom action, while the other also includes reflections on matters outside the classroom” (p. 3). in adopting the first stance, it is up to the teacher to reflect on occurrences in the classroom in light of class dynamics, and to change a given situation in order to attain a desired goal. in taking up the second stance, it is important for teachers to consider the broader community and the cultural context surrounding the school in which they teach. reflection on teaching can be carried out on three levels: reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action, and reflection-for-action. the first two levels reflect the two previously mentioned stances. in particular, reflection-in-action occurs in the classroom whenever a problem arises that requires immediate action or on-the-spot experimentation on the part of the teacher. an experienced teacher may be more likely than a novice to use his or her experience to solve problems while in class. reflection-on-action entails reflection outside of the classroom though the retrospective analysis of events that occurred during the lesson. lastly, reflection-for-action is “proactive in nature” in that it occurs after the first two phases of reflection, with the teacher deciding what action to take in the classroom. chapter 2 addresses a crucial step in reflective teaching, namely, self-reflection. farrell notes that successful and constructive reflective teaching must begin with a thorough process of self-reflection: the discovery and understanding of who instructors are, what their experiences as teachers have been so far, where they would like to go professionally, and what their priorities are, together with their feelings about teaching, and the rapport and connections they have with colleagues. a useful tool in this initial step of selfreflection is the creation of a teaching portfolio, which records instructors’ teaching experiences and accomplishments, including critical periods and “incidents,” as farrell calls them, and the ways in which they were managed. a teaching portfolio favors self-assessment and development and promotes collaboration with colleagues. it provides a sense of empowerment and progress, reinforcing self-awareness, self-esteem, and motivation. chapter 3 addresses teachers’ beliefs, in other words, those convictions and assumptions about students and classrooms that teachers inevitably develop after many years of activity. these beliefs, which ferrarotti e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 86-90 88 are also linked to teachers’ past experience as language students, tend to influence teaching methods and practical choices. reflecting on beliefs can help instructors to enhance motivation and coherence in their teaching, while reducing discrepancies between their beliefs and classroom practice. in chapter 4, instructors’ reflection is transferred to the classroom. difficult and critical incidents inevitably occur in class, involving both students’ and/or teachers’ practices. for example, a student may be totally demotivated and may not contribute to classwork, and/or the teacher may feel uncertain as to when a grammar topic should be introduced in a lesson and how. through teachers’ narrative reflection, these incidents can be closely examined and resolved, and teachers can then “consolidate their theoretical understanding of their practices” (p. 53), leading to the adoption of alternative teaching methods and outlooks. chapter 5 addresses the crucial need for instructors to be proficient in the language of instruction. this topic should not be taken for granted, as language proficiency is undoubtedly the main requirement for a language teacher—in addition to teaching methodologies, best class management practices, and adequate teaching materials—since it can heavily influence all the other aspects of instruction. while farrell emphasizes that language proficiency is a must, especially for non-native teachers, he adds that native teachers should also keep their linguistic competence up-to-date and review grammar rules. undoubtedly, inadequate language proficiency may result in a lack of creativity in class activities and in an over-reliance on the textbook. chapter 6, “metaphors and maxims,” is based on the assumption that, after years of experience, teachers usually develop ideas and mental models concerning their role and that of their students. these perceptions of some aspect of a teacher’s world can take the form of images, metaphors, and maxims. according to farrell, “many teachers may not be aware of the impact these images have on their current teaching practices, because they are held tacitly” (p. 67). instructors can fruitfully reflect on and improve their teaching practices by probing their personal metaphors and maxims. teachers should ask themselves such questions as: what is the image i hold of myself as a teacher and of the students? is the teacher a competitor, a nurturer or an entertainer in my mind? should language students be self-motivated and selfdirected or in need of constant guidance? how much does student accuracy matter in the language classroom? after thoughtful consideration of their metaphors and maxims, teachers can then decide to modify them to match their current teaching practices. chapter 7 represents an important shift in the book. from chapters 1 to 6, reflection on teaching is mainly dealt with at the personal level, whereas in the rest of the book it is discussed in the context of external elements, such as the classroom, colleagues, and teaching development groups. chapter 7 discusses classroom communication, considering the established, highly regulated communication patterns that teachers tend to follow, largely unconsciously, to communicate messages about language rules and use. most of the time, teachers correct students, evaluate their production, give instructions, provide feedback, and ask questions. however, they also communicate who they are as teachers. farrell makes a relevant distinction between two distinct talk modes: exploratory talk and draft talk. by adopting exploratory talk, teachers are hesitant to provide a definite answer on a given topic, thus leaving more room for discussion and students’ participation. in contrast, teachers tend to affirm their authority as experts on the topic at hand through final draft talk. by means of careful reflection on these two modes of talk, teachers could choose that which best suits a particular group of students. chapter 8 tackles action research, which involves observation in the classroom by other teachers and/or by means of information collected on teaching (i.e., via interviews with teachers and students, questionnaires, or the video-recording of an entire lesson). such observation is intended to promote reflection on one’s teaching practices. the notable advantage of action research is that it can lead to practical results and improvements in teaching and class management, as teachers can implement changes and make adjustments both in their own techniques and in the way in which students participate in classwork. in order to document their teaching results, it is highly advisable for instructors to keep a teaching journal. as suggested in chapter 9, “teaching journals provide teachers which a written record of various aspects of their practice such as classroom events and enable them to step back for a moment to reflect on their work” (p. 108). apart from reflecting on one’s own practice, writing a teaching journal provides an opportunity to collaborate with other teachers by sharing ideas and providing feedback to address problems and difficulties. chapter 10 presents a further tool for the discussion of classroom practices: teacher development groups. such a group need not be large, and can include both teachers and other members of the school, or review: reflective language teaching e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 86-90 89 “even teachers from different schools” (p. 121). working together with other teachers promotes empowerment and confidence while at the same time providing invaluable opportunities and outcomes that teachers could not achieve by working alone. in chapter 11, both self and peer classroom observations are discussed. as a premise, it is useful to remark that, “because classes are such busy places, with many things happening at the same time, much of what is really happening in that classroom for the most part actually remains largely unknown to the teacher” (p. 133). thus, peer classroom observation could help teachers to get an overall picture of what is going on in class and change less successful teaching practices; for example, teachers could decide to favor learners’ autonomy by adopting a more indirect teaching style. moreover, classroom observation should not be viewed as an evaluation tool; rather, it should be considered an instrument for professional development, which helps teachers to consider what works and what does not for a given class. the notion of classroom observation is further developed in chapter 12, which deals with critical friendships. establishing critical friendships with colleagues helps teachers monitor each other’s work in the classroom, obtain advice, and engage in peer coaching. it goes without saying that such friendships should be based on mutual trust and a collaborative attitude—which usually develops naturally once a teacher is already accustomed to reflecting on his or her teaching—and also require time to evolve. critical friendships enhance teamwork while helping to reduce the sense of isolation that teachers often feel. chapter 13 introduces the notion of concept mapping, which can be used by both teachers and students as a tool to reflect on teaching and learning. originating in the field of cognitive psychology, concept mapping involves the graphic representation and hierarchical ordering of concepts and the links that can exist between them. drawing a concept map before and after a course could effectively convey a picture of the learning process and facilitate the assessment of students’ acquisition of new knowledge. the last chapter (14), “professional development through reflective language teaching,” adopts a practical outlook as it discusses “how second language teachers engage in self-renewal and professional development through reflective language teaching” (p. 175). traditionally, refresher courses for language teachers were taught by external experts, thus following a top-down approach. while they undoubtedly provide sound teaching theories and effective tips, the information presented in such courses may not reflect a teacher’s actual classroom situation. to counteract this drawback, reflection on one’s specific instructional environment could produce relevant solutions and fruitful knowledge. since, generally speaking, teachers are the best judges when it comes to establishing what they need to improve and adjust, a bottom-up approach seems to best promote reflections on language teaching. teachers could organize themselves in small groups and reflect on crucial issues concerning their teaching practices (e.g., encouraging students to speak in the language of instruction in the classroom, rather than in their native language). bottom-up professional development combined with self-reflection enable teachers to develop a better understanding of instruction in general, evaluate their professional growth, become proactive at decision-making in the classroom, and build more confidence. 3. conclusion thanks to its manual-like organization, farrell’s book serves as a convenient reference for teachers, allowing them to consult those topics they most need in connection with their work. although the volume presents both research and practical examples, the practical outlook of the book predominates. however, those who wish to further investigate the field of reflective language teaching may access the comprehensive bibliography in each chapter and at the end of the volume. ferrarotti e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 86-90 90 laura ferrarotti, sapienza, università di roma laura.ferrarottibattino@uniroma1.it en laura ferrarotti is assistant professor of english in the department of communication and social research at sapienza, università di roma, where she has taught for over 15 years. she has degrees in english language and literature from american and italian universities. her research interests range from oral history to written discourse, from sociology to mass media studies and linguistics. she has carried out research on the language of television and news broadcasting and on the language of online university websites. her current projects include an analysis of the language used in online forums for patients with rare diseases. es laura ferrarotti es profesora de lengua inglesa en el departamento de comunicación e investigación social de la sapienza, università di roma, donde imparte clases desde hace más de 15 años. posee títulos universitarios en inglés y literatura cursados en universidades estadounideneses e italianas. sus líneas de investigación se centran en ámbitos como la historia de la oralidad, el discurso escrito, la sociología aplicada, los estudios de medios de comunicación y la lingüística. ha investigado el lenguaje televisivo y la retransmisión de noticias, así como el lenguaje de los sitios web de universidades en línea. en la actualidad está llevando a cabo un análisis del lenguaje utilizado en los foros en línea para pacientes con enfermedades raras. it laura ferrarotti è ricercatrice universitaria di inglese nel dipartimento di comunicazione e ricerca sociale alla sapienza, università di roma, dove ha insegnato per oltre 15 anni. ha titoli universitari in lingua e letteratura inglese rilasciati da università americane ed italiane. i suoi interessi nell’ambito della ricerca spaziano dalla storia orale al discorso scritto, dalla sociologia agli studi dei mass media e la linguistica. ha svolto attività di ricerca sul linguaggio della televisione, sulla trasmissione di notizie e sul linguaggio di siti internet universitari. tra i suoi progetti attuali, l’analisi del linguaggio utilizzato in forum di discussione online per pazienti affetti da malattie rare. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 2, issue 2, december 2015, pages 67-84 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.3.47 www.e-journall.org © perara-lunde 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contacto: mlunde@unm.edu identidades gramaticales: perspectivas estudiantiles hacia el aprendizaje y uso de gramática en una clase de shl molly perara-lunde*a, fernando melero-garcíab1 auniversity of new mexico bindiana university received 15 may 2015; received in revised form 9 august 2015; accepted 19 september 2015 abstract es como complementación a estudios previos que abordan las perspectivas y actitudes de estudiantes (ducar, 2008), en este estudio se pone de manifiesto la voz de los estudiantes de español como lengua de herencia con el propósito de mejorar la instrucción de gramática. las preguntas que han guiado esta investigación son: 1) ¿cómo conceptualizan la gramática? 2) ¿cuáles son las actitudes de los estudiantes hacia el aprendizaje de gramática? y 3) ¿qué registros o dialectos se deben usar en el salón de clase, según los estudiantes? se llevaron a cabo entrevistas con estudiantes en una clase de español como lengua de herencia de nivel intermedio para explorar temas relacionados con la gramática, el uso de diferentes registros y percepciones sobre el programa de shl en general. los comentarios de los participantes revelan una actitud positiva hacia el aprendizaje de la gramática y un entendimiento sofisticado de la variación sociolingüística, lo cual tiene implicaciones para futuras investigaciones y la enseñanza de gramática. palabras clave: español como lengua de herencia, actitudes lingüísticas, enseñanza de gramática, español académico, sociolingüística. en serving as a complement to previous studies that deal with student perspectives and attitudes (ducar, 2008), this study highlights the voices of students of spanish as a heritage language with the purpose of improving grammar instruction. the guiding questions of the study concern: 1) how students conceptualize grammar? 2) what are students’ attitudes towards learning grammar? and 3) which registers or dialects should be used in the classroom according to students? interviews were carried out with students in an intermediate level spanish as a heritage language class in order to explore grammar related themes, the use of different registers, and perceptions about the shl program in general. the comments of the participants revealed positive attitudes towards learning grammar and a sophisticated understanding of sociolinguistic variation, which has implications for future studies as well as grammar teaching. key words: spanish as a heritage language, linguistic attitudes, teaching grammar, academic spanish, sociolinguistics. it l’obiettivo di questo studio, complementare a precedenti indagini che affrontano i punti di vista e l’atteggiamento degli studenti (ducar, 2008), è redere note le opinioni degli studenti di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria allo scopo di migliorare l’insegnamento della grammatica. i quesiti che hanno guidato la ricerca sono: 1) com’è concepita la grammatica dagli studenti? 2) come si pongono gli studenti rispetto allo studio della grammatica? 3) quali registri e varietà dovrebbero essere usati in aula secondo gli studenti? le domande sono state poste agli studenti di una classe di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria (shl) di livello intermedio e esplorano argomenti relativi alla grammatica, all’uso dei diversi registri e alle impressioni sul programma di shl in generale. i commenti dei partecipanti rivelano un atteggiamento positivo verso l’apprendimento della grammatica e una comprensione sofisticata della variazione sociolinguistica, con conseguenti implicazioni sulle future ricerche e sull’insegnamento della grammatica. parole chiave: spagnolo come lingua ereditaria, atteggiamenti linguistici, insegnamento della grammatica, spagnolo accademico, sociolinguistica. http://www.e-journall.org/ perara-lunde & melero-garcía 68 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 1. introducción desde los años 1980 y 1990, debido al aumento de estudiantes hispanos matriculados en clases universitarias de español, se ha implementado un número creciente de programas de español como lengua de herencia (de ahora en adelante shl por sus siglas en inglés, spanish as a heritage language). estos programas tienen como propósitos principales el mantenimiento y revitalización de la lengua española y, a su vez, la adquisición de destrezas literarias. aunque el mantenimiento de la lengua incluye la preservación y fortalecimiento de variedades comunitarias, estudios recientes indican que la mayoría de los programas de shl se enfocan más en las destrezas literarias y variedades formales del español, posiblemente relegando dichas variedades comunitarias a usos fuera del aula (beaudrie, 2012). la estricta y única enseñanza de un registro formal no solamente limita las oportunidades de comunicación con familiares, sino que también perpetúa una ideología prescriptiva entre estudiantes que a menudo traen a clase variedades no estándares. esto ocasiona un debilitamiento de la autoestima de los estudiantes, que causa incomodidad a la hora de usar la lengua en clase o, en casos más graves, el abandono de la lengua completamente. en un estudio llevado a cabo por krashen (1998) se entrevistó a hablantes de español como lengua de herencia matriculados en una clase de educación de posgrado; todos habían tomado clases de español en nivel universitario. en dicho estudio se estipula que las críticas y actitudes negativas que algunos profesores universitarios albergan hacia el habla de los hablantes de herencia causan el abandono de la lengua por parte de algunos estudiantes: “the most intimidating and painful experiences i have had… while attempting to learn spanish have been dealt me by native spanish speaking instructors… at the university” (p. 45) [“las experiencias más intimidantes y dolorosas que he tenido… cuando trataba de aprender español me llegaron de instructores hispanohablantes nativos… en la universidad” –traducción nuestra]. para que los programas de shl puedan revitalizar, mantener y fortalecer la lengua española y sus variaciones, en primer lugar se deben comprender las experiencias y realidades lingüísticas de los estudiantes matriculados en dichos programas. el presente estudio tiene un propósito doble: uno más global y otro más específico. por un lado, la investigación que se presenta en este artículo es parte de un estudio colaborativo mayor llevado a cabo por un grupo de investigadores en la universidad de nuevo méxico denominado la perspectiva estudiantil. como complementación a estudios previos centrados en la perspectiva estudiantil (ducar, 2008), el objetivo de este proyecto colaborativo consiste en dar voz a los estudiantes del programa shl en la universidad de nuevo méxico, para así poder analizar y dar cuenta de sus actitudes lingüísticas y finalmente ofrecer un tipo de enseñanza que se ajuste a sus necesidades. específicamente, en esta parte del estudio se exploran las actitudes de los estudiantes hacia la gramática y cómo dichas actitudes afectan al aprendizaje y la autoestima de los estudiantes. como dice beaudrie (2012): because what researchers and educators believe to be most important may not always coincide with what the students expect and need, students voices must be incorporated into the design of shl programs. a successful shl program first and foremost, needs to meet the needs of the students it is intended to serve. (p. 214) [porque lo que los investigadores y educadores consideran más importante puede que no siempre coincida con lo que los estudiantes esperan y necesitan. deben incorporarse las voces de los estudiantes en el diseño de los programas de shl. primero y ante todo, un buen programa de shl debe satisfacer las necesidades de los estudiantes a los que pretende servir. –traducción nuestra] teniendo esto en cuenta, se entrevistó a un grupo de estudiantes en una clase de shl para conseguir un entendimiento específico sobre sus perspectivas en cuanto a la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la gramática. las preguntas de investigación que han guiado este estudio son: 1) ¿cómo conceptualizan la gramática estos estudiantes? 2) ¿cuáles son las actitudes de los estudiantes hacia el aprendizaje de gramática? y 3) ¿qué registros o dialectos deben ser usados en el salón de clase, según los estudiantes? con estas cuestiones esperamos ofrecer una investigación de las ideologías presentes en el salón de la clase shl desde un punto de vista de los propios estudiantes. los resultados de este estudio ofrecen una idea sobre cómo satisfacer las necesidades tanto afectivas como lingüísticas de los estudiantes, lo cual puede ser de utilidad para aquellos interesados en la enseñanza de español como lengua de herencia. identidades gramaticales e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 69 2. repaso de literatura 2.1 ideologías lingüísticas en las universidades las instituciones educativas han constituido una de las influencias más poderosas a la hora de formar ideologías lingüísticas (garcía & torres-guevara, 2010; macgregor-mendoza, 2000; valdés, 1992). según leeman (2012), las ideologías “are linked to the social, political, or economic interests of particular groups of people” (p. 44) [“están vinculadas a los intereses sociales, políticos o económicos de determinados grupos de personas” traducción nuestra]. específicamente, las ideologías lingüísticas son aquellas que construyen ideas sobre la lengua, la comunicación y en relación al habla (del valle, 2014). en el caso de la enseñanza de español a nivel universitario, algunos investigadores han observado una preferencia por la lengua estándar o académica (del valle, 2014; leeman, 2012, 2014; villa, 2002), incluso en el caso de programas de shl (rivera-mills, 2012; showstack, 2012; 2015), lo cual está justificado por la necesidad de desarrollar las destrezas literarias y profesionales de los estudiantes. mientras que esta justificación viene dada en parte por el interés de los propios estudiantes, en realidad limita las experiencias de los estudiantes en el aula y no toma en cuenta la realidad de vivir en comunidades bilingües, en las que son frecuentes ciertas peculiaridades culturales como la alternancia de códigos entre español e inglés (carvalho, 2012). este tipo de ideologías prescriptivas o estándares sugieren que las variedades lingüísticas presentes en contextos formales, lo que se llama lengua académica o registro formal, gozan implícitamente de más valor que las variedades que encontramos en tales comunidades bilingües, lo cual resulta en actitudes negativas hacia las variedades comunitarias (beaudrie & ducar, 2005). además, a menudo los programas de español mantienen que la lengua española es una lengua extranjera, sugiriendo que es una lengua exclusiva de otros países (garcía & torres-guevara, 2010; leeman, 2014; showstack, 2012, 2015). esta categorización del español como lengua extranjera da lugar a una serie de situaciones problemáticas. en primer lugar, el español se ha hablado en estados unidos durante muchas generaciones en numerosas comunidades hispanas y es verdaderamente una lengua local (bills & vigil, 2008). al afirmar que el español es una lengua extranjera estamos excluyendo a los grupos bilingües locales, los cuales consisten frecuentemente en poblaciones desfavorecidas e inmigrantes (valdés, 2000). la exclusión de estos grupos supone otorgar un mayor prestigio y valor económico (leeman, 2014) a aquellas variedades del español hablado en otros países, lo que resulta en la devaluación del habla de los hispanohablantes estadounidenses y una preferencia por variaciones monolingües extranjeras. además del favorecimiento de otras variedades monolingües, también se idealizan las destrezas bilingües de los angloparlantes que aprenden español como segunda lengua (cashman, 2009), lo cual también refleja la jerarquía social en estados unidos. villa (2002) apunta los problemas relacionados con el concepto de lengua académica, un concepto abstracto y no definido pero basado en la lengua escrita. evidente en terminología como “registro alto” y “registro bajo”, los académicos, incluso algunos lingüistas, han creado un sistema lingüístico que refleja las realidades de clase social en la enseñanza de español en nivel universitario. en cuanto a los programas de shl, un fuerte énfasis en la lengua académica ratifica esta misma ideología (leeman, 2012). consecuentemente, algunos investigadores han documentado casos de la falta de autoestima lingüística por parte de los hablantes de herencia, evidente en este extracto: “i don’t feel my spanish is that good. i talk “pocha” spanish” (beaudrie & ducar, 2005, p. 13) [“pienso que mi español no es muy bueno. hablo español “pocha”” –traducción nuestra]. a pesar de la existencia de un creciente cuerpo de investigación que apunta la validez lingüística del español estadounidense, este sigue siendo una variedad estigmatizada y criticada (carreira, 2000). en una investigación en la que se observan las prácticas de enseñanza e interacciones con los estudiantes de una instructora de shl, showstack (2015) destaca el hecho de que aunque los instructores tengan como objetivo fundamental valorar las variedades comunitarias de los estudiantes, aún pueden estar perpetuando una noción abstracta de los valores de lengua estándar. por ejemplo, la instructora observada en el estudio, al mismo tiempo que fomentaba el uso de la alternancia de códigos, también prohibía a los estudiantes el uso de ciertas palabras o frases comunes que a menudo se escuchan en estados unidos, tales como “llámame pa' atrás” (p. 350). ejemplos como este demuestran que el español de los bilingües de estados unidos sigue siendo objeto de críticas, incluso en salones de clase donde se pretende fortalecer las variedades comunitarias. sin lugar a dudas, estas críticas tienen un impacto en la autoestima y actitudes de los estudiantes hacia el aprendizaje de español. los programas de shl a nivel universitario tienen la oportunidad de revocar la estigmatización asociada a las variedades del español estadounidense, así como de oponerse a ideologías estándares y perara-lunde & melero-garcía 70 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 combatir la limitada autoestima lingüística de los estudiantes hispanos. tomar en cuenta la fuerte conexión entre la lengua y asuntos sociopolíticos e incorporar el uso de variedades comunitarias de los estudiantes en clase contribuye al aprendizaje del estudiante de shl. investigaciones recientes destacan el éxito de tales estrategias e incitan a los instructores en programas de shl a usar una pedagogía crítica (del valle, 2014; leeman, 2014), la cual no solamente se enfoca en la gramática sino también en aumentar un entendimiento suficiente de las implicaciones sociales, políticas y económicas de aprender y enseñar una lengua: one element of critical approaches to second language (l2) pedagogy is the dialogic examination of how ideologies, politics, and social hierarchies are embodied, reproduced, and naturalized in language learning and teaching. [un elemento de los enfoques críticos a la pedagogía de segundas lenguas (l2) es el examen dialógico de cómo se incorporan, reproducen y naturalizan las ideologías, políticas y jerarquías sociales en el aprendizaje y enseñanza de la lengua. –traducción nuestra] (leeman, 2014, p. 275) tales estrategias incluyen escuchar a los estudiantes y tomar en cuenta la diversidad en sus experiencias lingüísticas y culturales, especialmente en la instrucción de conceptos abstractos gramaticales, expectativas de participación en la clase y haciendo correcciones gramaticales a los estudiantes (ducar, 2008; potowski, 2002; showstack, 2015). a continuación, se ofrece un análisis de unos estudios que han explorado tales temas observando y preguntando directamente a los estudiantes en programas de shl. 2.2 actitudes en el salón de shl en un estudio que investiga las actitudes de estudiantes en un nivel principiante de español de herencia, beaudrie y ducar (2005) hallaron que a pesar del bajo nivel de autoestima manifestado por los estudiantes que consideran su propia lengua como algo no estimado, tienen una motivación muy fuerte de aumentar sus habilidades comunicativas y consideran la lengua española, en general, con mucho aprecio. la conclusión más relevante de este estudio es la gran importancia de estimular a los estudiantes principiantes para usar la lengua y comunicarse sin la preocupación de hacerlo de una manera formal o informal. un estudiante comenta: “that’s why the class is good because she doesn’t care if you’re speaking wrong or you’re speaking incorrectly, she just wants you to talk” (p. 15) [“es por eso por lo que la clase es buena porque a ella no le importa si estás hablando mal o de manera incorrecta, ella solamente quiere que hables” –traducción nuestra], lo cual ejemplifica el enorme valor de las actitudes de los profesores en fortalecer la autoestima lingüística en el salón de clase. de manera similar, ducar (2008) encontró que los estudiantes desean ser corregidos por el instructor. no obstante, es de suma importancia que perciban que el profesor los corrige de una manera que ellos caracterizan como benévola, con respeto, de manera constructiva y con propósito de ayudar a los estudiantes, no de forzar reglas ni dejarlos en evidencia ante el resto de la clase. es también necesario investigar las relaciones entre los estudiantes. usando análisis del discurso, showstack (2012) analizó el discurso en un salón de shl a nivel universitario ubicado en el suroeste estadounidense para explorar cómo los estudiantes bilingües construyen sus identidades lingüísticas y culturales. observó que los estudiantes traen a clase experiencias muy variadas con respecto a la lengua española y, como resultado, sus habilidades lingüísticas son también muy variadas. algunos de estos estudiantes poseían un conocimiento gramatical y habilidades más avanzadas, mientras que aquellos estudiantes que no habían tenido oportunidad de hablar español en sus comunidades o no habían recibido una educación formal en español, no tenían ese nivel de conocimiento o habilidades tan sofisticadas. según estos niveles de sus habilidades lingüísticas, los estudiantes mismos ejercieron lo que la autora denomina “poder simbólico” (adoptado por bourdieu, 1991) de unos sobre otros; los estudiantes que poseen alta competencia lingüística caracterizan a aquellos estudiantes con una competencia más baja como hablantes con una conexión más débil con la cultura e identidad hispana. la autora concluye que los estudiantes consideran que para identificarse como hispanos, han de hablar español con un determinado nivel. la autora también comenta sobre el hecho de que muchos estudiantes mantienen ideologías lingüísticas prescriptivas y observa que tanto los estudiantes como los profesores pueden promover este tipo de ideologías prescriptivas. este estudio muestra que, al mismo tiempo que la conceptualización de lengua como una característica clave de la identidad latina es útil para promover motivación e ideologías que favorecen variedades de español no estándares, también puede excluir o devaluar a estudiantes sin una competencia avanzada en español. tales estudios ejemplifican la necesidad de la investigación explícita de las actitudes de los estudiantes de lengua de herencia. identidades gramaticales e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 71 2.3 competencia gramatical puesto que en este estudio se exploran ideologías y actitudes con respecto a la enseñanza, aprendizaje y competencia gramatical, es conveniente repasar lo que sabemos sobre la gramática de los estudiantes de shl y cómo las concepciones de los académicos afectan a los estudiantes en dichos programas. la gramática de los estudiantes de shl cuenta con unas peculiaridades diferentes a la de los estudiantes como segunda lengua. estas particularidades ya han sido destacadas por otros autores en estudios previos (beaudrie, ducar, & potowski, 2014; montrul & sánchez-walker, 2013). beaudrie et al. (2014) argumentan que los conocimientos gramaticales de los estudiantes de shl están afectados en cierta manera por, al menos, tres fenómenos que vamos a comentar a continuación: adquisición bilingüe, atrición lingüística y contacto lingüístico. en primer lugar, la adquisición bilingüe (beaudrie et al., 2014, p. 158) afecta a los estudiantes de shl ya que mientras que un hablante en una comunidad monolingüe está expuesto a la lengua en numerosos y variados contextos (es decir, recibe mucho input en español), los hablantes en comunidades bilingües de estados unidos no están expuestos a la misma cantidad ni a la misma variedad de contextos en los que se usa únicamente el español. además, la educación formal en español es reducida para estos hablantes si la comparamos con la de sus homólogos en países monolingües. por tanto, los estudiantes de shl no tienen la oportunidad de desarrollar un sistema gramatical interno comparable al de hablantes monolingües debido a la reducida exposición, tanto formal como informal, lo cual ha llevado a algunos autores a hablar de un sistema gramatical simplificado (otheguy & zentella, 2011). en segundo lugar, hemos mencionado la atrición lingüística. esto ocurre cuando un hablante adquiere una forma o contextos lingüísticos específicos en un momento determinado, pero –también debido al limitado input– con el paso del tiempo dichas formas que fueron adquiridas caen en desuso y, por consiguiente, en el olvido (beaudrie et al., 2014, p. 159). el tercer fenómeno es el contacto lingüístico (beaudrie et al., 2014, pp. 159-160). al hablar de contacto lingüístico, beaudrie et al. (2014) se refieren al hecho de que, como niño, un hablante de herencia puede adquirir el 100% del sistema lingüístico al que está expuesto. sin embargo, lo que destacan estas autoras es que el sistema lingüístico al que estos hablantes están expuestos puede contener ciertos rasgos lingüísticos que han surgido de la situación de contacto (beaudrie et al., 2014, p. 159). por ejemplo, montrul y sánchez-walker (2013), en un estudio sobre la omisión de la preposición a como marcador de objeto directo, proporcionaron evidencias de que la segunda generación de inmigrantes estaban adquiriendo ciertos rasgos lingüísticos característicos de la situación de contacto entre el español y el inglés en estados unidos. como decíamos, al menos estos tres fenómenos (adquisición bilingüe, atrición lingüística y contacto lingüístico) hacen que las gramáticas y los sistemas lingüísticos intrínsecos de los estudiantes de shl sean diferentes tanto los estudiantes de español como lengua extranjera como de los hablantes monolingües de español. es importante notar que la terminología utilizada para describir los sistemas lingüísticos de los hablantes bilingües, particularmente los bilingües español-inglés en el contexto de shl, conlleva connotaciones no muy positivas. por ejemplo, términos como “una gramática simplificada” o “atrición lingüística”, comunicados directa o indirectamente a los estudiantes, ofrecen una idea de que la lengua usada por estos hablantes no es la lengua española auténtica, caracterizada por una gramática correcta, completa o no simplificada. de hecho, algunos autores han escrito sobre la lengua de los hispanos estadounidenses usando descripciones tales como a mutilated form (una forma mutilada) de la lengua, un término que implica la existencia de problemas fundamentales con el habla de este grupo (valdés, 2000). cuando se exploran cuestiones como actitudes e ideologías es necesario conocer el contexto sociocultural de los participantes. por ello, a continuación se ofrece información sobre el trasfondo sociocultural y sociolingüístico de nuevo méxico y el programa shl en la universidad de nuevo méxico. 2.4 contexto sociolingüístico de nuevo méxico el español se ha hablado por comunidades hispanas en la región suroeste de estados unidos durante numerosas generaciones y es una parte importante de la cultura del estado de nuevo méxico (bills & vigil, 2008). en concreto, la lengua española ha estado presente en nuevo méxico desde el siglo xvi, momento en el que se establecieron los primeros asentamientos europeos bajo el poder de la corona de españa (bills & vigil, 2008). desde finales del siglo xvi hasta comienzos del siglo xviii, nuevo méxico había sido una colonia principalmente hispanohablante. esta situación lingüística comenzaría a cambiar tras la intervención estadounidense en méxico (1846-1848), que culminó con el tratado de guadalupe hidalgo en 1848, según el perara-lunde & melero-garcía 72 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 cual méxico cedería parte de su territorio a estados unidos. de este modo, nuevo méxico pasó a ser territorio estadounidense (fernández-gibert, 2010). cuando el territorio de nuevo méxico estaba en el proceso de convertirse en un estado de los estados unidos de américa, numerosas instituciones, incluyendo las escuelas, se vieron obligadas a abandonar el uso del español y reemplazarlo por la lengua nacional de estados unidos, el inglés (fernández-gibert, 2010). entrar en la unión no solamente tuvo implicaciones lingüísticas sino también implicaciones de identidad étnica; los hispanos comenzaron a identificarse como españoles para destacar sus raíces europeas (nieto-phillips, 2000). las escuelas se tomaron en serio la institucionalización del inglés y, por lo tanto, el uso del español en centros educativos públicos se convirtió en un acto estigmatizado. de hecho, algunos investigadores (macgregor-mendoza, 2000) han documentado los testimonios de neomexicanos recordando ocasiones de abuso físico y psicológico simplemente por el hecho de hablar español en la escuela. consecuentemente, muchos hispanos en la región decidieron no enseñar la lengua española a generaciones posteriores debido a la estigmatización y dolor de sus infancias (macgregormendoza, 2000, p. 365). reconociendo el hecho de que muchos hispanos en la región no han tenido la oportunidad de desarrollar competencias lingüísticas en español durante la infancia, el programa shl en la universidad de nuevo méxico se vale de una definición amplia de shl, según la cual un estudiante shl incluye a cualquier persona que tenga una conexión cultural con el español. uno de sus propósitos es dar a los estudiantes la oportunidad de apreciar y revitalizar su cultura a través de la lengua española. el sitio web (spanport.unm.edu) del programa estipula que [o]ne of our primary goals is to help our students develop an appreciation of their heritage language. the spanish that they bring with them is a valuable resource. the spanish of their communities is honored as a venerable variety of the language. [uno de nuestros propósitos principales es ayudar a nuestros estudiantes a desarrollar un aprecio por su lengua de herencia. el español que traen consigo es un recurso valioso. el español de sus comunidades es respetado como una variedad venerable de la lengua. – traducción nuestra] 3. metodología el método empleado ha sido la realización de entrevistas individuales con estudiantes para explorar varios temas que tienen que ver con el aprendizaje del español en el programa shl en la universidad de nuevo méxico. aunque los participantes comentaron sobre diversos temas, en este artículo nos limitaremos a exponer principalmente tres conceptos: 1) conceptualizaciones de la gramática, 2) percepciones hacia el aprendizaje de la gramática, y 3) perspectivas hacia el uso de diferentes registros y variedades en el salón de clase. para concluir, se presentarán implicaciones pedagógicas de los resultados hallados. para este proyecto se llevaron a cabo catorce entrevistas a estudiantes de span 212. esta es una clase de cuarto semestre en el programa de español como lengua de herencia en la universidad de nuevo méxico. las entrevistas tuvieron una duración aproximada de entre 30 y 40 minutos. se formularon preguntas con respuesta abierta en las que se preguntó a los estudiantes sobre información demográfica (edad, lugar de origen, lengua hablada en casa y etiquetas de identidad), percepciones sobre la lengua española, sobre la gramática, sobre el uso del lenguaje (dentro y fuera del salón de clase) y sobre el programa de shl en la universidad de nuevo méxico (para una copia del protocolo de entrevista, véase al apéndice a). las preguntas de la entrevista fueron compuestas por los dos investigadores según los temas que aparecen en la bibliografía especializada y según sus propias experiencias trabajando con estudiantes. se comunicó claramente a los estudiantes que podían responder y elaborar cuanto quisieran en los temas que consideraran oportunos. aunque se dio a los participantes la oportunidad de hablar tanto en español como en inglés durante las entrevistas, todos los participantes escogieron hablar inglés. los investigadores grabaron las entrevistas y también tomaron apuntes durante las mismas. en la tabla 1 abajo se da un perfil de cada participante del estudio, que incluye edad, género, lugar de origen, lengua hablada en casa durante la infancia y etiquetas étnicas usadas por cada participante. identidades gramaticales e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 73 tabla 1 información demográfica de los participantes # edad género lugar de origen lengua de infancia etiqueta étnica 1 21 mujer california español hispana 2 19 mujer albuquerque, nm español hispana, latina, mexicana 3 19 mujer santa fe, nm inglés y poco español hispana 4 19 mujer albuquerque, nm inglés y poco español hispana, blanca 5 33 mujer los ángeles, ca inglés y poco español mexicana, europea, italiana, chicana 6 19 mujer los lunas, nm inglés, poco árabe, poco español musulmana, palestina, hispana 7 19 mujer rio rancho, nm inglés hispana, mexicana 8 20 hombre taos, nm inglés hispano, español 9 20 hombre el paso, tx inglés hispano, americano 10 20 mujer albuquerque, nm inglés y poco español hispana 11 18 hombre san diego, ca español peruano, americano, latino 12 19 mujer albuquerque, nm inglés y poco español hispana, mexicana 13 26 mujer albuquerque, nm inglés y poco español española, americana, chicana, del south valley 14 19 hombre albuquerque, nm español hispano la mayoría de participantes son del estado de nuevo méxico y todos son de la región suroeste de los estados unidos; son de edades comprendidas entre 18 y 33 años; siete de los catorce participantes indican que usaron principalmente inglés en casa durante la infancia y estuvieron expuestos al español de una forma mínima. cuatro participantes indican que usaron principalmente español durante la infancia y tres más indican que usaron solamente inglés aunque algunos familiares hablaban español. algo particularmente interesante y relevante para este estudio es el hecho de que casi todos los participantes utilizaron más de una etiqueta étnica para describirse a sí mismos. los tres estudiantes que usaron solamente una etiqueta escogieron una etiqueta étnica panhispana. los datos recolectados sobre los trasfondos culturales y lingüísticos muestran la diversidad de este grupo e indudablemente tendrán implicaciones para sus creencias y actitudes hacia el aprendizaje del español (potowski, 2012). se analizaron las entrevistas usando un método cualitativo. los investigadores escucharon y transcribieron las entrevistas. usando los apuntes y transcripciones, se formaron categorías conceptuales de las respuestas de los participantes. esta forma de código se conoce como “código abierto” (scott & morrison, 2006). de esta manera, en lugar de organizar los resultados siguiendo un estándar sintético predeterminado, son las respuestas de los estudiantes las que dan forma a los resultados del estudio. ya que el propósito del estudio es dar voz a los estudiantes para informar la enseñanza, la siguiente sección relata los datos, agrupados por los investigadores pero en palabras de los mismos participantes. 4. datos 4.1 la gramática: conceptos e identidades esta sección proporciona respuestas a las siguientes preguntas generales: 1) ¿cómo conceptualizan los estudiantes la gramática? 2) ¿consideran que sus competencias gramaticales son apropiadas o insuficientes? se ha observado en el programa shl de la universidad de nuevo méxico que un número considerable de estudiantes de español como lengua de herencia vienen a las clases con la intención de adquirir conocimientos estrictamente gramaticales, un requisito que consideran necesario para poder llegar a hablar español con fluidez. esta idea según la cual las clases de gramática dan autoridad y fluidez a un hablante está bien fomentada en una ideología prescriptiva, y ha estado confirmada en otros estudios también (potowski, 2002). por ello, saber cuáles son sus concepciones de la gramática y si se consideran a sí mismos positivamente con el uso y conocimiento de la gramática revela información relevante acerca de las necesidades de los estudiantes. perara-lunde & melero-garcía 74 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 al preguntar a los participantes cómo se define la gramática, obtuvimos una variación de respuestas que oscilan entre un entendimiento más prescriptivo y uno más descriptivo. nueve participantes insinuaron que la gramática es todo lo que tiene que ver con lo apropiado, lo correcto y las reglas (ejemplos 1 y 2): 1) “i’m not really good with grammar but i’m thinking it’s just like punctuation and correct grammar” “no soy muy bueno en gramática pero imagino que es como la puntuación y la gramática correcta” (participante 11) 2) “i don’t know. how to make a sentence properly. that’s all i can think of” “no sé. cómo formular una oración correctamente. eso es todo en que puedo pensar” (participante 1) el participante 11 comienza su respuesta señalando que sus competencias o conocimientos en términos de gramática no son buenos, lo cual indica a los investigadores un nivel bajo de autoestima lingüística. en general, responde a la pregunta sin decir mucho; la gramática es la gramática correcta y la puntuación. este participante no es capaz de definir “gramática”; únicamente afirma que su conocimiento al respecto no es suficiente. es también importante notar que este participante declaró haber hablado español en casa durante su infancia, y es probable que en realidad este bajo nivel de autoestima lingüística venga dado simplemente por un desconocimiento metalingüístico y no necesariamente de sus competencias reales con la lengua. además, el participante 1 desconoce qué es la gramática, pero ofrece una conjetura que, una vez más, es “la correcta”. el desconocimiento metalingüístico, el hecho de no ser capaz de ofrecer una definición precisa de “gramática”, junto con la afirmación de que es lo correcto refleja una ideología prescriptiva y proporciona autoridad lingüística a aquellos que poseen conocimiento metalingüístico y saben qué es gramática, o dicho de otra forma, aquellos que han recibido una educación formal en español. por el contrario, cinco participantes mostraron un entendimiento bastante sofisticado de la gramática pues explicaron que la gramática es simplemente la estructura necesaria de una lengua y es lo que nos permite entendernos unos a otros (ejemplos 3 y 4): 3) “the format that a language requires it to be. it’s not something that we are constantly thinking of but it’s something that has to be done in order to come across, because if you don’t maybe you’ll say something that you don’t want to say” “el formato que requiere una lengua. no es algo en lo que pensamos constantemente pero es algo que tiene que ocurrir para entendernos, porque si no, quizás digas algo que no quieres decir” (participante 2) 4) “a sentence with good grammar is a sentence that can be understood” “una oración con buena gramática es una oración que se puede entender” (participante 6) los ejemplos dados aquí relacionan la gramática con la comunicación efectiva, lo que ilustra que este grupo de estudiantes ha adoptado una ideología más descriptiva. de un lado, sorprende encontrar un grupo de estudiantes que conceptualiza la gramática de tal manera porque, como veremos más abajo, todavía creen que la gramática es su punto débil. al cuestionar a los participantes si sus competencias y conocimientos gramaticales eran adecuados, la mayoría respondió que no son buenos en la gramática, lo cual queda ejemplificado en respuestas como la siguiente (ejemplo 5): 5) “no, mostly just cuz like i know what i’m trying to say but my conjugations get mixed up along the way” “no, sobre todo porque sé lo que estoy intentando decir pero mezclo las conjugaciones en el proceso” (participante 7) podemos observar que el participante usa el término “conjugación” al justificar por qué no se considera bueno en gramática, un concepto aprendido en una clase de gramática. una vez más, afirmó que la gramática se aprende en un salón de clase y se usa estrictamente en tales entornos. en total, diez participantes ofrecieron respuestas semejantes a la anterior, lo cual implica que estos hablantes sí tienen las habilidades necesarias para comunicarse pero que son conscientes de que a veces no usan “la forma correcta” según las reglas prescriptivas. además, al preguntar a los participantes cuáles son los puntos débiles y fuertes en relación a su uso del español, algunos de los puntos débiles destacados fueron la gramática, la escritura, las identidades gramaticales e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 75 conjugaciones, las irregularidades y el futuro. exceptuando al participante 14, los demás entrevistados habían recibido varias clases de español durante semestres anteriores. a pesar de ello, la mayoría mantiene que no se consideran buenos en gramática y que esta es uno de sus puntos débiles. al mismo tiempo califican la gramática como lo “correcto” o “apropiado”. por tanto, podemos ver que la mayoría considera que el español que hablan no es correcto o apropiado y que, en gran parte, se debe a la gramática. incluso los cinco participantes que ofrecieron definiciones descriptivas de la gramática mantienen que no poseen destrezas fuertes en cuanto a esta (beaudrie & ducar, 2005). 4.2 actitudes hacia el aprendizaje esta sección proporciona respuestas a las siguientes preguntas: 1) ¿cuáles son las actitudes hacia el aprendizaje de gramática? 2) ¿creen que los profesores deberían corregir a los estudiantes en clase? y 3) ¿cómo se sienten cuando el profesor corrige errores de los estudiantes en clase? cuando preguntamos a los participantes cómo se sienten con respecto a la gramática, trece de los catorce participantes nos comunicaron que es algo difícil y complicado. sin embargo, los participantes muestran una actitud muy positiva hacia el aprendizaje de gramática ejemplificado en el deseo de ser corregidos por sus profesores. obtuvimos unanimidad de respuestas afirmativas cuando preguntamos si consideran que su instructor de español debería corregir su gramática en clase, aunque dicha corrección debe realizarse de tal manera que permita a los estudiantes aumentar su entendimiento de la variación del español (ejemplo 6): 6) “the professor should not say ‘that’s not right’, but should explain what other possibilities there are to communicate the same idea” “el profesor no debería decir “eso no está bien”, sino que debería explicar qué otras posibilidades hay para comunicar la misma idea” (participante 3) a pesar de que los datos en la sección previa sugieren un bajo nivel de autoestima por parte de los participantes en cuanto a la gramática “correcta”, al mismo tiempo se muestra un entendimiento bastante sofisticado de la variación lingüística. los participantes están familiarizados con determinados términos no estándares y la mayoría proviene de comunidades en las que se utiliza la alternancia de códigos. por supuesto, no se trata de formas “correctas” o “incorrectas”, sino de diferentes registros y diferentes contextos. de esta manera las correcciones de los profesores constituyen una oportunidad óptima para concienciar a los alumnos de la rica variedad sociolingüística en el campo del español (martínez, 2005). en este contexto, ofrecimos a los estudiantes la oportunidad de expresar sus sentimientos cuando son corregidos por el profesor. algunos participantes revelaron que al comienzo del curso se sentían ligeramente intimidados por las correcciones, pero a lo largo del curso comprendieron que es parte de la experiencia del aprendizaje (ejemplo 7): 7) “i think she should correct (grammar) when it changes the meaning of the sentence. pronunciation shouldn’t be corrected… at first it (being corrected) kind of bothered me but now i’m cool with it “creo que ella debe corregir (la gramática) cuando cambia el significado de la oración. la pronunciación no se debe corregir… al principio me molestaba un poco que me corrigiera pero ahora me parece bien” (participante 9) aquí se observa que los estudiantes entienden que la gramática es clave para comunicar ideas de forma clara y que las correcciones de los profesores les pueden ayudar a comunicarse de diversas formas. 4.3 variación lingüística en el salón de clase aquí se reportan respuestas a las siguientes preguntas generales: 1) ¿cuáles son las impresiones de los estudiantes sobre el uso de la lengua en clase y el uso de la lengua en la comunidad? 2) ¿hay algún efecto emocional en el uso del español en cada uno de estos ambientes? y 3) ¿creen que se deberían usar diferentes registros y dialectos, incluyendo la alternancia de códigos, en el salón de clase? al preguntar a los participantes si creen que existe una diferencia entre el español que escuchan y hablan en clase frente al español que se habla en la comunidad obtuvimos una respuesta unánime (n = 14): todos los estudiantes apuntaron a una diferencia de registros. según los resultados obtenidos de sus respuestas, el español en la clase es más formal, mientras que en la comunidad el registro es más casual, perara-lunde & melero-garcía 76 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 informal e incluso algunos estudiantes mencionan slang. esto llevó a algunos de los estudiantes (n = 9) a afirmar que ellos mismos hablan de una manera diferente en la clase. por ejemplo, tratan de no alternar inglés y español en clase porque están intentando aprender español. también dijeron ser más cuidadosos con su lenguaje en la clase para intentar no cometer errores a los que, en su comunidad, no prestarían atención. al preguntarles si ellos consideran que las variedades comunitarias, incluyendo la variedad neomexicana, tienen el mismo valor que otros registros formales o académicos, todos comentaron que aunque en ocasiones asocian sus dialectos con slang, spanglish y a veces incluso no completamente correctos, son ciertamente valiosos por el hecho de constituir una forma de representación de su identidad como hispanos y por ser la forma principal de comunicación con sus familiares. según sus declaraciones durante las entrevistas, podemos observar que los estudiantes entienden que cada variedad del español tiene valor simplemente porque representa una forma de comunicación entre un grupo determinado de hablantes. esto, una vez más, demuestra un conocimiento bastante sofisticado de la variación sociolingüística del mundo hispanohablante entre estos estudiantes. sin embargo, es necesario evaluar si la formalidad del salón provoca incomodidad en algunos estudiantes a la hora de participar activamente en el aula. aquí observamos un patrón interesante. aquellos estudiantes que habían confirmado haber hablado español desde la infancia afirman que la diferencia entre la clase y la comunidad es simplemente una cuestión de formalidad. a veces sienten cierta presión al hablar en clase porque saben que deben hablar “correctamente”, evidente en dos extractos de participantes (ejemplos 8 y 9): 8) “just a little bit more stressful in class because i know i’ll be corrected” “solamente un poco más estresante en clase porque sé que me van a corregir” (participante 2) 9) “i feel more confident outside of class, i’m allowed to code-switch without anybody saying “hey, try that again and use only spanish.” because of that, when i speak outside of the class my confidence is a little bit higher” “me siento más segura fuera de la clase, puedo hacer la alternancia de códigos sin que nadie me diga “hey, di eso otra vez usando solo español.” por eso, cuando hablo fuera de la clase me siento un poco más segura” (participante 4) por otro lado, estudiantes con menos experiencia con el español afirmaron sentir menos presión en clase (ejemplo 10): 10) “i feel more comfortable in class… it can be unpredictable in public, you don’t know if they’re going to judge you” “me siento más cómodo en clase… puede ser impredecible en público, no sabes si te van a juzgar” (participante 9) además, hay otros estudiantes que indican que no tienen autoestima ni en el salón ni en la comunidad (ejemplo 11): 11) “when i speak to my grandparents it’s a little harder for me just because i feel like they have an expectation… and kind of an expectation for myself that i have to speak the correct way… i feel embarrassed sometimes. i don’t know why… ever since i was a kid i’ve been told it’s an important part but i was never taught it… now that i’m trying to learn it i’m afraid i’m not saying it correctly” “cuando hablo con mis abuelos es un poco más difícil para mí porque creo que tienen ciertas expectativas… y también expectativas para mí que tengo que hablar correctamente… a veces me siento cohibido. no sé por qué… desde que era niño me decían que es una parte importante pero nunca me lo enseñaron… ahora que lo estoy aprendiendo temo que no lo estoy hablando correctamente” (participante 8) se puede conectar esta falta de autoestima directamente con una expectativa de hablar español con fluidez. el participante indica que tanto sus abuelos como él mismo tienen expectativas con respecto a sus habilidades en español y menciona que las mismas vienen dadas por la idea de que la lengua española es una parte primordial de la identidad hispana. podríamos decir que dichas expectativas vienen de ideologías según identidades gramaticales e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 77 las cuales un hispano “esencial” posee ciertas cualidades prescritas, entre ellas la habilidad de hablar español con fluidez (potowski, 2012). si no conociéramos las perspectivas de estos estudiantes, podríamos ingenuamente asumir que todos los estudiantes de shl encuentran en sus comunidades un ambiente más relajado y cómodo para hablar español, principalmente por la inexistencia de reglas prescriptivas impuestas de una manera forzada. sin embargo, hemos observado en estas entrevistas que estos estudiantes traen a clase experiencias variadas reflejadas en sus diversas actitudes y sentimientos hacia el uso de la lengua en diferentes contextos. no obstante, todos los estudiantes reconocieron la importancia de estar familiarizados tanto con un registro académico y formal como con un registro más coloquial y, por tanto, una clase de español como lengua de herencia no debería limitarse a la exclusiva enseñanza de la variedad local o informal, ni únicamente a la enseñanza del español académico (martínez, 2003). además, durante las entrevistas también se planteó la cuestión de si se deben usar variedades informales en el salón de clase, particularmente, si se debería usar la alternancia de códigos en la clase. mientras que unos estudiantes mantienen que no se debe alternar códigos en clase, la mayoría afirmó que dicha alternancia de códigos les ayuda a aprender de una manera más efectiva (ejemplo 12): 12) “for people like me it’s easier to keep up. if you’re in a context where you just need to get a few words out…. if i just use a few english words, i feel like i can still get my meaning across. learning how to use spanglish correctly is important” “para personas como yo es más fácil seguir el ritmo. si estás en un contexto en el que necesitas decir unas pocas palabras… si sólo uso unas cuantas palabras en inglés, siento que aun así puedo comunicar el significado. aprender a usar spanglish correctamente es importante” (participante 7) los estudiantes reconocen la importancia de afirmar su identidad, y el spanglish (tal y como los estudiantes denominaron la alternancia de códigos) es parte de esta identidad (carvalho, 2012) y representa la realidad de ser bilingüe (ejemplo 13): 13) “because they (students who use spanglish) are from both cultures and they should be able to represent both sides… they should be able to do it in the way they feel most comfortable and if this way is mixing both languages, then do it” “como ellos (estudiantes que usan spanglish) forman parte de las dos culturas y deberían poder representar ambos lados… deberían poder hacerlo de la forma en la que se sientan más cómodos y si esa forma es mezclando las dos lenguas, entonces que lo hagan” (participante 2) no todos los estudiantes afirmaron que la alternancia de códigos es un componente esencial de su identidad personal, pero la cita en el ejemplo 13 demuestra un conocimiento de la diversidad existente en el salón de clase, una diversidad en la que cada estudiante respeta y aprende de las experiencias y destrezas lingüísticas de los demás. un punto esencial para la clase de shl que podemos afirmar tras observar este tipo de respuestas es que tanto los estudiantes como el profesor han de crear un ambiente provechoso y positivo hacia la diversidad lingüística y cultural y, además, los estudiantes con perfiles diferentes puedan ayudarse mutuamente para ampliar sus destrezas lingüísticas así como el entendimiento de emplear diferentes tipos de registros en situaciones y contextos distintos (showstack, 2012). la motivación de los estudiantes de shl a la hora de aprender y mejorar sus competencias en español viene dada por la combinación de motivos tanto personales como culturales y también profesionales (beaudrie & ducar, 2005). estos estudiantes necesitan conocer diferentes tipos de registros para alcanzar sus metas. en este sentido, la enseñanza explícita de distintos dialectos y registros les permite adquirir las destrezas lingüísticas necesarias (martínez, 2003). estos datos nos permiten comprender que nuestro reto es reconocer la importancia de cada registro, apoyar y motivar la autoestima de nuestros estudiantes sobre la lengua que conocen, así como también proporcionarles las herramientas necesarias para acceder a un público más amplio o contextos profesionales donde el uso del español sea necesario (carreira, 2000). 4.4 implicaciones pedagógicas mientras que es difícil generalizar los resultados de un estudio cualitativo, uno puede suponer que las perspectivas de este grupo pueden tener implicaciones importantes para otros salones de shl. primero, perara-lunde & melero-garcía 78 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 se observa una falta de conocimiento metalingüístico en algunos participantes, evidente en su inhabilidad de definir en qué consiste la gramática. los instructores de shl deben trabajar en aumentar el conocimiento metalingüístico de sus estudiantes para involucrar a los estudiantes en una conversación sobre qué es la gramática en la cual los estudiantes mismos produzcan sus propias concepciones y puedan debatir y llegar a conclusiones más precisas sobre qué es la gramática y por qué es importante aprenderla. muchos hablantes de lenguas de herencia poseen habilidades comunicativas, pero el desconocimiento metalingüístico crea inseguridad con respecto a sus habilidades lingüísticas. en otras palabras, los hablantes consideran que saben menos de lo que verdaderamente saben, y esto se debe en gran medida al desconocimiento metalingüístico. por ello, consideramos que la introducción y uso de metalenguaje en un salón de shl podría servir, entre otras cosas, para reducir esta ansiedad o inseguridad que tienen algunos hablantes de herencia con respecto a sus habilidades. en segundo lugar, los estudiantes quieren ser corregidos por los instructores ya que perciben las correcciones como apoyo para desarrollar las destrezas lingüísticas. los instructores no deben corregir palabras no estándares ni pronunciaciones diferentes. se reservan las correcciones para casos en los que la gramática puede cambiar el sentido de la frase o cuando la producción lingüística de un hablante es agramatical en todas las variedades del español. esto implica que es necesario que el instructor posea un conocimiento profundo tanto de la variedad comunitaria como de la variación lingüística del español en general en el mundo hispanohablante. en tercer lugar, se observa que para la mayoría de participantes existe una conexión entre el nivel de experiencias lingüísticas fuera del salón y la autoestima dentro del salón de clase a la hora de usar la lengua. es importante recolectar datos básicos sobre los estudiantes tales como experiencias previas con la lengua, incluyendo experiencias en la comunidad y experiencias educativas. así, los instructores podrán diseñar lecciones según las necesidades, tanto lingüísticas como afectivas, de los estudiantes. un mayor entendimiento de lo que es la gramática y cómo puede ser usada en contextos específicos otorgará a los estudiantes la capacidad de realizar selecciones lingüísticas conscientes, tomando en cuenta el valor sociopolítico de cada selección (del valle, 2014). sobre todo, la instrucción debe estar organizada de tal forma que valore las variedades comunitarias y el conocimiento lingüístico ya desarrollado por los estudiantes y, simultáneamente, debe expandir las destrezas lingüísticas de los estudiantes, lo cual incluye (pero no se limita a) la adquisición de la variedad formal. 5. conclusiones los resultados de este estudio nos indican que los estudiantes en los programas de shl traen al aula una serie de trasfondos culturales y lingüísticos muy variados y heterogéneos (potowski, 2012). el reconocimiento del valor de la variedad comunitaria en combinación con el apoyo institucional en este programa de shl apunta a un nivel alto de vitalidad etnolingüística según cashman (2009) y conlleva implicaciones positivas hacia el mantenimiento del español en el estado de nuevo méxico. además, los estudiantes demostraron un entendimiento bastante sofisticado de la variación lingüística ilustrado por las actitudes positivas hacia las diferentes variedades del español, incluyendo la alternancia de códigos, así como por las definiciones descriptivas de la gramática por parte de algunos participantes. al contrario de lo que encontró showstack (2012), este grupo de estudiantes percibe que cada estudiante tiene algo que refinar y aprender en cuanto a la lengua española, de modo que la heterogeneidad de habilidades entre los estudiantes no supone ningún tipo de intimidación ni ofrece a unos más autoridad que a otros, sino que todos aprovechan y se benefician de dicha heterogeneidad para mejorar las destrezas que desean. aunque no lo hemos abordado directamente, es posible asociar esta conciencia lingüística con la asistencia y participación en un programa de shl que tiene como propósito principal la inclusión y afirmación de variedades del español locales y comunitarias. la distinción en resultados aquí podría ser simplemente una diferencia en metodología. ya que no hicimos observaciones en el aula, no podemos comentar sobre las interacciones reales de estudiantes como showstack (2012). otras posibles causas que podrían justificar esta diferencia de resultados incluyen la metodología o actitud del instructor, las relaciones entre compañeros de clase o diferencias entre ideologías de las dos instituciones. otro punto relevante que debemos concluir es que la gramática, según la percepción de los estudiantes entrevistados, se caracteriza como un conjunto de reglas prescriptivas. sin embargo, tal y como sugiere villa (2002), debemos cuestionar el concepto de lengua académica, o sea, las reglas prescriptivas y sus implicaciones sociopolíticas. todavía es evidente que la mayoría de los estudiantes son conscientes de identidades gramaticales e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 79 que en el salón de clase deben hacer uso de una serie de reglas formales, algo a lo que no han estado acostumbrados anteriormente y que, por consiguiente, puede ser causa de tensión o estrés para algunos estudiantes. por otra parte, un grupo minoritario de cinco participantes ofreció definiciones descriptivas de la gramática. sin embargo, incluso aquellos participantes que mostraron un entendimiento descriptivo de la gramática también expusieron que esta supone uno de sus puntos débiles. poder dar una definición descriptiva no indica necesariamente un mayor grado de autoestima ni una ideología concreta descriptiva, lo cual queda ilustrado con estos participantes que afirmaron no ser buenos en el uso de la gramática. por otra parte, no hubo acuerdo en las respuestas en cuanto a cuál es la variedad del español se debe usar en el salón de clase. del valle (2014) sugiere que más que la variedad usada en la clase, lo verdaderamente importante es que los estudiantes sepan que se ha seleccionado una y que ello tiene implicaciones sociales y políticas. ahora no es suficiente enseñar solamente gramática. es necesario abordar la enseñanza de español con estrategias críticas donde no se consideren únicamente las destrezas técnicas relevantes sino también una conciencia crítica de que la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de español como lengua de herencia en estados unidos no es solamente un asunto lingüístico, sino uno sociopolítico también. además, estos datos muestran que la instrucción de gramática está bien interconectada con esta consciencia y es necesario enseñar explícitamente las formas gramaticales de varios dialectos y registros (martínez, 2003). también es importante que los instructores de shl sean conscientes del hecho de que el entorno cultural y lingüístico del salón de clase verdaderamente afecta al aprendizaje de los estudiantes (potowski, 2002), y son ellos quienes tienen gran poder a la hora de determinar cómo será dicho entorno (showstack, 2015). esperamos que esta exploración de las percepciones de los estudiantes de shl sirva a todos los profesionales involucrados en programas de shl. como ya han descubierto otros investigadores, escuchar directamente a los estudiantes nos da un idea clara de las necesidades y deseos de los estudiantes, lo cual es de enorme utilidad para nuestra enseñanza (ducar, 2008). 6. limitaciones este estudio presenta ciertas limitaciones que se deben considerar. en primer lugar, puesto que el primer objetivo en este proyecto era conocer las percepciones de los estudiantes en un sentido amplio, la naturaleza de las entrevistas fue muy amplia también pues se abordaron numerosos temas desde una perspectiva global (cuestiones de identidad, uso de la lengua, variedad lingüística, experiencias personales con el español, etc.). es importante que futuros investigadores que deseen investigar y estudiar actitudes lingüísticas y percepciones de estudiantes lo hagan desde una posición más escueta y específica, en función del ámbito concreto en el que desean centrar su investigación. en segundo lugar, consideramos que sería relevante acompañar las entrevistas con observaciones en el salón de clase. esto ofrecería una idea más completa de los temas explorados en la presente investigación, ya que permitiría contrastar la perspectiva personal de los estudiantes con la de los investigadores. por último, habría sido pertinente la realización de una segunda ronda de entrevistas tras analizar los resultados de estas entrevistas. esto nos habría dado la oportunidad de explorar de 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(2011). spanish in new york: language contact, dialectal leveling, and structural continuity. new york, new york state: oxford university press. potowski, kim (2002). experiences of spanish heritage speakers in university foreign language courses and implications for teacher training. adfl bulletin, 33(3), 35-42. identidades gramaticales e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 81 potowski, kim (2012). identity and heritage learners: moving beyond essentializations. en sara beaudrie & martha fairclough (eds.), spanish as a heritage language in the united states: the state of the field (pp. 179-199). washington, district of columbia: georgetown university press. rivera-mills, susana (2012). spanish heritage language maintenance: its legacy and its future. en sara beaudrie y martha fairclough (eds.), spanish as a heritage language in the united states: the state of the field (pp. 203-221). washington, district of columbia: georgetown university press. the sabine ulibarrí spanish as a heritage language program, retrieved august 5th, 2015 from http://www.spanport.unm.edu scott, david & morrison, marlene (2006). key ideas in educational research. london, united kingdom: continuum. showstack, rachel e. (2012). symbolic power in the heritage language classroom: how spanish heritage speakers sustain and resist hegemonic discourses on language and cultural diversity. spanish in context, 9(1), 1-26. showstack, rachel e. (2015). institutional representations of ‘spanish’ and ‘spanglish’: managing competing discourses in heritage language instruction. language and intercultural communication, 15(3), 341361. valdés, guadalupe (1992) the role of the foreign language teaching profession in maintaining non-english languages in the united states. en heidi byrnes (ed.), languages for a multicultural world in transition (pp. 29-71). lincolnwood, illinois: national textbook company. valdés, guadalupe (2000). bilingualism and language use among mexican americans. en sandra lee mckay y sau-ling cynthia wong (eds.), new immigrants in the united states: readings for second language educators (pp. 99-136). cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. villa, daniel j. (2002). the sanitizing of us spanish in academia. foreign language annals, 35(2), 222-230. perara-lunde & melero-garcía 82 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 apéndice entrevista de identidades gramaticales 1. how are you doing today? 2. how is your semester going? 3. where are you from? 4. how old are you? 5. what language(s) did you speak with your family growing up? 6. who speaks spanish in your family? 7. who have you learned the most spanish from? 8. do you use spanish on a daily basis? 9. what classes/levels of spanish have you taken before this semester? 10. why are you taking this class this semester? 11. what are your strengths and weaknesses in spanish? 12. why is it important to you to learn/speak spanish? identidad: 13. what identity labels do you use to describe yourself? 14. do you use different labels with different people? why? sobre el programa de shl: you know that here at unm there are two different programs of spanish: spanish as a second language (ssl) and spanish as a heritage language (shl). 15. do you know the difference between these two programs? why do you belong to this program? 16. what are the main benefits that you are obtaining from the shl program? 17. do you like the shl program so far? what do you like the most? is there anything you don’t like about the program or that you think could be improved? “español nuevomexicano” frente a “español estándar”. impresiones 18. in your opinion, how is the spanish spoken in new mexico different than spanish spoken in other places (e.g. spanish spoken in argentina, spain, colombia…). 19. have you heard the term “standard” used when talking about languages? 20. how would you define “standard spanish”? 21. do you consider that the spanish spoken in new mexico is “standard spanish”? why? 22. or do you think that new mexican spanish is as valid as any other variety of spanish? why? 23. what do other people in your community/ classes think? 24. have you ever had the opportunity to talk to a native speaker of spanish from a different country? 25. do you like talking to people from other countries? why? 26. when you talk to native speakers of spanish from a different country, how do you feel about that? 27. do you feel comfortable speaking spanish with them? if not: why? in new mexico there are many people who grew up in bilingual communities and they are able to speak spanish fluently. even though they can speak spanish fluently, sometimes some speakers mix spanish and english within the same sentence. 28. what do you think about that? 29. what do you call it when someone uses english and spanish at the same time? 30. why do you think people do that? (mix spanish and english). 31. do you ever mixed english and spanish when you speak? 32. do you like doing that? do you think it’s appropriate? who do you most often mix languages with? why? 33. what do other people you know (in your community and classes) think about mixing spanish and english? identidades gramaticales e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 83 preguntas sobre el uso del lenguaje 34. is there a difference between the spanish you hear in class and the spanish you hear in your community? can you describe the difference? 35. do you speak spanish differently in class and in your community? why? 36. do you feel different using spanish in class and spanish in your community? why? 37. why do you think there’s a difference? 38. do you think that it affects your learning? gramática y el salon de clase: here i have some words that i have heard in new mexico: torque (turkey); troca (truck); lonche (lunch). 39. have you ever heard similar things in new mexico? do you like using these words? in your opinion, are these words “correct”? why or why not? there are other words that are widely used in new mexican spanish. for example asina (así); muncho (mucho); haiga (haya). these are words that many people use in new mexico, but in other countries people will normally use the “standard” pronunciation found in the dictionary. 40. do you think your professor should correct students if they pronounce words this way? why or why not? 41. do you think students should be able to mix english and spanish in class? why or why not? 42. are there pros and cons to mixing in class? 43. how do you feel when your professor corrects your grammar? or how would you feel if your professor did correct your grammar? 44. is mixing spanish and english a part of some people’s identity as a bilingual speaker? why or why not? 45. how would you define “grammar” in your own words? 46. what does the word grammar make you think of? 47. how do you feel about spanish grammar? is it easy or hard? 48. where have you learned grammar? 49. do you consider yourself to be “good at grammar”? 50. what is the hardest part about learning grammar? what’s the easiest? 51. do you study a lot of grammar in span 212? what have you studied? 52. do you think it is necessary to study grammar to be able to speak spanish? why or why not? 53. what do you normally do to learn a new grammatical feature? (study from a book, practice doing exercises…). 54. can you think of any examples of activities that you did in class and that greatly helped you learn a new grammatical aspect of spanish? can you describe the activity? why was it helpful? 55. now, can you think of any example of an activity that you did in class and that you think it wasn’t very helpful for your learning? why wasn’t it that helpful? 56. do you think it is important that your professor gives an extensive and explicit explanation of the grammatical aspect in class? (explicit explanation means that your professor explains every single detail of the linguistic form, for example, for the conjugations in present tense, your professor would draw a table on the blackboard with the whole conjugation and would explain the whole thing: yo hablo; tú hablas, él habla…). 57. to wrap up, what would you say is the most valuable thing about taking spanish classes at unm? 58. if you were going to convince another student to take classes in shl, what would you say? 59. is there anything else you want to say about your thoughts on grammar, language use, or the shl program in general? perara-lunde & melero-garcía 84 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 67-84 molly perara-lunde, university of new mexico mlunde@unm.edu es molly perara-lunde está cursando un doctorado en lingüística aplicada en la university of new mexico. cuenta con experiencia docente en cursos de español e inglés como segundas lenguas y de español como lengua de herencia. actualmente es profesora de español como lengua de herencia en la universidad de nuevo méxico. sus intereses giran en torno a la investigación de las lenguas de herencia, la sociología del lenguaje y el aprendizaje de segundas lenguas y lenguas maternas. en molly perara-lunde is a doctoral student in the program of educational linguistics at the university of new mexico. she has experience teaching spanish and english as a second language as well as spanish as a heritage language. she currently teaches spanish as a heritage language at the university of new mexico. her research interests include heritage language research, sociology of language, and first and second language development. it molly perara-lunde è dottoranda all’interno del programma di linguistica educativa all’university of new mexico. ha insegnato spagnolo e inglese come seconde lingue, e spagnolo come lingua ereditaria. al momento è insegnante di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria presso l’university of new mexico. i suoi principali interessi di ricerca comprendono lo studio della lingua ereditaria, la sociologia del linguaggio e lo sviluppo delle lingue seconde e materne. fernando melero-garcía, indiana university fmelerog@indiana.edu es fernando melero-garcía obtuvo un máster en lengua española con mención en lingüística hispánica en la university of new mexico la pasada primavera de 2015. desde el semestre de otoño de ese mismo año es estudiante de doctorado en el programa de lingüística hispánica de la indiana university. cuenta con experiencia docente en estados unidos tanto en cursos de español como lengua de herencia como de español como segunda lengua. sus intereses investigadores giran en torno al español en los estados unidos, la variación lingüística y la sociolingüística. en fernando melero-garcía graduated in spring 2015 with an m.a. in spanish with a concentration in hispanic linguistics at the university of new mexico. in fall 2015, he started a doctoral program in hispanic linguistics at indiana university. he has experience teaching spanish in the united states to both heritage and second language learners. his research interests include spanish in the us, language variation, and sociolinguistics. it fernando melero-garcía ha conseguito un master in spagnolo nella primavera del 2015 con specializzazione in linguistica spagnola all’university of new mexico. nell’autunno del 2015 ha cominciato il dottorato in linguistica spagnola all’indiana university. ha insegnato spagnolo negli stati uniti sia come seconda lingua, sia come lingua ereditaria. i suoi principali interessi di ricerca comprendono lo spagnolo negli stati uniti, la variazione linguistica e la sociolinguistica. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 3, issue 2, december 2016, pages 63-64 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.5.81 www.e-journall.org © attardo 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. as the subtitle of the book makes clear, this is a collection of 20 essays (including the introduction) from various disciplines, and the topics encompass several countries and languages. as such, the various chapters will likely be more or less interesting to the individual reader on the basis of personal interest, and only very few readers will be interested in all the chapters. in this review, i focus unapologetically on those chapters that i found most interesting, either because they presented novel ideas or because they made points that strike me as important. obviously, other reviewers will find other areas to emphasize. the most interesting chapter is rod martin’s authoritative synthesis of psychological research on gender differences in humor. martin reviews a significant number of studies, from a variety of approaches, and concludes that “we find more similarities than differences between men and women” (p. 144). one consistent difference is that men report using more aggressive humor, both directed toward others and the self. martin’s conclusions are nuanced and rich with interesting details that would be too complex to summarize here. the book is worth having for this chapter alone. the opening chapter by bing and scheibman discusses the application of blending theory to humor. this is not a novel idea, but the authors take a novel approach, exploring the world-building aspect of blends by emphasizing that each blend in a joke creates a (mini-)world composed of the properties of the two scripts involved in the blend. this is an original idea within humor studies, and it deserves more attention. in particular, as bing and scheibman themselves observe, it may be interesting to distinguish between those blends that are humorous and those that are not, as well as those that are “subversive” (i.e., do not buy in to gender-stereotyping ideologies) and those that are not. milner davis’ chapter on female roles in farces ends with the rather unexpected conclusion that while farces "necessarily reflect the gendered roles of their times …] nevertheless they all depend on an essential egalitarianism between the sexes (. . .) men and women are co-equals in sexual matters, in aggression, in general intelligence, and in the ability to get things done (. . .) [and] equally lacking in insight, equally selfpreoccupied, and equally unable to see the impact of their behavior on others" (p. 49). * contact: salvatore.attardo@tamuc.edu chiaro, delia and baccolini, raffaella (eds.) (2014). gender and humor: interdisciplinary and international perspectives. new york, new york: routledge. salvatore attardo*1 texas a&m university-commerce book review received 9 december 2016; accepted 20 december 2016 abstract en this review introduces readers to gender and humor: interdisciplinary and international perspectives, a collection of essays from various disciplines and topics in the field of humor and gender studies, encompassing different countries and languages. key words: humor, gender studies es esta reseña presenta el volumen editado gender and humor: interdisciplinary and international perspectives, una colección de trabajos que abarca diferentes disciplinas, temas, países y lenguas en el ámbito de los estudios de género del humor. palabras clave: humor, estudios de género it questa recensione presenta il volume gender and humor: interdisciplinary and international perspectives, una collezione di saggi in diverse discipline, lingue, paesi e temi nell’ambito degli studi di genere del comico. parole chiave: comico, studi di genere http://www.e-journall.org/ attardo 64 e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 63-64 the sixth chapter, on lesbian humor, by kulick wins the funny-when-taken-out-of-context award with the sentence, here quoted in its entirety: “i am particularly interested in lesbians” (p. 85). the runner-up, also by kulick, is “germans are an interesting kind of parallel case to lesbians” (p. 90). disappointingly, what lesbians and germans turn out to have in common is that they are both stereotyped as humorless. in all seriousness, however, kulick’s chapter presents an engaging discussion of cultural history on how the myth of the humorless lesbian arose. in chapter 13, lockyer considers two characters in the catherine tate show, a british sketch comedy show that aired on the bbc between 2004 and 2007. the interest in this chapter, in my view, lies in the fact that the characters represented are distinguished by social class and age, two topics that often do not get much coverage in humor studies. a group of three chapters, respectively by coates (chapter 9), holmes and schnurr (chapter 10), and huy (chapter 11), is focused on gender differences in conversational humor. for those familiar with the literature on discourse and conversation analysis of humor, the novelty here is huy’s work on chinese (cantonese) data. given that he very usefully provides a quantitative breakdown of his observations, it is possible to check some of the conclusions he draws. one conclusion which may be worth reconsidering is that his data support the superiority theory of humor (conceptualized here as “higher status individuals initiate more humor;” [p. 192]) since the highest status family member (the father) is not involved in much humor (p. 192) and initiates no instances of in-group humor. it is too bad that huy did not provide the original cantonese and a transliteration for the examples. nonetheless, and despite the usual limitations on the sample size and how generalizable the data is, this is a very good paper that broadens the field significantly. three chapters deal with film: finney (chapter 14), on the u.s. indie film little miss sunshine (2006); senzani (chapter 16), on italian-australian director monica pellizzari; and gardaphè (chapter 15), on the portrayal of italian-american male gender roles in goodfellas (1990). the volume is rounded out by other chapters on feminist fiction (wagner-lawlor, chapter 4), post-ward british film comedy (gray, chapter 5), japanese humor and its relationship with gender roles in japan (bouchetoux, chapter 7), female designers' humor (klein, chapter 12), grotesque humor in three contemporary italian writers (maher, chapter 17), a well-documented chapter on queer humor (emig, chapter 18), and a discussion of feminist comedian judy tenuta (del negro, chapter 19). the final chapter is a "virtual" round table discussion among some of the authors. the general conclusion is that more research on humor and gender is needed and that simplistic male/female labels need to be problematized. while the four page index is underwhelming, the general bibliography common to all the articles in the book is a valuable research tool. overall, this is a valuable contribution to the field, which definitely belongs in research libraries and on the bookshelves of serious scholars of gender and humor. salvatore attardo, texas a&m university-commerce salvatore.attardo@tamuc.edu en salvatore attardo holds degrees from università cattolica of milan and purdue university. he has published extensively on pragmatics, semantics, and the linguistics of humor, primarily on issues relating to implicatures, irony, and on neogricean pragmatics. he was the editor in chief of humor: international journal of humor research for 10 years and has recently edited the encyclopedia of humor studies (sage, 2014) and the routledge handbook of language and humor (2017). es salvatore attardo completó sus estudios en università cattolica de milán y purdue university. ha publicado extensivamente sobre pragmática, semántica y lingüística del humor, principalmente acerca de implicaturas, ironía y pragmática neogriceana. ha sido el editor jefe de la revista humor: international journal of humor research durante 10 años y ha editado la encyclopedia of humor studies (sage, 2014) y the routledge handbook of language and humor (2017). it salvatore attardo ha completato i suoi studi presso l’università cattolica di milano e la purdue university. ha pubblicato nell’ambito della pragmatica, della semantica, e dellla linguistica dell’umorismo, principalmente su temi relativi alle implicature, all’ironia e alla pragmatica neogriceana. è stato capo redattore della rivista humor: international journal of humor research per 10 anni e ha curato l’edizione della encyclopedia of humor studies (sage, 2014) e the routledge handbook of language and humor (2017). e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 2, issue 2, december 2015, pages 50-66 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.3.51 www.e-journall.org © reznicek-parrado 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: lreznice@ucdavis.edu “spanglish”: bringing the academic debate into the classroom. towards critical pedagogy in spanish heritage instruction lina m. reznicek-parrado*1 university of california, davis received 15 may 2015; received in revised form 12 november 2015; accepted 15 november 2015 abstract en the academic debate that seeks to categorize spanish spoken in the united states is controversial. the north american spanish language academy publication hablando bien se entiende la gente, a reference guide for u.s. spanish speakers, was the catalyst for a series of debates by academics holding one of two main stances: a) that spanish in the united states is a universal language which should be devoid of excessive influence of english (piña-rosales, covarrubias, dumitrescu, & anle, 2014); and b) that spanish in the united states is the reflection of its coexistence with english (lynch & potowski, 2014). while this academic conversation is important to the field, the debate has to be brought to the speakers themselves. this study presents a quantitative analysis of a judgment task completed by young heritage speakers of spanish and a qualitative analysis of short-answer surveys. results show that, despite participants’ high reported use of “spanglish,” they vehemently reject its use in the academic context. this strong disconnect between practice and attitude raises serious concerns and has significant implications for pedagogy. key words: spanish heritage language instruction, spanglish, critical pedagogy es el debate académico generado en torno a la categorización del español hablado en los estados unidos es controvertido. la publicación por parte de la academia norteamericana de la lengua española de hablando bien se entiende la gente, una guía de consulta para los hablantes de español estadounidenses, catalizó discusiones académicas al tomar una postura dentro de las dos principales sobre la mesa: a) que el español en los estados unidos es una lengua universal que debe estar desprovista de la influencia excesiva del inglés (piña-rosales, covarrubias, dumitrescu, & anle, 2014); y b) que el español en los estados unidos es el reflejo de su coexistencia con el inglés (lynch & potowski, 2014). a pesar de la importancia de esta conversación académica, en el debate deben ser partícipes los propios hablantes. el presente estudio muestra un análisis cuantitativo de una tarea de juicio completada por hablantes jóvenes de español como lengua de herencia y un análisis cualitativo de un sondeo de respuesta breve. los resultados muestran que, a pesar del elevado uso del spanglish del que informaron los participantes, estos rechazan vehementemente su uso en el contexto académico. esta gran desconexión entre práctica y actitud conlleva serios planteamientos e implicaciones importantes en la práctica pedagógica. palabras clave: didáctica del español como lengua de herencia, spanglish, pedagogía crítica it il dibattito accademico che cerca di categorizzare lo spagnolo parlato negli stati uniti è piuttosto controverso. la pubblicazione da parte della anle di hablando bien se entiende la gente, una guida per gli ispanofoni statunitensi, ha scatenato una serie di dibattiti tra gli accademici, che si dividono su due posizioni principali: a) lo spagnolo negli stati uniti è una lingua universale che dovrebbe essere priva di una influenza eccessiva dell'inglese (piña-rosales, covarrubias, dumitrescu, & anle, 2014); b) lo spagnolo negli stati uniti è il riflesso della sua coesistenza con l'inglese (lynch & potowski, 2014). nonostante questo dibattito accademico sia importante, è necessario, però, che coinvolga direttamente i parlanti. questo studio presenta quindi un'analisi quantitativa di un judgment task completato da parlanti di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria e un'analisi qualitativa di un sondaggio a risposta breve. i risultati dimostrano che, nonostante il largo uso dello "spanglish" dichiarato dai partecipanti, questi ultimi si rifiutano categoricamente di utilizzarlo in contesto accademico. questa grande discordanza tra pratica e atteggiamento solleva serie preoccupazioni e comporta implicazioni significative per la pedagogia. parole chiave: didattica dello spagnolo come lingua ereditaria, spanglish, pedagogia critica http://www.e-journall.org/ “spanglish”: bringing the academic debate into the classroom e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 51 1. background and significance 1.1. demographic shift: implications for education in march 2014, the u.s. census, along with the pew hispanic center for research, announced that latin@s now comprise the largest ethnic group in california, surpassing whites (pew hispanic center, 2014). even though they represent 39% of the population—that is, not the majority per se—this constitutes a significant demographic milestone, relevant for virtually all spheres of public interest statewide. now referred to as the “majority-minority” in california, latin@s are slowly but increasingly participating in and thereby shaping the future of policies, institutions, politics, and education in that state. additionally, in 2014 it was reported that more than 50 million latin@s had been counted by the previous census as residing in the united states, thus establishing this group as the second-largest racial or ethnic group in the country (pew hispanic center, 2014a). interestingly, one of the most salient characteristics of this fast-growing community is that latin@s are the youngest of the major racial and ethnic groups in the us. the median age of latin@s, 27 years, is a full decade lower than that of the united states overall (pew hispanic center, 2014a). according to the pew hispanic center’s 2013 national survey of latin@s, about 35 million latin@s residing in the u.s. report speaking spanish at home. about 38% say spanish is their dominant language, compared with 25% who are english-dominant and 36% who are bilingual, (pew hispanic center, 2014a). additionally, latin@ college enrollment reached a record high in 2012, with seven in ten (or 69%) latin@ high school graduates enrolled in college, two percentage points higher than the rate (67%) among their nonlatin@ white counterparts (pew hispanic center, 2014b). as more of these young, spanish-speaking latin@s are entering institutions of higher education, spanish enrollments across the board are also becoming the most numerous, comprising the highest number of student enrollments among departments of language and literature nationwide. the implications of this demographic milestone for institutions of education in the country and in the state of california, in particular, are, therefore, undoubtedly relevant. 1.2. the north american spanish language academy (anle) the north american spanish language academy (anle per its abbreviation in spanish) was founded in 1973, perhaps in part due to the long-lasting and prevalent presence of latin@s in the united states, as well as the conceptualization of their language as relevant to the community of speakers and the u.s. population at large. the youngest of 22 spanish academies worldwide, the anle is part of a network of language academies overseen by the spanish royal academy, or rae (real academia española), as it is known in the spanish-speaking world. the rae was founded in 1713 under the reign of felipe v with the overall objective of overseeing the standardization of the spanish language, and the clarification of structural norms following the language spoken by “cultured speakers”. over the years, the rae has clarified that it seeks to adapt its role based on and in response to the “unity of language within its diversity” (real academia española, 2012). consequently, its dictionaries now include americanisms and anglicisms, among other variants. as the rae’s youngest academy, the anle states that one of its missions is to “foresee that, while it can be adapted based on the needs of particular speakers, the use of the [spanish] north american variety2 does not affect the unity and comprehension of the language within the hispanic context” (academia norteamericana de la lengua, 2014, my translation). it is essential to note that the anle is only the second spanish academy, besides the philippine academy of the spanish language, to exist in a country where spanish is neither the language of the majority nor the language of prestige, thus representing a sociolinguistic context which makes the anle’s mission much more complex than its statement would lead one to believe. 1.2.1. “hablando bien se entiende la gente” in 2010, the anle published the first volume of a book entitled hablando bien se entiende la gente, a short collection of idiomatic expressions used by u.s. latin@s (piña-rosales, badajoz, & anle, 2010). the book presents a series of normative advice that would, according to the authors, enable the speaker to hablar 2 the original statement uses the word hispanounidense to refer to the spanish variant used within the united states, reflecting anle’s assumption that spanish spoken in the united states is indeed a separate variant of the spanish language. reznicek-parrado e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 52 bien, or “speak well” as well as a list of “incorrect” expressions, which reflect the influence of english on the spanish language. it does so through a jocose dialogue between two characters, one who offers advice and encourages the interlocutor not to mix spanish and english if he or she wishes to be understood. in the spring of 2014, the anle published a second volume of the same book (piña-rosales covarrubias, dumitrescu, & anle, 2014). not surprisingly, the publication of the anle’s book sparked much controversy among sociolinguists. in a book review published by hispania, andrew lynch and kim potowski (2014) criticized the publication for its lack of sociolinguistic methodology, challenging the anle’s mission to foster authentic bilingualism. among their arguments, they noted the importance of validating the words and expressions included in the book as constructions that are created by speakers not simply as a result of pedantry or lack of knowledge, but as necessary to the development of a bicultural reality, especially as it concerns the context of the us. additionally, the authors criticized the fact that the book ignores the sociocultural reality of spanish speakers in the us, namely, the lack of formal education in spanish offered by most institutions of secondary and postsecondary education in the us, the hegemony of english in most public spheres within the united states, and other sociopolitical and economic challenges. in the authors’ view, spanish as it is spoken in the us must begin to be seen in a positive light, and should not be solely viewed as something that must be “corrected”, especially now that language shift is happening faster than ever before. the academic debate that lynch and potowski (2014) present against the anle’s publication is certainly important to the field and to the future of spanish in the united states. additionally, it is the understanding of the present study that the position of speakers themselves within this debate must contribute to this important discussion and also be integrated in heritage language instruction. it is helpful to turn to the constructs behind critical language study and critical pedagogy to demonstrate why it is important to include the voices of speakers themselves in this academic debate. 1.3. critical language study and critical pedagogy: general theoretical constructs critical language study, from which critical pedagogy stems, brings the political nature of language to the foreground. norman fairclough (1989) coined the term critical language study (cls) to refer to the inevitable interrelationship between language and the social, emphasizing the fact that it is through language that power and ideologies are enacted across all spheres of society. highlighting the fact that it is easy to underestimate the role of language within the production, maintenance and changes of power relations, one of fairclough’s main objectives is to create a critical consciousness among those who study language from any theoretical framework. going beyond our mission as language instructors to build linguistic proficiency, the repercussions of a critical examination of language become quite relevant within our pedagogical objectives; as language teachers, ignoring the social possibilities and repercussions that are involved in our students’ development would mean ignoring one of the most important contributions of our profession. it is not challenging, either, to conceive of the ways in which this critical notion of language is relevant when developing pedagogical models for heritage language speakers, who, to a large extent, come from working-class, low-income families that have had few opportunities for education and that speak stigmatized varieties of spanish (beaudrie, ducar, & potowski, 2014). not including a critical approach in our pedagogy would be tantamount to depoliticizing the conceptualization of education—a depoliticization that has been challenged by many scholars who explicitly adopt a critical approach to education (freire, 1973; giroux, 1991, 2000; walsh, 1991). in describing the critical implications of education, paulo freire (1973) compares the notion of “adaptation” to that of “integration”. he defines “integration” as the ability to not only adapt to a social system, but to make decisions and transform one’s reality: “[when] a man loses his ability to make decisions and is subject to the decisions of others, when his decisions are not his anymore but are result of external prescriptions, that man is no longer integrated” (freire, 1973, p. 3). in this sense, when heritage language students arrive in college, they must be given access to critical pedagogy as it allows them, through a process of integration, to make their own decisions throughout their development as members of society and speakers of spanish. as leeman (2005, p. 36) puts it when discussing critical pedagogy among spanish heritage language speaker in particular, [i]n order to help students critically understand their own lives and worlds, develop agency in making their own language choices, and participate in the building of a more democratic society, educators must make the relationship between language and sociopolitical issues “spanglish”: bringing the academic debate into the classroom e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 53 explicit, provide opportunities for students to examine and interrogate dominant linguistic practices and hierarchies, and encourage students to explore the ways language can be used to perform a wide range of social functions and identity work. the importance of incorporating critical pedagogy in diverse and multilingual classrooms has been called for by a myriad of researchers in the area of language education. in a review of the current state of teacher-oriented literature, palmer and martínez (2013) contend that ignoring the politics of language diverts attention from some of the more pressing challenges of educating bilingual or multilingual learners, “challenges that lie not in the learners themselves but in the language ideologies and normative discourses that permeate classrooms, schools, and the surrounding society” (p. 273). guadalupe valdés and colleagues bring to light the ways in which linguistic ideologies can permeate even in contexts in which non-hegemonic practices are discouraged, such as departments of spanish in higher education (valdés, gonzález, garcía, & márquez, 2003), highlighting the importance of making these ideologies explicit in the classroom. in a recent piece, martínez (forthcoming) stresses the importance of addressing the cultural and social issues that go beyond individual learners and individual proficiencies if heritage language instruction wishes to inspire social change beyond the classroom (for more work on critical pedagogy in the spanish heritage language context see colombi, 2015; leeman, rabin & román-mendoza, 2011; martínez, 2003; villa, 1996, 2002). taking into consideration the highly politicized academic debate triggered by the anle publication, the arguments against this publication presented by potowski and lynch, and the relevance of critical pedagogy in order to make this markedly controversial, sociopolitical conversation explicit in the classroom, this study was conceived in order to gain a deeper understanding of the linguistic perceptions, attitudes and judgments that speakers hold around the use of spanish and english interchangeably. additionally, this study aims to consider the pedagogical implications of students’ perceptions and attitudes. 2. the study this study examines heritage language speakers’ general perceptions and attitudes about the overall system of “spanglish” as well as specific judgments of particular forms of u.s. spanish. “spanglish” is often referred to as the practice of “code-mixing” or “code-switching” between spanish and english and has been studied extensively by researchers who agree that it is a language practice that bilingual latin@ students use in complex ways in order to make meaning (gumperz, 1982; poplack, 1980; zentella, 1997). besides codeswitching, the term “spanglish” has also been used to refer to related language contact phenomena, such as the use of linguistics calques, borrowings and linguistic extensions (potowski, 2011). the use of the term “spanglish” continues to be debated, with some researchers advocating for using the term in a positive light (zentella, 1997) and others rejecting the use of the term, holding that it inaccurately and even pejoratively refers to the varieties of spanish spoken in the united states (lipski, 2008; otheguy & stern, 2010). even though there continues to be controversy around what “spanglish” is and how it should be regarded in the field, for the purposes of this paper potowski’s (2011) definition was adopted, whereby this phenomenon is marked by three primary language contact characteristics: code-switching, lexical borrowings, and grammatical extensions (also known as calques). the goal of the study is to shed light on how actual speakers’ attitudes fit into the larger academic debate currently taking place on spanish as it is spoken in the united states and their actual linguistic uses of spanish and english. it also examines students’ attitudes when considering these same forms of u.s. spanish within the academic context (i.e., in the classroom). in order to do so, the study was carried out among speakers who are members of an academic community in a large northern california university. this campus community has a diverse curriculum within its spanish department, including a three-level program in spanish designed exclusively for u.s. spanish heritage speakers. this program has an important history and today attracts a significant amount of undergraduate students who are heritage speakers of spanish and who wish to develop academic skills in their native tongue. the program offers courses specifically designed for over 100 heritage speakers of spanish at the intermediate and advanced levels. over 50% of undergraduate students who identify spanish as their major at this institution are u.s. latin@s and almost all of them enroll in the native speakers track before taking more advanced linguistics or literature courses (see blake & colombi, 2013, for more statistical information). twelve students between the ages of 16 and 18 years who were enrolled in the native speakers program participated in this study. after being authorized by the program director as well as by class reznicek-parrado e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 54 instructors, class visits were completed to recruit participants and a sign-up sheet was distributed. the principal investigator contacted students via e-mail at a later date with information on how to participate in the study. 2.1. study methods the methods for the present study are designed in such a way that data could be analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. in the first part of the study, participants completed a brief open-ended questionnaire administered on-line through google forms. here, information on the linguistic background of the participant was collected, including information such as the city in which the participant spent most of their childhood years, home language use, language preferences, perceived language use, and attitudes towards the use of spanish and english interchangeably. additionally, participants were asked to comment on how they believe the use of spanish and english interchangeably should be labeled in order to, in part, echo the famous 2006 debate of the label “spanglish” by ana celia zentella and ricardo otheguy3. lastly, speakers were asked to comment on the linguistic behavior of their peers as well as of their spanish instructors during the time in which they were enrolled in a spanish course for native speakers, and questions on the validity of said behavior followed4. in the second part of the study, participants completed a brief judgment task also on a google form format in which they rated judgment tokens of lexical items found in u.s. spanish based on 3 categories: use of english words (lexical borrowing), lexical extensions, and grammatical extensions (calques). participants were asked to note whether they used the particular token when speaking informally, whether they would consider saying it, whether they considered it acceptable for others to say the token, or whether they considered the token to be incorrect. ten tokens for each category were included, including ten distractors of tokens showing no influence of english5. 2.2. results and analysis 2.2.1. qualitative data (first set): vitality of the spanish language content analysis was performed for data collected through the questionnaire. in this first qualitative analysis set, the high vitality of spanish among the study’s participants is demonstrated: figure 1. answers to the question: “which language did you speak first, spanish or english?” 3 in february of 2006 at a national conference on spanish in the united states in coral gables, fl, linguists zentella and otheguy debated whether the spanish spoken by heritage speakers should be referred to as “spanglish” or not. zentella defended the use of the term and advocated for the validation and embracing of spanglish, arguing that it is an opportunity for young u.s. spanish speakers to perform an identity widely misunderstood by the greater u.s. community. otheguy, on the other hand, rejected the term “spanglish” and advocated for its eradication, arguing that the spanish spoken in the united states is nothing more than a popular variety of the language, just as there is a popular variety of mexican spanish, colombian spanish, etc.; and that using the term is problematic in that it is perceived very negatively by non-speakers and speakers alike as well as having a negative connotation that indexes a certain lack of knowledge of the general system of spanish (when speakers say “i don’t speak spanish, i speak spanglish”, for example). 4 to see a complete version of the survey, please refer to appendix a. 5 for a complete version of the judgment task, please refer to appendix b. “spanglish”: bringing the academic debate into the classroom e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 55 figure 2. answers to the question: “do you speak spanish at home with your parents, siblings or any other member of your family?” these figures show that all participants are in very close contact with spanish through their personal networks throughout childhood and at home. all participants except for one report spanish as being their first language, and all participants report actively speaking spanish at home with parents and siblings. spanish, then, is very much salient in the lives of the great majority of these young participants. the next two survey questions, “do you sometimes use spanish and english interchangeably?” and “do you know other people who use spanish and english interchangeably?” illustrate even more striking results, as all participants (100%) reported practicing forms of spanish and english interchangeably as well as knowing at least another person who actively engages in the linguistic phenomena used here to describe “spanglish”. in order to inquire further into participants’ perceptions and attitudes towards the use of “spanglish,” qualitative analysis was completed through coding for overall themes around the topic of what “hearing another person use spanish and english interchangeably makes you feel”. after initial, axial and selective coding, three overall themes were extracted from the data: negative attitudes towards “spanglish,” positive attitudes towards “spanglish,” and feelings of identification with the use of “spanglish.” responses that included such notions as “disappointment,” “annoyance,” “bother,” and “incorrectness” were coded as negative attitudes. notions such as “knowledge of both spanish and english,” “enjoyment,” and “correctness” were coded as positive attitudes. lastly, responses that included any indication of the participant connecting with the practice of using “spanglish” through identification of personal practice were included in the third category, “feelings of identification with the use of “spanglish.” table 1 students’ responses to: “explain what hearing another person use spanish and english interchangeable makes you feel.” negative attitudes towards “spanglish” 36.9% (n=7) positive attitudes towards “spanglish” 26.3% (n=5) feelings of identification with the use of “spanglish” 42.1% (n=8) the above table shows an interesting result, as more participants expressed negative attitudes towards the practice of using spanish and english interchangeably than those who expressed positive attitudes. this is striking, given the high vitality of spanish reported in the first part of the survey. when taking a deeper look at the data, however, and especially at the instances coded as “negative attitudes towards “spanglish”, an interesting subtheme emerged. out of the 6 instances of “negative attitudes” coded, 4 of them included specific examples of how these attitudes are reflected on speakers, given the fact that they themselves take part in the practice of using spanish and english interchangeably. in other words, participants who negatively judged using “spanglish” also mentioned that they themselves use this practice, thus imposing this negative judgment on themselves. some examples of this include the following instances: reznicek-parrado e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 56 “no es una forma correcta de expresarnos . . . (pero) yo también lo hago muchas veces” (it is not a correct way of communicating . . . (but) i also do it many times) “yo pienso que es correcto pero es mejor tratar de hablar el lenguaje correcto” (i think it is correct but it is best to try and speak correctly) “ . . .me molesta que la persona no pueda hablar con fluidez en una sola lengua (y en este disgusto me incluyo a mí también” ( . . . it bothers me that the person cannot speak fluently in one language (and i include myself in that annoyance) this first set of qualitative analysis shows the emergence of an interesting paradox among participants, in which their attitudes and perceptions about a practice in which they heavily engage (namely, using spanish and english interchangeably) are deemed unacceptable, not by an outsider, but by participants themselves. this shows the powerful potential of outside negative linguistic ideologies such as those presented by anle of permeating individuals’ perceptions of their own language repertoires, eventually becoming internalized and stated as truth. 2.2.2. quantitative data: “spanglish” judgment task in order to take a look at participants’ perceived use of “spanglish” using a quantitative lens for comparison, a grammatical judgment task was administered. participants were asked to judge 40 tokens that included three of the phenomena found in “spanglish” as per potowski’s definition, as well as a distractor category of no use of english, and rate it based on whether they considered the token correct and could imagine saying it, or not, on a scale from 1 (the highest score in terms of acceptability), to 4. this task was developed in order to establish which of these language contact phenomena was most accepted or rejected and least accepted or rejected by speakers (as represented by the participants in this study). below is a sample of the judgment task prompt followed by examples for each category included in the task as well as the means and standard deviations of acceptability ratings given across all participants for each category— lexical borrowing, lexical extensions, calques, and no use of english: table 2 sample of grammaticality judgment task and examples of tokens for this brief task, please carefully read each sentence per section. do you consider it as correct? for each sentence, please rate it from 1 to 4 according to the following judgment scale: 1 i would say this when speaking informally with my friends or family 2 i’m not sure if i would say this or not 3 i wouldn’t say this, but if someone else says it, i would think it’s fine 4 i would never say this, and if someone else said it, i think it is incorrect examples of tokens per category: lexical borrowing: ¿tienes un grill para cocinar la carne? lexical extension: en el negocio de mi tía se alteran pantalones grammatical extension or calque: mañana van a inspectar el sistema de aire acondicionado no use of english: ¿te dieron una multa por exceso de velocidad? table 3 means and standard deviations for all categories category mean sd number of cases lexical borrowing 2.058 0.614 120 lexical extension 2.491 0.59 120 calques 2.475 0.702 120 no use of english 1.57 0.479 120 “spanglish”: bringing the academic debate into the classroom e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 57 after initial analysis and exploration of the data, the means and standard deviations of all categories show no significant outliers. the “no use of english” category, as expected, shows the lowest mean and standard deviation, acting as a control category. additionally, in order to compare the significance of rejection/acceptance of each category, a one-way anova statistical test was completed, including a null hypothesis test with alpha = .05. table 4 results of one-way anova for all judgment task categories source of variation ss df ms f between groups 68.523 3 22.841 63.100 within groups (error) 172.303 476 0.362 total 240.827 479 note: p = 0.014, p≤ 0.5 this quantitative analysis shows that all categories of “spanglish” were mostly accepted across all participants given the fact that the means for lexical borrowing, lexical extension, and calques stayed closest to the highest scores on the judgment task (between 1 and below 3). no category showed a consistent rejection pattern or average score of three or above. furthermore, and despite this study’s small sample limitation, the results on table 4 show that judgment differences between categories are statistically significant, demonstrating that participants in this sample do significantly see themselves using each and every one of these language contact phenomena as implied by their predominantly high scores for tokens of all categories (excluding the “no use of english” category). this analysis, therefore, shows that these particular participants are certainly engaging with these phenomena at different levels in significant ways. 2.2.3. qualitative data (second set): attitudes in the classroom as a final piece to the analysis, a second qualitative component was completed based on the information gathered with the same group of participants through the same questionnaire. this time, however, survey questions revolved around what happens inside of the classroom, specifically the spanish for heritage speakers classroom. participants were asked to provide their observations about their teachers’ language use (whether instructors engaged or not in using spanish and english interchangeably when teaching), as well as their personal opinions about what instructors should be using when teaching. for both questions (“what did your teacher speak when teaching the spanish for heritage speakers class?” and “what should your instructor use and/or should s/he use spanish and english interchangeably?”) two overall themes emerged: only spanish, and spanish and english. table 5 students’ response on instructor’s use of hl reported language use percentage spanish and english 62% only spanish 38% table 6 participants' opinions on instructor’s language use opinions on language use percentage spanish and english 54% only spanish 46% given the quantitative analysis in section 2.2.2 showing high engagement by participants in using “spanglish”, the initial qualitative results in this second set, which show greater percentages for the use of reznicek-parrado e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 58 spanish and english interchangeably within the classroom, are not surprising. however, the subthemes with the highest percentages that emerged within these themes show yet another interesting paradox: 3 out of the 7 participants who reported that both spanish and english were used in class also report unsolicited negative judgments towards this practice. additionally, 4 out of the 7 participants who reported that instructors should use spanish and english in the hl classrooms provide unsolicited specifications that this should only happen when the instructor wishes to clarify the material or make sure there is no confusion among students. some examples of the first subtheme which illustrate unsolicited negative judgments based on the question “what did your instructor use in the spanish hl class?” are as follows: “(mi instructor) muy raramente (utilizaba el español y el inglés a la misma vez) lo cual veo como algo positivo porque no es una forma formal de hablar” (my instructor) rarely (used spanish and english interchangeably) which i consider to be positive because it is not a formal way of speaking. “mi maestro siempre utilizó el español; solo usaba inglés para dar anuncios. me gustó porque era clase de español y es lo que se debe de usar” (my instructor always used spanish; he only used english to make announcements. i liked it because that’s the way it should be). some examples of the second subtheme which illustrate examples of unsolicited specifications of when to use spanish and english interchangeably based on the question “what should your instructor use in class? should s/he use spanish and english interchangeably?” are as follows: “(el instructor debe utilizar español e inglés) pero solo cuando haya dudas en clase” (the instructor should only use spanish and english when students have further questions) “(el instructor debe utilizar español e inglés) cuando un estudiante no entiende las instrucciones en español” (the instructor should only use spanish and english when a student doesn’t understand instructions in spanish). as these examples show, the majority of participants who report both that instructors used spanish and english interchangeably as well as that instructors should use this same practice, reported unsolicited negative judgments towards the practice of using “spanglish” as well as very specific limitations to where this practice fits within the classroom. the quantitative analysis explained in section 2.2.2 demonstrates with statistical significance that participants accept and actively interact with the practice of using spanish and english interchangeably. this interaction, along with the first qualitative data set analysis, show that spanish has very high vitality among this group, and that “spanglish” is a practice very much relevant to participants themselves and their social networks. however, in light of participants’ attitudes and perceptions and the second qualitative data set analysis above, participants seem to agree that within the academic context, the language practices in which they themselves report engaging, are, in great part, unacceptable. this explicit paradox emerging from the overall analysis here presented seems to coincide in part with the academic debate presented in section 1.2.1. participants appear to place themselves at both ends of the debate: in terms of practice, they seem to agree with potowski and lynch (2014) that “spanglish” is a valid component that is very much present within their linguistic repertoire. in terms of attitude, however, they seem to agree with the publication of the anle, which rejects and limits the practice of “spanglish” and negatively judges its use. this paradox raises serious concerns and has significant implications for pedagogy—namely, the importance of nurturing a critical, context-rich framework in our classrooms where students can engage in a serious and committed dialogue about ideologies, power and social justice related to language (leeman, 2005) and aimed towards social positive change, in the same way academics do. it is for this reason that a call for critical pedagogy is ever so pressing—pedagogy that can create space for students’ integration into their own academic development through a critical view of their own linguistic practices, which undoubtedly implies a conversation about power relations, power struggle and linguistic ideologies. it is the belief of all advocates of critical pedagogy that only through the incorporation of an explicit critical view of language in the classroom that education can “spanglish”: bringing the academic debate into the classroom e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 59 move from adaptation towards integration, in this case of bilingual individuals such as heritage speakers of spanish. 3. conclusion: implications for pedagogy the rich vitality of spanish among the young heritage speakers that participated in the present study goes absolutely unquestioned in view of the data here presented. unsurprisingly, given the linguistic context of the us, these young speakers of spanish report actively engaging in language contact phenomena, and their interchangeable use of english and spanish undoubtedly occupies an important place in their identity as language users. it is therefore striking to find such a strong disconnect between their practices and attitudes, and their blunt negative judgments about practices in which they themselves report engaging. this disconnect raises important concerns about the pedagogical implications of this paradox, including the ways in which speakers’ internalized ideologies seem to be going unquestioned in the classroom and the negative repercussions of this in terms of students’ linguistic performance, identity, and self-value. the paradox here evident is ultimately a political issue about language. the negative judgments that participants express about their own linguistic practices may be a sign of linguistic insecurity, which can be the product of linguistic ideologies that they may have been exposed to and internalized, especially in the academic context or by outsiders, such as the anle. in this way, the results of this study call for the inclusion of critical pedagogy, which seeks to bring the political to the classroom in order to nurture serious dialogue about the political implications of language, especially as it concerns speakers themselves. when pedagogy is decontextualized from its sociopolitical context, the social influences and cultural diversity that surround language use risk being completely lost (canagarajah, 2002). the participants of this study, all spanish heritage speakers themselves, seem to have internalized a perspective that views difference as “deficit” or “estrangement” instead of a resource (canagarajah, 2002). however, multilingual students do—and can—use their background as a stepping-stone to master academic discourses. their values can function as a source of strength in their writing experience, enabling them to transfer many skills from their traditions of vernacular communication. (canagarajah, 2002, p. 13) there is no doubt that spanish, just as any other language, is the reflection of lexical, grammatical and discursive conventions native to a vast variety of communities and, as such, involves a conversation about diversity and power. how then are we as instructors motivating our students to develop a view of spanish as a dynamic system that is consistently shifting as new meanings emerge within the people who speak it? how are we motivating our students to engage in the highly political conversation that involves the question of who speaks a hybrid version of a language, and who does not? much has been studied in terms of the written and oral proficiencies of our students. however, little attention has been given to the larger political context of spanish in the us, as illustrated by the academic debate on “spanglish”, and especially to the ways in which incorporating political linguistic debates in the classroom can benefit our student’s own critical thinking about their language use. indeed, it is time to bring the political into the classroom; it is time to bring the academic debate about spanish in the us to spanish speakers in the us themselves. references anle, academia norteamericana de la lengua española (2014). nuestra misión. retrieved from http://www.anle.us/87/nuestra-mision.html beaudrie, sara, ducar, cynthia, & potowski, kim (2014). heritage language teaching: research and practice. columbus, ohio: mcgraw-hill education. blake, robert, & colombi, maría cecilia (2013). la enseñanza del español para hispanohablantes: un programa. el español en estados unidos: e pluribus unum? enfoques multidisciplinarios (pp. 291). new york, new york: academia norteamericana de la lengua. http://www.anle.us/87/nuestra-mision.html reznicek-parrado e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 60 canagarajah, a. suresh (2002). critical academic writing and multilingual students. ann arbor, michigan: university of michigan press. colombi, maría cecilia (2015). academic and cultural literacy for heritage speakers of spanish: a case study of latin@ students in california. linguistics and education, 32(part a), 5-15. fairclough, norman (1989). language and power. london, united kingdom: longman. freire, paulo (1973). education for critical consciousness. new york, new york: seabury press. giroux, henry a. (1991). series introduction: rethinking the pedagogy of voice, difference, and cultural struggle. in catherine e. walsh (ed.), pedagogy and the struggle for voice: issues of language, power and schooling for puerto ricans (pp. xv-xxvii). new york, new york: bergin & garvey. gumperz, john j. (1982). conversational code-switching. in john j. gumperz (ed.), discourse strategies (pp. 59–99). cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. leeman, jennifer (2005). engaging critical pedagogy: spanish for native speakers. foreign language annals, 20(1), 35-45. leeman, jennifer, rabin, lisa, & román-mendoza, esperanza (2011). critical pedagogy beyond the classroom walls: community service-learning and spanish heritage language education. heritage language journal, 8(3) lipski, john m. (2008). varieties of spanish in the united states. washington, district of columbia: georgetown university press. lynch, andrew, & potowski, kim (2014). la valoracio n del habla bilingüe en los estados unidos: fundamentos sociolingüí sticos y pedago gicos en hablando bien se entiende la gente. hispania, 97(1), 32-46. martínez, glenn a. (forthcoming). goals and beyond in hl education: from competencies to capabilities. in marta fairclough & sara beaudrie (eds.), innovative approaches in heritage language teaching. martínez, glenn a. (2003). classroom-based dialect awareness in heritage language instruction: a critical applied linguistic approach. heritage language journal 1(1), 1-14. otheguy, ricardo, & stern, nancy (2010). on so-called spanglish. international journal of bilingualism, 15(1), 85-100. palmer, deborah, & martínez, ramón antonio (2013). teacher agency in bilingual spaces. a fresh look at preparing teachers to educate latina/o bilingual children. review of research in education, 37(1), 269-297. pew hispanic center (2014). in 2014, latinos will surpass whites as largest racial/ethnic group in california. retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/24/in-2014-latinos-will-surpasswhites-as-largest-racialethnic-group-in-california/ pew hispanic center (2014a). 11 facts for national hispanic heritage month. retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/16/11-facts-for-national-hispanic-heritagemonth/ pew hispanic center (2014b). hispanic high school graduates pass whites in rate of college enrollment. retrieved from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2013/05/09/hispanic-high-school-graduates-passwhites-in-rate-of-college-enrollment/ piña-rosales, gerardo, badajoz, joaquí n, & academia norteamericana de la lengua española (2010). hablando bien se entiende la gente: consejos idiomáticos de la academia norteamericana de la lengua española. new york, new york: academia norteamericana de la lengua española. piña-rosales, gerardo, covarrubias, jorge i., dumitrescu, domnița, & anle, academia norteamericana de la lengua española (2014). hablando bien se entiende la gente 2: recomendaciones idiomáticas de la academia norteamericana de la lengua española. doral, florida: santillana usa. poplack, shana (1980). sometimes i’ll start a sentence in english y termino en español: toward a typology of code-switching. linguistics, 18, 581–618. potowski, kim (2011). conversaciones escritas: lectura y redacción en contexto. hoboken, new jersey: wiley. real academia española (2012). historia. retrieved on 05/07/2014, from http://www.rae.es/lainstitucion/historia http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/16/11-facts-for-national-hispanic-heritage-month/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/16/11-facts-for-national-hispanic-heritage-month/ http://www.pewhispanic.org/2013/05/09/hispanic-high-school-graduates-pass-whites-in-rate-of-college-enrollment/ http://www.pewhispanic.org/2013/05/09/hispanic-high-school-graduates-pass-whites-in-rate-of-college-enrollment/ http://www.rae.es/la-institucion/historia http://www.rae.es/la-institucion/historia “spanglish”: bringing the academic debate into the classroom e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 61 valdés, guadalupe, gonzález, sonia v., garcía, diana lopez, & márquez, patricio (2003). language ideology: the case of spanish in departments of foreign languages. anthropology & education quarterly, 34(1), 3-26. villa, daniel j. (1996). choosing a standard variety of spanish for the instruction of native spanish speakers in the u.s. foreign language annals 29(2), 191-200. villa, daniel j. (2002). the sanitizing of u.s. spanish in academia. foreign language annals 35(2), 222-230. walsh, catherine (1991). pedagogy and the struggle for voice: issues of language, power and schooling for puerto ricans. new york, new york: bergin & garvey. zentella, ana celia (1997). growing up bbilingual: puerto rican children in new york. malden, massachussets: blakwell publishers. reznicek-parrado e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 62 appendix a participant survey 1. ¿qué idioma hablaste primero, el español o el inglés? a. español b. inglés c. los dos 2. si hablaste español primero, ¿qué edad tenías cuando empezaste a hablar inglés? a. entre 1 y 6 meses b. entre 7 y 12 meses c. entre 1 y 3 años d. entre 4 y 10 años e. entre 11 y 14 años f. entre 15 y 20 años g. más de 20 años h. n/a 3. si hablaste inglés primero, ¿qué edad tenías cuando empezaste a hablar español? a. entre 1 y 6 meses b. entre 6 y 12 meses c. entre 1 y 3 años d. entre 4 y 10 años e. entre 10 y 14 años f. entre 15 y 20 años g. más de 20 años h. n/a 4. ¿en qué ciudad y estado pasaste la mayor parte de tu niñez? 5. en tu casa con tus padres, hermanos u otro miembro de tu familia, ¿hablas español? a. sí b. no c. se habla tanto español como inglés 6. ¿qué idioma te gusta hablar más, el español o el inglés? a. español b. inglés c. me da igual hablar los dos 7. si te gusta hablar más el español, el inglés o te da igual hablar los dos, ¿por qué? “spanglish”: bringing the academic debate into the classroom e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 63 8. ¿a veces utilizas el español y el inglés a la misma vez? a. sí b. no c. no estoy segura/o 9. por ejemplo, ¿tú dirías lo siguiente?: ‘i can’t porque tengo que trabajar tonight’ a. sí b. no c. no estoy segura/a 10. ¿tú dirías lo siguiente?: ‘fue un choque para ella que yo ganara el concurso’ a. sí b. no c. no estoy seguro/a 11. ¿conoces a otras personas que utilizan el español y el inglés a la misma vez? es decir, en una misma conversación o en una misma frase, con la misma persona, utilizando expresiones en español que vienen del inglés, etc.? a. sí b. no c. no estoy seguro/a 12. explica qué te hace sentir o pensar cuando escuchas a otras personas utilizar el español y el inglés a la misma vez. algunas cosas que puedes mencionar son: si te gusta o no, si piensas que es correcto o no, si te hace pensar algo sobre esa persona, si te identificas con esa persona o no, etc. 13. ¿cómo se le debería llamar a eso de utilizar el español y el inglés a la misma vez? ¿hay un nombre en específico con el cual te refieres a esto? 14. cuando estuviste en la clase de español para hablantes nativos, ¿tu maestra o maestro utilizaba el español y el inglés a la misma vez? cualquier que sea tu respuesta, explica tu opinión sobre el idioma o los idiomas que utilizaba tu maestra o maestro en clase. 15. en tu opinión, ¿los maestros y maestras de español deberían utilizar el español y el inglés a la misma vez cuando están enseñando? ¿por qué sí o por qué no? 16. por último, menciona específicamente tus razones para toma clases de español en la universidad. ¿cuál es el objetivo? ¿para qué tomar una clase de español? por favor menciona tantos detalles como puedas. reznicek-parrado e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 64 appendix b judgment task el español en california para esta pequeña prueba, lee con atención la frase que se presenta en cada sección. ¿te parece que es una frase correcta? para cada oración, por favor marca el número del 1 al 4 que se acerque más a lo que te hace pensar cuando la lees en voz alta según la siguiente escala: 1 yo diría esto cuando estoy hablando informalmente con mis amigos o familia 2 no estoy seguro/a si diría esto o no 3 yo no lo diría, pero si alguien lo dice, me parece muy bien 4 nunca diría esto, y si alguien más lo dice me parece que está incorrecto ojo: intenta no pasar mucho tiempo en cada oración. no compares con otras frases que se parezcan a la que estás leyendo, y no pienses en lo que “deberías” decir, si no en lo que dirías en realidad. ________ 1. “¿cuál es tu background?” ________ 2. “mañana van a inspectar el sistema de aire acondicionado en mi casa, porque se dañó” ________ 3. “la operación militar necesita continuamente de backups” ________ 4. “las escaleras mecánicas no están funcionando” ________ 5. “el fútbol es el juego nacional de muchos países” ________ 6. “no creo que llegue en tiempo, pero espérame de todas maneras” ________ 7. “¿quieres venir a un barbecue conmigo este fin de semana?” ________ 8. “¿me podrías sustituir hoy en el trabajo? no puedo ir, estoy enfermo” ________ 9. “ella también actuó en la obra de teatro, pero tenía un papel menor” ________ 10. “no estoy relacionada con ella, no es mi hermana” ________ 11. “el parqueo se limita a los residentes” ________ 12. “el mouse sirve para controlar el cursor” ________ 13. “presentó su resignación ayer” ________ 14. “hay estudiantes que faltan mucho a clase” ________ 15. “si no hago bien en mi examen, me van a regañar en mi casa” ________ 16. “¡ojalá que tengas un bonito día de thanksgiving!” “spanglish”: bringing the academic debate into the classroom e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 65 ________ 17. “¡está lleno de prejuicios! ¡no tolera que nadie piense distinto a él! ¿sabes qué? ¡es un bigote!” ________ 18. “la populación de estados unidos está creciendo cada vez más” ________ 19. “¿tienes hermanos que van al day care?” ________ 20. en tu primer año de universidad, ¿viviste en la residencia estudiantil? ________ 21. “después de trabajar tanto, pienso retirarme a los sesenta años” ________ 22. “me recuerdo de la última vez que fui a los ángeles. . .” ________ 23. “el poster dice que el hotel queda a tres millas de aquí” ________ 24. ¡hagamos un trato! ________ 25. “mi tío cuenta muchos chistes; es muy humorístico” ________ 26. “este mes casi no tengo dinero. debo pagar todos mis biles a tiempo” ________ 27. “¿tienes un grill para cocinar la carne?” ________ 28. “las universidades generalmente proporcionan el expediente académico de los estudiantes sin ningún costo” ________ 29. “mi mamá me entró a la escuela cuando yo estaba muy joven” ________ 30. “si necesitas comprar un carro, yo conozco un díler buenísimo” ________ 31. “en el negocio de sastrería de mi tía se alteran pantalones” ________ 32. “¿te dieron una multa por exceso de velocidad?” ________ 33. “después de graduarme de la universidad, recibí muchos complimentos de mis profesores por mi buen trabajo” ________ 34. “¿quieres ir al centro comercial este fin de semana?” ________ 35. “las posibilidades de que tengamos éxito son del fifty-fifty” ________ 36. “no sé qué hacer. necesito que me avises sobre lo que debo hacer” ________ 37. “mi tío trabaja en una agencia de seguros” ________ 38. “mis padres quieren ampliar su casa y necesitan a un buen contractor, ¿conoces alguno?” ________ 39. “tomamos un ferry a una de las islas” ________ 40. “si quieres, puedes descargar música de mi ipod. tengo mucha.” reznicek-parrado e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 50-66 66 lina m. reznicek-parrado, university of california, davis lreznice@ucdavis.edu en lina m. reznicek-parrado is associate instructor and spanish linguistics phd student at the university of california, davis, where she teaches courses in spanish writing development and spanish for heritage speakers. her research interests center mainly on issues in heritage language pedagogy, literacy in spanish as a heritage language, critical pedagogy, and other topics in applied sociolinguistics. her work has appeared in other on-line journals such as the arizona working papers in second language acquisition and teaching (slat) and normas. revista de estudios lingüísticos hispánicos. es lina m. reznicek-parrado es profesora asociada y doctoranda en lingüística española en la universidad de california, davis, donde imparte cursos de expresión escrita en español y de español como lengua de herencia. sus intereses investigadores giran principalmente en torno a la pedagogía de las lenguas de herencia, la alfabetización en español como lengua de herencia, la pedagogía crítica y otros temas de sociolingüística aplicada. sus trabajos han sido publicados en otras revistas electrónicas como the arizona working papers in second language acquisition and teaching (slat) y normas. revista de estudios lingüísticos hispánicos. it lina m. reznicek-parrado è docente associata e dottoranda di linguistica spagnola presso la university of california, davis, in cui tiene corsi di sviluppo della produzione scritta in lingua spagnola e spagnolo per parlanti ereditari. i suoi interessi di ricerca si concentrano principalmente sui problemi riguardanti la pedagogia della lingua ereditaria, l’alfabetizzazione dello spagnolo come lingua ereditaria, la pedagogia critica e altri temi legati alla sociolinguistica applicata. i suoi lavori sono apparsi in altre riviste online come the arizona working papers in second language acquisition and teaching (slat) e normas. revista de estudios lingüísticos hispánicos. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 2, issue 2, december 2015, pages 110-113 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.3.59 www.e-journall.org © henshaw 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. heritage language teaching: research and practice, by beaudrie, ducar, and potowski, lays the foundation for a sociolinguistically based approach to heritage language (hl) instruction. the ten chapters provide a clear and comprehensive overview of key concepts, research findings, and pedagogical strategies to better meet the needs of heritage speakers. as with all other titles in the series “directions in second language learning,” there are several pause to consider boxes interspersed throughout the text as well as discussion questions at the end of each chapter to help readers reflect on the information presented and establish connections to their own contexts. the plethora of examples and resources about several different languages, including sample activities and survey questions, makes the ideas not only easy to follow, but also highly relevant and practical to educators of a wide variety of backgrounds and teaching experience. the premise of the book is that hl learners are fundamentally different from second language (l2) learners, and the most common differences between the two are explained at length in chapter 3. although the authors acknowledge that budgetary or logistical constraints might not always permit the development of specially-designated courses for hl learners, the section on meeting the needs of hl learners within l2 classrooms is relatively brief and consists mostly of a summary of research findings and references to outside resources. the section on differentiated instruction, included as one of the three general pedagogical principles proposed by the authors, could have been further developed with more concrete and clear examples for mixed l2-hl classrooms. even though the reasons for developing separate courses for hl * contact: henshaw2@illinois.edu beaudrie, sara, ducar, cynthia, & potowski, kim (2014). heritage language teaching: research and practice. new york, new york: mcgraw hill. florencia g. henshaw*1 university of illinois at urbana-champaign book review received 6 august 2015; accepted 2 october 2015 abstract en this review introduces readers to heritage language teaching: research and practice, by sara beaudrie, cynthia ducar, and kim potowski, which is part of the “directions in second language learning” series. this handbook offers a comprehensive overview of key concepts, research findings, and pedagogical strategies to better meet the needs of heritage learners, and it underscores the importance of sociolinguistic issues and phenomena in heritage language instruction. key words: heritage learners, heritage language acquisition, language teaching, handbook. es la reseña presenta a los lectores la obra heritage language teaching: research and practice, escrita por sara beaudrie, cynthia ducar y kim potowski, la cual forma parte de la serie “directions in second language learning”. el manual ofrece un panorama completo de términos claves, resultados de investigación y estrategias pedagógicas centrales a la enseñanza de lenguas de herencia, a la vez que destaca la importancia de cuestiones referentes a la sociolingüística en este contexto. palabras clave: aprendientes de lenguas de herencia, adquisición de lenguas de herencia, manual de enseñanza. it la recensione presenta ai lettori il libro heritage language teaching: research and practice di sara beaudrie, cynthia ducar e kim potowski, che fa parte della serie “directions in second language learning”. il manuale offre una panoramica approfondita di concetti chiave, risultati di ricerche e strategie pedagogiche volte a soddisfare al meglio i bisogni degli apprendenti delle lingue ereditarie, ed esalta nel contempo l’importanza degli aspetti sociolinguistici nell’insegnamento di quest’ultime. parole chiave: discenti di lingue ereditarie, acquisizione delle lingue ereditarie, insegnamento della lingua, manuale. http://www.e-journall.org/ review: heritage language teaching e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 110-113 111 learners are evident throughout this book, the reality is that in many institutions, l2 and hl learners are enrolled in the same courses. educators teaching in those contexts would have benefitted from a detailed discussion on how the sociolinguistically informed approach outlined in the book could be adapted to mixed l2-hl classes. the first three chapters are perhaps the most valuable part of the book, as they focus on key sociolinguistic principles and concepts necessary to understand the linguistic, cultural, and affective complexity of hl learners’ profiles. the authors are successful at raising language educators’ awareness of stigmatized phenomena, such as borrowings and code-switching, as well as making readers reconsider the utopian nature of the “standard” variety of language upheld by many language instructors and researchers. another chapter worthy of praise is the fourth one, where the authors examine the seven goals of hl instruction proposed by valdés (1995) and aparicio (1997), and they propose three general pedagogical principles to guide hl instruction. chapter 4 should be required reading in language teaching methods courses, even in programs that do not offer separate tracks for hl learners. chapters 5, 6, and 7 focus on developing listening, reading, and writing skills. the authors make an effort to address issues unique to hl learners, but some of the suggested strategies, particularly for reading and writing, are identical to what has been proposed for l2 learners. there is little in the book about how to adjust basic principles, such as using clear rubrics and implementing peer review, to hl learners in particular (e.g., how might rubrics to evaluate hl writing differ from those used in l2 composition courses?). to a certain extent, that lack of distinction between l2 and hl learners when it comes to some of the suggestions in the book might be due to the relative scarcity of research on the effects of various pedagogical techniques on hl development. nonetheless, it is somewhat surprising that the chapters on reading and writing provide advice that is practically undistinguishable from what has been said in the literature on l2 reading and writing, when literacy skills had been identified in chapter 4 as one of the specific targets of hl instruction. educators and researchers interested in the development of spelling skills in particular are bound to be disappointed. despite the fact that one of the authors of the book has published an article investigating the frequency and nature of spelling errors made by spanish hl learners, the chapter on writing is lacking a section on orthography; not even the sample rubric included at the end of the chapter includes any criteria related to spelling issues. the only mention of spelling is a two-sentence portion in the section on sentencelevel errors, which only discusses the fact that some instructors allow spellcheckers and others do not, an issue that is brought back up briefly in the section on how to prepare spanish hl learners for the ap exam (i.e., a situation in which spellcheckers are not available). many would agree with the authors in that spellcheckers are a valuable tool, but it is also obvious that spellcheckers cannot help learners with the type of examples provided in the same section (e.g., está, más). since spelling has not been discussed much in l2 research, instructors of hl learners would benefit greatly from learning of different techniques and principles drawn from l1 research, and unfortunately, the book does not address any of them. chapter 8 focuses on a topic that is controversial in both l2 and hl pedagogy: grammar instruction. the chapter begins with an overview of three different ways of conceptualizing grammar, as well as a discussion of how “incorrect” forms are tied to stigmatization. the authors then explain in attainable terms important phenomena like attrition and language contact, which are fundamental to helping hl educators better understand not only why certain features are present in hl learners’ linguistic production, but more importantly, why hl learners should not be considered deficient or incomplete speakers of the target language. the chapter concludes with a clear model for teaching grammar to hl learners: a sociolinguistically informed approach based on principles like discovering what students know, investigating community norms, empowering students with knowledge of the sociolinguistic complexity of their own communities, and above all, respecting students’ language varieties. the chapter includes thought-provoking questions that instructors of both hl and l2 learners should consider, such as whether there are clear reasons for teaching a particular form explicitly, and whether metalinguistic labels are necessary to acquire grammar. the section on error correction is sure to ignite some debate, as the authors start off by stating that it is more acceptable to correct l2 learners’ errors as they “often constitute a violation of underlying grammar,” whereas when a hl learner is corrected, the instructor is “demonstrating ignorance of (...) sociolinguistic realities” (p. 175). the question that arises is: what should instructors do when teaching a class with l2 and hl learners, and both make the same type of errors (e.g., gender or number agreement errors, omitting articles, tense/aspect/mood errors, etc.)? it would have been helpful for the chapter to include some guidance on those situations, which are not uncommon in language classrooms. henshaw 112 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 110-113 the discussion about developing cultural proficiency in chapter 9 is quite clear as to how and why to incorporate culture in the hl classroom in particular. while many of the concepts and suggestions will be enlightening to all foreign language educators, it is undeniable that hl learners have a unique connection to the culture, and that the community plays a pivotal role in hl development. it is refreshing to see the topics of community service learning and study abroad being discussed with hl learners in mind, as they are two areas that have been underresearched. the authors do an excellent job at shedding light on the importance of studying abroad for hl learners based on the few available research findings to date. the inclusion of internet-mediated cultural exchanges as an alternative to studying abroad is also commendable. although the book is written primarily for in-service and future language teachers, program directors will find chapter 10 (“program and administrative considerations”) to be particularly relevant. among the challenges of designing and implementing an hl program, the authors discuss and even offer solutions for the issue of lacking “a critical mass of hl students to justify creating a separate course” (p. 194), which will likely resonate with administrators across institutions. approximately half of the chapter is dedicated to several different options for assessment and proper course placement of hl learners. the authors provide numerous examples and practical ways to implement placement testing, while also acknowledging that any type of proficiency assessment measures will need to be determined by each program, given that the characteristics of local hl populations may vary widely from one context to another. in sum, the authors meet their goal of advancing the professional preparation of all language educators, and not just hl educators. although the chapters on developing literacy skills could have been more specific to hl learners, the book successfully addresses many practical considerations and provides research-informed pedagogical guidelines for hl instruction. the book’s greatest strength, without a doubt, is the underscoring of the importance of sociolinguistic issues and phenomena, which are seldom discussed in teacher training programs. references aparicio, frances (1997). la enseñanza del español para hispanohablantes y la pedagogía multicultural. in maría cecilia colombi & francisco x. alarcón (eds.), la enseñanza del español a hispanohablantes: praxis y teoría (pp. 222-232). boston, massachusetts: houghton mifflin. valdés, guadalupe (1995). the teaching of minority languages as 'foreign' languages: pedagogical and theoretical challenges. modern language journal, 79(3), 299-328. review: heritage language teaching e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 110-113 113 florencia g. henshaw, university of illinois at urbana-champaign henshaw2@illinois.edu en florencia g. henshaw earned a phd in second language acquisition and teacher education from the university of illinois, urbana-champaign, where she is now the director of advanced spanish. her research interests focus on evaluating the extent to which different pedagogical tools and practices may be beneficial to second language and heritage language learners, not only in terms of linguistic gains, but also with respect to the learners' perceptions and attitudes. she has also authored two spanish textbooks: one for grammar review courses and one for composition courses. es florencia g. henshaw obtuvo su doctorado en adquisición de segundas lenguas y formación del profesorado en la universidad de illinois, urbana-champaign, donde ejerce actualmente como directora del área de español avanzado. sus intereses de investigación se centran en la evaluación de las diferentes herramientas y prácticas pedagógicas al servicio de los alumnos que aprenden español como segunda lengua o como lengua de herencia; no solo en lo que respecta a sus mejoras lingüísticas, sino también en cuanto a las percepciones y actitudes de los aprendientes. es asimismo autora de dos libros de texto para el estudio del español: uno para cursos de repaso de gramática y otro para cursos de redacción y estilo. it florencia g. henshaw ha conseguito il dottorato in acquisizione della seconda lingua e formazione degli insegnanti all’università dell’illinois, urbana-champaign, dove attualmente è direttrice del programma di spagnolo avanzato. la sua ricerca è incentrata sulla valutazione del livello di efficacia di metodi e strumenti pedagogici nel contesto della seconda lingua e delle lingue ereditarie, non solo in termini di acquisizione linguistica, ma anche rispetto alle percezioni e alle attitudini dei discenti. è inoltre autrice di due manuali in spagnolo, uno per corsi di grammatica ed uno per corsi di scrittura. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 5, issue 1, august 2018, 27-45 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.105 © dang 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. 1*contact: socialeducationalresearch@gmail.com impact of the usage of vietnamese consonant-vowel (cv) structure on the intelligibility of vietnamese speakers of english tien ngoc dung dang*1 griffith university received 9 may 2017; received in revised form 30 november 2017, 24 january 2018; accepted 5 march 2018 abstract en this paper reports on findings from an investigation into the potential impact of the mother tongue of 50 vietnamese adult efl learners on their english intelligibility, with a particular focus on cv (consonant vowel) syllable structure. the data from this quantitative study indicate that participants applied the vietnamese cv syllable structure (open syllables cv.v) to the pronunciation of english cvc syllable structure (closed syllables cvc.v particularly in polysyllabic words and words with cvl (consonant – vowel – lateral) structure, potentially affecting speech intelligibility. these outcomes contribute to research on efl speakers’ intelligibility. key words: cv syllable structure, mother tongue, efl learners’ intelligibility, vietnamese speakers of english es el presente trabajo reporta los resultados de una investigación que se llevó a cabo con un grupo de 50 adultos vietnamitas aprendientes de inglés como lengua extranjera acerca del impacto potencial de su lengua materna en la inteligibilidad de su inglés, con un enfoque particular en la estructura silábica cv (consonante-vocal). los datos de este estudio cuantitativo indican que los participantes aplicaron la estructura silábica vietnamita cv (sílabas abiertas cv.v) a la pronunciación de la estructura de sílaba cvc en inglés (sílabas cerradas cvc.v), particularmente en palabras polisílabas y palabras con cvl (consonante-vocal-lateral), lo cual podría afectar la inteligibilidad de su habla. estos resultados contribuyen a la investigación sobre la inteligibilidad de los hablantes de inglés como lengua extranjera. palabras clave: estructura silábica cv, lengua materna, inteligibilidad de la estructura silábica cv de aprendientes de inglés como lengua extranjera, hablantes vietnamitas de inglés. it quest’articolo presenta i risultati di un’indagine condotta sul potenziale impatto della lingua materna di 50 vietnamiti adulti che studiano l’inglese come lingua straniera sulla comprensibilità del loro inglese con speciale attenzione alla struttura sillabica cv (consonante-vocale). i dati raccolti dalla presente ricerca quantitativa indicano che i partecipanti applicano la struttura sillabica cv del vietnamita (sillabe aperte cv.v) alla pronuncia della struttura sillabica cvc dell’inglese (sillabe chiuse cvc.v), specialmente in parole polisillabe e parole con struttura cvl (consonante – vocale – laterale) il che potrebbe potenzialmente incidere sulla comprensibilità del parlato. questi risultati sono un contributo alla ricerca sulla intellegibilità dei parlanti di inglese di inglese come lingua straniera. parole chiave: struttura sillabica cv, lingua materna, intellegibilità degli studenti di inglese come lingua straniera, parlanti vietnamiti di inglese http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.105 intelligibility of vietnamese speakers of english e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 28 1. introduction english today is spoken worldwide. in the context of its globalization, interactions between diverse speakers are rapidly increasing throughout the world and intelligibility is crucial to these interactions. reasonable intelligibility, rather than native-like pronunciation, should be the goal of phonological instruction in second language classrooms, argue studies such as celce-murcia, brinton, and goodwin (1996) and kenworthy (1997). reasonable intelligibility is defined by smith (1988; 1992) as the ability of listeners to recognize words, and it is an important criterion and learning aim for efl learners who want to use english as an international language (eif). while intelligibility has been investigated among efl speakers in association of the southeast asian nations (asean) settings in a few studies (e.g., deterding, 2011; jenkins, 2000; kirkpatrick, 2010), the present study will provide more data on eif intelligibility for teaching of english in the asean in general and in vietnam in particular. in order to assist efl learners in attaining reasonable intelligibility, we need to know what factors affect the speech output of efl speakers. it is argued that there are various factors, such as aptitude for oral mimicry or years in an english speaking country influence the speech production of second language (l2) speakers (purcell & suter, 1980). ioup and weimberger (1987), odlin (1989), and vanpattern (1998) suggested that the native language and negative transfer are the major sources of difficulties in interlanguage phonology. avery and ehrlich (1992) also see the first language (l1) as a significant factor, showing that the sound pattern of the learners’ first language transferred into second language and is likely the cause foreign accents, which reduce l2 speaker intelligibility. other research supports the position that a higher degree of foreign accent is associated with lower intelligibility (munro & derwing, 1995; puerto, lacabex, & lecumberri, 2007). yet, although the relationship between l1 and speaker intelligibility in various respects has become an important focus of l2 pronunciation research in the last two decades, empirical studies that examine the relationship of l1 with speaker intelligibility in terms of suprasegmental features are few and their findings do not provide a significant conclusion (beneabah, 1997; derwing & munro, 1997; zielinski, 2006). thus, it is the intention of this paper to explore this relationship. 2. intelligibility and first language with reference to suprasegmental features in english, suprasegemental elements of pronunciation include the following elements: syllable structures, stress, rhythm, adjustment in connected speech, prominence and intonation, pause, and pitch. these elements play a large role in english communication, as they provide crucial context and support (e.g. they determine meaning) for segmental production (cunningham, 1998; fromkin, rodman, collin, & blair, 1990; roach, 2002). cunningham (2009) argues, however, that while many claims have been made as to the relationship between suprasegmentals in adult efl learners’ mother tongues and their speech intelligibility in english, few studies exist related to the impact of mother tongue on second language pronunciation. and in the few studies on suprasegemental features and l2 intelligibility, the results have been inconclusive. for instance, in studies on intonation (munro & derwing, 1995), prosody (derwing & munro, 1997), word stress and syllable stress errors (benrabah, 1997; suenobu, kanzaki, & yamane, 1992; zielinski, 2006) and incorrect pause insertion (suenobu et al., 1992), none of the authors came to a significant conclusion, although benrabah (1997) and suenobu et al. (1992) suggested there was some support for the idea that both word stress errors and incorrect pause insertion have the potential to affect intelligibility. zielinski (2006) found that syllable stress errors are also a potential factor in reducing speaker intelligibility for adult vietnamese esl speakers’ intelligibility by three native (australian) listeners. this study suggested that the vietnamese speakers’ syllable stress pattern was sufficiently different from standard use to mislead the listeners, who had to concentrate heavily to achieve understanding. additionally, nakishima’s (2006) findings in his research report from reanalyzing the data of japanese adult efl learners errors presented by jenkins (2000) indicated 75 percent of the errors, (which jenkins treated as segmental), could involve suprasegmental problems. nakishima categorised the individual sound errors as suprasegmental, brought about by nasals that occur only at the end of a syllable, non-reduction of weak syllables (e.g. [sʌkɑ:] as in “soccer club”), and japanese syllable structure. he further stated that these errors were mainly caused by the japanese open syllables (cv#v) applied to pronounce english closed syllables (cvc#v), making words unlinked in their speech since japanese has a very limited number of final syllable consonants (nakishima, 2006). this view raises a hypothesis for further studies and specifically prompts this study, as the open syllable structure is probably used to articulate english closed syllables by vietnamese learners due to the very limited final consonants in vietnamese, reducing their english intelligibility. dang e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 29 the current quantitative research study aims at providing insight into vietnamese cv syllable structure (open syllables cv.v) applied in the pronunciation of cvc syllable structure (closed syllables cvc.v) in english words, particularly polysyllabic words and words with cvl structure, (consonant–vowel–lateral), probably affecting vietnamese adult efl speakers’ speech intelligibility. the usage of the cv structure in these cases has the potential to give rise to new words and non-english words from the intended words or hiatus between the syllables of polysyllabic words, producing “strange” prosody to interlocutors, as described in the next section. more precisely, this study focuses on examining how 50 vietnamese university students’ english intelligibility was affected by errors that are analysable as a result of the application of vietnamese cv syllable structure in articulation of english closed syllables containing cvl and polysyllabic words in a pronunciation test and in their oral output. it is the intention of this paper to contribute to suprasegmental research and reduce the gap in the body of knowledge in this field. 3. english and vietnamese syllable structures differences of syllable structures between the vietnamese language and the english language may be one of the reasons why participants have trouble with english polysyllabic words and words associated with the cvl structure. in english, there are various types of syllable structure, such as consonant-vowel (cv) then cvc, ccvc, cccvc, cccvcc (erickson, 2001). vietnamese is an asian tonal language with a simpler syllable structure than english. in vietnamese, like in thai and chinese, a syllable consists of two compulsory elements: a tone and a nuclear vowel. beside the four tones shared with thai and chinese, namely mid, low, falling, rising, (mok, 2007; zhang, 1996), vietnamese has a low-falling-rising tone and a low-falling broken tone. ngo (2006) describes that in vietnamese, “[e]ach syllable consists of two mandatory components: a tone and a nuclear vowel; in addition, three optional components may be present: an initial consonant, a sound indicating the labialization (rounding of the lips) of the syllable, and a final consonant or semivowel” (p. 7). in other words, the initial consonant, labialization and final consonant/semivowel are not always present. thus, the syllable structure of the vietnamese language can be displayed as in figure 1. tone syllable-initial sound medial (labialization) /u/ principal/nuclear vowel final sound or semi vowel figure 1. vietnamese syllable structure (adapted from doan, 1999; ngo, 2006; tang, 2007) cv or cvc plus a tone are the two most common syllable structures in the vietnamese language. a consonant-vowel (cv) syllable, like a vowel only (v) syllable, is classified as open syllable, or a syllable that ends with a vowel (cox, harrington, & mannell, 2009). as cox et al. (2009) state, “[n]o syllable has more than one vowel. vowel-like sequences in a single syllable are interpreted as diphthongs or semi-vowel plus vowel sequences” (p. 3). therefore, the vowels in the open syllable cv structure may include diphthongs or a vowel plus semi-vowel. a consonant-vowel-consonant (cvc) syllable is a closed syllable, which is defined by cox et al. (2009) and roach (2002) as a syllable that has at least one final consonant. these syllable structures (cv and cvc) can be illustrated with cv ba [ba:] (father), and cvc bang [ba:ƞ] (state) respectively. in vietnamese, the frequency of open cv syllable structure is much higher than that of closed cvc syllable structure, as there are only six syllable-final consonants in vietnamese (/p/, /t/, /k/, /n/, /ng/, and /m/) (mok, 2007; ngo, 2006), compared to 54 syllable-final consonants in english (tang, 2007). meanwhile, the vietnamese language has 14 vowels and 27 diphthongs and triphthongs compared to 20 vowels and only 5 diphthongs in english (roach, 2002). tang (2007) stated, “[t]he english and vietnamese languages share seven monovowels” (p. 7), while the vowel /ə/, listed as unshared by tang, is considered to be a shared vowel by dang (1998) and ngo (2006). the latter also added to the shared list four diphthongs in english, called principal vowels in combination with final semi-vowels /i/ and /u/ in vietnamese. figure 2 and figure 3 below show the final consonants and the vowels in english that are shared and unshared with vietnamese. intelligibility of vietnamese speakers of english e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 30 figure 2. english final consonants shared or unshared by the vietnamese language (adapted from dang, 2014) figure 3. vietnamese vowels shared and unshared by the english language (dang, 2014) one hypothesis arising from the differences of the segmental elements between the two languages is that vietnamese adult efl/esl learners may use the vietnamese open syllable cv when producing the english closed syllable cvc, making it hard for interlocutors to recognize the target words. in english, the distinction between cv and cvc is significant in determining meaning. the presence of a coda in a cvc syllable is contrastive to a cv syllable, when the two structures share the same vowel. for instance, say /sei/ and he /hi/ are different from sale /seil/ & heal /hil/ respectively because of the final phoneme /l/. for vietnamese adult efl/esl learners, because the final /l/ does not exist in the vietnamese closed syllable cvc, sale /seil/ and heal /hil/ sounds are heard to be similar to [sɛɔ] and [hiu] (dang, 2006). one reason that speakers may substitute the open syllable cv for the closed syllable cvc might be the unshared vowels and dang e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 31 unshared syllable final consonants between vietnamese and english. in a previous study conducted by the author of this article, dang (2006) showed that cvc syllables in which l is the lateral consonant are often converted into various forms of open syllables with a cv structure. for instance, hill or heal will be produced as hiu/hieu; sell or sail will be produced as seɔ; smile/mile will produced as [smai]/[mai]. a secondary hypothesis is that the vietnamese open syllable cv structure might be used to pronounce english cvc syllables most frequently in polysyllabic words with a sequence of cvc.vc. in contrast to the cv for cvc substitution in monosyllabic words, this substitution in polysyllabic words also serves to make the prosody strange to listeners. part of this stems from the way that consonants work in polysyllabic words in english. in the english syllable structure, the maximum codas principle holds that a syllable must not end with a short vowel (roach, 2002, p. 47). therefore, for instance, botany is separated into three syllables by a hyphen as follows: bot-an-i, which coincides with the bot.an.i in webster’s new world dictionary in which the dot (.) is a syllable boundary. such division of the syllables has also been applied in cambridge dictionary as shown as /ˈbɒt.ən.i/ (cambridge dictionary.org), supporting roach’s view. however, based on the maximum onset principle many linguists suggest that phonemes /t/ and /n/ really belong to the second syllable and third syllable respectively. roach (2002) proposes that both principles may be at play, with final syllabic consonants serving as initial ones of the following syllables. according to roach (2002), “[i]n english, consonants have been analyzed as acting simultaneously as the coda of one syllable and the onset of the following syllable, as in 'bellow' bel-low, a phenomenon known as ambisyllabicity” (p. 49). the term accounts for connected sounds in polysyllabic words in english. therefore, botany is linked as /bɔtəni/. in contrast, in vietnamese, as in thai, all final consonants (including /n/ and /t/ in botany) are unreleased with no audible explosion (doan, 1999; mok, 2007). this is why the words xem ô-tô /sem ≠ o.to/ (to look at automobiles) and xe mô-tô /se ≠ mo.to/(motopeds) are pronounced differently. in this pair, the final nasal sound /m/ (as in xem) is unreleased whereas the initial /m/ (as in mô) is explosive (nguyen, 1987, p. 778). perez and carty (2004), suggest that this is why “vietnamese students tend to drop english final consonant sounds” (p. 204). following the vietnamese pronunciation of final consonants, the /t/ and /n/ in botany would not be linked to both their preceding and following vowels. instead, they would be considered only as the initial consonants of the second syllable and the third syllable respectively. in other words, the two initial syllables of botany would become open syllables. therefore, based on the vietnamese open syllable cv, botany might be produced as bɔ/ tə/ni clearly and separately syllable by syllable without connected syllables. such a pronunciation habit is more likely to happen to polysyllabic words which are made up of closed syllables with final consonants unshared by the vietnamese. this is underpinned by nakashima (2006), who suggested, “[a]lmost all english closed syllables are pronounced as open syllables by japanese english speakers since there are a very limited number of consonants in final syllabic position” (pp. 9-10). 4. measurement of intelligibility munro et al. (2006) pointed out that a range of diverse techniques and methods have been employed by scholars to explore non-native speakers’ intelligibility, including listening comprehension tests (andersonhsieh & koehler, 1988), cloze tests (smith & rafiqzad, 1979), and grammatical paraphrase task (ingram & nguyen 2016). the choice of which of these methods to employ depends on the features of non-native speakers’ speech that are targeted for measurement of intelligibility. some researchers (e.g. water, 2002) have employed pre-selected speech stimuli for participants based on the assumption that non-native speakers’ intelligibility is significantly influenced by their confusion between voiced and voiceless sounds or short and long vowel sounds. for instance, water (2002, as cited in james, 2006, p. 8), in focusing on the pronunciations of cvc words, only used four minimal pairs (cap/cab, pick/pig, pot/pod, beet-bead) to test word-recognition intelligibility. water’s findings reveal that american english listeners frequently could not distinguish between the final voiceless and voiced consonants of the test words produced by esl/efl speakers (japanese and taiwanese). he therefore concluded that in order to improve speech intelligibility, english speaking instruction should have exercises of both pronouncing and distinguishing words with voiced and voiceless final consonants. speech intelligibility with a particular focus on prosody can be measured and evaluated by using technology. this method focuses on examining the prosodic differences in speech of non-native speakers (nnss) and native speakers (nss) in the range between the highest and lowest pitch for the falling tones and/or the rising tones. while a significant difference in range between nnss and nss is possible, this does intelligibility of vietnamese speakers of english e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 32 not appear to influence intelligibility: nns speech can be intelligible in spite of this difference in the range of falling tones and rising tones (binghadeer, 2008). this approach is also found in the studies conducted by derwing & munro (1997), trofimovich and baker (2006), who measured speakers’ intelligibility in suprasegmentals by removing most of the segmental information, while leaving prosodic features largely intact. however, the effect of suprasegemental features on intelligibility was inconclusive. thus, the effects of prosody and suprasegmental features should be explored further. it is also important to investigate the approaches that are commonly used to measure els or efl learners’ intelligibility. dictation tasks have been accepted to be one of the common approaches to evaluate l2 speakers’ verbal intelligibility with reference to segmental features. in these dictation tasks, listeners are requested to write out speech utterances they hear, and the number of the words which are correctly interpreted is used as an index of speech intelligibility. this method was used in the studies conducted by burda, scherz, hagerman, and edwards (2003), derwing and munro (1997), and munro, derwing, and morton (2006). in the current research, dictation tasks were applied to identify utterances at syllable structure level. this is largely because potential errors would appear in words with final syllabic consonant /l/ and in polysyllabic words which were likely to be wrongly transcribed or missed mainly due to the application of open syllable cv in the pronunciation test. 5. theoretical framework from previous studies (e.g. derwing & morton, 2006; derwing & munro, 1997), the following theoretical framework has been developed (figure 4). in this framework, transfer from the first language (vietnamese, with an open syllable structure) to the second language (english, with a closed syllable structure) is presumed to have a negative effect on intelligibility of the speakers’ english. figure 4. transfer between l1 and l2 impacts intelligibility 6. methods this quantitative study involved collecting data from university students in vietnam via a pronunciation test. this article attempts to respond to the following two research questions: 1. do syllable word errors influence vietnamese speakers’ intelligibility on an english pronunciation test? 2. if so, how are these errors affected by the vietnamese speakers’ cv syllable structure? 6.1. participants participants were 50 first-year students aged between 19 and 20 from the english department of a university in vietnam. they were all studying english for teachers, had seven years of english courses in high school taught by vietnamese english teachers, and had been learning english at the university for more than one semester. the total number of the first-year students who majored in english for teachers is 250 or more, and students were divided into five classes. these students were usually better at english, particularly in speaking, than those who majored in other fields both from their university and from other universities. the curriculum for year 1 covered english subjects associated with instruction in reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar, and phonetics. none of them had stayed in english-speaking countries. in other words, they all had the same background of english learning and english exposure. importantly, the sample was l1 l2 l2 speaker intelligibility vietnamese open syllable structure english closed syllable structure vietnamese adult efl learners’ intelligibility dang e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 33 decided on the basis of sample size and the confidence interval with the idea that “larger samples yield narrower confidence intervals” (cooksey, 2007, p. 356). in this study, the confidence interval was 1/5 (50/250) from the target population (250). in other words, a random sample gave each student a 1 in 5 chance in the study or a probability of selection of 0.2. such a probability sample meets precision requirements (berends, 2004). therefore, it could be said that this sample was useful for gathering information on the set research questions and support the hypothesis. 6.2. judges listeners were selected based on two factors: their linguistic proficiency and their familiarity with vietnamese nns english. as kenworthy (1997) suggested “[t]here are two listener factors in determining the speaker intelligibility; first the listener’s familiarity with the respective foreign accent and, second, the listener’s ability to use contextual clues when listening” (p. 14). raters were selected who had no or very little contact with vietnamese speakers, and who had a very high level of english proficiency. a group of ten listeners—five ns listeners (three australian; two british) and five nns listeners—who met these criteria were chosen to rate the 50 participating vietnamese adult efl speakers’ intelligibility. the five non-native speakers were selected from a list of the researcher’s colleagues. all had qualifications at the masters level in applied linguistics or tesol, were fluent in english speaking and listening skills, and had some years’ experience in teaching english. the nns assessors were iranian, chinese, indian-singaporean, iraqi, and dutch. as for the five native speakers, the selection was also made through the vietnamese–accented english researcher’s communications with assessors who rarely interacted or never talked with the researcher before. such communications told the researcher whether or not they were friendly and how frequently they contacted vietnamese-accented english speakers in order to minimize the bias which might be caused by listeners’ attitude to foreign accents. this is largely because native (l1) listeners frequently have a negative attitude towards foreign-accented speakers and are known to be highly sensitive to foreignness in speech (e.g., munro et al., 2006). 6.3. data collection a pronunciation test was designed by selecting from a reading text in an ielts listening textbook from scovell, pastellas, and knobel (2007), in which the vocabulary was not unfamiliar to the participants1. participants read the text consisting of 312 words in which 70 are related to the aim of the current paper: english polysyllabic words with the closed english syllable structure (cvc.vc.vc.) and/or single words associated with the cvl structure (see appendix 1 for text). this paper is concerned with the errors emerging from these 70 words, but ignores the other errors in the talk, as these were not relevant to the aims of the present study. this reading was tape-recorded by the researcher, resulting in 50 different recordings. handouts of the text were given to the participants at the first meeting in the classroom, where the researcher presented the aims of the research, instructions about the pronunciation test, and the method of the measurement of their pronunciation performance. to make sure that all the informants understand and were able to read the text aloud meaningfully, they were asked to read it with the help of a dictionary at home before making an appointment with the researcher for the purpose of recording their pronunciation performance in a class room of the university. to measure the participants’ speech intelligibility, first, the recordings have been randomly coded 01 to 50 and burned to 10 cds of which each contains five recordings. each of the ten judges was then requested to listen to a subset of five recordings assigned to him or her and write down verbatim what he or she heard. judges were asked to write down even non-english words because it was hoped that this would provide evidence relevant to the study. the students’ pronunciation performance was measured based on the number of words which the judges found intelligible and could transcribe after listening three times to the recording. this was considered to be a dictation task for the ten judges. the 50 subjects’ pronunciation performance was measured through the number of errors from the ten raters’ mis-transcribed words at syllable structure level. the judges were also requested to make their comments on each recording about the speaker’s speech production, adding some insights into the spoken data. however, only one of them did it. 1 in fact, all words in the reading passage were ones that the students had encountered in previous reading comprehension classes. more complicated sentences have been found in english textbooks for high school and university students. it is the usual practice in vietnam that two or three students were often asked to read a reading passage during a reading lesson while the other students were listening in silence. intelligibility of vietnamese speakers of english e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 34 6.3.1. reliability of the pronunciation test several factors that could negatively influence the reliability of this research have been taken into careful consideration. previous studies found that the faster speaking rate was, the lower the listeners’ comprehension was. this was true for all speakers, both native and non-native (anderson-hsieh & koehler, 1988; llurda, 2000). in this paper, speaking rate is measured via the actual number of syllables per second of each speaker. speaking rates of more than 4.15 syllables per second were judged to be fast, whereas rates of below 3 syllables per second were labeled as low (llurda, 2000). in the current study, the judgment was made by dividing the total number of syllables (496) counted from 312 words of the text by the total seconds of each recording (see appendix 1). based on these criteria, the outcomes have shown that none of the speakers’ rates were considered “fast” as the fastest speaking rate in this study was calculated at 3.67 syllables per second compared to 4.15 or more syllables per second labeled as fast as mentioned above (llurda, 2000). however, to ensure that speaking rate is not the potential cause in the current study, a statistical comparison of pronunciation errors (counted) was made between a group of 12 speakers with the fastest speaking rates of 3 – 3.67 syllables per second and a group of 12 speakers with the slowest speaking rates of 2.08 – 2.45 syllables per second. the results show that there is no significant difference in error means between these two groups. therefore, it could be concluded that speaker rate did not influence intelligibility in this study. the second potential confounding factor is that word recognition might have become easier with every new recording because of the high chance of having already heard some of the words in their correct forms and increased familiarity with the context. potential order effects were mitigated by randomly assigning each of the ten judges to listen to their five different recordings in different orders. additionally, an examination of two sets of recording heard by two judges indicates that although each listener had heard the same passage five times, they were not better able to recognize words in later recordings simply because they knew what to expect. for instance, the word “allocate” was transcribed correctly by judge 1 in the first recording, but it was missed or wrongly transcribed in the later four recordings. the word “expectations” was accurately interpreted in the second recording assigned to judge 2 but it was missed or wrongly transcribed in the three last recordings. this would also indicate that context familiarity is not a potential issue either. 6.4. data analysis the judges’ transcriptions of the 70 test words as produced by the 50 participants were examined in order to determine the type of errors affecting speaker intelligibility. syllable errors were recognized through mis-transcribed words that demonstrated the hypotheses discussed above. for instance, “where below” in transcript 4, transcript 5, transcript 10, transcript 18, and transcript 44, which was a result of wrong transcription of the original “well below,” could be verified as a syllable error. this is because these errors were brought about by the application of the vietnamese open syllable cv (in “where”) to produce closed syllable cvl (in “well”). based on this, total of syllable errors were counted for each transcript. 7. findings and discussion three hundred sixty syllable errors were counted in the 50 transcripts. as seen in table 1, 231 were classified as polysyllabic errors, accounting for 64.17%, compared to 35.83% cvl errors (129). this table shows that on average, 7.2 errors (error mean) were found per transcript, indicating that every 10 original words from 70 test words had a syllable error. additionally, many words were, in general, omitted in almost all transcripts. the 360 syllable errors, a considerable number, tell us about the impact of syllable errors on the intelligibility of the speech of the investigated cohort, and it provides evidence that speakers’ intelligibility is likely affected by the application of their first language in the articulation of english. this is demonstrated in detail in the following sections. table 1 descriptive statistics about 50 speakers’ syllable errors participants (n) mean sd median mode min max sum 50 7.2 2.276 7 10 & 6 4 13 360 dang e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 35 7.1. seventy test words in the pronunciation test based on the literature review, it was expected that errors resulting from the application of the vietnamese cv syllable structure to cvl and poly-syllabic words would occur in 70 words out of 312 in the text. these include 23 single-syllable words containing the final syllabic lateral /l/ and 47 polysyllabic words in which the final syllabic consonants are recognized as ambi-syllabic (cvc.v(c)). for instance, according to this hypothesis, in the word “pur.pos.es” (ending with cvc.vc) belong to this sequence, the open syllable would be applied, to produce pur.po.ses , making a strange prosody to the listeners. the seventy test words and their expected syllable errors are included in table 2 below. table 2 test words in which errors likely result from application of open syllable cv structure monosyllabic words with syllabic consonant /l/ (n = 23) and expected mispronunciation  all (6)  will (2)  skill  well-below  well  results  material  stressful  little [ɔ:], [a;] or [əu] [wju:] [skju:] [weɔ bi ləu] [weɔ] [ri’zɔts] or [ri’səts] [mə’tiəriəu] [‘stresfəu] [‘lithəu]  pulse  we’ll  you’ll  tell  also  controlled  still  failed [pə:s] [wi:] or [wju:] [ju:] [teɔ] [‘əusəu] or [‘ɔsəu] [kən’trəu(d)] [stju:] [feɔ]or [fa:] poly-syllabic words (n = 47) division of syllables based on onset and coda principles, in reference to cambridge dictionary (frequency if > 1) division of english polysyllabic words on the basis of hypothesis 2 described in the literature review ex.am (5) un.der.es.tim.ate (2) all.o.cate (2) aff.ect (2) rati.on.all.y (2) stud.y (2) diff.er.ent (2) pur.pos.es col.ours per.form.ance con.fid.ent com.fort.able sit.u.a.tion or.gan.ized eff.ect ac.ad.em.ic ab.il.i.ty ass.ess press.ure rec.og.nize phys.ic.all.y sweat.y eff.ec.tive man.age phys.i.o.log.ic.al, psy.chol.og.ic.all.y par.tic.u.larl.y rep.orts feel-ing rel.y rid.ic.u.lous.ly o.ver.es.tim.at.ed gen.er.all.y att.end an.oth.er foll.ow-up ach.ieve e.xam (5) un.der.es.ti.mate (2) a.llo ca.te (2) a.ffect (2) ra.tio.na.lly (2) stu.dy (2) di.ffe.rent (2) pur.po.ses co.lours per.for.mance con.fi.dent com.for.ta.ble si.tu.a.tio or.ga.nized e.ffect a.ca.de.mic a.bi.li.ty a.ssess pre.ssure, re.cog.nize phy.si.ca.lly swea.ty e.ffec.tive ma.nage phy.si.o.lo.gi.cal psy.cho.lo.gi.ca.lly, par.ti.cu.lar.ly re.ports fee.ling re.ly ri.di.cu.lous.ly o.ver.es.ti.ma.ted ge.ne.ra.lly a.ttend a.no.ther fo.llow-up, a.chieve 7.2. cvl word and polysyllabic word errors caused by the application of open syllable structure the data from table 3 and table 4 below provide evidence that the cvl word and polysyllabic word errors are mainly caused by the use of the cv structure for pronouncing these words in the pronunciation test, strongly affecting their intelligibility. 7.2.1. cv to cvl table 3 below shows errors in the pronunciation test that were caused by the application of the vietnamese open cv to produce english closed cvl. the first column contains the original english cvl words with the final syllabic lateral /l/, the second column shows the cv or cvn variants of the original words produced by participants, and third column shows which listener and transcript number the variant(s) come intelligibility of vietnamese speakers of english e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 36 from. these variants are regarded as evidence of the participants’ pronunciation errors, brought about by application of the vietnamese open syllable cv to the english closed syllable cvl in their speech. table 3 errors indicating the tendency of the application of cv to cvl english word (cvl) transcribed as (vietnamese cv or cvn) listener & transcript number all are or, a all transcripts l5.t23, l2.t10 still use(d) stay stew l1.t1 l2.t6 l7.t31 skill skew l9.t41 well-below where-below or below far below ..below l1.t5, l2.t10, l4.t18 l9.t44 l8.t36 l10.t50 l9.t43 failed fair far l2.t6 l10.t50 results research precious the show l4.t16, l10.t46,47,49 l7.t33 l8.t32 we’ll we all transcripts you will need you unit l4.t19 table 3 also shows that there are a great number of variants from the 13 original cvl words. the specific variants were identified as follows: / ɔ:l/ as in “all” is pronounced as [ɑ:] as in “are” or [ɔ:] as in “or”. the table shows that the “are” appears in the 50 transcripts written by all the ten listeners, indicating that the variant [ɑ:] from the /ɔ:l/ is almost certainly resulted from the application of vietnamese open syllables to produce the english closed syllable cvl. /il/ as in “still” is converted into [ju:] as in “use(d)” and “stew” found in transcript 1 and transcript 31 respectively, or into [ei] as in “stay” interpreted by listener 2 in transcript 6 while /il/as in “skill” is also shifted into [ju:] as in “skew”. it can be inferred from these variations the [ju:] (sound like [iu] in vietnamese) applied to produce /il/ is more recurrent than the other forms [ei] . other findings identified are: “well-below” could have been articulated “where below” by speaker 5, speaker 10 and speaker 18, or “or below”, and “far below” by other speakers ; “failed” has been recognized as “fair”, “far” by listeners 2 in transcript 6 and listener 10 in transcript 50 respectively. neither final consonant /l/ nor final semi vowel /r/ exists in vietnamese. neither final consonant /l/ nor final semi vowel /r/ exists in vietnamese. the negative transfer could have been caused by the application of the clear cv “que” [weə] in vietnamese (means “stick” in english) to produce “well” as in well-below because “que” sounds like [weə]“where” in english. similarly, the negative transfer could also happen as shown in “far” almost certainly as a result of the application of the clear cv /fa:/. this is largely because the word “pha” in vietnamese (“stage” or “current” in english), was probably applied to produce “failed”, since “pha” sounds like “far” in english. such transmission of the english cvl into different forms of cv could also be found in the other words in table 3, reflecting that the vietnamese open syllable cv could have been applied to pronounce the english cvl. attention should be paid to double errors in single words which could be resulted either from the application of vietnamese cv in production of the english cvl or from another cause. for instance, the word “results”, has been interpreted as “research”, “precious”, and “the show”. whether or not other errors like [ʧ] in “research”, [s] in “precious”, and no final /st/ in “the show” as a result of conversion of the final cluster /st/ as in “results” under the influence of other causes might account for these variants is a contentious point. however, closer examination of two of the three variations dang e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 37 from the ‘results’ reveals that there is transmission from open syllable cvl as /z⋀l/ in the second syllable of “results” to open syllables as [sə:] in ‘research’ and [∫ə:] in “precious” because of no existence of the final syllabic consonant in vietnamese, leading to the application of the open syllable cv [sə:] or [∫ə] in production of cvl /z⋀l/. in other words, replacing the closed syllable /⋀l/ with the open syllable /ə/ gave clear evidence about a large influence on such transcripts. that is, the phonetic variant [ə] from the phonemic representation of /⋀l/ could have made the listeners think up other words instead of “results”, in which the consonants sound nearly alike. all in all, the alterations show that various cv forms such as [sə:] in “research”, [∫ə] in “precious” and [∫əʊ] in “the show” have been applied to produce cvl /z⋀l/ in “results”, reflecting the fact that the vietnamese open syllable cv could have been employed to pronounce the english closed syllable cvl. 7.2.2. cv to polysyllabic words a clear separation between two or more adjacent syllables in multi-syllabic words in english has been shown to be a major factor in making the participant’s speech unintelligible, as illustrated above. this is mainly caused by the application of the cv structure to the participant’s pronunciation of english multisyllabic words associated with the sequence of cvc.v(c), making the syllables in adjacency unlinked. table 4 below shows evidence of such pronunciation habits. when speakers apply open syllable pronunciation to pronounce closed syllables in polysyllabic words, they produce unlinked syllables which can result in listeners hearing new words or phrases, or even non-english words, which are very unlike the original words used in the pronunciation test. this is illustrated in table 4, which shows that a single polysyllabic word can have several variants as a consequence of such pronunciation habits. some words, like “exam,” were misheard in all 50 transcriptions, while different variants of the other original words can be found in different transcripts by different judges. for instance, the original “allocate” is called a polysyllabic word since it is made up of three syllables, which are linked together in natural speech. this pronunciation sounds reasonable on the basis of the maximum onset and coda principles which require that a short vowel never ends a syllable (roach, 2002), indicating that the first syllable of the “allocate” s /al/. however, this is a controversial problem. many linguists have come up with a new term for the consonant /l/ in this context as semi-syllabic (roach, 2002). in other words, this lateral belongs to both the first syllable and the second syllable, implying that it is linked between the first syllable and second syllable in pronunciation. additionally, the variants of this word demonstrate a clear separation between them. this is shown in table 4 that the pronunciation of “allocate” has been transcribed as “or locate” in transcript 41 by listener 9 or “air locate” by listener 10 in transcript 50. both variants show a clear split-up of the vowel of the first syllable from its final lateral as a result of the application of open syllable cv. it can be inferred that this separation probably makes hiatuses between the first syllable and second syllable, mainly involving creation of the new words (variants) “or locate” and “air locate”, whose meanings are quite different from that of the original word. the split-up can also be found in many more variants from the “allocate” such as, “are ok” in transcript 34, “that ok” in transcript 49 and others by different listeners, which reflect the fact that the participants have applied the vietnamese open syllable cv to articulate closed syllables of this word. all of this indicates that the application of the open syllable cv in articulation of english polysyllabic words associated with a sequence of cvc.v(c) really creates strange prosody for the interlocutors, leading to new words or phrases from the original words. many more demonstrations of such a pronunciation habit can be found based on a variety of new words or phrases from the other polysyllabic words in table 4, like “a fact” from “affect” in transcript 46, “we lie” from “rely” in transcript 2, or “a set” from “assess” in transcript 34 and so forth. one more example from the table which needs to be noted is about different variants of the original, “psychologically”, reflecting the usage of the open syllable cv to the sequence of cvc.v(c). this is shown in the last four syllables, “log.ic.all.y” of the “psychologically”, which have been transferred into “psychology call it” in transcript 21, “spychology colleague” in transcript 33, “biology colleague” in transcript 32 and “psychology course” in transcript 10. all of these variants show the open syllable /y/ applied to the fourth closed syllable /ic/, rather than linking them together as a single word. this clear separation was mistakenly recognized as two separate words by the hearers. moreover, the hyphen (-) is used between the syllables of divided words as an indicator of the application of cv in articulation of english polysyllabic words. as can be seen from table 4, many polysyllabic words were transcribed with the hyphen between the syllables by judge 10, who had a master degree in applied linguistics degree and who had been professionally taught english in australia for many years. such transcriptions are supported by her overall comments on the five recordings assigned to her to assess that intelligibility of vietnamese speakers of english e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 38 there is a clear separation of multisyllabic words in the participants’ pronunciation. “spy-cho-lo-gi-cal-ly” from the original word, “psychologically”; “phy-si-lo-gi-cal” from the “physiological”; “a-llo-cate” from the “allocate” and so forth. her divisions of the syllables reflect that the open syllables are being employed to articulate the closed syllables of the polysyllabic words. table 4 errors indicating the tendency of the application of open syllable cv to multisyllabic words english word transcribed as listener & transcript exam time the same (time) all transcripts exam (performance) the same (performance) l2.t8, t9, l4.t17 l5.t23 exam (paper) the same (paper) l1-l10 (t1-t50) physiological physical or logical l7.t33 seek for logical l9.t43 physiolo.. l2.t8 …logical l2.t9 phy-si-lo-gi-cal l50.t46_t50 psychologically psychology call it l4.t20 psychology colleague l7.t33 biology colleague l7.t32 psychology causes l7.t35 psychology course l10.t47 psy-cho-lo-gi-ca-ly l10.t46,48,49,50 assess ..sence l5.t23 a set l10.t46 physically physics colleague l7.t34 phy-si-cal-ly (or) phy si ca lly l10.t46-t50 purposes purpo l7.t34 rely we lie l1.t2 rationally ra-tio-nal-ly l4.t16 attend a-tend l10.t46-t50 (they) allocate (they) allow… l5.t21 (they) are ok l7.t34 or locate, ..locate l9.t44, t42 our case l10.t46 other click l10.t47 that ok l10.t49 ask acate l10.t49 air locate l10.t50 allocate (to study) a located study l4.17 a-llo-cate l10.t47-50 overestimate ….timic l7.t31 over-es-ti-mate l10.t46, t50 underestimated under-es-ti-ma-ted l10.t49, t50 most effective way mostly motive way l2.t9 e-ffec-ti-ve l10.t46_50 achieve chew l1.t2 a chief l10.t50 affect a fact l10.t46 a-ffect l10.t47_t50 ridiculously ri-di-cu-lous-ly l10.t48_&50 as discussed in the literature review above, the impact of suprasegemental features on intelligibility was inconclusive in previous studies (beneabah, 1997; derwing & munro, 1997; munro & derwing, 1995, dang e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 39 zielinski, 2006, etc.). despite this, there is agreement that pronunciation of suprasegmentals needs to be explicitly taught to l2 learners (anderson-hsieh, johnson, & koehler, 1992; anderson-hsieh, riney, & koehler, 1994; celce-murcia, et al., 1996; gilbert, 1995; mcnerney & mendelsohn, 1992; morley, 1994). anderson-hsieh et al. (1992) wrote that “[s]uprasegmental errors have a more serious effect on intelligibility than segmental errors,” because “prosody provides the framework for utterances and directs the listener’s attention to information the speaker regards as important” (p. 531). the current research study has provided evidence for syllable structure errors (part of suprasegmental features) that result from the application of vietnamese open syllable structure (cv.cv.cv) to produce the closed english syllable structure (cvc.vc.vc.) in english polysyllabic words and in single words associated with the cvl structure (l is lateral). it shows that the usage of the cv structure in these cases has the potential to give rise to new words and non-english words rather than the intended words, or that clear separation between the syllables of polysyllabic words results in unusual prosody for interlocutors. this significantly reduces the efl speakers’ intelligibility. this work, thus, contributes to understanding the source of vietnamese adult speakers’ pronunciation problems with reference to syllable structure, which were not addressed in the previous study by zielinski (2006). 7.3. alternate sources of syllable errors alternate sources of errors may appear to be present through some of the transcribed words. some errors might be recognized as consonant omission errors (“still” misheard “stay”), simultaneous consonant quality errors (“rely” misheard as “we lie”), vowel quality errors (“failed” misheard as “far”), consonant cluster errors (“still” misheard as “used”), or word stress and linking errors (“psychologically” misheard as “psychology call it”). yet, syllable errors are still the mostly likely sources of even these errors. for instance, what might seem to be a consonant quality error in “rely” /rel.y/ (cvc.v), heard as “we lie,” is likely a result of the two syllables being pronounced separately as re-ly (cv.cv) because [re] is understood by vietnamese speakers as the first syllable while the final consonant /l/ is recognized as the initial consonant of the second syllable [ly]. the clear separation of the two syllables probably made the “rely” misheard as “we lie” by the listener in attempting to make it meaningful. apparent vowel quality errors, like “failed misheard as “far,” are not really vowel quality errors according to vietnamese speakers because neither final consonant /l/ nor final semi vowel /r/ exists in vietnamese. the negative transfer could have been caused by the application of the clear cv /fa:/ (pha in vietnamese means ‘stage, or current...’ in english), which has been applied to produce “failed”, and pha sounds like “far” in english. what seem to be consonant cluster errors, such as “still” misheard as “used,” are as a result of application of the cv /iu/ in vietnamese, which is heard as /ju:/ in english. for example /meal/ converted as /miu/ in which /iu/ is a vietnamese diphthong, sounds like [mju:] in english. (refer to hypothesis and figure 3). finally, apparent word stress and linking errors, like “psychologically” misheard as “psychology call it,” are also syllable errors, recognizable through the fourth cv syllable applied to pronounce english closed syllable, as shown in table 2 as follows: psy.chol.og.ic.all.y vs. psy.cho.lo.gi.ca.lly (table 2). vietnamese is a monosyllabic language in which one word has one syllable, generally an open syllable, as discussed in the literature review. this negative transfer probably causes a clear pause between syllables, sounding like two words in english. 8. conclusion the findings of this study indicate that vietnamese open syllables have been applied in articulation of english closed cvl syllables, particularly in polysyllabic words. such a pronunciation habit was found to be one of the main reasons for these word errors, contributing to reducing vietnamese adult efl learners’ speech intelligibility in the pronunciation test. a limitation of this study is that the application of non-standard syllable stress patterns made by the participants may influence their transcripts. as zielinski (2006) proposed “[t]he listeners appear to rely on the syllable stress patterns in the speech signal to identify the speaker’ intended words” (p. 22). another limitation is that context clues might have been used to understand some words, despite instructions given to the raters to write the words verbatim as they heard them even if it did not make sense. in future work, an acoustic analysis of participants’ pronunciation data would also enhance reliability. therefore, these findings point to the need for further studies in relation to the effects of open syllables on efl speakers’ intelligibility intelligibility of vietnamese speakers of english e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 40 and linked pronunciation instruction beyond individual sounds and words in vietnam and other asian countries. references anderson-hsieh, janet, & koehler, kenneth (1988). the effect of foreign accent and speaking rate on native speaker comprehension. language learning, 38(4), 561-613. avery, peter, & ehrlich, susan (1992). teaching american english pronunciation. oxford, united kingdom: oxford university press. benrabah, mohamed (1997). word-stress: a source of unintelligibility in english. international review of applied linguistics in language teaching journal, 35(3), 157-166. berends, mark (2006). survey methods in educational research. in judith l. green, gregory camilli, patricia b. elmore (eds.), handbook of complementary methods for research in education (pp. 623-640). mahwah, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates publishers. binghadeer, nero (2008). an acoustic analysis of pitch range in the production of native and nonnative speakers of english. the asian efl journal quarterlys, (10)4, 96-113. bui, hang (2004). teaching speaking skills at a vietnamese university and recommendations for using cmc. the asian efl journal. retrieved from https://www.asian-efl-journal.com/1871/teachingarticles/teaching-speaking-skills-at-a-vietnamese-university-and-recommendations-for-using-cmc/. burda, angela, scherz, julie, hagerman, carlin, & edwards, harold (2003). age and understanding of speakers with spanish or taiwanese accents. perceptual and motor skills, 97(1), 11-20. celce-murcia, marianne, brinton, donna, & goodwin, jannet (1996). reference for teachers of english to speakers of other languages. cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. cooksey, ray (2007). illustrating statistical procedures. armidale, australia: tilde university press. cox, felicity, & harrington, jannet (2009). phonetics and phonology. sydney, australia: macquarie university. creswell, john (2008). educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. upper saddle river, new jersey: pearson. cunningham, una (2009). phonetic correlates of unintelligibility in vietnamese accented english fonetik. deptartment of linguistics, stockholm university. retrieved from http://www2.ling.su.se/fon/ fonetik_2009/108%20cunningham_fonetik2009.pdf. cunningham, una (1998). improving adult efl learners’ pronunciation skills. eric. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed427553.pdf. dang, tien (2014). an inquiry into the impact of the mother tongue on vietnamese adult efl learners’ speech intelligibility with reference to syllable structure. unpublished doctoral dissertation. griffith university, nathan queensland, australia. dang, tien (2006). spoken english for vietnamese learners. ho chi minh city, vietnam: tre publishing house. dang, tien (1998). phonetic changes and phonological rules. ho chi minh city, vietnam: tre publishing house. derwing, tracey, & munro, murray (1997). accent, intelligibility, and comprehensibility: evidence from four l1s. studies in second language acquisition, 19(1), 1-16. doan, thuat (1999). ngữ âm tiếng việt. 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(2006). a phono-numerical measure: english phonological intelligibility [pdf document]. national yunlin university of science and technology, city, taiwan. retrieved from http://teacher.yuntech.edu.tw/yanght/cv/phono-measure-reference.pdf. zhang, jialu (1996, october). on the syllable structures of chinese relating to speech recognition. paper presented at international conference on spoken language processing. philadelphia, pennsylvania. zielinski, beth (2006). the intelligibility cocktail: an interaction between speaker and listener ingredients. prospect, 21(1), 22-45. dang e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 43 appendix a pronunciation test text (from scovell, pastellas, & knobel, 2007) we’ve all known students who’ve had a good understanding of the subject material yet failed exams or performed well-below expectations. likewise, we’ve known students that have, for all intents and purposes, done very little work and passed with flying colours. often these results can be put down to one thing – stress or a lack of it. don’t underestimate the importance that stress plays in exam performance. with any exam, you should front up feeling confident, comfortable and organized. rightly or wrongly, exams in effect, not only test your academic ability, they assess your frame of mind and your skill to perform under pressure. we all recognise that stress affects us physically – i’m sure you’ve all experienced an increased pulse, or sweaty hands or underarms, or shortness of breath when placed in a stressful situation. sleeplessness can also be a problem around exam time. the most effective way to manage these physiological reactions is through controlled breathing – which we’ll practise later. psychologically, stress affects the way you think. for an exam you need to think rationally, particularly after you read an exam paper which you know nothing about is very hard to do2. otherwise, stress can make you panic. look at the question calmly and rationally and dissect the question. and let’s face it, even if you haven’t prepared well enough, you’ll still need to think rationally in order to do your best under those very trying circumstances! don’t rely on what other students tell you about the time they allocate to study. the reports we have had over the years have been ridiculously overestimated and underestimated. we’re all different, so it stands to reason that the time we need to allocate to study will be different! generally speaking, for every hour of lectures you attend, you will need another hour of follow-up or research work if you want to achieve good grades. end of the pronunciation test total of words: 312 including 496 syllables 2 transcribed verbatim from scovell, pastellas, & knobel (2007). intelligibility of vietnamese speakers of english e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 44 appendix b individual participant error counts errors related to the application of the vietnamese open syllable in production of english closed syllable participant total errors (out of 70 test words) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 4.00 6.00 9.00 4.00 6.00 5.00 12.00 6.00 7.00 4.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 6.00 9.00 8.00 10.00 11.00 11.00 7.00 5.00 7.00 6.00 8.00 8.00 9.00 9.00 10.00 5.00 6.00 6.00 5.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 6.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 13.00 5.00 5.00 9.00 9.00 9.00 9.00 6.00 5.00 5.00 4.00 dang e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 27-45 45 tien ngoc dung dang, griffith university socialeducationalresearch@gmail.com en tien ngoc dung dang obtained a doctor of education degree in 2014 from griffith university, where he was also granted the griffith university international postgraduate research scholarship and the griffith university postgraduate research scholarship in 2011. in 2013, he was awarded the post submission pre-award publication scholarship by griffith institute for educational research, griffith university. dang’s expertise lies in the field of phonetics and phonology, english language teaching, and the vietnamese language. he is also interested in second language writing and has authored several english textbooks that are currently held in university and public libraries across vietnam. dang is now an independent researcher in lifelong learning & education, sociology, and buddhism, where he applies his research knowledge, experience, and skills toward discovering urgent social, linguistic, medical, and environmental issues in vietnam and to improving his community and country (vietnam). dang is the founder and manager of an organisation called the compassionate inclusive connection group (từ hòa-cicg). es tien ngoc dung dang obtuvo su doctorado en educación por la universidad de griffith en 2014, donde también recibió, en 2011, una beca internacional para estudios de posgrado e investigación (griffith university international postgraduate research scholarship) y una beca propia para estudios de posgrado e investigación (griffith university postgraduate research scholarship). asimismo, en 2013 le fue concedida una beca de publicación posdoctoral por el griffith institute for educational research. las áreas de especialidad de dang incluyen la fonética y la fonología, la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa y el idioma vietnamita. su interés gira también en torno a la expresión escrita en segundas lenguas, y ha publicado varios libros de texto en inglés disponibles actualmente en las bibliotecas públicas y universitarias de todo vietnam. dang desarrolla hoy una labor investigadora independiente tanto en educación y aprendizaje permanente como en sociología y budismo, aplicando sus conocimientos, experiencia y habilidades de investigación en la detección de problemas sociales, lingüísticos, médicos y ambientales de carácter urgente en vietnam, lo que contribuye a mejorar su comunidad y su país. dang fundó y dirige actualmente una organización llamada compassionate inclusive connection group (từ hòa-cicg). it tien ngoc dung dang ha ottenuto nel 2014 il dottorato in pedagogia presso la griffith univeristy, dove ha vinto due borse di studio nel 2011, la griffith university international postgraduate research scholarship e la griffith university postgraduate research scholarship. nel 2013 ha ottenuto la post-submission pre-award publication scholarship del griffith institute for educational research. i suoi campi di specializzazione sono la fonetica e la fonologia e l’insegnamento della lingua inglese e della lingua vietnamita. si interessa anche di scrittura di parlanti non nativi ed è autore di diversi manuali di inglese presenti nelle università e nelle biblioteche pubbliche del vietnam. oggi è un ricercatore indipendente di formazione e istruzione permanente, sociologia e buddismo, campi in cui mette a frutto il suo sapere, la sua esperienza e le sue abilità per scoprire questioni urgenti di natura sociale, linguistica, medica e ambientale in vietnam e per migliorare le condizioni del suo paese e della sua comunità. dang è fondatore e amministratore di un’organizzazione chiamata compassionate inclusive connection group (từ hòa-cicg). 1. introduction figure 3. vietnamese vowels shared and unshared by the english language (dang, 2014) figure 4. transfer between l1 and l2 impacts intelligibility 6.1. participants 6.3. data collection 6.4. data analysis 7.1. seventy test words in the pronunciation test 7.2. cvl word and polysyllabic word errors caused by the application of open syllable structure 7.2.1. cv to cvl table 3 7.2.2. cv to polysyllabic words table 4 references bui, hang (2004). teaching speaking skills at a vietnamese university and recommendations for using cmc. the asian efl journal. retrieved from https://www.asian-efl-journal.com/1871/teaching-articles/teaching-speaking-skills-at-a-vietnamese-university... appendix a appendix b euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 5, issue 1, august 2018, 1-26 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.128 © escalante 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening among l2 and heritage speakers in coastal ecuador chelsea escalante* university of wyoming received 22 february 2018; received in revised form 21 may 2018; accepted 29 june 2018 abstract en this investigation lies at the intersection of second language acquisition (sla), sociophonetic variation, and speech perception. specifically, it investigates the perception of coda /s/-aspiration (producing disco as [dih.ko]), a dialectal feature characteristic of guayaquileño (coastal ecuadorian) spanish, among 14 young-adult english speakers who travel to ecuador. the study investigates the participants’ ability to perceive an aspirated variant as a legitimate /s/ over time as they are further exposed to the local variety. it also explores the linguistic and extralinguistic factors that play a role in the perception of the variable such as phonological context of /s/, proficiency level, and individual differences in experience with /s/-weakening dialects. results suggest that most learners are able to acquire new mappings within their interlanguage phonological system. however, results vary according to proficiency, phonological context of /s/, and at the individual level. the results also suggest that gains in sociolinguistic competence can be seen in terms of perception (as opposed to only in learner production), which underscores the necessity to include perceptual studies in future research in variationist sla. key words: second language acquisition, perception, dialectal variation es este estudio se enmarca en la adquisición de segundas lenguas, la variación sociofonética y la percepción del habla. más concretamente, investiga la percepción de la aspiración de /s/ en posición final de sílaba (la producción de disco como [dih.ko]), un rasgo dialectal característico del español guayaquileño (de la costa de ecuador), por 14 jóvenes adultos de habla inglesa que viajaron a ecuador. el estudio analiza la habilidad de los participantes de percibir la variante aspirada como /s/ con el paso del tiempo y una mayor exposición a la variedad local. explora, además, los factores lingüísticos y extralingüísticos que afectan la percepción de la variable, como, por ejemplo, el contexto fonológico de /s/, el nivel de dominio del idioma y las diferencias individuales relacionadas con la exposición previa a dialectos con un debilitamiento de /s/. los resultados sugieren que la mayoría de los aprendientes son capaces de adquirir nuevas correspondencias dentro del sistema fonológico de su interlingua; sin embargo, muestran mucha variación individual, relacionada con el nivel de dominio de la lengua y el contexto fonológico de /s/. los resultados sugieren, además, que las mejoras en la competencia sociolingüística de los aprendientes pueden analizarse en términos de percepción y no solamente producción, hecho que destaca la necesidad de incluir estudios perceptivos en las investigaciones futuras de la variación en el ámbito de la adquisición de segundas lenguas. palabras clave: adquisición de segundas lenguas, percepción, variación dialectal it questo studio si pone all'incrocio tra acquisizione di seconde lingue, variazione sociofonetica e percezione del linguaggio. in particolare, indaga la percezione di /s/ aspirata in posizione finale di sillaba (la produzione di disco come [dih.ko]), una caratteristica dialettale dello spagnolo guayaquileño (della costa dell’ecuador) da parte di 14 giovani inglesi che sono andati in ecuador come volontari. lo studio indaga la capacità dei partecipanti di percepire la variante aspirata come /s/ non aspirata in relazione al passare del tempo e a una maggiore esposizione alla varietà locale. esplora, inoltre, i fattori linguistici ed extralinguistici che giocano un ruolo nella percezione della variante, come il contesto fonologico di /s/, il livello di competenza linguistica e le differenze individuali basate sull’esposizione a dialetti con indebolimento di /s/. i risultati suggeriscono che la maggior parte degli studenti è in grado di acquisire nuove mappature nel sistema fonologico della loro interlingua. tuttavia, i risultati variano a livello individuale e in base alla competenza linguistica e il contesto fonologico di /s/. i risultati indicano anche che il miglioramento della competenza sociolinguistica degli studenti può essere analizzato in termini di percezione e non solo di produzione sottolineando la necessità di includere studi percettivi nella ricerca variazionista nell’ambito dell’acquisizione di seconde lingue. parole chiave: aqcuisizione di seconde lingue, percezione, variazione dialettale * contact: cescalan@uwyo.edu http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.8.128 escalante 2 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 1. introduction variationist approaches to second language acquisition (sla) have gained influence in recent years, in part due to their ability to offer quantitative analyses of the interlanguage system using statistical tools that are capable of examining the complex relationships between a wide range of linguistic and social variables (bayley & tarone, 2012). these studies are valuable to the field of sla because they are able to take into account that the linguistic systems of second languages (l2s), like first languages (l1s), are (1) rule-governed, (2) undergo change, and (3) are impacted by social factors (gudmestad, 2014, p. 81). first applications of the variationist paradigm to sla (e.g. adamson & kovac, 1981; dickerson, 1974; ellis, 1987; tarone, 1988; young, 1991), later called type 1 variation by mougeon, nadasdi, and rehner (2004), focused on interlanguage alternations between native-like and non-native-like variants (using monolingual norms as the baseline), or between more than one non-native variant, such as a learner’s use of *do you ate the sandwich? vs. did you drink the milk?. studies in type 2 variation, which emerged a few years later (e.g. adamson & regan, 1991; bayley, 1996; major, 2004), were concerned with the alternation of non-categorical structures according to native speaker (ns) patterns (sociolinguistic variation). examples of this type of variation among learners of spanish would include copula contrast, subject expression, or weakening of coda /s/. the goal of many of these type 2 studies is to measure the sociolinguistic competence of l2 speakers, or their knowledge of the sociocultural norms of language and of discourse, vis-a-vis the use of a sociolinguistic variable. this type of competence requires an understanding of the social context in which language is used: the roles of the participants, the information they share, and the functions of the interaction (muniandy, nair, krishnan, ahmad, & noor, 2010). the very definition of the sociolinguistic variable, which was originally termed as two or more ways of saying the same thing (labov, 1972) and later broadened to include two or more ways of expressing the same function, suggests that sociolinguistic competence involves not only the ability to use target-language patterns of variation, but also the competence to realize that the variants in question are mapping to the same variable (i.e. that máø, máh, and más all mean the same thing). despite the fact that sociolinguistic competence must involve the ability to comprehend the variable in question, thus far, nearly all of the sociolinguistic studies of sla have measured how speakers produce variable forms. a handful of studies have explored how l2 speakers perceive sociolinguistic variants, but significantly more work in this area is necessary to understand how these speakers process multiple forms and create associations between variants. as such, the goal of the current study is two-fold: first, it seeks to determine through a multivariate analysis the factors constraining learner perception of a highly frequent variable form in spanish: coda /s/-weakening; second, it suggests that sociolinguistic competence can and should be measured not only in terms of how learners produce variable forms but also how they perceive and process such forms. in this study, /s/-weakening was chosen for several reasons. first, few topics in spanish sociolinguistics have received as much attention as syllable-final /s/-weakening (i.e. brown, 2008; bybee, 2002; erker & otheguy, 2016; file-muriel, 2007; lafford, 1986; lipski, 1985; 1999; poplack, 1986; terrell, 1978; 1979, among others). as such, there is plenty of information available as to the linguistic and social factors that constrain the production of the variable that can be used as a point of comparison in studies of perception. secondly, due to its extensive social and geographic variability in the spanish-speaking world, it is likely that l2 speakers will come in contact with the variable at some point during their acquisitional journey. because of that likelihood, it is important to understand how learners acquire the sociolinguistic competence to map weakened forms to /s/ – how they come to understand, for example, that máø, máh, and más all carry the same function. third, coda /s/ carries significant morphological information in spanish, increasing the necessity for learners to accurately interpret it. fourth, whereas other sociolinguistic variables are quite salient and arguably easier for learners to notice (tú/voseo, copula contrast, argentine sheísmo, and the use of θ in spain), /s/-weakening can be characterized as a less salient variable that is both difficult for learners to comprehend (trimble, 2011) and also requires a re-mapping of the l1 english phonological system which typically does not allow for aspiration or deletion of syllable-final sibilants, except for in the case of inflectional /s/ in some english dialects. this study is based on data collected from a group of 14 young adults (all l1 speakers of english) from distinct parts of the united states who travel to guayaquil, ecuador to work as long-term volunteers for a humanitarian non-governmental organization (ngo) for a period of twelve months. it explores the volunteers’ perception of /s/-weakening in a longitudinal manner, quantitatively measuring their ability to map [h] to /s/ via a perception task at six different intervals throughout their year in ecuador. data was ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 3 submitted for multivariate analysis to rbrul (johnson, 2009) to measure the relative strength of factors influencing the participants’ ability to perceive [h] as a legitimate variant of /s/. 2. background and motivation 2.1. status of /h/ and /s/ in english and spanish although perhaps best described as a sub-segmental gradient phenomenon (erker, 2010), most research on spanish /s/-weakening has used a tri-part labeling system – retention [s], aspiration [h], or deletion [ø]– to distinguish between the innumerable phonetic manifestations of /s/ (lafford, 1986). english has a phoneme /h/ (as in house) that is traditionally described as a voiceless glottal fricative, similar to the aspirated variant of /s/ in spanish, [h]. however, although there are similarities between english /h/ and spanish [h], the two phones differ in terms of the syllable position in which it occurs (and is contrastive) as well as the phonemes to which [h] is associated (schmidt, 2011, pp. 19-20). in english, /h/ is contrastive in syllable-initial position (house/mouse, hot/ought), but is not found in coda position, while spanish [h] is not contrastive and, with the exception of some dialects, appears in syllable-final position. since glottal fricatives do not occur in coda position in english, it may be the case that l1 english speakers do not perceive the aspirated variant in spanish, at least at the beginning stages of acquisition (schmidt, 2011, p. 20). in spanish, [h] is an allophone of /s/, but in english, [h] typically does not appear as a surface representation of the english phoneme /s/. as schmidt (2011, p. 21) states, in order to perceive /s/-weakening, not only do l1 english l2 spanish speakers “need to acquire the perception of a phonetically similar sound in a new phonetic context, [but] they must also come to recognize [h] as a legitimate variant of a different phonemic category, /s/”. figure 1 illustrates the variability of /s/-production within a single phrase extracted from an interview of a ns of coastal ecuadorian spanish. in this phrase, las personas ‘the people’, the first coda /s/ is weakened, visible by the shorter duration of the frication segment and lack of concentrated high frequency energy on the spectrogram. in personas, coda /s/ is retained, visible by the longer duration and concentrated high frequency frication. thus, an l1 english l2 spanish speaker hearing this utterance would need to acquire the perception of [h] in a new context (syllable-final) while realizing that [h] pertains to /s/ instead of /h/. figure 1. coastal ecuadorian ns producing las personas (the people) escalante 4 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 2.2. previous studies on the production of /s/-weakening although there has been very little research on /s/-weakening among l2s and hlls, this topic has been studied prolifically among nss. most research has shown that the main linguistic factor that constrains /s/-lenition within a given speech community and speech style is following phonological context. according to lipski (1999), at the first stage of weakening, /s/ is produced as the glottal fricative [h] before a consonant both within and between word boundaries (las mesas [lah mé.sas] ‘the tables’, hasta [áh.ta] ‘until’) but retains its sibilance and is produced as [s] phrase-finally and before vowels1. in the second stage, syllable-final /s/weakening extends to all syllable-final contexts, including phrase-final (vamos [bá.moh] ‘let’s go’), while retaining word-final prevocalic /s/ as [s] (es así [es a.sí] ‘that’s how it is’). in the third stage, weakening advances to include word-final prevocalic /s/, and in the fourth stage of /s/-lenition, all word-final sibilants are realized as [h], regardless of the nature of a following segment (p. 198). lipski also hypothesizes that speakers that aspirate or delete in one of the latter contexts will also lenite in the former contexts. large-scale empirical studies such as those of file-muriel (2007) and terrell (1978) on colombian and caribbean varieties of spanish, respectively, as well as small-scale work on coastal ecuadorian spanish (escalante, 2016) have shown phonological context to be a robust predictor of /s/-weakening, with pre-consonantal contexts generally favoring lenition more so than pre-vocalic and pre-pausal contexts. a second linguistic factor that has been found to constrain /s/-weakening is lexical frequency. exemplar theory and usage-based phonology typically claims that high-frequency lexical items undergo regular sound change at an accelerated rate compared to low-frequency words2. using data from argentine and cuban spanish (terrell, 1979), bybee (2000) argued for a usage-based approach to /s/-lenition, suggesting that if usage affects stored representation and if twice as many tokens begin with a consonant than with a vowel, phonetic changes conditioned by a following consonant will also take place at a word-boundary, though at a slower rate than word internally where the environment does not alternate. brown (2008) explored word-internal and word-final /s/ reduction in three dialects of spanish (cali, colombia, mérida, venezuela, and san juan, puerto rico) and found that high-frequency words significantly conditioned final /s/ reduction in dialects with lower rates of overall reduction (cali, colombia and mérida, venezuela), but not in dialects with higher rates of reduction (san juan, puerto rico). file-muriel (2009) has also shown frequency to be a significant predictor of weakening in colombian spanish as has fox (2006) in several latin american dialects. other research, on the other hand, has called into question the degree to which frequency has been claimed to affect variation (abramowicz, 2007; bayley, 2014; bayley, greer, & holland, 2017; labov, 2010; martínez-sanz & van herk, 2013; tamminga, 2014). bayley (2014) has shown that frequency has at most a minimal effect in cases of stable variation and claims that the “absence of consistent effects for frequency in the variables suggests that the role of frequency in language variation and change has been considerably overestimated.” in support of this line of research, lexical frequency was not found to be a significant predictor of /s/-weakening in a small pilot study of coastal ecuadorian spanish (escalante, 2016). a number of studies on coda /s/ have also found prosodic stress to influence lenition. brown and cacoullos (2003), poplack (1980), and terrell (1978) have all found higher rates of weakening in unstressed environments. in coastal ecuadorian spanish, stress was found to be a significant predictor of weakening in spectral terms (center of gravity [cog]) but not in temporal terms (frication duration)3. like in previous research, unstressed syllables demonstrated a lower cog (mean = 1556hz) than stressed (mean = 1726hz) (escalante, 2016). lastly, the number of syllables in a word has been found to influence lenition in a number of studies across several geographic regions. lipski (1984), barrutia and terrell (1982), cepeda (1995), lafford (1989), and terrell (1978) have all found evidence of higher degree of /s/-maintenance in monosyllabic words than polysyllabic words. in coastal ecuadorian spanish (escalante, 2016), the same pattern was found, but only for cog; as the number of syllables increased, cog decreased by 118.003hz. the number of syllables was not found to be a significant predictor of weakening in temporal terms, however. 1 this is typically considered a product of sinalefa (linking), or the tendency for prevocalic coda /s/ to be resyllabified to the onset of the following syllable. 2 although this is generally true, according to bybee (2007), high frequency can also have a conserving effect. bybee (2007, p. 29) uses the examples of low-frequency past tense verbs with a lax vowel such as lept, wept, and dreamt tend to be regularized to *leaped, *weeped, and *dreamed more so than their high-frequency counterparts slept, left and kept (rarely regularized to *sleeped,* leaved, and *keeped). 3 cog measures the frequency at which sonic energy is maximally concentrated (erker, 2010). there is more evidence of /s/-weakening as measurements of cog and frication duration decrease. ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 5 within spanish-speaking communities, in addition to the linguistic constraints mentioned above, variation in the distribution of /s/ has also been explained in terms of varying sociolinguistic characteristics of the speakers, such as socioeconomic status and education level, age, gender, and whether the speaker resides in an urban or rural location (file-muriel & brown, 2011). aspiration and deletion are generally considered markers of social class, with upper-class and more-educated speakers tending towards less weakening, while lower-socioeconomic class and less-educated speakers favor more lenition (lafford, 1986; terrell, 1981). the more advanced stages of /s/-weakening in a particular dialect are also typically found to a greater extent in the speech of males and speakers from lower socioeconomic levels, while females and speakers from higher socioeconomic levels tend to favor less-advanced stages or full sibilance (dohotaru, 2004; ruíz-sanchez, 2004). one notable exception to these patterns was found in the work of carvalho (2006) who found that on the uruguayan-brazilian border, /s/-aspiration is found to be a prestige marker, rather than a stigmatized variant, used as a result of a desire to accommodate more closely to the speech of montevideo. 2.3. previous studies on the perception of /s/-weakening perceptual studies relating to spanish coda /s/ are far more rare than production studies, both for ns as well as for l2 listeners. regarding how nss process /s/-weakening, figueroa (2000) and hammond (1978) found that nss of caribbean varieties were able to distinguish between word-internal /s/-elision and complete absence of /s/ (as in pastilla [paø.tí.ʝa] ‘pill’ versus patilla [pa.ti.ʝa] ‘sideburn’), but were not able to distinguish between elided-/s/ and no /s/ in word-final position (as in hagas [á.ɣaø] versus haga [á.ɣa]), highlighting the degree of difficulty that even nss face when perceiving /s/-weakening in isolated words with little to no contextual clues. a few studies have looked at the perception of ns /s/-weakening by l2 listeners, some focusing solely on /s/-weakening and others focusing on the comprehensibility of a specific dialect that contains /s/weakening along with other sociolinguistic variables. schmidt (2009) explored gains made in comprehension of dominican spanish among 11 adult learners over the course of a three-week stay in the dominican republic, measuring how l2s progressed in their comprehension of four local features: /s/-weakening, intervocalic /d/-weakening, lambdacism (variation between syllable-final liquids /ɾ/ and /l/), and /n/velarization. participants did improve their global comprehension abilities over the course of the stay, yet deletion of coda /s/ and lambdacism was found to impede comprehension to a greater extent than did deletion of word-final /d/ or /n/-velarization, suggesting that different phonological features of dominican spanish have different effects on the comprehension of the dialect. studying the effect of phonetics training on dialect comprehension, rasmussen & zampini (2010) explored how l2 speakers improved their comprehension of andalusian spanish (a dialect characterized by /s/-weakening, among other features) with and without explicit training on the target dialect. the authors found significant rates of improvement in comprehension of weakened /s/ after exposure; however, the difference in improvement between the control group and the experimental group did not reach statistical significance, therefore not supporting the hypothesis that explicit instruction aids in the ability to comprehend /s/-weakening. schmidt (2011) examined how 47 nss of spanish from aspirating and non-aspirating dialects and 215 english-speaking learners of spanish with varying experience with the target language (tl) identified and processed tokens of syllable-final, word-internal aspirated /s/. specifically, she found that the l2 learners demonstrated development in the perception of the dialectal feature, with identification of aspiration as a variant of /s/ first emerging at the intermediate-low level. by the most advanced levels, l2 learners showed native-like patterns of perception of the aspirated variant. the location of study abroad experience was found to play a significant role in perception of the aspirated /s/, with greater acceptance of the aspirated variants as legitimate forms of spanish /s/ among those learners with prior experience in /s/-weakening regions. george (2014) investigated l1 english speakers’ perception of /s/-weakening in beginning, intermediate-low, and advanced spanish courses in order to determine if and how l2 spanish learners perceived /s/-weakening. results indicated that learners of spanish do perceive /s/-weakening, but the extent of this perception varies based on the level of the spanish course, with advanced learners perceiving aspiration more than beginning learners. she also found that learners most often associated aspiration with nothing (i.e. processing pa[h]ta as pata rather than pasta). escalante 6 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 lastly, bedinghaus (2015) studied the perception of /s/-weakening among students sojourning in andalusia (an /s/-weakening region) and at-home learners, finding that abroad learners were more successful at perceiving weakened variants than their peers at home. 2.4. heritage language learners and dialectal variation often the prototypical heritage language learner (hll) is conceived as an individual whose parents are first-generation immigrants and nss of the heritage language (hl). the hll then grows up in an environment where the minority language is spoken in the home by both parents and the majority language (english, in the context of the united states) is used in public spaces and eventually becomes the dominant language of the hll. as potowski (2013, p. 405) explains, the primary distinguishing factor between l2s and hlls of spanish in the united states is that hlls are exposed to spanish starting at birth from their family members, while l2 speakers typically acquire the language later and in a classroom environment, while the primary differentiating factor between hlls and “homeland” speakers (or nss) is that hlls “spend a portion of their prime language-learning years immersed in an english-speaking environment” (p. 405). she explains that hlls generally receive input in spanish in the home, sometimes exclusively, but sometimes combined with exposure to english until they enter preschool or kindergarten. upon entering school, then, the amount of english input increases drastically, while spanish typically remains confined to the domestic and community domains, resulting in hlls typically not having “the same exposure to the wide variety of linguistic and social experiences that a homeland speaker [does], usually resulting in a different linguistic system” (p. 405). yet despite these common traits, most scholars of hl linguistic systems agree that there is great heterogeneity among individuals categorized as hlls. according to potowski (2013), these individuals can vary along the following five dimensions, some of which overlap in different ways: historical (generation of immigration), linguistic (age of onset of bilingualism, domains of language use, and level of prestige of variety), educational (extent of formal education in spanish), affective (learner identity), and cultural (family practices, maintenance, and use). compared to research on the adoption of variable features by l2 speakers, there is relatively little information regarding how hlls encounter new dialects in immersion contexts. unlike l2s, who enter an immersion zone as newcomers, hlls who participate in immersion experiences in their ancestral country (or even region) of origin may already have some degree of familiarity with the language and culture of the host country due to their family background (shively, 2016). also unlike l2 learners, hlls may have a personal connection to the host country or region and may choose that location in order to learn more about their cultural backgrounds or families (moreno, 2009; rubin, 2004; shively, 2016; van der meid, 2003). hlls are more likely to begin their immersion experience with stronger linguistic and cultural knowledge than l2 learners as well as greater familiarity with using their hl outside of the formal classroom setting (davidson & lekic, 2013; petrucci, 2007; potowski, 2002; 2013). however, it is suggested that hlls may encounter an even more complex dilemma in their experience with a secondary dialect than l2 speakers. first, since hlls often arrive to the immersion zone with an established home dialect, they may face conflicting desires to assert their identity as an hll of a particular background—maintaining their home-dialect features—and becoming an active participant in the target culture and acquiring/accommodating to new features. secondly, hlls must also navigate the social ramifications of the use of new features. since not all spanish dialects are of equal prestige, depending on the background of the hll, his/her home variety may be stigmatized in the immersion zone, causing him/her to potentially encounter linguistic discrimination (moreno, 2009; riegelhaupt & carrasco, 2000). thirdly, since hlls from the same ancestral background as the immersion zone are often positioned as members of the host culture, they may be held to monolingual norms, assumed to have insider cultural knowledge, and expected to behave according to the cultural expectations of the host country. if they do not meet these expectations, there may be negative consequences such as judgements of social error more so than their l2 peers (petrucci, 2007; shively, 2016). finally, in terms of perception, hlls may have to re-map an established phonological system which may in some ways be less malleable than an l2 system. in the case of /s/-weakening, speakers from a maintaining dialect may have difficulty perceiving variants ranging from [h]-ø as legitimate variants of /s/. to my knowledge, no research has systematically explored how hlls perceive and process dialectal phonological variation in spanish, though the work of kim (2012; 2015), has explored other phonological features of hll speech. her research on the perception of vot among hlls and nss of spanish found that hlls tended to perceive vot contrasts in voiceless stops similarly to spanish nss, even though they did not produce the contrasts as nss did (kim, 2012). kim (2015) investigated the perception of lexical stress in ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 7 spanish among different generations of hlls and suggests that speakers whose families have had a longer presence in the united states tend to pattern like nss of english while those with a shorter presence pattern more similarly to nss of spanish. 2.5. research questions the above-mentioned studies have offered valuable information regarding the perception of /s/weakening among l2s. the current study seeks to add to this foundation by exploring the perception of the variable in longitudinal terms at several intervals to understand the process of acquisition over time. it also considers /s/ at the four different phonological contexts rather than only in word-internal position as previous studies have done. lastly, it includes hlls in the participant pool and offers an analysis of the differences seen in their perception of /s/ as compared to that of l2 speakers. the study addresses the following research questions: 1. how do speakers of spanish as an l2 and as a hl perceive weakened forms of /s/? 2. what is the role of phonological context, time-in-country, proficiency, and individual differences in their ability to perceive aspirated variants as legitimate variants of /s/? 3. methods 3.1. participants as seen in table 1, the participant group was comprised of 14 full-time volunteers (9 females, 5 males) who ranged in age from 22-26 years. all were recent college graduates from different parts of the united states with varying degrees of experience in international travel as well as in spanish language proficiency. all had received some formal language instruction in spanish, but that training varied from 2-10 years. most had spent at least some time abroad in spanish-speaking countries, with four having four or more months of experience in another country via study abroad (3 participants) or permanent residence (1 participant). three participants were considered hlls: one participant was born in quito, ecuador (a widely /s/maintaining dialect) and lived there until age nine at which time he immigrated to sacramento, ca; one participant was half-colombian (her mother is from the /s/-conserving colombian highland region) and raised in new york; the third was unsure of her biological heritage because she was adopted, but she considers herself half-mexican (the maternal side of her adoptive family is of mexican descent) and she spoke some spanish at home, mainly with her grandmother who was a monolingual spanish speaker. the remaining eleven participants acquired spanish mainly in the classroom environment. based on their initial overall versant oral proficiency test scores4 and their context of learning, participants were grouped into four proficiency levels: novice-mid/high, intermediate-low, intermediate-mid, and hlls. 3.2. setting the participants’ volunteer year began in august of 2015 and concluded in the same month of 2016. upon arrival, the participants were split into two volunteer houses in two socioeconomically marginalized districts of guayaquil. participants worked in their communities in different educational and social work capacities during the day but their primary goal was to live in community, poverty, and solidarity alongside their neighbors. because of the outward focus of the organization, participants spent the majority of their time outside with spanish-speaking neighbors and co-workers. they returned to the volunteer houses in the evenings, where they typically spoke english, but also participated in neighborhood functions some evenings and nearly all weekends where they interacted with ecuadorians nearly exclusively in spanish. 4 the versant spanish test, which is based on levelt’s (1989) model of speech production, uses spoken prompts in spanish of nss from a variety of spanish-speaking countries to elicit oral responses from students. it has been tested for validity and correlates with other proficiency measures (pearson, 2011). this test was chosen because it provides nearly instantaneous, objective, reliable results regarding students’ abilities to speak and understand spoken spanish. escalante 8 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 table 1 participant background and language experience age sex hometown experience studying spanish experience in spanish-speaking countries other versant score novice-mid/high laura 26 f baltimore, md hs; 2-3 yrs. ps none did not retain language learned from college classes due to lack of practice outside of classroom 21 ethan 25 m harrisburg, pa ms, hs; 2-3 yrs. ps spain: 7d; ecuador: 18d* 24 tim 25 m walpole, ma hs; ≤ 1 yr. ps ecuador: 21d* 29 intermediate-low nicole 22 f canfield, oh es; ≤ 1 yr. ps dom. rep.: 10d; ecuador: 10d 37 cherise 22 f el paso, tx ms, hs; ≤ 1 yr. ps none grew up near u.s.-mexico border; spanish-speaking boyfriend 39 jack 22 m buffalo, ny es; 2-3 yrs. ps spain: 4m has learned most of his spanish through a study abroad/homestay in spain 41 intermediate-mid grace 22 f upper darby, pa hs; ≥ 3 yrs. ps ecuador: 10d worked in outreach to hispanic communities in philadelphia 49 rachel 22 f los angeles, ca ms, hs mexico: 10d; costa rica: 7d; spain: 5d 46 katie 22 f arlington, va es, ms, hs; ≥ 4 yrs. ps honduras: 3w; spain: 4m 46 daniel 22 m iowa city, ia hs; ≥ 4 yrs. ps spain: 1m; guatemala: 10d 49 sarah 25 f cleveland, oh es, ms, hs; ≥ 4 yrs. ps el salvador: 16d; ecuador: 8d; spain: 6w; peru: 10d has close friends who come to work in the u.s. each year from mexico 50 heritage language learners bianca 22 f los angeles, ca hs; ≤ 1 yr. ps mexico: 21d*; el salvador: 6d heritage speaker; adoptive family speaks some spanish at home; grandmother who only spoke spanish lived with family for ~10 years 58 amalia 22 f manhattan, ny hs; ≤ 1 yr. ps spain: 5m heritage speaker; mother (colombian) spoke to her only in spanish at home; also studied abroad in spain 68 gustavo 23 m quito, ecuador sacramento, ca es, ms, hs; ≤ 1 yr. ps ecuador: 9y; el salvador: 4.5m; dom. rep.: 10d; mexico: 10d; nicaragua: 10d; guatemala: 20d heritage speaker, born and raised in quito, ecuador for first 9 years; immigrated to california but spent summers in ecuador; mother is a ns of english 70 note. *non-consecutive. es=elementary school; ms=middle school; hs=high school; ps=post-secondary. ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 9 3.3. instrument the perception task analyzed how coda-aspirated variants in four phonological positions (v/s/c, v/s/#c, v/s/#v, and v/s/##) were perceived and associated with different spanish phonemes. following and expanding upon the work of schmidt (2011), a ns of an aspirating variety of spanish (cuban)5 was recorded producing aspirated /s/ in 56 nonce word pairs embedded in a carrier phrase (as well as 36 distractor pairs) in order to simulate aspiration occurring in natural speech. nonce words were chosen in place of real words to eliminate the possibility for participants to use their lexical knowledge to determine the status of /s/ and to avoid potential frequency effects. as schmidt (2011, p. 177) points out, “only through measures of perception in which listeners must rely solely on information in the speech signal (e.g., through the use of nonce words) can the perceptual linguistic system of the listener be accessed”. the nonce word carriers for the target stimuli (aspirated variants of coda /s/) were created based on the phonotactic patterns of word-internal coda sibilants in spanish. like schmidt (2011), the initial consonant of the target stimuli could be any legal spanish word-initial single consonant: voiced stop, voiceless stop, liquid, nasal, affricate, or fricative; however, initial /x/ was avoided in order to remove the possibility of syllables with two post-palatal fricatives. file-muriel (2007) found that in word-internal /sc/ sequences, coda /s/ is most frequently followed by a voiceless stop in spanish. in order to reflect this pattern, for the two /s/c sequences – wordinternal and word-final preconsonantal – only voiceless stops were included as possible consonants among the target stimuli. all nonce words were disyllabic or trisyllabic, composed of either cv or cvc syllables, and carried stress on the penultimate in order to control for stress. each case of aspiration recorded by the ns was confirmed audibly and visually on praat (boersma & weenick, 2017) by the absence of high frequency frication on the spectrogram and aperiodicity in the wave form. after recording, the nonce word pairs were extracted from the carrier phrase to eliminate phrasal level intonational patterns and randomized alongside the distractor pairs (see table 2 for a list of target stimuli). table 2 target stimuli for perception task by following phonological context v/s/c v/s/#c v/s/#v v/s/## baspe mergo defos cato nedos olmeda leste dicas gasco plache mincos pacho catus artoso bispa fepas lespo dacas pales queba fincos ibidas dasca delos lisco lepa nemos paluna bonas estano desto catis mesque demo bames pele noros utino fespe chercos nista cata mebas teno fapus anoda nosca poles sosca nergo fapes tinco peles egana despa docas disto pame bafos pile nechos higulo fiste tepos nasta deca nelos tabilo bafos homulo gaspo deros bisca mepa fapis quinsulo piles ulana mispo catos pispe deno boles terbo febas alcana nisque fergos tosque cate pules cudulos tebos upicha gosco nepos cospa lergo neros carpa nelos efarno pisque ducas desca pafo fincos porona rincos iluso chesto ponas to complete the perception task, participants listened to the series of nonce word pairs via a sound file played through an apple iphone with a head set. each nonce word pair was played twice. because /s/ appears in the first word of the pair for the v/s/c, v/s/#c, and v/s/#v contexts, but in the second word for the v/s/## contexts, sections 1-3 of the task asked participants to identify the first word while section 4 ask them to identify the second. participants selected the nonce word that they heard from the following options: 5 the researcher first recorded two different nss of coastal ecuadorian spanish producing the target stimuli with the intention of matching the dialect of stimuli to the input dialect of the participants. however, producing nonce words with intentional aspiration was extremely difficult for these nss and many words were produced with irregularities, both in the /s/ segment and in others. this may have been a result of /s/-weakening not being as widespread in coastal ecuador as in other regions of the spanish-speaking world as well as the variable being below the consciousness of many nss of this variety (escalante, 2016). due to the irregularities, the stimuli were not considered to be reliable and therefore an educated speaker of a cuban dialect, who was familiar with intentionally controlling /s/ through aspiration and maintenance, was asked to produce the stimuli. after careful examination of the spectrograms of nss of coastal ecuadorian spanish and of the stimuli produced by the cuban speaker, it is the opinion of the researcher that the process of aspiration is similar in temporal and spectral terms. escalante 10 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 (1) coda ‘s’; (2) no coda ‘s’; (3) coda ‘s’ plus an interchanging of two phonetically and perceptually similar sounds, represented by their graphemes p-b, t-d, c/qu-g, r-l, m-n, word-initial s-f; and (4) no coda ‘s’ plus an interchanging of two phonetically and perceptually similar sounds, represented by their graphemes p-b, t-d, c/qu-g, r-l, m-n, word-initial s-f. a fifth option, unsure, was also provided. for example, for stimulus baspe, listeners heard [báh.pe] and choose between baspe, bape, paspe, pape, and unsure. the perception task was administered for the first time one week prior to departure (interval 0) and then at five intervals in-country, each 8-10 weeks apart. this interval schedule was chosen in order to pinpoint if there was a certain window during the year of immersion where the greatest gains in perception were more likely to be seen, or if the process was more linear in nature, with participants showing improvement over time. 3.4. coding and analysis because the goal of the study was to measure how participants perceived coda /s/ and not necessarily how they perceived other consonants, perception of /s/ was coded as a binary variable: perceived or not perceived. if a participant chose the option with coda ‘s’ (baspe) or ‘s’ with one incorrect sound (paspe), it was coded as perceived. if the participant chose one of the other three options (bape, pape, or unsure), the token was coded as not perceived. the dependent variables were then coded for the factors seen in table 3. table 3 factor group and factors following phonological context word-internal preconsonantal word-final preconsonantal word-final prevocalic phrase final exposure6 pre-arrival post-arrival proficiency novice-mid/high intermediate-low intermediate-mid hll individual (random) participants 1-14 a total of 4,381 tokens were collected from the perception task which were then submitted for multivariate analysis using rbrul (johnson, 2009), a specialized application of logistic regression for sociolinguistic research that runs on r (r core team, 2013) and that allows the researcher to include continuous predictors such as exposure time and random effects such as individual7. rbrul results can be interpreted in a similar fashion to data of goldvarb (sankoff, tagliamonte, & smith, 2012). a centered factor weight between 0.0 and 0.5 indicates that the factor disfavors use of the variant that has been selected as the application value, with weights closer to 0 indicating a stronger disfavoring effect; a centered factor weight between 0.5 and 1.0 indicates that the factor favors use of the variant selected as the application value, with weights closer to 1 indicating a stronger favoring effect. rbrul also provides log odds, the natural logarithm for the odds of each factor, percentages, and numbers of tokens for each individual favor. the analysis provides significance levels of each individual factor group through a step-up, step-down procedure, excluding from the model those factor groups that fail to reach significance (bayley & holland, 2014, p. 394). 6 exposure was first run as a continuous factor, then as a fixed factor, then as a binary variable in an attempt to find the statistical model with the strongest explanatory effect. this is explained in more depth in the results section. 7 for further information regarding logistic regression analyses for sociolinguistic research, see bayley (2013). ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 11 4. results the goal of the multivariate analysis was to assess the linguistic and extralinguistic factors influencing participants’ ability to consider [h] a legitimate variant of /s/. of the four factors examined (phonological context, interval in-country, individual [random variable], and proficiency level), all factors were determined to be significant predictors except for proficiency level. in a secondary analysis that removed hlls, proficiency level was deemed a significant factor group. the results are provided in table 4. table 4 positive identification of /s/-weakening by factor group n tokens % identified as [s] log odds centered factor weight phonological context /s/c 1153 0.629 1.526 0.821 /s/#c 1153 0.382 0.247 0.561 /s/## 999 0.270 -0.376 0.407 /s/#v 1076 0.135 -1.396 0.198 exposure pre-arrival 735 0.178 -0.753 0.32 post-arrival 3646 0.398 0.753 0.68 participant gustavo (hll-ecua) 321 0.695 1.694 0.866 sarah (l2 int-high) 319 0.596 1.286 0.789 daniel (l2 int-high) 318 0.503 0.853 0.699 grace (l2 int-high) 320 0.466 0.592 0.654 rachel (l2 int-high) 317 0.457 0.514 0.648 katie (l2 int-high) 313 0.351 0.053 0.513 nicole (l2 int-low) 315 0.349 0.051 0.511 ethan (l2 nov.) 316 0.329 -0.029 0.479 jack (l2 int-low) 317 0.297 -0.373 0.431 laura (l2 nov.) 263 0.274 -0.39 0.409 cherise (l2 int-low) 316 0.266 -0.403 0.386 amalia (hll-col) 317 0.192 -0.774 0.275 bianca (hll-mex) 314 0.175 -1.056 0.250 tim (l2 nov.) 315 0.076 -1.957 0.109 proficiency* l2 novice 894 0.224 n/s n/s l2 intermediate-low 948 0.304 n/s n/s l2 intermediate-high 1587 0.475 n/s n/s heritage 952 0.356 n/s n/s note. centered input probability: 0.2. log likelihood: -2157.196. phonological context: p=3.49e-170. exposure: p=7.13e-43. participant: random, not tested. proficiency: p>0.05. *factor group insignificant at 0.05 level. 4.1. phonological context results suggest that phonological context plays an important role in the ability to map [h] to /s/. participants identified aspiration as /s/ most readily when it was followed by a consonant; within the two preconsonantal contexts, [h] was most often mapped to /s/ when it appeared in word-internal position (69.2%) as compared to word-final (38.2%). participants were less successful at perceiving an aspirated /s/ when it appeared in phrase-final position (27%) or word-final prevocalic position (13.5%). the centered factor weights of the statistical analysis mirror these findings, with the two preconsonantal contexts favoring positive identification of /s/ (0.821 for word-internal and 0.561 for word-final), prepausal /s/ slightly disfavoring identification (0.407), and prevocalic contexts strongly disfavoring it (0.198). not only was it easier for participants to perceive /s/ in the two preconsonantal contexts, but it was also where the most growth occurred between preand post-arrival rates (see table 5). pre-arrival, participants were relatively poor at perceiving /s/ across all phonological contexts, with perception rates clustered more closely to the mean (sd=9.798). however, over time there was significantly greater escalante 12 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 improvement in the two preconsonantal contexts as compared to the prevocalic and prepausal contexts, creating wider differences between the four factors (sd=23.757). table 5 perception rates by phonological context preand post-arrival phonological context pre-arrival perception rate post-arrival perception rate increase /s/c 23.8% 70.7% 46.9% /s/#c 20.2% 41.9% 21.7% /s/## 23.8% 27.7% 3.9% /s/#v 3.3% 15.5% 12.2% similar patterns emerge when examining cross-tabulations of individual performance over time for each phonological context (see figures 2-5). as seen in figure 2, for the /s/c context, there are large gaps between the preand post-arrival lines, indicating the greatest improvement in word-internal position, albeit not among all individuals. for the two outliers, gustavo and tim—the highest and lowest performers—there was almost no improvement between preand post-arrival. figure 3 indicates that for the /s/#c context, there is also significant improvement for most participants, though less so than for the word-internal context and excluding the three lowest-performing individuals (tim, bianca, and amalia) and the highest-performing individual (gustavo). as seen in figure 4, for the third context, prepausal /s/, there is largely static performance between preand post-arrival for all individuals except for the highest-performing individual (gustavo). this indicates that exposure to /s/-weakening dialects does not necessarily lead to increased comprehension in all phonological contexts. lastly, figure 5 illustrates that the prevocalic context was the most difficult context in which to perceive aspirated /s/ pre-arrival, but that there was some improvement after exposure. this improvement, however, was visible mainly among the top half of the perceivers. figure 2. percentage of positive identification of weakened /s/ by participant: /s/c context (*=hll) figure 3. percentage of positive identification of weakened /s/ by participant: /s/#c context (*=hll) 0 20 40 60 80 100 % id en tif ie d as /s / pre-arrival post-arrival 0 20 40 60 80 100 % id en tif ed a s / s/ pre-arrival post-arrival ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 13 figure 4. percentage of positive identification of weakened /s/ by participant: /s/## context (*=hll) figure 5. percentage of positive identification of weakened /s/ by participant: /s/#v context (*=hll) 4.2. exposure in general, participants made significant gains in their ability to perceive weakened forms of /s/ after exposure to the variable in ecuador. before arriving (interval 0), they were able to successfully map [h] to /s/ at a rate of 17.8% but by the first interval (roughly two months into their stay), their rate had increased to 39.6%. although it was hypothesized that participants would continue to make gains in their ability to perceive weakened /s/, after interval 1, perception largely leveled off. at interval 2, there was a slight increase to 40.6%, but after that, each successive interval witnessed fairly steady perception rates, concluding at 38.9% at the final interval. between intervals 1 to 5, the overall rate of perception did not change more than 1.7% (see table 6). table 6 perception of /s/-weakening by interval in-country interval in-country 0 1 2 3 4 5 percentage identified 17.8 39.6 40.6 39.4 40.4 38.9 as continuous factor (log odds) +1 0.096 as fixed effect (centered factor weight) 0.222 0.552 0.573 0.560 0.575 0.553 binary variable (centered factor weight) 0.32 0.68 note: as fixed effect: log likelihood= -2156.724. as binary variable: log likelihood= -2157.196. 0 20 40 60 80 100 % id en tif ie d as /s / pre-arrival post-arrival 0 20 40 60 80 100 % id en tif ie d as /s / pre-arrival post-arrival escalante 14 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 because it was hypothesized that participants would continue to improve in their ability to perceive and process /s/-weakening over time, the statistical analysis considered time in-country first as a continuous variable. however, the results of this analysis (+1 log odds=0.096) did not adequately reflect that there was not in fact a constant shift over time but rather one main jump followed by relative stability. to improve upon the model, next an analysis was run considering interval in-country as a fixed effect, with each interval representing a factor within the group. although this analysis was an improvement over the continuous one – with centered factor weights illustrating that interval 0 disfavors identification of /s/ whereas each of the remaining intervals are largely neutral with a slight preference toward positive identification – there was no evidence to suggest that perception varied enough between intervals 1-5 to necessitate a separation of those factors. as such, it was decided that in order to improve the model further, time in-country would be considered a binary variable: pre-arrival and post-arrival. this analysis was statistically as reliable as the fixed factor analysis8, had fewer degrees of freedom (df=3), and more accurately represented the data, illustrating through the centered factor weights that pre-arrival disfavored identification of [h] as /s/ (0.32) whereas post-arrival favored it (0.68). 4.3. individual in addition to following phonological context and time in-country, individual as a random effect was also a significant predictor of the ability to accurately perceive /s/-weakening. perception varied considerably between the individuals who mostand leastaccurately identified /s/, with the strongest individual perceiving aspiration at a rate of 69.5% and the weakest at 7.6% (see figure 6). centered factor weights ranged from 0.866 to 0.109, with the median weight nearly neutral at 0.495. data regarding years of spanish study and naturalistic exposure to the language through travel and contact with nss is included in the report of individual performance. figure 6. percentage of positive identification of weakened /s/ by individual: preand post-arrival seven participants had positive centered factor weights, meaning that they were more likely to identify aspirated variants as /s/ (see table 1 for details regarding participant background information). gustavo, the hll of highland ecuadorian descent (largely an /s/-conserving region), was the individual with the greatest overall rate of identification of /s/ (centered factor weight=0.866) as well as the individual with the highest versant oral proficiency score (70) of the participant pool. gustavo grew up in quito, ecuador for the majority of his childhood and at age 9 moved to sacramento, ca with his mother where he was mostly exposed to mexican spanish. in addition to learning spanish in a naturalistic environment as a child in ecuador, gustavo also studied the language once he moved to sacramento in elementary, middle, and high school as well as one year in college and had exposure to both /s/-weakening and /s/-maintaining dialects 8 as explained in bayley (2013), goodness of fit is measured by comparing the log likelihoods of the models, with those closer to zero being better fits than those further from zero. in this case, the difference in log likelihoods was 0.472 which is not statistically significant, suggesting that the binary model is as reliable as the fixed-factor model but with greater explanatory power because it more accurately reflects that there was only one main change in perception scores. 0 20 40 60 80 % id en tif ie d as /s / *hll pre-arrival post-arrival ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 15 through immersion trips to el salvador, the dominican republic, nicaragua, mexico, and guatemala. after gustavo, the next five individuals with the highest perception rates (sarah, daniel, grace, rachel, and katie), which ranged from 59.6% to 35.1%, were also the top five most proficient l2 speakers according to their versant scores. all of these intermediate-mid individuals had studied spanish for three to four years in high school and for four years in college (except for rachel) prior to the volunteer experience and had spent significant time with nss of spanish prior to arrival, either through immersion programs, civic engagement projects in latino communities in the united states, and/or friendships with local nss of spanish. the last individual to have a slightly positive centered factor weight (0.511) was nicole with a rate of positive identification of aspiration of 34.9%. the remaining seven individuals had centered factor weights between 0 and 0.5, meaning that they favored identification of [h] as ø. their rates of perception ranged from 32.9% to 7.6%. with the exception of the two heritage speakers (amalia and bianca), these individuals had fewer years of spanish instruction, lower proficiency levels, somewhat less experience abroad, and reported less contact with nss than the seven most accurate perceivers. the seven lower-performers reported between one to three years of spanish instruction at the undergraduate level but experience abroad varied significantly; cherise and laura reported none at all, bianca, ethan, and tim participated in short-term immersion experiences to /s/-weakening regions, jack and amalia spent one semester abroad in spain, and amalia and bianca spent time as children visiting family members in colombia and mexico, respectively, in addition to speaking spanish at home. 4.4. proficiency when the entire participant pool was included in the analysis, the factor group of proficiency level was not found to be a significant predictor of positive identification of /s/. however, after analyzing results at the individual level, it was clear that the three hlls did not exhibit similar patterns of perception; on one hand, gustavo perceived aspiration at the highest rate (69.5%) of all participants while amalia and bianca perceived only 19.2 and 17.5% of forms, respectively, the secondand third-lowest rates of the entire group. due to this lack of intra-group cohesion, a secondary analysis was run with the three hlls removed. in this analysis of only l2 speakers, proficiency level was found to be a significant predictor, with intermediate-high speakers favoring higher levels of accuracy (centered factor weight=0.697), intermediate-low speakers nearly neutral with a slight favoring of inaccuracy (0.427), and novice speakers favoring inaccuracy (0.327). the results are presented in table 7. table 7 rates of perception of /s/-weakening by proficiency level (l2 speakers only) proficiency n tokens % identified as [s] log odds centered factor weight intermediate-high 1587 0.475 0.833 0.697 intermediate-low 948 0.304 -0.110 0.472 novice 894 0.224 -0.723 0.327 note: p=0.00768. centered input probability: 0.17. log likelihood: -1727.426. taking into account proficiency level and time in-country, we see that the novice and intermediatelow groups arrived with similarly weak abilities to perceive coda aspiration, whereas the intermediate-high group arrived with significantly higher scores. over time, the intermediate-low group made the largest strides in perception of /s/ (improving their scores by 28%), followed by the intermediate-high group (24.6%) and lastly by the novice group (19.5%). these results are presented in table 8. table 8 rates of perception of /s/-weakening by time in-country and proficiency level (l2s only) proficiency pre-arrival rate (%) post-arrival rate (%) improvement (%) intermediate-high 27 51.6 24.6 intermediate-low 6.4 35.1 28.7 novice 6.3 25.8 19.5 escalante 16 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 5. discussion results of the multivariate analysis suggest that leaners’ ability to map aspirated variants to /s/ varies according to phonological context of the /s/ in question, learner exposure to the variable, individual learner differences, and for l2 speakers, proficiency level. each of these factors are discussed in the following sections. 5.1. phonological context the results of the statistical analysis suggest that aspiration in preconsonantal contexts is easier to perceive than in prevocalic or prepausal contexts. additionally, there was greater improvement over time in the two preconsonantal contexts than in the prevocalic or prepausal contexts, suggesting that increased exposure does not lead to improvement in the ability to perceive aspiration in all phonological contexts equally. these results are congruent to previous research (figueroa, 2000; hammond; 1978) which has also suggested that /s/-weakening is easier to perceive in preconsonantal contexts, and very difficult to perceive even for nss when presented in isolated words with little to no contextual clues. the relative difficulty that listeners face in perceiving weakened /s/ in prevocalic or prepausal positions as compared to preconsonantal may be attributed to a variety of factors. first, it may be a result of residing in a more open acoustic space. whereas a following consonant creates an occlusion behind the weakened /s/leaving a space-holder of sorts which signals to the listener that there is something that belongs there—when /s/ is followed by a pause or vowel, the weakened sound experiences gestural overlap with the following open vocalic space (in the case of vowels) or the following silence (in the case of pauses). these more open acoustic spaces may make it more difficult for the listener to perceive when weakened forms begin and end. secondly, listeners may pick up on enhanced acoustic cues available in the wordinternal context due to increased syllable duration. because the stimuli set was designed to replicate the most common /s/-patterns in spanish, word-internal preconsonantal [h] always occurs in the coda of a stressed syllable, while word-final [h] always occurs in the coda of an unstressed syllable. because stress tends to lengthen spanish syllables and the segments they contain (ortega-llebaria & prieto, 2007), listeners may be able to perceive the aspirated stimuli in stressed syllables better due to the longer cues to glottal frication that they hear as compared to those in the shorter, unstressed syllables. finally, it is possible that other cues might have aided listeners in perceiving preconsonantal [h] that are not possible in prepausal or prevocalic contexts, such as compensatory lengthening of the following onset consonant (hayes, 1989) or longer vot for voiceless stops—a phenomenon seen in andalusian spanish (gerfen, 2002; parrell, 2011; torreira, 2006; 2007, 2012). in that variety of spanish, which is characterized by widespread /s/-weakening, the compensatory lengthening of the dental stop combines with a change in the glottal gesture with respect to stop contact. this timing change increases the vot of the stop, producing a moment of voiceless postaspiration in the acoustic signal (bradley, 2014, p. 346). although no evidence of such post-aspiration was found in the stimuli, listeners may still display sensitivities to compensatory lengthening or vot changes in following consonants that are simply not possible in prevocalic or prepausal contexts. 5.2. exposure exposure was found to significantly constrain the variable, with pre-arrival scores unsurprisingly lower than post-arrival scores; however, the learners’ ability to consider [h] as a legitimate variant of /s/ did not progress in a linear fashion throughout their year in-country. instead, growth was clustered between intervals 0-1 and then remained relatively static for the remainder of the year. of the few studies that have investigated the perception of weakened /s/ among language learners, most are cross-sectional in nature (george, 2014; schmidt, 2011), which eliminates the possibility to measure individual gains over time. however, the two studies that have explored /s/-weakening perception longitudinally (rasmussen & zampini, 2010; schmidt, 2009) considered only two time points: pre-arrival and post-departure of short-term study abroad programs (6 weeks and 3 weeks, respectively). although they both found that time spent abroad in an /s/-weakening region facilitated an increased ability to perceive the variable, their methodology did not allow for the tracking of /s/ perception during participants’ time in-country. as such, it is unclear if they would have found similar patterns of initial gains followed by stability. one possible reason as to why participants in the current study made the greatest gains during the first 8-10 weeks but then remained relatively static throughout the rest of the year may be attributed to general tendencies in perceptual learning. in particular, research has suggested that “the bulk of perceptual ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 17 learning may actually take place fairly early in late-onset sla” (best & tyler, 2007, p. 21). but just how early is “fairly early”? according to flege & liu (2001) and jia, strange, wu, collado, & guan (2006), significant l2 perceptual learning has been observed in late learners after as little as 6-12 months of immersion in the tl, as compared to those with 0-6 months of experience, but that very little perceptual benefit seems to accrue from additional experience past that initial period for most late learners. additionally, no significant differences have been found between sla adults with 6-12 moths of experience and those with 1.5 years or more (aoyama, flege, guion, akahane-yamada, & yamada, 2004; jia et al., 2006; tsukada et al., 2005). these findings in some ways support the results seen in the current study, as they suggest that gains in perception are seen relatively early in sla learning. however, in the current study, the bulk of improvement is witnessed well before the 6-month mark, whereas in previous studies, the perceptual benefit was greatest between months 6-12. best and tyler (2007, p. 32) explain that when assessing changes in speech perception over learner development, “the passage of time is likely serving as a surrogate for the real underlying sources of influence”: the listener’s development in recognizing the structural and phonetic properties of their l1 and l2, along with “other individual and environmental factors that co-vary with their language development”. as such, further research on l2 perception in general and the perception of /s/-weakening in particular is needed to better understand what those individual and environmental factors may be that are influencing the processes of phonological re-mapping of /s/ categories. 5.3. individual to summarize the tendencies of the individuals with the highest perception scores, common among these top six /s/-perceivers were high proficiency ratings and reported interaction with nss of the tl for an extended period of time prior to the volunteer year either through living abroad, study abroad, or contact with immigrant communities. for all of the top six perceivers except for rachel, additional commonalities were more than two years of spanish instruction at the undergraduate level and experiences of two weeks or more with /s/-weakening dialects of spanish prior to the volunteer year either through naturalistic exposure, study abroad, and/or immersion experiences. lower-scoring individuals tended to have lower proficiency levels, less exposure to spanish through instruction, and less intense contact with nss with the exception of the two female hlls. as such, the results of this factor group align in some ways with those of previous studies (rasmussen & zampini, 2010; schmidt, 2011; trimble, 2011), which have suggested that the ability to perceive weakened /s/ are generally marked by language proficiency and study abroad participation and/or contact in the tl outside of class, especially in /s/-weakening regions. the results of the lower-scoring individuals, however, are problematic for the conclusions reached in previous studies. most important is that in previous studies, exposure to /s/-weakening dialects was linked to the ability to map [h] to /s/, whereas in this study, exposure to the variable was not enough to guarantee such mapping. although it is true that the pre-arrival perception scores were higher for those with more extensive previous contact with nss9, once in ecuador, the playing field was leveled; all participants, no matter their previous language experience, were exposed to /s/-weakening on a daily basis via interaction with locals at job sites, conversations with neighbors/community members, and the completion of everyday tasks such as buying groceries and navigating local transportation systems. despite this exposure, several individuals hardly improved at all over time (tim, bianca, amalia), suggesting that exposure alone is not sufficient to acquire the ability to perceive /s/-weakening. additionally, the results do not align in terms of increased proficiency favoring improved perception; the two female hlls, amalia and bianca, had the secondand thirdhighest proficiency scores of the participant pool but had the secondand thirdlowest rates of perception. 9 an important exception to this was jack, who spent one semester in sevilla, spain. this individual was ninth out of 14 in perception scores, even though he had spent the most time in an /s/-weakening region (pre-arrival) of any volunteer except for gustavo. although this individual expressed having a close relationship with his host family who communicated with him entirely in spanish, the experience did not translate into the ability to perceive weakened forms of /s/ without any contextual clues, as evidenced by the pre-arrival results. it also did not seem to allow him to improve at a rate significantly greater than his peers. schmidt (2011) found similar results among her participants whose exposure to /s/-weakening dialects came from western andalusia; she found that only four of the individuals who had experience abroad solely in /s/-weakening regions were not successful in identifying aspiration as /s/, but of those four, three had study abroad in andalusia. because that region is characterized by a different realization of weakened-/s/, a longer voice onset time (postaspiration) of the following voiceless obstruent, as in [mó.kha] (torreira 2006), she suggests that exposure to any form of syllablefinal /s/weakening may not transfer to the association of all other weakened variants with /s/, at least for some learners. escalante 18 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 based on these results, i argue that exposure to nss of spanish and to /s/-weakening varieties in particular is still an influencing factor in the ability to accurately perceive the variable, however, that a minimum proficiency level is required for exposure to have an effect. i also suggest that for hlls, long-time exposure to /s/-conserving dialects may block the ability to perceive /s/-weakening more so than for l2s. it is unclear at this time why that may be the case, especially considering that most research has shown that hlls tend to have a phonological advantage over l2s in production of the hl (chang, yao, haynes, & rhodes, 2011) and that even when hlls do not produce certain contrasts in the same way as nss, they do perceive it in the same way (see kim, 2012). it is possible that this phonological advantage may not extend to include a perceptual advantage in all cases, especially when new categories in new contexts must be created, meaning that the l2 interlanguage perceptual system may potentially be more malleable than that of hlls. however, there has been very little research on the sound system of hlls in general and even less on how hlls learn to re-map variable categories. as such, the results of this study support the call for future research in the area of perception of variable forms among hlls. 5.4. proficiency taking into consideration only the l2 speakers, the results of the proficiency factor group echo the findings of previous studies which have shown that greater language proficiency generally tends to translate into higher rates of /s/ perception. for example, in her study of l2 speakers at five different proficiency levels, schmidt (2011) found that perception of syllable-final [h] as /s/ did not emerge until level 3 and increased at each subsequent level. however, as schmidt (2011) points out, “it should be stressed that increased identification of coda [h] as ‘s’ is not due to greater proficiency in a second language per se, but rather may reflect several different factors that correlate with higher proficiency level (greater exposure)” (p. 154). as she explains, several factors are typically confounded with proficiency level. for example, in her study, higher proficiency speakers usually reported explicit linguistic knowledge and/or experiences in /s/weakening regions, while most lower level learners had not been abroad at all and had no linguistics training. she carefully states that although her data point to higher proficiency levels favoring more accurate identification of aspiration, it in no way seeks to claim that increased proficiency is the driving factor in acquisition of the dialectal variants, but rather that increased proficiency generally represents increased language exposure and linguistic knowledge (p. 154). she then asks a very important question: why do lower proficiency l2 speakers tend to be less accurate than their more proficient counterpartsconsistently mapping [h] to ø? she suggests that these learners may be relying on patterns from the phonological system already in place—their first language, english—which does not allow syllable-final /s/-weakening in standard dialects. thus, in english, any syllable-final [h] is simply noise in the signal; it is not a legitimate variant of /s/ and does not cue contrastive information. for example, l1 english speakers would not /duht/ to mean /dust/ (george, 2014, p. 98) and syllable-final aspiration in a word such as table [teih.bəl] would not provide new meaning as compared to [tei.bəl] (schmidt, 2011, p. 149). she states that novice and intermediate-low speakers may not have had sufficient (or any) input of these weakened forms to develop the new phonological patterns of the second language that would naturally occur with greater exposure to varieties outside of the classroom. additionally, she explains that even if l2 learners are exposed to instructors of /s/-weakening dialects inside the classroom, research has shown that these speakers may adjust their speech in the classroom toward a more /s/-conserving style (santilli, 1996) or may produce different forms of /s/-weakening other than aspiration which was the variant targeted in her study. although these factors likely play a role in the complicated relationship between proficiency and perception of weakened /s/, they do not have the explanatory power to account for all of the results of the current study. most important is the fact that schmidt’s (2011) cross-sectional study examined a wide range of students taking undergraduate spanish courses; naturally, some of these students had experience abroad but many did not. contrastingly, the current study examines only learners participating in a particular immersion experience in a particular region where the variable is present. thus, whereas schmidt is able to suggest that novice speakers largely do not have exposure to /s/-weakening which in turn contributes to their low perception rates, all of the participants of the current study were exposed to the variable for an entire year, but even so, the novice speakers were still successful in mapping [h] to /s/ only about a quarter of the time whereas intermediate-high speakers were successful slightly more than half the time. this seems to suggest that actual proficiency may be more powerful of a predictor than it has been given credit forthat if exposure is held controlled (at least once arriving in the /s/-weakening region), both intermediate-low and ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 19 intermediate-high speakers still have an advantage over novices in their overall perception rates and both improve over time at a faster rate than novices. as such, i suggest that proficiency in and of itself is an important predictor of the perception of /s/weakening because it is typically representative of greater global comprehension abilities, which, i argue, are necessary for a remapping of the phonological system. in a place such as coastal ecuador, where /s/weakening is not categorical, learners are exposed to contrasting information regarding syllable-final /s/. they are receiving input of exemplars where /s/ ranges from fully sibilated to fully deleted. novice speakers with weaker comprehension abilities may be receiving this input, but if they are unfamiliar with a large percentage of the input they receive (i.e. less of the input is converting to intake, meaning that it is not incorporated into the interlanguage system [see corder, 1967, p. 165]), they have retained fewer exemplars in their system of weakened /s/ and fully-sibilated /s/ mapping to the same underlying form. as such, it is much more difficult to for these speakers to re-map their interlanguage phonological system since they are lacking the linguistic information necessary to make those changes. however, if speakers have greater comprehension abilities, they are able to more easily recognize words and phrases containing /s/, more quickly associate [h] and other weakened forms to /s/, more accurately internalize local patterns of variation, and more efficiently re-map their phonological system. lastly, the fact that proficiency was not a significant factor group when the hlls were included in the analysis underscores the heterogeneity of the hll population (potowski, 2013) and may also point to perception abilities being tied more to an hll’s home dialect than to the fact that they are an hll (as opposed to an l2). similar to the results of amalia and bianca presented here, schmidt (2014) found that ns of spanish from /s/-conserving regions had difficulty identifying weakened-/s/; thus the two female hlls are performing (at least initially) similarly to monolingual spanish speakers from conserving dialects. the curious piece, however, is that they do not make perceptual changes during the immersion experience (while schmidt (2015) did find that conserving speakers with contact with weakening speakers did tend to perceive aspirated-/s/ as /s/). future research should explore further these individual differences among hlls to investigate how questions of language use and identity (norton, 2013; parra, 2016) relate to perception of dialectal variation. 6. conclusion the current study contributes to the growing body of literature in variationist studies in sla by investigating an under-represented topic of sociolinguistic competence: how speakers perceive and process variation in coda /s/-weakening. due to the widespread nature of coda /s/-weakening and the resulting likelihood that learners will encounter the variable in their interactions with nss, it is imperative to understand what they do when they receive competing input variants ranging from [s] to ø. incorrectly mapping a weakened /s/ to nothing (i.e. if máø is understood as ma ‘mom’ rather than más ‘more’, or if habla[h] is understood as referring to the third person singular form rather than second person) has the potential to impede comprehension of lexical items and of the important morphological information that /s/ provides in verbs and plurals. this study explored how language learners perceive and process coda /s/ aspiration in nonce word stimuli before and after exposure to the variable in a naturalistic environment in coastal ecuador. the goal of the study was two-fold: (1) to determine the effect of factors such as phonological context, exposure, language proficiency, and individual differences on the ability to map [h] to /s/, and (2) to suggest that studies whose aim is to explore the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence should not look solely at learner production of variable forms but also at their perception of such forms. although learners may never produce certain variants, gains in perception alone can reflect gains in sociolinguistic competence. to summarize the results of the first goal, phonological context, exposure, language proficiency, and individual differences were found to significantly constrain the ability to perceive aspiration (with the exception of proficiency among hlls). participants were more successful in perceiving aspiration and improved more over time when [h] was followed by a consonant than a vowel or pause. this could be attributed to the fact that following consonants provide occlusion which does not allow for as much gestural overlap of the [h] segment as compared to that which exists with following pauses and vowels. listeners may also be aided by other acoustic cues such as increased syllable duration in the stressed syllables characteristic of the /s/c context, compensatory lengthening of the following onset consonant, or longer vot for voiceless stops. escalante 20 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 exposure to the variable was a significant predictor, but continued exposure after the first interval in-country did not result in continued improvement. this suggests that for most learners, a remapping of /s/ categories occurs relatively soon after exposure, but after the initial adjustment, there is no evidence of continued tuning. future research should explore if these results are similar to those of other phonological variables or if exposure affects each variable differently (as howard [2012] has suggested is the case for french variables). proficiency was a significant factor only for l2s, with higher proficiency levels better at considering [h] a legitimate variant of /s/. intermediate-low speakers made the greatest gains over time, followed by intermediate-high, and lastly by novices. hlls did not follow these patterns; despite all three speakers having high language proficiency, two of them had the secondand third-lowest scores overall in the perception tasks, meaning that they performed at a similar level to the least proficient l2s. on the other hand, the third hll (who had more exposure to /s/-weakening dialects prior to the volunteer experience) was the most successful in mapping [h] to /s/ of the entire participant pool. this underscores the heterogeneity of hlls and suggests that those from different home dialect backgrounds may process dialectal variation in different ways. future research should explore how the perceptual systems of hlls operate in terms of perceiving and processing new dialects. lastly, there was significant variation seen at the individual level. these results were in some ways supportive of previous research (i.e. schmidt, 2011) in that in general, individuals with more language experience and exposure to /s/-weakening dialects seemed to score higher on the initial perception task, but several individuals fell outside of these trends. for example, one intermediate-high l2 speaker had never spent time in an /s/-weakening dialect yet was third overall in perception scores. another intermediate-high l2 speaker only spent 10 days in an /s/-weakening region and no other time abroad and was fourth in perception scores. the two hlls with low scores had more extensive language experience than the l2s yet still scored below all but one of them; one participant spent four months in /s/-weakening andalusia (more than any other l2) but was ninth of 14 in perception scores. the individual variation found in this study supports the findings of howard (2012) who reported significant individual variation in the initial emergence of french sociolinguistic variants among l2s abroad. he explains that, even with the extensive ethnolinguistic information gathered from his learners about their background language-learning history and experience, “it was not possible to identify a specific factor to explain the ease of use of some of the variants by some of our learners as opposed to the other learners” (p. 29). similarly, the results of this study suggest that although experience and exposure are important factors, they do not have the explanatory power to account for all of the variation present at the individual level. future research should consider other factors such as motivation and identity. as for the second goal, the results of this study suggest that learners can make significant progress in the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by learning to re-map their phonological system. this growth is evident without even considering if they are producing /s/-weakening themselves but could be overlooked if only production is measured. although most previous research has focused on the production of variable forms, i argue that it is equally important to study the perception of such forms to understand how learners are internalizing previously unfamiliar variables. further research on how learners perceive and process /s/weakening, as well as other phonological variables, has the potential to contribute to sla theory by improving our understanding of how the learners shift their phonological categories to adapt to the variable nature of language. although this study has presented innovative research on the perception of dialectal variation, it is not without limitations. first, the low number of participants, especially for the hll group, restricts the ability to make broad generalizations regarding l2 and hll perception of dialectal variation. future studies with wider participant pools, including more hll speakers, would allow researchers to confirm or reject the findings of this project. secondly, because the perception task was repeated every 6-8 weeks, it is possible that the participants became familiar with the task and therefore answered similarly over time. including more distractor items and randomizing the stimuli may help mitigate this effect. lastly, during the statistical analysis, the nonce word carrier was not included as a random variable. because of the gradient nature of /s/weakening and the fact that the stimuli were created by a real speaker and not inserted artificially, it is undeniable that there was some variation in the weakened /s/ variants used in the stimuli. running the nonce word carrier as a random variable would help to identify if certain stimuli were easier to perceive than others, potentially suggesting that they were less weakened than others. including the nonce word carrier as a random variable would also shed light on if phonetic context played a role in perception (i.e. if /s/ was more ¡ya pué[h]! perception of coda-/s/ weakening e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 21 accurately perceived before /t/ than before /p/) or if there if there was an effect of frequency (i.e. if a certain nonce word was similar to a highly frequent real word for which learners had already made the weakened/s/ mapping). references abramowicz, lucasz (2007). sociolinguistics meets exemplar theory: frequency and recency effects in (ing). university of pennsylvania working papers in linguistics, 13(2), 27-37. adamson, h. douglas, & kovac, ceil (1981). variation theory and second language acquisition. in david 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(2005). a developmental study of english vowel production and perception by native korean adults and children. journal of phonetics, 33, 263-290. van der meid, j. scott (2003). asian americans: factors influencing the decision to study abroad. frontiers: the interdisciplinary journal of study abroad, 9, 71-110. young, richard (1991). variation in interlanguage morphology. new york, new york: peter lang. https://www.researchgate.net/journal/2380-8144_frontiers_the_interdisciplinary_journal_of_study_abroad https://www.researchgate.net/journal/2380-8144_frontiers_the_interdisciplinary_journal_of_study_abroad escalante 26 e-journall 5(1) (2018), pp. 1-26 chelsea escalante, university of wyoming cescalan@uwyo.edu en chelsea escalante (ph.d., university of california, davis) is an assistant professor of spanish and applied linguistics at the university of wyoming. her research agenda is primarily focused on sociolinguistic approaches to second language and heritage language development. she has published in journals such as american speech, divergencias, entrehojas, and normas: revista de estudios lingüísticos hispánicos and has presented at numerous national and international conferences. es chelsea escalante obtuvo su doctorado en la university of california, davis, y profesora contratada de español y lingüística aplicada en la university of wyoming. su agenda investigadora se centra sobre todo en los enfoques sociolinguisticos aplicados al desarrollo de segundas lenguas y lenguas de herencia. ha publicado en revistas como por ejemplo american speech, divergencias, entrehojas y normas: revista de estudios lingüísticos hispánicos y ha presentado sus trabajos en numerosas conferencias nacionales e internacionales. it chelsea escalante ha ottenuto il dottorato di ricerca presso la university of california, davis, ed è ricercatrice universitaria di spagnolo e linguistica applicata presso la university of wyoming. la sua attività di ricerca si svolge principalmente nell’ambito degli approcci sociolinguistici applicati alle lingue seconde ed ereditarie. ha pubblicato in riviste come american speech, divergencias, entrehojas e normas: revista de estudios lingüísticos hispánicos e ha presentato il suo lavoro in numerose conferenze nazionali e internazionali. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 2, issue 2, december 2015, pages 11-30 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.3.46 www.e-journall.org © rodríguez 2015. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * contact: ecrodriguez@fsu.edu heritage and l2 processing of person and number features: evidence from spanish subject-verb agreement estrella rodríguez*, lara reglero1 florida state university received 14 may 2015; received in revised form 10 august 2015; accepted 25 november 2015 abstract en this article reports on a study, with online measures, which investigated the processing of subject–verb (sv) agreement sentences by one group of heritage spanish speakers (hss), two groups of l2 learners of spanish (l1 english) and one group of traditional spanish native speakers. experimental sv sentences manipulated person and number features with subjects and verbs in the present tense. between-group statistical analyses indicated differential processing between the heritage and the l2 groups. the heritage group’s performance was more native-like than the l2 participants. within-subject tests showed some similar patterns between heritage and l2 high-level processing, including delayed sensitivity to ungrammaticality after the verb region. we argue that the hss were able to process basic grammar structures, just as traditional native speakers do. this suggests early bilingualism conferred an advantage to hss when compared to l2 learners, in the control of basic agreement in spanish. key words: online processing, verbal features, sv sentences, heritage language. es el artículo presenta a los lectores un estudio con resultados medidos en línea y dirigido a investigar el procesamiento de oraciones de tipo sujeto-verbo (sv) por parte de un grupo de hablantes de español como lengua de herencia (lh), dos grupos de aprendientes de español como l2 (con inglés como l1) y un grupo tradicional de hablantes nativos de español. las oraciones experimentales de tipo sv combinaban aspectos de persona y número con diversos sujetos y verbos en presente. los análisis estadísticos entre los distintos grupos mostraron un procesamiento diferenciado entre los grupos de español lg y español l2. el grupo de herencia mostró un comportamiento más cercano al nativo que al de español como l2. las pruebas entre sujetos dieron como resultado una cierta similitud de patrones entre los grupos de herencia y de l2 con un nivel alto de procesamiento. ambos grupos mostraron una sensibilidad diferida frente a la agramaticalidad tras el grupo verbal. se concluye que el grupo de lh ha sido capaz de procesar estructuras gramaticales básicas tal y como lo hacen los hablantes nativos, lo cual sugiere que su bilingüismo a edades tempranas les confiere una ventaja con respecto a los aprendientes de l2 a la hora de controlar la concordancia básica en español. palabras clave: procesamiento en línea, aspectos verbales, oraciones de tipo sv, lengua de herencia. it l’articolo riporta i risultati di uno studio realizzato con misurazioni online, volto a valutare la capacità di elaborare frasi concordate soggetto-verbo (sv) da parte di un gruppo di parlanti spagnolo come lingua ereditaria (hss), due gruppi di studenti di spagnolo come lingua seconda (con inglese l1) e un gruppo di ispanofoni nativi tradizionali. le frasi sv prese in esame combinavano la concordanza della persona e del numero con soggetti e verbi al tempo presente. le analisi statistiche tra i gruppi hanno evidenziato un diverso modo di elaborare le frasi tra il gruppo ereditario e i gruppi di lingua seconda. il gruppo ereditario si è comportato più spesso come i parlanti nativi rispetto agli apprendenti di spagnolo come lingua seconda. i test within subjects hanno evidenziato comportamenti simili nell’elaborazione di alto livello tra parlanti ereditari e apprendenti di lingua seconda. entrambi i gruppi avevano una minore capacità di riconoscere la scorrettezza grammaticale dopo il gruppo verbale. si conclude che gli hss siano stati in grado di elaborare strutture grammaticali di base, proprio come i parlanti nativi tradizionali. questo sembra indicare che il bilinguismo precoce li abbia avvantaggiati nel controllare la concordanza di base in spagnolo rispetto agli apprendenti di lingua seconda. parole chiave: online processing, competenze orali, frasi sv, lingua ereditaria. http://www.e-journall.org/ rodríguez & reglero 12 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 1. background and motivation for a formal study 1.1 introduction contrasting the grammatical knowledge of heritage speakers (hss) of any language with the one held by native speakers and l2 learners has raised interest among linguists in recent years (cuza & frank, 2015; keating, vanpatten, & jegerski, 2011; montrul, 2010, 2013; montrul & bowles, 2009; montrul & perpiñán, 2011; pascual y cabo & gómez soler, 2015; potowski, jegerski, & morgan-short, 2009; rothman, 2007, among others). these studies have hinted that hss may have different linguistic preferences that set them apart from traditional native speakers and l2 groups. hss have had different linguistic experiences. they are functional individuals in the native language of one or both parents (valdés, 2000). therefore, they are accustomed to a bilingual environment from childhood, and at one point become dominant in the majority language of the home country (benmamoun, montrul, & polinsky, 2013; montrul, 2009). however, they still communicate quite at ease in the household language with friends and extended relatives at all times. montrul (2009) has commented on the vast proficiency range a single group of hss may display (low, intermediate, advanced, native-like proficiency). some of these differences may be due to differential literacy levels in the heritage language (rothman, 2007). even if raised at home in a language other than english, and with formal instruction in the dominant language, hss show a great deal of variability in their development. heritage l1 grammatical systems may have undergone either incomplete acquisition, loss of forms (attrition) or linguistic contact acquisition (potowski et al., 2009), or any combination of the three, all of which lets us conclude that grammatical knowledge in hss is more heterogeneous than the one held by other groups. learning the home language at such an early age seems to hold advantages for hss with regards to late bilinguals. rich and continuous input in the home language may grant hss skills to resolve grammatical ambiguity (cuza & frank, 2015; keating et al., 2011; montrul, 2010; montrul et al., 2014) for some structures acquired very early in childhood. this advantage may hold only for certain grammatical structures of the l1. the role of bilingualism onset age in the development of grammatical linguistic representations in groups of hss has been discussed by many (cuza & frank, 2015; montrul et al., 2008; perpiñán, 2008, among others). these authors have converged on the idea of a heritage speaker advantage with regards to late bilinguals. in particular, either for syntactically ambiguous structures or basic spanish agreement, hss may have linguistic representations already in place by the time they reach the same age of their l2 counterparts. it is possible that hss went through some of the same stages of l1 acquisition (montrul, 2011) when compared to traditional native spanish speakers. however, as hss begin their formal schooling in the majority language—around the age of 5—or school entrance, their linguistic development takes a different course from the path followed by traditional monolingual speakers of any language. hss remain bilinguals, but with formal instruction in the social dominant language, and with various degrees of oral and written proficiency in their l1 (benmamoun et al., 2013); hss cannot be seen as traditional native speakers. this study will report on the on-line processing of sv sentences by a group of hss, two groups of second language learners, and a group of traditional native spanish speakers. the l2 spanish learners had english as an l1. the article will review recent literature on the grammatical knowledge of hss and how they have performed in contrast to other l1 and l2 groups in off-line and on-line tasks. we will describe the experiment in question and discuss its results. we will outline some pedagogical implications concerning grammatical instruction of heritage groups and present suggestions for further research. 1.2 differential heritage knowledge research on heritage linguistic knowledge is relatively recent, but some studies offer interesting findings in terms of the linguistic domain(s) explored and the kinds of experimental tasks presented. in the area of phonology, hss usually display superior skills in their home language, though not necessarily at native-like levels (au, knightly, jun, & oh, 2002). hss may exhibit different levels in heritage speech that connect to the quality of prior interactions and experiences in the home language. language experience certainly plays a role in attempting to define heritage linguistic knowledge. hss at lower proficiency, and with less oral practice growing up, have not mastered all phonological aspects (sounds, syllables, intonation) at the native-level (au et al., 2002). however, in au et al.’s study, this finding did not hold consistently among all hss. for example, there were no significant differences in how the group of spanish hss produced voiceless stops when compared to traditional spanish native speakers. in all, hss were found to be not homogenous as a group in their phonological skills. heritage and l2 processing e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 13 turning to morphology and the comprehension of person and number features in spanish, hss seem to display particular preferences which set them aside from other groups as well. in interpreting null subjects, for example, hss do not necessarily behave like spanish native speakers at all times. native spanish speakers tend to resolve complex anaphoras by linking the pro element to an antecedent in the specifier (spec) of the inflection phrase (ip). overt pronouns tend to be associated with lower antecedents in the clause. keating et al. (2011) investigated null/pronominal subject resolution and antecedent linking in spanish in hss and l2 learners. they contrasted their responses with spanish l1 native speakers using an offline questionnaire and comprehension questions, as in (1 a-b) and (2): 1) a. daniel ya no ve a miguel desde que se casó. daniel no longer see – 3rd pers sing miguel since pro null got married 3rd pers sing preterite daniel no longer sees miguel ever since (he) got married. 1) b. daniel ya no ve a miguel desde que él se casó. daniel no longer see – 3rd pers sing miguel since null 3rd pers sing he got married 3rd pers sing preterite daniel no longer sees miguel ever since he got married. 2) ¿quién se casó? who refl 3rd pers sing got married – 3rd pers sing preterite who got married? a. daniel b. miguel the authors concluded the participating groups had adopted differential assignment strategies. the group of hss displayed subject bias for overt pronouns only, while the l2 learners did not show any specific subject bias treating both overt and null pronouns as in free variation. as expected, the native speakers linked all anaphora (pro) to noun in [spec, ip] position (i.e., daniel in the previous examples). keating et al. (2011) concluded the hss had not behaved exactly like native speakers displaying a subject preference for overt pronouns only (not pro). as bilingual native speakers, however, hss may well display a range of null assignment strategies based on prior linguistic experiences. their preference for overt pronouns in the keating et al. (2011) study could be a result of bilingualism or the influence of english as formal language of instruction through school years. even in l1 spanish, preferences for overt pronouns may also change from one dialect to another. ordoñez and olarrea (2001) and toribio (1993) offer a discussion on the overt second person singular pronoun in some caribbean dialects. it is possible that hss may resort to linguistic contact acquisition experiences in selecting one of these preferences. we agree with beaudrie (2005) that hss represent many home language registers. in spanish, some of these account for standard varieties of the language, while other registers may account for non-standard varieties. in sum, depending on specific linguistic experiences of the past, hss do not necessarily have to choose the same options as traditional native speakers when judging structures. 1.3 asymmetric relationship in heritage oral and written skills hss usually perform well when presented with oral tasks (bowles, 2011; montrul & polinsky, 2011). they may display superior oral skills, similar to those of native speakers. performing better orally may be traced to the particular modality of heritage language learning; oral form in a naturalistic context. in administering oral and written tasks to hss, montrul (2011) investigated morphological variability (gender agreement) in spanish hss and l2 learners with oral picture description, oral narratives, and un-timed written recognition tasks. an example of montrul’s (2011) recognition task is seen in (3), where the correct answer is option b: rodríguez & reglero 14 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 3) no quiero llevar las ___________ de ese color. not want – 1st pers sing pres take the – direct object fem pl of that color i don’t want to take the ones of that color. a. bufanda b. maletas c. pantalones scarf suitcases pants in contrasting the performance of the hss and the l2 spanish learners, montrul (2011) concluded that hss were more accurate in oral tasks. for the l2 learners it was quite the opposite. they made more frequent errors in oral than in written production. montrul (2011) pointed at heritage context of acquisition (naturalistic/at home) and variant of acquisition (aural input) as having a role in how the hss of her study performed. written task effects in the hss could have been related to how heritage literacy skills in spanish became second to literacy skills in english at one point, as hss transitioned into english formal instruction around school entry age. when looking at the acquisition of mood and aspect in written tasks, hss evidence a complex acquisition pattern. montrul (2009) compared hss and spanish native speakers on oral/written production and sentence judgment tasks. this study included the preterite-imperfect dichotomy, as in (4 a-b). in one condition the imperfect was logical (4a) and the preterite contradictory (4b). in the other condition, the opposite occurred. the second study in montrul (2009) tested the indicative-subjunctive distinction. in one condition, the indicative was logical (5a) and the subjunctive contradictory (5b). 4) a. los gonzález vendían la casa, pero nadie la compró. imperfect (logical) the gonzález sell – 3rd pers pl imperfect the house but nobody it buy 3rd pers sing preterite the gonzález family was selling the house but nobody bought it. 4) b. *los gonzález vendieron la casa, pero nadie la compró. preterite (contradictory) the gonzález sell – 3rd pers pl preterite the house but nobody it buy 3rd pers sing preterite *the gonzález family sold the house but nobody bought it. 5) a. cada año ana se alegra cuando le aumentan el sueldo. indicative (logical) every year ana refl – 3rd pers sing rejoice when indirect object 3rd pers sing raise – 3rd pers pl indicative the salary every year ana rejoices when they raise her salary. 5) a. *cada año ana se alegra cuando le aumente n el sueldo. subjunctive (contradictory) every year ana refl – 3rd pers sing rejoice when indirect object 3rd pers sing raise – 3rd pers pl subjunctive the salary *every year ana rejoices when they raised her salary. when reporting on group differences, montrul (2009) concluded the hss had better command of tense-aspect with regards to mood control. results were also consistent with the interface hypothesis (tsimpli & sorace, 2006) given the complexity of mood versus aspect. in spanish, in particular, mood is difficult to master. as hss have not undergone formal grammatical training in spanish, they may have retained some verbal categories, but not all of them. most likely, they may have retained less complex ones (benmamoun et al., 2013). heritage and l2 processing e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 15 in spite of differential rates in heritage oral and written skills, hss traditionally perform in more target-like ways than l2 groups, even when presented with written acceptability judgment tasks. montrul (2010) tested a group of hss and another group of l2 learners on clitic pronouns and word order on the “grammaticality” of clitic simple sentences, such as (6) and (7): 6) juan lo mira todos los días. pre-verbal (grammatical) juan it – clit 3rd pers sing watch – 3rd pers sing present every day juan watches it every day. 7) *juan miralo todos los días. post-verbal (ungrammatical) juan watch – 3rd pers sing present it – clit 3rd pers sing every day juan watches it every day. montrul (2010) concluded that even hss of low proficiency had an advantage compared to l2 learners matched in proficiency. early exposure and richness of input seemed to have contributed to the superiority of the heritage group in the acceptability judgments. if hss were exposed to the home language since birth, it is possible that they have retained qualities of that initial language exposure. as seen in these studies, hss and l2 learners do differ in their performance across various tasks, which suggests they could benefit from differential curricular instruction. we have undertaken our study to shed light on these differences and to contribute to hs pedagogy (see end of section 5 for additional discussion). we have adopted an on-line task not only because it would trigger unconscious responses from participants (see next section), but also because it would mirror real pressures of classroom instruction. in the context of the classroom, the teacher would be lecturing or students would be communicating in groups, and language would need to be processed very fast. we have adopted the linguistic phenomenon under investigation (the processing of person and number features) since it entails cross-linguistic variation with english, the other language of the bilingual groups. 1.4. advantages of testing heritage sensitivity with an on-line measure heritage on-line research is relatively recent. many on-line paradigms indirectly measure reading skills as well as formal language instruction. in theory this is problematic for spanish hss who receive formal education in english, and whose spanish reading and writing skills may underrepresent their linguistic ability. most heritage studies have employed off-line measures in the past to report on heritage grammar knowledge. testing arabic hss with off-line oral production tasks, albirini, benmamoun, and brahim (2013) indicated they had better accuracy in basic sv agreement (82.78%) when compared to noun-adjective agreement (63.92%). in interpreting these results, albirini et al. (2013) pointed at the importance of the verb both lexically and grammatically at the sentential level. it is possible hss have control of basic sv agreement, which is a premise to communicate fluently in their heritage language. using grammatical judgments and a correction task, rothman (2007) investigated knowledge of inflected infinitives with a group of brazilian portuguese (bp) hss. significant results made possible to observe differences between the advanced and the heritage groups. the author concluded the group of hss had not displayed knowledge in the distribution of inflected infinitives when compared to native speakers and advanced learners of bp. however, two of his participating hss did perform native-like, as their literacy level in bp was higher. rothman’s study concluded that not all hss shared identical control of verbal forms. the aforementioned studies are just a couple of the several experiments that have made use of offline measures (see also montrul & bowles, 2009; montrul, foote, & perpiñán, 2008). it can be argued that offline tasks are useful in general to describe linguistic patterns in participating groups. however, they do not permit to detect unconscious grammatical sensitivity. with an off-line measure, there is always the possibility of participants relaying on content or metalinguistic knowledge, something that self-paced reading or eye tracking experiments do not allow. an on-line task, on the other hand, distracts participants from the main structure of interest. in particular, self-paced reading makes it possible to detect irregularities in the input when participants take longer to read certain sentential segments (vanpatten & jegerski, 2013). on-line research offers another way rodríguez & reglero 16 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 to view and describe heritage grammar, as it offers a view into intuitive knowledge and unconscious reactions departing from un-timed tasks, like grammaticality judgments. in the last decade or so, heritage research has begun to employ on-line experiments to detect how hss react to one or more structures without relying on background knowledge. foote (2010) investigated sv agreement production in early and late english-spanish bilinguals and late spanish-english bilinguals using an on-line completion task. there were no significant differences between both groups of bilinguals and the control native speakers. however, the hss seemed to be more affected by task effects than the late bilinguals when errors were concerned. foote (2010) attributed these results to a naturalistic context of acquisition in the hss group versus an instructed context for the late learners. still, the hss performed similarly to the late learners. using a self-paced reading task, montrul (2006) examined the processing of english and spanish unaccusative and unergative verbs in hss. she contrasted the results of the heritage group with english and spanish native controls. the hss took longer to read the input in both languages, and their reaction times were also larger than the ones of the monolingual groups. hss processed both verb classes faster in spanish than in english, though patterns of performance were similar in both languages by the same group. montrul (2006) concluded the group of hss seemed to have control of “core” spanish syntax. with the hope of expanding on-line heritage research, we have adopted a self-paced reading moving window paradigm to document processing of basic sv agreement in spanish. a “real time” pressure task taps into implicit mental representations (jiang, 2007), something that is arguably beyond the limits of off-line measures. on-line measures are able to more directly shed light on heritage intuition when processing grammar in real time (bolger & zapata, 2011). 2. subject-verb agreement in spanish and english both english and spanish exhibit basic subject verb object (svo) order, but the strength of their verbal features, even for basic sv agreement morphology and tense forms is different. spanish is a morphologically rich language with many verbal inflections. english, with the exception of the simple present tense, is not as morphologically rich. the preterite singular form of the regular verb estudiar (to study) in both languages is illustrated in table 1. the verb in spanish agrees with the subject in person and number at all times. these specific verbal features of spanish as to person and number agreement contrast with the english verb forms in which there is weak person and number agreement, as noted in the identical verb morphology of the english translations for the first, second, and third person singular forms. table 1 a contrast between spanish and english morphology and person/number features spanish english glosses english translations (yo) estudié i studied 1 pers. sing/past i studied (tú) estudiaste you studied2 pers. sing/past you studied (él) estudió he studied -3 pers. sing/past he studied in table 1, the verb form estudiaste (study-2 pers. sing/past) can only agree with the informal second person singular (tú/you). this stands in sharp contrast with the english verbal form for the same grammatical person. in english, there is weak agreement between the verb and its subject. spanish, however, exhibits a richer paradigm in verb morphology, with one unique and distinctive form for the first person, second and third person singular, as showed in table 1. spanish is also characterized by its null-subject nature (zagona, 2002), the inclusion of person and number features in the verb that allows to drop the subject of the sentence and retain grammaticality. this is seen in table 1, for the first, second, and third singular forms. english, on the other hand, is a non-null subject language and dropping the subject in english is unlicensed. this is an important syntactic difference between the two languages that hss may acquire from home spanish, the strong spanish verbal morphology and its pro drop nature. the verb in spanish has person and number features and undergoes overt movement due to its strong features. it moves from a low position in the sentence, from the vp, to a high projection in the structure, such as tp or agrsp, to agree with the subject of the sentence in person and number (montrul, heritage and l2 processing e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 17 2004; rizzi, 1986; zagona, 2002). in english, the verb may move overtly in certain constructions, like yes/no questions, but basic and regular declarative sentences do not exhibit overt verb movement due to the weak features of the english verb (radford, 2004). as hss learned spanish in infancy and became dominant in english at one point after school entrance, they may control verbal syntactic operations of spanish, but up to what extent? montrul (2009) has reanalyzed the original regression hypothesis proposed by jakobson (1941) to propose that native bilinguals like hss may have stronger control of tense and aspect versus more complex categories, like mood which is generally acquired later in many languages. in montrul (2009), accuracy in grammatical aspect—which is of earlier acquisition—was greater than accuracy in mood. spanish exposure from birth may have granted specific advantages to hss in the acquisition of tense. if spanish basic tenses are acquired early in life in the home language, it would be interesting to research how much intuition of that early grammatical knowledge has been retained in hss, even when english has become the dominant language. benmamoun et al. (2013) have also proposed that tense may have remained a robust category in the mental grammar of hss since early on, as it is not as critical to word order as mood. this brings us to the case of l2 learners of spanish with l1 english. in view of the differences in verbal features between spanish and english, they must change the weak verbal features of english and acquire the strong verbal features of spanish. they must restructure linguistic values of a weak verbal morphology in their l1 (english) to acquire the strong morphology of the l2 (spanish). for the most part, l2 spanish learners with l1 english have had a few years of instructed spanish to undergo changes in their mental representation, from a weak verbal morphology in english to a stronger one in spanish. do hss share the same experiences in learning spanish? it is unlikely, as hss have taken extensive instruction in english, and used spanish mostly with friends and family in an unstructured environment. though this unstructured acquisition does not seem to have disturbed their oral proficiency in the home language, it is still unclear whether spanish hss are able to control “core” spanish verbal features. as bilinguals, hss may also pay attention to strong cues during on-line processing and not necessarily to verbal morphology at all times, since time pressure associated with real-time processing may increase processing costs. bilinguals may resort to the overt spanish subject, for example, instead of verbal morphology as a strong cue. this would be the result of english transfer. given the presence of two language systems in the typical bilingual mind, we believe they may use a different and perhaps a more efficient strategy while undertaking an on-line experiment when compared to l2 learners. how would a group of hss differ from l2 learners in their comprehension of basic tense in spanish in real time? this question builds upon emerging heritage literature studies (keating et al., 2011; montrul, 2013; montrul & bowles, 2009; montrul & perpiñán, 2011; potowski, et al., 2009) which have implemented both off-line tasks and on-line measures to contrast how hss differ from l2 learners in their grammatical knowledge in spanish. differences between english and spanish syntactic operations are vast enough. processing the strong spanish morphology in real time may represent a processing cost for both hss and l2 learners. comparing on-line reading times across groups can inform whether morphology has affected processing at any given sentential segment under real time constraints; it can also be explored whether any group has resorted to other cues for processing. pedagogically, it is important to investigate how much intuitive knowledge of earlier tense has been retained by hss to better address their classroom needs. 3. the experiment 3.1 experimental setting this experiment was part of a larger study which also documented verbal agreement in sentences containing the spanish particle se with some of its uses. however, only the analysis with sv sentences will be reported here, as processing of se has been documented in a prior study (rodríguez, 2015). for our analyses with sv sentences, we departed from vanpatten, keating, and leeser’s (2012) study on underlying representations of person and number inflections in spanish, and their view that participants lacking strong representations of person and number will be unable to make use of these in a “pressure task.” vanpatten et al. (2012) did not include hss as participants; only l2 non-advanced learners were included. however, we saw advantages in using a self-paced reading measure similar to theirs. in a self-paced reading task, participants focus on meaning through post-input comprehension questions. the inclusion of a rodríguez & reglero 18 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 heritage group reacting to basic sv agreement in the present tense can be revealing given past grammatical asymmetries displayed by this group and emerging literature on heritage on-line processing. in self-paced reading, differences in reading times at given regions can point at how participants are affected by features of the upcoming stimulus (vanpatten & jegerski, 2013). basic knowledge of sv sentences in hss was compared with l2 learners and traditional spanish native speakers. there were four regions of interest in sv sentences: verb, verb + 1, verb + 2 and verb + 3, as depicted in (8). post-verbal regions were included to test for possible spill-over effects. 8) ahora pedro toma el refresco en el salón. verb verb + 1 verb + 2 verb + 3 now pedro drink – 3rd pers sing present the soft drink in the living room. initially, the study included one (1) between-subject independent variable: group (low intermediate, heritage, native). though hss are also native speakers, the heritage group was placed and named separately to distinguish it from the traditional native group. there was (1) independent variable tested within subjects: subject-verb agreement (agreement, no agreement sentences). the dependent variable of the study was reaction time, measured in milliseconds. experimental sentences were presented to the participants using super-lab building software from cedrus. participants read all sentences word by word. a comprehension question in english followed.1 sixty-four sv sentences were randomized and mixed with ninety-six sentences which contained an accusative pronoun, adapted from vanpatten and houston (1998). there were also forty-eight sentences containing spanish se as detailed in rodríguez (2013, 2015). four test versions (four lists of sixty-four sentences each) were used and randomly presented to participants as part of the self-paced reading. sentence length varied from 8 to 12 words given the three different structures (se, sv constructions, and sentences with the accusative pronoun). each experimental list contained sixteen sv sentences with eight sentences representing the + agreement condition and the remaining eight sentences the – agreement condition. there were also twenty-four sentences with se and twenty-four sentences containing an accusative pronoun in each list. 3.2 participants three participating groups were initially considered in all analyses. the l2 group (n = 32) was recruited from upper undergraduate courses offered in the department of modern languages and linguistics at a large university in north florida. the l2 group’s ranging scores in the portion of the diplomas de español como lengua extranjera (dele) exam administered were 11 to 24 out of a total of fifty points (m = 21.1). given the low scores in speaking and in the dele test as seen in table 2, the l2 group was classified as low intermediate participants. all low-intermediate participants were native speakers of english and did not speak a language other than english at home. the hss were also enrolled at the same institution, and hailed from various disciplines. they reported spanish as the first language learned at home with at least one of their parents. the ceiling for u.s. date of arrival to be deemed a heritage speaker was set at seven years of age. all participants who grew up speaking spanish at home with at least one parent were grouped with the hss.2 the heritage group also completed a language history questionnaire and a portion of the dele. the heritage group mean in the dele exam was 38.7. seven out of the twenty-one heritage participants were u.s. born, seven were born in colombia, two in puerto rico, and there was a representative from cuba, dominican republic, honduras, spain, and venezuela as well. there was also a group of traditional native spanish speakers (n = 24) who had grown up in a spanish-speaking country and had completed their formal education there. they were recruited from upper 1 one of our anonymous reviewers cited follow up comprehension questions in english as a limitation. however, we believe the inclusion of a low intermediate group with limited proficiency in spanish in the participating sample justified the use of english and not spanish in comprehension questions. comprehension in spanish could have imposed an additional cognitive load on the low intermediate participants. in this sense, we followed keating et al. (2011) and vanpatten et al. (2012) who also employed a similar design with advanced and low intermediate participants. 2 the hss were together as a group to differentiate them from traditional native speakers who were late bilinguals and had acquired english as a second language in adulthood. heritage and l2 processing e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 19 level undergraduate and graduate courses offered in the same department at the same institution. some of the native participants were also graduate teaching assistants (tas) in the spanish division. for participants to be placed in the native group, they had to score 45 points or more in the dele exam, out of a total of 50 points (m = 46.6). the traditional native group represented countries in which spanish is the official language: namely, argentina, colombia, cuba, ecuador, honduras, panamá, perú, spain, and venezuela. table 2 presents proficiency scores and resulting group divisions after participants had provided answers to the self-report questionnaire and completed the portion of the dele exam. table 2 participant mean scores in spanish language skills and dele exam group n reading speaking writing comprehension dele low l2 32 6.8 5.2 6.2 7 21.1 heritage 21 7.9 8.1 7 9.4 38.7 native 24 9.5 9.7 9 10 46.6 these scores were submitted to a one-way anova by group (low l2 intermediate, heritage, and spanish native), the between-subject variable of interest. the main effect of group was significant f (2, 231) = 30.18, p < .001, ŋ² p = .493. post-hoc tests with bonferroni adjustment indicated the traditional native speakers had scored higher than the hss and l2 learners in reading, writing, speaking, dele measure, p < .001. the group of hss scored higher than the group of l2 learners in speaking p < .001, comprehension p = .001 and dele measure, p < .001. there were no other significant findings. 3.3 sentence manipulation sixty-four sv sentences were presented to the participants in four randomly assigned lists. these sentences manipulated person and number verbal features (vanpatten et al., 2012). subjects and verbs appeared next to each other. all verbs belonged to the verbal first conjugation. person and number manipulation allowed control for verb length and participants read each segment, one word at a time, as part of the self-paced task. half of the quadruplets had third and first person singular subjects matched with third and first person singular verbs, as illustrated in examples (9) and (10). 9) ahora pedro toma el refresco en el salón. now pedro – 3rd pers sing drink – 3rd pers sing present the soft drink in the living room. 10) ahora yo tomo el refresco en el salón. now i – 1st pers sing drink – 1st pers sing present the soft drink in the living room. the other half of the quadruplets had second person singular and third person plural subjects crossed with verb forms in the second person singular and third person plural, as depicted in examples (11) and (12). half of the sentences illustrated a grammatical condition (9) and (10), while the other half depicted ungrammatical sentences, as in (11) and (12). 11) *en este momento tú lavan el auto con los hermanos. now you – 2nd pers sing wash – 3rd pers pl present the car with the brothers. 12) *en este momento ellos pagas el alquiler de este mes. now they – 3rd pers pl pay – 2nd pers sing present the rent of this month. rodríguez & reglero 20 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 3.4 procedure the presentation of all stimuli and the tracking of participants’ performance were conducted via a computer using super-lab building software from cedrus. participants were tested individually in a laboratory in the department of modern languages and linguistics of the institution. after signing a consent form, participants completed the proficiency measures. prior to starting the self-paced reading task, participants were provided with a vocabulary list, containing nouns and verb forms that appeared in the task. this facilitated vocabulary familiarization. they were also provided with instructions on how to proceed from sentence to sentence and were asked to complete five practice items. participants were instructed to read each sentence carefully and to answer comprehension questions as quickly and accurately as possible. comprehension questions appeared after participants had read the whole sentence in the moving window (jegerski, 2013). the self-paced reading task and the placement measures took 50 minutes to an hour to complete. participant time spent on each word of every sentence was recorded. standard statistical tests (analysis of [co]variance and regression) were used in the analyses in order to determine in what ways native language, grammaticality, and group affected learners’ sensitivity to spanish agreement. all data was analyzed using spss (statistical package for the social sciences). 3.5 research questions the main purpose of this study was to investigate if early bilingualism had conferred hss an advantage in reading sv sentences word by word. we also investigated whether reaction times differed among groups and whether participants were being sensitive to agreement violations at critical regions (at the verb and the 3 subsequent post verbal regions). 1. does early onset age of bilingualism in hss confer them any advantage in reading person and number features word by word when compared to late l2 spanish learners? 2. given early age of exposure to spanish, how does length of heritage reading reaction times compare to l2 and traditional native spanish at critical regions when reading sv sentences as part of an on-line task? with regards to the first research question, it was hypothesized that the heritage and the late l2 spanish group would display dissimilar reading patterns of sv sentences. hss tend to have an advantage in tasks that investigate implicit knowledge (montrul, 2011). they also benefit from grammatical content learned early in life (carreira & potowski, 2011; cuza & frank, 2015). early bilingualism should confer them an advantage over late learners of spanish. as to the second research question, we hypothesized the group of hss would display different reading times, quite apart from the other two groups. when comparing them with traditional native speakers, hss may lack complete monolingual-like strategies with regards to grammatical rules (keating et al., 2011; rothman, 2007) since they have not had extensive formal training or extended instruction in the l1 grammar. this last factor also differentiates them from l2 learners who are more experienced with formal instruction. we sided with montrul (2011) in that hss would simply be different from other groups when analyzing grammatical content, and that this would be evident in differential reaction time length as a group. 4. results 4.1 comprehension data participants scored at 85% accuracy or greater on the comprehension questions presented after the word-by-word input for all sentences. table 3 presents the descriptive statistics for structure type and group for the comprehension questions in english that followed the self-paced sv sentences. the tests of betweensubjects effects revealed no significant differences in comprehension between participating groups. table 4 presents the anova results for comprehension. as table 4 indicates, there were no main effects for level or for structure in comprehension. the interaction between level and structure was not significant either. heritage and l2 processing e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 21 table 3 comprehension descriptive statistics group structure type sv sentences n m sd low intermediate 32 90.2 10.2 heritage 21 95.8 8.5 native 24 94.2 8.6 table 4 anova comprehension table source df ms f p ŋ² p group (l) 2 213.43 2.66 .072 .023 structure (s) 1 172.27 2.14 .119 .018 l x s 4 2.07 .025 .999 .001 error 231 80.22 to explore on-line processing of the sv sentences within the groups, mean reading times per group and region of interest were applied to matched t-tests with group and verbal agreement as independent variables of interest. the dependent variable was reaction times, recorded for every word of the sv sentences. all reaction times higher than 1000 ms were cut off, as they were considered high values indicating a processing difficulty. within group results appear detailed next. 4.2 traditional native speakers results of paired samples of the t-test revealed no significant results for the traditional native speakers at the verb region, t (23) = -1.10, p = .281, two-tailed. at the verb + 1 region for the natives, results of paired samples of the t-test did not show any significance either, t (23) = 1.31, p = .200. by contrast, results of the paired samples at verb + 2 did show significance, t (23) = -3.64, p = .001, two-tailed. it took the traditional spanish natives longer to read ungrammatical sv sentences at verb +2 region, which indicated sensitivity to ungrammaticality after the main verb of the construction. as to verb + 3 it also took native speakers longer to read ungrammatical sv sentences, though no significant differences were observed in the paired samples of the t-test, t (23) = -1.62, p = .117. mean reading times (in milliseconds) and standard deviations for the native group follow next in table 5. table 5 reaction time mean scores and standard deviations for native speakers (sv sentences) condition verb verb + 1 verb + 2 verb + 3 m sd m sd m sd m sd grammatical 461 104 456 84 461 89 434 63 ungrammatical 488 97 433 71 536 126 456 62 a summary of the findings for the native speakers when processing sv sentences word by word is represented in figure 1. rodríguez & reglero 22 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 figure 1. native sv sentence mean reading time (in milliseconds) 4.3 l2 low intermediate learners results of paired samples of the t-test revealed no significant results for the low intermediate group at the verb region, t (31) = .801, p = .429, two-tailed. however, at the verb +1 region, the t-test revealed that it took the l2 low learners longer to read sv sentences in the agreement condition, t (31) = 2.83, p = .008, two-tailed. this difference was significant. at the verb + 2 region, results of paired samples of the t-test revealed no significant results for the low intermediate learners, t (31) = .158, p = .876, two-tailed. at verb + 3, there were no significant results either, t (31) = .196, p = .846. low intermediate participants did not show any sensitivity to violations of person and number features in sv sentences. mean reading times and standard deviations are summarized in table 6 and in figure 2. table 6 reaction time mean scores and standard deviations for low-intermediate l2 learners (sv sentences) condition verb verb + 1 verb + 2 verb + 3 m sd m sd m sd m sd grammatical 561 137 522 118 643 163 476 95 ungrammatical 541 106 469 72 639 131 473 84 figure 2. low-intermediate sv sentence mean reading time (in milliseconds) 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 verb verb + 1 verb + 2 verb + 3 r ea ct io n t im es agree no agree 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 verb verb + 1 verb + 2 verb + 3 r ea ct io n t im es agree no agree heritage and l2 processing e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 23 4.4 heritage speakers the t-test showed no significant results for the hss at the verb region, t (20) = -.784, p = .442, twotailed. at verb + 1 the heritage group took slightly longer to process sv sentences in the ungrammatical condition with no significant findings, t (20) = -1.35, p = .192. at verb + 2 no significant results emerged either, t (20) = -.462, p = .649 for the hss. however, at verb + 3, the hss took longer to read ungrammatical sv sentences and these results were significant, t (20) = -3.54, p = .002. there was delayed sensitivity to ungrammaticality by the hss three regions after the main verb of the construction. a summary of the reaction times means of the heritage group is presented next in table 7. their processing—region by region—is illustrated in figure 3. table 7 reaction times mean scores and standard deviations for heritage speakers (sv sentences) condition verb verb + 1 verb + 2 verb + 3 m sd m sd m sd m sd grammatical 463 111 326 55 509 112 429 79 ungrammatical 484 95 457 82 520 100 496 54 figure 3. heritage sv sentence mean reading time (in milliseconds) analyses up to here indicate that traditional native speakers were sensitive to ungrammatical sv sentences at verb + 2, t (23) = -3.64, p = .001. by contrast, the low intermediate group with l1 english took longer to read grammatical sentences at verb + 1, t (31) = 2.83, p = .008. overall, the l2 group displayed no sensitivity to grammatical violations of person and number features in the sv sentences. this contrasts with results of the heritage group who patterned with the traditional native speakers in taking longer to read ungrammatical sentences. the hss took longer for ungrammatical sentences at verb + 3, p = .002. the heritage group was sensitive to ungrammaticality post-verbally. we concluded the heritage group had differed from the l2 low intermediate learners in their processing (hypothesis 1 confirmed). however, they had not behaved exactly like the traditional native speakers either in the same regions (hypothesis 2 confirmed). to make sure the effect was not one of proficiency, we added a new l2 group of comparable proficiency to the hss. the new group of l2 participants read the same input as part of the same task. would there be any differences between them and the hss? 4.5 additional analyses with a comparable group of l2 participants the new l2 group of comparable proficiency also responded to the self-report questionnaire and completed the same portion of the dele exam. their scores were compared with the spanish natives and the heritage group. scores were then submitted to a one-way anova. the main effect of group was significant, f (2, 231) = 32.50, p < .001, ŋ² p = .586. 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 verb verb + 1 verb + 2 verb + 3 r ea ct io n t im es agree no agree rodríguez & reglero 24 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 table 8 heritage, new l2, and l1 proficiency mean scores groups n reading speaking writing comprehension dele heritage 21 7.9 8.1 7 9.4 38.7 new l2 24 8.1 7.1 7.6 8 33.6 native 24 9.5 9.7 9 10 46.6 post-hoc tests indicated the group of traditional spanish natives had scored higher than both the hss and the new l2 group in reading, speaking, writing, dele measure, p < .001. the group of hss scored higher than the new group of learners in comprehension, p = .004 and in the dele exam p = .002, but not in reading or writing. we concluded the new l2 participants and the hss were of comparable proficiency, as opposed to the low l2 intermediate group. results of paired samples of the t-test for the new l2 group revealed no significant results at the verb region, t (23) = 1.28, p = .212, two-tailed. at verb + 1, the results approached significance, t (23) = 1.97, p = .060. it took longer for the new l2 group to read grammatical sentences at this region, as seen in mean scores from table 9. at verb + 2, there were no significant results, t (23) = -288, p = .776. by contrast, at verb + 3, the new l2 group took longer to read ungrammatical sv sentences, t (23) = -2.13, p = .043. the difference was significant. results for the new l2 group appear in table 9 and in figure 4 next. table 9 reaction time mean scores and standard deviations for new group of l2 learners (sv sentences) condition verb verb + 1 verb + 2 verb + 3 m sd m sd m sd m sd grammatical 556 113 512 90 606 144 466 93 ungrammatical 529 111 480 71 614 143 507 100 figure 4. new l2 sv sentence mean reading time (in milliseconds) the new l2 group and the hss patterned at verb + 3 region for ungrammatical sentences. both groups had delayed sensitivity post-verbally. quite contrary, the low l2 intermediate group displayed no sensitivity at any of the regions of interest. they took longer to read grammatical sentences at verb +1. we proceeded to investigate possible effects between the groups, or additional differences between the hss and the two groups of learners. 4.6 between-subject analyses between-subject analyses (t-test) to contrast mean reading times across the four groups and regions indicated the two l2 groups processed differently from the hss (as seen in mean scores from table 10). the 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 verb verb + 1 verb + 2 verb + 3 r ea ct io n t im es agree no agree heritage and l2 processing e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 25 traditional native group and the hss processed similarly. in the grammatical condition at the verb region, the low intermediate group took longer to read sv sentences when compared to the traditional native group, and this difference was significant, p = .004. there were also significant differences between the native speakers and the low intermediates at verb + 1, p = .024 and verb + 2 regions, p = .001 when reading grammatical sentences. table 10 summary of reaction time mean scores across group (sv sentences) group verb region verb + 1 region verb + 2 region verb + 3 region n m sd m sd m sd m sd l2 low intermediate (+) 32 561 137 522 118 643 163 476 95 l2 low intermediate (-) 32 541 106 469 72 639 131 473 84 second l2 group (+) 24 556 113 512 90 606 144 466 93 second l2 group (-) 24 529 111 480 71 614 143 507 100 heritage (+) 21 463 111 432 55 509 112 429 79 heritage (-) 21 484 95 457 82 520 100 496 54 traditional native (+) 24 461 104 456 84 461 89 434 63 traditional native (-) 24 488 97 433 71 536 126 456 62 the low intermediate group also differed from the hss in how they read sv sentences in the grammatical condition. at the verb region, it took longer for the low learners to read sv sentences when compared to the hss, p = .009. these differences were also significant at the verb + 1 and verb + 2 regions, p = .002. by contrast, there were no significant differences observed between the two l2 groups when reading grammatical sentences. differences were not significant either between the hss and the traditional native group as to mean reading times length at any of the critical regions for the grammatical condition. in the ungrammatical condition, the low intermediate group differed with regards to the traditional native group at verb + 2. the results were significant, p = .005. the low intermediates also took longer than the hss at verb + 2, p = .001. the only difference in the ungrammatical condition between the hss and the traditional native speakers was at verb + 3. this difference was significant, p = .027. the hss took longer than the native group to process at this region. there were no significant differences observed between the two l2 groups in terms of reading times of ungrammatical sentences. the new l2 group also differed with regards to the traditional native speakers and the hss. it took longer for the high intermediates to read agreeing sv sentences at the verb region when compared to the native speakers, and this difference was significant, p = .004. the high l2 group also took longer than the native group to read grammatical sv sentences at verb + 1, p = .031 and at verb + 2, p = .001. comparisons between the new l2 group and the hss in the grammatical condition indicated the new group of learners took longer to read sv sentences at the verb region, p = .008. significant differences were also observed between them at verb + 1, p = .001, and at verb + 2, p = .016 when reading + sv sentences. with the exception of verb + 3 region, the reaction times of the new group of l2 learners were significantly larger when compared to the ones of the heritage group, as seen in table 10 for the grammatical condition. in the ungrammatical condition, the l2 group of comparable proficiency differed from the traditional native group at verb + 1, p = .027. at verb + 2 the results were also significant, p = .005. it also took longer for the new l2 group to read sv sentences in the ungrammatical condition at verb + 3 when compared to the traditional native group, p = .039. the only difference between the new l2 group and the hss in the ungrammatical condition was at verb + 2, as it took longer for the learners to read non-agreeing sentences, and this difference was significant, p = 0.16. in comparing results between the four groups in both sv conditions, there are some important remarks to be made. the hss performed more native-like than the two l2 groups. the learners patterned one another in terms of processing. we proceed to guide a discussion to further comment on heritage processing patterns observed in the experiment. rodríguez & reglero 26 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 5. discussion as evidenced in between-group analyses, both l2 groups took longer to read sv sentences when compared to the hss, especially in the grammatical condition. there were significant differences reported between heritage and l2 spanish at verb, verb + 1, verb + 2 regions in the grammatical condition. l2 reaction times were also larger when compared to the hss. by contrast, there were no significant differences between the traditional native group and the hss when reading grammatical sentences at any of the regions of interest. the two l2 groups did not significantly differ from each other either in reading grammatical or ungrammatical sentences. in the ungrammatical condition and comparing them with the hss, both groups of learners took longer to read sv sentences at verb + 2. hss also processed native-like when reading ungrammatical sentences. the only significant difference reported between the hss and the native group in the ungrammatical condition was at verb + 3, a later post-verbal region, revisiting the proposed research questions of the study, hypothesis one was confirmed. the hss processed differently from l2 spanish learners. this is not an effect of proficiency, because both l2 groups pattern one another in terms of their reading times. heritage and l2 spanish reading times were different, precisely because heritage reaction times resembled the ones of the traditional native group. this leads us to the unconfirmed second hypothesis: hss did display reading patterns similar to the traditional native group of the experiment. between group, analyses point at how hss only differed from the traditional native group at verb + 3 for the ungrammatical condition. these results seem to support recent investigations which signal modest advantages hss hold with regards to grammatical knowledge. in particular, recent investigations have pointed at the positive value of earlier spanish acquisition in sequential hss with exposure to spanish from birth by at least one of the parents (cuza & frank, 2015; montrul et al., 2014; pascual y cabo & gómez soler, 2015). cuza and frank (2015) have commented on heritage advantages deriving from spanish exposure over a long period of time when rich spanish input has been received since childhood. the availability of rich grammatical input may grant hss a benefit in analyzing grammatical structures intuitively. montrul et al. (2014) have also offered comments on how age of acquisition and early language experiences may allow hss to perform in more target-like ways than l2 learners, when accessing spanish gender online. pascual y cabo and gómez soler (2015) concluded that their group of sequential bilinguals had similar patterns to the control group of native speakers in analyzing preposition stranding, mainly due to later onset of the dominant language (english) and for sequential bilinguals only. we anticipated the heritage group would display unique characteristics, but not exactly like a traditional native group. heritage reaction times were close to the ones of the traditional native group in terms of length. it is possible that frequent interactions from birth in the spanish language that have continued into adulthood have conferred hss the ability to maintain control of basic sv agreement in spanish. however, this is not to say that the l2 participants did not show any knowledge of sv sentences. within-group comparisons indicated the l2 group of comparable heritage proficiency processed similarly to the hss at verb + 3 in the ungrammatical condition. both groups displayed delayed sensitivity. as some participants in the new group of l2 learners of the experiment were spanish instructors, they may review basic sv structures frequently for lectures. however, this was not the case of the l2 low intermediate group who read ungrammatical sentences faster. this signals emergence in their sv spanish system and difficulties with the strong verbal features of spanish. turning back to the heritage group of the study, they seem to possess a linguistic benefit for earlier exposure to the home language in childhood (cuza & frank, 2015; montrul et al., 2014). consequently, they may not necessarily profit from the same curriculum intended for late l2 learners, but rather from an accelerated and distinctive track tailored to their specific needs. in the real world, however, there seems to be a mismatch between these ideal goals and heritage course offerings at many post-secondary institutions. hss are sometimes placed in the same classroom with l2 learners not matched in proficiency (potowski, parada, & morgan-short, 2012). at other times, there are heritage courses focusing solely on basic tenses of spanish, or on cultural content. many large colleges in the united states have only one course oriented toward hss (beaudrie, 2015). it is only recently that some schools have designed and implemented a dedicated heritage track (bowles, 2011; carreira & kagan, 2011). assuming that hss control the core of their l1 grammar, they can heritage and l2 processing e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 27 expand this knowledge to higher order, more complex structures of latter acquisition. in this regard, potowski et al. (2009) have analyzed the effects of processing instruction (pi) lessons with the spanish subjunctive on heritage students. this pedagogical intervention, however, did not produce as large an effect on them as it did on the l2 counterparts. montrul and bowles (2009) centered on explicit uses of the indirect marker “a” with gustar verb forms to instruct hss. their findings also support the idea of limited gains in heritage participants, as opposed to larger improvement in l2 learners. we believe it would be important to address the effects of heritage interventions over several semesters of study, given hss lack of formal grammatical instruction in the l1. we expand some of these ideas in the final section. 6. limitations and further research any formal study has areas that can be further improved. inclusion of comprehension questions in english and not in spanish given the group of low intermediate l2 participants somehow limited the overall experimental design. we believed, however, that comprehension questions in spanish could have imposed additional cognitive challenges on the low l2 group after reading the word by word input. because of this, we opted to follow keating et al. (2011) and vanpatten et al. (2012), who also included english comprehension questions with advanced and low intermediate participants. another limitation of the study is that proficiency could have been controlled more precisely across the traditional natives, the hss, and the more advanced group of learners in order to remove any doubt of a confounding variable. in addition, we relied on the results of the self-paced reading task for the analyses, and did not include a production measure of any kind. in terms of the inferential statistics reported, t-tests are limited to the processing of present tense and to the sv sentences used in the study. no aspectual variations in verbs (preterite, imperfect) or mood (indicative, subjunctive) were part of the experiment. not all sv sentences carried the same number of words and regions, which is another of the limitations in the experimental design. we concur with cuza and frank (2015) that heritage research should expand beyond grammatical intuition tasks and employ other methods to investigate heritage grammatical knowledge. for instance, differences between two or more heritage groups with and without grammatical instruction over more than one semester of study should be documented. given that hss may represent multiple linguistic populations (intermediate, advanced, near-native, native-like) in a single sample, tighter proficiency controls should be in place to compare patterns between two or more heritage groups. we hope the present study will add to ongoing research that heritage linguistic performance diverges from the one exhibited by l2 learners. the on-line task we have employed documented unconscious responses from all groups. we believe it resembles the pressures of classroom instruction where quick processing is in place. it appears that hss could benefit from a separate curriculum in the spanish classroom. we conclude that early bilingualism has conferred them an advantage to control basic sv agreement in spanish with respect to l2 learners. acknowledgements an earlier version of this project was presented at the 2nd symposium on spanish as a heritage language at texas tech university in february 2015. we thank the audience members for their questions and general feedback which now figure in the article. we are also grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments in subsequent revisions of the manuscript, and to michael leeser and gretchen sunderman for their insightful observations. we owe gratitude to daniel solis for his assistance with additional statistical analyses. all remaining errors herein are our own. references albirini, abdulkafi, benmamoun, elabbas, & charkrani, brahim (2013). gender and number agreement in the oral production of arabic heritage speakers. bilingualism, language and cognition, 16(1), 1-18. rodríguez & reglero 28 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 au, terry, knightly, leah, jun, sun-ah, & oh, janet (2002). overhearing a language during childhood. psychological science, 13(3), 238-243. beaudrie, sara (2015). approaches to language variation: goals and objectives of the spanish heritage language syllabus. heritage language journal, 12(1), 1-21. benmamoun, elabbas, montrul, silvina, & polinsky, maría. 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(2012). missing verbal inflections as a representational problem: evidence from self-paced reading. linguistic approaches to bilingualism, 2(2), 109-140. vanpatten, bill, & jegerski, jill (2013). research methods in second language psycholinguistics. new york, new york: routledge. zagona, karen (2002). the syntax of spanish. cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. rodríguez & reglero 30 e-journall 2(2) (2015), pp. 11-30 estrella rodríguez, florida state university ecrodriguez@fsu.edu en estrella rodríguez is research faculty and coordinator in the school of communication science & disorders at florida state university. she specializes in bilingual literacy interventions for dual language learners. her research extends to child and adult heritage speakers in florida and quebec. es estrella rodríguez es investigadora y coordinadora de la escuela de ciencias y desórdenes de la comunicación de la florida state university. se ha especializado en literacidad bilingüe para aprendientes simultáneos de dos lenguas. sus ámbitos de investigación incluyen, además, a hablantes de lenguas de herencia jóvenes y adultos en florida y quebec. it estrella rodríguez è ricercatrice e coordinatrice della school of communication science & disorders alla florida state university. è specializzata in alfabetizzazione bilingue per apprendenti simultanei di due lingue. i suoi ambiti di ricerca si estendono a parlanti di lingue ereditarie giovani e adulti di florida e quebec. lara reglero, florida state university lreglero@fsu.edu en lara reglero is associate professor of spanish in the department of modern languages and linguistics at florida state university. she specializes in syntax, the syntax-phonology interface and language acquisition. her work has appeared published in journals such as probus, studia linguistica, and the linguistic review. es lara reglero es profesora adjunta de lengua española en el departamento de lenguas modernas y lingüística de la florida state univeristy. se ha especializado en el estudio de la sintaxis, la interrelación entre sintaxis y fonología y el aprendizaje de lenguas. sus trabajos han sido publicados en revistas como probus, studia linguistica, y the linguistic review. it lara reglero è professoressa associata di spagnolo presso il dipartimento di lingue moderne e linguistica della florida state university. è specializzata in sintassi, interfaccia sintassi-fonologia e acquisizione del linguaggio. i suoi articoli sono apparsi su riviste come probus, studia linguistica e the linguistic review. microsoft word nalleligarcía_publish.docx e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 3, issue 1, september 2016, pages 23-42 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.4.62 www.e-journall.org © nalleli garcía 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. *1contacto: alba.garcia@rom.unibe.ch marcadores discursivos indicadores de cortesía de la variedad mexicana. un enfoque pluricéntrico para su enseñanza en ele alba nalleli garcía agüero*1 universität bern received 10 september 2015; received in revised form 28 february 2016; accepted 10 july 2016 abstract es en este artículo se discute la importancia que comportan la enseñanza y la adquisición de los marcadores discursivos conversacionales para el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa de los estudiantes de e/le. se asume que los marcadores discursivos permiten, además de conectar oraciones y otorgar al texto cohesión y coherencia, inferir la intención comunicativa del hablante y que algunos de ellos pueden funcionar como índices de cortesía verbal. asimismo, sostenemos la validez de enseñar el español desde una postura pluricéntrica de la lengua. por tal razón, exploramos los marcadores conversacionales de la variedad mexicana que indican cortesía con el fin de ofrecer una propuesta de categorización de tales marcadores y unos modelos de actividades didácticas para el/la enseñante de e/le. consideramos que al esclarecer las funciones que dichas partículas cumplen, el profesor/la profesora puede propiciar la ampliación del conocimiento del estudiante sobre otras variedades del español, así como suscitar la reflexión sobre las diferencias de algunas normas de cortesía verbal en las distintas culturas hispánicas, logrando con ello el fortalecimiento de la competencia pragmática de los alumnos. palabras clave: enseñanza-adquisición de e/le, marcadores discursivos conversacionales, cortesía verbal, español de méxico. en this article addresses the importance of teaching and acquiring conversational discourse markers in the development of l2 spanish speakers’ communicative competence. it is assumed that discourse markers, in addition to connecting sentences and giving cohesion and coherence to a text, permit the inference of a speaker’s communicative intention, and sometimes function as indexes of verbal courtesy. moreover, the validity of teaching spanish from a pluricentric position is supported. within this framework, conversational courtesy markers used in mexican spanish are explored in order to offer a categorization and some sample teaching activities for the l2 spanish classroom. these materials are intended to be used by an instructor to explain the functions of the conversational courtesy markers in order to foster the expansion of student knowledge of other varieties of spanish, to prompt reflection on differences between norms of verbal courtesy in different hispanic cultural heritages, and to thus strengthen students’ pragmatic competence. key words: teaching and learning spanish l2, conversational discourse markers, verbal politeness, mexican spanish. it questo articolo prende in esame l’importanza dell’insegnamento e dell’apprendimento dei marcatori discorsivi conversazionali per lo sviluppo della competenza comunicativa degli studenti e delle studentesse di spagnolo come lingua straniera. i marcatori discorsivi, oltre a connettere tra loro le proposizioni e fornire al testo coesione e coerenza, vengono qui riconosciuti come elementi che trasmettono le intenzioni comunicative di chi parla e fungono da indicatori della cortesia verbale. al tempo stesso, si sostiene l’efficacia di un metodo di insegnamento dello spagnolo da una perspettiva pluricentrica della lingua. in questo quadro teorico, si analizzano i marcatori della conversazione che indicano cortesia nella variante di spagnolo messicano con il fine di offrire agli insegnanti di spagnolo come lingua straniera una proposta di categorizzazione di tali marcatori e dei modelli di attività pedagogiche per il loro insegnamento. mediante l’utilizzo di questi materiali, l’insegnante può fare chiarezza sulle funzioni di queste parti del discorso con l’obiettivo di ampliare la conoscenza dello/a studente/essa includendo diverse varietà dello spagnolo e spingerlo/a a riflettere sulle differenze tra le norme di cortesia verbale di diverse culture ispaniche, rafforzando così la sua competenza pragmatica. parole chiave: insegnamento e acquisizione dello spagnolo l2, marcatori discorsivi conversazionali, cortesia verbale, spagnolo messicano. garcía agüero 24 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 1. introducción 1.1 los marcadores discursivos y su tratamiento en manuales de ele la atención que se ha puesto al estudio de los marcadores discursivos es relativamente nueva (carbonero cano & santana marrero, 2010). la lingüística, en especial sus vertientes textual, analíticodiscursiva y pragmática, ha dirigido la mirada a estas unidades a partir de los años setenta, una vez agotada la teoría del código y desarrollada la concepción inferencial de la comunicación (lópez serena & borreguero zuloaga, 2010, p. 416). estas unidades que funcionan a nivel supraoracional no solo conectan oraciones y otorgan al texto cohesión y coherencia, sino que también guían las inferencias del interlocutor, ya que son indicadores de la intención comunicativa del hablante (martín zorraquino & portolés lázaro, 1999, p. 4057). por lo anterior, el estudio de los marcadores discursivos ha sido de gran ayuda para entender cómo fluye el discurso y se estructura el habla. en virtud de estas cualidades, los enfoques más recientes de la didáctica de las lenguas, entre ellos la didáctica comunicativa, han dedicado especial interés a estos elementos, pues su comprensión y dominio por parte del estudiante le permitirán alcanzar el principal objetivo de este enfoque didáctico: usar la lengua correctamente de acuerdo al contexto y alcanzar determinados objetivos comunicativos. sin embargo, aun cuando se han tomado en cuenta estas unidades discursivas en los programas de estudio del español como lengua extranjera, el tratamiento que se les ha dado no ha sido el más adecuado (fernández barjola, 2008; fuentes rodríguez, 2010). a pesar de que los marcadores discursivos de la oralidad aparecen constantemente en los manuales de español como lengua extranjera desde los primeros niveles (véanse álvarez martínez, blanco canales, vega de la fuente martínez, sanz sánchez, & torrens álvarez, 2003; castells fernández, lohmann, & santiso saco, 2012; görrissen et al., 2010; sánchez pérez, espinet solé, & cantos gómez, 2001), a diferencia del tratamiento de los marcadores que cumplen una función lógicoargumentativa (lópez serena & borreguero zuloaga, 2010, pp. 461-470), llamados también conectores, y que son empleados prioritariamente en la lengua escrita, su tratamiento es aún más marginal. así pues, el presente trabajo parte de la suposición de que algunos marcadores conversacionales poseen un valor pragmático agregado de cortesía. además, conscientes de que tanto las reglas corteses como los marcadores que las reflejan no son los mismos en todas las variedades del español, nos dimos a la tarea de recoger los marcadores pertenecientes a la variedad mexicana que se emplean en la interacción oral con una carga cortés. abordar el estudio de este tipo de unidades nos resulta muy importante, ya que, como lo estipulan los dos grandes sistemas de aprendizaje, enseñanza y examinación de idiomas, las guidelines del american council on the teaching of foreign languages (actfl, 2012) y el marco común europeo de referencia (mcer, consejo de europa, 2002), el conocimiento de las convenciones culturales y su reflejo en las producciones lingüísticas determinan el nivel de dominio de una le/l2 (actfl, 2012, pp. 1-2), razón por la cual son criterios de evaluación. además, el mcer (consejo de europa, 2002, pp. 13-4 y 116-117), señala las normas de cortesía como parte de la competencia sociolingüística, cuyo desarrollo es indispensable para el buen funcionamiento de la interacción social. 1.2 la enseñanza del español a partir de una visión pluricéntrica de la lengua en los últimos años se ha venido desarrollando una reflexión sobre la norma académica peninsular como único paradigma lingüístico (zimmermann, 2006, pp. 565-566). en este marco, ha surgido una valoración del resto de las variedades que funcionan también como estándares y una concientización sobre el derecho de utilizarlas en la enseñanza del español (beaven & garrrido, 2000; leonhardt, 2012; martínez pérsico, 2013). de hecho, instituciones normativas como el instituto cervantes (véase el plan curricular del instituto cervantes [pcic], instituto cervantes, 2006) y la real academia española (rae, 2009) han demostrado la voluntad de incentivar una política panhispánica que tome en cuenta otras variedades estándares. entre estas variedades que se han erigido como normativas está la mexicana, como lo han apuntado varios lingüistas (lara, 1982; oesterreicher, 2002; zimmermann, 2006). en este marco panhispánico, una de las ventajas de la inclusión en los programas de e/le de materiales realizados a partir de otras variedades de la lengua española es que permite la reflexión sobre las divergencias entre las variedades nacionales del español en el ámbito semántico y pragmático. según zimmermann (2006), estas divergencias se encuentran principalmente en los “aspectos interculturales” (p. 571), entre los que destaca la cortesía, que podría conllevar malentendidos entre los hablantes de variedades diferentes debido a las diferencias pragmalingüísticas entre una cultura y otra. estas diferencias pragmáticas, por ejemplo, se observan entre la cultura peninsular y la mexicana (briz gómez, 2011; curcó & de fina, marcadores discursivos de la cortesía e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 25 2002): en españa se utilizan menos atenuantes y contrastes melódicos que en méxico, donde se brinda mucha más importancia a la imagen positiva del interlocutor (curcó & de fina, 2002). por todo lo anterior, en esta contribución queremos ofrecer una propuesta de categorización de los marcadores que indican cortesía verbal que se utilizan en la variedad mexicana. algunos de estos marcadores son utilizados con las mismas funciones en la variedad peninsular; tal es el caso de hombre, bueno, claro, etc. otros, en cambio, son propios del habla de méxico, como ándale, órale, sale o el marcador güey, que incluso se ha convertido en una marca indexical de mexicanidad (bucholtz, 2009). la clasificación se basa en una selección de corpus recogidos por especialistas que han realizado estudios de tipo cuantitativo y cualitativo sobre el uso y la frecuencia de las partículas discursivas de méxico (flores, 2014; martín butragueño, 2003; palacios, 2003; vázquez, 2012, 2013, 2015; vigueras, 2014). con todo, no es nuestro objetivo hacer una recolección exhaustiva de estas unidades, sino brindar una guía de referencia al enseñante de e/le que desee adoptar una postura pluricéntrica y se interese por el español de méxico. asimismo, esperamos que esta clasificación ayude al desarrollo de ejercicios y unidades didácticas para la enseñanza de los marcadores discursivos. 2. nuestra aproximación pragmática al estudio de la cortesía verbal la cortesía —sobre todo en español— como fenómeno de comunicación ha sido estudiada principalmente en el marco de la pragmática y su estudio se ha abordado desde diferentes enfoques (placencia & garcía, 2007, p. 369) que oscilan entre aquellos de tipo pragmalingüístico (estudios de las estructuras formales y las funciones de la cortesía, véanse briz, 2004, 2011; haverkate, 2004), los de tipo cognitivo (estudios de los procesos mentales que toman parte en las dinámicas de cortesía verbal, véanse bousfield, 2008; christie, 2007; escandell vidal, 1998), y los de corte sociocultural (que ponen la mirada en los contextos en que se desarrolla la comunicación cortés, véanse bravo, 2004, 2005; scollon & scollon, 1995). asimismo, bajo estos enfoques se ha tratado de determinar si la cortesía verbal es un fenómeno sociorelacional o es cognitivo individual (escandell vidal, 1995; 1998); si se trata de una estrategia o si es una convención (bravo, 2004; briz gómez, 2004; escandell vidal, 1995); si es un fenómeno universal o no (kerbrat-orecchioni, 2004); si posee capacidad creativa o es más bien automática (escandell vidal, 1995). esta variedad de enfoques en el estudio de la cortesía ha provocado controversia, sin haberse podido llegar a un consenso para definir la cortesía verbal. en esta contribución abordamos el tema de la cortesía desde una perspectiva pragmalingüística, tomando en consideración los elementos que enmarcan y determinan la comunicación (el contenido comunicado, la actitud del hablante transmitida a través del mensaje, la interpretación del oyente y las condiciones situacionales en que se desarrolla la comunicación), y poniendo especial atención en las unidades lingüísticas. es decir, las formas del lenguaje verbal, específicamente los marcadores del discurso de la oralidad capaces de indicar cortesía, se estudian como estrategias para alcanzar objetivos comunicativos. así pues, la cortesía verbal se considera un fenómeno comunicativo en el que intervienen factores externos al individuo (normas sociales aprendidas), factores internos (procesos cognitivos) y cuyo fin es el de facilitar la relación y los intercambios de los hablantes (función social). 2.1 herramientas teóricas sobre las que se basa nuestra propuesta de clasificación una de las teorías sobre la cortesía verbal que ha tenido una amplia difusión y aplicación es la de brown y levinson (1987) que, a pesar de que se haya criticado su perspectiva abiertamente universalista (eelen, 2001; kerbrat-orecchioni, 2004; lavandera, 1988; placencia & garcía, 2007; watts, 2003), aporta conceptos fundamentales que constituyen las bases sobre las que se ha desarrollado este trabajo. el modelo de brown y levinson parte fundamentalmente de dos nociones: la idea de que la comunicación es una actividad racional que busca alcanzar una meta y la concepción de que cada individuo posee una imagen pública (face) que desea resguardar. la noción de face, propuesta originalmente por el sociólogo erving goffman (1955), fue retomada y expandida por brown y levinson (1987) quienes proponen las nociones de imagen negativa (deseo que cada individuo tiene de que su libertad de acción y su espacio sean respetados) e imagen positiva (deseo de ser aprobado, comprendido o admirado por los demás). ambas imágenes no son opuestas, sino que “se trata de dos componentes complementarios de la identidad social” (kerbrat-orecchioni, 2004, p. 41). debido a que cada hablante posee una imagen pública, se dan casos en los que la comunicación entre individuos puede llegar a producir un acto amenazador de imagen (face threatening act, en adelante fta). de acuerdo con brown y levinson, la mayoría de los actos que los garcía agüero 26 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 individuos realizan de manera cotidiana son fta (1987, pp. 65 y 73) y atentan contra la necesidad universal de imagen (face-want) y el buen desarrollo de la comunicación. ante esta continua amenaza de la imagen, se pone en marcha el trabajo de imagen (face work), concepto que se refiere a las estrategias con las cuales los hablantes intentan proteger tanto la imagen de su interlocutor como la propia. este modelo fue sucesivamente ampliado por kerbrat-orecchioni (2004, pp. 43-46), que afirma que, si bien muchas de las estrategias sirven para limitar los posibles daños causados por los fta, existen también unos actos que valorizan la imagen del interlocutor a los cuales propone llamar actos agradadores de imagen (face flattering acts, en adelante ffa). en este modelo, existen dos tipos de estrategias de cortesía que cumplen con una función reparadora de los fta o reforzadora de los ffa: a) la cortesía negativa, es decir, las estrategias utilizadas para no interferir con la libertad de acción del oyente, evitar la imposición el hablante, y así evitar o atenuar los fta, y b) la cortesía positiva, la utilización de recursos que hacen que el oyente se sienta aceptado y valorado por el hablante, y que refuerzan ffa. así, para que una interacción se lleve a cabo de una manera armónica, es necesario que intervenga el trabajo de imagen con el fin de contrarrestar o prevenir los fta. este objetivo se logra mediante una serie de estrategias de cortesía que permiten poner a salvo las imágenes de los interlocutores. según briz gómez (2005, pp. 53-54), estas estrategias son el medio para alcanzar objetivos específicos, principalmente de negociación y acuerdo. desde esta postura, el objetivo de los participantes de una conversación no es solamente el de transmitir un mensaje, sino también el de obtener la aceptación por parte de su interlocutor. para ello, los interlocutores ponen en práctica diferentes estrategias corteses. tales mecanismos son agrupados por landone (2009, pp. 173-232) en tres categorías pragmalingüísticas: a) los mecanismos relacional-dialógicos, que comprenden las estrategias de proximidad y negociación; b) los mecanismos de intensidad, que abarcan las dinámicas de atenuación e intensificación, y c) los mecanismos de especificidad, que incluyen las estrategias de enfocar y desenfocar. entre los mecanismos relacional-dialógicos, la proximidad se refiere a la distancia relacional que existe entre los interlocutores. esa noción está muy presente en los estudios de cortesía verbal y fue difundida por brown y levinson (1987), los cuales basan las dinámicas de cortesía en el distanciamiento (cortesía negativa) y el acercamiento (cortesía positiva) al interlocutor ante un acto amenazador. la modulación de la distancia dependerá de varios factores, entre los que se encuentran la cultura, el contexto comunicativo, la relación entre los interlocutores, el rol social jerárquico que cumple un hablante frente a otro, etc. por otra parte, la negociación es un mecanismo fundamental dentro de la dinámica conversacional, ya que es a través de ella que se persigue llegar al acuerdo que, como sostiene briz gómez (2011, p. 15), es el propósito de la interacción verbal. la negociación se manifiesta y desarrolla a través de mecanismos de acuerdo y desacuerdo. el acuerdo se revela con señales verbales y no verbales por parte del interlocutor que, en realidad o aparentemente, satisfacen la intención del hablante e indican colaboración para continuar la línea conversacional. el desacuerdo se mueve en dirección opuesta, es decir, mediante señales que dejan intuir al hablante que el interlocutor no comparte la opinión. así pues, mientras que con las manifestaciones de acuerdo se halaga la imagen del hablante, con los mecanismos de desacuerdo se pone en peligro dicha imagen, por lo que, para poder sostener la armonía dentro de la conversación, es necesario recurrir a estrategias de compensación. la categoría intensidad está estrechamente relacionada con la cortesía verbal porque comprende los recursos que modulan la fuerza ilocutiva de los actos lingüísticos (landone, 2009, p. 189). tales recursos son la atenuación o mitigación y la intensificación. la atenuación o mitigación implica cortesía ya que se trata de la operación lingüística que realiza el hablante con el fin de reducir la fuerza ilocutiva de su acto de habla: la atenuación, como categoría pragmalingüística, es una operación lingüística estratégica de minimización de lo dicho y del punto de vista, así pues, vinculada a la actividad argumentativa y de negociación del acuerdo, que es el fin último de toda conversación. (briz gómez, 2005, p. 56) como explica briz gómez (2011, p. 18), la atenuación es un fenómeno semántico-pragmático. semántico, porque conlleva una menor precisión de significado, y pragmático, porque es una estrategia que induce un proceso ostensivo-inferencial (sperber & wilson, 1986). por lo tanto, el fenómeno de la atenuación está sometido a la interpretación por parte del destinatario, y depende del contexto en que se formula y está codificado. la atenuación participa en actividades de imagen e implica ambos tipos de cortesía. por una parte, implica cortesía negativa porque al mitigar el acto de habla se busca preservar el territorio del oyente y/o reparar los daños que han provocado los fta. por otra parte, refleja cortesía positiva porque funciona como marcadores discursivos de la cortesía e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 27 mecanismo de protección del yo, ya que, mediante la no imposición, el hablante busca ganar el reconocimiento del interlocutor y la negociación con él. la intensificación, por otra parte, implica el realce de la fuerza ilocutiva de un acto de habla. esta estrategia se realiza mediante mecanismos lingüísticos que enfatizan el punto de vista del hablante o una parte de su enunciado y, como la atenuación, persigue efectos perlocutivos. así pues, mientras la atenuación protege las imágenes de ambos interlocutores reduciendo los daños que provocan los fta (cortesía negativa), la intensificación refuerza los ffa (cortesía positiva). por esta razón, la intensificación está vinculada a la noción semántico-pragmática de acercamiento (briz gómez, 2011, p. 14), ya que, a través de la intensificación, se busca la aproximación al interlocutor mediante la evocación de sentimientos afiliativos. con todo, es importante señalar que tanto la atenuación como la intensificación son estrategias que no se usan siempre con fines corteses, ya que su función es la de mitigar o resaltar la fuerza ilocutiva de un acto de habla. la intensificación, por ejemplo, sirve para enfatizar también actos de habla descorteses y por esta razón la carga cortés o descortés dependerá del tipo de acto que se intensifique. por su parte, la tercera categoría, la especificidad, se entiende como la modulación de la precisión referencial (landone, 2009, p. 219). de acuerdo con landone (2009, pp. 219 y 221), se trata de una categoría pragmática todavía no bien definida debido a que algunos teóricos la consideran parte de la intensidad, es decir, como un recurso de mitigación. sin embargo, aclara landone que, mientras que la atenuación reduce la fuerza ilocutiva de un acto, la especificidad comprende mecanismos con los que se difumina o se precisa el referente o su enunciado. además, se ha considerado la especificidad como mecanismo de distanciamientoacercamiento, con lo cual se entrelaza con la categoría de proximidad. haciendo un intento por aclarar este concepto, diremos pues que la especificidad sí posee la cualidad de proximidad, pero no a nivel relacional con el interlocutor, sino de distancia-acercamiento del hablante con su enunciado. así pues, enfocar/desenfocar se podrían definir como dos dinámicas de la especificidad que indican un mayor o menor involucramiento o responsabilidad del hablante con su enunciado. en este sentido, al hacer uso de la estrategia de focalización se pone en evidencia la identidad del hablante o del interlocutor, por ejemplo, con recursos que resaltan el parámetro epistémico (conocimiento cierto) como en la aserción yo digo que; estoy seguro. la estrategia de desenfoque, por otra parte, implica la falta de precisión y responsabilidad del hablante respecto a su enunciación, como sucede en las construcciones impersonales o las pasivas sin agente. sin embargo, de los dos mecanismos mencionados, solamente la estrategia de desenfoque comporta cortesía, ya que, por un lado, el hablante protege su imagen al no responsabilizarse de la enunciación, y por otro, al usar esta estrategia remite a una de las máximas de estas teorías, es decir, a la regla establecida por robin lakoff (1973, pp. 298299) que establece la no imposición como señal cortés. 3. los marcadores discursivos conversacionales como índices de cortesía verbal los estudios de la cortesía verbal en español han demostrado que hay elementos lingüísticos que pueden funcionar como índices de cortesía verbal. entre estos elementos se encuentran los marcadores del discurso que, según la definición de martín zorraquino y portolés lázaro (1999, p. 4057), son unidades lingüísticas invariables, no ejercen una función sintáctica en el marco de la predicación oracional –son pues, elementos marginales– y poseen un cometido coincidente en el discurso: el de guiar de acuerdo con sus distintas propiedades morfosintácticas, semánticas y pragmáticas, las inferencias que se realizan en la comunicación. el hecho de que los marcadores discursivos no contribuyan directamente al significado conceptual de los enunciados, sino que orienten las inferencias del interlocutor, les permite actuar de manera estratégica dentro del discurso con fines corteses. sin embargo, debido a que la mayor parte de los recursos comunicativos tienen algún grado de convencionalización (bravo, 2004, p. 27), los marcadores del discurso pueden funcionar de manera estratégica pero sujetos, en mayor o menor medida, a significados codificados a partir de los cuales se iniciará el proceso que permitirá al interlocutor inferir cierto comportamiento cortés. en este sentido, podemos decir que los marcadores discursivos no reflejan per se cortesía verbal, sino que son solamente indicios de cortesía que necesitan combinarse con otras señales para ser percibidos como tales. garcía agüero 28 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 3.1 marcadores discursivos conversacionales que expresan cortesía en el español mexicano para la realización de nuestra propuesta de clasificación nos hemos basado en la terminología de especialistas en cortesía y partículas discursivas (landone, 2009; lópez serena & borreguero zuloaga, 2010; martín zorraquino y portolés lázaro, 1999) que se han encargado de agrupar los marcadores que pueden indicar de forma metalingüística una señal de modulación de cortesía en el ámbito conversacional. a partir de estas propuestas, recogemos los marcadores conversacionales que aparecen de manera cotidiana en la variedad mexicana –muchos de los cuales, como ya habíamos adelantado, coinciden en uso con los de la variedad peninsular– que actúan estratégicamente modulando la intensidad, la especificidad, la proximidad y la negociación dentro de las relaciones dialógicas con el afán de salvaguardar la imagen propia y la del interlocutor. citaremos los marcadores de la variedad culta del español de méxico (vigueras, 2014), sin dejar de mencionar algunos marcadores del registro coloquial que indexan fuertemente la identidad mexicana. 3.1.1 marcadores discursivos conversacionales que modulan la proximidad dentro de los marcadores de la oralidad que acortan la distancia relacional entre los interlocutores se encuentran los señalados por martín zorraquino y portolés lázaro (1999) como enfocadores de la alteridad, ya que “orientan sobre la forma como el hablante se sitúa en relación con su interlocutor en la interacción comunicativa” (p. 4081). nos referimos a marcadores como hombre, mujer, mira/mire, oye/oiga. estas partículas remiten al oyente y señalan cortesía positiva porque acortan la distancia relacional. sin embargo, es importante apuntar que dichas unidades pueden indicar simpatía y cordialidad pero, como lo demuestra martín butragueño en su estudio sobre la prosodia de los marcadores discursivos en el español de méxico (2003), marcadores como mira/mire, oye/oiga, pueden asociarse también a efectos estilísticos de enojo y amenaza. en el siguiente ejemplo (martín butragueño, 2003, p. 394) el hablante advierte a su interlocutor que ya no está dispuesto a soportar el malestar que este le causa introduciendo su turno mediante el marcador mira. 1) mira ¡ya estuvo suave! [amenaza] propio de la variedad mexicana y perteneciente únicamente al registro informal es el marcador güey. esta voz, de uso muy frecuente en el habla popular de méxico, propicia un sentido de confianza y camaradería entre los hablantes, así como de identificación intergrupal. además de imprimir un sentido de familiaridad en el trato de los participantes, su función comunicativa es la de enfatizar lo dicho anteriormente y de segmentar la información en los turnos narrativos (zimmermann, 1996, p. 499). el enfocador de la alteridad güey predomina en las conversaciones de los jóvenes (palacios, 2002) y se ha vuelto una marca indexical de la variedad mexicana (bucholtz, 2009) e incluso “ha llegado a convertirse en un estereotipo de las representaciones de personajes juveniles en el cine, la televisión, el teatro, etcétera” (palacios, 2002, p. 227). véase un ejemplo (bucholtz, 2009, pp. 17-21) de las funciones que cumple este marcador (indica confianza, segmenta y enfatiza la información): 2) chris: ahí tengo todavía la boleta, güey. chilango: ¿trescientos sesenta [ausencias], güey? chris: como lo de un año, güey. chilango: por eso digo, güey. no mames. ya casi… ¿fuiste cinco días a clase, o qué? chris: no, güey. no, güey. pero, ya ves que son ocho clases […] y en todas esas clases, tuve trescientas y sesenta y algo faltas. pero iba a los concursos […] iba a puerto vallarta, güey, a, a las playas a concursar, güey. y llegaba y todos los profes me ponían mi diez, güey. otros marcadores que contribuyen al acercamiento con el interlocutor porque lo implican directamente, marcando confianza, son fíjate, imagínate, verás, sabes, entiendes (martín zorraquino & portolés lázaro, 1999, p. 4187). similar a los anteriores, el marcador ya sabes es índice de cortesía positiva, pues el que habla da por sentado que su interlocutor conoce de antemano aquello a lo que se refiere, ponderando con esto al que escucha. marcadores discursivos de la cortesía e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 29 3.1.2 marcadores conversacionales que modulan la negociación durante la conversación, la negociación estratégica y colaborativa es regulada por varios tipos de marcadores entre los que se encuentran los denominados por martín zorraquino y portolés lázaro marcadores de modalidad deóntica (1999, p. 4081). estas unidades expresan actitudes relacionadas con la expresión de la voluntad, es decir, indican que el interlocutor admite, consiente o confirma (bueno, está bien), pero también que no acepta o no confirma (ni hablar, en absoluto, de ninguna manera, etc.). solo tomaremos en cuenta los primeros, pues únicamente estos advierten cortesía verbal positiva. algunos de estos marcadores cumplen funciones de cooperación cuando expresan acuerdo con el hablante por lo que lópez serena y borreguero zuloaga (2010, pp. 443-453) los clasifican con el nombre de marcadores de reacción colaborativa. en la variedad mexicana encontramos bien, de acuerdo, desde luego, cómo no, claro y bueno. este último, de acuerdo con el estudio de vigueras (2014), resultó ser el marcador de modalidad deóntica más utilizado por sus informantes. asimismo, vigueras demostró que la aparición de bueno se ha mostrado con mayor recurrencia en méxico durante los últimos años. en un registro informal, los marcadores que expresan acuerdo con el hablante son va, sale, ándale/ándele y órale. nos detenemos un poco en estos dos últimos, ya que son exclusivos de la variedad mexicana. de acuerdo con el estudio de flores (2014), ándale/ándele y órale comparten casi las mismas funciones comunicativas en el discurso oral de carácter únicamente coloquial. como muchos de los marcadores discursivos, son polifuncionales: ambos son usados para expresar una orden, una conminación, para invitar, animar, manifestar acuerdo, sorpresa, intensificar una petición o ruego y funcionan como fórmula de cierre. las funciones en las que difieren son las de criticar/evaluar y manifestar recepción del mensaje, que según flores (2014) son propias solo de órale. así pues, estas unidades pueden advertir cortesía cuando funcionan como marcadores de modalidad deóntica y expresan acuerdo, como en el ejemplo 3 (navarro, 2005, p. 61), o, como se verá posteriormente, cuando concluyen un intercambio comunicativo, refuerzan o reiteran la aserción del interlocutor (solo ándale) y cuando confirman la recepción de información (solo órale). 3) ándale pues, te presto mi carro. de acuerdo con la propuesta de lópez serena y borreguero zuloaga (2010, pp. 449-450), dentro de la función interaccional, se encuentra un grupo de marcadores que permiten la fluidez de la dinámica conversacional de manera colaborativa; se trata de los marcadores que cumplen una función de control de la recepción por parte del hablante que incluyen ¿sabes?, ¿me entiendes?, ¿comprendes?, ¿ves?, ¿ya sabes?, ¿me explico? dichos marcadores son comunes en las interacciones de mexicanos y pueden fungir también como estrategia cortés de cesión de turno de palabra. dentro de esta misma categoría de negociación encontramos algunos marcadores que lópez serena y borreguero zuloaga califican como marcadores de petición de confirmación. en la variedad mexicana los marcadores que clasifican dentro de esta clase son ¿no?, ¿o no?, ¿verdad?, ¿no es cierto?, ¿a poco no? (este último usado solo en contextos informales). tales unidades pueden cumplir también con una función de cesión de turno de palabra que implica cortesía positiva debido a que se otorga al interlocutor la oportunidad de dar su opinión cuando se tiene la certeza que confirmará lo apenas dicho. sin embargo, estos marcadores podrían representar un fta para el oyente, ya que, al pedir directamente la opinión del interlocutor, comportan una intromisión en su espacio. piénsese, por ejemplo, en una situación en la que un profesor, después de haber dado una explicación teórica, se dirige sorpresivamente a uno de los estudiantes cediéndole la palabra con un marcador como ¿o no? un caso así podría crear angustia en el estudiante que no esté preparado, por lo que dicho marcador no cumpliría con la función de estrategia cortés. por el contrario, este marcador reflejaría una señal de cortesía positiva si durante una pausa entre clases un compañero le dice a otro para iniciar la conversación y cederle la palabra: “hoy hace mucho frío, ¿no?” una vez más se observa que los marcadores pueden o no servir como estrategias corteses, todo depende del acto de habla que acompañen, es decir, de la intención comunicativa del hablante, y en general, del contexto en el que se realiza la interacción. además, se incluyen en el grupo de marcadores de negociación las unidades que indican que el intercambio comunicativo está por concluir y que pertenecen al registro informal: sale, ándale/ándele y órale, que frecuentemente reforzados por el marcador pues resultan en las formas sale pues; ándele pues; órale pues. a este grupo pertenece también el marcador bueno (seguido de pausa) (martín butragueño, 2003), que “a menudo, se usa antes de la clausura de una conversación, en la fase de despedida (preclausura), como si los garcía agüero 30 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 hablantes señalaran su aceptación de la conversación llevada a cabo y su acuerdo en concluirla” (landone, 2009, p. 295). finalmente, también los marcadores de función de contacto conversacional, propuestos por lópez serena y borreguero zuloaga (2010, pp. 450-451), expresan función fática y son índices de cortesía verbal con respecto al hablante, pues a través de ellos el interlocutor señala la recepción de la información y su disponibilidad para seguir escuchando: sí; ya; claro; siiiií (con alargamiento vocálico); sí, sí, sí (reiteraciones); ¡ah!; ¡ajá! (interjecciones); ¿diga?, ¿oiga? (cuando hay problemas de comunicación), órale, a poco. como mencionamos anteriormente, una de las funciones de órale es la de confirmar la recepción del mensaje (flores, 2014, p. 7): 4) i: tengo veinticuatro años/ e: órale / y ¿a qué te dedicas?/ i: trabajo en un bar/ e: en un bar/ i: en un antro/ sí/ e: órale / ¿en cuál antro? en el caso de a poco, vázquez carranza (2015) encontró que esta unidad cumple tres funciones dentro de la interacción: registra como noticia no esperada la información recibida en el turno anterior, muestra sorpresa y pide la confirmación de esa información. vázquez carranza (2015) sostiene que las funciones que a poco despliega lo determinan como un escepticismo ritual, ya que al pedir confirmación indica cierto grado de escepticismo. sin embargo, con este marcador no se pone en duda la veracidad de la noticia, sino que se usa como una forma rutinaria para demostrar que la información no era esperada. así pues, este marcador, recurrente en el ámbito conversacional, permite que fluya el intercambio comunicativo ya que el oyente demuestra al hablante su interés por la información recibida al pedir confirmación. a pesar de que esta petición podría significar un fta, vázquez carranza demostró que el elemento de confirmación como respuesta de a poco es mínimo o nulo, es decir, no contiene amplias explicaciones, con lo que podemos deducir que el hablante no se ve obligado a extender su información con una aclaración, como en el siguiente ejemplo2 (vázquez carranza, 2015, p. 4): 5) –tiene como treinta y nueve casi cuarenta. –a poco:: –mhm:: 3.1.3 marcadores discursivos conversacionales que modulan la intensidad en cuanto a los marcadores conversacionales que atenúan la fuerza ilocutiva de los actos que comportan una amenaza para la imagen del interlocutor, se encuentran aquellos que introducen un intercambio conversacional, es decir, los marcadores interaccionales de toma de turno de palabra según la clasificación de lópez serena y borreguero zuloaga (2010, p. 448). estos marcadores funcionan como mitigadores de la invasión del territorio del otro (imagen negativa). estos son: perdón, perdona, disculpe, pero, pues, bueno, mira, oye/oiga, fíjate/fíjese. la reformulación es una estrategia de cortesía verbal no solo porque al reformular se facilita al destinatario la comprensión de la información, sino sobre todo porque mediante esta operación se pueden reparar los daños que ha causado un fta (landone, 2009, pp. 297-303). en este caso, podemos citar los marcadores reformulativos no parafrásticos de lópez serena y borreguero zuloaga (2010), en especial los marcadores de reconsideración como mejor dicho, digo, más bien, o sea, a fin de cuentas, al fin y al cabo, después de todo, en resumidas cuentas y los marcadores de distanciamiento: de todas formas/maneras/modos, de cualquier forma, en cualquier caso. aunque estas autoras no consideran el marcador pues dentro de los reformulativos, es posible que, si bien dicho marcador no introduce una explicación, puede indicar la conclusión de esta. de acuerdo con el estudio de vázquez carranza (2013) sobre el uso de este marcador en la variedad mexicana, en posición final del turno de habla, pues “index clarification and resolution of a problem in interaction; i.e., pues marks the completion of repair” (vázquez carranza, 2013, p. 304). así, mediante pues 2 las transcripciones de los ejemplos 5 y 6 siguen las convenciones establecidas por vázquez carranza (2015). marcadores discursivos de la cortesía e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 31 el hablante cuida su imagen dando por sentado que ha encontrado la explicación adecuada después de problemas previos en la interacción (vázquez carranza, 2013, p. 300): 6) [situación: r, g y v hablan sobre la cena de navidad de r. este ha mencionado que suele comer espagueti verde; v y g preguntan acerca de ese tipo de espagueti.] g: a:h hemos comido verde pero cuando el espagueti es verde/ que es de espinacas v: (asiente con la cabeza) r: creo que es de espinacas g: o sea, el espagueti crudo es verde r: ah sale así verde v: no, yo no he comido así verde g: =>sí:: hemos hecho espagueti verde r: no no no, no que sea blanco y con el guiso se haga verde g: ah no eso no v: eso no. g: =>a eso me refiero pues los marcadores que introducen una justificación funcionan también como una estrategia mitigante. la justificación es un mecanismo que se pone en práctica en situaciones principalmente de rechazo y forma parte de las dinámicas de imagen, ya que se trata de una actitud empática de consideración hacia el hablante que recibe el rechazo. además, sirve de escudo protector de la imagen del interlocutor que enuncia este acto de habla. así, “la justificación es una forma común de mitigación de los actos comisivos, es decir, de respuesta no preferida en pares adyacentes de propuestas, ofertas, invitaciones” (landone, 2009, p. 303). dentro de esta clase tenemos marcadores como es que, pues. estos marcadores –así como bueno–, no solo atenúan el rechazo a un acto comisivo, sino también el desacuerdo con el punto de vista del hablante. el marcador pues, por ejemplo, introduce desacuerdo pero “the design of the disagreement does not include an explicit negation or rejection like [...] ‘no, it is not’; so it is not a dramatically sharp disagreement but instead a delicate one” (vázquez carranza, 2013, p. 291). finalmente, dentro de las unidades de naturaleza mitigadora citaremos los marcadores de relleno. estos comportan cortesía negativa cuando, al igual que los marcadores de justificación, introducen una respuesta no preferida, ya que atenúan los fta y ayudan al hablante a ganar tiempo para pensar en qué quiere decir y la manera como lo hará. por esta razón suelen estar sucedidos por pausas. los marcadores de este tipo de uso frecuente en méxico son bueno…, este…, pues…, eh…. martín zorraquino y portolés lázaro (1999, p. 4199) señalan que el marcador este se emplea con mucha mayor frecuencia en hispanoamérica que en españa y, de acuerdo con soler arechalde (2008) y soler arechalde y serrano (2010), este es un elemento que se escucha insistentemente entre los hablantes de todos los niveles socioculturales en la ciudad de méxico en situaciones informales. aparte de su función de estructurador de la información utilizado para mantener o tomar el turno de habla (martín zorraquino & portolés lázaro, 1999, p. 4081), soler arechalde (2008) y soler arechalde y serrano (2010) comprobaron que esta partícula actúa también como reformulador, autocorrector e indicador de que se está buscando una expresión más precisa o que una enumeración no ha concluido. cuando se utiliza para ganar tiempo con la intención de reflexionar antes de brindar una respuesta no preferida, este refleja cortesía y se presenta con alargamiento de la vocal final seguido por una pausa de longitud variable (martín butragueño, 2003; soler arechalde & serrano, 2010), como en el siguiente ejemplo de soler arechalde y serrano (2010, p. 6): 7) – ¿otra copla quieres?... este... ¿cuál será bueno? pues no, ya no me hagas cantar. no, ya no puedo cantar. en el polo opuesto de la categoría pragmática de intensidad se encuentran los marcadores intensificadores. estos se consideran índices de cortesía positiva porque confirman de manera enfática el discurso del interlocutor y pueden acompañar un acto agradador (ffa), es decir, un halago, un agradecimiento, un cumplido. martín zorraquino y portolés lázaro los nombran como marcadores de modalidad epistémica. estos marcadores presentan el modo en que el hablante considera el mensaje recibido (evidente, conocido, etc.), se usan en enunciados declarativos, refuerzan la aserción sí o no, ratifican el mensaje del interlocutor o le asignan validez y algunos pueden estar tematizados por que. en el español de garcía agüero 32 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 méxico, claro (que) es el marcador agradador preferido en las interacciones orales (vigueras, 2013). otros marcadores que cumplen esta función son por supuesto (que), desde luego (que), evidentemente, sin duda, exacto, ándale/ándele, pues. en el siguiente ejemplo obtenido del corpus de referencia del español actual (crea, real academia española) se muestra un uso del marcador mexicano ándale que equivaldría en español peninsular a exacto: 8) – ¿y qué es el alma para ti? – ¿el alma? como... o sea tu parte... o sea... hay un alma dentro que te hace... los sentimientos, todo eso ¿no? bueno como la energía que tienes [...] – ¿pero energía, cómo? ¿en forma de cuerpo? – sí – ¿pero que no se ve? – no, ¡ándale! la energía no se ve. otro marcador que acompañado de sí o claro también refuerza la aserción del hablante es el marcador pues, que, además, sirve para dar un sentido de obviedad y acuerdo con lo que ha dicho el interlocutor (véase el ejemplo 9, vázquez carranza, 2013, pp. 288-289). en la misma categoría de intensificación agrupamos también algunos enfocadores de la alteridad que en este caso funcionan como interjecciones o pueden reforzar la aserción o bien otro marcador: ¡hombre!, ¡hombre, claro!, ¡sí oye!, ¿eh? 9) –nos vinimos a las cuatro de la mañana y llegamos aquí a toluca y un friazo comadre que no se calentaba uno, y yo empecé a toser y sin decirle yo al doctor, ¿qué cree que fue lo que me dijo?, que era un fuerte enfriamiento, el que yo tenía… –ps [pues] sí. 3.1.4 marcadores que modulan la especificidad: desenfocar como hemos mencionado, la categoría pragmática de desenfocar no ha sido bien desarrollada (landone, 2009, pp. 219 y 221), ya que se ha considerado como parte de la intensidad. sin embargo, la acción de desenfocar puede ser una estrategia de cortesía verbal distinta de la de mitigación porque, mientras que esta reduce la fuerza ilocutiva del acto de habla, la estrategia de desenfoque implica la falta de precisión y responsabilidad del hablante respecto de su enunciación. así pues, el desenfoque comporta cortesía, ya que, por un lado, el hablante protege su imagen al no responsabilizarse de la enunciación, y por otro, no se impone ante su interlocutor. los marcadores que expresan falta de precisión o minimizan las acciones del “yo” con el fin de proteger las imágenes de los interlocutores son: como (que); al parecer, dicen que, parece ser que, según dicen, por lo visto (landone, 2009, pp. 324-331). todos estos marcadores aparecen comúnmente en la variedad mexicana. ofrecemos en la tabla 1 un resumen de nuestra propuesta de clasificación de los marcadores del español usados en la variedad mexicana que pueden indicar de forma metadiscursiva una señal de modulación de cortesía. la tabla da cuenta de las tres categorías pragmáticas generales que indican cortesía verbal (1. relacional dialógica; 2. intensidad y 3. especificidad), así como de sus subcategorías (1. proximidad/negociación, 2. atenuación/intensificación y 3. desenfoque) y de las estrategias o funciones corteses que cada subcategoría comporta. en la tercera columna se citan ejemplos de los marcadores usados en méxico que cumplen tales funciones. hemos señalado con un asterisco los marcadores que son característicos solo del habla mexicana. 4. aplicaciones didácticas los apartados precedentes constituyen una primera categorización de los marcadores del español con la intención de que sirva de base para la realización de unidades didácticas (ud) que favorezcan la adquisición de los marcadores discursivos de la variedad mexicana. hemos querido ofrecer una clasificación que pudiera dar luz al funcionamiento de estas partículas a partir de la cual el/la enseñante de español podría plantear diferentes actividades. consideramos que la enseñanza y adquisición de este tipo de elementos — que muchas veces no tienen un homólogo en la lengua de los estudiantes— se facilita mediante un enfoque inductivo (mezzadri, 2003, p. 12) y, de manera más específica, con actividades generadas a partir de textos audiovisuales como las escenas de películas. siguiendo a martín zorraquino (2004, p. 54), el contenido marcadores discursivos de la cortesía e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 33 instruccional de los marcadores discursivos es matizado según el contexto mediante rasgos suprasegmentales (la entonación de las partículas). tabla 1 clasificación de marcadores discursivos conversacionales índices de cortesía en el español de méxico categoría pragmática tipo de estrategia cortés ejemplos relacional dialógica proximidad o acercamiento relacional enfocadores de la alteridad hombre, mira/mire, oye/oiga, güey indicadores de confianza fíjate, imagínate, sabes, entiendes, ya sabes negociación (acuerdo o colaboración) marcadores de modalidad deóntica bueno, bien, de acuerdo, desde luego, cómo no, claro, va, sale, ándale/ándele, órale control de la recepción o cesión de turno de palabra ¿sabes? ¿me entiendes? ¿comprendes? ¿ves? ¿ya sabes? ¿me explico? solicitud de confirmación ¿no?, ¿o no?, ¿verdad?, ¿no es cierto?, ¿a poco no? preclausura o acuerdo sale (pues), ándale/ándele (pues), órale (pues), bueno contacto conversacional sí, ya, claro, sí sí sí, ¡ah! ¡ajá! órale, a poco intensidad atenuación toma de turno de palabra perdón, perdona, disculpe, pero, pues, bueno, mira, oye, fíjate reformulativos no perifrásticos de reconsideración mejor dicho, digo, más bien, o sea, a fin de cuentas, al fin y al cabo, después de todo, en resumidas cuentas, bueno no, pues reformulativos no perifrásticos de distanciamiento de todas formas /maneras /modos, de cualquier forma, en cualquier caso justificación es que, pues mitigación de desacuerdo pues, bueno relleno bueno…, este…, pues…, eh… intensificación agradadores de modalidad epistémica claro, por supuesto, desde luego, sin duda, exacto, evidentemente, ándale/ándele agradadores enfocadores de la alteridad ¡hombre! ¡hombre, claro! ¡sí oye! ¿eh? especifidad desenfocar desenfocadores como (que), al parecer, dicen que, parece ser que, según dicen, por lo visto. nota: el uso de la negrita indica que el marcador es característico solo del habla de méxico. por lo tanto, la conveniencia de utilizar en el aula textos de tipo audiovisual radica en que a través ellos se acerca al estudiante a contextos reales de la lengua y además se favorece la observación de los rasgos suprasegmentales y gestuales de las producciones lingüísticas de los participantes. con el fin de promover la adquisición de los marcadores discursivos de la variedad mexicana que indican cortesía verbal, proponemos la siguiente ud3. dicha propuesta ha sido pensada para un grupo de estudiantes de e/le que no estudian la lengua española en un país hispanohablante y, por lo tanto, no tienen la ventaja de poder adquirir y afianzar su dominio de estos elementos en el marco de la comunicación cotidiana con hablantes nativos. los estudiantes tienen entre 17 y 19 años y poseen un nivel de competencia lingüística b1 en español. la ud se desarrolla a partir de una escena (1:30 min.) de la película mexicana cansada de besar sapos (colón, 2006), y sigue los pasos o fases que se resumen en la tabla 2: 3 esta ud está siendo actualmente implementada en un curso de español con estudiantes de bachillerato cuya primera lengua es el alemán. garcía agüero 34 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 tabla 2 ficha pedagógica de la ud “marcadores discursivos conversacionales del español de méxico” fases objetivos actividades 1) motivación despertar curiosidad en los/las estudiantes. crear un ambiente relajado. informar sobre los objetivos de la clase. el/la enseñante: − estimula una conversación en pleno sobre películas mexicanas o del mundo hispano. − proyecta el anuncio promocional de la película. − a partir de la imagen, hace preguntas sobre el posible género cinematográfico. 2) globalidad suscitar el reconocimiento por parte de los/las estudiantes del registro (tono informal) y la situación comunicativa. propiciar la formulación de hipótesis sobre el funcionamiento de algunos marcadores discursivos de la oralidad de la variedad mexicana utilizados para responder a peticiones y concluir una conversación. el/la enseñante: − proyecta la escena de la película. − hace preguntas acerca de la situación contextual y la relación entre los interlocutores. − proyecta o entrega en papel la transcripción del diálogo y vuelve a proyectar la escena. − los estudiantes escuchan solo el audio de la escena mientras siguen la lectura del diálogo. − el/la enseñante pregunta sobre las peticiones que hacen los personajes y la manera en que estos formulan las peticiones y responden a ellas. − pide a los estudiantes que identifiquen cómo los personajes intentan terminar la conversación. 3) análisis y reflexión suscitar la reflexión sobre la función que cumplen algunos marcadores conversacionales y la posición que ocupan en la frase. conocer algunos marcadores propios de la variedad mexicana y ejercitar su uso. el/la enseñante: − entrega por escrito la transcripción del diálogo donde han sido resaltados en negrita todos los marcadores. − explica de manera simple (evitando explicaciones metalingüísticas) qué son los marcadores discursivos. − a partir de los marcadores observados en el diálogo, se realizan ejercicios escritos (de completamiento, relación de columnas, y de producción libre) que promueven la reflexión sobre el uso de estas unidades. la primera fase de motivación se lleva a cabo oralmente. se pretende crear una atmósfera tranquila pero que suscite la curiosidad en los estudiantes. para ello, se les pregunta si conocen alguna película mexicana o del mundo hispano y a continuación se proyecta el anuncio promocional de la película, a partir del cual se les pide que formulen hipótesis sobre la historia y el género cinematográfico de la misma. para el desarrollo de la fase de globalidad, se proyecta la escena de la película. hemos elegido esta escena debido a que comporta una situación familiar para los estudiantes, y los personajes son jóvenes, por lo que es posible que el grupo se identifique con ellos. una vez visualizada la escena, el profesor hace preguntas de forma oral acerca de la situación contextual, por ejemplo: ¿dónde se encuentran los personajes? ¿creen que se conocen? ¿qué relación hay entre ellos?, etc. el objetivo de estas preguntas es que los estudiantes reconozcan que se trata de una invitación que tiene lugar en una situación informal, donde la distancia entre los personajes no es muy grande, aunque tampoco se trata de una relación de intimidad. a continuación, se facilita a los alumnos la transcripción del diálogo (proyectada en la pantalla o impresa en papel) y se vuelve a presentar la escena. esta vez los estudiantes podrán solamente escuchar el audio de la escena mientras siguen el diálogo leyendo la transcripción. después, se les pide que identifiquen qué peticiones hacen los personajes (por ejemplo, en el minuto 1:02:23 ana le pide a javier un favor “¿te puedo pedir un favor?” y posteriormente (min 1:03:09) reitera la petición, “¿puedo?”. por su parte javier, en el minuto 1:02:31, pone una condición y pide implícitamente a ana que lo acompañe a un sitio, “es que hay un lugar… al que te tengo que llevar […], podría pasar por ti… mañana en la mañana.”). luego, se pregunta si los personajes aceptan o rechazan la petición y mediante qué expresiones lo hacen. el objetivo es que los marcadores discursivos va, órale y la reiteración sí, sí sean identificados. después se les pregunta si creen que los personajes se sienten en dificultad para hacer su petición y, si así es, qué expresiones nos permiten reconocer esta dificultad (por ejemplo, el uso de es que, bueno, pues...bueno en las peticiones). para finalizar esta fase de la ud, se les pide a marcadores discursivos de la cortesía e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 35 los estudiantes que identifiquen la manera en que los personajes intentan concluir la conversación (por ejemplo, mediante el uso de los marcadores bueno, órale pues y sale pues). la tercera parte de la ud es la fase de reflexión. las técnicas usadas en esta fase que permiten ejercitar los elementos nuevos son varias. en nuestro caso proponemos las siguientes cinco actividades. actividad 1. se entrega a los estudiantes la transcripción del diálogo de la escena (ver apéndice a). a diferencia de la transcripción que visualizaron en la pantalla (o que tienen en papel), en esta versión se presentan los marcadores discursivos resaltados en negrita. después de que los estudiantes se hayan familiarizado con el diálogo, se pide a dos voluntarios que intenten recrear la escena. después de acabar con la lectura, se explica a los alumnos que las palabras resaltadas en negrita se llaman marcadores discursivos y se hace una breve introducción sobre estas. puede ser de manera escrita u oral, pero evitando las explicaciones metalingüísticas. se puede decir, por ejemplo, lo siguiente: los marcadores discursivos son formas que los hablantes usamos para organizar y guiar nuestro discurso oral o escrito. provienen de diferentes categorías gramaticales: pueden ser verbos (vamos), adverbios (bueno), sustantivos (hombre), adjetivos (claro) etc. algunas de estas formas son más usadas en la escritura, algunas se encuentran sólo en la conversación y otras son usadas en ambas modalidades de comunicación. la mayoría de los marcadores del discurso pueden cumplir diferentes funciones dentro de la comunicación. en el español de méxico se usan marcadores que también aparecen en otras variedades hispánicas como bueno, pues, hombre, o sea, pero hay formas que no comparte con otras variedades, tal es el caso de órale, ándale, va, ¿a poco?, sale. actividad 2. este ejercicio consiste en ordenar en una tabla los marcadores subrayados en la trascripción del diálogo de acuerdo a la función que cumplen. esta actividad es útil para volver a llamar la atención de los alumnos sobre el hecho de que un marcador puede cumplir varias funciones. la tabla 3 muestra lo que podría ser el producto final de la actividad creado por los estudiantes: las funciones y su explicación en la primera columna serán proporcionadas por el profesor, mientras que los estudiantes trabajarían completando la segunda columna con los ejemplos del diálogo. tabla 3 ejercicio de reflexión sobre las funciones que cumplen los marcadores discursivos del español mexicano. función marcadores discursivos atenuación uso estas formas para introducir una explicación, una justificación o la indicación de un obstáculo de manera suave. es que; nomás; bueno; pues; bueno ya ves reformulación explico mejor lo que quiero decir. no, no, bueno digo preclausura señalo amablemente que voy a terminar la conversación. bueno; órale pues; sale pues intensificación uso estas formas para reforzar una afirmación, un agradecimiento o un cumplido. ¿eh?; hombre recepción digo al hablante que he entendido lo que ha dicho. ándale; órale explicación pido al hablante que sea claro o que me explique lo que quería decir. ¿entonces? acuerdo expreso al hablante que concuerdo con lo que ha dicho. va; sí, si relleno me siento en dificultad y uso estas formas para ganar tiempo y pensar qué quiero decir y cómo. se usan frecuentemente en respuestas a preguntas. pues; bueno a partir de este ejercicio es posible crear otro con el objeto de comparar el funcionamiento de los marcadores conversacionales propios de la variedad mexicana (órale, ándale, etc.) con el de los marcadores de la variedad peninsular que poseen el mismo valor semántico-pragmático (por ejemplo, paragonando dos diálogos auténticos de dos variedades distintas que contengan los mismos actos de habla: una invitación, una despedida, etc.). asimismo, se puede hacer una confrontación entre las fórmulas para mostrar cortesía en el español en comparación con aquellas de la lengua materna de los estudiantes favoreciendo con esto el desarrollo de la competencia sociolingüística. garcía agüero 36 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 actividad 3. se pide a los estudiantes que reconstruyan unos minidiálogos uniendo el enunciado del hablante a con la respuesta del interlocutor b mediante el uso del marcador discursivo adecuado entre los que recopilaron en la tabla de la actividad 2. la tabla 4 a continuación muestra una posible selección de enunciados para los dos interlocutores. este ejercicio tiene dos objetivos: identificar el marcador que corresponda con la respuesta del interlocutor y notar la posición que ocupa el marcador dentro de la frase. asimismo, se puede realizar un cuadro en el que el marcador introduzca el enunciado de a. tabla 4 ejercicio de reflexión sobre el lugar que ocupan los marcadores que introducen respuestas interlocutor a marcadores discursivos interlocutor b 1) ¿nos vemos a las nueve? i. es que, a. está bien. 2) ¿dónde está mi coche? ¡debo salir ahora! ii. no, no, bueno digo, b. por falta de tiempo no he podido venir. 3) ¿quieres decir que me veo viejo? iii. va, c. si te quitaras la barba te verías mejor. 4) gracias por los apuntes. te los devuelvo mañana. iv. pues... d. ahí estaré. 5) deberías asistir con regularidad a las reuniones. v. órale, e. no sé cómo decírtelo pero, tu hermano se lo llevó y no creo que vuelva hoy. soluciones: 1-iii-d; 2-iv-e; 3-ii-c; 4-v-a; 5-i-b. una vez que los estudiantes han podido reflexionar sobre la posición inicial de estos marcadores, es posible regresar al diálogo inicial para reconocer los marcadores que pueden constituir un enunciado autónomo, que será uno de los objetivos de la siguiente actividad. actividad 4. el objetivo de esta actividad es el de propiciar la reflexión sobre las diferentes funciones que puede desempeñar un mismo marcador. para ello, en el siguiente ejercicio los estudiantes deben identificar el valor del marcador órale en distintos contextos. la tarea consiste en relacionar la función de bueno (relleno, corregirse, precisar e indicar acuerdo) con el enunciado que expresa esta función. se pueden realizar ejercicios del mismo tipo con marcadores multifuncionales como pues, bueno, o ándale. tabla 5 ejercicio de relación de columnas cuyo objetivo es el identificar las diferentes funciones de un marcador. funciones comunicativas marcadores en contexto a. invitación: invito o animo a hacer algo 1) – ¿supiste que juan se compró una casa en la playa? – ¡órale! ¿en serio? b. recepción de información: entiendo lo que dices 2) órale, a trabajar se ha dicho. c. acuerdo/colaboración: estoy de acuerdo contigo 3) órale… entonces nos vemos mañana. d. sorpresa: me parece sorprendente. 4) – ¿vamos al cine? – órale, me parece bien. e. fórmula de cierre: indico que estoy por terminar la conversación 5) – ¿y tú a qué te dedicas? – estudio arquitectura – órale. yo física. soluciones: a-2; b-5; c-4; d-1; e-3. actividad 5. la siguiente actividad cierra el recorrido didáctico y consiste en una producción libre por parte de los estudiantes, que deben ser capaces de crear enunciados originales usando algunos de los marcadores y teniendo en cuenta la situación comunicativa que se les indica, como en el siguiente ejemplo: 10) un amigo te ha invitado a su casa a cenar. su madre ha preparado una cena especial para ti. ha cocinado pescado pero desde que te enfermaste por comerlo hace unos años, tú no lo soportas y desde entonces no lo comes. explica a la madre por qué no quieres comer pescado, ofrece disculpas y da alternativas. tú: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ marcadores discursivos de la cortesía e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 37 5. reflexiones finales en esta contribución hemos partido del hecho de que algunos de los marcadores discursivos conversacionales del español pueden funcionar como índices de cortesía verbal y consideramos que la concientización del funcionamiento y utilización de los marcadores discursivos de méxico aportaría grandes ventajas al estudiante de e/le: además de la reflexión sobre algunas normas de cortesía verbal de las culturas hispánicas, el alumno ampliará su conocimiento de la realidad pluricéntrica del español y se familiarizará con una variedad importante dentro de esta realidad. la enseñanza de los marcadores discursivos conversacionales que indican cortesía resulta fundamental por varias razones: en primer lugar, este tipo de marcadores indican aspectos sociales y culturales de una sociedad determinada, por lo que su enseñanza favorece el desarrollo de la competencia sociocultural señalada por actfl (2012) y el mcer (2002) y cuyo desarrollo puede prevenir choques culturales. en segundo lugar, debido a la capacidad atenuante y negociadora que estos marcadores comportan, ofrecen al hablante la posibilidad de interactuar de manera colaborativa con otros interlocutores nativos, de alcanzar sus objetivos comunicativos y evitar malentendidos. en tercer lugar, conocer y utilizar correctamente este tipo de elementos semántico-pragmáticos puede dar mayor seguridad a los estudiantes de le en tanto que al emplear marcadores conversacionales perciben sus producciones como más cercanas a las de los hablantes nativos. sabemos que, debido a su carácter a menudo polisémico y multifuncional, no es fácil para el enseñante de español explicar este tipo de unidades. de tal manera que intentamos ofrecer una aproximación que sirva de guía sobre el funcionamiento y uso de estas unidades usadas en la variedad mexicana, así como una propuesta de unidad didáctica que favorezca su adquisición. a partir de la clasificación que se ha ofrecido y que está basada en la función que cumplen los marcadores, apuntamos la necesidad de continuar investigando sobre los factores que determinan los matices funcionales de estas unidades como la posición que ocupan en el turno de habla y los rasgos prosódicos que las caracterizan. asimismo, esperamos que esta clasificación ayude al desarrollo de ejercicios y unidades didácticas para la enseñanza de los marcadores del discurso. referencias álvarez martínez, maría ángeles, blanco canales, 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(2003): politeness. cambridge, reino unido: cambridge university press. zimmermann, klaus (1996). lenguaje juvenil, comunicación entre jóvenes y oralidad. en thomas kotschi, wulf osterreicher, & klaus zimmermann (eds.), el español hablado y la cultura oral en españa e hispanoamérica (pp. 475-514). madrid, españa: vervuert-iberoamenricana. zimmermann, klaus (2006). la selección de una variedad nacional como variedad principal para la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera: problemas de la política lingüística de lenguas extranjeras y de la política lingüística exterior en el mundo hispánico. en roland terborg & laura garcía landa (eds.), los retos de la planificación del lenguaje en el siglo xxi (vol. 2, pp. 565-590). ciudad de méxico, méxico: universidad nacional autónoma de méxico. marcadores discursivos de la cortesía e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 41 apéndice a transcripción del diálogo de la escena de la película cansada de besar sapos (méxico 2006) ana: me la pasé genial, ¿eh? javier: yo también. estuvo increíble. ana: gracias. javier: no hombre (1), gracias a ti. ana: bueno (1). javier: órale pues. ana: ¿te puedo pedir un favor? javier: con una condición. ana: ¿cuál? javier: ... es que hay un lugar... al que te tengo que llevar... bueno (2), estoy seguro que te va a encantar, nomás que está un poco lejos entonces pues (1), podría pasar por ti... mañana en la mañana. ana: va. javier ¿va? ana: [asiente con la cabeza] javier: ¡órale! (1)... ¿entonces? ana: ah, es... ¿si te puedo tomar una foto? javier: ¿para qué o qué? ana: pues (2)... bueno ya ves, por mi chamba, necesito fotos de... de chavos... y la verdad es que tu boca me funciona. javier: ¿cómo que mi boca? ana: bueno (3)... javier: ¿qué tiene mi boca, o qué? ana: no, no, bueno digo... en conjunto hombre (2)... con nariz, ojos... orejas y todo. javier: ah, ándale... órale (2). ana: ¿puedo? javier: sí, sí. ana: ahí está. javier: ¿ahí está? ana: bueno (4). javier: bueno (5), nos vemos mañana. ana: [asiente con la cabeza] javier: sale pues. garcía agüero 42 e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 23-42 alba nalleli garcía agüero, universität bern alba.garcia@rom.unibe.ch es alba nalleli garcía agüero es asistente en la sección de lingüística hispánica del instituto de español de la universität bern (suiza). en la misma institución realiza estudios de doctorado en el marco del proyecto de investigación conceptualizing mexican identity in schoolbooks and narratives: a critical socio-cognitive approach, financiado por el snf (schweizerischer nationalfonds zur förderung der wissenschaftlichen forschung). sus campos de investigación principales son la lingüística cognitiva, la pragmática, el análisis crítico del discurso y la didáctica de lenguas. en alba nalleli garcía agüero is a graduate assistant in the hispanic linguistics department of the spanish institute at the universität bern (switzerland) where she is completing her doctoral dissertation, “conceptualizing mexican identity in school books and narratives: a critical socio-cognitive approach,” financed by the snf (swiss national science foundation/schweizerischer nationalfonds zur förderung der wissenschaftlichen forschung). her main research interests are cognitive linguistics, pragmatics, critical discourse analysis, and language teaching. it alba nalleli garcía agüero è assistente nel dipartimento di linguistica ispanica dell’istituto di spagnolo presso universität bern, in svizzera, dove realizza studi di dottorato nell’ambito del progetto di ricerca conceptualizing mexican identity in schoolbooks and narratives: a critical socio-cognitive approach, finanziato da snf (schweizerischer nationalfonds zur förderung der wissenschaftlichen forschung). i suoi principali campi di studio sono la linguistica cognitiva, la pragmatica, l’analisi critica del discorso e l’insegnamento delle lingue. template language and computers euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall volume 3, issue 2, december 2016, pages 42-55 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.5.72 www.e-journall.org © hempelmann 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. * 1 contact: c.hempelmann@tamuc.edu humor in the teaching of writing: a microethnographic approach christian f. hempelmann*1 texas a&m university-commerce received 14 may 2016; received in revised form 1 october 2016; accepted 4 december 2016 abstract en this paper presents the content of a critical thinking and writing course, along with similar courses derived from it, designed around the topic of humor and culminating in a microethnographic investigation of humor in students’ lives. the aims of the paper are threefold: to offer a general rationale for using humor in the writing classroom; to illustrate different types of potentials and dangers of such an approach; and to suggest extensions of the findings to the second-language writing classroom. the paper offers texts, writing prompts, and activities for instructors teaching classes that focus on the writing process in a first or second language. key words: humor in the classroom, college composition, microethnography, fieldwork, critical thinking es el presente artículo expone el contenido de un curso de pensamiento crítico y escritura, así como de otros cursos similares basados en él, con un diseño centrado en el humor que finalmente culminó en una investigación microetnográfica del humor en la vida de los estudiantes. tres son los objetivos en este trabajo: ofrecer una justificación general del uso del humor en el aula de escritura; presentar diferentes tipos de potencialidades o debilidades de tal enfoque, y sugerir posibles extensiones de los hallazgos al aula de escritura en segunda lengua. el artículo ofrece textos, temas de escritura y actividades para profesores que impartan clases centradas en el proceso de escritura en lengua materna o extranjera. palabras clave: humor en el aula, escritura académica, microetnografía, trabajo de campo, pensamiento crítico it questo articolo presenta i contenuti di un corso su pensiero critico e scrittura, e di corsi analoghi che ne sono derivati. i corsi sono stati progettati attorno al tema del comico e si sono conclusi con una ricerca micro-etnografica sull’umorismo nella vita degli studenti. gli obiettivi dell’articolo sono molteplici: offrire un’argomentazione generale per l’uso del comico nelle classi di scrittura, illustrare potenzialità e pericoli di tale approccio, suggerire l’applicazione dei risultati alle classi di scrittura in lingua seconda. l’articolo offre testi, tracce e attività per gli insegnanti di corsi incentrati sul processo di scrittura in lingua madre o in una seconda lingua. parole chiave: comico nella classe, scrittura, microetnografia, ricerca sul campo, pensiero critico http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.5.72 http://www.e-journall.org/ mailto:c.hempelmann@tamuc.edu humor in the teaching of writing e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 43 1. introduction finding a new voice in writing is analogous to learning a new language, or at least a new register in that language (lea & street, 2006; lillis, 1997). academic writing requires the development of an academic writerly voice, which can be challenging even for first-language writers. it can be especially difficult in cases where students have not had models of such a voice in the past, such as at rural universities with many diverse students who often are the first members of their family to attend university (sommers & saltz, 2004). this paper proposes that humor can be a tool to help students develop such a voice. it describes four college-level critical thinking and writing courses taught by the author, in which humor is the explicit research focus. the paper also theoretically extends the scope to second-language writing classes. the focus in this paper is therefore neither on humor as part of the style or practice of the educator, nor on the use of humor in learning materials (e.g., funny examples or readings). rather in the courses described, humor was an explicit topic of the class, both as a research and writing topic and as a means to discuss general issues in the humanities as they surface in universal human behavior (cf. bell & pomerantz, 2016, pp. 166-182). the purpose of the paper is thus to provide an overview of such a course, including a course outline and suggestions for course materials, and to make the course adaptable by other instructors of first language (l1) or second language (l2) reading and writing. the materials presented here have been previously discussed in hempelmann and beermann (2013), but they were presented in german and only as background to an analysis of themes in students’ field notes for computational humor generation. this article instead makes the course material the focus, promoting teaching humor as a path to learning and providing scholars and instructors with novel evidence of the relation between the study of humor and language practice. the organization of the paper is as follows: section 2 reviews literature on humor as a motivator and a pragmatic tool in language learning and practice. it also introduces humor as a motivational double-edged sword: humor may enhance learning for some, but it is also a potential distraction or annoyance to others. section 3 describes the three portions of the original composition course designed around humor-based microethnography. it presents the course texts used and provides all writing prompts and other assignments. it also briefly discusses themes that were found in the field notes of student who took the course. section 4 presents two later adaptations of the course materials and their integration with newer readings, one for an honors composition class and one in core curriculum course in the humanities illustrating a different, nonwriting-based thematic arrangement of the materials. finally, section 5 presents conclusions and highlights the central experiences of the courses. 2. a review of the study of humor in teaching and learning 2.1. humor in the composition classroom humor is frequently understood to be a motivator in the classroom in general, and in writing courses in particular. since berlyne’s (1960) work more than 50 years ago, scholars agree that in composition classes, students need to write about something that they care about in order to provide intrinsic motivation. humor can play this role (harnett, 2007). humor is strongly associated with emotions, particularly mirth (martin, 2007), which can be motivational. and while humor can also be associated with emotions such as aggression (martin, 2007), aggressive humor, if properly contextualized, can also motivate students. when students have a sense of injustice about the uses of aggressive humor, they can be motivated to explore this strong emotion by writing about it, as illustrated in the section about ethnic humor and sexist humor outlined below. apart from motivation, humor has also been found to be a window on rhetorical logic, because of the pseudologic necessary to playfully resolve the key element of incongruity in humor (attardo, hempelmann, & di maio, 2003; attardo & raskin, 1991; hempelmann, 2004; hempelmann & attardo, 2011). exploring the pseudologic that connects the two opposed meanings of a humorous text provides an example of sophistry that can help students understand logical fallacies in general. a clear example is seen in the logic of punning, which is based on the fallacy that the relation between the linguistic signifier and the signified is natural, or motivated, so that if two concepts surface in an identical word in a given language, the concepts are somehow meaningfully related. this, of course, is the exception in natural language, where the arbitrariness of the sign holds in the vast majority of cases. it should be noted, however, that much research on the effects of humor in the classroom and, in particular, much of the “research [on humor as a motivator in the classroom] has been equivocal” (wanzer, frymier, wojtaszczyk, & smith, 2006, p. 178), and remains so to this day (bell & pomerantz, 2016; martin, hempelmann 44 e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 2007). while research suggests that certain types of humor may be a motivator in specific contexts and when used by a specific instructor, humor needs to be used carefully and selectively (e.g., chabeli, 2008; darling & civikly, 1986/1987; gruntz-stoll & rißland, 2002; wanzer, 2002; wanzer et al., 2006; zillman & bryant, 1983; ziv, 1988). instructors should be particularly careful about using humor in lecturing, which might put the instructor, the jokes, the instructor’s personality, or all three in between the student and what is to be learned or practiced. in assessment materials, humor also risks being a distractor (bell & pomerantz, 2016). 2.2. humor in the second language classroom in second language research, several studies provide evidence of the benefits of including humor in the l2 curriculum, such as positive effects on motivation, a more natural interaction with learners, and assessment of pragmatic proficiency (e.g., bell, 2009; bell & pomerantz, 2016; deneire, 1995; fung, 2010; schmitz, 2002; tocalli-beller, 2005). the close observation of humor mechanisms can also benefit the language learner in developing and strengthening language competence at both a communicative and a pragmatic level. as bell and pomerantz (2016) write, "humor does have something very important to teach us about how language is used and to contribute to how it is taught and learned in classrooms" (p. 197). using humor in the second-language classroom is also a good means of assessing learner's mastery of intercultural pragmatics, as the ability to understand and produce humor and language play often requires the highest mastery of the pragmatics of language (see ishihara & cohen, 2010). additionally, the observations in section 2.1 about humor in the writing classroom are also relevant for the second language classroom, as “l2 users encounter many of the same social, cognitive, and linguistic challenges using humor as l1 users” (bell & pomerantz, 2016, p. 42). despite the differences between l1 and l2 writing—including differences in revision strategies, linguistic competence (widdowson, 1983), and discourse conventions (connor, 1996; kaplan, 1983;), all of which should undoubtedly be addressed in the classroom—the overall similarity of the writing process in l1 and l2 (arndt, 1987; raimes, 1985; zamel, 1983) makes for a logical basis for the meaningful transfer of the insights gained in each context. l1 and l2 writers, for instance, rely on a similar set of skills, procedures, and critical thinking abilities to develop and express their ideas in writing (silva, 1993). additionally, proficiency and development of l1 and l2 writing are correlated (schoonen et al., 2003). finally, with the increasing student diversity in classrooms, scholars are currently advocating for a shift towards thinking beyond l1/l2 binaries and enacting pedagogies based on translanguaging and multiliteracies (canagarajah, 2013), which draw on students’ repertoires across languages, in the teaching practices for composition courses as well as language courses. thus, research in both l1 and l2 writing pedagogy is relevant for understanding multilingual writers and learners. 3. original freshman composition course at gsu in the fall of 2005, i developed a freshman composition course at georgia southern university (gsu) in statesboro, georgia, based around the topic of humor, which i taught in three parallel sections. the general purpose of composition courses at gsu was to coach students in developing an academic voice in written english, as well as to introduce research methods. full-time faculty were not required to use a prescribed textbook or syllabus, but were invited to build courses around their expertise and interests. because of my research in linguistics and in humor, i was aware of research on humor as a motivating factor in the classroom (see section 2.1.), and i was curious to evaluate its effects in my own course. additionally, my department, the department of writing and linguistics, encouraged a microethnographic approach (cf. sunstein & chiseri-strater, 2011) for composition classes. in a microethnographic approach, students research the subtle social structure of a community as it manifests itself in the interactions of the members of the community. thus, my course combined these two strands, humor and microethnography, asking students to assume the viewpoint of an anthropologist who encounters a human society for the first time and documents its actions—here, primarily the interactions that involve humor—without preconceived notions. bell (2009) suggests that making students collect instances of humor, for instance through field notes, is a beneficial focus-on-form activity in l2 classrooms as well. "using humor in the language classroom (. . .) could be useful for raising learner awareness of the different types and functions of humor" (bell, 2009, p. 254; see also medgyes, 2002). my 15-week course had three general units: a) introduction and classic readings; b) studying humor and aggression; and c) the final project on humor fieldwork (initiated during the second stage through field humor in the teaching of writing e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 45 notes), in which students then used humor as a window on structures of social interaction (e.g., norrick, 2003; sacks, 1974). each unit lasted roughly five weeks. i now discuss each of the three units in turn. 3.1. unit one: reading and writing about humor in general at the beginning of the semester, students wrote a free-writing piece on what humor means to them and what they laugh about in their daily life. they were asked to reflect in particular on what they laughed about in the media, and also what was not funny to them, even when they identified humorous intention, in general or in a given context. these free-writings served as important tools in helping the instructor to identify sample materials for lessons later in the semester. next, students read a series of basic and classic readings (armus & decker, 1988; douglas, 1984; keith-spiegel, 1984; koestler, 1964; oring, 2003a; raskin, 1985b; walker, 1984) and responded to them in in-class discussions and various writing assignments, including summaries, counterarguments, compare-andcontrast essays, and an abstract. the readings were contextualized with lectures, particularly when heavy on theory (e.g., raskin, 1985b) or dated and weak in their main points, but very illustrative and influential beyond humor research, such as chapters from freud (1905/1990), including, for instance, technique of jokes (pp. 16-20, 60-66), purpose of jokes (pp. 90-116), and the motives of jokes (pp. 140-158). another early exercise and homework unit was structured around a learning-by-doing approach based on greg dean's standup writing workshop (dean, 2000). this approach, drawing on raskin (1985a), coaches readers through developing material for jokes and the actual joke-writing process. after an introductory lecture, i created several jokes on the spot in class—which were not perceived as particularly funny, but were recognizable as jokes—by following the steps of dean's “joke map” (2000). these steps are: a) select a setup; b) pick a target assumption and choose a connector; c) list reinterpretations for the connector; d) choose a reinterpretation and compose a second story; e) write a punch line that expresses the second store. students then authored two jokes in group work, sharing the one they thought funnier with the class. finally, students created two more jokes as homework. this exercise was overall a very successful method to assess whether the students had become aware of the principles underlying humor as presented in raskin (1985b), a more easily digestible summary of raskin (1985a), and dean (2000). here are some of the funnier examples of the students' jokes:  what did the cow in the pasture do? drop food on her mumu.  my netflix stopped working again: unpaid. my neighbors are so irresponsible.  our relationship is like romeo and juliet: we broke up after 3 hours.  i got dumped friday night. one minute i’m napping, the next minute the dumpster gets emptied into the dump truck.  what do you call four honors students playing scrabble at 2 a.m.? virgins.  i took out the trash extra early today. i would have waited, but my kids started looking for fluffy. to summarize, the first third of the semester proceeded through the following steps: 1) free-writing about humor; 2) discussions and writings in response to classic readings; 3) joke-writing workshop. 3.2. unit two: reading and writing about aggressive humor in particular the second segment of the course was based on the thematic complex of humor and aggression, already introduced in the context of freud's ruminations (1905/1990). the focus of this segment was the socalled “ethnic joke.” on the basis of several readings (boskin & dorinson, 1984; davies, 2002; oring, 2003), the students had to make an argument about whether ethnic humor is always aggressive. the largest thematic focus was the discussion of jewish-american princess (jap) jokes (chayat, 1987; davies, 1990, hempelmann 46 e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 2002b; dundes, 1997; spencer, 1989; zappa, 1979; zappa & zappa, 1982). although these had to be contextualized for students in parts of the united states with very low jewish populations, like rural georgia, they also acquainted students with part of the american experience they had not been extensively exposed to. the introductory media item presented to students was frank zappa's song valley girl, in the form of a music video that was intended to pique their interest also in terms of early 1980s aesthetics. as homework, students read articles from a range of perspectives: from those who find any humor with targets offensive, such as freud (1905/1990), to those who see the joke-tellers intentionality as an important factor to consider (davies, 1990, 2002; oring, 2003). students were encouraged to watch (after being warned about explicit content) zappa's jewish princess. they were then asked to write a 5to 6-page paper in response to the question of whether jap jokes are racist, sexist, both, or neither, while addressing the general question of whether there is a kernel of truth in humorous stereotypes. although students were encouraged to consider the relevance of intentionality on the part of the joke teller as separate from the joke itself, many students sided with the position that assumes any targeted humor as aggressive. regardless, the debate generated much discussion and writing. the next third of the semester therefore proceeded through the following steps: 1) focus on humor and aggression; a. jokes targeting groups of others; b. jokes targeting women; 2) freud vs. davies and oring; 3) starting the microethnographic field diary on everyday humor (discussed in the following section). 3.3. unit three: researching and writing about the humor of a community in the third, final, and longest segment of the semester, a task that had been going on for most of the semester came to fruition. starting in week four of the semester, students had been keeping a field diary with anthropological notes. for this purpose, the methods for such a microethnographic project were discussed with the help of instructions and examples from a handbook dedicated to this method (sunstein & chiseristrater, 2011). in this microethnographic project, the main purpose was to make the familiar unfamiliar by close-up observation of what is normally taken for granted, so as to gain insights into one's own environment from a renewed perspective. everyday actions of people using humor were documented in detail without preconceived hypotheses. in this phenomenological-inductive process, individual observations became the basis of generalized qualitative results. students collected observations in field diaries over the course of weeks, beginning with five observations per week at the beginning of the project and gradually increasing to 10 per week by the end of the semester. this timeline made it possible to collect laughter events over a longer period of time and not just take an impressionistic snap shot. the field notes were intended to document everyday events that were accompanied by laughter in the life of the students. as a first step, the circumstances of the laughter event were to be recorded in a notebook. participants in the events were to be given a pseudonym. any dialogue that may have occurred before or after the laughter was to be quoted in as much detail as possible. most importantly, the participants in the situation, the circumstances, and the locality were to be sketched. students had to pay attention to detail in the dialogue noting any joke targets (raskin, 1985b). field notes were to be submitted by email by the end of each week, with a short reflection on each note. the prompt for the field note task can be found in appendix a1. typical field diary entries are shown in section 3.4. emphasis was placed on the fact that it was not necessary for humor to have had occurred, only that there was laughter, which is of course not necessarily the result of a humor event. this basic and important causal dissociation of humor and laughter (cf. zweyer, velker, & ruch, 2004) was developed with the students through examining the example of events in which laughter was used to structure conversation rather than being triggered by humor, as well as examples of fake vs. sincere laughter. as another reading intended to facilitate the students' documenting of humorous events, sack's (1974) classic paper on the telling of a dirty joke was assigned. while students were collecting these laughter events, the course introduced more theory on humor. an episode of the television show star trek: the next generation, “the outrageous okona” (armus & decker, 1988) was used to show how humor is an important part of being human. as part of its humanization humor in the teaching of writing e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 47 journey, the android lieutenant commander data approaches the human behavior called humor both practically and theoretically. students were directed to summarize humor theories in a helpful email to the android, cc’ed to the instructor.2 students also completed a character study (see appendix a2 for prompt) of a character in the cartoon series family guy (mcfarlane, 1999), which was mentioned by the majority of students as their favorite funny television show at the time. students selected one of the main characters of the show (peter, stewie, meg, lois, or brian) and focused on events in which the character laughed. they then analyzed what could be gleaned about that character’s humor from patterns in those instances. this character study was an exercise in ethnographic study, using a framed media context to ease students into self-observation and selfreflection. a subsequent character study was then based on one of the people in the students' field notes. it was also intended to be, and successfully became, part of the final cumulative paper of the course. in general, they were successful in maintaining the "othering" distance (said, 1978) they had developed for the family guy character. an additional advantage was that this show was being aired on a local cable channel at the time of the course. even so, it is not appropriate to assume that all students have access to media products that are not by themselves free or only accessible through paid internet access, in particular in rural areas of the united states. to ensure that all students were exposed to the material regardless of home circumstances, two randomly selected episodes of the show were also watched during class time. students also wrote 6to 8-page location studies (see appendix a3), in which they were asked to take a closer look at one of the locations in which the group they study commonly congregates, like the gym, the cafeteria, or the church. if no such location had emerged by the time this task was assigned, students were allowed to write an additional character study. either of these was to become a source for their microethnographic study on the topic of the humor culture of a community (they are part of or they regularly observe). finally, in week 10 of the course, based on the character and location studies, students embarked on the final paper for the course. instructions for the final paper specified that students were to focus on one of the social groups that they had been observing, emphasizing the humor of social groups, its recurring themes, and its functions. this step was also discussed in 15-minute one-on-one conferences that replaced class sessions during that week. these conferences were followed up on by another set of conferences in week 12. these were intended to provide students with feedback on the basis of their drafts with respect to the structuring of their argument and its illustration. the specific prompt at this stage of their writing focused on the development of their text by phrasing their emotional response to the laughter of the group in relation to specific examples from their field notes. the final instructions for this group study were to first introduce the group, with the help of individual characters from the character studies. it was also helpful to refer back to discussions of aggressive vs. affiliative humor (out-group and in-group marking). for many students, these final papers, with a length requirement of 12-15 pages, were the longest they had ever written. the lengthy data collection period, paired with continued theoretical reading and discussion, allowed students to develop a writing topic that was substantial and motivated by patterns from their specific context. it also allowed for reflection on their own social circumstances, driven by humor. looking at the familiar from a newly acquired distance and relating it to contextualized research proved to be a fruitful approach to providing these writers with a writing context that lowered motivational and genre boundaries. in summary, the final third of the semester thus proceeded through the following steps: 1) continuing the field diary on everyday humor; 2) a focus on microethnographic research on the humor of a social group that the students had access to or were even members of; 3) in parallel, studying the humor of fictional characters; 4) character study and location study; 5) final paper on the humor of a community; 2 it should be noted that this media material was no longer a recalled item for students in 2005, much less in 2014, so newer examples should be identified (e.g., imb’s watson: www.ibm.com/watson) by instructors wishing to adopt this activity. hempelmann 48 e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 3.4. themes as result of the field study as part of the evaluation of the course, a colleague and i conducted an analysis of the themes that occurred in the field notes that students generated throughout the semester. the results are the focus of hempelmann and beermann (2013). because those findings were published in german, i present here a very short overview of the results. in our analysis, randomly selected field notes by 28 students, 16 males and 12 females, between the ages of 18 and 22 (m = 18.64, sd = 0.91) were used to understand themes in everyday humor of undergraduate students. the random selection of field notes comprised 1,000 situations that involved laughter (average of 35.71 per participant, sd = 12.00). they were coded in accordance with the key assumptions in raskin (1985a), who postulates one or several semantic script oppositions with script overlap as the central component of humorous texts. at first, one coder added themes of the script oppositions to a growing inventory as the coding progressed. later, these themes were consolidated into 21 groups as seemed meaningful. these groups are reported below. a second rater annotated 10 randomly selected field notes. the interrater reliability, as calculated with the algorithm used in ekman, friesen, and hager (2002), was satisfactorily high at .81. the results in the themes held few surprises. our informal hypothesis—exemplified in the title of a chapter from gernhardt (1988), “dick, stumble, fart” [schwanz, sturz, furz]—was that most instances would involve sexual humor, schadenfreude, and bathroom humor. and indeed, the most frequent themes were: university life, sexuality, drugs and alcohol, sports, physical pain, romantic relationships, and food. highly significant gender differences could be identified for the following themes: sports, alcohol and drugs, religion, police encounters, and hunting, which were more frequently reported by men. only “family life” was reported significantly more frequently by women. below are three examples of field notes used in this study of themes. the first line reports demographic details and the annotated theme, the remainder is the original field note itself, ending with the short reflection. 1) student #9 (female, caucasian, 18 years), field note #4, annotated theme: sexuality kim, aubrey, ann-marie, and i in kim's room. crystal bangs on door before she comes in. kim – what were you doing? humping the door? crystal – yeah, most wood i've gotten all week. wooden door. i am starting to notice that my friends and family seem to have very sexual and sarcastic humor. (2) student #17 (female, caucasian, 18 years), field note #30, annotated theme: alcohol 30. november 8 (susie and laura are sitting and gossiping) susie: did you hear what happened to brad this weekend? laura: what happened? susie: brad got really drunk and could not get up the stairs. 3 people had to carry him. laura: (pulls back her hair) look what else happened… susie: hahaha! a hickey! laura: yep, he gave one to me, emily, and sarah. susie: damn. he had a good night. laura: haha susie was trying to gossip about brad's crazy weekend. but, in reality, laura knew more of what was going on than susie did. little did she know, laura and several others had received hickeys from the drunken brad. (3) student #14 (female, african-american, 18 years), field note #19, annotated theme: sports 11/7 5:05pm dorm room ellen and i are talking about softball. humor in the teaching of writing e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 49 ellen: the coach said i had the best swing on the team, it’s just that i had no eye-hand coordination. he told me, “ellen, if you could just hit the damn ball, you'd be great. " this is funny because it's almost sad that she was such a good player, she had all of the fundamentals down, but she couldn't make contact with the ball. these field notes also illustrate how students were able to focus on humor (examples 1 and 3) and social relations as manifested in humor (example 2 and 3), thus meeting one of the intended pedagogical outcomes of the course. 4. further implementations at tamuc two further iterations of the basic course design were implemented in 2014 and 2016 at texas a&m university-commerce (tamuc), the first closely aligned with the original design, the second more loosely. this section briefly introduces those courses, in order to illustrate the portability and expandability of the original course. 4.1. honors composition course in the fall of 2014, i taught another composition course at texas a&m university-commerce (tamuc), in northeast texas. while the type of school and general student population at tamuc is very similar to that of the initial group of courses, the new course was for honors students. honors students are assumed to have higher intrinsic motivation (wimberley & stasio, 2012), and the number of students per course is often restricted, to 15 in this case. the general semester plan remained identical to that of the earlier course, centering on the microethnographic final project. i added a recent introduction to humor research, ha! the science of when we laugh and why (weems, 2014), as an affordable textbook to replace most of the texts listed under section 5.3. (except for oring, 2003 and raskin, 1985b). in retrospect, i do not recommend weems (2014) for this kind of class, because it focuses on recent research results rather than fundamentals in humor research. it is also based heavily in psychology and neuroscience, weems’ fields of research, to the neglect of other perspectives, and it uses too much personal anecdotal evidence by the author. it also has some factual inaccuracies (cf. platt & ruch, 2015), although these were of no consequence for the composition classroom. judging from experiences reported by goodfleisch (2016) and my own readings, morreall’s (2009), comic relief: a comprehensive philosophy of humor might provide a better affordable introductory text.3 as expected, the honors students fared better than non-honors freshmen in terms of grasping many of the complex issues that are needed to explain humor. the main tool—script theory as in the popularized form presented in raskin (1985b) and applied in dean (2000)—was easier for the honors student to grasp, and thus the focus could shift more quickly to further applications and the analysis of more types and instances of humor. the course had otherwise similar outcomes to those described above. 4.2. core course on humor in the humanities and the psychology of humor during spring 2016, i taught a third iteration of the course, as a sophomore-level, lecture-based core curriculum class called “humor in the humanities.” the course was a required core curriculum course, and thus like the original composition course and like second language courses, motivation among students was anticipated to be a concern (boyer, 1987). additionally, many students with low likelihood of retention became participants in the course. this was because the course started “on flex terms,” later in the semester, to “scoop up” students with financial aid issues or students with other reasons to join the semester with a delay, such as students on academic probation lifted only at the last minute. thus, the hope was that the motivating effect of humor would again support students in the course. 3 many of the introductory lectures for the tamuc composition course could be adapted from course materials i had developed for participants of international summer schools for research in humour and laughter (www.humoursummerschool.org) in the years 2003-2008 and 2013. the audience of these summer schools is sufficiently similar to the students in the class, as non-experts in humor research, but summer school participants are generally graduate students, sometimes established researchers, with solid knowledge in their fields and an initial interest in a thesis, dissertation, or a first project in humor research. they are also usually second-language speakers of english. hempelmann 50 e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 goals for this class were largely different from the other implementations in that the course was designed to introduce students to major historical, social, psychological, and communicative concepts in the humanities, in this case as they manifest in humor. while mainly lecture-based, including guest lectures by experts in humor research, the course made extensive use of videos and other humorous media products. the course took the following trajectory: 1) introduction: humor and laughter 2) mechanisms of incongruity i: psychology of humor 3) mechanisms of incongruity ii: humor and cognitive development 4) mechanisms of incongruity iii: the "logic" of humor 5) world history of humor 6) universality and diversity of humor i: the english-speaking world 7) universality and diversity of humor ii: non-english cultures 8) midterm 9) sociology of humor 10) conversational humor: gender and power 11) humor and confrontation: ethnic humor 12) conclusions and wrap-up 13) finals week while students in this course were assessed through traditional means of quizzes, short writing assignments, online discussions, and a midterm and final exam, rather than through extensive field work and writing, the course still required students to develop critical thinking habits, as they engaged in analyses and value judgments about the positive as well as negative aspects of humor, including their own. in addition to their course work, several students regularly sought discussion with the instructor after class and during office hours to informally discuss humor in terms of the class material as well as based on students’ daily humorous interactions and media products they consumed. 5. conclusion in this article, humor as an explicit topic in the classroom, particularly the first-language writing classroom, has been argued to facilitate students' participation and their learning outcomes. materials and activities were presented, which could be adapted by teachers in the writing classroom and in writingintensive classes in general. based on research as to the parallels between first and second language writing, these materials could be extended into the second-language writing classroom, as well. additionally, the tools presented in this paper would support students in general second-language classrooms, particularly in the study of l2 pragmatics. in sum, the uses of humor in the classroom presented here—not in the form of isolated jokes or humorous items injected at random into classroom materials, but as a focused topic of study and the explicit theme of readings and writings—aligns with research findings presented in sections 1 and 2: that humor can provide students with intrinsic motivation, insight into the workings of language, and a window into human interaction in general. references for the convenience of the reader, references used as course material are marked with an asterisk. *armus, burton (writer), & decker, robert (director). 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(1984). introduction: what is humor? what is american humor?" in nancy a. walker (ed.), what's so funny? humor in american culture (pp. 3–16). wilmington, delaware: sr books. humor in the teaching of writing e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 53 wanzer, melissa bekelja (2002). use of humor in the classroom: the good, the bad, and the not-so-funny things that teachers say and do. in joseph l. chesebro & james c. mccroskey (eds.), communication for teachers (pp. 116-125). boston, massachusetts: allyn & bacon. wanzer, melissa bekelja, frymier bainbridge, ann, wojtaszczyk, ann m., & smith, tony (2006). appropriate and inappropriate uses of humor by teachers. communication education, 55(2), 178-196. *weems, scott (2014). ha! the science of when we laugh and why. new york, new york: basic. widdowson, henry g. (1983). learning purpose and language use. oxford, united kingdom: oxford university press. wimberley, tessa e., & stasio, michael j. 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a facs study. humor: international journal of humor research, 17(1-2), 85–119. acknowledgment i am very grateful for the helpful comments by the anonymous reviewers and the editors of this journal, who saw the potential of the material presented and helped me to realize it in a form much more successful than the initial submission. hempelmann 54 e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 appendix appendix a1: original field notes writing prompt start writing field notes on an event involving laughter. take the examples and information from the handout as a guide. make sure you include as much of any occurring dialogue as necessary into your notes, as well as anything else that may become relevant later. the trick is, of course, that you don't know yet what might become important. but that's why we're starting this early and practicing it. take these field notes asap, put them into a notebook, keep them. type them up later and add a short sentence or two of reflection to them: anything that comes to mind when you revisit the instance of laughter as you type it up. note if the humor seems to be directed at one or more of the participants in the event. note that it is not important if you or anyone detected humor in the situation, merely someone laughing qualifies it for your notebook. please pseudonymize all participants, especially if you describe illegal acts, including yourself consistently. keep a list of real names and pseudonyms with short descriptions of the persons for your own use, but never share it with anyone. appendix a2: original character study writing prompt learning about humor tells us a lot about the people who use it, what they joke about, why they use it, and how they use it. it provides insights not only into the psyche of the individual, but also into the dynamics of whole communities. you have looked at the humor of a certain community for quite a while now, and you have collected many field notes about laughter events in that community and elsewhere. previously in the semester you have read about humor, how it works, and what people use it for. and you have of course written a lot about it. in this project, you will bring these pieces together and write an analysis of the humor of the community that you observed. you have all the material that you need in the form of the field notes. these will form the appendix of your paper (start a new page, titled “appendix” and include all your field notes in chronological order, number them). and you have done some of the analytic work already, either two character studies or one character study and a location study. now it is time to bring these together and take the analysis further. appendix a3: original location study writing prompt some communities' humor is influenced or reflected by the location where you have observed them. analyze how the location influences the people and their use of humor, the specific circumstances under which they meet, the way they get to the location, the activities they habitually do there. gsu, or more specifically your dorm, would be a good example of a location. if there is no specific location that has an influence on the humor of your community, you can do a detailed analysis of one of the events that you took field notes about. pick a typical one, so that it can become a section in your paper. give your audience all the details necessary (who, where, what) and then analyze: who uses humor, who is the butt, is it typical for these people, what are similar events, if untypical what are events that contrast with it, how does the humor of this event reflect these people's character, how does it influence your feelings about them, why? humor in the teaching of writing e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 42-55 55 christian f. hempelmann, texas a&m university-commerce c.hempelmann@tamuc.edu en christian f. “kiki” hempelmann is an assistant professor of computational linguistics in the department of literature and languages of texas a&m university-commerce. he has worked on humor from a multidisciplinary perspective for both his master’s degree and his ph.d. on the phonosemantics of puns completed at purdue university in 2003. apart from concentrating on computational semantics and the linguistics of humor, he is a consultant and former chief scientific officer and director of research in the search engine industry. es christian f. “kiki” hempelmann es profesor contratado de lingüística computacional en el departamento de literatura y lenguas de texas a&m university-commerce. ha trabajado el humor desde una perspectiva pluridisciplinaria, tanto en sus estudios de máster como de doctorado. su tesis doctoral, finalizada en purdue university en 2003, versó sobre la fonosemántica de los juegos de palabras. aparte de centrarse en la semántica computacional y la lingüística del humor, se dedica a la consultoría y anteriormente trabajó como director científico y director de investigación en el sector de los motores de búsqueda en línea. it christian f. “kiki” hempelmann è ricercatore di linguistica computazionale presso il dipartimento di letteratura e lingue della texas a&m university-commerce. ha trattato il tema del comico da una prospettiva multidisciplinare sia nei suoi studi per il master, sia per il dottorato sulla fonosemantica dei giochi di parole (puns) che ha completato presso la purdue university nel 2003. oltre ad occuparsi di semantica computazionale e di linguistica del comico è consulente e già direttore scientifico e direttore di ricerca nell’industria dei motori di ricerca. ornaghi_8.2 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, november 2021, 215-219 issn 2376-905x http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.253 www.e-journall.org © ornaghi 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. review: trentin, g. (2020). didattica con e nella rete. dall’emergenza all’uso ordinario. franco angeli. valentina ornaghi sapienza università di roma book review received 28 may 2021; accepted 10 september 2021 abstract en didattica con e nella rete. dall’emergenza all’uso ordinario (teaching in and within the web. from the emergency to everyday use) examines the opportunities that online resources can offer to teaching and learning, as well as to teachers’ training. after showing how online resources can enhance students’ interaction and collaborative learning, the book illustrates how to plan and design online teaching activities, how to carry out assessment, and how teachers can use online resources for professional growth. even though it does not focus on language teaching in particular, the book contains some useful insights that can be applied to language courses, especially with respect to enhancing interaction. it is recommended for teachers approaching fully online teaching for the first time or for teachers willing to incorporate online methods into their classrooms. keywords: online teaching, collaborative learning, online assessment, teachers’ training es didattica con e nella rete. dall’emergenza all’uso ordinario (didáctica con y en la red. de la emergencia al uso ordinario) examina las oportunidades que los recursos en línea pueden ofrecer a la enseñanza y al aprendizaje, así como a la formación del profesorado. tras mostrar cómo los recursos en línea pueden mejorar la interacción entre estudiantes y el aprendizaje colaborativo, el libro pasa a ilustrar cómo planear y diseñar actividades para la enseñanza en línea, cómo llevar a cabo la evaluación, y cómo el profesorado puede utilizar los recursos digitales para su desarrollo profesional. si bien no se centra de manera específica en la enseñanza de lenguas, este volumen contiene ideas de utilidad que se pueden aplicar en cursos de lenguas, principalmente en lo que a la mejora de la interación se refiere. este libro es especialmente recomendado a docentes que se enfrentan a la enseñanza en línea por primera vez o a quienes desean introducir este tipo de docencia en sus clases. palabras clave: enseñanza en línea, aprendizaje colaborativo, evaluación en línea, formación del profesorado. it didattica con e nella rete. dall’emergenza all’uso ordinario esamina le opportunità offerte dalla rete per l’apprendimento e la didattica, nonché per la formazione dei docenti. dopo avere messo in luce come le risorse online possono favorire l’apprendimento collaborativo e l’interazione tra studenti, il volume passa a illustrare come pianificare e organizzare l’attività didattica online, come svolgere la valutazione, ma anche come sfruttare le risorse della rete per la crescita professionale degli insegnanti. sebbene non tratti di glottodidattica nello specifico, può essere una risorsa utile da consultare anche per la didattica delle lingue, soprattutto per quanto riguarda il potenziamento dell’interazione. è una lettura raccomandata per i docenti che per la prima volta si affacciano sul mondo dell’insegnamento online. parole chiave: didattica online, apprendimento collaborativo, valutazione online, formazione docenti * valentina ornaghi, sapienza università di roma valentina.ornaghi@uniroma1.it ornaghi e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 215-219 216 trentin’s monograph didattica con e nella rete. dall’emergenza all’uso ordinario originally inspired by a recent project of the italian national research council aimed at training teachers in online education, came into being during the year of the covid-19 pandemic, which forced schools of all levels, from primary schools to universities, to shift their courses online. trentin is an expert in online teaching. the author has also recently published another volume aimed at giving instructions on how to build an online course (piras, reyes, & trentin, 2020). in the present volume, the author takes what can be considered “emergency online teaching” as an opportunity for teachers to learn how to take advantage of the internet and of online resources to improve the process of teaching and learning, beyond what is usually done in the traditional classroom. since the book mainly focuses on secondary schools, the intended audience is primarily junior and senior high-school teachers. the book, however, is rich in suggestions for anyone who is approaching online teaching for the first time and who is willing to make good use of the plentiful internet resources. these suggestions can be applied to different subjects, including language courses. as the author states at the end of the book, the intention is to give hints and offer a framework for reflection that could help teachers come up with new ideas about how to apply online resources to their specific courses (trentin, 2020, p. 95). it can be said that the book has two main themes: how teachers can use the internet and online resources to enhance teaching and learning, and how teachers can use such resources to improve themselves and grow professionally. these themes are analyzed across five chapters. the first two chapters describe how to use online resources, with a special focus on how to utilize them in order to support students with special needs. the third and fourth chapters focus on planning, designing, and assessing online teaching and learning, while the fifth chapter analyzes how teachers themselves can learn through the internet. specifically, the first chapter provides some examples of how the web can act both as a support to traditional courses and as an environment to host an online course, emphasizing both potential benefits and potential pitfalls. it also gives important suggestions about how to carefully plan educational activities, whether teachers intend to use online technologies inside or outside the physical classroom; it indicates which technologies are most useful for proposing collaborative activities to students; and finally, it demonstrates how collaborative learning is often stimulated and favored by the digital medium. this chapter is extremely useful for anyone planning to take their teaching online for the first time. it lists a series of materials that teachers can find online and use to design their courses, including, but not limited to: teaching units; educational apps developed to facilitate the achievement of specific disciplinary objectives through individual or group activities; and apps which are not necessarily designed for educational purposes but which can be adapted for educational activities. examples of the latter are 3d environments, simulated environments, and apps that enable activities centered on gamification. the chapter also suggests useful tools which can be used to carry out synchronous and asynchronous interaction, which is one of the main challenges of online courses, especially in the case of language teaching (panagiotidis, 2019). finally, it focuses on how to engage students in active learning and how to invite them to put into practice what they have studied. the pattern suggested is the flipped classroom. in the flipped classroom pattern, mini-lectures are given to the students in the form of videos or other digital materials so that they can learn before class; during class time, students and teachers are mainly involved in the activities of analyzing key points, doing quizzes and exercises, researching projects, and taking part in group discussion. the second chapter analyzes how online teaching can benefit students with special needs. the chapter mainly illustrates two projects developed by the italian national research council, namely clipso (classi ibride e scuola in ospedale, that is, hybrid classes and in-hospital schooling) and tris (tecnologie di rete e inclusione socio-educativa, that is, network technologies and socio-educational inclusion), which aim at enabling the education of, respectively, hospitalized students and homebound students with diseases that prevent them from attending in-person classes. however, the chapter also analyzes how online teaching and, most of all, blended learning have been crucial to ensure the continuity of education during the covid-19 pandemic. in this period, schools were forced to adopt a blended learning pattern. in blended learning, being able to flip the classroom was crucial because it enabled the teacher to provide a variety of activities, to ensure student-centered learning, to keep explanations short to alleviate the students’ fatigue of looking at a video for a long time, and to give students moments of reflection and synthesis, for example by encouraging them to respond to specific stimuli, or by requiring them to produce short compositions that helped to consolidate knowledge of the studied topics. flipping the classroom does not mean eliminating the teacher’s explanation, but rather reducing its duration in order to save time for active teaching and to allow students to manage their time independently by carrying out activities individually, in pairs, or in small groups. with blended learning, review: didattica con e nella rete e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 215-219 217 being in the classroom or at home makes little difference, at least from the point of view of carrying out educational activities (trentin, 2020, p. 55). the third chapter mainly focuses on how to plan the educational use of online resources. in particular, the chapter gives suggestions regarding the design of activities centered on collaborative learning, which is often stimulated and favored by being online, where teachers and students can share their projects more easily. trentin also illustrates how social media can be used for educational purposes, and details the skills that are required for a teacher to plan online teaching. social media in particular can support collaborative learning. the main advantages of social media lie in encouraging dialogue between peers, in promoting the sharing of resources, in improving the development of communication skills, and, above all, in the possibility of expanding learning contexts beyond the school or university classroom. there are numerous testimonies about the use of blogs that attest to the benefits of online writing to enhance the development of language skills. as far as enhancing collaborative writing skills is concerned, collaborative tools that allow students to contribute and modify one or more pages of course related materials, such as wikis, can constitute a learning environment in which teachers can provide continuous feedback to students, as well as an easily updatable language portfolio. another example of the use of social media, now very widespread in schools, is the use of video platforms such as youtube and vimeo: for example, in addition to being an inexhaustible source of video material in the most diverse disciplinary fields, youtube provides new functions to help develop and share educational videos online. as for social networks, facebook, twitter and instagram allow students and teachers to exchange messages in real time, to participate in groups or pages of interest, to organize events, and to interact with experts and professionals outside the school world. the fourth chapter focuses on one of the main issues to be faced and solved during online teaching and learning, that is, assessment. trentin makes a distinction between formative assessment, which refers to assessment that evaluates student learning at the current stage and supports next steps, and summative assessment, which refers to the systematic and continuous recording of student achievement. this distinction has long been known to scholars in the field of education (e.g., harlen & james, 1997). however, trentin adds a third kind of assessment, called “training assessment,” that is intended to make the evaluation process itself formative by actively involving students, stimulating them to perform self-assessment and self-regulation of their own learning process (trinchero, 2018). trentin gives some useful suggestions on how to carry out assessment: rigorously formulate the learning objective; define an effective way to evaluate its achievement and the contents to be taught to achieve it; and define the appropriate teaching strategy to ensure students’ overall preparation for passing the assessment test. trentin also suggests different types of assessment, such as simulations, that is, solving real problems and situations. the web can support the assessment process with environments for the management of homework delivery and correction (learning management systems, lms) such as moodle); environments capable of guiding students in an activity set by the teacher (webquest); and anti-plagiarism tools. it is also possible to evaluate collaborative learning online. group activities can benefit from web resources and services, which allow functions such as: interaction between participants in forums, on social media platforms, on blogs, or in audio and video conferences; archiving and sharing of study materials (google drive, dropbox, office 365); collaboration and cooperation in the creation of artifacts (wikis, concept maps, video artifacts); peer review of papers (moodle and peergrade). finally, many network environments (for example, lms such as moodle and google classroom) track data and provide automatic processing of the tracked information (commonly referred to as “learning analytics”), thus further supporting the evaluation activity of the teacher. the fifth and last chapter turns its attention to the teachers by describing how they can use online resources for their own training and professional growth, on top of planning and designing their lessons. here the teacher is not only a trainer, but a trainee as well. the chapter aims at answering the following questions: what are the resources and educational offerings that a teacher can find online? where can they be found and how should they be selected according to the teacher’s needs? what rules should be followed in order to effectively benefit from an online training course? the chapter, however, does not just focus on online courses; another opportunity for professional growth offered by the internet is that it facilitates contact with other colleagues, allowing teachers to participate actively in “communities of practice” centered on collaborative planning and on sharing teaching materials, experiences, and solutions to common problems. to summarize, online courses represent formal training environments, while participation in communities of practice completes the framework by offering informal opportunities for professional growth. the book gives new and deep insights into the possibilities offered by online resources and online teaching. it especially stresses the importance of the flipped classroom approach for interactive activities with ornaghi e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 215-219 218 the aim of engaging students in active learning, which is already found in the literature (e.g., hua, 2018). the focus on high school students and on how traditional classes can benefit from the flipped classroom pattern in an innovative way is also in line with previous research (e.g., bergmann & sams, 2012; maglioni & biscaro, 2014). making the lesson more interactive is also crucial to language courses. the possibility of reduced teacher presence, social presence, and scarce group interaction are among the main concerns about online courses. this is even more true in the case of language learning, where “learners must have the opportunity to interact in the target language to negotiate meaning” (perifanou & economides, 2014, p. 3562). also, panagiotidis (2019) states that “learning a language is not comparable to learning other subjects, as it demands a high level of interaction with other speakers and the use of higher order thinking skills” (p. 286). as stated before, the book mainly addresses high school teachers, and it revolves around the issue of online teaching as well as learning in general, without giving specific examples for any subject, which may be seen as a shortcoming. however, it still gives valuable suggestions and insights about how to use online resources and about how to plan an online course, which can easily be applied to different subjects. in particular, suggestions that are especially suitable for language courses focus on how to increase interaction during online lessons and blended teaching, and on how to use online tools such as social networks to improve collaborative learning. these suggestions make the book worth reading for language teachers. finally, the book is not just centered on planning, designing and assessment of online courses, but in an innovative way it also turns its attention to the training of the teachers, suggesting how online tools and resources can be used for teachers’ professional growth. references bergmann, jonathan, & sams, aaron (2012). flip your classroom: reach every student in every class every day. international society for technology and education. harlen, wynne, & james, mary (1997). assessment and learning: differences and relationships between formative and summative assessment. assessment in education, 4(3), 365-379. hua, lu (2018). construction of spoc-based learning model and its application in linguistics teaching. ijet, 13(2), 157-169. maglioni, maurizio, & biscaro, fabio (2014). la classe capovolta: innovare la didattica con la flipped classroom. erickson. panagiotidis, panos (2019). moocs for language learning: reality and prospects. site 2019, 286-292. perifanou, maria, & economides, anastasios (2014). moocs for foreign language learning: an effort to explore and evaluate the first practices. proceedings of inted2014 conference, 3561-3570. piras, valeria, reyes, maria cecilia, & trentin, guglielmo (2020). come disegnare un corso online: criteri di progettazione didattica e della comunicazione. franco angeli. trinchero, roberto (2018). valutazione formante per l’attivazione cognitiva. spunti per un uso efficace delle tecnologie per apprendere in classe. ijet, 26(3), 40-55. review: didattica con e nella rete e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 215-219 219 valentina ornaghi, sapienza università di roma valentina.ornaghi@uniroma1.it en valentina ornaghi is currently a phd student at the italian institute of oriental studies (iso), sapienza university of rome, curriculum east asia. she graduated in 2009 with a master’s degree in chinese language at the university of milan and has since been teaching chinese language in high schools, at the university of milan, and at the confucius institute. her research fields are chinese language teaching, chinese as a second language (csl) acquisition, and the use of technology in teaching. es valentina ornaghi realiza en la actualidad sus estudios en el programa de doctorado “este de asia” del instituto italiano de estudios orientales (iso), en la universidad sapienza de roma. en 2009 se graduó en un máster sobre lengua china en la universidad de milán, y desde entonces ha sido profesora de chino en centros de educación secundaria, universidades, y en el instituto confucio. su investigación se centra principalmente en la enseñanza de la lengua china, en la adquisición del chino como segunda lengua, y en el uso de la tecnología en la enseñanza. it valentina ornaghi è attualmente dottoranda presso l'istituto italiano di studi orientali (iso), sapienza università di roma, curriculum “asia orientale”. nel 2009 ha conseguito la laurea magistrale in lingue, culture e comunicazione internazionale (lingue: cinese e inglese) presso l'università degli studi di milano. da allora insegna lingua cinese presso diverse scuole, all’istituto confucio e presso il corso di laurea magistrale in lingue, culture e comunicazione internazionale dell’università degli studi di milano. i suoi campi di ricerca sono l'insegnamento della lingua cinese, l'acquisizione del cinese come seconda lingua e l'uso delle tecnologie didattiche. delbono_bonvino_8.2 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, november 2021, 105–124 issn 2376-905x http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.250 www.e-journall.org © del bono 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. dalla valutazione in dad alle scale di adeguatezza funzionale federica del bono università degli studi roma tre/sapienza università di roma elisabetta bonvino università degli studi roma tre received 2 may 2021; accepted 7 august 2021 abstract it il presente contributo analizza la valutazione delle competenze linguistiche nella didattica a distanza (dad) durante il periodo di emergenza sanitaria (covid-19). dall’analisi delle risposte a un questionario somministrato a docenti di lingue, emerge che la valutazione delle lingue straniere ha risentito notevolmente di questa nuova modalità di insegnamento e che alcune delle difficoltà valutative riscontrate in dad possano essere in parte risolte assumendo una prospettiva di valutazione globale, che integri le diverse competenze e abilità degli apprendenti, attraverso attività task-based. dopo aver illustrato le diverse soluzioni adottate dai docenti durante la dad, vengono presentati i presupposti della valutazione task-based e si evidenziano i potenziali vantaggi dell’applicazione didattica delle scale di adeguatezza funzionale. parole chiave: educazione linguistica, valutazione linguistica task-based, adeguatezza funzionale, didattica a distanza en this article analyzes the evaluation of linguistic competence in distance learning during the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic. based on the analysis of responses to a questionnaire administered to language teachers, language teachers perceive that assessment of foreign language has regressed notably due to this new mode of teaching, but that some of the difficulties in assessing distance learning can be resolved, in part, by adopting an approach based on global assessment, which integrates various competencies and abilities of learners through task-based activities. after having illustrated the varying solutions adopted by teachers during this period of distance learning, suppositions about task-based learning are presented, followed by the potential advantages of the pedagogical application of the scale of functional adequacy. key words: language education, task-based assessment, functional adequacy, distance learning es esta contribución analiza la evaluación de las competencias lingüísticas en educación a distancia durante la crisis sanitaria provocada por la pandemia covid-19. el análisis de las respuestas a un cuestionario administrado al profesorado de idiomas extranjeros muestra un retroceso notable en la evaluación de la lengua extranjera debido a esta nueva forma de enseñanza, aunque algunas de las dificultades en la evaluación de la educación a distancia pueden ser resueltas, en parte, mediante la adopción de un enfoque de evaluación global que integre las diversas competencias y habilidades del alumnado a través de actividades basadas en tareas. después de haber ilustrado las distintas soluciones adoptadas por el profesorado durante este período de educación a distancia, se presentan las conjeturas sobre el aprendizaje basado en tareas así como las potenciales ventajas de la aplicación pedagógica de la escala de adecuación funcional. palabras clave: educación lingüística, evaluación por tareas, adecuación funcional, enseñanza a distancia ! federica del bono, università degli studi roma tre/sapienza università di roma federica.delbono@uniroma3.it del bono e bonvino e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 106 1. introduzione la situazione di emergenza sanitaria causata dalla malattia da coronavirus (covid-19) iniziata in italia nel marzo 2020 ha costretto tutte le persone coinvolte nei processi di formazione, dalla scuola all’università, a importanti e repentini cambiamenti: i corsi in presenza sono stati infatti riconvertiti in corsi on-line, con un conseguente stravolgimento delle abitudini di insegnamento, apprendimento e valutazione. nell’ambito del progetto di rilevamento delle pratiche nella didattica a distanza (dad) presentato in questo numero, abbiamo ideato, con il gruppo graal di roma tre, un questionario (cfr. conti, in stampa, in questo numero), somministrato a docenti di lingue, per cercare di comprendere quale sia stato l’impatto del passaggio a una didattica prevalentemente a distanza nell’ambito dell’insegnamento delle lingue seconde e straniere. la valutazione è uno degli ambiti che ha maggiormente risentito di questa situazione improvvisa e che ha trovato tutti impreparati. insegnanti e apprendenti hanno infatti dovuto affrontare notevoli problemi legati principalmente all’inadeguatezza degli strumenti tecnologici disponibili e alla difficoltà di dover adattare le consuete modalità valutative ad una realtà diversa. i mezzi di comunicazione italiani hanno riportato numerosi episodi che vedono i docenti protagonisti di vani tentativi di assicurare sorveglianza e rigore durante lo svolgimento delle prove valutative, contrapposti ad apprendenti abilissimi nell’uso delle nuove tecnologie e quindi in grado di eludere facilmente il controllo. questi episodi evidenziano la difficoltà della valutazione a distanza, testimoniata anche dal fatto che in molti casi si è preferito rimandare il momento valutativo al ritorno in presenza. il termine valutazione è qui utilizzato in senso molto ampio come un complesso di operazioni che consente di raccogliere informazioni volte a favorire il processo decisionale (bachman & palmer, 2010). in questo senso, la nozione di valutazione si estende a comprendere anche altri termini, quali: esame, prova di verifica, test, valutazione alternativa, e altri, e può essere utilizzata anche per indicare le singole attività, ad esempio colloqui, interrogazioni orali o risposte ad una check-list di autovalutazione (cfr. lenz & berthele, 2010). la valutazione costituisce un momento fondamentale del processo formativo che rientra nell’ambito dei procedimenti di comunicazione, controllo e feedback esercitati, in misura diversa, sia dall’insegnante sia dall’apprendente. vi è infatti un legame strettissimo tra verifica, valutazione e azione didattica: si verificano le competenze linguistiche per poterle classificare in una scala di valori, tale scala permette di comprendere se gli obiettivi proposti sono stati adeguatamente raggiunti e/o se non sia il caso di aggiustare l’intervento formativo (novello, 2014). il processo valutativo ha, pertanto, sempre importanti ricadute sul processo didattico, e può portare a riflessioni, ripensamenti e approfondimenti sia da parte dell’insegnante che da parte dell’apprendente. in particolare, le informazioni raccolte nella valutazione linguistica permettono di determinare la qualità e la quantità dell’acquisizione di una determinata lingua da parte di un apprendente, attribuendo a questi dati un valore, un punteggio, o un livello. per queste ragioni, all’interno del progetto di indagine della dad, presentato in questo numero della rivista, ci è parso importante capire quali siano state quindi le conseguenze per la valutazione e pertanto una sezione è stata dedicata a questa importante fase del processo formativo. ci siamo infatti interrogate se i criteri di qualità della valutazione siano stati sempre soddisfatti in dad. la qualità della valutazione è solitamente individuata attraverso una serie di requisiti. la validità costituisce il più importante requisito qualitativo e riguarda principalmente l’ambito dell’interpretazione dei risultati (bachman, 1990). una procedura di valutazione è valida nella misura in cui si può dimostrare che ciò che si sta valutando è ciò che, in quel contesto, si vuole effettivamente valutare, e che l’informazione ottenuta rappresenta con precisione la competenza del candidato in questione (consiglio d’europa, 2002, p.217). in altri termini la validità deriva dalla coerenza tra il contenuto della prova (le richieste fatte al candidato, il formato di queste richieste, le abilità chiamate in gioco, il campione di lingua utilizzato e/o richiesto ecc.) e ciò che il test si prefigge di valutare. il termine può comunque essere inteso nella sua accezione più ampia, in cui si intende anche la validità di quanto viene richiesto al candidato, validità dei criteri di selezione, validità delle scelte fatte ecc. (bonvino, 2008). un secondo fattore, collegato alla validità, e da cui la validità di una prova dipende, riguarda invece la rappresentatività e l’appropriatezza dell’aspetto valutato, sia per quanto riguarda la dimensione e la durata sia per quanto riguarda il contenuto. le prove, infatti, dovrebbero essere indicative di un’abilità soggiacente nel candidato e rappresentative della lingua e della cultura oggetto della valutazione. la qualità della valutazione è considerata anche rispetto al criterio della comparabilità, con il quale si intende il fatto che i dati ottenuti possono essere confrontati con prestazioni di altri candidati o dello stesso candidato anche in momenti diversi dell'apprendimento. infine, due aspetti imprescindibili di una prova sono la sua accettabilità, criterio che indica che la prova proposta deve essere considerata accettabile sia da parte del dalla valutazione in dad alle scale di adeguatezza funzionale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 107 docente che dell’apprendente. quest’ultimo criterio è spesso collegato a quello relativo alla sua fattibilità ed economicità, cioè da fattori determinati dal costo in termini di materiali, tempo e sforzi che l’organizzazione della prova richiede. la fattibilità di un test dipende pertanto soprattutto dalle condizioni e dalla struttura in cui lo si svolge. inoltre, un test per essere considerato fattibile dovrebbe anche poter essere applicabile agli ordinamenti didattici in vigore ed essere con questi coerente. le risposte di questa sezione del questionario (cfr. § 2) hanno confermato le grandi difficoltà incontrate dagli insegnanti nel processo valutativo in questo particolare momento. oltre alle difficoltà, è però stato possibile rilevare anche aspetti positivi e innovativi, che sono emersi proprio per far fronte alle esigenze di una valutazione a distanza. alcuni docenti hanno infatti abbandonato una valutazione tradizionale, basata su verifiche puntuali della competenza grammaticale, o di singole abilità, e hanno invece optato per la creazione di prove globali basate su compiti in cui si richiede agli apprendenti un’elaborazione personale e il ricorso ad abilità linguistiche integrate. le prove utilizzate dagli insegnanti in dad possono essere ricondotte alla definizione di task, inteso come un compito che richiede agli apprendenti di utilizzare le proprie risorse linguistiche per raggiungere un obiettivo non linguistico (cortés velásquez & nuzzo, 2018). i task richiedono una valutazione adeguata, che, come mostreremo, può essere effettuata attraverso strumenti di verifica idonei a un utilizzo in dad. il presente lavoro ha pertanto un duplice obiettivo che si manifesta in una struttura bipartita: la prima sezione (§2), che costituisce il punto di partenza e il presupposto della seconda, analizza i risultati del questionario sulla valutazione in dad con l’intento di tracciare un bilancio; la seconda sezione (§3) discute i presupposti della valutazione task-based con l’obiettivo di evidenziare i vantaggi di una valutazione basata sul concetto di adeguatezza funzionale (d’ora in poi af, dall’inglese functional adequacy, kuiken e vedder, 2017). le scale di af, anche se oggi sono utilizzate prevalentemente in contesti di ricerca, costituiscono a nostro avviso un utile strumento valutativo, in grado di tener conto sia del raggiungimento degli obiettivi del task che dell’adeguatezza della performance. 2. il questionario 2.1. contesto e campione il questionario somministrato dal gruppo graal ai docenti di lingue straniere ha previsto una sezione interamente dedicata alla valutazione, vista l’importanza che essa riveste nell’ambito della didattica delle lingue seconde/straniere. questa sezione era suddivisa in due parti, una prima riguardante le difficoltà incontrate nel valutare in dad e una seconda relativa al tipo di pratica valutativa applicata, in termini di strumenti usati, test creati e aspetti valutati. nel questionario si alternavano domande con risposta a scelta multipla di diverso tipo, in cui i docenti erano chiamati a selezionare una o più opzioni, oppure in cui erano invitati a rispondere indicando un valore scalare numerico e non. in alcuni casi, inoltre, era anche richiesto di argomentare le proprie risposte tramite domande aperte. in questo contributo non saranno presentate nel dettaglio le domande, ma soltanto i risultati più salienti su cui si basa la proposta didattica. per una descrizione dettagliata del questionario e per la sua versione originale si veda conti (in stampa, in questo numero). ha risposto all’indagine un totale di 134 insegnanti1, afferenti a strutture educative diverse (scuola primaria, scuola secondaria di i e ii grado, università, cpia, scuole di lingua private e associazioni). la maggior parte degli insegnanti che ha partecipato all’indagine insegna in scuole secondarie di i e ii grado (40,3%) o università (39,6%), mentre gli altri in scuole primarie (2,2%) o altri tipi di istituti (17,9%)2. il 40,3% degli informanti ha dichiarato di aver ricevuto indicazioni specifiche da parte dell’istituto di appartenenza riguardo le modalità di svolgimento della valutazione, senza specificare però in merito a quali aspetti. 2.2. i risultati nei paragrafi seguenti saranno presentati i risultati dell’indagine sulla valutazione, partendo da un’analisi delle difficoltà avute nella valutazione in dad e passando poi a descrivere nel dettaglio come questa è stata svolta. 1 due dei 136 insegnanti che hanno compilato il questionario generale hanno dichiarato di non aver valutato e pertanto sono stati esclusi dall’analisi. 2 nella presentazione dei risultati non teniamo conto del parametro relativo alla tipologia di istituto perché dall’analisi dei dati non sono emerse differenze sostanziali nelle preferenze espresse dai docenti. del bono e bonvino e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 108 2.2.1. valutazione a distanza: difficoltà e problemi la prima parte del questionario indagava, come si è detto, i problemi incontrati dai docenti nel valutare in dad, osservando innanzitutto il cambiamento della valutazione in termini organizzativi. innanzitutto, è stato chiesto agli insegnanti di indicare il loro grado di accordo – da 0 (per niente) a 5 (del tutto) – con affermazioni riguardanti l’organizzazione della valutazione in dad (tabella 1). tabella 1 organizzazione della valutazione in dad scala 1. ho dovuto modificare la mia modalità di valutazione rispetto alla didattica in presenza 2. il tempo che dedico alla valutazione è aumentato rispetto a quando lavoravo in presenza 3. ho incontrato dei problemi nell’adattare la mia valutazione alla modalità a distanza 0 (per niente) 4,5% 11,2% 10,4% 1 11,9% 4,5% 17,2% 2 8,2% 20,1% 17,2% 3 17,9% 9,7% 20,1% 4 31,3% 27,6% 22,4% 5 (molto) 26,1% 26,9% 12,7% i risultati nella tabella 1 mostrano che la metà dei docenti ha segnalato un alto livello di accordo sia con l’affermazione “1) ho dovuto modificare la mia modalità di valutazione rispetto alla didattica in presenza” (31,3% per il punteggio 4; 26,1% per il punteggio 5); che con l’affermazione “2) il tempo che dedico alla valutazione è aumentato rispetto a quando lavoravo in presenza” (27,6% per il punteggio 4; 26,9% per il punteggio 5). è risultato essere minore, invece, il grado di accordo segnalato per la terza affermazione “3) ho incontrato problemi nell’adattare la mia valutazione alla modalità a distanza”. trattandosi di una domanda a risposta chiusa, non è stato possibile approfondire le ragioni di queste risposte nel breve spazio del questionario, né il motivo per cui ci fosse una differenza nel grado di accordo espresso tra l’affermazione 3 e le affermazioni 1 e 2. ciò nonostante, le risposte fornite dai docenti ci permettono di fare delle deduzioni generali. a nostro avviso, infatti, l’aumento del tempo dedicato alla valutazione e i problemi incontrati, potrebbero essere una conseguenza della necessità di modificare la modalità di valutazione, probabilmente data dall’inadeguatezza dei tradizionali strumenti e metodi di valutazione utilizzati in presenza. un secondo aspetto osservato è stato il tipo di difficoltà riscontrate nella valutazione in dad, focalizzando l’attenzione da un lato su problemi nel raggiungimento della qualità della valutazione (figura 1), dall’altro su difficoltà riguardanti la gestione delle prove e la valutazione delle abilità degli apprendenti (figura 2). per quanto riguarda il primo aspetto indagato, è stato chiesto ai docenti di indicare il grado di difficoltà (per niente, poca, abbastanza, molta) nel raggiungere la qualità dei seguenti criteri di valutazione: la validità, la rappresentatività e l’appropriatezza, l’accettabilità e la fattibilità ed economicità3 (figura 1). 3 di ognuno di questi criteri il questionario forniva una breve definizione. dalla valutazione in dad alle scale di adeguatezza funzionale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 109 figura 1. difficoltà nel raggiungere la qualità della valutazione (valori percentuali) dalle risposte al questionario riportate nella figura 1, emerge abbastanza chiaramente che il criterio più difficile da soddisfare è stato quello relativo alla fattibilità ed economicità della prova, in quanto la maggior parte dei docenti ha affermato di aver avuto “abbastanza” (36,6%) o “molte” (30,6%) difficoltà. questo dato è in linea con le dichiarazioni dei docenti presentate nella tabella 1, dalle quali emerge un aumento del tempo dedicato alla valutazione in dad rispetto alla modalità in presenza. per quanto riguarda gli altri aspetti osservati, invece, la maggior parte delle risposte fornite sono state per le opzioni “abbastanza” o “poche”, suggerendo quindi che i docenti hanno avuto meno problemi nel confrontarsi con questi criteri di qualità della valutazione. in merito al tipo di difficoltà, invece, è stata proposta ai docenti una domanda in cui era richiesto di selezionare una o più aree della valutazione in cui avevano riscontrato problemi, e che potrebbero essere raggruppate in due macrocategorie: problemi legati alla pianificazione e somministrazione delle prove (tabella 2); problemi legati alla valutazione degli aspetti della competenza linguistico-comunicativa (tabella 3). tabella 2 difficoltà nella pianificazione e somministrazione delle prove tipo di difficoltà risposte creare test adatti 54,5% utilizzare strumenti di valutazione adatti 62,7% verificare l’autenticità e l’integrità della prova 76,9% tabella 3 difficoltà nella valutazione di aspetti della competenza linguistico-comunicativa tipo di difficoltà risposte valutare le competenze metalinguistiche 29,9% valutare le conoscenze linguistiche 20,1% valutare l’interazione orale 43,3% valutare l’interazione scritta 31,3% valutare le produzioni orali 35,1% valutare le produzioni scritte 32,8% i risultati nelle tabelle 2 e 3 mostrano che i docenti hanno avuto difficoltà, in maniera maggiore o minore, in tutte le opzioni proposte. per quanto riguarda i problemi relativi alla valutazione di aspetti della competenza linguisticocomunicativa, le difficoltà sono state basse per la valutazione delle conoscenze linguistiche e metalinguistiche 12,7 6,7 9,0 6,7 8,2 38,8 35,1 23,9 26,1 32,8 43,3 43,3 36,6 47,0 47,0 5,2 14,9 30,6 20,1 11,9 accettabilità comparabilità fattibilità ed economicità rappresentatività validità per niente poca abbastanza moltà del bono e bonvino e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 110 (20,1% per le prime, 29,9% per le seconde), moderate per l’abilità di interazione scritta (31,3%) e per quelle di produzione scritta (32,8%) e orale (35,1), mentre più alte quelle per l’interazione orale (43,3%). dai risultati si evince, inoltre, che la maggior parte dei docenti ha incontrato difficoltà elevate nella pianificazione e somministrazione delle prove. l’aspetto più critico è stato quello relativo alla verifica “dell’autenticità e dell’integrità della prova” (76,9%), che nel questionario abbiamo inteso e definito come la possibilità di accertarsi che i test fossero svolti correttamente dagli apprendenti senza supporto di strumenti non autorizzati o aiuti esterni. inoltre, più della metà degli intervistati ha dichiarato di aver avuto problemi sia nell’utilizzare degli strumenti adatti alla valutazione (62,7%), che nella creazione di prove adeguate (54,5%). come per i risultati presentati nella tabella 1, trattandosi anche in questo caso di risposte chiuse, non è stato possibile indagare in maniera approfondita nei confronti di quale specifica attività messa in pratica avessero riscontrato difficoltà i docenti. confrontando, però, questi risultati con quelli presentati precedentemente, si potrebbe pensare che le tradizionali modalità di valutazione solitamente utilizzate in classe fossero inadeguate per la valutazione di specifici aspetti della competenza linguistico-comunicativa in dad, poiché i docenti non avevano né gli strumenti adatti, né la possibilità di creare delle prove che fossero fattibili in questa specifica modalità didattica. un dato emerso dalle risposte presentate nella tabella 2, e che a nostro avviso è particolarmente importante, è quello riguardante i problemi relativi alla sorveglianza delle modalità di svolgimento delle prove. per i docenti è fondamentale, infatti, controllare che le prove siano condotte in maniera corretta, ma gli strumenti tecnologici non permettono di avere la stessa garanzia che si ha quando la prova è svolta in presenza. al fine di comprendere le soluzioni messe in atto dagli insegnanti rispetto a tale problema, è stato chiesto loro di selezionare una o più modalità di sorveglianza applicate durante lo svolgimento delle prove tra condivisione dello schermo, sorveglianza tramite webcam, uso di software appositi, oppure di indicare “altro” nel caso in cui avessero scelto di utilizzare altri mezzi. quest’ultima opzione poteva essere selezionata anche se venivano utilizzate le altre modalità incluse nella domanda. figura 2. modalità di controllo dello svolgimento della prova dai risultati presentati nella figura 2 emerge che la maggior parte dei docenti ha deciso di controllare lo svolgimento della prova attraverso la condivisione dello schermo (48,5%) o la sorveglianza tramite webcam (46,3%). al contrario, soltanto il 5,2% ha optato per l’utilizzo di software appositamente ideati per la sorveglianza del computer. un aspetto interessante è che spesso i docenti hanno deciso di combinare queste tre opzioni, mettendo in pratica modalità di controllo diverse contemporaneamente. inoltre, il 29,9% dei docenti ha selezionato l’opzione “altro”, in quanto le loro modalità di sorveglianza non rientravano in quelle previste dalla domanda. innanzitutto, un dato importante riguarda coloro che nel selezionare “altro” hanno dichiarato di non aver controllato in alcun modo lo svolgimento della prova (12,7%). le motivazioni di quest’ultima scelta sono state molteplici. alcuni docenti hanno fatto leva sul senso di responsabilità degli alunni e sulla fiducia riposta in loro, mentre altri hanno seguito le indicazioni dell’istituto o non hanno considerato necessario verificare. altri docenti che hanno selezionato l’opzione “altro”, invece, hanno dichiarato di aver messo in atto tipi di sorveglianza diversi e alternativi. alcuni di loro, ad esempio, hanno utilizzato test con limite 48,5% 46,30% 5,20% 12,70% condivisione dello schermo per la durata della prova in tempo reale sorveglianza tramite webcam in tempo reale utilizzo di software dedicati (respondus monitor; safe exam browser, ecc.) nessun controllo dalla valutazione in dad alle scale di adeguatezza funzionale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 111 di tempo, che rendevano quindi difficile consultare materiali o utilizzare strumenti non autorizzati. importante è sottolineare che alcuni docenti, invece, hanno optato per la creazione di prove personalizzate e non giudicate in base a risposte oggettivamente corrette o sbagliate, ma in cui gli apprendenti dovevano mettere in gioco tutte le loro abilità linguistiche (cfr. par. 2.2.2.). 2.2.2. valutazione a distanza: modalità, strumenti e test la seconda parte del questionario è stata dedicata ad indagare le pratiche valutative utilizzate in dad, in termini sia di tipo di valutazione che di attività proposte. una prima osservazione ha riguardato il cambiamento del tipo di valutazione utilizzato in presenza (figura. 3) e in dad (figura. 4). a tal proposito, è stato richiesto ai docenti di indicare su una scala da “mai” a “spesso” il livello di utilizzo in presenza e in dad di sei tipi di valutazione: valutazione separata; valutazione globale; verifica finale; valutazione continua; auto-valutazione; valutazione tra pari. questi diversi tipi di valutazione sono alcuni di quelli presentati nel quadro comune europeo di riferimento (consiglio d’europa, 2002), pertanto sono concetti con cui si presume che i docenti abbiano familiarità. la valutazione separata è intesa come verifica dei diversi aspetti della competenza linguistico-comunicativa, come ad esempio il lessico e la grammatica, in maniera isolata. al contrario, la valutazione globale valuta complessivamente le diverse abilità e conoscenze degli apprendenti. la verifica finale indica la valutazione del raggiungimento di specifici obiettivi in maniera puntuale, quindi tramite un test. la valutazione continua, invece, si occupa di verificare in itinere le competenze degli apprendenti tramite diverse attività individuali o in gruppo. infine, l’autovalutazione fa riferimento alla verifica da parte dell’apprendente stesso delle proprie abilità, mentre la valutazione tra pari indica il controllo da parte di un apprendente del livello in cui si trova un altro (cfr. consiglio d’europa, 2002). figura 3. tipo di valutazione in presenza i risultati relativi al tipo di valutazione utilizzato in presenza (figura 3), mettono in luce una preferenza dei docenti per la verifica finale. quasi la metà degli insegnanti, infatti, ha affermato di utilizzare sempre (44,8%) questa modalità valutativa. risulta essere abbastanza frequente, ma in maniera leggermente inferiore rispetto alla verifica finale, l’utilizzo della valutazione continua (38,1% per “sempre”) e di quella globale (37.3 per “sempre”). sono state meno utilizzate, invece, la valutazione separata, la valutazione tra pari e l’autovalutazione. i dati qui presentati, quindi, suggeriscono che nella modalità in presenza i docenti tendono a preferire in modo assoluto un tipo specifico di valutazione. 7,5 0,7 2,2 3,0 6,7 14,9 9,0 4,5 6,7 5,2 23,9 25,4 31,3 13,4 15,7 18,7 26,1 26,9 38,1 44,0 30,6 35,1 32,8 24,6 14,2 37,3 44,8 38,1 10,4 8,2 valutazione separata valutazione globale verifica finale valutazione continua autovalutazione valutazione tra pari mai raramente a volte spesso sempre del bono e bonvino e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 112 figura 4. tipo di valutazione in dad (valori percentuali) per quanto riguarda, invece, il tipo di valutazione utilizzato in dad, i risultati presentati nella figura 4 mostrano una situazione diversa rispetto alla didattica in presenza. nella modalità valutativa a distanza, infatti, non c’è la tendenza ad avere una preferenza assoluta per un tipo di valutazione rispetto ad un altro. al contrario, dai dati emerge un uso combinato di diversi tipi di valutazione, suggerito dal numero maggiore di docenti che ha risposto di utilizzare “spesso” o “a volte” uno specifico tipo di valutazione. inoltre, a differenza della didattica in presenza, in cui la scelta preferita dei docenti era la verifica finale, i dati mostrano che in dad c’è un uso più diffuso della valutazione globale. è confermata, invece, la tendenza al mancato ricorso alla valutazione tra pari e all’autovalutazione, il cui utilizzo risulta ulteriormente diminuito rispetto alla didattica in presenza. il confronto tra il tipo di valutazione attuato in presenza e quello a distanza suggerisce quindi un cambiamento nelle scelte valutative dei docenti. i quali passano da una preferenza quasi assoluta per un singolo tipo di valutazione ad una tendenza ad attuare in maniera complementare diversi tipi di valutazione. questo permette di osservare la competenza degli apprendenti da diversi punti di vista e soprattutto in maniera più completa. al fine di indagare come questi diversi tipi di valutazione fossero stati declinati nella pratica, è stato chiesto ai docenti di segnalare il tipo di attività utilizzate per valutare i diversi aspetti della competenza linguistico-comunicativa, dando loro la possibilità di selezionare per ogni aspetto una o più opzioni (tabella 4). tabella 4 tipo di attività (valori in percentuale) conoscenze comprensione produzione interazione linguistiche metalinguistiche scritta orale scritta orale scritta orale nessuna 3,0 11,9 7,5 6,0 7,5 7,5 29,9 10,4 role-play 26,9 20,9 6,0 26,9 4,5 40,3 5,2 43,3 monologhi 23,9 15,7 3,0 16,4 6,0 45,5 6,0 9,0 chat/forum 20,9 20,9 14,2 11,9 26,1 13,4 38,8 18,7 cloze 38,1 11,9 29,9 16,4 13,4 2,2 10,4 6,0 domande aperte 58,2 38,8 47,8 46,3 43,3 30,6 20,1 29,1 domande a scelta multipla 51,1 26,1 54,5 43,3 16,4 6,7 17,2 4,5 presentazioni orali 22,4 11,2 3,7 15,7 2,2 35,8 5,2 20,9 lavori di gruppo 14,2 11,9 6,0 10,4 11,2 22,4 10,4 15,7 testi scritti 30,6 9,0 34,3 2,2 41,0 2,2 17,9 1,5 13,4 5,2 11,9 6,7 20,9 37,3 17,9 8,2 13,4 14,9 25,4 26,9 32,1 17,9 21,6 21,6 27,6 17,9 26,9 38,8 28,4 29,1 16,4 11,2 9,7 29,9 24,6 27,6 9,7 6,7 valutazione separata valutazione globale verifica finale valutazione continua autovalutazione valutazione tra pari mai raramente a volte spesso sempre dalla valutazione in dad alle scale di adeguatezza funzionale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 113 dai risultati riportati nella tabella 4 emerge innanzitutto che tutti gli aspetti sono stati considerati in fase di valutazione. infatti, per ogni tipo di conoscenza e abilità presa in considerazione, solo una piccola fascia di docenti ha dichiarato di non aver utilizzato alcun tipo di attività per valutarla. fa eccezione soltanto l’interazione scritta, che il 29,9% dei docenti ha affermato di non valutare. questo potrebbe essere dato dalla difficoltà nel giudicare questa abilità, come è emerso dalle dichiarazioni degli stessi docenti (cfr. tabella 3, par. 2.2.1.). inoltre, alcuni insegnanti hanno selezionato l’opzione “altro” dichiarando di aver utilizzato alcune di queste attività anche per valutare le conoscenze relative alla cultura e civiltà del paese della lingua studiata. per quanto riguarda le attività più frequenti, dai dati si evince che c’è stato un uso diffuso di domande aperte e domande a scelta multipla. le seconde sono state per lo più utilizzate nel modo più tradizionale, ossia per valutare le conoscenze e le abilità di comprensione, mentre le prime sono state usate molto anche per valutare le abilità di produzione. a queste si affiancano anche molti compiti comunicativi, come ad esempio role-play o monologhi, nonché altre attività, come ad esempio presentazioni orali e lavori o progetti di gruppo. in merito a questi tipi di attività, i dati suggeriscono anche che c’è una preferenza ad usarne alcune rispetto ad altre in base all’aspetto che si valuta. ad esempio, c’è un frequente utilizzo dei role-play per verificare le abilità di produzione (40,3%) e interazione orale (43,3%). infine, gli altri tipi di attività vengono utilizzati complessivamente in maniera inferiore rispetto a quelli presentati precedentemente e soprattutto in maniera spesso concentrata per valutare uno o due aspetti specifici, come ad esempio l’uso di testi scritti per valutare la produzione scritta (41%) o le conoscenze linguistiche (30,6%), oppure i cloze per le attività di comprensione scritta (29,9%) o per valutare le conoscenze linguistiche (38,1%). i risultati presentati in questa seconda parte, quindi, suggeriscono che in dad i docenti abbiano preferito mettere in atto una valutazione che tenesse conto nel complesso delle diverse abilità e conoscenze degli alunni, integrando diverse pratiche e diverse attività. questa modalità valutativa permette di avere un’idea completa della competenza linguistico-comunicativa degli apprendenti, in quanto la stessa viene verificata tenendo conto di diversi elementi e avendo una visione d’insieme. infatti, dai dati è emerso che insieme alle classiche prove oggettive a cui solitamente corrisponde un’unica risposta corretta, come ad esempio i cloze e le domande a scelta multipla, gli apprendenti sono stati chiamati a svolgere delle attività in cui era richiesto loro di utilizzare la lingua in diverse situazioni e in cui era necessario mettere in gioco diverse abilità e competenze. trattandosi di risposte chiuse, anche in questo caso, non è stato possibile osservare nel dettaglio il tipo di prove proposte, né le ragioni esistenti dietro le scelte dei docenti, ma i dati presentati fin qui ci permettono di fare delle considerazioni generali. a nostro avviso, infatti, le scelte valutative dei docenti sono state dettate dalla necessità di superare i problemi di adattamento alla dad, ma soprattutto dalle preoccupazioni relative all’impossibilità di controllare lo svolgimento delle prove. nonostante queste soluzioni derivino da problemi legati all’inadeguatezza delle tradizionali pratiche valutative per la dad, riteniamo che rappresentino anche uno dei punti forti della modalità a distanza e mettano in luce un importante elemento da tener conto. la necessità dei docenti di riadattare i propri strumenti e le proprie pratiche didattiche alla nuova situazione, infatti, li ha portati ad orientarsi verso una nuova modalità di valutazione, in cui le prove mirano a verificare le effettive capacità di uso della lingua da parte degli apprendenti, piuttosto che misurare le conoscenze grammaticali o singole abilità. questo tipo di attività, a nostro avviso, sono molto simili a quelli in letteratura sono conosciuti come task (cfr. par. 3). 3. la valutazione task-based e l’adeguatezza funzionale nella sezione precedente, i dati emersi dalle risposte al questionario hanno mostrato come alcuni docenti abbiano optato per la creazione di prove globali basate su compiti in cui si richiede agli apprendenti un’elaborazione personale e il ricorso ad abilità linguistiche integrate. per valutare questo tipo di compiti è pertanto necessaria una valutazione volta a misurare la capacità degli apprendenti di utilizzare le loro abilità linguistiche per raggiungere gli obiettivi di un task, in linea con i principi del task-based performance assessment (cfr. brown, hudson, norris & bonk, 2002, p.9). dopo aver introdotto e discusso brevemente i principi della valutazione task-based, illustreremo una proposta di valutazione basata sul concetto di af. 3.1. valutare con i task nel caso dell’apprendimento linguistico, l’obiettivo della valutazione è legato alla concezione che si ha di lingua, di apprendimento linguistico e di didattica delle lingue. la conoscenza dichiarativa, il contenuto di una particolare sequenza di un corso di lingua, le abilità linguistiche, la capacità comunicativa, il grado di del bono e bonvino e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 114 acquisizione, la competenza metalinguistica o strategica e altre caratteristiche che possono costituire l'obiettivo di una valutazione sono descritte in termini di “costrutto”. quest’ultimo è un concetto teorico astratto che deve essere esplicitamente descritto e specificato nella progettazione dell’intervento valutativo, al fine di definire una base non solo per lo sviluppo di una data valutazione ma anche per l'interpretazione e l'uso dei suoi risultati (bachman & palmer, 2010). in designing, developing, and using language assessments, we can define the construct from a number of perspectives, including everything from the content of a particular part of a language course to a needs analysis of the components of language ability that may be required to perform language use tasks in a target language use domain, to a theoretical model of language ability. (bachman & palmer, 2010, p.43) a partire dagli anni sessanta del secolo scorso, gli approcci didattici sono incentrati sul concetto di competenza comunicativa e culturale, e, di conseguenza, il costrutto della valutazione si è basato sulla capacità del candidato nel saper usare operativamente la lingua obiettivo. in questa stessa direzione, nel qcer la competenza è descritta in termini di “saper fare” e gli strumenti di verifica sono elaborati per elicitare un dato comportamento dal quale poter comprendere il grado di competenza raggiunta in una l2 da un individuo. partendo dall’osservazione di una determinata prestazione richiesta in base a specifici compiti o consegne si può rilevare un determinato comportamento linguistico e interattivo, misurarlo in base a parametri precedentemente stabiliti e valutare la competenza sottostante che lo ha determinato (ambroso, 1993, p.3). quindi possiamo affermare che, nell’ambito della valutazione linguistica, il ricorso a task, più o meno collegati con l’uso reale della lingua, è abbastanza diffuso e consolidato e deriva direttamente dall’orientamento didattico comunicativo4. in letteratura sono presenti numerose definizioni di task (cfr. ellis, 2003; long, 2015; nunan, 2004), che, pur mettendo l’accento su aspetti diversi, concordano nel descrivere il task come un compito che richiede agli apprendenti di raggiungere un obiettivo extra-linguistico tramite l’utilizzo delle loro risorse linguistiche, focalizzando l’attenzione sul significato e non sulla forma (cortés velásquez & nuzzo, 2018). possiamo adottare una definizione abbastanza ampia di task: a pedagogical task is a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form. (nunan, 2004, p. 4) quando si parla di valutazione linguistica task-based, si intende un tipo di pratica valutativa in cui il costrutto è interamente basato sulla realizzazione di task legati a specifiche situazioni comunicative (brindley, 1994). il costrutto, in questo approccio non si basa sulla lingua come oggetto, intesa in termini di conoscenze linguistiche dichiarative, ma sul concetto di task come unità di analisi e sulla prestazione come mezzo per verificare la capacità degli apprendenti di portare a termine il compito (brown et al., 2002; norris, brown, hudson & bonk, 2002). i task replicano situazioni, contenuti, interlocutori e altri aspetti al fine di ottenere indicazioni affidabili della misura in cui gli apprendenti sanno gestire situazioni e compiti della vita reale, e presentano numerosi vantaggi sia in ambito di valutazione formativa che sommativa. l’introduzione della valutazione linguistica task-based risponde alla necessità di allineare insegnamento, curriculum e valutazione, al fine di promuovere un apprendimento effettivo della lingua (norris, 2016, p.237). in questa linea sono stati sviluppati sistemi valutativi interamente basati sul task come quello della certificazione brasiliana celpe-bras (cfr., fra gli altri, scaramucci et al. 2019) o l’approccio basato sullo scenario (cfr., fra gli altri, bonvino & fiorenza 2020; fiorenza & diego hernández, 2020; purpura, 2016). benché l’impego di task nella didattica sia abbastanza diffuso in ambito valutativo, come osservano cortés velásquez e nuzzo (2018), nella maggior parte dei casi si tratta di un uso ‘strumentale’ del task, utilizzato per elicitare una determinata prestazione linguistica, che viene poi valutata in base a criteri di efficacia comunicativa e anche, o talvolta esclusivamente, di accuratezza morfosintattica e lessicale. questo disallineamento tra insegnamento e valutazione è riconducibile ad una delle questioni ancora irrisolte nella letteratura sulla valutazione linguistica task-based, ossia il modo in cui bisogna valutare la prestazione elicitata dal task. possiamo infatti distinguere due posizioni opposte: una concezione forte e una concezione più debole. nella prima, la valutazione linguistica è focalizzata sulla capacità di portare a 4 cfr. bachman (2002); ellis (2003); nunan (2004). dalla valutazione in dad alle scale di adeguatezza funzionale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 115 compimento il task e la performance viene vista come finalizzata a verificare il raggiungimento di questo obiettivo. nella concezione più debole, invece, il task è visto come uno strumento per elicitare una performance valutata secondo alcuni criteri (timpe-laughlin, 2018). quali siano questi criteri è il nodo centrale ampiamente dibattuto, soprattutto per quanto riguarda la valutazione dell’accuratezza della prestazione linguistica (cfr., tra gli altri, bachman, 2000, norris et al., 2002). come sostiene long (2015), infatti, non solo è difficile stabilire fino a che punto sia necessario tener conto degli aspetti formali della produzione, ma anche riuscire a trovare degli strumenti per poterli valutare in maniera oggettiva. inoltre, un aspetto fondamentale di cui tener conto è che la scelta del tipo di valutazione da mettere in atto dipende principalmente dall’obiettivo della valutazione e dall’uso se ne vuole fare (norris, 2016; timple-laughlin, 2018). in tal senso, una possibile soluzione al problema della valutazione della performance del task è stata data da kuiken e vedder (2017) con l’introduzione dell’af intesa come valutazione di una performance in termini di riuscita nell’esecuzione di un task. come vedremo nel prossimo paragrafo, infatti, valutare la performance durante un task in termini di af, permette di giudicare il raggiungimento degli obiettivi del task, senza però trascurare gli aspetti linguistici della produzione. 3.2. l’adeguatezza funzionale: uno strumento per valutare i task l’af è definita come un costrutto interpersonale, legato al task e alla sua “felice” esecuzione (kuiken & vedder 2017, p. 323). il messaggio prodotto, infatti, è considerato dal ricevente funzionalmente adeguato a seconda del tipo di task che viene svolto ed è giudicato come tale in relazione alle massime conversazionali di grice (1975). in quest’ambito assumono particolare importanza sia il contesto sociale, sia il task stesso (kuiken & vedder, 2018, p. 267). in questo senso, la valutazione dell’af è un tipo di valutazione task-based che permette di tener conto sia del raggiungimento degli obiettivi del task, sia della valutazione dell’adeguatezza della performance da un punto di vista più formale. l’af, infatti, è caratterizzata da “a strong relationship between successful task fulfillment and the appropriateness and effectiveness of linguistic output” (nuzzo & bove, 2020, p. 10). kuiken e vedder (2017) hanno ideato la scala di valutazione dell’af, riadattando la scala olistica di efficacia comunicativa utilizzata per lo studio calc (kuiken, vedder, & gilabert, 2010). le caratteristiche di questa scala di valutazione sono le seguenti5: a) la suddivisione dell’af in quattro dimensioni valutabili (contenuto, requisiti del task, comprensibilità, coerenza e coesione); b) l’elaborazione di descrittori oggettivi e quantificabili, che possono essere utilizzati sia da parte di valutatori esperti che da valutatori non esperti; c) la possibilità di applicazione sia per la valutazione di produzioni in l1 che in l2; d) la dimensione funzionale della performance del task considerata in maniera indipendente rispetto agli indici di complessità, accuratezza e fluenza (caf, cfr. pallotti, 2009). la scala di valutazione dell’af di kuiken e vedder (2017) per la produzione scritta prevede quattro sotto-scale corrispondenti alle quattro dimensioni che compongono il costrutto: contenuto, requisiti del task, comprensibilità, coerenza e coesione. il contenuto valuta l’adeguatezza numerica e la pertinenza delle idee e dei concetti presenti nel testo. i requisiti del task giudicano il rispetto delle istruzioni del task in riferimento a genere testuale, registro e atti linguistici. la comprensibilità valuta lo sforzo che il lettore deve compiere per capire i contenuti e le idee del testo. infine, la dimensione di coerenza e coesione, verifica la presenza o assenza di strumenti coesivi e salti logici nel testo. ogni dimensione è rappresentata da una scala likert a sei punti, con descrittori specifici per ogni punto6. molti studi hanno dimostrato la possibilità di applicare le scale della af per valutare diversi tipi di testi scritti (cfr. per il testo argomentativo kuiken & vedder, 2017; per il testo narrativo pagliara, 2017; per il testo regolativo, faone & pagliara; per tutti e tre i generi testuali del bono, 2019; orrù, 2019) utilizzando test di tipo statistico per verificarne l’affidabilità in termini di inter-rater reliability (cfr. le breton & senter, 2008). altri studi hanno adattato le scale per valutare monologhi argomentativi (kuiken & vedder, 2018; nuzzo & cortesvelasquez, 2017;), confermando la possibilità di utilizzarle anche per questo tipo di produzioni orali. inoltre, de meo, maffia e vitale (2019) hanno messo in luce i benefici che questo strumento di valutazione potrebbe 5 adattati da kuiken e vedder (2017, p. 326). 6 si veda kuiken e vedder (2017) per la versione originale delle scale. del bono e bonvino e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 116 avere nell’ambito della certificazione per migranti, soprattutto in termini di valorizzazione delle abilità di apprendenti con un livello basso di competenza. nonostante i risultati di queste ricerche confermino la validità della scala di valutazione dell’af, lo strumento rimane appannaggio della ricerca teorica, senza trovare applicazioni didattiche. a nostro avviso, invece, sono numerose le implicazioni pedagogiche e i vantaggi che la scala potrebbe apportare in ambito didattico, sia in termini di valutazione sommativa che formativa. innanzitutto, come suggerito dagli autori stessi delle scale, la presenza di descrittori specifici per ogni livello scalare permette ai docenti di dare un feedback preciso agli apprendenti per ognuna delle dimensioni (kuiken e vedder, 2017, p.332). un altro elemento molto importante sottolineato da kuiken e vedder (2017) è la possibilità di utilizzare le scale da parte di valutatori non esperti, in quanto questo ha notevoli implicazioni in ambito didattico. nel loro studio kuiken e vedder (2017) hanno definito valutatori non esperti coloro che non hanno alcun tipo di esperienza in ambito valutativo, ma che tramite un training preparatorio possono acquisire familiarità con l’utilizzo delle scale e quindi giudicare i testi in maniera affidabile. i risultati dei vari studi sull’applicabilità della scala (cfr. del bono, 2019; kuiken & vedder, 2017; nuzzo & cortes-velasquez, 2017; pagliara, 2017) hanno confermato la possibilità da parte di valutatori non esperti di poterla utilizzare per valutare produzioni scritte e orali. questo dato suggerisce un’importante implicazione per l’applicazione delle scale in ambito didattico, in quanto la possibilità di acquisire familiarità con lo strumento anche da parte di coloro che non sono soliti valutare, permette ai docenti di utilizzarlo per svolgere attività di autovalutazione o valutazione tra pari nell’ambito dei corsi in classe. i valutatori non esperti che hanno preso parte ai diversi studi di applicabilità della scala, infatti, erano spesso studenti universitari di lingue, con una discreta familiarità con i concetti linguistici affrontati. sebbene questo possa risultare difficile per apprendenti con scarsa competenza in l2, si potrebbero suggerire degli adattamenti della scala al contesto, come ad esempio l’uso di una versione nella l1 degli apprendenti, oppure un aumento delle sessioni di training per essere sicuri che gli apprendenti abbiano capito come utilizzare lo strumento. l’applicazione della scala per attività di autovalutazione e valutazione tra pari, inoltre, potrebbe favorire la riflessione sulle abilità di scrittura e avere un ulteriore vantaggio in termini di aumento della consapevolezza nella scrittura in l1 e in l2 (cfr. nuzzo & bove 2020, p. 23). i vantaggi delineati fin qui sono validi sia per il tradizionale contesto di classe, ma anche e soprattutto per la dad. le difficoltà avute dai docenti nel valutare in dad, infatti, potrebbero essere state superate mettendo in pratica un tipo di valutazione della performance del task in termini di af, in quanto risulta essere un tipo di valutazione flessibile e facilmente adattabile a contesti e situazioni diverse. nel paragrafo seguente ci occuperemo di presentare un esempio di applicazione didattica della scala di af. 3.3. scala di valutazione della af: un esempio di applicazione come si è affermato nel paragrafo precedente, la scala di af è uno strumento flessibile che si presta a valutare un testo in merito sia al raggiungimento degli obiettivi del task, sia all’adeguatezza della produzione scritta e che potrebbe essere adatto sia alla valutazione in presenza sia a quella in dad. tale affermazione può essere esemplificata riportando alcuni esempi di applicazione della scala di af7 utilizzati per valutare diversi generi testuali8. partiamo analizzando innanzitutto lo strumento utilizzato per elicitare la performance del parlante, ossia il task. come è stato confermato dagli studi sull’applicabilità delle scale (si veda §3.2, possono essere utilizzati diversi tipi di task a seconda del tipo di testo che si vuole valutare. di seguito viene riportato ad esempio un instruction task9, nel quale viene richiesto all’apprendente di scrivere un testo regolativo, in questo caso un bigliettino con delle istruzioni relative ad una casa vacanze (figura 5). si tratta di un tipo di attività con la quale solitamente gli apprendenti hanno una certa familiarità, in quanto è molto comune sia in ambito didattico che certificatorio. 7 i dati qui riportati sono stati raccolti nell’ambito dello studio di del bono (2019) sulla verifica dell’applicabilità della scala su diversi generi testuali. 8 è di particolare interesse per questo contributo sottolineare che le attività riportate nel §3.3 sono state svolte completamente online, tramite risposte fornite su moduli google e in modalità asincrona, senza creare problemi in termini di adattabilità dello strumento o di autenticità della valutazione 9 il task utilizzato è un adattamento in italiano di del bono (2019) a partire da un task in inglese ideato da sofía martín laguna (universitat jaume i). dalla valutazione in dad alle scale di adeguatezza funzionale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 117 task d’istruzioni tramite un sito di prenotazioni online hai affittato la tua casa ad una giovane coppia, maria e max, che sta visitando la tua città. dato che non sarai lì quando arriveranno, decidi di lasciare un biglietto con le istruzioni relative alla casa. il tuo biglietto deve includere le seguenti informazioni: • inizia salutando i tuoi ospiti. • spiega dove possono trovare ciò di cui possono aver bisogno durante la loro permanenza. • spiega brevemente come usare alcuni apparecchi elettronici. • spiega come dovrebbero lasciare la casa. figura 5. task d’istruzioni come si evince dal testo riportato nella figura 5, il task utilizzato ha un input che indica all’apprendente il tipo di testo da produrre, gli argomenti da trattare e in che ordine, guidandolo in fase di stesura. questa organizzazione del task, inoltre, fornisce al docente una serie di informazioni utili per valutare l’af della produzione scritta. il task, infatti, permette facilmente di individuare quali siano gli aspetti da valutare in riferimento alle quattro dimensioni di af. ad esempio, per valutare il contenuto, sarà sufficiente verificare che siano presenti nel testo le informazioni richieste nell’elenco puntato e che le idee espresse siano efficaci e pertinenti all’argomento trattato. in questo senso, quindi, è possibile comprendere con più chiarezza perché valutare l’af della performance dipende dal particolare task svolto e quindi è interpretabile in termini di riuscita esecuzione del task, ma allo stesso tempo è strettamente legata ad aspetti prettamente legati alla produzione valutata. osserviamo, adesso, uno dei testi regolativi (figura 6) elicitati a partire dall’instruction task appena presentato. si tratta di una produzione scritta svolta da una studentessa universitaria, iscritta al primo anno di un corso di laurea in studi italiani dell’università di amsterdam, con un livello intermedio di italiano ls10. ciao maria e max, benvenuti alla mia casa. come vedete il mio appartamento è molto piccolo, dunque non sarà difficile trovare tutto. nella cucina potete trovare tutto quello che avete bisogno per il cuoinare e mangiare. aprite proprio tutto e troveremo le cose. nello spazio dove entrate, trovate un’armadio in cui sune gli asciugomani. alla sinistra c’è il bagno dove trovate un’altra porta dove c’è la lavatrice, su cui ho attaccato una carta con le istruzioni. lì è anche un’armadio in cui c’è la roba con cui potete lavare i vestiti. poi al camera da letto c’è un’armadio per i vestiti. al balcone potete asciugare i vestiti. la tv è nel soggiorno e dovete usare senza il remote. non c’è una macchina per fare caffè. l’appartamento è molto semplice ma comodo. state attenti di non disturbare i vicini di casa, perché sono abbastanza vecchi e non piaciono di essere disturbati. quando andate via, per favore chiudete tutte le finestre e la poi la porta con la chiave. figura 6. produzione elicitata dal task d’istruzioni l’af del testo riportato nella figura 6, di cui riportiamo di seguito i giudizi (in tabella 5), è stata valutata da 5 parlanti nativi di italiano, iscritti ad un corso di laurea magistrale o triennale in lingue presso l’università degli studi roma tre, considerati valutatori non esperti e sottoposti a due training prima dell’utilizzo delle scale. 10 il testo qui riportato è una trascrizione fedele della produzione scritta dell’informante. errori ortografici e morfosintattici, nonché suddivisione in paragrafi del testo, non sono stati alterati. del bono e bonvino e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 118 tabella 5 giudizi di af del testo regolativo valutatori dimensione v1 v2 v3 v4 v5 media sd cv contenuto 5 5 6 5 6 5,4 0,548 10,1% requisiti del task 5 4 5 4 5 4,6 0,548 11,9% comprensibilità 5 5 4 4 5 4,6 0,548 11,9% coerenza e coesione 4 4 4 4 3 3,8 0,447 11,8% globale 4,75 4,5 4,75 4,25 4,75 4,6 0,224 4,9% i giudizi presenti nella tabella 511 permettono di collocare l’apprendente ad uno specifico livello di af non solo in termini globali, ma anche in termini di singole dimensioni. da un lato, infatti, ci danno un’indicazione circa il livello generale di af dell’informante, ottenuto facendo una media dei singoli punteggi ottenuti nelle quattro dimensioni. secondo questi risultati si può affermare che l’apprendente abbia un livello intermedio di af, con una media di 4,6. questo valore risulta essere anche abbastanza rappresentativo in quanto la deviazione standard (0,224) e il coefficiente di variazione (4,9%) indicano una bassa variabilità tra le medie dei giudizi dei singoli valutatori. dall’altro, i giudizi dati alle singole dimensioni forniscono informazioni più precise sul livello di af, permettendo al docente di individuare quali siano gli aspetti nei quali l’apprendente deve migliorare e poter pianificare in maniera più precisa la pratica didattica. inoltre, in linea con quanto affermato da de meo, maffia e vitale (2019), questi giudizi permettono sin da subito di mettere in luce le potenzialità dell’apprendente. dai dati, infatti, emerge che l’informante ha ricevuto un ottimo giudizio nel contenuto, con una media di 5,4, ma uno più basso per la coerenza e coesione, con una media di 3,8. di conseguenza, nonostante l’apprendente nel vedere i voti ottenuti sia consapevole di dover migliorare nell’organizzazione testuale, si rende anche conto di riuscire già ad avere una buona capacità nel presentare alcune idee o concetti (contenuto, comprensibilità) e nel rispettare i requisiti del task. la possibilità di fornire delle valutazioni separate per le singole dimensioni si ricollega ad un altro dei vantaggi principali della scala. l’insegnante, infatti, può utilizzare i singoli descrittori per dare agli studenti un feedback mirato sugli elementi da migliorare, non limitandosi a dare un voto, bensì fornendo una valutazione analitica che illustri punti di forza e debolezza della performance (kuiken & vedder, 2017). nel dare questo specifico tipo di feedback, il docente, oltre a riportare i descrittori di af relativi ai singoli livelli, può anche aggiungere dei commenti in cui spiega il motivo per cui ha attribuito un dato punteggio ad ogni singola dimensione (tabella 6)12. tabella 6 giudizi di af di un testo argomentativo dimensione voto descrittore livello motivazione fornita dal valutatore contenuto 4 il numero di idee è piuttosto adeguato e le idee sono sufficientemente efficaci. ho assegnato il punteggio 4 perché secondo me il numero di idee è piuttosto adeguato anche se l'ultima argomentazione (…) risulta a mio avviso un po' debole e poco efficace. requisiti del task 4 la maggior parte dei requisiti e dei criteri specifici del task è stata soddisfatta. ho assegnato il punteggio di 4 perché ritengo che il registro linguistico sia in alcuni punti troppo colloquiale, come si vede per esempio nell'uso dei punti esclamativi. 11 i giudizi sono espressi su una scala likert a sei punti, dove 1 è il punteggio più basso e 6 il più alto. 12 i descrittori riportati nella tabella 6 appartengono alla versione italiana delle scale di af (cfr. vedder, 2016), riadattata da nuzzo & cortes-velasquez (2017). dalla valutazione in dad alle scale di adeguatezza funzionale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 119 comprensibilità 4 il testo è abbastanza comprensibile: in alcune parti non è formulato chiaramente, ma si può capire con qualche sforzo. il punteggio che ho dato è 4 perché il testo è in generale abbastanza comprensibile, ma in alcuni punti ho avuto bisogno di ragionare sulla frase e rileggerla più volte per capire il significato che l'autore voleva comunicare, come per esempio in (…) coerenza e coesione 3 il testo è parzialmente coerente: alcuni salti logici provocano interruzioni della coerenza. il testo è parzialmente coeso: vengono usati alcuni connettivi, per lo più delle congiunzioni. vengono usati alcuni riferimenti anaforici, ma non sempre in modo adeguato (per es. più di due frasi di seguito contengono lo stesso soggetto esplicito, che risulta ridondante oppure non lo esplicitano quando è necessario). in alcuni casi l’autore fa ricorso a ripetizioni non necessarie. ho assegnato 3 perché, benché il testo sia abbastanza coerente e non presenti salti logici, a livello coesivo ci sono moltissime ripetizioni (…) ed è spesso ridondante a livello anaforico. nella tabella 6 sono riportati i giudizi di af attribuiti da una valutatrice e le motivazioni corrispondenti. a differenza dell’esempio precedente, le valutazioni presentate nella tabella 6 riguardano un testo argomentativo utilizzato durante uno dei due training. in questa fase iniziale, per prendere familiarità con la scala, le valutatrici erano chiamate a giustificare i singoli punteggi dati ad ogni dimensione e questo ha permesso quindi di raccogliere una serie di commenti e riflessioni interessanti. come si può leggere dalle motivazioni riportate nella tabella 6, infatti, la valutatrice fornisce delle indicazioni molto dettagliate su quali siano gli aspetti carenti del testo. ad esempio, in riferimento alla dimensione del contenuto, la stessa sostiene che il punteggio “4” non è relativo al numero di idee, che a suo avviso risultano piuttosto adeguate, ma riguarda l’efficacia di una delle argomentazioni, da lei considerata “un po’ debole e poco efficace”. altrettanto dettagliato è il commento fornito per le altre dimensioni, in cui viene specificato quale aspetto particolare ha determinato l’attribuzione dei singoli punteggi, riportando anche delle parti di testo come esempio. inoltre, come affermato precedentemente (cfr. §3.2, la struttura della scala di af permette di utilizzarla anche per attività di autovalutazione o valutazione tra pari che potrebbero avere numerosi benefici in termini di aumento della consapevolezza nella scrittura in l1 e in l2 (cfr. nuzzo & bove, 2020). la chiarezza e la semplicità con cui sono formulati i descrittori della scala permettono di poter far acquisire familiarità con il loro utilizzo dopo qualche sessione di training iniziale. come si evince, infatti, dai commenti presentati nella tabella 6, anche i valutatori non esperti riescono ad utilizzare le scale, giustificando in maniera dettagliata le proprie valutazioni. i possibili benefici che l’utilizzo della scala come strumento di autovalutazione e valutazione tra pari potrebbe avere in ambito didattico sono ben espressi da alcuni commenti e riflessioni di alcune valutatrici che riportiamo di seguito.13 innanzitutto, dai commenti delle valutatrici sono emerse in generale una serie di vantaggi portati dall’utilizzo della scala come strumento di autovalutazione e valutazione tra pari (1-2). 1) “l'utilizzo delle scale mi ha aiutato ad individuare i punti che non andavano bene, perché quando ho scritto il testo per la prima volta non avevo notato certi aspetti.” 2) “nel momento in cui mi sono trovata a leggere e valutare i testi delle altre informanti mi sono resa conto di come avessi commesso degli errori in fase di produzione che avrei potuto evitare. per questo ho deciso di procedere alla correzione anche grazie alle riflessioni che sono scaturite in seguito alle valutazioni delle produzioni delle altre ragazze” il commento riportato in (1), ad esempio, conferma la possibilità di utilizzare la scala come strumento di autovalutazione, in quanto i parlanti riescono facilmente ad individuare errori che altrimenti non avrebbero 13 i commenti qui riportati provengono da uno studio pilota (del bono, 2018) sull’utilizzo delle scale dell’af per migliorare la scrittura in l1. del bono e bonvino e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 120 notato. la riflessione in (2), invece, mette in luce i benefici che la valutazione tra pari può avere in termini di aumento della consapevolezza nella scrittura. la partecipante, infatti, afferma che non avrebbe notato molti degli aspetti carenti del suo testo se non fosse stata chiamata anche a valutare i testi delle sue colleghe. inoltre, la suddivisione in quattro dimensioni e la presenza di descrittori specifici per ognuna permette di individuare in maniera più dettagliata gli errori commessi (3-6). 3) “il numero di idee è adeguato ma non sono pienamente efficaci. avrei potuto dare delle motivazioni migliori, o comunque esporle meglio” 4) “ho commesso un errore a mio parere evitabile, ossia quello di non inserire delle formule di apertura e chiusura che invece sarebbero state necessarie per completare il testo e renderlo più adeguato” 5) “ho notato che il mio testo ha delle carenze dal punto di vista della coesione, infatti penso che forse avrei potuto utilizzare più connettivi e riferimenti anaforici.” 6) (in riferimento al numero di idee e alla loro efficacia) “introdurrei il punto del contenuto che avevo tralasciato e amplierei l’altro che a mio parere era troppo sintetico” (seguono esempi di frasi che aggiungerebbe). nel commento riportato in (3)), ad esempio, la partecipante afferma di essersi resa conto di aver utilizzato delle idee poco efficaci a sostegno della sua argomentazione, specificando cosa avrebbe potuto fare per non commettere quell’errore. in (4), invece, notiamo come la persona che ha prodotto il testo si sia resa conto di non aver rispettato un requisito del task, in quanto non erano presenti formule di apertura e chiusura necessarie a rendere il testo conforme al genere testuale richiesto. l’utilizzo della scala di af per l’attività di valutazione, però, non solo permette di riconoscere i propri errori, ma anche di riflettere sugli stessi trovando possibili alternative che renderebbero il testo più adeguato. in (5), ad esempio, la partecipante si rende contro che il suo testo è carente in termini di coesione, presumendo che un maggiore utilizzo di connettivi e riferimenti anaforici l’avrebbe reso più coeso. nel commento in (6), invece, la valutatrice non solo è riuscita ad individuare il tipo di errore commesso e un’eventuale soluzione, ma fornisce anche una serie di frasi esemplificative che aggiungerebbe al testo per rendere le idee più efficaci. infine, da una delle riflessioni delle valutatrici (7) è emerso che le scale potrebbero essere anche utilizzate come guida alla produzione di un testo scritto, in quanto la presenza di descrittori dettagliati per ogni dimensione permette agli studenti di verificare passo per passo se hanno inserito nel testo tutte le informazioni necessarie e se queste sono presentate in maniera adeguata e comprensibile, rispettando i criteri specifici del tipo di task. 7) “l’autovalutazione, grazie al riferimento alle scale di adeguatezza funzionale, è un grande strumento di aiuto (…) per produrre testi in una lingua con cui si ha poca dimestichezza, perché consente di potersi attenere ad uno schema ben preciso (le quattro dimensioni delle scale) da utilizzare come mezzo guida per la produzione scritta.” come abbiamo cercato di illustrare, la scala di af costituisce quindi, a nostro avviso, uno strumento flessibile, adeguato alla valutazione sia in modalità in presenza che a distanza. i task utilizzati per elicitare le produzioni degli studenti possono essere somministrati indipendentemente dal contesto in cui avviene la prova e pertanto non richiedono un ulteriore adattamento nel passaggio da una modalità all’altra. infine, spostare l’oggetto di valutazione dalla lingua del candidato e le sue componenti (grammaticali, lessicali, ecc.) all’adeguatezza della realizzazione del task, che richiede una valutazione globale dell’effettivo apporto del candidato, rende più difficile, anche se naturalmente non impossibile, il ricorso ad ausili esterni. 4. conclusioni i risultati dell’indagine sulla valutazione in dad hanno permesso di descrivere il modo in cui i docenti si sono adattati a questa particolare situazione e di suggerire possibili implicazioni per la didattica delle lingue in generale. le principali difficoltà incontrate dai docenti sono legate alle mutate esigenze di organizzazione e pianificazione della valutazione, in quanto la dad ha reso inadeguati gli strumenti tradizionalmente utilizzati per valutare in presenza e ha fatto aumentare notevolmente il tempo dedicato alla valutazione. per quanto riguarda la qualità della valutazione, sono dunque venuti meno due criteri fondamentali: l’economicità e la fattibilità di una prova. dalla valutazione in dad alle scale di adeguatezza funzionale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 121 la maggiore preoccupazione dei docenti riguarda comunque la verifica del corretto svolgimento della prova e in particolare che i candidati possano copiare. quando si somministra un test in classe, infatti, il docente può facilmente controllare che gli studenti rispettino le regole di svolgimento e non copino; mentre tale controllo risulta estremamente complesso in dad, a causa degli strumenti tecnologici che non permettono talora nemmeno di individuare con certezza l’identità di chi svolge la prova. tali difficoltà sono acuite qualora la prova sia svolta in modalità differita. per superare questi problemi, gli insegnanti hanno optato per soluzioni diverse e a volte combinate tra loro, e soltanto una piccola parte ha affermato di non aver attuato nessun tipo di controllo sullo svolgimento delle prove. la maggior parte dei docenti, infatti, si è affidata a strumenti tecnologici per sorvegliare lo svolgimento delle prove, come ad esempio software dedicati o condivisione dello schermo. alla luce di tali preoccupazioni, vale la pena chiedersi quale sia l’obiettivo di un percorso linguistico e, di conseguenza, quale sia l’oggetto della valutazione. se l’obiettivo di un percorso linguistico è quello di insegnare ad usare una determinata l2/ls nel mondo reale, allora non ci si dovrebbe preoccupare del fatto che gli apprendenti possano aver accesso ad ausili di varia natura (controllo ortografico, traduttori automatici, articoli, scampoli di lingua autentica ecc.). ci si dovrebbe preoccupare invece che l’ausilio di questi strumenti sia sufficiente a superare la prova, cioè che la prova non comporti un apporto originale del candidato. la valutazione dovrebbe, infatti, mettere in rilievo la reale capacità di portare a termine un task, in un’elaborazione personale, mobilitando tutte le conoscenze dell’individuo e del suo repertorio linguistico, in modo che l’uso eventuale di determinati ausili non sia di per sé sufficiente. si può al limite sostenere che persino l’uso adeguato di determinati strumenti potrebbe far parte delle competenze valutabili, in quanto si avvicina all’uso della lingua nel mondo reale. in questa direzione ci pare siano andati effettivamente alcuni docenti che per accertare le competenze dei candidati hanno creato dei compiti personalizzati, in cui era richiesto agli studenti di mettere in gioco le loro abilità linguistiche nel complesso. abbiamo illustrato come una valutazione task-based, e in particolare l’uso del criterio di af possa essere fruttuosamente utilizzata per favorire questo cambiamento, permettendo inoltre di superare alcuni dei problemi riscontrati in dad. la scala di valutazione dell’af è infatti uno strumento flessibile, facilmente adattabile sia alla didattica in presenza che a quella a distanza e pertanto particolarmente utile in questo momento, in cui l’incertezza della situazione sanitaria costringe i docenti a continui riadattamenti della modalità didattica. i task, infatti, possono essere somministrati sia in presenza che a distanza, senza richiedere una pianificazione diversa a seconda del tipo di modalità utilizzato. inoltre, indipendentemente dalla modalità di svolgimento, le prove possono essere corrette utilizzando lo stesso strumento di valutazione, ossia la scala dell’af. in conclusione, quindi, a nostro avviso l’utilizzo della scala di valutazione dell’af e più in generale un tipo di valutazione basata sui task può rappresentare un passo verso una valutazione più in linea con i principi di un insegnamento linguistico basato sul “saper fare” in l2/ls, da tanto tempo considerato l’obiettivo dell’educazione linguistica. inoltre, le scale di af sembrerebbero una valida risposta alla discussione sul modo in cui bisogna improntare la valutazione basata sui task, in quanto tengono conto sia della capacità degli apprendenti di portare a termine il task, sia 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[presentazione in convegno]. dieci anni di didattica dell’italiano a studenti cinesi. risultati, esperimenti, proposte. siena, italia. pallotti, gabriele (2009). caf: defining, refining and differentiating constructs. applied linguistics, 30(4), 590601. purpura, james e. (2016). second and foreign language assessment. the modern language journal, 100(s1), 190-208. timpe-laughlin, veronika (2018). pragmatics in task-based language assessment. in naoko taguchi & youjin kim (a cura di), task-based approaches to teaching and assessing pragmatics (pp. 288-304). john benjamins. scaramucci, matilde, santos junior, elysio, & rodrigues alves diniz, leandro (2019). certificado de proficiência em língua portuguesa para estrangeiros (celpe-bras): histórico, questões controversas e perspectivas. em aberto, 32(104). vedder, ineke (2016). il ruolo dell'adeguatezza funzionale nelle produzioni scritte in lingua seconda: proposta per una scala di valutazione. in elisabetta santoro e ineke vedder (a cura di), pragmatica e interculturalità in italiano lingua seconda (pp. 79 – 92). franco cesati editore. del bono e bonvino e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 105–124 124 federica del bono, università degli studi roma tre/ sapienza università di roma federica.delbono@uniroma3.it it federica del bono è dottoranda di ricerca in linguistica presso l’università degli studi roma tre, in consorzio con la sapienza università di roma. il suo progetto di dottorato riguarda l’apprendimento incidentale di strategie di mitigazione degli atti linguistici in italiano come lingua straniera. da gennaio 2020 collabora con il “gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue” (graal). en federica del bono obtained her ph.d. in linguistics from the university roma tre, in collaboration with the sapienza university of rome. her doctoral thesis project is on the incidental learning of mitigation strategies of speech acts in learning italian as a foreign language. since january 2020, she has been collaborating with the “grupo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue (graal). es federica del bono se doctoró en lingüística de la universidad roma tre, en colaboración con la sapienza universidad de roma. su proyecto de tesis doctoral trata sobre el aprendizaje incidental de estrategias de mitigación de los actos del habla en el aprendizaje del italiano como lengua extranjera. desde enero de 2020 colabora con el “grupo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue (graal). elisabetta bonvino, università degli studi roma tre elisabetta.bonvino@uniroma3.it it elisabetta bonvino è professoressa ordinaria in didattica delle lingue moderne presso l’università di roma tre. ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca in linguistica presso école pratique des hautes études (parigi). attualmente ricopre il ruolo di direttrice del centro linguistico di ateneo che gestisce l’ufficio della certificazione della lingua italiana come l2 di roma tre (cert.it). dal 2017 è presidente della società italiana di didattica delle lingue e linguistica educativa” (dille). en elisabetta bonvino is a full professor of modern language didactics at the university of roma tre. she obtained her ph.d. in linguistics from the école pratique des hautes études (paris). she is currently serving as the director of the center for linguistics research, which manages the office of certification of italian as a second language at roma tre (cert.it). since 2017 she has been the president of the italian society for language didactics and linguistic education (dille). es elisabetta bonvino es catedrática de didáctica de lenguas modernas en la universidad de roma tre. obtuvo su doctorado en lingüística en la école pratique des hautes études (parís). actualmente realiza la labor de directora del centro de investigación lingüística que gestiona la oficina de certificación de italiano como segunda lengua en roma tre (cert.it). desde 2017 es presidenta de la sociedad italiana de didáctica de la lengua y educación lingüística (dille). microsoft word 2.bondarenko et al_9.1.docx e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 1, april 2022, 28–51 issn 2376-905x https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.1.225 www.e-journall.org © bondarenko 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. voice onset time (vot) of l3 spanish /ptk/ by multilingual heritage speakers of ukrainian and polish margaryta bondarenko university of wisconsin madison brianna butera university of memphis rajiv rao university of wisconsin madison received 8 october 2020; accepted after revisions 17 december 2021 abstract en this study provides an acoustic analysis of voice onset time (vot) of voiceless stops /ptk/ in spanish, produced by heritage speakers (hss) of ukrainian and of polish who are english-dominant and beginner or intermediate learners of spanish as a third language (l3). given that both ukrainian and polish, like spanish and unlike english, are characterized by short-lag vot, data were collected from six ukrainian hss and 11 polish hss in their heritage language (hl), in english, and in spanish to compare potential effects of the hl on l3 vot production. vot was analyzed in three task types. the goals were: 1) to determine whether vot values produced in spanish by ukrainian and polish hss are more reflective of vots in the hl or in english, and 2) to determine the effect of task type on vot. data show that ukrainian and polish hss’ vots in spanish are shorter than those of l2 spanish learners whose l1 is english, indicating a hl rather than dominant language influence on l3 vot. results suggest that the most crucial factors in l3 phonological acquisition are: 1) structural similarity between hl and l3, and 2) l3 proficiency (not language dominance). vot was also affected by task type: like l1 spanish speakers, vot of ukrainian hss increases as task formality increases. this paper fills research gaps in hl and l3 phonetics/phonology as to the effects of a hl on the acquisition of subsequent sound systems in adulthood. key words: l3 phonology, heritage language phonology, cross-linguistic influence, voice onset time (vot), l3 learning es este estudio ofrece un análisis acústico del tiempo de emisión de voz (vot, voice onset time) de las oclusivas sordas /ptk/ en español, producidas por hablantes de herencia (ah) de ucraniano y polaco cuya lengua dominante es el inglés y que aprenden español como l3 a nivel inicial o intermedio. dado que tanto el ucraniano como el polaco, al igual que el español y a diferencia del inglés, se caracterizan por un vot de lazo corto, se recopilaron datos de seis ah ucranianos y 11 ah polacos en su lengua de herencia (lh), en inglés y en español. los objetivos eran determinar: 1) si los vot producidos en español por estos ah reflejan más la lh o el inglés, y 2) el efecto del tipo de tarea. los datos muestran que los vot en español de los ah de ucraniano y de polaco son más cortos que los de estudiantes de español l2 cuya l1 es el inglés, lo que indica una influencia de la lh –no de la lengua de dominancia– en la producción de vot. los resultados sugieren que los factores más cruciales en la adquisición fonológica de la l3 son: 1) similitud estructural entre la lh y la l3, y 2) competencia lingüística en la l3. el vot de los ah ucranianos aumenta conforme aumenta la formalidad de la tarea. este trabajo llena las lagunas de la investigación en fonética/fonología de lh y l3 en cuanto a los efectos de una lh en la adquisición de sistemas sonoros posteriores en la edad adulta. palabras clave: fonología de l3, fonología de la lengua de herencia, influencia interlingüística, vot, aprendizaje de l3 it questo studio fornisce un’analisi acustica del tempo di attacco della sonorità (vot, voice onset time) delle occlusive sorde /ptk/ in spagnolo da parte di apprendenti di livello base o intermedio di spagnolo come l3 che sono i parlanti di ucraino e polacco come lingue ereditarie (le) ma con l’inglese come lingua dominante (ld). i dati sono basati su sei parlanti di ucraino le e undici di polacco le. il vot è analizzato in tre lingue—le, inglese e spagnolo—con l’obiettivo di determinare 1) se i valori di vot prodotti in spagnolo dagli ucraini e dai polacchi riflettono di più la le o la ld, 2) gli effetti del tipo di esercizio sul vot. i dati dimostrano che i vot in spagnolo dei parlanti di ucraino e polacco come le sono più brevi di quelli degli apprendenti di spagnolo l2 con inglese l1. ciò indica che la le influenza la produzione del vot rispetto alla ld. i risultati suggeriscono che nell’acquisizione fonologica di una l3 sono cruciali: 1) la similarità strutturale tra le e l3, e 2) la competenza nella l3. inoltre, come per i parlanti di spagnolo l1, il vot dei parlanti di ucraino aumenta con l’aumentare della formalità dell’esercizio. questo articolo colma un vuoto nello studio della le e della fonetica/fonologia della l3 relativo agli effetti di una le sull’acquisizione di un successivo sistema di suoni nell’età adulta. parole chiave: fonologia della l3, fonologia della lingua ereditaria, influenza cross-linguistica, vot, apprendimento della l3 * rajiv rao, university of wisconsin-madison rgrao@wisc.edu voice onset time of l3 spanish /ptk/ e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 29 1. introduction over roughly the last decade, the field of third language (l3) phonetics and phonology has gained significant traction. scholarship during this period has aimed to determine whether it is structural similarity (rothman, 2015) or language dominance (hammarberg & hammarberg, 2005; llama & lópez-morelos, 2016; wrembel, 2010, 2014, 2015) that is most influential in l3 phonetics and phonology.1 furthermore, since the turn of the century, but mostly within the last decade, the study of heritage language (hl) phonetics and phonology has also gained wider recognition. studies on spanish and slavic heritage speakers (hss) (e.g., łyskawa et al., 2016; nagy & kochetov, 2013; rao & ronquest, 2015; ronquest & rao, 2018) show that hss are a heterogeneous group of speakers who do not always perform like native monolingual speakers or late bilinguals, but have more native-like productions than second language (l2) learners, with accuracy often correlating with frequency of hl use. the goal of this investigation is to combine these two areas of multilingual phonetics and phonology in order to shed light on speakers of lesser-studied hls in the united states by examining their experiences learning an l3. the particular focus is on the speech of ukrainian and polish hss and their acquisition of spanish /ptk/, a consonant series whose features are similar in spanish and slavic languages, both of which differ from english. the ukrainian and polish hs population in the united states is of a notable size; the 2019 american community survey (acs) stated that there are 8,969,530 people of polish ancestry in the united states, out of which, 510,430 speak polish, and the american of ukrainian descent population reaches 1,009,874, of which 321,876 speak ukrainian. while these numbers are significant, ukrainian and polish are not commonly offered in schools and higher education institutions. therefore, when choosing to learn an l3, these hss often pick spanish, the most popular world language option in the united states, motivated by the increase in career opportunities that knowledge of spanish provides (goldberg et al., 2015). focusing specifically on two unique groups of speakers, ukrainian hss and polish hss, allows us to address several questions in one study. first, it helps us understand how language acquisition during childhood influences subsequent language learning in adulthood, allowing us to identify the potential influence of an hl on the acquisition of l3 phonetics and phonology. second, by selecting hss whose hl realization of voiceless stops differs from that of the dominant language (dl), but coincides with that of the l3, this study allows us to present evidence as to which language exhibits greater influence on the l3. these aspects, in turn, help inform us whether it is language dominance and/or structural similarity that is/are the most influential during the acquisition of an l3 sound system, which can then inform theoretical frameworks addressing the acquisition of l3 sound systems (see kopečková et al., 2016). overall, the results and conclusions from this study on ukrainian hss and polish hss contribute to a recently growing field of research on hl and l3 phonetics and phonology. 2. previous research on vot in this study, we investigate vot of spanish voiceless stops /ptk/. vot is the interval between the stop burst (i.e., release of contact between articulatory organs) and the onset of vocal fold vibration in a following sound, and is used to differentiate between unaspirated voiceless stops and aspirated stops and to convey contrast between voiced and voiceless segments. previous research on l2 acquisition has documented that spanish /ptk/ cause difficulties for first language (l1) english learners of l2 spanish because they are produced differently in english (see zampini, 2019 for a summary). spanish is a language with short-lag vots, where /ptk/ are produced with vot values that are around 30 milliseconds2 (ms) or shorter (i.e., unaspirated).3 ukrainian and polish, both slavic languages, also exhibit short-lag vots, although vots for the velar segment /k/ in polish can exceed 50 ms. the acoustic analysis of vot for polish speakers in keating et al. (1981) shows mean vot values below 30 ms for /p/ and /t/. in their analysis, mean vot values for /k/ slightly exceeded 50 ms, which was unexpected, but potentially influenced by the effect of place of articulation on vot (keating et 1 in this paper, structural similarity refers to the phonetic properties (i.e., voice onset time (vot)) of the languages investigated (i.e., ukrainian, polish, spanish, and english). 2 cho and ladefoged (1999) showed that velars have the highest vot values, which can exceed 30 ms in languages with short-lag vot. 3 to our knowledge, there are no available data on concrete estimated vot values for ukrainian /ptk/. therefore, we will rely on measurements provided by ringen and kulikov (2010), who worked with a group of russian monolinguals. since ukrainian, polish and russian all belong to the slavic language family, which is known for short-lag vots, it is reasonable to assume that the vot values of /ptk/ in ukrainian would be relatively comparable to those of polish and russian. bondarenko, butera, & rao e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 30 al., 1980; lisker & abramson, 1964). waniek-klimczak (2011) found similar vot values for both /p/ and /k/, lower than 30 ms and slightly above 50 ms, respectively, for native monolingual speakers of polish. english, on the other hand, exhibits long-lag vots, where voiceless stops, specifically those that appear in word-initial and stressed positions, are often produced with vots that are longer than 30 ms (i.e., aspirated). in fact, english stops usually have vots that are greater than 50 ms (lisker & abramson, 1964). in english, short-lag vot values are reserved for the production of the voiced stops /bdg/, which in spanish, ukrainian, and polish are realized with pre-voicing (i.e., voicing begins before the stop burst) and are described using negative vot values. this contrast highlights the importance of vot, which has both phonemic and allophonic consequences in the four languages in question (cho & ladefoged, 1999; lisker & abramson, 1964; ringen & kulikov, 2010; rosner et al., 2010). figure 1 presents a waveform and spectrogram image taken from praat (boersma & weenink, 2016) highlighting a spanish production of word-initial [p] in the word papa (‘potato’), as produced by an l1 speaker of spanish. vot in this figure is indicated between the two vertical dotted lines and the time marker label at the bottom. the left vertical dotted line aligns with the stop burst (i.e., beginning of vot measurement), where the waveform goes from an inactive to an active state, and the right one signals the first periodic cycle of the following [a] (i.e., end of vot measurement). the vot measurement of [p] in this figure is 6.8ms, indicative of a short-lag vot classification, characteristic of spanish, ukrainian, and polish. figure 1. spanish production of word-initial [p] in papa by an l1 spanish speaker p 6.8 ms time (s) 0.01854 0.06767 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 he rtz (h z) voice onset time of l3 spanish /ptk/ e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 31 3. heritage and l3 vot previous studies on hss of spanish have shown that they typically have more native-like productions than l2 learners, with accuracy strongly correlating with frequency of hl use. au et al. (2008) and knightly et al. (2003) examined the speech of hss with different hl experiences and exposure rates, showing that hss’ productions of /ptk/ are more target-like than those of typical late l2 learners, with active hl users performing in a more native-like manner than hl overhearers. kim (2011) showed that hss’ perception of spanish /ptk/ also differs significantly from that of native english speakers who are learning spanish, while showing no significant difference from native spanish speakers. the studies by hrycyna (2011) and nagy and kochetov (2013), which examined vots of ukrainian and russian hss in an english-speaking environment, revealed that production also largely depends on generational shifts, with each generation displaying their own language norms. when it comes to l3 learners, some studies suggest that l2 status is more influential than the l1 in the production of l3 segments. llama et al. (2008, 2010) tested vot production of canadian l1 english l2 french and l1 french l2 english speakers who were intermediate learners of l3 spanish and showed that l2 status, not structural similarity, was more significant in the production of l3 stops. tremblay's (2007) work on l1 english l2 french l3 japanese learners also examined voiceless stops, and like the previous two studies, found l2 influence to be stronger. wrembel’s (2011, 2014) studies on voiceless stops in the speech of l1 polish l2 english l3 french and l1 polish l2 english l3 german speakers, however, revealed contrasting vot values in all three languages, which the author attributed to a combined influence of both the l1 and l2 on the l3. hammarberg and hammarberg (2005) claimed that during the initial stages of l3 phonological acquisition, the l2 more strongly influences l3 phonology; this claim is supported by evidence from a wellknown longitudinal study of an l1 british english l2 german l3 swedish learner. as the speaker became more familiar with the swedish sound system, reliance on german gradually reduced. wrembel (2009) investigated l1 polish l2 german l3 english speakers' perceived foreign accent in english and corroborated these findings, revealing that the perception of language background depended greatly on the state of l3 proficiency. participants at higher levels of the l3 were correctly identified as native polish speakers, while elementary and beginner groups tended to be placed in the l1 german category. llama and lópez-morelos (2016) studied vot production in adolescent trilingual hss (i.e., heritage/l1 spanish, l1 dominant in english and l3 french). since spanish and french are both characterized by short-lag vot, the authors hypothesized that speakers would have a phonological advantage in the l3 with respect to vot of /ptk/; however, their findings showed longer vots in the l3 in comparison to the monolingual french norm. the authors suggest two possible rationales to explain this divergence, given that the data from their hss showed that they can and do produce short-lag vots in their hl. hss were either transferring their vot values from the dl, english, or were imitating the values of their classmates, who served as their main source of french input in the language classroom. studies have shown that speech style is another important variable to consider when working with language learners. while some have argued that task formality increases accuracy in l2 learners (major, 1986), others have presented evidence showing that casual speech results in increased learner accuracy, with rao (2015) and zampini (1994) reporting more accurate productions of voiced intervocalic stops in l1 english l2 spanish learners and spanish hss, respectively, in conversational tasks than in reading elicitations. additionally, by examining vowel production in spanish hss, ronquest (2016) showed vowel space expansion and lengthening in clear speech conditions, such as reading, and centralization of vowels in conversational speech. finally, asherov et al.’s (2016) study on russian hss demonstrated the value of implementing tasks with nonce words over real words, arguing that the former serve as a useful way of testing whether a phonological process is productive rather than lexicalized. 4. motivations and research questions as motivated by the literature reviewed to this point, the goal of this study is to investigate the phonological systems of two groups of slavic hl speakers, ukrainian hss and polish hss, both of whom grew up in an english-dominant environment and are acquiring the spanish sound system as l3 learners. this study sheds light on whether structural similarity between languages or language dominance exhibits the most influence on l3 acquisition. the specific research questions guiding this study are the following: bondarenko, butera, & rao e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 32 1) is vot production of spanish /ptk/ by ukrainian hss and polish hss influenced by knowledge of their hl or dl sound system? 2) what is the effect of task type on vot of spanish /ptk/ for ukrainian hss and polish hss? given the structural similarity between the hl of the participants and their l3, spanish, we hypothesized that this factor will be most influential in l3 production. since the hls and the l3 are all characterized by short-lag vot, we predict that hss of ukrainian and polish will produce shorter vot values than l1 english l2 spanish speakers, thus more closely reflecting the short-lag l1 vot values of l1 spanish l2 english speakers. although ukrainian hss and polish hss are treated as two independent participant groups for this study, we hypothesize that they will both perform similarly with respect to vot production and task type. regarding the second research question, previous research suggests that more casual speech, such as that elicited by a narrative task, will yield more accurate vot production when compared to the more formal speech style of sentence and nonce word reading tasks. 5. methodology 5.1. background measures as emphasized by cabrelli amaro (2013), gathering sufficient background information on participants is the very first step to effective l3 research. for this purpose, two questionnaires were utilized. the first of these was a language history questionnaire, adapted from oh and au (2005), requesting basic information about place of birth (pob), pob of parents and grandparents, number of years residing in the united states (and age of arrival, if applicable) and outside of the country, places of residence, and current language use and self-perceived dominance. the speakers were also asked to self-assess their speaking, understanding, reading, and writing performance in spanish on a 0-6 likert scale. the hs groups were also administered the bilingual language profile (blp) (birdsong et al., 2012), which was developed to assess language dominance through self-reports.4 it inquires about a variety of factors, such as age of acquisition and exposure, years of schooling, frequency and function of use, linguistic environment, language attitudes, and proficiency and processing ability. the final score ranges from -218 to +218, with a result closer to zero demonstrating that an individual is a balanced bilingual and more positive or more negative scores reflecting dominance in the language for which an individual accrues more points. implementing this tool allowed for a direct comparison of dominance between participants in the interpretation of results. 5.2. participants for the current study, data were collected from 27 total participants. the two experimental groups included six ukrainian hss and 11 polish hss. both hs groups are dominant in english and are l3 learners of spanish. cabrelli amaro (2013) also argues for the inclusion of control groups, strongly urging that they not solely consist of monolingual native speakers, who represent a standard that is often out of reach for language learners. therefore, the data set includes two bilingual control groups comprised of five participants each: l1 english l2 spanish and l1 spanish l2 english. 5.2.1. ukrainian hss six ukrainian hss living in chicagoland, with a mean age of 29.7, were recruited for this study (see table 1 for key participant background information). they reported using their hl with family members and some friends, and english in all other circumstances. their mean blp score was 34.5, indicating english dominance. the speakers began learning spanish between ages five and 14, with a mean age of 10.7. they reported using it between 0-10% per week, with most activity occurring in a classroom setting. when asked to provide a self-rated proficiency (srp) in spanish, their reading score was the highest, averaging 4.75, followed by writing, at 4.5. comprehension received an average score of 4.25 and speaking an average of 3.7. it is noteworthy to comment on speaker u6, since their biographical data differs from that of the other ukrainian hss in that spanish is their l2. u6 was born in argentina, learned ukrainian as a hl at home, but had spanish 4 because control group speakers are not the study’s main focus and were used primarily for baseline comparison, they did not complete a blp. l1 english l2 spanish participants did not begin learning spanish until at least age 12 and are thus assumed to be english dominant. l1 spanish l2 english participants arrived in the united states in early adulthood. spanish was their primary language prior to moving to the united states (for more, see rao, 2019). voice onset time of l3 spanish /ptk/ e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 33 as the dominant language of the environment; however, upon arriving to the united states at eight-years-old, u6 began learning english in an english-dominant environment to the point that at 64 years old, the l3 was currently the dominant language. while these circumstances are distinct, u6 was still considered a ukrainian hs that learned a hl at home. table 1 ukrainian hss’ biodata speaker age place of birth (pob) language acquired (la) first la second (age) reported l1 reported l2 (blp) score age of learning (aol) spanish (l3) spanish self-rated proficiency (srp) u1 20 il ukrainian (since birth [sb]) english (3) ukrainian english 33.4 (english dominant [ed]) 12 3, 4, 5, 5* u2 33 il ukrainian (sb) english (4) english ukrainian 86.8 (ed) 10 4.5, 4.5, 4.5, 4.5 u3 21 ukraine ukrainian (sb) english (9) ukrainian english -103.8 (ukrainian dominant) 14 2.5, 3, 4, 2.5 u4 19 il ukrainian (sb) english (3) ukrainian english 30.7 (ed) 12 3, 4, 4, 5 u5 21 ukraine ukrainian (sb) english (5) english ukrainian 82.3 (ed) 11 4, 4, 5, 4 u6 64 argentina ukrainian (sb) spanish (5) ukrainian spanish 77.37 (ed) 5 5, 6, 6, 6 *scores indicate self-ratings in: speaking, listening, reading, writing 5.2.2. polish hss the polish hs group consisted of 11 speakers, with a mean age of 20.2, also residing in chicagoland (see table 2 for key participant background information). they reported using polish with family and certain friends. their mean blp score was 51.8, meaning this group was more english dominant as a whole than the ukrainian hss. the participants began learning spanish between the ages of 10 and 15, with a mean age of 12.8 (later than the ukrainian hss), and estimated using it 0-20% of the time during an average week. those who utilized spanish reported using it in class, and occasionally with friends outside of class. in their srp for spanish, comprehension received a mean score of 3.8, reading 3.4, writing 3.4, and speaking 2.8. overall, these scores were lower than those of the ukrainian hss. bondarenko, butera, & rao e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 34 table 2 polish hss’ biodata *scores indicate self-ratings in: speaking, listening, reading, writing as indicated in tables 1 and 2, some of the hss, especially in the polish group, reported learning their hl and english simultaneously since birth or at a very young age, rendering potential influence of order of language acquisition irrelevant. therefore, the current study places its focus primarily on hl/dl influence on l3 phonology rather than order of acquisition. the two background surveys administered to the hs participants (i.e., the language history questionnaire and the blp) were primarily used to understand each participant’s background. the blp scores of both the polish hss and the ukrainian hss were statistically equivalent, indicating that their level of language dominance in their hl, polish and ukrainian, respectively, was the same.5 5 further examination of the blp scores within the two hs groups rigorously explored whether they are indeed equivalently dominant in their hl. a standard two-sample t-test (which assumes equal variance across two samples) was run and yielded the following results: the t-stat is -0.66 with 15 degrees of freedom, and the corresponding p-value is > 0.05. these results indicate that the blp scores between the two groups are statistically the same. in addition, a welch two-sample ttest (which assumes unequal variance across two samples) was run where the p-value is > 0.05, further supporting equivalence in language dominance for both polish and ukrainian hss. another attempt to distinguish potential differences between the two hs groups was to determine an overall language ability score for each speaker; however, both production and comprehension ability scores are still not significant, despite the fact that the ukrainian hs group did score higher than the polish hs group. speaker age pob la first la second reported l1 reported l2 blp score aol spanish spanish srp p1 18 il polish (sb) english (3) polish english 52.6 (ed) 14 3, 4, 5, 3* p2 21 wi polish and english (sb) english polish 62.8 (ed) 13 3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 4 p3 22 poland polish (sb) english (9) polish english 59.6 (ed) 15 1, 2, 1, 1 p4 20 il polish and english (sb) polish english 100 (ed) 14 0, 0, 2, 0 p5 19 il polish (sb) english (4) polish, russian english 79.2 (ed) 12 3, 4.5, 6, 4.5 p6 21 il polish (sb) english (3) polish english 15.1 (ed) 12 3, 4, 4, 4 p7 19 il polish (sb) english (3) polish english 44.9 (ed) 12 4, 5, 5, 4 p8 21 il polish and english (sb) english polish 30.4 (ed) 12 5, 6, 5, 5 p9 21 il polish and english (sb) english, polish 42.5 (ed) 10 4, 4, 5, 3 p10 18 il polish (sb) english (5) polish english -25.2 (polish dominant) 15 2, 4, 5, 5.6 p11 22 mn polish and english (sb) english polish 107.8 (ed) 12 3, 5, 4, 3 voice onset time of l3 spanish /ptk/ e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 35 5.2.3. control groups the l1 english l2 spanish speakers (mean age = 19.4) were currently enrolled in an undergraduate program at a large university in the midwest region of the united states at the time of this study (see table 3 for key participant background information). the mean age of learning spanish for these speakers is 12.6 years old. in the srp, comprehension received a mean of 4.4, reading 3.9, writing 3.7, and speaking 3.6. these numbers overall more closely resembled those of the polish hss than those of the ukrainian hss. finally, all five l2 spanish participants reported using spanish between 10-20% of the time per week, only during class time. table 3 l1 english l2 spanish participants’ biodata speaker age pob aol spanish spanish srp e1 18 wi 12 3.5, 5, 4, 4* e2 21 il 13 3, 3, 3, 3 e3 19 wi 12 3, 4, 3, 3 e4 19 wi 13 4.5, 5, 4.5, 4.5 e5 20 wi 13 4, 5, 5, 3 *scores indicate self-ratings in: speaking, listening, reading, writing the l1 spanish l2 english participants (mean age = 32.6) were graduate students in the spanish department of a large university in the midwest region of the united states at the time of this study (see table 4 for key participant background information). they began learning english between 3-21 years of age, with a mean of 11. when asked to assess their l2 proficiency in english, the average reported scores were as follows: reading – 5.6, writing – 4.6, comprehension – 5, and speaking – 5. all speakers reported using english in their daily life on a regular basis, both personally and professionally. table 4 l1 spanish l2 english participants’ biodata speaker age pob aol english age of arrival to usa english srp s1 28 mexico kindergarten (briefly)/21 21 4, 5, 5, 4 s2 41 mexico 7 31 6, 5.5, 6, 6 s3 29 mexico 9 20 6, 5, 6, 5 s4 26 mexico 15 17 4, 5, 5, 4 s5 39 mexico 3 28 5, 5, 6, 4 *scores indicate self-ratings in: speaking, listening, reading, writing 5.3. instruments and procedure three tasks were completed by all participants: a narrative task (nt), a sentence-reading task (srt), and a nonce words reading task (nwrt). this approach was motivated by previous findings related to style effects on speech production. in the nt, participants were shown a five-minute silent animation clip about a woman and a man running into each other at a bus stop and were asked to describe it in their hl, in english and in spanish. this task elicits data in the most spontaneous speech style possible in a controlled setting, while allowing us to gather data produced in all three relevant languages (inspired by insight in cabrelli amaro, 2013). the srt consisted of 64 short sentences in spanish. each phrase contained one to three target words to test /ptk/ production, with words housing instances of /ptk/ ranging in length from two to four syllables. the controlled aspect of the task helped to gather a uniform number of tokens from all speakers and compare productions in controlled speech versus those in spontaneous speech. in the nwrt, 44 nonce items that ranged in length from two to four syllables were tested (e.g., noca, mítabusa; taken from face, 2005). the nonce words were embedded in the carrier phrase yo digo __ para ti (“i say ___ for you”) to avoid listing intonation. data collection was carried out in quiet locations on two large university campuses in the midwest region of the united states, where participants individually met with the first author. they first filled out the bondarenko, butera, & rao e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 36 previously described questionnaires and then completed the nt. prior to each iteration of the nt, participants were addressed in the language of interest in order to trigger a specific language mode (see grosjean, 1998). next, the speakers were asked to complete the srt before concluding with the nwrt. 5.4. analysis the recorded data were analyzed with praat (boersma & weenink, 2016), through which vot duration was measured for all instances of /ptk/ in both word-initial and word-medial stressed position (for comments on positional effects on /ptk/, see torreira & ernestus, 2011; zampini, 2019). mean and standard deviations were calculated using r statistical software (r core team, 2017). once the acoustic analysis was complete, we fit two linear mixed effects models (lmems) to determine the effect of speaker group on phoneme: model 1 assumed that only phoneme (i.e., /ptk/), would influence vot measures; model 2 assumed that both phoneme and language (i.e., ukrainian, polish, english, spanish) would influence vot measures. in order to test the significance of the language spoken, we conducted a likelihood ratio test between these two models, which under the null hypothesis follows a chi-squared distribution with 3 degrees of freedom and a pvalue of < 0.05. given this result showing that both phoneme and language indeed significantly affect vot, model 2 was selected as optimal. therefore, the model 2 approach was used for the entire analysis and allowed us to determine whether there were any statistically significant differences between the means of the four groups of speakers in english and spanish, while also accounting for inter-participant variation. the variables used in the analysis include speaker, language, phoneme, and task type.6 in the lmem, speaker is used as a random effect, and phoneme and language are fixed effects. as with the lmems run for speaker group effect on phoneme, we used a similar approach to determine the effect of task type on phoneme: model 1 assumed that task type (i.e. nt, srt, nwrt) would not influence vot measures whereas model 2 assumed that task type would influence vot measures, given the speakers’ dominant language and phoneme. to test the significance of task type, we conducted a likelihood ration test between model 1 and model 2, which under the null hypothesis follows a chi-squared distribution with 2 degrees of freedom and a p-value of < 0.05. based on the results of the likelihood ratio test showing that task type does have an effect on vot measures, model 2 was selected as optimal and used throughout the analysis to determine the effect of task type on vot measures according to phoneme. 6. results this section reports the results of the data analysis and is organized according to the research questions presented previously in (1) and (2). first, we present the basis for comparison for english vot of /ptk/ for all four groups. next, we present mean vot values for both control groups, the l1 english l2 spanish group, and the l1 spanish l2 english group. following this is the experimental group data for both ukrainian hss and polish hss for all languages and tasks. the results section concludes with two subsections including intergroup comparisons of vot values in spanish for all four speaker groups, as well as the results of the inferential statistical analysis. presenting the data in this way allows us to first establish vot values in english and spanish from l1 speakers of these languages, which, in turn, can be used as points of comparison when examining vot values for ukrainian hss and polish hss across all three of their languages: the hl, the dl, and the l3. we then consider the effect of task type on vot values for speakers from all groups. the final subsection reports the results of our inferential statistical modelling with respect to the effect of language and task type on vot values. 6.1. english vot productions regarding vot baselines for /ptk/ in english for speakers from all groups, table 5 and figure 2 below show that all speakers produce long-lag vot values in english. the l1 spanish speakers’ productions differed the most from the realizations of the l1 english speakers, while the polish hss’ results approximated them the most. 6 word stress, position within the word, and syllable type were entered as factors in the lmems, but will not be addressed in this paper. voice onset time of l3 spanish /ptk/ e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 37 table 5 mean vot values (ms) in english for all speaker groups group phoneme mean / sd phoneme total ukr hss /p/ 58.2 / 22.4 10 /t/ 62.8 / 34. 7 46 /k/ 54.8 / 13.6 28 polish hss /p/ 43.5 / 23.6 27 /t/ 68.3 / 27.7 55 /k/ 58.4 / 25.8 46 l1 english /p/ 53.6 / 26.8 6 /t/ 76.4 / 37.4 20 /k/ 58.7 / 24.8 17 l1 spanish /p/ 40.2 / 24.3 25 /t/ 49.4 / 22.5 53 /k/ 64.6 / 27.3 48 figure 2. mean vot values (ms) in english for all speaker groups the following subsection on control groups include mean vot values for english and all three tasks in spanish. in all tables that follow, statistically significant effects are marked with an asterisk (*) with all p-values at <0.05. after a complete presentation of the results for the control groups, the next subsection details the results for both experimental groups, the ukrainian hss and the polish hss, with data from the hl, the dl (i.e., english), and l3 spanish. 6.2. control groups 6.2.1. l1 english l2 spanish speakers table 6 summarizes voiceless stop productions by l1 english speakers for /ptk/ in english, as well as for all three tasks in spanish. as seen in the table, /ptk/ were produced with long-lag vots in all instances in both english and spanish, aligning with monolingual english speaker norms (lisker & abramson, 1964; nagy & kochetov, 2013). all three stops have the shortest vots in the srt, which may indicate that this is the most familiar speech style for this group of speakers, who are more acquainted with reading in their l2 than actively speaking it. bondarenko, butera, & rao e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 38 table 6 mean vot values (ms) for l1 english, l2 spanish speakers figure 3. mean vot values (ms) in spanish for l1 english, l2 spanish speakers 6.2.2. l1 spanish l2 english speakers table 7 includes mean vot values for /ptk/ productions by l1 spanish l2 english speakers in english, as well as for all three tasks in spanish. the production results here suggest that the l1 spanish speakers’ performance becomes at least partially less target-like as tasks become less natural. this trend is most clear when observing the results for /k/ in figure 4. table 7 mean vot values (ms) for l1 spanish l2 english speakers language/task phoneme mean / sd phoneme total l2 english /p/ 40.2 / 24.3 25 /t/ 49.4 / 22.5 53 /k/ 64.6 / 27.3 48 l1 spanish nt /p/ 15.6 / 6.5 100 /t/ 18 / 7.1 70 /k/* 27.9 / 10.8 148 l1 spanish srt /p/ 14.9 / 8.1 183 /t/ 17.5 / 7.2 219 /k/* 30.4 / 9.7 165 l1 spanish nwrt /p/ 18 / 11.1 45 /t/ 17.6 / 6.7 94 /k/* 33.6 / 12.7 44 language/task phoneme mean / sd phoneme total l1 english /p/ 53.6 / 26.8 6 /t/ 76.4 / 37.4 20 /k/ 58.7 / 24.8 17 l2 spanish nt /p/* 52.5 / 27.1 45 /t/* 57.7 / 30.6 33 /k/ 58.1 / 36.6 36 l2 spanish srt /p/* 41.5 / 27 182 /t/* 47 / 26.7 220 /k/ 54.2 / 28.3 164 l2 spanish nwrt /p/* 60.5 / 29 45 /t/* 56.2 / 29.7 95 /k/ 55.8 / 22.5 45 voice onset time of l3 spanish /ptk/ e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 39 figure 4. mean vot values (ms) in spanish for l1 spanish speakers 6.3. experimental groups 6.3.1. ukrainian hss table 8 presents ukrainian hss’ productions of /ptk/ in their hl, in their dl (i.e., english), and in l3 spanish for all three tasks. as evidenced in this table, ukrainian hss’ mean vot productions of voiceless stops in both the hl and the l3 fall within or close to the upper limit of the short-lag category, in line with the average slavic language values reported in ringen and kulikov (2010), and reflecting the l1 spanish speaker results. a visual representation of the mean vot values in spanish for the ukrainian hss is illustrated in figure 5. the raw data results show that as task formality increases, /p/ and /t/ also show an increase in vot. table 8 mean vot values (ms) for ukrainian hss language/task phoneme mean / sd phoneme total hl ukrainian /p/ 24.2 / 18.9 37 /t/ 23.3 / 12.4 107 /k/ 30.9 / 14.1 55 dl english /p/ 58.2 / 22.4 10 /t/ 62.8 / 34. 7 46 /k/ 54.8 / 13.6 28 l3 spanish nt /p/* 18.6 / 20.5 46 /t/* 20.5 / 11.4 51 /k/ 31.5 / 10.8 65 l3 spanish srt /p/* 20.3 / 10.2 215 /t/* 19.7 / 9.6 262 /k/ 33.5 / 13.1 196 l3 spanish nwrt /p/* 25.2 / 15.4 54 /t/* 23.6 / 15.7 114 /k/ 31.4 / 10.8 54 bondarenko, butera, & rao e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 40 figure 5. mean vot values (ms) in spanish for ukrainian hss 6.3.2. polish hss table 9 summarizes polish hss’ mean vot values for /ptk/ in their hl, dl (i.e., english), and spanish for all three tasks. in contrast to the ukrainian hss, the polish hss’ vot productions of /ptk/ are not consistently realized with short-lag. the phoneme /p/ is realized with a short-lag vot in the nt and srt, and /t/ in the srt and nwrt; however, other segments show long-lag vot values, exhibiting evidence of influence of both the hl and the dl. a visual representation of the mean vot values in spanish for the polish hss is displayed in figure 6. while /p/ shows an increase in vot as tasks become more formal, /t/ and /k/ decrease in vot as elicitation becomes more controlled. table 9 mean vot values (ms) for polish hss language/task phoneme mean / sd phoneme total hl polish /p/ 29.3 / 16.5 76 /t/ 27.3 / 11.1 123 /k/ 36.9 / 15.4 82 dl english /p/ 43.5 / 23.6 27 /t/ 68.3 / 27.7 55 /k/ 58.4 / 25.8 46 l3 spanish nt /p/* 28.6 / 17.9 65 /t/* 42.7 / 22.6 73 /k/* 53.6 / 25.8 94 l3 spanish srt /p/* 33.7 / 19.4 401 /t/* 33.2 / 18. 6 472 /k/* 49.4 / 22.1 350 l3 spanish nwrt /p/* 39.6 / 22.7 100 /t/* 32.2 / 18.8 206 /k/* 44.8 / 19 97 voice onset time of l3 spanish /ptk/ e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 41 figure 6. mean vot values (ms) in spanish for polish hss 6.4. intergroup comparisons figure 7 summarizes the productions of spanish /ptk/ by all four groups in each of the three tasks. the l1 spanish speakers produced the lowest vot values in all three tasks with one exception: in the nwrt, the ukrainian hss displayed the lowest vot values for the velar segment /k/. the ukrainian hss demonstrated the second lowest vots, followed by the polish hss. the l1 english speakers produced all segments in the three tasks with the longest vot durations. figure 7. mean vot (ms) values in spanish for all four speaker groups. statistical significance of task type is indicated with an asterisk (*). bondarenko, butera, & rao e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 42 6.5. lmem findings the lmem revealed that the productions of the four groups were significantly different in all three tasks (nt: p < 0.05, srt: p < 0.05, nwrt: p < 0.05). for a closer examination of the four groups, we performed a post-hoc tukey test with a bonferroni adjustment which examines pairwise mean differences across speakers groups. the results revealed that the l1 english speakers’ results are significantly different from those of the l1 spanish speakers in all three tasks (nt: p < 0.05, srt: p < 0.05, nwrt: p < 0.05). the polish hss differ significantly from the l1 spanish baseline in the nt (p < 0.05) and srt (p < 0.05). the ukrainian hss’ productions do not differ significantly from those of the l1 spanish speakers in any of the tasks (p > 0.05), thus most closely approximating the control group’s vot values. the following subsections and tables further detail the results of the lmem for each task, supporting the descriptive analysis. 6.5.1. narration task table 10 identifies all variables incorporated in the model and their significance for the nt. note that phoneme /p/ and l1 spanish were treated as the baselines to which all other variables were compared. the pvalues in table 10 indicate the significant effect of /t/ and /k/ when compared to /p/. both l1 english speakers and polish hss show a significant effect when compared to the l1 spanish speaker profile. vot values of ukrainian hss are not significantly different from those of the l1 spanish group. table 10 results for the nt (speakers = 27; number of observations = 826) estimate se t p intercept 14.340 5.590 2.566 <0.05 /t/ 5.198 1.509 3.445 <0.05* /k/ 14.723 1.356 10.856 <0.05* l1 english 38.375 7.944 4.831 <0.05* heritage polish 21.890 6.747 3.244 <0.05* heritage ukrainian 3.796 7.563 0.502 >0.05 we further conducted a post-hoc tukey test to compare the vot measure differences between the various speaker groups in the nt. the results in table 11 show that all pairwise comparisons are significant with the exception of heritage ukrainian versus l1 spanish and heritage polish versus l1 english. based on these results, vot trends are present among the four speaker groups, where the speakers of heritage ukrainian are most closely approximating the short-lag vot of the spanish control group and the remaining two groups show more divergence from this trend in spanish. table 11 results of post-hoc tukey test for the nt estimate se z p l1 english – l1 spanish 38.375 7.944 4.831 <0.05* heritage polish – l1 spanish 21.890 6.747 3.244 <0.05* heritage ukrainian – l1 spanish 3.796 7.563 0.502 >0.05 heritage polish – l1 english -16.484 6.892 -2.392 >0.05 heritage ukrainian – l1 english -34.579 7.693 -4.495 <0.05* heritage ukrainian – heritage polish -18.095 6.449 -2.806 <0.05* 6.5.2. sentence reading task table 12 identifies all variables incorporated in the model and their significance for the srt. again, phoneme /p/ and l1 spanish were treated as the baselines to which all other variables were compared. for the srt, results are similar to the nt; however, phoneme /t/ is not significant when compared to the baseline /p/. this result is in line with other research on vot values of /ptk/, where the velar segment /k/ is, in general, more distinct. like the nt, both l1 english speakers and polish hss effects are significant when compared to the l1 spanish speaker profile; however, the effect of ukrainian hss does not demonstrate significance, meaning their vot productions reflect those of the l1 spanish group. voice onset time of l3 spanish /ptk/ e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 43 table 12 results for the srt (speakers = 27; number of observations = 3,029) estimate se t p intercept 15.7344 4.8776 3.226 <0.05 /t/ 1.1494 0.6701 1.715 >0.05 /k/ 14.5634 0.7202 20.221 <0.05* l1 english 26.9268 6.8739 3.917 <0.05* heritage polish 17.6097 5.8624 3.004 <0.05* heritage ukrainian 3.4568 6.5815 0.525 >0.05 a post-hoc tukey test compared the vot differences between the four speaker groups for the srt. the results in table 13 show similar trends to those of the nt in terms of group pairings; however, the difference between the two hs profiles does not reach significance here. table 13 results of post-hoc tukey test for the srt estimate se z p l1 english – l1 spanish 26.927 6.874 3.917 <0.05* heritage polish – l1 spanish 17.610 5.862 3.004 <0.05* heritage ukrainian – l1 spanish 3.457 6.582 0.525 >0.05 heritage polish – l1 english -9.317 5.862 -1.589 >0.05 heritage ukrainian – l1 english -23.470 6.582 -3.566 <0.05* heritage ukrainian – heritage polish -14.153 5.517 -2.565 >0.05 6.5.3. nonce words reading task finally, table 14 shows all variables incorporated and their significance for the nwrt. as with the nt and the srt, phoneme /p/ and l1 spanish were treated as the baselines to which all other variables were compared. trends found in the nwrt are similar to those of the nt in that the p-values in table 14 indicate the significant effect of /t/ and /k/ when compared to /p/. concerning speaker group, only l1 english speaker effects are significant as compared to the baseline l1 spanish speaker profile; that is, polish hss and ukrainian hss effects are not significant, indicating that their vot productions in this task parallel those of the l1 spanish group. table 14 results for the nwrt (speakers = 27; number of observations = 993) estimate se t p intercept 23.007 5.133 4.482 <0.05 /t/ -3.854 1.337 -2.883 <0.05* /k/ 5.474 1.561 3.508 <0.05* l1 english 34.941 7.133 4.899 <0.05* heritage polish 14.616 6.083 2.403 >0.05 heritage ukrainian 3.521 6.829 0.516 >0.05 a post-hoc tukey test compared the vot differences between the four speaker groups for the nwrt. the results are in table 15, where we notice that the l1 english versus l1 spanish difference is most salient, but that the two heritage groups are not significantly different from the l1 spanish group. both ukrainian hss and polish hss, however, are significantly different from l1 english speakers, suggesting that the heritage groups have an “advantage” over l1 english speakers when producing vot in spanish, especially since some researchers suggest that employing a nonce word reading task is most effective in determining phonological awareness; that is, previous knowledge of lexical items does not interfere with the results, ultimately levelling the task for all speakers. bondarenko, butera, & rao e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 44 table 15 results of post-hoc tukey test for the nwrt estimate se z p l1 english – l1 spanish 34.941 7.133 4.899 <0.05* heritage polish – l1 spanish 14.616 6.083 2.403 >0.05 heritage ukrainian – l1 spanish 3.521 6.829 0.516 >0.05 heritage polish – l1 english -20.325 6.083 -3.341 <0.05* heritage ukrainian – l1 english -31.419 6.829 -4.601 <0.05* heritage ukrainian – heritage polish -11.095 5.723 -1.938 >0.05 7. discussion 7.1. influence of hl/dl on l3 vot the ukrainian hss produced spanish /ptk/ with short-lag vot in all three tasks, potentially relying on the knowledge of their hl, where they also produced the three voiceless stops as short-lag. this finding differentiates itself from the one in llama and lópez-morelo (2016), where the dl, and not the hl, had a greater influence on the production of l3 french voiceless stops. the polish hss, however, produced some instances of spanish /ptk/ as unaspirated stops and some as long-lag, showing evidence of features of both the hl and the dl. while we found evidence of a separate short-lag category for hl stops and a long-lag category for dl stops, the polish hss did not exclusively rely on only one category in the production of l3 segments. as suggested by llama and lópez-morelo (2016), this finding may imply that the polish hss are mimicking the values that they hear from their classmates (particularly in the production of /k/), who serve as their main source of l3 input; however, when looking at the production of the spanish /ptk/ by the l1 english speakers, who produced all three stops as aspirated, this argument may not be completely valid. alternatively, it is possible that the polish hss perceive /p/ and /t/ as structurally similar to polish, but /k/ as structurally similar to english. as mentioned previously, the participants in llama and lópez-morelo (2016) were adolescent hss, whereas the majority of hss in the current study are young adults. several studies have shown that adult speech development differs from that of children and adolescents (e.g., baker et al., 2008; brown, 2000; granena & long, 2013; kopečková et al., 2019; long, 1990; stoel-gammon et al. , 1994), which could potentially explain the difference in our results. the majority of the younger participants here were enrolled in a university-level spanish course and could have potentially experienced the effects of classmate input in spanish such as those in llama and lópez-morelo (2016); however, the older participants were not. therefore, more research is needed to tease apart the influences of age and exposure to classmates in order to determine the validity of this claim. according to kupske (2016), languages in contact often interact in a state of continuous movement, and as a result, language attrition of some aspects of the l1 may occur due to a speaker’s abilities in another language. the effects of language attrition on vot were confirmed by schereschewsky et al. (2019), where l1 vot productions by bilingual speakers, l1 brazilian portuguese l2 english, and trilingual speakers, l1 brazilian portuguese l2 english l3 german, were modified when compared with monolingual brazilian portuguese vot values. this conclusion highlights the multidirectional nature of language transfer in multilinguals. with respect to the differential treatment of /k/ by the polish hss, some previous studies on vot with l2 speakers show that the velar segment is first to exhibit cross-linguistic influence. for example, lord (2008) investigated vot attrition of /ptk/ in the l1 of l1 english l2 spanish speakers and l1 spanish l2 english speakers and found that the velar segment /k/ was the only segment that continuously showed modified vot values in the l1 for l1 english l2 spanish speakers. bilabial /p/ and dental /t/ vot values, however, remained similar to those produced by monolingual english speakers. in addition, alves et al. (2019) found that the velar segment /k/ was realized with a semi-aspirated production even in monolingual speakers of spanish, with a mean vot value of /k/ of 46.61 ms. therefore, it is possible that the compromised vot productions of /k/ in l3 spanish produced by the polish hss have been influenced by their l2 english; this is further evidence that the velar segment is first to present signs of attrition. when determining hl/dl influence on l3 vot production, it is important to note the sample size of each group of participants. the data presented thus far in this section highlights the hss’ short-lag vot values in their l3 spanish, suggesting influence from their hl, also characterized by short-lag vot, instead of influence from their dl, english, where long-lag vots are the norm. casillas (2021) points out that similar studies in the social sciences are often underpowered due to the relatively small participant pool (see also brysbaert, 2021; ellis, 2010; plonsky & oswald, 2014). since research on the intersection of hl and l3 phonology is in its voice onset time of l3 spanish /ptk/ e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 45 incipient stages and is largely exploratory at this point in time, the participant pool for the current study is relatively small; however, this research presents a useful point of departure for further exploration in this field, and the results support future directions for hs and l3 phonology. 7.2. experimental group divergence since our hypotheses predicted that the ukrainian hss and the polish hss would behave similarly, the fact that the ukrainian and polish hss produced some different results in their productions of spanish /ptk/ has prompted us to look for additional explanations. one potential factor that could contribute to this difference may be the speakers’ different levels of proficiency in spanish. ukrainian hss demonstrated at least an intermediate level of proficiency in their l3, but the polish hs group, on the other hand, had four speakers with a very low level of spanish proficiency. as shown by hammarberg and hammarberg (2005) and wrembel (2010), the types of transfers observed during various stages of l3 acquisition are different and continue to change as speakers become more proficient l3 users. although our study does not aim to investigate hss’ development in their l3 over time, it may provide clues as to which language plays a bigger role in the early stages of l3 production. it is possible that during the initial stages of l3 acquisition, hss are more reliant on their dl, but once they become more proficient in l3 spanish, the link is severed. alternatively, when considering l2 studies (e.g., gonzález-bueno, 1997), which show that typical l1 english l2 spanish learners are producing aspirated stops even at intermediate and advanced levels unless they receive explicit instruction, the ukrainian hss’ results in particular may suggest that these speakers are helped by their hl, and that their unaspirated productions of spanish /ptk/ are not simply due to their development as spanish learners. nonetheless, without more research on hss at different acquisitional stages of their l3, it is difficult to state with certainty whether the increased target-like productions in the ukrainian hss is due to level of spanish development or positive influence from hl’s short-lag feature. another possible explanation for the discrepancy in the ukrainian and polish hss’ results are the hss’ ties with their hl communities. nagy and kochetov (2013), for example, showed that hs communities are highly diverse, and each group may have their own language norms, which may be undergoing generational shifts. on average, the polish hss’ vots of the polish stops were slightly greater than those of the ukrainian hss in ukrainian. if the polish hss are shifting to longer vots in polish across generations, this phenomenon may influence these speakers’ vot acquisition in other languages; however, since this investigation does not aim to study the community ties of the hss, nor does it have the evidence to fully support this claim, this statement merely serves as a call for future research. overall, our data do emphasize that ukrainian and polish hss’ spanish vots were shorter than those of the l2 spanish group. this implies that exposure to the short-lag feature from an hl does appear to help hss achieve a more target-like production of voiceless stops in comparison to l2 learners who are only familiar with the long-lag category. 7.3. effect of task type task type clearly affected the vots of spanish voiceless stops. concerning the ukrainian hss, while the highest vot values appeared in the two controlled tasks, the difference was small in comparison to the spontaneous elicitation and still did not place any of the stops into the long-lag category; however, the results did show that as tasks became more formal, their vots increased, a pattern that was also observed with l1 spanish speakers. perhaps, this phenomenon also relates to the speakers’ proficiency level in spanish, signaling that as speakers become more proficient in their l3, speaking becomes the most natural speech style. in the polish hss’ data, the bilabial segment /p/ showed a gradual increase in vot as task formality increased, mimicking the general trends seen in the l1 spanish and ukrainian hss’ data. the phonemes /t/ and /k/, on the other hand, displayed an inverse relationship in comparison to /p/. what is particularly intriguing is that /t/ was produced as long-lag in the nt, but as short-lag in the nwrt task, possibly suggesting that underlyingly, it is classified as short-lag in the productive grammars of these speakers. although polish hss may be implicitly classifying /t/ differently than l2 learners, overall, this finding seems to support llama and lópez-morelo’s (2016) claim that hss learning an l3 may be mimicking their l2 classmates’ vot productions. the /t/ and /k/ results also seem to support our claim that more controlled tasks better reflect the learners’ use of l3 spanish at lower proficiency levels. the polish hss’ results coincide closely with those of the l1 english speakers, who produced the shortest vots in the srt. since the two groups have comparable mean srp scores, which are lower than those of the ukrainian hss, the results suggest that this speech style is the most familiar for these language learners, backing tarone’s (1979) observation that l2 learners produce more bondarenko, butera, & rao e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 46 target-like results in formal speech; however, unlike polish hss, the l1 english speakers produced the spanish /ptk/ as long-lag in all three tasks, presenting clear evidence of transfer of the long-lag feature from their l1, regardless of task formality. 7.4. theoretical implications since our results demonstrate evidence of both facilitative and non-facilitative transfer from the hl and the dl, we believe that our findings may shed light on the linguistic proximity model (lpm) (westergaard et al., 2016). the lpm, which argues that all previously learned languages are available throughout the l3 acquisition process, allows us to account for the differences observed in the ukrainian and polish hss’ data. according to the lpm, cross-linguistic influence will take place when a linguistic property in the l3 input displays an abstract structural similarity to the structure of previously acquired languages. in order for crosslinguistic influence to be facilitative, learners must have received sufficient l3 input to perceive linguistic similarities at an abstract level. without sufficient exposure to an l3, learners are relying on superficial similarities, which results in non-facilitative transfer. it may be possible that due to higher proficiency in l3 spanish, the ukrainian hss perceived l3 spanish /ptk/ as structurally similar to ukrainian voiceless stops, which triggered influence of the short-lag feature from the hl. while the polish hss also might have perceived /p/ and /t/ as structurally similar to polish, resulting in mainly short-lag values for these segments, due to their lower l3 proficiency level, they appear to have perceived /k/ as more similar to english at a superficial level, which led to increased vot values for this segment. our theoretical claims support the lpm by providing evidence of transfer from both the hl and the dl to an l3, which depends on the quantity of l3 input. 7.5. pedagogical implications the results from this study have important pedagogical implications for instructors, more specifically, spanish instructors in the world language classroom who have hss of hls other than spanish as students. in other words, given that l3 learners of spanish are able to draw on phonological characteristics from both their hl (in our case, ukrainian or polish) and their dl (in our case, english), instructors’ awareness of the linguistic history and abilities of their students can facilitate the connections that they make between the target language and the students’ other languages when providing pronunciation instruction. in this case, bringing this conversation to the level of the student, making a connection between the pronunciation of /ptk/ in spanish and in the hl rather than the dl, highlights the similarities between their hl and l3 and further supports their acquisition of a target-like realization of /ptk/. more broadly, the life experiences of students have the potential to make valuable contributions to overall student success and proficiency. language instructors can design and modify their instruction by tapping into this resource, ultimately making the student learning experience more positive and productive. 8. conclusion the purpose of this study was to describe the acquisition of l3 spanish voiceless stops by ukrainian and polish hss, thus contributing to the fields of phonetics and phonology, language contact, and multilingualism. it allowed us to establish a comparison between languages that, to our knowledge, have never been examined together using our type of methodological approach. the conclusions provide critical information about the development of slavic hss’ sound systems as l3 learners by describing vot values of voiceless stops of ukrainian and polish hss in their full set of languages, and make significant contributions to the growing field of l3 phonetics and phonology within the specific context of hss of slavic languages. in sum, we hope that our methodological and analytical approach and the issues we have raised inspire future investigations on other language combinations that will allow us to broaden our knowledge of overarching empirical and theoretical issues related to l3 phonology and hl research. references alves, ubiratã. k., luchini, pedro l., & schereschewsky, laura c. 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(1994). the role of native language transfer and task formality in the acquisition of spanish spirantization. hispania, 77(3), 470–481. zampini, mary. l. (2019). pronunciation in the l2 spanish classroom: the voiceless stops /p, t, k/. in r. rao (ed.), key issues in the teaching of spanish pronunciation: from description to pedagogy (pp. 40–59). routledge. margaryta bondarenko, university of wisconsin-madison margaryta.bondarenko@mheducation.com en margaryta bondarenko is a product developer at mcgraw hill, where she applies her research experience to the development of motivating, dynamic, and culturally-authentic introductory and intermediate spanish programs, helping students build confidence and achieve success in their language-learning journey. her interests include phonetics, phonology, second and third language acquisition, applied linguistics, heritage languages, language pedagogy, educational technology, e-learning, and gamified learning. es margaryta bondarenko es desarrolladora de productos en mcgraw hill, donde aplica su experiencia investigadora al desarrollo de programas de español básicos e intermedios motivadores, dinámicos y culturalmente auténticos, que ayudan al alumnado a ganar confianza y alcanzar el éxito en su camino al aprendizaje de idiomas. sus intereses incluyen la fonética, la fonología, la adquisición de un segundo y tercer idioma, la lingüística aplicada, las lenguas de herencia, la enseñanza de lenguas, la tecnología educativa, el e-learning y la gamificación. it margaryta bondarenko è una sviluppatrice di prodotto presso la mcgraw hill, dove applica la sua esperienza di ricerca allo sviluppo di corsi di spagnolo di livello base e di livello intermedio motivanti, dinamici e culturalmente autentici, e che hanno l’obiettivo di aiutare gli studenti ad acquisire sicurezza e ad avere successo nel loro percorso di apprendimento linguistico. i suoi interessi di ricerca riguardano la fonetica, la fonologia, l’acquisizione delle lingue seconde e terze, la linguistica applicata, le lingue ereditarie, la didattica delle lingue, le tecnologie per l’istruzione, l’apprendimento online e l’apprendimento ludico. voice onset time of l3 spanish /ptk/ e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 28–51 51 brianna butera, university of memphis bjbutera@memphis.edu en brianna butera is an assistant professor of spanish in the department of world languages and literatures at the university of memphis. she specializes in pronunciation variation across the spanish-speaking world and measuring language variability using acoustic analysis. her most recent research focuses on variation in the spanish of heritage speakers and inclusive pedagogy in the heritage speaker classroom. es brianna butera es profesora de español en el departamento de lenguas y literaturas de la universidad de memphis. se ha especializado en la variación de la pronunciación en el mundo hispanohablante y en la medición de la variabilidad lingüística mediante el análisis acústico. su investigación más reciente se centra en la variación del español de los hablantes de herencia y la pedagogía inclusiva en el aula de hablantes de herencia. it brianna butera è ricercatrice di spagnolo presso il dipartimeto di world languages & literatures della university of memphis. è specializzata nella variazione di pronuncia all’interno del mondo ispanofono e nella misurazione della variabilità del linguaggio attraverso l’uso dell’analisi acustica. le sue ricerche più recenti sono centrate sulla variazione dello spagnolo nei parlanti ereditari e sulla pedagogia inclusiva nelle classi composte da parlanti ereditari rajiv rao, university of wisconsin-madison rgrao@wisc.edu en rajiv rao is an associate professor of spanish in the department of spanish and portuguese and the current director of the language sciences program at the university of wisconsin-madison. his primary research streams deal with segmental and suprasegmental phonetics and phonology as they pertain to heritage speakers and afro-hispanic varieties, among other areas related to sociolinguistics and language variation and change. he is also interested in the second language acquisition of spanish phonetics and phonology and in approaches to teaching spanish pronunciation. es rajiv rao es profesor titular de español en el departamento de español y portugués, y es actualmente el director del programa de ciencias del lenguaje de la universidad de wisconsin-madison. sus principales líneas de investigación se centran en la fonética y fonología segmental y suprasegmental en relación con los hablantes de herencia y las variedades afrohispánicas, entre otras áreas relacionadas con la sociolingüística y la variación y el cambio lingüísticos. también está interesado en la adquisición de la fonética y la fonología del español como segunda lengua y en las estrategias de enseñanza de la pronunciación del español. it rajiv rao è professore associato presso il dipartimento di spanish e portuguese ed è direttore del programma di scienze del linguaggio presso la university of wisconsin-madison. i suoi principali filoni di ricerca riguardano la fonologia e la fonetica segmentale e soprasegmentale relative ai parlanti di lingue ereditarie e alle varietà afro-ispaniche, tra gli altri ambiti relativi alla sociolinguistica e alla variazione e al cambio linguistici. si interessa anche dell’acquisizione della fonetica e della fonologia spagnola negli apprendenti non-nativi e delle strategie di insegnamento della pronuncia spagnola. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 44-61 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.147 www.e-journall.org © musanti 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. “siento que siempre tengo que regresar al inglés”: embracing a translanguaging stance in a hispanic-serving institution sandra i. musanti*, alyssa g. cavazos the university of texas rio grande valley received 27 june 2018; received in revised form 16 october 2018; accepted 14 november 2018 abstract en this chapter centers on our reflections and pedagogical moves as two bilingual educators at a hispanic-serving institution on the borderland region of south texas, a predominantly bilingual and bicultural community. specifically, the chapter documents how we embrace a translanguaging pedagogical stance. translanguaging practices are identity markers and represent the complex ways bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire to communicate across contexts and to negotiate social identities (garcía & li wei, 2014; martinez-roldán, 2015). drawing on garcía, johnson, and seltzer’s (2017) conceptualization of a translanguaging “corriente,” we describe our translanguaging stance and moves as we, respectively, design and teach two undergraduate courses: an upper-level undergraduate foundations of bilingual education course and an undergraduate rhetoric and composition i course. we identify tensions, as well as commonalities and differences in our experience enacting translanguaging pedagogies and assignments in two different disciplinary areas. we also present two students’ reflections and assignments to illustrate the outcomes of our translanguaging pedagogies. key words: translanguaging, higher education, bilingualism es este capítulo se centra en nuestras reflexiones y actividades pedagógicas como educadoras bilingües en una institución de servicio a hispanos en la región fronteriza del sur de texas, una comunidad predominantemente bilingüe y bicultural. específicamente, el capítulo documenta cómo tomamos una postura pedagógica translingüista. las prácticas translingüistas son marcadores de identidad y representan las formas complejas en que los bilingües usan su repertorio lingüístico para comunicarse en diferentes contextos y negociar identidades sociales (garcía y li wei, 2014; martinez-roldán, 2015). basándonos en la conceptualización de una “corriente” translingüista de garcía, jognson y seltzer (2017), describimos nuestra postura y nuestras actividades translingüistas al diseñar y enseñar, respectivamente, dos cursos universitarios: uno, de nivel avanzado (fundamentos de educación bilingüe), y otro, de escritura, de primer año universitario. identificamos tensiones, aspectos en común y diferencias en nuestra experiencia al implementar las pedagogías y evaluaciones translingüistas en dos áreas disciplinarias diferentes. también presentamos dos reflexiones y actividades de alumnos que ilustran los resultados de nuestras pedagogías translingüistas. palabras clave: translenguar, educación superior o universitaria, bilingüismo it questo capitolo è centato sulle nostre riflessioni e sulle nostre scelte pedagogiche in veste di docenti bilingui in un istituto con utenza ispanica nell’area di confine del texas meridionale, che è popolata da una comunità prevalentemente bilingue e biculturale. nello specifico, il capitolo documenta il modo in cui sposiamo una posizione di pedagogia translanguaging. le pratiche translinguistiche sono marcatori di identità e rappresentano i modi complessi in cui i bilingui utilizzano il loro repertorio linguistico per comunicare in contesti diversi e per negoziare identità sociali (garcía & li wei, 2014; martinez-roldán, 2015). basandoci sulla concettualizzazione di garcía johnson e seltzer (2017) di una "corriente" translanguaging, descriviamo l’approccio e le strategie che ognuna di noi ha messo in essere mentre progettavamo e insegnavamo due corsi universitari: un corso avanzato chiamato foundations of bilingual education e un corso iniziale chiamato rhetoric and composition !. inoltre identifichiamo le tensioni, gli aspetti in comune e le differenze nella nostra esperienza di messa in pratica delle pedagogie translanguaging e nei compiti in due diverse aree disciplinari. presentiamo anche le riflessioni ed i compiti di due studenti per illustrare i risultati delle nostre pedagogie translanguaging. parole chiave: translanguagin, istruzione superiore, bilinguismo * contact: sandra.musanti@utrgv.edu http://www.e-journall.org/ translanguaging stance in a hispanic-serving institution e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 45 1. introduction translanguaging practices are identity markers and represent the complex ways in which bilinguals use their linguistic repertoires to communicate across contexts and to negotiate social identities (garcía & li wei, 2014; martinez-roldán, 2015). in addition, translanguaging practices have the potential to be powerful tools for learning that have been insufficiently researched and documented in higher education contexts (garcía & li wei, 2014; mazak & caroll, 2017; musanti & rodríguez, 2017). recently, translanguaging pedagogies have been defined as political acts, as they challenge monoglossic views of bilingual education and leverage students’ linguistic repertoires (garcía & li wei, 2014; palmer, martínez, mateus, & henderson, 2014). this chapter aspires to contribute to emerging conversations and pedagogical innovations that tap into bilingual students’ full linguistic repertoires. it explores how two faculty who teach undergraduate courses at a hispanic-serving institution attempt to move from a language-compartmentalized approach to instruction that leverages students’ bilingualism for learning (garcía & li wei, 2014). the university of texas rio grande valley (utrgv) is the second largest hispanic-serving institution in the united states, where 89% of the student population self-identify as hispanic. the mission of the university is to become a bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate institution. as an institution of higher education located on the mexico/u.s. border, translanguaging practices occur naturally among linguistically diverse students as they engage with various stakeholders in and outside of the university context. however, the region is fraught with contradictory perceptions of the value, purpose, and aims of bilingualism (musanti, 2017; sayer, 2013; sutterby, ayala & murillo, 2005). 2. translanguaging and translingual practice the notions of translingual practices (e.g., canagarajah, 2011, 2013; cavazos, 2017) and translanguaging (e.g., creese & blackledge, 2010; garcía & li wei, 2014; sayer, 2013) challenge the practice of separating monolingual and multilingual perspectives on language. language users do not have a separate competence for each language, but rather operate with an integrated linguistic system (canagarajah, 2013; nikula & moore, 2016; otheguy, garcía, & reid, 2015). this integrated understanding is anchored on the premise that named languages are social as opposed to static and separate entities (otheguy et al., 2015; sayer, 2013). moreover, language is a local practice; we understand local, with pennycook (2010), to mean a dynamic and fluid space where language is used, constructed, and interpreted amid social interaction. scholars in the field of bilingual education have conceptualized translanguaging as "multiple discursive practices in which bilinguals engage in order to make sense of their bilingual worlds" (garcía, 2009, p. 45, emphasis in original). the notion of translanguaging is embedded in the idea of flexible bilingualism. it acknowledges the need to leverage students’ linguistic and sociocultural resources by embracing language integration instead of language separation for teaching and learning (creese & blackledge, 2010; nikula & moore, 2016). from a sociolinguistic perspective, two central tenets of translanguaging are the problematization of the separation of languages and the challenge to the monoglossic view of bilingualism. one of the main arguments supporting the strict separation of languages in educational settings derives from the idea that it is important to protect the space of minority languages in contexts that tend to suppress them (otheguy et al., 2015). but translanguaging acknowledges bilingual individuals languaging to make meaning across social contexts and within one integrated, complex, dynamic, and flexible linguistic repertoire (creese, 2017; garcía & li wei, 2014; guerra, 2015). this insider perspective on languaging puts the emphasis back on what bilingual people do with language as opposed to what a language is from an outsider’s perspective (otheguy et al., 2015). as swain (2006) explains, languaging refers to "the process of making meaning and shaping knowledge and experience through language" (p. 98), and is therefore central to learning and to learning about language. moreover, recognizing translanguaging practices as intrinsic to bilingual individuals’ way of making meaning and learning is “an ideological and pedagogical shift for linguistic rights and social justice in education in an increasingly diverse world" (paulsrud, rosén, straszer, & wedin, 2017, p. 17). for this reason, we are inspired to engage in problematizing our teaching approach and in inquiring how translanguaging pedagogies can promote language awareness and advance linguistic rights in an increasingly bilingual and multilingual world. 2.1. translanguaging as pedagogy addressing translanguaging from a pedagogical perspective is especially relevant in bilingual communities because, as garcía (2009) explains, it is impossible to participate, communicate, and interact in musanti & cavazos e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 46 a bilingual community without appealing to translanguaging. bilingual and multilingual classrooms are social spaces and translanguaging practices are salient features in the communication process (creese, 2017). a dynamic, holistic understanding of language challenges the notion that languages are mutually exclusive as well as the belief that there is a risk of “confusion or cross-contamination” (jacobson & faltis, 1990, p. 7), ideas that are still present in bilingual classrooms. disregarding the prevailing emphasis on promoting monolingual instruction and on strictly separating languages, teachers use translanguaging to support students' learning process (garcía & li wei, 2014). a translanguaging approach to teaching zooms in on students' language experiences, acknowledges their languages as resources for learning, and raises questions about how educators should create opportunities and design learning environments that integrate and extend students' linguistic repertoire (cavazos, hebbard, hernandez, rodriguez, & schwarz, 2018; garcía, 2014; garcía & li wei, 2014; martínezroldán, 2015; musanti & rodríguez, 2017; paulsrud et al., 2017). more specifically, in higher education, van der walt and dornbrack (2011) have argued for approaches that create learning opportunities where “students are encouraged to draw on their various languages (even if complete fluency is not available) as resources, rather than as barriers…” (p. 101). to respond to varying levels of language fluency, garcía, johnson & seltzer (2017) propose following the translanguaging corriente, which is a metaphor that refers to the "current or flow of students' dynamic bilingualism that runs through our classrooms" (p. 21). the imagery of a tide of language resonates with the reality of our borderland region, where the rio grande has been designated as the geographical separation between countries. the corriente is especially visible in our bilingual and bicultural borderland region where the language landscape is fluid, where spanish and english are deeply rooted in the identity of the region, and where translanguaging practices define and identify its people. in the words of garcía, johnson, and seltzer (2017): thus, u.s. latinos, as well as other bilinguals, experience "language" and histories constructed through one or another named "language" as an integrated system of linguistic and cultural practices. the translanguaging corriente generates the creative energy and produces the speaker's way of interacting with others and other texts, rather than responding to restrictions imposed by the officially accepted way of using language. (p. 23) the translanguaging corriente has specific implications for a translanguaging pedagogy that includes three strands: (1) embracing a translanguaging stance, (2) building a translanguaging instructional design, and (3) engaging in making meaningful translanguaging shifts (garcía et al., 2017). a translanguaging stance refers to a pedagogical approach that embodies the idea of dynamic and holistic bilingualism, that embraces students' full and complex linguistic repertoire as resource for learning, and that provides opportunities for students to develop metalinguistic awareness. a translanguaging instructional design “refers to how we strategically plan instruction to work within the translanguaging corriente” (garcía et al., 2017, p. 61) and is grounded on and integrates students' linguistic and cultural backgrounds and practices. in using an instructional design based on translanguaging, teachers use translanguaging pedagogical strategies that create spaces for students to use their entire linguistic repertoire while developing language skills and learning new content. in following the translanguaging corriente intrinsic to interactions in a bilingual class, educators comply with their design while making moment-by-moment pedagogical decisions that will ultimately enact their translanguaging stance (garcía et al., 2017). we contend that higher-education educators and teacher-educators in bilingual contexts need to embrace a translanguaging stance, follow a translanguaging design, and make meaningful translanguaging moves. 3. methodological considerations we approach this work from the perspective of self-study in education and its “moral commitment to improving practice” (bullough & pinnegar, 2004, p. 317). from a methodological perspective, self-study involves three characteristics: (1) it emphasizes the centrality of inquiring about self; (2) it renders teacher educators’ experience as a resource for research; and (3) it urges those who engage in self-study to be critical of their roles as researchers and educators (feldman, paugh, & mills, 2004). our positionality as bilingual educators who learned english as a foreign and as a second language, respectively, influences not only how we design linguistically inclusive coursework, but also how we investigate the impact of our pedagogical practices on student learning. sandra, first author, learned english as a foreign language in argentina and then as a second language when completing her graduate studies in the united states alyssa, second author, emigrated to the united states from mexico when she was eight years translanguaging stance in a hispanic-serving institution e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 47 old and began to learn english as a second language when she was in fifth grade. as teacher-scholars, we recognize that our own personal and scholarly experiences continuously shape how we have redesigned our courses, how we ask research and pedagogical questions, and how we adjust our own pedagogies to optimize student learning and success across their full linguistic repertoire. during one semester we engaged in purposefully enacting a translanguaging stance in two of our undergraduate courses. we kept a journal where we wrote notes on our lesson planning, after-thoughts about the implementation of our design, and questions that arose about our practices as the semester progressed. in addition, as part of a broader research study, we collected students’ assignments and met twice during the semester to discuss salient events in our courses. we also observed each other and collected survey data from our students to document their linguistic profiles. for this article, we decided to produce a detailed documentation of our classes and to identify students whose coursework provided evidence of the effects of implementing a translanguaging design. we worked individually to reconstruct and document our teaching experiences, drawing from the recordings of our meetings, our journals, our class materials, and student work. we then met to compare and contrast our accounts and to identify commonalities and differences that we analyzed from the perspective of the translanguaging corriente (garcía et al., 2017). in what follows, we present our individual instructional accounts, illustrating elements of translanguaging stance, design, and pedagogical moves through the work of two students selected in our respective classes. we draw on our complex linguistic repertoire to represent the translanguaging corriente that influences how we think and teach. in their call for proposals, the guest editors, josh prada and tarja nikula, invited contributors to “purposefully push the boundaries of monolingual academic writing through written translanguaging.” we embrace this invitation because it is an opportunity to accurately represent how we draw on our full linguistic repertoire to think about and make sense of our teaching practices. in this way, we invite readers of all language backgrounds to remain open to our linguistic differences and enact a translanguaging stance as they navigate between english and spanish while making meaning with us. therefore, we choose not to translate from one language to another but rather integrate them in the narrative. 4. alyssa’s translanguaging stance and design because as an english as a second language learner, i struggled with learning how to write well in english throughout my education, i began to question and explore how to design writing courses where students reflect on and compose in different languages and for different purposes, thereby encouraging metalinguistic awareness. this is necessary in a discipline where the english language is often privileged (horner & trimbur, 2002; matsuda, 2006). due to my language background and writing experiences, i wanted to learn about how multilingual faculty conduct research and how multilingual faculty and students negotiate languages for different purposes (cavazos, 2015; cavazos, in press). through conversations with multilingual faculty members and students, descubrí nuevas perspectivas que me han ayudado a diseñar cursos centrados en los conocimientos multilingüísticos de mis alumnos. first-year writing son mis cursos favoritos de enseñar porque es un espacio ideal para desafiar las expectativas y normas de la escritura académica en inglés. de esta manera, nos enfocamos en ser conscientes de cómo es que usamos el lenguaje en diferentes contextos académicos y en la comunidad para comunicarnos con una variedad de audiencias. con un enfoque en nuestras propias experiencias lingüísticas, podemos crear nuevos conocimientos mientras investigamos teorías de la escritura. first-year writing encompasses two one-semester writing courses in which first-year students learn about research methods and analyze and compose written, visual, and aural genres for different audiences. first-year writing is a part of the core curriculum in the texas higher education system and is critical to the academic success of first-year college students. according to institutional data, in first-year writing courses, on average, 94% of the students self-identify as hispanic or of latino origin and 68% of the total number of students enrolled in these courses self-identify as fluent spanish speakers. 4.1. translanguaging stance los cursos de first-year writing tradicionalmente se enfocan en la enseñanza de la escritura en inglés, ya que el prefijo del curso es english 1301: rhetoric and composition i y, por esta razón, los estudiantes creen que la clase se enseña en dicho idioma. la mayor parte del curso sí lo enseño en inglés, ya que aprendí sobre la disciplina leyendo teorías de la escritura en este idioma. por lo tanto, para mí es importante desafiar el musanti & cavazos e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 48 predominio del inglés de manera explicita y directa, especialmente en como comunico mi translanguaging stance. my first semester first-year writing course is titled “writing about (translingual) writing,” which is partially inspired by downs and wardle’s (2007) writing-about-writing approach to teaching first-year writing and my previous research on language diversity in the writing classroom (cavazos, 2017; cavazos, in press). my translanguaging stance is conveyed in the syllabus in various forms: in semester-long guiding questions, in a translingual statement, and in learning outcomes. additionally, i describe my value of collaborative learning and language awareness and provide questions that will guide our thinking, writing, and reading activities. one of those questions reads, “how does our knowledge of languages other than english function as a strength when writing academically in college and future careers?” these questions continuously evolve and change as all the students, with their unique linguistic abilities, respond to course readings, engage in collaborative activities, and reflect on course projects. to further convey my translanguaging stance, i incorporate a translingual statement into my syllabus. because the purpose of the course is for students to become aware of how to write for different audiences and rhetorical contexts, their knowledge of different languages is essential: it gives them access not only to more literacies but also to a broader audience. i write the translingual statement in both english and spanish as these are the two languages i know and the most common languages used by students in the course. part of the statement reads as follows: yo los invito a escribir, leer y desarrollar investigaciones en cualquier lenguaje o dialecto que esté alineado a sus metas y expectativas… usar diferentes lenguajes o dialectos mientras hacemos investigaciones, conversamos y escribimos no solo incrementa nuestro acceso a conocimientos diversos, pero también incrementa nuestra habilidad de crear nuevos conocimientos. i accentuate that knowledge of different languages expands our access to different conocimientos that we would not have access to otherwise, which is critical because in first-year writing students are exposed to the research process and the dominance of english in scholarship has been well-documented (canagarajah, 2013; cavazos, 2015). in this way, students are encouraged to conduct more critical and deeper investigations of knowledge production in diverse languages and beyond traditional academic texts. subsequently, i introduce students to how their exploration of the guiding questions throughout the semester and their diverse linguistic abilities will ensure they achieve student learning outcomes. 4.2. translanguaging design conveying a translanguaging stance to students in the course syllabus not only provides the framework for the course, but also prepares students for optimal translanguaging engagements. most importantly, because a translanguaging stance is a living and dynamic pedagogical approach (garcía et al., 2017), it is continuously enacted throughout the pedagogical design and moves of the course, such as course readings, course project descriptions, collaborative activities, reflective writing, and teacher and peer feedback throughout the semester. así como mis investigaciones surgen de mis propias experiencias como estudiante que aprendió inglés como segundo idioma, diseño mi curso de first-year writing de esta misma forma. deseo que los estudiantes analicen y reflexionen sobren sus propias experiencias como escritores y lectores y que reconozcan que estas experiencias tienen el mismo peso y validez que las fuentes académicas. esta estructura provee incentivos a los estudiantes para que desarrollen sus propias perspectivas, argumentos y conocimientos y así puedan identificar a una audiencia a quien le beneficiaría saber más sobre los temas de reflexión e investigación. to illustrate how students engage translanguaging practices, i provide a short case-study narrative of rafael’s writing and languaging experiences. rafael is a 20-year-old freshman and first-generation college student who returned to school two years after graduating from high school. he is from veracruz, mexico where, as he describes, “opportunities are [rare], and people rarely finish school.” rafael learned english as a second language, and he is a business management major. he self-identifies as bilingual and as proficient in reading, writing, speaking, and listening in both english and spanish but shares that he experiences challenges writing in english. in a translingual writing course, my choice of readings and how students respond to those readings are purposeful. course readings are essential as they not only frame course projects, but also represent my attempt at consciously challenging the dominance of english in writing studies scholarship (horner, necamp, & donahue, 2011). the readings are divided into three sections, corresponding to the three major projects in the course: translanguaging autoethnography, navigating sources that disagree, and writing for public translanguaging stance in a hispanic-serving institution e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 49 change. therefore, course readings encompass the following: personal narratives of translanguaging (e.g., tan, 1990; brandt, 1998), academic articles on investigating translanguaging practices (e.g., canagarajah, 2011; cavazos, 2017), academic articles on reading rhetorically and on arguments as conversation (e.g., haas & flower, 1988; kantz, 1990; greene, 2001), and a variety of primary documents that merge the personal and academic for the specific purpose of writing for change (e.g., young, 2010; guerra, 2012). students are encouraged to respond to course readings via rhetorical responses where they analyze translanguaging events (alvarez, 2014) and create translanguaging events. in response to canagarajah’s (2011) reading titled “codemeshing in academic writing: identifying teachable strategies of translanguaging” and amy tan’s (1990) “under western eyes,” which included discussion questions written in both english and spanish as part of my translanguaging moves, rafael wrote the following in his rhetorical response: as writers, we are in the process of learning new strategies of writing […] por ejemplo, yo en la clase de cavazos me siento mas libre de expresarme major. muchas de las veces quisiera expresarme en inglés pero no seria lo mismo que si me expresara en español, y por eso pienso que debemos usar los recursos que temenos como estudiantes “bilingual”. we also need to be more open minded; we need to think out of the box when it comes to writing. for example, buthania uses symbols in some parts of her essay, which means that she uses symbols as another language. maybe that’s one way where she can express better […] this literacy show[s] us that we can be linguistic[ally] discriminated by the way we talk, but if we see the positive side of this, we can also use it as a motivation to overcome any language we are trying to learn.2 rafael not only synthesizes two different course readings in his response, but also creates a translanguaging event as he uses both english and spanish to convey how he overcame linguistic discrimination. he deliberatively challenges monolingual ideologies in written academic texts. y es esto, precisamente, el propósito de las lecturas y preguntas de discusión —comprender y analizar los factores culturales, raciales y socioeconómicos que contribuyen al desarrollo de la escritura y la lectura en diferentes idiomas. después de analizar las lecturas, continuamos con proyectos reflexivos sobre la alfabetización que escribo en inglés con algunas palabras claves en español. una de las metas del translingual autoethnography es que los estudiantes desarrollen un argumento sobre los factores que contribuyeron a su aprendizaje de las habilidades lectoescritoras. rafael explora estos factores de su alfabetización con detalles de cómo su papa le enseñó a leer: mi papa no sabía escribir ni leer tanto, pero a pesar de eso, el tomo la decisión de ñarme a leer, ¿cómo le hiso? tal vez su instinto de enseñarnos a siempre ser lo mejor que podamos en cualquier cosa que nos pongamos en mente. rafael relaciona su desarrollo como lector y escritor a cómo su padre le enseñó a nunca darse por vencido. al final de su ensayo, rafael comparte: we might not know it, but persons, things, can affect the way we better ourselves. ya sea en estudiar o mejorar como personas. siempre es bueno mirar hacia adelante sin importar lo que la gente piense. i’m very happy with everyone who helped me achieve the english language; no matter what language i learn, i will always love my spanish because fue el idioma con el que crecí, con que el que mis papas me enseñaron, y con el que algún día le enseñare a mis hijos a ser grandes personas. i can say i know how to read/write in english, but for now on, i am going to focus on mastering my accent. it is going to be a very difficult task, but that is my goal. i know if i am willing to put all the work, i will achieve my goal. “el querer es poder.” from his initial rhetorical analysis to his reflections on his autoethnography, rafael is building critical language awareness by using both english and spanish in more natural ways as he draws on his language resources to convey his message. mientras los estudiantes escriben su translingual autoethnography, los invito a identificar preguntas de investigación que surjan de sus propias experiencias. así, los estudiantes reúnen diversas fuentes que tratan su pregunta desde diferentes puntos de vista y las analizan using rhetorical reading strategies (haas & flower, 1988) y enfocándose en cómo los autores llevaron a cabo sus 2 to respect students’ linguistic choices, their writing excerpts are included verbatim. musanti & cavazos e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 50 investigaciones (qué argumentos, evidencia marcos teóricos emplean). el propósito de esta actividad es que los estudiantes cuestionen los argumentos presentados en estas lecturas a la vez que presentan sus propias perspectivas, contribuyendo así al debate. ya que su padre influenció su desarrollo como lector y escritor, rafael decidió explorar la siguiente pregunta de investigación: “¿qué efecto tienen los papás en sus hijos al no tener conocimiento de leer y escribir?” la mayoria de sus fuentes academicas fueron en inglés pero rafael decidió analizarlas en los dos idiomas. en su análisis, rafael emplea las estrategias de rhetorical analysis que sugieren haas and flower (1988), kantz (1990) y greene (2001): literacy is a powerful tool needed in many situations, such as a country’s economy. [researchers] concluded that if we encourage people to acquire some knowledge on literacy, we can help them get jobs which will improve the economy of a country. we can use myself for example. we got more jobs due to our bilingualism and the more jobs, the more money we can make. we can change people’s lives by empowering them to learn new things. my parents were the key to where i am right now. they empower me to become someone in life, and they also contributed to my literacy knowledge since i was a little boy […] la alfabetización es algo interesante de mirar. te puede ayudar a desallorar nuevas habilidades como aprender otro idioma. te puede mejorar la vida agarrando mas conocimiento. todo empieza en la casa con nuestros padres. i believe that our parents are the key to our way to success. si enseñara el research project en mi clase de una forma estricta y si les dijera a mis estudiantes que solamente pueden escribir en inglés, tal vez algunos de ellos no llegarían a desarrollar las ideas que el uso de sus dos (o más) idiomas les permite conceptualizar. rafael not only articulates the arguments the authors present, but he also expands upon them by providing his own experience on bilingualism—a perspective the authors he cites did not address. rafael recognizes his goal of becoming proficient in english and is critically aware of his internal linguistic system as he draws on his language resources to strengthen his analysis. el trabajo final requiere que los estudiantes diseñen algún proyecto para una audiencia específica y el contenido de este proyecto, regularmente, surge del translingual autoethnography y del proyecto de investigación. rafael analiza cómo llegó a identificar a su audiencia: after doing project one and project two, i realized the huge impact our parents play in our education. project three means a lot to me because it shows me how far i have gotten with the support of my parents. i always imagined myself doing something else with my life. but if it wasn’t because of my parents, i wouldn’t be here right now writing this project. i believe that the same way my parents supported my brothers and me is the way parents should take into consideration when it comes to helping their kids with their education journey. rafael wrote the above analysis in english, perhaps, because most of his academic sources were in english. the lack of sources in other languages may have influenced his decision to create a document that would appeal to parents in spanish. while his analysis of genre choices is in english, he decided to analyze the document he created, a flyer, in spanish (see figure 1). translanguaging stance in a hispanic-serving institution e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 51 figure 1. rafael’s public document. he shares: "en este proyecto 3 la audiencia que elegí fueron los padres […] no necesariamente tienen que ayudarles con sus trabajos sino alentarlos y apoyarlos con otros recursos, como los que mencioné anteriormente." rafael has taken a translanguaging stance by addressing his intended audience, parents, in spanish, which allowed him to develop rhetorical and linguistic agency as he draws on his full linguistic repertoire throughout the various stages of his writing projects. 4.3. translanguaging moves a translanguaging stance is enacted throughout the semester via class activities, course discussions, and feedback to student writing. aunque durante los translanguaging moves sentía que siempre tenía que regresar al inglés, ya sea para explicar alguna lectura o rhetorical reading and writing strategies, rafael's reflections illustrate how a course focused on overt translanguaging moves creates optimal opportunities for learning, writing, and the creation of meaning. rafael synthesizes various perspectives presented in the course through course readings, original research, and personal experiences with writing and reading in different languages. this type of synthesis and critical analysis is the work we expect from first-year writing students—enhancing their ability to think critically and rhetorically about their writing choices and to develop their own voice and perspectives. in the final reflection of the course, where students are expected to self-assess their rhetorical writing abilities, rafael narrates: voy a escribir en español porque es una de las experiencias que disfrute durante este semestre. toda mi vida desde que llegué a este país, nunca volví a poner en práctica mi forma de escribir en español. como el español es parte de mi cultura creo que por eso no me costó tanto trabajo volverme adaptar a él. al usar el español en esta clase, me ayudo a entender las materias mejor. cuando se requirió hacer apuntes de la lectura, yo siempre los hacía en español. esto me ayudaba a regresar y mirar los puntos importantes de la lectura. siento que, por ser mi primer idioma, le encontraba más sentido a lo que apuntaba. atreves de estas lecturas que tuvimos en clases aprendí que nadie se tiene que sentir menos por como hablas el inglés. amy tan dice que no importa si tienes un "broken english" porque cada quien tiene su forma de expresarse. al igual cuando se requiere escribir. vershawn ashantiyoung nos enseña que los escritores deberían de usar su propio inglés. no importa si es black english, mexican english, or any other type of english. young en sus lecturas nos demuestra que también no deberíamos de solo usar una lengua a la hora de escribir. él dice that it is okay to code mesh cuando sea necesario … algo que me gusto de esta clase fue que pude utilizar mi lenguaje más fuerte. me hiso sentir más libre de asimismo … en un futuro talvez ya no vuelva a utilizar el español debido a que los demás maestros no piensan como musanti & cavazos e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 52 usted … al dejarnos comunicarnos en español fue algo realmente excitante, porque yo hasta la fecha no tengo la confianza suficiente para poder comunicarme oralmente en inglés. my translanguaging moves, inviting students to engage reading and writing in spanish in an english writing class through discussion questions and written feedback, facilitated rafael's linguistic agency and awareness. rafael challenged the perception that learning and writing only happen in english by reconnecting with the spanish language in written form, which is one of the learning moments he explicitly states that he valued. if our goal as first-year writing teachers is to teach students how to engage rhetorically with course readings, research, and their projects, then we must consider that students may be adept at rhetorical analysis in languages other than english. 5. sandra’s translanguaging stance and design my pathway to bilingualism was later in life, as i came to the united states to pursue a masters’ degree. i am originally from argentina, so spanish is my first language. i see myself as a teacher educator with a passion for inquiry, and as a sequential bilingual who discovered the meaning of translanguaging when i arrived in south texas seven years ago to teach in the bilingual education ec-6 (early childhood through sixth grade) teaching certification program. i was puzzled and i marveled when listening to my students using their spanish and english repertoire in such a fluid and complex way. i was also saddened to hear them apologize for speaking pocho, a new term to me at the time, which to them means that they do not speak well enough. this illustrates how the stereotypical characterization of bilingual mexican americans as people who speak english but lack fluency in spanish embodies an ideology of language oppression and suppression still prevalent in this region and across the nation. as a teacher educator, i felt the need to explore how to better integrate students’ communicative practices in the courses i was teaching for the bilingual education certification program that were taught in spanish. as i taught these classes, it became clear that english was unavoidable for several reasons. first, the lack of materials written in spanish that were appropriate to cover course content. second, the dominant presence of the english language in the schooling experiences of my students and the configuration of bilingual education itself. and, most importantly, translanguaging was evident in students’ interactions in class and written assignments as well as in my teaching. the self-study was conducted in one of the five courses required for the bilingual education certification, foundations of bilingual education and english as second language (esl), one of the first courses in the bilingual courses sequence. all bilingual specialization courses in the program are taught in spanish. the group of student teachers registered for these courses represented the student profile of most of my undergraduate classes and students in this program. a class survey showed that of a total of 25 students, 19 indicated they speak spanish as a first language, three english, and three both. however, when asked which language they dominate, nine indicated spanish, nine english and seven both. in addition, 18 believed their writing skills were stronger in english, five in spanish, and two in both languages. the survey asked them to identify the language in which they feel most comfortable reading for a class. 10 students indicated both languages, 10 chose english, and only four chose spanish. these data portray a complex linguistic landscape that informs and impacts my pedagogical stance, course design, and pedagogical moves. 5.1. translanguaging stance at the beginning of each course, i lay out what i call the contrato pedagógico, a pedagogical agreement that bounds what i do and what i expect from my students. this is also an opportunity to provide a pedagogical rationale informed by theoretical principles for my approaches to teaching. for instance, as i discuss with my students what teaching and learning are, i define learning as a social process that is coconstructed through interaction with each other and the course content. as a result of my ongoing inquiry on translanguaging dynamics in my courses (musanti & rodriguez, 2017), i have freed myself from chains imposed by the relentless push for strict language separation in bilingual education contexts (garcía, 2014; mazak, & herbas-donoso, 2015). however, the pathway to translanguaging pedagogy is still a road under construction. framing the course from a translanguaging perspective required me to make explicit statements in the course syllabus for student teachers. initially, given the predominant monolingual ideology dominating education in the region, it was important to clearly define the role of english in a course taught in spanish. the following statement in spanish followed the english version and was discussed with students translanguaging stance in a hispanic-serving institution e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 53 the first week of class. the statement explains how bilingual people use their linguistic repertoire to communicate and make meaning and how i am including translanguaging as an innovation in my classes to integrate students’ full linguistic repertoire: un aspecto innovador de este curso es el uso del translenguar. la noción de translenguar está basada en que la gente bilingüe usa el lenguaje para muchos propósitos incluyendo la expresión de ideas y la interacción (garcía, 2009). en las comunidades bilingües, así como en los salones de clase que sirven a estudiantes bilingües, los participantes utilizan el translenguar como un mecanismo no sólo de comunicación sino también de pertenencia al grupo de hablantes que negocia significados a través del uso de las dos lenguas con diferentes personas, en diferentes contextos y con diferentes propósitos. en este curso usaremos todos los recursos lingüísticos de las aspirantes a maestras bilingües, es decir, las clases modelarán el uso del lenguaje inglés y español para la enseñanza bilingüe y a la vez promoverán el uso del lenguaje de modo tal que facilite el aprendizaje. as this course is designed for pre-service bilingual teachers, an important feature of my translanguaging stance was including the preview-view instructional strategy to use as a model of instruction in a bilingual classroom. this particular strategy has been thoroughly described (e.g., freeman & freeman, 2005; mercuri, 2015) and consists of introducing a topic in the language that is not targeted for instructional purposes but is part of students’ linguistic repertoire as a way to create background knowledge, and then developing the main portion of the lesson in the language of instruction. sometimes, a review moment is included at the end of the lesson when the instructor returns to the minority or non-targeted language for content integration or to establish explicit cross-linguistic connections (mercuri, 2015). the preview-view approach was reflected in the organization of the course, which involved an initial week discussing basic ideas on bilingualism by reading, writing, and talking in spanish as a preview of the content. the following three weeks, we covered content on firstand second-language acquisition theories (e.g., wright, 2015) while doing some writing and discussion in spanish. then, we continued the course in spanish, referencing these authors and theories when appropriate but using spanish as the language for teaching and learning. 5.2. translanguaging design one important translanguaging factor in how students are granted access to knowledge relates to the availability of materials in different, “named” languages or “the language of a nation or a social group” (otheguy et al., 2015, p. 281) included in the course. resources related to bilingual education in the united states are available mainly in english. even though this trend seems to be changing, it still shows how english is legitimized as the language of knowledge and science (mazak & herbas-donoso, 2015). course readings were in spanish and english. the textbook assigned to the course was a recently published book in spanish (guerrero, guerrero, soltero-gonzález, & escamilla, 2017), one of the few available related to the course’s topic. i assigned other readings to expand each topic, some of which were in english. one criterion for including a given reading in english was that it was relevant or that it covered a specific aspect of a topic not found in any of the spanish texts. for instance, for a topic like historical and legal foundations of bilingual education, the syllabus included two readings in spanish (aquino-sterling, rodríguez-valls, & outes, 2017; crawford, 2001). however, student teachers read materials relevant to bilingual and esl education in texas that were available only in english through the texas education agency. an important insight related to the decision to include texts in spanish and english to address the same themes is that this practice afforded student teachers with opportunities to shuttle between texts and languages. thereby, students engaged in translanguaging through reading and writing about those texts—an important cross-linguistic skill for future bilingual teachers. another important component in the course design that reflected elements of a translanguaging approach were the assignments. all assignments were required to be written only in spanish in previous versions of this course. however, for this iteration of the course, i purposefully made some changes to reflect the translanguaging stance of the course while trying to safeguard spanish as the main language for teaching and learning. i struggled with this decision because most of my students have had minimal opportunities to develop academic spanish writing skills. only five students in a course of 25 believed their writing skills were stronger in spanish than english. these were students who had completed most of their k-12 schooling in mexico. musanti & cavazos e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 54 i designed a collaborative reflective inquiry assignment that attempted to incorporate two key translanguaging approach tenets: to appeal to student teachers’ full linguistic repertoire (garcía & li wei, 2014), and to engage in a process of inquiry in collaboration with peers and the community through the use of their full range of oral and written translingual strategies (canagarajah, 2013; cavazos, 2017). during the semester, student teachers received detailed instructions in spanish and english to complete the assignment. the following is a transcription of the assignment description included in the syllabus: this assignment requires that you and one or two peers (no more than three students per group) conduct research to investigate the state of bilingual education in texas and teachers, administrators, students, and/or parents’ beliefs and knowledge about bilingualism and bilingual education. you will conduct this research in english and spanish. however, you will write the paper mainly in spanish using english when appropriate (for instance, quoting a text or a participant). detailed instructions are available in spanish and english in blackboard. the research paper included three parts: (a) a collaborative writing project including a review of the literature, an explanation of the methodology, and data collection; (b) an individual reflective writing project analyzing the interview data, and (c) a team-led showcase of the research results in the form of an infographic. as this was a multilayered project, i dedicated a class to discussing the instructions in spanish. por ejemplo, expliqué y di ejemplos de cómo elaborar la revisión de literatura, un género con el cual mis estudiantes no habían tenido experiencia, por lo que fue importante darles una estructura sólida para guiar su trabajo. esta estructura incluía preguntas tales como ¿cuál es el tema central?, ¿qué conceptos o ideas contribuyen a explicar ese tema?, ¿qué fuentes usaré?, entre otras. además, el diseño de esta actividad integraba momentos para que pudieran revisar sus borradores en grupo y de manera individual utilizando unas rúbricas preparadas con este fin. through examples and targeted questioning, i instructed students how to approach writing a research paper, scaffolding their writing process in the new genre of conducting a literature review in spanish. critical in this process were spaces to provide peer review, following a rubric intended to support student teachers’ linguistic knowledge. the inclusion of translanguaging spaces to revise and read each other’s work in spanish was important for comparing different elements of spanish academic writing vis-à-vis elements of english academic writing, like the use of punctuation and sentence structure, among others. to provide the opportunity to represent and communicate their knowledge in a graphic manner, i asked students to work in teams to create an infographic. the graphic (figure 2) showcases student teachers’ learning about content as well as how they embraced translanguaging to communicate knowledge. the infographic uses different language features strategically to inform an audience of families, communities, and/or educators, depending on the group research topic (otheguy et al., 2015). figure 2. infographic created by sandra’s student teachers. translanguaging stance in a hispanic-serving institution e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 55 5.3. translanguaging moves during the semester, i purposefully described and explained how languages are resources for learning and how the impact of not allowing students to use their whole linguistic repertoire might affect their achievement. this was a very conscious decision on my part to model and to facilitate their understanding of what it means to leverage language for student learning. my pedagogical moves, or what garcía et al. (2017) identified as translanguaging shifts, were imprinted with this idea. in one of my initial journal entries i described a classroom event and the pedagogical move that emerged: when discussing the first reflective writing activity, the prompt indicated that they could write it in english, spanish, or using both languages. my purpose was to open this activity, so they could use the language they felt most comfortable with or that they felt it was more suitable to convey their understanding. but i realized they weren’t sure what it could mean to use both languages. so, we discussed possibilities. allowing myself to purposefully explore and open spaces for translanguaging in my courses was liberating and empowering for the student teachers and for me. during that conversation, student teachers shared different translanguaging examples, for instance, the use of terms that are difficult to translate, such as open house, due to the strong sociocultural component reflected in an event typical of schools in the united states. i came to the realization that translanguaging practices had been part of my teaching approach as well as of my students’ interactions as they grappled with content. however, in hindsight, i see how i limited the use of translanguaging to scaffold students’ access to meaning as opposed to integrating it as a purposeful pedagogy (garcía et al., 2017). i recognized the need to incorporate english when delivering instruction in spanish to support student teachers’ understanding of the course content, as well as to introduce them to specific terminology that they would encounter as future teachers in the realm of schools. for instance, in many of my presentations in spanish i included references to educational terminology in english, such as english language learner, sheltered instruction, and seal of biliteracy, among other terms that were coined to define the specifics of the bilingual educational landscape in the united states. interestingly, i did not find the same pattern in the materials i generated for my presentations in english. this exposes the hegemony of english in bilingual teacher preparation. gabriela’s case illustrates the possibilities of a translanguaging pedagogy from the student perspective. gabriela is in her thirties and she is a mother of two who is clearly more comfortable speaking in english during class. she identifies spanish and english as her first languages, and english as her dominant language. she indicates that she uses both languages to communicate with family and friends but she speaks mostly english with her children: “spanish only when needed, or when speaking to my mother or friends that strictly speak spanish.” her writing and reading skills are stronger in english and she did not have any experience in a bilingual education setting during her schooling in the united states. both of her parents speak spanish and one speaks english. she is a first-generation college student, as her mother completed an elementary level of schooling and her father completed high school. her class assignments provide a glimpse into her journey through language and a rationale for her choice to become a bilingual teacher despite her struggles with spanish. students wrote four escrituras reflexivas (reflective writing assignments) responding to different prompts designed to demonstrate understanding of concepts, integration of ideas, and connection and application to their experiences as learners or as future teachers. for her first reflection, gabriela wrote: when it comes to speaking spanish, it is not highly valued by a lot of people. as a teacher there will be students that can’t speak the language very well. speaking a second language is not a deficit. . . . although my spanish is not very fluent, i consider to have an extra advantage (meaning extra and not less) when it comes to communicating with people with more than one language. . . although i consider myself bilingual i found that the first week of class was a little overwhelming due to trying to articulate in a second language. las palabras escolarizadas parecían un lenguaje completamente nuevo para mí. a principios de la segunda semana empieze a pensar como me hería en esta clase, no solo hablando mi lengua menos usada, pero también aprendiendo palabras escolarizadas. even though i did not mandate that students write the reflections in spanish, gabriela made the attempt to use spanish as she reflected on her use of language. she translanguaged to refer to her struggle with palabras escolarizadas, her term for academic spanish. her reflection renders a metalinguistic analysis of musanti & cavazos e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 56 her language development by demonstrating the importance of leveraging bilingualism while avoiding segregation practices typical in the region. gabriela notices how bilingual students in the region are separated from “regulars,” or mainstream students, for instruction. this is a practice she observed with her own children and that she explored through the collaborative inquiry project. she recognizes she has a long way to go in terms of mastering the norms of the spanish language that are expected by teachers, schools, and society. following a segment of her fourth escritura reflexiva where she describes how she had to navigate spanish teaching and learning: al empezar este semestre se me hico difícil hasta contemple cambiar de programa porque, aunque si entendía lo que se dice en español, aunque un poco lento comparados con otros estudiantes que usan español como lengua primaria . . . me sentía como ese estudiante bilingüe separado de la clase por tener otra lengua primaria. esto fue el principio del semestre. . . esta semana que paso ya 8 semanas … le comenté [a una amiga] que, aunque ya sé que todavía necesito bastante practica y enseñanza, pero siento más cómoda en desarrollando la segunda lengua y siento que ha logrado crecimiento en mi segunda lengua con el español académico. hasta en veces en contexto que no es la universidad se me sale la segunda lengua con personas que normalmente hablo solo inglés. . . . mi compañera que conocí este semestre por tener todas las clases iguales habla español en su primera lengua. es como ejemplo bilingual pairs porque en las clases de inglés yo también le puedo ayudar. . . por eso … pienso que el desarrollo del bilingüismo funciona mejor cuando están los estudiantes juntos y no segregados. gabriela’s escrituras reflexivas show how she took a stance, too—she embraced her spanish background and used it effectively to communicate her emotions, thinking, and struggles with palabras escolarizadas in her first reflection, and seamlessly transitioning from english to spanish to produce a powerful statement. then, in her last escritura reflexiva, ella vuelve a describir su lucha y sentimientos and how this discomfort with spanish transforms into some level of comfort with the language as the semester progressed. her reflections and the collaborative inquiry paper show how she grapples with what she has learned in the course about bilingualism and bilingual programs and the monoglossic ideology that keeps imposing a language separation and devaluing spanish as a legitimate resource for learning: cuando las participantes dos y tres contestaron que la mejor manera de adquirir [la segunda] lengua para sus hijos en la escuela contestaron “mezclados” no están totalmente incorrectas. los programas que se han mostrado más efectivos en disminuir la brecha académica de los estudiantes bilingües son los programas de lenguaje dual. gabriela explains how parents participating in her research responded that the best way for their children to learn languages is “mezclados,” meaning integrated as opposed to separated. her narrative demonstrates the rhetorical power of learning with the languages mezclados, and the implicit understanding that there is value to the transligual practices that are a part of the community’s and students’ linguistic repertoire. 6. discussion and conclusion as we reflect on our respective journeys through the translanguaging corriente, we see the importance of opening translanguaging spaces in our classrooms to leverage our students’ linguistic resources for learning. when educators engage in reflections about languaging, they gain insights that can impact their translanguaging stance and the design of activities and assignments focused on leveraging students’ languages for learning and knowledge-making in equitable ways (cavazos et al., 2018; garcía & kleyn, 2016). a translanguaging pedagogy should not be conceived only as a scaffold to support students' language development or content comprehension; rather, it should be understood as purposeful and strategic (garcía et al., 2017). our pathways show important commonalities in disclosing our translanguaging stance, in our instructional design, and in the consequent pedagogical moves that we implemented. however, we also identify tensions and challenges in our experiences, specifically in counteracting the power of english as the perceived language of teaching and learning with the knowledge-making opportunities spanish offers in educational contexts (mazak & herbas-donoso, 2015). our personal histories and professional trajectory shape our translanguaging stance. alyssa's stance grows from her background in language diversity in writing, which impacts her choice to focus on rhetorical translanguaging stance in a hispanic-serving institution e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 57 language awareness (e.g., audience, purpose, genre, and language choices) in the teaching of writing. sandra's stance grows from her background in teacher education and her work with bilingual teachers, which influence her focus on the pedagogical implications, the moves, and impact on bilingual teacher candidates. a common point in our stance is our commitment to the problematization of language: to making students aware of the monoglossic view of bilingualism by inviting them to reflect on and enact languaging (swain 2006; otheguy et al., 2015). our instructional designs integrate translanguaging spaces that li wei (2017) defines as “created by and for translanguaging practices and a space where language users break down the ideologically laden dichotomies between the macro and the micro, the societal and the individual, and the social and the psychological through interaction” (p. 15). alyssa opens a space for self-reflection through language by designing a translingual autoethnography assignment, which invites students to leverage their language resources in creative ways as they consider audience while exploring their experiences as writers and readers. sandra uses the preview/view model to show student teachers how to purposefully integrate translanguaging spaces in their own classrooms, so their future students might have access to opportunities to use all their language resources for learning. in agreement with garcía et al. (2017), our translanguaging designs illustrate key purposes of a translanguaging pedagogy: they provide opportunities to develop linguistic repertoires, create spaces for students' bilingualism and ways of knowing, and support students' bilingual identities and socioemotional development (p. 7). in the process of designing our courses, planning each class, and delivering instruction, we were both confronted with the struggle of a perceived need to return to english when describing our respective pedagogical approaches and leaning expectations in the syllabi and during class discussions of concepts and terminology well-established in the scholarship in english. sandra noticed that her syllabus was dominated by english despite being a class taught in spanish. the fact that english was the language of choice conveyed a contradictory message, ultimately legitimizing english as the default language of instruction. while alyssa also noticed the dominance of english in her course syllabus, she experienced more challenges countering the dominance of english during verbal interactions with students, especially as she attempted to translate concepts in writing studies to spanish, such as rhetorical reading, rhetorical writing, and using sources persuasively. although alyssa could use a direct translation of the terms, they would not have the same meaning for the students because they have not been exposed to them in academic spanish. when alyssa has conversations with students in spanish about their writing, she does not necessarily need to translate those or other terms because that is how they appear in the scholarship of the discipline in english. in this way, alyssa and her students continue to challenge dominant expectations of standardized or correct language use in academic contexts by drawing on all their language resources. similarly, english became unavoidable in sandra’s class, especially in relation to terminology that defined specific aspects of the educational bilingual and esl learning landscape. for instance, sandra made the decision not to translate terms, such as sheltered instruction or english language learner, among others, as those terms are central to the field and intrinsic to the educational landscape in the united states. these concepts are a part of the academic knowledge required for bilingual teachers and need to be part of their linguistic repertoire. however, sandra includes, as course content, conversations around translations of key academic terms and the nuances in meaning (e.g., literacy, biliteracy, and dual language programs are terms that have been translated in different ways). this is an important skill that bilingual teachers need to develop and use as they plan spaces for students to build on cross-linguistic connections. the tension between english and spanish reflects the hegemonic position of english as a language of knowledge and learning (mazak & herbas-donoso, 2015) despite the bilingual and bicultural sociohistorical roots of the community and the region. drawing from our teaching experiences, within each of our academic disciplines, we see the need to produce and identify scholarship that engages disciplinary concepts in spanish. by providing spaces for translanguaging, our pedagogical moves reflejan lo que los estudiantes son capaces de producir—critical reflections on and enactments of new ideas using their full linguistic repertoire. if we genuinely believe, as translingual educators and scholars across academic disciplines, that multilingual students operate from one internal linguistic system, then we must ensure that our pedagogy and learning expectations reflect one linguistic system. rafael's and gabriela’s respective reflections illustrate the benefits of creating a learning space where students can enact their linguistically diverse agency with a purpose. gabriela’s reflective writing shows how she moves from acknowledging her feelings of inadequacy trying to express herself through palabras escolarizadas—as she identifies academic language—to embracing escrituras reflexivas as opportunities to construct knowledge in spanish and articulate her understanding of musanti & cavazos e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 58 bilingual education and bilingualism. assessing gabriela’s writing from a standard language position would render her writing as insufficient; on the other hand, acknowledging her production as the enactment of her linguistic repertoire and her efforts to pull from different language features, both in spanish and english, allows us to see her growth in terms of language nuances and comprehension of linguistic and cultural issues impacting bilingual learners. as with gabriela, rafael also uses his full linguistic repertoire to reconnect with spanish, his native language, as he reflects on his early literacy history, conducts original research on the role of parents in literacy development, and designs useful flyers on literacy support for spanish-speaking parents. gabriela and rafael were both critically aware of when and how they used spanish as well as their own levels of literacy and fluency in both languages. their ability to use their full linguistic repertoire leveraged their language learning experiences in the course by strengthening their analytical skills in both languages. our critical reflections on teaching rhetoric and composition i and foundations of bilingual education and esl, respectively, illustrate translanguaging pedagogies at all academic levels from first-year to upperlevel, discipline specific coursework. our experiences reflect the benefits of engaging in cross-disciplinary conversations to create optimal opportunities for students to reflect on and engage their full linguistic repertoire. as a result of our experiences in this collaboration, we propose higher education faculty should engage in continuous reflection on not only our translanguaging pedagogical approaches, but also on students’ translanguaging reflections and creations, which can lead to new insights on how we might (re)design future iterations of purposeful translanguaging pedagogies. while we continue to challenge the dominance of english as the language of instruction in higher education, we also acknowledge that we must continue to draw on our full bilingual repertoire as we account for discipline-specific expectations and students’ unique language histories. references alvarez, steven (2014). translanguaging tareas: emergent bilingual youth as language brokers for homework in immigrant families. language arts, 91(5), 326–339. aquino-sterling, cristian, rodríguez-valls, fernando, & outes, rosario (2017). la educación bilingüe en estados unidos de norteamérica: continuidades y discontinuidades históricas y actuales. in michael guerrero, maria consuelo guerrero, lucinda soltero-gonzález, & kathy escamilla (eds.), abriendo brecha: antología crítica sobre la educación bilingüe de doble inmersión (pp. 1–18). albuquerque, new mexico: fuente press. brandt, deborah (1998). sponsors of literacy. college composition and communication, 49(2), 165–185. bullough, robert v., & pinnegar, stephanie e. 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(2017). new perspectives on translanguaging and education. bristol, united kingdom: multilingual matters. pennycook, alastair (2010). language as a local practice. new york, new york: routledge. sayer, peter (2013). translanguaging, texmex, and bilingual pedagogy: emergent bilinguals learning through the vernacular. tesol quarterly, 47(1), 63–88. sutterby, john a., ayala, javier, & murillo, sandra (2005). el sendero torcido al español [the twisted path to spanish]: the development of bilingual teachers’ spanish-language proficiency. bilingual research journal, 29(2), 435–501. swain, merril (2006). languaging, agency, and collaboration in advanced language proficiency. in h. byrnes (ed.), advanced language learning: the contribution of halliday and vygotsky (pp. 95 –108). london, united kingdom: continuum. tan, amy (1990). under western eyes. the three penny review, 315–320. young, vershawn ashanti (2010). should writers use they own english? iowa journal of cultural studies, 12, 110–117. van der walt, christa, & dornbrack, jacqui (2011). academic biliteracy in south african higher education: strategies and practices of successful students. language, culture and curriculum, 24(1), 89–104. wright, wayne e. (2015). foundations for teaching english language learners: research, theory, policy, and practice (2nd ed.). philadelphia, pennsylvania: caslon https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2012.718488 https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amx039 https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2014.982442 https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2016.1276028 https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1254151 translanguaging stance in a hispanic-serving institution e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 44-61 61 sandra i. musanti, the university of texas rio grande valley sandra.musanti@utrgv.edu en sandra i. musanti is an associate professor in the bilingual and literacy studies department at the university of texas rio grande valley. she was a postdoctoral fellow at the center for the mathematics education of latinos/as, a project funded by the national science foundation. sandra prepares elementary pre-service teachers in the early childhood bilingual generalist program and teaches graduate-level courses in the bilingual master’s and doctoral program. her areas of expertise are bilingual pre-service and in-service teacher education. presently, her research interests focus on bilingual teacher preparation and development across content areas, translanguaging in higher education, and bilingual teacher identity and agency. es sandra i. musanti es profesora contratada en el departamento de estudios bilingües y de literacidad en la universidad de texas de el valle del río grande. fue becaria posdoctoral en el centro para la educación matemática de latinos, un proyecto financiado por la fundación nacional de ciencias. prepara a maestros de educación primaria en formación en el programa generalista en educación bilingüe infantil (early childhood bilingual generalist) e imparte cursos de nivel posgrado en los programas bilingües de maestría y doctorado. su área de especialización es la capacitación de maestros bilingües en formación y en servicio. actualmente, sus intereses de investigación se centran en la preparación y el desarrollo de maestros bilingües en todas las áreas de contenido, el translingüismo en la educación superior y la identidad y la agencia de maestros bilingües. it sandra i. musanti è professoressa associata nel dipartimento bilingue e di studi letterari presso la university of texas rio grande valley. precedentemente è stata assegnista di ricerca presso il centro per l’educazione matematica per gli ispanici, un progetto finanziato dalla national science foundation. sandra prepara insegnanti di scuola elementare in prova nel programma di prima infanzia bilingue generalista ed insegna corsi post-lauream nel programma di master bilingue e in quello di dottorato. le sue aree di competenza sono la formazione degli insegnanti bilingue in prova e in servizio. attualmente, i suoi interessi di ricerca si concentrano sulla preparazione e lo sviluppo dell'insegnante bilingue in varie discipline, sul translanguaging nell'istruzione universitaria e sull'identità e l’agentività degli insegnanti bilingui. alyssa g. cavazos, the university of texas rio grande valley alyssa.cavazos@utrgv.edu en alyssa g. cavazos is an assistant professor of rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies in the department of writing and language studies at the university of texas rio grande valley. she teaches first-year writing and upper-level undergraduate and graduate coursework in writing studies. her pedagogical and scholarly interests include language difference in the teaching of writing, translingual writing, multilingualism across communities, border rhetorics, and latina/os in higher education. as reflected by her 2017 regents’ outstanding teaching award, she is committed to designing linguistically inclusive projects and pedagogies, which can lead to students’ academic success across academic disciplines in higher education. es alyssa g. cavazos es profesora de retórica, composición y literacidad en el departamento de escritura y estudios del lenguaje en la universidad de texas de el valle del río grande. imparte clases de escritura a nivel universitario y de posgrado. sus intereses pedagógicos y académicos incluyen el uso de diferentes idiomas en la enseñanza de la escritura, la escritura translingüista, el multilingüismo en las comunidades, la retórica en la frontera y las/los latinas/os en la educación superior. como se refleja en su premio, regents’ outstanding teaching award, del año 2017, está comprometida en diseñar proyectos y pedagogías lingüísticamente inclusivas que puedan llevar a los estudiantes a tener éxito académico en todas las disciplinas académicas en la educación superior. it alyssa g. cavazos è ricercatrice di retorica, composizione e studi letterari nel dipartimento di scrittura e studi linguistici presso la university of texas rio grande valley. insegna corsi di scrittura in corsi di laurea triennale, specialistica e post-lauream. i suoi interessi pedagogici e accademici includono la differenza linguistica nell'insegnamento della scrittura, la scrittura translingue, il multilinguismo tra le comunità, la retorica di confine e gli ispanici nell'istruzione universitaria. come dimostra il premio che ha ottenuto nel 2007, il regents’ outstanding teaching award, è impegnata nella realizzazione di progetti e pedagogie linguistiche inclusive, che possono portare gli studenti al successo accademico nelle varie discipline universitarie. 2.1. translanguaging as pedagogy 4.1. translanguaging stance 5.1. translanguaging stance 5.2. translanguaging design references alvarez, steven (2014). translanguaging tareas: emergent bilingual youth as language brokers for homework in immigrant families. language arts, 91(5), 326–339. pennycook, alastair (2010). language as a local practice. new york, new york: routledge. e-journall 4(1) 2017 olevano euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-­‐journall,  volume  4,  issue  1,  july  2017,  pages  69-­‐71   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.6.106   www.e-­‐journall.org       ©  olevano  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.       il   libro   insegnare   italiano   l2   a   religiosi   cattolici   di   pierangela   diadori   nasce   da   un   accordo   fra   il   ditals   (università  per   stranieri   di   siena),   diretto  dalla  prof.  diadori,   e   la   fondazione  comunità  domenico   tardini  per  fornire  la  certificazione  di  italiano  a2  con  profilo  religiosi  cattolici.  l’autrice,  mettendo  a  frutto  la   sua   lunga   ricerca   sull’uso   dell’italiano   nei   diversi   ambiti   della   comunicazione   cattolica,   ne   ha   cercato   le   ragioni,   ripercorrendo   la   storia   del   complesso   plurilinguismo   cattolico   e   profilando   le   caratteristiche   dell’italiano   da   insegnare.   in   questa   prospettiva,   emerge   un   quadro   interessante   circa   il   peso   della   chiesa   sulla  identità  linguistica  italiana.       il  testo  è  composto  di  sei  capitoli  piuttosto  agili,  oltre  alle  conclusioni.  il  primo  capitolo  è,  tra  tutti,  il   più   corposo   e   caratterizzante:   l’autrice   apre   presentando   la   storia   delle   profonde   radici   del   plurilinguismo   cattolico,   fornendo   in   nota   una   bibliografia   di   riferimento   della   letteratura,   filosofica   e   linguistica   sull’importanza   del   laborioso   lavoro  missionario   in   tutti   gli   angoli   del   mondo   (nelle   americhe,   in   asia,   in   africa)  avviato  nel  rinascimento.  spiega  come  la  fondazione  di  propaganda  fide  (1622)  abbia  corroborato  lo   studio  delle  lingue  dei  popoli;  l’archivio  delle  grammatiche  e  dei  testi  religiosi  tradotti  ha  di  fatto  contribuito  a   costruire   l’identità   del   proselitismo   cattolico.   l’autrice,   poi,   sottolinea   la   relazione   fra   tale   processo   e   il                                                                                                                             *  contact:  aolevano@gmail.com       diadori,  pierangela  (2015).  insegnare  italiano  l2  a  religiosi  cattolici.   l'italiano  lingua  veicolare  nella  chiesa  e  la  formazione  linguistica  del   clero.  firenze,  italia:  le  monnier  –  mondadori.       alessandra  olevano*1   università  degli  studi  di  roma  tre     book  review     received  11  june  2017;  accepted  22  june  2017     abstract   it questa recensione presenta il libro di pierangela diadori sull’insegnamento dell’italiano come lingua seconda a religiosi cattolici e sul suo uso come lingua veicolare in ambiente ecclesiastico. il libro descrive le specificità d’uso e d’insegnamento per l’italiano nella chiesa con attenzione al ruolo internazionale assunto. il testo apre a riflessioni sul rapporto fra lingua e comunicazione religiosa. parole chiave: lingua italiana, chiesa cattolica, lingua ecclesiatica, missionari, lingua ufficiale en this review presents pierangela diadori’s book on teaching italian as a second language to catholic priests and the use of italian as a lingua franca in ecclesiastical settings. the book details the use and teaching of italian in the church, with a focus on the international role that the language has assumed. the text offers reflections on the relationship between language and religious communication. key words: italian language, the catholic church, ecclesiastic language, missionaries, official language es esta recensión presenta el libro de pierangela diadori sobre la enseñanza del italiano como segunda lengua a religiosos católicos y sobre su uso como lengua vehicular en un entorno eclesiástico. el libro describe las peculiaridades del empleo y de la enseñanza de la lengua italiana en la iglesia, y presta atención a su papel a nivel internacional. el texto lleva a reflexionar sobre la relación entre lengua y comunicación religiosa. palabras clave: idioma italiano, iglesia católica, lengua eclesiástica, misioneros, idioma oficial olevano   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  69-­‐71  70   concilio   vaticano   ii   (1962-­‐1965)   che   ha   indirizzato   la   chiesa   all’uso   di   tutte   le   lingue,   comprese   le   minoritarie,   e   all’abbandono   del   latino   quale   lingua   veicolare.   frutto   di   questa   stessa   politica,   appare   la   nascita  della  fondazione  migrantes  e  di  tutte  le  iniziative  nate  per  supportare  i  popoli  migranti,  difendendone   la  dignità,  quindi  le  culture  e  le  lingue.  nella  cornice  di  questa  continua  e  rinnovata  pentecoste,   l’italiano  ha   ampliato   nel   tempo   la   sua   funzione   di   lingua   viva,   veicolare   per  molte   attività   della   comunità   cattolica.   in   modo  snello  ed  efficace  diadori  spiega  come  nell’arco  di  tempo  fra  il  concilio  di  trento  (1542-­‐63)  e  il  concilio   vaticano   ii   si   sia   fatto   strada   l’uso   dell’italiano   per   la   predicazione   e   in   generale   per   la   comunicazione   cattolica,  di  quanti  arrivavano  a  roma  per  studiare  e  usavano  il   latino   in  contesto  accademico,  ma  l’italiano   nelle  relazioni  informali.  l’autrice  ricorda  come  l’italiano  sia  stato  a  metà  del  cinquecento  la  lingua  ufficiale  a   malta:  era  stato  scelto  dai  cavalieri  di  san  giovanni  quando   la  piccola   isola  attraversò   il   suo  periodo  d’oro;   l’italiano  era  allora  la  lingua  ufficiale  di  questa  comunità  internazionale,  accanto  alla  lingua  popolare  maltese   e  le  tante  lingue  di  tutti   i  membri  dell’ordine.  nello  stesso  periodo,   l’italiano  fu  importante  nella  nascita  dei   collegi   in   europa,   divenendo   una   lingua   di   cultura   e,   dopo   la   controriforma,   i   “clerici   riformati”   che   si   rifugiarono  al  nord  la  usarono  come  lingua  veicolare.  con  il  concilio  vaticano  ii,  l’italiano  è  assurto  al  ruolo  di   lingua   liturgica  e   lentamente  è  divenuta   la   lingua  di   lavoro  della  santa  sede,   la   langue  de  guerre   (de  mauro   2002,  p.  17)  che  ha  affiancato  il  latino  fino  a  sostituirlo  quasi  completamente,  insomma  la  lingua  de  facto  della   chiesa  (rossi  &  wank,  2010,  p.  113).  diadori  spiega  come  non  ci  sia  attualmente  uno  specifico  ente  che  lavori   sull’uso  dell’italiano  nella  chiesa,  ma  la  scelta  è  stata  chiaramente  politica;  questa  visione  è  condivisa  anche   da  altri   studiosi   che   si   sono   interessati  dei   rapporti   fra   l’italiano  e   la   chiesa.  a  questo  proposito,  marazzini   (2013)   sottolinea   come   “l’italiano   non   è   la   lingua   di   uno   stato   politicamente   ingombrante,   troppo   potente,   caratterizzato   da   teorie   economiche   universalistiche   che   lasciano   poco   posto   allo   spirito.   l’italiano   è   una   lingua  di  cultura  antica  .  .  .    poco  ingombrante  dal  punto  di  vista  del  moderno  potere  economico”  (p.  13).  per   questo  motivo,  la  chiesa  non  avrebbe  mai  potuto  favorire  l’inglese,  troppo  connotato  quale  lingua  di  cultura   capitalistica.  così  l’italiano  è  fondamentale  nella  comunicazione  interna  ed  estera  dello  stato  vaticano,  usata   in  contesti  scritti  e  orali,  segno  della  relazione  della  chiesa  con  l’italia.   nel  secondo  capitolo   l’autrice  esamina   le  diverse   forme  di  comunicazione  della  chiesa  mettendo   in   luce   le  caratteristiche  del   suo  effettivo  plurilinguismo  e  gli   specifici   ruoli  dell’italiano  come   lingua  della  tv,   della  radio,  di  internet,  delle  manifestazioni  ufficiali,  della  burocrazia,  dello  stato  vaticano  e  perfino  lingua  dei   papi,  anche  di  quelli  stranieri.     nel  terzo  capitolo,  diadori  presenta  i  numeri  dei  cattolici  nel  mondo  e  dei  cattolici  stranieri  in  italia  e   cita  un  discorso  del   linguista  serianni  (2011)  per   i  150  anni  dell’unità  d’italia.   il  discorso  è  particolarmente   rilevante  in  quanto  si  spiega  come  l’identità  e  il  ruolo  della  nostra  lingua  nazionale  siano  strettamente  legati   alla   funzione   dell’italiano   nella   chiesa;   tanto   che   giovanni   paolo   ii,   il   primo   papa   straniero,   per   il   suo   uso   dell’italiano   in   contesti   pubblici,   divenne  ambasciatore  della   lingua   italiana  nel  mondo.   il   ruolo   dell’italiano   della  chiesa  contribuisce  quindi  a  rafforzare   il  prestigio  della  nostra   lingua  rispetto  al   francese  all’inglese  e   tutte  le  lingue  d’europa  e  del  mondo.  l’italia  e  roma  in  particolare  sono  la  sede  di  tante  università  cattoliche;   religiosi   di   tutto   il   mondo   vengono   in   italia   a   formarsi   e   l’italiano   è   la   lingua   di   questo   popolo.   oggi   le   università  cattoliche  italiane,  centri  cosmopoliti,  prediligono  l’italiano  come  lingua  veicolare  e  ne  impongono   lo   studio   (mastrocesare,  2012)  e  molti   religiosi,  provenienti  da   tutto   il  mondo,  durante   il   loro  soggiorno   in   italia  si  cimentano  nella  predicazione  nella  nostra  lingua.     nel   quarto   capitolo   vengono   illustrati   in   modo   capillare   tutti   i   contesti   in   cui   i   religiosi   cattolici   imparano  l’italiano  dall’inizio  dell’ottocento:  università,  collegi,  etc.  spiegando  come  nel  tempo  tali  istituzioni   ecclesiastiche  siano  diventate  veri  centri  culturali  internazionali.  quindi  vengono  presentate  le  congregazioni   religiose,   le   società   di   vita   apostolica   e   le   comunità   spirituali,   un   complesso   universo   variegato   e   tenuto   assieme  dalla  chiesa.     di   seguito,   nel   quinto   capitolo,   l’autrice   passa   in   rassegna   le   indagini   più   importanti   svolte   sull’apprendimento  dell’italiano  da  parte  dei  religiosi  e  infine,  nel  sesto  capitolo,  spiega  le  caratteristiche  della   lingua  dei  clerici,  i  domini  d’uso,  la  presenza  di  un  lessico  settoriale  e  quindi  la  necessità  di  una  metodologia   specifica  e  di  strumenti  adeguati.  viene  rimarcato  come  siano  importanti  corsi  dedicati  a  questo  pubblico,  per   arrivare  ad  una  comunicazione  efficace.     nell’appendice  vengono  poste  le  interessanti  testimonianze  di  alcuni  insegnanti,  un’esperienza  di  chi   si   trova  a  predicare   in   italiano  l2,  esempi  d’interazione   fra  docente  e  discenti  religiosi  e,   in  ultimo,   l’analisi   guidata  di  specifici  materiali  didattici.       recensione:  insegnare  italiano  l2  a  religiosi  cattolici   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  69-­‐71   71   diadori  conclude  il  suo  lavoro  rimarcando  il  carattere  plurilinguistico  e  pluriculturale  della  chiesa  e   come  l’italiano  stia  costruendo  il  suo  ruolo  di  lingua  prima  inter  pares.  la  comunicazione  in  italiano,  compiuta   da  una  popolazione  plurilinguistica,  rappresenta  un  momento  di  raccordo  al  complesso  lavoro  proselitico  e  di   internazionalizzazione,  compiuto  dai  missionari  e  istituzionalizzato  a  suo  tempo  da  propaganda  fide.     l’italiano,  come  era  accaduto  a  malta,  è  di  nuovo  una  lingua  con  forza  internazionale.  rimane  dietro   questo   fenomeno,   ovviamente,   la   relazione   complessa   fra   lo   stato   pontificio   e   quello   italiano.   di   fatto   nei   grandi   eventi   della   chiesa   tutto   il   mondo   guarda   a   roma,   “la   sede   di   pietro   giganteggia   persino   nell’architettura  monumentale  simbolica  della  piazza,   la  quale  sembra  abbracciare  e  unire  la  folla  di  uomini   comuni  e  di  uomini  potenti”  (marazzini  2013);  l'italiano  è  la  lingua  di  pietro,  la  lingua  della  chiesa  cattolica.           assai   importante   è   capire,   come   ha   spiegato   diadori,   quali   varietà   dell’italiano   vengano   di   fatto   insegnate  e  parlate  dai  religiosi.  in  questo  senso,  questo  lavoro  può  rappresentare  uno  spunto  per  un’analisi   delle  varietà  usate  dai  religiosi  in  contesti  formali  e  informali  dalla  comunità  religiosa  plurilingue.    l’italiano  si  configura  quale  lingua  di  raccordo  fra  tanti  popoli  con  proprie  lingue  e  proprie  culture,   evangelizzati   in   momenti   e   contesti   storici   diversi.   sarebbe   importante   che   studi   futuri   il   modo   in   cui   i   concetti  religiosi  e  filosofici  cattolici,  sedimentati  in  diverse  lingue,  con  sfumature  peculiari  si  specchiano  con   le   parole   italiane;   un’indagine   complessa,   ma   per   piccoli   passi   potrebbe   dare   nuova   luce   al   carattere   plurilinguistico  e  pluriculturale  della  chiesa.  inoltre  potrebbe  offrire  una  prospettiva  utile  per  lo  studio  sulle   categorie  semantiche  di  astratto  e  concreto  nelle  diverse  lingue  e  la  loro  relativa  espressione  linguistica.       riferimenti  bibliografici     de  mauro,  tullio,  vedovelli  massimo,  barni,  monica,  &  miraglia,  lorenzo  (2002).  italiano  2000.  roma,  italia:   bulzoni.     marazzini,  claudio  (2013,  maggio).  la  chiesa  e  la  lingua:  cambiano  i  papi,  ma  l’italiano  resta  [post  su  web].   consultato  all’url:  http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/en/speakers-­‐corner/chiesa-­‐lingua-­‐cambiano-­‐ papi-­‐ma-­‐l-­‐italiano-­‐resta   mastrocesare,  daniela  (2012).  insegnare  italiano  nelle  università  pontificie.  in  pierangela  diadori  (a  cura  di).   la  ditals  risponde  (pp.  361-­‐372).  perugia,  italia:  guerra.     rossi  leonardo,  &  wank  robert  (2010)  la  diffusione  dell’italiano  nel  mondo  attraverso  la  religione  e  la  chiesa   cattolica:   ricerche   e   nuove  prospettive.   in  massimo  arcangeli   (a   cura  di).  l’italiano  nella  chiesa  tra   passato  e  presente  (pp.  113-­‐171).  torino,  italia:  allemandi.     serianni,  luca  (2011).  l’italiano  fra  le  lingue  del  mondo,  intervento  svoltosi  il  21  febbraio  2011  al  palazzo  del   quirinale  sul  tema  la  lingua  italiana  fattore  presente  dell’unità  nazionale,  presidenza  della  repubblica   italiana  e  società  dante  alighieri,  pp.  1-­‐3.         alessandra olevano, università degli studi di roma tre aolevano@gmail.com it alessandra olevano attualmente insegna italiano agli stranieri; ha un dottorato in linguistica generale e una lunga esperienza di lavoro d’archivio. si occupa di storia del pensiero linguistico, di linguistica gesuitica per i paesi dell’america latina fra il ‘600 e il ‘700, di grammatiche della lingua maltese e di didattica dell’italiano. en alessandra olevano currently teaches italian to foreigners; she holds a doctorate in linguistics and extensive experience in archival work. her research interests include the history of linguistic thought, jesuit linguistics in latin american countries between the 1600s and 1700s, maltese grammar, and italian pedagogy. es alessandra olevano enseña italiano a extranjeros; es doctora en lingüística general y posee una larga experiencia como auxiliar de archivo. sus líneas de investigación son la historia del pensamiento lingüístico, la lingüística jesuita en los países de américa latina entre 1600 y 1700, las gramáticas del idioma maltés y la didáctica del italiano.   ej 4.1 garcia 1-19 euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-­‐journall,  volume  4,  issue  1,  july  2017,  pages  1-­‐19   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.6.86   www.e-­‐journall.org             *  contact:1pg289@camden.rutgers.edu     ©  garcía  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.   implementing  concept-­‐based  instruction  in  the  heritage  language   classroom:    a  pedagogical  proposal          próspero  n.  garcía*1   rutgers  university,  camden   received  31  january  2017;  received  in  revised  form  31  may  2017;  accepted  7  june  2017 abstract en framed within a sociocultural theory of mind approach to second language learning and development (lantolf & poehner, 2014), this article presents a pedagogical proposal for implementing concept-based instruction (c-bi) in the spanish heritage language (hl) classroom in order to promote the development and internalization of the grammatical concept of aspect. although aspect has been found to be particularly troublesome for heritage language learners (montrul, 2009; silva-corvalán, 1994), few studies have focused on teaching conceptual development of verbal aspect in the hl classroom. this paper contributes to filling this gap by proposing an innovative pedagogical design aimed at providing hl students with the opportunity to generate and transform a conceptual understanding of aspect through conscious interaction in significant, coherent, and systematic ways. key words: concept-based instruction, aspect, heritage language learners, spanish, sociocultural theory es enmarcado dentro de la teoría sociocultural de la mente aplicada al desarrollo y aprendizaje de segundas lenguas (lantolf y poehner, 2014), este artículo expone una propuesta pedagógica dirigida a la implementación de la instrucción basada en conceptos (c-bi, por sus siglas en inglés) en el aula de español como lengua de herencia (español lh ), con el fin de promover el desarrollo e interiorización conceptual del aspecto gramatical. aunque se ha comprobado que el aspecto entraña una especial dificultad en los aprendices de lh (montrul 2009; silva-corvalán, 1994), no hay, por el momento, propuestas específicas sobre cómo enseñar a desarrollar conceptualmente el aspecto verbal en el aula de lh. el presente trabajo contribuye a llenar este vacío, proponiendo un diseño pedagógico innovador, enfocado en proporcionar a los aprendices de lh la oportunidad de desarrollar y transformar su comprensión del aspecto verbal a través de una interacción consciente y significativa con el concepto y una presentación del concepto coherente y sistemática. palabras clave: instrucción conceptual, aspecto, aprendices de lengua de herencia, español, teoría sociocultural it questo articolo si inquadra all’interno della teoria socioculturale della mente in relazione all’acquisizione della seconda lingua (lantolf & poehner, 2014). il lavoro presenta una proposta pedagogica per l'impiego dell’insegnamento basato su concetti (cbi) nell'ambito della classe di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria (sle), al fine di promuovere lo sviluppo ed internalizzazione del concetto grammaticale dell’aspetto verbale. sebbene si è visto che l'aspetto verbale è particolarmente difficile per studenti di sle (montrul, 2009; silva-corvalán, 1994), scarseggiano studi che si concentrino sull'insegnamento dello sviluppo concettuale dell'aspetto verbale nella classe di sle. questo testo contribuisce a colmare questa lacuna proponendo un innovativo disegno pedagogico volto a fornire agli studenti di sle l'opportunità di generare e trasformare una comprensione concettuale dell'aspetto verbale attraverso la comunicazione consapevole in modi significativi, coerenti e sistematici. parole chiave:   insegnamento basato su concetti, aspetto verbale, studenti di lingue ereditarie, spagnolo, teoria socioculturale garcía     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     2   1.  introduction   the  number  of  spanish  speakers  in  the  united  states  has  grown  exponentially  in  the  past  20  years.   according   to   the   latest  american  community   survey,   13.1%  of   the   country’s   population   speaks   spanish   at   home,  making   it   the  most  popular  non-­‐english   language  among  people  aged  5  or  older  (us  census  bureau,   2014).   in   the   face   of   this   reality,   american   higher   education   has   slowly   adopted   a   series   of   measures   to   promote  the  integration  of  heritage  bilinguals  in  college  classrooms  across  the  country  (for  a  comprehensive   overview,   see   fairclough   &   beaudrie,   2016).  what   started   as   the   implementation   of   remedial   courses   for   spanish-­‐speaking  students  more  than  30  years  ago  (valdés,  1997)  has  gradually  evolved  into  the  creation  of   programs  with   elaborated   curriculum   guidelines   and   learning   objectives   geared   toward   heritage   language   learners  (hlls),  defined  as  “individuals  .  .  .  who  are  raised  in  homes  where  a  non-­‐english  language  is  spoken,   (or  who)  speak  or  merely  understand  the  hl,  and  are  to  some  degree  bilingual  in  english  and  the  hl”  (valdés,   2001,  pp.  37-­‐38).   one   of   the   most   significant   changes   to   take   place   in   this   setting   was   the   understanding   that   the   psychological   and   linguistic   processes  behind  heritage   language   (hl)   acquisition  differ   in   some  ways   from   those   operating   in   second   language   (l2)   acquisition   (montrul,   2002,   2009,   2011;   valdés,   2005).   this   reconceptualization   of   heritage   language   learners   brought   about   the   transformation   of   one-­‐size-­‐fits-­‐all   models   to   meet   the   needs   of   this   highly   diverse   student   body   (beaudrie,   2011).   if   we   consider   valdés’s   definition   of  hll,   given   at   the   end   of   the   previous   paragraph,   it   is   easy   to   see   that  hlls   constitute   a   very   heterogeneous   community,   comprised   of   learners   with   varying   degrees   of   proficiency   and   literacy   in   the   heritage  language.  as  carreira  (2012)  pointed  out,  the  interaction  of  students’  diverse  linguistic  profiles  with   socioaffective   factors   (i.e.   level   of   identification   with   the   latino   community   or   confidence   regarding   their   linguistic  abilities)  calls  for  a  differentiated  approach  to  language  teaching.     in  this  paper,  i  present  a  pedagogical  sequence  for  implementing  concept-­‐based  instruction  (c-­‐bi)  in   the  heritage   language  classroom,  and   i  argue   that   the  adoption  of   this  model  provides   instructors  with   the   framework   needed   to   effectively   promote  hll’s   cognitive   and   linguistic   development   through  meaningful,   transformative  activity.  within  this  conceptual  approach,  the  implementation  of  different  instructional  tools   and   activities—such   as   written   and   oral   reflections   (verbalizations),   visual   models,   and   communicative   scenarios—creates  opportunities  for  heritage  learners  to  understand  complex  categories  of  meaning  through   conscious  and  contextualized  manipulation  of  concepts  (garcía,  in  press).     2.  understanding  spanish  heritage  language  learners   the   growing   number   of   heritage   speakers   (hs)  who   enroll   in   spanish   classes   looking   to   improve   their   knowledge   of   the   heritage   language   raises   the   question   of   whether   their   grammars   and   linguistic   experience  are  comparable  to  those  of  l2  learners.  montrul  (2012)  argues  that  beyond  differing  age  of  onset   of   bilingualism,   variations   in  hl   and  l2   learners’   settings   of   initial   acquisition   (naturalistic   vs.   instructed),   modes   of   input   (aural   vs.   aural   and   written),   and   frequency   of   input   (more   vs.   less   activation)   make   the   groups   fundamentally   different.   additionally,   unlike   their   l2   counterparts,   hs   generally   undergo   a   certain   degree  of  attrition  and  reanalysis  in  their  home  language  due  to  a  wide  range  of  factors,  including  incomplete   acquisition  (montrul,  2011),  low  levels  of  literacy  (pascual  y  cabo  &  rothman,  2012),  and  lack  of  activation  of   the  heritage  language  (putnam  &  sánchez,  2013).  prolonged  contact  with  the  majority  language  (english,   in   the  united  states)  from  an  early  age  is  also  likely  to  modulate  hs’  control  of  certain  grammatical  properties  in   the  home   language  (montrul,  2011;  pascual  y  cabo  &  rothman,  2012;  putnam  &  sánchez,  2013).  aspectual   contrasts—the   focus  of   this  proposal—are  particularly  problematic   in   the  case  of  hl  grammar,  as   they  are   believed  to  be  mastered  around  the  ages  of  6;0-­‐7;0  in  monolingual  speakers  (montrul,  2002),  the  time  when   hs  begin  schooling  in  english  and  often  undergo  a  shift  in  language  dominance  (i.e.  from  spanish  to  english).   if   schooling   is   not   also   provided   in   the   hl,   reduced   input   and   decreased   use   of   spanish   can   prompt   a   reanalysis   of   preterite/imperfect   contrasts,   following   english-­‐like   patterns   in  which   the   preterite   assumes   two  aspectual  values:  [±perfective]  (montrul,  2002,  2009,  2011;  see  section  4.1  for  more  details).     2.1.  general  approaches  to  teaching  and  evaluating  hlls  in  the  spanish  classroom   given  the  differences  between  hs  and  l2  learner  grammars,  the  teaching  of  hlls  should  involve  the   adoption  of  specialized  techniques  that  take  into  consideration  the  affective  and  linguistic  needs  of  this  group   of  students.  the  field  of  spanish  heritage  language  (shl)  education  has  traditionally  focused  on  two  key  areas   of  the  hl  classroom:  the  implementation  of  fair  assessment  tools  capable  of  evaluating  such  a  heterogeneous   implementing  concept-­‐based  instruction     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     3   student   population   and   the   development   of   effective   instructional   methods   dedicated   to   the   teaching   of   grammar   and   other   aspects   of   language.   regarding   the   former,   beaudrie   (2012,   2016)   and   potowski   and   carreira  (2004)  propose  that  placement  exams  and  classroom  assessments  should  be  as  individualized  and  as   flexible   as   possible.   as   carreira   (2012)   showed,   this   can   be   achieved   by   setting   up   ongoing   formative   assessments  throughout  the  semester,  which  allow  for  close  monitoring  of  hll’s  progress  and  the  adaptation   of   classroom   practices   to   better   suit   their   needs.   regarding   instructional   methods,   the   pioneering   investigations  of  montrul   and  bowles   (2010)  and  potowski,   jegerski,   and  morgan-­‐short   (2009)   tackled   the   difficult   task  of   examining  whether   grammatical   instruction  would   foster  hlls’   development   following   the   patterns  reported   in  l2  acquisition  (norris  &  ortega,  2000;  russell  &  spada,  2006).  although  the  results   in   both   studies   indicated   that   hlls   showed   significant   gains   in   comprehension   and   production   after   being   exposed  to  several  treatments,  it  was  not  clear  how  different  approaches  (processing  instruction,  traditional   techniques)  had  affected  their  performance.  consequently,  bowles  (2011)  and  correa  (2011a)  proceeded  to   analyze  the  role  of  explicit  and  implicit  knowledge  in  hl  development,  evaluating   learners’  abilities  using  a   wide   range   of   experimental   tasks.   data   from   these   investigations   showed   that,   when   compared   to   proficiency-­‐matched   l2   learners,  hlls   exhibited   better   results   in  measures  where   explicit   knowledge  was   not  needed.       the  studies   summarized   thus   far   suggest   that   the  development  of   complex  grammatical  notions   in   hlls  can  benefit   from  grammatical   instruction,  but   that  acquisition   is  highly  dependent  on  hlls’  ability   to   build   upon   pre-­‐existing   knowledge.   two   specific   approaches   that   attempt   to   capitalize,   therefore,   on   pre-­‐ existing  knowledge,  by  implementing  instructional  techniques  focused  on  the  links  between  mind,  language,   and  society,  are  systemic  functional  linguistics  (sfl)  (halliday,  1993,  1998,  2004)  and  sociocultural  theory   (sct)   (lantolf   &   thorne,   2006).   within   sfl,   the   work   of   colombi   and   collaborators   has   explored   the   academic  and  linguistic  development  of  hlls  (achugar  &  colombi,  2008;  colombi,  2006,  2009;  schleppegrell   &   colombi,   2008).   from   a   systemic-­‐functional   perspective,   language   learning   is   understood   as   a   social   process   where   grammar   plays   a   central   role,   especially   in   more   advanced   uses   of   language   (achugar   &   colombi,  2008).  the  majority  of  these  studies  have  been  primarily  dedicated  to  the  teaching  and  development   of   two  areas   in  the  hl  classroom:  register  (academic/scientific  vs.   informal)  and  dialects  (standard  vs.  non-­‐ standard   varieties).  while   these   topics   provide  hlls  with   the   opportunity   to   develop   the   skills   needed   to   achieve  advanced  biliteracy  (colombi  &  harrington,  2012),  they  do  not  address  specific  grammatical  notions   that   might   also   be   problematic   for   hlls.   and   while   the   development   of   grammatical   concepts   has   been   examined   from   other   theoretical   perspectives,   in   this   paper,   i   propose   an   approach   to   hs   grammar   development   using   an   sct   approach   to   language   learning   and   development.   the   next   section   reviews   the   main  tenets  of  the  sct  approach,  as  well  as  the  most  relevant  investigations  dedicated  to  the  implementation   of  concept-­‐based  instruction  (c-­‐bi),  an  innovative  approach  focused  on  the  teaching  of  grammar  concepts  in   the  language  classroom.     3.  concept-­‐based  instruction:  a  sociocultural  approach  to  aspectual  development  in   the  hl  classroom   vygotsky’s   (1978)   cultural-­‐historical   theory  of   human   consciousness   is   the  basis   of   a   sociocultural   approach  (sct)  to  the  study  of  second  and  heritage  language  development  (see  lantolf  &  poehner,  2014  for  a   general  overview).    one  of  vygotsky’s  fundamental  claims  is  that  the  human  mind  is  mediated;  that  is,  human   beings   do   not   interact   directly   with   the   world,   but   through   physical   and   psychological   tools   (lantolf   &   thorne,  2006).  mediation,   then,   indicates  that  conscious  human  activity   is  guided,  shaped,  and  transformed   by  material/physical  (i.e.  a  hammer,  a  phone,  a  pen)  and  psychological/symbolic  (i.e.  speech,   literacy,   logic,   geometry,   music,   etc.)   tools   and   artifacts.   in   his   theory   of   concept   formation,   vygotsky   (1986)   makes   a   distinction   between   two   types   of   knowledge:   everyday   concepts   (learned   through   observation   and   characterized   by   being   highly   contextualized,   based   on   empirical   observation   and   subjective   to   concrete   practice)   and   scientific   concepts   (largely   abstract   and   systematic   in   nature,   and   generally   learned   in   educational   settings).   everyday   concepts   typically   emerge   from   a   bottom-­‐up   reasoning   developed   from   empirical  observation  and  lack  the  malleability  to  be  transferred  to  other  contexts  (vygotsky,  1986).  in  other   words,   learners   construct   these   notions   from   specific   experiences   and   internalize   them   through   abstract   thinking.   however,   while   spontaneous   concepts   facilitate   the   internalization   of   new   knowledge,   they   are   difficult  to  generalize  due  to  their  lack  of  systematicity  (wertsch,  2007).  in  the  l2/hl  classroom  this  is  seen   in   learners’   and   teachers’   use  of   “rules   of   thumb”,  which  use  observations   and   situated   contexts   to   engage   garcía     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     4   with  complex  grammatical  notions  (garcía,  2014;  negueruela  &  lantolf,  2006;  van  compernolle,  2014).  this   type   of   simplified   rules   includes   recommendations   such   as   “always   use   the   imperfect   in   spanish  when   an   action  is  repeated  in  the  past”,  or  “use  preterite  when  an  action  happens  only  once”  (see  whitley,  2002  for  a   complete   review).   the   main   consequence   of   employing   this   type   of   everyday   knowledge   in   the   language   classroom   is   that   learners   often   fail   to   see   its   limited   functionality,   and   they   tend   to   apply   rules   indiscriminately   in  a  wide  variety  of   contexts   (garcía,  2012;  negueruela  2003;  negueruela  &  lantolf  2006;   van  compernolle  2014).   vygotsky  (1986)  claimed  that  higher  forms  of  human  thinking  (e.g.  reasoning,  logical  deduction)  are   mediated   by   scientific   concepts,   due   to   their   high   levels   of   abstraction,   systematicity,   and   de-­‐ contextualization,  allowing  learners  to  consciously  manipulate,  transform,  and  apply  this  type  of  knowledge   to   multiple   contexts   (garcía,   in   press).   hence,   pedagogical   approaches   within   this   framework   place   their   focus   in   teaching  scientific   (i.e.  abstract  and  systematic)   linguistic  concepts   to  mediate  heritage  and  second   language  learners’  internalization  of  complex  categories  of  meaning  such  as  mood,  voice,  tense,  or,  in  the  case   of  the  present  work,  aspect.  in  other  words,  an  sct  pedagogical  approach  to  the  shl  and  l2  classrooms  sees   learners   as   sense-­‐making   beings   and   focuses   on   putting   in  motion   a   coherent   and   systematic   approach   to   foster   learners’   ability   to   consciously   manipulate   scientific   concepts   as   tools   to   mediate   their   mental   and   communicative   activity   (lantolf,   2011,   p.   24).   the   vygotskyan   notion   of   using   scientific   concepts   as   mediational   tools   for   understanding   and   creating   meaning   in   the   teaching-­‐learning-­‐development   process,   developed   further   in   davydov’s   (1999,   2004)   germ   cell   model   and   gal’perin’s   (1989,   1992)   systemic-­‐ theoretical   instruction   (see   stetsenko   &   arievitch,   2010   for   a   complete   analysis   of   both   methods),   is   considered  to  be  the  basis  of  c-­‐bi.     3.1.  defining  concept-­‐based  instruction   as  it  name  indicates,  c-­‐bi  is  a  pedagogical  approach  where  learners  actively  interact  with  concepts  in   a   significant,   coherent,   and   systematic  manner   to   create   new  meanings   in   their   second/heritage   language.   while  the  materialization  and  transformation  of  conceptual  understandings  is  deemed  essential  to  promote   linguistic  development  (negueruela  &  garcía,  2016),  communicative  activity  and  language  reflection  through   categories   of  meaning  play   a   fundamental   role   in   the   classroom.  as   a   result,   a   basic   c-­‐bi   sequence   always   intertwines  the  understanding  and  development  of  theoretical  concepts  through  didactic  models  with  the  use   of  verbalizations  (negueruela,  2003,  p.  224).     its   focus   on   development   as   a   conceptual   process   is   precisely   what   makes   c-­‐bi   different   from   mainstream  pedagogical   approaches.  while   traditional  models   of   l2   and  hl   instruction   expect   students   to   acquire   forms   first   and  meanings   second   (for   example,   learning   verbal  morphology   related   to   the   spanish   preterite  and  imperfect  first,  and  then  their  respective  uses),  c-­‐bi  focuses  on  teaching  categories  of  meaning   and   explaining   how   they   are   connected   to   forms   in   context   (van   compernolle,   2014).   in   summary,   a   c-­‐bi   approach   to   language   teaching  and  development   is  based  on   three  basic  principles.  first  and   foremost,   the   quality   of   the   explanation   given   to   the   students   matters;   thus   instructors   need   to   develop   pedagogically-­‐ adequate   accounts   of   the   phenomena   at   all   times.   second,   conceptual   explanations   are   expected   to   be   presented,   using   concise   visual   representations   to   foster   learners’   assignment   of   functional   value   in   communicative  activity.  lastly,  students  need  to  engage  in  social  interaction—with  the  self  or  with  others—to   convey   their   understanding   of   a   particular   grammatical   notion   through  written   and/or   oral   verbalizations   (negueruela  &  garcía,  2016).       although  research  suggests  that  c-­‐bi  is  a  feasible  tool  to  support  learners’  grammatical  development,   there   are   a   limited   number   of   publications   that   provide   specific   pedagogical   designs   detailing   how   this   approach   could   actually   be   implemented   in   the   hl   classroom   (aguiló   &   negueruela,   2015;   garcía,   2012;   negueruela,  2003;  van  compernolle,  2014;  yáñez-­‐prieto,  2008).  the  present  work  adds  to  the  literature  on  c-­‐ bi  by  proposing  a   complete  pedagogical   sequence   to  promote   the  conceptual  development  of  aspect   in   the   shl  classroom.     3.2.  the  implementation  of  concept-­‐based  instruction  in  the  l2  classroom   in  the  years  since  negueruela’s  (2003)  groundbreaking  study,  the  implementation  of  c-­‐bi  to  promote   the  development  of  categories  of  meaning  has  been  explored  in  a  wide  range  of  studies  across  languages.  for   example,   in  french,  there  have  been  investigations  in   literacy  (buescher,  2015),  aspect  (gánem-­‐gutiérrez  &   harum,   2011),   locative   prepositions   (buescher  &   strauss,   2015),   the   grammatical   concept   of   voice   (swain,   lapkin,  knouzi,  suzuki,  &  brooks,  2009),  and  the  sociopragmatics  of  self-­‐representation,  social  distance,  and   implementing  concept-­‐based  instruction     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     5   power  (van  compernolle,  2014).  in  l2  english,  studies  have  examined  c-­‐bi  for  teaching  locative  prepositions   (white,  2012)  and  sarcasm  (kim,  2013);   in  l2  chinese,   tense   (lai,  2012)  and   topicalization   (zhang,  2014);   and   in  german,  declensions  (walter  &  van  compernolle,  2015).   in   the  spanish  l2  classroom,  c-­‐bi  has  been   used   to  explore  aspect,   tense,   and  mood   (negueruela,  2003,  2008);   locative  prepositions   (serrano-­‐lópez  &   poehner,   2008);   the   development   of   literary   metaphor   (yáñez-­‐prieto,   2008);   the   use   of   motion   events   as   mediational   tools   for   giving   directions   (aguiló-­‐mora   &   negueruela,   2015);   the   sociopragmatics   of   self-­‐ representation,   social  distance,   and  power  applied   to   tú/usted   (van  compernolle,  webber,  &  gomez-­‐llaich,   2016);  and  the  concept  of  aspect  applied  to  the  relationship  between  spanish  preterite  and  imperfect  tenses   (gánem-­‐gutiérrez  2016;  garcía,  2012,  2014;  negueruela,  2003;  polizzi,  2013).   among   the   previous   studies,   negueruela   (2003)   was   the   first   to   propose   a   well-­‐articulated   c-­‐bi   pedagogical  sequence.  in  that  investigation,  he  worked  with  12  intermediate  spanish  l2  learners  to  improve   their  use  and  understanding  of  aspect.  after  being  exposed  to  a  didactic  design  similar  to  the  one  proposed  in   this   article   (see   negueruela,   2003   and   2006   studies   for   more   details),   students   were   asked   to   engage   in   verbalization  activities  with  themselves  aimed  at  reflecting  on  and  promoting  their  aspectual  understanding.   although   results   from  negueruela’s   intervention   indicated   that   learners’  development  was  not  even  across   the  board,  there  appeared  to  be  a  connection  between  the  implementation  of  c-­‐bi  and  an  improvement  of  l2   learners’  control  of  aspect.       the   pedagogical   proposal   in   this   article—in   contrast   with   negueruela   (2003)—is   geared   toward   hlls  and   suggests  a  more  nuanced   teaching   sequence   that   includes  a  wide   range  of   activities   tapping   into   different  modalities  (oral  and  written)  and  involving  various  dynamics  (groups,  dyads,  and  individual  work),   aimed   at   enhancing   the   positive   effects   of   c-­‐bi   observed   in   previous   research   and   at   promoting   the   internalization  of  aspect  in  the  hl  classroom.     3.3.  the  implementation  of  concept-­‐based  instruction  in  the  hl  classroom   as  indicated  in  previous  sections,  hlls’  exposure  to  the  home  language  occurs  largely  in  naturalistic   settings,   in  which  the  acquisition  of  grammatical  notions  such  as  aspect,  mood,  or  agreement  emerges  from   the  linguistic  input  received  (montrul,  2009,  2011).  this  type  of  experience  with  the  heritage  language  stands   in  contrast  to  popular  l2  pedagogical  models,  which  typically  involve  the  explicit  instruction  of  morphology   and  prioritize  memorization  and  recognition,  often  creating  a  disconnect  between  meaning  and  form  (correa,   2011b).  unlike  those  models,  c-­‐bi  focuses  in  the  development  of  complex  grammatical  notions  by  exploring   the   semantic   and   pragmatic   value   of   the   underlying   concept   behind   them,   establishing   a   link   between   meaning  and  form  in  the  last  stages  of  the  instructional  sequence.  given  hlls’  informal  experience  with  the   heritage  language,  it  is  proposed  here  that  sct  and  c-­‐bi’s  emphasis  on  meaning  and  contextualized  learning   activity  is  more  in  tune  with  this  population’s  needs  as  language  learners.   despite   these   observations,   there   has   been   just   one   investigation   (garcía   frazier,   2013)   that   has   attempted   to   adopt   c-­‐bi   for   the   shl   classroom.   the   objective   of   garcía   frazier’s   qualitative   study  was   to   improve   hlls’   (n   =   6)   understanding   and   use   of   indicative   and   subjunctive   mood   by   exposing   the   hl   students   to   c-­‐bi   instruction.   garcía   frazier   noted   that,   before   adopting   this   pedagogical   approach,   the   majority   of   the   students   exhibited   a   rather   simplified   perception   of   mood,   which   affected   their   oral   and   written   performance.   in   her   study,   she   proposed   the   use   of   systemic-­‐theoretical   instruction   (sti),   a   tool-­‐ mediated   teaching   and   learning   approach   created   by   gal’perin   (1969,   1989,   1992),   based   on   vygotskyan   principles.  as  noted  by  negueruela  and  lantolf   (2006),   “c-­‐bi   in   itself  does  not  constitute  a  pedagogy,  but  a   theoretical  claim  about   the  appropriate  object  of   instruction   in  any  educational  domain”  (p.  98).  as  such,   it   requires  the  implementation  of  concrete  didactic  models  (such  as  sti)  to  be  used  as  tools  for  cognitive  and   linguistic  development.  given  the  difficulty  garcía  frazier’s  students  showed  regarding  the  notion  of  mood  in   spanish,  she  decided  to  use  negueruela’s  (2003)  cheme  of  a  complete  orienting  basis  of  an  action  (scoba),   shown  in  figure  1,  to  introduce  aspect  to  the  class.   garcía     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     6   what  is  the  intention  of  the  speaker?   does  he/she  want  to  convey  a  specific  a;tude  towards  a   statement?  (influence,  evaluate,  or  comment)   yes   use  subjunctive   no   does  he/she  want  to  convey  a  specific  knowledge?   (repor?ng  or  asser?ng)   yes   use  indicative                                                       figure 1. adaptation of the scoba implemented by garcía frazier (2013) in her c-bi study   garcía   frazier’s   graphic   representation   was   designed   to   help   hlls   visualize   the   semantic   and   pragmatic   parameters   that   trigger  mood   selection   in   spanish.   the   scoba   illustrated   in   figure   1   not   only   allowed  students  to  identify  the  meaning  behind  the  presence  of  indicative  or  subjunctive  in  the  subordinate   clause  of  given  sentence,  but  also   fostered  the  use  of   this  knowledge   in  new  communicative  contexts.  after   being  exposed  to  the  conceptual  unit  of  instruction  (mood)  by  means  of  the  scoba,  students  were  asked  to   complete   a   series   of   written   activities   (i.e.   making   recommendations,   asking   for   favors,   etc.)   and   verbally   reflect  on  their  modal  choices  based  on  the  provided  pedagogical  model  to  justify  their  choice  of  indicative  or   subjunctive.   these   oral   reflections   (i.e.   verbalizations),   aimed   at   fostering   l2   conceptual   development,   constitute  what  gal’perin   (1969,   p.   260)   called  dialogic   thinking,   as   they   allow   learners   to  use   language   to   socially  interact  with  themselves  by  using  the  concepts  to  explain  their  linguistic  choices.  in  garcía  frazier’s   study,   hlls’   verbalizations  were   recorded   and   later   reviewed   by   the   instructor.   once   these   activities   had   taken  place,  hlls  were  prompted  to  construct  their  own  definition  of  mood  based  on  their  experience  with   the  concept.  the  analysis  of  students’  verbalizations  and  written  data  indicated  that  they  were  in  the  process   of  developing  a  much  more  nuanced  understanding  of  spanish  mood.  this,  in  turn,  resulted  in  higher  levels  of   accuracy  in  their  use  of  indicative  and  subjunctive  in  a  wide  variety  of  contexts.  these  results  suggest  that,  on   the  whole,   the   implementation  of  a  concept-­‐based  approach  appeared   to  be  beneficial   for   the  development   and  maintenance  of  a  complex  grammatical  notion,  such  as  mood,  in  hlls.     however,  from  an  sct  perspective,  development  of  conceptual  categories  proceeds  socially,  through   both   intra-­‐personal   communication   (with   the   self)   and   inter-­‐personal   communication   (with   others)   (negueruela,  garcía,  &  buescher,  2015,  p.  23).  therefore,  it  makes  sense  to  incorporate  activities  that  not  only   prompt  learners’  dialogic  thinking  with  the  self,  but  also  “communicated  thinking”  (gal’perin,  1969,  p.  260),   wherein  learners  aim  at  making  their  reflections  comprehensible  to  others  and  receive  mediation  from  more   experienced  peers   to  maximize   their   learning  opportunities.   in   the   following   sections,   i   propose   a  detailed   pedagogical  sequence,  based  on  these  principles,   for   implementing  c-­‐bi   in   the  hl  classroom  to  present   the   concept  of  aspect.           implementing  concept-­‐based  instruction     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     7   4.  the  pedagogical  proposal:  teaching  aspect  through  c-­‐bi   4.1.  hlls  and  the  acquisition  and  development  of  aspect  in  spanish   the   instructional   sequence  presented   in   this   article   focuses   on   the   grammatical   concept   of   aspect,   more  specifically,  the  aspectual  contrasts  that  emerge  between  the  spanish  preterite  and  imperfect  tenses.  as   reported  in  previous  sections,  there  have  been  several  studies  dedicated  to  the  teaching  and  learning  of  this   linguistic   notion  within   a   sct   perspective   (gánem-­‐gutiérrez,   2016;   garcía,   2012,   2014,   2017;   negueruela,   2003;  negueruela  &  lantolf,  2006;  polizzi,  2013);  however,  this  is  the  first  proposal  that  presents  a  complete   pedagogical  sequence  focused  on  how  to  present  aspect  in  the  shl  classroom.     hlls  have  been  reported   to  exhibit  a  considerable  degree  of  attrition  when  dealing  with  aspectual   contrasts  even  at  high   levels  of  proficiency   (borik,  2013;  cuza  &  miller,  2015;  cuza,  pérez-­‐tattam,  barajas,   miller,  &  sadowski,  2013;  montrul,  2002,  2009,  2011;  montrul  &  bowles,  2010;  montrul  &  perpiñán,  2011;   montrul  &   slabakova,   2003).  difficulties   in   this   area   stem   from   several   crosslinguistic   differences   between   spanish   and   english   in   the   expression   of   aspect.   spanish,   the   weaker   language   of   hlls,   presents   a   very   complex  aspectual  system,  in  which  perfectivity  and  imperfectivity  in  the  past  are  conveyed  by  means  of  two   morphological  instantiations:  preterite  (1a)  and  imperfect  (1b).     1)   a.   estela   comió   un  donut   de  chocolate       estela   eat    [3psgpret]   a  doughnut   of  chocolate       estela  ate  a  chocolate  doughnut               b.   estela   comía   un  donut   de  chocolate       estela   eat    [3psgimp]   a  doughnut   of  chocolate       estela  ate  a  chocolate  doughnut     in   the   first  example  (1a)   the  preterite   form  comió   (“ate”)  marks  that   the  action  of  eating   is  seen  as   bounded  by  the  speaker;  its  duration  has  a  clear  beginning  and  end.  in  the  second  example  (2b)  the  imperfect   form  comía  (“ate”)  profiles  that  the  event  is  viewed  as  unbounded,  and  that  the  emphasis  of  the  action  lies  in   its   progressiveness   and/or   habituality.   the   problematic   issue   for   hlls   is   that,   while   english   and   spanish   overlap  in  their  expression  of  perfectivity,  they  differ  in  the  way  they  convey  imperfectivity.  as  shown  in  the   second  example   (1b),  spanish  generally  expresses  unbounded  events  with   imperfect   forms.  english,  on   the   other  hand,  resorts  to  a  wide  variety  of  alternatives  to  convey  the  same  notion1.   the   contrast   between   these   two   languages   causes   english-­‐dominant   hlls   to   have   difficulties   remapping   [±perfective]   aspectual   features   to   the   corresponding   tense/aspect   morphemes   in   their   home   language  (spanish).  in  particular,  many  studies  have  reported  that  hlls  lose  the  preterite/imperfect  contrast   in  favor  of  the  adoption  of  a  single  tense  (preterite)  to  convey  perfectivity  and  imperfectivity  (montrul,  2002,   2009,   2011;   silva-­‐corvalán,   1994).   in   addition   to   the   challenges   that   emerge   from   the  mere   fact   of   being   bilingual,   mastery   of   this   linguistic   property   is   also   affected   by   the   interaction   of   the   inherent   lexical   properties  of  a  specific  verb  (i.e.  lexical  aspect)  and  other  linguistic  components  that  extend  beyond  the  verb   phrase,   such   as   temporal   markers   and   nominal   arguments   (verkuyl,   1972).   if   we   focus   on   the   former,   a   considerable  number  of   investigations   in   the   fields   of   first   and   second   language   acquisition  have  observed   that  speakers  (monolingual  and  bilingual)  tend  to  express  congruent  combinations  of  lexical  and  grammatical   aspect   (that   is,   telic   predicates   with   the   preterite,   and   atelic   ones   with   the   imperfect)   more   so   than   non-­‐ congruent   ones   (andersen   &   shirai,   1994;   bardovi-­‐harlig,   2000).   this   preference,   known   as   primacy   of   aspect  hypothesis  (pah),  is  also  predicted  to  affect  hlls,  especially  given  the  reinforcement  of  this  tendency   by  means   of   rules   of   thumb   (rots)  when  hlls   are   enrolled   in   a   language   class   (see   section   3.1   for  more   information).   the  widespread  presence  of   these   issues   in  heritage  spanish  populations  underscores   the  need   for   effective   pedagogical   interventions.   the   following   section   outlines   a   suggested   timeline   for   the   1  some  of  these  alternatives  include  the  use  of  the  simple  past  –i.e.  preterite  forms-­‐  (estela  ate  a  chocolate  doughnut)  or   different   types  of  periphrases   that   emphasize   either   the  habituality  of   the  action   (estela  used   to/would   eat  a   chocolate   doughnut)  or  its  progressive  nature  (estela  was  eating  a  chocolate  doughnut).  note  that  the  last  periphrastic  option  is  also   available  in  spanish  (estela  estaba  comiendo  un  donut  de  chocolate),  but  the  auxiliary  verb  (estaba;  “was”)  appears  in  the   imperfect.   garcía     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     8   implementation  of  a  c-­‐bi  sequence  and  provides  thorough  descriptions  and  samples  of  the  types  of  activities   and  instruments  included.     4.2.  components  and  implementation  of  the  instructional  sequence   it   is   important   to   note   that,   from   an   sct   perspective,   research   and   teaching   are   not   seen   as   two   separate  practices,  but  rather  as  a  unified  activity  (lantolf  &  poehner,  2014).  consequently,  the  effectiveness   of  any  type  of  pedagogical  decisions  made  in  the  classroom  should  be  examined  by  the  instructor  from  two   different   perspectives:   that   of   a   practitioner   and   of   a   researcher   (garcía,   2012,   p.   8).   this   dialectical   relationship  allows  language  teachers  to  put  into  practice  new  ideas  and  modify  previous  ones  based  on  the   observation  and  careful  study  of  students’  learning  processes.  thus,  although  the  implementation  described   below  was  originally  designed  to  take  place  during  four  sessions  of  70  minutes  each,   it  could  be  adapted  to   different  settings  in  order  to  work  around  specific  constraints  (total  length  of  the  session,  number  of  weekly   meetings,  specific  needs  of  the  students,  etc.).       table 1 timeline of the pedagogical implementation session objectives and description day 1: pedagogical intervention: cb-i and aspect • the students and the instructor explore their previous knowledge on aspect and preterite and imperfect • implementation of cb-i days 2 and 3: practicing the use of preterite and imperfect • completion of controlled activities on the use of preterite and imperfect (contextualized multiple choices, elicited narratives) • communicative scenarios (di pietro, 1987) day 4: reflecting on the concept of aspect • individual reflections and completion of activities • mediated interview (student-instructor)       the  pedagogical  sequence  outlined  in  table  1  draws  from  the  models  presented  in  garcía  (2012)  and   garcía  and  perez-­‐cortes  (2017),  two  studies  focused  on  fostering  the  development  of  grammatical  categories   in   l2   learners   and   hlls   respectively.   although   these   investigations   implemented   c-­‐bi   in   the   language   classroom,  they  were  both  empirical  studies  that  focused  on  verbalization  data  obtained  after  the  completion   of   several   experimental   tasks   and   they   both   sought   to   determine   the   effectiveness   of   c-­‐bi   and   dynamic   assessment  to  promote  these  populations’  aspectual  development.  this  article  builds  on  those,  by  proposing   and   describing   a   pedagogical   sequence   to   implement   c-­‐bi   in   the   heritage   language   classroom,   providing   a   model  for  practitioners  to  use  directly  in  their  own  classrooms  or  a  template  to  be  adapted  according  to  their   own  pedagogical  needs.     it   is   highly   recommended   that   the   instructor   begin   by   gathering   extensive   information   about   the   hlls’   previous   knowledge   of   preterite   and   imperfect   aspectual   contrasts   and   uses   before   the   start   of   the   session.  given  the  documented  production/comprehension  asymmetries   in  hlls  (hendriks  &  koster,  2010;   sherkina-­‐lieber,   2011)   and   their   sometimes-­‐limited  metalinguistic   knowledge,   this   proposal   advocates   for   the   use   of   tasks   tapping   into   different   skills   (comprehension,   production,   and   acceptability   judgments)   to   gauge  students’  underlying  linguistic  abilities.  during  this  evaluative  stage—prior  to  the  implementation  of  c-­‐ bi—hlls  would  be   asked   to   complete   a  written   task  based  on   their   perceptions   and  previous   knowledge.   they   would   be   prompted   to   listen   to   two   pairs   of   sentences   (also   be   presented   in   written   form   on   the   blackboard),  and  asked  to  determine  whether  they  detect  any  semantic  difference  between  them.  in  order  to   expedite  the  process,  answers  should  be  done  in  writing  and  handed  to  the  instructor.  for  example:             implementing  concept-­‐based  instruction     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     9   2)   a.   el   barco   llegó                                                       al         puerto         the     ship   arrive[3psgpret]   to  the   harbor         the  ship  arrived  at  the  harbor       2)   b.   el   barco   llegaba                                                      al         puerto         the     ship   arrive[3psgimp]   to  the   harbor         the  ship  arrived  at  the  harbor       3)   a.   mi   madre   estuvo                                                      con         mis  primos         my     mother   be[3psgpret]   with   my  cousins         my  mother  was  with  my  cousins       3)   b.   mi   madre   estaba                                                      con         mis  primos         my     mother   be[3psgimp]   with   my  cousins         my  mother  was  with  my  cousins       the   aim  of   this   exercise   is   two-­‐fold.  on   the   one  hand,   it   reveals  whether   students   are   sensitive   to   aspectual  contrasts  triggered  by  the  use  of  preterite  and  imperfect  before  they  are  exposed  to  c-­‐bi.  given  the   diverse   nature   of   the   verbs   used   (telic   and   atelic),   their   responses   are   also   able   to   identify   any   potential   lexical  constraints  that  may  limit  students’  aspectual  control.  on  the  other  hand,  this  activity  promotes  hlls’   awareness   of   perfective/imperfective   distinctions   in   spanish,   a   first   step   towards   concept   formation   and   conceptual  development  of  the  notion  of  aspect.   in  addition  to  this  short  reflection,  the  instructor  would  also  ask  hlls  to  write  a  couple  of  sentences   explaining  when  they  use  the  preterite  as  in  (2a)  and  (3a)  or  the  imperfect  as  in  (2b)  and  (3b).  the  evaluation   of  the  results  can  be  used  as  an  initial  assessment  of  the  students’  previous  knowledge,  as  well  as  a  potential   source   for   future   interventions,   as   it   provides   details   about   the   learners’   potential   development   that   will   inform  about   the   type  of  mediation  required   to   foster  conceptual  development  across   the  board,   inevitably   improving   the   quality   of   the   teaching-­‐learning   process.   one   way   of   dealing   with   differences   in   learners’   previous  knowledge  of  aspect  that  may  arise  in  this  task  would  be  to  group  students’  according  to  their  zones   of   proximal   development   (zpds)2,   following   lipkina   (1994)   and   petrovsky   (1985).   the   aim   would   be   to   create  heterogeneous  groups  of  learners  with  differing  levels  of  control,  who  would  promote  different  kinds   of  mediation  (inter-­‐  and  intra-­‐group  mediation,  self-­‐mediation  and  instructor-­‐group  mediation).       4.2.1.  implementing  c-­‐bi  to  the  teaching  of  aspect   after  the  initial  assessment,  c-­‐bi  is  then  implemented.  the  approach  to  c-­‐bi  is  based  on  negueruela   (2003)   and   garcía’s   (2012)   proposals   for   the   development   of   concepts   as   categories   of  meaning.   in   these   studies,  exposure  to  coherent  and  systematic  didactic  models,  as  well  as  to  the  conscious  manipulation  of  the   concept  through  significant  communicative  activity  and  language  reflection,  played  a  fundamental  role  in  the   development  of  aspect.  these  principles  come  into  play  here  when  students  are  asked  to  form  small  groups  of   3  or  4  and  to  share  the  working  definitions  of  aspect  they  had  created  during  the  previous  activity.  although   at   this   point   it   is   expected   that  most   of   the   definitions  would   rely   on   previously   acquired   rules   of   thumb   and/or  observations,   it   is  beneficial   to  establish  a  dialogue  so  that  students  can  become  more  familiar  with   the  conceptual  category  at  hand.     after   this   step,   hlls   would   be   presented   with   a   scoba,   designed   as   a   mediational   tool   for   internalizing   the   grammatical   concept   of   aspect   in   spanish.  based   on  bolinger’s   (1991)   formal   accounts   of   aspect,   and  bull’s   (1984)   and  whitley’s   (2002)   supporting   visual   representations,   the  model   suggested   for   this  proposal—shown  in  figure  2  below—consists  of  two  parts:  1)  a  short,  written  explanation  tackling  the   notions  of   lexical   and  grammatical   aspect,   as  well   as   the   importance  of   the   speaker’s  perspective;   and  2)  a   chart  contrasting  the  preterite  and  imperfect  tenses  using  visual  cues.   2  if  we  follow  vygotsky’s  (1986)  original  definition  of  zpd  created  in  the  context  of  child  psychology,  this  notion  is  used  to   determine  the  child’s  potential  cognitive  development,  as  indicated  by  the  distance  between  what  the  child  can  do  on  his   own  and  what  can  do  with  the  assistance  of  an  adult  or  a  more  developed  individual.   garcía     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     10   understanding aspect the concept of aspect indicates the speaker’s perspective on an action. that is, what is the part/action that you as the speaker/writer want to emphasize. aspect is determined by two factors: a) lexical aspect: based on the meaning of the verb (bounded or unbounded). b) grammatical aspect: based on the context of an action (perfective or imperfective) when these two elements are combined, they can emphasize the beginning, middle, end, or completion of an action. the speaker’s perspective over the past action to choose between preterite and imperfect is determined by the following questions: • what part of the action is the speaker emphasizing? • does the verb have bounded meaning (e.g. to fall)? • where in the past is the action from our present perspective? preterit imperfect indicates the beginning or end of an action or that an action is completed from the present perspective (our perception from the present). profiles an action that has no boundaries (limits) in the past. salí de casa a las 6:00 (bounded event, points to the beginning of the action) el banco cerró a las 3:00 (bounded event, points to the end of the action) viví en londres durante un año (completed action from a present perspective) juan vivía en perú (unbounded event, we don’t know its beginning, end, or duration in the past) figure 2. scoba used during the implementation of c-bi   present ending present beginning implementing  concept-­‐based  instruction     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     11   following  the  presentation  of  the  scoba,  learners  should  be  given  some  time  to  explore  and  discuss   the  materials,   ideally   in  heterogeneous   groups  previously   formed  according   to   their   zpd   in   relation   to   the   concept  of  aspect.  in  groups,  students  would  compare  their  initial  definitions  of  aspect  with  the  information   given   in   the   visual   representation.   next,   since   the  main   objective   of   the   didactic  model   is   to   orient   hlls’   performance,  it   is  recommended  to  have  a  phase  of  explicit   instruction  where  the  teacher  presents  the  new   grammatical   notions,   using   the   provided   scoba.   then,   to   ensure   that   the   learners   understand   this   pedagogical  representation,  the  final  step  of  this  class  session  would  incorporate  a  practical  application  of  the   model  to  solve  an  activity.  once  again,  students  would  return  to  their  groups  and  would  be  asked  to  analyze  a   narrative   in   the  past   in   their  dominant   language.   for   example,   in   a   class  of   spanish  hlls  whose  dominant   language  is  english,  students  could  be  exposed  in  english  to  the  theme  song  of  “the  fresh  prince  of  bell-­‐air”3.       figure 3. fragment of “the fresh prince of bel-air” lyrics used in an activity during the first session. the  lyrics,  a  short  narrative  from  the  show,  “the  fresh  prince  of  bel-­‐air,”  would  be  analyzed  by  all   the  members   of   the   group.   students  would   be   instructed   to   underline   all   the   verbs   in   the   past   tense   that   appear   in   the   song.   they   would   then   discuss   whether   they   describe   perfective   or   imperfective   actions,   connecting   it   to   the   concept   presented   in   the   scoba   in   order   to   decide   whether   that   action   would   be   expressed  in  the  preterite  or  the  imperfect  in  spanish.  as  mentioned  earlier,  unlike  spanish,  english  does  not   mark   aspectual   distinctions   in   the  past  morphologically;   however,   both   languages   can   express   actions   that   profile  perfective  or   imperfective  events   in   the  past.  this   type  of   comparative  activity   is  designed   to   foster   hlls’   awareness   towards   aspectual   distinctions   in   their   dominant   language   (i.e.   english),   which   can   be   bridged   to   their   heritage   language   with   the   mediation   of   the   proposed   pedagogical   model.   ideally,   the   correction  of  this  task  would  take  place  at  the  end  of  the  session  so  that  the  different  groups  would  have  to   justify   their   choices,   using   the   scoba,   in   front   of   their   peers   and   so   that   they   would   receive   immediate   feedback  and  mediation  from  the  rest  of  the  class  (instructor  included).  however,  it  is  also  possible  to  resume   the  activity  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  session  to  confirm  that  students  had  understood  the  material  or  have   them  complete   the  activity  as  homework,  using   the  opportunity   to  have   learners  reflect  upon   their  choices   and   voice-­‐record   their   rationale   for   each   of   their   decisions   with   the   support   of   the   previously   presented   scoba.  this  verbalization  technique,  used  by  negueruela  (2003)  to  foster  l2  conceptual  development,  draws   from  what  gal’perin  (1969,  p.  260)  called  dialogic   thinking,  as   it  allows   learners  to  use   language  to  socially   interact  with  themselves  by  using  the  concepts  to  explain  their  linguistic  choices.     lantolf  and  poehner  (2014)  indicate  that  “concepts  are  relevant  for  the  formation  of  consciousness   because   they   shape  how  we  perceive,  understand,   and  act   in  and  on   the  world”   (p.  61).  this  activity  helps   hlls  to  do  precisely  that.  while  the  use  of  hlls’  dominant  language  (english)  is  generally  discouraged  in  the   communicative   language   classroom,   this   activity   allows   students   to   explore  new  concepts   in   a   comfortable   environment  and  create   interlinguistic  connections  among   languages  while  still  emphasizing  morphological   differences  in  expression.         3  this  song  can  be  substituted  by  another  song  or  text,  as  long  as  it  features  a  narrative  in  the  past.  as  mentioned  in  the   proposal,  the  goal  of  this  activity  is  for  students  to  determine  how  past  events  are  expressed  in  their  dominant  language   (english)  and  make  connections  with  their  weaker  one  (spanish),  reflecting  upon  what  would  be  the  best  way  to  convey   the  same  aspectual  nuances.   in west philadelphia born and raised   on the playground is where i spent most of my days chillin' out max, and relaxin' all cool and all shootin' some b-ball outside of the school when a couple of guys who were up to no good started makin' trouble in my neighborhood i got in one little fight and my mom got scared and said you're movin' with your auntie and uncle in bel-air garcía     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     12   4.2.2.  from  controlled  practice  to  communicative  activity   presenting   hlls   with   visual   tools   and   representations   (i.e.   scobas)   is   not   enough   to   foster   true   conceptual  development  (vygotsky,  1986,  p.  148).  in  order  to  bring  students  closer  to  that  goal,  they  need  to   be  able  to  manipulate  and  transform  concepts  through  meaningful  communication,  a  process  that  garcía  (in   press)  refers  to  as  conscious  conceptual  manipulation  (ccm).  at  this  stage,  it  is  essential  that  learners  engage   with   the   original   models   to   make   them   their   own   by   transforming,   internalizing,   and   externalizing   them   through  social  interaction  with  others  and  with  the  self  (negueruela,  garcía,  &  buescher,  2015).  in  the  second   session,   this  would  be   achieved  by   exposing  hlls   to   a  wide   range  of   activities  where   they   can   apply   their   newly-­‐acquired  knowledge.     ideally,  these  tasks  should  be  organized  from  more  to  less  structured  in  order  to  facilitate  students’   progress  toward  conceptual  development.  a  suitable  exercise  to  start  this  process  would  be  a  multiple-­‐choice   activity  with  8-­‐10  items,  wherein  students  would  have  to  choose  between  three  potential  answers  that  would   best  fit  the  blank  provided:     4)   ella   __________  (ir)                       a  la  piscina   todas  las  semanas     she     ___________(goinf)   to  the  pool   all  the  weeks                 a)  iba     b)  fue   c)  ambas  son  posibles        went  [3psgimp]   went[  3psgpret]                  both  are  possible     5)   el  estudiante   __________  (comenzar)       a    trabajar   a    las    seis     the  student             ___________    (startinf)           to  work               to  the  six       a)  comenzó   b)  comenzaba   c)  ambas  son  posibles        started[3psgimp]   started[3psgpret]                  both  are  possible       as  illustrated  by  the  previous  examples,  the  target  sentences  feature  linguistic  characteristics  (such   as  certain  type  of  events,  adverbs,  and  other  details  of  time  and  duration)  usually  linked  to  the  use  of  either   preterite  or  imperfect  by  traditional  rots.  in  question  4  this  was  achieved  by  the  presence  of  the  expression   todas   las  semanas   (“every  week”),  generally  associated  to  the   imperfect;  and  in  question  5  by  a   las  seis   (“at   six”),   where   preterite   would   be   expected.   as   we   know,   however,   the   application   of   rots   simplifies   the   richness  and  flexibility  of  spanish  aspect,  which  would  actually  allow  for  the  presence  of  both  tenses  in  each   of   the   examples.   the   objective   of   this   task   is   two-­‐fold.   on   the   one   hand,   it   informs   how  hlls’  make   their   aspectual   choices   (i.e.   by   observation,   rules   of   thumb,   alluding   to   the   concept,   etc.),   and   on   the   other,   it   provides  learners  with  the  opportunity  to  manipulate  and  transform  the  conceptual  tools  provided  (scoba)   to  orient  their  responses  as  an  additional  step  towards  conceptual  development.   the   next   activity   is   designed   to   favor   the   communicative   strengths   present   in  hlls   by   prompting   them  to  produce  a  written  narration  in  the  past,  conceived  to  trigger  the  use  of  preterite  and  imperfect  forms   in   context.   the   images   provided—based   on   a   short   comic   strip   from   the   spanish   textbook   dos   mundos   (terrell,  andrade,  egasse,  &  munoz,  2002,  p.  422)—depict  a  sequence  of  events  where  miguel,  a  young  bike-­‐ rider   is   accidentally   run  over  by  a   car,   then   taken   to   the  hospital  where  he   is   seen  by   the  doctors  until   he   recovers  from  his  injuries.     this  task,  which  would  be  revisited  during  the  last  session,  allows  learners  to  produce  preterite  and   imperfect   forms   in   a   contextually-­‐rich   environment;   however,   it   still   lacks   the   meaningfulness   and   communicative  value  needed  to  foster  internalization  (gal’perin,  1969).  the  next  activity,  based  on  dipietro’s   (1987)  scenarios,  provides  a  strategic   interaction  approach  to   language  pedagogy.  these  types  of  scenarios   are  comprised  of  three  interconnected  stages—preparation,  performance,  and  debriefing—and  allow  for  the   implementation  of  communicative  activity  and  language  reflection  in  the  classroom.  in  contrast  to  traditional   role-­‐playing,   dipietro’s   proposal   includes   a   dramatic   element   where   students   have   different   agendas   and   where  none  of   the   learners  know  the  other’s   role   in   the  scenario.  these  characteristics  generate  situations   with   a   “communicative   meaning-­‐making   improvising   quality”   (negueruela,   2003,   p.   226),   which   is   often   lacking  in  traditional  role-­‐playing  activities.  figure  5  shows  this  activity.       implementing  concept-­‐based  instruction     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     13   original activity translation situación – dos amigos se encuentran para tomar un café. uno de lleva saliendo con su novio/a más de un año . el gran problema es que están discutiendo todo el día y la semana pasada tuvieron una gran pelea. situation: “two best friends meet for coffee. one of them has been seeing his/her boyfriend/girlfriend for more than a year. the big problem is that they’re always arguing, and last week they had a big fight. estudiante a: estás muy enfadado/a con tu novio/a y le cuentas a tu mejor amigo/a tu versión de la discusión y le explicas porque está discusión fue diferente de las anteriores. le pides a tu mejor amigo/a que te aconseje lo que deberías hacer. student a: “you are very angry with your boyfriend and tell your best friend your version of the discussion, explaining why it was different from the previous ones. you ask your best friend to advise you on what to do next. estudiante b: tu mejor amigo/a te cuenta la discusión que tuvo con su novio/a la semana pasada. tú estás cansado/a de escucharle hablar siempre de sus problemas de pareja y le recomiendas que rompa con su novio/a basándote en tus experiencias de pareja anteriores. student b: your best friend tells you about the discussion he/she had with her/his boyfriend/girlfriend last week. you are tired of listening to him/her talk about their relationship problems and recommend that they break up based on your previous experiences. figure 5. sample of garcía’s (2012) design of a scenario (dipietro, 1987) for strategic interaction     the   implementation   of   this   task   would   be   staged   as   follows:   first,   hlls   go   through   a   short   “preparation”  process  in  small  groups,  where  they  receive  instructions  about  their  role  and  the  context  they   will  be  working  on.  once  this  phase  is  completed,  each  group  performs  their  scenario  in  front  of  their  peers,   who   in   turn,   take   notes   regarding   the   use   of   preterite   and   imperfect.   during   the   last   stage,   known   as   “debriefing”,  the  whole  class  provides  feedback  using  conceptual  explanations  with  the  help  of  their  scobas.   if   students   are   not   able   to   justify   their   aspectual   choices   adequately,   the   instructor   would   provide   the   appropriate  mediation  to  ensure  the  conceptual  explanations  were  understood.     as   argued   throughout   this   article,   one   of   the   keys   to   internalization   lies   in   fostering   learners’   conscious  conceptual  manipulation  (ccm)  in  the  classroom,  allowing  them  to  reflect  upon  their  performance   by  creating  new  abstract  models  to  orient  their  actions  (in  this  case,  their  aspectual  choices).  although  the  2-­‐3   sessions  described  so  far  provide  opportunities  for  hlls  to  familiarize  themselves  with  the  concept  of  aspect   with  the  help  of  the  scoba,  they  have  not  been  involved  in  the  modification  of  this  diagram  based  on  their   own  emerging  understanding  of  this  notion.  this  appropriation  and  transformation  from  the  original  model  is   reported  to  increase  learners’  agency  “to  the  extent  that  it  allows  them  to  participate  in  the  co-­‐construction  of   new  knowledge”  (stanfield,  2014,  p.  175).  therefore,  the  last  session  would  be  dedicated  to  the  deployment   of  tasks  that  emphasize  introspection  and  ccm,  while  still  exposing  students  to  limited  dialogic  interactions.      4.2.3.  reflecting  on  the  concept  of  aspect   in  this  fourth  and  final  session,  given  that  the  goal  is  reflection  on  the  part  of  the  learner,  the  majority   of   the   activities   proposed   have   either   a   dyadic   component   led   by   the   practitioner   or   an   individual   focus.   following   the   suggestions   by   negueruela-­‐azarola   (2013)   and   garcía   (2017),   during   the   first   part   of   the   session,   learners  would  engage  with   the  original  models   and   transform   them   to  appropriate   them   through   conscious   conceptual   manipulation   in   social   interaction   with   others   and   with   the   self.   these   pedagogical   models   then   not   only   become   a   useful   tool   for   the   instructor,  who   is   able   to   observe   learners’   conceptual   development   in   the  making,  but  also   for   learners,  who  are   stimulated   to  use   scientific   concepts   to  mediate   their  thinking.     once  students  have  created  their  models,  they  would  be  asked  to  revisit  two  of  the  five  activities  they   had   previously   completed   (the   multiple-­‐choice   test   and   the   written   elicited   narration)   during   a   short,   mediated  interview  conducted  by  the  teacher.  the  main  objective  of  these  dyadic  interactions  is  to  reveal— and   prompt—instances   of   conceptual   development   in   the   making   and   thus   to   provide   more   accurate   information  about  hlls’  progress  than  could  be  learned  from  their  performance  in  static  activities.  as  noted   by  garcía  (2012),  when  engaged   in  verbalization  activities,   learners  do  not   limit   themselves   to   talk  about  a   grammatical   concept;   instead,   they   talk   through   the   concept   to   solve   a   particular   task.   as   a   result,   these   dialogic   interactions   are   expected   to   prompt   complex   justifications   for   students’   choice   of   preterite   and   imperfect   in   specific   situations   (with  or  without   the  help  of   the   scoba),   inevitably   exposing   students’   real   understanding  of  the  concept  of  aspect.   garcía     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     14   in   contrast   with   previous   implementations   of   c-­‐bi,   the   present   proposal   incorporates   students’   reflections  (also  known  as  verbalizations)   in  a  wide  range  of  activities,   involving  the  participation  of  others   (groups   and   instructor-­‐student   dyads)   as   well   as   themselves.   this   variety   of   classroom   activities   is   particularly  beneficial  for  hlls,  whose  levels  of  instructional  experience,  literacy,  and  proficiency  in  the  home   language  may  affect  how  they  perform  in  different  types  of  tasks  (carreira,  2012).  additionally,  the  possibility   of  receiving   immediate  mediation  by  the   instructor  and  by  peers  during  certain  classroom  activities   is  very   much  in   line  with  a  differentiated  approach  to   language  teaching,  essential   in  the  shl  classroom  (beaudrie,   2012,  2016;  carreira,  2012).       5.  conclusion   as   has   been   discussed   throughout   this   paper,   two  main   ideas   form   the   basis   of   c-­‐bi   for   the   shl   classroom:  vygotsky’s  (1986)  theory  of  concept  formation  and  negueruela’s  (2003)  recommendations  for  the   design  and  implementation  of  pedagogical  models  focused  on  language  development  as  the  internalization  of   categories   of   meaning.   grounded   in   those   sociocultural   principles,   this   paper   has   presented   a   didactic   sequence   aimed   at   the   development   of   the   grammatical   concept   of   aspect,   as   a   meditational   tool   for   understanding  and  gaining  control  over   the  heritage   language.  a  vygotskian  approach  to   language   learning   and  development  proposes  that  properly  organized  learning  creates  and  promotes  conceptual  transformation   through  socially  mediated  and  significant,  goal-­‐oriented  activity  (lantolf  &  poehner,  2014).  this  is  precisely   what  has  been  proposed  in  the  present  article:  learners  consciously  engage  with  a  grammatical  concept  as  a   tool  for  thinking,  both  intrapersonally  or  interpersonally,  fostering  awareness  of  new  conceptual  categories  in   the  heritage  language.  this  process  of  engaging  with  concepts  and  actively  using  them  with  others  in  social   interaction   is   indeed   the   origin   of   conceptual   intra-­‐action,   leading   to   language   learning   and   development   (negueruela-­‐azarola,  garcía,  &  buescher,  2015).  the  implementation  of  c-­‐bi  in  the  shl  classroom  presented   in   this  paper   emphasizes   the   importance  of   all   these   sociocultural   elements,   including   the   crucial   role   of   a   properly-­‐organized  instruction  in  the  shaping,  development,  and  internalization  of  grammatical  notions.  this   paper  provides  practitioners  with  instructional  tools  to  foster  the  development  of  grammatical  categories  of   meaning   for   hlls.   while   this   work   only   presents   a   proposal   for   putting   c-­‐bi   into   practice   in   the   hl   classroom,  a  detailed  discussion  of  empirical  data  related  to  the  implementation  of  this  pedagogical  sequence   can  be  found  in  garcía  &  perez-­‐cortes  (2017).     an  sct  approach  to  hl  education  sees  hlls  as  socio-­‐historical  beings  whose  agency  and  identity  are   mediated   by   their   experiences   and   social   interactions,   both   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modern   language   journal,  96(iii),  419–438.   whitley,   stanley   (2002).   spanish/english   contrasts:   a   course   in   spanish   linguistics.  washington,   district   of   columbia:  georgetown  university  press.   yáñez-­‐prieto,   maría   del   carmen   (2008).   on   literature   and   the   secret   art   of   the   invisible   words:   teaching   literature   through   language   (doctoral   dissertation).   the   pennsylvania   state   university,   university   park,  pennsylvania.   zhang,  xiang.  (2014).  the  teachability  hypothesis  and  concept-­‐based  instruction.  topicalization  in  chinese  as  a   second   language   (doctoral   dissertation).   the   pennsylvania   state   university,   university   park,   pennsylvania.         implementing  concept-­‐based  instruction     e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  1–19     19       próspero n. garcía, rutgers university pg289@camden.rutgers.edu en próspero n. garcía (ph.d., university of massachusetts, amherst) is assistant professor of spanish applied linguistics at rutgers university, camden, united states. his research interests lie in the fields of spanish second language acquisition and pedagogy, vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of mind, second language evaluation and assessment, technology enhanced language learning, teacher training and development, and bilingual education. his most recent work explores the implementation of concept-based teaching (c-bi) for l2 and heritage language development, the role of learner agency in the internalization of conceptual categories, and the role of verbalization and conscious conceptual manipulation in the conceptualization of grammatical categories. es próspero n. garcía (ph.d., university of massachusetts, amherst) es profesor titular de lingüística española aplicada en rutgers university, camden (ee. uu). su investigación se centra en los campos de la adquisición del español como segunda lengua y su pedagogía, la teoría sociocultural de la mente de vygotsky, la evaluación en segundas lenguas, el aprendizaje de lenguas apoyado con tecnología y la formación de profesores y su desarrollo profesional, así como la educación bilingüe. su trabajo más reciente explora la implementación de la instrucción conceptual en el desarrollo de segundas lenguas y lenguas de herencia, el papel que desempeña la agencia del aprendiz a la hora de internalizar categorías conceptuales y la importancia de la verbalización y la manipulación conceptual consciente en la conceptualización de categorías gramaticales. it próspero n. garcía (ph.d., university of massachusetts, amherst) è ricercatore di linguistica spagnola applicata presso la rutgers university, camden (stati uniti). i suoi interessi di ricerca riguardano l'acquisizione e la pedagogia dello spagnolo come seconda lingua, la teoria socioculturale della mente di vygotsky, la valutazione della seconda lingua, l'apprendimento della lingua potenziato dalla tecnologia, la formazione e lo sviluppo dell’insegnante e la pedagogia bilingue. il suo lavoro più recente esplora l'implementazione dell’insegnamento basato su concetti (c-bi) per lo sviluppo di l2 e lingue ereditarie, il ruolo dello studente nell'internalizzazione delle categorie concettuali ed il ruolo della verbalizzazione e della manipolazione concettuale consapevole nella concettualizzazione di categorie grammaticali. microsoft word rhone_7.2.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  7,  issue  2,  october  2020,  120–123   issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.12.223   www.e-­‐journall.org     © rhone 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       review:  belpoliti,  flavia  &  bermejo,  encarna  (2020).  spanish  heritage   learners’  emerging  literacy:  empirical  research  and  classroom  practice.   routledge.         sendy  monarrez  rhone   university  of  houston         book  review     received  1  september  2020;  accepted  after  revision  16  september  2020   abstract en this manuscript reviews spanish heritage learners’ emerging literacy: empirical research and classroom practice, by flavia belpoliti (texas a&m university-commerce) and encarna bermejo (houston baptist university), published in 2020 by routledge. the book is the result of an empirical study. its eight chapters follow a research-based approach to the teaching of spanish heritage language. the authors present detailed linguistic features to consider when teaching shl writing and research-based pedagogical and instructional implications. key words:  spanish heritage language, research-based pedagogy, emerging literacy es este manuscrito es una reseña del libro spanish heritage learners' emerging literacy: empirical research and classroom practice de flavia belpoliti (texas a&m university-commerce) y encarna bermejo (houston baptist university), publicado en 2020 por routledge. el libro es el resultado de un estudio empírico: tiene ocho capítulos y sigue un enfoque de aprendizaje basado en la investigación para la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia. se presentan características lingüísticas detalladas que se deben tomar en cuenta al enseñar la escritura del español como lengua de herencia y las implicaciones pedagógicas e instruccionales según el enfoque del aprendizaje basado en la investigación. palabras claves: español como lengua de herencia, aprendizaje basado en la investigación, alfabetización emergente it questo manoscritto è una recensione del libro spanish heritage learners' emerging literacy: empirical research and classroom practice di flavia belpoliti (texas a&m university-commerce) e encarna bermejo (houston baptist university), ed è stato pubblicato dalla routledge nel 2020. il libro, risultato di uno studio empirico, è suddiviso in otto capitoli che seguono un approccio all’insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua ereditaria basato sulla ricerca. le autrici presentano nel dettaglio le caratteristiche linguistiche da tenere in considerazione nell’insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua ereditaria e le implicazioni pedagogiche e per l’insegnamento che derivano dalla ricerca. parole chiave: spagnolo come lingua ereditaria, pedagogia basata sulla ricerca, alfabetizzazione emergente *  sendy  monarrez  rhone,  university  of  houston                  sendyrhone@gmail.com http://www.e-journall.org review:  spanish  heritage  learners’  emerging  literacy   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  120–123 121   in  spanish  heritage   learners’   emerging  literacy:   empirical  research  and  classroom  practice,   flavia   belpoliti  and  encarna  bermejo  offer  a  substantial  contribution  to  the  field  of  heritage  language  (hl)  pedagogy   by  presenting  a  multidimensional  research-­‐based  approach  to  the  teaching  of  spanish  as  a  heritage  language   (shl).   this   book   is   the   result   of   an   empirical   study   that   focuses   on   the   linguistic   knowledge   and   writing   abilities  of  beginner  spanish  heritage  language  learners  (shll)  in  spanish  college  courses.  the  novelty  of  this   book  is  its  comprehensive  analysis  of  shl  emergent  writing  production,  and  its  strength  relies  on  providing   linguistic   analysis   and   pedagogical   and   practical   solutions   derived   from   an   empirical   research   study.   the   book   uses   this   analysis   to   help   professors   and   professionals   that   come   in   contact   with   shll   at   beginner   stages  to  better  comprehend  their  linguistic  abilities  and  help  them  develop  their  literacy  in  the  hl.   this   book   has   eight   chapters,   in   addition   to   the   introduction,   which   can   be   divided   into   three   sections.   in   the   first   section,   chapter   1   provides   an   overview   of   heritage   languages   in   the   united   states,   particularly  spanish  and  its  context,  and  an  introduction  of  the  research  that  drives  the  remaining  chapters.   in   the   second  section,  chapters  2   through  6  explain   the   linguistic   features   to   take   into   consideration  when   teaching   shl   writing,   from   the   surface-­‐level   conventions   (orthography)   to   sentence   structure   and   lexical   production   to   more   complex   components   at   the   discourse   level.   the   third   section,   chapters   7   and   8,   highlights   current   and   future   research   and   teaching   trends   in   shl   pedagogy,   projects   that   can   be   implemented  in  beginning  shl  courses,  and  research-­‐based  ideas  to  create  a  shl  curriculum  at  the  university   level.   while   each   of   chapters   2   through   6   concludes   with   research-­‐based   pedagogical   and   instructional   implications,   the   last   two   chapters   are   fully   pedagogically   oriented.   the   unique   contribution   of   these   last   chapters   to   hl   pedagogy   is   to   provide   teaching   approaches   and   classroom   activities   that   address   each   linguistic  feature  analyzed  in  the  earlier  chapters.   in   the   introduction,   the  authors  provide  a  general  history  of  hl  research—which  dates  back  to  the   late  1970s  and  developing  more  fully  at  the  beginning  of  the  21st  century—and  its  unique  context  in  teaching   shl,  particularly  writing,  at  the  university  level.  due  to  the  nature  of  hls,  the  authors  show  the  need  to  focus   on   literacy   at   the   beginner’s   level   in   college   courses,   as   increasing   numbers   of   second,   third,   or   later   generations  of  spanish  speakers  are  enrolling  in  spanish  courses  at  the  university,  thus  creating  a  particular   pedagogical   and  curricular  need  at   this  academic   level.  the  authors  define   literacy  as   “reading  and  writing   effectively  in  a  variety  of  contexts”  (pilgrim  &  martinez,  2013,  p.  60)  and  explain  the  dynamic  dimensions  of   language   and   literacy,   such   as   being   able   to   engage  with   the   language   in   its  written   form   rather   than   just   orally   and   considering   the   diverse   social   functions   of   language   (halliday,   1996).   furthermore,   emergent   literacy   is  defined  as   “the   initial   stages  of   this  multidimensional  process”   (belpoliti  &  bermejo,  2020,  p.  4).   heritage  speakers’  abilities  and  knowledge  are  merged  to  produce  written  texts  in  the  hl  in  different  social   contexts  (beaudrie  &  ducar,  2005;  vergara  wilson  &  ibarra,  2015).   chapter  1,   “heritage  languages  and  spanish  heritage  language  speakers   in   the  united  states,”  has   four  sections  that  set  the  foundation  for  understanding  shll:  a  literature  review  of  hl  research  over  the  past   two  decades,   a   discussion  of   the   complexity   of   the  definitions   of  hl   and  hll,   an   account   of   the   context   of   shll  in  the  united  states  and  particularly  of  the  hispanic  population  of  texas  and  houston,  which  acts  as  a   segue   into   the   final   section,   a   description   of   the   research   study   on   which   this   book   is   based.   the   study   involved  a  corpus  of  200  writing  samples,  essays  from  beginner  students  that  took  the  online  placement  test   for  spanish  heritage  learners  at  the  university  of  houston.  the  results  from  this  study  are  then  analyzed  and   discussed  in  detail   in  the  following  chapters,   focusing  each  chapter  on  one  of  the  areas  of   language:  writing   conventions,  verbal  morphology,  sentence  complexity,  lexical  access,  and  discourse  organization.   in   chapter   2,   “spanish   orthography   in   heritage   language   writing,”   the   authors   present,   through   statistical  analysis,  the  challenges  of  spelling  as  one  of  the  most  difficult  topics  for  shll  to  master.  they  make   a   three-­‐level   analysis:   (1)   phoneme-­‐to-­‐grapheme   relationships,   divided   into   different   representations,   particularly  the  problematic  relationships  such  as  the  /s/  phoneme  and  the  <h>  grapheme;  (2)  accent  marks,   focusing  on  the  omission  (the  primary  problem),  misuse,  and  addition  of  accents;  and  (3)  syllable  and  word   division,   though   this   is   the   least  of   the  problems  at   the  orthographic   level.  with   these   findings,   the  chapter   concludes  with  different  pedagogical  strategies   for  hlls   to   improve   their  spelling,   such  as  providing  direct   instruction  on  high-­‐frequency  words,  using  discovery  and  visualization  techniques,  and  technology.   chapter   3,   “spanish   verbs   in   emerging   heritage   language   writing,”   focuses   on   analyzing   the   beginning   shl   learners’   knowledge   of   the   verbal   system   of   spanish,   in   order   to   guide   classroom   implementations  to  help  shlls  acquire  a  more  complex  verbal  morphology.  first,  this  chapter  introduces  the   tense,  aspect,  and  mood  system  of  spanish  and  explains  this  system  in  terms  of  shll  accuracy  and  complexity   of  use.  the  main  section  of   this   chapter   is  a   statistical   analysis  of   the  corpus   in   terms  of   tense,   aspect,   and   rhone   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  120–123 122   mood.  it  shows  that  though  shll  have  challenges  in  the  use  of  different  tenses  (i.e.,  differentiating  between   the  preterit  and  the  imperfect)  and  different  moods  (i.e.,  deciding  when  to  use  indicative  or  subjunctive),  the   main   problem   is   that   they   tend   to   avoid   using   complex   verbs   and   instead   use   more   familiar   structures,   making   their   writing   more   colloquial.   the   chapter   also   ends   with   pedagogical   implications,   mainly   recommending  interactive  reading  and  the  use  of  folklore  in  language  teaching.     the  strength  of  chapter  4,  “building  sentences  in  spanish:  complexity,  fluency,  and  accuracy,”  relies   on  the  understanding  of  the  grammatical  competence  in  shll’s  production  as  the  foundation  for  deciding  the   order  of  the  grammatical  instruction.  in  this  chapter,  the  authors  show  how  shl  instruction  needs  to  focus  on   sentence   structure,   particularly   in   terms   of   complexity,   fluency,   and   accuracy,   as   students   become   more   functional   in  their  writing  by  developing  proficiency  and  a  more  academic  writing  style.  their  research  has   shown   that   the   most   problematic   structures   for   shll   are   nominal   phrases,   gender,   number   and   person   agreement,  possessive  structures,  relative  clauses,  and  prepositions.  based  on  these  findings,  the  authors  give   three  practical  approaches  to  teaching  grammar.  first,  raising  linguistic  awareness,  which  allows  students  to   pay   close   attention   to   the   spanish   linguistic   system.   the   second   approach   is   focusing   on   form,   through   techniques  such  as  dictogloss,  a   teaching   technique   that  addresses  grammatical  structures  by  requiring   the   students   to   listen   to   an   oral   piece   and   write   and   rewrite   it   as   they   listen.   the   last   approach   is   extensive   reading,  focusing  particularly  on  authentic  and  multidialectal  texts.   the   focus   of   chapter   5   is   vocabulary   knowledge.   the   authors   argue   that   the   main   vocabulary   problem  for  shll  is  the  influence  of  english  into  their  spanish  lexicon.  due  to  the  particular  context  of  how   spanish  is  acquired  in  the  context  of  the  united  states,  explained  and  contextualized  in  the  first  chapter,  shll   at   college   level   have   a   strong   colloquial   lexicon,   and   they  use   a   (sometimes   very   inventive)   language   from   their  upbringing,  even  in  academic  contexts.  english  contact  has  brought  into  shll  lexicon  a  variety  of  loans,   calques,   and  new   creations.   to  help   students   build   a  more   formal   vocabulary   and  decrease   the  number   of   english   transfers,   the  authors  recommend  that   teachers   focus  on  specific  vocabulary  areas,  which  will  help   the  learners  build  a  larger  lexical  repertoire  that  includes  academic  and  formal  vocabulary.  in  its  pedagogical   implications,   this   chapter   recommends   vocabulary   teaching   activities   that   cover   a   wide   variety   of   areas   introduced  to  the  students  in  stages  of  difficulty  (from  easier,  limited  vocabulary  to  more  complex,  idiomatic   use  of  vocabulary)  to  allow  students  to  grow  their  vocabulary  breadth  and  depth  in  an  intentional  way.   chapter   6   focuses   on   the   widest   linguistic   characteristic   of   writing,   discourse   competence,   which   allows  students  and  writers  to  go  beyond  the  sentence  level  and  provide  a  stronger  organization  of  text  and   information.   discourse   competence   not   only   includes   linguistic   strategies,   but   it   also   requires   cultural   knowledge   to  make   texts   understandable   and  meaningful   to   the   reader.   this   chapter,   then,   describes   how   shll  organize  their  texts,  focusing  on  the  global  structure,  the  argumentative  sequencing,  and  text  cohesion.   the   last   two  chapters  are   fully  pedagogical   in  nature.  chapter  7,   “towards  a  signature  curriculum   for   spanish   as   a   heritage   language,”   promotes   a   curriculum   design   that   includes   all   of   these   previously   analyzed  linguistic  features  and  explains  how  they  can  be  implemented  in  project-­‐based  learning  (pbl).  from   a  research-­‐based  approach,   the  chapter   indicates   that   there   is  a  higher  chance  of   student  participation  and   development   of   writing   abilities   and   skills   through   pbl.   chapter   8,   “teaching   and   learning   heritage   languages:   new   directions,   enduring   questions,”   is   a   fascinating   and   brilliant   chapter,   as   it   uses   the   framework  of   the  story  of  rosa,  a  29-­‐year-­‐old  third-­‐generation  mexican-­‐american  student,   to   illustrate  and   pull   together   all   the   research   on   the   five   linguistic   aspects   of   literacy   from   this   volume.   by   using   the   pbl   model,  the  authors  provide  recommendations  and  clear  techniques  to  apply  all  the  knowledge  that  they  have   presented  throughout  the  book.   in   conclusion,   belpoliti   and   bermejo   have   given   the   field   of   shl   a   new,   fresh,   groundbreaking   research-­‐based  book  that  is  scientific  by  virtue  of  the  data  and  approach  used,  but  that  it  is  also  very  practical   as   it   has   a   strong   focus   on   classroom   application.   although   the   book   focuses   on   university-­‐level   shl,   the   findings  and  recommendations  will  appeal  to  a  wider  audience  of  readers:  non-­‐language  university  teachers,   educational   leaders,   policymakers,   and   anyone   who   comes   in   contact   with   shll   in   and   outside   of   the   academic  context.  finally,  it  is  also  a  valuable  volume  for  training  graduate  students  in  research  and  research-­‐ based  pedagogy.             review:  spanish  heritage  learners’  emerging  literacy   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  120–123 123   references   beaudrie,  sara,  &  ducar,  cynthia  (2005).  beginning-­‐level  university  heritage  programs:  creating  a  space  for   all  heritage  language  learners.  heritage  language  journal,  3(1),  1–26.   halliday,  michael  alexander  kirkwood  (1996).  literacy  and  linguistics:  a   functional  perspective.   in  ruqaiya   hasan  &  geoffrey  williams  (eds.),  literacy  in  society  (pp.  339–376).  addison  wesley  longman.   pilgrim,  jodi,  &  martinez,  elda  (2013).  defining  literacy  in  the  21st  century:  a  guide  to  terminology  and  skills.   texas  journal  of  literacy  education,  1(1),  60–69.   vergara  wilson,  damián,  &   ibarra,   carlos  enrique   (2015).  understanding   the   inheritors:  the  perception  of   beginning-­‐level   students   toward   their   spanish   as   a   heritage   language   program.   e-­‐journall,   euro-­‐ american  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages,  2(2),  85–101.             sendy monarrez rhone, university of houston sendyrhone@gmail.com en sendy monarrez rhone is a spanish instructor in the department of hispanic studies at the university of houston, where she is currently pursuing a phd in spanish linguistics. her areas of research are spanish applied linguistics, especially phonetics and pronunciation, and heritage language learners. her language pedagogy interests are multilingualism, teacher training, e-learning content development, online learning, and language learning strategies. es sendy monarrez rhone, es instructora de español en el departamento de estudios hispánicos en la universidad de houston, donde actualmente está haciendo un doctorado en lingüística española. sus áreas de investigación son la lingüística aplicada del español, especialmente la fonética y la pronunciación, y los hablantes de herencia. sus interes en la pedagogía de idiomas son el multilingüismo, la formación del profesorado, el desarrollo de contenido de aprendizaje en línea, el aprendizaje en línea y las estrategias de aprendizaje de idiomas. it sendy monarrez rhone è una docente di spagnolo nel dipartimento di studi ispanici all’università di houston dove sta attualmente completando il dottorato in linguistica spagnola. le sue aree di ricerca sono la linguistica applicata spagnola, con un focus particolare sulla la fonetica e sulla pronuncia e gli apprendenti di lingue ereditarie. la sua sfera d’interesse nell’ambito pedagogico delle lingue sono il multilinguismo, la formazione dei docenti, lo sviluppo dei contenuti di apprendimento a distanza, l’apprendimento online e le strategie d’apprendimento delle lingue. 7a_ita_peppoloni_8.2_kb_ma e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, october 2021, 125–141 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.242 www.e-journall.org ©peppoloni 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. caratteristiche e implicazioni di una glottodidattica mobile. un possibile quadro teorico-metodologico di riferimento diana peppoloni università degli studi di perugia received 19 april 2021; accepted after revisions 29 july 2021 abstract it il presente contributo intende fornire una riflessione sulle potenzialità dell’utilizzo del mobile assisted language learning (mall) nella didattica delle lingue a distanza. il mall integra l’uso dei dispositivi mobili nel processo di insegnamento linguistico (bezircilioğlu, 2016), costituendo una modalità motivante per gli studenti, che utilizzano strumenti familiari per elaborare nuova conoscenza. in base al principio dell’anytime, anywhere (kukulska-hulme & shield, 2008), gli apprendenti possono rapportarsi con il docente e i propri pari da luoghi diversi e consultare i materiali anche in modalità asincrona (chuang, 2016). a partire dalla definizione di mall, ci si è chiesti quali siano i benefici e i limiti di tale approccio, nonché le sue implicazioni glottodidattiche. le risposte a tali interrogativi si inseriscono in un quadro teorico-metodologico dedicato allo sviluppo di una glottodidattica mobile standardizzata, in cui vengono forniti anche esempi di attività utili in un corso di lingua a distanza. parole chiave: mobile assisted language learning, didattica a distanza, mobilità en this study aims to provide further reflections on the potential of using mobile assisted language learning (mall) in remote language teaching. mall integrates the use of mobile devices into the language teaching process (bezircilioğlu, 2016), fostering students’ motivation as they use familiar tools to process new knowledge. given the “anytime-anywhere” principle (kukulskahulme & shield, 2008), students can interact with each other and with their teacher, from different places while also consulting resources in asynchronous mode (chuang, 2016). starting from the definition of mall, we question this approach in terms of its benefits and limitations, including its implications for language teaching. the answers to these questions become part of a theoretical-methodological context dedicated to the development of a standardized mobile language teaching, in which examples of useful class activities in a remote language learning course can be found. key words: mobile assisted language learning, remote teaching, mobility es esta contribución tiene como objetivo profundizar en la reflexión sobre el potencial que tiene la utilización del aprendizaje de lenguas mediante tecnología móvil, en inglés mobile assisted language learning (mall), en la didáctica de lenguas a distancia. el enfoque mall integra el uso de dispositivos móviles en el proceso de enseñanza de lenguas (bezircilioğlu, 2016) fomentando así la motivación del alumnado a medida que este utiliza herramientas que le resultan familiares para procesar el nuevo conocimiento. con base en el principio “en cualquier lugar y momento” (kukulska-hulme & shield, 2008), el alumnado puede interactuar entre iguales y con su profesor desde diferentes lugares mientras consulta al mismo tiempo recursos de manera asíncrona (chuang, 2016). partiendo de la definición del mall, cuestionamos los beneficios y las limitaciones de este enfoque, además de sus implicaciones para la enseñanza de lenguas. las respuestas a estas cuestiones pasan a formar parte de un contexto teórico-metodológico dedicado al desarrollo de una enseñanza estandarizada de lenguas a través de dispositivos móviles en el que se pueden encontrar ejemplos de actividades útiles en un curso de aprendizaje de lenguas a distancia. palabras clave: aprendizaje mediante tecnología móvil; enseñanza a distancia; movilidad * diana peppoloni, università degli studi di perugia dianapeppoloni@gmail.com caratteristiche e implicazioni di una glottodidattica mobile e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 126 1. introduzione durante la pandemia da covid-19 si è verificato un cambiamento epocale nelle modalità di insegnamento/apprendimento linguistico, che ha reso l’uso delle tecnologie mobili imprescindibile per la maggior parte delle istituzioni educative. in questo contesto emergenziale, è diventato imperativo adottare strumenti didattici alternativi rispetto a quelli tradizionalmente utilizzati nella classe di lingua, al fine di realizzare percorsi di apprendimento a distanza sostenibili ed efficaci (chung, hwang, & lai, 2019). gli istituti scolastici, e formativi in generale, hanno dovuto valutare rapidamente le modalità d’impiego di tali strumenti, così da trasformare le funzionalità dei dispositivi tecnologici di largo utilizzo nella vita quotidiana, quali smartphone, tablet, etc., in ambienti di apprendimento praticabili, sicuri e utili. lo studio delle lingue attraverso il supporto delle tecnologie informatiche sembra essere dunque l’urgenza e l’emergenza del momento in ambito glottodidattico. ciò che era stato considerato fino a poco prima un’opzione da utilizzare a discrezione del docente di lingua è diventato un obbligo inderogabile. tale tendenza ha modificato non solo la percezione degli strumenti tecnologici disponibili, ma anche l’estensione dell’uso che di essi si fa nel corso di lingua. considerando l’età media degli utenti maggiormente coinvolti dall’uso delle glottotecnologie nel loro percorso di studio linguistico, ovvero un’età compresa tra i 6 e i 25 anni, si fa riferimento a soggetti che vengono comunemente definiti nativi digitali, data la loro familiarità con il mezzo informatico. per questa categoria di fruitori, più che il computer è la tecnologia mobile a rappresentare la risorsa più utilizzata quotidianamente (morgana & kukulska-hulme, 2021). ciò si deve alla praticità d’uso di questi strumenti, ovvero alla loro costante disponibilità e alla facile portabilità. come ricorda stockwell (2013): poiché le tecnologie mobili vengono utilizzate sempre più ampiamente nella nostra vita quotidiana, forse non è sorprendente che abbiano attirato l’attenzione dei docenti di lingua come mezzo per fornire opportunità di apprendimento che gli studenti possono sfruttare in momenti e luoghi adatti a loro (p. 201, tda). questo uso ormai pervasivo soprattutto del telefono cellulare ha spostato, anche in ambito glottodidattico, l’attenzione dal call (computer assisted language learning) al mall (mobile assisted language learning). kukulska-hulme e shield (2008) spiegano che il “mall differisce dal call nel suo uso di dispositivi personali e portatili che consentono nuove modalità di apprendimento, enfatizzando la continuità e la spontaneità dell’accesso e dell’interazione tra i diversi contesti d’uso” (p. 273, tda). come avviene dunque con altri strumenti tecnologici, anche il mall costituisce a tutti gli effetti una branca dell’apprendimento supportato dalla tecnologia, a cui si può ricorrere in diverse modalità, tra cui in presenza o a distanza (baleghizadeh & olandrostam, 2010). l’apprendimento linguistico mobile non necessita infatti di un setting strutturato, ma può avvenire ovunque e in qualsiasi momento (kukulska-hulme & shield, 2008; chuang, 2016), assecondando la necessità di un’elevata mobilità da parte degli apprendenti. kukulska-hulme (2013) definisce il mall come “l’uso di smartphone e altre tecnologie mobili nell’apprendimento delle lingue, specialmente in situazioni in cui la portabilità e l’apprendimento situato offrono vantaggi specifici” (p. 3701, tda). le attuali caratteristiche dei dispositivi mobili fanno sì che questi non vengano più utilizzati solo in attività quotidiane routinarie, quali telefonare, girare video, interagire sui social network, inviare messaggi, etc., ma siano anche in grado di supportare gli apprendenti nel miglioramento di alcune abilità linguistiche, come quelle di interazione, difficili da sviluppare nei contesti didattici tradizionali. difatti, come sostiene bodorík (2017), l’apprendimento di una lingua straniera è un processo complesso che copre diversi aspetti specifici e interazionali difficilmente trattabili esaustivamente nel contesto esclusivo dell’aula di lingua. da queste premesse, il mall costituisce da tempo il soggetto di numerosi studi, come si vedrà nella sezione 2 del contributo, assicurandosi un posto stabile in glottodidattica e andando a coprire presumibilmente spazi di interesse sempre maggiori in futuro, data la diffusione e l’uso incrementali degli strumenti tecnologici a esso collegati. considerando la sempre crescente pervasività delle tecnologie, specie quelle mobili, in ambito educativo, il presente contributo si configura come un tentativo di delineare una cornice teorico-metodologica in cui definire le caratteristiche e i processi propri di una glottodidattica mobile, a partire da una riflessione sulle possibili applicazioni del mall nella didattica delle lingue a distanza, nonché sui limiti e benefici a esse correlati. peppoloni e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 127 2. il mall nell’apprendimento linguistico il mall basa i suoi fondamenti teorici sui principi del costruttivismo (vygotsky, 1978). la filosofia costruttivista prevede che l’elaborazione di nuova conoscenza non avvenga mai come processo unidirezionale, con un flusso di sapere diretto dal docente agli apprendenti. al contrario, gli studenti co-costruiscono nuovi concetti e idee assieme al docente, sviluppando la loro capacità di comprensione sulla base di una miscela di conoscenze pregresse e attuali. nel caso del mall, i dispositivi mobili possono consentire agli individui di costruire nuovi significati attraverso percorsi di apprendimento esperienziali condivisi, in cui ogni utente è fautore e protagonista dei propri risultati. l’uso delle tecnologie mobili applicate all’apprendimento linguistico è diventato una prassi didattica largamente diffusa nell’attuale scenario glottodidattico. diversi studi condotti sull’argomento testimoniano l’efficacia del mall in numerosi ambiti di studio della lingua target; tra questi si ricordano l’ampliamento del lessico degli apprendenti (solak & cakir, 2015; cakmak & ercetin, 2018), il consolidamento delle strutture grammaticali (moghari & marandi, 2017), il perfezionamento dell’ortografia (fouz-gonzález, 2017) e una migliorata capacità di lettura analitica dei testi (lin, 2014). uno studio di wu (2018) riferito all’insegnamento dell’inglese come lingua straniera per studenti sinofoni ha rilevato come le pratiche didattiche task-based basate sulla modalità mall abbiano avuto il merito di sollevare discussioni complesse e significative tra gli studenti, aumentando la loro capacità di riflessione metalinguistica e metatestuale. alcuni studiosi, tra cui morchid (2019) e hoi (2020), collegano la buona riuscita dei percorsi fondati sul mall a una serie di fattori personali e psicologici – quali le impressioni, gli atteggiamenti, la motivazione all’apprendimento e i bisogni comunicativi degli studenti – che devono essere valutati dal docente di lingua e che si sommano ovviamente a considerazioni di ordine tecnologico, relative alle caratteristiche dei dispositivi utilizzati. indubbiamente, questa complessa relazione, in cui intervengono a vario titolo numerosi e differenziati fattori nel percorso di apprendimento linguistico, rende arduo per i ricercatori valutare l’efficacia del mall. nella tabella 1, verranno illustrati i risultati di alcuni progetti di impiego del mall in contesti di studio guidati o misti, con studenti adulti universitari, in termini di ricaduta sui percorsi di apprendimento della lingua target. tabella 1 panoramica di vari studi sull’efficacia del mall nel corso di lingua studio obiettivo partecipanti metodo di indagine risultati limiti park e slater (2014) esplorare le modalità d’uso dei dispositivi mobili di docenti e studenti, nell’insegnamento/apprendimento dell’inglese come lingua seconda; identificare le attività preferite assegnate e svolte con tali strumenti 23 docenti e 76 studenti della stessa università interviste semistrutturate e un questionario solo il 15% dei docenti ha utilizzato effettivamente i dispositivi mobili nella prassi didattica, sebbene tutti dichiarino di coglierne le potenzialità campione ridotto di informanti wu (2015) analizzare il ruolo di un’applicazione per dispositivi mobili nell’apprendimento del vocabolario della lingua inglese 70 studenti di medicina, suddivisi in gruppo di ricerca e gruppo di controllo pree posttest gli studenti appartenenti al gruppo di ricerca dimostravano di ricordare circa 89 parole in più rispetto ai discenti del gruppo di controllo mancanza di strumenti più approfonditi per investigare i meccanismi di memorizzazione delle parole proposte, oltre a un’analisi più approfondita delle funzionalità della app utilizzata; aspetti che caratteristiche e implicazioni di una glottodidattica mobile e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 128 studio obiettivo partecipanti metodo di indagine risultati limiti possono aver interferito a vario titolo con i risultati conseguiti andujar (2016) verificare i vantaggi della messaggeria istantanea nell’insegnamento dell’inglese come lingua seconda e straniera 80 studenti universitari, ripartiti in gruppo di ricerca e gruppo di controllo pree posttest lo studio rileva importanti benefici derivanti dall’uso della messaggeria istantanea in termini di accuratezza nei compiti di scrittura. inoltre l’uso della messaggeria istantanea sembra favorire l’interazione tra studenti nella lingua target campione troppo ridotto e omogeneo di partecipanti, che non permette di estendere i risultati ottenuti a fasce più ampie di popolazione klimova (2019) dimostrare il contributo fornito dalle tecnologie mobili nel miglioramento delle performance linguistiche di un gruppo di studenti universitari 33 studenti universitari indagine di tipo qualitativo i risultati testimoniano in particolare un miglioramento nell’apprendimento del lessico e nella formulazione e revisione di frasi nella lingua target, ovvero l’inglese ridotto campione di informanti e disponibilità della app utilizzata solo per il sistema operativo android loewen, crowther, isbell, kim, maloney, miller & rawal (2019) esaminare l’efficacia dell’uso dell’app “duolingo” nell’apprendimento dell’inglese come l2 da parte di studenti turchi 9 studenti della michigan state university statistica descrittiva e analisi tematica volta a decodificare le esperienze dei partecipanti i risultati rivelano una positiva, sebbene moderata, corrispondenza tra l’uso dell’app duolingo e il raggiungimento di progressi in attività a sfondo grammaticale e lessicale, di lettoscrittura, di ascolto e di produzione orale ridotto campione di partecipanti, che potrebbe far sì che le evidenze ottenute siano idiosincratiche del contesto considerato 2.1. vantaggi, limiti e implicazioni pedagogiche del mall il carattere online della didattica a distanza suggerisce la necessità di impiegare strumenti tecnologici utili affinché le nozioni giungano ovunque e a chiunque. quindi, attualmente, la didattica a distanza non può essere definita solo in base alla distanza geografica tra gli utenti, ma anche, e anzi prevalentemente, nei termini di un’analisi delle funzionalità dei dispositivi tecnologici utilizzati per colmare tale lontananza fisica tra gli utenti (dron, 2014). a partire da queste considerazioni, uno degli obiettivi del presente studio è stato proprio quello di riflettere sulle caratteristiche fondanti delle tecnologie associabili al mall, definendone vantaggi e peppoloni e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 129 limiti applicativi, individuando alcune possibili strategie d’uso in percorsi didattici a sfondo linguistico, ed evidenziandone le ricadute pedagogiche. kearney, schuck, burden, & aubusson (2012) evidenziano tre caratteristiche tipiche del mall, vale a dire l’autenticità, la personalizzazione e la collaborazione. l’apprendimento autentico ha un grande potenziale nell’aumentare la motivazione e il coinvolgimento degli apprendenti (palalas, 2011). joseph e uther (2009) spiegano che “l’uso dei dispositivi mobili e dei loro contenuti multimediali può aiutare gli studenti di lingua a vivere esperienze di apprendimento più autentiche nel mondo reale, a situare l’apprendimento nei loro schemi culturali e linguistici” (p. 28, tda). utilizzando strumenti familiari, il docente ricrea scenari interattivi e contesti di apprendimento vicini al mondo reale, così da permettere al gruppo classe di fare pratica comunicativa nella lingua target. per rendere autentico l’apprendimento, gli strumenti tecnologici dovrebbero essere applicati in chiave costruttivista e in modo creativo allo studio delle lingue, ad esempio per risolvere problemi ed esplorare contesti comunicativi inediti, per lavorare su progetti di natura cooperativa, etc. (lan, sung, & chang-en, 2007; lim, hussin, asra, & zakaria, 2013). la natura personale dei dispositivi mobili consente inoltre ai docenti di personalizzare le esperienze di apprendimento dei propri apprendenti, tarandole sui punti di forza e le attitudini di ciascuno di essi (lai & zheng, 2018). i materiali e le attività sono spesso offerti in chiave multimodale, per favorirne la fruibilità sfruttando al contempo diversi canali sensoriali. i tempi di apprendimento e di svolgimento delle attività previste variano da studente a studente e non sono quasi mai predeterminati, sebbene il docente possa prenderne visione, così da tenere conto anche di questo parametro. ampliandosi i tempi e i luoghi dell’apprendimento e della pratica linguistica sarà possibile per ciascuno raggiungere obiettivi comuni, riferiti all’intero gruppo classe, sfruttando però il percorso più congeniale alle proprie potenzialità e ai propri bisogni. la progettazione delle attività da svolgere attraverso i dispositivi mobili dovrebbe essere dunque sempre guidata da obiettivi di apprendimento specifici e non dalla presunta validità attribuita agli strumenti scelti. in questo senso, come sottolineano sharples, arnedillo-sánchez, milrad, & vavoula (2009), l’uso della tecnologia non si configura di per sé come un obiettivo di studio della lingua target, quanto piuttosto come un mezzo per consentire lo svolgimento di compiti altrimenti inattuabili, o per aumentare i vantaggi per gli studenti. in ultima analisi, i dispositivi mobili favoriscono lo svolgimento di attività che sottendono a forme di cooperazione sociale. contrariamente a quanto si è portati a pensare, il mezzo informatico avvicina gli apprendenti invece di creare barriere. se adeguatamente impiegato dal docente di lingua, esso dovrebbe condurre a un maggior confronto e a una più ampia capacità relazionale tra gli apprendenti e tra questi e il docente, anche al di fuori della classe di lingua e, quindi, dei contesti di studio tradizionali. gli studenti mobili sembrano godere di un maggiore senso di autonomia, contestualizzato però all’interno di un’ampia comunità di apprendenti di riferimento, con cui condividere problematiche, ma anche esperienze o la scoperta di strumenti utili ed efficaci, una continuità nell’apprendimento (lifewide learning), la libertà nella scelta del dove, come e quando avvicinarsi allo studio della lingua al di fuori della classe. a questo proposito, tra i numerosi vantaggi attribuibili all’uso dei dispositivi mobili nella didattica delle lingue a distanza, il più importante è proprio quello della portabilità, che consente di poter raggiungere sempre e ovunque gli apprendenti situati in diversi contesti geografici o quelli svantaggiati, permettendo loro di approcciarsi comunque allo studio di una lingua straniera e di interagire con altri apprendenti e con il docente. in aggiunta, tra i vantaggi del mall annoveriamo anche la sensibilità al contesto, per cui l’utenteapprendente può raccogliere e utilizzare dati unici, idiosincratici della propria posizione, dell’ambiente e del momento in cui sta svolgendo delle attività online, e la connettività, poiché grazie all’utilizzo della rete è possibile creare collegamenti tra più dispositivi, andando così a generare un vero e proprio ambiente di apprendimento articolato e condiviso. romero, zarraonandia, aedo & díaz (2010) affermano che “tra i molti vantaggi che l’apprendimento mobile è in grado di fornire, ciò che più spicca è la capacità di accedere con facilità ai materiali di studio, senza inutili sforzi” (p. 373, tda). al-shehri (2011) vede nella tecnologia mobile un valido strumento per coinvolgere gli studenti in un processo di apprendimento olistico, che dovrebbe andare oltre i confini della classe di lingua. non meno importante, gran parte della letteratura sull’apprendimento mobile evidenzia l’efficacia della tecnologia mobile nell’offrire opportunità di esposizione alla lingua autentiche e contestualmente significative (shadiev, hwang, & huang, 2017). caratteristiche e implicazioni di una glottodidattica mobile e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 130 il mall è dunque anche occasione di incontro culturale e di esercizio della comunicazione interculturale; tali aspetti devono essere presi in considerazione dal docente di lingua nella scelta degli strumenti, dei materiali e delle attività da proporre ai propri apprendenti. come sostengono tafazoli, parra, & huertas-abril, (2018) “l’uso di nuove tecnologie, compresi i telefoni cellulari, faciliterebbe questo processo di familiarità con altre culture e di comunicazione interculturale e, di conseguenza, l’apprendimento della l2 (oggetto di studio) degli studenti” (p. 175, tda). l’utilizzo del mall, come avviene per ogni altro percorso glottodidattico, non offre solo i numerosi vantaggi appena discussi, ma comporta anche diverse sfide che devono essere affrontate sia da un punto di vista tecnico che didattico. tra queste si rilevano alcune problematiche di ordine strutturale direttamente correlate al mall, come, ad esempio, il fatto di avere uno schermo piccolo, che comporta un limitato contatto audio-visivo, una tastiera di altrettanto ridotte dimensioni, una limitata capacità di archiviazione dei dati, una durata ridotta della batteria rispetto a un computer, l’impossibilità di disporre sempre di una rete di connessione ottimale, etc. inoltre, la maggior parte dei dispositivi mobili che vengono utilizzati quotidianamente, non sono stati progettati con un intento didattico. pertanto gli studenti potrebbero faticare a considerarli utili per lo svolgimento di compiti e attività assegnati dal docente di lingua (stockwell, 2007, 2008), vedendoli piuttosto come strumenti di svago o contatto personale. ciò può essere ovviato dall’intervento del docente, che dovrebbe spiegare con chiarezza quali sono i vantaggi e gli obiettivi che egli si è prefissato integrando l’uso dei dispositivi mobili all’interno del corso di lingua. un ulteriore fattore a discapito dell’integrazione delle tecnologie mobili nel corso di lingua è che non tutti gli studenti del gruppo classe potrebbero avere a disposizione tali strumenti, incontrando potenziali difficoltà di ordine economico nel procurarseli, o nell’utilizzare a lungo una connessione internet (kassem, 2018). in virtù di quanto fin qui affermato, è importante sottolineare come inevitabilmente il concetto di mobilità nell’ambito dell’apprendimento linguistico generi nuove modalità didattiche, che includono l’elaborazione di un percorso personalizzato, centrato sullo studente, cooperativo, onnipresente e permanente o continuativo. gli studenti possono trarre profitto dall’apprendimento mobile in termini di maggiore produttività ed efficacia, maggiore flessibilità, accessibilità e opportunità di personalizzare le proprie attività di apprendimento. 3. l’elaborazione di un possibile quadro di riferimento per una glottodidattica mobile in questa sezione del presente contributo si affronterà il tema della glottodidattica mobile dal punto di vista dei docenti di lingua, ovvero del ruolo cruciale rivestito da questi ultimi nell’implementare attività incentrate sugli apprendenti, che prevedano l’utilizzo autonomo di dispositivi mobili e che possano essere svolte anche a distanza, al di fuori della classe di lingua. l’idea qui illustrata di glottodidattica mobile, basata sulla proposta di kukulska-hulme, norris & donohue (2015), si fonda sulla premessa per cui docenti e studenti condividono attivamente la costruzione del percorso di apprendimento: i primi predisponendo materiali e attività che facilitino tale percorso, mentre i secondi assumendosene la responsabilità diretta. le tecnologie mobili consentono l’attuazione di questa filosofia glottodidattica in modi precedentemente impensabili. ma quali sono le implicazioni di questo processo di assimilazione tecnologica per il docente di lingua, per l’organizzazione della lezione di lingua e per la relazione docente-studente, dal momento che i confini tra la classe di lingua e il mondo esterno si stanno pian piano assottigliando? per rispondere a queste domande è necessario analizzare i quattro elementi cardine che costituiscono l’architettura di questa nuova glottodidattica mobile e i rapporti che tra questi si instaurano, così come illustrati in figura 1. si consideri anzitutto l’esperienza del docente, componente questa che evidenzia il ruolo della competenza dell’insegnante nell’elaborare percorsi didattici efficaci. per realizzare una glottodidattica mobile, egli dovrà porre i consueti aspetti didattico-pedagogici in rapporto alle altre tre sfere della struttura descritta in figura 1, ovvero le funzionalità dei dispositivi, la mobilità dell’apprendente e la dinamicità della lingua. per ciò che riguarda le funzionalità dei dispositivi, in prospettiva glottodidattica, la tecnologia mobile può essere interpretata come l’insieme delle proprietà proprie di un dispositivo, che consentono l’instaurarsi di una comunicazione multimodale e di una collaborazione tra i discenti e tra i discenti e il docente, nonché la possibilità di effettuare prove linguistiche in contesti quotidiani e/o professionali. tali funzionalità sono rilevanti sia per i docenti che per gli apprendenti, poiché entrambe queste categorie potrebbero dover migliorare nel tempo le rispettive competenze e abilità. peppoloni e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 131 non si può parlare di glottodidattica mobile senza analizzare la componente della mobilità degli apprendenti; fattore questo che tiene conto dei luoghi e dei tempi in cui i soggetti possono trovarsi a studiare una lingua, ovvero della gamma di contesti fisici e culturali occupati, e degli obiettivi personali che li motivano a continuare ad apprendere oltre i confini della classe. la varietà dei possibili contesti d’uso della lingua, aumentata dalla mobilità degli apprendenti e dall’evoluzione tecnologica, incide inevitabilmente sulla dinamicità della lingua. la variazione linguistica dipende da fattori di natura diversa, quali lo spazio e il registro della conversazione, il background socioculturale degli interlocutori e il canale attraverso cui prende forma lo scambio comunicativo. quest’ultimo elemento è di particolare interesse nel verificare quali siano le possibili interferenze, positive e negative, dei dispositivi mobili sulla comunicazione interpersonale e come questi possano essere adeguatamente impiegati nella didattica delle lingue, per esercitarsi con la lingua target e avviare delle riflessioni sui cambiamenti subiti da quest’ultima. figura 1. un quadro glottodidattico teorico per una pedagogia mobile (adattato da kukulska-hulme et al., 2015) la struttura glottodidattica descritta in figura 1, pensata da kukulska-hulme et al. (2015), si presenta di forma circolare, a sottolineare la connessione tra tutte le sue componenti, che dipendono strettamente le une dalle altre. tale interdipendenza favorisce la riflessione dei docenti su quali siano gli elementi di novità nel modello pedagogico mobile, rispetto alle modalità didattiche precedentemente adottate nella classe di lingua, in assenza di supporti tecnologici mobili. di seguito ci soffermeremo ad approfondire quattro importanti concetti-ponte, che collegano le quattro componenti del modello sopra descritte. anzitutto quello dei risultati. questo aspetto ci porta a chiederci in che modo l’attività svolta a distanza, attraverso l’impiego di dispositivi mobili, possa migliorare la competenza linguistico-comunicativa degli apprendenti. l’azione didattica deve tener conto degli esiti del percorso di studio della lingua, sia quelli previsti a priori dal docente in fase di progettazione del corso, sia quelli inaspettati, che possono scaturire dalla partecipazione degli studenti a una lezione o a un’attività finalizzata all’apprendimento linguistico. il docente, grazie alla propria esperienza, riesce a elaborare tali risultati, nonché a programmare una struttura del corso flessibile, che resti aperta anche alla possibilità di accogliere e integrare ulteriori eventuali obiettivi di apprendimento, compresi quelli probabilmente scaturiti dalla natura dinamica della lingua e dei canali comunicativi utilizzati. tra i risultati derivanti da un apprendimento mobile si può annoverare la capacità degli apprendenti di identificare eventuali lacune nelle proprie conoscenze e competenze, l’abitudine a condurre una riflessione metalinguistica sulla lingua oggetto di studio, la capacità di cogliere le differenze d’uso della lingua target tra parlanti nativi e non nativi, la capacità di identificare i livelli di competenza degli utenti con cui si entra in contatto, il saper usare la lingua per scopi concreti in contesti effettivi del mondo reale, la capacità di reperire tra le proprie risorse linguistiche quelle più adeguate alla comunicazione all’interno di un determinato contesto, la volontà di provare, sperimentare, caratteristiche e implicazioni di una glottodidattica mobile e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 132 mettersi in gioco, nonché di imparare a imparare, ovvero di imparare ad assimilare nuova conoscenza in autonomia (kukulska-hulme et al., 2015). oltre ai risultati, un altro concetto che compone la nostra architettura per una glottodidattica mobile è quello dell’analisi, che spinge docenti e apprendenti a riflettere sul modo in cui l’attività svolta in modalità mobile si colleghi ai contesti d’uso di una lingua in continuo mutamento. poiché tale evoluzione della lingua è influenzata dai canali di comunicazione utilizzati, in particolare quelli multimediali, i dispositivi mobili diventano al contempo sia strumenti attuativi di tale mutamento sia mezzi per monitorarlo e riflettere su di esso. inoltre, un concetto importante legato all’apprendimento mobile è quello della pratica, per cui ci si chiede in che modo l’attività didattica basata sulle tecnologie mobili possa sfruttare al meglio i contesti e le risorse disponibili per consentire agli apprendenti una maggiore esposizione alla lingua target e quindi un maggior utilizzo di quest’ultima. la classe di lingua costituisce un ambiente supportante quando si tratta di aiutare gli studenti a esercitarsi con la lingua target e a diventare più consapevoli delle proprie lacune e problematiche individuali. si tratta di un contesto privilegiato in cui prepararsi per la comunicazione effettiva nel mondo reale e in cui ricevere utili feedback personalizzati. le tecnologie mobili ampliano questo terreno esplorativo, permettendo agli apprendenti di entrare in contatto con una maggiore varietà di forme e registri linguistici, di utenti e di generi testuali. il riparo offerto dallo schermo del dispositivo consente agli apprendenti, anche quelli più timidi e restii, di esprimersi in tranquillità, al sicuro da stati di ansia bloccanti. infine, affrontiamo il concetto di riflessione, legato al ruolo delle tecnologie mobili nel favorire un ragionamento esplicito e consapevole da parte degli apprendenti sul proprio percorso di apprendimento. i docenti sfruttano nel corso di lingua la propria esperienza didattica, usando, ad esempio, strategie già sperimentate in precedenza, che presumono funzioneranno con il proprio gruppo classe e che dovrebbero facilitare la riflessione su quanto appreso. l’elaborazione di buone pratiche didattiche implica che ci sia un momento condiviso di analisi consapevole ed esplicita delle attività svolte, dei contenuti trattati e dei risultati conseguiti. docente e studenti si concentreranno allora insieme su cosa è stato o non è stato assimilato e compreso, su come tali nozioni e funzioni possano essere attuate in contesti comunicativi concreti, su come migliorare e progredire, su quali possano essere i nuovi obiettivi da predisporre e così via. i dispositivi mobili possono aiutare nello sviluppo di questo processo, consentendo occasioni di riflessione più frequenti, spesso condotte in autonomia dagli studenti stessi, grazie all’uso di feedback automatici, predisposti dal docente nelle diverse attività, anche in forma personalizzata. 3.1. strategie e tecniche per una glottodidattica mobile efficace ma come si può effettivamente integrare una glottodidattica mobile all’interno di un corso di lingua? cosa rende una lezione di lingua strutturata e progettata sull’utilizzo di strumenti informatici, utilizzabili anche a distanza, un incontro di successo? docenti, linguisti e ricercatori si sono a lungo interrogati su questi punti e, sebbene non vi sia a tutt’oggi una risposta univoca, è possibile comunque individuare alcune utili caratteristiche delle tecnologie mobili a servizio di un’azione didattica efficace. anzitutto, una lezione impostata sui principi della glottodidattica mobile sarà efficace quando riuscirà a incorporare compiti relativi alle esigenze comunicative degli studenti all’interno e all’esterno dell’aula; quando esporrà gli apprendenti alla lingua come sistema dinamico, in rapida e costante evoluzione; quando integrerà l’uso delle quattro abilità primarie, assieme a quelle di interazione e mediazione, offrendo agli apprendenti l’opportunità di interagire socialmente, negoziare significati e produrre una comunicazione varia e creativa con i coetanei e con gli utenti della rete, oltre i confini spaziali e temporali dell’aula di lingua; quando fornirà agli studenti feedback mirati e tempestivi, utili per la costruzione di nuova conoscenza; quando incoraggerà gli studenti a sviluppare l’abilità di imparare a imparare, ovvero di apprendere in autonomia, partecipando consapevolmente e attivamente al processo acquisizionale; quando contribuirà a instillare nei discenti l’idea dello studio di una lingua straniera come percorso in continuo divenire, fatto di tappe, ostacoli e successi, condivisi anche con gli altri attori del percorso, ovvero i compagni e il docente. difatti, anche in un percorso di glottodidattica a distanza mobile, l’autonomia operativa dello studente, che si trova a lavorare da remoto tra le mura della propria abitazione, o comunque in contesti diversi da quello della classe di lingua, non va assimilata all’isolamento. nonostante la distanza spaziale, le tecnologie glottodidattiche possono contribuire a creare ambienti interattivi, che permettano il confronto con altri parlanti e apprendenti, poiché la lingua è di per sé uno strumento di comunicazione e relazione. la classe di lingua, virtuale o in presenza che sia, è un luogo in cui gli studenti operano e condividono. anche pegrum (2014, p. 109) sottolinea come lo sviluppo della peppoloni e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 133 pedagogia mobile dipenda dal fatto che i docenti, e i loro discenti, percepiscano i benefici sia della costruzione della conoscenza che di una rete collaborativa, attraverso il supporto tecnologico. a suo avviso, tale percezione richiederebbe però interventi formativi a preparazione di entrambe queste figure. la combinazione sapiente tra l’esperienza del docente, la scelta di strategie glottodidattiche tarate sulle caratteristiche degli apprendenti e la capacità di accedere alle informazioni, di registrare esperienze e creare e condividere prodotti e contenuti, proprietà queste tipiche delle tecnologie mobili, aiuterà il docente a rendere efficace la propria azione didattica e lo studente a sperimentare una dimensione di apprendimento soddisfacente. infatti, l’uso di ausili informatici dentro e fuori la classe di lingua è giustificato solo se tali strumenti contribuiscono a fare qualcosa che l’insegnante senza tali supporti non potrebbe attuare o potrebbe attuare in misura meno efficace (corder, 1966, p. 69). questo dovrebbe essere il principio guida per il docente nel decidere quali strumenti impiegare nel corso di lingua a distanza e con quali finalità. per individuare gli specifici bisogni comunicativi dei propri studenti, il docente può creare una bacheca o un blog online, cioè uno spazio virtuale condiviso, dove gli apprendenti possono pubblicare o condividere le loro problematiche, i loro apprezzamenti per una particolare attività svolta o segnalare eventuali argomenti di loro interesse o situazioni comunicative che hanno sperimentato e che vorrebbero approfondire. grazie alla presenza di altri utenti, che stanno affrontando lo stesso percorso, e di un docente competente, ogni studente riceverà feedback, commenti e supporto da parte del resto della comunità, sentendosi da un lato sostenuto e dall’altro ascoltato, nonché divenendo parte attiva dello sviluppo dinamico del corso di lingua. al fine invece di esporre gli studenti alla lingua intesa come un sistema dinamico, i docenti dovranno attentamente selezionare gli input testuali e i contenuti multimediali da utilizzare a lezione, tenendo conto che gli apprendenti possono inoltre accedere in autonomia ai materiali presenti in rete, sia da computer che da smartphone o tablet, e selezionare ulteriori fonti relative alla lingua oggetto di studio, incorporando al testo, orale o scritto, suoni, immagini, video o presentazioni multimediali. gli studenti possono anche condividere il materiale così reperito con il resto della classe, attivando un circolo virtuoso di scambio di dati e informazioni, sempre monitorato dall’occhio esperto del docente, capace di valutare la qualità del materiale diffuso. per ciò che riguarda l’integrazione delle quattro abilità primarie nel corso di lingua, le attività linguistiche che includono l’ascolto o la visione di video e filmati di vario genere possono essere potenziate dall’utilizzo dei dispositivi mobili degli studenti, i quali, vista la maggior qualità della fruizione e la disponibilità nel tempo di tali risorse, possono rivederle e riascoltarle anche in momenti successivi alla lezione. ciò accrescerà anche l’autonomia dello studente, consentendogli, ad esempio, di prendere decisioni in merito alla sospensione, al riavvolgimento, o al rallentamento del filmato in oggetto, o all’uso dei sottotitoli nella propria lingua materna o nella lingua target. la possibilità di visionare il materiale video privatamente contribuisce a creare un ambiente di ascolto e visivo privo di distrattori, dovuti alla presenza di altre persone nella stanza, e meno ansiogeno, dovuto all’assenza dell’occhio vigile del docente, spesso percepito come soggetto valutatore. man mano che gli studenti discutono, sempre in spazi condivisi, quali l’aula virtuale, delle loro risposte e della comprensione dei testi letti, ascoltati o visti, il docente potrà tenere traccia delle loro interazioni, al fine di fornire dei feedback su queste o facendole diventare oggetto di discussione aperta e riflessione negli incontri successivi. in questo caso occorre eliminare le pratiche valutative puntuali, a favore di un sistema di valutazione diffuso, che monitori l’operato degli apprendenti in maniera discreta, così da non inibirli dal continuare a interagire in futuro. ciò che va invece enfatizzato è il valore di una riflessione metalinguistica sui propri interventi e su quelli dei compagni. in aggiunta, i docenti possono chiedere ai propri studenti di scattare fotografie del lavoro svolto a intervalli regolari, per registrare i processi di produzione e discuterne successivamente durante una fase di riflessione comune. gli insegnanti possono stimolare la riflessione suggerendo domande quali “cosa mi ha aiutato a comprendere meglio?”, “quali abilità ho esercitato in questa attività e come questo mi aiuterà in futuro?”, “cosa mi ha aiutato (o mi ha bloccato) quando ho avuto delle incertezze?”. alcune risposte potrebbero appunto riguardare l’uso di supporti tecnologici mobili, per velocizzare, ad esempio, la ricerca del significato di una parola, per rispolverare o approfondire una regola grammaticale, o per rintracciare esempi di generi testuali simili a quelli da sviluppare nell’attività assegnata dal docente. come già detto in precedenza, è importante che i docenti forniscano feedback tempestivi che aiutino gli studenti a strutturare le proprie conoscenze linguistiche. insegnanti e studenti sono in grado di catturare molteplici e fugaci momenti di interazione in classe inserendoli all’interno di produzioni linguistiche maggiormente pianificate, come ad esempio una presentazione, utilizzando le funzioni di registrazione vocale o video sui propri dispositivi mobili. le registrazioni consentono di riavvolgere, riprodurre e successivamente di rielaborare tali produzioni, nonché di salvarle e condividerle per scopi valutativi e per verificare il caratteristiche e implicazioni di una glottodidattica mobile e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 134 raggiungimento degli obiettivi di apprendimento previsti nella programmazione del docente. sebbene il docente si adoperi per fornire supporto immediato al gruppo classe, anche al di fuori della classe di lingua, e sia abituato e abilitato a valutare, è bene che egli solleciti anche negli apprendenti la capacità di autocorrezione, indice della loro autonomia e consapevolezza, e li sensibilizzi a riflettere sulle proprie competenze linguistiche, anche collettivamente, in momenti dedicati della lezione, ad esempio anche utilizzando le registrazioni prodotte da loro stessi come base di partenza. l’autovalutazione, il riscontro dei compagni e del docente, nonché il tenere traccia dei progressi effettuati o delle proprie esigenze comunicative sono tutti processi notevolmente facilitati dalle registrazioni effettuate all’interno o all’esterno della classe. queste strategie didattiche giustificano l’uso dei dispositivi mobili nel corso di lingua, in un modo che corder (1966), prima citato, avrebbe approvato, ossia per ottenere dei benefici altrimenti difficili da sollecitare nella classe di lingua. un altro degli aspetti fondamentali dell’uso di tecnologie informatiche e dispositivi mobili nel corso di lingua è quello di riuscire a offrire agli studenti opportunità per interagire socialmente, negoziare significati e produrre una comunicazione varia e creativa con i propri compagni e con altri utenti della rete, anche al di fuori del contesto della classe, superando i limiti spaziali e temporali imposti dai tradizionali corsi di lingua (kukulska-hulme, lee, & norris, 2017). i docenti pianificano dunque le lezioni di lingua inserendovi attività e compiti che assicurino che gli studenti generino i propri output linguistici per una varietà di scopi, coerenti con i loro bisogni comunicativi e domini d’uso della lingua. durante lo svolgimento del lavoro individuale o cooperativo al di fuori dell’aula, il fatto che gli studenti dispongano di strumenti informatici di riferimento e app sui propri dispositivi (come dizionari, tesauri, piattaforme per effettuare delle video-chat, etc.) favorisce la loro propensione a un uso più creativo e diversificato della lingua target. un’ulteriore potente estensione virtuale della classe di lingua, che rende flessibile e praticabile una glottodidattica a distanza, offrendo a studenti e docenti la possibilità di comunicare in lingua in presenza tra loro, con colleghi ed esperti, è data dall’utilizzo di collaudati strumenti online gratuiti per le video conferenze (e.g. skype, zoom, microsoft teams, google meet, etc.), di ampia diffusione e di facile usabilità anche su dispositivi mobili. gli studenti si collegano in orari prestabiliti dal docente per seguire delle lezioni sincrone, o hanno modo di accedere al materiale prodotto dal docente in modalità asincrona, in base ai propri impegni e disponibilità di tempo. inoltre, è possibile collegarsi con i propri compagni e sviluppare degli approfondimenti, dei lavori di gruppo interattivi, da presentare poi in un secondo momento, anche a distanza, al resto della classe. la consultazione e l’uso delle risorse di riferimento sui dispositivi mobili, come dizionari e traduttori automatici, faciliterà e favorirà la comunicazione nel lavoro di gruppo o di classe, supportando gli studenti nel risolvere i propri problemi linguistici in autonomia, permettendo loro di trovare soluzioni creative, senza bisogno della costante presenza del docente. gli studenti possono ricevere supporto dai compagni e dalla community di utenti della rete, abituandosi così a confrontarsi sulle possibili opportunità disponibili. la riflessione sulle strutture linguistiche e le funzioni comunicative da queste realizzate favorisce la consapevolezza metalinguistica degli apprendenti; questa pratica può poi essere trasferita anche alla comunicazione esterna al corso di lingua, generando apprendenti sicuri di sé e consapevoli. gli studenti hanno comunque bisogno dell’orientamento del docente di lingua, che monitori e guidi lo sviluppo delle loro strategie di apprendimento della lingua target, orientandoli verso le tecniche più efficaci in base alle loro caratteristiche personali e agli obiettivi linguistici da raggiungere. ad esempio, sebbene questi siano abili utilizzatori dei nuovi media e delle più recenti tecnologie, possono fare fatica nel comprendere per proprio conto come integrarli proficuamente nello studio di una lingua, facendone degli strumenti acquisizionali. il docente dovrà allora intervenire, analizzando insieme ai propri discenti il rapporto tra i diversi dispositivi e applicazioni disponibili e le possibili funzionalità glottodidattiche a essi connessi, rendendoli così utenti consapevoli. consentire loro di scegliere cosa e come apprendere implica, ancora una volta, dei momenti di riflessione sulla lingua, sul percorso di studio, sulle proprie aspettative e sui propri bisogni linguistici. riflettere e interagire con il proprio apprendimento linguistico in modi significativi è di grande beneficio per costruire l’identità del discente ed è una pratica che può essere migliorata utilizzando una varietà di spazi virtuali dove esprimere e sperimentare la propria voce personale (ros i solé, calic & neijmann, 2009). una strategia efficace per sostenere l’autonomia dello studente consiste nel sollecitare quest’ultimo a effettuare delle scelte. gli approcci glottodidattici incentrati sullo studente già da tempo incoraggiano e supportano il coinvolgimento diretto dello studente nel processo decisionale e nei processi di apprendimento durante e tra le lezioni (hannafin & hannafin, 2010). un esempio di ciò potrebbe essere rappresentato dagli studenti che introducono particolari problemi di comunicazione culturale e linguistica di cui hanno avuto peppoloni e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 135 esperienza all’esterno dell’aula di lingua, per ottenere un aiuto, una guida, un contributo da parte del docente esperto. questo processo può essere assistito da registrazioni, immagini o note fatte quando si presenta il problema. ad esempio, istruzioni, regole o linee guida relative ad ambienti abitualmente frequentati da uno studente (e.g. la stazione della metropolitana, un bar, etc.) possono essere catturati sui dispositivi mobili per la discussione e la negoziazione del significato con i compagni e il docente in classe. gli studenti dovrebbero anche avere voce in capitolo su come lavoreranno, con chi lavoreranno e quali strumenti e media potrebbero usare per elaborare progetti fuori dalla classe. tali scelte vanno discusse con il docente, così da individuare punti di forza e debolezze, vantaggi e limiti; di tale riflessione beneficerà l’intero gruppo classe, che diverrà consapevole dell’utilità degli strumenti a sua disposizione e dei modi migliori per sfruttarli per realizzare i propri bisogni comunicativi. il materiale così prodotto, da singoli studenti o da gruppi, dovrebbe poi essere collocato in una piattaforma condivisa, perché resti a disposizione di tutti e possa essere riutilizzato nel tempo. ciò dà anche la misura agli studenti che l’hanno realizzato del suo valore e della sua potenziale utilità per altri gruppi di apprendenti, facendoli così sentire parte di una comunità di parlanti ampia e in divenire. sebbene ci si trovi in una classe virtuale, il proprio lavoro non riguarda solo se stessi, ma influenza le strategie elaborate dall’intero gruppo classe, contribuendo a creare una relazione anche pedagogica, oltre che personale, tra gli apprendenti. l’uso dei dispositivi mobili degli studenti per produrre testi multimediali e approcciare lo studio di una lingua straniera anche in ambienti virtuali, a distanza, ben si adatta ancora una volta alla definizione data da corder (1966) di qualcosa che l’insegnante non potrebbe altrimenti realizzare, e che va a migliorare non solo il livello di competenza linguistico-comunicativa degli studenti, ma anche la loro alfabetizzazione digitale. come verrà illustrato nella sezione successiva, attraverso la descrizione di un’attività pratica da poter sfruttare in un corso di lingua a distanza, la tecnologia mobile viene in questa sede ritenuta particolarmente adatta ed efficace se utilizzata con studenti adulti. questo perché dovendo lavorare principalmente in autonomia, gestendo in prima persona gli spazi e i tempi dell’apprendimento linguistico, dovendo organizzarsi per produrre un lavoro di gruppo al di fuori delle ore del corso di lingua, si ritiene che lo studente adulto abbia maturato le caratteristiche personali necessarie per utilizzare al meglio i dispositivi mobili nello studio di una lingua. un altro aspetto a supporto di tale scelta riguarda la capacità degli strumenti digitali mobili di sollecitare riflessioni metalinguistiche e metatestuali, incentivando un’analisi esplicita e consapevole da parte degli apprendenti su diversi aspetti linguistico-comunicativi della lingua oggetto di studio, come si vedrà anche nell’attività descritta nella sezione 4; tali riflessioni vengono sviluppate e gestite in maniera più produttiva dagli apprendenti adulti, che hanno ormai completato il processo di emersione della consapevolezza metalinguistica e che sono quindi avvezzi, se stimolati, a riflettere apertamente e consciamente sulla lingua target. tale riflessione si può ottenere con diverse tecniche didattiche, ma più in generale esponendo gli apprendenti a un confronto diretto con i dati linguistici, anche quelli prodotti dai propri compagni di corso, dalla cui analisi gli stessi dovrebbero ricavare delle intuizioni sulle strutture e le funzioni del sistema linguistico della lingua target, poi confermate e consolidate dall’intervento del docente. 4. in pratica: una possibile attività basata sui principi e gli strumenti della pedagogia mobile in questa sezione si intende contestualizzare il quadro glottodidattico sopra delineato per una pedagogia mobile, collegandolo alla pratica effettiva all’interno di una lezione di lingua. unità didattica attività di pianificazione in gruppo, destinata a studenti adulti di livello b1 che studiano l’italiano come l2 o ls in modalità a distanza. tempo stimato di esecuzione: 6 ore. obiettivi linguistici: saper formulare delle frasi interrogative e delle risposte pertinenti; saper utilizzare le strutture per chiedere e dare informazioni; conoscere il lessico relativo al cibo e all’organizzazione di una cena a ristorante. obiettivi comunicativi: esprimere delle preferenze; essere in grado di pianificare e programmare; essere in grado di fornire e ricevere informazioni significative; saper interagire in un contesto linguistico pseudo-reale con altri apprendenti non nativi della lingua target. obiettivi tecnologici: saper comunicare attraverso piattaforme di messaggeria istantanea nella lingua target; saper utilizzare piattaforme per la ricerca e la prenotazione di locali e ristoranti; saper reperire informazioni significative da un’applicazione per dispositivi mobili. caratteristiche e implicazioni di una glottodidattica mobile e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 136 in una fase preliminare, il docente, collegato online con il proprio gruppo classe, introduce l’attività e i suoi contenuti sia linguistici che comunicativi. pertanto, rivede insieme agli studenti le norme grammaticali e sintattiche necessarie per la formazione di frasi interrogative e di risposte pertinenti, le funzioni comunicative e i contesti d’uso associati a tali strutture linguistiche. oltre a ciò, il docente spiega lo svolgimento dell’attività destinata agli apprendenti e gli strumenti che questi dovranno utilizzare. in particolare, gli studenti, divisi in gruppi di 3-5 persone, dovranno interagire tra loro per organizzare una serata fuori insieme a ristorante. ognuno di loro interpreterà un personaggio con delle caratteristiche precise in termini di disponibilità oraria, esigenze alimentari, mezzi di trasporto utilizzati, etc. in questo modo gli apprendenti saranno tenuti a negoziare e a effettuare ricerche approfondite per raggiungere un accordo. il docente fornisce indicazioni anche sugli ausili tecnologici da utilizzare, tra cui il programma di messaggeria istantanea whatsapp e la piattaforma per la ristorazione tripadvisor. a questo punto il docente invia via mail a ciascun apprendente il profilo del proprio personaggio e forma i gruppi di lavoro. ogni studente è chiamato poi a creare dei gruppi di conversazione su whatsapp con gli altri membri, scambiandosi i propri recapiti telefonici, così da potersi inviare le informazioni necessarie allo svolgimento dell’attività. per ciò che riguarda i ruoli assegnati agli apprendenti, nella tabella 2 vengono forniti degli esempi da poter utilizzare in classe. tabella 2 esempi di personaggi da utilizzare durante l’attività ruolo 1 tu vivi a trastevere, un quartiere di roma facilmente raggiungibile con i mezzi pubblici, e non vuoi allontanarti troppo dalla tua abitazione. lavori fino alle 21:00, perciò puoi partecipare solo andando in un ristorante che accetti prenotazioni dopo le 21:30. il tuo cibo preferito è il pesce, cucinato in diversi modi; non ti piace la cucina americana. non ami il vino e non vuoi spendere più di 30 €. ruolo 2 tu vivi sulla via tuscolana, ma ti sposti volentieri perché hai la macchina. lavori tutti i giorni fino a tardi, ma sei libero il venerdì dalle 18:00 o nel fine settimana. sei vegano e intollerante al lattosio. non vuoi spendere più di 40 €. ruolo 3 tu vivi a ostia, ma lavori nel centro di roma. ti sposti con i mezzi pubblici, perciò non vorresti andare in periferia, ma in un luogo facilmente raggiungibile. stai studiando per un esame impegnativo all’università, perciò preferisci incontrare i tuoi amici il venerdì o il sabato sera. ti piace molto il cibo etnico e non ami gli hamburger. non vuoi spendere più di 25 €. per concludere questa fase preliminare della lezione, il docente rivede insieme alla classe gli schemi di formazione della frase interrogativa e delle possibili risposte, utili nella pianificazione e nell’organizzazione di un evento. ad esempio, che tipo di cibo vorresti mangiare?, quando ci possiamo incontrare?, dove vuoi che ci incontriamo?, sei già stato in questo ristorante?, cosa dicono le recensioni?. al termine della lezione con il docente, gli studenti possono cominciare a svolgere effettivamente l’attività, mandandosi dei messaggi di testo, scritti o audio, nei gruppi di conversazione. sulla base delle indicazioni fornite, gli studenti consultano l’app tripadvisor per trovare una soluzione che incontri i gusti di tutti. ogni volta che uno studente trova un ristorante adatto alle richieste degli altri partecipanti, fa uno screenshot della pagina di tripadvisor e lo invia in chat al resto del gruppo, così da potersi confrontare con gli altri e prendere una decisione definitiva. in figura 2 vengono proposti due esempi delle attività sopra descritte. peppoloni e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 137 figura 2. esempi delle attività svolte tramite cellulare dagli studenti a seguito di una serie di tentativi e di scambi comunicativi, gli studenti raggiungono un accordo e si preparano per inviare degli screenshot contenenti i propri messaggi di testo al docente, affinché questi possa visionare il loro operato. una volta raccolti gli scambi di tutti i gruppi di lavoro, il docente provvede a condividere i più significativi nella piattaforma utilizzata per il corso di lingua online, così da confrontarsi con il gruppo classe sugli aspetti linguistico-comunicativi più rilevanti emersi, sull’impatto che questa attività ha avuto sul loro modo di studiare e utilizzare la lingua target e su eventuali risvolti relazionali. iniziamo ora a inserire le sfere e i concetti del modello glottodidattico precedentemente descritto e illustrato in figura 1 all’interno dell’architettura di questa unità didattica. anzitutto l’esperienza del docente permetterà a quest’ultimo di comprendere che la contestualizzazione e la personalizzazione rendono le attività svolte più autentiche, significative e motivanti per gli studenti coinvolti. inoltre, il docente dovrebbe sapere come operare per creare e promuovere un’atmosfera di fiducia ed empatia nel gruppo classe, e per eliminare eventuali barriere psicologiche o emotive che potrebbero derivare dallo svolgimento di una simile attività, che prevede comunque un’interazione diretta e non mediata dall’insegnante con altri compagni di corso. anche la mobilità degli studenti e dell’apprendimento sono incluse in questo tipo di attività, in virtù dell’impostazione dei compiti progettati dal docente. difatti, gli ambienti di apprendimento in cui operano gli studenti e gli input linguistici con cui si confrontano oltrepassano i limiti della classe di lingua, perfino di quella virtuale. i dispositivi mobili vengono utilizzati in questo contesto come strumenti di ricerca e registrazione dei dati, attraverso cui sono anche memorizzate informazioni importanti sulla lingua in formato multimodale, con un’alternanza di testo scritto, file audio, immagini delle pagine tratte dalle app utilizzate, etc., e come ausilio per la riflessione e la correzione, durante e dopo la lezione. per quanto concerne la riflessione linguistica, nelle diverse fasi della lezione, gli studenti tornano sugli elementi e le strutture da apprendere e stabiliscono i vantaggi che hanno ottenuto dalle attività svolte, cosa hanno appreso, su cosa devono insistere, su cosa sentono di essere competenti, quali sono le lacune emerse, caratteristiche e implicazioni di una glottodidattica mobile e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 138 etc. questi momenti di riflessione metalinguistica migliorano la capacità di apprendimento dello studente, che sarà indotto a ragionare esplicitamente e consapevolmente sulle strutture e le funzioni della lingua target, guidato dalla mano esperta del docente. per ciò che riguarda la dinamicità della lingua, gli apprendenti impareranno a rapportarsi tra di loro utilizzando un registro informale, che a volte viene trascurato nel corso di lingua, ma che è parte integrante invece di numerosi scambi nella vita reale. tale osservazione sui diversi registri linguistici propri della comunicazione e sulla duttilità della lingua sarà utile agli apprendenti non solo nel percorso di apprendimento della lingua target, ma anche per un uso più consapevole della propria l1, in linea con quello che cummins (1983) ha denominato come il principio dell’interdipendenza. 5. conclusioni come emerge dalla riflessione proposta in questo contributo, sebbene la maggior parte delle applicazioni per dispositivi mobili, e questi strumenti stessi, non nascano con finalità glottodidattiche, essi possono comunque rivelarsi efficaci nell’insegnamento/apprendimento linguistico, se adeguatamente proposti e sfruttati dal docente esperto. essi possono difatti contribuire a motivare lo studente, aiutano il docente nel proporre stimoli multimodali, che favoriscano i diversi stili di apprendimento dei discenti, sono in grado di ampliare gli spazi e i tempi dell’acquisizione linguistica, assecondando le esigenze dei singoli utenti, specie quelli adulti, spesso alle prese con attività parallele alla frequenza del corso di lingua, quali la gestione della famiglia o di un’attività lavorativa. inoltre, promuovono la coesione all’interno del gruppo classe e tra studenti e docente, incoraggiando al confronto e alla riflessione condivisa sulla lingua. va comunque sottolineato che, come ogni strumento glottodidattico, anche i dispositivi mobili possono essere considerati di per se stessi elementi neutri del corso di lingua; eventuali benefici o svantaggi a essi correlati dipendono strettamente dall’uso che i docenti e il gruppo classe si impegnano a farne. è ciò che viene sottolineato nelle diverse sezioni del presente contributo, dove l’attenzione si sposta appunto dallo strumento alle metodologie di utilizzo dello stesso, valutando poi le possibili ricadute glottodidattiche che da queste derivano. sottolineare i benefici in termini acquisizionali delle tecnologie mobili potrebbe sembrare ridondante, dato il largo impiego che di queste si fa nella vita quotidiana; in realtà, come dimostrato dai recenti eventi pandemici, che hanno visto spesso i docenti costretti improvvisamente a ricorrervi, sguarniti delle competenze necessarie per farne un uso consapevole e proficuo, la loro integrazione nei corsi di lingua risulta comunque ancora piuttosto sottostimata. gli studenti, dal canto loro, sebbene posseggano in larga parte dispositivi mobili e li utilizzino frequentemente nelle attività della vita quotidiana, sono restii a utilizzarli con finalità educative e di approfondimento linguistico. spetta dunque al docente, professionista esperto, comprendere le potenzialità di tali strumenti e le modalità con cui integrarli nel corso di lingua, specie nei contesti a distanza. i dispositivi mobili, difatti, per loro natura, assecondano il concetto di mobilità degli studenti e dell’apprendimento, pilastri questi della didattica a distanza, e si confanno bene alle attività svolte in autonomia dagli studenti e poi consegnate al docente per avere un feedback finale. il fatto che gli apprendenti lavorino in autonomia non implica che questi debbano farlo in isolamento, anzi, i dispositivi mobili ampliano le possibilità di interazione anche tra studenti distanti fisicamente, aumentando i tempi, gli spazi e i modi dell’apprendimento. il modello glottodidattico descritto vuole fungere proprio da ausilio all’introduzione della tecnologia mobile nella didattica delle lingue, andando a descrivere i rinnovati ruoli degli attori della scena glottodidattica (il docente, i discenti e la lingua) e i processi sottostanti all’uso dei dispositivi mobili con finalità di apprendimento (e.g. riflessione, pratica, risultati etc.). questo quadro teorico evidenzia inoltre come i dispositivi mobili posseggano caratteristiche non rintracciabili negli strumenti tradizionalmente utilizzati nella classe di lingua (lavagna, carta, penna, etc.) o nel laboratorio linguistico (portabilità, interfaccia touchscreen, sensori di input multimodali, etc.). la mobilità connaturata a tali tecnologie apre nuove possibilità alla didattica cooperativa, esperienziale e incentrata sullo studente, permettendo inoltre un uso maggiormente autentico e immediato della lingua oggetto di studio, rispetto alla glottodidattica tradizionale. infine, l’utilizzo di dispositivi familiari agli apprendenti rende il percorso di studio linguistico più motivante e facilita una costruzione attiva della conoscenza da parte dei discenti. peppoloni e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 139 riferimenti bibliografici al-shehri, saleh (2011). context in our pockets: mobile phones and social networking as tools of contextualising language learning. proceedings 10th world conference on mobile and contextual learning. beijing, china, 278-286.andujar, alberto (2016). benefits of mobile instant messaging to develop esl writing. system, 62, 63-76. baleghizadeh, sasan, & olandrostam, elnaz (2010). the effect of 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(2018). cross-cultural perspectives on technology-enhanced language learning. igi global. vygotsky, lev semënovič (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. harvard university press. wu, junjie gavin (2018). mobile collaborative learning in a chinese tertiary efl context. tesl-ej, 22(2), 1-15. wu, qun (2015). designing a smartphone app to teach english (l2) vocabulary. computers & education, 85(1), 170-179. peppoloni e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 125–141 141 diana peppoloni, università degli studi di perugia dianapeppoloni@gmail.com it diana peppoloni linguista computazionale per formazione, l’autrice opera principalmente nel campo della linguistica dei corpora e acquisizionale, con un’attenzione particolare alle glottotecnologie e alla multimodalità nella classe di lingua. i suoi interessi di ricerca interdisciplinari spaziano dall’elaborazione di corpora multimodali e del parlato per l’analisi dell’interazione docente-studenti, allo sviluppo di strumenti computazionali per l’indagine di aspetti rilevanti per l’educazione linguistica, come l’acquisizione e l’uso di elementi fraseologici tipici della lingua target, quali le collocazioni. l’autrice si è poi occupata di individuare metodologie compensative sperimentali per favorire l’acquisizione linguistica in soggetti dislessici. inoltre, ha indagato il ruolo della riflessione metalinguistica nel processo acquisizionale e delle caratteristiche che assume il metalinguaggio delle discipline linguistiche. unendo i suoi interessi interdisciplinari, ha contribuito a sviluppare progetti di ricerca interuniversitari a livello nazionale in ambito glottodidattico. l’autrice è attualmente ricercatrice in didattica delle lingue moderne presso l’università degli studi di perugia. en diana peppoloni, a computational linguist, works mainly in the field of corpus linguistics and second language acquisition, with a focus on language technologies and multimodality in the language class. her interdisciplinary research ranges from the elaboration of multimodal and spoken corpora for the analysis of teacher-student interaction, to the development of computational tools for the investigation of aspects relevant to language education, such as acquisition and the use of phraseological elements typical of the target language, such as collocations. the author then worked on identifying experimental compensatory strategies to promote language acquisition in dyslexic subjects. furthermore, she investigated the role of metalinguistic reflection in the acquisitional process as well as the characteristics of the metalanguage in linguistic disciplines. combining her interdisciplinary interests, she has contributed to developing interuniversity research projects at national level in the language teaching field. the author is currently a researcher in didactics of modern languages at the university of perugia. es diana peppoloni es lingüista computacional y trabaja principalmente en el ámbito de la lingüística de corpus y en el de la adquisición de segundas lenguas, con especial atención a las tecnologías del lenguaje y la multimodalidad en la clase de lengua. su investigación interdisciplinar abarca desde la elaboración de corpus multimodales para el análisis de la interacción docente-estudiante, hasta el desarrollo de herramientas informáticas para la investigación de aspectos relevantes en la enseñanza de lenguas, tales como la adquisición y el uso de elementos fraseológicos de la lengua meta, como por ejemplo, las colocaciones. la autora ha trabajado en identificar estrategias compensatorias experimentales para favorecer la adquisición de la lengua en personas disléxicas. además, ha investigado el papel de la reflexión metalingüística en el proceso de adquisición, así como las características del metalenguaje en las disciplinas lingüísticas. a través de la combinación de sus intereses interdisciplinares, ha contribuido al desarrollo de proyectos de investigación interuniversitaria a nivel nacional en el ámbito de la enseñanza de idiomas. en la actualidad, la autora es investigadora en didáctica de lenguas modernas en la universidad de perugia. microsoft word 3. fleta_done_24-38.docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  7,  issue  1,  january  2020,  24-­‐38   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.11.185   www.e-­‐journall.org     © fleta guillén 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       construyendo  puentes  entre  educación  infantil  y  primaria     para  la  enseñanza  bilingüe  en  inglés         m.  teresa  fleta  guillén   universidad  complutense  de  madrid         received  27  april  2019;  received  in  revised  form  9  july  2019;  accepted  29  september  2019   abstract es el presente artículo ofrece una visión general del funcionamiento de la enseñanza del inglés en educación infantil en el contexto español y presenta sugerencias de buenas prácticas. para garantizar el éxito de la educación bilingüe en primaria, en la que asignaturas no lingüísticas se estudian a través del inglés, es necesario equipar a alumnos y a docentes con los instrumentos y técnicas pedagógicas necesarias para acometer las habilidades lingüísticas y conceptuales cuanto antes. basándose en estudios de adquisición del inglés, en las reflexiones de los propios docentes, en el enfoque metodológico aicle, y con el foco puesto en la comunidad autónoma de madrid, este artículo explica la situación de la enseñanza del inglés en educación infantil y presenta intervenciones pedagógicas creativas para construir puentes entre infantil y el aula bilingüe de primaria. tras justificar la conveniencia del aprendizaje temprano del inglés, se presentan prácticas útiles para equipar mejor al alumnado en infantil y ayudarle a enfrentarse al reto que supone la educación bilingüe en primaria. palabras clave: infantil, primaria, inglés, aprendizaje temprano, metodologías. en this article offers an overview of english language teaching in early childhood education contexts in spain and offers suggestions for good practices. in order to guarantee successful bilingual education in primary school, when content classes are offered in english, it is necessary for students and teachers to possess the tools and skills that will allow them to tackle conceptual and linguistics abilities as soon as possible. in this article, based on previous studies on english learning as well as on teacher reflection and clil methodology, and focusing on the spanish region of madrid, i present the current state-of-affairs of english language teaching at primary schools and discuss creative pedagogical interventions to bridge pre-k and bilingual primary education. i begin by justifying the need for early english language learning, then describe some useful teaching practices to better prepare pre-k students and help them be successful in bilingual primary education. key words:  pre-k, primary school, english, early language learning, methodologies. it il presente articolo offre una rassegna generale del funzionamento dell’insegnamento dell’inglese nella scuola materna nel contesto spagnolo e fornisce dei suggerimenti pratici per le lezioni. per garantire il buon esito della formazione bilingue nella scuola primaria, in cui le materie non linguistiche si studiano in inglese, è necessario fornire agli alunni e ai docenti gli strumenti e le tecniche pedagogiche necessarie per sollecitare le abilità linguistiche e concettuali il prima possibile. sulla base degli studi sull’acquisizione dell’inglese, delle riflessioni degli stessi docenti, dell’impostazione metodologica clil, e con il focus sulla comunità autonoma di madrid, questo articolo illustra la situazione dell’insegnamento dell’inglese nella scuola materna e presenta degli interventi pedagogici creativi per costruire dei ponti tra la scuola materna e l’aula bilingue della primaria. dopo aver giustificato la convenienza dell’apprendimento precoce dell’inglese, si espongono delle pratiche utili per meglio attrezzare gli studenti della materna ed aiutarli ad affrontare con successo la sfida della formazione bilingue nella primaria. parole chiave: scuola materna, scuola primaria, inglese, apprendimento precoce, metodologie.   *    m.  teresa  fleta  guillén,  universidad  complutense  de  madrid                      tfleta@perlaunion.es   construyendo  puentes  entre  educaciòn  infantil  y  primaria     e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 25   1.  introducción   la  enseñanza  del  inglés  a  hablantes  de  otras  lenguas  se  ha  ido  consolidando  en  las  últimas  décadas   de  manera  progresiva  en  muchos  países  (murphy  &  evangelou,  2016).  esto  ocurre  en  primaria  no  solo  bajo  el   enfoque  pedagógico  de  aprendizaje   integrado  de  contenidos  y  lenguas  extranjeras   (en  adelante  aicle),   o   con  programas  de  inmersión  temprana  (baker  &  wright,  2017;  coyle,  hood  &  marsh,  2010;  cummins,  1979;   genesee,  2008);   sino   también  en   la  esfera  de   la  educación  superior   (dearden,  2015).  en   todos   los  casos,  el   inglés  se  viene  utilizando  de  manera  creciente  como  medio  de   instrucción  de  asignaturas  no   lingüísticas  en   todos  los  niveles  académicos.     dentro  del  panorama  actual  de  enseñanza  de  las  lenguas  extranjeras,  españa  se  sitúa  en  una  posición   destacada.   como   ya   apuntaba   coyle   en   2010,   españa   lidera   un   papel   protagonista   en   la   implantación   de   programas  educativos  bilingües:  “spain  is  rapidly  becoming  one  of  the  european  leaders   in  clil  practice  and   research”  (coyle,  2010,  p.  viii).  la  enseñanza  de  lenguas  extrajeras  empezó  a  cambiar  en  españa  de  manera   generalizada   a   finales   del   siglo   xx   cuando   se   elaboró   el  white   paper   de   la   comisión   europea   (comisión   europea,  1995).  los  dos  objetivos  principales  de  este  documento  incluían  la  adquisición  y  mejora  de  por  vida   de  las  competencias  comunicativas,  y  del  dominio  de  tres  lenguas  comunitarias  a  través  de  la  fórmula  1  +  2   (lengua  materna  +  2)  desde  una  edad  temprana.  esta  fórmula  especifica  que,  durante  la  etapa  escolar,  todos   los   niños   de   la   unión   europea   deben   tener   la   oportunidad   de   aprender   al   menos   tres   lenguas   a   un   nivel   funcionalmente   adecuado.   basándose   en   la   propuesta   del   libro   blanco,   muchas   escuelas   españolas   desarrollaron   programas   bilingües,   la   mayoría   adoptando   aicle   como   enfoque   para   enseñar   materias   no   lingüísticas  a  través  del  inglés  (coyle  et  al.,  2010,  p.1).  desde  1996,  los  programas  bilingües  inglés-­‐español  se   han  venido   implantado  en   colegios  públicos  de  educación  primaria   impulsados  por   las  politicas  educativas   nacionales  y  autonómicas.     en   las   últimas   décadas,   la   demanda   del   inglés   como   lengua   extranjera/adicional/segunda   (en   adelante  l2)  ha  sido  impulsada  no  solo  por  la  proliferación  de  programas  de  enseñanza  bilingüe  en  educación   primaria  y  secundaria;  sino  también  por  la  incorporación  de  secciones  bilingües  al  ámbito  universitario,  y  por   la  potenciación  de  cursos  de  formación  de  profesorado.  este  giro  pedagógico  hacia  un  mayor  incremento  de   los  programas  de  enseñanza  bilingüe  se  inicia  de  manera  progresiva  en  primaria,  lo  cual  conlleva  numerosos   cambios  no  solo  en  las  políticas  educativas  sino  también  en  los  enfoques  metodológicos.  factores  tales  como   la  edad  de   inicio  de   los  alumnos,  el  entorno  de  aprendizaje,  o  el   tiempo  y  grado  de  exposición  al   inglés  (en   adelante  input),  inciden  directamente  en  la  calidad  de  la  enseñanza.   el  impulso  de  programas  bilingües  no  solo  es  considerable  en  españa,  sino  también  en  otros  países   con   una   mayor   o   menor   tradición   de   educación   bilingüe   (kersten,   rohde,   schelletter   &   steinlen,   2010;   mourão,  2019;  mourão  &  lourenço,  2015;  murphy  &  evangelou,  2016;  rokita-­‐jaśkow,  2015).  a  pesar  de  ello,   en   estudios   recientes   queda   reflejado   que   los   docentes   de   lengua   extranjera   que   trabajan   en   educación   infantil   carecen  de   la   formación  metodológica  necesaria  para  abordar   la  enseñanza  en  este  nivel  educativo   (mourão  &  ferreirinha,  2016;  rokita-­‐jaśkow  &  pamula-­‐behrens,  2019).   para  ayudar  a  docentes  y  a  alumnos  a  acometer  con  éxito  la  educación  bilingüe  en  primaria  donde  los   alumnos  estudian  asignaturas  del  currículo  en  inglés,  es  fundamental  construir  antes  los  andamios  de  inglés   en   infantil.   para   abordar   estas   cuestiones,   el   presente   artículo   se   divide   en   tres   partes.   en   la   primera,   se   revisan   los   fundamentos   teóricos  en   los  que  se  enmarca  el  aprendizaje   temprano  de   lengua  y  contenidos  a   través  de  una  l2.  en  la  segunda  parte,  se  analiza  el  funcionamiento  de  la  enseñanza  del  inglés  en  educación   infantil  y  se  presentan  algunas  reflexiones  de  docentes  de  infantil  de  la  comunidad  autónoma  de  madrid.  en   la  última  parte,  se  presentan  propuestas  de  mejora  para  crear  puentes  entre  infantil  y  primaria.     2.  soporte  teórico   2.1.  el  aprendizaje  temprano  de  una  l2   la  finalidad  de  esta  sección  es  presentar  un  marco  teórico  que  sustente  el  aprendizaje  temprano  del   inglés  l2  basado  en  las  habilidades  lingüísticas  desarrolladas  ya  por  los  alumnos  en  su  lengua  materna  (l1  en   adelante).  existen  numerosos  factores  que  influyen  en  el  proceso  de  desarrollo  de  una  l2  en  la  escuela:  unos   están  relacionados  con  la  edad  y  el  desarrollo  psicológico-­‐social  de  los  aprendices  o  incluso  con  el  grado  de   desarrollo  de  su  l1,  y  otros  son  variables  que  están  relacionadas  con  el  entorno  de  aprendizaje  y  el  tipo  de   instrucción   (blondin   et   al.,   1998;   edelenbos,   johnstone   &   kubanek,   2006;   myles,   2017;   singleton   &   pfenninger,  2019).     fleta  guillén   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 26   el   factor  edad  en  el  aprendizaje  de   lenguas  ha  sido  objeto  de  estudio  y  de  debate  durante  décadas   (dekeyser,  2000;  johnstone,  2002;  singleton  &  muñoz,  2011).  numerosos  estudios  llevados  a  cabo  con  niños   apuntan   a   que   tanto   los   monolingües   como   los   bilingües   que   adquieren   el   inglés   de   forma   simultánea   o   sucesivo/secuencial  en  contextos  naturales  y  de  instrucción  formal  exhiben  un  orden  natural  de  adquisición   de  la  gramática  inglesa  (fleta,  2019;  haznedar,  2013;  lakshmanan,  1994;  radford,  1990).  en  todos  los  casos,   el   aprendizaje   de   la   lengua  meta   se   lleva   a   cabo   siguiendo   etapas   de   desarrollo   gramatical   tanto   para   las   estructuras  morfológicas  como  para  las  sintácticas.  estas  fases  de  desarrollo  de  la  l2  se  corresponden  con  las   propuestas  por  tabors  (1997)  para  la  adquisición  de  l2:       -­‐ uso  de  la  l1;     -­‐ periodo  de  silencio;   -­‐ discurso  formulaico  y  telegráfico,   -­‐ uso  productivo  de  l2.     meisel   (2011)   distingue   entre   la   adquisición   simultánea   de   lenguas   y   la   adquisición   sucesivo/secuencial  del  bilingüismo.  la  primera  emerge  si  la  exposición  a  dos  (o  más)  lenguas  se  lleva  a  cabo   dentro  de  una  semana  después  del  nacimiento;  la  segunda  surge  cuando  los  niños  comienzan  una  l2  antes  de   los   cinco   años.   en   ambos   casos,   tanto   en   la   adquisición   simultánea   de   lenguas   como   en   la   adquisición   sucesivo/secuencial   del   bilingüismo,   los   niños   adquieren   la/s   lengua/s   objeto   a   través   de   la   interacción   comunicativa,  escuchando,  hablando  y  entendiendo  los  mensajes  de  los  hablantes  con  los  que  interaccionan   (fleta,   2015;   long,   1996;   mackey,   2007).   en   este   sentido,   parece   que   existen   estrechos   vínculos   entre   la   adquisición  de  una  l1  en  casa  y  el  aprendizaje  de  una  l2  en  la  escuela,  cuando  este  se  acomete  a  una  edad   temprana,  ya  que  en  ambos  casos   las   lenguas  se  presentan  sin   instrucción   formal  y  se  practican  oralmente   con  niños  de  corta  edad  (cameron,  2001).  como  explica  meisel  (2011):  “the  suspicion  thus  is  that  whatever   enables   the   child   to   acquire   the   mother   tongue   might   not   be   lost   forever,   rather   that   it   could   be   hidden   somewhere  among  or  underneath  our  other  cognitive  faculties”  (p.  1).  a  este  respecto,  parece  que  existe  una   estrecha  relación  entre  la  adquisición  simultánea  y  el  aprendizaje  sucesivo/secuencial  de  la/s  lengua/s  en  la   escuela,   ya   que   en   ambos   casos   los   mecanismos   psicolingüísticos   que   utilizan   los   niños   para   procesar   el   lenguaje   son   los   mismos,   tanto   en   contextos   naturalistas   como   en   situaciones   de   aula   (cutler,   2012;   lightbown  &  spada,  2013).   en   lo  que  respecta  a   las  variables  relacionadas  con  el  entorno  de  aprendizaje,  hay  que  señalar  que   existe  una  gran  diferencia  entre  el  tiempo  de  exposición  a  los  datos  lingüísticos  del  entorno  de  una  l1  y  una   l2.   lightbown   y   spada   (2013)   consideran   que   la   cantidad   de   tiempo   que   los   niños   monolingües   están   expuestos  a  su  l1  antes  de  escolarizarse  es  aproximadamente  20.000  horas.  por  el  contrario,  el  número  de   horas  de  exposición  a  una  l2  varía  de  un  entorno  de  aprendizaje  a  otro.  esto   implica  que  tener  una  menor   cantidad  de  horas  de  contacto  con  la  l2  conlleva  necesariamente  una  menor  cantidad  de  horas  de  interacción   comunicativa  y  de  exposición  al  input  y,  por  este  motivo,  la  calidad  y  la  intensidad  de  la  instrucción  en  estos   entornos  de  aprendizaje  debería  ser  mayor  (lightbown  &  spada,  2013).   además  del  número  de  horas  de  contacto  con  la  l2,  hay  que  tener  en  consideración  que  el  contexto  y   las  circunstancias  de  aprendizaje  sean   favorables  y  que   la  calidad  y   la  cantidad  de   la  exposición  a   la  nueva   lengua   sean   suficientes.   así   mismo,   hay   que   tener   presente   que   las   conversaciones   en   el   aula   son   de   naturaleza  distinta  al  del  habla  en  casa  porque  las  primeras  son  de  índole  pedagógica  y  están  dirigidas  a  crear   condiciones  que   fomenten  el  desarrollo  del   lenguaje   (gibbons,  2015).  en  consecuencia,   la  naturaleza  de   las   conversaciones  en  la  escuela  difiere  sustancialmente  de  la  comunicación  en  contextos  naturalistas  ya  que  los   alumnos  no  están  inmersos  en  una  interacción  comunicativa  continua  de  manera  natural  (cameron,  2001).  a   esto  hay  que  añadir  que  como  las  conversaciones  entre  profesores  y  alumnos  tienen  un  matiz  pedagógico,  la   utilización  de   la   lengua  y  de   los  conceptos  debe   integrarse  de  manera  equilibrada  de   tal  manera  que  se   les   facilite  el  aprendizaje  de  ambos  a  los  alumnos  (lyster,  2007).   la  comisión  europea   (2011)   recomienda  que   se  exponga  a   los  niños  a   la  l2  en  distintos  entornos   significativos,   tales   como,   por   ejemplo,   durante   las   rutinas   diarias,   los   juegos   o   la   lectura   compartida   de   cuentos,  para  que  entiendan  mejor  el  sentido  de   los  mensajes,  para  que  el  aprendizaje  sea   lo  más  natural  y   espontáneo  posible,  y  para  que  así  tengan  la  oportunidad  de  usar  la  l2  cuanto  antes.  por  tanto,  estar  inmerso   en   la  l2,  entender  el   significado  de   los  mensajes  y   tener  oportunidades  para  usarla   lengua   lo  antes  posible   son  algunos  de  los  requisitos  necesarios  para  llevar  a  cabo  el  aprendizaje  temprano  de  una  l2  con  éxito.     construyendo  puentes  entre  educaciòn  infantil  y  primaria     e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 27   2.2.  el  enfoque  metodológico  aicle     el   enfoque  aicle,   en   inglés   clil   (content   and   language   integrated   learning),   surgió   en   europa   a   mediados  de  los  años  90  como  una  solución  pragmática  a  una  necesidad  europea  (marsh,  2002).  se  trata  de   un  enfoque  educativo  en  el  que   la  l2  se  utiliza  para   la  enseñanza  y  el  aprendizaje   tanto  de   la   lengua  meta,   como  del  contenido  de  asignaturas  (coyle  et  al.,  2010).  de  modo  que  en  los  contextos  donde  se  aplica  aicle,   la  l2  es  a   la  vez   la   lengua  de  comunicación  y   la  de   instrucción  (bonnet,  2012;  coyle,  2010;  dalton-­‐puffer  &   smit   2007;   lyster   2007;  mephisto   2007).   por   esta   razón,   en   la   preparación  de  docentes   para   la   educación   bilingüe  de  aicle,  es  necesario  llevar  a  cabo  cambios  pedagógicos,  no  solo  en  los  temas  relacionados  con  las   habilidades  lingüísticas,  sino  también  en  los  relacionados  con  el  conocimiento  de  metodologías  de  instrucción   basado  en  contenidos.   la   metodología   aicle   tiene   su   fundamentación,   por   una   parte,   en   el   enfoque   constructivista   del   aprendizaje   como  proceso   social   y   dinámico  por   el   que   los   alumnos   aprenden   cuando   interactúan   entre   sí   (bruner,   1996;   vygotsky,   1978),   y,   por   otra   parte,   en   las   teorías   de   adquisición   de   l2   (cummins,   1979;   genesee,  2008;  krashen,  1982).  además,  esta  metodología  también  se  sustenta  en  el  concepto  de  andamiaje   (scaffolding)  propuesto  por  wood,  bruner  y  ross  (1976)  y  en  el  concepto  de  la  zona  del  desarrollo  próximo   propuesto  por  vygotsky  (1978).  se  trata,  en  suma,  de  involucrar  al  alumnado  en  interacciones  comunicativas   y  que  participen  tanto  en  los  procesos  del  aprendizaje  de  la  lengua  meta,  como  en  la  adquisición  de  conceptos   relacionados  con  las  distintas  asignaturas  del  currículo.  en  cuanto  a  esto  último,  no  es  lo  mismo  enseñar  los   conceptos  de  una  asignatura  en  la  l1  del  profesor  y  de  los  alumnos  que  en  la  l2  del  profesor  y  de  los  alumnos.   por   ello,   impartir   clase   en   una   l2   supone   en   algunos   casos   un   reto   para   los   profesores,   ya   que   la   falta   de   dominio  de  la  lengua  puede  limitar  su  habilidad  para  explicar  los  conceptos.  por  esta  razón  y  para  garantizar   la   calidad  y   la   cantidad  de   input  del  docente,   es  necesario  que   su   competencia   lingüística  y   su  preparación   metodológica   curricular   y   de   enseñanza   de   lenguas   sean   meticulosas   (ball,   kell   &   clegg,   2015).   de   igual   manera,  aprender  a  través  de  una  l2  supone  un  reto  para  los  alumnos  ya  que  no  solo  se  espera  de  ellos  que  al   estudiar  una  asignatura  en  la  l2  desarrollen  habilidades  relacionadas  con  el  contenido  de  la  asignatura,  sino   también  que  hagan  uso  de  ese  conocimiento  utilizando  la  l2.  es  decir,  se  trata  de  que  utilicen  la  lengua  con  un   doble  objetivo,   como  vehículo  para   aprender   el   contenido  de   las  distintas  materias   y,   a   la   vez,   aprender   la   lengua  para  poder  comprender  y  comunicarse.   un   valor   añadido   de   la   metodología   aicle   es   la   integración   pedagógica   de   contenido,   cognición,   comunicación  y  cultura  (coyle  et  al.,  2010);  y  es  precisamente  en  este  marco  de   las  4cs,  y  en  el  de   los   tres   tipos  de  lenguaje  (of-­‐for-­‐through)  donde  se  sustenta  la  metodología  aicle.  por  una  parte,  se  trata  de  que  los   alumnos   tengan   suficiente   conocimiento   de   la   lengua   para   acceder   al   conocimiento   relacionado   con   los   diferentes  temas  de  las  asignaturas  (of),  que  conozcan  el  tipo  de  lenguaje  que  se  utiliza  en  distintos  contextos   (for),   y   que   reciclen   y   desarrollen   la   lengua   que   están   aprendiendo   durante   la   interacción   comunicativa   (through).     otra   de   las   características   propias   del   enfoque  metodológico  de  aicle   es   la   relevancia   del   trabajo   colaborativo   entre   profesores.   como   cada   área   curricular   tiene   su   propio   lenguaje,   se   requiere   un   mayor   grado  de  colaboración  entre  los  especialistas  de  lenguas  extranjeras  y  los  profesores  que  utilizan  la  l2  para   impartir  contenidos  académicos  en  áreas  curriculares  no  lingüísticas  (coyle  et  al.,  2010).  en  consecuencia,  la   colaboración  sistemática  entre  ambos  grupos  de  docentes  influye  positivamente  tanto  en  la  planificación  de   las  unidades  didácticas  de  aicle  como  en  su  implementación.  además,  al  trabajar  en  colaboración,  se  crean   contextos   de   aprendizaje   en   los   que   los   docentes   se   pueden   comunicar   en   la   l2   y   poner   en   práctica   sus   habilidades  comunicativas.     de   lo   anteriormente   expuesto   se   desprende   que,   con   la   vista   puesta   en   la   educación   bilingüe,   las   primeras  etapas  de  escolarización  del  niño  son  cruciales,   tanto  para  el  aprendizaje  en  general  como  para  el   aprendizaje   de   una   l2   en   particular   (cameron,   2001;   kuhl,   2010).   por   esta   razón,   los   conocimientos   y   habilidades   que   se   adquieren   en   los   primeros   años   escolares   sientan   los   cimientos   para   profundizar   posteriormente  en  las  diferentes  áreas  de  conocimiento  a  lo  largo  de  la  escolarización.  por  tanto,  al  comienzo   del   proceso   de   aprendizaje   de   una   l2,   es   necesario   construir   una   sólida   base   oral   donde  habilidades   tales   como  escuchar,  hablar  y  entender  sean  el  apoyo  para  el  posterior  aprendizaje  de  la  lectura  y  escritura,  y,  a  su   vez,   sirvan  para   expresar   conceptos   e   ideas   en   la   l2   (fleta,   2015;   long,   1996;  mackey,   2007).   en   suma,   la   finalidad  última  del  aprendizaje  temprano  de  la  l2  es  incrementar  las  capacidades  lingüísticas  e  intelectuales   de  los  alumnos  y  prepararlos  para  cursar  educación  bilingüe  en  primaria.     fleta  guillén   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 28   3.  la  l2  en  educación  infantil     según   establece   la   ley  orgánica   8/2013   para   la  mejora   de   la   calidad   educativa  (lomce,   2013),   la   educación  en  españa  se  compone  de  diez  años  de  escolarización  obligatoria  y  gratuita  para  alumnos  de  entre   seis   y   dieciséis   años.   del   mismo   modo,   dentro   del   panorama   educativo   español,   la   educación   infantil   actualmente  no  es  obligatoria.  esta  etapa  educativa,  se  divide  en  dos  ciclos:  el  primer  ciclo  acoge  a  niños  de   cero  a  tres  años  y,  por  lo  general,  este  tipo  de  escuelas  suelen  estar  dirigidas  por  las  administraciones  locales   y  autónomas  o  por  centros  educativos  de  titularidad  privada.  por  su  parte,  el  segundo  ciclo  engloba  a  niños  de   tres   a   seis   años,   y   a   excepción   de   las   instituciones   privadas,   la   enseñanza   en   los   centros   públicos   está   subvencionada  para  todos  aquellos  niños  que  se  matriculen.     como   apuntábamos   en   la   sección   1,   la   enseñanza   de   lenguas   extranjeras   en   españa   empezó   a   cambiar  de  manera  generalizada  con  la  puesta  en  marcha  del  plan  de  acción  basado  en  el  white  paper  de  la   comisión  europea  (1995).  en  este  plan,  el  consejo  de  europa  proponía  que  los  ciudadanos  europeos  deben   hablar   dos   lenguas   además   de   la   lengua  materna,   y   empezar   su   aprendizaje   a   una   edad   temprana   porque,   como   se   especifica   en   el   documento,   las   competencias   lingüísticas   son   el   centro   de   las   destrezas   que   cada   ciudadano   necesita   para   su   desarrollo   personal   y   cultural.   como   se   apunta   en   el   informe,   una   de   las   prioridades  de  los  estados  miembros  es  garantizar  que  el  aprendizaje  de  lenguas  extranjeras  se  lleve  a  cabo   en   las   escuelas   infantiles   y   primarias,   porque   es   ahí   donde   se   fraguan   actitudes   fundamentales  hacia   otras   lenguas  y  culturas  y,  al  mismo  tiempo,  porque  es  donde  se  sientan  las  bases  para  el  aprendizaje  posterior  de   idiomas.     los  programas  de  educación  bilingüe  inglés-­‐español  se  empezaron  a   implantar  en  españa  en  1996,   producto   del   convenio   del   ministerio   de   educación   y   el   consejo   británico   (british   council).   este   proyecto   bilingüe   se   implementó   en   centros   públicos   de   diferentes   comunidades   autónomas   en   educación   infantil   y   primaria  y  desde  entonces  ha  sido  renovado  en  varias  ocasiones.  el  objetivo  principal  de  este  proyecto,  en   curso  hoy  en  día,  es  aumentar  el  nivel  de  inglés  de  los  alumnos  y  a  la  vez,  ofrecerles  la  oportunidad  de  seguir   un   currículo   oficial   bilingüe   y   bicultural   a   través   de   un   currículo   integrado,   basado   en   los   programas   nacionales   y   británicos.   en   la   actualidad   se   lleva   a   cabo   en   87   colegios   públicos   en   diez   comunidades   autónomas  y  en  las  ciudades  de  ceuta  y  melilla.  las  escuelas  que  forman  parte  de  este  proyecto  contemplan  la   enseñanza   del   40%   del   tiempo   del   período   semanal   en   inglés   (dobson,   johnstone   &   pérez   murillo,   2010;   reilly  &  medrano,  2009).   paralelamente  a  este  proyecto,   tanto   las  autonomías  monolingües  como  las  bilingües  han  adoptado   medidas  para  gestionar  la  educación  bilingüe  de  acuerdo  con  sus  necesidades  e  idiosincrasias.  a  este  respecto   varios  autores  han  estudiado  los  factores  que  influyen  en  el  éxito  de  los  programas  de  enseñanza  bilingües  en   las   distintas   comunidades   autónomas   (baker   &   wright,   2017;   lorenzo,   trujillo   &   vez,   2011;   madrid   &   hughes,   2011;   pérez   cañado,   2016).   según   el   informe   2018   del   ministerio   de   educación   y   formación   profesional  sobre  el  estado  del  sistema  educativo  en  españa  durante  el  curso  escolar  2016-­‐2017,  el  85,6  %  de   los  alumnos  de  entre  tres  y  seis  años  tuvieron  una  aproximación  a  una  lengua  extranjera  en  el  segundo  ciclo   de  educación  infantil;  siendo  el  inglés  la  lengua  más  ofertada  (84,6%),  seguida  del  francés  (0,6%)  y  de  otras   lenguas  (0,3%).     tomando   como  muestra   la   situación   actual   de   la   educación   bilingüe   en   la   comunidad   de  madrid,   existen  dos  programas  en  curso:  el  proyecto  fruto  del  acuerdo  entre  el  ministerio  de  educación  y  el  consejo   británico  desde  1996  que  se  implanta  en  10  centros;  y  el  programa  de  la  comunidad  autónoma  de  madrid  en   vigor  desde  2004.     el  programa  bilingüe  de   la  comunidad  autónoma  de  madrid  que  comenzó  su  andadura  en  colegios   públicos   durante   el   curso   2004/2005,   se   amplió   a   los   colegios   concertados   en   el   curso   2008-­‐2009,   a   los   institutos  de  educación  secundaria  en  el  curso  2010/2011,  a  los  centros  de  formación  profesional  en  el  curso   2016-­‐2017   y,   por   último,   más   recientemente   en   el   curso   2017/2018   se   inició   en   el   segundo   ciclo   de   educación   infantil.   según   datos   de   la   consejería   de   educación   e   investigación   (2018/2019),   el   número   de   escuelas   estatales   del   programa   bilingüe   de   la   comunidad   autónoma   de   madrid   ha   crecido   considerablemente  con  los  años.  para  ilustrar  este  dato,  en  la  tabla  1  se  presenta  el  incremento  del  número   de  escuelas  de  primaria  y  número  de  estudiantes  que  han  recibido  educación  bilingüe  desde  2005  en  madrid.   construyendo  puentes  entre  educaciòn  infantil  y  primaria     e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 29   tabla 1 escuelas primarias y alumnos que recibieron educación bilingüe entre 2005 y 2018 2005 2008 2010 2014 2018 escuelas primarias 26 147 206 336 369 número de alumnos 1,481 27,248 48,689 86,670 114,096   durante  el  curso  escolar  2018/2019,   la  educación  bilingüe  inglés-­‐español  ha  llegado  a  379  colegios   públicos   de  primaria,   a   166   institutos   de  educación   secundaria,   a   218   colegios   concertados   y   también   a   5   centros  de  formación  profesional.  además  de  estas   instituciones  bilingües,  existen  un  total  de  15  secciones   lingüísticas  de   francés  y  4  de  alemán  en  educación  secundaria  que   forman  parte  del  programa  bilingüe  de   madrid.  los  alumnos  de  primaria  de  los  colegios  públicos  y  concertados  de  este  programa  bilingüe  reciben  al   menos  un  tercio  del  horario  lectivo  semanal  en  inglés  y,  a  excepción  de  la  lengua  española  y  las  matemáticas,   cualquier  asignatura  se  puede  impartir  en  la  l2.   en  un  principio,  la  enseñanza  de  la  l2  en  la  comunidad  de  madrid  se  iniciaba  en  el  segundo  ciclo  de   educación  infantil  con  niños  de  3  a  6  años  y  en  sesiones  de  una  hora  o  una  hora  y  media  con  una  frecuencia   semanal  (boletín  oficial  de  la  comunidad  de  madrid,  2004).  la  tabla  2  presenta  el  promedio  de  sesiones  de   inglés  en  infantil  hasta  la  modificación  de  la  ley  en  el  curso  escolar  2017/2018  (bocm,  2017,  p.158).         el  programa  bilingüe  aicle  de  la  comunidad  autónoma  de  madrid  comienza  en  primero  de  primaria   y   se   extiende   durante   6   años.   la   elección   de   las   asignaturas   que   se   enseñan   a   través   del   inglés   viene   determinada  por  la  habilitación  del  profesorado  y  por  los  recursos  disponibles  en  cada  centro.  a  excepción  de   las   matemáticas   y   la   lengua   española,   se   pueden   estudiar   en   inglés   asignaturas   como   ciencias   de   la   naturaleza,  ciencias  sociales,  educación  física,  educación  artística,  y  religión/valores  sociales  y  cívicos.  la   tabla  3  ilustra  el  número  de  sesiones  de  las  asignaturas  que  normalmente  se  enseñan  en  inglés  en  primero  de   primaria   bilingüe.   además   de   la   asignatura   de   lengua   inglesa   (4   horas   por   semana,   1   hora   por   día),   las   escuelas  primarias  bilingües   imparten  una  carga   lectiva  mínima  en   inglés  del  30%  del   currículo   (7,5  horas   por  semana)  y  se  puede  llegar  hasta  un  máximo  de  50%.       tabla 3 asignaturas y horas lectivas en primero de primaria bilingüe en madrid asignatura sesiones semanales lengua inglesa 4 ciencias de la naturaleza y sociales 3 educación plástica 1 educación física 1 música 1   como   se   desprende   de   las   tablas   2   y   3,   existe   un   gran   contraste   entre   el   número   de   horas   de   exposición  al  inglés  en  infantil  y  en  primaria,  donde  el  enfoque  aicle  se  viene  implantando  desde  hace  años.   como  muestra   la   tabla   2,   el   número  de   horas   de   inglés   en   infantil   es   por   término  medio   de   unas   2   horas   semanales;  mientras  que  el  número  de  horas  lectivas  de  asignaturas  que  se  imparten  en  inglés  en  primero  de   primaria  bilingüe  puede  alcanzar  por  término  medio  las  10  horas  semanales.     más  recientemente,  en  el  curso  escolar  2017-­‐2018  se  implantó  la  enseñanza  bilingüe  español-­‐inglés   en  el  segundo  ciclo  de  educación  infantil  en  35  escuelas  de  comunidad  de  madrid  (bocm,  2017,  p.  158).  en  el   curso  2018-­‐2019  se  ha  introducido  en  62  colegios  públicos  y  se  ha  ampliado  a  colegios  concertados.  además,   tabla 2 promedio de sesiones de inglés en escuelas infantiles edad alumnos sesiones semanales duración sesiones 3 2 45 minutos 4 2 45 minutos 5 3 45 minutos fleta  guillén   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 30   la   normativa   prevé   que   todos   los   centros   de   nueva   creación   sean   considerados   bilingües   desde   educación   infantil.  la  implantación  de  este  nuevo  programa  en  infantil  busca  sentar  las  bases  para  la  educación  bilingüe   en  primaria.   según  el  documento  datos  y  cifras  de   la  educación  de   la  comunidad  de  madrid   (2018-­‐2019),   este  novedoso  programa  bilingüe  debe  incluir  en  el  horario  escolar  un  mínimo  de  sesiones  de  45  minutos  de   duración   impartidas   en   inglés:   tres   sesiones   en  primero,   cuatro   en   segundo   y   cinco   en   tercero.   la  tabla   4   presenta  el  número  mínimo  de  sesiones  en  inglés  propuesto  para  el  segundo  ciclo  de  educación  infantil.     tabla 4 número mínimo de sesiones en inglés en el segundo ciclo de educación infantil bilingüe edad alumnos sesiones semanales duración sesiones 3 3 45 minutos 4 4 45 minutos 5 5 45 minutos   un  requisito  indispensable  para  impartir  la  docencia  en  centros  de  educación  bilingüe  es  contar  con   un  número  suficiente  de  docentes  que  hayan  obtenido  el  certificado  lingüístico  requerido  para  la  enseñanza   bilingüe.  según  el  marco  común  europeo  de  referencia  para   las   lenguas   (mcer),  el  nivel   lingüístico  mínimo   que   se   requiere   para   impartir   docencia   en   la   región   de  madrid   es   un   c1.   además,   para   poder   enseñar   en   centros   bilingües   de   infantil   y   primaria,   los   docentes   deben   haber   obtenido   la   habilitación   lingüística   y   metodológica,   de   lo   contrario,   solo   pueden   enseñar   inglés   como   materia   lingüística   (boletín   oficial   de   la   comunidad  de  madrid,  2017,  p.  159).   en  definitiva,  parece  que   las  autoridades  educativas  de   la  comunidad  de  madrid  son  sensibles  a   la   importancia  que   tiene   incrementar   la  docencia  del   inglés   en   infantil   para  garantizar  un   tránsito  óptimo  de   infantil  a  la  educación  bilingüe  en  primaria,  y  así  asegurar  el  éxito  en  esta  fase  de  la  educación.  este  período   de  transición  a  la  enseñanza  bilingüe  supone  un  desafío  y  un  cambio  significativo  en  la  docencia  que  conlleva   tiempo  y  especialización  porque  los  cambios  en  políticas  educativas  no  siempre  van  acompañados  de  cambios   comparables  en  la  promoción  de  cursos  de  formación  inicial  y  continua  del  profesorado  (enever  &  lindgren,   2016).     a  este  respecto,  de  un  estudio  realizado  en  80  centros  educativos  públicos,  concertados  y  privados  de   la   comunidad   de   madrid   se   desprende   que   los   docentes   subrayan   la   necesidad   de   adquirir   un   buen   conocimiento   del   inglés   y   de   conocer   las   prácticas   metodologías   adecuadas   para   la   educación   en   infantil   (fleta,   2015).   unos   se   centran   en   la   importancia   de   introducir   cursos   de   especialización   en   la   formación   inicial   del   profesorado   y   otros,   demandan   más   cursos   de   formación   continua,   intercambio   de   recursos   e   información   con   otros   docentes   en   las   mismas   o   diferentes   escuelas,   y   la   posibilidad   de   llevar   a   cabo   intercambios  en  el  extranjero.   en  resumen,  para  cimentar  bien  el  inglés  en  infantil  y  sentar  las  bases  para  la  enseñanza  bilingüe  en   primaria  dentro  del  enfoque  aicle,  las  autoridades  educativas  y  los  docentes  deben  tomar  en  consideración   los   enfoques   teóricos   sobre   cómo   aprenden   nuevas   lenguas   los   niños   de   corta   edad   y   cuáles   son   las   metodologías   que   mejor   se   adaptan   a   alumnos   de   corta   edad   en   distintos   contextos   de   aprendizaje.   de   acuerdo  con  esto,  y  basado  en  trabajos  de   investigación  de  adquisición  del   lenguaje  en  infantil   (fleta  1999,   2001,   2003)   y   también   en   la   experiencia   docente   del   aula,   a   continuación,   se   presentan   propuestas   para   fomentar  las  cuatro  destrezas  en  inglés  en  infantil.     4.  prácticas  para  construir  puentes  entre  infantil  y  primaria   dado  que  la  educación  bilingüe  es  muy  exigente  para  docentes  y  alumnos,  es  preciso  dar  un  enfoque   al  currículo  de  infantil  distinto  al  que  se  centre  solo  en  el  aprendizaje  de  inglés  como  asignatura  escolar.  por   ejemplo,  según  el  currículo  integrado  bilingüe  hispano-­‐británico  para  educación  infantil,  el  objetivo  del  nuevo   enfoque  docente  debe  centrarse  en  diseñar  e   implementar  prácticas  adaptadas  a   la  edad  de   los  alumnos  de   infantil,  que  promuevan  la  adquisición  y  el  aprendizaje  de  la  l1  y  la  l2  a  través  de  temas  (topics).  se  trata  de   un  enfoque  transversal,  en  el  que  se  pueden  estudiar  todas  las  áreas  dentro  de  un  tema  determinado  (centro   nacional  de  innovación  e  investigación  educativa,  2013).   en   este   sentido,   para   que   se   lleve   a   cabo   el   aprendizaje   temprano   de   una   l2   con   éxito   es   imprescindible   entender   el   significado   de   los  mensajes   y   tener   oportunidad   de   usar   la   lengua   (kersten   &   construyendo  puentes  entre  educaciòn  infantil  y  primaria     e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 31   rohde,  2013).  dado  que  a  una  edad  temprana  (antes  de  los  6  años),  los  niños  todavía  están  desarrollando  su   l1   y   se   encuentran   en   una   etapa   de   pre-­‐lecto-­‐escritura,   el   aprendizaje   no   debe   separarse   de   los   centros   y   temas  de  interés,  sino  que  debe  basarse  en  lo  que  ya  saben,  a  pesar  de  que,  a  estas  edades,  su  conocimiento   conceptual  sobre  el  mundo  sea  restringido.   como   se   apunta   en   la   sección   2.1,   los   niños   acometen   el   aprendizaje   del   inglés   en   la   escuela   de   manera  natural  y  sin  instrucción  explicita  de  su  gramática;  utilizando  las  mismas  estrategias  de  aprendizaje   que  las  que  utilizan  los  niños  para  el  aprendizaje  de  la  l1;  es  decir,  escuchando,  entendiendo  los  mensajes  y   hablando  (cameron,  2001;  lightbown  &  spada,  2013;  moon,  2000).  por  esta  razón,  es  importante  que  algunos   contenidos  curriculares  se  enseñen  en  inglés  y  que  la  metodología  no  se  centre  solo  en  memorizar  canciones   o  en  aprender  palabras  de  vocabulario  por  separado.  más  bien,  se  debe  basar  en   la   idea  de  que  a  una  edad   temprana   el   aprendizaje   de   la   l2   se   lleva   a   cabo   en   paralelo   con   el   aprendizaje   de   contenidos   (cameron,   2001;   lightbown   &   spada,   2013   moon,   2000).   de   acuerdo   con   esto,   se   debe   dar   más   importancia   a   la   compresión   y   a   la   fluidez   oral,   que   a   la   corrección   gramatical   (lightbown   &   spada,   2013);   por   lo   que   las   mejores   prácticas   para   el   aprendizaje   de   lenguas   en   la   escuela   serán   las   que   fomenten   la   interacción   comunicativa.   en  esta  sección  se  presentan  prácticas  consolidadas  que  se  consideran  útiles  y  que  van  encaminadas   a   fomentar   los   entornos   significativos   (comisión   europea,   2011),   y   a   equipar   y   capacitar   al   alumnado   de   infantil   para   la   comunicación   oral   y   escrita   en   inglés.   se   trata   de   actividades   creativas   que   se   utilizan   en   centros  bilingües  de  infantil  y  presentan  una  amplia  gama  de  recursos,  que  se  pueden  adaptar  fácilmente  a  la   edad  de  los  alumnos  y  a  su  nivel  psico-­‐lingüístico.  han  sido  utilizadas  en  el  aula  y  surgen  de  la  investigación   en  infantil  (fleta,  2019;  kersten  et  al.,  2010).  si  se  planifican  de  antemano,  se  pueden  incluir  en  el  currículo  de   infantil   e   integrar   en   todas   las   áreas   de   aprendizaje   de   acuerdo   con   los   diferentes   niveles   madurativos   y   desarrollo   lingüístico   de   los   niños.   todas   las   prácticas   promueven   la   interacción   personal,   emocional,   lingüística  y  social  a  través  de  experiencias  de  aprendizaje  multisensorial.     4.1.  prácticas  para  desarrollar  la  destreza  auditiva   como  los  niños  de  corta  edad  aprenden  inglés  l2  en  la  escuela  de  manera  implícita  y  sin  instrucción   explícita   de   la   gramática,   las   habilidades   receptivas   tales   como   escuchar   y   comprender   los   mensajes   son   primordiales  (fleta,  2015;  krashen,  1982;  long,  1996;  mackey,  2007).  en  este  entorno  de  aprendizaje  y  con  el   fin  de  entender  las  conversaciones,  los  niños  deben  prestar  atención  a  los  fonemas  ingleses  que  componen  las   sílabas,  las  palabras  y  las  oraciones  ya  que  buena  parte  del  lenguaje  está  impulsado  por  el  sonido  más  que  por   el   significado  (cook,  1997).  para  que   los  niños  aprendan   los   fonemas  y   la  prosodia  del   inglés,   los  maestros   necesitan  conocer  qué  habilidades  fonológicas  que  han  sido  ya  adquiridas  por  los  niños  para  su  l1  se  pueden   transferir   al   inglés,   y   cuáles   deben   ser   aprendidas   porque   no   son   equivalentes   en   ambos   idiomas   (fleta,   2017).     a   fin   de   promover   las   habilidades   auditivas   y   el   aprendizaje   de   contenidos,   se   debe   fomentar   la   interacción   comunicativa   a   través   de   prácticas   que   mejor   se   adapten   a   los   niños   de   diferentes   edades,   capacidades   y   necesidades.   como   los   niños   de   corta   edad   se   distraen   fácilmente   y   su   capacidad   de   concentración  y  su  memoria  están  en  proceso  de  desarrollo  (merry,  2006),  se  pueden  utilizar  juegos  (cooper,   2010)   tales   como  explorar   los   sonidos  ambientales,   escuchar   sonidos  hechos   con  objetos   comunes,  prestar   atención  a  los  sonidos  de  instrumentos  musicales,  emparejar  sonidos  con  objetos,  escuchar  rimas,  canciones,   cuentos   (fleta,  2015).  para  este  cometido,  una  de   las  prácticas  más  efectivas  que   favorece   la   comunicación   entre   maestros   y   niños   es   la   lectura   compartida   de   álbumes   ilustrados   (fleta   2015;   mourão,   2015).   las   conversaciones   que   se   llevan   a   cabo   en   torno   a   la   lectura   de   cuentos  mientras   se   miran   las   ilustraciones   fomentan   el   desarrollo   lingüístico   y   el   conceptual.  a   través  de   la   lectura   compartida  de   cuentos   se  pueden   practicar   los   elementos   acústicos   del   inglés.   hay   cuentos   que   se   centran   específicamente   en   los   fonemas   ingleses  y  que  se  pueden  utilizar  para  elevar  la  conciencia  fonológica;  otros,  se  centran  en  las  rimas  o  refranes   rítmicos,  en  sonidos  onomatopéyicos,  en  aliteración,  homónimos  y  homófonos  (fleta,  2017).  para  facilitar  la   comprensión   y   el   significado   de   palabras   y   estructuras   de   los   cuentos,   durante   la   lectura   compartida   se   pueden   utilizar   señales   verbales   y   no   verbales   tales   como   señalar   con   el   dedo   las   ilustraciones,   añadir   expresiones  faciales,  gestos,  lenguaje  corporal,  sinónimos,  comentarios,  cantar  canciones  o  recitar.           fleta  guillén   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 32   4.2.  prácticas  para  desarrollar  la  destreza  oral    como  los  niños  desde  que  nacen  tienen  la  capacidad  de  detectar  y  procesar  información  sofisticada   sobre   las   propiedades   de   las   lenguas   a   las   que   tienen   acceso   (kuhl,   2010),   los  maestros   pueden  presentar   vocabulario,  pronunciación,  entonación  y  las  estructuras  gramaticales  del  inglés  durante  las  conversaciones;   y  con  ello  darles  a  los  niños  la  oportunidad  de  utilizar  el  inglés.  en  suma,  para  fomentar  el  habla,  los  maestros   deben  ofrecer  a  los  niños  múltiples  oportunidades  para  escuchar  y  para  usar  el  lenguaje.     estudios   llevados   a   cabo   en   entornos   bilingües   formales   indican   que,   durante   la   interacción   comunicativa,  el  discurso  entre  maestros  y  niños  se  centra  más  en  la  comprensión  de  los  mensajes  que  en  la   forma  (fleta,  2015;  lyster,  2007;  mackey,  2007).  es  decir,  que  los  maestros  se  inclinan  más  porque  los  niños   entiendan   los  mensajes  y  que  hablen,  que  por   corregir   su  producción   lingüística   (fleta,   2018).  también   se   desprende  que,  durante  las  conversaciones,  los  maestros  fomentan  la  interacción  comunicativa  por  medio  de   preguntas,  utilizando   técnicas  de  elicitación,   retroalimentación,  expansión,  o  utilizando  sinónimos,  en   lugar   de   hacer   correcciones   explícitas.   de   esta   manera,   por   medio   de   estrategias   discursivas,   los   maestros   promueven  la  comunicación  y  sientan  los  cimientos  del  inglés.  con  el  fin  de  acelerar  el  proceso  de  aprendizaje   del  inglés  en  infantil  y  preparar  a  los  niños  para  la  enseñanza  bilingüe  en  primaria,  una  de  las  prioridades  de   los  maestros  debería   ser   conocer   cuáles   son   las  estrategias  discursivas  que   fomentan   la   comprensión  y   las   habilidades  orales  y  así  poder  diseñar  y  programar  prácticas  de  conversación  apropiadas.     una  manera  de  presentar  lenguaje  significativo  y  útil  es  valiéndose  del  lenguaje  prefabricado  o  de  las   fórmulas,  que  favorecen  que  los  niños  utilicen  el  inglés  durante  las  rutinas  diarias  en  todas  las  estancias  de  la   escuela  (aula,  pasillos,  recreo,  comedor)  consiguiendo  que  poco  a  poco  vayan  incorporando  este  lenguaje  a  su   propia   rutina.   “las   rutinas  diarias  permiten  empezar   a   familiarizar   a   los  niños   con   la   lengua  de  una   forma   natural”  (centro  nacional  de  innovación  e  investigación  educativa,  2013,  p.  17).  las  fórmulas  tienen  un  papel   importante  en  el  desarrollo  del   lenguaje  porque  proporcionan  a   los  niños  herramientas   lingüísticas  básicas   para  la  comunicación  cotidiana  lo  que  les  permite  comunicarse  en  la  l2  desde  el  primer  día,  que  es  realmente   uno  de  los  objetivos  del  maestro  y  también  de  los  padres  de  los  niños.  las  fórmulas  para  saludar,  despedirse   (good  morning;  good  bye),  o  para  pedir  permiso  (can  i…?,  may  i…?)   fomentan   la  participación  e   interacción   comunicativa   y   equipan   a   los   niños   con   herramientas   lingüísticas   básicas   para   practicar   inglés  muy   desde   temprano.   durante   las   primeras   etapas,   las   fórmulas   permiten   que   los   niños   interaccionen   en   inglés   en   situaciones  comunicativas  básicas.  por  ejemplo,  cuando  los  niños  piden  permiso  para  ir  al  baño,  pueden  usar   una   fórmula   corta   como:  toilet,   please?   entre   otras   cosas   porque   los   niños   a   los   3   años   son   incapaces   de   procesar   estructuras   gramaticales   largas,   incluso   en   su   lengua  materna.  más   adelante,   se   puede   introducir   una  fórmula  larga  como:  can  i  go  to  the  toilet,  please?  de  esta  manera,  los  niños  acceden  al  nuevo  vocabulario,   fonología  o  estructuras  gramaticales  del  inglés  y  al  mismo  tiempo  aprenden  contenidos  durante  las  rutinas  en   la  escuela  y  durante   las   transiciones  entre  actividades   (fleta,  2006).  otra  manera  de  promover  el  habla  en   inglés   es   a   través  de   las   conversaciones   en   torno   a   la   lectura  de   cuentos,   las   dramatizaciones,   a   través  del   juego  imaginario,  con  juegos  de  acción  o  también  durante  sesiones  para  cantar  o  recitar  en  grupo.     4.3.  prácticas  para  desarrollar  la  lecto-­‐escritura   la  adquisición  de  la  lengua  oral  está  directamente  relacionada  con  el  aprendizaje  de  la  lecto-­‐escritura   y   ambas   son   necesarias   para   aprender   los   conceptos   de   las   distintas   asignaturas   cuando   los   alumnos   las   aprenden  en   la  l2.  a  diferencia  de   las  destrezas  auditivas  y  orales,   las   capacidades  de   leer  y  escribir  no  se   adquieren   de   manera   natural   y   sin   instrucción,   sino   que   para   su   aprendizaje   es   necesaria   la   instrucción   formal  (pinnel  &  fountas,  2011).  por  tanto,  aprender  a  leer  y  escribir  requiere  tener  una  buena  base  oral  y  un   sólido  conocimiento  general  (schickedanz  &  collins,  2013).     para   familiarizar   a   los  niños   con   la   representación  gráfica  de   la   lengua  oral   se  puede  empezar  por   poner  énfasis  en  los  nombres  de  los  niños.  por  ejemplo,  los  maestros  pueden  escribir  los  nombres  en  tarjetas   y  colocarlos  en  la  pared  o  en  un  tablón  y  hacer  referencia  a  ellos  durante  las  rutinas  diarias  tales  como  pasar   lista,  o  asignar  tareas  a  los  monitores  (maría:  gives  out  the  papers;  juan:  waters  the  plants;  ana:  helps  children   to   keep   in   line).   se   pueden   colocar   tarjetas   con   los   nombres   de   los   niños   en   las   perchas   donde   cuelgan   su   abrigo,  en  los  cajones  donde  guardan  sus  pertenencias.  las  tarjetas  con  los  nombres  de  los  niños  son  también   útiles  durante  las  transiciones  entre  actividades.  por  ejemplo,  el  maestro  señala  el  nombre  de  cada  niño  para   ponerse   en   fila,   ponerse   el   abrigo   o   salir   al   recreo.   en   una   etapa   posterior,   cuando   los   niños   se   han   familiarizado   con   sus   nombres   escritos,   se   pueden   colocar   las   tarjetas   en   las  mesas   de  manera   aleatoria   y   construyendo  puentes  entre  educaciòn  infantil  y  primaria     e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 33   pedir  a   los  niños  que  cada  uno  encuentre  su  nombre.  más  adelante,   se  puede   jugar  al  bingo  con   letras  o  al   juego  del  ahorcado.   para   practicar   la   lectura   de   izquierda   a   derecha   y   de   arriba   abajo,   al   principio,   se   pueden   utilizar   símbolos  en  vez  de  letras  y  palabras.  por  ejemplo,  se  pueden  utilizar  solo  secuencias  de  figuras  geométricas   (triangle,   triangle,   circle,   square,   square,   rectangle).  más   adelante,   se   puede   asignar   un  movimiento   a   cada   figura   geométrica   (triangle:   dar   una   palmada;   cuadrado:   dar   un   salto;   rectangle:   hacer   clic   con   los   dedos;   circle:  girar  sobre  sí  mismo).  los  niños  deben  leer  los  símbolos  siguiendo  el  patrón  y,  al  mismo  tiempo,  hacer   los  sonidos  o  movimientos  que  representan  las  figuras  geométricas.   los  sistemas  fonéticos  del  español  y  el  inglés  difieren  en  cuanto  a  los  fonemas  y  a  la  prosodia  (fleta,   2017).   los   niños   que   aprenden   inglés   en   la   escuela   deben   prestar   atención   a   los   fonemas   que   componen   sílabas,  las  palabras,  así  como  a  la  entonación  de  las  oraciones  inglesas  con  el  fin  de  entender  el  flujo  continuo   de   sonidos   del   habla   de   los   maestros.   el   enfoque   más   utilizado   para   acelerar   el   aprendizaje   de   la   lecto-­‐ escritura,  originalmente   concebido  para   inglés  l1,   es   el  método   sintético  phonics  basado  en   la  teoría  de   la   inteligencia  múltiples   (gardner,   1983)   y   en   el  método  total   physical  response   (asher,   1969),   por   el   que   la   lengua  se  aprende  a  través  del  juego  y  de  las  acciones.  entre  los  detractores  de  la  aplicación  de  este  método   para   el   aprendizaje   de   la   l2   figura   krashen   (2002).   este   autor   critica   deficiencias   del   método   fundamentalmente   en   la   comprensión   lectora   debido   a   la   calidad   y   cantidad   de   la   exposición   a   la   nueva   lengua,   lo   cual,   según   este   autor,   conlleva   problemas   y   desencadena   en   filtros   afectivos   negativos   que   al   parecer   no   favorecen   el   aprendizaje   natural   de   la   lengua   (krashen,   2002).   a   pesar   de   los   argumentos   en   contra,  el  método  sintético  phonics  es  un  método  efectivo  y  atractivo  porque  las  actividades  son  variadas  y  las   técnicas  multisensoriales  que  se  utilizan   les  permiten  a   los  alumnos  aprender   los   fonemas  y   los  grafemas  a   través   de:   canciones   y   rimas   (inteligencia   musical);   acciones   asociadas   a   cada   sonido   (inteligencia   kinestésica);  imágenes  (inteligencia  visual);  historias  (inteligencia  lingüística);  trabajando  individualmente  en   los  cuadernos  de  fonética  (inteligencia  interpersonal);  y  debatiendo  en  parejas  o  en  grupo  sobre  las  historias   (inteligencia  intrapersonal).investigaciones  realizadas  con  aprendices  de  inglés  l2  en  primaria  relacionan  la   conciencia  fonológica  con  la  comprensión  lectora  y  concluyen  que  la  utilización  del  método  phonics  facilita  el   proceso   de   aprendizaje   de   la   lectura   (lázaro   ibarrola,   2007).primero   se   presentan   los   fonemas   (sonidos)   asociados   a   determinados   grafemas   (letras)   de   manera   sistemática   y   los   alumnos   trabajan   con   letras   separadas;   después,   juntan   los   fonemas   para   construir   sílabas   y   más   tarde   palabras.   en   definitiva,   con   el   método  sintético  de  lecto-­‐escritura  los  niños  aprenden  escuchando,  hablando,  leyendo  y  escribiendo.   como   un   paso   previo   al   desarrollo   de   la   escritura   es   dibujar,   para   practicar   el   lenguaje   escrito   e   interaccionar   oralmente   con   los   niños,   se   les   puede   pedir   que   dibujen   en   su   cuaderno   y   que   “lean”   las   imágenes  que  han  dibujado;  el  maestro  a  su  vez  escribirá  en  el  cuaderno  palabras  o  frases  relacionadas  con  el   dibujo.  en  este  contexto,  las  conversaciones  entre  el  maestro  y  el  niño  sobre  los  dibujos  o  sobre  garabatos,  se   parezcan   estos   o   no   a   la   escritura,   sirven   de   apoyo   tanto   para   practicar   lengua   oral   y   escrita   como   para   explicar  contenidos.  con  el  paso  del  tiempo,  los  niños  pueden  escribir  palabras  o  frases  sobre  sus  dibujos.  si   se  guarda  un  registro  de  los  dibujos  y  de  la  escritura  emergente,  se  podrá  observar  la  evolución  del  proceso   de  desarrollo  de  la  escritura  a  lo  largo  del  curso.   para  aprender  a  leer  y  a  escribir  los  niños  pasan  por  diferentes  fases  que  incluyen  dibujos,  garabatos   y  letras  con  o  sin  correspondencia  con  los  sonidos.  para  practicar  la  lecto-­‐escritura,  los  niños  pueden  tener  un   cuaderno  para  escribir  un  diario  de  vocabulario  donde  anoten  palabras  nuevas  e  interesantes  que  aprenden   durante  el  año  escolar.  el  maestro  puede  llevar  un  registro  de  este  diario  y  corregir  errores.  con  este  diario,   los   niños   van   construyendo   su   vocabulario   y   mejorando   sus   habilidades   lingüísticas.   los   niños   pueden   trabajar   en   parejas   o   en   grupos   y   pueden   elegir   y   compartir   todas   las   palabras   que   van   a   escribir   en   sus   diarios.     5.  conclusión     después   de   examinar   cómo   se   acomete   el   aprendizaje   temprano   de   lenguas   y   de   revisar   el   funcionamiento   de   la   enseñanza   del   inglés   en   la   comunidad   de   madrid,   se   hace   evidente   que,   para   dar   respuesta  a  la  nueva  situación  actual  educativa,  es  necesaria  una  revisión  de  la  formación  inicial  y  continua  de   los   docentes.   tanto   las   titulaciones   universitarias   de   los   futuros   maestros,   como   las   metodologías   de   los   docentes  en  ejercicio  deben  ir  enfocadas  no  solo  a  mejorar  su  conocimiento  del  inglés,  sino  también  a  mejorar   su   formación   metodológica.   para   impartir   inglés   en   infantil,   las   titulaciones   en   los   grados   universitarios   deben  garantizar  un  nivel  adecuado  de  competencia  lingüística  y  metodológica  de  los  futuros  maestros.     fleta  guillén   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 34   como  la  transición  de  la  educación  infantil  a  primaria  bilingüe  supone  un  reto  para  los  alumnos,  los   docentes   deben   asegurarse   de   que   los   niños   entienden   los   mensajes   para   que   así   puedan   aprender   el   contenido   de   las   distintas   asignaturas.   por   tanto,   para   sentar   los   cimientos   de   la   educación   bilingüe   y   construir   puentes   entre   infantil   y   primaria,   las   prácticas   de   andamiaje   deben   apuntar   a   fomentar   la   comprensión  de  los  mensajes  orales.  aunque  al  principio  los  niños  no  dominen  las  estructuras  gramaticales,   son   capaces   de   vincular   significado   a   expresiones   relacionadas   con   las   rutinas   diarias,   canciones,   rimas,   ilustraciones,  cuentos,  gestos,  acciones,  movimientos  y  demás.   a   continuación,   se   muestran   una   serie   de   sugerencias   para   contribuir   a   una   transición   fluida   de   infantil  a  la  educación  bilingüe  primaria:     -­‐ incrementar  el  horario  lectivo  de  inglés  en  infantil;   -­‐ establecer   una   mayor   comunicación,   coordinación   y   colaboración   entre   los   docentes   de   ambas   etapas  educativas  para  mejorar  con  ello  la  calidad  de  la  enseñanza;   -­‐ poner   énfasis   en   el   dominio   del   inglés   del   profesorado   y   en   la   formación   metodológica   tanto   en   formación  inicial  como  continua;   -­‐ crear  guías,  materiales  y  recursos  educativos  adaptados  al  contexto  y  necesidades  específicas  de  los   niños;   -­‐ fomentar  las  habilidades  auditivas  y  orales  de  los  alumnos  al  principio  para,  más  adelante,  facilitar   las  habilidades  de  lecto-­‐escritura  en  inglés,     -­‐ conocer   estrategias   metodológicas   y   discursivas   para   la   enseñanza/aprendizaje   de   lengua   y   contenidos.     en  suma,  los  niños  tardarán  menos  en  adaptarse  a  la  enseñanza  bilingüe  en  primaria  si  la  calidad  y  la   cantidad  de  exposición  al  inglés  en  la  escuela  es  óptima,  si  el  input  está  contextualizado  y  si  es  rico,  variado,  y   siempre   adecuado   a   la   edad   y   necesidades   de   los   niños.  más   aún,   si   a   lo   largo   del   día   escolar   se   suscitan   situaciones   en   las   que   los   niños   tengan   oportunidades   para   utilizar   el   inglés.   sería   deseable   que   las   implicaciones  extraídas  de  este  artículo  arrojen  luz  sobre  la  situación  de  la  enseñanza  del  inglés  en  infantil  y   que  proporcionen  información  a  educadores  y  encargados  de  las  políticas  educativas  a  la  hora  de  desarrollar   sus  programas.           referencias  bibliográficas   asher,   james   (1969).   the   total   physical   response   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transition   into   secondary.   en   emma   dafouz   &   michele   guerrini   (eds.),   clil   across   educational  levels  (pp.  59-­‐70).  madrid,  spain:  santillana  educación/richmond  publishing.   rokita-­‐jaskow,   joanna   (2015).   language   policy   in   poland:   an   interplay   of   top-­‐down   and   bottom–up   influences.  conference  presentation:  issues  of  multilingualism  in  early  childhood  education.  research   into  early  years  language  learning.  roma  tre  university,  26  november  2015,  rome,  italy.   rokita-­‐jaśkow,   joanna,   &   pamula-­‐behrens,   melanie   (2019).   policy   and   practice   in   early   foreign   language   learning:   the   case   of   poland.   en   rokita-­‐jaśkow,   joanna   &   melanie   ellis   (eds.),   early   instructed   language   acquisition.   pathways   to   competence   (pp.   11-­‐26).   bristol,   united   kingdom:   multilingual   matters.   schickedanz,   judith,  &  collins,  molly   (2013).  so  much  more   than   the  abcs:   the   early   phases   of   reading   and   writing.  washington,  district  of  columbia:  national  association  for  the  education  of  young  children.   singleton,  david,  &  muñoz,  carmen  (2011).  around  and  beyond  the  critical  period  hypothesis.  en  eli  hinkel   (ed.),  handbook  of  research  in  second  language  research  and  learning  (pp.  407-­‐425).  new  york,  new   york:  routledge.   fleta  guillén   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  24-­‐38 38   singleton,   david,   &   pfenninger,   simone   (2019).   bilingualism   in   midlife.   en   annick   de   houwer   &   lourdes   ortega   (eds.),  the   cambridge   handbook   of   bilingualism   (pp.   76-­‐100).   cambridge,   united   kingdom:   cambridge  university  press.     tabors,  patton  (1997).  one  child,  two  languages:  a  guide  for  preschool  educators  of  children  learning  english  as   a  second  language.  baltimore,  maryland:  brookes.   vygotsky,   lev   (1978).   mind   in   society:   the   development   of   higher   psychological   processes.   cambridge,   massachusetts:  harvard  university  press.   wood,  david,  bruner,   jerome,  &  ross,  gail   (1976).  the   role  of   tutoring   in  problem  solving.   journal  of  child   psychiatry  and  psychology,  17,  89-­‐100.             m. teresa fleta guillén, universidad complutense de madrid tfleta@perlaunion.es es m. teresa fleta guillén colabora como investigadora y profesora honoraria con la school of education de la universidad complutense de madrid. obtuvo una maestría en lingüística y un doctorado en filología inglesa. sus principales áreas de investigación incluyen el aprendizaje temprano del inglés, la literatura ilustrada y los libros ilustrados para niños, la investigación en el aula, el análisis del discurso y el desarrollo de programas de formación para profesores. en m. teresa fleta guillén is a researcher and honorary professor at the school of education at the universidad complutense de madrid. she holds an ma in linguistics and a phd in english philology. her main research areas are early english language learning, teaching english to young learners, illustrated children's literature and picture books, classroom-based research, discourse analysis, and teacher education development. it m. teresa fleta guillén collabora come ricercatrice e docente onoraria per presso il centro per l’insegnamento della universidad complutense de madrid. ha ottenuto un master in linguistica e un dottorato in filologia inglese. le sue principali aree di ricerca sono l’apprendimento precoce dell’inglese, l’insegnamento precoce della lingua inglese, la letteratura illustrata per bambini e i libri illustrati, la ricerca nello spazio classe, l’analisi del discorso e lo sviluppo della formazione per gli insegnanti.         cortés_4.2 euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  4,  issue  2,  december  2017,  pages  115-­‐134   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.7.101   www.e-­‐journall.org   ©  cortés  velásquez  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.   * contact:  cortes.velasquez.diego@gmail.com   cancelar  una  cita  como  estrategia  de  rechazo  postergado:  resultados  e   implicaciones  didácticas  de  un  estudio  transcultural       diego  cortés  velásquez*1   università  degli  studi  internazionali  di  roma  (unint)             received  10  april  2017;  received  in  modified  form  21  august  2017;  accepted  24  october  2017   abstract es la comparación de las modalidades de realización de los actos lingüísticos por parte de hablantes de diferentes lenguas/culturas ha sido objeto de numerosos estudios en las últimas décadas, aunque la literatura sobre el italiano desde esta perspectiva es aún escasa. este tipo de estudio es importante para aquellos que se ocupan de la enseñanza de lenguas porque ayuda a aumentar la conciencia de los estudiantes de las diferencias pragmáticas entre la lengua/cultura de origen y la lengua/cultura que aprenden. ser conscientes de las diferencias transculturales en la realización de los actos lingüísticos puede reducir el riesgo del transfer pragmático negativo y los consecuentes malentendidos, interrupciones comunicativas o, incluso, conflictos interpersonales. el objetivo de este trabajo es investigar el acto lingüístico de la cancelación de una cita como posible estrategia de rechazo postergado a una invitación por parte de hablantes nativos de italiano y de español colombiano. los resultados muestran que entre los dos grupos existen importantes diferencias concernientes al modo en que los informantes consideran que deben realizar este acto lingüístico en relación con los modificadores externos e internos. esto sugiere que para los colombianos la cancelación de última hora representa una estrategia más rutinaria que para los italianos. palabras clave: pragmática transcultural, rechazos, cancelación de última hora en the comparison of the modalities used by speakers of different languages/cultures to produce speech acts has been the object of numerous studies in recent decades, although less research on this topic has focused on italian. this type of study is important for those who work in language teaching because it helps to raise students' awareness of the pragmatic differences between their own language/culture and the target language/culture. being aware of cross-cultural differences in the performance of linguistic acts can reduce the risk of negative pragmatic transfer and consequent misunderstandings, communicative breakdowns or even interpersonal conflicts. the objective of this work is to investigate the linguistic act of the last-minute cancellation of an appointment as a possible strategy of delayed refusal to an invitation by native speakers of italian and colombian spanish. the results show that there are important differences between the two groups related to the way in which the informants think they should carry out this linguistic act with respect to external and internal modifiers. this suggests that last-minute cancellations represent a more routinized strategy for colombians than for italians. key words: cross-cultural pragmatics. refusals, last-minute cancellation it il confronto fra le modalità di realizzazione degli atti linguistici di parlanti diverse lingue/culture è stato oggetto di numerosi studi negli ultimi decenni; per quanto riguarda l’italiano, però, la letteratura è ancora scarsa. questo tipo di studio è importante per quanti si occupano dell’insegnamento di lingue perché aiuta ad accrescere la consapevolezza degli studenti sulle differenze pragmatiche tra la lingua/cultura d’origine e quella studiata. essere consapevoli delle differenze transculturali nella realizzazione degli atti linguistici può ridurre il rischio del transfer pragmatico negativo e i conseguenti malintesi, le interruzioni nella comunicazione o, perfino, i conflitti interpersonali. l’obiettivo di questa indagine è investigare l’atto linguistico della disdetta di un appuntamento da parte di parlanti nativi di italiano e di spagnolo colombiano, come possibile strategia di rifiuto posticipato a un invito. i risultati mostrano importanti differenze tra i due gruppi su come gli informanti ritengono di dover realizzare la disdetta, in relazione ai modificatori esterni e interni. questo suggerisce che per i colombiani la disdetta all’ultimo momento rappresenta una strategia più abitudinaria che per gli italiani. parole chiave: pragmatica transculturale, rifiutare, disdetta all’ultimo momento cortés  velásquez e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 116   1.  introducción   desde   la   propuesta   de   lakoff   (1973),   la   cortesía   lingüística   ha   sido   objeto   de   debate   en  múltiples   trabajos  (blum-­‐kulka,  house,  &  kasper,  1989;  bravo,  2001,  2002;  bravo  &  briz,  2004;  briz,  1998;  brown  &   levinson,   1987;   eelen,   2001;   fraser   &   nolen,   1981;   gu,   1990;   ide,   1989;   haverkate,   1994;   locher,   2004;   locher  &  watts,  2005;  leech,  1983;  márquez  reiter  &  placencia,  2005;  matsumoto,  1988,  1989;  mills,  2003;   nwoye,  1990;  watts,  2003;  wierzbicka,  2003).  este  concepto,  que  se  ha  convertido  en  uno  de  los  aspectos  de   mayor  relieve  en  los  estudios  de  pragmática,  puede  ser  definido,  con  escandell  vidal  (1996,  p.  136),  como  “un   conjunto   de   normas   sociales1   establecidas   por   cada   sociedad,   prohibiendo   algunas   formas   de   conducta   y   favoreciendo  otras”.     en   las   investigaciones   sobre   la   cortesía   lingüística   se   han   estudiado   varios   aspectos   y   algunas   variedades  del  español  y  del   italiano.  en  cuanto  al   español,  bravo   (2003),  bravo  y  briz   (2004),  placencia  y   bravo   (2002),   fitch   (2007,   2008),   placencia   y   garcía   (2012)   y   escamilla   y   vega   (2012)   ofrecen   algunos   trabajos   relacionados   con   la   cortesía,   incluido   el   estudio   de   varios   actos   lingüísticos   en   español   argentino,   boliviano,  colombiano,  costarricense,  ibérico,  mejicano,  uruguayo  y  venezolano.   de  tradición  italiana,  pero  de  marcado  interés  hacia  el  español,  son  los  trabajos  de  mariottini  (2007),   mariottini  y  orletti  (2010)  y  landone  (2009).  el  primero  presenta  una  panorámica  de   los  estudios  sobre   la   cortesía,   dedicando   un   espacio   particular   a   los   estudios   del  mundo   hispánico   y   a   una   comparación   de   un   corpus  de  chats  en   italiano  y  en  español.  el  volumen  de  mariottini  y  orletti  es  el  resultado  del   iv  congreso   internacional   del   grupo   edice,   celebrado   en   la   universidad   de   roma   tre,   y   recoge   las   contribuciones   de   algunos  de  sus  destacados  miembros  en  el  tema  de  la  descortesía  en  varios  aspectos.  por  otro  lado,  el  trabajo   de  landone  dedica  amplio  espacio  al  estudio  de  marcadores  del  discurso  y  a  la  cortesía  verbal  en  el  español.     de  gran  envergadura,  y  de  otro  enfoque  es  el  trabajo,  de  varias  décadas,  del  antropólogo  del  lenguaje   alessandro  duranti.  duranti  (1974)  discute  algunos  aspectos  de  la  competencia  lingüística  en  relación  con  el   concepto  de  cortesía  y  el  de  respeto.  en  los  años  siguientes  (duranti,  1992a,  1992b,  1997a,  1997b)  este  autor   sigue  ocupándose  del   estudio  de   la   cortesía,   desde   el   punto  de   vista  de   la   antropología  del   lenguaje,   sobre   todo   en   lenguas   orientales   como   el   samoano.   más   recientemente,   en   duranti   (2012),   presenta   una   panorámica  de  sus  trabajos  sobre  la  cortesía,  en  la  que  recorre  los  principales  aspectos  de  su  trayectoria  en   este  campo.     más   en   línea   con   la   perspectiva   adoptada   en   este   trabajo   son   las   investigaciones   de  nuzzo   (2007,   2009)   que,   siguiendo   el   modelo   teórico   elaborado   por   el   proyecto   ccsarp   (blum-­‐kulka   et   al.,   1989),   ha   dedicado  algunos  estudios  a  la  pragmática  transcultural,  sobre  todo  desde  el  punto  de  vista  interlingüístico  y   didáctico.  la  adopción  de  tal  modelo  implica,  por  lo  tanto,  y  como  veremos  más  adelante,  una  visión  del  acto   lingüístico  descomponible  en  subactos  y  modificadores  según  la  fuerza  ilocutiva.     en   el   contexto   italiano   también   se   ha   desarrollado   el   innovador   proyecto   lira2   que,   reuniendo   a   varios  estudiosos  italianos  de  pragmática  (cfr.  del  bono  &  nuzzo,  2015;  ferrari  &  zanoni,  en  prensa;  santoro,   2013),  tiene  el  objetivo  de  ofrecer  instrumentos  para  el  desarrollo  de  la  competencia  pragmático-­‐cultural  en   italiano   por   parte   de   aprendices   no   nativos.   en   esta  misma  dirección,   una   exhaustiva   reseña   crítica   de   los   trabajos  dedicados  a  la  enseñanza  de  los  aspectos  pragmáticos  en  e/le  (español  como  lengua  extranjera)  es   presentada  por  gironzetti  y  koike  (2016)  y  algunas  interesantes  implicaciones  para  la  enseñanza  de  la  esfera   pragmática   del   español   se   encuentran   en   los   recientes   trabajos   de   félix-­‐brasdefer   y   mckinnon   (2016)   y   showstack  (2016).     el  objetivo  del  presente  estudio  es  investigar  el  acto  lingüístico  de  la  cancelación  de  una  cita  a  última   hora   como   posible   estrategia   de   rechazo   postergado   a   una   invitación,   por   parte   de   hablantes   nativos   de   italiano   y   de   español   colombiano.   con   los   resultados   del   estudio   aquí   presentado   se   ofrecen   algunas   reflexiones   que   pueden   tener   interesantes   aplicaciones   en   el   campo   de   la   didáctica   de   las   lenguas   y,   en   particular,  en   la  didáctica  de   la  pragmática  del   italiano  y  del  español  como  l2.  más  concretamente,  en   línea   con   félix-­‐brasdefer   y  mckinnon   (2016),   el   estudio   apunta   a   ofrecer   herramientas   útiles   para   favorecer   la   conciencia  de  los  aprendices  de  lengua  en  relación  con  los  obstáculos  en  la  comunicación  que  pueden  crear   las  divergencias  en  el  modo  en  que  se  realizan  los  actos  lingüísticos.       1  cursiva  en  el  original.   2  progetto  firb  –  lira,  coordinado  por  la  università  per  stranieri  di  perugia  y  con  la  participación  de  la  università  degli   studi  di  bologna,  università  di  modena-­‐reggio  emilia  y  università  di  verona  (http://lira.unistrapg.it/?q=node/1006).   cancelar  una  cita:  un  estudio  transcultural   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 117   2.  marco  teórico     la   comparación   de   las   realizaciones   de   los   actos   lingüísticos   por   parte   de   hablantes   de   diferentes   lenguas/culturas  ha  sido  objeto  de  estudio  en  los  últimos  años  y  ha  puesto  de  manifiesto  diferencias  que,  si   no  se  relacionan  con  la  esfera  lingüística  (sobre  todo  a  nivel  pragmático),  pueden  dar  lugar  a  malentendidos,   incomprensiones,   estereotipos   y   prejuicios.   de   hecho,   a   menudo   en   la   comunicación   entre   hablantes   de   diferentes  lenguas,  estas  diferencias  pueden  ser  percibidas  no  como  fruto  de  convenciones  sociopragmáticas   y  pragmalingüísticas  diferentes,  sino  como  consecuencia  del  carácter  personal  o  étnico.  por  lo  tanto,  este  tipo   de  estudio  es  importante  para  todos  aquellos  que  se  ocupan  de  la  enseñanza  de  lenguas  porque  permite  que   los  estudiantes  sean  conscientes  de  los  riesgos  relacionados  con  las  diferencias  pragmáticas.     cada  hablante  tiende  a  atribuir  al  interlocutor  una  serie  de  opciones  que  en  realidad  no  tiene,  porque   está   vinculado   por   convenciones   sociopragmáticas   y   pragmalingüísticas   (leech,   1983)   en   el   interior   del   propio  marco  lingüístico-­‐cultural.  es  así  que  tanto  nuestras  expectativas  como  el  modo  en  el  que  realizamos   los   actos   y   las   expectativas   y   los   modos   del   interlocutor   de   una   lengua-­‐cultura   diferente   tienden   a   ser   modelados   con   base   en   la   lengua-­‐cultura   materna,   dando   lugar   así   a   una   posible   interferencia   (duranti,   2000).     el   rechazo  se  puede  definir   como  un  acto  en  el  que  un  hablante   se  niega  a   comprometerse  en  una   acción  propuesta  por  su   interlocutor.  el  rechazo  ocurre  como  respuesta  a  otro  acto,   típicamente  un  pedido,   una   invitación,   un   ofrecimiento,   una   sugerencia.   este   acto   es   una   reacción  no  preferida   que,   en   cuanto   tal,   incluye  estrategias  “to  accommodate  the  noncompliant  nature  of  the  act”  (gass  &  houck,  1999,  p.  2)  y,  por  lo   tanto,   tiende   a   ser   complejo,   mitigado   e   indirecto.   brown   y   levinson   (1987),   que   proponen   uno   de   los   modelos   de   cortesía   lingüística   más   difundidos,   clasifican   los   rechazos   como   actos   amenazadores   de   la   imagen  positiva,  tanto  la  del  individuo  que  propone  como  la  del  que  rechaza,  y  los  sitúan  en  la  categoría  de  los   actos   comisivos.   en   esta   perspectiva,   una   de   las   posibilidades   que   tiene   el   interlocutor   es   no   rechazar   inmediatamente  sino  tomar  tiempo  para  hacerlo,  evitando  poner  en  riesgo  su   imagen  y   la   imagen  de  quien   invita.   en   la   rica   literatura   dedicada   a   la   pragmática   transcultural,   numerosos   trabajos   han   puesto   la   atención  en  el  acto  del  rechazo.  varios  de  estos  trabajos  se  han  concentrado  en  el  estudio  de  este  acto  en  el   inglés  (por  ejemplo,  bardovi-­‐harlig  &  hartford,  1991)  y  han  comparado  el  inglés  americano  con  otras  lenguas   (por  ejemplo,  con  el  japonés  beebe,  tomoko,  &  uliss-­‐weltz,  1990;  con  el  chino  mandarín  liao  &  bresnahan,   1996;   con   el   árabe   egipcio   nelson,   carson,   al   batal,   &   el   bakary,   2002;   con   el   español   americano   félix-­‐ brasdefer,   2003).   otros   han   analizado   este   acto   en   algunas   variedades   del   español   como,   por   ejemplo,   el   peruano  (garcía,  1992),  el  venezolano  (garcía,  1999)  y  el  mexicano  (félix-­‐brasdefer,  2006).   otros  trabajos  han  observado  este  acto  en  el  proceso  de  aprendizaje,  por  ejemplo,  del  inglés  (beebe,   et  al.,  1990)  y  del  español  (félix-­‐brasdefer,  2008;  garcía,  1996).  en  el  italiano,  frescura  (1997)  presenta  un   análisis  de  las  estrategias  de  rechazo  a  una  oferta  de  comida.  hasta  hoy,  no  resulta  que  se  hayan  adelantado   investigaciones  que  consideren   las  estrategias  de  rechazo  a  una   invitación  del   italiano,  ni  una  comparación   entre  el  italiano  y  el  español  en  este  contexto.       3.  objetivo  y  metodología   3.1.  objetivo  e  hipótesis   el  objetivo  del  presente  estudio  es  investigar  el  acto  lingüístico  de  la  cancelación  de  una  cita  a  última   hora   como   posible   estrategia   de   rechazo   postergado   a   una   invitación   por   parte   de   hablantes   nativos   del   italiano  y  del  español  colombiano.  este  objetivo  nace  de  la  impresión  de  quien  escribe  de  que  en  colombia  (en   bogotá,  en  específico)  aceptar  una  invitación  y  luego  cancelarla  a  última  hora  es  más  frecuente  que  en  italia.   la  impresión  ha  sido  confirmada  por  italianos  que  viven  en  colombia  y  perciben  este  comportamiento  como   fastidioso,   porque   no   coincide   con   lo   que   se   espera   con   base   en   la   propia   experiencia   como   hablantes   de   italiano,   y   lo   atribuyen   al   carácter   de   los   colombianos   y   no   a   los   usos   pragmáticos.   por   lo   tanto,   en   la   percepción  de  los  italianos  se  puede  llegar  a  pensar  que  los  bogotanos  son  falsos,  porque  aceptan,  aunque  no   quieran   participar   del   evento   al   que   han   sido   invitados,   y   maleducados,   porque   no   se   preocupan   por   los   problemas   provocados   por   una   cancelación.   al   contrario,   los   bogotanos   pueden   llegar   a   percibir   a   los   italianos   como   poco   amigables   (porque   no   se   preocupan   por   manifestar   adecuadamente   su   deseo   de   participar)   y  maleducados   (rechazan   enseguida,   dejando   entender  que   lo   que   les   impide  participar   es  más   importante   del   evento   al   que  han   sido   invitados).   está   claro   que   tanto   en  colombia   como   en   italia   existen   personas   que   se   comportan   falsamente   y   son  maleducadas,   y   no   tendría   sentido   atribuir   estos   rasgos   del   cortés  velásquez e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 118   carácter,   u   otros,   a   todos   los   habitantes   de   un   país.   será,   entonces,   más   razonable   pensar   que   tanto   los   italianos   como   los   colombianos,   en   sus   respectivas   comunidades   lingüísticas,   esperan   convencionalmente   respuestas  ligeramente  diferentes  y  que  están  acostumbrados  a  dar  las  respuestas  que  saben  que  los  demás   se   esperan.   esto   podría   significar   que,   desde   la   perspectiva   de   brown   y   levinson   (1987),   existe   una   organización  diferente  en  los  sistemas  de  valores  dominantes  en  las  dos  culturas:  más  orientada  a  la  cortesía   positiva   la   cultura   colombiana,  más   hacia   la   cortesía   negativa   la   italiana.   en   todo   caso,   al   final   se   trata   de   convenciones   en   el   uso   lingüístico   a   las   que   los   miembros   de   una   comunidad   se   adecuan   naturalmente,   porque  son  socializados  al  interior  de  esa  determinada  lengua-­‐cultura.  la  hipótesis  de  este  estudio  es  que  la   cancelación  de  última  hora,  atribuida  a  un  imprevisto  y  no  a  la  falta  de  voluntad  de  participar  en  el  evento,  sea   más   fácilmente   aceptable   por   quien   invita   respecto   a   la   reacción   no   preferida   del   rechazo.   por   lo   tanto,   el   comportamiento  manifestado  por  los  colombianos  parece  ser  una  estrategia  orientada  a  la  cortesía  positiva,   es  decir,  a  proteger   la   imagen  personal  del   interlocutor  y  del  hablante,  aunque  amenace  la   imagen  negativa   del   interlocutor.  de  acuerdo  con   la  hipótesis  preveo  que,   respecto  a   los   italianos,   los  colombianos   tienen   la   percepción  de   tener   que  producir   actos   de   cancelación  menos  mitigados  porque   son  percibidos   como  más   rutinarios.   los  resultados  aquí  presentados  forman  parte  de  un  proyecto  más  amplio  denominado  disdir  (por   el  acrónimo  en  italiano  “disdette  e  altre  strategie  di  rifiuto”3)  que  tiene  el  objetivo  de  analizar  las  estrategias   de  rechazo  en  diferentes  lenguas  en  relación  con  el  italiano  (entre  otras:  las  variedades  del  español  mejicano   y  del  colombiano,  las  variedades  del  inglés  americano  y  del  británico,  del  francés,  del  portugués  ibérico  y  del   mandarín).     3.2.  materiales  y  procedimiento  para  la  recolección  de  datos   para  recabar  los  datos  del  proyecto  disdir  fue  creado  un  dct  (discourse  completion  task).  el  dct  es   un   instrumento   ampliamente   utilizado   por   los   estudios   de   pragmática   interlingüística   y   transcultural,   que   consiste  en  una  serie  de   ítems  en   los  que  se   le  pide  al   informante  que   imagine  un  diálogo  contextualizado.   cada   ítem  es   introducido  por  una  breve  descripción  de   la   situación  en   la  que  se  especifica  el   contexto  y  es   seguido  por  un  diálogo   incompleto  que  el   informante  tiene  que  completar  (blum-­‐kulka  et  al.,  1989,  pp.  13-­‐ 14).  este  instrumento  proporciona  informaciones  sobre  la  percepción  que  las  personas  tienen  sobre  cómo  se   debe  realizar  un  acto  lingüístico,  aunque  dice  menos  sobre  cómo  lo  realizan  en  la  realidad  (félix-­‐brasdefer,   2010,   p.   45).   el   dct   ha   sido   adoptado   porque   es   coherente   con   los   objetivos   del   proyecto   disdir   y,   por   consiguiente,  con  las  de  este  estudio,  presentados  en  la  sección  anterior.     el  dct4  está  compuesto  por  preguntas  de  selección  múltiple  y  preguntas  abiertas  correspondientes  a   tres  situaciones  caracterizadas  por  diferentes  grados  de  distancia  social  (ds):  invitación  a  una  cena  por  parte   de  un  amigo  (dinner5,  -­‐ds),  invitación  a  una  fiesta  por  parte  de  un  conocido  (party,  +-­‐ds)  y  a  tomar  algo  por   parte  de  un  vecino  de  casa  que  se  acaba  de  mudar  (drink,  +ds).  en  las  tres  situaciones  la  persona  que  invita   es  responsable  del  evento  en  su  propia  casa.  para  cada  situación  se  creó  un  set  de  cuatro  preguntas  con  el   objetivo  de  obtener:       a. estrategias  de  rechazo  (preguntas  de  selección  múltiple  con  5  opciones)   b. estrategias  de  cancelación  a  última  hora  (pregunta  abierta)   c. la  reacción  prevista  a  la  cancelación  (pregunta  abierta)   d. la  expectativa  de  cancelación  (selección  múltiple  con  5  opciones).       el  dct   fue  completado  con  algunos  distractores  con   los  cuales  se   llegó  a  un   total  de  17   ítems,  que   fueron  aleatorizados.  después  de  haber  sido  elaborado  en  italiano,  el  dct  fue  traducido  en  las  otras  lenguas   del   proyecto   y   sometido   a   prueba   con   hablantes   nativos   no   expertos   de   pragmática   para   verificar   la   naturalidad   de   las   situaciones   y   la   formulación   de   los   enunciados   propuestos.   posteriormente,   el   dct   fue   suministrado   a   hablantes   nativos   de   las   lenguas   antes   mencionadas.   junto   al   dct   se   suministró   otro   3   cancelaciones   y   otras   estrategias   de   rechazo.   cortés   velásquez   y   nuzzo   (2017a,   2017b)   presentan   los   primeros   resultados  de  este  proyecto.     4  es  posible  consultar  el  dct  completo  en  este  enlace:  https://goo.gl/forms/jnky6cc64wjtgvh62     5  en  el  proyecto  disdir  hemos  decidido  usar  el  inglés  para  evitar  tener  que  traducir  las  etiquetas  de  las  situaciones  y  de   las  categorías  en  las  presentaciones  de  los  resultados  en  encuentros  y  publicaciones  internacionales.   cancelar  una  cita:  un  estudio  transcultural   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 119   cuestionario  (ver  enlace  en  nota  4)  con  el  objetivo  de  recoger  informaciones  necesarias  para  delinear  el  perfil   de  los  informantes.     en   este   estudio   analizamos   las   respuestas  de   italianos   y   colombianos   a   las  preguntas  del  dct  que   solicitan   las  estrategias  de   cancelación  en  el  último  minuto,  y  que  aquí  presentamos  en  orden  creciente  de   distancia  social  (correspondientes  a  los  ítems  del  cuestionario  15,  1  y  3):       1) un/a  amigo/a  te  invitó  a  comer  esta  noche  y  aceptaste,  pero  en  el  último  momento  llamas  para  decir   que  no  vas.  imagina  que  estás  hablando  por  teléfono  con  él,  ¿qué  le  dices?  (-­‐ds).   2) un/a   conocido/a   te   invitó   esta  noche  a  una   fiesta   en   su   casa  y   aceptaste,   pero  al   final   llamas  para   decir  que  no  vas.  imagina  que  estás  hablando  por  teléfono  con  él/ella,  ¿qué  le  dices?  (+-­‐ds).   3) tu   nuevo/a   vecino/a   de   apartamento,   con   el/la   que   hace   poco   tuviste   una   discusión   por   el   parqueadero,  te  invitó  a  tomar  algo  con  unos  amigos  en  la  terraza  de  su  apartamento  el  viernes  en  la   noche.  aceptaste,  pero  al  final  lo/la  llamas  para  decirle  que  no  vas  a  ir.  imagina  que  estás  hablando   por  teléfono  con  él/ella,  ¿qué  le  dices?  (+ds).       3.3.  participantes   el  grupo  de  informantes  que  constituye  este  estudio  está  compuesto  por  185  italianos  de  diferentes   regiones  y  62  colombianos  de  la  zona  de  bogotá.     a  pesar  de  que  en  este  trabajo  se  toman  en  cuenta  solo  dos  variables,  es  decir,  la  pertenencia  a  uno  de   los  dos  grupos  de  la  muestra  (italianos  y  colombianos)  y  los  diferentes  grados  de  distancia  social  (baja,  media,   alta),   a   continuación,   suministramos   los   datos   en   relación   con   el   género,   con   la   edad   y   con   el   nivel   de   educación,  con  el  fin  de  trazar  el  perfil  de  los  informantes.     como  se  muestra  en  la  tabla  1,  los  dos  grupos  presentan  una  distribución  diferente  por  género.  en  el   grupo   italiano  hay  una  mayoría  preponderante  de  mujeres   (70%)  respecto  a   los  hombres   (30%),  mientras   que   el   grupo   colombiano   aparece   más   equilibrado,   aunque   las   mujeres   (55%)   superan   a   los   hombres   en   cantidad.       tabla 1 distribución de los informantes según el género género italianos % colombianos % hombre 55 30% 28 45% mujer 130 70% 34 55% total 185 100% 62 100%   como  se  muestra  en  la  tabla  2,   la  categoría  más  representada  en  el  grupo  italiano  es   la  de  aquellos   que   poseen   un   título   de   grado   (62%),   seguida   de   lejos   por   la   de   aquellos   que   solo   poseen   un   título   de   educación  secundaria  (20%)  y,  en  fin,  por  la  de  quienes  poseen  títulos  de  especialización  (13%)  o  doctorados   (5%).  el  grupo  colombiano  más  representado  es  el  de  aquellos  que  poseen  un  título  de  educación  secundaria   (44%),  seguido  por  el  de  aquellos  con  un  título  de  especialización  (31%).  esta  ligera  diferencia  entre  los  dos   grupos  es  una  representación  distorsionada  de  la  realidad  en  cuanto  el  sistema  universitario  colombiano  de   pregrados,  al  contrario  del  italiano,  prevé  un  ciclo  único  de  duración  de  5  años.  por  lo  tanto,  los  encuestados   italianos  que  se  encontraban  en  el  cuarto  año  (primer  año  del  ciclo  llamado  magistrale)  respondieron  que  ya   tenían  un  diploma  de  grado,  mientras  que  los  colombianos  que  se  encontraban  en  el  mismo  año  respondieron   que  aún  no  lo  tenían.     tabla 2 distribución de los informantes según el nivel de educación nivel italianos % colombianos % ph. d. 9 5% 2 3% posgrado 24 13% 19 31% grado 114 62% 14 22% escuela 38 20% 27 44% total 185 100% 62 100%   cortés  velásquez e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 120   en   la   tabla   3   se   observa   que   en   ambos   grupos   la  mayor   parte   de   los   informantes   tiene   30   años   o   menos  (59%  de  los  italianos;  66%  de  los  colombianos),  siendo  el  grupo  de  edad  20-­‐25  el  mejor  representado   tanto  para  los  italianos  (48%)  como  para  los  colombianos  (34%).     tabla 3 distribución de los informantes según el grupo de edad edad italianos % % cum colombianos % % cum <20 2 1 1 11 18 18 20-25 89 48 49 21 34 52 26-30 19 10 59 9 15 66 31-35 13 7 66 4 6 73 36-40 13 7 74 2 3 76 41-45 13 7 81 1 2 77 46-50 17 9 90 4 6 84 51-55 6 3 93 5 8 92 56-60 10 5 98 5 8 100 >60 3 2 100 0 0 100 total 185 100% 62 100%   como  se  puede  observar  en  la  tabla  4,  los  dos  grupos  aparecen  equilibrados  desde  el  punto  de  vista   de   la   ocupación:   la  mayor   parte   de   los   informantes   son   estudiantes   (51%  para   los   italianos,   48%  para   los   colombianos)  y  trabajadores  (41%  de  los  italianos,  40%  de  los  colombianos).  los  pensionados  (4%  y  5%)  y   los  desempleados  (4%  y  6%)  están  representados  en  cantidades  mínimas.       tabla 4 distribución de los informantes según la ocupación ocupación italianos % colombianos % estudiante 94 51% 30 48% trabajador 76 41% 25 40% pensionado 8 4% 3 5% desempleado 7 4% 4 6% total 185 100% 62 100% 4.  análisis  de  datos   para  analizar  los  datos  recolectados  con  las  respuestas  a  las  preguntas  abiertas  del  dct,  es  decir,  las   que   hacen   referencia   a   los   ítems   (b)   y   (c)   descritos   arriba,   se   ha   usado   el   programa   nvivo,   que   permite   efectuar   análisis   cualitativos   de   grandes   cantidades   de   texto,   codificando   las   categorías   observadas   y   definidas  por  el  investigador.  como  se  ha  dicho  antes,  en  este  trabajo  nos  concentraremos  en  las  respuestas  al   ítem  (b),  es  decir,  en  las  estrategias  de  cancelación  a  última  hora  (ver  sección  3.1.).  el  trabajo  de  etiquetación   fue   efectuado   por   dos   investigadores   al   mismo   tiempo   y   de   modo   independiente,   discutiendo   las   dudas,   cuando  surgían,  para  llegar  a  una  solución.   en  el  análisis  efectuado,  el  acto  comunicativo  de  la  cancelación  se  ha  descompuesto  en  los  subactos   que   lo   constituyen.   a   través   de   la   etiquetación   se   han   observado   las   posibles   diferentes   estrategias   de   realización  de  los  subactos  y  los  instrumentos  de  modificación  de  la  fuerza  ilocutoria.  este  tipo  de  análisis  se   usa   a  menudo   en   la   investigación   en   pragmática   transcultural   e   interlingüística   como,   por   ejemplo,   en   los   trabajos  de  blum-­‐kulka  et  al.  (1989),  trosborg  (1995),  achiba  (2003)  y  nuzzo  (2007).  en  la  tradición  de  este   tipo  de  estudios  se  distingue  entre  el  subacto  principal  y  los  subactos  de  apoyo.  estos  últimos  se  consideran   modificadores  externos,  es  decir,  enunciados  que  preceden  o  siguen  al  subacto  principal  y  que  contribuyen  a   modular   su   fuerza   ilocutiva,   aunque   no   son   necesarios   ni   suficientes   para   vehicularla.   los   modificadores   internos   son   elementos   gramaticales   o   léxicos,   que   intensifican   o   atenúan   la   fuerza   ilocutiva   del   subacto   principal,  pero  cuya  presencia  no  es  necesaria.  dado  que  no  siempre  es  fácil  definir  con  certeza  si  la  presencia   de   un  determinado   elemento   es   opcional   o   no,   la   atribución  de   tal   elemento   a   la   categoría   de  modificador   puede  llegar  a  ser  arbitraria.     cancelar  una  cita:  un  estudio  transcultural   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 121   en   relación   con   la   distinción   entre   subacto   principal   y   subactos   de   apoyo,   durante   el   trabajo   de   etiquetación  observamos  que  a  menudo  no  es  fácil  identificarlos  unívocamente,  puesto  que  aquellos  subactos   que  en  algunos  casos  son  de  apoyo  (por  ejemplo,   la  explicación  de  la  cancelación)  en  otros  casos  asumen  el   papel  del  subacto  principal,  en  ausencia  de  una  cancelación  explícita.  por  lo  tanto,  no  es  posible  afirmar  que   existe   un   subacto   que   pueda   ser   considerado   principal   en   todos   los   actos   analizados.   lo   que   es   posible   afirmar,   y   que   se   puede   observar   en   los   resultados   que   se   presentan   en   seguida,   es   que   en   algunos  de   los   subactos   identificados   el   valor   ilocutivo   de   cancelación   es   más   transparente   (como   en   cancellation6   o   explanation)   y,   por   lo   tanto,   realizan   el   acto   en   un   modo   más   directo   funcionando   como   acto   principal,   mientras  que  en  otros  subactos  el  valor  ilocutivo  no  es  para  nada  directo  y,  por  ende,  se  pueden  considerar   puros  actos  de  apoyo  (por  ejemplo,  en  greetings  o  appeal).     en   la   tabla   5   se  muestran   los   subactos   en   orden   decreciente   de   posibilidad   de   ejercer   como   acto   principal.  como  hemos  visto  antes,  algunos  subactos  pueden  ser  realizados  a  través  de  estrategias  diferentes   y   ser  modificados  por  elementos   léxicos  o  gramaticales  con  puro  valor  pragmático.  en  el  análisis  para  este   trabajo,  se  han  separado  las  etiquetas  que  identifican  los  subactos  y  las  diferentes  estrategias  que  los  realizan,   de  las  etiquetas  que  identifican  los  modificadores.  la  taxonomía  que  aquí  se  presenta  es  solo  la  relacionada   con  los  subactos  y  ha  sido  elaborada  a  partir  de  los  datos,  aunque  para  la  identificación  de  algunos  subactos   hemos  hecho  referencia  a   la  taxonomía  propuesta  por  beebe  et  al.  (1985)  en  su  estudio  sobre  los  rechazos.   varios   de   los   subactos   aquí   presentados,   además,   coinciden   con   los   estudiados   por   garcía   (1992)   en   los   rechazos  por  parte  de  un  grupo  de  peruanos.       tabla 5 subactos identificados en el corpus disdir subactos y estrategias ejemplos en italiano ejemplos en español cancellation nonperformative statement non vengo no voy impossibility stasera non ce la faccio a venire no puedo ir indirect ti avevo detto che sarei venuto, ma… le voy a quedar mal con la invitación performative devo disdire n/a nota: el hablante comunica la cancelación en modo directo o presentándola como condicionada por una fuerza externa o usando otros instrumentos lingüísticos para vehicular la fuerza ilocutiva en modo implícito. explanation vague hindrance ho una cosa importantissima da fare per domani tengo cosas que hacer generic unforeseen event ho avuto un contrattempo se me presentó un inconveniente family ho avuto un problema in famiglia n/a health mi sento malissimo tengo una peste… memory gap purtroppo mi sono ricordata che devo… n/a mood questa sera non sono proprio dell’umore giusto n/a tiredness sono molto stanco n/a work sono indietro con il lavoro da fare per domani n/a domestic emergency mi si è allagata la casa n/a nota: el hablante expone el motivo de la cancelación haciendo referencia a un impedimento no especificado o a un imprevisto genérico o a un imprevisto del que específica la naturaleza. offer of repair no alternative mi farò perdonare te juro que cuando nos veamos te cuento todo unclear alternative rimandiamo? ¿te llamo y cuadramos para otro día? alternative ci vediamo domani per un aperitivo, ti va? si quieres yo te invito mañana nota: el hablante ofrece una promesa genérica de reparación (aunque solo verbal), o propone un posible encuentro sucesivo no especificado u otra cita que representa una verdadera alternativa. 6  en  cuanto  al  uso  del  inglés  en  las  etiquetas  se  vea  la  nota  6.     cortés  velásquez e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 122   tabla 5 continua subacto y estrategias de realización ejemplos en italiano ejemplos en español remedial move statement of regret mi dispiace lo siento apology scusa disculpa regret for last-minute call n/a n/a nota: el hablante demuestra querer remediar su culpa (palabra no mantenida, rechazo, llamada a último momento) manifestando pesar o pidiendo perdón al interlocutor. appeal to empathy request for empathy non mi mandare al diavolo de verdad no te imaginas lo apenada que estoy statement of empathy spero non abbia già preparato tutto sé que es de último minuto self castigation sono veramente un coglione n/a request for reassurance spero non sia un problema espero que no sea un problema attempt to dissuade rovinerei la serata a voi e a me n/a nota: el hablante apela a la empatía o manifiesta su atención hacia los demás o pide al interlocutor que tenga una actitud comprensiva. willingness willingness lo sai che ci tenevo ad esserci estaba muy animado a atender tu invitación nota: el hablante declara que le habría gustado participar. appeal call for attention senti, … oye greetings ciao hola nota: el hablante llama la atención del interlocutor con un verbo o con una interjección o con una forma de saludo. preparator preparator ho brutte notizie per stasera quisiera no tener que hacer esta llamada nota: el hablante prepara el terreno indicando al interlocutor que está por realizar un acto potencialmente amenazador. farewell farewell ci vediamo presto chao nota: el hablante se despide para cerrar la comunicación gratitude gratitude grazie comunque de todas maneras gracias por la invitación nota: el hablante agradece por la invitación que acaba de cancelar wishes wishes divertiti anche per me que la pasen bien nota: el hablante expresa sus deseos para el éxito del evento irony irony ti raccomando non far posteggiare nessuno al posto vuoto per la mia auto n/a nota: el hablante trata de quitarle gravedad al asunto haciendo una referencia irónica. 5.  resultados  y  discusión   en  la  tabla  6  se  presenta  la  distribución  de  los  subactos  en  los  dos  grupos  según  las  tres  situaciones   de  distancia  social  (dinner:  -­‐ds;  party:  +-­‐ds;  drink  +ds).  los  porcentajes  representan  la  frecuencia  con  la  que   cada   subacto   fue   encontrado   en   el   corpus   de   cada   grupo.   los   resultados   muestran   que   el   subacto   más   utilizado   por   los   informantes   en   los   dos   grupos   es   cancellation.   en   otras   palabras,   la   mayor   parte   de   los   informantes  consideró  que  para  cancelar  una  cita  era  necesario  hacerlo  a  través  de  un  enunciado  que  hiciera   cancelar  una  cita:  un  estudio  transcultural   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 123   referencia  explícita  a   la  anulación  de   la  cita.  este  comportamiento,   tanto  entre   los   italianos7  como  entre   los   colombianos8,  es  más  marcado  en  la  situación  de  menor  distancia  social  (dinner:  ita  86,5%,  col  85,5%).  en  la   situación   de   distancia   social   media   (party)   los   colombianos   expresaron   la   misma   preferencia   (85,5%)   respecto  a  la  situación  anterior,  mientras  que  para  los  italianos  fue  solo  dos  puntos  más  baja  (83,8%).  en  la   situación  de  mayor  distancia   social   en   los  dos  grupos   la  presencia  de  este   subacto   fue   levemente  más  baja   (drink:  ita  80,5%;  col  77,4%).       tabla 6 distribución de los subactos entre italianos y colombianos en las tres situaciones italianos colombianos dinner party drink dinner party drink subactos n % n % n % n % n % n % appeal 73 39,5% 68 36,8% 84 45,4% 33 53,2% 31 50,0% 24 38,7% appeal to empathy 29 15,7% 23 12,4% 23 12,4% 5 8,1% 2 3,2% 1 1,6% cancellation 160 86,5% 155 83,8% 149 80,5% 53 85,5% 53 85,5% 48 77,4% explanation 113 61,1% 141 76,2% 121 65,4% 38 61,3% 39 62,9% 37 59,7% farewell 7 3,8% 8 4,3% 4 2,2% 1 1,6% 5 8,1% 2 3,2% gratitude 2 1,1% 10 5,4% 20 10,8% 5 8,1% 9 14,5% 16 25,8% irony 0 0,0% 0 0,0% 3 1,6% 0 0,0% 0 0,0% 0 0,0% offer of repair 72 38,9% 53 28,6% 79 42,7% 22 35,5% 18 29,0% 19 30,6% preparator 7 3,8% 19 10,3% 18 9,7% 1 1,6% 1 1,6% 6 9,7% remedial move 145 76,4% 144 77,8% 132 70,5% 42 60,9% 30 46,8% 38 59,3% willingness 3 1,6% 7 3,8% 18 9,7% 2 3,2% 3 4,8% 3 4,8% wishes 4 2,2% 7 3,8% 10 5,4% 0 0,0% 5 8,1% 3 4,8%   el  otro  subacto  que  aparece  fuertemente  representado  en  el  análisis  es  explanation.  en  línea  general,   en   los  dos  grupos   la  presencia  de  este  subacto  es  bastante  parecida  (entre  59,7%  y  65,4%),  aunque  para   la   situación  party  (+-­‐ds)  en  el  grupo  italiano  es  mucho  más  frecuente  (76,2%).  esto  quiere  decir,  por  un  lado,   que   la   mayor   parte   de   los   informantes   consideró   que   para   cancelar   la   cita   es   necesario   ofrecer   una   explicación,  aunque  hay  que  notar  que  un  porcentaje  no  indiferente  en  ambos  grupos,  entre  el  30%  y  el  40%,   no  lo  creyó  necesario.  la  diferencia  entre  dinner  y  party  del  grupo  italiano  puede  ser  debida  al  hecho  de  que   los  informantes  consideran  menos  necesario  justificarse  con  un  amigo  respecto  a  un  conocido.  en  la  situación   de  mayor  distancia  social  (drink),  tal  vez  jugó  un  papel  muy  importante  el  hecho  de  que  el  informante  tenía   que   imaginarse   la   cancelación   de   la   cita   en   una   situación   de   conflicto   con   un   nuevo   vecino   y,   se   podría   especular,  eso  los  indujo  a  producir  menos  explicaciones.     el  último  subacto  que  presenta  una  frecuencia  alta  es  remedial  move,  es  decir,  una  acción  correctora   o   de   remedio.   las   acciones   correctoras   identificadas   en   el   grupo,   como   se   observa   en   la   tabla   5,   son:   manifestar  pesar  y  ofrecer  perdón  por  la  cita  que  se  está  cancelando.  la  frecuencia  en  el  grupo  italiano  para   las  tres  situaciones  (-­‐ds:  76,4%;  +-­‐ds:  77,8%;  +ds:  70,5%)  es  mucho  más  alta  respecto  al  grupo  colombiano   (-­‐ds:  60,9%;  +-­‐ds:  46,8%;  +ds:  59,3%).  esto  quiere  decir  que  el  grupo  colombiano  tendencialmente  percibe   una  menor   necesidad   de   proponer   una   acción   correctora   y,   sobre   todo,   en   situaciones   de   distancia   social   media  (party),  menos  de  la  mitad  de  los  informantes  creyeron  necesario  usarlas.     la  frecuencia  de  otros  subactos  entre  los  dos  grupos  presenta  una  cierta  variación:  el  subacto  appeal   en   el   grupo   colombiano,   para   las   situaciones   dinner   (-­‐ds:   53,2%)   y   party   (+-­‐ds:   50%),   es   mucho   más   frecuente   respecto   a   las   situaciones   análogas   en   italiano   (-­‐ds:   39,5%;   +-­‐ds:   36,8%);   el   subacto   appeal   to   empathy  en  las  tres  situaciones  italianas  (-­‐ds:  15,7%;  +-­‐ds:  12,4%;  +ds:  12,4%)  es  superior  a  las  situaciones   análogas  en  español  (-­‐ds:  8,1%;  +-­‐ds:  3,2%;  +ds:  1,6%);  el  subacto  gratitude  aumenta  en  los  dos  grupos  con   el  aumento  de  la  distancia  social  aunque  es,  por  mucho,  más  frecuente  en  el  grupo  colombiano  (-­‐ds:  8,1%;  +-­‐ 7  de  ahora  en  adelante  abreviado  en  ‘ita’.   8  de  ahora  en  adelante  abreviado  en  ‘col’.   cortés  velásquez e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 124   ds:  14,4%;  +ds:  25,8%)  respecto  al  grupo  italiano  (-­‐ds:  1,1%;  +-­‐ds:  5,4%;  +ds:  10,8%).  es  de  notar  que   la   frecuencia   de   este   subacto   en   la   situación   de   mayor   distancia   social   en   el   grupo   colombiano   es   particularmente  alta   (25,8%),   tanto  respecto  a   las  otras  dos  situaciones  como  respecto  al  grupo   italiano;  el   subacto  preparator   también  tiende  a  crecer  con   la  distancia  social,  aunque  hay  una  divergencia   interesante   entre  el  grupo  italiano  y  el  colombiano  en  la  situación  de  distancia  social  media  (party:  ita  10,3%;  col  1,6%);   en  modo  parecido,   la   frecuencia  del   subacto  willingness,   que  es  baja,  presenta  una  diferencia  entre   los  dos   grupos  en  la  situación  con  mayor  distancia  social  (drink:  ita  9,7%;  col  4,8%).  por  último,  el  subacto  irony  está   ausente   de   la   mayor   parte   de   las   situaciones   en   los   dos   grupos,   pero   aparece   en   la   situación   de   mayor   distancia  social  del  grupo  italiano  (drink:  1,6%).     veamos   ahora   en   detalle   algunos   de   los   subactos   en   los   que   los   porcentajes   entre   los   dos   grupos   presentan   mayores   diferencias.   para   avalorar   la   significación   de   las   diferencias   en   los   porcentajes   que   acabamos   de   ver,   hemos   aplicado   algunas  medidas   estadísticas,   es   decir,   la   prueba   chi-­‐cuadrada   y   la  v   de   cramér,  dos  medidas  que  se  acostumbra  a  aplicar  en  este  tipo  de  estudios  (ogiermann  &  saßenroth,  2012).  la   primera  indica  el  grado  de  dependencia  entre  dos  variables,  y  es  considerada  significativa  cuando  el  p-­‐value   es  inferior  a  0,05;  mientras  que  la  segunda  indica  la  fuerza  de  tal  dependencia,  y  es  considerada  significativa   cuando  el  valor  es  cercano  o  superior  a  0,2.     hemos  tomado  en  cuenta  dos  variables:  por  un  lado,  la  variable  que  podemos  considerar  explicativa,   que  es  la  pertenencia  a  uno  de  los  dos  grupos  (italianos  y  colombianos);  por  el  otro,  la  variable  que  se  puede   considerar   dependiente,   que   es   el   uso   (o   no)   de   un   determinado   subacto.   en   otras   palabras,   podemos   observar  si  el  uso  o  no  de  un  determinado  subacto  es  predictivo  de  la  pertenencia  a  uno  de  los  dos  grupos  de   la  muestra.   en  este  modo,  en   los  próximos  párrafos  presentamos   los   resultados  arrojados  por   las  dos  pruebas   estadísticas   aplicadas   considerando   los   subactos  remedial  move   y  appeal   to   empathy,   dos   de   los   subactos   donde  estas  diferencias  parecen  más  significativas.     como  vimos  antes  (tabla  6),   los   italianos  en  general   tienden  a  usar  más   frecuentemente  el   subacto   remedial  move,  es  decir,  tienden  a  usar  más  enunciados  del  tipo  “mi  dispiace”,  “scusami”,  etc.,  mientras  que   los  colombianos  tienen  una  menor  tendencia  a  recurrir  a  este  tipo  de  subacto.  la  dependencia  entre  las  dos   variables   es   significativa,   como   se   observa   en   la   tabla   7   (chi-­‐cuadrada   =   24,416;   df   =   1;   p-­‐value   <   0,05)   y   relativamente  buena,  como  testimonia  el  valor  0,18  asumido  por  la  v  de  cramér  (tabla  8).  en  este  caso  se  han   considerado   las   tres   situaciones   de   distancia   social   juntas.   los   resultados   indican   que   el   uso   del   subacto   remedial  move  puede   ser   predictivo   de   la   pertenencia   a   uno   de   los   dos   grupos   de   la  muestra   (italianos   y   colombianos).       tabla 7 prueba chi-cuadrada para el subacto remedial move entre italianos y colombianos valor gl significación asintótica (bilateral) sign. exacta (bilateral) sign. exacta (unilateral) chi-cuadrada de pearson 24,416a 1 ,000 corrección por continuidadb 23,524 1 ,000 relación de verosimilitud 23,420 1 ,000 prueba exacta de fisher ,000 ,000 asociación lineal por lineal 24,384 1 ,000 n de casos válidos 753 nota: a. 0 celdas (0,0%) presentan un conteo previsto inferior a 5. el conteo mínimo esperado es 57,88. b. calculado solo para una tabla 2 × 2. tabla 8 medidas simétricas para el subacto remedial move entre italianos y colombianos valor significación aproximada nominal por nominal phi -,180 ,000 v de cramér ,180 ,000 n de casos válidos 753     cancelar  una  cita:  un  estudio  transcultural   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 125   considerando   las   tres   situaciones   de   distancia   social   por   separado,   podemos   observar   que   en   la   situación   con   distancia   social   media   (party,   tablas   11   y   12),   la   dependencia   entre   las   dos   variables   es   significativa   (chi-­‐cuadrada   =   20,355;   df   =   1;   p-­‐value   <   0,05)   y   es   fuerte,   como   testimonia   el   valor   0,28   asumido  por  la  v  de  cramér.  en  la  situación  con  menor  distancia  social  (dinner,  tablas  9  y  10)  la  dependencia   es   significativa   (chi-­‐cuadrada  =  5,772;  df  =  1;  p-­‐value  <  0,05),   aunque  débil,   como   testimonia  el   valor  0,15   asumido  por  la  v  de  cramér.  por  último,  en  la  situación  de  mayor  distancia  social  (drink,   tablas  13  y  14),   la   dependencia   es   poco   significativa (chi-­‐cuadrada   =   2,743;   df   =   1;   p-­‐value   >   0,05)   y   es   muy   débil,   como   testimonia  el  valor  0,10  asumido  por  la  v  de  cramér.  los  resultados  indican  que  los  enunciados  producidos   por  los  colombianos  y  los  italianos  tienden  a  parecerse  más  en  la  situación  con  el  vecino  y  tienden  a  ser  muy   divergentes   en   la   situación   con   un   conocido,   siendo   los   italianos   los   que   hacen   mayor   uso   de   actos   para   remediar  el  inconveniente  creado  por  cancelar  la  cita.     tabla 9 prueba chi-cuadrada para el subacto remedial move entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con –ds (dinner) valor gl significación asintótica (bilateral) sign. exacta (bilateral) sign. exacta (unilateral) chi-cuadrada de pearson 5,772a 1 ,016 corrección por continuidadb 5,019 1 ,025 relación de verosimilitud 5,524 1 ,019 prueba exacta de fisher ,023 ,014 asociación lineal por lineal 5,749 1 ,017 n de casos válidos 251 nota: a. 0 celdas (0,0%) presentan un conteo previsto inferior a 5. el conteo mínimo esperado es 20,65. b. calculado solo para una tabla 2 × 2.   tabla 10 medidas simétricas para el subacto remedial move entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con –ds (dinner) valor significación aproximada nominal por nominal phi -,152 ,016 v de cramér ,152 ,016 n de casos válidos 251 tabla 11 prueba chi-cuadrada para el subacto remedial move entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con +–ds (party) valor gl significación asintótica (bilateral) sign. exacta (bilateral) sign. exacta (unilateral) chi-cuadrada de pearson 20,355a 1 ,000 corrección por continuidadb 18,962 1 ,000 relación de verosimilitud 19,342 1 ,000 prueba exacta de fisher ,000 ,000 asociación lineal por lineal 20,274 1 ,000 n de casos válidos 251 nota: a. 0 celdas (0,0%) presentan un conteo previsto inferior a 5. el conteo mínimo esperado es 19,63. b. calculado solo para una tabla 2 × 2.   tabla 12 medidas simétricas para el subacto remedial move entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con +–ds (party) valor significación aproximada nominal por nominal phi -,285 ,000 v de cramér ,285 ,000 n de casos válidos 251 cortés  velásquez e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 126   tabla 13 prueba chi-cuadrada para el subacto remedial move entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con +ds (drink) valor gl significación asintótica (bilateral) sign. exacta (bilateral) sign. exacta (unilateral) chi-cuadrada de pearson 2,743a 1 ,098 corrección por continuidadb 2,254 1 ,133 relación de verosimilitud 2,677 1 ,102 prueba exacta de fisher ,121 ,068 asociación lineal por lineal 2,732 1 ,098 n de casos válidos 251 nota: a. 0 celdas (0,0%) presentan un conteo previsto inferior a 5. el conteo mínimo esperado es 20,65. b. calculado solo para una tabla 2 × 2.   tabla 14 medidas simétricas para el subacto remedial move entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con +ds (drink) valor significación aproximada nominal por nominal phi -,105 ,098 v de cramér ,105 ,098 n de casos válidos 251   el  otro  subacto  que  presenta  diferencias  interesantes  entre  los  dos  grupos  de  la  muestra  es  appeal  to   empathy.  según  la  tabla  6,  un  porcentaje  que  oscila  entre  el  12%  y  el  15%  de  los  italianos  de  la  muestra  tiende   a  hacer  uso  de  este  subacto  (p.  ej.  “non  mi  mandare  al  diavolo”,  “spero  non  sia  un  problema”)  mientras  que  un   porcentaje  mucho  más  bajo  de  los  colombianos,  entre  el  1%  y  el  8%,  lo  hace  (p.  ej.  “de  verdad  no  te  imaginas   lo  apenada  que  estoy”,   “espero  que  no  sea  un  problema”).  en   las   tres   situaciones   juntas,   la  dependencia  es   significativa   como   se   observa   en   la   tabla   15   (chi-­‐cuadrada  =   12,351;   df   =   1;   p-­‐value   <   0,05)   aunque  débil,   como   testimonia   el   valor   0,12   asumido   por   la  v   de   cramér.   esto   quiere   decir   que,   desde   el   punto   de   vista   estadístico,  el  uso  de  este  subacto  es  predictivo  del  grupo  de  pertenencia  de  la  muestra.     tabla 15 prueba chi-cuadrada para el subacto appeal to empathy entre italianos y colombianos valor gl significación asintótica (bilateral) sign. exacta (bilateral) sign. exacta (unilateral) chi-cuadrada de pearson 12,351a 1 ,000 corrección por continuidadb 11,430 1 ,001 relación de verosimilitud 14,723 1 ,000 prueba exacta de fisher ,000 ,000 asociación lineal por lineal 12,335 1 ,000 n de casos válidos 753 nota: a. 0 celdas (0,0%) presentan un conteo previsto inferior a 5. el conteo mínimo esperado es 21,16. b. calculado solo para una tabla 2 × 2.   tabla 16 medidas simétricas para el subacto appeal to empathy entre italianos y colombianos valor significación aproximada nominal por nominal phi -,128 ,000 v de cramér ,128 ,000 n de casos válidos 753   un  análisis  más  detallado  que  considera  las  tres  situaciones  por  separado  muestra  que,  en  el  caso  de   este  subacto,  la  significación  aumenta  con  la  distancia  social.  de  este  modo,  la  situación  con  menor  distancia   social  (dinner,  tablas  17  y  18)  presenta  una  dependencia  nula  (chi-­‐cuadrada  =  2,411;  df  =  1;  p-­‐value  >  0,05)   con  el  valor  0,98  asumido  por  la  v  de  cramér.  en  la  situación  con  distancia  social  media  (party,  tablas  19  y  20)   la  dependencia  es  buena  (chi-­‐cuadrada  =  4,475;  df  =  1;  p-­‐value  <  0,05),  aunque  débil  como  lo  testimonia  el   valor  0,13  asumido  por  la  v  de  cramér.  por  último,  en  la  situación  con  mayor  distancia  social  (drink,  tablas  21   cancelar  una  cita:  un  estudio  transcultural   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 127   y  22)  la  dependencia  es  buena  (chi-­‐cuadrada  =  6,357;  df  =  1;  p-­‐value  <  0,05),  aunque  débil  como  testimoniado   por  el  valor  0,15  asumido  por   la  v  de  cramér.   según  estos  datos,   la  distribución  de  este  subacto  en   los  dos   grupos  es  bastante  similar  en  la  situación  entre  amigos,  pero  tiende  a  divergir  cuando  se  trata  de  las  otras  dos   situaciones:  los  colombianos  lo  usan  en  mayor  medida  con  los  amigos,  aunque  muy  raramente  con  conocidos   y  desconocidos.       tabla 17 prueba chi-cuadrada para el subacto appeal to empathy entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con –ds (dinner) valor gl significación asintótica (bilateral) sign. exacta (bilateral) sign. exacta (unilateral) chi-cuadrada de pearson 2,411a 1 ,120 corrección por continuidadb 1,799 1 ,180 relación de verosimilitud 2,665 1 ,103 prueba exacta de fisher ,142 ,086 asociación lineal por lineal 2,402 1 ,121 n de casos válidos 251 nota: a. 0 celdas (0,0%) presentan un conteo previsto inferior a 5. el conteo mínimo esperado es 8,67. b. calculado solo para una tabla 2 × 2. tabla 18 medidas simétricas para el subacto appeal to empathy entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con –ds (dinner) valor significación aproximada nominal por nominal phi -,098 ,120 v de cramér ,098 ,120 n de casos válidos 251 tabla 19 prueba chi-cuadrada para el subacto appeal to empathy entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con +–ds (party) valor gl significación asintótica (bilateral) sign. exacta (bilateral) sign. exacta (unilateral) chi-cuadrada de pearson 4,475a 1 ,034 corrección por continuidadb 3,511 1 ,061 relación de verosimilitud 5,506 1 ,019 prueba exacta de fisher ,050 ,023 asociación lineal por lineal 4,457 1 ,035 n de casos válidos 251 nota: a. 0 celdas (0,0%) presentan un conteo previsto inferior a 5. el conteo mínimo esperado es 6,37. b. calculado solo para una tabla 2 × 2. tabla 20 medidas simétricas para el subacto appeal to empathy entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con +–ds (party) valor significación aproximada nominal por nominal phi -,134 ,034 v de cramér ,134 ,034 n de casos válidos 251 cortés  velásquez e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 128   tabla 21 prueba chi-cuadrada para el subacto appeal to empathy entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con +ds (drink) valor gl significación asintótica (bilateral) sign. exacta (bilateral) sign. exacta (unilateral) chi-cuadrada de pearson 6,357a 1 ,012 corrección por continuidadb 5,176 1 ,023 relación de verosimilitud 8,556 1 ,003 prueba exacta de fisher ,012 ,006 asociación lineal por lineal 6,331 1 ,012 n de casos válidos 251 nota. a. 0 celdas (0,0%) presentan un conteo previsto inferior a 5. el conteo mínimo esperado es 6,12. b. calculado solo para una tabla 2 × 2. tabla 22 medidas simétricas para el subacto appeal to empathy entre italianos y colombianos en la situación con +ds (drink) valor significación aproximada nominal por nominal phi -,159 ,012 v de cramér ,159 ,012 n de casos válidos 251 por  último,  vale   la  pena  detenerse  en  el   análisis  del   subacto  explanation   en   relación  con   las  varias   estrategias  usadas  por  los  informantes  ya  que  esto  nos  permite  observar  mejor  las  diferencias  entre  los  dos   grupos.   a   primera   vista,   la   distribución   de   este   subacto   es  muy   similar   entre   los   dos   grupos,   como  hemos   visto  en  el  párrafo  precedente   (tabla  6),  pero   las  estrategias  usadas  presentan  mayor  variedad  en  el  grupo   italiano,  como  se  puede  observar  en  la  tabla  23.  de  hecho,  algunas  estrategias  usadas  por  este  grupo  no  lo  son   o   son   escasamente   usadas   por   el   grupo   colombiano.   mientras   que   el   grupo   italiano   usa   con   frecuencia   la   estrategia   de   atribuir   a   un   evento   imprevisto   la   cancelación  de   la   cita,   usando   otras   explicaciones   como   el   cansancio,  los  problemas  de  salud,  el  trabajo,  etc.,  el  grupo  colombiano  no  cree  necesario  ofrecer  más  detalles   y  formula  la  cancelación  atribuyendo  la  imposibilidad  a  un  evento  inesperado  no  especificado.  para  el  análisis   de  las  estrategias  de  este  subacto  no  proponemos  pruebas  estadísticas  ya  que,  al  menos  en  la  mayor  parte  de   los  casos,  consideramos  que  los  porcentajes  son  suficientes  para  describir  las  diferencias.     tabla 23 distribución de las estrategias utilizadas en el subacto explanation entre los italianos y colombianos en las tres situaciones italianos colombianos dinner party drink dinner party drink subactos n % n % n % n % n % n % domestic emergency 1 0,5 2 1,1 2 1,1 0 0,0 0 0,0 1 1,6 entertainment 0 0,0 0 0,0 0 0,0 0 0,0 0 0,0 0 0,0 family 3 1,6 5 2,7 4 2,2 0 0,0 0 0,0 2 3,2 generic unforeseen event 50 27,0 66 35,7 86 46,5 32 51,6 19 30,6 29 46,8 health 17 9,2 10 5,4 21 11,4 1 1,6 3 4,8 0 0,0 memory gap 2 1,1 11 5,9 3 1,6 0 0,0 1 1,6 0 0,0 mood 3 1,6 0 0,0 2 1,1 0 0,0 3 4,8 0 0,0 tiredness 15 8,1 1 0,5 3 1,6 0 0,0 1 1,6 2 3,2 vague hindrance 10 5,4 7 3,8 8 4,3 5 8,1 8 12,9 1 1,6 work 8 4,3 15 8,1 7 3,8 0 0,0 1 1,6 2 3,2 explanation (total) 113 61,1 121 65,4 141 76,2 38 61,3 37 59,7 39 62,9       cancelar  una  cita:  un  estudio  transcultural   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 129   para  concluir,   los  resultados  del  análisis  muestran  que,  en  efecto,  existen  algunas  diferencias  entre   italianos  y  colombianos  respecto  a   las  estrategias  que  estos  hablantes  consideran  que  tienen  que  usar  para   cancelar  una  cita  en  el  último  minuto.  estas  diferencias  están  relacionadas  con  la  distribución  y  la  realización   de  algunos  subactos.  en  este  trabajo  presentamos  el  análisis  de  la  distribución  de  los  subactos  remedial  move   y   appeal   to   empathy.   en   general,   vimos   que   las   diferencias   son   significativas   desde   el   punto   de   visto   estadístico.     en   cuanto   al   subacto  explanation,   el   hecho   de   que   los   colombianos   prefieran   no   ofrecer  mayores   detalles  cuando  explican  el  motivo  de  la  cancelación  sugiere  que  entre  estos  la  cancelación  sea  más  aceptada  y   no  necesite  el  uso  de  otras  explicaciones.  no  así  para  los  italianos,  que  usan  explicaciones  de  diferentes  tipos   como  problemas  de  familia,  de  salud,  cansancio,  imprevistos  de  trabajo,  estado  de  ánimo.       6.  implicaciones  para  la  didáctica   este   trabajo  presenta  un  estudio  descriptivo   sobre  una  posible  estrategia  de   rechazo  postergado  a   una   invitación   y,   en   particular,   sobre   el  modo   en   el   que   los   italianos   y   los   colombianos   creen   que   se   debe   cancelar  una  invitación  aceptada  con  antelación.  el  estudio  empírico  de  la  realización  de  este  y,  en  general,  de   los   actos   lingüísticos   en   diversos   contextos   tiene   implicaciones   interesantes   para   el   aprendizaje   y   la   enseñanza  de  las  lenguas  y  para  la  comunicación  intercultural  porque  ayuda  a  los  hablantes  y  estudiantes  de   l2  a  crear  conciencia  de  los  usos  pragmáticos.  ser  conscientes  de  las  diferencias  pragmáticas  interculturales   en  la  realización  de  los  actos  lingüísticos  puede  reducir  el  riesgo  del  transfer  pragmático  negativo  y,  por  ende,   puede  evitar  incomprensiones,  dificultades  comunicativas  y  conflictos  interpersonales.     por   este   motivo,   los   estudios   que   ponen   en   relación   la   enseñanza   de   las   lenguas   y   los   aspectos   evidenciados   por   la   pragmática   transcultural   se   han   hecho   paulatinamente  más   frecuentes,   tanto   que   hoy   ocupan  un  lugar  preponderante  en  la  agenda  de  numerosos  grupos  de  investigación.  como  recordábamos  en   la  introducción,  gironzetti  y  koike  (2016)  presentan  una  exhaustiva  reseña  crítica  de  los  trabajos  dedicados  a   la  enseñanza  de  los  aspectos  pragmáticos  en  e/le  (español  como  lengua  extranjera),  en  donde  la  tradición  de   los  estudios  de  pragmática  transcultural  es  bastante  rica  y  cuenta  con  numerosas  publicaciones  anuales.  por   otra  parte,  para  el  italiano  el  reciente  volumen  editado  por  santoro  y  vedder  (2016)  ofrece  una  contribución   sobre   el   italiano,   en   el   que   el   interés   por   los   estudios   de   la   enseñanza   de   los   aspectos   pragmáticos   de   la   lengua,  de  tradición  transcultural,  es  cada  vez  mayor.     el  punto  de  partida  de  la  mayor  parte  de  los  trabajos  en  este  campo  concuerda  con  el  hecho  de  que  la   competencia  pragmática,   en   la   propuesta  de  hymes   (1971),   es   uno  de   los   componentes  de   la   competencia   comunicativa.  ser  competente,  desde  el  punto  de  vista  comunicativo,  significa   tener   la  capacidad  de  usar   la   lengua  en  modo  apropiado  según  el  contexto.  por  lo  tanto,  el  objetivo  de  la  enseñanza  de  las  lenguas  es  hacer   que  los  estudiantes  lleguen  a  ser  comunicativamente  competentes.   en  este  sentido,   los   instrumentos  que  ofrece   la  enseñanza  de   lenguas  para   llegar  a  ser  competente   son   de   índole   morfosintáctico.   esto   se   debe   a   que,   como   ha   sido   observado   varias   veces   (p.   ej.   cortés   velásquez  &  nuzzo,  2017;  nuzzo  &  gauci,  2012),  mientras  para  la  gramática  podemos  contar  con  numerosas   descripciones   de   las   reglas   morfosintácticas   que   rigen   las   lenguas,   no   es   así   para   las   reglas   que   rigen   la   pragmática.  además,  y  como  ha  sido  corroborado  en  este  estudio,  cuando  se  trata  del  sistema  de  cortesía  se   puede  hablar  de  tendencias,  de  usos  más  o  menos  adecuados  a  un  determinado  contexto  lingüístico-­‐cultural   (cortés  velásquez  &  nuzzo,  2017),  pero  no  de  reglas  inviolables.     las  implicaciones  didácticas  de  este  estudio  relacionadas  con  la  didáctica  del  italiano  y  el  español  van   en   tres   direcciones:   formación  de  profesores   de   lengua,   desarrollo   de   la   conciencia  metapragmática   de   los   estudiantes  y  elaboración  de  materiales  didácticos.     como  afirman  algunos  estudiosos  (bettoni,  2006;  nuzzo  &  gauci,  2012,  p.  77),  a  menudo  los  mismos   docentes  de  lengua  no  son  conscientes  de  los  fenómenos  relacionados  con  la  esfera  pragmática,  sobre  todo  en   relación   con   la   cortesía   lingüística.   los   resultados   presentados   en   este   trabajo   ofrecen   a   los   profesores   de   lengua,  y  a  quienes  se  están  formando  para  serlo,  datos  concretos  sobre  las  diferencias  en  el  modo  de  cancelar   una   cita   de   italianos   y   colombianos   y,   sobre   todo,   una   oportunidad   para   reflexionar   sobre   lo   que   significa   describir  las  diferencias  culturales  en  términos  de  cortesía  lingüística.   la   segunda   implicación   concierne   más   bien   la   educación   lingüística   de   los   aprendices   de   lengua,   especialmente   la   esfera   relacionada   con   el   desarrollo   de   la   conciencia   metapragmática.   está   claro   que   la   enseñanza   de   lenguas   no   tiene   como   objetivo   que   los   aprendices   lleguen   a   comportarse   lingüísticamente   como   los   hablantes   nativos,   siendo,   entre   otras   cosas,   el  mismo   concepto   de   ‘nativo’   problemático.   es  más   sensato,  por  ende,  aspirar  a  que  los  estudiantes  sean  conscientes  del  hilo  que  une  ciertas  reacciones  a  ciertos   cortés  velásquez e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 130   comportamientos  lingüísticos.  no  se  trata,  entonces,  de  que  un  colombiano  llegue  a  cancelar  una  cita  como  lo   hace  un   italiano   sino,  más  bien,   de  que   sea   consciente  de  que   su   comportamiento  puede  diferir  del   de   sus   interlocutores   y   puede   causar   efectos   no   esperados.   además,   y   no  menos   importante,   es   probable   que   los   beneficios  del  desarrollo  de  una  conciencia  metapragmática  tengan  repercusiones  incluso  en  la  propia  lengua   materna.  los  presupuestos  de  este  estudio  pueden  ser  objeto  de  discusión  en  clase  de  italiano  o  español  l2.     por  último,  en  cuanto  a  la  elaboración  de  materiales  didácticos,  este  estudio  pone  a  disposición  de  los   profesores  de  lengua  el  dct  creado  para  la  recolección  de  datos  (ver  el  enlace  de  la  nota  4).  el  cuestionario   puede   ser   propuesto   como   una   actividad   comunicativa   a   la   que   puede   seguir   una   discusión   en   la   que   se   comparan   las   respuestas   de   los   estudiantes   con   los   resultados   expuestos   en   este   trabajo.   las   situaciones   presentadas  en  el  dct  pueden  ser,  además,  un  estímulo  para  la  creación  de  tareas  comunicativas  (como  p.  ej.   un   role-­‐play)   con   un   momento   sucesivo   de   reflexión,   no   solo   sobre   el   acto   lingüístico   del   rechazo,   sino   también  sobre  el  tema  de  la  cortesía  en  general.  para  estos  y  otros  usos  didácticos  del  dct  invitamos  a  ver  el   trabajo  de  ishihara  and  cohen  (2010).  en  relación  con  este  último  punto,  las  implicaciones  aquí  presentadas   también  pueden  tener  interesantes  repercusiones  concernientes  a  los  autores  de  manuales  de  lengua.  estos   manuales,  en  cuanto  una  de  las  principales  fuentes  de  input  para  los  aprendices,  deberían  presentar  modelos   de  uso  lingüístico  naturales  y  variados  desde  el  punto  de  vista  pragmático,  aunque  muchos  estudiosos  dudan   de   que   así   sea   (nuzzo,   2016,   p.   15).   una   reflexión   desde   esta   perspectiva   sería   seguramente   útil   porque   permite  ofrecer  más  ocasiones  para  concientizar  a   los  estudiantes  que  siguen  un  curso  de   lengua  sobre   las   diferencias  y  similitudes  entre  el  sistema  de  la  l1  y  el  de  la  l2.     7.  conclusión   el  presente  estudio  se  enmarca  en  el  proyecto  disdir  que  tiene  como  objeto  el  estudio  del  acto  del   rechazo  a  una  invitación  y  las  estrategias  para  realizarlo  en  diferentes  lenguas  en  comparación  con  el  italiano.   los   datos   aquí   presentados   se   concentran,   en   particular,   en   la   cancelación   de   una   invitación,   una   de   las   estrategias  de  rechazo  identificadas  en  el  proyecto.  los  resultados  aquí  discutidos  permiten  observar  el  modo   que   los   hablantes   del   español   colombiano   y   del   italiano   perciben   como   más   apropiado   para   realizar   la   cancelación  a  una  invitación.   los   resultados   presentados   aquí   parecen   indicar   que   es   posible   confirmar   la   hipótesis   de   este   trabajo,   aunque   un   análisis   más   exhaustivo   debería   arrojar   nuevas   informaciones.   en   líneas   generales,   algunas   diferencias   entre   el   grupo   italiano   y   el   colombiano   sugieren   que   la   cancelación  de   una   cita   es   una   estrategia  de  rechazo  postergado  usada  por  los  colombianos  para  salvaguardar  la  propia  imagen  positiva  y  la   del  interlocutor.  esto  parece  evidente  sobre  todo  por  la  frecuencia  de  los  subactos  remedial  move  y  appeal  to   empathy   formulados  por   los  colombianos.  el  primero  consiste  en   la  propuesta  de  acciones  correctoras  o  de   remedio,   de   bastante   baja   frecuencia   respecto   a   los   italianos.   en   relación   con   este   subacto,   los   enunciados   producidos  por  los  colombianos  y  los  italianos  tienden  a  parecerse  más  en  la  situación  con  el  vecino  y  tienden   a   ser,   en   cambio,   bastante   divergentes   en   la   situación   con   un   conocido,   siendo   los   italianos   los   que   hacen   mayor   uso   de   actos   para   remediar   el   inconveniente   creado   por   cancelar   la   cita.   las   pruebas   estadísticas   arrojan  resultados  significativos  para  la  situación  con  el  desconocido  (drink)  y  con  el  amigo  (dinner),  pero  no   para  la  situación  con  el  conocido  (party).  en  cuanto  a  appeal  to  empathy,  según  los  datos,   la  distribución  de   este  subacto  en  el  grupo  de  los  italianos  es  bastante  homogénea  (entre  el  12%  y  el  15%),  mientras  que  en  el   grupo  de  colombianos  hay  mayor  variabilidad  (entre  el  1%  y  el  8%).  en  los  dos  grupos  es  bastante  similar  en   la  situación  entre  amigos,  pero  tiende  a  divergir  cuando  se  trata  de  la  situación  de  las  otras  dos  situaciones  de   distancia   social:   los   colombianos   lo   usan   en   mayor   medida   con   los   amigos,   pero   muy   raramente   con   conocidos  y  desconocidos.     otro   subacto   en   el   que   se   presenta   una   interesante   divergencia   entre   italianos   y   colombianos   es   explanation.  la  rica  variedad  de  explicaciones  presente  en  los  datos  de  los  italianos  no  tiene  comparación  con   la  vaguedad  exhibida  por  los  datos  recopilados  entre  los  colombianos.  esta  diferencia  pareciera  indicar  que   los   italianos   consideran   necesario   hacer   un   esfuerzo   de   especificación  mayor   que   probablemente   funciona   como  instrumento  de  mitigación.  al  contrario,  los  colombianos  no  consideran  necesario  especificar,  porque  la   cancelación  es  percibida  como  rutinaria  y,  por  lo  tanto,  no  necesita  mayor  esfuerzo  de  persuasión.     los   datos   analizados   en   este   trabajo   representan   la   percepción   de   lo   que   italianos   y   colombianos   consideran  oportuno  al  momento  de  cancelar  una  cita.  a  través  del  análisis  del  acto  de  la  cancelación  se  ha   querido  observar  indirectamente  cómo  los  dos  grupos  perciben  el  acto  del  rechazo  a  una  invitación.     las  implicaciones  didácticas  de  este  estudio  tienen  varios  aspectos  relacionados  con  la  conciencia  de   los   usos   de   la   lengua:   la   invitación   a   los   profesores   de   lengua   a   introducir   las   situaciones   objeto   de   esta   cancelar  una  cita:  un  estudio  transcultural   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 131   investigación  para  debatir,  junto  a  los  alumnos,  el  modo  en  el  que  estos  se  comportan  frente  a  la  cancelación   de   una   cita   y   cómo   lo   consideran   apropiado   en   su   lengua  materna;   y   la   introducción   de   secciones   en   los   manuales  de   lengua  en  donde  se   favorezca   la   reflexión  de  aspectos  pragmáticos,  en  este  caso,   relacionados   con  el  rechazo  a  una  invitación.  este  debate  es  útil  porque  permite  enfrentar,  más  en  general,  las  cuestiones   de  la  cortesía  lingüística  y  la  conciencia  metapragmática.   en  un  próximo  trabajo  será  necesario  considerar  los  demás  datos  recopilados  a  través  del  dct  y  los   otros  aspectos  de  los  actos  (como  los  modificadores  internos),  para  llegar  a  conclusiones  más  específicas.     por  último,   en  un  estudio   futuro   será  necesario   recoger  mayores  observaciones  para   comparar   los   subgrupos   italianos   y   colombianos,   para   considerar   otras   variables   interesantes   como   el   lugar   de   proveniencia  (observaciones  diatópicas)  y  el  género.           referencias       achiba,  machiko  (2003).  learning  to  request  in  a  second  language.  a  study  of  child  interlanguage  pragmatics.   clevedon,  united  kingdom: 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 editore.   showstack,   rachel   (2016).   la   pragmática   transcultural   de   los   hablantes   de   herencia   de   español:   análisis   e   implicaciones  pedagógicas.  journal  of  spanish  language  teaching,  3(2),  143-­‐156.   cortés  velásquez e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  115-­‐134 134   trosborg,  anna  (1995).  interlanguage  pragmatics.  requests,  complaints  and  apologies.  berlín,  alemania  –  new   york,  usa:  gruyter.     watts,  richard  (2003).  politeness.  cambridge,  united  kingdom:  cambridge  university  press.   wierzbicka,   anna   (2003).   cross-­‐cultural   pragmatics:   the   semantics   of   human   interaction.   berlin,   germany:   mouton  de  gruyter.             diego cortés velásquez, università degli studi internazionali di roma (unint) cortes.velasquez.diego@gmail.com es diego cortés velásquez es profesor de didáctica de las lenguas y de traducción italiano-español en la università degli studi internazionali di roma (unint) y colabora con el centro lingüístico di ateneo de la università degli studi roma tre. conseguió su doctorado en 2013 con una investigación sobre la intercomprensión oral y la metacognición. sus áreas de investigación incluyen la intercompresión entre lenguas romances, la pragmática transcultural y la didáctica de lenguas por tareas. en diego cortés velásquez is professor of language teaching and italian-spanish translation at the università degli studi internazionali of rome (unint) and he collaborates with the centro lingüístico di ateneo at the università degli studi roma tre. he received his doctorate in 2013 with a dissertation focused on oral intercomprehension and metacognition. his areas of research include romance intercomprehension, transcultural pragmatics and task-based language pedagogy. it diego cortés velásquez è docente a contratto di didattica delle lingue e di traduzione attiva italiano spagnolo presso l’università degli studi internazionali di roma (unint) e collabora con il centro linguistico di ateneo dell’università degli studi roma tre. ha ottenuto il suo dottorato di ricerca nel 2013 con una ricerca sull’intercomprensione orale e la metacognizione. fra i suoi principali interessi si trovano l’intercomprensione fra le lingue romanze, la pragmatica transculturale e la didattica di lingue basata sui task.   gasparini_8.2 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, november 2021, 142-160 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.243 www.e-journall.org © gasparini 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. usabilità ed efficacia di ambienti di apprendimento digitale in ambito linguistico alice gasparini università per stranieri di siena received 19 april 2021; accepted 2 september 2021 abstract it la pandemia scoppiata nel 2020 ha determinato il trasferimento della didattica in presenza a una mediata da uno schermo. il cambiamento ha posto l’attenzione su tale modalità sollevando domande sulla sua organizzazione. il contributo esplora tali temi e si focalizza sugli spazi formativi digitali, analizzati dal punto di vista dell’usabilità: tale concetto racchiude l’efficacia, la piacevolezza, la facilità d’uso di un sistema (nielsen, 1994). in questo studio, sono stati presi in considerazione due sistemi: moodle e wordpress. entrambi hanno come obiettivo finale la gestione di contenuti digitali, ma con finalità diverse. nelle due piattaforme, opportunamente allestite, sono state implementate alcune risorse aperte di italiano come l2. per la raccolta di dati sono stati impiegati un software di monitoraggio del comportamento degli utenti, interviste e questionari. l’analisi dei dati ha fatto emergere indicazioni sull’esperienza di apprendimento degli utenti e sul loro comportamento, nonché sull’efficacia degli ambienti e dei materiali parole chiave: ambienti di apprendimento digitali, italiano l2, usabilità, analisi dell’apprendimento en since the explosion of the pandemic in 2020, teaching and learning practices have been forced to switch from a face-to-face model to one mediated by a screen. this change has placed intense attention on the character of computer-mediated instruction. this paper explores these themes and focuses on formative digital spaces, analyzed from the point of view of usability: this concept includes efficacy and the ease and pleasantness of use of a system (nielsen, 1994). in this study, two systems were considered: moodle and wordpress. they share the goal of managing digital content, albeit with different objectives. in both platforms, accessible, open-source l2 italian materials were made available. for the data collection, interviews, questionnaires, and software monitoring users’ behavior were employed. the analysis of the data sheds light on the learning experience of the users and their behavior, as well as on the efficacy of the environments and materials. key words: digital learning settings, italian l2, learning analytics es desde la explosión de la pandemia en 2020, las prácticas de enseñanza y aprendizaje se han visto obligadas a pasar de un modelo presencial a uno mediado por una pantalla. este cambio ha focalizado la atención en el carácter de la enseñanza mediada por computadora. este artículo explora estos temas y se centra en los espacios formativos digitales, analizados desde el punto de vista de la usabilidad. este concepto incluye la eficacia, la facilidad y el agrado del uso de un sistema (nielsen, 1994). en este estudio, se consideraron dos sistemas: moodle y wordpress. ambos comparten la finalidad de gestionar los contenidos digitales, aunque con objetivos diferentes. en las dos plataformas se ofrecieron materiales accesibles y de código abierto de italiano como segunda lengua. para la recogida de datos se emplearon entrevistas, cuestionarios y programas informáticos de monitorización del comportamiento de usuarios y usuarias. el análisis de los datos arroja luz sobre la experiencia de aprendizaje de las personas usuarias y su comportamiento, así como sobre la eficacia de los entornos y de los materiales. palabras clave: entornos de aprendizaje digital, italiano como segunda lengua, análisis de aprendizaje ! alice gasparini, università g. d’annunzio alice.gasparini@unistrasi.it usabilità ed efficacia di ambienti di apprendimento digitale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 143 1. introduzione il punto iniziale di questo lavoro di ricerca è il concetto di usabilità, nella sua dimensione tecnica e pedagogica; per tale ragione si analizzano gli ambienti di apprendimento digitali. ha l’obiettivo di considerare entrambe le componenti e di andare ancora più in profondità, concentrandosi sul contesto specifico dell’apprendimento linguistico. l’usabilità descrive e misura la facilità d’uso di un sistema (nielsen, 1994), un fattore cruciale nel determinare una buona o cattiva esperienza dell’utente e dello studente all’interno del sito o dell’ambiente formativo. siti internet dotati di una navigazione difficile causano un dispendio di tempo ed energie nella realizzazione di un compito. ciò può creare una sensazione di frustrazione e, in ultima analisi, può portare alla rinuncia all’uso del sistema, che quindi fallisce nel suo primario obiettivo. focalizzandosi sui contesti didattici, quando si parla di usabilità si pone, quindi, la necessità di creare ambienti che siano il più possibile learner-centered, andando incontro alle esigenze di apprendimento di una lingua in ambito digitale. dall’approfondimento della letteratura specialistica e dalla pratica didattica in ambienti a distanza è emerso che frequentemente lo sviluppo della parte tecnologica ha il sopravvento sugli aspetti didattici, e ciò determina la creazione di ambienti di studio poco adatti allo scopo con cui sono stati creati, complessi e di difficile gestione da parte dello studente (zaharias, 2004, 2009). spesso parlando di apprendimento digitale, si tende a dimenticare che l’ambiente in cui avviene l’evento formativo è a tutti gli effetti un luogo e che come tale deve essere trattato. l’approccio comunicativo ha ampiamente riflettuto su come l’organizzazione dell’aula fisica, per esempio la disposizione delle sedie o la cattedra, sia in grado di creare un ambiente più favorevole all’apprendimento, in cui è il discente a essere al centro della pratica didattica. l’usabilità restituisce all’utente il ruolo primario nella progettazione di un sito e grazie al concetto di usabilità pedagogica si restituisce finalmente rilevanza all’apprendente (nokelainen 2004, 2006). partendo dal concetto di usabilità, il progetto di ricerca qui presentato mette a confronto due ambienti digitali diversi (wordpress e moodle) riconducibili alle tipologie di software presenti nel panorama di internet (rispettivamente cms e lms). all’interno di entrambe è stato implementato un percorso di apprendimento dell’italiano come lingua seconda. oltre a considerare l’apprendente e la sua relazione con gli spazi virtuali, lo studio ha inteso porre l’accento sulla disciplina in oggetto, ovvero l’italiano come lingua straniera o seconda. i principali aspetti innovativi del lavoro sono l’impiego di un sistema non deputato alla formazione, il cms wordpress, allestito per diventare un ambiente di apprendimento e lo strumento utilizzato per la raccolta dei dati quantitativi. il software di tracciamento, infatti, è specificamente rivolto alla valutazione dell’usabilità e normalmente non viene utilizzato in campo didattico. questo ha il pregio di offrire uno sguardo esterno sul comportamento dei discenti, permettendo di capire come interagiscono con l’ambiente e con le risorse. tali dati sono utili al progettista per allineare il sistema con le esigenze degli studenti. oltre alle metriche analitiche, sono state effettuate osservazioni, interviste e questionari, strumenti che hanno consentito anche la raccolta di dati qualitativi. nella prima parte dell’articolo verranno illustrati i concetti fondamentali su cui si basa la ricerca: usabilità, usabilità pedagogica e learning analytics, mentre la seconda è incentrata sullo studio e sui risultati raggiunti. 2. usabilità l’idea dell’usabilità nacque nei primi del novecento in risposta a una precisa esigenza figlia della nascente industria automobilistica americana. frederick winslow taylor e henry ford, autori dei primi studi sul rapporto tra operaio e macchina, giunsero alla conclusione che, per incrementare la produzione industriale, era necessario che i macchinari andassero maggiormente incontro al movimento umano1. da questi henry dreyfuss2 sviluppò l’ergonomia, disciplina che si occupa della progettazione di oggetti incentrata sugli utenti, dando quindi vita allo human-centered design. uno degli esponenti più importanti di questa corrente sarà 1 l’organizzazione scientifica del lavoro (the principles of scientific management) di taylor (2004) descrive gli studi sul tempo e i movimenti effettuati dagli operai e illustra alcuni principi volti al miglioramento dell’efficienza industriale. 2 henry dreyfuss è considerato il primo designer industriale. diede un enorme contributo all'ergonomia, all'antropometria e ai fattori umani. tra i tanti si ricordano oggetti come l’aspirapolvere hoover, il telefono bell system, la macchina fotografica polaroid che portano la sua firma. gasparini e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 144 donald norman3, che avrà un ruolo fondamentale nel gruppo di progettazione di grandi successi di design quali iphone o ipod di apple. tale nuova visione di design incontrò l’informatica, prima, con la nascita e la diffusione dei personal computer a fine anni ottanta e novanta e, successivamente, con lo sviluppo di internet da parte di tim bernerslee4 al cern di ginevra. i computer erano oggetti sconosciuti ai più ed era necessario, quindi, progettare macchinari alla portata di tutti, anche dei non esperti. era indispensabile che questi oggetti fossero facili da installare, montare, gestire: in una parola, facili da usare. in questo l’usabilità giocò un ruolo fondamentale. una volta che tali dispositivi si diffusero, internet ne permise la connessione e si assistette a una proliferazione incontrollata di siti internet. si pose quindi la necessità di mettere ordine e il concetto di usabilità venne per la prima volta applicato a software e sistemi. jakob nielsen5, tuttora considerato massimo esperto, coniò proprio tra gli anni novanta e duemila la definizione di usabilità: “l’usabilità è un attributo che misura quanto l’interfaccia utente sia facile da usare. racchiude l’efficacia, la piacevolezza, la facilità d’uso, di apprendimento la tolleranza agli errori del sistema” (nielsen, 1994, p.10). la descrizione ha una forte componente tecnica, in quanto basata su siti internet generalisti e non su sistemi dedicati all’apprendimento: non viene, quindi, preso in considerazione l’aspetto didattico-pedagogico. nonostante ciò, rimane il punto di partenza per qualsiasi riflessione sul tema in relazione a tutte le tipologie di sistemi. essa viene in particolare utilizzata per la valutazione dell’aspetto tecnico dell’ambiente di apprendimento che si vuole valutare o creare. 2.1. usabilità pedagogica partendo da nielsen e dalle sue riflessioni, gli studi successivi sugli ambienti di apprendimento (mehlenbacher 2005; preece, 1999; quinn, 1996; reeves, 2002; zaharias, 2004, 2009) hanno sottolineato la necessità di includere l’obiettivo didattico-pedagogico. sviluppare un corso online implica un’attenta riflessione sull’ambiente di apprendimento, la cui selezione sarà dettata dalle funzionalità che offre e dalla teoria pedagogica di riferimento che andrà a plasmare il corso, in una situazione in cui, inevitabilmente, il contenitore influenzerà il contenuto (fallani, penge, & tettamanti, 2019; villarini, 2016). i limiti e le costrizioni intrinseche al contenitore strutturano e sostanziano infatti l’evento formativo in esso ospitato, in un continuo dialogo tra sistema, apprendente e obiettivi fissati dal docente o dal progettista didattico. la nozione di usabilità pedagogica viene, quindi, elaborata da petri nokelainen (2004) per definire questo rapporto e ha lo scopo di valutare se l’ambiente e le risorse in esso presenti mettano l’apprendente in condizione di raggiungere gli obiettivi didattici. la sua determinazione teorica comprende sia l’aspetto tecnico pedagogico dell’ambiente che delle risorse e include tra gli altri criteri: il controllo dell’apprendente sul corso attraverso la libera scelta delle risorse e dell’ordine di fruizione, il grado di coinvolgimento delle risorse, la presenza del feedback dato dalla macchina, la chiarezza degli obiettivi e delle istruzioni per lo svolgimento delle attività, la possibilità di selezionare la modalità preferita dall’apprendente per la fruizione del corso (studio individuale o presenza del tutor) e l’obiettivo generale del percorso. lo studioso mette a punto uno strumento definito pedagogically meaningful learning questionnaire 6 (pmql), che la presente ricerca ha tenuto in considerazione per la creazione dei questionari di valutazione finale. in questa sede verranno illustrati in particolare i risultati, ottenuti dal questionario, relativi al perfezionamento delle diverse abilità e competenze linguistiche, nel § 4.3. 3 donald norman è uno psicologo cognitivo e ingegnere americano. ha insegnato psicologia cognitiva in varie università americane tra cui harvard, all’università della california e di san diego. ha lavorato come designer alla apple e ha poi fondato la nielsen norman group insieme a jakob nielsen, insieme lavorano come consulenti per le aziende che vogliono creare prodotti e servizi che seguano lo human-centered design, un design modulato sulle esigenze e le capacità dell’uomo. 4 inventore del protocollo http e del sistema di marcatura html con cui costruire “web pages”. a questa invenzione diede nome “world wide web” insieme al collega robert cailliau. 5 jakob nielsen è universalmente riconosciuto come il massimo esperto di usabilità. ha una formazione informatica, ha conseguito un dottorato in design dell’interfaccia e informatica nella technical university of denmark. insieme a donald norman è fondatore della società di consulenza nielsen norman group che si occupa di usabilità e ux. 6 questionario di apprendimento con rilevanza pedagogica composto da 92 domande a scelta multipla su scala 1-5. la prima parte comprende 43 domande, ed è dedicata all’usabilità tecnica e pedagogica del sistema, mentre la seconda è rivolta ai materiali di apprendimento. il questionario è stato somministrato a bambini della scuola elementare per la valutazione pedagogica di materiale didattico digitale (nokelainen, 2006, pp. 4254-55). usabilità ed efficacia di ambienti di apprendimento digitale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 145 il concetto messo a punto da nielsen e la teorizzazione di nokelainen rappresentano il punto di partenza per gli studi che si occupano di usabilità tecnica e pedagogica nel campo della didattica delle lingue. kukulska, hulme e shield (2004), ricercatrici della open university, categorizzano gli errori di usabilità che influenzano l’esperienza di apprendimento e riflettono sulla rilevanza dell’approccio didattico per l’insegnamento di una lingua seconda. lim e lee (2007) mettono a punto un framework di analisi dell’usabilità delle risorse per l’insegnamento dell’inglese come lingua seconda. sempre per la lingua inglese liu, traphagan, huh, koh, choi e mcgregor (2015) svolgono una valutazione dell’usabilità dei social network per l’apprendimento linguistico. i lavori appena citati si concentrano sulla valutazione dell’usabilità di risorse linguistiche e hanno dei punti di contatto con il progetto qui presentato. tuttavia, impiegano dati esclusivamente qualitativi, mentre questo studio ha l’ambizione di allargare la prospettiva, prendendo in considerazione anche la dimensione quantitativa, grazie ai dati analitici raccolti con un software di tracciamento di web analytics, di cui si parlerà nel paragrafo successivo. 3. web analytics, learning analytics e didattica delle lingue web analytics e learning analytics sono termini sempre più diffusi, ma il loro significato può risultare oscuro, perciò in questa sede si ritiene opportuno partire da una definizione chiara. si intende come web analytics “the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of internet data for understanding and optimizing web usage" (järvinen & karjaluoto, 2015, p. 34). i dati analitici raccolti rientrano nel termineombrello big data, che generalmente fa riferimento alle ingenti quantità di dati analitici prodotti dalla navigazione e dallo svolgimento di attività in rete dei propri impiegati, utenti o clienti. se correttamente analizzati e interpretati, contengono preziose informazioni su comportamenti, gusti, interessi di coloro che utilizzano un sito internet. oltre a ciò, offrono importanti indicazioni sull’interazione tra essere umano e sistema utili a migliorare l’esperienza dell’utente e a renderla più efficace ed efficiente, oltre che piacevole. quando i dati analitici raccolti vengono prodotti nel corso di eventi formativi, questi assumono il nome di learning analytics (d’ora in poi la), ovvero “the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners in their context, for purposes of understanding and optimising learning and the environments in which it occurs” (long & siemens, 2011, p. 34). vengono generalmente raccolti utilizzando strumenti di monitoraggio del comportamento degli utenti attraverso software esterni collegati al sito da tracciare, come nel caso dello studio presentato. sono specificamente volti alla valutazione dell’usabilità, e si basano sulla raccolta di statistiche finalizzate a capire come utenti e studenti si muovono all’interno del sito o dell’ambiente di apprendimento, con quali contenuti interagiscono maggiormente e se incontrano blocchi od ostacoli nella navigazione. la misurazione del comportamento degli studenti all’interno di contesti di apprendimento linguistico digitale è una pratica molto utilizzata nella didattica delle lingue, molto prima che si parlasse di web analytics o di la. è stata impiegata sin dagli anni novanta (debski, 2003) per mettere a fuoco l’interazione tra umano e macchina o tra umano e umano all’interno di un software, all’interno di un programma o di un corso su cd-rom che proponeva materiale linguistico. gli studi si sono via via concentrati su aspetti diversi: le dinamiche tra studenti, la negoziazione dei significati, l’interazione tra apprendenti e alcune specifiche funzionalità dei sistemi. fino alla teorizzazione del settore di la, che si integra nel più ampio technology-enhanced learning (o technology-enhanced language learning), questo campo di ricerca rientrava nella ricerca etnografica, volta allo studio del comportamento degli individui che agiscono nel loro ambiente naturale. internet o il sistema di apprendimento vengono considerati alla stregua dell’ambiente naturale in cui gli apprendenti si muovono. l’attenzione della ricerca linguistica nei confronti dei dati raccolti dai discenti in interazione con risorse o sistemi linguistici è aumentata negli ultimi anni, complice la grande diffusione di internet e di dispositivi mobili che facilitano la connessione alla rete. la pandemia da covid-19 non ha fatto altro che accelerare un cammino che già era stato intrapreso dalla glottodidattica. un esempio rilevante è proposto dalla open university con viberg, wasson e kukulska-hulme (2020), le quali propongono un framework incentrato sull’uso di la per l’ottimizzazione dell’apprendimento linguistico attraverso i dispositivi mobili. gli studiosi gasparini e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 146 dell’università delle hawaii dedicano il numero speciale di febbraio 2021 della rivista language learning and technology alle sfide e alle opportunità offerte dai big data nell’apprendimento linguistico7. ciò che appare evidente è lo spostamento dell’obiettivo di applicazione di la da una mera descrizione a una reale ottimizzazione della progettazione didattica, che possa sostenere in maniera più efficace il processo di apprendimento. i la sono utili ai docenti per monitorare non solo i risultati didattici ma anche per osservare i movimenti e le interazioni dei discenti con gli elementi non umani grazie a uno sguardo esterno paragonabile a quello del docente che, in una classe presenziale, registra le dinamiche tra apprendenti e input con il fine di rendere più efficace l’organizzazione dell’incontro e la somministrazione dei materiali. 4. lo studio 4.1. gli ambienti di apprendimento scelti come accennato in precedenza, i due sistemi presi in considerazione, moodle e wordpress, hanno caratteristiche molto diverse. sono riconducibili alle tipologie di software più comuni, rispettivamente lms (learning management system) e cms (content management system). la piattaforma moodle nasce con un intento prettamente didattico, infatti si occupa della gestione delle risorse didattiche e più in generale dell’evento formativo nella sua interezza e completezza. il suo creatore martin dougiamas afferma di essersi ispirato ai principi del costruttivismo sociale, orientamento pedagogico che estende la teoria del costruttivismo ai setting sociali in cui i gruppi costruiscono la conoscenza attraverso la collaborazione e producono artefatti con significati condivisi8. moodle è la piattaforma più diffusa e più utilizzata sia da istituzioni pubbliche sia da aziende private. secondo le stime9 viene utilizzata da duecentosette milioni di utenti suddivisi in 246 paesi del mondo. il successo è dovuto alla completezza delle sue funzioni e alle versioni tradotte nelle varie lingue locali. è molto strutturata e di immediata fruizione, questo non consente però l’aggiunta o la personalizzazione rispetto alle esigenze dei singoli docenti e degli studenti. l’ambiente fornisce ciò che è utile allo svolgimento della formazione a distanza: spazi per corsi e materiali, esercitazioni, attività collaborative e compiti. alla piattaforma possono essere aggiunti applicativi di terze parti, come un software per la creazione di contenuti interattivi linguistici, il software-autore h5p. inoltre, offre anche un capillare apparato di monitoraggio della presenza dei discenti all’interno della piattaforma e dei loro risultati didattici. non sono presenti, tuttavia, strumenti per il tracciamento dell’usabilità. le attività linguistiche inserite sono state costruite utilizzando le funzionalità native di moodle e il già citato software-autore h5p. il secondo sistema preso in considerazione, il cms wordpress, invece, nasce con l’obiettivo di gestire contenuti di tipologie varie; non ha una vocazione prettamente didattica ma è un software per la creazione di siti internet. si calcola, infatti, che circa il 35% (2020) di questi a livello mondiale siano a base wordpress, la cui struttura è molto flessibile. questo csm viene scelto per la costruzione di pagine di istituzioni governative, grandi e piccole aziende o blog personali. è un sistema open-source, che mette a disposizione design, layout base gratuiti e più articolati a pagamento. la precisa volontà dei creatori, espressa nelle pagine dedicate alla filosofia di wordpress 10 , è quella di offrire una piattaforma che sia subito facile da usare, liberamente condivisibile e modificabile dalla comunità, in pieno spirito del web 2.011. è possibile raggiungere un più alto grado di personalizzazione, aumentando le funzionalità della versione base attraverso l’aggiunta di applicativi (gratuiti o a pagamento). se moodle è una piattaforma che nasce con finalità istruttive e dunque già caratterizzata da un esaustivo set di funzioni specifiche per la didattica, wordpress, non essendo uno strumento pensato per l’insegnamento, richiede un opportuno adattamento. a questo scopo un docente o un progettista didattico, che 7 special issue: big data in language education & research, 25(1), university of hawaii national foreign language resource center; center for language & technology, url: //www.lltjournal.org/collection/col_10125_73416. 8 per un maggiore approfondimento dei fondamenti pedagogici della piattaforma https://docs.moodle.org/310/en/philosophy 9 i dati sono consultabili alla pagina web: https://stats.moodle.org/. 10 maggiori dettagli sono presenti seguendo questo link: https://it.wordpress.org/about/philosophy/ 11 per web 2.0 si intende un nuovo fenomeno che rivoluziona i valori di riferimento della rete. il termine è stato utilizzato per la prima volta nel 2005 da tim o'reilly per indicare la nuova rete, in cui condivisione e collaborazione si pongono come caratteristiche fondanti. in questo caso il vero cambiamento non è rappresentato dall’introduzione di nuove tecnologie, ma dalla possibilità data agli utenti di produrre materiali e risorse senza avere particolari conoscenze informatiche. usabilità ed efficacia di ambienti di apprendimento digitale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 147 desiderassero usarlo con funzioni specifiche, in particolare tese a favorire l’interazione tra studenti in un ambiente di apprendimento possono aggiungere funzioni integrative sulla base delle proprie esigenze. alcuni esempi di applicativi impiegabili a questo scopo sono il software h5p12 che offre la possibilità di costruire contenuti linguistici interattivi e padlet, una sorta di bacheca virtuale su cui i discenti possono consegnare i propri elaborati (produzioni orali o scritte). gli approcci concettuali citati ne influenzano la struttura e le funzionalità offerte, nonché la modalità in cui gli utenti possono utilizzarli. un’esemplificazione di questa affermazione è riscontrabile nella modalità di accesso ai due sistemi, moodle richiede una registrazione obbligatoria, mentre nei siti a base wordpress, la scelta di questo aspetto è lasciata al progettista, il quale può dare la possibilità ai propri utenti di navigare liberamente oppure di creare un profilo e registrarsi. questo dettaglio verrà trattato in merito allo studio nel § 5.1. 4.2. il percorso di apprendimento linguistico: scorci italiani13 in entrambi i sistemi è stato inserito un medesimo percorso di apprendimento della lingua italiana, chiamato scorci italiani. tale percorso è suddiviso in cinque unità principali: bar, lavoro, dottore, casa, università. le unità hanno lo scopo di coprire i principali domini linguistici e contesti comunicativi con cui i discenti, per lo più adulti e studenti universitari, verranno a contatto. è altresì presente la sezione denominata canzoni che ha un duplice obiettivo: culturale, presentando attraverso la musica aspetti della vita e della società italiana, e didattico, ripassando le strutture grammaticali presentate nelle diverse sezioni. la struttura interna delle unità è la medesima: sei sezioni, ognuna delle quali con un focus specifico (comunicazione, funzioni della lingua, lessico, grammatica, cultura e output comunicativo). il sillabo ideato per le unità fa riferimento ai livelli di conoscenza della lingua italiana, a2 e b1 del qcer. i materiali sono stati pensati per percorso di autoformazione; tuttavia, un docente può utilizzarli per favorire il primo contatto o con la lingua italiana o con i contenuti grammaticali trattati. le sezioni fungono a loro volta da brevi unità didattiche, ognuna delle quali si costruisce attorno a un input testuale, il cui formato è sempre diverso. essendo auto-consistenti, l’apprendente può scegliere liberamente l’ordine che preferisce seguire. la durata delle sezioni è variabile ed è stimata tra i quindici e i quarantacinque minuti; queste nascono come pillole di lingua e cultura italiana per una revisione giornaliera della lingua. le attività didattiche presentano contenuti interattivi molto vari, tra i quali: interactive video, ovvero spezzoni di video a cui è possibile aggiungere attività di comprensione (figura 1), oppure drag e drop (figura 2), fill-in the blank o flashcards per l’illustrazione del lessico. 12 h5p è un applicativo ed è un insieme di dispositivi per la didattica online, realizzati come pagine web (da cui il nome, che contrae la formula “html5 package”). include un insieme di pacchetti packages, denominati “tipi di contenuto”, content types, di tre tipologie: utility come il dispositivo per la registrazione di file audio; attività didattiche come domande a scelta multipla e cloze; contenuti interattivi, interactive contents (fallani, 2017), url: https://h5p.org/ 13 il sito del percorso in wordpress è: https://labitals.it/scorci/, in moodle: https://labitals.it/m/. gasparini e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 148 figura 1. video interattivo con domande di comprensione inglobate figura 2. attività di drag and drop per gli ausiliari del passato prossimo 4.3. gli strumenti di raccolta dati e il campione di informanti valutare l’usabilità è una pratica molto comune e altrettanto complessa, in quanto è necessario prevedere strumenti che valutino tanto gli aspetti oggettivi quanto quelli soggettivi. come accennato sopra, è stato utilizzato per entrambi i sistemi un software di tracciamento del comportamento degli apprendenti usabilità ed efficacia di ambienti di apprendimento digitale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 149 all’interno degli ambienti di studio, matomo 14 . questo raccoglie, per moodle e wordpress, dati analitici consultabili in fogli excel o rielaborati direttamente dal sistema in rappresentazioni grafiche facilmente leggibili. offre, quindi, statistiche facilmente comparabili e utili allo scopo dello studio. il programma è finalizzato alla raccolta di web analytics, normalmente rivolti all’ottimizzazione dell’usabilità di siti generalisti, non pensati in modo specifico per i sistemi di e-learning. spesso le piattaforme di formazione, per esempio moodle, offrono un apparato di monitoraggio molto ampio e capillare, che non include strumenti specifici per la misurazione dell’usabilità. le metriche prese in considerazione dallo studio si riferiscono a: visite e agli utenti (numero delle visite totali, uniche e ricorrenti), provenienza geografica e dispositivi utilizzati. altri parametri registrano il comportamento degli apprendenti: le pagine, i percorsi e le risorse più visualizzati all’interno degli ambienti di apprendimento e i canali attraverso cui i discenti raggiungono i sistemi virtuali. a questo strumento quantitativo sono stati associati due questionari, realizzati con googleforms, come ulteriori strumenti di raccolta dati: il primo volto alla profilazione degli studenti e uno finale di valutazione dei due ambienti. inoltre, sono state svolte alcune sessioni di osservazione dell’impiego dei sistemi di apprendimento da parte degli studenti, seguite da interviste riguardanti il loro livello di soddisfazione e la loro percezione di efficacia e di usabilità pedagogica rispetto ai sistemi e alle risorse linguistiche proposte. le interviste sono state realizzate in presenza, mentre le osservazioni erano state portate avanti online. i diversi strumenti hanno contributo a mettere in luce gli aspetti oggettivi e soggettivi di entrambe le dimensioni dell’usabilità del sistema e delle risorse linguistiche. tutti gli strumenti qui presentati e impiegati nel lavoro di ricerca sono i più comuni impiegati nella valutazione dell’usabilità15. la raccolta dei dati in presenza è stata realizzata con venti studenti frequentanti i corsi di italiano per stranieri del centro linguistico di ateneo dell’università g. d’annunzio di pescara tra i mesi di novembre 2019 e febbraio 2020, prima della chiusura degli atenei dovuta all’emergenza sanitaria, e si sarebbe dovuta ripetere nella primavera del 2020, operazione però non consentita a causa della pandemia. pertanto, i dati provenienti da interviste e osservazioni raccolti in presenza sono meno numerosi di quelli raccolti in modalità online. la sperimentazione online è durata sette mesi, ed è stata effettuata tra febbraio e settembre 2020. come canali per la diffusione della ricerca e quindi degli ambienti di apprendimento sono stati utilizzati le principali mailing list di docenti di italiano in italia e nel mondo, come italiano l2 e molto altro, aati16, italian studies17, e social network quali linkedin e facebook, nello specifico sono stati raggiunti profili dedicati all’apprendimento della lingua italiana. gli informanti che hanno partecipato sono in gran parte docenti e studenti di lingua italiana seconda o straniera appartenenti a università, scuole e altre istituzioni italiane e di altri paesi nel mondo in cui è previsto l’insegnamento dell’italiano. i partecipanti alla sperimentazione online sono stati circa 2500. il sito della ricerca di dottorato, https://labitals.it, è anche liberamente accessibile tramite motori di ricerca. 5. i dati/i risultati i risultati dell’analisi dei dati ottenuti con i diversi strumenti di raccolta sono stati suddivisi in tre gruppi principali. il primo è dedicato alla descrizione del profilo degli utenti e riunisce le informazioni provenienti dai questionari di profilazione associate ad alcune statistiche raccolte dal software di tracciamento. il secondo è, invece, riservato all’usabilità tecnica e include i dati di engagement delle risorse e ambienti di apprendimento e i principali percorsi realizzati dai discenti. il terzo è, infine, destinato all’analisi dell’usabilità pedagogica. questi tre macro-gruppi includono, a loro volta, specifiche di cui si darà dettagliata illustrazione. 5.1. il profilo degli informanti la descrizione del profilo dei partecipanti riunisce l’analisi dei dati ottenuti dai questionari di profilazione, cui si è accennato in precedenza, e dalle statistiche di navigazione raccolte dal software di tracciamento. i primi contengono informazioni sui dati anagrafici degli studenti, sulle abitudini informatiche e 14 matomo è una piattaforma open-source per la raccolta di web analytics installabile sul proprio server. offre un piano gratuito e a pagamento. per maggiori informazioni: https://matomo.org/ 15 per un approfondimento sui metodi di analisi e di valutazione cfr. bottà (2018). 16 american association teachers of italian, è un’associazione di docenti di italiano nell’america del nord, stati uniti e canada. 17 si tratta di una newsletter per la diffusione degli studi di italianistica a livello britannico e, in generale, europeo e mondiale. le due mailing list, americana e britannica, sono collegate. gasparini e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 150 sulla motivazione verso lo studio dell’italiano come lingua seconda, nonché l’interesse verso lo studio delle lingue straniere in ambito digitale. a questi dati, ottenuti tramite la compilazione volontaria da parte degli informanti dei questionari proposti tramite googleforms, si aggiungono le analitiche di tracciamento del software, le quali offrono, in questo frangente, i dati sulle visite relative alla distribuzione geografica e ai dispositivi utilizzati. occorre effettuare una precisazione sui numeri dei partecipanti. i questionari, avendo carattere volontario, sono stati compilati da 136 informanti e rappresentano solo una piccola parte di coloro che sono effettivamente transitati nei due ambienti di apprendimento. le visite registrate dal software di tracciamento ammontano a circa 3000, che tuttavia non equivalgono esattamente agli utenti che sono entrati nei sistemi, in quanto il totale include sia le visite singole che quelle ricorrenti realizzate da uno stesso utente. il software di tracciamento attribuisce agli utenti dei cookies, che però cambiano se questi si connettono con un dispositivo diverso. matomo offre la misura degli accessi dell’utente singolo solo mensilmente e non su intervalli di tempo più lunghi, come nel caso della sperimentazione. le 3000 visite conteggiate nel corso della sperimentazione sono così suddivise tra i due sistemi (tabella 1): tabella 1 numero totale di visite conteggiate per i due ambienti di apprendimento wordpress (cms) moodle (lms) numero di visite 2427 494 come si nota dalla tabella 1, il cms wordpress ha ricevuto un numero maggiore di visite rispetto all’ambiente lms moodle. si vuole sottolineare un aspetto della modalità di accesso ai due sistemi. moodle necessita di una registrazione obbligatoria per la fruizione dei contenuti, caratteristica insita delle piattaforme definite chiuse. wordpress non prevede la realizzazione di siti a registrazione obbligatoria. tale scelta ricade sul progettista, che costruisce il sito e prende una decisione in merito. da una prima osservazione dei dati dopo due mesi dall’inizio della sperimentazione, si è notato che gli apprendenti preferivano non registrarsi, ma usare le risorse liberamente. si è quindi deciso, tramite un plugin, di rendere la registrazione obbligatoria anche su wordpress. ciò ha diminuito la quantità di visite in wordpress ma non ha alterato la tendenza riscontrata di un maggiore traffico sul cms, confermando quindi quest’ultimo come il sistema più frequentato dagli utenti. la ragione di una così grande differenza verrà illustrata nei § 5.2 e 5.3, che tratteranno in particolare dell’usabilità tecnica e pedagogica in relazione alla disciplina insegnata. gli utenti provengono da sessantasei paesi diversi. il dato è sostanzialmente simile per entrambi i sistemi, l’italia è la nazione con il maggior numero di visite, immediatamente dopo compaiono germania, stati uniti, spagna e francia. queste indicazioni sono in linea con i dati pubblicati nel report l’italiano nel mondo che cambia (maeci, 2018), sulla provenienza degli studenti più interessati alla lingua italiana. per quanto riguarda il dispositivo, il pc risulta essere quello più impiegato (70%), seguito dallo smartphone (25%). il dato è analogo per entrambi i sistemi e conferma che i dispositivi mobili vengono impiegati non solo per usi generali ma anche per scopi legati allo studio. tale questione chiama in causa non solo problematiche legate all’usabilità, ovvero la creazione di siti o piattaforme che siano usufruibili in modo ottimale da tutti i tipi di dispositivi, ma anche nella costruzione di contenuti che tengano in considerazione la modalità informale che i dispositivi mobili richiamano. un utilizzo anytime and anywhere (traxler, 2009), che va oltre i muri della classe, quando il corso è svolto in presenza, o la staticità del computer, che pur essendo portatile non consente la facilità di trasporto o mobilità di uno smartphone o di tablet. i questionari hanno delineato alcuni tratti in comune con il profilo medio del discente che frequenta i corsi di italiano presenziali, per esempio vengono confermate le madrelingue più diffuse: inglese, spagnolo, tedesco e cinese. l’età si attesta tra i 21 e i 30 anni. gli informanti hanno dichiarato di possedere un titolo di studio universitario o post-universitario; ciò è sicuramente influenzato dai canali utilizzati per la diffusione della ricerca e anche dallo studente target per cui i materiali sono stati pensati. dalle risposte, infatti, è emerso che i discenti sono lavoratori e studenti universitari e che il loro interesse per lo studio della lingua italiana è strumentale e integrativo, infatti la maggioranza dichiara di voler imparare l’italiano per motivi personali e di studio. tra i primi sono assimilati anche quelli connessi alla famiglia, per esempio un partner italiano o la necessità o volontà di trasferirsi in italia, oppure il bisogno di approfondire la lingua del paese in cui già si vive. usabilità ed efficacia di ambienti di apprendimento digitale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 151 considerando ciò che è stato descritto da diadori (2009), il profilo degli studenti tracciato da questi dati si avvicina maggiormente a coloro i quali studiano l’italiano come lingua straniera, nonostante la modalità digitale dia a chiunque la possibilità di fruire del corso ovunque si trovi nel mondo. il livello di conoscenza dell’italiano che gli informanti hanno affermato di possedere è l’a2. quanto alle abitudini informatiche, il dato conferma ciò che era già emerso in merito ai software di tracciamento: il dispositivo più usato è il computer seguito dallo smartphone. per quanto riguarda la domanda relativa alle attività che svolgono con i dispositivi, i lavoratori hanno indicato principalmente la lettura e la ricerca di informazioni, mentre gli studenti hanno selezionato azioni riconducibili tanto alla sfera dello studio quanto a quella del tempo libero, per esempio guardare film, ascoltare musica e altro. le differenze che sono emerse sembrano essere legate sia alla professione che all’età; viene confermato che i più giovani usano gli smartphone per svolgere più attività rispetto ai più adulti. ciò che preme sottolineare è l’interesse manifestato dai partecipanti verso l’apprendimento in ambito digitale delle lingue in generale, e non solo dell’italiano. essi hanno dichiarato di aver utilizzato moodle, sia per la formazione accademica che professionale e di aver ricercato e utilizzato applicativi, siti o piattaforme per imparare una lingua straniera. le risposte più attestate sono state: duolinguo (23%), babbel (10%), futurelearn (6.7%), italki (6,7%) e per quanto riguarda le piattaforme moodle (57%). un altro dato rilevante è risultata la preferenza verso lo studio individuale, autonomo, con tempi e modi decisi dai discenti e senza il supporto di docenti o tutor. 5.2. usabilità tecnica 5.2.1. engagement rate, contenuti e percorsi il primo dato da tenere in considerazione per la valutazione dell’usabilità tecnica dei due sistemi di apprendimento è sicuramente l’engagement, ovvero il coinvolgimento dei discenti nei confronti dell’ambiente di apprendimento e delle risorse in esso contenute. il coinvolgimento viene definito da kahu come “the time and effort students devote to educationally purposeful activities” (2013, p. 759). è un elemento fondamentale per qualsiasi attività didattica, presenziale o digitale e determina il successo dell’intervento formativo, ma è di difficile definizione e ciò crea conseguenze a livello di misurazione analitica. come viene affermato da richards: student engagement, deemed highly relevant in quality teaching and learning, is still hard to define in operational terms, a fact that has crucial impact on data mining techniques. it is important to recall that engagement is a theoretical concept and it cannot be measured directly. (2011, p. 4) è, quindi, un concetto teoretico di cui non esiste una misurazione diretta o immediata ma è il ricercatore o l’analista che costruisce un quadro di riferimento composto dall’unione di misure analitiche diverse. in questo particolare frangente vengono considerate le quantità di visite nuove, visite ricorrenti (figura 3) e il bounce rate (figura 4). quest’ultima è la percentuale che misura i discenti che hanno visitato una pagina e hanno deciso di abbandonare il sistema. figura 3. confronto numero di visite ricorrenti e nuove tra wordpress e moodle 846 155 1579 327 0 400 800 1200 1600 2000 wordpress moodle viste ricorrenti nuove visite gasparini e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 152 figura 4. confronto di bounce rate tra wordpress e moodle le nuove visite indicano coloro che per la prima volta sono approdati ai sistemi. le ricorrenti, invece, conteggiano le visite ripetute di un singolo utente, che viene individuato tramite indirizzo ip o cookie. entrambi sono importanti per la misurazione dell’engagement, poiché indicano i nuovi utenti e quelli che ritornano. i primi conferiscono nuovo traffico al sistema, un constante incremento, mentre il ritorno indica interesse e coinvolgimento. dalle tabelle si nota che per entrambi i criteri il cms (wordpress) mostra un numero più alto di visite nuove e ricorrenti. le prime sono solitamente in quantità maggiore rispetto a quelle di chi ritorna: tra le visite nuove, infatti, confluiscono sia le potenziali ricorrenti che coloro che abbandonano. la figura 4 illustra il terzo parametro, il bounce rate. esso si considera positivo quando si attesta al 45-50%, ovvero la metà di coloro che arrivano al sistema decidono di visitare più di una pagina, di creare un profilo e accedere, dimostrando la volontà di ritornare. come si nota l’indice di abbandoni di moodle, sia nel caso delle visite nuove che delle ricorrenti, è superiore al 60% mentre quello di wordpress è piuttosto basso: 44% per le visite ricorrenti e 27% per le nuove, confermando nuovamente la netta preferenza dei discenti per l’ambiente di apprendimento cms. i dati finora illustrati hanno descritto un fatto, ma non possono rivelare la ragione della preferenza del cms sull’lms. con i dati successivi si riuscirà a comprendere meglio le motivazioni di questi numeri. 5.2.2. analisi dei contenuti e dei percorsi prima di presentare i dati sui contenuti e i percorsi più scelti dagli apprendenti, occorre illustrare brevemente la struttura dei due ambienti di apprendimento in cui è inserito il percorso linguistico. wordpress è un cms, un content management system, un sistema che, come indica il suo nome, gestisce contenuti. si pone, quindi, con un alto grado di flessibilità. utilizzando la metafora di una casa, esso costituisce le fondamenta di siti internet, blog ed e-commerce. su di esse vengono poggiate pagine, articoli, categorie e tag che, proseguendo con la stessa metafora, potrebbero essere paragonate ai muri, fissi e statici, che determinano la struttura generale. nella figura 5 si vede la homepage del percorso linguistico. la stessa homepage e le diverse unità didattiche (qui definite scorci) ovvero bar, lavoro, dottore, casa e università, che sono pagine statiche. all’interno di ogni unità didattica si trovano le sezioni, chiamate in questo ambiente articoli. questi, invece, sono paragonabili ai mobili di una casa, non sono fissi come i muri ma si muovono. l’articolo più recente sostituisce quello precedente, che viene visualizzato in seconda posizione. nella figura 5 si possono leggere gli articoli che compongono l’unità bar, ovvero una mattina, due amiche, quanti tipi di caffè? ecc. 44% 69% 27% 61% 0% 18% 35% 53% 70% 88% wordpress moodle viste ricorrenti nuove visite usabilità ed efficacia di ambienti di apprendimento digitale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 153 figura 5. homepage del cms wordpress, dove si possono osservare le unità, bar, lavoro, dottore ecc… e le relative sezioni che compongono l’unità bar (una mattina, due amiche ecc…). nel menu sono presenti sia le categorie (abilità, competenze e livelli) da cui dipendono i tag. infine, le categorie e i tag sono sempre mobili, ma con un altro scopo specifico: l’organizzazione e la categorizzazione. riprendendo la metafora della casa, potrebbero essere schedari, librerie o armadi in cui suddividere gli oggetti in categorie per trovarli più facilmente. nel sito costruiscono insiemi dentro i quali si riuniscono i materiali caricati. all’interno delle categorie è possibile creare gerarchie, mentre ciò non è previsto per i tag. l’utilità di questi ultimi due è la creazione di gruppi di attività e risorse didattiche navigabili dai discenti. le categorie sono scorci, abilità, competenze e livelli, mentre i tag sono le voci all’interno delle categorie, a2 e b1, comprensione e produzione, comunicazione, vocabolario, cultura e grammatica (figura 5). come si vede dallo screenshot della pagina iniziale, a livello visuale e di navigazione l’utente non percepisce alcuna differenza rispetto alle diverse componenti appena illustrate. conoscere e funzioni è, invece, essenziale per il progettista, in quanto le componenti svolgono funzioni diverse nella strutturazione dell’ambiente digitale. ciò che è stato appena descritto mette in risalto l’alto grado di personalizzazione che wordpress offre al docente, sebbene il sistema non nasca con intento istruttivo, può essere costruito in modo da rispecchiare i propri bisogni ed esigenze. moodle, invece, è un lms, come è già stato anticipato, contiene l’evento formativo in ogni suo aspetto, dalla parte più amministrativa che riguarda l’iscrizione o la registrazione degli utenti, alla presentazione dei corsi e dei materiali, alla verifica e valutazione, fino al tracciamento capillare degli apprendenti: è, dunque, un apparato complesso con una struttura altrettanto articolata. il docente trova un ambiente già organizzato e strutturato che lascia poco spazio alla personalizzazione. la sua architettura si organizza attorno ai corsi, che contengono informazioni riguardarti un anno di studio o singole sessioni, a seconda delle esigenze del docente. questi sono suddivisi in argomenti, i quali a loro volta diventano contenitori di attività o risorse. i corsi sono contenuti separati tra di loro e la loro navigazione interna avviene principalmente in verticale, scorrendo verso l’alto o verso il basso (scroll up o down). le unità didattiche (gli scorci) rappresentano ciascuna un corso che contiene gli argomenti corrispondenti alle diverse sezioni. una volta entrati si visualizzano tutte le sezioni senza il bisogno di cambiare pagina; al contrario, gli esercizi si aprono in una nuova pagina. nella parte sinistra della figura 6 si nota anche il menu di navigazione del corso intero con le diverse sezioni. gasparini e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 154 figura 6. homepage dell’lms, moodle. queste spiegazioni hanno lo scopo di presentare la diversa organizzazione dei due ambienti di apprendimento e si configurano come premessa ai dati ottenuti dal software di tracciamento. le interazioni tra ambienti e discenti vengono analizzate da diversi punti di vista, in questa sede ci si concentrerà in particolare sulle pagine più visualizzate, che aiuteranno a capire quali contenuti vengono maggiormente visitati e quali percorsi vengono preferiti dagli apprendenti. l’elenco delle pagine contenute nella tabella 2 evidenzia i dieci contenuti più visitati dagli utenti che sono transitati nei due ambienti di apprendimento tabella 2 confronto tra wordpress e moodle delle dieci pagine più visualizzate wordpress moodle 1. scorci homepage 1872 labitals su moodle (pagina di accesso alla piattaforma) 598 2. canzoni (categoria) 1225 labitals su moodle (elenco corsi) 300 3. a2 (tag) 575 bar (pagina di iscrizione al corso bar) 290 4. canzoni il mondo che vorrei (attività) 550 dashboard (pannello di controllo dei corsi) 165 5. canzoni eri bellissima (attività) 446 corso: bar (pagina dell’unità didattica bar) 148 6. comprensione (tag) 381 nuovo account 138 7. canzoni la gatta (attività) 299 la registrazione è stata confermata 136 8. b1 (tag) 293 labitals lms: presentazione dei corsi 62 9. università la società che cambia (attività) 235 conferma della creazione dell’account 61 10. canzoni mi piaci (attività) 224 canzoni (pagina iscrizione al corso canzoni) 31 usabilità ed efficacia di ambienti di apprendimento digitale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 155 la homepage si trova in prima posizione in entrambi i casi, come da previsioni, dal momento che è la landing page (pagina di atterraggio) per tutti i discenti, sia quelli che decideranno di creare un account e accedere sia coloro che abbandoneranno. proseguendo con l’analisi, si nota che il secondo contenuto più visitato per il cms è quello relativo a canzoni. come specificato nella tabella, si tratta di una categoria, ovvero di una pagina che raccoglie tutte le attività di revisione con input musicale. in terza posizione si trova il tag a2, che riunisce tutte le attività che sono riconducibili a quel livello linguistico. successivamente si trovano due attività didattiche singole che si fanno rientrare nell’insieme canzoni e infine un nuovo tag, comprensione, nel quale si ritrovano tutti gli esercizi volti al miglioramento di questa competenza. proseguendo si trovano altre attività e il tag b1. ciò che risulta degno di nota rispetto a questa classifica è la modalità con cui gli apprendenti navigano in questi spazi. possiamo infatti osservare che i discenti scelgono di affrontare il corso non utilizzando gli scorci, ovvero le unità didattiche, ma usando in modo prevalente categorie e tag. da ciò si può supporre che seguano un criterio molto preciso di navigazione. la sezione delle canzoni rappresenta la parte ludica del corso e ciò che ha mosso i visitatori è stato probabilmente l’interesse verso i contenuti musicali e la revisione verbale, dal momento che ogni canzone contiene alcuni esercizi a questo dedicati. gli utenti hanno navigato anche in base al livello linguistico; si presume che fossero alla ricerca di attività per perfezionare o per raggiungere un dato livello, nella fattispecie a2 e b1. dai questionari di profilazione risulta infatti, che il livello più richiesto sia appunto l’a2, informazione confermata dai dati analitici del software di tracciamento. inoltre, comprensione è la prima competenza che si ritrova nella tabella, ed è possibile che i discenti vi si siano focalizzati spinti dalla volontà di trovare attività rivolte al miglioramento della stessa. la categoria canzoni è senza dubbio la più cliccata e quella che suscita il più ampio interesse, infatti tra le prime dieci posizioni quattro appartengono ad attività ad essa relazionate. spostandoci nella seconda colonna, dedicata a moodle, la situazione è abbastanza diversa. troviamo in seconda posizione l’elenco dei corsi, e in terza posizione la pagina di iscrizione18 all’unità didattica intitolata bar. l’accesso al corso vero e proprio compare in quinta posizione. in decima posizione si nota la pagina di iscrizione al corso canzoni. tra i primi dieci contenuti visualizzati si trovano almeno cinque pagine relative alla gestione amministrativa della piattaforma: pagina di iscrizione al corso bar e canzoni, creazione di un nuovo account, di conferma della registrazione e del nuovo account, mentre solo due sono riconducibili alle attività didattiche. il confronto offre importanti indicazioni sulla navigazione e di conseguenza sull’usabilità di queste due tipologie di ambienti di apprendimento: wordpress dà la possibilità di navigare il sito su più livelli, consente infatti la creazione di “strade” diverse per l’esplorazione dei contenuti. come si è visto, i discenti scelgono di navigare utilizzando criteri definiti, probabilmente legati alla soddisfazione dei propri bisogni linguistici. categorie e tag rendono la ricerca dei contenuti più agevole. gli apprendenti non navigano all’interno del sito in modo estensivo, bensì orientato a un obiettivo. la navigazione su più piani offre una maggiore autonomia al discente, che decide in modo indipendente come indirizzare il proprio percorso. moodle è sfavorito rispetto a wordpress perché non consente la costruzione di diversi piani di navigazione che risulta quindi meno autonoma, più dettata dall’istituzione e dal progettista. inoltre, l’lms possiede una grande quantità di pagine amministrative che “rubano” spazio alla parte didattica e impegnano energie cognitive che il discente dovrebbe impiegare nel processo di apprendimento piuttosto che nella comprensione del funzionamento della piattaforma. la categoria canzoni è stata la più navigata e cliccata, rivelando un interesse per la musica e un’inclinazione verso un tipo di didattica ludica. i dati analitici che il software restituisce fotografano in modo preciso anche i percorsi che i discenti svolgono tra le singole pagine. per motivi di spazio si riporta un solo esempio delle cosiddette transitions (figura 7) relativo al cms wordpress, ma è presente l’equivalente per moodle. 18 in moodle, i discenti devono iscriversi a ogni corso cliccando dall’apposita sezione. l’iscrizione rappresenta ogni volta una pagina nuova, infatti si ritroverà più in fondo nell’elenco, la stessa pagina ma di canzoni. gasparini e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 156 figura 7. transitions. movimenti in entrata e in uscita dalla pagina dell’attività musicale il mondo che vorrei nella figura 7, viene presa in considerazione la pagina relativa a un’attività musicale: il titolo della canzone è il mondo che vorrei, come si vede nella parte centrale della figura. nella parte sinistra si leggono le pagine in entrata con le relative percentuali e nella parte destra quelle in uscita. è interessante notare come i discenti giungano dalla categoria madre, canzoni, o dal tag b1 o dall’altra attività relativa al condizionale cosa vorresti fare?. gli apprendenti che lasciano il contenuto considerato si dirigono verso canzoni, e verso le attività relative allo stesso contenuto verbale, il condizionale, ovvero cosa vorresti fare e senza scappare mai più, la seconda canzone dedicata a tale modo verbale. questa rappresentazione grafica evidenzia la modalità circolare con cui gli apprendenti si spostano esplorando un tema, in questo caso grammaticale, ovvero visualizzano tutti i contenuti a esso collegato. si prefigura, quindi, una navigazione per nuclei tematici che possono essere contenuti grammaticali, culturali, funzionali e comunicativi. 5.3. usabilità pedagogica nel paragrafo precedente sono stati presentati alcuni risultati relativi all’usabilità e in particolare alla navigazione e alla strutturazione dei contenuti, qui si procederà a illustrare ciò che è emerso per quanto riguarda l’usabilità pedagogica. come già preannunciato, la quantità di dati raccolti su questo aspetto è minore rispetto all’equivalente tecnico. i questionari di valutazione finale e le interviste sono dedicati alla raccolta di dati qualitativi. nella valutazione dell’usabilità pedagogica non sono stati considerati i risultati didattici degli apprendenti, un possibile futuro approfondimento del lavoro potrebbe includere i progressi didattici, uniti ai dati analitici. nella figura 8 viene riportato il grafico delle risposte ricevute dagli informanti rispetto all’obiettivo generale del corso, ovvero il perfezionamento di abilità e competenze linguistiche rispetto alla lingua italiana. come si accennava in precedenza, la valutazione dell’usabilità pedagogica viene effettuata tramite questionari ispirati allo strumento messo a punto da nokelainen, in cui gli informanti devono riflettere sulla soddisfazione rispetto a come il sistema ha permesso il raggiungimento degli obiettivi da esso prefissati. usabilità ed efficacia di ambienti di apprendimento digitale e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 157 figura 8. risposte alle domande relative al miglioramento di abilità e competenze della lingua italiana come si legge nel grafico, entrambi i sistemi vengono giudicati in grado di soddisfare gli obiettivi di perfezionamento delle seguenti abilità e competenze. osservando nello specifico le domande, gli informanti dichiarano di avere maggiormente migliorato la comprensione di testi orali (domanda n. 2), la competenza grammaticale (domanda n. 5), il vocabolario (domanda n. 6) e la cultura; in seconda posizione si fa riferimento alla produzione di testi scritti (domanda n°4) e, in coda, alla comprensione di testi scritti (domanda n. 3) e alla produzione orale (domanda n. 1). non stupisce la risposta rispetto alla produzione orale, che senza dubbio è l’abilità più trascurata, data la natura dei materiali destinati allo studio autonomo. alcuni informanti, seppur la minoranza, danno la preferenza a uno o all’altro ambiente di apprendimento e ciò può essere riconducibile alla struttura e organizzazione del singolo sistema. ad esempio, nelle domande 2, 3 e 5, quattro informanti sostengono che wordpress abbia meglio assolto al compito di migliorare la comprensione di testi orali e scritti e ciò potrebbe dipendere da una maggiore usabilità tecnica dello spazio formativo. l’osservazione e le interviste portate avanti in presenza tra i mesi di novembre e febbraio 2020 agli studenti dei corsi di italiano per stranieri, che si sono svolti nel centro linguistico di ateneo dell’università g. d’annunzio, rilevano che essi propendono maggiormente per wordpress, considerate le risposte date nel questionario dove la situazione risulta comunque alquanto equilibrata. nel corso delle osservazioni in presenza, infatti, gli studenti hanno dimostrato di aver imparato a utilizzare in modo rapido e senza difficoltà l’ambiente di apprendimento ospitato da wordpress; vari problemi, invece, sono stati rilevati con moodle, sia con la registrazione e la creazione dell’account sia con l’iscrizione ai singoli corsi. nel corso delle interviste successive all’uso dei due ambienti di apprendimento, la maggioranza degli studenti ha dichiarato di preferire wordpress in quanto più flessibile, più facile da usare ed esteticamente più piacevole. inoltre, gli informanti hanno dichiarato di aver appreso meglio la lingua italiana attraverso questo sistema; infatti la navigazione più agevole e personalizzata consentiva loro un minore impegno nella gestione del sito e una maggiore concentrazione sui contenuti linguistici. due intervistati hanno, invece, preferito moodle, in quanto già avvezzi e abituati all’uso della piattaforma. 6. conclusioni l’analisi dell’usabilità dei due ambienti digitali ha evidenziato alcuni aspetti interessanti concernenti la costruzione, l’organizzazione di un ambiente digitale destinato all’apprendimento delle lingue. i risultati qui esposti mettono in luce quanto sia rilevante per i progettisti didattici essere consapevoli di come realmente i discenti interagiscano con le risorse e gli spazi messi a disposizione. la conoscenza di tali informazioni permette loro di costruire ambienti più vicini ai bisogni comunicativi e linguistici degli studenti, per esempio, prevedendo piccoli nuclei tematici attorno a un argomento grammaticale, culturale. nel caso del lavoro di 9 11 9 10 11 11 11 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 4 4 2 4 3 3 2 1 2 1 1. parlare 2. capire testi orali 3. capire testi scritti 4. scrivere testi 5. grammatica 6. vocabolario 7. cultura in quale corso hai migliorato di più queste abilità e conoscenze? entrambi moodle wp nessuno dei due gasparini e-journall 8(2) (2021), pp. 142-160 158 ricerca qui presentato, in quanto a usabilità tecnica, viene premiato un ambiente flessibile e aperto che consente una navigazione che si adatta alle esigenze specifiche degli studenti. a livello pedagogico, invece, entrambi i sistemi dimostrano di soddisfare le richieste dei discenti. risulta assolutamente rilevante che il progettista possa usufruire di strumenti in grado di monitorare gli apprendenti nel corso del loro stazionamento 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interessi di ricerca sono rivolti all’apprendimento e all’insegnamento delle lingue, in particolare l’italiano, in ambito digitale, con una particolare attenzione verso gli ambienti di apprendimento e gli aspetti psico-cognitivi. attualmente è borsista di ricerca all’università per stranieri di siena dove si occupa di digital literacy nella scuola. ha una lunga esperienza come docente di italiano come lingua straniera in italia (università per stranieri di siena e università g. d’annunzio) e all’estero in spagna a russia (universidad de sevilla, rggu università statale umanistica di mosca e istituto italiano di cultura). en alice gasparini has recently been awarded the title of doctor in languages, letters, literatures and cultures in contact from the university g. d’annunzio di chieti e pescara with a thesis about digital learning settings in language acquisition. her research interests are geared towards the teaching and learning of languages, in particular italian, in digital settings with a particular interest in learning settings and psycho-cognitive aspects. she holds a research assistantship at the university for foreigners of siena, where she focuses on digital literacy in schools. she has extensive experience as a teacher of italian as a foreign language in italy (università per stranieri di siena e università g. d’annunzio) and abroad in spain and russia (universidad de sevilla, rggu – russian state university for the humanities in moscow and the istituto italiano di cultura). es alice gasparini obtuvo recientemente el título de doctora en lenguas, letras, literaturas y culturas en contacto de la università g. d’annunzio di chieti e pescara con una tesis sobre los entornos digitales de aprendizaje en el ámbito lingüístico. sus intereses de investigación se orientan hacia la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de idiomas, en particular del italiano, en plataformas digitales, con un interés particular en los entornos de aprendizaje y los aspectos psico-cognitivos. actualmente es becaria de investigación en la università per stranieri di siena, donde se centra en la alfabetización digital en las escuelas. tiene una larga experiencia como profesora de italiano como lengua extranjera en italia (università per stranieri di siena e università g. d’annunzio), españa y rusia (universidad de sevilla, rggu – universidad estatal humanística de rusia en moscú e istituto italiano di cultura). microsoft word 1.walker_9.1.docx e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 1, april 2022, 1–27 issn 2376-905x https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.1.235 www.e-journall.org © walker 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. investigating the performance of emailed apologies by australian learners of italian talia walker the university of sydney received 20 january 2021; accepted after revisions 17 december 2021 abstract en this paper explores the strategies chosen by australian learners of italian when performing emailed apologies in italian. through a modified discourse completion task, 42 participants produced a total of 317 emails. this paper presents an adapted typology of these emailed apologies in italian which, while drawing on previous literature, has been tailored to be more specific to and therefore more effective in the analysis of the data collected in this project. it was found that the apology act as performed by australian learners of italian consists of two principal components, the apology and the repair, the latter of which is optional but is usually included. in addition, supportive strategies can be included prior to or following either of these components to strengthen the illocutionary force of the apology act. the analysis also evidenced that while a broad speech act structure can be identified, the apology act is a complex phenomenon which can be performed with great variation. key words: apologies, apology strategies, apology typology, australian learners of italian, emailed apologies es este estudio examina las estrategias elegidas por discentes australianos de italiano en las disculpas enviadas por e-mail. a través de un discourse completion task modificado (actividad de finalización del discurso), 42 participantes produjeron un total de 317 e-mails. este artículo presenta una tipología adaptada de disculpas en italiano enviadas por e-mail que, aunque tomada de la literatura precedente, se ha adecuado para que fuera más pertinente al proyecto. se observa que el acto de disculpa del alumnado australiano de italiano se constituye de dos elementos principales: la disculpa y la reparación; este último es facultativo, pero se suele incluir. además, se pueden utilizar estrategias de soporte antes o después de uno de los dos componentes para consolidar la fuerza ilocutiva del acto de disculpa. el análisis también ha demostrado que, por un lado, es posible identificar una estructura amplia del acto lingüístico, y por otro, el acto de disculpa es un fenómeno complejo cuya realización es altamente variable. palabras claves: disculpas, estrategias para disculparse, tipología de disculpas, discentes australianos de italiano, disculpas por e-mail it questo studio esamina le strategie usate da apprendenti australiani di italiano per la formulazione di scuse in italiano inviate via email. attraverso un discourse completion task modificato (attività di completamento del discorso), 42 partecipanti hanno prodotto un totale di 317 email. questo articolo presenta una tipologia adattata di scuse in italiano inviate via e-mail che, pur attingendo dalla letteratura precedente, è stata adeguata per essere più attinente al presente progetto. emerge che l’atto di scusarsi prodotto dagli studenti australiani di italiano è costituito da due elementi principali: la scusa e la riparazione; nonostante quest’ultimo sia facoltativo, viene di solito incluso. inoltre, strategie di supporto possono essere impiegate prima o dopo una delle due componenti per consolidare la forza illocutoria dell’atto di scuse. l’analisi ha anche dimostrato che, se da un lato, è possibile identificare un’ampia struttura dell’atto linguistico, dall’altro, l’atto di scusarsi è un fenomeno complesso la cui realizzazione è altamente variabile. parole chiave: scuse, strategie per scusarsi, tipologia di scuse, apprendenti australiani di italiano, scuse via email * talia walker, the university of sydney talia.walker@sydney.edu.au walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 2 1. introduction pragmatics is a dynamic field, particularly within the context of second language acquisition. in this context, it is essential to gain an understanding of how learners perform language and the pragmatic strategies they use to achieve particular speech acts. through an analysis of emailed apologies elicited from a group of 42 intermediate and advanced australian learners of italian, this paper presents a typology of apologies in email communication. as will be further discussed in the following section, the performance of apology strategies can vary across linguistic and cultural groups. this paper focuses on establishing a typology for the descriptive analysis of the emails produced by these learners of italian, and on identifying the apology strategies within this data. accordingly, the paper responds to the research question: what moves and strategies are used by learners of italian to accomplish emailed apologies? in doing so, this paper presents some preliminary results of a larger project1 which explored the speech act of apology in the understudied context of italian language learning in australia. in this larger project, which was a pilot study for the author’s current doctoral project, 317 apology email responses were elicited from learners of italian through a written discourse completion task (henceforth, dct). this data was used to develop a typology of apologies, with reference to typologies formulated by other scholars in previous studies of apologies, and a descriptive analysis of these apologies was then conducted. although apologies were mentioned in bettoni and rubino’s (2007) work on responses to complaints, they have not been extensively investigated from an italian–australian perspective, either in the context of comparing australian english to italian or in the context of examining the use of italian language within australia. my research seeks to fill this gap by studying apologies within the context of italian language acquisition in australia (the results are discussed both in the present article and in walker, 2017). exploring this perspective not only sheds light on the act of apology, in that a new group of apologisers are investigated, but also, given the context of italian language learning, may offer insights and reflections upon language acquisition and pedagogy. this introductory section 1 of the paper has provided a brief overview of the research; section 2 will present in more detail the background for the study and the findings of relevant previous research. the methodology adopted in my research will then be described (section 3), followed by my findings (section 4). the findings will detail the typology, as well as some further information about how the strategies within this typology were performed by participants. the typology is included in the findings section rather than in the methodology section, because the typology was developed in response to the research question established for this paper. in section 5 of this paper, these findings will be discussed in relation to previous literature, before i discuss the implications (section 6) and conclusions (section 7) of my research. finally, the limitations of my research will be explored and avenues for further research will be suggested in section 8. 2. background to the study 2.1. theorizing apologies the study of apologies originates from speech act theory (austin, 1962; searle, 1979) which is seminal within the pragmatic field. speech act theory describes how utterances function as acts that have an impact in the world and that influence our relationships with others. essentially, in using words, we do things and put actions in motion. in a number of studies, apologies are defined as speech acts which function to repair or maintain relationships between interlocutors after the speaker has violated a social norm (businaro, 2002; cheng, 2017; jones & adrefiza, 2017; martínez-flor & beltrán-palanques, 2014; trosborg, 1987). as such, apologies aim to restore order and/or harmony in a relationship or interaction (kasanga & lwanga-lumu, 2007). these definitions therefore seem to focus on apologies as post-event acts; however, it is important to recognise that apologies may also be made in anticipation of a possible offence, as demonstrated by davies, merrison, & goddard (2007) and wyatt (2014). apologies are one of the most culturally sensitive acts (suszczyńska, 1999). while some apology strategies may be universal, there is much variation in how they may be performed by speakers of different languages, and the frequency, intensification of, and conditions for apologies can vary to a great extent across 1 this paper presents some findings from an honours research project conducted at the university of sydney under the supervision of professors ahmar mahboob and antonia rubino. i thank them very much for their guidance throughout the research. this honours project has served as a pilot study for my current doctoral research, which is being conducted at the university of sydney under the supervision of professor antonia rubino and dr. caroline lipovsky. apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 3 languages and cultures (cohen & olshtain, 1985). speakers of different languages often use different ranges or combinations of strategies to perform speech acts (bataineh, 2013; cheng, 2013; hill, 1997; ogiermann, 2008). hence, in the case of my research, it was necessary to reconsider existing typologies of apologies in the particular context of the data collected, that being italian language as used by students in australia. culturally specific norms are not limited to oral communication; rather, they extend to all forms, verbal and nonverbal, and the diverging expectations of language learners and native speakers can be a source of intercultural miscommunication (alcón soler, 2013a, 2013b; chen, 2006; economidou-kogetsidis, 2011). email communication is a diverse medium that lacks formalised customs and models (biesenbach-lucas, 2007, p. 60; biesenbach-lucas & weasenforth, 2001, pp. 135-136; chen, 2006, p. 35), and this variability can cause exasperation when combined with learners’ lack of language proficiency or cultural understanding. negotiation of the email form is therefore a very rich area of pragmatic study, and differences between the email styles of italian and british university students has been demonstrated (sciubba, 2010). furthermore, email communication in the academic sphere is increasingly being explored, as email has become a key method of communication between students and academic staff that often replaces face-to-face communication (alcón soler, 2013b, p. 26; biesenbach-lucas, 2006, p. 81; pagliara, 2019, p. 151). while this article concerns itself with presenting a typology rather than with analysing specific realisations or enactments of language, there are several key theories which have influenced my research and therefore must be acknowledged. firstly, speech act studies often reference politeness theory (brown & levinson, 1987 [1978]), which describes how speakers navigate the performance of speech acts, especially those which are potentially socially threatening, such as requests, complaints, and apologies. while other scholars, including grice (1989) and leech (1983, 2014), have also presented frameworks for the analysis of polite and/or effective communication, it is politeness theory which is drawn upon in my research. additionally, the discussion of previous studies of apologies in sections 2.2 and 2.3 makes reference to goffman’s (1967 [1955], 2003) theory of face. this term refers to the positive social value one gains in an interaction, enacted through the verbal and nonverbal actions which interlocutors use to express an evaluation of the communicative situation and of the individuals participating in that situation. brown and levinson (1987 [1978]) argue that face is universal to all cultures, and that while the term positive face refers to one’s desire to be appreciated and approved of by others, negative face refers to one’s desire to be free and unimpeded by others (pp. 61-62). speech acts that in some way pose a threat to the face wants of any interlocutor are termed face-threatening acts (ftas) (brown & levinson, 1987 [1978], p. 65). 2.2. studies of apologies in italian and english although the fields of cross-cultural and intercultural pragmatics are vast, to my knowledge, there have been no studies which have specifically investigated apologies as performed by australian learners of italian. studies which have focused on italian apology performance—which have been conducted outside of the australian context—have principally investigated oral apologies and have demonstrated that native speakers of italian tend to favour the explicit apology strategies of asking for forgiveness or pardon and expressions of regret (nuzzo, 2007; trubnikova, 2017). explicit apologies are also common in apologies made by native speakers of australian english (jones & adrefiza, 2017) and other variants of english including canadian english (frescura, 1995, p. 87). however, despite this similarity, native speakers of english and italian demonstrate some variation in how they perform this strategy. among native english speakers the explicit apology expression most often used is i’m sorry (holmes, 1990; trosborg, 1995; wyatt, 2014) and intensifiers such as very, so, really, terribly, or awfully are often used to strengthen this expression. however, as has been noted by other scholars (bettoni & rubino, 2007; frescura, 1995), the italian language possesses a much wider range of explicit apology expressions than the english language. more specifically, the most common verbs whereby an explicit apology might be expressed in english are to apologise, to be sorry, to pardon, to excuse, to forgive and to regret. in contrast, the italian language possesses a much longer list of verbs which express explicit apology—rincrescere and rammaricarsi, for example, may both be translated as “to regret.” furthermore, in frescura’s (1995, pp. 87-88) comparison of english and italian apologies, english speakers used only four apology expressions, while the range of expressions used by the italian speakers was much wider and diverse, eight examples being offered by the author.2 2 the expressions included in frescura’s (1995, pp. 87-88) list of examples were: mi spiace/dispiace (“i am sorry”), sono desolato/mortificato/spiacente (“i am mortified”), non ho parole per scusarmi (“i have no words to express how sorry i am”), mi scuso (“i apologize”), le/ti chiedo scusa (“i request your forgiveness”), non posso che scusarmi (“i cannot do walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 4 apologies have also been investigated in the context of email communication, as in my research. in comparing emails written by native speakers of british english to other examples of written and spoken communication, hatipoğlu (2004) found that explicit apologies performed in emails were more likely to follow the form and content conventions of written apologies than spoken apologies. for example, a lower number of modifiers was used than those used in spoken english, and the modifiers which were used in the emails were not those commonly found in speech (hatipoğlu, 2004). this therefore supports the relevance of a typology that describes the specificities of written apologies. moreover, in an intercultural context, cheng’s (2013) study of spoken and emailed apologies performed by native and non-native speakers of english evidenced a vast degree of differentiation in how apologies were formulated by these two groups, demonstrating that native and non-native performance of emailed apologies can be a salient area of cross-cultural speech-act investigation. furthermore, previous studies focusing on other speech acts performed in italian and english have presented some relevant findings. studies investigating reactions to complaints have demonstrated that native speakers of italian and native speakers of english often use similar or the same strategies but with different frequencies (bettoni & rubino, 2007; frescura, 1995). moreover, it has been noted that anglo-australian native speakers of english and native speakers of italian in italy differ in both the type of speech acts chosen to react to complaints and the directness of these speech acts: anglo-australians more frequently admit responsibility for the offence than their italian counterparts and tend to be more attentive to the negative face of the interlocutor while the italians are concerned more with their own face (bettoni & rubino, 2007). similarly, frescura (1995) found that canadian english speakers are more likely to use strategies which support the face of the hearer, such as offering compensation, while native italian speakers prefer strategies which support their own face, such as denial of guilt. however, while these findings regarding reactions to complaints are certainly relevant to the study of apologies, they do not specifically investigate the performance of apologies. although the existing research presented above explores cross-cultural language variation, it is also important to note that variation may also exist among native speakers of a language and that not all individuals of one linguistic or cultural group will perform a given speech act in the same way (schneider & barron, 2008), as there can exist linguistic variations within a language or cultural group, as well as individual variation. such is true of both verbal and written communication. while this paper does not discuss in depth individual variation in apology performance, in presenting a typology of apologies, this is an important consideration to keep in mind when investigating cross-cultural and intercultural pragmatics. aside from the studies discussed above, there is still relatively little literature which has focalised or touched on studying apologies in the italian language, much less apologies in italian as performed in emails. the findings presented in this article are the preliminary results of a pilot study which seems to be the first study to investigate apologies as performed by australian learners of italian. this article further investigates a data set which has been presented in previous work (walker, 2017); while the first publication arising from this pilot study explored the politeness norms with which learners of italian engaged in composing emailed apologies (walker, 2017), the present article presents a different aspect of the analysis of the same data set. specifically, this paper is concerned with the pragmatic moves and strategies used by australian learners of italian3 to achieve emailed apologies, and with presenting a typology of these apologies. this typology, detailed in section 4.1 of this paper, will shed light on how australian learners of italian accomplish emailed apologies, which can in turn provide valuable insights into second language acquisition for language teachers. 2.3. previous typologies of apologies apologies are complex acts; as established above, they may be performed preor post-offence, may be performed using a variety of strategies, and can vary significantly across languages and cultures. the relationship between the form and function of apologies is dynamic and a vast range of utterances may be used to achieve apology performance (coulmas, 1981; lakoff, 2015). over time, scholars have presented a number of typologies of apologies, most of which incorporate both explicit and implicit apology strategies. it should be noted that while most scholars have not defined the anything else except apologize”), mi scusi/scusami/mi perdoni/perdonami (“forgive me”), and la/ti prego di scusarmi (“i beg you to forgive me”). 3 in this paper, the term australian learners of italian refers to domestic students enrolled in italian language courses at an australian university. the term domestic student is used by australian universities to refer to students who are citizens or permanent residents of australia. apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 5 term strategy and different terms arise across the literature (including sub-formula, sub-category, semantic strategy, and semantic formula), in this paper, two terms will be used: move and strategy. a move is a broad semantic function which can be achieved by strategies, which are phrases or sentences whereby a speech act is achieved. this distinction will be further discussed in section 4.1. of this paper. owen’s (1983) typology of apologies identifies three distinct utterances whereby the speech act can be achieved: apology, apologies or apologise sorry, and i’m afraid + sentence pro-form.4 however, apologies are much more diverse than what owen’s typology suggests. the above phrases are not in fact necessary for apology performance, as other scholars have identified other more implicit types of apologies, discussed below, which do not incorporate any of these three utterances. in their own typology, blum-kulka and olshtain (1984) identify two main types of apologies: those which are achieved by explicit expressions of apology using illocutionary force indicating devices (ifids5), and those which are achieved by utterances which relate to the necessary conditions for an apology. specifically, these conditions are: i) that the speaker did or did not do something; ii) that the speaker is perceived as being in breach of a social norm; and iii) that which was/was not done by the speaker causes some form of harm or offence to the hearer (blum-kulka & olshtain, 1984, p. 206). in this second type of apology, there are multiple strategies whereby the apology may be performed, for example, accepting responsibility or offering repair for the offence. in a similar vein, cohen and olshtain developed a typology of five apology strategies which were adopted in the influential cross-cultural speech act realisation project (ccsarp) and in numerous other studies (including blum-kulka, house, & kasper, 1989; cohen, olshtain, & rosenstein, 1986; cohen & olshtain, 1981, 1985, 1994; olshtain, 1983; olshtain & cohen, 1983, 1990). these strategies, often used in combination with each other in what is termed a speech act set (olshtain & cohen, 1983), are: explicit expression of apology (e.g., i’m sorry) explanation or account of the situation (e.g., there was a traffic jam) acknowledgement of responsibility (e.g., it’s my fault) offer of repair (e.g., let me make it up to you by replacing it), and promise of forbearance, or non-reoccurrence (e.g., it will never happen again). some scholars have adopted the above typology (e.g., economidou-kogetsidis, 2010; márquez reiter, 2000; suszczyńska, 1999; yu, 2010), while others have adapted or expanded it to better describe their own data sets, as i have. for example, while lipson (1994) drew upon both owen’s (1983) typology and that of the ccsarp in her analysis of apologies, trosborg (1995) extended the ccsarp’s typology to include three additional strategies: does not take on responsibility, minimizes the degree of the offence, and expresses concern for the hearer. on the other hand, scholars such as nuzzo (2007) have formulated more unique typologies arising from the data collected in their own projects, with some reference to previous works (e.g., blum-kulka et al., 1989; márquez reiter, 2000; trosborg, 1995). when analysing role-play data collected from learners of italian, the apology strategies identified by nuzzo (2007) were: 4 the sentence pro-form refers to an utterance which is contextually dependent, and which complements the phrase i’m afraid, adding semantic information about the situation which adds to the remedial nature of the utterance (owen, 1983). 5 ifids are routinised and formulaic expressions which usually include a performative verb, such as i’m sorry or i apologise (blum-kulka & olshtain, 1984, p. 206). walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 6 table 1 apology strategies identified by nuzzo (2007) term used by nuzzo english gloss example (nuzzo, 2007) english translation ammissione di colpa admission of guilt mi son dimenticato il libro i forgot the book evento negativo negative event si è rovesciato addosso un po’ di caffè some coffee was spilled on them (singular) espressione di rincrescimento expression of regret mi dispiace i’m sorry giustificazione justification c’è stato un ritardo della metrò the metro was late mancanza di intenzionalità lack of intent non l’ho fatto apposta i didn’t do it on purpose offerta di risarcimento offer of repair glielo raccolgo i will pick it up richiesta di perdono asking for pardon mi scusi excuse me verifica di gravità verification of the gravity of the offence è un grosso problema? is it a big problem? although the existing typologies discussed in this section are relevant to the data collected in the present project, they did not exactly correspond to the written apologies elicited from the australian learners of italian. for example, while some of the strategies outlined in existing typologies were present in my data, they were used by participants differently from how they were by participants in other studies; hence, these strategies have a different structural positioning in the typology that i present in this paper. one of the reasons for these differences in strategy usage may be that the type of data used to develop these existing typologies differs from the data which i have collected in my research. the typologies discussed above were used to codify either spoken apologies or a written elicitation of what one would hypothetically say to apologise; in contrast, this paper analyses written apologies in the context of a medium of real written communication by email. in addition, my data was elicited specifically from non-native speakers and included eight particular scenarios (outlined in section 3.1 and detailed in appendices 3 and 4) which were not specified in the above-mentioned research. therefore, while previous typologies were considered and drawn upon in the interpretation of data, modifications had to be made to identify a typology which more closely reflected i) the apologies elicited in this particular project, and ii) the ways in which the participants of this project constructed and combined apology strategies. 3. methodology this paper aims to answer the following research question: what moves and strategies are used by learners of italian to accomplish emailed apologies? in doing so, written data was collected through a modified written dct, which was designed to elicit emailed apologies. the process of data collection and the methods of analysis will be discussed in this section of the paper, and the typology of apologies resulting from this research will be presented in the findings (section 4). 3.1. the discourse completion task (dct) the dct involved four scenarios that were designed to be plausible for participants, all of whom were studying italian as a second language in australia. briefly, the scenarios involved: having to cancel a work meeting; being unable to participate in a group presentation at university; being unable to pay rent on time; and accidental theft (as in figure 1). the full dct is included in appendices 3 and 4. all scenarios were set in italy, thereby requiring participants to draw upon cross-cultural and intercultural pragmatic knowledge. dct prompts were presented in italian, with translation of some potentially challenging words provided in english, and participants were required to complete the dct in italian. the scenario prompts are included in italian (as provided to participants in the dct) and in english (as translated for this article) in appendix 3 and appendix 4, respectively. each of these scenarios involved two variations in which the situation was the same, but in which participants were asked to address their emails to interlocutors who differed with respect to their social distance and status in relation to participants. the goal was to explore the impact of these social variables upon the students’ speech act performance, as it has been argued that certain sociological variables are vital in the process of understanding ftas (brown & levinson, 1987 [1978], p. 74). however, these variables will not be apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 7 analysed in this paper due to space constraints. nor did these social variables seem to influence the typology presented in this paper, which aims to represent the whole corpus of emails elicited in this research. as the dct required each participant to respond to two variations of four scenarios, each dct elicited a total of eight individual email responses. appendix 1 provides a table including each of these four scenarios and the interlocutors specified in each variation, along with the dct instructions and all dct prompts provided to participants. each of these was elicited by a prompt describing the situation and providing space for the participant to write their email, as demonstrated in figure 1. figure 1. english translation of a dct prompt (walker, 2017) the task was completed in class and linguistic aids such as dictionaries were not used, to ensure that the language use of the participants reflected their own linguistic ability. the time allocated for the task was approximately an hour. the possibility of opting out of responding to individual scenarios was offered to participants through the inclusion of a “i would not write an email” option following each dct prompt. this was to account for the reality that in authentic interactions, individuals may choose to avoid performing speech acts (kuchuk, 2012), particularly in the case of those which, like apologies, are face-threatening (brown & levinson, 1987 [1978]). in addition, not all participants might consider an email to be necessary in all the dct scenarios presented. however, in only 19 emails (out of a total of 336 dct responses) did participants choose this opt-out option; this suggests that most participants did deem email communication to be necessary in most scenarios, and that these scenarios were therefore plausible. one of the common criticisms of dcts as a method of data collection is that the elicited data is ultimately unnatural and unrealistic (beebe & cummings, 1996; brown, 2001; golato, 2003; sasaki, 1998). this claim is not unfounded, as traditional dcts require participants to respond to a prompt by writing what they would ideally say in a given situation (for example, in the following studies: bataineh & bataineh, 2006; hong, 2011; tanaka, spencer-oatey & cray, 2008; trubnikova, 2017). hence, the purposeful methodological decision to elicit responses in email form was made to increase the reliability of the data collected through the dct. as email communication is already a written form of communication, this particular concern regarding dcts was minimized. such modified dcts have also been used in other studies to investigate discourse in technologically mediated communication; for example, nuzzo and cortés velásquez (2020) administered a modified dct which elicited text messages rather than spoken dialogue. walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 8 3.2. the participants a total of 42 individuals participated in the dct. all participants were australian students currently enrolled in intermediate or advanced (b1 to c16) italian language courses at a large public university in australia. learners at the beginner level were not invited to participate, as they would likely experience difficulty in completing the dct. although there was some differentiation in proficiency across the participant groups, the syllabus documents for each participant group indicated that the students should have sufficient knowledge of italian to complete the dct task. specifically, the language outcomes listed in the syllabus of each of the language classes invited to participate listed grammatical and lexical categories that would allow participants to construct emails fulfilling the dct requirements. furthermore, no clear correlations were observed between the level of language class in which participants were enrolled and the structure of the apologies they performed, the length of their emails, or the grammatical correctness of their writing. hence, the language class to which participants belonged did not emerge as an influential variable in this study. at the end of the dct, participants also completed a brief demographic questionnaire for the purpose of data analysis. most participants were between the ages of 18 and 25, with two participants reporting ages over 25. a total of 35 participants were female, and only 7 were male; however, literature demonstrates that gender imbalance within language courses is quite common, as the numbers of female enrolments and language teachers both tend to be higher than the male counterparts in secondary and tertiary language courses, both across australia and internationally (australian government department of education and training, 2016; carr & frankcom, 1997; carr & pauwels, 2006; kissau & salas, 2013; nikitina & furuoka, 2007), and therefore this gender imblance could not be avoided. while not all participants were anglo-australian (a range of backgrounds were self-identified in the demographic survey), and 13 participants reported italian heritage through either parent(s) or grandparent(s), cultural and linguistic background of family members did not seem to be a meaningful factor in explaining australian learners’ linguistic choices, as there was no correlation between demographic background and apology construction. nor did participants’ age or gender seem to influence the written data elicited. hence, these demographic factors are not considered in the analysis presented in this paper. 3.3. analysis of the data as the dct required each of the 42 participants to produce eight emails, and there were 19 instances in which participants opted not to write an email in response to a dct prompt, a total of 317 emails are included in the data analysis in this paper. once collected, the dct data was reviewed, and preliminary notes were taken regarding which moves and strategies appeared to be present in the data set. this initial coding process was exploratory, in that i attempted to apply the previous typologies already discussed in this paper (blum-kulka et al., 1989; lipson, 1994; márquez reiter, 2000; nuzzo, 2007; olshtain & cohen, 1983; owen, 1983; trosborg, 1995) to my own data to ascertain which of these strategies were in fact present in my data set. at this stage, notes were also taken as to how strategies were structured and combined in the elicited data. following this exploratory process, the typology presented in section 4.1 of this paper was drafted and then finalised, and participants’ elicited emails were then coded for analysis. all participants’ emails and excerpts included in this paper have been transcribed as they were written by participants, except for several minor changes including grammatical and orthographical corrections. any errors in phrasing or expression have been retained in order to accurately represent participants’ language use. this is to facilitate ease of reading while maintaining the voice of the participants. likewise, in order to accurately represent the expressions formulated by participants in italian, the exact grammatical accuracy of the english translations has at times been compromised to more accurately reflect the meaning of the original italian texts. 4. findings: how were the emails structured? as with any written medium of communication, there are certain conventional elements which are typically included in email communication—specifically, the opening salutation, the body of the email, and the signing off. while each of these elements carries important linguistic information, only the body of emails 6 according to the common european framework of reference for languages (2001). apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 9 elicited from participants will be considered in this paper, as it is within this section that apology acts are performed. the elements which were omitted from analysis were the opening and the closing. the former includes greetings, titles and names, for example, cara signora [cognome] (“dear mrs [surname]”) and buongiorno matteo (“good morning, matteo”). the closing includes routinised phrases such as kind regards and signoffs consisting of the name of the writer of the email. as the goal of this paper is to identify the moves and strategies used by learners of italian in performing emailed apologies, this section will present the typology of apologies developed in my research. first, an overview of this typology will be provided and then each component will be explored in more detail with reference to how strategies were used by participants. although existing typologies can be incredibly useful in the consideration of one’s own data, the direct imposition of one of these frameworks onto a new data set is not necessarily effective or useful. in the case of this project, several relevant typologies were initially consulted for the analysis of data (e.g., blum-kulka et al., 1989; cheng, 2013; nuzzo, 2007; trosborg, 1987, 1995). however, these had been developed to codify and describe data which differed to that which was collected in this project, both in regard to the type of data itself and the context of data collection. hence, it was necessary in my research to decide upon an adapted typology which could accurately and thoroughly describe emailed apology performance by australian learners of italian. it is this typology which is presented and discussed in this paper. the existing typologies of apologies introduced in this paper each outlined a series of strategies which could be used individually or in combination with each other to perform an apology. while many of these strategies were also found in the data used in this paper, it emerged that they could be grouped into two distinct actions which participants could perform in their emails. each of these moves had a specific goal: either to establish the apology (the apology move), or to seek repair (the repair move). these two distinct actions in apology emails have been termed moves. while the apology move established apology by acknowledging or accounting for the fact that an offence had occurred, the function of the repair move was to follow through by proposing or initiating remedial action in response to the offence. each of these moves could contain several strategies for accomplishing the overall goal. in other typologies, specifically in the ccsarp (blum-kulka et al., 1989), and in both trosborg (1995) and nuzzo (2007), repair has been included as an apology strategy which could be used as an alternative to or in combination with other apology strategies. this suggests that the repair functions in a similar way to these other strategies. the email data collected in my research, however, revealed that the repair move could in fact be quite elaborate and include multiple clauses. in addition, the repair was often structurally separate from other apology strategies; for example, it could occur in a separate sentence or paragraph comprising the apology move. however, the repair move never occurred alone, and therefore is part of the speech act of apology, rather than a separate speech act. indeed, even in existing typologies of apologies, repair has been included as an apology strategy (blum-kulka et al., 1989; nuzzo, 2007; trosborg, 1995), and identified as an element which can be common to other face-threatening acts, for example cancellations (nuzzo & cortés velásquez, 2020). supportive strategies, such as expressing thanks or concern, were identified external to the two moves and were used in the construction of the email to strengthen the apology act. these were coded separately from the apology and repair moves, as they did not occur in isolation and could be used in any order and number prior to or following an apology or repair move. in addition, a supportive strategy itself could not address the offence; rather, supportive strategies mitigated the offence through attempting to appease the offendee or reducing the severity of the offence. the diagram below represents the structure of the apology act and the different levels which exist within this act, according to the data collected. walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 10 figure 2. overview of the apology act of these two moves, only the apology was necessary for the performance of an apology act. when included, the repair move always followed the apology. although uncommon, a second apology move, or a reprisal of the apology move, could also follow the repair move. supportive strategies could be used in any position outside of the two moves. this may be represented as: apology act = (supportive strategy +) apology move (+ supportive strategy) (+ repair move) (+ supportive strategy) (+ apology move)) (+ supportive strategy) in this formula, the brackets denote optional elements. this formula represents all apologies collected in this research. to provide an example of how this structure was enacted in emails, a participant example has been provided below (example 1, english translation provided in appendix 5). to the right of the email, i have annotated the strategies performed in the email, and on the far right, the moves have been noted. example 1. sample participant email elicited email sub-strategy move/strategy cara [nome], opening al primo posto, devo ringraziarle di nuovo della sua ospitalità incredibile. il mio soggiorno a verona è stato meraviglioso e l'amicizia della sua famiglia è stata una gran parte di quell'esperienza indimenticabile. expressions of thanks and politeness supportive strategies sono appena arrivata a casa e ho scoperto che purtroppo ho preso due dei suoi caricabattiere con me. statement of fact apology move chiedo i suoi scusi per questo sbaglio! explicit expression of apology; lack of intent apology move penso che sia ottimo se glieli mando subito. vado all'ufficio postale oggi pomeriggio. expression of repair repair move ma in ogni caso credo che probabilmente staste cercando ovunque quelle cose e dunque vorrei dirle che hanno fatto un gran viaggio con me! expression of concern supportive strategy mille grazie per tutto e mi dispiace quel errore expression of thanks; explicit expression of apology supportive strategy; apology move con affetto, [nome] closing in this example, the expressions of thanks/politeness which are used to orient the response are very elaborate. the apology which follows then includes several strategies: a statement of fact, an explicit expression of apology, and an expression of lack of intent. the repair move is then followed by two more supportive strategies, an expression of concern and an expression of thanks. finally, before the closing, another explicit expression of apology is used to strengthen the force of the apology sequence. this paper will now discuss in more depth each of the moves identified above and the strategies which could comprise these moves, as well as identifying similarities and differences with my typology and existing typologies. apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 11 4.1. the apology move the apology move consists of five strategies which can be used in combination with each other, like the strategies identified in the apology speech act set (olshtain & cohen, 1983). the five strategies identified in my data are as follows: figure 3. structure of the apology move like previous typologies presented in this paper, the structure above accounts for both explicit expressions of apology, as well as other implicit means of apologising, namely: providing an explanation, statement of fact, acknowledgement of responsibility, and expressing lack of intent. while the above structure is very similar to that presented by olshtain and cohen (1983), two strategies have been added: statement of fact and expressing lack of intent. these were adapted from nuzzo (2007), as they were also used by the australian learners of italian in the present study. while expressing lack of intent is a close translation of nuzzo’s term mancanza di intenzionalità, the terminology of the statement of fact differs from the terminology of the negative event identified by nuzzo. the terminology was modified to more clearly capture the type of utterance that this strategy comprises. as described by nuzzo, the term evento negativo refers to the speakers’ statement that an offence (a ‘negative event’) has occurred without taking responsibility for this event. in the case of trubnikova’s (2017) analysis of apologies performed in italian, the term nominazione dell’atto is adopted for this strategy, and like the english term statement of fact, this term makes clear that when performing this strategy, participants factually and objectively stated what had occurred. of the five apology strategies identified, the explicit expression of apologies was the most frequently used, appearing in 272 emails. providing an explanation was also relatively frequent, being performed in 190 emails, while all other apology strategies were used in fewer than 100 emails, as in table 2. table 2 strategies of apology used in the corpus supportive strategy number of emails including this strategy explicit expression of apology 272 providing an explanation 190 statement of fact 95 acknowledgement of responsibility 42 expressing lack of intent 26 this article will now provide more detailed descriptions of each of these five strategies, including examples from the corpus. 4.1.1. explicit expression of apology these expressions are routine formula and include an illocutionary force indicating device, or ifid. this is a conventionalised and formulaic expression usually involving the use of a performative verb. in english, these include: to be sorry, to excuse, to apologise, to forgive, to regret and to pardon (blum-kulka et al., 1989, p. 290). equivalent ifids in italian include, for example, scusarsi, perdonare, dispiacersi and chiedere scusa. this apology move explicit expression of apology providing an explanation statement of fact acknowledgement of responsibility expressing lack of intent walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 12 apology strategy was present in all the typologies mentioned above. examples from the data are found in table 3. table 3 examples of explicit expressions of apology example from the data english translation mi dispiace i’m sorry scusa excuse me (informal)7 mi scusi excuse me (formal) scusami! excuse me! (informal) explicit expressions of apology can be modified. modifiers are added to the explicit apology utterance and are used to alter its illocutionary force. two types of modification were identified in the data, intensification and reiteration, and these are presented with examples in table 4. table 4 modifiers of explicit expressions of apology type of modification description examples from the data english translation intensification adjectives and adverbs which strengthen the force of the explicit expression of apology. mi dispiace tanto mi dispiace sinceramente scusa un sacco! i’m really sorry i’m sincerely sorry very sorry! reiteration a phrase whereby the repetition of the explicit expression of apology is overtly stated. mi dispiace di nuovo mi dispiace ancora i’m sorry once more i’m sorry again modification has been discussed in previous typologies of apologies. in particular, intensification is a modifier which has been commonly acknowledged in the literature (márquez reiter, 2000: 54; nuzzo, 2007: 166; trosborg, 1995). in this typology, i also include reiteration as another form of modification, as this strategy served a function which differed from that of intensification. a comparison of all emails produced by participants made clear that, across the data set, the explicit expression of apology was by far the most common strategy used by participants in the apology move. as illustrated in table 2, 272 of all email responses (out of 317 responses in total) included the strategy at least once. the total number of explicit expressions of apology across the data set was 345, hence it was not uncommon for participants to use this strategy more than once within a single email. across all types of apology strategies in both the apology move and the repair move, as well as the supportive strategies, the explicit expression of apology was used by participants with the most frequency and repetition. participants particularly favoured the use of the explicit apologies dispiacersi and scusarsi, and both intensifiers and markers of reiteration were often used as modifiers. while a comparison of learner data to native speaker control groups was not within the scope of the preliminary research presented in this paper, these results align with the aforementioned findings of other scholars that i’m sorry is the most common explicit apology expression performed by native speakers of english and that modifiers are often used by english speakers to strengthen explicit apology performance (holmes, 1990; trosborg, 1995; wyatt, 2014). therefore, based on this small comparison, it seems that even when writing in italian, the australian learners lean towards some norms of english communication, and it would be valuable to investigate this more deeply in further research. for example, data collected from native speakers of italian could offer further insights into whether this is a case of positive or negative pragmatic transfer. 4.1.2. providing an explanation like in olshtain and cohen’s (1983) typology of apology strategies, this strategy involves providing an account of why the offence occurred. in nuzzo’s (2007) typology, these explanations are termed justifications 7 in the english translations provided in this paper, “(formal)” has been used to indicate instances of formal pronouns and conjugation of verbs in italian, while “(informal)” indicates the use of informal pronouns and verbal conjugation. apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 13 (in italian, giustificazioni). in providing an explanation, reference may be made either to personal or external factors. in using this strategy, participants offered reasoning or causes for the offence which went beyond the information provided in the dct prompt to which they were responding. the first two examples below evidence a personal explanation (in this case, illness), while the third and fourth refer to external factors. table 5 examples of providing an explanation example from the data english translation scenario8 oggi, mi sento veramente male, e devo andare dal dottore today, i feel really ill, and i need to go to the doctor group presentation sfortunatamente sono malato quindi non sarò in classe per fare la presentazione unfortunately, i am ill therefore i won’t be in class to do the presentation group presentation sto viaggiando e non riuscirei a pagarti in tempo i am travelling and won’t be able to pay you (informal) in time unpaid rent non ho lavorato molto questa settimana9 i did not work much this week unpaid rent providing an explanation was the second most frequent strategy in the apology move, appearing in 190 of the emails elicited from participants. the length of explanations can be variable, and some of the explanations in the corpus were therefore more elaborate than others. 4.1.3. statement of fact in stating the facts of what has occurred, the offender acknowledges the incident or event which has caused offence. however, this statement does not acknowledge the offender’s responsibility in causing the offence. nor does it include any information outside of that which is provided in the dct prompt. while acknowledging that the offence has occurred, the statement of fact does not attempt to account for or explain this offence in any way. examples from the corpus include: table 6 examples of statements of fact example from the data english translation scenario non posso pagare il pagamento per questo mese in tempo i can’t pay the payment for this month in time unpaid rent non posso incontrare questo pomeriggio i can’t meet this afternoon cancelled meeting statements of fact appeared in only 95 emails and thus were used with much less frequency than the two previously discussed strategies in the apology move, possibly because this strategy reflected information already included in the dct prompt. 4.1.4. acknowledgement of responsibility in this strategy, the composer explicitly assumes responsibility for having committed the offence and acknowledges that they are at fault. they therefore go beyond simply acknowledging events and instead place themselves as the actor who has committed the offence, as underlined in the examples below. this strategy was also present in previously discussed typologies (including nuzzo, 2007; olshtain & cohen, 1983). 8 included here to provide context for the explanations. 9 the scenario to which this refers is not being able to pay rent on time. in appendix c, this scenario is titled affitto non pagato (in english, “unpaid rent”). walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 14 table 7 examples of explicit acknowledgements of responsibility example from the data english translation scenario ho realizzato che ho portato due dei vostri caricabatterie con me a sydney i realised that i brought two of your (plural) chargers with me to sydney accidental theft non ho soldi, ho dimenticato i don’t have money, i forgot unpaid rent the explicit acknowledgement of responsibility was not a common strategy across the corpus, appearing in only 42 emails. interestingly, it was the only apology strategy which was never used more than once in any single email. 4.1.5. expressing lack of intent finally, one can also make clear that the offence was not committed intentionally by expressing their lack of intent in committing the offence, a strategy also present in nuzzo’s (2007) data. examples from participants’ emails include: table 8 examples of expressing lack of intent example from the data english translation scenario non so come sono finiti insieme ai miei … i don’t know how they ended up with mine ... accidental theft per sbaglio by mistake accidental theft this was the strategy used with the lowest frequency, as only 26 responses included expressions which demonstrated the composer’s lack of intent in committing the offence. 4.2. the repair move the repair move is less variable and less complex than the apology move, as it consists of only one possible strategy, the expression of repair. in this strategy, one makes implicit or explicit offers of or requests for reparation after an offence has been committed. hence, the term expression of repair was adopted in my typology, rather than offer of repair which was included in other aforementioned typologies (e.g., nuzzo, 2007; olshtain & cohen, 1983), as “expression” is a much broader term and therefore encompasses a wider range of utterances, as were present in the data. what this reparation consists of may be specified or unspecified, and like explanations for the offence, some participants’ attempts at repair were more elaborate than others. regardless of whether participants phrased repair through requesting action from the interlocutor or by offering action themselves, these attempts at reparation were coded as one strategy, as the overall outcome was an attempt at reparation. examples from the corpus include: table 9 examples of expressions of repair example from the data english translation scenario pago subito con l’affitto per il prossimo mese anche i will pay immediately, with the rent for the next month as well unpaid rent ve lo mando per posta subito i will send it to you (plural)10 via post immediately accidental theft possiamo incontrarci un’altro giorno? can we meet another day? cancelled meeting è possibile di incontrarci un altro giorno? avrò tempo dal lunedi al giovedi la prossima settimana. is it possible to meet another day? i will have time from monday to thursday next week. cancelled meeting 10 in english translations, “(plural)” indicates plural pronouns. in unmarked instances, pronouns are singular. apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 15 the inclusion of expressions of repair was very common. of all strategies in the data set, this strategy appeared most frequently across the corpus, as 285 emails included an expression of repair. however, this strategy was repeated less often than the explicit apology expressions, as the total number of instances in the corpus was only 292. despite the fact that the repair move was not essential to the structure of the apology act, most participants preferred to include an expression of repair in their emails. this therefore indicates that repair was perceived by many participants as an important element of the apology act structure. indeed, overall, across the two moves, the three apology strategies most frequently used by participants across the corpus were the explicit expression of apology, expression of repair, and providing an explanation. these also happened to be the strategies which were most often used in combination with each other within a single email. 4.3. supportive strategies several supportive strategies external to both the apology and repair moves were also identified. as the name suggests, these strategies serve to strengthen the apology act. the data indicated that any number of supportive strategies may be used in any order prior to or following either an apology move or a repair move. four supportive strategies were identified in the data, and they are all included in table 10, with a description and examples. table 10 supportive strategies external to the apology and repair supportive strategy description example(s) from the data english translation expressions of thanks or other politeness remarks expression of thanks, compliments, or other expressions which indicate a move towards the restoration of balance/harmony. 1. grazie mille per invito alla sua casa 2. sono cosi fortunata per avere te nella mia vita 1. thank you very much for the invitation to your (formal) house 2. i am so fortunate to have you in my life expressing concern for or justification of the offended party explicit concern for the feelings or wellbeing of the offended party, or an expression of understanding of the fact that the offended party has taken offence. this includes expressions which verify the gravity or impact of the offence. 1. mi rendo conto che questo non fa bene e che sarà impatto piani che lei ha per il suo giorno 2. spero che non sia un grande problema 1. i realise that this is no good and it will impact the plans that you (formal) have for your (formal) day 2. i hope that it isn’t a big problem minimizing the degree of offence the offence is minimized, either by being presented as being insignificant or unimportant, or by questioning the preconditions of the offence. 1. ho un piccolo problema 2. per favore ricordisi che non ho mai dimenticato a pagare prima di oggi! 1. i have a little problem 2. please remember that i have never forgotten to pay before today! promise of forbearance a promise that the offence will not occur again in the future or that the behaviour of the offender will improve in future. promesso che non suceddere da nuovo ... i promise that it won’t happen again ... while there are some similarities between the strategies presented above and the previously presented typologies presented by other scholars, there are also differences. the promise of forbearance was included as one of olshtain and cohen’s (1983) five apology strategies; however, in the data for the present project, promises of forbearance were not used alone by participants as a sole apology strategy. instead, promises of forbearance were used only when another apology strategy had been used in the same email and therefore these were coded as supportive strategies rather than as apology strategies in and of themselves. this may be due to the fact that emailed apologies are usually explicit, possibly because there may be less walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 16 shared context between writer and recipient of the email than there might be with interlocutors of an oral interaction. minimizing the degree of offence and expressing concern for or justification of the offended party were also present in trosborg’s (1995) and nuzzo’s (2007) analytical frameworks; however, in nuzzo’s framework, the latter is termed verification of the gravity of the offence. however, while trosborg’s typology treated both of these as apology strategies and nuzzo treated the latter as an apology strategy, in my typology, they are supportive strategies which are external to the apology and repair moves. this is because their function did not align with the function of either of the moves, and these strategies were always used in combination with one or more strategies in the apology and/or repair move(s). hence, these strategies were used to modify the force of the apology act, rather than to enact the apology itself. in addition to these three strategies adapted from previous literature, the data also evidenced a prevalence of expressions of thanks or other politeness remarks, which was by far the most frequently occurring supportive strategy. these expressions of thanks were not accounted for by other typologies; however, their frequency in the data indicated that this mitigative supportive strategy was valuable in building rapport and supporting the apology and repair moves. table 11 participants’ use of supportive strategies supportive strategy number of emails including this strategy expressions of thanks or other politeness remarks 53 expressing concern for or justification of the offended party 25 minimizing the degree of offence 11 promise of forbearance 2 as table 11 demonstrates, expressions of thanks or other politeness remarks were favoured above the other supportive strategies, appearing in 53 of the emails. several emails also included multiple instances of this supportive strategy. expressions of thanks or other politeness remarks could comprise multiple clauses and was therefore quite elaborate at times; therefore, there was variation in how this strategy was realised. expressions of concern for or justification of the offended party was less common, appearing in only 25 emails within the corpus. these were similar to nuzzo’s (2007) verification of the gravity of the situation (verifica di gravità); however, the term expressions of concern for or justification of the offended party was used to more accurately represent the types of expressions performed by the participants. the other two strategies were used with even lower frequency. there were 11 instances of minimizing the degree of offence and two of the promise of forbearance. unlike the other two more frequent supportive strategies, neither of these was ever used more than once by a participant in a single email. 4.4. quantitative summary in summary, the strategy most frequently performed by participants was the explicit expression of apology, which was closely followed by the expression of repair. hence, it seems that explicit apology and repair are key elements of emailed apologies. to a lesser degree, participants often provided an explanation, indicating that this too is a popular apology strategy. table 12 demonstrates all occurrences of all apology strategies in the data. it illustrates both the number of email responses which included each strategy at least once (“number of responses”) and the total number of times that each of the strategies was present in the whole data set, including multiple instances of the one strategy within a single response (“total number of instances”). apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 17 table 12 summary of strategies across the corpus move/ strategy sub-strategy number of responses total number of instances apology explicit expression of apology 272 345 providing an explanation 191 190 statement of fact 96 95 explicit acknowledgement of responsibility 42 42 expressing lack of intent 26 28 repair expression of repair 285 292 supportive strategies expressions of thanks or other politeness remarks 53 58 expressing concern for or justification of the offended party 25 28 minimizing the degree of offence 11 11 promise of forbearance 2 2 5. discussion the email data elicited in this project was used to present a typology of emailed apologies as performed by australian learners of italian. as established in section 2 of this paper, the use of speech act strategies can change across language and cultural groups, and even within these groups, variation may exist. what this paper therefore offers is a particular snapshot of language use: italian l2, as used by australian university students. the typology thereby outlined in this paper, drawing upon other studies in the field and existing typologies of apology performance, was adapted with the aim of presenting a typology which is consistent with and adequately represents the performance of apologies by all participants in the project, and by extension, of the italian l2 speakers within this particular context. in doing so, the paper answered the research question: what moves and strategies are used by learners of italian in accomplishing emailed apologies? all apology speech act sets performed by participants involved an apology move. this apology move was comprised of any one or a combination of five explicit and implicit apology strategies – namely, explicit expression of apology, providing an explanation, statement of fact, explicit acknowledgement of responsibility and expressing lack of intent. any of these strategies could be used either in isolation or together with any of the other strategies of the apology move. the most common strategy was the explicit expression of apology, which was often modified to increase its strength. what is important to note here is that the apology move could be achieved even without an explicit ifid being used, demonstrating that the apology is indeed a varied speech act. while not essential, most apology acts also involved a repair move. this was achieved through an expression of repair, indicating that remedy is a key element of apology structure, a finding which aligns with the previously established characterisation of apologies as acts which restore harmony in interactions and thereby maintain relationships (businaro, 2002; cheng, 2017; jones & adrefiza, 2017; kasanga & lwangalumu, 2007; martínez-flor & beltrán-palanques, 2014; trosborg, 1987). in addition to the apology and repair moves, the apology act may include a number of supportive strategies. these are not vital to the structure of the apology act but can be included in the apology act at any point to strengthen the illocutionary effect of the apology and therefore mitigate the offence. drawing upon previous literature and demonstrating some similarities to existing typologies considered in section 1.2, the adapted typology of apologies offered in this paper includes some key differences. the apology move structure presented in this paper, although largely modelled on olshtain and cohen’s (1983) typology of apologies, also incorporates two strategies identified by nuzzo (2007) and trubnikova (2017), the statement of fact and expressing lack of intent. my typology also offers a distinction between two types of ifid modification, intensification and reiteration, as a means of more specifically analysing the ways in which participants achieved explicit expressions of apology. furthermore, the promise of forbearance, rather than being included as an apology strategy (as in olshtain & cohen, 1983), was instead identified in my typology as a supportive strategy. this was also the case for the strategies of minimizing the offence and expressing concern for or justification of the offended party, which trosborg (1987) categorized as stand-alone apology strategies, but which i treat as supportive strategies walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 18 instead. the reason for this is that each of these strategies, although present in my data, were never used on their own to achieve an apology. rather, they were always used in support of other identified apology strategies, and were therefore characterised as supportive strategies. the difference in how these strategies were used by participants of other studies and in my study may be due to the nature of the communication – in a single email, the speech act stands alone and may be more explicit, while in face-to-face communication or even a longer email exchange, this may not be the case. while non-existent in previous typologies of apology, the expression of thanks/politeness was identified in my typology as a supportive strategy. as email communication can be more structured and formal than oral speech and expressing thanks/politeness can be a formulaic strategy used in emails to establish rapport. this supportive strategy is particularly relevant to the context of email communication, a medium which had not been explored by previous studies considered in this research. in adapting typologies of apologies as presented in the literature and in presenting a typology which reflects the data collected in my research rather than imposing an existing typology on the data, this paper presents a typology of apologies that reflects the particular context of the italian language as performed by australian learners of italian. the wide variety of apology strategies identified in the data signifies that it is possible for written apology performance to be quite elaborate and complex. indeed, within the structure of the typology discussed in this paper, there was a deal of variation in how apologies were achieved by participants. the emailed apology act can contain multiple elements which may be arranged in numerous ways, and the data demonstrates that the structure of the apology act in email communication is quite flexible. in addition, the length and elaboration of the elicited emails varied greatly, suggesting that there is no single or concrete structure for apology performance – indeed, these are factors which could be determined by the individual communication preferences and styles of participants, which of course varies significantly. the question which therefore arises is whether certain apology strategies might be more or less effective in achieving apology, which is one of the concerns of my current doctoral research. at this point, what is clear is that written apology performance by australian learners of italian is very varied, as noted by other aforementioned studies of apology performance (see section 2 and cohen & olshtain, 1985; coulmas, 1981; lakoff, 2015; suszczyńska, 1999). 6. implications 6.1. implications for research as established throughout this paper, while some apology strategies may be universal, a great deal of variation can affect how they are performed. therefore, it is essential to reconsider and revaluate speech act performance and structure as new data is collected, as the reconsideration of speech act typologies may reveal more than the unquestioned imposition of existing typologies onto this new data. such revaluation can reveal greater diversity in language use across languages, cultures, and contexts, and is therefore very valuable. as a pilot study of apologies in the context of italian language learning in australia, the research presented in this paper and in walker (2017) is a steppingstone in understanding l2 apology performance in a new context. as such, there is scope for further research within this space, as further discussed in section 8, and i am also continuing this research in my doctoral studies. 6.2. implications for practice the process of reassessment and learning mentioned above can also be valuable in the pedagogical context. the typology outlined in this paper offers a means of understanding how australian learners of italian construct apology emails. this provides a benefit to italian language teachers in that the typology can be a means of analysing learners’ construction of apology emails—and indeed, typologies of other speech acts can be used to analyse other text types. such typologies can then be used to identify strengths and possible areas of improvement in learners’ written work, and can also be used in student feedback to help learners to understand elements of texts and which strategies should be included in certain text types. in addition, such typologies may be used to explicitly teach language learners how to perform speech acts. hence, through developing stronger understandings of how learners of a language use that language, those involved in language education can gain insight into how to support the learners’ development of pragmatic knowledge. this is particularly true if one can compare the language use of these learners to that of native speakers, the anticipated benefit of which is further discussed in section 8 of this paper. apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 19 7. conclusion this paper presents insightful findings regarding the performance of emailed apologies by australian learners of italian. the typology of apologies presented in this project, formulated from the data collected with reference to previous typologies, represents written apology performance in the intercultural and second language context. while it draws upon typologies presented by other scholars, the typology offered in this paper is adapted to the analysis of apologies as performed in email communication by australian learners of italian. as my data demonstrates, the speech act of apology can be achieved in various forms. apology structure is particularly flexible in the context of a longer text such as an email, and this allows for the formulation of an apology sequence which is unique. specifically, while the emails composed by the participants adhered to the general structure of an apology move followed by an optional repair move, the specific strategies chosen to accomplish each of these moves and the supportive strategies which were performed varied in expression, order, and number. thus, the emailed apology is of great investigative interest, especially in the area of pragmatics. this flexibility of apology performance suggests that, particularly in the context of language acquisition and second language use, interlocutors should be aware of the diverse strategies whereby apologies may be performed. this diversity is also important to address in the pedagogical context. research currently being undertaken by the author extends upon the findings of this pilot study and extrapolates upon these themes by i) comparing the apology performance of learners of italian to native speakers of italian and australian english, and ii) investigating how different apology strategies performed in student emails are received by recipients. it is hoped that this further research will provide a deeper understanding not only of apology structure, but also of the impact of apology communication, and that research into the impact of apology communication may provide insights regarding, and have implications for, the way in which apologies are taught to learners of italian. 8. limitations of the study and opportunities for further research as a pilot study, this paper offers valuable methodological and analytical considerations for further research, though it does have some limitations. as with any data elicitation process, there are task effects which may have influenced the decisions made by participants. the main effect to acknowledge is the fact that not all apology strategies can be used in all situations. this is true, for example, of expressions of repair, the necessity of which can vary significantly depending on situational variables (trosborg, 1995). the type of repair which may be suggested for an offence is very much contingent on situational factors. the use of some supportive strategies is also contextually bound; one cannot, for example, promise to never again fall ill and therefore to never again miss a day of class (an example of a promise of forbearance). this variability indicates that, at least in regard to some elements of their emails, participants’ constructions of the apology act were influenced by the dct prompt to which they were responding; therefore, this research can present apology act performance only in relation to particular scenarios, rather than a broad overview of all possible apologies in all possible contexts. in the same line, a possible avenue for future research could involve comparing participants’ emailed apologies to oral apologies performed in similar contexts. this would allow for an investigation of how similarly – or differently – australian learners of italian perform verbal and written apologies. hatipoğlu’s (2004) findings suggest that explicit apologies would be performed differently in verbal and written forms; however, investigating the comparison may also reveal whether the typology presented in this paper is specific only to written communication, or whether it might account for both written and oral communication. another limitation to acknowledge is that each individual, regardless of cultural and linguistic factors, may favour certain apology strategies above others. this individual variation was not accounted for in this paper. other scholars have investigated such variables in retrospective interviews conducted after written data collection (e.g., chen, 2015; cheng, 2013; frescura, 1995; lipson, 1994), but this was outside the scope of the research presented in this paper. such interviews are a key element in my current doctoral research, as they provide insight into participants’ linguistic choices and thereby allow for a more holistic exploration of the structure of written apologies. a further extension on this research will be the comparison of apologies performed by australian learners of italian to native speakers of both italian and australian english. such analysis will provide benchmarks of comparison which may reveal just how closely the apology performance in italian of australian walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 20 learners of italian aligns with both italian and australian english. this comparison of learner performance with native speaker control groups forms another aim of my current doctoral research project, and it is expected that the analysis of emailed apologies across these three participant groups will provide much more revealing insights into learner apology construction. references alcón soler, eva (2013a). mitigating e-mail requests in teenagers’ first and second language academic cyberconsultation. multilingua, 32(6), 779–799. http://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2013-0037 alcón soler, eva (2013b). pragmatic variation in british and international english language users' e-mail communication: a focus on requests. revista española de lingüística aplicada, 26(26), 25–44. austin, john langshaw (1962). how to do things with words: the william james lectures delivered at harvard university in 1955. clarendon press. australian government department of education and training (2016). 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(1979). expression and meaning: studies in the theory of speech acts. cambridge university press. suszczyńska, małgorzata (1999). apologizing in english, polish and hungarian: different languages, different strategies. journal of pragmatics, 31(8), 1053–1065. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-2166(99)000478 tanaka, noriko, spencer-oatey, helen, & cray, ellen (2008). apologies in japanese and english. in helen spencer-oatey (ed.), culturally speaking: culture, communication and politeness theory (2nd ed., pp. 73– 94). continuum. trosborg, anna (1987). apology strategies in natives/non-natives. journal of pragmatics, 11(2), 147–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(87)90193-7 trosborg, anna (1995). interlanguage pragmatics: requests, complaints, and apologies. mouton de gruyter. trubnikova, victoriya (2017). ‘mi scusi per favore’: analisi pragmatica dell’interlingua di studenti russofoni. educazione linguistica. language education, 6(1), 53–81. https://doi.org/10.14277/22806792/elle-6-1-17-4 walker, talia (2017). politeness norms: a pilot study on the accomplishment of apologies by learners of italian. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages, 4(2), 28-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.7.95 wyatt, mark (2014). saying sorry in advance for not turning up: a study of efl teachers' text messages. english today, 30(1), 48–54. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266078413000564 yu, ming-chung (2010). learning how to read situations and know what is the right thing to say or do in an l2: a study of socio-cultural competence and language transfer. journal of pragmatics, 43(4), 1127–1147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.09.025 walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 24 appendix a appendix b dct scenarios and interlocutor variations scenario name description interlocutors cancelled meeting while interning in an italian firm, participants had scheduled a meeting, but were no longer able to attend fellow intern / boss group presentation participants were to present an assessment task in class the following day, but had fallen ill classmate / professor unpaid rent participants were living and travelling in italy and were unable to pay their rent on time flatmate / landlord accidental theft after having stayed with a friend and his mother in italy, participants discovered that they had accidentally taken two chargers which were not theirs the friend / friend’s mother dct instructions to participants in this task, you will be asked to respond to four different situations via email. in each situation, there will be two versions of the situation. you are asked to complete both versions, totalling eight responses. all scenarios are set in italy. the following task is written in italian and challenging terms will also be provided in english. at the end of each, you will be asked to rate the scenario in regards to the social distance between yourself and your interlocutor, your interlocutor’s status in relation to your own and the severity of your offence. in this task, the italicised terms are defined in the following ways: social distance: how well known the participants are to each other, ranging from strangers to intimates status of interlocutor: the degree of power held by the interlocutor, i.e. if their social position within the interaction is higher, equal to, or lower than the speaker severity of offence: the ‘seriousness’ of and extent of damage caused by the offence for which the apology is being offered you should respond to the eight scenarios as per the example below: example scenario: you are not feeling well and so you will be absent from today’s lecture. you know that the student who sits beside you will be attending and that she always takes detailed notes. if you were to write an email to her, what would you write? example response: hi elena, sorry to be a bother, but i wanted to ask you a favour. i won’t be in class today because i’m sick, so i was wondering if you could send me your notes from today’s lecture? thank you so much! jessica apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 25 appendix c dct prompts (in italian) appuntamento cancellato a. mentre stai facendo uno stage (internship) in un’azienda italiana, organizzi di incontrare un altro stagista (intern) italiano alle due di pomeriggio. però, non puoi più incontrarlo. se gli scrivessi un’email, cosa scriveresti? b. mentre stai facendo uno stage (internship) in un’azienda italiana, organizzi di incontrare il tuo capo alle due di pomeriggio. però, non puoi più incontrarlo. se gli scrivessi un’email, cosa scriveresti? presentazione a. tu e una compagna di classe (classmate) state facendo un compito che deve essere presentato in classe domani, ma stai male e non riuscirai a essere in classe per fare la presentazione. se scrivessi un’email alla tua compagna di classe, cosa scriveresti? b. tu e una compagna di classe (classmate) state facendo un compito che deve essere presentato in classe domani, ma stai male e non riuscirai a essere in classe per fare la presentazione. se scrivessi un’email alla tua professoressa, cosa scriveresti? affitto non pagato a. mentre sei in italia, condividi un appartamento con un’altra escursionista (backpacker) e devi pagare l’affitto (rent) ogni mese. la data per il pagamento è entro quattro giorni, ma stai viaggiando e non riuscirai a pagare il tuo proprietario (landlord) in tempo. se gli scrivessi un’email, cosa scriveresti? b. mentre sei in italia, condividi un appartamento con un’altra escursionista (backpacker) e devi pagare l’affitto ogni mese. la data per il pagamento è entro quattro giorni, ma stai viaggiando e non riuscirai a pagare la tua coinquilina (flatmate) in tempo. se le scrivessi un’email, cosa scriveresti? furto accidentale a. sei appena tornato/a a sydney dopo un periodo a verona dove stavi a casa di un amico e di sua madre. mentre stai disfacendo le valigie (unpacking), scopri due dei loro caricabatterie (chargers) insieme ai tuoi. se scrivessi un’email al tuo amico, cosa scriveresti? b. sei appena tornato/a a sydney dopo un periodo a verona dove stavi a casa di un amico e di sua madre. mentre stai disfacendo le valigie (unpacking), scopri due dei loro caricabatterie (chargers) insieme ai tuoi. se scrivessi un’email alla madre del tuo amico, cosa scriveresti? walker e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 26 appendix d dct prompts (in english) cancelled meeting a. while completing an internship in an italian firm, you agree to meet one of your italian fellow interns at 2pm. however, you can no longer make it. if you were to write an email to him, what would you write? b. while completing an internship in an italian firm, you agree to meet your boss 2pm. however, you can no longer make it. if you were to write an email to him, what would you write? please write your email below, using as little or as much space as you feel to be necessary: group presentation a. you and a classmate are completing an assessment task which will need to be presented tomorrow, but you are ill and cannot make it to class to present. if you were to write an email to your partner, what would you write to her? b. you and a classmate are completing an assessment task which will need to be presented tomorrow, but you are ill and cannot make it to class to present. if you were to write an email to your professor, what would you write to her? unpaid rent a. while in italy, you are staying in an apartment and you must pay your rent monthly. the due date for next month’s rent is in four days’ time, but you have been travelling and won’t be able to pay your landlord in time. if you were to write an email to him, what would you write? b. while in italy, you are sharing an apartment with another backpacker and you must pay your rent monthly. the due date for next month’s rent is in four days’ time, but you have been travelling and won’t be able to pay your flatmate in time. if you were to write an email to her, what would you write? accidental theft a. you have just returned to sydney after visiting a friend and his mother for several months in verona. when unpacking, you discover two of their chargers caught up amongst your own. if you were to write an email to your friend, what would you write? b. you have just returned to sydney after visiting a friend and his mother for several months in verona. when unpacking, you discover two of their chargers caught up amongst your own. if you were to write an email to your friend’s mother, what would you write? apologies by australian learners of italian e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 1–27 27 appendix e talia walker, university of sydney talia.walker@sydney.edu.au en talia walker is a doctoral candidate in the department of italian studies at the university of sydney, investigating the performance of apologies by learners of italian at australian universities. her interests lie within the fields of pragmatics, intercultural communication, and language acquisition. in recent years, talia held research and teaching positions at the australian national university, the university of sydney, and uts college. es talia walker es estudiante de posgrado en el departamento de estudios italianos de la universidad de sydney, donde se ocupa de la investigación sobre la formulación de disculpas enviadas por e-mail por los estudiantes de italiano en las universidades australianas. sus intereses incluyen los ámbitos de la pragmática, de la comunicación intercultural y del aprendizaje de la lengua. en los últimos años, talia ha ocupado puestos de investigación y enseñanza en la universidad nacional de australia, la universidad de sydney y el uts college. it talia walker è dottoranda presso il dipartimento di italian studies dell’university of sydney, dove fa ricerca sulla formulazione di scuse da parte degli studenti di italiano nelle università australiane. i suoi interessi includono gli ambiti della pragmatica, della comunicazione interculturale e dell’apprendimento della lingua. negli ultimi anni, talia ha ricoperto incarichi di ricerca e insegnamento presso l’università nazionale australiana, l’università di sydney e l’uts college. english translation of participant email dear [name], first of all, i need to thank you (form.) once again for your (form.) incredible hospitality. my time in verona was amazing and the friendship of your (form.) family was a large part of that unforgettable experience. i have just arrived home and have discovered that unfortunately i took two of your (form.) (phone)chargers with me. i ask your (form.) forgiveness for this mistake! i think that it would be best if i send them to you (form.) straight away. i'll go to the post office this afternoon. but in any case i believe that you (form.) were probably looking everywhere for those things and hence i would like to tell you (form.) they took a big journey with me! thank you very much for everything and i'm sorry for that error. with affection, [name] ej 4.1 casañnúnez 20-39 euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-­‐journall,  volume  4,  issue  1,  july  2017,  pages  20-­‐39   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi    http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.6.77   www.e-­‐journall.org     ©  casañ  núñez  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.                                                                                                                                   *  contacto:  juancarloscasan@protonmail.com   1  este  trabajo  constituye  un  desarrollo  de  un  póster  presentado  por  el  autor  en  el  iii  congreso  internacional  nebrija  en   lingüística  aplicada  a  la  enseñanza  de  lenguas:  en  camino  hacia  el  plurilingüismo  en  madrid  (españa)  en  junio  de  2016.     tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual  con  preguntas  sobreimpresas  en  el   vídeo:  valoraciones  de  cinco  profesores  universitarios  de  español  como   lengua  extranjera         juan  carlos  casañ  núñez*1   universidad  politécnica  de  valencia           received  14  july  2016;  received  in  revised  form  10  november  2016;  accepted  11  april  2017   abstract es las tareas de comprensión audiovisual para el aprendizaje o evaluación de lenguas extranjeras requieren que el estudiante realice cuatro acciones simultáneamente: escuchar, ver, leer y escribir. este trabajo forma parte de una investigación mayor que explora el uso de tareas de comprensión audiovisual con preguntas integradas en la imagen a modo de subtítulos y sincronizadas con los fragmentos relevantes. en este estudio mixto de tipo convergente cinco profesores universitarios de español como lengua extranjera expresaron su opinión sobre esta metodología. el muestreo fue no probabilístico. los instrumentos empleados fueron dos tareas de comprensión audiovisual y un cuestionario. los resultados indicaron que, globalmente, los docentes estaban de acuerdo con que las preguntas sobreimpresas ayudaban a los aprendientes. los profesores también precisaron en qué consistía la ayuda y para qué nivel era apropiada la técnica. palabras clave: comprensión auditiva, comprensión audiovisual, subtitulación, vídeo, español como lengua extranjera en audiovisual comprehension tasks for language learning or testing require the student to carry out four actions simultaneously: listening, viewing, reading, and writing. this paper is part of a larger research project that explores the use of audiovisual comprehension tasks with questions superimposed onto images in the form of subtitles and synchronized with the relevant audiovisual fragments. in this convergent mixed methods study, five university professors of spanish as a foreign language offered feedback on this methodology. a non-probabilistic sampling was used. the instruments consisted of two audiovisual comprehension activities and a questionnaire. overall, the results indicated agreement among the professors that embedded questions helped learners. the professors specified how these questions helped learners and suggested an appropriate level for use of this technique. key words: listening, audiovisual comprehension, subtitling, video, spanish as a foreign language it le attività di comprensione audiovisiva per imparare o insegnare le lingue straniere richiedono all’alunno quattro azioni simultanee: ascoltare, vedere, leggere e scrivere. questo articolo fa parte di un lavoro di ricerca più vasto, che esplora l’uso di attività per la comprensione audiovisiva attraverso domande integrate alle immagini come sottotitoli e sincronizzate ai frammenti rilevanti. in questo studio dai metodi misti convergenti, cinque insegnanti universitari di spagnolo come lingua straniera hanno espresso il loro giudizio su questa metodologia. il campionamento effettuato era non probabilistico. gli strumenti utilizzati sono stati due attività di comprensione audiovisiva e un questionario. i risultati mostrano che, in generale, gli insegnanti concordano sul fatto che le domande in sovrimpressione fossero di aiuto agli studenti. i docenti hanno inoltre precisato in cosa consistesse l’aiuto e per quale livello la tecnica fosse appropriata. parole chiave:   comprensione uditiva, comprensione audiovisiva, sottotitolazione, video, spagnolo come lingua straniera tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20–39     21   1.  introducción     este   trabajo   se   asienta   en   tres   premisas.   en   primer   lugar,   la   comprensión   auditiva/audiovisual   se   define   como   “an   active   process   in   which   listeners   select   and   interpret   information   which   comes   from   auditory   and   visual   cues   in   order   to  define  what   is   going  on   and  what   the   speakers   are   trying   to   express”   (rubin,   1995,   p.   7).   en   segundo   lugar,   se   considera   que   el   vídeo   debería   predominar   sobre   el   audio   para   desarrollar  la  comprensión  auditiva/audiovisual  en  el  aula  de  lenguas  extranjeras  (lynch,  2009;  mendelsohn,   1994;  ur,   1999).  en   tercer   lugar,   se  defiende   la   idea  de  que  un  medio  nuevo  necesita  nuevas  prácticas.  en   otras  palabras,  no  es  lo  mismo  completar  una  actividad  escrita  con  audio  (escuchar,  leer  y  escribir)  que  con   vídeo   (escuchar,   ver,   leer   y   escribir).   en   ocasiones   esto   parece   olvidarse   en   la   didáctica   de   los  materiales   audiovisuales   para   desarrollar   la   comprensión   auditiva/audiovisual.   prueba   de   ello   es   que   existen   libros   sobre   esta   actividad   comunicativa   en   los   que   apenas   hay   referencias   a   la   especificidad   del   vídeo   (p.   ej.,   richards  &  burns,  2012;  rost  &  wilson,  2013)2.       en   el   diseño   de   actividades   de   comprensión   con   vídeo   debe   tenerse   en   consideración   que   prestar   atención  a  un  texto  audiovisual  y  a  una  tarea  al  mismo  tiempo  reviste  una  gran  complejidad,  especialmente  en   una   lengua  extranjera.  por  un   lado,   existe  un   conflicto  de  atención  visual   entre  ver  el   vídeo  y   completar   la   actividad.  por  otro  lado,  atender  al  texto  audiovisual  y  a  la  tarea  simultáneamente  puede  saturar  la  memoria   de  trabajo  (vandergrift  &  goh,  2012).  esta  dificultad  contribuye  a  explicar  el  bajo  grado  de  observación  de  la   imagen   en   estudios   que   investigan   la   conducta   visual   de   los   examinandos   en   pruebas   de   comprensión   auditiva/audiovisual   con   vídeo   en   una   segunda   lengua/lengua   extranjera   (l2/le).   por   ejemplo,   wagner   (2010b)  observó  que  los  participantes  prestaban  atención  al  vídeo  el  47.9%  del  tiempo  de  reproducción.       este   trabajo   forma   parte   de   una   investigación   con   método   mixto   y   multifase   (creswell,   2014;   creswell   &   plano   clark,   2011)   que   explora   el   uso   de   tareas   de   comprensión   audiovisual   con   preguntas   integradas   en   la   imagen   del   vídeo   a   modo   de   subtítulos   y   sincronizadas   con   los   fragmentos   pertinentes   (véanse  casañ  núñez,  2015a-­‐b,  2016,  en  prensa).  se  estima  que  esta  técnica  novedosa  podría  aportar  varios   beneficios   frente   a   visionados   acompañados   de   las   preguntas   en   papel.   entre   estos   beneficios   destaca   la   posibilidad   de   minimizar   el   conflicto   de   atención   visual   arriba   referido,   al   aproximar   espacial   y   temporalmente  las  preguntas  y  las  escenas  relevantes.       el  estudio  actual  investigó  la  opinión  del  profesor  de  e/le.  su  punto  de  vista  es  importante  por  varias   razones.  en  primer  lugar,  el  docente  juega  un  papel  fundamental  en  todo  el  proceso  educativo  (calderhead,   1996;  duschl,  schweingruber,  &  shouse,  2006);  en  segundo  lugar,  “teachers´  cognitions  and  their  classroom   behavior   mutually   affect   each   other”   (meijer,   verloop,   &   beijaard,   1999,   p.   59),   y   en   tercer   lugar,   sus   consideraciones   pueden   contribuir   a   validar,   refutar   o   reformular   esta   técnica   en   tareas   de   comprensión   audiovisual.   los   objetivos   fundamentales   eran   tres:   averiguar   si   los   profesores   consideraban   que   el   procedimiento  ayudaba  a   los  estudiantes,  saber  qué  conocimientos  tenían  los  docentes  sobre  programas  de   subtitulación,   y   comparar   sus   apreciaciones   con   las   de   un   grupo   de   expertos   que   había   participado   en   un   estudio  previo.  con  este  trabajo  se  pretendía  dar  respuesta  a  cinco  preguntas:     1) ¿en   qué  medida   los   profesores   estaban   de   acuerdo   con   que   las   preguntas   integradas   en   el   vídeo   ayudaban  a  los  estudiantes  de  e/le  en  tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual?     2) ¿había  acuerdo  entre  los  docentes  en  la  valoración  de  las  preguntas  sobreimpresas?   3) ¿los  profesores  sabían  usar  algún  programa  de  subtitulación?  en  caso  negativo,  ¿estarían  dispuestos   a  aprender  a  utilizar  uno  gratuito  para  sus  clases  de  e/le?   4) si  hubiera  materiales  disponibles  para  la  enseñanza  del  e/le  que  emplearan  esta  metodología,  ¿los   profesores  los  utilizarían?   5) ¿se  observaban  coincidencias  o  divergencias  entre  las  opiniones  de  los  profesores  y  los  expertos  en   relación  con  esta  técnica?                                                                                                                                       2  también  hay  obras  en  las  que  se  dedican  apartados  (p.  ej.,  lynch,  2009,  pp.  100-­‐105)  o  capítulos  (p.  ej.,  vandergrift  &   goh,  2012,  pp.  217-­‐238)  a  la  explotación  de  los  materiales  audiovisuales.     casañ  núñez   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20-­‐39   22   2.  estado  de  la  cuestión   2.1.  características  formales  de  los  materiales  en  vídeo       los   textos   audiovisuales   comparten   una   serie   de   características   formales   que,   en   conjunto,   los   definen:   (a)   la   transmisión  de   información  por  dos  canales  al  mismo  tiempo,   (b)   la  sucesión  de   imágenes  y   sonidos  predeterminada  (material  grabado),  (c)  la  reproducción  de  la  información  visual  en  una  pantalla,  (d)   la   reproducción   de   la   información   auditiva   por   medio   de   uno   o   varios   altavoces,   (e)   el   discurso   oral   planificado  y  (f)  el  lenguaje  audiovisual  (casañ  núñez,  2009,  pp.  52-­‐56).  estos  aspectos  deberían  tenerse  en   consideración   a   la   hora   de   diseñar   actividades   de   comprensión   audiovisual   por   las   siguientes   razones.   en   relación   con   la   transmisión   de   información   por   dos   canales   simultáneamente,   atender   al   vídeo   y   a   una   actividad  al  mismo  tiempo  en  una  lengua  extranjera  es  muy  complicado  (véase  §  1).  por  esta  razón,  las  tareas   que  se  realicen  de  forma  simultánea  a  la  emisión  del  vídeo  deberían  ser  sencillas.  en  cuanto  al  segundo  rasgo,   el   hecho   de   que   los   materiales   en   vídeo   estén   grabados   impide   la   interacción   del   estudiante   con   los   interlocutores  y,  por  consiguiente,  que  practique  algunas  estrategias  vitales  para  el  éxito  de  la  comunicación   (p.   ej.,   pedir   aclaraciones,  mostrar   signos   de   participación   o   de   acuerdo).   por   ello,   las   tareas   deberían   ser   variadas  y  permitir  que  el  aprendiente  asuma  distintos  roles,  tales  como  los  que  identifica  rost  (2016),  por   ejemplo,  interactuando  con  otros  estudiantes.  a  propósito  de  la  transmisión  de  la  información  a  través  de  una   pantalla,  hay  que  tener  en  cuenta  que  la  relación  entre  el  tamaño  de  la  pantalla  y  la  distancia  del  telespectador   contemplada  durante  el  rodaje  y  la  postproducción  puede  verse  alterada  en  mayor  o  menor  medida  cuando  el   texto  se  visiona  en  el  aula.  asimismo,  conviene  prestar  atención  a  la  calidad  de  la  copia  y  al  equipo  técnico  (p.   ej.,  es  importante  un  proyector  con  una  potencia  lumínica  suficiente  para  no  tener  que  apagar  las  luces  si  no   se  desea).  de  forma  análoga,  los  altavoces  y  la  acústica  de  la  sala  deben  ser  adecuados.  en  relación  con  el  tipo   de  discurso,  cabe  destacar  que  este  suele  estar  planificado,  ya  que  en  muchas  ocasiones  es  un  discurso  escrito   para   ser   recitado   o   leído   (p.   ej.,   un   largometraje   o   un   telediario,   véanse   baños-­‐piñero   &   chaume,   2009,   y   chaume,   2001).   por   último,   el   lenguaje   audiovisual   cuenta   con   numerosos   componentes,   entre   ellos,   los   movimientos   de   cámara,   los   ángulos   de   encuadre,   los   tipos   de   plano,   la   profundidad   de   campo,   el   eje,   el   montaje,   la   luz,   el   tratamiento   del   tiempo   y   la   música   (véase   ambròs   &   breu,   2007,   pp.   69-­‐100).   es   aconsejable  que  el  profesor  de  lenguas  extranjeras  tenga  conocimientos  suficientes  sobre  este  lenguaje  para   poder   evaluar   los   materiales   en   vídeo   con   parámetros   propios   del   medio   (además   de   otros   criterios   que   emplee  para  seleccionar  y  explotar  los  textos).     2.2.  impacto  de  la  imagen  en  la  comprensión,  valoración  de  la  imagen  y  conducta  visual       en   esta   sección   se   sintetizan   los   resultados   de   varios   estudios   relacionados   con   el   impacto   de   la   imagen  en   la   comprensión  de  una   lengua   extranjera,   la   valoración  de   la   imagen  del   vídeo  por  parte  de   los   estudiantes  y  la  conducta  visual  de  los  aprendientes  ante  el  vídeo.       en   las   investigaciones   sobre   el   efecto   de   la   imagen   en   la   comprensión,   la   mayoría   de   autores   se   decanta  por  un  diseño  cuasiexperimental  en  el  que  un  grupo  completa  una  prueba  a  partir  de  una  grabación   en  vídeo  y  el  otro  efectúa  el  mismo  test  a  partir  de  una  versión  en  audio  del  mismo  vídeo.  las  conclusiones  de   estos   trabajos   parecen   ser   aparentemente   contradictorias:   algunos   estudios   no   hallan   diferencias   significativas  entre  realizar  una  misma  prueba  con  una  grabación  audiovisual  y  efectuarla  con  una  versión  en   audio  del  vídeo  (batty,  2014;  coniam,  2001;  gruba,  1993;  londe,  2009);  otros  indican  que  los  resultados  son   mejores   con   la   versión   audio   (suvorov,   2008),   y   los   hay   que   revelan  mejores   puntuaciones  medias   con   la   versión  en  vídeo  (sueyoshi  &  hardison,  2005;  wagner,  2010a,  2013).     respecto   a   la   opinión   de   los   estudiantes   sobre   la   imagen   del   vídeo,   la   práctica   habitual   de   las   investigaciones  consiste  en  administrar  un  cuestionario  después  de  las  tareas  de  comprensión.  los  resultados   de   estos   trabajos   no   son   concluyentes:   en   algunos   estudios   los   participantes   valoran   positivamente   la   presencia  de   la   imagen   (sueyoshi  &  hardison,  2005;  wagner,  2010b),   y   en  otros  negativamente   (alderson,   clapham,  &  wall,  1995;  coniam,  2001;  suvorov,  2008).     por  último,  en  relación  con  el  comportamiento  visual  de  los  estudiantes  de  lenguas  extranjeras  ante   el  vídeo,  suvorov  (2015)  y  wagner  (2010b)  señalan  que  existen  pocas  investigaciones.  algunos  autores  han   empleado   cámaras   de   vídeo   y   han   contabilizado   el   tiempo   que   los   informantes   miran   en   dirección   a   la   pantalla.  por  ejemplo,  en  el  estudio  de  ockey  (2007)  la  media  de  observación  es  el  44.9%  del  tiempo,  y  en  los   de  wagner  (2007,  2010b)  el  69%  y  el  47.9%,  respectivamente.  en  un  estudio  reciente,  suvorov  (2015)  utiliza   tecnología   de   seguimiento   ocular   para   investigar   la   conducta   visual   en   dos   tipos   de   textos   audiovisuales:   context   videos   (lo   visual   proporciona   información   sobre   la   situación   comunicativa)   y   content   videos   (la   tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20–39     23   información  visual  está  relacionada  con  la  verbal).  en  el  primer  caso,  los  participantes  ven  el  vídeo  el  50.70%   del  tiempo  y,  en  el  segundo,  el  57.99%.  si  la  comprensión  auditiva/audiovisual  comprende  la  interpretación   de   información   auditiva   y   visual   (véase   §   2.1),   estos  niveles   de   atención   a   la   imagen  pueden   repercutir   de   forma  negativa  tanto  en  la  comprensión  del  vídeo  como  en  el  desarrollo  de  esta  actividad  comunicativa.       las   divergencias   en   las   investigaciones   pueden   deberse   a   multitud   de   motivos,   entre   ellos,   el   constructo  de  las  tareas  de  comprensión,  la  dificultad  de  las  actividades,  la  forma  de  realizarse  el  visionado,  el   origen  y  tipo  de  texto,   la  calidad  del   input,   la  perceptibilidad  del   input  visual,   la  mayor  o  menor  solidaridad   entre  lo  visual  y  lo  auditivo  en  los  textos  audiovisuales,  y  la  influencia  de  la  cámara  de  vídeo  en  la  conducta   visual.     2.3  explotación  de  textos  audiovisuales  en  el  aula  de  lenguas  extranjeras     numerosos  autores  sugieren  la  explotación  de  los  textos  orales  en  tres  etapas:  antes  de  la  audición,   durante   la   audición   y   después   de   la   audición   (p.   ej.,   flowerdew   &   miller,   2005;   giovannini,   martín   peris,   rodríguez,  &  simón,  1996;  richards  &  burns,  2012;  rost,  2016).  la  primera  fase  tiene  el  objetivo  de  activar   los   conocimientos   previos   y   de   construir   nuevos   conocimientos   que   faciliten   la   comprensión   del   texto.   asimismo,   en   esta   etapa   se   especifica   cómo   va   a   realizarse   la   audición   (propósito,   rol   del   estudiante,   actividades,   etc.)  porque  estos  elementos   condicionan  el  modo  en  que  el  oyente  desarrolla   los  procesos  de   comprensión  y  su  actuación.  la  segunda  fase  tiene  los  siguientes  objetivos:   it  should  guide  the  listener  through  a  listening  text  and  help  the  listener  understand  it  and   respond   to   it.   it   should   also   involve   tasks   where   listeners   do   something   with   the   information  they  take  from  the  text,  such  as  responding,  labeling,  sequencing,  selecting,  or   filling  out  a  form.  (richards  &  burns,  2012,  p.  10)       por  último,  en  la  tercera  etapa  se  comprueba  si  se  han  alcanzado  los  objetivos,  se  reflexiona  sobre  la   experiencia  de  comprensión,  se  resuelven  las  posibles  dudas,  y  se  pueden  proponer  tareas  centradas  en  otras   actividades   de   la   lengua   o   en   la   forma.   en   relación   con   la   segunda   fase,   underwood   (1989)   subraya   la   necesidad  de  que  las  tareas  sean  sencillas  porque  “it  is  extremely  difficult  to  listen  and  write  at  the  same  time,   particularly   in   a   foreign   language”   (p.   48).   las   actividades   de   comprensión   audiovisual   pueden   resultar   todavía  más   complejas  que   las  de   comprensión  auditiva.  esto   se  debe,  por  una  parte,   a   la   existencia  de  un   conflicto  de  atención  visual  entre  ver  un  vídeo  y  completar  una  tarea  escrita  simultáneamente.  este  conflicto   contribuye  a  explicar  el  relativamente  bajo  grado  de  atención  a  la  imagen  en  los  estudios  referidos  en  §  2.2.   por  otra  parte,  “there  is  universal  agreement  that  working  memory  when  dealing  with  novel   information  is   very  limited  in  capacity”  (sweller,  ayres,  &  kalyuga,  2011,  p.  42).  este  hecho  debe  tenerse  en  consideración,   dado  que,   como   advierten  vandergrift   y  goh   (2012),   prestar   atención   a   la   imagen,   al   audio,   y   a   la   tarea   al   mismo  tiempo  puede  llevar  a  la  saturación  de  la  memoria  de  trabajo.       a  continuación  se  sugieren  algunas  estrategias  para  reducir  el  conflicto  de  atención  visual  y  la  carga   cognitiva  de  las  actividades  en  la  fase  de  visionado.  en  primer  lugar,  es  recomendable  que  las  tareas  escritas   impliquen   poca   lectura   y   escritura,   y   que   requieran  mantener   pocos   elementos   activos   en   la  memoria   de   trabajo.  también  se  sugiere  el  empleo  de  la  técnica  del  visionado  con  pausas  (véanse  field,  2008;  stempleski   &  tomalin,  2001;  stoller,  1992).  asimismo,  se  aconseja  aproximar  espacialmente  el  vídeo  y  la  actividad  para   reducir  el  tiempo  necesario  para  desplazar  la  vista  de  un  estímulo  a  otro  (de  la  tarea  al  vídeo  y  viceversa).  por   último,  se  propone  utilizar  la  metodología  que  se  presenta  en  la  próxima  sección.     2.4  tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual  con  preguntas  sobreimpresas  en  el  vídeo     “more  than  100  studies  document  that  captioning  a  video  improves  comprehension  of,  memory  for,   and  attention  to  videos,   for  children,  adolescents,  college  students,  and  adults”  (gernsbacher,  2015,  p.  198).   se  pueden  considerar  dos  usos  principales  de  los  subtítulos  para  el  aprendizaje  de  lenguas  extranjeras.  existe,   en   primer   lugar,   una   utilización   tradicional   que   consiste   en   emplear   vídeos   subtitulados   (véanse   muñoz,   2016;  vanderplank,   2016;   york,   2016).   según  vandergrift   y  goh   (2012,   p.   276),   esto   puede   aportar   varios   beneficios  al  desarrollo  de  la  comprensión  auditiva/audiovisual:         casañ  núñez   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20-­‐39   24   captions   can   play   a   role   in   the   development   of   l2   skills   by   reinforcing   and   confirming   understanding  of  a  listening  text,  and  directing  listener  attention  to  gaps  in  understanding   during  repeat  listens.  consulting  captions  to  note  differences  between  what  they  hear  and   the  written  form  of  the  message  can  help   listeners   improve  word  segmentation  skills  and   give  them  greater  insight  into  their  comprehension  errors.       algunos  autores  (entre  ellos,  díaz  cintas,  2012;   incalcaterra,  mcloughlin,  &  lertola,  2014;  talaván,   2013)   también  abogan  por   la  práctica  de   la   subtitulación  en  el   aula.   según  talaván   (2013,  pp.  88-­‐90),   esta   metodología  posee  varios  beneficios  didácticos,   entre   ellos,   es   una  actividad  práctica  y   realista,   potencia   el   aprendizaje   basado   en   tareas,   tiene   un   potencial   específico   para   desarrollar   la   comprensión   auditiva/audiovisual,  refuerza  el  aprendizaje  del  léxico,  y  es  una  actividad  motivadora.     además   de   estas   aplicaciones,   puede   ser   provechosa   una   técnica   novedosa   basada   en   un   uso   no   convencional  de  los  subtítulos:  el  empleo  de  preguntas  de  comprensión  audiovisual  integradas  en  el  vídeo  a   modo   de   subtítulos   y   sincronizadas   con   los   fragmentos   pertinentes.   el   procedimiento   consiste   en   que   los   enunciados   de   las   preguntas   aparecen   en   pantalla   segundos   antes   de   que   comience   la   escena   a   la   que   se   refieren  y  desaparecen  cuando  finaliza  (véase,  p.  ej.,  https://youtu.be/alw8xjkrbdq).  esta  temporalización   se  considera  la  más  adecuada  para  facilitar  la  concentración  y  poder  guiar  al  estudiante  a  lo  largo  del  texto.   esta   metodología   está   destinada   principalmente   a   estudiantes   de   niveles   iniciales,   y   puede   emplearse   en   tareas   de   comprensión   audiovisual   para   el   aprendizaje   y   evaluación   de   lenguas   extranjeras.   casañ   núñez   (2015a)  ha  formulado  un  marco  teórico  que  describe  esta  estrategia  a  partir  de  la  revisión  de  la  bibliografía   sobre   la   didáctica   de   la   comprensión   auditiva/audiovisual   y   del   vídeo   en   lenguas   extranjeras,   su   propia   experiencia   docente,   las   convenciones   establecidas   en   el   uso   de   subtítulos   en   español   según   díaz   cintas   (2003),   y   las   contribuciones   de   seis   expertos   en   didáctica   del   español   como   lengua   extranjera,   lingüística   española   y/o   en   el   uso   de   la   tecnología.   en   el  marco   conceptual   se   especifican,   entre   otros,   el   número   de   líneas  y  caracteres,  el  color,  el  tipo  de  fuente,  y  los  criterios  seguidos  para  situar  temporal  y  espacialmente  las   preguntas.  esta  técnica  podría  aportar  varios  beneficios  frente  a  visionados  en  los  que  el  vídeo  se  proyecta  en   una  pantalla  común  y  los  materiales  de  la  tarea  están  disponibles  en  papel,  tales  como:     1) disminuiría   en   cierta   medida   el   conflicto   de   atención   entre   ver   el   vídeo   y   realizar   la   tarea,   al   aproximar   espacial   y   temporalmente   las   preguntas   y   los   fragmentos   relevantes.   esto   podría   favorecer  que  los  estudiantes  prestaran  atención  al  vídeo  durante  más  tiempo.   2) facilitaría   que   los   estudiantes   orientaran   su   atención   en   función   de   aquella   información   que   interesara   comprender   en   cada  momento.   de   esta  manera,   estaría   en   consonancia   con   uno   de   los   objetivos   principales,   según   richards   y   burns   (2012)   y   underwood   (1989),   de   las   actividades   durante  el  visionado:  guiar  al  estudiante  a  lo  largo  del  texto.   3) posibilitaría  que  el  estudiante  solo  tuviera  que  concentrarse  en  una  pregunta  sobreimpresa  en  cada   momento,   y   no   en   varias   cuestiones   en   papel   al   mismo   tiempo.   gracias   a   ello,   se   reducirían   las   necesidades  cognitivas  impuestas  por  la  tarea  y  el  aprendiente  podría  disponer  de  más  memoria  de   trabajo  para  la  comprensión  del  vídeo.   4) en   caso   de   que   un   estudiante   perdiera   la   concentración,   favorecería   que   continuara   la   actividad   a   partir  de  la  aparición  de  la  siguiente  pregunta  en  pantalla  (casañ  núñez,  2015a,  pp.  31-­‐32).     a  pesar  de  ello,  el  procedimiento  no  está  exento  de  inconvenientes.  su  principal   limitación  radicaría  en  que   podría  no  preparar  adecuadamente  para  visionados  sin  preguntas  sobreimpresas.     3.  método   3.1  diseño   se  empleó  un  diseño  convergente  (creswell,  2012,  2014;  creswell  &  plano  clark,  2011),  un  tipo  de   diseño   mixto   en   el   que   los   datos   cuantitativos   y   cualitativos   se   recogen   durante   la   misma   fase   de   la   investigación,  se  analizan  de  forma  separada,  y  se  interpretan  de  forma  conjunta.  se  recopiló  información  de   carácter  cuantitativo  y  cualitativo  con  la  finalidad  de  combinar  los  resultados  y,  de  esta  forma,  conseguir  una   visión  más  completa  que  la  que  podría  obtenerse  a  partir  de  un  solo  tipo  de  datos.       tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20–39     25     3.2.  instrumentos       en  la  investigación  se  utilizaron  dos  tipos  de  instrumentos:  dos  tareas  de  compresión  audiovisual  y   un   cuestionario.   las   dos   tareas   tenían   el   propósito   de   ejemplificar   el   funcionamiento   de   las   preguntas   integradas  en  el  vídeo  en  forma  de  subtítulos.  por  su  parte,  el  cuestionario  tenía  el  cometido  de  recoger  las   valoraciones  y  comentarios  de  los  docentes.       3.2.1.  las  tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual      las   actividades   mostraban   el   funcionamiento   de   las   preguntas   sobreimpresas   en   la   siguiente   situación:   con   la   proyección   del   vídeo   en   una   pantalla   común   en   una   ocasión,   con   los   materiales   de   la   actividad  en  papel,  y  sin  pausas  durante  la  emisión  del  vídeo3.  estas  condiciones  son  frecuentes  en  las  tareas   de   evaluación   (p.   ej.,   en   la   prueba   de   comprensión   auditiva   de   los   dele   y   en   el   test   de   comprensión   audiovisual  del  diploma  de  lengua  española  para  trabajadores  inmigrantes;  véase  baralo  ottonelo  &  martín   leralta,   2010).   las   actividades   procedían   de   un   test   de   comprensión   audiovisual   desarrollado   por   casañ   núñez   (2016).   se   sugiere   la   consulta   de   ese   trabajo   para   conocer   el   proceso   de   planificación,   diseño   y   experimentación   del   instrumento.   los   destinatarios   eran   estudiantes   adultos   de   e/le   capaces   de   ver   cine   subtitulado.  el  ámbito  de  uso  de  la  lengua  meta  (aulm)  era  la  comprensión  de  conversaciones  informales  del   ámbito  personal  procedentes  de  comedias  románticas  cinematográficas  españolas  y  el  constructo  medía  tres   habilidades:     1) extraer  datos  concretos  importantes  en  conversaciones  informales  cara  a  cara.     2) identificar  las  ideas  generales  en  conversaciones  informales  cara  a  cara.   3) reconocer  sentimientos  en  conversaciones  informales  cara  a  cara.         la   prueba   (véase   el   apéndice   a)   está   compuesta   por   dos   secuencias   cinematográficas   de   dos   películas   españolas   y   por   dos   tareas   breves.   en   la   tabla   1   se   recogen   las   características   principales   de   los   textos  de  entrada,  y  en  las  tablas  2  y  3  se  describen  los  ítems.     tabla 1 descripción de los textos de entrada ópera prima (1980) los peores años de nuestra vida (1994) localización* de 00:00:00:00 a 00:02:36:12. de 00:11:10:00 a 00:12:48:15. ámbito (mcer) personal personal duración del texto 2 minutos y 36 segundos 1 minuto y 38 segundos velocidad del texto (impresión global) normal rápida acento de los participantes estándar estándar nivel del texto estimado a2/b1 b2/c1 nota: para indicar la secuencia se ha utilizado un código de tiempo de ocho dígitos habitual en la grabación y edición de vídeo. los tres primeros pares de dígitos corresponden a las horas, los minutos y los segundos, respectivamente, y el último par, a los fotogramas. así, 00:02:36:12 indica el punto 2 minutos, 36 segundos y 12 fotogramas de la película ópera prima.                                                                                                                                 3  también  se  puede  prescindir  del  plano  de  trabajo  en  papel  y/o  combinar  las  preguntas  sobreimpresas  con  la  técnica  del   visionado   con   pausas.   por   supuesto,   son   posibles   (y   normalmente   recomendables)   sucesivos   visionados   con   distintos   objetivos.  la  casuística  es  compleja  y  serían  necesarios  múltiples  estudios  para  explorar  el  abanico  de  opciones.   casañ  núñez   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20-­‐39   26   tabla 2 descripción de las preguntas sobreimpresas de la secuencia de ópera prima subtítulo focalización tipo temporalización líneas niveles indicados por los profesores nivel estimado 1. ¿cómo se llama la chica? extraer datos concretos elección múltiple 00:01:10:00 00:01:37:09 1 a1, a1/a2 a1 2. ¿de qué hablan? identificar las ideas generales elección múltiple 00:01:44:14 00:02:02:02 1 a2, a2/b1, b1 a2/b1 3. ¿cuál es el teléfono de la chica? extraer datos concretos respuesta única 00:02:04:04 00:02:22:00 1 a2, a1, b1 a2 4. ¿qué sentimientos puede tener el chico por la chica? reconocer sentimientos respuesta abierta 00:02:27:08 00:02:36:12 2 b1, a1/a2, a2/b1 a2/b1 nota: la fuente y el tamaño de las letras usados para las preguntas fue times new roman 36, y el color de presentación del texto fue blanco (código hex. #ffffff).     tabla 3 descripción de las preguntas sobreimpresas de la secuencia de los peores años de nuestra vida subtítulo focalización tipo temporalización líneas nivel indicado por los profesores nivel estimado 1. ¿de qué temas habla el chico pelirrojo? identificar las ideas generales elección múltiple 00:11:40:00 00:12:25:24 1 b2, a2/b1, b1, b2/c1 b2 2. ¿cómo se llama la chica? extraer datos concretos elección múltiple 00:12:39:04 00:12:43:24 1 a1, a1/a2, a2 a1 3. ¿qué sentimientos puede tener el chico pelirrojo por la chica? reconocer sentimientos respuesta abierta 00:12:45:00 00:12:48:15 2 b2, b1, b1/b2, b2/c1 b2 nota: la fuente y el tamaño de las letras usados para las preguntas fue times new roman 36, y el color de presentación del texto fue blanco (código hex. #ffffff).   3.2.2  el  cuestionario       se  decidió  elaborar  un  cuestionario  por  varias  razones.  entre  ellas,  destacan  los  factores  temporales  y   espaciales  que  condicionaron  la  administración:  por  un  lado,  los  profesores  tenían  distintos  horarios  lectivos   y  no  era  fácil  encontrar  una  franja  horaria  extensa  adecuada  para  todos;  y  por  otro,  el  investigador  no  vivía  en   españa  y  se  desplazó  temporalmente  a  valencia  para  efectuar  el  estudio.  un  diseño  con  cuestionario  facilitaba   la   administración   porque   este   instrumento   permite   reunir   una   gran   cantidad   de   información   rápidamente   (dörnyei,  2007,  p.  101).  asimismo,  se  consideró  apropiado  utilizar  este  método  de  recogida  de  datos  porque   permitía  recoger  datos  cuantitativos  y  cualitativos  simultáneamente,  tal  como  se  pretendía.     la  primera  redacción  (véase  el  apéndice  b)  consistió  en  una  adaptación  de  un  cuestionario  diseñado   por   casañ   núñez   (en   prensa)   para   conocer   la   opinión   de   los   estudiantes   de   e/le   sobre   las   tareas   de   comprensión   con   preguntas   integradas   en   el   vídeo   en   forma   de   subtítulos.   esencialmente,   se   mantuvo   la   estructura   general   y   se   cambió   el   punto   de   vista   de   los   ítems.   para  mejorar   la   calidad   del   instrumento   se   recurrió  a  la  estrategia  sugerida  por  murillo  torrecilla  (2004):  pedir  a  un  grupo  de  expertos  que  hicieran  una   revisión   crítica   del   cuestionario.   en   enero   de   2014   fue   examinado   por   dos   profesoras   (universidad   politécnica   de   valencia   y   universidad   de   valencia)   y   por   un   investigador   (universidad   jaume   i).   los   especialistas   propusieron   varias   modificaciones   y   todas   fueran   aceptadas.   se   sugirió   que   era   necesario   especificar  si  se  pedía  la  valoración  de  las  preguntas  en  pantalla,  en  papel  o  de  su  aparición  conjunta.  también   se  apuntó  que  sería  relevante  averiguar  si  los  profesores  sabían  utilizar  algún  programa  de  subtitulación  o  si   estarían  dispuestos  a  aprender  a  utilizar  uno  para  sus  clases  de  e/le,  y  si  utilizarían  materiales  preparados   que  utilizaran  esta  técnica.   tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20–39     27     la  versión   final   tenía   tres  partes:   título,   texto   introductorio  e   ítems  (véase  el  apéndice  c).  el   título   pretendía  ser   informativo  y  activar  el   conocimiento  previo  de   los  docentes  sobre  el   tema.  debajo  del   título   aparecía  un   texto   introductorio   en   el   que   se   especificaba  el   propósito  del   cuestionario,   se   señalaba   que  no   había   respuestas   correctas   ni   incorrectas,   se   indicaba   que   la   información   recogida   se   trataría   de   forma   confidencial  y  que  solo  se  utilizaría  con  fines  académicos,  se  mencionaba  que  se  comunicarían  los  resultados   de  la  investigación,  y  se  agradecía  la  participación.     se  utilizaron  tres  tipos  de  ítems:  likert,  elección  múltiple  y  respuesta  abierta.  las  ocho  preguntas  tipo   likert  (ítems  1,  2.1,  2.2,  2.3,  2.4,  3.1,  3.2  y  3.3)  formaban  una  escala  y  contribuían  a  dar  respuesta  a  la  primera   pregunta   de   investigación,   es   decir,   a   conocer   si   los   docentes   consideraban   que   la   integración   de   las   preguntas   en   la   imagen   ayudaba   a   los   estudiantes   en   la   situación   planteada.   en   el   ítem   1   los   docentes   expresaban   su   opinión   de   forma   general   sobre   la   base   de   la   descripción   del   procedimiento   y   su   ejemplificación   en   dos   tareas   de   comprensión   audiovisual,   y   en   los   otros   ítems,   los   profesores   valoraban   individualmente   cada   una   de   las   siete   preguntas   sobreimpresas.   en   cuanto   al   número   de   opciones   de   respuesta,  se  optó  por  una  escala  de  tres  categorías  con  un  equilibrio  entre  términos  positivos  y  negativos,  y   con  un  punto  central  neutral.  también  se  prescindió  de  términos  que  expresaran  acuerdo  o  desacuerdo  total   porque   la   mayoría   de   las   personas   tienden   a   evitarlos   para   no   parecer   extremistas   (cohen,   manion,   &   morrison,   2011).   los   términos   seleccionados   fueron   los   siguientes:   de   acuerdo,   ni   de   acuerdo   ni   en   desacuerdo  y  en  desacuerdo.       con   los   ítems   de   elección  múltiple   (preguntas   4,   4.1   y   5)   se   pretendía   dar   respuesta   al   segundo   y   tercer   objetivo   de   investigación.   como   recomiendan   cohen   et   al.   (2011)   y   de   vaus   (2002),   se   eligieron   opciones   que   fueran   mutuamente   excluyentes   y   que   a   la   vez   ofrecieran   un   abanico   de   alternativas   lo   suficientemente  amplio  como  para  abarcar  las  posibles  respuestas  de  los  participantes.     finalmente,  se  incluyeron  cuatro  preguntas  abiertas  (ítems  1.1,  2.5,  3.4  y  6)  para  que  los  profesores   pudieran  manifestar   su  opinión   libremente.  de  acuerdo   con  dörnyei   (2007,  p.   107),   las  preguntas   abiertas   pueden  aportar  ejemplos   ilustrativos  y  pueden  servir  para   identificar  aspectos  relevantes  no  contemplados   en  los  ítems  cerrados.  según  cohen  et  al.  (2011),  su  mayor  desventaja  radica  en  la  dificultad  de  analizarlas.     3.3.  recogida  de  datos     el  estudio  se  realizó  en  el  marco  del  programa  becas  iberoamérica  jóvenes  profesores  e  investigadores   del  banco  santander.  los  instrumentos  fueron  administrados  por  el  autor  en  enero  de  2014  en  el  centro  de   idiomas  de   la  universidad  de  valencia.  para   reproducir   los   vídeos   se   emplearon  un  ordenador  portátil,   un   videoproyector,   altavoces   y   una   pantalla   de   proyección   tripié.   el   muestreo   fue   no   probabilístico   por   conveniencia  (dörnyei,  2007,  pp.  98-­‐99).  cinco  profesores  de  e/le  del  centro  de  idiomas  de  la  universidad   de   valencia   respondieron   al   cuestionario.   todos   eran   nativos,   tenían   menos   de   cuarenta   y   cinco   años   y   poseían   formación   específica   en   didáctica   de   e/le.   el   investigador   se   presentó   ante   los   profesores   como   lector  de  español  en  portugal  y  estudiante  de  tercer  ciclo  en  españa.  les  agradeció  su  participación  y  enfatizó   que  su  colaboración  era  fundamental  para  el  éxito  de  la  investigación.        antes  de  administrar  el  cuestionario  los  docentes  efectuaron  dos  actividades.  la  primera  tarea  tenía   el   propósito   de   comprobar   si   el   test   era   factible   para   oyentes   competentes.   para   ello,   los   docentes   completaron  la  prueba  bajo  las  mismas  condiciones  que  los  destinatarios.  la  segunda  tarea  tenía  el  objetivo   de  determinar  el  nivel  aproximado  de  los  ítems.  con  este  fin  se  distribuyó  una  nueva  copia  del  instrumento  y   se   pidió   a   los   docentes   que   señalaran   el   nivel   de   cada   pregunta   según   el  common   european   framework   of   reference  for  languages  (mcer  por  sus  siglas  en  español)  (consejo  de  europa,  2001).  el  análisis  posterior  de   las   respuestas   reveló   que   los   docentes   contestaron   a   los   ítems   sin   dificultades.   asimismo,   a   partir   de   las   indicaciones   sobre   el   nivel   ítems   (véanse   las   tablas   2   y   3)   fue   posible   sugerir   el   nivel   aproximado   de   las   preguntas  con  una  imprecisión  de  hasta  dos  niveles  del  mcer.     a   continuación,   el   investigador   anunció   a   los   profesores   que   les   iba   pedir   su   opinión   sobre   una   metodología   novedosa   y   que   esta   se   iba   a   ejemplificar   en   las   actividades   de   comprensión   audiovisual   que   habían   completado.   luego   les   explicó   en   qué   consistía   la   integración   de   preguntas   de   comprensión   audiovisual  en  la  imagen  del  vídeo.  mencionó  que  el  vídeo  estaba  encajado  entre  dos  franjas  negras  y  que  las   sobreimpresiones  se  situaban  en  la  franja  inferior.  asimismo,  comentó  que  los  enunciados  eran  visibles  pocos   segundos  antes  del  fragmento  relevante  y  que  desaparecían  cuando  finaliza  dicho  fragmento.  también  matizó   que  existía  una  excepción:  la  última  pregunta  de  cada  tarea  se  presentaba  durante  los  últimos  segundos  del   vídeo  e   implicaba  cierta  comprensión  global.  acto  seguido,  entregó  una  nueva  copia  de   las   tareas   (véase  el   apéndice  a)  y  se  visionaron  las  dos  secuencias  cinematográficas  como  está  contemplado  en  el  test,  es  decir,   casañ  núñez   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20-­‐39   28   con  la  proyección  del  vídeo  en  una  pantalla  común  una  vez,  con  los  materiales  de  la  actividad  en  papel,  y  sin   pausas  durante   la   emisión  del   vídeo.   el   autor   añadió  que   eran  posibles   otras   explotaciones   (visionado   con   pausas,  visionados  con  distintos  objetivos,  etc.)  pero  que  en  ese  momento  estaba  interesado  en  esa  situación   concreta.   después   se   repartieron   copias   de   los   cuestionarios   (véase   el   apéndice   c).   los   participantes   lo   completaron   individualmente.   para   ello   dispusieron   de   todo   el   tiempo   que   precisaron.   cuando   todos   lo   entregaron,   algunos   manifestaron   oralmente   su   opinión   sobre   el   procedimiento.   antes   de   despedirse,   el   investigador  les  agradeció  de  nuevo  su  colaboración.     3.4.  análisis  de  datos           los  datos  cuantitativos  (ítems  1,  2.1,  2.2,  2.3,  2.4,  3.1,  3.2,  3.3,  4,  4.1  y  5)  se  analizaron  mediante  el   programa  de  análisis  estadístico  spss  para  windows.  inicialmente,  se  efectuó  un  análisis  de  frecuencias  para   comprobar  que  no  había  valores  anómalos  ni  perdidos.  posteriormente,   se  hallaron   las  modas  de   los   ítems   que  formaban  la  escala  likert  (1,  2.1,  2.2,  2.3,  2.4,  3.1,  3.2,  3.3)  y  las  frecuencias  absolutas,  el  porcentaje  y  la   moda  para  los  otros  ítems  de  elección  múltiple  (4,  4.1  y  5).       para   estimar   el   grado  de   acuerdo  de   los   profesores   en   las   respuestas   a   los   ítems   que   formaban   la   escala  likert,  se  computó  el  coeficiente  de  concordancia  de  kendall.  siguiendo  la  recomendación  de  mehta  y   patel  (2012)  se  halló  el  valor  p  exacto.  para  estimar  la  fiabilidad  de  la  escala  likert  (ítems  1,  2.1,  2.2,  2.3,  2.4,   3.1,  3.2  y  3.3)  se  calcularon  las  correlaciones  corregidas  elemento-­‐total,  el  coeficiente  de  alfa  de  cronbach  y  el   coeficiente  de  alfa  de  cronbach  si  se  elimina  el  elemento.  una  vez  comprobada  la  fiabilidad  del  instrumento,   se  creó  una  nueva  variable  que  recogía  la  puntuación  de  cada  participante  en  la  escala.  para  ello,  se  sumaron   las   puntuaciones   de   cada   participante   en   cada   pregunta.   cada   “en   desacuerdo”   fue   contabilizado   como   un   punto,  cada  “ni  de  acuerdo  ni  en  desacuerdo”  como  dos  y  cada  “de  acuerdo”  como  tres.  no  hay  consenso  sobre   los   análisis   estadísticos   adecuados   para   escalas   likert   (de   vaus,   2002;   devellis,   2003).   en   línea   con   las   propuestas  de  brown  (2011),  de  vaus  (2002)  y  devellis  (2003),  los  datos  se  trataron  como  datos  de  intervalo   y  se  calcularon  los  estadísticos  descriptivos  de  la  escala  de  acuerdo  con  ese  nivel  de  medida.       a  propósito  del   tratamiento  de   los  datos  cualitativos  recogidos  mediante   las  preguntas  abiertas,   se   aplicaron  las  dos  fases  de  análisis  sugeridas  por  dörnyei  (2003,  p.  117):  en  primer  lugar,  se  examinaron  las   respuestas  de   cada   informante  en  busca  de  elementos   relevantes;   y   en   segundo   lugar,   sobre   la  base  de   las   ideas   y   los   contenidos   encontrados,   se   formaron   categorías   más   amplias   que   permitían   comparar   las   respuestas  de  los  participantes.     4.  resultados       el  primer  objetivo  del  estudio  era  conocer  en  qué  medida  los  docentes  estaban  de  acuerdo  con  que   las  preguntas  sobreimpresas  ayudaban  a  los  estudiantes  de  e/le  en  tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual.  para   responder   a   esta   cuestión   se   analizaron   los   datos   cuantitativos   y   cualitativos   de   forma   separada   y   se   interpretaron  de  forma  conjunta.  en  primer  lugar,  se  halló  la  moda  de  los  ítems  de  la  escala  (véase  la  tabla  4   y   el   apéndice   c).   las  modas   indicaban   que   la  mayor   parte   de   los   docentes   estaban  de   acuerdo   con   que   el   procedimiento  suponía  una  ayuda  en   términos  generales   (ítem  1)  y  en  cuatro  de   las  siete  preguntas  de   las   tareas  (2.2,  2.4,  3.1  y  3.3).  también  se  observó  que  hubo  indecisión  en  dos  casos  (2.1  y  2.3)  y  que  en  el  ítem   3.2   la  valoración   fue  negativa.  no   se   contempló   la  posibilidad  de  preguntar  a   los  docentes  qué  parámetros   utilizaron  para  estimar  la  ayuda  de  las  preguntas.  cuanto  se  puede  decir  es  que  el  examen  de  los  ítems  peor   valorados  (2.1,  2.3  y  3.2)  permitió   identificar  dos  coincidencias:  medían   la  extracción  de  datos  concretos  y,   según  los  profesores,  eran  los  más  sencillos  (véanse  las  tablas  2  y  3).   en  segundo  lugar,  se  estimó  la  fiabilidad  de  la  escala  likert  (ítems  1,  2.1,  2.2,  2.3,  2.4,  3.1,  3.2  y  3.3).   para   ello   se   calcularon   las   correlaciones   elemento-­‐total   corregidas,   el   coeficiente   de   alfa   de   cronbach   y   el   coeficiente  de  alfa  de  cronbach  si  se  elimina  el  elemento  (véase  la  tabla  5).  todas  las  correlaciones  elemento-­‐ total  corregidas  eran  superiores  a   .3,  como  recomiendan  de  vaus  (2002)  y  pallant  (2011).  esto  sugería  que   los  ítems  estaban  bien  correlacionados  con  la  puntuación  global  de  la  escala.  la  fiabilidad  interna  de  la  escala   fue  α  =   .947.  de  acuerdo  con  cohen  et  al.  (2011),   los  valores  de  alfa  superiores  a   .9  indican  que  la  escala  es   muy   fiable.   por   último,   en   relación   con   la   columna   alfa   de   cronbach   si   se   elimina   el   elemento,   si   el   instrumento   es   fiable,   ningún   ítem   debe   reducir   de   forma   importante   el   alfa   (field,   2009).   todas   las   preguntas  contribuían  positivamente,  excepto  la  3.2  y  la  3.3,  que  tenían  un  ligero  impacto  negativo.  se  decidió   mantener  estos  elementos  porque  la   incidencia  en  el  alfa  era  mínima  y  porque  tanto   .947  como  .951  y   .957   eran  valores  óptimos.     tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20–39     29   a. cuando hay dos modas se muestran ambas.   tabla 5 análisis de fiabilidad de la escala. estadísticos total-elemento y alfa de cronbach media de la escala si se elimina el elemento varianza de la escala si se elimina el elemento correlación elementototal corregida alfa de cronbach si se elimina el elemento ítem 1 16.80 13.200 .892 .937 ítem 2.1 17.60 11.300 .947 .929 ítem 2.2 16.80 13.200 .892 .937 ítem 2.3 17.60 11.300 .947 .929 ítem 2.4 16.80 13.200 .892 .937 ítem 3.1 16.80 13.200 .892 .937 ítem 3.2 17.80 11.700 .681 .957 ítem 3.3 17.00 13.500 .621 .951 nota: alfa de cronbach de los 8 ítems = .947   tabla 6 estadísticos descriptivos de la escala n válidos mínimo máximo media desviación típica asimetría error típico asimetría curtosis error típico curtosis escala 5 13 24 19.60 4.037 -1.263 .913 2.709 2.000   en  tercer  lugar,  se  calcularon  los  descriptivos  de  la  escala  (véase  la  tabla  6).  las  puntuaciones  podían   oscilar  entre  ocho  y  veinticuatro.  ocho  era  el  resultado  de  responder  “en  desacuerdo”  a  todas  las  preguntas  y   veinticuatro  se  obtenía  contestando  siempre  “de  acuerdo”.  el  elevado  valor  de  la  media  (19.60)  revelaba  que,   globalmente,  los  docentes  estaban  bastante  de  acuerdo  con  que  las  preguntas  sobreimpresas  ayudaban  a  los   estudiantes.   la   desviación   típica   era   relativamente   pequeña   (4.037)   en   comparación   con   la   media,   y   esto   indicaba   que   el   valor   del   promedio   aritmético   era   representativo   de   los   resultados.   el   hecho   de   que   el   estadístico   de   asimetría   fuera   negativo   sugería   que   las   puntuaciones   de   los   docentes   se   acumulaban   en   la   parte   derecha   de   la   distribución.   con   el   fin   de   interpretar   el   estadístico   de   asimetría   lo   estandarizamos   dividiéndolo  por  su  error  típico.  se  obtuvo  -­‐1.383.  de  acuerdo  con  rial  boubeta  y  varela  mallou  (2008,  p.  48),   cuando  los  valores  están  comprendidos  entre  ±1.96  no  hay  diferencias  estadísticamente  significativas  entre  la   distribución  y  una  distribución  simétrica.  el  estadístico  de  curtosis  era  positivo,  lo  que  apuntaba  a  que  existía   una  tendencia  leptocúrtica,  es  decir,  que  había  una  proporción  considerable  de  casos  en  la  zona  central.  con   la   finalidad  de   interpretar  el  estadístico  de  asimetría   lo  estandarizamos  dividiéndolo  por  su  error  típico.   se   obtuvo   1.35.   según   rial   boubeta   y   varela   mallou   (2008,   p.   50),   la   distribución   se   considera   mesocúrtica   cuando  los  valores  están  comprendidos  entre  ±1.96.       tabla 4 moda de los ítems de la escala (apéndice c) n válidos n perdidos modaa ítem 1 5 0 de acuerdo ítem 2.1 5 0 ni de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo ítem 2.2 5 0 de acuerdo ítem 2.3 5 0 ni de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo ítem 2.4 5 0 de acuerdo ítem 3.1 5 0 de acuerdo ítem 3.2 5 0 en desacuerdo / ni de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo ítem 3.3 5 0 de acuerdo casañ  núñez   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20-­‐39   30     en  cuarto  lugar,  se  analizaron  los  datos  cualitativos.  cabe  añadir  que  las  respuestas  fueron  escasas  en   los  ítems  1.1,  2.5  y  3.4  y  abundantes  en  el  6.  los  comentarios  indicaban  que  los  docentes  consideraban  que  las   preguntas  sobreimpresas   representaban  una  ayuda  para   los  estudiantes  y,   al  mismo   tiempo,  precisaban  en   qué  consistía  tal  ayuda.  tres  docentes  especificaron  que  ayudaban  a  focalizar  la  atención  (“ayudan  a  fijar   la   atención”,  “te  concentras  más  en  la  pregunta  formulada  y  no  tanto  en  el  contexto  general”,  “a  mí  mismo  me   han  ayudado  las  preguntas  porque  al  tener  imágenes  uno  se  deja  llevar  más  por  lo  que  ve  y  se  desconcentra   un   poco   del   contenido   y   de   las   preguntas”)   y   un   cuarto   que   facilitaban   continuar   la   actividad   en   caso   de   perder   la   concentración   (“creo   que   si   te   despistas   por   cualquier   motivo,   con   las   preguntas   en   subtítulos   vuelves  a  coger  el  hilo”).  en  los  comentarios  orales  finales  se  repitió  la  idea  de  que  los  subtítulos  ayudaban.     por  último,  se  interpretaron  de  forma  conjunta  los  datos  cuantitativos  y  cualitativos.  se  observaba  un   alto  grado  de  convergencia  entre  la  información  cuantitativa  y  cualitativa.  la  elevada  media  de  la  escala  (m  =   19.60  sobre  24,  de  =  4.037)  sugería  que,  globalmente,  los  docentes  estaban  de  acuerdo  con  que  las  preguntas   sobreimpresas  ayudaban  a  los  estudiantes.  los  comentarios  orales  y  escritos  de  los  docentes  reforzaban  esta   idea  y,  además,  precisaban  en  qué  consistía  la  ayuda.   el   segundo   objetivo   de   la   investigación   era   averiguar   si   había   acuerdo   entre   los   docentes   en   la   valoración  de  las  preguntas  sobreimpresas.  el  coeficiente  de  concordancia  de  kendall  o  w  de  kendall  es  una   medida  de  acuerdo  entre  variables  cuantitativas  o  semicuantitativas  que  evalúan  un  conjunto  de  objetos  de   interés  (legendre,  2010,  p.  164).  en  este  trabajo  se  utilizó  para  estimar  el  grado  de  acuerdo  de  los  profesores   en   las   respuestas   a   los   ítems   que   formaban   la   escala   likert   (preguntas   1,   2.1,   2.2,   2.3,   2.4,   3.1,   3.2   y   3.3).   recordemos  que  con  estos  ítems  se  pretendía  conocer  si  los  docentes  consideraban  que  la  integración  de  las   preguntas  en  el  vídeo  ayudaba  a  los  estudiantes.  la  hipótesis  nula  es  la  independencia  de  las  clasificaciones   de  todos  los  informantes  y  la  hipótesis  alternativa  consiste  en  que  al  menos  un  docente  está  de  acuerdo  con   otro  u  otros  profesores.  el  valor  p  exacto  fue  <  .001  (véase  la  tabla  7).  esto  indicaba  que  se  podía  rechazar  la   hipótesis  nula  y  aceptar  la  hipótesis  alternativa.  la  w  de  kendall  tiene  un  rango  de  cero  (no  hay  acuerdo)  a   uno  (acuerdo  total),  y  los  valores  intermedios  indican  mayor  o  menor  grado  de  acuerdo  según  su  proximidad   al  uno  o  al  cero.  en  nuestro  caso,  la  w  de  kendall  fue  .725  y,  por  tanto,  sugería  un  grado  de  acuerdo  bastante   alto  entre  los  docentes.     tabla 7 estadísticos de contraste de la w de kendall n 5 w de kendalla .725 chi-cuadrado 25.364 gl 7 sig. asintót. .001 sig. exacta .000 probabilidad en el punto .000 a. coeficiente de concordancia de kendall     el  tercer  propósito  del  estudio  era  saber  si  los  docentes  sabían  usar  algún  programa  de  subtitulación   o  si  estarían  dispuestos  a  aprender  a  utilizar  uno  gratuito  para  sus  clases  de  e/le.  tres  profesores  declararon   que  no  sabían  subtitular  y  dos  que  tenían  pocos  conocimientos.  este  hecho  limitaba  que  pudieran  elaborar  de   forma   autónoma   actividades   de   comprensión   audiovisual   con   preguntas   sobreimpresas   u   otros  materiales   didácticos   en   los   que   fuera   necesario   editar   el   vídeo   (véase   talaván,   2013).   no   obstante,   todos   estarían   dispuestos   a   aprender   a   utilizar   una   herramienta   gratuita   para   sus   clases   de   e/le.   esta   última   idea   fue   repetida  por  los  docentes  en  los  comentarios  orales.     el   cuarto   objetivo   de   investigación   era   conocer   si   los   docentes   emplearían   materiales   para   la   enseñanza  del  e/le  que  utilizaran  esta  técnica.  el  80%  de  los  docentes  manifestó  que  los  usaría  y  el  20%  que   no   estaba   seguro.   esto   podía   relacionarse   con   la   primera   pregunta   del   estudio.   si   los   resultados   se   interpretaban  como  un  indicio  de  que  los  profesores  valoraban  el  procedimiento  de  forma  positiva,  se  podía   considerar  que  fortalecían  la  conclusión  de  la  primera  pregunta  de  investigación.       tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20–39     31     ¿para  qué  nivel  era  adecuado  el  procedimiento?  responder  a  esta  cuestión  no  estaba  contemplado   inicialmente.   no   obstante,   el   tema   fue   tratado   por   los   docentes   en   los   ítems   de   respuesta   abierta   y   en   los   comentarios  orales,  y  por  su  interés,  se  consideró  pertinente  dedicarle  un  espacio  específico.  la  mayoría  de   los   profesores  manifestó   que   la   técnica   era   apropiada   para   niveles   iniciales   (“creo   que   en   niveles   iniciales   sería  otra  forma  de  ayudar  a  los  estudiantes  en  la  comprensión”,  “puede  estar  bien  para  niveles  bajos”,  “me   parece   muy   buena   idea   sobre   todo   para   niveles   como   un   final   de   a1   o   a2”).   dos   docentes   también   mencionaron   la   posibilidad   de   una   utilización   esporádica   en   otros   niveles   (“para   estudiantes   de   niveles   superiores  no  estoy  seguro  de  si  yo  lo  utilizaría  o  no.  tal  vez  ocasionalmente  sí,  dependiendo  de  la  dificultad   del  material  audiovisual  con  el  que  trabajemos”,   “quizás  no  tanto  para  b1  o  b2,  aunque  siempre  viene  bien   alternar  la  metodología”),  mientras  que  otro  participante  no  lo  emplearía  en  niveles  altos  (“para  un  nivel  alto,   este   tipo  de   ayudas  deberían   ser   prescindibles,   ya   que   los   estudiantes   tendrían  que   ser   lo   suficientemente   autónomos  como  para  no  necesitarlas”).  en  los  comentarios  orales  se  insistió  en  que  era  más  adecuado  para   niveles  iniciales.     el  último  objetivo  de  investigación  consistía  en  comparar  las  opiniones  de  los  profesores  de  e/le  con   las  de  un  grupo  de  expertos  que  había  participado  en  otro  estudio  (véase  casañ  núñez,  2015a).  en  ese  trabajo   se  pidió  a  seis  expertos  que  valoraron  la  primera  versión  de  un  marco  teórico  que  describía  la  integración  de   preguntas  de  comprensión  en  la  imagen  del  texto  audiovisual  en  forma  de  subtítulos.  para  ello,  se  emplearon   tres   instrumentos:  dos  vídeos  y  un  cuestionario.  la  primera  grabación  mostraba  a  un  grupo  de  estudiantes   adultos  completando  una  actividad  de  comprensión  audiovisual  y  tenía   la  función  de  ilustrar  el  conflicto  de   atención   visual   entre   completar   una   tarea   y   observar   un   vídeo   al   mismo   tiempo.   la   segunda   grabación   ejemplificaba   la   técnica   docente   en   una   secuencia   cinematográfica   para   estudiantes   de   e/le   adultos.   el   cuestionario  fue  el  instrumento  de  recogida  de  datos  y  estaba  formado  mayoritariamente  por  ítems  likert  de   cinco  puntos  (1  =  muy  en  desacuerdo,  2  =  en  desacuerdo,  3  =  ni  de  acuerdo  ni  en  desacuerdo,  4  =  de  acuerdo,   5  =  muy  de  acuerdo)  y  preguntas  abiertas.     las  respuestas  cuantitativas  y  cualitativas  sugirieron  que  los  especialistas  estaban  de  acuerdo  con  la   mayor  parte  de   los  planteamientos  del  marco  teórico  y,  al  mismo  tiempo,  revelaron  puntos  susceptibles  de   mejora.  la  consideración  de  las  valoraciones  de  los  expertos  llevó  a  la  reformulación  de  la  propuesta  inicial.   existían   claras   diferencias   entre   el   estudio   con   expertos   y   el   estudio   con   profesores:   en   el   primer   caso   se   valoraba   un   marco   teórico   y   en   el   segundo   una   aplicación   del   marco   en   dos   tareas   en   una   situación   determinada.  esto  limitaba  tanto  las  posibles  comparaciones  como  su  alcance.  no  obstante,  no  dejaba  de  ser   relevante  conocer  si  se  apreciaban  similitudes  o  diferencias  en  alguna  área.     el  análisis  de  los  datos  no  llevó  a  la  identificación  de  discrepancias  entre  las  opiniones  de  profesores   y   expertos,   sino   que   se   identificaron   tres   aspectos   en   los   que   había   coincidencias.   en   primer   lugar,   globalmente,   las   valoraciones   de   los   expertos   y   los   profesores   eran   positivas.   los   profesores   estaban   de   acuerdo  con  que  las  preguntas  sobreimpresas  representaban  una  ayuda  para  estudiantes  adultos  de  e/le  y   especificaron  dos  de  sus  posibles  beneficios.  por  su  parte,  los  expertos  estaban  de  acuerdo  o  muy  de  acuerdo   con  que  el  procedimiento  podía  ser  útil  para  la  enseñanza  de  la  comprensión  auditiva/audiovisual  y  con  que   podría  aportar  varios  beneficios,  entre  ellos,  que  podía  reducir  el  conflicto  de  atención  al  presentar  dentro  del   mismo  campo  visual  el  vídeo  y  la  pregunta,  y  que  podía  favorecer  que  los  estudiantes  prestasen  atención  al   vídeo  durante  más  tiempo  en  comparación  con  visionados  que  presentaran   las  preguntas  solo  en  papel.  en   segundo  lugar,  había  similitudes  en  relación  con  algunos  de  los  posibles  beneficios  de  la  técnica,  puesto  que   tanto   los   profesores   como   los   expertos   consideraban   que   las   sobreimpresiones   ayudaban   a   focalizar   la   atención  y  que  facilitaban  continuar  la  actividad  a  partir  de  la  siguiente  pregunta  en  pantalla.  en  tercer  lugar,   existía  un  alto  grado  de  conformidad  respecto  a  los  niveles  para  los  que  era  más  apropiada  esta  metodología.   la  mayoría   de   los   docentes   expresó   que   era  más   adecuado   para   niveles   iniciales   y   esto   coincidía   con   las   opiniones  de  algunos  expertos  y  lo  señalado  en  el  marco  teórico  (“se  estima  especialmente  beneficioso  para   estudiantes  de  niveles  bajos.  asimismo,  a  priori  se  considera  que  esta  técnica  constituye  una  ‘ayuda  extra’  y   que  paulatinamente  debería  abandonarse  su  uso”,  casañ  núñez,  2015a,  p.  31).     5.  conclusiones     en  este  estudio  mixto  de  tipo  convergente  (creswell,  2014)  cinco  profesores  de  e/le  del  centro  de   idiomas   de   la   universidad   de   valencia   expresaron   su   opinión   sobre   una  metodología   novedosa:   el   uso   de   preguntas   de   comprensión   audiovisual   integradas   en   el   vídeo   como   subtítulos,   y   sincronizadas   con   los   fragmentos  relevantes.  los  datos  cuantitativos  muestran  que  la  valoración  global  de  los  docentes  es  que  las   preguntas  sobreimpresas  ayudan  a   los  estudiantes,  por  un   lado,  y  que  existe  un  grado  de  acuerdo  bastante   casañ  núñez   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20-­‐39   32   alto   entre   los  profesores   (w   =   .725,  p   exacto  <   .001),   por  otro.   los   resultados   extraídos  del   análisis   de   los   comentarios   orales   y   escritos   convergen   con   los   resultados   del   análisis   cuantitativo   y,   al   mismo   tiempo,   precisan  en  qué  consiste  la  ventaja  para  los  estudiantes  y  para  qué  niveles  es  apropiado  el  procedimiento.  en   relación   con   el   primer   aspecto,   los   docentes  manifiestan   que   este   tipo   de   preguntas   ayudan   a   focalizar   la   atención  en  los  momentos  relevantes  del  vídeo  y  a  continuar  la  tarea  si  se  pierde  la  concentración.  en  cuanto   al   nivel,   la   mayor   parte   de   los   docentes   considera   que   esta   técnica   sería   apropiada   para   estudiantes   principiantes.   este   trabajo   tiene   algunas   implicaciones   para   la   didáctica   y   evaluación   de   la   comprensión   auditiva/audiovisual.  las  valoraciones  y  comentarios  de  los  profesores  de  e/le  son  coherentes  con  algunos   principios  de  corte  teórico  en  los  que  se  sustenta  esta  técnica  y  con  las  opiniones  de  un  grupo  de  expertos  que   valoró  la  primera  versión  del  marco  teórico  (véase  casañ  núñez,  2015a).  a  pesar  de  la  falta  de  otros  estudios   que  apliquen  y  valoren  esta  técnica,  es  posible  comparar  los  datos  obtenidos  del  análisis  de  las  opiniones  de   los   docentes   con   los   datos   de   un   estudio   preliminar   llevado   a   cabo   con   catorce   estudiantes   de   e/le   universitarios   (casañ   núñez,   en   prensa).   al   igual   que   los   docentes,   los   aprendientes   consideran   que   este   procedimiento   los   ayudó   y   de   sus   apreciaciones   se   puede   derivar   que   las   preguntas   sobreimpresas   contribuyen  a  focalizar  su  atención  en  los  momentos  pertinentes  y  a  minimizar  el  conflicto  de  atención  entre   observar  el  vídeo  y  completar  la  tarea.   cabe  reconocer  que  el  estudio  presenta  varias  limitaciones.  en  primer  lugar,  el  número  de  profesores   de   e/le   que   participaron   fue  muy   reducido   y   todos   impartían   clase   en   la  misma   institución.   por   ello,   sus   valoraciones   no   pueden   generalizarse   a   toda   la   población   docente.   en   investigaciones   futuras   se   debería   contar   con   un  mayor   número   de   informantes   procedentes   de   varios   contextos   de   enseñanza.   en   segundo   lugar,  los  textos  empleados  para  ejemplificar  la  técnica  eran  muy  breves  (dos  secuencias  cinematográficas)  y   ambos  tenían  el  mismo  ámbito  de  uso  de  la  lengua  meta.  sería  conveniente  conocer  la  opinión  de  los  docentes   cuando   las  preguntas   sobreimpresas   aparecen  en   textos  de  distinta   tipología,   ámbito  y  duración.  en   tercer   lugar,   la   técnica   de   presentación   de   las   preguntas   se   valoró   en   una   situación   controlada   y   artificial   (sin   estudiantes)   que   se   asemejaba   a   una   prueba   de   evaluación.   en   trabajos   futuros   se   podría   investigar   qué   opinan  los  profesores  de  l2/le  sobre  esta  técnica  cuando  se  emplea  en  una  situación  de  clase.     finalmente,  este  estudio  abre  una  importante  línea  de  investigación  futura  encaminada  a  averiguar  si   esta  técnica  de  presentación  de  las  preguntas  tiene  algún  impacto  en  la  comprensión  y  en  la  conducta  visual   de   los   estudiantes   de   lenguas   extranjeras.   para   ello,   se   propone   efectuar   estudios   cuasiexperimentales   o   experimentales  en  los  que  se  administre  un  test  de  comprensión  audiovisual  con  dos  variantes:  una  con 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test-­‐taker   viewing   behavior   during   an   l2   video   listening   test.   language   learning   and   technology,   11(1),   67-­‐86.   disponible   en   http://llt.msu.edu   /vol11num1/pdf/wagner.pdf   wagner,  elvis  (2010a).  the  effect  of  the  use  of  video  texts  on  esl  listening  test-­‐taker  performance.  language   testing,  27(4),  493–513.  doi:10.1177/0265532209355668   wagner,  elvis   (2010b).  test-­‐takers’   interaction  with  an  l2  video   listening   test.  system,  38(2),  280-­‐291.  doi:   10.1016/j.system.2010.01.003   wagner,   elvis   (2013).   an   investigation   of   how   the   channel   of   input   and   access   to   test   questions   affect   l2   listening   test   performance.   language   assessment   quarterly,   10(2),   178–195.   doi:10.1080/15434303.2013.769552   york,  erlend  urkedal  (2016).  effects  from  using  subtitled  audiovisual  material  in  second  language  acquisition.   an   experimental   study   in   a   second   language   learning   classroom   in   norway.   (memoria   de   máster).   universidad   noruega   de   ciencia   y   tecnología,   trondheim,   noruega.   disponible   en   https://www.ntnu.edu/documents/1535402/35615794/the+master+-­‐+ready+for+print2.pdf/   e0847e77-­‐2019-­‐4de6-­‐936d-­‐2fd097820384                                                   casañ  núñez   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20-­‐39   36   apéndice  a     tarea 1. escucha y observa el vídeo. en las preguntas de elección múltiple solo una opción es correcta. 1. ¿cómo se llama la chica? £ a) vanesa £ b) violeta £ c) verónica £ d) virginia 2. ¿de qué hablan? £ a) la familia y los estudios de la chica £ b) la familia y el trabajo de la chica £ c) la casa y el trabajo de la chica £ d) la casa y los estudios de la chica 3. ¿cuál es el teléfono de la chica? 4. considerando todo el fragmento, ¿qué sentimientos puede tener el chico por la chica? justifica brevemente la respuesta. puedes responder en español, [en…] [también se mencionan las lenguas de los informantes conocidas por el investigador o por personas que puedan ayudarlo] tarea 2. escucha y observa el vídeo. en las preguntas de elección múltiple solo una opción es correcta. 1. ¿de qué temas habla el chico pelirrojo? £ a) del tiempo atmosférico y de una antigua novia. £ b) del tiempo atmosférico y de pintura. £ c) de pintura y de su aspecto físico. £ d) de su aspecto físico y de una antigua novia. 2. ¿cómo se llama la chica? £ a) marina £ b) maría £ c) margarita £ d) maite 3. considerando todo el fragmento, ¿qué sentimientos puede tener el chico pelirrojo por la chica? justifica brevemente la respuesta. puedes responder en español, [en…] [también se mencionan las lenguas de los informantes conocidas por el investigador o por personas que puedan ayudarlo]     tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20–39     37   apéndice  b     preguntas de comprensión audiovisual integradas en el vídeo: la opinión del profesor el presente cuestionario tiene por finalidad conocer su opinión sobre el uso de preguntas de comprensión audiovisual integradas en el vídeo en forma de subtítulos, y sincronizadas con los fragmentos relevantes para responderlas. las respuestas que proporcione son confidenciales y solo se utilizarán con fines académicos. le agradezco su colaboración, le mantendré informado sobre los resultados de la investigación. 1. en general, ¿en qué medida está de acuerdo con que las preguntas sobreimpresas ayudan a los estudiantes? señale la respuesta con un círculo. a) de acuerdo b) ni de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo c) en desacuerdo secuencia de ópera prima 2. ¿en qué medida está de acuerdo con que las preguntas sobreimpresas ayudan a los estudiantes? complete la tabla poniendo equis. de acuerdo ni de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo en desacuerdo 2.1. ¿cómo se llama la chica? 2.2. ¿de qué hablan? 2.3. ¿cuál es el teléfono de la chica? 2.4. ¿qué sentimientos puede tener el chico por la chica? secuencia de los peores años de nuestra vida 3. ¿en qué medida está de acuerdo con que las preguntas sobreimpresas ayudan a los estudiantes? complete la tabla poniendo equis. de acuerdo ni de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo en desacuerdo 3.1. ¿de qué temas habla el chico pelirrojo? 3.2. ¿cómo se llama la chica? 3.3. ¿qué sentimientos puede tener el chico pelirrojo por la chica? 4. a continuación tiene un espacio en el que puede comentar cualquier aspecto sobre las preguntas en la imagen.       casañ  núñez   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20-­‐39   38   apéndice  c     preguntas de comprensión audiovisual integradas en el vídeo: la opinión del profesor el presente cuestionario tiene por finalidad conocer la opinión del profesor de e/le sobre el uso de preguntas de comprensión audiovisual integradas en el vídeo en forma de subtítulos y sincronizadas con los fragmentos relevantes para responderlas en una situación concreta: con la proyección del vídeo en una pantalla común una sola vez, con los materiales de la actividad en papel, y sin pausas durante la emisión del vídeo. no existen respuestas correctas ni incorrectas. la información que proporcione se tratará de forma confidencial y solo se utilizará con fines académicos. le agradezco su colaboración, le mantendré informado sobre los resultados de la investigación. 1. sobre la base de la descripción del procedimiento y su ejemplificación, en general, ¿en qué medida está de acuerdo con que las preguntas sobreimpresas ayudan a los estudiantes? señale la respuesta con un círculo. a) de acuerdo b) ni de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo c) en desacuerdo 1.1. a continuación dispone de un espacio para hacer comentarios. 2. en la secuencia de ópera prima, ¿en qué medida está de acuerdo con que las preguntas sobreimpresas ayudan a los estudiantes? complete la tabla poniendo equis. de acuerdo ni de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo en desacuerdo 2.1. ¿cómo se llama la chica? 2.2. ¿de qué hablan? 2.3. ¿cuál es el teléfono de la chica? 2.4. ¿qué sentimientos puede tener el chico por la chica? 2.5. a continuación dispone de un espacio para hacer comentarios. 3. en la secuencia de los peores años de nuestra vida, ¿en qué medida está de acuerdo con que las preguntas sobreimpresas ayudan a los estudiantes? complete la tabla poniendo equis. de acuerdo ni de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo en desacuerdo 3.1. ¿de qué temas habla el chico pelirrojo? 3.2. ¿cómo se llama la chica? 3.3. ¿qué sentimientos puede tener el chico pelirrojo por la chica? 3.4. a continuación dispone de un espacio para hacer comentarios. 4. ¿sabe utilizar algún programa de subtitulación? señale la respuesta con un círculo. 1) no 2) mal 3) regular 4) bien 4.1. si no tiene formación en este campo, ¿estaría dispuesto a aprender a usar un programa gratuito de subtitulación para sus clases de ele? señale la respuesta con un círculo. 1) no 2) no estoy seguro 3) sí 5. si hubiera materiales disponibles para la enseñanza del ele que incorporaran las preguntas de comprensión en forma de subtítulos, ¿los utilizaría? señale la respuesta con un círculo. 1) no 2) no estoy seguro 3) sí 6. a continuación puede comentar cualquier aspecto sobre la integración de las preguntas en la imagen. tareas  de  comprensión  audiovisual   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  20–39     39   agradecimientos   deseo   expresar  mi   gratitud   a   las   personas   que  participaron   en   la   investigación:   a   los   tres   expertos   y   a   los   cinco  profesores  de  e/le.  asimismo,  quiero  dar  las  gracias  a  charles  zaiontz  (www.real-­‐statistics.com)  por  la   aclaración  de  una  duda  sobre  la  w  de  kendall.  por  último,  agradezco  al  comité  editorial  de  e-­‐journall  y  a  los   revisores  anónimos  el  minucioso  trabajo  de  revisión  y  los  valiosos  comentarios  para  mejorar  el  manuscrito.   la   investigación   fue   apoyada   por   el   programa   “becas   iberoamérica.   jóvenes   profesores   e   investigadores.   santander  universidades”.  este  artículo  está  dedicado  a  mi  padre.     juan carlos casañ núñez, universitat politècnica de valència juancarloscasan@protonmail.com es juan carlos casañ núñez es estudiante de doctorado de último año en el programa en lenguas y tecnología del departamento de lingüística aplicada de la universitat politècnica de valència (españa). sus intereses de investigación son la enseñanza/aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras, la comprensión auditiva/audiovisual, la metodología de la investigación y la sociolingüística. ha desarrollado su labor profesional en las áreas de la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera y de la educación en españa, estados unidos, francia, polonia y portugal. en juan carlos casañ núñez  is currently completing the last year of his ph.d. in language and technology in the department of applied linguistics at the universitat politècnica de valència (spain). his research interests lie in foreign language learning and acquisition, listening/audiovisual comprehension, research methodology, and sociolinguistics. he has professional training in teaching spanish as a foreign language and in education (developed in spain, the usa, france, poland, and portugal). it juan carlos casañ núñez frequenta l’ultimo anno del programma di dottorato in lingue e tecnologia del dipartimento di linguistica applicata all’universtitat politècnica di valencia (spagna). gli ambiti della sua ricerca sono l’insegnamento/apprendimento delle lingue straniere, la comprensione audiovisiva, la metodologia della ricerca e la sociolinguistica. la sua formazione professionale riguarda l’insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua straniera e l’istruzione in spagna, stati uniti, francia, polonia e portogallo. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 125-130 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.161 www.e-journall.org © carbonara 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. mazzaferro, gerardo (ed.). (2018). translanguaging as everyday practice. cham, switzerland: springer. valentina carbonara*1 università per stranieri di siena book review received 5 december 2018; accepted 7 december 2018 abstract it in questo contributo viene proposta la recensione del testo translanguaging as everyday practice, curato da gerardo mazzaferro (università degli studi di torino) e pubblicato nel 2018 dall’editore springer. il libro propone 14 studi che, attraverso approcci metodologici diversi, offrono una profonda analisi del concetto di translanguaging in molteplici contesti. questa nozione viene esaminata, per esempio, nell’intersezione con fenomeni più ampi quali la costruzione identitaria nelle comunità immigrate o minoritarie, il mantenimento e l’erosione linguistica, l’agency dei singoli soggetti nei contesti educativi. in questa recensione, dopo una breve introduzione sugli obiettivi del testo e sul tipo di audience a cui si rivolge, vengono presentati i contenuti dei singoli capitoli e infine si mettono in luce gli aspetti rilevanti e di pregio del testo, accanto ad alcune lievi criticità che non sottraggono valore a questo ottimo libro. parole chiave: translanguaging, plurilinguismo, migrazione, identità, ricerca qualitativa en this manuscript reviews translanguaging as everyday practice, edited by gerardo mazzaferro (università degli studi di torino) and published in 2018 by springer. the book contains 14 studies, drawing on different methodological approaches and implemented in multiple contexts, that contribute to a rich analysis of translanguaging. the concept of translanguaging is explored at the intersection of broader discussions, such as identity construction in immigrant or minority communities, language maintenance and loss, and individual agency in educational contexts. in this review, following a brief overview of the book’s objectives and intended audience, the contents of the individual chapters are presented with commentary on noteworthy and valuable contributions as well as minor critiques, which do not detract from the value of this excellent volume. key words: translanguaging, plurilingualism, migration, identity, qualitative research es este trabajo presenta la recensión del libro translanguaging as everyday practice, editado por gerardo mazzaferro (università degli studi di torino) y publicado en 2018 por la editorial springer. incluye 14 estudios que, a través de diversos acercamientos metodológicos, ofrecen un profundo análisis del concepto de translanguaging en múltiples contextos. la noción de translanguaging se examina en la intersección con fenómenos más amplios como, por ejemplo, la construcción identitaria en las comunidades migrantes o minoritarias, el mantenimiento y la pérdida de la lengua y la agencia individual en contextos educativos. en esta recensión, después de una breve presentación de los objetivos del texto y el público al que se dirige, se presenta el contenido de cada capítulo y, por último, se resaltan los aspectos relevantes y valiosos del texto, junto con unas críticas que, sin embargo, no le quitan mérito a esta admirable obra. palabras clave: translanguaging, plurilingüismo, migración, identidad, investigación cualitativa 1. un approccio multidisciplinare il libro translanguaging as everyday practice, a cura di gerardo mazzaferro ed edito da springer nel 2018, presenta una raccolta di 14 saggi di carattere multidisciplinare che ruotano intorno al complesso *contact: carbonara@unistrasi.it http://www.e-journall.org/ carbonara e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 125-130 126 concetto di translanguaging (garcía & li wei, 2014). l’obiettivo del testo è quello di approfondire il concetto di translanguaging in una prospettiva di ricerca multifocale, rileggendo fenomeni identitari e linguistici della società contemporanea globale e post-moderna attraverso la lente prismatica delle pratiche translinguistiche. il volume si rivolge principalmente al settore accademico e può costituire una guida per dottorandi e giovani ricercatori che si apprestano a studiare il translanguaging in diversi contesti, poiché i saggi presenti offrono una estesa varietà di approcci metodologici. a livello didattico, il libro può essere utile anche a docenti della scuola primaria e secondaria già sensibili e formati su queste tematiche. il testo, infatti, condensa numerose prospettive teoriche e, seppur marginalmente, anche didattiche, che possono essere comprese principalmente da insegnanti già consapevoli delle implicazioni della pedagogia del translanguaging. 2. contenuti dei singoli capitoli il primo capitolo, “translanguaging as everyday practice: an introduction”, a firma del curatore del volume, gerardo mazzaferro, si pone come presentazione dell’opera e dei suoi contenuti, fornendo indicazioni sulla chiave di lettura interdisciplinare del libro. questo saggio, però, presenta anche una attenta e profonda disamina del concetto di translanguaging, ripercorrendo la nascita del termine e le tappe del suo sviluppo epistemologico, tra teoria linguistica e pratica didattica. mazzaferro pone la definizione del termine nella cornice più ampia del dibattito relativo alle named languages (makoni & pennycook, 2007). l’autore, inoltre, non trascura di menzionare la componente ideologica insita nel concetto di translanguaging, che implica l’idea di inversione dei rapporti di potere nell’attuale epoca neoliberale, tramite azioni di human agency (li wei, 2011). mazzaferro, infine, per contestualizzare il titolo del libro, offre anche una spiegazione dell’idea di translanguaging as everyday practices, sottraendo questo termine all’ambito dell’eccezionale e non ordinario, ma attribuendogli, invece, il ruolo di normale pratica comunicativa non marcata nell’interazione in contesti multilingui. il secondo capitolo “translanguaging in a monoglot context: children mobilising and (re)positioning their multilingual repertoires as resources for learning”, scritto da pinky makoe, presenta uno studio etnografico svoltosi in una scuola primaria pubblica di johannesburg durante un periodo di quattro mesi. lo scopo della ricerca consisteva nel confrontare la politica linguistica della scuola, tendenzialmente monolingue, con le strategie comunicative plurilingui degli studenti. dalle interviste condotte con le docenti, emerge una concezione fortemente monologica del contesto educativo, incentrato sull’inglese, mentre le lingue di origine degli studenti sono percepite come un problema. estratti di conversazioni avvenute in classe evidenziano l’insistenza dei docenti riguardo l’uso dell’inglese, ma al contempo episodi di translanguaging fra gli studenti che coinvolgono le loro lingue di origine nella co-costruzione della conoscenza e per rafforzare la comprensione. l’autrice del capitolo conclude con una riflessione riguardante l’importanza della legittimazione di pratiche interazionali multilingui nella scuola per supportare il processo di apprendimento. il terzo saggio, “translanguaging as playful subversion of a monolingual norm in the classroom”, di teppo jakonen, tamás péter szabó e petteri laihonen, descrive un caso di studio svoltosi in finlandia all’interno di una classe con metodo clil (content and language integrated learning) di lingua inglese. gli autori si focalizzano sull’interazione ibrida di uno studente come reazione alla normatività monolingue in l2 imposta dalla docente e presentano alcuni estratti di scambi comunicativi in momenti di transizione della lezione clil. l’analisi è condotta su estratti di interazione con la docente o fra studenti e mostra come il bambino oggetto di studio utilizzi la l1 o formule miste assimilabili a translanguaging per violare volontariamente l’ideologia della separazione fra lingue. il contributo si conclude con una riflessione di natura pedagogica sull’utilizzo di forme di translanguaging a seconda dei diversi contesti educativi, come la lezione clil. il capitolo 4, “we know the same language and then we can mix them: a child’s perspectives on everyday translanguaging in the family”, i cui autori sono bethanne paulsrud e boglárka straszer, presenta una ricerca incentrata sull’analisi delle dinamiche di politica linguistica di una famiglia multilingue in svezia, con un focus specifico su una delle figlie. le autrici, dopo una attenta e completa literature review, espongono dati triangolati composti da interviste, annotazioni e registrazioni di interazioni raccolte dai genitori e dalle ricercatrici. l’analisi mostra come il soggetto della ricerca, laura, sia consapevole del suo repertorio linguistico di named (svedese, finlandese, ungherese e tedesco) e non named languages (lingue di gioco e baby talk), ma anche del repertorio linguistico degli altri membri della famiglia. la bambina mostra una forte inclinazione all’uso di pratiche di translanguaging, il cui livello di mixing e le combinazioni di lingue coinvolte variano a seconda dell’interlocutore, del luogo e dello scopo dell’interazione. le autrici indagano anche la recensione: translanguaging as everyday practice e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 125-130 127 componente di consapevolezza metalinguistica e offrono una riflessione finale sulle gerarchie linguistiche dentro e fuori dal nucleo familiare e come l’agency di laura può riscrivere o meno tali categorizzazioni. il quinto contributo, “translanguaging in a birmingham chinese complementary school: ideology and identity” di jim huang, illustra uno studio longitudinale svoltosi in una scuola di lingua cinese di birmingham per studenti con background migratorio sinofono. i dati raccolti in un periodo di dieci mesi (osservazioni partecipate, annotazioni, interviste di stampo narrativo, informazioni di tipo documentaristico e fotografie) e analizzati attraverso la metodologia della critical-informed ethnographic discourse analysis, hanno messo in luce diversi atteggiamenti rispetto all’idea di translanguaging. i docenti di origine cantonese, per esempio, manifestano un maggiore attaccamento ad una interazione didattica monolingue in cinese, mentre i docenti di madrelingua mandarina affermano l’importanza di usare anche l’inglese, dato evidenziato da conversazioni con mixing a livello inter e intra-frasale. questa differenza è dovuta principalmente a dinamiche sociali, migratorie e di appartenenza di classe dei due gruppi di insegnanti. l’autore approfondisce anche aspetti legati alla percezione identitaria del ruolo del docente e il discorso intorno alla chinese-ness, mettendo in evidenza la componente di negoziazione ideologica nell’uso o meno di pratiche di translanguaging. il saggio 6, “language maintenance and shift within new linguistic minorities in italy: a translanguaging perspective”, scritto dal curatore del volume, gerardo mazzaferro, presenta uno studio relativo alle pratiche comunicative della comunità filippina della città di torino. l’autore, dopo una attenta disamina dei concetti di language maintenance e language shift, analizza le percezioni valoriali di giovani filippini rispetto alla lingua italiana e alla lingua di origine, mettendole in relazione con il modellarsi della loro identità plurima in riferimento a episodi di translanguaging. l’aspetto più rilevante del contributo risulta nel mettere in evidenza le fluttuazioni culturali e linguistiche all’interno della comunità, non assimilabili ad una scelta univoca fra due identità monolitiche. in questo modo, lo studio si discosta da una visione lineare e unidirezionale dei processi di mantenimento ed erosione linguistica delle comunità immigrate, ma evidenzia gli aspetti di agency e di costruzione attiva e dinamica della propria identità linguistica e culturale da parte dei giovani filippini. il settimo contributo, “translanguaging: a vital resource for first nations peoples”, di donna starks, presenta dati su conversazioni fra adolescenti appartenenti alle popolazioni autoctone dell’odierno canada, le cosiddette first nations, raccolti negli anni 80. dopo alcune pagine di considerazioni teoriche sui concetti di lexical innovation, language attrition, language switching e translanguaging, l’autrice descrive il contesto etnico della ricerca, rappresentato dalle popolazioni native del canada e illustra alcuni scambi comunicativi fra giovani ragazzi appartenenti alla comunità cree. l'analisi evidenzia l'uso dell’inglese per colmare la mancanza di determinati termini in lingua cree, per chiarimenti in casi di lexical attrition, per esprimere emozioni tramite alcune formule di interiezione e in modalità di switching consapevole in precise strutture narrative nel racconto di uno dei partecipanti allo studio. forme ascrivibili a translanguaging vengono, invece, utilizzate in riferimento ad alcuni prestiti lessicali inglesi, a cui i parlanti aggiungono suffissi derivabili dalla lingua di origine per adattare i termini al contesto culturale cree. queste formule ibride, quindi, non sono semplicemente sostitutive o indice di erosione linguistica ma segno di riposizionamento identitario fra le due culture. il capitolo 8, “translanguaging and hybrid spaces: boundaries and beyond in north central arnhem land” di jill vaughan, esplora le interazioni linguistiche nella comunità indigena di maningrida, in australia, un’area con una notevole diversità linguistica. l’autrice presenta alcuni estratti audio-registrati durante momenti comunitari come la presentazione di un libro e una partita di calcio e, utilizzando una lente translinguistica e il framework concettuale dello spazio ibrido o third space (bhabba, 1994), offre delle riflessioni sulle scelte linguistiche adottate dai parlanti e sulle dinamiche socio-psicologiche del multilinguismo della regione. l’analisi dimostra un elevato livello di mixing tra inglese e lingua burarra secondo pattern flessibili e ristrutturabili a seconda dell’interazione, ma allo stesso tempo sedimentati da una pratica condivisa e rinegoziata all’interno della comunità. l’autrice assimila questo genere di scambi comunicativi all’emergere in una “multilingua franca” (makoni & pennycook, 2012), ma con una specifica contestuale. il capitolo 9 “translinguistic practices in global business. a longitudinal study of a professional communicative repertoire”, scritto da tiina räisänen, si focalizza sul repertorio comunicativo professionale di un ingegnere finlandese. gli estratti di scambi interazionali presentati, evidenziano cambiamenti sostanziali nell’arco di tredici anni, seguendo il corso della transizione professionale in altri settori da parte del soggetto analizzato. oltre all’uso dell’inglese come lingua franca del business, pratiche di translanguaging carbonara e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 125-130 128 emergono in corrispondenza di necessità di chiarimento, per scopi di socializzazione e uso retorico. il contributo si conclude con una riflessione sull’uso del translanguaging per plasmare il repertorio multilingue individuale e le concezioni valoriali individuali in rapporto allo spazio translinguistico rappresentato dal mondo del lavoro, sempre più influenzato da movimenti globali. il decimo saggio, “communicative repertoires in advertising space in lesotho: the translanguaging and commodification nexus”, di henry amo mensah, esplora il panorama semiotico del regno di lesotho, con particolare riferimento alle pubblicità nei giornali, nelle insegne e nei volantini, secondo la prospettiva del concetto di translanguaging e di commodification (bourdieu, 1977). applicando la critical discourse analysis, l’autore analizza una serie di messaggi pubblicitari mettendo in evidenza l’utilizzo di risorse plurilingui e simboliche, tra cui espressioni gergali giovanili o urbane tratte anche dalla messaggistica. forme di translanguaging vengono utilizzate per orientare il messaggio pubblicitario sia a culturale che identitario per raggiungere uno scopo commerciale. il contributo 11, “translanguaging and collaborative creative practices: communication and performance in an intercultural theatre group”, scritto da naomi wells, mette in relazione gli studi di stampo culturale con un approccio di tipo sociolinguistico nella descrizione delle attività comunicative di una compagnia teatrale di bologna, che organizza workshop rivolti a rifugiati e richiedenti asilo. l’autrice delinea alcune pratiche di interazione riscontrare durante i workshop, tra cui la traduzione, il ricorso esplicito ad alcune named langages e l’utilizzo di ulteriori risorse multimodali come il corpo o l’intonazione. gli estratti di interviste presentati evidenziano l’impiego di risorse translinguistiche nelle performance, per cui i partecipanti allo studio, recitando testi trasposti dalla propria cultura di origine, non si limitano ad una mera traduzione in italiano, ma propongono delle rielaborazioni creative in cui la componente linguistica si fonde con la resa artistica generando un’espansione di senso. il capitolo 12, “translanguaging and language creativity in drama staging”, di joëlle aden e maria pavlovskaya, proseguendo nella corrente tematica del saggio precedente, presenta una ricerca su giovani studenti bilingui provenienti da famiglie russe che vivono in francia. questi giovani hanno partecipato a workshop teatrali sperimentali in cui vengono coinvolte tutte le lingue del loro repertorio. basandosi su un compito di realtà, cioè l’interpretazione di un testo drammaturgico rivolto a un pubblico di lingua francese e di lingua russa con nessuna competenza nell’altra lingua, le autrici analizzano una sequenza comunicativa in cui gli studenti utilizzano le loro risorse linguistiche e gestuali per negoziare decisioni quali la divisione dei ruoli e per costruire in modo cooperativo la performance. il contributo si conclude con una riflessione sull’importanza di promuovere un approccio pedagogico basato sulla non separazione fra cognitivo ed emotivo, mente e corpo e abilità linguistiche. il tredicesimo saggio, “translanguaging and the negotiation of meaning: multilingual signage in a swiss linguistic landscape”, di edina krompák e stephan meyer si colloca nell’ambito degli studi relativi al linguistic landscape, esponendo una ricerca sul panorama semiotico del quartiere kleinbasel a basilea. gli autori utilizzano un approccio metodologico plurimo che comprende, oltre alla raccolta etnografica visiva di fotografie di cartelli e insegne, anche interviste e focus groups condotti con coloro i quali potenzialmente ricevono i messaggi collocati nello spazio urbano del distretto. ad un primo gruppo di partecipanti, definiti expert translanguagers, e ad un secondo gruppo di translanguagers meno consapevoli è stata presentata una serie di immagini tratte dal linguistic landscape multilingue di kleinbasel. i soggetti, mettendo in atto processi di creazione di significato per analizzare i messaggi, dispiegano le proprie risorse linguistiche e semiotiche individuali e collettive. utilizzando un’analisi basata sulla grounded theory (charmaz, 2006) e sulla linguistica interazionale, vengono messi in luce gli aspetti intersoggettivi e intrasoggettivi della negoziazione translinguistica dei significati. il capitolo 14, che conclude il libro, si intitola “what shapes everyday translanguaging? insight from a global mental health project in northern uganda” ed ha come autori jane andrews, richard fay e ross white. il contributo presenta uno studio condotto nell’area di lira, nel nord dell’uganda, che analizza un gruppo di ricercatori di tipo socio-sanitario il cui scopo è migliorare la salute mentale degli abitanti, da anni sottoposti a conflitti. gli autori illustrano gli scambi comunicativi fra il team di ricerca anglofono e quello locale, in cui vengono utilizzate pratiche translinguistiche che comprendono l’inglese, la lingua lango e altri codici linguistici, senza rigide compartimentazioni. i ricercatori utilizzano le varie lingue, anche quelle che non appartengono saldamente al proprio repertorio, per instaurare relazioni e socializzare. inoltre, il saggio propone un interessante parallelismo tra l’ideologia del translanguaging e la metodologia di intervento psicosociale dime (design, implementation, monitoring e evaluation), che pone come base di ogni misura diagnostica o intervento, l’adattamento di questi ultimi al contesto dove si opera, al contrario della tendenza recensione: translanguaging as everyday practice e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 125-130 129 occidentale, che solitamente non considera i fattori situazionali. gli autori presentano e analizzano, quindi, anche estratti di considerazioni dei ricercatori sull’intersezione fra il concetto di translanguaging e la metodologia dime nel loro vissuto come operatori socio-sanitari. 3. valutazioni conclusive translanguaging as everyday practice è un testo rilevante nell’ambito degli studi di linguistica applicata, in particolare per chi si occupa o intende occuparsi di translanguaging. uno degli aspetti più significativi del libro è la pluralità di approcci metodologici utilizzati nei vari studi, in cui si spazia dall’etnografia all’analisi della conversazione, dallo studio di caso all’analisi del discorso. un altro elemento degno di nota è la varietà di contesti presentati: scuola, famiglia, settore professionale, mondo artistico e performativo, paesaggi urbani, comunità immigrate, minoritarie e indigene. i saggi inclusi nell’opera sono per la maggior parte di tipo descrittivo. questo aspetto, da un lato è fondamentale per approfondire epistemologicamente il concetto di translanguaging e conferirgli autonomia concettuale rispetto ad altri termini utilizzati per descrivere pratiche linguistiche multilingui, ed è altresì importante per far emergere schemi percettivi o reali legati alle politiche linguistiche individuali, familiari, educative e della società. dall’altro lato, è rilevante ricordare la componente politica di agency insita nel translanguaging, che non dovrebbe essere limitata solo alla sfera dei docenti o dei singoli individui, ma estesa ai ricercatori: tramite attività di ricerca-azione trasformativa (garcia & kleyn, 2016), l’università può contribuire a costruire contesti educativi democratici ed ecologici (hult, 2013), in linea con l’impegno civile che l’accademia dovrebbe esercitare nella società. un altro aspetto molto positivo del libro risiede nell’aver saputo raccogliere studi provenienti da diversi contesti internazionali ed europei e averli disposti in modo coerente all’interno del testo, che risulta essere un’opera coesa e ben strutturata. il curatore è sicuramente ben consapevole che nel contesto italiano, a parte alcuni recenti studi (carbonara & scibetta, in stampa; coppola & moretti, 2018; firpo & sanfelici, 2015), il tema risulta ancora poco esplorato, pertanto il libro non include lavori italiani. ci auguriamo che questo volume, dalla paternità italiana, possa conferire una spinta intellettuale allo sviluppo di una corrente di studi sul translanguaging anche in italia. riferimenti bibliografici austin, jennifer, blume, maría, & sánchez, liliana (2015). bilingualism in the spanish-speaking world: linguistic and cognitive perspectives. cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. bloomfield, leonard (1993). language. london, united kingdom: george allen and unwin. bhabba, homi (1994). the location of culture. london, united kingdom: routledge. bourdieu, pierre (1977). the economics of linguistic exchange. social science information, 16(6), 645-668. carbonara, valentina, & scibetta, andrea (in stampa). il translanguaging come strumento efficace per la gestione delle classi plurilingui: il progetto l’altroparlante. rila, rassegna italiana di linguistica applicata. charmaz, kathy (2006). constructing grounded theory. a practical guide through qualitative analysis. los angeles, california: sage. coppola, daria, & moretti, raffaella (2018). valorizzare la diversità linguistica e culturale. uno studio di caso. in carmel mary coonan, ada bier, & elena ballarin (eds.), la didattica delle lingue nel nuovo millennio. le sfide dell’internazionalizzazione. venezia, italia: edizioni ca’ foscari. firpo, elena, & sanfelici, laura (2016). la visione eteroglossica del bilinguismo: spagnolo lingua d’origine e italstudio. milano, italia: edizioni universitarie di lettere economia diritto. garcía, ofelia, & li wei (2014). translanguaging: language, bilingualism and education. new york, new york: palgrave macmillan. garcía, ofelia, & kleyn, tatyana (eds.). (2016). translanguaging with multilingual students: learning from classroom moments. new york, new york: routledge. carbonara e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 125-130 130 hult, francis (2013). ecology and multilingual education. in carol chapelle (ed.), encyclopedia of applied linguistics (vol. 3) (pp. 1835-1840). malden, massachusetts: wiley-blackwell. li wei (2011). moment analysis and translanguaging spaces: discursive construction of identities by multilingual chinese youth in britain. journal of pragmatics, 43(5), 1222-1235. makoni, sinfree, & pennycook, alastair (2012). disinventing multilingualism: from monological multilingualism to multilingua francas. in marylin martin-jones, adrian blackledge, & angela creese (eds.), the routledge handbook of multilingualism (pp. 439-472). london, united kingdom: routledge. makoni, sinfree, & pennycook, alastair (eds.). (2007). disinventing and reconstituting languages. clevedon, united kingdom: multilingual matters. valentina carbonara, università per stranieri di siena carbonara@unistrasi.it it valentina carbonara è assegnista di ricerca presso l’università per stranieri di siena. ha conseguito un dottorato di ricerca in linguistica e didattica della lingua italiana a stranieri presso l’università per stranieri di siena nel 2017 sulla progettazione di un programma di educazione bilingue in una scuola dell’infanzia in turchia. i suoi interessi di ricerca sono il bilinguismo, l’apprendimento precoce delle lingue, la metodologia clil e il translanguaging. è coresponsabile del gruppo lend di siena. dal 2016, insieme ad andrea scibetta, coordina il progetto l’altroparlante, supervisionato dalla prof.ssa carla bagna, che mira all’implementazione di pratiche orientate alla pedagogia del translanguaging in diverse scuole primarie e secondarie italiane. en valentina carbonara is a research fellow at the università per stranieri di siena. she obtained a ph.d. in linguistics and didactics of italian language for foreigners from the università per stranieri di siena in 2017 after designing a bilingual education program in a turkish kindergarten. her research interests include bilingualism, early language learning, clil methodology, and translanguaging. she is the co-chair of the lend group in siena. since 2016, together with andrea scibetta, she has coordinated the l'altroparlante project, supervised by dr. carla bagna, which seeks to implement pedagogical practices that support translanguaging in several primary and secondary italian schools. es valentina carbonara es investigadora postdoctoral en la università per stranieri di siena. se doctoró en lingüística y didáctica del italiano para extranjeros de la università per stranieri di siena en 2017 con un proyecto sobre el diseño curricular de un programa bilingüe en una escuela infantil en turquía. sus intereses de investigación incluyen el bilingüismo, el aprendizaje precoz de lenguas, la metodología aicle y el translanguaging. es la co-directora del grupo lend de siena. desde 2016 coordina, junto con andrea scibetta, el proyecto l’altroparlante, gestionado por la profesora carla bagna, que se centra en la implementación de prácticas orientadas a la pedagogía del translanguaging en diversas escuelas primarias y secundarias italianas. microsoft word 7.gesuato_9.1.docx euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 1, april 2022, 140–144 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.271 www.e-journall.org © gesuato 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. review: trubnikova, victoriya, & garofolin, benedetta. (2020). lingua e interazione. insegnare la pragmatica a scuola [language and interaction. teaching pragmatics at school]. edizioni ets. sara gesuato university of padua book review received 16 december 2021; accepted after revisions 21 february 2022 abstract en this volume presents a theoretical and practical approach to the teaching of pragmatics in primary and secondary educational contexts. targeting first language (l1), second language (l2), and foreign language (fl) teachers, the volume starts by introducing key concepts in pragmatics, providing an overview of theoretical notions in communicative competence, and drawing pedagogical implications from these notions. the book then reports findings from a survey conducted among language teachers on their views on and experience with the teaching of linguistic pragmatics. finally, a 5-step inductive-explicit pedagogical model is put forward for raising metapragmatic awareness and developing receptive and productive pragmatic skills among learners of varied age groups. a rich set of sample activities illustrates how to put the model into practice and to adapt it to learners’ specific needs. key words: pragmatics teaching, metapragmatic awareness, l1/l2/fl teachers, primary and secondary education, inductiveexplicit pedagogy es este volumen presenta una aproximación teórica y práctica a la enseñanza de la pragmática en contextos educativos de primaria y secundaria. dirigido a profesores de lengua primera (l1), segunda lengua (l2) y lengua extranjera (le), el volumen comienza introduciendo conceptos clave en pragmática, brindando una descripción general de las nociones teóricas en competencia comunicativa y extrapolando las implicaciones pedagógicas que surgen de dichas nociones. asimismo, este libro recoge los resultados obtenidos a partir de una encuesta realizada entre profesores de idiomas sobre sus puntos de vista y experiencias en la enseñanza de la pragmática lingüística. finalmente, se propone un modelo pedagógico inductivo-explícito que consta de 5 pasos para aumentar la conciencia metapragmática y desarrollar habilidades pragmáticas receptivas y productivas entre estudiantes de diferentes grupos de edad. un amplio conjunto de actividades de muestra ilustra cómo poner en práctica el modelo y adaptarlo a las necesidades específicas del alumnado. palabras clave: enseñanza de la pragmática, conciencia metapragmática, docentes l1/l2/le, educación primaria y secundaria, pedagogía inductivo-explicita it questo volume presenta un approccio teorico-pratico all’insegnamento della pragmatica in contesti di istruzione primaria e secondaria. rivolgendosi a insegnanti delle lingue madre (l1), seconda (l2) e straniera (ls), il volume si apre con una presentazione dei concetti chiave della pragmatica, offrendo una panoramica delle nozioni generali sulla competenza comunicativa e delineando le implicazioni pedagogiche che ne derivano. il libro riporta poi i risultati di un sondaggio condotto tra insegnanti di lingue sul loro punto di vista e sulla loro esperienza con l’insegnamento della pragmatica. infine, viene proposto un modello pedagogico induttivo-esplicito composto di cinque fasi per raggiungere una consapevolezza metapragmatica e per sviluppare competenze pragmatiche sia recettive sia produttive tra studenti di età diversa. un ricco repertorio di attività illustra come mettere in pratica il modello e adattarlo ai bisogni specifici degli studenti. parole chiave: didattica della pragmatica, consapevolezza metapragmatica, insegnanti di l1/l2/ls, istruzione primaria e secondaria, pedagogia induttivo-esplicita * sara gesuato, university of padua sara.gesuato@unipd.it review: lingua e interazione. insegnare la pragmatica a scuola e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 140–144 141 1. volume overview victoriya trubnikova and benedetta garofolin’s (2020) lingua e interazione. insegnare la pragmatica a scuola ([language and interaction. teaching pragmatics at school], edizioni ets, addresses the question of the relevance of pragmatics to the teaching and learning of first, second, and foreign languages (l1s, l2s, and fls) at all proficiency and schooling levels. it does so with the aim of fostering the development of learners’ productive and receptive communicative skills in social, cultural, and situational contexts. indeed, as aptly pointed out in the preface, it fills a long-overdue gap in language pedagogy, namely that of making pragmatics accessible as a theoretical construct to language practitioners, pointing out the crucial bearing it has on language development, and showing how it can be fruitfully implemented in daily classroom activities. starting from theoretical considerations and taking stock of teachers’ own needs, the volume offers general guidelines and practical suggestions on how to make focused reflection on pragmatic aspects of communication a recurrent, motivated, and easy-to-implement educational practice. its main tenet is that it is possible to foster effective and conventionally appropriate language learning and language use by exploring the interrelatedness of form, function, and context and their effects on interactants. this, the authors argue, can be achieved through a gradual, supervised process of discovery, analysis, and conscious re-use of communicative strategies and phraseologies motivated by an understanding of context. the book, which targets primary and secondary education teachers, is divided into two sections. the first section, which consists of an introduction and two chapters, has a theoretical slant and introduces key notions both in pragmatics and in educational linguistics, with a special focus on pragmatics, thus setting the context for the second section. the second section consists of two chapters and a conclusion. it explores the relationship between language teaching and pragmatics, and offers detailed pedagogical suggestions on how to include aspects of pragmatics in curricular activities. the book ends with a rich references section and four appendices: one presents a data collection instrument (i.e., the questionnaire administered to teachers to explore their views on pragmatics at school), two are sample concrete illustrations of how to apply in the classroom the pedagogical model put forward by the authors in chapter 4, and one is an assessment instrument that learners can use to give one another peer feedback on their pragmatically-oriented communicative tasks. 2. chapter content the introduction argues for the importance of including pragmatics in language teaching, since it accounts for how linguistic choices shape and are shaped by context, thus enabling action, interaction and socialisation. it also sets out the goals of the book, and provides an overview of its content. chapter 1 defines pragmatics. it outlines fundamental notions, phenomena, and theoretical frameworks (i.e., deixis, speech acts, the cooperative principle of conversation, discourse markers, and politeness) that account for how language is used effectively and appropriately in context so as to achieve communicative, interactional, and transactional goals. it also illustrates how language use varies non-randomly across situations—characterised by flexible configurations of event types, participants’ role-relationships, and discursive contributions—as well as across cultures, which may assign different values to given communicative and socialisation practices. chapter 2 clarifies what communicative competence is and the role that pragmatic competence plays in it. it also presents theories put forward by leading scholars on how pragmatic competence is acquired or developed. most importantly, it draws pedagogical implications from these theoretical considerations, tackling thought-provoking questions such as what should be taught and how, how the teacher and the learner should play and orchestrate their complementary roles to foster successful learning, and how pragmatic skills are to be assessed. a strong case is made for the implementation of an inductive-explicit teaching method—which is all too often disregarded in language pedagogy (cf., glaser, 2013)—meant to raise learners’ awareness of pragmatic phenomena, to develop their metapragmatic competence, and to enable them to decide to what extent to approximate the standards of a target language and the (tacit) conventions of the native speakers who use it. this is a method in which overt theoretical information about patterns and conventions is presented at the end of a process of consciousness-raising activities and guided discovery of communicative practices. chapter 3 reports on the findings of an investigation into primary and secondary school teachers’ awareness of and views on the role of pragmatics in language teaching, and the scope of their experience in its instruction. through a mainly quantitative survey of 410 participants, the authors found that teachers were interested in the field, but lacked confidence and adequate background preparation. they also expressed a need for suitable pedagogical material for developing and honing students’ metapragmatic awareness. the findings gesuato e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 140–144 142 point out similar perspectives on pragmatics among teachers across school levels, but also draw attention to a stronger need for pre-service and on-the-job training, especially for primary school teachers. this type of research is in line with recent investigations in applied pragmatics, which engage in needs analyses of language educators (e.g., cohen, 2018; costa & pladevall-ballester, 2018; pavan & gesuato, 2021). chapter 4 presents an innovative five-step pedagogical model which aims to sensitise learners to the sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic aspects of l1, l2 and fl communication, to raise their metapragmatic awareness, and to gradually develop learner autonomy. the model, which draws on insights from previous works, is the highlight of the book. by applying an inductive-explicit approach, and without requiring teachers to devote much time to extensive preparation, it shows how everyday interactional situations and authentic discourse material can illustrate pragmatic phenomena which can be made part of a standard teaching syllabus. the approach serves to introduce learners to the formal, strategic, and context-relevant features of their own and others’ discourse, to raise their awareness of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural differences, and to alert them to the meaning, value and impact of their language use through guided peer assessment practice. the conclusion sums up the main point of the volume. first, it stresses the pragmatic dimension of language use—for action, interaction, and socialisation. second, it emphasises the importance of supervised reflection on effective and appropriate language production and language reception. finally, it outlines future perspectives in pragmatics-focused research and pedagogy, vouching for joint projects involving materials developers, scholars, and language practitioners. 3. overall conclusions this publication has many reasons to be recommended: its clear exposition and balanced content, but especially the authors’ mastery of and original insights into the subject matter, and their original scientific contribution to pragmatics research. first, it is reader-friendly. in a lucid prose, it expounds on important and, at times, complex concepts, phenomena, and principles in pragmatics, making them accessible to a wide readership of language educators, without assuming any background knowledge in linguistics. metadiscursive statements (i.e., introductory, transitional, and concluding sentences or paragraphs) guide the reader throughout the text, highlighting the relatedness and mutual relevance of the issues addressed, and making explicit the thematic connection of the topics covered in neighbouring parts of the text (e.g., on p. 32 [end of section 1.2.2 and beginning of section 1.3] and p. 43 [end of section 1.3.3. and beginning of section 1.4], among several others). second, the book is rigorous and exhaustive. it accurately presents the multi-faceted nature of pragmatic issues, pointing out how researchers’ findings led to advancements in their fields. yet, it does not hide the limitations of the insights thus gained, as a result of which knowledge gaps were identified, which paved the way for new thought-provoking discoveries. the authors not only cover the historical milestones of research in pragmatics and educational linguistics, but also present the state of the art in both fields, reporting on the most up-to-date trends and achievements in current research practices. third, it combines a theoretical and a practical approach to the inclusion of pragmatics in language teaching and learning. after providing a contextualising overview of current models for the teaching of pragmatics and examining language practitioners’ perspectives on linguistic pragmatics, it convincingly puts forward a practical pedagogical model—clearly presented in its motivation, requirements, and goals—which is exemplified with ample teacher-friendly activities. these are original not only because they cater to the needs of primary and secondary school students and teachers, engaging the former as ethnographers and the latter as guides in the exploration of the many-to-many correlations between form, function, and context, but also because they tackle various pragmatic phenomena (i.e., discourse markers, implicatures, deixis, speech acts). overall, this is a top-notch publication. however, i would like to point out a few marginal shortcomings: 1) in reporting the results of their investigation (in chapter 3), the authors inform us that, in the second part of the questionnaire, they gave respondents a range of options to choose from that would prevent them from providing non-committal responses. this was a wise methodological choice, which, however, does not appear to have been implemented in the first part of the questionnaire too. on the same topic, it appears that, in appendix 4, multiple choice questions 3 and 4 on p. 166 are redundantly echoed in the first two open-ended questions on p. 167. 2) although it is possible to appreciate the similarities and differences in teachers’ responses across education levels, one does not know whether or to what extent they vary across other demographic variables like respondents’ gender, years in service, or geographic origin. review: lingua e interazione. insegnare la pragmatica a scuola e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 140–144 143 3) in chapter 4, the authors repeatedly state that pragmatics can only be subject to continuous assessment; however, they do not suggest how teachers should, or could, implement this form of assessment—e.g., whether it should be conducted along the same lines as peer feedback—so as to present it as valuable (i.e., “worthwhile”) to the learners. 4) in outlining future perspectives, it would have been helpful to recommend a few specific publications or other resources (e.g., online video-recorded lectures) that teachers could turn to learn about pragmatics. 5) one instance of linguistic sexism can be found on p. 50, where “l’uomo” [the man] could have been replaced by “l’essere umano” (the human being). 6) finally, formal oversights are few and far between, such as the occasional typo (e.g., dwefinisce instead of definisce on p. 79; 64% instead of 65% on p. 91) or mismatch between intra-textual references (e.g., bianchi (2003) is mentioned on p. 21, while bianchi (2009) is listed in the references). the above, however, are very minor and easily forgivable inaccuracies. this articulate, informative, and insightful book fully delivers what it promises, making the reader feel intelligent in the process of discovering what pragmatics is and how to “put it into practice” in daily school activities. it is to be highly recommended as an enriching opportunity for on-the-job training for all teachers. references cohen, andrew d. (2018). learning pragmatics from native and nonnative language teachers. multilingual matters. costa, francesca, & pladevall-ballester elisabet (2018). language teachers’ perspectives on the clil experience in catalan and lombard secondary schools. rassegna italiana di linguistica applicata, 50(23), 73–96. glaser, karen. (2013). the neglected combination: a case for explicit-inductive instruction in teaching pragmatics in esl. tesl canada journal, 30(7), 150–163. http://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v30i7.1158 pavan, elisabetta, & gesuato, sara. (2021). i futuri insegnanti d’inglese alla scuola primaria. un’indagine sulla percezione delle competenze [future english teachers at primary school. a survey on perceived competencies]. in sandro caruana, karl chircop, phyllisienne gauci, & mario pace (eds.) politiche e pratiche per l’educazione linguistica, il multilinguismo e la comunicazione interculturale [policies and practices for linguistic education, multilingualism and intercultural communication], series: sail: studi sull’apprendimento e l’insegnamento linguistico, vol. 18 (pp. 84–92.). edizioni ca’ foscari. http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-501-8/007 gesuato e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 140–144 144 sara gesuato, university of padua sara.gesuato@unipd.it en sara gesuato (ph.d. in linguistics, università di padova, italy and university of california at berkeley, usa) is associate professor at università di padova, italy, where she teaches english language and linguistics. her research interests include genre analysis, pragmatics, and corpus linguistics. combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, she has investigated catenative verbs, written academic discourse, oral and written initiating, and responding speech acts, and she has explored pedagogical applications of speech act analysis. she has also organised various conferences and published over 100 works. es sara gesuato (doctora en lingüística, università di padova, italia, y university of california at berkeley, usa) es profesora en la università di padova, italia, donde enseña lengua y lingüística inglesas. sus intereses de investigación incluyen estudios de género, pragmática y lingüística de corpus. combinando enfoques cualitativos y cuantitativos, ha investigado acerca de los verbos catenativos, el discurso académico escrito, los actos de habla orales y escritos de iniciación y respuesta, y ha explorado las aplicaciones pedagógicas del análisis de los actos de habla. asimismo, ha organizado varios congresos y cuenta con más de 100 publicaciones. it sara gesuato (dottorato in linguistica, università di padova, italia, e university of california at berkeley, usa) è professora associata all’università di padova, dove insegna lingua e linguistica inglese. la sua ricerca abbraccia analisi dei generi testuali, pragmatica e linguistica dei corpora. unendo approcci qualitativi e quantitativi, ha studiato i verbi catenativi, il discorso accademico scritto e gli atti linguistici iniziativi e reattivi nello scritto e nel parlato; ha anche esplorato le applicazioni pedagogiche dell’analisi degli atti linguistici. ha inoltre organizzato diversi convegni e pubblicato più di 100 lavori. marocchini_4.2 euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  4,  issue  2,  december  2017,  pages  75-­‐96   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.7.98   www.e-­‐journall.org   ©  marocchini  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.                                                                                                                                   *  contact:  eleonora.marocchini@gmail.com     politeness  strategies  in  complaints  in  italian:     a  study  on  ifl  learners  and  italian  native  speakers     eleonora  marocchini*1   università  degli  studi  di  pavia         received  30  march  2017;  received  in  revised  form  31  july  2017;  accepted  3  december  2017     abstract en this paper reports on an ongoing study of dutch native speakers learning italian as a foreign language in a guided learning context. the study compares native and non-native realization patterns of complaints, both in terms of the type of expression of judgment and the request for reparation performed (following the classifications suggested by nuzzo, 2007), and of the use of modifiers. special attention is given to the potential effects of learners’ language proficiency levels on the nativelikeness of their realization patterns and of the quantity and variety of modifiers they used. methods consisted of a sociolinguistic questionnaire, a written discourse completion test, and a conditional inference trees analysis of the production of 23 learners attending a b1 level course, 19 learners attending a b2 level course, and 23 native italian speakers. key words: italian, dutch, pragmatics, speech acts, politeness, modifiers es el presente trabajo documenta un estudio en curso relativo a hablantes nativos de holandés que aprenden italiano como lengua extranjera en un contexto de enseñanza guiada. el estudio compara patrones de realización de quejas en habla nativa y no nativa, tanto en términos de realización de expresión de juicio como en petición de compensación (siguiendo las clasificaciones sugeridas por nuzzo, 2007), sin olvidar el uso de modificadores. se ha prestado especial atención a los niveles de dominio del idioma de los estudiantes y a sus potenciales efectos en la semejanza que muestran sus patrones de realización con el habla nativa, así como en la cantidad y variedad de modificadores utilizados. los métodos consistieron en un cuestionario sociolingüístico, un test para completar el discurso y un árbol de inferencia condicional sobre la producción de veintitrés estudiantes que asisten a un curso de nivel b1, diecinueve que asisten a un curso de nivel b2 y veintitrés hablantes nativos de italiano. palabras clave: italiano, holandés, pragmática, actos de habla, cortesía, modificadores   it questo articolo tratta di uno studio in corso su soggetti di madre lingua olandese che studiano italiano in un contesto di apprendimento guidato. lo studio confronta la realizzazione di formule di protesta da parte di madrelingua e non, prendendo in esame sia il tipo di espressione di giudizio che il tipo di richiesta di scuse (in base alle classificazioni suggerite da nuzzo, 2007), nonché l’uso di modificatori. particolare attenzione è stata dedicata agli effetti potenziali del livello di padronanza linguistica degli apprendenti sui loro modelli (patterns di realizzazione) linguistici simili a quelli nativi e sulla quantità e varietà dei modificatori usati. la metodologia utilizzata è consistita in un questionario sociolinguistico, un test di completamento (dctwritten discourse completion test) e un’analisi ctree della produzione di 23 apprendenti di un corso di livello b1, 19 apprendenti di un corso di livello b2 e 23 di madrelingua italiana. parole chiave: italiano, olandese, pragmatica, atti linguistici, cortesia, modificatori marocchini   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96  76   1.  introduction   the  present  paper  reports  on  an  ongoing  study  of  how  native  italian  speakers  and  learners  of  italian   as   a   foreign   language   (ifl)   perform   complaints.   the   study   was   conducted   with   native   dutch   speakers   learning  ifl  in  a  guided  learning  context  in  belgium.   grounded   in   the   field   of   acquisitional   pragmatics   of   italian   as   a   second   or   a   foreign   language   (giacalone-­‐ramat,  chini,  &  andorno,  2013),  this  paper  focuses  on  pragmatic  competence,  considered  here  as   the   ability   to   perform   specific   communicative   acts   in   a   native-­‐like   way.   the   paper   analyzes   pragmatic   competence   of   ifl   learners   by   looking   at   patterns   of   realization   of   certain   speech   acts,   especially   face-­‐ threatening   ones   (see   brown   &   levinson,   1987,   p.   61),   like   complaints,   and   analyzing   modification   techniques,   both   in   terms   of   quantity   and   variety   of   modifiers   used,   in   order   to   understand   learners’   preferred  politeness  strategies.   the   results   of   observation   and   analysis   are   then   compared   with   the   native   speakers’   linguistic   behaviour  and  evaluated  in  terms  of  native-­‐likeness.  these  results  provide  a  first  step  for  developing  specific   didactic  methods,  advancing  recommendations  on  input  to  provide  to  learners,  and  studying  whether  didactic   approaches  have  any  significant  effect  on  the  cultivation  of  pragmatic  competence.     1.1.  literature  review   1.1.1.  complaints     research  on  speech  acts  dates  back  to  austin’s  work  on  philosophy  of  language  (austin,  1961;  1962)   where  he  provided  a  classification  of  these  acts,  introducing  ideas  that  remain  central  to  modern  pragmatics   such  as  a  speaker’s   intentions,  and   the   felicity  conditions  and   illocutionary   force  of  his/her  utterances   (see   austin,   1962).   these   and   other   ideas  were   discussed   and   implemented   by   searle   (see   searle,   1969,   1975,   1976,  1979),  who  created  another  detailed   classification  of   speech  acts:   complaints  were   classified  here  as   expressive  acts,  since  the  speaker  performing  a  complaint  communicates  his  reaction  to  a  negative  (verbal  or   nonverbal)  action  (searle,  1976).     further   research,   though,   has   identified   complaints   as   more   complex   speech   acts   because   the   speaker  usually  tries  to  influence  the  behavior  of  the  actor  of  the  negative  action  so  that  the  action  is  fixed  or,   at   the   least,   not   repeated.   for   instance,   george   (1990)   identifies   two   kinds   of   complaints:   expressive   and   directive.  expressive  complaints  (according  to  george)  can  either  address  the  actor  of  an  annoying  act  or  not:   in   fact,   the   speaker   performing   them   reports   on   an   annoying   act   without   asking   for   reparation.   directive   complaints,   instead,  are  performed  when  the  speaker   tries   to  convince   the  actor  of   the  annoying  act  not   to   repeat  the  act.  this  distinction  is  not  far  from  boxer’s  more  recent  idea  that  complaints  can  either  be  indirect   or  direct   (boxer,   2010,   pp.   163-­‐168).   for  boxer,   indirect   complaints   only   address   someone  who   is   not   the   actor  of   the  action   triggering   the  complaint.  this  means   that  only  direct  complaints  are   face-­‐threatening   in   brown   and   levinson’s   (1987)   terms.   the   problem   with   this   dualism   is   that   a   direct   complaint   is   not   infrequently  performed  along  with  an   indirect  one.  these  two  types  of  complaints  can  therefore   instead  be   seen   as   two  parts   of   a   complaint,  which   can   be   termed,   following  nuzzo   (2007,   p.   108),   an   “expression   of   judgment”  and  a  “request   for  reparation”.  these   two  components  can  occur  simultaneously  or   individually.   rubino  and  bettoni  (2006)  even  consider  a  third  part  of  a  complaint,  namely  the  “resolution  of  the  matter”,   which  is  usually  shared  between  the  speaker  and  the  addressee.   complaint  realization  patterns  have  been  widely  studied  in  english  as  a  second  language  (see  boxer,   1993,  pp.  280-­‐281  for  a  short  review  and  trosborg,  1995  in  detail),  but  they  remain  understudied  in  italian.   some  relevant  exceptions  include  studies  conducted  by  george  (1990)  and  rubino  and  bettoni  (1993;  though   their   point   of   view   was   more   cross-­‐cultural   than   acquisitional),   nuzzo   (2006,   2007),   rastelli   and   nuzzo   (2009),  and  gauci  (2012,  2015).   nuzzo  (2007)  examined  pragmatic  competence  in  italian  as  a  second  language,  studying  specific  and   delicate  face-­‐threatening  speech  acts  like  requests,  complaints,  and  apologies.  the  researcher  classified  data   collected  from  three  learners  of  italian  as  a  second  language  studying  in  milan  and  identified:  three  types  of   expression  of  judgment  where  the  speaker  makes  clear  that  the  addressee  is  responsible  for  the  act  triggering   the   complaint,   five   types  of   expression  of   judgment  where   the   speaker  does  not   explicitly   specify  anyone’s   responsibility,  and  seven  types  of  requests  for  reparation  (nuzzo,  2007,  pp.  112-­‐115).     in  addition  to  proposing  this  fine-­‐grained  classification,  nuzzo’s  work  also  finds  that  native  speakers   prefer  to  “underline  the  negativity  of  the  event  itself”  (nuzzo,  2007,  p.  153),  rather  than  explicitly  state  that   the   addressee   is   responsible   for   the   negative   event   and   explicitly   request   reparations:   65,4%   of   the   politeness  strategies  in  complaints  in  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96   77   complaints   collected   in   the   study   corpus   of   italian   l1   only   contained   an   expression   of   judgment,   25,9%   involved  a  judgment  and  a  request  for  reparation  and  only  8,7%  of  them  displayed  a  request  for  reparation   with  no  expression  of  judgment.  in  contrast,  learners  were  seen  to  use  requests  for  reparation  more  often  and   to  explicitly  blame  the  addressee  for  the  negative  event  (pp.  121-­‐122).  nuzzo’s  data  will  be  compared  to  that   collected  for  the  present  study,  though  with  some  adjustments;  since  her  data  were  collected  longitudinally,   and  from  only  three  learners,  they  are  not  perfectly  comparable  to  the  data  presented  here.   realization   patterns   that   are   less   direct   are   perceived   by   native   italian   speakers   as   more   polite:   politeness   norms   compel   the   speaker   to   soften   face-­‐threatening   acts   through   indirect   formulations   and   modification  devices  (that  will  be  defined  in  the  next  section)  in  order  to  be  perceived  as  less  imperative  and   demanding   (see   nuzzo   &   gauci,   2012,   p.   18).   the   use   of   certain   realization   patterns   and   modifiers   can   therefore   be   seen   as   a   set   of   politeness   strategies.   not   all   of   these   strategies   are   universal   (see   brown   &   levinson,  1987)  and  native  speakers  of  italian  appear  to  use  them  more  naturally.     1.1.2.  modifiers     even   if   native   speakers   (nss)   tend   to   employ  more   indirect   expressions   of   judgment   than   explicit   requests   for   reparation,   complaints   are   difficult   to   produce   without   attacking   one’s   relationship   with   the   actor   of   the   complaint-­‐triggering   action.   for   this   reason,   as   stated   earlier,   modification   is   often   used   to   mitigate  the  offensive  nature  of  the   judgments.    trosborg  (1995,  pp.  209-­‐219)  defines   internal  modifiers  as   morphosyntactical   and   lexical   devices   used   by   speakers   to   decrease   (“downgraders”)   or   enhance   (“upgraders”)  the  impact  an  utterance  may  have  on  the  hearer  (p.  209).  she  defines  external  modifiers  as  any   supporting  utterances  used  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  addressee  and  prepare,  persuade,  and  disarm  the   addressee  of  a  face-­‐threatening  speech  act  (p.  215).     modifiers   can   therefore   be   deployed   in   speech   acts   in   order   to   modify   the   social   impact   of   one’s   reaction,   communicate  a   specific  pragmatic   force,   and  downgrade  or  upgrade   the   level  of   coerciveness;   for   this   reason   blum-­‐kulka   defines   them   “multifunctional   in   two   distinct   ways”   (1985,   p.   213).   modification   devices   are   a  widely-­‐used   category   of   analysis   for   all   the   studies   examining   pragmatic   competence   among   language  learners  (see  for  instance  forsberg,  lundell,  &  erman,  2012,  for  english  and  french;  martínez-­‐flor,   2008  for  english;  gauci,  2015,  and  nuzzo,  2013  for  italian;  salazar  campillo,  2008,  for  english).  these  devices   were  studied  by  nuzzo  (2007)  and  gauci  (2015),  who,  with  a  specific   focus  on  morphosyntactic  and   lexical   modifiers,  analyzed  the  realization  patterns  of  complaints  in  italian  as  a  second  language  in  order  to  develop   a  clear  picture  of  politeness  strategies  used  by  nonnative  speakers  (nnss)  and  nss  of  italian.     1.1.3.  politeness  strategies  in  dutch     given   that   all   of   the   learners   in   the  present   study  were  native  dutch   speakers,   a   comparison  with   politeness  strategies   in  dutch   is  needed.  according   to  a  study  by  van  mulken  (1996),  based  on  a  corpus  of   parallel  dutch  and  french  requests  (collected  from  20  french  participants  and  16  dutch  participants),  dutch   nss   tend   to   use   more   lexical   than   syntactic   and   external   modifiers   in   dutch.   comparing   their   politeness   strategies   to   those  of  french  native  speakers,  van  mulken   found  that   the  french  participants  used  external   modification  more,   while   the   dutch   participants   tended   to  mitigate   their   requests  with   internal  modifiers   (this  tendency  was  observed  in  previous  research  too,  as  can  be  seen  in  stalpers,  1993,  p.  91).   in   fact,   there   were   no   significant   differences   between   the   dutch   and   french   participants   in   van   mulken’s  study  in  terms  of  their  performance  of  head  acts  (in  line  with  previous  research  on  this  topic,  such   as  van  der  wijst,  1991),  but  french  participants  produced   longer   requests  because  of   their  use  of  external   modification  (van  mulken,  1996,  p.  693).   van  mulken  states  that  if  a  dutch  native  speaker  with  a  low  proficiency  in  french  tried  to  be  as  polite   as  he  was  in  dutch  he  would  fail  due  to  a  lack  of  a  literal  translation  for  the  politeness  markers  that  he  would   use  in  dutch.  he  would  find  it  difficult  to  use  a  supportive  move,  instead  of  choosing  a  politeness  marker  and   keeping  the  head  act  alone,  and  his  requests  would  therefore  come  across  as  impolite  and  unconvincing  (p.   701).   van   mulken’s   observations   can   also   be   compared   with   findings   from   research   where   negotiation   techniques   in   french   and   dutch   are   studied   and   confronted:   even  when   the   subject   of   the   interactions   in   question  was  specific  and  limited  to  business  matters,  dutch  study  participants  seemed  less  concerned  with   politeness   than   their   french   interlocutors   (see   merk,   1987)   and   tended   to   be   more   direct   in   their   negotiations.   these   studies   seem   to   align   with   van   mulken’s   findings,   also   with   regards   to   the   fact   that   observed  directness  resulted  in  unconvincing  requests,  since  it  appeared  to  negatively  influence  the  outcome   of  the  negotiations  (see  van  der  wijst  &  ulijn,  1991).     marocchini   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96  78   2.  methodology   2.1.  research  questions   former  studies  in  the  field  have  attended  to  two  main  research  questions:  first,  whether  it  is  possible   to   profile   a   path   of   progressive   convergence   between   non-­‐native   speakers’   (nnss)   linguistic   behavior   and   that   of   native   speakers   (nss),   and   secondly   what   the   relationship   is   between   the   acquisition   of   linguistic   forms  and  their  pragmatic  use  (nuzzo,  2007,  p.  39).     it   is   known   that   learners   tend   to   develop   advanced   grammatical   competence   more   easily   than   pragmatic  competence  (bardovi-­‐harlig  &  hartford,  1990;  1993)  and  that  this  is  even  more  true  for  learners  of   a  foreign  language  than  learners  of  a  second  language.  for  instance,  bardovi-­‐harlig  and  dörney  (1998,  p.  258)   found   that   esl   learners   tended   to   recognize   and   consider   pragmatic   errors   that   were   as   serious   as   grammatical   errors,   while   efl   learners   had   difficulty   even   recognizing   them.   on   the   other   hand,   there   is   evidence  that  some  learners  try  to  follow  pragmatic  rules  of  the  target  language  before  they  have  developed   the  grammatical  competence  needed  to  follow  them  correctly  (nuzzo,  2007,  p.  32).  kasper  and  rose  (2002,  p.   185)  therefore  hypothesize  that  l2  learners  rely  on  pragmatic  competence  from  their  l1  when  grammatical   knowledge   in   their  l2   is  not  high  enough  (pragmatic  over  grammatical  competence),  and   that   they  use   the   new  grammatical  forms  that  they  learn  only  with  their  literal  meaning,  learning  to  use  their  pragmatic  values   only   at   a   later   time   (grammatical   over   pragmatic   competence).   these   issues   can   be   addressed   in   different   ways   as   smaller,   practical   questions   that  may   be   easier   to   answer.   this   paper   will   address   the   following,   focusing  on  the  realization  patterns  of  complaints:   rq1:  what  are  the  most  common  ways  nss  and  nnss  of  italian  express  their  judgment  for  a  negative   action   that   they   find  annoying?  (do  they  ask   for  reparation  of   the  negative  action  with   the  same   frequency   and   illocutionary   force?   that   is,   are   there   substantial   differences   between   nss   and   nnss   in   terms   of   the   selection  of  the  complaint  type  to  perform?)   rq2:   are   there   substantial   differences   between   nss   and   nnss   in   terms   of   the   distribution   of   morphosyntactical,  lexical  and  external  modifiers  used  in  performing  a  complaint?   rq3:  do  nnss  with  higher  linguistic  proficiency  exhibit  more  native-­‐likeness  in  their  performance  of   complaints  than  nnss  with  lower  linguistic  proficiency?   and  finally,  following  van  mulken’s  (1996,  p.  701)  observation:   rq4:  do  dutch  nss  who   are   ifl   learners   tend   to   use  more   internal   than   external  modifiers  when   trying  to  be  polite  in  italian?     2.2.  participants   the  participants  were  students  of  italian  as  a  foreign  language  from  two  different  classrooms  at  the   centrum   voor   levende   talen   (clt)   in   leuven,   belgium.   courses   at   the   clt   are   taught   by   italian   native   speakers   and   based   on  materials   selected   from   various   sources   of   native   production,   namely   newspapers,   excerpts  of  movies,  and  tv  shows.  the  participants  were  all  native  dutch  speakers,  enrolled  in  course  5  and   course  7  according  to  the  belgian  system,  where  they  were  placed  after  a  grammatical  and  lexical  computer-­‐ based  language  assessment.  twenty-­‐three  were  from  course  5,  which  is  approximately  b1-­‐level  according  to   the   common  european   framework   of  reference   for   languages   (cefr,   2001),   and  19  were   from   course   7,   approximately  b2-­‐level.  additional  data  were   collected  with   the   same  methods   from  a   control   group  of  23   italian  nss,  born  and  living  in  italy  with  italian  parents  and  no  significant  periods  of  stay  abroad.     there  was  a  high  proportion  of  women  among  the  participants:  15  out  of  23  in  the  b1-­‐group,  10  out   of  19  in  the  b2-­‐group  and  17  out  of  23  in  the  nss  group.  the  belgian  participants  were  generally  older  than   the  italian  participants,  although  the  participants  came  from  mixed-­‐age  classrooms:  the  mean  age  was  44.08   (sd:  12.60)  in  the  b-­‐1  group  and  47.57  (sd:  12.15)  in  the  b2-­‐group,  while  it  was  28.56  (sd:  10.15)  in  the  nss   group.  all   participants   completed   a   sociolinguistic   questionnaire,   through  which   information  was   gathered   about   their   personal   data,   their   self-­‐rated   level   of   proficiency   in   any   of   their   known   languages,   and   their   sources   for   italian   learning   (courses   attended,   additional   materials   used   during   and   outside   the   courses,   contacts  with  italian  native  speakers,  and  trips  to  italy).  all  of  the  dutch  participants  except  for  one  declared   knowledge   of   french   and   english,   and   all   self-­‐evaluated   level   of   proficiency   in   these   languages   as   “c1”   or   “+++”.  they  all  knew  at  least  two  languages  other  than  their  l1,  most  of  them  (36  out  of  43)  listed  more  than   two   additional   languages,   and   all   of   them   graduated   from   university.   in   order   to   ensure   comparability   between  dutch   participants   and   the   control   group,   the   selected  nss   of   italian  were   chosen   among   college   graduates  who  knew  at  least  two  languages  other  than  italian  (except  for  5  out  of  23).   politeness  strategies  in  complaints  in  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96   79   2.2.1.  grammatical  correctness   to  determine  whether   there  was   a   statistically   significant   difference   between   the  b1-­‐   and   the  b2-­‐ level  groups  in  terms  of  grammatical  competence,  grammatical  correctness  was  set  as  the  response  variable   for  a  ctree  (conditional   inference  tree)  plot   in  r.  in  other  words,  this  was  done  to  see  whether  participants’   stated   level  of  proficiency   in   italian  (according  to   the  computer-­‐based  test  on  the  basis  of  which  they  were   placed   in   their   classes)  had  a  significant  effect  on   the  grammatical   correctness  of   their   responses.  answers   containing   typographical   or   small   lexicon-­‐related   mistakes   were   not   considered   ungrammatical.   the   randomly  selected  sample  on  which  the  analysis  was  carried  out  consisted  of  200  answers  per  group.   as  a  non-­‐parametric  method  for  data  classification,  ctrees  evaluate  the  relationship  between  several   possible  outcomes  and  a  set  of  predictors,  by  binary  recursive  partitioning,  and  identify  the  predictor  that  is   most  strongly  associated  with  the  data  partitions  as  the  basis  of  the  split.  specifically,  the  algorithm:     1) tests   the   global   null   hypothesis   of   independence   between   the   input   variables   and   the   response   variable,  and  chooses  the   input  variable  that   is  most  strongly  associated  to  the  response  variable   if   the  null  hypothesis  actually  is  rejected:  the  measure  for  the  association  is  a  p-­‐value  determined  by  a   test   for  the  partial  null  hypothesis  of  a  single   input  variable.   if   the  global  null  hypothesis  cannot  be   rejected,  the  algorithm  stops;   2) develops  a  binary  split  in  the  individuated  input  variable;   3) repeats  1)  and  2)  recursively  (see  hothorn,  hornik,  &  zeileis,  2006,  p.  653).       grammatical  correctness  was  therefore  set  as  the  response  variable,  and  proficiency  level  was  set  as  a   predictor  for  the  ctree.  the  generated  plot  reported  in  figure  1  clearly  shows  that  a  higher  proficiency  level   unsurprisingly  correlates  with  a  higher  number  of  grammatically  correct  answers  (p  =  .004),  as  ctrees  do  not   show   any   split   for   the   values   of   the   predictor   variable   that   did   not   prove   significant.   the   two   groups   of   learners  can  therefore  be  considered  as  well  divided  in  terms  of  grammatical  competence.       figure 1. conditional inference tree for grammatical correctness in a random sample of answers (n = 600) from the dct. 2.3.  methods  and  units  of  analysis   the  data  were  collected  separately  in  the  two  classrooms,  using  a  written  discourse  completion  test   (dct),   which   was   explained   orally   immediately   after   all   of   the   participants   completed   the   sociolinguistic   questionnaire   mentioned   in   the   previous   section.   the   dct   outcome   was   used   to   build   a   dataset   in   excel   where  each  answer  was  given  an  id  and  annotated  for  several  variables:  the  types  of  expressions  of  judgment   and  requests   for  reparation  used  (as  described  below  in  table  1  and  2),   the  subtypes  of  modifiers  used  (as   marocchini   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96  80   classified  in  table  3)  and  the  grammatical  correctness  of  the  answers.  the  grammatical  correctness  variable   was  used,  as  stated  earlier,  to  check  that  the  participants  belonging  to  the  three  different  groups  (b1,  b2  and   italian  nss)  were  in  fact  comparable  in  terms  of  grammatical  competence.   the  decision  to  employ  a  written  dct  is  complex  and  debatable,  as  each  research  method  presents   different   advantages   and   shortcomings.   naturalistic   observational   data   are   more   informative   in   terms   of   spontaneous   language   use   and   shed   more   light   on   the   development   of   specific   pragmatic   behaviors   performed  by  nns,   if   the  participants  are  followed  long  enough  and  their  productions  are  well-­‐analyzed.  in     longitudinal  studies,  however,   it   is  difficult   for  the  researcher  to  gather  and  analyze  large  quantities  of  data   and  it  consequently  becomes  necessary  for  him/her  to  repeatedly  test  and  observe  the  learners  (which  could   be  considered  a  bias,  or  cause  the  learners  to  leave  before  the  study  is  concluded).  cross-­‐sectional  studies,  on   the   other   hand,   allow   the   researcher   to   control   for  more   variables   (such   as   gender,   age,   proficiency   level,   education),   include   more   participants,   and   create   a   large   corpus   of   data   in   a   short   time.   the   main   disadvantage  is  the  non-­‐spontaneous  nature  of  these  data,  usually  elicited  through  specifically  designed  tests,   that  may  not  correspond  with  learners’  natural  language  use  (ellis,  2008,  pp.  167-­‐168).   the   tests   that   are  most   frequently   employed   by   researchers   in   this   field   are  role-­‐plays   (rps)   and   discourse  completion  tests  (dcts).  rps  share  some  of  the  disadvantages  mentioned  for  longitudinal  studies:   gathering   a   large   amount   of   data   with   rps   is   not   easy   and   takes   time.   consequently,   dcts   are   widely   preferred,  in  two  main  versions:  multiple-­‐choice,  useful  for  examining  the  learners’  knowledge  through  their   choices,  without   the   fluency  bias   (kasper  &  blum-­‐kulka,   1993,   p.   61),   and  written,   addressing   both   offline   knowledge   of   pragmatics   and   (written)   fluency   (alcón-­‐soler,   2005;   blum-­‐kulka   &   olshtain,   1984;   gauci,   2015).  written  dcts  have  been  criticised  for  their  distance  from  spontaneous  speech.  yuan  (2001)  suggests   mitigating  these  disadvantages  by  explaining  the  situations  orally:  since  orally  elicited  data  are  usually  closer   to  natural  speech,  dcts  may  be  more  accurate,  even  if  written.  this  is  the  reasoning  behind  the  choice  of  an   orally  explained,  written  dct  for  the  present  study.   the  dct  is  comprised  of  21  scripted  situations  in  which  a  specific  speech  act  should  be  performed:  7   requests,  7  complaints,  and  7  apologies.  the  present  paper  analyzes  the  data  for  complaints.  the  situations   were   formulated   in   such   a  way   that   the   participants   had   to   verbalize   complaints   to   different   people,  with   different  levels  of  social  distance  (as  defined  in  brown  &  levinson,  1987)  and  intimacy  with  the  subject.  out   of   the   7   situations   formulated   for   complaints   (found   in   the   appendix),   3   simulated   a   dialogue   with   an   addressee  with  whom   the   speaker  was   intimate   (an   acquaintance,   a   friend,   and   a   relative)   and   4  with   an   addressee  with  whom  the  speaker  was  not  intimate  (two  with  a  worker:  a  waiter  and  a  cashier;  two  with  a   professional:  a  teacher  and  a  hotel  receptionist).  the  situations  were  meant  to  resemble  as  much  as  possible   the   range   of   potential   relationships   with   an   addressee   that   can   be   found   in   everyday   life,   so   that   the   participants’  choices  in  terms  of  type  of  complaints  and  modifiers  were  not  biased  by  an  imbalanced  structure   in  the  test  with  regard  to  this  variable.   the  situations  were  described  orally,  explained  in  detail  by  a  native  speaker,  in  light  of  yuan’s  (2001)   findings  on  how  orally  elicited  data  appear  closer   to  natural   speech.  participants  were   then  asked   to  write   down  what  they  would  have  said  had  they  found  themselves  in  the  situations  in  question.  several  variables   were  considered  for  building  the  answer  dataset:     1) proficiency  level  (of  the  individual  who  wrote  each  answer):  ns,  b1  or  b2;   2) identity  of  the  addressee:  the  addressee  could  be  a  relative,  a  friend,  an  acquaintance,  a  worker  or  a   professional  (see  appendix);   3) intimacy:  the  speaker  and  the  addressee  could  know  (+)  each  other  or  not  (-­‐)  (see  appendix);   4) type   and   subtype   of   complaint   as   defined   in   the   following   sections:   each   complaint   could   be   performed  as  an  expression  of  judgment,  a  request  for  reparation,  or  a  combination  of  the  two  (each   expression  of   judgment  and  request   for  reparation  can  also  be  performed  in  several  different  ways   that  will  be  defined  and  explained  with  specific  examples  -­‐  see  tables  1  and  2);     5) number  and  type  of  morphosyntactic,  lexical  and  external  modifiers  used  (see  table  3).       2.3.1.  units  of  analysis   the  unit  of  analysis  for  the  complaints  analyzed  in  this  paper  is  the  set  of  utterances  provided  by  the   participants  while  responding  to  the  dct.  although  all  of  them  are  considered  part  of  the  realization  patterns   of  the  speech  act,  most  of  the  sequences  can  be  divided  into  portions  with  different  functions.     politeness  strategies  in  complaints  in  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96   81   the  nucleus  of  the  speech  act,  which  is  usually  referred  to  as  the  “head  act”  in  the  literature,  is  what   is  needed  in  order  for  the  speech  act  to  be  realized.  as  previously  mentioned,  complaints  can  be  performed   with  an  expression  of  judgment  and/or  a  request  for  reparation:  when  either  one  of  them  is  presented  alone,   that  represents  the  head  act  and  the  other  portions  of  the  answers  should  be  considered  external  modifiers   (they  will  be  defined  and  illustrated  through  examples  in  section  2.3.3).   it  is  not  infrequent  that  expressions  of  judgment  and  requests  for  reparation  occur  together  as  a  head   act.   in   such  cases,  both  of   them  have  been  analyzed  separately   in  order   to  define   the   type  of  expression  of   judgment   or   request   for   reparation   that   they   represent   (see   table   4   for   the   findings).   yet,   as   far   as   the   definition   of   the   head   act   is   concerned,  while   expressions   of   judgment   and   requests   for   reparation   can   be   considered  as  equally  important  components  of  the  complaint  as  a  whole,  the  expression  of  judgment  seems   to  be   the  part  explicitly   signaling   that  a  complaint   is  being  performed  (unless   the  request   for   reparation   is   presented  alone  and  the  judgment  is  somehow  implicit).     the   head   act   alone   was   also   analyzed   in   terms   of   the   number   of   modifiers   used,   for   a   better   comparison  with  previous  studies  providing  their  results  in  terms  of  the  head  act  alone  (e.g.  gauci,  2015:  p.   116)  when  counting  the  mean  number  of  modifiers  (that  can  be  found  in  table  4).  for  the  reasons  expressed   previously,  when  the  complaint  was  expressed  by  a  combination  of  an  expression  of  judgment  and  a  request   for  reparation,  the  expression  of  judgment  has  been  considered  here  as  the  head  act.     2.3.2.  criteria  for  analysis:  complaints     in  order  to  analyze  the  realization  patterns  for  complaints  found  in  the  data,  it  is  necessary  to  define   the   types  of   complaints   to  be  used  as  categories  of  analysis.  the   taxonomy  provided   in   the   following  short   summary   is  mostly   based   on  nuzzo   (2007),   and   therefore   classifies   types   of   expressions   of   judgment   and   requests  for  reparation  separately.  these  subtypes  reflect  nuzzo’s  classification  but  have  been  streamlined  in   order  to  underscore  some  similarities  between  certain  types  of  expression  of  judgment,  rather  than  stressing   every  difference  between  them  (which  can  undoubtedly  be   identified   in   the  data,  but  could  overcomplicate   the   analysis),   and   to   make   the   continuum   from   the   least   direct   to   the   most   direct   type   clearer.   this   classification  is  consequently  less  fine-­‐grained  than  nuzzo’s.  the  examples  provided  in  table  1  are  taken  from   the  present  study’s  ns  data.     table 1 classification of types of expression of judgment found in complaints of nss, from the least (1) to the most direct (5) type description example 1. mention of the negative action the negative action is mentioned, and disapproved of, but not aggressively criticized. no specific reference to the action or the actor is made. “mi scusi, in realtà avrei ordinato un primo diverso da questo.” excuse me, actually i had ordered a different first course. 2. indirect charge the accusation clearly addresses the interlocutor but it is not explicit. “scusi mi sa che c'è qualcosa di sbagliato nel resto che mi ha dato.” excuse me, i feel like there is something wrong with the change you gave me. 3. direct charge it is clear that the interlocutor is to be charged of the negative action. “mi scusi, ho notato che non avete cambiato le lenzuola in questo giorno.” excuse me, i noticed that you have not changed the sheets today. 4. act reproach it is usually clear that the interlocutor has done the negative action, but the focus of the reproach is on the action itself and it can be violent. “hanno dimenticato di cambiare le lenzuola della nostra camera! è inaccettabile!” they forgot to change the sheets of our room! this is unacceptable! 5. actor reproach the reproach clearly addresses the interlocutor and it can be fierce. sometimes it takes an ironical form. “siete davvero attenti alle ordinazioni, in questo ristorante!” you really pay attention to the orders in this restaurant!   the  expression  of   judgment   (if  present)   therefore  has   five  possible  values,  namely   “mention  of   the   negative  action”,  “indirect  charge”,  “direct  charge”,  “act  reproach”,  and  “actor  reproach”.  these  are  presented   as   a   continuum,   from   the   least  direct   (mention  of   the  negative   action)   to   the  most  direct   (actor   reproach).   marocchini   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96  82   this   classification   was   based   on   the   researcher’s   introspection   and   on   the   examples   provided   by   nuzzo   (2007)  for  the  types  where  the  classification  matches  (i.e.,  2.,  3.,  and  5.);  another  researcher’s  judgment  was   used  in  order  to  resolve  cases  of  ambiguity  in  categorizing  an  answer  (each  ambiguous  answer  was  discussed   until   the   researchers   reached   consensus).   in   those   cases  where   the   answer   could   fall   into  more   than   one   category,  it  was  counted  as  representing  the  more  direct  possibility.   as   previously   stated,   the   expression   of   judgment   can   (but   need   not)   be   followed   by   a   request   for   reparation,   usually   expressed   in   one   of   the   following   ways.   in   fact,   nuzzo   (2007)   found   that   requests   for   reparation  usually  occur  in  combination  with  an  expression  of  judgment  and  are  rarely  present  alone.  again,   the  examples  in  table  2  are  taken  from  the  nss  data.     table 2 proposed classification of types of requests for reparation found in complaints by nss, from the least (1) to the most direct (5) types description examples 1. verification of the preparatory conditions the speaker asks something ‘verifying’ that conditions for the request to be met are present. this can include modal verbs, conditionals, and negative interrogative forms. “potrebbe mandare qualcuno a cambiarle?” could you send somebody to change them? 2. negotiation it usually takes the form of a question, sometimes a first-person plural is present to include the speaker and the interlocutor in a communal attempt of reparation. “scusi, quando riesce a riportarmi il mio quaderno?” excuse me, when can you bring my exercise book back to me? 3. suggestion this is a particularly circumlocutory type of request, where the speaker gives the interlocutor a hint as to how to repair the negative action. “provi a controllare, io ho ordinato un risotto.” try and check, i have ordered a risotto. 4. demand the speaker firmly demands reparation. “si deve cambiare le lenzuola!” the sheets have to be changed! 5. threat the speaker (sometimes violently) threatens a consequence for the interlocutor should there be no reparation for the negative action. “sbrigati, ancora cinque minuti e me ne vado.” hurry up, five more minutes and i’m gone.     the  request  for  reparation  (if  present)  can  also  have  five  possible  values,  namely  “verification  of  the   preparatory   conditions”,   “negotiation”,   “suggestion”,   “claim”   and   “threat”.   these   are   presented   as   on   a   continuum,  from  the  least  direct  (verification  of  the  preparatory  conditions)  to  the  most  direct  (threat).   as   stated   for   the   expressions   of   judgment,   this   classification   was   based   on   the   researcher’s   introspection  and  on  the  examples  provided  by  nuzzo  (2007)  for  the  types  where  the  classification  matches   (i.e.,   1.,   2.,   and   3.);   another   researcher’s   judgment   was   used   in   order   to   resolve   cases   of   ambiguity   in   categorizing  an  answer  (each  ambiguous  answer  was  discussed  until  the  researchers  reached  consensus).  in   those  cases  where  the  impression  was  that  the  answer  could  fall  into  more  than  one  category,  it  was  counted   as  representing  the  more  direct  type.     2.3.3.  criteria  for  analysis:  modifiers    following  previous  explanations  concerning  the  need   for  modification  to  mitigate   face-­‐threatening   acts   like   complaints,  modifiers  were   also   used   as   a   category   of   analysis.   the   following   classification   of   the   types  of  modifiers  used  for  the  analysis  in  the  present  paper  was  based  on  the  researcher’s  introspection  and   on  the  examples  provided  by  gauci  (2012,  2015),  nuzzo  (2007),  and  trosborg  (1995),  with  these  same  labels.   the  examples  are  taken  from  the  present  study’s  ns  data.       politeness  strategies  in  complaints  in  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96   83   table 3 types of modifiers considered type of modifiers subtype of modifiers examples lexical politeness markers per favore, per piacere, per cortesia (please), mi scusi (excuse me) appellatives signore (sir), signora (madam) subjectivizers secondo me (in my opinion), credo (i think), immagino (i imagine) intensifiers proprio (definitely), davvero (really) discourse markers cioè, tipo (like), senti (listen), guarda (look) softeners un attimo (a moment), un pochino (a little bit) commitment markers sono sicuro (i am sure), ti assicuro (i can assure you), giuro (i swear) greetings ciao (hello, informal), salve (hello, formal), buongiorno (good morning), buonasera (good evening) doubters forse (maybe), probabilmente (probably) morphosyntactic continuous aspects mi stavo chiedendo... (i was wondering...) imperatives cambiatele! (do change them!), muoviti! (hurry up!) consultative devices ti dispiace se... (would you mind if...) past tenses volevo... (i wanted), pensavo... (i thought) embedding mi chiedo se non possiate cambiarle (i was wondering whether you could change them), sarebbe bello se mi portaste il mio (it would be great if you brought me mine) conditionals potresti...? (could you...?), desidererei... (i would like) modal verbs puoi (can you), voglio (i want), dovete (you have to) external alerts mi spiace doverglielo dire (i am sorry but i have to tell you), scusi ma devo fare una lamentela (i am sorry but i have to make a complaint) grounders deve esserci stato uno scambio di tavolo (there must have been a confusion with another table), ho controllato il compito e ho visto... (i checked the assignment and i saw...) supportive reasons c'è qualcosa che non mi torna nel calcolo degli errori e vorrei capire dove sbaglio (there is something that doesn’t add up to me in the evaluation of the errors and i would like to understand where i am mistaken) sweeteners mi fido molto di lei, quindi... (i trust you a lot, so...)     the  annotation  of  these  types  of  modifiers  was  carried  out  manually  for  each  answer  on  a  randomly   selected  sample  of  300  observations,  100  for  each  of  the  three  groups  of  participants.     another   researcher’s   judgment   was   used   to   resolve   cases   of   ambiguity   in   categorizing   a  modifier   (each  ambiguous  modifier  was  discussed  until  the  researchers  reached  consensus).       3.  findings   3.1.  type  of  complaints   as   previously   noted,   complaints   can   be   performed   as   an   expression   of   judgment,   a   request   for   reparation,  or  a  combination  of  the  two,  following  the  classification  proposed  by  nuzzo  (2007).  the  present   study  found  that,  for  all  three  groups  of  participants,  expressions  of  judgment  (of  the  act  or  the  actor)  were   almost  always  present,  either  alone  or  in  combination  with  a  request  for  reparation.  on  the  other  hand,  it  was   very  rare  to  find  a  request  for  reparation  with  no  judgment  mentioned.   as   shown   in   table   4,   expressions   of   judgment   are   almost   always   used,   both   by   learners   and  nss,   while  requests  for  reparation  alone  only  constitute  2%  of  the  answers  provided  by  nss  and  b2-­‐level  learners.   b1-­‐level  learners,  however,  used  a  higher  percentage  (12%)  of  requests  for  reparation  alone.  based  on  prior   research,   italian  nss  would  view  a  request   for  reparation  without  an  attempt  to  decrease  the   impact  of   the   request  (with  the  use  of  downgraders  as  impolite  (see  nuzzo  &  gauci,  2012,  p.  18).         marocchini   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96  84   table 4 realization patterns for complaints: types of complaint proficiency level type of complaint expression of judgment request for reparation learners b1 judgment: 52% judgment and request: 36% request: 12% mention: 26% indirect charge: 18% direct charge: 40% act reproach: 2% actor reproach: 2% none: 12% none: 52% verification: 40% negotiation: 4% demand: 4% learners b2 judgment: 50% judgment and request: 48% request: 2% mention: 46% indirect charge: 14% direct charge: 38% none: 2% none: 50% verification: 22% negotiation: 12% demand: 14% threat: 2% native speakers judgment: 64% judgment and request: 34% request: 2% mention: 22% indirect charge: 52% direct charge: 24% none: 2% none: 64% verification: 32% suggestion: 4% note: types of expressions of judgment: from the least direct, mention of the negative action, to the most direct, actor reproach; and types of requests for reparation: from the least direct, verification of the preparatory conditions, to the most direct, threat. the   most   significant   difference,   however,   is   that,   while   nss   use   indirect   forms   of   expressions   of   judgement,   such  as   the  mention  and   the   indirect  charge   type,  nnss   tend   to  use  more  direct   forms,  e.g.   the   direct   charge   type   and   the   act   or   actor   reproach   types.   for   learners,   the   most   common   expression   of   judgement  is  the  direct  charge  type,  in  which  the  speaker  makes  it  clear  that  it  is  the  addressee  who  has  done   something  annoying,  as  in  this  example  by  a  b1-­‐level  learner:       (1)   scusi   signora,   è  sbagliato.   non  ha  dato   il  resto  corretto.     excuse  me   madame,   it’s  wrong.   you  have  not  given   the  right  change.     b1  learners  were  also  the  only  group  to  use  a  very  direct  form,  i.e.  the  act  reproach  type,  where  the   speaker   makes   it   clear   that   the   interlocutor   is   responsible   for   the   negative   action,   but   the   focus   of   the   reproach  is  on  the  action  itself.  there  were,  though,  only  a  few  occurrences  of  this  type:     (2)   scusi,  ma   hanno  dimenticato   di  cambiare  le  lenzuola   della  nostra  camera!     è  inaccettabile!     excuse  me,  but   they  forgot   to  change  the  sheets   of  our  room!   it’s  intolerable!     in  the  nss  data,  expressions  of  judgement  still  make  it  clear  that  the  addressee  is  to  blame,  but  these   are  more  frequently  carried  out  through  indirect  formulations,  as  in  the  following  example  (indirect  charge   type):             (3)   mi  scusi,   abbia  pazienza,   ho  paura  che   ci  sia  un  errore   nel  resto...     excuse  me,     be  patient,   i’m  afraid  that        there  is  a  mistake     in  the  change...     when  nss  choose  to  perform  an  expression  of  judgment  as  a  direct  charge,  they  usually  add  a  kind   request  for  reparation  and  make  extensive  use  of  modifiers:     4)   mi  scusi,     penso  che  abbia  sbagliato   a  darmi       il  resto.   potrebbe  verificare?     excuse  me,   i  think  that  you  made  a  mistake   while  giving  me     the  change.   could  you  verify?     expression  of  judgment   request  for  reparation     politeness  strategies  in  complaints  in  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96   85   b2-­‐level   learners   participating   in   this   study   tended   to   use   the   direct   charge   type   of   complaint   as   much  as  b1-­‐learners,  but  they  favored  mention  of  the  act  they  were  complaining  about  (which  is  a  less  direct   type)  over  reproach,  and  made  use  of  a  higher  number  of  downgraders,  which  made  the  complaints  less  face-­‐ threatening,  as  in  this  example:     (5)   scusi,     ho  ordinato  qualcos'altro.                          può  darmi  le  penne  all'arrabbiata,   prego?     excuse  me,   i  have  ordered  something  else.   can  you  give  me  the  penne  all’arrabbiata,   please?     expression  of  judgment   request  for  reparation     while   nss   showed   a   clear   preference   for   indirect   expressions   of   judgement   and   nnss   for   direct   approaches,  some  exceptions  could  be  found.  the  data  show  that  b1-­‐level  learners  are  also  able  to  perform   more  indirect  complaints  (indirect  charge  type),  although  even  when  they  do  so  (18%  of  the  expressions  of   judgment  performed  by  b1-­‐level  learners)  they  tend  not  to  use  many  downgraders.  this  is  well  exemplified   with  this  complaint  to  a  cashier  who  has  mistakenly  given  the  wrong  change:     (6)   scusa       signora,   penso  che   manchino  qualche  dinari.     excuse  me,     madame,   i  think  that   some  money  is  missing.     although  the  example  evidences  some  confusion  in  forms  of  address  (an  italian  native  speaker  would   definitely  say  scusi  to  a  signora,  using  a  second-­‐person  polite/honorific  form),  appropriate  lexical  choices,  and   grammatical  agreement,  it  is  clear  that  the  focus  of  the  complaint  is  on  the  missing  money  and  not  the  cashier   who  has  committed  the  mistake.     for  all  three  groups,  requests  for  reparation  are  almost  always  expressed  through  the  verification  of   the  preparatory  conditions  pattern.  as   the  name   implies,   the  speaker  “verifies”   that  conditions  are  present   for  the  request   for  reparation  to  be  met.  this  pattern  usually   includes  the  use  of  modal  verbs,  conditionals,   and  (sometimes)  negative   interrogative   forms.   in  general,  most  of   the  participants  (even  b1-­‐level   learners)   used  modals  when  performing  requests  for  reparation,  as  can  be  seen  in  example  (5).  conditionals  were  less   frequent   among   learners,   even   those   at   b2-­‐level,   while   nss   tended   to   use   them   more,   as   can   be   seen   in   example  (4),  where  the  pattern  is  clearly  recognizable.   some  nnss,   though,  performed  a   few  requests   for  reparation  of   the  demand  type,  as   in  example  7,   where  a  b1-­‐level  learner  insists  that  the  teacher  change  the  mark  that  she  has  given  him  because  the  number   of  mistakes  was  miscalculated.     (7)   scusa  maria,   ma  questo  non  è  un  errore.   ti  prego   di  correggere  il  mio  voto.     sorry  maria,   but  this  is  not  a  mistake.   i  beg  you   to  correct  my  mark.     the  learner  likely  thought  that  use  of  the  verb  pregare  (to  beg)  was  sufficient  to  mitigate  the  request,   unaware  that  the  directness  of  the  request  was  probably  too  strong  to  be  performed  with  a  teacher.  it  should   be   noted,   however,   that   the   situation   is   complicated   for   a   novice   language   learner,   and   can   be   potentially   difficult  for  nss  alike.   lastly,   less   direct   and   more   complicated   patterns   like   negotiation   (where   the   speaker   and   the   interlocutor  are  presented  together  -­‐  usually  via  a  first-­‐person  plural  -­‐  in  a  communal  attempt  of  reparation)   and  particularly  suggestion  (where  the  speaker  gives  the  interlocutor  a  hint  as  to  how  to  repair  the  negative   action)  seem  to  be  too  difficult  for  nnss:  negotiation  is  used  slightly  more  by  b2-­‐level  learners  (12%  of  their   answers  as  opposed  to  the  4%  of  b1-­‐level  learners’  answers),  while  suggestion  is  only  used  by  nss.   all   of   these   results   seem   to   support  trosborg’s   (1995)   findings,   in  which  esl   learners   overused   a   type   of   complaint   that   she   labelled   “accusation”   (p.   348),   essentially   a   combination   of  direct   charge,   act   reproach,   and   actor   reproach.   in   her   work,   trosborg   argued   that   nnss   generally   come   across   as   more   straightforward  (and  therefore  less  polite)  than  nss.  nuzzo  (2007,  p.  153)  also  came  to  this  conclusion  in  her   longitudinal   study   of   three   learners.   the   data   from   the   present   study   concerning   the   frequent   use   of   the   verification   pattern   in   requests   for   reparation   also   align  with   nuzzo’s   (2007)   data;   her   learners   used   the   verification  pattern  50%  of  the  time  (p.  123).   marocchini   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96  86   3.2.  modifiers   in   addition   to   examining   types   of   complaints,   modifiers   (both   internal   and   external)   have   been   considered   and   counted   following   the   classification   described   in   table   3.   the   analysis   was   carried   out   manually  for  each  answer  on  a  randomly  selected  sample  of  300  observations,  100  for  each  one  of  the  three   groups  of  participants.  the  overall  mean  number  of  modifiers  is  reported  in  table  5.  in  analyzing  modifiers,   in   addition   to   considering   the  whole   utterance,   the   head   act  was   also   examined   separately,   and   the  mean   number  of  modifiers  per  head  act  can  be  found  in  the  last  column  of  table  5.       table 5 use of modifiers in the three groups of participants. proficiency level overall mean number of modifiers mean number of morphosyntactic modifiers mean number of lexical modifiers mean number of external modifiers mean number of modifiers per head act learners b1 3.4 (sd: 1.14) 0.78 (sd: 0.93) 2.12 (sd: 0.68) 2.36 (sd: 0.96) 1.06 (sd: 0.65) learners b2 4.34 (sd: 1.71) 1.02 (sd: 1.13) 2.56 (sd: 0.92) 3.18 (sd: 1.63) 1.12 (sd: 0.87) native speakers 4.92 (sd: 2.58) 1.82 (sd: 1.50) 2.4 (sd: 1.08) 3.24 (sd: 2.09) 1.66 (sd: 1.02) note:  all of these measures are calculated per answer except for the mean number of modifiers per head act in the last column.   all  of  these  quantitative  measures  showed  a  correlation  between  a  higher  proficiency  level  and  the   usage   of   a   higher   number   of   modifiers   per   answer,   i.e.,   a   progressive   convergence   between   the   nnss’   behavior  and  that  of  nss.  this  table  also  shows  that  all  three  groups  were  observed  to  use  more  lexical  and   external  modifiers  than  morphosyntactic  modifiers,  and  that  nnss,  even  if  they  were  highly  proficient  in  their   l2,  consistently  employed  a  lower  number  of  modifiers  than  nss,  who  generally  used  more  modifiers  of  any   kind.     the  b2-­‐group,  however,  performed  better  than  the  b1-­‐group  (as  can  be  seen  both  in  table  5  and  in   the   following   figures)   in   terms  of   number   and   also   variety   of  modifiers   used.   in   terms  of   number,   table   5   shows  that  they  even  used  more  lexical  modifiers  than  nss.  in  terms  of  variety,  the  following  charts  illustrate     their  use.         figure 2. distribution of lexical modifiers in a random sample of complaints by the three groups (n = 100 each).     politeness  strategies  in  complaints  in  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96   87   as   previously   noted,   there   is   a   general   tendency   among  nnss   to   perform  more   direct   complaints,   which  can  be  perceived  as  impolite  by  italian  nss:  their  observed  selection  of  modifiers  was  consistent  with   this  tendency.  it  can  be  seen  from  figure  2  that  nnss  tended  not  to  mitigate  the  impact  of  their  complaints:   they  used  hardly  any  softener  (some  b2-­‐level  learners  did  employ  some),  no  doubters,  and  a  lower  number  of   subjectivizers  than  nss.  although  the  b2-­‐group  performed  better  than  the  b1-­‐group  in  terms  of  number  and   variety  of  lexical  modifiers,  they  also  complained  in  a  more  direct  way  than  nss.  yet,  the  b2-­‐group  tended  to   address   the   interlocutor   softly,   by   explaining   the   reasons   for   their   complaint   by  means   of   intensifiers   and   commitment  markers.  this  behavior  was  largely  present  among  nss  as  well  but  tended  to  be  exaggerated  by   b2-­‐level  learners:     (8)   scusa,   penso  che  si  sia  sbagliata,   sono  veramente  sicura  che  questo  è  giusto!     politeness.marker   subjectivizer   commitment.marker     excuse  me,   i  think  you  were  wrong,   i  really  am  sure  that  this  is  correct!     all   groups   also   tended   to   employ   fewer   morphosyntactic   than   lexical   modifiers   in   performing   complaints.  yet,  even  at  a  morphosyntactic  level,  where  the  numbers  are  lower  for  every  group,  the  b2-­‐group   performed  more  natively  than  the  b1-­‐level  learners  in  terms  of  modal  verbs  and  conditionals  used  to  reduce   the  impact  of  the  request  for  reparation.  this  can  be  seen  in  figure  3.       figure 3. distribution of morphosyntactic modifiers in a random sample of complaints by the three groups (n = 100 each).     in  comparing  figure  3  to  figure  2,  we  can  infer  that  the  tendency  for  all  speakers  was  to  soften  the   illocutionary   force   of   the   complaints  with   the  modifiers   that   are   easiest   to   learn:   politeness  markers.   the   increased  use  of  discourse  markers,  softeners  and,  more  than  anything,  subjectivizers,  accounts   for  most  of   the   perceived   politeness   in   the   nss’   and   the   b2-­‐learners’   realizations   of   this   speech   act.   the   following   example  from  the  ns  data  illustrates  how  italian  nss  tended  to  use  indirect  strategies  for  complaints,  along   with  downgraders,  especially  when  talking  with  a  professional.  even  when  charging  the  addressee  directly  in   their   actual   expression   of   judgment,   the   nss   used   lexical   modifiers   to   make   the   complaint   sound   less   threatening.                   marocchini   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96  88   (9)   professoressa   mi  scusi,   credo       ci  sia  stato   un   errore   nel   conteggio       politeness.marker   subjectivizer   past.tense         professor       excuse  me,      i  believe   there  has   been   a   mistake   in  the   calculation                   degli  errori       del  mio  compito,   potrebbe   ricontrollare?             modal.verb|conditional           of  the  errors   of  my  homework,   could  you   check  again?         additionally,  there  were  differences  in  the  types  of  complaints  for  which  speakers  used  modification.   nss  generally  used  modification  the  most  in  direct  charge  complaints,  while  nnss  tended  to  employ  the  same   number   of  modifiers,   regardless   of   the   type   of   complaint   they   were   performing.   b2-­‐level   learners,   on   the   other  hand,  seemed  to  be  more  conscious  of  the  need  to  be  polite  while  complaining,  at  least  if  we  consider   cases   of   overperformance   such   as   example   8.   this   tendency   can   be   seen   in   the   distribution   of   external   modifiers,   too.  looking  at   the  three  groups’  behavior  (figure  4),   it   is   immediately  striking  that   the  b1-­‐level   learners   do   not   employ   any   sweeteners   in   their   answers,   while   the   b2-­‐level   group   uses   them   even  more   frequently   than  nss.  this   can  be   interpreted  as   learners’  overuse  of  known   forms  as   compensation   for   the   politeness  strategies  that  they  lack  the  grammatical  competence  to  perform.       figure 4. distribution of external modifiers in a random sample of complaints by the three groups (n = 100 each).     b2-­‐level   learners   seem   to   use   alerters   more   rarely   (to   prepare   the   addressee   for   an   impending   complaint)  than  b1-­‐level  learners.  b1  learners  overuse  grounders  as  well.  the  following  examples  illustrate   the  relative  simplicity  of  b1   learners’  grammar:  because  they  do  not  use  many  lexical  and  morphosyntactic   modifiers  (shown  in  brackets),  they  may  compensate  with  external  modifiers  instead.     (10)   scusi,   ho  un  problema      nella  mia  camera   non  ci  hanno  cambiato   le  lenzuole.     (politeness.marker)                    alerter                                   grounder     excuse  me,   i  have  a  problem      in  my  room:   they  did  not  change   the  sheets.       (10)      può   risolvere   questo  problema   per  favore?     (modal.verb)                                                                                   head  act   (politeness.marker)        can  you   solve   this  problem   please?     politeness  strategies  in  complaints  in  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96   89     (11)   scusa   cameriere,   non  è  il  piatto  giusto,   avevo  ordinato  un  altro     (politeness.marker)        alerter                      head  act   (past.tense)      grounder         excuse  me   waiter,   it’s  not  the  right  course,     i  had  ordered  something  else.               these   findings   are   in   line  with   previous   research   on   italian   (gauci,   2015;  nuzzo,   2007)   and   other   languages  as  a  l2  (faerch  &  kasper,  2001;  trosborg,  1995):  nnss  showed  a  tendency  to  use  a  lower  number   of  modifiers  than  nss,  irrespective  of  their  proficiency.     the  differences  in  use  of  modifiers  by  italian  nss  and  nnss  found  in  these  data  also  seem  to  mirror   the  pattern  observed  in  trosborg’s  (1995)  study  of  english  nss’  and  nnss’  performance  of  complaints:  nsss   tended  to  use  a  combination  of  downgraders   to  decrease  the   impact  of   the  utterance  on  the  addressee  and   upgraders  to  strengthen  the  force  of  the  complaint;  nnss,  on  the  other  hand,  intensified  their  complaints  less   and  used  fewer  downgraders,  thus  producing  less  polite  complaints  on  the  whole  (p.  358).       4.  discussion   the   present   study   reveals   a   tendency   for  nnss   to   perform   similar   types   of   complaints,  which   are   generally  more  direct,   in   terms  of  expressions  of   judgment  and  requests   for  reparation,  when  compared   to   nss  (as  shown  in  section  3.1).     the  percentages  of   judgment-­‐only   (around  50%   for  nnss  and  64%   for  nss),   request-­‐only   (2%   for   b2-­‐level  learners  as  well  as  for  nss)  and  judgment-­‐and-­‐request  (around  35%  for  b1-­‐level  learners  and  nss)   complaints   were   similar   across   the   three   groups.   in   12%   of   b1-­‐level   learners’   utterances,   however,   a   complaint  was   performed   only   through   a   request   for   reparation  with   no   expression   of   judgment.   b2-­‐level   learners  used  the  judgment-­‐and-­‐request  type  48%  of  the  time,  more  than  either  nss  or  b1-­‐level  learners.     in  expressions  of  judgment,  both  groups  of  nnss  chose  to  use  the  direct  charge  type  in  around  40%   of  the  cases  (40%  for  b1-­‐learners,  38%  for  b2-­‐learners).  this  contrasts  sharply  with  nss’  use  of  direct  charge   (just   24%   of   cases)   and   their   preference   for   indirect   charges   (52%),   a   strategy   that   was   chosen   by   b2-­‐ learners   in   14%   of   cases   and   by   b1-­‐learners   in   just   18%   (see   table   4).   these   data   can   be   interpreted   as   evidence   that   nnss   are   more   direct   than   nss   in   their   complaints.   this   is   also   true   for   their   use   of   modification,  as  can  be  seen  in  the  analysis  provided  in  section  3.1.  in  comparing  b1-­‐  and  b2-­‐level  learners,   though,  b2  learners  present  a  higher  percentage  of  mentions  of  the  negative  action  (46%),  considered  a  less   aggressive   form  of   judgement   than  direct  charges.   in   fact   this  was   the  most  used  expression  of   judgement   among  b2  learners.  it  may  therefore  be  suggested  that  indirectness  progresses  according  to  learners’  level  of   grammatical  competence.   together,  these  results  seem  to  suggest  that  it  is  easier  for  nnss  to  be  native-­‐like  when  choosing  the   type   of   complaint   to   perform   than   when   deciding   how   to   express   judgement   and   how   to   downgrade   complaints  through  modification.   these   results   are   in   line  with   previous   studies   on   speech   act   realization   patterns   in   italian   l2:   in   nuzzo’s  (2007)  data,  nss  preferred  to  state  that  a  certain  event  was  negative,  but  they  avoided  harsh  or  direct   judgement  of  the  addressee  to  which  the  complaint  was  directed.  this  trend  is  in  line  with  trosborg’s  (1995)   data,   too:  her   learners  overused  “accusation”  (p.  348),  a   type  of  complaint  corresponding  to  direct  charge,   act  reproach,  and  actor  reproach  (types  that  were  present  in  the  b1-­‐learner  data  here).     the   correlation   between   indirectness   and   proficiency   seemed   present   among   nuzzo’s   (2007)   learners  as  well:  learners’  complaints  shifted  from  “excessively  aggressive”  to  “slightly  more  aggressive”  to   “rather  aggressive”  (p.  153)  with  their  increasing  level  of  grammatical  competence.   the   relative   native-­‐likeness   of   nnss’   choices   in   terms   of   requests   for   reparation   and   types   of   complaints  observed  in  this  study  seems  to  confirm  nuzzo’s  (2007)  statement  that  strategies  for  performing   head  acts  are  acquired  earlier  than  techniques  of  using  internal  modifiers.   the  tendency  among  nss  to  prefer  the  judgment-­‐only  type  of  complaint  also  confirms  nuzzo’s  (2007)   analysis   of   a   corpus   of   italian   l1,   where   65,4%   of   complaints   were   judgment-­‐only,   as   opposed   to   25,9%   judgment-­‐and-­‐request  cases,  and  just  a  8,7%  request-­‐only  cases  (p.  121),  which  in  this  study  were  used  even   less  (in  favor  of  the  combined  form).     the   results   of   this   study   show   that   nnss   are   less   native-­‐like   in   terms   of   their   employment   of   modifications  than  they  are  in  their  choice  of  complaint  types:  it  appears  that  most  of  them  have  yet  to  learn   to  use  doubters,  continuous  aspects,  and  consultative  devices.  additionally,  commitment  markers,  softeners,   discourse  markers,  and  past  tenses  were  only  used  at  the  b2-­‐level.     marocchini   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96  90   on   the  one  hand,  as   the  b2  group  performed  significantly  better   than   the  b1,   this   finding  suggests   that  the  amount  and  variety  of  lexical  and  morphosyntactic  modifiers  in  the  realization  of  complaints  (shown   in  figures  2  and  3)  reveal  a  progression  in  terms  of  native-­‐likeness  in  the  quantitative  and  qualitative  use  of   modification,   which   follows   an   increase   in   proficiency   level.   on   the   other   hand,   only   a   small   quantity   of   discourse   markers   and   softeners   (seen   in   figure   2)   were   found   in   the   answers   provided   by   the   nnss,   regardless  of  their  proficiency  level.    when  we  asked  the  teachers  at  the  language  center  about  these  findings,   they   recognized   that   they   hardly   ever   teach   or   discuss   discourse  markers   in   class,   due   to   the   difficulty   of   translating   them   into   other   languages   and   because   of   the   small   amount   of   time   students   spend   in   spontaneous  conversation  with  nss:  the  only  spontaneous  speech  that  they  analyzed  in  class  was  that  of  the   learners   attending   the   course   (e.g.   during   role  plays  or   in   class  discussions  on  a   given   topic),  which   rarely   included  any  discourse  markers.   when  discourse  markers  and   softeners  were  present   in   learners’  data,   they   shared  with   the  nss  a   moderate   but   intelligent   use   of   subjectivizers,   although   less   frequent   in   the   b1-­‐group   data.   learners   also   showed  an  overuse  of  intensifiers,  especially  at  a  b2-­‐level.  the  b2-­‐level  learners  participating  in  the  present   study  were  probably  at  an  intermediate  stage  where,  paradoxically,  an  increased  use  of  intensifiers  coincides   with  the  first  appearance  of  various  downgraders,  namely,  subjectivizers,  discourse  markers,  and  softeners.   the   distribution   of   these  modifiers   among   the   different   situations   described   in   the   dct   shows   how,   even   when  strategies  and  types  of  modifiers  to  be  used  are  varied  and  essentially  learned  (as  in  the  case  of  the  b2-­‐ level  group),  insufficient  attention  may  be  paid  to  the  situations  and  contexts  in  which  communication  takes   place.  although  the  methods  for  this  study  and  a  written  dct  in  particular  could  be  seen  as  contributing  to   this  lack  of  attention  to  context  and  interlocutors,  the  situational  data  were  clearly  explained  in  person,  so  it   would   have   been   possible   to   fine-­‐tune   strategies   and   modification   devices   with   the   described   context.   instead,   nnss   seem   unable   to   account   for   the   identity   of   the   addressee   and   the   presence   or   absence   of   intimacy  between  them,  and  they  used,  on  average,  the  same  number  of  modifiers  in  almost  all  situations.     on  a  more  general   level,   learners  also  tended  to  use  more  lexical  than  syntactic  modifiers:  b1-­‐level   learners  employed  an  average  of  2.12  lexical  modifiers  per  answer  but  only  0.78  morphosyntactic  modifiers,   and   b2-­‐level   learners   used   2.56   lexical  modifiers   per   answer   but   only   1,02  morphosyntactic  modifiers,   as   shown  in  table  5.  this  may  be  due  to  higher  offline  pragmatic  knowledge  that   the   learners  were  unable   to   encode  grammatically.   these   data   also   confirm   the   theoretical   framework   proposed   by   nuzzo   (2007,   p.   154).   first,   the   presence   of   such   a   small   number   of   discourse  markers   can   be   explained   by   their   particular   complexity   in   terms  of  comprehension  and  acquisition;  this  can  probably  be  said  of  downgraders,  too  (two  of  the  learners   in  nuzzo’s   study   “rarely   [used]  mitigation  devices   in   their   expressions  of   judgment”,  p.   153).   secondly,   the   presence  of  intensifiers  in  the  answers  provided  by  the  b2  group  may  plausibly  be  explained  by  nuzzo’s  idea   that,  for  learners  with  an  intermediate  level  of  interlanguage,  intensifiers  are  the  most  accessible  tools  in  their   linguistic   repertoire   for   gaining   “stronger   effectiveness”.   only   later   on   will   they   learn   how   to   balance,   in   general,  the  use  of  upgraders  and  downgraders,  “gradually  reducing  the  aggressiveness  of  their  complaints”   (nuzzo,  2007,  p.  154).  the  overuse  of  politeness  markers  by  nnss  has  already  been  observed  and  studied  as   well:   it   seems   that   learners   use   them   both   as   indicators   of   illocutionary   force   of   their   sentences   and   as   downgraders  (gauci,  2012,  p.  100,  p.  106).  the  same  can  be  said   for   the   little  attention  paid  by   learners   to   contexts  in  which  communication  takes  place,  as  noted  by  gauci  (2015,  p.  118)  as  well.     4.1.  cross-­‐linguistic  influence  and  potential  transfer  from  l1  or  other  known  languages   the   present   data   also   confirm   (some)   results   from   the   study   by   van   mulken   (1996)   mentioned   previously.   van   mulken   stated   that   dutch   nss   tend   to   mitigate   their   requests   for   reparation   with   lexical   rather   than  syntactic  and  external  modifiers,  not  only   in   their  native   language.   in   this  study,   it   seems  to  be   true   that,   as   van  mulken   (1996,   p.   701)   observed   for   french   nss,   dutch   nss   learning   italian   as   a   foreign   language  commonly  chose  a  politeness  marker  and  kept  the  head  act  alone.  external  modifiers,   though,  are   proportionally  more   present   in   the   nnss   data   than   internal  modifiers   (both  morphosyntactic   and   lexical)   overall.           politeness  strategies  in  complaints  in  italian     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96   91   since  most  of  the  participants  knew  french  as  well  (for  most  of  them  it  was  their  second  language),   some   forms   that   can   be   found   in   the   nnss   data,   like   scusate   (‘excuse   me’,   second-­‐person   plural/second-­‐ person  singular  honorific/polite  form),  which  they  had  probably  never  heard  in  class  and  were  not  present  at   all   in  the  ns  data,  were  most   likely  used  by  the  nnss  due  to  cross-­‐linguistic   influence  from  vous   (the  polite   form   in  french).  transfer   from  french  may  also  be   seen   in   the  persistent  use  of   the   form  *è  possibile  di…?   instead  of  the  correct  italian  form  è  possibile…?  with  no  di  following,  since  the  same  form  in  french  would  be   est-­‐il  possible  de…?.     5.  conclusion   the  present  paper   analyzes   initial   data   from  on  an  ongoing   study   in   two   classrooms  of  dutch  nss   learning  italian  as  a  foreign  language  in  a  language  center  in  belgium,  23  at  a  b1  level,  19  at  a  b2  level.  the   study  follows  an  existing  line  of  research  that  examines  the  ability  of  learners  of  a  second  or  foreign  language   to  perform  specific,  face-­‐threatening  (see  brown  &  levinson,  1987),  communicative  acts  (here,  complaints)  as   a  native  speaker  would.  for  this  reason,  the  data  produced  by  the  nns  have  been  compared  with  data  from  a   group  of  (23)  italian  nss  responding  to  the  same  written  dct.   the   answers   were   analyzed   both   from   a   quantitative   and   a   qualitative   perspective,   following   the   classifications  suggested  by  nuzzo  (2007)  for  the  types  of  complaints—either  composed  by  an  expression  of   judgment  or  a  request  for  reparation,  or  by  a  combination  of  the  two—,  and  by  nuzzo  (2007)  and  trosborg   (1995)  for  the  types  of  internal  (morphosyntactic  and  lexical)  and  external  modifiers.   in   response   to   our   first   research   question   (rq1)   about   the  most   common  ways   nss   and  nnss   of   italian  express  their  judgment  for  a  negative  action  that  has  annoyed  them,  the  learners  performed  in  native-­‐ like  ways  in  terms  of  complaint  types:  all  three  groups  tended  to  prefer  the  judgment-­‐only  type  of  complaint,   although  the  b1-­‐level  learners  used  more  request-­‐only  complaints  (still  just  12%  of  the  answers  provided  to   the  dct)  and  b2-­‐level  learners  tended  to  generally  use  more  indirect  types  of  expressions  of  judgment.   in  regards  to  the  second  research  question  (rq2),  though,  which  asked  whether  there  are  substantial   differences  between  nss  and  nnss   in   terms  of   their  distribution  of  morphosyntactical,   lexical   and  external   modifiers,  nnss  systematically  used  a  lower  number  of  modifiers  than  native  speakers.  this  was  even  true  for   the  b2-­‐level  learners,  who  proved  to  be  highly  proficient  in  their  l2.     nevertheless,  the  fact  that  the  b2-­‐level  learners  exhibited  more  native-­‐like  performance  than  the  b1-­‐ level   learners,  both  in  terms  of  the  number  and  variety  of  modifiers  used,  seems  to  suggest  that   it  could  be   possible   to  define  a  developmental  path  whereby  a  higher  proficiency   level   in   the   language  means   smaller   differences  between  non-­‐native  and  native   linguistic  behavior.  a  slight  preference   for   lexical  over  syntactic   modifiers  both  among  b1-­‐level  learners  and  b2-­‐level  learners  may  be  interpreted  as  substantial  evidence  that   a  relationship  between  the  acquisition  and  the  use  of  linguistic  forms  exists  (a  question  previously  raised  by   nuzzo,  2007,  p.  39)   in   terms  of   consequentiality:  most  of   the  b2-­‐level   learners  displayed  knowledge  of   the   majority   of   the   morphosyntactic   modifiers   analyzed   in   this   study,   and   yet   they   did   not   employ   them   as   pragmatic  modification  devices.  these  observations  partially  respond  to  the  third  research  question  (rq3),   which  asked  whether  nnss  with  higher  linguistic  proficiency  show  more  native-­‐like  behavior  in  performing   complaints  than  nnss  with  lower  linguistic  proficiency.  the  use  of  external  modifiers  could  be  explained  as   proof  of  a  higher  level  of  awareness,  even  among  the  b1-­‐level  learners,  that  a  native  speaker’s  utterances  in   the  situations  presented  would  be  more  varied.  with   this  awareness,   learners  would   the  need   to  use  more   words   than   they   currently   employ.   cases   of   overuse   of   external   modification   and   a   lack   of   internal   modification,   though,   combined  with   the   frequent   selection  of  direct   expressions  of   judgment,   reflect   early   strategies..   the   findings  regarding   the   fourth  and   final   research  question   (rq4)  —  do  dutch  nss  who  are   ifl   learners   tend   to   use  more   internal   than   external  modifiers  when   trying   to   be   polite   in   italian?  —   seem   to   confirm  part  of  what  van  mulken  observed  about  dutch  nss  speaking  in  french  (van  mulken,  1996,  p.  701):   for   dutch   nss   learning   italian   as   a   foreign   language   one   of   the   most   common   strategies   seems   to   be   the   decision   to   use   a   politeness   marker   and   keep   the   head   act   alone.   however,   external   modifiers   are   proportionally  more  present  in  the  nnss  data  than  internal  modifiers  in  general  (both  morphosyntactic  and   lexical).   these   results   strongly   confirm  previous   studies  on   italian   (gauci,   2012;  2015;  nuzzo,  2006;  2007;   rastelli  &  nuzzo,  2009)  and  other  languages  (faerch  &  kasper,  2001;  trosborg,  1995),  as  the  findings  show   that  learners,  even  those  with  high  l2  proficiency,  systematically  use  fewer  modifiers  than  native  speakers.   marocchini   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96  92   the   developmental   path   outlined   by   these   data   was   also   highlighted   by   gauci   (2012)   and   nuzzo   (2006,   2007).   the   same   can   also   be   said   about   b1   and   b2   learners’   displayed   preference   for   lexical   over   syntactical  modifiers  (although  this  preference  was  more  significant   in  previous  studies,  at   least  more  than   the  results  from  b1-­‐level  learners  here  suggest).   as  far  as  potential  improvement  for  pedagogy,  a  study  conducted  by  gauci  (2015)  on  complaints  and   requests,  which  employed  more  varied  methods  than  the  present  study  (i.e.,  a  role-­‐play  and  a  multiple  choice   dct   in   addition   to   the  written   dct),   revealed   that   after   six  weeks   of   instruction   (one   hour   per  week)   on   pragmalinguistic  forms  and  detailed  lessons  on  sociopragmatic  rules,  the  mean  number  of  internal  modifiers   used  per  head  act  increased  significantly  in  the  experimental  group  compared  to  a  control  group  (who  had  no   training  between  the  two  tests),  and  the  variety  of  modifiers  was  also  greater   in  the  former  group  (p.  116).   although  it  was  beyond  the  scope  of  the  present  study  to  examine  the  potential  effects  of  instruction,  lessons   would  likely  prove  useful  if  they  focused  on  specific  modifiers,  with  overt  explanations  of  their  functions  and   importance.     instruction  on   less  direct   expressions  of   judgment   could  also  be  useful.  the  data  produced  by  nss   participating   in   this   study   could   be  manipulated   and   learners   could   be   exposed   to   short   audio-­‐   or   video-­‐ recordings  of  nss’  production  of  and  reaction  to  complaints.  some  of   the  sequences  could  be  used  for  role-­‐ plays.  in  fact,  gauci  (2015,  p.  123)  highlights  the  importance  of  using  varied  teaching  methods,  since  no  one   method  has  been  shown  to  be  more  useful  than  another  in  the  previous  literature.   on   a   side   note,   as   part   of   their   usual   course   activities,   the   learners   from   the   b2-­‐level   classroom   followed   a   curriculum   that   involved   role-­‐play   of   certain   speech   acts   (requests   in   particular).  however,   the   kinds  of   pragmatic   abilities   that   learners  would   try   and   stimulate  were  only   implicitly   communicated.  the   teacher  proposed  them  as  side  exercises  to  break  up  strongly  theoretical  lessons,  and  although  the  repetition   of   similar   tasks   could   result   in   a   conscious   approach   to   the   tasks   as   being,   for   instance,   all   related   to   the   performance  of  complaints,  it  would  be  difficult  to  reach  a  real  understanding  of  how  to  produce  a  native-­‐like   speech   act   in   this  way.   following   takahashi   (2010,   p.   138),  who   states   that   explicit   and   implicit   forms   of   intervention  (with  reference  to  the  definition  by  housen  &  pierrard,  2005)  may  be  better  conceptualized  on  a   continuum   rather   than   as   separate,   binary   concepts,   it   would   be   interesting   to   explore   whether   a   more   explicit  teaching  intervention  on  the  sociopragmatic  variables,  especially  in  terms  of  the  social  distance  and   the   identity  of   the   interlocutor   (as   suggested  by  gauci,   2015,  p.  123),  may  be  useful,   after   implicit   training   with  the  mentioned  audiovisual  materials.   in  conclusion,  the  analysis  offered  by  this  paper  may  have  useful  pedagogical   implications,  as 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 conversations.  journal  of  pragmatics,  33(2),  271-­‐292.   marocchini     ©  marocchini  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.   appendix     discourse completion test some questions slightly varied in the two versions of this test: anytime a professor or a classmate was mentioned, the course was described as the italian course at clt in the version tailored for nnss, whilst it was described as a generic evening course in the version tailored for the nss. these differences are marked in this appendix with a slash separating the two versions, in brackets. identity of the addressee situations intimacy 1. professional l’albergo in cui soggiorni non ha provveduto a cambiare le lenzuola usate dai clienti precedenti. fallo presente in reception. the hotel you’re staying in did not change the sheets used by the previous costumers. go tell the receptionists. lower 2. friend il tuo amico giuseppe ha preso in prestito un tuo libro ma te l’ha riportato senza copertina. faglielo presente. your friend giuseppe borrowed a book from you and he’s giving it back to you without its cover. tell him. higher 3. worker la cassiera del supermercato ha sbagliato a darti il resto. faglielo presente. you were given the wrong change by the cashier at the supermarket. tell her. lower 4. worker hai ordinato un primo piatto al ristorante, ma te ne hanno portato uno sbagliato. dillo al cameriere. you have ordered a first course at a restaurant, but the waiter brings you a wrong one. tell him. lower 5. professional la professoressa del [clt/corso che frequenti] ha sbagliato a conteggiare gli errori nel tuo ultimo compito. faglielo presente. your teacher at [clt/a course you are enrolled at] made some errors in counting your mistakes in your last italian test. let her know. lower 6. relative tua sorella ti ha chiesto di accompagnarla a comprare un vestito ma ci sta impiegando ore per scegliere. faglielo presente. your sister asked you to come with her to buy a dress, but it’s taking hours for her to choose. tell her. higher 7. acquaintance hai prestato il tuo quaderno a un signore che [studia italiano con te al clt/segue con te un corso che frequenti], ma dopo due settimane non te l’ha ancora riportato. faglielo presente. you’ve lent your notebook to a gentleman who [studies italian with you at clt/studies with you at a course], but two weeks have passed without him giving it back to you. tell him. higher   marocchini   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  75-­‐96  96   eleonora marocchini,  università degli studi di pavia eleonora.marocchini@gmail.com en eleonora marocchini graduated in linguistics theory, applied linguistics and modern language linguistics from the university of pavia and is currently studying at the scuola universitaria superiore iuss of pavia. her main research interests include pragmatics, the acquisition of italian as second language and bilingualism. es eleonora marocchini es licenciada en lingüística teórica, lingüística aplicada y lingüística de lenguas modernas en la universidad de pavía. actualmente estudia en la scuola universitaria superiore iuss de pavía. entre sus principales intereses de investigación se encuentran la pragmática, la adquisición del italiano como segunda lengua y el bilingüismo. it eleonora marocchini è laureata in linguistica teorica, applicata e delle lingue moderne presso l'università di pavia ed è allieva della scuola universitaria superiore iuss di pavia. i suoi principali interessi di ricerca includono la pragmatica, l’acquisizione di italiano come lingua seconda e il bilinguismo. microsoft word 4. krivosh schwartz_39-58 (1).docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  7,  issue  1,  january  2020,  39-­‐58   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.11.196   www.e-­‐journall.org     © krivosh 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       "to  be  able  to  understand  each  other":  intercultural  interactions  in  the   arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  preschool  in  israel         ludmila  krivosh  &  mila  schwartz   oranim  college  of  education         received  24  june  2019;  received  in  revised  form  20  september  2019;  accepted  2  november  2019   abstract en this ethnographic study expands prior understanding of the intercultural encounter process by focusing on 29 jewish and arab children attending bilingual preschool and two preschool teachers during 16 class sessions. the findings shed light on a developmental stage at which the seeds of intercultural interaction begin to appear along the separation between arab and jewish children in terms of their social preferences. the presence of second language (l2) experts in the classroom prompted the formation of two groups based on children’s bilingual competence, an experts’ group and a novice one. on the one hand, some experts positioned themselves as competent bilinguals and teachers, willing to assume the role of l2 mediators and interpreters. on the other hand, the relative l2 competence prompted novice learners to be flexible and go beyond their ethnic identity in order to establish new social relationships. the data show that the process of l2 acquisition might play a catalytic role in activating a social mechanism for intercultural interaction and that, despite differences in the patterns of social adaptation, all children showed developmental intercultural changes. key words: early language learning, intercultural interactions, bilingualism, interactional competencies es este estudio etnográfico profundiza en la comprensión del proceso de encuentro intercultural y se enfoca en 29 niños judíos y árabes en una escuela infantil bilingüe y dos docentes durante 16 sesiones de clase. los resultados muestran un estadio de desarrollo en el que aparecen las semillas de la interacción intercultural junto con la separación entre niños árabes y judíos en función de sus preferencias. la presencia de dos expertos de segundas lenguas (l2) en el aula determinó la creación de dos grupos según la competencia lingüística d los niños, un grupo de expertos y un grupo de principiantes. por una parte, algunos expertos se posicionaron como hablantes e instructores bilingües competentes, asumiendo el rol de mediadores e intérpretes. por otra parte, la competencia lingüística limitada de los principiantes les empujó a ser más flexibles e ir más allá de su identidad étnica para establecer nuevas relaciones sociales. los datos muestran que el proceso de adquisición de la l2 puede facilitar la activación de mecanismos sociales de interacción intercultural y que, a pesar de las diferencias en los patrones de adaptación social, todos los niños experimentaron cambios interculturales. palabras clave:  aprendizaje temprano de una lengua, interacción intercultural, bilingüismo, competencias interaccionales it questo studio etnografico approfondisce la comprensione del processo di incontro interculturale e si concentra su 29 bambini ebrei e arabi che frequentano la scuola materna bilingue e due insegnanti nel corso di 16 lezioni. i risultati fanno luce su una fase di sviluppo in cui i semi dell'interazione interculturale iniziano a comparire insieme alla separazione tra bambini arabi ed ebrei in termini di preferenze sociali. la presenza di esperti di seconda lingua (l2) in classe ha indotto alla formazione di due gruppi basati sulla competenza bilingue dei bambini, un gruppo di esperti e uno di principianti. da un lato, alcuni esperti si sono affermati come bilingui e insegnanti competenti, disposti ad assumere il ruolo di mediatori e interpreti l2. dall’altro, la competenza linguistica limitata ha spinto i principianti ad essere flessibili e andare oltre la propria identità etnica al fine di stabilire nuove relazioni sociali. i dati mostrano che il processo di acquisizione di l2 potrebbe svolgere un ruolo catalizzatore nell'attivazione di un meccanismo sociale per l'interazione interculturale e che, nonostante le differenze nei modelli di adattamento sociale, tutti i bambini hanno mostrato cambiamenti dello sviluppo interculturali. parole chiave: apprendimento iniziale della lingua, interazione interculturale, bilinguismo, competenze interazionali   *    ludmila  krivosh,  oranim  college  of  education                    ludmilk@gmail.com krivosh  &  schwartz   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 40   1.  early  childhood  bilingual  education  and  intercultural  interaction:  introduction   early  childhood  bilingual  education  has  a  central  role  in  promoting  a  child’s  life-­‐long  love  of  language   and   bilingual   proficiency   (european   commission,   2011),   and   the   cognitive   and   linguistic   benefits   of   early   bilingual   development   and   education   have   been   widely   researched   during   recent   years   (e.g.,   barnett,   lambert,   &   fry,   2008;   hamann,   rinke,   &   genevska-­‐hanke   2019;   hoff,   2017;   montrul,   2018;   rolstad,   mahoney,  &  glass,   2008).  early   language   learning  has   enormous  potential   for   the  development  not  only  of   children’s   cognitive   and   linguistic   skills   but   also   of   their   identity,   values,   empathy,   and   respect.   children’s   encounters   in   bilingual   early   education   settings   “can   shape   the   way   they   develop   their   attitudes   towards   other   languages   and   cultures   by   raising   awareness   of   diversity   and   of   cultural   variety,   hence   fostering   understanding  and  respect”  (european  commission,  2011,  p.  7).     since  bilingual  classrooms  are  also  bicultural  due  to  the  impact  of  both  the  children’s  and  teachers’   home   and   community   values   (e.g.,   baker,   2006;   saxena,   2008;   skutnabb-­‐kangas,   2008),   policy   makers   consider   this   diversity   as   a   resource.   the   bicultural   nature   of   bilingual   schools  might   then   be   established   purposefully   in   locations   where   two   or  more   cultural-­‐ethnic   groups   are   living   in   a   state   of   tension,   in   an   attempt   to   initiate   peace,  work   for   the   sake  of   humanity,   live   cooperatively,   and  maintain   respect   for   each   other’s  cultures  and  languages  (gundara  &  portera,  2008).  this  need  for  intercultural  communicative  skills  is   particularly  relevant  for  the  jewish  and  arab  communities  in  israel.  similar  to  the  english  and  french  context   in  canada,  in  israel,  hebrew  and  arabic  are  host-­‐community  languages  (as  opposed  to  immigrant  languages)   with  an  official  status.  however,  living  in  the  same  country  does  not  necessarily  mean  coexistence.  unlike  in   other  host  communities,  arabs  and   jews   live   in  separate  communities  and  can  at   times  experience   tension.   bearing  in  mind  that  living  together  in  mutual  acceptance  and  respect  is  not  an  innate  characteristic,  children   need  to  be  taught  coexistence,  and  schools  serve  as  the  primary  institutions  for  this  purpose.     recent   studies   revealed   that,   in   intercultural   communications,   children   can   display   a   strong   orientation  towards  the  majority  group’s  language,  while  marginalizing  others  who  are  not  proficient  enough   (cekaite  &  björk-­‐willén,  2013;  drury,  2000;  puskas  &  björk-­‐willén,  2017),  for  example,  by  pretending  not  to   understand   l2   novices’   talk   (bernstein,   2016).   however,   these   challenges   were   documented   mostly   in   monolingual  preschool  settings  and  the  question  of  how  the  intercultural   interactions  between  children  are   built   in   a   bilingual   preschool   context   remains   under-­‐researched.   the   current   research   focuses   on   peers’   intercultural  interactions  in  a  bilingual  preschool  with  a  high  number  of  children  with  immigrant  background.   the   aim  of   this   study   is   to   explore   the  main   aspects   of   intercultural   interaction  during   the   first   year   in   an   arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  preschool  classroom  in  israel.  our  focus  was  on  the  dual-­‐language  program  that,  as   a  model   of   bilingual   education,   has   a   language  as   a   resource   orientation,   viewing   languages  other   than   the   majority  language  as  resources  to  be  developed  (ruiz,  1984).     bilingual,   bicultural   societies   develop   shared   values   and   increase   their   democratic   interactions   through   intercultural   education   (gundara,   2008).   in   contrast,   separate   schooling   in   a   bi-­‐   or   multicultural   society  hinders  social  cohesion  (gundara,  2008).  thus,  in  the  case  at  hand,  bilingual  education  may  give  the   israeli   population   the  opportunity   of   exposure   to   the  other   official,   but   less   familiar,   language   and   culture.   knowledge  of  each  other’s  languages  and  cultures  may  lead  to  mutual  recognition.  in  this  study,  we  sought  to   explore  the  onset  of  this  knowledge  development  by  drawing  on  the  theoretical  perspectives  presented  in  the   following  section.       2.   intercultural   communication   in   early   childhood   under   personal   and   external   forces:  the  theoretical  models  of  the  study     the  unique  value  of  this  study  lies  in  the  examination  of  social  interaction  between  the  majority  and   minority  language  speakers,  who  were  preschool  children  and  representatives  of  two  population  groups  that,   in  most   cases,   live   separately.   in   this   study,  we   examined   the   behavior   and   interactions   of   children   in   the   arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking   preschool   from   a   multidisciplinary   perspective,   enabling   a   comprehensive   and   simultaneous   analysis   of   various   aspects   of   the   phenomenon.   for   this   purpose,   we   drew   on   theoretical   models   from   different   research   disciplines   (psychology,   sociology,   and   child   development),   based   on   a   common   conceptual   idea   of   shaping  human  behavior   and   interactions  under   the   influence  of   personal   and   external  forces.     first,   we   drew   on   bronfenbrenner’s   ecological   theory   (bronfenbrenner,   1994),   which   sees   individuals’  behavior  and  development  as  dynamic  and  changing   in  accordance  with  the  way   in  which  they   understand  and  relate  to  their  environment  and  according  to  their  ability  to  control  their  environment.  the   intercultural  interactions  in  the  arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  preschool  in  israel   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 41   theory   holds   that   the   interactions   between   children   and   their   environment   are   expressed   in   the   circles   surrounding  them.  on  the  micro  level,  these  interactions  take  place  in  interpersonal  relationships,  and  on  the   macro   level,   in   relation   to   ethnic   groups,   either   people   living   in   a   particular   region   or   any   other   type   of   a   broad  social  structure.     in  addition,  we  utilized  berry’s  theory  of  acculturation  (berry,  2005),  according  to  which,  individuals’   behavior   in   a   multicultural   society   is   dependent   on   four   acculturation   strategies,   which   are   based   on   the   distinction  between  orientations  toward  one’s  own  group  and  toward  other  groups.  the  theory  holds  that  a   continuous  cultural  encounter  between  people  of  diverse  cultural  origins  leads  to  cultural  and  psychological   change  of  these  strategies,  among  representatives  of  both  the  minority  and  the  majority  group.     finally,  our  study  was  inspired  by  robinson’s  theory  of  intercultural  development  (robinson,  2007)   that  claims  the  intercultural  behavior  of  representatives  of  diverse  cultures  is  determined  by  education  and   choice   and   is   characterized   by   the   ability   to   change,   reflected   on   all   levels   of   the   child’s   development:   emotional,  cultural  and  social.   based   on   these   theories,   in   this   study,   we   analyzed   interactions   between   the   l1   arabic-­‐   and   l1   hebrew-­‐speaking  children  in  the  bilingual  classroom  with  regard  to  the  following  three  factors:  their  innate   inclination   to   learning   and   connecting,   their   parents’   educational   environment   tendencies,   and   their   willingness  to  become  familiar  with  another  culture.  we  conducted  this  analysis  in  accordance  with  the  level   of  the  children’s  intercultural  communication  and  development,  including  their  degree  of  social  suitability  to   the   new   educational   framework.   in   the   following   subsection,   we   briefly   address   the   existing   data   on   intercultural  communication  in  dual  language  education  from  a  sociological  perspective.       2.1.  the  sociological  context  of  the  study:  intercultural  communication  and  bilingual  education     in   recent   years,   an   increasing  number  of   studies   in   the   field  of   l2   learning  are   shifting   their   focus   from  linguistic  and  cognitive  aspects  towards  cultural  and  social  aspects  (brown  2007;  norton,  2000).  with   growing   awareness   in   the   education   field   that   learning   and   cognition   are   fundamentally   social   in   nature,   sociocultural  interactions  in  the  classroom  may  be  examined  in  this  context.  this  social  type  of  learning  was   theorized  in  the  concept  community  of  practice  (cop)  (lave  &  wenger,  1991,  wenger,  2006),  and  defined  as   “groups  of  people  who  share  a  concern  or  a  passion  for  something  they  do  and  learn  how  to  do  it  better  as   they  interact  regularly"  (wenger,  2006,  p.  1).  wenger  (2006)  noted  that  a  cop  can  vary  in  terms  of  group  size,   location,  status  of  the  individuals  involved  and  format  for  interaction.  according  to  lave  and  wenger  (1991),   in   cops,   less   experienced  members   learn   from   interacting  with  more   experienced  members   (experts)   and   with   each   other.   to   illustrate   this,   in   an   ethnographic   study,   angelova,   gunawardena,   and   volk   (2006)   addressed   intercultural   interactions  by  examining  peer  mediation   in  l2  by  young  l2  experts   in   a  bilingual   classroom,   in   a   dual   spanish–english   language   program   in   the  united   states.   angelova   et   al.   (2006)   found   that,  through  their  interaction  with  l2  experts,  the  novices  develop  linguistic,  cultural  and  social  competence   in   l2.   thus,   in   addition   to   their   role   as   language   teachers,   the   experts   might   also   play   the   role   of   social   mediators   in   the   bilingual   classroom.   blum-­‐kulka   and   snow   (2004)   also   defined   language   learning   classrooms  as  cops,  referring  to  children  learning  the  l2,  who  are  more  competent  in  l2  than  their  peers  and   can  play  the  role  of  l2  teachers,  as  language  experts.       current  research  points  to  many  possible  effects  that  l2  learning  in  classroom  as  a  potential  cop  may   have  on  individuals’  development,  from  changes  in  worldview  and  ways  of  thinking  to  how  they  communicate   with   others   on   personal,   cultural,   and   social   levels   (norton   &   toohey,   2011;   razmeh   &   davoodi,   2015).   furthermore,  l2  learning  enables  a  reexamination  of  people’s  original  culture,  as  well  as  of  their  roles  in  the   group   and   in   the   social   hierarchy   of   the   larger   community   in  which   they   live   (pishghadam  &   ordoubody,   2011;   ricento   2005).   these   findings   underscore   the   importance   of   intercultural   and   social   interactions   provided   by   bilingual   education   during   the   early   years   of   children’s   intensive   social   development   in   multicultural  societies.     nonetheless,  only  few  studies  to  date  have  addressed  the  intercultural  aspects  of  early  dual  language   education.  one  example   is  freeman   (1996)  who,   in  her   comprehensive  ethnographic   study,  described  how   the   minority   and   majority   language   groups   in   a   spanish–english-­‐speaking   bilingual   school   in   the   united   states  “collaborate  in  their  efforts  to  define  linguistic  and  cultural  differences  not  as  problems  to  be  overcome   but   as   resources   to   be   developed”   (freeman,   1996,   p.   564).   freeman   showed   that,   by  means   of   thorough   planning   of   curriculum   and   social   interactions   in   cooperation  with   policymakers,   administrators,   teachers,   parents  and  children,  the  school  promoted  collaboration  between  the  majority  and  minority  language  groups   toward  bilingualism  and  cultural  pluralism.   krivosh  &  schwartz   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 42   in   light   of   the   limited   data   on   intercultural   interactions   between   young   majority-­‐   and   minority-­‐ language  speaking  children  in  dual  language  programs,  this  study  sought  to  broaden  our  understanding  of  the   phenomenon   through   children’s   ecological   contexts   (bronfenbrenner,   1994),   acculturation   strategies,   encouragement   of   their   cultural   environment   (berry,   2005)   and   characteristics   of   their   intercultural   development  (robinson,  2007).  bearing  in  mind  that  one  widely-­‐recognized  benefit  of  cops  is  their  members’   ability   to   comprise   a   community  by  means  of  building   relationships   and   regularly   interacting   and   learning   together  by  shared  practice  (wenger,  2006),  we  sought  to  explore  how  the  young  l1  arabic-­‐  and  l1  hebrew-­‐ speaking  children  build  their  cop  through  intercultural  relations  and  with  the  support  of  their  teachers.     2.2.  arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  bilingual  education  in  israel   when  this  study  was  conducted,  the  official  state  language  policy  in  israel  acknowledged  two  official   languages  (hebrew  and  arabic).  yet,  while  arabic  was  recognized  as  the  second  official   language  in  israel  by   force   of   legislation   in   1948,   it   is   not   a   competing   partner   in   a   dyadic   bilingual   state   because  hebrew   is   the   dominant  language  in  israeli  public  spheres.  arabic  is  a  minority  language  and  is  the  main  language  for  most   arabs   (including  muslims,   christians   and  druze),  who   comprise   20%  of   the   population.   israel   has   separate   hebrew-­‐speaking   and   arabic-­‐speaking   education   systems,   and   arab   and   jewish   children   are,   therefore,   educated   in   different   schools.   hebrew   is   studied   as   a   second   language   in   arab   schools   and   is   part   of   their   curriculum  from  first  or  second  to  twelfth  grade.  most  arab-­‐israelis  understand  and  speak  hebrew  and  use  it   at  work  and  in  other  settings.  at  the  same  time,  the  level  of  jewish  children’s  competence  in  arabic  is  relatively   low,  even  though  the  study  of  arabic  is  obligatory  in  the  jewish  secular-­‐school  curriculum  from  fifth  grade  on.   in   1997,   the   center   for   bilingual   education   was   established   to   promote   bilingual   and   bicultural   education  and   the  development  of   both   jewish   and  arab  ethnic   communities.  the  center  believes   in   equal   representation  of  both   language  groups   in  schools  on  all   levels.  from  the  outset,   the  center’s  policymakers   have   consistently   chosen   a   teaching   and  management   staff   that   represents   both   groups   equally,  with   each   class  having  two  homeroom  teachers—one  arab  and  one  jewish.           several  studies  on  bilingual  schools   in   israel  have  revealed  their  main  objectives  (e.g.,  bekerman  &   tatar,  2009;  hertz-­‐lazarowitz  et  al.,  2008).  the  first   is  to  help  the  arab  and  jewish  children  develop  a  high   level  of  mutual  tolerance,  respect  and  acknowledgment,  taking  into  consideration  that  these  children  belong   to  two  groups  with  a  longstanding  history  of  mutual  intolerance.  the  second  is  to  provide  the  children  with  a   setting   that   offers   the   two   cultures   an   opportunity   to   meet,   in   contrast   to   what   happens   in   the   external   society.  the  third  objective  is  to  provide  the  children  with  both  arabic  and  hebrew—the  languages  they  need   to  live  in  israel.  the  fourth  is  to  help  familiarize  the  children  with  customs  and  cultural  traditions  of  a  second   ethnic  group.  the  fifth  objective  is  to  strengthen  their  self-­‐identity,  as  well  as  their  pride  and  loyalty  regarding   their  own  culture.       2.3.  the  sociolinguistic  context  of  the  study:  bilingual  communication  and  identity   in   addition   to   the   sociological   and  developmental   context   of   cop,   the  present   study  dealt  with   the   sociolinguistic   context   of   a   community   of   bilingual   kindergarten   children.   according   to   cooley   (1922)   and   mead  (1934),  socialization  is  a  process  whereby  individuals  shape  their  identities,  develop  their  personalities,   and   learn  to  be  members  of  society,   in  our  case,   in  bilingual  kindergarten  communities.   in   this  process,   the   children  adopt  values,  norms,  and  skills   that  enable   them  to   integrate  socially   through   interaction  with   the   teacher  and  the  other  kindergarten  children,  through  interpersonal  communication  with  them  and  the  social   learning  that  ensues.  interaction,  or  mutual  influence,  among  children,  comparison  with  the  other  and  test  of   belonging,   are   described   in   the   theory   as   expressed   in   a   variety   of   ways,   reproduced   in   the   children’s   thoughts   when   choosing   a   relevant   response.   thus,   interpersonal   communication—discussion—is   created   with   other   children   and   with   the   teacher   in   the   kindergarten   and   is   essential   for   an   intact   socialization   process.  interpersonal  communication  is  made  possible  through  signs,  symbols  and  other  symbolic  systems,   including  language.   sociolinguistics  perceives  language  as  social  activity  and  a  key  instrument  of  socialization  (paulston   &  tucker,  2003).  language  characterizes  both  the  society’s  culture  and  the  individuals  within  it—their  status,   gender,  values,  and   their  ethnic,   social  and  religious   identities   (pavlenko  &  norton,  2007;  sidnell  &  stivers,   2013).  the  choice  of  one  language  or  another  as  a  socialization  tool  within  the  community  of  practice  of  the   bilingual   kindergarten   constitutes   a   choice   of   a   system   of   accepted   codes   for   thinking,   expression   and   interpersonal   communication.   the   bilingual   speaker’s   choice   of   a   specific   language   derives   from   a   intercultural  interactions  in  the  arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  preschool  in  israel   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 43   combination  of  socialization  components  such  as  identity,  interaction,  interpersonal  communication,  learning   and  their  social  and  cultural  context  (pavlenko  &  norton,  2007).       2.4.  research  questions   the   main   research   question   of   this   study   was   as   follows:   how   are   the   intercultural   interactions   between   bilingual   children   built   during   the   first   year   of   dual   language   education?   to   answer   the   main   research   question,   we   formulated   three   secondary   questions:   (1)   how   are   intercultural   relations   formed   between   the  l1  arabic-­‐  and   the  l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  children?   (2)  how  do  preschool   teachers   support   the   intercultural   relations   in   the   classroom?   (3)   how   does   early   bilingual   education   contribute   to   the   acculturation  process  in  the  classroom?     3.  method   this   longitudinal   ethnographic   study   was   part   of   a   large-­‐scale   project   aimed   at   examining   early   bilingual  arabic–hebrew  education  in  israel  with  a  focus  on  teacher–children  and  peer  interactions  and  their   role  in  l2  acquisition.       3.1.  the  target  bilingual  preschool   the  setting  for  this  study  is  a  bilingual  preschool,  established  in  2004  as  an  integral  part  of  a  bilingual   arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking   school   located   in   central   israel.   the   preschool   has   a   dual   language   program   incorporating   classroom   instruction   in   the  majority   (hebrew)   and  minority   (arabic)   languages.  the   teachers   coordinate  their  daily   instructional  practices  and  share  responsibilities.  they  share  the  same  classroom  space   and  teach  both  languages  together.  time  is  not  allocated  separately  for  each  individual  language.  even  though   each   teacher   acts   as   a   language   model   for   her   designated   languages   and   is   responsible   for   delivery   in   this   language   as   a   medium   of   instruction,   both   teachers   sometimes   use   hebrew   and   arabic   and   apply   flexible   language   practices.   during   their   co-­‐teaching,   the   teachers   do   not   build   on   translating   each   other,   but   on   elaborating,  extending  and  continuing  each  other’s  speech  in  their  designated  language  (schwartz  &  asli,  2014).       3.2.  participants     3.2.1.  children   the  children  were  5-­‐to-­‐6-­‐year-­‐olds  who  had  entered  the  target  preschool  at  age  5  (one  year  before   entry  into  elementary  school  at  age  6)  and  were  observed  by  the  researchers  during  one  year  (for  details,  see   the   procedure   section).   there  were   29   children   in   the   class,   of  whom  19  were   l1  arabic-­‐speaking   and  10   were  l1  hebrew-­‐speaking.  we  noticed  six  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  children,  three  girls  and  three  boys,  who  spoke   hebrew  well  and  could  be  defined  as  l2  experts.  the  three  girls  had  entered  the  preschool  with  a  relatively   high  level  of  competence  in  spoken  l2  hebrew  (speech  understanding  and  production)  (blum-­‐kulka  &  snow,   2004).  two  of  them,  who  were  cousins,  had  spent  two  years  at  a  monolingual  hebrew-­‐speaking  kindergarten   before   entering   the   target   setting.   as   reported   by   the   l1   arabic-­‐speaking   teacher,   lillian,   the   other   four   experts  had   received   early   exposure   to  l2  hebrew   through  tv  and   radio   at   home.  the  presence  of   the  l2   experts  in  this  classroom  was  a  phenomenon  that  could  be  attributed  partly  to  their  (arab)  parents’  language   policy   of   taking   practical   steps   to   promote   their   children’s   exposure   to   l2.   some   of   their   family   language   policy  might  be  attributed  to  their  belief  that  their  children's  competence  in  hebrew  is  a  primary  predictor  of   their  future  academic  and  economic  success  in  israel  (bekerman  &  tatar,  2009).   in  addition,  one  boy  in  this  classroom  was  from  an  ethnically  mixed  family,  in  which  the  mother  was   an   l1   hebrew   speaker   and   the   father   was   an   l1   arabic   speaker.   since   the   dominant   language   of   communication   in   this   family   was   hebrew,   the   child   self-­‐identified   as   an   l1   hebrew   speaker   and   at   the   beginning  of   the  academic  year,  his  arabic  understanding  skills  were  much  better   than  his  arabic  speaking   skills.  in  the  course  of  time,  he  showed  willingness  to  communicate  in  arabic  with  his  arabic-­‐speaking  peers   and  teacher,  and,  as  will  be  presented  later,  excelled  in  his  l2-­‐expert  role.       3.2.2.  teachers   the  study  participants  were  two  preschool  teachers:  one  l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  teacher,  dina,  and  one   l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher,  lillian.  the  teachers  expressed  their  willingness  to  participate  in  the  study.  dina   was   a   novice   teacher,   who   had   joined   the   preschool   in   september   2013,   and   did   not   have   any   previous   knowledge   of   arabic.   prior   to   entering   the   preschool,   dina   had   obtained   a   bachelor’s   degree   in   preschool   krivosh  &  schwartz   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 44   education,  and  then  gained  rich  pedagogical  and  bilingual  teaching  experience  as  an  l2  hebrew  teacher  for   adults   and   as   a   teacher   in   a   monolingual   preschool.   lillian   was   an   arabic-­‐speaking   teacher,   who   had   a   bachelor’s   degree   in   preschool   and   first-­‐grade   teaching.   she   had   been   teaching   in   the   preschool   since   its   establishment  in  2004,  had  more  than  10  years  of  professional  experience,  and  spoke  fluent  hebrew.       3.3.  procedure     data  were  collected  during  one  academic  year,   from  october  2013  through   june  2014.  throughout   the   research   period,   16   observational   sessions  were   conducted   (two   to   three   times   each  month   for   seven   months)   including   six   sessions   of   field  note   taking   from  october  2013   to   january  2014  and  10   sessions   of   video  recording  from  february  to  june  2014.  interviews  with  the  children  were  held  between  october  2013   and  may   2014.   interviews  with   the   teachers   took   place   in   november   2013   and   in  march   2014.  we   chose   observation  as  a  method  in  order  to  see  the  children  in  their  natural  setting,  while  interacting  in  situations  of   language  acquisition  and  play,  since  it  has  been  shown  that  the  urge  to  create  interpersonal  relationships  and   the  need  to  share  emotionally  with  other  children  encourages  acquisition  of  another  language  (blum-­‐kulka  &   snow,  2004).     each  observation  session  lasted  about  four  hours,  from  early  morning  to  midday.  the  process  of  data   collection  included  selected  focus  of  the  video  recordings  on  a)  group  interactions  between  the  experts  and   the   novices   while   engaged   in   joint   play   in   various   areas   of   the   classroom,   and   b)   expert-­‐novice-­‐teacher   interactions  during  classroom  activities  and  spontaneous  communications.       3.4.  instrumentation,  data  generation,  transcription,  and  analysis     to   investigate   the  phenomenon  of  l2  experts’  mediation,  we  used  multiple  sources  of  data   (video-­‐ recorded   observations,   field   notes   and   semi-­‐structured   interviews   with   the   children   and   teachers).   we   applied  methodological  triangulation,  which  entails  a  comparison  of  the  findings  derived  from  different  data   sources  to  interpret  the  phenomenon  under  study  and  to  reduce  observer  or  interviewer  bias.  in  addition,  the   methodological   triangulation   increased   the   scope,   the   validity   and   the   consistency   of   our   data   (shenton,   2004).       3.4.1.  field  notes  and  video  recordings  and  their  transcriptions     we   received   permission   to   perform   video   recordings   in   the   preschool   from   the   israeli  ministry   of   education.   we   informed   the   teachers   that   the   purpose   of   the   cross-­‐cultural   project   was   to   examine   characteristics   of   the   children’s   intercultural   interactions  within   everyday   preschool   situations.   they  were   asked   to   allocate   a   suitable   time-­‐point   for   observation   that   included   diverse   daily   planned   activities   (e.g.,   circle  time)  and  unplanned  activities  (e.g.,  free  play).     the   video-­‐recorded   observations   were   transcribed   in   detail,   in   table   form,   which   allowed   for   the   inclusion  of  nonverbal  information  from  the  videos.  each  transcription  was  made  by  two  transcribers,  a  native   hebrew  speaker  and  a  native  arabic  speaker.  a  second  transcription  was  made,  following  conversation  analysis   transcription  conventions,  to  permit  a  detailed  microanalysis  of  the  transcriptions.  this  served  as  the  basis  for   our  understanding  and  interpretation  of  the  observed  interactions  (hamo,  blum-­‐kulka,  &  hacohen,  2004).       3.4.2.  semi-­‐structured  interviews  with  the  l2  experts  and  their  teachers     during   the   research   project,   we   conducted   semi-­‐structured   interviews   with   each   child   and   each   teacher  individually.  the  interviews  with  the  children  were  held  in  a  quiet  area  of  the  classroom.  they  were   conducted   by   the   second   author   and   a   research   assistant   in   hebrew   and   in   arabic.   each   interview   lasted   approximately  20  minutes.  our  goal  was  to  examine  the  children’s  social  preferences  (who  their  friends  were   and  which   languages   they  spoke)  and   their  awareness  of   their   social   role   in   the  classroom.   in  addition,  we   asked  them  about  the  advantages  of   learning   languages,   the  similarities  and  differences  between  the  use  of   arabic  at  home  and  in  the  environment,  and  about  the  children’s  ideas  on  the  best  way  to  teach  l2.  in  the  case   of   the   language   experts,   we   sought   to   obtain   their   reflections   on   the   sociolinguistic   behavior   patterns   observed  during  the  study  and,  in  particular,  on  how  they  acted  as  l2  mediators  for  their  novice  peers.     the   second   author   conducted   two   interviews   in   hebrew  with   the   teachers.   each   interview   lasted   approximately  60  minutes  and  was  audio-­‐recorded  with  the  interviewees’  consent.  regarding  our  study  aims,   the  teachers  were  asked  to  reflect  on  their  role  of  encouraging  intercultural  interaction  in  the  classroom  and   specifically  on  their  strategies  observed  by  the  researchers.     intercultural  interactions  in  the  arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  preschool  in  israel   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 45   3.4.3.  data  generation  and  analysis   based  on  braun  and  clarke  (2006),  we  applied  a  theoretical  thematic  analysis  of  the  collected  data.   we   analyzed   the   classroom   observations   and   the   interviews  with   the   children   and   the   teachers   using   the   following  thematic  analysis  steps:     1) transcribing   the   data   corpus   (all   observations   and   interviews   collected   for   the   study),   which   comprised  a  first  transcription  version.     2) familiarizing   ourselves   with   the   data   by   reading   and   rereading   the   classroom   observation   transcriptions  and   interviews  and  discussing   them  between   the   researchers.  during   the  discussion   meetings,  we  began  to  search  for  the  data  set  that  addresses  the  topic  of  the  current  study.       3) identifying   teachers’   strategies   aimed  at   encouraging   the   intercultural   interactions   and  patterns  of   intercultural  behavior.   4) coding   teachers’   possible   strategies   and   children’s   behavior   patterns   and   organizing   all   relevant   extracts  of  the  entire  data  set  into  a  table.     5) reviewing   the   coding   and   the   relevant   extracts   through   an   interrater   to   enhance   the   analysis   by   defining  and  naming  the  thematic  categories.       the  thematic  tree  (figure  1)  presents  the  defined  categories  and  subcategories  for  the  analysis:       -­‐ educational  environment   -­‐ teachers’  mediation  in  construction  of  intercultural  interactions   -­‐ teachers’  behavioral  modeling     -­‐ encouraging  intercultural  interaction     -­‐ acculturation  strategies  of  the  l2  experts   -­‐ acculturation  strategies  of  the  language  novices     figure 1. thematic tree with categories and subcategories for the analysis krivosh  &  schwartz   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 46   4.  results     4.1.  educational  environment:  teachers'  mediation  in  constructing  intercultural  interactions   in  this  study,  we  observed  the  first  stage,  an  emergent  process  of  intercultural  interactions  between   the   l1   arabic-­‐   and   the   l1  hebrew-­‐speaking   children.   at   this   stage,   the   children’s   familiarity  with   another   culture   and   language   occurred   in   parallel   to   the   identification   of   their   social   preferences   and,   as   a   result,   contributed   to   their   rejection   of   involvement  with   peers   from   another   ethnic   group   (barkan,   2003;   berry,   2005;  wright,  stetson,  rourke,  &  zubernis,  2003).  however,  after  nearly  a  year  of  encounters  between  two   ethnic  groups  of  children,  we  found  some  initial  signs  of  intercultural   interaction  between  the  arab  and  the   jewish  children.  during  this  emergent  process,  the  teachers  considered  themselves  as  representatives  of  the   bilingual   educational   environment   (schwartz,   mor-­‐sommerfeld,   &   leikin,   2010),   who   should   facilitate   a   process   for   the   children’s   acculturation.  two  main   types  of   support   emerged   from   the   findings:  behavioral   modeling  and  encouraging  intercultural  interaction.     4.1.1.  teachers’  behavioral  modeling   the  study  showed  that  the  teachers  strove  to  be  personal  examples  for  the  children  in  terms  of  their   intercultural   and  bilingual  behavior.  they  were   interested   in   the  other   language,  used  both   languages,   and   sought   similar   and   common   features   in   the   languages   and   cultures.  more   specifically,   from   the   interviews   with  the  teachers,  it  appeared  that  both  of  them  conveyed  the  message  of  l2  significance  to  the  children  and,   in  the  case  of  dina,  the  willingness  for  l2  acquisition,  as  illustrated  by  the  testimony  by  lillian  in  excerpt  1.     excerpt  1.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   look,  we  also  serve  as  a  model  for  the  children.  for  example,  dina  serves  as  a  kind  of  model  for  the  jewish   children   [...]   and   if   she   speaks   arabic   and   shows   them   that   she   is   learning   just   like   them,   they  will   start   thinking  that  it  is  good,  which  is  encouraging.       in  dina’s  view,  this  message  motivated  children’s  l2  learning,  despite  the  inevitable  mistakes,  and  helped   them  to  understand  the  rules  of  the  social  system  for  the  present  and  for  the  future,  as  shown  in  excerpt  2.     excerpt  2.  (dina,  l1  hebrew  speaking  teacher)   the  goal  of  the  society  is  that  they  will  grow  up  and  be  good  citizens.  so  how  do  you  show  [the  children]  that   you  are  learning  the  language,  show  the  jewish  children  that  you  are  interested  in  arabic?  and  they  see  me   asking  lillian  how  to  write  in  arabic  [...]  the  message  [to  the  children]  is  that  it  is  ok  to  make  mistakes,  that   it  is  ok  to  learn,  that  the  teacher  does  not  say  “i  know  everything.”  on  the  contrary,  she  is  saying:  “i  want  to   you  to  know  that  i  still  don’t  know  what  you  already  know.”  [...]  it  gives  them  a  terrific  boost.       the   observational   findings   show   how   interaction   among   children,   who   spoke   different   native   languages,   was   characterized   by   the   linguistic   behavior   that   they   learned   from   their   teachers.   thus,   in   a   spontaneous  conversation  as  situation  1,  when  sitting  out  on   the   terrace,   the  children  offered   to  help  each   other  with  learning  both  languages:     situation  1.  free  play  outside  the  classroom.     ofra  (l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  girl):   [speaking  in  hebrew]  you  will  teach  me;  you  will  teach  me  arabic,  and   i  will  teach  you  hebrew.   bassal  (l1  arabic-­‐speaking  boy):   [speaking  in  hebrew]  but  i  know  hebrew.   ofra:   [speaking  in  hebrew]  yes,  but  you  don’t  know  everything.     through   her   desire   to   learn   arabic,   dina   expressed   her   deep   interest   in   the   arabic   culture   and   language.   indeed,   our   observations   attested   to   the   effect   of   this   modeling   on   the   l1   hebrew-­‐speaking   children’s  openness   to   the  novel   language,  arabic.   for  example,  we   frequently  observed  evidence  of  dina’s   efforts   to   understand   lillian   based   on   the   context   and   gestures,   when   she   addressed   dina   in   arabic.   the   fruitfulness   of   these   efforts   was   manifest   through   the   children’s   reactions   to   dina’s   modeling   and   their   imitation  of  her  behavior,  demonstrating  their  significant  efforts  to  understand  arabic.  thus,  it  appeared  that   the  l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  children  were  accustomed  to  word-­‐for-­‐word  repetition  of  dina’s  slogan:  “i  did  not   understand  but   i   think  that  you  said   that…”  this  modeling  behavior  reflected  vygotsky’s   (1978)  concept  of   intercultural  interactions  in  the  arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  preschool  in  israel   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 47   the  adult  as  children’s  mental  development  mediator,  not  only  as  a  source  of  knowledge  but  also  as  a  model   for  children’s  linguistic  behavior.     this  idea  is  reflected  in  many  observations  of  interactions  among  the  children.  throughout  the  day,   the   children   not   only   imitated   the   teachers’   behavior,   but   also   felt   proud   that   they   succeeded   in   understanding   what   was   said   in   both   languages   and   that   they   were   able   negotiate   the   novice   learners’   comprehension  by  translating.  both  teachers  emphasized  that  the  dynamics  between  them  also  characterized   mutual  intercultural  familiarity  (excerpt  3).     excerpt  3.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   dina  worked   in   jewish  kindergartens,   so   she  wants   to  bring   in   everything   she  knows  and  everything   she   used   to  do.  for  example,  now,  during  passover   she  wanted   to  make  wine   for   them.   i   told  her:   “sorry,  but   wine  is  forbidden  here.”  the  good  thing  about  her  is  that  she  is  interested  in  culture.  for  example,  she  learns   about  every  holiday.       the  dialogue  in  excerpt  3  between  dina  and  lillian  regarding  the  different  cultures  was  pleasant  and   friendly,  indicating  willingness  to  learn  about  and  accept  another  culture,  without  relinquishing  their  original   culture.  this  set  an  example  to  the  children,  as  shown  in  excerpt  4.     excerpt  4.  (dina,  l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  teacher)   it  is  fantastic  how  we  work  with  lillian  simultaneously  on  the  material.  it  makes  the  child  and  me—me  first   of   all—learn   about   patience   and   tolerance.   it   means   taking   a   deep   breath,   working   on   delaying   gratification—which  is,  in  fact,  what  we  are  educating  here.       as   behavioral  models,   the   teachers   used   both   languages,   hebrew   and   arabic,   both   of   which  were   heard  regularly  in  the  preschool  during  the  learning  sessions  and  during  the  day  (excerpt  5).       excerpt  5.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   [the   children]   are   interested   in   the   language.   they   hear   the   language   and   constantly   think   about   the   language.         the   children   cooperated   with   the   use   of   both   languages   and   tried   to   help   each   other,   both   with   pronunciation  and  with  understanding  either  unclear  words  or  sentences  in  the  other  language.  for  example,   in  situation  2,  nur  (l1  arabic-­‐speaking  girl)  took  the  initiative  to  teach  oded  (l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  boy)  some   arabic  words.     situation  2.  free  play,  nur  teaches  oded  the  words  in  arabic.   nur:     [gesturing  with  her  hands  while  learning  to  say  the  word  heart  in  arabic]   [speaking  hebrew]  lev,  lev  [speaking  arabic] قلب   that  is  lev  in  arabic.   oded:     [repeats  after  nur  in  arabic] قلب        in  addition,  the  teachers  looked  for  shared  features  in  the  target  languages  and  cultures  to  show  the   children.   some  of   the   two   target   cultures’   traditions  and   religious  narratives  have   similarities,   and   there   is   considerable   linguistic   proximity   (semantic   and   grammatical)   between   the   two   semitic   languages.   the   teachers   believed   that   they   brought   the   two   groups   of   children   closer   together   by   highlighting   these   similarities.       excerpt  6.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   if  there  are  similar  words,  we  keep  on  saying:  “like  in  hebrew  [...]  like  in  arabic.”  we  keep  repeating  it.  this   is  common.  we  are  constantly  looking  for  the  common  ground  because  through  the  common  we  can  learn   everything  and  bring  the  cultures  together.  they  [the  children]  talked  about  the  common  stories  we  heard   about   the   holidays,   that   muhammad   was   a   shepherd   like   moses,   that   the   prophet   muhammad   was   also   persecuted  and  unwanted  at  first  when  he  brought  the  religion.       krivosh  &  schwartz   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 48   this  finding  is  consistent  with  the  hand  in  hand  educational  model,  which  advocates  for  bilingualism   as  a  means  of  introducing  and  respecting  another  culture,  while  preserving  the  original  one.  according  to  this   model,  l2  is  a  tool  for  breaking  cultural  and  linguistic  barriers  between  the  two  ethnic  groups  (amara,  azaiza,   hertz-­‐lazarowitz,  &  mor-­‐sommerfeld,  2009).     finally,   the   observed   teachers’   behavioral   modeling   and   its   role   in   the   children’s   intercultural   development   is   in   line  with   findings   of   developmental   psychology   studies,   stressing   the   importance   of   the   educational   environment   and   the   impact   of   teachers’  modeling   behavior   on   the   development   of   preschool   children’s  social  abilities  (dehart,  2004;  solberg,  2012).       4.1.2.  encouraging  interactions   the   findings   show   that   the   teachers   actively   supported   intercultural   communication   and   that   supporting   intercultural   interactions   among   children   required   special   attention   to   their   individual   and   cultural  differences.  they  encouraged  interactions  between  the  children  of  the  two  ethnic  groups  by  adjusting   activities  to  each  child,  managing  the  seating  order  and  promoting  intercultural  group  activities.       4.1.2.1.  adjusting  activities  to  each  child     the   teachers   arranged   activities   while   considering   the   differences   in   the   children’s   individual   developmental   and   adaptation  patterns   (excerpts   7   and  8)   and  paid   attention   to   gender  differences   in   the   intercultural  communication  patterns  (excerpt  9).     excerpt  7.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   this   year,   the   children   are   very   special.   both   the   arabs   and   the   jews.   they   need   a   lot   of   help,   a   lot   of   mediation,   a   lot   of   attention.   there   are   children  with   social   problems,   there   are   children  with   emotional   problems,  and  these  things  take  a  lot  of  time.       excerpt  8.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   this   year,  many   of   the   children  who   came   to   us,   both   arabic   speakers   and   hebrew   speakers,   studied   in   bilingual   frameworks   or   in   a   jewish   kindergarten,   especially   the   arab   children.   so,   this   really   brings   the   jewish  and  arab  children  very,  very  close  together.       excerpt  9.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   it  is  hard  for  the  boys  [to  create  intercultural  interactions].  for  the  girls,  not  so  much.  not  for  all  of  them.       in  addition,  they  were  aware  of  the  cultural  differences  between  the  jewish  and  arab  children  with   respect  to  adults  and  acceptance  of  authority  (excerpts  10  and  11),  and  regarding  boundaries,  discipline  and   order  (excerpt  12).     excerpt  10.  (dina,  l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  teacher)   arab   children   address  me   as   “mualema”   [teacher].   the   jewish   children   address  me   as:   “dinahhhh!”   they   don’t  call  me  “teacher”  or  anything  else.  “dinahhhh!  come  here  now!”     excerpt  11.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   an  [arab]  child  would  not  come  to  me  and  say:  “you  cannot  decide  for  me.”  among  the  arab  children,  there   is  less  impudence.       excerpt  12.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   for  the  arab  children,  discipline  is  a  clearer  concept,  displayed  more,  as  well  as  respect,  and,  i  would  say,  a   little  order.  because  we  raise  children  to  be  organized,  with  better  organization,  with  respect  for  adults.  for   instance,  food  or  appearance.  children  are  always  neat  and  tidy,  the  food  is  always  presented  in  an  orderly   way;  with  jews,  it’s  less  orderly.       moreover,   the   teachers   reflected   on   differences   between   the   groups   regarding   how   they   made   requests  and  expressed  their  feelings  (excerpt  13)  and  addressed  the  differences  between  the  arabs  and  the   jews  in  their  manner  of  play  (excerpt  14).   intercultural  interactions  in  the  arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  preschool  in  israel   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 49   excerpt  13.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   the   jewish   children  come  and  say  everything.  with  a   sort  of   confidence.  they  know  what   they  need.  they   know  what  they  want.  they  know  what  to  ask  for.  among  arab  children,  shyness  is  also  a  matter  of  honor.  do   not  talk  about  your  feelings  too  much;  do  not  express  yourself.  it’s  something  cultural.       excerpt  14.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   they  play  in  a  completely  different  way.  with  the  arab  children,  the  play  is  always  accompanied  by  a  physical   game,   for   example,   running,   soccer.   it   requires   more   physical   activity.   with   the   jewish   children,   there   is   dialogue,  a  lot  of  tabletop  games,  assembly  games,  construction.       4.1.2.2.  managing  the  seating  order   the   findings   show   that   considering   the  differences   in   the  children’s   intercultural  development,   the   teachers  elaborated  on  diverse  strategies  to  increase,  in  lillian’s  words:  “the  opportunity  for  more  interaction   between   the   arab   and   the   jewish   children.”   for   example,   during   the   academic   year,   they   reorganized   the   seating   arrangements   by   placing   the   jewish   and   arab   children   together   at   the   dining   table   or   during   the   small-­‐group  table  activities.  the  results  of  this  reorganization  were  intriguing  and  not  unambiguous.  on  one   hand,  mixed-­‐seating   initiated  bridging  between   the  speakers,  via   children  who  understood   the   instructions   and  translating  them  into  the  other  language  for  children  who  did  not,  as  in  situation  3.     situation  3.  classroom  table  painting  activity  run  by  dina.   dina   (l1   hebrew-­‐speaking   teacher):   [in  hebrew]  rolla,  would  you  like  to  take  some  paints?   rolla  (l1  arabic-­‐speaking  girl):   [nods  her  head]   dina:   [in  hebrew]  wash  your  hands  very,  very  well,  and  then  come  to  dina.   rolla:     [does  not  move  and  stares  at  dina]   zohar  (l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  boy):   [realizes  that  rolla  has  not  understood  dina  and  translates  into  arabic]   wash  your  hands  very,  very  well.   rolla:   [goes  wash  her  hands]     on   the   other   hand,   we   noticed   in   our   observations   that   during   a  mixed   seating   arrangement,   the   children  who  had  been  separated  from  their   friends  from  the  same  ethnic  group  continued  to   interact  with   them  across   the   tables,  by  moving   the   tables   closer   together   to   facilitate   communication.  the  children  also   began  to  eat  more  quickly,  to  reduce  the  amount  of  time  in  which  they  were  separated  from  their  friends,  and   then  went   out   to   the   yard,  where   they  were   free   to   choose   their   activities   and  whom   to   play  with.   these   findings  were  consistent  with  developmental  psychology  research,  stressing  the  importance  of  belonging  to   the   peer   group.   this   belonging   develops   a   sense   of   high   self-­‐esteem   (barkan,   2003;   wright   et   al.,   2003).   however,  over  time,  the  observations  also  showed  initial  signs  of  intercultural  interaction  in  hebrew  between   the  arab  children,  as  novice  hebrew  speakers  and  the  jewish  children.       4.1.2.3.  promoting  intercultural  group  activities     the   observations   showed   that   the   teachers   applied   a   strategy   aimed   at   promoting   intercultural   integration  and  socialization  by  engaging   the  children   in  certain  activities.  for  example,   in  excerpt  15   they   tried  to  forge  a  connection  between  the  children,  based  on  a  common  hobby  or  activity  of  shared  interest.     excerpt  15.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   we  try  to  find  out  what  two  children  have  in  common.  a  type  of  game,  kind  of  [...]  it  can  be  anything;  either  a   hobby,   or   a   child  who  has  not   really   found  his   niche   and   this   is   also   an   opportunity   to   find  him  or   her   a   friend.  whether  through  a  game,  a  joint  activity,  a  task;  when  it  happens,  it  keeps  going,  it  keeps  happening.   meanwhile,  the  goal  is  to  connect  them  more,  to  get  them  to  play  with  each  other  more,  to  enjoy  each  other’s   company.       as  found  in  the  developmental  research,  at  the  age  of  5  or  6,  children  understand  the  rules  of  play,   adhere  to  them,  and  even  explain  them  to  others  (lawhon  &  lawhon,  2000).  as  shown  in  situation  4,  during   language   acquisition,   the   children  made   rules   that   enabled   learning   and   understanding   both   languages.   in   krivosh  &  schwartz   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 50   situation  4,   the   teachers’   efforts   to  encourage  l2  use  was   supported  by  ahmed,   the   simultaneous  bilingual   child,  who   through   his   clear   claim   about   language   choice,   searched   to   establish   classroom   language   policy   concerning  languages’  use.         situation  4.  circle  time  (teachers  worked  as  a  team  to  promote  the  use  of  the  arabic  language  by  the  l1   hebrew-­‐speaking  children)   ahmed,  (arabic-­‐  and  hebrew-­‐ speaking  boy):   [in  hebrew]  arabic  speakers  will  say  it  in  hebrew  and  hebrew  speakers   will  say  it  in  arabic.     in   addition,   it   has   been   found   that   shared   interests   and   play   activities   create   an   opportunity   for   interpersonal   communication   and   accumulation   of   new   social   and,   in   our   case,   intercultural   experiences   (ding  &  littleton,  2005).  this   leads   to  openness   to  a  novel   language   through  a   social  partnership.   in  other   words,   listening   to   the   otherness   leads   to   an   interest   in   learning   the   language   because   it   brings   a   social   reward,  as  in  situation  5.     situation  5.  circle  time  (the  language  instruction  topic  was  israeli  flora;  teachers  discuss  protected  flowers  in   israel  with  the  children)       abed  (l1  arabic-­‐speaking  boy):   [in   arabic]   these   are   protected   flowers.   we   are   not   allowed   to   pick   them.   lillian  (l1  arabic-­‐speaking   teacher):     [in  arabic]  excellent,  abed,  say  that  again.   dina  (l1  hebrew-­‐speaking   teacher):   [in  hebrew]  abed,  i  didn’t  understand  everything,  can  you  maybe  tell  me   a  little  in  hebrew?   abed:     [in  hebrew]  the  flowers,  the  flowers  that  we’re  not  allowed  to  pick.   dina:   [in   hebrew]   oh,   thank   you!   i   thought   i   understood,   but   now   i   understand  much  better.  did  you  [all]  hear?   jewish  children:   [in  hebrew]  we’re  not  allowed  to  pick  them!     notably,   the   findings   of   our   study   are   inconsistent   with   bernstein’s   (2016)   data   regarding   misunderstandings  or   erroneous   interpretations   in   intercultural   interactions,  which  may  be   an  outcome  of   either   political   or   social   power   relations.   this   is   apparently   due   to   the   uniqueness   of   the   present   study   population,   in   which   majority–minority   relations   differ   from   in   the   external   reality.   even   though   the   kindergarten   is   in   israel,   where   arabs   are   a   minority,   within   the   kindergarten,   the   arab   children   are   the   majority,   and   both   these   facts   are   clear   to   the   participants.   thus,   the   study   findings   support   those   of   bernstein’s  (2016)  research,  which  claim  that  all  participants  in  the  sociocultural  interaction  are  required  to   make  an  effort  to  bring  the  sides  closer  together  and  to  prevent  misunderstandings.   hence,   the   findings   point   to   the   existence   of   three   main   actors,   who   interact   in   the   intercultural   process   in   this   bilingual   preschool:   teachers   as   representatives   of   the   educational   environment   and   two   groups  of  children  as  representatives  of  two  ethnic  groups  in  society.  keeping  in  mind  the  sociocultural  and   linguistic  distance  between  these  ethnic  groups,  through  their  agentic  behavior,  the  teachers  encouraged  the   intercultural  interactions  between  the  children  by  applying  diverse  and  creative  strategies.  within  the  field  of   social  theory,  emirbayer  and  mische  (1998)  defined  agency  as  “the  capacity  of  actors  to  critically  shape  their   own  responsiveness  to  problematic  situations”  (emirbayer  &  mische,  1998,  p.  971).  this  implies  that  agency   occurs  within  a  social  framework  (biesta,  priestley  &  robinson,  2015).  biesta  et  al.  (2015)  argue  that  people’s   agentic   behavior   needs   to   be   linked   to   a   particular   situation   and   that   agency   is   achieved   in   a   particular   ecology  (biesta  et  al.,  2015).  our  study  revealed  that  the  teachers’  observable  partnership  and  a  keen  interest   in  each  other’s  language  and  culture  created  an  ecological  condition  for  shared  thinking  and  promotion  of  the   children’s  intercultural  interactions.       4.2.  acculturation  strategies  of  the  l2  experts     as  mentioned  above,  the  presence  of  the  l2  experts  in  the  classroom  indicated  the  formation  of  two   groups  based  on  the  children’s  bilingual  competence;  namely,  the  l2  experts’  group,  comprising  11  bilingual   l1  arabic-­‐speaking  children,  and  the  novice  group,  comprising  18  children  without  prior  l2  knowledge.  we   found   that   some   of   the   l2   experts   not   only   positioned   themselves   as   competent   bilinguals   but   also   as   intercultural  interactions  in  the  arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  preschool  in  israel   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 51   teachers,  who  were  willing   to   assume   the   role   of   l2   teachers,  mediators   and   interpreters,   and   as   a   result,   became  leaders  in  the  classroom  (excerpts  16,  17,  and  18).     excerpt  16.  (dina,  l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  teacher)   ahmad  took  on  the  role  of  a  teacher,  a  leader.  this  kid  is  a  real  leader,  i  would  say.  he  always  has  to  have   the  last  word.  we  always  have  to  listen  to  him.       excerpt  17.  (nur,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  and  l2  expert  girl)   i  taught  lynn  to  sing  the  song  [shana  tova  –  happy  new  year]  in  arabic,  and  she  sang…  after  lynn,  i  taught   amira  hebrew.     excerpt  18.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   these  children  are  mediating.  they  are  very  helpful  because  they  manage  to  speak  both  arabic  and  hebrew,   telling  some  children  what  he  (she)  is  saying  and  telling  others  what  he  (she)  means…  ahmad  helps  in  the   sessions  when  i  speak,  and  he  translates.  he  helps  children.  he  connects  them  all  together.  this  is  amazing.   he  is  amazing.       these  findings  are  consistent  with  the  descriptions  of  the  experts’  social  role  in  the  research  on  the   “others,”  emphasizing  the  importance  of  the  experts  as  leading  classroom  mediators,  their  readiness  to  help   peers,  as  well  as  the  model  they  provide  for  other  children  (langman,  hansen-­‐thomas,  &  bayley  2005;  nehm   &  ridgway,   2011).   in   this   study,   lillian   recognized   that   the   experts’  modeling   presented   bilingualism   as   a   social  advantage  and  helped  the  teachers  to  encourage  the  novices  to  use  l2  (excerpt  19).         excerpt  19.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   children  who   speak   both   languages   demonstrate   this   to   the   [other]   children.   this   is  modeling.   and   that   sparks  the  other  children’s  motivation  to  speak  the  language  as  well.  i  say  this  because  the  place  where  this   [modeling]  really  helps  .  .  .  this  really  triggers  the  other  children’s  interest  in  the  language.       indeed,  the  novice  l2  learners  asked  the  experts  for  help,  both  in  terms  of  negotiating  meanings  in  l2   and  improving  their  social  competence,  as  shown  in  excerpts  20  and  21.     excerpt  20.  (abed,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  expert  boy)   once,  joseph  [the  novice  l2  learner]  did  not  know  how  to  speak  hebrew,  so  i  taught  him.     excerpt  21.  (mary,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  expert  girl)   once  they  [the  novice  l2  learners]  asked  me  how  they  say,  for  example,  if  someone  is  playing  on  the  swing   and   somia   [l1  arabic   speaking   novice   girl]   is   counting   for   him,   and  dina   [l1  hebrew   speaking   teacher]   comes  and  calls  her,  so  i  tell  somia  how  to  say  [in  hebrew]  “i’m  sorry”  or  “i  want  to  stay  longer.”     regarding  unstable  social  contacts  between  the  children  of   the   two  ethnic  groups  compared   to   the   relatively  stable  social  contacts  inside  the  groups,  our  findings  show  that,  in  general,  the  experts  were  more   open  to  new  social  experiences  (excerpt  22).       excerpt  22.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   nur  [l1  arabic-­‐speaking  expert  girl]  has  an  excellent  knowledge  of  hebrew  and  she  did  not  go  to  a  jewish   kindergarten.   she   learned   from   the   television.   and   she   does   a   great   job,   this   girl.   she   plays   as   if   it’s   something   normal,   as   if   she’s   always   done   it.   she   plays  with   both   the   jewish   and   the   arab   children   and   connects  them,  and  they  plan  and  construct.  amazing  to  see  it!  really!       at   the  same  time,  despite  some  experts’  declarations   that   they  were   friends  with  all  children,   their   reflections  on  relationships  with  the  second  ethnic  group  showed  some  ambiguity.  thus,   in  parallel  to  their   openness  to  initiating  intergroup  communication,  such  as  playing  together,  all  experts  except  one  (situation   6)   reported,   in   their   interviews,   facing  challenges   in  developing   friendships  with   the  members  of   the  other   ethnic  group.     krivosh  &  schwartz   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 52   situation  6.  (interview)   interviewer:   [in  arabic]  do  you  have  friends  who  speak  hebrew?   malek  (l1  arabic-­‐speaking  expert   boy):   [in  arabic]  no.   interviewer:     [in  arabic]  so,  you  speak  hebrew  to  ofra,  hila  and  lynn,  but  they  are  not   your  friends?   malek:     [in  arabic]  yes.   interviewer:     [in  arabic]  i  understand;  why  are  they  not  your  friends?   malek:     [in  arabic]  they  do  not  always  play  with  me.     4.3.  acculturation  strategies  of  the  novice  l2  learners     our  observations  showed  that,  like  the  l2  experts,  the  novice  children  had  stable  relationships  within   their  ethnic  group  of  belonging.  in  excerpt  23,  lillian  reflected  on  these  social  preferences.     excerpt  23.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   they   are   a   group  of   boys   [the  hebrew   speaking   group],  who   came   together.   they  do  not  wish   to   accept   others  into  the  group;  they  are  occupied  among  themselves.       similar   to  what  was   presented   above   about   the   l2   experts,   novice   l2   speakers   reported   having   a   preference  for  friendships  with  the  children  from  their  own  ethnic  group  (situation  7).     situation  7.  (interview)   interviewer:     [in  arabic]  do  you  have  friends  who  speak  hebrew?   rula   (l1   arabic-­‐speaking   girl,   novice  hebrew  learner):   [in  arabic]  no,  i  have  none.   interviewer:     [in  arabic]  who  are  your  friends  in  the  preschool?   rula:     [in  arabic]  nur.   interviewer:     [in  arabic]  does  nur  not  speak  hebrew?   rula     [in  arabic]  she  does,  but  she  is  an  arab.     these  similarities   in   the  acculturation  patterns  between   the  novice  l2   learners  and   the  l2  experts   might  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that,  along  with  the  relatively  high  level  of  competence  in  spoken  l2  hebrew,   and   even,   in   some   cases,   a   higher   level   of   social   sensitivity,   the   tendency   to   build   friendships   with   group   members  was  very  strong.  at  the  same  time,  the  study  shows  that  relative  competence  in  a  new  language  of   the  “other”  was  a  condition  for  readiness  to  become  flexible  and  to  go  beyond  their  ethnic  identity  to  establish   new   social   relationships.   this   tendency   is   reflected   in   situation   8   from   our   classroom   observation   and   its   interpretation  in  excerpt  24  from  the  interview  with  dina.     situation  8.  (class  observation)   dina   (l1   hebrew-­‐speaking   teacher):     maybe  khaled   [l1  arabic-­‐speaking  boy]  would   like   to   tell  us  what  he   did  during  the  weekend?   khaled  (l1  arabic-­‐speaking  boy):   [in  hebrew]  i  visited  hanna  [l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  girl].     excerpt  24.  (dina,  l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  teacher)   now   it   starts   happening   [the   intercultural   communication].   there   is   our  mediation   here   as   educators   in   order  for  it  to  happen.  i  mean,  we  have  a  role  here,  and  once  you  are  persistent,  it  happens.  and  both  khaled   and  hanna  are  very  strong  in  both  languages.       in   addition,   as   addressed   in   excerpt   25   from   the   interview  with   lillian,   a   gradual   progress   in   l2   learning  results  in  intercultural  influences,  such  as  expanding  the  arab  children’s  ability  for  self-­‐expression,   which  shapes  their  personality.         intercultural  interactions  in  the  arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  preschool  in  israel   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 53   excerpt  25.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   they   [the   l1  arabic-­‐speaking   children]   are   also   beginning   to   learn   how   to   express   [emotions].   learning   new   cultural   patterns.   i   think   they   [the   parents]   want   their   children   to   get   there.   not   to   the   level   of   impudence,   but   they   are   very   pleased   that   the   children   are  working   on   themselves   and   are   gaining   self-­‐ confidence.       the  children’s  intact  socialization  was  created  by  the  sociocultural  context  of  bilingualism  and  by  the   integration  of  the  appropriate  language.  in  the  bilingual  kindergarten,  building  socialization  was  based  on  the   children’s   sociocultural   attempts  as  a   result  of   their   interpersonal   communication  and   interaction  with   the   teachers   and   the  environment.  both  of   these   together   led   to   the   children’s   learning  or   to   changes   for   their   adjustment   in  kindergarten.  an  outcome  of   this  process  was  that   the  children  began  to   form  their  personal   identities,  which  were  maintained  through  negotiation  in  social  situations  or  through  their  internalized  social   roles  (pavlenko  &  norton,  2007).   notably,  this  pattern  of  data  reinforces  the  previous  findings  indicating  a  link  between  l2  acquisition   and  emotional,  cultural  and  social  changes  in  the  learner  (barkhuizen,  2008;  feger,  2009;  norton  &  toohey,   2011).   according   to   the   literature,   these   changes   are   a   result   of   the   integrated   and   sometimes   conflicting   activity   of   different   gender,   ethnic,   cultural   and   social   identities   during   the   learner’s   interactions  with   the   target  language  speakers.     the   current   study   showed   that   the   l2   experts’   knowledge   of   both   languages,   in   addition   to   social   mediation,  enhanced  their  self-­‐confidence  and  their  social  and  cultural   identity.  however,  due  to  their  fixed   ethnic   and   gender   identity,   they   did   not   change   their  main  modes   of   play,  which  would   have   significantly   undermined  their  sense  of  belonging  to  their  own  cultural  group.  thus,  our  observations  provided  evidence   that  the  expert  girls  were  more  open  than  the  expert  boys  to  new  intercultural  social  experiences,  whereas   the  expert  boys  preferred  to  play  mostly  with  members  of  their  own  ethnic  group.       4.3.1.  changes  in  the  novices’  acculturation  patterns     interestingly,  the  novice  l2  learners  gradually  expanded  their  cultural  and  social  boundaries.  these   changes  were  reflected  in  their  spontaneous  use  of  l2  with  the  teachers  and  the  peers  and  in  their  initiative   of   interaction   with   the   peers   in   free   play   and   mealtime   contexts.   these   facts   were   observed   by   the   researchers   and   were   reported   in   the   teachers’   interviews   (excerpt   26)   after   three   months   of   intensive   exposure  to  their  novel  language.       excerpt  26.  (lillian,  l1  arabic-­‐speaking  teacher)   there  is  a  breakthrough.  they  [the  novice  l2  learners]  remember  more  words  and  they  repeat  the  words.   words  are  not  sentences.  no  sentences  yet,  but  you  see  that  these  children  have  gone  through  a  process  of   language  learning  …  i  think  they  got  together  more,  got  to  know  each  other,  learned  how  to  play  with  each   other  more,  and  i  think  we  contributed  to  it  too…  i  see  more  interaction  in  free  activities.  in  the  yard,  in  the   corners.   in   the   household   corner,   with   toy   blocks,   during   meals.   many   children   connect   during   meals.   talking  about  all  sorts  of  things.       thus,  we  found  a  reciprocal  and  circular  connection  between  l2  learning  and  changes  in  the  learner’s   identity.  in  other  words,  the  more  the  learners  enriched  their  identity,  the  greater  was  their  command  of  l2,   and  vice  versa  (clarke,  2008;  pavlenko  &  norton,  2007).     5.  discussion     the   purpose   of   this   study  was   to   describe   the  ways   in  which   children   become   acquainted  with   a   novel  culture.  we  sought  to  expand  our  understanding  of  the  process  of  the  intercultural  encounter  between   young   children   from   two   different   ethnic   backgrounds,   jewish   and   arab,   who   attended   the   bilingual   preschool  in  order  to  be  educated  together  and  to  create  the  cop  (wenger,  2006).  this  case  was  particularly   fascinating   because   this   preschool   was   intended   to   create   a  micro  model   of   coexistence   between   the   two   ethnic  groups,  who  experience  tension  within  the  wider  macro  context  of  israel.       our   data   show   that   the   process   of   l2   acquisition  might   play   a   catalytic   role   in   activating   a   social   mechanism   for   intercultural   interaction   and   comprising   community   (pavlenko  &  norton,   2007).   the  main   findings  from  the  interviews  and  longitudinal  classroom  observations  point  to  the  combined  activation  of  the   krivosh  &  schwartz   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 54   personal,   cultural   and   social   forces   in   shaping   the   children’s   interactions   in   the   bilingual   preschool.   like   studies   in  which   berry   (2003,   2005)   examined   the   relationship   between   the   ethnic  minority   and  majority   groups,   this   study   showed   that,   even   among   5-­‐year-­‐olds,   the   ongoing   intercultural   encounter   was   a   longitudinal  process  aimed  to  achieve  acculturation  or  a  cultural  and  psychological  change.  the  findings  also   supported  a   theoretical   claim  by  bronfenbrenner   (1994)  and  robinson   (2007)   that,   among  young  children   who   undergo   their   natural   multidimensional   development   in   parallel   with   the   intercultural   encounter,   a   variety  of  factors  influence  their  mode  and  degree  of  acculturation.  these  factors  can  be  defined  as  ecological   (immediate  environment,  socioeconomic  situation,  ideology,  and  culture  of  the  society),  supportive  (teachers’   encouragement   of   acculturation   in   the   educational   environment)   and   developmental   (specific   cognitive,   emotional,   and   social   development   changes   during   the   intercultural   encounter)   (bronfenbrenner,   1994;   robinson,  2007).     in  addition,  we  found  that  the  interactional  patterns  between  l2  experts  and  novices  are  consistent   with   the   claim   by   lave   and  wenger   (1991)   about   the   role   of   experts   in   the   learning   of   less   experienced   members   through   interaction   in   the  cop  and  with  what  was   shown   in  previous   research  of  older   language   mediators  (angelova,  gunawardena,  &  volk  2006;  kopke  &  nespoulous,  2006;  langman,  hansen-­‐thomas,  &   bayley,  2005).  moreover,  the  findings  showed  that  the  ability  to  move  from  one  language  to  another  means   the  ability  to  change  social  identities  and  thus  to  achieve  high  social  status  (creese,  bhatt,  bhojani,  &  martin,   2006).   the  special  status  of  “mediators,”  “helpers,”  and  “teachers,”  which  the  l2  experts  obtained,  created  a   situation   in   which   bilingual   knowledge   becomes   worthwhile   and   promoted.   it   is   noteworthy   that   the   innovation   of   our   findings   lies   in   identifying   similarities   as  well   as   differences   in   the  way   in  which   the   l2   experts   and   their   l2   novice   peers   developed   their   intercultural   interactions.  more   specifically,   it   appeared   that  despite  the  differences  observed  in  the  patterns  of  social  adaptation  to  the  bilingual  preschool  between   the  expert  and   the  novice  l2   learners,  all   children  showed  developmental   intercultural   changes   (robinson,   2007).   these   changes   were   identified   in   the   three   main   developmental   areas:   cognitive   and   language   development   (development   of   different   modes   of   thinking,   progress   in   l1   and   l2   acquisition),   social   development   (emergence   of   interactions   within   and   outside   their   sociocultural   group   of   belonging)   and   emotional   development   (expressing   empathy   and   caring   for   others).   these  developmental   changes   shaped   the  children’s  acculturation  strategies  (berry,  2003,  2005)  during  the  intercultural  encounters.  at  the  initial   stage,   the   l2   experts   chose   the   integration   strategy,   initiating   intercultural   relations   while   preserving   the   original  culture,  whereas  the  novice  l2   learners  maintained  their  original  culture  and  avoided   intercultural   interaction.  however,  despite  the  initial  differences,  later  on,  both  the  l2  experts  and  the  novice  l2  learners   showed  a  common  trend  toward   intercultural   integration.   in   light  of   these   findings,  we  can  conclude  that  a   bilingual  preschool  experience  might  reduce   the   interpersonal,   linguistic  and  cultural  distance  between  the   jewish  and  arab  children  when  mutual  accommodation  is  encouraged  by  the  educational-­‐social  environment,   i.e.,  the  preschool  teachers.   the  study  also  highlighted  that  while  acquiring  a  novel  culture  and  language,  the  children's  sense  of   belonging   to   the  ethnic   group  was   strengthened.  moreover,  both  ethnic   groups   showed  a   tendency   toward   membership   categorization.   in   this   case,   sacks’s   idea   (sacks,   1972)   of   social   classification   is   especially   relevant  to  the  analysis  of  these  intergroup  interactions.  according  to  sacks,  the  tools  of  social  classification   (resources   and   strategies)   allow   people   to   define   their   affiliation   groups.   moreover,   as   in   the   case   of   our   study,  membership   categorization   seems   to   consolidate   the   children’s   cultural   identity   (norton   &   toohey,   2011).     6.  conclusions  and  implications  for  practice   the  observed  process  of  intercultural  interaction  was  influenced  considerably  by  the  teachers,  who   served  as  personal  models  of  fruitful  intercultural  communication  as  well  as  of  coexistence  between  the  two   ethnic   groups.   concerning   the   l2   early   learning   process,   nikolov   (1999)   found   that   the   teachers’   own   motivation  has  an   impact  on   the  children’s  motivation.   indeed,  our  highly  motivated   teachers  played  a  key   role  in  initiating,  developing  and  maintaining  the  children’s  enthusiasm  for  intercultural  interaction  through   an   endless   reflective   process   and   implication   of   diverse   and   creative   strategies.   their   reflections   and   observed  behavioral  patterns  could  be  defined  as  an  expression  of   their  agency  enactment,  which   included   teachers’  beliefs,  professional  and  personal  experience  and  identity.   intercultural  interactions  in  the  arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  preschool  in  israel   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  39-­‐58 55     within   a   wider   international   framework,   the   observed   emergent   process   of   the   intercultural   interactions  during  the  first  year  in  the  arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking  bilingual  classroom,  as  well  as  the  teachers’   reflections  on  it,  could  provide  a  model  for  bilingual  educators  who  are  working  in  dual  language  education,   to  promote  encounters  and  interaction  between  two  ethnic  groups  of  children.  moreover,  the  examples  and   their   analysis   might   help   policy   makers   and   educators   in   ethnic   majority–minority   contexts   to   view   themselves  as  part  of  a  community  of  reciprocal  learning  and  repair.     finally,   we   need   to   address   some   limitations   of   our   study.   first,   we   were   limited   in   obtaining   a   representative  sample  in  our  ethnographic  study  (nurani,  2008),  and  hence,  our  conclusions  can  be  defined   as  preliminary.  in  addition,  we  need  to  address  the  fact  that  the  children  in  our  study  were  not  starting  their   bilingual  education  from  the  same  point.  among  29  children  in  the  class,  22  had  either  no  l2  knowledge  or   very  low  l2  competence,  six  had  entered  the  preschool  with  a  relatively  high  level  of  spoken  l2  competence,   and  one  boy  was   from  an  ethnically  mixed  family,   in  which  the  mother  was  an  l1  hebrew  speaker  and  the   father  was  an  l1  arabic  speaker.  on  one  hand,   this  diversity  of   linguistic  histories  created  a  unique  case  of   enquiry.  on  the  other  hand,  due  to  this  uniqueness,  we  must  be  cautious  when  generalizing  our  findings.  this   notwithstanding,  we   hope   that   this   study  will   be   a   springboard   for   a  multidisciplinary   examination   of   the   intercultural   and   social   interactions   between   preschool   children   from  majority   and  minority   groups.   this   examination   also   has   implications   for   the   social   relations   between   the   ethnic   groups,   who   sometimes   live   with  tension  and  with 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  childcare:   a   critical   review.   ms   thesis,   university   of   wisconsin-­‐stout.     vygotsky,   lev   (1978).   mind   in   society:   the   development   of   higher   psychological   processes.   cambridge,   massachusetts:  harvard  university  press.     wright,   cassidy,   stetson,   werner,   rourke,   mary,   &   zubernis,   lynn   (2003).   the   relationship   between   psychological  understanding  and  positive  social  behaviors.  social  development,  12,  198-­‐221.             ludmila krivosh, oranim college of education ludmilk@gmail.com en ludmila krivosh is senior lecturer in the department of sociology, graduate studies faculty and head of the civics and sociology department at the oranim college of education. she is also lecturer in the department of social work at emek yizrael college (israel). es ludmila krivosh es profesora en el departamento de sociología, profesora de estudios graduados y jefa del departamento de estudios cívicos y sociología de la universidad de educación oranim. además, es profesora en el departamento de trabajo social de la universidad emek yizrael (israel). it ludmila krivosh è professoressa nel dipartimento di sociologia, professoressa di studi post lauream e direttrice del dipartimento di studi civici e sociologia dell’oranim college of education. inoltre, è anche docente nel dipartimento di assistenza sociale all’emek yizrael college (israele).       mila schwartz, oranim college of education milasch@post.bgu.ac.il en mila schwartz is associate professor in language and education and head of the language program (m. ed.) at the oranim college of education. es mila schwartz es profesora titular de lengua y educación y directora del programa de lengua de maestría en la universidad de educación oranim. it mila schwartz è professoressa associata di lingua ed istruzione e direttrice del programma di master di lingua dell’università di educazione oranim.   microsoft word nuzzo & bove_7.2.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  7,  issue  2,  october  2020,  9–27 issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.12.175   www.e-­‐journall.org     © nuzzo 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       assessing  functional  adequacy  across  tasks:   a  comparison  of  learners’  and  native  speakers’  written  texts1         elena  nuzzo     giuseppe  bove   università  roma  tre     received  17  february  2019;  accepted  after  revisions  10  june  2020   abstract en this study aims to explore further the applicability of the six-point rating scale elaborated by kuiken and vedder (2017) to assess functional adequacy. according to the authors, functional adequacy (fa) is a multidimensional construct combining successful task completion and the effective transmission of a message from a speaker or writer to a hearer or reader. kuiken and vedder’s scale has been mainly applied to written l2 output in previous research, whereas in this study it is tested on both l1 and l2 written texts, elicited by means of different tasks. the texts, produced by 20 non-native and 20 native speakers of italian, were rated by seven non-expert raters, trained to use the scale. the results showed low levels of absolute inter-rater agreement and consistency, especially for l1 texts. on the other hand, our findings are more encouraging with regard to the reliability of the scale and its applicability across tasks. the results also revealed a strong correlation between fa scores and those obtained in a c-test used as an independent measure of general l2 proficiency. key words: functional adequacy, l1 italian, l2 italian, assessment, writing task es el presente estudio tiene como objetivo profundizar en la aplicabilidad de la escala de calificación de seis puntos elaborada por kuiken y vedder (2017) para evaluar la adecuación funcional. según los autores, la adecuación funcional (af) es un constructo multidimensional que combina la finalización satisfactoria de una tarea y la transmisión efectiva de un mensaje de un hablante o escritor a un oyente o lector. en investigaciones anteriores, la escala de kuiken y vedder se ha aplicado principalmente a la producción escrita de l2, mientras que en este estudio se prueba en textos escritos tanto de l1 como de l2, obtenidos mediante diferentes tareas. los textos, producidos por 20 hablantes no nativos y 20 hablantes nativos de italiano, fueron calificados por siete evaluadores no expertos que habían sido capacitados para emplear la escala. los resultados muestran bajos niveles de concordancia y consistencia absolutas entre los evaluadores, especialmente en los textos de l1. por otro lado, los hallazgos son más alentadores con respecto a la fiabilidad de la escala y su aplicabilidad en las tareas. además, los resultados revelan una fuerte correlación entre las puntuaciones de af y las obtenidas en una prueba c utilizada como medida independiente de la competencia general de l2. palabras clave: adecuación funcional, italiano l1, italiano l2, evaluación, tareas de escritura it questo studio ha l’obiettivo di approfondire l'applicabilità della scala di valutazione a sei punti elaborata da kuiken e vedder (2017) per valutare l’adeguatezza funzionale. secondo gli autori, l'adeguatezza funzionale (fa) è un costrutto multidimensionale che combina lo svolgimento positivo del compito e la trasmissione efficace di un messaggio da un parlante o scrittore a un ascoltatore o lettore. la scala di kuiken e vedder, che finora era stata applicata principalmente alla produzione scritta in l2, in questo studio è stata testata su elaborati scritti sia in l1 sia in l2 ottenuti a partire da consegne diverse. i testi, prodotti da 20 parlanti non nativi e 20 madrelingua italiani, sono stati valutati da sette valutatori non esperti, addestrati all'uso della scala. i risultati mostrano bassi livelli di accordo e coerenza assoluti tra i valutatori, soprattutto per i testi in l1. i risultati sono, invece, più incoraggianti per quanto riguarda l'affidabilità della scala e la sua applicabilità a varie attività. inoltre, i risultati rivelano una forte correlazione tra i punteggi fa e quelli ottenuti da un c-test utilizzato come misura indipendente della competenza generale in l2. parole chiave: adeguatezza funzionale, italiano l1, italiano l2, valutazione, compiti di scrittura * elena  nuzzo,  università  roma  tre                  elena.nuzzo@uniroma3.it 1   the   authors  worked   together   throughout   the  paper.   e.  nuzzo  wrote   sections   1,   2.1,   2.2,   2.3,   4,   and  5;  g.   bove  wrote   sections  2.4  and  3.   http://www.e-journall.org nuzzo  &  bove       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27  10   the   assessment   of   language   proficiency   is   not   fully   possible   without   considering   the   functional   dimension   of   language   use,   especially   from   the   can-­‐do   perspective   which   informs   the   common   european   framework  of  reference  for  languages  (council  of  europe,  2001).   in  order  to  assess  the  degree  to  which  a   linguistic   performance   is   more   or   less   successful   in   achieving   the   goals   of   a   task,   one   needs   to   take   into   account  its  adequacy,  and  not  only  its  quality  in  terms  of  complexity,  accuracy  and  fluency  (caf  measures,  see   housen,  kuiken,  &  vedder,  2012  for  an  overview).  in  fact,  a  speaker’s  production  which  scores  high  on  caf   can   be   inadequate   because,   among   other   factors,   the   chosen   topics   are   partially   or   totally   irrelevant,   the   register   inappropriate,   or   the   sequence   of   ideas   ineffective.   in   contrast,   a   linguistic   performance   may   be   effective  and  adequate  even  if  it  is  neither  complex  nor  accurate  nor  fluent  (pallotti,  2009,  p.  596).   kuiken  and  vedder  observed  that  few  sla  studies  report  on  the  functional  aspects  of  l2  proficiency,   and  that  “contrary  to  caf  research  where  general  measures   for  assessing  complexity,  accuracy  and  fluency   have   often   been   employed   .   .   .   general   measures   to   rate   the   functional   adequacy   of   l2   performance   are   lacking”  (2017,  p.  322).  they  therefore  proposed  a  rating  scale  for  what  they  called  functional  adequacy  (fa),   a   construct   characterized   by   a   strong   relationship   between   task   fulfillment   and   the   appropriateness   of   linguistic   output.   the   new   scale  was   successfully   tested   out  with  written   and   oral   l2   argumentative   texts.   however,   its   applicability   to   l1   performances   and   to   a   variety   of   tasks   is   still   underexplored   (kuiken   &   vedder,  2018).     the  present  study  aims  to  fill  this  gap.  for  the  first  time,  the  applicability  of  the  scale  is  explored  on   both  l1  and  l2  output  and  on  different  types  of  written  texts,  with  the  same  team  of  raters.  the  decision  to   investigate  further  the  applicability  of  this  scale  with  native  and  non-­‐native  speakers  stems  from  the  previous   experience  of  one  of  the  authors  as  pre-­‐service  and  in-­‐service  teacher  trainer,  as  well  as  teacher  in  courses  of   italian   for   academic   purposes.   it   seems   that   the   development   of   rating   instruments   that   can  measure   and   describe   functional   aspects   of   language   proficiency   in   both   l1   and   l2   would   be   helpful   for   the   growing   number   of   teachers   who—in   schools   and   universities—work   simultaneously   with   non-­‐native   and   native   speakers   and   are   traditionally  more   inclined   to   give   emphasis   to  morphosyntactic   accuracy   rather   than   to   functional  aspects  of  language  use.     the  paper  is  organized  as  follows:  firstly,  we  introduce  the  construct  of  functional  adequacy  and  the   scale,  and  then  review  the  studies  in  which  it  has  been  applied.  next,  we  present  the  aims  of  this  study  and  the   methodology  applied.  the  two  following  sections  are  devoted  to  the  presentation  and  discussion  of  results.  in   the  last  section,  some  pedagogical  implications  are  discussed  together  with  concluding  remarks.     1.  functional  adequacy:  construct  and  rating  scale   in   recent   years,   several   sla   studies   have   devoted   attention   to   the   functional   dimension   of   l2   production.   although   they   all   have   in   common   a   focus   on   the   functional   aspects   of   language   proficiency,   definitions  and  labels  vary.  for  example,  kuiken,  vedder,  and  gilabert  (2010)  and  kuiken  and  vedder  (2014)   used  the  term  communicative  adequacy  (see  also  pallotti,  2009;  révész,  ekiert,  &  torgersen,  2016),  meaning  a   task-­‐related,  dynamic  and  interpersonal  construct  which  focuses  on  both  the  specific  task  being  carried  out   by  the  speaker,  and  the  way  the  message  is  received  by  the  interlocutor.  dejong  et  al.  (2012a,  2012b)  referred   to   the   successful   conveyance   of   messages   through   speaking   with   the   expression   functional   adequacy.   bridgeman  et  al.   (2012)  and  sato  (2012)  adopted  the   label  communicative  effectiveness,  meaning  success  of   information  transfer.  the  notion  of  communicative  competence   in  mcnamara  and  roever  (2007)   focuses  on   the  sociopragmatic  appropriateness  of  the  linguistic  means  within  the  specific  context  of  use.   according   to   kuiken   and   vedder,   the   lack   of   unanimity   as   to   how   the   functional   dimension   of   linguistic  output  is  to  be  defined  or  assessed  could  explain  why  this  dimension  is  still  often  overlooked  in  sla   research,  as  well  as  why  general  measures  to  rate  this  aspect  of  l2  performance  are  lacking  (2017,  p.  322).  in   an  attempt   to  address   this  gap,  kuiken  and  vedder   (2017)  outlined  a   systematic  proposal   for  defining  and   measuring  the  functional  aspects  of  language  proficiency.  they  chose  the  label  functional  adequacy  (fa)  and   defined  the  construct  as  “successful  task  completion  of  a  in  conveying  a  message  to  b  and  in  relation  to  the   conversational  maxims  of  grice”  (1975,  p.  326),  thus  focusing  on  the  specific  task  carried  out  by  the  speaker   or   writer   and   on   the   reception   of   the   message   by   the   addressee.   according   to   this   interpretation,   fa   is   therefore   intended   as   a   task-­‐related   and   interpersonal   construct,   characterized   by   a   strong   relationship   between  successful  task  fulfillment  and  the  appropriateness  and  effectiveness  of  linguistic  output.     a  six-­‐point  likert  rating  scale  (appendix  a)  was  developed  by  kuiken  and  vedder  (2017)  as  a  tool  to   measure  fa.  the  scale,  which  is  an  adaptation  of  the  one  they  used  in  previous  studies  (kuiken  et  al.,  2010;   assessing  functional  adequacy  across  tasks:  learners’  and  native  speakers’  written  texts   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27   11   kuiken  &  vedder,  2014),  comprises  four  subscales,  corresponding  to  the  four  dimensions  of  fa  identified  by   the  authors,  namely  content,  task  requirements,  comprehensibility,  coherence  and  cohesion.   the  content  dimension  focuses  both  on  the  adequacy  of  the  number  and  type  of  ideas  provided  in  the   text,  and  on  their  consistency  and  relevance   to   the  general   topic,   regardless  of   the  specific  requirements  of   the  task  to  be  completed.  it  refers  to  grice’s  (1975)  maxims  of  quantity  and  relation.  the  dimension  of  task-­‐ requirements,   related   to  grice’s   (1975)  maxim  of  quality,   takes   into  account   the  specific   instructions  of   the   task  to  be  carried  out,  particularly  in  terms  of  register,  genre,  and  speech  acts.  comprehensibility  deals  with   the  effort  which  is  needed  for  reader  or  listener  b  to  understand  the  ideas  expressed  by  the  writer  or  speaker   a   (maxim   of   manner;   grice,   1975).   the   coherence   and   cohesion   dimension   takes   into   account   the   use   of   textual   cohesion   mechanisms,   such   as   for   example   anaphoric   devices,   deictics,   connectives,   and   the   occurrence  of  coherence  breaks  (maxim  of  manner;  grice,  1975).     according   to   the   authors,   the   rating   scale   they   propose   should   meet   the   following   criteria:   (i)   “deconstruction  of  relevant  components  of   functional  adequacy”;   (ii)   “independence  of  fa  descriptors   from   linguistic  descriptors   in  terms  of  caf”;  (iii)   “‘objective’  and   ‘countable’  scale  descriptors”;   (iv)  “applicability   both   for  expert  and  non-­‐expert   raters”;  and   (v)  applicability   to  both  l2  and  l1   (kuiken  &  vedder,  2017,  p.   326).  it  is  this  last  criterion  that  we  specifically  address  in  the  present  paper.     1.1.  the  application  of  the  rating  scale   the   scale   was   first   successfully   tested   with   l2   (dutch   and   italian)   written   argumentative   texts   assessed  by  non-­‐expert  raters  (kuiken  &  vedder,  2017;  see  also  vedder,  2016).  given  that  in  a  previous  study   (kuiken  &  vedder,  2014)  experienced  raters  appeared  to  be  “biased”  and  stricter  or  more  lenient  compared   to   “naive”  native   speakers,   the  authors  opted   for  non-­‐expert   raters.  kuiken  and  vedder   (2017)   found  good   intraclass   correlations  among  raters,   and  high  correlations  between   the   four   subscales.  more   specifically,   a   high  correlation  was  found  between  content  and  the  other  dimensions,  and  between  comprehensibility  and   coherence/cohesion.  yet,  correlations  between  task  requirements  and  comprehensibility  were  lower.  in  the   retrospective   focus   group,   the   raters   did   not   report   any   particular   difficulties   in   using   the   scales,   which   seemed  thus  applicable  also  for  non-­‐expert  raters.  in  sum,  the  study  confirmed  that  fa  can  be  assessed  as  a   multidimensional   construct   comprising   four   dimensions,   and   the   authors   concluded   that   the   “new   rating   scale  of  fa  thus  appears  to  be  a  reliable  and  efficient  tool  for  assessing  written  learner  production”  (p.  332).     after  this  first  empirical  investigation,  the  new  rating  scale  was  applied  in  a  number  of  studies  with   similar—albeit   not   identical—characteristics,   and  with  different   learner  populations.  most   of   these   studies   used   l2   written   texts   (del   bono,   2017;   faone   &   pagliara,   2017;   orrù,   2019;   pagliara,   2017),   but   some   attempts  were  made  with  l2  spoken  output  (kuiken  &  vedder,  2018).  all  of  the  studies  involved  non-­‐expert   raters   trained   to   use   the   scale   before   the   rating   sessions.   the   results   were   not   always   consistent   across   studies,  as  will  be  shown  in  the  following  paragraphs.   faone   and   pagliara   (2017)   tested   the   scale   with   instruction   texts   written   by   chinese   learners   of   italian.   their   data   showed   good   inter-­‐rater   reliability   (cronbach’s   α   ≥   0.89)   but   low   levels   of   inter-­‐rater   agreement   (intraclass   correlations   values   less   than   0.57).   correlations   between   the   subscales   are   from   moderate  to  high  (most  values  greater  than  0.74;  only  in  two  cases  involving  the  comprehensibility  subscale   correlated   with   content   and   task   requirement   subscales;   values   are   0.50   and   0.57   respectively).   similar   results  were   found   in   a   replication  of   the   study  with  narrative   texts  written  by   the   same  chinese   learners   (pagliara,  2017).  unfortunately,  in  both  studies  retrospective  discussions  with  the  raters  were  lacking.   del  bono  (2017)  and  orrù  (2019)  applied  the  scale  to  narrative,  instruction,  and  argumentative  texts   produced  by  dutch  and  hungarian  learners  of  italian.  the  tasks  were  the  same  used  in  the  present  study.  on   the   whole,   del   bono’s   (2017)   results   are   similar   to   those   reported   in   faone   and   pagliara   (2017)   and   in   pagliara   (2017),  whereas  orrù   (2019)   found  good   levels   of   inter-­‐rater   reliability   (all   greater   than  0.8)   and   agreement   (all   greater   than   0.77).   both   studies   also   explored   the   correlation   between   fa   scores   and   an   independent  measure  of   general   proficiency:   the   same  c-­‐test   used   in   the  present   study.  a  high   correlation   coefficient   (higher   than   0.78)   was   found   by   del   bono   (2017)   for   narrative   and   instruction   tasks,   less   so   (greater  than  0.73  for  each  task)  by  orrù  (2019).  on  the  other  hand,  the  two  authors  agree  in  reporting  that   their  non-­‐expert  raters  encountered  some  difficulties  in  using  the  scales,  particularly  as  far  as  the  coherence   and  cohesion  dimension  is  concerned.   in  kuiken  and  vedder  (2018)  the  scale  was  adapted  for  spoken  monological  texts,  and  a  comparison   was   proposed   between  written   and   oral   data.   non-­‐expert   raters   assessed   oral   and  written   argumentative   texts   produced   by   two   groups   of   university   students   of   l2   dutch   and   l2   italian.   according   to   the   results   nuzzo  &  bove       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27  12   obtained,   the   scale   appears   to   be   a   reliable   tool   for   assessing   the   functional   adequacy   of   both  written   and   spoken  l2  production.   as  for  the  use  of  the  scale  with  l1  output,  fewer  investigations  have  been  completed,  and  the  results   appear  rather  mixed.  in  the  previously  mentioned  study  carried  out  to  test  the  scale  (kuiken  &  vedder,  2017),   l1  samples  were  also  used.  the  authors  concluded  that  the  scale  could  be  employed  “for  rating  the  texts  of   both   l2   and   l1   writers”   (p.   331).   nevertheless,   they   reported   that   raters   found   it   easier   to   discriminate   among  l2  learners  than  among  l1  informants,  whose  scores  tended  to  cluster  at  the  upper  end  of  the  scale.     on  the  other  hand,  in  a  study  where  the  scale  was  applied  only  to  native  speakers’  (oral  and  written)   data,   it   turned   out   that   raters   used   the  whole   scale   and   discriminated   among   the   performances.  however,   inter-­‐rater  reliability  scores—measured  using  the  index  𝑟!"  of  inter-­‐rater  agreement  within  groups  proposed   by   james   et   al.   (1984)—were  below   the  0.7   threshold   for   some  of   the  dimensions,   particularly   for  written   data  (cortés  velásquez  &  nuzzo,  2017).     to   sum  up,   these   studies   show  a   great   variability   in   their   results,   providing   a  much   less   clear   and   optimistic  picture  compared  to  the  first  application  of  the  scale  by  kuiken  and  vedder  (2017).  it  appears  that   differences  in  research  design  result  in  significant  variation  of  findings.  in  particular,  the  few  attempts  made   to  use   the  scale  with  l1   texts   lead   to  rather  contradictory  results.   it   seems  therefore   that  more  research   is   needed  to  investigate  further  the  applicability  of  the  scale  in  a  variety  of  contexts,   in  order  to  gain  a  clearer   picture  of  the  potential  utility  of  this  tool.       2.  goal  and  methods   the  general  aim  of  this  study  is  to  examine  from  three  different  perspectives  the  applicability  of  the   rating  scale  developed  by  kuiken  and  vedder  (2017)  for  the  assessment  of  fa  in  written  texts  produced  by   native  and  non-­‐native  speakers  of  italian  performing  three  different  tasks.     the  first  (and  most  important)  perspective  is  the  applicability  of  the  rating  scale  as  an  instrument  to   assess   the  position  of   an   individual   performance  with   respect   to   an   absolute   threshold   (e.g.,   the  minimum   level   of   the   scale   to   pass   an   exam   or   the   level   under   which   a   remedial   class   is   required),   in   a   criterion-­‐ referenced   interpretation   of   the   rating   scale   (graham,   milanowsky,   &   miller,   2012,   p.   6).   from   this   perspective,  inter-­‐rater  absolute  agreement  (ira)  of  the  rating  scale  should  be  analyzed,  that  is  the  degree  to   which  two  or  more  evaluators  (raters)  using  the  scale  give  the  same  rating  to  an  identical  target  (e.g.,  student,   teacher,   etc.).   high   levels   of   ira   are   required   for   the   application   of   the   scale   in   a   criterion-­‐referenced   perspective.  consequently,  the  first  research  question  addressed  is:     rq1:  how  do   raters’   judgments   compare   in   terms  of   inter-­‐rater   absolute   agreement   scores  on   the   four  dimensions  of  fa  in  narrative,  instruction,  and  argumentative  texts  written  by  native  and  non-­‐ native  speakers  of  italian?     a  rating  scale  with  low  levels  of  ira  can  still  be  considered  from  a  second  perspective,  concerning  its   applicability   as   an   instrument   to   assess   the   relative   position   of   an   individual   performance  with   respect   to   performances   of   other   individuals   in   a   group   (or   to   the  mean   or  median   performance   of   the   group),   in   a   norm-­‐referenced  view  of  the  rating  scale.  this  can  be  useful,  for  instance,  in  ranking  participants  in  any  kind   of   competition   (e.g.,   for   a   scholarship,   a   job   position,   etc.).   in   this   case,   it   is   the   consistency   between   evaluators  in  the  ordering  or  relative  standing  of  performance  ratings  (inter-­‐rater  consistency)  that  should  be   analyzed,  regardless  of  the  absolute  values  of  evaluator’s  rating  (graham,  milanowsky,  &  miller,  2012,  p.  5).   high   levels   of   inter-­‐rater   consistency   are   required   for   the   application   of   the   scale   in   a   norm-­‐referenced   perspective.  consequently,  the  second  research  question  asks:     rq2:   how   do   raters’   judgements   compare   in   terms   of   inter-­‐rater   consistency   scores   on   the   four   dimensions  of  fa  in  narrative,  instruction,  and  argumentative  texts  written  by  native  and  non-­‐native   speakers  of  italian?     finally,  the  third  and  last  perspective  from  which  a  rating  scale  is  considered  in  scientific  research  is   its  applicability  as  an  instrument  for  measuring  a  latent  construct  (i.e.,  its  reliability).  in  this  case  researchers   should   use   all   the   information   available   from   all   evaluators   (including   discrepant   ratings),   attempting   to   create  a   summary   score   (for  each  dimension  and   for   the  global  fa   scale   in  our   study)   for  each  participant   (stemler  &  tsai,  2008,  p.  42).  what  is  relevant  is  that  most  of  the  variance  of  the  defined  summary  score  (e.g.,   assessing  functional  adequacy  across  tasks:  learners’  and  native  speakers’  written  texts   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27   13   the  raters’  mean  rating  or  some  other   function  of   the  raters’  rating)   is  shared  between  the  ratings,  because   this  gives  an  indication  that  the  evaluators  are  rating  a  common  construct  (stemler  &  tsai,  2008,  p.  43).  it  is   not  important  that  the  evaluators  provide  exactly  the  same  ratings  for  each  participant,  nor  that  their  ratings   are  ordered  consistently,  because  each  evaluator   is   seen  as  providing  also  some  unique   information   that   is   useful   in   estimating   the   summary   score   of   the   participant.   high   levels   of   reliability   of   the   rating   scale   are   required  for  the  application  of  the  scale  as  an  instrument  for  measuring  a  latent  construct.  since  the  fa  scale   is  composed  of  four  dimensions,  the  following  three  research  questions  are  addressed:     rq3:   what   are   the   reliability   levels   of   the   four   dimensions   of   fa   in   narrative,   instruction,   and   argumentative  texts  written  by  native  and  non-­‐native  speakers  of  italian?       rq4:  what  are  the  reliability  levels  of  the  global  fa  scale  within  each  type  of  text  written  by  native   and  non-­‐native  speakers  of  italian?     rq5:  how  do  the  raters’  evaluations  of  the  texts  written  by  native  and  non-­‐native  speakers  of  italian   correlate  with  general  levels  of  proficiency  as  measured  by  a  c-­‐test?     as  we   saw   in   the   previous   section,   the   fa   scale  was   applied   to   l1   data   in   only   two   studies,   both   relying  solely  on  argumentative  texts,  and  the  results  were  conflicting.  for  this  reason,  the  present  study  can   be  considered  exploratory  in  nature  and  no  hypotheses  are  proposed.       2.1.  informants  and  data  collection     to   calculate   the   sample   sizes   for   the   present   study,   designs   based   on   intraclass   correlation   coefficients   reported   in   doros   and   lew   (2010)   and   gwet   (2014,   pp.   249-­‐251)   were   taken   into   account.   following  these  approaches,  it  was  possible  to  determine  sample  sizes  (number  of  writers  and  raters)  based   on  the  expected  value  of  the  intraclass  correlation  and  on  a  chosen  width  of  the  95%  confidence  interval  (i.e.,   twice   the   size   of   the  maximum  error).   in   order   to   have   a  maximum  error   0.15   (confidence   interval   length   equal  to  0.3),  and  assuming  an  expected  intraclass  correlation  approximately  equal  to  0.7,  it  was  required  to   select  at  least  twenty  writers  and  a  number  of  raters  between  five  and  seven.       twenty   native   speakers   of   italian   and   twenty   speakers   of   l2   italian   participated   in   the   study   as   writers.  the  native   speakers  were   students  of   foreign   languages   at  roma  tre  university.  their   age   ranged   from  19  to  22,  with  a  mean  of  20.15.  fifteen  of  the  non-­‐native  speakers  were  students  attending  a  course  of   italian  linguistics  at  the  university  of  amsterdam;  their  l1  was  dutch,  except  for  one  whose  native  language   was   english.   the   remaining   five   non-­‐native   speakers   were   students   of   foreign   languages   at   roma   tre   university.  they  had  different  l1s,  namely  chinese,  french,  hungarian,  romanian,  and  spanish.  the  mean  age   in  the  non-­‐native  speakers  group  was  26.89,  with  the  majority  ranging  from  19  to  25  and  seven  informants   aged  between  28  and  55.  their  overall   language  proficiency  was  measured  by  a  c-­‐test.  ten  learners  scored   between  48  and  66,  nine  between  73  and  88,  and  one  had  a  score  of  962.       each  writer  produced  three  written  texts  on  the  basis  of  three  tasks  (see  further  details  in  the  next   section   and   instructions   in  appendix  b).  the  participants  were   given  90  minutes   to  write   the   texts   and   to   complete   the   c-­‐test   (see   the   next   section   for   a   description   of   the   test),   and   were   not   allowed   to   use   the   dictionary.  the  information  about  the  writers  and  the  data  collection  is  summarized  in  table  1.     table 1 synthesis of informants’ data informants n mean age tasks texts l1 writers 20 20.15 3 60 l2 writers (various l1s) 20 26.89 3 60 total 40 23.52 3 120 2  the  c-­‐test  was  administered  to  the  native  speakers  as  well.  the  majority  scored  between  97  and  100,  whereas  three  of   them  had  lower  scores  (90,  94,  and  96).  these  data  were  not  considered  in  the  analysis.   nuzzo  &  bove       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27  14   2.2.  the  three  tasks  and  the  c-­‐test   the  tasks,  which  were  developed  at  the  university  of  amsterdam  for  two  studies  involving  spanish   l2  learners  of  english3  and  hungarian  l2  learners  of  italian  (orrù,  2019)  and  then  translated  into  italian  (del   bono,  2017),  were  of  three  types,  namely  a  narrative  task,  an  instruction  task,  and  a  decision-­‐making  task.  in   the   first   task   the   informants  were   required   to  write   a   short   story   in  which   they  described  an   episode   that   occurred   during   a   study   trip   abroad.   the   second   task   required   them   to  write   a  message   to   a   couple  who   would  hypothetically  rent  their  place  for  a  week  and  give  instructions  about  the  apartment.  in  the  third  task   they  had  to  write  an  email  to  a  university  office  and  explain  which  housing  option  they  preferred,  and  why,   among  three  different  residence  types  during  a  study  abroad  program.   the  c-­‐test  (the  same  used  in  kuiken  et  al.,  2010)  consisted  of  five  short  texts  in  which  half  the  letters   of  every  other  word  had  been  replaced  by  blanks,  for  a  total  of  100  incomplete  words.  the  informants  had  to   reconstruct  the  words  on  the  basis  of  contextual  clues.       2.3.  raters  and  rating  procedure   all  the  texts  produced  by  l1  and  l2  writers  (120  texts  in  total,  see  table  1)  were  assessed  by  seven   native   speakers  of   italian  on   the  six-­‐point  likert   scale  of  fa  elaborated  by  kuiken  and  vedder   (2017).  the   raters   were   female   university   students   of   about   the   same   age   as   the   informants   involved   in   the   study,   attending   the   same   faculty,   or   department,   at   the   same   level   (ma).   the   raters   did   not   have   previous   experience  in  assessing  written  texts  and  can  therefore  be  considered  non-­‐expert  raters4.  following  kuiken   and  vedder  (2017),  two  training  sessions  were  organized  to  familiarize  the  raters  with  the  four  dimensions  of   fa.  during  the  training  sessions,  the  researchers  illustrated  the  aims  of  the  fa  scale  and  how  to  use  it,  and  the   raters  were  trained  through  models  and  hands-­‐on  practice.   the  raters  worked  individually  on  the  texts,  which  were  assigned  to  them  without  any  details  about   the  authors.  this  means  that  the  raters  did  not  know  whether  they  were  rating  a  text  written  by  a  native  or  a   non-­‐native   speaker.   however,   they  might   have   found   out   the   status   of   some   of   the   writers   by   noting   the   presence  (or  absence)  of  morphosyntactic  errors,  which  native  speakers  would  not  generally  make.     after   the  rating  sessions,  a  panel  discussion  was  organized,  during  which   the  raters  were  asked   to   verbalize  the  reasons  behind  their  judgments,  any  difficulties  in  using  the  scale,  and  the  strategies  they  used   when  assessing  the  texts.       2.4.  data  analysis   descriptive  statistics  (mean  and  standard  deviation)  were  computed  for  each  dimension  to  compare   l1  and  l2  groups  and  highlight  trends  across  the  three  tasks.  the  differences  in  mean  scores  were  tested  for   statistical  significance  using  standard  independent  samples  t  tests.  besides  a  basic  description  of  our  sample,   this  also  allows  a  first  comparison  with  previous  studies,  in  particular  with  kuiken  and  vedder  (2017).       inter-­‐rater  agreement  can  be  measured  in  different  ways  according  to  the  aim  of  the  analysis  and  the   criteria   for   the   selection   of   observations   (e.g.,   gwet,   2014;   mcgraw   &   wong,   1996).   to   answer   research   questions  rq1  and  rq2,  absolute  agreement  and  consistency  were  considered,  respectively.  when  analyzing   absolute  agreement,  we  were   interested   in  establishing   to  what  extent   raters’  evaluations  were  close   to  an   equality  relation  (e.g.,  in  the  case  of  only  two  raters,  if  the  two  sets  of  ratings  are  represented  by  x  and  y  the   relation  of   interest   is  x  =  y).   in   the  case  of  consistency,   the  relation  was  relaxed  (e.g.,  additive:  y  =  x  +  a  or   linear:  y  =  bx  +  a).  consistency  is  thus  a  different  concept  from  absolute  agreement  because  it  allows  raters  to   use  different  ranges  and/or  scale  units.  in  this  study,  both  aspects  have  been  considered.     due   to   the   characteristics   of   our   research   design,   the   most   appropriate   measure   for   inter-­‐rater   absolute   agreement   was   the   intraclass   correlation   coefficient   icc(a,1)   presented   in   mcgraw   and   wong   (1996),  which  we  computed  among  the  seven  raters  for  each  dimension  in  each  task.  inter-­‐rater  consistency   for  each  dimension-­‐task  combination  was  assessed  using  intraclass  correlation  coefficient  icc(c,1)  (mcgraw   &   wong,   1996)   and   the   average   inter-­‐rater   pearson’s   correlation   (i.e.,   the   average   of   the   twenty-­‐one   pearson’s   correlations   obtained   comparing   each   pair   of   raters).   the   first   coefficient   relates   to   additive   consistency,  whereas  the  average  inter-­‐rater  pearson’s  correlation  reflects  linear  consistency.     3  this  study  was  still  being  conducted  while  we  were  writing  the  present  paper.   4  it  was  decided  to  use  non-­‐expert  raters  to  allow  for  better  comparability  with  previous  studies  on  the  scale.   assessing  functional  adequacy  across  tasks:  learners’  and  native  speakers’  written  texts   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27   15   for   the   reader   interested   in   the   psychometric   aspects   of   our   study,  we  would   like   to   remark   that   intraclass  correlation  coefficients  can  be  considered  from  the  point  of  view  of  generalizability  theory  (e.g.,  fan   &  sun,  2014).  more  specifically,  the  intraclass  correlation  coefficient  icc(a,1)  can  be  considered  equivalent  to   generalizability  coefficient  ϕ  in  a  one-­‐facet  g-­‐study  (e.g.,  fan  &  sun,  2014,  p.  56).   to   answer   research   question   rq3,   reliability   analysis   for   each   dimension   of   the   fa   scale   was   conducted   in   each   task  by  measuring  cronbach’s   alpha,   both   for   the   total   group  of  participants   and   for  l1   group  and  l2  group  separately.  a  satisfactory  reliability  level  (α  >  0.7)  supports  the  possibility  to  summarize   the   construct   represented  by   the  dimension  with   the  average   scores  provided   for   each  writer.   in  our   case,   satisfactory   levels  of   reliability  were  obtained   in   the  l2  group  but  not   in   the  l1  group,   so   it   seemed  worth   exploring   further   the   latent   structure  of   the  fa   scale   in   the   three   tasks  only   for   the  l2  group.  for   each  l2   participant,  the  scores  assigned  by  the  seven  raters  were  averaged  for  each  dimension.  the  three  correlation   matrices   (one   for  each   task)  between   the  average  scores  of   the   four  dimensions  of  fa  were  computed  and   analyzed   by   principal   component   analysis   to   compare   the   factor   structures   obtained   for   each   task   and   to   answer  research  question  rq4.  given  the  small  number  of  variables  (the  four  dimensions  in  each  of  the  three   matrices),   in   each   task   the   analysis   of   the   factor   structure   was   aimed   to   check   the   unidimensionality   hypothesis,  under  which  a  single  latent  construct  of  fa  (the  first  principal  component)  is  sufficient  to  account   for  the  relations  among  dimensions  (a  similar  approach  is  considered  in  stemler  &  tsai,  2008,  p.  42-­‐43).  the   percentage  of  variance  explained  by  the  first  principal  component  and  levels  of  the  factor  loadings  of  the  four   dimensions  were  taken  into  consideration  (explained  variance  equal  or  higher  70%  and  factor  loadings  equal   or  higher  than  0.7  for  all  dimensions  were  considered  to  support  the  unidimensionality  hypothesis).  support   to  the  unidimensionality  hypothesis  allows  us  to  measure  the  latent  construct  by  the  computation  of  a  global   score  of  fa  in  each  task  that  can  be  used  for  correlational  studies  involving  other  linguistic  constructs  (e.g.,   caf  measures)  or  socio-­‐cultural  features  of  respondents.     finally,   to   answer   rq5,   pearson’s   correlation   coefficients   were   calculated   between   the   global   fa   scores  in  each  task  and  the  c-­‐test  scores,  to  analyze  the  association  between  the  fa  scale  and  an  indicator  of   general  proficiency  (are  the  two  measures  linearly  independent,  or  are  some  aspects  of  functional  adequacy   associated  with  proficiency?  if  so,  to  what  extent?).     all   the   analyses   presented   in   this   and   the   following   section   were   conducted   by   the   statistical   software  package  ibm  spss  (release  24).     3.  results   3.1.  comparison  of  l2  vs.  l1  rater  judgments   descriptive  statistics  for  l2  and  l1  texts,  and  for  the  whole  sample,  are  reported  in  table  2.  for  each   writer  and  each  dimension,  mean  scores  of  the  ratings  provided  by  the  seven  raters  were  computed.  then  for   each  task,  the  group  mean  scores  were  computed  for  l1,  l2,  and  the  whole  sample  (l1-­‐l2).  mean  scores  are   clustered  at  the  upper  end  of  the  scale  (mainly  ranging  between  4  and  6).  the  small  range  of  mean  scores  is   clearly  visible  in  figure  1,  where  a  curve  is  associated  with  each  task.  the  curves  have  similar  trends  because   the   raters   assigned  higher   scores   to  l1   informants  on  all   dimensions  across   the   three   tasks.  this   is   in   line   with  the  results  in  kuiken  and  vedder’s  (2017)  study,  though  they  found  lower  upper  and  lower  range  limits,   as  well  as  less  dispersion  than  the  present  study.  task  2  has  higher  mean  scores  compared  to  the  other  two   tasks.  l2  scores  show  more  relative  dispersion  than  l1  scores,  when  compared  to  the  corresponding  mean   scores  (i.e.,  dispersion  measured  by  coefficients  of  variation).                           nuzzo  &  bove       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27  16   table 2 descriptive statistics for l2, l1, and total scores (task 1 – narrative, task 2 – instruction, task 3 – decision making) task dimension group task 1 task 2 task 3 l2-l1 n mean min max sd n mean min max sd n mean min max sd content l2 20 3.89 2.29 5.29 1.27 20 4.50 3.00 5.71 1.17 20 4.47 3.14 5.29 1.06 l1 20 4.99 4.00 5.86 1.02 20 5.01 2.14 5.86 1.18 20 4.99 3.86 5.71 1.01 l1-l2 40 4.44 2.29 5.86 1.27 40 4.75 2.14 5.86 1.20 40 4.73 3.14 5.71 1.07 task requirements l2 20 4.16 2.29 5.14 1.23 20 4.51 2.57 5.57 1.10 20 4.09 2.71 5.29 1.09 l1 20 5.11 4.43 5.71 0.77 20 5.04 3.29 5.43 0.87 20 4.59 3.29 5.29 0.97 l1-l2 40 4.64 2.29 5.71 1.13 40 4.77 2.57 5.57 1.03 40 4.34 2.71 5.29 1.06 comprehensibility l2 20 4.41 1.43 5.57 1.19 20 4.56 2.00 5.71 1.07 20 4.52 2.71 5.57 0.96 l1 20 5.67 4.86 6.00 0.62 20 5.79 5.43 6.00 0.44 20 5.66 5.00 5.86 0.57 l1-l2 40 4.87 1.43 6.00 1.23 40 4.68 2.00 6.00 1.23 40 4.90 2.71 5.86 1.11 coherence cohesion l2 20 3.83 2.43 5.14 1.04 20 3.80 2.57 4.86 0.93 20 3.76 2.57 4.71 0.97 l1 20 4.80 4.00 5.29 0.93 20 4.74 3.43 5.29 1.06 20 4.76 3.71 5.57 0.95 l1-l2 40 4.31 2.43 5.29 1.10 40 4.27 2.57 5.29 1.10 40 4.26 2.57 5.57 1.08 figure 1. task mean scores independent   samples   t   tests   on   the   difference   between  mean   scores   of   l2   and   l1   texts   gave   the   results   reported   in   table   3.   as   one   would   expect,   the   texts   written   by   the   native   speakers   were   rated   significantly   higher   than   those   produced   by   the   non-­‐native   speakers.   the   only   exception   is   the   content   dimension   in   task   2,   where   the   difference   between   the   mean   scores   of   the   two   groups   of   writers   is   not   significant.     0,00 1,00 2,00 3,00 4,00 5,00 6,00 m ea n   sc or e   task 1 task 2 task 3 assessing  functional  adequacy  across  tasks:  learners’  and  native  speakers’  written  texts   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27   17   table 3 independent sample t test between l2 and l1 groups task 1 dimension mean diff. (l2-l1) t df content -1.10 -4.78*** 38 task requirements -.94 -4.79*** 38 comprehensibility -1.26 -5.39*** 38 coherence and cohesion -0.97 -5.86*** 38 task 2 content -.51 -1.93 38 task requirements -.53 -2.58* 38 comprehensibility -1.23 -6.31*** 38 coherence and cohesion -0.94 -6.20*** 38 task 3 content -.51 -2.81** 38 task requirements -.49 -2.42* 38 comprehensibility -1.14 -6.69*** 38 coherence and cohesion -1.00 -6.16*** 38 *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001 3.2.  inter-­‐rater  absolute  agreement  (rq1)   absolute  agreement  between  raters’   judgments  was  measured  by  intraclass  correlation  coefficients   (icc(a,1)),  as  explained  in  the  data  analysis  section.  results  are  reported  in  table  4.  considering  all  the  tasks,   icc  values  on  the  four  dimensions  for  the  total  l2-­‐l1  sample  range  from  0.27  to  0.68,  showing  a  low  level  of   agreement   between   raters.   when   compared   to   tasks   1   and   2,   task   3   had   lower   intraclass   correlation   coefficient  values,  with  the  exception  of  the  coherence  and  cohesion  dimension.     if  we  analyze  l2  and  l1  groups  separately,  intraclass  correlation  coefficient  ranges  from  0.24  to  0.63   for  the  former,  and  from  0.02  to  0.43  for  the  latter.  l2  values  are  generally  higher  than  l1  values,  in  particular   for   the   comprehensibility   dimension,   where   raters’   judgments   reach   the   highest   intraclass   correlation   coefficient   in   the  l2  group  and   the   lowest   in   the  l1  group.  the  dispersion  of   the   ratings   assigned  on  each   dimension  (computing  the  corresponding  box-­‐plots)  was  explored,  and  it  was  found  that  the  small  range  of   scores   assigned   by   the   raters,   especially   when   judging   l1   texts,   may   explain   these   very   low   values   of   intraclass  correlations.  we  report  the  box-­‐plots  of  raters’   judgments  on  the  comprehensibility  dimension  in   task  2  (figure  2).  the  l1  panel  shows  a  very  low  degree  of  variability,  as  most  of  the  raters  used  only  levels  5   and  6.  a  similar  picture  can  be   found   for   the  comprehensibility  dimension   in   the  other   two  tasks,  and,   to  a   lesser   extent,   for   the   coherence   and   cohesion  dimension   in   the   three   tasks.   in   these   situations,   participant   average   scores   (i.e.,   the   averages   of   the   scores   assigned   by   all   the   raters   to   each   participant)   show   low   variability,   and   this   restriction   of   the   between-­‐writer   variance   determines   low   intraclass   correlation   coefficients.                               nuzzo  &  bove       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27  18   table 4 intraclass correlation coefficients (icc(a,1)) task dimension group task 1 task 2 task 3 n icc n icc n icc content l2 20 0.33 20 0.42 20 0.27 l1 20 0.29 20 0.43 20 0.20 l1-l2 40 0.43 40 0.44 40 0.27 task requirements l2 20 0.33 20 0.38 20 0.41 l1 20 0.15 20 0.29 20 0.19 l1-l2 40 0.40 40 0.38 40 0.34 comprehensibility l2 20 0.63 20 0.59 20 0.50 l1 20 0.14 20 0.02 20 0.06 l1-l2 40 0.67 40 0.68 40 0.59 coherence and cohesion l2 20 0.30 20 0.27 20 0.24 l1 20 0.09 20 0.11 20 0.17 l1-l2 40 0.35 40 0.30 40 0.36 figure 2. box-plots of raters judgments on the comprehensibility dimension in task 2 assessing  functional  adequacy  across  tasks:  learners’  and  native  speakers’  written  texts   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27   19   3.3.  inter-­‐rater  consistency  (rq2)   the   level   of   consistency   between   raters’   judgments   was   measured   by   icc(c,1)   and   pearson   correlations.   results   are   reported   in   table   5   for   the   whole   group   of   participants.   in   particular,   for   each   dimension-­‐task  combination  the  (7  ×  7)  inter-­‐rater  pearson  correlation  matrix  was  analyzed.  for  each  matrix,   the   average   inter-­‐rater   pearson’s   correlation   was   computed,   along   with   the   minimum   correlation,   the   maximum  correlation  and  percentage  of  correlations  greater  or  equal  to  0.7.  intraclass  correlation  values  and   average  inter-­‐rater  correlations  totally  agree,  indicating  a  low  level  of  consistency  between  raters’  judgments.   the  only  exception  is  the  comprehensibility  dimension,  which  shows  a  moderate  consistency  in  tasks  1  and   2.  separate  analyses  of   inter-­‐rater  consistency   for   the  l1  and  l2  groups  (not  reported  here)  confirmed  the   results  obtained  for  the  total  group  l1-­‐l2.   table 5 intraclass correlation coefficients (icc(c,1)) and average inter-rater pearson’s correlations for the total group l2-l1 dimension icc ave(r) min(r) max(r) r ≥0.7 task 1 content 0.51 0.51 -0.26 0.76 9.5% task requirements 0.48 0.46 0.05 0.79 9.5% comprehensibility 0.71 0.72 0.60 0.85 81.0% coherence and cohesion 0.47 0.46 -0.03 0.70 4.8% task 2 content 0.55 0.57 0.35 0.83 4.8% task requirements 0.46 0.47 0.27 0.68 0.0% comprehensibility 0.76 0.77 0.68 0.88 95.2% coherence and cohesion 0.47 0.48 0.04 0.70 4.8% task 3 content 0.39 0.38 0.04 0.66 0.0% task requirements 0.47 0.45 0.16 0.73 4.8% comprehensibility 0.62 0.63 0.52 0.75 19.0% coherence and cohesion 0.45 0.45 0.11 0.69 4.8% 3.4.  fa  scale  reliability  analysis  (rq3-­‐rq4)   in  order  to  explore  the  latent  structure  of  the  fa  scale,  as  a  first  step  cronbach’s  alpha  was  measured   for  each  dimension-­‐task  combination.  results  are  reported  in  table  6.  in  the  three  tasks,  the  alpha  values  of   the  four  dimensions  for  the  whole  l2-­‐l1  sample  range  from  0.82  to  0.96.  higher  values  were  obtained  for  the   comprehensibility  dimension  (average  α  =  0.94)  compared  to  the  other  dimensions  (average  α  =  0.86  each).   task  3  has  slightly  lower  values  (average  α  =  0.86)  compared  to  the  other  two  tasks  (average  α  =  0.89  each).     when  we  analyze  the  l2  and  l1  groups  separately,  things  change.  the  alpha  values  range  from  0.73   to  0.94  for  the  l2  group,  and  from  0.16  to  0.90  for  the  l1  group.  in  most  cases  l2  alpha  values  are  higher  than   l1   alpha   values,   in   particular   for   the   comprehensibility   dimension,   where   alpha   values   reach   the   lowest   values  for  the  l1  group  in  tasks  2  (α  =  0.16)  and  3  (α  =  0.33).  results  concerning  alpha  values  showed  a  good   reliability   level   for   the  l2  group   for  all  dimensions  and   tasks.  for   the  l1  group  a  good  reliability   level  was   obtained  for  the  content  dimension  in  each  task,   for  the  task  requirement  dimension  only  in  tasks  2  and  3,   and  for  the  coherence  and  cohesion  dimension  only  in  task  3.  unsatisfactory  reliability  levels  were  obtained   for   the  comprehensibility  dimension   in   the  l1  group   in  all   tasks.  this   is  a  consequence  of   the  strong  range   restriction  of  the  scores,  mostly  concentrated  on  levels  5  and  6  of  the  scale.  this  range  restriction  results  in   low  inter-­‐rater  correlations  and  low  alpha  values.               nuzzo  &  bove       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27  20   table 6 cronbach’s alphas for dimensions and tasks task dimension group task 1 task 2 task 3 n α n α n α content l2 20 0.83 20 0.88 20 0.82 l1 20 0.80 20 0.90 20 0.75 l1-l2 40 0.88 40 0.89 40 0.82 task requirements l2 20 0.83 20 0.87 20 0.89 l1 20 0.66 20 0.79 20 0.75 l1-l2 40 0.87 40 0.85 40 0.86 comprehensibility l2 20 0.93 20 0.94 20 0.89 l1 20 0.60 20 0.16 20 0.33 l1-l2 40 0.95 40 0.96 40 0.92 coherence and cohesion l2 20 0.80 20 0.77 20 0.73 l1 20 0.63 20 0.69 20 0.77 l1-l2 40 0.86 40 0.86 40 0.85 in   summary,   according   to   cronbach’s   alpha   values,   it   seemed   worth   exploring   further   the   latent   structure   of   the   fa   scale   in   the   three   tasks   only   for   the   l2   group.   to   this   aim,   for   each   l2  participant   the   scores  assigned  by  the  seven  raters  were  averaged  for  each  fa  dimension.  pearson’s  correlation  coefficients   were  calculated  between  the  dimensions  for  l2  participants,  and  results  are  reported  in  table  7.  correlation   coefficients  ranged  from  moderate  to  high  in  tasks  1  and  2,  whereas  lower  values  were  found  in  task  3  for  the   comprehensibility  dimension.     the   structure   of   the   three   correlation   matrices   was   also   studied   through   principal   component   analyses  for  the  three  tasks.  in  each  task  only  the  first  principal  component  was  selected  (by  the  criterion  of   the   eigenvalues   greater   than  1).   the   first   principal   component   explained  81%  of   variance   in   the   first   task,   80%  in  the  second  task  and  69%  in  the  third  task  (table  8).  in  each  task  factor  loadings  on  the  first  principal   component  were   equal   or   higher   than  0.8   (most   values   higher   than  0.9,   and   only   a   low   value   0.66   for   the   comprehensibility  dimension  in  the  third  task),  supporting  the  unidimensionality  hypothesis  for  the  fa  scale   across  the  tasks.  this  result  allows  the  computation  of  a  global  score  of  fa  in  each  task,  that  could  be  used  in   correlational  studies  involving  other  linguistic  constructs  (e.g.,  caf  proficiency)  or  socio-­‐cultural  features  of   respondents.   table 7 pearson’s product-moment correlations between dimensions for l2 group dimension task requirements comprehensibility coherence and cohesion task 1 content 0.78** 0.69** 0.86** task requirements 0.75** 0.75** comprehensibility 0.68** task 2 content 0.86** 0.63** 0.73** task requirements 0.66** 0.77** comprehensibility 0.77** task 3 content 0.76** 0.54* 0.77** task requirements 0.18 0.65** comprehensibility 0.57** *p  <  .05,  **p  <  .01   assessing  functional  adequacy  across  tasks:  learners’  and  native  speakers’  written  texts   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27   21   table 8 loadings and explained variance of the first principal component for each task first principal component dimension task 1 task 2 task 3 content 0.93 0.90 0.94 task requirements 0.91 0.92 0.80 comprehensibility 0.86 0.85 0.66 coherence and cohesion 0.91 0.91 0.91 explained variance 81.3% 80.2% 69.4% 3.5.  correlation  between  the  global  fa  scores  and  the  c-­‐test  scores  (rq5)   the   three   global   fa   scores   are   significantly   correlated   with   c-­‐test   scores,   particularly   for   the   instruction   task   (0.87).  moderately  high   correlations  were   found   for   the  narrative   (0.70)   and   the  decision-­‐ making   (0.61)   tasks.   this   indicates   that   the   levels   of   the   global   fa   scale   and   the   levels   of   proficiency   as   measured  by  the  c-­‐test  are  associated,  especially  for  the  instruction  task  (e.g.,  writers  with  high  levels  of  the   proficiency  according  to  the  c-­‐test  usually  obtain  high  global  ratings  on  the  fa  scale).  these  results  seem  to   indicate   that   proficiency   as  measured   by   the   c-­‐test   is   not   independent   from  fa,   and   that   a   high   degree   of   association  can  be  observed  at  least  with  some  aspects  of  the  fa  scale  across  tasks.             4.  discussion   the  general  purpose  of  this  study  was  to  explore  further  the  applicability  of  the  six-­‐point  rating  scale   for  fa  recently  proposed  by  kuiken  and  vedder  (2017).   in  particular,  we  aimed  to  put   the  scale   to   the  test   with  both  l2  and  l1  written  texts  elicited  by  means  of  three  different  tasks.     low   levels   of   inter-­‐rater   agreement   and   consistency,   especially   for   the   native   speakers’   group,   suggest  that  the  scale  is  not  equally  applicable  to  l1  and  l2  written  output  by  non-­‐expert  raters.  this  seems   to  be  in  agreement  with  the  findings  of  kuiken  and  vedder  (2014),  who  reported  that  it  was  difficult  for  their   (expert)   raters   to   judge   l1   and   l2   production   at   the   same   time,   by   means   of   the   same   communicative   adequacy  rating  scale  (a  previous  version  of  the  fa  scale  used  here).  the  authors  therefore  observed  that  the   rating  scales  developed  for  the  assessment  of  l2  written  output  are  not  always  suitable  for  the  assessment  of   l1   writing   (kuiken   &   vedder,   2014,   p.   333),   possibly   because   l2   writing   has   its   own   particular   characteristics.  however,  when  the  new  fa  scale  was  tested,  the  findings  revealed  that  it  could  be  employed   “for  rating  the  texts  of  both  l2  and  l1  writers”  (kuiken  &  vedder,  2017,  p.  331).  the  only  problem  was  that   raters  found  it  more  difficult  to  discriminate  among  native  speakers  as  opposed  to  non-­‐native  speakers.     if  it  is  true  that  our  findings  do  not  confirm  the  applicability  of  the  fa  scale  to  both  l1  and  l2  writing,   the   low  values  of   inter-­‐rater  agreement   found   in  our  data  may  be  explained  as  a   consequence  of   the   small   range  of  scores  provided  by  the  raters,  particularly  when   judging  l1  texts.   in   fact,   little  variation  of  subject   scores  results  in  low  intraclass  correlation  coefficients.  the  low  variability  in  scores  might  have  also  caused   the  low  degree  of  consistency  found  between  raters’  judgments.     as   far   as   the   reliability   of   the   fa   scale   is   concerned,   positive   results   were   obtained.   the   good   correlation  levels  between  the  four  dimensions  support  the  unidimensionality  hypothesis  for  the  scale  across   the  three  tasks,  meaning  that  the  four  dimensions  represented  by  the  sub-­‐scales  are  part  of  the  single  latent   construct  of  fa.  this  is  particularly  true  for  the  whole  l2-­‐l1  sample  and  the  l2  group  alone,  whereas  in  the   native   speakers’   group   alone   lower   reliability   levels   were   found,   especially   on   the   comprehensibility   dimension.  again,  this  is  a  consequence  of  the  range  restriction  of  the  scores—mostly  concentrated  on  levels   5  and  6  of  the  scale  for  the  l1  group—which  results   in   low  inter-­‐rater  correlations.  the  applicability  of  the   scale  as  a  measurement  instrument  to  different  types  of  tasks  seems  to  be  supported  by  our  results,  at  least   for  the  l2  data.     high  correlation  values  were  achieved  between  global  fa  scores  and  c-­‐test  scores   in  the  l2  group,   for  all   tasks  but  particularly   for   the   instruction  one.  global   language  proficiency  as  measured  by   the  c-­‐test   seems  thus  to  be  somehow  associated  to  fa,  in  that  those  who  obtain  high  ratings  on  the  former  usually  score   high  on   the   latter   as  well.  this   result,  which   is   in   line  with  del  bono’s   (2017)   findings  but  not  with  orrù’s   (2018,  forthcoming),  suggests  that  fa  is  part  of  the  general  proficiency  of  a  speaker  or  writer,  even  though  it   can  be  assessed  independently  from  descriptors  of  linguistic  performance  in  terms  of  caf.   nuzzo  &  bove       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27  22   during   the  panel  discussion   that   followed   the  assessment  sessions,  our  non-­‐expert   raters  reported   several   difficulties   in   using   the   scales,  with   some   of   the   subscales   described   as  more   challenging   than   the   others.  also,  according  to  their  comments,  they  sometimes  felt  uncomfortable  separating  functional  adequacy   from  linguistic  accuracy,  possibly  because  in  their  experience  as  students  the  assessment  of  written  texts  is   inherently  associated  with  the  latter.   as  in  del  bono  (2017)  and  orrù  (2019),  the  coherence  and  cohesion  scale  was  described  as  the  most   difficult   to   use,   mainly   due   to   the   fact   that   the   two   aspects   are   not   always   as   closely   linked   as   the   scale   descriptors  would  suggest.  for  example,  the  raters  reported  they  had  found  texts  that  were  totally  coherent   even  though  no  connectives  or  anaphoric  devices  were  used.  however,   this  perceived  difficulty  with  one  of   the  sub-­‐scales  seems  to  not  have  affected  negatively  the  use  of  the  scale  as  a  whole,  since  in  the  analysis  the   four  dimensions  represented  by  the  sub-­‐scales  proved  to  be  part  of  the  single  latent  construct  of  fa.   furthermore,   the  raters  claimed  that  they  found  the  scale  not  equally  applicable  to  the  three  tasks.   more  specifically,  they  declared  they  had  experienced  difficulties  in  using  the  scale  with  narrative  texts  (task   1),  which  they  considered  more  creative  in  nature  and  therefore  hardly  evaluable  in  terms  of  set  criteria  and   determined  standards.     on  the  whole,  our  results  are  not  as  anticipated,  particularly  with  regard  to  the  applicability  of  the  fa   scale  to  l1  texts.  however,  they  confirm  that  the  scale  has  a  good  potential  for  assessing  the  fa  of  different   types  of  written  texts,  given  that   its  reliability  as  an   instrument  to  measure  a   latent  construct  proved  to  be   high  in  the  l2  group.  therefore,  it  would  be  worth  investigating  further  its  applicability  to  l1  productions.  as   we   have   seen,   the   low   values   of   inter-­‐rater   agreement   and   reliability   found   in   our   data   are   possibly   a   consequence  of  the  small  range  of  scores  provided  by  the  raters.  in  order  to  overcome  this  limitation  of  the   present  study  and  to  gain  a  more  reliable  picture  of  the  scale’s  capability  to  measure  native  speakers’  fa  in   writing,  further  investigations  should  take  into  account  texts  that  are  likely  to  be  distributed  along  the  whole   scale,  so  that  scores  do  not  cluster  at  one  end  or  the  other.  these  should  include  texts  written  by  informants   having  varying  levels  of  educational  attainment,  which  might  allow  raters  to  use  all  the  levels  of  the  scale.       5.  concluding  remarks  and  pedagogical  implications   in  the  light  of  the  findings  just  discussed,  we  believe  that  the  applicability  of  the  fa  scale  proposed  by   kuiken  and  vedder  (2017)  to  the  productions  of  native  speakers  is  worth  exploring  further,  and  within  new   contexts.  more  specifically,  it  would  be  interesting  to  see  how  this  tool  works  when  it  is  applied  to  pieces  of   academic  writing.  from  a  pedagogical  point  of  view,  the  development  of  rating  instruments  that  can  measure   and   describe   functional   aspects   of   language   proficiency   in   both   l1   and   l2   appears   to   be   particularly   desirable.  nowadays,  most  school  and  university  teachers  teach  non-­‐native  speakers  with  different  levels  of   proficiency  in  the  l2  and  native  speakers  with  poor  writing  skills  in  their  l1  simultaneously.  it  is  well  known,   indeed,   that   in   the   last  decades  universities   in  several  countries  have  been   facing  the  challenge  of  ensuring   the  progression  of  a  growing  population  of  students  with  poor  academic   literacy  skills   in  their  l1s.  most  of   their  weaknesses  lay  in  the  functional  dimension  of  language  use,  like  content  selection  and  organization,  or   the  application  of  genre  features  and  register  variation.     in  the  context  of  italian  universities,   teachers  have  expressed  concern  about  students’   low  levels  of   academic   language  proficiency  since   the  1990s  (see,   for   instance,  lavinio  &  sobrero,  1991).   in   the  relevant   literature,  problems  on  functional  aspects  of  language  use  are  reported  with  both  typical  academic  texts,  such   as  essays  and  summaries,  and  communicative  tasks  that  students  need  to  accomplish  in  their  university  life,   like  writing  emails   to  professors,  motivation   letters   for  exchange  programs,  or  applications   for   internships.   for  example,  in  a  corpus  of  essays  produced  by  students  of  italian  literature  at  the  university  of  milan,  prada   (2009)   identified  widespread  weaknesses   in   the   logical   organization  of   arguments   and   in   the  use   of   genre   conventions.   more   generally,   the   data   revealed   severe   difficulties   in   producing   comprehensible   and   communicatively  effective  texts.  andorno  (2015)  collected  and  analyzed  162  emails  written  to  a  professor  by   students  of  humanities  in  two  universities  of  northern  italy.  although  the  students  seemed  aware  of  the  need   to  adopt  a  formal  register,  in  some  cases  they  were  unable  to  use  properly  the  linguistic  devices  associated  to   that   register.   in   this   context,   the   construct   of   fa   seems   to  be   of   particular   interest,   as   it  might   help  better   understand   an   area   of   research   and   intervention   that   requires   careful   attention  with   regard   to   university   students’  needs.   another  line  of  research  with  possible  pedagogical  import  would  be  that  of  looking  at  the  potential  of   the  fa  scale  as  a  teaching  and  training  tool.  in  the  panel  discussion  with  the  raters  conducted  for  this  study,  it   assessing  functional  adequacy  across  tasks:  learners’  and  native  speakers’  written  texts   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27   23   emerged   that  using   the   scale   to   rate   their  peers’   texts  had  helped   them   reflect   on   their   own  writing   skills.   therefore,   it  would  be   interesting   to  explore   the  pedagogical  use  of   the  scale   in  writing  courses,  where   the   students  might  be  guided  by  the  descriptors  in  building  and/or  revising  their  texts.           acknowledgments   the   authors  wish   to   thank   all   student   raters   for   their   evaluation   of   the   data.  we   particularly   thank  diego   cortés   velásquez   and   federica   del   bono   (roma   tre   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 in  italiano  lingua  seconda  (pp.  79–92).  franco  cesati.     assessing  functional  adequacy  across  tasks:  learners’  and  native  speakers’  written  texts   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27   25   appendix a rating scales for functional adequacy (from kuiken & vedder 2017: 335-336) content: is the number of information units provided in the text adequate and relevant? 6 the number of ideas is extremely adequate and they are very consistent to each other. 5 the number of ideas is very adequate and they are very consistent to each other. 4 the number of ideas is adequate and they are sufficiently consistent. 3 the number of ideas is somewhat adequate, even though they are not very consistent. 2 the number of ideas is scarcely adequate and the ideas lack consistency. 1 the number of ideas is not at all adequate and insufficient and the ideas are unrelated to each other. task requirements: have the task requirements been fulfilled successfully (e.g. genre, speech acts, register)? 6 all the questions and the requirements of the task have been answered. 5 almost all the questions and the requirements of the task have been answered. 4 most (more than half) of the questions and the requirements of the task have been answered. 3 approximately half of the questions and the requirements of the task have been answered. 2 some (less than half) of the questions and the requirements of the task have been answered. 1 none of the questions and the requirements of the task have been answered. comprehensibility: how much effort is required to understand text purpose and ideas? 6 the text is very easily comprehensible and highly readable. the ideas and the purpose are clearly stated. 5 the text is easily comprehensible and reads smoothly. comprehensibility is not an issue. 4 the text is comprehensible. only a few sentences are unclear but are understood, without too much effort, after a second reading. 3 the text is somewhat comprehensible. some sentences are hard to understand at a first reading. a second reading helps to clarify the purposes of the text and the ideas conveyed, but some doubts persist. 2 the text is scarcely comprehensible. its purposes are not clearly stated and the reader struggles to understand the ideas of the writer. the reader has to guess most of the ideas and purposes. 1 the text is not at all comprehensible. ideas and purposes are unclearly stated and the efforts of the reader to understand the text are ineffective. coherence and cohesion: is the text coherent and cohesive (e.g. cohesive devices, strategies)? 6 the writer ensures extreme coherence by integrating new ideas in the text with connectives or connective phrases. anaphoric devices are used regularly. there are few incidences of unrelated progressions and no coherence breaks. the structure of the text is extremely cohesive, thanks to a skillful use of connectives (especially linking chunks, verbal constructions and adverbials), often used to describe relationships between ideas. 5 the text is very coherent: when the writer introduces a new topic, it is usually done by using connectives or connective phrases. repetitions are very infrequent. anaphoric devices are numerous. there are no coherence breaks. the text is very cohesive and ideas are well linked by adverbial and/or verbal connectives. 4 the text is coherent. unrelated progressions are somewhat rare, but the writer sometimes relies on repetitions to achieve coherence. a sufficient number of anaphoric devices is used. there may be some coherence breaks. the text is cohesive. the writer makes good use of connectives, sometimes not limiting this to conjunctions. 3 the text is somewhat coherent. unrelated progressions and/or repetitions are frequent. more than two sentences in a row can have the same subject (even when the subject is understood). some anaphoric devices are used. there can be a few coherence breaks. the text is somewhat cohesive. some connectives are used, but they are mostly conjunctions. 2 the text is scarcely coherent. the writer often uses unrelated progressions; when coherence is achieved, it is often done through repetitions. only a few anaphoric devices are used. there are some coherence breaks. the text is not very cohesive. ideas are not well linked by connectives, which are rarely used. 1 the text is not at all coherent. unrelated progressions and coherence breaks are very common. the writer does not use any anaphoric device. the text is not at all cohesive. connectives are hardly ever used and ideas are unrelated. nuzzo  &  bove       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27  26   appendix b task instructions task 1 the university newspaper organizes a writing contest every year. the jury consists of lecturers and students from the literature and language department. this year’s topic is as follows: write about an anecdote of something that happened during a study trip you have been on (high school or university, e.g. erasmus, exchange programmes). your text must include the following aspects: when did you go on the study trip? where did you go? who did you go with? what happened? when did that happen? did you learn anything from this experience? you have 30 minutes to write your text. minimum number of words: 150 (about 15 lines). the use of a dictionary is not allowed. task 2 you have rented out your house through a booking website to a young couple, maria and max, who are visiting your town. because you are not going to be there when they arrive, you decide to leave them a note with instructions related to the house. your note must include the following information: start by welcoming your guests. explain where they can find basic things they may need during their stay. explain briefly how to use certain electronic devices. explain how they should leave the house. you have 30 minutes to write your text. minimum number of words: 150 (about 15 lines). the use of a dictionary is not allowed. task 3 you are going to spend next year in a foreign city as part of an international exchange programme. the international office from your host university has offered you three options for accommodation. they are interested in knowing your decision and in what you base it on. read the information below and decide on which of the choices you prefer. write an e-mail to the director of international students, justifying your choice. your e-mail must include the following information: which accommodation you selected. the reasons why you would make that choice taking into account life in that city. the reasons why you did not select the other two options. international student residence shared house studio price 900€ 500€ 800€ distance from university and city centre 20 min. by tram or 30 min cycling 35 min. overall (cycling or tram) 50 min. by bus + 10 min. walk or 40 min. cycling kitchen shared shared private bathroom private shared private internet available, no additional charge not available available, additional charge washing facilities available, additional charge available outside the building, additional charge included, no additional charge you have 30 minutes to write your text. minimum number of words: 150 (about 15 lines). the use of a dictionary is not allowed. assessing  functional  adequacy  across  tasks:  learners’  and  native  speakers’  written  texts   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  9–27   27   elena nuzzo,  università roma tre elena.nuzzo@uniroma3.it en elena nuzzo is an associate professor of modern language instruction in the department of foreign languages, literatures, and cultures at roma tre university. her work focuses on research, education, and teacher training in the field of applied linguistics, with a specific interest in italian as a second language. her main areas of research include the practical applications of speech act theory in the learning and teaching of second languages, intercultural pragmatics, and task-based language teaching. es elena nuzzo es profesora asociada de didáctica de las lenguas modernas en el departamento de lenguas, literaturas y culturas extranjeras de la università roma tre. realiza actividades de investigación, enseñanza y formación de docentes en el campo de la lingüística aplicada, con especial interés hacia el italiano como l2. sus áreas de investigación principales incluyen las aplicaciones prácticas de la teoría de los actos lingüísticos en el aprendizaje y enseñanza de las segundas lenguas, la pragmática transcultural y la enseñanza basada en tareas. it elena nuzzo elena nuzzo è professoressa associata in didattica delle lingue moderne presso il dipartimento di lingue, letterature e culture straniere dell’università roma tre. svolge attività di ricerca, di insegnamento e di formazione dei docenti nel campo della linguistica applicata, con un interesse specifico per l’italiano come lingua seconda. le sue principali aree di ricerca includono le applicazioni pratiche della teoria degli atti linguistici nell’ambito dell’apprendimento e dell’insegnamento delle lingue seconde, la pragmatica transculturale e la didattica basata sul compito. giuseppe bove,  università roma tre giuseppe.bove@uniroma3.it en giuseppe bove giuseppe bove is a professor of statistics in the department of education at roma tre university. he has also taught at the university of siena and sapienza university of rome. he conducts research in the field of multivariate statistics, with a particular focus on data analysis methods (factor analysis and multidimensional scaling) and their application to the assessment of learning in national and international educational surveys. es giuseppe bove es profesor titular de estadística en el departamento de ciencias de la educación de la universidad roma tre. también enseño en la universidad de siena y en la universidad de roma “la sapienza”. realiza actividades de investigación en el ámbito de la estadística multivariante, con especial referencia al método de análisis de datos (técnicas factoriales y de escala multidimensional) y sus aplicaciones a la evaluación del aprendizaje en encuestas educativas nacionales e internacionales. it giuseppe bove è professore ordinario di statistica nel dipartimento di scienze della formazione dell'università roma tre. ha insegnato inoltre all'università degli studi di siena e alla sapienza università di roma. svolge attività di ricerca nell'ambito della statistica multivariata, con particolare riferimento ai metodi dell'analisi dei dati (tecniche fattoriali e di scaling multidimensionale) ed alle loro applicazioni alla valutazione dell'apprendimento in indagini educative nazionali ed internazionali. faziocremasco_8.2 e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 8, issue 2, november 2021, 70-86 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.251 www.e-journall.org © fazio 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. distance learning and the development of speaking skills: challenges and opportunities alessandra fazio1 università degli studi roma foro italico claudia cremasco academic initiatives abroad received 20 april 2021; accepted after revisions 28 june 2021 abstract en based on data from the graal group's questionnaire on remote teaching, caused by the covid-19 emergency as reported in conti (2021), oral production practice was neglected by both high school and college students. the aim of this paper is to reflect on how to promote and sustain speaking from the beginning of the language learning process, during in-person, remote and/or hybrid teaching. the framework presented indicates task-based language teaching (tblt) as an effective approach to help learners participate in successful communication. the paper provides: 1. an overview of current literature on the subject; 2. applicable examples integrated with flipgrid; 3. data analysis of students’ performance. key words: remote teaching, hybrid teaching, task-based language teaching, speaking skills, technology-supported learning es de los datos del cuestionario del grupo graal sobre la enseñanza virtual debida a la emergencia covid-19, como se informa en conti (2021), se extrae que la práctica de la producción oral fue descuidada por el alumnado tanto de secundaria como universitario. el objetivo de este trabajo es reflexionar sobre cómo promover y mantener la expresión oral desde el inicio del proceso de aprendizaje del idioma, durante la enseñanza presencial, virtual y/o híbrida. el marco propuesto indica que la enseñanza de idiomas basada en tareas (tblt) es un enfoque eficaz para ayudar al alumnado a participar en una comunicación exitosa. el presente artículo ofrece: 1. una descripción general de la literatura actual sobre el tema; 2. ejemplos aplicables integrados a través del uso de la herramienta digital flipgrid; 3. un análisis de datos del rendimiento del alumnado. palabras clave: enseñanza virtual, enseñanza hibrida, enseñanza de idiomas basada en tareas, aprendizaje con tics it dai dati del questionario realizzato dal gruppo graal sulla didattica a distanza dovuta dall'emergenza da covid-19, riportati in conti (2021), emerge che l’abilità di produzione orale è stata trascurata sia dagli studenti delle scuole superiori che nei corsi universitari. il presente contributo si prefigge di riflettere su come promuovere e supportare la produzione orale fin dall'inizio del processo di apprendimento della lingua durante l'insegnamento in presenza, a distanza e/o ibrido. il quadro proposto definisce il task-based language teaching (tblt) quale approccio ideale per favorire strategie e pratiche efficaci al fine dello sviluppo del parlato. il presente contributo fornisce: 1. una revisione della letteratura sull'argomento; 2. esempi applicativi integrati attraverso l’uso di un opportuno strumento digitale flipgrid; 3. un’analisi dei dati sulle prestazioni degli studenti. parole chiave: didattica a distanza, didattica digitale integrata, apprendimento linguistico attraverso i task, abilità di produzione orale, tecnologie dell'informazione e della comunicazione per l’apprendimento linguistico * alessandra fazio, università degli studi roma foro italico alessandra.fazio@uniroma4.it 1 although the authors cooperated fully in preparing and writing this article, they individually devoted more time to the following sections: alessandra fazio: 2.4; 3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, and 4; claudia cremasco: 1, 2, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. distance learning and the development of speaking skills e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 71 1. introduction data we collected through a questionnaire on remote language teaching (conti, forthcoming) during the recent health emergency has shown that speaking was one of the skills least practiced by both high school and college students. this issue was reported by both teachers and students. while is not surprising that such a complex skill was scarcely practiced in the virtual learning environment, the development of speaking is one of the most important skills for second language learners, not only because we learn a language to be able to communicate, but also because speaking promotes and facilitates further language learning. this paper proposes that task-based learning can be an effective approach for learners to engage in spoken communication and to develop oral skills in an online environment (ellis, 2003; nunan, 2004; skehan, 2009). the paper begins with the theoretical background on speaking and task-based language teaching. it next discusses how to promote and sustain speaking in remote teaching. these ideas are then illustrated in a description, including transcribed examples of student interaction, of how flipgrid, a free video sharing platform, was adopted in an english for specific purposes (esp) speaking course for students mastering in sports management at the university of rome foro italico. concluding remarks identify the new opportunities and challenges for supporting speaking in virtual learning environments revealed by the experience of using flipgrid. 2. theoretical background 2.1. the importance of speaking in sla speaking, as an essential language skill, is an essential goal of language learning. learners aspire to speak without too much hesitation, without making too many linguistic mistakes, and without offending their interlocutors. students often measure their progress in a second language (l2) through their confidence and ability to speak in real world situations. research studies have also shown that speaking is not only an essential communication skill but that it also plays a fundamental role in promoting and facilitating second language acquisition (hatch, 1978; long, 2015; skehan, 2009; swain, 1997; thornbury, 2005). swain (1997), through her comprehensible output hypothesis, stressed the importance of production in second language acquisition (sla). she proposed that having to produce the l2 encourages language development in multiple ways. first, it can help learners to pay attention to language features necessary to express what they want to say, as well as to reflect on their own productions as sort of “auto-input” (schmidt & frota, 1986). along the same line, production allows learners to test their hypothesis about the l2, to get feedback, and even to automatise and achieve a better control of existing l2 knowledge. comprehensible input alone is not sufficient to ensure full l2 proficiency. hatch (1978) showed that learners first learn how to interact through conversation and consequently syntactic structures are developed from these interactions. thornbury (2005) expanded on this idea, positing that a scaffolding process takes place through the interaction, so the language is co-constructed and consequently develops. long’s (2015) interaction hypothesis also emphasised the important role of conversational interaction in sla, as interaction can promote acquisition through comprehensible input, negotiation for meaning, feedback, and modified output. central to these topics is implicit learning, which is the primary way by which we acquire our first language (l1). the acquisition of l1 grammar is implicit and is extracted from experience of usage rather than from explicit rules (ellis, loewen, elder, erlam, philp, & reinders, 2009). implicit knowledge is automatic, fast, effortless, sub-conscious, and therefore efficient when we speak; we don’t have time to think, which is an essential feature of spontaneous language production. long goes on to describe adults’ weaker capacity for implicit learning and the effects that this problem has on sla and instructed second language acquisition. in long’s (2015) words, as “the capacity for implicit learning […] is weaker in adults, and tuned for l1 processing, optimally efficient adult language learning requires help from explicit learning (not necessarily via explicit teaching)” (p. 49). from this perspective, the central issue in adult sla is how much, when, and what form explicit knowledge should take, and what relationship exists between implicit and explicit learning. in long’s interpretation, a limited and controlled amount of explicit knowledge can facilitate implicit learning—that is, what we want to achieve—in three ways: encouraging selective attention and noticing of specific linguistic features, helping to “notice the gap” between standard and non-standard forms, and modifying automatic l1 processing routines. long underlined, however, that this is not the same as saying explicit knowledge becomes implicit through proceduralisation and automatisation. instead, during interactions in meaningful fazio & cremasco e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 72 communications, interlocutors overcome communication obstacles by switching attention from meaning to form long enough to solve the communication problem and notice the new information. these moments, what long (2015) calls “negotiation for meaning,” provide opportunities for attention to linguistic code features, and for explicit learning that goes to improve implicit input processing. one example of negotiation for meaning is a recast. recasts are a type of implicit corrective feedback that provides information about the language at a time when interlocutors are attentive, ready for correction, and for noticing new elements in the input: “recasts are crucial points at which implicit and explicit learning converge in optimal ways” (long, 2015, p. 55). long’s theory and his reflections on the role of implicit learning are particularly important when we consider speaking. it is precisely in spontaneous language production that we have most difficulties, and where implicit knowledge seems to play a central role. long returns to the importance of implicit knowledge by stating that “for many academic, occupational, and social survival tasks, especially those requiring listening or spontaneous speaking, learners depend primarily on their implicit knowledge [...]. implicit knowledge is the result of incidental learning” (long, 2019, p. 10). implicit knowledge is often acquired through interactions, is the product of incidental learning when our attention is on the message we are trying to convey, and at the same time is the kind of knowledge most needed in spontaneous speech (long, 2015). 2.2. difficulties with teaching and learning speaking as an l2 skill students identify speaking as the most difficult l2 skill. in a study conducted by cambridge university (2018), based on a survey with 14.000 students in which participants were asked what they found most difficult in english (l2), speaking ranked very highly among the difficulties. curry (2018) presented the results of this survey in a webinar and explained that often students feel lost when asked to speak on the spot and, moreover, they feel that what is happening in the classroom does not prepare them for what they have to do with the language in the real world. lightbown and spada (2013) pointed out that many adults and adolescents find it stressful when they are unable to express themselves clearly and correctly. goh and burns (2012) also consider affective factors to be strongly linked to speaking difficulties, especially when learners have to process and produce language spontaneously without any planning or rehearsal. goh and burns found that anxiety may make learners’ cognitive performance less efficient, impairing their ability to process, retrieve, or produce information when required. besides specific affective issues and individual differences in terms of character and aptitude, ellis (2003) posited that a main problem in spontaneous language use is the lack of time to represent, process, and put into words what we want to say. following the information-processing model proposed by levelt (1989), ellis (2003) emphasised the complexity of language production: a complex skill such as speaking requires the performance of a number of simultaneous mental operations, potentially causing speakers to experience considerable processing pressure. […] l2 learners are likely to experience special problems in formulating phonetic plans that require rule computation. in many cases the necessary connection will not have been firmly established in their implicit knowledge system, making access slow and effortful. in other cases, they might entirely lack implicit knowledge, and be forced to fall back to explicit knowledge, which […] is not amenable to rapid deployment. (pp. 108-109) according to goh and burns (2012), second language speaking can be described as a “combinatorial skill” (p. 63): learners must deal with the cognitive load of speaking clearly and comprehensibly, whilst paying attention to meaning and form at the same time (goh & burns, 2012). more recently, goh (2017) pointed out that language learners may find difficulties in constructing grammatically well-formed sentences in oral interactions due to a lack of time and vocabulary as well as listening comprehension problems. thus, teachers have to take into account the different aspects of speech production and understand the challenges that learners confront when they are required to simultaneously focus on meaning and form. moreover, the nature of spoken language is impermanent, transitory, and therefore difficult to teach and assess (goh & burns, 2012). in spite of these difficulties, speaking in itself facilitates the learning of an l2 and at the same time is an important part of the learners’ curriculum. therefore, what should the teacher do in the context of the classroom? how should they deal with the difficulties that speaking poses and, at the same time, what kind of activities can they propose? if we exclude those teaching practices, unfortunately still in use, that equate speaking in the classroom with “nothing more than exercises and drills, where learners repeat sentences with distance learning and the development of speaking skills e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 73 specific language forms” (goh & burns, 2012, p. 218), teachers are faced with dealing with alternative solutions. primarily, these decisions involve finding ways to foster incidental and implicit learning through activities that encourage learners to speak and/or interact, while at the same time, ensuring that learners have appropriate opportunities to attend the language skills they are seeking to build. yet teachers, who have a lot of material to cover, may feel that “doing speaking” is not an efficient use of time. what we traditionally call “grammar and vocabulary” and exam preparation may take precedence over speaking. speaking may be pushed toward the end of the lesson or the end of the unit and might get dropped all together. in more traditional teaching methods such as presentation, practice, production (ppp), in which language structures are first presented formally, then practiced, to be sped up or even automated, and finally reused, the speaking activities are “the end point of the process (and may frequently be left out, in some classroom, because of time pressure), rather than the purpose of the learning process” (goh & burns, 2012, p. 183). 2.3. possible didactic solutions to teaching speaking what, then, might teachers do to make speaking a fundamental and active part of class activities? taskbased language teaching (tblt) may provide one solution. in long’s (2015) words, tblt is an “approach to course design, implementation, and evaluation intended to meet the communicative needs of diverse groups of learners” which “requires an investment of resources in a needs analysis and production of materials appropriate for a particular population of learners” (p. 5), as in the case of the esp course for students mastering in sports management. tblt, as described by ellis, skehan, li, shintani, and lambert (2019), emphasizes the importance of engaging learners’ natural abilities to acquiring language incidentally as they engage with language as a meaning-making tool, and thus contrast with structural approaches that emphasize language as an object to be systematically taught and intentionally learned. (p. 1) one advantage of tblt is how it facilitates incidental learning. as ellis (2008) showed, sla researchers claim that incidental learning does happen through practicing tasks and they offer ways to identify the conditions that facilitate this. ellis and shintani (2014) define a task as a language teaching activity that must satisfy four criteria: firstly, there must be a primary focus on meaning and message making, rather than just trying to learn some specific bits of the l2. secondly, there must be some kind of gap, either an information gap or an opinion gap. thirdly, learners should rely largely on their own resources to complete the task. in tblt teachers do not teach learners the language they need to complete the task, but rather leave it up to the students to express themselves the best way they can either through linguistic or non-linguistic resources. finally, there must be a clearly defined communicative outcome other than the use of language for its own sake. in this sense, tblt caters to incidental learning, creating opportunity for learners to acquire new language or a better control over language partially acquired, while they are working to achieve the outcome of the task. according to long's (2015) perspective, tblt has the advantage of drawing students' attention to specific language features (words, collocations, grammatical structures, pragmatic patterns, etc.) in context as a way for teachers to facilitate students’ noticing. in this way, it is then possible to stimulate students’ awareness of particular forms and their uses (focus on form). the role of the teacher then is to facilitate this process by enhancing language features in the input, giving learners time to plan the task beforehand, and interacting with them when they experience problems in understanding or expressing themself. task variables that have an impact on acquisition, such as task design and task implementation, have been extensively researched even though research did not come to any definitive conclusions on their impact on language acquisition. nevertheless, certain features such as one-way tasks versus two-way tasks, task repetition, and type of feedback have an impact on interaction. ellis (2008) considered both aspects for their impact on acquisition and their effect on language production in terms of fluency, accuracy, and complexity. the study did not come to any definitive conclusions. however, it did produce some important findings that individual instructors can consider using in their own classroom when planning a task. goh (2017), drawing on the ideas of vanpatten (1990) and skehan (1996), identified three task variables in terms of implementation that can help the learning of speaking in class and improve learners’ performance: pre-task planning, task repetition, and communication strategies. these tasks work by providing fazio & cremasco e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 74 systematic direction and support, which learners need in order to learn to interact and communicate well orally. the teacher’s role therefore is to provide these scaffolding activities, which support learners in their effort to do a speaking task that otherwise they would not be able to complete. according to goh, teachers should include pre-task planning, task repetition, and communication strategies activities when planning lessons on speaking. pre-task planning allows learners time to plan and helps “to free up attentional space” so that they can pay attention to “articulation of ideas, speech monitoring and self-repairs” (goh, 2017, p. 252). in other words, if students are less worried about speaking correctly, they can attend to meaning and grammar. when allowing for planning we can therefore see an improvement in fluency and complexity in the learners’ performance. another type of scaffold, task repetition, can consist of repetition of the exact same task, of the same task procedure using different content, or of the same content but with a different implementation. either way, this can again minimize learners’ cognitive load and improve fluency. it is important to underline that repeating a task once may improve metalinguistic knowledge about some language features, but it may be insufficient to gain implicit knowledge. nevertheless, bygate, skehan, and swain (2001) claim that we can expect better performances from task repetition because the previous experience of a specific task helps students to shift their attention from message content processing to working on how to formulate the message. goh (2017) states that by asking students to repeat a task, teachers provide implicit scaffolding which not only increases students’ awareness about language and skills, but also provides them with the opportunity to rehearse their performance so that they can easily achieve better results even after the second or the third time. the third type of scaffold is communication strategies (cs). according to goh (2017), the importance of the use of cs goes beyond their compensatory effects and should be considered with regard to language development through spoken interaction inside and outside the classroom. she underlines the importance of cs use leading to modified comprehensible output and negotiation of meaning. as stated by goh (2017), teachers need to consider: the theoretical implications of css for language learning so that they can plan lessons where speaking and language development can be scaffolded through the use of css by students and with their teachers. (p. 256) ellis (2017) reminds us that one of the advantages of tblt is that it simultaneously facilitates both language learning and interactional competence. similarly, goh and burns (2012) highlight that tblt is a: framework by which teachers can provide a holistic learning environment where learners not only practice speaking engaging classroom activities, but also learn about the nature of speaking in a second language and ways they can manage their own speaking developments. (p. 133) the pedagogical model developed by goh and burns offers a teaching cycle that guides through a sequence of activities the progress of learners’ speaking competence. they underline the difference between “doing speaking” and “teaching speaking,” claiming that building contexts for learners to speak in class is not the same as teaching them how to do l2 speaking (goh & burns, 2012). tblt, a learner-centered approach to teaching, has proven to be a very useful approach to teaching l2 speaking. 2.4. tblt, computer assisted language learning (call), and technology-mediated l2 speaking the theoretical perspectives outlined in the previous paragraphs show how tblt can promote speaking during the learning process; it not only provides opportunities for learners to achieve communication in l2, but it also provides a principled language teaching approach for facilitating and integrating implicit and explicit learning in the process (ellis, 2017; ellis et al., 2019). tblt can be successfully and easily applied through technological tools. as highlighted by blake (2017), best practices in teaching speaking, whether in the classroom or in a technologically supported environment, can be effectively implemented through task-based instruction (tbi). blake (2017) advocated for tblt to be used as a framework to inform technological design for language learning (chapelle, 2017) via online tasks in computer assisted language learning (call), writing that: a common misconception about call is that it only refers to specific programs or mobile apps when, in fact, call activities not only consist of asking students to engage with the l2 by distance learning and the development of speaking skills e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 75 responding to prompts given by the computer, but also deal with students engaging in conversations with another person mediated through the use of the computer. (blake, 2017, p. 112) in fact, gonzález-lloret (2017) suggested that: if task and technology integrations are properly motivated by tblt theory, we would argue that language learning tasks which are mediated by new technology can raise students’ motivation to be creative while using language to make meaning; and they can enable students to meet other speakers of the language in remote locations open up exposure to authentic language environments along with tremendous additional sources of input. (p. 5) smith (2005, 2009) has thoroughly investigated an sla/call integration to “uncover which aspects of sla theory can be most successfully applied to call research” (2009, p. 197), while adopting a specific approach to analyse negotiated interaction, learner acquisition and task-based computer-mediated communication. smith's findings help to better investigate many of key constructs of the interactionist approach in a call setting such as heightened attention to form (increased saliency), self-initiated self-repair, and uptake as well as provide a fuller picture of what learners do while engaged in task-based online activities. summing up, tblt, through collaborative tasks, stimulates “processes of learning such as discussion/debate, problem-solving, innovation and knowledge building” (harasim, 2019, p. 139). harasim argues that technology is not as important as pedagogy but should conform to pedagogy. technology is therefore an additional aid that can facilitate the learning process by means of student discussions, peer collaboration, and student-teacher interaction. thus, technology should be used to promote and sustain the transition from granularity to complexity (roncaglia, 2018). 3. methods the following section outlines how tblt was adopted for online delivery of an esp course in english for sports management at the university of rome foro italico. we then explore how the integration of an ad hoc technological tool promoted and sustained speaking in the learning process. we begin by describing the research design, the context of the course, and the particular technological tool that was adopted to enhance speaking skills, namely flipgrid. in section 3.3, we provide the research design; data collection and some applicable examples are illustrated in 3.4; and data analysis is discussed in 3.5 and 3.6. 3.1. purpose and research questions in the context of online teaching during the technological tsunami caused by the covid-19 emergency, we asked the following research questions: 1) to what extent can a task-based speaking activity recorded on flipgrid enhance or elicit negotiation for meaning by students? 2) to what extent does flipgrid enhance students’ accuracy in the use of verb tense, collocations, vocabulary, and question structure through a task-based speaking activity? 3.2. setting and participants: educational context and needs analysis in 2020 and 2021, we experienced the challenge of converting teaching from in-person to entirely remote teaching, and then to hybrid teaching involving blended and/or hybrid forms of teaching or face-to-face groups. tblt, group work, and flipping the class were techniques used to engage students in speaking activities during both in-person and on-line classes. fazio & cremasco e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 76 figure 1. hybrid class: student presenting remotely during a live hybrid class data in this article come from a hybrid english course meant to stimulate oral production for students mastering in sports management at the university of foro italico in 2020-2021. the esp course, “english for sports management (e4sm2021),” was designed following “an analytic approach with a focus on form” (long, 2015, p. 17). thus, the course focused on both meaning and form, as in long’s words “a pure focus on meaning, is inadequate, especially if advanced proficiency is the goal” (2015, p. 27). the course was targeted at young italian adults at the b1+-b2 proficiency level, with the aim to achieve proficiency in the use of language for specific professional purposes. the 40-hour course ran during the 2020-2021 year and met twice a week for 10 weeks. it used a hybrid modality (instructor in class and students taking classes either in person or remotely) and enrolled 103 students. the master’s degree guidelines and the students’ career aspirations were taken into account in planning this course. students in the master’s program typically sought career opportunities in the field of sports management in: national sports federations, sports marketing, and sports promotion bodies, as a sports agent, or as athletic directors/coordinators/managers of sports facilities, sporting events, sports clubs and associations, or recreational physical and health related activities. a specific needs analysis questionnaire was also administered to students. see figure 1 for a screen shot from the english for sports management hybrid class in action. 3.3. research design the main focus of this explorative research was to analyse the use of the interrogative form during interactive classroom tasks and to observe practices of negotiation for meaning (long, 1983, 2015). the research involved: 1) designing and implementing an information gap task to stimulate students to transfer their speaking skills into english spoken outside their class by means of simulating a real world professional situation; 2) video-recording participants’ exchanges during task implementation (task and task repetition); 3) transcribing the recordings; 4) conducting an exploratory analysis of instances of negotiation moves such as comprehension checks, clarification requests and confirmation checks (foster & ohta, 2005; long, 1983). the main aim was to explore to what extent technology, specifically flipgrid, has a significant impact on the development of speaking skills in an esp class. research required two sets of data: video-recordings of students’ interrogative form productions, and two examples of video-recorded dialogues. these two sets of data refer respectively to task and task repetition, used to measure language improvement over a 3-week period during the master’s course. data were analysed using qualitative and quantitative approaches. qualitative analysis of the data investigated what was going on in the dialogue by dyads through negotiation moves. quantitative analysis investigated the frequency of errors (incorrect forms) by means of descriptive statistical analysis of the following four broad categories of lexico-grammar features: 1) use of verb tenses, 2) collocations, 3) vocabulary, and 4) interrogative form/question structure. chi-square (χ2) test was used to measure significant variations. taking into consideration smith’s (2005, 2009) opinion on the benefits of synchronous computermediated communication (scmc), such as increased participation among students and increased quantity and distance learning and the development of speaking skills e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 77 quality of learner output, a further aim of the research was to show how this emergency provided new positive opportunities facilitating processes of l2 learning. with regard to data collection and processing (video-recordings and transcripts), flipgrid was identified as a simple, free online tool to foster video-based discussion on classroom topics. it allows students to engage in video discussions. flipgrid can be used on a pc or other devices, as an integrated application or as a standalone application on smartphones. in our research, flipgrid was selected as it is easily integrated into microsoft teams, the video conferencing system that was used for remote and/or hybrid teaching. flipgrid was considered a promising emerging tool, useful to engage students to participate in an online learning community by means of recording video clips or simply practicing communication skills. as we show below, it has proven to be an extremely useful tool for students to practice speaking and gain confidence in english oral production. table 1 shows the main characteristics and functions of flipgrid. table 1 flipgrid characteristics and functions main characteristic function video recording instructor/trainee can set the timer of the video recording. time limit ranges from 15 seconds to a maximum of 10 minutes. video and cover image effects the system offers filters, stickers and other effects as well as video editing, deleting, rearranging video clips. sticky notes while recording are allowed. captions and subtitles the system allows to set subtitles and captions and automatically generates the immersive reading interface as well as video transcripts. topic moderation only video recording or responses/comments approved by instructors/ trainees will be shared. feedback the system allows a default basic feedback option or custom feedback. additional personalised feedback can be sent by email. mixtapes a mixtape consists of a set of videos hand-selected by the educator. this allows educators to showcase student videos on any topic and share videos with others. students frequently recorded short clips that were parts of larger and more complex products in the direction of a consciously well-structured task. flipgrid videos were mainly used as a rehearsal activity (homework) over the 10-week course to allow students to practice and gain confidence in english speaking skills. transcripts of these student video recordings formed the data set for this project. 3.4. data collection and data examples one speaking activity using flipgrid was the “guest speaker” activity adapted from rost (2013). as rost noted: in order to counterbalance the tendency that students are not transferring their listening and speaking skills to english spoken outside their class, it is effective and motivating for students to have a guest speaker (either native or non-native speaker of english) in class. (p. 179) therefore, an expert guest speaker in the field of sports management (a sports marketing manager) was invited to deliver a series of three short lectures, once a week, on fundamental topics of sports marketing, advertising, and geomarketing analysis. short readings, key concepts, and vocabulary related to the presentations were discussed in class prior to these visits. based on the preparation materials, the students’ task was arranged with the guest speaker, and it was divided into a 5-step workplan: 1) task preparation: speaker provides an introduction to geomarketing and provides readings; students complete a group assignment on geomarketing analysis presented as a business game; 2) task: preparing questions to the speaker using flipgrid (hereafter, task 1); fazio & cremasco e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 78 3) guest speaker visit: students ask questions to the speaker in a live session (using task 1 videos); 4) debriefing: students express opinions about the speaker and a brief summary of key concepts learnt; 5) task repetition: follow-up questions for the speaker (hereafter, task 2). the focal task in this article was that students were asked to prepare questions for the speaker. thus, the main focus was the interrogative form. the task required a preparation phase (step 1), done with the speaker, which consisted of two short lectures, reading materials given by the speaker, and a group work assignment in sports marketing (geomarketing). regarding the group work assignment, students had to do a geo-referred analysis of demographic and economic data of a neighbourhood (specific data/materials were provided in class) and plan marketing strategies to run a business in the sports industry in the chosen area. both the group work preparation and the task were done as an educational game that we called “business game”. this helped not only with motivation but above all with preparation and implementation time. students were asked to do a google search and match the socio-demographic data to decide the best marketing plan for their sports business: price and offer as well as an explanation of why. it should be emphasised that from the very first step, students were expected to rely on their own language resources, or implicit knowledge, to carry out the task (interrogative form, specific vocabulary, collocations, etc.), therefore producing the language spontaneously without any help. in step 2, the students were assigned task 1, video recording their questions. class time was used to provide students with an experience of what it is like to use english, and task 1 implementation was discussed in small groups either in person or in breakout rooms by brainstorming the work done with the speaker and discussing possible questions in groups. then each student was assigned to individually video record one question for the speaker as homework using a maximum of 30 seconds. giving them a time limit proved to be challenging but effective to elicit rapid spontaneous responses. figure 2 shows task 1 implementation in flipgrid. the left side of figure 2 shows task submissions by the students (87 questions were recorded by the students). a contest was held and five questions among all the students' questions were chosen according to the following two parameters: early submission and the most accurate and the most relevant questions (related to the preparation done). the top five questions were shared with the class in microsoft teams by means of flipgrid mixtape function, as shown on the right side of figure 2. figure 2. flipgrid responses to a discussion and mixtape in step 3, these questions were posed live to the guest speaker. when time allowed, the discussion was opened up for further questions. after the visit, for step 4, students were asked to video record their opinions about the speaker and to briefly sum up one key concept that they felt they had understood well among the different topics discussed with the speaker. finally, in step 5, students did task 2, that is a follow-up activity, distance learning and the development of speaking skills e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 79 or task repetition, to wrap up all the work done with the speaker: recording one question in a maximum of 30 seconds. the whole process of task preparation, task, and task repetition was entirely student-centered. this paper focuses on task 1 (task) and task 2 (task repetition). transcripts and examples of students’ spoken productions from step 2 and step 3 are provided in table 2 below. column 3 and column 4 respectively show the written and live questions asked by the students for task 1. bolded font in column 4 indicates differences between the prepared question and what the student asked. table 2 task 1: examples of questions for the guest speaker student question prepared for guest speaker using flipgrid (step 2) question posed live to guest speaker (step 3) 1 student 1 good morning. if you were commissioned by a sports club to develop a marketing strategy to resume activities after the pandemic due to the covid, what would be your strategy or what would be your starting point for developing it? thank you. if you were commissioned by a sports club to develop a marketing strategy to restart sport activities after the pandemic due to the covid, what would be your strategy for developing it? 2 student 2 my question is how has the role of advertising changed through years due to social media and in your opinion, which do you think were the most relevant changes? hello. umm my question was the one about social media and how they had changed advertising and whywhy was it and how have changed? 3 student 3 hello. um, i'm very interested in competitive balance in the sport industry and so my question for you is, does the introduction of a salary cap improve the competitive balance of a sports league? thank you. good morning. i’m very interested in competitive balance in sport industry so my question is: does the introduction of a salary cap improve the competitive balance of a sport league? for example, our serie a football league? 4 student 4 during the lessons we have said that there should be multifunctional stadium. so why is it so hard to find someone that actually wants to build them in italy? in the lessons we have said that there should be multifunctional stadium. so why is it so hard to find someone that actually wants to build them in italy? 5 student 5 i would like to ask you how can a new start up or a little organization attract big sponsors and how does it work? for example, can they explain their activity or product? so, during a meeting or something like that? or are the sponsors that are interested in what they do and so are going to contact them? thank you. my question is about sponsorship and i would like to know ehm does that work for sponsons and for new start-up in particular. so how can they like reach big sponsors? are they going to do presentations to them or in some cases are the sponsors that are like interested in the organisations and so they call themcontact them for sponsorship? 6 student 6 i hope you may be able to answer this question. we found a speech on the border between legality and illegality in various countries very interesting from a commercial perspective. on the base of your international experience, could italy ever abandon its legacy in this matter? and could be able to conform to the common we found the speech on the border between legality and illegality in regarding in various country very interesting from a commercial perspective. on the base of your international experience, could italy ever be able to abandon its legacy in this matter and could be able to conform to the common idea of paying rights in order to see its fazio & cremasco e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 80 idea of paying rights in order to see its proposal relieved or said in different phrased how could ethics and sustainability be reached in the business world. thank you so much. proposal realised? but in subtle different phrase, how could ethics and sustainability be reached? as indicated by the small amount of bolded text, other than for student 6, there are not many significant differences between the recorded questions and the live questions asked by the students. 3.5. rq 1: qualitative analysis to answer research question 1—whether flipgrid can enhance a task-based speaking activity to stimulate interaction and elicit meaning negotiation—qualitative analysis was used. the following two examples of the interaction (dialogue) exchanged between the guest speaker and the student are reported and analysed below. these examples highlight the exchange/interaction between the guest and the students and show how the guest was able to scaffold and help the students find the answer, thus eliciting students’ linguistic output through negotiation for meaning, thereby facilitating the learning process. the examples in this section show how student 1 was able to reformulate a good spontaneous question but had difficulty with the interaction, while student 2 had difficulty reformulating the question but managed to have a more effective interaction with the guest. example 1. interaction between student 1 and guest speaker 1. guest speaker ok itomorrow gyms, clubs will be open, alright? i’m your customer. what would be my feeling, my opinion? what do you think? there is no right or wrong answer. please, start thinking about me, your customer […] 2. student 1 ehm, eh… resume activities in general because ... 3. guest speaker no, no no no inot in general. think about me. i’m your customer. you are the club. how do i feel? i’ve heard from television that the club will be open tomorrow... 4. student 1 ehm, eh…is amazing to resume activity after this pandemic 5. guest speaker so i will…? 6. student 1 go and start 7. guest speaker try to use another word, stronger than “go” 8. student 1 you will...ehm rush 9. guest speaker exactly, rush. i will rush as soon as i can to the club. but this is me, my perspective, you know. what would be the perspective of another person less enthusiastic? 10. student 1 ok. eh…(long pause) i think ehm the person would be afraid for the situation or probably …uhm.. uhm… scared. maybe for the parents. 11. guest speaker yeah, but the two possible reactions could be: i’ll rush to the gym or it would be nice but...fear. why are some people scared? 12. student 1 ehm… new perspective for activity is maybe new marketing strategy... 13. guest speaker what will be the concept? what will you say in your advertisement to make your clients coming back to your club? 14. student 1 the pandemic is over and we resume activities at the sports club..and… maybe create a new advertisement. 15. guest speaker make it simpler: yes we are open. simple, you don’t need anything else. [...] because those enthusiastic clients would do the job for you. they will spread the word and say “i went to the gym, i’m safe, no covid…” and after a month also the scared one will start coming. in example 1, guest speaker and student 1 often interrupt one another, implying negotiation for meaning. yet, conversation breakdowns from lines 1 to 8 above evidence communication problems for student distance learning and the development of speaking skills e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 81 1 in the interaction with the guest speaker, namely, failing to produce utterances related to general topic (how to find a marketing strategy to resume a sports-related activity during or after the pandemic). implicit clarification requests or hesitations (moves 2 and 4) are mainly of a lexical nature. the utterance reported in line 10, rather than confirming or clarifying, may convey the function to allow student 1 time to mentally build her answer (as also shown in all the pauses reported in this transcript). while the interaction goes on from lines 9 to 15, student 1 gets stuck in search of the correct answer/word/phrase to express the specific meaning and to focus on correct forms. in this part of the dialogue, the communicative function of moves 9 to 15 is to shift from the general topic to the specific content of creating an advertisement, and there is evidence of a lack or difficulty of meaning negotiation. in example 2, an interaction between a guest speaker and student 2, the communication is more fluent, but lines 18 to 20 show the explicit negotiation move through a clarification request. example 2. interaction between student 2 and guest speaker 16. guest speaker well...your question, the one i’ve just heard from the recording was a little more accurate than the one you are asking now. 17. student 2 yes yes, you are right i’ve just summed up. 18. guest speaker is the role of advertising going to change due to the presence of social media, you know..because of course the examples i showed you were above all tv commercials rather than online commercials. so you have to remember that the internet is a media, is a tool, right?! so the internet offers further opportunities to attract your consumers. 19. student 2 i’m sorry i didn’t catch this last word. 20. guest speaker with your consumer, your customer. think about yourself when you go to university. you wake up in the morning and...what is the first thing you do? this conversation continues with successful negotiation in communication, seen in lines 21-22. 21. student 2 yes, i look at the screen of my phone 22. guest speaker good, this is the first touchpoint. then you go out and get on the subway. if you look around it is full of billboards. what can you see on each board? big pictures, written message and ...of course an internet address or a qr code. so you take your phone again and you surf the web. the internet multiplies the chances of keeping in contact with your customers. the interaction continues in example 3, from turns 23 to 29, and shows the function of request for clarification by means of practical examples, from the general topic to a more nuanced understanding of it (same topic as the previous example). example 3. interaction between student 2 and guest speaker continued 23. student 2 i don’t know if we have time, but could you give us an example of your strategy of advertising with social media and the internet? 24. guest speaker first you have to create a database of prospective clients to know who they are. then you have to segment your target audience. [...]. this is the first phase to establish a relationship with your customers.[...] you start to engage a “conversation” with potential customers. 25. student 2 so basically you are talking about a subscription to a newsletter, for example? 26. guest speaker no not exactly, [...] 27. student 2 what about linkedin? 28. student 2 ah good, linkedin is very powerful [...]. 29. guest speaker thank you for answering my question. the final exchanges and responses demonstrate negotiation moves (foster & ohta, 2005; long, 1983), which end the conversation with student 2’s acknowledgement to guest speaker (line 29). fazio & cremasco e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 82 3.6. rq 2: quantitative statistical analysis to answer research question 2—whether flipgrid can enhance students’ accuracy in the use of verb tense, collocations, vocabulary, and question structure in a task-based speaking activity—quantitative analysis was performed. this analysis compared students’ performance on task 1 and task 2. as the main purpose of task 1 was to elicit questions from the students for the guest and to engage them in a discussion with the guest (as reported in the interactional examples above), this task was repeated at the end of the whole activity to elicit further discussion questions on the topics explained in class. therefore, following bygate (2018), task 2 was an example of task repetition and not just a specific mechanical response or repetition of the language previously used. in fact, when the task was repeated, students used their own language to express their meaning with some variations compared to their previous attempt because, as stated by bygate (2018), language can vary. according to bygate, in task repetition “what is repeated is a configuration of purposes and a set of content information” (2018, p. 2). as a way to wrap up the activity done at the very end of stage 5 of the “guest speaker” sequence, task 2 was designed as a task repetition linked to the second activity, task 1, of the whole sequence. the first task (task 1) was recorded after initial preparation, while the second video recording (task 2) was recorded after a series of activities and following feedback, personalised comments either sent via email or provided during class hours. general feedback focused on language features that have to do with meaning. some additional explanations of primary lexico-grammar features were also provided. the whole process took three weeks, with class meetings in a hybrid modality held twice a week, with the guest participating once a week. for task 2, students were required to videorecord a follow-up question to the guest as in task 1. as bygate suggests, the interest in task repetition is to observe and study “changes that occur when learners engage in task repetition, and how they may relate to language development” (2018, p. 3). thus, an exploratory statistical analysis of students' performances is provided based on the data of students’ performance of task 1 (task) and task 2 (task repetition) in order to measure language improvement over a three-week period. data collected were analysed to describe and compare students’ performances of task 1 (task or pre-treatment) and task 2 (task repetition or post-treatment) and to verify whether there was an improvement in the development of speaking skills. data refer to a sample of 87 students taking the course who were exposed to all the activities planned for the guest speaker were recorded. a total of 82 participants’ interactions for task 1 and 69 participants’ interactions for task 2 interactions were collected and processed. the errors from student interactions in tasks 1 and 2 were selected and analysed. after analysing the frequency of lexico-grammar features, the following four broad categories were determined: use of verb tenses, collocations, vocabulary, and interrogative form/question structure. students’ errors were divided into those categories. data on the frequency of errors as well as on students’ mistakes and recorded incorrect language usage for the four variables are shown in table 3 and figure 3. table 3 frequency of errors by error type verb tenses collocation vocabulary question structure pre n = 82 post n = 69 pre n = 82 post n = 69 pre n = 82 post n = 69 pre n = 82 post n = 69 quantity of errors 24 19 20 12 23 18 47 15 20% 23% 17% 14% 19% 21% 39% 18% quantity of students who recorded errors 14 19 17 12 18 18 43 15 17% 28% 21% 17% 22% 26% 52% 22% distance learning and the development of speaking skills e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 83 figure 3. percentage of errors recorded during task 1 (task) and task 2 (task repetition) data show an improvement in the students’ performance of the interrogative form without significant variation in other aspects (verb tenses, collocations, and vocabulary). as shown in table 3 and figure 3, little variation is found between the use of collocations and vocabulary in task 1 and task 2. there is a slightly higher discrepancy in the use of the verb tenses. a chi-square (χ2) test was used to make a comparison between the expected and the actual results to determine their significance. the variations related to verb tenses, collocations, and vocabulary were not statistically significant. however, the χ value related to question structure (χ = 0.0011) was statistically significant (p value verb tenses = .0121; p collocation = .60; p vocabulary = .55; p question structure= .0011). this finding is not surprising because the focus on form during the feedback on task 1 and task 2 was mainly on the interrogative form. this also confirms long's (2019) hypothesis that task repetition might sometimes be more difficult in some respects than the task itself. 4. conclusions: opportunities and challenges the recent necessity of remote teaching due to covid-19 presented the challenge of experimenting with new technological teaching tools, while offering an opportunity to reflect on the language learning process and on related methodological choices. this new scenario has demonstrated the critical need for a paradigm shift in teaching methodology involving more student-centred and customised classes aligned with technological tools that can deliver these innovations. to this end, tblt, allied with flipgrid, has proven to be an effective approach. the analysis of students’ performance provided some preliminary indications of the effectiveness of this teaching approach. the results of the study provide evidence that although no significant differences were detected between the students’ recorded and live questions/interactions, on average students were able to reformulate questions and participate in correct and spontaneous live interactions with the guest. the analysis of the data provided evidence that the use of flipgrid stimulated students’ attention to produce fluent and accurate utterances because of the preparation in the video recordings, which emphasised oral practice and self-correction. the students were less focused on the use of verb forms, collocation and vocabulary, but more focused on the use and understanding of the question structure in the short term. as this is an exploratory analysis, this topic merits further investigation in a more in-depth study. a control group would also be needed to pilot an experimental or quasi-experimental design. however, this study already shows how the use of technology in the context of tblt can provide multimodal opportunities to fazio & cremasco e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 84 present complex work plans and to perform them synchronously and/or asynchronously (ellis, 2017). furthermore, tasks that reflect real-world language use proved to be effective in promoting the co-construction of knowledge, supporting students’ motivation and helping them to apply speaking skills outside of the classroom (rost, 2013). references blake, robert (2017). technologies for teaching and learning l2 speaking. 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(2013). active listening. routledge. skehan, peter (1996). a framework for the implementation of task-based instruction. applied linguistics, 17(1), 38-62. skehan, peter (2009). modelling second language performance: integrating complexity, accuracy, fluency, and lexis. applied linguistics, 30(4), 510-532. schmidt, richard, & frota, sonia (1986). developing basic conversational ability in a second language: a case study of an adult learner of portuguese. in richard r. day (ed.), talking to learn (pp. 237-283). newbury house. smith, bryan (2005). the relationship between negotiated interaction, learner uptake, and lexical acquisition in task-based computer-mediated communication. tesol quarterly, 39(1), 33-58. smith, bryan (2009). revealing the nature of some interaction. in alison mackey & charlene polio (eds.), multiple perspectives on interaction: second language research in honor of susan m. gass (pp. 197-226). routledge. swain, merrill (1997). the output hypothesis, focus on form and second language learning. in vivien berry, bob adamson & william littlewood (eds.), applying linguistics: insights into language in education (pp. 121). university of hong kong, english centre. thornbury, scott (2005). how to teach speaking. pearson education limited. vanpatten, bill (1990). attending to form and content in the input: an experiment in consciousness. studies in second language acquisition, 12(3) , 287-301. fazio & cremasco e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 70–86 86 alessandra fazio, università degli studi roma foro italico alessandra.fazio@uniroma4.it en alessandra fazio is associate professor in english language and translation and director of the language centre at the university of rome foro italico. her research interests lie in terminology and applied linguistics, in particular the language of sports and sport sciences, innovative language methodologies using information and communication technologies (ict), content and language integrated learning (clil), and task based language teaching (tblt) approaches. she has collaborated with the institute for studies on scientific research and documentation (cnr) and is vice-president of aiclu (italian association of language centres) and member of cercles (european confederation of language centres in higher education). she has participated in several national and international projects. es alessandra fazio es profesora titular de lingüística inglesa en la universidad de roma foro itálico y directora del centro de idiomas de la universidad. sus intereses de investigación se enfocan en la terminología y en la lingüística aplicada. en particular, se enfoca en las lenguas especializadas (esp/lsp) del sector biomédico deportivo, la enseñanza innovadora mediante el uso/integración de herramientas tecnológicas, y los enfoques clil-aicle (aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras) y tblt (enseñanza de lenguas basada en tareas). ha colaborado con el instituto de estudios sobre investigación científica y documentación (cnr) y es vicepresidenta de aiclu (asociación italiana de centros de idiomas) y miembro de cercles (confederación europea de centros de idiomas en la enseñanza superior). participa activamente en proyectos nacionales e internacionales. it alessandra fazio è professore associato di linguistica inglese presso l'università degli studi di roma foro italico ed è direttrice del centro linguistico di ateneo. si interessa di terminologia e linguistica. si occupa di linguaggi specialistici (esp/lsp) con attenzione particolare al settore bio-medico sportivo, di didattica innovativa attraverso l’uso/integrazione di strumenti tecnologici, di approcci clil (content and language integrated learning) e tblt (task based language teaching). ha collaborato con l'istituto per gli studi sulla ricerca scientifica e la documentazione (cnr) ed è vicepresidente dell'aiclu (associazione italiana dei centri linguistici) e membro del cercles (confederazione europea dei centri linguistici nell'alta formazione). partecipa attivamente a progetti nazionali e internazionali. claudia cremasco, academic initiatives abroad claudia.cremasc@gmail.com en claudia cremasco is co-founder of academic initiatives abroad and is currently its italian representative and its coordinator of language instruction. she has taught and coordinated italian language instruction in italy and the united states since 1989. in the united states, she has taught at harvard university and california polytechnic state university, and was formally recognized for teaching excellence at both universities. in italy she has taught at the università degli studi di roma tre, and for numerous american university study abroad programs, including penn state university, the university of arkansas, iowa state university, northeastern university, and holy cross university. es claudia cremasco es cofundadora y representante italiana de academic initiatives abroad, donde también coordina la enseñanza de idiomas. enseña y coordina cursos de italiano en italia y en los estados unidos desde 1989. ha impartido clases en la universidad de harvard y en la universidad estatal politécnica de california, y ha sido reconocida formalmente por la "excelencia en la enseñanza" en ambas universidades. en italia, ha enseñado en la università degli studi di roma tre y en diversos programas de estudios en el extranjero para alumnado de universidades estadounidenses como la penn state university, the university of arkansas, iowa state university, northeastern university y holy cross university. it claudia cremasco è la co-fondatrice di academic initiatives abroad, di cui è la coordinatrice dei corsi di italiano l2. dal 1989 insegna la lingua italiana l2, ls in italia e negli stati uniti. ha insegnato a harvard university e a cal poly (california polytechnic state university), ed è stata formalmente riconosciuta per ‘excellence in teaching’ in entrambe le università. ha inoltre insegnato all’università degli studi roma tre e nei seguenti programmi universitari americani di studio all’estero, tra cui penn state university, the university of arkansas, iowa state university, northeastern university, e holy cross university. microsoft word ej 167_ferrari_ pp.56-73 4ed final.docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-­‐journall  volume  6,  issue  1,  august  2019,  pages  56-­‐73   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi:  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.10.167   www.e-­‐journall.org     ©  ferrari  2019.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.       usare  le  parole  per  gestire  situazioni  di  conflitto  alla  scuola  primaria     stefania  ferrari   università  degli  studi  del  piemonte  orientale           received  4  january  2019;  received  in  revised  form  23  april  2019;  accepted  25  june  2019   abstract it questo contributo illustra i risultati di un’indagine esplorativa relativa alle modalità di gestione verbale di situazioni di conflitto da parte di bambini della scuola primaria. l’analisi mira a rilevare come gli allievi monolingui e plurilingui di 7-8 anni gestiscono l’atto di protesta in italiano nell’interazione tra pari. oltre a descrivere alcuni degli usi pragmatici dei bambini delle classi multilingui coinvolte, l’osservazione sperimentale ha l’obiettivo di offrire indicazioni ai docenti per sviluppare interventi didattici rivolti a questa fascia d’età. parole-chiave: pragmatica, protesta, scuola primaria, ricerca-azione, role play en this contribution presents the results of an exploratory investigation of the ways in which primary school children manage conflict situations through language. the analysis aims to highlight how 7-to-8-year-old monolingual and multilingual students deal with acts of protest in italian in peer interactions. in addition to describing some of the pragmatic strategies employed by the children in the focal multilingual classes, the experimental observation aims to offer insights for teachers developing educational interventions tailored to this age group. key words: pragmatics, protest, primary school, action-research, roleplay es esta contribución ilustra los resultados de una encuesta exploratoria relativa a la gestión de situaciones de conflicto a través de la lengua por parte de niños de escuela primaria. el análisis destacan como los alumnos monolingües y plurilingües de 78 años de edad manejan el acto de protesta en italiano en las interacciones entre pares. además de algunas estrategias pragmáticas usadas por los niños de las clases multilingües que participaron en el estudio, la observación experimentar sirve de base para ofrecer indicaciones a los docentes para desarrollar intervenciones didácticas dirigidas a esta franja de edad. palabras clave:  prágmatica, protesta, escuela primaria, investigación en acción, juegos de roles *  stefania  ferrari,  università  degli  studi  del  piemonte  orientale              stefania.ferrari@uniupo.it gestire  situazioni  di  conflitto  nella  scuola  primaria   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   57   1.  introduzione   in  queste  pagine  si  illustra  uno  studio  esplorativo  dedicato  al  tema  della  gestione  verbale  dei  conflitti   in  lingua  italiana  da  parte  di  bambini  monolingui  e  plurilingui  di  7-­‐8  anni  d’età.  l’atto  comunicativo  a  cui  si  è   fatto  principale  riferimento  è  quello  della  protesta,  un  atto   in  cui   il  destinatario  è  considerato  responsabile   direttamente  o  indirettamente  dello  stato  di  cose  avvertito  come  negativo  dal  parlante.  lo  studio  fa  parte  del   più  ampio  progetto  di  formazione  e  ricerca-­‐azione  oggi  facciamo  pragmatica1,  dedicato  alla  sperimentazione   di  percorsi  di  insegnamento  della  pragmatica  alla  scuola  primaria.  due  classi  seconde  e  due  classi  terze  di  uno   stesso  istituto  comprensivo  hanno  esplorato   l’atto  comunicativo  della  protesta.  con   l’obiettivo  di  realizzare   interventi  educativi  basati  su  dati  empirici,  anziché  su   intuizioni  o   impressioni  riportate  dagli   insegnanti,   la   progettazione  delle   lezioni  è  stata  preceduta  da  un’osservazione  delle  modalità  di   realizzazione  dell’atto  da   parte  degli  allievi  coinvolti.  il  presente  contributo  illustra  tale  analisi  preliminare  basata  su  produzioni  semi-­‐ spontanee   stimolate   tramite   role   play.   dopo   aver   brevemente   contestualizzato   il   progetto   e   il   tema   dell’insegnamento   della   pragmatica   a   scuola   nella   classe   multilingue   (§2),   si   riportano   le   caratteristiche   principali   dell’atto   di   protesta   (§3),   si   illustrano   la   metodologia   impiegata   per   lo   studio   (§4)   e   i   risultati   dell’analisi   (§5).   la   descrizione  delle   strategie   impiegate   dai   bambini  nella   realizzazione  dell’atto   è   seguita   dalla   presentazione   delle   scelte   fatte   dai   docenti   nello   sviluppare   gli   interventi   didattici   in   classe   (§6).   si   conclude  con  alcune  riflessioni  finali  (§7).     2.  la  pragmatica  a  scuola   chi   lavora   a   stretto   contatto   con   i   docenti   di   educazione   linguistica   ha   certamente   occasione   di   osservare   la   frequenza   con   cui   gli   insegnanti   sottolineano   disappunto   rispetto   alla   capacità   dei   bambini   italofoni  e  non  di  usare  efficacemente   la   lingua,  variando   le   loro   formulazioni   sulla  base  del   contesto,  dello   scopo,  del  destinatario  o  del  canale  comunicativo.  non  sempre  tali  inadeguatezze  vengono  interpretate  come   incompetenze   su   un   piano   pragmatico   o   interazionale,   più   spesso   sono   lette   dal   docente   come   riflesso   del   carattere   personale   o   generazionale   o   ancora   come   caratteristica   della   comunità   di   appartenenza   (gass   &   selinker,   2008).   l’uso   di   parole   poco   appropriate   o   la   difficoltà   a   cogliere   gli   impliciti   di   una   determinata   formulazione  linguistica  possono  facilmente  generare  fraintendimenti,  se  non  addirittura  potenziali  conflitti,   con  evidenti  ricadute  non  solo  rispetto  al  successo  scolastico,  ma  anche  alla  qualità  delle  relazioni  tra  bambini   e  adulti  o  tra  pari  (bettoni,  2006;  nuzzo  &  gauci,  2012).   in  letteratura  è  ampiamente  riconosciuto  il  fatto  che  imparare  una  lingua  non  significa  solo  acquisire   lessico   e   grammatica,  ma   soprattutto   sviluppare   quella   serie   di   abilità   che   guidano   il   parlante   nella   scelta   delle   formulazioni   linguistiche   più   adatte   alle   specifiche   situazioni   e   nell’interpretazione   dei   significati   impliciti   delle   parole   usate   (cfr.   bazzanella,   2005;   bettoni,   2006;   nuzzo,   2007).   nonostante   ci   sia   accordo   unanime  sul  ruolo  chiave  della  pragmatica  nello  sviluppo  delle  competenze  comunicative,  la  letteratura  non   offre   ad   oggi   indicazioni   per   la   fascia   d’età   della   scuola   primaria   rispetto   ai   percorsi   di   sviluppo   delle   competenze   pragmatiche   in   l1   o   agli   effetti   di   interventi   didattici   mirati,   lasciando   così   questi   ambiti   di   indagine   ancora   inesplorati.   nella   scuola   italiana   poi,   con   l’espressione   “fare   italiano”   si   intende   in   genere   “fare  grammatica”:  la  riflessione  è  dedicata  quasi  esclusivamente  alle  regole  strutturali  e  raramente  si  porta   l’attenzione  degli   allievi   sugli   usi   linguistici   (cfr.   leone  &  mezzi,   2011;  lo  duca,  2003;  miglietta  &  sobrero,   2011;   pallotti,   2009).   anche   nell’insegnamento,   così   come   nella   vita   reale,   i   due   volti   della   competenza   comunicativa,  grammatica  e  pragmatica,  dovrebbero  invece  essere  maggiormente  integrati,  in  modo  da  dare   valore   didattico   alla   relazione   tra   forma   e   funzione,   tra   riflessione   sul   funzionamento   di   una   specifica   struttura   e   riflessione   sulle   norme   che   ne   guidano   la   selezione   in   un   determinato   contesto   (ferrari,   2016;   ferrari,  nuzzo,  &  zanoni,  2016;  cfr.  miur,  2012,  p.  30-­‐31;  nuzzo,  2011).  ciò  è  ancora  più  rilevante  quando  si   prendono   in   considerazione   le   classi   multilingui:   se   per   i   bambini   italofoni   è   utile   avviare   una   riflessione   metalinguistica   sul   rapporto   tra   contesto   situazionale   e   scelte   linguistiche,   per   i   bambini   plurilingui   e   gli                                                                                                                   1  il   progetto  oggi   facciamo  pragmatica  promosso   e   coordinato  da   stefania  ferrari  è  un  percorso   formativo   e  di   ricerca   dedicato  al  tema  dell’apprendimento/insegnamento  della  pragmatica  in  l1  e  l2  alla  scuola  primaria.  le  sperimentazioni   educative  sono  state  realizzate  grazie  al  patrocinio  del  multicentro  educativo  modena  (m.e.mo.)  che  lo  ha  inserito  tra  le   proposte  formative  per  gli  anni  scolastici  2015-­‐2019.  il  progetto  ha  generato  una  varietà  di  percorsi  relativi  a  diversi  atti   comunicativi   –   dal   richiedere   all’invitare,   dalla   gestione   verbale   del   conflitto   a   dare   ordini   e   indicazioni,   includendo   riflessioni  sull’uso  del  tu  e  del  lei,  sulle  strategie  per  modulare  un  atto  linguistico  o  realizzarlo  nell’interazione  (ferrari,   2016;  ferrari  &  zanini,  2019;  ferrari  &  zanoni,  2017;  2018);  per  la  consultazione  di  una  selezione  dei  materiali  proposti   nelle  sperimentazioni  si  rimanda  al  sito  internet  www.glottonaute.it.   stefania  ferrari     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   58   apprendenti   di   italiano   l2   è   ancora   più   importante   avere  modo  di   esplorare   la   varietà   di   strumenti   che   la   lingua  italiana  mette  a  disposizione  del  parlante  per  “fare  cose  con  le  parole”,  anche  in  relazione  alle  loro  altre   lingue.  la  pragmatica  costituisce  dunque  uno  spazio  privilegiato  per  pratiche  di  didattica  inclusiva:  percorsi   mirati   favorirebbero   per   tutti   lo   sviluppo   di   una   più   raffinata   riflessione   linguistica,   offrendo   al   contempo   occasioni  per  esercitare  efficacemente  le  competenze  d’uso.     introdurre  la  pragmatica  nelle  ore  di  educazione  linguistica  significa  per  i  docenti  avere  innanzitutto   accesso   a   conoscenze   teoriche   e   a   strumenti   operativi   che   permettono   di   strutturare   interventi   didattici   basati  su  dati  empirici  e  non  esclusivamente  sulle  proprie  intuizioni  di  parlanti  nativi  (bettoni,  2006;  boxer,   2003;  cruz,  2015;  lo  castro,  2003;  nuzzo  &  gauci,   2012).  purtroppo   la  mancanza  di   ricerche  dedicate  alla   descrizione  degli  usi  pragmatici   in  l1  e   in  l2  dei  bambini  della  scuola  primaria,  combinata  con   l’assenza  di   materiali  didattici  di  riferimento,  mette  i  docenti  desiderosi  di  integrare  la  pragmatica  nella  loro  quotidianità   scolastica   nella   complessa   condizione   di   dover   essi   stessi   indagare   i   costrutti   di   riferimento   e   contemporaneamente   sviluppare   strumenti   educativi   adeguati.   il   percorso   di   formazione   e   ricerca-­‐azione   oggi   facciamo  pragmatica  nasce   con   l’intento  di   iniziare   a   colmare  questa   lacuna,   fornire   agli   insegnanti   di   educazione   linguistica   alcuni   strumenti   per   esplorare   con  maggior   rigore   e   consapevolezza   l’insegnamento   della   pragmatica   nella   classe   multilingue   e   allo   stesso   tempo   offrire   alla   ricerca   dati   per   ampliare   le   conoscenze  circa  le  modalità  di  realizzazione  di  alcuni  atti  comunicativi  nel  parlato  dei  bambini.  ricercatori  e   insegnanti   lavorano   insieme,   analizzando   le   produzioni   degli   allievi   e   concordando  modalità   di   intervento   didattico,   co-­‐conducendo   lezioni   e   favorendo   di   fatto   il   costante   dialogo   tra   ricerca   teorica   e   applicazione   pratica.       3.  la  protesta   l’espressione   dell’atto   di   protesta   è   generata   dalla   trasgressione   compiuta   dal   destinatario   alle   norme   di   comportamento   condivise   dalla   comunità   linguistica.   poiché   l’interlocutore   è   considerato   responsabile   dello   stato   di   cose   avvertito   come   negativo   dal   parlante,   l’atto   non   si   esaurisce   con   la   manifestazione   di   un   giudizio,   ma   implica   anche   un   tentativo   di   ottenere   una   riparazione   (bettoni,   2006;   searle,  1976).  la  protesta  si  configura  dunque  come  un  atto  ad  alto  rischio,  poiché  minaccia  la  faccia  sia  del   parlante  che  del  destinatario  (brown  &  levinson,  1987;  levinson,  2017).  nel  caso  dell’autore  della  protesta   ne  viene  minacciata  la  faccia  positiva,  poiché  si  trova  a  dover  dimostrare  poca  sensibilità  nei  confronti  del  suo   interlocutore.   nel   caso   del   destinatario   ne   viene   minacciata   sia   la   faccia   positiva   sia   la   faccia   negativa:   l’espressione   della   censura   di   un   comportamento   ne   incrina   l’immagine   pubblica,   mentre   la   conseguente   imposizione  di  una  riparazione  ne  limita  la  libertà  d’azione.     la   necessità   di   veicolare   la   forza   illocutiva   della   protesta   al   costo   sociale  minore   per   entrambi   gli   interagenti,   favorendo   un   esito   positivo   dell’azione   linguistica,   richiede   al   parlante   una   buona   competenza   nell’impiego   di   strategie   utili   a   ridurre   l’impatto   negativo   sul   destinatario   (bettoni,   2006;   caleffi,   2000;   o’discroll,  2017).  chi  protesta  può  scegliere  di  esprimere  entrambe  le  componenti  o  solo  una  delle  due,  così   come   può   completare   la   protesta   con   atti   di   supporto   o   modificarne   la   forza   illocutoria   con   strategie   grammaticali,  lessicali  o  discorsive.  più  in  dettaglio,  per  l’espressione  del  giudizio  il  parlante  può  selezionare   una  modalità  più  diretta,  attribuendo  esplicitamente  la  responsabilità  all’interlocutore,  o  meno  diretta,  senza   un’attribuzione  esplicita  di  responsabilità.  nel  mitigare  l’atto,  il  parlante  può  utilizzare  strumenti  in  grado  di   attenuare  l’impatto  sull’interlocutore,  selezionando  modificatori  in  contrasto  con  la  forza  principale  veicolata   dall’enunciato,  o  al  contrario  impiegare  modificatori  coerenti  con  il  valore  illocutivo,  miranti  cioè  a  rafforzare   la  protesta  anziché  addolcirla.  la  selezione  degli  eventuali  atti  di  supporto  contribuisce  poi  alla  realizzazione   della  protesta  fornendo  una  cornice  di  preparazione  e/o  sostegno.  la  realizzazione  dell’atto  nell’interazione   apre   una   serie   di   possibilità   ulteriori,   legate   alla   capacità   degli   interlocutori   di   co-­‐costruire   lo   scambio   comunicativo  (rubino  &  bettoni,  2006).  per  esempio,  si  può  iniziare  la  protesta  attraverso  la  sola  espressione   del  giudizio,  lasciando  la  possibilità  all’interlocutore  di  avviare  la  riparazione  o  di  riconoscere  la  propria  colpa   e  porgere  scuse  più  o  meno  esplicite.  se  ciò  non  avviene  il  parlante  produrrà  la  richiesta  di  riparazione  nei   turni  successivi.  sulla  base  della  risposta  dell’interlocutore,   se  chi  protesta  reputa  di  non  aver  ottenuto  una   risoluzione   soddisfacente,   può   decidere   di   rinunciare,   oppure   di   insistere   servendosi   delle   strategie   già   utilizzate   o   impiegandone   di   nuove   (nuzzo,   2007;   trosborg,   2003).   la   struttura   complessiva   dell’atto   è   in   altre   parole   soggetta   a   forti   variazioni   legate   alla   reazione   del   destinatario,   oltre   che   alle   esigenze,   alle   intenzioni  e  alla  personalità  di  chi  protesta  (trosborg,  1995).     avendo   la  protesta  una  componente  sia  direttiva  che  espressiva,   l’intensità  della  sua   imposizione  è   determinata  sia  dalla  gravità  del  comportamento  negativo  attribuito  al  destinatario,  sia  dal  livello  di  difficoltà   gestire  situazioni  di  conflitto  nella  scuola  primaria   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   59   dell’azione   richiesta   come   riparazione.   questi   due   fattori   sono   in   stretta   relazione   poiché   maggiore   è   la   gravità  dell’atto   riprovevole   compiuto  dal  destinatario,  più   la  protesta  appare   legittimata  dalle   circostanze;   pertanto  il  parlante  è  autorizzato  a  chiedere  un  gesto  riparatore,  anche  nel  caso  in  cui  risulti  estremamente   gravoso  per  il  destinatario.  la  variabile  di  contesto  che  i  parlanti  prendono  in  considerazione  nel  formulare  la   richiesta  è  la  possibilità  di  un  gesto  in  grado  di  correggere  l’evento  offensivo,  o  almeno  di  attenuarne  gli  effetti   negativi.  se  è  vero  che  tutte  le  proteste  sono  finalizzate  anche  all’ottenimento  di  un  gesto  riparatore,  questo   può  essere  diverso  a  seconda  delle  situazioni:  se  un  parlante  protesta  perché  l’amico  gli  ha  rovesciato  un  po’   di  succo  sulla  felpa,  l’unica  forma  di  riparazione  possibile  sono  le  scuse;  se  il  parlante  protesta  invece  perché  il   fratello   non   gli   permette   di   vedere   il   suo   programma   preferito   in   tv,   se   avrà   successo   potrà   ottenere   una   modifica  immediata  della  situazione  negativa.  se  nella  valutazione  della  situazione  da  parte  del  parlante  vi  è   la  possibilità  di  una  riparazione  immediata,  chi  protesta  potrebbe  decidere  di  attenuare  l’atto  o  scegliere  uno   schema  di  realizzazione  che  consenta  alla  riparazione  di  verificarsi  (boxer,  2010;  nuzzo,  2007).       3.1.  quando  i  bambini  protestano   la   realizzazione   dell’atto   linguistico   di   protesta   è   complesso   e   richiede   competenze   linguistiche   sofisticate   (cfr.   marocchini,   2017;   nuzzo,   2007;   ottaviani   &   vedder,   2017).   non   a   caso   dunque   nella   quotidianità  scolastica   i  docenti   rilevano  come  nelle   situazioni   in  cui,  nella   relazione   tra  pari,   si  assiste  alla   trasgressione   di   una   norma   condivisa   o   a   un   comportamento   poco   accettabile   che   danneggia   uno   degli   interlocutori,   anziché   attivare   le   risorse   linguistiche   a   loro   disposizione   e   negoziare   una   risoluzione   del   conflitto,   i   bambini   della   scuola   primaria   finiscono   con   il   litigare,   offendere,   assumere   un   atteggiamento   aggressivo   o   rinunciare   abbandonando   la   protesta   senza   ottenere   una   riparazione.   vediamo   alcuni   esempi   ricavati  da  videoregistrazioni  realizzate  per  altri  scopi  nelle  classi  del  progetto,   in  cui   incidentalmente  sono   state   riprese   due   particolari   situazioni   di   protesta.   i   due   esempi   mettono   in   luce   come   le   difficoltà   nella   gestione  linguistica  dell’atto  portino  a  soluzioni  negative  per  i  parlanti.     in  (1)  b1  ha  preso  la  gomma  dell’amico  senza  chiedere  il  permesso,  b2  avvia  la  protesta  criticando  il   compagno  per  il  comportamento  deplorevole,  poi  con  un  gesto  poco  cortese  cerca  di  riottenere  ciò  che  è  suo.   il  compagno  reagisce  con  una  spinta  e  b2,  sentendosi  dalla  parte  della  ragione,  chiede  l’intervento  dell’adulto.   anziché  motivare  con  precisione  la  richiesta  d’aiuto,  b2  accusa  vagamente  b1,  senza  così  riuscire  ad  ottenere   nemmeno  l’intervento  auspicato.  il  risultato  finale  è  infatti  un  rimprovero  per  entrambi  i  bambini.       1)   2   b2:  devi  chiedermela       b2  strappa  di  mano  la  gomma  a  b1,  b1  spinge  il  gomito  di  b2       b2:  maestra  b1  mi  disturba       i:  smettetela  voi  due     nell’esempio   (2),   quando   b4   prende   il   posto   di   b3,   il   compagno   avvia   l’atto   comunicativo   con   un’accusa   diretta   ed   esplicita,   rafforzata   dall’uso   del   verbo   rubare   anziché   prendere,   mentre   b4   reagisce   all’accusa  con  un  gesto  di  totale  disinteresse  verso  la  protesta  di  b3.  il  bambino  che  ha  perso  il  posto,  anziché   attivare  le  sue  risorse  linguistiche  per  ottenere  con  le  parole  una  riparazione,  abbandona  la  situazione  e  va  a   cercare  un  altro  posto.       2)     b3:  mi  hai  rubato  il  posto       b4  alza  le  spalle  e  non  parla,  b3  va  a  cercare  un  altro  posto     situazioni   simili   a   quelle   appena   esemplificate   rappresentano   uno   spazio   di   intervento   per   l’insegnamento   della   pragmatica.   se   nell’ambito   della   l1   la   ricerca   non   ha   indagato   gli   effetti   di   interventi   didattici  mirati,   in  ambito  acquisizionale  diversi  studi  condotti  con  studenti  adolescenti  o  adulti  negli  ultimi   anni  hanno  dimostrato   come   invece   l’insegnamento  della  pragmatica   sia   efficace  e  necessario   (alcón  soler,   2015;  bardovi-­‐harlig,  2015;  taguchi,  2015;  tatsuki  &  houch,  2010),  nonostante  rimangano  dibattuti  i  metodi   e  gli  strumenti  d’insegnamento  (nuzzo  &  gauci,  2012;  roever,  2011).  l’intervento  non  dovrebbe  chiaramente   andare   nella   direzione   di   far   andare   sempre   d’accordo   i   bambini,   bensì   permettere   loro   di   usare   efficacemente  la  lingua  ed  essere  liberi  di  determinare  come  gestire  l’atto  del  protestare.  da  un  punto  di  vista                                                                                                                   2  qui  e  negli  esempi  successivi  b  indica  bambino  e  i  insegnante,  mentre  #numero  indica  eventuali  pause  e  relativa  durata   (ad  esempio  #0_2  indica  una  pausa  breve  di  0,2  secondi).  l’uso  di  caratteri  maiuscoli  indica  un  tono  della  voce  alto.   stefania  ferrari     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   60   didattico,   gli   allievi   devono   essere   dunque   accompagnati   nello   sviluppo   degli   strumenti   necessari   per   riflettere   sulle   situazioni   comunicative   e   le   relative   variabili   di   contesto,   sulle   possibili   soluzioni,   così   da   collegare   questi   elementi   alle   formulazioni   linguistiche   più   adatte.   in   altre   parole   i   bambini   dovrebbero   imparare  a  evitare  di  essere  inutilmente  offensivi  e  maleducati  quando  non  è  necessario,  o  al  contrario  essere   poco  incisivi  quando  la  situazione  richiede  invece  un’azione  puntuale.       4.  lo  studio   4.1.  gli  obiettivi  e  gli  informanti   il  presente  lavoro  tenta  di  offrire  un  contributo  alla  ricerca  sull’apprendimento  e  sull’insegnamento   della  pragmatica   attraverso   l’analisi   e   la  descrizione  delle  modalità  di   realizzazione  dell’atto  di  protesta  da   parte  di  bambini  monolingui  e  plurilingui  di  7-­‐8  anni,  con  l’obiettivo  di  individuare  indicazioni  operative  per   lo  sviluppo  di  materiali  didattici  mirati.  in  particolare  tre  sono  le  domande  alla  base  dello  studio:     1) come  realizzano  l’atto  comunicativo  di  protesta  bambini  di  7-­‐8  anni  di  età?   2) quali  strategie  di  mitigazione  impiegano?   3) come  preparano  il  terreno?  con  quali  atti  di  supporto?     i   102   bambini   coinvolti   nella   ricerca   fanno   parte   di   due   classi   seconde   e   due   terze   di   uno   stesso   istituto   comprensivo:   86   di   loro   sono   monolingui   e   16   plurilingui,   tutti   scolarizzati   in   italia.   poiché   il   protocollo  di   elicitazione  prevedeva   interazioni   a   coppie   stimolate   tramite   role  play,  metà  del   campione  ha   ricoperto   il   ruolo   di   chi   avviava   la   protesta,   l’altra   metà   ha   risposto   all’azione   linguistica   intrapresa   dai   compagni.   siccome   in   questo   studio   l’analisi   si   concentra   principalmente   sulla   realizzazione   dell’atto,   nel   descrivere  in  dettaglio  gli  informanti  ci  riferiremo  agli  allievi  che  hanno  realizzato  l’atto  comunicativo  target,   tralasciando  le  informazioni  relative  a  coloro  che  rispondevano  alla  protesta.   dei  51  allievi  considerati,  20  sono  femmine  e  31  maschi,  tutti  entrati  nei  servizi  educativi  al  più  tardi   a   partire   dal   primo   anno   di   scuola   dell’infanzia.   10   bambini   sono   bi-­‐   o   plurilingui   per   la  maggior   parte   di   seconda   generazione,   provenienti   da   albania,   marocco   e   nigeria.   le   informazioni   a   disposizione   non   permettono   una   descrizione   precisa   del   livello   di   competenza   nelle   diverse   lingue   conosciute   dai   bambini   plurilingui,   ma   solamente   una   definizione   basata   sulla   provenienza   e   sul   periodo   di   arrivo   in   italia   dei   genitori.  su  10  bambini  plurilingui  infatti  7  sono  figli  di  genitori  immigrati  dopo  i  18  anni  di  età,  2  sono  figli  di   coppie  miste,   in   un   caso   si   tratta   di   due   genitori   immigrati   dopo   i   18   anni   di   età,   nell’altro   di   un   genitore   immigrato   dopo   i   18   anni   e   un   genitore   italiano.   un   bambino   è   definibile   come   generazione   1.75,   poiché   immigrato   in   italia   all’età   di   un   anno   e   inserito   nel   sistema   scolastico   a   due   anni   circa,   con   la   frequenza   dell’ultimo   anno   di   nido   (cfr.   rumbaut,   2004).   non   sono   state   invece   rese   disponibili   informazioni   sul   rendimento   scolastico   o   sul   livello   di   competenza   linguistica   degli   allievi   coinvolti   nella   sperimentazione.   consapevoli  di  queste  limitazioni,  cui  si  aggiunge  la  scarsa  numerosità  del  campione,  l’analisi  che  si  presenta   nei   prossimi   paragrafi   ha   uno   scopo   puramente   descrittivo   e   non   può   dunque   essere   generalizzata.   in   particolare   non   si   tenterà   di   fare   confronti   definitivi   tra   bambini   monolingui   e   plurilingui   di   seconda   generazione  scolarizzati  in  italia.  si  citeranno  eventuali  similitudini  o  differenze,  rimandando  a  studi  ulteriori   analisi  più  dettagliate.       4.2.  il  role  play  come  strumento  di  elicitazione   il   corpus  di  dati   è   composto  di  51   scambi   comunicativi   stimolati   tramite  role  play  a   coppie   in   cui   i   bambini  dovevano  interpretare  sé  stessi  in  situazioni  scolastiche  o  domestiche.  questo  formato  di  elicitazione   è  stato  scelto  perché  ritenuto  efficace  e  maggiormente  praticabile  rispetto  all’osservazione  naturalistica:  pur   fornendo  infatti  l’impulso  iniziale  alla  conversazione,  il  role  play  non  ne  stabilisce  i  modi  o  i  tempi  di  sviluppo   e   permette   di   esaminare   l’evolversi   dell’atto   nell’interazione   (cfr.   félix-­‐brasdefer,   2010;   gass   &   mackey,   2007).  poiché  comunque  non  è  semplice,  con  bambini  di  questa  età,  stimolare  produzioni  linguistiche  mirate,   per   favorire   una   naturale   partecipazione   degli   allievi   e   una   maggiore   validità   ecologica   dei   role   play   si   è   preferito   incorporare   la   raccolta   dati   all’interno   dei   percorsi   didattici   dedicati   alla   gestione   del   conflitto   verbale.  nella   fase  di  realizzazione  delle   interazioni   tra  pari,   la   lezione  è  stata  co-­‐condotta  dal  ricercatore  e   dall’insegnante.   vediamo  più   in   dettaglio   come   sono   state   costruite   le   situazioni   stimolo   e   come   sono   stati   proposti  i  role  play  agli  allievi.   gestire  situazioni  di  conflitto  nella  scuola  primaria   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   61   in   una   fase   preliminare,   precedente   l’osservazione   e   l’intervento   didattico,   i   bambini   sono   stati   invitati   dal   docente   a   riflettere   a   grande   gruppo   intorno   alla  parola   litigio,   così   da   identificare  una   serie  di   situazioni  in  cui  frequentemente  entrano  in  conflitto  con  i  compagni  a  scuola  o  con  fratelli  e  sorelle  a  casa.  le   discussioni  di  classe  sono  state  utilizzate  dal  ricercatore  per  creare  stimoli  sufficientemente  realistici  e  adatti   a  questa  fascia  d’età.  in  particolare  le  situazioni  sono  state  selezionate  così  da  elicitare  atti  di  protesta  tra  pari   relativi  sia  a  eventi  già  accaduti,  ad  esempio  un  giocattolo  preso  senza  chiedere   il  permesso,  sia  a  eventi   in   corso  di  accadimento,  come  nel  caso  del  bambino  che  tenta  di  copiare  il  lavoro  del  compagno,  con  riferimento   sia   a  danni  di  natura  materiale   che  morale,  ma   tutti  dipendenti  da   comportamenti   che   riguardavano   scelte   individuali.  le  situazioni  impiegate  sono  riportate  in  appendice.     definiti   gli   script   per   i   role   play,   l’insegnante   e   il   ricercatore   insieme   hanno   proceduto   con   l’osservazione  dei  bambini,  proponendo  loro  di  mettere  in  scena  le  situazioni  davanti  alla  classe.  per  favorire   produzioni  il  più  possibile  spontanee  sono  stati  seguiti  alcuni  accorgimenti.  innanzitutto  in  classe  sono  stati   allestiti   gli   scenari   che   facevano   da   sfondo   alle   situazioni:   ad   esempio,   la   mensa   era   rappresentata   da   un   banco   apparecchiato,   la   casa   da   due   sedie   affiancate   e   ricoperte   da   un   foulard   così   da   simulare   il   divano,   mentre   la   classe   da   una   coppia   di   banchi   vicino   alla   cattedra.   successivamente   il   ricercatore   presentava   gradualmente  le  consegne  per  i  role  play.  dopo  aver  organizzato  la  classe  in  coppie  e  assegnato  i  ruoli  veniva   distribuito  un  cartoncino  contente  la  descrizione  della  situazione  insieme  a  eventuali  realia  utili  per  svolgere   la   scenetta,   ad   esempio   un   mazzo   di   carte   o   un   pacchetto   di   patatine.   lasciato   il   tempo   per   una   lettura   individuale,  il  ricercatore  leggeva  e  commentava  coppia  per  coppia  le  diverse  situazioni,  così  da  accertarsi  che   le   istruzioni   fossero   chiare.   poiché   i   role   play   venivano   svolti   uno   dopo   l’altro   in   classe,   per   evitare   l’imitazione   ogni   coppia   lavorava   su   una   situazione   diversa.   per   favorire   il   silenzio,   l’ascolto   e   l’attenzione   della   classe,   quando   non   impegnati   nei   role   play   i   bambini   avevano   il   compito   di   appuntare   le   parole   che   sentivano.   durante   lo   svolgimento   dei   dialoghi   non   si   ponevano   limiti   di   tempo,   la   durata   di   ciascuna   interazione   era   regolata   dai   parlanti   e   dipendeva   esclusivamente   dal   tempo   necessario   al   raggiungimento   dell’obiettivo   conversazionale.   le   situazioni   non   implicavano   interazioni   con   l’adulto,   ma   nei   casi   in   cui   i   bambini   richiedevano   l’intervento  del   docente,   l’insegnante  partecipava   spontaneamente   all’interazione.   le   produzioni  così  stimolate  sono  state  videoregistrate  e  successivamente  trascritte  per  l’analisi.       4.3.  le  categorie  di  analisi   per   l’analisi   delle   interazioni   si   è   scelto   come   unità   di   riferimento   l’atto   comunicativo   (olshtain   &   cohen,   1983;   trosborg,   1995)   e   si   è   impiegata   la   tassonomia   elaborata   da  nuzzo   (2007,   p.   112-­‐16).  l’atto   comunicativo,  rispetto  all’atto  linguistico,  è  un’unità  più  ampia  che  può  essere  costituita  da  un  solo  atto  o  da   una  combinazione  di  atti,  ed  eventualmente  integrata  da  atti  di  supporto  che  hanno  la  funzione  di  sostenere  o   preparare   la   protesta,   ma   che   sono   appunto   interpretabili   tenendo   conto   dell’unità   più   ampia   dell’atto   comunicativo,  che  ne  garantisce  la  coerenza  pragmatica.  si  ritiene  l’atto  comunicativo  più  adatto  a  descrivere   ciò   che   avviene   nella   conversazione,   poiché   permette   di   tenere   conto   delle   diverse   strade   più   o   meno   elaborate  che  scelgono  i  parlanti.     si  è  già  visto  in  §2  come  la  protesta  sia  costituita  di  due  componenti.  per  la  realizzazione  della  prima,   l’espressione   del   giudizio,   il   parlante   ha   a   disposizione   due   macro-­‐strategie:   l’espressione   con   o   senza   attribuzione   di   responsabilità.   la   prima   può   essere   realizzata   con   quattro   modalità.   disapprovazione,   evidenza  di  negatività,  norma  violata  e  richiesta  di  spiegazione;  la  seconda  con  tre:  accusa,  critica  e  richiesta   di  giustificazione.  per  la  seconda  componente,  la  richiesta  di  riparazione,  il  parlante  ha  a  disposizione  almeno   sette   strategie:   ordine,   conferma,   ipotesi,   necessità,   obbligo/divieto,   performativa,   verifica   delle   condizioni   preparatorie.   la   tabella   1   riporta   la   tassonomia   di   nuzzo   (2007),   accompagnandola   con   esempi   tratti   dal   corpus.  nei  casi  in  cui  una  strategia  non  è  stata  impiegata  dai  partecipanti  allo  studio,  l’esempio  è  inventato  e   preceduto  da  un  asterisco  (*).     stefania  ferrari     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   62     all’osservazione  delle  componenti  con  cui  i  bambini  hanno  realizzato  l’atto  si  è  aggiunta  l’analisi  delle   strategie  di  modificazione  e  dell’impiego  di  atti  di  supporto.  in  entrambi  i  casi  si  è  fatto  riferimento  a  nuzzo   (2007).  rispetto  ai  modificatori,  sono  stati  conteggiati  per  macro-­‐tipo:  morfosintattici,  lessicali  e  discorsivi.  la   tabella  2  riporta  la  tassonomia  di  riferimento  ed  esempi  tratti  dal  corpus.  anche  in  questo  caso,  quando  una   strategia  non  è  stata  impiegata  dai  partecipanti  allo  studio,  l’esempio  è  inventato  e  preceduto  da  un  asterisco   (*).       tabella 2 tassonomia dei modificatori (adattata da nuzzo 2007, pp. 116-119)   tipo strategie esempio morfosintattici condizionale quello sarebbe il mio posto imperfetto perché non chiedevi prima * incassatura * volevo dirti che questo è il mio posto * modale epistemico * devi esserti sbagliato lessicali attenuatori stai un po’ attenta * blanditori * gentilmente chiedi il permesso la prossima volta * dubitatori * magari stai più attento col succo * minimizzatori * l’unica cosa stai attento col succo rafforzatori mi hai sporcato tutto * soggettivizzatori * mi sembra tu abbia imbrogliato discorsivi fatismo sai che hai fatto una mossa scorretta * marche di cortesia * per cortesia stai attento col succo richiami guarda che non hai mica fatto una cosa corretta * richiesta di accordo * stai attento col succo no riempitivo allora lo vado a dire alla mamma nota. l’asterisco (*) denota strategie non impiegate dai partecipanti ed esempi inventati. tabella 1 tassonomia delle proteste (adattata da nuzzo, 2007, pp. 112-116) componenti strategie esempi espressione del giudizio senza attribuzione di responsabilità disapprovazione ma uffi la mamma aveva detto che toccava a me evidenza di negatività però non ci vedo norma violata ehi c’ero prima io! richiesta di spiegazione perché mi hai preso le carte? * situazione deprecabile * è difficile giocare così con attribuzione di responsabilità accusa mi hai sporcato tutto ayoub critica ma dovevi chiedere il permesso richiesta di giustificazione oh perché mi hai preso le carte? richiesta di riparazione ordine ridammi il mio dinosauro * conferma * lasci il mio dinosauro al suo posto? * ipotesi * se puoi evitare di usare il mio dinosauro * necessità * il dinosauro dovrei usarlo io adesso * obbligo/divieto * non devi prendere il mio dinosauro * performativa * vorrei chiederti di non usare il mio dinosauro senza prima chiedermelo * verifica delle condizioni preparatorie * puoi ridarmi subito il mio dinosauro nota. l’asterisco (*) denota strategie non impiegate dai partecipanti ed esempi inventati. gestire  situazioni  di  conflitto  nella  scuola  primaria   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   63   l’analisi  dell’atto  comunicativo  ha   incluso   l’osservazione  dell’eventuale   impiego  di  atti  di   supporto,   elementi  capaci  di  fornire  una  cornice  di  preparazione  o  di  sostegno  all’atto.  le  categorie  di  analisi  potevano   includere:  appello,  giustificazione,  preparatore,  rabbonitore  e  scuse,  così  come  riportato  nella  tabella  3.       tabella 3 tassonomia degli atti di supporto (adattata da nuzzo 2007, pp. 119-120)   tipo esempio appello ayoub * giustificazione * la mamma mi ha appena comprato il giornalino * preparatore * volevo dirti una cosa * rabbonitore * guarda forse ho sbagliato e non ci siamo capiti * scuse * scusa se te lo dico nota. l’asterisco (*) denota strategie non impiegate dai partecipanti ed esempi inventati.   la  struttura  interattiva  dell’atto  di  protesta  può  inoltre  essere  soggetta  a  variazioni.  ad  esempio  può   accadere  che  dopo  il  primo  turno  prodotto  dal  parlante,  l’interlocutore  riconosca  la  propria  colpa,  proponga   in  modo  più  o  meno  esplicito  delle   scuse  o  una  riparazione.   in  altri   casi  può   invece  esservi  un  rifiuto  della   responsabilità  e  chi  protesta  si   trova  di   fronte  alla  scelta  di  abbandonare   l’atto  o   insistere,   reimpiegando   le   strategie   già   utilizzate   o   servendosi   di   nuove   modalità   (nuzzo,   2007).   tenendo   conto   di   questa   possibile   varietà,   nell’analisi   ci   si   è   concentrati   sul   primo   turno   (o   sui   turni)   contenente   il   nucleo   della   protesta,   dedicando   l’attenzione   alla   struttura   dell’atto   piuttosto   che   alla   gestione   delle   sequenze   interazionali.   la   struttura  complessiva  dell’interazione  è  stata  osservata,  quando  rilevante,  con  uno  sguardo  meno  analitico.   l’analisi  delle  interazioni  è  stata  realizzata  dal  ricercatore  e  verificata  da  un  secondo  collega  esperto   che  ha  analizzato  indipendentemente  il  corpus.  in  quattro  casi,  tutti  relativi  alla  componente  espressione  del   giudizio   e   alle   due   strategie,   richiesta   di   spiegazione   senza   attribuzione   di   responsabilità   e   richiesta   di   giustificazione   con   attribuzione   di   responsabilità,   si   sono   rilevate   discrepanze   nell’analisi,   risolte   però   attraverso  la  discussione  tra  i  due  ricercatori.     5.  i  risultati   5.1.  come  realizzano  l’atto  di  protesta  i  bambini  di  7-­‐8  anni?   nel   corpus   i   bambini   realizzano   le   proteste   basandosi   su   due  macro-­‐strategie:   agire   fisicamente   e   agire  verbalmente.  in  15  interazioni  su  51  (29%)  gli  allievi  non  compiono  verbalmente  l’atto  ma  si  limitano  a   gesti.  ad  esempio,  nella  situazione  stimolo  in  cui  un  bambino  occupa  senza  diritto  il  posto  del  compagno,  in   alcuni   casi   il   parlante,   anziché   avviare   un   atto   di   protesta   verbale,   spinge   l’interlocutore   per   prendere   la   propria   sedia,   o   ancora   quando   un   bambino   prende   il   dinosauro   dell’amico   senza   chiedere   il   permesso,   il   parlante   risolve   la   situazione   strappandogli   il   giocattolo   di   mano.   all’azione   fisica   l’interlocutore   reagisce   frequentemente  con  un’interiezione,  ad  esempio  un  hei  o  un  oooh;  a  volte  chi  protesta  giustifica  il  gesto  con   espressioni  del   tipo  è   la  mia  sedia   o  è  mio,   l’interazione   termina  poi   con  una   lite,   un   insulto,   la   richiesta  di   intervento   dell’adulto   o   più   semplicemente   si   conclude   con   uno   dei   due   interlocutori   che   desiste   dall’interagire.  le  interazioni  realizzate  con  un’azione  fisica  riguardano  in  12  casi  bambini  monolingui  e  in  tre   bambini  plurilingui,   risultando  così  un’opzione   scelta  da  entrambi   i   gruppi.   la   frequenza   con   cui   i   bambini   selezionano   questa  modalità   di   realizzare   i   role  play   proposti   conferma   l’importanza   di   interventi   didattici   mirati  a  favorire  nei  bambini  lo  sviluppo  delle  competenze  d’uso  necessarie  per  raggiungere  i  propri  obiettivi   per  mezzo  di  strumenti  linguistici  adeguati     l’analisi  che  si  presenta  di  seguito  è,   invece,   riferita  esclusivamente  alle   interazioni  verbali,   così  da   poter  osservare  quali  strumenti   linguistici  sanno  già  usare   i  bambini  di  questa   fascia  di  età.  nei  36  dialoghi   elicitati  lo  schema  prevalente  è  quello  in  cui  viene  esplicitata  la  sola  componente  di  espressione  del  giudizio,   espressa  in  26  interazioni,   in  10  casi  realizzata  in  combinando  due  strategie  di  espressione,  per  un  totale  di   36  occorrenze  su  26  dialoghi;  mentre   la  richiesta  di  riparazione  come  unico  atto  viene  formulata   in  cinque   interazioni,   ed   entrambe   le   componenti   compaiono   in   tre.   in   altri   due   casi   gli   apprendenti   realizzano   la   protesta  combinando  una  richiesta  di  riparazione  con  una  minaccia,  lo  vado  a  dire  alla  maestra,  o  un  insulto,   cattivo.  la  tabella  4  riassume  i  risultati  dell’analisi  quantitativa  delle  due  componenti  dell’atto.         stefania  ferrari     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   64   tabella 4 componenti espressiva e direttiva delle proteste strategie occorrenze espressione del giudizio 26 (72%) richiesta di riparazione 5 (14%) espressione + richiesta 3 (8%) richiesta + altro (minaccia) 2 (6%) totale 36 (100%)   abbiamo  visto  in  §3  come  la  scelta  del  parlante  di  favorire  la  componente  espressiva  sia  legata  a  una   strategia   specifica   di   negoziazione:   offrire   l’opportunità   all’interlocutore   di   ammettere   la   propria   responsabilità   e   proporre   o   promettere   una   riparazione.   nei   casi   in   cui   ciò   non   avviene,   chi   protesta   può   esplicitare   la  richiesta   di   riparazione   nei   turni   successivi.   anche   i   bambini   nelle   loro   interazioni   riflettono   questa   strategia,   in   22   casi   su   26   (85%)   l’atto   della   protesta   viene   distribuito   su   diversi   turni,   con   l’introduzione  graduale  delle  sue  sotto  componenti.  nel  primo  turno  si   realizza  quella  espressiva  e  se  non  si   riceve   una   proposta   di   riparazione,   l’atto   viene   completato   nei   turni   successivi:   in   12   casi   esplicitando   la   richiesta   di   riparazione,   ad   esempio   la   prossima   volta   puoi   stare   più   attenta,   mentre   in   7   con   una   controproposta,   ad   esempio   puoi   giocarci   un   attimo   poi   me   lo   ridai,   e   infine   in   3   casi   richiedendo   o   minacciando  l’intervento  di  un  adulto,  se  continui  lo  dico  alla  maestra.  questi  dati  confermano  come  i  bambini   a  questa  età  abbiano  sviluppato  già  consapevolezza  rispetto  alla  complessità  dell’atto  di  protesta  e  dei  rischi   per   la   faccia   ad   esso   connessi,   dimostrando  una  buona  padronanza  delle  possibili   strategie  pragmatiche  di   negoziazione  dell’atto.     anche  nel  caso  dell’analisi  della  distribuzione  delle  componenti  espressiva  e  direttiva  dell’atto  non  si   rilevano  particolari  differenze  tra  monolingui  e  plurilingui.  questi  ultimi,  infatti,  riflettono  strategie  analoghe   a  quelle  dei   compagni  monolingui:   in  due  casi   combinano   le  due  componenti,   in   tre   realizzano   l’atto  con   la   sola  espressione  del  giudizio  e  nei  restanti  due  con  una  richiesta  di  riparazione.  in  tutte  e  sette  le  interazioni   che  coinvolgono  allievi  multilingui  l’atto  di  protesta  viene  distribuito  su  più  turni.     5.2.  come  gestiscono  i  bambini  i  diversi  tipi  di  atti?   la   tabella   5   riporta   la   distribuzione   dei   tipi   di   atti   o   strategie   impiegati   per   realizzare   le   due   componenti  della  protesta.         tabella 5 proteste, distribuzione degli atti di espressione del giudizio e degli atti di richiesta di elaborazione atti strategie occorrenze espressione del giudizio (n=36)3 senza attribuzione di responsabilità disapprovazione 1 (3%) evidenza di negatività 6 (17%) norma violata 3 (8%) richiesta di spiegazione 1 (3%) totale 11 (31%) con attribuzione di responsabilità accusa 9 (25%) critica 3 (8%) richiesta di giustificazione 13 (36%) totale 25 (69%) richiesta di riparazione (n=10) ordine 10 (100%)                                                                                                                   3  su  26   interazioni   realizzate  con  un’espressione  del  giudizio,  10  sono  costituite  dalla   combinazione  di  due  strategie  di   espressione,  per  un  totale  di  di  36  occorrenze  di  espressioni  del  giudizio.     gestire  situazioni  di  conflitto  nella  scuola  primaria   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   65   su  26  interazioni  realizzate  con  un’espressione  del  giudizio,  10  sono  costituite  dalla  combinazione  di   due  strategie  di  espressione,  per  un  totale  di  36  occorrenze  di  espressione  del  giudizio.  i  dati  mostrano  come   i   bambini   di   seconda   e   terza   elementare   sappiano   già   utilizzare   quasi   tutte   le   strategie   a   disposizione   del   parlante  per   esprimere   il   proprio   giudizio,   pur  dimostrando  una   chiara  preferenza  per   le   formulazioni   che   attribuiscono   responsabilità   diretta   all’interlocutore,   essendo   accusa   e   richiesta   di   giustificazione   le   più   frequenti.  rispetto  alla  componente  direttiva,   invece,   i  bambini  optano  per  un’unica  strategia:   l’ordine,  una   modalità  anch’essa  diretta  e  impositiva.  le  proteste  così  realizzate  risultano  tendenzialmente  dirette,  al  limite   dell’aggressività   e   non   facilitano   nell’interlocutore   il   riconoscimento   della   propria   responsabilità,   una   possibile   riparazione   o   una   soluzione   intermedia.   anche   in   questo   caso   non   si   registrano   particolari   differenze  nelle  scelte  realizzate  da  monolingui  e  plurilingui.  vediamo  alcuni  esempi  tratti  dal  corpus.   nell’esempio  (3)  b1  avvia  la  protesta  per  un  comportamento  scorretto  del  compagno  attribuendogli   la   responsabilità   con   una   critica.   di   fronte   alla   mancata   risposta   dell’amico   introduce   la   richiesta   di   riparazione  con  un  ordine.   il   risultato  è   l’abbandono  del  gioco  da  parte  del   compagno  che  ha  commesso   la   scorrettezza.  in  (4),  invece,  l’accusa  esplicita  di  aver  barato,  non  solo  viene  negata  dall’interlocutore,  ma  viene   ribadita  ulteriormente  dall’autore  della  protesta  che  finisce  con  interrompere  il  gioco,  anziché  ottenere  delle   scuse  o  una  riparazione.     3)     b1:     guarda  che  non  hai  mica  fatto  una  cosa  corretta       b2     non  risponde       b1:     annulliamo  il  goal       b2     abbandona  il  gioco     4)   b3:     ehi  #0_2  hai  barato     b4:     no  non  ho  barato     b3:     sì  che  hai  barato  #0_2  adesso  non  voglio  più  giocare  con  te     in  (5)  il  bambino  impiega  una  strategia  diversa,  iniziando  lo  scambio  comunicativo  con  una  richiesta   di  riparazione.  questa  viene  comunque  realizzata  con   la  strategia  dell’ordine,  dunque  una  modalità  diretta,   che   poco   predispone   l’interlocutore   verso   una   reale   riparazione.   l’apertura   del   canale   comunicativo   attraverso  hei  è  anch’essa  una  modalità  diretta,  poco  cortese,  di  entrare  in  contatto  con  il  compagno.       5)     b5:   ehi  ridammi  il  mio  dinosauro       b6:   no       b5:   ridammelo       b6:   no     b5:     maestra  #0_4  b6  non  mi  dà  il  mio  dinosauro     anche  nell’esempio  (6),  nonostante  una  maggior  elaborazione  nella  formulazione  del  nucleo  dell’atto,   il  risultato  finale  non  è  quello  atteso  dall’autore  della  protesta.     6)   b7:     ma  perché  mi  sei  venuto  davanti  io  non  ci  vedo  niente     b8:     chissene     b7:     allora  lo  vado  a  dire  alla  maestra  #0_3  maestra  maestra  b2  mi  è  venuto  davanti  e  io  non   riesco  a  vedere     i:     ma  insomma  bimbi  #0_2  c’è  posto  per  tutti     b7:     fa  una  pernacchia     b8:     me  la  paghi     i:     b7  stiamo  scherzando?     b7  avvia  lo  scambio  comunicativo  esprimendo  il  suo  giudizio  negativo  rispetto  al  comportamento  del   compagno,   che   si   è   seduto   in  modo   da   non   permettergli   di   vedere   correttamente   ciò   che   l’insegnante   sta   proponendo.   nel   farlo   combina   due   strategie:   con   ma   perché   mi   sei   venuto   davanti   attribuisce   la   responsabilità   dello   stato   negativo   delle   cose   al   compagno,   richiedendo   una   giustificazione   del   suo   comportamento,  facendo  così  emergere  in  modo  implicito  la  propria  valutazione  negativa,  mentre  con  io  non   ci   vedo   niente   sottolinea   la   ragione   per   cui   è   legittimo   valutare   negativamente   il   compagno   e   quindi   stefania  ferrari     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   66   protestare.   b7   non   richiede   espressamente   una   riparazione,  ma   lascia   la   parola   al   compagno,   affidandogli   implicitamente   il   compito   di   porre   rimedio   alla   situazione   deplorevole.   il   compagno   invece   risponde   manifestando  un  esplicito  disinteresse  rispetto  alla  situazione.  b7  richiede  a  questo  punto  l’intervento  di  un   adulto.  l’insegnante  avvia  una  proposta  di  possibile  riparazione,  facendo  notare  ai  bambini  come  ci  sia  posto   per  entrambi,  invitandoli  dunque  a  trovare  una  soluzione  alternativa,  ma  b7  reagisce  offendendo  il  compagno   con  una  pernacchia  e  b8  chiude  lo  scambio  con  una  minaccia.  l’insegnante  a  questo  punto  redarguisce  b7  per   la  modalità  con  cui  si  rivolge  al  compagno.  b7,  dunque,  non  solo  non  riesce  a  vedere  comodamente,  ma  finisce   con  l’essere  redarguito  dall’insegnante  e  col  litigare  con  il  compagno.       5.3.  quali  strategie  di  mitigazione  e  atti  di  supporto  impiegano?   l’analisi   delle   strategie   di  mitigazione   e   dell’impiego  degli   atti   di   supporto  mostra   come   i   bambini   tendano   a   usare   poco   frequentemente   questi   strumenti.   solo   in   10   interazioni   su   36   (28%)   infatti   l’atto   è   modificato  con  uno  o  più  modificatori  e  in  16  su  36  (44%)  accompagnato  da  un  atto  di  supporto.  la  tabella  6   riporta   la  distribuzione  dei  modificatori  e  degli  atti  di  supporto.  per  quel  che  riguarda   le  scelte  degli  allievi   plurilingui,   si   noti   che   in   questo   caso   nelle   loro   interazioni   non   compaiono   modificatori.   il   campione   numericamente   limitato  e   la  varietà  di  profili   individuali  non  permette  di   interpretare  questa  osservazione:   essa  potrebbe  essere  influenzata  da  fattori  individuali  non  distinguibili  dalla  variabile  mono-­‐plurilingue  sulla   base  delle  informazioni   in  nostro  possesso.  il  dato  sottolinea  comunque  la  difficoltà  per  i  bambini  di  questa   età  nel  gestire  le  strategie  di  mitigazione.     tabella 6 proteste, modificatori e atti di supporto strategie occorrenze modificatori discorsivi riempitivi 4 fatismi 1 modificatori lessicali attenuatori 1 rafforzatori 3 intensificatori 2 richiami 1 modificatori morfosintattici condizionale 1 imperfetto 1 atti di supporto appello lessicali 4 interiezioni 12   i   dati   evidenziano,   inoltre,   come   allo   scarso   uso   di   modificatori   e   atti   di   supporto   si   aggiunga   un   problema   di   selezione.   i   modificatori   impiegati   tendono,   infatti,   a   rafforzare   l’espressione   del   giudizio,   aumentandone  la  minacciosità:  ne  è  un  esempio  l’uso  significativo  di  rafforzatori  e  intensificatori,  presenti  in   ben  5   interazioni   delle   10   caratterizzate  dall’impiego  di   strumenti   di  mitigazione.  analogamente,   gli   atti   di   supporto  sono  di  un  solo  tipo,  appello,  realizzato  in  4  casi  con  un  nome  proprio,  mentre  nei  restanti  12  con   interiezioni  del  tipo  hei,  oh,  dai.     nel   complesso,   la   difficoltà   a   impiegare   strumenti   per   modificare   la   forza   illocutoria   dell’atto,   o   prepararne   il   terreno,  rafforzano   l’effetto  di   tono  brusco,  aggressivo  e  non  contestabile,  già  rilevato   in  §5.2,   senza  predisporre  positivamente  l’interlocutore  verso  una  risoluzione  della  situazione.           gestire  situazioni  di  conflitto  nella  scuola  primaria   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   67   6.  l’intervento  didattico   l’osservazione   empirica   descritta   nelle   pagine   precedenti   ha   orientato   i   docenti   rispetto   ai   reali   bisogni   di   apprendimento   degli   allievi   coinvolti   e   ha   guidato   la   progettazione   didattica   di   sperimentazioni   dedicate  all’atto  comunicativo  della  protesta.  nel  caso  di  allievi  di  7-­‐8  anni   il  docente  ha  potuto  constatare,   sulla   base   di   dati   empirici,   come   i   bambini   avessero   già   sviluppato   diverse   competenze   rispetto   all’atto   di   protesta:   l’intervento   didattico   non   doveva,   dunque,   essere   progettato   per   insegnare   loro   a   protestare,  ma   piuttosto  mirato  ad  affinare  ulteriormente  le  loro  consapevolezze  rispetto  alla  varietà  di  strumenti  linguistici   a   disposizione  del   parlante.   in   particolare,   l’attenzione  poteva   essere   concentrata   sulle   diverse  modalità   di   realizzazione   dell’espressione   del   giudizio   e   della   richiesta   di   riparazione,   sull’uso   di   strumenti   di   mitigazione  della  forza  illocutoria  e  di  atti  di  supporto.  la  progettazione  didattica  ne  è  risultata  così  facilitata:   la   cornice   progettuale   della   ricerca-­‐azione   ha   offerto   una   struttura   di   riferimento   entro   cui   muoversi   nell’organizzazione   delle   fasi   di   lavoro,   mentre   l’osservazione   empirica   ha   permesso   una   più   immediata   messa   a   fuoco   degli   obiettivi   da   sviluppare   nelle   singole   attività   e   una   più  mirata   selezione   dei  materiali-­‐ stimolo.     complessivamente,  gli  interventi  didattici  hanno  avuto  una  durata  complessiva  di  6-­‐8  ore  distribuite   su   3-­‐4   lezioni,   a   cui   si   devono   aggiungere   le   2-­‐3   ore   dedicate   all’osservazione   iniziale.   le   attività   hanno   seguito   un’articolazione   in   quattro   fasi   (osservare,   utilizzare,   riflettere   e   fare   esperienza)   e   sono   state   caratterizzate   dall’impiego   di   varie   tecniche.   a   partire   dall’analisi   delle   proprie   produzioni,   combinate   con   alcuni  stimoli  video  autentici,  i  bambini  hanno  avuto  modo  di  esplorare  gli  usi  linguistici  in  contesto,  dedurre   regolarità   e   differenze,   raccogliere   e   organizzare   secondo   criteri   i   diversi   modi   per   dire   una   stessa   cosa,   alternando  fasi  di  riflessione  implicita  con  spiegazioni  esplicite.  l’analisi  meta-­‐pragmatica  in  contesto  è  stata,   inoltre,  rinforzata  da  attività  d’uso,  più  o  meno  controllate,  in  modo  da  favorire  un  reimpiego  delle  forme  su   cui  si  è  lavorato  (ferrari,  2016).  la  tabella  8  presenta  una  visione  complessiva  degli  interventi  realizzati  nelle   quattro  classi  coinvolte  in  questo  studio.   la  prima  fase  osservare  aveva  lo  scopo  di  accompagnare  i  bambini  nell’analisi  e  individuazione  di  ciò   che  fanno  i  parlanti  con  le  parole.  sulla  base  dell’analisi  delle  competenze  d’uso  degli  allievi,   l’insegnante  ha   mirato   le   attività   all’identificazione   delle   due   macro-­‐componenti   dell’atto:   nel   caso   dell’espressione   del   giudizio   lo   scopo   era  principalmente  un   riconoscimento  delle   strategie   già  note,   nel   caso  della  richiesta  di   riparazione,   invece,   l’obiettivo   era   portare   l’attenzione   degli   allievi   sulla   più   ampia   gamma   di   strategie   a   disposizione   dei   parlanti.   l’alternanza   tra   lavoro   a   piccoli   gruppi   e   a   classe   intera   favoriva   discussioni   puntuali,  oltre  che  un  maggior  coinvolgimento  di   tutti  gli  allievi.  le  diverse   formulazioni  emerse  sono  state   condivise  dalla  classe  e  raccolte  in  un  cartellone-­‐tassonomia.   nella   seconda   fase   utilizzare   gli   allievi   si   mettevano   nuovamente   alla   prova   in   situazioni   comunicative   e   con   formati   di   produzione   più   o   meno   controllati:   dct   orali,   dialoghi   da   completare   con   parole  o  battute  mancanti  o  riformulazioni.  le  attività  venivano  proposte  prima  individualmente  o  a  coppie,   poi   condivise   a   grande   gruppo,   favorendo   così   la   discussione   rispetto   alle   scelte   linguistiche   in   termini   di   effetto  comunicativo,  funzionalità  e  appropriatezza.  basandosi  sull’analisi  iniziale  dei  bisogni,  l’insegnante  ha   avuto  modo  di   focalizzare  questa  parte  del   lavoro  sulla  varietà  di  possibili   formulazioni  per  esprimere  una   stessa   componente   dell’atto   comunicativo.   le   soluzioni   proposte   andavano   ad   ampliare   la   tassonomia   di   classe  preparata  con  l’attività  1.   la   terza   fase   riflettere   affinava   ulteriormente   l’attenzione   sulla   lingua,   favorendo   la   riflessione   intorno  alle  strategie  di  mitigazione  e  all’uso  degli  atti  di  supporto  per  preparare  e  sostenere  la  protesta.  di   nuovo,   basandosi   sull’analisi   iniziale,   l’insegnante   ha   avuto   modo   di   mirare   questa   parte   del   lavoro   alle   strategie  di  modificazione  e  agli  atti  di  supporto.  la  riflessione  sulla  lingua  era  basata  sul  parlato  prodotto  dai   bambini  nelle  attività  precedenti.   in  particolare   si   sono  scelti  dialoghi   che  avevano  portato  a  esiti  diversi  o   comunque  esemplificativi  di  varie  modalità  di  gestione  dell’atto.  l’insegnante  invitava  la  classe  a  trovare,  ad   esempio,   somiglianze   e   differenze   tra   due   o   più   interazioni,   a   identificare   parole   o   espressioni   specifiche   cogliendone   la   funzione   comunicativa.   infine,   proponeva   un   reimpiego   controllato   di   alcune   forme   linguistiche  portando  di  nuovo  gli   allievi   a   riformulare  o   completare  dialoghi.  questa   fase  di   lavoro  poteva   prevedere   esercizi   uguali   per   tutta   la   classe   o   differenziati   sulla   base   dei   bisogni   di   apprendimento   o   del   livello  di   competenza.  al   termine  delle  attività   linguistiche   la   classe  elaborava  un  elenco  di   indicazioni  utili   per  realizzare  l’atto  linguistico,  arrivando  a  ricostruire  insieme  una  sorta  di  norma  d’uso.   la   quarta   fase   fare   esperienza   stimolava,   invece,   l’attenzione   verso   l’osservazione   della   lingua   in   contesti   comunicativi   reali.   ai   bambini   veniva   assegnato   il   compito   di   osservare   interazioni   quotidiane   e   annotare  esempi  di  dialoghi  potenzialmente  conflittuali  da  riproporre  all’attenzione  dei  compagni  in  classe.  il   stefania  ferrari     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   68   materiale   raccolto   permetteva   ulteriori   riflessioni   e   approfondimenti,   favorendo   sia   un   collegamento   tra   riflessione  in  aula  e  realtà  linguistica,  sia  una  ripresa  dei  contenuti  trattati  nel  percorso  didattico.     tabella 7 fasi e attività dell’intervento didattico fase attività focus prima dell’intervento didattico condivisione di esperienze (1 ora) conversazione di gruppo su esperienze di litigio: cosa vuol dire litigare? quali sono le situazioni a scuola in cui finisci con il litigare? cosa fai o dici quando litighi? selezionare situazioni stimolo familiari e adatte all’età rilevazione (2 ore) role play a coppie su situazioni stimolo che elicitano atti di protesta osservare le modalità di gestione dell’atto comunicativo target intervento didattico fase 1 osservare (2 ore) attività a grande gruppo o a coppie basate su alcune trascrizioni dei role play svolti dagli studenti e alcuni video autentici. individuare cosa fanno i parlanti con le parole, collegando lingua e funzioni comunicative. raccolta delle strategie individuate in una prima tassonomia. la struttura dell’atto di protesta e le due macro-componenti: espressione del giudizio e richiesta di riparazione fase 2 utilizzare (2 ore) dct orale a partire da 2-3 delle situazioni impiegate per i role play. elicitazione di possibili variazioni nella formulazione della protesta e arricchimento della tassonomia preparata in precedenza. dialoghi da completare con parole o battute mancanti. analisi di un video autentico in cui alcuni bambini protestano per un gioco di carte e richiesta di riformulazione a coppie della situazione cercando di evitare inutili litigi e gestendo a parole la protesta. la struttura dell’atto di protesta e le possibili formulazioni linguistiche degli atti che lo compongono fase 3 riflettere (2 ore) a partire dai role play della fase 2, selezione delle formulazioni più efficaci e individuazione degli elementi linguistici che hanno orientato la scelta. confronto di diverse interazioni che si differenziano principalmente nell’uso di mitigatori e presenza di atti di supporto. reimpiego delle strutture individuate su nuovi esempi (riformulazioni e cloze mirati). a grande gruppo definizione di una serie di indicazioni utili per protestare con efficacia: strategie generali, consigli e esempi. atti di supporto e modificatori fase 4 fare esperienza (1 ora) osservazione della realtà: raccolta di esempi tratti da interazioni quotidiane a cui si partecipa o si assiste. registrazione delle parole precise, delle strategie e modalità messe in atto dai parlanti. riflessioni e approfondimenti. ripresa in contesto   7.  conclusione   l’espressione   dell’atto   di   protesta   è   un’azione   linguistica   complessa,   che   richiede   competenze   sofisticate.  l’analisi  illustrata  in  queste  pagine  ha  mostrato  come  i  bambini  di  7-­‐8  anni  non  sempre  riescano  a   esprimere   verbalmente   questo   atto   e   frequentemente   risolvano   le   situazioni   di   protesta   con   azioni   fisiche   mirate   ad   auto-­‐riparare   il   torto   subito.   quando   impiegano   strumenti   linguistici   tendono   comunque   a   utilizzare  un  numero   limitato  di  strategie:  esprimono   il  giudizio  con  attribuzione  diretta  di  responsabilità  e   raramente  accompagnano  la  protesta  con  atti  di  supporto  o  modificatori.  ne  consegue  che  le  proteste,  verbali   o  non,  oltre  a   risultare   tendenzialmente  aggressive,  non   facilitano  una  risoluzione  positiva  della   situazione.   l’osservazione  analitica  delle  produzioni  evidenzia,  inoltre,  come  nonostante  la  scarsa  efficacia  nella  gestione   dell’atto,  i  bambini  siano  consapevoli  della  complessità  della  protesta  e  dei  rischi  per  la  faccia  di  entrambi  gli   interlocutori.   in   diverse   interazioni,   infatti,   si   osserva   la   realizzazione   di   un’importante   strategia   di   gestire  situazioni  di  conflitto  nella  scuola  primaria   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   69   negoziazione:  nel  primo  turno  viene  esplicitata  la  sola  componente  espressiva,  rimandando  eventualmente  la   componente   direttiva   ai   turni   successivi,   così   da   lasciare   spazio   all’interlocutore   per   proporre   una   riparazione.  purtroppo  l’uso  di  atti  come  accusa  e  critica  non  aprono  realmente  la  strada  a  una  riparazione   del   compagno,   e   nei   rari   casi   in   cui   si   assiste   a   una   più   fine   elaborazione   della   protesta,   la   difficoltà   dell’interlocutore   di   cogliere   le   implicazioni   delle   scelte   linguistiche   del   compagno,   tendono   comunque   a   inficiare  negativamente  il  risultato  di  questo  tipo  di  interazioni.     un’indagine  come  quella  riportata  in  queste  pagine,  per  quanto  limitata  rispetto  alla  numerosità  dei   partecipanti   e  delle   interazioni   elicitate,   ha   interessanti   ricadute  dal  punto  di   vista  didattico.   l’analisi   offre   indicazioni  precise  rispetto  ai  bisogni  di  apprendimento  dei  bambini:  gli   informanti  del  corpus  non  devono   infatti   imparare  a  gestire   la  protesta  tout  court,  ma  piuttosto  affinare   le  modalità  di  realizzazione  degli  atti,   ampliare   l’uso   e   la   gamma   dei  modificatori   e   imparare   a   gestire   con  maggior   raffinatezza   la   preparazione   dell’atto   di   protesta   nell’interazione.   gli   insegnanti   possono   dunque   utilmente   sostenere   lo   sviluppo   linguistico   e   comunicativo   dei   loro   allievi,   selezionando   opportunamente   attività   e   stimoli   linguistici   e   favorendo  una  riflessione  meta-­‐pragmatica  specifica  e  mirata  (siegel,  2016).  per  il  suo  carattere  esplorativo,  il   presente   studio   è   stato   dedicato   allo   sviluppo   di   una   progettazione   didattica   basata   su   dati   empirici,   rimandando  a  studi  ulteriori  l’efficacia  di  interventi  didattici  di  questo  tipo.     dal  punto  di  vista  della   ricerca,  questo   lavoro  mette   in   luce  alcuni  punti  di  attenzione  che  possono   essere   ulteriormente   indagati.  da  un   lato   sarebbe  utile   osservare   in   prospettiva   longitudinale   le   variazioni   nella   realizzazione   dell’atto   da   parte   degli   allievi   monolingui   e   plurilingui   della   scuola   primaria,   dall’altra   ampliare  il  tipo  di  situazioni  comunicative  sia  rispetto  alla  familiarità  del  contesto  che  dell’interlocutore,  così   da   rilevare   con  maggior   ricchezza   di   dettagli   i   bisogni   linguistici   dei   bambini   rispetto   alla   realizzazione   di   questo  atto,  complesso,  ma  chiaramente  rilevante  da  un  punto  di  vista  relazionale.  si  riconferma  la  necessità   di   monitorare   con   precisione   anche   gli   effetti   dell’intervento   didattico   e   delle   varie   tecniche   impiegate   durante  il  percorso  sia  sulle  produzioni  dei  bambini  che  sulle  capacità  di  riflettere  sulla  lingua.         riferimenti  bibliografici   alcón   soler,   eva   (2015).   pragmatic   learning   and   study   abroad:   effects   of   instruction   and   length   of   stay.   system,  48,  62–74.   bardovi-­‐harlig,   kathleen   (2015).   operationalizing   conversation   in   studies   of   instructional   effect   in   l2   pragmatics.  system,  48,  21–34.   bazzanella,  carla  (2005).  linguistica  e  pragmatica  del  linguaggio.  roma/bari,  italia:  laterza.   bettoni,  camilla  (2006).  usare  un’altra  lingua.  guida  alla  pragmatica  interculturale.  roma/bari,  italia:  laterza.   boxer,  diane  (2003). 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 (pp.  97–112).  milano,  italia:   franco  angeli.   ministero   dell’istruzione   dell’università   e   della   ricerca   (2012).   indicazioni   nazionali   per   il   curricolo   della   scuola   dell’infanzia   e   del   primo   ciclo   di   istruzione,   http://www.indicazioninazionali.it/documenti_indicazioni_nazionali/indicazioni_nazionali_infanzia_ primo_ciclo.pdf.   nuzzo,   elena   (2007).   imparare  a   fare  cose  con   le  parole:  richieste,  proteste,   scuse   in   italiano   lingua  seconda.   perugia,  italia:  guerra  editore.     nuzzo,   elena   (2011).  l’agire   linguistico   tra   universali   pragmatici   e   specificità   culturali.   in   rosella   bozzone   costa,  luisa  fumagalli,  &  ada  valentini  (a  cura  di),  apprendere  l’italiano  da  lingue  lontane:  prospettiva   linguistica,  pragmatica,  educativa  (pp.  139–155).  perugia,  italia:  guerra  edizioni.   nuzzo,   elena   (2013).   la   pragmatica   nei  manuali   di   italiano   l2:   una 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e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   71   searle,  john  r.  (1976).  a  classification  of  illocutionary  acts.  language  in  society,  5,  1–23.     siegel,  joseph  (2016).  pragmatic  activities  for  the  speaking  classroom.  english  teaching  forum,  54(1),  12–19.   taguchi,  naoko  (2015).  “contextually”  speaking:  a  survey  of  pragmatic  learning  abroad,  in  class,  and  online.   system,  48,  3–20.   tatsuki,  donna  h.,  &  houch,  noel  r.  (a  cura  di).  (2010).  pragmatics:  teaching  speech  acts.  (tesol  classroom   practice  series).  alexandria,  virginia:  teachers  of  english  to  speakers  of  other  languages,  inc. trosborg,   anna   (1995).   interlanguage   pragmatics.   requests,   complaints   and   apologies.   berlin,   deutschland:   mouton  de  gruyter.   trosborg,   anna   (2003).   the   teaching   of   business   english.   in   alicia   martínez-­‐flor,   esther   usó-­‐juan,   &   ana   fernández  guerra   (a   cura  di),  pragmatic  competence  and  foreign   language  teaching   (pp.   247–281).   castellón  de  la  plana,  españa:  publicacions  de  la  universitat  jaume  i.       stefania  ferrari     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   72   appendice  a   situazioni proposte nei role-play che cosa direste in queste situazioni? a scuola, il temperino bambino 1 ha prestato il temperino a bambino 2. adesso bambino 1 ha bisogno del suo temperino e chiede a bambino 2 di restituirglielo. bambino 2 non vuole darglielo perché dice di avere ancora bisogno del temperino. a scuola, qui si imbroglia durante l’intervallo bambino 1 e bambino 2 stanno giocando a carte. bambino 2 guarda la carta prima di pescare e cerca di imbrogliare mettendola sotto al mazzo. bambino 1 se ne accorge e vuole annullare la partita. a scuola, le patatine durante l'intervallo bambino 1 sta mangiando delle patatine. bambino 2 prende un bel po’ di patatine senza chiedere il permesso al compagno. a scuola, copiare durante la verifica bambino 1 cerca di copiare il compito di bambino 2. a bambino 2 non piace che un compagno si metta a copiare il compito. a scuola, le mie carte durante l’intervallo bambino 1 sta giocando da solo con le carte, bambino 2 vorrebbe giocare e prende le carte dalle mani di bambino 1 senza dire niente. a scuola, la tuta nuova bambino 1 sta facendo merenda con un succo di frutta prima di andare in palestra, bambino 2 passa correndo e fa cadere il succo sporcando la tuta nuova di bambino 1. in mensa, il mio posto bambino 1 prende una sedia per mettersi vicino a bambino 2. poi bambino 1 si alza un attimo e va a bere. bambino 3 prende il posto di bambino 1. in aula video, il mio posto i bambini guardano un filmato con l'insegnante. bambino 1 si vuole sedere davanti. bambino 2 prende il posto di bambino 1. bambino 1 rivuole il suo posto, perché altrimenti non riesce a vedere bene il film. a casa, il dinosauro bambino 1 ha preso il dinosauro di bambino 2 senza chiedere il permesso. bambino 1 va da bambino 2 e rivuole il suo dinosauro. a casa, fallo bambino 1 e bambino 2 stanno giocando a calcio. bambino 1 fa un’azione scorretta per vincere la partita, bambino 2 se ne accorge e vuole annullare il goal. a casa, cambiare canale bambino 1 sta guardando il suo cartone preferito alla televisione, bambino 2 prende il telecomando e cambia canale. a casa, il mio giornalino bambino 1 sta leggendo il suo giornalino preferito, bambino 2 prende il giornalino di bambino 1 e involontariamente strappa una pagina. gestire  situazioni  di  conflitto  nella  scuola  primaria   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  56-­‐73   73   stefania ferrari, università del piemonte orientale stefania.ferrari@uniupo.it it stefania ferrari è ricercatrice presso l’università del piemonte orientale, dove attualmente insegna didattica delle lingue moderne. ha seguito una varietà di progetti di ricerca nell’ambito del bilinguismo, dell’apprendimento dell’italiano in contesto scolastico, dell’educazione linguistica attiva, della pragmatica e della valutazione. collabora come formatrice con scuole e comuni del nord italia nel realizzare interventi per la promozione del successo scolastico degli allievi non italofoni. scrive regolarmente per riviste rivolte a insegnanti, quali sesamo interculturale e la vita scolastica, dove cura sezioni dedicate all’insegnamento dell’italiano l2. è fondatrice della rete professionale glottonaute. en stefania ferrari is an assistant professor at the università del piemonte orientale, where she currently teaches modern language pedagogy. she has carried out a variety of research projects in the fields of bilingualism, italian language learning in educational contexts, active learning in linguistic education, pragmatics, and assessment. as an educator, she works with schools and municipalities in northern italy to promote the academic success of non-italian-speaking students. in addition to being the founder of the professional network glottonaute, she publishes regularly in journals for educators, such as sesamo interculturale and la vita scolastica, in which she also manages sections dedicated to the teaching of italian as a second language. es stefania ferrari es profesora ayudante en la università del piemonte orientale, donde actualmente enseña didáctica de las lenguas modernas. ha participado en varios proyectos de investigación en los ámbitos del bilingüismo, del aprendizaje del idioma italiano en un contexto escolar, de la educación del aprendizaje lingüístico activo, de la pragmática y de la evaluación. como educadora, trabaja con escuelas y municipios del norte de italia en la promoción de actividades para el éxito académico de los estudiantes que no hablan italiano. además de ser la fundadora de la red profesional glottonaute, también publica en revistas dirigidas a profesores, como sesamo interculturale y la vita scolastica, en las que edita las secciones dedicadas a la enseñanza del italiano como segunda lengua. microsoft word ej_205_torresan_fasura_7.2.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  7,  issue  2,  october  2020,  70–111   issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.12.205   www.e-­‐journall.org     ©  torresan  2020.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.         indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto1         paolo  torresan     vivian  fasura   universidade  federal  fluminense       received  9  january  2020;  accepted  after  revision  28  august  2020   abstract it questo articolo analizza diverse attività di ascolto caratterizzate dalla ripetizione del brano audio per un numero di volte che oscilla tra le quattro e le sei. le attività sono state somministrate in classi di studenti universitari di lingua e letteratura italiana presso la universidade federal fluminense (niterói, brasile). lo studio rapporta la percentuale di comprensione, audizione dopo audizione, a tre ordini di variabili: la calibrazione del testo, la presenza di uno scambio con i compagni, il numero di volte in cui il testo viene ascoltato. pur considerate le specificità del contesto della ricerca (in particolar modo, il fatto che le lingue coinvolte sono tipologicamente vicine: portoghese e italiano) e il numero ridotto di partecipanti, i dati che emergono offrono spunti per l’esercizio della pratica dell’ascolto ripetuto. parole chiave: comprensione orale, ascolto ripetuto, testi autentici, grado di difficoltà di un testo, interazione en this paper analyzes various listening activities characterized by repetition of the audio track between four and six times. the activities were implemented in classes of university students of italian language and literature at the universidade federal fluminense (niterói, brazil). the study reports the comprehension percentage after successive listening attempts according to three sets of variables: text calibration, the degree of socialization post-exposure among the students, and the number of times the recording was played. even considering the specificities of the context of the research (in particular, the typologically similar languages involved, italian and portuguese) and the small group of participants, the data suggest some guidelines for the use of repeated listening in the classroom. key words: listening comprehension, listening repetition, authentic texts, text difficulty, interaction es el siguiente artículo analiza varias actividades de comprensión auditiva caracterizadas por la repetición del texto oral por un número de veces que oscila entre las 4 y las 6 veces. las actividades han sido suministradas en clases de estudiantes universitarios de lengua e literatura italiana en la universidade federal fluminense (niterói, brasile). el estudio presenta el porcentaje de comprensión, después de sucesivas audiciones, con tres niveles de variables: la calibración del texto, el grado de socialización de lo comprendido entre los alumnos, el número de veces que el texto es escuchado. si bien se han considerado los aspectos específicos del contexto en el que ha sido conducida la investigación (en particular, la proximidad tipológica entre las lenguas envolvidas: italiano e portogués) y el pequeño grupo de participantes, los datos que emergen ofrecen algunos indicios para el ejercicio de la práctica de audición repetida. palabras clave: comprensión oral, repetición de la audición, textos auténticos, dificultad del texto, interacción *  paolo  torresan,  universidade  federal  fluminense   paolotorresan@id.uff.br                                                                                                                               1  vivian   fasura   è   la   responsabile   dell’individuazione   dei   nuclei   informativi,   della   loro   restituzione   in   percentuale   e   in   forma  grafica,  mentre  paolo  torresan  è  responsabile  dell’elaborazione  del  testo  dell’articolo.  la  scelta  dei  brani  audio  da   somministrare  nelle  diverse  classi,  le  condizioni  di  somministrazione  e  il  research  design  è  frutto  di  un  lavoro  in  comune.   un   ringraziamento   particolare,   per   l’attenta   lettura,   è   dedicato   a   clelia   capua,   franco   pauletto,   carlo   guastalla,   luigi   micarelli,  paolo  della  putta,  francesco  diodato,  ai  revisori  della  rivista.  un  grazie  va  anche  a  carmen  rosa  mendieta,  per  la   consulenza  linguistica.       http://www.e-journall.org indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   71   1.  ascoltare  in  una  lingua  straniera   la   comprensione   orale   gioca   un   ruolo   importante   nei   processi   di   apprendimento   di   una   lingua   straniera   (ls;   bozorgian,   2010;   vandergrift   &   goh,   2012).   esiste,   infatti,   una   correlazione   tra   l’abilità   di   comprendere  un  testo  orale  e  l’abilità  di  lettura  (badian,  1999;  bozorgian,  2012),  e  pure  tra  la  stessa  abilità  di   comprensione  orale  e  l’abilità  di  produzione  orale  (lynch,  1996;  rost,  1994).     molti   studenti   percepiscono   la   comprensione   orale   come   difficile   (hasan,   2000)   e   ansiogena   (bekleyen,   2009).   la   difficoltà   può   essere   legata   a   vari   fattori,   tra   i   quali   (cfr.   buck,   2001;   rodrigo,   2017;   wilson,  2008):     -­‐ la  gestione  dei  significati  in  tempo  reale,  più  complessa  rispetto  a  quella  che  presiede  la  lettura,  dove   il  controllo  da  parte  dell’apprendente  è  maggiore   -­‐ la  difficoltà  a   riconoscere  unità   lessicali  (singole  parole  o   costruzioni  polirematiche)   all’interno  del   flusso  sonoro   -­‐ la  coimplicazione  di  processi  di  diversa  natura  (alcuni  dei  quali  legati  alla  decodifica,  altri  legati  alla   mappatura  sintattica,  altri  ancora  all’attivazione  di  una  propria  rappresentazione  del  discorso)   -­‐ variazioni   idiosincratiche   dell’eloquio   dei   parlanti,   a   livello   segmentale   (elisioni,   assimilazioni,   metatesi,   distorsioni,   aferesi,   scempiature,   geminazioni,   ecc.)   e   sovrasegmentale   (accento,   accelerazioni,  marcature  intonative,  ecc.),  che  non  sono  state  ancora  ‘normalizzate’  nella  mente  di  chi   ascolta  e  quindi  non  vengono  riconosciute  (pisoni,  1997)   -­‐ lo   stato   psicofisico   di   chi   ascolta   (eccessi   di   stanchezza   o   di   ansia   agiscono   negativamente   sull’attenzione)     rispetto   alle   altre   abilità,   la   ricerca   relativa   all’ascolto   in   ls   appare   modesta   (field,   2008,   p.   1;   mendelsohn,  1994).  joyce  (2008)  sostiene  che  “the  neglect  stemmed  from  listening  having  been  misconceived   as  a  passive  skill  mirroring  reading  …  that  is,  it  was  assumed  that  the  processes  involved  in  both  modalities   were   largely   identical”  (p.  4).  anche  in  termini  di  metodologia,  poche  sono  le   idee  condivise  dalla  comunità   docente;  molti  insegnanti  lamentano  di  sentirsi  scarsamente  preparati  (graham,  2016).  in  riferimento  ai  testi   orali,   nei  materiali   in   commercio   c’è   la   tendenza   a   ridurre   l’ansia   che   deriva   dalla   percezione   di   difficoltà   sperimentata  dall’ascoltatore  mediante  un  parlato  pianificato  e  controllato,  lontano  dall’oralità  spontanea.  in   verità,   pure   molti   testi   semi-­‐autentici,   ovvero   registrati   a   partire   da   un   canovaccio,   possono   dare   l’impressione   di   essere   artefatti,   dato   che   spesso   una   macroillocuzione   (es.   una   protesta;   la   richiesta   di   chiarimenti,  ecc.)  viene  ripetuta  all’estremo,  con  una  certa  innaturalità  in  termini  di  durata  dell’evento  e  una   ripetitività  di  mosse  comunicative.   in  generale,  l’ascolto  viene  gestito  in  termini  di  risultati  (quanto  lo  studente  ha  compreso?),  anziché   come   abilità   soggetta   a   evolversi   (come   l’allievo   ha   compreso?   perché   ha   compreso   alcune   parti   e   ne   ha   invece   malinterpretato   altre?   come   può   migliorare   la   comprensione?   cfr.   bruzzano,   2019).   nell’ascolto   gestito  in  termini  di  risultati,  si  ricorre  a  esercizi  prevalentemente  chiusi,  soggetti  a  una  revisione  in  plenum.   si   tratta  di  un  approccio  eterodiretto,   funzionale  a   formare  dei  buoni   test-­‐takers,   che  sappiano  cavarsela   in   sede  di  verifica.  in  altre  parole,  si  ragiona  sulla  “superficie”  della  performance,  limitandosi  a  somministrare  il   testo  e  a  contare  le  risposte  giuste  e  quelle  sbagliate;  senza  chiedersi  perché  l’allievo  ha  sbagliato  e  cosa  può   fare   per  migliorare   (chambers,   1996).   è   probabile   che   lo   studente  maturi,   in   questo   caso,   una   concezione   statica  della  competenza  (“prendo  questo  voto  e  questa  è  la  mia  competenza”;  cfr.  graham,  2006).   viceversa,  nella  prospettiva  dell’ascolto  in  termini  di  abilità  che  evolve,  meno  diffusa  (graham  et  al.,   2014),  l’allievo  è  spronato  a  sperimentare  strategie  di  diverso  genere,  al  fine  di  scorgere  quale  combinazione   di  volta  in  volta  possa  assicurare  risultati  migliori  (vandergrift,  2003;  vandergrift  &  tafaghodtari,  2010).  per   esempio,  può  chiedersi  se   le   ipotesi  che  via  via  escogita  siano   in  accordo   le  une  con   le  altre;  può  provare  a   formulare  (subvocalizzando  o  per  iscritto)  quello  che  ascolta;  può  chiedersi  in  che  misura  il  contesto  avvalori   l’attribuzione  di  significato  a  una  certa  stringa,  o  ancora,  può  ascoltare  più  e  più  volte  lo  stesso  brano,  e  così   via.   in   breve,   tale   propettiva   mira   alla   formazione   di   un   comportamento   autonomo   fuori   dall’aula:   l’apprendente   è   in   grado  di   ragionare   in   termini  metacognitivi   (goh,   2002;  graham  et   al.,   2008;  graham  &   santos,  2015;  liu,  2006).         torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  72      2.  la  ripetizione  come  strategia  didattica     una   strategia   didattica   che   stimola   lo   studente   ad   affinare   progressivamente   una   propria   macrorappresentazione   dei   significati   (cfr.   field,   2009,   p.   35)   è   l’esposizione   ripetuta,   ovvero   la   somministrazione  di  un  testo  orale  per  più  di  due  audizioni.2   la  prima  volta  che  si  è  esposti  a  un  testo,  sia  esso  scritto  o  orale,  i  significati  elaborati  confluiscono  in   una   rappresentazione   (sanford  &   garrod,   1981),   la   quale   si   perfeziona  man  mano   che   si   ritorna   sul   testo.   ascolto   dopo   ascolto,   si   identificano   più   parole   (jensen   &   vinther,   2003)   ed   è   possibile   farsi   un’idea   più   precisa   dei   contenuti.   si   tratta,   in   realtà,   di   processi   di   automatizzazione   e   consolidamento   che   contraddistinguono  lo  sviluppo  di  ogni  abilità;  così  si  legge  in  field  (2013):     human   working   memory   resources   are   limited   (baddeley,   1986;   gathercole   &   baddeley,   1993),  which  obliges  us   to  direct   attention   to   those  aspects  of   a  mental  operation   that   are   most   fundamental   to   its  success.  a  novice   in  any  skill  has   to   lend  considerable  attention  to   low-­‐level   processes   (examples  may   be   putting   a   car   into  motion   or   assessing   the   relative   positions   of   chess   pieces).   over   time   and   practice,   two   important   developments   occur   (anderson,   1983).   the   basic   processes   become   increasingly  automatized,   demanding   less   and   less   attention.   in   addition,   small-­‐scale   processes   become   combined   into   larger   operations.   the   result   is   to   considerably   reduce   the   demands   made   upon   an   individual’s   working  memory  when  employing  the  skill,  leaving  them  with  spare  memory  capacity  to  give   to  the  wider  picture.  […]  [in]  listening  […]  the  fundamental  process  of  deriving  words  from   connected   speech   becomes   increasingly   automatic   with   experience,   thus   enabling   the   listener  to  lend  attention  instead  to  larger  and  more  abstract  judgements  about  a  speaker  or   recording,   including   inferences   and   the   evaluation   of   ideas.   (p.   82,   il   grassetto   è   nell’originale)     mentre   il   lettore/l’ascoltatore   esperto   gestisce   in   maniera   flessibile   la   propria   interpretazione,   modificandola  mano  a  mano  che  nuovi  dati  rettificano  le  ipotesi,3  il  lettore/l’ascoltatore  inesperto  ragiona  in   maniera  lineare  e  rigida,  anziché  gerarchica  e  ricorsiva  (gernshbaker,  1990):  accumula  le  informazioni  senza   preoccuparsi   delle   relazioni   logiche   che   intercorrono   tra   esse.   totalmente   assorbito   dalla   decodifica   e   dall’assegnazione  di  significati  ai  singoli  vocaboli,   il   lettore/l’ascoltatore  inesperto  presta  poca  attenzione  ai   processi  interpretativi  che  consentono  di  giungere  a  una  macrorappresentazione  coerente  (cfr.  lynch,  1998).     far  leggere/ascoltare  più  volte  promuove,  di  contro,  i  processi  grazie  ai  quali  è  possibile  rettificare  (o   ratificare)  le  proprie  ipotesi,  a  livello  di  parola,  di  unità  frastiche  o  di  interi  passaggi.4  parti  del  testo  che  prima   risultavano   poco   chiare   vengono   meglio   comprese;5  il   carico   cognitivo   che   grava   sul   lettore/ascoltatore   è   alleggerito;  percependo  di  comprendere  di  più,  egli  acquista  in  sicurezza  (brown,  2007).     diversi   autori   hanno   considerato,   in   particolare,   il   valore   aggiunto,   in   termini   di   intake   (ovvero   di   materiale   linguistico   ritenuto),   provocato   dall’esposizione   ripetuta   a   un   brano   audio   (lynch,   1998;   oller,   1979;   sakai,   2009;  wilson,   2008).   liu   (2006)   ha   dimostrato   che   la   ripetizione   consente   l’attivazione   di   un   repertorio   di   strategie   cognitive,   metacognitive   e   autoregolative   maggiore   di   quello   sollecitato   da   attività   tradizionali,  dove  un  brano  viene  fatto  ascoltare  una  o  al  massimo  due  volte.  peraltro,  i  benefici  esercitati  dal   ritorno   sul   testo   sono   stati   dimostrati   maggiori   rispetto   a   quelli   che   si   possono   ottenere   grazie   ad   altre                                                                                                                             2  li   concetto   di   strategia   didattica   si   riferisce   alle   singole   componenti   che   caratterizzano   un’attività.   in   altre   parole,   un’attività  è  sempre  contraddistinta  da  elementi  minimi,  ciascuno  dei  quali  è  stato  chiamato  da  taluni  (germain,  2001),  da   altri   tecnema   (stevick,   1959)   e   da   altri   ancora   (e   noi   con   questi)   strategia   (kumaravadivelu,   1994;   stern,   1992).   nel   nostro   caso   la   ripetizione   dell’input   può   essere   considerata   una   strategia,   combinabile   con   altre   strategie   (es.   il   dimensionamento  dell’input;  la  collaborazione  con  i  compagni,  ecc.),  nel  concreto  di  singole  attività.   3  ad  esempio,  si  sente  parlare  di  un  tassista  e,  sulla  base  delle  proprie  preconoscenze  (porcelli,  1994),  lo  si  immagina  un   uomo;  tuttavia  poco  dopo  si  sente  il  pronome  soggetto  “lei”  e  si  è  portati  a  ridefinire  il  genere  (cfr.  field,  2013,  p.  92).   4  grosjean  (1985)  scrive,  “word  recognition  is  not  a  word-­‐by-­‐word,   left-­‐to-­‐right  process.  rather,   .   .   .   the  process   is  very   much   a   feed-­‐forward,   feed-­‐back   operation,   where   there   are   constant   adjustments   being  made   to   early   and/or   partial   messages”  (p.  309).   5  si   tratta   di   un   processo   ampiamente   studiato   anche   per   la   lettura   (per   la   lettura   in   l1:  hudson   et   al.,   2005;   johns  &   berglund,  2002;  kuhn,  2004;  per  la  lettura  in  ls:  gorsuch  et  al.,  2015;  gorsuch  &  taguchi,  2010;  samuels,  1997;  taguchi,   1997;  taguchi  et  al.,  2004;  taguchi  et  al.,  2006;  taguchi  &  gorsuch,  2002).   indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   73   strategie  didattiche,  quali:  offrire  indizi  lessicali  (chang  &  read,  2006),  ridurre  la  velocità  dell’audio  (king  &   east,  2011)  o  fornire  supporti  visuali  (chang  &  read,  2007).  il  fatto  stesso  di  ascoltare  più  e  più  volte,  senza   un  binario  predefinito  (quale  può  essere  quello  fornito  da  una  serie  di  item),  spinge  l’allievo  a  organizzare  da   sé   una   propria   mappa   del   testo,   interrogandosi   sulla   coerenza   e   sull’organizzazione   dei   significati   (field,   2013,  pp.  95–96).   in  questa  sede  approfondiamo  due  proposte  che   fanno  della  ripetizione  estesa  di  un  brano  audio   il   loro  tratto  saliente:   il  narrow  listening  di  krashen  (1996)  e   l’ascolto  autentico  di  humphris  (1993).  si   tratta   delle  pratiche  di  ascolto  ripetuto  che,  a  quel  che  ci   risulta,  hanno  catalizzato   il  maggior   interesse   in  ambito   glottodidattico.   la   prima   è   caratterizzata   dall’ascolto   ripetuto   di   un   testo   calibrato  sulla   competenza   dello   studente   (§2.1.);   la   seconda   è   caratterizzata   dall’ascolto   ripetuto   di   un   testo   sovracalibrato   rispetto   alla   competenza  dello   studente,   e  prevede   la   socializzazione  delle   ipotesi   con  un  partner,   a  partire  dal   secondo   ascolto  (§2.2.).   nella  nostra  indagine  (§3)  abbiamo  sperimentato  entrambe  le  modalità  di  ascolto  in  classi  di  studenti   lusofoni  di   italiano  ls,  concentrandoci  sulla  seconda,   l’ascolto  autentico  di  humphris  (applicata  con  varianti   inerenti   il   grado  di   sovracalibrazione  del   testo  e   il   format  di   socializzazione).  le  classi   coinvolte   sono  state   due  e  le  somministrazioni  sono  state  cinque;  si  tratta  di  studi  di  caso  soggetti  a  un’analisi  quantitativa  di  tipo   descrittivo.     nell’indagine   complessiva   abbiamo   inteso   rilevare   l’incremento   di   comprensione   a   seguito   di   ogni   singola   audizione.   riteniamo   che   la   consapevolezza   dell’impatto   positivo   che,   in   generale,   l’esposizione   ripetuta   di   un   brano   audio   esercita   sulla   decodifica   e   sull’interpretazione   del   testo   possa   sollecitare   gli   insegnanti  a  sperimentare  questa  pratica  nelle  proprie  classi  e  a   indurre  gli  allievi  ad  ascoltare  più  volte  un   brano,  anche  in  contesto  di  autoapprendimento.           2.1.  il  narrow  listening  di  krashen   il  narrow  listening  (ascolto  a  restrizione  tematica,  d’ora  in  poi  art;  krashen,  1996),6  anziché  essere   costituito  da  brani  che  spaziano  su  domini  e  situazioni  diverse  (come  in  genere  avviene),  si  focalizza  su  uno   stesso   argomento   e/o   su   una   medesima   situazione.   immaginiamo,   per   esempio,   più   testi   in   cui   diversi   passanti  forniscono  le  indicazioni  per  raggiungere  un  determinato  punto  della  città,  oppure  versioni  parallele   (con  piccole  modifiche  l’una  rispetto  all’altra)  di  un  medesimo  racconto.   la   restrizione   tematica   favorisce   l’adozione   di   un   medesimo   frame   interpretativo,   a   beneficio   dell’ascoltatore,  che  non  deve  così  attivare  ogni  volta  ipotesi  nuove.  in  sostanza,  l’ascoltatore,  sapendo  più  o   meno  di  cosa  tratta  il  testo,  è  facilitato  nella  comprensione  dei  brani  successivi.     krashen   sperimentò   l’attività   su   di   sè,   mentre   apprendeva   lo   spagnolo   in   messico,   registrando   testimonianze   di   nativi   su   una   serie   di   temi,   e   quindi   riascoltandole   di   quando   in   quando.   l’art   è   caratterizzato,  in  termini  strategici,  da  tre  componenti:       -­‐ la  restrizione  tematica   -­‐ la  ripetizione  estesa  (con  almeno  4  ascolti)   -­‐ l’autodeterminazione   (l’allievo   sceglie   il   tema   su   cui   vertono   le   conversazioni   che   si   accinge   a   registrare)     l’attività   è   stata   applicata   con   successo   dai   collaboratori   di   krashen,   sia   in   un   contesto   di   autoapprendimento  (rodrigo  &  krashen,  1996)  che  in  un  contesto  di  apprendimento  formale  (dupuy,  1999).   la   lingua   a   cui   gli   studenti   sono   esposti   è   calibrata   o   dimensionata,   vale   a   dire   rapportata   alla   loro   competenza.  sono   forniti   loro  dei   testi  autentici  o  semi-­‐autentici   (su   traccia),   in  cui   il  parlante  regola   il   suo   messaggio  sul   livello  di   competenza  dall’ascoltatore.  krashen   (cit.   in  rodrigo,  2017)   insiste   sull’importanza   della  regolazione:  “repeated  listening  would  work  best  when  the  passage  is  comprehensible  and  when  the   listeners  really  want  to  hear  it  again,  when  they  have  a  personal  interest  in  the  message”  (p.  43;  il  grassetto  è   nostro).   diversi  studi,  benché   limitati  a  una  ripetizione  contenuta  (tre  ascolti),  hanno  accertato  un  aumento   significativo  della  comprensione  a  ogni  nuovo  ascolto  (chang  &  read,  2006;  rodrigo,  2017).  la  stessa  rodrigo   (2017),   in   particolare,   mediante   una   ricognizione   sugli   appunti   presi   da   studenti   statunitensi   di   spagnolo                                                                                                                             6  la  riflessione  dell’autore  in  merito  alla  lettura  a  restrizione  tematica  (narrow  reading)  risale  al  1981  (per  inciso,  ampia  è   stata  anche  la  ricerca  che  l’autore  ha  dedicato  all’extensive  reading,  cfr.  mason  &  krashen,  1997).     torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  74   come  ls,   arriva  a   stimare   in  media  un  aumento  della   comprensione  del  14%  dopo   il   secondo  ascolto  e  del   9,3%  dopo  il  terzo,  sia  per  classi  di  principianti  che  per  classi  di  studenti  di  livello  intermedio  e  per  classi  di   studenti  di  livello  avanzato.       2.2.  l’ascolto  autentico  di  humphris   christopher  humphris  è  l’autore  a  cui  si  deve  una  tecnica,  divulgata  con  il  nome  di  ascolto  autentico,   che,  nella  sua  essenza,  combina  due  strategie:  la  ripetizione  estesa  (con  un  numero  di  ascolti  pari  a  sei/sette)  e   la  sovracalibrazione  dell’input  (humphris,  1983,  1993a,  1993b).     il  concetto  di  autentico,  a  cui  l’autore  ricorre,  rimanda  all’accezione  che  al  termine  dà  wilkins,  a  detta   del  quale  sono  autentici   i   testi  prodotti  da  nativi  per  nativi  (wilkins,  1976,  p.  79;  cfr.  pure  harmer,  1983,  p.   146;   nunan,   1989,   p.   54;   richards,   2001,   p.   253).   affidarsi   al   materiale   autentico,   sottolinea   humphris,   significa   far   capo   a   testi   che   preservano   le   caratteristiche   proprie   di   una   comunicazione   spontanea   (non   prodotta   ad   hoc,   per   puri   scopi   didattici)   e   sono   frutto   di   un’autentica   “voglia   di   comunicare”,   quindi   espressione  di  un’effettiva  intenzionalità  comunicativa  (derosas  &  torresan,  2009).     in   realtà,   humphris   fa   rientrare   nell’alveo   dell’autenticità   pure   testi   semi-­‐autentici,   vale   a   dire   produzioni   basate   su   prompt   essenziali   (es.   un   monologo   che   risponde   alla   consegna   “parla   della   tua   esperienza  di  studente  alla  scuola  primaria”)  o  tutt’al  più  su  un  canovaccio  minimo  (espresso  per  punti);  tali   testi,  benché  non  siano  concepiti  per  la  comunità  dei  parlanti  nativi  ma  per  quella  degli  apprendenti  stranieri,   sono  tessuti  attorno  all’esigenza  di  trasmettere  dei  significati,  piuttosto  che  essere  finalizzati  al  reimpiego  di   determinate  forme  (derosas  &  torresan,  2009).     in  un   senso   lato,  dunque,   l’aggettivo  autentico   in  humphris,  non  si  oppone   tanto  a  preconfezionato   (visto  che  i  materiali  semi-­‐autentici,  che  lui  stesso  ammette,  sono  preconfezionati),  quanto  a  semplificato  e  a   semplice:   semplificato   è   un   testo   frutto   della   manipolazione   di   una   fonte   autentica,   al   fine   di   permettere   maggiore  accessibilità  ai  contenuti  da  parte  del  destinatario  (tale  manipolazione  può  comportare  sostituzioni   lessicali,   alleggerimenti   sintattici,   espunzioni   testuali,   ecc.;   cfr.   piemontese,   1999).   il   rischio   che   un   testo   semplificato  presenta  è  che  durante  le  operazioni  di  manipolazione  possono  venire  violati  principi  costituitivi   del  testo,  quali  la  coerenza  e  la  coesione7.  semplice  è  un  testo  povero,  breve,  ridotto  a  una  serie  di  enunciati8.   l’input 9  comprensibile   di   cui   parla   krashen,   ovvero   l’input   relativamente   accessibile   all’allievo   (“roughly-­‐tuned”;  1982,  p.  10),  viene   inteso  polemicamente  da  humphris  come  una   legittimazione  sia  della   semplicità  che  della  semplificazione  (humphris,  1990).  a  onor  del  vero,  il  bersaglio  contro  il  quale  si  muovono   le  obiezioni  di  humphris  è  asher,  padre  di  un  metodo,  il  total  physical  response,  reso  spesso  con  l’acronimo   tpr   (asher,   1982).   krashen   espresse   a   più   riprese,   infatti,   un   avallo   al   tpr,   considerandolo   una   valida   applicazione  del  concetto  di   input  comprensibile  (krashen,  1985).  nell’aula  tpr   l’insegnante   impartisce  una   serie   di   ordini,   che   gli   studenti   sono   chiamati   ad   eseguire   (es.   “apri   la   finestra”   oppure   “passa   la   palla   al   compagno”),   senza   che   sia   richiesta   loro,   perlomeno   in   un   primo  momento,   alcuna   produzione   linguistica.   humphris  interpreta  gli  enunciati  del  tpr  come  input  semplice  o  povero;  il  loro  ricorso  può  valere  tutt’al  più   come   pratica   estemporanea,   ma   non   può   costituire   un  metodo   (torresan,   2010).   la   questione   di   fondo,   a   nostro   avviso,   è   che   asher   pare   aderire   a   un   modello   acquisizionale   di   tipo   lineare,   accumulativo,   che   humphris   rigetta.   gli   enunciati   di   asher   si   complessificano   da   un   punto   di   vista   sintattico   e   morfologico                                                                                                                             7  un  testo  incoerente  risulta  di  difficile  comprensione  tanto  per  lo  straniero  quanto  per  il  madrelingua  (cfr.  anderson  &   armbruster,  1984;  beck  et  al.,  1991;  kintsch  &  yarbrough,  1982;  mckeown  et  al.,  1992;  meyer,  1985).   8  una   riflessione   utile   a   riguardo   appare   in   macaro   et   al.   (2006):   “in   our   own   context   –   mfl   classroms   in   england   –   vocabulary   development   certainly   appears   to   be   very   slow:  milton   (2006),   for   example,   found   that   students   learnt   on   average  only  170  words  per  year  over  their  first  five  years  of  language  learning  at  secondary  school.  we  are  not  saying   that  this   in  an   inevitable  (or   indeed  indesirable)  state  of  affairs;  nonetheless,  at   this  rate  of   learning,   learners  would  be   restricted  to  trivial  texts  for  many  years,  providing  little  incentive  to  read  or  listen  in  the  l2.  this  is  indeed  what  we  see  in   many  of   the  mfl   lessons  we  observe:  a   typical  exercise  might   involve  students  reading  or   listening  to  a  series  of  short   texts,  composed  entirely  of  familiar  language,  in  which  fictitous  characters  describe  how  many  brothers  and  sisters  they   have.  as  woore  (2014)  notes,  such  materials  are  unlikely  to  convince  learners  of  the  benefit  of  reading  and  listening  in   another  language”  (p.  44).     9  a  cosa  allude  lo  studioso  californiano  con  il  concetto  di  “input”?  a  differenza  dei  drill,  vale  a  dire  degli  enunciati  del  tutto   gratuiti,  privi  di  contesto,  la  cui  manipolazione  meccanica  ed  estesa  produce  una  ritenzione  debole  (da  krashen  chiamata   “apprendimento”),   l’input  rimanda   a   interazioni   significative,   le   sole   che   possono   consentire   un’assimilazione   duratura   della   lingua   (“acquisizione”;   krashen,   1985,   p.   68;   2002,   p.   397).   significativa   è   quell’interazione   che   esprime   genuine   intenzioni  comunicative  tra  i  partecipanti;  ai  singoli  enunciati  è  quindi  possibile  attribuire  una  reale  forza  illocutiva.       indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   75   secondo  un  ordine  deciso  dall’insegnante.  il  modello  a  cui  guarda  humphris  è  invece  di  tipo  emergentista  (cfr.   o’grady   et   al.,   2009):   la   competenza   non   si   accumula   ma   emerge,   a   contatto   con   la   complessità,   secondo   percorsi   personali,   ovvero   obbedendo   a   un   sillabo   interno,   non   del   tutto   prefigurabile   dal   docente   (cfr.   humphris   in  guastalla,  2006).10  l’input  a  cui   fa   riferimento  humphris  è  complesso,  ovvero  sovracalibrato  o   sovradimensionato,  e  non  è  in  alcun  modo  facilitato.  lo  studente  fin  dai  livelli  piu  bassi  si  confronta  con  testi   relativamente   complessi,   tanto   per   l’ascolto   quanto   per   la   lettura.   sostenuto   dalla   collaborazione   dei   compagni,   egli   si   impegna   a   erodere   i   margini   di   incomprensibilità   di   un   testo,   nella   tolleranza   delle   pur   inevitabili  zone  d’ombra  (humphris,  1991a).  detto  altrimenti,  proprio  in  virtù  della  limitatezza  della  propria   conoscenza   linguistica,   lo   studente   si   appoggia   sulla   (e   al   tempo   stesso   sviluppa   la)   propria   competenza   strategica  per  ricostruire  i  significati,  contando  sull’aiuto  dei  pari  (macaro  et  al.,  2016,  pp.  51–66,  76).     l’ascolto   ‘autentico’  e   la   lettura   ‘autentica’   si   caratterizzano  non  solo  per   il   sovradimensionamento,   ma  anche  per  una  ripetizione  estesa  dell’input,  dicevamo.  l’allievo  ascolta  il  brano  (o  legge  il  testo,  nel  caso   della  comprensione  scritta)  dalle  sei  alle  sette  volte,  elaborando  per  proprio  conto  le  ipotesi  circa  i  significati   trasmessi.   l’insegnante   non   interviene   né   prima   né   durante11  né   dopo   la   somministrazione.12  piuttosto,   il   docente   agisce   come   un   tecnico:   si  mantiene   in   silenzio,   senza   interferire   con   la   perlustrazione   autonoma   dell’apprendente   (con  un  chiaro   richiamo  al  silent  way,   cfr.  gattegno,  1972).  al   fine  di   contenere  eventuali   stati   di   ansia,   il   docente   può,   tutt’al   più,   prevedere   una   fase   previa   di   rilassamento   (humphris,   1983).   riassumiamo  nella  tabella  a  seguire  il  modello  di  input  adottato  rispettivamente  da  krashen  e  da  humphris.       tabella 1 input comprensibile vs input autentico input comprensibile (krashen) input autentico (humphris) autentico o semi-autentico autentico o semi-autentico calibrato = rapportato alla competenza del singolo o alla competenza media della classe sovracalibrato = superiore alla competenza del singolo o alla competenza media della classe facilitato = reso accessibile dal docente (mediante realia, disegni, l’anticipazione del tema nella l1, ecc.) non facilitato = non è prevista alcuna iniziativa di sostegno a carico del docente   indossando  le  lenti  krasheniane,  ci  verrebbe  da  argomentare  che  l’input  di  humphris  corre  il  rischio   di   attivare   una   resistenza   interna   la   quale   agisce   negativamente   sulla   predisposizione   dell’allievo   ad   imparare:   il   filtro   affettivo   (uno   stato   di   ansia   che   genera   un   blocco   dell’attenzione).13  in   altre   parole,   se   l’allievo  percepisce  il  brano  come  troppo  difficile,  può  demotivarsi.  d’altro  canto,  però,  l’input  comprensibile  di   cui  parla  krashen,  agli  occhi  di  humphris  (il  quale  lo  coglie  come  inverato  negli  ordini  impartiti  dal  docente                                                                                                                             10  gli   studi   acquisizionali   definiscono,   ad   ogni   modo,   alcune   tappe   trasversali   e   generalizzabili   (cfr.   giacalone   ramat,   2003).  contesti  e  approcci  didattici  possono  contribuire  a  velocizzare  l’assimilazione  di  contenuti  e  procedure.         11  salvo   rare   concessioni,   legate  alla   formulazione  dei   concetti   che   lo   studente  vuole   trasmettere  al   compagno,  durante   l’interazione  (humphris,  1993a).     12  humphris   (1991b)   spiega:   “bisogna   abbandonare   la   prassi   in   cui   l’insegnante   fa   precedere   l’ascolto   da   qualche   informazione  sul  “contesto”.  lasciamo  agli  studenti  il  piacere  di  scoprire  loro  il  contesto.  ed  è  inutile  rispondere  che  nella   «realtà»  lo  studente  saprebbe  benissimo  dove  si  trova  ecc.,  quindi  bisogna  riprodurre  le  stesse  condizioni  nella  lezione  di   ascolto.  non  gli  stiamo  dando  un’esperienza  reale;  gli  stiamo,  invece,  dando  un’esperienza  unica  che  la  “realtà”  non  gli  può   mai  dare:  e  cioè  la  possibilità  di  riascoltare,  e  riascoltare,  la  stessa  vicenda  comunicativa.  ed  è  un  modo  di  far  aumentare  la   comprensione  auditiva  molto  più  rapidamente  di  qualsiasi  esperienza  “reale”.  nella  nostra  situazione  ciò  che  conta  [...]  è   l’energia.  ebbene,  lo  studente  che  non  riceve  dall’insegnante  nessuna  informazione  su  nessun  aspetto  del  significato  trova   più  energia  di  chi  ne  riceve”.     13  il  macrocostrutto  del   filtro  affettivo   (o  dei   “filtri  affettivi”),   inteso  come   fonte  di   inibizione  dello  studio  di  una   lingua,   viene   enunciato   da   dulay   &   burt,   1977,   ampiamente   divulgato   poi   attraverso   i   testi   di   krashen.   nella   ricostruzione   presente  in  krashen,  1982  (pp.  30–32),  il  filtro  affettivo  correla  positivamente  con  l’ansia  e  negativamente  con  l’autostima   (e  quindi   con   l’autoefficacia)   e   con   la  motivazione   (la  quale   a   sua  volta   è   sensibile   al   livello  di   autostima  e   agli   stati  di   ansia).  balboni  (2005)  ne  dichiara  i  correlati  neurofisiologici:  “il  filtro  affettivo  corrisponde  a  stimoli  chimici  ben  precisi:   in   stato   di   serenità   l’adrenalina   si   trasforma   in   noradrenalina,   un   neurotrasmettitore   che   facilita   la   memorizzazione,   mentre   in  stati  di  paura  e  stress  si  produce  uno  steroide  che  blocca   la  noradrenalina  e   fa  andare   in  conflitto   l’amigdala   (ghiandola   «emotiva»   che   vuole  difendere   la  mente  da   eventi   spiacevoli)   e   l’ippocampo,   la   ghiandola   che   invece  ha  un   ruolo  attivo  nell’attivare  i  lobi  frontali  e  iniziare  la  memorizzazione”  (p.  9).     torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  76   tpr,  ripetiamo),  è  povero,  poiché  sottostima  le  capacità  euristiche  di  chi  apprende.14  humphris  è  dell’avviso,   cioè,  che  lo  studente  lavori  alacremente  sul  testo  (ovvero  lo  comprenda,  ritornandovi  più  volte)  solo  a  patto   che   lo  stesso  rappresenti  una  sfida,  e  quindi  sia  relativamente  complesso.  al  contrario,  qualsiasi   facilitazione   escogitata   dal   docente   (tra   cui   includiamo   appunto   la   scelta   di   testi   calibrati   o   addirittura   sottocalibrati)   rischia   di   depotenziare   la   libera   ricerca   dell’allievo,   inibendo   il   personale   approccio   al   testo   da   parte   del   lettore/ascoltatore.15  il   sovradimensionamento,   in   altre   parole,   è   funzionale   –   nell’ottica   di   humphris   –   a   un’esplorazione   approfondita,   in   opposizione   a   ricognizioni   rapide   e   superficiali.   a   definire   il   sovradimensionamento   (e   cioè   a   definire   quanto   dev’essere   complesso   il   testo   rispetto   al   livello   di   competenza  dello  studente)  è   l’entità  della  stessa  ripetizione,   che  a  detta  di  humphris  non  dovrebbe  essere   inferiore  alle  6-­‐7  volte.  in  altre  parole,   l’insegnante  è  tenuto  a  scegliere  un  brano  di  una  complessità  tale  da   indurre  l’allievo  ad  ascoltarlo  o  a  leggerlo  per  almeno  sei  o  sette  volte.     l’ascolto  autentico,  o  più  precisamente  l’ascolto  sovradimensionato  e  ripetuto  (asr,  d’ora  in  poi),  di   cui  parla  humphris,  presenta,  infine,  una  terza  caratteristica:  la  socializzazione.  le  ipotesi  sul  testo,  a  partire   dal   secondo   ascolto,   vengono   condivise   con   un   compagno   (oppure   con   l’insegnante,   nel   contesto   di   una   lezione   individuale)16.   lo   scambio   è   prezioso   perché   consente   all’ascoltatore   (o   al   lettore,   nel   caso   di   una   lettura   sovradimensionata   e   ripetuta)   di   mettere   alla   prova   la   propria   macrorappresentazione.   humphris   scrive  (comunicazione  personale  via  posta  elettronica,  3.11.2011;  il  corsivo  è  nell’originale):   la   funzione  principale   dello   scambio   con   il   compagno   .   .   .   [è]   .   .   .   permettere   a   chi   parla   di   chiarire  a  se  stesso  le  proprie   idee.  questa  attività   la   facciamo  anche  con  lezioni   individuali   (in  questo  caso  l’interlocutore  è  l’insegnante,  il  quale  si  limita  a  cercare  di  capire  lo  studente:   non  esprime  nessun  parere  personale  sul  contenuto  del  brano  ascoltato)     la   tecnica   dell’asr   si   regge,   quindi,   su   un   circolo   che   prevede   un   reciproco   rinforzo   tra   (i)   comprensione  (ii)  rielaborazione  e  (iii)  confronto:     i. si  decodifica  il  testo  e  si  abbozza  una  prima  ipotesi  sui  contenuti   ii. si  esprime  la  propria  rappresentazione  al  compagno   iii. si   confronta   la   propria   e   l’altrui   rappresentazione   con   i   significati   che   emergono   da   una   nuova   esposizione  al  testo       a   nostro   modo   di   vedere,   il   terzo   elemento,   il   confronto,   colloca   l’attività   in   una   prospettiva   socioculturale,   per   la   quale   il   dialogo   è   l’elemento   determinante   dell’evolversi   della   competenza   (lantolf,   2000;   vygotskij,   1980).   in   altre   parole,   possiamo   riconoscere   negli   scambi   ripetuti   una   equalizzazione   dei   livelli  di  sviluppo  potenziale  (cfr.  figueredo,  2019,  p.  43):   lo  studente  meno  abile  fa  proprie  le  ipotesi  del  più                                                                                                                             14  di  per  sé,  l’input  di  krashen  è  una  formula  opaca,  non  operazionalizzata.  molte  critiche  mosse  da  più  parti  allo  studioso   californiano  hanno  di  mira  questa  generalizzazione  (per  un  approfondimento,  cfr.  santoro,  2011).     15  a  una  esposizione  ripetuta  è  plausibile  corrisponda  una  rappresentazione  più  complessa  e  precisa  della  lingua,  vale  a   dire  una  complessificazione  dell’interlingua  (sistema  provvisorio  di  regole  che  lo  studente  inconsciamente  produce,  e  che   si  pone  a  metà  strada  tra  la  l1  e  la  lingua  target,  cfr.  corder,  1981;  selinker,  1972).  in  tal  senso,  siamo  persuasi  che  l’idea   di   humphris   evochi   gli   studi   relativi   all’opposizione   codice   esteso   vs   codice   ristretto,   sviluppati   nell’ambito   dell’acquisizione  della   lingua  materna   (bernstein,  1971).   secondo  bernstein,   bambini   che  vengono  esposti   a  modelli   di   lingua  complessi  tendono  a  esprimersi  in  modo  più  ricco  rispetto  ai  coetanei  esposti  a  modelli  di  lingua  poveri  (la  tesi,  in   ogni  caso,  ha  sollevato  un  ampio  dibattito;  cfr.  bolander  &  watts,  2008;  wardhaugh,  1986).   16  va   rilevato,   ad  ogni  modo,   che   la   sollecitazione  delle   ipotesi   riguardo  al   testo  non  deve  avvenire  mediante   consegne   centrate  sul  testo.  istruzioni  del  tipo  “scambiatevi  pareri  su  quello  che  avete  capito”  rischiano  di  essere  controproducenti,   poiché   alludono   a   una   mèta   da   raggiungere,   quantitativamente   definita   (la   comprensione   totale).   scrive   humphris   (1991a;   il  corsivo  è  dell’autore):  “bisogna  riconoscere  (ed  accettare!)  che  mentre   lo  studente  ascolta  si  sta  creando  una   rappresentazione  del   testo  che  ha  come  centro  non  il  testo  ma  lo  studente  stesso”.  pertanto,  a  dire  dello  studioso,  quanto   meno  le  istruzioni  evocano  il  concetto  di  comprensione,  meglio  è  (“confrontatevi”  oppure  “parlate  tra  voi”  è  da  preferirsi,   perciò,   a   “cosa   avete   capito?”   oppure   a   “qual   è   il   senso   generale?”).   le   parole   di   carlo   guastalla   ci   vengono   in   aiuto   (comunicazione  personale  tramite  posta  elettronica,  15  novembre  2019):  “basta  pochissimo  perché  un  insegnante  chieda   agli  studenti  «raccontatevi  quello  che  avete  capito»,  ed  è  questo  che  succede  nella  stragrande  maggioranza  dei  casi.  ma   non  è  ciò  che  chiedeva  christopher.  io,  da  suo  studente  (e  collega),  l’ho  sentito  dare  la  consegna  in  diversi  modi:  «parlate   di   quello   che   avete   sentito»,   «scambiatevi   le   vostre   impressioni»   e   addirittura   un   «parlate   di   quello   che   volete»   [...].   preferiva  questo  piuttosto  che  chiedere  «cosa  avete  capito?»,  perché  quest’ultima  domanda  aveva  risvolti  quantitativi.  lo   studente  poteva  tranquillamente  dire  «niente»;  lo  metteva  in  un  confronto  quantitativo  col  compagno”.     indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   77   competente,  e  ciò  lo  spinge  ad  ascoltare  di  nuovo,  con  maggiore  fiducia.  in  effetti,  anche  qualora  la  classe  non   presenti  differenze  di   competenza  significative,   alcuni  ascoltatori  possono  cogliere  parole,  passaggi,  nuance   prosodiche  che  ad  altri  sfuggono;  pertanto,  consentire  di  scambiare  le  informazioni  con  il  compagno  significa   permettere   che   si   crei   un   patrimonio   comune,   uno   scaffolding   condiviso   (cfr.  wood   et   al.,   1976,   p.   91).   le   conseguenze   sono  molteplici:   grazie   al   sostegno  degli   altri,   ognuno   compone  al  meglio   il   proprio  puzzle;   lo   stress  si  riduce  e  cresce  la  voglia  di  ascoltare  (humphris,  1991;  micarelli,  1988).   l’elemento  della  sovracalibrazione  si  collega  fisiologicamente,  nell’ottica  di  humphris,  alla  ripetizione   estesa   e   alla   socializzazione.  un  brano   sovracalibrato   corrisponde  alla  percezione   imperfetta  di  una   foto;   la   nitidezza   della   visione   viene   raggiunta   mediante   un’osservazione   ripetuta   e   condivisa.   in   particolare,   il   confronto  con  il  compagno  (anche  per  via  delle  divergenze  che  possono  emergere)  sostiene  la  motivazione  ad   ascoltare  di  nuovo.  l’asr  è,  dunque,  un’attività  integrata;  vincola  l’ascolto  con  l’interazione  orale.     abbiamo  definito  la  prospettiva  di  humphris  emergentista;  abbiamo  aggiunto  socioculturale;  ci  viene   da  completare   con   l’aggettivo  relativista.  allo   studioso   inglese   l’idea  della   comprensione  come  risultato  non   interessa;  egli,  anzi,  nutre  dei  dubbi  che  persino  un  lettore/ascoltatore  esperto  possa  mai  crearsi  una  mappa   fedele   del   testo,   una   sorta   di   fotocopia   mentale   (humphris,   1991b).   allenare   all’asr   ha   lo   scopo   di   far   tollerare   all’apprendente   gli   inevitabili   margini   di   approssimazione   che   la   comprensione   comporta   (humphris,  1993a):   una   alimentazione   a   base   di   frequentissimi   ascolti   autentici   sviluppa   nello   studente   una   sempre   maggiore   serenità   davanti   all’ignoto,   al   non-­‐classificabile,   una   sempre   maggiore   capacità  di  contemplare  più  ipotesi  simultaneamente,  una  sempre  maggiore  capacità  di  non   ricorrere   a   tutti   i   costi   ad   una   qualche   soluzione   semplicistica.   insomma,   un   progetto   didattico   che   forma   la   persona   a   vivere   bene   con   il   disordine   del   sapere,   con   la   sua   provvisorietà  e  la  sua  permeabilità;  una  persona  più  disposta  ad  incuriosirsi  con  entusiasmo   ogni   qualvolta   sopraggiungono   dati   che   complicano   il   campo   di   ricerca;   una   persona,   in   definitiva,  che  acquista  la  mentalità  del  migliore  ricercatore.     benché  sia  difficile  definire  una  versione  standard  della  tecnica,  condividiamo  con  il  lettore  la  seguente   scansione,   frutto   di   una   sintesi   operata   a   partire   da   humphris   (1993a). 17  per   ragioni   di   chiarezza,   evidenziamo  le  singole  audizioni  in  neretto.       -­‐ l’insegnante  fa  sedere  i  corsisti  in  cerchio.  li  invita  a  mettere  da  parte  carta  e  penna.  unico   compito:  ascoltare   -­‐ primo  ascolto   -­‐ secondo  ascolto   -­‐ primo  confronto  a  coppie.  l’insegnante  fa  alzare  gli  studenti  e  fa  sistemare  le  sedie  in  modo   che  ciascuno  si  sieda  faccia  a  faccia  con  il  compagno  (coppia  a).  la  consegna  è:  “scambiatevi   informazioni  su  ciò  che  avete  sentito”.  li  interrompe  quando  si  accorge  che  in  una  coppia  lo   scambio  è  esaurito,  e  procede  con  la  fase  successiva   -­‐ terzo  ascolto   -­‐ confronto  a  coppie  (coppia  a,  stessa  di  prima)   -­‐ quarto  ascolto   -­‐ confronto  a  coppie  (coppia  a)   -­‐ scambio  di  compagno  e  formazione  di  nuove  coppie  (coppia  b)   -­‐ quinto  ascolto   -­‐ confronto  a  coppie  (coppia  b)   -­‐ sesto  ascolto   -­‐ confronto  a  coppie  (coppia  b)     durante   i   sei   ascolti   (eventualmente   sette)   ciascuno   ha   modo   di   confrontarsi   con   due   compagni   diversi18.  la  tecnica  presenta  perciò  una  socializzazione  a  variabilità  limitata  o  ristretta  (o  più  semplicemente,                                                                                                                             17  l’asr   è   una   pratica   (comunicazione   personale   di   luigi   micarelli,   3   novembre   2019,   via   posta   elettronica)   “sperimentata,   modificata,   rielaborata   e   migliorata   all’interno   del   corpo   docente   della   dilit   i.h.   scuola   di   lingue   di   roma”.  della  stessa  dilit  i.h.  humphris  ha  presieduto  a  lungo  il  dipartimento  di  formazione.     torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  78   socializzazione  limitata  o  ristretta),  posto  che  per   i  primi  quattro  ascolti   ciascuno  si   confronta  con   lo  stesso   compagno  (humphris,  1993a).   come   il   lettore   avrà   avuto   modo   di   apprezzare,   l’asr   costituisce   una   proposta   lontana   dal   modo   tradizionale  di  esercitare   l’abilità  di  comprensione  orale  nella  classe  di   lingua.   in  genere,  anche  nella  classe   che   si   definisce   “comunicativa”,   l’allievo   viene   sottoposto   a   brani   calibrati,   preceduti   da   parentesi   di   precomprensione   (a   carattere   tematico-­‐lessicale),   che   valgono   a   orientare   (e   quindi   a   facilitare)   la   comprensione.   nella  maggior   parte   dei   casi,   i   brani   sono   corredati   di   esercizi   chiusi   (vero/falso,   quesiti   a   scelta  multipla,  abbinamenti,  griglie),  e  l’allievo  può  contare  su  una  o  due  audizioni  al  massimo.19  la  verifica  è   spesso   eseguita   in   plenum,   secondo   un   pattern   interazionale   consolidato   (sinclair   &   brazil,   1982):   l’insegnante   rivolge   una   domanda   a   uno   studente   →   lo   studente   risponde   →   l’insegnante   commenta   la   correttezza  o  meno  della  risposta.     nello  schema  a  seguire  mettiamo  a  confronto   l’assetto  strategico   (ovvero   le  caratteristiche  salienti)   dell’ascolto   a   restrizione   tematica,   escogitato   da   krashen   (art),   con   quello   dell’ascolto   sovracalibrato   e   ripetuto,   codificato   da   humphris   (asr),   e   infine   con   quello   delle   pratiche   più   diffuse   (per   quanto   ci   sia   concesso  generalizzare)  in  merito  all’esercizio  dell’abilità  di  comprensione  orale.       tabella 2 assetto strategico di art, asr e attività tradizionali au d rt ad pc re ap s i v art x x x x x x x asr x x x x x attività tradizionali (x) x x (x) x nota:  legenda  au:  autenticità  dei  testi  o  semi-­‐autenticità.  d:  dimensionamento.  rt:   restrizione  tematica.  ad:  autodeterminazione.  pc:  precomprensione.  re:  ripetizione   estesa.  ap:  apertura  (libertà  concessa  nello  svolgere  il  compito).  s:  socializzazione.  i:   integrazione.  v:  verifica.     in  sintesi,  la  tecnica  dell’art  di  krashen  (1996)     -­‐ è  basata  su  testi  autentici  o  semi-­‐autentici   -­‐ prevede  l’adozione  di  testi  calibrati     -­‐ è  tematicamente  ristretta  (i  brani  fanno  capo  a  uno  stesso  tema  o  vertono  su  una  medesima   situazione)   -­‐ è  autodeterminata;  la  scelta  dei  temi  su  cui  vertono  i  testi  è  affidata  agli  allievi,  così  come  è  a  loro   demandata  la  decisione  di  quante  volte  ascoltare   -­‐ nel  caso  lo  studente  non  disponga  delle  preconoscenze  necessarie  per  affrontare  il  tema,  il  contenuto   viene  anticipato  (eventualmente  in  l1)  dall’insegnante   -­‐ prevede  una  ripetizione  estesa  (in  media  la  scelta  degli  studenti  verte  sui  4  ascolti;  cfr.  rodrigo  &   krashen,  1996)   -­‐ è  aperta;  gli  studenti  hanno  libertà  nello  svolgere  il  compito  assegnato  (non  consta  di  esercizi  chiusi)   -­‐ non  prevede  una  verifica  finale     la  tecnica  dell’asr  di  humphris  (1993a),  in  alternativa,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               18  o  al   limite   tre  compagni,  nel  caso   in  cui  dopo   il  quinto  ascolto  si  decida  di   formare  nuove  coppie,  secondo  un’ipotesi   suggerita  dallo  stesso  humphris  (comunicazione  personale,  via  posta  elettronica,  del  3.11.2011).     19  la  ripetizione  limitata  dell’audio  può  essere  dovuta  a  vari  motivi.  tra  essi,  taluni  sottolineano  un  pregiudizio  diffuso  tra   i  docenti  (scrivener,  2012):  “the  teacher  hears  and  understands  the  whole  recording  in  full  the  first  time  he  or  she  plays   it.  by  the  time  the  teacher  replays  it  a  second  time,  it  already  starts  to  feel  dull  for  him  or  her,  and  the  teacher  finds  it  hard   to  believe  that  it  would  be  interesting  or  useful  for  it  to  be  played  a  third  time;  to  the  teacher,  that  would  seem  to  reduce   the  lesson’s  pace  to  a  crawl.  but  for  many  of  his  or  her  students,  the  content  of  the  recording  may  be  a  total  fog  for  the  first   or   second   time   of   listening,   and   only   as   they   start   to   work   on   it   does   it   clear   a   little.   for   them,   engagement  may   be   increasing  as  they  start  to  get  an  understanding  of  the  contents  and  wish  to  learn  more;  repeated  plays  may  cause  them  to   get  more  involved”  (p.  264).     indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   79   -­‐ è  basata  su  testi  autentici  o  semi-­‐autentici   -­‐ prevede  l’adozione  di  testi  sovracalibrati   -­‐ non  contempla  una  restrizione  tematica   -­‐ è  strutturata:  il  docente  segue  un  protocollo  preciso   -­‐ esclude  ogni  attività  di  precomprensione   -­‐ si  basa  su  una  ripetizione  estesa  (6-­‐7  volte)   -­‐ è  aperta  (gli  studenti  non  svolgono  esercizi  chiusi)   -­‐ è  socializzata;  l’ascoltatore  si  confronta  con  due  (o  al  massimo  tre)  compagni  (è  quindi  integrata)   -­‐ non  prevede  una  verifica  finale     le  attività  di  ascolto  generalmente  praticate  in  classe,  infine,     -­‐ sono  basate  su  testi  autentici,  semi-­‐autentici  o  non  autentici     -­‐ si  basano  su  brani  calibrati   -­‐ non  hanno  una  restrizione  tematica   -­‐ escludono  forme  di  autodeterminazione   -­‐ prevedono  una  ripetizione  limitata  (1  o  2  ascolti)   -­‐ sono  precedute  da  attività  di  precomprensione     -­‐ sono  corredate  di  esercizi  prevalentemente  chiusi   -­‐ possono  prevedere  una  socializzazione,  nella  forma  della  verifica  in  plenum  eterodiretta   -­‐ prevedono  una  verifica  finale     una   riflessione,   infine,   va   dedicata   alle   direttrici   motivazionali   su   cui   i   tre   generi   di   tecniche   si   reggono.   altrove   abbiamo   analizzato   diverse   proposte   glottodidattiche   alla   luce   dei   bisogni   psicologici   fondamentali,  come  espressi  da  berne  (1961),  in  particolare  sicurezza  e  stimolazione  (torresan,  2014).     se  disponiamo   le   tre   tipologie  di  attività  sopra  descritte   (art,  asr  e  attività   tradizionali)   lungo  un   continuum   ai   cui   estremi   immaginiamo   il   massimo   di   sicurezza,   da   un   lato,   e   il   massimo   di   stimolazione   dall’altro,   constateremo   come   le   attività   tradizionali   privilegino   un   bisogno   di   sicurezza,   mentre   quella   di   krashen,   e   in  misura  maggiore   quella   di   humphris,   possono   dirsi  maggiormente   sensibili   al   bisogno   della   stimolazione,  nella  forma  dell’esplorazione  autonoma  dell’input  da  parte  dall’apprendente,  la  quale  comporta,   a  sua  volta,  una  revisione  continua  delle  ipotesi  addotte  (figura  1).             pratiche tradizionali art asr figura 1. pratiche tradizionali, asr e art all’interno dell’opposizione sicurezza-stimolazione sulla  base  della  nostra  esperienza,  e  quindi  nei  termini  di  un’ipotesi  del  tutto  soggettiva,  le  pratiche   tradizionali  possono  essere  maggiormente  apprezzate  da  studenti  che  preferiscono  percorsi  più  strutturati,   che   poco   tollerino   l’ambiguità   e   che   intendano   esercitare   un   notevole   controllo   sul   materiale   di   studio.   diversamente,  l’art  e  l’asr  vengono  incontro  ai  bisogni  degli  studenti  più  autonomi  e  meno  dipendenti  dal   campo  (ovvero,  che  possono  prescindere  dall’esigenza  di  un  contesto).     siamo   convinti,   ad  ogni  modo,   che   le   tre  pratiche   si   possano   integrare   in  un   curricolo,   in  un’ottica   sensibile  al  profilo  e  alle  esigenze  di  ciascun  allievo.  ciò  significa  che,  sulla  base  della  classe  che  l’insegnante   ha   di   fronte   (considerando   quindi   il   background   linguistico   generale,   la   familiarità   con   altre   lingue,   l’esposizione  a  metodologie  comunicative,  la  predisposizione  alla  ricerca,  la  capacità  di  tollerare  l’ambiguità,   ecc.),   l’insegnante   può   avvalersi   delle   pratiche   maggiormente   stimolanti   (art   e   asr),   senza   per   questo   escludere   l’adozione   di   pratiche   tradizionali.   gli   sarà   prezioso   sintonizzarsi   –   ripetiamo   –   con   i   bisogni,   le   abitudini  e  le  retroalimentazioni  che  provengono  dalla  classe.20                                                                                                                             20  riguardo   a   questa   nostra   concezione   luigi  micarelli   precisa   (comunicazione   personale   tramite   posta   elettronica,   11   novembre   2019):   “la   convinzione   della   bontà   dell’asr   rischia   di   spazzare   via   altre   modalità.   se   l’insegnante   non   è   intimamente  convinto  della  bontà  dell’asr  rischia  rimostranze  da  parte  degli  studenti.  ci  vuole  molta  convinzione.  solo   sicurezza stimolazione torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  80   3.  l’indagine     la   nostra   indagine   ha   per   oggetto   attività   di   ascolto   ripetuto   somministrate   in   classi   di   studenti   universitari,   lusofoni,   iscritti   al   corso   di   lingua   e   letteratura   italiana   dell’università   federale   fluminense   (niterói,  brasile).  in  una  prima  classe,  di  livello  orientativamente  b1,21  sono  state  effettuate  3  sperimentazioni   nel   corso  dell’a.a.   2017   (ricerca   i);  nella   seconda,  di  pari   livello,  ma   con  un  profilo  più  omogeneo,  ne   sono   state   effettuate   due,   nell’a.a.   2019   (ricerca   ii).   le   sperimentazioni   differiscono   le   une   dalle   altre   per   la   difficoltà  del  brano  di  comprensione  in  rapporto  alla  competenza  media  della  classe  nell’ascolto,  il  numero  di   ripetizioni,   il   format   di   socializzazione.   per   quanto   concerne   il   grado   di   difficoltà   si   sono   analizzate   tre   situazioni:       -­‐ calibrazione   del   brano   in   accordo   al   grado   di   competenza   nell’ascolto   (somministrazione   1   e   somministrazione  2)   -­‐ sovracalibrazione  moderata   (il   testo   è   a   un   livello   di   difficoltà   superiore   rispetto   alla   competenza   media  della  classe  nell’ascolto;  somministrazione  4  e  somministrazione  5)   -­‐ sovracalibrazione  marcata  (il   livello  di  difficoltà  del   testo  è  di  due  volte   superiore  alla   competenza   media  della  classe  nell’ascolto;  somministrazione  3)     il  numero  di  volte  in  cui  il  brano  è  stato  fatto  ascoltare  è  stato:       -­‐ 4  nella  somministrazione  1  e  nella  somministrazione  2   -­‐ 5  nella  somministrazione  4  e  nella  somministrazione  5   -­‐ 6  nella  somministrazione  3     per  quanto  concerne  il  format  di  socializzazione  (ovvero  il  pattern  di  interazione  in  coppia  che  segue   una  singola  audizione)  abbiamo  tre  possibilità:     -­‐ format  nullo:  assenza  di  socializzazione  (in  aderenza  all’art);  così  avviene  nella  somministrazione  1;   -­‐ format  a:  il  partner  a  cui  riferire  le  proprie  ipotesi  è  lo  stesso  fino  al  quarto  ascolto  (in  aderenza  alla   versione  standard  dell’asr);  così  avviene  nella  somministrazione  4;   -­‐ format  b:   si   cambia  di  partner   ogni  due  ascolti,   secondo  una  nostra  variante  dell’asr,   finalizzata   a   una  ampia  circolazione  delle  ipotesi;  così  avviene  nelle  somministrazioni  2,  4  e  5.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 l’insegnante  fermamente  convinto  dell’asr  può  passare  in  modo  elastico  anche  ad  una  pratica  tradizionale  (nei  corsi  di   preparazione  alle  certificazioni  lo  facciamo)”.  la  posizione  di  guastalla  è  così  espressa  (comunicazione  personale  tramite   posta  elettronica,  15  novembre  2019):  “non  sono  d’accordo.  proprio  se  consideriamo  lo  schema  della  figura  1,  un’attività   è  più  stimolante,  una  più  rassicurante.  seppure  non  ci  interessasse  verificare  quale  strategia  provochi  un  aumento  della   competenza  di  ascolto,  già  questo  dovrebbe  dirci  che  bisogna  scegliere  in  base  allo  studente  che  abbiamo  davanti  in  quel   momento  se  proporre  un’attività  stimolante  (che  potrebbe  risultare   frustrante  –  soprattutto  se   la  proponi  male!)  o  una   tradizionale  [...]  ma  molto  tranquillizzante  che  fa  sentire  il  nostro  studente  a  suo  agio  e  “bravo”.  saltare  dall’una  all’altra   secondo  me  non  funziona  proprio.  voler  mettere  in  un  curricolo  modalità  così  diverse  per  non  far  torto  a  nessuno  a  mio   giudizio  non  funziona,  ma  è  una  constatazione  personale”.   21  la   competenza   nell’ascolto   da   parte   dei   partecipanti   è   stata   definita  mediante   cinque   test   di   comprensione   orale   di   livello   b1   in   lingua   italiana   realizzati   dal   bifie,   ente   ministeriale   austriaco   (bundesinstitut   für   bildungsforschung,   innovation   &   entwicklung   des   österreichischen   schulwesens).   si   tratta   di   prove   soggette   a   un’attenta   validazione   (freuenberg   et   al.,   2014).   i   file   non   sono   di   libero   accesso;   il   lettore   che   li   voglia   ascoltare   deve   rivolgersi   all’ente   (<www.bifie.at>).   indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   81   tabella 3 format di socializzazione versione standard asr somministrazioni 1 2 3 4 5 format a format nullo format b format b format a format b a1 (contestuale) a1 c1 (a) a1 c1 (a) a1 c1 (a) a1 c1 (a) a2 c1 (a) a2 c2 (a) a2 c2 (a) a2 c2 (a) a2 c2 (a) a3 c2 (a) a3 c3 (b) a3 c3 (b) a3 c3 (a) a3 c3 (b) a4 c3 (a) a4 c4 (b) a4 c4 (b) a4 c4 (a) a4 c4 (b) a5 c4 (b) a5 a5 c5 (b) a5 c5 (c) a6 c5 (b) a6 nota. a = ascolto; c = confronto tra pari; (a), (b) e (c) = coppie diverse   entrando  nel  dettaglio  delle  ricerche,  la  ricerca  i,  condotta  nella  prima  classe,  consta  di  due  analisi:   analisi  a:  sono  stati  messi  a  confronto  gli  esiti  di  due  ascolti  ripetuti  per  quattro  volte  di  brani  calibrati,  l’uno   privo   di   socializzazione   (somministrazione   1),   l’altro   invece   socializzato   (format   b;   somministrazione   2);   analisi   b:   sono   stati   messi   a   confronto   gli   esiti   di   un   ascolto   ripetuto   a   sovracalibrazione   marcata   (somministrazione  3)  con  quelli  di  un  ascolto  ripetuto  di  un  brano  calibrato  (somministrazione  2),  a  parità  di   format  di  socializzazione  (format  b).   le  domande  che  ci  siamo  posti  sono  state  le  seguenti:       1) nell’ascolto  ripetuto  di  un  brano  calibrato,  la  comprensione  aumenta  per  effetto  della  socializzazione   delle  ipotesi?     2) a   parità   di   format   di   socializzazione   (format   b),   quali   differenze   si   possono   notare   tra   l’ascolto   ripetuto  di  un  brano  calibrato  e  l’ascolto  ripetuto  di  un  brano  a  sovracalibrazione  marcata?       alla  domanda  n.  1  è  stata  data  risposta  mediante  l’analisi  a  (§3.1.5.1.);  alla  domanda  n.  2  è  stata  data   risposta  attraverso  l’analisi  b  (§3.1.5.2.).   la  ricerca   ii,   condotta   nella   seconda   classe,   consta   di   una   sola   analisi   (c),  mediante   la   quale   sono   stati  messi  a  confronto  gli  esiti  di  due  ascolti  ripetuti,  per  cinque  volte,  di  brani  moderatamente  sovracalibrati,   con  una  differenza  in  termini  di  format  di  socializzazione  (format  a  nella  somministrazione  4;  format  b  nella   somministrazione  5).  la  ricerca  ii  ha  inteso  rispondere  ai  seguenti  quesiti:         1) si  notano  differenze,  in  merito  alle  percentuali  di  nuclei  assimilati  di  un  brano  audio  moderatamente   sovracalibrato,  tra  il  format  di  socializzazione  b  (somministrazione  5)  e  il  format  di  socializzazione  a   (somministrazione  4)?       2) le  somministrazioni  4  e  5,  contraddistinte  da  una  sovracalibrazione  moderata,  presentano  differenze   significative  rispetto  alla  somministrazione  3,  contrassegnata  da  una  sovracalibrazione  marcata  (nei   limiti,   pur   sempre,   che   questa   comparazione   comporta,   posta   l’eterogeneità   del   campione   di   riferimento)?     nella  tabella  4  il  lettore  dispone  del  prospetto  riassuntivo  dell’intera  indagine.  la  competenza  media   d’ascolto  è  b1  per  tutti  i  gruppi.             torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  82   tabella 4 prospetto dell’indagine ricerca analisi somministrazione periodo classe n. studenti livello del testo scarto testo/ competenza n. ascolti grado di socializzazione* n. interazioni format** i a 1 05/2017 1 9 b1 4 0 0 nullo i a 2 05/2017 1 9 b1 4 2 4 b i b 3 12/2017 1 7 c1 +2 6 2 4 b ii c 4 05/2019 2 6 b2+ +1 5 2 5 a ii c 5 05/2019 2 6 b2 +1 5 3 5 b nota. *grado di socializzazione = n. di compagni con cui ci si confronta in totale; **format nullo: assenza di socializzazione; format a: il partner a cui riferire le proprie ipotesi è lo stesso fino al quarto ascolto; format b: si cambia partner ogni due ascolti. a  seguire,   illustriamo   in  dettaglio   la  ricerca   i,   svolta  nella  prima  classe  (§3.1.),  per  poi  passare  alla   ricerca  ii,  svolta  nella  seconda  classe  (§3.2.).     3.1.  ricerca  i  (analisi  a  e  b)   di  seguito  illustriamo  le  caratteristiche  degli  ascolti  ripetuti  eseguiti  nella  prima  classe  e  il  metodo  di   indagine  (§§3.1.1.-­‐3.1.4.),  presentiamo  i  dati  raccolti  (§3.1.5.)  e  traiamo  una  sintesi  (§3.1.6.).     3.1.1.  ricerca  i.  caratteristiche  delle  somministrazioni     le  caratteristiche  delle  somministrazioni  realizzate  nella  prima  classe  sono  riassunte  nella  tabella  5.       tabella 5 caratteristiche generali delle somministrazioni nella prima classe somministrazione periodo testo n. ascolti grado di socializzazione n. interazioni format* 1 05/2017 calibrato 4 0 0 nullo 2 05/2017 calibrato 4 2 4 b 3 12/2017 marcatamente sovracalibrato 6 2 4 b nota.*format nullo: assenza di socializzazione; format b: si cambia partner ogni due ascolti.     le   prime   due   somministrazioni   sono   avvenute   a   poca   distanza   l’una   dall’altra;   la   terza   è   stata   eseguita  nel   semestre   successivo,   a   sei  mesi   di   distanza  dalle  prime  due.   i   brani   impiegati   nelle  prime  due   somministrazioni   sono   calibrati   rispetto   al   livello   medio   della   classe   (in   sintonia   con   la   prassi   dell’art),   mentre  il  terzo  è  marcatamente  sovracalibrato  (con  maggiore  aderenza  a  quanto  indicato  da  humphris).  nelle   prime  due  somministrazioni  non  si  è  proceduti  oltre  al  quarto  ascolto  (in  accordo  con  la  media  degli  ascolti   spontanei  dell’art);  nella  terza,  invece,  ci  si  è  spinti  fino  al  sesto  ascolto  (come  previsto  nell’asr).       3.1.2.  ricerca  i.  la  classe  e  i  testi   la  composizione  della  classe  si  è  mantenuta  inalterata  nelle  prime  due  somministrazioni,  mentre  ha   subito  delle  variazioni   (a  causa  di  assenze,   ingressi  e  uscite  dal  gruppo)  nella   terza,   come  evidenziato  nella   tabella  seguente.  il  profilo  della  classe  (tracciato  a  partire  dai  risultati  emersi  dalle  prove  elaborate  dal  bifie)   è   eterogeneo;   la   competenza  media   nell’ascolto   è   di   livello   b1;   sono   apprezzabili   leggeri   incrementi   tra   le   prime   due   somministrazioni   e   la   terza   (tabella   6).   gli   studenti   che,   sulla   base   dei   dati   emersi   dalle   prove   bifie,   si   distaccano   per   un   certo   disallineamento   rispetto   alla   competenza   media   della   classe   sono   evidenziati  con  uno  sfondo  grigio.             indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   83   tabella 6 composizioni della prima classe durante le tre somministrazioni e competenza nell’ascolto somministrazioni 1 e 2 3 studenti competenza nell’ascolto studenti competenza nell’ascolto a b1 b b1 b b1+ br b1 c b1/b2 cp b1 cp b1+ cr a2 cr a2/b1 j b1 j b1 m a1 r b1 r b1 l l a2 t t b2   nelle   prime  due   sommistrazioni   abbiamo  optato   per   brani   calibrati,   dicevamo,   in   linea   cioè   con   la   competenza  media  della  classe  (b1).  nella  terza  siamo  invece  ricorsi  a  un  brano  contraddistinto  da  marcata   sovracalibrazione,   cioè  di  due   livelli   superiore  a  quello  medio  della   classe   (c1).  ulteriori   caratteristiche  dei   testi  sono  riportate  alla  tabella  7.       tabella 7 caratteristiche dei testi somministrati nella prima classe somministrazione tema genere fonte durata livello 1 davide parla del suo sport preferito (il tennis) monologo repository dell’archivio del bifie <www.bifie.at> [accesso limitato] 3’09’’ b1 2 sara parla della sua esperienza a scuola monologo repository dell’archivio del bifie <www.bifie.at> [accesso limitato] 3’22’’ b1 3 uno studioso espone l’ipotesi secondo la quale ci sono riserve di acqua sui pianeti di europa e titano monologo youtube <www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_o9yswjnqq> 4’15’’ c1   i   primi   due   brani   provengono   dall’archivio   dell’ente   ministeriale   austriaco   bifie.   il   loro   livello   è   accertato  dall’ente  governativo  mediante  analisi  quali-­‐quantitative   (freuenberg  et  al.,  2014).  la  definizione   del  livello  del  terzo  audio  si  è  avvalsa  di  una  griglia  per  l’attribuzione  di  livello  di  testi  complessi  (torresan,   2020).     3.1.3.  ricerca  i.  il  numero  di  ascolti  e  la  socializzazione  delle  ipotesi   il  numero  di  ascolti  è  stato  negoziato  con  la  classe.  gli  allievi  sono  stati  interpellati  in  merito  al  livello   di  esposizione  massimo  oltre  il  quale  la  comprensione  non  avrebbe  registrato  un  incremento.  il  loro  giudizio   è  stato:       -­‐ 4  ascolti  nel  caso  del  brano  calibrato  (somministrazione  1  e  somministrazione  2)   -­‐ 6  ascolti  nel  caso  del  brano  caratterizzato  da  sovracalibrazione  marcata  (somministrazione  3)     la   prima   somministrazione   consta   di   un   ascolto   ripetuto   non   socializzato:   non   è   prevista   alcuna   interazione  ex-­‐post  tra  gli  allievi  (format  di  socializzazione  nullo).   torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  84   nelle   altre   due   si   è   optato,   invece,   come   già   detto,   per   un   format   di   socializzazione   alternativo   rispetto   a   quello   previsto   da   humphris.   mentre   nella   versione   canonica   dell’asr   la   prima   coppia   viene   mantenuta  a  lungo  (fino  al  quarto  ascolto;  format  a),  abbiamo  deciso  di  rinnovare  le  coppie  ogni  due  ascolti,   al  fine  di  permettere  una  maggiore  circolazione  delle  ipotesi  (format  b).     oltretutto,   a   differenza   dell’impostazione   desumibile   da   humphris   (1993a),   che   prevede   che   lo   scambio   avvenga   solo   a   partire   dal   secondo   ascolto,   abbiamo   deciso   che   l’interazione   avesse   luogo   già   a   partire   dal   primo   ascolto.   nella   somministrazione  3,   su   richiesta   della   classe,   non   è   stato   realizzato   alcun   confronto  a  seguito  del  quinto  ascolto  (e  così  neppure  dopo  il  sesto,  cfr.  tabella  4,  supra).   la   consegna   trasmessa   agli   studenti   è   stata   “scambiatevi   informazioni   con   il   compagno”.   è   stato   aggiunto  che  potevano  usare  l’italiano  o  la  loro  lingua  di  origine.22     3.1.4.  ricerca  i.  la  raccolta  dei  dati   gli  allievi  sono  stati   invitati  a  prendere  appunti,  ascolto  dopo  ascolto  (era  concessa   loro   la  scelta   in   merito  all’uso  del  codice:  italiano  e/o  portoghese);  solo  nella  terza  somministrazione,  vista  la  mole  di  dati  che   si  veniva  accumulando,  abbiamo  chiesto  loro  di  provvedere  a  una  sintesi  finale.  ascolto  dopo  ascolto,  è  stato   raccomandato   loro  di  non   trascrivere  parole   isolate,  ma  di   formare  frasi  di  senso  compiuto.  abbiamo   inteso   così  prevenire  una  presa  di  appunti  basata  sulla  decodificazione  di  vocaboli  isolati,  la  quale  non  restituisce  i   processi  interpretativi  che  stanno  alla  base  della  comprensione  (anderson,  1972).  non  è  stato  assegnato  un   limite   di   tempo:   l’attività   poteva   dirsi   terminata   quando   tutti   avevano   smesso   di   prendere   appunti.   la   consegna  è  stata  la  seguente:  “prendete  un  foglio.  mentre  ascoltate  prendete  appunti  in  riferimento  a  quello  che   ascoltate.   potete   usare   l’italiano   o,   se   preferite,   il   portoghese.   il   nostro   scopo   è   vedere   come   si   sviluppa   la   comprensione,  mano  a  mano  che  si  ascolta.  non  scrivete  parole  isolate  ma  frasi  di  senso  compiuto.  ad  ogni  nuovo   ascolto  userete  una  penna  di  diverso  colore,  che  vi  daremo  noi”.  abbiamo  ripetuto  la  consegna  in  portoghese  e   chiesto  se  ci  fossero  dubbi.  in  nessuna  occasione  ci  sono  state  domande  di  chiarimento.     vivian  fasura  ha  poi  operato   il  calcolo  dei  nuclei   informativi  riportati  dagli  studenti   in  ogni  singola   ricognizione,   comparandoli   con   i   nuclei   informativi   totali   veicolati   da   ciascun   brano   (cfr.   appendice).   la   procedura  ha  ricalcato  quella  adottata  da  rodrigo  (2017):     the  students  have  to  write  down  what  they  have  understood  after  the  first  listening,  then  to   write  the  new   information  understood  after  the  second  listening,  and  finally  add  what  they   had  understood  after  the  third  listening.  (p.  38;  il  corsivo  è  nell’originale)     la  stessa  rodrigo  (2017)  spiega,   for   the   purpose   of   this   experimental   study,   the   use   of   an   immediate   recall   protocol   was   needed   so   that   understanding   by   the   participants   could   be   quantified   systematically.   the   students’  written   recalls  were   collected   and   then   analysed   following   an   idea-­‐unit   analysis   […].  in  the  present  study,  a  semantic  idea-­‐unit  (or  i-­‐unit)  is  defined  as  a  piece  of  information   conveyed   by   a   speaker.   idea-­‐units   allowed   us   to   quantify   the   amount   of   new   information   understood  after  each   listening.  the  analysis   is  done  by   counting   the   idea-­‐units   in  written   recalls  recorded  automatically  after  each  listening.  each  sentence  was  analysed  to  determine   how  many  idea-­‐units  (eg.  piece  of  information)  it  contained.  (p.  39)     i  dati  sono  stati  poi  convertiti  in  percentuale.  siamo  consci  che  la  scelta  di  adottare  la  presa  di  appunti  quale   strumento  per  valutare  la  comprensione  orale  può  sollevare  obiezioni  di  tipo  metodologico  [(a),  (b)  e  (d)]  e   psicologico  (c):       a. c’è   il   rischio   di   un’invalidità   relativa   al   contenuto,   nella   misura   in   cui   si   valuta   un’abilità,   la   comprensione   orale,   facendo   leva   su   un’altra   abilità,   la   scrittura   (per   quanto,   più   precisamente,   si   tratti  di  una  trascrizione  parziale);   b. è  difficile  dire,  con  esattezza,  se  la  presa  di  appunti  ci  restituisca  quanto  compreso,  posto  che  essa  è   sensibile  a  una  selezione  personale  dei  significati  (devine  &  meagher,  1989);   c. a  dire  di  humphris,  chiedere  agli  studenti  di  prendere  appunti  durante  l’ascolto  rischia  di  “inquinare   l’indagine”  (comunicazione  personale,  via  posta  elettronica,  3.11.2011):                                                                                                                               22  a   una   impressione   esterna   ci   è   parso   che   il   codice   usato   fosse   prevalentamente   l’italiano;  meno   frequentemente   gli   studenti  sono  ricorsi  al  codice  materno.       indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   85   ogni  volta  che  si  parla  dell’insegnamento  trascurando  le  relazioni  di  potere  presenti  nell'aula   credo  che  viene  sfocato  l’oggetto  sotto  osservazione.  nella  fattispecie  stiamo  parlando  di  una   scrittura  che  sarà  consegnata  [all’insegnante]  [...].     il   fatto   che   un  documento   scritto   debba   essere   trasmesso   al   docente,   anche  per   un   solo  motivo   di   studio,   può   in   effetti   agire   negativamente   sulla   libera   volontà   di   esprimersi   da   parte   del   candidato.   tra   lo   studente  e   l’insegnante  non  vi  è  un  rapporto  alla  pari;  è  possibile,  pertanto,  che  l’ombra  del  giudizio   induca   chi  scrive  a  non  mettere  su  carta  ogni  ipotesi  gli  venga  in  mente  (cfr.  humphris,  1992).  in  vece  della  presa  di   appunti,   lo   studioso   consiglia   una   registrazione   orale   del   singolo   (se   l’ascolto   ripetuto   è   da   eseguirsi   in   modalità  individuale)  o  dello  scambio  tra  studenti  (nel  caso  sia  prevista  una  socializzazione);   le  trascrizioni   che   se   ne   ricavano   possono   essere   oggetto   di   un’indagine   qualitativa   (così   come   avviene   in   luzi   catizone,   1993).  scrive  humphris  (comunicazione  personale,  via  posta  elettronica,  3.11.2011):   non   [...]   uno   studio   quantitativo   bensì   qualitativo   [...]   si   pubblicano   le   trascrizioni   e   ogni   studioso   le   commenta   come   meglio   crede.   non   si   può   “provare”   niente.   ma   certamente   stimolerebbe  discussioni  interessanti.       d. la  presa  di  appunti  non  riflette  le  condizioni  in  cui,  in  genere,  viene  praticata  l’attività.     alle  prime  tre  obiezioni  rispondiamo  come  segue:       a1. variabili   esterne   sono  pur   presenti   in  molte   prove  di   comprensione;   si   pensi   a   un   quesito   a   scelta   multipla  applicato  a  un  brano  audio  (lo  studente  legge  una  serie  di  opzioni)  o  a  una  risposta  aperta   (lo   studente   elabora   una   risposta   scritta).   si   potrebbe,   anzi,   affermare   che,   di   fatto,   è   impossibile   valutare  l’ascolto  senza  ricorrere  a  un’altra  abilità  (boyle,  &  suen,  1994;  brindley,  1998).  il  problema,   piuttosto,  è  accertarsi  se  la  variabile  esterna  comporti  una  variazione  significativa  nella  misurazione   dell’abilità  oggetto  di  studio  (cfr.  buck,  2001,  pp.  100–101).  nel  caso  di  un  quesito  a  scelta  multipla,   per   esempio,   se   le   opzioni   sono   semplificate   rispetto   alla   competenza   nella   lettura   dei   candidati   (ovvero  sono   linguisticamente  sottodimensionate),  non  abbiamo  motivo  di  supporre  che   l’esercizio   induca   a   significativi   problemi   di   invalidità.23  nel   nostro   caso,   posto   che   all’allievo   sia   concesso   di   ricorrere   alla   propria   lingua   di   origine,   siamo   dell’avviso   che   la   presa   di   appunti   non   generi   significativi   problemi   di   invalidità,   considerato   il   fatto   che,   anzichè   una   forma   di   scrittura   vera   e   propria,   abbiamo   a   che   fare   con   una   forma   di   trascrizione   parziale.   si   può   aggiungere   che   il  note-­‐ taking  è  una  strategia  che  può  riflettere  una  situazione  autentica:  nella  vita  di  tutti  i  giorni  capita  che   una  persona  prenda  appunti  in  riferimento  ai  contenuti  di  un  discorso  a  cui  è  esposta  (cfr.  elliott  &   wilson,   2013,   p.   171).   benché   si   debba   riconoscere   che   c’è   un   carico   cognitivo   in   più   rispetto   al   semplice  ascoltare  (piolat,  olive  &  kellogg,  2005),  indagini  sulla  presa  di  appunti  dimostrano  che  essa   non  crea   ‘attriti’  di  sorta  alla  comprensione,  né  in  ambito  l1  (hartley,  1983;  2002)  né  in  ambito  l2   (carrell,  2007;  carrell  &  dunkel,  2004;  carrell  et  al.,  2002;  hale  &  courtney,  1994);     b1. non   è   solo   la   presa   di   appunti,   ma   è   l’ascolto   stesso   (come   lo   è   la   lettura)   a   essere   selettivo.   nel   quotidiano,  anche  nei  discorsi  formulati  in  una  lingua  in  cui  siamo  molto  competenti,  non  è  detto  che   la   nostra   rappresentazione   coincida   con   quella   di   altri   ascoltatori   (o   lettori)   parimenti   competenti   (cfr.  buck,  2001,  p.  99;  humphris,  1993b;  sarig,  1989);  la  presa  di  appunti  non  fa  altro  che  riflettere   questa  selezione  ordinaria;   c1. alla  pari  della  presa  di  appunti,  pure  la  registrazione  di  un’interazione  (come  suggerito  in  alternativa   da   humphris)   può   costituire   per   taluni   un  motivo   di   inibizione,   nella   consapevolezza,   da   parte   di   costoro,  ch’essa  sarà  oggetto  di  studio  (e  quindi  di  inevitabile  giudizio).  in  aggiunta,  va  riconosciuto   come  un  resoconto  orale  a  termine  di  un  ascolto  (nella  forma  di  una  sintesi)  poggi  fortissimamente   sulla   capacità   di   memoria,   la   quale   varia   da   soggetto   a   soggetto   (just   &   carpenter,   1992).   la   restituzione  sincronica  di  nuclei  informativi  in  forma  scritta  (come  avviene  nella  presa  di  appunti)  è,   invece,  sotto  questo  punto  di  vista,  più  agevole  (cfr.  buck,  2001,  p.  53).                                                                                                                               23  per   quanto  mappare   la   rappresentazione   interiore   del   testo   sulla   base   di   un   frame   già   dato   [gli   item]   è   lungi   dallo   rispecchiare  le  condizioni  in  cui  si  ascolta  in  contesti  spontanei;  cfr.  weir  &  vidaković  (2013,  p.  414).   torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  86   riconosciamo,   in   ogni   caso,   l’effettiva   estraneità   del   note-­‐taking   rispetto   al   modo   in   cui   viene   in   genere  implementata  l’attività  (obiezione  [d]).       3.1.5.  ricerca  i.  i  risultati     la  ricerca  condotta  nella  prima  classe  si  è  sdoppiata,  abbiamo  detto,  in  due  tipi  di  analisi:  analisi  a:   un   confronto   tra   la   prima   e   la   seconda   somministrazione   (§3.1.5.1.);   analisi   b:   un   confronto   tra   la   terza   somministrazione  e  la  precedente  (§3.1.5.2.).     3.1.5.1.  analisi  a   di  seguito  presentiamo  gli  esiti  delle  prime  due  somministrazioni,  seguiti  da  un  bilancio.     3.1.5.1.1.  somministrazione  n.  1   nella  tabella  8   illustriamo   le  percentuali  di  nuclei   informativi  assimilati  durante  gli  ascolti   ripetuti   del   brano   impiegato   nella   somministrazione  1.   si   tratta,   abbiamo   detto,   di   un   ascolto   calibrato   (livello   di   difficoltà   del   testo:   b1;   livello   medio   di   competenza   nell’ascolto   da   parte   della   classe:   b1)   privo   di   socializzazione.  il  profilo  di  quanto  assimilato  è  illustrato  nel  grafico  a  seguire.       tabella 8 prima classe. somministrazione 1. percentuali di nuclei informativi assimilati somministrazione e ascolto studenti a b br c cp cr j m r s1 a1 37,10 17,74 35,48 41,94 12,90 16,13 3,23 4,84 17,74 s1 a2 46,77 35,48 40,32 61,29 30,65 16,13 22,58 14,52 29,03 s1 a3 62,90 40,32 53,23 72,58 41,94 27,42 37,10 16,13 40,32 s1 a4 66.13 41,94 58,06 75,81 46,77 32,26 53,23 19,35 43,55       figura 2. prima classe. sperimentazione 1. profilo di quanto assimilato   indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   87   l’analisi   della   figura  2   rivela   che   tutti   gli   studenti   hanno   compreso  di   più   ad  ogni   nuovo   ascolto  -­‐   eccetto   nel   caso   di   [cr],   per   la   quale   tra   il   primo   e   il   secondo   ascolto   non   si   registra   alcun   incremento).   inoltre,  i  profili  assumono  la  forma  di  una  curva  -­‐  eccetto  quello  di  [j],  che  si  configura  come  una  linea  retta,   con  un  aumento  costante  di  quanto  compreso)  ([j]  può  aver  prestato,  a  un  primo  ascolto,  maggior  attenzione   a   familiarizzare   con   il   contesto,   senza   preoccuparsi   di   stendere   su   carta   le   informazioni   recepite;   ciò   spiegherebbe   il  basso  valore   iniziale).   il  maggior   incremento  si   registra  al   secondo  ascolto  (ad  eccezione  di   [a]  e  [br],  per  i  quali  il  maggior  incremento  si  registra  al  terzo  ascolto),  mentre  il  minor  incremento  si  registra   al   quarto   ascolto   (ad   eccezione   di   [j],   a   cui   corrisponde,   abbiamo   visto,   una   progressione   costante).   nella   tabella  9  riportiamo:   lo  scarto  tra   le  percentuali  di  comprensione  relative  alle  singole  audizioni  (in  nero)  e   l’incremento  di  comprensione  progressivo,  espresso  in  percentuale,  facendo  riferimento  al  primo  ascolto  (in   blu).   per   fare   un   esempio,   lo   studente   b   nella   prima   audizione   (a1)   ha   registrato   una   percentuale   di   comprensione  pari  a  17,74%  (cfr.  tabella  8),  calcolata  sul  rapporto  tra  i  nuclei  informativi  rilevati  attraverso   il   note-­‐taking   e   la   totalità   dei   nuclei   informativi   presenti   nel   testo.   nella   seconda   audizione   (a2),   la   percentuale  di  comprensione  è  balzata  al  35,48%,  con  uno  scarto  di  circa  18  punti  (tabella  9).  ciò  significa   che  rispetto  alla  prima  audizione  la  comprensione  è  aumentata  del  102%  (incremento  progressivo),  ovvero  lo   studente  ha  compreso  il  doppio.  nella  terza  audizione  (a3),  la  percentuale  di  comprensione  arriva  al  40,32%,   con   uno   scarto   positivo   di   4,48   punti   rispetto   a   quanto   compreso   in   precedenza;   ciò   significa   che   la   comprensione   è   aumentata   in   percentuale   del   25,3%   (incremento   progressivo),   ovvero   di   un   quarto   in   riferimento  alla  comprensione  iniziale  (del  valore,  cioè,  registrato  a  seguito  della  prima  audizione:  17,74).     tabella 9 prima classe. somministrazione 1. scarto e incremento progressivi somministrazione e ascolto studenti a b br c cp cr j m r s1 a1 37,10 17,74 35,48 41,94 12,90 16,13 3,23 4,84 17,74 s1 a2 +9,67 (+26,1) +18.1 (+102) +4.84 (+13,5) +19.35 (+46,1) +17.75 (+137,6) (-) +19.35 (+598 ) +9.68 (+200) +11,19 (+63,1) s1 a3 +16,13 (+43,5) +4.48 (+25,3) +12.91 (+36,4) +11,29 (+26,9) +11,29 (+87,5) +11,29 (+70) +14.52 (+450) +1,61 (+33,2) +11,29 (+63,1) s1 a4 +3,23 (+8,7) +1,62 (+9,1) +4,83 (+10,4) +3,23 (+7,8) +4,83 (+37,4) +4.84 (+30) +16.13 (+500) +3.22 (+66,5) +3,23 (+18,2) scarto   progressivo   e   incremento   progressivo   (ancorato   alla   prima   percentuale   di   ascolto)   ci   restituiscono   un’immagine   del   guadagno   di   comprensione   in   termini,   rispettivamente,   di   prodotto   e   di   processo.   da   un   lato,   lo   scarto   misura   come   il   compreso   si   espande,   ascolto   dopo   ascolto,   rispetto   a   un   astratto   100%.   è   una   misurazione   definita,   quindi,   in   riferimento   a   un   prodotto   ottimale   ipotetico   (la   comprensione   ‘totale’).   dall’altro,   l’incremento   progressivo   è   un   valore   sensibile   al   grado   di   ritenzione   iniziale;   a   parità   di   scarto   tra   due   candidati,   riscontriamo   incrementi   superiori   laddove   la   percentuale   di   comprensione   iniziale   sia   inferiore. 24  l’incremento   trasmette,   a   nostro   modo   di   vedere,   un’immagine   dell’entità  dei  processi  cognitivi  attivati  dall’ascoltatore.     nella   tabella   10   illustriamo   lo   scarto   di   comprensione   tra   il   primo   e   il   quarto   ascolto   (in   nero)   e   l’incremento  progressivo,  in  percentuale,  ancorato  dalla  prima  audizione  (in  blu).                                                                                                                                       24  è  il  caso  di  [m]  per  esempio,  confrontato  con  [cr];  come  si  evince  nella  tabella  10,  i  due  hanno  uno  scarto  totale  (tra  il   primo  e  l’ultimo  ascolto)  molto  simile,  pari  circa  al  15%;  l’incremento  progressivo  totale  del  primo  è  tuttavia  maggiore  del   200%  rispetto  a  quello  del  secondo,  proprio  per  il  fatto  che  la  comprensione  iniziale  del  primo  è  inferiore  di  circa  il  75%   rispetto  a  quella  del  secondo.     torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  88   tabella 10 prima classe. somministrazione 1. scarto e incremento complessivi somministrazione e ascolto studenti a b br c cp cr j m r s1 a1 37,10 17,74 35,48 41,94 12,90 16,13 3,23 4,84 17,74 s1 a4 66,13 41,94 58,06 75,81 46,77 32,26 53,23 19,35 43,55 scarto complessivo +29,03 +24,2 +22,28 +33,87 +33,87 +16,13 +50,00 +14.51 +25,81 incremento complessivo +78,2 +136 +62,8 +80,8 +262 +100 +1548 +300 +145   al  netto  dei  decimali,  lo  scarto  medio  è  del  27%,  mentre  quello  mediano  è  pari  al  25%;  l’incremento   medio  è  301%,  mentre  quello  mediano  è  del  136%.25     3.1.5.1.2.  somministrazione  n.  2   nella   seconda   sperimentazione   abbiamo   sottoposto   un   nuovo   brano   di   ascolto,   pur’esso   calibrato,   agli   stessi   studenti,   a   distanza   di   una   settimana   dalla   prima.   l’attività   è   caratterizzata   da   un   format   di   socializzazione  di  tipo  b  (con  un  cambio  di  partner  ogni  due  ascolti;  cfr.  tabella  3).  l’oggetto  di  rilevazione,  in   questo   caso,   è   stato   doppio:   la   percentuale   di   ritenzione   a   seguito   di   ogni   ascolto   e   la   percentuale   di   informazioni  acquisite  a  seguito  di  ogni  interazione.   nella  tabella  11  riportiamo  i  risultati  (a  differenza  dei  compagni,  gli  studenti  [br]  e  [m]  non  hanno   preso  appunti  al  termine  del  primo  ascolto).     tabella 11 prima classe. somministrazione 2. percentuali di nuclei informativi assimilati somministrazione, ascolto, confronto studenti a b br c cp cr j m r s2 a1 24,24 30,30 0,00 51,52 33,33 24,24 6,06 0,00 18,18 s2 c1 27,27 33,33 21,21 51,52 33,33 24,24 15,15 15,15 21,21 s2 a2 57,58 48,48 45,45 72,73 48,48 36,36 30,30 30,30 51,52 s2 c2 60,61 51,52 57,58 72,73 48,48 51,52 39,39 36,36 57,58 s2 a3 72,73 69,70 72,73 84,85 69,70 57,58 51,52 48,48 66,67 s2 c3 75,76 72,73 72,73 84,85 72,73 66,67 60,61 51,52 75,76 s2 a4 81,82 72,73 75,76 84,85 78,79 69,70 63,64 57,58 78,79 s2 c4 81,82 72,73 75,76 84,85 78,79 72,73 63,64 57,58 81,82   il  profilo  di  quanto  assimilato  è  illustrato  nel  grafico  in  figura  3.                                                                                                                               25  riteniamo  significativo  considerare  i  valori  mediani  per  l’incremento,  dato  il  forte  disallineamento  tra  i  valori.   indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   89     figura 3. classe 1. sperimentazione 2. profilo di quanto assimilato   l’analisi  del  grafico  in  figura  3  evidenzia  una  serie  di  dati.  in  primo  luogo,  all’aumentare  degli  scambi   corrisponde  una  riduzione  delle  differenze  in  termini  di  nuclei  assimilati;  ciò  significa  che  l’interazione  giova   soprattutto  agli  studenti  meno  abili,   la  cui  rappresentazione  del  testo  beneficia  del  contributo  dei  compagni   (con  ogni  probabilità,   l’apporto   fornito  dai  compagni  più  competenti,   in   termini  di  decodificazione,  si  rivela   prezioso  per  attivare  ipotesi  ulteriori,  una  volta  esposti  di  nuovo  al  brano  audio).  in  secondo  luogo,  le  curve  di   comprensione  che  hanno  un  punto  di  attacco  più  basso  sono  più  ‘armoniche’,  mentre  quelle  degli  studenti  più   competenti   sono  più   ‘spezzate’;   ciò   lascia   supporre   che,  mentre   gli   studenti  meno   abili   traggono  vantaggio   dallo  scambio  con  gli  altri,  la  rappresentazione  dei  più  abili  è  meno  sensibile  all’interazione  con  il  compagno.   infine,   lo   studente   più   avanzato   [c],   che   ha   un   livello   di   competenza   nell’ascolto   superiore   al   livello   di   difficoltà  del  brano  audio  (b1/b2  vs.  b1),  non  beneficia  di  una  ripetizione  ripetuta;  già  alla  terza  audizione  ha   un’idea   ben   definita   di   cosa   tratta   il   brano;   ciò   lascia   dedurre   due   aspetti:   in   negativo,   che   la   volontà   di   riascoltare  sia  sollecitata  da  una  differenza  tra  la  competenza  dello  studente  e  il  grado  di  difficoltà  del  testo   (confermando   l’ipotesi  di  humphris);   in  positivo,  che   laddove  si  dia  una   leggera  sottocalibrazione  del   testo,   tre  ascolti  sono  più  che  sufficienti.     nella  tabella  12  a  seguire  riportiamo  lo  scarto  tra  le  percentuali  di  nuclei  assimilati  ad  ogni  ascolto  e   ad  ogni  scambio  (in  nero)  e  l’incremento  di  nuclei  assimilati  ascolto  dopo  ascolto,  scambio  dopo  scambio  (in   blu),  facendo  riferimento  alla  comprensione  iniziale.                                     torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  90   tabella 12 prima classe. somministrazione 2. scarto e incremento progressivi somministrazione, ascolto, confronto studenti a b br c cp cr j m r s2 a1 24,24 30,30 0,00 51,52 33,33 24,24 6,06 0,00 18,18 s2 c1 +3,03 (+12,5) +3.03 (+10) 21,21 nr (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) +9,09 (+150) 15,15 nr +3,03 (+16,7) s2 a2 +30,31 (+125) +15,15 (+51) +24,24 (+114) +21,2 (+41,1) +15,2 (+45,6) +9,12 (+37,6) +15,15 (+250) +15,15 (+100) +30,31 (+167) s2 c2 +3.03 (+12,5) +3,04 (+10) +12,13 (+57,2) (-) (-) (-) (-) +15,2 (+62,7) +9.09 (+150) +6,06 (+40) +6,06 (+33,3) s2 a3 +12.12 (+50) +18.18 (+60) +15,15 (+71,4) 12,1 (+23,5) +21,2 (+63,6) +6,06 (+27,1) +12,13 (+200) +12,12 (-) +9,09 (+50) s2 c3 +3,03 (+12,5) +3,03 (+10) (-) (-) (-) (-) +2,93 (+8,9) +9,09 (+37,5) +9.09 (+150) +3,04 (+20,1) +9,09 (+50) s2 a4 +6,26 (+25,8) (-) +3,03 (+14,3) (-) (-) +6,1 (+18,3) +3.03 (+12,5) +3,03 (+50) +6,06 (+50,2) +3,23 (+17,8) s2 c4 (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) +3,03 (+12,5) (-) (-) (-) (-) +3,03 (+16,7)   il   brano   di   riferimento   risulta   leggermente   più   facile   rispetto   a   quello   della   somministrazione   precedente;  si  comparino,  alla  tabella  13,  i  dati  relativi  alla  percentuale  compresa  a  seguito  del  primo  ascolto   nella   prima   e   nella   seconda   somministrazione   (l’eccezione   è   costituita   dalla   studentessa   [a];  mentre   i   dati   relativi  a  [br]  e  [m]  sono  esclusi  dall’indagine,  non  avendo  costoro  preso  appunti  a  seguito  del  primo  ascolto).       tabella 13 percentuali di comprensione dopo il primo ascolto: le prime due somministrazioni a confronto somministrazione e ascolto studenti a b br c cp cr j m r s1 a1 37,10 17,74 35,48 41,94 12,90 16,13 3,23 4,84 17,74 s2 a1 24,24 30,30 0,00 51,52 33,33 24,24 6,06 0,00 18,18 differenza -12,86 +12,56 nr +9.58 +20,43 +8,11 +2,83 nr +0,44   nella  tabella  14  riportiamo   lo  scarto   totale,  in   termini  di  nuclei  assimilati,   tra   la  prima  audizione  e   l’ultimo   scambio   (in   nero)   e   l’incremento   progressivo   totale,   tra   la   prima   audizione   e   l’ultimo   scambio   (in   blu).     tabella 14 prima classe. somministrazione 2. scarto e incremento complessivi somministrazione, ascolto, confronto studenti a b br c cp cr j m r s2 a1 24,24 30,30 0,00 51,52 33,33 24,24 6,06 0,00 18,18 s2 c4 81,82 72,73 75,76 84,85 78,79 72,73 63,64 57,58 81,82 scarto complessivo +57,58 +42,43 nr. +33,33 +45,46 +48,49 +57,58 nr +63,64 incremento complessivo +237,5 +140 nr. +64,7 +136,4 +200 +950 nr. +350 indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   91   lo   scarto  medio   è   pari   al   49%,   quello  mediano   è   pari   al   48%;   l’incremento  medio  è   pari   al   297%,   quello  mediano  è  pari  al  200%.       3.1.5.1.3.  confronto  tra  la  prima  e  la  seconda  somministrazione     la   differenza   tra   quanto   assimilato   alla   fine   delle   somministrazioni   (alla   fine   dell’ascolto   4,   nella   somministrazione   1,   e   alla   fine   dello   scambio   4,   nella   somministrazione   2)   è   positiva   (tabella   15):   nella   seconda  esperienza  i  partecipanti  hanno  assimilato  di  più  (valore  medio:  25;  valore  mediano:  31).       tabella 15 prima classe. differenze tra le percentuali di nuclei assimilati alla fine della prima e della seconda somministrazione somministrazione, ascolto, confronto studenti a b br c cp cr j m r s1 a4 66,13 41,94 58,06 75,81 46,77 32,26 53,23 19,35 43,55 s2 c4 81,82 72,73 75,76 84,85 78,79 72,73 63,64 57,58 81,82 differenza +15,69 +30,79 +17,07 +9,04 +32,02 40,47 +11,11 +38,23 +38,27 si   tratta   di   un   valore   tuttavia   poco   indicativo,   posto   che   non   riusciamo   a   distinguere   i   fattori   che   concorrono   a   tale   aumento:   la   lieve   facilità26  di   un   testo   rispetto   all’altro   (cfr.   tabella   13),   da   un   lato,   e   la   socializzazione,  dall’altro,  presente  nel  secondo  caso  e  non  nel  primo.     suggeriamo,   pertanto,   in   questo   paragone,   di   considerare   un   secondo   valore:   la   differenza   tra   gli   scarti  totali  delle  due  somministrazioni  (tabella  16),   la  quale,  restituendoci  l’aumento  di  nuclei  assimilati  al   netto  del  primo  ascolto,   consente  di  apprezzare  maggiormente   l’impatto  della   socializzazione.  si   registrano   dati  tendenzialmente  positivi,  ad  eccezione  di  (c),  lo  studente  più  abile  (per  il  quale  non  si  danno  differenze   significative)27  l’interazione  pare,  dunque,  aver  esercitato  un  effetto  positivo  sulla  comprensione  complessiva.   la  differenza  media  (espunti  i  valori  di  [br]  e  [m],  esclusi  dall’indagine)  è  pari  a  20;  la  mediana  è  pari  a  18.     tabella 16 prima classe. differenze tra gli scarti complessivi tra la prima e la seconda somministrazione somministrazione studenti a b br c cp cr j m r s1 scarto complessivo +29,03 +24,2 +22,28 +33,87 +33,87 +16,13 +50,00 +14.51 +25,81 s2 scarto complessivo +57,58 +42,43 nr +33,33 +45,46 +48,49 +57,58 nr +63,64 differenza +28,55 +18.03 nr -0.54 +11,59 +32.36 +7.58 nr +37,83   se   compariamo,   invece,   gli   incrementi   progressivi   totali,   grazie   ai   quali   abbiamo   una   fotografia   dello   “sforzo”   impiegato  dai   singoli  nel   giungere  a  una  macrorappresentazione   coerente,   i   dati   sono   contrastanti   (tabella  17).  in  un  caso  gli  incrementi  sono  stati  pressoché  gli  stessi  [b];  in  tre  casi  si  riscontrano  dati  positivi   [a],  [cr]  e  [r];  in  due  casi  i  dati  sono  negativi  [c]  e  [cp].     tabella 17 prima classe. differenze tra gli incrementi progressivi complessivi tra la prima e la seconda somministrazione somministrazione studenti a b br c cp cr j m r s1 incremento complessivo +78,2 +136 +63,4 +80,8 +262 +100 +1548 +300 +145 s2 incremento complessivo +237,5 +140 nr +64,7 +136,4 +200 +950 nr +350 differenza +159 +4 nr -16,1 -125,6 +100 -598 nr +205                                                                                                                           26  parliamo  di  lieve  facilità  posto  che  entrambi  i  testi  sono  di  livello  b1.     27  i  valori  di  [br]  e  di  [m]  non  sono  oggetto  di  indagine,  non  avendo  costoro  preso  appunti  a  seguito  del  primo  ascolto.     torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  92   si   tratta   di   dati   il   cui   peso   va   tuttavia   circostanziato.   il   valore   dell’incremento,   come   abbiamo   argomentato,  è  sensibile  alla  quantità  di  informazioni  assimilate  al  primo  ascolto.  nel  nostro  caso,  il  secondo   ascolto,   abbiamo   visto,   si   rivela   più   facile   del   primo.   ciò   rende   la   comparazione,   in   termini   di   incremento,   piuttosto  incerta.         3.1.5.2.  analisi  b   nell’analisi  b  abbiamo  messo  a  confronto  i  risultati  che  provengono  dalla  terza  somministrazione   con  quelli  che  emergono  dalla  precedente.  ricordiamo  che  la  terza  somministrazione  è  avvenuta  a  distanza  di   sei  mesi  dalla  precedente  (tabella  4).     3.1.5.2.1.  la  terza  sperimentazione     il  terzo  brano  è  un  monologo  di  livello  c1,  attinto  da  youtube,  che  tratta  dell’ipotesi  di  uno  studioso   circa   la   presenza   dell’acqua   sui   pianeti   di   titano   e   di   europa.   la   difficoltà   del   brano   risiede   nella   poca   familiarità  dell’argomento  e  nel   lessico  specialistico;  per  contro,   la  velocità  di  eloquio  è  moderata,   il   timbro   della  voce  è  chiaro  e  la  pronuncia  è  nitida.  l’attribuzione  del  livello,  come  accennato,  è  avvenuta  mediante  il   ricorso  a  una  griglia  apposita   (torresan,  2020).  solo  cinque  studenti  della  somministrazione  3  provengono   dal  gruppo  della  prima  e  della  seconda;  ad  essi  si  sono  aggiunte  due  studentesse  [l]  e  [t].  il  profilo  del  gruppo   in  termini  di  competenza  è  poco  omogeneo.   nella  tabella  6  abbiamo  presentato   il  profilo  dei  partecipanti  alle   tre  somministrazioni.  di   seguito,   riportiamo   i   risultati   della   terza   sperimentazione   (tabella   18).   dopo   il   quinto   ascolto,   su   richiesta   degli   studenti,  non  è  stato  operato  più  alcuno  scambio.  com’è  possibile  notare,  in  molti  scambi  non  si  è  avuto  alcun   incremento  di  nuclei   assimilati   (percentuali   con   sfondo  grigio)   con  ogni  probabilità,   la  poca   familiarità   con   l’argomento  non  ha  permesso  l’attivazione  e  la  condivisione  di  conoscenze  enciclopediche.       tabella 18 prima classe. somministrazione 3. percentuali di nuclei assimilati somministrazione, ascolto, confronto studenti b cp cr j r l t s3 a1 19,40 20,90 4,48 1,49 4,48 0,00 20,90 s3 c1 19,40 23,88 8,96 4,48 13,43 0,00 20,90 s3 a2 26,87 37,31 10,45 20,90 19,40 17,91 46,27 s3 c2 26,87 37,31 11,94 20,90 22,39 17,91 47,76 s3 a3 38,81 49,25 17,91 26,87 26,87 20,90 59,70 s3 c3 38,81 49,25 22,39 26,87 29,85 20,90 59,70 s3 a4 44,78 61,19 31,34 35,82 37,31 28,36 65,67 s3 c4 44,78 61,19 32,84 38,81 37,31 28,36 67,16 s3 a5 49,25 65,67 38,81 44,78 38,81 34,33 70,15 s3 a6 52,24 65,67 44,78 47,76 41,79 38,81 71,64   nella  figura  4  è  rappresentato  il  profilo  dei  nuclei  assimilati.     indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   93     figura 4. classe 1. sperimentazione 3. profilo dei nuclei assimilati   nella  figura  4,  si  nota  la  prevalenza  di  linee  ‘spezzate’  rispetto  a  quelle   ‘armoniche’,  a  conferma  del   fatto   che   per   molti   il   contributo   del   compagno   non   ha   costituito   un   apporto   significativo.   in   aggiunta,   è   interessante   osservare   il   distacco,   rispetto   al   gruppo,   degli   studenti   [t]   e   [cp];   oltre   a   una   competenza   maggiore,   tale   distacco   può   essere   correlato   al   profilo   accademico   dei   due   ([t]   è   titolare   di   una   cattedra   scientifica;  [cp]  sta  per  terminare  gli  studi  di  dottorato  in  semiotica).   a   seguire,   nella   tabella   19,   riportiamo   in   nero   lo   scarto   tra   le   percentuali   di   nuclei   assimilati   in   corrispondenza   a   ciascuno   ascolto   e   a   ciascun   confronto   e   in   blu   l’incremento   progressivo   di   nuclei   assimilati.28                                                                                                                                                                       28  il   primo  dato  positivo   è  quello   registrato   al   primo  ascolto,   ad   eccezione  di   [l],   per   la   quale   il   primo  dato  positivo   si   riscontra  al  secondo  ascolto.     torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  94   tabella 19 prima classe. somministrazione 3. scarto e incremento progressivi somministrazione, ascolto, confronto studenti b cp cr j r l t s3 a1 19,40 20,90 4,48 1,49 4,48 0,00 20,90 s3 c1 (-) (-) +2,98 (+14,3) +4,48 (+100) +2,99 (+200) +8,95 (+200) (-) (-) (-) (-) s3 a2 +7,47 (+38,5) +13,43 (+64,3) +1,49 (+33,3) +16,42 (+1102) +5,97 (+133) +17,91 (nd) +25,37 (+121) s3 c2 (-) (-) (-) (-) +1,49 (+33,3) (-) (-) +2,99 (+66,7) (-) (-) +1,49 (+7,1) s3 a3 +11,94 (+61,5) +11,94 (+57,1) +5,97 (+133) +5,97 (+400) +4,48 (+100) +2,99 (+17) +11,94 (+57,1) s3 c3 (-) (-) (-) (-) +4,48 (+100) (-) (-) +2,98 (+66,5) (-) (-) (-) (-) s3 a4 +5,97 (+30,8) +11,94 (+57,1) +8,95 (+200) +8,95 (+601) +7,46 (+166) +7,46 (+42) +5,97 (+28,6) s3 c4 (-) (-) (-) (-) +1,50 (+33,5) 2,99 (+200) (-) (-) (-) (-) +1,49 (+7,1) s3 a5 +4,47 (+23) +4,48 (+21,4) +5,97 (+133) +5,97 (+401) +1,50 (+33,5) +5,97 (+33) +2,99 (+14,3) s3 a6 +3,29 (+17) (-) (-) +5,97 (+133) +2,98 (+200) +2,98 (+66,5) +4,48 (+25) +1,49 (+7,1)   di  seguito,  nella  tabella  20,  riportiamo  in  nero  lo  scarto  complessivo  tra  la  comprensione  rilevata  al   primo  ascolto  e  quella  rilevata  al  sesto  ascolto  e  in  blu  l’incremento  complessivo,  ancorato  al  primo  ascolto.     tabella 20 prima classe. somministrazione 3. scarto e incremento complessivi29 somministrazione e ascolto studenti b cp cr j l r t s3 a1 19,40 20,90 4,48 1,49 (0,00) 1* 4,48 20,90 s3 a6 52,24 65,67 44,78 47,76 38,81 41,79 71,64 scarto complessivo +32,84 +44,77 +40,30 +46,27 +38.81 +37,31 +50,74 incremento complessivo +169 +214 +890 +3105 +3881 +833 +243   i   valori   altissimi   di   incremento   sono   sensibili   alla   considerevole   difficoltà   del   testo   rispetto   alla   competenza  degli  allievi.  lo  scarto  medio  è  pari  al  41%;  quello  mediano  è  pari  al  40%;  l’incremento  medio  è   pari  al  1334%;  quello  mediano  è  pari  all’833%.     3.1.5.2.2.  confronto  tra  la  terza  somministrazione  e  la  seconda  somministrazione     l’analisi  b  si  limita  ai  dati  riferiti  ai  5  studenti  presenti  alle  somministrazioni  2  e  3.  vi  sono  evidenti   differenze   tra   le   percentuali   di   nuclei   assimilati   registrate   al   termine   della   somministrazione   2   e   quelle   registrate   al   termine   della   somministrazione   3   (tabella   21).   aparità   di   socializzazione,   gli   studenti   hanno   assimilato  di  più   i  nuclei  del  brano  calibrato  ascoltato  per  4  volte  rispetto  a  quelli  del  brano  marcatamente   sovracalibrato,  ascoltato  per  6  volte.  la  differenza  media  è  di  23  punti,  quella  mediana  è  di  20.                                                                                                                               29  la   percentuale   di   comprensione   di   [l]   al   primo   ascolto   è   fatta   equivalere   a   1,   altrimenti   ci   risulta   difficile   calcolare   l’incremento.     indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   95   tabella 21 prima classe. differenze tra le percentuali di nuclei assimilati alla fine delle somministrazioni 2 e 3 somministrazione e ascolto studenti b cp cr j r s2 a4 72,73 78,79 72,73 63,64 81,82 s3 a6 52,24 65,67 44,78 47,76 41,79 differenza -20,19 -13,12 -27,95 -15,88 -40,03   in   termini   di   incremento   progressivo   a   partire   dal   primo   ascolto,   la   terza   somministrazione   ha   rappresentato  un  guadagno  notevole   rispetto   alla   seconda   somministrazione,   come  dimostrato  alla  tabella   22.   la   terza   somministrazione   ha   costituito,   dunque,   una   sfida  maggiore   in   termini   di   processi   attivati;   gli   studenti  hanno  ‘lavorato’  di  più  (la  differenza  media  tra  gli  incrementi  complessivi  è  di  687,  la  mediana  di  è   483).   tabella 22 prima classe. differenze tra gli incrementi complessivi della terza e della seconda somministrazione somministrazione studenti b cp cr j r s2 incremento complessivo +140 +136 +200 +950 +350 s3 incremento complessivo +169 +214 +890 +3105 +833 differenza +29 +78 +690 +2155 +483   se  compariamo  le  due  somministrazioni  a  parità  di  ascolti,   l’incremento  progressivo  parziale  che  si   registra   al   quarto   ascolto   nella   terza   somministrazione   è,   per   la   maggior   parte   dei   casi,   superiore   all’incremento   progressivo   totale   della   seconda   somministrazione   (tabella   23).   ciò   significa   che,   anche   limitatamente   al   quarto   ascolto,   emerge   nella   terza   somministrazione   una   tendenza   a   ‘lavorare’   di   più   da   parte   degli   studenti,   nonostante,   come   si   è   visto,   il   linguaggio   specialistico   e   la   scarsa   familiarità   con   l’argomento  abbiano  depotenziato  l’apporto  che  proviene  dal  compagno.       tabella 23 prima classe. differenze tra l’incremento parziale della terza somministrazione (al quarto ascolto) e l’incremento complessivo della seconda somministrazione studenti somministrazione b cp cr j r s3 incremento parziale [a4] +131 +193 +633 +2505 +733 s2 incremento complessivo +140 +136 +200 +950 +350 differenza -9 +57 +433 +1555 +383   3.1.6.  ricerca  i.  sintesi   riprendiamo  le  domande  che  ci  eravamo  posti  al  §3.     1) nell’ascolto   ripetuto   di   un   brano   calibrato,   la   comprensione   aumenta   per   effetto   di   una   socializzazione  delle  ipotesi?       risposta:  sì  (cfr.  tabella  16).  la  differenza  media  tra  gli  scarti  è  di  20  punti,  a  favore  della  somministrazione   2,  mentre  quella  mediana  è  di  18  punti.       2) a   parità   di   format   di   socializzazione   (format   b),   quali   differenze   si   possono   notare   tra   l’ascolto   ripetuto  di  un  brano  calibrato  e  l’ascolto  ripetuto  di  un  brano  a  sovracalibrazione  marcata?   torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  96   risposta:  benché,   in   termini  di   comprensione  come  prodotto,   il   confronto   favorisca   l’ascolto   ripetuto  per  4   volte  di  un  brano  calibrato,  rispetto  all’ascolto  ripetuto  per  sei  volte  di  un  brano  marcatamente  sovracalibrato   (tabella  21;  la  differenza  media  tra  le  percentuali  di  comprensione  è  di  23  punti;  quella  mediana  è  di  20),  gli   studenti,  nel   caso  della   sovracalibrazione,  attivano  una  serie  più  ampia  di  processi   che   li  porta  a   registrare   incrementi   consistenti   rispetto   a   quanto   compreso   nella   prima   audizione   (tabella   22;   la   media   delle   differenze  tra  gli  incrementi,  a  favore  della  terza  somministrazione,  è  pari  a  +687%,  mentre  tra  le  mediane  è   pari  a  +483%).  l’asr  esercita  l’ascolto  come  abilità  che  si  evolve:  l’obiettivo  della  tecnica  non  è  un  ipotetico   (e   idealistico)   ‘capire   tutto’,   quanto   il   ‘lievitare’   della   comprensione,   esposizione   dopo   esposizione.   a   tal   proposito,   scrive  luzi  catizone  (1980):   “dopo  aver  ascoltato  un  brano   .   .   .   lo   studente  avrà  capito  «qualche   cosa»  e  su  questo  «qualche  cosa»  dovrà  costruire  con  la  sua  logica  e  la  sua  esperienza  della  comunicazione.”     3.2.  ricerca  ii  (analisi  c)   di  seguito  consideriamo  due  ulteriori  somministrazioni,  avvenute  in  una  seconda  classe,  di  profilo   omogeneo.  descriviamo  dapprima  la  classe,  il  numero  di  ascolti  e  l’impostazione  dell’indagine  (§§3.2.1.-­‐ 3.2.3.),  quindi  riportiamo  i  dati  raccolti  (§3.2.4.)  e,  infine,  traiamo  una  sintesi  (§3.2.5.).     3.2.1.  ricerca  ii.  caratteristiche  delle  somministrazioni     le   caratteristiche  delle   somministrazioni  4   e  5   realizzate  nella   seconda   classe   sono   riassunte  nella   tabella  24.  le  somministrazioni  sono  state  applicate  durante  una  stessa  lezione,  della  durata  di  due  ore.     tabella 24 caratteristiche generali delle somministrazioni nella seconda classe somministrazione periodo testo n. ascolti grado di socializzazione n. interazioni format** 4 05/ 2019 moderatamente sovracalibrato 5 2 5 a 5 3 5 b nota. *grado di socializzazione = n. di compagni con cui ci si confronta in totale; **format nullo: assenza di socializzazione; format a: il partner a cui riferire le proprie ipotesi è lo stesso fino al quarto ascolto; format b: si cambia partner ogni due ascolti.     3.2.2.  ricerca  ii.  la  classe  e  i  testi   la   classe   è   costituita   da   sei   studenti   con   una   competenza   media   nell’ascolto   pari   al   livello   b1   (accertata   mediante   test   allestiti   dal   bifie).   si   distacca,   tuttavia,   uno   studente   per   un   disallineamento   (è   riportato  con  uno  sfondo  grigio  nella  tabella  25).     tabella 25 competenza nell’ascolto da parte degli studenti della seconda classe somministrazioni 4 e 5 studenti ca jm jp m g bu livello b1 a2 b1 b1 b1 b1   entrambe   le   somministrazioni   hanno   avuto   per   oggetto   testi   moderatamente   sovracalibrati   (b2)   rispetto  al  livello  medio  di  competenza  della  classe  nella  comprensione  orale  (b1).  i  testi  somministrati  sono   autentici  (attinti  da  internet);  sono  stati  impiegati  in  precedenza  durante  la  prova  di  italiano  l2  degli  esami  di   stato  delle  scuole  tedesche  della  provincia  di  bolzano,  negli  aa.ss.  2018/2019  e  2015/2016.                   indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   97   tabella 26 caratteristiche dei testi somministrati nella seconda classe somministrazione tema genere fonte durata livello 4 l’imprenditore brunello cucinelli parla della sua impresa monologo youtube <www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ujnuu6c4eo&t=242s> (parti scelte) 4’13’’ b2+ 5 lo scrittore carlo lucarelli descrive le caratteristiche della scrittura noir monologo vimeo <https://vimeo.com/22015846> 3’15’’ b2   la  difficoltà  del  monologo  di  brunello  cucinelli  risiede  nell’argomento  specialistico  (la  sua  visione  di   impresa).  benché  la  pronuncia  sia  relativamente  chiara,  il  timbro  è  disturbato  da  un  lieve  rimbombo,  dovuto   alla  presa  diretta.  il  monologo  di  carlo  lucarelli  è  contraddistinto  da  una  certa  velocità  di  eloquio;  il  tema  è   comunque  relativamente  accessibile  e  l’articolazione  del  discorso  è  piuttosto  chiara.       3.2.3.  ricerca  ii.  il  numero  di  ascolti,  la  socializzazione  e  la  raccolta  dei  dati     il  numero  di  ascolti  verso  cui  la  classe  si  è  spinta,  abbiamo  detto,  è  stato  pari  a  5,  per  entrambi  i  brani.     pur  prevedendo  un  numero  identico  di  interazioni  (n  =  5),  le  due  somministrazioni  presentano  differenze  in   merito   al   format   di   socializzazione   (format   a   nella   somministrazione   4,   con   uno   scambio   con   lo   stesso   compagno   fino   al   quarto   ascolto;   format   b   nella   somministrazione   5,   con   un   cambio   di   partner   ogni   due   ascolti;   cfr.   tabelle   3   e   4).   come   nelle   classi   precedenti,   gli   allievi   sono   stati   invitati   a   prendere   appunti,   ascolto   dopo   ascolto   (è   stata   concessa   loro   la   scelta   in  merito   all’uso   del   codice   da   impiegare:   italiano   e/o   portoghese),  con  l’accortezza  di  non  trascrivere  parole  isolate,  ma  di  formare  frasi  di  senso  compiuto.  vivian   fasura   ha   poi   operato   il   calcolo   dei   nuclei   informativi   riportati   dagli   studenti   in   ogni   singola   ricognizione,   comparandoli  con  i  nuclei  informativi  totali  veicolati  da  ciascun  brano.       3.2.4.  ricerca  ii.  i  risultati     di  seguito  riportiamo  i  dati  emersi  nelle  due  somministrazioni.       3.2.4.1.somministrazione  n.  4   la   somministrazione   4   presenta   un   profilo   relativo   all’aumento   di   nuclei   assimilati   assai   simile   a   quello   della   somministrazione   3.   alla   pari   della   sovracalibrazione  marcata   (somministrazione   3),   anche   la   sovracalibrazione  moderata  presenta  fasi  di  stallo  durante  il  confronto  tra  gli  allievi,  come  evidenziato  nella   tabella  27  (gli  scambi  improduttivi  sono  messi  in  evidenza  da  uno  sfondo  grigio).  ci  vien  da  supporre  che,  in   questo  caso,  oltre  alla  sovracalibrazione  (moderata),  a  limitare  l’impatto  della  socializzazione  abbia  concorso   l’omogeneità  delle  competenze  (cfr.  tabella  25).  a  riprova  di  ciò  si  potrebbe  considerare  il  comportamento  di   [jm],  lo  studente  la  cui  competenza  nell’ascolto  è  sottodimensionata  rispetto  al  livello  di  difficoltà  del  testo:  la   sua  comprensione  aumenta  progressivamente,  con  poche  occasioni  di  stallo  durante  gli  scambi,  concentrate   solo  sul  finale.                           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ujnuu6c4eo&t=242s torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  98   tabella 27 seconda classe. somministrazione 4. percentuali di nuclei assimilati somministrazione, ascolto, confronto studenti bu ca g jm jp me s4 a1 0,00 30,00 3,33 3,33 6,67 26,67 s4 c1 3,33 30,00 6,67 6,67 6,67 26,67 s4 a2 6,67 36,67 26,67 10,00 26,67 36,67 s4 c2 23,33 36,67 26,67 13,33 26,67 40,00 s4 a3 23,33 50,00 43,33 16,67 36,67 46,67 s4 c3 23,33 50,00 46,67 20,00 36,67 46,67 s4 a4 26,67 53,33 53,33 26,67 40,00 56,67 s4 c4 26,67 53,33 53,33 26,67 40,00 56,67 s4 a5 26,67 73,33 66,67 40,00 50,00 60,00 s4 c5 26,67 73,33 66,67 40,00 50,00 60,00   nella  figura  5  presentiamo  il  profilo  dei  nuclei  assimilati.         figura 5. classe 2. sperimentazione 4. profilo dei nuclei assimilati   dall’osservazione  dei  risultati  emergono  tre  orientamenti:  un  primo  composto  da  [me]  e  [ca],  la  cui   comprensione  inizia  e  termina  con  risultati  relativamente  alti;  un  secondo  composto  da  [jm],  [jp]  e  [bu],  la  cui   comprensione  inizia  e  termina  con  risultati  relativamente  bassi/medio-­‐bassi;  un  terzo  costituito  dal  solo  [g],   che  comprende  poco  all’inizio  ma  giunge  a  risultati  relativamente  alti  alla  fine.   è  probabile  che  la  non  familiarità  dell’argomento  (la  visione  di  impresa  di  brunello  cucinelli)  abbia   spiazzato   i   membri   del   secondo   e   terzo   sottogruppo,   i   quali,   all’inizio,   hanno   prestato   più   attenzione   ad   orientarsi  che  a  prendere  appunti.  nella  tabella  28  riportiamo   in  nero   lo  scarto   tra   le  percentuali  di  nuclei   assimilati,   in   corrispondenza   a   ciascuno   ascolto   e   a   ciascuno   scambio,   e   in   blu   l’incremento  progressivo   di   nuclei  assimilati.             indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   99     tabella 28 seconda classe. somministrazione 4. scarto e incremento progressivi somministrazione, ascolto, confronto studenti bu ca g jm jp me s4 a1 30,00 3,33 3,33 6,67 26,67 s4 c1 3,33 (n.d) (-) +3,34 (+99,8) +3,34 (+99,8) (-) (-) s4 a2 +3,34 (+99,8) +6,67 (+22,2) +20 (+606) +3,33 (+100) +20 (+300) +10 (+37,5) s4 c2 +16,66 (+500) (-) (-) +3,33 (+100) (-) +3,33 (+12,5) s4 a3 (-) 13,33 (+44,4) +16,66 (+500) +3,34 (+99,8) +10 (+150) +6,67 (+25) s4 c3 (-) (-) +3,34 (+99,8) +3,33 (+100) (-) (-) s4 a4 +3,34 (+99,8) +3,33 (+11,1) +6,66 (+200) +6,67 (+200) +3,33 (+50) +10 (+37,5) s4 c4 (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) s4 a5 (-) +20 (+66,7) +13,34 (+400) +13,33 (+400) +10 (+150) +3,33 (+12,5) s4 c5 (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) (-)   la  tabella  29  mostra  in  nero  lo  scarto  totale  tra  la  comprensione  rilevata  al  primo  ascolto  e  quella  rilevata  al   quinto  ascolto  e  in  blu  l’  incremento  progressivo  totale,  ancorato  al  primo  ascolto.     tabella 29 seconda classe. somministrazione 4. scarto e incremento complessivi somministrazione, ascolto studenti bu ca g jm jp me s4 a1 30,00 3,33 3,33 6,67 26,67 s4 a5 26,67 73,33 66,67 40 50 60 scarto complessivo +26,67 +43,33 63,88 36,67 +43,33 +33,33 incremento complessivo +26,67 +144,4 +1902 +1101 +650 +125   la   media   degli   scarti   è   pari   a   41,   la   mediana   è   pari   a   40  (i   valori   sono   identici   a   quelli   della   somministrazione  3:  scarto  medio  s3:  40;  scarto  mediano  s3:  41).  la  media  degli  incrementi  è  pari  a  1098,  la   mediana  è  pari  a  805  (i  valori  sono  inferiori  a  quelli  della  somministrazione  3:  incremento  medio  s3:  1334;   incremento  mediano  s3:  833).     3.2.4.2.  somministrazione  n.  5   nella   tabella   30   illustriamo   le   percentuali   di   nuclei   assimilati   durante   la   somministrazione   5.   rispetto   alla   somministrazione   4,   la   somministrazione   5   –   ricordiamo   –   ha   previsto   una   socializzazione   leggermente  più  estesa  (format  b).  il  numero  di  scambi  improduttivi  è  consistente  pure  in  questo  caso;  può   essere   attribuito,   torniamo   a   dire,   oltre   che   alla   sovracalibrazione   (moderata),   all’omogeneità   delle   competenze.  nella  figura  6,  che  segue,  presentiamo  il  profilo  di  quanto  assimilato.           torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  100   tabella 30 seconda classe. somministrazione 5. percentuali di nuclei assimilati somministrazione, ascolto, confronto studenti bu ca g jm jp me s5 a1 25,00 16,67 50,00 16,67 25,00 8,33 s5 c1 33,33 16,67 50,00 33,33 25,00 8,33 s5 a2 50,00 33,33 58,33 41,67 41,67 33,33 s5 c2 58,33 33,33 58,33 41,67 41,67 41,67 s5 a3 58,33 33,33 66,67 41,67 50,00 66,67 s5 c3 58,33 33,33 66,67 41,67 50,00 66,67 s5 a4 66,67 50,00 75,00 50,00 50,00 66,67 s5 c4 66,67 50,00 75,00 50,00 50,00 66,67 s5 a5 66,67 58,33 83,33 50,00 58,33 75,00 s5 c5 66,67 58,33 83,33 50,00 58,33 75,00   figura 6. classe 2. sperimentazione 5. profilo dei nuclei assimilati rispetto  alla  somministrazione  4  (cfr.  figura  5),  nella  somministrazione  5  non  individuiamo  orientamenti.   emergono,  piuttosto,  dei  profili  intrecciati:  il  punto  a  cui  arriva  un  partecipante  in  una  certa  audizione  è  lo  stesso  a   cui  ne  arriva  un  secondo  nell’audizione  successiva  (o  nelle  successive).  è  come  se  molti  percorressero  una  stessa   mappa,   ma   con   tappe   differenti,   secondo   ritmi   personali.   non   è   tanto   lo   scambio   con   l’altro   a   determinare   la   progressione,  quanto   la   riproposizione  dell’audio.  detto  altrimenti,   è   come  se   le   zone  d’ombra  e   le   zone  di   luce   dell’audio  fossero   le  stesse  per  molti,  ma  il  rischiararsi  del  testo  obbedisse  a  ritmi  distinti.  ad  osservare  bene   la   figura  6,  si  nota  infatti  che  ciascuna  linea  ha  in  media  dai  quattro  ai  cinque  punti  di  contatto  con  le  altre.     nella   tabella   31   riportiamo   lo   scarto   tra   le   percentuali   di   nuclei   assimilati,   in   corrispondenza   a   ciascun  ascolto  e  a  ciascuno  scambio  (in  nero)  e  l’incremento  progressivo  di  comprensione  (in  blu).             indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   101   tabella 31 seconda classe. somministrazione 5. scarto e incremento progressivi somministrazione, ascolto, confronto studenti bu ca g jm jp me s5 a1 25,00 16,67 50,00 16,67 25,00 8,33 s5 c1 +8,33 (+33,3) (-) (-) +16,66 (+100) (-) (-) s5 a2 +16,66 (+66,7) +16,66 (+100) +8,33 (+16,7) +8,34 (+50) +16,67 (+66,7) +25 (+300) s5 c2 +8,33 (+33,3) (-) (-) (-) (-) +16,67 (+200) s5 a3 (-) (-) +8,34 (+16,7) (-) +8,33 (+33,3) +25 (+300) s5 c3 (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) s5 a4 +8,34 (+33,4) +16,7 (+100) +8,33 (+16,7) +8,33 (+50) (-) (-) s5 c4 (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) s5 a5 (-) +8,33 (+50) +8,33 (+16,7) (-) +8,33 (+33,3) +8,33 (+100) s5 c5 (-) (-) (-) (-) (-) (-)   nella   tabella   32   riportiamo   lo   scarto   totale   tra   la   comprensione   rilevata   al   primo   ascolto   e   quella   rilevata  al  quinto  ascolto  (in  nero)  e  l’incremento  progressivo  totale,  ancorato  al  primo  ascolto  (in  blu)     tabella 32 seconda classe. somministrazione 5. scarto e incremento complessivi somministrazione, ascolto studenti bu ca g jm jp me s5 a1 25,00 16,67 50,00 16,67 25,00 8,33 s5 a5 66,67 58,33 83,33 50,00 58,33 75,00 scarto complessivo +41,67 +41,66 +33,3 +33,3 +33,3 +66,67 incremento complessivo +167 +250 +67 +200 +133 +800   la   media   degli   scarti   è   pari   a   41,   la   mediana   è   pari   a   37,5.   sono   dati   molti   simili   a   quelli   della   somministrazione  precedente.     la  media  degli   incrementi  è  pari  a  270,  la  mediana  è  pari  a  184.  sono  dati  inferiori  rispetto  a  quelli   della  somministrazione  precedente.  pare  che  il  brano  della  somministrazione  5  sia  meno  sfidante.  in  effetti,  a   confermare  la  maggiore  accessibilità  del  brano  5  è  la  differenza  positiva  tra  le  percentuali  di  nuclei  assimilati,   sia  al  primo  (tabella  33)  che  all’ultimo  ascolto  (tabella  34),  rispetto  al  brano  4.     tabella 33 seconda classe. somministrazione 4 e 5. differenze tra le percentuali di nuclei assimilati al primo ascolto somministrazione, ascolto studenti bu ca g jm jp me s4 a1 30,00 3,33 3,33 6,67 26,67 s5 a1 25,00 16,67 50,00 16,67 25,00 8,33 differenza +25 -13,33 +46,67 +13,33 +18,33 +18,34 torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  102   tabella 34 seconda classe. somministrazione 4 e 5. differenze tra le percentuali di nuclei assimilati all’ultimo ascolto somministrazione, ascolto studenti bu ca g jm jp me s4 a5 26,67 73,33 66,67 40,00 50,00 60,00 s5 a5 66,67 58,33 83,33 50,00 58,33 75,00 differenza +40 -14,67 +21,66 +10 +8,33 +15   a  ulteriore  riprova,  si  constati  pure  come  per  quattro  studenti  su  sei  il  testo  della  somministrazione  5   ha  significato  un  incremento  minore  rispetto  a  quello  registrato  nella  somministrazione  4  (tabella  35).       tabella 35 seconda classe. somministrazione 4 e 5. differenze tra gli incrementi complessivi somministrazione studenti bu ca g jm jp me s5 incremento complessivo +167 +250 +67 +200 +133 +800 s4 incremento complessivo +2667 +144,4 +1902 +1101 +650 +125 differenza 2500 + 105,6 1835 900 -517 + 675   quadro   comune   europeo   di   riferimento   per   le   lingue   alla   mano   (council   of   europe,   2001),   ci   è   possibile  opporre  i  due  testi  per  la  non  familiarità  dell’argomento.  il  testo  che  rimanda  al  mondo  dell’impresa   (somministrazione   4)   corrisponde   più   alle   caratteristiche   di   un   b2+   (da   qui,   l’effetto   di   spiazzamento   dei   gruppi),   come   da   descrittore   relativo   (parte   evidenziata   in   neretto,   tabella   36).   diversamente,   il   testo   che   rimanda  alle  routine  di  uno  scrittore  (somministrazione  5),  per  un  pubblico  che  ha  già  frequentato  vari  corsi   di  teoria  della  letteratura  e  di  critica  letteraria  (per  un  totale  di  120  ore),  com’è  il  caso  della  seconda  classe,   corrisponde,  invece,  a  un  livello  leggermente  inferiore  (b2;  vedi  parte  del  descrittore  evidenziata  in  neretto,   tabella  36).       tabella 36 quadro europeo comune di riferimento per le lingue. comprensione orale generale30 b2+ è in grado di comprendere ciò che viene detto in lingua standard, dal vivo o registrato, su argomenti sia familiari sia non familiari che si affrontano normalmente nella vita, nei rapporti sociali, nello studio e sul lavoro. solo fortissimi rumori di fondo, una struttura discorsiva inadeguata e/o l’uso di espressioni idiomatiche possono pregiudicare la comprensione b2 è in grado di comprendere i concetti fondamentali di discorsi formulati in lingua standard su argomenti concreti e astratti, anche quando si tratta di discorsi concettualmente e linguisticamente complessi; di comprendere inoltre le discussioni del suo settore di specializzazione. è in grado di seguire un discorso lungo e argomentazioni complesse purché l’argomento gli sia relativamente familiare e la struttura del discorso sia indicata con segnali espliciti   3.2.4.3.  confronto  tra  la  somministrazione  4  e  la  somministrazione  5   indipendentemente  dalle  differenze  di  incremento  (attribuibili  alla  leggera  differenza  di  complessità   dei   brani),   colpisce,   in   ambedue   le   somministrazioni,   lo   scarso   impatto   esercitato  dalla   socializzazione;   nel   contesto  specifico  della  nostra  ricerca,  nell’opposizione  b1  vs  b2  tra  la  competenza  dell’allievo  nell’ascolto  e   la   calibrazione   dell’audio,   non   si   danno   differenze   significative   tra   i   due   format   di   socializzazione.   non   è   escluso  che  con  opposizioni  differenti  si  giunga  a  risultati  di  altro  genere.                                                                                                                               30  cfr.  anche  council  of  europe,  2018,  p.  55.     indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   103   3.2.5.  ricerca  ii.  sintesi   riprendiamo  le  domande  che  ci  eravamo  posti  al  §3:     1) si  notano  differenze,  in  merito  alle  percentuali  di  nuclei  assimilati  di  un  brano  audio  moderatamente   sovracalibrato,  tra  il  format  di  socializzazione  b  (somministrazione  5)  e  il  format  di  socializzazione  a   (somministrazione  4)?     risposta:  no.  occorrerebbe  valutare,  però,  se  con  opposizioni  diverse  tra  la  competenza  media  della  classe  e   la   difficoltà   del   brano   (es.   a2   vs.   b1,   oppure   b2   vs.   c1)   e/o   con   situazioni   di  maggiore   eterogeneità   delle   competenze,  gli  esiti  siano  confermati  o  meno  .     2) le  somministrazioni  4  e  5,  contraddistinte  da  una  sovracalibrazione  moderata,  presentano  differenze   significative  rispetto  alla  somministrazione  3,  contrassegnata  da  una  sovracalibrazione  marcata  (nei   limiti,   pur   sempre,   che   questa   comparazione   comporta,   posta   l’eterogeneità   del   campione   di   riferimento)?     risposta:  no.  gli  scarti  medi  sono  molto  simili.  le  tre  esperienze  sono  accomunate  dal  profilo  spezzato  della   comprensione,  che  traduce  un  numero  rilevante  di  scambi  improduttivi.     3.3.  conclusioni  dell’indagine     al   termine  di  quest’indagine   traiamo  alcune  conclusioni,  pur  nei   limiti  dei   campioni   ridotti   a   cui   ci   siamo  affidati.  in  primo  luogo,  ci  pare  utile  sottolineare  che  come  evidenzia  krashen,  l’ascolto  ripetuto  trova   una   sua   giustificazione   anche   con   brani   calibrati.   è   il   caso,   appunto,   dell’art   (nella   nostra   esperienza,   e   quindi  nel  contesto  di  lingue  tipologicamente  vicine,  l’ascolto  ripetuto  di  brani  dimensionati  –  in  sintonia  con  i   dati  emersi  in  rodrigo  &  krashen,  1996  -­‐  ha  visto  un  impegno  spontaneo  degli  allievi  fino  al  quarto  ascolto.   d’altra  parte,   come  evidenzia  humphris,   l’ascolto   ripetuto  di  brani   sovracalibrati  promuove   incrementi  più   significativi  della  competenza  (l’ascolto  come  processo)  rispetto  all’ascolto  ripetuto  di  brani  calibrati;  (non  si   tratta   di   un   dato   ovvio,   posto   che   un   ascoltatore   può   ritenere   che   se   comprende   pochissimo   a   un   primo   ascolto,   la   sua   competenza   non   avrà   modo   di   migliorare   successivamente).   nel   nostro   caso,   con   una   sovracalibrazione  moderata  (+1)  gli  allievi  si   sono  spinti   fino  a  5  ascolti,  mentre  con  una  sovracalibrazione   marcata   (+2)   sono   arrivati   a   6;   ciò   induce   a   ritenere   che   a   un   maggiore   grado   di   difficoltà   del   testo   corrisponde   una   maggiore   disponibilità   a   riascoltare.   abiamo   appurato,   poi,   che   con   ascolti   calibrati   la   socializzazione   concorre   a   una   percentuale   maggiore   di   nuclei   assimilati   rispetto   a   un’assenza   di   scambi;  confrontarsi  con  l’altro  è  dunque  proficuo  per  raffinare  le  proprie  rappresentazioni.     in  classi  multilivello,  è  emerso,  ancora,  che  la  socializzazione  comporta  un  maggior  numero  di  scambi   produttivi,   a   favore   degli   studenti   meno   abili.   ciononostante,   nel   rapporto   b1/b2   tra   la   competenza   nell’ascolto  da  parte  dello  studente  e  la  difficoltà  del  testo  (caso  specifico  di  sovracalibrazione  moderata),  così   come  nel  rapporto  b1/c1  (caso  specifico  di  sovracalibrazione  marcata),  gli  effetti  della  socializzazione  paiono   poco  significativi  (l’incremento  di  comprensione  a  seguito  degli  scambi  è,  difatti,  ridotto).   ci   pare   conveniente,   a   questo   punto,   correggere   la   caratterizzazione   che   avevamo   attribuito   all’ascolto   ripetuto   al   §2.2.   avevamo   argomentato   che   la   socializzazione   (assente   nell’art   di   krashen)   rappresenta   un   tratto   essenziale   dell’asr.   spiegammo   che   l’interazione   –   per   via   della   quale   l’attività   si   configura   in   un   senso   integrato   (ascolto   +   produzione   orale)   –   contraddistingue   la   proposta   in   termini   socioculturali.   i  dati  raccolti  nel  contesto  di  apprendenti   lusofoni  di   italiano  ls  fanno  supporre  tuttavia  che,   laddove  la  sovracalibrazione  sia  marcata  o  comunque,  anche  se  moderata,  sia  riferita  a  intervalli  sensibili  tra  la   competenza  dell’allievo  e  la  difficoltà  del  testo  (com’è  l’opposizione  b1  vs.  b2;  concretezza  vs.  astrattezza;  e   ancora  di  più  nell’opposizione  b1  vs.  c1)  e  il  profilo  degli  allievi  sia  omogeneo,  il  potere  dello  scambio  viene   meno.  di  conseguenza,  viene  da  dubitare  in  merito  al  fatto  che  la  socializzazione  si  possa  dichiarare  un  tratto   precipuo  della  tecnica.     in  effetti,  quando  noi  stessi  palesammo  ad  humphris  l’intenzione  di  chiamare  l’attività  repeated  peer   listening   (ascolto   tra   pari   ripetuto),   proprio   in   virtù   del   nodo   indissolubile   che   andavamo   cogliendo   tra   socializzazione   e   ripetizione,   lo   stesso   autore   ebbe   ad   obiettarci   (comunicazione   personale,   via   posta   elettronica,  3  novembre  2011;  il  grassetto  è  nostro):   torresan  &  fasura       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111  104   non   chiamerei   quest’attività   “repeated   peer   listening”   perché   sembra   che   il   centro   sia   l’ascolto   del   peer,   ossia   del   compagno.   invece   la   consultazione   a   coppie   serve   sì   ad   ascoltare  il  parere  del  compagno,  ma  penso  che  la  funzione  principale  dello  scambio  con   il  compagno  sia  di  permettere  a  chi  parla  a  chiarire  a  se  stesso  le  proprie  idee.  questa   attività   la   facciamo   anche   con   lezioni   individuali   (in   questo   caso   l’interlocutore   è   l’insegnante,   il   quale   si   limita   a   cercare   di   capire   lo   studente:   non   esprime   nessun   parere   personale  sul  contenuto  del  brano  ascoltato).  “repeated  listening”   come   titolo,   secondo   me,  coglie  l’essenziale     al   termine  di  questa   indagine,   concordiamo  con   lo   studioso:   è   la   ripetizione   il   cuore  dell’attività,   il   volàno  che  permette  il  disvelamento  progressivo  di  una  propria  rappresentazione  del  testo.  detto  altrimenti,   il   punctum   saliens   –   cognitivamente   parlando   –   dell’ars,   e   per   estensione   dell’art,   è   la   ripetizione.   cionondimeno   la   socializzazione,   pur   non   configurandosi   come   tratto   precipuo,   svolge   una   funzione   significativa.   in  effetti,   scambiare   le  opinioni  con   il   compagno  è  una  strategia  che  ha  una  duplice  valenza.  è   direttamente  produttiva,   laddove   si   abbia  una  eterogeneità  delle   competenze   (cfr.  tabella  11;  figura  3).  al   tmepo  stesso,  più   in  generale,   è   indirettamente  produttiva,  nella  misura   in  cui   l’altro/gli  altri   concorrono  a   stimolare  –   ipso  facto  –   la   sistematizzazione  e   la   coerentizzazione  della   riscrittura   interiore  del   testo  di   cui   ciascun  ascoltatore  (o  lettore)  è  responsabile.31  gli  altri  assumono,  in  tal  senso,  lo  stesso  ruolo  che  interpreta   lo   psicanalista   con   il   paziente   o   l’amico   con   il   confidente:   sono   importanti   in   quanto   specchio,   poiché   sostengono  la  motivazione  ad  ascoltare32  e  ad  ascoltarsi.  il  singolo  si  sente  sostenuto  nell’impresa  di  ascoltare   più  e  più  volte  perchè  incontra  un  volto  amico  con  cui  potersi  confrontare.33  in  estrema  sintesi,  anche  laddove   lo  scambio  non  comporti  un  aumento  di  nuclei  assimilati,  esso  è  funzionale  (carlo  guastalla,  comunicazione   personale,  via  posta  elettronica,  15  novembre  2019)  “a  potenziare  la  fase  successiva  di  ascolto,  a  fornire  allo   studente   (molte)   ragioni   in   più   per   ascoltare   di   nuovo   e   aumentare   la   propria  comprensione”.  per   questo,   sarebbe  bene,  come  lo  stesso  guastalla  ci  ha  ricordato,  che  ad  ogni  consultazione  (compresa  l’ultima)  seguisse   un  ascolto:  solo  così  si  concede  agli  studenti  la  possibilità  di  trovare  un  riscontro  nel  testo  delle  informazioni   scambiate.   in  conclusione,  ci  auguriamo  che  l’articolo  apporti  uno  stimolo  alla  didattica,  spingendo  gli  insegnanti   a   integrare   l’esposizione   ripetuta   del   testo   nelle   proprie   classi,   anche   non   necessariamente   nelle   forme   descritte  in  questa  sede.     ulteriori  indagini  potrebbero  chiarire,  in  particolare,  se  e  quanto  l’ascolto  ripetuto  eserciti  un  effetto   positivo   sulla   motivazione   a   comprendere,   agendo   sulla   percezione   di   autoefficacia   dell’allievo   (bandura,   1977,  1997).  in  effetti,  una  volta  che  è  consapevole  di  come,  di  audizione  in  audizione,  la  propria  competenza   è  destinata  ad  evolversi,  lo  studente  può  esprimere  la  determinazione  ad  ascoltare  di  più.                                                                                                                                           31  riportiamo  da  humphris  (1991a):  “è  spesso  durante  il  parlare  ad  un  altro  che  vengo  a  sapere  ciò  che  penso.  il  parlare   con   un   altro  mi   serve   ad   organizzare   i  miei   pensieri.   spesso   è   lo   sforzo   stesso   di  mettere   in   parole   ciò   che   penso   che   trasforma  vaghe  intuizioni  senza  forma  in  veri  e  propri  pensieri  concreti”.   32  specie  se  l’argomento  su  cui  verte  il  testo,  aggiungiamo  noi,  non  si  accorda  con  gli  interessi  di  chi  ascolta  (o  di  chi  legge).     33  riportiamo  da  humphris  (1991a):  “bisogna  dare  allo  studente  molto  spazio  per  esprimere  ciò  che  pensa  di  aver  capito;   ad  un  pari  grado,  s’intende,  non  all’insegnante.  anzi,  bisogna  proprio  insistere  affinché  lo  faccia.  […]  il  primo  ascolto  della   registrazione,   specialmente   per   lo   studente   poco   abituato,   può   essere   un’esperienza   poco   rassicurante   in   quanto   lo   studente  si  rende  conto  di  quanto  poco  riesce  a  capire.  ed  è  spesso  portato  a  pensare  che  il  problema  sta  in  lui  e  non  nel   testo:  spesso  pensa  che  dovrebbe  cambiare  classe,  o   lingua,  o  addirittura  smettere  del   tutto  di  studiare!  se  subito  dopo   sente  un  altro  studente  raccontare  ciò  che  pensa  di  aver  capito   lui,   si   rende  conto  che  non  è   il   solo  ad  aver  capito  così   poco.   «allora   non   hanno   capito   granché   neppure   gli   altri»   pensa,   e   si   rassicura   di   non   essere   l’asino   della   classe.   «il   problema   non   è   più   mio   ma   è   diventato   nostro;   siamo   negli   stessi   guai;   diamoci   una   mano».   abbiamo   quindi   una   situazione  psicologica  di  eventuale   isolamento  e  depressione   trasformata   in  una  di   solidarietà,  grazie  al   confronto   fra   i   due  studenti.  e  questa  solidarietà  sprigiona  molta  energia”.     indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   105   riferimenti  bibliografici     anderson,  john  r.  (1983).  the  architecture  of  cognition.  harvard  university  press.     anderson,   richard   c.   (1972).   how   to   construct   achievement   tests   to   assess   comprehension.   language   learning,  42(2),  145–170.     anderson,  thomas  h.,  &  armbruster, 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humphris,   christopher   (1991b).   ascolto   autentico:   basta   con   i   fogli   lavoro.   bollettino   dilit,   2   <www.dilitformazioneinsegnanti.it/bollettini/ascolto/ascolto-­‐autentico-­‐basta-­‐fogli-­‐lavoro>.   humphris,   christopher   (1992).   o   scrivo   o   cerco   di   capire;   o   l’uno   o   l’altro.   bollettino   dilit,   2   <www.dilitformazioneinsegnanti.it/bollettini/ascolto/scrivo-­‐cerco-­‐capire-­‐luno-­‐laltro>.   humphris,   christopher   (1993a).   l’ora   di   ascolto.   in   christopher   humphris   (a   cura   di),   v°   seminario   internazionale  per  insegnani  di  lingua.  ascoltare:  perché,  che  cosa,  come  e  quanto,  roma:  dilit   <www.dilitformazioneinsegnanti.it/atti/1993-­‐5-­‐seminario-­‐ascoltare-­‐perche-­‐che-­‐cosa-­‐come-­‐e-­‐ quanto/introduzione-­‐allascolto-­‐autentico>   humphris,   christopher   (1993b).   che   significa   capire?   in   christopher   humphris   (a   cura   di),   v°   seminario   internazionale   per   insegnani   di   lingua.   ascoltare:   perché,   che   cosa,   come   e   quanto,   roma:   dilit   <www.dilitformazioneinsegnanti.it/atti/1993-­‐5-­‐seminario-­‐ascoltare-­‐perche-­‐che-­‐cosa-­‐come-­‐e-­‐ quanto/lora-­‐di-­‐ascolto>   jensen,   eva   d.   &   vinther,   thora   (2003).   exact   repetition   as   input   enhancement   in   second   language   acquisition.  language  learning,  53,  373–428.  doi:  10.1111/1467-­‐9922.00230.   johns,  jerry,  &  berglund,  roberta  (2002).  fluency:  question,  answers,  evidence-­‐based  strategies.  kendall/hunt.     joyce,   paul   (2008).  componentiality   in   tests  of   listening   comprehension   [unpublished   doctoral   dissertation].   university  of  surrey.     just,  marcel  a.,  &  carpenter,  patricia   (1992).  a  capacity   theory  of   comprehension:   individual  differences   in   working  memory.  psychological  review,  99(1),  122–149.     king,  chris,  &  east,  martin   (2011).  learners’   interaction 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nome è brunello cucinelli”), né di informazioni incassate nella struttura del discorso e che valgono come incisi (“facevamo i contadini”). il mio nome è brunello cucinelli e faccio l’industriale (1) e vivo in perugia (2). fino a quindici anni ho vissuto in campagna (3) con i miei genitori (4), facevamo i contadini ed è stata un’esperienza di vita bellissima (5) perché pensate, una cosa speciale: non ho mai visto i miei genitori litigare (6) e poi ho questi ricordi belli della campagna.(7)         indagine  sull’ascolto  ripetuto   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  70–111   111   paolo torresan,  universidade federal fluminense (niterói, brasile) paolotorresan@id.uff.br it paolo torresan ha svolto attività di ricerca presso l’università ca’ foscari di venezia, le università complutense e autonoma di madrid, la lancaster university e l’università di catania. è stato fulbright visiting scholar presso il santa monica college (california) e visiting professor presso l’università dello stato di rio de janeiro. attualmente insegna lingua e letteratura italiana presso l’università federale fluminense (niterói, brasile). dirige la rivista bollettino itals. si occupa di didattica delle lingue straniere e di valutazione linguistica. en paolo torresan worked as a researcher at the ca’ foscari university of venice, the complutense university and the autonoma university of madrid, the university of lancaster, and the university of catania. he was a fulbright visiting scholar at santa monica college (california) and visiting professor at the federal university of rio de janeiro. he is teaching italian language and literature at fluminense federal university (niterói, brazil). he is editor-in-chief for bolletino itals. his interests focus on language teaching methodology and language testing and assessment. es paolo torresan realizó actividades de investigación en la universidad ca’ foscari de venecia, las universidades complutense y autónoma de madrid, la lancaster university y la universidad de catania. fue fulbright visiting scholar en el santa monica college (california) y visiting professor en la universidad del estado de río de janeiro. atualmente enseña lengua e literatura italiana en la universidad federal fluminense (niterói, brasil). ele es editor-chefe de la revista bollettino itals. sus intereses son la didáctica de las lenguas y la evaluación lingüística. vivian fasura,  universidade federal fluminense (niterói, brasile) vfasura@id.uff.br it vivian fasura è membro del laboratorio di traduzione labstrad dell'università federale fluminense (niterói, brazil). si occupa di traduzione dall'italiano al portoghese. si interessa anche di lingua italiana, nonché dell'insegnamento delle lingue straniere e, più in generale, delle scienze dell’educazione. en vivian fasura is a member of the labstrad translation laboratory at the fluminense federal university (niterói, brazil). she works on translation from italian to portuguese. she is also interested in the italian language, foreign language teaching, and language pedagogy. es vivian fasura es miembro del laboratorio de traducción labstrad de la universidad federal fluminense (niterói, brasil). trabaja en la traducción del italiano al portugués. además, sus intereses son la lengua italiana, la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras y la pedagogía. 9a_eng_giacosa_8.2_kb_ma e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, november 2021, 161–184 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.252 www.e-journall.org © giacosa 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes antonella giacosa university of turin received 17 may 2021; accepted after revisions 3 august 2021 abstract en during the sudden shift in education onto digital platforms due to the covid-19 emergency, teachers became streamers and experimented with new tools to involve their students in video-mediated, multi-floor, multiparticipant, and multimodal interactions. in turn, students experienced new ways to participate in lessons and interact with instructors. this study focuses on clarification and repair in videoconferencing as a strategy to address trouble in video-mediated communication and to re-establish mutual understanding. through participant observation of online classes, the researcher collected data on classroom interactions, which are analyzed through conversation analysis. the findings show how the digital affordances of video-mediated conversation help teachers and students manage intersubjectivity and compensate for the lack of non-verbal cues typical in face-to-face interaction, such as facial expressions or tone of voice. consequently, this article argues that the wisdom gained during the pandemic can help teachers and lecturers better deal with clarification and repair in digital conversations. ultimately, it can increase their digital interactional competence, thus giving way to more interaction and learning in efl classes, both online and in-person. key words: emergency remote education, conversation analysis, clarification, repair, efl es durante la migración hacia las plataformas digitales en la educación debido a la emergencia sanitaria del covid-19, el profesorado se ha convertido en transmisor digital y ha experimentado con nuevas herramientas para implicar a su alumnado en conversaciones mediadas por vídeo multiparticipativas y multimodales. a su vez, el alumnado ha experimentado nuevas formas de participación en las clases y de interacción con el profesorado. este estudio se centra en la aclaración y en la reparación en las videoconferencias como una estrategia para afrontar los problemas en la comunicación mediada por vídeo y restablecer el entendimiento mutuo entre docentes y estudiantes. mediante la observación participante de las sesiones en línea, la investigadora recogió datos sobre las interacciones en clase que son analizados a través del análisis conversacional. los resultados muestran cómo las posibilidades digitales de la conversación mediada por vídeo ayudan al profesorado y al alumnado a manejar la intersubjetividad y a compensar la falta de señales no verbales propias de la interacción cara a cara, como son las expresiones faciales o el tono de voz. en consecuencia, en este artículo se sostiene que el conocimiento adquirido durante la pandemia puede ayudar al profesorado a afrontar mejor la aclaración y la reparación en las conversaciones digitales. en última instancia, este conocimiento puede aumentar la competencia interactiva digital del profesorado dando lugar a una mayor interacción y a un mayor aprendizaje en las clases de inglés como lengua extranjera, tanto en línea como presenciales. palabras clave: educación remota de emergencia, análisis de la conversación, aclaración, reparación, efl it durante l'improvvisa migrazione della didattica sulle piattaforme digitali dovuto all'emergenza covid-19, i docenti sono diventati streamer e hanno sperimentato nuovi strumenti per interagire e coinvolgere i propri studenti in conversazioni mediate dal il video. a loro volta, gli studenti hanno sperimentato nuovi modi per partecipare alla lezione e interagire con i professori e fra loro. questo studio si concentra sul chiarimento e la riparazione nella videoconferenza come strategie per affrontare i problemi nella comunicazione mediata dal video e ristabilire la comprensione reciproca. attraverso l'osservazione partecipante delle lezioni online, sono stati raccolti dati sulle interazioni in classe e sono poi stati analizzati attraverso l'analisi della conversazione. i risultati mostrano come alcune caratteristiche della conversazione mediata dal video aiutino insegnanti e studenti a gestire l'intersoggettività e a compensare la mancanza di segnali non verbali tipici dell'interazione in presenza, come le espressioni facciali o il tono di voce. si sostiene che la consapevolezza guadagnata durante la pandemia può aiutare i docenti a capire come affrontare il chiarimento e la riparazione nelle conversazioni digitali. inoltre, può aumentare la loro competenza interattiva digitale, permettendo a una maggiore interazione e apprendimento nelle classi efl, sia online che in presenza. parole chiave: istruzione a distanza in emergenza, analisi della conversazione, chiarimento, riparazione, efl * antonella giacosa, university of turin (italy) antonellamaria.giacosa@unito.it giacosa e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 162 1. introduction during the sudden shift of education onto digital platforms due to the covid-19 emergency, teachers and lecturers became streamers. to make meaning of this massive and unprecedented experience, scholars have started investigating a new emerging research field: emergency remote education (ere), also called emergency remote teaching (ert). this term refers to a branch of distance education dealing with a temporary solution due to crisis situations (bozkurt et al., 2020). it differs from e-learning, as it is provisional and unplanned. moreover, it involves fully remote solutions for instruction that would otherwise be delivered primarily face-to-face and that will return to its previous format once the crisis is over (barbour et al., 2020). since spring 2020, both lecturers and students have adapted to the various resources put in place by their departments to carry on with their tasks (baldock et al., 2020; peters et al., 2020). for example, they had to become familiar with videoconferencing tools, which provided more options to teach and attend a class. according to the changing regulations, lecturers used videoconferencing tools to remotely teach their classes from home. others taught in-person classes for a limited number of students while streaming them for students attending from home (appolloni et al., 2021; giacosa, 2021a, 2021b; luporini, 2020). despite the lack of specific training, lecturers adapted to the techniques of use, affordances, and constraints of communication tools that some of them were experiencing for the first time (wigham & satar, 2021). indeed, they managed interaction, achieved mutual understanding, supplied instructions, collected and provided feedback in an online multimodal space with increased modal density (wigham & satar, 2021). it was a far from easy task due to the constraints imposed by the medium, such as the two-dimensional interactional space, which makes online teaching and learning different from face-to-face classes (moorhouse et al., 2021). not only did teachers choose their preferred visual framing (wigham & satar, 2021), but also managed interaction involving both spoken and written speech. for example, they had to find a suitable pace in the oral language mode (wigham & satar, 2021) and include the chat and the constraints of computer-mediated interaction as an additional component of classroom conversation (giacosa, 2021a). besides, they had to help students adjust to the new instructional setting, learn how to communicate during an online class, and how to ask for clarification (henceforth cla). for example, they had to choose one of the options of the videoconferencing platform, namely the possibility to activate their microphones and ask a question or to write it in the chat. cla strategies were already deemed crucial to classroom interactional competence before the pandemic (åhlund & aronsson, 2015; atar & seedhouse, 2018; montigel, 2021; nakamura, 2008; nakayama, 2013; novitasari & imperiani, 2019; schegloff, 2007; walsh et al., 2011). the pandemic made them even more relevant, as teachers and students have been interacting through a screen and cannot rely on physical presence or facial clues to support communication (giacosa, 2021a; moorhouse et al., 2021). given the circumstances, it seems relevant to analyze interactions in ere second language (l2) classes for three main reasons. first, ere is a field worth investigating and not extensively studied yet, at least regarding cla, as shown in section 3. second, video-mediated interaction opened the classroom to new patterns of interaction, which have the potential to give way to more learning in efl classes, both online and in-person (hampel, 2019; hampel & de los arcos, 2013; hampel & pleines, 2013; stickler & hampel, 2015). third, given the importance of classroom interactional competence, it is crucial to provide lecturers with more information and awareness on interactions in emergency multimodal digital environments. campuses have already been closed for public health and safety concerns. moreover, because of the covid-19 emergency and in line with previous trends, distance and blended education are likely to spread. therefore, digital skills and digital interactional competence should be part of a teacher’s professional profile along with the traditionally required skills (barbour et al., 2020; gaebel et al., 2014; gaebel & zhang, 2018). the present paper aims to add a new perspective to previous research on ere. indeed, it is a multifaceted and thought-provoking topic with interesting pedagogical implications for both online and inperson classes, in terms of class management, interaction, teaching strategies and tools. this data driven study is part of a more extensive investigation on how english linguistics and practical english1 courses were taught during the pandemic in 14 italian universities. it draws on data collected through participant observation of emergency online classes in the spring and autumn of 2020 and involved 27 efl lecturers and over 1200 students. in a previous paper dealing with the preliminary analysis of the challenges and opportunities of the triadic dialogue (interaction-response-feedback) in ere classes, interaction has emerged as a fundamental aspect to master for successful teaching and learning (giacosa, 2021a). this article will report on a different 1 these courses focus on english proficiency regarding the four skills (speaking, writing, listening and reading), see also section 4. clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 163 and broader set of extracts and pursue a twofold goal. on the one hand, it aims to identify how cla is managed in ere classes to gain insight into a relevant aspect of conversation analysis (henceforth ca) bound to l2 pedagogy. on the other hand, it aims to provide teachers and lecturers with increased awareness of interaction in multimodal digital environments, thus enhancing their interactional competence and their success in teaching a foreign language. to this end, it aims to address the following research questions: rq1: how do conversational repairs operate in ere? rq2: to what extent does the chat, as a means of intersubjectivity, affect student behavior in ere classes? to analyze data, it adopts a qualitative analytical approach informed by ca. data was collected through direct observation of online ere classes. it gives insights into video-mediated classroom discourse, which could increase teacher and lecturer awareness and improve the quality of interaction in online classes. to this end, first, a brief literature review will be provided. second, the conceptual framework will be introduced; third, the methodology will be briefly outlined. finally, the findings and their pedagogical implications will be presented and discussed. 2. literature review this paper on cla in emergency online classes is informed by previous studies on cla and videomediated communication. cla is a repair sequence used to clarify trouble in interaction and achieve mutual understanding (atar & seedhouse, 2018; schegloff et al., 1977; walsh, 2011). since it was introduced and developed by schegloff and colleagues in the late 1970s, this concept has been extensively studied, among others, in the area of classroom interaction, which considers it crucial for its pedagogical relevance (mchoul, 1990; walsh et al., 2011). in line with the seminal work by schegloff et al. (1977), studies on cla unearthed the patterns of repair sequences that allow mutual understanding between students and teachers in and outside of the classroom. the analytic distinction between self-correction and other-correction is central in the study of cla (see also section 4). the former applies when the speaker of the initial item (trouble source, henceforth ts) corrects it; the latter refers to the correction performed by one of their interlocutors (atar & seedhouse, 2018; koschmann, 2016; mchoul, 1990; meredith & stokoe, 2014; schegloff, 2007; schegloff et al., 1977). addressing problems in conversation through repair is considered a crucial part of interaction and thus an essential skill in second language acquisition (henceforth sla) (atar & seedhouse, 2018; kasper, 2006). there are several studies on cla in l2 classes, which adopt a conversation-analytical approach and focus on efl environments (atar & seedhouse, 2018; mortensen, 2008; walsh & mann, 2015; walsh et al., 2011). on the one hand, cla and its pedagogical implications are investigated from a teacher-led perspective in terms of strategies to select a willing next speaker (mortensen, 2008), turn management (sert, 2019; waring, 2013), best practices to detect in students’ unwillingness to interact (sert, 2015). studies on interactions in l2 classes showed that the appropriate use of verbal and non-verbal resources facilitates intersubjectivity and comprehension and encourages students to give longer explanations and express themselves better (atar & seedhouse, 2018; peachey, 2017). cla should be mastered by teachers to facilitate and enhance students’ second-language acquisition (jenks, 2021; walsh, 2011). therefore, it should be part of their interactional competence (ic) (atar & seedhouse, 2018; peachey, 2017), which is defined as the appropriate use of linguistic and interactional resources to achieve mutual understanding (markee, 2008; walsh, 2012). on the other hand, studies have shown that in case of an epistemic gap, students also initiate cla sequences (hardt, 2018; koschmann, 2016). even though the ts (trouble source) was identified by the teachers, the students themselves repaired using different forms of repair strategies, thus enhancing their language skills (novitasari & imperiani, 2019). furthermore, students cooperate to perform a repair (nakayama, 2013). cooperation is highlighted as a distinctive feature also in studies on informal teacherstudent talk. once the purpose of the talk moves beyond controlled production of correct language forms, the interlocutors’ roles and relationship shift from expert and novice to coparticipants in managing the talk regardless of their institutional role (teacher-student), which is relevant also from the point of view of classroom discourse analysis (åhlund & aronsson, 2015; jenks, 2021; nakamura, 2008). as during the pandemic interactions between students and lecturers were video-mediated, this paper is also partly informed by studies on videoconferencing, which is a branch of video-mediated communication and has attracted increasing interest over the last decades. it is a multifaceted field of research ranging from language-based disciplines (linguistics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics) to social-ethno-anthropological giacosa e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 164 disciplines (interactional sociology, discourse psychology and health studies) (sindoni, 2014, 2019, 2020). for instance, since the introduction of virtual learning environments, videoconferencing has been investigated as a powerful tool of multimodal interaction in online language classrooms (hampel & de los arcos, 2013; peachey, 2017) and suggestions to improve for activity design and implementation have been made (hampel, 2019; hampel & pleines, 2013). this interest is due to the fundamental role of interaction in sla according to the two main approaches to foreign language learning, namely the interactionist approach and the sociocultural approach, which inform studies on how new technologies can affect l2 classes (hampel, 2019; hampel & de los arcos 2013; hampel & pleines, 2013). research shows that the multiple modalities of the online videoconferencing environment can support learner communication and interaction, thus aiding sla (peachey, 2017). therefore, the affordances of video-mediated communication should be considered while planning activities to foster student interaction (hampel, 2019; hampel & pleines, 2013). more recently, research started to explicitly focus on educational environments from a multimodal perspective. for example, sindoni investigated the epistemological, theoretical, and educational implications of mode-switching (henceforth ms) in an instructional context (sindoni, 2020). by paraphrasing the notion of code-switching, sindoni had already shown in her previous studies how interlocutors re-arrange verbal and nonverbal resources in an attempt to simulate face-to-face conversations and how they alternate speech and writing in video-mediated interaction. with new proxemic and kinetic patterns, gaze management, and the impossibility of eye contact, the alternation of speech and writing is what makes video-mediated communication peculiar (sindoni, 2014, see p. 5). this paper borrows the notion of ms to describe how lecturers and students used oral speech and messages in the chat window to achieve a common understanding. indeed, the chat is an essential aspect in studies on computer-mediated communication: it is a close digital match to a spoken conversation (zitzen & stein, 2004), which has its peculiarities in terms of turn allocation, disruption of interactional turns and coherence (berglund, 2009; garcia & baker jacobs, 1999; herring, 1999, 2018; ong 2011). by investigating issues of concern in quasi-synchronous conversation such as confusion in turn allocation, overlapping in multiparty and multi-floor conversation, research shows that the chat is not a per se flawed form of interaction. by contrast, it has unique patterns which make it a differentlyabled effective kind of conversation (herring, 2018; ong, 2011). interaction is a fundamental aspect of sla (hampel & de los arcos, 2013; walsh & mann, 2015) and an issue of concern in distance learning (anderson, 2003; meredith, 2019). therefore, it seems relevant to investigate how teachers and students adapted to online interaction during the covid-19 emergency. all the studies mentioned above account for interaction in digital education and refer to instructional settings that were planned and designed to accomplish that task. so far, investigations on ere have provided an overview of the coping strategies adopted in different countries (bozkurt et al., 2020; peters et al., 2020). they investigated issues of concern such as the digital divide (bozkurt & sharma 2020; hall, 2020), and analyzed students’ and lecturers’ perceptions of the challenges and opportunities of ere (erickson & wattiaux 2021; farrah & al-bakry, 2020; giacosa, 2021b; luporini 2020; yoon, 2020). concerning interaction in ere, both lecturers and students faced challenges (appolloni et al., 2021; cicillini & giacosa, 2020; peters et al., 2020). therefore, it seems appropriate for teachers to develop digital interactional competence as a necessary and timely professional skill (giacosa, 2021a; moorhouse, 2020; moorhouse et al., 2021; peachey, 2017). indeed, the knowledge of communication breakdown dynamics could help mutual understanding between lecturers and students. it could enhance lecturer interactional competence and student communicative competence in their target language (gardner, 2012; walsh, 2012). therefore, cla as a repair mechanism to achieve intersubjectivity in a video-mediated instructional environment seems a relevant and original topic of analysis. 3. conceptual framework addressing problems in conversation through repair is an indispensable part of social interaction and relevant for all the subjects, but essential for l2 learners (atar & seedhouse, 2018; hampel & de los arcos, 2013; hardt, 2018; novitasari & imperianni, 2019; pineda hoyos, 2018; walsh, 2012; walsh & mann, 2015). while learning how to communicate in a foreign language, students experience trouble in achieving mutual understanding. so, it is crucial to understand how the repair mechanism works to learn how to deal with problems in the classroom and the real world, online and offline. if cla as a repair mechanism is used systematically, this can enhance interaction and learning in l2 classes (walsh et al., 2011; atar & seedhouse, 2018). the impact of computer-mediated communication on interaction and meaning-making in the language clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 165 classroom has been extensively investigated to unearth how learners negotiate meaning and co-construct knowledge through interaction in l2 classes (hampel, 2019; hampel & pleines, 2013; stickler & hampel, 2015). this interest is linked to two main theoretical approaches to language learning. on the one hand, the interactionist approach, a cognitive theory of sla, focuses on interaction as the basis of language development and encourages more active involvement to achieve better results (hampel, 2019; hampel & pleines, 2013). for example, by being exposed to both target-like and non-target-like forms during a lesson (in ere oral utterances and written posts in the chat), learners may focus on discrepancies and be encouraged to selfcorrect or othercorrect. on the other hand, this approach is informed by the social constructivist approach of learning as a situated social activity, which requires interaction with others (hampel, 2019). in this view, students learn while interacting with others through digital tools. during the pandemic, cohorts of teachers and learners have become familiar with the affordances of the digitally-mediated environment for language learning, whose possibilities and constraints can potentially affect pedagogical action in both in-person and online classes. therefore, it is worth analyzing how they interacted and collaboratively made meaning through the screen. the lesson learned during the pandemic could affect teaching and learning, both in-person and online. to this end, the following analysis will focus on the pattern of interactions involving the chat feature to identify cla patterns and contribute to making meaning of wisdom learned in ere to improve teacher interactional competence in digital instructional settings, as already highlighted in the previous section. this study investigates cla in english linguistics and practical english ere classes from the perspective of ca and multimodal analysis; it focuses on the coping strategies to manage ts in video-mediated interactions in efl university classes during the pandemic. to this end, it uses the concept of cla, a repair strategy adopted in conversation to correct an error made by a speaker or ts to achieve mutual understanding (atar & seedhouse, 2018; drew, 1997; hardt, 2018; novitasari & imperianni, 2019; pineda hoyos, 2018; schegloff, 2007). in line with other studies on cla and repair, this investigation draws on the distinction between self-repair (the trouble source is addressed by the speaker who utters the mistake) and other-repair (the trouble source is addressed by the speaker who utters the mistake (novitasari & imperiani, 2019; schegloff et al., 1977). moreover, it considers both teacher-led and student self-repair to investigate the dynamics of repair in video-mediated communication (åhlund & aronsson, 2015). studies on repair in a naturally-occurring conversation focus on interactional sequences where a turn is perceived as problematic and requires repair (atar & seedhouse, 2018; drew, 1997). regarding teacher-led repair, it can be noticed that teachers can have trouble understanding what students are saying; in this case, they can ask type-specific questions (tsq), such as what do you mean by that?, which target the ts and locate it in the previous turn. if teachers have trouble hearing, they can use open class repair initiators (ocris), such as pardon? sorry? what? (atar & seedhouse, 2018; drew, 1997). this open repair strategy addresses the whole of the prior turn as problematic (atar & seedhouse, 2018; drew, 1997; schegloff, 1992). if teachers have problems in both hearing and understanding, they opt for a stronger pattern made up of partial repetitions and question words (pr+whs) (atar & seedhouse, 2018). at the same time, studies on classroom interaction have shown that repair sequences are also started by students, who contribute to mutual understanding by using all types of repair strategies identified by schegloff et al. (1977) in their seminal study. students can deal with trouble sources in a conversation by self-initiated self-repair (sisr), self-initiated other-repair (sior), otherinitiated self-repair (oisr), and other-initiated other-repair (oior). in efl classes, not only can they show their proficiency by initiating a cla sequence, but also enhance their communicative skills to deal with trouble in interaction, which is valuable while speaking a foreign language (atar & seedhouse, 2018; novitasari & imperianni, 2019). as during the pandemic classroom interactions occurred in a video-mediated environment, this study focuses on cla sequences involving ms, that is the alternation of speech and writing in videoconferencing. paraphrasing the linguistic concept of code-switching, sindoni uses the term ms to describe “the alternation from speech to writing and vice versa in the same communicative event, with a general prevalence of the spoken mode with written insertions for specific communicative purposes” (sindoni, 2020, p. 2). in multipartyvideo interactions, ms is mainly used to manage the conversation flow in terms of repair and self-correction, for specific communicative purposes and to address technical issues (see p. 3). to analyze cla sequences involving ms, a concept typical of ca will be used: the disrupted adjacency pair. it is a typical phenomenon of text-based communication, which occurs in multi-participant interactions because messages in the chat appear linearly, in the order in which they are received by the system. a response (the second pair part of an adjacency pair, henceforth spp) may be separated in linear order from the previous message (the first pair part of an adjacency pair, henceforth fpp) it is responding to if another message or giacosa e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 166 messages happen to have been sent in the meantime (herring, 1999; ong, 2011). it makes it difficult for interactants to establish coherence between the messages, thus hindering mutual understanding. therefore, lecturers must be aware of cla dynamics in video-mediated communication to improve interaction in their efl classes not only to achieve mutual understanding but also to scaffold their students to deal with troubles in interaction (atar & seedhouse, 2018). 4. methodology this paper deals with the micro-analysis of both teacher and student-initiated cla in english linguistics and practical english ere classes from the perspective of ca. it focuses on the interplay of oral and written speech in video-mediated communication. to this end, it deals with exchanges involving the chat window as a crucial element of cla and employs the concept of ms, which is typical of multimodal studies (sindoni, 2014, 2019, 2020). however, this article concentrates on language and does not report on multimodal aspects such as gestures, gaze, postures, framing. therefore, it does not adopt a multimodal conversation analytical approach, which focuses on both language and gesture and considers the former as one crucial element among others (mondada, 2019). by contrast, it carries out a qualitative analysis of oral and written exchanges between teachers and students dealing with aspects typical of ca, such as turn organization and repair, as highlighted in the previous section. moreover, it also considers ms, an element borrowed from multimodal analysis, but it focuses on logocentric aspects, namely the alternation of oral and written speech (see previous section). the lack of microanalysis of cla in ere and the combination of ca with an aspect of multimodal analysis make the perspective of this study original. the study uses qualitative analysis since in previous studies on ca the qualitative analysis has proved to be the most suitable approach for the micro-analysis of interactional phenomena to address research questions exploring how certain phenomena occur (atar & seedhouse, 2018; sindoni, 2020). moreover, microanalysis is a recommended approach while dealing with the sequential organization of interactions in ca (giles et al., 2017; jenks, 2021). even though the results can hardly be generalized, it seems relevant to describe the phenomena that can trigger teacher awareness and increase their interactional competence thus facilitating interaction and learning in l2 classes (markee, 2008; walsh, 2012). with these reflections in mind, this study has adopted a qualitative approach to the micro-analysis of data. 4.1. research context and participants this paper draws on data collected for a phd dissertation on interaction in ere english linguistics and practical english ere classes. data was collected through the participant observation of online synchronous 2hour classes taught via videoconferencing tools (webex, microsoft teams and zoom) in the spring and autumn of 2020 in 14 italian universities, as already mentioned in the introduction. at the beginning of the pandemic, english linguistics and efl lecturers were randomly selected from the official webpages of several italian universities to have an overview of ere classes taught using different tools. 27 out of over 300 who were contacted participated in the study and allowed the researcher to join their online classes and collect data about them. regarding english linguistics classes, they were attended by 70130 students and were taught in english by an italian lecturer. practical english classes focused on the english language, were attended by 30 students and taught by native speakers. this article will not deal with differences between the two kinds of classes, because it would go beyond its scope. concerning our informants, 96% of the lecturers kept their cameras on and shared their screen with the students to show their slides, internet webpages or files they had prepared in advance. few (4%) used the interactive whiteboard provided by the videoconferencing tool, whereas 100% typed at least a message in the chat window. as this paper draws on an ongoing study, data is provisional. nonetheless, as the situation is constantly changing due to the regulations to curb the virus, it is fundamental to take a snapshot of the first year of ere to gain an insight into changes, opportunities and challenges involved in ere. 4.2. data collection data was collected through participant observation of online classes, a method increasingly adopted in qualitative research (kawulich, 2005; sindoni, 2020). the affinity of ca and ethnographic methods such as participant observation has been identified as one of the emergent methods to ask and answer new research questions (hesse-biber & leavy, 2008; kyprianou et al., 2015). however, participant observation is not widely adopted for data collection in ca research since it relies on recordings and video recordings (de kok, 2008). as clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 167 far as this research on ere is concerned, the constraints of video recordings required the researcher to adapt theoretical research methods (presence or absence of the observer) to these new forms of online lessons. though very useful for integrating field notes, the researcher could not rely solely on recorded classes. in contrast to the streamed ones, they did not display the chat interactions simultaneously with the audios. as the objectives of the present study necessitated tracking how the oral and written modes interact instantaneously, participant observation was adopted as a data collection method. therefore, even if ca methodology has an emic perspective, participant observation was chosen as the most suitable way to collect data for this study. while observing the lessons, the researcher benefitted from the same affordances as the other attendees. the researcher could see the public chat window and could send and receive private messages but did not have access to the lecturers’ private interactions with other attendees. this is not considered a limitation to the study, as the focus is on interactions in the chat involving the lecturers and the class. to limit unspontaneous behavior, neither the lecturer nor the students knew that the focus of the observation was on the interactions. at the beginning of the lesson, the researcher was introduced to the attendees. they were informed about the presence of a participant observer and accepted to attend the class. the researcher filled in a grid to collect general information about the setting (number of attendees, the main topic dealt with, resources and tools), and took notes about the interactions between the lecturer and the students by writing down the verbal interventions and copy pasting the posts from the chat window. while attending the online classes, the researcher took notes about the interactions and copied the messages from the chat. this study relies on four 2-hour-lessons, that is three english linguistics lectures and one practical english class to mirror the dataset collected during the observations (3/4 lectures and 1/4 practical english classes2); each of the analyzed classes was taught by a different teacher in spring 2020 (see the table below). this article reports on the cla sequences which involved the chat and occurred during the lesson. since the aim is to provide a qualitative analysis, quantitative data will not be discussed as they go beyond the purpose of the present paper. regarding the amount of data analyzed in this paper, an 8-hour dataset is in line with studies on ca, which recommend 5-10 hour datasets as the required amount for reliable studies (atar & seedhouse, 2018). fourteen extracts composed of interactions involving the chat were identified and analyzed using a micro-analytic lens. nine extracts were used in this paper to provide a preliminary overview of teacherand student-initiated cla involving the chat. table 1 overview of the dataset used for this paper lesson type of lesson extract teacher number of students present number of cla sequences involving the chat lesson 1 (may 2020) 2 hours english linguistics (lecture) 1, 3, 5 teacher a 98 3 lesson 2 (may 2020) 2 hours english linguistics (lecture) 2, 8 teacher b 123 2 lesson 3 (april 2020) 2 hours english linguistics (lecture) 4, 7, 9 teacher c 73 5 lesson 4 (april 2020) 2 hours practical english class 6 teacher d 33 4 4.3. data transcription and analysis to increase data reliability, the researcher integrated the manual transcription with missing details from the lesson recordings, which were available on the moodle course page and provided the timing and the exact content of the spoken utterances. the posts reported in the transcription objectively correspond to written intervention and are introduced by the symbol #. identifying elements were anonymized to comply with privacy regulations. 2 the composition of the dataset depended on the availability of the lecturers who participated in the study. giacosa e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 168 then, the manual transcription of the interactions was divided into sequences regarding the management of ts. only the exchanges involving cla are analyzed. after their identification, cla sequences were analyzed by locating the initiation (cli), the repair and the closing of the sequence (cls). finally, the repairs were analyzed by using the concepts self-initiated self-repair (sisr), self-initiated other-repair (sior), other-initiated self-repair (oisr), and other-initiated other-repair (oior) (schegloff et al., 1977). at the same time, turns were analyzed by identifying ms, and the components of the adjacency pairs (fpp, spp, see p. 5), and disrupted adjacencies (herring, 1999; ong, 2011; sacks, schegloff, & jefferson, 1974). exchanges uttered in the speakers’ l1 (italian) are reported in the original version, translated into english and written in brackets. the annotations of the researcher on relevant aspects of the interaction are written in italics and reported in brackets3. 5. findings in this section, preliminary qualitative results on conversational repairs in ere classes will be presented regarding the two research questions posed earlier in this article. 5.1. how conversational repairs operate in ere the transcriptions of ere classes show that the chat plays a fundamental role in maintaining mutual understanding between lecturers and students in many respects. first, students could start cla sequences by typing in the chat to reach out to the lecturer for help while experiencing troubled hearing and/or seeing, as shown in extract 1. extract 1. (lesson 1, lecture, teacher a, 98 students) cli r (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) # from student 1 to everyone [8:13]: prof mi scusi non la sento più (prof. excuse-me, i can’t. hear you anymore). lecturer: (reading out from the chat) [8:15] non mi sente più. provi ad uscire a rientrare. purtroppo, non c’è altro modo (you can’t hear me anymore. try leaving and accessing the room again. i’m afraid it is the only way). the extract shows an example of oisr, where student1 initiated a cla sequence by describing a problem, rather than asking a question. almost synchronously, the lecturer saw the question and addressed it orally by partially repeating the student’s sentence. then he provided a suggestion to fix the problem and a comment. it is not clear whether the ts was produced by the lecturer or due to a technical problem. however, the lecturer provided the repair to respond to the cla initiated by the student. in ere, a very frequent ts regards the quality of the rendering of shared materials on students’ devices. it often happened because the lecturers did not get any form of automatic feedback from the videoconferencing tool on the poor reception of the displayed and shared material. so, this example shows that the role of the chat is twofold. on the one hand, it facilitates learning and teaching. on the other hand, it provides valuable feedback to teachers, thus allowing them to help students. though incomplete, data shows that a cla sequence plays a crucial role in restoring mutual understanding, as displayed in extract 2. extract 2. (lesson 2, lecture, teacher b, 123 students) ts cli1 cli2 r (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) lecturer [3:50 pm]: ok, we can start again. […] (the lecturer went on explaining new concept without noticing that the slideshow got stuck on the first slide) # from student 1 to everyone [3:54 pm]: il power point è fermo. i'm sorry. (the slide show got stuck) # from student 2 to everyone [3:54 pm]: i can only see slide 7 lecturer [3:57 pm] somebody says: “i only see slide 7”. you can see it now, i guess. (the lecturer did not wait for the reply and carried on with the lesson by repeating the concepts and showing the slides that students had not seen.) 3 ts= trouble source, cli= clarification initiation, r= repair, ms= mode-switching, #= message from the chat, (l1 in italics= the message in the original language), sisr= self-initiated self-repair, sior= self-initiated other-repair, oisr= otherinitiated self-repair, oior= other-initiated other-repair, fpp (first pair part of an adjacency pair), spp (second pair part of an adjacency pair). clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 169 in this extract, the lecturer was explaining new concepts by referring to the slides, but he did not notice that the slideshow was stuck. he continued referring to slides that the students could not see, thus making it difficult for them to follow the lesson (ts). at this point, two students simultaneously started a cla by writing in the chat (lines 4 and 6). even if it took one minute for the lecturer to notice the messages, the chat window played a crucial role in re-establishing mutual comprehension. after reading the postings, the lecturer fixed the freeze (line 7) and performed an oisr by repeating the concepts and showing the slides that the students had not been able to see. then, the lecturer introduced new notions without asking for feedback on the repair. this cla sequence has no closure, but it is interwoven into the rest of the lesson. nonetheless, similarly to extract 1, this incomplete cla sequence fostered an epistemic change (heritage, 1984) by moving from k(not knowing) to k+ (knowing) (heritage, 2012). after that, the lecturer could cover the planned steps of his lesson. second, lecturers could start cla sequences by asking questions orally and additionally typing messages in the chat. while streaming classes, it was not easy for lecturers to collect feedback from their students, which caused insecurity. when they sensed a ts, they felt compelled to interrupt the lesson and reach out to students orally while writing a message in the chat, as shown in extract 3. extract 3. (lesson 1, lecture, teacher a, 98 students) cli ms r cls ms (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) lecturer [8:56]: can you still hear me? i feel there is something wrong. you may be having troubles hearing. # from lecturer to everyone [8:57] can you hear me? i can’t hear anybody. # from student 1 to everyone [8:57] yes, we can hear you student 2 [8:57]: you muted and unmuted everybody. lecturer [8:57]: oh, i see. thank you. in this example, the lecturer was not receiving feedback from students and assumed they were having problems following the lesson. first, they orally asked and then wrote a question in the chat (ms) to address a possible ts, thus initiating a cla. it is an example of sior, where the teacher sensed a ts and started a cla sequence while a student provided a repair. student 1 reassured the lecturer about the maintenance of intersubjectivity, while student 2 orally addressed the ts. by accident and unknowingly, the lecturer had muted and then unmuted the participants; the repair provided by student 2 made the lecturer realize what had happened, thus targeting an epistemic gap. the lecturer replied orally (ms) by using the change-of-state marker “oh”, which is a strong indicator of epistemic change (heritage, 1984) from k(not knowing) to k+ (knowing) (heritage, 2012). in this extract, the lecturer used the chat as an additional resource to identify ts and reach out to students to maintain intersubjectivity. so, even if the oral channel is the preferred means for lecturers to ask for a repair, the chat can help restore mutual comprehension. in turn, for students, the chat appears as an effective way to provide feedback and actively participating in the lesson, even though oral speech is a quick and decisive means of providing repair and feedback. third, cla sequences involving the chat can be complex. for example, they can contain disrupted turn adjacency, caused by the fact that messages appear in the order received by the system, without regard for what they are responding to (herring, 1999), as shown in extract 4. extract 4. (lesson 3, lecture, teacher c, 73 students) ts cli r ms cls1 fpp (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) lecturer [2:50 pm]: do you have any questions about the universal of translation? # from student 1 to everyone [2:50 pm]: what about son, figliolo and so on? they’re now familiar but it’s something strange. # from student 1 to everyone [2:51 pm]: also “campione” lecturer [2:51 pm]: ok there are some questions regarding task 2 (reading out from the chat) if my revision for translation is not good, it that means i would fail the exam explanation, (answering) no absolutely not, student 1 (name) is offering us alternative solutions (reading out from the chat) son, figliolo and so on? they’re now familiar but it’s something strange. (addressing the student) what do you mean? student 1 [2:52 pm]: that, i can’t remember the word for doppiaggio… i was wondering, are there any alternatives? giacosa e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 170 cls1 spp ms (14) (15) lecturer [2:52 pm]: yes, well, we often say it […]4 # from student 2 to everyone [2:53 pm] ‘yo’ reminds me of spanish not afro-american :/ i don’t know cls2 spp ms (15) # from student 1 to everyone [2:54 pm] grazie! the teacher asked a question verbally and student 1 answered in the chat. her answer was split into two turns, which shows that the student added a part of the answer after sending the message. at this point, the teacher looked at the chat, noticed and addressed orally a previous question a student had written in the chat (disrupted adjacency pair). then the teacher read out student 1’s answer, identified it as a ts, and initiated a cla by asking a type-specific question (tsq) and eliciting an oisr. student 1 activated her microphone to provide a verbal repair (ms referring to her previous turn). the teacher closed the cla by giving feedback. while the teacher was talking, two messages appeared in the chat window. another student (student 2) wrote a comment in the chat whereas student 1 closed the sequence by typing a thank you message (ms and disrupted adjacency pair). finally, messages in the chat could contain a ts, which required cla, as shown in extract 5. extract 5. (lesson 1, lecture, teacher a, 98 students) ts cli fpp r spp cls (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) lecturer [9:12]: was old english similar or different from modern english? # from student 1 to everyone [9:12]: yes lecturer [9:12]: yes? similar or different? # from student 2 to everyone [9:12]: different # from student 3 to everyone [9:12]: different # from student 4 to everyone [9:12]: different # from student 1 to everyone [9:12]: different # from student 5 to everyone [9:12]: very different # from student 6 to everyone [9:12]: different # from student 7 to everyone [9:12]: different # from student 8 to everyone [9:12]: different # from student 9 to everyone [9:12]: different lecturer [9:12]: fantastic in this example of oisr, the cla sequence occurs in a multiparty and multi-floor conversation, which shows how complex interactions can be in video-mediated communication. in line 1, the lecturer asked a question addressing the whole class. student 1’s answer was not consistent with the question (line 2), thus creating a ts. in line 3, the lecturer initiated the cla sequence by partially repeating the question and locating ts. this utterance is the first part of an adjacency pair (fpp). even if cli was addressing student 1’s answer, other students answered. their posts (lines 4, 5, 6) appeared before student 1’s repair (line 7), namely the second pair part of the adjacency pair (spp), thus providing an example of disrupted adjacency turn. as other messages appeared between student 1’s repair (line 7) and the lecture’s oral closing of the cla sequence (line 13), we could talk about a disrupted cla sequence. cls (line 13) has a double function: on the one hand, it provided feedback to the students’ answers; on the other hand, it closed the cla. it seems relevant that the chat allows students and lecturers to interact while using two modes: the lecturers interacted orally while the students typed in the chat (written mode). 5.2. to what extent the chat, as a means of intersubjectivity, affects student behavior in ere the extracts analyzed in the previous section shed light on how cla sequences involving the chat can operate to maintain or restore mutual comprehension in ere classes. the examples described in this section will delve into some of possible effects of the chat window as a means of intersubjectivity on student behaviour in ere classes. first, the possibility to address ts by typing in the chat box can encourage student participation. extract 6 shows that the chat allows students to actively contribute to mutual understanding during online classes by integrating the lecturer’s repair. 4 the transcription of the turn is not provided as it goes beyond the scope of this study. clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 171 extract 6. (lesson 4, efl class, teacher d, 33 students) ts 6a cli r 6b cls and cli 6c r ts r r+ cls cls (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) lecturer [10:20]: student 1 (name), can you read sentence number 3? student 1 [10:20](reading out from the book): i phoned the customer. his invoice hadn’t arrived. (to the lecturer) what’s invoice? lecturer [10:21]: it’s fattura student 1 [10:21]: sorry, i got confused with another word lecturer [10:22]: maybe it’s mail voice # from student 2 to everyone [10:23] voice mail lecturer [10:23]: yes it’s voice mail thank you, student 2 (name) # from student 2 to everyone [10:24] aah okay student 1 was reading a sentence (line 2) when she came across a ts (the word invoice). within the same turn, she initiated a cla sequence (sequence 6a) by asking orally a type-specific question (tsq) (what’s invoice?, line 3) and the lecturer provided repair by translating the word into italian (line 4). as the perceived ts was in the book, we will arbitrarily consider it related to the teacher and this sequence an example of oisr. student 1 closed the cla sequence by apologizing and explaining the ts (line 5), which initiated another cla sequence (sequence 6b), namely an sior, as the lecturer provided a repair (line 6). however, the repair performed by the teacher (line 6) was partly incorrect and perceived as a ts by student 2 (sequence 6c), who provided a repair in the chat (oior in line 7). this cla sequence is closed by two interventions. the lecturer repeated student 2’s repair providing an example of oisr, while student 2 typed an interjection and the adverb okay in the chat, typical of the oral exchanges. therefore, a cla sequence can benefit from different repair strategies, which shows the crucial role of the chat in intersubjectivity, even though it does not play a leading role. conversely, when lecturers do not address the cla required by a student, this can negatively affect student participation and involvement, as shown in extract 7. extract 7. (lesson 4, efl class, teacher d, 33 students) fpp spp ms cli (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) lecturer [3:10 pm]: “a mala pena” (in italian) how can you translate it? student 1 [3:10 pm]: hardly lecturer [3:10 pm]: very good student 1 (name), do you mind writing the clause or maybe speak up? # from student 2 to everyone [3:10 pm]: he has barely written something. # from student 3 to everyone [3:10 pm]: ron barely wrote anything (?) # from student 4 to everyone [3:10 pm]: hardly # from student 5 to everyone [3:10 pm]: barely # from student 6 to everyone [3:10 pm]: barely # from student 7 to everyone [3:10 pm]: hardly # from student 8 to everyone [3:10 pm]: hardly # from student 1 to everyone [3:10 pm]: ron barely wrote anything # from student 9 to everyone [3:10 pm]: what does mean “a mala pena”? sorry for the question i am not italian and i did not understand the meaning (student 9 did not participate any more he had been participating very actively by sending 4 messages in 40 minutes)5 in this extract, the lecturer asked to translate a phrase (line 1) and received an oral answer from student 1 (line 2), which he perceived as partial. so, he encouraged the student to provide the complete sentence by either writing in the chat or speaking up again (lines 3-4, fpp). at this point, different messages appeared in the chat window, as other students typed their answers (lines 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10), student 1 included (line 11, ms). due to the order of appearance, student 1’s answer (spp in line 6) was preceded by other messages (disrupted adjacency pair). in lines 13 and 14, student 9, who perceived the phrase in line 1 as a ts, initiated a cla sequence (oisr) with a type-specific question (tsq) for the lecturer (what does mean "a mala pena”?). then he apologized and provided further information to clarify his question. the lecturer, who was sharing his screen, overlooked the question and carried on with the lesson without repairing it. so, this cla sequence is 5 from the researcher’s notes. giacosa e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 172 incomplete since no repair was provided. as annotated by the researcher, student 9, who had typed a message every ten minutes before this turn, did not type any more messages. even if technical issues cannot be ruled out, it is relevant to notice the negative effect of the overlooked question on student 9’s participation and involvement. second, the possibility to provide repair through the chat increases the cooperation among students and with the lecturer, as shown in extract 8. extract 8. (lesson 2, lecture, teacher b, 123 students) ts cli r cls r ms (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) lecturer [3:38 pm]: ok, see you in 10 minutes (he switched off his camera and microphone) # from student 1 to everyone [3:39 pm]: che è successo? (what’s going on?) #from student 2 to everyone [3:39 pm]: ha dato una pausa di 10 minuti (has given us a 10 minute break) # from student 1 to everyone [3:39 pm] ah ok, grazie. ❤ (ok, thanks) ❤ # from lecturer to everyone [3:39 pm] 10 minute break this extract shows that while not sharing the same environment, tss can be unexpected and not related to the lesson content. the lecturer orally announced a 10-minute break and switched off his camera (line 1). student 1 initiated a cla sequence by typing a type-specific question (tsq) on the chat addressing the whole class (line 2). student 2 provided a repairoior (line 3)and student 1 closed the sequence by typing a reaction (ah ok), a change of state token which typically shows an epistemic change from k to k+ (heritage, 1984, 2012). moreover, student 1 typed a thank you message and an emoticon (the red heart, line 5). at that point, the lecturer realized there had been trouble understanding and announced the break in the chat, thus providing a repair through ms (line 6, oisr). students were active in initiating cla sequences and providing repairs, thus helping lecturers to achieve intersubjectivity. at the same time, the sequence shows that thanks to the chat, cla can be both oior and oisr, thus revealing the complexities of repair in video-mediated communication. finally, students use the affordances of the videoconferencing tool like emoticons to compensate for the distance. finally, given that words fly, and writings remain, students seem willing to make their messages clear by self-correcting their mistakes in future posts, as shown in extract 9. extract 9. (lesson 3, lecture, teacher c, 73 students) ts r (1) (2) (3) # from student 1 to everyone [3:39 pm]: good morning, i didn't attend last lessons, but i am interested in shakespeare too # from student 1 to everybody [3:39 pm]: last lesson, sorry […]6 (3:43 he read the chat. the lecturer was not addressing the chat first, but then he did; he did not comment on the self-correction7) it is an example of sisr, where student 1 reached out to the lecturer (line 1) regarding the topic of the class (corpus linguistics applied to literary texts): he wanted to join in the group dealing with shakespeare. the interpretation of ts is debatable. the student might have referred to a spelling mistake (plural instead of singular, line 1). alternatively, they might have felt compelled to avoid a misunderstanding as they exclusively referred to the previous lesson. regardless, student 1 perceived the post as a ts and performed a sisr by typing the correction and an apology without waiting for a cli. it is a self-initiated, self-completed, same turn repairs, an element described in both face-to-face conversations (mchoul, 1990; schegloff et al., 1977) and computermediated communication (garcia & jacobs, 1998; meredith, 2019; schönfeldt & golato, 2003). a few minutes later, the lecturer read the message and addressed it. even if the lecturer might not have detected a ts in the student's post, it is relevant that the student used the chat to ensure intersubjectivity. 6 the transcription of the following turns is not provided as it goes beyond the scope of this study. 7 from the researcher’s notes. clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 173 table 2 overview of the different examples of repair8 repair type ts cli repair initiator repair performer cls performer extract 1 oisr teacher (oral) student (chat) teacher (oral) extract 2 oisr teacher student (chat) student (chat) teacher (oral) extract 3 sior medium teacher (oral)+ chat ms1 (oral>written) ms2 (written>oral) student (oral) lecturer(oral) extract 4 oisr student (chat) teacher (oral) student (oral) ms (written>oral) teacher (oral) student (chat) ms (oral>written) extract 5 oisr student (chat) teacher (oral) student (chat) teacher (oral) extract 6a oisr book student (oral) teacher (oral) student (oral) extract 6b sior student (oral) student (oral) teacher (oral) extract 6c oior+ oisr teacher (oral) student (chat) student (chat) teacher (oral) student (chat) teacher (oral) extract 7 oisr teacher (oral) student (chat) ms (oral>written) extract 8 oior+ oisr teacher (oral) student (chat) student (chat) teacher (chat) ms (oral>written) student (chat) extract 9 sisr student (chat) student (chat) 6. discussion regarding the first research question (how do conversational repairs operate in ere?), this study shows that the chat helped speakers reach intersubjectivity in many respects. concerning the repair initiator, data shows that both students (extracts 1, 2, 6, 7, 8) and lecturers (extracts 3, 4, 5) started a cla9. classroom conversation in emergency streamed classes appears to be a multiparty collaboration, as both parties contribute to maintaining or restoring intersubjectivity. it is in line with studies on sla in brick-and-mortar classrooms (åhlund & aronsson, 2015; koschmann, 2016; mc houl, 1990) and online environments (licoppe & morel, 2018; melander bowden & svahn, 2020; meredith, 2019; meredith & stokoe, 2014), which question the predominance of teachers in cla sequences and shed light on student agency. indeed, during a streamed lesson, students could start a cla sequence by typing comments and questions in the chat (for example, extracts 1, 2) or orally asked for cla (extract 6). in turn, lecturers could also exploit the different affordances of the medium and use written and oral speech, even if data shows a preference towards oral cla. they preferred starting a cla orally (extracts 4, 5) and used the chat as an additional means of communication (extract 3). by contrast, students preferred to start a cla by typing a question in the chat, which allowed them to ask for clarification without interrupting the lesson (extracts 1, 2, 6, 7, 8). the possibility of initiating a cla via chat had the additional benefit of providing lecturers with feedback on what was shown or played (extracts 1, 2). as lecturers and students did not share the same physical environment, the former did not have any information about the quality of hearing and seeing on the devices of the latter. so, mutual comprehension was enhanced thanks to postings in the chat as they provided lecturers with feedback and allowed them to address ts. 8 see appendix list of acronyms. 9 see appendixlist of acronyms. giacosa e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 174 regarding the type of repairs analyzed in this study, self-repair is preferred to other-repair: in the examples, self-repair (either oisr or sisr) occurred in all the extracts but one (extract 3). in line with studies on cla (mchoul 1990; schegloff et al. 1977; schönfeld & golato, 2003), oisr appears to be the main pattern of interaction in ere. concerning the repair organization, data regarding ere is in agreement with the outcomes of previous studies on computer-mediated communication (herring 1999; schönfeldt & golato, 2003). the constraints of the medium have a considerable impact on the turn-taking system. for example, each message is considered a turn, which makes the concept of transition relevance place (trp) inapplicable (meredith & stokoe 2014; schönfeldt & golato, 2003). as interactants have no control over the order of appearance of their posts, also the notion of next-turn repair is hardly applicable in this context. furthermore, the same ts can generate different types of repairs performed by different interactants using different modes. in extract 6c, for example, the repair is performed by a student via chat (oior) and by the teacher orally (oisr). in extract 8, the repair is performed by a student (oior) and the teacher (oisr) via chat. the differences between mundane and online interactions go beyond the scope of this paper. what is relevant is that, despite the difficulties and the peculiarities of the new setting, the extracts show that tss were addressed but in one example, and mutual comprehension was restored. concerning the repair performer, it can be noticed that also in this case both teachers and students provided repair. as far as students are concerned, they provided oisr in extracts 4 and 5. extract 4 is particularly revealing, as the student accepted the lecturer’s suggestion and orally repaired to clarify a ts that he had produced by writing in the chat. it confirms lecturers' preference for oral repairs and the supporting role of the chat in repair. lecturers identified ts in the chat but encouraged students to orally self-repair as they would not be hindered by the constraints of computer-mediated communication and could express themselves more extensively. despite their preference for oral repairs, lecturers adapted to the setting and used the chat to clarify, as shown in extract 8. this observation is in line with studies on repair in online environments, which underline that online interaction is an adaptation of an oral speech-exchange system (meredith, 2019; meredith & stokoe, 2014). participants adjust the repair practices from ordinary conversation to suit the affordances and constraints of the online medium (schönfeld & golato, 2003). regarding the distribution of ms, it can be noticed that there are six occurrences of mode-switching out of 58 turns (10.3%). this rate is lower than the findings of sindoni’s studies, which suggest that the average rate of mode-switching is between 11% and 15% (sindoni, 2020). this difference can be explained by the fact that sindoni investigated interactions either in informal contexts or in an instructional context but within a study on ms, which might have produced a higher number of occurrences. in line with sindoni’s studies on ms, it appears that “mode switching is neither casual nor erratic in these texts. this does not mean that it has been possible to determine specific and recurrent patterns of mode switching so far, but this notion has proved useful in explorations of the spoken/written continuum in digital habitats” (sindoni, 2014, p. 332). indeed, from the preliminary findings on ere presented in this study, it can be observed that both lecturers and students performed it. the former mode-switched from oral to written speech to initiate a repair (extract 3) and provide it (extract 8). in the first case, the lecturer mode-switched to written speech to support a cli performed orally and then went back to the oral mode to close the cla sequence. in the second case, the lecturer mode-switched to adapt to the mode chosen by students. both examples confirm that the lecturers use the chat to support their oral utterances and not as a primary means of cla. regarding students, extract 4 contains two occurrences of ms. the first one is from written to oral speech. the student wrote something that the lecturer perceived as a ts and was asked to explain it orally. after the cls was orally performed by the lecturer, the student thanked by typing in the chat (ms oral > written). this example confirms that the preferred means of cla is the oral one. extract 7 is an example of ms from oral to written; in this case, the lecturer encouraged the student to use an adverb in a complete sentence either orally or in the chat. at this point, the student decided to mode-switch and used the chat to write a full sentence. further research is needed, but it is worth observing that the chat appears to be a useful tool for short answers, but it is not suitable to provide longer explanations. even though data shows that the chat can facilitate interaction and mutual comprehension, its peculiarities encourage students to choose conciseness over clarity. since the chat embedded in the videoconferencing tools does not indicate if someone is typing a message, the interlocutors tend to be concise to answer as soon as possible to allocate their turn to detriment of clarity, as already shown in studies on computer-mediated communication (herring, 1999, 2018; schönfeld & golato, 2003). for this reason, the messages in the chat can be a ts, as shown in extracts 4 and 5. at this point, the lecturer tended to orally initiate a cla sequence by reading out the trouble source and ask a question to help the student clarify (pr+whs), in line with the findings on cla in efl face-to-face classes (atar & seedhouse, 2018; schegloff, 2007). extract 5 clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 175 shows that not only the addressee answered, but also other attendees wrote the repair in the chat. this is typical of multiparty communication, which makes it challenging for the participants to identify pair adjacency (herring, 1999; meredith & stokoe, 2014; ong, 2011). concerning cla, it requires an effort from the lecturer to identify the repair when it appears in the chat with other messages (extract 5). moreover, in multiparty conversations involving the chat, lecturers can miss information, which is crucial in the case of a cli (extract 7), as it fails to address a cla, thus affecting mutual comprehension. finally, it can be time-consuming and distracting to manage the interplay of oral and spoken conversation. as extract 2 shows, the time-management of an online lesson can be affected by technical issues; the lecturer performed the repair but then went on with the explanation without closing the cla sequence. even though clas could be incomplete, what matters is that mutual comprehension could be achieved in ere. indeed, this study’s data confirm that in ere classroom, too, interaction is not per se flawed, but just a differently-abled kind of conversation (herring, 1999; ong 2011). however, further studies could compare the rate of failures in cla in ere and face-to-face environments to have a deeper insight into possible problems and solutions regarding the former. concerning the second research question (to what extent does the chat as a means of intersubjectivity affect student behaviour in ere classes?), the possibility to write in the chat window actively involved other students in the cla sequence, thus increasing their participation at various degrees. for example, in extract 1 a student having trouble hearing started a cla by typing in the chat, thus actively contributing to ensure his understanding. in extract 2, students reached out to the lecturer starting a cla via chat to restore intersubjectivity for the whole class. as one of the feelings reported by the lecturers was the sensation of talking into an empty space, these examples show that ere classes were not deserted places per se. they could be made livelier and more interactive by encouraging the students to use the tools embedded in the medium, as will be discussed in the following section. despite not being able to always collect feedback from students’ facial expressions, extract 3 shows that in ere, too, lecturers could activate student participation by asking them questions, as it happens in a face-to-face class (jenks, 2021; wong & waring, 2020). in this setting, they could offer students more options: they encouraged them either to write in the chat or to unmute the microphones and speak up (extract 7) (giacosa, 2021a). this option dramatically increased student participation in terms of the quantity and quality of the interventions. regarding the former, extracts 5 and 7 show that an open question to the class could get several answers. for example, the question in extract 7 (“a mala pena”, how can you translate it?) receives eight answers and a cli. it would be interesting to compare in further studies the answer rate regarding a similar question to quantify the impact of the chat in terms of the number of responses to an open question. for the scope of this qualitative study, it is relevant to notice that in virtually streamed classes the presence of the chat positively affects student participation. concerning the quality of student participation, it seems relevant that despite the constraints and challenges, students could actively participate by commenting on the topic via chat, as in extract 4 (line 2-3 and 14-15). even if messages are concise, students wrote comments in the target language by using complete sentences, which is valuable from the sla point of view (atar & seedhouse, 2018; walsh, 2011). therefore, lecturers should be aware of the importance of the chat to encourage student participation thus maximizing their opportunities to interact also in the foreign language. as extract 7 shows, when lecturers failed to address a cla, this could have consequences on a student’s participation. second, the possibility to write in the chat encouraged the collaboration with other students and the lecturer to achieve intersubjectivity. data shows that despite the challenges and constraints, students actively participated in ere classes by helping target epistemic gaps for the lectures and other students’ benefit. this complies with the socio-cultural approach to foreign language teaching and learning, which highlights the benefits of co-constructing meaning in l2 classes (hampel, 2019). compared to a face-to-face lesson, the chat virtually increased the number of possible interlocutors: if in a physical classroom a student would ask his/her desk mate or a nearby person for cla, by writing in the chat student 1 was virtually addressing any other attendee (there were 123 participants in the lesson plus the lecturer). even though student 2 had not been specifically addressed by student 1, he/she felt compelled to provide repair. moreover, by using the emoticon student 1 could compensate for the lack of facial clues in the digital setting and make the message more personal, as shown also in other studies on ere classes (luporini, 2020). at the same time, the chat encourages more interlocutors to provide repair as is the case in extract 6, where the repair was provided by both the lecturer and a student. while the former orally provided a repair, the latter typed a repair in the chat. so, without interrupting the lecturer, a student used the chat by integrating the lecturer’s answer thus collaborating to tackle a ts. giacosa e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 176 finally, as extract 9 shows, the possibility to write in the chat encourages students to self-correct both in terms of accuracy and mutual comprehension. even if the example is debatable, as the motivation of the student for self-correcting is not clear, it is relevant that students care for the accuracy and consistency of their messages and self-correct. this aspect, which is in line with studies on computer-mediated communication (meredith & stokoe, 2014; schönfeldt & golato, 2003), seems relevant from an sla point of view, as it could be exploited to encourage student attention towards accuracy and clarity in the target language, two fundamental aspects of sla (walsh, 2011; wong & waring, 2020). 6.1. pedagogical implications from the analysis of the extracts, it can be assumed that teachers should encourage students to use the chat by asking questions and eliciting feedback to double-check their understanding. the chat maximizes the possibilities for students to ask for cla as they can write their questions without interrupting the lesson, which shy students can find handy. the questions in the chat can provide feedback and help the lecturer identify trouble sources regarding the contents and provide repair, namely oisr (extract 2). furthermore, as the posts are often in the target language, lecturers can use them to help students focus on common mistakes regarding the english language and even ask them to self-correct. it is in line with studies on the role of interaction in sla: students can learn in interactions by being exposed to target-like and non-target-like forms to understand the difference, thus improving their proficiency (hampel 2019; hampel & pleines, 2013). as studies on computermediated communication show (herring, 1999; zitzen & stein, 2004), it is not infrequent that students and teachers amend their own mistakes by rewriting the correct version of their post and adding an asterisk * (sisr). the chat can also be used for pedagogical purposes by asking students to provide answers and translations; lecturers could read them out and correct them (oior, extracts 6c and 8) or use them to elicit students’ self-repair (oisr) (extract 5). to achieve the same result in a face-to-face class, the lecturer would have to ask single students either to write their answers on a blackboard or to show him/her their notebook, which would be more time-consuming. by contrast, in an online lesson, lecturers can copy students’ answers from the chat and paste them into a shared document; later, they can provide learners with lists of common mistakes and corrections. the pandemic has made every teacher and student more familiar with the affordances of digital platforms which could enhance cla and repair during face-to-face classes as well. ere has blurred the borders between brick-and-mortar universities and online environments: for example, both students and lecturers could benefit from the possibility to write questions and answers in a shared chat during an in-person class as well, to collect and give feedback, provide and elicit cla and repair. data shows that providing students with more options to interact (orally and writing in the chat) in the target language increases their participation and engagement during the lesson impacting their proficiency (for example, extract 7). it is especially crucial in higher education, as classes can be large and the possibility for students to interact in l2 is limited (aoumeur, 2017; todd, 2013). moreover, by encouraging students to write their contributions in the chat, lecturers can increase cooperation. in turn, by typing messages in the chat, not only can students ask for cla, but they can provide oior, thus actively contributing to achieving mutual understanding for everyone’s benefit (extract 8). it can improve the classroom atmosphere, which is crucial in l2 classes, where students need to feel at ease to express themselves in a foreign language (hampel & pleines, 2013). interactions in the chat can be more informal, which encourages students to participate more actively (hardt, 2018; luporini, 2020). moreover, student involvement in chat interactions can help teachers to maintain mutual understanding by tackling ts. it partially relieves the teachers of being the sole cla providers, which is challenging in an online environment, as shown in this study. this aspect is relevant in the social constructivist view of language learning (see p. 4). in an emergency remote class, lecturers and students cooperate and co-construct meaning while interacting to achieve mutual understanding through the screen, adjusting to the constraints and affordances of the medium. as the extracts show, the chat is a powerful tool that allows teachers and students to cooperate and contribute to meaning-making. it seems a relevant aspect of video-mediated communication to be treasured for face-to-face classes as well. in line with studies on new technologies and sla (hampel, 2019; stickler & hampel 2015), the extracts show that the chat feature is an effective tool to reduce the teacher talking time and tutor dominance. thanks to the chat, english linguistics lectures can be more similar to a conversation, even if this can involve speech and written messages. provided that the lecturer accepts students’ contributions, lessons could be more interactive and learner-centered, as studies on l2 classes recommend (hampel, 2019). moreover, students will have to engage by using the foreign language more actively than in a traditional in-person lecture. after typing a message in the chat, they can double-check for accuracy, as they know it will be on display and everybody clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 177 will read it. unlike in face-to-face classes, where proficient students are likely to interact the most (atar seedhouse, 2018; hampel & de los arcos 2013), the chat in video-mediated communication encourages everybody to express themselves in the foreign language. as the written message can be a trouble source (extract 9), students try to be as clear as possible to make the readers understand their point. if the message is not clear, the lecturer can ask the student who provided the trouble source to activate their microphones and provide repair (oisr) by expressing themselves more clearly in the foreign language (extract 4). as shown in studies on sla, this will positively affect students’ proficiency by providing them with tools and habits to deal with misunderstandings and cla in l2 (atar & seedhouse, 2018; walsh 2011). moreover, the genuine need to achieve mutual understanding by using a foreign language is very close to the actual needs of a real conversation. by making the lecturer notice that they are having connection problems or asking the lecturer to provide cla, students train their skills to interact in l2 for their needs. it scaffolds their abilities and empowers them as speakers (atar & seedhouse, 2018; kasper & wagner, 2011; walsh, 2011). therefore, lecturers should encourage them to actively participate in the lesson by writing messages in the chat. however, data shows that lecturers need to adjust the timing of cla to the medium. the most common videoconferencing tools such as webex, zoom, microsoft teams and google meet do not provide information about messages being typed (sindoni, 2014, 2020). so, lecturers should give enough time to students to ask for cla or provide repair (either self-repair or otherrepair) by typing messages. it could help students provide more complex postings with main, subordinate clauses and linkers, thus positively impacting their proficiency. as questions in the chat can be distracting, they could agree with their students on how to deal with them. for example, the chat could be used during the lesson for urgent matters, such as asking for cla or providing repair, or for more complex answers, whereas simple feedback such as “yes” and “no” could be provided by using the reactions button (for example, thumbs up or down). moreover, lecturers could plan to devote a part of the lesson to encourage students’ contributions and questions and scroll down the messages from the chat to provide repair. as shown in extracts 5 and 7, this is important to involve students more actively. besides, it could offer the possibility to tackle linguistic issues concerning vocabulary or grammar consolidation. this paper argues that the possibility to ask for cla via chat could be offered also in face-to-face classes to integrate the feedback provided by students’ facial expressions and their whispering. moreover, it could help teachers have a quick overview of the trouble sources and difficult points, to keep track of questions and trouble sources, for which they could provide repair at a later time. finally, the extracts show lecturers read postings and paste links in the chat, but they prefer providing cla orally. even if more extensive investigations are needed, the extracts show that lecturers do not paste explanations or definitions from their slides in the chat. as it is an interactive space, where materials can be exchanged, it seems that lecturers should use the chat more to provide examples and explanations from the slides. like in a face-to-face class, the attendees of a video-mediated lesson can read what is displayed, but they cannot copy and paste sentences from the screen into their notes. even though lecturers usually upload their slides on their webpage before or after the class, students could benefit from the possibility to copy sentences from the chat into their devices to focus on relevant points and consolidate their knowledge. extracts from ere classes discussed in this paper show that the pandemic opened the traditional faceto-face classroom revealing to cohorts of teachers and students the opportunities of video-mediated interaction for educational purposes. not only had the students more options to interact and prove themselves in the foreign language, but they actively contributed to meaning-making even more than in face-to-face classes, thus limiting tutor dominance. studies on sla had already highlighted the importance of including new technologies in sla to adopt a more learner-centered approach and involve students more actively, thus facilitating learning (hampel, 2019; sert, 2019; walsh, 2011). for example, besides regularly checking the messages, lecturers should incorporate the chat into their teaching, by encouraging students to use it and even planning activities involving it. despite the challenges and complexities, ere has revealed ways to make l2 lessons more interactive which should be incorporated in l2 classes, both in-person and online. therefore, instead of going back to in-person classes as they were before the pandemic, lecturers should try to incorporate affordances of video-mediated communication such as a shared chat window into face-to-face lessons, which could encourage student participation and increase interaction. 7. conclusions this paper has addressed cla in ere classes from a ca and multimodal perspective to account for video-mediated interactions between students and lecturers under unprecedented circumstances. this giacosa e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 178 qualitative analysis shows that lecturers and students adjusted to the new instructional context. the preliminary findings highlight some recurrent behaviors: for example, lecturers would orally interact, while students would write in the chat. this resulted in increased student participation, which confirms sla studies (hampel, 2019; walsh, 2011). whereas the chat enhanced the interaction in efl classes, it made it more demanding for the lecturers to carry on with the lesson and address students’ many requests and comments. lecturers could not rely on the students’ facial expressions, as usual, to detect trouble in understanding. they controlled the chat while sharing their screen and delivering new content; they decided how to properly address a ts. it was not always easy due to the constraints of the medium: during screen sharing, the chat window became so small that lecturers could hardly keep track of the messages. on the one hand, data shows that the chat has a tremendous potential to enhance interaction and l2 acquisition. on the other hand, it requires the lecturers to know how to handle it and use it for pedagogical purposes, as is the case with cla. the more lecturers manage aspects of video-mediated interaction such as cla, the better their students will deal with trouble interacting in l2, in the classroom and real world (sert, 2015, 2019; walsh, 2011, 2012). therefore, digital interactional competence should become part of teacher training for multiple reasons. first, data shows it is an essential and specific skill. second, given that lessons have already had to quickly move online due to public health and safety concerns (for example, during the sars outbreak in 2003), remote teaching cannot be ruled out, so teachers must be ready (barbour et al., 2020). third, before the pandemic, distance learning was increasingly spreading, as studies on trends of higher education showed (gaebel et al., 2014; gaebel & zhang, 2018). therefore, teachers will likely be required to respond to the increasing demand for digital interactional competence. fourth, by treasuring the wisdom learnt and the awareness gained during the pandemic, they could embrace features and strategies to open up the physical classroom. the more lecturers can open their brick-and-mortar classes to the affordances provided by technology, the more frequently their students will interact and practice the target language. to this extent, teachers and lecturers should be trained not to fear change. in this smart new world, the borders between physical and virtual places can be blurred. so, teachers should employ technology originally typical of virtual environments to enhance the possibilities of the physical classroom. studies on second-language acquisition highlighted the crucial contribution of cla to l2 learning (atar & seedhouse, 2018; jenks, 2021; kasper & wagner, 2011; walsh, 2011). not only do teachers evaluate the epistemic gap and choose the appropriate strategy to handle it, but they can help students make longer repairs, thus improving their language skills. in video-mediated communication, lecturers must choose between different strategies and different modes to deal with cla. data shows that this can affect both mutual understanding and student participation (which, by the way, is an issue of concern due to distance). therefore, it seems strategic for lecturers to reflect on their interaction in ere classes. they should be trained on how to appropriately use the affordances provided by the digital tools in the possible future scenarios for education, namely online and hybrid environments (barbour et al., 2020; peters et al., 2020). for instance, further research could employ walsh’s sett (self-evaluation of teacher talk in walsh, 2006, 2011) framework to enhance video-mediated communication. this validated tool for helping teachers create better interactions in l2 classes (walsh et al., 2011; walsh & mann, 2015) could benefit from microanalysis of video-mediated interactions to enhance teacher digital interaction. it seems a relevant topic of study as videoconferencing has been massively adopted for online classes in the pandemic and online and hybrid classes may be a widespread instructional setting in the future. concerning the limitations of this study, this paper deals with a relatively small group of informants, who belong to the same field (efl studies), which makes the outcomes hardly generalizable. it investigates cla sequences in video-mediated communication and their possible effects on student behaviour leaving aside other fundamental elements like triadic dialogue. this study has a logocentric approach and does not report on fundamental aspects of videoconferencing. data on multimodal sources (video and audio materials), proxemic, kinetic elements and gaze management in ere could enrich teacher interactional competence (sindoni, 2014, 2020). this study addresses interaction in ere as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. however, it does not deal with the alternation of l1 in l2 classes per se and with the mode, which could prove to be a thoughtprovoking area of research. finally, despite recommending that teachers increase their digital interactional competence, it does not provide any self-analytical tool. in conclusion, this study provided a snapshot of the dramatic changes that lecturers and students experienced and their possible pedagogical implications. further investigations on ere are needed to unearth ways to enhance interaction in face-to-face, online and hybrid classes thanks to the unprecedented experience of videoconferencing on a massive scale. however, the study shed light on the opportunities and challenges of clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 179 ere video-mediated communication, its possible impact on sla and on the need for specific training to help teachers successfully deal with a kind of interaction that could be playing a relevant role soon. acknowledgments i would like to thank prof. v. pulcini (university of turin) and dr n. triki (university of turin) for their insightful suggestions. i would like to say thank you to the lecturers and students who participated in this study and accepted me as a participant observer in their classes and allowed me to carry out my study. finally, i would like to thank the reviewers of this article for their thought-provoking remarks and useful suggestions. references åhlund, anna, & aronsson, karin (2015). corrections as multiparty accomplishment in l2 classroom conversations. linguistics and education, 30, 66-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2015.03.007 anderson, terry (2003). modes of interaction in distance education: recent developments and research questions. in moore, michael g. & anderson, william g. 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(2021). delivering task instructions in multimodal synchronous online language teaching. alsic, 23(1), 1-30. https://doi.org/10.4000/alsic.4571 wong, jean, & waring, hansun z. (2020). conversation analysis and second language pedagogy: a guide for esl/efl teachers (2nd ed.). new york: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429488023 yoon, seo y. (2020). learning in emergent times: learner experience and perspectives on ert in university efl courses. multimedia-assisted language learning, 23(4), 109-131. https://doi.org/10. 15702/mall.2020.23.4.109 zitzen, michaela, & stein, dieter (2004). chat and conversation: a case of transmedial stability?. linguistics, 42(5), 983-1021. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2004.035 giacosa e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 161–184 184 appendix a list of acronyms ca: conversation analysis cla: the action of clarification cli: clarification initiation cls: clarification closure efl: english foreign language ere: emergency remote education ert: emergency remote teaching fpp: first pair part of an adjacency pair ms: mode-switching ocri: open class repair initiator oior: other-initiated other-repair oisr: other-initiated self-repair pr: partial repetition whs: question words r: repair sisr: self-initiated self-repair sior: self-initiated other-repair sla: second language acquisition spp: second pair part of an adjacency pair ts: trouble source tsq: typespecific question antonella giacosa, università roma tre antonellamaria.giacosa@unito.it en antonella giacosa has been teaching english as a second language in italian high schools for over 20 years. in 2019, she started a phd in digital humanities at turin university (italy) on video-mediated classroom discourse. she is a member of the internationalization-at-home project (university of turin, humber college toronto, university of hong kong), a member of the european scientific journal editorial board for humanities, and reviewer for articles on distance learning. she has published several contributions on emergency remote education during the covid-19 pandemic, currently available on social networks such as researchgate, academia.edu and websites like publons.com and scopus.com. es antonella giacosa ha sido profesora de inglés como segunda lengua en centros de educación secundaria italianos durante más de 20 años. en el año 2019 comenzó un doctorado en humanidades digitales en la universidad de turín (italia) sobre el discurso en el aula mediado por vídeo. es miembro del proyecto “internationalization-at-home” (universidad de turín, humber college de toronto, universidad de hong kong), así como del equipo editorial de la sección de humanidades de la european scientific journal, como revisora de artículos sobre aprendizaje a distancia. ha publicado numerosas contribuciones sobre educación remota de emergencia durante la pandemia del covid-19, que actualmente se encuentran disponibles en las redes sociales de researchgate, academia y en sitios web como publons.com y scopus.com. it antonella giacosa insegna inglese come seconda lingua nelle scuole superiori italiane da oltre 20 anni. nel 2019 ha iniziato un dottorato di ricerca in digital humanities presso l'università di torino (italia) sul discorso in aula videomediato. è membro dei progetti “internationalization-at-home” (università di torino, humber college toronto, università di hong kong) e “tale of two cities” (università di torino, university di hong kong), e fa parte del comitato redazionale per la sezione humanities dell'european scientific journal come revisore di articoli sull'apprendimento. ha pubblicato diversi contributi su emergency remote education durante la pandemia di covid-19 attualmente disponibili sui social network come researchgate, academia e siti web come publons.com e scopus.com. microsoft word pallotti & borghetti pp.1-20 4ed final.doc euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  6,  issue  1,  august  2019,  1-­‐20   issn  2376-­‐905x   doi:  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.10.162     www.e-­‐journall.org       ©  pallotti  2019.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.       the  effects  of  an  experimental  approach  to  writing  instruction  on   monolingual  and  multilingual  pupils  in  italian  primary  schools         gabriele  pallottia  &  claudia  borghettib   auniversità  di  modena  and  reggio  emilia   buniversità  di  bologna       received  6  december  2018;  received  in  revised  form  24  may  2019;  accepted  8  july  2019 abstract en this article reports on the results of an action-research project in italian primary schools. its main principles are formative evaluation, a process orientation to writing, cooperative learning, and an inclusive approach that does not separate pupils according to their linguistic or writing skills. pupils aged eight to eleven years old participated in the study in seven experimental (n = 106) and seven control classes (n = 118). their texts were examined both holistically, through scales of communicative effectiveness, and by means of analytical measurements. the comparison of monolingual and multilingual pupils in both experimental and control classes shows a number of similarities in terms of textual competence, as well as a few differences, especially regarding the more linguistic aspects of writing, such as verb tense cohesion. a remarkable result is that students’ text quality seems to depend more on their participation to the program than on their monolingual or multilingual status. key words: multilingual pupils, l1/l2 writing, writing development, writing instruction, primary school es este artículo informa los resultados de un proyecto de investigación-acción en escuelas primarias italianas. sus principios más importantes son la evaluación formativa, una orientación al proceso de escritura, aprendizaje cooperativo y un enfoque inclusivo que no separa a los estudiantes según sus habilidades lingüísticas o de escritura. los alumnos de entre ocho y once años participaron en el estudio en siete clases experimentales (n = 106) y siete clases control (n = 118). sus textos se examinaron de manera holística por medio de escalas de efectividad comunicativa y mediciones analíticas. la comparación de alumnos monolingües y multilingües en las clases experimentales y de control muestra un número de similitudes en términos de competencia textual al igual que algunas diferencias, especialmente con respecto a los aspectos más lingüísticos de la escritura, como la cohesión del tiempo verbal. un resultado notable muestra que participar en el programa tuvo un mayor impacto en la calidad del texto de los estudiantes que sus condiciones iniciales monoo multilingüe. palabras clave: alumnos multilingües, escritura l1/l2, desarrollo de escritura, instrucción de escritura, escuela primaria it questo articolo dà conto dei risultati di un progetto di ricerca-azione in scuole primarie italiane. i principi centrali sono la valutazione della formazione, l’orientamento al processo della scrittura, l'apprendimento cooperativo e l’approccio inclusivo che non separa gli/le apprendenti in base alle loro capacità linguistiche o di scrittura. a questo studio hanno partecipato apprendenti di età compresa tra gli 8 e gli 11 anni, in sette classi sperimentali (n = 106) e in sette classi di controllo (n = 118). i loro testi sono stati esaminati sia olisticamente attraverso scale di efficacia comunicativa, sia mediante misurazioni analitiche. il confronto tra alunni monolingui e multilingui, sia nelle classi sperimentali sia in quelle di controllo, mostra una serie di similarità in termini di competenza testuale e anche alcune differenze, in particolare per quanto riguarda gli aspetti più linguistici della scrittura, come la coesione verbale. un risultato importante mostra che la partecipazione al programma ha avuto un impatto maggiore sulla qualità del testo degli/delle apprendenti rispetto alle loro condizioni iniziali di monolingui o multilingui. parole chiave: apprendenti multilingui, scrittura l1/l2, sviluppo della scrittura, insegnamento della scrittura, scuola primaria   *  gabriele  pallotti,  università  di  modena  e  reggio  emilia                gabriele.pallotti@unimore.it   pallotti  &  borghetti   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 2   1.  introduction   in   the   field   of   teacher   education,   literacy   and   second   language   acquisition   (sla)   are   often   kept   separate.   in   teaching  practice   too,  actions  aimed  at   improving  writing  skills  and  actions  stimulating  second   (or  additional)  language  acquisition  are  at  times  seen  as  complementary,  but  substantially  distinct,  based  on   different   theoretical  and  methodological  assumptions  and  approaches.  this  article  reports   the  results  of  an   action-­‐research  teacher-­‐training  project  intended  to  help  bridge  these  gaps,  by  adopting  an  approach  to  the   teaching   of   writing   that   involves   all   students,   regardless   of   whether   they   are   using   their   first,   second,   or   additional   language.   more   specifically,   the   context   of   the   study   was   a   teacher-­‐training   initiative  osservare   l’interlingua  whose   aim  was   to   promote   effective   language   education,  with   special   emphasis   on  writing,   at   elementary  and  middle  school  levels.     writing  is  a  complex  activity,  involving  several  sub-­‐skills  (e.g.,  sorting  through  one’s  memory  of  the   events/facts,   organizing   them,   selecting   appropriate   language   resources),   which   may   be   more   or   less   developed   in   different   people.   this   complexity   is   greater   in  multilingual   speakers  with   variable   control   of   different   linguistic   codes   and   their   sub-­‐domains,  which   in   turn  may   be  more   or   less   implicated   in  written   communication.   teachers   need   to   be   able   to   take   apart   and   carefully   analyze   all   these   factors,   in   order   to   allow   for   them   in   their  daily  practices.   in  most  cases,   these  daily  practices  should  be  directed  at   the  whole   class,   rather   than   specific   sub-­‐groups  made   up   of  monolingual   or  multilingual   students,   or   first   or   second   language  learners,  with  higher  or  lower  writing  skills.  this  article  reports  on  a  program  that  attempts  to  meet   these  objectives,  and  whose  effectiveness  will  be  assessed  using  a  quasi-­‐experimental  research  design.   before  proceeding  with  the  exposition,  some  terminological  clarification  is  in  order.  the  term  second   language  (or  l2)  has  been  repeatedly  called  into  question  in  recent  years.  firstly,  in  many  cases  the  language   at   stake   is   not   the   second   a   person   is   acquiring,   but   often   a   third,   fourth,   or   further   language.   this   is  why   additional   language   acquisition   has   been   proposed   as   a   more   correct   replacement   for   second   language   acquisition,   and   lx   as   a   more   general   term   than   l2   (dewaele,   2017).   as   a   consequence,   many   so-­‐called   bilinguals  should  actually  be  called  multilingual  speakers.  this  term  multilingual  also  overcomes  the  limits  of   expressions   such   as  non-­‐native   speaker   or  l2   learner,   which   imply   some   sort   of   deficit  with   respect   to   an   idealized  native  speaker  who  is  treated  as  the  necessary  benchmark  of  language  performance  (cook,  1999).   secondly,  the  simple  l1/l2  dichotomy  does  not  apply  to  other  groups  of  learners,  such  as  so-­‐called  heritage   speakers,  i.e.,  children  of  immigrants  who  are  either  monolingual  or  dominant  in  the  language  of  the  family  in   early   childhood,   but   progressively   develop   a   balanced   bilingualism   or   eventually   become   dominant   in   the   majority  language  (montrul,  2016). this   article   adopts   solely   the   distinction   between   monolingual   and   multilingual   students   (except   when  citing  research  that  explicitly  refers  to  “l2  acquisition”  and  “bilingualism”).  this  categorisation  seems   relatively   descriptive   and   neutral:   it   does   not   require   one   to   draw   the   problematic   line   between   first   and   second  language  acquisition,  or  between  native  and  non-­‐native  speakers,  and  it  does  not  assume  any  deficit   view  of  language  learning  and  use,  but  rather  describes  a  person’s  linguistic  repertoire  as  being  composed  of   one  or  more  codes  employed  in  everyday  communication.1       2.  writing  development  and  instruction:  an  overview   2.1.  writing  in  l1  and  lx   the  practices  of  l1  and  lx  writing  have  frequently  been  compared,  both  in  terms  of  processes  (i.e.,   the   cognitive   activities   employed   when   writing)   and   in   terms   of   products   (the   texts).   analysing   the   interaction  of  four  cognitive  activities  implied  in  writing  (reading  the  assignment,  planning,  generating  ideas,   and  formulating),  van  weijen  (2009)  concludes  that  the  distribution  of  each  activity  is  similar  in  both  l1  and   l2  writing.  these  results  confirm  many  previous  studies  (cumming,  rebuffot  &  ledwell,  1989;  uzawa,  1996;   for   a   review:   cumming,   2001).   however,   a   consistent   number   of   differences   between   l1   and   lx   cognitive   activities   have   also   been  highlighted   in   text   planning   and   revision,   and   in  writing   fluency   (jones  &  tetroe,   1987;  hall,  1990;  stevenson,  schoonen,  &  de  glopper,  2006;  van  waes  &  leijten,  2015).  this  overall  empirical   evidence   (e.g.,   leki,   cumming,  &   silva,   2006;   silva,   1993)   tends   to   converge   into   a   general   agreement   that   writing  processes  in  l1  and  lx  are  similar,  even  if  “l2  composing  is  more  constrained,  more  difficult,  and  less   1  the  multilingual  category  does  not  include  those  children  who  only  know  a  smattering  of  a  foreign  language  taught  at   school  in  addition  to  their  first  language.   an  experimental  approach  to  writing  instruction   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 3   effective”  (silva,  1993,  p.  668),  mainly  because  lx  writers  need  to  concentrate  on  language  forms  as  well  as   on  content.   contrasting   conclusions   have   also   been   drawn   from   research   which   compares   the   linguistic   properties   of   texts  produced  by  l1   and  lx  writers.   for   example,   silva   (1993)   claims   that   l2  writers’   texts   contain  fewer  words,  while  cameron  and  besser  (2004)  point  out  that  text  length  does  not  differ  significantly,   even   if   l2  writers   tend   to  make   lesser  use  of   adverbials,  which   in   turn   reduces   the  amount  of   information   they  provide  about  the  story  (e.g.,  in  terms  of  time,  place  and  manner  of  the  events).   some   research   has   also   highlighted   that   lx   writers   employ   a   restricted   repertoire   of   features   (especially  conjunctions  and  demonstrative  pronouns)  to  give  cohesion  to  their  texts  (hinkel,  2001;  see  also:   oi,   1984   and  reid,   1988,   both   cited   in   silva,   1993).  however,   less   is   known   about   how  l1   and   lx  writers   manage  reference  to  entities,  that  is,  which  linguistic  and  discourse  features  they  use  to  make  the  characters   of  their  stories  identifiable  by  the  reader.  while  it  has  been  claimed  that  l1  children  learn  to  systematically   use  appropriate  referent  introductions  from  seven  years  onwards  (hickmann,  1995),  little  or  no  research  has   been  conducted,  to  the  best  of  our  knowledge,  on  the  developmental  patterns  of  young  lx  writers,  and  one  of   the   aims   of   the   present   article   is   to   start   filling   this   gap.   hendriks’s   (1998)   study,   comparing   the   written   productions  of  adult  lx   learners  with  those  of  l1  children,  may  in  fact  be  more  informative   in  terms  of  the   impact  of  age—rather  than  “native”  status—on  cohesion  skills  and/or  preferences.   2.2.  research-­‐based  writing  instruction   a   considerable   body   of   research   has   accumulated   on   the   effectiveness   of   instruction   on   writing   quality  (e.g.,  graham,  harris,  &  santangelo,  2015;  rietdijk,  janssen,  van  weijen,  van  den  bergh,  &  rijlaarsdam,   2017),   and   meta-­‐analyses   are   also   available   (e.g.,   graham,   harris,   &   chambers,   2016),   some   of   which   specifically   focus   on   primary   school   children   (graham,   mckeown,   kiuhara,   &   harris,   2012;   koster,   tribushinina,   de   jong,   &   van   den   bergh,   2015).   these   last   authors   identified   a   number   of   instructional   practices  that  have  systematically  produced  positive  results  with  younger  learners.  these  include:     − teaching   writing   strategies   for   planning,   drafting,   or   revising   one’s   text,   e.g.,   teaching   pupils   to   organize   ideas   in  writing  plans  and  to  use/upgrade   the  plan  when  writing  (tracy,  reid,  &  graham,   2009).   − assigning   specific   goals   before   and   during   the   writing   process,   like   asking   students   to   add   information  about  a  specific  fact/character,  to  divide  the  text  into  paragraphs,  or,  as  ferretti,  lewis,   and   andrews-­‐weckerly   (2009)   have   shown,   to   follow   some   given   prompts  when   organising   their   argumentative  discourse.   − promoting   group  work   and   peer   collaboration,   as   pupils   plan,   draft,   and   revise   their   text;   see,   for   example,  brakel  olson  (1990)  about  peer-­‐to-­‐peer  support  in  revision.   − teaching   text   structure  explicitly,  e.g.,  how  narrative   texts  work   in   terms  of   story  constituents  and   event  sequences  (fitzgerald  &  teasley,  1986). − providing  teacher  and  peer-­‐to-­‐peer  feedback  during  and  after  writing  (e.g.,  schunk  &  swartz,  1993).     not   surprisingly,   these   research-­‐based   best   practices   in   l1   writing   instruction   are   also   often   mentioned   in   relation   to  lx  writing.   for   example,  olson,   scarcella,   and  matuchniak   (2013)   suggest   that,   in   order   to   limit   the   effect   of   lx   writers’   cognitive   constraints,   educators   should   focus   on   the   teaching   of   strategies  which  help  students  set  intermediate  goals  and  thus  manage  the  complexity  of  the  writing  process.   moreover,  lx  collaborative  writing  and  peer-­‐to-­‐peer  feedback  are  often  advocated  (storch,  2013),  as  well  as   genre  pedagogy  (hyland,  2007).   however,  research  to  date  on  the  (differential)  effects  of  pedagogical   interventions  on  monolingual   and   multilingual   pupils’   writing   remains   scant.   this   is   one   of   the   motivations   behind   this   study,   whose   pedagogical  approach  largely  draws  on  the  works  briefly  reviewed  in  this  section.   3.  the  study   3.1.  research  questions   the   following   research   questions   were   formulated   in   order   to   investigate   the   outcomes   of   an   inclusive  writing  program  on  monolingual  and  multilingual  learners:   pallotti  &  borghetti   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 4   − rq1.  in  a  primary  school  context,  what  are  the  effects  on  the  whole  class  of  a  long-­‐term  pedagogical   intervention   based   on   the   process   approach   to   writing,   formative   assessment,   and   cooperative   learning? − rq2.  if  there  are  any  effects,  do  they  differ  for  monolingual  and  multilingual  pupils? − rq3.  what   are   the   differences   between  monolingual   and  multilingual   pupils   in   control   classes   as   regards  writing  skills?   3.2.  the  project     the   project  osservare   l'interlingua,   promoted   by   the   reggio   emilia  municipality   together  with   the   university   of  modena   and   reggio   emilia   (interlingua.comune.re.it;   pallotti,   2010,   2017a,   2017b;   pallotti   &   rosi,   2017)   started   in   reggio   emilia   (italy)   in   2007.   it   involves   12   elementary   and   3   middle   schools,   28   teachers  and  35  classes,  for  a  total  of  about  650  pupils  aged  between  6  and  14  (grades  1  to  8).  while,  at  the   beginning,   it  was  meant  to  address  issues  of  lx  italian  learning,  today  it   is  directed  toward  all  the  pupils   in   class,  with  an   inclusive  approach   involving  monolingual  and  multilingual   students  with  varying  proficiency   levels.   the  project  is  both  a  teacher  training  and  action-­‐research  initiative,  with  teachers  actively  involved   in   several   ways.   its   main   tenet   is   that   effective   teaching   practices   should   be   grounded   in   the   careful   observation  of  students’  needs,  competences,  and  learning  strategies.  thus,  teachers  are  first  of  all  trained  to   conduct   systematic   analyses   of   their   pupils’   oral   and   written   productions,   in   line   with   the   interlanguage   approach  (pallotti,  2017b;  selinker,  1972).  this  is  a  kind  of  formative  assessment  that  aims  to  overcome  the   traditional  stance  of  “hunting  for  errors”  and  to  allow  teachers  to  developing  the  activities  that  best  suit  the   needs  of  their  class.  it  also  promotes  the  learners’  autonomy,  since  they  are  not  seen  as  passive  recipients  of   knowledge   that   has   been   elaborated   elsewhere,   but   rather   as   active   creators   of   their   own   learning.     this   orientation,  and  the  ability  to  analyze  children’s  texts  accordingly,  takes  some  time  to  develop.  it  begins  with   pre-­‐service  training  for  some  of  the  younger  teachers,  while  others  often  acknowledge  that  it  took  them  some   years  to  get  used  to  looking  at  pupils’  productions  in  positive  terms  through  recognizing  their  strategies  and   developments,  rather  than  just  spotting  errors.  this  is  why  text-­‐analysis  sessions  are  periodically  held  (about   once   a   year)   as   part   of   the   teachers’   permanent   training;   in   these   sessions,   more   and   less   experienced   participants  assist  each  other  in  building  their  formative  analytic  skills.   teachers  also  actively  take  part  in  planning  pedagogical  actions.  at  the  beginning  of  each  school  year,   the   texts   produced   by   pupils   are   analysed   by   the   group   of   teachers   and   researchers.   considering   the   properties  of  the  texts  and  thus  the  needs  of  each  class,  the  group  of  teachers  defines  a  common  theme  (e.g.,   narrative,  expository,  descriptive   texts)   to  be  pursued  by  all  participants   in   their  classes  and  they  agree  on   common   core   activities.   then,   each   teacher   introduces   the   due   adaptations   according   to   age   and   overall   proficiency   level   of   their   pupils,   receiving   guidance   from   the   researchers.   the   group   of   teachers   and   university   researchers  meets   approximately   every   two  months   throughout   the   entire   school   year,   so   that   planned  activities  can  be  monitored,  discussed,  and  possibly  revised. the  project  as  a  whole  promotes  a  process  approach  to  teaching  writing  (e.g.,  white  &  arndt,  1991),   according   to  which   teaching   activities   guide   the   pupils   to   experience   and   progressively   acquire   the   stages   implied   in   text   production:   generating   and   organizing   ideas,  writing   the   initial   draft,   revising,   and   editing.   most  of  these  activities  are  carried  out  in  a  cooperative  manner,  in  small  and  large  groups  (following  ede  &   lunsford,   1990;   storch,   2013),   and,   in   line   with   socio-­‐cultural   approaches,   they   encourage   the   semiotic   mediation  of  thought  by  making  the  writing  process  more  concrete  through  the  use  of  artefacts  such  as  boxes,   envelopes,   paper   strips,   and   posters   (following   englert,   mariage,   &   dunsmore,   2006).   feedback,   too,   is   primarily   provided   by   the   students,   as   the   program   particularly   encourages   peer-­‐to-­‐peer   response,   both   within   the  members   of   the   group   and   among   groups   (following   andrade  &   evans,   2013).   in   line  with   the   interlanguage   approach,   this   feedback   is   not   summative   (no   grades   are   assigned,   by   either   teachers   or   students),   but   formative,   as   it   focuses   on   pupils’   strengths   and  weaknesses,   analyses   their   strategies,   and   suggests  ways  of  developing  their  skills.     teachers  are  actively   involved   in  data  collection,   too,  which   is  usually  carried  out  at   the  beginning   and   end   of   every   school   year,   in   relatively   controlled   and   standardized   conditions   (that   are   nonetheless   absolutely   natural   for   a   classroom   setting—no   laboratory   experiments,   in   other  words),   so   as   to   allow   for   comparisons   over   time   and   across   pupils   and   classes.   this   data   is   kept   by   schools   as   a  portfolio   of   pupils’   linguistic  development  over   the  years,  qualitatively  analyzed  by   the   teachers,  and  also  used  by  researchers   an  experimental  approach  to  writing  instruction   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 5   (and  some  pre-­‐service-­‐training  students  as  part  of  their  master’s  thesis)  for  subsequent  quantitative  analyses,   such  as  the  kind  reported  in  this  article.   3.3.  the  pedagogical  intervention  (experimental  classes)   in   the   course   of   the   2013-­‐2014   school   year,   when   data   collection   for   this   study   took   place,   the   pedagogical   intervention   carried   out   in  most   classes  was   aimed   at   developing   the   pupils’   writing   skills   as   applied  to  narrative  texts.   although  the  seven  classes  had  slightly  different  needs  and  were  thus  engaged  with  partially  diverse   tasks,  all  of  them  were  involved  in  the  following  core  activities:2     1) students   wrote   individual   texts   after   watching,   twice,   a   video   clip   of   a   few   minutes   taken   from   modern  times   by  charlie  chaplin.  this   served   to   collect  baseline  data   to  assess   students’  progress   over  the  school  year  and  to  fine-­‐tune  teaching  activities  based  on  their  competences  and  needs. 2) in  groups,  the  students  viewed  the  initial  video  clip  again,  identified  the  main  sequences  of  the  story   (primary  information  units),  and  labelled  them  with  short  descriptions  written  on  paper  envelopes   or  cardboard  boxes.   3) the   groups   watched   the   video   once   more   and   gathered   additional   information   about   characters,   actions,   etc.   (secondary   information   units),   which   they   noted   on   paper   strips   to   be   placed   in   the   envelopes/boxes.   4) in  their  groups,  pupils  glued  the  strips  on  big  sheets  of  paper,  deciding  on  the  order  to  best  convey   the   story   of   the   video   clip.   this   procedure   led   to   the   text   outline.   since   a   main   objective   of   the   program  was  to  promote  a  better  organization  of  texts,  special  emphasis  was  placed  on  the  need  to   cluster  similar  strips  of  information  together,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  following  segmentation  of  the   text  into  paragraphs.     5) the  groups  produced  the  first  versions  of  their  texts,  based  on  the  video  clip  they  had  worked  on  in   the  first  four  steps.   6) the  texts  were  then  circulated  among  groups,  who  had  been  previously  instructed  on  how  to  make  a   peer-­‐to-­‐peer  revision  based  on  explicit  and  shared  criteria  (e.g.,  clarity,  lexical  choices,  spelling).  it  is   worth  noting  that  a  number  of  aspects  of  writing,  such  as  verb  tense  cohesion  and  punctuation,  were   addressed   within   this   phase   merely   by   asking   pupils   to   take   them   into   consideration   in   the   reviewing  process.  these  topics  did  not  receive  significant  attention  within  the  other  activities.   7) each   group   reviewed   their   own   text,   taking   into   account   the   comments   of   the   other   groups.   they   then  rewrote  it,  after  having  to  decide  which  suggestions  for  improvement  they  wanted  to  accept.   8) teachers  guided  a  class  debriefing  on   the  experience  and  stimulated  meta-­‐cognitive  reflections  on   how  to  produce  good  narrative  texts.   9) at  the  end  of  the  school  year,  teachers  used  an  additional  video  stimulus  taken  from  world  of  comedy   by  harold  lloyd  to  collect  a  second  round  of  individual  texts.  this  video  was  different  from  the  first   one,   in  order   to  assess   the   transferability  of   skills   across   tasks,   although   the   two   inputs  had   some   similar   characteristics   (e.g.,   number   of   main   characters,   plot   complexity,   duration)   and   were   administered  in  identical  conditions.   in   terms  of  white  &  arndt's   (1991)  process   approach   to  writing,   steps  2   and  3   correspond   to   the   stages  of  generating  ideas  and  focusing;  step  4  corresponds  to  text  structuring,  and  step  5  to  drafting.  the   processes  of  evaluating  and  re-­‐viewing  were  covered  in  steps  6  and  7.   the   activities   above   were   just   a   part   of   the   experimental   classes’   syllabus,   accounting   for   approximately   two  hours  a  week  of   class   time  over   the  entire  school  year.  the  project   involved  all   classes,   from   grades   1   to   5.   obviously,   activities   for   the   first   two   grades   were   simplified   and   involved  much   less   writing,   but   they   still   followed   the   general   orientation   of   engaging   with   different   phases   of   the   writing   process  one  by  one.  given  that   the  data  discussed   in   the   following  pages  come  from  grades  3-­‐5,  no   further   details   on   the   first   two   grade   levels   are   offered  here:   for  more   information   about   the   teaching  phases   and   2   all   texts   are   translated   from   italian.   originals   are   available   on   the   author’s   website:   http://www.gabrielepallotti.it.   concerning   translations,   when   the  morpho-­‐syntactic   and   orthographic  mistakes  made   by   the   pupils   did   not   have   any   straightforward  equivalent  in  english,  similar  types  of  errors  were  introduced  in  order  to  give  a  better  sense  of  the  overall   writing  quality.   pallotti  &  borghetti   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 6   methods  and  the  variations  introduced  in  different  classes  and  age  levels,  see  pallotti  (2017a,  2017b),  pallotti   &  rosi  (2017)  and  the  project  website  (interlingua.comune.re.it).     3.4.  data  collection to   evaluate   the   effectiveness   of   the   training   program,   individual   texts   were   collected   in   seven   experimental  and  seven  control  classes,  grades  3-­‐5  (ages  8-­‐11),  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  school  year.   most   experimental   classes   had   been   participating   in   the   project   since   grade   1,   so   that   at   the   time   of   data   collection  they  had  already  been  performing  these  types  of  activities   for   two,   three,  or   four  years.  pupils   in   control   classes   at   the   beginning   and   end   of   the   school   year   wrote   their   texts   under   exactly   the   same   conditions  as  their  peers   in  the  experimental  classes  (i.e.,  they  watched  the  two  video  clips  by  chaplin  and   lloyd  twice)  and  were  given  the  same  generic  assignment  (i.e.,  describe  the  video  to  a  teacher  who  has  not   seen  it),  with  no  directions  about  text  planning  and  writing  and  no  time  limit  to  accomplish  the  task.  control   classes  followed  a  rather  regular  language  education  curriculum  (for  italy),  in  which  writing  activities  mainly   consisted  in  composing  short  essays  or  narrative  texts,  training  in  orthography  and  grammar,  or  answering   comprehension  questions  after  reading.  little  or  no  attention  was  devoted  to  individual  phases  of  the  writing   process,  no  artefacts  were  used  as  semiotic  mediators  for  higher-­‐order  cognitive  functions  like  text  planning   and  revision,  and  most  writing  activities  had  no  real  communicative  intent  but  were  conceived  as  exercises  to   be  assessed  by  teachers,  who  were  the  only  feedback  providers.   although  great  care  was  taken  to  ensure  that  control  classes  paralleled  experimental  classes  as  much   as  possible,  the  correspondence  was  not  perfect,  as  is  often  the  case  with  quasi-­‐experimental  studies.  control   classes  came  from  the  same  schools  or  areas  of  the  city  as  the  experimental  ones  and  they  had  a  comparable   number  of  pupils  per   class.  however,   their  demographic   composition  differed   from  multilingual   classes,   as   shown   in   table   1.   experimental   classes   had  more  multilingual   children,   over   one   third   of  whom  were   not   born  in  italy  and  had  spent  an  average  of  just  two  years  in  the  country.  control  classes  had  fewer  multilingual   pupils,  less  than  one  fifth  of  them  were  not  born  in  italy  and  the  average  length  of  residence  in  italy  for  these   children  was  longer  than  in  experimental  classes.     table 1 group composition control experimental sample size 118 106 % multilingual pupils in entire class 24% 36% % multilingual pupils not born in italy among all multilingual pupils 18% 38% mean period of residency in italy for multilingual pupils born abroad 3.6 yrs 2.1 yrs   a   second   difference   concerns   the   scores   at   the   beginning   of   the   school   year,   which,   for   several   dimensions   discussed   in   this   article,   were   higher   in   experimental   classes.   while   this   may   be   seen   as   unfortunate   from   a   strictly   scientific   point   of   view,   from   a   pedagogical   perspective   this   difference   is   quite   positive,   since   it   seems   to   indicate   that   classes   taking   part   in   the   experimental   program   from   first   grade   gradually  accrue  an  advantage  that  sets  them  apart  from  those  not  involved  in  the  program.  this  assumption   is   substantiated  by   the   fact   that,   for  most  measurements,   the   initial   gap  between  experimental  and  control   classes  was  lower  in  the  third  grade  and  higher  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  grades—that  is,  the  gap  grew  larger  in   parallel   to  a   longer  participation   in  the  project.  furthermore,   the  experimental  group’s  higher  scores  at   the   beginning   of   the   school   year   cannot   be   ascribed   to   the   fact   that   these   pupils   came   from   privileged   socio-­‐ cultural  environments;  on  the  contrary,  most  experimental  classes  were  located  in  somewhat  disadvantaged   areas  of  the  city.   given  this  difference  in  initial  scores,  this  article  focuses  on  final  results  only,  as  a  way  of  comparing   the  program’s  effects  accrued  after   three,   four,  or   five  years.   in  other  words,   it   seems  more  appropriate   to   assess   the   cumulative  effects  of   the  experimental  program  (which  began   in   first   grade   for  all   experimental   classes),   rather   than  discussing   the   gains  obtained  by   the  pupils   from   the  beginning   to   the   end  of   just   one   school  year.       an  experimental  approach  to  writing  instruction   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 7   3.5.  data  analysis   handwritten  texts  were  first  transcribed  and  assigned  arbitrary  codes  that  did  not  allow  raters  and   coders  to  know  whether  they  came  from  experimental  or  control  classes,  or  whether  they  were  the  work  of   monolingual   or  multilingual   students,   to   avoid   any   possible   bias   in   the   procedures   requiring   a   qualitative   evaluation.  pupils  diagnosed  with  cognitive  or  linguistic  impairment,  or  who  did  not  attend  the  initial  or  final   data   collection   sessions,   were   excluded   from   the   analysis,   which   was   thus   based   on   106   participants   in   experimental  classes  and  118  in  control  classes.  finally,  scripts  were  examined  both  holistically  and  by  means   of  analytic  measurements. holistic   examination   was   carried   out   using   scales   to   rate   overall   communicative   effectiveness.   in   particular,  functional  adequacy  was  rated  with  three  scales  slightly  adapted  from  kuiken  and  vedder  (2017),   while  a  scale  taken  from  the  common  european  framework  (council  of  europe,  2001)  was  used  for  assessing   text  coherence  and  cohesion.  the  scales  are  reported  in  appendix  a.  in  order  to  assess  inter-­‐rater  reliability,   10%  of  the  scripts  were  rated  on  the  four  scales  by  two  independent  researchers,  who  showed  a  substantial   level  of  agreement:   the  average   intraclass  correlation  coefficient   (two-­‐way  mixed  effects  model)  was   .85. a   series   of   features   was   then   considered   for   the   analytical   measurement   of   text   properties,   covering   the   dimensions  outlined  below.       3.5.1.  content   this  dimension  was  assessed  by  looking  at  text  length,  measured  by  the  number  of  words  produced   and  by  counting  the  number  of  primary  and  secondary  idea  units.  similar  to  other  studies  (e.g.,  boscolo,  arfé,   &   quarisa,   2007),   these  were   agreed   upon   by   the  whole   research   team,   who   produced   a   list   of   five  main   information   units,   representing   the   story’s   key   sequences,   and   43   secondary   units,   representing   specific   events  in  the  story  plot.     3.5.2.  text  organization   this  dimension  refers  to  the  pupils’  ability  to  effectively  divide  and  organize  their  text  into  thematic   and   syntactic   blocks.   it   is   evaluated   firstly   by   counting   the   number   of   paragraphs,   and   their   correlated   measure,  the  number  of  words  per  paragraph.  paragraphing  is  normally  not  taught  in  italian  schools,  so  that   pupils  often  end  up  writing  texts  in  just  one  single  long  block.  our  pedagogic  intervention  explicitly  focused   on  this  skill,  because  it  was  considered  closely  related  to  planning  the  text  in  several  thematic  units.   at   a   different   level   of   textual   organization,   the   comma   serves   to   divide   syntactic   units,   and   its   appropriate   use   is   rarely   taught   in   italian   schools,   where   it   is   often   simplistically   explained   as   a   way   of   marking  pauses  and  intonation  or  to  separate  items  in  a  list.  pupils  are  introduced  to  this  punctuation  mark   between  grades   2   and  3   and   they   soon   start   using   it,   initially   in   a   few  prototypical   contexts,   such   as   lists.   gradually,   its   usage   is   expanded   to   express  more   sophisticated  meanings,   like   differentiating   levels   of   text   organization  or  signalling  discourse  structure,  but   this  comes  with  a  higher  risk  of  making  mistakes,  which   persist   throughout   middle   and   high   school   with   pupils   rarely   being   completely   aware   of   their   nature   (solarino,   2009).   thus,   a   higher   number   of   commas  may  be   taken   as   an   indicator   of   pupils’  willingness   to   experiment   with   this   important   but   challenging   and   often   misunderstood   punctuation   mark.   however,   a   greater  use  of  the  comma  should  not  be  automatically  interpreted  as  an  indicator  of  better  text  quality.  this  is   why   the   proportion   of   inappropriate   commas   to   all   commas   used   was   measured,   too.   omissions   were   intentionally   not   counted,   since   establishing   when   a   comma   is   “missing”   is   often   a   matter   of   discretion.   another   indicator   of   a   good   command   of   punctuation   is   the   ratio   of   inappropriate   uses   of   the   period.   however,  the  number  of  periods  per  100  words  was  not  considered  to  be  a  clearly  interpretable  measure:  on   the  one  hand,  it  may  signal  a  desirable  feature,  that  is  a  higher  degree  of  text  segmentation  and  avoidance  of   run-­‐on  sentences;  on  the  other,  it  may  imply  a  very  paratactic  style,  with  lots  of  simple,  telegraphic  sentences,   which  do  not  necessarily  contribute  to  text  quality.   3.5.3.  reference  to  entities   managing   reference   to   entities   in   discourse   is   a   notoriously   difficult   task   for   young   learners,   and   sometimes   for   adult   speakers   and   writers   as   well   (giuliano,   2007;   hendriks,   1998;   hickmann,   1995).   an   entity  can  be  introduced,  upon  its  first  mention,  and  then  maintained  in  the  following  clauses.  this  referential   chain   can   be   interrupted   with   the   introduction   of   new   entities,   but   the   original   entity   can   be   later   on   reintroduced  in  the  text.  in  the  following  fictive  text  (1),  introductions  are  indicated  by  (i),  maintenances  by   pallotti  &  borghetti   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 8   (m),  and  reintroductions  by  (r).  coding  and  analysis  were  conducted  on  animate  entities  only,  as  they  are  a   key  element  in  plot  progression  and  thus  play  a  central  role  in  narrative  texts.     fictive text (1) there was a boy(i) who went to the park. he(m) was very shy and ø(m) had very few friends. an old man(i) came to the park and ø(m) took out a worn-out kite. he(m) looked a bit lonesome, too. the boy(r) asked him(m) if they(m) could play together   normally,  entities  are  introduced  by  lexical  noun  phrases  with  indefinite  determiners  (a  boy,  an  old   man),  they  are  maintained  by  pronouns  or  zero  anaphora  (he,  ø,  him)  and  are  re-­‐introduced  by  lexical  noun   phrases  with  definite  determiners  (the  boy).  a  common  feature  of  young  children’s  speech  and  writing  is  that   entities  are  often  introduced  with  definite  determiners,  so  that,  in  the  example  above,  the  first  sentence  could   have  been  something  like,  the  boy  went  to  the  park.  these  introductions  may  be  called  inappropriate,  as  they   indicate   that   their   author   improperly   assumes   the   referent   is   accessible   to   the   hearer/reader.   however,   although   they  may   sound   childish   or   slightly   egocentric,   they   do   not   compromise   communication   and   the   meaning   remains   clear.   in   this   article,   however,   these   phenomena   will   not   be   discussed   (for   further   discussion  on  this  aspect,  see  pallotti,  borghetti,  &  rosi,  in  preparation). what   will   be   focused   on   here   are   ambiguous   references   that   prevent   the   receiver   from   correctly   interpreting  their  meaning.  if  the  text  above  had  begun,  he  went  to  the  park,  this  would  have  been  counted  as   an  ambiguous  introduction.  likewise,  if  the  last  sentence  had  been,  he  asked  him  if  they  could  play  together,  it   would   have   been   impossible   to   establish   who   was   asking   whom.   only   by   knowing   the   intended  meaning   (which  is  possible,  for  instance,  when  pupils  are  retelling  a  film  or  a  picture  story)  can  one  score  the  first  he  as   an   ambiguous   reintroduction   and   the   immediately   following   him   in   this   sentence   as   an   ambiguous   maintenance.     3.5.4.  verb  tense  cohesion   another  common  feature  of  young  children’s   language   is   the  frequent  shifting  of  verb  tenses   in  the   same  narrative  (kersten,  2009),  as  in  sentences  like:  then  he  starts  skating  and  she  went  to  bed.  a  verb  shift  is   defined   as   a   change   of   verb   tense   that   is   not   justified   for   textual   reasons,   such   as   the   move   from   the   description  of  background  states  to  the  narration  of  events  in  the  plot,  or  from  indirect  to  direct  speech.  the   operational  definition  of  all  these  categories  was  set  out  in  a  detailed  coding  manual,  which  provided  specific   examples  for  each  phenomenon,  including  possible  counterexamples  and  borderline  cases.   as   regards   the   statistical   procedures   employed   in   the   analysis,   given   that   the   study   was   a   quasi-­‐ experimental   investigation   of   intact   classes   and   that   initial   levels   were   not   homogenous   for   several   dimensions,  welch  t-­‐tests  for  independent  samples  were  employed  to  compare  the  averages  of  experimental   and  control  classes  at  the  end  of  the  school  year.  according  to  fagerland  and  sandvik  (2009),  this  test  is  best   suited   for  samples   like  ours,  which  consist   in  about  100  cases,  normally  distributed  or  moderately  skewed,   with  similar  but  not  identical  variances.  for  holistic  assessment  data,  whose  distributions  were  substantially   normal,  t-­‐tests  without  welch  correction  were  used,  since  they  are  more  appropriate  for  likert-­‐like  data,  with   many  tied  ranks  (de  winter  &  dodou,  2010).     4.  results   this   section   reports   on   the  main   results   regarding   program   effectiveness   at   the   end   of   the   school   year.  tables  include  the  mean  and  standard  deviation,  the  95%  confidence  interval  for  the  estimation  of  the   difference   between   the  means   of   experimental   and   control   classes,   cohen’s  d   effect   size,   calculated   as   the   ratio  between  the  difference  between  means  and  the  standard  deviation  of  the  control  group,  and  the  t-­‐test’s   two-­‐tailed  p  values.  results  will  be  reported  firstly  for  entire  classes,  then  for  monolingual  and  multilingual   sub-­‐groups.         4.1.  holistic  assessment at  the  end  of  the  school  year,  text  assessment  through  rating  scales  showed  very  positive  results  for   the  experimental  classes  as  a  whole.  their  compositions  were  perceived  as  being  richer  in  terms  of  content   and  more   coherent   and   cohesive,  both   considering  kuiken  and  vedder’s   (2017)   scale   and   for   the  common   an  experimental  approach  to  writing  instruction   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 9   european  framework  scale  (council  of  europe,  2001)  with  rather  large  effect  sizes  of  between  0.61  and  0.78.   they  were  also  more  comprehensible,  with  a  smaller  but  still  statistically  significant  difference  (d  =  0.36). this   trend   is   also   confirmed   for   multilingual   pupils,   who   wrote   more   complete,   coherent,   and   cohesive  texts  than  their  control  peers,  although  differences  were  less  marked  (d  between  0.39  and  0.53)  and   even   smaller   when   compared   to   monolingual   students   in   control   classes   (d   between   0.02   and   0.18).   multilingual   pupils   in   experimental   classes   scored   slightly   lower   (m   =   3.24)   than   multilingual   and   monolingual   peers   (m   =   3.41)   in   control   classes   only  with   regards   to   text   comprehensibility   however   the   difference   is   not   significant.   monolingual   pupils   in   experimental   classes   largely   outperformed   their   monolingual  peers  in  control  classes  in  all  dimensions.    these  overall  results  are  shown  in  table  2.     table 2 overview of results from holistic assessment control group mean (sd) experimental group mean (sd) 95% ci of the difference between means cohen’s d p content (1-6) 3.39 (1.13) 4.09 (1.06) 0.39 0.99 0.61 < .0001 monolingual pupils 3.46 (1.19) 4.32 (1.07) 0.50 1.22 0.72 < .0001 multilingual pupils 3.19 (0.92) 3.68 (1.08) −0.99 0.01 0.53 (ns) comprehensibility (1-6) 3.53 (0.93) 3.86 (1.01) 0.07 0.60 0.36 < .0001 monolingual pupils 3.56 (0.95) 4.21 (0.87) 0.36 0.94 0.68 < .0001 multilingual pupils 3.41 (0.89) 3.24 (0.98) −0.30 0.64 -0.18 ns coherence-cohesion kv (1-6) 2.89 (0.81) 3.47 (1.04) 0.33 0.82 0.72 < .0001 monolingual pupils 2.95 (0.82) 3.74 (0.92) 0.50 1.07 0.96 < .0001 multilingual pupils 2.65 (0.73) 2.97 (1.01) −0.74 0.13 0.42 ns coherence-cohesion cef (1-8) 3.25 (1.32) 4.27 (1.40) 0.66 1.39 0.78 < .0001 monolingual pupils 3.33 (1.31) 4.71 (1.25) 0.97 1.79 1.05 < .0001 multilingual pupils 2.96 (1.34) 3.49 (1.39) −1.21 0.17 0.39 ns note. kv = rating scale by kuiken and vedder (2017); cef = rating scale of the common european framework (council of europe, 2001, 2017).   4.2.  content   we  now  turn  to  analytical  measures  of  text  quality.  the  texts  produced  in  experimental  classes  are   much  longer  than  those  of  control  classes,  with  an  average  of  243.84  words  versus  177.93;  they  also  contain   more  secondary  information  units  (22.56  vs.  17.81)  and  thus  provide  a  more  detailed  and  rich  content,  with   considerable   effect   sizes   (0.83   and   0.78,   respectively).   the   difference   is   smaller,   but   still   statistically   significant,   as   regards  main   idea   units   (4.79   vs   4.60),   since  most   pupils,   in   both   experimental   and   control   classes,  were  able  to  mention  all  or  almost  all  of  them.   the   trends   identified   at   the   entire-­‐class   level   are   also   confirmed   by   multilingual   pupils   in   experimental   classes,  who  write   longer   texts   than  multilingual   students   in   the   control   group.   interestingly,   their  productions  are  just  slightly  shorter  than  those  of  their  monolingual  peers  in  experimental  classes,  and   considerably  longer  than  the  texts  written  by  monolingual  pupils  in  the  control  group.   this  greater  text  length  reflects  the  number  of  primary  and  secondary  information  units.  the  number   of  units   is  higher  among  the  multilingual  students   in  the  experimental  group  than   in  both  monolingual  and   multilingual  controls.  similar  to  the  results  discussed  in  the  previous  section,  the  pupils  in  the  experimental   groups   who   demonstrate   the   greatest   advantage   over   their   counterparts   in   the   control   groups   are   the   monolingual  students  (see  table  3).           pallotti  &  borghetti   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 10   table 3 content (analytic measures) control group mean (sd) experimental group mean (sd) 95% ci of the difference between means cohen’s d p words 177.93 (79.12) 243.84 (96.67) 41.82 90.00 0.83 < .0001 monolingual pupils 170.09 (69.04) 258.95 (97.00) 61.03 116.70 1.29 < .0001 multilingual pupils 203.19 (102.83) 216.89 (96.76) −64.60 37.19 0.13 ns main idea units (0-5) 4.60 (0.65) 4.79 (0.41) 0.04 0.34 0.29 < .05 monolingual pupils 4.61 (0.64) 4.82 (0.46) 0.034 0.38 0.33 < .05 multilingual pupils 4.56 (0.70) 4.73 (0.51) −0.49 0.14 0.25 ns secondary idea units (0-43) 17.81 (6.12) 22.56 (6.13) 3.06 6.45 0.78 < .0001 monolingual pupils 17.41 (5.81) 23.30 (6.34) 3.91 7.86 1.01 < .0001 multilingual pupils 19.07(7.00) 21.24 (6.68) −5.65 1.32 0.31 ns 4.3.  text  organization   students   in   experimental   classes   started   new   paragraphs   more   frequently   than   those   in   control   classes,  with  an  average  of  5.32  paragraphs  per  text  versus  2.39.  as  a  result,  the  mean  number  of  words  per   paragraph   was   lower:   74.82   as   opposed   to   116.89.   these   differences   are   statistically   significant   with   medium-­‐to-­‐high  effect  sizes  (see  table  3).     pupils   in   experimental   classes   used   the   comma   more   frequently   (3.63/100   words   vs.   2.34/100   words),  while  their  use  of  periods   is  virtually   identical   to  that  of  control  classes  (3.50  vs.  3.63/100  words),   meaning  that  their  sentences  were  about  the  same  length. inappropriate  commas,  e.g.  those  separating  a  verb  from  its  necessary  arguments,  were  also  scored.   in  spite  of  their  more  frequent  use  of  the  comma,  which  implies  taking  more  risks  (and  probably  committing   fewer  errors  of  omission,  which  however  were  not   scored  because  of   the   limited   reliability  of   this  analytic   category),  pupils  in  experimental  classes  made  slightly  fewer  errors  than  those  of  control  classes  (13.38%  vs.   15.73%  of  all  commas),  and  significantly  fewer  errors  regarding  the  period  (1.44%  vs.  5.14%). multilingual   pupils,   once   again,   have   a   substantially   similar   profile   to   that   of   the   monolingual   students   in   each   group.   those   in   experimental   classes   start   about   twice   as   many   new   paragraphs   as   monolingual  and  multilingual  pupils   in  control  classes.  as  a  result,   their  paragraphs  are  on  average  shorter   (70.58  words  per  paragraph).  like  their  monolingual  peers  in  the  experimental  group,  they  use  commas  more   frequently   than  multilingual  and  monolingual  students   in  control  classes:  2.63  commas/100  words  vs.  2.03   and  2.44,  respectively.  these  commas  are  on  average  more  correct  than  those  produced  by  the  monolingual   control   pupils   (15.18%   vs.   17.35%   of   incorrect   commas),   but   slightly   less   so   than   those   used   by   the   multilingual   control   pupils   (9.67%   of   incorrect   commas),   perhaps   because   the   latter   subgroup   used   this   punctuation  mark  the  least.     table  4  below  reports  an  overview  of  results  for  each  feature.  also,  texts  in  extract  (1)  exemplify  two   different  phenomena  related  to  paragraphing  and  use  of  punctuation  in  a  third-­‐grade  pupil  belonging  to  the   experimental  group.3                   3  all   texts  are   translated   from  italian.  originals  are  available  on   the  author’s  website:  www.gabrielepallotti.it.  concerning   translations,   when   the   morpho-­‐syntactic   and   orthographic   mistakes   made   by   the   pupils   did   not   have   any   straightforward   equivalent   in   english,   similar  types  of  errors  were  introduced  in  order  to  give  a  better  sense  of  the  overall  writing  quality.   an  experimental  approach  to  writing  instruction   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 11   table 4 text organization control group mean (sd) experimental group mean (sd) 95% ci of the difference between means cohen’s d p paragraphs 2.39 (2.00) 5.32 (3.28) −3.68 −2.19 1.47 < .0001 monolingual pupils 2.36 (1.99) 5.70 (3.41) −2.41 −4.27 1.68 < .0001 multilingual pupils 2.48 (2.06) 4.65 (3.10) 0.87 3.46 1.05 < 0.005 words/paragraph 116.89 (81.57) 74.82 (80.21) −20.36 −63.78 −0.52 < .0001 monolingual pupils 115.96 (83.24) 77.20 (89.64) −10.68 −66.85 −0.47 < .001 multilingual pupils 119.90 (77.37) 70.58 (61.60) 13.12 85.52 −0.64 < 0.01 commas/100 words 2.34 (2.22) 3.63 (2.31) −1.93 −0.65 0.58 < .005 monolingual pupils 2.44 (2.25) 4.19 (2.55) 0.97 2.53 0.78 < .0001 multilingual pupils 2.03 (2.15) 2.63 (2.12) −1.68 0.48 0.28 ns % inappropriate commas 15.73 (22.77) 13.38 (16.03) −3.54 8.13 −0.10 ns monolingual pupils 17.35 (24.39) 12.55 (16.14) −0.02 0.12 −0.20 ns multilingual pupils 9.67 (14.22) 15.18 (16.51) −14.66 3.59 0.38 ns % inappropriate periods 5.14 (15.64) 1.44 (4.87 0.60 6.78 −0.24 < .05 monolingual pupils 5.88 (17.04) 0.96 (2.83) −1.17 −9.69 −0.29 < .05 multilingual pupils 2.60 (9.26) 2.28 (6.79) −4.03 4.69 −3.48 ns     extract (1) text organization at the beginning and at the end of the school year, pupil 3ol60 3ol60, october first charlot shows a ticket to a man after that the man welcoms him charlot then charlot walks around with a man after that charlot takes a lady by the hand and takes her into the warehouse after that they put on roller skates then they start skating after that charlot blindfolds himself and starts to rolerskate then it looks like charlot is falling down from the upper floor after that charlot shows a bed to the lady then charlot moves around a bit on his rollerskates then charlot closes the girl in the warehouse after that 3 gentlemen look for charlo who in the meantime is in a totally different place 3ol60, may at first harry gets on a steam train then a girl climbs in with a hat and a pomeranian dog. the girl droped the pomeranian dog and they left without him but harry took it with a cane and gave it to its owner named giulia, she was very happy to get back her pomeranian dog, and told him thank you very much. at some point they entered a tunnel and everyone started looking for the dog. harry found it and gave it to giulia once again, s/he was really really happy to have it back, and then giulia covered it with a blanket of hers/his.   while  both  paraphrasing  and  punctuation  marks  are  absent   in   the   first   text,   at   the  end  of   the   school  year  the  child  organizes  contents  in  thematic  blocks  and  experiments  with  the  use  of  punctuation,   even  though  her  command  of  commas  is  not  fully  developed  (see  the  last  two  instances).       4.4.  reference  to  entities   at  the  end  of  the  school  year,  the  texts  written  in  the  experimental  classes  were  also  clearer  than  the   texts  written  in  the  control  classes  in  terms  of  reference  to  entities.  in  fact,  the  introduction,  maintenance,  and   reintroduction   of   referents  were   less   ambiguous,   that   is,   they   allowed   the   reader   to   correctly   identify   the   entity  to  which  they  refer  more  often.  this  difference  was  not  very  substantial  as  regards  introductions  and   maintenances,  but  reached  statistical  significance  for  reintroductions  (p  <  0.05). pallotti  &  borghetti   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 12   as  for  multilingual  pupils,  the  picture  is  slightly  more  complex.  their  reintroductions  were  generally   less   ambiguous   than   those   of   both  monolingual   and  multilingual   students   in   control   classes,   with   a   fairly   noticeable,   though  not   statistically   significant,   difference   (6.37%  vs.   8.42%  and  9.36%,   respectively).   their   introductions  were  less  ambiguous  than  those  of  monolingual  pupils  in  the  control  group  (1.79%  vs.  2.39%),   but  significantly  more  so  than  those  made  by  multilingual  peers  in  the  control  classes,  who  did  not  produce  a   single   ambiguous   introduction.   a   similar   situation   can   be   seen   for   maintenances:   here,   too,   multilingual   pupils   in  experimental   classes  produced   fewer  ambiguities   than  monolingual   students   in   the  control  group   (5.66%  vs.  5.84%),  but  slightly  more   than  multilingual  peers   (5.50%).  especially   in   this   last  case,  however,   differences   are  quite   small   and  never   reach   statistical   significance   (table  5).   some  examples  of   ambiguous   introductions,   maintenances,   and   reintroductions   taken   from   both   experimental   and   control   classes   are   shown  in  extract  (2),  (3),  and  (4).     table 5 reference to entities control group mean (sd) experimental group mean (sd) 95% ci of the difference between mean cohen’s d p % ambiguous introductions monolingual pupils multilingual pupils 1.83 2.39 0.00 (6.49) (7.35) 1.27 (3.47) 0.98 (3.47) 1.79 (4.69) −0.86 −0.36 0.23 1.99 3.19 3.33 −0.09 −0.19 n/a ns ns <0.05 % ambiguous maintenances monolingual pupils multilingual pupils 5.76 5.84 5.50 (9.22) (9.33) (.04) 5.34 (5.70) 5.16 (5.64) 5.66 (6.80) −1.70 −1.80 −4.37 2.47 3.03 4.10 −0.05 −0.07 0.02 ns ns ns % ambiguous reintroductions monolingual pupils multilingual pupils 8.64 8.42 9.36 (9.70) (9.31) (11.05) 5.68 (6.85) 5.29 (6.89) 6.37 (8.04) −0.71 −0.56 −2.01 −5.28 −5.75 −8.05 −0.31 −0.34 −0.27 < .05 < .05 ns     extract (2). example of ambiguous references to entities ambiguous introduction 4vm19_october [...] when he came down with the elevator the men [new entity] hide from charlot. extract (3). example of ambiguous references to entities ambiguous maintenance 3ep05_may [...] then the ledy looked at the clock and tooked the bag where the dog was then ø [= she/he/it?] begun to bark and the ledy opened the bag and faund the dog but not her handkerchiefs [...] extract (4). example of ambiguous references to entities ambiguous reintroduction 5arr03_may [...] harry saw the ticket controller arrive so he took his suitcase, which was the woman’s he began to take out all the clothes, then he put the dog in and put it back when the ticket controller passed ø [= he/it?] started barking so the ticket controller became suspcious, harry, began to bark to create confusion. [...]       an  experimental  approach  to  writing  instruction   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 13   4.5.  verb  tense  cohesion   the  one  aspect  in  which  experimental  classes  performed  more  poorly  than  the  controls  is  verb  tense   cohesion,  where  unjustified  tense  changes,  here  labelled  “tense  shifts,”  were  more  common:  2.43/100  words   vs.  1.58/100  words.  extract  (5)  reports  an  example  from  the  experimental  group.       extract (5). tense shifts in a fourth grader, experimental group 4gc43_may harry a man has to take a train and he saw a lady and lets her pass first. the lady start talking to the ticket controller and harry came in quickly. the lady's little dog has jumped off the train and she wanted to get it back. harry picked up a can and catches the little dog and hid it in his jacket. [...]   it  is  worth  noting  that  the  text  this  extract  comes  from  is  of  average  length  (248  words),  is  quite  rich   in  terms  of  primary  and  secondary  information  units  (5  and  29,  respectively),  and  presents  a  good  quantity  of   cohesive  devices  (28  connectives).  this  means  that  verb  tense  cohesion  may  still  pose  problems,  even  when   overall  text  quality  is  satisfactory. the  difference  seen  between  experimental  and  control  classes  as  a  whole  remains  basically  the  same   when  multilingual   and  monolingual   pupils   are   analyzed   separately:   multilingual   students   in   experimental   classes   produce   a   higher   proportion   of   tense   shifts   (3.91/100   words)   than   multilingual   (2.63)   and   monolingual   (1.26)  peers   in   the   control   group;  monolingual  pupils   in   experimental   classes,  with   their  1.59   shifts   per   100   words,   perform   better   than   multilingual   and   slightly   worse   than   monolingual   controls.   it   should   be   noted   that,   in   both   experimental   and   control   classes,   this   phenomenon   is   more   apparent   in   multilingual  than  in  monolingual  pupils.  tense  shifts  are,  in  fact,  more  closely  related  to  linguistic  competence   in  a  narrow  sense,  that  is,  to  grammatical  control  rather  than  to  the  more  communicative  aspects  of  writing   ability.  this  finding  resonates  with  a  number  of  studies  which  have  reported  that  lx  writers  have  less  control   over  verb  forms  compared  to  l1  peers,  both  during  compulsory  education  (cameron  &  besser,  2004)  and  at   the  university  (hinkel,  2004).   5.  discussion  and  conclusion   as  discussed  above,  this  program  was  proposed  to  the  whole  class,  without  dividing  monolingual  and   multilingual  pupils.  the  underlying  principle  is  that  everybody  benefits  from  good  quality  language  education   and   that   promoting   peer-­‐to-­‐peer   interaction   through   group   work   gives   better   results   than   having   pupils   follow  separate  tracks.   although   there   was   no   separation   of   learners   in   terms   of   teaching,   it   is   legitimate   to   discuss   the   program’s  effects  on  the  two  sub-­‐groups  of  monolingual  and  multilingual  students.  not  many  results  at  this   level   are   statistically   significant,   both  because   the   sub-­‐samples  were  not   very   large   and  because   in   several   cases   differences   were   not   very   pronounced.   thus,   this   brief   discussion   will   not   aim   at   reaching   broad   generalizations,   rather   it  will   attempt   to   stimulate   reflection   on   the   relationships   between  multilingualism   and  language  education  in  today’s  italian  classrooms,  which  are  possibly  applicable  to  other  contexts  as  well.   the  study's  main  findings,  based  on  the  research  questions  formulated  in  section  3.1,  can  be  summarized  as   follows.   rq1.   in   a   primary   school   context,  what   are   the   effects   on  whole   classes   participating   in   a   long-­‐term   pedagogical   intervention   based   on   the   process   approach   to   writing,   formative   assessment,   and   cooperative   learning?  the  effects  on  whole  classes  are  largely  positive.  their  pupils  outperform  those  of  control  classes  on   all  dimensions  assessed  with  both  analytic  and  holistic  measures,  the  sole  exception  being  verb  tense  shifts.   this   result   is   thus   in   line   with   previous   research   (reviewed   in   section   2.2)   showing   the   effectiveness   of   instructional   practices   like   teaching   students   strategies   for   planning,   drafting,   and   revising   their   texts,   promoting  peer  collaboration,  and  providing  constructive  and  specific  feedback.     rq2.   if   there  are  any  effects,   do   they  differ   for  monolingual  and  multilingual  pupils?   in  experimental   classes,  monolingual  children  achieve  better  results  than  their  multilingual  peers  with  regard  to  all  aspects  of   writing   with   one   exception,   the   word   per   paragraph   ratio.   it   should   be   noted,   though,   that   experimental   classes  hosted  a  higher  number  of  multilingual  students  who  were  not  born  in  italy  and  who  had  resided  in   the  country  for  a  shorter  period  of  time;  hence,  their  relatively  poorer  performance  might  be  due  to  language   learning   per   se,   as  many   of   these   children  were   true   additional   language   learners,   whose   italian  was   still   developing.   pallotti  &  borghetti   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 14   despite  this  initial  disadvantage,  the  program's  effects  were  equally  beneficial  for  both  monolingual   and  multilingual  students.  in  particular,  multilingual  children  in  the  experimental  group  outperformed  both   monolingual  and  multilingual  students  in  control  classes  on  the  vast  majority  of  dimensions,  with  just  a  few   exceptions.  one  of  these  is  tense  shifts,  which  were  consistently  more  frequent  in  experimental  classes  (with   the   sole   exception   of   monolingual   pupils   in   experimental   classes   performing   better   than   multilingual   controls);   this   shows   that   tense   shifts  may   be  more   directly   related   to   language   proficiency   than   to   other   dimensions.  another  aspect   that  may  be   related   to   language  proficiency   is   text   comprehensibility,  which   is   lower   in   experimental   multilingual   pupils   when   compared   to   both   monolingual   and   multilingual   control   students.  finally,  multilingual  control  children  outperform  experimental  (both  monolingual  and  multilingual)   peers  as  regards  appropriate  use  of  the  comma  and  ambiguous  introductions.   rq3.  what  are  the  differences,  as  regards  writing  skills,  between  monolingual  and  multilingual  pupils  in  control   classes,   that   is,  with   no   experimental   treatment?   in   control   classes,  multilingual   and  monolingual   children’s   performances  seem  to  be   rather  balanced.  monolingual  pupils  achieve  consistently  better   scores   in  holistic   assessment  and,  as  regards  analytic  measures,  tense  shifts,  their  use  of  commas,  and  they  have  a  lower  rate  of   ambiguous  reintroductions.  multilingual  students,  on  the  other  hand,  write  longer  texts  with  more  secondary   information   units,   with   fewer   problems   in   the   use   of   periods   and   commas,   and   with   fewer   ambiguous   introductions  and  maintenances.   the   tentative   conclusions   that   can   be   drawn   from   the   study   are   that,   at   least   in   this   sample,   participation   in   the  experimental  program  seems  to  have  had  a   larger   impact  on  writing  performance   than   monolingual/multilingual   status.  multilingual   children   in   experimental   classes   contribute   as  much   as   their   monolingual  peers  to  the  good  results  obtained  by  the  class  as  a  whole,  and  outperform  both  monolingual  and   multilingual   pupils   in   control   classes   in   most   dimensions,   especially   those   related   to   broader   “cognitive-­‐ academic”   (cummins,   1986)   aspects.   linguistic   proficiency,   however,   does   play   a   role,   especially   for   those   who  have  had  a  shorter  immersion  in  the  new  language,  as  was  the  case  for  several  multilingual  children  in   experimental  classes.   in  the  context  investigated  here,  our  general  conclusion  is  that  students’  writing  skills  are  impacted   by  both  intrinsic  factors,  such  as  the  length  of  exposure  to  the  target  language,  and  extrinsic  factors,  such  as   the  type  of  pedagogical  intervention.  this  study  can  be  taken  as  evidence  that  a  good  language  curriculum  has   more  weight  in  a  student’s  academic  success  than  his  or  her  status  as  an  l1  or  lx  learner.         acknowledgments     we  wish  to  acknowledge  the  contribution  of  fabiana  rosi,  who  was  involved  in  the  design  of  the  educational   intervention  and  in  the  data  collection,  as  well  as  the  contributions  of  giulia  borrelli,  elisa  caretta,  and  elena   russo,  who  carried  out  some  of  the  data  coding  and  analysis.         references     andrade,  maureen  snow,  &  evans,  norman  w.    (2013).  principles  and  practices  for  response  in  second   language  writing.  new  york,  new  york:  routledge.   boscolo,  pietro,  arfé,  barbara,  &  quarisa,  mara  (2007).  improving  the  quality  of  students’  academic 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consistent. 4) the number of ideas is adequate and they are sufficiently consistent. 5) the number of ideas is very adequate and they are very consistent to each other. 6) the number of ideas is absolutely adequate and they look very consistent to each other. comprehensibility: how much effort is required to understand text purpose and ideas? 1) the text is not at all comprehensible. ideas and purposes are unclearly stated and the efforts of the reader to understand it are ineffective. 2) the text is scarcely comprehensible, its purposes are not clearly stated and the reader struggles to understand the ideas of the writer. the reader has to guess most of the ideas and purposes. 3) the text is somewhat comprehensible, some sentences are hard to understand on a first reading. a second reading helps clarify text purposes and the ideas conveyed, but some doubts persist. 4) the text is comprehensible. only a few sentences are unclear but are understood, without too much effort, after a second reading. 5) the text is easily comprehensible and reads smoothly. comprehensibility is not an issue. 6) the text is very easily comprehensible and highly readable. the ideas and the purpose are clearly stated. coherence and cohesion, 1: is the text coherent and cohesive (e.g. cohesive devices, strategies)? 1) the text is not at all coherent. unrelated progressions and coherence breaks are very common. the writer does not use any anaphoric device (pronouns, sentences with a clearly interpretable null subject). the text is not at all cohesive, connectives are hardly ever used, and ideas are unrelated. 2) the text is scarcely coherent. the writer often uses unrelated progressions; when coherence is achieved, it is often done through repetitions. few anaphoric devices and some coherence breaks. the text is not very cohesive: ideas are not well linked by connectives, which are rarely used. 3) the text is somewhat coherent. unrelated progressions and/or repetitions are frequent. more than two sentences in a row can have the same subject, even when the subject is understood. some anaphoric devices are used. there can be few coherence breaks. the text is somewhat cohesive: some connectives are used, but they are mostly conjunctions. 4) the text is coherent. unrelated progressions are somewhat rare, but the writer sometimes relies on unnecessary repetitions to achieve coherence. a sufficient number of anaphoric devices is used. there may be some coherence breaks. the text is cohesive. the writer makes good use of connectives, sometimes not limiting this to conjunctions. 5) the text is very coherent: when the writer introduces a new topic, it is usually done by using connectives or connective phrases. repetitions are very infrequent. anaphoric devices are numerous. there are no coherence breaks. the text is very cohesive and ideas are well linked by adverbial and/or verbal connectives. 6) the writer ensures extreme coherence by integrating new ideas in the text with connectives or connective phrases. anaphoric devices are used regularly. there are few incidences of unrelated progressions and no coherence breaks. the structure of the text is extremely cohesive, thanks to a skilful use of connectives (especially linking chunks, verbal constructions, and adverbials), often used to describe relationships between ideas. adapted from kuiken & vedder 2017 an  experimental  approach  to  writing  instruction   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 19   coherence and cohesion, 2 1) can link words or groups of words with very basic linear connectors like ‘and’ or ‘then’. 2) can link groups of words with simple connectors like ‘and’, ‘but’, and ‘because’. 3) can use the most frequently occurring connectors to link simple sentences in order to tell a story or describe something as a simple list of points. 4) can link a series of shorter, discrete simple elements into a connected, linear sequence of points. 5) can use a limited number of cohesive devices to link his/her utterances into clear, coherent discourse, though there may be some ‘jumpiness’ in a long contribution. 6) can use a variety of linking words efficiently to clearly mark the relationships between ideas. 7) can produce clear, smoothly flowing, well-structured speech, showing controlled use of organizational patterns, connectors, and cohesive devices. 8) can create coherent and cohesive text making full and appropriate use of a variety of organizational patterns and a wide range of cohesive devices. (council of europe, 2001, par. 5.2.3.1) pallotti  &  borghetti   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  1-­‐20 20   gabriele pallotti,  università di modena e reggio emilia gabriele.pallotti@unimore.it en gabriele pallotti is a professor of language-teaching methodology at the university of modena and reggio emilia. he is a member of the executive committee of the european second language association (eurosla) and the editor of the eurosla studies series. his research focuses on l2 interaction and socialization, interlanguage analysis, linguistic complexity, methodology, and epistemology in applied linguistics es gabriele pallotti es profesor de metodología de enseñanza de idiomas en la universidad de módena y reggio emilia. es miembro del comité ejecutivo de la asociación europea de segundo idioma (eurosla, por sus siglas en inglés) y editor de la serie eurosla studies. su investigación se centra en la interacción y la socialización en l2, el análisis entre idiomas, la complejidad lingüística, la metodología y la epistemología en lingüística aplicada. it gabriele pallotti è professore di didattica delle lingue moderne presso l’università di modena e reggio emilia. è membro del comitato esecutivo della european second language association (eurosla) e direttore della serie eurosla studies. la sua ricerca si concentra sull’interazione e socializzazione in l2, analisi dell’interlingua, complessità linguistica, metodologia ed epistemologia nella linguistica applicata. claudia borghetti,  università di bologna claudia.borghetti@unibo.it en claudia borghetti is a research fellow in language learning and teaching at the il dipartimento di lingue, letterature e culture moderne, università di bologna, italy. her primary research interests are intercultural language education, student mobility and multilingualism, teaching italian as a second language, and (academic) writing. es claudia borghetti es investigadora de aprendizaje y enseñanza de idiomas en el il dipartimento di lingue, letterature e culture moderne de la università di bologna, italia. sus principales intereses de investigación son la educación intercultural de idiomas, la movilidad estudiantil y el multilingüismo, la enseñanza de italiano como segunda lengua y la escritura académica. it claudia borghetti è ricercatrice di apprendimento ed insegnamento delle lingue moderne presso il dipartimento di lingue, letterature e culture moderne dell’università di bologna, in italia. i suoi principali interessi di ricerca sono l’insegnamento interculturale delle lingue, la mobilità degli studenti e il multilinguismo, l'insegnamento dell'italiano come lingua seconda e la scrittura (accademica). borrocontifiorenza_8.2 e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, november 2021, 1-8 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.262 www.e-journall.org © borro 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. ripensare l’insegnamento delle lingue straniere a partire dall’esperienza della didattica a distanza: introduzione al numero speciale ilaria borro university of portsmouth sergio conti università degli studi roma tre elisa fiorenza università degli studi di messina received 12 october 2021; accepted after revisions 6 november 2021 abstract it la didattica a distanza emergenziale determinata dalla pandemia da covid-19 ha posto insegnanti e studenti di fronte a sfide inedite, forzando un cambiamento senza precedenti in termini di entità e rapidità. questo numero speciale raccoglie contributi sulla didattica delle lingue, accomunati dalla volontà di trarre vantaggio dalle problematicità legate all’insegnamento a distanza per innescare riflessioni e cambiamenti necessari e duraturi, capaci di prescindere dalla situazione emergenziale che li ha generati. questa introduzione descrive il contesto in cui insegnanti e studenti si sono trovati a operare, sottolineandone le implicazioni glottodidattiche in termini di gestione dell’input, dell’output, dell’interazione e della valutazione delle competenze. offriamo una sintesi dei contributi inclusi nel numero speciale, seguita da una riflessione sulle possibili conclusioni trasversali all’intero volume. parole chiave: dad, didattica digitale integrata/ddi, didattica delle lingue, covid-19, apprendimento delle l2/ls en the emergency remote teaching necessitated by the covid-19 pandemic has confronted teachers and students with unknown challenges, forcing truly rapid and significant changes that are without precedent. the current special issue offers contributions, in italian and english, that are focused on language pedagogy. their shared objective is to gain meaningful knowledge from new issues related to remote teaching that can lead to reflection and necessary, long-lasting changes beyond the context of the emergency that created them. this introductory article describes the context in which teachers and students have found themselves working, highlighting the implications for language teaching in terms of managing input, output, interaction, and assessment. we then offer a summary of the contributions and the reviews included in this special issue, followed by a reflection on its possible conclusions. key words: distance learning, integrated digital pedagogy, language teaching, covid-19, learning of l2/second language es la enseñanza remota de emergencia determinada por la pandemia covid-19 ha situado a docentes y a estudiantes ante desafíos desconocidos, forzando cambios rápidos y significativos sin precedentes. el presente número especial reúne contribuciones en italiano y en inglés, centradas en la enseñanza de lenguas, cuyo objetivo común es extraer conocimiento de las problemáticas relacionadas con la enseñanza remota que pueda provocar reflexiones y cambios necesarios y duraderos más allá de la situación de emergencia que las generó. este artículo introductorio describe el contexto en el que se han encontrado trabajando el profesorado y el alumnado, destacando las implicaciones para la enseñanza de idiomas en términos de gestión del input, del output, de las interacciones y de la evaluación de las competencias. tras ello, ofrecemos una síntesis de las contribuciones y de las reseñas incluidas en este número especial, seguida de una reflexión sobre las posibles conclusiones trasversales al número entero. palabras clave: didáctica a distancia, didáctica digital integrada, didáctica de lenguas, covid-19, aprendizaje de segundas lenguas 🖂 ilaria borro, university of portsmouth ilaria.borro@port.ac.uk borro, conti, & fiorenza e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 1-8 2 1. contesto e obiettivi del numero speciale nel tentativo di contenere la diffusione della pandemia da covid-19, il 4 marzo 2020 il governo italiano ha emanato un decreto ministeriale che ha imposto la chiusura temporanea delle scuole di ogni ordine e grado su tutto il territorio nazionale. per la fine del mese di marzo, azioni simili sono state intraprese da tutti i governi europei e da numerosi governi extraeuropei.1 ciò ha comportato lo spostamento delle attività didattiche su piattaforme online e l’attivazione della didattica a distanza (dad) o didattica digitale integrata (ddi). il carattere emergenziale di questi cambiamenti unitamente alla diffusa impreparazione delle istituzioni scolastiche nell’adottare soluzioni tempestive, ha avuto un profondo impatto su milioni di studenti, comportando non solo “un maggior affaticamento cognitivo e una diminuzione delle capacità ricettive [ma] anche senso di isolamento, passività, dipendenza in quanto la comunicazione mediata dal computer limita le capacità di collaborazione e di partecipazione attiva alla vita sociale e collettiva” (sarsini, 2020, p. 10). un simile senso di disorientamento ha coinvolto anche i docenti, i quali hanno dovuto adeguarsi in tempi brevi a forme didattiche diverse da quelle usuali. tali considerazioni valgono in particolare per la didattica delle lingue straniere. la natura multisfaccettata dell’apprendimento linguistico, infatti, richiede idealmente lo sviluppo parallelo e bilanciato di diverse competenze e abilità. inoltre, è necessario tener conto del ruolo centrale di fattori quali l’adeguatezza dell’input e la negoziazione di forme e significati (long, 2015), oltre alla possibilità di produrre output (swain, 1985, 2000) e di ricevere feedback attraverso l’interazione con il docente e tra pari (ad es. nicholas, lightbown, & spada, 2011; sharwood-smith, 1993). per questi motivi, è chiaro come lo spostamento delle attività didattiche online abbia costretto i docenti a rivedere l’intervento educativo, dalle strategie e tecniche pedagogiche alle modalità di valutazione delle competenze (celentin, daloiso, & fiorentino, 2021; fragai, fratter, & jafrancesco, 2020). e sebbene l’uso delle tecnologie digitali sia sempre più diffuso nella didattica delle lingue con esiti spesso incoraggianti, è stato altresì osservato come “keeping on top of project goals, activity/task design, technology interface, and the management of often complex logistical realities is challenging” (kern, 2011, p. 201), dal momento che per sfruttare in modo ottimale le possibilità della tecnologia, essa deve essere integrata attentamente nel curriculum e collegata chiaramente ai risultati e alle attività di apprendimento, insegnamento e valutazione (corder & u-mackey, 2010). in particolare, come evidenziano celentin e colleghi (2021), la dad fallisce laddove tenta di riprodurre nel digitale le modalità del presenziale. al fine di valutare l’impatto della dad/ddi sulla didattica delle lingue, nel mese di luglio 2020 il gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue (graal),2 di cui facciamo parte, ha sottoposto un questionario a 136 docenti e 241 studenti, principalmente universitari e di scuola secondaria. il questionario toccava vari aspetti della didattica delle lingue a distanza, quali gli strumenti utilizzati, il tipo di feedback fornito agli studenti, la percezione di docenti e studenti sull’efficacia degli interventi didattici e le modalità di valutazione implementate. i dati così raccolti hanno fatto da base per riflessioni e proposte di buone pratiche didattiche supportate dalla letteratura scientifica esistente, con lo scopo non solo di accogliere le sfide della dad/ddi, ma soprattutto di trarre beneficio dall’esperienza appena vissuta. tali proposte sono state presentate durante una giornata aperta che si è svolta online il 17 ottobre 2020 e che è stata recepita con favore da numerosi docenti e ricercatori del settore. dover affrontare la situazione emergenziale di un insegnamento delle lingue attraverso strumenti digitali ha portato ad avvicinarsi a problematiche e criticità in modo necessariamente nuovo e originale. tale processo non si è limitato a toccare tematiche strettamente legate all’insegnamento a distanza, ma ha comportato riflessioni più ampie e ripensamenti talvolta radicali, con la potenzialità di contribuire alla didattica delle lingue a prescindere dalla situazione critica contingente. fare il possibile affinché l’evento traumatico a cui siamo stati esposti generi un cambiamento duraturo e utile ci è sembrato doveroso. pertanto, il presente numero speciale mira a diffondere a un più vasto pubblico di insegnanti e ricercatori le riflessioni emerse nel corso dell’evento graal, integrate con ulteriori contributi, il cui denominatore comune è il ripensamento della didattica delle lingue a partire dall’esperienza a distanza. 1 dati unesco, <https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse>; ultima consultazione: 05/10/2021. 2 graal è un gruppo di ricercatori, studenti e insegnanti che si occupano di didattica delle lingue. nasce al centro linguistico d’ateneo dell’università roma tre a partire dall’esperienza del gruppo di ricerca sul task-based language teaching, attivo tra il 2015 e il 2019. partecipano attivamente a graal persone appartenenti a diverse istituzioni italiane, che si incontrano regolarmente per discutere dei loro progetti di ricerca. (fonte <https://www.graalblog.com/it/chisiamo/>; ultima consultazione 25/09/2021). introduzione: ripensare l’insegnamento delle lingue straniere a partire dalla dad e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 1–8 3 2. contributi il presente numero speciale di e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages, raccoglie nove contributi in italiano e in inglese che, prendendo spunto da problematiche rese evidenti dalla dad/ddi e poggiando su solide basi teoriche e sperimentali, sviluppano riflessioni valide per la ricerca sull’apprendimento/insegnamento delle lingue seconde in senso più ampio. in particolare, i primi cinque contributi, consistono nelle proposte dei membri del graal, il cui background comune (cfr. nota 2) traspare nelle soluzioni didattiche e nelle riflessioni teoriche proposte in relazione alle difficoltà emerse dal questionario: tutte le proposte fanno riferimento alla cornice teorica della didattica per task, pur concentrandosi ciascuno su un aspetto specifico della didattica delle lingue, dall’input allo sviluppo delle abilità orali, dal feedback correttivo alla valutazione delle competenze. i quattro articoli successivi nascono indipendentemente dai dati del questionario graal, e arricchiscono il numero speciale da un lato con prospettive tecniche e glottodidattiche su diversi strumenti digitali, e dall’altro con una riflessione sugli aspetti affettivi dell’inclusività e dell’accesso alle pratiche educative. il numero si apre con il saggio di sergio conti dal titolo didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19: il quadro generale. in questo studio, l’autore descrive nel dettaglio gli strumenti e i campioni di riferimento dell’indagine condotta da graal, per poi procedere con l’analisi dei dati emersi nelle diverse sezioni del questionario: gli strumenti, le tecniche e le attività svolte durante le lezioni a distanza, la gestione del feedback, la valutazione e la percezione generale dei rispondenti. rispetto ad altri contributi simili, anche molto recenti (ad es., celentin et al., 2021), lo studio si contraddistingue per l’inclusione nel campione sia di docenti universitari, sia soprattutto di studenti, la cui voce è stata spesso trascurata nella letteratura scientifica sulla didattica durante l’emergenza sanitaria. infine, come già accennato, l’analisi costituisce il punto di partenza degli studi proposti dai membri del graal nei quattro articoli successivi, nell’ottica di trasformare le criticità emerse in un’occasione per riflettere sulla pratica glottodidattica così come l’abbiamo conosciuta fino ad oggi. il primo di questi contributi si intitola optimal and appropriate input in a second language: the potential of (modified-)elaborated input in distance and classroom learning, di ilaria borro e silvia scolaro, e tratta della difficoltà da parte dei docenti di percepire l’adeguatezza dell’input rispetto al livello dei loro studenti. le autrici approfondiscono quindi la tematica dell’input ottimale, analizzando in termini psicolinguistici e acquisizionali le problematiche dell’input semplificato e di quello autentico e non comprensibile. richiamandosi ai principi del task-based language teaching, propongono quindi l’input elaborato o elaborato-modificato (long, 2020) come una possibile soluzione per far sì che gli apprendenti siano esposti a materiale autentico e adatto al loro livello. l’efficacia dell’input elaborato ed elaborato-modificato è supportata nel contributo da considerazioni teoriche e dati sperimentali, che ne dimostrano non solo le potenzialità nel contesto della didattica a distanza, ma anche i benefici in qualsiasi contesto di insegnamento. a differenza dello studio precedente, il contributo di alessandra fazio e claudia cremasco dal titolo distance learning and the development of speaking skills: challenges and opportunities è invece ascrivibile al filone dell’action research e offre una risposta a un’importante sfida che i docenti e gli apprendenti hanno dovuto affrontare nelle lezioni di lingue a distanza: lo sviluppo delle abilità orali. nello specifico, le autrici propongono una riflessione sulle strategie e sulle pratiche efficaci per lo sviluppo del parlato, a distanza e in presenza. con questo scopo promuovono l’approccio didattico basato sui task e il teaching speaking cycle pedagogical model (goh & burns, 2012), implementato sulla piattaforma flipgrid e considerato uno strumento efficace per rendere i discenti consapevoli e autonomi del proprio apprendimento. sulla base dei risultati ottenuti, che dimostrano un incremento significativo delle abilità orali dei partecipanti nelle diverse fasi del task cycle, le autrici propongono un cambio di paradigma, maggiormente centrato sugli apprendenti e che sostenga l’integrazione nelle classi di lingue di strumenti digitali innovativi e immersivi, come quelli sperimentati durante l’emergenza sanitaria. il lavoro successivo, intitolato peer corrective feedback as an opportunity for metalinguistic reflection in tandem telecollaboration, approfondisce l’utilizzo del feedback correttivo tra pari (peer written corrective feedback pwcf; yu & lee, 2016), che risulta scarsamente diffuso nella pratica didattica, anche a distanza. agganciandosi ai risultati del questionario del graal, le autrici francesca la russa ed elena nuzzo ipotizzano che tale strumento sarebbe risultato particolarmente utile in un contesto quale quello della dad, in cui ad essere penalizzate sono state soprattutto l’interazione e l’autonomia degli apprendenti. sulla base di queste riflessioni, lo studio analizza gli aspetti positivi del pwcf in termini di stimolo per la riflessione metalinguistica e l’autonomia degli apprendenti in un contesto task-based. i dati empirici su cui è basata l’analisi provengono da un progetto di telecollaborazione tra apprendenti italofoni e anglofoni, impegnati nel task di fornire borro, conti, & fiorenza e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 1-8 4 feedback correttivo a un testo scritto dal rispettivo partner: l’analisi degli estratti delle interazioni mette ben in luce come il pwcf si sia rivelato un importante strumento pedagogico le cui potenzialità in termini di riflessione metae cross-linguistica non solo sono in grado di compensare la scarsa attenzione alla forma che caratterizza l’apprendimento della lingua in tandem, ma sono anche applicabili in contesti di apprendimento più strutturati come la classe di lingua, che sia a distanza o in presenza. anche federica del bono ed elisabetta bonvino sfruttano le potenzialità della didattica per task affrontando un aspetto cruciale dell’insegnamento delle lingue straniere: la valutazione delle competenze linguistiche. nel saggio applicazioni didattiche delle scale di valutazione dell’adeguatezza funzionale. riflessioni a partire da un questionario sulla valutazione delle lingue nella dad, le autrici analizzano le pratiche valutative e le principali difficoltà riscontrate dai docenti che hanno risposto al questionario graal, anche rispetto alla modalità in presenza. in merito ai cambiamenti imposti dalla dad in questo ambito, lo studio evidenzia che numerosi docenti hanno utilizzato delle prove globali basate su task, con l’obiettivo di elicitare le effettive capacità di uso della lingua straniera. a tale proposito, del bono e bonvino mostrano i vantaggi di una valutazione basata sul concetto di adeguatezza funzionale (o af; kuiken & vedder, 2017), che permette di valutare il raggiungimento degli obiettivi del task senza trascurare gli aspetti linguistici della performance. su questi presupposti le autrici illustrano le possibili applicazioni di scale di valutazione ideate specificamente per valutare il costrutto dell’af, sia in presenza che a distanza. i contributi successivi non sono legati al questionario graal ma risultano coerenti con i precedenti in termini di tematiche, approcci e requisiti metodologici, integrando il numero speciale con prospettive complementari. diana peppoloni nel contributo verso una didattica delle lingue mobile. un possibile quadro glottodidattico illustra le potenzialità del mobile assisted language learning (mall), che nel contesto della didattica a distanza acquisisce una nuova centralità. dopo l’esposizione della cornice teorica e delle evidenze sperimentali a sostegno dell’uso di dispositivi mobili nella didattica delle lingue, l’autrice propone un quadro di riferimento che possa guidare gli insegnanti nell’implementazione di pratiche didattiche efficaci, che tengano conto di fattori cruciali quali la mobilità degli apprendenti, la dinamicità della lingua, la funzionalità degli strumenti tecnologici e l’esperienza del docente. il contributo continua quindi a rivolgersi agli insegnanti attraverso una serie di suggerimenti in termini di strategie e tecniche, per chiudersi con un esempio di attività didattica. fra i punti di forza del mall emergono le possibilità di didattica cooperativa ed esperienziale, il contatto diretto con un uso autentico della lingua e l’utilizzo di dispositivi familiari agli apprendenti, con effetti potenzialmente positivi su motivazione e coinvolgimento nel processo di acquisizione. spostando la riflessione dalle possibilità offerte dai dispositivi a quelle legate alle piattaforme, alice gasparini, nel suo saggio usabilità ed efficacia di ambienti di apprendimento digitale in ambito linguistico, esplora l’organizzazione degli spazi formativi digitali, approfondendo in particolare il concetto di usabilità, sia da un punto di vista tecnico, sia da una prospettiva pedagogica. l’autrice ripercorre lo sviluppo di concetti fondamentali su cui si basa lo studio, quali l’usabilità, l’usabilità pedagogica e la learning analytics, rendendo esplicito il collegamento con la didattica delle lingue. nella sezione applicata, invece, si analizzano le potenzialità e le criticità di due diversi ambienti digitali, ovvero le piattaforme moodle e wordpress, allestiti appositamente per ospitare risorse open-source di italiano come l2. l’utilizzo di un software di monitoraggio del comportamento degli utenti, di interviste e questionari ha permesso di rilevare l’usabilità dei due sistemi di apprendimento, in termini di coinvolgimento degli utenti nei confronti dell’ambiente di apprendimento e delle risorse in esso contenute, nonché della soddisfazione rispetto allo sviluppo di abilità e competenze nella lingua italiana, fornendo spunti di riflessione per calibrare l’intervento didattico in ambienti digitali sempre più sui bisogni degli apprendenti. il contributo di antonella giacosa, dal titolo clarification and repair in emergency remote efl classes, rimane nell’ambito degli strumenti digitali applicati alla glottodidattica, analizzando nello specifico le dinamiche interazionali nel contesto dell’emergency remote teaching (ert). rispetto all’e-learning, i due fattori che contraddistinguono l’ert sono il carattere provvisorio e la mancanza di pianificazione: ciò ha avuto importanti ripercussioni sul piano delle interazioni tra docenti e apprendenti, ripercussioni che sono state analizzate dall’autrice secondo la prospettiva della conversation analysis. nello specifico, lo studio si sofferma sulle sequenze di chiarimento e repair avviate sia dagli insegnanti che dagli studenti, mettendo in luce il carattere multimodale delle interazioni online ed evidenziando in particolare il ruolo cruciale della chat. tale strumento si è rivelato infatti fondamentale per la creazione e il mantenimento dell’intersoggettività, offrendo la possibilità soprattutto agli studenti di avviare sequenze di negoziazione senza interrompere il flusso della lezione. questi risultati spingono all’impiego della chat come strumento pedagogico anche in contesti non introduzione: ripensare l’insegnamento delle lingue straniere a partire dalla dad e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 1–8 5 emergenziali, in quanto in grado di favorire la partecipazione degli apprendenti in termini sia quantitativi che qualitativi, consentendo loro di contribuire attivamente al processo di creazione del significato. una prospettiva diversa e complementare è offerta dalla proposta di angelica amezcua, anel brandl, evelyn duran ed estrella rodriguez, the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses: why social presence matters. le autrici utilizzano lo strumento del questionario per analizzare il ruolo della social presence (sp) nei corsi a distanza di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria. lo studio ha coinvolto 126 studenti di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria in istituzioni universitarie della costa orientale degli stati uniti, ed è inquadrato in una cornice teorica che tiene conto sia della letteratura internazionale riguardante la sp, sia delle diseguaglianze che le studentesse e gli studenti di origine latino-americana devono affrontare nel corso della loro istruzione superiore. i risultati del questionario indicano agli insegnanti la necessità di tenere conto di un accesso limitato da parte degli apprendenti alle tecnologie necessarie alle lezioni a distanza, così come dell’importanza di fattori quali l’individualità dell’apprendente e la collaborazione fra pari. questo, insieme a un coinvolgimento autentico dell’insegnante verso gli studenti al di là dei meri bisogni linguistici, può avere un effetto cruciale nel diminuire gli elevati tassi di abbandono degli studenti di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria. il numero speciale si chiude con due recensioni di volumi pubblicati recentemente sul tema del distance learning e della progettazione di corsi online. il primo volume, didattica con e nella rete. dall’emergenza all’uso ordinario, di giorgio trentin (2020), è recensito da valentina ornaghi. coerentemente con i temi del numero speciale, l’autrice fa emergere come i suggerimenti relativi alla didattica a distanza presenti nel volume siano applicabili anche alla classe di lingue. specificamente rivolto alla glottodidattica è invece il volume teaching language online, di victoria russel e kathryn murphy-judy (2020), recensito da marco casentini. l’autore mette in luce come il testo riesca ad affrontare tutti i principali aspetti da considerare nella progettazione e nell’erogazione di un corso di lingua online efficace, dalla riflessione sulle competenze del docente e sugli strumenti di valutazione ai fattori affettivi implicati nella delicata relazione con gli studenti. 3. conclusioni e implicazioni didattiche con il presente numero speciale abbiamo voluto accogliere istanze di rinnovamento già da tempo oggetto di attenzione sia a livello di riflessione teorica sia nella pratica glottodidattica. l’emergenza pandemica ha reso evidente come tale rinnovamento non fosse più rimandabile, e ha fornito un’eccezionale opportunità per la messa in discussione di prassi consolidate. sfruttando tale volano abbiamo selezionato contributi che affrontassero i principali temi implicati nella discussione, cercando di restituire un quadro quanto più esaustivo dei fattori in gioco. in primo luogo, abbiamo preso in considerazione il ripensamento di tematiche didattiche legate ad aspetti cruciali quali input, output, interazione e valutazione. tali aspetti sono stati scelti sulla base di dati empirici, provenienti da un’indagine volta a dar voce a tutti gli attori coinvolti processo di apprendimento. la seconda macro-area che abbiamo considerato imprescindibile è quella degli strumenti tecnologici, con cui insegnanti e apprendenti si sono trovati necessariamente a fare i conti, spesso scontrandosi con carenze in termini di competenze e risorse materiali. infine, abbiamo ritenuto necessario trattare anche aspetti di ordine sociale ed emotivo quali l’abbandono scolastico nelle fasce più deboli della popolazione e l’isolamento individuale, che la didattica a distanza emergenziale ha contribuito ad acuire. pur concentrandosi principalmente sul contesto italiano, a cui la maggior parte degli autori fa riferimento, il numero speciale include studi che valicano i confini nazionali. le tematiche affrontate, inoltre, non si esauriscono a livello locale: il carattere globale della pandemia e delle sfide che questa ha comportato rende generalizzabili le riflessioni e le soluzioni che emergono in questa sede. l’aspetto che emerge come una costante trasversale ai vari contributi è che nonostante la tecnologia possa apparire come protagonista del ripensamento glottodidattico legato alla pandemia, è in realtà la centralità dell’apprendente a confermarsi cruciale da tutte le angolazioni qui considerate. in particolare, questo è vero non solo progettando i contenuti dell’azione didattica, ma è fondamentale anche nella scelta e nell’utilizzo degli strumenti tecnologici, oltre che determinante nel garantire l’inclusività e la piena partecipazione degli individui al percorso di apprendimento. il principale auspicio del numero speciale è quindi che non si tema di scardinare assunti consolidati per ricostruire nuove prospettive sempre più in linea con i bisogni reali degli apprendenti, in modo da definire e diffondere pratiche didattiche con saldi fondamenti teorici e conferme empiriche. borro, conti, & fiorenza e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 1-8 6 ringraziamenti ringraziamo tutte/i le autrici/gli autori che hanno contribuito a questo special issue, le colleghe/i colleghi che hanno accettato di rivedere gli articoli in forma anonima. desideriamo, inoltre, ringraziare il comitato editoriale di e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages, per aver permesso la realizzazione di questo numero speciale. infine, un ringraziamento speciale va a elena nuzzo, diego cortés velásquez, laura di ferrante e katie bernstein per il loro costante supporto in ogni fase del progetto. riferimenti bibliografici corder, debbie, & u-mackey, alice (2010). integration of technology for effective learning, teaching and assessment. in mike levy, françoise blin, claire b. siskin, & osamu takeuchi (a cura di), worldcall: international perspectives on computer-assisted language learning (pp. 188-201). routledge. celentin, paola, daloiso, michele, & fiorentino, alice (2021). didattica delle lingue straniere a distanza in situazione emergenziale: gli esiti di un’indagine a campione. italiano linguadue, 1, 13-32. goh, christine c. m., & burns, anne (2012). teaching speaking: a holistic approach. cambridge university press. fragai, eleonora, fratter, ivana, & jafrancesco, elisabetta (2020). insegnamento linguistico ed emergenza sanitaria: riflessioni sulla dad. italiano linguadue, 12(2), 38-62. long, michael (2015). second language acquisition and task-based language teaching. wiley-blackwell. long, michael (2020). optimal input for language learning: genuine, simplified, elaborated, or modified elaborated? language teaching, 53(2), 169-182. kern, richard (2011). technology and language learning. in james simpson (a cura di), the routledge handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 200-214). routledge. kuiken, folkert, & vedder, ineke (2017). functional adequacy in l2 writing: towards a new rating scale. language testing, 34(3), 321-336. nicholas, howard, lightbown, patsy & spada, nina (2001). recasts as feedback to language learners. language learning 51, 719-758. russel, victoria, & murphy-judy, kathryn (2020). teaching language online. routledge. sarsini, daniela (2020). alcune riflessioni sulla didattica a distanza. studi sulla formazione, 23(1), 9-11. sharwood-smith, michael (1993). input enhancement in instructed sla: theoretical bases. studies in second language acquisition, 15, 165-179. swain, merrill (1985). communicative competence: some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. in susan m. gass & carolyn g. madden (a cura di), input in second language acquisition (pp. 235-253). newbury house publishers. swain, merrill (2000). the output hypothesis and beyond: mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue. in james p. lantolf (a cura di), sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 97114). oxford university press. trentin, guglielmo (2020). didattica con e nella rete. dall’emergenza all’uso ordinario. franco angeli. yu, shulin, & lee, icy (2016). peer feedback in second language writing (2005–2014). language teaching, 49(4), 461-493. introduzione: ripensare l’insegnamento delle lingue straniere a partire dalla dad e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 1–8 7 ilaria borro, university of portsmouth ilaria.borro@port.ac.uk it ilaria borro ha di recente conseguito un dottorato di ricerca presso la university of portsmouth (uk), con una tesi relativa all’apprendimento incidentale delle lingue seconde. da dieci anni insegna italiano a stranieri presso istituzioni accademiche, pubbliche e private. al contempo, contribuisce alla ricerca scientifica sull’acquisizione delle lingue seconde attraverso ricerche sperimentali, presentazioni a convegni internazionali e pubblicazioni. è membro attivo di graal (gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue), nel cui contesto contribuisce all’organizzazione di eventi di formazione per docenti di lingua e al sostegno di attività di ricerca, con lo scopo di diffondere una didattica delle lingue con salde basi scientifiche ed empiriche. en ilaria borro recently completed her ph.d. at the university of portsmouth (uk) with a thesis related to the incidental learning of second languages. for over 10 years, she has taught italian as a second language in public and private academic institutions. at the same time, she has contributed to the scientific research of second language acquisition through experimental research, presentations at international conferences, and publications. she is an active member of graal (gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue), where she contributes to the organization of professional development events for language teachers and to the support of research activities whose objective is to disseminate language teaching pedagogy with well-founded scientific and empirical evidence. es ilaria borro ha completado recientemente un doctorado en la universidad de portsmouth (reino unido), con una tesis sobre el aprendizaje incidental de segundas lenguas. ha enseñado italiano como l2 durante diez años en universidades, instituciones públicas y privadas. al mismo tiempo, ha contribuido a la investigación sobre adquisición de segundas lenguas a través de estudios experimentales, presentaciones en congresos internacionales y publicaciones científicas. es miembro activo de graal (gruppo di ricerca e azione sull'apprendimento delle lingue, grupo de investigación y acción sobre el aprendizaje de idiomas) donde contribuye tanto a la organización de eventos para la formación del profesorado de lenguas como al desarrollo de actividades de investigación, con el objetivo de difundir una enseñanza de idiomas basada en la investigación empírica y en la evidencia científica. sergio conti, università degli studi roma tre sergio.conti@uniroma3.it it sergio conti è docente a contratto di lingua, traduzione e cultura cinese presso l’università degli studi roma tre, l’università di siena e l’università degli studi di napoli ‘l’orientale’. ha conseguito il titolo di dottore di ricerca presso l’università di roma ‘sapienza’ ed è stato assegnista di ricerca presso l’università degli studi roma tre, dove ha collaborato anche con il centro linguistico d’ateneo fornendo assistenza agli studenti cinesi del programma marco polo/turandot. è membro attivo di graal (gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue) a partire da gennaio 2020. si occupa di didattica e acquisizione del cinese lingua straniera, in particolare del lessico e delle espressioni formulaiche, e dello sviluppo della competenza pragmatica. en sergio conti is an adjunct professor of chinese language, translation and culture at the university of roma tre, the university of siena and the university of napoli ‘l’orientale’. he received his phd from the university of roma ‘sapienza’ and was a research fellow at the university of roma tre where he assisted the chinese students participating in the program marco polo/turandot at the language center. as of january 2020, he is an active member of graal (gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue). his research focus is the teaching and learning of chinese as a foreign language, in particular chinese vocabulary and formulaic expressions, and the development of pragmatic competence. es sergio conti es profesor adjunto de lengua, traducción y cultura china en la universià roma tre, la università di siena y la università di napoli ‘l’orientale’. obtuvo su doctorado de la università di roma ‘sapienza’ y fue investigador en la università di roma tre, donde trabajó como asistente para los estudiantes chinos que participaban en el programa marco polo/turandot en el centro de idiomas. a partir de marzo de 2020 es miembro activo de graal (gruppo di ricerca e azione sull'apprendimento delle lingue, grupo de investigación y acción sobre el aprendizaje de idiomas) sus investigaciones se centran en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del chino como lengua extranjera, en particular del vocabulario y de las expresiones formulaicas chinas, y en el desarrollo de la competencia pragmática. borro, conti, & fiorenza e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 1-8 8 elisa fiorenza, università degli studi di messina elisa.fiorenza@unime.it it elisa fiorenza è ricercatrice senior a tempo determinato presso il dipartimento di civiltà antiche e moderne dell’università degli studi di messina, abilitata a professore di seconda fascia (l-lin/02). è stata assegnista di ricerca presso il dipartimento di lingue, letterature e culture straniere dell’università degli studi roma tre e docente a contratto di didattica delle lingue moderne presso l’università degli studi dell’aquila. ha collaborato con l’università degli studi di roma “foro italico” e con il cla di roma tre. è membro attivo di graal (gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue) fin dalla sua formazione. è esperta di intercomprensione e membro del gruppo eurom5, progetto vincitore del label europeo delle lingue 2013. i suoi principali interessi scientifici sono la didattica del plurilinguismo, la lettura in l2/ls, l’analisi del parlato. en elisa fiorenza is a full-time research associate and associate professor in the department of ancient and modern civilization at the università degli studi of messina. she was previously a research fellow in the department of foreign languages, literatures and cultures at the università degli studi roma tre and adjunct instructor of foreign language teaching at the università degli studi in l’aquila. she also worked with the università degli studi of rome “foro italico” and with cla of roma tre. she has been an active member of graal (research and action group on foreign language learning). she is an expert in intercomprehension and also a member of the eurom5 group, whose project won the 2013 european language label. her main interests are plurilingual pedagogy, reading in l2, and analysis of oral production. es elisa fiorenza es investigadora a tiempo completo en el departamento de civilización antigua y moderna de la università degli studi de messina y está acreditada a profesora titular de universidad. ha sido investigadora en el departamento de lenguas, literaturas y culturas extranjeras de la università degli studi roma tre y profesora adjunta de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en la università degli studi de l’aquila. también trabajó con la università degli studi de roma “foro italico” y con el cla de roma tre. ha sido miembro activo de graal (grupo de investigación y acción sobre el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras). es experta en intercomprensión y también es miembro del grupo eurom5 cuyo proyecto ganó el european language label en el 2013. sus principales intereses son la enseñanza plurilingüe, la lectura en l2, y el análisis de la producción oral. microsoft word 1. costa pladevall_done_1-10 (1).docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  7,  issue  1,  february  2020,  1-­‐10   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.11.202   www.e-­‐journall.org     © costa 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       introduction  to  the  special  issue:  learners’  outcomes  and  effective   strategies  in  early  second  language  learning         francesca  costaa  &  elisabet  pladevall-­‐ballesterb   auniversità  cattolica  di  milano/brescia   buniversitat  autònoma  de  barcelona         received  8  june  2019;  received  in  revised  form  28  september  2019;  accepted  1  november  2019   abstract en as early second language learning is increasingly considered fundamental in children’s development and as early language learning programmes are encouraged both at institutional and societal levels, research has expanded in scope from a narrow focus on age to examine the interplay between variables affecting language learning. in this introductory article to the special issue, we first provide an overview of the field of early second and foreign language learning and how it has changed over the last few years. next, we report challenges and strategies that should be tackled both in research and in pedagogical practices. these include teacher education and use of teaching strategies, the use of multilingual practices, bilingual and clil programmes and teachers’, students’ and parents’ beliefs about language learning at an early age. we conclude with an overview of the articles and book reviews included in this special issue. key words: early l2 learning, young learners, challenges, strategies, classroom practice es a medida que se ha ido reconociendo el lugar central que ocupa la adquisición temprana de segundas lenguas en el desarrollo de los niños y los programas de aprendizaje temprano de lenguas han adquirido relevancia institucional y social, la investigación en este campo ha empezado a prestar atención a otros factores más allá de la edad. en esta introducción, ofrecemos una visión panorámica del campo y de cómo ha cambiado en los últimos años, para luego pasar a describir una serie de retos y estrategias que la investigación y las prácticas pedagógicas deberían abordar. éstas incluyen la formación de los profesores y el uso de estrategias docentes, el uso de prácticas multilingües en el aula, los programas bilingües y clil y las creencias de los profesores, los estudiantes y los padres acerca del aprendizaje de lenguas en una edad temprana. este artículo se cierra con una panorámica de los artículos y reseñas incluidos en este número especial. palabras clave: adquisición temprana de l2, aprendices jóvenes, retos, estrategias, prácticas docentes it dato che l’apprendimento precoce di una lingua seconda è considerato fondamentale nello sviluppo dei bambini e i programmi di insegnamento precoce sono incoraggiati sia a livello istituzionale sia a livello sociale, la ricerca in questo senso si è spostata dall’età come unico fattore di analisi per andare verso la varietà di fattori che entrano in gioco e influenzano il processo di apprendimento delle lingue in questo contesto. in questo articolo introduttivo del volume offriamo una panoramica di studi sull’apprendimento precoce delle lingue per poi descrivere una serie di sfide e strategie che la ricerca e la pratica pedagogica dovrebbero dipanare. tra queste vi sono: la formazione dei docenti e il loro uso di strategie didattiche, l’uso di pratiche multilingui in classe, i programmi bilingui e il clil e le opinioni dei professori, degli studenti e dei genitori in merito all’apprendimento delle lingue in età precoce. questo articolo chiude con una panoramica degli articoli e recensioni inclusi in questo numero speciale. parole chiave: acquisizione precoce di l2, giovani apprendenti, sfide, strategie, pratiche didattiche   *  francesca  costa,  università  cattolica  di  milano/brescia                  francesca.costa@unicatt.it   costa  &  pladevall-­‐ballester   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  1-­‐10 2   1.  early  second  and  foreign  language  learning   the  introduction  of  second  or  foreign  language  learning  programmes  in  early  education  has  become   common   practice   worldwide   despite   children’s   little   progress   and   modest   quantifiable   achievements,   particularly   in   low  exposure  contexts  (bland,  2015;  garcía  mayo,  2017;  garton  &  copland,  2019;  nikolov  &   djigunovic,  2011;  rokita-­‐jaśkow  &  ellis,  2019).  the  introduction  of  additional  or  foreign  languages  (fl/l2),   notably  english,  for  young  learners  (yls)  in  primary  schools  and  very  young  learners  (vyls)  in  pre-­‐schools  is   claimed  to  have  entered  “a  global  phase,  thereby  astronomically  increasing  the  number  of  children  involved”   (johnstone,  2019,  p.   16).   in   the  european   context,  most   countries  have  established   the  mandatory   starting   age  of  fl  learning  at  7  years  or  less  (enever,  2011;  eurydice,  2017).  this  widespread  implementation  of  early   language   teaching   is   encouraged   in   several   policy   documents,   including   the   conclusions   of   the   barcelona   presidency   (2002),   the   reports   from   the   commission   of   the   european   communities   (2003)   and   the   consecutive   eurydice   reports   (eurydice,   2006,   2012,   2017).   these   documents   are   informed   by   a   socioeconomic  rationale,  namely  the  necessity  for  the  school  curriculum  to  keep  pace  with  the  requirements   of   a   globalised   world,   where   knowing   different   languages,   in   particular   english,   offers   a   competitive   advantage  (enever  &  moon,  2009).  language  acquisition  studies   in   immersion  or  second   language  contexts   provide   a   psycholinguistic   justification,   according   to   which   an   early   start   results   in   potentially   better   language   learning   outcomes.   yet   age   is   just   one   of   the   factors   at   play   and   an   early   start   alone   does   not   guarantee   any   advantages   if   the   learning   context   and   the   learning   conditions   are   not   favourable   (enever,   2015;   johnstone,   2009).   research   should   therefore   focus   on   exploring   those   contexts   that   are   indeed   successful   to   determine  which   factors   contribute   to   improving   early   language   learning   experiences   among   teachers  and  learners  (garton  &  copland,  2019).     a   number   of   advantages   for   early   second   language   learning   have   been   identified,   namely   the   development  of  positive  attitudes  towards  foreign  languages  (johnstone,  2009),  the  development  of  language   awareness   strategies,   children’s  natural   tendency   to  communicate  and  play   (halliwell,  1992),  more   time   to   learn,  the  development  of  multicultural  identities,  and  reduced  anxiety  (johnstone,  2002;  2009).  according  to   pinter  (2006),  children  in  their   first  years  of  schooling  understand  meaningful  messages  but  do  not  display   analytic  skills.  they  also  have  low  awareness  of  themselves  as  language  learners  and  of  the  language  learning   process,  and  their  literacy  skills  are  only  emerging.  with  limited  knowledge  of  the  world,  they  enjoy  fantasy,   imagination   and  movement.   older   children   in   the   upper   stages   of   primary   school   are  more   analytic,   have   well-­‐developed   literacy   skills,   are   aware   of   others’   viewpoints,   and   have   knowledge   of   the   world   and   an   interest  in  real-­‐life  issues.  two  of  the  earliest  research  reports  on  early  second  language  learning  outlined  a   number   of   conditions   for   success   (blondin   et   al.   1998;   edelenbos,   johnstone,   &   kubanek,   2006),   and   subsequent   research   reviews   contributed   to   an   understanding   of   factors   fostering   early   language   learning   (enever,   2011;   enever   &   lindgren,   2016;   garcia   mayo,   2017;   nikolov   &   djigunovic,   2011).   as   these   researchers   noted,   the   amount   of   exposure   inside   and   outside   school   should   be   increased,   parental   involvement  should  be  guaranteed,  class  size  should  ideally  be  reduced,  teachers  should  possess  an  advanced   linguistic  proficiency  level,  methodologically  appropriate  training  should  be  provided,  and  continuity  should   be  ensured  from  one  educational  level  to  the  next.  additionally,  yls  need  to  be  provided  with  meaningful  and   enjoyable  tasks,  as  well  as  opportunities  to  communicate  through  purposeful,  real,  here-­‐and-­‐now  experiences   (cameron,   2001;   muñoz,   2007;   nunan,   2011;   pinter,   2011,   2014),   all   of   which   encourage   motivation   in   language   learning.  most   importantly,   the  development  of  realistic  objectives  and  the  use  of  age-­‐appropriate   methodological  tools  are  key  to  enhancing  the  potential  benefits  of  an  early  start  (bland,  2015;  garcía  mayo,   2017).   the  growing  number  of  early  second  and  foreign  language  teaching  programmes  has  been  paralleled   by  an   increase   in   research  contributions,  particularly  over   the  past   ten  years.  edited  volumes  on   research-­‐ informed   practice   (bland,   2015;   garcía   mayo,   2017;   moon   &   nikolov,   2000;   mourão   &   lourenço,   2015;   murphy  &  evangelou,  2016;  nikolov,  2009;  philp,  oliver,  &  mackey,  2008;  rokita-­‐jaśkow  &  ellis,  2019;  among   others),   research  methods   (enever  &  lindgren,  2017;  pinter  &  zandian,  2014),  assessment   (nikolov,  2017;   prosic-­‐santovac  &  rixon,  2019),  teacher  education  (zein  &  garton,  2017)  and  global  policies  (enever  &  moon,   2009),   special   issues   on   young   learners   (enever  &   lindgren,   2016;   copland  &  garton,   2014),  monographs   (murphy,  2014;  pinter,  2011)  and  handbooks  (garton  &  copland,  2019)  all  contribute  to  expanding  research   on   instructed   early   language   learning.   however,   the   teaching   and   learning   strategies   and   the   outcomes   of   early   language   teaching   policies   in   pre-­‐primary   and   primary   school   settings   remain   under-­‐researched   in   comparison   to   other   age   groups   (i.e.,   university   learners   or   adolescent   learners)   and   same   age   groups   in   introduction   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  1-­‐10 3   second  language  or  immersion  settings  (collins  &  muñoz,  2016)  and  their  findings  from  studies  on  the  latter   groups  cannot  be  extended  to  yls  on  account  of  age  and/or  context-­‐related  differences.         2.  challenges  and  strategies  in  early  second  and  foreign  language  learning   there   is   a   need   for  more   research   on   the   challenges   and   teaching   and   learning   strategies   in   early   second  language  learning  contexts  and  further  studies  can  contribute  to  bridging  the  gap  between  research,   classroom  pedagogy,  and  expected  outcomes.  one  of   the  great  challenges   that   research  on  yls  still   faces   is   teacher  education  and  the  use  of  pedagogical  strategies  employed  by  instructors  in  their  classroom  discourse   and   practice.   as   zein   and   garton   (2017)   emphasize,   research   on   teacher   education   is   still   limited   and   unfocused   (grenfell,   2014)   and   mostly   generates   small-­‐scale   descriptive   studies.   language-­‐related,   methodological   teacher   training   is   crucial   to   the   development   of   effective   pedagogical   strategies   and   l2   literacy  skills.  at  the  primary  school  level,  teachers  may  justify  their  self-­‐perceived  inadequate  proficiency  in   english  by   the   fact   that   they   are   expected   to   equip   young   learners  with  basic   vocabulary   and   grammatical   structures  as  opposed  to  content.  however,  the  communicative  approach,  which  must  certainly  be  used  with   young  learners,  requires  high  competence  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  who  often  represents  the  single  source   of   input   (bondi,   2001;   jiménez   raya   &   hewitt,   2001).   pronunciation   should   be   given   careful   attention   (edelenbos  et  al.,  2006)  due  to  its  importance  in  enhancing  phonetic  awareness  in  learners.  precisely  because   of  doubts  about   their   language  competence,   teachers  at   the  early   learning  stage  may  rely  on  grammar  as  a   dependable  source  of  l2  knowledge:  “[t]eachers  who  are  less  confident  in  their  english  proficiency,  or  who   feel  pressure  to  teach  towards  an  examination,  will  tend  to  opt  for  more  traditional  instruction,  even  if  this  is   not  mandated  by  the  syllabus  itself”  (parker  &  valente,  2019).  however,     young   learners   need   to   be   surrounded   by   and   participate   in   meaningful   discourse   in   the   foreign  language,  and  it  would  not  be  conceptually  appropriate  for  grammar  to  be  explicitly   taught  as  formal,  explicit  rules  in  young  learner  classrooms  to  children  under  the  age  of  8  or   9  years.  (cameron,  2001,  p.  110)      nevertheless,   as  cameron  also  acknowledges,   it   is  desirable   for   teachers   to  be  aware  of  grammar-­‐ based  as  well  as  of  form-­‐focused  teaching  tools  so  that  they  can  make  the  most  of  the  learners’  readiness  to   more   formal   language   learning   or   to   call   young   learners’   attention   to   grammatical   features   present   in   the   different  sources  of  input  they  are  exposed  to,  such  as  songs  or  stories.  an  additional  strategy  to  be  reinforced   with  young   learners   is   the  development  of  l2   literacy   skills.  as  cameron  notes   (2001),   “[f]rom   their   early   infancy,  children  are  involved  in  using  writing  and  reading:  for  example,  when  they  are  helped  to  write  their   name  on  a  birthday  card   to  a   friend  or  when   they   look  at   story  books  with  adults”   (p.  124).   it   is   therefore   natural  and  possible  to   focus  on  early   literacy   in  a  second  language  when  the  teacher   is  adequately  trained   and  the  children  are  ready  to  carry  out  this  kind  of  activity.   the   use   of   multilingual   practices   and   instructional   strategies   in   class   is   another   crucial   and   challenging   area   of   research   to   be   explored.   this   includes   the   use   of   the   l1   by   children   and   teachers   in   second/foreign   language   learning   and   translanguaging   strategies   in   early   education.  multilingual   practices   seem  to  contribute  to  a  positive  and  motivating  learning  environment  while  still  developing  the  children’s  l1   (garrity,  aquino-­‐sterling  &  day,  2015;  gort  &  sembiante,  2015;  schwartz  &  gorbatt,  2018).  a  belief  persists   that  multilingual  pedagogies  should  be  avoided  in  order  to  expose  learners  as  much  as  possible  to  the  target   language.  this  vision,  however,  is  linked  to  traditional  monolingual  ideologies  (cook,  2001;  lin,  2015;  prada   &   nikula,   2018)   that   can   make   teachers   sometimes   feel   uneasy   when   they   use   other   languages   for   pedagogical  purposes.     bilingual   education   and  clil  programmes   are   also   a   source   of   concern   in   early   language   learning,   since  it  is  thought  that  young  learners  might  not  be  prepared  to  learn  and  consolidate  content  through  an  l2   or  a  fl  if  their  level  of  the  target  language  is  limited.  however,  linguistic  development  should  proceed  parallel   to  that  of  content  and  therefore,  if  content  and  language  are  properly  integrated  and  one  assists  the  other,  the   above-­‐mentioned  concern  should  not  arise.  more  than  anything  else,  the  real  problem  concerns  clil  teacher   training,  especially  in  early  learning  contexts  (mair,  forthcoming).  at  this  stage,  training  can  be  advantageous   (ioannou-­‐georgiou  &  pavlou,  2011)  provided  that  certain  success  factors  are  considered  (i.e.,  not  neglecting   pupils’  l1,  preparing  competent  teachers  with  adequate  training,  having  permanent  teaching  staff,  involving   parents,  and  developing  suitable  materials  for  this  kind  of  methodological  approach  [navés,  2009]).  however,   these  considerations  are  often  overlooked,  which  brings  fewer  advantages  and  limits  tangible  outcomes.   costa  &  pladevall-­‐ballester   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  1-­‐10 4   a  further  challenge  to  include  in  the  research  agenda  is  parents’  and  teachers’  beliefs  and  misbeliefs   about  language  learning  in  general  and  their  children’s  language  learning  process.  as  ellis  and  rokita-­‐jaśkow   (2019)  observe,  teachers’  and  parents’  beliefs  “have  tremendous  influence  on  their  expectations  of  the  aims   of   language   learning,   how   languages   should   be   taught   and   assessed,   how  much   progress   children   should   make  and  what  achievements  can  be  expected”  (p.  242).  beliefs  should  be  further  explored  as  a  tool  to  delve   into   how   the   stakeholders’   affective   stance   may   influence   the   process   of   early   second   language   learning.   these  beliefs   and  misbeliefs  need   to  be  made  explicit   so   that   they  can  be  explored,  drawing  on   theoretical   underpinnings  and  experimental  data,  and  can   inform  the  examination  of  what  young   learners  can  do  with   language  and  how  their  linguistic  development  proceeds.   only  through  sound  research  and  a  continuous  link  between  research  and  classroom  practice  can  the   aforementioned  research  challenges  regarding  early  language  learning  be  overcome.  this  is  in  part  the  aim  of   this   special   issue,   which   explores   learners’   outcomes   and   effective   teaching   strategies   from   a   variety   of   perspectives  and  research  methods,  involving  a  range  of  l1s  and  target  languages.     3.  this  special  issue   given  the  gaps  in  the  literature  and  the  unanswered  questions  concerning  several  of  the  challenges   and  teaching  and   learning  strategies  outlined  above,   this   issue   focuses  mainly  on  two  closely-­‐related  areas:   the  strategies  to  adopt  in  early  second  and  foreign  language  learning  and  the  extent  to  which  those  strategies   lead   to   observable   or   verifiable   outcomes.   in   this   sense,  we   have   aimed   at   investigating   the   efficiency   and   appropriateness   of   early   second   language   teaching   and   the  most   effective   teaching-­‐learning   strategies   (as   suggested  by  enever  &  lindgren,  2017;  murphy,  2014).  we  have  simultaneously  endeavoured  to  gain  insights   into  approaches  to  and  experiences  of  early  language  teaching  and  learning  across  contexts.  we  also  aim  to   bridge   the   gap   between   research   and   school   practice   (as   suggested   by   zein,   2019)   and   to   inform   the   development  of  effective  educational  practices  and  policies. this   special   issue,   which   includes   seven   articles,   therefore   contributes   to   the   growing   body   of   research   on   early   second   language   learning   and   teaching   at   pre-­‐primary   and   primary   school   levels.   in   so   doing,   it   seeks   to   shed   light   on   teaching/learning   strategies   and   related   outcomes   that   remain   under-­‐ researched.  to  this  end,  the  contributions  consider  a  variety  of  school  contexts  across  the  world,  the  range  of   approaches   used   within   them,   different   onset   ages,   and   different   programme   lengths   and   intensities.   the   issue   also   covers   a   range   of   target   languages,   l1s,   and   topics   related   to   the   various   strategies   and   related   outcomes:   the   importance   of   longitudinal   or   pseudolongitudinal   studies   in   early   language   learning   and   assessment;   effective   strategies   for   the   transition   from   pre-­‐primary   to   primary   language   teaching   and   learning  in  bilingual  schools   in  spain;   intercultural   interactions  and  multilingual  practices  among  preschool   arabic-­‐hebrew  bilinguals  in  israel;  the  use  of  the  l1  in  task-­‐based  interactions  by  spanish/basque  bilingual   elementary   students   studying   english   as   a   foreign   language;   the   sound/spelling   connection,   pronunciation   and   literacy  skills   in  l2  french   in   the  uk;  maltese  teachers’  views  on  multilingual  primary  classrooms;  and   language  learning  motivation  and  literacy  in  primary  school  storytelling  projects  in  spain.     the   articles   are   organized   as   follows   (see   the   summary   in   table   1):   the   issue   begins   with   two   conceptually-­‐oriented   articles   (lopriore;   fleta),   one   in   italian   and   one   in   spanish,   which   reflect   on   how   research   and   practice   in   early   language   learning   are   linked   and   provide   an   overview   of   assessment   and   teaching   strategies.   the   next   article   (krivosh  &   schwartz)   is  written   in   english   and   examines   pre-­‐primary   language   education.   the   four   articles   that   follow,   also  written   in   english,   explore   primary   school   contexts.   two   of   these   articles   (martínez-­‐adrián;   porter)   report   quantitative   research,   whereas   the   last   two   (panzavecchia   &   little;   waddington)   report   on   qualitative   research.   in   what   follows,   each   article   is   introduced  in  more  detail.     the   first   article,   “valutare   l’apprendimento   precoce   di   una   seconda   lingua:   rilevanza   degli   studi   longitudinali,”  by  lucila  lopriore,  examines  the  complexity  of  assessment  and  evaluation  strategies   in  early   language  learning  and  discusses  how  these  two  aspects  have  been  investigated  in  previous  research  studies.   the  author  strongly  stresses   the  significance  of   longitudinal   research  studies  and  their  potential   impact  on   teaching  and  learning  practices  and  outcomes.     the  second  conceptually-­‐oriented  article,  “construyendo  puentes  entre  infantil  y  el  aula  de  primaria   para   la   alfabetización   temprana   en   inglés,”   by   teresa   fleta   is   a   reflection   on   the  comunidad   autónoma   de   madrid   bilingual  programmes  and  clil  contexts.   in  particular,   the  article  describes  how  both   teachers  and   students  can  be  better  equipped  in  language  learning.  the  author  suggests  practical  communicative  strategies   that  can  be  developed,  particularly  during  the  transition  from  preschool  to  primary  school.  these  include  the   introduction   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  1-­‐10 5   development   of   phonological   skills   through   storytelling,   the   exposure   to   input   and   interaction   through   the   use  of  prefabricated  language,  and  the  development  of  early  literacy  skills.       the   first   empirical   article,   by  ludmila  krivosh  and  mila  schwartz,   “‘to  be  able   to  understand  each   other’:   intercultural   interactions   in   the   arabic–hebrew-­‐speaking   preschool   in   israel,”   explores   the   intercultural  strategies  used  by  l1  arabic-­‐  and  l1  hebrew-­‐speaking  children  during  their  first  year  of  arabic-­‐ hebrew  dual  language  education  at  pre-­‐school  in  israel.  the  authors  also  investigate  how  preschool  teachers   foster  these  intercultural  strategies  in  the  classroom  environment  and  suggest  how  early  bilingual  education   might  contribute  to  outcomes  in  the  acculturation  process  in  the  classroom.  observational  and  interview  data   with   teachers   (n   =   2)   and   children   (n   =   29)  were   collected   over   one   academic   year   and   revealed   several   crucial  teacher  strategies  to  encourage  intercultural  interactions  and  a  number  of  acculturation  strategies  of   both  l2  experts  and  novice  l2  learners.       the  contributions  that  follow  are  quantitative  in  nature.  maría  martínez  adrián’s  article,  “the  use  of   previously  known  languages  and  target  language  english  during  task-­‐based  interaction:  a  pseudolongitudinal   study  of  primary-­‐school  clil  learners,”  examines  a  very  relevant  strategy  in  early  language  learning:  the  use   of   basque/spanish   (previously   known   languages)   and   english   (target   language)   in   primary   school   clil   learners   (n   =   90)   in   year   5   and   6.   the   outcomes   of   the   pseudolongitudinal   study   reveal   that   the   use   of   previously  known  languages  is  greater  in  older  students,  but  that  both  groups  display  similar  use  of  the  target   language  except   for  metalanguage.  martínez-­‐adrián’s  article   confirms  how  children  make  natural  use  of   all   their  multilingual  linguistic  repertoires,  but  at  the  same  time  suggests  a  greater  use  of  target  language-­‐based   strategies.   “learning   french   sound/spelling   links   in   english   primary   school   classrooms,”   by   alison   porter,   focuses  on  the  combined  use  of  systematic  explicit  phonics  and  communicative,  meaning-­‐based  strategies  in  a   23-­‐week  french  as  a  foreign  language  programme.  the  sample  comprises  45  students  (with  a  sub-­‐sample  of   23)   who   completed   pre-­‐,   post-­‐   and   delayed   post-­‐tests   requiring   them   to   read   aloud   in   sentences.   the   multiple-­‐source  statistical  analysis  revealed  that,  in  general,  when  reading  a  card  with  a  familiar  word  aloud,   the  children  made  slow  but  statistically  significant  progress  both  during  and  immediately  after  the  fl  phonics   teaching   programme.   they   were   unsurprisingly   more   successful   reading   familiar   words   than   unfamiliar   words.   porter   highlights   another   very   important   observation,   namely   the   fact   that   l1   literacy   tends   to   correlate  with  fl  literacy.   teachers’  perspectives  are  addressed  by  michelle  panzavecchia  and  sabine  little  in  their  article,  “the   language  of  learning  –  maltese  teachers’  views  on  bilingual  and  multilingual  primary  classrooms,”  in  which   they   focus   on   teachers’   multilingual   perceptions   and   strategies   at   the   primary   level   in   malta.   data   were   collected  by  means  of   in-­‐depth   interviews  with  8   teachers  who  expressed   interest   in  multilingual  practices   but  at  the  same  time  felt  the  need  for  more  training  on  how  to  use  translanguaging  as  a  pedagogical  strategy.   the  pedagogical  outcomes  of   this  study  shed  light  on  the  need  to  provide  guidelines  for  the  growing  global   multilingual  society.   the  final  article,  by  julie  waddington,  “motivating  self  and  others  through  a  whole-­‐school  storytelling   project:   authentic   language   &   literacy   development,”   aims   to   explore   the   motivational   effect   and   literacy   development   of   storytelling   teaching   strategies   on   27   learners   in   the   upper   cycle   of   primary   school.   this   exploratory  qualitative  study  was  carried  out  over  a  period  of  three  years  and  analysed  data  from  field  notes   of   classroom   observations   and   video   recorded   sessions,   questionnaires   and   interviews   with   students   and   teachers.  the  storytelling  project  included  the  use  of  authentic  picture  books  and  peer  modelling.  outcomes   suggest   that   the   reading   project   promoted   group   collaboration,   a   positive   attitude   towards   reading,   and   a   growing   awareness   of   how   successful   communication   can   be   achieved.   the   author   also   highlights   a   discrepancy   between   students’   and   teachers’   views   on   their   performance   and   the   students’   self-­‐reported   difficulties  in  using  the  foreign  language.   in   addition   to   the   aforementioned   research  articles,   this   special   issue   also   includes   reviews  of   two   recent  publications  in  the  field  of  early  language  learning.  first,  andrea  huerta  bon  provides  a  critical  reseña   in   spanish  of   janet  enever   and  eva  lindgren’s  early   language  learning   in   school   contexts:   complexity   and   mixed  methods   (2017).  then  alberta  novello  offers  a  recensione   in   italian  of   subhan  zein  and  sue  garton’s   early  language  learning  and  teacher  education  (2019).         costa  &  pladevall-­‐ballester   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  1-­‐10 6   table 1 summary of full-length articles in this special issue of e-journall author/s title context type of article language country lucilla lopriore valutare l’apprendimento precoce di una seconda lingua: rilevanza degli studi longitudinali pre-primary and primary overview italian international teresa fleta construyendo puentes entre educación infantil y primaria para la enseñanza bilingüe en inglés pre-primary and primary overview spanish spain ludmila krivosh and mila schwartz “to be able to understand each other": intercultural interactions in the arabic–hebrew-speaking preschool in israel pre-primary empirical/qualitative english israel maría martínezadrián the use of previously known languages and target language english during task-based interaction: a pseudolongitudinal study of primary-school clil learners primary empirical/quantitative english spain alison porter learning french sound/spelling links in english primary school classrooms primary empirical/quantitative english united kingdom michelle panzavecchia, sabine little the language of learning: maltese teachers’ views on bilingual and multilingual primary classrooms. primary empirical/qualitative english malta julie waddington motivating self and others through a whole-school storytelling project: authentic language & literacy development primary empirical/qualitative english spain     4.  concluding  comments  and  future  research   this   issue   addresses   several   of   the   most   debated   teaching/learning   strategies   in   early   language   learning  and  their  outcomes.  together,  the  articles  in  this  volume  clearly  suggest  that  two  of  these  strategies   should  be   considered   essential   in   early   language   learning   contexts:   the  use  of  multilingual  practices   (in   all   their   forms,   from   translanguaging   at   the   micro   level   to   bilingual   education   at   the   macro   level)   and   the   development   of   children’s   l2   literacy   skills   in   reading   (with   particular   attention   to   pronunciation)   and   writing.     the  special  issue  sought  to  encompass  both  quantitative  and  qualitative  research  with  a  longitudinal   or  pseudolongitudinal  design  and  including  whenever  possible  all  actors  and  educational  levels  (pre-­‐primary   and  primary)  in  early  second  language  learning.  this  objective  was  widely  achieved  since  the  papers  focus  on   parents,  students,  teachers  and  institutions,  often  triangulating  data  to  gain  a  more  complete  perspective.  at   the  same  time,  the  special  issue  intended  to  provide  an  overview  of  studies  on  different  contexts,  which  was   partly  achieved,  even  though  the  studies  mainly  focused  on  the  diverse  european  context  (spain,  italy,  malta,   uk),  with  only  one  study  examining  on  a  non-­‐european  context  (israel).   all   of   the   topics   and   strategies   initially   proposed   in   the   call   for   papers—teacher   discourse   and   its   effects   on   language   learning   outcomes,   effective   teaching   strategies   with   a   focus   on   reading   aloud   and   theater-­‐based  activities,  systematic  synthetic  phonics  outcomes,  textbooks  and  materials  analysis,  diversity  in   teaching  pedagogies  according  to  different  cultural  contexts,  strategies  for  special  needs  students,  assessment   (with  a  particular   focus  on  assessment   for   learning  and  error   correction),   content   and   language   integrated   learning  (clil)  in  early  learning  contexts,  and  bilingual  education  in  early  learning—have  been  addressed  in   some  way  by  the  articles  in  the  issue,  with  two  exceptions.  none  of  the  articles  explore  the  use  of  drama  as  an   effective  teaching  strategy  and  none  explores  strategies  for  special  needs  children,  despite  the  fact  that  these   represent  important  topics  that  remain  underexplored.  we  hope  that  these  and  other  topics  in  early  language   learning  will  be  the  subject  of  future  research.     introduction   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  1-­‐10 7   acknowledgements     this  article  was  written  by  both  authors.  specifically,  pladevall-­‐ballester  is  responsible  for  sections  1  and  2;   costa  for  sections  3  and  4.     references   bland,  janice  (ed.).  (2015).  teaching  english  to  young  learners:  critical  issues  in  language  teaching  with  3-­‐12-­‐ year  olds.  london,  united  kingdom:  bloomsbury.   blondin,   christiane,   candelier,   michel,   edelenbos,   peter,   johnstone,   richard,   kubanek-­‐german,   angelika,   &   taeschner,   traute   (1998).   foreign   languages   in   primary   and   pre-­‐school   education:   contexts   and   outcomes.  a  review  of  recent  research  within  the  european  union.  london,  united 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 matters.                                           costa  &  pladevall-­‐ballester   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  1-­‐10 10   francesca costa, università cattolica di milano/brescia francesca.costa@unicatt.it en francesca costa is associate professor of english language and linguistics at the università cattolica del sacro cuore of milan. she taught english linguistics at università cattolica del sacro cuore in milan from 2002 to 2017, scientific english at università degli studi di pavia from 2006 to 2014, and english for primary education at università degli studi di bergamo. since 2001 she has been involved in teaching, teacher training, and research at all levels of education. she specializes in applied linguistics and the teaching and learning of the english language at all levels of education (from primary to university) with a particular focus on bilingual education, clil, iclhe (integrating content and language in higher education), emi (english-medium instruction) and scientific english. she holds a doctorate in education (uk). es francesca costa es profesora de lengua y lingüística inglesas en la università cattolica del sacro cuore de milán. ha impartido clases de lingüística inglesa en la università cattolica del sacro cuore de milán desde 2002 hasta 2017, inglés científico en la università degli studi di pavia desde 2006 a 2014 e inglés para profesores de primaria en la università degli studi di bergamo. desde 2001, ha participado en actividades docentes, de formación docente y de investigación en todas las etapas educativas. sus intereses de investigación incluyen la lingüística aplicada, el aprendizaje y enseñanza del inglés des de la educación primaria hasta la universidad con especial atención a la educación bilingüe, aicle, iclhe (integrating content and language in higher education), emi (english-medium instruction) e inglés científico. tiene un doctorado en educación (uk). it francesca costa è professoressa associata di linguistica inglese presso l’università cattolica del sacro cuore. ha insegnato linguistica inglese all’università cattolica del sacro cuore dal 2002 al 2017, inglese scientifico all’università degli studi di pavia dal 2006 al 2014 e inglese per la scuola primaria all’università degli studi di bergamo. dal 2001 è convolta in attività di formazione e di ricerca a tutti i livelli di istruzione. la sua linea di ricerca comprende la linguistica applicata, l’insegnamentoapprendimento dell’inglese a tutti i livelli di istruzione (dalla primaria all’università) con un’attenzione particolare alla bilingual education, clil, iclhe (integrating content and language in higher education), emi (english-medium instruction) e l’inglese scientifico. ha conseguito un doctorate in education nel regno unito.       elisabet pladevall-ballester, universitat autònoma de barcelona elisabet.pladevall@uab.cat en elisabet pladevall-ballester is associate professor at the departament de filologia anglesa i de germanística, universitat autònoma de barcelona, spain. her research interests include child second and third language acquisition in bilingual immersion and instructed foreign language classroom contexts and also in clil primary education contexts. she currently leads the research group eflic (2017sgr752) (english as a foreign language in instruction contexts) and teaches english grammar and teaching methodology at the undergraduate level and instructed sla and clil in the department’s ma program. es elisabet pladevall-ballester es profesora agregada en el departament de filologia anglesa i de germanística, universitat autònoma de barcelona, spain. sus intereses de investigación incluyen la adquisición temprana de lenguas segundas y terceras en contextos de inmersión y en contextos de instrucción de lenguas extranjeras, así como en contextos aicle en educación primaria. es la coordinadora del grupo de investigación eflic (2017sgr752) (english as a foreign language in instruction contexts) e imparte clases de gramática inglesa y metodología de la enseñanza en el programa de grado y adquisición de segundas lenguas en contextos de instrucción y aicle en el programa de máster. it elisabet pladevall-ballester è professoressa associata nel departament de filologia anglesa i de germanística, universitat autònoma de barcelona, spagna. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono l’apprendimento precoce delle lingue seconde e terze in contesti di immersione e in contesti di istruzione di lingue straniere così come in contesti clil di educazione primaria. è coordinatrice del gruppo di ricerca eflic (2017sgr752) (english as a foreign language in instruction contexts) e insegna grammatica inglese e metodologia dell’insegnamento alla laurea triennale e acquisizione linguistica in contesti di istruzione e clil a livello di laurea specialistica.   euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 62-75 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.140 www.e-journall.org © panzarella 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. translation in the language classroom: multilingualism, diversity, collaboration gioia panzarella*, caterina sinibaldi 1 university of warwick received 5 june 2018; received in revised form 2 december 2018; 12 december 2018 abstract en the aim of this article is to discuss the ways in which translation can be used to foster multilingual competence and intercultural awareness in the foreign language classroom. while translation was described as a vital skill for foreign language learners in a european commission study (2013), it has also been criticised for hindering the objectives of communicative approaches. this article draws on a number of examples and strategies to examine the potential of translation and, ultimately, to demonstrate how translation can play a key role in language teaching. the translation activities that have been selected place emphasis on collaboration and are designed to challenge cultural stereotypes, as well as monolingual and monocultural assumptions. translation is presented both as a skill in itself and as a versatile pedagogical tool to improve learners’ confidence, critical thinking, and intercultural competence, both in curricular and in extra-curricular settings. key words: translation, multilingualism, collaboration, italian pedagogy es el objetivo de este artículo es analizar cómo la traducción puede fomentar la competencia multilingüe y el conocimiento intercultural en el aula de lenguas extranjeras. en un estudio de la comisión europea (2013), se ha descrito la traducción como una herramienta vital para los estudiantes de lenguas extranjeras, aunque también se le ha criticado por interferir con los objetivos de una enseñanza comunicativa de la lengua. este artículo recurre a numerosos ejemplos y estrategias para examinar el potencial pedagógico de la traducción y demostrar que puede tener un papel central en la enseñanza de lenguas. las actividades de traducción seleccionadas se centran en la colaboración y han sido diseñadas para cuestionar los estereotipos culturales y las suposiciones monolingües y monoculturales. de este modo, la traducción se presenta tanto como una habilidad en sí y también como una herramienta pedagógica versátil que permite mejorar la confianza de los alumnos, su razonamiento analítico y su competencia intercultural en ambientes escolares y extracurriculares. palabras clave: traducción, multilingüismo, colaboración, pedagogía italiana it l’obiettivo di questo articolo è discutere i modi in cui la traduzione può essere impiegata per favorire la competenza multilingue e la consapevolezza interculturale nella classe di lingua straniera. sebbene in uno studio della commissione europea del 2013 la traduzione sia stata definita come un’abilità essenziale per i discenti di una lingua straniera, è stata anche criticata perché contrasterebbe gli obiettivi dell’approccio comunicativo. in questo articolo, oltre ad esaminare il potenziale della traduzione attraverso numerosi esempi e strategie, si vuole dimostrare come la traduzione può ricoprire un ruolo chiave nell’insegnamento della lingua straniera. le attività di traduzione che sono state selezionate enfatizzano la collaborazione e sono state create per mettere in discussione gli stereotipi culturali, così come assunti monolingue e monoculturali. la traduzione è presentata sia come abilità in sé sia come strumento pedagogico versatile che migliora la sicurezza, il pensiero critico e la competenza interculturale degli studenti in ambiti curriculari ed extra-curriculari. parole chiave: traduzione, multilinguismo, collaborazione, pedagogia italiana * contact: gioia.panzarella@warwick.ac.uk http://www.e-journall.org/ translation in the language classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 63 1. introduction how can translation be used to foster multilingualism? what do we mean by translation in the language classroom? what kind of strategies and activities can be employed to build on and enhance students’ multilingual competence in the globalised world? by attempting to overcome the dichotomy between grammar-based and communicative approaches, this article explores the three-way relationship between translation, language teaching, and multilingualism, in a perspective that encourages intercultural competences. the translation-based activities proposed in the present article place translation at the centre of the language classroom and highlight its potential to develop (inter)cultural and linguistic competences. by arguing for the specific pedagogical value of translation in the language classroom, we stress the importance of challenging negative attitudes toward the use of the students’ first language in foreign language teaching. furthermore, when engaging with some uses of translation in the language classroom through specific examples (see sections 3 and 4), we shift the focus from the acquisition of the target language through a strictly monolingual model to the broader linguistic competences that students can acquire through multilingual practices. the multilingual nature of translation is particularly relevant to our discussion; far from being limited to the relationship between source and target language, the translation process can encompass translingual practices including code-switching, code-mixing, and crossing, which are used to create meaning across and beyond languages (otheguy, garcía, & reid, 2015). our discussion will show how, as a translingual and trans-cultural communicative act, translation is an effective pedagogical tool which should play a key role in the contemporary foreign language classroom. in order to demonstrate this role, it is important to define what we mean by translation, and which uses of translation we chose to focus on for the purposes of this article. throughout history, the understanding of translation has evolved from a purely linguistic phenomenon to a process which is deeply embedded in a socio-cultural context. with the so-called cultural turn in translation studies (bassnett & lefevre, 1990), the emphasis shifted from translation as a product, to the historical, economic, social, cultural and political conditions in which translation is performed. as even-zohar (1990) explained in his groundbreaking work: “translation is no longer a phenomenon whose nature and borders are given once and for all, but an activity dependant on the relations within a certain cultural system” (p. 51). in the present article, we refer to translation not as a practice aiming to achieve equivalence between two monolingual systems, but rather as a process which creates a productive, dynamic environment and which encourages movement among languages, within and beyond the source language and the target language. among the many “modes and variety” of translation, as pym (2015, p. 1) puts it, this article will focus on some meaningful examples that show the intrinsic multilingual value that translation can add to the language classroom in two different contexts. in particular, we will show how translation is vital for fostering multilingual competence in learners. as a highly flexible pedagogical tool, translation promotes collaboration by giving students an opportunity to brainstorm, to select and rank ideas, and to evaluate and negotiate meanings. these activities, which are traditionally referred to as being suitable for advanced-level students, are here described as applicable to a diverse range of levels and teaching settings which draw on students’ own linguistic resources and critical thinking. the concept of cognition, which we borrow from the content and language integrated learning (clil) methodology (coyle, hood, & marsh, 2005), helps to highlight the importance of such activities: translating is in itself a highly cognitively engaging practice and one which facilitates unique learning processes. whilst the central task in translation-centred teaching is often the quest for language equivalence, we argue that shifting the focus on broader issues—such as register and style—shows how translation activities can benefit language learners at all levels and in different settings. consequently, a study by the european commission (2013) lamented translation’s “marginal status in language learning at present” since translation is a valuable skill that should be fostered in language learners. in this collection of essays, translating is described “as a mode of language use that can and should be learned in addition to the other four” (pp. 1-2), therefore equating translation to the traditional language skills of reading, speaking, writing, and listening. the document also highlights the strong connection between multilingualism and translation, drawing attention to “how learners will use their language skills in a multilingual world” (p. 2). in particular, it points out that translation should be seen as one of the mediating activities that are mentioned in the cefr and that learners should develop (p. 2). a central research question that this publication asks is: can translation contribute to effective language learning? in our article, we would like to expand on this question by further investigating the relationship between translation and panzarella & sinibaldi e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 64 multilingualism, which we argue is key to understanding the value and the potential of using translation in language learning. accordingly, our research question is the following: how can we effectively use translation in the language classroom to foster multilingual competence? section 2 of this article offers an overview of the presence of translation in language teaching. in discussing different pedagogical models and uses of translation, we refer to some of the critical contributions that challenged a view of translation as a means for acquiring grammatical rules. this section shows that whilst translation has often been associated with grammar-based methods – which are seen as irreconcilable with the communicative approach – this association has been challenged by scholars who discussed its potential for encouraging language interaction, multilingualism, diversity, and collaborative learning. in this perspective, the two following sections illustrate a range of activities revolving around translation which can be used in language teaching. in section 3 of this article, a collaborative translation workshop is presented as a learning context which overturns the power dynamics traditionally in place in the language classroom. whilst the teacher is normally perceived as the figure in charge of a knowledge and the student as a passive recipient, in the collaborative translation classroom the student is in charge of negotiating the meaning and the interpretation of the text. similarly, collaborative translation challenges the idea of translation as a solitary act, as well as a solitary learning experience, to be carried out in silence with a dictionary. the aim of such activities is to reflect on a text collaboratively in order to develop a set of skills that refer to a wider, cross-linguistic competence. section 4 presents a number of classroom activities aiming to challenge stereotypical representations of nation states and languages, and encouraging students to question the relationship between dominant languages and cultures versus minority languages, dialects, and translingual speakers. these examples show that translation is a skill that in turn fosters a wide range of competences, going beyond grammar and linguistic accuracy and building a broader linguistic awareness. the activities that are described centre on exercises of manipulation and transformation, which we argue to be key to promoting critical thinking while moving across languages and cultures. the selection of examples has been guided by the intention to show a wide range of possible uses of translation in language teaching. whilst the activities described were originally designed for university-level students of italian in a british university, it is crucial to stress that that these translation-based activities may be adapted or to other curricula or teaching contexts. moreover, as we discuss in the following pages, the teaching settings were not homogenous. the collaborative translation workshops were optional classes open to students from all faculties, while the classroom activities described in section 4 were embedded in the italian language modules of modern languages students. in this regard, this article opens up further questions about how to include translation in university-level language teaching. on the one hand, the presence of formal assessments measuring intended learning outcomes, among other things, needs to be considered when incorporating translation activities into a language curriculum. on the other hand, extracurricular settings such as the collaborative translation workshops should be planned in such a way that they provide students with an opportunity for deeper reflection on the language learning process. finally, an underlying, recurring theme of this article concerns the role of the teacher in translationbased language teaching. we argue that while acting as facilitators, when engaging students in translation activities teachers also create a multilingual environment in which students are encouraged to make the most of their linguistic competence. 2. translation in language teaching: an argument for multilingualism before offering some practical examples of how translation can be effectively used in language teaching to promote multilingualism, it is important to provide a brief overview of the changing attitudes towards translation in foreign language pedagogy. we will also outline some of the critical contributions which are relevant to our discussion, and which shape our definition of translation. translation has played a key role in foreign language teaching and learning throughout history. one of the earliest language teaching methods is commonly identified in the grammar-translation method, an eighteenth-century adaptation of the classical method, which was used for teaching greek and latin. at a time when foreign language acquisition was seen as an intellectual discipline, the main goal of the grammartranslation method was not communication but translation between l1 and l2 as a way to learn grammar through a contrastive approach (byram & hu, 2013, p. 288). although it should be noted that the grammartranslation method was not the only language teaching method to be used in the eighteenth century (pym & translation in the language classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 65 ayvazyan, 2017), it is undeniable that translation and grammar were taught in combination as an essential component of language learning. from the 1970s, the prominence of accuracy over fluency and the focus on structural elements of the language (i.e. grammar and vocabulary) are called into question by the communicative approach to language teaching. this new approach shifted the emphasis to the functional aspects of the language which were seen as crucial for developing communicative competence in learners (littlewood, 1981). over the course of the twentieth century, foreign language teaching methodologies promoting the exclusive use of the target language in the classroom such as the direct method and, later on, the audio-lingual method, also gained considerable popularity (richard & rogers, 2001). as a result, the grammar-translation method has been dismissed and translation itself has been highly criticised. the main argument used against translation was that, by keeping the focus on their first language, learners would not experience the consistent exposure the target language that was crucial to the communicative approach. not only was language interference perceived as a potential risk for learners who were engaged in translation activities, but translation was also seen as having little relevance to the main four skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening (malmkjær, 2010a, p. 185). some scholars, however, believe that translation can and should still play a role in foreign language acquisition. carreres (2014) explores the validity of using translation both as a means and as an end in the language classroom, challenging the “belief that learning to translate and learning a foreign language are significantly different activities” (p. 123)2. according to venuti (2016), both translation as an activity and the academic discipline of translation studies are still largely misunderstood in academic and educational circles, and “prevalent notions of translatability conceive of translation as a one-to-one correspondence with the source text, reducing it to a process of mechanical substitution” (p. 5). this is particularly true in language teaching. although the focus nowadays is less on linguistic and grammatical equivalence and more on translation as a skill in itself, there is still a need to stress the effectiveness of translation to develop broader inter-linguistic and intercultural skills beyond the contrastive dimension that is emphasised in language teaching. guy cook (2010) describes translation as an act that happens naturally in the brains of language learners and that should not be repressed, but rather understood. in his reassessment of translation as a useful pedagogical tool, cook maintains that learning to cope with first-language interferences and codeswitching are vital skills for language learners. in our globalised world, and in an increasingly multilingual society, cook argues that being able to move between languages and cultures is of vital importance, and that language learners should be trained to be competent translators. similarly, gonzález-davies (2017) proposes an integrated plurilingual approach (ipa), in which translation is implemented “to advance […] plurilingual communicative competence (pcc), defined as “an appropriate use of natural plurilingual practices (e.g., translation, code-switching or an informed use of the l1) to advance inter-linguistic and intercultural communication” (p. 125). promoting multilingualism is arguably one of the founding principles of foreign language teaching, as well as a strategic priority for the european union, which, soon after its establishment in 1993, listed “proficiency in three community languages" as one of the core educational objectives (european commission, 1995, pp. 47–49). however, a number of scholars have highlighted that the monolingual ethos of many university language programmes might work against this (kelly, 2015). the target-language only approach has the effect of discouraging contact between different languages, including translation activities, thus turning the classroom into a monolingual space where only the target language is used. in his critique of monolingual pedagogies and practices, may (2014) refers to the “pathologizing of language transfer, mixed systems, convergence, and the interpenetration of systems, which are all central to language interaction in the ecology of multilingualism” (p. 8). the goal of a communicative approach to language teaching is to develop fluency in learners through extensive exposure to the target language from a reliable source, embodied by the teacher. in this context, the teacher becomes the source of an ideal authentic language to which learners should aspire. the native speaker ideal in foreign language teaching has been criticised both from a political and a pedagogical point of view. for instance, holliday (2005) talks about the ideology of native-speakerism as the “established belief that ‘native-speaker’ teachers represent a 'western culture' from which spring the ideals both of the english language and of english language teaching methodology” (p. 5). chavez (2003) also suggested that “one of the paradoxes of a strictly monolingual classroom is the idea that the goal of 2 in the recent mundos en palabras (2018), carreres, noriega-sánchez, and calduch have designed a textbook that integrates the theory and practice of translation with activities for advanced learners of spanish. panzarella & sinibaldi e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 66 bilingualism is to be achieved via monolingualism” (p. 166), and spoke about the “inevitability of diglossia in the classroom” (p. 194) due to the fact that language learners use their first language in mental speech and self-talk. furthermore, various scholars have pointed out that the native speaker model is discouraging for language learners, since it relies on unrealistic expectations which can generate frustration and a sense of failure (kelly, 2015). the notion that in order to empower language learners we need to place emphasis on their multilingual competence, rather than on their target-language inadequacy, is not new. already in 1999 cook suggested that language learners should be viewed as “multicompetent language users rather than as deficient native speakers” (p. 185) and that language teaching should use methods that acknowledge the students’ native language as a resource rather than an obstacle. however, recent surveys of the literature on language teaching reveal predominantly negative attitudes toward the use of translation as a pedagogical tool, mainly due to the notion that, when engaging in translation activities, learners are constrained by their native language and therefore unable to develop communicative fluency (kelly & bruen, 2014). although translation is normally seen as the opposite of spontaneous, creative language use, we can argue that translation activities have the potential to foster learners’ independent use of the language while enhancing their perceived self-efficacy. bandura (1995) first described the concept of self-efficacy as a fundamental motivator of human action: “among the mechanisms of agency, none is more central or pervasive than people’s beliefs of personal efficacy” (p. 2). applying this notion to the context of language learning, conti (2015) argues that, despite being a “powerful catalyst of learner motivation and resilience” (n.p.n.) self-efficacy remains the most neglected motivational factor in the foreign language classroom. going back to venuti’s discussion of current attitudes to teaching translation, the author explains that while translation implies the inevitable loss of the relations between source-language features and source-culture contexts, it also brings “a gain of comparable relations between translating-language features and translatingculture contexts” (p. 8). in working towards reconstructing those relations between source and target languages and cultures, learners can develop skills and abilities that go beyond grammatical equivalence and acquire confidence in their multilingual and multicultural competence. finally, as illustrated in the next section, although translation is commonly perceived as a solitary activity, recent studies emphasise its collaborative nature and the different forms of negotiation that are involved in the process (cordingley & frigau manning, 2017). the collaborative dimension of translation and its pedagogical value for the foreign language classroom are particularly evident if we consider vygotsky’s (1978) early definition of the zone of proximal development as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers” (p. 86). by engaging in translation activities as collaborative practices, language students can work within their zone of proximal development and draw on their collective knowledge to enhance their awareness of the forms and functions of language. 3. collaborative translation workshops as a tool for language education a series of workshops of italian and english language using collaborative translation are presented here as an example of how translation may be employed in the language classroom in a perspective that encourages multilingualism (panzarella & wall, 2016; wall & panzarella, 2017).3 the element of collaboration is key to emphasizing dynamics of negotiation present when moving across languages. in particular, the central activity of each session—the conversation translation—reveals itself as a space for reflection in which students are invited to build on their global knowledge as well as their (multi)language background. interaction is a key element of this activity, encouraging “students’ participation and dialogue” (gonzález-davies, 2004, p. 2). collaborative translation should therefore be regarded as a process-oriented practice in which the contribution provided by each student is essential, as well as the negotiation between them. 3 these workshops were organized as part of the “collaborative translation: a model for inclusion” one-year project, which was co-lead by researchers at the university of warwick (uk) and monash university (australia) and funded by the monash-warwick alliance. two series of workshops—one for learners for italian and one for learners of english—were conceived and delivered by gioia panzarella and georgia wall (university of warwick). as part of the research, the students’ feedback was collected, and students consented for it to be used as part of the research. further details on the workshops can be found in panzarella and wall (2016) and wall and panzarella (2017). translation in the language classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 67 in this context, defining the role and prerogatives of the instructor of the session is of critical importance. the moment of translation is shaped as an occasion in which learners can brainstorm, select and rank proposals, and evaluate options on the basis of their own competence and experience. in this sense, whilst considering that the instructor and students are collaborators who both contribute to the conversation translation, the central task of the instructor is to mobilize the above-mentioned practices. the teacher is therefore a facilitator of the session, instigating practices of collaborative translation with a range of verbal, but also visual and mimic aids. among the questions collected during the workshops are the following: “would you use this term in this context?”, “i feel that i would not use this term in this context, what would you say?”, “what would you call the person whose job is to…”, “what would you say works best, this term or that term?” for example, teachers may guide students by suggesting parallels or highlighting significant elements provided by the text, but not anticipating possible answers unless it is clear that it is only as a suggestion. all in all, as a facilitator, the teacher’s main task is to help students develop a broad language sensitivity. among the collaborators, students are given a role of responsibility: they are in charge of making translation decisions, and are designated as the collaborator who has the ultimate linguistic competence: in a collaboration perspective that values the competence of each collaborator, the instructor covers the language that the students are learning, which is the source language of the text to be translated, whilst students master the target language of the translation. in other words, students are asked to play a role in the class setting that traditionally is expected to be played by the teacher, that of the authority figure. for example, balboni (2013) states that translation “should be carried out under the supervision of an expert, i.e., the teacher, who intervenes when necessary by filling in the gaps in students’ knowledge, thus acting like a resource that they can draw on” (p. 182).4 the collaborative translation workshops emphasize that the teacher is certainly an expert and a tool that students will use, because of their role of facilitator of the session, but also that the teacher’s role is not to fill in the gaps in the students’ knowledge, as balboni would put it (p. 182). on the contrary, the role of the teacher is to make students aware of their ability to provide results and to train students to explore their own strategies. students’ questions or doubts should not be seen as gaps that the instructor is responsible for filling, simply because the instructor is not the collaborator who is asked to contribute as far as the target language of the translation is concerned. however, referring to the languages that are used in class as two separate and defined entities—one source language and one target language—would be misleading. although students work on a text in the language that they are learning, they are encouraged to conduct the conversation translation in their vehicular language(s), to make sure that they can work as much as possible on issues such as register, nuances of meaning, and idioms. first, this is central to the aims of collaborative translation: the aim is not to reach a final and definite version of the text, but to train the students’ ability to negotiate meaning and reflect on the text collaboratively. second, this choice challenges the necessity of using the student talking time uniquely in the target language, as the conversation translation activity prioritizes a negotiation among collaborators that can be achieved by communicating in the linguistic code that suits the students the most. there should not be overlapping with a speaking activity: the aim of the collaborative translation is to negotiate a meaning, which according to the framework is a far too advanced task to be conducted in the language that students are learning, especially at beginner level (council of europe, 2001). for this reason, working with a group of beginners has shown that students with a more advanced level of the language are not necessarily more at ease at translating collaboratively. in this sense, the selection of materials is in itself a tool that helps beginner students to approach texts that would not be suitable for translation at their level. graphic elements guide students to identify key aspects such as the text typology and the register. student are asked to use a set of skills that are not necessarily acquired in the language classroom, or at least at beginner level: for example, in the workshops, a song, a newspaper article, and a literary text were chosen. students are encouraged not to focus on a final output but instead to consider, evaluate and discuss various options. in terms of learners’ needs, such skills cross the learning of a specific language and provide levels of awareness that can be applied to the learning not only of modern languages, but awareness of their own language. this is what balboni would define language education, which transcends the specific objectives of a single foreign language class by developing a set of skills that can be 4 “avviene condotta sotto la guida di un esperto, il docente, che quindi sopperisce laddove necessario alle lacune degli studenti diventando uno ‘strumento’ a loro disposizione” (our translation). panzarella & sinibaldi e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 68 applied to other learning contexts—such as the students’ first language or classical languages—as well as to real life. the collaborative translation class becomes therefore a multilingual context, in which two—or more—languages are in dialogue and subject to comparisons and reflections by students. the emphasis is placed on acquiring awareness and the tools that can be applicable to language learning, as well as on raising the students’ awareness of their translingualism and intercultural being (phipps & gonzalez, 2004). when negotiation of the translation has taken place within smaller groups, the sessions of the workshop conclude with a recap of the most controversial points of the translation, and by asking each group to identify some interesting points to be reported to the whole class. this practice allows students to demonstrate—and teachers to assess—the ability to navigate in multiple languages. this set of competences is central to the class; thus, developing such competences becomes a priority. finally, considering the way in which this workshop has been conceived, it is crucial to establish that students are not requested to produce a written translation, which would force them to make a definitive choice of the words and phrasing. an output that would suit more the aims of the activity would be a commentary that highlights problematic word choices, or issues that students have discussed by exploring the various options considered and the positions of the collaborators on various proposals. this exercise— which would also function as a means of assessment—would therefore reflect the aim of the session: not a final output of translation (or grammatically accurate output, as it is often the case in more traditional uses of translation in language learning), but a reflective practice on elements of the text such as register, format, idioms, synonyms, and most importantly in what ways the negotiation between the collaborators has contributed to the development of ideas, highlighting the input of various collaborators and the necessity of asking for the expertise of the other members. in this sense, a further step towards an assessment would be to establish descriptors that may illustrate the depth and breadth of reflexivity that emerges from the students’ conversations, both with the teacher and among themselves. 4. using translation in the language classroom: multilingual competence and intercultural awareness while the translation workshops described above place emphasis on translation as a process, rather than a final output, when translation is taught as part of a university language course, there other considerations at play. first and foremost, students taking part in language modules are assessed through formative and summative tasks, therefore their learning outcomes need to be measured. this section aims to show several ways in which translation can be used as an effective and versatile pedagogical tool in the language classroom, by illustrating how several activities can enhance students’ overall language proficiency, their reading comprehension and writing skills, as well as their critical skills and intercultural awareness. the following translation activities that took place in language classes aimed at beginners, intermediate or advanced students studying italian as part of their degree in a british university. while there is an existing body of scholarship focusing on the pedagogical value of translation (e.g., cook, 1999; gonzálezdavies, 2004; källkvist, 2013; laviosa, 1997; leonardi, 2010; malmkjær, 2010b), a limited number of studies deal specifically with the use of translation in modern languages degrees (malmkjær, 2010b; pym 2015; venuti, 2016). existing studies tend to focus either on translation studies as an academic discipline, or on translation as a professional skill. it is worth clarifying that, in designing the following activities, translation was understood both as a language skill in itself and as a practice which, in turn, fosters a number of other fundamental skills. for this reason, these activities do not focus solely on developing grammar accuracy, nor are they intended to train professional translators. rather, they promote overall fluency as well as interlinguistic and intercultural competence, and therefore include translation both into and out of the first language of the students. the studies dealing specifically with translation in foreign language teaching (e.g., källkvist, 2013; pym, 2017) are mostly aimed at measuring the efficacy of translation as a language learning tool, against other methods where only the target language is used. our intention, on the contrary, is not to evaluate the opportunities and limitations of using translation to develop language accuracy, or to assess the effectiveness of specific translation activities. rather, our objective is to illustrate the potential of translation to develop a broad range of skills that are fundamental to language graduates in the twenty-first century, and to stimulate further discussion around two key questions: how can we use translation to promote language students’ multilingual sensitivity and challenge monolingual assumptions that may hinder the learning process?, and translation in the language classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 69 how can translation contribute to the core objectives of a modern languages degree, such as fostering intercultural awareness and critical thinking? one way in which translation activities can be used to challenge monolithic assumptions about languages, as well as notions of one-to-one equivalence in translation, is by presenting students with texts that problematize and interrogate the boundaries between languages. the author jhumpa lahiri is a good case in point. born in london to bengali indian parents and raised in the united states, lahiri gained literary recognition as an american fiction writer and was awarded the 2000 pulitzer prize for fiction. it was only in 2015, after having studied italian only for a few years, that she made the conscious decision of continuing to write fiction exclusively in a language she unexpectedly fell in love with. her first novel written in italian, in altre parole, was published in 2015 and translated into english by ann goldstein in 2016. in it, lahiri describes the paradoxically liberating experience of writing in a foreign language without the boundaries and limitations of english (the language in which she grew up) and bengali (the language of her family). at the same time, in an extract published in the new yorker (2015) she refers to the experience of writing in italian as a form of “exile” and a “state of separation … italian belongs mainly to italy, and i live on another continent, where one does not readily encounter it.” we can see how this kind of material would be an excellent resource for intermediate to advanced language students in helping them to reflect on their own experience of moving between languages and cultures. as part of this activity, students would start by watching her interview with la repubblica, an italian new site, where the author speaks slowly in italian and chooses her words carefully when describing what she calls her “love story” with the language5. students would then be presented with extracts from the italian novel, which includes lahiri’s (2016) questions and reflections on writing in a foreign language, such as: “what does it mean to give up a palace to live practically on the street, in a shelter so fragile? maybe because from the creative point of view there is nothing so dangerous as security” (p. 85). when translating these extracts from italian into english, students are effectively back-translating the text into the author’s native language. they can then compare their versions with the published english translation, and identify the differences and similarities in translation choices, with special attention to the differences between american english (the language of the translator) and british english. the experience of translating a text in which the author talks about her multilingual experience can foster debates on the broader implications of lahiri’s writing, which challenges the traditional notion of the native speaker. for students at a lower level of proficiency, the translation of a whole extract can be replaced with other activities which break down the text in smaller chunks in order to build subject-specific vocabulary or focus on particular language structures. for instance, beginner students could be presented with simple sentences from the italian original and a multiple choice of english translations, among which they would have to identify the published version and detect the differences in the other options. lahiri’s writing testifies to the fact that non-native speakers can achieve sufficient proficiency to express themselves creatively in the target language and can bring their unique contribution to it. this is an inspiring message for language learners, particularly multilingual ones, since lahiri is clear about the fact that her pre-existing languages are not an obstacle to her language learning process; rather, they all contribute to her overall linguistic and literary competence. it follows that choosing this material for a translation class contributes to challenging what kelly (2015) refers to as “the inherent monolingualism of language teaching” (p. 73), which is often complemented by monoculturalism. according to kelly, this is reflected in the selection of teaching materials that are “commonly chosen to reject traditional or distinctive aspects of a target culture and in some cases may be purged of references to other cultures” (p. 73). as shown above, translation can be used to challenge this approach, particularly through the choice of texts that promote multilingualism and, in some cases, go even further by challenging the boundaries between languages. in this regard, the concept of translanguaging (garcía & li wei, 2013; lewis, jones, & baker, 2012) can be helpful in providing an additional layer of linguistic and cultural diversity to translation activities. the majority of existing studies discussing the theoretical and practical implications of translanguaging in education focus on the specific context of bilingual or multilingual classrooms. however, as will be demonstrated in the following example, translanguaging can also be used in the foreign language classroom as a useful pedagogical tool (cenoz, 2017; garcía & kleyn, 2016). one definition which is particularly relevant 5 see interview in la repubblica, 16/02/2015: https://video.repubblica.it/rubriche/posto-che/reptv-news-jhumpalahiri-la-mia-storia-d-amore-con-l-italiano/192271/191233 https://video.repubblica.it/rubriche/posto-che/reptv-news-jhumpa-lahiri-la-mia-storia-d-amore-con-l-italiano/192271/191233 https://video.repubblica.it/rubriche/posto-che/reptv-news-jhumpa-lahiri-la-mia-storia-d-amore-con-l-italiano/192271/191233 panzarella & sinibaldi e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 70 to our discussion refers to translanguaging as “the deployment of a speaker's full linguistic repertoire without regard for watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named (and usually national and state) languages” (otheguy et al., 2015, p. 281). a clear example of this can be found in the work of gabriella kuruvilla, an author born in milan in 1969 from indian father and italian mother. let us consider an extract from her 2012 novel, milano, fin qui tutto bene: mi a-go lef inna di morrows: io me ne vado domani. ormai ho fatto il mio tempo, in questo spazio. devo schiodarmi da qui. qui è tutto e niente. pure i confini di questa zona stanno dint o’ core e dint a’ cap da gent: no dint o’ munno. (p. 141) these are the words of tony, a character born in jamaica who moved from naples to milan and who speaks a mixture of jamaican slang, standard italian, and neapolitan dialect. the novel is divided into four chapters, each introducing the reader to a different area of milan through the eyes of different characters who inhabit the city. the urban space is portrayed as dynamic and multicultural, and the boundaries between languages and nations are intentionally blurred to reflect the complex identities of the characters. while there are noticeable challenges in translating this text into english, it is also a valuable resource to stimulate students’ creativity and make them focus on the transcultural elements of translation. from a linguistic point of view, this activity would be more suitable for advanced learners of italian, who can work towards decoding the original language, identifying regional variations, and trying to extract the meaning from idiomatic expressions they might not be familiar with. initially, students would be asked to think about the image of italy which is portrayed in the novel, and on how this image can be conveyed to an english-speaking reader. specifically, from the point of view of language and translation, the discussion would focus on how to recreate the original voice of the characters in english, thus developing specific translation competence going beyond language learning (gonzález-davies, 2004, p. 11). what translation strategies would they employ? can we translate a foreign dialect with a corresponding regional variation of english? and if so, how do we ensure that the same relationships and power dynamics between the different languages of the original novel are reproduced? looking at the extract above, we can identify a foreign dialect (jamaican), and italian dialect with a long-standing history and pre-existing connotations (neapolitan) and standard italian. would students consider using footnotes to make english readers aware of the different connotations of these languages in the italian context? this discussion would precede the translation exercise and frame it in such a way that translation becomes a tool for understanding the diversity of italian language and society. when translating this passage into english, students would be asked to pay special attention to the role of translanguaging. why is the author using different languages, and what is she trying to achieve? can we preserve this multilingualism in the english translation? students would be encouraged to use their full linguistic repertoire by employing any languages or regional variations they already know, thus relying on their multilingual competence. after having completed their translations, students would reflect on which features of the source text have been reproduced in their english versions, and which have been lost. by doing so, they would interrogate the process of selection and manipulation involved in translation, while also reflecting on the relationships between the languages, nations and cultures involved. tymoczko (1999) uses the expression “metonymics of translation” when arguing that “translation is always a partial process” (p. 282), because it implies the selection of aspects of a source text which can never be reproduced in its entirety. moreover, she highlights how “translated texts are written and read as representations of their source cultures” (p. 282). it follows that language teachers have a responsibility in how they represent the languages and the nations to which our students are exposed. the translation activity described above aims to engage students as critical and creative learners, by making them aware of the political and ideological implications of translanguaging, while also presenting them with a non-stereotypical image of a contemporary italian city. a last example of how translation can be used as a tool for promoting linguistic and intercultural awareness, also suitable for students at lower level, can be found in the graphic novel sotto il velo (2016) (literally, “under the headscarf”) by italian-tunisian artist, takoua ben mohamed. a young muslim woman living in italy, the protagonist talks about her experience navigating life in italy in a headscarf. her thoughts and feelings, often in response to the questions she receives from italians who know very little about islam, are revealed to the reader in an ironic yet critical way. the relationship between visual and verbal elements makes this text particularly suitable for students at different levels of proficiency, and can form the basis for a number of translation activities. for instance, in one activity students would be given a selection of cartoons without the speech bubbles and would have to write their own captions in english. they would then be translation in the language classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 71 presented with the original cartoons and would compare them with their own version. group discussion would centre around questions such as, “how have you interpreted the emotions displayed by the protagonist?” and, “do you notice any differences or similarities compared to the original?” students would then translate their own captions into italian (thus producing an alternative version of the original), always making sure that they are working within the constraints of the speech bubbles and not exceeding their size. a similar activity would involve students translating the italian captions into english, and then backtranslating them into italian without looking at the original. figure 2. ben mohamed (2016). sotto il velo. from the linguistic point of view, the recurrent format of the captions, divided into a question and an answer, is particularly useful in showing students how to form questions in italian as opposed to english. this leads us to consider how translation can play a very important role in fostering what is known as noticing, a concept proposed by schmidt, who described the process of noticing as a prerequisite to language learning or, in his own words, a “necessary and sufficient condition for the conversion of input to intake” (schmidt, 1990, p. 129). according to schmidt’s noticing hypothesis, in order to learn the structure of a foreign languages, students need to consciously notice them. the level of consciousness that is necessary for acquiring foreign language structures is still open to debate and remains the most controversial aspect of the noticing hypothesis (ellis, 2003; ortega, 2009). however, as argued by conti (2016), when used as part of an eclectic syllabus, translation can effectively focus students’ attention on noticing specific features of the foreign language. if we consider the graphic novel described above, we can see how noticing can apply to cultural elements, as well as linguistic ones. when learning about the experience of a young italian muslim, and particularly when having to translate that experience into english, students are presented with an image of contemporary italy which stimulates further discussion around different models of multicultural society, in europe and beyond. they are also given the opportunity to engage with topical issues, such as cultural attitudes towards the headscarf, which vary across time and space. to conclude, the activities described above show how translation can enhance students’ overall language proficiency while also contributing to their broader intercultural competence, which is an essential aspect of a modern languages degree. by providing students which an image of contemporary italy which challenges generalisations and stereotypes, students are engaged in the language learning process as critical agents, whose multilingual voices are valued and recognised. panzarella & sinibaldi e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 72 5. conclusion multilingualism has been a strategic priority for the european union since its inception, and the aforementioned 2013 publication by the european commission refers to the importance of translation as a key language skill. yet the use of translation in language teaching is often still associated with the teaching of grammar and has been subject to criticism over the twentieth century. while in recent years a number of scholars have devoted more attention to the pedagogical value of translation (cook, 2010; pym, 2015; venuti, 2016), we believe that the relationship between language teaching, translation and multilingualism has the potential of offering new avenues of investigation. the examples that have been discussed in this article do not exhaust the wide range of applications that translation may find in the language classroom. however, we hope to have demonstrated that translation can effectively enhance some of the core skills of language learning. in particular, by placing emphasis on translation as a process rather than a final output, collaborative translation workshops stimulate in-depth reflections on the forms and functions of the source and target language (such as register, style, and idioms). moreover, when using translation in more traditional classroom settings, the choice of texts can provide students with an opportunity for problematizing the boundaries between languages and stimulating critical reflection on issues of national identity and belonging. as north and piccardo (2016) point out, the “social dimension in language” is also crucial to developing skills that go beyond “reception and production” and, in this sense, translation is a tool to facilitate the “co-construction of meaning” (p. 455). finally, by encouraging students to go beyond a word-by-word equivalence model, translation can stimulate learners’ agency and foster intercultural understanding, which is a key competence for language students. in conclusion, nourishing a multilingual sense of self, as we read in the abstract of a recently-created journal on translation and translanguaging6, should be a key objective of language teaching and learning. at a time when higher education is becoming more internationalized, and students working toward modern languages degrees are often learning two or three languages, the present article has argued that translation can foster valuable pedagogical practices. although further research would be required to determine the impact of the strategies presented, we hope to have demonstrated that translation has the potential of fostering multilingual competence, intercultural awareness, and critical thinking skills. we also identified several issues for further research, particularly around multilingualism as a resource for language teaching in the specific context of higher education, where multiple foreign languages are taught to an international student body. references balboni, paolo e. 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translation workshops. interdisciplinary italy. retrieved from http://www.interdisciplinaryitaly.org/creativity-inclusivity-linguistic-sensitivity-language-learningcollaborative-translation-workshops/ https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444816000100 http://usuaris.tinet.cat/apym/on-line/training/2016_ts_lost_plot.pdf http://www.interdisciplinaryitaly.org/creativity-inclusivity-linguistic-sensitivity-language-learning-collaborative-translation-workshops/ http://www.interdisciplinaryitaly.org/creativity-inclusivity-linguistic-sensitivity-language-learning-collaborative-translation-workshops/ translation in the language classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 62-75 75 gioia panzarella, university of warwick gioia.panzarella@warwick.ac.uk en gioia panzarella has recently completed a ph.d. in italian (warwick, 2018). between 2014 and 2018 she has been a language tutor at the school of modern languages and cultures of the university of warwick. she specialises in contemporary migration writings in the italian language and foreign language teaching. in 2016-2017, she coordinated the project, “collaborative translation: a model for inclusion,” in collaboration with monash university (australia), with a focus on the uses of collaborative translation in the language classroom. es gioia panzarella ha recientemente completado un ph. d. en italiano (universidad de warwick, 2018) y desde el 2014 hasta el 2018 trabajó como instructora de lengua en la facultad de lenguas y culturas modernas en la university of warwick. está especializada en literatura contemporánea de la migración en italiano y en pedagogía de lenguas extranjeras. durante el año académico 2016-2017, coordinó el proyecto “traducción colaborativa: un modelo para la inclusión” en colaboración con la monash university (australia), centrado en el uso de la traducción colaborativa en el aula de lenguas. it gioia panzarella ha recentemente completato un dottorato in italiano (università di warwick, 2018). dal 2014 al 2019 ha lavorato come tutor di lingua nella scuola di lingue e culture moderne presso l’università di warwick. è specializzata in letteratura italiana contemporanea della migrazione e didattica della lingue straniere. durante l’anno accademico 2016-2017 ha coordinato il progetto “collaborative translation: a model for inclusion” (traduzione collaborativa: un modello per l’inclusione), in collaborazione con l’università di monash (australia), il cui tema centrale è l’uso della traduzione collaborativa nella classe di lingua. caterina sinibaldi, university of warwick c.sinibaldi@warwick.ac.uk en caterina sinibaldi is teaching fellow and italian language coordinator at the university of warwick. she holds a phd in italian studies (2013) and an ma in translation studies (2008). her areas of teaching and research include translation studies, italian fascism, children’s literature, and foreign language pedagogy. previously, she was a teaching fellow at the university of bath, a lecturer at the university of manchester, and worked in the sales and rights department of penguin random house (london). es caterina sinibaldi es instructora y coordinadora del italiano en la universidad de warwick. obtuvo un doctorado en estudios italianos (2013) y un máster en estudios de la traducción (2008). sus campos de investigación y enseñanza incluyen la traducción, el fascismo italiano, la literatura infantil y la pedagogía de lenguas extranjeras. anteriormente, fue instructora en la university of bath y profesora numeraria en la university of manchester, además de trabajar en el departamento de ventas y derechos de penguin random house (londres). it caterina sinibaldi è docente e coordinatrice della lingua italiana all’università di warwick. ha conseguito il dottorato in italiano (2013) e un master in scienze della traduzione (2008). i suoi campi di ricerca e di insegnamento includono scienze della traduzione, il fascismo italiano, la letteratura infantile e didattica delle lingue straniere. inoltre, è stata docente all’university of bath e docente all’university of manchester e ha lavorato nell’ufficio commerciale e diritti della casa editrice penguin random house (londra). references microsoft word 2. lopriore_done_11-23 (1) (3).docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  7,  issue  1,  january  2020,  11-­‐23   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.11.195   www.e-­‐journall.org     © lopriore 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       valutare  l’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  seconda  lingua:     rilevanza  degli  studi  longitudinali         lucilla  lopriore   università  roma  tre         received  8  june  2019;  received  in  revised  form  28  september  2019;  accepted  1  november  2019   abstract it l’apprendimento precoce delle lingue straniere – in particolare nella scuola primaria – è un processo affascinante ma complesso, fortemente condizionato dall’età degli allievi, dal contesto, dagli obiettivi specifici del ciclo scolastico e dalla didattica proposta. la fascia d’età è di fatto una delle variabili che più incide sullo sviluppo e sul sostegno delle competenze linguistiche, e richiede da parte dei docenti l’adattamento degli approcci adottati, delle attività proposte e dei materiali utilizzati per rispondere allo sviluppo cognitivo e emotivo degli allievi. valutare i risultati dell’apprendimento in uno scenario di questo tipo è un processo delicato che deve essere monitorato con strumenti idonei che consentano di utilizzare la valutazione sia per comprenderne il valore aggiunto sia per sostenere l’apprendimento nel tempo. questo contributo introduce le implicazioni dei risultati di alcuni studi longitudinali che hanno monitorato e valutato lo sviluppo delle competenze degli allievi e offerto spunti di riflessione sui processi di apprendimento. parole chiave: apprendimento precoce della lingua, studio longitudinale, valutazione autentica, formazione docenti en early foreign language learning—particularly in elementary school—is a fascinating and complex process, shaped by the age of the students, the context, the school’s specific academic objectives, and by the pedagogical approaches used. age is one of the most influential variables in the development of linguistic competence, and instructors should attend to the cognitive and emotional development of students in choosing age-appropriate teaching approaches, activities, and materials. assessing outcomes of early foreign language teaching is also a delicate process: teachers should use suitable instruments that permit an authentic understanding of both the added value of early language learning as well as that informs instructors on how to support learning over time. this article presents the implications of the results of several longitudinal studies that monitored and evaluated learners’ competence development and offered points of reflection on their learning processes. key words: early language learning, longitudinal study, authentic assessment, teacher education es el aprendizaje precoz de los idiomas extranjeros –en particular en la escuela primaria– es un proceso tan fascinante como difícil, afectado considerablemente por la edad de los estudiantes, el contexto, los objetivos específicos del ciclo académico y la didáctica. el grupo de edad es una de las variables que más influyen sobre el desarrollo de las competencias lingüísticas y necesita que los enseñantes ajusten sus prácticas, las actividades y los materiales empleados para adaptarse al desarrollo cognitivo y emocional de los estudiantes. la evaluación de los resultados del aprendizaje en semejante contexto es un proceso delicado que los enseñantes necesitan observar con instrumentos idóneos que les permitan comprender el valor añadido y apoyar el aprendizaje con el paso del tiempo. este articulo presenta las implicaciones de los resultados de algunos estudios longitudinales que han observado el desarrollo de las competencias de los estudiantes y han ofrecido elementos para reflexionar sobre los procesos de aprendizaje. palabras clave: aprendizaje precoz, estudio longitudinal, evaluación auténtica, formación de profesores   *  lucilla  lopriore,  università  roma  tre                  lucilla.lopriore@uniroma3.it lopriore   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  11-­‐23 12   1.  l’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  lingua  straniera   negli   ultimi   trenta   anni   si   è   assistito   in   quasi   tutto   il   mondo   a   una   diffusione   senza   precedenti   di   iniziative  mirate  a  favorire  l’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  lingua  straniera,  iniziative  che  hanno  introdotto  in   molti  paesi,  in  particolare  in  quelli  europei,  nuove  politiche  linguistiche  e  modifiche  nei  curricoli  scolastici  per   introdurre   una   lingua   straniera   −   quasi   sempre   l’inglese   −   inizialmente   tramite   sperimentazioni   e,   successivamente,  nei  programmi  ufficiali,  dal  primo  anno  della  scuola  primaria  e,  in  molti  casi,  fin  dalla  scuola   dell’infanzia.  come  david  graddol   (2006)  aveva  ben  evidenziato  nel  suo   secondo   rapporto  sullo   stato  della   lingua  inglese,   the  age  at  which  children  start  learning  english  has  been  lowering  across  the  world.  english   has  moved  from  the  traditional  ‘foreign  languages’  slot  in  lower  secondary  school  to  primary   school   −   even   pre-­‐school.   the   trend   has   gathered  momentum   only   very   recently   and   the   intention  is  often  to  create  a  bilingual  population.  (p.  88)     da   quando   l’insegnamento   di   una   lingua   straniera   è   stato   introdotto   nella   scuola   primaria,   in   particolare   in  diversi  paesi   europei   fra   i  primi  ad  avere   inserito   la   lingua   straniera  nel   curricolo,  numerosi   studi   ne   hanno   indagato:   le   diverse  modalità   di   implementazione   (butler   &   lee,   2006;   copland,   garton   &   burns,   2011;   enever,   2011;   enever,   moon  &   raman,   2009;   graddol,   2006;   lopriore,   2001,   2006;   moon   &   nikolov,  2000;  nikolov,  2009;  nikolov  &  curtain,  2000;  nikolov  &  mihaljević  djigunović,  2011;  rixon,  2013),   le   implicazioni   di   tale   introduzione   sui   giovani   apprendenti   (hasselgren,   2000;  nikolov,   2009)   e   sulla   loro   motivazione   (lopriore   &  mihaljević  djigunović,   2011),   il   profilo   professionale   e   la   formazione   dei   docenti   (butler,  2009),  nonché   la  ricaduta  sull’apprendimento  del  tempo  dedicato  alla   lingua  straniera  nel  curricolo   (enever,  2011;  rixon,  2013).   mentre   alcuni   studi   hanno   investigato   l’ordine   di   acquisizione   della   seconda   lingua   da   parte   dei   bambini  e  sugli  effetti  dell’apprendimento  precoce  sul  loro  sviluppo  cognitivo  (cenoz  &  hoffman,  2003),  altri   hanno   analizzato   le   attività   e   le   forme   di   valutazione   più   comunemente   utilizzate   in   classe   per   la   lingua   straniera   (butler  &  lee,  2010;  copland,  garton,  &  burns  2011;   johnstone,  2000;  mckay,  2006;  rea-­‐dickins,   2000;   rea-­‐dickins   &   rixon,   1999;   rixon,   1999).   pochi   sono   stati   invece   gli   studi   che   hanno   monitorato   i   risultati  di  apprendimento  dei  giovani   studenti  nella  transizione  da  un   livello  all’altro,   oppure  nel  corso  del   tempo,   con   studi   longitudinali   (benvenuto  &   lopriore,   2000;   enever,   2011;  enever  &   lopriore,   2014;  hill,   2010;  johnstone,  2000;  lopriore,  2001,  2014b;  roessing  &  helgie,  2009).     2.  valutare  gli  apprendimenti     la   classe  della   scuola  primaria  è   un  ambiente   unico   in   cui   l’apprendimento  è  organizzato   in  modo   olistico   tramite   esperienze   individuali   e   collettive,   e   dove   i   bambini   sviluppano   abilità   di   literacy   o   alfabetizzazione,  conoscenze  e  abilità  nella  loro  prima  lingua  mentre  iniziano  a  apprenderne  una  seconda,  la   lingua  straniera  (ls);  è  un  ambiente   in  cui  le  attività  fatte  in  ls  sono  sempre  legate  alle  aree  disciplinari  del   curricolo  della  primaria  e  sono  quasi  sempre  condotte  dalle  stesse  insegnanti.     valutare  gli  apprendimenti  nella  scuola  primaria  è  pertanto  un  caso  molto  speciale  poiché  richiede  ai   docenti   di   comprendere   complessi   processi   cognitivi   e   affettivi   sottesi   all’apprendimento   di   una   lingua   seconda   in   una   fascia   d’età   in   rapida   evoluzione   e   di   scegliere   gli   strumenti   più   idonei   e   affidabili.   la   valutazione   dovrebbe   quindi   essere   fondata   sia   sulle   attività   svolte   quotidianamente   in   classe   e   vissute   in   prima  persona  dal  bambino  sia  su  forme  di  accertamento  con  cui  gli  apprendenti  hanno  familiarità  e  che  sono   in   grado   di   rappresentare   la   progressione   dell’apprendimento.   si   auspica   quindi   una   valutazione   che   sia   incorporata   nella   quotidianità   dell’apprendimento   in   cui   i   docenti   siano   guidati   dalla   loro   conoscenza   dei   bambini  e  dall’osservazione  della  loro  partecipazione  alle  attività  di  classe.   nel   suo   testo   sulla   valutazione   dell’apprendimento   precoce   di   una   seconda   lingua,   penny   mckay   aveva  evidenziato  la  necessità  di  prestare  molta  attenzione  nel  momento  in  cui  si  sceglie  una  qualsiasi  forma   di  valutazione  in  una  fascia  d’età  così  vulnerabile.   a  special   approach  to   the  assessment  of   young   language   learners   is  needed  because  of   the   special   characteristics  of   growth,   literacy  and  vulnerability   that   children  bring   to   language   learning  and  assessment  .   .   .  assessment  has  the  power  to  change  children’s  lives;  the  effect   of   assessment  maybe  positive  or  negative.   .   .   young   learners  are  particularly  vulnerable   in   their   formative  years  to  assessment  that  sends  messages  of  worth  and  status  and  that  thus   perpetuates  power  relationships  in  society.  (mckay,  2006,  pp.  24-­‐25)   valutare  l’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  l2   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  11-­‐23 13   sempre  a  proposito  di  cosa  e  come  misurare  gli  apprendimenti  di  giovani  allievi  di  una  ls  in  contesti   tra  loro  molto  diversi,  yuko  butler  e  jiyon  lee  (2010)  nel  loro  contributo  sugli  effetti  dell’autovalutazione  nei   bambini,   sottolineano   l’urgenza   di   formare   i   docenti   alla   valutazione,   tenendo   conto   dell’assenza   di   chiare   indicazioni  in  proposito:   teachers  also  need   to  be  able   to  assess   the  performance  of   individual  students   in  order   to   improve   their   own   instruction,   given   the   substantial   diversity   in   proficiency   levels   among   their   students.   however,   relatively   little   is   known   about   assessment   for   young   foreign   language   learners   in   general.   .   .   despite   the   urgent   practical   need   for   ‘appropriate’   assessments   for  young   learners  of  a   foreign   language,   the   lack  of   theoretical  and  empirical   knowledge  on  this  topic  cannot  be  understated.  (butler  &  lee,  p.  5)     i  docenti  della  scuola  primaria  devono  quindi  affrontare   la  sfida  di  misurare  il  progresso  dei  propri   studenti   nella   ls   così   come   in   altre   aree  disciplinari   con   forme   di   valutazione   che   siano   valide,   affidabili   e   coerenti   con   l’approccio   didattico   adottato.   purtroppo,  mancano   in  molti   paesi  misure   atte   a   rispondere   a   questi  bisogni   e,   il   più  delle  volte,   i   programmi  di   formazione   iniziale  non  prevedono  corsi   introduttivi   alla   valutazione   degli   apprendimenti   di   una   ls;   per   non   parlare   di   una   parte   specifica   che   dovrebbe   essere   dedicata  alla  valutazione  di  apprendenti  multilingui  che  di  fatto  ormai  stanno  sempre  più  caratterizzando  la   popolazione   scolastica   delle   scuole   primarie   e   dell’infanzia   e   che   invece   richiedono   interventi   didattici   e   forme   di   valutazione   appropriate,   come   sottolineato   fin   dall’inizio   da   uno   dei   pionieri   dell’introduzione   dell’apprendimento  precoce  in  scozia,  richard  johnstone:   at   present   there   is   little   evidence   to   suggest   that   primary   school   teachers,   not   only   in   scotland,  but   also   in  many  other  countries  of   the  european  union  possess  a   good  working   knowledge   of   how  pupils’   emerging   competence   in  a  modern   language  might   be  assessed.   (2000,  p.  131)     nel   loro   testo   sulla   valutazione   nell’istruzione   plurilingue   e   interculturale,   lenz   e   berthele   (2010)   sottolineano  l’importanza  di  prestare  una  specifica  attenzione  alle  forme  di  valutazione  adottate:   the   explorations   into   the   assessment   of   plurilingual   and   intercultural   competences   undertaken  in  this  study,  have  shown  that,  at  this  point,  many  possible  assessments  are  well-­‐ suited   for   formative   purposes,   especially   when   they   involve   the   learners   as   self-­‐assessors   and   allow   for   some   imprecision   and   goodwill.   with   regard   to   standardized,   high-­‐stakes   assessment,  the  possibilities  are  much  more  limited.  in  some  cases,  these  limitations  seem  to   be   due   to   the   nature   of   the   object,   in   some   others   it   seems   that   reliable   high-­‐stakes   assessments  could  actually  be  devised  as  soon  as  reliable  reference  frameworks  and  testing   instruments   have   been   developed.   what   is   needed   most   at   this   time,   however,   is   actual   practice:   plurilingual   and   intercultural   learning,   teaching  and   assessment   should  be  put   in   place  in  innovative  ways,  and  then  be  evaluated  critically  in  order  to  make  progress.  (p.  29)     la  valutazione  degli  apprendimenti  in  contesti  in  cui  parte  della  popolazione  scolastica  è  multilingue,   è   di   fatto   compromessa   da   una   visione   fortemente  monolingue   del   sistema   educativo   e   formativo   che   non   valorizza   la   ricchezza   che   invece   i   soggetti  bi-­‐   o  multilingui  offrono.  le   lingue  non   sono  viste   come  sistemi   separati  dal  soggetto  multilingue,  e  per  chi  le  usa  non  ci  sono  chiari  confini  tra  loro.  accettare  e  incoraggiare   fenomeni   come   il   translanguaging   (creese   &   blackledge,   2010;   garcia   &   li,   2014;   prada   &   nikula,   2018),   ovvero   il   passare  degli   allievi   con  naturalezza  da  un   sistema   all’altro   tra   diverse   lingue   e   dialetti,   è   ancora   vissuto   come   un   impedimento   alla   comunicazione,   anziché   una   risorsa   sulla   quale   lavorare   e   considerare   nuove   forme   di   valutazione   che   misurino   l’abilità   dell’allievo   di   muoversi   tra   le   lingue,   di   fare   ricorso   a   diverse   risorse   linguistiche   e   culturali   da   una   varietà   di   contesti,   e   che   si   focalizzino   su   chi   usa   queste   competenze  multilingui  e  non  sulla  lingua  come  sistema  astratto.   la  vibrata  presa  di  posizione  di  elana  shohamy  nel  suo  contributo  del  2011,  ben  riassume  l’urgenza   di   affrontare   soprattutto   la   misurazione   degli   apprendimenti   linguistici   di   apprendenti   in   ambienti   plurilingui.   all   assessment   policies   and   practices   are   based   on  monolingual   constructs   whereby   test-­‐ takers   are   expected   to   demonstrate   their   language   proficiency   in   one   language   at   a   time.   thus,  the  construct  underlying  these  assessment  approaches  and/or  scales  (e.g.,  the  cefr)  is   of  language  as  a  closed  and  finite  system  that  does  not  enable  other   languages  to  “smuggle   lopriore   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  11-­‐23 14   in.”  this  view  is  in  stark  contrast  to  the  current  understanding  of  multilingual  competencies   for   which   various   languages   and   aspects   “bleed”   into   one   another   in   creative   ways   as   manifested   by   a   growing   number   of   users,   especially   immigrants,   who   are   born   into   one   language  and  acquire  additional   language(s),  resulting  in  multilingual  competencies.  this  is   manifested   in   codeswitching   and   in   the   simultaneous   use   of   different   language   functions   (e.g.,   reading   in  one   and   speaking   in   another   in   the  process   of   academic   functioning).   yet,   this   multilingual   functioning   receives   no   attention   in   language   testing   practices.   further,   multilingual   users   who   rarely   reach   language   proficiency   in   each   of   the   languages   that   is   identical  to  that  of  their  monolingual  counterparts  are  always  being  compared  to  them  and   thus   receive   lower   scores.   consequently,   they   are   penalized   for   their   multilingual   competencies,  sending  a  message  that  multilingual  knowledge  is  a  liability.  (p.  418)     nella  seconda   indagine   internazionale  sulle   forme  di   implementazione  degli  apprendimenti  precoci   di   una   seconda   lingua,   svolta   dal  british   council   in   64   paesi,   shelagh  rixon   (2013)   commenta   a   proposito   della  misurazione  e  della  valutazione  degli  apprendimenti  di  una  ls:   a   greater   interest   in   assessing   children’s   attainment   is   considered   by   many   as   a   sign   of   ‘coming  of  age’  of  english  teaching  at  primary  level.  in  many  contexts  in  the  early  days  of  the   introduction   of   english   at   primary   school   level,   assessment   was   neglected   or   deliberately   avoided  since  the  projects  went  under  the  banner  of  pilots  or  experiments  and  assessment   was  felt  to  be  premature  or,  more  negatively,  an  inhibiting  factor.  (p.  10)       proprio  in  questa  prospettiva  occorrerebbe  valorizzare  la  valutazione  basata  su  quanto  si  fa  in  classe,   ovvero  il  classroom  based  assessment  (cba)  (hill,  2010)  e  privilegiare  una  valutazione  formativa  nella  scuola   primaria   dove  molto   più   chiaramente   che   in   altri   tipi   di   scuola   emerge   quanto   i   maestri   ben   conoscano   i   processi   di   apprendimento   degli   studenti   e   quali   siano   le   forme   appropriate   di   valutazione   per   le   diverse   fasce   di   età.   purtroppo,   anche   in   questo   campo   poche   sono   state   le   ricerche   svolte   (butler,   2009,   2016;   davison,  2013;  mihaljević  djigunović,  2016; nikolov,  2016;  papp,  chambers,  galaczi,  &  howden,  2011),  e  “the   manner   in  which   classroom-­‐based  assessment  of  young  learners  english   is   carried  out   is   seen  as  a  crucial   factor   for   children’s   success   in   learning.   it   is   a   field   in  which   there  has   not   been   a   great   deal   of   research”   (rixon,  2013,  p.  35).   altro   importante   aspetto   di   cui   tenere   conto   in   questi   contesti   è   quello   già   introdotto   dal  quadro   comune  europeo  di  riferimento  delle  lingue  moderne  (qcer)  e  implementato  con  l’introduzione  del  portfolio   delle  lingue,  ovvero  l’autovalutazione  degli  studenti  dei  propri  apprendimenti,  una  forma  necessaria  sia  per   attivare  una  maggiore  riflessione  sull’apprendimento  sia  per  complementare  la  valutazione  del  docente  con  le   opinioni  espresse  dallo  studente.  nella  nuova  versione  del  qcer,   il  companion  volume  pubblicato  nel  2018,   questo   concetto  viene  ulteriormente  sottolineato  nella   illustrazione  delle   funzioni  dei  nuovi  descrittori,   che   “can  also  be  useful  as  a  starting  point  for  providing  transparent  criteria  for  assessment”  (north,  2018,  p.  43).   l’autovalutazione,   quella   forma   di   valutazione   delle   conoscenze   e   delle   competenze   svolta   direttamente   dall’allievo,   spesso   a   supporto   della   valutazione   del   docente,   è   di   solito   fatta   sulla   base   di   specifici   criteri   e   griglie   redatte   in   modo   da   consentire   allo   studente   il   riconoscimento   delle   singole   conoscenze  in  vari  contesti  d’uso  e  di  individuare  i  propri  punti  di  forza  e  di  debolezza.     l’autovalutazione   può   focalizzarsi   su   capacità   extralinguistiche   e   configurarsi   sotto   forma   di   questionari,   diari,   interviste,   schede   di   osservazione,   ecc.,   strumenti   adattabili   al   profilo   di   un   giovane   apprendente.  l’autovalutazione  è   la  diretta   conseguenza  dell’enfasi  posta   sulla   centralità  dello   studente  nel   processo  di   apprendimento  e   sul  riconoscimento  delle   strategie  utilizzate  dagli   apprendenti.  utilizzarla   con   giovanissimi  apprendenti  con  l’uso  di  focus  group  o  di  brevi  simulazioni  che  facilitino  da  parte  del  bambino  il   riconoscimento   di   quel   che   ritiene   di   sapere   o   non   sapere   ancora   fare   in   una   ls   può   costituire   un   ottimo   strumento  per  facilitare  la  riflessione  di  questi  sul  gradimento  di  determinate  attività  e  per  rendere  espliciti   aspetti  del  proprio  processo  di  apprendimento  che  rischierebbero  altrimenti  di  rimanere  invisibili  al  docente.   questa  forma  di  valutazione  consente  all’allievo  di  rivedere,  descrivere  e  valorizzare  la  propria  esperienza  di   apprendimento;  inoltre,  utilizzare  forme  di  autovalutazione  ripetute  nel  tempo  consente  di  monitorare  il  suo   cambio  di  prospettiva  e  stimola  la  sua  capacità  di  riflettere  su  esperienze  già  fatte  mettendole  a  confronto  con   quelle   che   sta   acquisendo.   in   tale   senso   alcuni   studi   longitudinali   hanno   consentito   l’acquisizione   di   dati   qualitativi  a  complemento  di  quelli  quantitativi  come  è  stato  dimostrato  nel  progetto  ellie  (early  language   learning  in  europe)  (enever,  2011).  tale  forma  di  valutazione  è  particolarmente  adatta  alla  didattica  della  ls   valutare  l’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  l2   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  11-­‐23 15   nella   scuola   primaria,   e   rientra   nel   performance   assessment,   ovvero   l’accertamento   delle   prestazioni   degli   allievi   in  situazioni  reali,  abituali  o  quotidiane  di  classe  come,  ad  esempio,  sapere  effettuare  o   formulare  un   progetto,  risolvere  un  problema,  svolgere  una  breve  ricerca,  partecipare  a  progetti  di  scambio  con  altre  classi   ecc.  quasi  tutte  le  forme  di  valutazione  precedentemente  indicate,  fanno  parte  di  quella  che  è  stata  definita  la   valutazione  autentica,  ovvero  la  valutazione  delle  competenze  acquisite  tramite  prove  più  funzionali  di  quelle   tradizionalmente  utilizzate.  l’accertamento  definito  autentico  infatti:     -­‐ si   riferisce   al   programma   d’istruzione   condotto   in   classe;   agli   allievi   vengono   poste   domande   significative  e  problemi  rilevanti  per  le  loro  esperienze  di  apprendimento;   -­‐ ha  a  disposizione  testimonianze  provenienti  da  una  molteplicità  di  attività  e  prestazioni;   -­‐ è   legato   ad   attività  motivanti   e   stimola,   tramite   l’autovalutazione   e   l’auto-­‐riflessione,   sia   allievi   sia   docenti  a  migliorare;     -­‐ riflette  gli  standard  di  una  classe  e  non  si  riferisce  a  una  norma.     c’è   comunque   bisogno   di   valutare   anche   in   forma   sommativa   al   fine   di   raccogliere   informazioni   affidabili   e   accurate   che   servano   alle   ricerche   sui   risultati   di   apprendimento   nel   tempo.   in   tal   senso,   valutazione   autentica   e   valutazione   con   prove   strutturate   o   semi-­‐strutturate   sono   approcci   validi   e   complementari  che  rientrano  in  quello  che  è  un  mixed-­‐method  approach  alla  ricerca  (dörnyei,  2007);  la  scelta   dell’uno  o  dell’altro  o  il  ricorso  a  entrambi  dipende  unicamente  da  ciò  che  si  vuole  misurare.   negli  ultimi  due  decenni  diversi  sono  stati  gli  studi  svolti  sugli  apprendimenti  dei  giovani  allievi,   in   alcuni  casi  si  è  trattato  di  ricognizioni  internazionali,  spesso  comparative,  su  vasta  scala  che  hanno  indagato   sull’introduzione  dello  studio  precoce  di  una  ls  nei  sistemi  scolastici,  in  altri  casi  tali  studi  hanno  indagato  gli   apprendimenti  in  una  delle  fasce  di  transizione  all’interno  dell’istruzione  primaria  o  in  uscita,  e  hanno  avuto   come  oggetto  sia  i  risultati  degli  allievi  nelle  singole  abilità  sia   lo  sviluppo  della  motivazione  ad  apprendere   (mihaljević  djigunović,  2016;  mihaljević  djigunović  &  lopriore,  2011;  pižorn,  2009).       3.   gli   studi   longitudinali:   un   valore   aggiunto   nella   ricerca   sugli   apprendimenti   linguistici   valutare   l’apprendimento   precoce   di   una   ls   può   essere   fatto   all’interno   della   quotidianità   dell’esperienza  didattica  e   essere   svolto   dal  docente,  ma   sappiamo  che   l’apprendimento   tra   i   6   e   gli   undici   anni   di   età   si   modifica   e   prende   forme   diverse   nel   passaggio   da   un   anno   all’altro.   questa   fascia   d’età   è   caratterizzata   da   rapidi   cambiamenti   evolutivi   sia   cognitivi   sia   emotivi   che,  per   essere  osservati,   studiati   e   valutati,   richiedono   forme   di   monitoraggio   dell’apprendimento   che   sappiano   adattarsi   alle   specificità   di   ciascun  livello  (ding,  2009;  huber  &  van  de  ven,  1995;  neale,  2019;  ortega  &  iberry-­‐shea,  2005).     l’introduzione   delle   lingue   straniere   nei   curricoli   delle   scuole   primarie,   e   in   alcuni   casi   della   scuola   dell’infanzia,  ha  richiesto  da  parte  di  alcuni  paesi  una  accurata  valutazione  dell’opportunità  e  della  validità  di   questa   innovazione   curricolare   in   termini   di   ricaduta   sugli   apprendimenti   di   una   ls   anche   negli   anni   successivi,  ovvero  nelle  scuole  secondarie,  e  in  termini  di   forme  di  didattica  più  appropriata,  di  materiali  da   utilizzare,  di  sviluppo  della  motivazione  ad  apprendere,  e  delle  conseguenze  su  altri  ambiti  di  apprendimento.     negli  ultimi  40  anni  pochi  studi  sono  stati  commissionati  o  dalle  autorità  educative  dei  singoli  paesi  o   da  gruppi  di  ricerca  con  l’intento  di  accertare  se  effettivamente  l’introduzione  precoce  di  una  ls  nella  scuola   primaria  avesse  o  meno  risposto  agli  obiettivi  di  fornire  ai  bambini  non  solo  un  livello  di  competenza  in  una   seconda   lingua,  ma  anche  una  consapevolezza  sia  di  culture  altre  e,  di  conseguenza,  anche  della  propria,  sia   delle   differenti   realizzazioni   linguistiche.   oggetto   di   valutazione   sono   state   le   modalità   con   cui   questi   apprendimenti  sono  realizzati,  sono  graditi  e  rispondono  ai  bisogni  degli  allievi,  come,  ad  esempio,  nel  caso   della  ricerca  sull’introduzione  della  lingua  straniera  nella  scuola  primaria  commissionata  dal  ministero  della   pubblica  istruzione  all’università  sapienza  dopo   la  riforma  della  scuola  elementare  del  1985  (benvenuto  &   lopriore,  2000;  lopriore,  2001,  2014b)1.                                                                                                                               1   il  progetto,  uno  dei  primi   in  questo  campo,  è   stato  condotto  negli   anni  1999   -­‐  2000  per   conto  della  università  di  roma  sapienza.   il   progetto  è  stato  coordinato  da  guido  benvenuto  e  il  gruppo  di  lavoro  −  composto  da  docenti  esperte  di  lingue  straniere  −  era  condotto  da   lucilla  lopriore.  il  comitato  scientifico  era  composto  da:  maria  corda  costa,  paola  giunchi,  rita  balbi,  pauline  rea-­‐dickins.  il  progetto  si  è   venuto  a  inserire  nel  più  ampio  quadro  di  definizione  degli  standard  di  apprendimento  nella  scuola  italiana  e  nella  prospettiva  di  un  loro   monitoraggio.  il  progetto  ha  rappresentato  la  prima  rilevazione  degli  aspetti  cognitivi  e  dello  sviluppo  educativo  degli  alunni  della  scuola   elementare  relativamente  all’insegnamento  della   lingua  straniera.  l’indagine  ha  rilevato  i   livelli  di  competenza  raggiunti  dagli  studenti   lopriore   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  11-­‐23 16   l’impianto  di  ricerca  utilizzato  per  questa  rilevazione  ha  fornito  utili  riferimenti  in  merito  a  tutte  le   variabili   considerate  dall’indagine,  purtroppo,   come  in  altri   casi,   la  mancata  diffusione  ufficiale  dei   risultati   non  ha  consentito  la  restituzione  al  mondo  della  scuola  e  della  formazione  dei  docenti  di  informazioni  utili  a   intervenire  con  miglioramenti  sia  nella  didattica  sia  nella  formazione  dei  docenti.     alcuni  degli  studi  sull’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  ls  sono  stati  successivamente  impostati  come   studi  longitudinali  (enever,  2011;  lopriore,  2015b;  nikolov  &  szabó,  2012;  pižorn,  2009)  perché  la  valutazione   di  un’innovazione  come  questa  può  essere  valida  solo  se  i  dati  vengono  raccolti  longitudinalmente  con  diversi   tipi  di  strumenti,  e  non  misurati  con  rapide  istantanee  prese  con  un  unico  strumento,  di  solito  utilizzato  per   misurare  le  sole  competenze  linguistiche.  l’apprendimento  in  questa  fascia  di  età  deve  essere  considerato  nel   complesso   di   tutti   i   fattori   che   intervengono;   in   tal   senso,   la   raccolta   di   dati   nelle   classi   di   ls   nel   corso   di   alcuni  anni  consente  di  osservare  come  i  bambini  rispondano  nel  tempo  alle  innovazioni  e  di  notare  eventuali   cambiamenti   nella   motivazione   e   negli   interessi   degli   allievi,   nell’esposizione   alla   ls   fuori   dell’ambito   scolastico,  nonché   l’impatto  di   altri   fattori   esterni   che  possono  condizionare   i   risultati   ottenuti   alla   fine  del   ciclo  della  scuola  primaria.   tra  le  sfide  poste  da  questo  tipo  di  studi  ci  sono  innanzitutto  l’identificazione  del  metodo,  la  scelta  e   la   costruzione   degli   strumenti   di   ricerca   più   appropriati   e   del   loro   adattamento   nel   passaggio   degli   anni,   l’inevitabile  mortalità   del   campione   e   la   difficoltà   di   assicurarsi   che   i   risultati   di   queste   ricerche   possano   effettivamente  essere  utilizzati  per   influire  sulle  scelte  educative.  studi  di  ricerca  così   lunghi   e  approfonditi   hanno  la  potenzialità  di  fornire  alle  autorità  educative  quelle  testimonianze  che  possano  assisterle  nel  meglio   definire   le   politiche   linguistiche  e   il   language  planning,   e  migliorare   la  definizione   e   l’implementazione   del   curricolo   di   lingua   straniera  nonché   i   programmi   di   formazione  dei   docenti   destinati   a   insegnare   a   questo   livello.   spesso   però   il   collegamento   tra   quanto   emerge   dalla   ricerca   e   la   prassi   manca   e   questo   può   rappresentare  un  grave  danno  per  gli  apprendimenti  degli   allievi  e  per   la  preparazione  dei  docenti,  mentre   uno   studio   longitudinale  ha  un  potenziale   enorme  in   termini  di   ricerca   in   campi  quali   l’acquisizione  di  una   seconda  lingua.   un  approccio  longitudinale  consente  a  chi  svolge  una  ricerca  di  “descrivere  modelli  di  cambiamento,   di  stabilire  la  direzione  (positiva  o  negativa)  e   la  grandezza  misurata  in  termini  di   tempo  cronologico  o  età”   (menard,  2002,  p.  3).  e  questo  rende  la  scuola  primaria  il  luogo  più  idoneo  ad  essere  studiato  nel  tempo  con   un   approccio   longitudinale.  gli   studi   longitudinali   sono  molto   spesso   commissionati  da   agenzie  nazionali   o   internazionali,   quali   i   programmi   europei,   e   condotti   a   livello   nazionale   su   campioni   di   coorti   di   allievi   statisticamente  selezionati  (benvenuto  &  lopriore,  2001;  enever,  2011;  kristen,  rommer,  muller,  &  kalter,  2005).     uno   dei   problemi   degli   studi   commissionati   a   livello   nazionale   è   la  modalità   di   presentazione   dei   risultati,  presentazione  che  spesso  finisce  per  non  fornire  reali  approfondimenti  mortificando  la  qualità  degli   studi  e  riducendo  le   implicazioni  dei  risultati.  potenzialmente,  questo  è  un  fattore  negativo  sia  per  le  scuole   sia   per   gli   insegnanti   che   finiscono   per   respingere   tali   risultati   in   quanto   poco   assomigliano   alla   loro   vita   quotidiana   nella   realtà   scolastica.   occorre   invece   fare   condurre   questi   studi   da   un   piccolo   gruppo   di   ricercatori   che   operi   in   stretto   contatto   con   un   gruppo   di   scuole   e   per   un   determinato   periodo   di   anni.   secondo  kristen  (2005,  p.  74)  tre  sono  i  punti  di  forza  che  un  modello  longitudinale  può  offrire:     -­‐ facilitare   la   descrizione   di   stati   e   condizioni,   le   loro   rispettive   durate   e   la   loro   distribuzione   e   i   cambiamenti  nel  tempo;   -­‐ facilitare   lo   studio   multivariato   dello   sviluppo   individuale   e   della   società   e   dei   processi   di   cambiamento;   -­‐ facilitare  la  ricostruzione  causale  degli  eventi  e  dei  processi.     i  pochi  studi  longitudinali  sull’apprendimento  precoce  della  ls  si  sono  dimostrati  in  grado  di  cogliere   la   progressione   degli   apprendimenti   e   la   correlazione   tra   lo   sviluppo   cognitivo   e   emotivo   degli   allievi,   le   attività   didattiche   e   l’intervento   dei   docenti   nel   corso   di   processi   triennali   o   quinquennali,   determinando   scelte  sui  curricoli,  sui  sillabi,  sui  materiali,  sugli  obiettivi  e  sulla  preparazione  dei  docenti.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           alla  fine  della  quinta  elementare  in  inglese  e  in  francese.  l’indagine,  di  natura  campionaria  a   livello  nazionale,  ha  raggiunto  circa  2500   studenti  di  lingua  inglese  di  150  scuole,  e  quasi  500  studenti  di  lingua  francese  di  27  scuole.    sono  state  costruite  e  somministrate  prove   strutturate   per   valutare   la   comprensione   orale,   la   lettura   e   la   competenza   lessicale,   sono   state   utilizzate   prove   di   competenza   metalinguistica  nella   lingua  madre  (la  prova  tam  2,  pinto,  1995;  pinto  &  titone,  1989),  un  questionario  rivolto  agli  studenti  sulla   loro   percezione  dell’esperienza  di  studio  e  la  conoscenza  di  altre  culture,  e  un  questionario  rivolto  ai  docenti  sulle  pratiche  didattiche.         valutare  l’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  l2   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  11-­‐23 17   il   progetto   ellie   (enever,   2011)   è,   nell’ambito   delle   indagini   longitudinali   sulla   ls   nella   scuola   primaria,  uno  degli  studi  più  citati  sia  per  la  lunghezza  del  periodo  di  indagine  sia  per  i  risultati;  è  uno  studio   longitudinale  che,  tra  il  2006  e  il  2010,  ha  investigato  gli  apprendimenti  delle  lingue  straniere  da  parte  degli   allievi   delle   scuole   primarie   in   sette   paesi   europei   che   avevano   introdotto   da   tempo   la   ls   nei   rispettivi   curricoli:  croazia,  inghilterra,  italia,  olanda,  polonia,  spagna  e  svezia.     il   campione  di  allievi  monitorato  per  quattro  anni   è   stato  di   circa  1200  bambini,  180  per  nazione,   con  un  sottogruppo  che   contava   intorno  ai  48  allievi  per  nazione   (focal   learners)  che  hanno  svolto  tutte   le   prove  e   sono   stati   intervistati   ogni   anno;   il   campione  è   stato   scelto   su  base   regionale.   in   italia,   lo   studio  è   stato  condotto  nel  lazio  su  186  allievi  e  otto  classi,  in  cui  erano  stati  selezionati  48  focal  learners,  seguendoli   dai  6  ai  9  anni  e  mezzo,  dall’inizio  della  prima  alla  fine  del  quarto  anno  della  scuola  primaria.  in  uno  studio   successivo,  un  campione  di  un  terzo  dei  186  studenti  originariamente  coinvolti  è  stato  ricontattato  alla  fine   del  ciclo  della  scuola  secondaria  e  ha  svolto  una  serie  di  prove  di  inglese  e  risposto  a  questionari  sul  proprio   apprendimento  (lopriore,  2014b,  2015b).     specifiche   prove   di   lingua   inglese   sono   state   somministrate   ogni   anno   per   l’accertamento   della   comprensione   orale,   scritta   e   di   interazione   orale.   i   dati   emersi   sono   stati   incrociati   con   interviste,   con   questionari   ai  docenti,   dirigenti   e   allievi,   e   con   i  materiali  didattici.  particolare  attenzione  è   stata  data  alle   pratiche  valutative  usate  in  classe  e  ai  risultati  ottenuti  nelle  prove  di  comprensione  orale  in  lingua  inglese,   somministrate  ogni  anno  con  formati  lievemente  modificati  rispetto  a  quello  originale.   lo   scopo   principale   del   progetto   era   studiare   l’apprendimento   di   giovani   allievi   e   comprendere   i   fattori   che   influenzano   sia   le  percezioni   che   gli   allievi  hanno  dell’apprendimento  di  una  ls   sia   i   fattori   che   maggiormente  influiscono  sul  loro  apprendimento.  obiettivo  specifico  dello  studio  era  determinare  cosa  fosse   realistico  realizzare  nell’ambito  dell’insegnamento  delle  lingue  straniere  nelle  scuole  primarie  sulla  base  di  un   numero  limitato  di  ore  di  istruzione  (figura  1).       figura 1. punti focali della ricerca ellie (adattato da enever & lopriore, 2014, p. 190)   la   scelta   di   uno   studio   longitudinale   e   transnazionale   richiedeva   un   costrutto   alla   base   dell’intero   progetto  che  tenesse  conto  delle  specificità  dei  singoli  paesi  e  non  risultasse   in  una  mera  comparazione  tra   nazioni:   the  main  aim  of   the  ellie   transnational   study  was  not   to   set   up   comparative   research   in   order   to   establish   differences   or   similarities   among   countries,   rather   to   investigate   how   early   language   learning   was   being   implemented   and   what   could   realistically   be   achieved   across   countries.  with   this   in  mind,   the   research   team   first   identified   common   core   areas   that  would  offer   specific   information  and  data   likely   to   provide   reliable   findings  and  valid   conclusions.  the  varied  factors  to  be  taken   into  account   in  this   transnational  study  created   several  challenges  for  the  study:  conceptual,  methodological,  operational  and  interpretative.   these  challenges  highlighted  the  importance  of  establishing  a  homogeneous  research  design,   lopriore   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  11-­‐23 18   adopting  systematic  and  consistent  procedures  for  areas  of  investigation,  planning  time  for   data  collection  while  synchronising  across  all  seven  countries  and  taking   into  account  each   country  context  specificity.  all  these  features  have  proved  to  be  crucial  parts  of  the  research   design.  (enever  &  lopriore,  2014,  p.  190)     la  ricerca  ha  adottato  un  approccio  misto,  avvalendosi  di  strumenti  di  tipo  qualitativo  (osservazione   delle  lezioni  almeno  tre  volte  l’anno;  interviste  individuali  con  un  sottocampione  di  studenti,  i  focal  learners,  e   con   i   docenti;   questionari   sugli   atteggiamenti,   documentazione   scolastica,   ecc.)   e   quantitativo   (prove   d’ascolto,   di   lettura   e   prove   di   lessico   per   l’intera   classe   e   di   interazione   orale   per   il   solo   sottocampione)   somministrati  ogni  anno  e,  in  alcuni  casi,  più  volte  nel  corso  dell’anno.  un  test  di  comprensione  della  lettura  è   stato  usato   alla   fine   del   quarto   anno;   nel   caso   dell’ascolto,   alla   fine  di   ogni   anno   sono   state   somministrate   all’intero  campione  due  prove  di  ascolto,  ma  solo  nel  primo  anno  pilota   la  prova  è  consistita   soltanto   in  un   questionario   a   risposta  multipla.   prove   di   interazione   orale   sono   state   somministrate   due   volte   in   quattro   anni   insieme   a   un   test   lessicale.   griglie   per   l’osservazione   delle   classi,   questionari   sugli   atteggiamenti   (all’inizio   composti  da  smileys   e   successivamente  da  domande  specifiche),   interviste   con   i   focal   learners   e   i   docenti  su  atteggiamenti  e  convinzioni,  e  colloqui  con  i  dirigenti  scolastici  sono  state  regolarmente  utilizzate   durante  l’intero  studio.   i  risultati  dello   studio  ellie   sono   stati  particolarmente  ricchi  di   implicazioni,   alcuni  di  questi   sono   stati  riassunti  nella  tabella  1,  tratta  dal  rapporto  ellie  (enever,  2011)  e  scandita  su  diverse  sezioni:  politiche   linguistiche,   l’apprendente,   la   scuola,   l’insegnante,   la   casa   e   i   livelli   linguistici,   ognuna   accompagnata   dalla   sintesi   dei   commenti   del   gruppo   ellie   sulle   implicazioni   didattiche   e   politiche   derivanti   dallo   studio   longitudinale  condotto.     4.  conclusioni   sia   i   risultati   dello   studio   ellie   sia   la   natura   del   suo   disegno   di   ricerca   sembra   abbiano   generato   nuovi  modi  di  guardare  all’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  ls,  almeno  in  base  alle  richieste  di  consulenze  ai   membri   ellie   promosse   da   diversi   paesi,   e   hanno   generato  maggiore   consapevolezza   dell’importanza   del   contesto   socioculturale   come  contributo   chiave  per   l’esperienza   di   apprendimento  dei  bambini.   il   progetto   ellie  è  stato  in  molti  paesi  preso  a  riferimento  per  l’introduzione  dello  studio  di  una  ls,  e  diversi  membri  del   team   di   ellie   sono   stati   invitati   in   america   latina,   in   medio   oriente   e   in   cina   per   istruire   progetti   di   introduzione   dell’insegnamento   di   una   ls   nei   sistemi   scolastici   locali   e   per   monitorarne   le   ricadute   sugli   apprendimenti.   in   definitiva,   la   prospettiva   longitudinale   appare   fondamentale   per   la   definizione   di   un   modello  di  efficacia  scolastica  strutturato  sui  progressi  degli  studenti,  che  necessariamente  deve  riferirsi  a  più   anni;   occorre   tuttavia   considerare   le   problematiche   che   il   modello   comporta,   per   predisporre   nuove   prospettive   sin   dalla   fase   di   definizione   del   disegno   stesso   della   ricerca.   il   valore   aggiunto   di   uno   studio   longitudinale   sta   nel   costrutto   che   deve   prevedere   la   restituzione   dei   risultati   a   chi   opera   nella   scuola   e   l’elaborazione  di  proposte  di  cambiamenti.   come  giustamente  notato  da  ortega  e  da  iberri-­‐shea  (2005)  nel   loro  contributo  sull’uso  degli  studi   longitudinali  nella   ricerca   sull’acquisizione  di  una   seconda   lingua,   solo  uno   studio   longitudinale  può  offrire   una  visione   interna   al   processo  perché   in   tutti   i   processi   di   apprendimento   il   fattore   tempo  è   centrale   per   comprenderne  lo  sviluppo.  non  è  solo  una  questione  di  a  quale  età  i  bambini  apprendono  meglio,  ma  quando   e  quanto  dura  il  processo  di  apprendimento  e  cosa  contribuisce  a  sostenerlo  nel  tempo.  è  proprio  in  tal  senso   che   ci   si   chiede   quanto   debba   essere   lungo   uno   studio   longitudinale.   e   questo   è   proprio   il   caso   dell’apprendimento   di   una   ls   per   i   bambini   dove   il   fattore   dell’evoluzione   biologica   determina   le   variabili   temporali  su  cui  articolare  lo  studio.   infine,  intraprendere  uno  studio  longitudinale  è  un’impresa  complessa,   ma   sicuramente   ricca  di   risultati  −   e   di   sorprese  −   in   cui   le  domande  di   ricerca   rischiano  di  dovere  essere   riformulate  nel  corso  del   tempo.  purtroppo,  questo  è  un  tipo  di  studio  nel  quale   i  docenti  hanno  difficoltà  a   partecipare  attivamente  in  quanto  il  loro  status  è  passibile  di  modificazioni  nel  tempo.  sulle  potenzialità  degli   studi  longitudinali,  bren  neale  (2019),  afferma  che  essi  offrono:   exciting  possibilities  for  generating  new  research  agendas  and  refining  empirical  enquiry  […]   the   longitudinal   frame,   in   itself,   offers   abundant   scope   for  methodological   innovation   […]   qualitative  longitudinal  research  does  more  than  investigate  dynamic  processes;  it  responds   to  changes  in  the  environments  under  study.  (p.  125)     valutare  l’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  l2   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  11-­‐23 19   sarebbe  opportuno  istituire  una  pratica  di  studi  longitudinali  nel  sistema  scolastico  cui  possano  partecipare   studenti,  docenti  e  famiglie  anche  ai  fini  di  una  valutazione  autentica  degli  apprendimenti.  e  la  scuola   dell’infanzia  e  quella  primaria  offrono  un  ottimo  bacino  di  ricerca  e  di  reale  e  valido  sviluppo  professionale   sul  campo.     tabella 1 ellie sintesi delle conclusioni (adattate da enever, 2011, pp. 5-7)   la politica   -­‐ la maggior parte dei paesi europei ha introdotto la lingua straniera nella scuola primaria, anche se a diverse età. al fine di garantire il successo di questa innovazione, ciascun paese ha dovuto disegnare programmi di formazione pree in servizio per i docenti coinvolti. -­‐ i docenti di una fl (quasi sempre l’inglese) hanno bisogno di un alto livello di fluenza e conoscere e sapere utilizzare una metodologia didattica appropriata all’età degli apprendenti. purtroppo, non tutti i paesi europei si sono uniformati in tal senso. -­‐ il ricorso ai descrittori del qcer ha rivelato alcune difformità in quanto il qcer non era stato tarato sui giovani apprendenti, ma su giovani adulti. questo ha ovviamente condizionato una riflessione critica sugli approcci da seguire. l’apprendente -­‐ la maggior parte dei bambini hanno fin dall’inizio un atteggiamento positivo verso la lingua straniera, anche se differenze in termini di atteggiamenti, motivazione e auto consapevolezza sono riscontrabili e i docenti ne devono essere consapevoli. -­‐ le caratteristiche dell’apprendente hanno un impatto sui risultati di apprendimento, in particolare tra i 10 e gli 11 anni. la scuola   -­‐ lo status della ls nel contesto scolastico e nel curricolo può fare la differenza. particolare attenzione all’orario delle lezioni di ls e la cura data alla lingua di scolarizzazione possono contribuire al successo. -­‐ la progressione nell’apprendimento nel tempo in termini di continuità tramite lo scambio di informazioni sui risultati e sulle forme di valutazione utilizzate deve essere sostenuta. i progetti e gli scambi internazionali dovrebbero essere incentivati così come l’utilizzo della ls fuori della scuola e lo sviluppo di competenze interculturali. -­‐ maggior comunicazione scuola famiglia è fortemente raccomandata. il docente   -­‐ il successo dell’apprendimento è determinato dagli atteggiamenti positivi dei docenti nel creare un ambiente di supporto e di stimoli, nel piacere che essi hanno nell’insegnare, nel sostenere le esperienze di apprendimento degli allievi, nel mantenerli impegnati sui compiti che svolgono e nell’incoraggiarli a riportare in classe le esperienze de l2 fatte fuori dalla scuola. -­‐ questi indicati sopra sono gli aspetti di cui tenere conto nelle programmazioni e nell’organizzazione della didattica. i docenti dovrebbero incoraggiare gli apprendenti a riportare in classe le esperienze di ls fatte fuori della scuola. la casa   -­‐ l’esposizione alla ls fuori di scuola, soprattutto tramite tv e film sottotitolati, ha un impatto significativo sull’apprendimento dei bambini. si rende necessario un processo di cambiamento culturale, almeno in europa, che consenta di apprezzare i vantaggi di un’ulteriore esposizione alla ls. -­‐ la conoscenza professionale 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  primary   english   language   teaching   worldwide.  londra,  regno  unito:  the  british  council.   roessingh,   hettie,   &   elgie,   susan   (2009).   early   language   and   literacy   development   among   young   ell:   preliminary  insights  from  a  longitudinal  study.  tesl  canada  journal,  26(2),  24-­‐45.   shohamy,  elana  (2011),  assessing  multilingual  competencies:  adopting  construct  valid  assessment  policies.   the  modern  language  journal,  95,  418-­‐429.                         valutare  l’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  l2   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  11-­‐23 23     lucilla lopriore, università roma tre lucilla.lopriore@uniroma3.it it lucilla lopriore ha ottenuto il suo master in tefl alla reading university (1997) e il suo dottorato in italiano l2 presso l’università per stranieri di siena (2001). per molti anni ha lavorato come docente d’inglese nella scuola e ha ottenuto la qualifica di language teacher educator nel1988 (british council, norwich, regno unito). nel 1989 è stata ricercatrice fulbright presso la san francisco state university. è stata presidente di tesol italia (1996-98), membro del direttivo di tesol international (2001-2004) e ha presieduto la commisione internazionale di ricerca di tesol international (2016/18). è stata coordinatrice italiana di due progetti sull’apprendimento precoce della lingua: l’indagine nazionale sui risultati degli studenti della scuola primaria nella lingua straniera (1999) e il progetto ellie (2006-2010). i suoi interessi di ricerca comprendono la formazione degli insegnanti, l’educazione linguistica, la valutazione, l’apprendimento precoce delle lingue, il clil e l’inglese come lingua franca. ha numerose pubblicazioni in tutti i campi sopracitati. en lucilla lopriore obtained her ma in tefl at reading university (1997), and her ph.d. in italian l2 at the università per stranieri di siena (2001). she worked as english school teacher for many years (1976-2000) and obtained the title of qualified language teacher educator in 1988 (british council, norwich, uk). in 1989 she was a fulbright scholar at san francisco state university. she was tesol italy president (1996-98), member of the tesol international board of directors (2001-2004), and tesol international research committee chair (2016/18). she was the italian coordinator for two early language learning research projects: the national investigation on fl primary students’ achievement (1999) and the ellie project (2006-2010). her fields of interest include teacher education, educational linguistics, assessment, early language learning, clil, elf. she has published extensively in all the above fields. es lucilla lopriore obtuvo su maestría en tefl por la reading university (1997) y su doctorado en italiano l2 por la università per stranieri di siena (2001). trabajó como profesora de inglés durante muchos años (1976-2000) y obtuvo el título de language teacher educator en 1988 (british council, norwich, uk). en 1989 fue fulbright scholar en la san francisco state university. ha sido presidenta de tesol italy (1996-98), y miembro de tesol international board of directors (2001-2004) y tesol international research committee chair (2016/18). fue la coordinadora para el italiano de dos proyectos de investigación sobre el aprendizaje temprano de lengua: national investigation on fl primary students’ achievement (1999) y ellie project (2006-2010). sus intereses investigadores incluyen la formación docente, la lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza, la evaluación, el aprendizaje temprano de lenguas, aicle y elf. ha publicado numerosos artículos en todos estos campos. microsoft word 7. panzavecchia_done_108-123 (1) (1) (1).docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  7,  issue  1,  february  2020,  108-­‐123   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.11.184   www.e-­‐journall.org     © panzavecchia 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       language  use  in  the  primary  classroom:  maltese  teachers’  views  on   multilingual  practices         michelle  panzavecchia  &  sabine  little   university  of  sheffield         received  27  april  2019;  received  in  revised  form  9  july  2019;  accepted  29  september  2019   abstract en recent global migration trends and an increase in worldwide human mobility are currently contributing to unparalleled challenges in the area of literacy and education within multicultural and multilingual societies (leikin, schwartz, & tobin, 2012). malta, a small island in the mediterranean, is one country currently seeking ways in which to adapt to the realities of today’s diverse classrooms. this paper details original research into maltese teachers’ perceptions and practices in multilingual classrooms. following a brief overview of malta's language history and educational system, we draw on the experiences of eight bilingual primary school teachers through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. recent demographic changes in malta necessitate a paradigm shift in education. with malta’s challenges mirrored at global level, this study makes an important contribution to understanding the issues faced by educators and children, exploring pathways towards an equitable and socially just education for all. key words:   multilingual education, multilingual teaching practices, translanguaging, professional development, initial teacher education es las tendencias migratorias recientes y el aumento de la movilidad en todo el mundo están contribuyendo al desafío sin paralelo en el área de la educación y la alfabetización dentro de sociedades multiculturales y multilingües (leikin, schwartz, & tobin, 2012). malta, una pequeña isla en el mediterráneo, busca formas de adaptarse a las realidades de las diversas aulas de clases de la actualidad. este estudio detalla investigación original en la percepción y las prácticas de maestros malteses relacionadas con las aulas de clase multilingües. después de una breve descripción de la historia lingüística de malta y su sistema educativo, nos basamos en las experiencias de ocho maestros de escuela primaria bilingües por medio de entrevistas profundas, presenciales semiestructuradas. los cambios demográficos recientes en malta requieren un cambio de paradigma en la educación, y con los desafíos de malta reflejados a nivel mundial, la investigación proporciona una contribución importante para comprender el problema al que se enfrentan los educadores y los niños, explorando caminos hacia una educación equitativa y socialmente justa para todos. palabras clave: educación multilingüe, prácticas de enseñanza multilingües, translenguar, desarrollo profesional, formación inicial del profesorado it le recenti tendenze migratorie e l’aumento della mobilità a livello globale pongono sfide senza precedenti in termini di alfabetizzazione e istruzione nelle società multiculturali e multilingue (leikin, schwartz, & tobin, 2012). malta, una piccola isola nel mediterraneo, è in cerca di soluzioni per adeguarsi alle realtà scolastiche di classi eterogenee. questo articolo descrive in dettaglio una ricerca su percezioni e pratiche di insegnanti maltesi nelle classi multilingue. dopo una breve panoramica della storia linguistica e del sistema educativo di malta, attingiamo alle esperienze di otto insegnanti bilingui della scuola primaria attraverso interviste in profondità, semi-strutturate, faccia a faccia. i recenti cambiamenti demografici a malta richiedono un cambio di paradigma nell'istruzione e, con le sfide di malta, riflesse a livello globale, questo studio offre un contributo importante alla comprensione delle questioni affrontate da educatori e bambini, esplorando percorsi per un'istruzione equa e socialmente giusta per tutti. parole chiave: istruzione multilingue, pratiche di insegnamento multilingue, translanguaging, sviluppo professionale, formazione iniziale degli insegnanti *    michelle  panzavecchia,  university  of  sheffield                    mpanzavecchia1@sheffield.ac.uk language  use  in  the  primary  classroom   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 109   1.  introduction     the  world   is  presently  undergoing   an  unparalleled   rise   in   global   immigration,   leading   to   a   shift   in   societies  towards  more  cultural,  ethnic  and  linguistic  diversity.  human  mobility  reached  258  million  in  2017   (united   nations,   department   of   economic   and   social   affairs,   population   division,   2017),   with   migrants   comprising   14%   of   the   population   residing   in   high-­‐income   countries,   an   increase   of   almost   5%   since   the   beginning  of  the  millennium  (united  nations,  department  of  economic  and  social  affairs,  population  division,   2017).   the   past   decade’s   global   demographic   shifts   have   led   to   populations   becoming   increasingly   linguistically  and  culturally  diverse.  this  diversity   is   increasingly  represented   in   the  classroom,  with  global   figures   showing   that  multilingualism   in   schools   is   on   the   rise.   in   england,   for   example,   21.2%   of   primary   school  pupils  are  exposed  to  a  language  other  than  english  in  the  home  (uk  department  for  education,  2018).   in  the  us,  the  most  recent  census  in  2014  revealed  similar  numbers,  with  22%  of  the  school  population  (5-­‐17   years  old)  speaking  a   language  other  than  english  at  home  (camarota  &  ziegler,  2015).  while  these   figures   illustrate  an  increasing  trend  within  individual  countries,  gaining  a  holistic,  international  overview  is  difficult,   since   countries   adopt   diverse   reporting   and   tracking   strategies.   for   instance,   some   countries   track   first-­‐ generation  migrants  only,   leading  to   issues  with  respect  to  the  reporting  of  multilingual  children,  due  to  an   oversight  of  children  born  in-­‐country  to  migrant  parents  (european  commission,  2019).     beyond  counting  students,  the  recent  developments  regarding  diversity,  both  in  the  classroom  and  in   society,   have   led   to   a   call   for   an   increased   understanding   of   and   engagement   with   multilingualism   in   education.   language   ideologies  which   advocate   the   strict   separation  of   languages   are  now  making  way   for   more   flexible  practices   including   translanguaging,  which  supports   the  concept  of   fluid   language  repertoires   that  human  beings  naturally  utilize  as  a  communicative  tool,  depending  on  context  or  circumstances  (garcía   &  kleyn,  2016;  sabino,  2018).  within  the  classroom,  however,   these  practices  are  still   in  their   infancy,  with   many   teachers   reporting   insecurity   when   it   comes   to   the   teaching   of   multilingual   students   (tinsley   and   board,   2016).   a   look   at   the   international   figures   highlights   the   need   to   understand   more   about   the   complexities  of  multilingualism  in  the  classroom,  in  particular,  the  need  for  research  with  practising  teachers   who  are  called  upon  to  implement  national  education  policies,  which  are  frequently  operating  on  insufficient   or   unclear   data   (european   commission,   2019;   tinsley   and   board,   2016).   this   study   uses   malta   as   one   example  of  the  larger  global  trend  of  diversity,  addressing  the  following  research  questions:     -­‐ in  which  ways   are  maltese   primary   school   teachers   supporting  multilingual   students  within   their   classroom  environments?     -­‐ what   are   these   teachers’   current   practices   and   perceptions   of   using   flexible   language   pedagogies   such  as  translanguaging  in  bilingual  and  multilingual  classrooms?       the   present   study   focuses   on   participants’   perceptions   of   bilingual   and   multilingual   classrooms,   together  with  their  views  and  practices  related  to  translanguaging  pedagogies.  findings  from  the  study  aim  to   contribute  to  the  growing  understanding  of   teachers’  practices  and  requirements  related  to  diversity   in  the   classroom,   highlighting   the   need   for   more   qualitative   research   to   explore   necessary   changes   to   both   educational  policy  and  practice.     2.  the  maltese  context   malta   is   a   small   island  nation   in   the  middle   of   the  mediterranean   sea,  with   an   area   of   246   square   kilometres.  neighboured   by   italy   and   libya,   the  maltese   islands   boast   of   a   rich   history   that   has  witnessed   many   a   foreign   rule.   as   part   of   their   historical   legacy,   the  maltese   people   have   lived  within   the   reality   of   multilingualism   for  many  centuries  as   the   linguistic   traits  of   the   island’s   inhabitants  were   influenced  by  an   assortment  of  different  languages,  with  arabic,  latin,  sicilian,  italian,  french,  english  and  maltese  spoken  on   the   island   throughout   the   years.   as   part   of   malta’s   british   colonial   heritage,   the   english   language   was   introduced   in  schools   in  1833,  eventually  replacing   italian  as   the  country’s  official   language,  whilst  maltese   was   recognized   as   an   official   language   alongside   english   in   1934   (brincat,   2011;   camilleri   grima,   2013b;   frendo,   1988).   notwithstanding   its   semitic   origins,   the   maltese   language   is   written   in   latin   script   and   is   essentially  a  hybrid  of  arabic,  english  and  italian  (vella,  2012).  the  maltese  vernacular  includes  a  plethora  of   english   vocabulary   and   expressions,   whilst   code-­‐switching   is   a   ubiquitous   and   natural   part   of   local   communication   (camilleri   grima,   2013b).   most   maltese   people   are   bilingual   to   some   extent,   however   the   level   of   proficiency   varies   considerably   amongst   individuals,   depending   on   their   language   backgrounds,   panzavecchia  &  little   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 110   preferences  and  contexts  (farrugia,  2016).  the  maltese   language   is  spoken  by  over  95%  of  maltese  people,   whilst  over  85%  speak  english  (camilleri  grima,  2016).  italian  is  also  spoken  by  many  maltese  people,  albeit   to  varying  degrees  of  fluency.  this  is  due  to  the  countries’  geographical  proximity  and  the  influence  of  italian   television  stations,  which  are  popular  amongst  maltese  households  (caruana,  2013).     in  spite  of  the  small  size  of  the  island,  there  appears  to  be  a  linguistic  divide  according  to  locality,  as   inhabitants   of   certain   parts   of  malta   such   as   sliema,   st.   julian’s,   and   the   surrounding   areas   tend   to   speak   english  more  fluently,  whilst  those  hailing  from  southern  areas  are  usually  perceived  to  be  more  proficient  in   maltese.  the  constitution  of  malta  recognizes  both  maltese  and  english  as  official   languages,  and  maltese  is   also  one  of  the  official   languages  of  the  european  union.  the  population  of  malta  stood  at  475,700  in  2017,   signifying   the   largest   relative   increase   in  population   in  europe  during   this  year   (+32.9  per  1000  residents)   (eurostat,   2017).   paradoxically,   in   the   same   year,   the  maltese   islands   had   the   lowest   birth   rate   in   europe   (eurostat,   2017).   this   indicates   that   globalization   and   intensifying   migration   trends   are   seeing   asylum   seekers   and   refugees   entering  malta   in  unprecedented  numbers,   since   the   island   is   presently   considered   a   symbolic   gateway  between  africa  and  europe.  moreover,  malta’s   accession   to   the  european  union   in  2004   has   also  brought   about  many  eu  citizens  benefitting  of   their   free   right  of  movement  within  other  member   states   (international   organization   for   migration,   2016).   despite   malta’s   multilingual   and   multicultural   history,   this   sudden  and  rapid  demographic   shift   is  nonetheless  giving   rise   to  unprecedented  challenges  as   the   island’s   inhabitants   are   striving   to  welcome   and   provide   for   the   ever-­‐increasing   number   of   foreigners   within   their   society   and   educational   settings.   as   a   result,   classrooms   that   were   previously   bilingual   are   increasingly  multilingual  (farrugia,  2017;  scaglione  &  caruana,  2018).  this   transformation   is  proving  to  be   positive   and   enriching   on   many   levels,   though   educators   are   also   struggling   with   issues   pertaining   to   language  use,  for  which  they  do  not  feel  sufficiently  trained.         3.  malta’s  multilingual  classrooms   malta’s   educational   system   is   an   integral   part   of   its   british   colonial   legacy,   and   hence   built   on   the   british  educational  system.  maltese  families  have  the  choice  of  enrolling  their  children  into  state,  parochial,   or  private   schools,  where  both  maltese  and  english   languages  are   taught   concurrently   from  pre-­‐school.  all   other   subjects  are   taught   in  english,  maltese,  or  a  variety  of  both   (depending  on  school  policy),  with   code-­‐ switching   featuring   regularly   during   the   majority   of   lessons.   the   large   part   of   reading   and   writing   is   conducted   in  english,   due   to   the   greater   availability   of   english   textbooks   over   those   in  maltese.  a   third   or   fourth  language  is  introduced  to  students  during  the  end  of  their  primary  school  years  or  in  their  first  year  of   senior   school.   malta’s   language   policy   endorses   bilingual   and   multilingual   development   as   it   encourages   young  students  to  adopt  positive  attitudes  towards  english,  maltese,  and  other  languages  (malta  ministry  of   education  and  employment,  2015).     the  population  of  non-­‐maltese  students  in  schools  has  doubled  over  a  span  of  4  years,  from  1,890  in   2012   to  4,289   in  2016  ((nso,  national  statistics  office   -­‐  malta,  2018).  this  means   that  maltese  schools  are   witnessing  a  rapid  and  inevitable  transformation  from  bilingualism  to  multilingualism,  which  is  mirrored  in   other  countries  across  europe,  particularly  higher-­‐income  nations  (european  commission,  2019).  since  this   demographic  shift  is  a  rapid  and  unprecedented  one,  maltese  teachers  do  not  feel  sufficiently  equipped  with   the   necessary   skills   required   to   meet   the   challenges   which   multilingualism   and   multiculturalism   in   the   classroom   inevitably   create.   teachers   are   presently   faced   with   students   in   class   who   are   required   to   comprehend   and   communicate   in   both  maltese   and   english   in   order   to   access   the   curriculum,  whilst   also   striving  to  preserve  their  mother  tongue,  which  is  an  integral  part  of  their  identity  (micallef  cann  &  spiteri,   2014).  this   is  proving   to  be  problematic   for   teachers  and  students  alike,  especially   in  cases  where  migrant   children   do   not   speak   any  maltese   or   english   at   all.   additionally,   this   predicament   is   also   contributing   to   family  pressures,  as  many  are  faced  with  the  intricacies  of  negotiating  language  use  within  their  host  country   (little,  2017).     another  challenge  is  a  shift  in  educational  paradigms  within  teacher  training  for  which  malta  is  not   yet  sufficiently  prepared.  language  education  needs  to  respect   linguistic  heritage  whilst  preparing  children   for  a  globalised  world,  and  there  seems  to  be  a  gap  in  research  and  professional  training  in  the  field  at  a  local   level.   as   a   result   of   this,   initial   teacher   education   programmes,   together   with   continuous   professional   development  sessions  for  experienced  educators,  are  still  not  adequately  addressing  these  issues,  and  hence   teachers  are  striving  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  linguistically  and  culturally  diverse  pupils  in  their  classrooms   through   personal   empathy,   rather   than   professional   skill   (scaglione   &   caruana,   2018).   this,   again,   is   representative   across   europe,   with   teacher   training   for   the   integration   of   migrant   students   being   language  use  in  the  primary  classroom   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 111   comprehensively   monitored   in   spain,   france,   cyprus,   latvia,   luxembourg   and   serbia   only   (european   commission,   2019).   educators   need   to   be   trained   to   maximise   the   potential   of   multilingualism   and   multiculturalism   for   the   benefit   of   all   their   students   alike.   this   can   be   achieved   through   innovative   pedagogies   including   translanguaging,   programmes   that   support   the   conservation   of   the  maltese   language,   programmes   that   promote   the   universal   value   of   english,   and   structures   offering   ample   support   for   the   children’s  own  cultural   identity  and   linguistic  heritage.   involving   families   in   their   children’s  education  may   also  be  a  way  of  celebrating  and  valuing  student  diversity.  moll  (2015)  states  that  in  today’s  globalised  world   we   need   to   “[engage]   teachers   strategically   with   their   cultural   environments   for   teaching   –   an   absolute   necessity  in  today’s  rapidly  changing  sociocultural  contexts  of  schooling”  (p.  114).     4.  translanguaging   one   theoretical   lens   that   is   helpful   in   supporting   these   shifts,   both  within   classrooms   and   teacher   training,   is   translanguaging.   a   theory   of   translanguaging   views   the   aim   of   language   as   primarily   as   a   communicative  tool,  and  therefore  sees  shifts  in  language  use  as  a  natural  part  of  globalization  and  migration   trends.  this  challenges  the  concept  of  societally  labelled  languages,  replacing  them  with  linguistic  ideologies,   approaches   to   research,   and   understandings   of   speakers’   practices   which   view   languages   as   uncompartmentalized   and   fluid.   the   idea   of   translanguaging  was   coined   in  wales  where   it   originated   as   a   pedagogical  practice  whereby  bilingual  students  were  provided  with   input   in  one   language  and  were  asked   for   output   in   the   other   language   (williams,   2002).   it   was   subsequently   researched   in   depth   by   language   scholars   such   as   garcía,   cenoz,   baker   and   wei,   amongst   others.   translanguaging   refers   to   the   naturally   occurring   language  practices  employed  by  bilingual  and  multilingual  speakers  which  consider   languages  as   hybridized   repertoires   into   which   speakers   may   delve   as   necessary,   as   opposed   to   the   idea   of   formally   separated  and  societally  constructed  systems  (baker,  2011;  garcía,  2009;  otheguy,  garcía,  &  reid,  2015).  gort   and  sembiante   (2015)  point   out   that   translanguaging   is  not  distinct   or  unusual,   but   rather   is   the   standard   manner   in  which   bilinguals   communicate  within  multilingual   communities,   since   “bilinguals   pragmatically   draw  on   their  entire   linguistic   repertoires   to  maximize  understanding  and  performance  across  a  variety  of   contexts,  to  shape  experiences,  and  to  make  sense  of  the  world”  (p.  8).   although  translanguaging  is  a  naturally  occurring  practice  amongst  multilingual  speakers,  educators   need  to  be  competent  in  utilizing  it  strategically.  they  must  also  be  aware  of  the  importance  of  distinguishing   between   language   as   a   learning   and   communicative   tool,   and   language   which   is   used   for   assessment   purposes.  translanguaging  encourages  the  strategic  shifting  between  these  two  languages  during  instruction   time,   depending   on   the   circumstances   and   the   requirements   of   the   task   involved.   teachers   may   thus   encourage   students   to   draw   from   their   entire   linguistic   repertoire   during   brainstorming   sessions,   discussions,  debates  or  oral  presentations,  whilst  the  use  of  the  target   language  would  be  promoted  for  the   publishing,   presentation   or   a   final   written   product,   or   for   assessment   purposes.   merging   and   extending   naturally  occurring   language  practices  such  as  translanguaging  into  pedagogical  strategies  may  thus  be  one   way   forward  within   our   ever   increasing   linguistically   and   culturally   diverse   societies,   in   order   to   ensure   a   truly  inclusive  and  equitable  education  for  all  (cenoz,  2017;  garcía,  2005;  scaglione  &  caruana,  2018).   using   translanguaging   pedagogies   may   hence   help   to   mitigate   challenges   within   multilingual   and   multicultural   classrooms,   and   the   judicious   use   of   language  mixing  may   enable   children   to   reach   their   full   potential  as  they  feel  free  to  naturally  think,  feel,  discuss  and  communicate  in  the  language  or  languages  they   feel  most   comfortable   in   (beres,   2015;   garcía   &  wei,   2014).   translanguaging   practices   in   class   encourage   children   to   participate   and   interact   further   during   lessons,   since   they   may   feel   less   self-­‐conscious   when   drawing   on   their   entire   linguistic   repertoire   as   a   resource   (park,   2013).   translanguaging   also   enables   students   to   tap   into  both   their   creative  and  critical   skills,  whilst  bending   the  norms  of   traditional   language   use,   as   they   make   use   of   all   their   linguistic   resources   to   inquire,   discuss   or   express   views   (wei,   2011).   additionally,   translanguaging   pedagogy   can   facilitate   curriculum   access,   whilst   also   supporting   students’   mastery  of  language  (durán  and  henderson,  2018).      mifsud   and  vella   (2018,   p.   94),   advocate   a   flexible   approach   to   language   use   in   class,   particularly   within  the  early  years,  rather  than  employing  a  “one  size  fits  all”  model.  they  believe  that  the  specific  needs  of   the   children   in   class   need   to   be   addressed   and   go   as   far   as   recommending   that   “a   clearly   agreed   learning   contract  could  be  established  between  teachers  and  pupils,  and  their  parents,  relating  to  a  more  systematic   alternation   of   languages   in   the   classroom”   (p.   93).   palviainen,   protassova,   mård-­‐miettinen,   and   schwartz   (2016)  also  promote  the   idea  of   flexible   language  practices   in  the  classroom,  and  state  that  these  are  many   times  developed  naturally,   through  experience  and  over   time,   rather   than  being   formally   taught.  they  also   panzavecchia  &  little   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 112   state  that  traditional  language  practices  which  advocate  the  strict  separation  of  languages  are  making  way  for   more  flexible  approaches  as  a  result  of  increasingly  diverse  classroom  populations.   as  a  pedagogical  tool,  using  multiple  languages  for  learning  is  actively  encouraged  in  many  european   countries,  such  as  finland  and  germany,  but  although  fostering  plurilingual  education  is  actively  encouraged,   the  term  translanguaging  does  not  feature  in  the  most  recent  european  report  (european  commission,  2019).   notwithstanding  similarities  among  these  two  concepts,  the  terms  are  not  interchangeable,  since  they  are  “at   times   […]   seen   as   oppositional   and   other   times,   seemingly   fused   into   one   similar   framework”   (vallejo   &   dooly,   2019   p.   3).   garcía   and   otheguy   (2019)   also   state   that   plurilingualism   and   translanguaging   have   different  socio-­‐political  roots  which  contribute  to  many  divergences  in  educational  practices.     5.  the  present  study   the  current  paper  forms  part  of  a  larger  study  which  focuses  on  bilingual  teachers’  identities  and  the   ways   in  which   their   backgrounds   impact   their   perceptions   and   pedagogical   practices.   according   to   garcía   (2009),   “bilingual   education   is   the   only   way   to   educate   children   in   the   twenty-­‐first   century”   (p.   5).   she   advocates   the  development  of   “an   integrated  plural   vision   for  bilingual   education,  by  which  bilingualism   is   not  simply  seen  as  two  separate  monolingual  codes”  (p.  5),  for  the  benefit  of  children  and  adults  worldwide.   in  this  respect  this  study  aimed  to  explore  to  what  extent  maltese  teachers  share  this  vision  and  put   it   into   practice.   the   impetus   for   the   study   came   about   as   a   result   of   the   researchers’   own   interest   in   bilingual   teachers’   philosophies   and   pedagogies,   and   in   innovative   fluid   language   practices   such   as   garcía’s   (2009)   concept   of   translanguaging   and   transglossia,   where   different   languages   are   not   separated   but   interrelate   dynamically   within   globalised,   multilingual   communities.   the   research   questions   to   be   addressed   in   the   current  study  concern  how  maltese  primary  teachers  support  bilingual  and  multilingual  students  within  their   classroom   environments,   together   with   their   current   practices   and   perceptions   of   using   flexible   language   pedagogies  such  as  translanguaging.  teachers’  voices  can  be  empowering  and  emancipatory,  as  their  insights   are  often  the  catalyst  to  effect  changes  to  social  policy  and  practice  (goodson  &  sikes,  2001).  hence,  the  main   aim  of  this  study  is  to  shed  more  light  on  several  lacunae  in  current  translanguaging  practices,  as  well  as  on   educators’  viewpoints  about  malta’s  specific  bilingual  status  and  its  educational  system,  in  light  of  migration   trends,  and  about  the  presence  of  additional  languages  in  the  classroom.  these  perspectives  add  significantly   to   our   understanding   of   multilingual   pedagogy,   whilst   having   implications   for   the   improvement   of   professional   practice   and   for   the   design   of   professional   development   and   initial   teacher   education   programmes.       5.1.  the  participants   data   from   eight   primary   school   teachers,   each   with   over   ten   years   teaching   experience   were   collected   through   in-­‐depth   semi-­‐structured   interviews   (two   per   participant).   three   teachers   were   chosen   from  state  schools,  another  three  from  church  schools,  and  two  from  private  independent  schools  (of  which   there  are   fewer   in  malta).  choosing  state,  church  and  private   independent  schools  enabled  the  gathering  of   teachers’   perspectives   as   they   might   vary   by   school   context,   which   differ   significantly   in   malta   (camilleri   grima,   2013a).   the   teachers   also   had   diverse   language   and   schooling   backgrounds,   in   order   to   be   able   to   compare  patterns  related  to  home  and  educational  backgrounds.  participants  also  taught  at  different  ends  of   the  primary   spectrum,   i.e.   early  and   junior  years,   to  gain   insight  on  how   teaching  methods  and  viewpoints   may   or   may   not   vary   depending   on   age   group   taught.   participants   included   seven   females   and   one   male   teacher,  a  ratio  that  is  representative  of  the  gender  imbalance  within  the  teaching  profession,  where  female   teachers  are  largely  over-­‐represented  in  primary  education  in  the  eu  (eurostat,  2017).  ages  ranged  from  late   thirties  to  late  fifties,  and  participants  hailed  from  different  parts  of  malta,  which  also  influenced  their  spoken   language  of  preference.  despite  diverse  backgrounds  and  school  contexts,  the  participants  were  nonetheless   relatively   homogeneous   in   that   they   were   all   experienced   and   all   directly   involved   in   the   topic   being   researched  (goodson  &  sikes,  2001).  table  1  offers  an  overview  of  the  teachers,  each  of  whom  has  been  given   a  pseudonym  to  protect  their  identity.   for  the  purpose  of  the  current  paper,  key  quotes  were  selected  from  the  interviews  and  excerpts  will  be   provided   in   the   results   section   (section   6)   in   order   to   highlight   the   perceptions   and   practices   of   the   participants  in  the  study.       language  use  in  the  primary  classroom   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 113   table 1 participants’ information participant age education teaching experience year group diana 37 ba, ma church school, 13 years early years (years 1 and 2) elaine 48 ba, ma church school, 13 years junior years (years 4, 5, and 6) jonathan 36 ba state school, 12 years junior years (year 6) laura 43 ba various state schools, 11 years early years (year 2) liliana 59 ba private school, 24 years early years (years 1 and 2), year 3 for past 10 years mandy 40 ba, ma church school, 14 years early years (years 1 and 2); currently subject teaching (english) in junior school (year 6) maria 40 ba, ma private school, 16 years junior years (year 6) ingrid 42 ba, ma in progress tefl, 4 years; state school, 10 years junior years (year 4)   5.2.  methods     we  used  a  narrative   inquiry  approach,   through  semi-­‐structured   life  history   interviews,  which  were   analysed   thematically,   as   this   approach   gave   the   participants   the   opportunity   to   relate   the   untold   stories   pertaining   to   their   bilingual   identities,   which   in   turn   affected   their   perceptions   and   pedagogical   practices   (goodson   &   sikes,   2001).   the   semi-­‐structured   interview   comprised   a   set   of   32   questions.   the   first   part   focused  on   the   teachers’  own   identities  and   life  histories,  whilst   the  second  part   focused  on   their  views  on   language  pedagogies  within  bilingual  and  multilingual  educational  settings.  richness  of  the  in-­‐depth  data  was   favoured  over  quantity  or  broadness,  since  the  aim  of  the  study  was  to  gain  insight  into  teachers’  perspectives   about  language  use,  while  learning  about  their  teaching  experiences  that  currently  underpin  their  philosophy   of   education   (goodson   &   sikes,   2001).   in   the   words   of   goodson   (1981),   “in   understanding   something   so   intensely  personal  as  teaching,  it  is  critical  we  know  about  the  person  the  teacher  is”  (p.  69).   data  were  collected  through  semi-­‐structured,  one-­‐to-­‐one  interviews,  which  were  held  over  a  period   of  six  months.  each  participant  was  interviewed  twice  with  a  break  of  several  weeks  in  between  interviews.   participants  were  made  aware  of   the  confidential  nature  of   the   interview.  despite  being  a   small   island,   the   information   provided   is   generic   enough   to   facilitate   anonymity,   and   the   eu   general   data   protection   regulation  (gdpr)  was  strictly  adhered  to  when  conducting  this  study.  the  interviews  were  audio  recorded   and   transcribed.   member   checking   allowed   for   a   level   of   both   validation   and   further   engagement   of   participants  with  the  study  (birt,  scott,  cavers,  campbell,  &  walter,  2016;  lincoln  &  guba,  1985).  participants   were  invited  to  read  and  comment  on  transcripts  between  and  after  each  set  of  interviews.  this  verified  that   the   researcher’s   interpretation   of   the   participants’   perspectives   was   truthful   and   accurate,   and   further   facilitated  clarification  of  any  parts  of  the  interview  transcripts  which  were  inaudible  or  unclear.       a  thematic  analysis  approach  was  chosen  in  order  to  gain  insight  into  the  participants’  personal  and   professional  lives,  as  to  better  understand  their  views,  their  pedagogical  practices  and  the  motives  preceding   them.  collated  data  was  organised   according   to   similarities,   differences   and  other   issues   and   colour   coded   accordingly.   overlapping   themes   were   reviewed   and   refined   whilst   emerging   ones   were   divided   into   sub   themes.   the   main   themes   emerging   in   view   of   the   current   paper   included   the   demographic   changes   in   maltese   classrooms,   challenges   experienced   by   teachers   in   view   of   rapidly   shifting   student   populations,   attitudes  towards  multilingual  and  multicultural  classrooms,  teacher  training  needs,  language  use  in  class  and   recommendations   for   change.   for   the   purpose   of   the   present   paper,   we   focus   only   on   data   pertaining   to   participants’  perceptions  and  pedagogical  practices  related  to  multilingual  classrooms.     the   four   criteria   identified  by  lincoln   and  guba   (1985)—credibility,   transferability,   dependability,   and  confirmability—were  pivotal  during  the  design  of  this  study  in  order  to  ensure  that  the  results  were  both   reliable   and   credible.   credibility   was   ensured   through   an   honest   and   precise   account   of   the   participants’   experiences,  whilst  transferability  was  achieved  as  findings  may  be  applied  within  other  similar  educational   contexts.  dependability  was  sought  through  member  checking,  and  confirmability  was  attained  through  being   fully  aware  of  researcher’s  own  biases,  assumptions  and  beliefs  which  may  taint  the  research  process.           panzavecchia  &  little   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 114   6.  results   all   the   educators   teaching   in   state   and   private   schools   voiced   their   concerns   about   the   ever-­‐ increasing  number  of  foreign  children  in  class.  as  ingrid  explains,       excerpt  1.  ingrid  -­‐  number  of  foreign  children  in  class   …  the  intake  is  changing.  every  year  we  see  a  larger  number  of  foreign  children.  we  have  children  from  africa,   bulgaria,  russia,  serbia,  italy,  the  uk  for  example.  sometimes  they  are  not  even  fluent  in  english  and  can  just   string  a  few  phrases  together  …  it’s  not  easy  to  teach  these  children.     teachers   in   church  schools  also  described   facing   this   reality  but   somewhat   to  a   lesser  extent.  this   may   be   because   children   are   enrolled   in   church   schools   through   a   ballot   system,   which   is   predominantly   applied  for  by  maltese  parents  who  wish  to  give  their  children  a  catholic  education.  asylum-­‐seeking  migrant   children  are  generally  educated  in  state  schools  by  law.  children  of  foreign  workers,  who  typically  come  from   families  with   a   higher   socio-­‐economic  background,   are  usually   enrolled   in  private   schools.  diane,   a   church   schoolteacher,  explains   that   so   far   there  are   few   foreign  children  being  enrolled   in  church  schools,   and   the   majority  of   these   children  usually  possess   at   least   a  basic   knowledge  of  english.  however,  diane   feels   that   church   schools   do   face   similar   issues   to   private   and   state   schools  when   it   comes   to  working  with  migrant   children.     in  the  rest  of  our  findings,  we  focus  on  four  themes  emerging  from  the  data,  which  are  particularly   pertinent   to   the   scope   of   this   paper:   attitudes   towards   multilingualism,   strategies   used   in   class,   training   needs,  and  recommendations  for  policy  and  practice.     6.1.  attitudes  towards  multilingualism   all   teachers   had   complex   and   interlaced   views   on   the   use   of  multiple   languages   in   the   classroom.   some   of   these   views  were   based   on   personal   as  well   as   professional   experience.   for   example,   liliana,   the   oldest  participant  at  59,  appeared  to  be  adamantly  in  favour  of  full  immersion  programmes  in  class,  especially   for  the  maltese  children.  however,  witnessing  the  shift  from  bilingual  to  multilingual  classrooms,  she  felt  that   alternative  pedagogies  may  nonetheless  be  appropriate  for  foreign  students.       excerpt  2.  liliana  –  alternative  pedagogies  for  foreign  students   i’m  not  in  favour  of  mixing  languages  …  my  grandson  is  two  years  old.  he  goes  to  playschool.  they  speak  to   him  in  maltese.  my  son  speaks  to  him  in  maltese  and  his  mother  in  english.  i  can  already  see  how  mixed  up  he   is  in  his  language  …  he  tells  me,  “il-­‐man  qiegħed  fil-­‐car”  [the  man  is  in  the  car]  …  he’s  not  really  speaking  in   english  or  maltese.   it’s   the  product  of  him  being  exposed   to   two   languages.  foreigners  are  different.  when   they  go  home  their  parents  are  going  to  speak  to   them  in   their  mother   tongue.   it  makes  more  sense  to  use   different  languages  with  the  foreigners  in  class.     liliana’s  perception  highlights  both  a  desire  to  maintain  distinct   languages,  whilst  at  the  same  time   acknowledging   related   complexities,   particularly   for   non-­‐native   speakers   of   either  maltese   or   english.   for   three  participants,  the  maintenance  of  the  maltese  language  in  and  of  itself  was  a  genuine  concern.  due  to  an   increasing  proportion  of  foreign  children  in  class,  there  was  a  general  feeling  that  this  may  eventually  lead  to   the  extinction  of  maltese,  as  it  would  no  longer  be  a  necessary  form  of  communication  within  an  increasingly   globalised  society.       below,   another   teacher,  maria   refers   to   a   situation   in  which   half   of   the   students   have   at   least   one   parent  who  is  foreign.  the  other  half  consists  of  maltese  children,  many  of  whom  consider  english  to  be  their   l1  and  are  not  proficient  in  maltese.       excerpt  3.  maria  –  the  role  of  maltese   i  use  in  english  at  school  and  when  i’m  teaching,  many  times  because  of  the  number  of  foreigners  we  have,   unfortunately  i  can  only  use  maltese  during  maltese   language  lessons  you  know.   .   .  maltese   is  not  given  the   importance   it  deserves.   i  mean,  we  expect   them   to   learn   through  a  one   lesson  a  day   slot   and   that’s   it.  and   unfortunately,  some  teachers  will  speak  english  to  the  children  during  a  maltese  lesson  trying  to  explain  it  in   english  because  it’s  a  grammar  point  they’re  trying  to  put  across.   .   .    children  will  learn  a  grammar  point  by   rote  but  they’re  not  really  learning  the  language.  they’re  not  exposed.   language  use  in  the  primary  classroom   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 115   ingrid  spoke  of  a   time  when   the   language  used   in  class  was  mainly  maltese,  except   for   the  english   lesson.  this  is  now  changing  due  to  the  greater  proportion  of  english  speakers,       extract  4.  ingrid  –  the  role  of  maltese   …the  policy  seems  to  be  changing.  qisu  [it  seems  as  though]  english  has  become  more  important.  in  a  way  it   worries  me  because  i  feel  we  may  be  losing  our  language…  our  identity.      notwithstanding  the  participants’  concerns  related  to  the  preservation  of  the  maltese  language,  they   still  mention  the  value  of  english  as  lingua  franca  and  acknowledge  that  students  in  malta  are  fortunate  to  be   given  to  the  opportunity  to  learn  the  language.  these  views  reflect  malta’s  sociolinguistic  situation  of  societal   bilingualism  without  diglossia,  where  the  two  official  languages  are  used  in  most  domains  and  are  viewed  as   equally  important  (camilleri  grima,  2013b).  as  jonathan  put  it,  english  allows  students  to  travel  and  to  study;   “…  they  can  become  whatever  they  want.  so  many  opportunities  nowadays!”     6.2.  strategies  used  in  class   one   common   concern   amongst   participants   was   that   they   feel   unsure   of   the   strategies   they   are   employing   in   order   to   support   their  multicultural   students.   the  word   “guilty”  was  mentioned   by   different   educators  in  relation  to  their  code-­‐switching  or  language  mixing  during  lessons.  this  may  be  a  legacy  of  past   education  programmes  and  policies  such  as  the  national  minimum  curriculum  (1999),  which  advocated  the   strict  separation  of  languages.  this  is  in  contrast  with  more  positive  views  on  plurilingual  strategies  such  as   those  expressed  in  the  national  literacy  strategy,  which  refers  to  code-­‐switching  as  “an  essential  element  of  a   bilingual  country,”  as  it  promotes  access  to  different  languages  and  to  a  “wide  and  varied  linguistic  heritage”   (national  literacy  strategy  for  all   in  malta  and  gozo,  ministry   for  education  and  employment,  malta,  2014,   pp.  28-­‐29).  moreover,  the  council  of  europe  promotes  the  concept  of  a  plurilingual  society,  where  individuals   have  competence  in  more  than  one  language  and  can  switch  between  languages,  according  to  circumstances   (language  education  policy  profile  for  malta,  language  policy  unit.  council  of  europe,  strasbourg,  2015).   some  teachers  were  in  favour  of  language  mixing  during  certain  activities,  such  as  brainstorming  and   discussion,  if  the  end  focus  is  on  the  target  language.  elaine  thought  that  her  opinions  on  language  mixing  are   changing  over  time  in  order  to  be  in  line  with  the  requirements  of  today’s  classrooms,  and  she  expressed  this   view:     extract  5.  elaine  –  language  of  instruction     it  was  understood…  me  included   ‘jiġifieri’   [that   is]...   that  total   immersion  in  a   language  was  the  best  way  to   learn  it.  even  i  used  to  feel  very  strongly  about  this.  but  i’m  not  sure  now.  you  see...  based  on  my  experience  i   have  come  to  believe  that  it  is  okay  to  use  one  language  to  teach  another...  i  think  it  is  easier...  for  the  student...   and  the  teacher.  better  understanding...  less  frustration.     ingrid   spoke   of   a   time   when   she   used   to   have   a   maltese   speaking   and   an   english-­‐speaking   doll   present  in  class  during  language  lessons:     extract  6.  ingrid  –  code-­‐switching  while  teaching   these  dolls  did  not  understand  the  other  language  allura  [so]  this  meant  that  the  children  could  not  speak  in   the  other  language.  so,  i  strongly  believed  in  this  and  that’s  how  i  used  to  teach.  now  i  think  the  situation  is   changing.   we   need   to   adapt.   i   think   switching   between   languages   is   not   so   harmful   really   if   it   helps   the   children  understand  better.  i  mean  even  for  the  foreigners  …  thing  is  where  do  you  draw  the  line  then?  is  this   causing  confusion?     although   diana   tried   to   use   visuals   as   much   as   possible   during   language   lessons,   she   did   use   code-­‐ switching   or   translating   with   children   “who   look   at   [her]   blankly.”   she   also   mentioned   using   what   she   considered  to  be  her  third  language  in  class  when  the  need  arose:             panzavecchia  &  little   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 116   extract  7.  diana  –  using  any  language  as  a  resource   last  year  i  had  an  italian  boy.  they  did  not  understand  maltese  or  english.   i  used  to  communicate  with  the   parents   in   italian.  with   the   child   i   used   to  use   italian   just   to  make  him   feel   at   ease.   for   example,  when  he   walked  in,  i  used  to  tell  him  “buon  giorno  come  stai  oggi?”[good  morning  how  are  you  today?]  but  only  so  that   he  feels  at  ease  and  he  settles  down  in  class.     elaine   believed   that   when   students   are   free   to   use   their   native   language,   this   engages   them   academically,   as   “using   their   native   language   as   a   tool   to   learn   a   second   language   helps   them   learn  more   effectively”.   she   recalled   her   own   schooling   years   when   students   were   made   to   learn   foreign   languages   through  full  immersion  practices,     extract  8.  elaine  –  when  i  was  a  student   .  .  .  i  found  it  extremely  difficult  to  cope.  instead  of  trying  to  use  the  cues  to  learn  it,  i  completely  switched  off   when   it   came  to   that   lesson.  for  me,   it  was  as  good  as  nothing…  perhaps  even  worse,  because   i   remember   being  very  frustrated…  not  to  mention  that  i  barely  learnt  anything  in  three  years!     participants  also  reported  drawing  on  digital  literacy  and  technology  in  order  to  overcome  language   barriers.   jonathan   was   one   of   several   participants   highlighting   the   use   of   technology   to   mitigate   communication  problems  in  the  classroom:     extract  9.  jonathan  –  multimodal  communication   we  use  signs  and  pictures,  visuals,  google  translate…  i  think  it’s  easier  nowadays  with  the  internet.  i  also  ask   the   children   themselves   to   help   me.   children   have   this   special   gift   of   communication.   they   manage   to   communicate  with  each  other  in  spite  of  the  language  barriers.  it  is  amazing.     ingrid  stated   that   in  a   rapidly  changing  digital  world   teachers  need   to  keep  abreast  with   the   latest   developments  and,     extract  10.  ingrid  –  digital  literacy   work   on  ways   to   leverage   [children’s]   amazing   technology   skills.   i  mean   digital   literacy   is   very   important   today.  perhaps  we  are  not  channelling  the  children’  skills  in  the  right  direction.  it’s  not  easy.  sometimes  they   know  more  than  us.  plus,  things  are  constantly  changing.  it’s  difficult  to  keep  up.     maria  also  mentioned  the  use  of  technology,  particularly  the  internet,  in  order  to  enable  all  children   to   access   the   curriculum.   she   also   highlighted   the   need   for   teachers   to   be   creative   in   order   to  meet   their   students’  diverse  needs:     extract  11.  maria  –  non-­‐verbal  communication   you   simplify   instructions,   you   use   the   board,   power   points,   you   use   pictures   you   know  …   you   try   and  use   actions,   there  are   times  when  you  have   to  change   if   the  book  gives  you  verbs   for  example  which  are  really   difficult   to   conjugate   i  might   change…   instead  of   “to  whatever…”   i  use   “to  drink”  …   “to  write”,  where   i   can   mime.  something  that  is  more  tangible  for  them.     the  teachers  interviewed  displayed  creativity  and  innovation  in  their  strategies,  sharing  their  unique   perspective  on  multilingual  development.  the   fact   that,   in   such  a  historically  multilingual   context,   teachers   still  felt  uncertain  about  their  teaching  demonstrates  the  need  for  greater  attention  to  teacher  training  in  this   context.     6.3.  training  needs     the  participants  in  this  study  demonstrated  a  willingness  to  implement  the  practices  required  within   today’s  rapidly  changing  sociocultural  contexts.  however,  their  responses  held  an  element  of  uncertainty  and   they  all  voiced   the  need   for   further  guidance.  diane  strongly  believed   that   teacher   training  and  continuous   development  programmes  do  not  adequately  address  teachers’  needs  in  the  area  of  multilingual  classrooms,   and  hence  educators  are  often  in  a  dilemma.  she  told  us,   language  use  in  the  primary  classroom   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 117   extract  12.  diane  –  code-­‐switching  while  teaching   we  were  taught  that  if  we  used  another  language  it  was  a  huge  mistake,  we  would  confuse  the  children.  that   is  the  general  perception,  i  think.  as  a  teacher,  i  do  allow  it  sometimes,  but  i  do  question  it.  i  feel  guilty.  i  ask   myself   is   it   ok?   i   think  we  need   to   be   told   that   it   is   ok.   even   for   the   new   teachers   following   the   course   at   university.  we   need   to   tell   them   that   it   is   ok   to   use   different   languages   sometimes   to   a   certain   extent.   in   practice  if  you  think  about  it,  it  is  what  we  really  do.  we  do  code-­‐switch,  although  we  do  encourage  the  use  of   one  language…  it  is  instinctive  to  use  both  sometimes.     laura   also   stated   that   she   wished   to   learn   more   about   innovative   teaching   methods   before   implementing  them  in  class,     extract  13.  laura  –  innovative  methods   i  feel  i  do  not  know  enough  about  these  new  methods.  i  follow  what  i  feel  is  right  …  i  think  the  fact  that  more   children  are  coming  to  school  with  different  language  backgrounds  might  require  some  changes  really  but  i’m   not  quite  sure  what   is  allowed  and  what   isn’t  …  what  works  and  what  doesn’t.  there  are  so  many  different   opinions  on  this  and  things  are  constantly  changing.  we  are  told  to  do  it  one  way  then  all  of  a  sudden,  we  are   told  to  scrap  the  whole  idea  and  do  something  completely  different.  it’s  mind  boggling.     jonathan  also  felt  that  further  training  is  necessary,  especially  in  the  realm  of  language  use,       extract  14.  jonathan  -­‐  additional  training     i   think   that  we   should   also   be   informed   better   about   the   benefits   of   these   practices   perhaps   through   cpd   sessions.  we  were  never  taught  about  this  at  university  …  anzi  [on  the  contrary]  we  were  always  told  never  to   mix  languages     the   teachers’   uncertainty   and   struggles   highlight   the   need   for   a   more   organised   approach   to   continued  professional  development,  ensuring  that  not  only  newly  trained  teachers  gain  adequate  skills   for   working   in  multilingual   settings,   but   that   currently   practising   teachers   can   update   their   skills   in   line  with   global  changes.     6.4.  participants’  recommendations  for  policy  and  practice   all   participating   educators   stated   that   malta   is   currently   undergoing   a   major   paradigm   shift   in   education,  mainly   as   a   result   of   the  demographic   changes  on   the   island.  they  were   all   in   agreement   about   how  inadequate  their  own  teacher  training  was  in  view  of  these  challenges,  and  that  they  were  “winging  it”  on   many  levels.  they  all  felt  that  most  of  the  experienced  teachers  in  class  were  trained  during  a  time  when  the   demographic  situation  in  malta  was  very  different,  and  that  they  were  not  being  offered  the  right  support  or   further   training   to  meet   the   needs   of   students   today.  moreover,   they   believed   that   initial   teacher   training   programmes   needed   to   be   restructured   in   order   to   train   future   teachers   appropriately   in   the   area   of   multilingualism   and   multiculturalism,   regardless   of   teachers’   own   backgrounds.   training   programmes   for   both  initial  and  experienced  teachers  need  to  be  more  culturally  relevant  in  ways  that  reflect  the  sociocultural   changes  within  our  educational  settings.     participants  mentioned  different  positive  educational  initiatives  currently  being  introduced,  such  as   the   introduction   of   “ethics”   class   as   an   alternative   to   “religion”   course,   in   order   to   embrace   multi-­‐ethic   maltese   classrooms.   together   with   the   formation   of   the   migrant   learners’   unit   within   the   ministry   of   education  and  employment,  these  initiatives  focus  on  promoting  the  inclusion  of  migrant  learners.  however,   the  teachers  all   felt   that   there  should  be  more   focus  on  programmes  that  value  and  celebrate  diversity  and   more  resources  and  adequate  training,  together  with  further  local  research  on  the  subject.  as  mandy  put  it,   “we   are   still   in   the   process   of   learning   through   trial   and   error,   rather   than   solid   research   and   empirical   evidence.”     maria   felt   that   human   resources   should   be   viewed   as   a   priority   and   that   language   maintenance   programmes  should  be  offered  in  all  schools  in  order  to  celebrate  diversity  and  to  protect  heritage  languages.   diana   also   shared   this   view,   as  differentiation   requires   teaching   smaller   groups,   necessitating   the  need   for   more  assistance  in  class.  in  this  regard,  jonathan  believed  that  parental  involvement  may  also  be  one  way  to   tap   into   the   community   as   an   invaluable  human   resource.  additionally,   he   advocated   the   employment  of   a   more  diverse  teacher  workforce  in  order  to  be  in  line  with  the  rapidly  shifting  classroom  demographics:   panzavecchia  &  little   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 118   extract  15.  jonathan  –  heterogeneous  workforce   i   also   think   that  we  need  more  multilingual   teachers  …  native  speakers  …   this  would  help   to   include   these   children  in  this  multicultural  era.  i  mean,  if  we  have  children  who  are  speaking  different  languages  in  class,  it   makes  sense  to  have  other  people  who  can  cater  for  their  needs.     all  participants   felt   the  need   to  narrow  down  syllabi,   to  move  away   from   the   idea  of   standardized   testing   and   to   focus   more   on   play-­‐based   activities,   in   order   to   foster   a   love   of   learning,   especially   in   the   primary   years.   maria   highlighted   the   importance   of   exposure   and   fostering   positive   attitudes   towards   language:     extract  16.  maria  -­‐  exposure   a  lot  of  it  is  about  getting  them  to  love  the  language…  stories,  singing  etc.  grammar  is  boring.  a  lot  of  teachers   think   that  because   they’re  seeing  blank   faces   they’re  not   retaining.  but   they’re  being  exposed…  we  need   to   apply  grammar  in  context.     she  also  felt  the  need  to  move  away  from  focusing  on  formal  writing  in  the  early  years,  saying  “[we   should]  not  focus  on  every  word,  every  grammar  point,  every  full  stop,  capital  letter  …  testing  everything.  let   them  try  to  express  themselves  and  write  freely  especially  in  the  younger  years.”   ingrid  also  thought  that  making  the  lessons  interesting  and  play-­‐based,  especially  within  the  primary   sector,   was   fundamental.   she   highlighted   the   importance   of   teaching   functional   language   use   in   order   to   prepare   children   for   the   future.   mandy   echoed   these   views,   stating   that   providing   children   with   more   opportunities  to  apply  concepts  is  imperative,  “…to  actually  provide  children  with  an  education  that  would  be   practical,  where  they  can  actually  put  the  language  into  use.”   diana  believed  that  the  system  needs  to  prioritise  differentiation  methods  which  are  in  line  with  the   diverse  student  population  of  today’s  classrooms:     extract  17.  diana-­‐  differentiation  methods   we  need  more  resources.  we  need  less  content.  you  set  limits  and  standards  yes  …  but  not  grouped  by  age.   everyone  gets  there  in  their  own  time.  within  say  these  10  years  the  children  need  to  get  to  this…  they  need   to  master  such  and  such  skills  but  over  a  span  of  time.  each  child  at  their  own  pace.     she   felt   that   teachers  need   to  be  given  more  opportunities   to   target  different  needs  within  diverse   classrooms,   and   that   compressed   and   rigid   syllabi   do   not   lend   themselves   to   differentiated   teaching.   she   explained  that  language  teaching  needs  to  be  restructured  according  to  level:     extract  18.  diana-­‐  differentiation  methods   if  you  have  a  child  who  is  very  fluent  in  english  and  you  keep  on  teaching  her  the  same  things.  .  .  if  you  have  a   maltese  speaking  student,  you  need  to  start  from  the  basics.  so  even  though  the  children  have  the  same  age   they  are  at  completely  different  levels.     jonathan  voiced  his  concerns  about  a  language  policy  that  encourages  bilingual  practice,  but  which  is   not  always  viable  due  to  the  growing  number  of  foreign  students  in  school:     extract  19.  jonathan  –  bilingual  practice   . . . this   is   so  difficult   to  do  with   children  who   can  only   speak   their   own   language.  we   tend   to  use   a   lot   of   visuals  and  resources  and  signing  with  these  children.  but  it’s  very  spontaneous.  some  of  these  children  have   so  many  difficulties.     jonathan  mentioned  the  recently  established  migrant  learners’  unit,  within  the  ministry  of  education   and  employment,  which  seeks  to  promote  the  inclusion  of  newly  arrived  learners  into  the  education  system,   while   focusing   on   the   acquisition   of   linguistic   and   sociocultural   competences.  while   jonathan   felt   that   this   was   a   positive   initiative,   he   also   thought   that   it   operated   on   a   deficit   model   and   does   not   truly   celebrate   linguistic   diversity.   these   concerns   are   mirrored   across   europe,   where   multiple   levels   of   integration   for   newly   arrived   learners   exist,   ranging   from   full   initial   separation,   to   partial   separation,   to   immediate,   full   integration  into  all  mainstream  classes  (european  commission,  2019).  each  of  these  models  highlights  issues   language  use  in  the  primary  classroom   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 119   linked   not   only   to   language   acquisition,   but   also   to   integration,   with   students   separated   from   their   peers   sometimes  struggling  to  access  the  main  curriculum,  if  too  much  emphasis  is  placed  on  language  acquisition   above  content  acquisition  (nilsson  &  bunar,  2016).     7.  conclusions,  pedagogical  implications,  and  limitations    due   to   its  strategic  position,  malta  was   immersed   in  a  variety  of   languages  as  part  of   its  historical   legacy.  most  maltese  teachers  are  hence  naturally  adept  at  and  open  to  hybridising  languages,  as  it  is  a  part  of   their  history  and  a  natural  way  of  communicating  (panzavecchia,   in  preparation).  sciriha  (2001)  states  that   multilingualism  and  multiculturalism  are  natural  to  the  maltese  and  that,  “what  is  essentially  ‘natural’  for  the   maltese  themselves  is  very  surprising  to  visitors  who,  as  soon  as  they  land  in  malta,  immediately  perceive  the   multicultural  component  to  life  in  malta”  (pp.  36  –  37).   as   in  many  other  bilingual  societies,  code-­‐switching   is  common  practice  within  maltese  classrooms   and  maltese  teachers  already  engage  in  natural  translanguaging  practices  to  support  maltese-­‐born  bilingual   students  who  are   less  proficient   in  one  of   the   two  official   languages.  moreover,  many  maltese   teachers  are   proficient   in   at   least   one   other   foreign   language   apart   from   their   two   official   languages,   and   thus   find   themselves  naturally  shifting  between  two  or  more  languages  daily.     multilingual   classrooms  are  on   the   increase  on   the   island,   and   therefore  maltese   children   are  now   being  exposed  to  several  different  languages,  other  than  english  and  maltese.  this  is  enriching  on  many  levels   as   educational   settings   which   value   multilingualism   have   been   proven   to   improve   children’s   self-­‐esteem,   encourage   the   integration  of  migrant   students,   shape   cultural   identities  and  empower  all   children   to   reach   their   full   potential.   children   whose   home   languages   are   not   valued   and   supported   are   found   to   be   disadvantaged   both   socially   and   academically   (oecd,   2012).   the   situation   thus   clearly   necessitates   more   fluid   and   flexible   linguistic  practices,   such  as  garcía’s   (2009)   concept  of   transglossia,  which   focuses  on   the   way   different   languages   interrelate   within   a   globalised   society.   paradoxically,   maltese   educators   still   feel   unsure   about   how,   when   and   if   they   should   utilise   this   as   a   pedagogical   strategy.   in   this   regard,   the   participants  in  this  study  all  expressed  the  need  to  be  given  more  formal  guidelines  on  how  to  deal  with  their   increasingly  multilingual   and  multicultural   classrooms,   and   how   to   further   explore   their   spontaneous   and   naturally  occurring  translanguaging  practices,   in  order  to  reach  out  to  migrant  students  who  are  struggling   with   the   country’s   two  official   languages.  they  also   felt   the  need   for  more   research   in   the  area   in  order   to   support   the   development   of   initial   teacher   education   programmes   and   specialised   training   sessions   for   established  teachers.       the   participants   also   advocated   for  more   emphasis   on   preserving   the  maltese   language  within   an   ever-­‐increasing   multilingual   community.   moreover,   there   is   a   need   for   further   investment   in   language   maintenance  programmes,  mother-­‐tongue  instruction  and  culturally  inclusive  and  multicultural  curricula  for   immigrant  students,  so  that  every  child’s  linguistic  identity  would  be  valued  and  celebrated.  the  educators  in   this  study  also  recognised  the  need  for  more  human  resources  which  would  enable  these  ideas  to  be  put  into   practice,   together  with  more   focus   on   parental   involvement,  which  may   prove   to   be   an   interesting  way   in   which  to  value  and  celebrate  migrant  children’s  diverse  identities  through  capitalising  on  families  as  valuable   resources.  the  participants  also  felt  a  need  for  revising  course  syllabi,  and  for  educational  settings  to  offer  a   more  play-­‐based,  fun  approach  in  order  to  foster  positive  attitudes  towards  language  learning.  they  felt  that   in  mainstream  schools,   curricula,  and  school   syllabi  do  not  adequately   reflect   the  urgent  need   to  support  a   diverse  student  population.     malta  serves  as  an  example  of  a  global  trend,  with  countries  becoming  increasingly  multi-­‐ethnic  and   multilingual.  the  need  for  a  paradigm  shift  in  education  is  becoming  more  pressing.  it  is  thus  imperative  that   educational  institutions  support  today’s  diverse  students  through  viewing  linguistic  and  cultural  diversity  as   an  enrichment  rather  than  a  deficit.  although  maltese  educators  are  naturally  predisposed  to  making  use  of   two  or  more  languages  in  their  personal  and  professional  lives,  they  still  feel  they  need  to  be  provided  with   formal   guidelines   and   training   programmes  which   could   support   and   further   explore   these   practices.   this   could  be   the  catalyst   required   for   changes  within  educational   systems  which  would  meet   the  challenges  of   today’s  diverse  schools.   although  there  is  a  vast  body  of  research  dedicated  to  multilingual  classrooms  and,  more  recently,  to   translanguaging  practices,   there  seems  to  be  a  gap   in   literature  concerning   language   teachers’  perspectives   and   thoughts   about   language   pedagogy,   which   we   aim   to   bridge   within   the   limitations   of   our   study.   the   overall   findings   of   this   inquiry   offer   valuable   insights   into   teachers’   views   on   language   practice   within   multilingual  classrooms,  however,  due  to  time  constraints  and  the  restricted  sample  size  of  our  participants,   panzavecchia  &  little   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 120   the  conclusions  drawn  from  this  study  are  not  representative  of  all  maltese  teachers.  the  unique  views  and   professional  practice  of  the  participants  in  this  study  may,  however,  be  used  as  a  resource  for  further  studies   and   to   make   suggestions   for   future   practice.   a   more   comprehensive   perspective   and   further   research   on   translanguaging,   both   in   the  maltese   context   and   beyond,  would   provide   further   insights   into  multilingual   practices  in  educational  settings.         references     baker,   colin   (2011).   foundations   of   bilingual   education   and   bilingualism   (vol.   79).   bristol,   england:   multilingual  matters.     beres,  anna.  m.  (2015).  an  overview  of  translanguaging:  20  years  of  “giving 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education   (2018).   schools,   pupils   and   their   characteristics.   retrieved   from   https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-­‐pupils-­‐and-­‐their-­‐characteristics-­‐january-­‐2018   united   nations,   department   of   economic   and   social   affairs,   population   division   (2017).   international   migration  report  2017:  highlights.  new  york,  new  york:  united  nations,  department  of  economic  and   social  affairs.     vallejo,   claudia,   &   dooly,   melinda   (2019).   plurilingualism   and   translanguaging:   emergent   approaches   and   shared  concerns.  international  journal  of  bilingual  education  and  bilingualism,  23(1),  1-­‐16.   vella,   alexandra   (2012).   languages   and   language   varieties   in   malta.   international   journal   of   bilingual   education  and  bilingualism,  16(5),  532–552.     wei,   li   (2011).   moment   analysis   and   translanguaging   space:   discursive   construction   of   identities   by   multilingual  chinese  youth  in  britain.  journal  of  pragmatics,  43(5),  1222-­‐1235.   williams,   cen   (2002).  ennill   iaith:   astudiaeth   o   sefyllfa   drochi   yn   11–16   oed   [a   language   gained:   a   study   of   language  immersion  at  11–16  years  of  age].  bangor,  united  kingdom:  school  of  education.  retrieved   from  https://www.bangor.ac.uk/addysg/publications/language_gained%20.pdf.                                               language  use  in  the  primary  classroom   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  108-­‐123 123   michelle panzavecchia, university of sheffield mpanzavecchia1@sheffield.ac.uk en michelle panzavecchia is an educator with many years of teaching experience in the early and middle years. she is also a university of malta visiting lecturer with the faculty of education. michelle holds a msc in language and communication impairment in children from the university of sheffield, uk and a b. ed (hons.) from the university of malta. she is currently reading for a phd in bilingualism and english language teaching through the university of sheffield, uk. es michelle panzavecchia es una educadora con muchos años de experiencia docente en los años iniciales y de educación media. también es catedrática visitante de la universidad de malta, en la facultad de educación. michelle tiene una maestría en ciencias en discapacidad del lenguaje y comunicación infantil de la unievrsidad de sheffield, en el reino unido y una licenciatura en educación (con honores) de la universidad de malta. actualmente está cursando un doctorado en bilingüismo y enseñanza del inglés de la universidad de sheffield, en el reino unido. it michelle panzavecchia è un'educatrice con molti anni di esperienza nell'insegnamento negli anni iniziali ed intermedi. è anche docente in visita presso la facoltà di scienze della formazione della university of malta. michelle ha conseguito un master in language and communication impairment in children presso la university of sheffield, nel regno unito, e una laurea presso la university of malta. attualmente sta studiando per un dottorato in bilinguismo ed insegnamento della lingua inglese presso la university of sheffield, regno unito.         sabine little, university of sheffield s.little@sheffield.ac.uk en sabine little is a lecturer in languages education at the university of sheffield. her research focuses on multilingual families, how they experience emotional and practical links to their various languages, and how these are involved in each family member’s identity construction process. her work explores the home-school nexus and the status that various languages receive within local and national contexts. es sabine little es profesora en el área de educación lingüística en la universidad de sheffield. su investigación se enfoca en las familias multilingües, cómo experimentan los vínculos afectivos y prácticos con los distintos idiomas y su relación con el proceso de la construcción de la identidad de cada miembro de la familia. su trabajo explora el nexo entre el hogar y la escuela y el estatus que reciben los varios idiomas dentro de los contextos locales y nacionales. it sabine little è docente di educazione linguistica alla university of sheffield. la sua ricerca si concentra su famiglie multilingue, su come vivono i collegamenti emotivi e pratici con le varie lingue e su come questi sono coinvolti nel processo di costruzione dell'identità di ciascun membro della famiglia. il suo lavoro esplora il nesso tra scuola e casa e analizza lo status che le varie lingue acquisiscono nei contesti locali e nazionali. microsoft word ej 149_breeze & jimenez-villarejo pp. 21-36_final.docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  6,  issue  1,  august  2019,  21-­‐36   issn  2376-­‐905x   doi:  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.10.149     www.e-­‐journall.org     ©  breeze  2019.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.     building  literacies  in  secondary  school  history:     the  specific  contribution  of  academic  writing  support       ruth  breeze  &  pilar  gerns  jiménez-­‐villarejo   universidad  de  navarra       received  28  june  2018;  received  in  revised  form  4  january  2019;  accepted  6  january  2019 abstract en this paper considers the specific role and effect of academic writing support in a secondary school content and language integrated learning (clil) context. after discussing the potential place for academic writing support in the ongoing process of fostering disciplinary literacy, we report on an experimental study in which 45 spanish secondary school students received a short academic writing module as part of their history course. the descriptions/explanations written in their post-tests were generally found to be more complete, with more explicit discourse markers and with better textual organization than the pre-tests. we discuss the implications of this for students’ progress towards disciplinary literacy. key words: content and language integrated learning (clil), bilingual education, disciplinary literacy, l2 writing, cognitive discourse functions. es este estudio considera el papel específico y el efecto del apoyo a la escritura académica en un contexto aicle de escuela secundaria. después de analizar el lugar potencial que el apoyo a la escritura académica podría tener en el proceso continuo de promoción de la literacidad disciplinar, se presentan los resultados de un estudio experimental en el que 45 estudiantes españoles de la escuela secundaria recibieron un breve módulo de escritura académica como parte de su curso de historia. las descripciones / explicaciones escritas en sus post-tests se consideraron generalmente más completas, con marcadores de discurso más explícitos y con una mejor organización textual que las pre-tests. finalmente, se discuten las implicaciones de estos resultados para el desarrollo de la literacidad disciplinar por parte de los estudiantes. palabras clave: aprendizaje integrado de contenido y lengua extranjera (aicle) educación bilingüe, literacidad disciplinar, escritura en la l2, funciones cognitivas del discurso. it questo articolo esamina il ruolo specifico del sostegno alla scrittura accademica e il suo effetto in un contesto clil della scuola secondaria. dopo aver discusso il posto che potenzialmente potrebbe occupare il sostegno alla scrittura accademica all’interno del continuo processo di promozione dell'alfabetizzazione disciplinare, riportiamo uno studio sperimentale in cui 45 studenti spagnoli di scuola secondaria hanno seguito un breve modulo di scrittura accademica come parte del loro corso di storia. le descrizioni / spiegazioni scritte nei loro post-test sono risultate generalmente più complete, con marcatori di discorso più espliciti e con una migliore organizzazione testuale rispetto ai pre-test. ne discutiamo, quindi, gli effetti sul progresso degli studenti nel processo di alfabetizzazione disciplinare. parole chiave: apprendimento integrato di lingua e contenuto (clil), istruzione bilingue, alfabetizzazione disciplinare, scrittura in l2, funzioni cognitive del discorso               * ruth  breeze,    universidad  de  navarra                  rbreeze@unav.es   breeze  &  gerns  jiménez-­‐villarejos   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 22 1.  introduction   one  of  the  most  significant  developments  in  european  education  over  the  last  twenty  years  has  been   the  vast  increase  in  the  teaching  of  school  subjects  in  english,  even  in  european  countries  where  there  is  no   historical   connection   with   the   english-­‐speaking   world   (pérez   cañado,   2018a).   the   teaching   of   curricular   contents  through  the  medium  of  english  in  these  contexts  has  been  mainly  understood  through  the  paradigm   of   content   and   language   integrated   learning   (clil)   (marsh,   pérez   cañado,   &   ráez   padilla,   2015).   clil   is   related   to   other   models   of   content   teaching   through   english,   with   some   differences   (ball,   kelly,   &   clegg,   2015).  for  example,  clil  overlaps  somewhat  with  english  medium  instruction  (emi)  but  differs  in  that  clil   opens  up  the  issue  of  explicit  language  learning,  positing  this  as  being  in  some  sense  integrated  with  content   learning   in   the   course   design   and   delivery.   clil   can   also   be   usefully   compared   with   immersion   models   (cenoz,  genesee,  &  gorter,  2014).  it   is  generally  understood  to  differ  from  other  models  in  that  it   is  not  full   time  and  is  not  conceptualized  as  purely  acquisition-­‐driven,  however  it  provides  scope  for  language  support   within   content   courses   (ball   et   al.,   2015).   in   fact,   in   current   european   school   contexts,   content   courses   in   english   are   not   only   designed   to   integrate   some   language   support   but   are   also   usually   combined   with   conventional  language  courses  graded  by  level.     the   rapid   spread   of   clil   has  meant   that   our   understanding   of   the   paradigm   itself   has   developed   alongside  its  expanding  practice.  as  might  be  expected  with  a  new  phenomenon,  much  of  the  research  to  date   has  been  concerned  with  tracking  students’  results  in  terms  of  language  gains  and  countering  predictions  that   content  would  be  lost  (lasagabaster  &  ruiz  de  zarobe,  2010;  perez  cañado,  2018a,  2018b,  2018c;  rumlich,   2016).   the   generally   positive   outcomes   reported  mean   that   clil   research   is   now  entering   a   consolidation   phase  in  which  different  pedagogical  approaches  within  clil  can  be  evaluated  and  good  practices  identified.   in   particular,   there   is   currently   growing   awareness   of   the   need   to   provide   better   content-­‐related   literacy   support  for  students  who  enter  secondary  school  with  language  competences  around  the  common  european   framework   of   reference   for   languages   (cefr)   b1   level   but   who   still   find   the   general   academic   and   disciplinary  language  used  in  clil  courses  challenging  (meyer,  2015;  whittaker,  llinares,  &  mccabe,    2011).       2.  developing  literacies  in  clil   the   goal   of   clil   courses   is   to   empower   students   to   use   english   across   “the   whole   range   of   the   language  which  shapes  educational  knowledge”  (llinares,  morton,  &  whittaker,  2012,  p.  8).   it  goes  without   saying   that   literacy   skills   play   an   important   role   in   this.   in   this   section,  we  briefly   examine   some  different   approaches   to   clil   literacy   beyond   basic   general   language   skills   and   explain   how   these   appear   to   be   interrelated.     2.1.  calp  and  academic  literacies   literacy  covers  a  fundamental  set  of  competences  at  all  levels  of  education,  since  it  encompasses  the   ability   to   understand   and   communicate   knowledge,   arguments   and   feelings   through   semiotic   systems,   particularly   written   language.   within   bilingual   education   and   clil,   the   issue   of   developing   literacies   was   originally  approached  using  the  notion  of  cognitive  academic  language  proficiency  (calp)  (cummins,  1979),   which   brings   together   the   cognitive   and   language   competences   needed   as   students   progress   through   schooling.   these   competences   contrast   with   the   basic   interpersonal   communicative   skills   (bics)   that   are   usually   acquired   first   in   immersion   situations   in   primary   school.   the   calp   approach   thus   places   its  main   emphasis  on   the   language  needed   to  advance   through  education   in  english   from  the   later  years  of  primary   school   onwards,   thinking   in   particular   of   the   linguistic   competencies   required   to   express   more   complex   concepts,   as  well   as  general   features  of   academic   register.  at   school   levels,   academic  writing  pedagogy  has   been   greatly   influenced   by   the   concepts   of   register   and   genre   (martin  &   rose,   2005).   the   aims,   if   not   the   methodology,   of   such   literacy   pedagogies   can   be   compared   with   those   of   english   for   academic   purposes   (eap)  at  higher  levels,  since  the  main  focus  is  on  general  academic  language,  and  on  the  common  needs  that   arise   across   the  whole   curriculum.   in   broad   terms,   these   approaches   centre   on   the   specific   language   skills   required  by  academic  contexts,  notably  mastery  of  formal  written  english  style  and  familiarity  with  academic   genres  and  conventions  (hyland,  2006;  jordan,  2010;  menken,  2013).       2.2.  moving  towards  disciplinary  literacies   the   constructs   of   calp   and   academic   literacies   assume  one   academic   language   proficiency   that   is   valid   across   content   areas.   however,   as   students   advance   from   primary   school   to   secondary   school,   it   building  literacies:  the  contribution  of  academic  writing  support     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 23 becomes   increasingly   evident   that   other   approaches   must   factor   into   the   complexity   of   learning   to   communicate  in  different  disciplines.  just  as  english  for  academic  purposes  (eap)  in  higher  education  is  often   complemented  by  english   for   specific  purposes   (esp)   support,  which  helps   students   acquire  more   focused   discipline-­‐specific  literacy  skills,  the  calp  approach  is  now  being  understood  as  a  starting  point  from  which   more   specific   types  of   support   can   foster   literacy   skills  needed   in  different   curricular  areas   (meyer,  2015).   renewed   interest   is   now   also   being   focused   on   issues   such   as   content   area   literacies   and   disciplinary   literacies,  which  address  the  need  for  a  subject-­‐specific  approach  to  acquisition  of  language  competences.     one   important   issue   in   this   is   the   distinction   made   by   some   experts   (shanahan,   2012)   between   content  area   literacies  and  disciplinary   literacies.  to  begin  with   the  more  straightforward  concept,   content   area   literacy   is  understood  as   the  ability   to  understand  and  use   the   language  associated  with  a   specialized   field,   which   involves   familiarity   with   vocabulary   and   genres   in   a   general   sense.   it   does   not,   however,   necessarily   imply   deep   conceptual   understanding   (shanahan,   2012).   the   more   complex   concept   of     disciplinary  literacy  refers  to  the  ability  to  use  “the  knowledge  and  abilities  possessed  by  those  who  create,   communicate   and   use   knowledge  within   the   disciplines”   (shanahan,   2012,   p.   8).   disciplinary   literacy   thus   ultimately   approximates   proficiency   in   “the   unique   uses   and   implications   of   literacy   within   the   various   disciplines”   (shanahan,   2012,   p.   8),   which   relies   on   deep   content   knowledge   with   a   strong   cognitive   underpinning.   fully   functional   disciplinary   literacy   is   thus   distinguished   from   content   area   literacy   in   the   importance   attributed   to   the   conceptual   level   (i.e.,   dunderstanding   the   term   renaissance   is   different   from   grasping  the  full  network  of  associations  that  might  be  generated  around  this  term  in  a  history  course).  at  the   high   school   level,   then,   the   long-­‐term   aim   should   be   to   move   towards   disciplinary   literacy,   which   entails   knowing  how  to  tackle  subject-­‐specific  tasks  in  a  way  that  meets  disciplinary  expectations.       2.3.  the  key  role  of  cognitive  discourse  functions   one   particular   focus   that   can   help   us   to   conceptualise   the   content   area   literacy   skills   needed   in   particular  content  areas  and  how  these  might  engage  with  the  long-­‐term  goals  of  disciplinary  literacy,  centres   on  discourse  functions.  discourse  functions  in  pragmatics  are  built  on  the  notion  of  the  speech  act  as  verbal   action   that   reflects   cognitive  processes:  prototypical   communicative   actions   that  people   take  when  dealing   with  knowledge.  this  concept  has  been   found  both   interesting  and  useful  when  adapted   to  clil  because   it   constitutes   a   nexus   between   the   two   main   issues   in   clil,   namely   content   learning   and   language   reception/production   (coetzee-­‐lachmann,   2009;   zydatiß,   2005).   in   a   further   development   of   this   idea,   dalton-­‐puffer  (2013)  formulated  the  notion  of  the  cognitive  discourse  function  (cdf),  which  explicitly  builds   a  connection  with  the  underlying  cognitive  competence  (as  formulated,  say,  in  bloom’s  taxonomy).  moreover,   aside   from   encapsulating   cognitive   and   content   learning   in   linguistic   structures,   cdfs   also   offer   a   bridge   between   the  building  blocks  of   language   (lexicogrammar)  and  complex   language-­‐based  structures   (genres)   (lorenzo  &  dalton-­‐puffer,  2016).  previous  work  in  this  area  has  shed  light  on  the  use  of  cdfs  in  secondary   school  history  (lorenzo,  2017),  providing  detailed  qualitative  analysis  of  the  seven  cdfs  identified  by  dalton-­‐ puffer   (2013)   (classify,   define,   describe,   evaluate,   explain,   explore   and   report)   as   they   are   materialised   in   student  writing  and  illustrating  their  importance  in  conveying  disciplinary  learning.     one   example   suffices   to   illustrate   why   cdfs   are   promising   for   the   study   of   clil.   in  many   school   subjects,  such  as  biology  or  geography,  it  is  important  for  students  to  understand  classification  systems  (e.g.,   of  plants,  animals,  climates,  etc.).  to  do  this,  they  need  to  remember  the  important  points  to  be  observed  (e.g.,   the  number  of  leaves,  type  of  skeleton,  etc.)  and  to  apply  that  knowledge,  using  the  thinking  skills  of  compare   and  classify.  although   comparing  and   classifying  are  generally   considered   to  be   lower  order   thinking   skills   (krathwohl,   2002),   they   represent   an   important   rung   on   the   ladder   of   learning.   they   are   closely   linked   together:  compare  can  be  viewed  as  a  necessary  stage  on  the  way  to  classify,  or  as  a  sub-­‐function  of  it,  since  it   involves   identifying  similarities  and  differences  which  can  then  be  used  for  classification  purposes.  content   area   literacy   is   needed   (e.g.,   the   names   of   the   different   elements   in   the   system   and   the   terms   used   for   classifying  them),  of  course.  but  it  can  also  be  argued  that  to  negotiate  the  lexical  and  cognitive  demands  of   the   classifying   process,   and   to   explain   this   process   using   academic   discourse,   a   productive   combination   of   linguistic  and  conceptual  elements   is   required.  mastery  of   the  cognitive  discourse   function  classify   involves   managing  concepts  (classification  systems),  and  technical  vocabulary  (names  of  specific  climatic  features  or   parts  of  the  organism),  but  also  general  language  structures  (i.e.,  comparatives)  and  general  academic  english   competences  related  to  choices  in  register  and  ways  of  organising  discourse.  we  can  speculate  that  all  of  this   together  amounts  to  the  acquisition  of  incipient  disciplinary  literacy  competences.     breeze  &  gerns  jiménez-­‐villarejos   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 24 conversely,  if  we  choose  to  approach  the  same  question  from  a  negative  perspective,  we  can  see  that   inadequate  academic  language  skills  almost  certainly  impede  the  production  of  appropriate  cdfs  (breeze  &   dafouz,  2017)  and  hinder  the  development  of  disciplinary  literacy.  one  only  needs  to  think  of  the  problems   caused  when   students   lack   the   suitable   academic   literacy   skills   to   use   structures   such   as   nominalisations,   which   are   essential   to   convey   complex   information   succinctly   in   historical   or   scientific   contexts   (nashaat   soby,  2019;  whittaker  et  al.,  2011).     2.4.  an  integrated  model  of  literacy  development   on   the   basis   of   the   foregoing   discussion,   we   can   see   that   the   learning   outcomes   for   our   students   involve  at  least  four  levels  of  language  competence,  which  can  be  summarised  as  follows:     − general  english  language  competences.   − academic  writing   proficiency   (use   of   formal   register,   clarity   and   concision,   and   logical   ordering   of   information).   − content   area   literacy   skills   (appropriate   terminology,   familiarity   with   important   genres,   and   initiation  into  cdfs).   − disciplinary   literacy   skills   (satisfactory   integration   of   cognitive   structures   and   their   linguistic   execution   in  cdfs,   full   conceptual  grasp  of   concepts  and  ability   to  express   these  using  appropriate   terminology  and  register,  fully  appropriate  use  of  genre,  and  development  of  a  discipline-­‐appropriate   voice).     in  this  sense,  general  language  skills  constitute  the  most  basic  component,  and  these  can  be  enhanced   when  academic  writing  proficiency  is  reinforced.  this  academic  literacy  probably  encompasses  much  of  what   coyle  (2005)  describes  under  the  heading  of  language  for  learning  (discussion  skills,  language  for  presenting   in   public   or  writing   academic   texts).   at   the   same   time,   content   area   literacy   (reflecting   aspects   of   coyle’s   (2005)   language  of   learning)  can  be  built  up,  which   lays   the   foundations  on  which  disciplinary   literacy  can   ultimately  be  constructed.  this  aspect  is  particularly  important  in  clil  contexts,  because  without  the  content   area   language   skills   (terminology,   familiarisation  with   functions   and   genres   in   disciplinary   contexts),   little   progress  is  likely  to  be  made  in  attaining  higher  disciplinary  competences.  moreover,  there  is  a  large  area  of   overlap   between   content   area   literacy   and   academic   literacy,   which   probably   includes   many   aspects   of   strategic  competence  in  reading  and  writing  (ruiz  de  zarobe  &  zenotz,  2014).  finally,  through  the  confluence   of   development   in   cognitive   skills,   content   knowledge,   and   language   competence,   students   will   come   to   acquire   full  disciplinary   literacy   (polias,  2015;  shanahan,  2012).   in  coyle’s   (2005)   terms,  academic   literacy   and   content   area   literacy   come   together   in   clil   settings   to   push   the   ongoing   development   of   disciplinary   language  through  learning,  which  can  be  understood  as  incipient  disciplinary  literacy.     however,   if   we   are   teaching   in   secondary   school,   it   may   be   useful   to   remember   that   the   full   attainment  of   this   goal  may   lie   several   years  ahead.  figure  1  provides  a   graphic   representation  of   the  way   these  four  aspects  of  language  can  be  visualised  (other  non-­‐linguistic  aspects,  such  as  content  knowledge  and   cognitive   skills,   are   obviously   developing   at   the   same   time   as   literacy   and   in   close   association  with   it,   and   these  ultimately  contribute  to  full  disciplinary  literacy  as  well).  the  arrows  are  used  to  indicate  progression,   showing  the  order  in  which  the  different  aspects  of  literacy  are  usually  acquired,  with  academic  literacy  and   content  area  literacy  developing  concurrently,  preparing  the  basis  for  mature  disciplinary  literacy.  it  should   be  noted,  however,  that  as  in  so  many  educational  situations,  the  areas  of  overlap  may  be  considerable,  and   many  aspects  of  disciplinary  literacy  are  already  present  in  incipient  form  as  aspects  of  academic  literacy  and   content  area  literacy.   building  literacies:  the  contribution  of  academic  writing  support     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 25 figure 1. integrated model of literacy development.   one   of   the   advantages   of   visualising   the   development   of   disciplinary   literacy   in   this  way   is   that   it   suggests   a   possible   integration   of   the   students’   ongoing   academic   literacy   development  with   their   content   area  literacy  skills.  this  points  once  more  to  the  usefulness  of  the  kind  of  general  academic  language  support   fostered  by  the  calp/academic  literacy  approach;  it  can  serve  as  an  important  basis  for  the  development  of   higher  skills  that  is  perfectly  compatible  with  specific  content  area  skills.  this  is  important,  because  it  gives   space  to  the  explicit  teaching  of  academic  language  within  the  clil  curriculum.  this  could  be  fully  integrated   into  content  courses,  as  the  intersecting  area  suggests,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  productive  transfer  of  literacy   skills.   figure   1   also   brings   out   the   key   role   of   cdfs   as   a   bridge   between   content   area   literacy   and   full   disciplinary  literacy.  in  our  view,  one  way  of  measuring  students’  literacy  progress  is  by  investigating  the  use   of   cdfs   in   their  writing.  our   hypothesis   is   that   greater   awareness   of   certain   features   of   academic  writing,   especially  paragraph  organisation  and  use  of  discourse  markers,  will  help  students  to  become  more  proficient   writers  in  their  discipline,  and  also  to  produce  the  target  cdfs  in  a  more  appropriate  manner.     3.  empirical  study   3.1.  rationale   given   the   importance   of   general   academic   english   competences,   and   the   overlapping   nature   of   academic  literacy  and  content  area  literacy,  pedagogical  intervention  in  this  area  would  seem  to  be  a  priority.   it  is  therefore  surprising  that  few  studies  deal  explicitly  with  the  efficacy  of  academic  writing  support  for  clil   students.  most   of   the  published   studies   focusing  on   students’  written  production   in   secondary   school  clil   subjects  take  a  strictly  descriptive  acquisition-­‐driven  approach  (llinares  et  al.,  2012;  lorenzo,  2017;  lorenzo   &   dalton-­‐puffer,   2016).   in   the   present   paper,   our   intention   is   to   contribute   to   the   development   of   clil   pedagogy   by   testing,   in   one   specific   clil   context,   whether   a   focus   on   academic   writing   skills   enhances   students’  content  area  literacy  by  helping  them  to  produce  the  appropriate  cdfs.     3.2.  objectives   this  paper   centres  on   the   impact  of   a   short  academic  writing  module   taught  within  a  clil  history   course   on   the   students’   production   of   two   related   cdfs,   namely   describe   and   explain,   in   an   exam   context,   comparing  students’  writing  before  and  after  the  module.  it  addresses  the  following  research  questions:     − does   explicit   academic   writing   instruction   help   students   to   display   their   disciplinary   learning   to   better  effect?   − does  explicit  academic  writing  instruction  improve  students’  use  of  the  cdfs  describe  and  explain?       3.3.  contextualisation   this  paper  uses  data  obtained  in  an  experimental  study  involving  45  14-­‐  and  15-­‐year-­‐old  students  in   a   spanish   secondary   school.   all   of   them  were   studying   history   in   english  with   the   same   teacher,   for   three   hours  per  week,  for  the  entire  year,  in  two  different  groups.  the  school  has  a  long  history  of  clil,  with  many   content  courses  taught   in  english  throughout  the  primary  and  secondary  curriculum.  during  this  particular   year,   in   addition   to   the   three   hours   of   history   taught   in   english,   the   students  were   also   taking   a   b2-­‐level   english  course  for  three  hours  a  week.     general'language' competences: listening,'speaking reading,'writing academic'literacy' competences:'formal' register,'clarity,'concision,' textual'organisation. content'area'literacy'skills:' terminology,'awareness'of' genres,'initiation'into'cdfs disciplinary'literacy:' satisfactory execution and integration of cdfs, full conceptual grasp of concepts and ability to express these using appropriate terminology and register, fully appropriate use of genre breeze  &  gerns  jiménez-­‐villarejos   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 26 during   the   year,   in   addition   to   covering   major   events   and   trends   in   the   13th-­‐16th   centuries,   the   course   included   various   aspects   of   technological   development   during   the   renaissance   and   early   modern   period.  as  part  of  their  december  exam,  at  the  end  of  the  first  term  of  their  clil  history  course,  the  history   teacher  asked  the  students  to  describe  and  explain  two  of  the  inventions  devised  by  leonardo  da  vinci.  these   answers  constitute  the  pre-­‐test  for  this  study.  analysis  of  the  results  from  this  exam  prompted  the  design  of  a   practitioner   research   project   (unpublished)   to   improve   the   students’   academic   writing   in   the   context   of   history.  this  took  the  form  of  a  writing  module  taught  over  two  weeks,  designed  to  support  essay  writing  in   general,  and  to  raise  awareness  of  the  interactional  and  interactive  aspects  of  academic  writing.  both  groups   (45   students)   took   the  writing  module   as   part   of   their   history   course.   part   of   the   exam   at   the   end   of   the   second  term  (march)  asked  the  students  to  describe  and  explain  gutenberg’s  printing  press.  this  was  used  as   the  post-­‐test  for  this  study  (see  table  1).     table 1 study design all  45  students  completed  both  tasks  under  test  conditions  and  were  present  for  most  of  the  sessions   of  the  writing  module.  students  who  did  not  fulfil  these  conditions  were  excluded  from  the  sample.     3.4.  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐test   the  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐test  formed  part  of  the  first  and  second  term  exams,  respectively.  in  both  cases,  the   students  had  to  perform  under  test  conditions,  and  were  not  permitted  to  use  course  books,  dictionaries  or   other  reference  materials.  the  questions  were  designed  using  the  principles  and  vocabulary  outlined  by  biggs   and  tang  (2011).  the  prompts  were  thus  carefully  formulated  so  that  their  wording  would  prompt  responses   that   would   operationalise   describe   and   explain,   following   the   principles   of   constructive   alignment.   the   prompts  were  also   judged  by   the   course   teacher   to  be  of   a   similar   level  of  difficulty,   since  both   required  a   description/   explanation   of   a   mechanical   device   with   several   components.   although   the   printing   press   is   mechanically   more   complex,   the   intrinsic   idea   and   basic   function   did   not   prove   difficult   for   students   to   understand.   the   pre-­‐test   prompt   considered   for   this   study   was:   describe   leonardo   da   vinci’s   fantastic   invention   the   giant   crossbow.   how   does   it   work?   the   post-­‐test   question  was:  describe   gutenberg’s   printing   press.  how  did  it  work?     3.5.  writing  module   a  six-­‐hour  writing  module  was  designed  to  raise  students’  awareness  of  the  forms  and  functions  of   academic   writing   in   english.   the   module   centred   on   the   general   features   of   academic   writing   and   on   analysing   the   writing   prompt   in   order   to   provide   an   appropriate   answer.   further,   the   module   included   instruction   and   practice   on   how   to   organise   paragraphs  with   a   view   to   communicating  with   a   reader   and   displaying   knowledge   (llinares   et   al.,   2012,   p.   257).   a   genre-­‐based   pedagogical   approach   was   adopted,   following  the  principle  of  presenting  a  genre  or  part-­‐genre  (i.e.  the  paragraph),  analysing  it,  modelling  it  with   the  whole   class   to   compose   a   paragraph   jointly   on   the   board,   then   setting   exercises   to   provide   controlled   practice   at   organising   information   and   linking   that   information   together   with   discourse   markers   (breeze,   2012;  martin  &  rose,  2005).  relevant  genre  features  covered  by  the  module  included  topic  sentences,  linking   words  (temporal  and  argumentative  organisers)  and  apposite  use  of  examples  (ball  et  al.,  2015,  pp.  160-­‐172).   the  main  content  areas  of  the  module  are  set  out  in  table  2.  the  module  was  designed  in  this  way  with  the   aim  of  providing  useful  general  practice  with  academic  writing  tasks  within  the  history  course,  which  might   help  students  perform  better  across  a  range  of  different  question  types.     it  is  important  to  note  that  the  cdfs  describe  and  explain  were  not  an  explicit  focus  within  the  writing   module.   however,   the   students   taking   the   writing   module   did   devote   time   to   analysing   exam   questions   containing   these,   and   other,   prompts,   and   to   discussing   how   they   would   organise   their   answers   to   such   questions  in  paragraphs.  this  design  means  that  any  improvement  found  in  the  post-­‐tests  could  be  attributed   action purpose schedule first term exam pre-test december 2016 writing module intervention february 2017 second term exam post-test march 2017 building  literacies:  the  contribution  of  academic  writing  support     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 27 to   the   students’   improved  writing   skills   and   their  greater  awareness  of   the  need   to   respond   to   the  prompt   clearly,  rather  than  to  a  very  specific  focus  on  the  language  and  cognitive  skills  needed  to  describe  and  explain.     table 2. contents of academic writing module academic writing instruction literacy practice formal register text correction exercise paragraph structure (topic sentences, paragraph organisation) paragraph writing practice discourse organisers (temporal organisers, argumentative organisers) practice with discourse organisers practice at organising information use of examples practice at providing and integrating examples awareness of cdfs analysis of exam questions, identification of key words 4.    analysis  of  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐test   in  order  to  analyse  the  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐tests,  it  is  important  to  look  in  more  detail  at  what  is  needed  to   perform   the   cdfs   describe   and   explain   successfully.   according   to   krathwohl’s   revised   version   of   bloom’s   taxonomy  (2002,  p.  215),  describing  is  a  lower  order  skill  related  to  recalling  (remembering),  and  is  generally   related  to  factual  knowledge.  explaining  is  slightly  higher  on  the  scale,  as  it  requires  a  basis  of  understanding   and  calls  for  the  application  of  some  conceptual  knowledge.  in  terms  of  content,  the  most  important  aspect  of   the  description/explanation   is  whether  or  not   it   includes   the  key  aspects  of   the   invention.  this   genre   thus   bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  explanations  required  in  the  science  or  geography  curriculum  discussed  by   llinares  et  al.  (2011,  pp.  120-­‐132).  previous  analyses  of  describe  have  shown  that  depending  on  the  type  of   entity  involved,  there  are  fairly  tight  disciplinary  requirements  as  to  what  has  to  be  described  (davies,  1997;   flowerdew,  2001,  p.  96),  with  the  required  inclusion  of  a  certain  minimum  number  of  aspects.  if  the  entity  to   be   described   is   a   process   or   invention,   this   usually   requires   more   complex   explanatory   elements,   which   implies   a   greater   ability   to   convey   the   relationship   between   different   components.   explanations   are   often   causal,  but   they  may  also  be  sequential  or   factorial   (llinares  et  al.,  2012,  p.  121).  an   important  point   in  all   this,  however,  is  to  note  that  description  and  explanation  are  closely  interconnected,  and  the  learners’  ability   to  produce  satisfactory  writing  often  hinges  on  their  capacity  to  integrate  both  describe  and  explain   in  their   answers  (breeze  &  dafouz,  2017).     in  what  follows,  the  quantitative  data  bring  out  differences  between  the  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐test  in  terms  of   inclusion   of   key   points   and   clarity   of   expression,   as   indicated   by   quantitative   measures:   use   of   topic   sentences,  use  of  linking  words.    the  qualitative  analysis  focuses  on  some  representative  examples  in  order  to   illustrate  the  developments  in  the  students’  performance  of  the  target  cdfs  describe  and  explain.     4.1.  quantitative  data   in   the   case   of   the   two   inventions   to   be   described/explained   here,   after   consultation   of   course   material  and  discussion  with  the  teacher,  the  following  four  essential  elements  were  identified,  shown  here   with  the  cdf  that  best  reflects  their  nature  (see  appendix  a  for  examples  of  how  the  elements  were  coded):     − purpose  explain   − key  parts  describe   − material  describe   − how  it  works  explain     the  criteria  used  to   judge   inclusion  were  broad,   in  that  we  counted  any  attempt  at  describing  how   the  invention  worked,  or  any  mention  of  at  least  two  of  the  key  parts  (for  key  parts)  or  the  material  they  were   made   of   (for  material).   the   students’   answers  were   read,   and   the   presence   or   absence   of   each   of   the   four   elements   identified   by   two   researchers  working   independently,   in   cases   of   discrepancy,   a   consensus   score   was  given.  figure  2  shows  in  simply  quantitative  terms  how  many  students  included  these  four  elements  of   describe  and  explain  in  their  pre-­‐test  and  post-­‐test  descriptions,  and  how  many  included  only  3,  2,  1  or  0.           breeze  &  gerns  jiménez-­‐villarejos   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 28       figure 2. number of key elements included in descriptions: pre-test and post-test (n=45) figure  2  shows  a  considerable  increase  in  the  number  of  students  who  included  all  four  elements  in   the   post-­‐test   (16   in   the   pre-­‐test   and   29   in   the   post-­‐test),   and   thus   completed   the   task   successfully,  with   a   corresponding   decrease   in   the   number   of   students   who   included   two,   one,   or   none.   the   results   from   a   contingency  table  (chi  square  test)  comparing  students   in  the  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐test  who  included  all  elements   with  those  who  did  not  include  all  elements  were  significant  at    χ²  (2,  n  =  45)  =  8.7154,  p  <  .01.   as   figure   3   shows,  many  more   students   (30   as   opposed   to   5)   introduced   their   description  with   a   topic   sentence   in   the   post-­‐test.   the   difference   between   the   number   of   descriptions   introduced   by   a   topic   sentence   in   the  pre-­‐test  and   the  post-­‐test  was  significant  at  χ²   (2,  n  =  45)  =  29.2208,  p  <   .01  using   the  chi   square  test.   figure 3. number of descriptions with presence of topic sentence: pre-test and post-test (n=45) both   the   pre-­‐test   and   the   post-­‐test   required   students   to   order   the   stages   of   a   simple   process   to   explain   how   an   invention   worked.   this   could   be   accomplished   without   linking   words,   but   answers   that   included  linking  words  were  generally  clearer.  figure  4  illustrates  the  use  of  linking  words  in  the  pre-­‐test  and   post-­‐test.   many   more   were   used   in   the   post-­‐test,   presumably   as   a   direct   result   of   the   academic   writing   module,   where   students   had   learned   the   importance   of   ordering   information   clearly   and   practiced   using   four four three three two two one one zero zero 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 pre-test: crossbow post-test: press n um be r o f s tu de nt s present present absent absent 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 pre-test: crossbow post-test: press nu m be r o f s tu de nt s building  literacies:  the  contribution  of  academic  writing  support     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 29 discourse  markers.  moreover,  the  students’   increased  awareness  of  the  need  to  understand  the  prompt  and   provide  a  full  answer  probably  accounted  for  the  greater  effort  made  in  the  post-­‐test.  this  will  be  illustrated   by  the  examples  in  the  next  section  (qualitative  data),  i.e.,  examples  3,  4,  5  and  6.   figure 4. use of linking words in preand post-test: sequencers a  different  picture  emerges  from  the  use  of  other  types  of  linking  word,  as  we  can  see  from  figure  5.   students   in   the   pre-­‐test   tended   to   favour   also   as   a   vague   way   of   connecting   one   part   of   a   description   to   another.  the  use  of  more  exact  linkers  in  the  post-­‐test  meant  that  also  was  not  needed.  ut  also  appeared  more   in  the  pre-­‐test,  which  is  probably  an  artefact  of  the  task  itself:  this  invention  itself  had  a  double  purpose,  and   it  was   the   explanation   for   this   that   tended   to  motivate   the  use  of  but   as   in   the   example:   “it  was   a  military   instrument  but  leonardo  made  it  to  intimidate  not  to  kill  people”.  on  the  other  hand,  so  and  because  appeared   more   in   the   post-­‐test,   which   suggests   that   the   students   were   trying   harder   to   establish   explicit   causal   relations.   figure 5. use of linking words in preand post-test: additive, contrastive, causal.     0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 nu m be r o f s tu de nt s pre-test: crossbow post-test: press 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 also but so (that) because nu m be r o f s tu de nt s pre-test: crossbow post-test: press breeze  &  gerns  jiménez-­‐villarejos   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 30 overall,  the  quantitative  data  suggest  that  the  students’  answers  in  the  post-­‐test  were  more  complete   and   contained   more   of   the   organisational   features   characteristic   of   academic   writing.   however,   the   mere   presence  of  linking  words  is  not  in  itself  proof  that  the  answers  were  actually  better.  in  the  next  section,  we   will  undertake  a  qualitative  exploration  of  the  answers  to  see  whether  the  ostensible  increase  in  organising   strategies   helped   students   to   perform   the   appropriate   cdfs   and   to   display   their   historical   knowledge   to   greater  effect.     4.2.  qualitative  data   the  first  point   that  should  be  made   is   that  around  50%  of  students   in  the  pre-­‐test  were  capable  of   using  some  appropriate  cdfs  (describe  and  explain)  without  any  discourse  markers  and  without  an  academic   paragraph  structure.  consider  the  following  example  from  the  pre-­‐test:     1)     giant   crossbow.   it   was   designed   for   pure   intimidation   for   the   war.   the   giant   crossbow   intimidates  because   it  was   enormous   (27   yards).  designed   to   fire   large   stones  or  possibly   flaming.  for  the  mobility  the  giant  crossbow  have  6  wheels,  3  on  each  side.  it  was  made  out   of  thin  wood  for  flexibility  and  of  a  rope  (for  throw  the  stones).  it  work  like  this:  you  put  the   giant  crossbow  on  the  direction  you  want  to  throw  it.  next  you  put  the  stone  in  the  rope  and   you  throw  it.  (a17)     this   description   is   adequate,   in   that   it   reports   the   essential   parts   (three  wheels   on   each   side,   the   rope,   the   stones),   stating  what   they   are  made   of  where   relevant   (thin  wood   for   flexibility).   importantly,   it   includes  an  explanation  of  the  purpose  (intimidation),  and  it  also  explains  the  functioning  in  a  rudimentary   way   (you  put   the   stone   in   the   rope   and   you   throw   it).  with   regard   to   language,   the   student   uses   accurate   technical   vocabulary,   including   some   features   that   can   be   identified   as   academic,   such   as   nominalisations   (intimidation,  flexibility,  mobility),  and  passive  voice  (was  designed,  was  made  out  of).  on  the  negative  side,   we  can  observe  that  the  student’s  description  is  poorly  organised,  since  it  would  be  more  logical  to  begin  with   a  physical  description  of  the  whole  and  the  parts,  and  then  move  on  to  explain  how  it  worked,  and  what  its   real   intended   function  was.   it   is   also  marred   by   language   inaccuracies   (sentence   fragments,  missing   third-­‐ person   -­‐s,  confusion  of  to/for),  and  by  a  relapse   into   informal  register  with  overuse  of  you  when  describing   the   functioning  of   the  machine.  an  example   from  the  post-­‐test  serves  to   illustrate  some  of   the  typical  gains   made  in  this  group.       2)     firstly  i’m  going  to  explain  how  the  gutenberg’s  printing  press  worked  in  the  renaissance.   first,  you  have  to  put  ink  into  two  balls  made  up  of  skin  of  deer  and  hair  of  horse.  once  you   have  done  that,  you  put  the  balls  with  ink  in  the  metal,  where  are  all  the  words.  that  means   that  the  metal  is  with  ink.  later  you  put  a  paper  in  the  side  of  the  words  and  with  pressure,   you  press.  the  words  of  the  metal  will  pass  the  ink  to  the  paper.  (…)  therefore  it  was  faster   to  copy  the  books  without  mistakes.  (a5)     although  the  language  of  (2)  is  not  markedly  more  accurate  than  the  language  of  (1),  the  description   provided  is  much  easier  to  follow  and  more  logically  organised.  the  use  of  temporal  connectors  (first,  once,   later)  and   logical  connectors   (that  means   that,   therefore)  enhances   the  readability  of   the   text  considerably.   excerpt  2)  is  representative  of  the  way  an  increased  number  of  sequencers  and  logical  connectors  was  used   in   this   sample   (see   graphs   2   and   3   above).   arguably,   these   improvements   could   perhaps   be   dismissed   as   superficial,  but  in  fact,  as  these  extracts  illustrate,  the  rise  in  explicit  signposting  accompanies  better  overall   organisation  and  greater  attention  to  the  communication  of  meaning.     viewed  on  an  individual  level,  the  sample  of  texts  gathered  here  included  some  notable  examples  of   improvement.  texts  3)  and  4)  were  composed  by  the  same  student  in  the  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐test.       3)     the  giant  crossbow  is  used  for  intimidate  the  enemy,  to  attack  and  defend.  it  throw  arrows   to  enemies  and  for  damage.  (b  25)     4)     first,   how  did  gutenberg’s   printing   press  worked?   to   start,   you   had   to   cover   some   goose   skin  and  horse  hair  balls  with  ink  and  then  apply  the  ink  to  the  metal  letters  that  had  been   put  in  order  before.  next  you  had  to  put  the  paper  in  the  frame  and  the  frame,  over  the  metal   building  literacies:  the  contribution  of  academic  writing  support     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 31 letters.  then  you  put  all  this  in  the  press  and  pressed  down.  finally,  you  pulled  out  the  paper   with  the  text  perfectly  printed.  (b  25)     this  student  still  has  persistent  grammatical   inaccuracies.  however,  whereas  3)   is  a  rather  sketchy   performance  which   fulfils   two   of   the   requirements  minimally   (purpose   and   parts)   but   fails   to   take   up   the   opportunity   for   a   physical/mechanical   description/explanation,   4)   represents   a   serious   attempt   to   give   a   detailed  description  and  explanation  of  the  press  and  its  functioning.  strong  points  here  are  the  introductory   sentence,   the  use  of  exact  vocabulary  (goose  skin  and  horse  hair  balls,  metal   letters,   frame),  and  the  use  of   temporal  organisers   (to   start,   and   then,  before,  next,   then,   finally).  although   the  use  of   “you”   is  not   strictly   speaking   in   appropriate   academic   register,   here   it   provides   a   stable   interpersonal   framework   for   the   explanation,  adding  to  its  clarity.     one   more   example   of   a   single   student’s   improvement   is   illustrative,   showing   the   importance   of   sequencing  connectors  in  facilitating  understanding.     5)   the  giant  crossbow  is  a  weapon  to  attack  to  long  distance  objectives.  a  soldier  pull  back  the   rope,  they  put  the  giant  arrow,  they  put  their  hands  and  the  giant  crossbow  shoot.  (a7)     6)   for  the  first  point  i  will  explain  how  the  printing  press  works.  you  put  the  letters  in  a  table.   then  you  put  ink  into  the  letters  with  ink  balls.  then  you  press  a  paper  and  the  letter  will  be   printed.   this   helped   a   lot   to   the   renaissance   society   because   the   books   will   be   available   easier  and  the  letters  or  announcements  also.  (a7)     although  both  texts  contain  a  clear  sequence  of  actions  within  their  explanations,  the  second  one  (6)   is   easier   to   understand   because   of   the   sequential   markers   (then),   which   are   an   improvement   on   the   list   separated  by  commas  in  (5)  and  evidence  improvement  in  the  student’s  achievement  of  the  cdf  explain.  the   topic  sentence  (for  the  first  point  i  will  explain  how  the  printing  press  works)  also  facilitates  understanding.   as  we  have   seen   from   the  quantitative   results,   a   large  proportion  of   the  descriptions   in   the  post-­‐tests  had   topic  sentences,  a  result  which  can  be  ascribed  directly  to  the  contents  of  the  academic  writing  module.  again,   critics  might  dismiss   this   change  as   cosmetic,   but   the   inclusion  of   a   topic   sentence  probably  has   a  positive   impact  on  the  reader,  since  it  lessens  the  cognitive  effort  required  to  understand  the  text  and  contributes  to   “displaying”  the  student’s  knowledge  effectively  (llinares  et  al.,  2012,  p.  257).  we  could  speculate  that  it  may   well  also  help  the  novice  writer  to  focus  on  what  he/she  is  going  to  achieve  in  the  text.     5.  discussion     the   evidence   presented   in   this   study   illustrates   some   ways   in   which   general   academic   writing   support  may  enhance  a  clil  course,  and  to  students’  content  area  and  disciplinary  literacy  development.  by   raising   these   clil   students’   awareness   of   the   conventions   of   academic   writing,   particularly   the   need   for   tighter  and  more  explicit   textual  organisation  with  better  signposting,   the  academic  writing  module  helped   them   to   achieve   enhanced   results.   although   some   students   were   already   able   to   provide   full,   organised   answers   to   the  question   in   the  pre-­‐test,  a  significant  number  of  students  showed   improved  performance   in   the  post-­‐test,  with  answers  that  were  better  organised  and  easier  to  read.  moreover,  their  post-­‐test  answers   contained   fewer   irrelevancies,   and   were   generally   more   focused   on   the   task.   interestingly,   students   elaborated  more  in  the  post-­‐test  than  the  pre-­‐test  answers.  it  is  not  entirely  clear  why  the  academic  writing   module   should   have   helped   students   produce   more   complete   answers,   although   this   could   perhaps   be   explained   by   the   students’   raised   awareness   of   three   key   issues:   the   purpose   of   the   task,   the   need   to   communicate   with   their   readers,   and   the   importance   of   displaying   the   information   learned   in   an   ordered   manner.  for  all  these  reasons,  it  is  fair  to  say  in  answer  to  our  first  research  question  that  explicit  academic   writing  instruction  helped  these  students  to  display  their  disciplinary  knowledge  to  better  effect.   regarding  our  second  research  question  specifically  centring  on  the  production  of  cdfs,  we  observe   that   the  cdfs   in  question  (describe  and   explain)  were  achieved  more   fully   in   the  post-­‐tests.  although  some   students   were   able   to   express   their   ideas   very   clearly   in   the   pre-­‐test,   producing   the   relevant   cdfs   with   minimal  use  of  metadiscursive  resources,  it  is  clear  that  their  improved  organisation  and  use  of  appropriate   discourse  markers  enhanced  their  execution  of  the  cdfs  in  the  post-­‐test.     we  must   emphasise   that   cdfs  were  not   a   specific   focus   of   this   academic  writing  module,   but   it   is   likely  that  the  teacher’s  insistence  on  the  need  to  understand  the  exam  prompt  and  provide  a  relevant  answer   breeze  &  gerns  jiménez-­‐villarejos   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 32 sufficed   to  prompt   a   degree   of  metacognitive   awareness   and   to   nudge  many  of   these   students   in   the   right   direction.   the   question   remains   as   to   whether   more   explicit   metacognitive   instruction   about   the   specific   components  of  each  cdf  would  produce  better  results  (breeze  &  dafouz,  2017),  but  it  seems  highly  likely  that   this  would  be  the  case.  such   instruction  and  practice  would  help  the  students  to  unpack  the  exam  prompts   more  effectively,   in  order   to  be  more  aware  of   the   linguistic,  metalinguistic  and  cognitive  demands  of  each   cdf.     to  conclude,  building  on  all  of   the  above,  we  would   like   to   suggest   that  by   focusing  specifically  on   academic   writing   skills,   this   teacher   was   able   to   push   clil   in   a   way   that   was   beneficial   for   content   and   language   learning.   short   academic   literacy   modules   could   be   provided   within   the   framework   of   content   courses,  as  was  the  case  here,  or  taught  within  the  language  syllabus  for  the  year  in  question,  depending  on   the   way   the   curriculum   is   organised   at   the   school.   as   seen   in   figure   1,   both   academic   and   content   area   literacies  have  a   role   to  play   in   students’  ongoing  development,   and   there   is   considerable  overlap  between   them.  the  crucial  point  is  to  ensure  that  students  make  a  connection  between  what  they  learn  about  writing   in   their   english   classes   or   writing   module   and   the   demands   placed   on   them   in   content   courses,   so   that   constructive   transfer  of   skills   can   take  place.   ideally,   to   foster  positive   transfer,   students   could  be  asked   to   focus  on  content  subjects  within   the  writing  module,  and  both  english   teachers  and  content   teachers  could   collaborate   in   order   to   determine   the   criteria   for   what   students   need   to   write   and   how   the   final   product   should   be   assessed.   as   shanahan   points   out   (2012),   many   content   teachers   resist   teaching   literacy   skills   because   they   lack  awareness  of   the   role  of   content  area  and  disciplinary   literacy  within   their  own   field,   or   because   they   feel   that   teaching   literacy   is   a   task   for   language   teachers   only.   where   this   is   the   case,   cooperation  with  english  teachers  could  help  them  to  become  aware  of  their  embedded  knowledge  and  make   some  aspects  of   this  visible   to   their  students.   in   this  context,  a  genre-­‐based  perspective  offers  considerable   potential,   since   this  approach  offers  a  way  of   looking  at   texts   that   is  accessible  both   to   language  specialists   and  content  teachers  (flowerdew,  2001).  but  crucially,  as  we  have  noted  above,  cdfs  should  provide  another   central  axis  around  which  academic  and  content  literacy  support  can  be  organised.   finally,  it  is  necessary  to  stress  that  the  present  study  has  some  limitations.  in  particular,  the  sample   size  was  small  (only  45  students),  and  the  texts  used  as  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐tests  were  rather 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 from  monolingual  contexts.  learning  and  instruction,  57,  18-­‐33.     polias,   john   (2015).   apprenticing   students   into   science:   doing,   talking,   writing   and   drawing   scientifically.   stockholm,  sweden:  hallgren  and  fallgren.   ruiz  de  zarobe,  yolanda,  &  zenotz,  victoria  (2014).  strategic  instruction  in  primary  education:  a  pathway  to   successful   learning   in   content-­‐based   courses.   in   ruth   breeze,   carmen   llamas   saíz,   concepción   martínez  pasamar,  &  cristina  tabernero  (eds.),  integration  of  theory  and  practice  in  clil  (pp.  37-­‐54).   amsterdam,  the  netherlands:  rodopi.   rumlich,   dominik   (2016).   evaluating   bilingual   education   in   germany.   clil   students’   general   english   proficiency,  efl  self-­‐concept  and  interest.  frankfurt  am  main,  germany:  peter  lang.   shanahan,   timothy   (2012).   what   is   disciplinary   literacy   and   why   does   it   matter?   topics   in   language   disorders,  32(1),  7-­‐18.   breeze  &  gerns  jiménez-­‐villarejos   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 34 whittaker,   rachel,   llinares,   ana,   &   mccabe,   anne   (2011).   written   discourse   development   in   clil   at   secondary  school.  language  teaching  research,  15(3),  343-­‐362.   zydatiß,  wolfgang  (2005).  diskursfunktionen  in  einem  analytisch  curricularen  zugriff  auf  textvarietäten  und   aufgaben   des   bilingualen   sachfachunterrichts   [discourse   functions   in   an   analytical   curricular   approach   to   text   varieties   and   exercises   in   bilingual   content   teaching.]  fremdsprachen   lehren   und   lernen,  34,  156-­‐173.                     building  literacies:  the  contribution  of  academic  writing  support     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 35 appendix a coding system [p] purpose (explain): should include reference to faster reproduction of books. [kp] key parts (describe): should include letters and press. [m] material (describe): should include ink. [hw] how it works (explain): should explain how the ink gets onto the letters, and how pressure is used to print the letters on the paper. example 1: answer containing 4 elements (coding after each element) gutenberg’s printing press. first you need to prepare the ink [m]. then you put the ink in a pair of spheres “ink balls” [kp]. when they are fully covered in ink [m] you apply it [hw] in the models [kp]. this models were made by hand in relief [kp] but they were sculpted in mirror [kp], so when the ink touches the paper it prints it good [hw]. after this you pick the paper, a huge one, in the inner part or a top. then you close the door and you’ll introduce in a press machine [kp] which press the ink in the paper [hw], then you open the door and take out the paper, which is typed [hw]. this actually helped a lot in the philosophy because copies were done lots of times faster than they did in the scriptoriums where they did the copies at hand [p]. by this way you saved time and the most important: the copies of very important texts or even music notes [p]. the history was parcialy saved. [p] comment: all 4 elements satisfactorily included. example 2: answer containing 3 elements (coding after each element) firstly i’m going to describe the printing press, the printing press is all wood [m], you have to pass all the ink [m] to the letters [kp] that you are going to put in your text, then when you pass all the ink to the letters [hw] you put the paper between two − [kp] and then you pull a wood thing [kp] to print the letters to the paper [hw]. comment: description of material, key parts and functioning are sufficient, but no mention of purpose. example 3: answer containing 2 elements (coding after each element) firstly the gutenberg’s printing is the first printer and one of the most important inventions we had never seen. this inventions makes us knowed a lot of historical events of how people were discovered in that time. but how it works? good question this fabulous machine works with print and it’s a machine that makes that with like balls [kp] and like punching to the paper makes this paper with words [hw]. comment: only one key part is described explicitly, and the functioning is indicated a rather impressionistic manner. no reference to material or purpose.             breeze  &  gerns  jiménez-­‐villarejos   e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 36 ruth breeze,  universidad de navarra rbreeze@unav.es en ruth breeze is a senior lecturer in english at the universidad de navarra, spain, where she combines teaching with research as a member of the gradun research group in the instituto cultura y sociedad. her most recent books are corporate discourse (bloomsbury academic, 2015) and the edited volumes interpersonality in legal genres (peter lang, 2014), essential competencies for english-medium university teaching (springer, 2016), and power, persuasion and manipulation in specialised genres (peter lang, 2017). she teaches and supervises phd candidates in the area of language education, and she has published widely on language teaching, clil, specialized languages, and discourse analysis. es ruth breeze es profesora titular de inglés en la universidad de navarra, españa, y combina la enseñanza con la investigación en cuanto miembro del grupo de investigación gradun en el instituto de cultura y sociedad. sus libros más recientes son corporate discourse (bloomsbury academic, 2015) y los volúmenes editados interpersonality in legal genres (peter lang, 2014), essential competencies for english-medium university teaching (springer, 2016), and power, persuasion and manipulation in specialised genres” (peter lang, 2017). enseña cursos de doctorado y supervisa doctorandos en el ámbito de educación lingüística y, además, ha publicado numerosos artículos sobre enseñanza de idiomas, aicle, lenguajes especializados y análisis del discurso. it ruth breeze è ruth breeze è professore associato di inglese presso l’universidad de navarra, in spagna, e combina l'insegnamento con la ricerca in quanto membro del gradun research group nell'instituto cultura y sociedad. i suoi libri più recenti sono corporate discourse (bloomsbury academic, 2015) e i volumi interpersonality in legal genres (peter lang, 2014), "essential competencies for english-medium university teaching" (springer, 2016) e power, persuasion and manipulation in specialised genres (peter lang, 2017). insegna corsi di dottorato e supervisiona i dottorandi nel campo dell'educazione linguistica. inoltre, ha pubblicato numerosi articoli sull’insegnamento della lingua, clil, linguaggi specializzati e analisi del discorso.     pilar gerns jiménez-villarejo,  universidad de navarra rbreeze@unav.es en pilar gerns jiménez-villarejo is a doctoral student at the universidad de navarra, spain, under the supervision of prof. breeze. as a researcher in the school of education, she has some teaching assignments in the department of research theory and methods in education. she has a degree in philosophy from the universidad de navarra and one in english studies from the uned, as well as a masters in teaching social science and foreign languages in secondary school from the universidad de santiago. her current research is focused on the literacy development of secondary students in a natural science clil context. she is currently conducting two field studies to empirically analyze the effects of working with cognitive discourse function on students’ literacy development. es pilar gerns jiménez-villarejo es una estudiante de doctorado en la universidad de navarra, españa, bajo la supervisión del la prof. breeze. forma parte del grupo de investigadores de la escuela de educación y enseña algunas clases en el departamento de teoría y métodos de la investigación en la educación. es licenciada en filosofía por la universidad de navarra y filología inglesa por la uned, además, tiene un máster en enseñanza de ciencias sociales y lenguas extranjeras en la escuela secundaria por la universidad de santiago. su investigación actual se centra en el desarrollo de la alfabetización de estudiantes de secundaria en un contexto aicle de ciencias naturales. actualmente está realizando dos estudios de campo para analizar empíricamente los efectos que trabajar con la función del discurso cognitivo causa sobre el desarrollo de la literacidad de los estudiantes. it pilar gerns jiménez-villarejo è una dottoranda presso l’universidad de navarra, in spagna, sotto la supervisione della professoressa breeze. ha alcuni incarichi di insegnamento presso il dipartimento di teoria e metodi di ricerca nell'istruzione in quanto parte del personale di ricerca della school of education. ha conseguito una laurea in filosofia presso l’universidad de navarra e una in anglistica presso l'uned. possiede, inoltre, un master in insegnamento delle scienze sociali e delle lingue straniere nella scuola secondaria conseguito presso l’universidad de santiago. la sua attuale ricerca si concentra sullo sviluppo dell'alfabetizzazione degli studenti di scuola secondaria del corso di scienze naturali in un contesto clil. attualmente sta conducendo due studi sul campo per analizzare empiricamente gli effetti che il lavoro con la funzione del discorso cognitivo produce sullo sviluppo dell'alfabetizzazione degli studenti. building  literacies:  the  contribution  of  academic  writing  support     e-­‐journall  6(1)  (2019),  pp.  21-­‐36 37 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 3, issue 2, december 2016, 56-59 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.5.70 www.e-journall.org © forabosco 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. it is a general rule that a reviewer should be neutral and independent. this is not the case here. not only am i a contributor to the encyclopedia having provided an entry, but i am also in a close, and even friendly, relationship with some of those who had a part in this editorial enterprise. on the other hand, it would not have been an easy task for the editors of the hosting journal to find someone completely uninvolved and still an experienced scholar or a researcher in the field of humor studies, as many if not most humor scholars are among the 212 authors of one or more entries of the encyclopedia. keeping this bias in *contact: g.forabosco@tin.it attardo, salvatore (ed.) (2014). encyclopedia of humor studies. (vols. 1-2). thousand oaks, california: sage publications. giovannantonio forabosco*1 centro ricerca umorismo, cru book review received 6 june 2015; accepted 27 october 2015 abstract en the concept of the encyclopedia is well suited for this impressive publication. in an extended, yet detailed form, this project brings together a significant number of research findings on humor, beginning with contemporary work that inserts itself into an important, largely philosophical, tradition of studies and theories. many researchers and scholars have focused on defining the plethora of voices contained in these two volumes, totaling more than 900 pages. even if a certain quantity of material and some interesting perspectives have not been included, there is no doubt that the breadth of representation, significance of the research, and value of this collection represent a stimulus for future studies with an interest in sense of humor. key words: humor, encyclopedia of humor studies es el concepto de enciclopedia se adapta bien a esta publicación imponente. recoge de una forma amplia y, al tiempo, detallada, buena parte de los conocimientos que se han producido sobre el humorismo, empezando por la investigación contemporánea que se inserta en una importante tradición, filosófica sobre todo, de estudios y teorías. numerosos investigadores y estudiosos se han centrado en definir los muchos lemas contenidos en los dos volúmenes de más de novecientas páginas. a pesar de que por el límite que impone cada empresa humana, cierta cantidad de material y algunas perspectivas, seguramente interesantes, no han sido incluidas en la obra, no cabe duda de que tanto el grado de representatividad como el de significatividad del contenido, así como su valor de documentación, representan un estímulo para futuras profundizaciones en las muchas disciplinas que se ocupan del sentido del humor. palabras clave: humor, enciclopedia de estudios del humor it il concetto di enciclopedia si adatta bene a questa imponente pubblicazione. raccoglie, in forma estesa e approfondita, gran parte delle conoscenze prodotte sul comico dalla ricerca contemporanea che si innesta su una importante tradizione, soprattutto filosofica, di studi e teorie. un gran numero di studiosi e ricercatori sono stati impegnati a definire le molte voci contenute nei due volumi di oltre novecento pagine. anche se, limite di ogni umana impresa, una certa quantità di materiale e alcune prospettive anche interessanti non sono state comprese, è indubbio che è del tutto rilevante sia la rappresentatività e significatività del contenuto che il suo valore di documentazione e di stimolo per futuri approfondimenti nelle tante discipline che dello humor si occupano. parole chiave: comico, enciclopedia della ricerca sul comico http://www.e-journall.org/ review: encyclopedia of humor studies e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 56-59 57 mind, i will offer a description and an analysis of the main features of this imposing work of more than 900 pages in two volumes in the most objective way possible. a preliminary question to be addressed is, “why an encyclopedia”? an answer comes from the following consideration. up until the 1970s, it may have been sufficient to read 10-15 books and some articles in order to have an adequate knowledge of the state of the art of humor studies. freud, bergson, and a few others were among the scholars who had written books on this topic. while many other philosophers and thinkers, including plato, hobbes, and kant, had proposed their own observations on the matter of ridicule, laughter, comic, and so on—in fact, it may be easier to list who did not express his thought—most authors dedicated only a few pages, or even just a few lines, to this subject. from the beginning of the seventies, an explosion of studies and research took place. after the first decade of the 21st century, the corpus of studies on humor became extensive. one consequence was that either humor researchers narrowed their fields of competence to very restricted and limited areas, as it would have otherwise been practically impossible to have a general and complete view of what was produced and published on the topic of humor within their own disciplines, let alone within different disciplines. the situation resembled that which brought diderot e d’alambert to the illuminist project that he carried out in the seventeenth century, when science and culture had had an impressive growth, and it seemed necessary, yet still possible, to collect all, or most of, the existing knowledge in a series of volumes, which formed the encyclopedia (encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers). the meaning and the function of these two volumes of the encyclopedia of humor studies is that of collecting the existing knowledge in humor studies and of favoring the development of new studies. salvatore attardo is not only the editor, but also a reason for the quality of the encyclopedia. i had the opportunity to read a manuscript of his many years ago, morfologia della barzelletta (1989). since then many publications have followed and have had a significant impact on the whole field of humor studies. among other things, his role as the editor of the “international journal of humor research” also needs mentioning. another element suggesting the high quality of the contributions is that scholars and researchers have summarized in a limited number of pages the work of years, or even of decades. many disciplines are represented, from psychology to linguistics, from archeology to sociology. (geology is not; followers of the big bang theory, quoted by attardo in his introduction, know why.) a functional and effective editorial choice has been that the language and the style of presentation address both the humor researcher and the general reader. the entries are written in an accessible, clear, and readable way, without technicalities, and yet they are adequately articulated, rigorous, and informative. perhaps, one exception to the standard of clarity—and for a reason, given the discipline—is the entry on “mathematics and humor”, by donald casadonte. casadonte always makes me feel humble and willing to learn more. anyway, i do believe that one day i will also be able to understand the “modified van der pol oscillator equation,” with hard work and some tutorial help. most of the 335 entries are to be expected, as they are relevant and clearly connected with humor and related phenomena. “aphorism”, “bergson’s theory of the comic”, “caricature”, “cognitive aspects”, not to mention “laughing”, “paradox”, “riddle”, “slapstick”, etc. are in this list. others are the result of a choice among possibilities and alternatives. this applies in particular when specific theories are included that might not have a universal support (i have my own opinions on one or two), but they still represent an interesting topic for a debate. some entries are not expected, at least not by the average reader. this regards, for instance, some expressions that do not belong to the euro-american culture and language. the inclusion of “xiangsheng”, or “xiehouyu,” may surprise some. however, reading this entry, which by the way is the very final one, one opens one’s mind to the chinese world and finds out that the word is a “common figure of speech in standard chinese” (p. 813) and many dialects. the term is often translated into english as “a proverb with the second part suspended” (p. 813). we may welcome this widening of the horizon as the benign face of globalization. the encyclopedia is extremely well documented and informative. an impressive quantity of scientifically and culturally valuable material is included. it would not be fair to underline what is not included, as the field of humor studies so extensive and differentiated. yet, at least three omissions need to be noted. although the work of stanley hall is mentioned in the entry on “tickling”, the article he published with arthur allin in 1897 is not referred to in the appendix a (the chronology of notable events and publications). this article is of great historical importance, being the first recorded empirical study on humor. it was a report and analysis of the daily occasions of laughter, and data were collected from more than 700 subjects. forabosco e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 56-49 58 in addition, hall was the first president of the american psychological association and the founder of the american journal of psychology. another omission is lillien martin (1905) who performed the first-ever systematic experiments on humor, defining and manipulating many relevant variables, such as the characteristics of the stimuli or the conditions of the subjects (for instance, to name a curious variable, looking at cartoons after drinking or not drinking coffee). one important outcome of her studies was the description of the two principles of “fun accumulation” and of “fun fatigue”: the first well known to comedians in terms of the “warming up” process, and the second which every conductor of “laughter yoga” is (or should be) aware of. a book by another martin, rod, called the psychology of humor. an integrative approach (2007) is mentioned in appendix a. while i completely agree with this reference, another book with partially the same title, the psychology of humor: theoretical perspectives and empirical issues, edited by goldstein and mcghee (1972), should have been listed as well. in my view, this 1972 publication was the opening of a new and more scientifically founded wave of studies. in particular, the contributions were highly stimulating, and they promoted a new vision of research: no more wide, all-encompassing, “theoretical” statements or formulae, but models or mini-theories dealing with more focused aspects or dimensions of humor, that explained, so to say, less but better. to mention just one example, the model proposed by suls (1972) on the two-stage information processing of jokes (the core of the incongruity resolution model) had a great influence. last, but certainly the opposite of least, a word about william fry jr. and his “foreword.” paul mcghee once said, about studying humor, “i had found a subject that could engage my attention for a lifetime” (1979, p. vii). that is the story of bill fry. a pioneer of humor research, he founded the institute of gelotology in san francisco in the early 1960s. he passed away at the age of 90 in 2014, after having enriched humor studies with many and valuable publications, from sweet madness (1963) to the foreword of the encyclopedia of humor studies. in the last conference in which i had the opportunity to meet him, after my presentation he told me: “you made a good point.” a gold medal would not have made me more proud. definitely, the present reviewer is neither neutral nor independent. references attardo, salvatore (1989). morfologia della barzelletta [morphology of the joke]. studi italiani di linguistica teorica e applicata, 3. fry, william jr. (1963). sweet madness. palo alto, california: pacific books. goldstein, jeffrey h., & mcghee, paul e. (eds.), (1972). the psychology of humor: theoretical perspectives and empirical issues. new york, new york: academic press. hall, g. stanley, & arthur allin (1897). the psychology of tickling, laughing, and the comic. the american journal of psychology, 9(1), 1-41. mcghee, paul. (1979). humor. its origin and development. san francisco, california: freeman. martin, lillien. (1905). psychology of aesthetics: experimental prospecting in the field of the comic. american journal of psychology, 16(1), 35-118. martin, rod a. (2007). the psychology of humor. an integrative approach, burlington, massachusetts: elsevier. suls, jerry m. (1972). a two-stage model for the appreciation of jokes and cartoons. in jeffrey h. goldstein & paul e. mcghee (eds.), the psychology of humor: theoretical perspectives and empirical issues (pp. 81100). new york, new york: academic press. review: encyclopedia of humor studies e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 56-59 59 giovannantonio forabosco, centro ricerca umorismo cru g.forabosco@tin.it en giovannantonio forabosco, psychologist and psychotherapist, is a member of the international society for humor studies. he has published various articles about humor in different magazines such as le scienze, psicología contemporánea, kos, and the international journal of humor research. his books include the recent publications il settimo senso. psicología del senso dell’umorismo, published by orme, rome, 2013 and caricature. i ritratti umoristici di francesco verlicchi, edizioni03, verona, 2016. he directs the center for research on humor studies (centro ricerca umorismo, cru, www.ricercaumorismo.it). es giovannantonio forabosco, psicólogo psicoterapeuta, pertenece a la international society for humor studies. ha publicado varios artículos sobre el humorismo en diferentes revistas como le scienze, psicologia contemporanea, kos, international journal of humor research. entre sus libros, il settimo senso. psicologia del senso dell’umorismo, editado por orme, roma, 2013 y caricature. i ritratti umoristici di francesco verlicchi, edizioni03, verona, 2016. dirige el cru, centro de investigación sobre el humorismo, www.ricercaumorismo.it it giovannantonio forabosco, psicologo psicoterapeuta, è componente dell’international society for humor studies. ha pubblicato diversi articoli sull’umorismo in varie riviste quali le scienze, psicologia contemporanea, kos, international journal of humor research. tra i suoi libri recenti, il settimo senso. psicologia del senso dell’umorismo, orme, roma, 2013 e caricature. i ritratti umoristici di francesco verlicchi, edizioni03, verona, 2016. dirige il cru – centro ricerca umorismo, www.ricercaumorismo.it euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 6, issue 1, august 2019, 37-55 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.10.133 www.e-journall.org © sottilotta 2019. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. six memos for teaching italian as a foreign language: creativity, storytelling, and visual imagination in the language classroom* elena emma sottilottaa & danila cannamelab a university of cambridge b colby college received 8 april 2018; received in revised form 12 august 2018; accepted 8 october 2018 abstract en by combining pedagogical, linguistic, and literary perspectives on creativity, storytelling, and visual imagination with their application in the language classroom, this article proposes storytelling and creative writing techniques in teaching italian as a foreign language (fl). the main objective of this contribution is to provide some concrete examples on how creative approaches can be incorporated in italian language courses at different proficiency levels. therefore, the procedures and the theoretical assumptions of three creative projects involving communicative means such as mimes and gestures, and technological tools such as twitter and meme generators, will be illustrated in detail and put in relation to linguistic research on creativity. key words: fl teaching practices, storytelling techniques, creative writing, technology, italian language and culture es al combinar las perspectivas pedagógicas, lingüísticas y literarias de la creatividad, la narración y la imaginación visual con su aplicación en el aula de lenguas, este artículo propone técnicas de narración y escritura creativa para la enseñanza del italiano como lengua extranjera (le). el objetivo principal de esta contribución es proporcionar algunos ejemplos concretos de cómo los enfoques creativos pueden incorporarse en los cursos de italiano en diferentes niveles de competencia. para ello, se ilustrarán en detalle los procedimientos y los supuestos teóricos de tres proyectos creativos que involucran medios comunicativos como mímicas y gestos, y herramientas tecnológicas como twitter y generadores de memes, y se relacionarán dichos proyectos con las investigaciones lingüísticas sobre la creatividad en una lengua extranjera. palabras clave: prácticas de enseñanza de le, técnicas de narración, escritura creativa, tecnología, lengua y cultura italiana it combinando prospettive pedagogiche, linguistiche e letterarie sulla creatività, la narrazione e l'immaginazione visiva con la loro applicazione nella classe di lingua, questo articolo propone tecniche di narrazione e scrittura creativa per l’insegnamento dell'italiano come lingua straniera (ls). l'obiettivo principale di questo contributo è fornire alcuni esempi concreti su come gli approcci creativi possano essere incorporati nei corsi di lingua italiana a diversi livelli di competenza. pertanto, le procedure e i presupposti teorici di tre progetti creativi che coinvolgono mezzi comunicativi come mimi e gesti e strumenti tecnologici come twitter e generatori di meme, saranno illustrati in dettaglio e messi in relazione alla ricerca linguistica sulla creatività. parole chiave: ls pratiche didattiche, tecniche di narrazione, scrittura creativa, tecnologia, lingua e cultura italiana  elena sottilotta, university of cambridge ees45@cam.ac.uk * this article and the teaching techniques illustrated in it were conceived and implemented by elena emma sottilotta, who first presented them at the 2017 fulbright flta conference in washington dc in a paper entitled, “mimes, memes, tweets: fostering creative storytelling skills in the language classroom.” danila cannamela contributed to section 4.3 (project 3). http://www.e-journall.org/ mailto:ees45@cam.ac.uk sottilotta & cannamela e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 38 1. introduction this teaching-oriented article provides practical ideas for in-class activities to engage learners in creative language production. pedagogical, linguistic, and literary perspectives on the relevance of creativity— in contemporary educational systems in general and, more specifically, in language courses—are tackled in depth so as to explore the potential of creative practices for language learning. the next section introduces the value of creativity, drawing on both theoretical and empirical arguments in favor of creative tasks in the language classroom. subsequently, we illustrate three creative projects implemented at different italian proficiency levels at the university of st. thomas in st. paul, minnesota. each project is described in detail, including the methodological framework underpinning it, the teaching techniques and rationale for each task, and the didactic materials and digital resources employed. project 1 is entitled story-miming and focuses on italian gestures. after an overview of scholarly contributions and teaching resources on this topic, we provide a comprehensive description of an activity involving the creation of a humorous storyline with gestures. project 2, a tweet-storytelling challenge, requires students to investigate italian cultural figures and to participate in a creative writing activity on twitter. project 3, storytelling through iconic images and memes, is centered on dante’s legacy in italian popular culture and provides food for thought on how to introduce this pivotal figure to language learners by manipulating iconic images and creating memes. in addition to illustrating these projects and presenting related resources that may be of interest to both language teachers and scholars, the overarching goal of this article is to contribute to a creative turn in fl/l2 teaching practices. as observed by bell and pomerantz (2014), in the language classroom more often than not “acts of linguistic creativity, and in particular those that play with form, are either ignored or considered deviant” (p. 32). however, in light of recent developments in fl/l2 research and of the social, technological, and educational changes that contemporary generations have undergone, it is crucial to reiterate the importance of creativity in the language learning context. while there has been a growing scholarly interest in the impact of creativity on second language acquisition, there is still a gap between current theoretical discussions on creativity and their translation into suitable learning materials and daily teaching practices. with the latter in mind, this article ultimately aims to provide concrete examples of creativity-driven tasks to apply in the language classroom, while simultaneously opening up further theoretical and practical discussions on how language teaching strategies can foster students’ creative involvement, learning autonomy, and cultural growth. 2. the value of creativity in the context of language learning in six memos for the next millennium, the charles eliot norton poetry lectures that italo calvino was invited to hold at the university of harvard and that were published posthumously in 1988, an entire chapter is devoted to the concept of “visibility” in its relation to creative expression. in the incipit to this section, calvino quotes a notable line from dante’s purgatorio (xvii.25): “poi piovve dentro a l’alta fantasia (then rained down into the high fantasy…)” (p. 81). through this intertextual reference, calvino emphasizes how the world of fantasy can be poetically conceived as an infinite flux, a locus where, borrowing dante’s image, a constant flow of rain precipitates. he suggests that the ideal vehicle to express the fantastic visions that come to mind is creative writing and, in a broader sense, the creative act. although he does not explicitly utilize the term creativity, it is clear that this concept is deeply entangled with his conception of the imaginative process. when calvino wrote about the role of visual imagination in his lezioni americane, the italian title of the aforementioned lectures, he was not referring to the microcosm of the language classroom. yet, many of his reflections constitute an insightful starting point to interrogate the role and reassess the value that creativity and visual imagination play in the twenty-first-century language classroom. indeed, calvino explicitly advocates for “some possible pedagogy of the imagination that would accustom us to control our own inner vision without suffocating it” (1988, p. 92). in the 1980s, before the advent of social media and the pervasiveness of cyberspace and technology in our daily lives, the creative power of imagination was already perceived to be under threat as a consequence of the image-overload that inundated contemporary society. as sartori observed at the turn of the third millennium, today we can irrefutably say that the metamorphosis from homo sapiens to homo videns—that is, a shift from a view of human beings as individuals capable to think, reflect, and communicate knowledge, towards a more passive conception marked by a preponderance of vision, conceived as the quintessential characteristic of our society—has fully taken place (1999). the ubiquity of images and technology on a societal level forces us to rethink our traditional approaches to fl/l2 teaching and to ponder the pedagogical decisions that we make as language educators. six memos for teaching italian e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 39 as teachers, we constantly have to make choices. yet, the selection of teaching material and learning tasks is inevitably influenced by external constraints. in an attempt to concisely define the ideal features of a language learning activity, an activity checklist consisting of six features can guide teachers in the selection of activities and materials for language courses. as will be shown, these six criteria are anchored in a holistic combination of multiple approaches to language learning and language pedagogy and aim to provide teachers with general and yet practical principles that may guide the design and delivery of language activities. with these six memos in mind, the ideal language learning activity should be: 1) communicative, i.e., it should have a clearly communicative goal and involve students in a variety of interaction patterns, with an emphasis on increasing the learners’ communicative competence, that is, their ability “to weave utterances together into narratives, apologies, requests, directions, recipes, sermons, scoldings, jokes, prayers, and all else we do with language” (finegan, 2004, p. 10); 2) relevant to the syllabus and learning goals as well as to the realistic application of the target language, therefore, emphasizing the social dimension of language learning by bridging the gap between the classroom environment and the “real-world performance” (atkinson, 2013, p. 594); 3) appropriate to the students’ level and profile, bearing in mind all the variables that may influence the learning approach to be put into place, with the ultimate objective “to better harness the positive desire of young students to learn an l2 and maintain this enthusiasm over an extended period of time” (lasagabaster, 2013, p. 47); 4) motivating, so as to foster students’ participation in class and maximize their learning by carefully balancing the creation of an enjoyable atmosphere in class with the necessity to reach pre-established objectives. in jere brophy’s words, the learning process “should be experienced as meaningful and worthwhile, but it requires sustained goal-oriented efforts to construct understandings” (brophy, 2004, p. xii); 5) cultural, i.e., it should include pertinent cultural notions, which can help students to expand their intercultural competence. as remarked by alptekin (2002), “learning a foreign language becomes a kind of enculturation, where one acquires new cultural frames of reference and a new world view, reflecting those of the target language culture and its speakers” (p. 58); 6) creative, so as to promote students’ creative and critical thinking skills. in the words of burnard (2011), “the creativity agenda encourages teachers to take risks, be adventurous, and explore creativity themselves” (p. 51). while classroom tasks frequently meet the first four aforementioned features, it is more challenging to incorporate the final two criteria. from a pedagogical perspective, the language classroom is the perfect context where to explore the true meaning of being creative and critical, precisely because it is through the encounter with another language and culture that students can learn to become more aware of their own selves. the importance of integrating cultural facets in the language classroom has been at the center of numerous scholarly discussions (brown, 2000; byram, 1991; byram & esarte-sarries, 1991; kramsch, 1998; moran, 2001; schulz, 2007; sercu, 2005). as observed by celentin and serragiotto (2015), “[l]a lingua infatti non è uno strumento astratto fatto solo di regole e costruzioni morfosintattiche ma è supportata da una cultura specifica che si manifesta attraverso di essa” (p. 2).1 in other words, language cannot be separated from the culture, to the point that agar (1994) coined the neologism languaculture to refer to these two inseparable notions in order to reiterate how “actually using a language involves all manner of background knowledge and local information in addition to grammar and vocabulary” (agar, 2006, p. 2). if language cannot be dissociated from culture, then language learning and cultural learning should be inseparable. however, despite the evident relevance of culture in the fl/l2 context, it is not always easy to integrate simultaneously culture and creativity in the language classroom. the act of crafting a truly cultural and creative dimension in the language learning context requires time, patience, and a deep awareness of the empowering potential of creativity, both in its linguistic and imaginative acceptation, as a critical thinking tool in language courses. additionally, in the reality of contemporary education, it is increasingly difficult to break the classroom routine punctuated by exams, quizzes, credits, and grades, so as to envision a space for students’ creativity to wander freely. in 1970, paulo freire insightfully voiced this concern by bringing to the foreground 1 “language, in fact, is not an abstract tool made up solely of morphosyntactic rules and constructions, but is supported by a specific culture that manifests itself through it” (our translation). sottilotta & cannamela e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 40 the contradiction of an oppressive educational system in which the deficiency of creativity is a consequence of a banking concept of education: education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. this is the "banking" concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits. […] but in the last analysis, it is the people themselves who are filed away through the lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system. (freire, 2005, p. 72) more recently, tan bee tin, in a case study on the advantages of divergent tasks—that is, open tasks that are not oriented towards a single solution, therefore, involving a higher degree of negotiation among participants—has commented that “[i]n education, the idea that learning is not only discovery and problemsolving, but also creative, has recently become popular” (tin, 2003, p. 244). yet it is still challenging to translate this idea into concrete teaching practices. indeed, while arguing for the importance of balancing structure and improvisation in teaching strategies, sawyer (2011) observes that “[t]eachers are rarely allowed to do whatever they want, even in schools committed to constructivist and creative learning” (p. 2). david berliner, in his forward to sawyer (2011), goes as far as to define the current state of affairs in business-oriented educational systems as a “creaticide” (sawyer, p. xiv). this neologism brings us back to the original meaning of the word “creativity” and leads us to reflect on its annihilation: the term derives from the latin verb creare, “to make, bring forth, produce,” and it is etymologically related to another latin verb, crescere, to grow (online etymology dictionary). this concept is interlaced with the greek notion of poiesis, which designates the artistic power of making, creating, composing. however, an exhaustive definition of creativity is difficult to achieve: as albert (2013) observes, the term is at least four-fold and can refer simultaneously to “the processes involved in creativity, the person and the personality traits that are in the background, the properties of the creative product, and the pressures or characteristics of the environment” (p. 144). creativity is relevant for language learning for a multiplicity of reasons. the relationship between the concept of creativity and the process of second language acquisition (sla) is complex and varied. to fully understand it, it is necessary to resort to a multidisciplinary approach that has its roots in applied linguistics, neuroscience, psychology, and pedagogy. drawing from roman jakobson’s functions of language, balboni (2008) associates the poetic-imaginative function to the “mondo fantastico,” the world of fantasy (p. 79). he remarks that this function takes place “quando si usa la lingua per produrre particolari effetti ritmici, suggestioni musicali, associazioni metaforiche ecc., oppure per creare situazioni e mondi immaginari. sono propri di questa funzione tutti i generi ‘letterari,’ dalla fiaba al poema epico” (balboni, 2008, p. 84).2 the poeticimaginative function is therefore related to an inventive employment of language in order to create imaginary stories through literary and non-literary means. as a multi-dimensional concept, creativity has multiple resonances if applied to the language classroom, since it can refer simultaneously to the above-mentioned imaginative and artistic ability of human beings as well as to the linguistic skill of creating new utterances (chomsky 1966, 2002, 2006; d’agostino, 1984; la licata, 2012). creativity thus involves students’ linguistic output and encompasses primarily, although not solely, the productive skills, speaking and writing. indeed, from a neuroscientific pedagogical perspective, research shows that “students will absorb new material much more readily and meaningfully if they are given opportunities to do something with it” (danesi, 2003, p. 50). however, as danesi points out, it is essential to combine the leftbrain analytical mode with the right-brain experiential mode as a guiding principle in inductive language learning strategies. in other words, analytical and rational tasks should not entirely be put aside by more creative and explorative ones: on the contrary, effective classroom strategies should aim to merge the two modes, especially when new language input is proposed. in an empirical study on language creativity in poetry writing tasks, tin (2011) investigated the correlation between language play and language development. by creating a dialogue between linguistic perspectives on creativity (cook, 2000) and approaches that see creativity as a process (finke, 1996) and as a product (boden, 2001), tin demonstrated the “emergence of complex language” through creative tasks that include “formal constraints,” i.e., constraints that encourage “form-focus attention” (p. 219). therefore, creative tasks, while allowing for a higher degree of freedom in 2 “when language is used to produce particular rhythmic effects, musical suggestions, metaphorical associations etc., or to create imaginary worlds and situations. all the ‘literary’ genres, from the fairy tale to the epic, belong to this function” (our translation). six memos for teaching italian e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 41 comparison to analytical tasks, can be even more beneficial if they also provide learners with opportunities to focus and reflect on form, so as to expand simultaneously their creative and linguistic competences. creative speaking and writing activities, especially if proposed as collaborative tasks, can also foster the learners’ “integrative motivation” (krashen, 1981, p. 26; stevick, 1976, p. 113), that is, their desire to be part of the fl/l2 communicative world, which can lower in turn their affective filter. it has been acknowledged that motivation constitutes the springboard for the language learning process. the spark of creativity can also nurture the students’ intrinsic motivation (brophy, 2004; deci, 1975; deci & ryan, 2000), which arises from one’s own self, feeds students’ curiosity, and leads them to be active protagonists of their learning. it is, therefore, essential to leave room for “self-creation of media and texts” in order to encourage a “liberatory learning” (shor, 1980, p. 108). in the language classroom, liberatory experiences and language play are deeply interlaced: as remarked by bell and pomerantz, “some l2 users may find it liberating to play with their l2, finding license to be creative in ways they are not normally able or allowed to do in their l1” (2016, p. 42). furthermore, the employment of a creative approach to language teaching is not a one-way process: in addition to impacting students, it can influence teachers themselves, as they are pushed to explore new ways to teach the stock formulas that books often propose to explain specific language items. in other words, in a truly creative classroom environment, the teacher has the opportunity to test more all-involving approaches, in an osmotic creative process that mutually involves both teachers and students. following a brief review of the pedagogical use of creative storytelling, the remainder of this article will describe three such educational projects that focus on developing the students’ creativity, storytelling skills, and visual imagination. 3. creative storytelling in the language classroom both traditional and digital storytelling strategies can be employed as successful tools to enhance language learning. this view is central to palmer, harshbarger and koch’s (2001) definition of storytelling as a “rich interactive process that facilitates imagination, creative thinking, language abilities and cooperative learning” (p. 199). similarly, reinders (2011) observed that “stories combine different aspects of learning pedagogy, including: student engagement, reflection for deep learning, technology integration, and projectbased learning” (p. 1). in particular, literary fiction, along with other non-fictional storytelling genres, fosters the pleasure of knowledge, a pleasure which is intertwined with the emergence of an emotive sphere. due to the subjective dimension of the fl/l2 learning process, the manipulation and creation of narratives by language learners also becomes a vehicle through which students can explore and vocalize their personal ideas and thoughts through activities that are more apt to engage them in a creative and less predictable usage of the language they are learning. in the words of gianrenzo clivio and marcel danesi, a narrative is a text that is constructed to describe in sequence a perceived causal and interconnected sequence of events involving characters in time and space. the narrative may be purely fact-based, as in a newspaper report or a psychoanalytic session, or fictional, as in a novel, comic strip, film, for instance. (2000, p. 172) creative storytelling tasks in the l2 classroom can therefore involve literary, digital, and audio-visual texts that can be appropriated and reworked in a multiplicity of ways. to this end, the texts act as cues from which to elicit the student’s total involvement and creative participation. as stated by kalaja (2015) in a study on beliefs, agency, and identity construction in language teaching and learning, “[a]mong other turns, applied linguistics, or language learning and teaching has been undergoing a narrative turn” (p. 124). although kalaja in this instance refers to narrative as a method to investigate the students’ beliefs about their own learning, language teachers can resort to narrative not only as a research tool but also as an effective in-class teaching technique. indeed, narrative is quintessentially a means to encounter another culture. in a study on a didactic project involving migrant learners, a group of l2 italian teachers observed how ogni narrazione, orale o scritta, per il fatto che presuppone la partecipazione di un pubblico, uditore o lettore, permette a ciascun soggetto narrante di incontrare l’altro. in quest’incontro, nell’ascolto reciproco e nello scambio comunicativo, avviene inevitabilmente una negoziazione di significati, in cui tutti i soggetti coinvolti contemporaneamente affermano e ridefiniscono la propria identità. (fiorentino et al., 2015, p. 55)3 3 “any narrative, written or oral, presupposes the participation of an audience, as auditors or as readers, and therefore allows the narrating subjects to meet each other. in this encounter, in this mutual listening and communicative exchange, a negotiation of meanings inevitably takes place, by means of which all the subjects simultaneously involved affirm and redefine their own identity” (our translation). sottilotta & cannamela e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 42 as a consequence, narrative-oriented learning tasks can encourage students to explore their own identity as fl/l2 speakers and to do so by performing, interacting, and negotiating meaning with their peers in the target language. however, a narrative approach can naturally be challenging for some students, who may feel reluctant to get exposed to unconventional creative activities in the foreign language. nonetheless, if mindfully planned, storytelling tasks can actually contribute to build the learners’ self-confidence and encourage their collaborative interaction. 4. three creative storytelling projects the three storytelling projects presented in this article aimed to encourage creative and critical thinking skills in the language classroom. with this objective in mind, each project included a “pre-task planning” phase which helped learners in the construction and development of their narratives in oral, written, and audio-visual forms. indeed, research on the impact of planning on sla (ellis, 1987; foster & skehan, 1996; ortega, 1999; robinson, 1995) demonstrated that “giving learners the opportunity to plan a narrative before they speak it (i.e., pre-task planning) resulted in significant gains in both fluency […] and complexity” (ellis & yuan, 2004). these projects then employed alternative storytelling techniques, including non-verbal communicative means such as mimes and gestures, and incorporated an array of technological tools, such as social networks, storytelling platforms, and meme generators. although each project occurred through different media and textual forms, they all involved the narration of a story. the following sections revolve around these activities and their related teaching techniques: project 1 – beginner level: story-miming project 2 – elementary level: tweet-storytelling challenge project 3 – intermediate level: storytelling through iconic images and memes before delving into each project, it is worth noting that the target language (italian) was used in all the core stages of the activities presented. students became accustomed to understanding instructions in italian from the very beginning. the teacher’s monitoring and the usage of concrete examples in the initial stages of each activity (i.e., the video in project 1 and samples of story-chains and memes in project 2 and 3) helped students to comprehend the tasks not only verbally but also visually. however, in the pre-task planning phase, students drew on their l1, in order to set the bases for the main activity. the cooperative dimension of these projects encouraged mutual support among students in implementing the tasks collaboratively. 4.1 project 1: story-miming the first project focused on italian non-verbal language and involved a class of beginners (level a1 of the common european framework of reference for languages [cefr]). the emphasis on non-verbal communication allowed for an integration of italian culture-specific traits in the learning tasks. the use of gestures in everyday life in italy is undoubtedly one of the most widespread stereotypes embedded in the notion of italianness. parodies and comedy sketches of italians caught gesticulating abound across the world and across the media. it, therefore, comes as no surprise that italian fl/l2 teachers frequently incorporate this element in the classroom as a cultural curiosity that arouses interest and amusement in language learners. this cultural facet lends itself to humorous interpretations that more or less realistically mirror a conventional pragmatic habit in italian. however, gestures are relevant and worth teaching not merely because they constitute an enjoyable cultural trait but also because they have a clear illocutionary intent and a close relation to discourse structure (kendon, 1995, p. 247). gestures “participate in the construction of the utterance’s meaning” (kendon, 2000, p. 60): not only do they play an important role in linguistic exchanges but they can also add layers of meaning to the communicative act (mcneill, 1992). indeed, kendon and mcneill draw attention to the manner in which gestures can perform a variety of functions, in that they can simultaneously complement a description, provide visual exemplifications, and frequently embed linguistic expressions with further non-verbal nuances as well as with a more precise and circumscribed significance. many of these gestures, including the well-known mano a borsa or purse hand (kendon, 1995, p. 250), have made their appearance in various books as early as in 1832 in andrea de jorio’s la mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano and, more recently, in munari (1963), efron (1972), poggi (1983), and diadori (1990). the dizionario dei gesti degli italiani (caon, 2010) responded to the intercultural need to understand the semiotic dimension of italian gestures as well as the idiomatic expressions associated with six memos for teaching italian e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 43 them. it provides useful descriptions of gestures, along with physical depictions, verbal and visual explanations, situational contexts, and intercultural misunderstandings that may arise when using specific gestures in countries other than italy. as recently as 2017, a further contribution to this field took shape in l’italiano a gesti: attività per lo sviluppo della dimensione non verbale (caon, giovannini & meneghetti, 2017), which confirms a growing interest in the field of teaching italian to foreigners towards gestures as depositary of communicative meaning and markers of cultural identity. from a sociolinguistic point of view, gestures belong to the sphere of non-verbal codes that effective “social actors in multilingual settings” (kramsch, 2008, p. 400) need to be able to master in order to interact confidently with other language speakers. building on complexity theory (larsen-freeman, 1997), kramsch associates the skill of communicating efficiently with bourdieu’s concept of sens pratique, which is encapsulated in the all-encompassing symbolic competence, that is, “the ability not only to approximate or appropriate for oneself someone else’s language, but to shape the very context in which the language is learned and used” (kramsch, 2008, p. 400). on a pedagogical level, elements such as gestures are intrinsically embedded in the performativity of a language and are therefore pivotal in gaining a deeper understanding of another culture, as they can help students realize the dissimilarities and inconsistencies between their own culture and the new culture they are learning. from this point of view, these paralinguistic elements contribute to accepting the limits—or niches of untranslatability, we might say—in the encounter with another language. in fact, as balboni and caon (2014) comment, “non-verbal body language such as gestures, expressions, proximity to speakers” (n.p.) are frequently taken for granted and considered to be universal, when in truth they are actually deeply rooted in specific cultural frameworks and thus need to be taught in the language learning context in order to develop the students’ intercultural competence. an excellent example of how italian gestures can be introduced and re-used in a story-miming activity is provided by roberto tartaglione and daniela mancini’s video available on the alma edizioni website4. in this performance, roberto and daniela enact a non-verbal sketch by using exclusively gestures. what follows is a description of how this video can be incorporated into an in-class activity that fosters the creative employment of italian gestures in the language classroom by alternating traditional miming-activities and technology. each stage is illustrated in detail and different options are given, depending on the class time and technological tools that are available: 1) warm-up activity: students were asked to match pictures of gestures with their meaning. this initial activity aimed to teach students how to express emotions in italian (i.e., i am happy, i am angry, i am sad, etc.), and how to accompany these emotions with a specific gesture. to this end, cards with emoticons and gestures were created so as to make the activity more engaging. each emoticon was printed on yellow paper and was accompanied by a specific gesture. for instance, a piece of paper showed an emoticon with an angry expression accompanied by a picture of the “purse hand” gesture. in pairs, students had to practice the enactment of these emoticons/gestures. 2) video task: students watched “il linguaggio dei gesti” by tartaglione and mancini, which worked as a template for the subsequent storytelling activity. while watching the video, students worked in pairs in order to guess the topic of the conversation and identify at least three of the previously-taught italian gestures. 3) storyboard task: the class was divided into small groups. each group was given a topic card (figure 1) and a storyboard (figure 2). the topic card, originally written in italian but presented here in english, aimed to guide students in the subsequent writing activity by providing them with a context and a set of characters and emotions to enact. students then had to write the script of a humorous performance in a storyboard template, divided into six sections. for each section, students wrote down and/or drew at least one sentence alongside the gesture that would accompany it. an alternative option for this step could be a comic strip with speech bubbles instead of a storyboard. the same activity could also be set on an online interactive comic-creator platform such as read write think comic creator5, rather than on paper. on this user-friendly website, students can set the name and subtitle of their comic strip, select the template and number of panels, choose the background, protagonists, props, balloons and save their comic strip as a pdf file. 4 https://www.almaedizioni.it/it/almatv/grammatica-caffe/il-linguaggio-dei-gesti/ 5 http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/index.html https://www.almaedizioni.it/it/almatv/grammatica-caffe/il-linguaggio-dei-gesti/ http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/index.html sottilotta & cannamela e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 44 4) final performance: the storyboard functioned as a script for the final performance. each group enacted the scene from their script, using exclusively mimes and gestures. the other groups had to guess, in the target language, the context, characters, and emotions of each sketch. one point was awarded for each correct answer and the winning group received a prize. depending on the availability of technological means, students can alternatively use the platform, flipgrid6, to record a video of their performance. then, through flipgrid, each group can access the videos of other groups and guess the context, emotions and characters of the classmates’ performance. figure 1. sample topic card figure 2. storyboard template this guided non-verbal storytelling activity is an example of how both writing and speaking productions can be incorporated effectively into a single lesson with a focus on non-verbal communicative means. by decoding non-verbal acts and then transcoding linguistic acts using kinesthetic storytelling strategies, students simultaneously learned specific italian gestures and how to express emotions in italian. furthermore, the sketches allowed for an integration of humor into the language classroom. the topic cards used in this activity suggest sample familiar contexts and scenarios that can be easily translated into gestures—and, at a later stage, into words—by complete beginners. other equally conventional scenarios were provided at this level, such as humorous incidents occurring in the supermarket, at the shopping mall, or at the restaurant. in this case, we intentionally selected common settings and every-day circumstances generally introduced in a beginner course and not requiring complex linguistic output. however, this same activity can be proposed at higher proficiency levels by providing more unfamiliar scenarios that might further stimulate students’ creativity and push their linguistic and extra-linguistic skills. for instance, higher-level students may be asked to enact a sketch in a context that demands a more challenging language use, such as an unpredictable circumstance occurring in a museum or at a gas station in italy, to name a few alternatives. if teachers wish to venture into more unreal settings that may push the students’ imagination further, the sketch may even be set on a spaceship or on another planet or in any other imaginative context that may prove useful to trigger the students’ involvement. naturally, the possibilities to adapt each activity are boundless, but they should be aligned with students’ profiles and proficiency level, as well as with the learning objectives initially set by the teacher. 6 https://info.flipgrid.com/ https://info.flipgrid.com/ six memos for teaching italian e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 45 overall, this project allowed beginner students not only to strengthen their basic linguistic repertoire (finegan, 2004, p. 540), a term which includes different registers, styles, colloquial expressions and language varieties, but also to broaden their contextual and cultural awareness, in other words, their communicative repertoire, which embraces precisely a variety of non-verbal dynamics such as “gesture, dress, posture and even knowledge of communicative routines” (rymes, 2014, p. 290). in addition, students had the opportunity to plan and devise a sketch collaboratively. therefore, they resorted to multimodal resources, both verbal and nonverbal, along with cooperative learning strategies (tabensky, 2008). in sum, through this activity, by performing a role as actors on stage, students created their own imaginative storylines, developed their metalinguistic responsiveness, and appropriated the non-verbal cues of the foreign language as their own. 4.2 project 2: tweet-storytelling challenge in the preface to grammatica della fantasia, gianni rodari recounts his reflections on the function of the imagination, the techniques to foster it, and “sul modo di comunicare a tutti quelle tecniche, per esempio di farne uno strumento per l’educazione linguistica (ma non soltanto…) dei bambini” (rodari, 1980, p. 9).7 although rodari was directing his creative writing strategies to a profile of italian l1 young learners, his insights can provide imaginative food for thought for fl/l2 italian teachers as well. by creatively adapting rodari’s techniques to the language classroom, we can craft a teaching approach that truly “pone al suo centro l’apprendente, ‘creatore’ consapevole del suo stesso apprendere” (sciarrino, 2013).8 creative writing activities in language courses are frequently assigned as homework because they tend to use up extensive class time (balboni, 2008, p. 160). however, by modelling a writing task using a platform such as twitter, teachers can take advantage of the brevity and rapidity embedded in this social network for in-class guided creative writing tasks. the second project, therefore, entailed a storytelling challenge on twitter and involved students of italian at an elementary level (level a2 of the cefr). this activity shows how teachers can turn social networks such as twitter into a creative storytelling instrument. neither the teacher nor the students need to be expert twitter users to carry out this task. however, twitter was introduced in our course as a learning tool from the very beginning of the semester: on a weekly basis, students posted tweets related to the main topic and/or grammar point covered in class. therefore, by the time this activity was proposed, students were already acquainted with this platform. there are several advantages in using twitter to launch a storytelling challenge: first of all, as a social network widely used across the world, twitter is closer to the virtual communicative world of current generations; secondly, twitter has a rigid length-limit of 280 characters per tweet, and is, therefore, a good resource to teach communicative conciseness and effectiveness. however, should the use of twitter not be possible, teachers could alternatively employ storybird9 and model the following creative writing activity to this platform, where students can create a picture book as a visual support for their story. maneschi (2017), building on bruner’s (1986; 1990) conception of narrative as a central cultural and human cognitive mode, provides practical advice on how to use this platform in a language activity focused on “visual storytelling” (p. 30). to provide cultural background for this creative writing task, the activity was linked to a previous project in which students conducted research on illustrious italian figures. in small groups, students had to briefly brainstorm the information they had gathered on the italian figure they had formerly researched. they then re-wrote these biographies into fictional stories to be published on twitter. this creative writing activity was divided into four stages: 1) pre-writing task brainstorming in groups: students received large sheets of paper to jot down ideas and key words, focusing on the main features of the story (i.e., genre, protagonists, setting). they initially had to write a story map, which constitutes the first “basis for immediate assessment of students’ stories” (yang & wu, 2012, p. 340). since the latest lesson focused on the topic of travelling, this theme was integrated in the writing activity by asking students to include a journey and/or a means of transport in their stories. 2) collaborative writing task tweet-story: each student was assigned a part of the story, which he/she wrote in a tweet (e.g., tweet 1: beginning and setting; tweet 2: central story and twist; tweet 3: resolution and ending). all the tweets were linked logically and thematically, as a story-chain. 7 “how the techniques might be disseminated so that everyone could use them, for example, as instruments for the linguistic education of children, but not just for this purpose alone” (translated by jack zipes, 1996, p. 3). 8 “places the learner at its center, as a ‘creator’ of his/her own learning process” (our translation). 9 https://storybird.com/ https://storybird.com/ sottilotta & cannamela e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 46 3) post-writing task: each student was assigned a role. for instance: proofreader (who edited the story to ensure it was grammatically correct and coherent); creative director (who made sure that the microstory was original and unique, if necessary by adding a plot twist); marketing editor (who chose the images to accompany the story on twitter). after revising the first draft with the help of the teachers, who acted as facilitators, students published their stories on twitter. 4) peer-correction and oral story-sharing: each group read the various stories published on twitter and carried out a peer-correction activity. these peer-editing strategies reflect an engagement with the writing across the curriculum (wac) pedagogy (zawacki & rogers, 2012). after this peer-correction stage, each group shared their narratives through a dramatized reading with the rest of the class. at this stage, space was given for a freer speaking production activity. students were encouraged to resort to their artistic skills and to other resources, such as visual presentations and background music, in order to reproduce their stories in an engaging manner. here, the tweet-stories served as basic scripts, but students had the freedom to enact them differently. for instance, they could change the narrator’s voice into a dialogue between the main characters of the story. while each group performed their stories, the other groups gave an anonymous mark from 1 to 5, based on the inventiveness of the story and the performance. the winners received an italian-themed prize. in our course, all the stories showed an imaginative approach to the biographies of eminent italian figures. twitter functioned as a sharing device and the tweet-stories became screenplays for the subsequent oral performance. these forms of “collaborative fantasy” lend themselves to a higher level of creativity. in norrick’s words, the participants in a collaborative fantasy intend to amuse themselves and share highinvolvement talk, rather than to engage in a logical exercise. cleverness and creativity take precedence over consistency and credibility. with no specific remembered events to verbalize, co-tellers are free to develop any sort of plot they can agree on. (2000, p. 132) the winning story (figure 3) was written in the fashion of an historical novel. it narrated the life of michelangelo and his conflict with a rival architect while he was working at st. peter’s basilica in rome. another story (figure 4) was a thriller-retelling of dante’s life in modern days. #ital112 #storytelling challenge: group 1 #tweet 1: questa storia si è svolta nel secolo sedicesimo nella città di roma. roma è la più grande città di italia. molti artisti lavoravano per il papa a roma. michelangelo era un bravo scultore, ma papa giulio ii gli ha fatto un torto. #tweet 2: quando michelangelo stava lavorando alla cupola di san pietro, un altro architetto giacomo della porta ha convinto il papa a non pagare michelangelo. michelangelo si è arrabbiato e ha lasciato roma. il papa ha capito che lui aveva bisogno di michelangelo per un altro progetto. #tweet 3: il papa ha ordinato alla guardia svizzera di riportare michelangelo a roma. la risoluzione della storia è stata che il papa ha deciso di pagare. michelangelo ha detto a giacomo che voleva una scusa ufficiale in pubblico. figure 3. winning tweet-story six memos for teaching italian e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 47 #ital112 #storytelling challenge: group 2 #tweet 1: dante amava beatrice. quando è cresciuto, dante ha traslocato in campagna nel bosco. lui aveva un motorino. ogni giorno scriveva una poesia per beatrice. #tweet 2: ma un giorno dante ha smesso di amarla. lui è corso via da beatrice. #tweet 3: beatrice lo ha preso e lo ha ucciso. lei non è andata in paradiso. figure 4. another tweet-story it is interesting to notice that these story-creations frequently gave way to stylistically and linguistically playful associations: for instance, in dante’s tweet-story, students created a rhythmic effect between the final two sentences by making the word “ucciso” rhyme with “paradiso.” this parodic retelling of dante’s love for beatrice acquired an additional ironic twist through this linguistic pun. 4.3 project 3: storytelling through iconic images and memes the third project focused on the use of memes and iconic images for group storytelling and was implemented in an intermediate language course (level b1 of the cefr), by exposing students to the captivating imagery of dante’s divine comedy. this masterpiece has a wide appeal in north american academia and is undoubtedly among the works of italian literature that are best known to the international audience. the popularity of the divine comedy is closely linked to an ongoing process of remediation, that is, the process of refashioning and renegotiation through new media that dante’s work has undergone across the centuries, in italy and abroad. this masterpiece has inspired theatrical performances and lecturae dantis by renowned actors such as vittorio gassman and roberto benigni. in addition, its visual and filmic adaptations are countless, including gustave doré’s nineteenth-century illustrations10 to the divine comedy, the 1911 silent movie inferno, and the 1995 american thriller seven, as well as the episode of the simpsons featuring homer’s donut hell (groening, the simpsons, treehouse of horror iv, 1993), l’inferno di topolino (fecchio, monteduro & freccero, 2016), and facebook pages such as “se i social network fossero sempre esistiti”11, which repurpose, once again, playful allusions to dante’s inferno in popular culture. another example is the website, “dante today”12 (saiber & coggeshall, n.d.), a crowdsourced repository for “citings and sightings” of dante and his work. showcasing cultural manifestations spanning from pop music to a variety of parodic re-adaptations, this site stands as further evidence of dante’s reception and renegotiation. the popularity of dante’s divine comedy as a source of visual imagination and creative refashioning can be very productive in fl/l2 courses, in which instructors face the linguistic and cultural challenge of introducing this masterpiece to language learners. this work can be overwhelming for beginner or even intermediate students, who are likely not linguistically equipped to appreciate fourteenth-century italian vernacular, both at a literal and allegorical level. however, mediating the encounter with dante’s work through its contemporary legacy can offer a way for language learners to acquire basic literary and cultural competence in the divine comedy, while participating as content creators in its unfolding process of remediation. in order to elicit this combined process of cultural acquisition and renegotiation in language students, teachers may find memes particularly useful. a meme is a self-contained story, generally a humorous image or video combined with a written text that is copied, with slight variations, and spread rapidly over the internet, thus becoming viral. as shifman (2014) highlights in her study on internet memes, these digital artefacts are not only shared and propagated but also subjected to an endless process of remaking and remixing. in other words, their memetic success depends on “the probability that people will respond creatively” to them (shifman, 2014, p. 174). furthermore, memes are culturally significant in that they can be regarded as “reflections of cultural and social collectives” (shifman, 2014, p. 171). memes are, therefore, a rich channel of cultural transfer that goes beyond the mere information exchange. for their comedic language, these visual and written texts are less predictable than the language usually featured in textbooks, and they can become a means to engage 10 https://archive.org/details/gustavedoreillustrationsforthedivinecomedybydantealighierihq 11 https://it-it.facebook.com/seisocialnetwork/ 12 https://research.bowdoin.edu/dante-today/ https://archive.org/details/gustavedoreillustrationsforthedivinecomedybydantealighierihq https://it-it.facebook.com/seisocialnetwork/ https://research.bowdoin.edu/dante-today/ sottilotta & cannamela e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 48 students in a more complex act of interpretation. language play and humor challenge learners to face a variety of possible interpretations. by asking students to engage with “ambiguity and polysemy,” they offer “prodigious resources for language education and not merely distractions from the serious business of learning” (bell & pomerantz, 2014, p. 41). having illustrated the significance of memes in popular culture and the benefits of exposing students to language play, we will now move on to describe in detail how we incorporated these elements in an intermediate-level class. the activity focused on enhancing storytelling, writing, and cultural skills through dante’s divine comedy and was divided into three steps: 1) introduction to dante’s inferno: students listened to an excerpt from vittorio gassman’s lectura dantis of the initial tercets from inferno, canto 1. we then asked them to interpret the meaning of these lines in small groups. after a collective discussion, we provided an overview of the structure of dante’s inferno. we then distributed a visual map of the nine circles of hell and introduced the first creative writing task. in pairs, students designed their own nine circles, based on their experience as college students. for each circle, they wrote a short title and a description of the punishment, by applying dante’s principle of the contrappasso, the idea that the damned souls deserve a retribution that resembles or contrasts the sin they committed on earth. 2) group-storytelling task: in the subsequent phase of the project, students shared the fictional images of their undergraduate inferno, engaging in an activity of group storytelling that strengthened their presentational and vocabulary skills, while allowing them to socialize as a class through the creation of humorous content. there were, for example, several self-ironic representations of hell: one group confined “undecided” undergraduates to limbo for their inability to choose a major; another group condemned cheaters to the fraud circle, where they would retake the same final exam over and over again. 3) final creative task: the final writing activity involved the creation in pairs of dantesque memes. in this case, the activity was specifically linked to one of the topics students had recently covered in class: the environment. since contemporary digital culture has often featured memes of the italian poet in a judgmental attitude, students were asked to elaborate on this comical facet of the divine comedy’s reception. each pair designed a meme on meme generator13, in which dante expressed contempt for non-environmentally friendly behaviors, such as not recycling, wasting energy, or littering (figure 5). figure 5. samples of dantesque memes created by the students 13 https://imgflip.com/memegenerator https://imgflip.com/memegenerator six memos for teaching italian e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 49 overall, this activity increased students’ knowledge of both italian culture and its contemporary reuse in a variety of media. they had the chance to experience a meaningful encounter with italian literature and, as content creators, to participate directly in the inexhaustible legacy of the divine comedy. 5. conclusion the teaching techniques presented in this article allowed students to work collaboratively to create stories in the language they were learning. in evaluating the outcomes of these creative projects, it is worth highlighting that students practiced speaking and writing skills in a communicative way, with a double focus on both fluency and accuracy. a strong emphasis was placed on the relevance of the activities in relation to the course syllabus and its objectives. in the introductory stage of each activity, students were made aware that these projects were meant to provide them with further opportunities to revise topics covered in earlier lessons and to make further progress without the pressure of being formally assessed. as a result, each project was appropriate to the students’ learning and tailored to their language level and profile. to make the activities more engaging, learners were encouraged to draw from their artistic and personal interests, which gave scope to a greater intrinsic motivation. furthermore, a cultural component lay at the core of each task. finally, a clear creative effort was incorporated in each stage, so as to stimulate the students’ active contribution to their learning process. as a result, returning to the “activity checklist” proposed in the introduction, it can be seen how these projects effectively merged the aforementioned six features of the ideal language learning activity. overall, students participated in tasks that were: 1) communicative: speaking and writing skills were practiced communicatively and cooperatively through tasks that facilitated group-work. 2) relevant: each project was clearly linked to the syllabus so as to give students the chance to revise topics and language items previously studied in class and to practice new vocabulary in a meaningful and challenging context. 3) appropriate: all the activities were tailored to the learners’ profiles and proficiency levels. 4) motivating: learners were encouraged to explore their personal interests and express their own ideas while developing their stories, which were as a result more inspiring and motivating. 5) cultural: students learned new facets of italian culture (e.g., the meaning and importance of gestures in communicative exchanges; the biographies of italian prominent historical, artistic, and cultural figures; dante’s legacy in italian contemporary popular culture). 6) creative: learners actively sketched and performed storylines based on the above-mentioned topics, therefore putting into practice storytelling and creative writing skills. in each activity, students had the opportunity to work individually, in pairs, and in groups. at the end of each project, students were invited to reflect on what they had learned and to provide feedback on the projects. overall, the responses were positive: students appreciated that there was a clear link between the topics they had studied and the activities proposed, which allowed them to revisit and expand the vocabulary and language points they had learned and to increase their proficiency. some of the less confident students, however, were initially reluctant to engage in these activities. for instance, at the initial stages, a few remarked that they were not able to be creative at all. this perplexed attitude resonates with bell and pomerantz’s observation that “humor and indeed even serious acts of linguistic creativity always entail some degree of risk” (bell & pomerantz, 2016, p.176). however, as bell and pomerantz reiterate, this risk can be turned into an opportunity for the students’ critical reflection and intercultural growth. to overcome such issues, it is pivotal for the teachers to encourage the students’ output and to set a harmonious classroom environment in which everyone feels welcome to interact and express his/her own ideas. in this regard, we noted that once the groups started planning their stories cooperatively under the teacher’s monitoring, even the more hesitant students intervened in the group dynamics and contributed to the final product. as a whole, the stories students created in oral, written, and visual forms showed that their linguistic abilities were pushed towards more original language production. in addition, learners reported that they enjoyed the less predictable features of these lessons, which permitted them to approach language topics in a less controlled manner in comparison to the more conventional in-class tasks generally suggested by the textbook and mostly oriented towards a functional view of language. it can be concluded, therefore, that the six ideal features of a language learning activity—communicative, relevant, appropriate, motivating, cultural, and sottilotta & cannamela e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 50 creative—were met. although these projects were tailored for italian language courses, the same techniques can be adapted to other languages by choosing different cultural, literary, and artistic figures and using these procedures as models. there are, however, some considerations to take into account for teachers who wish to adapt and implement these lessons. firstly, these activities require careful planning and can be unavoidably time-consuming. secondly, it is pivotal to provide very specific and detailed instructions and scaffolds for each project. finally, it is necessary to tailor each creative storytelling activity to the students’ linguistic level, as they may feel discouraged if they are asked to produce a story beyond their language abilities. beyond the immediate scope of these specific projects, in this article we have advocated for the implementation of a higher degree of creativity in fl/l2 daily teaching practices. creativity as a teaching/learning mindset can and should be integrated more frequently in the language classroom. the implications of the planning and delivery of creative tasks for language teaching are manifold. firstly, as emphasized throughout this article, the creation of stories in the language classroom through collaborative storytelling techniques can help students to develop a sense of coherence, to organize their thoughts, and to reflect critically on their ideas in order to communicate more powerfully in the target language. secondly, creative approaches can go hand-in-hand with an integration of technology in language courses and with an exploitation of authentic didactic materials that can induce a greater exposure to the culture of the target language. thirdly, as a two-way process, creativity is capable of activating a rebound effect, by establishing a virtuous circle that is beneficial for both teachers and students. in other words, imagination stimulates further imagination: by experimenting with new techniques, students as well as teachers can discover and explore their own creative potential. despite the challenges that this creative turn may entail—not only as far as concrete teaching practices are concerned but also in terms of syllabus design and material development—the incorporation of creative tasks in language courses is fruitful and rewarding for both learners and teachers. these projects provide just a few concrete examples of how alternative means such as gestures, memes, and social networks can be used to the benefit of language learners. however, if we consider the vast array of media at our disposal, the possibilities for a creative involvement in the language classroom are both endless and worth exploring. references agar, michael (1994). language shock: understanding the culture of conversation. new york, new york: william morrow. agar, michael (2006). culture: can you take it 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(2012). digital storytelling for enhancing student academic achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation: a year-long experimental study. computers & education, 59, 339–352. zawacki, terry myers, & rogers, paul m. (2012). writing across the curriculum: a critical sourcebook. boston, massachusetts: bedford/st. martins. six memos for teaching italian e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 37-55 55 elena emma sottilotta, university of cambridge ees45@cam.ac.uk en elena emma sottilotta is an italian and english certified language teacher and has taught in italy, england and the united states. in 2017-18, she was awarded a fulbright fellowship at the university of st. thomas, minnesota. she is currently pursuing a ph.d. in the faculty of modern and medieval languages at the university of cambridge, as a recipient of an arts and humanities research council scholarship and a vice-chancellor’s award. her research interests hinge on comparative literature, creative approaches to language learning, and implementation of storytelling and creative writing strategies in the fl/l2 classroom. es elena emma sottilotta es instructora certificada de italiano e inglés y ha enseñado en italia, inglaterra y estados unidos. en 2017-18 recibió una beca fulbright en la university of st. thomas, minnesota. actualmente está cursando un doctorado en la facultad de lenguas modernas y medievales de la university of cambridge, con una beca del arts and humanities research council y como ganadora del vice-chancellor’s award. sus intereses de investigación se centran en la literatura comparativa, los enfoques creativos para el aprendizaje de idiomas y la implementación de estrategias de narración y escritura creativa en el aula de le/l2. it elena emma sottilotta è una docente certificata di lingua italiana e di lingua inglese e ha insegnato in italia, inghilterra e stati uniti. nel 2017-18, ha ricevuto una borsa di studio fulbright presso la university of st. thomas, minnesota. attualmente è dottoranda presso la facoltà di lingue moderne e medievali della university of cambridge, dove ha ottenuto la borsa di studio dell’arts and humanities research council e il premio del vice-chancellor. i suoi interessi di ricerca vertono su letteratura comparata, approcci creativi all’apprendimento delle lingue e implementazione di strategie di racconto e scrittura creativa nella classe ls/l2. danila cannamela, colby college dcanname@colby.edu en danila cannamela is an assistant professor of italian in the department of french and italian at colby college. her scholarly work focuses on avant-garde literature and environmental humanities, on which she recently published a book, the quiet avant-garde: crepuscular poetry and the twilight of modern humanism (2019). in addition, she has research and teaching interests in the use of social media and technology in l2 classes, wac (writing across the curriculum) pedagogy, and strategies that allow for the integration of cultural aspects in language classes. es danila cannamela es profesora contratada de italiano en el department of french and italian en colby college. su trabajo académico se centra en la literatura de vanguardia y las humanidades ambientales, tema sobre el queacaba de publicar un libro, the quiet avant-garde: crepuscular poetry and the twilight of modern humanism (2019). además, sus intereses de investigación y enseñanza incluyen el uso de las redes sociales y la tecnología en las clases de l2, la pedagogía de la escritura a través del currículo (wac por sus siglas en inglés) y las estrategias para la integración de aspectos culturales en las clases de l2. it danila cannamela è ricercatrice di italiano nel department of french and italian presso il colby college. la sua produzione accademica verte sulla letteratura d'avanguardia e sulle environmental humanities, argomento sul quale ha recentemente pubblicato un libro, the quiet avant-garde: crepuscular poetry and the twilight of modern humanism (2019). inoltre, ha interessi di ricerca e d’insegnamento sull’uso dei social media e della tecnologia nelle classi di l2, nella pedagogia wac (writing across the curriculum) e nelle strategie che consentono l'integrazione degli aspetti culturali nelle lezioni di lingua. references carbonara 2022 ej euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 2, december 2022, 1–16 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.9.2.272 www.e-journall.org © carbonara 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. the effect of multilingual pedagogies on language aptitude: a study on lower secondary school students based on the llama test valentina carbonara università per stranieri di siena received 21 december 2021; accepted after revisions 8 september 2022 abstract en the paper presents an explorative study regarding the relation between multilingual pedagogies and language aptitude, a complex construct associated with metalinguistic awareness and cognitive processes, which predict the capacity of learning a foreign language. we administered the llama test to 67 lower secondary school students in italy, divided into two groups: the target group had been regularly exposed to éveil aux langues (awakening to languages) and translanguaging practices, with explicit focuses on crosslinguistic reflection, for the prior four years; the control group has been exposed to regular monolingual instruction. results show that the target group achieved a better score in two llama sub-tests (sound-symbol correspondence task and grammatical inferencing task). a composite pattern of correlations and predictors regarding the influence of italian competence and english competence are also analysed and disentangled. finally, the paper discusses the implications of these results in terms of research and educational perspectives. key words: multilingual pedagogies, translanguaging, language aptitude, metalinguistic awareness es este artículo presenta un estudio exploratorio sobre la relación que existe entre las pedagogías multilingües y la aptitud lingüística, un constructo complejo asociado a la conciencia metalingüística y a los procesos cognitivos que predicen la capacidad de aprender una lengua extranjera. el test llama fue administrado a 67 estudiantes de secundaria obligatoria en italia. los estudiantes se dividieron en dos grupos: durante cuatro años, el grupo objetivo fue expuesto de forma regular a un éveil aux langues (despertar a las lenguas) y a prácticas docentes translingüísticas con un enfoque explícito en la reflexión interlingüística, mientras que el grupo de control fue expuesto de manera regular a una instrucción monolingüe. los resultados mostraron que el grupo objetivo logró una mejor puntuación en dos subtest llama (tarea de correspondencia sonido-símbolo y tarea de inferencia gramatical). el análisis consistió en un examen exhaustivo de un patrón composite de correlaciones y predictores sobre la influencia de la competencia en italiano y de la competencia en inglés. finalmente, el artículo debate las implicaciones de estos resultados en términos de investigación y de perspectivas educativas. palabras claves: pedagogías multilingües, translingüismo, aptitud lingüística, conciencia metalingüística it l’articolo presenta uno studio esplorativo sul legame tra pedagogie plurilingui e attitudine linguistica, un costrutto complesso associato alla consapevolezza metalinguistica e ai processi cognitivi, che stimano la capacità di apprendimento di una lingua straniera. il test llama è stato somministrato a 67 studenti di scuola secondaria di primo grado in italia, divisi in due gruppi: per quattro anni, il gruppo target è stato esposto regolarmente a éveil aux langues (risveglio delle lingue) e pratiche translanguaging con un focus esplicito sulla riflessione tra le lingue, mentre il gruppo di controllo è stato esposto a regolari istruzioni monolingue. i risultati hanno dimostrato che il gruppo target ha ottenuto un risultato migliore in due sotto-test llama (attività di corrispondenza suono-simbolo e di inferenza grammaticale). viene analizzato e spiegato un modello composito di correlazioni e indicatori riguardanti l’influenza della competenza in lingua italiana e in lingua inglese. infine, l’articolo tratta le implicazioni di tali risultati, sia in termini di ricerca che di prospettive educative. parole chiave: pedagogie plurilingui, translanguaging, attitudine alle lingue, consapevolezza metalinguistica * valentina carbonara, università per stranieri di siena carbonara@unistrasi.it carbonara e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 2 1. introduction and theoretical framework: language aptitude and multilingual pedagogies this paper introduces a preliminary study regarding the effect of multilingual pedagogies on language aptitude. the primary aim of this research is to provide quantitative evidence on the linguistic impact of multilingual pedagogies (garcı́a & flores, 2012; marshall, 2022), which can be defined as instructional practices leveraging students’ entire language repertoires, even in mainstream monolingual schools. éveil aux langues ("awakening to languages,” armand et al., 2004; candelier, 2003; hélot, 2012), identity text approach (cummins & early, 2010), and translanguaging pedagogy (cuny-nysieb, 2020), although conceptually and sometimes also practically different, can be associated to multilingual pedagogies. the benefits of these multilingual approaches have already been validated in terms of positive outcomes in students’ empowerment and attitude, and teachers’ beliefs and practices (cummins, 2019; garcía & sánchez, 2022; lory & armand, 2016). this study applies an experimental quantitative approach in order to investigate whether lower secondary school students engaged in multilingual learning strategies involving their entire language repertoire develop a more accurate language aptitude. carroll and sapon (2002, p. 23) described language aptitude as a set of cognitive abilities that are “predictive of how well, relative to other individuals, an individual can learn a foreign language in a given amount of time and under given conditions.” according to carroll (1981), language aptitude is based on four sub-skills: phonetic coding ability (the ability to recognize sounds and learn sound-symbol associations), grammatical sensitivity (the ability to identify syntactic functions), rote learning ability (the ability to recall newly learned words), and inductive language learning ability (the ability to infer rules). these components have been integrated in the mlat, the modern language aptitude test, which was initially designed by carroll and sapon in 1959. even if the spread of communicative approaches to language education has raised criticism towards the appropriateness of mlat, the test has been extensively used in several studies and it continues to shed light on language aptitude and its interaction with different variables (stansfield & reed, 2004). in a recent article, hyltenstam (2021) provides a review of the research regarding the relations between language aptitude and metalinguistic awareness. the two constructs seem to partially overlap in some components, in particular in language analytic ability, and have a bidirectional influence. jessner (2006) underlines that “in an increasing number of investigations in multilingualism research, though, the language learning ability or aptitude of bilinguals learning an l3 has been compared with monolinguals learning an l2. and the cognitive advantages which have been shown to develop in multilinguals have been related to an enhanced level of metalinguistic awareness” (p. 65). thus, conditions like bilingualism or trilingualism can influence the patterns of association between language aptitude and metalinguistic awareness in different ways (el euch, 2018). while the nature of the relation between language aptitude and metalinguistic awareness is still debatable, other cognitive processes have been clearly associated with language aptitude (skehan, 2019), in particular individual factors. working memory, for instance, and its subcomponents, such as the verbal storage system (or “phonological loop”) and central executive processes, play an important role in learning new words and retaining verbal information: the phonological loop, in particular, is considered a significant predictor of second language learning (baddeley, 2003; yalçın, çeçen, & erçetin, 2016). language aptitude has been traditionally conceptualized as a stable skill that is neither susceptible to training nor environmentally influenced, but rather incorporated in genetic cognitive abilities (skehan, 1998). however, the stability assumption represents a contested issue: in the last twenty-years, in fact, several studies have investigated the relation between aptitude and second language acquisition across a variety of instructional settings. sáfár and kormos (2008) detected a major effect of intensive language learning in the sub-test measuring phonological sensitivity, which also resulted in a significant increase in the overall language aptitude test score. li (2015) identifies two broad lines within aptitude research: predictive and interactional. the latter is based on experimental studies which compared different educational treatment. for example, it has been demonstrated that the effectiveness of explicit instruction is more related to aptitude than that of implicit instruction. singleton (2017), in his review regarding the mutability of language aptitude, reports a series of studies which show the impact of experience and training on language aptitude, but he underlines that some pedagogical interventions might improve language aptitude via the improvement of working memory capacity. he concludes that we need more research to clearly understand the construct of language aptitude and its relations with other factors. very few studies have analysed language aptitude in multilingual pedagogies contexts. candelier (2003, 2017), within the evlang project based on the éveil aux langues approach, administered a language the effect of multilingual pedagogies on language aptitude e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 3 aptitude test based on discrimination and memorization by listening and on syntax skills. primary school students were exposed to language awareness activities in languages not officially taught by the school and generally unfamiliar to the children for at least 35 hours. the impact of éveil aux langues activities was confirmed in a large majority of the sample (around 2000 students) for listening skills. the tasks consisted of: 1) listening to a target word, then a series of three words/sentences which could or could not contain the target word; 2) identifying speakers of the same unfamiliar language in oral conversations. however, the deconstruction-reconstruction task concerning syntax (i.e., after observing three utterances written in an unknown language whose translation is provided in the school language, the student had to deduce the syntactic form of a fourth statement) obtained lower results. the study also demonstrated that the number of teaching hours and the intensity of the application of the éveil aux langues approach contribute to a more positive evident effect on language aptitude. other studies investigated multilingual pedagogies, and especially translanguaging (garcı́a, johnson, & seltzer, 2017) in relation with metalinguistic awareness: some of them, assuming a qualitative perspective, underlined that students attending programs in which emergent bilingual students have been allowed to employ their entire language repertoires in cognitively engaging school activities (like reading, analysing, elaborating, and producing content-related texts) enhance interlinguistic comparisons and metalinguistic understandings of different writing systems (velasco & fialais, 2018). other studies, following a more quantitative orientation, showed that both majority and minority students exposed to multilingual instruction leveraging on the students’ entire linguistic repertoires have positive outcomes on the development of the ability to reflect on language functions and forms (hopp, kieseier, jakisch, sturm, & thoma, 2021). however, most studies related with multilingual pedagogies and translanguaging have focused on beneficial effects in terms of beliefs, attitude, and social inclusion (carbonara & scibetta, 2020; duarte, 2020; juvonen & källkvist, 2021). few studies until now have shown that a multiliteracy approach to education in superdiverse contexts can also lead to positive scholastic achievements. little and kirwan (2019), in the course of a long-term project based on multilingual pedagogies in a primary school in dublin described that, despite the large immigrant-background school population coming from primarily lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the school’s standardized test scores in english and mathematics have consistently been at or above the national average. the need to provide for more quantitative results in order to legitimize multilingual pedagogies within monoglossic instruction is slowly spreading, leading to new fields of investigation like literacy and metacognition (carbonara, scibetta, & torregrossa, in press). in this paper we decided to focus on language aptitude because it allows linguistic reflection to be investigated while avoiding the separate testing of languages by using monolingual standard tests for individual languages. the administration of a language-neutral aptitude test will target the core components of students’ ability to reflect on formal aspects of linguistic systems, regardless of their plural or monolingual repertoires, and this could also contribute to obtaining some valuable insight into which components of language aptitude are more sensitive to multilingual instruction. 2. the study: methods the aim of the study is to conduct a preliminary investigation to determine whether bilingual and monolingual lower secondary school students who have been continuously exposed to instructional practices based on multilingual pedagogies developed a better language aptitude compared to students attending the regular monolingual program. the context of this research is a lower secondary school in italy in which several classes implemented translanguaging pedagogy (see section 2.1). we investigated language aptitude employing the llama test (meara, 2005; see section 2.2). the participants (see section 2.3) are 67 lower secondary school students, divided into two groups according to their exposition to multilingual or monolingual practices in class. our research question is twofold: 1) have the students who were exposed to multilingual pedagogies developed a better general language aptitude? if so, in which llama sub-test did they perform better than students attending traditional monolingual instructional settings? 2) are there other conditions across the two groups that could have an impact on language aptitude (italian language competence, english language competence, ses)? carbonara e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 4 2.1. the context: the school and the multilingual pedagogies implemented the study was conducted at a lower secondary school in the town of serravalle scrivia, in the province of alessandria, which is in the piedmont region. alessandria has the second highest percentage of students from an immigrant background (17.5%) in the piedmont region, which is slightly above the national rate (10.3%, according to the italian ministry of education, 2021). most of the minority immigrant students in alessandria were born in italy (69.4%), a condition which can be associated with better competence in the italian language but also with the potential endangerment of the home language. in serravalle scrivia, 21.4% of the residents are foreigners, mostly coming from morocco, romania, albania, nigeria, sri lanka, ecuador, and india1. this demographic situation is reflected in the school population: in the only school in the town, “martiri della benedicta,” more than 40% of the students come from an immigrant background and are distributed differently across the educational levels and school complexes. a particularly high percentage is attending its kindergarten classes. since 2016, the school has belonged to the network of the “l’altroparlante” project carried out by the university for foreigners of siena (carbonara & scibetta, 2020) and ongoing in six schools in different italian regions. the project promotes learning strategies that are integrated into regular curricular activities based on multilingual pedagogies addressing both immigrant and native italian students. the “l’altroparlante” project combines the pluralistic approaches of the council of europe, and more specifically the “éveil aux langues” (candelier, 2012), with translanguaging pedagogy (garcía et al., 2017). several activities have been conducted within the project: annual teacher training; monthly meetings with teachers and educators to design and schedule multilingual activities; meetings with families about bilingualism and multilingual pedagogies; ethnographic and sociolinguistic fieldwork to investigate students’ language repertoires, uses, and attitudes; schoolscape reconstruction in order to make home languages, including dialects, more visible in symbolic, functional, and educational terms (carbonara, 2021). students’ multilingual repertoires are engaged in a variety of activities, according to their age: in lower secondary schools, which was the educational level analysed in this paper, students elaborate subjects’ contents through both italian and their home languages, targeting both lower and higher-order skills like recalling, defining, summarising, classifying, comparing, inferring, making judgments, planning, and producing (anderson et al., 2001). students are required to create multilingual products, which are usually multimodal combinations of texts, visual elements, audio-video materials, oral presentations, etc. (cummins & early, 2011). metalinguistic reflection is constantly stimulated drawing from frepa/carap descriptors (candelier, 2012), which underline the importance of the observation and the analysis of formal characteristics of languages. students are regularly engaged in explicit reflections regarding different properties of the languages in class and in activities based on making comparisons, identifying regularities and patterns, as well as thinking inductively and deductively in order to infer rules. these skills are usually specifically targeted by aptitude tests, including the llama test, which was adopted for this study. several studies throughout the “l’altroparlante” project have shown the positive effects of multilingual pedagogies in terms of students’ empowerment and motivation (carbonara & scibetta, 2020), and attitudes towards multilingualism and intercultural encounters (bellinzona & carbonara, 2021). more recently, the first investigation related with linguistic and cognitive aspects provided evidence of the advantages of this approach in narrative skills (carbonara et al., in press). most of the classes of the “martiri della benedicta” school of the serravalle scrivia school complex, ranging from kindergarten to lower secondary school, have been gradually included in the “l’altroparlante” project, while the classes belonging to other two school complexes located in other towns but still formally belonging to the same school, are not participating in the project. 2.2. materials and procedure: the llama test the study belongs to a more extensive investigation, which included several measures: – a language aptitude test, specifically the llama test (meara, 2005); – an italian metalinguistic test, specifically the tam-2 test (pinto, candilera, & iliceto, 2003); – a vocabulary test, specifically the italian version of the primary mental abilities test (pma) (rubini & rossi, 1982); – a sociolinguistic questionnaire (carbonara et al., in press). 1 data from http://demo.istat.it/ (last access on 12/12/2021) the effect of multilingual pedagogies on language aptitude e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 5 all the tests were administered to students and families in april-may 2021. in this preliminary study we will only focus on the data collected with the first instrument, the llama test, and address the individual data provided by the national institute for the evaluation of the education system (invalsi) for the linguistic and socioeconomic background as well as for each students’ competences and grades. llama is a computer-based test developed by the university of wales swansea, articulated in 4 subtests: vocabulary learning (test b), sound recognition (test d), sound-symbol correspondence (test e) and grammatical inferencing (test f). llama is based on the mlat test (see section 1), but over the years the design of the llama test has significantly diverged from mlat, both in terms of user interface and in the structure of the tests, including the design of a test which was not present in mlat (test b) (rogers et al., 2017). we were not able to find any publication related with the administration of llama test in italy before this research. we selected llama test as an effective instrument to investigate language aptitude in a multilingual context because this test is based on an unfamiliar language stemming from central american languages (meara, 2005), so neither italian native students nor bilingual students could have an advantage due to their linguistic repertoires. the test has been examined for validity in different studies: rogers and colleagues (2017) demonstrated that the llama test is language-neutral, which means that the l1 of the testtakers does not have any effect on test performance. a more recent investigation (mikawa & dejong, 2021) claimed that agglutinative language speakers, and japanese test-takers in particular, are at an advantage in test d and test f; however, the present study does not include participants speaking any agglutinative languages. even if the bilingual participants could achieve better results, there should not be statistically significant differences between the bilingual and monolingual students, and, finally, the test is not influenced by gender, formal education or logic training (rogers at al., 2016). bokander and bylund (2020), however, identified some test-internal deficiencies: test d items, for instance, can be perceived by test takers as very difficult, leading to guessing. the authors argued that the llama test would benefit from a process of revision to improve its internal validity, which meara and colleagues actually started to conduct a couple of months after the present study. in the following paragraphs i will briefly describe the different llama sub-tests. in test b (figure 1), there is an initial learning phase, in which the participant has a short time to examine 20 pictures representing different abstract objects and learn their names, which are displayed by clicking on the different pictures. at the end of the learning phase, the computer shows the name of each object one by one, and the participant has to click on the corresponding picture. in test d (figure 2), the test-taker has to listen to a series of short words in an unfamiliar language during the learning phase. in the test phase the participant has to listen to another series of short words and indicate, for each of them, whether the word was already included in the first series or not. figure 1. llama test b (meara, 2005) figure 2. llama test d (meara, 2005) carbonara e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 6 test e (figure 3) presents 24 syllables, which are transliterated into an unfamiliar alphabet. during the learning phase, the participant can click on the different syllables and listen to the corresponding sound. it is also possible to take written notes. later, the program plays a series of two-syllables words and displays two possible spellings. the test-taker has to click on the correct one. finally, in test f (figure 4) the participant firstly uses the time available to click on different buttons showing 20 abstract pictures of different geometric figures combinations, which are matched with corresponding short sentences that describe the picture. the test-taker can take notes and reflect on how the pictures and sentences are related in terms of syntactic and morphological aspects, like word order, singular and plural forms, prepositions, etc. during the testing phase, the computer shows a new set of pictures, with a combination of the previous elements, and two possible sentences describing the scene: the correct one has to be indicated by clicking on the right sentence. figure 3. llama test e (meara, 2005) figure 4. llama test f (meara, 2005) for each test the computer offers a result based on a percentage of accuracy (table 1). for tests d, e, and f, every mistake is penalised. in order to conduct statistical tests and to analyse the most frequent mistakes, we also adopted a scoring system attributing 1 point to each correct answer in this study. the maximum scores achievable by the participants for each test are 20 for test b, 30 for test d, 20 for test e, and 20 for test f. table 1 percentages of accuracy for each llama sub-tests test b test d test e test f poor score 0 20 % 0 – 10 % 0 – 15 % 0 – 15 % average score 25 – 45 % 15 – 35 % 20 – 45 % 20 – 45 % good score 50 – 70 % 40 – 60 % 50 – 65 % 50 – 65 % outstandingly good score 75 – 100 % 75 – 100 % 75 – 100 % 75 – 100 % the test was administered in a single individual session for each student. considering the general competence in the italian language (see section 2.3), the instructions were provided in italian only. the original llama test suggests different time spans for the learning phases of test b (2 minutes), test e (2 minutes), and test f (5 minutes). previous research regarding the llama test (rogers et al., 2016) showed that younger participants (10-11 years) performed significantly worse in test e compared to adult participants and could obtain generally lower results in the other sub-tests. moreover, rogers and colleagues (2016) demonstrated that allowing one additional minute in test e leads to better results, while, on the contrary, one additional minute in test f produces lower scores. considering these conditions and our participants, which were between 11 and 12 years old, we decided to allow 3 minutes for the learning phase in test e and to keep the the effect of multilingual pedagogies on language aptitude e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 7 suggested time span of 5 minutes for test f. regarding test b, rogers and colleagues (2016) showed that potential additional time does not have any impact on performance, but a younger age can influence the results, so also in this case we decided to allow 3 minutes instead of 2 in the learning phase. our hypothesis is that students engaged in multilingual pedagogical activities should display a higher language aptitude compared to their peers who did not have this opportunity, as a result of the language awareness and metalinguistic activities they are used to deal with. we are also interested in investigating whether other variables, like ses and students’ competence in italian and english, which are obtained through the invalsi scores, might influence the llama test results. 2.3. participants sixty-seven students (41 females) from five different classes attending the last year of lower secondary school (m age: 13.7) participated in the study. all students only attended lower secondary school at the “martiri della benedicta” school, and most of them had attended the same institute for their primary studies. the target group (tg) (n=32, 12 of them with an immigrant background) had been continuously exposed to multilingual pedagogies within the “l’altroparlante” project from the last year of primary school (5th grade) until the end of lower-middle school, and therefore continuously for 4 years, also through distance learning periods due to the covid emergency. the students in the tg attend two classes in the school complex of serravalle scrivia. the control group (cg) (n=35, six of them from an immigrant background) had been exposed to the traditional monoglossic approach mainly involving the use of italian only. the students in the cg attended two classes of the two school complexes in the other towns that were not included in the “l’altroparlante” project. both groups were taught three weekly hours of english language and three weekly hours of french language during their lower secondary studies. it should be noticed that the tg initially included two other students from an immigrant background who were absent at the time of data collection, while the cg initially included three other students with an immigrant background who were excluded from the research by the teachers because they reported special educational needs. the languages spoken by the students from an immigrant background across the two groups including romanian, arabic (moroccan dialect), spanish, albanian, polish, punjabi, and ukrainian. we used the data provided by the national institute for the evaluation of the education system (invalsi) to investigate potential differences between the two groups in terms of socio-economic status (ses) and competence in italian language and in english reading and listening. we also considered and compared their average school grades (gpa) on a scale from 1 to 10 at the end of the school year. in a scale from low-ses (1) to high-ses (4), the tg has a mean ses of 2.34 (sd=1.03) and the cg has a mean ses of 2.60 (sd=1.21), however by conducting the non-parametric kruskal-wallis tests we can observe that this difference is not statistically significant (χ2(1) = .872, p = .350). table 2 shows the descriptive statistics for the invalsi test results and gpa across the two groups. even if the mean scores across the four measures are slightly different, there are no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of italian competence (t(65) = -1.22, p = .227), english reading skills (t(65) = -.328, p = .744), english listening skills (t(65) = -.133, p = .894), and gpa (χ2(1) = .002, p = .969). we can conclude that the two groups are comparable in terms of ses and italian and english competence. table 2 descriptive statistics for invalsi test results and gpa for the tg (exposed to multilingual pedagogies) and the cg (exposed to traditional education) target group (n=32) control group (n=35) m sd m sd invalsi – italian test 204.26 38.50 215.58 37.44 invalsi – english reading 216.48 35.81 219.26 33.46 invalsi – english listening 209.44 33.13 210.41 26.55 gpa 8.16 1.50 8.20 1.71 consent from the students’ parents was collected at the beginning of the study, including privacy authorization forms for minors regarding the recording and reproduction of audio-visual materials. carbonara e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 8 3. results table 3 shows the descriptive statistics regarding the scores students obtained in the four llama tests across the two groups. we also computed the results in order to obtain the total llama score. the table includes the average percentages of correct answers according to the interpretation of the llama test manual. table 3 descriptive statistics for llama tests and average percentages of correct answers target group (n=32) control group (n=35) general score average % general score average % test b (vocabulary learning task) m = 11.00 55% m = 11.34 56.7% sd = 3.35 sd = 4.15 test d (sound recognition task) m = 23.00 40.1% m = 23.06 40.2% sd = 2.85 sd = 3.02 test e (sound-symbol correspondence task) m = 18.31 83.1% m = 17.34 77,4% sd = 1.49 sd = 1.93 test f (grammatical inferencing task) m = 14.38 44.6% m = 12.91 30.8% sd = 2.57 sd = 2.83 total llama score m = 66.68 m = 64.65 sd = 6.89 sd = 8.22 for test b (vocabulary learning task) and for test d (sound recognition task), we can observe that the mean scores of the tg group, exposed to multilingual pedagogies, and the cg, attending a regular monolingual program are very similar. according to the llama interpretation scale, on both tests both groups obtained a good score. for test e (sound-symbol correspondence task) and test f (grammatical inferencing task) we notice that the differences between the two groups in scores are more evident: the tg performed better in both tests, even if the two groups fall under the same categories based on the percentages of correct answers of the llama interpretation scale (“outstandingly good score” for test e and “average score” for test f). the overall score achieved by the tg is slightly higher compared to the cg. we conducted a series of t-tests in order to understand if there are significant differences in llama tests between the two groups. firstly, analysing the total llama score, we did not find a statistically significant difference between the two groups (t(65)= 1.08, p = .280). investigating the single tests, we did not find any statistically significant difference between the tg and the cg also for test b (t(65) = -.369, p = .713) and for test d (t(65) = -.079, p = .937), thus we can affirm that students performed equally in the vocabulary learning task and in the sound recognition task. however, the two groups scored significantly differently in test f (t(65) = 2.19, p = .032, cohen's d = 0.54). since for test e the normality assumption was not met (the shapiro-wilk test significance value was greater than 0.05), we conducted a non-parametric test, the independent-samples mann-whitney u test, which resulted to be slightly significant (u = 404, p = .046). thus, students who conducted learning activities engaging their multilingual repertoires over a long period of time performed significantly better in the sound-symbol correspondence task and in the grammatical inferencing task compared to students who were exposed to mainly monolingual instruction. even if the llama test should not be sensitive to the monolingual or bilingual backgrounds of the testtakers, we decide to examine italian students and students with an immigrant background in terms of their performance in the two llama sub-tests in which we found the tg to be at an advantage. table 4 displays the descriptive statistics related to italian students and students with an immigrant background across the two groups in test e and in test f. the effect of multilingual pedagogies on language aptitude e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 9 table 4 descriptive statistics for italian students and students with an immigrant background target group control group italian immigrant background italian immigrant background test e m =18.45 sd =1.35 m =18.08 sd =1.73 m =17.34 sd =2.02 m =17.33 sd =1.63 test f m =14.35 sd =2.81 m =14.42 sd =2.23 m =12.66 sd =2.84 m =14.17 sd =2.78 considering the small number of students in these sub-groups, we decided not to perform any inferential tests. however, we can still notice that, from a mere numeric perspective, the italian students in the cg obtained a lower score compared to their peers from an italian background in both test e and test f. we conducted nonparametric spearman correlation to investigate if ses has an impact on the llama test score and sub-tests scores in the two groups. we used a nonparametric correlation because ses is not normally distributed across both groups. however, we did not find any significant correlation between ses and llama test results for neither the tg nor the cg. we also computed a series of parametric person’s and nonparametric spearman correlations within the two groups in order to highlight possible patterns of relations between students’ competences in italian, english reading and english listening from the invalsi results, and llama test scores (table 5). in the appendix, we also presented a table (table s1) including inter-correlations between the llama tests and intercorrelations between the invalsi tests across the two groups. table 5 pearson’s or spearman correlation coefficients for llama tests scores and invalsi scores in the tg and in the cg target group (n=32) control group (n=35) invalsi ita invalsi eng (r) invalsi eng (l) invalsi ita invalsi eng (r) invalsi eng (l) test b pearson correlation p .253 .162 .283 .117 .288 .110 .165 .344 .343* .044 .285 .097 test d pearson correlation p .222 .222 .261 .149 .225 .216 .257 .135 .536** .001 .456** .006 test e spearman correlation p .233 .200 .114 .533 .202 .268 .399* .018 .354* .037 .451** .007 test f pearson correlation p .386* .029 .320 .074 .386* .029 .468** .005 .523** .001 .456** .006 total llama pearson correlation p .414* .019 .397* .024 .436* .013 .434** .009 .638** .000 .572** .000 * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level. ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. results show that for both the tg and the cg the scores obtained in the invalsi tests in italian language are correlated with the llama f score and with the total llama score, and the coefficients indicate slightly higher correlations for the cg. moreover, for the students of the cg a high score in the invalsi tests in italian language is also associated with a better score in test e. carbonara e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 10 regarding the invalsi test in english (reading), for the cg there are significant correlations with each llama sub-test and the total llama score, while for the tg there is a significant correlation only with the total llama score and it is quite weaker (r=.397) than the resulting coefficient for the cg (r=.638). also, for the invalsi test in english (listening), for the cg there a significant correlation with every llama sub-test except llama b and with the total llama score, while for the tg there is a significant correlation with test f and with the total score with lower correlation coefficients. in order to understand these different patterns of relations between the invalsi test results and the llama test results within the two groups, we conducted a series of multiple linear regressions employing spss 26. assumption of normal distribution of data residuals was assessed observing the p-p plot, while the assumption of homoscedasticity was assessed with scatterplots. assumption of multicollinearity among predictors was assessed by means of the variance inflation factor (vif) < 10. assumption of independence of residuals was assessed by means of the durbin-watson test (between 1 and 3) (field, 2009). for the tg, any invalsi result (competence in italian, competence in english listening and competence in english reading) predicts llama test b, d, and e scores. only competence in english listening significantly predicts the test f score (β=.030) in a model including the three invalsi measures as predictors with a forward selection of coefficients (f(1, 30) = 5.263, p = .029, r2 = .149), and the total llama score (β=.091) in a model including the same predictors with forward method (f(1, 30) = 7.054, p = .013, r2 = .190). for the cg, regression analysis showed that our model significantly predicted test b score when including only english reading competence (f(1, 33) = 4.402, p = .044, r2 = .118, β=.043). english reading competence is also the only significant predictor of test d score (f(1, 33) = 13.31, p = .001, r2 = .287, β=.049), of test f score (f(1, 33) = 13.44, p = .001, r2 = .274, β=.045), and of the total llama score (f(1, 33) = 22.710, p < .001, r2 = .408, β=.157). english listening competence is the only significant predictor of test e score (f(1, 33) = 7.416, p = .010, r2 = .183, β= 10.76). 4. discussion and conclusion the study investigated language aptitude in lower secondary school students, attending a public school in italy. the target group (tg) was exposed to a combination of éveil aux langues activities and translanguaging pedagogy implemented at a curricular level for four years, while the control group (cg) attended regular education, which is mainly rooted on a monolingual approach, except for the curricular english and french classes. the research included a larger set of instruments and data which are still being analysed, thus this study represents a preliminary step into the entire investigation. for instance, we still lack more detailed information regarding immigrant students’ linguistic background, which can offer a clearer interpretation of their degrees of bilingualism in relation to their language aptitude. relying on the data offered by the national institute for the evaluation of the education system (invalsi) we identified students’ origin, and we retrieved information regarding ses, italian language competence, english language competence, and general gpa. we could not find any differences between the two groups in relation to these measures; thus, we can assume that the students are comparable. in order to analyse students’ language aptitude, we adopted the llama test (meara, 2005). our study attempted to contribute to the field of language learning aptitude by supporting the view that aptitude may change as a result of training (singleton, 2017). to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study challenging the stability assumption of language aptitude in a context where multilingual pedagogies have been implemented. our first research question concerned whether students exposed to multilingual pedagogies showed a higher language aptitude and in which specific sub-components. in test b (vocabulary learning task) and in test d (sound recognition task) we could not find a statistically significant difference between the two groups. for both tests we suppose that other factors could have played a role, in particular individual differences in working memory processes (yalçın et al., 2016): test b taps into visual memory while test d taps into auditory memory and both demand the participant to store information and retrieve it later. moreover, test d requires the ability to recognise patterns in spoken language and this can also be influenced by the amount of exposure to different phonological systems. even if there is multiple use of collective language repertoires in classes where translanguaging pedagogy is applied, and therefore all students listen to texts in unfamiliar languages and are involved in activities concerning languages they do not know, students do not formally acquire other languages. it is probably rather a matter of incidental learning, which probably leaves fewer profound traces from a cognitive point of view than in contexts of bilingual learning or traditional teaching of a foreign language. we should also consider that both groups experimented more than six months of distance learning during the the effect of multilingual pedagogies on language aptitude e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 11 year before the data collection was carried out because of the covid-19 emergency, and this implied a reduction of multilingual activities, in particular those related with listening, for the tg. however, in test e (sound-symbol correspondence task) and in test f (grammatical inferencing task) we could observe that the tg performed statistically better than the cg. these results meet our expectations: both tests rely less on memory and are grounded on explicit reasoning (bokander & bylund, 2020). test e requires students to understand sound-symbol correspondence and decode the words heard in the testing phase by relying on what was understood regarding the phonological system of the target language. test f, which was the most difficult in the battery, requires students to compare language patterns in order to deduce, internalise, and finally apply the rules in different combinations to “translate” the sentences. these kinds of strategies are similar to the ones the students in the tg are usually encouraged to employ during metalinguistic focuses that are proposed by teachers to analyse their peers’ language systems. our second research question was about possible variables influencing language aptitude across the two groups. socioeconomic background (ses) influences neither the tg’s, nor the cg’s language aptitudes. analysing the relations between italian language competence, english reading competence, and english listening competence, as assessed through the invalsi tests, we found a variegated pattern of correlations and predictions. generally, it seems that the cg’s english competence is strongly associated with language aptitude, thus we can deduct that students in the cg rely on their english knowledge more than students in the tg. this is particularly evident for test e, which does not show any relation with italian language competence or english language competence for the tg, while for the cg it is correlated to each invalsi result. we can explain this by hypothesizing that, for the cg, the primary source of multilingualism and metalinguistic reflection is represented by the foreign languages studied at school, like english, while for the tg this source is also represented by all the other linguistic inputs provided in a context of pluralistic instruction, and for this reason the english language alone does not play a prominent role. in fact, in conducting a series of stepwise/forward regressions across the two groups, we noticed that english competence (listening or reading) is generally a significant predictor of each llama test for the cg, while for the tg english competence is a predictor only for test f. italian language competence is not a significant predictor of any test for either group. to conclude, we are aware that this study is still exploratory: more data are needed to gain a more insightful view on language aptitude and multilingual pedagogies. we also know that this is not always possible, because of the nature of this educational context: not many schools 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(2004). the story behind the modern language aptitude test: an interview with john b. carroll (1916-2003). language assessment quarterly, 1(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15434311laq0101_4. velasco, patricia, & fialais, valérie (2018). moments of metalinguistic awareness in a kindergarten class: translanguaging for simultaneous biliterate development. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 21(6), 760–774. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1214104. carbonara e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 14 yalçın, sebnem, çeçen, sevdeger, & erçetin, gülcan (2016). the relationship between aptitude and working memory: an instructed sla context. language awareness, 25(1–2), 144–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2015.1122026. the effect of multilingual pedagogies on language aptitude e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 15 appendix table s1 inter-correlations between the llama tests and inter-correlations between the invalsi tests across tg and cg. target group (n=32) control group (n=35) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. test b pearson correlation p .084 .646 .484** .005 .150 .414 .253 .162 .283 .117 .288 .110 .314 .067 .145 .404 .350* .040 .165 .344 .343* .044 .285 .097 2. test d pearson correlation p .084 .646 .137 .456 .505** .003 .222 .222 .261 .149 .225 .216 .314 .067 .052 .768 .402* .017 .257 .135 .536** .001 .456** .006 3. test e spearman correlation p .527** .002 .143 .436 .199 .274 .233 .200 .114 .533 .202 .268 .210 .227 .120 .491 .330 .053 .399* .018 .354* .037 .451** .007 4. test f pearson correlation p .150 .414 .505** .003 .221 .225 .386* .029 .320 .074 .386* .029 .350* .040 .402* .017 .282 .101 .468** .005 .523** .001 .456** .006 5. invalsi ita pearson correlation p .253 .162 .222 .222 .252 .164 .386* .029 .695** .000 .627** .000 .165 .344 .257 .135 .397* .018 .468** .005 .753** .000 .623** .000 6. invalsi eng (r) pearson correlation p .283 .117 .261 .149 .150 .414 .320 .074 .695** .000 .839** .000 .343* .044 .536** .001 .364* .032 .523** .001 .753** .000 .799** .000 7. invalsi eng (l) pearson correlation p .288 .110 .225 .216 .273 .131 .386* .029 .627** .000 .839** .000 .285 .097 .456** .006 .428* .010 .456** .006 .623** .000 .799** .000 * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level. ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. carbonara e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 1–16 16 valentina carbonara, università per stranieri di siena carbonara@unistrasi.it en valentina carbonara completed her phd in linguistics and second language acquisition in 2017 at the università per stranieri di siena. she taught italian as a second language in different schools in italy and abroad. as a post doctoral scholar, she collaborates with bilingualism matters (siena branch), and with her colleague, andrea scibetta, she coordinates the project, "l'altroparlante: translanguaging educational practices for the management of the superdiversity in class." her research interests are teaching italian as a second language, early language education, clil, bilingualism, and translanguaging. es valentina carbonara completó su doctorado en lingüística y adquisición de segundas lenguas en 2017 en la università per stranieri di siena. ha enseñado italiano como segunda lengua en diferentes escuelas de italia y del extranjero. en la actualidad, colabora con bilingualism matters (sede de siena), y coordina junto con su colega andrea scibetta el proyecto "l'altroparlante: prácticas educativas de translingüismo para la gestión de la superdiversidad en el aula". sus intereses de investigación son la enseñanza del italiano como segunda lengua, la educación temprana en lenguas, aicle, el bilingüismo y el translingüismo. it valentina carbonara ha conseguito il dottorato in linguistica e acquisizione di lingue seconde nel 2017 presso l’università per stranieri di siena. ha insegnato l’italiano come lingua seconda in diverse scuole in italia e all’estero. come assegnista di ricerca, collabora con il centro bilinguismo conta (sede di siena) e insieme ad andrea scibetta, coordina il progetto “l’altroparlante: pratiche educative translanguaging per la gestione delle superdiversità in classe”. i suoi interessi di ricerca sono: insegnamento dell’italiano come lingua seconda, apprendimento precoce delle lingue straniere, clil, bilinguismo e translanguaging. e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 1, april 2022, 91-121 issn 2376-905x ttp://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.1.265 www.e-journall.org © spaliviero 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. teaching italian as a second language through digital storytelling: students’ perceptions towards izi.travel camilla spaliviero ca’ foscari university of venice received 13 november 2021; accepted after revisions 25 february 2022 abstract en the use of technology-enhanced language learning, representing an urgent issue due to the covid-19 pandemic, has also been promoted by many studies in second language acquisition. nevertheless, research in this field is only partially developed for the teaching of italian as a second language (l2) within the university context and for investigating students’ perceptions. this article presents an action research project on the use of izi.travel, a website housing more than 15,000 audio guides for touring various sites in cities around the world. the aim of the study is to contribute to developing didactic practices relative to italian as an l2 through digital storytelling, in order to raise and foster students’ linguistic and digital skills. participants were a small group of students studying italian as an l2 as part of a master’s program at an italian university. data were collected through a questionnaire, a focus group, and students’ multimodal artifacts. results show the positive impact of project participation on students’ attitudes and perceived learning outcomes, as well as improvements in linguistic, cultural, environmental, and digital competences. key words: teaching italian as an l2, digital storytelling, izi.travel, students’ perceptions, action research es el uso de la tecnología para la adquisición lingüística es promovido por varios estudios, y constituye una cuestión urgente en el contexto de la pandemia del covid-19. sin embargo, este tema de investigación se ha desarrollado solo parcialmente respecto a la enseñanza del italiano como l2 en la universidad y a las percepciones del alumnado. en este artículo se presenta un proyecto de investigación-acción sobre el uso de izi.travel, un sitio web que tiene más de 15,000 audioguías para recorrer varios sitios de ciudades de todo el mundo. izi.travel se implementó con un pequeño grupo de estudiantes de italiano como l2 matriculados en un máster internacional de una universidad italiana. el objetivo del estudio es desarrollar prácticas didácticas del italiano como l2 a través de la narrativa digital para fomentar las habilidades lingüísticas y digitales del alumnado. los datos se recogieron a través de un cuestionario, un grupo focal y los productos multimodales del alumnado. los resultados muestran el impacto positivo de la participación en el proyecto en las actitudes del alumnado y en sus resultados de aprendizaje percibidos, así como mejoras en sus competencias lingüística, cultural, ambiental y digital. palabras clave: enseñar italiano l2, narrativa digital, izi.travel, percepciones de los estudiantes, investigación-acción it l’uso delle tecnologie per l’apprendimento linguistico è promosso da diversi studi e si è andato imponendo come questione urgente ne contesto della pandemia covid-19. tuttavia, in quest’ambito risultano ancora scarsi gli studi sulla didattica dell’italiano l2 nel contesto universitario e dalla prospettiva degli studenti. su queste basi, nell’articolo si presenta un progetto di ricerca-azione riguardante l’uso di izi.travel, un sito web che contiene più di 15,000 audioguide per visitare le città di tutto il mondo. il progetto è stato pilotato con un piccolo gruppo di apprendenti di italiano l2 iscritti in un master internazionale di un’università italiana. l’obiettivo dello studio è quello di contribuire allo sviluppo di pratiche didattiche sull’italiano l2 attraverso il digital storytelling per promuovere le competenze linguistiche e digitali degli apprendenti. i dati sono stati raccolti attraverso un questionario, un focus group e i prodotti multimodali degli studenti. i risultati rivelano che l’impatto della partecipazione nel progetto sugli atteggiamenti degli/delle apprendenti e sui risultati dell’apprendimento percepiti è stato positivo poiché migliorano le competenze linguistiche, culturali, ambientali e digitali. parole chiave: insegnare italiano l2, digital storytelling, izi.travel, percezioni degli studenti, ricerca-azione  camilla spaliviero, ca’ foscari university of venice camilla.spaliviero@unive.it spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 92 1. introduction the development of the younger generation’s linguistic, digital, and intercultural skills is one of the priorities of the european union (eu). according to the policies of multilingualism 1 and innovation in education2, the eu supports initiatives regarding language learning and digital media aimed at fostering the development of linguistic diversity, digital literacy, and innovative pedagogical practices in the educational system. in particular, the council conclusions on multilingualism and the development of language competences promote plurilingualism and intercultural dialogue (council of europe, 2014); the digital education action plan (2021-2027) defines guidelines for a high-performing digital ecosystem in education (european commission, 2020); and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development goals includes the achievement of quality education (united nations, 2015). moreover, the use of technology-enhanced language learning represents an urgent issue, since the covid-19 pandemic compels us to rethink education from a digital perspective. therefore, it is essential to develop epistemological reflections and methodological proposals that encourage the use of information and communication technologies (ict) for the teaching of foreign and second languages (fl/l2). within this framework, several studies proved the linguistic, technological, and intercultural benefits of using digital storytelling (dst) for second language acquisition (sla) (jamissen, hardy, nordkvelle, & pleasants, 2017; lambert & hessler, 2018). dst is an effective learning tool, since it enhances students’ communicative skills by inviting them to design, create, and present digital stories. it further develops their information, visual, and technology literacy by asking them to incorporate data, communicate through images, and digitise media content (robin, 2006). moreover, dst reinforces students’ interpersonal abilities through group work involving different ethnic backgrounds, with students sharing and negotiating ideas (benick, 2012; trimboli, 2020). to date, dst research has centered on the experimentation of digital tools for sla connected to urban spaces, the use of literary texts, university students’ perceptions, and the analysis of their multimodal artifacts. dst can be integrated with the didactic use of linguistic landscape, which represent the urban signs of a territory. they can be integrated since it enhances language acquisition, reflections on the interactions between the messages and the context, and the knowledge of a given geographic area (malinowski, 2015; shohamy & gorter, 2009). in addition, the combination of dst and literature in the fl/l2 classroom promotes students’ linguistic, digital, and intercultural skills by using ict as literary multimodal devices for teamwork (maddin, 2014), especially within outdoor lesson plans based on literary texts (bataller, 2013). finally, investigations into students’ digital stories and perceptions on the use of dst for sla have revealed stronger motivation, improved vocabulary, grammar, and oral proficiency, an increased autonomy in the writing process, and a stronger sense of community (chiang, 2020; herrera ramírez, 2013; pascual lence, 2013; kallinikou & nicolaidou, 2019; lee, 2014; raffone & monti, 2019; towndrow & kogut, 2020). studies on the use of dst for sla carried out in italy have dealt primarily with nursery and primary school students (bertolini, 2017; corio & pacifico, 2019; zini, contini, bertolini, & manera, 2020), as well as with university students of english and italian as a fl (raffone & monti, 2019; sottilotta & cannamela, 2019). however, research on students’ perceptions and multimodal artifacts of dst in the university context is still underexplored. moreover, studies on linguistic landscape have investigated the relationship between italian and the other languages of the urban scene involving international university students (bagna, gallina, & machetti, 2018), but did not involve digital media. finally, research combining italian as an l2, literature, and dst is limited, and research on izi.travel, a website housing more than 15,000 audio guides for touring various sites in cities around the world, have focused on its potentialities for cultural heritage promotion (bonacini, 2018) while ignoring the benefits for sla. against this backdrop, the article illustrates a project aimed at fostering the linguistic and digital skills of students aged 20-30 by developing didactic practices in the teaching of italian as an l2 through dst. due to the covid-19 pandemic, it was not possible to organise outdoor lesson plans either connected to the urban signs of a territory or based on literary texts. thus, in line with the eu priorities and in order to contribute to the above-mentioned gaps, i developed a classroom-based research project that combined the experimentation of izi.travel, the reading of a literary text set in an italian city, and inquiry into students’ perceptions. on this basis, the article will first consider the conceptual underpinnings of using dst for sla, and explore the linguistic and technological benefits of using izi.travel. second, it will present an action research project dealing with the teaching of italian as an l2 through izi.travel that has been piloted with a small group of international 1 https://education.ec.europa.eu/focus-topics/improving-quality-equity/multilingualism 2 https://education.ec.europa.eu/education-levels/higher-education/innovation-in-education https://education.ec.europa.eu/focus-topics/improving-quality-equity/multilingualism https://education.ec.europa.eu/education-levels/higher-education/innovation-in-education students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 93 university students. third, it will analyse and discuss the data collected through a questionnaire, a focus group, and students’ multimodal artifacts in order to understand the impact of project participation on students’ attitudes and perceived learning outcomes. although the reduced sample size and the single-class study limit the broader applicability of the conclusions, the findings confirm the innovative aspects of the pedagogical approach, and they suggest lines of research to be investigated in the future. 2. the conceptual underpinnings the conceptual underpinnings of dst for sla include the evolution of the concepts of literacy and multimodality, together with the task-based approach. on the one hand, the gradual advancement of ict, which has been further stimulated by the current pandemic situation, has progressively welded daily communication to the digital environment. within the educational system, this has led to the evolution of the concept of literacy (from a single to a plural definition), and to the reconsideration of digital literacies and multimodality in l2 instruction in the context of covid-19 (borro, conti, & fiorenza, 2021; conti, 2021). on the other hand, dst adheres completely to both the objectives and the structure of the task-based approach to fl/l2 learning. 2.1. digital literacies and multimodality in second language instruction in the last decades, literacy has broadened from its traditional and single definition, corresponding to the ability to read and write, to the new, plural terms of “multiliteracies” and “new literacies,” involving a wider set of practices (chiang, 2020; lam, 2004). in an increasingly globalised and digitised world, the notion of ‘multiliteracies’ include both linguistic and other semiotic resources (such as films, posters, and paintings) to represent visual, audial, gestural, spatial, and tactile elements of communication (lotherington & jenson, 2011). the term ‘new literacies’ includes the use of multiple modes of communication and digital media (such as social platforms, fan fiction, and videogames) through the development of technology-mediated literacy practices (warner & dupuy, 2018). in this respect, the use of literary texts in the fl/l2 classroom adds an important poetic and sensory element, since it fosters the improvement not just of linguistic and literary skills, but also of environmental awareness and digital competence. for example, literature can deal with ecological issues, interact with the social and cultural context, and raise environmental consciousness (iovino, cesaretti, & past, 2018). moreover, ict not only serves as literary tools, reproducing and disseminating the written texts and its adaptations (such as movies and songs), but, above all, works as literary multimodal devices (hetland, 2016).to sum up, in contemporary times, a comprehensive notion of literacies corresponds to the “ability to read and write at a level whereby individuals can effectively understand and use written communication in all media (print or electronic), including digital literacy” (valtin et al., 2016, p. 3). within this context, digital literacies represent 21st century literacy (brown, bryan, & brown, 2005) which is defined as “the ability to understand media (as most mediums are digitalized), to search and think critically about retrievable information (with the widespread use of the internet) and be able to communicate with others through a variety of digital tools and applications” (ferrari, 2012, p. 16). as a result, becoming literate in an l2 means developing linguistic, cognitive, and technical competences to find, understand, select, create, and share information using ict. according to recent research, digital literacies, multimodality, and dst are closely connected (chiang, 2020; robin, 2016; thang et al., 2014). dst is a multi-literacy approach that renewed the traditional storytelling process by introducing the use of digital tools and resources to combine text, images, and sound with the aim of supporting the educational process (lambert & hessler, 2018). first of all, dst fosters the teaching of media literacies. in fact, it strengthens various aspects of literacies, such as writing, organization, and interpersonal skills in defining and presenting a personal point of view in a script, managing the overall aspects of the project (materials, time, tasks), and cooperating with classmates (ohler, 2008; robin, 2006). moreover, international studies promote the use of dst as an effective learning tool for sla, since it encourages students’ motivation, the achievement of linguistic and rhetorical gains in listening, written and oral production, cultural debate development, and multimodal creativity (castañeda, 2013; oskoz & elola, 2016; sadik, 2008; vinogradova, linville, & bickel, 2011). with respect to this, oskoz and elola (2016) stated that “the development of new digital literacies is at the heart of many current digital storytelling studies” (p. 165). lotherington and jenson (2011) affirmed: literate engagement in the interactive, multimodal genres created in digital space engages the participant in dynamic, multidimensional communication, (potentially) involving social interaction, haptic activation, physical coordination, visual design, modal complexity (e.g., spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 94 multiple language engagement, musical accompaniment, and animation), dynamic, collaborative text construction, and alphabetic literacy (pp. 227-228). finally, ohler (2008) wrote that dst is the perfect vehicle to integrate traditional and emerging literacies: with dst, good old-fashioned, clear, expository writing is the key. (…) dst also involves, whenever possible, other literacies such as art and speaking, as well as writing and digital production. the actual digital story is the tip of the iceberg, below which are a number of artifacts that can be used to assess traditional literacy, including planning documents, scripted narratives, treatments, story tables, storyboards, and self-assessments, as well as music, art, recorded oral presentations, and other prized examples of student work (p. 12). 2.2. the task-based approach for digital storytelling a task involves a series of different problem-posing activities that require students to use various cognitive and communicative procedures (oral and written comprehension, production, manipulation, and interaction) in the fl/l2 in order to express meaning, as they would do in the real world (ellis, 2003; nunan, 2004). according to ellis (2009), a fl/l2 task should include the following features: the primary focus should be on ‘meaning’ (by which it is meant that learners should be mainly concerned with processing the semantic and pragmatic meaning of utterances). there should be some kind of ‘gap’ (i.e., a need to convey information, to express an option or to infer meaning). learners should largely rely on their own resources (linguistic and non-linguistic) in order to complete the activity. there is a clearly defined outcome other than the use of language (i.e., the language serves as the means to achieving the outcome, not as an end in its own right) (p. 223). in line with this, the final product of dst are digital stories (ds) that combine text, images, and sound to convey different meanings, dealing with personal, historical, and socio-political issues, that engage students in both traditional and innovative ways (researching, writing, interviewing, as well as using graphics, animation, and music) (oskoz & elola, 2016). as for the structure, the task-based approach is divided into the main sequential phases of: 1) pre-task: presenting the topic, the objectives, the expected results, the work methods, and the linguistic and non-linguistic processes required to complete the task. 2) task: developing the task by working individually, in pairs, and in groups, and by presenting it to the classroom. 3) post-task: focusing on fl/l2 specific forms that emerged in the previous phases (willis, 1996). in accordance with this, dst projects are generally structured into the consecutive stages of: 1) content development: collecting information (interviews, journals, websites). 2) written text: focusing on grammar, vocabulary, coherence, cohesion. 3) images: gathering and analysis of images. 4) oral text: rehearsing the pronunciation. 5) technology training: learning to use the ds software, audio, and images softwares, analysis of ds. 6) in-class presentation: presenting the final ds (oskoz & elola, 2016, p. 161). 3. using izi.travel for second language acquisition through digital storytelling izi.travel is a free dst platform to create both indoor and outdoor audio guides, for a museum and a city tour respectively. it does not require specialised technical knowledge or hardware, except for a personal students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 95 computer, a smart phone, and an internet connection. the procedures for using this platform are explained in a simple and intuitive manner in the izi.travel official website3 and youtube account4. 3.1. izi.travel, digital literacies, and multimodality using izi.travel in dst projects for sla contributes to developing the wide variety of skills included in the current multi-faceted notion of literacies (lee, 2014; oskoz & elola, 2016). the connection between the need to support digital literacies and multimodality in l2 instruction and the learning objectives of using izi.travel in dst projects for sla is shown in table 1. table 1 izi.travel: literacies and learning objectives literacies learning objectives of izi.travel research skills identifying the aims and the content of the audio guide organisation skills managing the time to create the audio guide selecting and synthesising information producing the materials presentation skills finding the best way to present the digital story language skills writing the scripts reading the scripts aloud reading or listening to peers’ short stories speaking about one’s own multimodal artifact: presenting it or sharing it as a group work technology skills using the digital tool to digitise content using other digital recording audio programs and cameras to digitise content using editing applications communicating with the digital community creativity skills developing critical thinking skills training problem-solving abilities integrating personal elements in the multimodal artifacts assessment skills gaining experience in self-evaluation gaining experience in peer-evaluation interpersonal skills working individually, in pairs, and in groups enhancing interaction abilities: respecting roles, asking questions, listening to each other, expressing ideas, constructing common narratives increasing the sense of community to train interpersonal skills, students can work either individually or collectively according to the personal or cultural purposes of their multimodal artifacts. nevertheless, the two approaches can also be integrated by alternating plenary discussions and individual work aimed to reach a shared objective, the final digital product. 3.2. izi.travel and the task-based approach creating an audio guide with izi.travel requires implementing a process-oriented approach to guide students through their training in multimodal skills. the correspondence between the task-based approach in l2 instruction and the steps to create an audio guide with izi.travel are presented in table 2. table 2 3 https://izi.travel/en 4 https://www.youtube.com/channel/ucvidztwmbxuj3harkziaihg https://izi.travel/en https://www.youtube.com/channel/ucvidztwmbxuj3harkziaihg spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 96 izi.travel: stages and tasks stage tasks to create an audio guide with izi.travel 1) planning choosing the type of audio guide to produce selecting the exhibits in a museum or the points of interest of a city 2) writing stories writing short, colloquial, and easily readable scripts associating the scripts with the selected items or places 3) recording audio recording the scripts by using a default recording program on a smart phone reading the scripts aloud in a place without echo or background noise transferring the files to a computer editing the file by using free digital programs (such as audacity) 4) making images taking original photographs to associate with the selected objects or places transferring the photographs to a computer using the photographs for every item or location 5) registration registering on the izi.travel platform: indicating personal details, accepting license terms and conditions, and setting the password 6) audio guide creation choosing between a museum and a city tour entering general information (the museum or city tour name, country, the guide language etc.) including a short description of the audio guide, the audio recording of the script, and one or more photographs uploading the whole set of data (scripts, audio, images) to the platform when creating an audio guide with izi.travel, it is essential that the written stories are short (maximum length: half a page), written in a colloquial language, and easy to read to gain users’ attention and keep them involved. moreover, the pictures should be original photographs to avoid any copyright issues. finally, the visibility of the audio guides can be either accessible to everyone or reserved for the authorised users. users can enter the tour through a password that automatically generates when choosing this option. 4. the project, “venice is...” following the conceptual underpinnings of using dst for sla and the teaching potentialities of izi.travel, i designed and implemented a project to enhance students’ multiliteracy skills in italian as an l2 by creating a digital city tour of venice. the project, entitled “venice is…”, followed the structure of the taskbased approach. it was divided into the sequential stages of a traditional dst project, and required the use of izi.travel in most of its phases. the purpose was to train students in the whole set of skills defining the current notion of literacies through the design, the creation, and the presentation of their multimodal artifacts referred to the city they were living in. 4.1. the context i carried out the project with a small group of international university students of intermediate level in italian enrolled in the master’s in management of cultural assets and activities (mabac) at ca’ foscari university of venice. during the 1st semester of the a. y. 2020-2021, the students attended a 44-hour course of italian as an l2 with me as the teacher, organised in collaboration with the dante alighieri society of venice. in total, 20 hours have been dedicated to implementing the project. in normal circumstances, this course fosters language and culture acquisition within formal and informal contexts, such as visiting the venetian museums. due to the covid-19 pandemic, it has not been possible to organise either italian as an l2 activities to be taken part in combination with the museum visits (sederberg, 2013), or language and cultural itineraries through venice by exploiting the didactic potentialities of the linguistic landscape approach (bagna, gallina, & machetti, 2018; malinowski, 2015;), and of the literary texts associated with the territory (bataller, 2013). students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 97 i, therefore, decided to design and implement a project aimed at sla through dst. the project was called “venice is...” because it dealt with both the reading of some extracts of venice is a fish: a cultural guide5 by tiziano scarpa (2000) and the use of izi.travel to re-interpret the literary text from students’ perspectives. students created a digital tour of venice, which promotes student-centered learning. after reading about venice in a literary text, students uploaded their multimodal artifacts associated with the venetian places they visited and experienced. the purpose was to develop their narrative skills, improve awareness of multimedia content and resources, and train digital competences. in line with the potentialities of using literature in the l2 classroom, the choice of venice is a fish: a cultural guide as a starting point aimed at motivating students to discover the tangible and intangible heritage of venice and to connect with the surrounding landscape. considering the didactic context, among the several books on the city (such as watermark by iosif brodskij, 1989; a sentimental guide to venice by diego valeri, 1997; and venice: the lion, the city and the water by cees nooteboom, 2020), i selected tiziano scarpa’s book because it describes the city through a series of physical and emotional experiences associated with different parts of the body (feet, legs, heart, hands, etc.), using an ironic tone, and from a local point of view. 4.2. project design and implementation the project developed throughout 10 lessons, 2 hours each (plus extra-lesson time for homework and the outreach event). it was divided into 9 sequential stages connected with multiple tasks and it pursued various learning objectives, in accordance with the above-mentioned conceptual and pedagogical frames. the connections between these central aspects of the project design and implementation are shown in table 3. table 3 the project “venice is…” lessons stages tasks learning objectives 1 1) introduction identifying the characteristics of venice is a fish: a cultural guide identifying the features of the descriptive genre becoming familiar with izi.travel understanding the aims and the content of the project working in groups 2-7 (also as homework) 2) content development reading a selection of excerpts of venice is a fish: a cultural guide reading and understanding a literary text developing critical thinking skills working in groups 3) written text choosing venetian places or elements connected to the five senses writing the scripts by describing the venetian places or elements uploading the scripts within the moodle platform of the course to be corrected selecting and synthetising information developing critical thinking skills writing the scripts integrating personal elements in the multimodal artifacts working individually 4) images taking original photographs of the venetian places or elements transferring the photographs to a computer associating the photographs with the venetian places or elements producing the materials: photographs using digital cameras to digitise content using editing applications integrating personal elements in the multimodal artifacts working individually 5) oral text reading the scripts on sight, taste, touch, and smell senses aloud recording four audios on sight, taste, touch, and smell with the smartphone audio recording program producing the materials: audio files reading the scripts aloud using digital recording audio programs to digitise content integrating personal elements in the multimodal artifacts 5 italian original title: scarpa, tiziano (2000). venezia è un pesce: una guida. milano: feltrinelli. spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 98 recording original sounds of the venetian places or elements on the hearing sense recording one audio on hearing with the smartphone audio recording program transferring the audios to a computer associating the audios with the venetian places or elements working individually 8 6) technology training registering on the izi.travel platform choosing a city tour entering general information including a short description of the digital tour uploading the multimodal artifacts to the izi.travel platform using the digital tool to digitise content managing the time to create the audio guide finding the best way to present the digital story developing critical thinking skills training problem-solving abilities working in groups 9 7) in-class presentation presenting the digital tour on izi.travel discussing the digital tour on izi.travel finding the best way to present the digital story reading or listening to peers’ short stories speaking about one’s own multimodal artifact by presenting it developing critical thinking skills gaining experience in self-evaluation gaining experience in peer-evaluation working in groups enhancing interaction abilities increasing the sense of community extralesson time 8) outreach event participating in an online public seminar presenting the digital tour on izi.travel interviewing tiziano scarpa finding the best way to present the digital tour speaking about the digital tour by sharing it as a group work working in groups enhancing interaction abilities increasing the sense of community 10 9) conclusion discussing the outreach event discussing the whole project developing critical thinking skills working in groups enhancing interaction abilities increasing the sense of community at the beginning (stage 1, lesson 1), i introduced the project’s themes and objectives to the students. i presented tiziano scarpa’s book and the features of the descriptive genre. moreover, i introduced izi.travel platform and some audio guides from its free and vast audio guide collection in order for students to become familiar with the tool, understand its purposes, and explore its potentialities. regarding content development (stage 2, lessons 2-7), students’ read some extracts of venice is a fish: a cultural guide focusing on the description of the city through the five senses. the readings corresponded to the introduction of the book and some excerpts of the chapters “hands,” “ears,” “mouth,” “nose,” and “eyes.” every lesson was dedicated to exploring one of the five senses at a time. thus, the title of the project was adapted according to the different focus (lesson 2: “venice is touch,” lesson 3: “venice is hearing,” and so on). the activities were divided into pre-during-after reading phases (balboni, 2018), aimed at: exploring students’ previous knowledge and impressions about venice; verifying their global reading comprehension; verifying their analytical comprehension, focused especially on vocabulary; stimulating their personal interpretation of the five senses associated with the city. concerning the written text (stage 3, lesson 2-7 plus homework), after reading a selected extract of the book, students were asked to choose and describe a venetian place or element that they personally students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 99 experienced, that particularly stimulated their senses under analysis. the criteria for creating short stories were the following: around 250–300-word length written in the first-person narrative specify the venetian place and element express personal points of view and emotional content include good italian grammar, vocabulary, and language use. the writing of each short story started in the classroom and continued as homework. besides respecting the features of the descriptive genre, students followed the main phases of the creative writing process. in the first phase, conceptualization, students identified the whole set of ideas connected to a topic. for the organisation phase, they selected the ideas that have emerged and defined an outline. in the completion stage, students wrote the short story (guerriero, 2021). with respect to images (stage 4, homework of lessons 2-7), during the weeks they had been producing the written texts, students were asked to walk around venice, be inspired by observing the city, and take at least one photograph to represent every sense. concerning the oral text (stage 5, homework of lessons 2-7), after correcting the written texts and adding more images to illustrate them better, students practiced performing the audio recordings of their short stories, paying attention to the clarity of their voices. i directly assessed the quality of their recordings as the teacher. students recorded four audios of themselves reading the scripts on the four senses of sight, taste, touch, and smell. for the hearing sense, students recorded the original sounds of the elements they described to achieve a more realistic rendering. regarding the technology training (stage 6, lesson 8), students received basic instructions regarding how to use the tools to upload their multimodal artifacts (combining text, images, and audios/sounds) on the izi.travel platform and create a communal digital tour. during the in-class presentation (stage 7, lesson 9) students collaboratively presented their digital tours, sharing their five multimodal artifacts following the path within the city map. with respect to the outreach event (stage 8, extra-lesson time), students had the opportunity to share their digital tour with an outside audience of specialists in the italian language, including tiziano scarpa. concurrently with the design and the implementation of the project “venice is...”, the latest edition of the venetian author’s book was published6. after receiving tiziano scarpa’s positive response to participating as a special guest, i designed and organised an online public seminar that took place on 15th january 2021 within the zoom platform, in collaboration with the dante alighieri societies of venice and miami as well as with ca’ foscari university of venice and the florida atlantic university. the outreach event aimed to present both the latest edition of tiziano scarpa’s book and the students’ digital tour, of which some significant examples associated with the five senses were shown. in the last part of the seminar, students interviewed the writer regarding, for example, his sources of inspiration, his relationship with the city, and life in venice during the covid-19 pandemic. the video of the event is available at the youtube account of the dante alighieri society of venice7. to conclude the project (stage 9, lesson 10) students discussed the event and their overall experience. 5. the research the aim of the study was to understand the impact of project participation on students’ attitudes and perceived learning outcomes in order to develop didactic practices for the teaching of italian as an l2 through dst aimed at raising and fostering students’ linguistic and digital skills. the two research questions (rq) were: rq1: what impact does project participation have on students’ attitudes towards both sla and dst? rq2: what impact does project participation have on students’ perceived learning outcomes? the purpose of rq1 was to explore students’ attitudes towards the project. in particular, it aimed at understanding how they considered the reading, writing, and digital tasks. the objective of rq2 was to 6 italian original title: scarpa, tiziano (2020). venezia è un pesce: una guida nuova. feltrinelli. 7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ntdibnlt9a spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 100 investigate what students thought they had learned from the project. it especially aimed at understanding whether and to what extent they would identify learning gains regarding their knowledge and competencies in both italian as an l2, and the use of digital tools. 5.1. participants the project involved 12 university students (n=11 female, n=1 male), aged 20-30 (n=9 aged 20-25, n=3 aged 26-30), and speaking french as a mother tongue (n=10) or as an l2 (n=2, for whom russian was the mother tongue). students had a heterogeneous educational background regarding the study of italian since they had studied it for less than 1 year (n=5), 2-3 years (n=4), 4-5 years (n=1), and more than 5 years (n=2). nevertheless, the results of the entry test attested their intermediate level (b1-b2 of the cefr). on the one hand, students were highly motivated to improve their italian to enhance their performances in the other master courses. they all knew other romance languages besides french. students who had studied italian for a shorter period attended intensive italian courses before moving to venice, while those who had studied it for a longer period did not practise it at length before starting the masters program. 5.2. methods the study followed the constructivist paradigm, since it focused on local, specific, and experientially based co-constructed realities (creswell, 2014; hatch, 2002). the methodology used for this research was an action research project because i was actively involved as the teacher. one of the main features of this methodology is the link between research and teaching aimed at improving practice (dörnyei, 2007). the study also reflected other essential principles of action research, such as: the problem-solving function; the development within a small-scale and localised context; the impossibility of generalising results, although they could be useful for those who teach and learn in similar contexts; the understanding of the processes of change; the contribution of the practical experience to theoretical reflections (coonan, 2000). the action research process was based on a spiral circle divided into the following stages: identifying the problem; reflecting on solutions; choosing a type of intervention; planning, implementing, monitoring, and recording; reviewing and evaluating; understanding how the intervention solved the problem (cohen, manion & morrison, 2011). shortly after the start of the course, the museums applied restrictions to group visits due to the worsening of the covid19 emergency. therefore, i immediately devised new activities aimed at promoting the study of both the italian language and the venetian cultural heritage through digital resources. i planned the stages of the project – except for the outreach event, which was added in a later stage – and i implemented it. i monitored students’ reactions and involvement during the reading of the literary text and the creation of their multimodal artifacts. thus, i gradually refined the linguistic and digital activities according to students’ interests and time management. 5.2.1. data collection to achieve a comprehensive picture of the research context, a mixed methodology design was chosen (mertens, 2007). both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through multiple data collection strategies, i.e., questionnaires, focus groups, and students’ multimodal artifacts, and according to a sequential process (dörnyei, 2007). a questionnaire was followed by a focus group and the analysis of students’ digital stories in order to complete the quantitative results through the qualitative ones (baldry, 2013). the quantitative data were collected through the closed-ended questionnaire items, while the qualitative data came from the open-ended questionnaire items, the focus group, and students’ materials. both the questionnaire and the focus group data were collected at the end of the project (lesson 10), while students’ multimodal artifacts were saved throughout its development (lessons 2-8). 5.2.1.1. questionnaire the questionnaire (see appendix a) was anonymous and paper based. it included 17 items and was divided into three sections. the first section aimed at answering rq1. it corresponded to items 1-6, and it explored the impact of project participation on students’ attitudes. it focused on students’ rating of the overall project, the outdoor activities, the comprehension of the literary text, the production of the writing activities, and the use of izi.travel. the second section aimed at answering rq2. the questions coincided with items 714, and it investigated the impact of project participation on students’ perceived learning outcomes. it examined the enhancement of students’ linguistic, cultural, environmental, and digital skills. the third section aimed at collecting students’ general information, and it included items 15-17. the responses are presented students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 101 above in section 5.1. the majority of the items of sections 1-2 was closed-ended. the item types included likert scales (items 1-2a, 3a, 4-6, 8, 12-14a), numerical rating scales (item 7), and yes-no items (item 11). conversely, the remaining items were open-ended. the item types included clarification questions (items 2b, 4b, 14b), and specific open questions (items 9-10) (dörnyei, 2010). the questionnaire was administered to 11 students on 14th december 2020, and to 1 student on 16th december 2020. the average time for completing the questionnaire was 15 minutes. 5.2.1.2. focus group the focus group included 6 questions (see appendix b), and it aimed at examining the impact of project participation on students’ attitudes and perceived learning outcomes. the purpose was to better interpret the previously collected quantitative data. in fact, items 1-3 aimed at answering rq2, whereas items 4-6 aimed at answering rq1. the focus group structure included an introductory question regarding previous similar experiences (item 1); a transition question dealing with the expectations of the project (item 2); central questions concerning the usefulness of the project, what interested the students and what they did not like (items 3-4); and concluding questions regarding future applications and possible additions (items 5-6) (baldry, 2013). the focus group was conducted with 9 students on 13th january 2021 (3 students were absent). it was recorded with an audio recorder, and it lasted almost 40 minutes. 5.2.1.3. students’ multimodal artifacts students’ multimodal artifacts referred to five different topics corresponding to their perceptions of the five senses in venice. each student wrote 5 scripts, to which they related one audio file and at least one photograph. in total, students’ multimodal artifacts consisted of 60 written texts, together with at least 60 oral texts and 60 images. the multimodal artifacts were produced and refined during the development of the project. they were presented in the communal digital tour of venice both within the classroom dimension and in the outreach event. 5.2.2. data analysis to analyse the qualitative data of the open-ended questionnaire items, the focus group, and students’ multimodal artifacts, i followed the content analysis procedure (creswell, 2014) and i used the nvivo software (bazeley & jackson, 2013). first, i transcribed data as an excel spreadsheet (open-ended questionnaire items) and as a word document (focus group and multimodal artifacts). second, i transferred the documents to nvivo to organise and prepare data for analysis. third, i read through all data several times and divided them into separate codes. finally, i merged and reduced the codes into broader and relevant topics. to analyse quantitative data of the closed-ended questionnaire items, i used descriptive statistic techniques (dörnyei, 2010). after assigning identification codes to each questionnaire, i coded data, transcribed it in an excel spreadsheet, and represented the most interesting findings through tables and graphs. 6. results findings will be presented according to the research questions, dealing with the impact on students’ attitudes (rq1) and perceived learning outcomes (rq2). 6.1. impact on students’ attitudes to answer rq1 (what impact does project participation have on students’ attitudes towards both sla and dst?), data from the questionnaire (items 1-6), and the focus group (items 4-6) were used. 6.1.1. questionnaire students’ overall perceptions of the project “venice is...” were positive, since they found it very interesting (60%), and quite interesting (40%) (item 1: how do you rate the overall project?). this initial data confirmed the function of dst as an effective learning tool regarding the increased motivation for sla. in particular, the outdoor activities were judged favourably, as students considered them very interesting (75%), and quite interesting (17%) (item 2a: how do you rate the outdoor activities aimed at the direct observation of the city?). to justify their answers, students referred equally to the link between the italian language and the city (25%), the diversity of the experience (25%), and the entertainment generating inspiration (25%) (item 2b: why?, fig. 1). spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 102 figure 1. students’ answers to item 2b first, the outdoor activities represented a strategy to learn italian while reinforcing the relationship with venice. students reported: “the outdoor activities were a way to link the italian language and the city, as well as to think about our relationship with venice since the beginning of our discovery of this city” (s4); “i liked reading tiziano scarpa’s texts. it was hard but interesting” (s5); “the outdoor activities were very poetic and useful” (s9)8. second, the outdoor activities stimulated students to observe venice from a fresh perspective in order to achieve a broad view of the city while walking. students wrote: “it was an amazing way to look differently at the city” (s1); “it was an interesting manner in which to observe a beautiful city, we felt encouraged to look everywhere” (s2); “we discovered venice in a pleasant way, through walking” (s12). third, the outdoor activities actively involved students in searching for original ideas and aroused their curiosity to discover venice through a literary text (starting point) and their personal productions (arrival point). students stated: “it was fun to look around for ideas to write the scripts” (s3); “the outdoor activities were very participatory” (s6); “i was full of curiosity” (s11). these reflections proved a useful connection between dst and linguistic landscape to promote both sla and the development of ecological awareness. although it was not possible to organise didactic itineraries through the lagoon area to completely exploit the teaching benefits of linguistic landscape, students’ independent exploration of the territory contributed to motivating them to carry out the project. as a result, the majority of students revealed that the outdoor activities allowed them to observe venice with greater attention (75%). a few students did not perceive any change (25%) (item 3a: how did the outdoor activities allow you to directly observe the city?). to support their ideas, they referred to the search for the place or the element to describe (58%), and to the possibility of reflecting on themselves (25%) (item 3b: why?, fig. 2). 8 in the transcriptions of the questionnaire, the focus group, and the multimodal artifacts, students’ names were reported through the corresponding identification codes. students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 103 figure 2. students’ answers to item 3b the outdoor activities stimulated students to pay more attention to the objectively beautiful elements of venice and all the nuances to capture more details and develop original ideas. as a result, they improved their knowledge of the city. students wrote: “i did not only think of the beautiful things to see, because i was interested in every aspect of the city” (s1); “when i was walking, i thought about the photographs i could take and the descriptions i could write for the tour” (s9); “i wanted to find the perfect example” (s2). the outdoor activities also allowed students to reflect on both themselves and the relationship they were building with venice thanks to the experience they were living. s4 reported: “i asked myself which were the most representative visual, taste, olfactory etc. experiences of my stay here. it was an introspective task for me .” regarding the stages of content development, students confirmed their appreciation of the reading venice is a fish: a cultural guide as a starting point of the project. students responded that they enjoyed it a lot (65%), and quite a lot (25%) (item 4: did you enjoy reading venice is a fish: a cultural guide?). in addition, the majority appreciated describing the city through the five senses and enjoyed the creative writing activities a lot (75%), and quite a lot (17%). just a few students liked them not so much (8%) (item 5: did you enjoy describing venice through the five senses?). this data reinforced the successful relationship between the use of literature in the l2 classroom, the discovery of the socio-cultural features of a territory, and the reflection on ecological issues. concerning the stage of technology training, most students highly valued using izi.travel to create the digital city tour, since they enjoyed employing this platform a lot (67%), and quite a lot (17%). just small percentages liked it not so much (8%), and not at all (8%) (item 6: did you enjoy using izi.travel to create a digital tour of venice?). these evaluations supported students’ holistic involvement in dst projects for sla, including the use of literature and the development of a strong connection with the environment. 6.1.2. focus group during the focus group students were asked to reflect on the strengths and the weaknesses of the project (item 4: in your opinion, which were the positive and negative aspects of the project?). for the strengths, students said the project allowed them to discover places that they did not know, both by themselves while walking through the city in search of inspiration, and through their classmates while reading and listening to their multimodal artifacts. moreover, the use of izi.travel allowed them to keep the digital tour for themselves, in order to remember the venetian experience, and for others, by sharing it with families and friends. in addition, the possibility of reading the written scripts and listening to the oral texts every time they want and even at a distance of time will allow them to monitor their own progress in italian. s3 said the following comment: discovering the places that we did not know was a positive aspect of the project. moreover, uploading our multimodal artifacts online is an opportunity to conserve them all. maybe in ten spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 104 years it will be useful to remember what we did so as not to forget this experience. i think that it would be interesting to do it for every city that we will visit, and also for our french hometown. for me it will be important to share the monuments, bars, and squares that i liked with my friends and family. s7 mentioned: “it would also be positive to read the scripts and listen to the oral texts in – shall we say – three years’ time, that is when we know better italian, in order to assess how our learning process has evolved.” concerning the weaknesses, students questioned the availability of the digital tool, izi.travel. there were also comments that students would have liked to write about other current themes such as politics. regarding the project's structure, they said that perhaps it would have been better to upload the multimodal artifacts at the end of each activity related to a specific sense instead of uploading it all at once. by doing so, students would have been able to see the evolution of the digital tour, reflect on each sense at a time, and avoid focusing on the creation and the presentation of the tour during the last lessons. students said: “we do not know if izi.travel will always be accessible, and this could be a negative aspect connected with the use of a digital tool” (s4); “sometimes it was too focused on the same theme, that is, beauty and poetry. i would have liked to write about political topics, but i did not know how to connect them with the five senses” (s11); “maybe every time that we conclude the activities on a specific sense, we should upload our multimodal artifacts in order to see the evolution of the digital tour, and to discuss in depth about every script and oral text. we did see all the points of interest and multimodal artifacts, but maybe it was too fast for a single lesson” (s9). nevertheless, all the students said they would like to use izi.travel for their future study and work projects, even if they did not know precisely how at the moment (item 5: will you use izi.travel for your study and work projects?). although izi.travel was not originally created for didactic purposes, students’ opinions demonstrated the potential of both this platform and the task-based approach for sla through dst, despite some critical aspects of the project dealing with a single thematic area and task distribution. finally, students reflected on the links between language, culture, literature, and digital tools (item 6: is there something that you want to add about the project?). on the one hand, they affirmed that literary texts could represent a useful resource for improving language skills. s8 said the following comment: the strong relationship between italian language and literature was confirmed. by reading literature we can learn the language, and conversely the language exists thanks to the literary texts. when i want to improve my italian i read newspaper articles, for example. but literature represents language to the utmost degree, and culture as well. it is fundamental to know the most representative literary works of a country to learn its language and culture. on the other hand, students attributed greater importance to the first-hand experience of both language acquisition and cultural heritage than to the use of digital tools for the same purposes. students mentioned: “for me it is necessary to know the language before using digital tools. in addition, culture is much more than the digital media. they are a medium to introduce one to the cultural dimension, but it is better to experience the cultural heritage directly, for example of a city. i think that it is difficult to feel real emotions through a digital tool” (s12); “i think that culture must remain a first-hand experience. digital media represent an effective instrument to communicate the cultural heritage through the language, but they cannot substitute a direct experience with them” (s9); “for me a digital experience cannot cover the enormous diversity inherent to every culture. digital media can be a useful resource but not the objective as regards the cultural heritage. they can be an effective medium, but not an end, to transforming either culture, or our mindsets” (s7). students’ ideas confirmed the important contribution of literature in the l2 classroom at a poetic and sensory level. moreover, their opinions supported the integration of digital tools in a wider variety of methodologies and strategies aimed at sla within both formal and non-formal contexts. 6.2. impact on students’ perceived learning outcomes to answer rq2 (what impact does project participation have on students’ perceived learning outcomes?), data from the questionnaire (items 7-14), the focus group (items 1-3), and students’ multimodal artifacts were considered. 6.2.1. questionnaire students’ perceived learning outcomes included the study of italian language and culture, the knowledge of the territory, and the development of digital competences (item 7: what did the project allow you students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 105 to do?). to facilitate the reading of the data, items were divided into four groups: italian language (items a.-h., fig. 3); italian culture (items i.-k., fig. 4); the venetian territory (items l.-n., fig. 5); digital competences (items o.-p., fig. 6). figure 3. students’ answers to item 7 (a.-h.) on italian language in terms of italian language development (fig. 3), students answered that their vocabulary and creative expression improved the most. moreover, they enhanced their language skills in italian and increased their literary comprehension. students also refined their written production and improved pronunciation while recording themselves reading their descriptions aloud. finally, they learnt quite a lot about the venetian dialect, but they felt they had not studied much grammar. figure 4. students’ answers to item 7 (i.-k.) spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 106 figure 5. students’ answers to item 7 (l.-n.) figure 6. students’ answers to item 7 (o.-p.) concerning italian culture (fig. 4), students delved into many aspects of the venetian cultural heritage (i.e., festivities, traditions, recipes, etc.). they also deepened their knowledge about the artistic heritage of the city (i.e., museums, palaces, monuments, etc.). finally, they extended their knowledge of venetian history. with respect to the venetian territory (fig. 5), students acquired a better knowledge above all of the environment in which they had been living, since they were encouraged to walk around the city and to observe the surrounding landscape. they also increased their understanding of both the advantages and the disadvantages of living in venice during the pandemic. regarding the development of digital competences (fig. 6), students discovered how to create a digital tour of a city, but realised they had not greatly improved their digital skills. overall data proved the enhancement of students’ linguistic, intercultural, ecological, and digital skills by combining sla, dst, and literature within the same project. however, students’ opinions on the digital dimension revealed the importance of dedicating an adequate amount of time to technology training before starting the audio guide creation. students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 107 students’ perceived learning outcomes were also associated with the reading and writing activities. regarding the connection between comprehension and production tasks, half of the students (50%) considered that the outdoor and writing activities did not influence their reading, while a smaller number (42%) thought that their literary comprehension was facilitated (item 8: how was the comprehension of venice is a fish: a cultural guide aided by the outdoor and the writing activities?). the new information that students learnt through the reading activities on tiziano scarpa’s book dealt equally with vocabulary (33%), cultural heritage (33%), and social dynamics (33%) (item 9: what did you discover about venice thanks to the reading activities?, fig. 7). figure 7. students’ answers to item 9 first, students expanded their lexical competences by learning new italian words as well as dialect terms and expressions to describe venice. s1 wrote: “i discovered a different way to speak about the city, such as calle, fondamenta... [street, footpath].” second, students widened their knowledge of the history of venice and the meanings of the city symbols. they also visited new places and tasted gourmet recipes. s10 reported: “i explored the history, the culture, and some areas of venice.” third, students learnt about the venetians’ social habits and traditions through the descriptions in tiziano scarpa’s book. s12 stated: “the vision of a native of his own city.” moreover, through the writing activities, students were able to have further appreciation of the city (42%), improvement of the writing ability (33%), and improved observation (25%) (item 10: what did you discover about your relationship with venice thanks to the writing activities?, fig. 8). figure 8. students’ answers to item 10 students strengthened especially their link with venice to the point of identifying with it. students wrote: “i discovered that i am very attached to this city, where i would like to stay longer” (s3); “venice is a city without too much frenzy. it is relaxing, like me” (s11). they also increased their productive skills in describing a place by doing the five tasks, revising the errors, and correcting the scripts in order to record themselves spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 108 reading them aloud. s4 reported: “i discovered that i am better than i expected at writing in italian.” some students enhanced their powers of observation by paying more attention to the environment, focusing on details, and selecting the most important ones to describe and to remember. s2 affirmed: “i discovered that i am always staying with my nose in the air, looking at the city and at its details.” students’ opinions confirmed the potential of proposing creative writing activities on literary texts related to specific territories. students had higher motivation, improved linguistic competence, expanded socio-cultural knowledge, and increased environmental consciousness. finally, students’ perceived learning outcomes dealt with the use of izi.travel, the production of multimodal artifacts, and the creation of the digital city tour. all students had already been introduced to this platform (item 11: did you already know izi.travel?), and they found the possibility of combining images and oral texts with the written descriptions of a city very interesting (67%), and quite interesting (33%) (item 12: how do you rate the possibility of combining images and oral texts with the written descriptions of the city?). for this reason, they considered the use of izi.travel to create the digital tour of venice very useful (42%), and quite useful (42%). just a few of them found it slightly useful (17%) (item 13: how do you rate using izi.travel to create a digital tour of venice?). in addition, the majority of the students felt very satisfied with the final product of the project (75%), while a few of them were moderately happy with it (25%) (item 14a: are you satisfied with the digital tour of venice?). the reasons why students were satisfied with the digital tour of venice was because it was considered an ‘innovative, original, and creative product’ (33%), a ‘useful product’ (33%), a ‘collective product’ (25%), and a ‘comprehensive product’ (8%) (item 14b: why?, fig. 9). figure 9. students’ answers to item 14b the digital tour was considered as an original product since its creation was, above all, a fresh way to discover the city while learning italian. students wrote: “it represented a very innovative, modern, and poetic way to learn” (s9); “i managed to creatively use different skills (pronunciation, writing, taking photos...)” (s4). in addition, the digital tour was perceived as a useful product because it stimulated students to improve their linguistic, digital, and cultural skills, and to exploit their imagination in order to create a record of their experience. students stated: “i learnt vocabulary and i discovered an app” (s4); “the digital tour is an honest summary of our stay in this city” (s12); “the digital tour will be a good instrument by which to remember my experience in venice during the master” (s6). the digital tour was also defined as a collective product since students enjoyed producing a shared final product through which they also learnt from each other. students explained: “i liked discovering venice through my friends’ eyes” (s3); “it was interesting to have something in common at the end of the project” (s9). finally, the digital tour was perceived as a comprehensive product because students judged izi.travel as a very complete digital tool. s10 affirmed: “i find the app really complete (text + location + photo + audio), and i want to show it to my close relatives and friends.” this data demonstrated the successful use of izi.travel to develop students’ digital literacies, multimodal competences, and interpersonal abilities aimed at both increasing their autonomy in the stages of content development, written text, images, and oral text, and at reinforcing their sense of community in the stages of audio guide creation and presentation. students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 109 6.2.2. focus group students were asked to recall previous experiences regarding the creation of digital city tours (item 1: have you already created digital tours of cities?). no one had already worked on similar products, but some of them were familiar with mapstr, an application that allows one to keep track of people’s favourite places by tagging them and including them in one’s own map, as well as sharing them with friends. students discussed the main differences between izi.travel and mapstr in terms of different functions. in their opinion, mapstr can be used before visiting a city whereas izi.travel can be used both before and after travelling, in order to know where to go and to preserve memories of the visits. as regards their expectations of the project at the beginning of the creative process on the digital tour, students who were familiar with mapstr thought about a digital product without a route or audio files, while others envisioned a digital tour including both images and oral texts (item 2: when i told you that you were going to create a digital tour of venice starting from your written productions, what did you expect?). concerning the utility of the project, students reported that project participation allowed them to improve their linguistic skills, discover venice, and express themselves (item 3: was it useful to participate in the project? if so, why?). they considered that the tasks were motivating, useful, and emotional by saying: “we discovered venice in a different manner because we had to find interesting places, choose what to write about, and describe it creatively” (s6); “it was useful also because it allowed us to appropriate the city in a creative way, since we had to put something of ourselves into it to practise italian” (s9); “i think that it was a motivating exercise to work on grammar and pronunciation... it was a very complete linguistic activity, and a very personal task too” (s5). students’ limited previous experiences and expectations emphasized the project’s innovative aspects. their perceptions regarding its utility highlighted their global involvement. at the cognitive level, they recognised the improvement of their communicative skills in italian as an l2. at the emotional level, they referred to their contribution to the project and their personal appropriation of the city that they had managed to discover despite the increasing restrictions of that period. 6.2.3. students’ multimodal artifacts the project’s final product “venice is...” corresponded to the homonymous digital tour uploaded on the izi.travel platform. having entered the tour, it is possible either to follow every stage by reading the scripts, listening to the audio files, and looking at the images, or to select a particular stage directly. students decided to reserve access to viewing the audio guide to the users who had the password, since their multimodal artifacts included personal stories, impressions, and feelings, and private photographs of their families, friends, and themselves in venice. nevertheless, simply looking at the overall view of the digital tour (fig. 10) it is easy to appreciate the numerous points of interest that students included, and how they are distributed as stages along the path, starting from the bus station at piazzale roma and finishing at the lido beach9. figure 10. students’ digital tour “venice is...” on izi.travel 9 although students’ multimodal artifacts were 60, two of them were not included in the digital tour because the reviewed versions were not delivered in time for the outreach event. spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 110 the table below outlines the content of students’ multimodal artifacts in order to show the relationship between the five senses and the venetian points of interest that they evoked, according to the scripts, the photographs, and the audios produced by the students. in some cases, the same point of interest was chosen by two or more students, who analysed it from different perspectives. for example, three students chose the ringing of the church bells to describe the sense of hearing, but each with a different motivation. the first student pointed out how the sound filled the emptiness of the streets during the lockdown. the second underlined the different functions compared to the orthodox church bells in russia. the third associated the religious sense the bells emitted with her childhood memories of the french countryside, in contrast to her later experience of the widespread atheism of french big cities. table 4 the content of students’ multimodal artifacts sense point of interest written text image oral text touch bars in santa margherita square bars in santo stefano square la fenice theatre franchetti palace mocenigo palace san barnaba street lido beaches the joining of students’ hands as a symbol of friendship the warmth of a cappuccino a half full bottle of italian wine due to the early closing of bars the velvet armchairs of the theatre an art exhibition made of wax the velvet costumes of the xiii century an old metal doorknocker the sand and the sea water joining of hands a bottle of wine hands holding a coffee cup the furniture of the theatre a work of art made of wax venetian costumes a doorknocker students walking barefoot on the beach students’ audios of themselves reading the scripts hearing a private garden in dorsoduro neighbourhood churches and bars in santa margherita square churches and bars near the squero (boatyard) the zattere footpath the bus station a student’s house during a quarantine period the tweeting of the birds in the morning the ringing of the church bells in the night the sounds of the coffee machine and of the waiters’ voices the singing of the seagulls the sirens warning before high tide the noise of the marine traffic trees outside students’ balcony bell towers a seagull an espresso on the bar counter local newspaper headlines about high tide ferry boats in a venetian canal original recordings of: birds church bells seagulls high tide sirens ferry boats taste a selection of: typical venetian bars typical venetian restaurants ethnic restaurants the history, the ingredients, and the sensations regarding: venetian drinks venetian dishes (such as the discovery of the carbonara without cream) ethnic dishes bar interiors restaurant interiors drinks dishes students’ audios of themselves reading the scripts students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 111 smell bars and restaurants near santa margherita square bars and restaurants near la salute church food shops dinners at students’ houses the aroma of coffee flavour of parmesan cheese aromas of pizza along the street smell of home cooking espresso on the bar counter macchiato coffee on the bar counter a dish of pasta with parmesan cheese a dinner table laden with plates sight the san marco footpath san marco square the arsenal bridges near santa margherita square the emptiness of san marco square the magic of sunsets on the lagoon the magic of sunsets on the canals students’ looking at the san marco basilica across an empty square sunsets on the lagoon sunsets on the canals besides corresponding to the final product of the project, the digital tour bore witness to students’ experiences and reflections on themselves living in venice at a very particular time. on the one hand, the topics covered the typical venetian aspects, such as the ‘happy hour’ in santa margherita square, the high tide experience, and the visits to the representative city monuments. for example, to describe the sense of taste s6 wrote: my favourite venetian place to eat in is a family restaurant called osteria alba nova dalla maria, where the mother cooks, the father keeps the accounts, and the sons wait at table. food and drinks are fantastic and typical of the region. i suggest ordering both squid-ink pasta and polenta with porcini mushrooms. the mother is so relaxed that she is often dressed in pyjamas, which i love. as regards the sense of smell, s7 reported: there is nothing better in the morning than waking up with the smell of coffee, especially if you drink it in the best venetian bakery, that is tonolo. in france you drink coffee for hours, on the terrace, chatting and watching the people walking down the street. in italy you drink coffee fast, preferably at the counter. i usually go past this bakery, and i am always attracted by the delicious aroma. so, one day, standing at the counter between two regular customers, i ordered a macchiato and a pastry too. like everybody there, i drank and ate everything very fast, but the whole time i was smelling that incredible aroma of coffee. now i understand why so many people queue to enter! on the other hand, the issues reflected a particular historical moment, like the quarantine experience, the preventive isolation, and the closing of bars, theatres, and cinemas. for example, to describe the hearing sense s3 and s4 wrote: i associate the sound of bells ringing with the empty venetian streets where i meet nobody. it is such a privileged and cinematographic walk, but it is also so anguished! the deserted city is a consequence of the current situation, and i will remember it as a very special and difficult period. the noise of marine traffic is peculiar, but it seems even pleasant to me due to my melancholy mood. – she is crazy! – you may be thinking. but i am not! i just cannot go out [due to the quarantine], and this noise coming from outside reminds me of the time when i could walk near the sea, listen to the ferry boats leaving for the islands, and eat fried fish on sundays in burano. as regards the touch sense, s8 and s9 explained: human contact is even more necessary in this difficult moment. the bond with new friends is an essential component of this experience and this photograph [the joining of students’ hands] symbolises one of the most significant elements of venice for me: friendship. spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 112 to me touching venice means also stroking the red velvet of la fenice theatre with my hand, and feeling the voices, gestures, costumes, interactions, opera arias, and humour through that touch. discovering a city means entering into its living art as well... but this is going to be closed soon. to describe the sight sense s2 affirmed: we go back to san marco square. it is empty, the street lamps turn on even if the sky is still bright. we stop talking, we look at the basilica, and we feel astonished by the absurd beauty of this outof-time moment, while the entire world is paralysed owing to the pandemic. the digital tour on izi.travel, students’ multimodal artifacts, and the citations of their contributions lead to an appreciation of the numerous points of interest that the students included. this includes the original associations with the five senses, and the profound reflections on the role of venice as crossroads of cultures even at such a difficult time. these pieces of information demonstrate students’ involvement in project implementation and its relevant impact on their perceived outcomes. 7. discussion the data collected from this action research project focused on izi.travel and allowed us to understand the impact of project participation on students’ attitudes and perceived learning outcomes regarding their linguistic and digital skills. despite the limited group, the analysis of data has revealed some interesting outcomes that are worth considering in detail. regarding the impact of project participation on students’ attitudes (rq1), student favorably evaluated the whole didactic proposal. the great majority of students appreciated the different stages of the project, such as reading the literary text, developing the multimodal activities, and using izi.travel. due to the impossibility of organising didactic itineraries outside the classroom for the content development stage, other solutions had to be made. the reading of a famous, representative, and recently updated book on the city where students were living proved to be a winning strategy to overcome restrictions for group visits in closed places and motivate students to compare the literary content with their impressions of the lagoon area. most students enjoyed the literary comprehension activities since they felt motivated to discover venice from a famous writer’s perspective and creatively add their personal experiences. by relating these findings to the conceptual framework, results confirm the function of literature as a valuable teaching resource in the l2 classroom, especially when it is included in dst projects (hetland, 2016). it refers to the territorial, social, and cultural contexts that students are experiencing (iovino, cesaretti, & past, 2018). concerning the multimodal production stage, the writing activities were judged positively despite the limited variety of themes due to the focus on venetian culture, art, and territory. the majority of students felt motivated to train their productive skills while ideally continuing tiziano scarpa’s literary text from their current perspectives. as for the outdoor activities, students appreciated the direct observation of venice since they found this an original, engaging, and useful exercise to enhance language acquisition and reinforce their connection with the city. students paid increased attention to identifying a symbolic and unconventional place or element to describe. students also become aware of the changes they were going through while living that experience. the first positive aspect of the project that students identified was the enhancing of their environmental awareness of venetian territory off the tourist routes. during the in-class presentation stage, reading and listening to their classmates’ multimodal artifacts represented an opportunity to discover the surrounding area. since students only discussed the content development stage together, they were curious to discover their classmates’ digital stories. students were well satisfied at seeing how their multimodal artifacts had been gathered into a single common product. these findings are consistent with the potentialities of the linguistic landscape approach (malinowski, 2015; shohamy & gorter, 2009). in fact, the outdoor activities aimed at describing, photographing, and recording the known and hidden sides of the city managed to successfully exploit the link between the formal activities in italian as an l2 and students’ independent exploration of the cultural, artistic, and literary traditions of the lagoon area during the extra-lesson time. regarding the technology training stage, students appreciated creating the digital tour with izi.travel. students had never created a similar product before but were familiar with this platform. moreover, they judged its multimodal features and functions positively and found it motivating to carry out the writing activities alongside the images and oral text production. despite depending on the future functioning of the platform, students valued the digital tour on izi.travel highly since it allowed them to perceive the concrete result of their efforts. it represented the tangible product of both the italian as an l2 course and of their students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 113 venetian stay, with the bonus of showing it to tiziano scarpa. in particular, students recognised the importance of the digital tour as a record of their italian acquisition process, to be compared with future developments. in addition, they did not exclude the possibility of using izi.travel in their future jobs. they also underlined their appreciation of employing digital media for sla and cultural heritage promotion as long as they are used as an instrument to integrate – instead of to replace – language learning and cultural experiences. these findings prove the effectiveness of the combination between izi.travel, focused on delimited territories (museums or cities), and the task-based approach for sla through dst (oskoz & elola, 2016). the project managed to involve students at both cognitive and emotional levels by tracing the gradual stages of their understanding of the project aims, interpreting the city starting from tiziano scarpa’s model, exploiting students’ linguistic and nonlinguistic resources, and creating the digital city tour as the final result (ellis, 2009). with respect to the impact of project participation on students’ perceived learning outcomes (rq2), students improved linguistic, cultural, and digital competences, and raised their environmental consciousness. as for students’ progress in acquiring italian as an l2, they succeeded in widening their vocabulary and reinforcing language skills thanks to literary comprehension, pronunciation, and creative writing activities. students were also exposed to the local dialect during the reading of venice is a fish: a cultural guide and the exploration of the city (typical dishes on the menus, natives’ speech, street signs, etc.). when considering the content of students’ multimodal artefacts, students’ points of interest associated with the sense of taste referred mainly to typical venetian bars and restaurants (table 4). however, most students perceived that they did not examine grammatical issues in depth. in fact, the activities of the content development stage mainly dealt with bringing out students’ previous knowledge regarding the lagoon area and verifying the comprehension of the literary text – especially of the lexical items. the stages of written text, images, and oral text aimed at promoting the creative representation of venice through the five senses from students’ current perspectives. students achieved this by respecting the characteristics of the descriptive genre and associating representative photographs and audio recordings. as regards the enhancement of the students’ knowledge of italian culture, they managed to study and experience several features that define the city’s cultural, artistic, and historical heritage. by looking at the content of students’ multimodal artifacts, the points of interest regarding the sense of touch included the visits to important venetian theatres and palaces (table 4). in addition, students reported that the reading activities on tiziano scarpa’s book fostered the acquisition of new italian words and dialect terms and promoted an in-depth analysis of the local cultural heritage and of social dynamics. finally, students revealed that the outdoor and writing activities improved observational and productive skills, and made them empathise both with venice and with their classmates. as a result, students felt that they became gradually familiar with the surrounding environment and developed an increased ecological awareness about the city’s rather obvious strengths and its critical state and weaknesses. this awareness is represented effectively in the content variety of students’ multimodal artifacts, including both the typical venetian elements and the consequences of the covid-19 emergency. regarding the development of students’ digital competences, they became experts in creating city tours with izi.travel, but they felt that they did not consistently expand their digital abilities. on the one hand, students reported that creating the audio guide enhanced their digital skills. during the stages of technology training and in-class presentation, they received intensive instruction on the functions of izi.travel to enable them to create, refine, and present the digital tour. initially, these tasks should have been completed in several lessons. however, the outreach event with tiziano scarpa, which was arranged after the start of the course, curtailed them. for these reasons, it was not possible to extend the training in the use of the digital tool, spread the creation of the audio guide over more lessons, or foster students’ collaborative evaluation before uploading their multimodal artifacts. on the other hand, at the beginning of the project, students had little experience and made modest predictions as to producing an audio guide with izi.travel. however, once they were introduced to this platform, they discovered a new digital tool, learnt how to use it, and produced multimodal artifacts thanks to their training in various literacies. moreover, the high quality of students’ multimodal artifacts demonstrated their widespread commitment to the project (fig. 10, table 4). in particular, by observing the content of their digital products, it is possible to appreciate the variety of the points of interest, the creativeness of the subjects, and the insertion of all multimodal components. to sum up, by combining different multimodal elements (text, images, audios) within a communal digital product, the project “venice is…” managed to develop students’ multiliteracies in italian as an l2 (lotherington & jenson, 2011; ohler, 2008). students’ opinions regarding the overall utility of the project proved their holistic participation, since they considered the digital city tour both an opportunity to learn italian as an l2, and a personal and collaborative experience. these findings are consistent with the linguistic, spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 114 intercultural, and technological benefits of developing dst projects aimed at sla (lambert & hessler, 2018; lee, 2014; oskoz & elola, 2016; robin, 2016). within this context, literary texts are confirmed as a valuable tool to promote language and culture acquisition, while exploring local areas and training teamwork competences (maddin, 2014). besides the above-mentioned promising findings, rather important limits in data analysis and discussion emerged regarding the development of the technology training stage. due to inevitable ongoing changes in the project’s structure, a reduced amount of time was dedicated to the technology training before the audio guide creation, and the uploading of the multimodal artifacts was concentrated at the end of the project. moreover, although students’ multimodal artifacts were included in the data set, the students themselves limited access to the audio guide in order to protect the personal additions and the private photographs they had included in the digital city tour; this effectively prevented a complete showing of their voices and contributions. therefore, if a similar project were to be repeated, the timetable should be better distributed in order to: organise a more extensive training in the use of the digital tool; spread the creation of the digital tour over more lessons; and encourage students’ collaborative evaluation before uploading their multimodal artifacts. students could be involved both in the self-evaluation of their own stories, and in giving supportive feedback to their peers’ scripts during story circles (oskoz & elola, 2016; robin & mcneil 2012). finally, at the beginning of the project, students should be informed of the open access publication of their audio guide in order to circumvent the problem of privacy arising. 8. conclusion with respect to the worldwide necessity of increasing the use of technologies-enhanced language learning, especially during the covid-19 pandemic, izi.travel appears to be an effective tool for facilitating sla through dst. since digital devices are constantly evolving, the experimentation of pedagogical approaches that exploit students’ teaching potentialities contributes significantly to innovating the existing didactic practices. due to time constraints and technical barriers, the efficacy of these tools is often reduced, thus it is useful to share how they can be positively applied according to user response data. an action research project regarding the use of izi.travel for sla was designed and piloted with a small group of university students of italian as an l2. although conclusions are limited in their broader applicability due to the small sample size, the findings revealed that students’ attitudes and perceived learning outcomes rated the project positively and confirmed the linguistic and technological benefits of using dst for sla. despite the study’s limitations, the innovative aspects that characterise this pedagogical approach have the potential to encourage the implementation of further projects combining sla and dst. it would be interesting to develop a more comprehensive study regarding the teaching of italian as an l2 through a set of free digital resources, such as izi.travel and other geo-location enabled tools (mapstr, echoes, fulcrum etc.) within other university settings, to develop new reflections on integrating applied linguistics and digital education. moreover, once the general circumstances fully allow it, it would be possible to integrate such teaching practices with didactic itineraries beyond the classroom, aimed at combining language and digital development with the improvement of students’ ecological awareness. these proposals are consistent with the notion of “communicative competence” (hymes, 1972), where knowing a language means developing different clusters of competences and mastering a broad set of abilities to communicate effectively. by referring to the three general objectives of language education, self-actualization, culturalization, and socialization, balboni (2018) stated that “language is the main instrument both of thought and of relation among people” (p. 68). thanks to the design and the implementation of didactic itineraries within non-formal contexts, students would be even more stimulated to create digital tours in which to upload historical, literary, and artistic content associated with the places they visited, in order not just to train linguistic and digital competences, but also to develop strategies of environmental communication. acknowledgements i wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to tiziano scarpa, professor rosella mamoli zorzi, and dr. rossella scatamburlo (dante alighieri society of venice), professor francesco casarin (ca’ foscari university of venice), professor ilaria serra (florida atlantic university), and all the students who participated in the project. students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 115 references bagna, carla, gallina, francesca, & machetti, sabrina (2018). l’approccio del linguistic landscape applicato alla didattica dell’italiano l2 per studenti internazionali. in carmel m. coonan, ada bier & elena ballarin (eds.), la didattica delle lingue nel nuovo millennio. le sfide dell’internazionalizzazione (pp. 219–231). edizioni ca’ foscari – digital publishing. 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(1=not at all, 2=not much, 3=quite a lot, 4=a lot) 1 2 3 4 a. train language skills ○ ○ ○ ○ b. expand vocabulary ○ ○ ○ ○ c. study grammar ○ ○ ○ ○ d. learn the venetian dialect ○ ○ ○ ○ e. enhance literary comprehension ○ ○ ○ ○ f. enhance written production ○ ○ ○ ○ g. develop creative expression ○ ○ ○ ○ h. improve pronunciation ○ ○ ○ ○ i. delve into the venetian history ○ ○ ○ ○ j. delve into the venetian artistic heritage (i.e., the monuments) ○ ○ ○ ○ k. delve into the venetian cultural heritage (i.e., the festivities) ○ ○ ○ ○ l. acquire a better knowledge of the environment ○ ○ ○ ○ m. acquire a better knowledge of the advantages of living in venice during the pandemic ○ ○ ○ ○ n. acquire a better knowledge of the disadvantages of living in venice during the pandemic ○ ○ ○ ○ o. discover how to create a digital city tour ○ ○ ○ ○ p. improve digital skills ○ ○ ○ ○ 8) how was the comprehension of venice is a fish: a cultural guide aided by the outdoor and the writing activities? o easier o harder o similar 9) what did you discover about venice thanks to the reading activities? 10) what did you discover about your relationship with venice thanks to the writing activities? 11) did you already know izi.travel? o yes o no 12) how do you rate the possibility of combining images and oral texts with the written descriptions of the city? o very interesting o quite interesting o slightly interesting o not at all interesting 13) how do you rate using izi.travel to create a digital tour of venice? o very useful o quite useful o slightly useful o not very useful 14a) are you satisfied with the digital tour of venice? o a lot o quite a lot o not much o not at all 14b) why? spaliviero e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91-121 120 appendix b 15) gender: o male o female o other 16) age: o 20-25 years old o 26-30 years old o more than 31 years old 17) i have been studying italian for: o less than 1 year o 2-3 years o 4-5 years o more than 5 years focus group questions 1) have you already created digital tours of cities? 2) when i told you that you were going to create a digital tour of venice starting from your written productions, what did you expect? 3) was it useful to participate in the project? if so, why? 4) in your opinion, which were the positive and negative aspects of the project? 5) will you use izi.travel for your study and work projects? 6) is there something that you want to add about the project? students’ perceptions towards izi.travel e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 91–121 121 camilla spaliviero, università ca’ foscari venezia camilla.spaliviero@unive.it en camilla spaliviero, phd, is a postdoctoral research fellow in educational linguistics (l-lin/02) in the department of linguistics and comparative cultural studies at università ca’ foscari venezia (italy). within the itals lab, she is the scientific coordinator of the “itals letteratura” project. she is a member of the centre for research in educational linguistics (crel) at università ca’ foscari venezia, and of the reading literacy, literary and linguistic education, culture and society (elcis) research group at the universidad de valencia (spain). her research interests include the teaching of italian as an l2/fl through digital tools, literary texts, and plurilingual approaches. es camilla spaliviero, phd, es investigadora posdoctoral en lingüística educativa (l-lin/02) en el departamento de lingüística y estudios culturales comparados de la università ca’ foscari venezia (italia). en el itals lab, es la coordinadora científica del proyecto “itals letteratura”. es miembro del “centre for research in educational linguistics” (crel) de la università ca’ foscari venezia y del grupo de investigación “educació literària, lingüística, cultura i societat” (elcis) de la universidad de valencia (españa). sus temas de investigación incluyen la enseñanza de italiano l2/le a través de herramientas digitales, textos literarios y métodos plurilingües. it camilla spaliviero, phd, è assegnista di ricerca in didattica delle lingue moderne (l-lin/02) presso il dipartimento di studi linguistici e culturali comparati dell’università ca’ foscari venezia (italia). all’interno del laboratorio itals coordina il progetto “itals letteratura”. è membro del “centro di ricerca sulla didattica delle lingue” (crdl) dell’università ca’ foscari venezia e del gruppo di ricerca “educació literària, lingüística, cultura i societat” (elcis) dell’universidad de valencia (spagna). i suoi interessi di ricerca includono l’insegnamento dell’italiano come l2/ls attraverso strumenti digitali, testi letterari e approcci plurilingui. colombo_4.2 euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  4,  issue  2,  december  2017,  pages  49-­‐74   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.7.102   www.e-­‐journall.org   ©  colombo  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.                                                                                                                               *  contact:  sara.colombo@uni-­‐bonn.de       “ciao  prof!”  la  pragmatica  del  saluto    negli  apprendenti  di  madrelingua  tedesca     sara  colombo*  1   rheinische  friederich-­‐wilhelms-­‐universität  bonn         received  13  april  2017;  received  in  revised  form  2  august  2017;  accepted  18  december  2017     abstract it scopo del presente contributo è l’indagine della realizzazione dell’atto linguistico del saluto in una prospettiva di pragmatica interlinguistica acquisizionale di tipo trasversale. uno studio empirico condotto sulla base di un questionario aperto ha permesso di confrontare le produzioni di parlanti nativi (italiani) e non nativi (tedeschi) con diversi livelli di competenza (a-bc), alla ricerca di schemi di realizzazione e specificità del saluto a seconda della situazione comunicativa e in presenza di interlocutori diversi. i dati raccolti mostrano che la variatio nella scelta delle formule di saluto aumenta parallelamente all’aumentare del livello di competenza in italiano. dal confronto tra le produzioni di nativi e non nativi sono emerse realizzazioni simili riguardo alla loro struttura e composizione (saluti diretti e saluti indiretti): forme altamente routinizzate si osservano in situazioni caratterizzate da un alto grado di formalità, distanza e in presenza di un interlocutore superiore nella scala gerarchica, mentre in situazioni opposte si notano strutture molto più complesse e varie (non tutte presenti nelle produzioni di apprendenti di diversi livelli). parole chiave: saluto, pragmatica interlinguistica acquisizionale, italiano, tedesco en this empirical study investigates the realization of the speech act of greeting, from the perspective of acquisitional interlanguage pragmatics. using an open questionnaire, it compares the realization of greetings in italian by native and nonnative (l1: german) speakers with different competence levels (a-b-c), across diverse communicative situations and with a range of interlocutors. data indicate that for the non-native speakers, the choices of greeting forms increasingly became more native-like at a rate parallel to their overall level of competence in italian. comparing the production of native and non-native speakers, similarities emerged with regard to both structure and composition (in direct and indirect greetings): in situations of high formality, of high social distance, and when the interlocutor was of a higher social status, both groups of speakers used highly formulaic greetings; meanwhile, in less formal situations of closer social distance and more equal social status, the structures used were much more complex and varied (even if they are not all represented in the productions of the learners with different levels). key words: greetings, acquisitional interlanguage pragmatics, italian, german es este studio empírico investiga la realización del acto lingüístico del saludo adoptando la perspectiva de la pragmática interlingüística adquisicional. las producciones de los saludos por parte de hablantes nativos y aprendientes de italiano (con el alemán como primera lengua y diferentes niveles de competencia, a-b-c) se recolectaron mediante cuestionario abierto. el cuestionario planteaba diferentes situaciones comunicativas y una amplia gama de interlocutores. los datos indican que en el caso de los aprendientes de italiano la realización de los saludos se acerca a las producciones de los nativos conforme su nivel de italiano aumenta. una comparación de las producciones de nativos y aprendientes permite destacar semejanzas en la estructura y composición de los saludos (directos e indirectos). por una parte, en situaciones con un alto grado de formalidad, mayor distancia social y con interlocutores de estatus social más alto, ambos grupos utilizaron saludos formuláicos. por otra parte, en situaciones menos formales, caracterizadas por una menor distancia social y un estatus social cercano entre los interlocutores, las estructuras utilizadas por ambos grupos fueron más complejas y variadas (aunque no se hallan todas en las producciones de los aprendientes). palabras clave:  saludos, pragmática interlingüistica adquisicional, italiano, alemán colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  50   1.  introduzione   il   saluto   e   le   sue   realizzazioni   verbali   risultano   scarsamente   indagati   non   solo   dalla   letteratura   specifica   in   lingua   italiana   con   focus   principalmente   semantico-­‐lessicale,   ma   anche   dalla   letteratura   internazionale   in   una   prospettiva   di   pragmatica   interlinguistica.   se   consideriamo   che   i   saluti   sono   atti   comportamentali   universali,   che   accomunano   uomini   e   animali,   e   nella   loro   realizzazione   (verbale   o   non   verbale)   si   trovano   praticamente   in   ogni   interazione,   stupisce   che   essi   siano   stati   un   oggetto   di   studio   occasionale   da   parte   della   linguistica.   con   la   presente   ricerca   ci   proponiamo   di   fornire   un   contributo   che   possa  concorrere  a  colmare  questa  lacuna  scientifica.     scopo   del   presente   contributo,   che   si   iscrive   nel   filone   di   studi   della   pragmatica   interlinguistica   acquisizionale   di   tipo   trasversale,   è   l’analisi   della   realizzazione   dell’atto   linguistico   del   saluto   da   parte   di   apprendenti   d’italiano   come   lingua   straniera,   aventi   madrelingua   tedesca.   i   dati   linguistici   che   abbiamo   sottoposto   alla   nostra   analisi   sono   stati   raccolti   tramite   un   questionario   aperto   somministrato   a   studenti   dell’università  di  bonn1.    in  particolare,  le  domande  di  ricerca  che  hanno  guidato  il  nostro  studio  riguardano  l’esistenza  di  somiglianze   e  differenze  nelle  strategie  di  realizzazione  e  nella  struttura  dei  saluti  prodotti  dai  parlanti  nativi  (italiani)  e   non  nativi   (di  madrelingua   tedesca)  e   la  descrizione  dei   loro  schemi  di   realizzazione  (realization  pattern)  a   seconda  della  situazione  comunicativa  e  degli  interlocutori.  il  confronto  con  le  produzioni  di  parlanti  nativi  ha   confermato   la   presenza   di   fenomeni   di   transfer   –   che   per   esperienza   diretta   abbiamo   riscontrato   nella   quotidianità.  inoltre,  il  confronto  tra  le  produzioni  di  apprendenti  di  diversi  livelli  (principianti,  intermedio  e   avanzato)  ci  ha  permesso  di  indagare  le  modalità  e  i  processi  acquisizionali  che  regolano  il  saluto,  formulando   delle  ipotesi  sulle  eventuali  sequenze  di  apprendimento  di  questo  atto  comunicativo.     dopo   aver   esposto   i   principali   scritti   sull’argomento,   dapprima   studi   internazionali   (in  prospettiva   pragmatica)  e  successivamente  in  lingua  italiana  (§2),  vengono  discussi  i  tratti  costitutivi  del  saluto  (§3).  alla   presentazione   della  metodologia   adottata   (§4)   seguono   l’analisi   e   la   discussione   dei   dati   raccolti,   suddivisi   nelle  categorie  saluti  diretti  e  saluti  indiretti  (§5).     2.  il  saluto:  prospettive  di  ricerca   in  ambito  scientifico  il  saluto  è  stato  oggetto  di  ricerca  di  varie  discipline:  accanto  a  studi  sociologici   (goffman,  1971),  etnologici  ed  etnografici  (duranti,  1997;  irvine,  1974)  se  ne  trovano  altri  di  tipo  linguistico   (solo  per   citarne   alcuni,   eisenstein-­‐ebsworth,  bodman,  &  carpenter,   1996;   laver,   1981).   tra  questi   ultimi,   alcuni   focalizzano   l’aspetto   semantico-­‐lessicale   del   saluto   e   altri   privilegiano   l’aspetto   pragmatico-­‐ comunicativo,   studiando   il   saluto  dalla  prospettiva  dell’analisi  del  discorso   (si  veda  diyani  bingan,  2010,  p.   53-­‐54)  o  da  quella  della  teoria  degli  atti  linguistici.  l’ultima  prospettiva  è  quella  che  seguiremo  per  la  nostra   analisi.     2.1.  studi  pragmatici  sul  saluto   il   dibattito   circa   il   tema   dell’universalità   degli   atti   linguistici   impegna   ormai   da   molto   tempo   gli   studiosi,  che  si  interrogano  se  questi  siano  specifici  per  ogni  cultura  oppure  se  alla  loro  base  vi  sia  una  certa   universalità  (cfr.  blum-­‐kulka  &  olshtain  1984;  nuzzo,  2007).  già  ferguson  (1976),  a  proposito  di  quelle  che   chiama  politeness  formulas,  ovvero  “ritual[s]  used  in  everyday  encounters  between  people,  [i.e.]  expressions   like  good  morning”  (p.  137),  evidenzia  da  un  lato  la   loro  universalità  e  dall’altro  la   loro  specificità  culturale:   “although   a   particular   phenomenon   is   universal   in   human   societies   –   in   this   instance   the   phenomenon   of   exchange  of  politeness  formulas  –  the  structure  and  incidence  of  use  are  .  .  .  culture  specific”  (p.  143).     nell’ambito  della  pragmatica   il  saluto,  rispetto  ad  altri  atti   linguistici,  è  stato  meno  frequentemente   oggetto  di   studi.  ripercorrendo   la   storia  della  pragmatica  dai   suoi   inizi,   troviamo  che  anche  nei  primissimi   scritti   relativi   all’argomento,   i   saluti   vengono   trattati   solo   in   modo   marginale.   austin   (1962)   nella   sua   classificazione  degli   enunciati   distingue   cinque   classi   generali,   a   seconda  della   loro   forza   illocutiva.   i   saluti   rientrerebbero   nella   classe   da   lui   definita   behabitives,   ovvero   i   comportativi,   i   quali   hanno   a   che   fare   con   attitudini  e  comportamenti  sociali.  nella  tassonomia  alternativa  proposta  da  searle  (1975)  qualche  anno  più   tardi,   i  saluti  sarebbero  da  classificare  come  atti   linguistici  espressivi  (expressives),  che  evidenziano  lo  stato   psicologico  del  parlante.  a  un  esame  degli  studi  sui  saluti  appare  evidente  che  essi  hanno  oggetti  di  ricerca   (saluto   nella   fase   iniziale   e/o   terminale),   lingue   e   metodologie   eterogenei,   cosa   che   ci   induce   verso   un                                                                                                                             1  un  grande  ringraziamento  va  a  tutti  coloro  che  hanno  partecipato!   la  pragmatica  del  saluto   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74   51   tentativo  di  sistematizzazione.  accanto  agli  studi  che  si   inquadrano   in  una  prospettiva  di  pragmatica  cross-­‐ culturale,  in  cui  la  realizzazione  di  uno  stesso  atto  linguistico  (prodotto  da  madrelingua)  viene  confrontata  fra   lingue-­‐culture   diverse,   ve   ne   sono   altri   che,   invece,   si   collocano   nella   prospettiva   della   pragmatica   interlinguistica,   focalizzando  più   l’attenzione  sull’apprendimento  e  sull’insegnamento  degli  atti   linguistici   in   una  ls  (lingua  straniera)  o  in  una  l2  (lingua  seconda)2.   in   generale,   gli   studi   di   pragmatica   cross-­‐culturale   presentano,   sulla   base   di   diversi   corpora,   un   inventario   delle   formule   di   saluto,   analizzate   nelle   loro   componenti   linguistiche   (variamente,   a   livello   sintattico,   morfologico   o   lessicale)   e,   più   raramente,   nelle   loro   funzioni.   queste   ricerche   sono   di   tipo   interlinguistico-­‐contrastivo   e   prevedono   dapprima   la   raccolta   e   l’analisi   dei   dati   per   la   singola   lingua   e   successivamente   il   confronto   interlinguistico.   svariate   sono   le  metodologie  utilizzate  per   la   raccolta  dati   in   questo  tipo  di  ricerche  (questionario,  interviste,  osservazione  sul  campo,  registrazione),  mentre  tra  le  lingue   più   studiate   in   questa   prospettiva   vi   sono   l’inglese   e   il   tedesco3.   lo   scopo   di   questi   studi   è   di   riflettere,   attraverso   la   descrizione   e   il   confronto   tra   sistemi   di   saluti,   sulle   possibili   interferenze   e   implicazioni   interculturali.   nell’ambito   della   pragmatica   interlinguistica,   invece,   è   possibile   individuare   tre   filoni   di   studi   a   seconda   che   la   prospettiva   sia   contrastiva,   acquisizionale   o   d’insegnamento   (nuzzo   &   gauci,   2012).   la   prospettiva  contrastiva  è  di  tipo  sincronico  e  l’oggetto  di  studio  è  un’unica  lingua,  per  la  quale  vengono  messe   a  confronto  le  produzioni  di  parlanti  nativi  e  non  nativi.  la  prospettiva  acquisizionale  può  essere,   invece,  di   due  tipi:  di  tipo  diacronico,  con  studi  longitudinali  che  prevedono  il  confronto  nel  tempo  delle  produzioni  in   l2  degli  apprendenti,  o  di  tipo  sincronico,  con  studi  trasversali  che  analizzano  le  produzioni  di  apprendenti  di   diversi   livelli   di   competenza.   lo   scopo   di   questo   tipo   di   studi   è   verificare   le   sequenze   di   acquisizione   e   lo   sviluppo  della   competenza  pragmatica   (barron,   2003).   infine,   la   terza  prospettiva   focalizza   l’attenzione   sul   ruolo   dell’insegnamento   della   pragmatica,   dei   metodi   e   dei   suoi   effetti   nell’acquisizione   della   competenza   pragmatica.     se  consideriamo  la  letteratura  specifica  sull’atto  linguistico  del  saluto  dal  punto  di  osservazione  della   pragmatica  interlinguistica,  sorprende  il  numero  esiguo  di  studi.  tra  questi,  per  l’inglese,  ne  abbiamo  rilevati   alcuni,  che  si  iscrivono  in  una  prospettiva  contrastiva.  sullivan  (1979)  registra  le  produzioni  dei  saluti  (nella   fase  sia  iniziale  sia  finale)  in  inglese  americano  (honolulu,  hawaii)  nel  parlato  spontaneo  e  nelle  riposte  di  un   sondaggio.  queste  vengono  poi  messe  a  confronto  con  le  formule  di  saluto  presenti  nei  libri  di  testo  utilizzati   nelle   lezioni   di   esl   (english   as   a   second   language),   mostrando   che   molti   dialoghi   presenti   nei   manuali   adottati  non  sono  affatto   rappresentativi  delle   formule  di   saluto  realmente  utilizzate  nel  parlato  spontaneo   (sullivan,  1979).  la  realizzazione  dei  saluti  in  american  english  è  anche  l’oggetto  della  ricerca  di  eisenstein-­‐ ebsworth  et  al.  (1996),  i  quali  usano  –  come  già  sullivan  (1979)  –  la  combinazione  di  più  metodologie  per  la   raccolta  dati:  un  questionario  aperto,  che  descrive  una  situazione  di  incontro  sulla  base  della  quale  si  richiede   di  elaborare  un  dialogo   in   forma  scritta,  e   la  registrazione  video  di  un  role  play  da  eseguire  sulla  base  delle   stesse  situazioni  del  questionario.  per  aiutare  a  interpretare  i  dati  raccolti  sono  state  fatte  interviste  post  hoc   a   parlanti   nativi.   dallo   studio   è   emerso   che   i   parlanti   non   nativi,   nonostante   a   volte   siano   in   grado   di   realizzare   saluti   che  vengono  percepiti   come  accettabili   da  parte  di  madrelingua   inglesi,   spesso  producono   forme   di   saluto   sentite   come   strane   e   inusuali   dai   nativi.   dall’analisi   dei   dati   risultano   “many   examples   of   cross-­‐cultural  dissonance   in   the  pragmatic  systems  of  american  english  and  other   languages  and  cultures.”   (eisenstein-­‐ebsworth   et   al.,   1996,   p.   96).   in   particolare,   le   produzioni   di   saluti   da   parte   di   parlanti   non   madrelingua   presentano   una   minore   varietà   (nella   tipologia   dei   saluti   e   nella   creatività)   e,   quindi,   una   maggiore   conformità   ai   saluti   ritualizzati.   inoltre,   i   casi   di   saluti   veloci   (speedy  greetings   e  greetings  on  the   run)  sembrano  essere  i  più  problematici  da  riprodurre,  in  quanto,  per  timore  di  essere  troppo  rudi,  i  parlanti   non   nativi   tendono   a   formulare   saluti   che,   in   quelle   specifiche   situazioni,   hanno   una   lunghezza   eccessiva.   anche   il   tema   (topic)   che   può   essere   oggetto   di   domande   è   una   grande   difficoltà   per   i   non  madrelingua.   i   saluti,  che  pure  sono  essenziali  in  ogni  situazione  comunicativa,  presentano,  dunque,  dei  rischi  e  delle  insidie   che  possono  facilmente  portare  a  pragmalinguistic  failure  e/o  a  sociopragmatic  failure  (thomas,  1983).                                                                                                                               2  manteniamo  qui  la  differenza  tra  lingua  straniera  (ls),  ovvero  la  lingua  appresa  in  un  contesto  guidato  in  un  paese  in  cui   essa   non   è   il   mezzo   quotidiano   di   comunicazione   e   interazione,   e   lingua   seconda   (l2),   lingua   appresa   in   un   contesto   naturale  nel  paese  in  cui  essa  è  quotidianamente  usata  come  mezzo  di  comunicazione  e  interazione.   3  tra  gli   studi  più  recenti   sul   confronto  del   sistema  dei   saluti   tedesco  con  altre   lingue  ricordiamo,   johnen  (2006)  per   il   portoghese,  grieve  &  seebus  (2008)  per  l’inglese  australiano,  diyani-­‐bingan  (2010)  per  il  francese  (varietà  camerunense)   e  schulze-­‐neufeld  (2012)  per  il  russo.   colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  52   per   concludere   la   nostra   –   certamente   non   esaustiva   –   esposizione   relativa   agli   studi   sul   saluto   in   un’ottica   di   pragmatica   interlinguistica,   rimangono   da   citare   le   (esigue)   ricerche   svolte   in   ambito   della   prospettiva  di  insegnamento  –  studi  in  prospettiva  acquisizionale  non  sono,  al  contrario,  stati  rilevati.  nel  loro   saggio   sulle   chiusure   di   una   conversazione,   bardovi-­‐harlig,   hartford,   mahan-­‐taylor,   morgan   &   reynolds   (1991)  sostengono  che  spesso  i   libri  di  testo  non  contengono  dei  modelli  di   lingua  verosimili  né  tantomeno   pragmaticamente   appropriati.   il   docente   di   lingua,   quindi,   ha   non   solo   il   compito,   ma   la   responsabilità   di   aumentare  la  consapevolezza  pragmatica  degli  apprendenti  (di  tutti  i  livelli),  che  può  favorire  attraverso  delle   attività   (da   svolgere   in   classe   o   fuori   dalla   classe).   aumentare   negli   apprendenti   la   consapevolezza   dell’aspetto   pragmatico   della   lingua   è,   dunque,   presupposto   fondamentale   per   lo   sviluppo   della   loro   competenza   pragmatica.   anche   zeff   (2016)   in   un   articolo   più   recente   condivide   questa   tesi,   sottolineando   l’importanza  e  i  benefici  che  le  explicit  pragmatics  instructions  hanno  nelle  lezioni  di  lingua,  in  quanto  –  sulla   base  di  un  repertorio  limitato  di  saluti  presentati  e  discussi  a  lezione  –  permettono  di  preparare  gli  studenti   alle  future  (e  imprevedibili)  situazioni  che  incontreranno  al  di  fuori  della  classe.  zeff  (2016)  suggerisce  alcuni   task   esemplari   da   proporre   agli   apprendenti,   allo   scopo   di   aumentare   la   loro   consapevolezza   pragmatica,   intesa  nelle  sue  componenti  pragmalinguistica  e  sociopragmatica.     2.2.  studi  sull’italiano      da   un   esame   della   letteratura   scientifica   sui   saluti   disponibile   per   la   nostra   lingua   emerge   una   consistente  prevalenza  della  prospettiva  semantico-­‐lessicale  su  quella  pragmatica.  una  delle  prime  analisi  di   tipo  descrittivo  si   trova   in  alinei   (1977),  che   fornisce  una  presentazione  del  sistema  allocutivo  dei  saluti   in   italiano  (oltre  che  in  inglese  e  in  olandese)  realizzata  partendo  dall’analisi  di  alcune  opposizioni  fondamentali   per   la   classificazione   stessa  dei   saluti.   i   criteri   di   identificazione  dei   saluti   ci   appaiono,   tuttavia,   confusi   (si   trovano   infatti   ripetizioni,   che   si   sarebbero   potute   evitare   tramite   un   raggruppamento   in   categorie   e   sottocategorie)  e  la  scelta  di  quelli  da  considerare  sembra  dettata  più  dal  gusto  e  dalla  conoscenza  personale   che   da   una   scrupolosa   ricerca   scientifica.   pierini   (1983)   analizza   i   saluti,   considerati   come   una   classe   di   formule  di  cortesia,  da  un  punto  di  vista  morfosinattico  e  pragmatico,  evidenziando  la  loro  natura  dicotomica:   da   un   lato   essi   presentano,   infatti,   convenzionalità   e   rigidità,   mentre   dall’altro   offrono   al   parlante   la   possibilità  di  utilizzare  espressioni  libere,  dando  spazio  alla  sua  creatività  e  “originalità  espressiva”  (pierini,   1983,  p.  112).  come  alinei  (1977),  anche  sobrero  (1995)  si  dedica  alla  documentazione  del  sistema  dei  saluti,   alla  cui  base  questa  volta  si  riscontra  una  metodologia  specifica,  che  prevede  la  raccolta  e  la  successiva  analisi   dei  dati  rilevati   in  un  contesto  naturale  (corpus  di  rilevamenti  effettuati  tramite  osservazione  e  registratore   nascosto)  e  circoscritti  all’area  del  salento.  riflessioni  sulle   formule  di  saluto   in   italiano  si   trovano  anche  in   molinelli  (2002),  che  le  inscrive  nella  descrizione  di  un  più  ampio  sistema  della  cortesia,  alla  cui  base  vengono   ipotizzati   quattro   parametri   (potere,   solidarietà,   rispetto   e   distanza   nella   comunicazione).   al   sistema   dei   saluti,   o   meglio   ai   riassestamenti   avvenuti   al   suo   interno,   è   dedicato   un   saggio   di   canobbio   (2003),   che   documenta  le  ricerche  svolte  con  gli  studenti  dell’università  di  torino  allo  scopo  di  effettuare  un  inventario   delle   formule   di   saluto,   sulla   base   della   conoscenza   delle   stesse   e   della   loro   valutazione   di   pertinenza   in   ambito   di   utilizzo   in   determinate   situazioni   comunicative.   i   dati   raccolti   sono   poi   stati   successivamente   confrontati   con   altri   rilevati   in   un   contesto   naturale.   le   osservazioni   riportate   nel   saggio   si   riferiscono   unicamente  all’uso  di  salve,  ritenuto  dagli  informanti  un  saluto  appropriato  con  adulti,  in  situazioni  formali  e   asimmetriche   (per   esempio,   con   professori).   tali   risultati,   che   sono   successivamente   stati   confermati   dai   rilevamenti   in   contesto   naturale,   rappresenterebbero   uno   “slittamento”   rispetto   alla   norma   d’uso   di   salve   (canobbio,   2003,   p.   152).   sempre   canobbio   (2011)   è   autrice   della   voce   formule  di   saluto   nell’enciclopedia   treccani,   in  cui  vengono  esposti  quattro  fattori  socio-­‐situazionali  che  determinano  la  scelta  delle  formule  di   saluto  in  italiano,  ovvero     a)  il  momento  della  giornata;  b)  le  variabili  sociodemografiche  che  riguardano  i  parlanti  e  i   loro   rapporti   (età,   sesso,   ruolo);   c)   la   posizione   del   saluto   nell’interazione   (approccio,   commiato,   saluto   di   passaggio);   d)   la   natura   del   saluto,   secondo   che   si   tratti   di   un   saluto   individuale  o  di  gruppo.  (canobbio,  2011)     canobbio   (2011)   evidenzia,   inoltre,   alcune   tendenze   attuali   registrate   in   italia   nell’ambito   delle   formule  di  saluto.  la  minor  rigidità  nei  rapporti   interpersonali  ha  determinato  un  uso  esteso  del  tu  e  delle   formule   di   saluto   meno   formali.   in   particolare,   il   sistema   dei   saluti   appare   essersi   evoluto   verso   una   semplificazione,   mettendo   da   parte   le   formule   troppo   marcate   e   optando   per   formule   “più   neutre   e   polivalenti”   (canobbio,   2011),   come   per   esempio   salve,   che   riscuote   molta   fortuna   tra   i   giovani.   oltre   la  pragmatica  del  saluto   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74   53   all’utilizzo   di   formule   di   saluto  meno   formali   (in   italiano   standard)   si   assiste   anche   all’utilizzo   di   formule   dialettali  con  evidente  funzione  identitaria  e  ludica,  e  di  forestierismi  (canobbio,  2011).  per  quanto  riguarda   le  pubblicazioni  più  recenti  sulle  formule  di  saluto  in  italiano,  spicca  la   loro  interdisciplinarietà:  bonsignori,   bruti  &  masi  (2011)  confrontano  la  resa  traduttiva  in  italiano  dei  saluti  presenti  in  un  corpus  di  film  inglesi  e   americani   –   ponendosi,   quindi,   tra   la   scienza   della   traduzione   e   la   pragmatica   –,   mentre   farese   (2015)   propone,   attraverso   un’analisi   di   tipo   semantico,   uno   studio   contrastivo   inglese-­‐italiano   (hi   vs   ciao)   che   si   situa  tra  la  pragmatica  interculturale  e  la  semantica  cross-­‐culturale.     3.  il  saluto4:  tratti  costitutivi   in   seguito   a   un   attento   esame  della   letteratura   sulla   tematica   oggetto  della   nostra   analisi   abbiamo   riscontrato   che   nelle   varie   trattazioni   sull’atto   linguistico   del   saluto   vengono   spesso   tematizzate   le   sue   caratteristiche.   in   un   tentativo   di   sistematizzazione   abbiamo   riunito   tali   caratteristiche   in   gruppi   tematici   omogenei,   cercando   di   astrarre   le   categorie   principali   sottese   a   essi,   al   fine   di   fornire   una   proposta   di   descrizione   dei   tratti   costitutivi   dell’oggetto   della   nostra   ricerca.   tra   quelli   che   emergono   costantemente   distinguiamo:   funzione  (bonsignori  et  al.,  2011;  canobbio,  2003,  2011;  coulmas,  1979;  eisenstein-­‐ebsworth   et   al.,   1996;   ferguson,   1976;   laver,   1981;   rash,   2004;   schulze-­‐neufeld,   2012;   spillner,   2014),   contenuto   proposizionale  (canobbio,  2011;  duranti,  1997;  farese,  2015;  ferguson,  1976;  pierini,  1983;  schulze-­‐neufeld,   2012;  searle,  1969),  struttura  sintattica  (duranti,  1997;  ferguson,  1976;  kohrt,  1985;  lebsanft,  1988;  pierini,   1983;  rash,  2004;  renzi,  salvi,  &  cardinaletti,  2001;  spillner,  2014)    e  forza  illocutiva  (bonsignori  et  al.,  2011;   kohrt,  1985;  pierini,  1983;  schulze-­‐neufeld,  2012).   per  quanto  riguarda  la   funzione  dei  saluti,  abbiamo  riconosciuto  una  macrofunzione5,  contenente  al   suo  interno  diverse  microfunzioni.  i  saluti  hanno  una  macrofunzione  sociale  (coulmas,  1979  e  bonsignori  et   al.,  2011):  in  qualità  di  rituali  d’accesso  (access  rituals,  cfr.  goffman,  1971:  p.  79-­‐80)  sono  parte  fondamentale   di  ogni  situazione  comunicativa  nella  quale  si  intenda  valicare  il  confine  dalla  non  interazione  all’interazione.   tra   le   microfunzioni   comprese   nella   più   ampia   macrofunzione   sociale   distinguiamo   le   seguenti   funzioni:   presentativa,   emotiva,   fatica,   umana   con   componente   affettiva,   di   appello,   di   cortesia   e   di   mediazione/negoziazione.   la   prima   funzione,   che   definiamo   presentativa,   è   legata   al   fatto   che   i   saluti   permettono  al  parlante,  che  si  introduce  nell’interazione,  di  fornire  una  presentazione  di  sé  o,  come  specifica   canobbio  (2003)  appoggiandosi  a  goffman,  una  “rappresentazione  di  sé”  (p.  148).  le  successive  due  funzioni   individuate   (e   per   la   definizione   delle   quali   si   riprende   la   terminologia   di   jakobson,   1960)   sono   quella   emotiva  (si  veda  anche  bonsignori  et  al.,  2011),  in  quanto  i  saluti  consentono  di  esprimere  il  mondo  interiore   del  parlante  (gioia,  sorpresa,  imbarazzo  ecc.),  e  quella  fatica  (si  veda  anche  bonsignori  et  al.,  2011;  coulmas,   1979;  schulze-­‐neufeld,  2012,  p.  55),  dal  momento  che  i  saluti  permettono  di  iniziare  e  terminare  il  contatto   tra  gli  interlocutori.  inoltre,  i  saluti  rivestono  una  funzione  che  definiamo  'umana  con  componente  affettiva':   tramite  il  saluto  il  parlante  mostra  da  un  lato  la  sua  predisposizione/simpatia  nei  confronti  dell’interlocutore   e,  dall’altro,  evidenzia  che  le  sue  intenzioni  non  sono  aggressive  (a  questo  proposito  si  veda  duranti,  1997).   nel   saluto   è   inoltre   possibile   rilevare   una   funzione   di   appello   o   identificazione   dell’interlocutore,   che   permette   di   rafforzare   i   legami   sociali   e,   essendo   considerati   come   parte   fondamentale   delle   convenzioni   sociali   in   ogni   lingua-­‐cultura,   i   saluti   presentano   anche   una   funzione   di   cortesia   (si   veda   schulze-­‐neufeld,   2012,   p.   55).   infine,   i   saluti,   che  permettono  di   richiamare   l’attenzione  dell’interlocutore,   hanno   anche  una   funzione   pragmatica   di  mediazione   (canobbio,   2011)   o   negoziazione   dei   rapporti   tra   i   parlanti   (canobbio,   2003,  p.  148).  trovandosi  in  apertura  a  una  situazione  interazionale,  il  saluto  fornisce  subito  indicazioni  sul   parlante   (madrelingua   e   non)   riguardo   alla   conoscenza   delle   norme   sociali   nel   rispetto   della   situazione   comunicativa  in  cui  si  trova  e  dell’interlocutore/degli  interlocutori  che  partecipano  all’interazione.  il  saluto  è   una   sorta   di   biglietto   da   visita   del   parlante   e   permette   di   negoziare   le   regole   del   rapporto   con   l’altro.   l’appropriatezza   nella   scelta   della   forma   di   saluto   permette   in   primo   luogo   di   presentarsi   come   parlanti   aventi   competenza   pragmatica,   evitando   così   situazioni   di   imbarazzo,   sconcerto   o   addirittura   di   offesa   che   una  scelta  sbagliata  del  saluto  potrebbe  portare  con  sé.  la  competenza  pragmatica  risulta  essere  quindi  un   tema  difficile   e   spinoso  non   solo  nell’acquisizione  della   propria   lingua  materna,  ma   ancor  più   in   ambito  di   apprendimento  come  lingua  straniera  e  lingua  seconda  (cfr.  anche  canobbio,  2003).                                                                                                                               4  specifichiamo  che  solo  i  saluti  verbali  saranno  oggetto  del  presente  contributo.   5  anche   bonsignori   et   al.   (2011)   utilizzano   il   termine   macro-­‐funzione,   tuttavia   in   modo   diverso,   associandolo   alla   posizione  che  il  saluto  può  avere  nello  scambio  comunicativo  (opening,  introduction,  closing).   colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  54   spostando   l’attenzione  su  un  altro  tratto  costitutivo  dei  saluti,  non  tutti  sembrano  concordare  sulla   presenza   di   contenuto   proposizionale.   searle   (1969)   sostiene   che   il   saluto   sia   privo   di   contenuto   proposizionale  (denotativo)  (p.  64  e  si  veda  anche  pierini,  1983).  tale  svuotamento  semantico  delle  forme  di   saluto   si   è   verificato   nel   corso   della   loro   evoluzione   storica   e   in   seguito   al   loro   utilizzo   quotidiano   e   routinizzato,   che   le   ha   ridotte   a   semplici   riti   di   cortesia   che   regolano   l’interazione   sociale   (cfr.   uhlisch   in   schulze-­‐neufeld,   2012,   p.   53).   di   avviso   opposto   sono   schulze-­‐neufeld   (2012)   e   farese   (2015),   i   quali   –   appoggiandosi  a  quanto  sostenuto  da  wierzbicka  –  ritengono  che  i  saluti  abbiano  un  determinato  contenuto   (connotativo)  socio-­‐semantico,  essendo  espressioni  di  benevolenza  nei  confronti  dell’interlocutore  (schulze-­‐ neufeld,  2012,  pp.  54  e  62),  e  un  significato  interazionale  (farese,  2015,  p.  1).  in  qualità  di  forme  di  routine  e   politeness  formulas,  i  saluti  sono  stati  definiti  “non  referential  in  meaning  and  important  for  their  presence  or   absence   on   the   appropriate   occasion   rather   than   for   the   exact  meaning   carried   by   their   constituent   parts”   (ferguson,   1976,   p.   147).     se   quindi   da   un   lato   mancano   di   significato   referenziale,   dall’altro   i   saluti   possiedono   un   significato   sociale   e   culturale   ben   preciso,   in   quanto   permettono   di   condurre   l’interazione   secondo  le  regole  sociali  di  una  comunità  (canobbio,  2011).   sul  versante  della   struttura  sintattica,   ovvero  della   realizzazione  verbale   sul  piano   locutivo,   i   saluti   manifestano  un  alto  grado  di  stereotipicità  (kohrt,  1985)  o  struttura  fissa  (lebsanft,  1988),  essendo  costituiti   da  formule  di  routine  pressoché  stabili.  tale  stabilità  sarebbe  garantita  non  solo  dal  saluto  stesso,  ma  anche   dalla   possibilità   di   rispondere   con   un   saluto-­‐eco   (kohrt,   1985).   la   caratterizzazione   dei   saluti   come   fraseologismi  pragmatici  (lebsanft,  1988)  è  determinata  dalla  loro  struttura  fissa  interna  (ovvero  materiale,   linguistica)  ed  esterna  (ovvero  situazionale).  così,  ogni  lingua  possiede  un  repertorio  di  saluti  limitato,  dove   la   sequenza   degli   elementi   linguistici   costitutivi   appare   fissa.   ciononostante,   il   parlante   ha   la   capacità   di   intervenire   sulla   lingua   e   di   personalizzare   i   saluti,   conferendo   loro   espressività   (con   elementi   sovrasegmentali,  lessicali  o  morfosintattici)  in  perfetto  accordo  con  la  sopracitata  funzione  emotiva  dei  saluti.   la   caratteristica   di   stabilità   non   riguarda,   tuttavia,   solo   la   forma   o  manifestazione   esteriore   dei   saluti,  ma   anche   il   loro   uso.   ci   sono   infatti   saluti   il   cui   utilizzo   è   strettamente   legato   a   una   determinata   situazione   comunicativa   e   a   determinati   interlocutori,   ma   il   parlante   può   naturalmente   scegliere   tra   un   ventaglio   di   possibilità,  al  cui  interno  si  manifesteranno  saluti  più  prototipici  e  altri  più  periferici  (rosch,  1975)6.     nel  dettaglio,  per  quanto  riguarda  la  manifestazione  linguistica  in  italiano,  i  saluti  possono  apparire   da  soli,  accompagnati  da  un  vocativo  o  da  interiezioni  (renzi  et  al.,  2001).  il  vocativo  (che  precede  o  segue  i   saluti)   ha   la   funzione   di   appello:   identifica,   cioè,   l’interlocutore,   rivolgendogli   la   parola   e   invitandolo   a   partecipare  allo   scambio  comunicativo   (renzi  et  al.,  2001).  solitamente   la   scelta  del  vocativo  dipende  dalla   situazione  comunicativa  e  dall’interlocutore  che  partecipa  allo  scambio  e,  nel  caso  dei  saluti,   il  vocativo  –  di   tipo   nominale   –   può   essere   un   titolo,   un   termine   di   parentela   oppure   nome   e/o   cognome.   anche   le   interiezioni  possono  accompagnare  i  saluti  ma,  al  tempo  stesso,  i  saluti  possono  essere  considerati  essi  stessi   come  delle  interiezioni  di  tipo  comportativo  (renzi  et  al.,  2001,  p.  414).     nell’introdurre  l’ultima  caratteristica  intrinseca  menzionata,  la  forza  illocutiva  dei  saluti,  con  la  quale   ci   riferiamo   alla   loro   identificazione   e   alla   delimitazione   da   altri   atti   linguistici,   riportiamo   al   centro   della   discussione  una  questione  molto  dibattuta  in  ambito  scientifico  (kohrt,  1985,  p.  182).  non  è  raro,  infatti,  che  il   saluto  (per  esempio  ciao)  venga  realizzato  insieme  ad  altre  espressioni  rituali  (per  esempio  come  stai?),  che  lo   accompagnano  ma   non   lo   sostituiscono.   queste   sono   state   suddivise   in   quattro   categorie,   ovvero  wünsche   (auguri),   befindlichkeitsfragen   (domande   sulla   condizione   psico-­‐fisica),   überraschungsgrüße   (saluti   di   sorpresa7)  e  evidenzfragen  (domande  palesi  che  non  necessitano  una  risposta)  (kohrt,  1985,  schulze-­‐neufeld,   2012)8.   secondo  kohrt   (1985,  p.  180)  queste  azioni   verbali   che   frequentemente  appaiono   in   combinazione   con  i  saluti  non  sarebbero  classificabili  come  saluti  veri  e  propri  ma  come  konventionalisierte  ausdrucksweisen   (espressioni  convenzionalizzate).  nonostante  lo  stretto  legame  che  intercorre  tra  saluti  e  tali  manifestazioni   verbali,   queste   ultime   rappresenterebbero   altri   tipi   di   atti   linguistici.   a   sostegno   di   questa   tesi   ci   sarebbe   l’analisi   della   risposta   dell’interlocutore:   in   effetti,   la   reazione   a   un   saluto   è   un   contro-­‐saluto   –   spesso   realizzato  verbalmente  attraverso  una  risposta-­‐eco  –,  mentre  negli  altri  casi  si  tratterebbe  di  atti  illocutori  di                                                                                                                             6  ci   sembra   qui   opportuno   il   collegamento   con   la   teoria   dei   prototipi   mutuata   dalle   scienze   cognitive   (rosch,   1975),   collegamento  peraltro  ripreso  anche  da  kohrt  (1985,  p.  179).     7  goffman  (1971)  li  definisce  greetings  of  surprise.     8  trattandosi   di   un   argomento   affrontato   da   diversi   autori   di   lingua   tedesca,   abbiamo   deciso   di   menzionare   la   terminologia   in   lingua   originale,   fornendo   una   traduzione   alla   quale   faremo   riferimento   anche   più   avanti   nella   nostra   trattazione  (§5).   la  pragmatica  del  saluto   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74   55   altro   tipo,   che   non   ammettono   una   risposta-­‐eco   (kohrt,   1985).   anche   schulze-­‐neufeld   (2012)   differenzia   l’atto   linguistico   del   saluto   dalle   altre   manifestazioni   verbali   che   lo   accompagnano,   proponendo   una   distinzione   tra   saluti   diretti   (ciao)   e   indiretti   (come  stai?).   nonostante   vengano   fornite   spiegazioni   talvolta   contraddittorie  riguardo  alla  possibilità  di  classificare  i  saluti  indiretti  come  facenti  parte  dell’atto  linguistico   del  saluto,  ci  sembra  comunque  che  la  suddivisione  operata  tra  saluti  diretti  e  indiretti  possa  ricondurre  tutte   le   forme   allo   stesso   atto   linguistico,   quello   del   saluto   appunto,   all’interno   del   quale   si   procede   a   una   differenziazione.   in   questa   sede   riprendiamo   la   terminologia   proposta   da   schulze-­‐neufeld   (2012),   differenziando  tra  saluti  diretti  e  saluti  indiretti  e  ritenendo  che  sia  i  saluti  diretti  sia  quelli  indiretti  siano  da   considerarsi   come   atto   linguistico   del   saluto,   in   virtù   dell’esercizio   delle   funzioni   esposte   in   apertura   del   paragrafo.     i   saluti   diretti   si   caratterizzano  per   la   loro  non  opzionalità   e   la   loro  posizione   iniziale/introduttiva   (schulze-­‐neufeld,   2012,   p.   62),   mentre   quelli   indiretti   sono   opzionali,   accompagnano   e   ampliano   il   saluto   diretto,  ma  non  lo  sostituiscono  (schulze-­‐neufeld,  2012,  p.  58-­‐62).  di  questi  ultimi  fanno  parte  gli  auguri,   le   domande   sulla   condizione   psico-­‐fisica,   i   saluti   di   sorpresa   e   le   domande   palesi   che   non   necessitano   una   risposta   (cfr.   schulze   neufeld,   2012.   kohrt,   1985,   li   definisce,   invece,   konventionalisierte   ausdrucksweisen   (espressioni   convenzionalizzate),   si   veda   supra).   per   la   nostra   analisi   e   classificazione   dei   dati   elicitati   dai   questionari  ci  siamo  basati  su  questa  suddivisione,  andando  a  verificare  non  solo  la  loro  presenza,  ma  anche   quella  di  eventuali  ulteriori  elementi  (si  veda  §5.).     4.  metodologia     4.1.  i  partecipanti   la   presente   ricerca   è   uno   studio-­‐pilota   effettuato   su   gruppi   di   apprendenti   di   italiano   con   madrelingua   tedesca  che   frequentano  o  hanno   frequentato  corsi  d’italiano  ls  presso   l’università  di  bonn.   i   partecipanti,  di  entrambi  i  sessi,  hanno  un’età  compresa  dai  18  ai  36  anni  (più  due  casi  di  età  maggiore,  51  e   80)  e   sono  suddivisi  nei   livelli  a-­‐principianti,  b-­‐intermedio  e  c-­‐avanzato   (corrispondenti  al  quadro  comune   europeo,  consiglio  d’europa,  2002).     abbiamo  inoltre  previsto  due  gruppi  di  controllo  –  aventi  funzioni  diverse  –  che  ci  hanno  permesso  di   formulare  ipotesi  in  seguito  all’analisi  della  realizzazione  linguistica  dei  saluti  da  parte  degli  apprendenti.  un   gruppo   è   costituito   da  madrelingua   italiani,   le   cui   produzioni   sono   state   oggetto   di   osservazione   (§5.1.1.   e   §5.2.1.)  e  la  funzione  del  quale  è  stata  quella  di  essere  parametro  di  riferimento  per  verificare  le  produzioni   degli   apprendenti.   l’altro   gruppo   è   formato   da   madrelingua   tedeschi,   con   la   funzione   di   sostegno   per   verificare   eventuali   fenomeni   di   transfer   dal   tedesco   nelle   produzioni   in   italiano   (e,   quindi,   non   oggetto   di   analisi  approfondita).   allo   scopo   di   trovare   partecipanti   abbiamo   contattato   via   mail   gli   studenti   di   italianistica   dell’università  di  bonn  e  quelli  iscritti  al  bonner  italien-­‐zentrum.  tramite  degli  annunci  abbiamo  inoltre  reso   nota  l’iniziativa  nella  biblioteca  di  romanistica  dell’università  di  bonn  e  altri  partecipanti  sono  stati  contattati   da  noi  personalmente.  il  nostro  obiettivo  era  di  riuscire  a  raccogliere  10  questionari  per  ogni  gruppo  e,  alla   fine  tale  obiettivo  è  stato  raggiunto  e  superato  (si  veda  tabella  1  per  la  tipologia  e  il  numero  di  partecipanti).   specifichiamo  che,  al  fine  di  evitare  di  ottenere  possibili  duplicazioni  delle  formule  di  saluto,  gli  apprendenti   che  hanno  partecipato  al  progetto  non  coincidono  con  i  madrelingua  tedeschi:   le  risposte  al  questionario   in   una   lingua   avrebbero,   infatti,   potuto   fornire   modelli   di   realizzazione   per   quelle   nell’altra   lingua,   influenzandole.   tabella 1 numero di partecipanti per categoria categoria partecipanti madrelingua italiani 12 madrelingua tedeschi 14 apprendenti di italiano l2 livello a 12 livello b 11 livello c 16 totale 65 colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  56    i  dati  dei  tre  gruppi  di  apprendenti  sono  stati  analizzati  separatamente  e  sono  stati  oggetto  sia  di  un   confronto  esterno  con  i  madrelingua  italiani,  sia  di  un  confronto  interno  tra  i  gruppi  stessi  (§5.1.2.  e  §5.2.2.).   le  rilevazioni  sono  state  effettuate  nel  mese  di  marzo  2017.  le  informazioni  raccolte  in  un’apposita  sezione   posta   prima   del   questionario   stesso   rivelano   che   l’italiano   è   stato   appreso   all’università   (unica   opzione   segnalata  dagli  apprendenti  del   livello  a),  a  scuola  e  direttamente   in  italia,   frequentando  corsi   in  università   italiane,  lavorando  o  svolgendo  dei  tirocini  (opzioni  segnalate  da  apprendenti  di  livello  b  e  c).      4.2.  il  corpus     per   costituire   il   nostro  corpus   di   riferimento  è   stato   somministrato  ai  partecipanti  un  questionario   aperto,   che  rappresenta  una  sottocategoria  di  discourse  completion  task   (dct)   (bardovi-­‐harlig  &  hartford,   1993).   il   dct   è   uno   degli   strumenti   più   utilizzati   per   l’elicitazione   dei   dati   nell’ambito   delle   ricerche   di   pragmatica   interlinguistica  e   interculturale   (félix-­‐brasdefer,  2010).  le  motivazioni  che  ci  hanno  condotto  a   selezionarlo  come  strumento  di  raccolta  dati  per  la  nostra  analisi  sono  principalmente  di  due  tipi.     una  'negativa',  in  seguito  al  confronto  con  altri  metodi  di  raccolta  dati  che  alla  fine  sono  stati  scartati,   come  il  role  play  (che  avrebbe  richiesto  da  un  lato  la  presenza  dei  partecipanti  in  un  periodo  di  interruzione   delle   lezioni   e   dall’altro   avrebbe   comportato   la   trascrizione   dei   dialoghi   con   le   conseguenti   questioni   di   carattere  metodologico   e   di   analisi)   e   le   rilevazioni   in   contesto   naturale   (praticamente   impossibili   se   non   estremamente   artificiose   in   un   contesto   di   lingua   straniera),   ritenuti   inadatti   ai   fini   della   presente   ricerca.   inoltre,   il   classico  dct,  che  prevede   il   completamento  del   turno  di  parola   in  presenza  di  un  mini-­‐dialogo,  è   stato  escluso  per  un  problema  legato  a  una  caratteristica  fondamentale  dei  saluti,  ovvero  la  possibilità  della   risposta-­‐eco  (§3):  fornire  il  primo  turno  di  conversazione  avrebbe,  quindi,  potuto  influenzare  la  risposta  degli   informanti.     l’altra  motivazione  che  ci  ha  portato  alla  scelta  del  questionario  aperto  è  di  tipo  'positivo',  derivante   dall’aver  soppesato  i  vantaggi  di  questo  metodo,  tra  cui  la  frequenza  d’uso  di  questo  strumento  e  l’eventuale   possibilità  di  confrontare  i  risultati  ottenuti  con  altri  studi,  la  sua  immediatezza  e  praticità  (in  un  periodo  di   pausa  dalle  lezioni  universitarie  è  stato  possibile  raggiungere  via  mail  i  partecipanti)  e  la  possibilità  di  poter   controllare  diverse  variabili,  di  cui  si  è  tenuto  conto  per  la  formulazione  delle  situazioni  del  questionario.     il  questionario  elaborato  –  e  che  riproduciamo  nell’appendice  a  –  si  presenta  composto  da  20  items   (numero   proposto   da  kasper  &  dahl,   1991).   consapevoli   che   la   scelta   del   saluto   è   influenzata   da   variabili   situazionali  e  da  variabili  sociali,  abbiamo  ideato  10  situazioni  gemelle,  le  quali  si  ripetono  ma  con  un  tipo  di   interlocutore   diverso   (una   volta   con   maggiore   e   una   volta   con   minore   distanza   sociale),   per   osservare   la   produzione  dei   saluti  da  parte  degli  apprendenti.  le  situazioni  elaborate  sono  verosimili  per   i  partecipanti,   così   abbiamo   chiesto   loro  di   immedesimarsi   nelle   situazioni   descritte   e  di   dire   come  avrebbero   salutato   le   persone  incontrate.  ciascuna  situazione  è  introdotta  da  un  titolo  che  identifica  il  luogo  in  cui  svolge  (abbiamo   tenuto   conto   sia  di   luoghi   chiusi   che   aperti),   cui   segue  una  descrizione  –   il   più  dettagliata  possibile   –  della   situazione  stessa  riguardo  al  momento  della  giornata  (anche  con  l’orario)  e  al  luogo.     molti   sono   i   fattori   rilevanti   in   una   situazione   comunicativa   che   possono   influenzare   la   scelta   del   saluto.  al  fine  di  ridurre  il  numero  delle  variabili  in  gioco,  nell’elaborazione  del  nostro  questionario  abbiamo   trasformato  tre  fattori  situativi  da  variabili  a  costanti,  essendo  comuni  a  tutte   le  situazioni,  nonché  evidenti   nelle  descrizioni  fornite:  tipo  di  comunicazione  (verbale),  fase  della  comunicazione  (iniziale)  e  prospettiva  del   saluto   (face   to   face).   oltre   alla   situazione   comunicativa,   la   scelta   del   saluto   è   influenzata   anche   dagli   interlocutori   e   dal   rapporto   esistente   fra   di   loro.   nello   specifico,   le   situazioni   presentate   sono   state   ideate   sulla   base   di   alcune   variabili,   riprendendo   e   adattando   alcuni   parametri   che   koch   &   oesterreicher   (2011[1990])  propongono  come  causa  di  possibile  varianza  nella  comunicazione  verbale,  poiché  “sprachliche   kommunikation  [findet]  […]  stets   in  abhängigkeit  von  nichtsprachlichen  kontexten  statt.   [la  comunicazione   linguistica  ha  sempre  luogo  in  contesti  non  linguistici,  dai  quali  dipende].”  (p.  10).  negli  studi  di  pragmatica   interlinguistica   la   distanza   viene   spesso   presa   come   variabile   contestuale   discriminante   nelle   situazioni   presentate.   anche   nel   presente   studio   ci   atteniamo   a   questo   parametro,   che,   tuttavia,   ci   sembra   troppo   generico  e  ci  proponiamo  di  differenziarlo  al  suo  interno  in  sotto-­‐variabili.  tali  sotto-­‐variabili,  che  sono  alla   base  del  questionario  da  noi  elaborato,  sono:  grado  di  formalità  (situazione  formale  vs  situazione  informale),   grado   di   conoscenza   p1-­‐p2 9  (interlocutore   familiare   vs   interlocutore   sconosciuto),   gerarchia   sociale   (superiore  vs  inferiore),  età  (maggiore  vs  minore),  grado  d’istruzione  (maggiore  vs  minore),  frequenza  degli                                                                                                                             9  con  p1  si  intende  parlante  1  e  con  p2  parlante  2.  koch  &  oesterreicher  (2011[1990])  nominano  il  parametro  “grad  der   vertrautheit  der  partner  [grado  di  confidenza/familiarità]”  (p.  7).   la  pragmatica  del  saluto   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74   57   incontri   (incontri   frequenti   vs   primo   incontro)   e   grado   di   emozionalità10  (alto   grado   vs   basso   grado   di   emozionalità).   in  ogni   situazione  presentata  nel  questionario,   la  distanza   tra   i   due   interlocutori  può  essere   determinata  dalla  compresenza  di  più  sotto-­‐variabili.  la  distanza  e   le  sue  sotto-­‐variabili  sono  da   intendersi   inserite   tra  due  poli  di  un  continuum,   che  vanno  da  un  elevato   (+)  a  un  ridotto   (–)  grado  di  presenza  della   variabile  stessa  nel  contesto  situazionale  e  sociale  in  cui  avviene  lo  scambio  comunicativo.     nella  tabella  2  sono  elencati  i  titoli  delle  situazioni  proposte  nel  questionario  con  l’indicazione  della   distanza  tra  gli   interlocutori  (+  o  -­‐)  relativa  alle  situazioni  gemelle.  per  ragioni  di  chiarezza  non  indichiamo   qui  le  sotto-­‐variabili,  che  invece  troveranno  spazio  nell’analisi  dei  dati.     tabella 2 situazioni gemelle del questionario e distanza tra gli interlocutori contesto comune + distanza distanza all’università situazione 1 situazione 11 al lavoro situazione 12 situazione 2 in un negozio situazione 3 situazione 13 in fila fuori dalla gelateria situazione 14 situazione 4 nella caserma di polizia situazione 5 situazione 15 per strada situazione 16 situazione 6 al bar situazione 7 situazione 17 a casa di una tua amica situazione 18 situazione 8 alla fermata dell’autobus situazione 9 situazione 19 a un colloquio di lavoro situazione 20 situazione 10   4.3.  modalità  di  analisi   i   dati   ottenuti   dai   questionari   sono   stati   analizzati   dal   punto   di   vista   qualitativo   e   quantitativo.   in   particolare,   abbiamo  esaminato   le   strategie   (pragmalinguistiche)  di  realizzazione   dei   saluti   e   la   struttura   di   essi,  oltre  alla  loro  frequenza,  allo  scopo  di  mostrare  somiglianze  e  differenze  nel  repertorio  dei  madrelingua  e   degli  apprendenti  di  vari   livelli.   i  dati  raccolti  e  analizzati  sono  stati  organizzati   in  tabelle  nell’appendice  b.   tutte  e  tre  le  tabelle  mettono  a  confronto  i  saluti  (diretti  e  indiretti)  prodotti  sia  dai  madrelingua  italiani  sia   dagli  apprendenti  di  livello  a,  b  e  c.   le   tabelle   b1   e   b2   si   riferiscono   alle   situazioni   (1,   3,   5,   10   e   20)   in   cui   compaiono   (quasi   esclusivamente,   cfr.   §5.1)   i   saluti   diretti.   in   particolare,   la   tabella  b1   (appendice  b)  mostra   la   varietà  delle   strategie  di   realizzazione  dei   saluti  diretti:  per  ogni   strategia   sono   state   riportate   le   [variazioni]   e   anche   la   loro  frequenza.     la  tabella  b2  (appendice  b)  riporta,  invece,  la  struttura  (a  livello  sintagmatico)  dei  saluti  diretti  (che   seguono   principalmente   la   configurazione   saluto+vocativo);   anche   qui,   è   stata   riportata   la   frequenza   riscontrata.     la   tabella   b3   (appendice   b),   invece,   si   riferisce   alle   situazioni   (4,   6,   14,   15,   16   e   19)   nelle   quali   abbiamo   riscontrato   una   grande   diversificazione   di   saluti   indiretti   (cfr.   §5.2.):   in   questa   tabella   sono   rappresentate   le   strategie  utilizzate  per   la   realizzazione  dei   saluti   indiretti   (riportiamo,   comunque,   anche   i   saluti  diretti  che  li  accompagnano)  –  indicando  sempre  le  [variazioni]  delle  formule  osservate  e  la  frequenza   riscontrata.     per   quanto   riguarda   la   struttura   sintagmatica   dei   saluti   indiretti,   abbiamo   deciso   di   non   utilizzare   delle  tabelle:  i  dati  raccolti  si  manifestano,  infatti,  estremamente  diversificati  e  non  è  possibile  individuare  dei   modelli   di   realizzazione   standard   (si   veda  §5.2).  alla   luce  della   complessa   struttura  dei   saluti   indiretti,   per   seguire  un  criterio  di  chiarezza,  rinunciamo  a  ulteriori   tabelle  che  presenterebbero  un  numero  eccessivo  di   dati  e  riportiamo  le  nostre  osservazioni  in  §5.2.                                                                                                                                     10  il  grado  di  emozionalità  viene  invece  identificato  da  koch  &  oesterreicher  (2011[1990])  come  “grad  der  emotionalen   beteiligung”  [grado  di  partecipazione  emotiva]  (p.  7).     colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  58   5.  discussione  dei  risultati   per   la   nostra   analisi   ci   siamo   concentrati   sulla   realizzazione   linguistica   del   saluto   e   abbiamo   osservato  che  esso  compare  a  volte  come  singolo  atto   linguistico  (o  anche  eventualmente  accompagnato  da   atti   linguistici  di  altro  tipo)  e  a  volte  come  un  atto   linguistico  composto,  però,  da  varie  unità.   in  particolare,   un’attenta  analisi  di  queste  unità  costitutive  ha  permesso  di  identificare  principalmente  due  grandi  categorie   –  per   le  quali   riprendiamo   la   terminologia   introdotta   in  §3  –,  ovvero   i  saluti  diretti   e   indiretti.  per  ciascuna   delle   due   categorie   provvederemo   a   esporre   dapprima   le   tendenze   osservate   nelle   produzioni   dei   madrelingua   italiani   e,   successivamente,   le   confronteremo   con   quelle   riscontrate   negli   apprendenti.   nell’interpretazione  dell’uso  delle  formule  di  saluto  ci  baseremo  sulle  variabili  introdotte  in  §4.2.  per  rendere   più   strutturata   la   descrizione   dei   risultati,   ci   soffermeremo,   in   ogni   sottoparagrafo,   sia   sulle   strategie   di   realizzazione  dei  saluti  utilizzati  dagli  informanti  sia  sulla  loro  struttura.  in  particolare,  in  §5.1.  tratteremo  le   situazioni   in   cui   si   prediligono   i   soli   saluti   diretti.   in   §5.2.,   invece,   analizzeremo   l’uso   combinato   di   saluti   diretti  e  indiretti.     5.1.  i  saluti  diretti   l’analisi  dei  dati  elicitati  dai  questionari  ha  permesso  di   individuare   la  presenza  costante  dei  saluti   diretti   in  apertura  dell’enunciazione  nelle  varie  situazioni  proposte.  i  dati  raccolti  confermano  dunque  che  i   saluti   diretti   sono   caratterizzati   da   non   opzionalità,   posizione   iniziale/introduttiva   (si   veda   §3)   e,   aggiungiamo,   da   una   certa   rigidità   nella   struttura.   i   saluti   diretti   si   manifestano,   infatti,   costituiti   dalla   struttura   saluto   o   saluto+vocativo   (si   veda  tabella   4),   che   svolge   la   funzione   di   appello   costituendo   “come  interlocutore  una  persona  ancora  esterna  alla  situazione  comunicativa”  (renzi  et  al.,  2001,  p.  377).     essendo  non  opzionali,   i  saluti  diretti  si  ritrovano  praticamente  in  tutte  le  risposte  del  questionario   fornite  dagli   informanti.  tuttavia,  come  già  accennato,  per  operare  una  distinzione,   in  questa  prima  parte  ci   occuperemo   solo   delle   situazioni   che   determinano   l’uso   esclusivo   (o   quasi)   dei   saluti   diretti.   in   seguito   a   un’attenta   analisi,   è   emerso   che   le   situazioni   presentate   nel   questionario   che   portano   unicamente   alla   produzione  di  saluti  diretti  sono  le  seguenti:  1,  3,  5,  10  e  2011,  come  riportato  in  tabella  3.  osservandole  da   vicino,   notiamo   che   queste   sono   tutte   caratterizzate   da   un   alto   grado   di   distanza   (+)   e   di   formalità   tra   gli   interlocutori.   inoltre,   alcune   comportano   un   alto   grado   di   partecipazione   emotiva   (situazioni   5,   10,   20   e   –   anche  se   in  modo  più  ridotto  –   la  1).  questo  dato  ci  porta  a  ritenere  che  ci  sia  una  relazione  tra   il  grado  di   formalità   della   situazione   e   i   saluti   diretti:   quanto   più   alto   è   il   grado   di   formalità,   tanto   più   scarno   ed   essenziale  sembra  essere  il  saluto.     tabella 3 situazioni in cui appaiono i saluti diretti situazioni distanza 1. all’università + 3. in un negozio + 5. nella caserma di polizia + 10. a un colloquio di lavoro 20. a un colloquio di lavoro +     5.1.1.  i  saluti  diretti  nelle  produzioni  di  madrelingua  italiani    nelle   produzioni   dei   madrelingua   italiani,   le   situazioni   presentate   in   tabella   3   portano   alla   realizzazione  di  saluti  caratterizzati  da   formule  piuttosto   fisse  e  routinizzate  (tabella  b1  nell’appendice  b).   per  quanto  riguarda  il  saluto  scelto,  la  gamma  delle  manifestazioni  linguistiche12  è  piuttosto  limitata.                                                                                                                                   11  in   realtà,   in   due   sole   situazioni   abbiamo   riscontrato   la   presenza   di   un’ulteriore   unità   costitutiva   del   saluto,   ovvero   domande  sulla  condizione  psico-­‐fisica:   nella  nr.  1,   sia  da  parte  dei  madrelingua   (16%  del   totale)   e   sia  degli   apprendenti   (5%),   e   nella   nr.   10,   solo   da   parte   degli   apprendenti   (5%).   considerata   la   scarsa   frequenza   di   questo   elemento   nelle   produzioni   degli   apprendenti,   esso   non   verrà   commentato   nella   successiva   analisi,   in   quanto   non   giudicato   rappresentativo.   12  le  variazioni  alle  formule  di  saluto  sono  state  indicate  tra  [  ]  nelle  tabelle  dell’appendice  b.   la  pragmatica  del  saluto   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74   59   abbiamo  riscontrato  l’uso  di     − buongiorno     − buona  sera   − buon  pomeriggio     − salve       si  osserva,  dunque,  una  certa  omogeneità  nell’uso  delle   formule  di  saluto  convenzionali  dipendenti   dal  momento  della  giornata.  una  variazione  maggiore  nelle  forme  scelte  si  nota  nelle  due  situazioni  gemelle   ambientate  nel  pomeriggio  (situazione  10,  a  un  colloquio  di  lavoro  –    e  situazione  20,  a  un  colloquio  di  lavoro   +),  dove  compaiono  tutti  e  quattro  i  saluti  indicati,  anche  se  buon  pomeriggio  si  rileva  solo  una  volta,  usato  da   un  solo  informante  e  potrebbe,  quindi,  essere  indice  di  un  uso  diatopicamente  marcato.  vistoso  appare  l’uso   di   salve,  buongiorno!   (situazione  5,  nella  caserma  di  polizia  +),   dove,   per   il   saluto   rivolto   ai   poliziotti,   viene   scelto   l’utilizzo  del  binomio  che   interpretiamo  come  un  doppio  saluto,   scelto  allo  scopo  di   rafforzare   la  sua   funzione  fatica  e  di  appello  (cfr.  §3).     infine,  ci  sembra  interessante  l’uso  di  salve:  il  suo  utilizzo  nella  situazione  (pre)serale  (situazione  3,   in  un  negozio  +,  ore  18)  potrebbe  essere  dovuto  a  una  scelta  semplificata,  volta  a  evitare  la  formula  di  saluto   dipendente  dal  momento  della  giornata  –  in  questo  caso  variamente  definibile  –  oppure  potrebbe  dipendere   dalla   natura   della   situazione,   caratterizzata   da   distanza   e   avente   una   certa   formalità,   nella   quale   però   la   variabile   gerarchica   non   gioca   alcun   ruolo   fondamentale.   è   da   notare   anche   l’uso   di   salve   in   una   delle   situazioni-­‐gemelle  (a  un  colloquio  di  lavoro),  ma  solo  in  quella  in  cui   il  grado  di  gerarchia  sociale  è  inferiore   (situazione  10,  a  un  colloquio  di  lavoro  -­‐).  questo  sembra  confermare  la  tendenza  rilevata  da  canobbio  (2011)   verso  l’uso  di  forme  polivalenti  e  semplificate.   per   quanto   riguarda   la   struttura   dei   saluti   diretti,   nel   70%   dei   casi,   nelle   situazioni   presentate   in   tabella  4,  si  assiste  all’uso   isolato  della   formula  di  saluto,  principalmente   in  situazioni  caratterizzate  da  (+)   distanza,  in  presenza  di  un  interlocutore  sconosciuto  e  un  alto  grado  di  formalità.  nel  restante  30%,  invece,  la   formula   di   saluto   vera   e   propria   è   accompagnata   da   un   vocativo,   quasi   esclusivamente   in   presenza   di   un   interlocutore  identificato  come  superiore  nella  gerarchia  sociale  (professoressa  e  direttrice  dell’azienda)  (si   veda   tabella   4).   il   saluto   accompagnato   dal   titolo   professionale,   a   volte   seguito   dal   cognome,   è   infatti   frequente  nelle  situazioni  1  (all’università  +)  e  20  (a  un  colloquio  di  lavoro  +),   in  cui   troviamo   l’uso  di  varie   forme  di  vocativo,  quali  professoressa,  dottoressa  e  direttrice.  ci  sembra  che  in  questi  casi,  oltre  a  svolgere  la   funzione  di   appello,   il   vocativo  venga  utilizzato  per   esprimere   rispetto   e  deferenza.   per  quanto   riguarda   le   linee  di  tendenza  meno  rappresentate,  troviamo  un  uso  del  saluto  accompagnato  dal  vocativo  solo  in  due  casi   in   cui   la   gerarchia   non   gioca   un   ruolo   fondamentale   (situazione   3,   in  un  negozio   +,   e   10,  a  un  colloquio  di   lavoro  -­‐):  con  la  commessa  di  un  negozio  (situazione  3)  e  quando  si  è  accolti  dalla  segretaria  a  un  colloquio  di   lavoro   (situazione  10),   in   cui  da  due   informanti  viene  usata   la   formula  buonasera  signorina.  probabilmente   qui   l’uso  del  vocativo  è   legato  alla  sua  principale   funzione  di  appello.  un’ultima  considerazione  va  poi   fatta   sulla   presenza   di   un   ulteriore   elemento,   la   domanda   sulla   condizione   psico-­‐fisica,   che   nel   16%   dei   casi   si   aggiunge  al  saluto  diretto    (saluto  +  vocativo)  nella  situazione  1  (all’università  +):  nonostante  si  tratti  di   una   situazione   caratterizzata   da   (+)   distanza,   con   un   alto   grado   di   formalità,   un   interlocutore   gerarchicamente   superiore,   di   maggiore   età   e   con   un   maggiore   grado   d’istruzione,   il   relativo   grado   di   conoscenza  e  di  frequenza  degli  incontri  (rispetto  alle  altre  situazioni  presentate  in  tabella  3)  sembrerebbe   legittimare  alcuni  partecipanti  a  interessarsi  circa  la  condizione  psico-­‐fisica  dell’interlocutore.     tabella 4 struttura e frequenza dei saluti diretti nelle produzioni dei madrelingua italiani situazioni saluto saluto + vocativo saluto + vocativo + domanda 1. all’università 2 8 2 3. in un negozio 11 1 5. nella caserma di polizia 12 10. a un colloquio di lavoro 11 1 20. a un colloquio di lavoro 6 6     colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  60   5.1.2.  i  saluti  diretti  nelle  produzioni  degli  apprendenti     uno  sguardo  alle  produzioni  degli  apprendenti  di   italiano  riguardo  alle  stesse  situazioni  presentate   nella  tabella   3   rivela   un  quadro  piuttosto   simile   a   quello   dei  madrelingua   italiani   rispetto   alle   strategie   di   realizzazione   e   alla   struttura   dei   saluti.   per   quanto   riguarda   la   scelta   dei   saluti   utilizzati,   si   riscontrano   tuttavia   delle   differenze   nella   –   sorprendentemente   –   maggiore   varietà   delle   formule   di   saluto   (si   veda   tabella  b1  nell’appendice  b),  tra  le  quali  compaiono:     − buongiorno     − buona  sera     − salve   − salve,  buonasera   − buonasera,  salve   − salve,  buongiorno   − sera   − ciao   − ciao  a  tutti     rispetto  alle  produzioni  dei  madrelingua   italiani,   si   rileva  un  maggiore  uso  di   salve   impiegato  –   se   pure  da  non  tutti  i  partecipanti  –  in  tutte  le  cinque  situazioni  presentate  nella  tabella  3,  quindi  non  soltanto  in   quelle  di  distanza  e  aventi  una  certa  formalità  (come  riscontrato  nei  parlanti  nativi  –  si  veda  §5.1.1),  ma  –  ed  è   qui  che  risiede  la  grande  differenza  rispetto  ai  madrelingua  –  anche  in  situazioni  che  prevedono  l’incontro  con   un   interlocutore  gerarchicamente   superiore   (come   la  1,  all’università   +,   e   la  20,  a  un  colloquio  di   lavoro   +),   comprovando   quanto   riportato   da   canobbio   (2003).   si   osserva,   inoltre,   che   solamente   gli   apprendenti   di   livello  intermedio  (b)  e  avanzato  (c)  utilizzano  salve  come  formula  di  saluto,  assente  invece  tra  i  principianti.   la  causa  di   tale  differenza  potrebbe  ritrovarsi   sia  nell’uso   idiosincratico  del  saluto  (variabilità   individuale),   ma  anche  nell’utilizzo  di  forme  forse  apprese  durante  il  soggiorno  in  italia  a  contatto  con  coetanei  (variabilità   diatopica  e  diastratica):  a  differenza  degli  apprendenti  intermedi  e  avanzati,  i  principianti  non  hanno  indicato   di  aver  soggiornato  in  italia.   inoltre,   abbiamo   riscontrato   un’accumulazione   delle   formule   di   saluto,   come   salve,   buonasera   (situazione  3,   in  un  negozio  +),  buonasera,  salve  (situazione  5,  nella  caserma  di  polizia  +),   salve,  buongiorno   (situazione  10,  a  un  colloquio  di   lavoro   -­‐)   il   cui  uso,   riferito  al   singolo   informante   (livello  c),   è   chiaramente   idiosincratico.   sempre   a   un   livello   di   competenza   avanzato   si   nota   in   un   caso   l’uso   dell’abbreviazione   sera   (situazione   3,   in   un   negozio   +),   probabilmente   in   quanto   si   tratta   di   una   situazione   avente   un   livello   di   formalità  inferiore  rispetto  alle  altre  analizzate  in  questa  sezione.     infine,   abbiamo   rilevato   l’uso   di   ciao   e   ciao  a   tutti   (ciascuno   compare   una   volta   in   apprendenti   di   livello   b)   (situazione   10,   a   un   colloquio   di   lavoro   -­‐),   che   tuttavia   appare   poco   appropriato   in   un   contesto   caratterizzato  da  un   alto   grado  di   formalità   e   distanza.   la   violazione  del   principio   di   cortesia   ci   sembra   in   questo  caso  riconducibile  a  una   lacuna  sociopragmatica  che  deriva  da  un  pragmalinguistic  failure   (thomas,   1983),   in   quanto   ipotizziamo   che   gli   informanti   abbiano   trasferito   una   struttura   presente   nella   loro   lingua   madre,  ovvero  la  forma  di  saluto  hallo,  caratterizzata  da  un  elevato  lockerheitsgrad  (schulze-­‐neufeld,  2012)   [grado  di  versatilità].  in  questo  caso  “the  inappropriate  transfer  of  speech  act  strategies  .  .  .  from  the  mother   tongue  to  the  target   language  of  utterances  which  are  semantically/syntactically  equivalent  [may  cause]   .   .   .   'interpretative   bias'”   (thomas,   1983,   p.   101),   che   potrebbero   mettere   in   dubbio   la   conoscenza   da   parte   dell’apprendente   “delle   norme   sociali   che   regolano   l’agire   linguistico”   (nuzzo   &   gauci,   2012,   p.   23)   nello   spazio  culturale  italiano.       per   quanto   riguarda   la   struttura   dei   saluti   diretti   nelle   produzioni   degli   apprendenti   (tabella   5)   abbiamo   riscontrato,   come  nei   paranti   nativi,   una   predilezione   per   l’uso   isolato   della   formula   di   saluto   (in   circa  il  57  %  dei  casi)  e  per  la  struttura  saluto  +  vocativo  (nel  40,  5%  delle  risposte).  come  già  osservato   per   i  madrelingua  (si  veda  §5.1.1),  gli  apprendenti  tendono  ad  abbinare   la   formula  di  saluto  e   il  vocativo  in   situazioni   caratterizzate   da   un   alto   grado   distanza   (+),   di   formalità   e   in   presenza   di   un   interlocutore   di   gerarchia  sociale  superiore,  accordando  al  vocativo  una  funzione  non  solo  di  appello,  ma  anche  di  rispetto.  i   vocativi   utilizzati   nella   situazione   1   (all’università   +)   comprendono,   anche   qui,   il   titolo   di   studio   (professoressa)  da  solo  o  accompagnato  dal  cognome  e,  in  alcuni  casi  il  titolo  signora  (ben  8  rilevamenti  tra  i   principianti,   4   fra   gli   intermedi   e   1   fra   gli   avanzati)   (si   veda   tabella   b1   nell’appendice   b).   questo   caso   è   la  pragmatica  del  saluto   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74   61   interpretabile  come  un  transfer  delle  strutture  della  lingua  madre  –  e,  in  effetti,  questa  nostra  ipotesi  appare   confermata   dai   risultati   degli   informanti   madrelingua   tedeschi,   i   quali   quasi   nell’86%   dei   casi   utilizzano   l’appellativo  frau  insieme  alla  formula  di  saluto.     una   differenza   rispetto   ai   parlanti   nativi   è,   invece   costituita   da   un   uso   più   esteso   della   struttura   saluto+  vocativo   che,   oltre   ai   casi   appena  descritti,   si   trova   anche   in   situazioni   in   cui   la   gerarchia   non   gioca   un   ruolo   fondamentale   (nr.   10,  a  un   colloquio  di   lavoro   -­‐)   e   in   situazioni   dove,   anche   in   presenza   di   interlocutori   aventi   uno   status   di   superiore   (situazione   5,   nella   caserma   di   polizia   +,   poliziotti   in   quanto   autorità),  i  nativi  italiani  esordirebbero  con  un  saluto  collettivo  che  non  prevede  l’uso  di  appellativi.  di  contro,   i  non  madrelingua  sono  spesso  ricorsi  a  formule  del  tipo  buongiorno  signore  o  buongiorno  signori  allo  scopo  di   richiamare  l’attenzione  e  di  esprimere  deferenza,  generalizzando  una  struttura  presente  nell’italiano  ma  non   nella   loro   lingua   madre   (nessuno   degli   informanti   tedeschi   ha   infatti   utilizzato   qui   la   struttura   saluto+vocativo).   la   stessa   strategia   è   stata   applicata   con   la   funzione   di   richiamare   l’attenzione   nella   situazione   10   (a   un   colloquio   di   lavoro   -­‐)   dove,   rispetto   ai   parlanti   nativi,   i   non   nativi   hanno   utilizzato   maggiormente   la   formula   buongiorno   signora   o   buongiorno   signorina,   che   invece   non   compare   nelle   produzioni  dei  madrelingua  tedeschi13.         tabella 5 struttura e frequenza dei saluti diretti nelle produzioni degli apprendenti di italiano di livello a, b e c situazioni e saluti livello a livello b livello c 1. all’università saluto 3 1 saluto + vocativo 11 8 14 saluto + vocativo + domanda 1 1 3. in un negozio saluto 10 10 13 saluto + vocativo 2 1 3 5. nella caserma di polizia saluto 5 10 10 saluto + vocativo 6 1 6 nessun saluto 1 10. a un colloquio di lavoro saluto 5 10 13 saluto + vocativo 6 1 1 saluto + domanda 1 saluto + vocativo + domanda 1 vocativo 1 20. a un 20. a un colloquio di lavoro saluto 6 7 7 saluto + vocativo 6 4 9   5.2.  i  saluti  indiretti   come   abbiamo   precedentemente   esposto   in   §3,   a   differenza   dei   saluti   diretti,   quelli   indiretti   sono   opzionali,  accompagnano  e  ampliano  il  saluto  diretto,  ma  non  lo  sostituiscono  e,  aggiungiamo,  non  presentano   strutture   linguistiche   fisse.   escludendo   le   situazioni   presentate   in   tabella   3,   nelle   quali   risulta   (a   parte   pochissime  eccezioni)  un  uso  esclusivo  dei  saluti  diretti  (del  tipo  saluto  oppure  saluto+vocativo),  nelle   altre   situazioni   abbiamo   rilevato,   da   parte   di   tutti   i   partecipanti   (nativi   e   non   nativi),   una   costruzione   dei   saluti  più  articolata,  costituita  non  solo  dai  saluti  diretti  ma  anche  da  quelli  indiretti.  di  seguito  riporteremo  le   nostre   osservazioni   limitate   alle   situazioni   rappresentate   in  tabella   614.   le   situazioni   4,   6,   14,   15,   16   e   19,                                                                                                                             13  per  un  confronto  tra   la  struttura  dei  saluti  diretti  nelle  produzioni  di  madrelingua   italiani  vs.  apprendenti   tedeschi  si   veda  la  tabella  b2  nell’appendice  b.   14  le  altre  situazioni  del  questionario  appaiono  caratterizzate  da  una  gamma  più  limitata  di  saluti  e  da  una  struttura  più   semplificata,   in  cui  oltre  ai  saluti  diretti  (aventi   la  struttura  saluto  o  saluto+vocativo)  compaiono  anche  dei  saluti   indiretti,   come   domande   sulla   condizione   psico-­‐fisica   (nr.   2,   7,   8,   12,   13,   17   e   18),   a   volte   anche   in   combinazione   con   domande  palesi   (nr.   9   e   11).   le  nostre   osservazioni   relative   ai   saluti   indiretti   saranno  pertanto   limitate   alle   situazioni   colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  62   rappresentate   in   dettaglio   nell’appendice   b   (tabella   b3),   rivelano,   infatti   una   maggiore   complessità.   da   un’attenta   osservazione   si   nota   che   queste   situazioni   hanno   in   comune   un   basso   grado   di   formalità   (ad   eccezione  della  15),  un  alto  grado  di  conoscenza  tra  gli  interlocutori  e,  gerarchicamente,  si  tratta  per  lo  più  di   pari  (ad  eccezione  di  14  e  16,  situazioni  caratterizzate  da  una  maggiore  distanza  (+)  tra  gli  interlocutori).     tabella 6 situazioni in cui appaiono i saluti indiretti situazioni distanza 4. in fila fuori dalla gelateria 6. per strada 14. in fila fuori dalla gelateria + 15. nella caserma di polizia 16. per strada + 19. alla fermata dell’autobus     5.2.1.  i  saluti  indiretti  nelle  produzioni  di  madrelingua  italiani   per   quanto   riguarda   le   situazioni   presentate   in   tabella   6,   caratterizzate   da   (-­‐)   distanza   tra   gli   interlocutori  e   che  prevedono  uno  scambio   tra  pari  e   l’uso  del  tu  (ovvero   le   situazioni:  4   in  fila  fuori  dalla   gelateria   -­‐,   6   per   strada   -­‐,   15   nella   caserma   di   polizia   -­‐,   e   19   alla   fermata   dell’autobus   -­‐),   notiamo,   nelle   produzioni   dei   madrelingua   italiani,   un’ampia   gamma   di   strategie   di   realizzazione   dei   saluti   (tabella   b3   nell’appendice  b):     − ciao   − ehi   − ehi  ciao   − hey…  ma  ciao   − ma  ciao   − ohi   − oi  ciao   − we     questa   gamma   si   riduce   notevolmente   nelle   situazioni   14   (in   fila   fuori   alla   gelateria   +)   e   16   (per   strada   +)   in   cui   la   distanza   tra   gli   interlocutori   è   maggiore,   gerarchia   sociale   ed   età   sono   superiori   (e   richiederebbero  l’uso  del  lei)  e  nelle  quali  abbiamo  rilevato  i  seguenti  saluti:         − buonasera   − salve   − ciao     − buongiorno      per   quanto   concerne   la   loro   struttura   (che,   come   accennato   in   §4.3,   abbiamo   rinunciato   a   rappresentare   in   tabella   per   motivi   di   chiarezza),   questa   si   presenta   altamente   complessa.   innanzitutto   abbiamo  notato  dei  casi  di  inversione  con  struttura  vocativo+saluto  (valee,  ma  ciao!  e  dani,  ciao!),  dove  il   nome  proprio  svolge  non  solo  la  funzione  di  appello  ma  esprime  anche  la  sorpresa  per  l’incontro  inaspettato.   nella  maggior  parte  dei  casi,  comunque,  la  struttura  ricorrente  è  saluto+vocativo+saluti  indiretti,  dei   quali  ci  occuperemo  ora  nel  dettaglio.  tra  i  saluti  indiretti  abbiamo  rilevato  le  seguenti  tipologie  (per  le   quali  forniamo  gli  esempi  trovati):                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               presentate   in   tabella   6   che,   come   accennato,   sono   caratterizzate   da   una  maggiore   complessità   e   risultano   quindi   più   rappresentative  e  interessanti  per  la  presente  ricerca.     la  pragmatica  del  saluto   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74   63   a. domande  sulla  condizione  psico-­‐fisica   come  stai/sta/state?,  come  va?,  tutto  bene?,  allora?,  com’è?;  che  si  dice?,  tutto  a  posto?   b. espressioni  di  sorpresa   legate   alla   sorpresa   di   un   incontro   inaspettato   e   realizzate   attraverso   domande   (che/cosa   ci   fai   qui/qua?,  come  mai  sei  pure  tu  qui?)  ma  anche  attraverso  esclamazioni  (che  sorpresa!,  non  pensavo  di   incontrarti!,  che  coincidenza!,  bada  chi  c’è!)  e  interiezioni  (noo,  ah!,  oh!)  collocate  all’inizio  della  frase;   c. domande  palesi   che  esprimono  un  fatto  evidente  (ma  sei  proprio  tu?,  anche  tu/te/lei/voi  qui?,  anche  lei  ha  pensato  di   prendere  un  gelato  con  questo  caldo,  vero?,  prendi  anche  tu  un  gelato?,  oggi  in  giro  insieme?)  e   la  cui   funzione  è  quella  di  esprimere  sorpresa  ma,  dal  punto  di  vista  grammaticale,  sono  costituite  da  una   domanda  –  che  non  necessita  davvero  di  una  risposta  (come  per  le  domande  retoriche).     non  abbiamo,  invece,  riscontrato  la  verbalizzazione  di  auguri,  che  pure  vengono  individuati  da  molti   studiosi   tra   le   espressioni   rituali   che   possono   accompagnare   il   saluto   (cfr.   §3.).   dalle   situazioni   presentate   risulta   evidente   che   si   tratta  di   saluti   iniziali,  mentre   ci   sembra  plausibile   che  un   augurio   venga,   piuttosto,   espresso  in  fase  di  congedo.  in  compenso,  abbiamo  osservato  la  presenza  di  altre  due  tipologie  di  espressioni,   che  definiamo:     d. espressioni  che  tematizzano  l’aspetto  temporale   formulate  come  frasi  esclamative  (è  da  molto  tempo/è  una  vita/è  tanto  che  non  ci  vediamo/che  non   ci   si   vede!,   è   passato   così   tanto   tempo!,   (da)   quanto   tempo!,   quanto   tempo   che   non   ci   vediamo!,   è   passato  così  tanto  tempo!)  che  sottolineano  il  lasso  di  tempo  intercorso  dall’ultimo  incontro  (spesso   con  esplicitazione  del  sostantivo  tempo)   e. espressioni  che  tematizzano  l’aspetto  emozionale   come  che  piacere!,  (ma)  che  bello  vederti,  che  piacere  vederla,  di  solito  legate  alla  verbalizzazione  di   emozioni  positive,  come  la  gioia.     a)   e   b)   sono   presenti   in   tutte   le   situazioni   presentate   in   tabella   6   e   sottoposte   alla   nostra   analisi,   mentre  c),  pur  essendo  presenti  nella  situazione  gemella  nr.  6  (per  strada  -­‐),  risultano  assenti  nella  situazione   16  (per  strada  +),  caratterizzata  non  solo  da  una  minore  frequenza  degli  incontri,  ma  anche  da  una  maggiore   formalità,  distanza  tra  gli  interlocutori,  una  gerarchia  sociale  differente  e  una  maggiore  età  dell’interlocutore.   d)  ed  e)  compaiono  soltanto  nelle  situazioni  gemelle  6  e  16  (a  parte  un  unico  caso  di  d)  nella  situazione  4  in   fila  fuori  dalla  gelateria   -­‐)  e  sono   legate  a  un   incontro  casuale  dopo  molto   tempo  (quindi  minore   frequenza   degli  incontri).   da   un’attenta   analisi   delle   strutture   è   emersa   la   loro   individualità,   originalità   e   variabilità,   così   che   non   è   possibile  rilevare  una  formula  fissa  né  nella  successione  né  nella  (com)presenza  degli  elementi.  più  regolari,   rispetto  al  loro  ordine,  risultano  le  espressioni  utilizzate,  che  ricorrono  come  formule  rituali  tra  i  vari  parlanti   (negli   esempi   appena   citati   abbiamo   riportato   le   formule   alternative   rilevate   nei   questionari)   (tabella   b3   nell’appendice  b).       5.2.2.  i  saluti  indiretti  nelle  produzioni  degli  apprendenti   dall’analisi  emerge  che  la  varietà  delle  strategie  di  realizzazione  delle  formule  di  saluto  diretto  negli   incontri   tra   pari   rilevate   nei  madrelingua   si   rispecchia   anche   nelle   produzioni   degli   apprendenti,   anche   se   ciao  è  in  assoluto  il  saluto  più  diffuso,  a  volte  accompagnato  da  altri  elementi,  quali:     − oi  ciao     − ehi/ey  ciao   − ey  ma  ciao   − o  ciao   − ciao  buonasera           colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  64   compaiono,  inoltre,       − buongiorno   − salve   − ehi/hey   − oi     è   interessante   sottolineare   l’uso   del   vocativo   con   il   nome   proprio   (marco!)   (situazione   15,   nella   caserma  di  polizia  -­‐)  in  funzione  fatica  e  di  appello  ed  esprimente  anche  la  sorpresa  del  parlante,  che,  invece,   non  abbiamo  rilevato  nelle  produzioni  dei  parlanti  nativi.  i  dati  raccolti  mostrano  che  la  variatio  nella  scelta   dei  saluti  aumenta  con  l’aumentare  del  livello  di  competenza  in  italiano:  se  i  principianti  prediligono  formule   ritualizzate   e   fisse,   gli   apprendenti   avanzati  mostrano   un   uso   più   vario  ma   anche   più   personalizzato   delle   formule  di  saluto.  questa  tendenza  si  rileva  anche  per  le  situazioni  che  prevedono  una  maggiore  distanza  tra   gli   interlocutori.   come   ci   si   aspetta,   esiste   quindi   una   relazione   diretta   tra   la   crescita   della   competenza   pragmalinguistica   e   l’aumento   del   livello   di   competenza   generale   degli   apprendenti.   di   contro,   sorprendentemente,   proprio   tra   gli   apprendenti   più   avanzati,   si   osserva   un   uso   dei   saluti   non   del   tutto   appropriato   alla   situazione   comunicativa   proposta   (situazioni   14,   in   fila   fuori   dalla  gelateria   +,   e   15,  nella   caserma  di  polizia   -­‐),   che   tende   a   non   rispettare   o   a   ridurre   la   distanza   tra   gli   interlocutori.   in   alcuni   casi   compaiono  ciao  e  salve,  compatibili  con  il  tu  (cfr.  renzi  et.  al.,  2001,  p.  374),  ma  non  con  il  lei,  che  invece  la   situazione  presuppone.  difficile   interpretare  se   la  scelta  del  saluto  sia   indipendente  o   legata  alla  successiva   scelta   fra   il  tu  o   il  lei,   in  quanto   le   risposte  non   forniscono  abbastanza  elementi   (presenza  del  solo  saluto   diretto   oppure   di   forme   impersonali).   un   caso,   però,   ci   potrebbe   aiutare   a   formulare   un’ipotesi:   se   consideriamo  il  saluto  diretto  ciao,  signora  verdi!  (formulato  da  un  apprendente  di  livello  b  e  da  uno  di  livello   c)   (situazione  14,   in  fila  fuori  dalla  gelateria  +),   ci   sembra  verosimile   ipotizzare  che  si   tratti  di  un  semplice   transfer   del   saluto   tedesco  hallo   e   che   l’uso  del  vocativo   titolo+cognome  condurrà  presumibilmente  all’uso   del  lei  e  a  mantenere,  quindi,  la  distanza  che  la  situazione  presuppone.  anche  qui  ci  sembra  che  si  tratti  di  un   caso  di  sociopragmatic  failure  dovuto  a  pragmalinguistic  failure  (§5.1.2.).     in  analogia  con  le  produzioni  dei  nativi,  anche  quelle  degli  apprendenti  manifestano  non  solo  varietà   nella   realizzazione   dei   saluti   ma   anche   complessità   nella   loro   struttura   (nelle   stesse   situazioni   citate   in   tabella  6).  come  già  osservato,  non  troviamo  un  ordine  fisso  degli  elementi,  che  sono  però  tendenzialmente   riconducibili   alla   macrostruttura   saluto   diretto+saluto   indiretto.   inoltre,   abbiamo   riscontrato   un   parallelismo  con   i   saluti   indiretti  prodotti  dai  parlanti  nativi  per  quanto  riguarda   la   loro  composizione,  che   appare  dunque  costituita  dalla  (possibile)  presenza  dei  seguenti  elementi  (tabella  b3  nell’appendice  b):     a. domande  sulla  condizione  psico-­‐fisica   come  stai?/sta/state?,  come  va?,  tutto  bene?,  tutto  a  posto?,  come  ti  trovi,  spero  che  stai/stia  bene   b. espressioni  di  sorpresa   che   fai   qui?,   come   mai   sei   qua?   che   sorpresa   (trovarti   qui)!,   incredibile!,   che   coincidenza!,   non   ti   spettavo  qui,  e  anche  accompagnate  da  interiezioni  (ah,  eh,  oh,  nooo,  ecco)   c. domande  palesi   anche   tu/voi   qui?,   tu   qui?,   guarda   chi   c’è,   prende   anche   lei   un   gelato?,   è   una   serata   da   godersi   un   gelato,  no?   d. espressioni  che  tematizzano  l’aspetto  temporale   non  ci  siamo  visti  da  un  po’,  è  già  da  un  pezzo  che  non  ci  siamo  viste  (calco  dal  tedesco  wir  haben  uns  ja   lange  nicht  gesehen),  è  passato  tanto  tempo,  fa  molto  tempo.  quest’ultima  espressione  la  troviamo  tra   gli  apprendenti  di  livello  a,  presumibilmente  un  calco  dal  tedesco  es  ist  schon  lange  her.     e. espressioni  che  tematizzano  l’aspetto  emozionale   è/che  bello  vederti,  che  bello,  è  un  piacere  vederti,  che  gioia  vederla     a  questa  lista,  a  differenza  delle  produzioni  dei  parlanti  nativi,  aggiungiamo  anche     f. auguri   buona  giornata!,  una  buona  serata,  divertitevi!  buona  serata!   ci   sembra   plausibile   che   i   partecipanti   si   siano   immaginati   direttamente   delle   situazioni   di   saluto   veloce,  traducendole  in  un  saluto-­‐congedo  che  prevede,  pertanto,  anche  la  formulazione  di  auguri,  la   la  pragmatica  del  saluto   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74   65   cui   presenza   è   routinizzata   in   fase   di   saluti   terminali   (kohrt,   1985).   la   loro   frequenza   è   tuttavia   molto  bassa  (si  veda  tabella  b3  nell’appendice  b).       in  seguito  all’analisi  delle  produzioni  dei  saluti  ci  sembra  opportuno  fare  due  tipi  di  considerazioni.   la   prima   è   che,   sorprendentemente   (e   in   contrasto   con   i   risultati   ottenuti   da   eisenstein-­‐ebsworth   et   al.,   1996),  rispetto  alle  produzioni  dei  parlanti  nativi,  gli  apprendenti  presentano  una  gamma  molto  più  varia  di   formule  di  saluto  (si  veda  tabella  b3  nell’appendice  b).  tale  varietà  si  manifesta  maggiore  anche  rispetto  al   gruppo  di  controllo  dei  madrelingua  tedeschi,  il  che  ci  conduce  a  ipotizzare  che  da  parte  degli  apprendenti  ci   sia   un   forte   desiderio   di   comunicare   e   di   formulare   saluti   dalla   struttura   più   libera   e   compatibili   con   la   situazione   comunicativa   presentata.   l’altra   considerazione   riguarda   la   presenza   di   unità   che,   invece,   nelle   stesse  situazioni  risultano  assenti  nelle  produzioni  dei  madrelingua  italiani,  come  e),  decisamente  molto  più   frequenti  nelle  produzioni  del  gruppo  di  controllo  tedesco  (nella   formula  schön  dich/sie  zu  sehen)  ed  f),  che   invece  non  abbiamo  riscontrato  nei  dati  dei  nativi  tedeschi.     uno  sguardo  alle  produzioni  dei  vari  gruppi  di  apprendenti  ha  evidenziato  che  a  livello  intermedio  e   avanzato  non  solo  sono  presenti  tutte  le  categorie  di  saluti   indiretti,  utilizzate  in  modo  appropriato  rispetto   alla  situazione,  ma  che  il  loro  uso  rispecchia  quello  dei  parlanti  nativi.  tra  i  principianti  si  riscontra,  invece,  un   uso   preponderante   degli   elementi   a)   e   b),   utilizzati   in   modo   adeguato.   la   frequenza   di   d)   è   decisamente   inferiore  (ricorrono  solo  3  volte  in  totale)  e  anche  quella  di  e)  (2  volte).  in  tutti  i  casi  si  tratta  di  espressioni   linguistiche  altamente  routinizzate  e  fisse,  probabilmente  apprese  dai  libri  di  testo.  nelle  situazioni  prese  qui   in  esame  non  abbiamo,   invece,   rilevato   l’uso  di   c)   tra   i  principianti,   il   che  ci   induce  a   ipotizzare  che  questa   categoria   di   saluti   indiretti   si   sviluppi   solo   più   avanti,   insieme   all’aumentare   della   competenza   generale   dell’apprendente.  in  effetti,  le  domande  palesi  sono  –  rispetto  alle  altre  categorie  –  quelle  che  presuppongono   un  maggior   legame   con   la   specifica   situazione   comunicativa.   essendo   le  meno   prevedibili,   ipotizziamo   che   siano   anche   le   meno   rappresentate   (se   non   addirittura   affatto   rappresentate)   nei   libri   di   testo   e   il   cui   apprendimento   avviene   dopo   che   l’apprendente   si   “slega”   dalle   formule   fisse   imparate   e   ripetute   passivamente  e  incomincia  a  utilizzare  la  lingua  in  modo  più  attivo.       6.  conclusioni   il   presente   contributo,   che   si   inserisce   in   una   prospettiva   di   pragmatica   interlinguistica   acquisizionale  di   tipo  trasversale,  ha  avuto  come  oggetto  d’indagine   la  realizzazione  dell’atto   linguistico  del   saluto.   in   particolare,   le   domande   che   hanno   guidato   la   nostra   ricerca   empirica   riguardavano   l’esistenza,   l’individuazione   e   il   confronto   degli   schemi   di   realizzazione   di   questo   atto   linguistico   a   seconda   della   situazione  comunicativa  e  degli  interlocutori,  da  parte  di  madrelingua  italiani  e  di  apprendenti  di  italiano  ls   con  madrelingua   tedesca.  per   raccogliere   i  dati  da  analizzare  abbiamo  scelto   lo   strumento  del  questionario   aperto   (una  sottocategoria  del  dct)  che  è  stato  somministrato  ad  apprendenti  di   italiano  dell’università  di   bonn  di  diversi  livelli  (a,  b  e  c)  e  a  due  gruppi  di  controllo  madrelingua  (italiani  e  tedeschi).     dal   confronto   delle   produzioni   è   emersa   la   realizzazione   di   saluti   diretti   (saluto   o   saluto+vocativo)  e  di  saluti   indiretti  (costituiti  dalle  sottocategorie:  a)  domande  sulla  condizione  psico-­‐ fisica,  b)  espressioni  di   sorpresa,   c)  domande  palesi,  d)  espressioni  che   tematizzano   l’aspetto   temporale,  e)   espressioni   che   tematizzano   l’aspetto   emozionale,   f)   auguri).   sia   la   realizzazione   linguistica   sia   la   loro   struttura  sembra  molto  simile.  in  generale,  forme  altamente  routinizzate  si  osservano  nelle  situazioni  con  un   alto  grado  di  distanza  (+),  formalità,  e  in  presenza  di  un  interlocutore  superiore  nella  scala  gerarchica,  mentre   nelle  situazioni  opposte  (di  “vicinanza”  o  confidenza  con  l’interlocutore)  si  notano  strutture  molto  complesse   e  varie  nella  produzione  dei  saluti   indiretti.  differenze  con   i  madrelingua   italiani  sono  emerse  nella  gamma   delle   realizzazioni   (gamma   che   cresce   sempre   più   con   l’aumentare   del   livello   di   competenza   generale   dell’italiano)  e  nella  scelta,  che  rivela  a  volte  un’inappropriatezza  sociopragmatica  alla  cui  base,  ipotizziamo,   ci   sia   un   errore   pragmalinguistico   di   transfer   dal   tedesco.   sorprendentemente,   varietà   e   complessità   sono   state  mantenute  (e  talvolta  superate)  dai  non  madrelingua  anche  nella  realizzazione  dei  saluti  indiretti,  tra  i   quali  compaiono  tutte  le  cinque  sottocategorie,  a  parte  le  domande  palesi  (c),  che  mancano  nei  principianti,   cosa  che  ci  ha  permesso  di   formulare  delle   ipotesi   riguardo  alle   sequenze  di  apprendimento  di  questo  atto   comunicativo.   ulteriori   verifiche,   con   altri   strumenti,   e   un   confronto   con   i   libri   di   testo   potrebbe   aiutare   a   validare  o  a  confutare  questa  ipotesi.  inoltre,  i  dati  raccolti  e  le  ipotesi  formulate  potrebbero  offrire  una  base   di  partenza  per  esplorare  un’ulteriore  prospettiva  della  pragmatica   interlinguistica,  ovvero  quella  didattica,   allo 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 germania:  peter  lang.   searle,   john  (1969).  speech  acts:  an  essay  in  the  philosophy  of  language.  cambridge,  regno  unito:  cambridge   university  press.   searle,   john  (1975).  a   taxonomy  of   illocutionary  acts.  minnesota  studies  in  the  philosophy  of  science,  7,  344-­‐ 369.   sobrero,  alberto  (1995).  sul  sistema  dei  saluti  in  salento.  in  maria  teresa  romanello  &  immacolata  tempesta   (a   cura   di),  dialetti   e   lingue   nazionali.  atti   del   xxvii   congresso   della   società   di   linguistica   italiana   (lecce,  28-­‐30  ottobre  1993)  (pp.  455-­‐468).  roma,  italia:  bulzoni.   spillner,   bernd   (2014).   anrede   und   grußformen   im   deutschen.   zvpg   (zeitschrift   des   verbandes   polnischer   germanisten),  2,  173-­‐187.   sullivan,  patricia  (1979).  conversation:  saying  hello  and  goodbye.  tesol  newsletter,  13(1),  29.     thomas,  jenny  (1983).  cross-­‐cultural  pragmatic  failure.  applied  linguistics,  4(2),  91-­‐112.   zeff,  bricklin  (2016).  the  pragmatics  of  greetings:  teaching  speech  acts  in  the  efl  classroom.  english  teaching   forum,  54(1),  2-­‐11.     colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  68   appendice  a   questionario aperto somministrato ai partecipanti immagina di trovarti nelle situazioni presentate qui di seguito. come saluteresti l’altra persona/le altre persone? che cosa diresti? scrivilo nell’apposito spazio16. 1. all’università. alle 11 la tua professoressa di linguistica (professoressa rossi) ha ricevimento. entri nel suo ufficio e la saluti: che cosa dici? 2. al lavoro. è lunedì mattina e dopo il fine settimana si torna a lavorare. appena arrivi in ufficio saluti il tuo collega antonio, che ha la tua stessa età: che cosa dici? 3. in un negozio. sono le 18, entri in una profumeria (dove non sei mai stato prima) per comprare un regalo e saluti la commessa: che cosa dici? 4. in fila fuori dalla gelateria. è una calda serata primaverile, sono le 20:30 ed esci per prenderti un gelato. mentre aspetti si mette in fila dietro di te tua cugina valentina. ti giri e la saluti: che cosa le dici? 5. nella caserma di polizia. sono le 8:30 ed esci per andare a lezione all’università. c’è il sole e decidi di andarci in bicicletta, ma quando esci di casa vedi che la tua bicicletta non c'è più. è stata rubata, così vai alla polizia a sporgere denuncia. come saluti i poliziotti appena entri in caserma? 6. per strada. è mattina, cammini per strada, alzi lo sguardo e incontri per caso daniele, un tuo ex compagno del liceo che non vedi da un po’ di tempo: come lo saluti? che cosa gli dici? 7. al bar. hai appena finito di pranzare, entri nel bar in cui tutti i giorni bevi il caffè e saluti il barista (di circa cinquant’anni): che cosa dici? 8. a casa di una tua amica. come ogni giovedì sera vai a casa della tua amica laura per vedere un film insieme. appena ti apre la porta la saluti: che cosa le dici? 9. alla fermata dell'autobus. sono le 16:30 e sei alla fermata dell'autobus. mentre aspetti arrivano due tuoi vicini di casa, una coppia di signori anziani (i signori brambilla). vi guardate e li saluti: che cosa dici? 10. a un colloquio di lavoro. il lavoro che hai non ti piace più e decidi di trovarne un altro. sei pronto per il tuo colloquio di lavoro, che si terrà alle 14. appena entri nell'ufficio, ti accoglie la giovane segretaria e la saluti. che cosa le dici? 11. all’università. sono le 10:50 e stai aspettando in corridoio, davanti all’ufficio della tua professoressa di linguistica. passa un tuo compagno di studi, alessandro, e lo saluti: che cosa gli dici? 12. al lavoro. è lunedì mattina e dopo il fine settimana si torna a lavorare. appena arrivi in ufficio saluti il tuo collega, mario bianchi, che sta per andare in pensione: che cosa dici? 13. in un negozio. sono le 18, vai nella profumeria di tuo zio carlo per comprare un regalo. entri e lo saluti: che cosa dici? 14. in fila fuori dalla gelateria. è una calda serata primaverile, sono le 20:30 ed esci per prenderti un gelato. mentre aspetti si mette in fila dietro di te l’assistente (wissenschaftliche mitarbeiterin) (maria verdi) della tua professoressa di linguistica. ti giri e la saluti: che cosa le dici? 15. nella caserma di polizia. sono le 8:30 ed esci per andare a lezione all'università. c’è il sole e decidi di andarci in bicicletta, ma quando esci di casa vedi che la tua bicicletta non c’è più. è stata rubata, così vai alla polizia a sporgere denuncia. appena entri in caserma, vedi il tuo migliore amico marco seduto in attesa. come lo saluti? che cosa gli dici? 16. per strada. è mattina, cammini per strada, alzi lo sguardo e incontri per caso la tua ex insegnante del liceo, la signora manzoni, che non vedi da un po’ di tempo: come la saluti? che cosa le dici? 17. al bar. hai appena finito di pranzare, entri nel bar in cui tutti i giorni bevi il caffè e saluti il barista (di circa vent’anni): che cosa dici? 18. a casa di una tua amica. come ogni giovedì sera vai a casa della tua amica laura gatti, che vive ancora con i suoi genitori, per vedere un film insieme. ti apre la porta suo padre e lo saluti: che cosa gli dici? 19. alla fermata dell'autobus. sono le 16:30 e sei alla fermata dell'autobus. mentre aspetti arrivano due tuoi vicini di casa, matteo e alberto, due gemelli di 16 anni. vi guardate e li saluti: che cosa dici? 20. a un colloquio di lavoro. il lavoro che hai non ti piace più e decidi di trovarne un altro. sei pronto per il tuo colloquio di lavoro, che si terrà alle 14. la segretaria ti fa accomodare in sala riunioni e aspetti che arrivi la direttrice. appena arriva, la saluti. che cosa le dici?                                                                                                                             16    i/le  partecipanti  avevano  a  disposizione  tre  righe  sotto  ciascuna  domanda  per  inserire  le  risposte.   colombo     69   appendice  b   tabella b1 frequenza delle strategie di saluto diretto usate de madrelingua italiani e apprendenti di livello a, b e c strategie di saluto [variazioni] madrelingua italiani apprendenti livello a apprendenti livello b apprendenti livello c 1. all’università buongiorno [bongiorno] 12 11 10 16 buonasera [buona sera] 1 1 salve 2 1 professoressa [professoressa + nome] 9 4 4 14 dottoressa [dottoressa + rossi] 1 signora [senora, signora + nome] 8 4 1 come sta? [come sta lei?] 2 1 1 3. in un negozio buonasera [sera, buona serata] 8 9 11 14 buongiorno [bongiorno] 1 3 1 salve 3 1 4 signorina 1 signora 2 1 3 5. nella caserma di polizia buongiorno [bongiorno] 12 10 11 13 salve 1 3 buonasera 1 signori [signore] 6 1 6 10. a un colloquio di lavoro buongiorno [bongiorno, buon giorna] 9 12 9 12 buonasera 2 2 salve 1 3 ciao [ciao a tutti] 2 signorina 1 1 1 signora [signore, signora + nome] 5 3 come sta? 1 1 20. a un colloquio di lavoro buongiorno [bungiorno, buon giorni] 8 12 9 13 buonasera 3 2 2 buon pomeriggio 1 salve 2 signora [signora + nome] 3 6 4 6 dottoressa [dottoressa + nome, dott.ssa] 2 2 direttrice 1 1   colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  70   tabella b2 frequenza delle strutture e strategie di saluto diretto usate de madrelingua italiani e apprendenti di livello a, b e c strutture di saluto [variazioni] madrelingua italiani apprendenti livello a apprendenti livello b apprendenti livello c 1. all’università saluto 2 3 1 saluto e vocativo 8 11 8 14 saluto, vocativo e domanda sulla condizione psico-fisica 2 1 1 3. in un negozio saluto 11 10 10 13 saluto e vocativo 1 2 1 3 5. nella caserma di polizia saluto 12 5 10 10 saluto e vocativo 6 1 6 10. a un colloquio di lavoro saluto 11 5 10 13 saluto e vocativo 1 6 1 1 saluto e domanda sulla condizione psico-fisica 1 saluto, vocativo e domanda sulla condizione psico-fisica 1 vocativo 1 20. a un colloquio di lavoro saluto 6 6 7 7 saluto e vocativo 6 6 4 9 la  pragmatica  del  saluto   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74   71   tabella b3 frequenza delle strategie di saluto indiretto usate de madrelingua italiani e apprendenti di livello a, b e c strategie di saluto indiretto [variazioni] madrelingua italiani apprendenti livello a apprendenti livello b apprendenti livello c 4. in fila fuori dalla gelateria ciao [ma ciao] 9 11 11 14 ohi [ehi, oii] 7 1 4 buongiorno 1 buonasera 1 vale [valeee, valentina] 11 11 7 11 ragazza 1 cara 2 2 cugi 1 come stai? [come stanno gli altri] 3 6 3 7 allora? 1 com’è? 1 1 come va? 2 tutto bene? [tutto a posto?] 2 2 1 cosa ci fai qui? [che ci fai qui anche tu? che ci fai qui? che fai qui? che cosa fai qui? cosa ci fai? come mai sei qua?] 4 1 2 2 non pensavo di incontrarti [non ti aspettavo qui, non aspettavo di incontrarti] 1 2 che sorpresa [che sorpresa trovarti qui] 3 no incredibile 1 eh [ah] 1 2 che caso! 1 anche tu qui? [tu qui?] 4 2 è tanto che non ci vediamo! 1 non ci siamo visti da un po’! 1 è già da un pezzo che non ci siamo viste 1 è bello vederti [che bello vedertu! che bello vederti! che bello!] 2 3 6. per strada ciao [ciaooo] 10 10 10 12 ohi [ehi, oii, ah] 3 2 4 buon giorno 1 1 daniele [dani] 7 12 8 14 carissimo 1 mio amico 1 come stai? [come stai tu? come sta? come sta la tua famiglia?] 10 6 7 6 come va? 1 1 3 1 allora? 2 che si dice? 1 cosa fai qui? [tu qui? ma cosa ci fai?] 3 1 tutto bene? 1 come ti trovi? 1 comè? 1 nooo, bada chi c’è! [guarda chi c’è] 1 1 che sorpresa! [che bella sorpresa! ma che sorpresa! oh…che sorpresa!] 2 1 1 che coincidenza! [che caso!] 1 2 colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  72   tabella b3 continua strategie di saluto indiretto [variazioni] madrelingua italiani apprendenti livello a apprendenti livello b apprendenti livello c 6. per strada ma sei proprio tu? 1 da quanto tempo [quanto tempo, fa molto tempo! è passato tanto tempo] 3 1 1 quanto tempo che non ci vediamo [è una vita che non ci vediamo/non ti vedo, è da molto che non ci si vede, ma quanto tempo che non ci abbiamo visti, non ti ho visto da tanto/da un po’, è tanto che non ci siamo visti/ ci vediamo, non ti ho visto in una vita, è già passato un po’ di tempo che ci vedevamo, ci rivediamo dopo così tanto tempo] 3 3 11 che bello vederti [che piacere, è un piacere vederti, che gioia rincontrarti, che piacere rivederti, che bello] 2 1 3 14. in fila fuori dalla gelateria buona sera 9 11 8 11 salve 3 2 ciao 1 1 buongiorno 1 1 dottoressa [dottoressa + nome] 4 maria 2 1 3 1 prof 1 signora [signora + nome] 8 5 7 come sta? [come va?, come stai?spero che stia bene? 4 1 2 tutto bene? 1 come va il lavoro? 1 ah! 1 2 che sorpresa! 1 anche lei qui? 1 prendi anche tu un gelato? [prende anche lei un gelato? anche lei ha pensato di prendere un bel gelato con questo caldo, vero? 2 1 c’è bisogno di un gelato, vero? [con questo caldo ci vuole un gelato, eh?] 2 le piace il gelato della gelateria? 1 è una serata da godersi un gelato, no? 1 che bello che ci vediamo qui 1 una buona serata 1 altrettanto 1 15. nella caserma di polizia ciao 7 10 6 13 ehi!! [oi, eh, ey] 2 1 1 3 we 1 buongiorno 1 salve 1 marco [mario, marco marco] 9 11 10 15 caro 1 la  pragmatica  del  saluto   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74   73   tabella b3 continua strategie di saluto indiretto [variazioni] madrelingua italiani apprendenti livello a apprendenti livello b apprendenti livello c 15. nella caserma di polizia signori 1 tutto bene? [tutto a posto? stai bene? è tutto bene?] 2 1 1 2 come stai? [come va’?] 3 1 che fai qui? [cosa fai qui? che ci fai qui? cosa ci fai qui? che cosa fai qui? oh…cosa ci fai qua?noo..e tu che ci fai qui?come mai sei pure tu qui? wow, pure tu qui, che stai facendo qui? perch’e anche tu qui? com’è che ci vediamo qua?] 7 7 5 9 che sorpresa 1 che coincidenza [che amara coincidenza] 1 1 anche tu qui [anche te qui, anche tu qua, anche tu ci sei] 4 2 2 che bello vederti 1 16. per strada buongiorno 9 12 10 14 buonasera 1 1 salve 1 professoressa [professoressa + nome, prof] 11 1 3 signora [signora + nome] 1 12 9 12 come sta? [come va?, come sta lei? che cosa sta? come stai? come state?] 11 7 7 8 spero che stia bene 1 che sorpresa [che bella sorpresa] 1 1 1 ah 1 ecco 1 è da molto che non ci vediamo [da quanto tempo che non ci vediamo, è passato così tanto tempo, fa molto tempo di vederci, non la vedo da tanto tempo, è una vita che non la vedo, sono passati anni che non ci vedevamo] 3 1 3 fa molto tempo 1 che piacere vederla [ma che bello vederla, che bello vederlei, che bello incontrarla, che gioia vederla, lieta di incontrarla, che bello rivederla, che bello vederle, era un piacere di rivederla] 2 1 4 5 buona giornata 1 19. alla fermata dell’autobus ciao [ciao…ciao] 12 11 11 5 ehi [ey, eh] 3 buon giorno 1 buonasera 1 ragazzi [ragazzo, fioi] 7 4 4 colombo   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  49-­‐74  74   tabella b3 continua strategie di saluto indiretto [variazioni] madrelingua italiani apprendenti livello a apprendenti livello b apprendenti livello c 19. alla fermata dell’autobus matteo, alberto [matte, berto] 2 5 2 7 gemelli 1 a tutti 1 voi due 2 carissimi 1 come state? [come va? allora come state? come ándate?] 4 4 2 5 tutto bene? [tutto a posto?] 1 1 1 2 come stanno i vostri genitori? 1 cosa ci fate qui! [che cosa faciate?] 1 1 oggi in giro insieme? 1 andate anche in città? 1 anche voi prendete l’autobus alle 16:35? 1 anche voi qui? 1 è da un pezzo che non abbiamo fatto qualcosa insieme 1 divertitevi! buona serata! 1     sara colombo, rheinische friederich-wilhelms-universität bonn sara.colombo@uni-bonn.de it sara colombo è ricercatrice presso la cattedra di filologia romanza dell’università di bonn (germania) e docente di italiano. i suoi interessi di ricerca riguardano l’insegnamento/apprendimento delle lingue straniere (in particolare dell’italiano), l’uso delle tecnologie didattiche a lezione (su cui si concentra il suo progetto di tesi di dottorato), la pragmatica interlinguistica e la linguistica contrastiva (tedesco-italiano). en sara colombo   is a research fellow in the department of romance philology at the university of bonn (germany) and a professor of italian. her research areas are foreign language teaching and learning (especially italian), the use of technology in the classroom (the focus of her project for her doctoral thesis), interlanguage pragmatics and contrastive linguistics (germanitalian). es sara colombo es investigadora en el departamento de filología romance de la universidad de bonn (alemania) y profesora de italiano. sus intereses investigadores incluyen la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras (en particular el italiano), el uso de la tecnología en el aula (tema central de su proyecto de doctorado), la pragmática interlingüística y la lingüística contrastiva (alemán-italiano). valentini_4.2 euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  4,  issue  2,  december  2017,  pages  135-­‐139   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.7.94   www.e-­‐journall.org       ©  valentini  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.         il  volume  curato  da  elisabetta  santoro  e  ineke  vedder  pragmatica  e  interculturalità  in  italiano  lingua   seconda,  edito  nel  2016  presso  franco  cesati  nella  collana  civiltà  italiana  diretta  da  peter  kuon,  raccoglie  una   selezione  dei  contributi  presentati  al  xxi  congresso  dell’associazione  internazionale  dei  professori  di  italiano   tenutosi  a  bari  nell’agosto  2014;  in  particolare,  il  libro  va  a  ingrossare  felicemente  la  vena  degli  studi  rivolti   alla  competenza  pragmatica  in  italiano  lingua  seconda  (l2)  o  straniera  (ls).  si  tratta  di  un  ambito  –  a  dire  il   vero  –  ancora  un  poco   ‘sguarnito’  anche  perché  è  solo  da  poco  più  di  un  decennio  che   il   tema  ha   iniziato  a   destare   interesse   tra   coloro   che   si   occupano   di   acquisizione   e   insegnamento   dell’italiano,   dentro   e   fuori   d’italia,  grazie  anche  alla  pubblicazione  nel  2006  di  usare  un’altra  lingua.  guida  alla  pragmatica  interculturale,   il  volume  di  camilla  bettoni  che  ha  funto  da  apripista  al  filone  di  studi.   il   libro   di   cui   qui   ci   occupiamo   ospita   ricerche   sostenute   tutte   da   dati   empirici,   ben   variati   per   tipologia:   vi   sono   discussi   (potenziali)  materiali   didattici,   interazioni   spontanee   sul   luogo   di   lavoro   sia   tra   nativi   sia   tra   non   nativi,   produzioni   più   o   meno   guidate,   orali   o   scritte,   prodotte   da   utenti   (nel   senso   di   language  users)  con  diversi  gradi  di  competenza   in   italiano   lingua  seconda,  sino  a  giudizi  di  appropriatezza   pragmatica   formulati  da  nativi  su   testi  di  apprendenti,  o  a  corpora  bilingui,   come   il  conedit,  una  raccolta  di                                                                                                                             *1contact:  ada.valentini@unibg.it         santoro,  elisabetta  &  vedder,  ineke  (a  cura  di).  (2016).     pragmatica  e  interculturalità  in  italiano  lingua  seconda.     firenze,  italia:  franco  cesati  editore.       ada  valentini*1   università  degli  studi  di  bergamo     book  review     received  30  march  2017;  received  in  revised  form  3  october  2017;  accepted  5  october  2017     abstract it il volume è dedicato allo sviluppo della competenza pragmatica, nelle sue diversificate sottocomponenti, nell’ambito dell’acquisizione e dell’insegnamento dell’italiano lingua seconda o straniera. vi si trattano, sulla base di dati empirici di varia natura, atti linguistici di diverso tipo, ipotesi o interventi didattici generali o specifici (per es. sul lessico), competenze interazionali sino a test di valutazione. parole chiave: sviluppo della competenza pragmatica, italiano l2, insegnamento dell’italiano ls en the book is dedicated to the development of pragmatic competence, in its diverse subcomponents, within the context of language acquisition and instruction of italian as a second or foreign language. based on a variety of empirical data, the book covers a range of topics: different types of speech acts, theories and general or specific pedagogical interventions (e.g., for vocabulary development), interactional skills and proficiency tests. key words: development of pragmatic competence, italian l2, teaching italian as a foreign language es este volumen está dedicado al desarrollo de la competencia pragmática en sus distintos sub-componentes, dentro del ámbito de la adquisición y de la enseñanza del italiano como segunda lengua o lengua extranjera. a partir de datos empíricos, se analizan diferentes tipos de actos lingüísticos, hipótesis o intervenciones didácticas generales o especificas (por ejemplo, sobre el léxico), competencia interaccional e incluso pruebas de evaluación. palabras clave: desarrollo de la competencia pragmática; italiano l2; enseñanza del italiano lengua extranjera valentini    e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  135-­‐139     136   testi  di  registro  accademico  in  italiano  e  nederlandese.  i  dati  empirici  presentati  sono  di  parlanti  o  utenti  che,   oltre   ad   avere   –   come   detto   –   vari   livelli   di   conoscenza   dell’italiano,   si   differenziano   anche   in  merito   alla   maggiore  o  minore  consuetudine  a  riflettere  sul  sistema  linguistico  in  uso:  accanto  ad  apprendenti  di  italiano   l2/ls  di  diversa  competenza,  vi  sono  parlanti   ‘esperti’,  come  ad  es.   insegnanti  di   italiano  ls   in   formazione,   accanto  a  parlanti  nativi,  per  così  dire,  ‘ingenui’,  ossia  non  abituati  alla  riflessione  metalinguistica.     il   volume  propone  dieci   articoli,   preceduti   da   una   introduzione,   a   firma  di   entrambe   le   curatrici,   e   seguiti   dall’indice   dei   nomi.   non   vi   è   suddivisione   interna   tra   i   lavori,   che   sono   accomunati,   come   detto,   dall’interesse   verso   una   prospettiva   pragmatica;   in   questa   recensione,   anziché   attenerci   all’ordine   di   apparizione  interno  al  libro,  ne  presentiamo  il  contenuto  secondo  la  nostra  organizzazione  in  macroambiti.   tra  i  diversi  contributi,  quello  da  cui  intendiamo  partire  –  anche  per  una  preferenza  personale  –  è  il   lavoro   di   ineke   vedder   (il   sesto   nel   volume),   che   grazie   alle   sue   fondate   competenze   nell’ambito   della   valutazione  e  della  pragmatica,  presenta  e  discute  una  scala  multidimensionale  di  accertamento  (assessment)   dell’adeguatezza  funzionale.  l’argomento  ci  pare  cruciale  e  nell’economia  del  volume  (vi  occupa  la  posizione   centrale)   e   per   il   sicuro   impatto   in   prospettiva   teorica   e   applicata.   la   scala,   basata   sulle   note   ‘massime   conversazionali’   di   grice,   è   articolata   in   quattro   indicatori   o   “dimensioni”:   esse   sono   relative   al   contenuto   (vale  a  dire,  l’adeguatezza  della  quantità  e  del  tipo  delle  unità  informative  espresse),  ai  requisiti  specifici  del   task   (qui,  una  produzione  scritta  di  genere  argomentativo),  alla  comprensibilità  (ossia   lo  sforzo  richiesto  al   lettore  per  capire  l’argomentazione)  e  alla  coerenza  e  coesione  testuale  (cioè  l’adeguatezza  delle  strategie  del   riferimento  anaforico,  della  connessione  tra  le  varie  componenti  del  testo  e  via  di  seguito).  nel  lavoro  la  scala   viene  validata,  e  si  dimostra  la  sua  affidabilità  nell’uso  da  parte  di  valutatori  ‘ingenui’.  infine,  benché,  la  scala   di   valutazione   sia   tarata   sulle   produzioni   scritte   di   genere   argomentativo,   essa   offre   nondimeno   un   buon   punto  di  partenza  per  adattamenti  a  generi  testuali/situazioni  comunicative  diversi  e  se  ne  può  prefigurare   l’utilizzabilità   in   aula   –   aggiungiamo:   anche   tra   pari   –   per   fornire   agli   studenti   un   feedback   preciso   e   più   mirato  (p.  87).   l’ambito   della   pragmatica   che   è   maggiormente   rappresentato   nel   volume   è   quello   degli   atti   linguistici,  tema  che  accomuna  quattro  lavori  (nell’opera,  i  primi  tre  e  il  quinto;  il  quarto,  di  diverso  ambito,  è   commentato  più  avanti),  a  iniziare  dall’articolo  di  apertura  del  libro,  di  elena  nuzzo.   nuzzo  propone  un’analisi  delle  modalità  di  realizzazione  dei  due  atti  della  protesta  (60  occorrenze)  e   del  ringraziamento  (100  occorrenze)  in  un  cospicuo  numero  di  manuali  di  italiano  ls  e  in  numerosi  episodi  di   alcune   serie   televisive   molto   popolari   (oltre   che   nel   corpus   del   lip,   il   lessico   dell’italiano   parlato).   dal   confronto   emerge   la   maggiore   varietà   situazionale   degli   atti   nelle   serie   televisive   (per   es.   nei   manuali   le   espressioni  di  gratitudine  ricorrono  quasi  sempre  in  incontri  di  servizio  o  tra  sconosciuti,  mentre  nelle  serie   televisive  i  motivi  per  cui  si  ringrazia  sono  molto  più  diversificati),  accompagnata  da  una  gamma  più  ricca  e   una   più   alta   frequenza   di   modificatori.   chi   scrive   aggiunge   qui   che,   se   da   una   parte   non   v’è   dubbio   che   i   manuali   potrebbero   beneficiare   di   una   ‘rinfrescata’,   dall’altra   la   recente   accessibilità   da   parte   di   un   vasto   pubblico  a  nuovi  tipi  di  input,  come  quello  delle  serie  televisive,  rappresenta  un’occasione  senza  precedenti,   di  cui  va  tenuto  conto  nella  didattica  delle  lingue  straniere  moderne.  in  tutto  ciò  non  si  dimentichi  però  che,   benché   situazioni   di   acquisizione   anche   in   assenza   di   input   interazionale   siano   state   variamente   attestate,   l’input  comprensibile  –  e  l’input  televisivo  si  qualifica  facilmente  come  tale  (cfr.  sul  tema  per  es.  pavesi,  2012)   –  da  solo  non  è  garanzia  di  acquisizione.   il  secondo  lavoro,  di  luciane  do  nascimento  spadotto  ed  elisabetta  santoro,  propone  un’indagine  dei   modificatori   e   atti   di   supporto1  in   atti   di   richiesta,   elicitati   tramite   la   tecnica   del   role-­‐play   semi-­‐aperto   e   videoregistrati,   presso   sei   coppie   di   italofoni   nativi;   le   richieste   elicitate   si   differenziano   in   base   alle   due   variabili  indipendenti  ‘classiche’  della  distanza  sociale  e  del  grado  di  imposizione  e  l’analisi  dei  dati  conferma   che  entrambe   le  variabili   influenzano,  nella  direzione  prevista,  uso  di  modificatori  e  atti  di  supporto;  più   in   particolare,  nel  caso  dei  modificatori  è  il  fattore  della  distanza  sociale  il  più  incisivo  tra  i  due  (p.  37).  le  autrici   descrivono  il  lavoro  presentato  come  esplorativo,  ma  dal  punto  di  vista  dell’analisi  lo  studio  è  già  ben  fondato   ed  esplorativo  ci  pare  descrivibile  solo  in  merito  alle  ricadute  didattiche  che  potrà  generare.   parte  delle  richieste  videoregistrate  sopra  descritte  è  oggetto  anche  del  terzo  contributo  del  volume,   di  elisabetta  santoro,  che  ha  raccolto  personalmente  l’intero  corpus  di  dati.  qui  però  l’analisi  si  differenzia  dai                                                                                                                             1  con  atto  di  supporto  si  intende  quell’atto  che  fa  da  cornice  di  preparazione  o  sostegno  all’atto  centrale,  al  nucleo  di  un   macroatto  comunicativo,  pur  non  trasmettendone  la  forza  illocutoria;  per  es.  in  scusa,  non  è  che  avresti  della  moneta?   scusa  è  un  atto  di  supporto,  più  precisamente  di  appello,  che  non  veicola  in  sé  la  richiesta,  ma  serve  a  richiamare   l’attenzione  dell’ascoltatore  prima  della  realizzazione  della  richiesta  stessa.     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  135-­‐139   137   modelli  precedenti  e  l’atto  della  richiesta  viene  collocato  nel  contesto  più  ampio  dell’interazione  sulla  base  di   proposte   come   quella   di   willis   edmondson   (1981)   e   di   marina   sbisà   (2009).   il   confronto,   al   momento   esplorativo  e  di  impronta  qualitativa  (p.  41),  tra  le  interazioni  che  hanno  luogo  tra  gli  italofoni  nativi  e  quelle   che   vengono   realizzate   dagli   apprendenti   brasiliani   non   evidenzia   differenze   significative;   torneremo   più   avanti  su  questo  primo  risultato.   infine,   nello   stesso   ambito   di   indagine   degli   atti   linguistici   si   colloca   il   contributo   ad   opera   di   phyllisienne  gauci,  elisa  ghia  e  sandro  caruana,  il  quinto  del  volume:  i  ricercatori  indagano  la  produzione  in   italiano  l2  di  richieste  e  proteste  elicitate  attraverso   le   tecniche  del  discourse  completion  task   scritto  e  del   role-­‐play  orale,  con  situazioni  stimolo  variate   in  base  a  due  diversi   livelli  di   formalità.  gli  apprendenti  sono   quindici  studenti  maltesi  con  competenze  elevate,  a  livello  c1  del  qcer,  in  italiano  l2  (si  tratta  di  studenti  di   un   corso   universitario   di   preparazione   alla   professione   di   insegnante   di   ls)   e   il   materiale   elicitato   viene   giudicato  da  nativi  con  altissimo  grado  di  expertise  (inclusa  la  consapevolezza  meta-­‐linguistica)   in  relazione   all’appropriatezza   della   formulazione   degli   atti   (i   task   vengono   valutati   in   base   a   sei   criteri,   tra   cui   la   riconoscibilità   dell’atto   illocutivo,   l’adeguatezza   delle   marche   di   cortesia   o   della   quantità   di   informazioni   veicolate;   p.   71).   il   quadro   che   se   ne   ricava   è   che   le   produzioni   di   questi   apprendenti   sono   generalmente   giudicate  positivamente,  senza  differenze  né  tra  i  due  tipi  di  atti  né  tra  i  due  livelli  di  formalità  richiesti.   quest’ultimo  lavoro  ci  riporta  al  secondo  ambito  di  indagine  comune  a  tre  lavori  della  raccolta,  quello   della   didattica   dell’italiano   ls;   oltre   al   già   citato   contributo   di   apertura,   nel   volume   trova   spazio   lo   studio   pilota  di  viviane  carvalho  de  oliveira   (il  quarto  nel  volume),  dedicato  a  un’esperienza  di   insegnamento  del   lessico,   a   partire   da   testi   autentici,   differenziata   in   base   a   un   approccio   “esplicito”   o   “implicito”   a   classi   di   studenti  brasiliani  di  livello  b1  e  b2  del  qcer.  i  due  tipi  diversi  di  trattamento  del  lessico  vengono  ricondotti   a  distinti  processi,  inferenziali  o  associativi,  della  comprensione  del  significato  sulla  base  della  proposta  della   “pragmatica  lessicale”  di  wilson  e  carston  (2006).   l’altro   lavoro   incentrato   sull’apprendimento   −   ora   però   attuato   attraverso   “modalità   spontanee   e   informali”   (p.   93)   di   accesso   alla   rete   −   è   quello   di   greta   zanoni   (il   settimo   nel   libro),   che   delinea   le   caratteristiche   della   piattaforma   in  open  access   lira   (lingua/cultura   italiana   in  rete  per   l’apprendimento),   una   piattaforma   gradevole   e   ‘leggera’   rivolta   a   chi   possiede   già   un   certo   livello   di   italiano,   ma   intende   incrementare  la  propria  competenza  o  consapevolezza  pragmatica,  sia  che  si  tratti  di  italiano  l1,  l2  o  lingua   d’origine  (heritage  language).  l’autrice  inizia  poi  ad  analizzare  la  comunità  virtuale  che  ne  fa  uso  e  il  relativo   contributo:   lira,   infatti,   è   un   ambiente   di   e-­‐learning   che   consente   a   ciascun   utente   –   potenzialmente,   un   numero  altissimo  di  utenti  –  di  interagire  attivamente  con  altri  e  di  produrre  e  condividere  contenuti,  in  altre   parole,  un  ambiente  di  tipo  2.0.  la  piattaforma,  in  sostanza,  può  offrire  un  luogo  privilegiato  da  cui  osservare   la  variazione  socio-­‐pragmatica.   al  tema  generale  dell’interazione  vanno  ascritti  due  contributi  del  volume,  l’ottavo  e  il  nono:  in  una   prospettiva   etnografica   di   analisi   della   conversazione   si   sviluppano   le   osservazioni   qualitative   di   giulia   grosso   sul   fenomeno  delle   etero-­‐ripetizioni   negli   scambi   sul   luogo  di   lavoro:   l’autrice  mette   in   evidenza   la   funzione   del   fenomeno   della   ripetizione   delle   parole   altrui   nella   co-­‐costruzione   del   messaggio,   come   strumento   per   la   presa   del   turno   di   parola,   per   l’espressione   del   disaccordo   o   dell’ironia.   invece,   il   lavoro   esplorativo  di  anna  de  marco  e  paola  leone  propone  –  sulla  base  di  alcuni  dati  trasversali  da  brevi  interazioni   orali,   anche  mediate  dal   computer,   tra  otto   coppie  di  nativi   e  non  nativi   –  una   sequenza  acquisizionale  dei   segnali  discorsivi,  che  notoriamente  assolvono  a  funzioni  interazionali  e  testuali:  sulla  base  della  tassonomia   elaborata  da  bazzanella   (1994)  negli  apprendenti  emergerebbero  dapprima  segnali  discorsivi   con   funzione   interazionale,   seguiti   da   quelli   con   funzione   prevalentemente   metatestuale   e,   da   ultimo,   apparirebbero   segnali  con  funzione  cognitiva.   infine,   l’ultimo   contributo,   di   elisabetta   materassi,   discute   la   questione   dell’apprendibilità   delle   metafore  convenzionali  in  l2:  saper  comprendere  e  produrre  metafore  costituisce  un  ambito  certamente  non   trascurabile  della  competenza  alta  in  l2,  come  osserva  berruto  che,  discutendo  di  cosa  significhi  “sapere  una   lingua”,   menziona   anche   tale   tipo   di   capacità,   assegnandole   importanza   soprattutto   cognitiva   e   culturale   (berruto,  2012,  pp.  47  e  49).  l’autrice  avanza  un’ipotesi  di  apprendibilità  basata  sulla  teoria  cognitiva  della   metafora   di   lakoff   e   johnson   (1980),   nella   quale   si   mantengono   distinti   il   piano   concettuale   e   il   piano   dell’espressione   linguistica:  per   il  primo  si  pensi  ad  es.   alla  metafora  tempo  è  denaro  e  per   il   secondo  a   espressioni  come  perdere  tempo,  risparmio  di  tempo  ecc.  l’idea  centrale  della  proposta  è  che  l’apprendimento   delle  metafore   in  l2   sia   influenzato,   nel   confronto   interlinguistico,   dal  diverso  grado  di   coincidenza   (nullo,   parziale   o   totale)   sia   sul   piano   concettuale   sia   sul   piano   dell’espressione   linguistica,   quello   della   sua   manifestazione   di   superficie.   l’ipotesi,   ancora   in   uno   stadio   iniziale,   andrà   valutata   –   riconosce,   valentini    e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  135-­‐139     138   opportunamente,  l’autrice  –  anche  nelle  sue  correlazioni  con  altri  fattori,  come  la  frequenza  o  la  concretezza   delle  immagini  (p.  140).   nel  suo  complesso  il  volume  presenta  diversi  pregi,  anzitutto  quello  di  contribuire  con  le  sue  indagini   allo  sviluppo  di  un  ambito  di  ricerca  ancora  poco  frequentato  per  l’italiano  l2/ls;  in  secondo  luogo,  come  già   anticipato,   ciascun   lavoro   si   appoggia   a   una   base   empirica;   infine,   alcune   scelte   metodologiche   di   singoli   contributi  ci  paiono  non  scontate  e  promettenti:  solo  per  fare  un  paio  di  esempi,  nel  suo  articolo  elena  nuzzo   tiene  conto  di  ben  tre  livelli  di  distanza  sociale,  aggiungendo  ai  due  consueti  quello  intermedio  delle  persone   che   si   conoscono,   ma   non   si   considerano   propriamente   amiche   (ad   es.   negozianti   e   clienti   abituali   o   frequentatori  di  uno  stesso  locale).  ancora,  il  modello  di  analisi  proposto  da  elisabetta  santoro  è  ben  ancorato   a   una   prospettiva   interazionale,   attenta   cioè   anche   all’agire   dell’interlocutore   che   è   il   destinatario   della   richiesta;  al  proposito,  se  è  vero  che  l’analisi  non  rileva  differenze  tra  apprendenti  brasiliani  (nn)  e  italofoni   nativi,  vale   la  pena  chiedersi  cosa  succederebbe   là  dove   la  distanza  culturale  è  maggiore,  per  es.   tra  russi  e   giapponesi.   passando  ora  ai  punti  deboli  del  libro,  forse  nel  volume  una  definizione  delle  nozioni  di  competenza   pragmatica   e   consapevolezza   pragmatica   –   e   una   loro   eventuale   discussione   –   avrebbero   potuto   essere   presenti  in  un  numero  maggiore  di  contributi,  e  non  solo  in  quello  di  ineke  vedder  su  cui  ci  siamo  concentrati   sopra  (rinviamo  per  una  discussione  e  definizione  di  competenza  pragmatica,  tra  altri,  a  wisniewski,  2009  in   riferimento   a   una   ricerca   su   italiano   e   tedesco   l2).   nella   stessa   direzione,   avrebbe   potuto   essere   utile   al   dibattito  in  corso  anche  una  discussione  (o,  perlomeno,  la  dichiarazione  della  posizione  di  ciascuno)  del  ruolo   della   pragmatica   nella   teoria   linguistica:   semplificando   molto,   la   pragmatica   è   una   prospettiva   da   cui   osservare  i  fatti  linguistici?  oppure  è  un  livello  di  analisi,  al  pari  di  fonologia,  morfologia  e  sintassi?  (si  vedano   per  es.,  per  due  posizioni  diverse,  calaresu,  2016  e  mey,  2006).   il   libro  è  adatto  a  studenti  delle   lauree  magistrali   che  siano  già   in  possesso  di   competenze  di  base,   oltre   che   di   linguistica   generale,   anche   di   pragmatica   e   di   linguistica   acquisizionale/glottodidattica   ed   è   di   sicuro  interesse  per  chi  vuole  intraprendere  percorsi  di  ricerca  o  aggiornamento,  come  dottorandi  in  scienze   linguistiche   interessati   all’ambito   generale   della   second   language   acquisition   o   docenti   di   italiano   l2/ls.   ciascun   capitolo   rappresenta   poi   una   lettura   utile   per   chi   è   già   attivo   nei   domini   di   ricerca   specifici   sopra   descritti.         riferimenti  bibliografici     bazzanella,  carla  (1994).  le  facce  del  parlare.  un  approccio  pragmatico  all’italiano  parlato.  firenze,   italia:  la   nuova  italia.   berruto,   gaetano   (2012).   cosa   vuol   dire   «sapere   una   lingua»?   dai   fonemi   alle   espressioni   idiomatiche.   in   giuliano   bernini,   cristina   lavinio,   ada   valentini,   &   miriam   voghera   (a   cura   di),   competenze   e   formazione  linguistiche.  in  memoria  di  monica  berretta  (pp.  27-­‐53).  perugia,  italia:  guerra.   bettoni,  camilla  (2006).  usare  un’altra  lingua.  guida  alla  pragmatica  interculturale.  bari,  italia:  laterza.   calaresu,   emilia   (2016).   dialogicità   e   grammatica.   in   cecilia   andorno   &   roberta   grassi   (a   cura   di),   le   dinamiche   dell’interazione.   prospettive   di   analisi   e   contesti   applicativi   (pp.   13-­‐27).   perugia,   italia:   guerra.   edmondson,  willis  (1981).  spoken  discourse:  a  model  for  analysis.  londra,  regno  unito:  longman.   lakoff,  george,  &  johnson,  mark  (1980).  metaphors  we  live  by.  chicago,  usa:  university  of  chicago  press.   mey,   jacob   l.   (2006).   pragmatics:   overview.   in   keith   brown   (a   cura   di),   encyclopedia   of   language   &   linguistics  (second  edition)  (pp.  51-­‐62).  oxford,  regno  unito:  elsevier.   pavesi,   maria   (2012).   the   potentials   of   audiovisual   dialogue   for   second   language   acquisition.   in   pilar   alderete-­‐díez,  laura  incalcaterra  mcloughlin,  labhaoise  ní  dhonnchadha  &  dorothy  ní  uigín  (eds.),   translation,   technology   and   autonomy   in   language   teaching   and   learning   (pp.   155-­‐174).   berna,   svizzera:  peter  lang.   sbisà,   marina   (2009).   linguaggio,   ragione,   interazione.   per   una   pragmatica   degli   atti   linguistici.   trieste:   edizioni  università  di  trieste  (prima  edizione  a  stampa:  1989,  bologna,  italia:  il  mulino).     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  135-­‐139   139   wilson,  deirdre,  &  carston,  robyn  (2006).  methaphor,  relevance  and  the   ‘emergent  property’   issue.  mind  &   language,  21(3),  404-­‐433.   wisniewski,  katrin   (2009).  la   conoscenza  della   seconda   lingua  nel   contesto  multilingue  dell’alto  adige:  un   confronto   tra   attività   comunicative   orali   e   scritte   con   particolare   attenzione   alla   competenza   pragmatica.   in   carlo   consani,   cristiano   furiassi,   francesca   guazzelli   &   carmela   perta   (a   cura   di),   oralità/scrittura.   in  memoria  di  giorgio  raimondo  cardona,   atti   del   ix   congresso   dell’associazione   italiana  di  linguistica  applicata  (pescara,  19-­‐20  febbraio  2009)  (pp.  283-­‐303).  perugia,  italia:  guerra.         ada valentini, università degli studi di bergamo ada.valentini@unibg.it. it ada valentini è professore associato di glottologia e linguistica presso l’università degli studi di bergamo.  sin dal 1988 ha preso parte al progetto di pavia, dedicato allo studio dei processi di acquisizione spontanea dell’italiano come seconda lingua. è autrice di l’italiano dei cinesi. questioni di sintassi (1992, milano: guerini studio), coautrice di verso l’italiano. percorsi e strategie di acquisizione (a cura di anna giacalone ramat, 2003, roma: carocci), di verso una nuova lingua (a cura di cecilia andorno e ada valentini, 2017, torino: utet università) e di numerosi altri lavori sull’acquisizione di lingue seconde e sulla struttura dell’informazione.     en ada valentini is an associate professor of language and linguistics at the university of bergamo. since 1988, she has participated in the pavia project, dedicated to the study of the spontaneous acquisition of italian as a second language. she is the author of l’italiano dei cinesi. questioni di sintassi [the italian of the chinese. matters of syntax] (1992, milan: guerini studio), and co-author of verso l’italiano. percorsi e strategie di acquisizione [towards italian. paths and strategies of acquisition] (edited by anna giacalone ramat, 2003, rome: carocci), verso una nuova lingua [towards a new language] (edited by cecilia andorno and ada valentini, 2017, turin: utet university) and numerous other works on the acquisition of second languages and information structure. es ada valentini es profesora titulada de glotología y lingüística en la università degli studi de bergamo. desde 1988 forma parte del “progetto di pavia”, dedicado al estudio de los procesos de adquisición espontánea del italiano como segunda lengua. es autora de l’italiano dei cinesi. questioni di sintassi (1992, milán: 2003, guerini studio), coautora de verso l’italiano. percorsi e strategie di acquisizione (editado por anna giacalone ramat, 2003, roma: carocci), de verso una nuova lingua (editado por cecilia andorno y ada valentini, 2017, turín: utet università) y de numerosos trabajos sobre la adquisición de la segunda lengua y la estructura de la información.   microsoft word novello_7.1 (2).docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  7,  issue  1,  february  2020,  152-­‐156   issn  2376-­‐905x   doi:  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.11.182   www.e-­‐journall.org         ©  novello  2020.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.     subhan,  zein,  &  garton,  sue  (a  cura  di).  (2019).  early  language  learning   and  teacher  education.  bristol,  england:  multilingual  matters         alberta  novello   università  degli  studi  di  padova         book  review   received  25  april  2019;  received  in  revised  form  20  may  2019;  accepted  15  june  2020 abstract it viene di seguito proposta la recensione alla curatela di zein e garton, early language learning and teacher education, una raccolta di 14 capitoli dedicati all’apprendimento precoce di una lingua straniera o seconda. gli autori dei contributi riportano diverse situazioni di apprendimento, analizzandone le caratteristiche principali e mettendone in evidenza i punti di forza e le criticità. si tratta per lo più di focus group o ricerche molto ristrette che descrivono ambiti educativi molto diversi tra loro seppur riguardanti l’insegnamento delle lingue a giovani apprendenti. la recensione introduce il contesto di riferimento e descrive, poi, i contenuti dei singoli capitoli, proponendo, in conclusione, alcune considerazioni sul volume. parole chiave: apprendimento precoce, bilinguismo, qualifiche docenti, focus group en this is a review of an edited book by zein and garton, titled early language learning and teacher education, a collection of 14 chapters dedicated to the early learning of a foreign or second language. the authors of the contributions report different learning situations, analyzing their main characteristics and highlighting their strengths and critical points. these are mostly focus groups or limited research that describe very different educational environments, albeit concerning the teaching of languages to young learners. the review introduces the reference context and then describes the contents of the individual chapters, concluding with some considerations on the volume. key words: early learning, bilingualism, teachers’ qualifications, focus group es se presenta aquí la reseña crítica de early language and teacher education editada por zein y garton. se trata de un volumen en 14 capítulos dedicados al aprendizaje precoz de una lengua extranjera o segunda. los autores de los artículos exponen y analizan las características principales de diferentes situaciones de aprendizaje y destacan sus puntos fuertes y débiles. se trata de un focus group o investigaciones pequeñas que describen ámbitos educativos muy diferentes a pesar de que todos conciernen la enseñanza de las lenguas a jóvenes estudiantes. la reseña introduce el contexto de referencia y luego describe los contenidos de cada capítulo, proponiendo, en fin, algunas consideraciones sobre el volumen. palabras clave: aprendizaje precoz, bilingüismo, cualificaciones docentes, focus group   *  alberta  novello,  università  di  padova                alberta.novello@unipd.it   recensione:  early  language  learning  and  teacher  education         153       e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  152-­‐156     il  volume  è  composto  da  una  raccolta  di  saggi  dedicati  all’apprendimento  di  una  lingua  straniera  o  seconda   da  parte  di  bambini  dai  3  ai  12  anni  in  diversi  contesti  mondiali  (tra  cui  stati  uniti,  indonesia,  giappone,  australia,   turchia,   taiwan,   vietnam,   regno   unito)   e   si   inserisce   all’interno   della   collana   della   multilingual   matters,   early   language   learning   in   the   school   context   series   dedicata   all’apprendimento   linguistico   in   contesto   educativo.   il   panorama  di  riferimento  è  quello  della  nuova  politica  linguistica  rivolta  all’insegnamento  precoce  delle  lingue,  inteso   come  uno  dei  maggiori   strumenti   di   sviluppo  nell’educazione   (johnstone,   2009).   tale   visione   ha   necessariamente   posto   l’attenzione  sulla   formazione  del  docente  (copland,  2014;  ellis,  2010;  rixon,  2017)  e  sulla  struttura  dei  vari   curricoli   di   riferimento,   non   sempre   adeguati.   i   vantaggi   di   un   accostamento   precoce   ad   una   lingua   seconda   o   straniera,  seppur  dimostrati  da  tempo  in  campo  linguistico  e  neurolinguistico  (fabbro,  cargnelutti,  2018;  gullberg,   indefrey,   2006)   solo   di   recente   trovano   accoglimento   in   contesto   educativo   e   vengono   presi   in   considerazione   in   misura  diversa,   a   seconda  della  politica   linguistica   locale  di   riferimento.   in  un’ottica  di   internazionalizzazione  e  di   sviluppo  educativo  (linguistico,  cognitivo,  personale)  è  d’obbligo  pensare  a  percorsi   formativi  che   includano  una  o   più  lingue  già  dai  primi  anni  di  scolarizzazione  (novello,  2018)  pianificando  un’adeguata  formazione  degli  insegnanti   (daloiso  2009;  santipolo,  2012).   lo   scopo   del   volume   è   quello   di   informare   sui   recenti   studi   e   sulle   buone   pratiche   riguardanti   l’insegnamento  delle   lingue   a   giovani   apprendenti   sottolineando   l’importanza  della   formazione  dei   docenti   basata   sulla  ricerca.  come  specificato  anche  nell’introduzione,  la  finalità  della  raccolta  è  anche  quella  di  dimostrare  come  il   lavoro   dell’insegnante   di   lingue   a   bambini   vada   al   di   là   della   semplice   proposta   di   strategie   e   tecniche   didattiche   adatte,  e  comprenda  anche   la  volontà  di  mettere   in  atto  un  processo  educativo   in  continua  evoluzione.  per  questo   motivo   i   saggi   inclusi   riportano  una   varietà   di   esperienze  di   apprendimento   che  mirano   a   stimolare   la   riflessione   basata  sulla  collaborazione  e  il  confronto  dei  bisogni  tra  docenti.     per  conferire  uniformità  ad  una  struttura  composta  da  diversi  contenuti,  il  volume  è  diviso  in  quattro  parti,   precedute  dall’introduzione  di  subhan  zein  e  da  un  contributo  di  yuko  goto  butler  che  sintetizza  le  recenti  ricerche   sulla   formazione   degli   insegnanti   di   inglese   nell’est   e   sud-­‐est   asiatico,   prendendo   in   considerazione   in   particolar   modo:  le  qualifiche,  la  condizione  di  madrelingua  o  di  parlante  non  nativo,  la  supervisione  dei  docenti,  la  ricerca  in   classe.  butler  mira  a  descrivere  lo  stato  dell’arte  dell’insegnamento  dell’inglese  in  cina,  giappone,  indonesia,  korea   del  sud,  taiwan,  tailandia  e  vietnam,  delineando  i  tratti  principali  delle  politiche  linguistiche  dei  diversi  paesi  volte  a   definire  la  qualità  della  professione  docente.  la  studiosa  mette  in  evidenza  come  il  livello  di  competenza  adeguata  sia   linguistica  che  didattica  non  sia  di  semplice  definizione  ed,  inoltre,  variabile  tra  le  realtà  indagate.  la  distinzione  tra   insegnanti   generalisti   e   insegnanti   specialisti,   porta,   per   di   più,   ad   un   atteggiamento   diverso   nei   confronti   della   lingua  straniera,  la  quale,  nella  maggior  parte  dei  casi  è  ancora  insegnata  con  metodologie  tradizionali  e  poco  inclini   all’approccio  comunicativo.  manca  una  formazione  specifica  dei  docenti,  che,  come  suggerito  dall’autrice,  andrebbe   pensata  in  un’ottica  a  lungo  termine.       la  prima  parte  del  volume,  the  complexity  of   teacher   learning,   è  dedicata  alla   complessità  del  percorso  di   apprendimento  dei   docenti,   è   introdotta  dal   saggio  di   le  van  chan   che  propone  uno   studio  di   caso   che   esplora   il   percorso   professionale   di   un   docente   di   scuola   primaria   in   vietnam.   attraverso   la   narrazione   dell’insegnante,   l’autore   evidenzia   come   l’apprendimento   di   un   insegnante   sia   il   risultato   della   combinazione   di   più   fattori,   individuali  (cognitivi  ed  emotivi)  e  professionali  (stipendio,  carico  di  lavoro  e  opportunità  di  sviluppo).  emerge  come   la   preparazione   dell’insegante   dipenda   molto   dalla   volontà   dello   stesso   di   aumentare   le   proprie   competenze,   considerato  che   la  politica   linguistica  tende  purtroppo  a  non  implementare   la   formazione  dell’insegnante  di   lingue   straniere  che  vive  una  condizione  di  solitudine  professionale.     in  maniera  analoga,  vale  a  dire  attraverso  uno  studio  di  caso  che  ha  coinvolto  quattro  insegnanti  di  scuola   primaria,   zein   analizza   le   caratteristiche   del   parlato   dell’insegnante   in   classe.   dall’analisi   dei   risultati   ricavati   dall’osservazione  di  brevi  spezzoni  video  di  parlato  in  classe   l’autrice  suggerisce  di   immedesimarsi  nel  bambino  di   scuola  primaria  al   fine  di  sviluppare  un  buon  grado  di   flessibilità  nel  discorso.  parlare  nello  stesso  modo  in  cui  un   bambino  si  rivolgerebbe  ad  un  suo  pari,  può,  secondo  la  studiosa,  essere  vantaggioso  nell’insegnamento  della  lingua   straniera.     nel  capitolo  successivo,  yuefeng  zhang  descrive  l’esperienza  nello  studio  delle  modalità  di  apprendimento  di   sei   insegnanti   di   lingue   ad   hong   kong.   attraverso   discussioni,   osservazioni   e   analisi   di   documentazioni,   viene   dimostrato   come,   grazie   agli   studi   sull’apprendimento   da   parte   degli   insegnanti,   il   loro   approccio   si   evolva   dall’essere  basato  sulla  loro  figura  alla  focalizzazione  sulla  centralità  dello  studente.     novello     e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  152-­‐156     154     con  considerazioni  simili,  gee  macrory  suggerisce  una  formazione  specifica  per  gli  insegnanti  che  favorisca   la  dimensione  cooperativa  nell’apprendimento  dell’ortografia   in   lingua  straniera.  per  arrivare  a  tale  conclusione   la   studiosa  ha  proposto  a  55  insegnanti  generalisti  un  questionario  sulle  opportunità  di  osservazione  e  insegnamento   della  lingua  straniera  e  dell’ortografia  in  classe  unitamente  al  ruolo  della  stessa  all’interno  del  curricolo.  la  scarsità   di   esperienza   sull’argomento   emersa   dai   risultati   fa   emergere,   secondo   l’autrice,   la   necessità   di   un   modello   di   formazione  che  promuova  l’apprendimento  cooperativo.     la   seconda   parte,   innovations   in   mentoring   and   supervision,   riguardante   i   mentori   e   i   supervisori   degli   insegnanti,  si  apre  con  la  descrizione  da  parte  di  chou  chiou-­‐hui  di  un  modello  di  supervisione  volto  a  migliorare  le   pratiche  di  insegnamento.  l’autrice,  attraverso  la  raccolta  di  dati  sui  metodi  utilizzati  nella  scuola  primaria  a  taiwan,   mira  ad  aumentare  la  consapevolezza  della  qualità  nella  professione  docente  attraverso  la  pratica  della  supervisione.   dopo   una   parte   introduttiva   sulla   formazione   degli   insegnanti   di   inglese   a   taiwan,   vengono   esposti   i   dati   della   ricerca   basata   sull’osservazione   di   lezioni   tenute   da   14   insegnanti.   tali   dati   dimostrano   come   diversi   aspetti   osservati  durante  una  prima  lezione  siano  migliorati  durante  una  seconda  lezione  grazie  alla  discussione  di  ciò  che   era  stato  osservato  e  analizzato.       nel  capitolo  seguente  yasemin  kirkgoz  riporta  la  propria  esperienza  nella  supervisione  di  cinque  insegnanti   nella  valutazione  della  propria  pratica  didattica  e  nell’identificazione  di  un  focus  group,  rimarcando  la  necessità  della   collaborazione  tra  formatori  e  insegnanti  per  il  miglioramento  della  didattica.     nettie   biovin   nel   capitolo   successivo,   dopo   un’introduzione   sul   contesto   della   scuola   primaria   in   kazakhistan,   analizza   l’apprendimento   co-­‐costruttivista   tra   apprendente   e   docente   nell’inserimento   della   lingua   inglese   alla   scuola   primaria,   proponendo   un   framework   sperimentato   con   otto   docenti   e   otto   studenti   basato   su:   collaborazione,   costruzione   e   riflessione.   l’autrice   sostiene   che   la   formazione   degli   insegnanti   dovrebbe   essere   accompagnata   da   un   tirocinio   in   classe,   osservato   e   discusso,   oltre   che   da   un   aggiornamento   continuo   sulle   metodologie  didattiche  più  innovative.   la   terza   parte,   strategies   in   programme   development,   consta   di   soli   due   capitoli   ed   è   focalizzata   sullo   sviluppo  delle  programmazioni  in  contesti  bilingui.  il  primo  capitolo,  di  valentina  carbonara,  descrive  un  framework   per  il  docente  basato  su:  competenza  linguistica,  qualità  personali  e  competenze  professionali.  l’autrice  suggerisce   l’uso   di   tale   framework   come   una   sorta   di   guida   per   gli   insegnanti   di   italiano   operanti   in   una   scuola   d’infanzia   bilingue,   nel   suo   caso:   italiano   e   turco.   il   framework   nasce   da   due   domande   di   ricerca   sulle   competenze   dell’insegnante  di  lingue  e  le  implicazioni  di  quest’ultime  nella  formazione  dei  docenti.  da  questo  campo  di  indagine   sono  stati,  difatti,  somministrati  dei  questionari  a  nove  insegnanti  e  tre  coordinatori  scolastici.  dai  questionari  sono   emersi  gli  aspetti  che  i  partecipanti  all’indagine  ritengono  fondamentali  per  un  insegnante  di  lingue  operante  in  una   scuola  bilingue;  tali  aspetti   includono,  appunto:  empatia,  attitudine,  uso  della   lingua,  conoscenza  delle  metodologie   didattiche  e  dei  bisogni  pedagogici.       nel   secondo   capitolo   junko  matsuzaki   carreira   e   tomoko   shigyo   descrivono   uno   studio   condotto   con   34   futuri   insegnanti   di   inglese   in   giappone,   impegnati   nella   frequenza   di   un   corso   di   formazione   universitaria   per   docenti;  l’indagine  mira,  attraverso  dei  questionari,  ad  indagare  l’insegnamento  curricolare  della  lingua  inglese,  che  è   recente   per   il   contesto   della   scuola   primaria   giapponese   e   a   studiare   come   inserire   la   programmazione   didattica   nella  formazione  dei  futuri  docenti.     l’ultima   parte,   perceptions,   knowledge   and   assessment,   descrive   due   contesti   specifici:   quello   dell’apprendimento  precoce  bilingue  dell’australia  e  degli  stati  uniti.  larissa  jenkins,  elisabeth  duursma  e  catherine   neilsen-­‐hewett   descrivono   le   percezioni   e   le   conoscenze   sul   bilinguismo   degli   educatori,   evidenziando   le   diverse   opinioni   tra   gli   insegnanti   monolingui   e   bilingui   e   come   queste   possano   influenzare   il   rapporto   con   i   bambini   bilingui.  nello  studio  sono  stati  somministrati  questionari  a  quattro  insegnanti,  due  monolingui  e  due  bilingui,  i  quali   hanno  evidenziato,  nonostante  numerosi  punti  in  comune  sull’importanza  dell’insegnamento  precoce  delle  lingue,  la   resistenza   degli   insegnanti   monolingui   legata   alla   convinzione   di   uno   sforzo   troppo   elevato   dal   punto   di   vista   cognitivo   nell’acquisizione   di   due   lingue;   sulla   base   di   ciò   le   studiose   affermano   l’importanza   di   formare   adeguatamente  tutti  gli  educatori  sullo  sviluppo  linguistico  dei  bambini  mono-­‐  o  bilingui.     nel   capitolo   successivo   katherine   m.   griffin,   alison   l.   bailey   e   rashmita   s.   mistry   riportano   le   consapevolezze   raggiunte  dagli   insegnanti  da  un  approccio  bilingue  alla   valutazione,   riportando  dati   e  discussioni   derivanti   dallo   studio   condotto   con   cinque   insegnanti.   vengono,   inoltre,   riportati   esempi   e   linee   guida   per   la   valutazione  nel  contesto  bilingue.     l’ultimo  capitolo,  di  sue  garton,  si  propone  come  una  sorta  di  riassunto  delle  conclusioni  tratte  dagli  studi   descritti  nel  volume  e   fornisce  spunti  per  ricerche   future,   tra  cui   la   ripresa  delle  ricerche  descritte,  magari  con  un   campione  d’indagine  maggiore.       recensione:  early  language  learning  and  teacher  education         155       e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  152-­‐156   la  conoscenza  di  diverse  situazioni  in  cui  prevale  un  approccio  orientato  alla  continua  messa  in  discussione   delle  modalità  di  insegnamento  al  fine  di  creare  contesti  educativi  migliori  rappresenta  indubbiamente  un  supporto   per   gli   insegnanti   di   lingue.   oltre   alla   formazione   in   glottodidattica,   la   riflessione   sul   proprio   contesto,   operato,   risultati   ottenuti   e   ambiente   di   apprendimento   dovrebbe   essere   al   centro   di   un   processo   educativo   in   costante   miglioramento.   la   lettura   delle   esperienze   riportate   nel   volume   può   essere   d’esempio   e   fungere   da   spunto   per   docenti  e  formatori.  le  ricerche  presentate  sono  nella  quasi  totalità  degli  studi  di  caso  e  coinvolgono  un  bassissimo   numero  di  soggetti:  ciò  toglie  spessore  scientifico  alle  conclusioni  tratte,  ma  può  essere  da  spunto  per  riprendere  i   concetti,  sicuramente  interessanti,  da  indagare.  inoltre,  l’apprendimento  precoce  di  una  lingua  straniera  o  seconda  è   un   fenomeno   recente   e   in   crescita,   la   lettura   del   volume,   perciò,   può   rivelarsi   interessante   per   focalizzare   sugli   aspetti  fondamentali  nell’insegnamento  a  giovanissimi  apprendenti.             riferimenti  bibliografici   copland,   fiona,   garton,   sue,   &   burns,   anne   (2014).   challenges   in   teaching   english   to   young   learners:   global   perspectives  and  local  realities.  tesol  quarterly,  48(4)  738-­‐762.   daloiso,  michele  (2009).  la  lingua  straniera  nella  scuola  dell’infanzia.  torino,  italia:  utet  università.   ellis,  rod  (2010).  second  language  acquisition,  teacher  education  and  language  pedagogy.  language  teaching,  43(2),   182-­‐201.   fabbro,  franco,  &  cargnelutti,  elisa  (2018).  neuroscienze  del  bilinguismo.  roma,  italia:  astrolabio.     gullberg,  marianne,  &   indefrey,  peter   (20069.  the  cognitive  neuroscience  of   second  language  acquisition.   london,   england:  blackwell.     johnstone,  richard   (2009).  an  early   start:  what   are   the  key   conditions   for   generalized   success?”.   in   janet  ebever,   jayne   moon,   &   uma   raman   (a   cura   di),   young   learner   english   language   policy   and   implementation:   international  perspectives  (pp.  31-­‐42).  reading,  england:  garnet  education  publishing.     novello  alberta  (2018).  bilinguismo  precoce:  il  monitoraggio  degli  obiettivi.    in  patrizia  mazzotta,  matteo  santipolo   (a   cura   di),  l’educazione   linguistica   oggi,   nuove   sfide   tra   riflessioni   teoriche   e   proposte   operative.   scritti   in   onore  di  paolo  e.  balboni.  novara,  italia:  utet  università.   rixon,   shelagh   (2017).   “the   role   of   early   language   learning   teacher   education   in   turning   policy   into   practice”,   in   wilden   eva,   &   porsch   raphaela   (eds.),  the   professional   development   of   primary   efl   teachers   (pp.   79-­‐94).   munster,  germany:  waxmann.   santipolo,  matteo  (2012).  educare   i  bambini  alla   lingua   inglese.  teoria  e  pratica  dell’insegnamento  dell’inglese  nella   scuola  primaria  e  dell'infanzia,  lecce-­‐brescia,  italia:  pensa  multimedia.                                   novello     e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  152-­‐156     156           alberta novello,  università degli studi di padova alberta.novello@unipd.it it alberta novello è dottore di ricerca in scienze del linguaggio presso l’università ca’ foscari di venezia, assegnista di ricerca presso il dipartimento di studi linguistici e letterari dell’università degli studi di padova, e professore a contratto di didattica della lingua inglese e didattica dell’italiano l2 presso l’università degli studi di padova. inoltre, è responsabile didattico del master itals di i livello (didattica e promozione della lingua e cultura italiane a stranieri) presso l’università ca’ foscari di venezia e consulente per gli esami di stato di italiano ls della scuola secondaria di i grado presso l’area pedagogica di bolzano. i suoi ambiti di ricerca includono valutazione e testing, gifted e bilinguismo precoce. è autrice di numerosi saggi e due monografie: valutare le lingue straniere a scuola. dalla teoria alla pratica (edizioni ca’ foscari, 2014) e valutare una lingua straniera: le certificazioni europee (cafoscarina, 2009). en alberta novello holds a ph.d. in language sciences at the università ca’ foscari di venezia, she is a research fellow in the department of linguistic and literary studies of the università degli studi di padova, and a contract professor of teaching english and italian as second languages at the università degli studi di padova. furthermore, she is the teaching coordinator of the master’s degree in teaching and promotion of italian language and culture to foreigner) at the università ca’ foscari di venezia. moreover she is a consultant for the italian state ls exams of the 1st grade secondary school at the pedagogical area of bolzano. her research areas include evaluation and testing, gifted and early bilingualism. she is the author of numerous essays and two monographs: evaluating foreign languages at school. from theory to practice (ca ’foscari editions, 2014) and evaluating a foreign language: european certifications (cafoscarina, 2009). es alberta novello es doctora en ciencia del lenguaje en la universidad ca' foscari de venecia, becaria de investigación en el departamento de estudio lingüísticos y literarios de la universidad de padua, y profesora contratada de didáctica de inglés y de italiano l2 en la universidad de padua. además, es el director didáctico del master itals (didáctica y promoción de la lengua y cultura italianas a extranjeros) en la universidad ca' foscari en venecia y es consultor para los exámenes de italiano como lengua extranjera en la escuela secundaria de i grado en el area pedagógica de bolzano. sus líneas de investigación incluyen la evaluación y testing, gifted y bilingüismo precoz. es autora de ensayos y dos monografías: valutare le lingue straniere a scuola. dalla teoria alla pratica (edizioni cà foscari, 2014) e valutare una lingua straniera: le certificazioni europee (cafoscarina, 2009).   microsoft word 7.2 editorial_30-oct-2020.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  7,  issue  2,  october  2020,  1–8   issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.12.229     www.e-­‐journall.org       © di ferrante 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.     six  years  of  e-­‐journall:  reflections  on  open  access,  international,   multilingual  applied  linguistics  publishing1     laura  di  ferrante    sapienza università di roma     katie  a.  bernstein   arizona  state  university     1.  introduction the  phonograph,   the  photograph,   the   telescope,   the  microscope,   the   thermometer,   the  air   gun,   the   liquefaction  of  oxygen,  the  discovery  of  planet  neptune,  and  centrifugal  pumps  are  among  148  inventions  and   discoveries  described  in  a  1922  scholarly  article  as  “made  independently  by  two  or  more  persons”  (ogburn  &   thomas,  1922,  p.  93).  at  a  time  when  the  internet  was  still  a   long  way  off,  people  who  were  geographically   distant  were  unknowingly  seeking  answers  to  similar  questions.  nearly  a  century  later,  even  with  the  advent   of  the  internet  and  online  academic  publishing,  e-­‐journall  was  founded  in  response  to  a  similar  scenario.  as   scholars   coming   from   spain   and   italy   who   were   working   in   the   united   states,   the   founding   editors   saw   repeatedly   that   while   scholars   in   the   united   states   were   frequently   exploring   the   same   issues   as   their   european  counterparts,  the  solutions,  ideas,  and  theories  developed  in  one  country  often  did  not  seem  to  be   known  in  the  others.  they  realized  that  online  access,  even  free  online  access,  may  not  be  enough,  and  that   there  was  a  need  for  a  journal  that  was  explicitly  multilingual  and  international.   e-­‐journall,  euroamerican   journal   of   applied   linguistics   and   languages  published   its   first   issue   in   november   2014.   the   journal   was   meant   to   be   a   bridge:   between   scholars   working   in   europe   and   the   americas;  between  scholars  writing  in  english,  italian,  and  spanish;  and  between  scholars  publishing  in  the   journal   and   researchers   and   language   teachers   across   the  world  with   or  without   university-­‐paid   access   to   expensive   journal   subscriptions.   the   journal   was   founded,   therefore,   on   three   pillars:   internationalism,   multilingualism,  and  open  access.     in  this  reflection,  written  at  the  end  of  our  sixth  year  as  a  journal—and  with  the  release  of  our  12th   issue  and  97th  article—we  look  back  on  the  last  six  years,  taking  stock  of  how  well  we  have  lived  up  to  our   founding  principles,  and  we  look  ahead  to  the  journal’s  next  six  years. 2.  2020:  a  year  of  change this  year  has  been  a  year  of  transformation,  both  inside  and  outside  the  journal.  in  spring  2020,  one   of  our  founding  editors,  elisa  gironzetti,  stepped  down  as  co-­‐editor-­‐in-­‐chief.  former  associate  editor,  katie   bernstein,  who  has  been  with  the  journal  since  its   founding,  became  the  new  co-­‐editor-­‐in-­‐chief,  along  with   founding   editor   and   current   co-­‐editor-­‐in-­‐chief,   laura   di   ferrante.   additionally,   emily   linares,   former   coordinator  of  the  english  proofreading  team,  became  our  new  associate  editor.  our  proofreading  teams  also   each   have   a   new   coordinator:   angélica   amezcua   (arizona   state   university)   for   spanish,   cinzia   giglioni   (sapienza  università  di  roma)   for   italian,   and  elyse  ritchey   (national  university  of   ireland,  maynooth)   for   english.  valentina  riso  (james  madison  university),  who  has  been  with  us  since  2015,  stays  on  as  coordinator   of  the  translation  team. this  year’s   small,   internal   revolutions  within   the   journal  occurred   in   tandem  with  a  huge,  external   one:  the  covid-­‐19  pandemic,  which  has  presented  myriad  novel  problems,  but  also  novel  possibilities  in  how   we   work,   how   we   communicate,   and   how   we   share   information.   this   spring,   international   organizations   called  for  open  access  to  scientific  information,  citing  the  free  exchange  of  scientific  knowledge  as  critical  in   the  face  of  the  worldwide  pandemic:                                                                                                                           1   the   two   authors   jointly   constructed   the   ideas   and   writing   in   this   the   article   together   in   a   google   doc,   sometimes   simultaneously,  through  conversation  and  collaboration  over  time,  and  it  is  not  possible  to  attribute  any  of  the  words  or   ideas  herein  to  a  single  author.   http://www.e-journall.org di  ferrante  &  bernstein   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  1–8 2   scientific  communication,  research  and  data  offer  key  building  blocks  to  create  new  scientific   knowledge.  it  is  important  to  acknowledge  that  the  creation  of  new  scientific  knowledge  to   deal  with   the   emergency   risk  management   depends   on   creating  an   open   and   level   playing   field  and  providing  unconditional  access  and  sharing  of  scientific  contents,  technologies  and   processes   to   the   entire   scientific   community   from  developed   and   developing   countries   alike.   (unesco,  2020;  italics  ours) indeed,  it  was  truly  remarkable  to  witness  the  shift  around  the  world,  as  the  field  of  medicine  sought   to  share  research  outcomes  related   to  covid-­‐19   in  ways   that  were  as   timely,  as  broad,  and  as  accessible  as   possible  (grove,  2020).  researchers  disseminated  their  work,  pre-­‐peer  review,  on  institutional  and  personal   websites,  and  journals  completed  external  review  for  covid-­‐related  work  in  mere  days  (palayew  et  al.,  2020).   perhaps  most  significantly,  journals  that  typically  publish  behind  paywalls,  including  the  new  english  journal   of  medicine,  continue  to  make  all  research  on  covid-­‐19  openly  accessible  to  anyone  (nejm,  n.d.).     while   these   changes   have   come   in   response   to   covid-­‐19,   in   our   opinion,   they   can   and   should   be   applied   all   disciplines,   out   of   recognition   that,   once   produced,   knowledge   should   not   be   conceived   of   as   “proprietary,”  but  as  a  fundamental,  easily  and  freely  accessible  resource  for  all.   3.  e-­‐journall  as  open  access the   sudden,   global,   open   sharing   of   information   around   covid-­‐19   coincides  with   a   longer,   slower,   simmering  conversation  about  open  access  that  began  in  1990s  when  physicist,  paul  gisparg,  developed  the   first  open-­‐access  archive,  arxiv  (originally  xxxarchivelanl;  see  delle  donne,  2010;  ginsparg,  2011;  moore,   2017).   the   open   access  movement   has   since   gained  momentum   across   disciplines.   in   2019,   in   one   of   the   strongest  institutional  pushes  for  open  access  publishing  to  date,  the  university  of  california  (uc)  system— the  world’s   largest  public  university  system—cut  ties  with  elsevier,   the  world’s   largest  academic  publisher,   when  elsevier  failed  to  find  an  avenue  to  make  all  uc-­‐produced  research  published  in  its  journals  open  access   without  charging  researchers  an  additional  fee  (uc  office  of  the  president,  2019).  this  idea,  of  research  that  is   both  free  to  consume  and  free  to  publish,  is  central  to  e-­‐journall’s  mission. from   its   inception,   e-­‐journall   was   conceived   of   as   an   open   access   journal.   its   goal   was   to  make   quality  applied  linguistics  research  available  around  the  world,  regardless  of  a  region’s  political  and  economic   power.  in  our  sixth  year  of  full,  unconditional  open  access  publishing—that  is,  open  access  publishing  that  is   free   for   readers  and   free   for  authors—we  at  e-­‐journall   can  say  we  have  met  our   first  goal  handily.  we’ve   fielded  227  submissions,   facilitated  hundreds  of  peer  reviews,  published  12   issues  and  97  articles/reviews,   and   achieved   classe   a   status   in   italy,2   all   without   charging   authors   or   readers   a   cent.   every   issue   of   e-­‐ journall  is  freely  available  immediately  on  publication  and  remains  freely  available  for  anyone,  anywhere  to   read  and  download. importantly,  open  access  means  that  language  teachers  across  the  world  without  institutional  access   to  paid  journals  can  read  e-­‐journall’s  content,  filling  one  of  many  research-­‐to-­‐practice  gaps  (see  for  example   buysse,  sparkman,  &  wesley,  2003;  carnine,  1997;  mcintyre,  2005).  with  this  practitioner  audience  in  mind,   we  are  proactive   in  encouraging  submissions  of  applied,   classroom-­‐based  research.  we  also  ensure   that  all   articles   include   implications   for   teaching   and   learning   and   that   they   comprise   applied   content,   including   teachers’   and   learners’   voices,   educational   practice   examples,   and   appendices   with   useful   material   for   research   reduplication.   bringing   together  writing-­‐for-­‐academic   purposes   and  writing-­‐for-­‐teaching/learning   purposes  has  not  always  been  simple,  but  we  believe  that  it  is  important  that  academic  research  paves  a  way   towards   improved   teaching   practice.   as   buysse   et   al.   (2003)   wrote,   “[t]he   idea   that   practitioners   and   researchers   should  work   together   to   co-­‐construct   knowledge   as   part   of   a   common   enterprise,   rather   than   through  separate  endeavors,  could  have  far-­‐reaching  consequences  for  connecting  what  we  know  with  what   we   do   in   education”   (p.   275).   looking   forward,   we   will   continue   to   encourage   the   free   exchange   of   approaches  and  expertise  between  researchers  and  practitioners. yet,  maintaining   an   open   access,   independently-­‐operated   journal   is   hardly   free.   it   depends   on   the   unpaid,   voluntary   work   of   a   small   army   of   editors,   proofreaders,   translators,   and   peer   reviewers,   who   together   ensure   the   high   quality   of   the   articles   we   publish   and   without   whom   this   journal   would   not   be   possible.   while   the   authors,   deservedly,   receive   credit   for   their   research,   the   final   products   have   been                                                                                                                             2  a  status  indicating  a  research  journal  of  the  highest  caliber.  for  more,  see  footnote  3.   editorial:  six  years  of  e-­‐journall   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  1–8 3   touched  by  many  hands.  editors  and  peer  reviewers  offer  their  expertise  to  help  authors  in  the  production  of   original   and   scientifically-­‐grounded   knowledge.   proofreaders   allow   for   this   knowledge   to   be   presented   so   that   it   can   be   enjoyed   by   as  many   people   as   possible,   through   ensuring   clear   language,   writing   style,   and   rhetorical   structure,  along  with  accurate   references,  accessible   figures,   and  adherence   to  conventions  of  an   academic  genre.  finally,  the  translation  team  makes  each  author’s  abstract  and  biographical  note  accessible   across  all  three  of  the  journal’s  working  languages.  in  short,  the  articles  that  are  accessible  to  the  world  are   quite  different   from   those   that  were   first   submitted.  the  many  people  who  work  on  e-­‐journall  with   care,   professionalism,   and   sometimes   the   urgency   of   strictly   approaching   deadlines   all   work   toward   one   end:   participating   in   the   process   of   collective   construction   of   knowledge   and   its   dissemination.   the   research   published  by  e-­‐journall  is  only  openly  accessible  thanks  to  these  monumental  collective  efforts. 4.  e-­‐journall  as  multilingual to  achieve  our   second  goal—of   a  multilingual   publication—we    publish   articles   in  english,   italian,   and  spanish.  these  languages  are  the  three  working  languages  of  the  countries  whose  research  communities   the   editors   initially   sought   to   bridge,   as   well   as   the   three   working   languages   of   the   founding   editors   themselves.   importantly,   including   all   three   languages   in   one   journal   opens   connections   across   research   communities  who  might  not  otherwise  interact.     in  addition  to  publishing  articles   in  all   three   languages,  we  also  provide  translations  of  each  article   abstract  and  author  biographical  note  in  all  three  languages.  we  issue  calls  for  papers  in  all  three  languages,   we   have   a   website   and   submission   information   in   all   three   languages,   and   we   offer   communication   with   authors  and  reviewers  in  all  three  languages.  finally,  we  also  intentionally  curate  individual  issues  to  contain   articles  or  reviews  in  all  three  languages  whenever  possible.     this  curating  includes  encouraging  authors  to  write  book  reviews  in  a  language  different  from  that  of   the  book  under  review.  the  day  after  the  publication  of  one  such  review  (a  review  published  in  spanish  about   a  book  written  in  english),  we  received  an  email  from  one  of  the  editors  of  the  book: congratulations   on   the   publication   of   your   e-­‐journall,   which   i   have   just   received   notification  of.  to  my  surprise,   the  edition   includes  a  review  of  a  recent  book  which  i  have   co-­‐edited   .   .   .   it’s   very   pleasing   to   see   this   contribution   -­‐   especially   since   it’s   written   in   spanish  and  will  therefore  offer  the  possibility  of  reaching  a  wider  audience. in   order   for   all   of   these   intentionally  multilingual   practices   to   function,   it   is   necessary   not   only   to   have  proofreading  teams  in  each  language,  but  to  have  an  extensive  translation  team,  as  well  as  editors  who   can,  at  minimum,  read  at  an  academic  level  in  all  three  languages.    these   initiatives   are   an   attempt,   not   only   to   bridge   research   communities,   but   to   reduce   the   imbalance   between   english,   which   is   largely   acknowledged   as   the   dominant   language   of   science   (see   for   example,   altbach,   2004;   bocanegra-­‐valle,   2014;   tardy,   2004)   and   italian   and   spanish.   (for   an   extended   discussion  of  these  efforts,  see  di  ferrante,  bernstein,  &  gironzetti,  2019).   so,   how   have   we   done?   since   our   first   issue,   published   in   november   2014,   we   received   227   submissions,  97  of  which  have  been  published  (63  articles  and  34  book  or  technology  reviews).  of  these,  39   articles  and  15  book  reviews  were  written  in  english,  14  articles  and  9  book  reviews  in  italian,  and  8  articles   and  11  book  reviews  in  spanish.  one  article,  part  of  a  special  issue  on  translanguaging,  was  (fittingly)  written   translingually  (english/spanish).  these  numbers  tell  us  that,  on  average,  we  publish  roughly  three  full-­‐length   articles  per  issue  in  english,  two  in  italian,  and  slightly  less  than  one  in  spanish.  in  other  words,  despite  our   efforts,   english   continues   to   dominate   compared   to   the   other   two   languages.   and   as  we   note   in   our   2019   article  on  e-­‐journall’s  multilingual  publishing  practices  (di  ferrante  et  al.),  many  of  our  authors  who  publish   in  english,  work   in   italian  or   spanish-­‐speaking   contexts   and  could   have  published   in   one  of   our   other   two   working   languages.  as   this  observation  suggests,   for  many  scholars,   the  push   to  publish   in  english  remains   strong.  however,  considering  the  number  of  people  worldwide  who  speak  each  of  e-­‐journall’s   languages,   as  well   as   the   size  of   each   language’s   research   community,   italian   is   actually  quite  well-­‐represented   in   the   journal.   this   may   be   due   to   the   presence   of   editorial   board   members   who   are   affiliated   with   italian   universities  and  who  function  as  a  driving  force  in  attracting  authors  from  their  networks  to  e-­‐journall.   in   addition,  in  2018,  the  journal  was  awarded  classe  a  status  by  the  italian  national  agency  for  the  evaluation  of   di  ferrante  &  bernstein   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  1–8 4   the  university  and  research  (anvur).3  since  then,  we  have  observed  a  steady  increase  in  italian  readership,   as  well   as   in   submissions   by   scholars   affiliated  with   italian   universities.4   yet,   tellingly,   amidst   pressure   to   publish  in  english,  there  has  not  been  a  substantial  change  in  the  number  of  publications  written  in  italian.   publications  in  spanish  are  the  least  represented  in  the  journal  and  this  may  be  partly  due  to  the  fact   that  much  of   the  applied   linguistics  scholarship  on  spanish  (but  not  in  spanish)   is  carried  out   in  the  united   states,  where  many  experts  in  spanish  applied  linguistics  publish  in  english.  our  issue  2.2,  a  special  issue  on   spanish  as  a  heritage  language,  clearly  exemplifies   this   tendency.  although   the   topic  was  spanish   learning   and  authors  were  invited  to  write  the  articles  in  any  of  the  three  working  languages  of  the  journal,  8  out  of  9   elected  to  write  their  articles  and  book  reviews  in  english.  table  1  illustrates  these  trends. table 1 languages of the articles and book reviews published in e-journall published issues articles reviews total english italian spanish translingual english italian spanish 1.1 (2014) 3 3 1 0 0 0 1 8 2.1 (2015) 3 1 0 0 3 2 1 10 2.2* (2015) 5 0 1 0 3 0 0 9 3.1 (2016) 1 2 1 0 1 1 1 7 3.2* (2016) 4 0 0 0 3 0 0 7 4.1 (2017) 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 6 4.2* (2017) 2 3 1 0 0 2 0 8 5.1 (2018) 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 6 5.2* (2018) 6 0 0 1 0 2 2 11 6.1 (2019) 3 1 0 0 2 0 1 7 7.1* (2020) 6 1 1 0 0 1 1 10 7.2 (2020) 3 2 0 0 2 0 1 8 total 39 14 8 1 15 9 11 97 * = special issue in   our   next   six   years,   therefore,   a  major   goal   is   to   encourage   the   submission   of   spanish-­‐language   articles.  additionally,  to  date,  most  of  our  authors  who  publish  in  spanish  have  been  based  in  spain,  as  have   the  majority   of   our   spanish-­‐language   editorial   board  members   and  members   of   the   spanish   proofreading                                                                                                                             3   in   order   to   access   the   next   step   of   their   careers,   university   professors   in   italy   need   to   earn   the   national   scientific   habilitation   (asn   -­‐   abilitazione   scientifica   nazionale);   for   example,   ricercatori   and   ricercatrici   (assistant   professors)   need   to   earn   the   habilitation   to   professore   associato   as   part   of   the   process   of   becoming   associate   professors.   a   five-­‐ member   committee   of   full   professors   evaluates   the   curriculum   and   quality   of   publications   of   each   candidate   for   habilitation   (see  miur,   n.d.).  however,   in   order   to   be   evaluated,   each   candidate,   depending   on   the   discipline   sector   of   his/her   teaching   and   research   (settore   scientifico   disciplinare,   ssd)   must   produce   a   minimum   fixed   number   of   publications,  which  are  divided  into  three  categories:  number  of  monographs,  number  of  articles/book  chapters  etc.,  and   number  of  articles  published  in  class  a  journals.  publications  in  class  a  journals  are  then  a  mandatory  requirement  for   scholars  who  seek  career  advancement.  regulations  and  criteria  for  the  classification  of  academic  journals  can  be  found  at   this   link:   https://www.anvur.it/attivita/classificazione-­‐delle-­‐riviste/classificazione-­‐delle-­‐riviste-­‐ai-­‐fini-­‐dellabilitazione-­‐ scientifica-­‐nazionale/regolamento-­‐per-­‐la-­‐classificazione-­‐delle-­‐riviste-­‐nelle-­‐aree-­‐non-­‐bibliometriche/   4  before  the  anvur  award  (up  to  issue  5.2)  the  average  number  of  authors  affiliated  with  italian  universities  was  2.5  per   issue.  after  the  anvur  award,  the  number  increased  to  3.6.   editorial:  six  years  of  e-­‐journall   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  1–8 5   team.  to  this  end,  we  are  working  to  expand  both  our  editorial  board  and  our  proofreading  team  to  include   spanish-­‐language   scholars   whose   networks   are   centered   in   the   americas   and   who   speak   and   write   non-­‐ peninsular   varieties   of   spanish.   finally,  we   are   carefully   considering  ways   to   encourage  more   translingual   work,   that   is,   scholarship   that   translanguages   across   (and   beyond!)   our   working   languages.   these   considerations  are  closely  related  to  the  third  pillar  on  which  we  founded  e-­‐journall,  internationalism. 5.  e-­‐journall  as  international we  have  sought  to  uphold  internationalism  not  only  in  the  authors  and  in  the  content  of  the  journal,   but   also   in   our   editorial   board,   our   internal   teams,   our   readers,   and   our   explicit   attention   to   publication   norms  and  criteria  in  both  europe  and  the  us.  in  our  view,  internationalism  has  been  a  tool  to  bring  together   multiple   voices   from   as   many   countries   as   possible.   in   order   to   achieve   this   goal,   we   adopted   several   strategies.   one   approach   consisted   of   establishing   an   international   board   with   scholars   and   practitioners   affiliated  with  a  wide  range  of  institutions.  six  years  in,  our  board  is  made  up  of  35  scholars:  18  from  europe   (13   from   italia,   4   from  españa,   1   from  england),   15   from   the  united   states,   and   two   from  américa   do   sul   (brasil).  other   strategies  we  used   to   foster   internationalization   comprise   the  dissemination  of  our   calls   for   papers   in  as  many  venues  as  possible  and  the  selection  of  at   least  one  reviewer  per  article   from  a  different   country  than  the  authors  of  the  article.  this  latter  choice  has  proven  particularly  fruitful,  as  experts  who  work   in   different   cultural   and   scholarly   contexts   often   present   authors  with   alternative   perspectives,   additional   bibliographic   material,   and   novel   insights.   additionally,   as   shown   in   table   2,   our   actions   to   foster   internationalization  have  resulted  in  authors  from  a  range  of  locations.  the  128  authors  who  have  published   in  e-­‐journall  since  its  founding  live  and  work  in  18  countries,  spread  across  multiple  continents.   table 2 authors’ affiliations in e-journall by issue country issue total % total 1.1 2.1 2.2* 3.1 3.2* 4.1 4.2* 5.1 5.2* 6.1° 7.1* 7.2 united states 8 2 13 2 4 1 3 8 2 3 46 35,94% italy 3 6 3,5 1 2 5 2 3 2 6 33,5 26,17% spain 2 2 1 2 3 3 5 18 14,06% england 1 2 1 3 7 5,47% brazil 0,5 1 2 3,5 2,73% netherlands 1 2 3 2,34% australia 1 1 0,5 2,5 1,95% germany 2 2 1,56% iran 2 2 1,56% israel 2 2 1,56% japan 1 1 2 1,56% switzerland 1 1 2 1,56% latvia 1 1 0,78% mexico 1 1 0,78% finland 1 1 0,78% sweden 1 1 0,78% vietnam 0,5 0,5 0,39% all 15 12 13 9 7 5 10 7 17 9 12 12 128 100% note. ,5 represents authors with joint affiliation in two institutions in two different countries. * = special issue ° = in 2019, to facilitate a shift in publication schedule from summer/winter to spring/fall, we published one issue. di  ferrante  &  bernstein   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  1–8 6   because   the   three  working   languages   of   the   journal   are   english,   italian,   and   spanish,   most   of   the   authors   are   from   countries   where   these   languages   are   common—the   united   states,   italy,   and   spain,   in   addition   to   england,   mexico,   and   australia.   but   we,   proudly,   have   also   published   work   by   authors   from   vietnam,  israel,  iran,  germany,  finland,  switzerland,  sweden,  the  netherlands,  latvia,  brazil,  and  japan.   we  see  similar  trends  among  our  readers.  based  on  our  website  traffic  (see  table  3),  while  around   45%  of   the  users  of  our  website  (www.e-­‐journall.org)  are   from  the  united  states,  england,   italy,  and  spain,   the   journal   has   attracted   readers   from   130   different   countries   in   very   diverse   geographical   areas:   quite   surprisingly,  after  the  united  states,  most  of  e-­‐journall’s  readers  are  in  russia.  moreover,  among  the  top  10   countries  with  greatest  e-­‐journall  readership,  we  find  five  countries  whose  official  languages  do  not  coincide   with   those   of   our   journal:   two   asian   countries,   china   and   japan,   two   european   countries,   france   and   germany,  and  one  south  american,  brazil.  this  may  suggest  that  our  efforts  to  disseminate  research  beyond   our  network  and  beyond  our   linguistic   limits  are  somehow  succeeding.  on   the  downside,  we  seem  to  have   reached  few  readers  in  other  countries  where  italian,  spanish,  or  english  are  the  officially  spoken  languages;   for  example  mexico  ranks  11th,  canada,  15th,  and  australia,  19th. table 3 fifteen most frequent location of access for e-journall.org users since november 2014, to (source: google analytics, 20 october 2020) country number of users percentage of total united states 2719 22,06% russia 1812 14,70% italy 1296 10,52% not set* 1079 8,76% spain 753 6,11% united kingdom 528 4,28% brazil 461 3,74% france 459 3,72% china 279 2,26% germany 232 1,88% japan 165 1,34% mexico 133 1,08% kyrgyzstan 132 1,07% netherlands 129 1,05% india 128 1,04% canada 115 0,93% note: * = not set indicates those visitors to the websites whose geographical location was not recorded with  regard  then  to  our  original  goal  of  bridging  research  in  europe  and  the  americas,  we  feel  that   our  mission  has  been,   and   continues   to  be,   accomplished.   in  our  next   six   years,  we  have   set   a  new  goal   of   increasing  submissions  by  authors  from  spanish-­‐speaking  countries  beyond  spain  and  the  united  states,  as   well  as  continuing  to  expand  our  reach  to  more  authors,    readers,  reviewers,  and  guest  editors  beyond  north   america  and  europe.   editorial:  six  years  of  e-­‐journall   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  1–8 7   6.  conclusion we  believe  that  e-­‐journall  supports  an  important  idea  for  science  dissemination  today:  science  for   all,   or   the   conviction   that   knowledge   should   be   available   to   everybody   around   the   world   and   should   be   unconditionally  free.  nurturing  this  idea,  however,  comes  at  a  cost,  in  terms  of  time  and  energy  spent—time   and  energy  spent  unpaid—by  all  of  the  many  members  of  the  e-­‐journall  team,  from  editors  to  proofreaders   to   reviewers,  with   career  payoffs   that  are  debatable   in   the   face  of   the  amount  of   effort  we  all  put   into   this   multilingual,  international  collaboration.  yet,  we  persist,  because  we  believe  in  this  work. we  conclude   this   state-­‐of-­‐the-­‐journal   editorial,   therefore,  with   our   gratitude   to   all   the  people  who   make   this   journal   possible.   thank   you   to   our   proofreaders,   our   translators,   our   team   coordinators,   our   editorial  board,   and  our   reviewers   for  your   contributions   to   this 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linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 2, december 2023, pp. 78-94 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.2.2757 www.e-journall.org © doerr 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. writing with “academic style”: theoretical considerations and preliminary findings on the new frontiers of eap roxanne barbara doerr università degli studi di brescia received 20 april 2023; accepted after revisions 14 october 2023 abstract en research in english for academic purposes (eap) has increased in terms of teaching and learning forms, methods and materials over the past decades. the globalisation of knowledge sharing and communication within the academic community, and the inclusion of marginalised higher education and research institutions have resulted in an ongoing evolution of many eap-related terms. nevertheless, underexplored areas of eap research and practice remain, including that of “academic style”, a necessary integration of eap and academic writing teaching and practice. the study presents a pilot study consisting in the detailed qualitative analysis of a collection of abstracts from a phd seminar on academic style (self)proofreading. by employing a methodological framework combining stylistics, error analysis, and the categorisation of specific “areas of interest”, the pilot study highlights relevant stylistic errors in academic writing and draws conclusions on the requirements and implications of introducing academic style to eap. key words: academic style proofreading, english for academic purposes (eap), stylistics, error analysis, academic writing es la investigación en inglés con fines académicos (eap por sus siglas en inglés) ha aumentado en cuanto a formas, métodos y materiales de enseñanza y aprendizaje en las últimas décadas. la globalización del intercambio de conocimientos y la comunicación dentro de la comunidad académica, así como la inclusión de instituciones de enseñanza superior e investigación marginadas, han dado lugar a una evolución continua de muchos términos relacionados con el eap. sin embargo, aún quedan áreas poco exploradas de la investigación y la práctica del eap, incluida la del “estilo académico”, una integración necesaria del eap y de la enseñanza y la práctica de la escritura académica. el estudio presenta un estudio piloto consistente en el análisis cualitativo detallado de una colección de resúmenes de un seminario de doctorado sobre (auto)corrección de estilo académico. mediante el empleo de un marco metodológico que combina la estilística, el análisis de errores, el estudio piloto pone de relieve errores estilísticos relevantes de la escritura académica y extrae inclusiones sobre los requisitos y las implicaciones de la introducción del estilo académico de la eap. palabras claves: corrección de estilo académico, inglés con fines académicos (eap), estilística, análisis de errores, escritura académica it negli ultimi decenni la ricerca sull'inglese per scopi accademici (eap, sigla in inglese) si è estesa relativamente a forme, metodi e materiali di insegnamento e apprendimento.. la globalizzazione della condivisione delle conoscenze e della comunicazione all'interno della comunità accademica, nonché l'inclusione di istituti di istruzione superiore e di ricerca marginati hanno portato a una continua evoluzione di molti termini relativi all’eap. tuttavia, esistono aree ancora poco esplorate della ricerca e della pratica eap, tra cui quella dello "stile accademico", quale necessaria integrazione dell'insegnamento e della pratica della scrittura eap e accademica. lo studio presenta una ricerca pilota che consiste nell'analisi qualitativa dettagliata di una raccolta di abstract di un seminario di dottorato sulla (auto)correzione dello stile accademico. utilizzando un quadro metodologico che combina la stilistica, l'analisi degli errori e la categorizzazione di specifiche "aree di interesse", lo studio evidenzia gli errori stilistici rilevanti nella scrittura accademica e trae conclusioni sui requisiti e le implicazioni dell'introduzione dello stile accademico nell'eap. parole chiave: revisione dello stile accademico, inglese per scopi specifici (eap), stilistica, analisi degli errori, scrittura accademica  roxanne barbara doerr, università degli studi di brescia roxanne.doerr@unibs.it http://www.e-journall.org/ writing with “academic style” e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 79 1. introduction: the ongoing evolution and revolution of eap the use of and research in english for academic purposes (eap) have increased over the past decades in terms of teaching and learning forms, methods and materials. in fact, the globalisation of knowledge sharing and communication has resulted in the expansion of the academic community, which increasingly includes members of higher education and research institutions based in hitherto marginalised countries. this, in turn, has resulted in an extraordinary expansion of the users and uses of eap, as well as an ongoing evolution of many commonly known and employed terms. these changes in categories and definitions are more specialised and inclusive, starting with eap itself, which was conceived and remains one of the applicative paths of esp (english for specific purposes). in fact, due to the multiplication of “academic englishes” and their degree of specificity stemming from the development of highly specialised and/or hybrid academic fields of enquiry and research, the acronym eap has branched out into egap (english for general academic purposes) and esap (english for specific academic purposes). the former deals with the academic language that is necessary to communicate in all oral and written academic fields and shared genres (e.g. dissertation, abstract, conference, research paper, research grant). esap, on the other hand, is focused on the specialised genres that are common among students and academics conducting theoretical or applicative research and/or knowledge dissemination in a specific field (e.g. economics, medicine, science, engineering). as a result, esap courses are more likely to be based on the practical and realistic needs and materials of specific degree courses. moreover, these branches of english often overlap, as students and specialists encounter both technical and academic genres of english, and it is often assumed that a solid basis of egap is preliminary to esap courses and skills. the growth of esap is thus aligned with espp (english for scientific and professional purposes), which is the english variation of languages for specific and professional purposes, and typical of more applicative fields of research. as such, it is based on the learners’ real needs and on the collection and analysis of empirical material similar to that encountered in professional and academic contexts (zanola, 2023). another fundamental (r)evolution in the international academic community is the ongoing spread of the use of the term “eal (english as an additional language) writer/learner” (holliday, 2005; luo & hyland, 2019) in place of the more traditional “english native speaker/non-native speaker” dichotomy that is still employed in materials and language learning/teaching discourse. this shift entails many subtle implications that have been questioned in light of today’s increasingly plurilingual academic discourse community, regardless of discipline or rank. first and foremost, while the term “non-native speaker” identifies the person based on an absence of linguistic competence comparable to that of a native speaker , the “additional” component of the eal acronym underlines the enriched plurilingual competence that the academic draws on in expressing his or her lines of thought and research. this is especially important, as english is often not even the l2 or l3 of many academics. flowerdew and habibie even go to the extent of claiming that “eal writers may be as equally proficient in english as their anglophone counterparts, or even better” (2022, p. 18). secondly, the term “non-native speaker” explicitly refers to only one skill (i.e. speaking) and, while its use has come to encompass written contexts, this seems to limit the competence of the learner. in contrast, the choice of “eal writer/learner” brings the focus back to writing in the former case, which was the original aim of eap and the most requested competence among eal academics. this term further expands its scope to include all language skills in the latter case. considering that the academic community now makes extensive use of multimodal and online means of communication and dissemination, it is fitting that the most populated category of users of english in academic contexts be referred to from a more comprehensive and evolutionary perspective. one final but extremely significant ongoing form of development of eap must be addressed before proceeding as it constitutes the ultimate aim of egap and esap courses and is the primary focus of the present paper and pilot study. it is the field of research of erpp (english for research publication purposes) (englander & cocoran, 2019; flowerdew & habibie, 2022) that dates back to 2008 (cargill & burgess) and starts from the premise that academic english is taking on an increasingly international and intercultural dimension as the lingua franca of research and dissemination. it is focused on the geopolitical and international relevance of knowledge exchange, and on the consequences of academic language review and evaluation for eal academics. having provided a theoretical excursus into the current state of the art of eap and its emerging subdivisions, the study will proceed to highlight a gap in eap training and research that is affecting the scholarly success of eal academics all over the world and impacting their careers and the international standing of their institutions. this gap consists in “academic style”, and has almost always been considered from the perspective of english l1 users (hayot, 2014; hopkins & reid, 2018; sword 2012; tusting et al., 2019). in fact, many eap manuals dedicate a section to “academic style” but this usually refers to instructions on the appropriate level doerr e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 80 of formality and common sensical rules aimed at students (usually at an undergraduate level) whose first language is english, and are therefore linguistically competent, but lack knowledge and awareness of the underlying rules of etiquette of academic writing and communication within the academic discourse community. however, such definitions and teaching of “academic style” as a holistic shaping of academic writing deviates from another, and more specific, conception of “academic style”. here, the second term is related to “stylistics” and the flow of phrases and sentences and their overall coherence, as viewed through the lens of linguistics and language pedagogy. this form of academic style and its intercultural and publication implications for academics whose l1 is not english will be explored in the next section. following this, a brief but insightful pilot study applying previous research on academic style, and more precisely on “academic style (self)proofreading”, to conduct a two-part seminar for phd students, is presented. the aim of the seminar was to make these students, who are at the ideal stage for learning and training their academic writing at all levels, aware of the relevance of academic style and teach them to recognise and “treat” it in their own writing and that of others. the term “treat” is used on purpose here as it is in error analysis instead of “correct” or “revise”, which are related to “mistakes”. it indicates an adjustment, or proposed adjustment, of a stylistic error that is not incorrect but rather unaligned with the academic community’s expectations. the findings of the second and more applicative part of the seminar are illustrated and analysed through stylistics (burke, 2014; jeffries & mcintyre, 2010; simpson, 2004, 2014) and error analysis (amiri & puteh 2017; corder, 1981; james, 1998;), and the paper concludes with reflections on broader implications of the study and on what can and should be done from this point on to better understand and integrate the dimension of academic style into eap courses and training for various categories of users. 2. background: academic style as the new dimension of eap teaching and learning the increasing importance of eap higher education courses may be traced back to a number of factors: the adoption of english as a lingua franca on a global level; greater expectations and requirements of quality writing and publications (belcher, 2007; bennett, 2014; bortolus, 2012); a more competitive academic job market founded on the almost century-old “publish or perish” precept (coolidge, 1932); an overall exponentially greater volume of publications following a more rapid rate in terms of peer review, proofreading and copyediting, thanks to online document formats, platforms and language revision services. the need for specialised eap materials, teaching and courses has grown accordingly (brown, 2000), but for the most part egap teaching continues to prevail due to limits in time and space, as well as economic and human resources. as a result, courses and workshops in academic writing are scarce, making them into intensive sessions in which “inculcated habits” (hayot, 2014, p. 8) and homogenous and consolidated patterns are proposed instead of opportunities to train academic writing skills, which are elusive and subjective. such a protocol has been fuelled by the conviction that university students only need “the basics” to learn the differences between general english and academic english, and that they would naturally acquire the language characterising their specific field of research through experience in writing for research and publishing, and reading the work of peers and experts. such a line of reasoning finds support in the fact that the ability to write acceptably in specialised academic writing has traditionally been linked more to expertise and experience rather than original linguistic competence. given the importance of publishing in english in international journals and volumes for career advancement, tenure and funding in various research fields, junior academics often face time constraints to develop expertise and improve their academic writing skills in english after completing their studies. consequently, it becomes crucial for them to have already acquired such competence prior to entering the international academic discourse community. therefore, like any other genre or form of writing, academic style should ideally be improved through consistent practice and feedback while studying. another concern arises from the limited opportunities for students to practice writing in their specific esap. in some countries, students may not engage in substantial writing until they are required to submit their dissertations or proposals such as abstracts, papers and research grants. at this stage, they are already expected to possess the ability to communicate effectively in academic english. this issue becomes even more pressing when considering that academic language is “no one’s mother tongue” (bourdieu et al., 1994, p. 8), highlighting the fact that proficiency in academic writing is not solely dependent on language competence and not exclusive to native speakers. moreover, in many countries, the only academic writing genres they practice are essays and final papers for courses, that constitute the sole basis, audience and grounds for evaluation (hayot,2014). these papers often deal with specific topics and course content (and therefore the knowledge of the field of study) and are thus evaluated based on ideas and argumentation rather than the language or style itself, as doing so would be seen as distracting and time consuming for the teachers and/or instructors who writing with “academic style” e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 81 have to correct the papers. however, this approach can be misleading compared to what junior academics will find when they officially enter the academic discourse community, as “style and language” (kapp, albertyne, & frick, 2011) actually constitute the main reason why papers – especially those written by english l2 or l3 academics – are rejected in the course of the peer review process. this finding underlines the importance of being well versed not only in academic english and its genres on a lexical, grammatical, and syntactic level, which ensure the explicitly required and indisputable linguistic accuracy, but also in academic style to align one’s writing with the expectations of a varied international academic audience. the role of style is indeed complex, as the word “style” is used to refer to vague stylesheets and guidelines for authors that are aimed at english l1 and eal writers alike to make their reading clearer for the readership, as has been observed in a study on the standards of journal submission guidelines and the examples it presents: authors are asked to make their manuscripts suitable for a heterogeneous readership — please use a clear style and avoid jargon’ [emphasis added]. style was also used in place of benchmarks, such as requesting authors improve ‘the standard and style of their writing’ or adhere to the ‘journal style’. (mckinley & rose 2018, p 8) it is commonly assumed that linguistic competence automatically implicates stylistic competence yet, as previously pointed out, the latter is more subtle and usually not openly dealt with in the classroom. it is therefore necessary for eap to be introduced and practiced in gradual and consistent stages, each of which provides more specific insight into the level of academic writing that is expected of them. after assessing the initial level of linguistic competence in general english and addressing any remaining problematic areas, egap should be introduced and exercised constantly and both in terms of content during non-language courses and of form through dedicated courses and training with feedback. upon verifying that the students have gained competence in communicating in an academic context in general, this could then evolve into esap courses and training, which will accompany the students’ ongoing learning of specific terms and concepts. at this stage, the focus is on refining specialised content in accordance with students’ level of preparation of and attention to detail in writing, and therefore to their academic style, which is a way of communicating in an academic setting where it is necessary to thoroughly communicate complex ideas in a manner that will make them clearly understandable and less likely to be challenged on the fundamental principles and purposes at their core (although these may be commented on or expanded) (doerr, 2023, p. 93) academic style is therefore a discursive level that is essential in promoting clear, readable and appropriate linguistic and discursive patterns necessary for junior academics to clearly express their research ideas and findings. by adhering to the accepted academic style, their work becomes more acceptable within the international academic community. awareness of academic style, the main intent of both the theoretical framework and pilot study of the present paper, is essential in enabling students and academics to identify and proofread their own work prior to submission, thereby reducing the possibility of receiving a “major revisions” or “reject” verdict on linguistic grounds. a further noteworthy factor to consider in the teaching of academic style is the author’s need to reconcile two different “mindstyles”, i.e. common values, aspirations, and associations of thought, when writing for an international academic readership. specifically, these consist in the author’s individual “mindstyle”, shaped by his or her personal reasoning and cultural background, and the collective “mindstyle” of the international academic community, which determines its communicative and discursive expectations (kaplan, 1980; see also clyne, 1993; galtung, 1981). the increasing internationalisation of academic publication and knowledge sharing has drawn more attention to the academic’s language and style. as a result, many journals and publishing houses’ editors and reviewers now foster a lower threshold of tolerance of “unfamiliar”, and therefore “deficient”, language and style. such an attitude, as studies in erpp have underlined, carries important geopolitical and socio-economic implications as rejecting or delaying publications could have detrimental effects on the careers of academics and the chances for departments and universities in peripheral countries to secure funding, awards and crucial research collaborations (flowerdew & habibie, 2022). often, these deviations from expected linguistic and stylistic patterns may be traced back to subtle and unconscious interferences of students’ and academics’ l1 and l2 (if their research field involves a language, literature or culture that is neither that of their first language nor english). these are therefore cases of clashes in “academic cultural mindstyles” that consist in a different form of academic writing that reflects the thought and discursive patterns characterising the academic language(s) the student or academic is more familiar with. like any other doerr e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 82 linguistic and discursive convention within a professional community these mindstyles are based on cohesion, uniformity and appropriateness to ensure that information and knowledge is properly conveyed and understood by its members. it is therefore important to enhance eap and academic writing courses with attention towards the use, knowledge and cultural aspects of academic style. for this reason, it is advisable for academic writing classes – and even more for hypothetical workshops or courses on academic style – to undergo a brief reconnaissance on their unique circumstances and needs, as will be outlined through the pilot study that will follow. in this manner in fact, it will be possible to adjust the balance between theoretical and practical content, as well as the amount of individual and group proofreading, and the possibility and quantity of feedback and/or follow-up one-on-one sessions. 3. pilot study: phd seminar on “academic style (self)proofreading” building on the aforementioned considerations on academic style, a two-part seminar on “academic style (self)proofreading” constituted the basis for the present pilot study. the seminar was delivered for two days to a heterogeneous class of phd students attending a doctorate course in linguistics, terminology and intercultural studies at a european university in january 2023. 3.1. dataset before the seminar, the author requested the students to submit a brief abstract that they had either written and submitted or (preferably) intended to submit to a call for papers or an application to a doctoral programme, so as to analyse and treat any possible errors in academic style before the course. this was done to gain a better understanding of the students’ starting stylistic competence and detect any relevant or common errors to be brought to attention during the second, practice-based part of the seminar. furthermore, since many of the abstracts were to be submitted, the students benefitted from receiving feedback on their writing and having the chance to treat their own work and that of others when providing feedback. the treatments were carried out by using the “tracking mode” and the treated abstracts were sent back to the students only after the seminar so as to allow them to engage in the activities without distractions or external influence. actively working on the errors in class and then receiving detailed feedback as a follow-up consolidated the practice that had been carried out in class. the first part of the seminar aimed to make the phd students aware of the current need to hone their academic style and overall writing skills to effectively convey their research and reduce the chances of their work being questioned on linguistic grounds. the intent of the second part of the seminar was to assess the most common stylistic errors made by phd students whose l2 or l3 is english, and their ability to recognise and treat errors in academic style. all the students were conducting research in the humanities, a field whose academic style is more varied and less regulated than that of other fields. this leads to a less standardised form of academic style that may result in either greater acceptance of the scholars’ subjective academic style (especially in literary and cultural disciplines) or, on the contrary, an even greater expectation that the authors will possess and employ the “proper” english academic style (doerr, 2023). the matter is even more confusing for junior academics when considering the previously mentioned vague style guidelines that are adopted by many international journals. furthermore, because research in the humanities is considered less “urgent” compared to fields such as medicine, science and economics, where the “timeliness” of the findings must be safeguarded (barroso et al., 2006; vines et al., 2014; welsh et al., 2018), scholars in the humanities may have to undergo longer peer review, editing and proofreading processes. the seminar was attended by 16 phd students, three of whom were in their first year of studies and therefore had not had the chance to attend the academic writing course that is offered by the doctoral programme during the second semester. these students submitted the abstract of their research project instead of that of a paper. the students were specialising in various disciplines, including english linguistics, english literature, english terminology, french linguistics, french literature, french lexicography, french terminology, pedagogy and sociology. the field of “linguistics” here refers to studies in critical discourse analysis and similar approaches, which were kept separate from “lexicography” and “terminology” due to their more discursive academic style. in terms of research fields, the students could therefore be divided as indicated in table 1 below: table 1 writing with “academic style” e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 83 students’ field of research literature linguistics lexicography/terminology sociology/pedagogy english 4 (2 first year) 1 1 0 french 1 3 3 0 non-language 0 0 0 3 (1 first year) total 5 4 4 3 such a variety in the disciplines illustrated in the table, despite them all pertaining to the field of humanities, leads to the expectation that there will be a difference in the type of common errors found in the abstracts. to the author’s knowledge, the extent or nature of such differences in academic style and related errors across disciplines has not been explored. this leads to the first two, closely related research questions: rq1: does the scholar’s discipline influence the most common types of errors in academic style? rq2: does the scholar’s use of english as the object of his/her research influence the most common type of errors in academic style? in the second part of the seminar, to enable the students to test their ability to detect and treat errors in academic style, four “areas of interest” indicating the four most common categories of errors in academic style (presented in subsection 3.3.3 of the present paper) were introduced, followed by a series of significant examples of erroneous sentences and phrases for each area of interest. the samples were taken both from the submitted abstracts and from a corpus of research papers (with their abstracts) written by academics in the humanities that the author had previously proofread, gathered and used for previous research. the samples from the students’ abstracts and from the scholars’ papers were rendered anonymous and mixed before presenting them to the students. this was done to allow the students to remain detached from the texts so they could feel free to treat and comment on them, and to motivate them by proving that the writing of established academics presented the same stylistic errors as theirs. the students observed the samples and pointed out the stylistic errors, motivated their choices and then described the impact that the error had on them as potential readers, before showing how they would treat the error. at that point, the author showed them the treatment that had been performed and therefore confirmed the students’ proposal or integrated it if they had proposed other equally feasible solutions. doing so underlined and validated the multiple manners in which one may improve one’s writing, and it gave the author the opportunity to point out differences between solutions and highlight particularly common “traps” and strategies. after the seminar, the students received the treatment of their abstracts via e-mail, so as to become aware of their most common stylistic errors and the ways in which the teachings and strategies of the seminar could be applied to their own academic writing. this leads to the third and fourth research questions: rq3: what were the strengths and limits of the seminar? rq4: what are the broader implications of including academic style in academic writing courses for students and teachers? the subsection that follows will present the aims and multifaceted methodological framework at the basis of the present study, along with the four “areas of interest” where most of the stylistic errors were made. such errors, consisting of anonymised samples of errors from the students’ abstracts, will be treated and analysed in detailed to address rq1 and rq2 in the discussion of the results. finally, the overall assessment of the seminar will be commented to answer rq3, followed by final considerations on future research and practice on academic style in response to rq4. 3.1. aims and methodological framework as previously mentioned, “academic style”, as it is intended in the present study, is different from that referred to in eap manuals, and anchored in erpp and academic language learning and teaching rather than in rules on appropriateness and formality. the study of style in linguistics however is complicated by the fact that style is a highly subjective and individual dimension of writing and self-expression, and that reviewers’ doerr e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 84 impressions and comments may be based on purely linguistic reasons and/or idiosyncratic preferences. the latter is demonstrated by the fact that even academics whose l1 is english may be asked to “revise the language and style” of their papers due to deviations from the reviewer’s expectations and preferences (who, paradoxically, may be an eal user). for this reason, research in academic style proofreading aims at establishing and gradually reworking a framework that is as aligned as possible with the majority of what international journals and publishers would accept. in this manner it reconciles the “objective needs” of the academic community that are “based on facts and may be introduced from the outside” with the learner’s “subjective needs” that “involve the personal perspective of the learner as an individual” (huhta, vogt, johnson, & tulkki, 2013, p. 12). at the same time, it necessarily acknowledges that there will always be a slight margin of deviation constituted by the subjectivity of the author’s writing and that of the reviewer’s reading. here, a “reviewer” is the person who is reviewing and checking the text in detail in view of its final publication, and therefore may include multiple figures such as peer reviewers, editors, and language professionals. therefore, it is necessary to gather data, resulting insight and feedback from experts in the fields of academic writing and its execution, teaching and assessing. the present study represents an attempt to build on previous research focused on research articles written by eal academics (doerr, 2023) and extend it by comparing it with the pilot study on abstracts written by eal phd students to verify whether the patterns in academic style and their errors are the same and therefore, through focused teaching and training during their doctoral studies, could be detected and untangled before the students officially start their research publishing activities. due to the scope and design of the present study, a qualitative descriptive approach aiming at identifying, categorising, describing, and explaining the stylistic errors (johnson & christensen, 2000) will be carried out. an applicative and experiential perspective like that adopted in the present pilot study will require a combined methodological framework that considers and analyses both the object of interest, i.e. academic style (subsection 3.3.1) and the means through which it can be ‘treated’ rather than corrected, i.e. error analysis (subsection 3.3.2), by focusing on “areas of interest” that will be introduced in subsection 3.3.3. 3.3.1. stylistics the methodology of stylistics (burke 2014; simpson, 2004, 2014; sorlin, 2014, 2018) is centred on the study of style, with which it is often confused. in fact, “style” is the unique manner in which one expresses oneself, while stylistics starts from the principle that “meaning in language comes about through the linguistic choices that a writer makes (either consciously or unconsciously)” (jeffries & mcintyre, 2010, p. 4). stylistics originated in literature and rhetoric and officially became a field of study only in the context of 1960’s and 1970’s russia formalism. it thus formulated its theoretical and methodological approaches based on concepts such as “defamiliarization”, by which perception of the ordinary is enhanced by making the familiar seem unusual and “foregrounding”, when the perceived norms of language are eluded through “parallelism” or “deviation” (jeffries & mcintyre, 2010). studying style therefore entails observing the patterns underlying what is considered “appropriate” and detecting any formal or functional deviations from such norms (mcintyre & walker, 2019). stylistics was then followed by a more contextualised phase and is well suited for exploring expressions of individuality and their underlying functions in relation to the specific and surrounding context. in fact, it “helps us to understand how texts are received and how readers and listeners react to those texts” (solly, 2016, p. 5) and therefore uses the preliminary empirical data it yields to understand an academic’s idiosyncratic mind style in academic writing and how it can be translated and aligned with the collective mind style. in doing so a stylistics-oriented approach can provide the necessary scaffolding to facilitate the individual progression of learners and new participants of professional communities toward discursive competence, and it can also be a useful way for members of professional communities to explore new modes of communication in their professional domains. (solly, 2016, p. 19) such translation and alignment is precisely what academics seek upon in order for their research and ideas to be published, and therefore acknowledged and accepted. from a broader perspective, stylistics is therefore connected to “concepts of context, identity and belonging, as well as to notions of appropriateness and accuracy” (solly, 2016, p. 3). stylistics is also characterised by its eclectic and adaptable nature, and the fact that it is interdisciplinary and unruly (simpson, 2004) has led both to numerous internal subfields and evolutions and to collaborative research approaches and methodological frameworks. in fact, it has been pointed out that writing with “academic style” e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 85 what makes stylistics specific as opposed to disciplinary linguistics is its refusal to define its tools a priori. the resort to particular linguistic tools and theories depends on the nature of the text under study and the questions that the researcher wants her research to answer. (sorlin, 2014) accordingly, the present study will follow this trend by employing a multifaceted methodology uniting stylistics, error analysis and a categorisation of specific areas of interest to be applied to the materials and input of the seminar in order to perform a qualitative analysis and gain better understanding of the current standings of eap. 3.3.2. error analysis the need for data and the observational, rather than evaluative, perspective that is needed to study academic style led to the methodology of error analysis (allen & corder, 1974; canagarajah, 2015; corder, 1981), a branch of applied linguistics focusing on “the process of determining the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language” (james, 1998, p. 1). it also makes a point of distinguishing between the performance of english l1 users and eals: error analysis is a method used to document the errors that appear in learner language, determine whether those errors are systematic, and (if possible) explain what caused them. native speakers of the target language (tl) who listen to the learner language probably find learners’ errors very noticeable. […] while native speakers make unsystematic 'performance' errors (like slips of the tongue) from time to time, second language learners make more errors, and often ones that no native speaker ever makes. an error analysis should focus on errors that are systematic violations of patterns in the input to which the learners have been exposed. such errors tell us something about the learner's interlanguage, or underlying knowledge of the rules of the language being learned (corder, 1981, p. 10). while stylistics focuses on finding and detailing peculiarities in styles, error analysis uses diverging language choices to trace back to the reasoning behind them. this, in turn, is useful in devising ways to make learners aware of and therefore avoid such errors. for this reason, error analysis has been employed to observe and improve students’ academic writing, but the focus of these studies is usually on grammar, and therefore concerns “mistakes” more than “errors”, as opposed to the present research. the word “error”, instead of “mistake”, will be adopted, where the term “error” refers to the use of a linguistic item (e.g. a word, a grammatical item, a speech act, etc.) in a way which a fluent or native speaker of the language regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning. a distinction is sometimes made between an error, which results from incomplete knowledge, and a mistake made by a learner when writing or speaking and which is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspect of performance. […] in the study of second and foreign language learning, errors have been studied to discover the processes learners make use of in learning and using a language. (richards & schmidt, 2010, p. 201) while mistakes are indisputable and can be understood and corrected when pointed out, errors in style do not affect the grammaticality and correctness of the text, but rather its readability and ability to be clearly understood and appreciated by the academic discourse community. this is why observations by reviewers on “mistakes” are clear, while those on “errors” not so much, as the proper style that would be most suited to avoiding them has not been explicitly taught to students. moreover, the reviewers themselves may not be able to clearly motivate the reason for their observation, either because they are also eals or because they are english l1 users without any experience in linguistics or stylistics. this is because “the native speaker of english of course has a great deal of intuitive knowledge about linguistic appropriateness and correctness [...] which he has amassed over the years” (crystal & davy, 1969, p. 5). for this reason, the focus here will not be on “correction” but rather the description, explanation and “treatment” of interlingual errors (richards & schmidt, 2010, p. 201-202) based on transfer. accordingly, the pilot study followed the stages of the “error analysis” procedure: – collection of a sample of learner language; – identification of errors; doerr e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 86 – description of errors; – explanation of errors; – evaluation of errors. (allen & corder, 1974) the novelty of the area of academic style and its categorisation and treatment are in line with the trialand-error approach that has been hitherto necessary to improve academic writing, and therefore academic style. this is the manner in which past experts have managed to reach their level of linguistic and stylistic competence but, by detecting, shedding light on and treating errors, it is also that in which current research on stylistics may create and improve a framework of categories of error to be built on and improved. 3.3.3. areas of interest the intent of the qualitative investigation of the present study is to verify the feasibility and potential of integrating academic style into phd students’ eap and academic writing training and to identify, categorise, describe and explain the most common stylistic errors. this was done by considering the genre of abstracts where english is an l2 or even an l3. in order to better collect and observe the errors, the following “areas of interest”, or general categories of stylistic errors, were considered: – necessity to add information that is obvious to the non-native author but not to the reader (henceforth referred to as ‘addition of extra text’); – deletion of redundant information and forms that represent instances of language transfer from the non-native author’s l1 (henceforth referred to as ‘deletion of redundant text’); – shifting and repositioning of clauses and phrases in line with the audience’s expectations (henceforth referred to as ‘shifting and repositioning’); – misuse in appropriateness and register (henceforth referred to as ‘appropriateness and register’) (doerr, 2023,p. 146). the analysis of the collected material will be divided by area of interest and commented in detail by considering the overall number and those made by the english, french and non-language groups. similar errors will be grouped and explained, and the relevance of the area of interest for future courses will be assessed. 4. analysis and discussion upon collecting and treating the 16 abstracts that had been submitted before the course, the errors may be divided based on the area of interest and on the group of phd students (“english”, “french”, “nonlanguage”). the number of students of each group that committed the errors was also counted, so as to understand if it was an individual or collective issue. table 2 below illustrates the results of such a division: table 2 number of stylistic errors per group (number of errors/number of students who committed the errors) addition deletion shifting appropriateness english group (6 students) 6/3 5/3 7/4 2/2 french group (7 students) 4/4 8/5 14/4 2/2 non-language (3 students) 0/0 6/3 3/2 1/1 total (16 students) 10/7 19/11 24/10 5/5 the data in the table demonstrate that “deletion of extra text” and “shifting and repositioning” were the two most common stylistic errors, both in general and in the number of students who made them. this is also significant because these areas are usually not extensively explored in traditional eap courses and students do not have the opportunity to test these skills because eap materials tend to target a standardised international audience. as a result, they will certainly have to constitute the first and most practiced areas of study and practice in the future with the assistance of teachers and instructors who have experience with both languages and their possible transfers. writing with “academic style” e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 87 4.1. addition of extra text interestingly, among the four categories of stylistic errors, the “addition of extra text” error (10 errors in total, 4 for the “french” group and 6 for the “english” group) requiring the insertion of words (the underlined words in the examples) to ‘fill in blanks’ that are perceived in reading was both the ‘easiest’ and the ‘hardest’ to detect. since these blanks were to be filled by small, functional words, such as prepositions and connecting words/expressions that are typical of academic english, this error was considered the easiest to treat for students who were used to adjusting sentences according to traditional english grammar rules. at the same time, their omissions were not perceived by the students as they would by potential reviewers and readers, especially if present in multiple instances. while this may be due in part to the fact that the texts consisted in abstracts, which were therefore subjected to word limits, it is also found in research articles to reduce the number of words and supposedly ‘lighten’ the load on the sentence. such is the case of the first three examples below: 1) enable the use of a language that is more inclusive […] by avoiding the "generic" or "neutral" masculine (#7) 2) thus underlining the effects (#13) 3) a corpus through which x’s language […], as well as the use and distribution of collocates and metaphors (#3) examples 4) and 5) present a more serious form of errors needing the addition of extra text compared to the previous three. in fact, in these cases the use of a comma to divide the two phrases is understandable in the students’ l1 because it can be inferred by the rest of the sentence. in english however the second phrase may indicate either the result of the fulfilment of the first phrase (with “thus”, similarly to “therefore”), or the manner in which the circumstances of the first phrase take place (with “by”). here the lack of a word may render the sentence ambiguous: 4) the dangerous x that puts humans in a subaltern position, thus/by carrying out a process of (#2) 5) at last annihilates itself, thus/by disappearing (#5) the final three examples of this section share the treatment of the error by adding a relative clause. these represent situations in which the sentences were not ambiguous per se and could be acceptable, especially in the case of 6), where the omission of “which is” is compensated by its substitution with a comma. they are therefore true cases of “errors”, and not mistakes, that are detected on a subtle level and were treated simply to better ‘flesh out’ the rhythm of the overall sentence. 6) x’s social media presence, which is showcased through a website (#3) 7) appearance of multiple variants and paraphrases that are likely to prove (#11) 8) one of the x problems that were encountered (#12) this category of error was most common among the students in english-related disciplines, not out of lack of linguistic competence, but because the students presupposed that the reader would be able to insert the additional information. when presented too frequently however, excessive elisions make the text hard to understand. 4.2. deletion of redundant text the opposite error to the lack of text, i.e. instances that required the “deletion of redundant text”, occurred more frequently, with 19 total errors within the collection of abstracts (5 for the “english” group, 8 for the “french” group and 6 for the “non-language” group). these errors (whose treatment is indicated by the strikethroughs in the samples) could be divided into three large groups, starting with the one that accounted for 11 cases, i.e the deletion of redundant determined article “the”. only a few of these samples are proposed here but in general they may be traced back to two reasons: the desire to completely structure a formal sentence to the extent of a ‘hyperinsertion’ as in example 9), or an interference of the student’s l1 (and l2 in the case of the students of the “french” group), as in 10), 11), and 12). these are significant exemplifications of doerr e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 88 the concept of “errors”, as this redundance does not prevent the comprehension of the text, although it can unnecessarily lengthen or weigh the text down or frustrate the reader, especially when present in multiple and repeated instances: 9) the advent, the boom and the appropriation of social media, (#1) 10) it sounds the alarms of the potential x (#2) 11) the corpus shows how the x speeches on ecological and energy transitions (#11) 12) the research resorts to one of the corpus linguistics’ tools (#12) the second series of examples is more evident to a reviewer or reader and consists of semantic redundancies, where there is a noun + noun or a verb + verb structure next to one another within a phrase. such expressions are also common in the students’ l1 and l2 (in the case of the “french” group), and at a first glance would simply appear to be a consequence of interlinguistic interference, as in examples 13) and 14), where the deleted segments take on a very ‘formulaic’ form. 13) a reflection on the importance of the role of x athletes (#8) 14) reflect on the centrality of the body in the conception of a [novel] and b [novel] by x (#5) however, given the position of the two parts, it is also reasonable to believe that some of these stylistic errors were a result of the student’s intent to enforce or better frame the presentation of something that was considered important. examples 15), 16), and 17) therefore could be considered “communication-based errors […] resulting from strategies of communication” (richards & schmidt 2010, p. 201–2), and therefore an attempt to emphasise the message and make it more formal at the same time: 15) we will try to understand how the social media "x" impacts language usage (#1) 16) that are able to duplicate and replace humans (#2) 17) the guidelines of x on a and b [issues], for example, aim to seek neutral and inclusive solutions (#7) the final example 18) of “deletion of redundant text” may be positioned on the threshold between an error and a mistake, in that the “ends up” cannot be used with “in” but its use is precisely aimed at maintaining the ‘flow’ of the sentence and therefore the quality of the academic style of the writing. it seems to be a moment of indecision between “end up + verb-ing” and “end in noun” that was mixed but seems to be a “developmental error reflecting natural stages of development” (richards & schmidt 2010, p. 201– 2). this indicates that academic style is a level of grammar that may grow instinctively with practice in reading and writing but that it must be directly addressed in order to prevent it from becoming a dismissed mistake instead of a promising error. 18) a […] creature – ends up in personifying both x and y (#4) this area was particularly important, in that it was equally distributed among the three groups of students for different reasons: the “english” group made the more ‘creative’ errors and hinted at an aspiration to use more refined english; the “french” group understandably were influenced by the interference of their l1 and l2, while the “non-language” group made errors consisting of the redundant use of ‘filler’ words that recalls that of their l1 and is also probably motivated by their lack of practice compared to the other two groups. this area is particularly important, in that it is has a strong “defamiliarising” effect, making its errors easily detected by reviewers and readers, just as they were easy for the students to detect during the second part of the seminar. 4.3. shifting and repositioning this was the area of interest that resulted in the greatest number of errors that were evenly divided among groups and students (24 total, of which 7 in the “english” group, 14 in the “french” group, and 3 in the “non-language” group), which demonstrates that it is a common issue that therefore should certainly be tackled in any future research or course in academic style and academic writing in general. when analysing errors in “shifting and repositioning” however, there were common trends within the category that were based on writing with “academic style” e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 89 different reasons and had to be treated differently. the first group of these, which may be seen in examples 19) (where the past participle “created” used as an adjective unites it with its related noun “corpus”), 20) (with the deletion of a distracting phrase between dashes), and 21) (where the pre-positioning of “x” follows the internationally recognised expectation of the airport’s nominal reference) involve the pre-positioning of clauses and words (past participle verbs and even a name in example 21) before a noun. by doing so they are converted into adjectives that are integrated into the noun phrase of the noun that they now more clearly and closely define and compact the flow of the sentence instead of interrupting it. 19) the created corpus created makes it possible (#11) 20) with regard to the explicit or implicit links – explicit or implicit – that they entertain (#13) 21) the x international airport of [city] x (#15) the second group of repositionings consists, on the contrary, in post-positioning information introduced in contained clauses so as to not separate the verb of the sentence from the object(s) to which it refers. this is another example of a “communication-based error” because the students had intentionally structured the sentence in this manner so as to ensure that the verb would be directly accompanied by extra information that refers to it. this reasoning is a hypercorrection and a strategic choice at the same time, but it proves that the students are unaware of the detachment that it creates in the svo syntactic structure, one that should be maintained even at the expense of distancing extra details and repositioning them towards the end, where they remain isolated. 22) signifiers that call to mind peculiar x dichotomies to mind (#2) 23) revival that involved almost entirely poetry production almost entirely (#4) 24) in order to note, in a diachronic perspective, the changes that have occurred over the centuries in a diachronic perspective. (#13) the shifting treatment may also even concern academic phrases and more extensive parts of the sentence from the middle of the sentence to the beginning, like in 25), or to the end like in 26) and 27). this not only has stylistic implications but it also re-establishes the repositioned clauses as ‘signpost language’, thus enabling them to enhance the sentence rather than to distract. 25) it is my contention that the way that x bridges classical and contemporary elements, it is my contention, provides new insights (#9) 26) focusing on issues of x, y and z, this paper analyses the importance of language as a tool to negotiate one’s identity and relationship with the self and the world by focusing on issues of x, y, and z. (#3) 27) we will proceed with the manual extraction from x of some headwords referring to the lexical units mentioned above from x (#10) the variety of this area of interest also resulted in the great variety of treatments that were proposed by the students during the seminar. this type of error decisively affects the readability of the text and is influenced by the students’ perception of the mobility of these parts of the sentence, which is greater in their l1 than in english and in the l2 of the students of the “french” group. such perception should therefore be taken into consideration and practiced in courses on academic writing within the class and considering the background of the students, which is something that eap materials cannot and do not take into account. 4.4. appropriateness and register the concept of “appropriateness”, as seen when exploring the methodology of stylistics, is the word that is most frequently associated with style in general, and with academic style, including that of academics whose l1 is english. nevertheless, errors in appropriateness and register were the least common in the abstracts, with only 5 occurrences that were equally distributed among the groups. this denoted students’ awareness of this dimension regardless of their discipline of choice and regular exposure to informal academic language and style. 28) in addition to that, the french language (#1) doerr e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 90 29) in this connection, t the proposed paper focuses on x’s novel (#4) 30) our work will be developed in this way, after presenting the macrostructure and microstructure of the dictionary, we our work will focus on the management and ordering of the various lemmas. (#10) 31) from in a geopolitical key perspective (#15) 32) these results can be further explained because of in light of interdiscursivity (#16) these examples are interestingly all connected with academic phraseology, which is expected to be passively learnt, and even memorised, and then seamlessly inserted into the text. this is also proof of the students’ acquired competence in topics that are commonly covered in academic writing courses and therefore their need to proceed to the next level and improve in academic style before being officially introduced to the academic discourse community. 5. final considerations the aim of the present study was to explore a gap in eap and academic writing courses, i.e. academic style, and demonstrate the importance of introducing it to students rather than expecting them to passively learn it through trial and error. in order to do so, the initial theoretical considerations were followed by a pilot study conducted at a european phd degree course and in a class of 16 phd students. the analysed abstracts were submitted by the students and treated by the author before the seminar which included the students’ active participation in order to (self)proofread texts and treat errors in academic style. the treatments of the submitted abstracts have yielded some interesting points worth exploring in future research, starting with the first and second research questions: rq1: does the scholar’s discipline influence the most common types of errors in academic style? rq2: does the scholar’s use of english as the object of his/her research influence the most common type of errors in academic style? although the students were working in different fields in the humanities, there were a series of interdisciplinary intersections that prove that, while academic style may change greatly based on research areas (e.g. law, economics, medicine, the humanities), it exhibits more common traits in relation to linguistic competence rather than the proximity of their disciplines. the fact that the students used english, as opposed to french or other languages, as an l2 greatly contributed to the type of error in academic style. in fact, the students specialising in french literature, linguistics or terminology/lexicography made more stylistic errors in syntax, especially in the area of “shifting”, thus interrupting the ‘flow’ of the sentence. this reflects the greater flexibility of french, and neo-latin languages in general, when constructing sentences and determining the order of presented information. the intent was to pre-position pieces of information that were considered more interesting, important, or related to the previous phrase of the sentence, but its translation into english becomes quite difficult and frustrating to read. indeed, this was the case of examples 13, 14, 15, 19. 20, which all were from the “french” and “non-language” groups and therefore did not consider english their object of study but rather merely a vehicular language. another common error based on discipline was found in the abstracts of students of the “non-language” group: in these texts, which tended to be the shortest, there were compound errors within the same sentence. this demonstrates the students’ almost exclusive use of their l1 in academic contexts, and therefore their limited use of academic english compared to their colleagues specialising in language studies. this may be demonstrated in examples 33) and 34) below: 33) this contribution was born stems from the need to analyze the emissions deriving from noises caused by the airports, in particular the x [name] international airport of y [city] x, thus underlining the effects that of noises on cause over the neighboring countries towns and cities. (#15) 34) from a methodological point of view, a mixed approach will be used (mixed method approach), which is necessary to integrate x coming from a and from b and c realities, will be used/implemented. (#8) these differences in overall disciplines and similarities in language use and style provide stimulating starting points for future research and teaching: the first one lies in the potential knowledge exchange that writing with “academic style” e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 91 could take place in heterogeneous small classes of eal students who, by treating and discussing errors together, may help one another while practicing their skills as writers and as reviewers and proofreaders. the second point is that knowing common areas of errors based on disciplines could help teachers and instructors plan more useful lessons and exercises and have a better idea of their needs. with time and experience, this could lead to the preparation of materials to be used and adapted to esap writing courses. the ideal teacher is one with knowledge of and experience in the students’ l1 (and therefore its “cultural mindstyle”) as well as english academic writing and proofreading/reviewing, but the collaboration between two or more instructors with these skills (e.g. an expert in academic writing and a language professional with experience in proofreading academic texts) could create an ideal setting for improving eap courses and giving eal students a better idea of what to expect when they approach the academic discourse community. in conclusion, addressing the following question: rq3: what were the strengths and limits of the seminar? the two-part seminar demonstrated the perceived importance of academic style and its proofreading, as well as the presence of areas of interest that are more in need of attention, i.e. “deletion of extra text” and “shifting and repositioning”. it also was encouraging in showing that many of the students’ errors were developmental and communication-based, and therefore proof of attempted creative use of language rather than lack of competence. further studies need to be carried out to confirm this and to verify whether different departments or research fields may yield different results. as far as limits are concerned, the seminar focused on abstracts due to time constraints but future research and the observation of longer texts would certainly be useful in detecting further areas of interest and comparisons among classes. longer workshops and seminars would allow the study of longer texts, which could yield materials and insight on further areas of interest. courses would also benefit from one-to-one follow-up sessions. as regards the final research question: rq4: what are the broader implications of including academic style in academic writing courses for students and teachers? the present study has proven that awareness of and practice in academic style is important in improving academic writing. in fact it ensures that the “language and style” (kapp, albertyne, & frick, 2011) of the paper is in line with the knowledge and communicative needs of the international academic discourse community the junior and eal academics are approaching and entrusting their work to, since “one of the keys to understanding how an organisation works is to understand its systems of communication” (huhta, vogt, johnson & tulkki, 2013, p. 5). this can be applied both to egap and esap, as well as to individual academics and multicultural higher education learning contexts. as the present study has demonstrated, the errors and necessary treatments that may be found when focusing on academic style (self)proofreading change according to the learner’s esap and the perceived and real needs of the discipline, as well as other possible constraining factors (e.g. number of authors and word limit, terminological and discursive requirements of the discipline, presence and use of other academic genres). the peculiarities that are found through the observation and treatment of academic texts produced within the field at hand should be recorded, categorised and integrated into eap and academic writing courses so as to train students and junior academics to write and gain insight on a manner that is appropriate for their specialised audience. the presented material and related feedback resulting from such courses could, in turn, become data to be gathered into corpora and analysed both qualitatively and – in time – quantitatively. while this is simpler when studying mistakes in vocabulary, grammar, syntax and texts that undermine the communicative power – if not even the ability to understand the text – it is much more difficult for learners to detect errors in style. this is because they have not been explored in previous studies and exercises, so it may be hard to see through the learner’s “academic cultural mindstyle” filter that they are not even aware of. this is where the assistance and competence of instructors and teachers come into play and may stem from various types of experience: teaching and correcting/treating others’ work, writing and reviewing their own academic papers, and proofreading, copyediting and revising the writing of others. these three forms of experience, which may be united in one person or shared among multiple professionals who assist and support one another through their exchange in knowledge, endow them with particular sensitivity towards stylistically appropriate writing and “insider knowledge” that are often more important than sole competence as a l1 english speaker and user. doerr e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 78-94 92 in conclusion, constant research on and improvement of the errors in academic style among students and academics from different disciplinary, cultural and linguistic backgrounds would enable the expansion and customisation of eap courses and specialised seminars based on the needs of the class and individuals. moreover, they would greatly benefit from the linguistic/stylistic competence of teachers and instructors whose experience in reading, correcting and treating provide effective support for students, regardless of their l1. a third and final category whose experience and collaboration would be invaluable in understanding the process of “academic style proofreading” is that of language professionals and reviewers actively engaged in the academic editorial community. they could present the perspective of the receiver of the submitted text and enable students to understand the “academic mindstyle” and accepted academic style of the international academic community of their discipline of choice from an internal perspective. the combination of the competences, research and insight of academics, eap teachers and instructors and professionals from the academic editorial industry would present the most complete and experiential approach to learning academic writing, and academic style in general. this is especially crucial in the current academic context, where the standards of academic writing have been noticeably raised and academics are increasingly pressed to disseminate and share innovative and impactful ideas and knowledge. references allen, john patrick brierley, & corder, stephen pit (eds.) 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roxanne barbara doerr (phd) is a researcher in english language and linguistics at the department of economics and management of the university of brescia (italy). her research areas include english for specific and academic purposes, military discourse, military language teaching and learning, online discourse communities, corpus assisted discourse studies and corpus stylistics. her most recent publications include the book academic style proofreading: an introduction (peter lang group ag, 2023) and essays on the above-mentioned research areas in national and international peerreviewed journals and volumes. she also translates, revises and proofreads academic papers and volume chapters for publication in various fields. es roxanne barbara doerr (phd) es investigadora en lengua y lingüística inglesa en el departamento de economía y gestión de la universidad de brescia (italia). sus áreas de investigación incluyen el inglés para fines específicos y académicos, el discurso militar, la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas militares, las comunidades de discurso en línea, los estudios del discurso asistidos por corpus y la estilística de corpus. sus publicaciones más recientes incluyen el libro academic style proofreading: an introduction (peter lang group ag, 2023) y ensayos sobre las áreas de investigación mencionadas en revistas y volúmenes nacionales e internacionales revisados por pares. también traduce, revisa y corrige artículos académicos y capítulos de volúmenes para su publicación en diversos campos. it roxanne barbara doerr (phd) è una ricercatrice di lingua e linguistica inglese presso il dipartimento di economia e management dell’università di brescia (italia). le sue aree di ricerca comprendono l’inglese per scopi specifici e accademici, il linguaggio militare, l’insegnamento e l’apprendimento del linguaggio militare, le comunità discorsiva online, l’uso dei corpora negli studi sul discorso, la stilistica dei corpora. le sue pubblicazioni più recenti includono il libro academic style proofreading: an introduction (peter lang group ag, 2023) e articoli sulle aree di ricerca precedentemente menzionatei n riviste e volumi nazionali ed internazionali con revisione tra pari. si dedica inoltre alla traduzione, alla revisione e correzione di bozze di articoli accademici e capitoli di volumi per la pubblicazione in vari settori. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.1065 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 6, issue 1, august 2019, 78-84 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.10.183 www.e-journall.org © méndez santos 2019. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. rodrigo, victoria (2019). la comprensión lectora en la enseñanza del español le/l2: de la teoría a la práctica. londres/nueva york: routledge. maría del carmen méndez santos universitat d’alacant book review received 6 may 2019; received in revised form 16 may 2019; accepted 23 may 2019 abstract es la importancia que se le ha otorgado a las diferentes destrezas lingüísticas ha variado en función del enfoque metodológico predominante en cada época. en particular la comprensión lectora pasó de ser el centro de atención en modelos clásicos a ser poco tratada en otros más modernos. esta reseña analiza la monografía de victoria rodrigo, que ha compilado un panorama completo y prolijo de todo conocimiento que cualquier persona dedicada a la docencia, investigación o creación de materiales didácticos debería poseer sobre la comprensión lectora, prestando particular atención a la enseñanza del español como segunda lengua o lengua extranjera. palabras clave: comprensión lectora, destrezas lingüísticas, diseño de actividades, español como segunda lengua o lengua extranjera en the importance granted to different language skills has varied according to the predominant methodological focus of the time. reading comprehension has gone from being the center of attention in classical models to being barely addressed in more modern ones. this review analyzes a monograph by victoria rodrigo, who has compiled an exhaustive and detailed panorama of all of the knowledge that anyone interested in teaching, researching, or creating learning materials should know about reading comprehension, paying particular attention to the teaching of spanish as a second or foreign language. key words: reading comprehension, language skills, activity design, spanish as a second or foreign language it l’importanza assegnata alle diverse abilità linguistiche è cambiata in funzione dell’approccio metodologico predominante nei vari periodi. la comprensione della lettura è passata da essere al centro dell’attenzione nei modelli classici a essere poco trattata in quelli più moderni. questa recensione analizza la monografia di victoria rodrigo, che, prestando particolare attenzione all’insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua seconda o straniera, delinea uno scenario completo e preciso di tutte quelle conoscenze sulla comprensione della lettura che dovrebbero essere appannaggio di chiunque si dedichi all’insegnamento, alla ricerca o alla creazione di materiali didattici. parole chiave: comprensione scritta, abilità linguistiche, progettazione di attività, spagnolo come seconda lingua o lingua straniera  maría del carmen méndez santos, universitat d’alacant macms@ua.es http://www.e-journall.org/ reseña: la comprensión lectora e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 78-84 79 desde que hymes (1971) cuestionara la centralidad de la competencia gramatical, la perspectiva sobre lo que implica la capacidad de comunicación en una lengua extranjera ha variado fuertemente. de hecho, cuando se concibe la competencia comunicativa como una capacidad de usar la lengua no solo bien formada desde un punto de vista estructural, sino adecuada sociolingüística, pragmática, social, cultural y discursivamente, la perspectiva de la importancia de las distintas destrezas implicadas en el proceso de la comunicación ha tomado un cariz diferente. en la época estructuralista la comprensión lectora, como explican richards y rodgers (2003), era el principal objetivo para aprender lenguas extranjeras, ya que el fin era acercarse a la literatura clásica o desarrollarse intelectualmente. de ese modo se prestaba poca o nula atención sistemática al habla, la selección de léxico no estaba basada en su frecuencia o utilidad y se fomentaba la memorización. como reacción a esta predominancia de lo escrito frente a lo oral surgieron a lo largo del siglo xx numerosos enfoques que procuraban compensar ese desajuste. así, la comprensión lectora y en particular la lectura de la literatura se estigmatizó como algo residual, por ejemplo, en el método audiolingüístico. no obstante, ese cambio de paradigma que ocurrió en los años 70 sobre la concepción de lo que supone conocer una lengua conllevó una nueva descripción y reflexión teórica sobre la competencia comunicativa como algo más complejo que dominar la forma y llevó a los lingüistas a establecer una categorización de cuándo se activa el uso de ésta. así, tradicionalmente se han distinguido las destrezas productivas (hablar y escribir) y las receptivas (leer y escuchar). aunque actualmente se añade una perspectiva nueva a ellas: su dimensión interactiva e interpretativa que también las tienen. cada una de estas destrezas incluye a su vez otras microdestrezas implicadas para codificar o descodificar los mensajes y, además, también se reconoce la importancia del conocimiento del mundo con el fin de interpretarlos. victoria rodrigo trata en este libro todos esos aspectos mencionados que entraña el proceso de decodificación del texto escrito a lo largo de doce capítulos que abarcan desde los tipos de lectura y textos, pasando por estudios empíricos sobre el impacto de su práctica en el aula, hasta su importancia para el desarrollo de la competencia léxico-semántica o su evaluación, por poner algunos ejemplos, con especial atención a la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera (en adelante, ele) y a las investigaciones y trabajos hechos sobre ella. en cuanto a la macroestructura de la obra es necesario señalar que la presencia de un índice breve y uno detallado facilita enormemente la búsqueda de información concreta. al mismo fin sirve el índice final de autores y conceptos clave citados. otro punto fuerte de la organización del trabajo es que también se ofrece un breve glosario de términos técnicos que ayuda a ampliar el público meta de este libro. en la misma línea se sitúan el capítulo inicial de conceptos preliminares y las actividades insertas a lo largo de estos y cuyo solucionario se encuentra al final también. junto con esta disposición acertada, el estilo formal y académico, pero a la vez cercano y fácil de seguir acerca el libro a un público potencial de expertos en lingüística aplicada, pero también de investigadores en formación, estudiantes de máster y doctorado, diseñadores de materiales, y al profesorado de español como lengua extranjera que desee continuar su formación. esta ambición, acertada y cumplida, de ser accesible a todos los públicos también es la que parece llevar a la autora a dividir cada capítulo en los siguientes apartados: objetivos del capítulo, unas reflexiones previas, el cuerpo del capítulo en sí, un apartado denominado aplicación de la teoría a la práctica, otro de consideraciones pedagógicas, un apartado de preguntas y discusión y, finalmente, recomendaciones de lecturas complementarias. como se puede deducir esta distribución logra acercar el cuerpo fuertemente teórico de cada capítulo a cuestiones más aplicadas y a pie de aula de interés para los docentes a través de los apartados de la teoría a la práctica y consideraciones pedagógicas. de especial relevancia para los investigadores en formación y estudiantes de másteres serán los relacionados con las preguntas de reflexión y debate. por ello, esta monografía puede ser perfectamente empleada como lectura obligatoria o de clase en másteres de ele. otras estrategias que persiguen esa accesibilidad son la gran cantidad de figuras y tablas explicativas o de resumen, así como unos bocadillos o cuadros llamados recuerda que compilan en un par de frases los contenidos más relevantes. en cuanto a la microestructura cabe señalar que la progresión temática de los capítulos es adecuada y facilita, de hecho, el formarse un completo panorama de los aspectos teóricos y didácticos que implica la enseñanza de la comprensión lectora. así, en el capítulo previo de conceptos preliminares se traza una breve reflexión sobre la importancia de esta destreza y cómo se ha articulado en dos modelos de currículos para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras: el marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas (mcer, consejo de europa, 2002) y el que propone el american council on the teaching of foreign languages (acftl, 2012). se hace una revisión sobre las referencias y consideraciones que se marcan en torno a la comprensión lectora y méndez santos e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 78-84 80 se describen los niveles establecidos. por supuesto, ambos modelos curriculares suponen una guía para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras más allá de las fronteras de las instituciones que los han articulado, pero teniendo en cuenta que en particular el libro hace referencia al ele, quizás hubiera sido interesante también poder glosar el referente a otras latitudes como el trabajo del ministerio de educación, cultura, deportes, ciencia y tecnología de japón (mext, 2011), sobre todo teniendo en cuenta la adaptación que de esas pautas de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras ha realizado el grupo de investigación de didáctica del español (gide) en su modelo de contenidos (2016). para finalizar, se añaden una serie de precauciones terminológicas muy adecuadas teniendo en cuenta que el libro puede ser leído tanto por expertos, como por legos en la materia a quienes quizás algunos conceptos puedan resultar confusos. el primer capítulo, el proceso de lectura, abre el libro con un repaso a los enfoques que se han tomado como referencia: desde el bottom-up al top-down para presentarnos el modelo más moderno que entiende la lectura como un proceso interactivo conocido como la teoría de los esquemas cognitivos porque, como señalan de santiago guervós y fernández gonzález (2017), “todo ello completa buena parte de los ingredientes que debe tener presente el profesor cuando se plantea una tarea de comprensión lectora para aprendices de una l2” (p. 461). así, rodrigo dibuja un panorama explicativo sobre los esquemas lingüísticos, formales y de contenido que se activan cuando se produce una tarea de comprensión lectora, así como explica la importancia del contexto, el conocimiento cultural y la familiaridad con el tema para que se logre la decodificación. es particularmente reseñable el apartado que dedica la autora a la necesidad de activar los esquemas apropiados para la comprensión y muy interesantes los ejemplos que aporta porque harán al docente y al diseñador de materiales comprender la importancia de la contextualización mediante la proporción de suficientes pistas. a continuación, se dispone un capítulo sobre la mecánica de la lectura y se describe las características de un lector eficaz. este tiene un carácter eminentemente teórico y presenta los mecanismos cognitivos que se producen mientras se realiza la lectura. las explicaciones sobre las nuevas metodologías de investigación sobre el movimiento ocular (eye-tracking) serán de particular interés para investigadores sobre este tema. se explica muy claramente conceptos clave como sacada, fijación, punto de fijación y área de visión, así como el concepto de regresión en la lectura que está fuertemente vinculado con la capacidad para leer rápidamente o no. esta velocidad es una de las características que se le adjudican a una persona con una buena comprensión lectora, así como que domine la mecánica de la lectura, que lea en bloques, que realice fijaciones de corta duración, etc. rodrigo resume en una frase muy acertada todas ellas y es que “un buen lector es aquel que lee rápidamente sin detrimento de la comprensión” (p. 47). esta matización es fundamental porque en muchas ocasiones se ha puesto por encima de cualquier otra característica la velocidad y como recogen de vega, cuetos, domínguez y estévez (1999, p. 657), hay estudios que señalan que los lectores lentos hacen “pausas más inteligentes” y que recuerdan mejor, por eso su análisis de manera aislada es parcial y debe incluir otros aspectos como la eficiencia memoria/tiempo. desde el punto de vista didáctico este capítulo es especialmente relevante por la explicación de los contextos en que la lectura en voz alta y la lectura silenciosa son aptas y por la reflexión sobre la selección del tamaño de los textos y su formato. de las consideraciones teóricas sobre el procesamiento cognitivo presentado en el capítulo dos, emana la necesidad de abordar en el tercero cuestiones sobre cómo se realiza ese procesamiento, pero ya en una segunda lengua. así, se presenta la teoría compensatoria de la lectura en l2 que considera que el nivel de alfabetización en la l1, así como el conocimiento de la l2 (umbral lingüístico) y los factores idiosincráticos del lector pueden explicar cómo se produce la comprensión lectora. rodrigo, a continuación, reflexiona sobre el papel de la memoria y explica su rol fundamental para que la lectura se produzca con éxito. como explica wen (2016), la memoria de trabajo, y en particular la ejecutiva, tiene una alta correlación con las tareas de amplitud lectora. a su vez, también se dedica una reflexión a la capacidad cognitiva limitada y se baraja la teoría de que la memoria a corto plazo solo puede analizar de cuatro a siete unidades de información a la vez (p. 55). no obstante, quizás aquí hubiera sido interesante haber hecho una puntualización con respecto a otros factores que influyen en ello para atender las variables individuales que condicionan el aprendizaje de una le, pensando especialmente en niños, por ejemplo, ya que como señala téllez (2005), algunas investigaciones “evidencian cambios en los límites de la memoria operativa con la edad” (p. 69). de hecho, para niños de entre tres y diez años el límite se mueve entre tres y seis dígitos y con adultos con una media de edad de 22.5 años se sitúa alrededor de 7.6 palabras. este aspecto habría que tenerlo en cuenta a la hora de diseñar actividades de lectura de ele para niños. más adelante en este capítulo, rodrigo ya se adentra en los beneficios lingüísticos que reporta la lectura para el aprendizaje de una le. entre ellos destaca numerosos reseña: la comprensión lectora e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 78-84 81 estudios llevados a cabo sobre los beneficios de la lectura extensiva con una conclusión clara de que esta favorece el aprendizaje. el capítulo cuatro se centra en las estrategias que desarrollan los buenos lectores, cosa que es muy relevante para los docentes con el fin de entrenar estas estrategias en el aula y para los creadores de materiales y manuales para promoverlas en los enunciados de las actividades. en particular, analiza las estrategias metacognitivas, cognitivas y socioafectivas. en este caso es muy interesante la tabla 4.1. (p. 72) porque se presenta una síntesis muy clara y, como dijimos al comienzo, estas ayudan a entender y visualizar mucho mejor los conceptos. se adentra, posteriormente, en consejos prácticos para el diseño de las actividades de comprensión lectora dividiendo las etapas de la lectura en relación con las estrategias lectoras que deben movilizarse en cada una de ellas. al final de este capítulo se ofrece un cuestionario de evaluación de uso de estrategias que es muy útil para llevar al aula si el profesorado se está planteando implementar un proyecto de lectura extensiva o para mejorar su conocimiento sobre cómo funciona su alumnado y mejorar cómo plantea las tareas en clase. la importancia del léxico para la comprensión lectora se aborda en el capítulo 5. en concreto se discute el papel del aprendizaje incidental y del instruccional. aunque está claro que la enseñanza directa no puede ser la única forma de enseñar, la simple exposición al input tampoco garantiza un aprendizaje porque la cantidad de caudal necesario para ello no suele darse en contextos de enseñanza de le. así se presenta la relevancia de teorías del procesamiento como la de barcroft (2015) y el método ibi. después de presentar los diferentes marcos conceptuales, rodrigo se adentra en la cuestión central y es cómo enseñar vocabulario a través de la lectura. aquí la autora hace una reflexión profunda sobre diferentes técnicas como el uso del contexto y la inferencia, la determinación de las palabras clave y el nivel del texto. como señala rodrigo (p. 102), es necesario que el profesorado disponga de “criterios claros al seleccionar el vocabulario de lectura que trabajará en clase” y que para ello el nivel de los alumnos y el propósito del curso son decisivos. en este punto cabe traer a colación los trabajos de hidalgo gallardo (2017a, 2017b) sobre el uso de la disponibilidad léxica como herramienta para determinar el vocabulario de trabajo porque “con los resultados, podemos adaptar el contenido léxico a sus características y necesidades” (p. 59). todo ello deviene de la necesidad de determinar cuál es el vocabulario clave del nivel, ya que el plan curricular del instituto cervantes (instituto cervantes, 2006) no es exhaustivo y, además, podemos añadir, está obsoleto, ya que no recoge más que una muestra de un léxico general que, por ello mismo, no atiende a las variables individuales —sociales, culturales y afectivas— que pueden dibujar diferentes panoramas de necesidad de vocabulario. se reflexiona en este apartado sobre la utilidad de los cognados y es que, como señalan duñabeitia, borragán y casaponsa (2017), “los estudios realizados con cognados han encontrado insistentemente un efecto facilitador que muestra menos tiempo de reacción y menos número de errores en múltiples tareas lingüísticas” (p. 110). sin desdeñar el poder del trabajo con ellos, no es menos cierto que no todo el léxico es abordable de este modo, ya que en función de la distancia lingüística entre la l1 y la l2/le esta condicionará su grado de potencial uso pedagógico. asimismo, se presenta en este capítulo diferentes tipos de actividades para presentar el vocabulario y trabajarlo durante y después de la actividad. se dedica un apartado, el sexto, al uso del diccionario en el aula. si bien es cierto que su empleo constante interfiere en la tarea y en la comprensión, el desarrollo de técnicas de enseñanza de vocabulario a través de diccionarios ha tenido especial atención en ele. especial mención merecen los trabajos de sala caja (2004, 2015) y nomdedeu rull (2009, 2011). el capítulo seis se centra en qué tipos de texto se pueden llevar al aula y las formas de leer que desarrollan los lectores siguiendo los guiones de las diferentes tipologías discursivas que se presentan en los manuales. como avanzábamos al comienzo, los textos literarios han pasado por diversas etapas de aceptación al albur de los cambios metodológicos. no obstante, rodrigo aboga por su integración con una reflexión previa bien fundada. se explica su utilidad y se mantiene que lo fundamental es encontrar aquellos que mejor se ajusten a nuestros alumnos. sin embargo, cabe hacer precisar que rodrigo reflexiona sobre la utilidad del cómic y de la novela gráfica como buenos atractores del interés siempre que se escojan evitando textos con expresiones idiomáticas demasiado coloquiales. aquí cabría discrepar de esta apreciación en tono generalista porque esa presentación contextualizada de expresiones coloquiales son el contexto adecuado precisamente para enseñarlas; es más, de ese modo se contribuye al desarrollo de las diferentes variedades diastráticas que en muchas ocasiones quedan fuera de las aulas hurtando así el desarrollo de una competencia sociolingüística completa al alumnado. de hecho, este género ha atraído mucho la atención de los docentes probablemente por los factores afectivos que moviliza, así como su flexibilidad y por el apoyo que el soporte visual ofrece como complemento para ayudar a la comprensión lectora (véanse los trabajos de díaz trivín, 2008; garcía martínez, 2013; suárez vega, 2014; con respecto al uso del teatro y la enseñanza de ele, véase de agreda, méndez santos e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 78-84 82 2016). en este mismo capítulo también se analizan las tipologías textuales más frecuentes y se ofrece una reflexión sobre los diferentes tipos de lectura (extensiva, intensiva, rápida y global y rápida y selectiva) explicando para qué tipo de actividades es más útil cada una de ellas (p. 124). de nuevo una tabla, la 6.1, servirá de gran ayuda para creadores de materiales. el séptimo capítulo se centra en el debate sobre el uso de materiales auténticos o no en el aula, con el eterno debate sobre qué es autenticidad como punto de inicio. se analizan las ventajas y desventajas de la utilización de textos originales, pero es muy interesante la introducción del concepto de van lier (apud) sobre el término “pedagógicamente auténtico” (p. 136). por otra parte, el trabajo que rodrigo ha realizado sobre las lecturas graduadas en ele y que se presenta en este capítulo es preciso y detallado demostrando así, que su interés es innegable. el octavo capítulo de este libro se emplea para reflexionar sobre los resultados positivos de los programas de lectura extensiva y sobre cómo se pueden llevar a cabo. se presenta una descripción contextual e institucional muy prolija que ayudará a docentes y personas a cargo de jefaturas de estudios y diseños curriculares de centro a plantearse cómo implementar estos en sus centros. el capítulo noveno será de especial interés para docentes y creadores de materiales porque se mete de lleno en el diseño de actividades y de tareas y explica cómo trabajar con un texto. explica detalladamente las etapas de preparación, lectura y la postlectura. no obstante, no solo da pautas generales, sino que se dan consejos sobre cómo trabajar con diferentes tipos textuales como con novelas. además, se presenta una tabla (la 9.1, p. 196), muy útil que sirve como guía de diseño de actividades de comprensión lectora. la parte didáctica del diseño debe corresponderse con los propósitos evaluadores, si los hubiere, por ello el capítulo décimo se centra en la evaluación de la comprensión lectora. es muy clara la presentación de las diferentes modalidades que se pueden llevar a cabo y cómo elaborarlas al dar consejos prácticos sobre la extensión de los ítems, los tipos de respuestas y su sintaxis, etc. analiza, asimismo, la fiabilidad, la validez y la viabilidad de las pruebas, cuestión que no es menor porque en muchas ocasiones se pide a los docentes que diseñen actividades de comprensión para exámenes sin ofrecer la suficiente garantía de calidad. este capítulo es fundamental para desarrollar una buena enseñanza instruccional de esta destreza. es de especial valor que rodrigo haya dedicado un capítulo, el once, a la importancia de los factores afectivos porque tradicionalmente se han soslayado en muchos trabajos académicos. en él se reflexiona sobre los factores que promueven o interfieren en la lectura, así como sobre cómo desarrollar actitudes positivas hacia la lectura. es este caso la autora se centra en la parte positiva, la motivación. para completar el panorama que se presenta en el libro, recomendamos la lectura de los siguientes trabajos sobre comprensión lectora y ele como los de tapiador hernández y fonseca mora (2015), fernández corbacho (2018), legaz torregrosa (2018), alejaldre biel y álvarez ramos (2018) y foncubierta muriel y fonseca mora (2018). por otra parte, aunque se menciona, no se presta demasiada atención al lado oscuro del proceso motivacional: la desmotivación. este fenómeno ha sido apenas estudiado en ele (pero véase méndez santos, 2019) y otras lenguas como el japonés como le, aunque sí ha sido ampliamente trabajado en inglés. de hecho, son destacables los trabajos de takase (2003), ullah y fatema (2013) y reza ahmadi (2017) sobre la desmotivación en programas extensivos de lectura o en asignaturas de lectura que podrían haber sido citados. el último capítulo del libro se dedica a nuevos hábitos de lectura: la lectura digital y los recursos en línea. retomando aquí la cuestión de la tipología textual, conviene entender que la mayoría de los textos cotidianos a los que están expuestos los aprendices son digitales y, en particular, redes sociales, ya ni siquiera blogs o foros. esto debe tener un reflejo didáctico claro, aunque no excluyente por supuesto, en la creación de materiales. en esa línea apuntan manuales de nueva planta como genial (enclaveele). si hubiera que señalar algún tema que se echa en falta o que podría haberse tratado con más detalle son los factores socioculturales, pensando especialmente en la enseñanza de español como le para inmigrantes y sus necesidades particulares que van desde la alfabetización en ocasiones, hasta el hecho de que en muchas ocasiones los textos elegidos no suscitan el interés y producen una alteridad con respecto a ellos. también quizás se podría haber dedicado algún apartado a las personas con necesidades especiales o dificultades de lectura, sobre todo por saber cómo poder ayudarles o diseñar actividades específicas. en suma, esta obra de rodrigo sobre la comprensión lectora en el aula de español como l2/le se constituye por derecho propio en una obra de referencia y de lectura obligada en másteres y cursos de formación para profesorado porque su estructura clara y bien dispuesta, así como su impecable fundamentación teórica y su estilo cercano, lo hacen accesible a todos los públicos. reseña: la comprensión lectora e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 78-84 83 referencias alejaldre biel, leyre, & álvarez ramos, eva (2018). impacto de la ansiedad en la lectura en voz alta en el aula: estudio de caso de estudiantes de ele tailandeses de nivel a1. tejuelo. didáctica de la lengua y la literatura. educación, 28, 11-42. recuperado de https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=6570394 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(1971). on communicative competence. en john bernard pride & janet holmes (eds.), sociolinguistics. harmondsworth, reino unido: penguin. instituto cervantes (2006). plan curricular del instituto cervantes. madrid, españa: instituto cervantes. legaz torregrosa, helena (2018). fluidez lectora silenciosa, aptitud musical y lengua extranjera. tejuelo. didáctica de la lengua y la literatura. educación, 28, 11-42. mext (2011). section 9 foreign languages. courses of study. recuperado de http://www.mext.go.jp/component/english/__icsfiles/afieldfile/2011/03/17/1303755_013.pdf nomdedeu rull, antoni (2009). diccionarios en internet para el aula de ele. redele, 15, 1-18. nomdedeu rull, antoni (2011). el uso del diccionario en el aula de e/le: problemas y posibles soluciones. foroele, 7, 1-10. reza ahmadi, mohammad (2017). the impact of motivation on reading comprehension. international journal of research in english education, 2, 1-7. richards, jack, & rodgers, theodore (2003). enfoques y métodos en la enseñanza de idiomas. madrid, españa: edinumen. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=6570394 https://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012 http://gide.curhost.com/archivos/201601modelo.pdf http://www.mext.go.jp/component/english/__icsfiles/afieldfile/2011/03/17/1303755_013.pdf méndez santos e-journall 6(1) (2019), pp. 78-84 84 sala caja, lidia (2004). traspasar los límites del diccionario. 紀要論文(els), 36, 251-275. sala caja, lidia (2015). actitudes de estudiantes y profesores hacia los diccionarios electrónicos portátiles. en yuko morimoto & maría victoria pavón lucero (eds.), la enseñanza de ele centrada en el alumno (pp. 855-862). madrid, españa: asele. suárez vega, carla (2014). el cómic y la novela gráfica en el aula de ele. (memoria de máster). universidad de oviedo, oviedo, españa. tapiador hernández, beatriz, & fonseca mora, carmen (2015). el uso de la música para el desarrollo de la fluidez lectora: motivación y cognición. marcoele, 21, 27-46. takase, atsuko (2004). effects of eliminating some demotivating factors in reading english extensively. en malcolm swanson & kent hill (eds.), jalt 2003 conference proceedings (pp. 95-103). tokio, japón: the japan association for language teaching. téllez muñoz, josé antonio (2005). la comprensión de los textos escritos y la psicología cognitiva. madrid, españa: dykinson. ullah, mohib, & fatema, sayeda (2013). why some students are less motivated in reading classes at tertiary level in bangladesh. english language teaching, 6(5), 129-140. wen, zhisheng (2016). working memory and second language learning. towards an integrated approach. bristol, reino unido: multilingual matters. maría del carmen méndez santos, universitat d’alacant macms@ua.es es maría del carmen méndez santos es licenciada en filología hispánica (2004) y doctora en morfología del español (2011) por la universidade de vigo. ha sido lectora aecid en la yerevan state university de armenia. su perfil internacional se completa con estancias laborales en universidades de rumanía, ucrania, japón e irlanda. actualmente es profesora ayudante doctora en la universidad de alicante donde forma parte del grupo de investigación acqua (adquisición y enseñanza de segundas lenguas y lenguas extranjeras). es parte de la junta de la asociación para la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera (asele). en maría del carmen méndez santos holds a bachelor’s degree in hispanic philology (2004) and a doctorate in spanish morphology (2011) from the university of vigo. she has been a reader aecid at the yerevan state university of armenia. her international experience further includes work at universities in romania, ukraine, japan, and ireland. she is currently an assistant professor at the universidad de alicante where she is part of the research group acqua (acquisition and teaching of second and foreign languages). she is also a member of the board of the association for the teaching of spanish as a foreign language (asele). it maría del carmen méndez santos è laureata in filologia spagnola (2004) e ha conseguito un dottorato in morfologia dello spagnolo (2011) presso la universidad de vigo. è stata lettrice aecid presso la yerevan state university in armenia. il suo profilo internazionale si completa con gli incarichi presso università della romania, dell’ucraina, del giappone e dell’irlanda. attualmente è ricercatrice presso l’universidad de alicante dove fa parte del gruppo di ricerca acqua (adquisición y enseñanza de segundas lenguas y lenguas extranjeras). è inoltre membro del consiglio della asociación para la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera (asele). https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=581025 nomdedeu rull, antoni (2011). el uso del diccionario en el aula de e/le: problemas y posibles soluciones. foroele, 7, 1-10. torregrossa_4.2 euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  4,  issue  2,  december  2017,  pages  140-­‐145   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.7.114   www.e-­‐journall.org   ©  torregrossa  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.       the  volume  il  parlato  in  (italiano)  l2:  aspetti  pragmatici  e  prosodici  [(italian)  l2  spoken  discourse:   prosodic  and  pragmatic  aspects],  edited  by  marina  chini,  is  based  on  papers  presented  at  the  homonymous   international  conference  held  at  the  university  of  pavia.     the   main   aim   of   the   volume   is   to   investigate   how   pragmatic   categories   are   expressed   morphosyntactically   and   prosodically   in   different   interlanguages.   the   articles   contained   in   the   volume   examine   the   l2   acquisition   of   pragmatics   and   its   linguistic   encoding   on   three   different   levels.   first,   some   articles  account  for  the  structuring  of  l2  utterances  according  to  informational  criteria  (e.g.,  topic/comment   and   given/new)   –   an   area   of   research   to   which   the   pavia   project   on   l2   italian   has   made   significant   contributions   (andorno,   2000;   chini,   2010;   giacalone   ramat,   2003).   on   the   discourse   level,   other   articles   investigate   the   linguistic  means   used   by   l2   learners   to   achieve   discourse   cohesion   and   coherence.   finally,   some  contributions  focus  on  the  expression  of  non-­‐literal  forms  of  communication,  such  as  sarcasm  or  lying.                                                                                                                               *  contact:  jacopo.torregrossa@uni-­‐hamburg.de         chini,  marina  (a  cura  di).  (2015).  il  parlato  in  (italiano)  l2:aspetti   pragmatici  e  prosodici.  [(italian)  l2  spoken  discourse:  prosodic  and   pragmatic  aspects].  milano,  italia:  franco  angeli.       jacopo  torregrossa*1   university  of  hamburg     book  review     received  29  october  2017;  received  in  revised  version  20  december  2017;  accepted  22  december  2017     abstract   en the volume edited by marina chini serves as a forum for discussion among scholars working in interlanguage prosody and pragmatics. pragmatics is understood here in a broad sense, encompassing the encoding of informational notions in sentence structure, categories of discourse management, and features of discourse interactions in educational settings. in this review i provide an overall evaluation of the volume together with a brief summary of the individual contributions. key words: l2 prosody, l2 pragmatics, interaction in l2, information structure, discourse structure es este volumen, editado por marina chini, sirve como foro para la discusión entre académicos cuyas investigaciones se centran en la prosodia y pragmática entre una lengua y otra. aquí se entiende la pragmática en un sentido amplio, incluyendo la codificación de los elementos que definen la estructura informativa en una frase, categorías de la gestión de discurso y características de interacciones discursivas en ambientes educativos. en esta reseña doy una evaluación general del volumen, además de un breve resumen de las contribuciones individuales. palabras clave: prosodia l2, pragmática l2, interacción en l2, estructura informativa, estructura del discurso it il volume curato da marina chini funge da forum di discussione per gli studiosi di prosodia e pragmatica dell’interlingua. la pragmatica viene qui intesa in senso lato, ed include i concetti quali la codifica degli elementi che definiscono la struttura informativa nella frase, le categorie di gestione del discorso, le caratteristiche delle interazioni discorsive in ambiti educativi. questa recensione offre una valutazione complessiva del volume accompagnata da un breve riassunto dei singoli contributi. parole chiave:  prosodia l2, pragmatica l2, interazione in l2, struttura informativa, struttura del discorso review:  l2  spoken  discourse   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  140-­‐145   141   the  investigations  of  l2  prosody  contained  in  the  volume  involve  all  three  domains  in  the  acquisition   of  pragmatics  (ranging  from  the  analysis  of  single  utterances  to  the  management  of  non-­‐literal  meanings   in   discourse),   and   this   ultimately   adds   to   the   coherence   of   the  whole   book.  many   of   these   contributions   give   particular  attention  to   the  acquisition  of  suprasegmental  (prosodic)   features.  although   initially  disregarded   in  favor  of  the  analysis  of  l2  speech  at  the  segmental  level  (rasier  &  hiligsmann,  2007),  this  area  of  research   has  received  increasing  attention  over  the  last  few  years.    the  volume  represents  a  significant  contribution  to   our  understanding  of  l2  prosody.       the  book  has  been  conceived  as  a  platform  for  discussions  on  interlanguage  prosody  and  pragmatics   as  well  as  the  factors  affecting  its  variation  across  and  within  learners.  the  articles  consider  a  variety  of  these   factors,  ranging  from  more  traditional  ones  related  to  the  role  of  l2  proficiency,  the  type  of  l1-­‐l2  pair  and  the   intercultural  dimension   (bettoni,  2006),   to  more  unexplored  ones   such  as   the   type  of   acquisitional   context   (e.g.,   spontaneous   acquisition   vs.   guided   learning)   or   literacy   practices   (see   also   bongartz   &   torregrossa,   2017   on   school   biliteracy   programs).   in   addition,   the   contributions   address   several  methodological   issues.   for  example,   given   its   strong   focus  on  communicative   competence   in  l2,   the  volume  provides  an  excellent   overview   of   elicitation   tasks,   which   are   both   spontaneous   (e.g.,   classroom   interactions)   and   semi-­‐ spontaneous  (e.g.,  production  of  narratives,  map  tasks)  in  nature.  moreover,  some  authors  engage  in  critical   reflections  on  the  nature  of  the  interactional  tasks  and  the  factors  that  contribute  to  their  complexity.  other   methodological   considerations   concern   the   prosodic   analysis   of   the   data,   including   the   formulation   of   a   complex  index  for  assessing  l2  prosodic  competence.       given  the  vast  array  of  topics  covered,  this  volume  is  intended  for  a  diverse  audience,  ranging  from   researchers  interested  in  theoretical  and  methodological  issues  involved  in  the  description  of  interlanguages   and   their   developmental   stages,   to   scholars   whose   research   is   more   concerned   with   the   optimization   of   language  teaching  practices.  for  example,   the  volume  implicitly   investigates  which  pedagogical  practices  or   language  tasks  most  significantly  account  for  the  observed  variation  in  l2  acquisition.       the  book  consists  of  14  contributions  preceded  by  an  introduction,  in  which  the  editor  marina  chini   outlines   the  main   topics   around  which   the   following   papers   are   organized:   prosodic   aspects   (part   i   of   the   volume),  pragmatic  aspects  (part  ii)  and  interactional  and  conversational  features  of  l2  discourse  (part  iii).   this   tripartite   structure   renders   the   book   well   organized.   moreover,   the   fact   that   some   issues   (e.g.,   the   expression  of   information   structure)   and  methodologies   (e.g.,   dialogic   tasks)   are   considered  across   several   contributions   provides   coherence   and   clarity   to   the   book   as   a   whole.   finally,   it   is   remarkable   that   the   ‘multilingual   approach’   that   informs   the   content  of   the  various   contributions   is   also   reflected  at   the   formal   level:  some  papers  are  written  in  italian  (with  an  abstract  in  english)  and  others  are  written  in  english  (with   an  abstract   in   italian).   in  what   follows,   i  provide  a  brief  summary  of  each  chapter,  adhering  to  the  order   in   which  they  appear  in  the  volume.     in   “prosodic   expression   of   sarcasm   in   l2   english,”   aoju   chen   and   diantha   de   jong   analyze   the   prosodic  encoding  of  sarcasm  in  the  oral  production  of  l1  dutch/l2  english  speakers  of  different  proficiency   levels.  sarcastic  and  non-­‐sarcastic  sentences  were  elicited  by  means  of  a   ‘telephone  conversation’   task.  the   sarcastic  sentences  were  of  different  types,  including  declaratives  (simple  or  preceded  by  a  specific  discourse   marker),  exclamations  and  tag  questions.  native  english  speakers  were  then  asked  to  identify  the  degree  of   sarcasm  expressed  by  each  sentence.  the  results   indicate   that  l2   learners  do  not   fully  master   the  prosodic   means   to   encode   sarcasm   in   english.   moreover,   the   authors   report   on   the   effects   of   the   type   of   stimulus,   language  proficiency  and  aptitude.     in  “intonazione,  ritmo  e  atti  linguistici.  l’italiano  l2  di  apprendenti  senegalesi  con  diversi  modelli  di   literacy,”  marta  maffia  uses  an  elicited  imitation  task  to  investigates  the  extent  to  which  senegalese  speakers   with   low   proficiency   in   l2   italian   are   able   to   reproduce   the   intonation   and   rhythmic   structure   of   italian   sentences.   the   participants   experienced   different   literacy   practices   in   their   home   country:   one   group   attended  french  schools  –  focused  on  the  teaching  of  reading  and  writing  –,  while  the  other  group  attended   koranic   schools,  where  orally-­‐based   learning  was   emphasized   (e.g.,   reciting   of   the  koran).  by  means  of   an   algorithm,  the  author  calculates  the  degree  to  which  the  prosodic  contour  of  l2  utterances  differs   from  the   one  produced  by  l1  italian  speakers.  the  results  reveal  the  crucial  role  of  the  type  of  literacy  instruction  for   l2  prosodic  competence.  the  participants   from  the  koranic   schools  appear  more  sensitive   to  prosodic  and   rhythmic  aspects  of  speech  production  than  the  participants  from  the  french  schools,  who  are  more  focused   on  reproduction  at  the  segmental  level,  and  the  prosodic  contours  of  the  former  more  closely  mirror  those  of   native  italian  speakers.  moreover,  when  unable  to  reproduce  individual  words,  the  participants  from  koranic   schools  make  extensive  use  of  ‘mumbling’  as  a  strategy  to  maintain  the  rhythmical  structure  of  the  sentence.     torregrossa   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  140-­‐145  142   in  “misurare  la  competenza  prosodica.  le  richieste  in  italiano  e  in  inglese  lingue  straniere,”  marilisa   vitale,  elisa  pellegrino,  anna  de  meo  and  margaret  rasulo  offer  a  methodological  contribution:  they  elaborate   a  formula  that  enables  researchers  to  calculate  the  degree  of  similarity  between  two  intonation  contours.  this   formula   compares   two   (or  more)   intonation   contours   in   terms   of   their   frequency   values,   the   durations   of   certain   intonational  events  and  the  number  of   incorrectly  positioned  intonational  peaks.  by  this  means,   the   authors   are   able   to   assess   developmental   sequences   –   considering   the   contours   produced   by   learners   of   different  proficiency  levels  and  the  native  contours  –  and  patterns  of  l1  influence  of  l2  speech  –  comparing   the  learners’  contours  in  their  l1  and  l2.  the  authors  test  the  formula  on  the  production  of  questions  (open,   closed   and   alternative)   in   l2   italian   (l1   english)   and   l2   english   (l1   italian).   the   results   show   a   developmental   progression   in   l2   prosody,   especially   in   correspondence   with   closed   questions   in   both   interlanguages.   moreover,   the   production   of   questions   in   l2   english   is   seen   to   be   more   sensitive   to   l1   influence.       in   “mentire   in  due   lingue:   la  prosodia  del  parlato   ingannevole   in   italiano  e   cinese  l1/l2,”  anna  de   meo   and   ying   xu   analyze   deceptive   speech   across   languages   (italian   vs.   chinese)   and   interlanguages   (l2   italian   vs.   l2   chinese).   the   data  were   elicited   using   a   false   opinion   paradigm:   speakers  were   required   to   discuss  a  certain  social  issue  in  line  with  their  true  opinion  in  some  cases,  and  opposite  to  their  true  opinion   in  others.  the  analysis  is  based  on  various  (potential)  prosodic  indicators  of  deception.  the  results  show  that   some  of  these  indicators  are  sensitive  to  cross-­‐linguistic  difference  between  italian  and  chinese  (e.g.,  duration   of  articulated  speech  sequences),  others  to  the  l1  vs.  l2  distinction  (e.g.,  response  latency  in  l1  chinese  vs.  l2   italian),  and  still  others  to  the  truth  of  the  conveyed  message  (e.g.,  occurrence  of  pauses   in  l2  chinese  true   statements  vs.  l2  chinese  false  statements).       in   “prosody   and   information   status   in   italian   and  german   l2   intonation,”   cinzia   avesani,   giuliano   bocci,   mario   vayra   and   alessandra   zappoli   investigate   the   prosodic   marking   of   information   structure   (givenness,  newness  and  contrast)  in  l2  german  (l1  italian)  and  l2  italian  (l1  german).  while  in  italian  the   distribution  of  pitch  accents  is  constrained  only  by  metrical  prosodic  structure,  in  german  pragmatic  factors   can  override  metrical  principles:  given  information  can  be  deaccented  even  if  it  occurs  at  the  right  edge  of  a   metrical  domain.  deaccentuation   can   thus  be   classified  as   a  marked   structure.  the  analysis   in   the  paper   is   based  on  noun-­‐adjective  sequences  as  produced  during  an  alignment  task,  in  which  the  information  status  of   the   noun   and   the   adjective   were   manipulated.   the   results   show   that   l2   italian   speakers   master   the   distribution  of  pitch  accents  in  italian  earlier  than  l2  german  speakers  do  in  german.  the  authors  interpret   this  finding  in  light  of  later  acquisition  of  marked  structures  in  german.     in   “la   trascrizione   di   varietà   di   apprendimento   iniziali,”   jacopo   saturno   provides   methodological   guidelines  for  the  transcription  of  l2  speech.  in  particular,  the  author  emphasizes  the  limits  of  orthographic   transcriptions,  which  are  usually  adapted  to  the  forms  of  the  target  language  and  are  thus  not  able  to  account   for   regularities   within   interlanguages.   on   the   contrary,   phonetic   transcriptions   reflect   the   learners’   production   per   se   and   are   less   sensitive   to   overinterpretations   by   researchers.   for   example,   the   use   of   phonetic   transcriptions   may   be   useful   to   identify   basic   forms   or   observe   the   emergence   of   certain   morphological   oppositions   in   the   early   stages   of   l2   development.   the   author   shows   that   these   methodological   issues   are  particularly   relevant  when   transcribing   early   l2  productions  of  morphologically   complex  languages  like  polish,  just  as  the  one  collected  in  the  villa  project,  from  which  the  data  discussed  in   the  paper  are  drawn.     “la  periferia   sinistra  nell’interlingua  degli   apprendenti   ispanofoni  di   italiano  l2:   i   temi   sospesi”  by   margarita  borreguero  zuloaga  marks  the  beginning  of  part  ii  and  the  emphasis  of  pragmatic  aspects.  drawing   on   a   corpus   of   symmetrical   and   asymmetrical   semi-­‐spontaneous   conversations,   the   author   analyzes   the   production  of  hanging  topics  (ht)  by  l2  italian  speakers  (l1  spanish)  of  different  levels  of  proficiency.  the   l2   acquisition   of   hts   exhibits   a   clear   developmental   sequence,  which   takes   into   account   both   the   type   of   constituent  involved  (e.g.,  pronouns  vs.  full  nouns/prepositional  phrases)  and  their  pragmatic  function.  while   in  initial  varieties  hts  are  mainly  first  person  singular  pronouns,  which  mark  the  speaker  as  a  deictic  center,   intermediate   learners   start   to  make  use  of   full   nouns.  moreover,   these   forms  are  usually   associated  with  a   raising   intonation,   which   seems   to   indicate   ongoing   language   planning.   finally,   among   advanced   learners,   hts  achieve  their  informational  function  of  introducing  a  new  discourse  topic,  thus  approximating  the  native   use.     in  “ipotesi  di  sviluppo  di  ordini  sintattici  marcati   in  giovanissimi  apprendenti  di   italiano  l2,”  elena   nuzzo  studies   the  emergence  of  vs  structures   in   the  oral  production  of   immigrant   children,   ranging   in  age   from   6   to   12   years   old   and   learning   italian   as   an   l2.   the   analysis   is   based   on   narrative   production.   review:  l2  spoken  discourse   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  140-­‐145   143   theoretically  couched  within  processability  theory,  the  paper  shows  that  the  target  structure  first  emerges   with  monoargumental  verbs  for  which  vs  is  the  canonical  word  order,  and  then  with  monoargumental  verbs   in   which   the   vs   order   is   motivated   by   considerations   of   information   structure.   lastly,   vs   emerges   in   association  with  biargumental  verbs,  in  which  the  subject  is  focalized  and  the  object  is  either  expressed  by  a   clitic   (or   left-­‐dislocated   clitic   constituent)   or   prosodically  marginalized.   these   structures   have   the   greatest   complexity   because   they   require   the   mastery   of   the   syntax   of   clitics,   the   integration   of   syntax   with   information  structure,  and  the  processing  of  a  greater  number  of  arguments.  moreover,  the  author  observes   the  emergence  of  vs  in  association  with  the  interphrasal  procedure  in  morphological  development.     in  “la  struttura  informativa  dell’enunciato  in  apprendenti  tedescofoni  di  italiano  l2:  apprendimento   spontaneo  e  guidato  a   confronto,”  valentina  repetto  deals  with   the   informational  partitioning  of   sentences   produced   in   italian   by   intermediate   l2   italian   speakers   (l1   german),   who   have   learned   italian   in   two   different   contexts,   i.e.,   spontaneous   vs.   guided   learning.   the   data   consists   of   spontaneous   or   semi-­‐ spontaneous  dialogues  with  native  speakers  either  in  naturalistic  contexts  or  in  language  examinations.  the   results  show  that  all  learners  tend  to  structure  their  utterances  following  a  topic-­‐comment  order,  and  there  is   no  evidence   for  cross-­‐linguistic   inference  of   the  l1  on   the  l2.  however,  a  closer  analysis  of   the  constituent   that   serves  as   topic   reveals   that   guided   learners   tend   to  map   topics  onto   subjects,  which   suggests   that   the   structuring  of  their  sentences  is  sensitive  to  grammatical  constraints.  on  the  contrary,  spontaneous  learners   allow  for  a  greater  variation  of  type  of  topic  constituents  (especially  adverbials  of  setting)  and  appear  more   sensitive  to  discourse-­‐pragmatic  principles.       in   “forme   connettive   nell’italiano   parlato   da   stranieri   e   livelli   di   competenza:   alcune   evidenze   dal   corpus   lips,”   francesca   gallina   shifts   attention   from   sentences   to   discourses,   and   accounts   for   the   use   of   connectives  by  l2  learners  of  italian.  the  data  are  drawn  from  the  lips  corpus,  which  was  created  based  on   oral  texts  (dialogues  and  monologues)  produced  during  proficiency  exams.  in  particular,  the  author  aims  to   establish  a  developmental  sequence  for  the  emergence  of  connectives  in  the  interlanguage  as  well  as  for  the   functions   that   these  connectives  express.  for  example,   connectives  endowed  with  an   interactional   function   (i.e.,   related   to   the   structuring   of   dialogic   interactions,   such   as   expression   of   agreement,   turn   taking   and   request   of   attention)   emerge   earlier   than   connectives   with   a   metatextual   function   (i.e.,   related   to   the   structuring  of  discourse,  such  as  introductions,  conclusions  or  exemplifications),  and  appear  even  in  the  very   early  stages  of  l2  acquisition.  the  author  discusses  the  pedagogical   implications  of  the  study  and  argues   in   favor  of  an  explicit  focus  on  the  use  of  connectives  during  language  teaching.     in   “la   percezione   e   la   correzione   dell’errore   in   italiano   l2:   l’influenza   della   l1   sulla   riparazione   spontanea  di  errori  pragmatici,”  manuela  visigalli  investigates  the  extent  to  which  the  number  and  type  of  l2   self-­‐repairs  are  dependent  on  the  perceived  similarity  between  the  learners’  l1  and  the  target  language.  the   analysis  is  based  on  the  occurrence  of  morphosyntactic  and  pragmatic  repairs  in  the  speech  of  two  groups  of   l2  learners:  l1  german  and  l1  spanish.  the  participants  took  part  in  a  picture  narrative  task  and  were  asked   to  answer  questions  related  to  the  perceived  degree  of  difficulty  of   learning  italian.  although  proficiency   in   italian   was   the   same   in   both   groups,   german   learners’   self-­‐repairs   were   more   oriented   towards   morphosyntactic  forms,  which  correlated  with  their  perceived  degree  of  difficulty  in  learning  italian.  on  the   contrary,   spanish   learners   exhibited   a   stronger   focus   on   pragmatics   (e.g.,   appropriate   use   of   referring   expressions,   register).  the  perceived  similarity  between  the  l1  and  the   target   language  was   found  to   favor   the  automatization  of  l2  morphosyntactic  elements elements,  which  allowed  learners  to  pay  more  attention   to   pragmatics.   the   contribution   “la   difficoltà   interazionale   dei   task:   definizione   operativa   e   risultati   di   ricerca”   by   gabriele   pallotti   and   fabiana   rosi   opens   part   iii   of   the   volume,   which   explores   interactional   features  in  l2  speech.  the  authors  approach  the  issue  from  a  methodological  point  of  view  by  assessing  the   degree  of  complexity  of  different  interactional  tasks.  the  authors  describe  interactional  difficulty  in  terms  of  a   construct  defined  by  three  main  components:  number  of  turns,  amount  of  initiating  moves  and  presence  vs.   absence  of  visual  access.  the  validity  of  this  construct  is  tested  against  the  oral  production  of  native  and  non-­‐ native   italian   speakers   in   various   oral   tasks,   including   film   retelling,   interviews,   problem   solving   tasks,   telephone  tasks  and  map-­‐tasks.  the  authors  order  these  tasks   in  terms  of   their   interactional  difficulty  (film   retelling  <  interview  <  problem  solving  <  map  task  <  telephone  task),  and  show  that  the  outlined  hierarchy   applies  across  the  two  groups  of  speakers  considered  in  the  study  (natives  and  non-­‐natives).  the  results  are   discussed  in  terms  of  implications  for  language  testing.         in  “procedure  conversazionali  e  strategie  comunicative  nell’interazione  nativo/non-­‐nativo  in  italiano   l2:   il   caso   di   apprendenti   cinesi,”   luisa   salvati   accounts   for   l2   production   of   argumentative   texts.   the   starting  point  for  the  author’s  considerations  is  the  analysis  of  the  oral  production  of  l2  italian  speakers  (l1   torregrossa   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  140-­‐145  144   chinese)   involved   in   a   public   debate   with   native   italian   speakers   on   a   socially   relevant   topic.   the   author   notices   that   the   l2   speakers   resort   to   a   simpler   style   of   argumentation   than  monolingual   native   speakers,   which   is   the  result  of  both   limited  communicative  resources  as  well  as   the  avoidance  of  contradiction  with   one’s  opponents  –  in  line  with  a  behavioral  norm  existing  in  the  culture  of  origin.  the  results  of  the  study  are   discussed  in  light  of  the  fundamental  role  of  intercultural  practices  in  l2  acquisition.  the  author  argues  that   successful   l2   communication   should   be   informed   by   awareness   of   the   l2   cultural   grammar,   including,   for   example,  an  understanding  of  how  argumentative  texts  are  structured  in  the  target  language,  which  inference   rules  are  admitted,  and  which  linguistic  and  extra-­‐linguistic  behaviors  are  usually  expected.     in   “cooperare   in   l2.   le   conversazioni   tra   bambini   italofoni   e   non   italofoni   in   alcune   situazioni   di   apprendimento   cooperativo,”   silvia   sordella   shows   how   interactional   tasks   can   be   used   as   tools   for   facilitating   language   learning   in   multilingual   elementary   classes.   in   particular,   the   author   provides   some   examples  of   the  negotiation  of  meaning  among  native  and  non-­‐native  speakers  during  cooperative   learning   activities.  in  these  activities,  children  work  in  groups  and  each  child  is  responsible  for  the  achievement  of  a   learning   goal.   all   children   (including   those   with   limited   language   proficiency)   are   thus   encouraged   to   optimize  their  communicational  strategies,  modelling  their  production  on  the  input  from  their  peers,  and  thus   (co-­‐)constructing  meaning   in   interaction.   the   contribution   is   based   on   the   analysis   of   a   child’s   l2-­‐speech   across  different  classroom  activities  (such  as  vocabulary  or  reading  tasks).  the  author  shows  that  cooperative   learning  enhances  the  child’s  linguistic  production.       as   previously   noted,   the   volume   edited   by   marina   chini   reflects   a   collaborative   effort   among   researchers  working  on  interlanguage  prosody  and  pragmatics.  the  contributions  address  central  questions   in  l2  acquisition  research,   in  particular,  what   it  means   for  a   learner   to  be  proficient   in  a  l2,  how   language   proficiency  can  be  operationalized,  which  factors  affect  l2  development,  and  which  teaching  practices  more   effectively   foster   l2   acquisition.   these   topics   are   investigated   from   a   variety   of   perspectives   and   with   diversity   in   expertise   (including   expertise   from   researchers   and   teachers),   and   they   are   analyzed   within   different   theoretical   frameworks   (such   as   processability   theory   and   the   complexity,   accuracy   and   fluency   model   of   l2   acquisition).   on   the   one   hand,   this   wealth   of   information   provides   a   very   good   overview   of   studies  on  l2  acquisition  and  opens  up  new  domains  of  research.  the  discussion  can  be  extended  in  several   directions   to   include,   for   instance,   the   assessment   of   developmental   sequences   at   the   syntax-­‐discourse-­‐ prosody  interface  or  the  validation  of  the  analyses  reported  in  the  volume  with  acquisitional  data  from  other   languages.   on   the   other   hand,   the   prodigious   amount   of   variety   found   in   the   volume   may   render   the   exposition  dense  at  times,  especially  for  readers  who  are  not  familiar  with  the  topics  covered.  nevertheless,   each   contribution   is   effective   in   providing   a   detailed   state-­‐of-­‐the-­‐art   survey   of   the   research   questions,   previous   findings   and   employed   methodologies.   in   addition,   the   tripartite   structure   (prosodic   and   phonological   aspects,   pragmatic   aspects   and   aspects   of   interaction   and   conversation   in   l2)   as  well   as   the   introduction  by  marina  chini  ensure  that  the  volume  is  in  general  clearly  organized  and  very  readable.   references       andorno,   cecilia   (2000).   focalizzatori   tra   connessione   e   messa   a   fuoco.   il   punto   di   vista   delle   varietà   di   apprendimento.  milano,  italia:  franco  angeli.     bettoni,  camilla  (2006).  usare  un’altra  lingua.  guida  alla  pragmatica  interculturale.  roma/bari,  italia:  laterza.     bongartz,   christiane,   &   torregrossa,   jacopo   (2017).   the   effects   of   balanced   biliteracy   on   greek-­‐german   bilingual   children’s   secondary   discourse   abilities.   international   journal   of   bilingual   education   and   bilingualism.  doi:  10.1080/13670050.2017.1355888.     chini,  marina  (ed.).  (2010).  topic,  struttura  dell’informazione  e  acquisizione  linguistica.  milano,  italia:  franco   angeli.     giacalone-­‐ramat,  anna  (ed.).  (2003).  verso  l’italiano.  percorsi  e  strategie  d’acquisizione.  roma,  italia:  carocci.     rasier,   laurent,   &   hiligsmann,   philippe   (2007).   prosodic   transfer   from   l1   to   l2.   theoretical   and   methodological  issues.  nouveaux  cahiers  de  linguistique  française,  28,  41-­‐66.     review:  l2  spoken  discourse   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  140-­‐145   145   jacopo torregrossa, university of hamburg jacopo.torregrossa@uni-hamburg.de en jacopo torregrossa is professor of romance linguistics at the university of hamburg. his research interests focus on monolingual and bilingual acquisition of linguistic phenomena at the syntax-semantics and syntax-phonology interface and the interaction between language, literacy, and cognitive abilities. since january 2017 he has worked as the coprincipal investigator for the project “reference management in bilingual narratives” of the collaborative research center 1252 “prominence in language” at the university of cologne,” at the university of cologne, in collaboration with professor christiane bongartz. es jacopo torregrossa es profesor de lingüística románica en la universidad de hamburgo. su línea de investigación se centra en la adquisición monolingüe y bilingüe de fenómenos lingüísticos en la interrelación de sintaxis-semántica y sintaxis-fonología y la interacción entre habilidades cognitivas, literacidad y lingüísticas. desde enero de 2017 es el investigador principal asociado del proyecto “reference management in bilingual narratives” del centro de investigación colaborativa 1252 “prominence in language” de la universidad de colonia, en colaboración con la profesora christiane bongartz. it jacopo torregrossa è professore di linguistica romanza all’università di amburgo. la sua ricerca è incentrata sull’acquisizione monolingue e bilingue di fenomeni linguistici a livello sintattico-semantico e sintattico-fonologico e, sull’interazione tra la lingua, contesti educativi e le abilità cognitive. da gennaio 2017 è co-responsabile del progetto “reference management in bilingual narratives” del centro di ricerca collaborativo 1252 “prominence in language,” presso l’università di colonia, in collaborazione con la professoressa christiane bongartz. microsoft word 8. waddington _7.1.docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  7,  issue  1,  february  2020,  124-­‐144   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.11.188   www.e-­‐journall.org     © waddington 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       motivating  self  and  others  through  a  whole-­‐school  storytelling  project:   authentic  language  &  literacy  development         julie  waddington     university  of  girona         received  1  may  2019;  received  in  revised  form  22  july  2019;  accepted  11  october  2019   abstract en this study reports on a whole-school project carried out with preschool and primary children, taking a whole-language approach to literacy development, through a storytelling methodology which uses authentic picturebooks and peer modelling. this article presents the results of an exploratory mixed methods study conducted over a three-year period with the older (10-12-year-old) participants in the project (n=27). within an action research framework, data was collected from field notes of classroom observations, video recorded sessions, questionnaires and interviews with students and teachers. the study aims to assess the motivational effect of the storytelling project on learners, identify the learning outcomes generated and identify strategies that were particularly effective in generating such outcomes. through a process-oriented approach, the findings verify the motivational effect of the storytelling project. these findings also help bridge the gap between theory and practice in motivational research and contribute to the growing body of literature on the use of authentic picturebooks in the l2 classroom and the potential benefits of peer modelling. key words:   storytelling with picturebooks, peer modelling, reading, authenticity, early foreign language learning, preschool and primary es este estudio presenta un proyecto whole-school implementado con alumnado de educación infantil y primaria. el proyecto, basado en un enfoque de lenguaje integral, emplea una metodología storytelling con álbumes ilustrados auténticos y un uso estratégico de modelaje por pares. este artículo expone los resultados de un estudio de métodos mixtos realizado con los/las participantes más mayores (10-12 años, n = 27) durante un periodo de tres años. en el marco de la investigación-acción, los datos recopilados provienen de observaciones y grabaciones en el aula, cuestionarios y entrevistas con estudiantes y docentes. el estudio evalúa el efecto motivador del proyecto e identifica los resultados del aprendizaje y las estrategias que han demostrado ser eficaces en la producción de estos resultados. desde un enfoque orientado al proceso, los hallazgos verifican el efecto motivador en el alumnado. estos resultados ayudan a reducir la distancia entre la teoría y la práctica en la investigación motivacional, a la vez que contribuyen a la literatura sobre el uso de álbumes ilustrados auténticos en la clase de l2 y los beneficios del modelaje por pares. palabras clave: storytelling con álbumes ilustrados; modelaje por pares; lectura; autenticidad; aprendizaje de idiomas extranjeros en edades tempranas; educación infantil y primaria it questo studio presenta un progetto che ha coinvolto un’intera scuola e i bambini della scuola dell'infanzia e della scuola primaria. il progetto si basa sia sull'approccio whole language per lo sviluppo dell’alfabetizzazione attraverso la metodologia dello storytelling con l'uso di libri illustrati autentici e del peer modelling. questo articolo presenta i risultati di una ricerca condotta con metodi misti che ha coinvolto i bambini più grandi (10-12 anni, n = 27) nell'arco di tre anni. nel quadro della ricerca-azione, ho raccolto dati scaturiti da osservazioni in classe e sessioni videoregistrate, questionari e interviste con studenti e insegnanti. l’obiettivo dello studio è valutare l'effetto motivazionale del progetto di storytelling sui discenti, individuare i risultati di apprendimento e le strategie rivelatesi efficaci nel produrre tali risultati. attraverso un approccio orientato al processo, i risultati verificano l'effetto motivazionale dello storytelling e uniscono la teoria e la pratica nella ricerca motivazionale contribuendo alla letteratura sull'uso di libri illustrati autentici nelle classi di l2 e i potenziali benefici del peer modelling. parole chiave: storytelling con libri illustrati, peer modelling, lettura, autenticità, apprendimento precoce della lingua straniera, scuola dell'infanzia e scuola primaria. *    julie  waddington,  university  of  girona                    julie.waddington@udg.edu a  whole-­‐school  storytelling  project   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 125   1.  introduction     within  a  whole  language  approach  to  literacy  development  (galda,  liang,  &  cullinan,  2016;  martinez   &  mcgee,  2000),  reading  is  not  regarded  as  a  separate  skill  to  be  developed  once  the  basics  of  the  language   have   been   acquired;   instead,   it   is   conceived   as   a   critical   part   of   the   language   learning   process   itself.   furthermore,  and   from  a  socio-­‐constructivist  approach   to   learning,   this  process   is  an  active  undertaking   in   which   we   learn   language   by   using   it   (bruner,   1983)   in   interactive   experiences   involving   social   and   collaborative   exchanges   with   others   (vygotsky,   1978).   authentic   children’s   literature   can   provide   a   rich   starting   point   for   interactive   storytelling   sessions   by   engaging   children’s   interest   on   the   one   hand   and   encouraging  emerging  literacy  skills  on  the  other  (brand,  2006;  campbell,  2001;  martinez  &  mcgee,  2000).     this   paper   reports   on   a   whole-­‐school   project   that   connected   literacy   development   with   foreign   language  learning  by  aligning  l3  learning  with  strategies  already  found  to  be  effective  in  promoting  learning   and   development   in   l1   and   l2.   the   project   was   implemented   in   a   rural   preschool/primary   school   in   catalonia  where  catalan  is  the  main  language  of  instruction  (l1)  and  spanish  is  learned  as  an  l2.  while  actual   usage  and  knowledge  of  these  two  languages  depends  on  the  home  environment  of  each  student,  the  school   context   provides   students   with   an   education   that   aims   to   develop   competence   in   both   languages   (departament   d’ensenyament,   2015b,   2016).   in   addition,   and   in   line   with   curricular   guidelines,   students   begin  to  learn  english  as  a  foreign  language,  referred  to  here  as  l3  (departament  d’ensenyament,  2015a).     consistent  with  regular  practice  in  the  region,  children  in  the  preschool  programme  (ages  3-­‐5)  have   their   own   annex   within   the   school   compound.   this   enables   teachers   from   different   educational   stages   to   maintain  close  contact  and  coordinate  activities  bringing  children  from  preschool  and  primary  education  (6-­‐ 12  years  old)  together.  capitalizing  on  this  situation,  the  school  places  considerable  emphasis  on  peer-­‐to-­‐peer   work   and   coordinated   activities   in  which   older   children   become   role  models   for   their   younger   peers.   the   primary  school’s  l1/l2  literacy  programme  includes  regular  activities  in  which  older  children  read  stories  to   their  peers,   including  students   from  the   lower  years  of  primary  and   the  younger  children   in   the  preschool.   this  established  practice  has  generated  positive  results  for  the  school,  particularly  in  promoting  the  following   learning  outcomes:  positive  attitudes  toward  reading,  effective  oral  communication  skills,  and  interpersonal   and  intrapersonal  competence.  these  results  support  the  theoretical  arguments  advanced  in  favour  of  using   peer  modelling   in   education,   particularly   seeing   as   it   stimulates  positive   self-­‐efficacy  beliefs   (artino,   2012;   bandura,  1977).  on  such  accounts,  observing  peers  carrying  out  what   is  perceived   to  be  a  challenging   task   encourages   learners   to   believe   that   they  will   also   be   able   to   achieve   similar   goals   in   the   future.   given   the   consistently   positive   results   obtained   using   peer   modelling   strategies   in   l1/l2   literacy   development,   the   school   decided   to   implement   a   new   project   replicating   some   of   the   aspects   of   the   peer-­‐to-­‐peer   reading   programme,  while  adapting   it   to   the  challenges  of   introducing  an  l3   (i.e.,  english),  as  explained   in   the   first   sub-­‐section  (context)  of  the  methodology  described  below.     in   the   first   instance,   the   project   aimed   to   generate   similar   outcomes   to   those   resulting   from   the   l1/l2  programme  (i.e.,  positive  attitudes  to  reading,  effective  oral  communication  skills,  and  interpersonal  &   intrapersonal   competence),  while   also   aiming   to   promote   positive   attitudes   toward   the   foreign   language.   i   carried   out   an   initial   study   focusing   on   the   attitudinal   aspect   of   the   programme.   within   a   qualitative   framework,   the   study   explored   the   effect   of   the   project   on   the   students’   emerging   self-­‐concepts   as   foreign   language   learners   and   assessed   changes   in   self-­‐efficacy  beliefs   prior   to   and   after   completion  of   the  project   (waddington,   2019).   results   from   this   previous   study   highlighted   the   way   in   which   debilitating   learner   attributions   often   impeded   the   emergence   of   positive   foreign   language   self-­‐concepts.   three   main   explanations   for   low   self-­‐efficacy   levels   emerged:   perceived   weaknesses   in   communication   skills/comprehensibility,   anxieties   about   pronunciation/accent   and   identity-­‐related   issues/competing   languages.  results  showed  significant  increases  in  self-­‐efficacy  beliefs  after  project  implementation  and  more   positive  attitudes   toward   foreign   language   learning.  these   initial  results  encouraged  the  school   to  continue   with  the  project  and  to  include  it  as  a  permanent  feature  of  their  language  and  literacy  programme.     the  study  presented  in  this  paper  aims  to  build  on  the  findings  of  the  previous  study  by  focusing  on   the   effects   of   the   whole-­‐school   and   whole   language   literacy   programme   on   learners.   specifically,   and   as   discussed  in  detail  in  the  methodology  section,  the  study  aimed  to:       -­‐ assess  the  motivational  effect  of  the  reading  project  on  learners,       -­‐ identify  the  learning  outcomes  generated,  and   -­‐ identify  strategies  observed  to  be  particularly  effective  in  generating  the  observed  outcomes.   waddington   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 126   2.  theoretical  perspectives  and  literature  review   2.1.  language  and  literacy  development       considering   the   development   of   reading   as   part   of   a   student’s   global   development   presents   challenges  that  go  well  beyond  language,  as  emphasised  by  gail  ellis  (2010)  in  a  paper  that  focused  on  lower   secondary  school  students  (ages  11-­‐14).  the  main  challenges  ellis  highlights  are:  the  mixed  levels  of  language   skills   and   knowledge,  which   can   vary   considerably  within   a   group;   the  maintenance   of   learner  motivation   over   extended   periods   of   time;   the   selection   of   age-­‐appropriate,   but   linguistically   accessible  material,   and   students’   role   in   selecting   such  material;   the  development  of   effective   reading   strategies;   the   cultivation  of   positive  attitudes  and  self-­‐confidence;  and  the  development  of  active  citizens.  in  relation  to  this  latter  point,   ellis   also   places   considerable   emphasis   on   the   need   to   build   ‘communities   of   readers’   and   to   create   opportunities   for   students   to   share   their   reading   experiences  with   each   other.   summing  up   the   challenges   presented,  two  principle  lines  of  action  emerge:     -­‐ selecting  appropriate  and  motivating  reading  material,  and   -­‐ providing  ideal  motivational  conditions  while  developing  learning  strategies.       2.2.  motivation   the   question   of   motivation   and   the   development   of   effective   learning   strategies   is   particularly   relevant   to   the   focus   of   this   present   study.   influenced   by   behaviourist   approaches,   early   theories   of   motivation   in  education   tended   to  emphasise   the   transitive  nature  of   learning,  understanding   the   teacher’s   role  as   that  of  a  motivator  and  key  agent   responsible   for  stimulating  student   learning   (williams,  mercer,  &   ryan,   2016).   increasing   attention   to   the   learner’s   central   role   in   the   learning   process   and   to   the   need   to   increase  learner  participation  and  autonomy  from  early  ages  (ellis  &  ibrahim,  2015)  has  led  to  the  emergence   of  more   situated   and   complex   approaches   to  motivation   (dörnyei  &  ushioda,   2009),   focusing  more   on   the   learner,   and   suggesting   that   the   mere   application   of   external   stimuli   is   not   enough.   despite   theoretical   advances   in  this   field,  several  authors  have  highlighted  the  gap  between  theory  and  practice  (lasagabaster,   doiz,  &  sierra,  2016;  ryan,  2016;  waddington,  2018).  in  particular,  they  suggest  that  comprehensible  guides   are  needed  to  support  teachers  as  they  endeavour  to  appropriately  and  effectively  incorporate  motivational   strategies  within   their  practice,   in  a  way   that  places   the   learner  at   the  centre  of   the  process.   it   is  with   this   practical   focus   in   mind   that   ellis   (2010)   presents   dörnyei’s   process-­‐oriented   approach   to   motivation   (dörnyei,   2001)   as   an   effective   organisational   tool   for   her   own   study   on   motivating   secondary   school   students  to  read.  the  approach  helps  identify  strategies  corresponding  to  different  components  of  a  holistic   and   learner-­‐based   model   of   motivation:   1)   creating   basic   motivational   conditions,   2)   generating   initial   motivation,   3)   maintaining   and   protecting   motivation,   and   4)   encouraging   positive   retrospective   self-­‐ evaluation.  for  dörnyei  (2001),  successful  language  teaching  practice  must  pay  attention  to  all  components,   including  the  development  of  effective  strategies  to  address  the  different  components  and  subcomponents  of   the  model.  nevertheless,  a   recent  study  exploring  how  primary  school   teachers  understand  and   implement   motivational  strategies  in  the  foreign  language  classroom  shows  a  different  picture  (waddington,  2018):  the   majority   of   strategies   reported   correspond   to   the   third   category   of  maintaining   and   protecting  motivation,   with  the  emphasis  being  on  the  resources  used  and  their  presentation  by  the  teacher  as  strategies  to  break   the  monotony   of   classroom   events   or   increase   the   attractiveness   of   tasks.   although  participants   in   the   study   (primary   school   teachers)   make   some   references   to   strategies   related   to   creating   the   basic   motivational   conditions   and   generating   initial   motivation,   these   are   exceptional   and   generally   under-­‐developed.   finally,   while  teachers  demonstrated  high  awareness  of  the  need  to  encourage  students  and  keep  them  motivated,  no   specific   examples   were   reported   of   strategies   used   to   encourage   positive   self-­‐evaluation.   the   findings   therefore   confirm   the   thesis   advanced   by   previous   authors   that   work   is   needed   to   develop   more   holistic   approaches  to  motivation  and  to  close  the  gap  between  theory  and  practice.  the  findings  also  reveal  an  over-­‐ emphasis   on   attractive   resources   and   a   generalised   view   that   having   fun   equates   with   being   motivated.   although  fun  and  enjoyment  clearly  have  their  place  in  learning—especially  early  learning—they  need  to  be   situated  and  understood  within  an  approach  that  attends  to  all  aspects  of   learning,  as  highlighted  by  diana   england   (2017)   in   a   recent  newsletter   calling   for   a  more   critical   approach   to   ‘having   fun’   in  young   learner   elt.         a  whole-­‐school  storytelling  project   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 127   2.3.  authentic  reading  material:  picture  books     regarding  the  selection  of  appropriate  and  motivating  reading  material,  like  other  authors  discussed   in  more  detail  below,  ellis  (2010)  advocates  the  use  of  authentic  material  to  bridge  the  gap  between  pupils   moving:   from   primary   to   secondary,   from   storytelling   (listening)   to   independent   reading   and   increased   reader   involvement,   from  reading   to   learn  english  and  reading   in  english   for  pleasure,   from  teacher-­‐led  or   controlled  work  to  pupil  led  work,  from  teacher-­‐selected  books  to  pupil-­‐selected  books  and  reading  choices,   among  other  transitions.  in  this  particular  case  (i.e.,  with  a  lower  secondary  school  focus),  authentic  denotes   material   designed  primarily   for   literary   as   opposed   to   language   learning  purposes   and   includes,   but   is   not   limited  to,  novels,  joke  books,  storybooks  and  factual  books.  in  the  primary  and  pre-­‐primary  school  context,   authentic  reading  material  is  often  associated  with  the  use  of  picture  books,  a  genre  that  is  gaining  increasing   acceptance  despite  initial  resistance  prompted  by  the  common  assumption  that  such  books  are  for  babies  and   toddlers   and   in   spite   of   the   scarce   attention   given   to   picture   book   scholarship   (mourão,   2017).   as   in   the   previous   secondary   school   case,   the   term   authentic   when   used   in   relation   to   picturebooks   denotes   the   prioritising   of   artistic/literary   criteria   and   highlights   the   fact   that   the   material   has   not   been   created   or   abridged   in   any   way   for   language   learning/teaching.   the   significance   of   this   point   lies   not   only   in   the   distinction   that   can   be   found   between   controlled   or   graded   language   and   ungraded   or   real   language   use.   instead,  and  as  discussed  at  length  by  mourão  (2016),  the  significance  lies  in  the  authentic  language  use  that   such  material  generates.   overall,  picturebooks  are  not  just  authentic  texts  because  of  the  words  they  contain,  for  they   enable  language  use  through  the  learners’   interpretation  of  the  pictures,  words  and  design,   as  these  elements  come  together  to  produce  a  visual-­‐verbal  narrative  which  is  disregarded   when  there  is  a  focus  on  the  words  only.  (p.  30)     it  is,  then,  the  learners’  interpretation  of  the  combined  visual-­‐verbal  narrative  and  the  language  use   that  this  prompts  that  is  particularly  significant  in  the  language  learning  process,  as  discussed  by  sipe  (1998)   in  a   semiotic  analysis  of  what  happens   internally  when   the   reader/listener   interacts  with   the  visual-­‐verbal   narrative.   on   this   account,   and   within   the   classroom   setting,   the   picture   book   provides   the   context   and   springboard  for  the  generation  of  meaningful  language  work  in  which  the  focus  is  placed  on  meaning  rather   than  language,  and  the  aim  is  to  expand  children’s  listening  comprehension  skills  and  oral  expression  (fleta,   2019).  this  focus  is  closely  aligned  with  whole  language  approaches  to  literacy  development  in  l1  referred  to   earlier  (galda  et  al.,  2016;  martinez  &  mcgee,  2000),  which  promote  the  use  of  authentic  literature  (including   picturebooks)   and   the   integration   of   reading   and   writing   across   the   curriculum.   extending   this   argument   further,   other   studies   emphasise   the   positive   relation   between   interactive   storytelling   sessions⎯with   children  as  actively  engaged  listeners⎯and  emerging  literacy  skills  (brand,  2006;  campbell,  2001;  martinez   &  mcgee,  2000).     in   the   context   of   second   language   learning,  many   authors   regard   storytelling   and   picturebooks   as   much  more  than  one  of   the  multitude  of  activities  and  resources  available   to   the   language  teacher.   instead,   and   in  marked  contrast,   they  consider   the  storytelling  process  enacted  with  the  support  of  picturebooks  as   the   keystone   that   enables   and   encourages   natural   language   acquisition   (cameron,   2001;   ellis   &   brewster,   2014;   goshn,   2013).   as   a   result,   a   growing   body   of   scholarly   research   has   emerged   to   provide   theoretical   foundations   to   justify   the   implementation   of   storytelling-­‐based   pedagogical   approaches   (fleta   2015,   2019;   mourão,   2012,   2016,   2017),   and   to   provide   teachers   and   early   years   practitioners   with   guidelines   and   practical   ideas   for   implementing   such   an   approach   (ellis   &   brewster,   2014;   goshn,   2013;   jalongo,   2004,   2008),  or  for  supplementing  cross-­‐curricular  activities  (nespeca  &  reeve,  2003).  in  all  the  research  consulted,   emphasis  is  placed  on  the  learner  as  active  agent  in  a  shared,  interactive  process.  while  the  importance  of  this   shared   role   is   highlighted,   nevertheless,   in  most   cases,   the   interactions   are   conceived   and   designed   to   be   teacher-­‐led,   with   an   emphasis   on   the   benefits   generated   in   terms   of   learner   comprehension   and   natural   language  acquisition  (fleta,  2019)  and  on  other  more  specific  skills  such  as  active  listening  (jalongo,  2008).       2.4.  peer  modelling   the  study  presented  in  this  paper  considers  the  learning  outcomes  generated  when  learners  take  on   the  teacher’s  role  and  become  the  leaders  of  the  storytelling  process  with  the  guidance  and  support  of  their   teachers.   in   this   sense,   the   study   aims   to   contribute   towards   research   carried   out   on   the   effects   of   peer   waddington   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 128   modelling   by   considering   the   effects   on   the   learner  who   takes   on   the   role   of  model,   and   the   learner  who   observes.   although   scarce   literature   is   available   discussing   the   benefits   of   peer   modelling   with   younger   learners,  studies  with  older  learners  (i.e.,  university  students)  suggest  that  such  techniques  encourage  more   participation  (mennim,  2017)  and  engagement  (brown,   iyobe,  &  riley,  2013)   in  the   learning  process,  while   also   helping   to   increase  motivation   and   authentic   communication   among   students   (assinder,   1991).   on   a   more  cautionary  note,  results  of  a  study  inspired  by  assinder’s  (1991)  earlier  findings  report  fewer  positive   outcomes  and  warn  against  regarding  methods  as  universally  applicable  panaceas  (spratt  &  leug,  2000).     taking   into   account   the  different   theoretical  perspectives  presented,   the   study   carried  out   aims   to   contribute   to   the   different   lines   of   research   outlined   above,   linking  motivational   theories   on   language   and   literacy  development  with  the  use  of  authentic  children’s  literature  (focusing  on  picturebooks)  as  well  as  the   strategic  deployment  of  peer  modelling  in  the  language  classroom.     3.  methodology   3.1.  context   the  storytelling  programme  was  designed  in  a  way  that  included  the  whole  school,  with  involvement   varying  depending  on  the  educational  stage.  figure  1  provides  a  brief  summary  of  the  activities  carried  out   within   the  project,   as  well   as  a   short  description  of   the  general   aims  at   this  educational   stage  according   to   curricular  standards  (departament  d’ensenyament,  2015b,  2016).         figure 1. stages of cyclical storytelling project   a  whole-­‐school  storytelling  project   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 129   as   we   can   observe   in   figure   1,   the   role   of   the   children   in   preschool,   first   cycle   and  mid-­‐cycle   of   primary  school  was  to  listen  and  interact  with  stories  told  by  upper  cycle  (up)  students  using  picturebooks  in   the  foreign  language  (fl)  they  are  learning.  these  storytelling  sessions  were  delivered  during  the  third  term   of  the  year  during  their  regular  english  class  time:  on  some  days,  instead  of  their  usual  class,  they  received  a   visit  from  up  students  (in  pairs  or  groups  of  3)  who  had  planned  a  session  according  to  the  routine  presented   in  figure  2.         our storytelling circle routine 1) welcoming/greeting the listeners and creating a relaxed atmosphere. 2) introducing key vocabulary/expressions and/or grammatical structures needed to follow the story. 3) narrating the picturebook and encouraging maximum interaction among listeners. 4) a game or activity related to the theme of the story. 5) closing the session and saying goodbye.   figure 2. different phases of storytelling routine. author’s own design (see waddington 2017)   the  preparation  of  these  sessions  was  carried  out  during  the  first  two  terms  of  the  year,  with  one  of   the  two  1-­‐hour  english  classes  per  week  dedicated  to  the  storytelling  project.  the  content  of  these  sessions   grew   out   of   initial   picturebook   selection,   narrative   comprehension   (paris   &   paris,   2003)   and   text   comprehension,   and   was   followed   by   preparation   of   a   storytelling   session   and   the   creation   of   related   materials.   for   the   preparation   stage,   all   groups   followed   the   same   routine   indicated   in   figure   2.   while   students  were   familiar  with   the   routine   from  volunteer   storytelling   sessions,   a  video   recorded  session  was   used  to  model  each  phase  and  to  provide  students  with  an  understanding  of  each  step  of  the  procedure.  the   teacher’s   role  was   to  organise  and   facilitate   these   sessions   so  as   to  maximise  english-­‐speaking   time   (while   allowing   for  l1  usage  when  appropriate),  provide  support  and  guidance   in   response   to   student  needs,   and   ensure   that   they  progressed  through  each  stage  of   the  process.  details  of  how  this  unfolded   in  practice  are   provided  in  the  findings  section.               3.2.  method     an   exploratory   mixed-­‐methods   study   was   conducted   over   a   three-­‐year   period   within   an   action-­‐ research   framework.   the   researcher   and   author   of   this   paper   worked   closely   with   the   school   during   the   implementation  stage  of  the  project.  in  this  collaborative  role,  i  attended  regular  meetings  with  the  teachers   and  was  also   invited   to  participate   in  different  class  sessions  during   the   three-­‐year  period.   i  attended  both   meetings   and   classes   in   the   role   of   participant   observer,   where   participant   observation   is   “the   process   enabling   researchers   to   learn   about   the   activities   of   the  people   under   study   in   the  natural   setting   through   observing  and  participating  in  those  activities”  (kawulich,  2005,  p.  2).  a  relation  of  mutual  trust  had  already   been  built  with  the  school  through  the  researcher’s  previous  role  as  volunteer  storyteller  and  collaborator  at   the   school.   as   a   result,   my   participation   was   viewed   as   natural   and   appropriate   within   this   context   by   teachers  and  students  alike.  my  role  as  observer  was  made  explicit   in  different  ways:   initially,  by  providing   information   about   the   study   aims   and   obtaining   informed   consent   from   teaching   staff   and   families   of   participating  students,  and  later  by  extending  this  information  to  all  members  of  the  educational  community.   in   these   informational   sessions   with   students,   i   explained   my   university   work   and   clarified   that   i   would   observe   their   activities   and   record   information   relevant   to   the   study.   following   recommendations   for   conducting  participant  research  in  an  ethical  manner,  i  regularly  wrote  field  notes  publicly  (writing  in  situ)  to   remind  participants  of  my  research  and  data  collection  purposes  (dewalt  &  dewalt,  1998).  this  form  of  close   observation   has   been   recognised   as   particularly   beneficial   in   terms   of   identifying   non-­‐verbal   forms   of   expressions   and   discovering   how   participants   communicate   with   each   other   (schmuck,   1997),   and   for   developing   a   holistic   understanding   of   the   phenomena   under   study   (dewalt   &   dewalt,   2002).   this   direct   method   of   data   collection   was   also   supplemented  with   other   techniques,   which   are   explained   in   the   data   collection  and  analysis  sections  below.           waddington   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 130   3.3.  participants     the  study  takes  as  its  core  sample  of  analysis  the  children  enrolled  in  the  upper  cycle  (grades  5  and   6)   of   primary   education,   while   considering   the   whole-­‐school   context   and   teacher   perspectives.   as   a   low-­‐ population  rural  school,  class  sizes  tend  to  be  small.  nevertheless,  collecting  data  over  a  3-­‐year  period  helped   increase   the   analysis   sample   to   a   total   of  27  participants,   comprising   three  heterogeneous   class   groups,   as   shown  in  table  1  below.  the  numbers  in  the  table  constitute  the  full  class  sizes,  since  all  children  and  parents   agreed  to  participate  in  the  study.     table 1. profile of study participants group females males age observations g1 5 8 10-12* participants during their final year of primary education. all students ages 11-12 except 1 high-ability child (age 10) moved up a grade in the middle of primary schooling. highly heterogeneous group, some students with learning and behavioural difficulties. g2 4 2 10-11 11-12 participants during two consecutive years (5th & 6th grade of primary). mixed academic abilities but cohesive group. g3 1 7 10-11 participants while still in grade 5. mixed abilities but mainly cohesive group. total 10 17 note: students are identified within the study according to group + letter assigned to each student: e.g., g1a refers to the first student (from a randomly ordered list) from group 1.   3.4.  research  phases   3.4.1.  field  work/data  collection   data  were  collected  at  key  moments  during  the  project  implementation  from  both  teacher  meetings   and  class  sessions.  in  terms  of  the  former,  field  notes  were  taken  at  the  regular  meetings  scheduled  to  discuss   the   implementation   of   the   different   stages   of   the   programme,   to   discuss   progress   made   and   difficulties   encountered,   and   to   share   in   the   final   assessments  of   the  programme  at   the  end  of   each   school  year.   final   assessments  identified  strengths  and  weaknesses  and  key  areas  for  improvement.  with  regard  to  classroom   observations,  i  attended  initial  sessions  in  which  students  were  introduced  to  the  programme,  classes  during   which  students  worked  on  the  preparation  of  their  storytelling  sessions,  sessions  during  which  they  delivered   their  storytelling  sessions  to  younger  learners,  and  final  classes  during  which  they  carried  out  co-­‐assessment   and   self-­‐assessment   activities.   in   addition   to   the   field   notes   taken   at   all   of   these   sessions,   audio   and   video   recordings  were  made  of   some   sessions   to   supplement   the   field  notes   taken   and   to  provide  more  data   for   subsequent  analysis.  most  of  the  data  recorded  mixed  l1  and  l2  usage,  reflecting  the  flexible  attitude  toward   language  use  adopted  during  the  classroom  sessions,  and  coinciding  with  recent  theories  supporting  the  need   for  such  flexibility  in  foreign  language  classrooms  (durán  &  henderson,  2018).  transcriptions  were  made  of   these  recordings  to  facilitate  the  subsequent  data  analysis  process,  and  the  fragments  in  need  of  translation   into  english  were  reviewed  by  a  professional   translator.  finally,  data   from  a  questionnaire  administered  to   students  in  class  at  the  end  of  the  programme  (after  the  assessment  activities)  were  also  collected,  along  with   the  oral  comments  that  students  made  during  follow-­‐up  discussions  held  in  class.  the  ad  hoc  questionnaire   included   questions   aimed   at   identifying   student   perceptions   of   their   strengths   and   areas   of   improvement   during  the  preparation  sessions  and  during  the  actual  delivery  of  their  storytelling  session.  it  also  asked  them   to  consider  whether  they  thought  the  listeners  had  enjoyed  the  experience  or  not,  how  this  made  them  feel   and  whether  they  would  like  to  repeat  the  experience.     3.4.2.  data  analysis       the   data   collected   was   subjected   to   a   process   of   analysis,   reflection   and   evaluation   within   an   interpretative  paradigm  drawing  on  ‘grounded  theory’  and  using  the  constant  comparison  method  developed   by   corbin   and   straus   (2008).   in   light   of   the   threefold   aim   of   the   study,   the   initial   focus   of   analysis   concentrated   on   assessing   the   programme’s   overall  motivational   effect   on   participants.   data   from   teacher   meetings   were   analysed   to   obtain   a   global   sense   of   the   programme   from   the   teachers’   perspective.   this   overall   picture   was   further   informed   by   the   analysis   of   student   responses   to   the   post-­‐intervention   questionnaire  and  comments  from  follow-­‐up  discussions,  with  responses  to  the  final  question  being  subjected   to   particularly   close   analysis.   this   two-­‐part   question   presented   students   with   a   dichotomous   “yes   or   no”   a  whole-­‐school  storytelling  project   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 131   choice  in  response  to  the  question  “would  you  like  to  tell  more  stories  in  english?”  after  choosing  from  the   two   options,   students   were   then   asked   to   explain   this   choice   in   response   to   the   open-­‐ended   question   (“why?”).  analyses  of  student  responses  to  this  question  thus  provided  indicators  of  a  quantitative  as  well  as   qualitative  nature,  which  were   further   supported  by   the  oral  data  obtained   in   the   follow-­‐up  discussions.  a   framework  approach  was  then  employed,  characterised  by  the  intention  to  maintain  a  close  link  with  the  raw   data,  while  developing  a  thematic  analysis  in  prioritising  the  research  questions  (ritchie,  lewis,  mcnaughton,   &  ormoston,  2013).  in  the  first  instance,  the  raw  data  were  understood  to  be  all  data  that  could  help  assess   the  motivational  effect  of  the  programme.  all  such  data  were  thus  extracted  and  grouped  together,  following   an   open   coding   procedure   (corbin   &   strauss,   2008)   to   help   break   down,   compare,   conceptualise   and   categorise   the  data   in   line  with   the  primary  goals  of   the   study.  by  way  of   example,   some   initial   codes   that   helped  to  organise  the  data  included:  helping  others  (to  capture  cases  in  which  students  reported  that  helping   their  younger  peers  motivated  them  to  make  an  effort,  or  in  which  teachers  reported  on  the  effects  of  seeing   students  help  each  other);  making  individual  choices  (when  students  or  teachers  explicitly  referred  to  being   given  choices  and  what  this  meant  to  them);  and  devising  motivational  strategies  (when  students  or  teachers   explained   actions   taken   to   engage   and   maintain   the   interest   and   participation   of   listeners).   this   coding   process   was   conducted   manually   and   then   subjected   to   a   process   of   validation   to   ensure   reliability.   two   external  experts  in  the  area  of  childhood  language  education  were  asked  to  review  the  codes.  their  feedback   helped   to   validate   the   process   on   the   one   hand,   while   also   providing   constructive   criticism,   which   was   incorporated   into   the   final   stage   during  which   the   codes  were   further   organised   by   adding  more   options,   merging  options,  and  gradually  transforming  the  raw  data  into  more  useful  data,  as  described  below.       3.4.3.  presentation  of  findings   ultimately,  in  the  final  stage  of  analysis,  i  adopted  ellis’  (2010)  approach  in  her  study  on  motivating   secondary   school   students   to   read,  which  entails  organising  and  presenting   the  data  analysed  according   to   the   four   components   of   dörnyei’s   process-­‐oriented   approach   to   motivation   (2001).   the   four   components   presented   the   findings   in   a   cohesive   and   organised   manner,   while   attending   to   the   main   study   goal   of   assessing  the  motivational  effect  of  the  reading  project  on  learners.  thus,  after  presenting  the  overall  picture   obtained   from   the   initial   analysis   (see   overview),   the   useful   data   obtained   from   the   constant   comparison   method  were  organised  under  the  categories  of:  1)  creating  the  basic  motivational  conditions,  2)  generating   initial  motivation,  3)  maintaining  and  protecting  motivation  and  4)  encouraging  positive,  retrospective  self-­‐ evaluation.  after  presenting  these  findings,  the  discussion  section  attends  to  the  two  remaining  study  aims  by   identifying  and  discussing  the   learning  outcomes  as  well  as   the  specific  strategies   that  effectively  produced   them.  when  presenting  the  findings,  all  comments  have  been  anonymised  using  the  coding  system  explained   in  table  1.  furthermore,  and  due  to  the  disproportionate  gender  distribution  in  some  groups,  all  references  to   individual  student  comments  are  made  using  feminine  pronouns  in  order  to  maintain  full  anonymity.       4.  findings     4.1.  overview   the   mixed   method   of   data   collection   and   analysis   contributed   to   an   overall   picture,   allowing   for   cross-­‐checking   between   teacher   and   student   perspectives.   from   the   teacher   perspective,   analyses   of   data   collected  from  the  regular  meetings  show  that  teachers  report  considerable  differences  in  student  motivation   levels  prior   to   and   following   the   implementation  of   the  project.   the   school’s   decision   to   continue  with   the   project  and  to  incorporate  it  as  a  permanent  feature  of  their  language  and  literacy  programme  was  made  in   view  of  its  perceived  motivational  effect  on  learners  and  the  positive  outcomes  generated.  from  the  student   perspective,  data  collected  showed  a  general  consensus  in  line  with  the  teachers’  perception,  as  illustrated  in   the   following   analyses.   in   the   first   year   of   implementation,   during   the   final   class   session,   one   student   expressed  her  disappointment  that   the  project  had  not  been   implemented  previously,  since  this  meant  that   her  group  (grade  6)  had  only  been  able  to  take  part   in  the  experience  once,  unlike  their  grade  5  peers  who   would  be  repeating   it   the   following  year:   “it’s  not   fair,   they’ll  get   to  do   it  again”   (g1a).  this  disappointment   was  shared  by  other  students,  suggesting  that  the  experience  had  built  positive  attitudes  toward  this  kind  of   language  and  literacy  work,  and  had  overcome  the  challenges  described  by  ellis  (2010)  (i.e.,  the  selection  of   motivating   reading   material   and   the   provision   of   ideal   motivational   conditions   for   the   development   of   communities   of   readers).   these   findings   are   further   supported   by   analyses   of   the   post-­‐intervention   questionnaires,   in   which   nearly   all   students   reported   that   they   would   like   to   prepare/tell   more   stories   waddington   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 132   following   the   storytelling   circle   routine.   this   contrasted   sharply   with   responses   to   pre-­‐intervention   questionnaires  in  which  most  students  had  expressed  clear  reservations  about  their  ability  to  complete  such   a   task   (see   waddington,   2019).   when   analysing   the   reasons   for   students’   willingness   to   repeat   the   experience,  we  found  explanations  that  provide  an   initial  picture  of   their  overall   impression  of   the  value  of   the  experience  (see  table  2).    the  reasons  cited  by  participants  included:     -­‐ “because  it  was  good  fun  and  i  enjoyed  it.”   -­‐ “because  it’s  a  really  good  way  to  learn  english.”   -­‐ “because  i  like  telling  stories  to  the  little  ones.”   -­‐ “because  i  like  speaking  english.”   -­‐ “because  it’s  been  enjoyable.”   -­‐ “it’s  a  good  way  to  improve  your  english.”   -­‐ “i  like  to  teach  english  to  others  by  telling  them  a  good  story.”   -­‐ “because  i  like  learning  by  explaining  things  to  my  classmates.”     the  terms   fun  and  enjoyable  appear  repeatedly  during  the  analysis.  nevertheless,  and  as  advocated   by  england  (2017),  the  use  of  these  terms  seems  to  be  situated  within  a  critical  approach  to  having  fun,  which   conceives   enjoyment   as   a   stimulus   to   learning  as  opposed   to   a   substitute   for   learning.  thus,   in   addition   to   regarding  the  experience  as  fun  and  enjoyable,   learners  also  made  repeated  references  to  the  way  in  which   the  process  had  helped   them   learn  more  english,   emphasising   the   role   that   their  peers  have  played   in   this   interactive  learning  process.  comments  such  as  the  one  cited  above  (e.g.,  “i  like  learning  by  explaining  things   to  my  classmates”)   indicate   that  peer  modelling  has  a   two-­‐way  effect:  generating  positive  outcomes   for   the   learner   modelling   as   well   as   the   learners   being   modelled   to.   for   the   learner   modelling,   these   positive   outcomes  are  not  only  detected  during  the  peer  modelling  activity,  while  telling  the  story  to  peers,  but  also   during  the  preparation  stage  as  described   in  more  detail  below.  the   findings  confirm  that  having  a  specific   audience  (i.e.,  younger  peers)  and  purpose  (i.e.,  to  tell  the  story  well)  in  mind  increases  learner  participation   and  engagement  in  the  task  set,  as  suggested  by  previous  studies  on  the  benefits  of  peer  modelling  (mennim,   2017;  brown  et  al.,  2013).     despite   the   overall   positive   effects   reported,   a   small   minority   of   students   expressed   negative   evaluations  of  the  project.  further  analysis  helped  to  explain  why  some  students  expressed  an  unwillingness   to  repeat  the  experience.  in  one  case,  the  explanation  related  to  the  student’s  lack  of  interest  and  engagement   in  school  life  in  general.  in  other  cases,  analyses  revealed  that  some  students  found  the  excessive  amount  of   time  spent  on  the  project  (one,  or  part  of  one,  of  their  two  1-­‐hour  english  classes  every  week  for  the  first  two   terms)   to   be   a   negative   factor,   thereby   illustrating   one   of   the   challenges   highlighted   by   ellis   (2010)   concerning  the  difficulties  of  motivating  children  over  extended  periods  of  time.  the  fact  that  this  finding  was   detected  during  the  early  stages  of  implementation⎯at  the  end  of  the  first  year⎯meant  that  efforts  could  be   made   to   adjust   the  pace  of   the  programme  during   subsequent   years.   finally,   in   contrast   to   the  majority  of   students  whose  participation  and  engagement   increased  as   a  direct   result   of   the  peer  modelling   context,   a   small  minority  found  the  activity   ‘too  hard’  and  appeared  demotivated  by  the  experience.  this  supports  the   findings  of  spratt  and  leug  (2000),  who  warn  against  regarding  methods  as  universally  applicable  panaceas.   the   finding   also   highlights   the   need   to   exercise   caution   when   introducing   new   methods,   taking   care   to   provide  students  with  additional  attention  and  support  whenever  needed.     this  overall  picture  will  now  be  further  extended  through  the  presentation  of  additional  findings  in   relation   to   the   different   categories   of   the   process-­‐oriented   approach   (dörnyei   2001)   discussed   above.   the   aim  is  to  demonstrate  how  all  components  of  this  approach  are  addressed  and  developed  during  the  different   experiences  reported.     4.2.  creating  the  basic  motivational  conditions   under  the  first  component  of  the  process-­‐oriented  approach  to  motivation,  highlighting  the  need  to   create  basic  motivational   conditions,   it   is   important   to   stress  how   the  cyclical,  whole-­‐school  project  design   impacted  on  the   learner  experience.  g1a’s  complaint   that  “it’s  not   fair,   they’ll  get   to  do   it  again”  shows  that   students   conceive   the   process   as   an   ongoing   project   involving   and   connecting   learners   from   different   educational  stages,  as  illustrated  in  figure  1.  the  fact  that  they  conceive  the  project  in  this  way  has  a  marked   influence  on  their  learning  outcomes,  as  we  will  see  in  the  different  sections  discussed  below.  in  addition  to   fostering  group  cohesiveness  by  facilitating  cooperative  group  work,  which  enables  students  to  develop  tasks   a  whole-­‐school  storytelling  project   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 133   involving   different   levels   of   difficulty   (see  maintaining   and   protecting  motivation),   the   cyclical   design   also   helped  promote  cohesion  at  a  school-­‐wide  level,  by  establishing  a  context  in  which  learners  at  different  stages   had  an  interconnected  role.  in  this  way,  students  gradually  progressed  from  the  early  stages  of  contact  with   the  new   language   to  a   stage   in  which   they  became   the  ones  partially   responsible   for   this   initial   contact,  by   telling  their  own  stories  (with  picturebooks)  to  their  younger  peers    from  preschool,  first  cycle  and  mid  cycle   of  primary.  this  context  therefore  provides  the  ideal  conditions  for  building  the  communities  of  readers  and   creating  opportunities  for  sharing  reading  experiences,  which  is  crucial  in  motivating  children  to  read  (ellis,   2010).  according  to  their  teachers,  the  younger  (i.e.,  preschool)  learners  benefitted  considerably  from  these   conditions,  which  put   them  into  contact  with   ‘real’   language  use   in   the   form  of  authentic  picturebooks,  and   with   speakers   of   the   l2   in   the   form   of   older   role  models   from   their   own   school.   terms   such   as   ‘real’   and   ‘authentic’   appeared   repeatedly   in   the   data,   strongly   suggesting   that   these   literary   experiences   were   associated  with  meaningful  language  use,  as  indicated  by  sipe  (1998)  and  mourão  (2017),  among  others.  as   the   children   progressed   through   the   different   educational   stages,   the   aspirational   effect   of   observing   their   older   peers   began   to   emerge,   manifesting   itself   to   a   greater   or   lesser   extent   depending   on   the   individual   learner.  overall,  teachers  reported  high  levels  of  willingness  to  embark  on  the  project  at  the  end  of  mid-­‐cycle   and  beginning  of  upper  cycle,  with  comments  such  as  “it’s  our  turn  now”,  revealing  the  students’  eagerness  to   take   on  what   they   perceived   to   be   a   challenge   that   had   been   realised   by   their   predecessors.   the   fact   that   entire  class  sessions  had  been  dedicated  to  the  storytelling  sessions  at  the  end  of  the  school  year  also  served   to   highlight   the   importance   given   to   these   experiences   by   everyone   involved.   this   was   noted   by   the   new   upper  cycle  students   in  comments  such  as  “it  will  soon  be  our  turn  to  tell  a  great   story.”  the  word  great   is   emphasised  here  as  its  use  by  a  10  year-­‐old  highlights  the  fact  that  in  addition  to  assuming  responsibility  and   ownership   for   the   task,   learners   highly   valued   the  picturebooks   as   a   source   of   literature.   this   finding   also   supports  mourão’s  efforts  to  challenge  assumptions  that  regard  picturebooks  as  material  suitable  for  babies   or  toddlers,  and  to  emphasise  their  value  as  multimodal  literary  objects  (mourão,  2012,  2017).         4.3.  generating  initial  motivation   although  teacher-­‐reported  data  revealed  that  students  had  high   levels  of  motivation  to  move  up  to   the  storytelling  stage,  many  students  displayed   low  self-­‐efficacy   levels  and  doubted   their  own  ability  when   called  upon  to  carry  out  the  task  (see  waddington,  2019).  at  this  point,  students  were  presented  with  a  clear   road-­‐map  (waddington  2017)  that  indicated  the  different  steps  necessary  to  prepare  sessions,  which  helped   set   realisable   goals   and,   above   all,   emphasised   the   point   highlighted   by   many   students   in   end   of   project   questionnaires  that  success  in  their  storytelling  sessions  was  mainly  due  to  the  hard  work  invested  during  the   preparation  stage.  relevant  comments  included  “it  was  hard  work,  but  worth  it  in  the  end”  and  “we  worked   really  hard  preparing  our  story.”  in  this  regard,  having  a  clear  purpose  (i.e.,  performing  in  public  at  the  end  of   the  year)  motivated  students  to  work  hard  for  themselves  and  also  for  their  younger  peers.  from  their  recent   past  experiences  observing  older  peers,  students  equated  being  a  role  model  with  being  responsible  for  the   younger  students’  learning,  as  demonstrated  in  many  of  the  comments  highlighting  the  extent  to  which  they   assumed   this   responsibility   in   a   way   that   simultaneously   advanced   their   own   learning.   for   example,   “we   practiced  a  lot  so  they  would  understand  the  story”  was  a  typical  response  to  an  open  question  in  the  end  of   project  questionnaire  asking  about  the  reasons  for  their  success  in  the  storytelling  session.  the  fact  that  this   purpose  both  motivated  students  and  influenced  their  actions  during  the  preparation  stage  is  demonstrated   by  two  specific  examples  observed  during  different  class  sessions.   in  the  first  example,  a  group  of  three  grade  6  students  were  nearing  the  end  of  the  preparation  stage   and  were  practising  their  session  with  students  from  their  own  class.  ordinal  numbers  were  a  crucial  element   within   the   narrative   of   this   group’s   picturebook.   they   had   distributed   different   roles   in   the   storytelling   sequence,  and  student  g1d  had  assumed  the  task  of  asking  the  listeners  to  repeat  the  ordinal  numbers  when   they  appeared  in  the  story.  practising  with  their  same-­‐age  peers,  g1d  spent  considerable  time  asking  them  to   repeat  the  words,  labouring  over  potentially  difficult  sounds  such  as  the  voiced  ‘th’  (/ð/).  responding  to  his   classmates   who   asked   why   they   had   to   keep   repeating   the   same   thing,   she   explained   that   the   younger   learners  would  need  help  to  be  able  to  make  these  sounds  properly.  what  is  interesting  about  this  example  is   that   the   learner   in   question   had   undergone   several   years   of   speech-­‐language   therapy   to   overcome   development   difficulties   during   the   first   cycle   of   primary   education.   the   empathy   demonstrated   in   this   attempt  to  support  younger  learners  in  their  acquisition  and  reproduction  of  new  language  sounds  may  stem   from  the   learner’s  own  prior  experience.  the  satisfaction  obtained   from  helping  others  overcome  potential   difficulties  was   evident   during   the   group’s   storytelling   session   (delivered   to   first-­‐   and  mid-­‐cycle   students),   waddington   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 134   particularly  when  g1d  carried  out  her  part  of   the  activity  with  a  confidence  and  enthusiasm,   for  which  she   was   strongly   commended   by   the   teacher.   apart   from   increasing   authentic   communication   as   outlined   by   assinder  (1991),  the  peer  modelling  experience  analysed  here  helps  to  develop  learner  empathy  and  foster  a   supportive  classroom  climate.       in  the  second  example,  a  pair  of  grade  5  students  were  also  reaching  the  end  of  the  preparation  stage   and   were   simulating   the   initial   part   of   the   session   in   front   of   their   teacher   and   the   researcher   in   a   class   session  organised  in  the  style  of  a  workshop  (see  below  for  more  description  of  the  workshop  format).  after   showing   how   they   would   begin   their   session,   the   teacher   asked   if   they   thought   the   listeners   (i.e.,   pre-­‐ schoolers,  due  to  the  characteristics  of  the  picturebook  chosen)  would  pay  attention  and  be  drawn  into  their   story.   initially   displaying   little   concern   about   the   potential   listener   response   to   their   storytelling   session,   student  g3h  claimed  that  “the  little  ones  are  like  that;  they  don’t  listen  to  you  and  they  just  do  whatever  they   want.”  on  further  questioning,  and  when  asked  to  think  specifically  about  strategies  their  teacher  might  use   to   attract   and   keep   their   attention,   both   students   recalled   the   use   of   the   class   english-­‐language   ‘speaking’   puppet   (named   tiger   tiger)   and   asked   if   they   could   incorporate   it   into   their   session.   after   adding   this   effective   device   into   their   sequence,   they   became   more   at   ease   in   the   task   and   adjusted   their   planned   interactions  more  appropriately  by  paying  more  attention  to  how  to  make  their  listeners  feel  comfortable  and   how  to  engage  their  interest.  on  the  day  of  their  storytelling  session,  the  two  students  began  by  taking  turns   saying   “hello,   [name   of   student]”   to   each   student   individually,   to   which   the   4   and   5   year-­‐old   children   responded   “hello,   [name   of   storyteller]”   one   by   one,   thus   establishing   a   relaxed   atmosphere   while   also   providing   the  younger   learners  with  a   real   opportunity   to  use   the  new   language   in   a  meaningful   exchange   with   their   older   peers.   once   again,   the   storytelling   context   provides   the   opportunity   for   natural   language   acquisition   as   suggested   in   the   previous   literature   on   early   literacy   development   (cameron,   2001;   ellis   &   brewster,  2014;  goshn,  2013;  sipe,  2007).       4.4.  maintaining  and  protecting  motivation   within   this   component   of   the   process-­‐oriented   approach   to  motivation,   dörnyei   (2001)   proposes   various  strategies,  including  allowing  learners  real  choices  about  aspects  of  their  learning,  adjusting  difficulty   levels   to  students’  abilities,  and  adopting  the  role  of   facilitator  (pp.  142-­‐143).  these  three  strategies  can  be   observed  in  the  findings  highlighted  in  this  section.  the  first  example  corresponds  to  the  early  stages  of  the   project   in  which  upper  cycle   students  were  presented  with   the  collection  of  picturebooks   from  which   they   would   select   one   for   their   own   storytelling   session.   several   class   sessions   were   dedicated   to   viewing   the   picturebooks,  forming  an  initial  opinion  of  their  content,  collectively  sharing  ideas,  and  eventually  expressing   group  preferences   based  on   these   initial   ideas.  during   the   individual   stage,   after   students   had  had   time   to   look  at  the  different  picturebooks,  they  were  asked  to  rate  them  in  their  learning  diaries.  they  were  given  the   freedom  to  rate  them  according  to  their  own  criteria  and  in  their  own  preferred  style.  the  results  revealed  an   interesting  variety   in  modes  of  expression,  which  reflected   the  diversity  within   the  group  and   the  different   abilities   and   preferences   of   the   individual   students.   some  wrote   short   expressions   in   l3   (“it’s   fun”   or   “it’s   boring“),  others  expressed  their  ideas  more  fully  in  the  l1  (“i  don’t  like  the  pictures”  or  “it’s  about  a  cat.  it’s   really  funny”),  as  in  figure  3,  and  others  rated  their  preferences  numerically,  as  we  can  observe  in  figure  4.     a  whole-­‐school  storytelling  project   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 135     figure 3. diary entry rating picturebooks with comments in l1   figure 4. diary entry rating picturebooks in numerical order with pictorial support this  initial  selection  activity  gave  learners  an  opportunity  to  make  their  own  choices  that  were  also   adapted   to   their   different   abilities,   thus   setting   a   pattern   for   subsequent   activities   as   we   will   see   below.   waddington   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 136   reference  is  made  above  to  the  way  in  which  some  classes  during  the  storytelling  preparation  stage  took  the   form   of   workshops.   aside   from   the   diversity   within   each   student   group   and   the   different   abilities/characteristics  of  each  individual  learner,  the  fact  that  each  group  (or  pair)  of  students  worked  on  a   different  picturebook  meant   that   the  preparation   for   the  storytelling  sessions  was  necessarily  diverse.  as  a   result,   many   class   sessions  were   converted   into  workshops,   with   students  working   in   different   spaces   on   their  own  picturebooks  and  with  the  teacher  adopting  the  role  of  facilitator  by  guiding  them  and  supporting   them  in  their  different  preparations.  three  examples  are  provided  below  to  show  how  this  worked  in  practice   and  to  highlight  the  key  findings  that  emerged.   4.4.1.  storytelling  preparation  workshops   example  1:  linguistic  focus   two  students  were   in   the  early   stages  of  preparing   their   story.  they  had   selected  one  of   the  most   linguistically   complex   picturebooks   available,   and,   after   having   initially   thought   they   had   understood   the   narrative,   they  realized   that   their   full  understanding  was  compromised  by  unfamiliar  vocabulary.  although   their  teacher  reassured  them  that  they  could  proceed  since  they  were  to  convey  the  overall  meaning  of  the   story  to  their  listeners,  the  students  were  determined  to  fully  grasp  the  narrative.  taking  a  bilingual  (catalan   to  english)  dictionary  from  the  bookcase,  the  students  started  to  look  up  the  words  they  had  never  previously   encountered   and   to   write   down   the   l1   translations   in   their   learning   diaries.   eventually,   they   decided   to   translate  the  whole  l3  text  from  the  picturebook  page  they  were  working  on  into  their  l1,  writing  down  their   translation  sentence  by  sentence  in  their  diaries.  when  asked  by  the  researcher  why  they  were  spending  so   much  time  doing  this  when  their  teacher  had  told  them  it  was  not  necessary,  they  explained  as  follows:     excerpt  1.   g2a     by   doing   this   we   really   understand   what   it   is   that   we’re   telling   [telling   the   story].   g2b     and  we  learn  more  english.  we  learn  some  things  we  wouldn’t  usually  learn.   researcher     like  what?   g2b     useful  things,  like  ‘it’s  getting  dark  now.’  things  like  that.   g2a   we  also  learn  what  some  strange  words  mean.   researcher     strange?   g2a     yes  [half-­‐laughing],  things  like  ‘grumpy’  or  ‘naughty’.         the   exchange   in   excerpt   1   highlights   the   benefits   of   giving   students   the   space   to  make   their   own   learning   choices   and   the   effect   that   this   can   have   on   stimulating   their   autonomy.   both   students   in   this   exchange   reported   that   although   translation   was   hard   work   and   time-­‐consuming,   it   was   worth   it   as   they   learned  a  lot  from  the  process.  on  the  one  hand,  this  exchange  supports  calls  for  a  reappraisal  of  the  use  of   translation  practices  in  the  language  classroom.  such  calls  have  been  gaining  ground  since  the  end  of  the  last   century,   as   outlined   by   gomes   ferreira   (1999)   in   her   review   of   late   twentieth-­‐century   resistance   to   translation  in  the  english  classroom  and  her  exposition  of  the  reasons  for  its  potential  revival  in  the  twenty-­‐ first  century.  on  the  other  hand,  the  extended  conversation  with  these  students  also  highlighted  the  way  in   which   learners  can  be  encouraged   to  develop  critical  awareness  regarding   the  potential   flaws   in  automatic   online   translation   tools   and   the   need   to   exercise   caution   when   using   them.   this   finding   emerged   when   students  shared  a  whole-­‐class  experience  in  which  no  one  had  known  the  word  in  their  own  language  for  a   bird   (puffin)   that   appeared   in   one   of   the   picturebooks.   although   knowing   the   word   in   the   l1   was   not   necessary  for  continued  preparation  of  the  storytelling  session,  and  although  they  could  all  see  what  the  bird   was   from   the   illustration   in   the   picturebook,   they   still   felt   compelled   to   fill   this   gap   in   their   knowledge.   entering  the  word  into  an  online  translator  resulted  in  a  word  in  the  l1  that  they  discounted  immediately  as   it  bore  no  relation  to  birds.  the  next  search  using  a  paper  l1  (catalan)-­‐to-­‐l3  (english)  dictionary  (graded  for   primary  classroom  use)  produced  no  results,  as  the  word  ‘puffin’  was  not  listed.  upon  further  investigation,   the   students   found   a   more   extensive   spanish   (l2)-­‐to-­‐english   (l3)   dictionary,   and   this   time   their   search   yielded  the  spanish  word  ‘frailecillo’.  on  hearing  this,  one  of  the  students  in  the  group  exclaimed  ‘i’ve  got  it!’   hearing   the  word   in   l2   (spanish)   prompted   the   student   to   recall   the   word   ‘cadafet’   in   her   first   language   (catalan).  what   is   interesting  about   this   finding   is   the  enthusiasm  shown  by  students  when  recounting   the   experience  and  the  fact  that  they  still  laughed  about  it  days  or  weeks  after  the  event  had  occurred,  suggesting   quite   strongly   that   the   experience   had   been   meaningful   and   memorable   for   them.   within   a   plurilingual   a  whole-­‐school  storytelling  project   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 137   context,   this   also   suggests   that   learners  were  becoming   increasingly   aware  of   the  benefits   of   being   able   to   draw  on  different   languages  and  that  the  teacher,  as   facilitator,  was  adopting  a  flexible  attitude  to   language   use,  which  could  have  positive  effects  on  the  learning  process,  as  argued  in  recent  studies  illustrating  cases  of   translanguaging  in  the  classroom  (durán  &  henderson,  2018).   example  2:  artistic  focus   while  students  g2a  and  g2b  were  discovering  the  complexities  of  translating  into  their  l1,  students   g2c  and  g2d  were  elaborating  their  own  colourful  masks  to  represent  each  of  the  animal  characters  in  their   story.  when  asked  why  they  were  doing  this,  they  explained  that  using  these  masks  would  help  the  younger   listeners   follow   their   story,   by   encouraging   them   to   relate   the   words   they   were   hearing   with   the   visual   supports   they   were   seeing.   this   explanation   was   followed   by   an   impromptu   display   of   how   exactly   they   would  do  this,  clarifying  who  would  narrate  the  story  and  who  would  act  out  the  characters  using  the  masks,   thus  showing  a  well-­‐thought  out  plan  in  which  each  student  assumed  a  specific  role.  demonstrating  their  plan   prompted  further  creativity,  as  they  decided  that  the  mask  wearer  would  also  make  the  corresponding  animal   noises,   thereby  adding  audio  support   to   their  handcrafted  visual   supports.  although  opting   to   focus  on   the   artistic   side   meant   that   less   time   was   spent   on   linguistic   aspects   that   could   have   been   improved   further   (pronunciation  of   some  key  expressions,   for   example),   the   students  preferred   to   invest   time  and   creativity   into  the  artistic  and  aesthetic  dimension  of  their  session,  resulting  in  a  storytelling  performance  which  they   and  the  listeners  clearly  enjoyed.  when  asked  if  it  might  have  been  better  to  orientate  the  pair  towards  work   on  linguistic  aspects  and  to  deter  what  could  have  constituted  avoidance  tactics  (i.e.,  spending  excessive  time   cutting   out   paper  masks   instead   of  working   on   language),   the   teacher   highlighted   the   benefits   of   allowing   students   to  make  their  own  choices  and  progress  at   their  own  pace.  this   justification  revealed  a  classroom   practice   closely   aligned   with   recent   motivational   theories,   which   argue   for   a   balanced,   learner-­‐centred   approach  to  motivation  (dörnyei  &  ushioda,  2009;  williams  et  al.,  2016)  and  contrast  with  the  predominantly   teacher-­‐centred/resource-­‐based  approach   found   in  a  recent  study  of  primary  school  practice   (waddington,   2018).   further   analysis  of   this   experience  demonstrated   the   sagacity  of   the   teacher’s  decision   to   allow   the   students  to  continue  at  their  own  pace  instead  of  pushing  them  toward  more  linguistic  work  at  that  particular   time:   firstly,   their   storytelling   session   was   very   positively   received   by   the   listeners   (first-­‐cycle   primary   students)   and   their   self-­‐assessments   of   the   experience   indicated   that   this   reaction   had   boosted   their   confidence  and  motivated  them  to  continue  learning  the  language;  secondly,  while  carrying  out  their  artistic   activities,   they   were   simultaneously   listening   to   the   other   groups   and   contributing   to   some   of   the   conversations   taking   place   (such   as   the   class   translanguaging   experience   with     ‘puffin’   described   above),   thereby  displaying  an   interest   in  the   language  and  their  growing  metalinguistic  awareness.  this  experience   highlights   the  need   to  protect  motivation⎯as   suggested  by   the  wording  of   this   component  of   the  process-­‐ oriented   approach⎯by   respecting   learner   needs,   allowing   students   to   go   at   their   own   pace   and   viewing   learning  as  an  ongoing  process.     example  3:  it  focus   in  the  final  example,  and  during  the  same  workshop  session  as  the  previous  two  examples,  another   pair  of  students  were  working  with  a   laptop.  like  the   first  group,   this  pair  had  also  selected  a   linguistically   complex  picturebook,  and,  after  working  through  it  and  understanding  it,  they  were  developing  strategies  to   convey   the   unfamiliar   vocabulary   and   the   general   narrative   to   their   peers   (mid-­‐cycle   primary).   they   had   decided  in  a  previous  session  to  create  a  powerpoint  presentation,  asking  their  teacher  for  permission  and  a   laptop  to  do  so.  in  the  session  analysed,  they  had  already  created  the  presentation  and  were  working  on  the   different   slides.  when  asked  by   the   researcher  about   their  decision   to   create  a  powerpoint,   they  explained   that  it  would  help  the  listeners  follow  their  story  by  giving  them  additional  visual  support  to  supplement  the   illustrations   already   provided   in   the   picturebook.   after   typing   pages   from   the   picturebook   into   the   slides,   they  started  to  experiment  with  different  design  options,  changing  colours,  highlighting  parts  of  the  text  and   using  animation.  they  explain  the  need  for  this  in  excerpt  2.               waddington   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 138   excerpt  2.     researcher     what’s  that  you’re  highlighting?     g2e   they’re  the  things  that  are  the  most  difficult.   g2f     and  they’re  also  [first  checks  how  to  say  the  noun  in  l1]  rhymes.  we’re   highlighting  all  the  words  that  rhyme.  [checks  the  verb  in  l1]   researcher     ah.  i  see.  and  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  it?   g2f   we’re  going  to  ask  them  to  listen  to  us  and  repeat  the  rhymes  with  us.   researcher     (looking  at  other  slides)  i  see  you’ve  used  some  different  colours  here.   g2e     that’s  to  show  different  voices.   g2f     when  we  tell  the  story  we’re  going  to  exaggerate  the  different  voices.   g2e   and  do  you  like  this?  [showing  a  slide  using  animation]   researcher     oh  yes.  that’s  good.  how  have  you  done  that?  [the  students  show  how  they   discovered  and  applied  the  animation  options]   g2f   we  think  it  will  help  to  keep  their  attention.   g2e   our  story  is  a  bit  long  and  they  might  switch  off.  this  might  help.     apart   from  developing   their  own  skills   (linguistic,   ict,   creative   thinking),   these  students  showed  a   high  capacity  for  anticipating  interactions  with  others  and  for  adopting  non-­‐verbal  communication  strategies   to   facilitate   and   promote   effective   interactions.   as   in   the   two   previous   examples,   the   purpose   they   were   working   towards   and   their   imminent   role   as   peer   models   stimulated   their   own   learning   and   the   future   learning   of   their   younger  peers.   furthermore,   their   own  decision   to   create   a  powerpoint   presentation   and   their  close  attention  to  how  the  different  features  and  design  options  would  facilitate  comprehension  support   the  findings  of  recent  studies  that  highlight  the  benefits  of  ict-­‐based  methods  for  developing  literacy  skills  at   primary-­‐school   age   as  well   as   the   importance   of   social   interactions   for  making   the   best   use   of   such   skills   (genlott  &  grönlund,  2013).         4.5.  encouraging  positive  retrospective  self-­‐evaluation   the   findings   already   discussed   reveal   a   classroom   environment   in   which   students   are   constantly   reflecting   on   and   evaluating   their   own   learning   process   and   that   of   others.   in   addition,   and   after   the   storytelling  sessions  had  been  completed,  specific  time  was  designated  within  class  sessions  for  students  to   evaluate   their  own  performances  and   those  of   their  classmates  during   the  storytelling  sessions.   in   the   first   instance,   analysis   showed   that   students   tended   to   evaluate   their  peers’  performances  more  positively   than   their  own.  regarding  self-­‐evaluations,   in  some  cases   these  were   found  to  be  excessively  critical,  potentially   demotivating  and  inconsistent  with  teachers’  positive  evaluations  of  the  work.     in  the  first  session  dedicated  to  evaluating  other  groups’  sessions  and  providing  them  with  feedback,   a   “two  stars  and  a  wish”  activity  was  designed   to  help  students  organise   their   ideas  and  highlight  at   least   three  points   from  their  peers’  sessions:   two  which  they  considered  worthy  of  praise  (stars)  and  one  aspect   they   thought   could   be   improved   (wish).   a   rubric  was   created  providing   example   sentence   starters   (e.g.,   “i   really   liked   the   way   you…”,   “you   did   a   good/great   job…”,   “maybe   you   could…”)   to   help   students   produce   relevant   sentences,   thus   combining   language   work   with   the   development   of   evaluation   and   interpersonal   skills.  the   activity  was   first  developed  orally,  with   students  watching   fragments  of   video   recordings  of   the   storytelling  sessions  and  then  constructing  sentences  with  the  help  of  the  teacher.  students  then  wrote  down   their  evaluations  and  completed  a  rubric  for  their  portfolios,  which  contained  all  work  related  to  the  project   (see  figure  5).     a  whole-­‐school  storytelling  project   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 139     figure 5. peer evaluation: “two stars and a wish” activity while  analysis  of  both  teacher  and  student  reflections  pointed  to  the  benefits  of  this  activity  in  terms   of  building  student  confidence  and  identifying  specific  areas  for  further  improvement  (e.g.,  pronunciation  was   cited  most  frequently),  it  also  highlighted  the  need  to  dedicate  more  time  to  the  activity  itself  and  to  pre-­‐teach   and  practice  some  specific  functional  language  needed  for  giving  feedback.  students  expressed  clear  interest   in  the  activity  and  confirmed  that  it  was  useful  for  them,  but  they  also  indicated  that  they  needed  more  help   to  be  able  to  express  their  opinions  in  the  l3.     as  noted  above,  the  analysis  of  students’  self-­‐evaluations  indicated  that  learners  were  more  critical  of   their   own  performance   than   that   of   their   peers   and   that  work  was   needed   to   help   them   carry   out   a  more   realistic   and   constructive   evaluation   of   their   own   abilities.   this   finding   supports   calls   by   others   for  more   research   and   practical   work   to   help   l2   learners   calibrate   their   self-­‐assessment   of   own   performance   (trofimovich,   isaacs,   kennedy,   saito,   &   crowther,   2016).   further   analysis   of   this   question,   examining   and   contrasting   comments  made  by   students,   suggested   that  watching   themselves   in   the   video   recordings  may   have  had  a  negative  influence  on  students’  self-­‐evaluations.  this  hypothesis  resulted  in  a  decision  being  made   to   refrain   from   video   recording   the   sessions   in   the   following   year   and   to   conduct   the   self-­‐   and   peer-­‐ evaluations  on  the  basis  of  student  recall  and  with  the  aid  of  evaluation  rubrics  used  to  record  observations   and  reflections.           5.  discussion     with  regard  to  the  overall  aim  of  this  study,  the  findings  suggest  that  the  reading  project  had  a  strong   motivational  effect  on  the   learners.   in  particular,  and  considering  each  of   the   four  dimensions  of  a  process-­‐ oriented  and  holistic  approach  to  motivational  practice,  we  can  identify  specific  learning  outcomes  generated   by  the  experience.  in  the  first  instance  (creating  the  basic  motivational  conditions),  the  findings  show  how  the   project   encourages   learners   to   conceive   learning   as   an   ongoing   process   involving   close   interactions   with   others.  this  growing  awareness  helps  promote  collaboration  at  a  small-­‐group  level,  fostering  the  acceptance   and   nurturing   of   diversity   within   groups,   as   well   as   cohesion   on   a   wider   level,   which   contributes   to   an   interconnected  school  environment.  the  promotion  of  authentic  and  meaningful  language  using  picturebooks   generates   positive   attitudes   toward   reading   while   simultaneously   increasing   students’   willingness   to   participate   in  the   learning  process.   in   the  second   instance  (generating   initial  motivation),  and   in  relation  to   intra-­‐  and  inter-­‐personal  factors,  it  is  particularly  worth  highlighting  the  growing  awareness  among  students   of   the  relation  between  effort   investment  and  successful   learning  on   the  one  hand  (intra-­‐personal)  and  the   importance  of  inter-­‐personal  factors  on  the  other.  in  relation  to  the  latter,  the  empathy  displayed  by  the  older   students  and  their  increasing  awareness  of  the  impact  of  extra-­‐linguistic  factors  on  successful  communication   is   noteworthy.   considering   the   next   component   (maintaining   and   protecting   motivation),   apart   from   the   waddington   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 140   specific  language-­‐learning  outcomes  generated,  the  project  design  and  workshop  format  adopted  during  part   of  the  preparation  stage  seems  to  be  effective  in  encouraging  students  to  take  ownership  of  their  learning  and   to  become  increasingly  autonomous  in  their  work.  the  examples  highlighted  in  the  findings  also  indicate  that   students’  metalinguistic  awareness  was  boosted  during  the  process  as  they  became  increasingly  aware  of  the   benefits  of  being  plurilingual.  finally  (encouraging  positive  retrospective  self-­‐evaluation),   findings  show  that   students  consider  evaluation  to  be  highly  useful  and  enjoy  giving  and  receiving  feedback.  two  factors  emerge   from   the   findings   that   deserve   particular   attention   since   they   could   have   a   negative   effect   on   learning   outcomes.   the   first   relates   to   the   lack   of   correlation   between   teachers’   and   students’   evaluations   of   performance  and  the  tendency  of  the  latter  to  be  overly  critical  of  their  own  performance  in  contrast  to  that  of   their  peers.  further  research  needs  to  be  carried  out  to  explore  this  observation  and  a  specific  study  is  now   underway  comparing  self-­‐evaluations  with  and  without  the  use  of  video  recordings.  the  second  point  relates   to   the   language  development   aspect   of   the   self-­‐evaluation   activities   that  were   carried  out.  results   indicate   that  students  find  it  particularly  difficult  to  express  their  opinions  freely  in  the  foreign  language,  as  would  be   expected   in   a   low-­‐exposure   context   such   as   the   one   described   in   this   study.   in   view   of   this,   particular   attention  needs  to  be  paid  to  scaffolding  student  learning  and  providing  sufficient  support  to  enable  them  to   carry  out  tasks  in  a  way  that  stimulates  further  learning  and  avoids  demotivating  effects.           although   conceived   and   discussed   separately,   the   learning   outcomes   highlighted   above   are   understood   as   part   of   a   holistic   experience   comprising   different   opportunities   and   challenges   that   are   experienced  differently  by  each  learner.  considering  the  final  aim  of  this  study,  and  in  order  to  highlight  the   pedagogical   implications   of   the   findings,   strategies   that   have   been   observed   to   be   particularly   effective   in   generating   these   outcomes   have   been   identified.   while   in   this   case   they   have   been   detected   in   activities   carried  out  within  the  storytelling  project,   they  are  considered  to  be  sufficiently  generalizable  regardless  of   the  methodology  employed.  effective  strategies  include:     -­‐ using  peer  modelling   -­‐ stimulating  student  autonomy     -­‐ fostering  ownership  of  own  learning  process   -­‐ having  a  clear  purpose   -­‐ generating  contact  with  authentic  language   -­‐ stimulating  authentic  language  use   -­‐ allowing  learners  to  be  creative   -­‐ allowing  learners  to  set  their  own  challenges  and  go  at  their  own  pace  (which  can  be  different  even  in   small  working  groups  or  pairs)     -­‐ encouraging  both  self-­‐  and  peer-­‐evaluation   -­‐ stimulating  constructive  self-­‐reflection         the   discussion   of   the   outcomes   and   strategies   identified   has   mainly   focused   on   the   motivational   effects  on  the  older  learners,  in  line  with  the  main  aims  of  this  study.  although  further  studies  are  needed  to   explore   the   effects   on   the   younger   learners,   it   is  worth   noting   one   point.   reference   has   been  made   in   the   findings  section  to  the  difficulties  posed  by  some  of  the  picturebooks  and  the  strategies  consequently  devised   by   the   older   learners   to   aid   their   younger   peers’   comprehension.   observations   indicated   that   although   listeners   did   not   understand   all   the   language   used   in   the   stories,   they   still   maintained   high   levels   of   enthusiasm  and  engagement  and  appeared  to  follow  and  understand  the  narrative  of  the  story.  this  supports   arguments   that   narrative   comprehension   is   fundamental   to   beginning   reading   (paris   &   paris,   2003),   and   suggests  that  the  strategic  use  of  picturebooks  can  promote  positive  attitudes  not  only  toward  early  reading   but  also  to  language  learning  in  general.   6.  conclusion   this  article  contributes  to  previous  work  considering  reading  within  a  whole-­‐language  approach  to   literacy   development   (galda   et   al.,   2016;   martinez   &   mcgee,   2000),   paying   attention   to   the   motivational   aspect  of  the  experience  within  the  context  of  foreign  language  learning  (ellis,  2000).  in  so  doing,  the  present   article   also   contributes   to   previous   work   aiming   to   bridge   the   gap   between   theory   and   practice   in   motivational   studies   (lasagabaster,   doiz,   &   sierra,   2016;   ryan,   2016;   waddington,   2018),   showing   how   attention  to  the  different  aspects  of  a  process-­‐oriented  approach  can  help  create  and  sustain  a  motivational   climate  in  the  language  classroom.  the  descriptions  of  classroom  experiences  provided  in  the  findings  section   a  whole-­‐school  storytelling  project   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 141   may  interest  teachers  focused  on  broadening  their  understanding  of  motivation  and  in  implementing  similar   projects   in   their   own   schools.   the   findings   of   the   study   will   also   be   of   interest   to   researchers   and   practitioners   keen   on   using   peer   modelling   with   children   and   developing   storytelling   projects   with   picturebooks   in   the   foreign   language   classroom.   with   regard   to   the   former,   the   findings   provide   further   evidence   supporting   the  use  of  peer  modelling   to  boost   self-­‐efficacy  beliefs   (artino,   2012;  bandura,   1977),   develop   positive   and   situated   foreign   language   learner   self-­‐concepts   (waddington,   2019),   and   promote   successful   language   learning   (cave   et   al.,   2018;   csizér   &   magid,   2014).   however,   in   line   with   arguments   advanced   by   previous   authors   (spratt   &   leug,   2000),   caution   should   be   exercised   when   attempting   to   generalise  these  results.  although  data  was  collected  from  three  different  heterogeneous  groups  over  a  three-­‐ year  period,  the  total  sample  remains  small,  and  further  research  is  therefore  needed  to  explore  the  extent  to   which  the  positive  findings  obtained  can  be  replicated  in  other  contexts.         with   regard   to   the   storytelling   methodology,   the   findings   support   the   growing   body   of   research   advocating   the   use   of   storytelling   to   promote   whole-­‐language   approaches   to   reading   and   language   development  (galda  et  al.,  2016;  martinez  &  mcgee,  2000)  and  the  use  of  picturebooks  to  generate  authentic   communication  in  foreign  language  learning  (ellis  &  brewster,  2014;  fleta,  2015,  2019;  goshn,  2013;  mourão,   2012,   2016,   2017).   this   study   extends   this   line   of   research   further   by   highlighting   the   benefits   of   placing   students  at  the  centre  of  the  interactive  storytelling  process.  from  this  perspective,  the  linguistic  challenges   presented  by  authentic  picturebooks  provide  the  basis  for  meaningful  and  purposeful  language  work,  leading   to   exchanges   that   generate   multiple   benefits   for   the   students   leading   the   storytelling   sessions   and   the   children  interacting  with  them.     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 julie  (2018).  teacher  understanding  and  implementation  of  motivational  strategies  in  elt.  elt   journal,  72(2),  162-­‐174.  https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccx044   waddington,  julie  (2019).  developing  primary  school  students’  foreign  language  learner  self-­‐concept.  system,   82,  39-­‐49.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2019.02.012   williams,  marion,   mercer,   sarah,   &   ryan,   stephen   (2016).  exploring   psychology   in   language   learning   and   teaching.  oxford,  united  kingdom:  oxford  university  press.                             waddington   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  124-­‐144 144   julie waddington, university of girona julie.waddington@udg.edu en julie waddington teaches at the university of girona, catalonia, in the faculty of education and psychology. drawing on her previous experience as a full-time english language teacher, she develops her teaching and research in the area of foreign language didactics. working closely with pre-service and in-service teachers, her current research interests focus on learner identity and the development of learner-centred teaching practice. she is a member of the consolidated research group cultura i educació (udg). she previously taught at the manchester metropolitan university, england, where she completed her phd in literary studies and critical theory. es julie waddington enseña en la universidad de girona, cataluña, en la facultad de educación y psicología. basándose en su experiencia previa como profesora de inglés a tiempo completo, desarrolla su enseñanza e investigación en el área de la didáctica de la lengua extranjera. trabaja con los docentes en formación y en formación continua, y sus intereses de investigación actuales se centran en la identidad del alumno y en el desarrollo de la práctica docente centrada en el estudiante. es miembro del grupo de investigación cultura i educació (udg). anteriormente, enseñó en la universidad metropolitana de manchester, inglaterra, donde consiguió el doctorado en estudios literarios y teoría crítica. it julie waddington insegna all'universidad de girona, in catalogna, nella facoltà di scienze dell'educazione e psicologia. grazie alla sua passata esperienza come docente di lingua inglese a tempo pieno, si è dedicata all'insegnamento e alla ricerca nel campo della didattica delle lingue straniere. collaborando con insegnanti tirocinanti e in servizio, le sue attuali aree di ricerca si concentrano sull'identità del discente e sullo sviluppo della pratica d'insegnamento centrata sullo studente. è membro del gruppo di ricerca cultura i educació (udg). inoltre, ha insegnato presso la manchester metropolitan university, inghilterra, dove ha conseguito il dottorato in studi letterari e teoria critica.         microsoft word sperti_9.2_final.docx e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 2, december 2022, 17–39 issn 2376-905x https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.9.2.279 www.e-journall.org © sperti 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. english language teaching and learning at a time of change: young learners’ perceptions of instructional contexts silvia sperti università roma tre received 5 july 2022; accepted after revisions 13 november 2022 abstract en over the last twenty-five years, english has been introduced into the primary school curriculum around the world at an ever-earlier age. several research studies on those directly involved in this policy implementation, i.e., young learners, have been carried out, particularly in europe. the enrich project—aimed at promoting teacher competences necessary for responding to the challenges raised in today’s multilingual classrooms across europe—has explored contexts of teaching/learning in five countries where english language teachers teach learners from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. the project investigated the needs of today’s young and adolescent learners, their awareness and understanding of new forms of communication, and their learning through english. the focus of the present article is data collected by means of focus groups in which over 100 participants, aged 11-13, were asked to think back to their role as learners and users of english, thus triggering personal responses and enhancing reflections on their learning experiences. the analysis of young learners’ statements revealed their positioning in terms of awareness of english language teaching and of the current role of english in multilingual contexts. key words: english language teaching, english as a lingua franca, young learners, focus group, qualitative data analysis es en los últimos veinticinco años, la enseñanza del inglés se ha introducido en las escuelas primarias de todo el mundo a una edad cada vez más temprana. además, en las últimas décadas se han llevado a cabo varios estudios, en especial en europa, sobre quienes están directamente involucrados en la implementación de esta política: los estudiantes muy jóvenes. el proyecto erasmus+ enrich –que promueve las competencias docentes necesarias para responder a los desafíos que surgen en las aulas multilingües en toda europa– exploró las prácticas de enseñanza/aprendizaje en cinco países donde el profesorado de inglés enseña a estudiantes de diferentes contextos lingüísticos y culturales. asimismo, este proyecto investigó las necesidades de los estudiantes (niños/as y adolescentes), su conocimiento y comprensión de nuevas formas de comunicación y del aprendizaje a través del inglés. la presente investigación se enfoca en los datos recopilados a través de una serie de grupos focales donde se invitaron a más de 100 participantes, con edades entre los 11 y los 13 años. se les pidió a los participantes que reflexionaran sobre su rol como aprendices y usuarios del inglés, lo que provocó respuestas personales y más detalladas sobre sus experiencias de aprendizaje. el análisis de las reflexiones de los jóvenes estudiantes reveló sus posturas en términos de conocimiento de la enseñanza del inglés y del rol que tiene este idioma en contextos multilingües. palabras clave: didáctica de la lengua inglesa, inglés como lengua franca, aprendices jóvenes, grupo focal, análisis cualitativo it da oltre venticinque anni l'insegnamento della lingua inglese è stato introdotto nelle scuole primarie di tutto il mondo in età sempre più precoce. in particolare in contesto europeo sono stati condotti molti studi sui giovani apprendenti direttamente coinvolti nell'attuazione di questa politica. il progetto erasmus+ enrich – finalizzato alla promozione delle competenze degli insegnanti necessarie a rispondere alle sfide che le classi multilingui pongono in tutta europa – ha esplorato pratiche di insegnamento e apprendimento in cinque paesi in cui docenti di lingua inglese insegnano a studenti provenienti da diversi contesti linguistici e culturali e ha indagato i bisogni degli studenti (ragazzi/e e adolescenti), la loro consapevolezza e comprensione di nuove forme di comunicazione e di apprendimento attraverso l'inglese. il punto focale della presente ricerca si colloca sui dati raccolti attraverso una serie di focus group durante i quali oltre 100 partecipanti, di età compresa tra gli 11 e 13 anni, sono stati invitati a considerare il loro ruolo di studenti e utenti di inglese, fornendo opinioni personali e riflessioni sulle loro esperienze di apprendimento. l'analisi del discorso ha messo in luce le posizioni dei giovani studenti sulla didattica dell’inglese e sul ruolo di questo in contesti multilingui. parole chiave: didattica della lingua inglese, inglese come lingua franca, giovani apprendenti, focus group, analisi qualitativa * silvia sperti, università roma tre silvia.sperti@uniroma3.it sperti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 18 1. introduction the spread of english as a global lingua franca (elf) and the impact of the related sociolinguistic phenomena are nowadays unquestionable, especially when the use of english as a shared common language is frequent in migration contexts or in multilingual professional settings, such as institutions, diplomacy, trade, or tourism. across these settings, speakers from different socio-cultural and linguistic backgrounds exchange messages for communicative purposes. as a result of these increasing global phenomena, the sociolinguistic realisations of english and the growing diffusion of world englishes have received considerable scientific attention in the last two decades in terms of language use and language teaching/learning (e.g., graddol, 2006; lopriore, 2016; pennycook, 2006; seidlhofer, 2009). the emergence of new linguistic landscapes, affecting english language teaching (henceforth, elt), reveals the importance of considering current societal changes and their impact on education and on teacher education in defining innovative approaches and trends in language teaching. in this sense, the research focus of this study is on the exploration of learners’ perceptions, attitudes, and practices, and the role they may have nowadays on language teaching as well as on teacher training, starting from issues of identity, teaching practices, proficiency levels, intercultural communication, and the language awareness of young learners. data presented in the following sections originate from the enrich project (see section 2.1) which provided innovation in fields such as: language teacher education (since it helped teachers develop particular competences necessary for preparing learners to effectively use english as it is used among people with diverse mother tongues); english language teaching and learning (since it promoted an innovative view of the english classroom by embracing and enriching the linguistic repertoire of all learners through a dynamic, variable and mutually shared language); continuous professional development (cpd) for el teachers (since it integrated face-to-face tasks and reflective activities through a blended learning approach, promoting collaborative professional enquiry and peer-learning through networking). to this end, the enrich team preliminarily collected information from el teachers through a questionnaire about current elt practices, as well as personal beliefs and attitudes regarding elt and new instantiations of english. similar information was acquired from english language learners regarding their individual language learning habits, perceptions, and preferences. the learners’ group was divided into two groups: young learners (11-13 years) and adolescents (14-17 years) so as to carefully explore their diverse needs and conditions. in this study, the research focus and investigation will be on the former group of learners and on the results of a qualitative data analysis based on their responses. 2. theoretical background and research focus 2.1. teaching english to young learners the introduction of foreign languages into the primary curriculum has been the most relevant development in language education policy around the world over the last 25 years. in the majority of countries, the english language is taught and at an ever-earlier age. to support this change, considerable investments in pre-service and in-service early primary teacher education have been made over the last years. to date, a relatively large amount of research has been carried out in a wide geographical area to teach english to young learners from the point of view of language policy, of teaching practices and lesson planning, and of teacher education. it especially concerns the gap between policy and practice caused by the introduction of new methodologies and approaches such as communicative language teaching (e.g., in western contexts: benvenuto & lopriore, 2000; costa & pladevall ballester, 2020; enever, 2011; garton & copland, 2018; lopriore, 2014, 2015; lopriore & mihaljević djigunović, 2011; nikolov & mihaljević djigunović, 2011; nunan, 2011; pinter, 2017). among others, a detailed insight of the policy and implementation processes for early foreign language learning programmes has been provided in the european context by the early language learning in europe (ellie; enever, 2011) study which provided a tool to guide policy-makers thanks to a transnational, longitudinal approach to understanding and investigating the effectiveness of the teaching of languages in primary schools in a range of seven european countries. the research gives evidence of the benefits, as well as of the challenges, of early start programmes faced by learners, thanks to the analysis of data from over 1,400 children, their schools, teachers, and parents in different national contexts. the term young learner is often used in the elt profession to refer to any learner under the age of 18. as underlined by ellis (2014), “it is used by private language providers, publishers, and exam boards; however, it is rarely used by parents or professionals in mainstream education or ministries of education” (p. 75). english language teaching and learning at a time of change e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 19 however, an unambiguous definition is needed to unequivocally identify the target group under investigation, in spite of different education systems and/or school levels in each country. in this regard, different sources might be considered. in general, as mentioned before, the term “young learner” refers to any child under the age of 18 as the united nations convention on the rights of the child (1990) defines child as a person below the age of 18, unless the laws of a particular country set the legal age for adulthood earlier. the organisation for economic cooperation and development (oescd)1 defines the youth population as those people aged less than 15, while in other contexts they are primary-level students aged from approximately 6/7 to 11/12, or students who are not adolescents yet. “young learners,” therefore, is a generic term that encompasses a wide range of learners who, unlike adults, share commonly accepted needs and rights as children but differ as learners in terms of their physical, psychological, social, emotional, conceptual, and cognitive development, as well as their literacy (aitchison, 1997). as for elt, a very different set of terms describing children of different ages is used, especially with reference to specialized skills and teaching approaches (see table 1). these labels may cause misunderstandings and make it difficult for elt professionals to share knowledge and practices and avoid generalizations, as outlined by enever and moon (2010) who argue that “more precise descriptors are needed today, to ensure that age-appropriate approaches to teaching and learning are fully developed” (p. 2). table 1 terms used to describe learners in the elt profession (adapted from ellis, 2014) life stage age range terms commonly used in the elt profession proposed terms aligned to those commonly used in educational systems pre-schooler (also referred to as pre-primary, early years, nursery, kindergarten) 2-5 years kids; little ones/people/learners; very young learners; early starters; young learners early years/pre-primary primary school pupil 6-10/11 years (often further broken down into blocks of years or stages) kids; young learners; primary; juniors; tweens primary secondary school pupil 11-14 years kids; young learners; secondary; tweens; teens; early teens; teenagers; juniors lower secondary secondary school pupil 15-17 years kids; young learners; young adults; seniors; teens; late teens; teenagers upper secondary university/vocational student 18-25 years adults; young adults university/further education data presented in this study (and derived from the enrich project) cover a sample of young learners who are secondary school pupils aged between 11 and 13. this choice is due to the research objective of investigating learners’ language learning habits and preferences, as well as their educational history and their belonging to special groups of migrants or refugees, with the ultimate aim of comparing their voices with those of older adolescents (see section 2.3). 2.2. young learners’ voices nonetheless, although most learners of english around the world are children or adolescents, research on young language learners’ perceptions and views of teaching and learning strategies and the outcomes of early language teaching policies is still underdeveloped in comparison to other learner groups and research contexts. this may be due to the fact that studies involving young learners require important methodological and ethical considerations. researchers should consider children’s vulnerability and their need for protection. moreover, in the past, a common idea was that children were not able to participate in research because of their 1 https://data.oecd.org/pop/young-population.htm sperti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 20 undeveloped cognitive, communicative or social skills (mayall, 2000; scott, 2000). studies show instead that young learners are in fact capable of providing reliable evidence if approached in ways that engage and empower them, and of developing their awareness of self and language learning, as well as their ability to reflect and elaborate on these issues (mihaljević djigunović & lopriore, 2011; scott, 2000). several researchers have highlighted the need for more studies on learner perspectives including mihaljević djigunović (2016), who calls for more studies on young learners’ perspectives and perceptions of how classroom practices affect their learning process and willingness to interact. however, some exceptions can be reported, e.g., in greene & hogan, 2005; pinter & zandian, 2015; sairanen & kumpulainen, 2014, where young learners are observed as valuable and capable subjects and active social actors whose voices and views should be heard and considered, rather than being objects of research studies. 2.3. elf and the enrich project moreover, research has shown that there is an urgent need to raise language teachers’, teacher educators’, educational policy-makers’, and researchers’ awareness of the current role of english as the most frequently employed means of international and intercultural communication, i.e., a global lingua franca (elf), in educational and professional contexts (e.g., bayyurt & dewey, 2020; bayyurt & sifakis, 2015; dewey & patsko, 2018; galloway, 2018; jenkins, cogo, & dewey, 2011; llurda, 2004, 2018; lopriore, 2016, 2017; lopriore & vettorel, 2016; mauranen, 2012; seidlhofer, 2011; sifakis, 2019; sifakis & bayyurt, 2018). in such contexts, english is the language of choice among people who come from different language and cultural backgrounds and need to communicate. mauranen (2018, p. 7) explains that elf is a “non-local lingua franca” that can be used by anyone anywhere for any given purpose. in the light of the above, the erasmus+ “english as a lingua franca practices for inclusive multilingual classrooms (enrich)” project (http://enrichproject.eu/; cavalheiro et al., 2021) aimed at developing and implementing an innovative and free-of-charge online continuous professional development (cpd) course. such an initiative empowers teachers to adapt their teaching practices in view of the role of elf in today’s multilingual and multicultural environments, thanks to a network of researchers from greece, italy, norway, portugal, and turkey. data analysed in the present research study have been collected withing the framework of an intensive needs analysis study, carried out to sustain the design and to implement the professional development course (pdc) “enrich.” the 5-month online course was meant to develop participants’ own understanding of the role of english as a lingua franca in multilingual classrooms through an innovative elfaware pedagogy (sifakis, 2019; sifakis & bayyurt, 2018). the in-depth needs analysis, carried out in five countries and investigating el teachers’ (over 600) as well as learners’ (over 500) current habits and perceived needs. it aimed to investigate current el teaching and learning practices, routines, attitudes, and beliefs. it also sought to identify both teachers’ and learners’ current teaching and learning needs in the diverse elt educational contexts of the five countries, representing different foreign language curricula and teaching traditions. the countries have all been differently affected by recent migration flows and, consequently, by new scenarios in terms of multilingualism and multiculturalism. in order to develop the needs analysis, the enrich team adopted instruments and tools that would be able to investigate both teachers’ and learners’ current teaching and learning needs, including a growing multilingual population that brings new linguistic landscapes to the classroom. the types of tools used were two multiple choice questionnaires for elts and adolescents (aged 14-17); and the focus groups for young learners (11-13). while the enrich research team decided that questionnaires could be used in english with the teachers, the learners’ local language was chosen for the adolescents’ questionnaire and the young learners’ focus groups, as the most appropriate tool to facilitate their spontaneous responses. data presented in this research study have been collected during the focus groups carried out in italian, in 2019, in two local schools in rome by the local enrich unit at roma tre university2. 3. the research study 3.1. rationale, research questions, and context the following qualitative data analysis is based on a series of focus groups conducted within the enrich project in five different countries. the presuppositions of the present study were that: 2 the enrich italian partners—lucilla lopriore, silvia sperti, valeria fiasco and alessandra cannelli—worked in the local unit at the university of roma tre. english language teaching and learning at a time of change e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 21 1) the participant young learners’ responses to the set of questions were going to challenge current teaching practices, thus unveiling views, metalinguistic abilities (pinto, titone & trusso, 1999), beliefs, and daily routines; 2) the conversational approach adopted in the focus group would enhance participants’ reactions and comments and would gradually lead to the involvement of all pupils in the exchange of attitudes and habits; 3) beliefs, needs, and views would be revealed in the discourse and in the language used by young learners in their responses within the interview guided by a trained interviewer who moderated the encounters. these hypotheses generated two main research questions: r.q. 1 what are the trends in learners’ attitudes, awareness, needs, experiences, and ownership of the english language? what, if any, are the dominant trends in their responses? r.q. 2 what implications for teacher education traditions and language policies do young learners’ reactions and reflections provide, particularly with regard to inclusive and responsive teaching practices? the focus group organization was guided by a protocol to be closely followed by the people who administered the focus groups in all five countries (see appendix for full protocol). the total time was 20 minutes and two trained observers used specifically devised grids—with specific codes—to observe the interaction between the interviewer and the pupils. the interaction was not recorded due to privacy issues, but main responses were annotated and later reported through a common format to be analysed. the interviewer had the task of eliciting an open discussion on different topics, using stimulus questions and allowing learners to interact with their mates. the interviewer basically asked them to think back to their own experiences as learners and users of english from different perspectives. there was a set of four topics that regarded themes and issues, defined in advance, during the needs analysis design (cavalheiro et al., 2021): – knowledge & schemata on english language use and learning – attitudes & elt awareness – out-of-school experience & personal skills – intercultural awareness & exposure to multilingualism. this list of topics corresponded to a series of questions aimed to trigger personal responses and enhance reflections on learners’ learning experiences (see section 4.1). 3.2. young learners’ profiles and data collection procedure krueger (1994, p. 6) defines a focus group as “a carefully planned discussion, designed to obtain perceptions on a defined area of interest in a permissive, non-threatening environment.” the aim of a focus group is to produce qualitative data that provide insights into the attitudes, perceptions, motivations, concerns and opinions of participants (kingry et al., 1990; krueger, 1994) while generating a collective consciousness (mcelroy, 1997). focus groups employ an interviewing technique, with cooperative discussion taking place under the guidance of a moderator. the moderator facilitates the group discussion in a non-directive and unbiased way, using pre-determined questions. a second moderator is often present, acting as note taker, observing group interactions, and monitoring the technical equipment, but not participating in the ongoing interaction. in the last two decades, focus groups have been increasingly adopted in research studies involving children and young people. the majority of publications concerns health education and health psychology to explore children’s views and perspectives on a variety of topics. research methodologies have been developed to design the least intrusive tools to be preferred for young children. hence, focus-group interviews should help them to express their ideas in a more comfortable atmosphere and to get inspired from one another. as a consequence, in focus-group interviewing the researcher not only controls the progress of the discussion but also gathers the participants’ ideas resulting from their interaction. in this respect, “the researcher may thereby elicit a richer data set than if he or she is conducting individual interviews" (nunan & bailey, 2009, p. 315). sperti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 22 in this research study, as already mentioned in section 1.3, the focus groups were organized in each country involved in the project and proved to be very successful as the overall design and the role of the interviewer easily stimulated learners’ interventions and spontaneous exchanges. the number of learners was limited to 5, including multilingual learners, chosen by the classroom teacher according to the research protocol which was especially devised in order to facilitate and enhance communication on a series of questions covertly underlying issues and topics selected by the enrich team in the needs analysis design. one hundred young learners aged between 11 and 14, 20 from each of the five countries, 48% male and 52% female responded3. the italian local unit interviewed a total of 20 young learners, 12 male and eight female, all aged 13. fifty percent of them were italian while the other 50% were second-generation pupils (whose parents were of bengali, cape verdean, filipino, nigerian, romanian, and russian origins). the author led the focus groups; two other researchers and teacher educators accurately reported their interventions and took notes without intervening and one interviewer asked questions following the sequence of questions from the protocol (see appendix). the focus groups were carried out in four sessions in two local lower secondary schools using italian. as for the english learning context where participants operate on a daily basis, in italian lower secondary schools, like those where the focus groups were carried out, english as a foreign language (efl) classes take place three hours a week, with a total amount of 99 hours per year. at a primary level, pupils attend one hour of english classes in the first grade, two hours in the second grade, three hours in the third, fourth and fifth grades. the most common teaching methods used are traditional lessons, including exercises and group work. teachers choose textbooks and teaching tools that are consistent with the national curriculum and the school’s educational offer plan. as for assessment, the periodic and annual evaluation of pupils focuses on the learning process, their behaviour and their overall learning outcomes. these assessments should be consistent with the learning objectives established in the educational offer plan of each school. at the end of every term and every school year, the teacher assigns the final marks to each student. respondents were divided into small groups and the interviews were conducted in one of the school classrooms. learners sat in a semicircle, with the observers at two different desks on both sides of the semicircle, and the interviewer stood in front of the semicircle and asked questions in italian. no other students or teachers participated. firstly, one of the observers introduced the project and the aims. notes taken during the interviews were then accurately translated into english. the respondents’ statements and answers to the researchers’ questions could have been influenced by the school context and the implicit power hierarchies in this context. however, pupils who were involved in the focus groups generally appeared relaxed and at ease. as mentioned above, english young learners responded to questions related to topics and issues identified by the enrich team (see section 4.2), such as: – learners’ knowledge of the curriculum and of elt, – learners’ understanding of multilingualism/intercultural communication/elf, – expectations for future uses of english – exposure to/ use of english inside and outside the classroom – learning strategies, preferences and skills awareness & development these questions had the aim of assessing their awareness of the potential of using another language and their self-confidence in using the language. the analysis of the outcome was a qualitative one. specific aspects related to learners’ awareness of elt, their experiences, their knowledge of the role of english and about multilingualism, emerged and provided relevant inputs and hints for reflection. the freedom of the focus group format allowed learners’ responses to be quite varied and provided good insight into learners’ perception of their language learning experience. when, for example, asked about the first thing, image or sound that came to their mind when they thought of english, the young learners’ responses were classified in terms of the learners’ use of imagination, their expectations, background schemata and their use of english outside the school. 3 this study complies with the general data protection regulation (gdpr) and european union legislation on research ethics. participants’ privacy was fully protected and all responses given by young leaners are totally anonymous and can only be used for research purposes within the enrich project. english language teaching and learning at a time of change e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 23 4. data analysis: discourse and meaning4.1. data sampling and research method the enrich team agreed on the idea of using focus groups with young learners since interviewing young learners in a relaxing environment and in a discursive mode would allow them to react personally as well as to interact with their mates. in order to define the protocol to be carried out by the focus group in each country and to reduce the risk of getting data that were not conducive, the research team collected background information about educational contexts and multilingual school population (and especially the presence of migrants and refugees); the professional profile of elt teachers in multilingual classrooms; the number of elt hours the learners had been exposed to, and if they also study a second foreign language; the status of multilingualism in their country and of exposure to english; the current system of integration of migrants/refugees and if there are separate systems; the current status of integration of refugees/migrants in the school/education system. as suggested by the previous research questions (see section 3.1) the main aims of the young learners’ focus groups were to: 1) record their needs and wants, in terms of what they actually wanted to learn in the english classroom and how; 2) understand the way they used english (alongside other languages) in the classroom to communicate with their teacher and classmates, ict use (apps, etc.) outside the classroom for real-life communicative purposes, and the way they expected they may do so in the future, e.g., for social, academic or professional purposes. the researchers discussed these macro-objectives and created four sets of stimulus questions to encourage learners’ replies and exchanges. at the end of this process, the enrich team agreed on the protocol to be used during the focus groups, which included the following four main questions to be asked by the interviewer: 1) when you think of english, what is the first thing / image / sound / that comes to your mind? 2) is english one of your favourite subjects at school? 3) what is your favourite website / app / game among those that use predominantly english? why? 4) in your class do you ever talk about english speaking peoples and cultures other than british, american, or australian? how often and about what? data collected during the focus groups, thanks to the assistance of the two observers who took notes, were then translated into english and coded in specific grids meant to ensure complete and careful qualitative data processing. by coding data, specific units of analysis, such as statements, moves, and individual interventions, were tagged and stored for further investigation. as a first step, some categories were outlined according to the issues and the key themes behind the sets of questions that the interviewer asked during the focus group (see table 2 below). this first data processing was useful to provide the basis for a qualitative data analysis of the structural features of the responses given by the young learners. in order to code the macro-features of the resulting transcripts, sections dealing with a specific topic and overlapping discourse strands were identified, especially when supporting or eliciting questions had been used to encourage the exchange of opinions and to close a set of questions before moving to another topic. once the conversational structure had been defined (the alternation of moves among the interviewer and the interviewees), data were analysed according to individual statements with the aim of examining how and what they represent in the respective discourse strand. in this perspective, lexical features and vocabulary were examined, in terms of register as well as semantic fields, to identify common features and consequently regularities signalling a logic behind the statements of each speaker. the qualitative data analysis was carried out on the elaborate notes taken from the responses given in italian, also considering the role of grammar and syntactical features, especially the use of pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, modal and auxiliary verbs, and active versus passive phrases. these features might provide more information about personal beliefs and judgements, expectations and positioning, and attitude towards certain topics. another important element that was considered consisted in the use of rhetorical figures (metaphors, similes, idioms, or sayings) that help to interpret and explain replies and comments, which in this case were particularly influenced by the limits of the protocol used and, thus, to be handled with care and attention. sperti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 24 4.2. themes and issues as already pointed out, in the first part of the research project, mainly devoted to the design of tools and the creation of questionnaires, the team created a list of topics and issues to be turned into feasible questions for the focus groups: 1) learners’ knowledge of the curriculum and of elt; 2) learners’ knowledge/understanding of elt terms; 3) learners’ understanding of cefr levels; 4) understanding of multilingualism/intercultural communication/elf; 5) expectations for future uses of english, e.g., for social, academic or professional purposes; 6) their exposure to/use of english: identification of contexts, of usefulness; 7) english outside the classroom for real-life communicative purposes; 8) their “institutional learning” (i.e., learning in schools/centres): pros & cons; 9) materials & coursebooks: pros & cons; 10) presence of non-native speakers, migrants, refugees: experience, pros & cons for language learning; 11) intercultural awareness; 12) learning preferences; 13) development of learning strategies; 14) skills awareness & development: listening, speaking, reading, writing, interacting, mediating; 15) use of self-assessment. this list of topics helped in the coding of data and in the analysis of statements at a later stage (see section 5). as for the inner structure that composes the set of data, four main topics related to corresponding research objectives and to the previous list of themes were selected and taken into consideration. these were identified in the preliminary needs analysis of the enrich project and include: attitude to english teaching and learning; awareness of effective communication; self-awareness of their use of english; attitude towards accuracy; use of communication strategies; exposure to english and to other languages; intercultural awareness. the four question groups are represented in table 2. table 2 categories and sets of questions used for designing and conducting the focus groups (cavalheiro et al., 2021) focus group protocol main topic main question research objectives question group 1 knowledge/schemata when you think of english, what is the first thing/image/sound that comes to your mind? the responses were classified in terms of the learners’ use of imagination, their expectations and their use of english outside the school. question group 2 attitudes/elt awareness is english one of your favourite subjects at school? the responses were classified in terms of the learners’ attitudes, needs and/or criticism of teaching practices. question group 3 experience/skills what is your favourite website/app/game among those that use predominantly english? why? the responses were classified in terms of the learners’ habits and selfawareness in the language classroom. question group 4 intercultural awareness/ multilingualism in your class, do you ever talk about english speaking peoples and cultures other than british, american or australian? how often and about what? the responses were classified in terms of intercultural awareness and multiculturalism. english language teaching and learning at a time of change e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 25 in all five countries, data were explored and investigated by way of a textual investigation of the replies that were reconstructed after the focus groups by the team of researchers in charge of the data collection. this methodology also offers the opportunity to carry out a comprehensive analysis meant to monitor and analyse learners’ responses to the interview by following the set of topics given by the four protocol components, ranging from background schemata to intercultural awareness. in each of the four main components, the replies chosen for the analysis were those regarded as the most significant for signalling specific needs and occurring changes, where it is expected for participants to use more complex and articulated textual and rhetorical devices. 4.3. data analysis and findings as mentioned before, the data analysis took into consideration the most relevant passages in the interactional processes occurring during each focus group. more precisely, special attention was devoted to questions geared at eliciting learners’ positioning on english language learning and teaching practices, and to traces of changes and of a shift in perspective, e.g., through the use of lexis and of textual strategies that emerged in the participants’ discourse. data coded in specific grids, thus, granted a closer view of the language choices that had been made by the participants to express their beliefs, needs and opinions, and to relate them to the main topics raised by the set of questions employed by the interviewer. in the following paragraphs data are presented according to the four question groups that were adopted during the interviews. the data analysis will reveal occurring changes and current behaviours among young learners in relation to english language learning and use. 4.3.1. question group 1: knowledge and schemata on using/learning english at the beginning of each focus group learners were asked: 1) when you think of english, what is the first thing/image/sound that comes to your mind? after the first roundtable, the interviewer intervened with other supporting questions on the role and the function of learning english nowadays aimed at stimulating discussions about persisting schemata, such as: 2) do you think english will be useful to you in the future? who do you think you are going to use it with mostly? why will english be useful to you? 3) do you ever use english outside of school? if yes, tell me when, how, with whom… in which situations outside school were you able to use english: any examples? 4) what do you do when you don’t understand something when talking to other people in english? how do you solve such problems? questions 2-4 relate to the main topic of the first question group (namely background knowledge and perceptions on english), in that they link the ideas and images that emerged in the replies to question 1 to everyday experiences, as well as future projections of using english and the reasons why it is worth learning. moreover, when needed, the interviewer resorted to eliciting questions to better identify practices, needs and beliefs. these questions also provided access to other supporting information, such as the need for private supplementary courses or practices of translanguaging and code-mixing outside the school. as shown in table 3, vocabulary and lexical choices (e.g., funny, useful, important; chat, videogames; play, laugh, solve), as well as the use of modals (e.g., can, must, will), reveal young learners’ attitudes, views and expectations about the use and the usefulness of english in their present and future. sometimes the meaning was explicitly made clear, especially when referring to strategies and exposure (e.g., if i don’t understand something i say “can you repeat please”), while in other cases vagueness and ambiguity emerged in relation to self-awareness and proficiency level (e.g., usually i don’t have problems. i use english to make jokes and people usually laugh). in table 3, replies to the first main question and corresponding supporting questions are presented according to the discourse categories identified in the processing of data. extracts have been selected among sperti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 26 the complete dataset for their representativeness in terms of attitudes, awareness, needs, and experiences. words in bold signal lexical, syntactical, rhetorical, and textual features examined in the data analysis. table 3 set of key topics and extracts from the first question group topics & issues extracts 1.1 english language and associations participants make main images and schemata used: (s1) british or american flag (s2) england or uk map (s3) big ben and london monuments (s4) american football (s5) school (s6) a violin sound (at the beginning is complicated then it is pleasant, you need practice) (s7) the world, the planisphere (s8) it is an international language. the language. 1.2 usefulness of english in the future (s1) better work in my future life (s2) yes, to travel, to study (s3) yes, but i already use it to communicate with some americans for some championships (s4) useful because we are not alone, there are not only italians (s5) yes, because there are jobs that use english, where you must know english (s6) if you can speak english you can communicate with everyone (s7) yes, even if i won’t attend a foreign language high school, i have chosen to improve my english skills through the cambridge qualifications because english is the most spoken language nowadays. anyway, i like it! (s8) it will be useful for work and for travelling to america or england (s9) after university, i would like to move to england (s10) yes, because english is the most spoken language nowadays, everyone speaks english therefore it is important if i go abroad (s11) yes, i don’t know specifically what i’ll do in the future but i think that it will be useful (s12) yes, i will move to england therefore if i can speak english it’s easier. it is the most spoken language in the world (s13) it’s important to know other languages therefore i think that in the future it will be useful for work purposes (s14) if i go abroad it will be useful to communicate with other people. i would like to be a footballer and i think that it would be an invaluable experience to go to england to learn how they play and to work there 1.3 use of english outside school (s1) yes, after school to do homework and in the english private courses (s2) i also use it with my brother who studies and uses it (s3) yes, during my football training, all my sports terminology is in english (s4) to watch videos or listen to music (s5) yes, my uncle speaks english (s6) yes, i use english on my own! (s7) just at school (s8) yes, playing videogames. (s9) yes, i often write english sentences and i have an english penfriend who lives in england (s10) yes, i use english to give street directions to tourists (also to non-english speakers) (s11) not often. sometimes i use some english expressions or words to make funny jokes with my friends or my parents. english gives the idea (s12) at home with my parents and using video calling with my cousins (s13) i don’t use english outside school, but once a tourist asked my mother something and she wasn’t able to answer, so i answered to the tourist (s14) yes, i use english when i play with the play station system and online videogames english language teaching and learning at a time of change e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 27 (s15) yes, filipino is a melting pot of many languages, english included. i use it with my parents and my family (s16) i attend a cambridge course (ket) at school. nowadays many english words are also used into italian in different areas like technology, e.g., computers. i set my iphone in english (s17) yes, i do. my aunt speaks english for work purposes and sometimes i speak english with her (s18) yes, last year i attended a trinity course at school. i use english with my italian friends to make jokes and laugh. we make conversations in english and we don’t know how to say some words we use italian, therefore we speak italian/english 1.4 strategies when you do not understand (s1) i was in amsterdam and i was buying a sandwich and i didn’t know how to say it so i used gestures (s2) usually i don’t have problems but if i don’t understand something i use gestures. (s3) if i don’t understand something i say “can you repeat please,” while if i don’t know how to say something i say “i don’t know” (s4) during english oral tests if the teacher doesn’t understand me i explain the concept in italian (s5) i use gestures to communicate and otherwise i use google translator because i don’t engage myself into long conversations. (s6) usually i don’t have problems. i use english to make jokes and people usually laugh (s7) i use english with my parents and when i don’t understand something my parents explain in bengali (s8) i use google translator or i ask my parents (s9) also for me when it is fast but also when i speak to my brother, and if i don’t know a word, i use italian or i use a dictionary (s10) yes, i also had problems for the speed but if i lacked the words i used gestures to solve the problem (s11) yes, when i can’t understand, as when i take a test, i may not understand so i ask to speak more slowly or i look up in the dictionary (s12) i also ask for help and try to listen twice to understand (s13) yes, when i play with playstation i chat with people using english but sometimes they use strange words and i can’t understand them. so i usually ask them to repeat but sometimes it doesn’t work and they find other ways to let me understand what they mean 4.3.2. question group 2: attitudes and elt awareness after the first set of questions the interviewer asked learners: 5) is english one of your favourite subjects at school? since the question was meant to encourage exchanges on personal attitudes and awareness of teaching practices, some supporting questions were needed, such as: 6) what activity do you like doing best during your english lessons at school? why? 7) what activity do you like doing least during your english lessons at school? why? 8) what do you think is missing in your english lessons? this second set of questions was particularly complex and specific, and required a certain amount of consciousness, meta-cognitive processes and confidence from the young respondents. here learners were asked to express and judge their self-awareness of language learning as well as their teachers’ teaching practices and missing elements in their lessons. in all sessions some of them showed uncertainty and a feeling of awe towards their teachers. the interviewer helped and guided the exchange which, after the initial unease, turned out to be a constructive and critical exchange of opinions and suggestions, as the discourse strategies reveal. such exchanges included the use of modal verbs (e.g., would, would like, should, need) and of basic textual cohesive devices (e.g., i like group activities so i would like to do it more often). english proved to not always be the students’ favourite subject for different reasons (e.g., i hated english because we changed many teachers), and preferences in terms of language activities were extremely subjective but marked, showing a general sperti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 28 awareness of teaching practices, learning skills and acquisition processes (e.g., the teacher gives us a text and we have to translate it all together. i like this type of activity; i don’t like exercises during the english lesson; i know how to apply a grammar rule but i can’t do it!; i like the teacher, she gives many things to do, she’s strict; she makes it interesting, she uses kahoot; we study formal…topics, well, we should get used to using english in practice; our teacher goes too fast and so some of us are left behind). in table 4 replies to the second main question and corresponding supporting questions are presented according to the discourse categories identified in the processing of data. extracts have been selected among the complete dataset for their representativeness in terms of attitudes, awareness, needs, and experiences. words in bold signal lexical, syntactical, rhetorical, and textual features examined in the data analysis. table 4 set of key topics and extracts from the second question group topics & issues extracts 2.1 english as favourite lesson (s1) my favourite subject is physical education, but also theoretical subjects like english and french (s2) no, science and mathematics (s3) it is one of my favourite subjects, even if i prefer italian and italian literature (s4) at the primary school, it wasn’t because i didn’t understand some words. now it’s my second favourite subject and i like it because it is easier than italian, it is funny and it has a beautiful sound (s5) i like english, even if it is not my favourite subject. i like english words and english culture. it is easier than other foreign languages (s6) at the primary school i hated english because we changed many teachers. during the middle school i like it more than before (s7) my favourite subject is maths and i would like to study it in english (s8) it is one of my favourite subjects because it is easy to understand. through english i can communicate with other people 2.2 most favourite activity (s1) the activity i like most is when at the end of the lesson we can play with games like buzz and pistolero (s2) the activity i like most is listening because we are not as good as the teacher, therefore i like hearing the english sound when the teacher reads. i like listening to the english accent and listening activities as well (s3) group activities because they are funny (s4) the teacher gives us a text and we have to translate it all together. i like this type of activity (s5) topics related to culture that are included in the coursebook or the teacher find them and give them us (s6) when i read i like the english accent and i would like to improve it. then i like grammar and doing grammar exercises. (s7) the activity i like most is writing sentences and correcting homework by using the interactive whiteboard (s8) the activity i like most is listening, conversations and writing conversations (s9) the activity i like most is learning new words (s10) the activity i like most is writing english and listening (s11) i like listening while it’s hard for me to pronounce some words 2.3 least favourite activity (s1) i don’t like exercises during the english lesson. i don’t want to do them (s2) i hate irregular verbs (s3) when i don’t like a given topic, like irregular verbs and grammar rules are very hard for me. i know how to apply a grammar rule but i can’t do it! (s4) i can’t understand some grammar rules even if the teacher explains them, it’s hard for me (s5) my least favourite activity is listening because it’s hard (s6) i find hard to learn vocabulary because we have to learn many words english language teaching and learning at a time of change e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 29 (s7) for me the hardest activity is listening (s8) for me the hardest activity is reading 2.4 what is missing during english lessons (s1) i like group activities so i would like to do it more often to speak with other classmates (s2) i like speaking and group activities. in the afternoon i attend a cambridge course at school as well (s3) i like speaking activities but i would suggest that i would like to be engaged in a conversation starting from a given topic (s4) i like english lessons as they are (s5) no, i don’t want to change anything, i like it all (s6) i like the teacher, she gives many things to do, she’s strict (s7) i like reading comprehension because you need to understand and answer well, be precise (s8) nothing to change, i like the way teacher teaches, she makes it interesting, she uses kahoot (s9) i like it all, no changes (s10) we study formal… topics, well we should get used to using english in practice… i mean, they teach grammar, verbs, formal expressions but i don’t know… (s11) during the lesson, our teacher goes too fast and so some of us are left behind and she is obsessed always with the same people, you know, she always makes them correct our homework and she takes for granted that everyone is following and doing their homework, always the same people, she believes they are brilliant… 4.3.3. question group 3: personal experience and self-awareness of skills the exchange then moved towards preferences and daily routines in terms of out-of-school language use. the interviewer asked: (9) what is your favourite website/app/game among those that use predominantly english? why? and, when necessary and if not explicitly and spontaneously stated, some supporting questions were added: (10) when you engage with these websites/apps/games is your english different in any way from the english you use in class? how? can you provide examples? (11) how often do you use the app/this website/this game? (12) how often do you use english when you use the app/a game/the website? (13) have you learnt any english using games? how? what? even if the theme underlying this set of questions is familiar and recurring, some respondents needed eliciting questions to better express and define routines and personal skills. for example: eliciting question: how many times a week? (s1): i watch more italian videos, let’s say 80% italian 20% english. eliciting question: do you watch tv series or films in english? (s2): no, i don’t. i watch narcos in spanish. sometimes i watch tv series in english and i use subtitles. (s3): i watch films in english and i can understand them. eliciting question: can you understand what they say? (s2): yes, i do, more or less. (s4): i don’t use apps or videogames in english. i like watching videos on youtube about english footballers. eliciting question: do you watch interviews? (s4): yes, interviews or challenges among different footballers, freestylers. eliciting question: can you understand what they say? do you use subtitles? sperti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 30 (s4): yes, i can and i don’t use subtitles. eliciting question: can you understand the words of english songs? (s1): yes, most of the times. (s2): i like listening to english music. then i like using apps, for example, one of them is a multimedia japan comic, manga, and i read it in english. i seldom use videogames and i usually have no problems understanding the instructions and the rules. eliciting question: when you use these videogames, are you engaged in conversations with the other players? (s1): yes, it rarely happens, but when it happens it is easy to understand english conversation. eliciting question: do you think that the english used in these types of conversations is different from the english used at school? (s1): yes, it is more fluent because i don’t feel scared of making mistakes. answering this set of questions was relatively immediate and the interviewer only intervened when replies needed more details. question group 2 and question group 3 are to be considered as interrelated, and in a way the latter included control questions for the replies given in the former that were addressed in a more relaxed dimension. vocabulary is related to the sematic fields of gaming and entertainment; text structures are basic, and replies are direct and immediate. table 5 shows replies to the third main question and corresponding supporting questions are presented according to the discourse categories identified in the grids used to process data. extracts have been selected among the complete dataset for their representativeness in terms of attitudes, awareness, needs, and experiences. words in bold signal lexical, syntactical, rhetorical, and textual features examined in the data analysis. table 5 set of key topics and extracts from the third question group topics & issues extracts 3.1 favourite website/app/game (s1) i don’t remember the name but i use an app written in english, there are both images and words. i like listening to english music (s2) all videogames are because they are in english and i learn specific terminology playing. i improved my words, ask teachers and i learn by playing (s3) videogames and telephoning in english. i learn a lot of slang that it is not traditional. i improved a lot of pronunciation by watching tv series (s4) playstation: i can now speak with other people in english, for example. my english becomes more fluid because i use terms that come from the game, like “pushare.” i interact in english while playing. my pronunciation has improved (s5) books in english make me improve because if i meet someone i can speak (s6) i don’t play a lot, i watch films but i’m not sure i’m improving (s7) i use any apps but i rather watch english videos on youtube (s8) i use fortnight (s9) i don’t use apps or videogames in english. i prefer watching english tv series (s10) i don’t use videogames (s11) i use an app in english to create objects but it’s not a game and when don’t understand some words i use google translator (s12) i hardly ever use english videogames (s13) i play a videogame in english and i follow an english channel on youtube where they cook huge sandwiches, it’s amazing! it is called epic meal team. i like listening to english music and english tv series using english subtitles because sometimes i don’t understand english words 4.3.4 question group 4: intercultural awareness and multilingualism to conclude, the interviewer returned to learners’ classroom experience and addressed the issues of standard models, exposure to other languages and cultures, and intercultural awareness by means of a set of questions that were specifically designed to collect useful data to this end, especially among multilingual and migrant learners. the starting question was: english language teaching and learning at a time of change e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 31 (14) in your class, do you ever talk about english speaking peoples and cultures other than british, american or australian? how often and about what? moreover, since groups of selected students included students from migrant backgrounds or secondgeneration pupils, some eliciting questions were used to explore side topics, such as: (15) do you ever talk about your own culture(s)? (either in the english class or in any other class). the last set of questions aimed to verify both learners’ intercultural awareness and exposure, and teachers’ inclusive habits and sensitivity about the plurilingual and pluricultural dimension of their classrooms. learners consciously answered without hesitation and gave details which confirm that coursebooks and teaching materials are not always updated to the socio-cultural changes that education is experiencing. this is due to global mobility and new linguistic landscapes; in contrast, intercultural competence is often still related to canonical literature or monocultural customs and traditions. once again, learners’ out-of-school experience is likely to bring diversity, plurality and new representations of life to the language classroom in the near future. in table 6, extracts from the replies given to the last main question and corresponding supporting questions are presented according to the discourse categories identified in the processing of data. extracts have been selected among the complete dataset for their representativeness in terms of attitudes, awareness, needs, and experiences. words in bold signal lexical, syntactical, rhetorical, and textual features examined in the data analysis: table 6 set of key topics and extracts from the fourth question group themes & issues extracts 4.1 exposure to cultures other than british, american or australian in class (s1) sometimes during the english lessons we focus on culture when we read texts (s2) we dealt with romantic poets in italy, byron and shelley (s3) usa, australia, romantic poets (s4) thanksgiving or new zealand on our coursebook (s5) we have an estonian classmate and he studied english in depth, in estonia they speak english as well, so he is very good in english and his english skills are remarkable. so we help him in italian. (s6) we read texts about america, but our book also includes texts about australia. we did some tests about the american culture for example thanksgiving, christopher columbus, the american flag and politics, american people (s7) we explored the american culture. all these topics are included in our course book. (s8) our course book includes other cultures like australia and other cultures, but i don’t remember the other ones! we haven’t still dealt with them so i’m waiting to study them! (s9) our teacher doesn’t like the usa but when she has to explain the usa she does. she likes india. (s10) the teacher talks about the american culture because she was in the usa (s11) now we are doing only grammar, during our second year we did grammar and sometimes culture, such as texts, dialogues and our teacher sometimes showed us on the map some areas of england but now she has said that now we have to focus on grammar and after, to relax, we will focus on culture, new words and lexis... (s12) there is only a section on our book, about the usa (s13) sometimes we talk about indian holidays and festivals (s14) about the caribbean 4.2 reference to own culture at school (s1) all: no (s2) yes, we did. we talked about our traditions and our cultures. what we do with our parents sperti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 32 (s3) we have never talked about the italian culture, but sometimes we can do some exercises to talk about the things we like most about our culture, what we do in a personal way (s4) we often talk about foreign cultures like africa and asia (s5) usually, i’m not asked to talk about my culture, but once during the geography oral test the teacher asked me to talk about my country (s6) we just do grammar, sometimes texts about the uk. one time we read something about the grand canyon… (s7) no, but we read texts about culture, e.g., thanksgiving. after reading the text we had to answer to some questions and in particular there was one asking whether we have particular traditions or customs 5. voices from the field: young learners’ advice the analysis of data deriving from the focus groups carried out with young learners, reveal that, first of all, learners are often more aware of teaching practices that are more effective for their learning than their teachers. the importance of responses received by asking learners’ habits, perceptions and beliefs about their learning reveals how useful listening to learners’ voices is in research studies, especially when a pdc is designed and implemented. after being transcribed, the data were further examined and interpreted according to special grids where we identified elements related to the four main topics identified in the tool design throughout the participants’ responses (see section 4.1). this last phase of data coding helped in replying to the initial research questions and supporting the research hypotheses (see section 3.1). more precisely, the findings proved to be relevant in many respects. firstly, young learners’ attitude towards english, its use and its usefulness, is extremely positive. they are aware and satisfied with the role of english as a global language. this is also due to the fact that, despite their age, they have already experienced the importance of effective communication with other non-native speakers using english as a lingua franca, thanks to social networks and icts, and sometimes continue to do so on a daily basis. this also means being exposed to other languages and to the use of communication strategies involving mediation, code-mixing, translanguaging and, if needed, paralanguage to enhance mutual intelligibility among participants involved in the interactions. however, the data also revealed a lack of awareness of other english cultures, other than british and american ones, and of world englishes. in terms of language acquisition, pupils show self-awareness of their use of english and a controversial approach to accuracy and being corrected by their teachers (e.g., i hate irregular verbs; i feel anxious when i have to apply grammar rules, grammar rules that are hard for me; it’s hard for me to pronounce some words). in this respect, despite several decades of research studies in this area, it is problematic to formulate any conclusions about the topic of error correction and corrective feedback and its impact on language acquisition and development. this is especially evident in light of the so called “communicative revolution” in language teaching (widdowson, 1978) where learners’ success was related to communicative effectiveness rather than formal accuracy. many researchers have investigated worldwide students’ attitudes towards teachers’ corrective feedback (cf) strategies (e.g., lyster & ranta, 1997); the timing of cf (e.g., sheen & ellis, 2011); and types of learners’ errors that should be corrected (e.g., calsiyao, 201; couper, 2019; hassan & arslan, 2008; katayama, 2007; ustaci, 2014). the majority of these studies’ findings proved that cf has made a great contribution to language learning as it facilitates learners in identifying and adjusting their behaviours (e.g., ancker, 2000; long, 1991) and making progress in language learning (e.g., agustuna, herlina & faridah, 2019; lyster, 2013; saito & lyster, 2012). in contrast, it could affect students’ reactions and motivation in language learning negatively (alqahtani & al-enzi, 2011; ellis, 2009). moreover, very recently, a change in priorities for teachers of english as a language for international communication and alternative assessment have also been suggested (newbold, 2017). to sum up, the final coding of data and the corresponding analysis revealed meaningful results in terms of learners’ needs, perceptions and attitudes towards english language use and learning at a time of change. the correspondence between the initial research topics and issues (see section 4.2) and the main categories identified for the coding and the analysis of data (see section 4.1) can be summarized as follows in table 7. english language teaching and learning at a time of change e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 33 table 7 main findings from the data analysis of the focus groups key issues in question groups notes on categories imagination & schemata on english language english language related to school, learning, global communication, nativeness (uk, usa), standards: e.g., i like english. it is the most spoken language nowadays. expectations & representations english language related to work, study, intercultural communication: e.g., yes, i will move to england therefore if i can speak english it’s easier. it is the most spoken language in the world. use of english outside the classroom elf & accommodation strategies; habits: social media, apps, videogames, web: e.g., i use it to give street directions to tourists and they understand me. i use english when i play with the playstation and online videogames. attitudes to learning english positive and responsive: e.g., it’s my second favourite subject and i like it because it is easier than italian, it is funny and it has a beautiful sound. use of communication strategies frequent and conscious: e.g., if i don’t understand something i use gestures. criticism of teaching practices & methods boring and demanding tasks; need for more interaction, spoken language, group activities: e.g., i like group activity so i would like to do it more often to speak with other classmates. self-awareness & language use signals of self-confidence, search of authenticity: e.g., i can understand english tv series with english subtitles. i interact in english while playing. my pronunciation has improved. multiculturalism & exposure to other languages limited and not satisfying: e.g., sometimes we talk about indian holidays and festivals. but it doesn’t happen so often… the findings that emerged from the focus groups carried out with young learners were used to plan the enrich cpd course. they show current beliefs and attitudes towards learning and using the english language at an earlier stage of language acquisition. children and young learners are inevitably influenced by the global changes occurring and affecting their daily life: migrant flows, recent developments in technology, virtual realities and easier and speedier access to knowledge and news, multilingualism, and plurality of english. all these aspects have considerable pedagogical implications and learners’ voices, as they are authentic, critical and realistic, cannot be neglected; they have therefore become extremely relevant in terms of suggesting innovations in teacher education and language policies. hence, as concerns innovations in teacher education and professional development of elts, the research approach presented in this study (and applied in the enrich project) had the aim of gathering information from learners about the current status and opinions about elt. as a result, they contributed to developing the internal structure of the cpd course and may be seen as a considerable improvement to the field that should be encouraged for further studies. 6. conclusions the initial hypotheses of the study were mostly confirmed by the results of the data analysis, as the participant learners’ responses to the sets of questions, aimed at eliciting their reactions and comments on learning practices and self-awareness on their role as users of english and other languages, confirmed that learners’ voices are as relevant and significant as those of their teachers in implementing high-quality continuous professional development. the data analysis succeeded in answering the initial research questions and unveiled common and firm beliefs about the participants’ role as learners at school and users outside the classroom. the discursive approach that was adopted during the focus groups stimulated interventions and exchanges, and enhanced participants’ self-awareness and a progressive cooperative interactional process that led to the involvement of each speaker in the conversation, guided by the interviewer. sperti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 34 the analysis of the data unveiled how learners not only actively position themselves in relation to innovation as the integration of the out-of-the-school experience in their classrooms confirms, but also suggest innovative approaches and solutions when asked to reflect on teaching practices and habits. lastly, the choice of using a data analysis based on specific grids and discursive categories proved to be a powerful tool in investigating learners’ language choices in an unusual communicative dimension such as that which is inevitably offered by focus groups. their discursive strategies unveil participants’ perceptions and needs, as well as insights for teachers and trainers, with respect to the current role of english and the new challenges that it is raising in terms of teacher education and of language policies. in fact, in the light of these results (referring to the pre-pandemic period) and after the dramatic experience of the total closure of schools in 2020-2021, it is highly possible that today’s responses to the same questions would be even more thoughtful and conscious in terms of educational innovation. as the latest data show (coe, 20204; indire, 20215), the pandemic forced learners to switch to an online mode of learning where digital-integrated teaching became a complement, and not a substitute, of face-to-face lessons. the sudden transition to technology, virtual teaching spaces and contents that are adapted to distance learning have seriously affected learners’ perceptions and self-awareness of their learning processes, especially at a time of crisis when teaching/learning challenges (as well as opportunities) inevitably entailed the overlapping of their own inand out-of-the school experience. to conclude, the study highlighted learners’ overall understanding and awareness of new communicative processes involving the new international function of english and its different instantiations (first of all, elf), as well as the expanding role of non-native speakers. pupils are aware of being learners as well as social agents (cefr, 20206) and successful communicators by accepting, and adopting forms of translanguaging, communication, mediation and accommodation strategies in daily conversations. they provide their teachers with useful suggestions and indications in terms of the importance of authenticity of tools and tasks in the english classroom; the level of learning satisfaction; the daily out-of-school experience; the use of icts and social media; the exposure to other languages and cultures; and learners’ awareness of school and family expectations. all this suggests the urgent need for a widespread reflective teacher education where new instantiations of english(es) are embedded throughout the course components and learners’ language experiences are valued in classroom life. it goes without saying that language policies should endorse the successful implementation of this kind of innovations, thus promoting and sustaining learners’ voices, suggestions and support with the aim of translating these innovations into successful and sustainable classroom practices. references agustuna, neng e., herlina, rina, & faridah, didih (2019). corrective feedback on pronunciation errors: teacher’s perception and efl high school students’ self-reflection. journal of english education and teaching, 3(3), 311–327. aitchison, jean (1997). the language web: the power and problem of words. cambridge university press. alqahtani, abdulmuhsen a., & al-enzi, eihab k. 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(2019). elf awareness in english language teaching: principles and processes. applied linguistics, 40(2), 288–306. ustaci, hale y., & ok, selami (2014). preferences of elt learners in the correction of oral vocabulary and pronunciation errors. higher education studies, 4(2), 29–41. widdowson, henry (1978). teaching language as communication. oxford university press. appendix young learners’ focus group protocol place: class or comfortable school room without other students, and preferably with no teachers, possibly sitting in circles or around a table; provide white paper, pencils etc. participants: • 5 students (chosen by classroom teacher, 3 preferably multilingual of different native languages) • 2 trained observers who will use a specific grid with criteria • 1 trained interviewer content: 4 sets of questions question group 1 main question: when you think of english, what is the first thing / image / sound / that comes to your mind? supporting questions: 1. do you think english will be useful to you in the future? who do you think you are going to use it with mostly? why will english be useful to you? 2. do you ever use english outside the school? if yes, tell me when, how, with whom … in which situations outside school were you able to use english effectively? give some examples. 3. what do you do when you don’t understand something when talking to other people in english? how do you resolve such problems? 4. if someone doesn’t completely understand what you are saying, how do you help him/her understand? time: 20 to 30 minutes actions the two observers: • take notes using a grid, codes and tallies • use numbers for students • never intervene sperti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 38 question group 2 main question: is english one of your favourite subjects at school? supporting questions: 1. why? why not? 2. what do you think is missing in your english lessons? 3. what makes english an enjoyable subject at school? 4. what activity do you like doing best during your english lessons at school? why? 5. what do you like doing least during your english lessons at school? why? 6. is english in any way different from other subjects? if yes, can you provide an example? 7. why do you learn english? 8. do you think you need to practise english beyond the english classes? how? why? question group 3 main question: what is your favourite website / app / game among those that use predominantly english? why? supporting questions: 1. when you engage with these websites / apps / games is your english in any way different from the english you use in class? how? can you provide examples? 2. how often do you use this app / website/ game? 3. how often do you use english when you use the app /game/ website? 4. have you learnt any english using games? how? what? question group 4 main question: in your class do you ever talk about english speaking peoples and cultures other than british, american or australian? how often and about what? supporting question: 1. do you ever talk about your own culture(s)? (either in the english class or in any other class). english language teaching and learning at a time of change e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 17–39 39 silvia sperti, università roma tre silvia.sperti@uniroma3.it en silvia sperti holds a ph.d. in english linguistics applied to intercultural communication. she is a researcher, a lecturer in english language and translation studies, and a language mediator. her research interests and publications focus on the investigation of pragma-linguistic dimensions of intercultural communication, with special attention to elf (english as a lingua franca) variations in cross-cultural interactions, language mediation, multilingualism, language teaching, and teacher education. es silvia sperti tiene un doctorado en lingüística inglesa aplicada a la comunicación intercultural. es investigadora, mediadora lingüística, y profesora de inglés y traducción. sus intereses de investigación y sus publicaciones se enfocan en la investigación de las dimensiones pragma-lingüísticas de la comunicación intercultural, con especial atención a las variaciones elf (inglés como lengua franca) en las interacciones interculturales, la mediación lingüística, el multilingüismo, la enseñanza de idiomas y la formación del profesorado. it silvia sperti ha un dottorato di ricerca in linguistica inglese applicata alla comunicazione interculturale. è una ricercatrice e una mediatrice linguistica, e insegna lingua e traduzione inglese. i suoi interessi di ricerca e le sue pubblicazioni hanno come oggetto l’indagine delle dimensioni pragmalinguistiche della comunicazione interculturale, con particolare attenzione all’uso dell’inglese come lingua franca (elf) nelle interazioni cross-culturali, alla mediazione linguistica, al multilinguismo, all’insegnamento della lingua e alla formazione dei docenti. microsoft word hess zimmermann_ fernández ruiz_minerva silva lòpez_8.1.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  8,  issue  1,  march  2021,  1–19 issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.13.224   www.e-­‐journall.org     © hess zimmermann 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       ¿para  qué  ironizamos?  reflexiones  de  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años   sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal1         karina  hess  zimmermann   universidad  autónoma  de  querétaro     graciela  fernández  ruiz   el  colegio  de  méxico     andrea  minerva  silva  lópez   universidad  autónoma  de  querétaro       received  21  september  2020;  accepted  after  revisions  18  november  2020   abstract es para establecer las razones por las que un hablante elige un enunciado irónico por encima de uno literal es necesario evaluar la mente del hablante y su intención al emplear la ironía verbal en un contexto comunicativo específico. con base en lo anterior, el objetivo de este estudio es analizar la manera en que adolescentes de 12 y 15 años reflexionan sobre las funciones de la ironía verbal en dos tipos de enunciados irónicos: agradecimiento y ofrecimiento. treinta y dos adolescentes se enfrentaron a diferentes situaciones comunicativas que finalizaban con un enunciado irónico, y mediante un guion de preguntas se indagó sobre las funciones que los participantes atribuían a cada enunciado irónico y sobre el tipo de conocimientos en los que basaban sus reflexiones. los resultados muestran diferencias debidas a la edad en la cantidad y calidad de las reflexiones presentadas por los participantes. palabras clave: desarrollo lingüístico tardío, ironía verbal, reflexión metalingüística, función de la ironía, teoría de la mente en to establish the reasons behind a speaker’s choice to use an ironic expression over a literal one, it is necessary to evaluate the speaker’s mind and his/her intention to employ irony in a specific communicative context. taking this into account, the purpose of this study is to analyse the way in which adolescents ages 12 and 15 reflect on the functions of verbal irony in two types of ironic expressions: ironic thanking and ironic offering. thirty-two subjects were faced with different communicative situations ending with an ironic remark and were asked about the functions they attributed to each remark and on what sort of knowledge they based their responses. results show age-based differences in the amount and quality of the reflections presented by the participants. key words: later language development, verbal irony, metalanguage, functions of irony, theory of mind it per stabilire i motivi che spingono un parlante a usare un enunciato ironico al posto di uno letterale, è necessario valutarne la mente e le intenzioni nell’usare l’ironia verbale in un determinato contesto comunicativo. con queste premesse, il presente studio si propone di analizzare in che modo adolescenti di 12 e 15 anni riflettono sulle funzioni dell’ironia verbale in due tipi di enunciati ironici: ringraziamento e offerta. dopo essere stati messi di fronte a diverse situazioni comunicative che si chiudevano con un enunciato ironico, a 32 adolescenti è stato chiesto di rispondere a una serie di domande sulla funzione che ciascuno/a di loro attribuiva a ogni enunciato e di dire in base a cosa avevano optato per quella funzione. i risultati mostrano differenze in base all’età nella quantità e nella qualità delle riflessioni fatte dai/dalle partecipanti. parole chiave: sviluppo tardivo del linguaggio, ironia verbale, riflessione metalinguistica, funzione dell’ironia, teoria della mente * karina  hess  zimmermann,  universidad  autónoma  de  querétaro                  karina.hess@uaq.mx   1  una  versión  previa  a  este  artículo  con  resultados  preliminares  derivados  del  mismo  proyecto  de  investigación  apareció   en  silva,  hess,  fernández  y  avecilla  (2019).   http://www.e-journall.org hess  zimmermann,  fernández  ruiz  &  silva  lópez     e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19  2   1.  antecedentes   1.1.  ironía  verbal  en  el  desarrollo  lingüístico  tardío   una  de  las  habilidades  de  mayor  crecimiento  dentro  del  desarrollo  lingüístico  tardío  -­‐aquel  que  se  da   durante  los  años  escolares  y  la  adolescencia-­‐  es  el  uso  e  interpretación  del  lenguaje  no  literal.  sabemos  que  un   adecuado  desarrollo  del  lenguaje  no  literal  es  necesario  para  que  los  individuos  se  puedan  desenvolver  como   hablantes  competentes  dentro  de  la  sociedad  (banasik-­‐jemielniak  &  bokus,  2019;  berko  &  bernstein,  2010;   berman,  2004;  hoff,  2014;  nippold,  2004,  2016;  tolchinsky,  2004;  zajaczkowska,  abbot-­‐smith,  &  kim,  2020).   esto  se  debe  a  que  el  lenguaje  no  literal  aparece  frecuentemente  en  las  situaciones  comunicativas  de  la  vida   cotidiana,  además  de  que  forma  parte  de   los  contenidos  de  enseñanza  durante   los  años  escolares.  entre   los   diversos  tipos  de  lenguaje  no  literal,  aquel  que  ha  sido  señalado  como  de  adquisición  más  tardía  es  la  ironía   verbal  (banasik-­‐jemielniak  et  al.,  2020;  filippova,  2014a;  hess,  fernández,  &  de  león,  2017;  nippold,  2016;   tolchinsky,   2004;   zufferey,   2016),   entendida   como   una   expresión   lingüística   en   la   que   mediante   un   enunciado  se  manifiesta  una  discrepancia  o  contradicción  con  respecto  a  algo  que  ocurre  en  el  contexto  en  el   que  aparece  dicha  expresión  (colston,  2017;  giora,  &  attardo,  2014).  la  adecuada  interpretación  de  la  ironía   verbal   requiere   el   desarrollo   de   toda   una   serie   de   habilidades   cognitivas,   lingüísticas,   comunicativas   y   sociales  complejas  que  lleva  a  los  individuos  muchos  años  dominar  (filippova,  2014a).     si   bien   resulta   de   gran   importancia   conocer   cómo   se   desarrolla   en   los   niños   y   adolescentes   la   capacidad  para  interpretar  y  producir  la  ironía  verbal,  este  es  un  tema  que  ha  sido  muy  poco  estudiado  en  las   investigaciones   psicolingüísticas   (al   respecto   véase   hess   et   al.,   2017   y   hess   fernández   &   olguín,   2018).   específicamente   uno   de   los   aspectos   que,   a   nuestro   conocimiento,   no   ha   sido   estudiado   con   la   debida   profundidad   es   la   manera   en   que   los   individuos   aprenden   a   atribuirle   una   función   comunicativa   a   un   enunciado  irónico,  es  decir,  cómo  entienden  la  razón  de  por  qué  se  elige  una  expresión  irónica  por  encima  de   una  literal.  hasta  el  momento  no  existen  a  nuestro  saber  estudios  que  analicen  cómo  los  niños  y  adolescentes   aprenden  a  reflexionar  sobre  la  función  comunicativa  de  un  enunciado  irónico  en  un  contexto  comunicativo   dado  y  cómo   logran   identificar  cuál  es   la   función  que  el   ironista  busca  atribuirle  a   la   ironía  verbal.  algunas   investigaciones   han   señalado   que   para   poder   interpretar   la   función   de   la   ironía   es   necesario   ser   capaz   de   reconocer  diferentes  situaciones  comunicativas  en  las  que  se  considera  pertinente  dicha  expresión,  saber  por   qué  se  usa  ese  tipo  de  enunciado  y  no  otro,  además  de  reflexionar  acerca  de  lo  que  el  ironista  verdaderamente   quiso   decir   y   por   qué   lo   quiso   decir,   es   decir,   qué   actitud   buscaba  mostrar.   estos   tipos   de   reflexiones   son   parte   de   la   habilidad  metalingüística   del   individuo,   es   decir,   de   la   capacidad   para   reflexionar   de   manera   consciente  sobre  el  uso  del  lenguaje  incluyendo  tanto  los  aspectos  lingüísticos  como  los  extralingüísticos  que   involucra  dicho  uso  (al  respecto  véase  baroni,  &  axia,  1989;  berko  &  bernstein,  2010;  collins,  2013;  crespo-­‐ allende,  2009;  crespo-­‐allende  &  alfaro-­‐faccio,  2010;  dos  santos,  2016;  gombert,  1987,  1992;  verschueren,   2000).   relacionado   con   esto,   otras   investigaciones   han   señalado   que   en   la   adecuada   interpretación   de   la   función  comunicativa  de   la   ironía  verbal   interviene   la   capacidad  para  atribuir,   a  uno  mismo  y  a   los  demás,   estados  mentales,  tales  como  pensamientos,  conocimientos,  emociones,  creencias  e  intenciones,  con  el  fin  de   predecir   y   explicar   el   comportamiento   propio   y   ajeno   (banasik-­‐jemielniak   et   al.,   2020;   bosco   et   al.,   2013;   bosco  &  gabbatore,  2017;  dews  et  al.,  1995;  filippova,  2014a;  filippova  &  astington,  2008,  2010;  mewhort-­‐ buist  &  nilsen,  2013;  szücs  &  babarczy,  2017;  winner  &  leekam,  1991;  yus,  2016;  zajaczkowska  et  al.,  2020).   con  base  en  lo  anterior,  el  presente  estudio  tuvo  como  objetivo  analizar  la  manera  en  que  adolescentes  de  12   y   15   años   reflexionan   sobre   las   funciones   de   la   ironía   verbal   en   dos   tipos   de   enunciados   irónicos:   agradecimiento  y  ofrecimiento.     1.2.  interpretación  de  la  ironía  verbal   si  bien  llegar  a  una  definición  clara  de  ironía  verbal  resulta  complejo,  en  términos  generales  ha  sido   considerada   como   una   expresión   lingüística   que   conlleva   una   oposición,   discrepancia,   contradicción,   contraste,   incongruencia   o   incompatibilidad   entre   lo   que   se   dice   y   lo   que   se   pretende   decir   dentro   de   un   contexto   comunicativo   dado   (colston,   2017;   filippova,   2014a;   giora  &  attardo,   2014;  kalbermatten,   2006,   2010).  a  su  vez,  se  le  ha  visto  como  una  estrategia  discursiva  que  utiliza  el  hablante  para  expresar  de  forma   indirecta  su  postura  ante  una  situación,  significando  lo  contrario  de  lo  que  dice,  por  lo  que  se  ha  señalado  que   en   la   ironía   verbal   el   significado   real   está   oculto   en   el   significado   literal   de   las   palabras   (attardo,   2000;   filippova,  2014a;  kalbermatten,  2010;  yus,  2009,  2016).   diversos  investigadores  se  han  dado  a  la  tarea  de  explicar  qué  aspectos  intervienen  en  la  capacidad   del   individuo  para   interpretar   la   ironía   verbal.  al   respecto,  yus   (2009)   señala  que  para   lograr   la   adecuada     reflexiones  de  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años  sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19   3   interpretación  de  un   enunciado   irónico   es   necesario   llevar   a   cabo   cinco   tareas   esenciales   que   remiten   a   la   capacidad  cognitiva  humana  de  interactuar  con  el  entorno  físico  y  social:  1)  filtrar  la  información  proveniente   del   exterior   o   del   propio   sistema   interno  de   procesamiento;   2)   actualizar   la   visión   general   del  mundo  que   posee   el   individuo;  3)   combinar   la   información   nueva   que   accede   a   la   mente   con   la   información   ya   almacenada   para   extraer   conclusiones   a   partir   de   su   unión;   4)   seleccionar   del   contexto   sólo   aquella   información   que   es   pertinente   para   la   obtención   de   conclusiones   interesantes;   y   5)   metarrepresentar   intenciones  y  actitudes  proposicionales  subyacentes  en  la  actividad  comunicativa  de  los  interlocutores.  esta   última  tarea  resulta  de  especial  importancia  para  el  presente  estudio,  pues  se  relaciona  con  la  capacidad  para   atribuir  funciones  a  la  ironía  verbal.     se  ha  señalado  que  la  interpretación  de  la  ironía  está  íntimamente  ligada  a  la  capacidad  para  atribuir   estados   mentales   a   los   participantes   de   la   interacción   verbal.   para   interpretar   un   enunciado   irónico,   el   individuo  debe  poder  representar  los  pensamientos,  creencias  y  emociones  que  pueden  tener  otros  sujetos,   con  el  fin  de  comprender  la  intencionalidad  tanto  del  hablante  como  de  su  interlocutor.  por  lo  tanto,  tiene  que   ser  capaz  de  metarrepresentar,  es  decir,  de  formar  una  representación  mental  de  los  pensamientos,  creencias   y   sentimientos   del   otro   (collins,   2013).   esta  metarrepresentación   se   ha   relacionado   estrechamente   con   la   presencia   de   una   teoría   de   la   mente,   que   supone   la   comprensión   del   mundo   mental,   es   decir,   el   reconocimiento   de  creencias,   deseos,   emociones,   pensamientos,   percepciones,   intenciones   y   otros   estados   mentales  tanto  en  uno  mismo  como  en  los  demás  (baron-­‐cohen,  wheelwright,  lawson,  griffin,  &  hill,  2009;   flavell,  2004;  miller,  2012;  premack  &  woodruff,  1978;  tomasello,  1999;  wellman,  2009).   así,  por  ejemplo,  en  un  enunciado  irónico  como  (a)  ¡qué  temprano  llegaste!,  dicho  a  alguien  que  llegó   una   hora   tarde   a   una   cita,   se   daría   el   fenómeno   siguiente.   el   ironista   emite   el   enunciado   (a)   aunque   en   realidad  piensa  que  el  oyente  llegó  tarde  (teoría  de  la  mente  de  primer  orden,  tomar  en  cuenta  una  mente).   al  mismo  tiempo,  el  ironista  asume  que  el  oyente  entenderá  lo  contrario  de  lo  que  (a)  literalmente  significa   porque  ambos  saben  que  el  oyente  llegó  tarde  (teoría  de  la  mente  de  segundo  orden,  observar  dos  mentes).   pero  simultáneamente  a  lo  anterior,  el  hablante  produce  el  enunciado  (a)  asumiendo  que  el  oyente  se  dará   cuenta   de  que  el  hablante  quiso  que  entendiera   lo   contrario  de   lo  que   (a)  dice   literalmente   (teoría  de   la   mente  de   tercer   orden,   ver   tres  mentes).   las   investigaciones   sobre   el   desarrollo   de   la   interpretación  de   la   ironía   verbal   confirman  que  efectivamente   es  necesario   tener  una   teoría  de   la  mente  de   tercer  orden  para   poder   interpretar   de   manera   adecuada   un   enunciado   irónico.   así,   durante   la   edad   preescolar,   cuando   los   niños   son   capaces   de   tomar   en   cuenta   la   mente   de   solo   uno   de   los   participantes   de   un   evento   irónico,   interpretan   la   ironía  verbal   como  un  error   (el  hablante   se  equivocó,  piensa  que  el  oyente   sí   llegó   temprano).   entre  los  5  y  8  años,  cuando  los  menores  ya  poseen  una  teoría  de  la  mente  de  segundo  orden,  interpretan  la   ironía  verbal  como  una  mentira  (el  hablante  quiere  que  el  oyente  piense  que  llegó  temprano).  no  es  sino  hasta   los   9-­‐10   años,   cuando   los   niños   ya   poseen   una   teoría   de   la  mente   de   tercer   orden,   que   logran   interpretar   adecuadamente   el   enunciado   irónico   (el   hablante   sabe   que   el   oyente   va   a   interpretar   lo   que   el   hablante   realmente   le   quiere   decir).   para  mayor   detalle   sobre   lo   anterior   véase,   entre   otros,   los   trabajos   de  dews   y   otros  (1996),  filippova  (2014a),  pexman  (2008),  winner  (1988),  y  winner  y  leekam  (1991).     1.3.  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   hasta  hoy  día  se  ha  señalado  que   la   interpretación  de   la   ironía  verbal   involucra  en  gran  medida   la   capacidad   para   identificar   el   estado  mental   de   los   interlocutores   que   participan   en   un   evento   irónico.   no   obstante,   para   comprender  qué   función   tiene  un   enunciado   irónico   en  una   situación   comunicativa  dada   es   además  importante  identificar  el  estado  mental  del  otro  tomando  en  cuenta  sus  expectativas  y  creencias,  así   como   poder   reconocer   las   emociones   del   hablante   y   enlazar   su   estado   mental   con   una   acción   o   evento   comunicativo  específico.  así  mismo,  se  debe  tener  la  capacidad  de  comprender  y  predecir  el  comportamiento   del  otro  y  de  juzgar  lo  que  es  o  no  apropiado  en  los  diferentes  contextos  sociales  en  relación  con  las  creencias   y  conductas  de  los  participantes  en  el  contexto  comunicativo  (para  mayor  detalle  al  respecto  véase  hess  et  al.,   2018).  además,  se  debe  poder  reconocer  la  motivación  que  tiene  el  hablante  para  elegir  la  expresión  irónica   por   encima  de  otra   (filippova,   2005).  es  por   todo   lo   anterior   por   lo  que   la   adecuada   interpretación  de   las   funciones  que  desempeña   la   ironía   verbal   en   las   situaciones   comunicativas   es  de   adquisición  muy   tardía   y   puede  representar  un  reto  incluso  para  las  personas  adultas,  dado  que  se  ha  observado  que  hay  adultos  que   no  son  capaces  de  interpretar  adecuadamente  los  enunciados  irónicos  (schwoebel  et  al.,  2000).   diversos  autores  han  señalado  que  la  ironía  puede  tener  distintas  funciones  en  el  discurso  (attardo,   2000;   colston,   2017;   dews   et   al.,   1995;   dews   et   al.,   1996;   filippova,   2005;   filippova   &   astington,   2008;   glenwright  &  pexman,  2010;  harris  &  pexman,  2003;  kalbermatten,  2006,  2010;  pexman  &  zvaigzne,  2004;   hess  zimmermann,  fernández  ruiz  &  silva  lópez     e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19  4   winner  &  leekam,  1991;  yus,  2009).  las  funciones  más  comunes—si  bien  no  exclusivas—que  se  le  atribuyen   a  la  ironía  verbal  son  las  siguientes:     -­‐ agresión   o   crítica:   la   ironía   puede   ser   empleada  para   criticar,   agredir   o   inclusive   ridiculizar   a   una   persona,  quien  se  convierte  en  víctima  del  comentario  irónico.   -­‐ halago  irónico:  aunque  es  mucho  más  frecuente  emplear  la  ironía  para  criticar  a  alguien,  en  algunas   ocasiones  un  enunciado   irónico  puede  ser  usado  para   transmitir  un  mensaje  positivo  que  halaga  a   alguien.     -­‐ función  atenuadora:  se  ha  señalado  que  un  enunciado  irónico  permite  hacer  una  crítica  o  un  halago   más   velado   o   atenuado   que   cuando   se   externa  mediante   una   expresión   literal.   en   este   sentido,   la   ironía  permite  al  ironista  expresar  su  parecer  de  una  forma  más  matizada  y  socialmente  aceptada,  lo   que  a  la  vez  le  permite  salvaguardar  las  apariencias  (face-­‐saving)  ante  los  demás.       -­‐ función  humorística:  muchas   veces   la   ironía  permite   al   hablante   criticar   algo   con  humor  para  que   parezca  que  no  está  tan  molesto  y  que  está  en  control  de  la  situación.       -­‐ control   de   emociones:   debido   a   que   la   ironía   permite   hacer   una   crítica   de   manera   atenuada   o   humorística,  muchas   veces   puede   tener   la   función   adicional   de   permitirle   al   ironista   controlar   sus   emociones  y  de  comunicar  su  actitud  respecto  a  una  situación  o  persona  de  una  forma  más  aceptada   socialmente.     -­‐ posicionamiento   social:   en   ocasiones   una   expresión   irónica   permite   elevar   el   estatus   social   del   ironista  y  disminuir  el  de  la  víctima,  sobre  todo  si  el  enunciado  irónico  ocurre  frente  a  otras  personas.     -­‐ marca  de  intimidad:  en  algunas  circunstancias  la  ironía  puede  ser  utilizada  para  marcar  una  relación   de  confianza,  unión  o   intimidad  entre   interlocutores  que  se  conocen  desde  hace  mucho   tiempo.  en   estos  casos  los  comentarios  irónicos  se  emplean  para  bromear  o  intercambiar  opiniones.       1.4.  desarrollo  de  la  interpretación  de  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   algunas  investigaciones  psicolingüísticas  han  centrado  su  atención  en  el  estudio  de  la  manera  en  que   los  niños  y  adolescentes  aprenden  a   interpretar   las   funciones  de   la   ironía  verbal.  así,  filippova  y  astington   (filippova,  2005;  filippova,  2014a,  2014b;  filippova  &  astington,  2008,  2010;)  sostienen  que  la  ironía  verbal   involucra   una   comunicación   indirecta   de   creencias   y   actitudes   que   conforman   el   verdadero   significado   o  intención  por  parte  del  emisor  y  que  para  su  adecuada  interpretación  se  requiere  desde  la  evaluación  de  la   mente   del   hablante   hasta   el   reconocimiento   de   la   función   pragmática   de   la   expresión   irónica,   que   es   la   intención   del   hablante   al   usar   la   ironía   en   una   conversación.   bajo   este   enfoque,   filippova   y   astington   han   estudiado   el   desarrollo   de   la   comprensión   de   la   ironía   en   los   niños,   así   como   el   papel   que   juegan   en   esta   ciertas  habilidades  lingüísticas  específicas.  en  general  sus  resultados  muestran  que  a  los  seis  años  los  niños   interpretan   literalmente  un  enunciado   irónico  y  que  a   los  nueve   son   capaces  de  observar   la   inconsistencia   entre  una  expresión  irónica  y  los  eventos  reales,  pero  que  no  son  enteramente  conscientes  de  la  intención  de   estas   expresiones.   de   acuerdo   con   las   investigadoras,   no   es   sino   hasta   la   adolescencia   cuando   los   jóvenes   reconocen  la  función  comunicativa  de  una  expresión  irónica.     por  otra  parte,  el  grupo  de  investigación  de  pexman  (climie  &  pexman,  2008;  glenwright  &  pexman,   2010;  pexman  &  glenwright,  2007;  pexman  et  al.,  2005,  2006,  2010;  nilsen  et  al.,  2011)  parte  de  la  premisa   de  que   la   ironía   se  usa  para  alcanzar  metas   sociales  y   comunicativas   complejas  y  que   se  emplea   cuando  el   hablante   quiere   mostrar   indirectamente   su   actitud   sobre   alguien   o   algún   evento   en   particular,   es   decir,   cuando   busca   salvaguardar   las   apariencias   en   determinada   situación   comunicativa.   en   sus   investigaciones   sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  han  encontrado  que  los  niños  interpretan  como  agresiva  la  ironía  que  busca   criticar   pero   como  más   humorísticas   las   expresiones   irónicas   que   las   literales,   y   que   perciben   como  más   graciosas  las  expresiones  irónicas  de  crítica  que  los  halagos  irónicos.  reportan  también  que  desde  los  5  años   los  niños  muestran  un  mejor  desempeño  en   la   interpretación  de   la   ironía  cuando  cuentan  con   información   acerca  de  la  personalidad  del  ironista,  pues  esta  les  permite  interpretar  la  intención  y  las  creencias  del  emisor   de  una  expresión  irónica.       bajo  un  enfoque  un  tanto  distinto,  el  grupo  liderado  por  winner  (dews  et  al.,  1995;  dews  et  al.,  1996;   winner   &   leekam,   1991;   winner,   1988)   ha   estudiado   la   ironía   como   una   expresión   caracterizada   por   la   oposición   entre   dos   niveles   de   significados:   el   significado   literal   de   lo   expresado   en   contraste   con   el   significado   que   el   hablante   tuvo   intención   de   comunicar.   en   sus   estudios   han   encontrado   que   los   adultos   perciben  las  expresiones  irónicas  de  crítica  y  halago  como  más  graciosas  que  los  enunciados  literales  y  que     reflexiones  de  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años  sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19   5   los  niños,  tan  pronto  como  comienzan  a  detectar  la  ironía,  la  reconocen  como  una  expresión  menos  ofensiva  y   como  más   graciosa  que   los   adultos,   por   lo  que   concluyen  que   los  niños  muestran   sensibilidad   a   la   función   atenuadora  de  la  ironía.   en  estudios  específicamente  sobre  el  desarrollo  del  español,  hess  y  otros  (2017,  2018)  observan  que,   aunque   los   niños   de   9   años   hacen   reflexiones   sobre   algunos   elementos   lingüísticos   que   aparecen   en   los   enunciados  irónicos,  solo  a  partir  de  los  12  años  los  adolescentes  son  capaces  de  hacer  referencia  a  la  función   humorística  de  la  ironía.   en  general   los  estudios  anteriores  muestran  que  durante   la   infancia   los  niños  empiezan  a  observar   que   la   ironía   verbal   es   una   expresión   lingüística   que   permite   alcanzar   metas   sociales   y   comunicativas   complejas.   señalan   que   existen   funciones   a   las   que   los   niños   son   sensibles   desde   edades  más   tempranas,   como   es   el   caso   de   la   función   atenuadora,   pero   que  hay   otras   que   se   desarrollan   incluso  muy   avanzada   la   adolescencia,  como  la  humorística.  no  obstante,  a  nuestro  conocimiento  no  existen  trabajos  que  analicen  el   desarrollo  de  varias  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal  a  la  vez.  el  presente  estudio  pretende,  por  tanto,  esclarecer   cómo  se  desarrolla  durante  la  adolescencia   la  habilidad  para  atribuirle  a   la   ironía  verbal  diversas  funciones   comunicativas.     2.  método   2.1.  objetivo   esta   investigación   tiene   como   objetivo   analizar   la   manera   en   que   adolescentes   de   12   y   15   años   reflexionan   sobre   las   funciones   de   la   ironía   verbal   en   dos   tipos   de   enunciados   irónicos:   agradecimiento   y   ofrecimiento.   de   manera   adicional   se   busca   observar   si   existen   diferencias   debidas   a   la   edad   en   las   reflexiones  que  los  jóvenes  pueden  realizar  sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  en  este  tipo  de  enunciados.   para  ello  se  plantearon  las  siguientes  preguntas  de  investigación:     1)  ¿qué  funciones  le  atribuyen  los  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años  a  los  enunciados  irónicos?   2)  ¿existen  diferencias  debidas  a  la  edad  (12  vs.  15  años)  en  las  funciones  que  los  adolescentes  son     capaces  de  atribuirle  a  la  ironía  verbal?     2.2.  participantes   formaron   parte   del   estudio   32   adolescentes   de   12   y   15   años   (16   jóvenes   por   grupo   etario,  mitad   mujeres  y  mitad  hombres  para  cada  grupo).  todos  ellos  pertenecían  a  una  escuela  privada  de   la  ciudad  de   querétaro,  méxico.  debido  a  que  era  necesario  que   los  participantes   fueran  capaces  de   identificar   la   ironía   verbal  para  poder  reflexionar  sobre  sus  posibles  funciones,  en  un  primer  momento  se  les  aplicó  una  prueba   de  tamizaje  que  contenía  ocho  historias  (cuatro  con  final   irónico  y  cuatro  con  final  no   irónico)  adaptada  de   estudios  previos  (díaz,  2019;  hess  y  otros,  2017,  2018)  (véase  un  ejemplo  del  instrumento  de  tamizaje  en  el   apéndice  a).  para  ser  incluidos  en  el  estudio,  los  adolescentes  debían  mostrar  que  identificaban  la  ironía  en  al   menos  tres  de  las  cuatro  historias  irónicas.  la  obtención  de  datos  siguió  en  todo  momento  los  lineamientos   autorizados  por  el  comité  de  ética  de  investigación  científica  de  la  universidad  autónoma  de  querétaro.       2.3.  instrumento  y  procedimiento   con  el  propósito  de  identificar  qué  funciones  le  atribuían  los  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años  a  la  ironía   verbal   se  diseñó  un   instrumento  cuya   función  era  presentar  diferentes  historias   irónicas  con   las   siguientes   variables:  1)  relaciones  cercanas  vs.  distantes  o  nuevas  entre  los  interlocutores;  2)  situaciones  comunicativas   en  las  que  la  expresión  irónica  se  da  frente  a  un  público  o  en  privado;  y  3)  tipo  de  enunciado  irónico,  ya  sea   ofrecimiento  (p.  ej.  ¿quieres  volver  a  llegar  tarde  mañana  para  que  nos  vuelvan  a  regañar?)  o  agradecimiento   (p.  ej.  gracias  por  llegar  tarde  y  hacer  que  nos  regañaran).  se  seleccionaron  estos  dos  tipos  de  enunciados,  ya   que  en  un  estudio  previo  (hess  et  al.,  2018)  se  había  observado  que  el  agradecimiento  irónico  es  tan  sencillo   de   identificar   como   la   ironía   prototípica   mientras   que   el   ofrecimiento   irónico   resulta   muy   complejo   de   comprender  para  los  niños  y  los  adolescentes.  se  formó  un  repertorio  de  32  historias  irónicas  en  las  que  las   variables  se  combinaron  como  se  muestra  en  la  tabla  1.           hess  zimmermann,  fernández  ruiz  &  silva  lópez     e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19  6   tabla 1 tipos de historias presentes en el instrumento por combinación de variables público privado público privado relación lejana agradecimiento agradecimiento agradecimiento agradecimiento ofrecimiento ofrecimiento ofrecimiento ofrecimiento relación cercana agradecimiento agradecimiento agradecimiento agradecimiento ofrecimiento ofrecimiento ofrecimiento ofrecimiento   con   esta   variedad   de   combinaciones   se   formaron   ocho   paquetes   que   contenían   ocho   historias   irónicas   con   la   finalidad  de   incluir  una  historia   con   cada   combinación  de  variables.  además,   se   agregó  una   historia  con  un  final  no  irónico  para  que  no  todos  los  textos  tuvieran  la  misma  estructura  (véase  un  ejemplo   del   instrumento   en   el   apéndice   b).   los   paquetes   de   historias   fueron   contrabalanceados   entre   los   participantes.  el  instrumento  se  aplicó  a  cada  participante  en  una  entrevista  individual  que  tuvo  una  duración   aproximada  de  30  minutos  y  fue  audiograbada.  se  le  pedía  a  cada  adolescente  que  al  azar  eligiera  una  por  una   las   nueve   historias   de   su   paquete   y   que   las   leyera   en   silencio.   después   de   cada   historia,   el   entrevistador   aplicaba   un   guion   de   preguntas   que   tenía   como   objeto   observar   si   el   joven   interpretaba   la   historia   como   irónica  o  no,  por  qué  la  consideraba  así,  qué  funciones  le  atribuía  al  enunciado  irónico  presente  al  final  de  la   historia  y  si  pensaba  que  este  era  pertinente  en  el  contexto  comunicativo  en  el  que  aparecía.     2.4.  transcripción  y  codificación   todas  las  entrevistas  fueron  transcritas  y  codificadas  en  el  programa  atlas.ti  8  mac  os  x.  la  unidad   de   análisis   fue   la   emisión.   se   codificó   el   tipo   de   historia,   así   como   el   tipo   de   función   identificada   por   los   participantes.  las  respuestas  obtenidas  por  los  adolescentes  fueron  clasificadas  a  posteriori  con  los  criterios   que  se  muestran  en  la  tabla  2.     tabla 2 funciones de la ironía encontradas por los participantes de la investigación función descripción ejemplos control de emociones el participante menciona que el enunciado irónico es empleado por el ironista como una manera de controlar sus emociones. “porque se molestó y generalmente cuando las personas se enojan en lugar de decirlo directo lo dices en sarcasmo” crítica negativa el participante menciona que el enunciado irónico tiene la función de criticar, reclamar o burlarse de la víctima. “porque el sarcasmo no es agradable, es una forma burlona de molestar a alguien” marca de intimidad el participante menciona que el enunciado irónico sirve para mostrar una relación cercana entre el ironista y su víctima. “cuando estás con amigos y ya los conoces de hace tiempo sí se puede, cuando ya sabes cómo de verdad piensan” posicionamiento social el participante menciona que el enunciado irónico es empleado para elevar el estatus social del ironista o disminuir el de la víctima. “porque están enfrente de amigos y lo hace como para humillarlo” humorística el participante menciona que el enunciado irónico tiene la función de ser gracioso. “cuando estás con amigos y ya los conoces de hace tiempo sí se puede, cuando ya sabes cómo de verdad piensan porque pues ya saben que es un chiste y no se van a ofender” atenuadora el participante menciona que el enunciado irónico tiene la función de atenuar la crítica implícita. ”para que no suene como que la está regañando más”   reflexiones  de  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años  sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19   7   salvaguardar las apariencias el participante menciona que el enunciado irónico tiene la función de salvaguardar la apariencia del ironista frente a otros. “porque estaba en una clase de cocina y si los demás probaron el pastel van a decir 'ay, roberto [ironista] cocina bien feo' entonces ya no van a querer probar lo que hace roberto y por eso se enoja con andrés y dice eso”   es   importante  mencionar  que   las  categorías  de   la  tabla  2  no  eran  excluyentes  entre  sí,  pues  podía   codificarse  más  de  una   función  por  respuesta.  de  manera  adicional,  para  cada  una  de   las  respuestas  de   los   participantes   se   codificó   si   se   trataba   de   una   respuesta   metalingüística   o   epilingüística.   con   base   en   la   propuesta  de  gombert  (1987,  1992)  se  consideró  que  una  respuesta  metalingüística  era  aquella  en  la  que  el   participante   hacía   una   reflexión   consciente   sobre   la   relación   de   alguno   de   los   elementos   lingüísticos   del   enunciado  irónico  y  el  contexto  en  el  que  aparece,  además  de  explicitar  las  reglas  pragmáticas  involucradas   en  su  producción  fuera  del  contexto  comunicativo  de  la  historia  irónica  analizada  (p.  ej.  porque  cuando  estás   frente  a  un  grupo  de  chavos  y  alguien  dice  algo  sarcástico  todos  asumen  que  es  una  burla;  el  sarcasmo  es  una   broma   y   entre   amigos   no   está   mal).   en   cambio,   una   respuesta   fue   considerada   epilingüística   cuando   el   participante  hacía  una  reflexión  sobre  el  enunciado  irónico  pero  esta  era  dentro  del  contexto  comunicativo  de   la  historia  y  el  adolescente  no  era  capaz  de  explicitar  la  regla  pragmática  involucrada  (p.  ej.  no,  porque  joaquín   es  nuevo  y  no  debería  ser  tratado  así  porque  es  su  primer  día;  sí  se  puede  valer  porque  dice  que  son  muy  amigas).   de  acuerdo  con  gombert  y  otros  investigadores,  las  respuestas  metalingüísticas  se  consideran  más  avanzadas   que  las  epilingüísticas  en  el  desarrollo  del  niño,  aunque  por  lo  general  coexisten  en  los  individuos  (baroni  &   axia,  1989;  crespo-­‐allende,  2009;  gombert,  1987,  1992).     3.  resultados   en  primer  lugar  se  hizo  una  cuantificación  de  las  diferentes  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal  presentes  en   las  respuestas  (epi  y  metalingüísticas)  producidas  por  los  participantes  de  12  y  15  años.  el  resultado  de  este   análisis  se  aprecia  en  la  figura  1.       figura 1. cantidad media de respuestas por función de la ironía verbal para toda la muestra. (el eje de la “x” muestra las funciones identificadas y el eje “y” la cantidad media de respuestas por función de la ironía verbal) como  puede  observarse,  la  función  más  frecuente  en  las  respuestas  de  los  jóvenes  fue  la  de  control   de  emociones,  seguida  por  las  de  crítica  y  marca  de  intimidad.  por  su  parte,  las  funciones  de  posicionamiento   social,   humorística,   atenuadora   y   para   salvaguardar   las   apariencias   fueron   mucho   menos   frecuentes.   un   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 co ntr ol cr ític a int im ida d po sic ion am ien to hu mo r at en ua ció n ap ar ien cia s hess  zimmermann,  fernández  ruiz  &  silva  lópez     e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19  8   análisis  estadístico  mediante  una  prueba  de  friedman  mostró  diferencias  estadísticamente  significativas  (p<   .001)  entre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  mencionadas  por  los  participantes.     a  continuación,  con  la  finalidad  de  analizar  más  a  fondo  el  reto  que  para  los  jóvenes  representaron   las  funciones  de  la  ironía  que  aparecieron  de  manera  menos  frecuente  en  sus  respuestas,  se  decidió  realizar   un   análisis   cualitativo   de   todas   las   respuestas   para   las   funciones   de   salvaguardar   las   apariencias,   posicionamiento  social,  humorística  y  atenuadora.  a  continuación  se  detallan  los  resultados  de  dicho  análisis.     en  primer  lugar,  se  vio  que  la  función  de  salvaguardar  las  apariencias   fue  identificada  tanto  por  los   adolescentes  de  12  como  por  los  de  15  años  de  edad.  sin  embargo,  los  datos  mostraron  que  las  menciones  a   esta   función   fueron   realizadas   exclusivamente  mediante   reflexiones   epilingüísticas.  al   respecto  obsérvense   los  siguientes  ejemplos:       “para  no  quedar  mal  (ironista)  enfrente  de  sus  amigos  y  hacerles  entender  que  no  fue  culpa  de  ella   que  llegaran  tarde”  [mujer,  12  años,  epilingüística]   “quiso  como  quitarse  la  culpa  porque  ella  no  tenía  la  culpa”  [hombre,  12  años,  epilingüística]   “melissa  (ironista)  solo  le  quiere  hacer  notar  que  fue  su  culpa  (de  alberto)  y  que  alberto  (víctima)  se   avergüence  y  que  vea  que  por  su  culpa  tomaron  el  atajo”  [mujer,  15  años,  epilingüística]     se   puede   ver   que   en   los   ejemplos   anteriores   los   participantes   realizan   una   reflexión   de   carácter   epilingüístico,   pues   se  mantienen   dentro   de   la   situación   comunicativa   donde   surge   el   evento   irónico   y   no   explicitan  cuál  es  la  regla  pragmática  detrás  del  uso  de  la  función  de  la  ironía  que  están  identificando.     por  su  parte,  en   lo  que  se  refiere  a   la   identificación  de   la   función  de   la   ironía  como  una  manera  de   modificar   el   posicionamiento   social   del   ironista   frente   a   los   otros,   el   análisis   cualitativo   señaló   que   los   participantes  de  12  años  únicamente  lograron  hacer  reflexiones  de  tipo  epilingüístico  sobre  esta  función:     “está  haciendo  que  su  hermano  quede  mal  enfrente  de  sus  primos”  [hombre,  12  años,  epilingüística]   “no   se   vale   porque   está   poniendo   a   alberto   (víctima)   como   que   no   sabe   enfrente   de   sus   amigos”   [mujer,  12  años,  epilingüística]     en   tanto   que   esta   función   fue   identificada   mediante   reflexiones   epilingüísticas   y   metalingüísticas   por   los   participantes  de  15  años:     “como  lo  dijo  enfrente  de  su  grupo  yo  digo  que  lo  dijo  para  burlarse”  [mujer,  15  años,  epilingüística]   “pues   si   estás   entre   amigos   o   solo   sí,   porque   si   estás   con   alguien  más   pues   sí   lo   estás   humillando   enfrente  de  la  otra  persona”  [hombre,  15  años,  metalingüística]     en  lo  que  concierne  a  la  función  humorística  de  la  ironía,  el  análisis  cuantitativo  de  las  respuestas  de   los  participantes  señaló  que  sólo  dos  adolescentes  de  12  años  atribuyeron  una  función  humorística  a  la  ironía   y  lo  expresaron  mediante  reflexiones  epilingüísticas,  como  se  observa  en  los  siguientes  ejemplos:     “lo  dice  para  parecer  más  chistoso  o  algo  así”  [hombre,  12  años,  epilingüística]   “lo  dijo  para  parecer  más  chistoso”  [mujer,  12  años,  epilingüística]     en  cambio,  varios  de  los  adolescentes  de  15  años  fueron  capaces  de  referirse  al  aspecto  humorístico   de  las  expresiones  irónicas  tanto  mediante  reflexiones  epilingüísticas  como  metalingüísticas:     “porque  eran  muy  amigos  y  ya  supongo  que  ya  se  llevaban  algo  así  y  se  lo  dijo  en  forma  como  de  una   broma  para  decirlo  burlón  alivianado”  [hombre,  15  años,  epilingüística]   “cuando   estás   con   amigos   y   ya   los   conoces   de   hace   tiempo   sí   se   puede,   cuando   ya   sabes   cómo  de   verdad   piensan   porque   pues   ya   saben   que   es   un   chiste   y   no   se   van   a   ofender”   [mujer,   15   años,   metalingüística]     por  último,  respecto  a  la  función  atenuadora,  los  resultados  indican  que  fue  una  función  compleja  de   reconocer  por  los  participantes  de  ambos  grupos  etarios,  puesto  que  la  frecuencia  en  que  fue  identificada  fue   muy  baja,  tanto  con  reflexiones  epilingüísticas  como  metalingüísticas:           reflexiones  de  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años  sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19   9   “se  lo  dice  para  no  sonar  tan  ofensivo  pero  no  es  buena  onda”  [hombre,  12  años,  epilingüística]   “es  que  yo  pienso  que  sí  es  una  manera  no  tan  gacha  de  decirlo”  [mujer,  12  años,  metalingüística]   “se  lo  dice  así  como  una  forma  mucho  más  amistosa  de  decirlo,  como  diciendo  ‘ten  cuidado’”  [mujer,   15  años,  epilingüística]   “esto   es   sarcasmo   o   ironía   y   se   vale   cuando   tal   vez   no   lo   quieres   hacer   de   una  manera   ofensiva”   [hombre,  15  años,  metalingüística]     por   otro   lado,   un   análisis   comparativo   entre   grupos   de   edades   mostró   que   las   respuestas   proporcionadas  por   los  participantes  mayores   tendían  a   ser  más  complejas  que   las  de   los  menores,  puesto   que  en  una  sola  respuesta  los  mayores  fueron  capaces  de  señalar  más  de  una  función  de  la  ironía:     “cuando   estás   con   amigos   y   ya   los   conoces   de   hace   tiempo   sí   se   puede,   cuando   ya   sabes   cómo   de   verdad   piensan   porque   pues   ya   saben   que   es   un   chiste   y   no   se   van   a   ofender”   [mujer,   15   años,   funciones  marca  de  intimidad,  humorística,  crítica]   “a   la   vez   se  molestó   un  poco  pero   lo  dijo   frente   a   los   amigos  de  luis   a  modo  de  burla  para  que   se   sintiera  mal”  [hombre,  15  años,  funciones  control  de  emociones  y  crítica]   “para  hacerle  saber  que  está  enojado  con  ella  y  que  a  pesar  de  que  se  acaban  de  conocer  fue  por  ella   que   los   descalificaron   y   que   no   serán   amigos   porque   el   sarcasmo   siempre   es   manifestación   de   un   enojo”  [hombre,  15  años,  funciones  control  de  emociones,  marca  de  intimidad,  control  de  emociones]     además,  el  análisis  indicó  que  los  participantes  de  15  años  utilizaron  con  mayor  frecuencia  términos   metalingüísticos  para  referirse  a  la  ironía,  como  se  observa  en  los  siguientes  ejemplos:     “el  sarcasmo  es  para  sacar  toda  la  ira”  [hombre,  15  años]   “a  veces  se  vale  un  poco  el  sarcasmo”  [mujer,  15  años]   “porque  para  eso  es  la  ironía:  para  hacer  sentir  mal  a  la  gente”  [hombre,  15  años]     sobre  esto  llama  la  atención  que  los  participantes  utilizan  con  mayor  frecuencia  la  palabra  sarcasmo   que  la  palabra  ironía  para  describir  los  enunciados  irónicos,  como  ha  sido  señalado  previamente  por  hess  y   otros  (2017).  así  mismo,  también  es  de  notar  que  sólo  los  adolescentes  de  15  años  mostraron  que  reconocen   que   para   atribuir   funciones   comunicativas   a   la   ironía   verbal   se   deben   tomar   en   cuenta   las   implicaciones   sociales  que  recaen  sobre  los  participantes  de  un  evento  irónico:       “no  se  vale  porque  lo  dice  enfrente  de  sus  amigos  y  eso  es  una  carga  social  más  fuerte”  [hombre,  15   años,  epilingüística]   “porque  estaba  enojada  de  que  ella   también  recibió  quejas  de  algo  que  ella  no  provocó”   [mujer,  15   años,  epilingüística]   “se   lo   dijo   porque   estaba   enojado   porque   los   clientes   se   quejaron   y   supongo   que   le   afecta   a   él   también”  [hombre,  15  años,  epilingüística]     un   hallazgo   adicional   de   la   presente   investigación   radica   en   las   reflexiones   que   los   adolescentes   externaron   sobre   las   reglas   sociales   que   rigen   la   pertinencia   de   un   enunciado   irónico   en   las   diferentes   situaciones  comunicativas,  y  que  se  detallan  a  continuación:       1) al  ironizar  se  debe  tomar  en  cuenta  la  relación  entre  ironista  y  víctima:   los  participantes  enfatizan  el   hecho  de  que   la   cercanía  o   lejanía  de  una  relación  afecta   la  aceptabilidad  de  un  enunciado   irónico.   mientras  que  para  los  adolescentes  de  15  es  más  válida  la  ironía  entre  conocidos:     a. “en  una  situación  de  amigas  amistosa  sí  se  vale”  [hombre,  15  años,  metalingüística]   b. “me   parece   que   es   bastante   ofensivo   pero   depende   de   la   relación.   si   se   llevan   bien   probablemente  no  lo  diría  para  ofender  sino  más  bien  de  ‘ten  cuidado  la  siguiente’.  si  se  llevan   como  muy   neutral   sí   sería  mala   onda   y   sería   con   el   propósito   de   ofender”   [mujer,   15   años,   metalingüística]       hess  zimmermann,  fernández  ruiz  &  silva  lópez     e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19  10   para  los  participantes  de  12  es  justamente  al  revés:   c.  “no   se   vale   porque   como   son  muy   amigas   puede   que   ya   no   sean   amigas   después   de   eso”   [hombre,  12  años,  epilingüística]   d. “no   se   vale   porque   aunque   sean   amigos   siempre   hay   que   tener   mucho   respeto   entre   sí,   sin   importar  qué  tan  unidos  sean  ni  qué  tanta  confianza  tengas,  siempre  hay  que  tener  respeto”   [mujer,  12  años,  metalingüística]     2) al   ironizar   se   debe   tomar   en   cuenta   el   contexto   social   donde   aparece   el   comentario   irónico:   los   participantes  distinguen  que  la  validez  social  que  tiene  el  uso  de  la  ironía  depende  del  contexto  social   en  el  que  aparece.  ejemplos:     a. “no   se   vale   porque   se   acaban  de   conocer.  además  es   un   trabajo.   entonces   debería   ser  más   amable.  o  sea,  si  se  acaban  de  conocer  y  es  un  trabajo  pues  te  quieres  llevar  bien;  no  es  como   que  quieres  ser  grosera  el  primer  día”  [mujer,  12  años,  epilingüística]   b. “no   se   vale.  si   es   como   entre   amigos   entenderías  más  pero   aquí  es   trabajo   y   no   está   padre   llevarse  así”  [hombre,  15  años,  epilingüística]     3) al   ironizar   se   debe   considerar   la   relación   jerárquica   entre   el   ironista   y   su   víctima:   los   adolescentes   reconocen  la  posible  jerarquía  que  puede  existir  entre  el  ironista  y  su  víctima,  y  mencionan  que,  en   las   situaciones  donde  el   ironista   tiene  una  posición   social  mayor   a   la  de   la   víctima,   la   ironía  no   es   socialmente  válida.  ejemplos:     a. “no  se  vale   (usar   la   ironía)  porque  va  a   ser   su   jefe.  entonces  deben  mantener  una   relación   buena”  [hombre,  12  años,  epilingüística]   b. “no  se  vale  porque  es  su  jefe”  [mujer,  15  años,  epilingüística]   c. “no  es  válido  porque  lo  está  denigrando  y  es  una  relación  empleador  y  empleado”  [hombre,  15   años,  metalingüística]   4) tanto  para   interpretar   la   ironía  como  para   ironizar  es  necesario  considerar   la   intención  del   ironista:   los  participantes  enfatizan  que  el  uso  de  la  ironía  puede  ser  socialmente  válido  o  no  dependiendo  de   la  intención  del  ironista.  ejemplos:     a. “se  lo  dice  en  tono  de  juego  para  que  le  haga  caso”  [mujer,  12  años,  epilingüística]   b. “solo   una   persona   enojada   le   habla   así   a   otra   persona  para   que   se   sepa   que   está   enojada”   [hombre,  12  años,  metalingüística]   c. “cuando  estás  bromeando  sí  se  vale”  [hombre,  15  años,  metalingüística]     d. “cuando   es   un   juego   y   no   importa   lo   que   digas   o   estás   seguro   que   la   persona   no   se   va   a   ofender”  [hombre,  15  años,  metalingüística]     5) al  producir  e  interpretar  la  ironía  es  importante  si  esta  se  da  en  privado  o  frente  a  otros:  las  respuestas   de   los   adolescentes   señalan  que   cambia   la   función  que  puede   tener   la   ironía  dependiendo  de   si   se   trata  de  una  situación  comunicativa  privada  o  no:       a. “no  es  válido  porque  está  enfrente  de   sus  amigos   y  eso   lo  hace  más  mala  onda  y  se   lo  dice   frente  a  ellos  para  burlarse”  [mujer,  15  años,  epilingüística]   b. “al   decirlo   también  enfrente   de   su   grupo  de   amigos   está  diciendo   “no   sólo   yo   lo   tengo  que   saber   sino   todo   el  mundo   tiene   que   saber   que   tú   lo   hiciste  mal   y   que   por   eso   perdimos”   [mujer,  15  años,  epilingüística]   c. “porque   fue   sarcasmo   y   se   lo   dijo   enfrente   de   un   grupo   de   amigos   para   hacerlos   reír”   [hombre,  15  años,  epilingüística]   d. “se   vale   si   estás   entre   amigos   y   solo,   porque   si   estás   con   alguien   más   pues   sí   lo   estás   humillando  enfrente  de  la  otra  persona”  [hombre,  15  años,  metalingüística]         reflexiones  de  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años  sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19   11   4.  discusión   los  resultados  descritos  anteriormente  con  respecto  a   las  reflexiones  que  realizan  adolescentes  de   12  y  15  años  sobre  la  función  de  la  ironía  verbal  indican  que  estos  lograron  identificar  siete  funciones  de  la   ironía:   control   de   emociones,   crítica   negativa,   marca   de   intimidad,   posicionamiento   social,   humorística,   atenuadora  y  para  salvaguardar  las  apariencias.  la  presencia  de  estas  siete  funciones  ha  sido  reportada  por   estudios   previos   de   desarrollo   lingüístico   (véase,   por   ejemplo,   climie   &   pexman,   2008;   dews   et   al.,   1995;   filippova,  2014a,  2014b;  filippova  &  astington,  2010;  glenwright  &  pexman,  2010;  harris  &  pexman,  2003;   kowatch   et   al.,   2013;  meworth-­‐buist   &   nilsen,   2013;   nicholson   et   al.,   2013;   pexman   &   glenwright,   2007;   pexman  &  zvaigzne,  2004;  pexman,  et  al.,  2005,  2011;  schwoebel  et  al.,  2000;  whalen  et  al.,  2017;  winner  &   leekam,  1991).     un  análisis  un  poco  más  profundo  sobre  lo  que  implica  cada  una  de  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   dentro  del  contexto  comunicativo  nos  permite  señalar  otros  aspectos  sobre  el  desarrollo  de  la  capacidad  para   interpretar   los   enunciados   irónicos.   como   se   recordará,   las   tres   funciones   que   fueron   más   fáciles   de   reconocer  por  los  participantes  del  estudio  −porque  aparecieron  más  frecuentemente− fueron  las  de  control   de   emociones,   crítica   y   marca   de   intimidad,   en   tanto   que   las   cuatro   más   difíciles   fueron   las   de   posicionamiento   social,   humorística,   atenuadora  y  de   salvaguardar   las   apariencias.  resulta   interesante  que   para  interpretar  adecuadamente  las  tres  funciones  que  aparecieron  como  más  sencillas  es  necesario  tomar  en   cuenta  los  estados  mentales  del  hablante  y  del  oyente  del  evento  irónico.  sin  embargo,  para  comprender  por   qué   un   enunciado   irónico   puede   elevar   el   posicionamiento   social   del   hablante,   puede   ser   humorístico,   atenuador  o  permitir  salvaguardar  las  apariencias  del  ironista,  es  esencial  que  el  individuo  se  percate  tanto  de   los   estados   mentales   del   hablante   y   oyente   como   del   de   los   otros   posibles   participantes   del   intercambio   verbal:  aquellas  personas  que  están  presentes  durante  la  expresión  del  enunciado  irónico  y  juzgan  si  este  es   socialmente  aceptable,  gracioso,  adecuado  o  pertinente  en  un  contexto  social  determinado.  en  este  sentido,   nuestros  resultados  confirman  que  durante  la  adolescencia  se  da  un  crecimiento  cognitivo  importante  en  la   capacidad  para  tomar  en  cuenta  cada  vez  más  los  procesos  y  estados  mentales  de  los  interlocutores  durante   las   interacciones   sociales,   como  ya  han   señalado  autores   como  dumontheil,   apperly  y  blakemore   (2010)  y   valle,  massaro,  castelli  y  marchetti  (2015).   adicionalmente,   los   datos   del   presente   estudio   señalaron   que   los   participantes   de   ambos   grupos   etarios  logran  atribuir  funciones  a  la  ironía  verbal  en  relación  con  las  reglas  sociales  que  conocen  y  establecen   como   necesarias   para   su   uso   e   interpretación.   esto  muesta   que   son   capaces   de   considerar   a   varios   de   los   participantes  involucrados  en  una  situación  comunicativa  y  que,  además,  logran  generalizar  el  propósito  del   uso  de  la  ironía  a  diversas  situaciones  comunicativas.   5.  conclusión   en   suma,   el   presente   estudio   confirma  que   la   capacidad  para   reflexionar   sobre   las   funciones  de   la   ironía  verbal  se  sigue  desarrollando  durante  la  adolescencia,  puesto  que  entre  los  12  y  15  años  se  observa  un   crecimiento   tanto   en   la   cantidad   como   en   la   calidad   de   las   reflexiones   que   son   capaces   de   producir   los   adolescentes.  a   su   vez,   indica   que   los   jóvenes  pueden   reflexionar   sobre   las   diversas   funciones  de   la   ironía   verbal   y   que   durante   la   adolescencia   desarrollan   la   habilidad   para   tomar   cada   vez   más   en   cuenta   las   creencias,  conocimientos,  saberes  e  intenciones  de  los  participantes  de  un  intercambio  irónico.  por  otra  parte,   los  resultados  señalan  que  existen  funciones  de  la  ironía  más  sencillas  de  identificar  y  otras  que  representan   un  reto  incluso  para  los  adolescentes  de  15  años,  y  que  la  dificultad  para  identificar  las  diversas  funciones  de   la   ironía   se   relaciona   con   la   cantidad   de   participantes   que   hay   que   tomar   en   cuenta   dentro   de   un   evento   irónico.   por   último,   es   posible   afirmar   que   durante   la   adolescencia   los   jóvenes   aprenden   a   comunicar   de   forma  cada  vez  más  explícita  las  reglas  pragmáticas  que  entran  en  juego  en  una  situación  comunicativa  en  la   que  interviene  la  ironía  verbal.                   hess  zimmermann,  fernández  ruiz  &  silva  lópez     e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19  12   referencias  bibliográficas   attardo,   salvatore   (2000).   irony   as   relevant   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https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326950dp4003_5 https://doi.org/10.1080/01638530902959901 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327868ms1902_3 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x00076512 https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2000.9678864 https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501505089-008 https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.3 https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v11i1.829 https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.10.4.02ver https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996652.ch8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835x.1991.tb00875.x   reflexiones  de  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años  sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19   15   yus,  francisco  (2009).  saturación  contextual  en   la  comprensión  de   la   ironía.  en  leonor  ruiz  &  xosé  padilla   (eds.),  dime   cómo   ironizas   y   te   diré   quién   eres:   una   aproximación   pragmática   a   la   ironía   (pp.   309– 331).  peter  lang.     yus,   francisco   (2016).   propositional   attitude,   affective   attitude   and   irony   comprehension.   pragmatics   &   cognition,  23(1),  92–116.    https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.23.1.05yus     zajaczkowska,  maria,  abbot-­‐smith,  kirsten,  &  kim,  christina   (2020).  using  shared  knowledge   to  determine   ironic   intent:   a   conversational   response   paradigm.   journal   of   child   language,,   47(6),   1170– 1188.    https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000920000045     zufferey,  sandrine  (2016).  pragmatic  acquisition.  en   jan-­‐ola  östman  &   jef  verschueren  (eds.),  handbook  of   pragmatics  (pp.  1–20).  john  benjamins.    https://doi.org/10.1075/hop.20         https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.23.1.05yus https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000920000045 https://doi.org/10.1075/hop.20 hess  zimmermann,  fernández  ruiz  &  silva  lópez     e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19  16   apéndice  a           ejemplos del instrumento de tamizaje 1) (historia con final irónico) la mamá de renata le mandó pizza de lunch a la escuela. renata le platica a sus compañeras. cuando renata va a morder la pizza se da cuenta de que está podrida. su amiga maría huele la pizza podrida y dice: -¡qué deliciosa pizza te mandaron! ¿por qué crees que maría dijo “qué deliciosa pizza te mandaron”? a) porque piensa que a renata le mandaron una pizza deliciosa. b) porque piensa que renata es suertuda porque siempre le mandan pizza deliciosa. c) porque piensa que a renata le mandaron una pizza asquerosa. d) para que renata piense que le mandaron una pizza deliciosa. 2) (historia con final no irónico) jorge y sofía se quedan de ver afuera del teatro para ver una obra. sofía llega 15 minutos antes y compra los boletos. cuando llega jorge él le dice: -¡qué puntual llegaste! ¿por qué crees que jorge dijo “qué puntual llegaste”? a) porque piensa que sofía fue puntual. b) para que sofía piense que llegó puntual. c) porque piensa que sofía es una persona puntual. d) porque piensa que sofía llegó muy tarde.   reflexiones  de  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años  sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19   17   apéndice  b el instrumento aplicado: ejemplos de historias irónicas presentadas a los participantes del estudio sin espectadores/público con espectadores/público ofrecimiento agradecimiento ofrecimiento agradecimiento ironista y víctima son cercanos mariana y alfonso son amigos desde la infancia. se inscriben en un concurso de canto. el día del concurso mariana desafina y los descalifican. cuando todos se van alfonso le dice a mariana: ¿quieres volver a desafinar en nuestra canción la próxima semana que hay otro concurso? mariana y alfonso son amigos desde la infancia. se inscriben en un concurso de canto. el día del concurso mariana desafina y los descalifican. cuando todos se van alfonso le dice a mariana: -gracias por desafinar en nuestra canción. mariana y alfonso son amigos desde la infancia. se inscriben en un concurso de canto. el día del concurso mariana desafina y los descalifican. más tarde, cuando están frente al grupo de amigos de alfonso, él le dice a mariana: ¿quieres volver a desafinar en nuestra canción la próxima semana que hay otro concurso? mariana y alfonso son amigos desde la infancia. se inscriben en un concurso de canto. el día del concurso mariana desafina y los descalifican. más tarde, cuando están frente al grupo de amigos de alfonso, él le dice a mariana: -gracias por desafinar en nuestra canción. ironista y víctima son lejanos mariana y alfonso se acaban de conocer y deben participar juntos en un concurso de canto. en el concurso mariana desafina y los descalifican. cuando todos se van alfonso le dice a mariana: ¿quieres volver a desafinar en nuestra canción la próxima semana que hay otro concurso? mariana y alfonso se acaban de conocer y deben participar juntos en un concurso de canto. el día del concurso mariana desafina y los descalifican. cuando todos se van alfonso le dice a mariana: -gracias por desafinar en nuestra canción. mariana y alfonso se acaban de conocer y deben participar juntos en un concurso de canto. en el concurso mariana desafina y los descalifican. más tarde, cuando están frente al grupo de amigos de alfonso, él le dice a mariana: ¿quieres volver a desafinar en nuestra canción la próxima semana que hay otro concurso? mariana y alfonso se acaban de conocer y deben participar en un concurso de canto. el día del concurso mariana desafina y los descalifican. más tarde, cuando están frente al grupo de amigos de alfonso, él le dice a mariana: -gracias por desafinar en nuestra canción. hess  zimmermann,  fernández  ruiz  &  silva  lópez     e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19  18   karina hess zimmermann, universidad autónoma de querétaro karina.hess@uaq.mx es karina hess zimmermann es doctora en lingüística por el colegio de méxico. actualmente es profesora-investigadora de la facultad de psicología en la universidad autónoma de querétaro. karina hess zimmermann pertenece al grupo de docentes de la maestría en aprendizaje de la lengua y las matemáticas y de la maestría en estudios amerindios y educación bilingüe, dos programas de formación para profesores de educación básica. sus líneas de investigación giran en torno al desarrollo lingüístico en los años escolares y a la manera en que la escuela puede incidir en el desarrollo del lenguaje de los estudiantes. en karina hess zimmermann holds a doctorate in linguistics from el colegio de méxico. currently, she is a professor and researcher in the department of psychology at the autonomous university of queretaro. she is part of the teaching faculty for the master’s degree in language and mathematics education as well as the master’s degree in amerindian studies and bilingual education, two programs for elementary school teachers. her research revolves around linguistic development during the school years and the manner in which schools can influence the development of student language. it karina hess zimmermann è dottoressa di ricerca in linguistica presso el colegio de méxico. attualmente, è docentericercatrice presso la facoltà di psicologia dell’università autonoma di querétaro. inoltre, è docente dei corsi del master in apprendimento della lingua e delle matematiche e nel master in studi amerindi ed educazione bilingue, due programmi destinati a insegnanti della scuola primaria. le sue linee di ricerca interessano lo sviluppo della lingua in età scolare e il modo in cui la scuola influenza lo sviluppo linguistico degli studenti. graciela fernández ruiz,  el colegio de méxico gfernandez@colmex.mx es graciela fernández ruiz es doctora en lingüística. es autora de los libros decir sin decir: implicatura convencional y expresiones que la generan en español, publicado por el colegio de méxico en 2018 y argumentación y lenguaje jurídico: aplicación al análisis de una sentencia de la scjn, publicado por el instituto de investigaciones jurídicas de la unam (1ª edición en el 2011 y 2ª edición en el 2017). además, ha publicado diversos artículos y capítulos que versan sobre sus principales áreas de investigación: semántica, inferencias lingüísticas y fronteras entre semántica y pragmática. desde 2011 es profesora-investigadora del centro de estudios lingüísticos y literarios en el colegio de méxico. en graciela fernández ruiz is a doctor of linguistics and the author of two books: say without saying: conventional implicature and expressions in spanish, published by el colegio de méxico in 2018, and argumentation and legal language: applied analysis of a supreme court ruling, published by the institude for legal research at the national autonomous university of mexico (first edition in 2011 and second edition in 2017). she has also pubished diverse articles and book chapters on her principal areas of research: semantics, linguistic inference and the boundaries between semantics and pragmatics. since 2011, she has been a professor and researcher at the center for linguistic studies at the college of mexico. it graciela fernández ruiz è dottoressa di ricerca in linguistica. è autrice dei libri decir sin decir: implicatura convencional y expresiones que la generan en español, pubblicato da el colegio de méxico nel 2018 e argumentación y lenguaje jurídico: aplicación al análisis de una sentencia de la scjn, pubblicato dall’istituto di ricerche giuridiche dell’unam (1ª ed. nel 2011; 2ª ed. nel 2017). inoltre, è autrice di vari articoli e capitoli sulle sue principali aree di ricerca: semantica, inferenze linguistiche e punti di contatto tra semantica e pragmatica. dal 2011 è docente-ricercatrice presso il centro di studi linguistici e letterari del colegio de méxico.   reflexiones  de  adolescentes  de  12  y  15  años  sobre  las  funciones  de  la  ironía  verbal   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  1–19   19   andrea minerva silva lópez,  universidad autónoma de querétaro silva.lopez.minerva@gmail.com es andrea minerva silva lópez estudió la licenciatura en educación primaria en la centenaria y benemérita escuela normal del estado de querétaro. obtuvo su maestría en aprendizaje de la lengua y las matemáticas en la facultad de psicología de la universidad autónoma de querétaro. ha trabajado como maestra de primaria los últimos cuatro años. sus intereses de investigación se centran en el desarrollo lingüístico tardío y la adquisición de la ironía verbal. en andrea minerva silva lópez studied primary education at the centenaria y benemérita escuela normal del estado de querétaro. she completed her master’s degree in language and mathematics education in the department of psychology at the autonomous university of queretaro. she has worked for four years as an elementary school teacher. her research interests include late linguistic development and the acquisition of verbal irony. it andrea minerva silva lópez ha ottenuto l’abilitazione all’insegnamento per l’educazione primaria presso la centenaria y benemérita escuela normal dello estado de querétaro e il master in apprendimento della lingua e delle matematiche presso la facoltà di psicología dell’università autonoma di querétaro. da quattro anni è insegnante nella scuola primaria. le sue ricerche riguardano lo sviluppo tardivo del linguaggio e l’acquisizione dell’ironia verbale. conti 8.2 e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, november 2021, 9–52 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.245 www.e-journall.org © conti 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19: il quadro generale sergio conti università degli studi roma tre received 20 april 2021; accepted after revisions 28 june 2021 abstract it in seguito allo spostamento delle attività didattiche online al fine di contenere la diffusione della malattia da nuovo coronavirus, il gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue ha diffuso un questionario volto a valutare l’impatto della didattica a distanza sull’insegnamento delle lingue straniere durante. all’indagine hanno partecipato 136 docenti e 241 studenti, sia universitari che di scuola secondaria. scopo del presente contributo è quello di descrivere la composizione del questionario e del campione dei rispondenti, e di riportare i principali risultati. in particolare, dall’indagine sono emersi: (i) una mancanza di chiare direttive da parte delle istituzioni scolastiche, sintomo del carattere emergenziale delle misure intraprese; (ii) una generale resistenza a sperimentare formati didattici inediti e più adeguati al mezzo digitale; (iii) il maggiore svantaggio nello sviluppo delle abilità interazionali e di produzione orale; (iv) un alto grado di criticità nel garantire l’affidabilità e l’integrità delle prove di valutazione. parole chiave: didattica a distanza, covid-19, didattica delle lingue straniere en the shift to online teaching aimed at containing the spread of coronavirus has led the group of research and action on foreign language teaching to release a survey with the purpose of assessing the impact of remote instruction on foreign language teaching. 136 teachers and 241 students at both the university and secondary level have participated in this survey. the aim of this article is to describe the content of the survey and the make-up of the participants and to present the main findings. of particular note from this survey is (i) the lack of clear directives from their educational institutions, which is a symptom of the immediate nature of the measures put into place; (ii) a generalized resistance to experiment with new pedagogical resources that are better suited for the digital format; (iii) the greatest challenge in developing the ability to interact and to communicate orally; (iv) a high level of difficulty in guaranteeing the trustworthiness and the integrity of the assessments. key words: remote teaching, covid-19, foreign language teaching es el cambio a la enseñanza en línea que se ha producido para contener la propagación del coronavirus ha llevado al grupo de investigación y acción sobre la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras a publicar una encuesta con el objetivo de evaluar el impacto de la instrucción a distancia en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. en dicha encuesta participaron 136 profesores y 241 estudiantes de nivel universitario y secundario. el objetivo de este artículo es describir el contenido de la encuesta y la composición de la muestra, así como presentar los principales hallazgos. de esta encuesta cabe destacar (i) la falta de directrices claras por parte de las instituciones educativas, lo que es un síntoma del carácter contingente de las medidas implementadas; (ii) una resistencia generalizada a experimentar con nuevos recursos pedagógicos mejor adaptados al formato digital; (iii) una gran desventaja en el desarrollo de la capacidad de interacción y comunicación orales; (iv) un alto nivel de dificultad para garantizar la fiabilidad y la integridad de las evaluaciones. palabras clave: enseñanza a distancia, covid-19, enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras 🖂 sergio conti, università degli studi roma tre sergio.conti@uniroma3.it conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 10 1. introduzione il presente saggio riporta i risultati di un’indagine condotta nei mesi di luglio-settembre 2020 e rivolto a studenti e insegnanti di lingue straniere. scopo dell’indagine era indagare come questi avessero reagito all’improvviso spostamento delle attività educative online dovuto alla diffusione su scala mondiale della malattia da nuovo coronavirus (covid-19). nel mese di marzo 2020, al fine di contrastare l’aggravarsi della situazione epidemiologica, il governo italiano ha decretato la sospensione della didattica in presenza nelle scuole di ogni ordine e grado, introducendo “un elemento di destabilizzazione quale mai si era dato in precedenza” (istituto nazionale documentazione innovazione ricerca educativa, 2020a, p. 8). docenti e studenti si sono infatti ritrovati in quella che è stata definita da trinchero (2020) una “didattica a distanza ‘forzata”, una tipologia di formazione del tutto nuova che ha richiesto la messa in atto di accorgimenti e ripensamenti delle pratiche educative affinché questa non si tramutasse in un’esperienza del tutto improduttiva e negativa. nei mesi di marzo-aprile 2020, il gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue (graal)1 si è interrogato su quale fosse stato l’impatto della didattica a distanza (dad)2 sull’insegnamento e l’apprendimento delle lingue straniere. com’è noto, infatti, l’apprendimento linguistico ha una natura stratificata che richiede lo sviluppo bilanciato di diverse competenze e abilità ed è ampiamente dipendente dal contesto di apprendimento. a partire da queste considerazioni, i membri del graal hanno progettato tre questionari con il fine di sondare le pratiche didattiche adottate durante l’emergenza sanitaria, cercando di catturare al contempo le esperienze e le percezioni di docenti e studenti di lingue nei confronti della dad. i dati così raccolti hanno fatto da spunto per riflessioni sulla didattica delle lingue tout court, presentate online il 17 ottobre 2020 durante una giornata aperta organizzata dal gruppo e intitolata “insegnare/imparare le lingue a distanza”. il presente contributo ha lo scopo di descrivere gli strumenti adottati per la raccolta dei dati e illustrare i principali risultati emersi dall’analisi. 2. rassegna della letteratura nonostante il carattere improvviso delle misure intraprese per contrastare la pandemia da covid-19, e nonostante, mutatis mutandis, tali misure siano ancora in atto nel momento in cui si stanno scrivendo queste righe, la comunità scientifica si è subito interrogata sugli effetti della dad. negli ultimi mesi sono stati pubblicati diversi contributi riguardanti non solo le modalità didattiche e gli strumenti tecnologici impiegati, ma anche le criticità e le difficoltà affrontate da docenti e studenti di ogni ordine e grado (es. mancaniello, 2020). se la maggior parte di tali studi riguardano la didattica in generale (es. giovannella & passarelli, 2020; giovannella, passarelli, & persico, 2020), non mancano contributi incentrati nello specifico sull’insegnamento delle lingue straniere. una delle indagini più complete e di più ampia scala è probabilmente quella condotta dall’indire (istituto nazionale documentazione innovazione ricerca educativa), che ha coinvolto 3.774 docenti delle scuole dell’obbligo provenienti da tutta italia. i risultati preliminari sono stati illustrati in un report pubblicato nel mese di luglio (indire, 2020a); a questo ha fatto seguito un report integrativo pubblicato nel mese di dicembre (indire, 2020b). dai dati raccolti è emerso chiaramente che la maggior parte dei rispondenti ha trasposto in dad le pratiche tipiche della didattica in presenza, sostituendo le videolezioni in diretta alle lezioni frontali tradizionali. in particolare, il libro di testo si è confermato come lo strumento di lavoro per eccellenza, nonostante i problemi di trasferibilità dei contenuti nel contesto digitale. solo una piccola percentuale di docenti ha sperimentato pratiche laboratoriali accompagnate da forme di autovalutazione: secondo la percezione di questo ristretto gruppo di rispondenti, tali pratiche sembrano aver avuto effetti positivi sul processo di apprendimento. questo dato è in contrasto con la percezione generale dei docenti, che invece evidenziano una tendenza al peggioramento in tutte le dimensioni prese in esame dall’indagine: livelli di apprendimento e dell’attenzione, autonomia e responsabilità, qualità dell’interazione, relazione educativa tra pari, capacità di collaborazione e cooperazione, motivazione e coinvolgimento. inoltre, dai dati emerge che il tempo trascorso in dad è stato 1 https://www.graalblog.com/it/homepage/ (ultimo accesso: 20 marzo 2021) 2 più recentemente, è stata adottata la dicitura ‘didattica digitale integrata’ (ddi) o ‘didattica integrata digitale’ (did). in questo contributo si è tuttavia scelto di mantenere l’acronimo dad, sia per semplicità, sia in quanto più diffuso nel periodo del primo lockdown, a cui i dati presentati fanno riferimento. per maggiori informazioni, si consultino i documenti emanati dal ministero dell’istruzione, dell’università e della ricerca (2020a, 2020b). didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 11 inferiore rispetto a quello della normale didattica in presenza: i docenti, infatti, segnalano di essere stati costretti a ridurre ed essenzializzare in maniera sensibile il programma, sacrificando così la continuità della progettazione delineata all’inizio dell’anno scolastico. infine, dall’indagine indire risulta che i canali comunicativi più usati sono stati il registro elettronico, google meet, la posta elettronica, whatsapp e google classroom. l’uso esteso di whatsapp, in particolare, suggerisce un margine di sovrapposizione tra la comunicazione formale e un tipo di comunicazione più informale: come si legge nel report, nel disorientamento iniziale “molti docenti hanno spesso utilizzato canali comunicativi che meglio si prestavano alle loro esigenze didattiche e al loro specifico target di apprendenti, talvolta anche superando le regole relative alla privacy e al trattamento di dati sensibili” (indire, 2020b, p. 33). dati simili sono riportati nello studio di lucisano (2020), che illustra i risultati preliminari di un’indagine condotta dalla società italiana di ricerca didattica (sird) su 16.133 insegnanti. anche in questo caso, gli informanti hanno affermato di aver dovuto rimodulare obiettivi, strategie didattiche e metodi valutativi in un tempo molto breve. lo studio, inoltre, mostra come le modalità didattiche trasmissive abbiano prevalso sulle modalità didattiche interattive, confermando quindi quanto emerso dall’indagine indire. il questionario sird chiedeva infine di indicare gli aspetti più critici della dad: i più segnalati sono stati l’aumento dei tempi di lavoro, la riorganizzazione delle modalità di valutazione, la gestione degli strumenti e degli ambienti di apprendimento e le forme di contatto docente-studente ritenute inadeguate, oltre alla ridotta autonomia degli studenti e la difficoltà per gli insegnanti a percepire il loro grado di partecipazione alle lezioni. anche per quel che riguarda gli studi dedicati nello specifico alla didattica delle lingue, il questionario è stato lo strumento più ampiamente utilizzato. alcuni contributi hanno tentato di indagare alcune problematiche generali riguardo l’insegnamento delle lingue a distanza. un esempio è dato dal survey study di moser, wei e brenner (2021). la loro indagine ha coinvolto 377 docenti statunitensi, divisi tra coloro che già praticavano planned online teaching e coloro che invece sono stati costretti a trasferire l’attività online a causa dell’emergenza sanitaria. dall’analisi non emergono differenze significative tra i due gruppi, ad eccezione della percezione dell’efficacia dei corsi. in particolare, coloro che non avevano precedenti esperienze con la didattica online hanno mostrato maggiori perplessità riguardo il raggiungimento degli obiettivi didattici prefissati. l’ordine scolastico di appartenenza sembra invece aver influito maggiormente: rispetto ai colleghi delle scuole post-secondarie, i docenti delle scuole per l’infanzia, primarie e secondarie di primo livello (prek-12), infatti, hanno evidenziato un maggiore bisogno di formazione e supporto, oltre a un minor grado di equità tra gli studenti, ad esempio per quel che riguarda l’accesso alle tecnologie e il supporto da parte delle famiglie. un altro gruppo di contributi si è invece focalizzato su lingue o problematiche più specifiche. lo studio di fragai, fratter e janfrancesco (2021), ad esempio, è rivolto agli insegnanti di italiano l2. lo scopo dello studio era quello di indagare le modalità didattiche adottate, gli strumenti tecnologici utilizzati, gli aspetti metodologici della didattica online e il livello di soddisfazione degli insegnanti. al questionario proposto dalle autrici hanno risposto 195 docenti, per la maggior parte universitari. come mostrano i dati, i rispondenti hanno optato prevalentemente per la modalità sincrona, scelta dettata soprattutto alle disposizioni ricevute dall’istituzione di appartenenza. i fattori che hanno determinato l’adozione di una modalità asincrona sono invece legati soprattutto all’orario, in quanto, in seguito all’inasprirsi della situazione pandemica, molti studenti sono stati costretti a far ritorno al proprio paese, rendendo così difficile la gestione delle lezioni. in molti casi, la modalità asincrona è stata impiegata per obiettivi specifici, quali il rinforzo, lo studio autonomo, lo svolgimento dei compiti e così via. un dato molto rilevante del questionario è che quasi il 60% dei rispondenti ha ritenuto che l’interazione con gli studenti sia peggiorata durante la dad. a determinare tale peggioramento hanno contribuito fattori personali (ad esempio, gli studenti sembrano più intimoriti dall’ambiente digitale), la mancanza di comunicazione non verbale e l’abbassamento della soglia dell’attenzione. il questionario ha evidenziato difficoltà nella gestione dei turni di parola, delle attività di gruppo e delle diverse fasi della lezione (durata, attività, strumenti e verifiche). infine, come emerso in altri studi, solo una percentuale minore dei rispondenti aveva avuto precedenti esperienze di didattica online: secondo le autrici, tali dati non possono soddisfare le precondizioni necessarie per gestire in modo adeguato l’insegnamento in dad. daloisio (2020) affronta invece il tema dell’inclusione degli studenti con disturbi specifici dell’apprendimento (dsa) ed esplora le pratiche glottodidattiche attivate dagli educatori durante l’emergenza sanitaria per mezzo di un questionario semi-strutturato compilabile online. al questionario hanno risposto 1618 docenti di lingua seconda o straniera e 95 tutor dell’apprendimento. i risultati mostrano che le strategie glottodidattiche adottate più di frequente sono state la condivisione di obiettivi e la stimolazione conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 12 multisensoriale: ancora una volta, si è trattato principalmente di strategie basate sull’input fornito dall’insegnante, piuttosto che sul coinvolgimento attivo degli alunni (p. 71). quanto alla collaborazione con gli insegnanti di sostegno, questa è stata finalizzata soprattutto alla gestione delle attività a distanza e alla differenziazione dei materiali, meno per la progettazione didattica condivisa. infine, anche da questo studio emergono una rimodulazione degli obiettivi didattici, concepita come riduzione del carico di lavoro, e un adattamento dei materiali sia dal punto di vista del layout che da quello dei contenuti. amin e sundari (2020) hanno raccolto le percezioni di 140 apprendenti universitari di inglese in merito all’efficacia di tre diverse piattaforme, vale a dire cisco webex meeting, google classroom e whatsapp. l’efficacia è stata giudicata sulla base dei criteri proposti da jamieson, chapelle e preiss (2005) per la valutazione del computer-assisted language learning. i dati suggeriscono un generale apprezzamento per cisco webex meeting su tutti i criteri considerati, in particolare per quel che riguarda la possibilità di entrare in contatto con un uso autentico della lingua. l’applicazione di messaggistica whatsapp è invece stata apprezzata sia per la sua praticità, sia per quel che riguarda il criterio ‘meaning focus’, ossia il fatto di poter indirizzare l’attenzione prevalentemente sul significato. ornaghi e juan (in stampa) e romagnoli e ornaghi (in stampa) si sono invece occupate nello specifico dell’insegnamento del cinese in contesto universitario. nel primo studio, le autrici riflettono sull’impatto dello spostamento delle attività didattiche online sulla dimensione interazionale dell’apprendimento del cinese e descrivono le strategie attuate durante il periodo pandemico, tra cui l’uso di piattaforme per l’interazione sincrona. tali strategie sono state giudicate dagli apprendenti attraverso due questionari. il primo questionario, a cui hanno partecipato 79 studenti di livello elementare e avanzato, riguardava le misure immediate intraprese subito dopo il lockdown di marzo 2020: i risultati suggeriscono che tali misure sono state in grado di garantire la continuità didattica e mostrano un alto grado di soddisfazione, in particolare per quel che riguarda le attività orali. il secondo questionario riguarda invece le attività proposte nel primo semestre dell’anno accademico 2020-2021, maggiormente volte a incoraggiare la partecipazione attiva degli apprendenti nell’ambiente digitale, proponendo ad esempio attività di scrittura collaborativa ed esercizi di active speaking. anche in questo caso i partecipanti hanno espresso un elevato grado di apprezzamento, pur suggerendo di dedicare più tempo all’interazione tra studente e docente e pur richiedendo un maggior utilizzo di materiale preregistrato a integrazione della didattica sincrona. nel seocndo studio, romagnoli e ornaghi (in stampa), individuano invece le maggiori difficoltà legate all’apprendimento del cinese online, soprattutto per quel che riguarda la scrittura dei caratteri, abilità particolarmente penalizzata in ambiente digitale, come è stato più volte notato (si vedano ad esempio sun, 2011; wang-szilas & bellassen, 2017). i risultati del questionario proposto da romagnoli e ornaghi agli studenti delle università di roma e milano confermano tali constatazioni: nello specifico, i partecipanti hanno segnalato una forte riduzione della possibilità di far pratica con i caratteri, specie ai livelli meno avanzati, in cui l’apprendimento della scrittura è un aspetto particolarmente critico (orton & scrimgeour, 2019, pp. 51-52). il presente studio intende approfondire le problematiche emerse dalla letteratura sulla dad rivolgendosi nello specifico all’insegnamento e all’apprendimento delle lingue straniere. l’indagine è finalizzata a comprendere come lo spostamento della didattica online ha influenzato la didattica delle lingue durante il primo periodo dell’emergenza sanitaria, restituendo un quadro generale delle pratiche e delle percezioni più diffuse tra docenti e studenti. non solo: come già accennato, il fine ultimo dello studio è fornire utili spunti su come far tesoro dell’esperienza della dad per migliorare l’insegnamento delle lingue anche dopo il ritorno alla normalità. sulla base di questi obiettivi, le domande di ricerca sono le seguenti: 1) quali sono state le pratiche didattiche ed educative attuate dai docenti di lingua durante l’emergenza sanitaria? 2) qual è stata la risposta degli studenti? 3) com’è stato gestito il feedback? 4) come sono state valutate le competenze? 5) quali sono state le principali differenze rispetto alla didattica in presenza? 3. metodo 3.1. materiali per raccogliere i dati relativi all’esperienza dell’insegnamento e dell’apprendimento delle lingue durante la dad sono stati progettati due diversi questionari, uno rivolto ai docenti e uno rivolto agli studenti; didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 13 di quest’ultimo sono state sviluppate due versioni, una per gli studenti universitari e una, semplificata, per gli studenti delle scuole secondarie di primo e secondo livello. sebbene il questionario studenti sia stato concepito in maniera indipendente, dove possibile sono stati inseriti item paralleli a quelli presenti nel questionario per docenti, così da poter effettuare un confronto tra le risposte fornite dai due campioni. insieme all’intervista, il questionario è uno degli strumenti principali della survey research (brown, 1997, 2001, pp. 5-6), “a specific type of field study that involves the collection of data from a sample of elements […] drawn from a well-defined population” (visser, krosnick, & lavrakas, 2000, p. 223). la survey research affonda le sue radici nei sondaggi condotti dai riformisti dell’inghilterra vittoriana (kelley, clark, brown, & sitzia, 2003, p. 261) ed è una delle metodologie di ricerca maggiormente impiegate nelle scienze sociali. i questionari, in particolare, sono tra gli strumenti più utilizzati per la raccolta di dati, soprattutto in tempi recenti, grazie allo sviluppo di internet e delle tecnologie digitali (cowles & nelson, 2015, pp. 8-9). definiti da brown (2001, p. 6) come “any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing their answer or selecting from among existing answers”, i questionari trovano il loro punto di forza nella versatilità e nella semplicità di progettazione, diffusione e analisi dei dati (dörnyei, 2003, pp. 9-10; kelley et al., 2003, p. 262), nonostante la loro natura prevalentemente esplorativa che spesso “does not go beyond pattern finding or relationship mapping” (gu, 2016, p. 257). nel campo della glottodidattica e della linguistica applicata, in particolare, i questionari sono stati impiegati per numerosi scopi, come la progettazione dei sillabi, la needs analysis (tzotzou, 2014), la valutazione dei docenti e dei programmi didattici, l’analisi dello sviluppo degli stili di apprendimento (reid, 1990) e così via (si vedano anche brown, 1997, 2001; gu, 2016). in generale, i questionari sono spesso usati in letteratura per esaminare “people’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviours in language learning and teaching” (gu, 2016, p. 567). brown (2004, p. 490) dispone le diverse metodologie di ricerca su un continuum che va dall’estremo qualitativo/esplorativo all’estremo quantitativo/sperimentale e colloca la survey research nella posizione centrale: questo perché questionari e interviste consentono di raccogliere una combinazione di dati sia quantitativi che qualitativi attraverso diverse tipologie di quesiti. una prima, macro-suddivisione è quella tra quesiti a risposta aperta (open-ended questions), che richiedono agli informanti di rispondere usando le proprie parole, e chiusa (closed-ended questions), che richiedono di selezionare la risposta da una lista di opzioni (visser et al., 2000, pp. 237-238). i quesiti a risposta chiusa a loro volta comprendono quesiti a risposta multipla, checklist, rank order items (in cui bisogna ordinare una serie di elementi secondo una graduatoria), e scale di valutazione (rating scales). quest’ultima tipologia consiste nel dare un “evaluative judgement of the target by marking one of a series of categories organized into a scale [corsivo dell’autore] […] the various points on the continuum of the scale indicate different degrees of a certain category” (dörnyei, 2003, p. 36). il tipo più noto di rating scale è la scala likertiana, dal nome del suo ideatore rensis likert, e consiste nell’indicare il grado di accordo in relazione a una serie di affermazioni, “all of which are related to a particular target” (dörnyei, 2003, p. 37). nelle sezioni 3.1.1 e 3.2.2 saranno descritti i questionari progettati per il presente studio: come si vedrà, sia il questionario docenti che i questionari studenti comprendono in varia misura entrambi i tipi di quesiti (a risposta aperta e chiusa). prima della diffusione, tutte le versioni del questionario sono state pilotate attraverso la somministrazione a beta-tester appartenenti alla popolazione di riferimento (docenti e studenti di scuola secondaria e università). 3.1.1. questionario docenti il questionario docenti era composto di cinque sezioni, più un’ultima sezione riservata ai commenti aggiuntivi dei rispondenti (v. appendice a). come mostrato nella tabella 1, ciascuna sezione è stata curata da diversi membri del graal in qualità di responsabili o collaboratori/trici. nella cover page del questionario era richiesto esplicitamente di rispondere ai quesiti facendo riferimento ad un solo corso di lingua tra quelli tenuti durante il periodo di marzo-giugno 2020; a coloro che avessero tenuto più di un corso era data la possibilità di ripetere il questionario al termine di ciascuna compilazione. nonostante tale raccomandazione, alcuni partecipanti hanno risposto al questionario facendo riferimento a più di un corso (v. § 3.4.1). conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 14 tabella 1 composizione questionario docenti coordinatore: sergio conti sezioni titolo responsabile collaboratori/trici n. item sezione i informazioni sul/la docente e sul corso sergio conti — 16 sezione ii strumenti e attività diego cortés velásquez elena nuzzo 7 sezione iii la risposta degli studenti alla dad: la percezione dei docenti claudia cremasco ilaria borro, francesca pagliara 2 sezione iv feedback francesca la russa — 4 sezione v valutazione elisabetta bonvino federica del bono 9 sezione vi commenti — — 1 la sezione i aveva lo scopo di raccogliere i dati relativi ai rispondenti e al corso di lingua per il quale si stava compilando il questionario. la sezione era composta da 16 item, 15 a risposta chiusa e uno a risposta aperta. laddove ritenuto pertinente, è stata aggiunta l’opzione ‘altro’, che, se selezionata, richiedeva di fornire una breve risposta aperta. gli item dal 2 al 4 erano volti a raccogliere i dati biografici dei rispondenti, rispettivamente genere, età e lingua materna.3 gli item dal 5 al 7 riguardavano invece la posizione professionale del rispondente e chiedevano, nell’ordine, gli anni di esperienza didattica, l’ordine di scuola e la posizione professionale; l’item i.8, a risposta aperta, chiedeva il tipo di scuola o facoltà in cui insegnava durante il periodo della prima ondata pandemica. gli item dal 9 al 15 riguardavano più da vicino il corso di lingua al quale l’informante faceva riferimento nella compilazione del questionario. nell’ordine, oltre alla lingua insegnata, venivano richiesti anche il numero di ore settimanali del corso, la sua durata complessiva, il numero medio degli studenti partecipanti e il livello.4 l’item i.14 faceva invece riferimento al contesto d’apprendimento e chiedeva se, in condizioni ordinarie, il corso si svolgesse in un contesto immersivo, e cioè nel paese in cui la lingua insegnata costituisce il mezzo di comunicazione quotidiana, o se si trattasse piuttosto di un corso di lingua straniera;5 l’item i.15 chiedeva infine se tale condizione fosse cambiata in seguito all’insorgere dell’emergenza sanitaria. in ultimo, l’item i.16 era rivolto alle indicazioni fornite dalle istituzioni scolastiche di appartenenza riguardo l’insegnamento delle lingue. ai rispondenti veniva richiesto di segnalare se avessero ricevuto istruzioni specifiche in merito agli strumenti da utilizzare per la didattica e le comunicazioni con gli studenti, alla modalità didattica e di valutazione, a eventuali strumenti dispensativi e compensativi per studenti con bisogni educativi speciali (bes) o dsa, al numero di ore della didattica e alla gestione dei contenuti. l’item chiedeva infine se l’istituzione avesse offerto una formazione specifica sull’uso degli strumenti informatici per la didattica a distanza o se, al contrario, i rispondenti non avessero ricevuto alcuna delle suddette indicazioni. la sezione ii del questionario aveva lo scopo di rilevare gli strumenti e i formati didattici usati prima e dopo la dad, nonché le abilità e le competenze maggiormente sviluppate durante l’emergenza. l’item ii.1 chiedeva se, in generale, gli informanti ritenessero adeguati gli strumenti adottati durante la dad e, nell’item ii.2, di fornire una breve spiegazione nel caso avessero risposto ‘no’ o ‘in parte’. gli item ii.3-4, entrambi a risposta multipla, presentavano una lista di piattaforme e materiali didattici e chiedevano per quale attività fossero stati usati, rispettivamente in presenza e a distanza. materiali e attività erano disposti su una griglia e per ciascun tipo di materiale era possibile scegliere più opzioni. lo scopo era quello di valutare quali cambiamenti fossero intervenuti nell’uso degli strumenti didattici durante il periodo pandemico. 3 l’item i.1 chiedeva se l’informante stesse compilando il questionario per la prima volta, in quanto, come già accennato, era data la possibilità di ripetere l’indagine per ciascuno dei corsi tenuti. come suggeriscono le risposte, nessuno dei rispondenti ha ripetuto il questionario. 4 i livelli, elementare (a1-a2), intermedio (b1-b2) e avanzato (c1-c2), facevano riferimento al quadro comune europeo di riferimento per le lingue (qcer; council of europe, 2001), con l’aggiunta di un livello iniziale di alfabetizzazione (pre-a1). 5 come noto, la differenza tra lingua seconda e straniera è basata sulla distinzione tra acquisition e learning proposta da krashen (1982). una chiara sintesi di tale differenza (nel caso specifico riferita all’italiano) è riportata in balboni (2014, pp. 20-23). didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 15 l’item ii.5 presentava invece una lista di formati didattici sotto forma di affermazioni (ad esempio, ‘l’insegnante tiene una videolezione in diretta interagendo con gli studenti’) e chiedeva quanto questi fossero stati usati nella dad su una scala da 0 (per niente) a 5 (molto). l’item prevedeva un’opzione ‘altro’ da specificare nell’item ii.6, a risposta aperta. l’item ii.7, infine, forniva una lista di abilità e competenze (ad esempio, ‘produzione scritta’) e chiedeva quanto queste fossero state sviluppate rispetto alla modalità didattica in presenza. per ciascuna abilità/competenza era possibile scegliere tra tre opzioni (più, meno o uguale), più l’opzione ‘non si applica al mio caso’. la sezione iii era volta a investigare la percezione dei docenti in merito alla risposta degli studenti coinvolti nella dad. nell’item iii.1 l’informante doveva segnalare in che misura avesse percepito una differenza tra didattica in presenza e dad relativamente ad aspetti quali motivazione, partecipazione globale, frequenza, autonomia nell’interazione tra pari ecc. le valutazioni andavano fornite secondo una scala in cinque punti, che andava da 1 (netto peggioramento) a 5 (netto miglioramento). l’item iii.2, facoltativo, riguardava invece gli studenti con bes/dsa e chiedeva di segnalare se si fosse rilevata una differenza nella facilità d’uso degli strumenti compensativi. la sezione iv intendeva indagare le tecniche adottate per fornire feedback in contesto di dad e come queste fossero cambiate rispetto alla didattica in presenza. l’item iv.1 elencava una lista di sette tipi di feedback (orale, differito, tra pari ecc.), più l’opzione ‘altro’, e chiedeva in che misura questi fossero stati usati durante la dad su una scala da 0 (per niente) a 5 (molto). la scelta dell’opzione ‘altro’ rimandava all’item iv.2, in cui era possibile fornire una spiegazione più dettagliata. l’item iv.3 era speculare al iv.1 ma indagava i tipi di feedback impiegati in presenza. infine, l’item iv.4 chiedeva quanto l’informante si trovasse d’accordo con una serie di affermazioni (es., ‘con l’avvento della dad ho rimodulato il modo in cui fornisco feedback’) su una scala da 0 (per niente) a 5 (del tutto). la sezione v riguardava la valutazione delle abilità e delle competenze. l’item v.1 elencava una serie di affermazioni (es., ‘ho dovuto modificare la mia modalità di valutazione rispetto alla didattica in presenza’) e chiedeva all’informate quanto fosse d’accordo su una scala da 0 (per niente) a 5 (del tutto). l’item v.2 era volto a indagare gli aspetti della valutazione a distanza (ad esempio la creazione dei test, la valutazione dell’interazione orale, la valutazione delle produzioni scritte ecc.) ritenuti più difficoltosi. l’informante poteva scegliere più opzioni e fornirne di aggiuntive nell’opzione ‘altro’. l’item v.3 indagava invece la difficoltà nel raggiungimento di qualità in aspetti delle prove di valutazione quali accettabilità, fattibilità, economicità ecc. le risposte erano disposte su una scala in quattro punti, da ‘per niente’ a ‘molto’. gli item v.4 e v.5 erano paralleli: entrambi fornivano una lista di sei modalità di valutazione (es., valutazione globale, autovalutazione, valutazione tra pari ecc.) e chiedeva quanto queste fossero usate a distanza e in presenza, rispettivamente. l’item v.6 prevedeva tre opzioni e chiedeva se in dad si fosse optato per una prova scritta, orale o sia scritta che orale. l’item v.7 chiedeva invece le misure adottate per garantire la sicurezza e l’autenticità della prova, con la possibilità di scegliere più risposte tra quelle elencate o di fornirne altre aggiuntive. l’item v.8 consisteva infine in una griglia: nella prima colonna era elencata una serie di conoscenze, abilità e competenze (es., ‘conoscenze linguistiche’, ‘conoscenze metalinguistiche’, ‘comprensione scritta’ ecc.), mentre la prima riga riportava una lista di strumenti e attività (es., ‘role-play’, ‘monologhi’, ‘chat/forum’ ecc., più l’opzione ‘nessuno’). per ciascuna voce nella prima colonna, l’informante doveva scegliere una o più risposte tra quelle della prima riga. era disponibile anche l’opzione ‘altro’, da specificare nell’item v.9. l’ultima sezione, la sezione vi, consisteva infine di un unico item a risposta aperta, dove gli informanti potevano fornire commenti aggiuntivi circa la propria esperienza con la didattica delle lingue a distanza. 3.1.2. questionario studenti la composizione del questionario studenti è riportata nella tabella 2 (si vedano anche le appendici bc). come nel questionario docenti, anche la sezione i del questionario studenti era dedicata alla raccolta dei dati biografici degli informanti, oltre alle informazioni generali relative al corso. la sezione ii, invece, riguardava l’esperienza dei rispondenti con la dad. conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 16 tabella 2 composizione questionario studenti coordinatrice: elisa fiorenza sezioni titolo responsabile collaboratori/rici n. item sezione i informazioni generali elisa fiorenza silvia scolaro 10/16* sezione ii la tua esperienza con la didattica a distanza nell’apprendimento delle lingue straniere elisa fiorenza silvia scolaro 16 *il primo valore riguarda il questionario per studenti delle scuole secondarie, il secondo valore riguarda invece il questionario per gli universitari. la sezione i era diversa nelle due versioni. il questionario per studenti universitari chiedeva il genere, l’anno di nascita e la lingua materna degli informanti (item i.1-3), il tipo di facoltà (i.4), la città (i.5), il corso frequentato (i.6) e l’anno (i.7). gli item i.8-9 chiedevano rispettivamente le lingue studiate e quella a cui avrebbero fatto riferimento le risposte del questionario. gli item i.10-11 erano paralleli agli item i.14-15 del questionario docenti, chiedevano cioè informazioni in merito al contesto di apprendimento e se questo avesse subito variazioni in seguito all’emergere della crisi sanitaria. l’item i.12 chiedeva invece a che punto fosse intervenuto lo spostamento delle attività didattiche online, se all’inizio, a metà o quasi alla fine del corso. sempre relativamente al corso, gli item i.13-14 chiedevano rispettivamente la durata complessiva e il livello (v. nota 4). infine, gli item i.15-16 chiedevano se l’informante avesse una certificazione dsa/bes e, eventualmente, se l’insegnante avesse tenuto conto dei suoi bisogni specifici durante la dad. la sezione i del questionario per gli studenti della scuola secondaria era simile a quella del questionario per gli universitari, ma è stato omesso — per ovvie ragioni — il quesito relativo al corso di laurea. si è inoltre ritenuto superfluo chiedere la durata del corso e il punto in cui è stata avviata la dad: nella scuola italiana, infatti, i corsi di lingua curricolari hanno durata quinquennale; in aggiunta, a marzo 2020, i rispondenti si trovavano verosimilmente a metà corso. infine, altri quesiti ritenuti poco adatti al target di riferimento sono quelli relativi al contesto di apprendimento e al livello (i.10-11 e i.14 del questionario per le università). pertanto, oltre a genere, anno di nascita, lingua materna, tipo di scuola e anno di frequenza (item i.1-6), nel questionario per le scuole secondarie venivano richieste le lingue studiate (i.7) e quella di riferimento per le risposte al questionario (i.8). gli ultimi due item (i.9-10) corrispondevano infine agli item i.15-16 della versione per studenti universitari. la sezione ii era invece la stessa per entrambe le versioni. l’item ii.1 chiedeva nuovamente per quale lingua si era scelto di rispondere al questionario. gli item ii.2 e ii.3, entrambi a risposta multipla, chiedevano rispettivamente il numero di ore settimanali delle lezioni a distanza e il numero medio degli studenti partecipanti.6 l’item ii.4 chiedeva lo strumento usato per seguire le lezioni, da scegliere tra computer fisso, portatile, smartphone, tablet o altro (da specificare in ii.4.1). l’item ii.5 era parallelo all’item ii.3 del questionario docenti, chiedeva cioè per quali delle attività proposte erano utilizzati gli strumenti e le piattaforme elencate, con la possibilità di scegliere più opzioni per strumento. era disponibile anche l’opzione ‘altro’, da specificare nell’item ii.5.1. gli item ii.6-8 riguardavano più da vicino le modalità di svolgimento dei corsi. in ii.6, a risposta multipla, era richiesto in che misura l’insegnante chiedesse di attivare solo la webcam/il microfono o attivare/disattivare entrambi. l’item ii.7 mirava a indagare l’influenza di fattori tecnici (connessione) e ambientali sulle lezioni a distanza, da valutare su una scala di 3 punti, da ‘positiva’ a ‘negativa’, più l’opzione ‘non si applica al mio caso’. l’item ii.8 era invece parallelo all’item ii.5 del questionario docenti e valutava la frequenza di diverse modalità di svolgimento delle lezioni, da 0 (mai) a 5 (molto). anche l’item ii.9 era parallelo a un item del questionario docenti, il ii.7: come quest’ultimo, presentava una lista di abilità e competenze (semplificate e ampliate) e chiedeva quanto queste fossero state sviluppate nella dad rispetto alle lezioni in presenza. gli item ii.10-11 erano relativi alla valutazione. in ii.10 si chiedeva la modalità di svolgimento dei test (scritta, orale, scritta e orale), mentre in ii.11 si chiedeva la frequenza di una serie di tipologia di verifiche (esercizi di grammatica, comprensione del testo ecc.); l’eventuale risposta ‘altro’ richiedeva di essere specificata in ii.11.1. 6 l’item ii.1 chiedeva nuovamente per quale lingua si era scelto di rispondere al questionario. didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 17 l’item ii.12 ampliava le voci dell’item iii.1 del questionario docenti e chiedeva in che misura i rispondenti avessero percepito una variazione rispetto a diversi fattori, quali il livello di concentrazione e di interesse, l’uso della lingua straniera per interagire con i pari e con i docenti ecc. infine, l’item ii.13 era del tipo a risposta aperta ed era riservato ai commenti aggiuntivi sull’esperienza della dad. 3.2. somministrazione del questionario e raccolta dati la somministrazione dei questionari è avvenuta tra luglio e settembre 2020, al termine dell’anno scolastico 2019/2020. i dati raccolti, quindi, catturano la situazione della didattica delle lingue straniere durante la cosiddetta prima ondata pandemica e il conseguente lockdown di marzo-maggio 2020. i questionari sono stati redatti usando l’applicazione web moduli google. il principale metodo di campionamento scelto è stato quello dello snowball sampling, in cui “the researcher identifies a few people who meet the criteria of the particular study and then asks these participants to identify further members of the population” (dörnyei, 2003, p. 72; sulla selezione del campione nella survey research si veda anche levy & lemeshow, 2008). nello specifico, ciascun membro del graal ha inviato i questionari ai propri contatti, ovvero docenti e studenti provenienti da scuole e atenei italiani distribuiti su tutto il territorio nazionale.7 contestualmente, è stato chiesto ai suddetti contatti di diffondere i questionari tra colleghi e studenti. i questionari sono stati inoltre pubblicati sulle principali piattaforme social, sulle pagine personali dei membri del graal e sulle pagine di varie società scientifiche e associazioni del settore, come l’associazione nazionale insegnanti di cinese (anic). 3.3. analisi dei dati i dati raccolti attraverso i questionari sono stati analizzati sia quantitativamente sia, nel caso delle risposte aperte, qualitativamente. le risposte dei principali gruppi di rispondenti, vale a dire docenti/studenti di scuola secondaria e universitari, sono state confrontate statisticamente attraverso il test di wilcoxon della somma dei ranghi (wilcoxon rank-sum test): trattandosi di un test non parametrico che opera su valori ordinali provenienti da una distribuzione continua, è infatti particolarmente adatto per confrontare valori derivanti da scale di valutazione e rank order items.8 tutti i test sono stati eseguiti tramite il software open source per l’analisi statistica r. per il calcolo della dimensione dell’effetto (effect size) sono state seguite le indicazioni riportate in field, miles e field (2012, p. 664-667). come suggerito dagli autori, l’effect size riportato è il coefficiente di correlazione r: secondo le linee guida fornite da cohen (1988, 1992), valori di r = 0,01; r = 0,30 e r = 0.50 corrispondono rispettivamente a una dimensione dell’effetto piccola, media e grande. 3.4. descrizione del campione e dei corsi 3.4.1. questionario docenti complessivamente, hanno risposto al questionario 136 docenti, in prevalenza donne (123) di età superiore ai 45 anni (59,5%). l’87% dei rispondenti è di madrelingua italiana e il 66% ha più di 10 anni di esperienza nella didattica delle lingue. si tratta per la maggior parte di docenti universitari (n = 53, pari al 39% del totale) che insegnano presso un centro linguistico d’ateneo (24,5%) o un dipartimento/facoltà di lingue (21%). i docenti di scuola secondaria di secondo grado sono invece 37 (27%) e insegnano per lo più nei licei (54%). solo il 12,5% (17) dei rispondenti insegna nelle scuole secondarie di primo grado. le tabelle 3-4 riassumono i ruoli dichiarati dai due gruppi di rispondenti, universitari e di scuola secondaria (n = 54). altri ruoli segnalati sono docenti di scuola primaria (3 casi), liberi professionisti o collaboratori occasionali (3), volontari o formatori (2) ecc. questi ultimi insegnano prevalentemente presso scuole private, associazioni o centri provinciali per l’istruzione degli adulti. 7 tra le università figurano ad esempio l’università degli studi di cassino e del lazio meridionale, l’università degli studi di cagliari, l’università degli studi di milano, l’università degli studi roma tre, l’università degli studi di siena e altre. per i dati riguardanti la scuola secondaria, si veda § 3.4.2. 8 il test è conosciuto anche come test di mann-whitney (field, miles, & field, 2012, p. 654). da non confondersi con il wilcoxon signed-rank test, che invece è utilizzato per confrontare campioni appaiati, ovvero due set di dati provenienti dallo stesso campione (field et al., 2012, p. 667). conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 18 tabella 3 ruolo docenti universitari ruolo n % collaboratore esperto linguistico 21 39,6% a contratto 11 20,8% associato 5 9,4% ricercatore 8 15,1% altro 8 15,1% tabella 4 ruolo docenti di scuola secondaria ruolo n % curricolare titolare 37 68,5% curricolare supplente 13 24,1% altro 4 7,4% per quanto riguarda la lingua insegnata, spicca sulle altre l’italiano l2 (49,3%), seguito dall’inglese (21,3%) e, con grande distacco, dal francese (6,6%). tra le altre lingue rappresentate in percentuale minore figurano il cinese, lo spagnolo e il tedesco (7 casi ciascuna). sei rispondenti hanno dichiarato di insegnare più di una lingua, nonostante fosse richiesto esplicitamente di far riferimento ad un solo corso. la maggior parte dei corsi (53,7%) aveva durata annuale e prevedeva dalle due alle quattro ore settimanali (66,2%). il livello era per lo più elementare (48,5%) o intermedio (42,6%) e le classi erano composte prevalentemente da 20-25 studenti (30,9%). in 51 casi si trattava di corsi immersivi svolti nel paese in cui si parla la lingua studiata: con l’avvento della dad, tale condizione è cambiata in 36 casi. particolarmente interessanti sono le risposte relative all’item i.16. il grafico in figura 1 riporta, per ciascuno degli ordini scolastici maggiormente rappresentati, la percentuale in cui i rispondenti hanno ricevuto direttive da parte degli istituti scolastici di appartenenza per affrontare la situazione emergenziale. figura 1. indicazioni istituzionali (item i.16) come si può osservare, la maggior parte delle indicazioni istituzionali hanno riguardato gli strumenti per la didattica e per la comunicazione con gli studenti, nonché le modalità didattiche da adottare (es., lezione sincrona/asincrona); i docenti universitari, in particolare, risultano quelli maggiormente vincolati al tipo di strumenti da utilizzare, probabilmente a causa di convenzioni esistenti tra gli atenei e le diverse aziende sviluppatrici di piattaforme per la didattica a distanza. le indicazioni sulle modalità di valutazione sono state più moderate, soprattutto all’università; scarsa anche la formazione dei docenti sull’uso degli strumenti informatici. infine, appare evidente come i rispondenti abbiano dovuto gestire autonomamente eventuali interventi compensativi per studenti con bes/dsa. tale diffusa mancanza di direttive, sintomo del carattere 65% 59% 67% 43% 48% 17% 15% 31% 11% 83% 57% 57% 43% 38% 13% 2% 36% 9% strumenti per la didattica strumenti per la comunicazione modalità didattiche ore modalità di valutazione gestione contenuti strumenti compensativi formazione nessuno scuola secondaria università didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 19 emergenziale delle misure intraprese, ha sicuramente contribuito ad aumentare il senso di disorientamento lamentato dai docenti, come si discuterà più avanti (§ 4.1.1). 3.4.2. questionario studenti gli studenti e le studentesse che hanno risposto al questionario sono stati in totale 241, per la maggior parte femmine (210, pari all’87% circa). il gruppo è composto da 134 studenti universitari e 107 studenti delle scuole secondarie. la prevalenza di rispondenti di genere femminile è riscontrabile in entrambi i gruppi (v. tabella 5). tabella 5 genere degli studenti diviso per gruppo genere università scuola secondaria femmine 110 (82%) 100 (93,5%) maschi 24 (18%) 7 (6,5%) gli studenti di scuola secondaria sono nati tra il 2003 (23,4%) e il 2005 (24,3%), con un picco di nati nel 2004 (39,3%): al momento della somministrazione del questionario, l’età media era quindi di 16 anni. come è facile attendersi, invece, il gruppo degli studenti universitari presenta una maggiore variabilità circa l’anno di nascita, che va dal 1969 (2 casi) al 2001 (1). la maggior parte di loro (48,6%), tuttavia, è nata tra il 1998 (20,2%) e il 1999 (28,4%), e al momento della somministrazione aveva quindi un’età compresa tra i 21 e i 22 anni. la lingua materna (l1) più rappresentata è l’italiano, con 112 casi (83,6%) tra gli studenti universitari e 95 (89%) tra gli studenti di scuola secondaria. il numero delle altre l1 è estremamente ridotto: si segnalano il russo (3 casi), l’albanese, il portoghese e il romeno (2 casi ciascuno) tra gli studenti universitari, l’albanese (3) e il cinese (2) tra gli studenti di scuola secondaria. dodici rispondenti (sei in ciascun gruppo) hanno dichiarato di essere bilingue: in tutti i casi, una delle l1 dichiarate è l’italiano. passiamo adesso al tipo di scuola o corso accademico frequentati. la grande maggioranza delle risposte degli studenti universitari (76%) può essere compresa sotto l’etichetta di lingue, la quale raccoglie diversi tipi di corsi, tra cui lingue e mediazione (38 casi), letterature e culture straniere (12) e comunicazione internazionale (11). si tratta per lo più di studenti di laurea triennale (70%) al secondo anno di corso (46%); la durata del corso di lingua è prevalentemente annuale (33,6%) o semestrale (30%) e lo spostamento della didattica a distanza è avvenuto a metà corso (53,7%). l’altro gruppo di rispondenti si divide invece tra studenti di scuola secondaria di primo e secondo livello, con una maggiore percentuale di questi ultimi (89%). sei rispondenti hanno dichiarato di frequentare un centro di formazione professionale. le regioni più rappresentate sono il lazio e il veneto (36,5% ciascuna), seguite dal piemonte (6,6%) e dalla toscana (6,2%). molto omogenee sono le risposte riguardanti le lingue studiate. il 69% degli studenti universitari ha dichiarato di studiare due lingue, a differenza degli studenti di scuola secondaria che invece ne studiano soltanto una (84%). prevedibilmente, l’inglese è la lingua più studiata sia all’università (79%) che nelle scuole secondarie (100%), ed è anche la lingua a cui la maggior parte dei rispondenti ha fatto riferimento nella compilazione del questionario (32% all’università, 96% nelle scuole secondarie). tra le altre lingue più menzionate dagli studenti universitari vi sono anche lo spagnolo (30%), il cinese (22,4%) e l’arabo (19,4%). il livello dichiarato è per lo più intermedio (50%) o avanzato (30%). l’italiano l2 è rappresentato solo all’università, peraltro con una percentuale molto bassa (7,5%), soprattutto se si considera che questa lingua era una delle più frequenti nel questionario docenti. una delle possibili spiegazioni è che gli apprendenti di italiano l2 abbiano trovato il questionario troppo al di sopra del loro livello di competenza. per quel che riguarda il contesto di apprendimento, si ricorderà che tale quesito era compreso solamente nel questionario rivolto agli studenti universitari. il 76,6% dei rispondenti ha dichiarato di frequentare un corso di lingua straniera nel proprio paese. dei 35 rispondenti che invece frequentavano un corso immersivo, 14 hanno dichiarato che tale situazione è cambiata in seguito allo spostamento delle lezioni a distanza. il numero di rispondenti con certificazioni bes/dsa è risultato essere molto ridotto sia all’università (8 casi) che nelle scuole secondarie (13). tra questi ultimi, 5 (38,5%) hanno dichiarato che il docente ha tenuto conto dei propri bisogni, 4 (31%) solo in parte. infine, i corsi prevedevano per la maggior parte dalle due alle quattro ore settimanali, sia nelle scuole secondarie (76,6%) sia all’università (55,2%), mentre le classi erano composte principalmente da più di 20 studenti (72% e 47%, rispettivamente). conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 20 4. risultati 4.1. questionario docenti 4.1.1. strumenti e attività in questa sezione sono riportati i risultati relativi alla sezione ii del questionario docenti. tra coloro che hanno risposto al questionario, solamente l’8,8% considera i materiali adottati per la didattica in presenza inadeguati per la dad (item ii.1): la maggior parte (61,8%) ritiene che questi siano adatti solo in parte; il rimanente 29,4% li ha trovati invece pienamente adeguati. tali percentuali si mantengono molto simili considerando separatamente i due gruppi più rappresentati del campione, vale a dire docenti universitari e di scuola secondaria: l'affinità è suggerita dai valori delle mediane e delle relative deviazioni standard (tabella 6), ed è confermata dai risultati del test di wilcoxon, che non rileva differenze significative: w = 1377, p = 0,70 (> 0,05), r = -0,04. tabella 6 item ii.1: adeguatezza degli strumenti sì (%) in parte (%) no (%) mdn sd scuola secondaria 33,33 61,11 5,56 2 0,61 università 32,08 58,49 9,43 2 0,56 gran parte di coloro che hanno considerato i materiali adatti solo in parte ha motivato la propria risposta affermando di aver dovuto operare degli adattamenti (15 casi) o delle integrazioni (8) per adeguarsi all’ambiente digitale (es., “i materiali dovevano essere in qualche modo adattati o modificati”; “è stato necessario creare ulteriori materiali per la piattaforma”). nove rispondenti hanno lamentato di aver dovuto sacrificare delle attività, soprattutto quelle legate alla produzione orale e all’interazione (es., “non è stato possibile svolgere online alcune attività pensate per la didattica in presenza, soprattutto per la produzione orale”). altre motivazioni sono legate a difficoltà tecniche (“la mia scuola non si è subito dotata di strumenti informatici”); alla mancanza di versioni digitali dei libri di testo o al carattere inaspettato della situazione emergenziale (“tutto troppo improvviso, non ero preparata”, 7 casi ciascuno). non manca, infine, chi sostiene che le lezioni online non possono sostituire il contatto umano tra studenti e docenti (3). simili motivazioni sono state addotte anche da coloro che hanno risposto no. questi in particolare evidenziano la sostanziale differenza tra le due condizioni, le quali richiedono strumenti, tecniche e approcci specifici (6 casi). per quanto riguarda gli strumenti (item ii.3-4), nella tabella 7 sono presentati i risultati relativi a quelli usati in presenza, mentre nella tabella 8 si possono osservare i risultati relativi agli strumenti usati a distanza quello di gran lunga più utilizzato è stato l’e-mail, sia in presenza (100%) che a distanza (96%). la versatilità di questo strumento l’ha reso utile durante la dad sia per l’assegnazione e la consegna dei compiti, sia per l’invio di avvisi, ma anche, in misura minore, per gli approfondimenti e la valutazione. un altro strumento che ha visto solamente una moderata flessione (−11,5%) dalla didattica in presenza (99%) a quella a distanza (87,5%) sono i libri cartacei, impiegati in dad per l’assegnazione di compiti, per gli approfondimenti e in generale durante le lezioni in diretta. diversamente, youtube ha guadagnato otto punti percentuali nel passaggio dalla didattica in presenza (78%) a quella a distanza (86%). anche questo strumento si è dimostrato molto flessibile in dad: la piattaforma video è stata usata per diversi scopi, in particolare per l’assegnazione di compiti, gli approfondimenti e in generale durante le videolezioni in diretta. tra gli strumenti più usati durante la dad vi sono infine i servizi di cloud (70%), già impiegati in presenza (60%), e utilizzati soprattutto per la consegna dei compiti (51,5%). tra le tre principali piattaforme per le videolezioni in diretta, la meno utilizzata risulta essere stata microsoft team (25%), mentre google meet e zoom condividono un numero molto simile di utenti (47,8% e 48,5%, rispettivamente). il 50,7% dei rispondenti ha segnalato anche l’uso di whatsapp, soprattutto per l’invio di avvisi (27%). infine, tra gli strumenti meno usati durante la dad vi sono obs studio (6,6%), facetime (3,7%) e socloo (1,5%). in generale, non si osservano grandi oscillazioni nell’uso degli strumenti didattici prima e dopo l’avvento della dad, mentre è chiara una predilezione per gli strumenti tradizionali come i libri cartacei e quelli più versatili come i servizi di cloud e di posta elettronica. didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 21 tabella 7 item ii.3: uso degli strumenti didattici in presenza (%) strumenti nessuna lezioni in presenza compiti videolezioni avvisi valutazione approfondimenti in diretta pre registrate audiolibri 55,88 22,79 25,74 2,21 0,74 0,00 0,00 12,50 edmodo 94,85 3,68 2,21 0,00 0,00 0,74 0,00 0,74 e-mail 0,00 10,29 43,38 1,47 2,21 54,41 9,56 16,91 facebook 84,56 3,68 2,94 0,74 0,00 6,62 0,74 5,15 facetime 99,26 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,74 0,00 0,00 google meet 91,91 3,68 2,21 2,94 1,47 0,74 1,47 0,00 jitsi 96,32 2,94 1,47 0,74 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 libri cartacei 0,74 93,38 67,65 18,38 2,21 2,21 13,97 31,62 moodle 61,76 16,91 27,94 3,68 5,88 16,91 14,71 17,65 microsoft teams 91,91 2,94 3,68 1,47 0,00 0,74 0,74 0,00 obs studio 97,06 2,21 0,74 0,00 0,74 0,00 0,00 0,00 raiscuola 67,65 17,65 13,97 3,68 0,74 0,74 2,21 10,29 screen-o-matic 60,29 3,68 3,68 0,74 2,94 1,47 0,74 0,74 servizi di cloud 40,44 41,18 39,71 5,15 1,47 8,09 7,35 17,65 skype 83,82 4,41 4,41 7,35 0,00 2,21 0,74 2,21 socloo 97,06 1,47 2,21 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 weschool 93,38 3,68 4,41 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,74 whatsapp 58,09 9,56 20,59 0,00 1,47 18,38 1,47 4,41 youtube 22,06 56,62 34,56 9,56 5,88 0,74 4,41 29,41 zoom 90,44 2,94 3,68 5,88 1,47 0,74 0,74 0,00 conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 22 tabella 8 item ii.4: uso degli strumenti didattici a distanza (%) nessuna lezioni in presenza compiti videolezioni avvisi valutazione approfondimenti in diretta preregistrate audiolibri 52,21 0,00 33,82 17,65 2,94 0,00 1,47 19,85 edmodo 89,71 0,00 8,82 1,47 2,94 5,15 2,94 2,94 e-mail 3,68 0,00 63,24 11,76 3,68 62,50 19,85 21,32 facebook 88,97 0,00 2,94 2,21 1,47 3,68 0,74 2,94 facetime 96,32 0,00 1,47 1,47 0,74 0,00 0,00 0,74 google meet 52,21 0,00 13,24 45,59 5,15 6,62 10,29 8,82 jitsi 86,03 0,00 3,68 11,76 0,74 1,47 1,47 0,00 libri cartacei 12,50 0,00 69,85 42,65 11,03 2,21 8,09 34,56 moodle 59,56 0,00 30,88 17,65 13,97 19,85 19,12 24,26 microsoft teams 75,00 0,00 9,56 16,91 2,21 6,62 6,62 4,41 obs studio 93,38 0,00 2,94 0,74 2,94 0,74 0,00 0,74 raiscuola 53,68 0,00 23,53 16,18 2,94 0,74 0,74 20,59 screen-o-matic 79,41 0,00 5,15 5,88 11,76 1,47 0,00 2,21 servizi di cloud 30,15 0,00 51,47 31,62 10,29 9,56 11,03 27,94 skype 73,53 0,00 6,62 20,59 1,47 0,74 0,00 0,74 socloo 98,53 0,00 0,74 0,74 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 weschool 87,50 0,00 7,35 8,09 2,21 3,68 4,41 2,94 whatsapp 49,26 0,00 22,06 16,18 2,21 27,21 8,09 4,41 youtube 13,97 0,00 48,53 45,59 12,50 2,21 6,62 46,32 zoom 51,47 0,00 11,03 45,59 5,88 3,68 5,88 8,09 dalle risposte all’item ii.5 emerge che il formato didattico più utilizzato è stato quello della videolezione in diretta con possibilità di interazione tra docente e studenti: la somma dei valori 4 e 5, in cui cinque equivale a molto, è infatti pari al 77%. un numero molto ridotto di rispondenti ha invece fatto ricorso a videolezioni preregistrate, con il 68% delle risposte corrispondenti ai valori 0 (per niente) o 1. altri formati didattici utilizzati con relativa frequenza sono l’assegnazione di attività individuali o di gruppo da svolgere durante la lezione (61%) o di attività di preparazione alla lezione online (47%); lezioni frontali in videoconferenza, videochiamate individuali e assegnazione di attività di gruppo da svolgere fuori dalla lezione sono state invece meno frequenti. come suggeriscono i dati riportati nella tabella 9 relativi ai due gruppi maggiormente rappresentati, tali risultati non sembrano dipendere dall’ordine di scuola dei rispondenti. in particolare, la prossimità delle deviazioni standard suggerisce un’elevata omogeneità delle risposte. le uniche differenze riguardano il ricorso a videoconferenze senza interazione con gli studenti e l’uso di video di terzi, significativamente più frequenti nelle scuole secondarie. pochi i formati didattici altri (ii.6): tra questi, i più menzionati sono il ricorso a piattaforme e software di varia natura (kahoot, microsoft powerpoint, microsoft teams, whatsapp) e la condivisione di slide e altro materiale. didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 23 tabella 9 item ii.5: formati didattici nei principali gruppi di docenti scuola secondaria università mdn sd mdn sd w p r videolezione interattiva 5 1,55 5 1,29 1223,5 0,12 -0,15 videoconferenza 2 1,59 1 1,73 1790,5 0,02* -0,22 videochiamate individuali 1 1,55 2 1,70 1189 0,12 -0.15 attività durante la lezione 4 1,64 4 1,31 1179 0,10 -0,16 attività preparatorie 3 1,59 4 1,67 1225.5 0,19 -0.13 attività individuali 3 1,75 4 1,54 1154.5 0,08 -0,17 videolezioni registrate 0 1,70 0 1,57 1536 0,47 -0,07 uso di video di terzi 3 1,49 2 1,80 1769 0,03* -0,21 attività di gruppo 2 1,80 2 1,86 1535.5 0,51 -0,06 * p < 0,05 per quanto riguarda infine l’item ii.7, la produzione orale è l’abilità che ha più risentito dello spostamento delle lezioni a distanza: il 42,6% dei rispondenti, infatti, ha affermato di essere riuscito a svilupparla di meno rispetto alle lezioni in presenza, al contrario della produzione scritta che sembra averne beneficiato particolarmente (+34,6%). comprensione scritta e orale e competenze culturali (arte e letteratura, usi e tradizioni), invece, non sembrano aver risentito particolarmente della dad: in tutti e quattro i casi, più del 40% dei/delle rispondenti non ha osservato differenze sensibili. l’ultima voce dell’item, relativa alle competenze d’uso linguistico (es., scrivere una lettera di presentazione, contattare il servizio clienti ecc.) appare essere quella più divisiva: percentuali simili di rispondenti hanno notato un miglioramento (34,6%) o un peggioramento (38,2%). 4.1.2. percezione dei docenti in questa sezione vengono analizzate le risposte alla sezione iii del questionario, dedicata alla percezione dei docenti riguardo il modo in cui gli studenti hanno reagito alla dad. come si può osservare dai dati, gli aspetti della didattica che hanno maggiormente risentito dello spostamento delle lezioni online sono stati la partecipazione globale degli studenti, con un peggioramento netto o lieve percepito dal 59% dei rispondenti, e la possibilità di creare una discussione partecipata (56%). i rispondenti, infine, sembrano aver riscontrato maggiori difficoltà nel valutare l’adeguatezza dell’input fornito al livello di competenza degli studenti: questo dato è approfondito da borro e scolaro (2021), che suggeriscono l’utilizzo di input modificato ed elaborato ai fini di aumentare la comprensibilità senza sacrificare la ricchezza del materiale linguistico autentico. in generale, dai dati emerge che gli aspetti dell’apprendimento maggiormente legati all’interazione, all’autonomia e all’iniziativa degli studenti sono stati i più penalizzati. ad aver beneficiato della dad, invece, sono state le interazioni personali con il docente al di fuori delle ore di lezione, probabilmente facilitate dall’uso più intensivo degli strumenti di comunicazione digitale. considerando separatamente i due sotto-campioni principali, i dati nella tabella 10 rivelano alcune differenze significative. come emerge dai risultati del test di wilcoxon, queste riguardano in particolare l’autonomia degli studenti, la possibilità di creare discussioni partecipate e lo svolgimento dei compiti. la tendenza centrale dei docenti di scuola secondaria è stata quella di aver osservato un lieve peggioramento (corrispondente al valore 2 della scala) nella maggior parte degli aspetti considerati; fanno eccezione la frequenza, le comunicazioni al di fuori delle lezioni e lo svolgimento dei compiti, per i quali invece non sono state osservate differenze rispetto alla didattica in presenza (valore 3). all’università, invece, la situazione si è mantenuta sostanzialmente invariata, con l’unica eccezione della possibilità di creare discussioni partecipate, per la quale è stato segnalato un lieve peggioramento. in generale, quindi, le scuole secondarie sembrano aver risentito maggiormente dello spostamento delle lezioni a distanza, mentre nessuno dei due gruppi ha riscontrato evidenti benefici. conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 24 tabella 10 item iii.1: percezione dei principali gruppi di docenti scuola secondaria università mdn sd mdn sd w p r motivazione 2 1,11 3 1,14 1186,5 0,11 −0,15 partecipazione 2 0,98 3 1,30 1220 0,17 −0,13 spontaneità 2 0,92 3 1,15 1129 0,05 −0,18 autonomia 2 0,94 3 1,24 1118 0,04* −0,19 discussione partecipata 2 0,93 2 1,26 1045,5 0,01* −0,24 uso della lingua target 2 1,04 3 1,12 1136 0,06 −0,19 adeguatezza dell’input 2 0,86 3 0,90 1249,5 0,23 −0,16 frequenza 3 0,92 3 1,26 1121 0,05 −0,19 contatti con i docenti 3 1,17 3 1,07 1334.5 0,54 −0,06 svolgimento dei compiti 3 1,10 3 1,06 1103,5 0,03* −0,20 nota: * p < 0,05 infine, 82 informanti hanno risposto all’item iii.2, relativo alla facilità d’uso degli strumenti compensativi per studenti e studentesse con certificazioni bes/dsa. il 33% di questi, la maggior parte, non ha osservato differenze rispetto alla modalità in presenza, mentre il 28% ha notato un lieve miglioramento. gli informanti rimanenti hanno riportato in egual misura un peggioramento lieve o netto (19,5% ciascuno). 4.1.3. feedback i dati di questa sezione riguardano le risposte alla sezione iv del questionario docenti, relativa al feedback. la figura 7 riporta i dati relativi all’item iv.1. come risulta evidente dall’analisi, il feedback tra pari è stato quello meno utilizzato durante la dad: sommando le risposte 0 e 1, risulta infatti che quasi il 50% degli informanti non ne ha mai fatto ricorso o l’ha utilizzato molto raramente. il tipo di feedback impiegato più di frequente è invece il feedback orale immediato durante lo svolgimento delle lezioni: la somma delle risposte 4 e 5 raggiunge infatti il 65%. molto utilizzati anche il feedback scritto e quello generale rivolto a tutta la classe (49% ciascuno), mentre il feedback differito in chiusura di lezione e i feedback orale e scritto personalizzato sono meno frequenti. solo cinque rispondenti hanno segnalato di aver utilizzato altri tipi di feedback (iv.2), come ad esempio l’autovalutazione e il feedback di gruppo attraverso questionari. confrontando questi dati con quelli relativi alle lezioni in presenza (iv.3), si può notare che alcuni tipi di feedback hanno subito evidenti riduzioni. quelle maggiori si osservano per il feedback orale personalizzato e il feedback generale: sommando le risposte 3, 4 e 5, i due tipi riportano un calo di 18 punti percentuali nel primo caso e 13 punti nel secondo. anche il feedback tra pari, che in presenza era impiegato abbastanza frequentemente, frequentemente o molto frequentemente (risposte 3, 4 e 5) dal 47% dei rispondenti, contro il 36% durante la dad (-11%). a distanza vi è stato invece un incremento del feedback differito in chiusura di lezione (+10%) e del feedback scritto personalizzato (+14%). in entrambe le modalità, il tipo di feedback più usato è il feedback orale immediato, pur se con una leggera flessione durante la dad (-8%). si riportano infine i risultati relativi all’item iv.4. sommando le risposte da 0 (per niente d’accordo) a 2 e quelle 3 a 5 (molto d’accordo), emerge che la maggior parte dei rispondenti (70,6%) concorda nel ritenere che durante la dad è stato necessario rimodulare il modo in cui veniva fornito il feedback rispetto alla didattica in presenza, e in generale di aver dedicato al feedback più tempo (67%). il 54,4% dei rispondenti lamenta inoltre che gli studenti sembravano recepire il feedback fornito in misura minore, mentre il 53,7% ritiene che gli strumenti a disposizione non fossero adeguati. in ultimo, il 53,7% dei rispondenti non ha riscontrato particolari difficoltà nel fornire feedback durante le lezioni a distanza. le implicazioni dei dati di questa sezione sono discusse nel contributo di la russa e nuzzo (2021, in. questo numero), le quali suggeriscono attività di peer feedback per incrementare lo sviluppo della consapevolezza metalinguistica, incentivando al contempo l’autonomia degli apprendenti, sia in classe che online. didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 25 4.1.4. valutazione la sezione v del questionario era dedicata alle modalità di valutazione. in questa sede ci si limiterà ad illustrati alcuni dati generali; un’analisi più dettagliata delle risposte pervenute è riportata nel saggio di del bono e bonvino (2021, in questo numero). nel loro studio, le autrici evidenziano come la valutazione delle competenze abbia risentito notevolmente della nuova modalità didattica, in particolare per quel che riguarda l’accertamento dell’autenticità delle prove. per ovviare alle criticità emerse, la loro proposta è quella di valutare le produzioni elicitate attraverso task linguistici applicando le scale dell’adeguatezza funzionale ideate da kuiken e vedder (2017). due informanti hanno affermato di non aver svolto nessuna prova di valutazione; pertanto, le loro risposte non sono state incluse nell’analisi che segue.9 la maggior parte dei rispondenti (68%) ha sottoposto ai propri studenti una prova sia scritta che orale (item v.6); solo una percentuale minore ha optato per una prova solamente scritta (17%) o solamente orale (16%). tali proporzioni si mantengono invariate se si analizzano separatamente le risposte dei docenti universitari e di scuola secondaria, seppure con alcune differenze. come illustrato nella tabella 11, infatti, nella scuola secondaria si è fatto maggior ricorso a prove esclusivamente orali rispetto all’università, sia rispetto ai dati relativi all’intero campione. verosimilmente, un numero maggiore di docenti di medie e superiori ha ritenuto più attuabile una valutazione cumulativa basata sulle performance orali degli studenti durante tutto il corso delle lezioni (interrogazioni ecc.; cf. del bono & bonvino, in preparazione). in ogni caso, codificando con 1 le prove scritte, con 2 le prove combinate scritto-orale, e con 3 le prove orali, la differenza tra i due sottocampioni non è significativa, come suggerito dai risultati del test di wilcoxon: w = 1592; p = 0,21 (> 0,05); r = 0,12. tabella 11 item v.6: prove di valutazione scritta (%) scritta e orale (%) orale (%) mdn sd scuola secondaria 14,81 62,96 22,22 2 0,61 università 13,21 79,25 7,55 2 0,46 la tabella 12, infine, riporta le percentuali delle risposte fornite all’ v.8, relativo agli strumenti usati per la valutazione. come si può osservare, gli strumenti di gran lunga più utilizzati sono stati domande aperte e domande a scelta multipla, entrambe impiegate nella maggior parte dei casi per valutare le conoscenze sia linguistiche che metalinguistiche e la comprensione sia scritta che orale. le domande aperte sono state lo strumento principale per valutare anche la produzione scritta; per la produzione orale, invece, si è fatto ricorso prevalentemente a monologhi e role-play, in misura minore a presentazioni orali individuali. le abilità interazionali sono tra quelle meno valutate, in particolare l’interazione scritta, per la quale il 30,9% dei rispondenti ha affermato di non aver usato nessuno strumento di valutazione. per quest’ultima abilità, sono stati usati principalmente chat e forum, seguiti con distacco dalle domande aperte; per misurare l’interazione orale si è invece fatto ricorso principalmente a role-play. in generale, come è facile prevedere da quanto descritto finora, le domande aperte sono state lo strumento mediamente più utilizzato (39,5%), mentre i progetti di gruppo risultano essere lo strumento di valutazione meno usato (12,6%): probabilmente, su questo dato hanno influito le ovvie difficoltà per gli studenti di incontrarsi e coordinarsi durante il periodo pandemico. leggermente più utilizzate dei progetti di gruppo sono invece le presentazioni orali individuali, a cui si è fatto ricorso in media nel 14,5% dei casi. poche le abilità e i relativi strumenti altri segnalati nell’item v.9. si tratta principalmente di conoscenze (inter)culturali (3 casi), valutate attraverso chat e forum, cloze test, domande aperte e a scelta multipla, roleplay, progetti di gruppo o individuali e testi scritti. altri strumenti riportati sono le app e i software integrabili nelle piattaforme utilizzate per la didattica a distanza. si segnalano infine due docenti che dichiarano di aver fatto ricorso al dialogo libero, ritenuto meno inibitorio per gli studenti costretti ad interagire di fronte ad uno schermo. 9 nessuno dei due informanti fa parte dei sottogruppi principali (università o scuola secondaria). conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 26 tabella 12 item v.8: strumenti di valutazione (%) conoscenze comprensione produzione interazione linguistiche metalinguistiche scritta orale scritta orale scritta orale nessuna 2,99 11,94 7,46 5,97 7,46 6,72 29,85 10,45 role-play 26,87 20,90 5,97 26,87 4,48 40,30 5,22 43,28 monologhi 23,88 15,67 2,99 16,42 5,97 45,52 5,97 8,96 chat/forum 20,90 20,90 14,18 11,94 26,12 13,43 38,81 18,66 cloze 38,06 11,94 29,85 16,42 13,43 2,24 10,45 5,97 domande aperte 58,21 38,81 47,76 46,27 43,28 30,60 20,15 29,10 scelta multipla 50,75 26,12 54,48 43,28 16,42 6,72 17,16 4,48 presentaz. orali 22,39 11,19 3,73 15,67 2,24 35,82 5,22 20,90 lavori di gruppo 14,18 11,94 5,97 10,45 11,19 22,39 10,45 15,67 testi scritti 30,60 8,96 34,33 2,24 41,04 2,24 17,91 1,49 4.2. questionario studenti in questa sezione si analizzano i dati della seconda parte dei questionari studenti (scuole secondarie e università), ad eccezione dell’item ii.9. questo sarà il punto di partenza per il contributo di fiorenza (in preparazione), che si concentra in particolare sull’abilità di ascolto e sulle strategie per trasferire il successo riscontrato durante la dad nei contesti in presenza. sommando la percentuale delle risposte 0, 1 e 2 (corrispondenti a una bassa frequenza) da un lato, e delle risposte 3, 4, e 5 (corrispondenti a un’alta frequenza) dall’altro, emerge che gli strumenti meno usati per le lezioni a distanza (item ii.4) sono stati computer fisso e tablet. questi dati si riscontrano sia nelle scuole secondarie (90% di risposte 0, 1 e 2 per il computer fisso, 85% per il tablet) che nelle università (91% e 90% rispettivamente). computer portatile e smartphone, invece, sono stati usati con una frequenza simile nelle scuole secondarie (47% e 41% di risposte 3, 4 e 5, rispettivamente); all’università, al contrario, è stato usato soprattutto il computer portatile (60% di risposte 3, 4 e 5), mentre solamente il 27% degli informanti ha segnalato di aver usato frequentemente lo smartphone. nelle tabelle 13-14 sono riportati i dati dell’item ii.5 corrispondente all’item ii.4 del questionario docenti. in generale, questi dati non si discostano molto da quelli forniti dagli insegnanti (v. § 4.1.1). come si può osservare, tra gli strumenti maggiormente usati in entrambi gli ordini di scuola vi sono i libri cartacei, sebbene in misura maggiore nelle scuole secondarie. questi sono stati impiegati soprattutto per i compiti e per gli approfondimenti, oltre che per le videolezioni in diretta presso le scuole secondarie. all’università si osserva un uso più consistente di moodle e di microsoft teams, mentre la piattaforma usata più frequentemente alle scuole secondarie è stata zoom. infine, in entrambi gli ordini di scuola si è fatto largo ricorso alle e-mail, soprattutto per l’invio di compiti e avvisi, mentre altri strumenti di comunicazione sono stati utilizzati meno di frequente, in particolare whatsapp e facebook. didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 27 tabella 13 item ii.5: strumenti e attività nella scuola secondaria (%) nessuna compiti videolezioni avvisi valutazione approfondimenti in diretta pre-registrate edmodo 99,07 0,93 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 e-mail 21,50 55,14 11,21 0,00 28,04 6,54 12,15 facebook 100,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 google meet 79,44 4,67 13,08 0,00 0,00 8,41 6,54 libri cartacei 4,67 64,49 47,66 4,67 0,00 7,48 26,17 moodle 80,37 16,82 11,21 7,48 7,48 8,41 10,28 microsoft teams 96,26 3,74 0,93 0,93 0,00 0,00 0,93 microsoft words 52,34 39,25 14,02 0,00 0,93 6,54 13,08 raiscuola 99,07 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,93 servizi di cloud 63,55 28,97 10,28 0,93 2,80 1,87 6,54 skype 81,31 3,74 12,15 0,00 2,80 2,80 0,00 weschool 97,20 0,00 0,00 0,00 2,80 0,00 0,00 whatsapp 67,29 22,43 4,67 1,87 10,28 7,48 2,80 youtube 63,55 17,76 8,41 0,93 2,80 1,87 8,41 zoom 20,56 31,78 70,09 9,35 9,35 10,28 18,69 tabella 14 item ii.5: strumenti e attività nelle università (%) nessuna compiti videolezioni avvisi valutazione approfondimenti in diretta pre-registrate edmodo 85,07 13,43 5,97 0,00 11,19 2,99 4,48 e-mail 12,69 33,58 11,94 4,48 70,90 27,61 17,16 facebook 85,07 6,72 0,75 0,75 11,19 2,24 2,99 google meet 81,34 2,99 17,91 1,49 0,75 2,24 4,48 libri cartacei 32,84 44,78 23,88 1,49 0,75 4,48 26,87 moodle 32,84 54,48 5,22 8,96 33,58 21,64 26,12 microsoft teams 29,10 18,66 58,96 7,46 18,66 26,87 9,70 microsoft words 52,99 40,30 5,97 1,49 2,99 0,75 8,96 raiscuola 97,76 2,24 0,75 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,75 servizi di cloud 75,37 20,90 0,75 0,00 1,49 1,49 5,22 skype 84,33 2,99 10,45 0,00 0,75 2,24 1,49 weschool 97,76 2,24 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,75 whatsapp 90,30 5,22 0,75 0,00 4,48 1,49 0,75 youtube 83,58 1,49 2,24 0,00 0,00 0,75 11,94 zoom 41,79 14,93 52,24 5,22 6,72 6,72 4,48 conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 28 l’item ii.6 era volto ad indagare il tipo di partecipazione consentito agli studenti. la tabella 15 riporta le tendenze centrali e le differenze tra i due campioni di studenti. complessivamente, il caso più raro è stato quello in cui agli studenti veniva richiesto di disattivare sia il microfono che la webcam (78% di risposte “mai” o “qualche volta”), mentre quello più frequente è stato quello di far mantenere loro entrambi gli strumenti attivi (44% di risposte “spesso” e “sempre”). dai dati nella tabella 15 emergono inoltre alcune differenze significative tra università e scuole secondarie: in queste ultime, è stato spesso richiesto di attivare sia la webcam che il microfono, al contrario dell’università in cui veniva richiesto più di frequente di disattivare entrambi. tabella 15 item ii.6: modalità di partecipazione scuola secondaria università mdn sd mdn sd w p r webcam 1 1,15 1 0,88 10022 0,001* -0,36 microfono 1 1,06 1 0,98 6692,5 0,356 -0,06 entrambi 2 1,02 1 1,05 9158,5 0,001* -0,25 nessuno 0 0,57 1 1,01 4691,5 0,001* -0,32 * p < 0,01 passando invece alle condizioni ambientali (ii.7), la connessione internet non sembra aver condizionato particolarmente la qualità delle lezioni a distanza, né per gli studenti di scuola secondaria (41%), né per gli universitari (40%). questi ultimi hanno comunque risentito di più dei problemi di connessione: il 36,6%, infatti, segnala che questa ha avuto un’influenza negativa, rispetto al 28% del gruppo delle secondarie. l’ambiente circostante ha avuto un impatto positivo per gli studenti di medie e superiori (54%), meno per gli universitari: il 27,6% ha infatti dichiarato che questo ha influenzato negativamente le lezioni, contro il solo 10,3% dell’altro gruppo. infine, solo il 17% degli studenti delle scuole secondarie ha risentito della condivisione dei dispositivi (computer, tablet ecc.) con gli altri membri della famiglia; il 54,5% degli studenti universitari, invece, ha scelto come risposta ‘non si applica al mio caso’, probabilmente perché gli informanti di questo gruppo possiedono un dispositivo personale dal quale hanno seguito le lezioni. l’item ii.8, parallelo al ii.5 del questionario docenti, riguardava i tipi di attività svolti durante la dad. a conferma di quanto già visto con i docenti, il formato didattico utilizzato più di frequente è stato quello della videolezione interattiva (71%). contrariamente da quanto indicato dagli insegnanti (v. § 4.1.1), invece, le videochiamate individuali sono state segnalate come il formato usato più di rado (87%). a queste fanno seguito le videolezioni preregistrate, le attività di gruppo e l’uso di video di terzi. dai dati nella tabella 16 emergono alcune differenze significative tra i due campioni. le attività preparatorie sono state più frequenti all’università, mentre videolezioni preregistrate, attività di gruppo e videochiamate individuali sono state più frequenti nelle scuole secondarie. quest’ultimo dato è l’opposto rispetto a quello emerso nel questionario docenti (§ 4.1.1) in cui si ipotizzava che la possibilità di frequentare il ricevimento avesse determinato un maggior ricorso alle videochiamante individuali. tale discrepanza può essere dovuta alla variabilità naturale del campione; in alternativa, è possibile che gli studenti universitari non abbiano preso in considerazione l’orario di ricevimento nel rispondere ai quesiti. didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 29 tabella 16 item ii.8: formati didattici scuola secondaria università mdn sd mdn sd w p r videolezione interattiva 5 1,36 5 1,50 6983 0,70 -0,02 videoconferenza 4 1,49 4 1,82 7384 0,68 -0,03 videochiamate individuali 0 1,22 0 0,96 7994,5 0,04* -0,13 attività durante la lezione 3 1,66 4 1,76 6277,5 0,09 -0,11 attività preparatorie 2 1,69 4 1,87 5653 0,01* -0,18 attività individuali 4 1,49 3 1,90 8367 0,02 -0,15 videolezioni registrate 2 2,05 0 1,61 10155 0,01* -0,39 uso di video di terzi 2 1,60 1 1,71 8659,5 0,01* -0,18 attività di gruppo 1 1,70 0 1,95 8185 0,05* -0,13 * p < 0,05 i dati riguardanti la valutazione delle competenze (ii.10) sono riportati nella tabella 17. seguendo lo stesso procedimento utilizzato per l’analisi dell’item v.6 del questionario docenti (§ 4.1.4), le prove scritte sono state codificate con 1, quelle sia scritte che orali con 2, e quelle solamente orali con 3. anche in questo caso, le prove sono state in prevalenza sia scritte che orali, con una differenza non significativa tra i due ordini di scuola: w = 7047; p = 0,78 (> 0,05); r = -0,02. tabella 17 item ii.10: modalità di valutazione scritta (%) scritta e orale (%) orale (%) mdn sd scuola secondaria 21,50 61,68 16,82 2 0,62 università 13,43 76,12 10,45 2 0,49 sommando le risposte 2 e 3 dell’item ii.11, emerge che le prove sono consistite principalmente in esercizi di grammatica (64%), interrogazioni orali (56%) e comprensione di testi scritti (53%). sommando invece le risposte 0 e 1, si osserva che gli esercizi meno utilizzati sono stati invece quelli di ascolto (68%), dato sorprendente considerato che l’abilità di ascolto risulta quella maggiormente sviluppata (v. fiorenza, in preparazione). questi sono seguiti da testi da scrivere (64%) e dialoghi da completare (56%). come si può osservare nella tabella 18, scuole secondarie e università differiscono nell’uso di comprensione di testi scritti, dialoghi da completare e testi da scrivere, significativamente più frequenti all’università, nonostante, in generale, queste tipologie di valutazione siano mediamente poco usate. di nuovo molto limitato il numero dei formati valutativi ‘altri’ (item ii.11.1): tra questi il più citato è quello della traduzione (7 casi). conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 30 tabella 18 item ii.11: prove di valutazione scuola secondaria università mdn sd mdn sd w p r esercizi di grammatica 2 0,95 2 1,07 6384 0,13 -0,10 comprensione di testi scritti 1 0,90 2 1,06 5472 0,01* -0,21 dialoghi da completare 1 0,94 1 1,14 8452 0,01* -0,16 testi da scrivere 1 0,73 2 1,19 5136 0,01* -0,25 esercizi di ascolto 1 0,92 1 1,09 6885 0,58 -0,04 interrogazioni orali 1 0,96 2 1,11 6817 0,50 -0,04 testi da completare 1 0,95 2 1,13 7196 0,96 -0,01 * p < 0,05 in ultimo, come accennato, l’item ii.12 riprendeva la sezione iii del questionario docenti (§ 4.1.3). secondo la percezione generale degli studenti, a risentire di più dello spostamento delle attività a distanza sono stati il confronto e l’uso della l2 fra pari (54% e 63%, rispettivamente), e in proporzione minore (49%) il mantenimento della concentrazione. secondo gli studenti, anche la consapevolezza degli insegnanti riguardo al grado di partecipazione degli studenti (se avessero capito, se stessero seguendo ecc.) ha avuto delle ricadute negative nella dad (-45%). nessuna voce, invece, registra un miglioramento sensibile, mentre il grado di interesse, l’uso della l2 con l’insegnante, il feedback, l’adeguatezza dell’input, lo svolgimento dei compiti e l’adeguatezza del carico di lavoro non sembrano aver subito variazioni rispetto alla didattica in presenza. la tabella 19 riporta i dati relativi al confronto tra i due campioni. a quanto emerge, gli unici aspetti per cui si registra una differenza statisticamente significativa sono il confronto con l’insegnante e la consapevolezza di questo riguardo al grado di partecipazione degli studenti. in entrambi i casi, sembrerebbe che ad aver risentito di più siano stati gli studenti universitari; invece, gli studenti di scuola superiore, in media, non hanno avvertito differenze rispetto alla didattica in presenza. tabella 19 item ii.12: percezione degli studenti scuola secondaria università mdn sd mdn sd w p r interesse 2 0,71 2 0,66 7148 0,97 -0,01 concentrazione 1 0,87 2 0,77 7241 0,89 -0,01 confronto con l’insegnante 2 0,74 2 0,74 8177 0,04* -0,13 confronto fra pari 1 0,72 1 0,81 6660,5 0,30 -0,07 uso della l2 con l’insegnante 2 0,67 2 0,70 6389,5 0,11 -0,10 uso della l2 fra pari 1 0,54 1 0,67 6478,5 0,13 -0,10 feedback 2 0,66 2 0,64 6912 0,59 -0,03 comprensione del feedback 2 0,60 2 0,64 7342 0,71 -0,02 adeguatezza dell’input 2 0,56 2 0,55 6726,5 0,31 -0,07 frequenza 2 0,61 2 0,68 6822 0,47 -0,05 contatti con i docenti 2 0,81 2 0,75 6522,5 0,20 -0,08 svolgimento compiti 2 0,56 2 0,62 6668 0,28 -0,07 adeguatezza del carico di studio 2 0,50 2 0,62 7315 0,74 -0,02 consapevolezza dell'insegnante 2 0,70 1 0,69 8813 0,01* -0,22 nota: * p < 0.05 didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 31 4.3. commenti in questa sezione si fa una breve sintesi delle risposte pervenute alla sezione vi del questionario docenti e all’item ii.16 del questionario studenti. i pochi commenti degli studenti delle scuole secondarie (8 in tutto) esprimono per lo più scontento nei confronti della dad. due informanti sottolineano che “non si riesce a imparare una lingua straniera con la modalità dad”, altri esprimono una generale preferenza per le lezioni in presenza. i motivi sono vari: la socializzazione con i compagni, le difficoltà di concentrazione e il mancato contatto diretto con l’insegnante (“se ho bisogno di fare domande l'insegnante ti sente e ti aiuta di più a capire quello che si è chiesto, mentre da casa è più complicato”). anche tra gli studenti universitari, solo un numero ridotto di rispondenti ha fornito commenti aggiuntivi (14 in tutto). come tra gli studenti delle secondarie, anche in questo caso i commenti esprimono per lo più scontento dovuto a al bisogno di contatto con gli insegnanti e l’inadeguatezza della dad per l’apprendimento delle lingue: il seguente commento è rappresentativo del sentire generale: “lo studio della lingua a distanza non si presa [sic.] all’apprendimento in quanto per migliorare la qualità della connessione a teams, noi studenti tenevamo microfono e telecamera spenti, perciò le docenti non erano in grado di capire al volo chi avesse difficoltà a seguire e magari non si esponeva per timidezza. sento di aver perso un semestre cruciale di lezione”. gli universitari sottolineano anche che il carico di lavoro a distanza è stato maggiore rispetto alle lezioni in presenza; la dad, inoltre, è stata considerata “nociva” per la motivazione. un rispondente riporta che “l'unico problema nell'imparare una lingua attraverso la dad è l'ascolto. diventa difficile riuscire a sincronizzare tutti i computer. quindi bisogna farlo da soli. inoltre, questo penalizza anche il parlato perché il docente tende a fare meno domande”. altri disagi segnalati sono relativi all’ambiente in cui si seguivano le lezioni e alla condivisione dei dispositivi per connettersi e, più in generale, al senso di disorientamento dovuto alla difficoltà nell’elaborazione della situazione in corso (“il mondo esterno viveva una apocalisse mentre io continuavo a studiare per inserirmi, lavorativamente parlando, in una società che non esisteva più”). per quanto riguarda infine gli insegnanti, coloro che hanno lasciato dei commenti aggiuntivi sono in tutto 29. rispetto agli studenti, le risposte dei docenti sono più misurate, bilanciando giudizi sia positivi che negativi. tra gli aspetti positivi, alcuni hanno apprezzato la dad per la possibilità di esplorare nuovi strumenti e fornire feedback personalizzato, altri hanno lodato la risposta dei propri studenti, altri ancora segnalano che “la didattica a distanza può funzionare bene e garantire maggiore flessibilità”; infine c’è chi fa notare che la distanza ha comportato un calo delle inibizioni, incoraggiando anche gli studenti più restii a interagire usando la lingua straniera. tra gli aspetti negativi, invece, vengono segnalate le difficoltà tecniche, sia da parte dei docenti che da parte degli studenti, e l’ingente dispendio di tempo ed energie per prendere familiarità con i nuovi strumenti didattici e nella preparazione delle lezioni. un altro aspetto negativo spesso segnalato è legato all’aspetto motivazionale e partecipativo degli studenti. si fa notare, in particolare, che la dad “è stata uno strumento fantastico per ragazzi seri e motivati. per quelli che invece devono essere sollecitati è stata un vero disastro” e che “ascolto, pronuncia e interazione orale degli studenti peggiorano molto”. infine, è stata sentita l’assenza degli aspetti che caratterizzano l’interazione faccia a faccia, come la prossemica e il riferimento al contesto extralinguistico. non mancano ovviamente quelli che sarsini (2020) definisce ‘apocalittici’, che vedono cioè la dad come “una barbarie foriera solo di distruzione” (p. 9). cioè nonostante, il seguente commento riassume bene l’opinione generale dei docenti: secondo il/la rispondente, con opportuni adeguamenti “la dad può essere utilizzata in modo complementare, manca però l'interazione vera tra le parti, discente/docente o pari, e non è affidabile per una valutazione seria dell'acquisizione di contenuti. può essere molto utile per il feedback delle competenze e per il lavoro autonomo degli studenti”. 5. discussione, implicazioni e conclusioni i dati emersi dall’indagine confermano molte delle tendenze già evidenziate nei precedenti studi sull’esperienza della dad. in generale, si nota anche nella didattica delle lingue una prevalenza di modalità didattiche teacher-led e una diffusa tendenza ad adattare all’ambiente digitale strategie e metodi didattici e di valutazione già consolidati in presenza. ciò è sicuramente dovuto al carattere improvviso delle misure emergenziali, che ha fornito poco margine per un ripensamento della didattica verso modalità che sfruttassero appieno il nuovo ambiente educativo. già lucisano (2020) ha osservato come situazioni di crisi portano ad conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 32 adottare modalità più sperimentate e padroneggiate, le quali rispondono ai modelli tradizionali di insegnamento a cui gli insegnanti sono stati maggiormente esposti. la sperimentazione di percorsi didattici innovativi richiede invece “condizioni di sicurezza e di padronanza degli strumenti che non era evidentemente disponibile nella fase di emergenza” (p. 11). il mantenimento della dad di modalità uguali è simili a quelle della didattica tradizionale è emerso anche nell’insegnamento delle lingue: fragai et al. (2020) giustificano tale scelta con il maggior livello di familiarità che gli studenti hanno con le modalità utilizzate in presenza, in particolare per quel che riguarda la valutazione. tuttavia, non è da escludere il possibile ruolo della generale ‘resistenza al cambiamento’, evidenziata nel report indire (2020a, p. 8), resistenza che storicamente caratterizza la scuola e gli insegnanti. in particolare, si è visto come anche nella didattica delle lingue i libri cartacei abbiano mantenuto il loro primato indiscusso di strumenti didattici per eccellenza. gli strumenti digitali più usati, oltre alle piattaforme necessarie per svolgere le videolezioni, sono stati quelli più versatili che e garantissero l’immediatezza delle comunicazioni e dello scambio di materiale, come e-mail e servizi di cloud. il tema degli strumenti e delle pratiche didattiche in ambienti sia digitali che in presenza è ripreso in maniera più esaustiva nel contributo di fazio e cremasco (2021, in questo volume). un altro interessante dato che emerge dalle risposte ai questionari è che produzione orale e interazione con docenti e tra pari sono state le abilità che hanno più risentito dello spostamento delle lezioni online. tale dato contraddice quanto riscontrato in indagini precedenti: fragai et al. (2020), ad esempio, osservano che l’attività linguistica maggiormente enfatizzata dai docenti parte del campione interrogato è stata la produzione/interazione orale. tuttavia, come sottolineato dalle stesse autrici, tale risultato va attribuito specificatamente alla predilezione personale dei partecipanti all’indagine (p. 53). si noti, inoltre, che nello stesso studio i rispondenti hanno manifestato difficoltà diffuse nella gestione dell’interazione e dei turni. in generale, come osserva sarsini (2020, p. 10), “la comunicazione mediata dal computer limita le capacità di collaborazione e di partecipazione attiva alla vita sociale e collettiva”: considerata la centralità della componente interattiva nell’acquisizione linguistica (long, 1996), tale aspetto ha certamente penalizzato in maniera significativa la didattica delle lingue. l’analisi restituisce un quadro globale di estrema omogeneità tra università e scuole secondarie, omogeneità che si riscontra sia nel questionario studenti, sia nel questionario docenti, con poche, sporadiche differenze significative riguardanti i formati didattici e la risposta degli studenti secondo la percezione degli insegnanti. in generale, si è osservato che agli studenti di scuola secondaria è stato richiesto più di frequente di attivare sia la webcam che il microfono. tale differenza probabilmente è dovuta a una più sentita esigenza di sorveglianza rispetto all’università, ma ciò non ha necessariamente portato a un incremento delle possibilità di interazione: come si è visto, i docenti di medie e superiori hanno riscontrato un lieve peggioramento nell’autonomia delle interazioni fra pari e nella possibilità di creare discussioni partecipate. a questo punto, va ribadito come il campione analizzato non può essere considerato rappresentativo dell’attività didattica in italia durante la pandemia. in particolare, è noto che i web-based surveys risentono problemi di sample error, dovuti a “noncoverage, nonresponse errors, confidentiality concerns, and technical problems” (sills & song, 2002, p. 22): tali criticità, di cui certamente soffre il presente studio, giocano tutte a detrimento della generalizzabilità dei risultati. la scelta dello snowballing sampling come principale modalità di raccolta dei dati ha sicuramente condizionato i dati raccolti. tuttavia, tale modalità è stata ritenuta la più attuabile considerata la situazione contingente. lo studio, inoltre, non ha pretese di rappresentatività; piuttosto, come più volte evidenziato, vuole essere uno spunto di riflessione sulle sfide poste dalla crisi sanitaria e sui benefici che da essa possano scaturire, e da queste basi stimolare un ripensamento della didattica delle lingue straniere indipendentemente dal contesto di apprendimento. simili riflessioni sono state sviluppate più approfonditamente nei contributi di borro e scolaro (2021, in questo numero), cremasco e fazio (2021, in questo numero), del bono e bonvino (2021, in questo numero), fiorenza (in preparazione), e la russa e nuzzo (2021, in questo numero). in conclusione, è bene sottolineare che, con la crisi pandemica ancora in corso, quella della didattica a distanza è ancora una situazione in divenire, resa ancora più instabile dai continui cambi di rotta dovuti alle oscillazioni della linea dei contagi. ciò nonostante, docenti e studenti sembrano aver reagito prontamente alle sfide poste dalla dad: la speranza è che tali sfide abbiano favorito una presa di coscienza critica sulla didattica come l’abbiamo concepita fino ad oggi, aprendo a nuovi scenari e nuove opportunità. didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 33 ringraziamenti l’autore ringrazia i membri del graal che hanno curato la realizzazione e l’analisi delle diverse sezioni dei questionari, e in particolare (in ordine alfabetico): elisabetta bonvino (università degli studi roma tre), ilaria borro (university of portsmouth), diego cortés velásquez (università degli studi roma tre), claudia cremasco (academic initiative abroad), federica del bono (università degli studi roma tre, “sapienza” università di roma), alessandra fazio (università degli studi di roma foro italico), elisa fiorenza (università degli studi roma tre), francesca la russa (università bordeaux montaigne, università degli studi roma tre), elena nuzzo (università degli studi roma tre), francesca pagliara (“sapienza” università di roma, università degli studi roma tre) e silvia scolaro (università ca’ foscari venezia). eventuali errori e inesattezze vanno attribuiti esclusivamente a chi scrive. riferimenti bibliografici amin, fakhrurrazi m., & sundari, hanna (2020). efl students’ preference on digital platforms during emergency remote teaching: video conference, lms, or messenger application? studies in english language and education, 7(2), 362-378. balboni, paolo e. 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(2000). survey research. in harry t. reis & charles m. judd (a cura di), handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 223-252). cambridge university press. wang-szilas, jue, & bellassen, joël (2017). design, implementation and reflection on the introductory chinese mooc kit de contact en langue chinoise. journal of modernization of chinese language education, 6(1), 31-41. conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 36 appendice a insegnare le lingue a distanza — questionario docenti sezione i. informazioni sul docente e sul corso lo scopo di questa sezione è raccogliere informazioni generali sul docente e sul corso. i dati saranno utilizzati esclusivamente per fini di ricerca. nessun dato sensibile verrà conservato o diffuso a terzi. proseguendo nella compilazione, acconsente all'utilizzo per fini statistici dei dati inseriti. i.1. è la prima volta che compila questo questionario? ● sì ● no i.2. di che genere è? ● f ● m i.3. quanti anni ha? ● meno di 35 ● 35-45 ● 46-55 ● più di 55 i.4. qual è la sua lingua madre (se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● italiano ● francese ● inglese ● spagnolo ● tedesco ● altro (specificare) i.5. da quanti anni insegna? ● meno di 5 ● 5-10 ● 11-15 ● più di 15 i.6. in che ordine di scuola insegna (se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● primaria ● secondaria di i grado ● secondaria di ii grado ● università ● altro (specificare) i.7. qual è la sua posizione (se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● collaboratore esperto linguistico ● docente curricolare titolare ● docente curricolare supplente ● docente di sostegno titolare ● docente di sostegno supplente ● docente universitario a contratto ● professore associato ● professore ordinario ● ricercatore ● altro (specificare) didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 37 i.8. in che tipologia di scuola insegna? i.9. che lingua insegna (se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● francese ● inglese ● italiano per stranieri ● spagnolo ● tedesco ● altro (specificare) i.10. regolarmente, quante ore curricolari settimanali avrebbe previsto il suo corso? ● meno di 2 ● 2-4 ● più di 4 i.11. qual è la durata complessiva del corso (se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● mensile ● trimestrale ● quadrimestrale ● semestrale ● annuale ● altro (specificare) i.12. qual è il livello del corso? ● alfabetizzazione (pre-a1) ● elementare (livelli a1-a2 del qcer) ● intermedio (livelli b1-b2 del qcer) ● avanzato (livelli c1-c2 del qcer) i.13. qual è il numero medio degli studenti del corso? ● meno di 10 ● 10-15 ● 15-20 ● 20-25 ● più di 25 i.14. in condizioni di normalità, i suoi studenti seguono il corso nel paese in cui si parla la lingua insegnata? ● sì ● no i.15. in riferimento alla domanda precedente, questa condizione è cambiata a seguito dell’emergenza sanitaria? ● sì ● no ii.16. col dpcm dell’8 aprile n. 22 il ministero ha reso obbligatoria la dad per tutti i docenti. per quali dei seguenti aspetti il suo istituto ha fornito indicazioni specifiche riguardo l’insegnamento delle lingue (è possibile selezionare più opzioni; se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● strumenti informatici per l’insegnamento ● strumenti informatici per la comunicazione con gli studenti ● modalità didattica (es. sincrona/asincrona) ● ore da dedicare alle lezioni ● valutazione ● gestione dei contenuti ● strumenti dispensativi e compensativi per studenti con bes ● formazione dei docenti conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 38 ● nessuno dei precedenti ● altro (specificare) sezione ii. strumenti e attività le domande di questa sezione hanno lo scopo di rilevare gli strumenti e i formati didattici usati prima e dopo la dad, nonché le abilità e le competenze maggiormente sviluppate durante la dad. ii.1. ritiene che i materiali adottati per la didattica in presenza siano risultati adeguati per la dad? ● sì ● no ● in parte ii.2. se nella domanda precedente ha risposto ‘no’ o ‘in parte’, specificare ii.3. prima di iniziare la dad, per quali attività utilizzava principalmente i seguenti strumenti (è possibile selezionare più opzioni per ogni riga)? nessuna lezioni in presenza compiti videolezioni avvisi valutazione approfondimenti in diretta preregistrate audiolibri ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ edmodo ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ e-mail ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ facebook ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ facetime ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ google meet ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ jitsi ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ libri cartacei ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ moodle ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ microsoft teams ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ obs studio ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ raiscuola ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ screen-o-matic ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ servizi di cloud ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ skype ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ socloo ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ weschool ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ whatsapp ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ youtube ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ zoom ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.4. nella dad, per quali attività utilizza o ha utilizzato principalmente i seguenti strumenti (è possibile selezionare più opzioni per ogni riga)? nessuna lezioni in presenza compiti videolezioni avvisi valutazione approfondimenti in diretta preregistrate audiolibri ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ edmodo ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ e-mail ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ facebook ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ facetime ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 39 google meet ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ jitsi ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ libri cartacei ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ moodle ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ microsoft teams ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ obs studio ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ raiscuola ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ screen-o-matic ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ servizi di cloud ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ skype ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ socloo ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ weschool ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ whatsapp ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ youtube ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ zoom ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.5. nella dad, quanto fa o ha fatto ricorso ai seguenti formati didattici? 0 (per niente) 1 2 3 4 5 (molto) l’insegnante tiene una videolezione in diretta interagendo con gli studenti. ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante tiene una lezione frontale in videoconferenza. ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante effettua videochiamate individuali con gli studenti. ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ durante la lezione, l’insegnante fa svolgere agli studenti attività individuali o di gruppo. ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante assegna attività di preparazione alla lezione online, poi fornisce un feedback durante la videolezione. ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante assegna attività da svolgere autonomamente. se emergono domande, gli studenti possono contattare il docente. ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante registra delle videolezioni in cui spiega i punti principali del tema del giorno. ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante assegna dei video legati all’argomento del giorno recuperati da fonti esterne. ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante assegna attività da svolgere in gruppi. gli studenti si organizzano autonomamente e poi inviano i risultati al docente. ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ altro ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.6. se nella domanda precedente ha selezionato ‘altro’, specificare ii.7. in confronto con la didattica in presenza, quanto è riuscito a sviluppare le seguenti abilità e competenze nella dad? non si applica al mio caso = + produzione scritta ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ produzione orale ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 40 comprensione scritta ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ comprensione orale ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ competenze culturali: letteratura e altre espressioni artistiche ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ competenze culturali: usi e tradizioni dei popoli che parlano la lingua target ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ competenze d’uso linguistico (es. redigere una lettera di presentazioni, contattare il servizio clienti, aprire un conto in banca ecc.) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ sezione iii. la risposta degli studenti alla dad: la percezione dei docenti lo scopo di questa sezione è rilevare la percezione che i docenti hanno riguardo alla risposta degli studenti coinvolti nella dad. iii.1. rispetto alla didattica in presenza, in che misura ha percepito una differenza relativamente ai seguenti aspetti? netto peggioramento lieve peggioramento nessuna differenza lieve miglioramento netto miglioramento motivazione verso la proposta didattica ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ partecipazione globale ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ spontaneità degli interventi in risposta agli stimoli didattici ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ autonomia nell'interazione fra pari ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ possibilità di creare una discussione partecipata ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ uso della lingua target come lingua veicolare per interagire fra pari e/o con l’insegnante ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ possibilità di capire se l’input è adatto al livello degli apprendenti ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ frequenza ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ contatti personali con il docente al di fuori delle lezioni (richieste di chiarimento, giustificazione assenze ecc.) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ svolgimento dei compiti assegnati ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ iii.2. se al suo corso partecipano o hanno partecipato studenti con bes, in che misura ha percepito una differenza nella facilità d'uso degli strumenti compensativi? ● netto peggioramento ● lieve peggioramento ● nessuna differenza ● lieve miglioramento ● netto miglioramento sezione iv. feedback lo scopo di questa sezione è rilevare le tecniche adottate per fornire feedback agli studenti durante la dad e come queste siano cambiate rispetto alla didattica in presenza. iv.1. nella dad, in che misura utilizza o ha utilizzato i seguenti tipi di feedback? didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 41 0 (per niente) 1 2 3 4 5 (molto) feedback orale durante le lezioni ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback scritto differito in chiusura di lezione ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback scritto (es. tramite strumenti di revisione che permettono di modificare e inserire commenti nel testo) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback scritto (es. tramite strumenti di revisione che permettono di modificare e inserire commenti nel testo) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback personalizzato scritto per ogni studente ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback generale a tutti gli studenti ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback tra pari ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ altro ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ iv.2. 4.2 se nella domanda precedente ha selezionato ‘altro’, specificare iv.3. nella didattica in presenza, in che misura utilizza o ha utilizzato i seguenti tipi di feedback? 0 (per niente) 1 2 3 4 5 (molto) feedback orale durante le lezioni ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback scritto differito in chiusura di lezione ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback scritto (es. tramite strumenti di revisione che permettono di modificare e inserire commenti nel testo) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback scritto (es. tramite strumenti di revisione che permettono di modificare e inserire commenti nel testo) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback personalizzato scritto per ogni studente ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback generale a tutti gli studenti ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ feedback tra pari ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ altro ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ iv.4. quanto si trova d'accordo con le seguenti affermazioni? 0 (per niente) 1 2 3 4 5 (del tutto) con l’avvento della dad ho rimodulato il modo in cui fornisco feedback ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ho riscontrato delle difficoltà nel fornire feedback a distanza ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ rispetto alla modalità in presenza, dedico più tempo a fornire feedback ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ rispetto alla modalità in presenza, dedico meno tempo a fornire feedback ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ gli strumenti a disposizione sono adeguati a fornire un feedback a distanza efficace ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ nella dad, gli studenti recepiscono il feedback fornito ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 42 sezione v. valutazione lo scopo di questa sezione è rilevare le modalità di valutazione adottate per valutare gli studenti durante la dad e come queste siano cambiate rispetto alla didattica in presenza. v.1. 5.1 quanto si trova d'accordo con le seguenti affermazioni? 0 (per niente) 1 2 3 4 5 (del tutto) ho dovuto modificare la mia modalità di valutazione rispetto alla didattica in presenza ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ho incontrato dei problemi nell’adattare la mia valutazione alla modalità a distanza ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ il tempo che dedico alla valutazione è aumentato rispetto a quando lavoravo in presenza ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ il tempo che dedico alla valutazione è diminuito rispetto a quando lavoravo in presenza ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ v.2. rispetto alla modalità in presenza, quali sono gli aspetti della valutazione in cui ha incontrato maggiori difficoltà (è possibile selezionare più opzioni, se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● creare test adatti ● utilizzare strumenti di valutazione adatti ● verificare l'autenticità e l'integrità della prova ● valutare l'interazione orale ● valutare l'interazione scritta ● valutare le competenze metalinguistiche ● valutare le conoscenze linguistiche ● valutare le produzioni orali ● valutare le produzioni scritte ● altro (specificare) v.3. nella valutazione a distanza, in che misura ha incontrato difficoltà nel raggiungere la qualità dei seguenti aspetti? per niente poca abbastanza molta accettabilità (da entrambe le parti, discente e docente) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ comparabilità dei dati ottenuti che possono essere messi in relazione con altre prestazioni anche in momenti diversi dell'apprendimento ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ fattibilità e economicità (costo in termini di materiali, tempo e risorse umane che l’organizzazione della prova richiede) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ rappresentatività e appropriatezza della prova rispetto all’aspetto valutato ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ validità (coerenza tra contenuto e obiettivi) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ v.4. nella didattica in presenza, in che misura utilizzava le seguenti modalità di valutazione? mai rarament e a volte spesso sempre valutare separatamente i diversi aspetti (es. grammatica, lessico, ecc.) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ fare una valutazione globale delle diverse competenze linguistico-comunicative ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 43 valutare tramite una verifica finale il raggiungimento di obiettivi specifici (es. aver appreso i contenuti di un’unità didattica) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ fare una valutazione continua tramite diverse attività svolte durante il corso (es. progetti, presentazioni, lavori di gruppo, ecc.) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ autovalutazione ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ valutazione tra pari ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ v.5. nella dad, in che misura ha utilizzato le seguenti modalità di valutazione? mai raramente a volte spesso sempre valutare separatamente i diversi aspetti (es. grammatica, lessico, ecc.) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ fare una valutazione globale delle diverse competenze linguistico-comunicative ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ valutare tramite una verifica finale il raggiungimento di obiettivi specifici (es. aver appreso i contenuti di un’unità didattica) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ fare una valutazione continua tramite diverse attività svolte durante il corso (es. progetti, presentazioni, lavori di gruppo, ecc.) ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ autovalutazione ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ valutazione tra pari ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ v.6. ha optato per una prova: ● scritta ● orale ● scritta e orale v.7. come ha controllato la sicurezza e l’autenticità della prova, nonché l’identità del candidato (è possibile selezionare più opzioni, se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● condivisione dello schermo per la durata della prova in tempo reale ● sorveglianza tramite webcam in tempo reale ● utilizzo di software dedicati (respondus monitor, safe exam browser, ecc.) ● altro (specificare) v.8. che strumenti e attività ha utilizzato per valutare i seguenti aspetti (è possibile selezionare più opzioni per riga)? nessuna roleplay monolo ghi chat/ forum cloze domande aperte domande a scelta multipla present azioni orali progetti /lavori di gruppo testi scritti conoscenze linguistiche ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ conoscenze metalinguistich e ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ comprensione scritta ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ comprensione orale ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 44 produzione scritta ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ produzione orale ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ interazione scritta ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ interazione orale ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ altro ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ v.9. se nella domanda precedente ha selezionato ‘altro’, specificare sezione vi. commenti se lo desidera, in questa sezione può inserire dei commenti aggiuntivi riguardanti la sua esperienza con la didattica delle lingue a distanza (es. valutazione generale sulla dad, approfondimenti, aspetti non trattati nelle domande precedenti ecc.) didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 45 appendice b imparare le lingue a distanza — questionario studenti scuole secondarie sezione i. informazioni generali i.1. genere ● f ● m i.2. anno di nascita risposta: i.3 qual è la tua lingua madre (è possibile scegliere più lingue)? ● cinese ● francese ● inglese ● italiano ● spagnolo ● tedesco ● altro (specificare) i.4. quale scuola hai frequentato nell’anno scolastico 2019/2020? ● istituto professionale ● istituto tecnico ● liceo ● scuola secondaria di primo grado ● altro (specificare) i.5. in quale città si trova la tua scuola? i.6. a quale anno sei iscritta/o? ● 1° ● 2° ● 3° ● 4° ● 5° i.7. quali lingue straniere studi a scuola (è possibile scegliere più lingue, se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● francese ● inglese ● italiano lingua straniera ● spagnolo ● tedesco ● altro (specificare) i.8. le tue risposte a questo questionario riguarderanno il corso di quale lingua straniera? ● francese ● inglese ● italiano lingua straniera ● spagnolo ● tedesco ● altro (specificare) i.9. hai una certificazione bes o dsa? conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 46 ● no ● sì, bes ● sì, dsa i.10. se sei una studentessa/uno studente con bes o dsa, l’insegnante ha tenuto conto dei tuoi bisogni specifici durante le lezioni a distanza? ● sì ● no ● in parte ● non so sezione ii. la tua esperienza con la didattica a distanza (dad) nell’apprendimento delle lingue straniere si raccomanda di rispondere ai quesiti facendo riferimento ad un solo corso (es. il corso di lingua inglese) ii.1. le tue risposte a questo questionario riguarderanno il corso di quale lingua straniera? ● francese ● inglese ● italiano lingua straniera ● spagnolo ● tedesco ● altro (specificare) ii.2. quante ore di lezione di lingua straniera hai seguito (a distanza) a settimana? ● meno di 2 ● 2-4 ● più di 4 ii.3. qual è il numero di studenti della tua classe? ● fino a 10 ● 11-15 ● 16-20 ● più di 20 ii.4. quanto hai usato i seguenti strumenti per seguire le lezioni di lingua straniera a distanza? 0 (per niente) 1 2 3 4 5 (molto) computer fisso ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ computer portatile ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ smartphone ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ tablet ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ altro ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.4.1. se nella domanda precedente hai selezionato ‘altro’, specificare ii.5. per quali attività l’insegnante di lingua straniera ha utilizzato i seguenti strumenti (è possibile scegliere più opzioni per ogni riga)? nessuna lezioni in presenza compiti videolezioni avvisi valutazione approfondimenti in diretta preregistrate audiolibri ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ edmodo ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 47 e-mail ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ facebook ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ facetime ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ google meet ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ jitsi ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ libri cartacei ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ moodle ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ microsoft teams ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ obs studio ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ raiscuola ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ screen-o-matic ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ servizi di cloud ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ skype ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ socloo ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ weschool ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ whatsapp ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ youtube ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ zoom ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.5.1. se nella domanda precedente hai selezionato ‘altro’, specificare ii.6. durante le lezioni di lingua straniera, cosa ti è stato richiesto dall’insegnante e con quale frequenza? mai qualche volta spesso sempre attivare solo la webcam ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ attivare solo il microfono ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ attivare sia la webcam che il microfono ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ disattivare entrambi ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.7. che influenza hanno avuto i seguenti fattori sulle lezioni a distanza? (ad es. se al fattore ‘la connessione internet’ rispondi ‘negativa’ vuol dire che hai avuto problemi di connessione che non ti hanno permesso di svolgere bene le attività) positiva né positiva né negativa negativa non si applica al mio caso la connessione internet ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’ambiente/la stanza dove facevo le lezioni ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ la condivisione del pc con altri membri della famiglia ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.8. come si svolgeva la lezione di lingua straniera in modalità dad? 0 (per niente) 1 2 3 4 5 (molto) l’insegnante faceva una lezione in videoconferenza interagendo con gli studenti ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante faceva una lezione in videoconferenza ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante effettuava videochiamate individuali con gli studenti ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ durante la lezione, l’insegnante faceva svolgere agli studenti attività individuali o di gruppo ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 48 l’insegnante assegnava attività di preparazione alla lezione online, poi forniva un feedback durante la videoconferenza ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante assegnava attività da svolgere autonomamente. se emergevano domande, gli studenti potevano contattare il docente ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante registrava delle videolezioni in cui spiegava i punti principali del tema del giorno ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante assegnava dei video legati all’argomento del giorno recuperati da fonti esterne ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ l’insegnante assegnava attività da svolgere in gruppi. gli studenti si organizzavano autonomamente e poi inviavano i risultati al docente ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.9. in confronto con la didattica in presenza, quanto hai sviluppato le seguenti abilità e competenze nella didattica a distanza? + = scrivere ◻ ◻ ◻ parlare ◻ ◻ ◻ leggere ◻ ◻ ◻ ascoltare ◻ ◻ ◻ dialogare ◻ ◻ ◻ grammatica ◻ ◻ ◻ letteratura ◻ ◻ ◻ usi e tradizioni ◻ ◻ ◻ svolgere compiti pratici nella lingua straniera ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.10. come si sono svolte le verifiche in lingua straniera in modalità dad? ● scritta ● orale ● scritta e orale ii.11. nelle verifiche in lingua straniera in modalità dad, ti veniva richiesto di svolgere: mai qualche volta spesso sempre esercizi di grammatica ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ comprensione di testi scritti ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ dialoghi da completare ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ testi da scrivere ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ esercizi di ascolto ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ interrogazioni orali ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ testi da completare ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ altro ◻ ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.11.1. se nella domanda precedente hai selezionato ‘altro’, specificare ii.12. rispetto alle lezioni in aula, quanto sono cambiate le lezioni di lingua straniera in modalità dad? + = ero interessato/a ◻ ◻ ◻ ero concentrato/a ◻ ◻ ◻ mi confrontavo con l’insegnante ◻ ◻ ◻ mi confrontavo con i compagni ◻ ◻ ◻ didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 49 usavo la lingua straniera per parlare con l’insegnante ◻ ◻ ◻ usavo la lingua straniera per parlare con i compagni ◻ ◻ ◻ ricevevo correzioni dall’insegnante ◻ ◻ ◻ capivo le correzioni che ricevevo dall’insegnante ◻ ◻ ◻ le attività che ho svolto erano adatte al mio livello ◻ ◻ ◻ ho frequentato regolarmente ◻ ◻ ◻ ho contattato il docente al di fuori delle ore di lezione (per es. per comunicazioni, giustificare assenze, chiedere chiarimenti, ecc. ) ◻ ◻ ◻ ho svolto i compiti assegnati ◻ ◻ ◻ il carico di studio era adeguato ◻ ◻ ◻ se non capivo o non seguivo l’insegnante se ne accorgeva ◻ ◻ ◻ ii.13. vuoi aggiungere qualcosa? scrivilo qui! conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 50 appendix c10 imparare le lingue a distanza — questionario studenti universitari sezione i. informazioni generali i.1. genere ● f ● m i.2. anno di nascita i.3 qual è la tua lingua madre (è possibile scegliere più lingue)? ● cinese ● francese ● inglese ● italiano ● spagnolo ● tedesco ● altro (specificare) i.4. quale facoltà hai frequentato nell’anno scolastico 2019/2020? i.5. in quale città si trova la tua università? i.6. che tipo di corso/programma frequenti (se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● laurea triennale ● laurea magistrale ● laurea specialistica ● laurea a ciclo unico ● dottorato/master ● programma di scambio internazionale ● altro (specificare) i.7. a quale anno sei iscritto/a (se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● 1° ● 2° ● 3° ● 4° ● 5° ● altro (specificare) i.8. quali lingue straniere studi all’università (è possibile scegliere più lingue, se ‘altro’, specificare)? ● francese ● inglese ● italiano lingua straniera ● spagnolo ● tedesco ● altro (specificare) i.9. le tue risposte a questo questionario riguarderanno il corso di quale lingua straniera? ● francese 10 nella presente appendice è riportata la sezione i del questionario per studenti universitari, in quanto contenente item aggiuntivi rispetto al questionario per le scuole secondarie. per la sezione ii, identica nelle due versioni, si rimanda all’appendice b. didattica delle lingue a distanza durante l’emergenza covid-19 e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9–52 51 ● inglese ● italiano lingua straniera ● spagnolo ● tedesco ● altro (specificare) i.10. in condizioni di normalità avresti dovuto frequentare il corso nel paese in cui si parla la lingua che stai studiando? ● sì ● no i.11. in riferimento alla domanda precedente, questa condizione è cambiata a seguito dell’emergenza sanitaria? ● sì ● no i.12. a che punto del corso di lingua hai iniziato a seguire le lezioni a distanza? ● all’inizio del corso ● a metà del corso ● quasi alla fine del corso i.13. quanto dura complessivamente il corso di lingua che hai seguito in dad (didattica a distanza)? ● meno di 6 mesi ● 1 semestre ● 1 anno ● 2 anni ● 3 anni ● più di 3 anni i.14. qual era il livello del corso ● alfabetizzazione (pre-a1) ● elementare (livelli a1-a2 del qcer) ● intermedio (livelli b1-b2 del qcer) ● avanzato (livelli c1-c2 del qcer) i.14. hai una certificazione bes o dsa? ● no ● sì i.16. se sei una studentessa/uno studente con bes o dsa, l’insegnante ha tenuto conto dei tuoi bisogni specifici durante le lezioni a distanza? ● sì ● no ● in parte ● non lo so conti e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 9-52 52 sergio conti, università degli studi roma tre sergio.conti@uniroma3.it it sergio conti è docente a contratto di lingua, traduzione e cultura cinese presso l’università degli studi roma tre, l’università di siena e l’università degli studi di napoli ‘l’orientale’. ha conseguito il titolo di dottore di ricerca presso l’università di roma ‘sapienza’ ed è stato assegnista di ricerca presso l’università degli studi roma tre, dove ha collaborato anche con il centro linguistico d’ateneo fornendo assistenza agli studenti cinesi del programma marco polo/turandot. si occupa di didattica e acquisizione del cinese come lingua straniera, in particolare del lessico e delle espressioni formulaiche, e dello sviluppo della competenza pragmatica. en sergio conti is an adjunct professor of chinese language, translation and culture at the university of roma tre, the university of siena and the university of napoli ‘l’orientale’. he received his phd from the university of roma ‘sapienza’ and was a research fellow at the university of roma tre where he assisted the chinese students participating in the program marco polo/turandot at the language center. his research focus is the teaching and learning of chinese as a foreign language, in particular chinese vocabulary and formulaic expressions, and the development of pragmatic competence. es sergio conti es profesor adjunto de lengua, traducción y cultura china en la universià roma tre, la università di siena y la università di napoli ‘l’orientale’. obtuvo su doctorado de la università di roma ‘sapienza’ y fue investigador en la università di roma tre, donde trabajó como asistente para los estudiantes chinos que participaban en el programa marco polo/turandot en el centro de idiomas. sus investigaciones se centran en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del chino como lengua extranjera, en particular del vocabulario y de las expresiones formulaicas chinas, y en el desarrollo de la competencia pragmática. microsoft word medina lópez 2022 ej.docx e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 2, december 2022, pages 40-44 issn 2376-905x https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.9.2.280 www.e-journall.org © medina lópez 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. reseña: pascual y cabo, diego, & torres, julio (eds.) (2022). aproximaciones al estudio del español como lengua de herencia. routledge. julio césar medina lópez university of houston book review received 11 july 2022; accepted after revisions 19 july 2022 abstract es el libro reseñado es una compilación de estudios realizados sobre la adquisición y la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia. a través de 19 capítulos y un epílogo, se presenta una visión general sobre los avances realizados en el campo de estudio y se proponen nuevas rutas de investigación. palabras clave: adquisición, enseñanza, español como lengua de herencia en the book under review is a compilation of studies carried out on the acquisition and teaching of spanish as a heritage language. through 19 chapters and an epilogue, an overview of the progress achieved in the field of study is presented and new routes for research are proposed. keywords: acquisition, teaching, spanish heritage language it il libro recensito qui è costituito da una serie di studi dedicati al processo di acquisizione e di insegnamento della lingua spagnola come lingua ereditaria. attraverso i 19 capitoli e l’epilogo, viene presentata una panoramica dei progressi compiuti nel campo e vengono proposti nuovi percorsi di ricerca. parole chiave: acquisizione, insegnamento, spagnolo come lingua ereditaria  julio césar medina lópez, university of houston jcm048@shsu.edu reseña: aproximaciones al estudio del español como lengua de herencia e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 40-44 41 1. introducción la migración de hispanos hacia los estados unidos puede denominarse una realidad constante y permanente, la cual caracteriza al país. sin embargo, para muchos representa un simple flujo de personas de un lugar a otro, excluyendo la riqueza cultural, ideológica y lingüística que aporta. por ende, la comunidad hispana crece estableciendo al español dentro de una sociedad que reconoce al inglés como la lengua de prestigio. no obstante, el español, además de expandirse en múltiples contextos, también lo hace a través de generaciones de inmigrantes. de ahí que cada vez más académicos se interesan por efectuar estudios sobre el español como lengua de herencia, los cuales, han incrementado durante los últimos 20 años (ortega, 2020). este libro, aproximaciones al estudio del español como lengua de herencia, editado por diego pascual y cabo y julio torres, se suma al campo con estudios recientes sobre la adquisición y la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia (elh) en los estados unidos. merece la pena sugerir este libro para aquellos estudiosos sobre el tema, actuales y futuros instructores de elh. el libro se integra de 19 capítulos y un epílogo, escritos por personas expertas en el área y distribuidos en 3 secciones: enfoques lingüísticos (1-5), perspectivas pedagógicas (6-14) y aspectos programáticos (15-19). comienza con una introducción que describe al hablante de elh, explica la evolución del campo del ehl y expone de manera general el contenido de los capítulos. entre algunas de las novedades que ofrece el libro, destacan las propuestas de estudio y las preguntas de reflexión al final de cada capítulo. 2. aproximaciones lingüísticas al español como lengua de herencia el primer capítulo, “la fonética y fonología del español como lengua de herencia”, presenta una síntesis de los trabajos realizados sobre la producción y percepción de las vocales, las consonantes y la prosodia en los hablantes de elh. por ello, rajiv rao y mark amengual presentan algunos fenómenos fonológicos de producción o percepción (realización de las oclusivas sordas /p,t,k/ y sonoras /b,d,g/, vibrantes /ɾ/ y /r/, entonación de oraciones declarativas e interrogativas), junto con las variables extralingüísticas (dominancia y proficiencia, tiempo de exposición al español, generación de inmigrantes) que influyen en la producción de sonidos de estos sistemas. aparte, se comparan los datos obtenidos de los hablantes de elh, con datos de hablantes monolingües de español o de hablantes de español como l2, para determinar los factores que intervienen en la transferencia fonológica en el elh. resultan relevantes sus recomendaciones para futuras investigaciones, por ejemplo, realizar estudios en el campo de la percepción. en el segundo capítulo, naomi l. shin y desireé ramírez-urbaneja presentan “la morfosintaxis del español como lengua de herencia durante la niñez”, enfocándose en el ritmo de adquisición y la influencia del inglés; además de compararla con la de niños y niñas monolingües. para ello, las autoras analizan una serie de investigaciones que abordan temas sobre el género, la marcación diferencial del objeto, la morfología verbal, la influencia interlingüística y la alternancia de código. cabe destacar que examinan los fenómenos morfosintácticos categóricos y variables más característicos de los hablantes de elh como, por ejemplo, las preposiciones colgadas, el orden sujeto-verbo en interrogativas y declarativas, los pronombres de sujeto, etc. a fin de determinar la edad en la que presentan una mayor o menor influencia del inglés. además, expresan el efecto que tiene la cantidad de input obtenido por los niños en la adquisición de la morfosintaxis. al final, las autoras señalan algunas futuras líneas de investigación como continuar el estudio del ritmo de adquisición de la concordancia de género, así como también el de la alternancia de código en la infancia. el tercer capítulo, “consideraciones sobre algunos aspectos de la morfosintaxis del español como lengua de herencia en adultos”, es escrito por diego pascual y silvina montrul. en este capítulo, los autores describen a grandes rasgos las características lingüísticas de los hablantes de lh y reafirman la idea de que la morfosintaxis es la más vulnerable en las lenguas de herencia. los autores analizan la morfología nominal de tres propiedades del español: la concordancia de género y número, el marcador diferencial de objeto directo y los sujetos dativos con verbos psicológicos del tipo gustar/encantar. así mismo, mencionan algunos de los orígenes y causas que ocasionan la variabilidad como, por ejemplo, la adquisición a edad temprana o tardía de la lengua, la falta de escolaridad, la atrición y el tipo de input (bilingüe o monolingüe), entre otros. el siguiente capítulo titulado “el conocimiento léxico de los hablantes de herencia”, está redactado por eve zyzik. la autora parte del análisis de la competencia léxica, planteándose si los hablantes de elh poseen un vocabulario amplio o limitado. sin embargo, subraya que la metodología empleada en la recolección de los datos impacta en la determinación del tamaño del lexicón de los hablantes de elh. por ende, presenta cinco métodos de recolección de datos (el test de fluidez verbal, la encuesta de disponibilidad léxica, la prueba de decisión léxica, la tarea de juicio de aceptabilidad y la producción espontánea), junto con sus alcances. medina lópez e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 40-44 42 el último capítulo de esta primera sección se ocupa de un área poco explotada en las investigaciones sobre el elh, a saber: la pragmática. elisa gironzetti incita a continuar contribuyendo en este campo, pues indica que hasta el momento los estudios existentes se enfocan en los aspectos pragmáticos de las formas de tratamiento, los marcadores discursivos, la cortesía y los actos de habla, los cuales explica en el capítulo. además, propone su estudio e integración en la enseñanza del elh desde una perspectiva multimodal, a fin de entender la comunicación e interacción de los hablantes de elh. 3. aproximaciones innovadoras a la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia en el capítulo seis, los autores julio torres y melisa baralt describen y ejemplifican el enfoque pedagógico por tareas, junto con la metodología necesaria para su establecimiento en el aula. el esquema tripartito mencionado consta de una fase previa a la tarea, una fase de realización de la tarea y una fase posterior, las cuales permiten conocer tanto sus objetivos como la función que tienen los docentes y estudiantes en cada una de ellas. al finalizar el capítulo, los autores dan una serie de recomendaciones pedagógicas a considerar en la elaboración de este tipo de tareas para estudiantes de elh. el séptimo capítulo, “la literacidad múltiple en el aprendizaje del español como lengua de herencia”, ha sido realizado por maría luisa parra velasco. la autora expone los alcances que se obtienen a través de la implementación de los ambientes educativos de aprendizaje por diseño (ad) y de literacidad múltiple (lm) en la instrucción del elh. menciona que este tipo de pedagogía requiere la integración de la diversidad cultural y la variación lingüística (multiliteracidad) en la instrucción, para desarrollar las habilidades funcionales (describir, narrar, explicar y argumentar) del estudiantado latinx en el aula. la autora comparte algunos ejemplos de actividades (pp. 103-105) que integran estos principios. el siguiente capítulo titulado “translanguaging thinking y el español como lengua de herencia”, de josh prada, expone las conceptualizaciones sobre el translanguaging para así entender las dimensiones que implica la adopción de una pedagogía translingual en la enseñanza del elh. asimismo, incluye aquellos juicios cognitivos y sociales que marginalizan a las prácticas translinguales de los hablantes de elh; pues, como bien señala el autor, se omite la función que tienen en el acto comunicativo. principalmente, este capítulo ofrece una reflexión sobre la estigmatización referente a la acción de translenguar, con el objetivo de exhortar a los docentes al desarrollo de currículos sociolingüísticamente inclusivos y no prescriptivos en la enseñanza del elh. en el capítulo 9, “la traducción en la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia”, la autora laura gasca jiménez evalúa el uso de la traducción en la enseñanza de lenguas. la autora, aparte de exponer el carácter comunicativo, valor profesional y pedagógico que refleja en los hablantes de elh, sugiere que debiese figurar como estrategia plurilingüe y destreza en la pedagogía de las lenguas de herencia. gasca jiménez concluye proponiendo la integración de la traducción en la enseñanza del elh y el empleo del enfoque por tareas de traducción para su ejecución. la autora también ofrece una serie de sugerencias pedagógicas sobre el uso de la traducción en el aula, por ejemplo, la incorporación de actividades, tareas y proyectos auténticos de traducción escritos u orales. en el décimo capítulo, la autora valeria valencia-zamudio expone las ideologías lingüísticas negativas que enfrentan los repatriados y hablantes del español como lengua de herencia, al regresar a su país de origen. según la autora, los estigmas generados en relación con su lengua de herencia repercuten no solo en su seguridad lingüística al expresarse, sino también en su autopercepción lingüística y en su interacción con otros hablantes de la lengua. la autora propone la creación de talleres para migrantes repatriados, en los que mediante el uso una pedagogía crítica, se reflexione sobre las diferentes variedades del español y así mitigar sus inseguridades lingüísticas. amàlia llombart-huesca en “conciencia metalingüística en la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia” explica cómo se ha limitado el desarrollo del conocimiento metalingüístico de los estudiantes de elh, por el empleo de prácticas normativistas, el encuadramiento en el marco de la adquisición de segundas lenguas y el uso de una definición basada en un enfoque lingüístico y no psicolingüístico. recalca el reconocimiento de su conocimiento implícito y epilingüístico, pues contribuyen al desarrollo de su conciencia fonológica y morfológica durante el proceso de adquisición de la lectoescritura. resulta importante mencionar la necesidad de efectuar investigaciones con estudiantes de elh de secundaria y universidad. en el capítulo doce, denominado “herramientas sociales en la clase de español como lengua de herencia”, las autoras, idoia elola, ana padial y paola guerrero-rodríguez demuestran la importancia de las herramientas sociales para el desarrollo de la multialfabetización, toda vez que permiten al estudiante de elh diseñar nuevas formas de significado, ya sea de modo oral, escrito, visual, etc. ellas dan una serie de reseña: aproximaciones al estudio del español como lengua de herencia e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 40-44 43 recomendaciones pedagógicas para la realización de actividades (historias digitales) que integren a las herramientas sociales (facebook, twitter); por ejemplo, el empleo de un marco teórico sociocultural (teoría de la actividad), como también los marcos pedagógicos del enfoque por tareas o el del aprendizaje por diseño. en el capítulo trece, francisca aguiló y andrew lynch reflexionan sobre las posibles aportaciones que realizaría la inserción de la literatura estadounidense en el aula de español como lengua de herencia. resulta particularmente interesante que los autores citen los libros de texto de elh que adjuntan textos producidos por us latinx, al igual que sus propuestas concretas sobre otro tipo de textos a implementar (poesía, teatro, cómics). sugieren su inclusión en clases de nivel básico e intermedio, ya que el cruce lingüístico expuesto en las obras hace que el estudiante de elh reexamine su identidad sociolingüística y los límites lingüísticos de la(s) lengua(s). además, propone empezar a trabajar con textos multilingües y después con monolingües en el aula. en el siguiente capítulo, rosy lima de padilla propone la incorporación de la escritura creativa en la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia, pues permite que el estudiante de elh exprese sus experiencias lingüísticas y su identidad, aparte de estimular su conocimiento crítico del lenguaje. la autora parte del análisis y discusión de textos que empleen variación lingüística (poesía) previos a la escritura. plantea algunas actividades de iniciación a la escritura creativa, como imitar reescribiendo otros textos, aparte de incorporar una etapa de reflexión y otra de revisión. ella esquematiza, en la página 20, la implementación de estas actividades. 4. aproximaciones programáticas al español como lengua de herencia el capítulo quince, “el entrenamiento de instructores en programas de español como lengua de herencia”, escrito por damián vergara wilson y sarah schulman, describen la figura de los tas (asistentes de enseñanza) como instructores de elh. subrayan que su proceso de enseñanza varía en cada uno de ellos, debido a lo que vygotsky denomina perezhivanie (sus experiencias emocionales, psicológicas y físicas). explican el desarrollo de su competencia en la enseñanza en los programas de elh, mediante una pirámide de relaciones dialécticas donde intervienen directores, docentes y estudiantes, advirtiendo de que deben entender concretamente lo que es un programa de elh. los autores muestran también la importancia que tiene la voz del alumnado, tanto en el diseño de los programas como en el entrenamiento docente. gleen martínez en “el español para fines específicos y los programas de herencia” propone una posible convergencia entre el español para fines específicos (efe) y el español como lengua de herencia (elh). debido a que el efe y el elh han desarrollado por separado sus propios enfoques pedagógicos, orientaciones motivacionales, aspectos curriculares e ideologías. no obstante, algunos estudios citados sobre profesionistas hispanos afirman un vínculo importante entre efe y elh, producto de sus deseos culturales, profesionales, de aprendizaje y de reconexión con el idioma. al final, el autor da algunas ideas para un elh para fines específicos, en particular, el uso de un enfoque que satisfaga además de sus necesidades, sus deseos y metas. el capítulo diecisiete, titulado “la investigación-acción para maestros de hablantes de herencia”, está escrito por elizabeth m. kissling. este capítulo se centra en explicar el proceso y el impacto que genera el desarrollo de proyectos de investigación-acción (ia) en la formación docente de profesorado de elh, como en la creación de recursos para el elh. la autora señala que su naturaleza cíclica (observación, reflexión y planificación) y recursiva ayuda a mejorar la calidad de la educación. comparte su experiencia como mentora en algunos de los proyectos de ia, identificando tres retos a los que se exponen los instructores: tiempo, preparación y motivación. silvia marijuan presenta en “los hablantes de herencia del español en los community colleges” una reflexión sobre las características de los ccs (community colleges) y del estudiantado latinx e incluye recomendaciones pedagógicas sobre la enseñanza del elh en ccs. señala que se debe entender el sistema de los ccs y considerar las motivaciones y desafíos del estudiantado, para diseñar un programa de elh apto para los ccs. comenta que los programas deben articularse, a fin de que ofrezcan créditos transferibles y contribuyan a que el estudiantado latinx se gradúe. destaca la idea de brindar cursos funcionales, por lo que ofrece algunas prácticas pedagógicas, como la tutoría de otros hablantes de herencia o el servicio comunitario. en el antepenúltimo capítulo, ellen j. serafini analiza el aprendizaje-servicio en la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia, toda vez que este, al generar conciencia crítica lingüística (herramienta de resistencia social) de las funciones socioafectivas y sociopolíticas del lenguaje, empodera al estudiante de elh y a su comunidad con conocimientos lingüísticos, culturales y sociales, aparte de facilitar un cambio social. dentro de los huecos conceptuales y metodológicos en los trabajos investigativos, señala la medición del impacto en la comunidad o del desarrollo de la conciencia crítica lingüística, por lo que recomienda el uso de una pedagogía híbrida en la integración del aprendizaje-servicio en la enseñanza del elh. medina lópez e-journall, 9(2) (2022), pp. 40-44 44 el capítulo final, “epílogo. el contexto sociopolítico y el español como lengua de herencia”, está escrito por lourdes ortega. este epílogo continúa contribuyendo al conocimiento del español de lh, mediante la correlación de las ideas de la autora y las aportaciones realizadas por los autores que integran la obra. destaca la importancia del contexto sociopolítico para entender las asimetrías que hay en torno a la lh, los procesos (estigmatización, iconicidad, racialización y experiencia de inmigración) y consecuencias de la minorización contra la lh y sus hablantes. comenta que, en las investigaciones que abordan temas lingüísticos o de desarrollo, pasa desapercibida la inseguridad lingüística de los hablantes de lh, al igual que la heterogeneidad de sus perfiles biográficos, la cual difiere de la heterogeneidad lingüística que todos reconocen en sus estudios. por último, hace hincapié en continuar investigando en este campo de adquisición y de enseñanza del español como lh. la experiencia de las personas expertas plasmada en cada uno de los capítulos va más allá de una explicación teórica o metodológica. como lector se agradece cada una de las ejemplificaciones que ofrecen, pues ayudan a entender las contextualizaciones realizadas en los estudios. sin lugar a duda, es un libro formativo e instructivo que contribuirá a la formación de agentes que promuevan el cambio en la percepción del elh, así como a la de sus hablantes. referencias ortega, lourdes (2020). the study of heritage language development from a bilingualism and social justice perspective. language learning: a journal of research in language studies, 70(1), 15–53. julio césar medina lópez, university of houston jcm048@shsu.edu es julio césar medina lópez es profesor de español en sam houston state university y actualmente cursa el doctorado en lingüística española en la university of houston. sus áreas de investigación son la competencia léxica, la pedagogía, la sociolingüística, y la fonética y fonología de hablantes de español como lengua heredada y de aprendices del español como segunda lengua. en julio césar medina lópez is a spanish instructor at sam houston state university. currently, he is pursuing a ph.d. in spanish linguistics at the university of houston. his areas of research are lexical proficiency, pedagogy, sociolinguistics, and phonetics and phonology of spanish heritage speakers and second language learners of spanish. it julio césar medina lópez insegna spagnolo presso la sam houston state university. attualmente sta facendo un dottorato in linguistica spagnola presso la university of houston. le sue aree di ricerca sono la competenza lessicale, la pedagogia, la sociolinguistica, la fonetica e fonologia per i parlanti di lingua spagnola come lingua ereditaria e per gli studenti di spagnolo come seconda lingua. microsoft word dario_sponchiado_3.1.doc e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 3, issue 1, september 2016, 6482 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.4.58 www.e-journall.org © sponchiado 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. *contatto: dario.sponchiado@coloradocollege.edu cronaca di una lezione annunciata: process drama e glottodrama tra passato e sperimentazioni odierne dario sponchiado* colorado college received 14 may 2015; received in revised form 1 october 2015; accepted 15 november 2015 abstract it in che misura e con quali risultati è possibile impiegare i metodi glottodrama e process drama in situazioni in cui opera la maggior parte degli insegnanti e che sono lontane dagli standard ideali segnalati dagli esperti? questo saggio ricostruisce le radici storiche del process drama e del glottodrama presentandone alcune applicazioni attraverso un esperimento didattico. a supporto di un corso tradizionale, in cui erano emerse delle carenze nella produzione orale, infatti, ho gestito parallelamente un avviamento alla drammatizzazione didattica, coinvolgendo gli apprendenti nello studio di una lingua più viva e autentica. tramite un percorso a tappe e un progetto finale (la realizzazione di un video), pertanto, gli studenti hanno sperimentato la potenza creativa della lingua e imparato a manipolare il linguaggio per costruire e negoziare significati. particolare attenzione viene, inoltre, data alle attività svolte e ai risultati ottenuti con l’impiego del drama nella glottodidattica. parole chiave: glottodrama, process drama, drammatizzazione, glottodidattica, sperimentazione. en how and to what extent can one effectively utilize glottodrama and process drama in instructional settings, particulary those that differ from the standardized ideals of many experts? this paper seeks to reconstruct the historical roots of process drama and glottodrama through an account of didactic experiment. the author began employing drama as a teaching tool in a traditional course in which students evidenced gaps in their oral communicative abilities and found that drama engaged learners in the study of everyday, authentic language. the different stages of the learning process, which culminated in the production of a final video project, allowed students to experience the creative power of language and to learn how to manipulate language to build and negotiate meaning. special consideration is given to the activities and the results that were obtained using drama in foreign language teaching. key words: glottodrama, process drama, drammatization, foreign language pedagogy, classroom research. es ¿qué limitaciones y qué resultados tendría el empleo del método glottodrama y del process drama en contextos que se alejan de los estándares ideales y en los que trabajan la mayoría de los profesores? este trabajo reconstruye las raíces históricas del process drama y del glottodrama y explora sus aplicaciones pedagógicas a través de un experimento didáctico. la dramatización didáctica ha sido empleada en un curso de lengua más tradicional donde habían surgido carencias en la producción oral, con el objetivo de enganchar a los alumnos en el estudio funcional y más auténtico de la lengua. a través de las diferentes etapas de este recorrido didáctico, que terminó con un proyecto final (la creación de un vídeo), los estudiantes experimentaron el poder creativo de la lengua y aprendieron a manipularla para construir y negociar significados. finalmente, el artículo describe también el tipo de actividades y los resultados obtenidos gracias al uso del drama en la enseñanza de la lengua. palabras clave: glottodrama, process drama, dramatización, enseñanza de lenguas, experimentación. process drama and glottodrama e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 65 1. teatro e pedagogia, un binomio antico nonostante il glamour intorno alla dimensione comunicativa e pratica dell’insegnamento della lingua, le sue radici sono antiche. infatti, l'utilizzo del teatro a scopi pedagogici, che rientra a buon titolo nelle pratiche della dimensione comunicativa, non è per nulla una novità recente nel campo della pedagogia. per i greci l'opera teatrale era considerata una forma di insegnamento per la popolazione: si arrivò addirittura all'istituzione del theoricon, sussidio messo a disposizione dei meno abbienti per accedere al teatro1. in questo saggio propongo una riflessione di largo respiro che, partendo dai dati storici a nostra disposizione, approda alla sperimentazione attuale della glottodidattica teatrale e più specificatamente a quella del process drama e glottodrama. a intuire più di ogni altro le potenzialità pedagogiche del teatro furono i gesuiti, i quali, avendo a cuore la formazione dei propri membri, svilupparono quello che verrà indicato come uno dei sistemi pedagogici più avanzati dell’epoca, risultato dell’opera dei migliori talenti dell’ordine e dello studio dei programmi di tutte le più celebri istituzioni scolastiche occidentali. fu così che, dopo 14 anni di studi ed esperimenti, venne alla luce nel 1599 la ratio studiorum2 (corso ufficiale per l'istruzione dei gesuiti). questo documento pianificava anche l'educazione che aveva luogo nei collegi della compagnia di gesù, fondati in tutta europa a cavallo tra il xvi e il xvii secolo, e precisava le forme che doveva prendere l'insegnamento dell'arte della recitazione. tale prospettiva ci fa comprendere il motivo per cui il teatro non solo fu introdotto tra le attività dei collegi ma anche curato e sviluppato attivamente dai gesuiti fino a raggiungere una dimensione centrale nell’insegnamento. lo scopo era una pedagogia basata sulla recitazione, con il conseguente ottenimento del dominio del linguaggio, e volta a instillare in modo incisivo e originale, modelli morali e contenuti culturali, allineati con il pensiero della chiesa cattolica. il teatro si inserisce fin dalle prime classi e, come nota sirignano (2009), viene utilizzato all'inizio soprattutto per insegnare il latino (come lingua viva) con il fine primario di suscitarne e tenerne vivo l'interesse e in seguito per aumentare la dimestichezza nel parlare in pubblico, acquisire la padronanza di tecniche espressive, affinare il controllo della voce, della gestualità e del corpo (d’amante, 2013, p. 58). allo stesso tempo, attraverso l’apprendimento del copione, si coltivava la memoria e l'intelletto, esaltandone le potenzialità, e si induceva l’allievo a interiorizzare i contenuti e i concetti, con l’effetto intrinseco di una complessiva crescita personale (d’amante, 2013, pp. 62-63). questo sistema di formazione richiedeva una padronanza di tecniche declamatorie non lontane da quelle professionali che necessitavano di un’alta formazione, la cui genesi è da ricercarsi all’interno dei collegi e in particolar modo nell’esperienza teatrale, teorizzata e praticata a più riprese dai padri. ecco, in breve, il modello pedagogico della ratio studiorum (sirignano, 2009): l'insegnante legge e spiega il testo (prelectio); il discepolo prende nota, rielabora, ricopia diligentemente il testo e lo impara a memoria per poterlo recitare: ecco la recitatio, accompagnata da piccoli gesti per sottolineare i diversi momenti del testo. infine ogni sabato si riprende il testo della settimana trascorsa; ogni quindici giorni, durante le ore di retorica ha luogo la declamatio. i discepoli declamano poemi, passaggi d'oratori greci o latini, orazioni intere di cicerone o vere e proprie rappresentazioni teatrali, spesso scritte da autori gesuiti; a coronamento di tutti questi esercizi, avviene la messa in scena dell’opera teatrale, eseguita in pubblico. inoltre, tre o quattro volte all'anno, gli allievi di filosofia e retorica si affrontano con discussioni i cui soggetti sono spesso la storia o la filosofia: è la disputatio, a cui sono invitati personalità di spicco e parenti. durante questa fase si mette in gioco tutto il corpo, poiché in un discorso necessariamente il gesto accompagna la parola. è una disciplina che si apprende e possiede un risvolto pratico sulla vita quotidiana e la rappresentazione risulta il momento culminante del metodo, una sorta di verifica per gli studenti (d’amante, 2013, p. 67), che devono essere in grado di affrontare il pubblico ed elevarlo moralmente (cappelluti, 2011, pp. 36-38; d’amante, 2013, p. 58). il modello nacque nel 1554 con la prima rappresentazione pubblica, per l'apertura del nuovo anno accademico presso il collegio romano (sirignano, 2009) e in seguito divenne una pratica abituale (d’amante, 1 la i filippica dell’oratore demostene è dedicata al tema della soppressione di questo fondo. 2 per una visione completa e tradotta in italiano dell’opera, si veda ratio atque institutio studiorum societatis jesu (2002). sponchiado e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 66 2013, p. 63). il risultato fu duplice: da quel momento in poi, infatti, le rappresentazioni si identificarono con le occasioni solenni della vita pubblica e religiosa; si creò così una forte connessione con la società. la seconda conseguenza, l’eredità più interessante dal nostro punto di vista, è l’elevazione del teatro a elemento altamente formativo. questo modello educativo assunse dimensioni vaste, grazie all’impegno e all’unità d'intenti dei padri che ne capirono l’efficacia (d’amante, 2013, p. 69), superiore alla stessa predicazione, e alla capacità di veicolare concetti in modo leggero e divertente. in base a quanto riportato da moss and wallace (2003), cento anni dopo la fondazione, i gesuiti gestivano 444 scuole e nel 1739, poco prima della soppressione della compagnia, avvenuta nel 1773, erano giunte al numero di 669. tuttavia, a partire dal xviii secolo, l’affermazione del xviii secolo si afferma il metodo grammatico-traduttivo, erede del pensiero dei filosofi e grammatici antichi, diventa il più usato fino all’inizio del xx. come conseguenza, l’uso del drama nell’insegnamento si affievolisce. è solo nella seconda metà del xx secolo che, con l’emergere dell’approccio comunicativo e altri fattori culturali, l’utilizzo del teatro come metodologia didattica viene rivalutato e ritorna in auge. 2. nuova linfa per il drama all’inizio degli anni settanta del xx secolo, la teoria generativo-trasformazionale relativa all’analisi del linguaggio, proposta noam chomsky (1957), incomincia ad essere messa in discussione3. in questa visione di competenza linguistica, applicata alla didattica delle lingue straniere, si raggiunge l’obiettivo di garantire una buona conoscenza formale della lingua oggetto di studio, per cui si studia la grammatica, ma non si garantisce la capacità di comunicare efficacemente (magnani, 2002). parallelamente, il metodo orale-situazionale e quello audiolinguale prevedono come attività procedure di tipo prettamente manipolativo-ripetitivo, ideali per la formazione e il consolidamento di abitudini nella lingua straniera. l’esercizio modello è il pattern practice, il cui scopo è appunto quello di impegnare chi apprende assorbendo completamente la sua attenzione in procedure che permettono l’acquisizione delle strutture linguistiche attraverso automatismi comportamentali, ma ricreando, allo stesso tempo, situazioni comunicative isolate e rigide, con risultati, pertanto, poco soddisfacenti. l’autenticità viene a mancare e il passaggio a un utilizzo della lingua in maniera creativa e spontanea è difficilmente attuabile. la reazione a questa pratica consolidata è la nascita dell’approccio comunicativo (savignon, 1997; widdowson, 1990). lo scopo dell’insegnamento di una lingua straniera non può essere il solo conseguimento da parte dell’alunno della semplice competenza linguistica, vale a dire l’insieme delle regole e delle conoscenze che rendono fattibile l’esprimersi con un determinato linguaggio, ma il raggiungimento della ben più complessa e articolata competenza comunicativa, ovvero la capacità di agire per mezzo della lingua all’interno di un determinato contesto in maniera appropriata. altro assunto importante è il legame tra lingua e cultura, che non può essere scisso, pena lo studio di un idioma assolutamente innaturale: l’apprendimento delle lingue straniere dovrebbe essere quindi affiancato al processo di conoscenza della cultura dei paesi nei quali vengono parlate. a partire dalla metà degli anni ’60, negli stati uniti dalla si sviluppano gli approcci umanisticoaffettivi, incentrati sulla creazione di un clima favorevole all’apprendimento e all’uso della lingua: total physical response (asher, 2009), desuggestopedia (lozanov, 1978), natural approach (krashen & terrell, 1983), community language learning (curran, 1976; samimy & rardin, 1994) e silent way (gattegno, 1972). tali approcci sono accomunati dalle seguenti caratteristiche che oggi sono ben presenti e rivestono una certa importanza nella glottodidattica (luise, s.d.): “i’nteresse per tutti gli aspetti della personalità umana, non solo quelli cognitivi, ma anche quelli affettivi e fisici […]”; “[…] maggior limitazione possibile di processi generatori d’ansia” […]; “centralità dell’autorealizzazione della persona in un clima sociale e la ricerca di una piena attuazione delle proprie potenzialità […]”. all’elaborazione dei molteplici approcci, fa da contraltare la riflessione nata in seno alla stessa glottodidattica, ufficialmente nel 1973, con la pubblicazione, la mort du manuel et le déclin de l’illusion méthodologique di debyser, in cui emerge una nuova consapevolezza: l’utilizzo esclusivo e dogmatico di un 3 per una critica sistematica al libro di chomsky, si veda hockett (1968). process drama and glottodrama e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 67 metodo per trasmettere una lingua è errato. si afferma così il metodo eclettico e la didattica integrata (si veda larsen freeman, 1998; prabhu, 1990) che prendono in considerazione anche i diversi stili di apprendimento. si insegna e si impara, dunque in un clima pedagogico rinnovato, in cui “si cerca di realizzare nell’insegnamento linguistico un’esperienza in grado di coinvolgere il discente in tutte le percezioni e nella quale ognuno possa realizzare al meglio le proprie competenze” (magnani, 2002, p. 52). in altre parole, si cerca di abbandonare l’impostazione tradizionale per cui lo studente impara tassativamente seduto al banco e si va incontro a un’idea per cui lo studente sia spinto a imparare usando tutti i sensi e il movimento; in questa situazione di fermento culturale, rinasce il binomio teatro ed educazione di matrice gesuitica, sotto forma di una grande varietà di metodologie che integrano il drama e l’insegnamento delle lingue. 3. process drama e glottodrama nelle pratiche glottodidattiche moderne i docenti hanno a disposizione due distinte metodologie che utilizzano il drama, il process drama e il glottodrama. in entrambe si assiste alla fusione fra teatro e didattica, con l’utilizzo di tecniche di drammatizzazione a scopi educativi. questi approcci sono relativamente recenti e non molto conosciuti nell’ambito dell’insegnamento dell’italiano, ma vantano potenzialità e numerosi vantaggi che si descriveranno nelle seguenti sezioni. 3.1 il process drama nel mondo anglosassone tra gli anni ’60 e ’70 nasce una rinnovata sensibilità nei confronti del teatro prestato alla didattica, il drama in education o process drama. in particolare, l’inglese peter slade fu un pioniere nel considerare le tecniche di recitazione come mezzo per sviluppare creatività e crescita personale (slade, 1954; 1995). negli anni successivi, ricerca e applicazione pratica (stinson, 2008, pp. 193–212), hanno reso la metodologia sempre più affidabile e strutturata con tecniche consolidate: portare all’estremo l’identità fittizia del partecipante, il quale vive il nuovo ruolo e contesto, da cui scaturisce la motivazione a usare la lingua. un punto chiave è da individuare nella figura dell’insegnante4, che ha il ruolo di “insegnante in gioco” (pirola, 2011, p. 465), in termini tecnici teacher in role, immedesimandosi in uno o più personaggi della trama che prenderà vita in classe. da questo punto di vista, il docente lancia quello che viene definito “stimolo iniziale” (piazzola, 2012, p. 136), ovvero lo spunto creativo (un’immagine, un testo, una canzone, un film, ecc.). successivamente il docente partecipa alla costruzione del contesto con lo scopo di estendere le idee e le abilità di linguaggio degli studenti. il teacher in role ha ben presente il suo canovaccio, ma gli studenti ovviamente non sanno cosa aspetti loro e sono liberi di agire e rispondere ai vari input come ritengono più opportuno. attraverso la costruzione comune di questo contesto, gli studenti sperimentano la potenza creativa della lingua e imparano a manipolarla per dar vita a persone, luoghi e vicende, sicuramente con più partecipazione che in qualsiasi gioco di ruolo tradizionale. per raggiungere questo scopo, il process drama impiega attività di diverso tipo (neelands & goode, 2000; pezza, 2011): individuali, nelle quali lo studente dà forma al suo personaggio; di gruppo, dove gli studenti entrano nella parte e interagiscono tra di loro; e collettive, che richiedono di assumere il punto di vista di un personaggio per l’interpretazione di questa figura chiave. di seguito vengono brevemente descritti i tre tipi di attività: thought tracking: si blocca la scena nel corso dell’azione e personaggi rivelano quali sono i loro pensieri in quel momento della vicenda. role reversal: a un certo punto dell’azione i ruoli sono rovesciati, ciascuno assume il ruolo del proprio compagno. questo permette di sperimentare i differenti punti di vista sulla stessa vicenda. role circle: il gruppo sta in cerchio e ciascuno assume un ruolo connesso con la situazione. ognuno 4 l’interpretazione dell’insegnante è fondamentale. si veda per esempio quanto afferma pirola (2011): “affinché un lavoro di process drama possa svilupparsi in modo interessante e costruttivo è determinante il tipo di intervento fatto dall’insegnante su di esso e, soprattutto, la sua qualità...” (p. 466) e poi ancora: la prima volta che erika è ‘entrata in gioco’ nella drammatizzazione mi sono subito resa conto del forte impatto che questo momento stava avendo sull’intera classe. l’insegnante in ruolo portava con sé una tensione drammatica estremamente affascinante in grado di alterare qualsiasi atmosfera. con il suo primo ingresso, erika, ha fornito un ottimo esempio di immedesimazione agli studenti. (pp. 466-467) sponchiado e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 68 dei personaggi conosce un dato sulla vicenda e una frase ciascuno costruiscono una nuova informazione, rilevante per il susseguirsi della storia. hot-seating: la classe (o i diversi gruppi in cui la classe è divisa) intervista un personaggio, in genere per ottenere delle informazioni necessarie a portare a termine un compito assegnato. role on the wall: la classe collabora a delineare la figura di un personaggio chiave. ognuno dà il suo contributo suggerendo caratteristiche del personaggio, che vengono raccolte alla lavagna. multiple role circle: in cui un personaggio (generalmente l'insegnante) fa domande a un personaggio collettivo, intervistando individualmente i singoli studenti: ciascuno deve dare una risposta coerente con quanto detto dagli altri. voices in the head: il gruppo esprime a voce alta i pensieri che compaiono nella mente di uno dei protagonisti, in un momento particolare, in cui deve fare un passo importante per le sorti della vicenda. nella variante coscience alley, il gruppo costituisce fisicamente una sorta di tunnel attraverso cui il protagonista deve passare per arrivare alla sua decisione. if i were you: simile alla precedente attività, ma con finalità differenti per lo svolgimento della trama, il gruppo dà la propria opinione su un tema, mentre un personaggio passa tra due ali di studenti. the mantle of the expert: è il nome che dorothy heathcote, professoressa alla university of newcastle upon tyne, ha dato negli anni ’80 (ma elaborato a partire dagli anni ’60) all’approccio da lei sviluppato durante la sua carriera di insegnante su cui sono stati scritti interi libri (heathcote & bolton, 1995; wagner, 1976) e articoli (sayers, 2011). in questa sede mi limiterò a descriverne i tratti salienti. durante l’impiego di the mantle of the expert gli studenti sono visti come soggetto attivo, invertendo così l’approccio tradizionale, e si basa sul metodo dell’indagine, permettendo a ognuno di dettare il proprio tempo di apprendimento attraverso un’attività creativa. gli studenti sono i principali canali di comunicazione e sono in possesso delle informazioni, che li rendono esperti in quel frangente. la tecnica non è nata per l’insegnamento delle lingue, ma trova nella glottodidattica una grande opportunità di utilizzo5. l’affinità con il metodo gesuitico, oltre all’ovvio utilizzo della recitazione, è da ricercare nella disputatio, la sfida di retorica fra due gruppi di discepoli che senza un copione affrontavano diversi temi, proposti da una terza persona. in maniera analoga l’insegnate “costruisce” una situazione e per emergere da questa gli studenti devono utilizzare le loro preconoscenze linguistiche. il secondo punto in comune è la capacità di diffondere anche contenuti interculturali, come sperimentato e documentato da piazzoli (2008, p. 69). 3.2 il glottodrama probabilmente, il glottodrama è il più diretto discendente del teatro didattico gesuitico. ritroviamo in primo luogo la componente mnemonica preponderante, attraverso la memorizzazione di un testo. viene riproposta la prospettiva di uno spettacolo finale, che incentiva la motivazione nei discenti. inoltre, la capacità di essere adattabile a situazioni differenti entra a far parte del bagaglio comune dei partecipanti il testo da recitare può essere un testo teatrale d’autore, un copione pre-esistente semplificato dal docente o dagli studenti, un testo creato ex novo dall’insegnante per l’occasione o, nel migliore dei casi un testo redatto dagli stessi studenti (magari ispirato a una novella o a una situazione, una vicenda o un fatto di cronaca, particolarmente sentiti)6. ogni apprendente può avere la sua parte nel progetto a seconda della propria propensione. si recupera quindi l’idea, comune anche all’esperienza del total physical response (asher, 1997), che l’associazione tra parole e gesti può favorire l’apprendimento: il coinvolgimento mente e corpo, potenzia l’assimilazione a lungo termine. 5 un esempio della sua applicazione per l’apprendimento della lingua lo troviamo in pezza (2011): alla fine, insomma, la relazione è completamente ribaltata in quanto sono gli studenti a dare consigli all’insegnante, che sveste del tutto il mantello dell’esperto per metterlo nelle mani degli studenti. qui gli studenti non esitano a dare il loro contributo, con consigli di vario tipo… (p. 506). 6 in nofri (2009, p. 79) si legge: alla prova della rappresentazione alcuni dei testi prodotti da noi, da maurizio e da altri collaboratori si rivelano particolarmente adatti alla sperimentazione. altri invece vanno ulteriormente adattati e calibrati sugli studenti. altri sono stati prodotti da loro stessi quando li abbiamo invitati a parlare della loro esperienza e delle loro aspettative. process drama and glottodrama e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 69 carlo nofri (2008) usa le espressioni “amnesia didattica” e “sindrome del gesto dimenticato” (p. 43), ben descrivendo gli aspetti paralinguistici e non verbali della lingua di apprendimento, che sovente vengono tralasciati, ma che vengono ampiamenti utilizzati e appresi grazie al glottodrama. questo concetto era presente persino nell’idea didattica della compagnia, quando proponeva esercizi di retorica in cui ai gesti corrispondevano le parole. anche nel glottodrama l’insegnante ha un ruolo particolare, ma, a differenza del process drama, qui sono due, un insegnante di lingua e un esperto teatrale. questo sdoppiamento della figura è auspicabile, sia perché è molto difficile trovare un insegnante che riesca ad abbinare i due percorsi formativi, sia perché si aspira alla formazione di una sorta di terzo sapere, che emerge dalle due professionalità una volta stabilita una base teorica comune (nofri, 2009). per svolgere al meglio un percorso del genere, si necessita inoltre di un’aula-laboratorio suddivisa in un grammar corner, ovvero, un angolo attrezzato per l’attività di riflessione metalinguistica e una zona palcoscenico. gli esperti consigliano di dedicare alla pratica completa circa 90 ore (nofri, 2009). e qui emerge un’altra differenza con il process drama, in cui il monte ore può, invece, essere decisamente più ristretto. nella prima parte del corso si affronteranno dei micro testi, successivamente un copione o sceneggiatura completa e infine la performance, la quale sicuramente incentiva la motivazione dei ragazzi con il progetto di uno spettacolo (cosa che manca nel process drama). come ben evidenziato da nofri (2009), l’unità didattica ha una struttura circolare: è formata da una fase di riscaldamento teatrale, coerente con le tappe successive, dove si lavora sulla respirazione, sul corpo, sui fonemi e lo spirito di gruppo con attività teatrali. in seguito, partendo da un input situazionale o testuale si avvia la performance. si arriva così alla riflessione linguistica o grammar corner: questa è una parte fondamentale, in cui si presta particolare attenzione alla pronuncia degli studenti, al fine di eliminare gli errori o le abitudini inveterate e gli eventuali dubbi vengono chiariti. qui possono anche comparire esercizi di grammatica. nella sezione actor studio, invece, si inserisce la gestualità e la prossemica dei personaggi, si aiutano gli studenti ad acquisire consapevolezza del proprio modo di comunicare, della gestualità e della mimica. infine, si ritorna alla performance. figura 1. l’unità didattica del glottodrama. ripreso e adattato da nofri (2009, p. 46). in figura 1 è rappresentata una schematizzazione di una lezione di glottodrama: dopo un riscaldamento, l’insegnante propone un input, al quale seguirà la performance. dopo la riflessione linguistica (grammar corner), guidata dal docente preposto, si ha il momento actor studio e infine di nuovo la performance migliorata nella sua componente teatrale e linguistica il discente che utilizza e contemporaneamente apprende una lingua grazie al glottodrama realizza un’esperienza concreta, poiché si stimola l’utilizzo della lingua straniera attraverso il fare. la lingua esercitata non è arida e artefatta, ma è vissuta dallo studente e usata per trasmettere significati concreti. grazie a queste caratteristiche, il glottodrama permette l’acquisizione di nuove parole e strutture. infatti, imparando il copione e applicandolo a una realtà precisa, i discenti usano parole e strutture attivamente e allo stesso sponchiado e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 70 tempo le memorizzano inconsapevolmente. inoltre, il glottodrama permette di sviluppare non solo le quattro abilità linguistiche fondamentali, ma anche la riflessione metalinguistica. chiaramente in questo metodo le abilità orali (parlare, comprendere oralmente) sono privilegiate, ma anche le abilità di comprensione della lettura e la scrittura possono essere migliorate mediante attività di lettura del copione o creazione di un copione. infine, la riflessione metalinguistica può venire esercitata con il grammar corner, nel momento in cui si decide di isolare alcune strutture incontrate nel copione. da queste caratteristiche risulta evidente come il glottodrama possa essere un’attività altamente motivante per lo studente: è un’esperienza di apprendimento emotiva e al tempo stesso pragmatica, perché si agisce nella realtà circostante, in perfetto accordo con le idee di austin (1975). secondo il tipo di metodologia teatrale (diversi obiettivi, organizzazione, contesto, ruolo, le interazioni di classe, la funzione dell’insegnante), si distinguono metodologie che producono comunicazione controllata (controlled communication), semi-controllata e aperta (open communication) (kao & o'neill, 1998, p. 6). figura 2. attività correlate al grado di libertà / controllo della comunicazione. nella figura 2, l’area colorata della freccia rappresenta il grado di libertà nella produzione orale: minore è l’estensione, minore è la libertà e viceversa. quindi alla base, abbiamo il glottodrama con una comunicazione controllata, mentre all’estremo opposto si trovano le attività a comunicazione aperta, come il process drama, con il massimo grado di libertà. al centro troviamo role play e attività di problem – solving con un grado intermedio di spontaneità. al di fuori di questo diagramma grado di libertà praticamente nullo troviamo quelle attività didattiche basate sulla drammatizzazione di un testo dato o su role play molto rigidamente strutturati. seguendo lo schema (figura 2), la differenza tra glottodrama e process drama è evidente: le due metodologie sono posizionate nei due punti opposti. il primo, tra le tecniche a comunicazione controllata (non totalmente chiusa, infatti, il drama esalta le capacità comunicative dei discenti, linguistiche e paralinguistiche, rimane l’espressione vocale, la mimica, la postura del corpo, il gesto, il silenzio, le pause, ecc.), in quanto è mediato da un copione e dall’insegnante-regista e si concentra sull’accuratezza lessicale. più precisamente, la posizione in questo grafico del glottodrama si riferisce alla performance finale; infatti le attività (creatività guidata dai docenti) conducono a una comunicazione semi-controllata e in certi casi (improvvisazione, input situazionali puri) sfiorano addirittura la comunicazione totalmente libera. il secondo, al contrario, è basato sulla comunicazione spontanea, dove i ruoli sono negoziabili e lo stesso teacher in role decide in precedenza i temi da trattare, ma non conosce in anticipo chi deve parlare, quando, e cosa verrà detto e non pone domande la cui risposta è già conosciuta. l’interazione creata rispecchia quindi le caratteristiche dell’approccio comunicativo aperto e si focalizza sulla produzione orale spontanea. process drama and glottodrama e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 71 3.3 perché includere il process drama e il glottodrama? le ragioni per includere il process drama e il glotodrama in un corso di italiano per stranieri sono varie. in primo luogo, entrambi i metodi consentono, innanzitutto, il lavoro integrato su tutte e quattro le abilità linguistiche e comunicative (leggere, parlare, scrivere, ascoltare); di praticare il lessico, l’intonazione e la pronuncia; di promuovere le capacità di interazione, di aiutare a fissare, mediante la pratica e la ripetizione, strutture idiomatiche in uso nel parlato. si rivolgono, inoltre, a tutte le diverse intelligenze ipotizzate da gardner (1983): linguistica, logico-matematica, cinesica, spaziale, interpersonale, musicale, intrapersonale. in secondo luogo, grazie all’aspetto altamente partecipativo, rappresentano un volano per l’apprendimento e la motivazione, elemento fondamentale per l’acquisizione delle lingue straniere. permettono di abbattere la paura di sbagliare, di compromettersi di persona, di essere derisi, le insicurezze; per dirla alla krashen, abbassano, in sostanza, i filtri affettivi che possono paralizzare e impedire un sereno apprendimento. in aggiunta, promuovono la cooperazione e di conseguenza la socializzazione, attraverso la risoluzione di problemi in gruppo (problem-solving) e l’apprendimento esperienziale; infatti, i discenti lavorano insieme concretamente a un compito che realizzeranno. infine. favoriscono una formazione generale della persona, tematica questa molto cara agli approcci di stampo umanistico e al teatro gesuitico. il linguaggio vivo e autentico con cui si entra in contatto con queste tecniche è in accordo con il principio che l’apprendimento non è mai finalizzato a se stesso, ma sempre rivolto all’uso che della lingua si può fare in contesti diversi. il process drama e il glottodrama sono procedimenti interessanti anche per quel che riguarda lo sviluppo delle competenze interculturali che devono essere parte integrante dell’apprendimento di una lingua straniera7. una caratteristica che contraddistingue nettamente le classiche forme di drammatizzazione comunicativa (come le attività di gioco di ruolo, role-making, role-taking, e così via, già ampiamente sfruttate dai metodi comunicativi), dal process drama o dal glottodrama è la proporzione del tempo dedicato a queste attività rispetto alla lezione. i giochi di ruolo e la recitazione non sono più semplicemente una parte della lezione, ma ne diventano la colonna portante. la lezione quindi, si sviluppa interamente attorno alla recitazione, la quale acquista una dignità propria e non sussiste più il bisogno di una giustificazione per usarla. troppo spesso, infatti, l’insegnante è costretto a introdurla, in maniera subordinata rispetto alle altre attività, pur essendo la recitazione stessa una situazione più simile a quella delle interazioni quotidiane informali, alla pragmatica dell’atto comunicativo e quindi probabilmente più utile rispetto alla situazione della lezione frontale. infine, se le scoperte dei neuroni-specchio (di pellegrino, fadiga, fogassi, gallese, rizzolatti, 1992, pp. 176-180) e la loro importanza nello studio del linguaggio (théoret & pascual-leone, 2002, pp. r736– r737), risultassero ulteriormente confermate, acquisterebbe maggiore rilevanza anche l’idea che l’imitazione ha un ruolo centrale nell’apprendimento in generale e più specificatamente per le lingue. i neuroni-specchio si attivano sia durante l’esecuzione di attività fisiche sia quando si osservano altri soggetti compiere queste stesse attività. in altre parole, la percezione di un’azione e l’elaborazione della stessa non sono due vie neuronali diverse ma sono strettamente correlate. quando un individuo vede e successivamente imita il comportamento di un altro, riesce a intenderne la finalità e a riprodurlo, perché sono presenti mappe cognitive simili. l’apprendimento avviene, per così dire, con tutto il corpo. è possibile imparare un movimento e il suo significato attraverso l’osservazione. di conseguenza, attraverso la drammatizzazione, si può imparare una lingua straniera: non si fa altro che imitare le gestualità e i sentimenti altrui, associandovi le parole memorizzate, comprese in maniera consequenziale per il funzionamento del nostro cervello. il significato è il risultato della sommatoria delle informazioni senso-motorie e semantiche, grazie a queste connessioni di aree comuni. 7 come già ampiamente segnalato dalla commissione delle comunità europea (2011), gli stati membri concordano che gli allievi dovrebbero padroneggiare almeno due lingue straniere e sottolineano la necessità che essi siano dotati di un'efficace capacità comunicativa, vale a dire competenze attive piuttosto che una conoscenza passiva (…) che si combini con competenze interculturali. (parte 1. para i.2) e più avanti: è importante che gli insegnanti di lingue siano sufficientemente esperti nell'uso della lingua straniera e nella comprensione della cultura ad essa associata. tutti gli insegnanti di una lingua straniera dovrebbero aver trascorso un discreto periodo nel paese in cui si parla tale lingua ed avere la possibilità di aggiornare regolarmente le loro conoscenze. (parte 1. para ii.3) sponchiado e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 72 4. cronaca del tentativo di applicare il drama a colorado college in veste di cultural program coordinator (cpc), presso colorado college ho il compito di insegnare italiano, sia durante le adjants classes (lezioni pomeridiane facoltative, aperte agli studenti, docenti e personale dell’università), sia come assistente del professore di ruolo, andrea righi. il college è un’antica istituzione nata nel 1874, che imposta il suo insegnamento basandosi sul block plan: adottato nel 1970, questo sistema accademico permette agli studenti di approfondire un corso ogni tre settimane e mezzo (i giorni rimanenti dell’ultima settimana sono di riposo, prima di riprendere gli studi con il block successivo), invece di gestire più materie a semestre, come accade nei classici percorsi universitari. gli studenti quindi frequentano un corso in maniera intensiva a block, nel quale si svolge lo stesso programma che normalmente si avrebbe in un semestre. questo sistema offre molti vantaggi: non ci sono conflitti o interferenze con altri corsi, la concentrazione è rivolta verso un solo tema ed è minore la dispersione e l’abbandono. il college, inoltre, si definisce liberal arts ed è caratterizzato da tre peculiarità principali: a) un’attenzione particolare allo studente, garantita da un basso rapporto professori-studenti (un insegnante ogni dieci studenti); b) lo svolgimento di numerosi eventi con tematiche culturali, politiche e intellettuali che altrimenti non avrebbero la possibilità di essere conosciute dagli studenti; c) un curriculum volto a impartire agli studenti una cultura generale e sviluppare le capacità intellettuali, in contrasto con università mono vocazionali e professionalizzanti. per queste ragioni colorado college impone agli studenti di inserire nel proprio piano di studi una lingua straniera per almeno due block. ciononostante, per quanto riguarda l’apprendimento delle lingue straniere, il block plan mostra i suoi limiti. infatti, i discenti, a causa dell’impostazione intensiva del corso, sono costretti ogni giorno a incamerare un numero elevato di nozioni. un aspetto rilevante dell’apprendimento è l’assimilazione: un soggetto specifico non può essere trascurato ma deve essere ricordato per un periodo di tempo più o meno lungo, perché costituisce la base per quelli successivi. un argomento, nel migliore dei casi, è recepito in classe, ma deve anche essere successivamente assimilato, grazie all’abitudine quotidiana del ripasso a casa, cosa fattibile in un corso di alcune ore alla settimana, ma più complicato quando la classe ha ritmi quotidiani incalzanti. nell’organizzazione giornaliera dello studio a volte manca questo passaggio e non c’è il tempo di sedimentare la materia e farla propria. gli studenti non riescono, se non a fatica, a fare il salto tra conoscere la grammatica e utilizzare la grammatica, cioè produrre frasi proprie e cominciare a fare un uso attivo e originale della lingua straniera. per dirla con il quadro comune europeo di riferimento delle lingue (qcer, consiglio d’europa, 2001), spesso i discenti hanno difficoltà, soprattutto per quanto concerne la produzione orale, a passare dal livello a28 al livello b19, in quanto la transizione non risulta essere efficace per il salto linguistico necessario ad acquisire tali competenze. gli stessi professori dei programmi di lingue di colorado college, si sono accorti di quanto sia difficile per gli allievi poter sviluppare le capacità comunicative in ls, anche alla fine dei due mesi di corso. da questa riflessione nasce la mia proposta, volta al potenziamento delle abilità orali degli alunni mediante attività legate al process drama e al glottodrama. questa proposta è in linea con altre sperimentazioni di questo tipo al colorado college, come quella di mirti (2009) in cui venne coinvolta una una compagnia di burattinai. la prima domanda che mi sono posto è se fossi in grado di portare avanti con successo un tale compito. infatti, faggiano (2010, p. 302) ammonisce: “condizione dunque necessaria è una adeguata formazione degli insegnanti che si dovrebbe realizzare in due modi: a) una formazione di base: espressione orale, corporale, drammatica; b) una formazione seguita dalla realizzazione di un’esperienza teatrale”. anche piazzoli (2011, p. 442) avverte: nell’ambito universitario australiano, nel quale opero, il percorso di formatore/formatrice process drama prevede una laurea in pedagogia e arte drammatica; si richiede, infatti, sia 8 nella griglia di autovalutazione del qcer (consiglio d’europa, 2002), in merito alla interazione per livello a2 si legge: riesco a comunicare affrontando compiti semplici e di routine che richiedano solo uno scambio semplice e diretto di informazioni su argomenti e attività consuete. riesco a partecipare a brevi conversazioni, anche se di solito non capisco abbastanza per riuscire a sostenere la conversazione. 9 nella griglia di autovalutazione del qcer (consiglio d’europa, 2002), in merito alla interazione per livello b1 si legge: riesco ad affrontare molte delle situazioni che si possono presentare viaggiando in una zona dove si parla la lingua. riesco a partecipare, senza essermi preparato, a conversazioni su argomenti familiari, di interesse personale o riguardanti la vita quotidiana (per es. la famiglia, gli hobby, il lavoro, i viaggi e i fatti d'attualità)”. process drama and glottodrama e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 73 una sensibilità artistica verso l’estetica teatrale, che una sensibilità pedagogica verso i processi di acquisizione e apprendimento. il sapersi giostrare fra queste due funzioni è un’operazione delicata, che crea le basi dell’estetica del process drama. ho superato questo senso di inferiorità ritenendo questa come un’opportunità di ricerca sul metodo e di crescita personale. senza contare che questi metodi calzavano con la soluzione delle problematiche rilevate e sarebbe stato un errore non inserirli. l’esperienza e la capacità dell’insegnante nel decifrare il contesto deve anche trasformarsi nella possibilità di sperimentare nell’aula, applicando metodi innovativi e stimolanti in grado di coinvolgere il più possibile. in questa prospettiva, ho deciso di intraprendere questo percorso didattico per esplorarne le potenzialità e proponendomi i seguenti obiettivi: 1) potenziare principalmente le abilità comunicative degli alunni mediante attività di drammatizzazione, pur conducendo un corso integrativo al corso istituzionale; 2) favorire la socializzazione all’interno della classe e l’espressione spontanea in l2; 3) osservare le reazioni degli apprendenti, l’interesse e la motivazione davanti a questo nuovo approccio didattico. successivamente, mi sono posto il problema di come attuare i principi dei due metodi in condizioni lontane da quelli ideali, le quali però sono le condizioni con cui, nella mia esperienza, ha a che fare la maggior parte degli insegnanti. questa è la situazione: partecipanti: 25 anglofoni (di cui 2 bilingui inglese/spagnolo e una ragazza che ha frequentato un liceo francese) tra i 16 e i 21 anni (con l’eccezione di un ragazzo di 24). le motivazioni per cui imparano l’italiano sono le più disparate: lontani parenti italiani, interesse per lingue romanze, la storia dell’arte, obbligo da parte dell’istituzione in cui studiano di frequentare almeno un corso di lingue; spazio: un’aula non attrezzata per le attività drammatiche, ma con proiettore e lavagna magnetica; livello: a1 all’inizio, a2/b1 verso la fine dei due mesi di corso; durata: 3 incontri di 1 ora ciascuno a settimana, per 3 settimane (gli ultimi giorni della quarta settimana erano lasciati liberi per lo studio dell’esame di fine corso). quindi 9 ore per ogni block per un totale di 18 ore (più il lavoro da svolgere singolarmente o in gruppo a casa, ammontare non chiaramente quantificabile). pezza (2011) ha evidenziato che esiste un problema relativo alla presenza incostante dei partecipanti alle attività di process drama, dovuta ad assenze o aggiunte ad attività iniziate: parlando, invece, degli elementi che possono creare problemi a un buon lavoro di process drama, metterei al primo posto l’introduzione di nuovi soggetti all’interno del gruppo. questo è stato, purtroppo, uno degli aspetti negativi a cui ho dovuto far fronte molto spesso. (p. 499) tenendo presente che tale eventualità avrebbe potuto effettivamente mettere in difficoltà la gestione del percorso, ho evitato che il problema si presentasse concedendo agli studenti punti extra per le lezioni pomeridiane (per non intaccare eccessivamente il monte ore delle lezioni mattutine) da aggiungere al punteggio del progetto (20% del totale del voto finale). questo sistema è stato avviato nel secondo block, dove le assenze avrebbero danneggiato lo svolgimento lineare del progetto. ad ogni modo, il totale di questi punti aumenta il voto finale del 3%, pertanto questa percentuale non è in grado di innalzare il voto finale di una lettera. insomma, una piccola motivazione aggiuntiva che però ha dato i suoi frutti in termini di costanza delle presenze. secondo l’esperienza di pirola (2011), risulta, inoltre, molto utile per uno svolgimento ottimale di un process drama la presenza di un numero adeguato di partecipanti: l’ideale sarebbe lavorare con 10 o massimo 15 studenti. sotto tale cifra risulterebbe difficoltoso svolgere alcune attività per le quali è necessario avere un numero minimo di partecipanti, come per esempio durante i “quadri viventi”; superata invece la soglia dei 15 studenti si potrebbero riscontrare difficoltà di coordinazione sponchiado e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 74 e gestione del lavoro in un gruppo classe che risulterebbe decisamente troppo ampio e dispersivo. (p. 473) per quanto riguarda il numero elevato di studenti, ho cercato di gestirli dividendoli, quando possibile, in due o più gruppi di lavoro, ma non erano fissi (se si esclude il gruppo per il progetto finale), anzi venivano appositamente cambiati durante specifiche attività, per evitare che si formassero in classe coppie fisse che avrebbero inficiato il processo di socializzazione. per quanto riguarda lo spazio (elemento importante in entrambi i metodi), tutte le attività si sono svolte nella stessa aula dove si svolgeva il corso di italiano elementare, in cui ho solo potuto creare un po’ di spazio spostando i banchi. quando possibile, ho lavorato all’aperto (forse più coinvolgente e stimolante), utilizzando gli ampi spazi verdi del college. 4.1 prima attività ispirata ai principi del process drama durante il primo incontro, gli studenti avevano alle spalle solo 6 ore di lingua italiana e come rompi ghiaccio, sia per vincere le loro resistenze a mettersi in gioco, sia per avvicinarli alle lezioni che sarebbero seguite successivamente, ho usato “nuove identità”, attività tratta dal libro di anelli (2007, pp. 10-11). lo scopo dell’attività è quello di girare per la classe facendosi reciprocamente domande, pertanto ho distribuito preventivamente agli studenti dei cartoncini colorati con su scritte le loro nuove identità: nome, cognome, età e numero di telefono e appeso alla lavagna, invece, fogli laminati con le domande più comuni al fine di presentarsi e conoscersi. una volta ottenute tutte le informazioni dai compagni, gli studenti hanno compilato la scheda “informazioni personali” con i dettagli mancanti. prima di tutto ciò, come input visuale, ho proiettato un’immagine di una festa, in cui era raffigurato uno striscione con scritto “buon compleanno, marco!”. ho chiesto loro dove poteva svolgersi la scena (in una casa, probabilmente in italia, ecc.); cosa stava succedendo (una festa di compleanno, per marco, ecc.); di chi era la festa; insomma tutte domande semplici, calibrate sulle loro conoscenze. una volta ottenuto il quadro generale, ho spiegato che anche loro erano presenti alla festa e dovevano presentarsi in italiano agli altri invitati. ognuno ha impersonato il proprio personaggio ed è incominciata l’attività descritta sopra. ho partecipato anch’io in prima persona per dare il buon esempio, aiutare nella pronuncia o correggere piccoli errori. la successiva variante è stata presentare un terzo invitato. il fatto di immedesimarsi in un’altra persona, ha abbassato il filtro affettivo e di conseguenza spronato la produzione della lingua bersaglio. nonostante l’attività fosse semplice e a comunicazione controllata, le maggior parte dei ragazzi ha sviluppato la sua nuova personalità arricchendola con dettagli non verbali (segno di grande coinvolgimento): mimiche, tono di voce, gestualità. è il caso di una ragazza che impersonava un aviatore e, presentandosi con voce baritonale, salutava gli altri con un saluto militare, portando la mano al cappello, invece della normale stretta di mano. successivamente ho cercato di portare avanti le attività in modo graduale, di non calcare troppo la mano e decidere la progressione anche in base alle reazioni che gli studenti potevano avere di volta in volta, per accompagnarli gradatamente in questo percorso sperimentale, evitando che non lo accettassero per il timore di perdere la faccia. questa modalità d’azione, mi ha permesso di osare fino ad arrivare a proporre, come progetto finale, un’attività basata sul glottodrama. visto che la classe aveva reagito in maniera positiva, ho affrontato il passo successivo. il ruolo dell’insegnante è un elemento distintivo degli approcci in cui si usa la recitazione come strumento di apprendimento; l’insegnante partecipa infatti in prima persona interpretando un ruolo e aiuta, così, il resto dei partecipanti a vestire i panni dei nuovi personaggi. temendo di risultare inadeguato e di non essere all’altezza, ho utilizzato un espediente: ho selezionato alcuni spezzoni di un film per coinvolgere i discenti nell’attività e al tempo stesso mantenere vivo il loro interesse. inoltre, gli studenti avrebbero dovuto interpretare i personaggi della pellicola, quindi sarebbe stato più semplice calarsi nella parte, seguendo conseguentemente il canovaccio del film. la scelta è caduta su happy family (2010), di gabriele salvatores. il soggetto nasce come spettacolo teatrale, scritto nel 2004 da alessandro genovesi, e proprio per questa sua sceneggiatura, che conserva molto della struttura originale, offre indubbi vantaggi per l’utilizzo a fini didattici. inoltre, nelle scene iniziali i personaggi si presentano agli spettatori, facilitando così il processo di immedesimazione10 (anche se ho provveduto a un’attenta cernita delle scene, per evitare monologhi troppo lunghi e difficili). da notare, inoltre, come la molteplicità dei tanti coprotagonisti sia d’aiuto 10 a titolo esplicativo, la presentazione di vincenzo, interpretato da fabrizio bentivoglio, uno dei protagonisti del film happy family: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yjvxk2mqni process drama and glottodrama e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 75 per distribuire meglio i ruoli e come ogni personalità offra spunti interessanti di riflessione di cui parlare in classe. uno dei temi del film è la famiglia che sta cambiando: da quella tradizionale, impersonata dai combi, a quella allargata, rappresentata dagli agosti, passando per ezio, scapolo e un po’ mammone, in cerca di una fidanzata. per far eseguire l’enrollment, vale a dire l’immedesimazione, ho diviso gli studenti in due gruppi, in due ore diverse. ho sottoposto quindi agli studenti questo il seguente spezzone: ezio colanzi, protagonista del film, si trova in un letto di ospedale con la testa fasciata, probabilmente vittima di un incidente. i ruoli degli studenti sono stati estratti a caso, ma ognuno era stato approfondito in precedenza attraverso una variante del role on the wall: gli aggettivi da abbinare al personaggio erano già stati preparati, per evitare troppa dispersione e guadagnare tempo. in questo modo, ogni studente è entrato nella parte più facilmente. nonostante il numero elevato di personaggi nella trama del film – nove alcuni sono stati interpretati da due studenti contemporaneamente, per evitare di doverne escludere qualcuno. per quest’attività, ho utilizzato la tecnica del role circle: ezio ha perso la memoria e fa domande a tutti i personaggi per scoprire cosa sia successo e sul perché lui si trovi in ospedale. ogni personaggio possiede delle informazioni sulla vicenda, ma queste sono slegate fra loro, pertanto gli studenti-personaggi dovranno ricostruire in maniera coerente il fatto accaduto utilizzando una frase ciascuno. le informazioni in loro possesso non sono altro che delle immagini, a cui avrebbero dovuto ispirarsi, distribuite in maniera casuale e, allo scopo di completare l’attività, dovevano essere utilizzare tutte. nei primi minuti io stesso ho impersonato ezio, per cercare di trascinare gli studenti nell’immedesimazione e far comprendere appieno l’esercizio, successivamente ho lasciato il ruolo ad altri studenti. per cercare di dare un filo logico e continuativo all’attività, nell’incontro successivo ho inventato un personaggio da me interpretato: l’avvocato di ezio, che pretende una testimonianza scritta dell’incidente. a questo punto, ho spiegato loro le modalità e i parametri per stendere il verbale. l’obiettivo era duplice: da una parte inserire dei compiti scritti all’interno della finzione, sempre attraverso la drammatizzazione, per contrastare l’idea errata, confermata da svariate comunicazioni personali da parte dei colleghi, che non ci si possa avvalere del drama per incrementare le abilità legate alla componente di scrittura. dall’altra, desideravo proporre differenti interpretazioni e osservare le reazioni di chi mi stava di fronte, per capirne il grado di coinvolgimento. successivamente, ho notato che l’autorità datami dal fatto di essere un avvocato, mi ha sicuramente aiutato nell’imporre agli studenti un verbale eseguito con determinati canoni, per esempio l’uso dei tempi imperfetto e passato prossimo, che l’insegnante con cui collaboro mi aveva chiesto di ripassare. dunque gli studenti, grazie al coinvolgimento ottenuto, hanno assunto comportamenti diversi di riflesso alla mia interpretazione e allo scenario, evidentemente immaginato, in cui si trovavano. infine, come descritto da piazzoli (2012), con questa interpretazione è stato possibile cambiare registro, introdurre un linguaggio formale e minimizzare le caratteristiche che fanno parte del linguaggio (semplificato e poco formale, con un ritmo lento ed espressioni e gesti enfatizzati) dell’insegnante. come ultima fase ispirata al process drama, ho fatto risolvere agli studenti un piccolo giallo, che viene raccontato dal solito ezio durante una cena a cui partecipano anche tutti gli altri co-protagonisti11. come attività di riscaldamento ho utilizzato il gioco storie gialle, cinquanta misteri da risolvere (bösch, 2008), in cui il narratore legge la situazione finale di un misfatto e i giocatori devono ricostruire i particolari di ogni caso, passo per passo, facendo domande. il narratore, uno studente messo a conoscenza della soluzione, poteva rispondere alle domande solo con un “sì”, “no” o “irrilevante”. in altre parole, ho dato a tutti gli studenti il ruolo del detective, ma invece dell’insegnante nel ruolo del cliente ho messo uno studentenarratore. questa è una semplice applicazione del mantello dell’esperto. lo stesso processo è stato utilizzato con il film: ho fatto introdurre il caso da ezio, ma sul più bello ho fermato la scena e ho chiesto agli studenti, sempre nei panni dei personaggi del film, di ipotizzare la fine e di fare domande a ezio (interpretato da me). alla fine abbiamo comprovato la conclusione della storia da loro ipotizzata, semplicemente finendo di guardare il film. l’attività ha avuto molto successo ed è stata ritenuta anche divertente dagli stessi corsisti. 4.2 seconda attività ispirata al glottodrama dopo aver diviso la classe in cinque gruppi di cinque persone ciascuno, ho svelato alla classe la mia idea di progetto finale: la realizzazione di un video (uno per gruppo), di cui gli studenti avrebbero scritto il 11 per una visione completa della scena: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzh-u61gaga sponchiado e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 76 copione e in seguito recitato davanti alla telecamera. così è stata inserita all’interno del progetto anche un’introduzione sull’impiego delle nuove tecnologie: macchine digitali e un programma di montaggio video. la preparazione è stata realizzata all’interno di circa 9 incontri pomeridiani di un’ora ciascuno. molto del lavoro è stato però svolto, soprattutto nelle fasi finali, dagli studenti al di fuori dell’orario di lezione. le regole da rispettare erano poche: tutti avrebbero dovuto avere una parte da recitare e il video doveva essere ispirato, in qualche maniera, a un argomento affrontato durante le lezioni del corso istituzionale, questo allo scopo di creare un legame tra le due attività. il vantaggio di questa attività è costituito dal fatto che ognuno può trovare il proprio spazio. i discenti scelgono l’attività a loro più congeniale, dando così il proprio personale contributo alla realizzazione di un progetto comune: chi è più portato per la recitazione avrà un ruolo più centrale nella vicenda (fermo restando che tutti devono avere una parte); chi si sente più a suo agio dietro la telecamera, sceglierà il ruolo di cameraman; chi ama inventare storie, darà un contributo maggiore alla creazione del soggetto e ai dialoghi. ognuno svolgerà un compito ugualmente importante nell’ambito della performance. l’idea è quella di consegnare ai discenti un pacchetto didattico dal quale ognuno possa trarre motivazione e beneficio, in base alle proprie capacità e specificità in modo che ognuno si senta allo stesso modo coinvolto nel progetto e utile al completamento dell’attività. le prime due ore sono state spese da parte degli studenti per cercare un soggetto e stendere un canovaccio. ho raccolto le diverse ipotesi formulate oralmente; ho chiesto di apportare modifiche o ampliare il racconto, ma senza intervenire sulla trama. si è poi proceduto alla scrittura del copione e alla sua correzione da parte mia con alcune osservazioni su alcune strutture grammaticali usate. partendo dai copioni elaborati nella sessione precedente, i quali erano già ideati in base ai ruoli che i differenti alunni avrebbero dovuto assumere, hanno eseguito una prima prova di messa in scena, modificando e migliorando i dialoghi (spesso alcune parti sono da posporre, anticipare, o addirittura da rielaborare ed è possibile verificarlo solo con la messa in atto). ogni modifica è stata annotata sul copione ufficiale, con anche alcune indicazioni sulla recitazione, i costumi e la scenografia (se pur minime). prima della rappresentazione, ho preso singolarmente ogni gruppo e, per aiutare a focalizzare meglio il personaggio da interpretare, ho usato la tecnica, role on the wall, in cui gli studenti scrivevano un aggettivo per descrivere il carattere o lo stato emozionale di ogni personaggio su un foglietto, il quale veniva sistemato sulla lavagna con un magnete. come ultimo passaggio gli studenti hanno provato a imparare a memoria il copione. durante l’ultima prova prima del ciak si sono valutate le esecuzioni e riprovate le singole battute o i dialoghi, cercando di migliorare la correttezza della pronuncia. infine, la videoripresa della performance della versione rivista e migliorata. il risultato sono stati cinque simpatici video. il primo video mette in scena un gruppo di persone che si ritrovano insieme il 21 dicembre 2012, giorno delle fine del mondo secondo la famosa profezia maya, e discutono delle loro vite e in merito alla veridicità della stessa profezia. il secondo video, ispirato a calciopoli, mette in scena un commissario di polizia che indaga su un caso di aggressione a un giocatore di calcio. i sospettati sono un altro giocatore, il procuratore della vittima e un allenatore, tutti in combutta ai danni dello sfortunato fuoriclasse. il terzo è ambientato in un gabinetto psicologico specializzato in terapia di coppia: la dottoressa cerca di capire cosa non funziona nella dinamica interpersonale, ponendo domande e proponendo esercizi, fino a scoprire il problema principale. il quarto ha come protagonista un fantomatico cantante italiano, che vive ancora in famiglia e desidera rendersi utile, ma purtroppo la sua fama lo precede e gli impedisce di realizzare i suoi progetti. per questa ragione decide di trasferirsi negli stati uniti d’america e dedicare la sua vita all’insegnamento dell’italiano. l’ultimo è una parodia di un reality show: un don giovanni viziato e superficiale, attraverso un noto programma televisivo, cerca la partner ideale tra quattro ragazze, tutte con particolari talenti e personalità. le prime ad essere deluse e a scappare di fronte al pretendente, saranno proprio quest’ultime, nonostante il loro iniziale desiderio di trovare un fidanzato. l’ultima ora è stata forse la tappa più costruttiva del percorso didattico: abbiamo visionato i video prodotti e tutti insieme abbiamo discusso di cosa avremmo potuto migliorare, sia dal punto di vista tecnico e artistico, sia dal punto di vista linguistico, e dove avrebbero dovuto impegnarsi di più. in generale gli alunni, se si considera anche al poco tempo a disposizione, hanno prodotto video all’altezza della situazione. 5. analisi comparative e conclusioni nella prima parte di questo scritto ho voluto sottolineare le radici storiche dell’utilizzo del drama nella didattica per due ragioni: la prima è sicuramente la volontà di ristabilire una corretta visione storica, process drama and glottodrama e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 77 scevra da mode e visioni che guardano sempre al mondo anglosassone come portatore di novità, e che in realtà ci segnala legami più ampi con l’emergenza di paradigmi epistemologici ora in vigore. in secondo luogo, il fatto che questo metodo sia stato già utilizzato e riscoperto più volte, significa che esso non solo gode di un certo intrinseco prestigio, ma ciò attesta anche la sua efficacia. la seconda parte è invece il frutto dell’applicazione del metodo, gestito in prima persona presso colorado college, e i risultati ottenuti. sicuramente, per le ragioni scritte precedentemente, si sono notati molti aspetti positivi, non ultimo interesse ed entusiasmo da parte degli studenti. questo clima ha contagiato anche gli insegnanti come testimonia la conclusione di righi, titolare della cattedra di italiano a colorado college: posso affermare che rispetto al corso di italiano elementare tenuto durante l’anno accademico 2011-2012, l’utilizzo di un più completo e approfondito approccio di didattica integrata, (grazie alle attività specifiche svolte dal dott. sponchiado a complemento delle mie lezioni, ha prodotto un miglioramento evidente. ciò si evince senz’altro dai risultati generali dei test settimanali, che rispetto all’anno precedente mostrano punteggi complessivamente più alti. ma il dato più incoraggiante sta nella semplice predisposizione a elaborare frasi in italiano: molti studenti riuscivano a parlare spontaneamente anche di questioni grammaticali, dimostrando quindi di aver raggiunto una competenza a livello meta-riflessivo che non è semplice da acquisire durante un corso iniziale. anche la pronuncia e la comprensibilità generale del linguaggio impiegato sono notevolmente migliorate rispetto all’anno precedente. certamente si riscontrano ancora alcuni problemi a livello di coniugazione verbale e di concordanze di genere e numero, ma la costruzione della frase e l’ordine degli elementi risultava sufficientemente corretta, tale quindi da permettere uno scambio comunicativo appropriato per il livello del corso. (a. righi, comunicazione personale, gennaio, 2013). ovviamente questa esperienza ha avuto momenti di impasse se non addirittura di sconforto, legati a problemi organizzativi, stanchezza, assenze, mancata memorizzazione del copione e alle tempistiche sicuramente troppo ridotte che a volte non collimavano coi programmi da me prestabiliti. ad ogni modo, per capire se i risultati fossero concreti, ho utilizzato come controllo negativo (ovvero dei soggetti paragonabili, che non erano stati sottoposti alla metodologia process drama e glottodrama), la classe dell’anno precedente e i suoi voti finali. figura 3. confronto gruppo process drama/glottodrama vs. gruppo di controllo. sponchiado e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 78 in figura 3 sono presentati i voti finali, da a a d. tali voti sono il risultato della somma dei punteggi dei vari esami e test, della stessa tipologia per le due classi, fatti durante l’arco dei due block. il gruppo sottoposto alla metodologia process drama e glottodrama è composto da 25 partecipanti, mentre il gruppo di controllo da 24. il gruppo precedente era formato da ventiquattro studenti, di cui un ispanofono, con parametri (età, preparazione scolastica, motivazione) e situazione paragonabili. in particolare, tra il primo e il secondo guppo non ci sono state variazioni in termini di docente di ruolo, libro, programma, verifiche, block plan; è evidente, dunque che l’unica variazione consiste nell’attività di process drama/glottodrama. il risultato è visibile nell’istogramma riportato nella figura 3: nel gruppo di controllo i voti coprono un’area più ampia, vanno dall’insufficienza, “d”, fino al voto massimo “a”. si osservano quindi quasi tutte le sfumature possibili. nel gruppo sottoposto al process drama e lottodrama i voti si concentrano nella parte destra del grafico, tra la “b” e la “a”. l’effetto appare positivo e sembra aver eliminato completamente i voti più bassi, con uno spostamento generale dei voti verso l’alto. il grafico ci mostra come a beneficiare di questa tecnica siano probabilmente tutti gli studenti (ma oltre il voto “a” non è possibile registrare i miglioramenti), ma soprattutto quelli che nel gruppo di controllo coprivano la fascia di voti bassi. in altre parole, con questo approccio si è riusciti a comunicare e a trasmettere il contenuto delle lezioni anche agli studenti che di solito hanno qualche difficoltà. probabilmente attraverso una prospettiva olistica, che comunica a livelli diversi e con stimoli di tipo più globale rispetto alla lezione classica, si è riusciti a trascinare nel vivo della lingua anche gli alunni che generalmente sono poco coinvolti e alla fine rimangono esclusi. il libro di testo usato a lezione, sentieri. attraverso l’italia contemporanea (cozzarelli, 2011), non soddisfava a pieno le necessità di apprendimento. infatti, nonostante gli sforzi dell’autrice di introdurre dei video e una grafica attraente, che semplifica la consultazione delle varie parti di cui è composto il volume, questo libro di testo è impostato principalmente sul metodo grammatico-traduttivo: “it emphasizes frequently used vocabulary, and it presents grammar as a tool for effective communication” (p. iae-5). inoltre, il testo resta pesantemente ancorato al metalinguaggio, rivelandosi adatto per studenti che hanno allenato prevalentemente l’intelligenza logico-matematica e linguistica (gardner, 1983). ritengo sia proprio questo il punto di forza di questo metodo che si adatta a tutti gli otto tipi d’intelligenza e interagisce attraverso i tre canali sensoriali: auditivo, visivo e cinestetico. un altro aspetto su cui porre l’accento è l’impatto positivo che l’idea di realizzare un progetto ha sugli studenti. l’impulso è duplice: la prospettiva di impegnarsi per un obiettivo tangibile e vicino (concetto già ampiamento compreso dai gesuiti), ovvero la realizzazione del filmato, moltiplica gli sforzi degli studenti e quindi il loro risultato. inoltre l’instaurarsi di un’interessante dinamica corale ha incoraggiato l’esito favorevole: il gruppo fa emergere il sentimento di uno scopo comune, stimola una maggiore responsabilizzazione, interdipendenza fra i componenti. il fallimento del singolo equivale al fallimento di tutti; questo determina di conseguenza un circolo virtuoso in cui ogni membro cerca di svolgere il proprio compito al meglio e sostiene gli sforzi degli altri. si individuano e valorizzano le attitudini e le qualità dei singoli, favorendo comportamenti creativi, reciproca appartenenza e un maggiore accumulo di esperienze e conoscenze. nel caso specifico anche la situazione di competizione e lo spirito di squadra hanno giocato un ruolo positivo: ovviamente ogni gruppo desiderava realizzare il prodotto migliore e questo ha aumentato l’impegno e di conseguenza l’apprendimento. infine, è importante enfatizzare anche l’aspetto ludico dell’attività proposta, nella quale i partecipanti associano lo studio dell’italiano a qualcosa di divertente e allo stesso tempo hanno modo di imparare. questo è particolarmente utile per costruire quel rapporto simpatetico tra i discenti e l’insegnante, fondamentale per motivarli anche nelle classi successive. a mia conoscenza, tutti gli studi di confronto fatti sinora12, sono basati su apprendenti volontari, i quali quindi erano altamente motivati nei confronti della lingua straniera e avevano (o pensavano di avere) una propensione per il metodo. nessuna sorpresa dunque che il risultato sia stato positivo. al contrario, questo studio mostra il confronto tra due gruppi paragonabili, classe di controllo e classe sottoposta a process drama e glottodrama, sia per tipologia di gruppo (età, formazione scolastica, l1), sia per motivazione all’apprendimento della lingua straniera, ristabilendo così una più corretta visione nel paragone fra i dati del gruppo sperimentale e quello di controllo. 12 si veda per esempio questo caso di studio svolto in francia, utilizzando il glottodrama, presso l’univerità paris 1 e descritto in jacoponi (2008): “le iscrizioni sono state libere e su domanda del discente” (p. 58). altri esempi, prendendo in considerazione il process drama, si possono osservare in pirola (2011), esperienza svolta in spagna, a valencia, presso il centro giacomo leopardi, e infine in piazzoli (2011), svolto in italia presso l’università degli studi di milano nel giugno 2010. process drama and glottodrama e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 79 il timore iniziale era di non essere in grado di gestire il nuovo ruolo di insegnante-attore che dovevo sostenere (una novità per me, in quanto nella mia formazione non rientra una preparazione attoriale). questa difficoltà l’ho riscontrata in particolar modo nell’attività ispirata al process drama, in cui bisognava essere coinvolti in prima persona e trascinare nell’immedesimazione e recitazione i presenti. l’utilizzo di un film, la pellicola di salvatores happy family, ha risolto in parte il problema ed è risultato un ottimo mezzo per l’attività successiva in cui i partecipanti hanno realizzato dei cortometraggi. questa seconda attività è stata sicuramente la più riuscita dal punto di vista didattico e il mio ruolo si è ridotto, dando spazio alla creatività e voglia di fare della classe. questo non significa che il lavoro da svolgere da parte mia fosse diminuito, ma era subordinato al lavoro degli studenti (correggere il copione, i sottotitoli, leggere il testo, aiutare la corretta pronuncia), che diventavano i protagonisti del proprio apprendimento. tra le questioni che mi ero proposto di indagare c’era quella di osservare le reazioni degli apprendenti, l’interesse e la motivazione davanti a questo nuovo approccio didattico. pensavo, a torto, che molti partecipanti si sarebbero sentiti imbarazzati, avrebbero avuto paura di esporsi, di fare insomma una brutta figura. complice il fatto che l’istituzione presso cui lavoro è un liberal arts college, molti studenti avevano già avuto contatti con la drammaturgia o semplicemente con l’utilizzo della telecamera e programmi per video editing, la maggior parte era a proprio agio e il mio dubbio si è presto rivelato infondato. in conclusione, questa esperienza non vuole contrapporre diversi metodi per eleggere il migliore, ma integra un percorso classico universitario con il drama, nella convinzione che l’insegnamento di una lingua straniera passi attraverso un programma strutturato, che sappia appropriarsi del meglio di attività e metodi differenti, coinvolgendo i discenti in un’esperienza totalizzante, nella quale ognuno possa esprimersi al meglio, circostanza resa possibile dall’introduzione del drama. grazie alla varietà di attività che quest’ultimo propone e all’interessamento che suscita, si ottiene un apprendimento più immediato e duraturo, favorendo non solo una vera acquisizione della lingua ma anche un coinvolgimento del discente, rendendolo non uno spettatore passivo, ma un protagonista dinamico, in grado di sviluppare nuovi processi d’apprendimento messi in movimento da una piccola mediazione del docente. riferimenti bibliografici anelli, angela (2007). tante idee ... per (far) apprendere l'italiano: livello principianti/ pre-intermedio (qcer: a1-b1). roma, italia: bonacci. asher, james j. 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(2009). il teatro dei gesuiti. un esperimento di educazione del cittadino tra il 1500 e il 1600 in europa. annali rivista di ateneo, università degli studi suor orsola benincasa – napoli, 1, 223-231. slade, peter (1954). child drama. londra, regno unito: university of london press. slade, peter (1995). child play: its importance for human development. londra, regno unito: j. kingsley publishers. stinson, madonna (2008). process drama and teaching english to speakers of other languages. in michael anderson, john hughes and jacqueline manuel (eds.), drama and english teaching: imagination, action and engagement (pp. 193–212). oxford, united kingdom: oxford university press. théoret, hugo, & pascual-leone, alvaro (2002). language acquisition: do as you hear. current biology, 12, r736–r737. wagner, betty jane (1976). dorothy heathcote: drama as a learning medium. washington, disctrict of columbia: national education association. widdowson, henry g. (1990). aspects of language teaching. oxford, regno unito: oxford university press. sponchiado e-journall 3(1) (2016), pp. 64-82 82 dario sponchiado, colorado college dario.sponchiado@coloradocollege.edu it dario sponchiado, dopo aver conseguito il master promoitals dell’università degli studi di milano, ha insegnato in italia, francia e germania. attualmente si trova in colorado (stati uniti), presso colorado college, dove insegna come visiting lecturer impiegando il drama in glottodidattica, sua passione e area di interesse. en after obtaining a master’s degree in promoitals (the promotion and teaching of italian language and culture to foreigners) from the università degli studi di milano, dario sponchiado taught in italy, france, and germany. he currently resides in colorado, usa, serving as a visiting lecturer at colorado college, where he incorporates drama in language teaching—his passion and research interest. es dario sponchiado, después de haber obtenido su máster promoitals de la università degli studi di milano, ha trabajado como docente en italia, francia y alemania. actualmente se encuentra en colorado (ee. uu.) donde trabaja como visiting lecturer en colorado college, impartiendo cursos sobre el drama en la enseñanza de la lengua, su pasión y campo de interés. dario_sponchiado_3.1 dario_sponchiado_3.1.2 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 11, issue 2, december 2024, pages 92-97 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.2.3240 www.e-journall.org © miranda 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. review: lillie padilla & rosti vana (eds.) (2024). representation, inclusion and social justice in world language teaching: research and pedagogy for inclusive classrooms. routledge lauren miranda the ohio state university book review received 1 october 2024; accepted after revisions 30 october 2024 abstract en scholars in world language continue to underscore a critical need to center social justice in all language classrooms. despite the extensive data illustrating this need, relatively limited resources assist instructors in implementing social justice-oriented initiatives in their classrooms. representation, inclusion and social justice in world language teaching: research and pedagogy for inclusive classrooms, edited by lillie padilla and rosti vana, fills this gap by serving as a comprehensive resource offering both theoretical and practical suggestions for individuals wishing to promote equity in their language learning spaces. the thirteen chapters offer stakeholders working in language departments or dual language programs perspectives that can be implemented in language classrooms, teacher preparation programs, and at the department level. keywords: critical pedagogy, world language teaching, social justice, equity es la investigación en la enseñanza de lenguas del mundo continúa subrayando la necesidad crítica de colocar la justicia social en el centro de todas las aulas de idiomas. a pesar de la abundante información que ilustra esta necesidad, existen relativamente pocos recursos que ayuden al profesorado de idiomas a implementar de manera práctica iniciativas orientadas a la justicia social en sus aulas. representation, inclusion and social justice in world language teaching: research and pedagogy for inclusive classrooms, editado por lillie padilla y rosti vana, llena este vacío al servir como un recurso integral que ofrece sugerencias tanto teóricas como prácticas para quienes deseen promover la equidad en su espacio de aprendizaje de idiomas. los trece capítulos proponen a quienes trabajan en departamentos de idiomas o programas de doble inmersión perspectivas que se pueden implementar en las aulas, en programas de formación docente y a nivel departamental. palabras clave: pedagogía crítica, enseñanza de lenguas del mundo, justicia social, equidad it la ricerca nella didattica delle lingue del mondo continua a sottolineare l’esigenza critica di porre la giustizia sociale al centro di tutti i corsi di lingua. nonostante i numerosi dati che illustrano tale necessità, sono relativamente poche le risorse che aiutino i docenti a implementare iniziative orientate alla giustizia sociale nelle proprie classi. representation, inclusion and social justice in world language teaching: research and pedagogy for inclusive classrooms, curato da lillie padilla e rosti vana, colma tale lacuna offrendo una risorsa esauriente, con proposte sia teoriche che pratiche per coloro che desiderino promuovere l’equità nei propri spazi di insegnamento linguistico. i tredici capitoli propongono a chi lavora nei dipartimenti o in programmi di lingua o doppia lingua, delle prospettive da implementare nelle classi, nei programmi di formazione docenti e a livello dipartimentale. parole chiave: pedagogia critica, didattica delle lingue del mondo, giustizia sociale, equità  lauren miranda, the ohio state university miranda.137@buckeyemail.osu.edu http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.271 http://www.e-journall.org/ mailto:miranda.137@buckeyemail.osu.edu review: representation, inclusion and social justice in world language teaching e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 92-97 93 recently, scholars in world language (wl) have underscored a critical need for centering social justice in all language classrooms (see, e.g., anya & randolph, 2019). furthermore, researchers continue to point to numerous reasons why the language classroom is a particularly appropriate space to implement critical pedagogies that encourage students to engage with social justice-oriented themes such as race, power, and language ideologies (anya, 2021; leeman, 2015; padilla & vana, 2022; inter alia). despite this emerging research outlining the need to emphasize teaching and learning strategies that are inclusive of the experiences of historically marginalized groups, there remains a gap in the scholarly literature regarding how to ensure that a social justice lens is included in wl curricula. representation, inclusion and social justice in world language teaching: research and pedagogy for inclusive classrooms fills this gap and serves as a road map for how stakeholders across a range of language teaching contexts (from heritage language to world language to tesol) can promote diversity, inclusion, and social justice in the classroom. following a brief introduction from the editors that outlines the need for wl classrooms to address social justice as a response to an increasingly diverse student body as well as to rectify wl curricula’s historical failure to include diverse speakers or topics of marginalization, the volume is then divided into three sections. section 1, titled “challenging hegemonic discourse through representation, criticality and inclusivity” features seven chapters. chapter 1, by hamza r’boul and benachour saidi, focuses on critically analyzing native speakerism and raciolinguistic ideologies (flores & rosa, 2015) in tesol and efl contexts. using a critical race theory framework, the author reveals how using the white native speaker as the norm in tesol classrooms perpetuates historical global power imbalances that privilege western perspectives while marginalizing many of the students who populate english classrooms. the reader is encouraged to think about how tesol can be reimagined in a post-colonial context. though the chapter is largely theoretical, the authors suggest that educators take steps towards dismantling whiteness as the norm in their classrooms by facilitating conversations about positionality and race. they also advocate for tesol instructors to encourage their students to take ownership of and pride in their identities, cultures, and english(es). in chapter 2, ange lica amezcua and ana sa nchez-mun oz explore spanish as a heritage language classes (shl) as a space to promote critical language awareness (cla) among students who grew up hearing or speaking spanish at home. the chapter analyzes data from unique shl classes at a large university that are housed within an ethnic studies department rather than a world language department. interview data revealed that students in these courses gained pride and confidence in being bilingual, built agency to resist and challenge discriminatory language ideologies, and they felt empowered to maintain their heritage languages. the chapter closes by encouraging all heritage classes to adopt an interdisciplinary approach as a way to support minoritized languages and cultures. to promote this interdisciplinary perspective, the authors suggest more collaboration between ethnic studies and language departments at universities. chapter 3 is written by three scholars of portuguese pedagogy: gla ucia v. silva, cristiane soares, and eduardo viana da silva. it offers tangible suggestions on how instructors of portuguese can support students of all identities in their classrooms by teaching inclusive language. the authors begin by pointing out an inherent problem that learners may face when they realize the genders already established in a language do not reflect their own identities. by choosing to incorporate inclusive and nonbinary forms, all students can fully participate in the learning community, regardless of their gender identity. the chapter provides ample resources that instructors can easily incorporate into their courses, including a nonbinary and inclusive language statement to add to course syllabi, examples of e-textbooks that provide input on inclusive and nonbinary language, and additional online resources. the authors contend that when students are able to express their identities, it positively impacts the learning acquisition process. this makes the classroom a more equitable space for all learners. chapter 4 provides another perspective on including nonbinary language, though this time, in the spanish context. having identified the need to teach inclusive forms to rectify the historical exclusion of nonbinary language in curricula, the two authors of this chapter, liana stepanyan and maria mercedes fages agudo, created a grammar guide featuring inclusive forms. the chapter analyzes data from students of spanish at the university of southern california to underscore the need for the grammar guide while understanding students’ attitudes towards the use of nonbinary language in intermediate-level university spanish classes. overall, the majority of students favorably viewed the inclusion of nonbinary forms and found them easier to use than they had anticipated. to support current spanish instructors wanting to incorporate inclusive language into their classrooms, the authors provide examples of how to use the nonbinary -e ending and the article le along with examples of numerous class activities to introduce students to nonbinary language in spanish and familiarize them with lgbtq history in spanish-speaking communities. miranda e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 92-97 94 in chapter 5, lillie padilla discusses the historical exclusion of afro-latinxs in spanish curricula and its ramifications. after explaining who afro-latinxs are and the history of afro-latinxs in latin america, the author connects the invisibility of afro-latinxs to the formation of latinx identity and mestizaje. the author contends that mestizaje has contributed to the invisibility of afro-descended spanish speakers (cf. wade, 1993; bonilla silva, 2023), and that by excluding the representation of afro-latinxs in teaching materials, spanish classrooms perpetuate this invisibility. to rectify this injustice, the author encourages leveraging a critical race teaching curriculum (anya, 2020) with a focus on intersectionality, and offers numerous resources for spanish educators seeking to center afro-latinxs in their classrooms. she also underscores the importance of forming partnerships between wl departments and african studies departments, as well as community organizations serving afro-descended communities. chapter 6 is written by ofelia garcí a, marí a cioe -pen a, and brittany l. frieson. it focuses on inequities promoted in dual language (dl) programs and the critiques of modern-day bilingual education programs. after providing an overview of the history of bilingual education programs in the us and their origins in the civil rights movement, the authors note that bilingual education programs have substituted their focus on inclusion, cultural pride, and linguistic support with a more commodified view of bilingualism that is marketed to middle-class families. using the frames of critical race and disability studies, the authors contend that modern-day dl programs lack representation of racialized speakers as well as students labeled as disabled (cioe -pen a, 2021). they promote implementing a critical race-informed translanguaging pedagogy wherein programs adopt a multiracial and heteroglossic space which offers all speakers, including racialized and dis/abled students, the same opportunities for meaning-making. the authors provide ten suggestions on how to enact this pedagogy in a dl classroom. in chapter 7, the connection between language and race is explored by l.j. randolph and aris m. clemons. clemons’ framework of hemispheric black language pedagogies is invoked to understand that the curricular erasure experienced by black varieties of english is also prevalent in black varieties of world languages. thus, the authors underscore the importance of implementing anti-racist pedagogies in the wl classroom. they offer centering black language practices across wl contexts as a necessary practice to destabilize colonial frames and challenge language ideologies that discriminate against black language. the authors used task-based language teaching (tblt) as a framework to incorporate black language practices. the chapter provides three example lesson plans demonstrating how to incorporate blackness into tblt. two lessons are specific to spanish, and one can be used in any wl context. section ii of the volume is titled “new directions in world language teaching: tools for researchers and educators” and opens with chapter 8, which focuses on study away as a tool to promote equity for heritage learners of spanish (hls). the authors, leslie del carpio and rosti vana, open their chapter with a critical exploration of the notion that the “ideal” spanish can only be studied abroad. this perspective ultimately denigrates speakers of us spanish and their cultural identity. furthermore, the authors contend that study abroad programs cater to the needs of white, middle-class l2 learners, which excludes the participation of heritage learners and racialized learners. the authors use study-away programs (domestic programs outside of a student’s home institution) as a tool to resist negative discourses around us spanish as well as to sustain us spanish and its speakers. the chapter provides an overview of one successful university study-away program that is already in place and offers a road map for how other institutions could design and gain support for their own study-away programs. in chapter 9, sergio loza focuses on increasing equity in shl classrooms by highlighting the need to increase support for receptive hls. receptive speakers understand language when heard, but generally have limited productive abilities. these students are often not admitted into shl classes. the author argues that, in addition to the challenges faced by other hls, receptive latinxs face specific issues relating to deficit and monolingual ideologies, and that the cla framework utilized in shl classes would be particularly beneficial to this community of learners. indeed, qualitative data from receptive hls analyzed by the author showed that these students had a high degree of motivation to learn their hl and were not adequately served by l2/fl classes that focused on grammar and largely ignored us latinx culture. the author argues that all hls, regardless of their degree of bilingualism, deserve access to cla and that including receptive hls in shl classes fosters more equitable opportunities for all latinx people. suggestions are given for how to differentiate shl curricula for receptive hls. in chapter 10, xiaodi zhou and xiaochen du begin by critiquing historical approaches to teaching language that promote strict language separation, a practice that ignores the sociolinguistic realities of being a bilingual speaker (kramsch, 2014). the authors contend that students’ bilingualism should be viewed as an review: representation, inclusion and social justice in world language teaching e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 92-97 95 asset to instruction and encourage educators to utilize translingual and multilingual approaches. in the authors’ analysis of two mandarin case study classrooms, one of which utilized a strict target language-only policy and the other a flexible translanguaging policy, the authors noticed how the strict policy stifled student learning and made differentiation challenging. students in the translanguaging classroom were more engaged both with content and each other. the authors close by advocating for a reconceptualization of the wl space as a heteroglossic context accepting all languages. numerous tangible examples of how to employ translanguaging in the language classroom are provided throughout the chapter. the last section of the book, titled “critically rethinking language teacher training and language program direction”, also contains three chapters. chapter 11 advocates for the need to infuse wl teacher training programs (ttps) with preparation in critical language awareness (cla). cynthia ducar frames her argument by noting that wl classrooms often strive to prepare students to study a standardized, monolingual variety of the target language rather than focus on the local, bilingual communities (e.g., spanish speakers in the us) where students will likely live and work. as a response to this historical monolingual bias, the author suggests that ttps teach cla so that educators have the framework to think critically about language, power, and race, and how focusing on standard language ultimately hurts both l2 and heritage learners by erasing the sociolinguistic realities of target language speakers and communities. the chapter offers numerous options on how to center bilingual and local language practices in the classroom ranging from integrative performance assessments, to pen pals, to incorporating service learning with community organizations. the author also recommends that wl teachers at all levels incorporate cla and conversations about linguistic variation into their classes. chapter 12 continues to examine ttps, placing attention on how they can prepare candidates to foster diversity, inclusion, and representation in their classrooms, particularly in early learning contexts. the author, kelly frances davidson, contends that culturally sustaining pedagogy (csp) should be a cornerstone of wl ttps as it promotes linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism and views the wl classroom as a space for positive transformation (paris, 2012). the chapter analyzes data gathered from teacher candidates in wl education and esol programs in a georgia university ttp. interview data reveal that all educators believe in a strong connection between language and identity, and that all had a desire to utilize csp in their classroom. however, teacher candidates felt their method courses lacked guidance on how to practically apply theories in their classrooms. in order to help develop critically engaged teacher candidates who will make their future classrooms a space for positive change, the author advocates for the inclusion of justice-oriented critical pedagogies like csp and to include early language learning in ttp curriculum. the last chapter of the edited volume draws on research from the field of monitoring, evaluation, and learning to provide a roadmap for enacting and sustaining diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at the department level. written by alexis vollmer rivera and sandra williams, the chapter begins by noting that wl departments have historically promoted standard language ideologies and idealized native speakers to the detriment of bilingual and heritage speakers. in order for transformative change to occur in department culture that will impact both students and staff, the authors walk the reader through an evaluation framework that outlines how to (a) define the problem to be addressed, (b) identify the causes of said problem, (c) select changes to implement, and (d) create processes to monitor if the changes are leading to the desired outcome. thus, this chapter provides tangible resources for how wl departments can define and plan how to address inequities, as well as assess whether their action steps have the desired impact. the call to incorporate social justice themes into world language curriculum and policies has been getting increasingly louder in recent years (see, e.g., wassell, wesely, & glynn, 2019). nevertheless, the onus to create and implement such initiatives can often fall squarely on the shoulders of instructors or other individuals seeking to make those changes, which can be justifiably overwhelming. representation, inclusion and social justice in world language teaching serves as a practical guide to support a wide range of constituents in promoting equity across contexts. though much of the content in the edited volume is geared towards providing instructional strategies to be used in individual classrooms, various chapters also present strategies for promoting justice at the language department level and in teacher preparation programs. one potential drawback to instructors picking up this text is that it centers largely around spanish (either taught as a world language or heritage language). while there are chapters dedicated to presenting resources for portuguese and mandarin classes, other major languages such as french, german, and arabic are unfortunately absent. furthermore, decisions around providing translations also make the text feel more marketed toward a spanish-speaking audience. while translations into english are provided for original text miranda e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 92-97 96 that appears in portuguese and mandarin, spanish is never translated. in subsequent editions, it may be of value to provide english translations of spanish text in order to increase accessibility among a wider readership. despite many chapters focusing on spanish, much of the theoretical framing and practical applications presented in this volume could certainly be adapted to fit other world language contexts. these include increasing the representation of afro-descended target language speakers, promoting critical language awareness, and incorporating inclusive and nonbinary language practices. furthermore, chapters focusing on teacher preparation programs and departmental equity initiatives can be applied universally to interested programs and departments. thus, the volume is apt for both instructors looking for specific strategies in the languages they may teach, as well as for educators seeking to learn more about particular frameworks or approaches that can be mapped onto their classrooms or departments. references anya, uju (2021). critical race pedagogy for more effective and inclusive world language teaching. applied linguistics, 42(6), 1055-1069. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amab068 anya, uju & randolph, linwood j. (2019). diversifying language educators and learners. the language educator, 14(4), 23-27. https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/tle/tle_octnov19_article.pdf bonilla-silva, eduardo (2003). racism without racists: color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the united states. rowman and littlefield publishers. cioe -pen a, marí a (2021). (m)othering labeled children: bilingualism and disability in the lives of latinx mothers. multilingual matters. flores, nelson & rosa, jonathan (2015). undoing appropriateness: raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. harvard educational review, 85(2), 149-171. https://doi.org/10.17763/00178055.85.2.149 kramsch, claire (2014). teaching foreign languages in an era of globalization: introduction. the modern language journal, 98(1), 296-311. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2014.12057.x leeman, jennifer (2015). critical approaches to teaching spanish as a local/foreign language. in m. lacorte (ed.), the routledge handbook of hispanic applied linguistics (pp. 275-292). routledge. padilla, lillie & vana, rosti (2022). the “other” latinx: the (non)existent representation of afro-latinx in spanish language textbooks. journal of language, identity & education, 23(5), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2021.2014845 paris, django (2012). culturally sustaining pedagogy: a needed change in stance, terminology, and practice . educational researcher, 41(3), 93-97. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x12441244 wassell, beth a., wesely, pamela, & glynn, cassandra (2019). agents of change: reimagining curriculum and instruction in world language classrooms through social justice education. journal of curriculum and pedagogy, 16(3), 263-284. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2019.1570399 https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amab068 https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/tle/tle_octnov19_article.pdf https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149 https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.149 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2014.12057.x https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2021.2014845 https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x12441244 https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2019.1570399 review: representation, inclusion and social justice in world language teaching e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 92-97 97 lauren miranda, the ohio state university miranda.137@buckeyemail.osu.edu en lauren miranda is a graduate student in the department of spanish and portuguese at the ohio state university. she is pursuing her ph.d. in hispanic linguistics. as a researcher, she seeks to promote equity in education through the design and implementation of antiracist pedagogies in spanish as a heritage language classrooms. lauren is currently performing classroom ethnographic fieldwork for her dissertation in high school heritage spanish classrooms in the us. es lauren miranda es estudiante de doctorado en el departamento de español y portugués de la universidad estatal de ohio. está cursando su doctorado en lingüística hispánica. como investigadora, busca promover la equidad en la educación a través del diseño e implementación de pedagogías antirracistas en las aulas de español como lengua de herencia. actualmente, lauren está realizando trabajo de campo etnográfico en aulas de español de herencia en escuelas secundarias en estados unidos para su disertación. it lauren miranda è dottoranda nel dipartimento di spagnolo e portoghese della ohio state university. sta per concludere il suo dottorato di ricerca in linguistica spagnola. la sua ricerca intende promuovere l’equità nell’istruzione, attraverso l’ideazione e l’implementazione di pedagogie antirazziste nelle classi di spagnolo come lingua d’origine. lauren attualmente sta svolgendo un lavoro etnografico in classi di spagnolo come lingua di origine in scuole secondarie statunitensi. mailto:miranda.137@buckeyemail.osu.edu microsoft word 9. huertabon_proofs (1) (1).docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-­‐journall,  volume  7,  issue  1,  february  2020,  145-­‐151   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.11.200   www.e-­‐journall.org     © huerta bon 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       enever,  janet,  and  lindgren,  eva  (2017).  early  language  learning  in   school  contexts:  complexity  and  mixed  methods.     bristol,  united  kingdom:  multilingual  matters.         andrea  huerta  bon   universidad  autónoma  de  barcelona     book  review     received  6  june  2019;  received  in  revised  form  17  october  2019;  accepted  30  october  2019   abstract es el volumen early language learning in school contexts: complexity and mixed methods de janet enever y eva lindgren explora la implementación de los métodos mixtos de investigación para el estudio del aprendizaje temprano en contextos de escolarización. este volumen incluye estudios recientes y multidisciplinarios que adoptan métodos mixtos para su investigación. aunque existen otros estudios/colecciones que analizan, por ejemplo, el crecimiento de los métodos mixtos de investigación (zha & tu, 2015), este es el primer volumen que incorpora en su totalidad los métodos mixtos para estudios en el ámbito del aprendizaje de las lenguas en tempranas edades. palabras clave:  métodos mixtos de investigación, aprendizaje de idiomas en edades tempranas, contexto escolar en the volume, early language learning in school contexts: complexity and mixed methods, by janet enever and eva lindgren, explores the implementation of mixed methods to study early language learning in school contexts. this volume includes recent multidisciplinary studies that adopt a mixed-methods approach. previous studies and series analyze the growing popularity of mixed methods (zha & tu, 2015), but this is the first volume to focus exclusively on mixed methods for studying early language learning in school contexts. key words: mixed methods, early language learning, school context it il volume early language learning in school contexts: complexity and mixed methods di janet enever e eva lindgren esplora l’implementazione dei metodi misti di ricerca per lo studio dell’apprendimento precoce nei contesti di scolarizzazione. questo volume include studi recenti e multidisciplinari che adottano metodi misti per la ricerca. sebbene esistano altri studi/collezioni che analizzano, per esempio, la crescita dei metodi misti di ricerca (zha & tu, 2015), questo è il primo volume che incorpora nella sua interezza i metodi misti per gli studi nell’ambito dell’apprendimento delle lingue in età prescolare. parole chiave: metodi misti di ricerca, apprendimento delle lingue in età prescolare, contesto scolastico                       * andrea  huerta  bon,  universidad  autónoma  de  barcelona                andrea.huerta@uab.cat     huerta  bon   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  145-­‐151 146   el   aprendizaje  de   idiomas   en   edades   tempranas   en   contextos   escolares   es,   hoy   en  día,   un   tema  de   gran  relevancia  a  nivel  global  ya  que  hay  un  amplio  interés  en  entender  cómo  los  más  pequeños  adquieren  un   idioma   (enever,   2011;  muñoz,   2014;   nikolov,   2009).   las   editoras   de   este   libro   publicado   por  multilingual   matters,  janet  enever  y  eva  lindgren,  han  sabido  construir  una  colección  de  estudios  que  abarcan  numerosos   contextos,  exponiendo  múltiples  aspectos  a  tener  en  cuenta  y  que  son  de  vital  importancia  para  el  mundo  del   aprendizaje,   la   enseñanza   y,   por   supuesto,   para   el   de   la   investigación   de   la   adquisición   de   la   lengua.   este   volumen,  además,  aporta  una  perspectiva  innovadora,  la  del  uso  de  los  métodos  mixtos  de  investigación,  los   cuales  pueden  ofrecer  más  riqueza  al  mundo  de   la   investigación   lingüística  (cresswell  &  plano  clark,  2006;   greene,   caracelli,   &   graham,   1989;   riazi   &   candlin,   2014).   así   pues,   esta   colección   de   estudios   recientes   explora  el  potencial  de  los  métodos  mixtos  de  investigación,  es  decir,  el  uso  conjunto  de  métodos  cualitativos   y   cuantitativos,   para   profundizar   en   aspectos   esenciales   a   la   hora   de   analizar   y   obtener   una   mayor   comprensión   de   los   resultados,  más   allá   de   los   que   se   pueden   obtener   a   partir   de   un   sólo  método.   es   de   especial  interés  saber  que  el  libro  incluye  estudios  llevados  a  cabo  en  áfrica,  asia,  américa  latina  y  europa.   además,   podemos   encontrar   investigaciones  que   abarcan  diferentes   contextos   educativos   y   lingüísticos,   ya   que  entre   los  artículos  encontramos  clases  de  primaria  en   las  que  se   instruye  aicle,  el   inglés  como   lengua   adicional,   el   francés  como   lengua  moderna  o  el   inglés   como   lengua  extranjera.  de  esta  manera,   el  volumen   resulta  extremadamente  útil  no  sólo  para  investigadores  sumergidos  en  la  adquisición  y  el  aprendizaje  de  la   lengua,  sino  también  para  profesores  y  expertos  en  el  área  de  la  enseñanza  de  idiomas  a  niños.   tal   como   se   establece   en   el   primer   capítulo,   “introduction:   mixed   methods   in   early   language   learning   –   examining   complexity”,   el   volumen   aquí   reseñado   se   centra   en   el   estudio   del   aprendizaje   de   idiomas  extranjeros,   segundas   lenguas  y  el  aprendizaje  de   la   lengua  en  general  en  aprendices  de   temprana   edad  en  contextos  de  instrucción  multidisciplinarios.  el  objetivo  de  las  editoras,  enever  y  lindgren,  es  el  de   recopilar  estudios  recientes  llevados  a  cabo  en  el  aula  de  segundas  lenguas  con  alumnos  de  edades  tempranas   y,   a   través   de   estos   artículos,   mostrar   las   ventajas   de   trabajar   con   métodos   mixtos   de   investigación   y   su   aporte   para   la   comprensión   de   los   resultados   obtenidos,   tal   como   se   viene   pidiendo   desde   hace   tiempo   (atkinson,   2011;   larsen-­‐freeman,   2011).   de   hecho,   el   uso   conjunto   de   los   métodos   cualitativos   y   cuantitativos  de  investigación  nació  como  una  necesidad  de  un  mayor  y  profundo  análisis  de  las  preguntas  de   investigación  (cresswell  &  plano  clark,  2006),  permitiendo  aprender  desde  diferentes  dimensiones  (riazi  &   candlin,  2014).  debido  a  la  complejidad  del  aula  de  idiomas,  del  aprendizaje  en  edades  tempranas,  del  papel   del  profesor/a,  de  los  contextos  multidisciplinarios  que  podemos  encontrar  y  de  la  motivación,  se  evidencia  la   necesidad  de  estudios  que  acojan  la  complementación  de  diferentes  perspectivas.   el  volumen  consta  de  cuatro  partes  bien  diferenciadas  en  las  que  se  atienden  diferentes  contextos  de   aprendizaje  y  de  investigación.  en  la  primera  parte  del  volumen,  overviews  of  research  findings,  se  describen   estudios  actuales  de  diferentes  ámbitos  pertenecientes  al  mundo  del  aprendizaje  temprano  de  la  lengua  y  de   la   naturaleza   del   diseño   de   la   investigación.   en   la   segunda   parte   del   libro,   “empirical   studies  using  mixed   methods”,  se  describen  diferentes  maneras  de  aplicar  los  métodos  mixtos,  a  saber:  datos  recolectados  a  nivel   semanal,  secuencial,  a  través  de  cuestionarios,  secuencia  de  análisis  cuantitativo  seguido  de  cualitativo,  datos   cualitativos   complementados   con  datos   cuantitativos  o  datos   cualitativos   combinados   con  pre  y  post  datos   cuantitativos.  la  tercera  parte  del  libro,  “longitudinal  perspectives  using  mixed  methods”,  presenta  estudios   longitudinales   que   hacen   una   recolección   simultánea   de  métodos   cuantitativos   y   cualitativos   en   intervalos   regulares.   finalmente,   en   la   cuarta   y   última   parte   de   la   colección,   “evaluating   early   language   learning   programmes”,  se  analizan  temas  de  actual   importancia  en  el  mundo  del  temprano  aprendizaje  de  la   lengua,   como   lo   es   la   interacción   en   el   aula   de   idiomas,   un   estudio   de   impacto   implantado   en   diferentes   aulas   de   primaria  en  méxico  y  el  desarrollo  de  nuevas  formas  para  evaluar  el  aprendizaje  de  los  idiomas.   a  través  de  esta  variedad  de  aportaciones,   las  autoras  promueven  la  reflexión  sobre  la   importancia   de   la   integración   de   métodos   cualitativos   y   cuantitativos   de   investigación   como   una   gran   apuesta   en   la   investigación  del  aprendizaje   temprano  de   la   lengua.  quizás  el  aspecto  más   interesante  que  nos  ofrece  este   libro   es   la   riqueza   de   los   estudios   que   se   incluyen,   que   no   solo   presentan   el   inglés   como   lengua   de   aprendizaje,  sino  que  también  abarcan  el  aprendizaje  del  francés.   la   primera   parte   halla   su   particularidad   en   la   importancia   que   se   le   da   a   los   factores   sociales   y   culturales  como  clave  para  el  aprendizaje  lingüístico.  así  pues,  en  el  capítulo  2  del  volumen,  early  language   learning  in  complex  linguistic  settings:  insights  from  africa,  van  ginkel  describe  la  necesidad  de  entender  la   lengua  materna  como  clave  para  el  buen  aprendizaje  de  las  lenguas  extranjeras.  el  estudio,  llevado  a  cabo  en   áfrica,   explora   diferentes   perspectivas   educativas   en   contextos   multilingües—como   lo   es   áfrica,   donde   conviven  2500   lenguas  de   las   cuales   solo  176   son  usadas  para   el   aprendizaje   (gadelii,   2004)—  y   compara   reseña:  early  language  learning  in  school  contexts   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  145-­‐151 147   modelos  educativos  de  otros  países  multilingües,  observando  situaciones  que  se  producen  al  convivir  más  de   una   lengua   materna   en   el   aula   y   describiendo   contextos   que   promueven   el   aprendizaje   de   la   lengua   extranjera.  de  esta  manera,  se  demuestra  que  para  un  futuro  aprendizaje  del  inglés  más  independiente  y  más   robusto  en  países  en  desarrollo  es  esencial  usar  la  lengua  materna  o  lenguas  más  próximas  a  la  materna  como   medio  de  enseñanza.     en   el   capítulo   3,   considering   the   complexities   of   teaching   intercultural   understanding   in   foreign   languages,   discoll   defiende   el   uso   de   la   enseñanza   de   las   lenguas   extranjeras   como   herramienta   para   el   desarrollo   cultural   de   los   aprendices   (cable   et   al.,   2010).   de   esta  manera,   tras   un   estudio   longitudinal   en   inglaterra  en  el  que  se  emplean  los  métodos  mixtos  para  analizar  la  información  recogida  tras  observar  clases   y  entrevistar  tanto  a  profesores,  como  directores  y  alumnos  de  primaria,  y  tras  examinar  el  progreso  de  las   diferentes  habilidades   comunicativas  obtenidas  por   los  alumnos   con  el  paso  del   tiempo,   los   resultados  nos   muestran  que  a  pesar  de  la  importancia  que  se  le  da  a  la  interculturalidad,  pocas  veces  se  le  asigna  un  papel   importante   en   el   aula   de   la   lengua   extranjera.   de   esta   manera,   el   artículo   critica   la   falta   de   profundidad   cultural  en  el  aula  de  idiomas  para  poder  hacer  crecer  el  interés  y  el  conocimiento  cultural,  propio  y  ajeno,  de   los  alumnos.     en   el   capítulo   4,   literacy   development   in   children   with   english   as   an   additional   language   (eal),   murphy   explora   la   falta   de   desarrollo   de   las   habilidades   literarias   (genesee,   lindholm-­‐leary,   saunders,   &   christian,   2006)   como   causante   del   bajo   rendimiento   de   alumnos   de   3   a   12   años   que   usan   el   inglés   como   lengua   adicional   en   inglaterra.   a   través   del   análisis   de   diferentes   pruebas   del   uso   del   vocabulario,   de   comprensión   lectora   y   de   habilidad   escrita,   complementándolas   con   observaciones   y   entrevistas   a   la   comunidad   educativa,   la   autora   nos   muestra   que   la   capacidad   lectoescritora   y   el   uso   y   conocimiento   del   vocabulario  en  el  habla  por  parte  de  estos  alumnos  es  significativamente  inferior  al  de  sus  compañeros.  en  un   mundo  globalizado,   en   el   que  más  de  una   lengua   se  habla   en   casa  y   en   el   aula,   hay  que  presentar   especial   atención  a  las  necesidades  académicas  generadas  por  este  contexto.   la  segunda  parte  se  enfoca  más  en  la  importancia  de  los  métodos  mixtos  para  aportar  más  riqueza  a   los  descubrimientos  hechos  en  los  diferentes  estudios  empíricos  que  encontramos,  tal  como  los  beneficios  en   el  aula  de  francés  obtenidos  a  partir  de  diferentes  modalidades  de  aprendizaje,  los  factores  motivacionales  en   el  aula  de  primaria  en  china,  los  efectos  de  los  cuenta-­‐cuentos  virtuales  en  el  aula  alemana  y  la  comparación   de  resultados  entre  participantes  expuestos  a  metodología  aicle  e  instrucción  más  tradicional.     en  el  capítulo  5,  verbal  working  memory  and  foreign  language  leaning  in  english  primary  schools:   implications  for  teaching  and  learning,  porter  explora  el  papel  que  ejerce  la  memoria  verbal  en  la  adquisición   de  la  lengua  extranjera  (wen,  2011).  el  estudio  tuvo  lugar  en  dos  escuelas  de  primaria  rurales  en  inglaterra,   en  el  cual  participaron  niños  de  entre  9  y  11  años,  aprendices  de  francés.  después  de  analizar  los  resultados   obtenidos  a  través  de  tareas  orales  y  escritas,  se  demuestra  que,  efectivamente,  la  memoria  verbal  tiene  que   ser  considerada  por  el  equipo  pedagógico  a  la  hora  de  planear  el  contenido  y  valorar  los  resultados.  así  pues,   en  este   capítulo   se   refuerza   la   idea  de  que  es  necesaria  una  observación  más   individual  y  más  humana  del   desarrollo  intelectual  del  alumno.     en  el  capítulo  6,  piecing  together  the  jigsaw:  understanding  motivations  of  english  learners  in  chinese   primary  school  through  a  questionnaire  and  elicited  metaphor  analysis,  changsheng,  jie,  xiaohua,  yuan  y  qun   consideran   los  múltiples   aspectos   que   influyen   en   la  motivación   de   los   alumnos   de   primaria   a   la   hora   de   aprender   inglés.  tras   recolectar   las   respuestas  de  una  un  grupo  de  alumnos  de  primaria  a  un   cuestionario   sobre   sus  percepciones  del   aprendizaje  del   inglés,   los   resultados  muestran  que  entre   los   factores  positivos   más   destacados   se   encuentran   la   influencia   de   los   padres,   quienes   ven   el   dominio   del   inglés   como   un   componente  imprescindible  en  la  educación  de  sus  hijos,  y  la  percepción  que  tienen  los  mismos  alumnos  del   inglés  como  clave  para  un  futuro  exitoso.     en   el   capítulo   7,   codeswitching   your   way   to   language   learning?   receptive   codeswithching   with   digital   storybooks   in   early   language   learning,   las   autoras   buendgens-­‐kosten,   hardy   y   elsner   estudian   las   ventajas  de  aprender  idiomas  a  través  de  cuentacuentos  digitales  trilingües  en  un  aula  de  alemania  (elsner,   2015).  los  datos  analizados  en  este  capítulo  se  obtuvieron  a  través  del  proyecto  like,  en  el  cual  un  grupo  de   niños   fue   expuesto   a   cuentacuentos   trilingües   mientras   que   otro   grupo   fue   expuesto   a   cuentacuentos   monolingües,   y   un   segundo   estudio   en   el   que   los   participantes   valoraron   la   negociación   del   significado   después  de  ver  una  serie  de  vídeos  trilingües.  del  análisis  de  estos  datos,  las  autoras  concluyen  que  el  uso  de   cuentacuentos   trilingües,   que   permite   que   los   alumnos   estén   expuestos   a   diferentes   idiomas,   tiene   efectos   positivos  en  la  comprensión  del  contenido  y,  por  lo  tanto,  en  el  desarrollo  de  las  competencias  de  los  idiomas.     huerta  bon   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  145-­‐151 148   en  el  capítulo  8,  individual  differences  and  english  l2  learning  in  two  primary  classrooms  in  france,   hilton  presenta   los  resultados  de  un  estudio  de   larga  duración  (1  año)  en  dos  aulas  de   inglés  de  primero  y   tercero  de  primaria  en  parís,  francia.  para  ello,  la  autora  recurrió  a  la  observación  de  la  interacción  en  el  aula   y   el   análisis   de   la   metodología   de   enseñanza   y   de   las   diferencias   individuales.   murphy   ofrece,   además,   cuestionarios   y   actividades   que   permiten   enfocarse   en   las   diferencias   individuales   relacionadas   con   las   capacidades   cognitivas,   verbales,   motivacionales   y   socio-­‐afectivas   de   los   alumnos   (murphy,   2014).   la   característica  especial  de  este  estudio  yace  en  el  hecho  de  que  no  sólo  se  presta  atención  a  las  comparaciones   de  grupo,  sino  también  a  las  características  individuales  de  los  alumnos,  siempre  a  través  de  la  combinación   de  métodos  cualitativos  y  cuantitativos  de  investigación,  probando  de  esta  manera  que  hay  variables  de  todo   tipo  que  influyen  en  la  adquisición  de  la  lengua  extranjera.     en   el   capítulo   9,   content   and   language   integrated   learning   (clil):   a   panacea   for   young   english   language  learners?  de  pizorn,  se  comparan   los  resultados  de  dos  grupos  de  primaria  aicle  y  no  aicle  en   eslovenia.  tras  varios  años  de  instrucción,  los  participantes  llevan  a  cabo  una  prueba  de  nivel  de  inglés  y  un   cuestionario  administrado  antes  y  después  de  la  prueba.  el  experimento  acaba  con  una  serie  de  entrevistas.   tras  obtener  y  analizar  los  resultados,  este  estudio  defiende  que  el  éxito  de  implementar  aicle  en  el  aula  no   es   automático   (bruton,   2013),   ya   que   los   estudiantes   en   el   grupo   de   aicle   presentan,   por   ejemplo,   dificultades  en  las  actividades  de  comprensión  lectora.  además,  el  éxito  educativo  no  depende  sólo  del  nivel   de  inglés  de  los  alumnos,  sino  también  de  otros  factores  como  la  motivación  del  alumno,  la  efectividad  de  las   actividades  a  nivel  cognitivo  o  las  características  del  equipo  pedagógico.   la  esencia  de   la   tercera  parte  yace  en   la  perspectiva   longitudinal   adoptada  por   las   investigaciones   presentadas.  así  pues,  podemos  entender  un  poco  más  el  funcionamiento  del  aprendizaje  de  las  lenguas  a  una   temprana  edad  a  través  de  la  motivación  en  el  aula  de  primaria  china,  el  desarrollo  de  las  habilidades  de  las   habilidades  de   reading,   listening  y  writing  en   italia,   unido  a   los   resultados  de   los  mismos   tras   seis   años  de   continuidad,  y  las  actitudes,  motivación  y  percepción  de  los  alumnos  croatas.  el  acierto  de  este  volumen  viene   dado,   además,   por   el   carácter   actual   de   los   estudios   presentados,   que   nos   permiten   conciliar   actualidad,   pluralidad,  cultura  y  lingüística,  invitándonos  a  hacer  una  reflexión  global.     en  el  capítulo  10,  the  dynamics  of  motivation  development  among  young  learners  of  english  in  china,   butler  presenta   los  cambios  que  sufren   los   factores  motivacionales  en  alumnos  de  primaria  a   través  de   los   años  (kim,  2011).  en  este  estudio,  alumnos  de   los  primeros  años  de  primaria  en  el  este  de  china  muestran   mucha  motivación   para   aprender   inglés,   sobre   todo   infundada   por   los   padres,   pero   al   final   de   la   primaria   muestran  más   signos   de   ansiedad   y  más   necesidad   de   independencia   intelectual.   este   estudio   longitudinal   basado   en   encuestas   a   alumnos,   padres   y   profesores   y   entrevistas   a   los   alumnos   y   teniendo   en   cuenta   variables   como   son   la   motivación   y   la   confianza   en   uno   mismo,   la   ansiedad   y   el   nivel   educativo   de   los   progenitores,  demuestra  que  el   aprendizaje  no  es  proceso  estático  y  que   se   tienen  que   tener  en   cuenta   las   experiencias  externas  e  individuales  del  alumno.     en  el  capítulo  11,  young  italian  learners’  foreign  language  development:  a  longitudinal  perspective,   lopriore  presenta  un  estudio   longitudinal   (enever  &  lopriore,  2014)  que   tiene  como  objetivo   investigar   la   evolución   de   alumnos   italianos   de   inglés   en   edades   tempranas   (6-­‐10   años   y   más   tarde   13   años).   con   el   objetivo  de  analizar  el  desarrollo  de   los  alumnos  en  el  aprendizaje  de   idiomas,   teniendo  en  cuenta  que  a   lo   largo   de   los   años   hay   factores   que   influyen   su   percepción   de   la   lengua,   las   dificultades   y   su   exposición   al   inglés,  al   final  de  cada  curso  escolar   los  alumnos   llevaban  a  cabo  una  tarea  para  analizar  su  comprensión  y   producción   de   la   lengua   extranjera   y,   más   adelante,   sus   destrezas   de   comprensión   y   habilidad   auditiva,   lectora   y   escrita.   además   de   observaciones   de   las   clases,   un   cuestionario   era   presentado   para   analizar   la   percepción   de   las   dificultades   y   las   estrategias   de   los   alumnos   tras   completar   las   tareas   de   comprensión   auditiva.  en  el   estudio   se   resalta  el   impacto  que   tienen   las  actividades  extraescolares  a   la  hora  de  adquirir   habilidades   orales   y   también   se   resalta   el   desarrollo   que   se   aprecia   en   la   capacidad   de   los   alumnos   para   entender  el  inglés  hablado  a  lo  largo  de  los  años  tras  haber  sido  expuestos  durante  más  tiempo  al  idioma.     el  capítulo  12,  employing  mixed  methods  for  the  construction  of  thick  descriptions  of  early  language   learning,  de  las  editoras  lindgren  y  enever,  remarca  la  necesidad  de  apreciar  las  características  individuales   de   los   alumnos   a   la   hora   de   aprender   (piaget,   1936).   el   estudio   emplea   métodos   mixtos   y   perspectivas   longitudinales   para   analizar   los   casos   de   tres   jóvenes   aprendices   de   inglés   durante   seis   años.   a   través   de   diferentes   tareas  de  producción,   entre   las  que  encontramos   tareas  orales  y   escritas,  de   recepción  entre   las   que  encontramos  tareas  de  comprensión  auditiva  y  lectora,  y  cuestionarios  y  entrevistas.  las  investigadoras   analizan  el  desarrollo  y  progreso  y   la  actitud  de   los  aprendices  hacia  el  aprendizaje  del   inglés  y  hacia  ellos   mismos  como  aprendices  de  idiomas  a  lo  largo  de  los  años.  en  este  caso  se  puede  comprobar  que  no  es  sólo  el   reseña:  early  language  learning  in  school  contexts   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  145-­‐151 149   contexto  escolar  lo  que  define  su  aprendizaje,  sino  también  el  ambiente  en  el  que  viven  en  casa  y  su  identidad   social.     en   el   capítulo   13,  developmental   aspects   of   early   efl   learning,   mihalevic   djigunovic   se   exploran   otros   elementos,   aparte   del   desarrollo   lingüístico,   que   son   clave   para   entender   desarrollo   del   aprendizaje   (harris   &   conway,   2002).   durante   cuatro   años,   se   realizan   entrevistas   a   directores   y   profesores   de   dos   escuelas,   cuestionarios   a   los   padres,   entrevistas   y   cuestionarios   a   los   alumnos.   los   aprendices   croatas   nos   muestran  la  fluctuación  (normalmente  decreciente)  de  su  motivación,  actitud  y  autoestima,  las  cuales  parecen   afectar   a   su   desarrollo   lingüístico.   el   artículo,   así   pues,   nos   invita   a   tener   en   cuenta   estos   factores   más   individuales,   como   las   emociones   y   las   experiencias   de   aprendizaje,   a   la   hora   de   analizar   su   desarrollo.   finalmente,  se  nos  presenta  un  análisis  de  diferentes  temas  de  relevancia  actual  en  el  mundo  del  aprendizaje   temprano  de  idiomas  en  contextos  de  instrucción.  en  esta  sección  podemos  aprender  sobre  la  importancia  y   la   efectividad   de   la   interacción   en   el   aula   de   idiomas,   la   evolución   del   inglés   en   una   clase   de   primaria   mexicana   a   lo   largo  de   seis   años   y  una  nueva   forma  para   evaluar   el   aprendizaje  de   los   alumnos   en   el   aula   alemana.     el   capítulo   14,   child   efl   interaction:   age,   instructional   setting   and   development,   garcía   mayo   y   aguirre   estudian   el   impacto   que   tienen   diferentes   variables   como   la   edad,   el   contexto   de   aprendizaje   y   la   duración  en   la   interacción  oral  (mackey  &  goo,  2007).  este  estudio,  que  examina  a  alumnos  de  primaria  de   entre   8   y   11   años,   analiza   la   interacción   en   tareas   comunicativas   (p.   ej.,   descripción   de   fotografías)   como   herramienta   esencial   para   el   aprendizaje   de   los   idiomas.   podemos   comprobar   que,   efectivamente,   estas   variantes   generan   una   serie   de   tendencias,   entre   ellas   el   uso   de   la   lengua   materna   y   la   repetición.   es   importante  tener  en  cuenta  que  la  interacción  es  esencial  para  el  aprendizaje  efectivo  de  la  lengua.     en  el  capítulo  15,  evaluating  the  educational  outcomes  o  fan  early  foreign  language  programme:  the   design  of  an  impact  study  for  the  primary  english  programme  in  mexico,  sayer,  ban  y  lópez  de  anda  presentan   un  estudio  de  impacto  en  el  aula  de  inglés  de  primaria  en  méxico,  en  donde  se  implementa  un  programa  de   enseñanza  del  inglés.  el  estudio,  hecho  a  gran  escala  en  diferentes  escuelas  y  estados  durante  7  años  hace  uso   de  métodos  cuantitativos  y  cualitativos  para  analizar  el  desarrollo  lingüístico  y  no  lingüístico  de  los  alumnos.   con  métodos  cuantitativos  –  pruebas  de  nivel   inglés  y  cuestionarios   -­‐,   se  estudia  el  desarrollo   lingüístico,  y   con  métodos   cualitativos   –   entrevistas,   observación   de   clases   y   análisis   de   documentos   -­‐,   la   conexión   que   existe   entre   el   aprendizaje  del   inglés   y   el   aprendizaje   en  otras   áreas  dentro  y   fuera  del   aula   (sayer  &  ban,   2013),  respondiendo  a  una  necesidad  de  saber  qué  tipos  de  programas,  pedagogías  y  materiales  son  efectivos   a  la  hora  de  adquirir  un  idioma,  ya  que  hoy  en  día  no  hay  una  respuesta  clara.  tras  obtener  información  sobre   idiomas,  aprendizaje  y  factores  sociales,  se  nos  invita  a  pensar  que,  para  que  un  estudio  de  impacto  funcione,   se  deben  tener  en  cuentas  las  voces  de  los  integrantes  de  la  comunidad  educativa,  especialmente  de  alumnos   y  padres.     el   capítulo  16,  the  development   of   a  curriculum-­‐based  c-­‐test   for  young  efl  learners,   de  porsch  y   wilden,   describe   el   uso   de   la   combinación   de   métodos   cuantitativos   y   cualitativos   de   investigación   para   estudiar  el  desarrollo  de  una  nueva  prueba  de  evaluación  del  aprendizaje  del  inglés  en  edades  tempranas  en  4   aulas  de  primaria  en  alemania.  esta  prueba  está  diseñada  como  un  c-­‐test  que  mide  la  habilidad  lingüística  en   general  (asano,  2014)  y  que  sirve  como  instrumento  para  evaluar  el  aprendizaje  de  los  idiomas  extranjeros   en  diferentes  edades  a  través  de  textos  de  diferentes  dificultades  que  contienen  espacios  vacíos  para  que  los   alumnos  completen.  este  estudio,  cuyo  objetivo  es  el  de  crear  un  test  que  responda  a  los  criterios  del  c-­‐test,   que  responda  a  las  necesidades  de  jóvenes  aprendices  del  inglés  y  que  pueda  evaluar  su  nivel  de  inglés,  busca   la  posibilidad  de  analizar  la  percepción  que  tienen  los  alumnos  de  la  prueba.  los  alumnos  evaluados  con  esta   prueba   aportan   valiosa   información   que   no   sólo   se   obtiene   a   través   de   sus   resultados,   sino   gracias   a   la   combinación  de  métodos  cualitativos  y  cuantitativos,  con   los  que  podemos  saber  sobre  su  percepción  de   la   prueba  y  el  procedimiento.     en   el   último   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andrea huerta bon, universidad autónoma de barcelona andrea.huerta@uab.cat es andrea huerta bon es profesora asociada del departamento de filología inglesa y de germanística de la universidad autónoma de barcelona y estudiante de doctorado en el mismo. en la actualidad cursa su segundo año de doctorado en adquisición de la lengua. imparte docencia en el grado de estudios ingleses (asignaturas de inglés instrumental y fonética y fonología inglesas). sus intereses se centran en la adquisición de la lengua inglesa y la enseñanza del inglés con segunda lengua. en andrea huerta bon is an adjunct professor and phd student in the english and german department at the universidad autónoma of barcelona. she is currently in the second year of her phd in second language acquisition. she teaches courses on instrumental english and english phonetics and phonology within the english studies program. her research interests include the acquisition of english and teaching english and a second language. it andrea huerta bon  è al contempo professoressa associata e dottoranda del dipartimento di filologia inglese e di germanistica dell’università autonoma di barcellona. attualmente sta frequentando il secondo anno di dottorato in acquisizione della lingua. insegna nella sezione di anglistica (corso di inglese strumentale, fonetica e fonologia inglese). i suoi interessi riguardano l’acquisizione della lingua inglese e l’insegnamento dell’inglese come seconda lingua.   euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 5, issue 2, december 2018, 76-90 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.9.156 www.e-journall.org © durán 2018. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. pockets of hope: cases of linguistic flexibility in the classroom leah durán*a, kathryn i. hendersonb1 auniversity of arizona buniversity of texas at san antonio received 1 october 2018; received in revised form 6 november 2018; accepted 13 november 2018 abstract en this study adds to the small but growing body of work demonstrating the instructional potential of linguistic flexibility and hybridity to support student learning. our findings from two elementary classrooms illustrate the way that translanguaging pedagogy contributes to students’ understanding of content-area material as well as their mastery of language arts skills. student language practices described as reflecting academic language, language variation, and code-switching represent three domains that are often talked about separately. we consider the ways both focal teachers created spaces for students to draw on linguistic resources across these domains. in our discussion of the findings and their implications, we attempt to unite these perspectives in order to extend current understandings about translanguaging pedagogy and highlight ways to value and employ a broader spectrum of language practices for academic purposes. key words: language ideologies; translanguaging; elementary education es este estudio contribuye a la creciente, aunque todavía limitada, literatura científica que demuestra el potencial pedagógico de la flexibilidad e hibridez lingüística para el aprendizaje. los resultados del análisis de dos clases primarias ilustran cómo la pedagogía translingual contribuye a que los estudiantes comprendan la materia a la vez que desarrollan sus habilidades lingüísticas. a menudo, las prácticas lingüísticas de los estudiantes que reflejan su uso del lenguaje académico, la variación lingüística y los cambios de código se tratan por separado. sin embargo, aquí analizamos cómo los dos instructores crearon espacios para que los estudiantes movilizaran sus recursos lingüísticos en los tres ámbitos. en el apartado de discusión de los resultados y sus implicaciones, aunamos estas perspectivas con el fin de extender nuestro entendimiento la pedagogía translingual y destacar maneras en las que podemos valorar y emplear un amplio abanico de prácticas lingüísticas para fines académicos. palabras clave: ideologías lingüísticas; translanguaging; educación primaria it questo studio si aggiunge al piccolo ma crescente corpo di lavoro che dimostra il potenziale didattico della flessibilità e dell'ibridazione linguistica a supporto dell'apprendimento degli studenti. i risultati emersi dal nostro studio di due classi di scuola primaria illustrano come la pedagogia translanguaging contribuisca alla comprensione dei contenuti disciplinari da parte degli studenti e alla loro padronanza delle abilità linguistiche. le pratiche linguistiche degli studenti, che mostrano il loro uso del linguaggio academico, della variazione linguistica e del code-switching, rappresentano tre domini di cui spesso si parla separatamente. in questo studio, invece, consideriamo i modi in cui entrambi gli insegnanti coinvolti hanno creato spazi affinché gli studenti attingessero alle risorse linguistiche di tutti e tre i domini. nella discussione dei risultati e le loro implicazioni uniamo queste prospettive al fine di estendere le attuali conoscenze sulla pedagogia translanguaging e di sottolineare come valorizzare e impiegare un più ampio spettro di pratiche linguistiche per scopi accademici. parole chiave: ideologie linguistiche, translanguaging, istruzione primaria * contact: leahgduran@email.arizona.edu http://www.e-journall.org/ linguistic flexibility in the classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 77 1. introduction the overarching aim in this research project is to increase our understanding of how teachers can create and sustain equitable learning spaces for linguistically diverse students. while researchers have convincingly established the importance of students’ everyday language practices as resources for learning (gort, 2006; lee, 1997; martínez, 2010; orellana & reynolds, 2008), teachers often tacitly or explicitly convey that these practices are non-academic or inappropriate for school (alim, 2005). hybrid language practices, in which students communicate using more than one named language, are both typical of bilingual communities and often highly stigmatized, by teachers and by speakers alike (martínez, 2013; urciuoli, 1996). the current school accountability climate in the united states emphasizing standardized testing, and consequently monolingual language policy, reinforces these deficit views towards language hybridity, promoting ideologies of language standardization and linguistic purism (menken, 2008). and yet, in our research, we have found pockets of hope, specifically classroom spaces in which students engage fluidly in their home and community language practices for meaning-making. in this study, we examine the pedagogical practices of two elementary teachers in central texas who valued a wide range of student language performances. our central guiding research question was: how do these teachers create classroom spaces for culturally and linguistically diverse students to engage in diverse language practices? this study adds to the small but growing body of research demonstrating the academic value of linguistic flexibility in supporting student learning. we also consider the way that speakers cross dialectal as well as linguistic borders in the service of their learning. our findings illustrate how translanguaging pedagogy supports a broad range of student language performances and contributes to students’ understanding of content-area material as well as their mastery of language arts skills. 2. theoretical perspectives and literature review how language is defined and understood is central to the purpose of this study. we draw on an understanding of language as a social practice rather than a discrete object (pennycook, 2010). garcía’s (2009) conception of translanguaging, defined as the everyday language practices of bilinguals, aligns with this perspective on language. translanguaging, as defined by garcía, goes beyond code-switching to connote a single linguistic repertoire. theoretically, this definition encompasses a vast array of bilingual language practices, including shifts between named languages as well as dialectal shifts within named languages. studies exploring translanguaging in schools have traditionally focused on the practice of shifting between named languages (creese & blackledge, 2010; gort & sembiante, 2015; palmer, martínez, mateus, & henderson, 2014; seltzer, collins, & angeles, 2016). in this study we consider language practices both along a spanish-english and standard-vernacular continuum. we use the term linguistic flexibility to emphasize a broad range of language practices, characterized by hybridity and variation, within classroom spaces. at the same time, we understand the differences between spanish and english and “standard” and “vernacular” to be socially constructed and subject to change over time. in considering the kinds of language labeled “academic” or “standard” or “appropriate for school,” our work builds on previous contributions that establishing the racialized and arbitrary nature of such labels. for example, aukerman (2007) considered the ways that both teachers and researchers have framed bilingual students’ language use as either social bics (basic interpersonal communication skills) or decontextualized, cognitively demanding calps (cognitive academic language proficiencies). her analysis demonstrates that language use qualified as bics can be quite cognitively demanding and not very “basic”; conversely, what is labeled as academic is socioculturally defined and embedded in social relationships. others have asserted that the “standard language” which is held up as exemplary is frequently based on written, edited language, rather than spontaneous, spoken language (lippigreen, 2012). rather, “standard english” is closer to an ideal and cultural emblem than a set of defined linguistic practices (silverstein, 1996). finally, critiques of appropriateness-based discourses—the notion that some language practices are more appropriate for school than others—have highlighted how language practices considered appropriate and normative when spoken by white students are often perceived as inappropriate when spoken by students of color (flores & rosa, 2015). at the same time, language continues to serve as a gatekeeper in school, and academic disciplines, like other subcultures, have their own particular ways with words (schleppegrell, 2004). in our work, we echo the position of scholars who argue that rather than more effectively teach students how to switch between “standard” and “nonstandard” or “academic” and “everyday” language practices, we can support them in becoming, “effective communicators by doing what we all do best, what comes naturally: blending, durán & henderson e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 78 merging, meshing dialects” (young, 2009, p. 72). we add that the ability to blend, merge, and mesh both dialects and languages has the potential to support bilingual students as they learn about and through language. our work also embraces the ideological underpinnings of translanguaging, and views language hybridity and students’ fluid bilingualism as a resource (celic & seltzer, 2011; garcía, 2009). translanguaging encompasses both language practices and the use of these diverse practices for meaning-making (garcía & li wei, 2014). in a school setting, translanguaging as a pedagogical approach allows and supports spaces of linguistic flexibility for learning. since cummins (2005) called for the development of translanguaging pedagogies much research has moved in this direction (creese & blackledge, 2010; flores & garcía, 2013; gort & pontier, 2013). research has examined how diverse language practices can be used across different instructional programs including english as a second language (esl) (zapata & laman, 2016) and forms of bilingual education (palmer, martínez, mateus, & henderson, 2014) as well as within specific academic areas including literacy (michael-luna & canagarajah, 2007), and content-area instruction. translanguaging pedagogies have been connected to positive academic outcomes. for example, through their exploration of gujarati and chinese complementary school in the united kingdom, creese and blackledge (2010) identified how instructors’ translanguaging practices helped increase student engagement and access to difficult texts. seltzer et al. (2016) found that translanguaging pedagogy in an 11th-grade english literature classroom in the united states allowed students to increase meaning-making in literacy activities. sayer (2013) examined how students’ practice of shifting between english and spanish as well as the vernacular afforded academic, linguistic, and identity development. more current research has considered how translanguaging instructional approaches and strategies combine to form a pedagogical framework. research identifies three components of a translanguaging pedagogy: stance, design, and shifts (garcía, ibarra johnson, & seltzer, 2017; garcía & kleyn, 2016). an educator’s stance includes his or her understanding of language and language ideologies. the translanguaging design includes how teachers plan to utilize diverse language practices in the classroom and how shifts in language use result from moment-to-moment in-class instructional decisions. while this pedagogical framework is well-developed theoretically, more classroombased research is needed to identify possible strengths and challenges in practice. just as researchers have explored translingual pedagogies that make use of more than one language, similar work has been done to develop pedagogies for students who are bidialectal. strategies have spanned a wide continuum, ranging from the use of dialect readers (simpkins & simpkins, 1981) to the use of contrastive analysis that highlights differences between language varieties (taylor, 1989; wright, 1999) to curricular experiences that promote awareness of students’ own language and linguistic variation generally (wolfram, adger, & christian, 1999; henderson & ingram, 2018), and, most recently, to instruction that works to instill critical awareness of how linguistic discrimination upholds inequitable power relations (alim, 2005; garcía, 2017; purnell, idsardi, & baugh, 1999). carol lee’s (1995) cultural modeling approach is one example of ways that teachers have been able to position linguistic diversity and flexibility as an asset rather than an impediment to learning. she outlined the respects in which some rhetorical aspects of african american language (also known as black language, black english, african american vernacular english, and black english vernacular) are analogous to the practices of literary analysis. this work and that of her colleagues further demonstrates that encouraging students to use, value, and develop the full spectrum of their linguistic repertoire supports literacy development and achievements (lee, 1995; smitherman, 1994). researchers extending this cultural modeling framework to spanish-english bilingual students have illustrated similar relationships between the oftenstigmatized language practices of bilinguals and literacy skills such as audience awareness and the communication of nuance (martínez, 2010; orellana, reynolds, dorner, & meza, 2003). collectively, the contributions of these scholars have shown that everyday language practices, while often stigmatized by teachers, can contribute in important ways to children’s learning. although the complex language practices of children and youth have been extensively documented, a better understanding of how teachers can use linguistic diversity as a pedagogical resource is still needed. a few studies have described translanguaging across both linguistic and dialectal boundaries in secondary settings. martinez (2016) describes the language practices of lorenzo, a high school student in los angeles. martinez observed that lorenzo’s linguistic flexibility and ability to move seamlessly between varieties of english and spanish was typical of many students in linguistically diverse communities and often recognized by sociolinguists; however, such abilities are rarely acknowledged or valued by educators. instead, students like lorenzo who speak spanish are often perceived as inherently monolingual, and linguistic flexibility in the classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 79 students who speak stigmatized dialects in school are usually corrected when they use them (ball, skerrett, & martínez, 2011). in contrast to this norm, de los ríos and seltzer (2017) describe two secondary classrooms where teachers asked students to study and respond to translanguaging texts, noting that this created space for students to critique linguistic discrimination and develop personally meaningful and linguistically dexterous writing practices typically censored in english classrooms. building on this scant body of literature, the study described here contributes to research by focusing on translanguaging in elementary schools, which includes shifting both within and across languages. specifically, we focus on two teachers who embrace a translanguaging stance and examine how they create linguistically flexible spaces. in turn, we highlight the academic benefits of their translanguaging pedagogy for literary development and engagement with cognitively demanding content. 3. methods of inquiry this dual case study draws on data from two separate larger studies carried out during the 20132014 school year. the collaboration for this article focused on teachers’ translanguaging pedagogy. both teachers (whom we are calling ms. barry and mr. clarke) were white, had a bilingual endorsement as part of their teacher certification, and were teaching in classrooms (1st grade esl classroom and 3rd grade bilingual classroom) with predominantly latinx spanish-english bilingual students. the teachers were purposefully selected based on their pluralist language ideologies and expertise in their fields. ms. barry was recommended as an exemplary teacher by local teacher educators and, when approached, expressed both pluralist ideologies and an interest in collaborating with a researcher. mr. clarke was identified through his participation in a language ideology survey taken by a random sample of 323 educators in the school district. he was selected for a case-study based on his highly pluralist ideologies, reflected in his survey responses and a follow-up interview. data sources for both case studies included ethnographic fieldnotes from participant observations in classrooms; video and audio recordings of children and teachers in whole-group, small group, and dyadic interaction; written artifacts, including work samples from children and teachers’ notes and lesson plans; and transcripts of semi-structured interviews with teachers and children. in addition, we both engaged in retrospective interviews (martínez, 2014; rampton, 2003) with each teacher during which we presented them with pieces of data for their reaction and opinion. in durán’s case study, she visited ms. barry’s classroom three times weekly for one school year, with each visit lasting approximately 45 minutes. data sources included ethnographic fieldnotes, over 30 hours of video and audio-recordings, collection of artifacts like student work, and student interviews. ms. barry’s classroom was located in a school in central texas, which according to the state reports, was at the time 93.6% economically disadvantaged, 85.1% latina/o, and 10% african american. the remainder of the student body was white, mixed-race, native, or other. in this school, 50.3% of students were labeled “limited english proficient” and participated in the school’s esl or bilingual programs. within ms. barry’s classroom, all students had been identified as english learners based on home language surveys; however, her classroom was designated esl rather than bilingual. in henderson’s case study, she visited mr. clarke’s class for two full school days followed by targeted visits (n = 14) for a minimum of two hours during the spring semester. data sources included approximately eight hours of video recording, classroom artifacts (photographs, writing samples, etc.), and a language ideology survey. observations were strategically planned to include a period of time before or after instruction for informal interviews (lunch, specials period, or recess). mr. clarke’s classroom was also located in a school in central texas, which, according to the state reports, was at the time 93% economically disadvantaged and approximately 86% latina/o. the remainder of the student body was african american, white, mixed-race, native, or other. in this school 41% of students were labeled “limited english proficient” and served in the school’s esl or bilingual programs. mr. clarke’s classroom was designated as a one-way dual language bilingual education classroom, and all of his students were identified as english learners based on home language surveys. data analysis was ongoing and began alongside data collection, which consisted of expansive field notes and analytic memos (emerson, fretz, & shaw, 2011). the analytic process involved tracking language practices through video logs. classroom video was logged in 1-minute intervals. the log included a space to summarize what was happening in the video, a space for coding what occurred inductively, and a space for coding deductively with pre-determined language codes (i.e., teo: teacher english-only). video segments identified as including translanguaging practices were selected for transcription, coding, and thematic durán & henderson e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 80 analysis. similarly, we analyzed student artifacts featuring translanguaging (glesne, 2010; miles, huberman, & saldaña, 2014). we defined translanguaging as instances of shifting between named languages (spanish and english) and/or dialectal styles. engaging in data display, the analytic process included examining student writing across students at several different points in time across the year in order to document commonalities and changes. we compared and contrasted our findings to consider how both teachers valued and utilized translanguaging practices in their classrooms (merriam, 1998). we re-visited the classroom videos and artifacts drawing on our evolving themes for (dis)confirming evidence. we recognize that our positionalities influenced data collection and analysis. durán identifies as a mixed (white and latina) female and henderson as a white female. both researchers are bilingual (spanish/english) and, when possible, tried to mirror the language choices of the teacher and students when engaging with them. we also brought a pedagogical lens to our investigation and analysis based on our prior educational experiences as a former esl and bilingual teacher in the united states (durán) and a former bilingual elementary teacher in mexico (henderson). 4. findings across cases, our analyses suggested that the teachers encouraged translanguaging as a literary technique and as a means to access subject content. in this section, we begin by presenting data from ms. barry’s 1st grade classroom during language arts instruction, followed by mr. clarke’s 3rd grade classroom during math and science instruction. 4.1. ms. barry: linguistic flexibility as literary in our first case, the teacher’s positive evaluation of translanguaging shaped her teaching in significant ways. ms. barry noted that the school policy was heavily focused on transitioning students to allenglish quickly. however, she felt that it was important to value and support students’ bilingualism. in her words, “and here i feel very protective of spanish, and i think i’m one of a few teachers at my school that really believes speaking spanish is important and building off your home language is important” (teacher interview, january 2014). she attributed this pro-bilingualism stance to her graduate coursework in bilingual/bicultural education. ms. barry noted that, after having studied bilingualism intensively, she no longer felt comfortable enforcing rigid rules about when students could use their home language. she had previously worked in schools with strict language separation policies and had herself upheld those policies, however, after learning more about bilingual education, “you can’t just go back to doing things the way you did before, because there’s a piece of you that’s like, wait, that’s wrong” (teacher interview, january 2014). in her estimation, her knowledge about bilingualism and bilingual education shaped her response to her current school’s language policy and led her to encourage bilingualism and biliteracy even in a school context where this approach was not emphasized or supported. this positive stance towards linguistic flexibility and translanguaging influenced how she taught her bilingual students to read and write. as part of her writing instruction, ms. barry invited students to closely study and approximate the kinds of language use modeled by published children’s books authors. this writing pedagogy, in which “mentor texts” are used as examples and inspiration, often leads students to appropriate (wertsch, 1991) the language of the author, first in imitative and subsequently in original ways. these authors and their linguistic choices, then, help apprentice students into an understanding of the possibilities of creating literature and what counts as literary. importantly, ms. barry deliberately and regularly featured books by bilingual latinx writers in which the author made use of translanguaging. for example, she planned an extended author study of the work of bilingual chicana author carmen tafolla, in which students read many of tafolla’s books and discussed her language use. she asked students to consider which of tafolla’s composing decisions they might try out in their own writing. this author study included tafolla’s what can you do with a paleta?/¿qué puedes hacer con una paleta? (2009) and what can you do with a rebozo?/¿qué puedes hacer con un rebozo? (2009). these books describe possible uses for a paleta (popsicle) and rebozo (shawl), respectively. they are published in parallel translation, and the english text includes a number of spanish words and phrases. this kind of translanguaging is a hallmark of latinx and chicanx literature as written by adults (rudin,1996). following their study of tafolla’s writing, a number of students tried out this kind of translanguaging style in their own writing. the following page from a student-created book (figure 1) represents a typical example of students’ writing, using the occasional single-word insertion of spanish in a mostly english text: linguistic flexibility in the classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 81 figure 1. you can make a fan with a paleta. like the examples from tafolla’s (2009) what can you do with a paleta?/¿qué puedes hacer con una paleta?, this student used a single word in spanish (paleta) and explored potential context of use (“you can make a fan with a paleta”). this specific pattern of bilingual writing diverged from the usual patterns of mixing in students’ oral speech, as explained below. however, it was in keeping with conventions of the genre. bilingual children’s picture books typically feature either single-word insertions or parallel translations, rather than the unmarked and integrated use of spanish and english characteristic of many bilinguals’ speech (garcía, 2011). this limited form of translanguaging likely stems, at least in part, from the gatekeepers (editors, reviewers, publishers) of children’s literature, many of whom assume that bilingual books should be written so as to remain accessible to monolingual english speakers (pérez & enciso, 2017). it may be that an express focus on bilingual audiences would change the kind of translanguaging that is visible, both in published children’s literature and in the writing that children do. students’ linguistic flexibility also appeared sensitive to genre conventions. while children engaged in language mixing in both speech and writing, their speech was often deeply hybrid, with mixing evident both within and across sentence boundaries (e.g., “we love tamales too, especially de pollo”) the following language chart illustrates the kind of translanguaging that was typical of students’ oral language use (see martínez, durán, & hikida, in press, for further discussion): figure 2. excerpt of language chart. durán & henderson e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 82 evident in this chart of children’ verbatim talk is the kind of translanguaging common in children’s oral language. children’s talk often featured the influence of both spanish and english at the lexical and syntactical level (e.g., “the girls shared with the woman vendiendo frutas”; “he buy[s] paletas que te pica at the store with his mom.”) however, when children wrote books during writers’ workshop, they typically either wrote using single-word insertions of spanish words or parallel translations. this difference between their written and oral language use suggests that part of children’s learning was an understanding of the conventions of different modes of communication. their ability to shift between styles and modes of translanguaging suggests the mastery of state language arts standards (e.g., “understand how communication changes when moving from one genre of media to another,” texas education agency, 2010, §110.14). moreover, the possibilities for linguistic flexibility in ms. barry’ classroom extended beyond just mixing spanish and english. for example, during a unit of study on poetry, ms. barry shared with the class a number of poems from the anthology hip hop speaks to children (giovanni, 2008), which features a range of different poetic examples of african american language (aal), such as gwendolyn brook’s “we real cool” and lucille clifton’s “why some people be mad at me all the time.” in writing poetry, one student, jesenia, occasionally made use of linguistic features typically associated with aal, such as copula deletion (e.g., “they ø sweet”) or the habitual or invariant be (to indicate an ongoing action), in some of her poetry, as in the following: cherries are good they taste sweet they always be sweet. both the invariant be and copula deletion are distinctive feature of aal (rickford & rickford, 2000) and are unlikely to reflect the influence of spanish, as spanish has no parallel linguistic features. jesenia’s use of syntactic features associated with aal may have also been influenced by her teacher’s provision of published children’s poetry that included them. it is also possible jesenia’s use of copula deletion (in other poems) and the invariant be in this one (“they always be sweet”) may represent examples of what rampton (1995) termed “crossing,” or the use of linguistic features identified most closely with another ethnic group. just as not all african american children make use of aal, many users of aal are not african american (bucholtz, 1999; chun, 2001). in schools like this one, where latinx and african american students compose the majority of the student body, researchers have documented similar kinds of language crossing or sharing across social and ethnic groups (martinez, 2016; paris, 2009). however, poetry seemed to be the only genre where these features were evident in jesenia’s writing. further suggesting an attentiveness to genre, jesenia’s poem about cherries used line breaks, color, and text placement in order to make her poem visually resemble a cherry. this technique (making a concrete poem) had also been highlighted by the teacher in published collections of poetry. collectively, these writing moves suggest that jesenia was paying close attention to the kinds of creative possibilities available in the genre of poetry, as modeled in published anthologies, and then exploring the wide spectrum of options. her flexible use of language echoed those of accomplished, published poets and suggested her own emerging command of the literary form. although ms. barry did not explicitly discuss features of aal on any of the days where she was observed, it is possible that such discussions occurred on other days. engaging in metalinguistic conversations with this book or others like it might have created opportunities for students to engage with the larger questions of how language practices come to be associated with “standardness” or not (de los ríos & seltzer, 2017). however, ms. barry’s decision to prominently feature authors who wrote using language practices that are often stigmatized or corrected in classrooms appeared to have created opportunities for her students to see such practices as both academic and literary. 4.1. mr. clarke: linguistic flexibility as a means to access subject content in math and science in the second classroom, the teacher (mr. clarke) strategically engaged in translanguaging pedagogy. he used both spanish, english, and varieties of spanish and english during instruction and encouraged students to draw on their full linguistic repertoires to access content material. mr. clarke taught the science and math portion of the curriculum to two groups of students, while his co-teacher taught language arts and linguistic flexibility in the classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 83 social studies. in this bilingual classroom context, there was no separation of language or restriction of hybrid practices. in the linguistic analysis of the first video, which was 15 minutes long, mr. clarke shifted between english and spanish 26 times. his flexible language policy was based on his view that translanguaging was both normal and useful. he explained, “yo creo que hacer el ‘code-switching’ es algo muy funcional, es lo que hace la gente bilingüe siempre cada día” (i think that doing ‘code-switching’ is something very functional. it is what bilingual people do every day) (teacher interview, february 2014). he continued to explain that he would often let students speak any language in his classroom for content knowledge development, saying “con tal de que haya comunicación está muy bien” (as long as there is communication, it’s very good) (teacher interview, february 2014). while mr. clarke’s flexible language policy could be critiqued as appearing to lack structure and intentionality, ongoing classroom observation and analysis revealed that mr. clarke’s curricular design and translanguaging shifts (garcía, ibarra johnson, & sletzer, 2017) were strategic, purposeful, and useful for both language development and access to subject content. mr. clarke’s science classes involved hands-on activities, including science experiments, scientific observation and recording, and reporting of results. to develop these science skills, mr. clarke both allowed students to access their full language repertoires and validated their choices. this linguistic flexibility reflecting a translanguaging pedagogy was consistent across all science class observations. for example, during one science unit, each student was provided with a seed in a petri dish and a graphic organizer to record observations of how the seed was changing and developing. on the wall mr. clarke hung a vocabulary anchor chart with key vocabulary in spanish and english (i.e., seed coat/recubrimiento) and a list of cognates (germination/germinación). after completing their observations and recordings on their graphic organizers, selected students shared their findings with the whole class on the overhead projector. some students recorded predominantly in english or spanish, while others drew on both. in excerpt 1, the interaction between mr. clarke and a student (karla) illustrates this translanguaging pedagogy and the validation of linguistic fluidity for academic learning: excerpt 1. 1. mr. clarke karla, what seed are you doing? 2. karla (karla walking to the front of the room) sunflower (karla places her observation sheet on the overhead monitor) 3. mr. clarke sunflower. ¿que nos cuentas en el mundo de girasoles? [what can you tell us about the world of sunflowers?] 4. karla observé que el girasol ya creció (inaudible) [i observed that the sunflower already grew (inaudible)] 5. mr. clarke (teacher pointing at the projected writing “obreve”) ¿que dice al principio? perdón. [what does it say at the beginning? sorry] 6. karla observé [i observed] 7. mr. clarke (teacher pointing to the projected words and reading) oh! observé que mi sunflower ya creció una hoja seed coat. [oh! i observed that my sunflower already grew a seed coat leaf.] 8. mr. clarke ¿se está cambiando de color, karla? [is it changing color, karla?] 9. karla (karla shakes her head no) in line 1, mr. clarke initiated the interaction in english asking karla about her seed while she walked to the front of the room and karla answered in english. mr clarke re-voiced her answer “sunflower” in line three, but then shifted to spanish and asked karla to tell the class what she learned about “el mundo de girasoles” (the world of sunflowers). by re-voicing karla’s response, he ratified her response, and by shifting to spanish he developed a linguistic connection, specifically the content-based vocabulary word sunflower/girasol. karla’s written text was displayed on the overhead and read, “obreve que mi sun flower ya le crecio una hoja seed coat” (i observed that my sunflower already grew a seed coat leaf). the written text included translanguaging along the spanish-english continuum. karla combined both spanish and english words in her observation. she also departed from additional standard conventions including writing “obreve” versus observé, capitalizing the m in mi and s in sunflower, and writing sunflower as two words. yet, she departed from what she wrote in her oral explanation substituting girasol for sunflower in line 4. by doing durán & henderson e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 84 this, karla positioned herself as a competent bilingual who knew the content-based vocabulary word in both languages. in line 5 mr. clarke pointed to her sentence and asked in spanish what it said, indicating his inability in the moment to decode karla’s written “obreve” for observe (i observed). immediately following the question, he said “perdón” (sorry), placing the breakdown in communication on himself, the reader, rather than karla as writer. this subtle addition potentially prevented karla from becoming discouraged about her writing. in line 6 karla clarified orally in spanish that she wrote “observe” (i observed). having received the clarification, in line 7, mr. clarke read karla’s entire written observation. importantly he did not modify her hybrid language choices. rather, after having read her observational recording, he asked a follow-up content question in line 9 in spanish, “¿se está cambiando de color, karla?” (is it changing color, karla?). in this brief interaction, mr. clarke validated and normalized karla’s bilingual writing by reading it out loud to the classroom and focusing on its content rather than form. his follow-up content question further prioritized access to content and content understanding over the reproduction of standardized linguistic form. at the same time, classroom language development did occur. both mr. clarke and karla used and modeled contentarea vocabulary word including seed coat and sunflower. mr. clarke and karla’s interaction illustrated linguistic flexibility, including translanguaging shifts (garcía, ibarra johnson, & seltzer, 2017), engaged in by both teacher and student. this linguistic flexibility during a science lesson included variation within spanish. in a separate science unit investigating and observing crayfish, another student marta shared her recording that her crayfish “se echó pa’tras” (it moved backwards), using a vernacular form of spanish. this example is a calque (echar pa’tras = to move backwards) borrowed from the english phrase and translated into spanish commonly associated with spanglish. again, mr. clarke repeated and normalized this linguistic variation of spanish, embracing it as a tool for contentbased investigation and meaning-making. mr. clarke used the same approach—modeling and allowing linguistic flexibility for problem solving and meaning-making—during math instruction. standardized test preparation for the 3rd grade state of texas assessments of academic readiness (staar) math exam was a mandated part of the curriculum. the school provided each teacher with required test preparation booklets. mr. clarke worked with his students on testing strategies. one key strategy was to identify the pattern in the provided answers. he debunked the standardized test format for the students in the following way, telling students: “when we look at these problems, two are dumb, one is tricky and one is for realz” (classroom observation, april 2014). he intentionally used dialectal language that was familiar and common in his students’ repertoires to demystify and take power away from the test. students would identify the pattern and make statements like “d is for realz” or “a and c are dumb.” students were also able to draw on their full language repertoires when solving math problems. in excerpt 2, mr. clarke was reviewing practice test problems that the students just completed: excerpt 2. 1. mr. clarke okay, read it for us please. 2. gustavo ¿en español? porque aquí está en español. [in spanish? because here it’s in spanish.] 3. mr. clarke bueno, en lo que tú quieres, en chino si quieres (laughs). [well, in whatever you want, in chinese if you want.] 4. gustavo which clock below shows at times between six thirty p.m. and six forty-five p.m.? 5. mr. clarke so what do we need to circle up here (pointing at the word problem on the board)? which clock below shows the time between six thirty and six forty-five 6. gustavo este…you have to circle the…u::h…u::h…entre [hmmm…. you have to circle the…u::h…u::h…between] 7. mr. clarke yeah. ¿entre que? [between what?] 8. gustavo entre seis treinta, seis y media y seis cuarenta y cinco [between six thirty, six and a half, and six forty-five] mr. clarke initiated the interaction in english, asking gustavo to read the problem. gustavo was preparing for the 3rd grade staar test in spanish, and therefore the problem in his book was in spanish. in line 2 he asked in spanish if he should read it in spanish. mr. clarke responded in line 3 in spanish, mirroring gustavo’s language shift, that he could read it in any language he wanted. he joked that he could read it in linguistic flexibility in the classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 85 chinese if he wanted. mr. clarke’s joke and verbalized language policy emphasized that students could draw on any language resources they wanted for math problem solving. interestingly, despite asking in spanish and having the problem in spanish in front of him, gustavo read the problem in english from the board (line 4), positioning himself as a competent bilingual. even though his problems were in spanish, he demonstrated his ability to read the problem in english. mr. clarke’s intentionally flexible language policy as part of his classroom design (garcía, ibarra johnson, & seltzer, 2017) afforded gustavo the opportunities to practice, take risks, and develop his content-area math english despite having monolingual spanish test preparation materials. in turn 5, mr. clarke mirrored gustavo’s choice and continued the questioning in english. this more cognitively challenging question asked gustavo to identify the clue word to help solve the problem. line 6 demonstrated the power of a translanguaging pedagogy for math problem solving. gustavo began with the spanish filler word “este (hmmm),” indicating that he was thinking. he continued in english: “you have to circle, the…” followed by additional thinking filler words “u:::h” before ultimately providing the answer in spanish, “entre (between).” in this example, gustavo drew on both spanish and english for sense making. mr. clarke demonstrated his flexible language policy by mirroring gustavo’s language choice for a third time in line 7, asking in spanish, “¿entre que?” (between what?). overall, for the cognitively challenging process of solving decontextualized standardized math test problems, mr. clarke modeled linguistic flexibility, verbalized language flexibility as a language policy, and validated students’ diverse language practices in their meaning-making processes. mr. clarke’s dynamic bilingualism was also demonstrated by his shifting in and out of language varieties for additional academic purposes in math and science instruction (garcía, ibarra johnson, & seltzer, 2017). mr. clarke described in a retrospective interview that engaging in diverse language practices or language performances that reflected his students’ repertoires increased student engagement, encouraged an environment of risk-taking, and lowered students’ affective filter. to serve this additional academic purpose, mr. clarke used dialectal language practices in both spanish and english. in spanish, for example, he ended with a dialectal form of saying please, “porfis” (pretty please), when giving instructions, and he used the vernacular phrase “te vas a meter en pleito” (you’re going to get in a fight) when speaking to one student who was having problems with his classmate. furthermore, when celebrating students’ successes, he gave fist bumps and used words such as “¡chócola!” (high five!) or “¡qué padre!” (how cool!) on the other hand, in english, while responding to students correct answers he said, “booyah,” and when a student asked to borrow a pencil he said, “i’ll front you a pencil. but you will owe me a buck.” both examples, include english phrases often associated with african american language. the examples in both english and spanish illustrate how mr. clarke switched in and out of varieties of each language. mr. clarke’s use of diverse language practices in his classroom discourse could be viewed as controversial. as a white, native english speaker, his use of vernacular forms of spanish and english, specifically those rooted in african american culture, could be questioned. the presence of these language practices in his speech could be seen as styling practices reflective of appropriation (bucholtz, 1999; rampton, 1995). however, mr. clarke has been working in this community for eleven years, where he has adeptly learned “doing being bilingual” (auer, 1984, p. 7, as cited in gort, 2015). his language practices appeared to authentically reflect his deep involvement with the students’ lives and backgrounds, and his students ratified his language choices continuously. reyes (2005) explored the appropriation of african american language by asian youth and found that the use of dialectical language was used by youth to create social boundaries between teenagers and adults. in this study, mr. clarke appeared to engage in translanguaging by shifting between and within named languages as a way to connect to his students, bridge social boundaries, and create an inclusive, encouraging, risk-taking environment to access math and science content. 5. discussion and conclusion translanguaging pedagogy can be used to challenge traditional schooling structures that marginalize emerging bilinguals and their language practices. research has considered the ways linguistic flexibility can disrupt traditional teacher-student roles, understandings of language, categorization of students, forms of instruction, and what counts as learning (garcía & kleyn, 2016). together, these teacher cases suggested ways that educators can create more equitable classroom spaces that value and take advantage of language diversity. issues of academic language, language variation, and translanguaging are three domains often durán & henderson e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 86 discussed separately, but our findings illustrate how each teacher challenged linguistic norms in all three of these areas. in the case of ms. barry’s classroom, she drew on a body of work by published authors that showcased language variation. in particular, both the poetry and the prose that she selected to share with students reflected the literary talents of writers who used “nonstandard” language in their texts. in featuring the written work of authors like carmen tafolla and gwendolyn brooks, ms. barry conveyed that spanish, english, and aal were all academic, appropriate for school, and valuable forms of literary expressions. students seemed to take up this message, as many explored the possibilities for linguistic variation in their writing. the instructor’s selection of literacy materials and the mentor texts themselves validated hybrid language practices and reflected a linguistically responsive pedagogical stance. likewise, in her language chart, ms. barry recorded students’ translingual talk without translating to one language or the other, further reinforcing the notion that translanguaging in written form was acceptable and useful for academic purposes such as literary analysis. such an approach seemed to create a climate in which students were willing to try out a wide range of possibilities for literary analysis and composition. mr. clarke similarly challenged what was considered “academic language” in his classroom. he himself flexibly engaged in diverse language practices during science and math content instruction, shifting between spanish and english and dialectal varieties of both english and spanish. he also validated students’ hybrid language practices by repeating their language choices and mirroring them in his responses. collectively, ms. barry and mr. clarke created translanguaging classroom spaces for the development of content-area discourses and access to academic content. one implication of this research is the critical role of the translanguaging stance for developing and fostering classroom spaces with linguistic flexibility. both ms. barry and mr. clarke articulated pluralist language ideologies that constitute the core of a translanguaging stance (garcía, ibarra johnson, & seltzer, 2017). ms. barry felt that “building off your home language is important” for classroom instruction, and mr. clarke expressed that “code-switching es algo muy functional” (code-switching is something that is very functional). their articulated perspectives represented linguistic flexibility and hybridity as a resource for student development rather than a problem (garcía, 2009; ruiz, 1984). this research also demonstrated how the teachers’ translanguaging stance connected to their articulated and embodied classroom language policies. both teachers espoused strong messages when it came to allowing students to access their full linguistic repertoires in the classroom for meaning-making. ms. barry articulated an embrace of translanguaging, noting that, after intensive study of bilingualism, restricting students to english-only in the classroom seemed wrong. she also embodied this language policy in her classroom through her selection of books and her support for students’ use of practices that spanned the english-spanish and standard-vernacular continua. mr. clarke normalized the process of using diverse language practices for access content, stating, “es lo que hace la gente bilingüe siempre cada día” (it is what bilingual people do every day). he emphasized this perspective to his students by making a joke during instruction that they could use “chino si quieres” (chinese if you want) if it would help them learn the content, despite no students having previously engaged in chinese language practices in the classroom . professional development for in-service teachers could target the translanguaging stance as a starting point for transforming classroom language policy and practices. teachers could be asked to reflect on their personal language ideologies and how they connect (or not) to the language policies in their classroom. teachers could be asked to view their beliefs across a broad spectrum of language practices, including what they consider academic language, how they perceive code-switching or language mixing, and what they know and think about the use of dialects and vernacular forms of named language such as english and spanish. both ms. barry and mr. clarke described themselves as outliers in their school community. as such, teachers could be asked to simultaneously reflect on the language ideologies and language policies that circulate through the school community and to consider how educators and administrators impact the existence of school spaces that support diverse language practices. for teachers wishing to enact a translanguaging stance in their own work, these cases offer several useful implications. both ms. barry’s and mr. clarke’s teaching moves illustrate the value of focusing pedagogical attention on ideas rather than on the form of their expression. for students who are working to learn a new concept, it may not be essential that they express their thinking in any one particular way. rather, their talk is a tool to help them learn, and the more tools they have, the better. although there are times to teach students about the linguistic patterns typically privileged in schools, there are also times to prioritize content over form. moreover, ms. barry’s example highlights the value of seeking out linguistic variety in linguistic flexibility in the classroom e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 87 literature and inviting children to pay attention the craft of writing. many accomplished writers use language in skilled and evocative ways that cross linguistic and dialectal boundaries. a number of scholars and the #weneeddiversebooks movement have called for diversifying the literature available in schools; 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(2013). retrieved from http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter110/ ch110a.html thomas, ebony elizabeth (2016). stories still matter: rethinking the role of diverse children's literature today. language arts, 94(2), 116-123 urciuoli, bonnie (1996). exposing prejudice: puerto rican experiences of language, race, and class. new york, new york: westview press. wertsch, james v. (1991). voices of the mind: sociocultural approaches to mediated action. cambridge, massachusetts: harvard university press. young, vershawn ashanti (2009). “nah, we straight”: an argument against code switching. jac, 29(1/2), 49– 76. zapata, angie, & tropp laman, tasha (2016). “i write to show how beautiful my languages are”: translingual writing instruction in english-dominant classrooms. language arts, 93(5), 366–378. durán & henderson e-journall 5(2) (2018), pp. 76-90 90 leah durán, university of arizona leahgduran@email.arizona.edu en leah durán is an assistant professor in the department of teaching, learning and sociocultural studies at the university of arizona. previously, she taught in english as a second language (esl) and bilingual classrooms in texas. her scholarship explores bilingual students’ everyday language and literacy practices and how teachers can build on those practices as resources for academic learning. es leah durán es profesora contratada en el departamento de enseñanza, aprendizaje y estudios socioculturales de la university of arizona. antes, enseñó cursos de inglés como segunda lengua y en programas bilingües en texas. su investigación explora el uso de la lengua y la literacidad de estudiantes bilingües y cómo los docentes pueden integrar estas prácticas como recursos para el aprendizaje académico. it leah durán è ricercatrice presso il dipartimento di didattica, apprendimento e studi socioculturali della university of arizona. in precedenza, ha insegnato inglese come seconda lingua e in programmi bilingui in texas. la sua ricerca esplora la lingua d’uso quotidiano e le pratiche linguistiche degli studenti bilingui e il modo in cui gli insegnanti possono integrare tali pratiche come risorse per l'apprendimento accademico. kathryn i. henderson, university of texas at san antonio kathryn.henderson2@utsa.edu en kathryn i. henderson is an assistant professor in the department of bicultural-bilingual studies within the college of education and human development at the university of texas at san antonio. she taught elementary school for five years in guadalajara, mexico. her education interests include language ideologies, language policy, and dual language bilingual education programs. es kathryn i. henderson es profesora contratada en el departamento de estudios bilingües/biculturales de la facultad de educación y desarrollo humano en la university of texas en san antonio. enseño en la escuela primaria durante cinco años en guadalajara, méxico. sus intereses en el ámbito de la educación incluyen las ideologías lingüísticas, las políticas lingüísticas, y los programas de doble inmersión (dual language). it kathryn i. henderson è ricercatrice nel dipartimento di studi biculturali-bilingui nella facoltà di educazione e sviluppo umano presso la university of texas a san antonio. ha insegnato nella scuola primaria a guadalajara, messico per cinque anni. i suoi interessi nell’ambito dell’istruzione includono ideologie linguistiche, politiche linguistiche e programmi d’istruzione bilingue (dual language). e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 1, july 2023, 21-38 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.1.2742 www.e-journall.org © vañó garcía 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. a call for critical and open pedagogies in spanish heritage language instruction: students as knowledge producers of open educational resources (oers) inés vañó garcía saint anselm college received 15 august 2022; accepted after revisions 16 april 2023 abstract en this paper stresses the urgent need to implement critical and open pedagogies in language teaching, especially in the spanish heritage language classroom. language courses are often compulsory in secondary and higher education and typically employ traditional pedagogical models that are structured by grammar and/or communication tasks. this study introduces how heritage language teaching emerged as a field of study in the united states and offers a brief overview of critical and open pedagogies and their connection to open educational resources. this paper then introduces critical and open pedagogies to teaching spanish as a heritage language, followed by a critical look at the existing spanish teaching material. as an alternative to this material, this article shares a project titled “discovering el barrio” which addresses an innovative and productive pedagogical practice carried out by a spanish heritage language class at lehman college, cuny. in this project, spanish heritage language learners (hll) became producers of authentic teaching and learning materials for second language (l2) spanish learners. key words: spanish heritage language, language ideologies, critical pedagogy, open educational resources (oers) es este artículo subraya la urgente necesidad de implantar pedagogías críticas y abiertas en la enseñanza de lenguas, especialmente en el aula de español como lengua de herencia. los cursos de idiomas suelen ser obligatorios en la enseñanza secundaria y superior, y suelen emplear modelos pedagógicos tradicionales estructurados por tareas gramaticales y/o comunicativas. este estudio introduce cómo surgió la enseñanza de lenguas de herencia como campo de estudio en estados unidos y ofrece una visión general de las pedagogías críticas y abiertas y su conexión con los recursos educativos abiertos (rea). se presentan pedagogías críticas y abiertas específicas para la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia (elh), seguidas de una mirada crítica al material existente para la enseñanza del español. como alternativa a este material, este artículo comparte un proyecto titulado “descubriendo el barrio” que aborda una práctica pedagógica innovadora y productiva llevada a cabo por una clase de elh en lehman college, cuny. en este proyecto, los estudiantes de elh se convirtieron en productores de materiales auténticos de enseñanza-aprendizaje para estudiantes de español como segunda lengua (l2). palabras clave: español como lengua de herencia, ideologías lingüísticas, pedagogía crítica, recursos educativos abiertos (rea) it l’articolo evidenzia l’urgente bisogno dell’attuazione di pedagogie critiche ed aperte nell’insegnamento delle lingue, in particolar modo nella classe di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria. i corsi di lingua spesso sono obbligatori nell’istruzione secondaria e universitaria e solitamente adottano modelli pedagogici strutturati su esercizi di grammatica e/o di comunicazione. questo studio illustra come l’insegnamento delle lingue ereditarie sia emerso come campo di studi negli stati uniti e propone una breve rassegna delle pedagogie critiche ed aperte e la loro relazione con le risorse didattiche aperte (open educational resources, oers). l’articolo introduce le pedagogie critiche ed aperte per l’insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua ereditaria e offre uno sguardo critico sui materiali esistenti per l’insegnamento. come alternativa a tali materiali, il documento presenta il progetto intitolato “alla scoperta di el barrio”, che riguarda una pratica didattica innovativa realizzata da una classe di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria presso il lehman college, cuny. all’interno del progetto, gli apprendenti di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria sono diventati gli ideatori di materiali d’insegnamento e di apprendimento autentici, per apprendenti dello spagnolo come lingua seconda (l2). parole chiave: spagnolo come lingua ereditaria, ideologie linguistiche, pedagogia critica, risorse didattiche aperte  inés vañó garcía, saint anselm college ivanogarcia@anselm.edu vañó garcía e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 22 1. introduction: the teaching of spanish in the united states despite changes in the united states bilingual education policies over the years, these policies continue to reproduce monoglossic ideologies (wiley & garcía, 2016), casting spanish as a language of poverty used by latines1 and as a negotiable resource used by bilinguals in the united states. language education policies and practices do not allow u.s. latines to negotiate spanish as a resource; rather, they are encouraged to shift to english, leaving not only spanish behind but also any prospects in the spanish/english bilingual market as well (garcía & mason, 2008). despite its constant presence in the united states , spanish has mostly been shaped as immigrant and foreign in education as well as social contexts (lozano, 2018), thus ignoring a heteroglossic perspective and reinforcing monoglossic teaching paradigms, with direct consequences not just in the educational spaces but also in the work force. in a recent analysis by lara alonso and laura villa, based on the reproduction of the discursive trope of language profit in the united states, they state, “the marginalized position of latinxs in the social structure and the racialization of their linguistic practices result in a linguistic exploitation that remains unchallenged in the us” (2020, p. 37). in order to acknowledge that spanish is not a foreign language in the united states, there is the urgent need to engage with critical pedagogy frameworks to challenge the teaching and learning paradigms that continue to reproduce these monoglossic ideologies which conceive spanish as a static object of study with no consideration to the political nature of the language itself. the presence of heritage languages (hl) and heritage language learners (hll) in the educational system in the united states is not a new development (fishman, 2001; roca, 1997; valdés, 2005). nevertheless, it was not until the 1970s that there was an explicit reference to hll from many language teaching organizations. after the bilingual education act was signed in 1968, an article was published in the modern language journal following the annual meeting of the american association of teachers of spanish and portuguese (aatsp) in new york city, titled “spanish and portuguese cease to be foreign” (teschner, 1973). this was the first time that both language organizations, the aatsp along with the modern language association (mla), officially addressed the fact that there were spanish-speaking learners within the “foreign” language classroom and, therefore, teachers would have to be aware of their different educational needs (potowski & carreira, 2004). consequently, as gutiérrez explains, “these language learners require a pedagogical perspective that values their backgrounds and experiences instead of treating them as beginners” (1997, p. 34). despite the diversity of their student populations, some colleges and high schools did not offer heritage language courses until the turn of the 21st century. however, since then, there has been an exponential growth of spanish hl program throughout universities in the united states (beaudrie & fairclough, 2012). by the end of 1990s, there was a re-emergence of heritage language as a field of study within the academic setting (wiley, 2005). this was the turning point for heritage language education, with the first of many national conferences (the first one in 1999, followed by the second one in 2002) and specialized publications, such as the heritage language journal. and yet, the increased visibility also brought new questions and challenges2. in spite of the permanent presence of and exposure to spanish in the united states, it is a language that mostly remains labeled as immigrant and foreign (del valle & garcía, 2013; lozano, 2018), and there is a tendency to construct its teaching as the teaching of a foreign language (alonso, 2006; pomerantz & schwartz, 2011). as advocates for critical pedagogies in language teaching demonstrate through their work, the teaching of spanish, or any other language, as a heritage language differs from its teaching as a second language. for further insights, see the work of daniel villa (1996, 2002, 2005), jennifer leeman (2005, 2014, 2018), glenn martínez (2003, 2016), sara beaudrie (2015), along with damian vergara wilson (2021) and claudia holguín mendoza (2018, 2021), among others. the commitment of these scholars has demonstrated the need to contextualize and critically examine historical constructions, as well as the social and political implications of academic and standard language ideologies and linguistic hierarchies (aparicio, 1997). this article gives an overview of the development of the teaching of spanish as a heritage language within the united states and advocates for the application of critical and open pedagogies within the field. in 1 my intention is to make visible the use of "e" as an alternative to "x" for language inclusivity in spanish since the latter has encountered some political resistance and the former allows for greater legibility. 2 although it is outside the scope of this paper, since i am advocating for critical and open approaches to language teaching, i would like to acknowledge the problematic labeling of “heritage learner/language.” while in the field of hl education this label has been settled, this terminology has been contested in bilingual education. for further discussion of this point see garcía (2005) and van deusen-scholl (2003). critical and open pedagogies in spanish heritage language instruction e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 23 addition to this brief history about the emergence of the field, i also present a critical consideration of the instruction materials available for language instruction. finally, i share “discovering el barrio” as a case study of a project born in response to this need to challenge the traditional pedagogies in language teaching to hl. this project illustrates critical and open pedagogies within language instruction where hll students created, produced, and edited videos based in east harlem, resulting in publicly accessible authentic teaching and learning materials for l2 spanish learners beyond the physical classroom. after a description of the project, its methodology, and its scaffolded delivery, i conclude with a reflection about its affordances and constraints, along with further directions to consider for replicating and enhancing the project. 2. spanish heritage language teaching: an overview guadalupe valdés (1981) was one of the first scholars to take action on the topic of spanish hll (also known as spanish for native speakers, or sns) within the classroom environment. she pointed out that spanish could not be treated as a foreign language in the united states and drew attention to the subtractive and discriminatory teaching theories and strategies of the time. valdés compared the teaching of spanish to the teaching of english and advocated for teaching spanish as a native language. valdés called on language instructors to end discriminatory approaches that seek to replace non-standard varieties with standard ones, and instead, recognize the legitimacy of all linguistic varieties. sergio loza and sara beaudrie’s introduction to their book (2022) provides a concise historical overview of spanish hl teaching practices. they chronologically differentiate three waves: the first wave (1981-1999), the second wave (2000-2012) and the third wave (2012-2022). the first wave reinforced monolingual ideologies with an approach that sidelined or even eliminated the multiple contributions of u.s. latines from any intellectual, cultural, and linguistic perspective within the higher education setting (loza & beaudrie, 2022, p. 5). on the contrary, the second wave evolved to include the “development and implementation of sociolinguistically informed pedagogies” (p. 6) and on increasing students’ linguistic repertoire, and/or improving their standardized versions of the language. in other words, the second wave sought to familiarize students with a more formal and academic variety of the language than that which they already speak at home. according to this approach, students who are speakers of non-prestige varieties acquire the more prestigious one, standard variety through education with a language-as-a-resource goal since the language functions as a tool to gain academic and professional success in the future (beaudrie, ducar & potowski, 2014; ricento, 2005). in addition to the acquisition of this prestige variety, the term “appropriateness” comes into play in order to validate students’ language use in certain contexts. this is sometimes illustrated through analogies between language use and clothing—for instance, it is appropriate to wear a bathing suit when you go swimming but not when you go to a wedding (potowski, 2016). the understanding that the “variety” that one speaks depends on a specific context upholds the status of prestige varieties, including the standard one (gutiérrez, 1997). beaudrie’s findings (2015), based on the analysis of spanish hl syllabi at a national level, illustrate how pedagogical changes take place gradually since teachers/instructors at the time were still imputing the standard language ideology in their shl courses (p. 15). in the global context that we inhabit, claire kramsch (2006) calls for a language teaching pedagogy that strives to move beyond the goal of communicative competence (i.e., communicative language teaching, or clt approach). taking into account social and economic inequalities as well as historicities—past, present and future—she advocates for symbolic competence: “language learners are not just communicators and problem solvers, but whole personas with hearts, bodies, and minds, with memories, fantasies, loyalties, identities” (p. 251). within this context, the 2007 mla report represented a crucial moment with its explicitly acknowledgment of the need to aim for a “translingual and transcultural competence” in language teaching. the report emphasizes how international borders are transformed and reinvented by advances in new technologies and suggests that the objectives of language classes can no longer be understood as foreign. however, as jennifer leeman and ellen serafini (2016) point out, this report continues to envision students as monolingual speakers gaining proficiency in a target language, a language based on an idealized standard variety. leeman and serafini offer a sociolinguistic perspective on teaching hl, providing a list of concepts to be incorporated by teachers and students (i.e., linguistic variation, language attitudes and ideologies, contact language phenomenon). leeman and serafini also offer task examples that illustrate the pedagogical practices that truly promotes translingual competence. vañó garcía e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 24 this sociolinguistic approach illustrates the need to problematize the normative assumptions that are taken for granted, examine the notion of power associated with them, and interrogate how they operate at linguistic and extra-linguistic levels in different contexts and social practices by establishing the relevant connections with issues of identity and agency (pennycook, 2001). language(s) are more than a simple set of linguistic norms, and critical approaches to language teaching must be aware that these norms are conventional and based on social consensus. consequently, although our social practices tend toward normativity, our pedagogical practices must question them. the idealized notion of standard language is, in itself, a language ideology that is constructed by specific agents within concrete sociohistorical processes (lippi-green, 2011; milroy & milroy, 1991). from early on, daniel villa (1996) challenged the notion of the existence of a “standard variety” of spanish, and glenn martínez’s (2003) provided a perspective that problematized the status of the language itself by questioning the power dynamics behind social stratification. the beginning of the 21st century, with the work of leeman (2005) and martínez (2003), ushered in a “critical turn” in language teaching. this third wave (loza & beaudrie, 2022) constitutes a step forward, not just from a pedagogical standpoint but also at a broader social level which targets students’ consciousness. this approach seeks to highlight the stratification of dialects within the social structure and the power implications upholding the notion of a standard or prestige variety. this third wave is characterized by scholars in the hl field developing a critical approach to language teaching (pascual y cabo & prada, 2016). this wave includes work on hl curricular design and anti-racist pedagogies (beaudrie, amezcua & loza, 2021; lacorte & magro 2021), and the institutionalization and hl program direction (beaudrie & loza, 2021; carreira, 2017). alongside this approach, josé del valle (2014) posits that it is necessary to think about the social and political positions that shape teachers’ pedagogical practices. he emphasizes the importance of being aware of factors such as ideological forces, institutional requirements, the teacher’s decisions about dialectal choices, among many others, all of which encourage students to become conscious of the situation. building on this line of work on developing students’ awareness, leeman and martinez’s research points to the critical language awareness (cla) approaches and its curricular development within hl education (holguín mendoza, 2018, 2021; holguín mendoza, davis, & weise, 2018). leeman’s (2005, 2014) interdisciplinarity pedagogical perspective for spanish hll includes disciplines such as literature, film and cultural studies, anthropology, and sociolinguistics. above all, it highlights the necessity of developing students’ agency and critical awareness. this approach tasks instructors with “envisioning the classroom as a politicized space in which students’ lived experiences as us latinx bilinguals are surfaced, recognized as legitimate, and contextualized within larger societal powers structures” (loza & beaudrie, 2022, p. 9). following this framework, it must be understood that languages are not natural units, instead they are social constructions; languages are politically defined categories (garcía & otheguy, 2015; otheguy, garcía, & reid, 2015). according to this argument, this project is situated within a critical pedagogical framework that aims to: help students critically understand their own lives and worlds, develop agency in making their own language choices, and participate in the building of a more democratic society, educators must take the relationship between language and sociopolitical issues explicit, provide opportunities for students to examine and interrogate dominant linguistics practices and hierarchies, and encourage students to explore the ways language can be used to perform a wide range of social functions and identity work (leeman, 2005, p. 36). in this way, by emphasizing the need to think about the political, historical and social experiences that shape the pedagogical practice of the teacher, language is understood as more than a communicative tool. its symbolic value allows it to be placed in a social context that affords critical examination of the roles of the speakers, the language itself, and its function within society. 3. pedagogical framework(s): critical/open pedagogies & open educational resources (oers) critical approaches to teaching are not a new phenomenon. within the context of the united states, brazilian educator paulo freire (1921-1997) is well known for his critique of the “banking system” of education that describes the one-way system in which students assimilate the knowledge provided by the teacher (freire, 1994). contrary to a “banking” model that consists mostly of memorization and drill practice, freire advocates for a “problem-solving” methodology where “people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static critical and open pedagogies in spanish heritage language instruction e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 25 reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation” (freire, 1994, p. 64). as educator luisa parra illustrates through her spanish teaching experience, these pedagogical frameworks create opportunities for students to expand on their social consciousness and reflect on their positionality to act and have an impact for the possibility of a more inclusive future (parra, 2013, p. 257). within this framework of critical pedagogy, there is an emphasis on dialogue and community building, fostering students’ inquiry and agency and motivating students to be active critical thinkers. as jesse stommel explains, “critical pedagogy is concerned less with knowing and more with a voracious not-knowing. it is an on-going and recursive process of discovery” (2014). these critical pedagogy methods offer new possibilities, especially if we consider affordances of digital spaces to do this work. in this vein, many scholars have highlighted the shared aims of critical pedagogies and open pedagogies, which seek to harness the power of digital technologies to expand opportunities for teaching and learning (rosen & smale, 2015; stommel, 2014). according to robin derosa and rajiv jhangiani, open pedagogy is a site of praxis, a place where theories about learning, teaching, technology, and social justice enter into a conversation with each other and inform the development of educational practices and structures. this site is dynamic, contested, constantly under revision, and resists static definitional claims (2017, para. 2). while both terms share the same foundations and, as indicated, their hybridity could make them synonymous, it is worth reinforcing their shared vision for the possibilities offered by technology and open digital tools: for this reason, the term open digital pedagogy is useful as well. as jody rosen and maura smale explain, open digital pedagogy is the use of cost-free, publicly available online tools and platforms by instructors and students for teaching, learning, and communicating in support of educational goals, can […] facilitate student access to existing knowledge, and empower them to critique it, dismantle it, and create new knowledge (2015, para. 2). although we may encounter multiple explanations for these terms, many of them emphasize and embrace the push for open educational resources (oers), as the above definition demonstrates. despite the fact that in most cases oers are understood and praised as easily accessible and free materials, the notion of “open” entails different layers of accessibility, frequently supported by creative commons licenses, giving the educational materials multiple degrees for being reused, remixed, revised, redistribute and retained. aside from cost, the use of oers offers a path for pedagogical experimentation and changes, including many creative possibilities that allow collaboration between students and faculty to create and design pedagogical materials for intended courses and specific purposes (derosa & robinson, 2017, p. 116). these approaches facilitate the expansion of teaching and learning beyond the classroom where students can be thought of as knowledge creators, having an audience and an impact on their institutions and communities. regarding existing spanish teaching oers, most instruction material has replicated the same grammar-based teaching and learning practices from textbooks with traditional methodologies based on drills, filling in the blanks, and closed-question activities. these resources often focus on teaching the core skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) with a multiplicity of approaches that cover grammar, vocabulary, and culture. nevertheless, while these traditional paradigms remain predominant, there are some exceptions. these materials do not simply focus on acquiring the necessary and/or demanded linguistics skills; they also cover metalinguistic issues and facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations. for instance, the center for open educational resources and language learning (coerll)3 is one of the sixteen national foreign language resources center institutes among language educators that mainly focuses on the creation and dissemination of oers. more concrete initiatives include the foreign languages and the literary in the everyday (fllite)4, which is sponsored by the same center as coerll. fllite provides a collaborative space that builds on a “multiliteracies” approach and emphases language play in second language literacy. another initiative is the empowering learners of spanish material led by claudia holguín mendoza and her team that builds on critical pedagogies to introduce sociolinguistic issues (vañó garcía, 2019). additionally, there is mi-bridge, a taskbased, open-access spanish language curriculum that centers blackness in latin america and black language learners, funded by the national endowment from the humanities (baralt, clemons, anya & gómez, 2022). 3 for more information: http://www.coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/. 4 for more information: https://fllite.org/. http://www.coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/ vañó garcía e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 26 3.1. a critical look at spanish instruction material within the pedagogical framework of second languages, textbooks are considered to be artifacts that transmit specific knowledge to students. in other words, they are seen as tools that teachers/instructors use to communicate a message to their students. textbooks are "central classroom literature that drives instructional scope and sequence and generates the goals and objectives of second language acquisition" (pardiñas-barnes, 1998, p. 230). according to renate schulz (1990), critiques of second language textbooks in the united states are based primarily on four aspects: (1) the need to reduce grammatical content, (2) a change from a grammatical organization of syllabi to a more functional organization, (3) the need to include authentic material, and (4) the creation of content that conveys an intellectual challenge for students. spanish textbooks are no exception. according to cubillos (2014), "textbooks frequently dictate the content, sequence and pace of our language curricula, and their influence expands even to the teaching methodology deployed by language faculty in their classrooms" (p. 206). thus, textbooks become the primary instrument within the classroom, dictating content, curricular sequence, and the teaching methodology. the study by víctor arizpe and benigno aguirre (1987), which covers seven spanish textbooks published between 1975-1984 at the elementary university level, analyzes how the representation of mexican, cuban, and puerto rican ethnic groups is presented with excessive cultural simplification and, therefore, with the frequent use of racial and ethnic stereotypes. arnulfo ramírez and joan hall (1990), focusing on books intended for the teaching of the spanish language in secondary school, examine how these textbooks consider topics of abstract content, without human interaction, and without consideration of social class issues. using the same assessment framework, deborah herman (2007) focuses on four other contemporary spanish textbooks, also used by high schools in the united states, and advocates for a pedagogical change in language instruction that allows a framework for promoting reflection and critical inquiry. in another study, ali zaidi (2010) examines how characters are represented in three spanish textbooks, noting the absence of historical and sociological contextualization. this absence perpetuates socioeconomic inequalities that, at the same time, perpetuate a hierarchy based on colonial imperialism. taking these conclusions into account, hugo hortiguera's work (2011) examines the audio-visual materials that accompany language textbooks, concluding that: these videos do not question these representations, on the contrary, they confirm and verify them in the spanish classroom itself. by means of a complex device of generalizations, abstractions, omissions, contrasts or inferences, the other is relegated to a folkloric space and identified with values of frivolity, entertainment, and hedonism (hortiguera, 2011, “conclusions,” para. 3) (translations, unless otherwise indicated, are my own). more recently, the work of lillie padilla and rosti vana (2022) discusses the erasure of afro-latinx representation in spanish textbooks, revealing how black students are significantly underrepresented in college language programs. these erasures demonstrate the pressing need for more inclusive and equitable language teaching practices that include all students, making the work on critical race pedagogy by uju anya (2021) and the mi bridge oer curriculum that centers blackness in latin america and black language learners (baralt, clemons, anya & gómez, 2022) especially important. a critical approach takes into account the conditions of production in which the text is conceived as a cultural artifact (apple & christian-smith, 1991). as can be seen in this approach, the book can never have a neutral value, since it has an economic and symbolic value within a market: they are at once the results of political, economic, and cultural activities, battles, and compromises. they are conceived, designed, and authored by real people with real interests. they are published within the political and economic constraints of markets, and what texts mean and how they are used are fought over by communities with distinctly different commitments and by teachers and students as well. (apple & christian-smith, 1991, p. 1-2). bearing in mind this perspective in which books are also economic goods with a value within a linguistic and economic market (bourdieu, 1991), we consider textbooks as organizers of the knowledge system of society. that is to say, that the information and material that is included is considered legitimate and true by its producers and receivers, constructing, producing and reproducing a determined vision of both linguistic and social reality. it is within this perspective that we find the work of leeman and martínez (2007), in which a critical analysis of linguistic ideologies is carried out in the discourses of the spanish manuals for spanish hl published between 1920 and 1950. what separates this study from the previous ones is the critical and open pedagogies in spanish heritage language instruction e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 27 consideration of the market of production of materials, which makes visible the highly normative linguisticideological regimes mobilized by social, economic, historical, and political causes, and which necessarily have implications in pedagogical practices. 4. “discovering el barrio”: students as knowledge producers heritage language teaching requires critical consideration of historical and social contexts. in the past, pedagogical models and instructional materials for teaching spanish, especially hl spanish, have been found to lack these aspects. textbooks overlook cultural and linguistic differences and provide content that guides instructors towards more traditional, banking models of education. as an example of ways to counter this tendency, the “discovering el barrio” project applies critical and open pedagogies models in a spanish hl course. as part of these critical teaching methods, students contributed to the development of oer in the form of hl teaching audio-visual materials. this approach acknowledges that students are producers of knowledge, and by providing an alternative to the traditional instructional textbooks, a priority is given to material that incorporates social and historical authentic contexts and engage all spanish speakers. this project was conducted during the fall semester of 2017 at lehman college, the city university of new york (cuny). located in the bronx, lehman college is one of the twenty-five public colleges within the cuny system and is federally recognized as a hispanic-serving institution (hsi). students who enrolled in spa 114: elementary spanish for heritage speakers ii (spa 114) were placed in class in one of two ways: either they completed the previous language class (spanish for heritage speakers i), or they placed via a placement test. this test is not only based on proficiency; it also contains questions regarding students’ background information in order to know more about their language experience. in this institution, 90-95% of students are taking spa 114 in order to satisfy the language requirement of the college, and only a small minority decide to minor in spanish. by the end of the semester, students were expected to be able to: (1) develop their agency and feel comfortable making their own language choices; (2) question and think critically about the connection between language and power in order to challenge the established societal status quo; (3) question how (our) linguistic practices influence current socio-political issues; (4) develop their literacy skills: reading (read critically, interpret, and discuss texts from different genres) and writing (write descriptive and argumentative compositions, become aware of the academic conventions within institutions); and (5) improve and strengthen technology/computer skills using software that combines text, images, audio and other media. the spa 114 course was set up through cuny academic commons, a wordpress site available only to students registered in this class 5 . the site enhanced students’ engagement with the required readings, discussion, feedback, and community building; through the class website students were able to collaboratively read and annotate the readings before coming to class, and continue the dialogue, reflective practice, and discussion after the class. in this way, the course was student-driven through questions and provocations posted by students, as well as through discussions generated and moderated by them. each week, two to three students were in charge of annotating the reading(s) and guiding the class discussion. the annotation was done through hypothes.is6, an open source tool that allows users to annotate a text collaboratively and digitally. this annotation opportunity fosters students’ writing skills and invited them to use their whole linguistic repertoire, while also developing critical thinking skills7. during the semester, students were also required to create blog posts. blogging was another low-stakes writing assignment where students used their linguistic repertoire, and had the opportunity to create multimodal responses and comments by adding hyperlinks, pictures, and/or videos. “discovering el barrio” is an innovative pedagogical practice that enabled spanish hll to become producers of audio-visual teaching and learning materials for l2 spanish learners. taking el barrio (i.e., spanish harlem, east harlem) as a starting point, hll students were able to discover, explore, map and videorecord different places of the area, building connections within diverse communities outside the classroom 5 although the actual course with student work is not publicly available, a sample site has been created with access to the syllabus, readings, requirements and other components of the course along the scaffolding and handouts of the project with the final artifacts: https://spaheritage.commons.gc.cuny.edu/. 6 for more information: https://web.hypothes.is/. 7 both wordpress and hypothes.is are open-source software, meaning that they are free in two senses: “not only do users have the right to use the software, but users, developers, and re-developers have the rights to access, manipulate, break, rebuild the original code to fix bugs, add features, or create new projects” (shaffer, 2013). https://spaheritage.commons.gc.cuny.edu/ https://web.hypothes.is/ vañó garcía e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 28 setting. this semester-long project emphasized a decentered classroom perspective, and these methodologies promoted hll communicative competences as well as cultural and socio-political awareness in a local context. students were actively involved in formative and summative reflection about their work since they were critically and continuously engaged during the process from design and research to problem solving. finally, the authenticity of the project was accomplished by students’ voices and choices, and made available as oer through cuny academic commons. this project followed place-based and task-based methodologies. these methodologies are studentcentered and illustrate critical pedagogical practices through critical reflection, collaborative writing, development of problem-solving skills, promotion of inquiry, and active and conscious engagement in the creative process. differing from grammatical or textbook based instruction, this method of spanish hl education engages students in an experiential learning project, providing opportunities for exploration of the spanish language and linguistic practices in a real-world context (torres, 2022; torres & baralt, 2022). according to julio c. rodríguez, from the language & technology and national foreign language resource center (nflrc) at university of hawaii at manoa, the key criteria listed in the left column of table 1 below characterize project-based language learning (pbll). the right column offers examples of how this specific project addressed the criteria: table 1 list of key criteria for pbll and how they applied to the project project-based language learning (pbll) criteria students as creators of oers: discovering el barrio (1) key knowledge, understanding and success skills the project addressed the 21st century skills according to actfl: communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy, flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction, social and cross-cultural skills, productivity and accountability, leadership and responsibility. (2) the challenge this project is framed around a challenge or open-ended question: spanish hll must select, present and design audiovisual material to spanish l2 from a local point of view (east harlem). (3) sustained inquiry this project encourages hll to continuously generate questions about form and meaning that promote linguistic and cultural connections, at the same time they are learning to search and use digital and non-digital resources that help them solve those questions. (4) authenticity although authenticity has been discussed from different perspectives in the second language acquisition field, in this project it speaks to the context of the language use (east harlem), as well as the final product, created by hll through their experiences. (5) students voice and choice since motivation is a crucial aspect in language learning, this project creates the opportunity for learners’ input in the choice of topic and the evolution of the project. at the same time, by creating the need for interaction, spanish hlls who may not feel comfortable speaking spanish as creators within the project establish a connection between the language and their linguistic and cultural background, while building an environment where they feel comfortable with the language/repertoire they speak. (6) reflection through blog posts and class/group discussions, participants (both hll and the instructor) have opportunities to reflect and provide possible ways to explore, discover and review their thoughts and beliefs about language learning. (7) critique and revision this project created different spaces for corrective feedback (from other students and the instructor), and also for the re-thinking of ideas and products throughout the process. (8) public product the material produced by students is accessible as oer. 4.1. stage 1. reflection and evaluation of second language audiovisual materials as an initial task, students were exposed to different audio-visual materials for l2 spanish learners. these audio-visual materials were extracted from the textbook aventuras, by vistas higher learning (used in critical and open pedagogies in spanish heritage language instruction e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 29 several l2 courses at the same institution). these videos present cultural aspects of the spanish-speaking communities while introducing new lexicon and reviewing linguistic competencies. students were able to watch, discuss, and analyze these videos. in small groups students engaged in a critical analysis of these materials as means to identify dominant ideologies and representations embedded within them. the first video, “bienvenida, marissa” is the first episode of a telenovela that tells the story of a group of students studying abroad in mexico. as it can be observed from figure 1, each chapter of the textbook presents a different episode of this telenovela following the same structure. the textbook provides a photobased summary of the episode along with a list of characters on the left side, a “useful expression” list on the right, and some guided activities to check comprehension (i.e., true or false, fill in the blanks, and closed-ended questions). in this specific first episode, marissa, a u.s. college student from wisconsin arrives to la ciudad de mexico for her study abroad program and has the chance to meet the family with whom she is going to stay. figure 1. screenshot of the online textbook the second video that we used for this project is called “encuentros en la plaza.” the video was taken from a section in the first chapter called “flash cultura.” the content of each video is linked to the main theme of the chapter, in this case, introductions. the video, mainly in english, is based in buenos aires, argentina, and after a quick tour around the different “plazas” of the city, it shows a group of friends meeting for the first time. at the end of this video, the reporter recapitulates the content with the following words: “we saw that the plaza is an important center of cities and towns in the spanish-speaking world. that spanish speakers often engage in more physical contact between themselves than americans. and that if you ever travel to latin america or spain you had better be ready for some very warm greetings” (blanco & donley, 2017). after watching the videos, students completed the open-ended questions. students first shared their viewpoints and opinions in small groups and then discussed them as a whole class. students were surprised by the lack of authenticity of the materials presented together with the situations portrayed. they were able to point out how they felt the characters, situations, and/or social practices were unrelatable to them. students were able to talk about multiple issues concerning how the traditional u.s. college student is represented (i.e., a white, blond girl from wisconsin staying with an upper-middle class family in mexico), along with college experiences and expectations (study abroad programs as essential within college degree), and multiple positive and negative stereotypes and generalizations regarding spanish speakers. moreover, this assignment had pedagogical implications since students had the opportunity to reflect on how students in their own institution were exposed to spanish teaching instruction material that represented and emphasized the spanish language and its speakers as “foreign,” instead of offering a more “local” perspective based on the linguistic diversity in new york city. vañó garcía e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 30 4.2. stage 2. place-based assignment to incorporate an experiential, active learning experience as a class, students visited spanish harlem. the assignment was scaffolded in three sub-stages: students first carried out some research about the neighborhood, then conducted field work by visiting the area, and finally shared and reflected on their experience. 4.2.1. pre-visit research during class, students researched east harlem. working in small groups, students read and investigated the history of this neighborhood and the relevance of different locations, especially places that they wanted to know more about or locations that could be of interest to themselves and/or students learning spanish. although students working in small groups had the freedom to start their research from scratch, in future projects it would be beneficial for the instructor to provide information regarding the neighborhood, such as a list of videos and/or articles as a point of entry. students shared what they had learned about the neighborhood in blog posts. then, each group came up with a list of places to explore during their visit, and developed a fairly extensive list of locations that included a broad list of restaurants, several churches, museums, schools, non-profit organizations, and food courts. students noted that they chose these locations because they could take pictures there and also have the opportunity to interact with community members. they then discussed different options as a group in order to make sure that all the groups were not visiting the same locations. 4.2.2. east harlem / el barrio following the research phase, the class visited east harlem and each group was able to explore and discover the different pre-selected locations (including grocery stores, bodegas, restaurants, cafés, museums, churches, libraries, music shops, cultural centers, bookstores, and murals, among many others). students took pictures and videos in order to share the information and experience with their classmates when they reported on their visit on the classroom blog. this reflection assignment allowed students to share their experiences with their classmates, not just through writing, but also by sharing the media they collected during the visit. although many students’ homes were not as far away as one might think considering the parameters of the city, many students were not familiar with the particular sites they explored. they reported how it was the first time learning about the existence of specific places, monuments, museums as well as hispanic restaurants. here are some excerpts from students’ blog entries: [nuestras expectativas relacionadas con “el barrio” eran diferentes a las que pudimos ver. pensábamos que al llegar nos encontraríamos con algo feo, paredes con graffiti, las calles sucias y otro estilo de vida, pero no fue así. en harlem visitamos una iglesia católica, una cancha de jugar baloncesto donde vimos las paredes pintadas con un arte hermoso. visitamos una florería y finalmente fuimos a un teatro] [nuestro viaje al este de east harlem “el barrio” fue disfrutar plenamente, pudimos ir a lugares donde hablamos con las personas del vecindario. les preguntamos cómo era el área. y lo que les gusta de eso. como grupo, queríamos visitar y conectar con las personas local. un buen lugar para pasar un buen tiempo es “el museo del barrio” localizado en el 1230 5th ave, new york, ny 10029. mientras caminábamos por el museo escuchamos tocar instrumentos de música, nos paramos a mirar y, mientras un grupo de músicos se detenían para descansar, le preguntamos a uno de ellos por su tiempo y hablamos con josé, el tipo de la camisa gris.]8 8 [our expectations regarding "el barrio" were different from what we saw. we thought that when we arrived we would find something ugly, walls with graffiti, dirty streets and a different lifestyle, but that was not the case. in harlem we visited a catholic church, a basketball court where we saw the walls painted with beautiful art. we visited a flower shop (florería) and finally went to a theater]. [our trip to the east of east harlem "el barrio" was thoroughly enjoyable, we were able to go to places where we talked to people in the neighborhood. we asked them what the area was like. and what they like about it. as a group, we wanted to visit and connect with the local people. a good place to spend some quality time is "el museo del barrio" located at 1230 5th ave, new york, ny 10029. as we walked through the museum we heard musical instruments playing, we stopped to watch and, as a group of musicians stopped to rest, we asked one of them for his time and talked to jose, the guy in the gray shirt]. critical and open pedagogies in spanish heritage language instruction e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 31 4.2.3. sharing ideas / puesta en común: in the following session, we spent time discussing the visit as well as the blogs they shared on the classroom site. students were very responsive, giving feedback to other groups and sharing possible ideas. after our discussion, every group was able to narrow down their options and had one or two locations to focus on for their video. 4.3. stage 3. let’s be creative: lights! camera! action! each video had to showcase an aspect and/or location from spanish harlem. the goal was to provide a context in which the viewer (a spanish l2 student) could learn more details about the background and impact of the spanish-speaking community in this area from a more authentic, compelling, and engaging perspective. students edited their final videos by compiling multiple shorter videos, and images, and adding voiceovers as well as music. the suggested time for each video was three to four minutes. we had an informative introductory session with a videography fellow who taught us recording techniques, tips for interviewing as well as video editing and productions skills using imovie. students can use these transferable skills in other coursework and throughout their careers. students had five weeks to work on their videos. during this setup period, students had to check in with the instructor and report to the class about the progress on their projects on a weekly basis. although they also had assistance from the videography fellow for technological support, only half of them took advantage of this opportunity. videos were presented the last week of classes and students were able to give feedback both in class and through the tool called vocat9. vocat, an open-source digital tool that has evolved within the cuny system, facilitates detailed formative and summative feedback on a variety of media types, including video recordings. in this peer-review opportunity students, along the instructor, were able to comment and react to their classmates’ work. this was a chance for students to share their knowledge as experts since all of them had completed the project. figure 2. snapshot of student feedback in one video using vocat. 4.4. stage 4. curation of the material this stage entailed some post-production work with the audio-recordings already created by students. the curation process, conducted once the semester was over, aimed to review the audio and visual material used in each video to confirm and ensure the rights to reproduce the material created with the permission required. i focused the work on two of the videos: “los murales de ‘el barrio’” and “el museo del barrio.” first, the introduction of one of the videos was selected to serve as a general introduction in order to maintain consistency in the project itself. next, i proceeded to search, select, and add music with rights allowing reuse. i 9 for more information: http://vocat.io/. http://vocat.io/ vañó garcía e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 32 then made several cuts in cases where consent was not obtained for interviews, and i updated the credits. i created subtitles, since one of the main goals of this curation process was also to provide a version of the video with spanish subtitles to ensure accessibility. finally, some contextual information, suggestions, and resources were added for instructors in case they wished to adapt this material in their classes. a sample site with the cuny academic commons was created to host all of the material. 5. reflective discussion, pedagogical implications, and further directions the critical and open pedagogies followed in “discovering el barrio” recognized students as knowledge producers from the onset. in the context of the class, students were framed as knowledge producers, active critical thinkers, and researchers who linked scholarship to their local communities, and were able to reflect on the multilingual and multiethnic cultural identities and engage in a meaningful way with the public outside the classroom. by moving beyond the traditional final written text-based essay and/or composition, and by conceiving the final artifact as a public facing oer video recording, students were active participants in the decision-making of every scaffolded step of the project. hll engaged creatively and critically from design and research to meaning negotiation and problem-solving. the learning space was reimagined physically as well as digitally from many perspectives creating anew the power dynamics of the classroom. students, as learning peers, collaborated and constructed each scaffolded assignment by incorporating their ideas and voices. this step-by-step process shaped the final artifact. however, it is important to acknowledge that outside of this project, there were other curriculum and content aspects that could not be modified (i.e., grammar topics, quizzes, exams). the pedagogy presented in this piece does not reflect the entire course design, as can be inferred from the sample site previously provided. however, even when some course elements are predefined, interventions like this project provide a significant and necessary entry point to reconsider the pedagogical approach to current language instruction for heritage speakers, and to reflect upon the language instruction material currently published and required in many of our classrooms. the videos produced by hll offer a more realistic, authentic, and true-to-life perspective than many standard l2 materials. topics, places, and issues are more relatable and interconnected to students’ experience attending a public urban higher education institution, and they do not exoticize and/or stereotype spanish culture in the way that textbooks tend to portray it (arizpe & aguirre, 1987; cubillos, 2014; hortiguera, 2011; ramírez & hall, 1990; padilla & vana, 2022; zaidi, 2010). students were able to reflect on how language(s) have been constructed to fit into the textbooks and college language classrooms in a very artificial way. this reflection allowed them to explore the social and educational implications of language teaching within their own institution. it is significant that students, as producers of this material, also retain ownership of the work they have created. within this context of experiential learning, safe teaching and learning spaces were created where students were able to experiment and take risks, giving and welcoming constant feedback from their peers, allowing for collaboration and community building to develop throughout the semester. additionally, these spaces improved and strengthened technology/computer skills since students acquired digital and transferable skills that they can then use in other courses and throughout their academic and professional careers. admittedly, there were compromises that had to be made concerning the tools used in this project. while tools that align with the goals of open critical pedagogy were used whenever possible, a number of issues sometimes resulted in the selection of other kinds of software. for instance, i opted to use imovie as a video editing tool, even though it is not an example of free and open-source software. this decision was made based on students’ accessibility to the type of computers and software at their own institution, as well as students’ personal mobile devices. accessibility was an issue consciously questioned during the design, production and post-production of “discovering el barrio,” and students were also involved and active participants in the decision-making of these conversations. by making these concerns transparent to students, they, as a community, decided not to make the class wordpress site public (including annotations and discussions), and also determined which creative commons license to use for their videos that were made publicly available (namely, the attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 4.0 international license). the production quality of the video recordings produced as final artifacts do not equal the ones provided by the audio-visual materials that accompany textbooks by multiple publishing companies. however, i do not believe that this is a constraint that negatively affects these public-facing artifacts since current mobile devices provide a more than acceptable recording tool. although the project required significant time invested critical and open pedagogies in spanish heritage language instruction e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 33 in its design, planning, scaffolding, and curation, by its own nature, the “openness” of this project intends to foster collaboration and community building practices. educators could easily replicate the project by remixing this assignment and scaffolding design for their own class and/or by reusing, remixing, revising, and redistributing the material created by the students in accordance with the creative commons license. for similar future projects, i would suggest structuring the language class under a thematic subtitle, like many english composition courses currently do, since narrowing the theme of the course from the beginning would help frame the scope and teaching approach to students the content and structure of the class would follow this main subject matter, instead of being organized by different grammatical aspects. the curriculum of language instruction in general, including hl teaching, is sometimes rigidly structured with little or no room for flexibility and creativity. however, interventions and place-based projects such as this one could be introduced without completely redesigning the entire course. i envision these assignments as the entry point for further critical thinking about challenging the traditional pedagogies of language instruction, and hl in particular. even if it is not the definite answer to contest the traditional pedagogies, the adoption and creation of oers could facilitate, and even encourage, the implementation of these critical and open pedagogies in hl teaching in general, and spanish in particular, thereby creating an environment that fosters inquiry and develops students’ agency and critical awareness. acknowledgements this article is based on my independent study for the interactive technology and pedagogy (itp) 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(1990). language and culture in secondary level spanish textbooks. the modern language journal, 74(1), 48-65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1990.tb02553.x ricento, thomas (2005). problems with the ‘language‐as‐resource’ discourse in the promotion of heritage languages in the u.s.a. journal of sociolinguistics, 9(3), 348-368. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.13606441.2005.00296.x roca, ana (1997). retrospectives, advances, and current needs in the teaching of spanish to united states hispanic bilingual students. adfl bulletin, 29, 37-43. https://doi.org/10.1632/adfl.29.1.37 rosen, jody r., & smale, maura a. 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(1973). spanish and portuguese cease to be foreign: the 1972 aatsp meeting. the modern language journal, 57(3), 125-131. https://doi.org/10.2307/323930 torres, julio (2022). modality matters! a look at task-based outcomes. in melissa a. bowles (ed.), outcomes of university spanish heritage language instruction in the unites states (pp. 19-37). georgetown university press. torres, julio, & baralt, melissa (2021). el enfoque por tareas en el aprendizaje del español como lengua de herencia. in diego pascual y cabo & julio torres (eds.), aproximaciones al estudio del español como lengua de herencia (pp. 81-96). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429443657-9 https://www.mla.org/resources/research/surveys-reports-and-other-documents/teaching-enrollments-and-programs/foreign-languages-and-higher-education-new-structures-for-a-changed-world https://www.mla.org/resources/research/surveys-reports-and-other-documents/teaching-enrollments-and-programs/foreign-languages-and-higher-education-new-structures-for-a-changed-world https://www.mla.org/resources/research/surveys-reports-and-other-documents/teaching-enrollments-and-programs/foreign-languages-and-higher-education-new-structures-for-a-changed-world https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2015-0014 https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2021.2014845 https://doi.org/10.2307/345012 https://doi.org/10.46538/hlj.10.2.7 https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.3.67 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410600790 https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2010.550923 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2004.tb02700.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2004.tb02700.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1990.tb02553.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-6441.2005.00296.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-6441.2005.00296.x https://doi.org/10.1632/adfl.29.1.37 https://hybridpedagogy.org/open-digital-pedagogy-critical-pedagogy/ https://hybridpedagogy.org/open-source-scholarship/ https://hybridpedagogy.org/open-source-scholarship/ about:blank https://doi.org/10.2307/323930 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429443657-9 critical and open pedagogies in spanish heritage language instruction e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 37 valdés, guadalupe (1981). pedagogical implications of teaching spanish to the spanish-speaking in the united states. in guadalupe valdés, anthony lozano, & rodolfo garcía-moya (eds.), teaching spanish to the hispanic bilingual (pp. 3-20). teachers college press. valdés, guadalupe (2000). introduction. in lynn sandstedt (ed.), aatsp professional development series handbook for teachers k–16: vol. 1. spanish for native speakers (pp. 1–20). harcourt college. valdés, guadalupe (2005). bilingualism, heritage language learners, and sla research: opportunities lost or seized? the modern language journal, 89(3), 410–426. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15404781.2005.00314.x van deusen-scholl, nelieke (2003). toward a definition of heritage language: sociopolitical and pedagogical considerations. journal of language, identity & education, 2(3), 211-230. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327701jlie0203_4 vañó garcía, inés (2019). spanish teaching open educational resources (oer): opportunities and challenges. building open infrastructure at cuny. https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/building-andsustaining-infrastructure-for-open-educational-resources-and-open-pedagogy villa, daniel (1996). choosing a “standard” variety of spanish for the instruction of native spanish speakers in the u.s. foreign language annals, 29, 191-200. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1996.tb02326.x villa, daniel (2002). the sanitizing of us spanish in academia. foreign language annals, 35(2), 222-230. villa, daniel (2005). aportaciones de la lingüística aplicada crítica al estudio del español de los ee. uu. in luis ortiz lópez & manel lacorte (eds.), contactos y contextos lingüísticos: el español en los estados unidos y en contacto con otras lenguas (pp. 301-311). iberoamericana. https://doi.org/10.31819/9783865278586-023 wiley, terrence g. (2005). the reemergence of heritage and community language policy in the u.s national spotlight. modern language journal, 89(4), 594–601. wiley, terrence g., & garcía, ofelia (2016). language policy and planning in language education: legacies, consequences, and possibilities. the modern language journal, 100(s1), 48-63. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12303 zaidi, ali s. (2010). essentialist stereotypes in textbooks on hispanic studies. humanity & society, 34(2), 157168. https://doi.org/10.1177/016059761003400204 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2005.00314.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2005.00314.x https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327701jlie0203_4 https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/building-and-sustaining-infrastructure-for-open-educational-resources-and-open-pedagogy https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/building-and-sustaining-infrastructure-for-open-educational-resources-and-open-pedagogy https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.1996.tb02326.x https://doi.org/10.31819/9783865278586-023 https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12303 https://doi.org/10.1177/016059761003400204 vañó garcía e-journall, 10(1) (2023), 21-38 38 inés vañó garcía, saint anselm college ivanogarcia@anselm.edu en inés vañó garcía (ph.d., the graduate center, cuny) is an assistant professor of spanish in the department of modern languages and literatures at saint anselm college (nh). her research focuses on the political history of the teaching of spanish in the united states. her work in digital humanities and open digital pedagogy led her to participate in multiple interdisciplinary fellowships including the andrew w. mellon cuny humanities alliance and new storytelling: the research institute in digital ethnic studies (university of nebraska-lincoln, ne). she serves on the editorial collective of the journal of interactive technology and pedagogy (jitp). es inés vañó garcía (ph.d., the graduate center, cuny) es profesora asistente de español en el departamento de lenguas y literaturas modernas de saint anselm college (nh). su investigación se enfoca en la historia política de la enseñanza del español en estados unidos. su trabajo en humanidades digitales y pedagogía digital abierta la ha llevado a participar en múltiples becas interdisciplinares como la andrew w. mellon cuny humanities alliance y la new storytelling: the research institute in digital ethnic studies (university of nebraska-lincoln, ne). forma parte del equipo editorial del journal of interactive technology and pedagogy (jitp). it inés vañó garcía (ph.d., the graduate center, cuny) è ricercatrice di spagnolo presso il dipartimento di lingue e letterature al saint anselm college (nh). la sua ricerca si concentra sulla storia politica dell’insegnamento dello spagnolo negli stati uniti. il suo lavoro nell’ambito degli studi umanistici digitali e della pedagogia digitale aperta le ha permesso di collaborare con molteplici associazioni interdisciplinari, inclusa la andrew w. mellon cuny humanities alliance e new storytelling: the research institute in digital ethnic studies (university of nebraska-lincoln, ne). fa parte del collettivo editoriale del journal of interactive technology and pedagogy (jitp). benatti 2022 ej e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 2, december 2022, 45-50 issn 2376-905x https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.9.2.286 www.e-journall.org © benatti 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. recensione: torresan, paolo (2022). un alfabeto di 73 lettere. strategie per la didattica linguistica. pearson academy. ruben benatti università per stranieri di siena book review received 26 august 2021; accepted after revisions 14 october 2022 abstract it la presente recensione punta a fornire una descrizione e una valutazione critica del volume di paolo torresan un alfabeto di 73 lettere. strategie per la didattica linguistica. nella prima sezione vengono delineati l'argomento e la struttura del lavoro, descrivendone brevemente le tre parti che lo compongono. nella seconda sezione vengono approfonditi i contenuti delle singole parti e i rispettivi capitoli. nella terza sezione si individuano i possibili fruitori del libro ed infine, nella quarta e ultima sezione, si tenta una valutazione in prospettiva critica, sottolineandone i punti di forza ed eventuali criticità. parole chiave: didattica delle lingue, metodo vs. approccio, post-metodo, strategie di insegnamento e apprendimento en this review aims to describe and critically evaluate the volume un alfabeto di 73 lettere. strategie per la didattica linguistica, by paolo torresan. the work’s topic and structure are outlined in the first section, where book’s three parts are briefly described. the second section delves into the contents and chapters of each part of the book. in the third section, potential readers of the book are identified. finally, in the fourth and last section of the book, a critical evaluation is attempted, highlighting strengths and possible critical points. keywords: second language teaching, method vs approach, post-method, teaching and learning strategies es la presente reseña ofrece una descripción y una valoración crítica del libro de paolo torresan un alfabeto di 73 lettere. strategie per la didattica linguistica. en la primera sección, se presenta el tema y la estructura del trabajo, describiendo brevemente las tres partes que lo componen. en la segunda sección, se desarrollan los contenidos de las partes individuales y sus respectivos capítulos. en la tercera sección, se identifican los posibles usuarios del libro y finalmente, en la cuarta y última sección, se propone una evaluación en perspectiva crítica, destacando sus fortalezas y los puntos críticos. palabras clave: enseñanza de lenguas, método vs. enfoque, post-método, estrategias de enseñanza y aprendizaje * ruben benatti, università per stranieri di siena ruben.benatti@unistrasi.it benatti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 45-50 46 1. introduzione il volume, un alfabeto di 73 lettere. strategie per la didattica linguistica di paolo torresan, costituisce uno strumento utile per una riformulazione e un aggiornamento dell'insegnamento delle lingue. il volume è composto da tre parti per un totale di otto capitoli, e tratta molteplici aspetti teorici e pratici di glottodidattica. in particolare, come si desume dal titolo, quelli relativi alle strategie di apprendimento e insegnamento. come viene affermato da letizia cingagnotto nella prefazione, “delle numerose ‘strategie’ proposte dal volume emerge il ‘filo rosso’ dell'approccio orientato all'azione, delineato dal volume complementare del quadro comune europeo di riferimento per le lingue del 2020” (p. 7). il quadro comune vede gli apprendenti come attori sociali e la lingua come mezzo di comunicazione, non solo come insieme di regole formali. la prima parte (capitoli 1 e 2) è sostanzialmente storica e teorica. viene riassunta in maniera esaustiva e chiara, anche per coloro che non sono propriamente esperti del tema, la storia del concetto di metodo nella didattica delle lingue. nella parte seconda (capitoli 3 e 4) vengono definiti i concetti di strategia e approccio. viene proposta una classificazione delle varie strategie e si presentano alcuni principi base nella progettazione di corsi, lezioni e attività. la terza parte infine (capitoli 5, 6, 7 e 8), la più applicativa, è dedicata a presentare concretamente diversi tipi di strategie e attività utili da mettere in pratica in classe. le basi teoriche a cui l'autore fa riferimento sono diverse: da bloom, a prabhu, a nunan, a kumaravadivelu, fino ad arrivare agli ideatori del lexical approach (lewis, 1993, 1997; willis, 1990) e alle sue applicazioni per l'italiano (cardona, 2004, 2005). secondo la prefazione, se il linguaggio rappresenta il pensiero, le strategie proposte da torresan contribuiscono, se appropriatamente utilizzate in classe, a “far vedere” i processi di apprendimento e insegnamento. ciò permette di creare un'atmosfera più entusiastica e dunque più favorevole per gli apprendenti aumentandone la motivazione e la partecipazione. conclude il lavoro un glossario esplicativo dedicato ai termini tecnici utilizzati nel volume. ciò contribuisce a rendere il volume facilmente fruibile anche ai non specialisti. 2. contenuti singoli capitoli la prima parte (capitoli 1 e 2), come già accennato, rappresenta una sorta di introduzione storicoteorica. nel primo capitolo viene riassunta l'evoluzione del metodo nell'insegnamento linguistico, distinguendo i concetti di metodo e approccio; successivamente viene illustrato il rapporto gerarchico dall'approccio al metodo (anthony, 1963). in base a tale modello, l'approccio rappresenta il livello massimo di astrazione, che si concretizza nelle proposte didattiche dei vari metodi. l'autore sottolinea poi che nel post metodo il concetto di approccio è cambiato: “il nuovo concetto di approccio non ha bisogno di “incarnarsi”, di cristallizzarsi cioè in una formula chiusa (un metodo): vale piuttosto come schema aperto a cui gli insegnanti si ispirano per confezionare loro stessi una serie di tecniche” (p. 15). l'autore sembra dunque riferirsi al metodo come a un modello a cui rifarsi piuttosto che a un insieme di procedure da seguire con precisione. successivamente viene introdotto il concetto di “post-metodo”, concepito come una vera e propria filosofia “che nutre ogni sospetto verso ogni possibile formula” (p. 16); l'autore evidenzia come esso si ponga in esplicito contrasto con la nozione stessa di “metodo”, proponendo una distinzione sempre meno rigida tra teoria e pratica. il lavoro spartiacque, riguardo al post-metodo, viene individuato dall'autore in prabhu (1990). nel secondo capitolo invece viene presentata una serie di proposte che possono ricadere nel “postmetodo”: – il dogme approach (un approccio comunicativo che scoraggia l'utilizzo di libri di testo e punta sulla conversazione tra insegnante e apprendenti); – l'approccio di h.d. brown (secondo il quale chi parla una l2 sviluppa anche un nuovo modo di pensare e agire); – il principled communicative approach di dörnyei (il cui scopo è l'efficacia comunicativa; si basa sul principio di learning by using, sull'utilizzo di materiali autentici e si focalizza sul significato anziché sulla forma); – l'approccio neurolinguistico (si basa sull'acquisizione di una competenza implicita, simile a quella dei bambini, sull'insegnamento project-based, su strategie didattiche interattive in situazioni autentiche e sul learning by doing); – l'approccio globale (parte da una visione, appunto, globale, prima di focalizzarsi sui dettagli e suggerisce di lavorare su pattern invece che su regole); recensione: un alfabeto di 73 lettere e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 45-50 47 – l'approccio di e. macaro (che punta a incentivare la comunicazione orale sia dai livelli più bassi e privilegia lo sviluppo di abilità alla didattica delle competenze linguistiche). per ognuno di questi, e in base alle caratteristiche peculiari di ognuno, nella summenzionata tabella vengono citate le basi teoriche, l'approccio verso gli apprendenti (ad es. il ruolo dell'autonomia, la gestione dell'ansia, ecc.), il ruolo di alcune componenti del linguaggio (ad esempio la grammatica), il ruolo e l'atteggiamento dell'insegnante, ecc. il volume concepisce l'insegnante come soggetto estremamente flessibile, non legato strettamente ad una teoria e/o ad un metodo specifici. come si può leggere in quarta di copertina, tra le qualità che distinguono l'insegnante vi è la capacità di adattare materiali e tecniche in funzione della classe che ha davanti. per fare questo è importante saper riconoscere e manipolare elementi minimi, qui chiamati "strategie", dando forma ad attività via via diverse ed efficaci per allenare diverse competenze (…). la descrizione di ogni strategia è preceduta da una stringa che accenna alle funzioni alle quali essa si accompagna ed è arricchita da attività pratiche a cui ispirarsi (…) l'idea alla base del volume è che anziché aderire a un preciso metodo didattico, sia possibile attingere a diversi metodi creandosene uno proprio: ogni insegnante può trovare nel testo uno stimolo a crearsi un proprio stile sia nell'insegnamento in senso stretto che nel modo di “vivere” nel gruppoclasse”. risulta dunque chiaro come l'autore voglia incoraggiare gli insegnanti non solo a raggiungere una padronanza delle strategie proposte, rese molto chiare dalla stringa di descrizione delle funzioni, ma a raggiungere una propria autonomia nell'adattare e manipolare le strategie proposte, oltre a crearne di nuove. ciò viene anche riassunto nella prefazione di castagnotto: “nell'era del “post-metodo” in cui ci troviamo, non è dunque possibile adottare un unico approccio didattico” (p. 7). dopo aver presentato, nella prima parte, diversi modelli teorici e riflessioni interessanti, nella seconda (capitoli 3 e 4) viene definito il concetto di strategia e i principi teorici da tenere presente nella progettazione di una didattica basata su di esse. l'autore dà una definizione di strategia nel capitolo 3: “chiamiamo “strategia didattica” un piano d'azione che l'insegnante escogita per ottimizzare l'apprendimento. esso può riflettere il comportamento spontaneo di uno studente (strategia di apprendimento) o dipendere da decisioni che pertengono al docente (strategie d'aula)” (p. 44). citando la fondamentale ricerca di oxford (1990), l'autore fa notare come gli studenti più strategici sono sempre quelli più rapidi nell'apprendimento. per aiutare i meno veloci, è necessario: “1. stimolare un atteggiamento esplorativo; 2. ampliare il ventaglio di strategie di apprendimento a disposizione; 3. affinare la competenza metacognitiva, ovvero la capacità di riflettere sul proprio modo di imparare” (p. 45). il capitolo 4 è dedicato agli aspetti di progettazione. prima viene delineato il profilo dell'insegnante strategico, sottolineandone la creatività e l'autonomia; in seguito si entra nella fase più propriamente dedicata al processo di progettazione, durante il quale, secondo l'autore, i parametri che orientano l'insegnante (e che nel capitolo in oggetto vengono definite) sono l'accettabilità, la coerenza intrinseca, estrinseca e interna, la coesione interna ed esterna, l'efficacia, l'armonia, la chiarezza, l'accessibilità, il controllo ed infine il valore aggiunto. la terza parte (capitoli 5-8) è dedicata ad un dettagliato compendio delle strategie didattiche ed è la parte più consistente del libro. per questo motivo, i lettori e le lettrici che si aspettano di ricevere suggerimenti strettamente applicativi e pratici, non resteranno delusi/e. vengono forniti ulteriori spunti tramite la descrizione e classificazione delle strategie didattiche presentate. anche gli aspetti psicologici, psicolinguistici e neurolinguistici vengono tenuti in conto e possibilmente utilizzati come giustificazione teorica delle attività suggerite. le differenze cross linguistiche, cioè la distanza tra l1 e l2, e le differenze culturali, forse non vengono prese molto in considerazione rispetto ad altri lavori di questo tipo, a dimostrazione che le strategie suggerite dall'autore mirano ad avere un valore “univoco”, cioè ad essere applicabili e adattabili ad ogni tipologia di apprendenti. l'autore suddivide le strategie presentate secondo diverse tipologie: 1) strategie generative di comportamenti negli studenti, suddivise in strategie cognitive, linguistiche, metacognitive, regolative, dinamiche e a mediazione sociale; le prime tre “riecheggiano le note hots (higher order thinking skills) e lots (lower order thinking skills) di bloom (bloom et al. 1956)” (prefazione, p. 8); le strategie regolative riguardano “il complesso di azioni che agiscono sulla sfera emotiva, sollecitando emozioni positive ai fini benatti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 45-50 48 dell'apprendimento” (p. 207); le strategie dinamiche e a mediazione sociale riguardano uno dei quattro modes of communication del volume complementare del qcer: la mediation; 2) strategie relative alla gestione di materiali e risorse, riguardanti la selezione dei materiali ed eventualmente le loro modifiche; 3) strategie relative alla comunicazione del docente, che forniscono preziosi suggerimenti sul modo con cui l'insegnante può comunicare con i discenti, in modo da stimolarne la motivazione e la capacità di lavorare in modo autonomo; 4) strategie applicate alla prestazione degli studenti, che riguardano la verifica e la valutazione, una parte essenziale del lavoro dell'insegnante: vengono dati suggerimenti per verificare se e quanto gli apprendenti hanno assimilato. ognuna di queste categorie è divisa in numerose sottocategorie per ognuna delle quali vengono presentati corrispondenti esempi di attività, su cui non ci si può dilungare in questa sede ma che possono coprire tutti i bisogni che un insegnante si può trovare a dover soddisfare in un percorso didattico. come già menzionato, i destinatari, in particolar modo studenti e insegnanti, potranno cogliere sia riferimenti teorici legati alle pratiche didattiche, sia suggerimenti concreti, esposti in maniera ben strutturata. concludiamo questo paragrafo con due esempi di strategie. la prima (strategia 69) fa parte della sezione dedicata alle strategie relative alla comunicazione del docente; la seconda (strategia 48) è compresa tra quelle alla gestione di risorse e materiali. la strategia 69 è chiamata “raccontare storie” e riguarda il modo di presentare storie e stimolarne la creazione (favole, aneddoti, lunghi racconti, fino ai monologhi del total physical response). in particolare, si possono rielaborare in classe storie note sfruttando la gestualità e il tono di voce; infine vengono proposti due diversi modi di creare un racconto improvvisato, tecnica che l'autore considera poco sfruttata in classe. come per ogni sezione o strategia, il capitolo propone interessanti suggerimenti bibliografici di approfondimento. la parte dedicata a questa strategia comprende anche paragrafi dedicati all'uso delle immagini, all'anticipazione del lessico, fornire glosse, ecc. si sottolinea inoltre che questa strategia fa parte del capitolo 8, dedicato interamente alla comunicazione del docente: affronta aspetti come il controllo del parlato, della comunicazione non verbale, su come suscitare un certo impatto emotivo sugli studenti e su come motivare le proprie scelte didattiche. la strategia 48, intitolata “gestire l'accessibilità dei testi”, contiene invece una serie di suggerimenti che mirano a facilitare la comprensione. ad esempio, il docente può agire sull'impaginazione del testo (lettura a zig zag o a gimcana). oppure il docente può proporre una lettura “a blocchi”, invitando gli studenti a porre particolare attenzione a determinate parole. altra tecnica può essere quella di indicare le domande di comprensione a lato del capoverso, anziché alla fine del test. quelli sopra citati sono solo due degli innumerevoli suggerimenti pratici disseminati nel libro. nel prossimo paragrafo si individueranno i possibili destinatari del lavoro. 3. destinatari i destinatari del lavoro in esame non sono solo insegnanti di italiano l2, ma anche linguisti e insegnanti di lingue in generale, oltre che studenti e appassionati di problematiche glottodidattiche, che vengono guidati alla scoperta di 73 strategie didattiche estremamente utili per stimolare determinati comportamenti nei discenti, per ricavare spunti su come usare materiali e risorse, sulla gestione della classe e sulla valutazione. l'inquadramento teorico delle prime due parti del libro consente di fornire buone basi a chi si interessa di educazione linguistica, oltre a fornire numerosi spunti per successivi approfondimenti. nella terza parte invece, la vasta gamma di strategie presentate costituisce un bagaglio di strumenti per la didattica delle lingue in generale e dell'italiano in particolare (va notato che l'autore in alcuni casi adatta certe strategie e attività originariamente proposte, dai loro ideatori, per la lingua inglese). da tutto ciò ogni insegnante di lingua può trarre ispirazione sia per conseguire gli obiettivi linguistici specifici di ogni corso, sia per aumentare la motivazione e fornire adeguati feedback agli apprendenti. da una prospettiva prettamente pratica, il valore del volume è dato in particolare dalla diretta applicabilità, sia dal punto di vista degli insegnanti che degli apprendenti, delle strategie proposte. sia recensione: un alfabeto di 73 lettere e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 45-50 49 insegnanti che discenti possono diventare più consapevoli dei processi che vengono innestati nel percorso di apprendimento di una lingua e nell'applicazione di determinate strategie. 4. conclusioni gli scopi fondamentali del volume possono considerarsi indubbiamente raggiunti, sia dal punto di vista teorico che da quello pratico. i temi principali affrontati nel libro forniscono un prezioso supporto non solo per chi insegna italiano come l2, ma per chiunque sia interessato a tematiche e metodologie glottodidattiche. il quadro teorico viene introdotto in maniera estremamente chiara, fornendo anche spunti importanti per chi volesse approfondire il campo in oggetto, mentre la parte più squisitamente pratica presenta numerose attività applicabili in vari contesti, stimolando anche chi lavora sul campo a prendere spunto per sviluppare nuove varianti “personali” delle attività e tecniche presentate. le diverse parti del libro possono sia fungere da base di partenza per nuove ricerche sul campo dell'acquisizione linguistica e della metodologia didattica, che da “manuale per l'insegnante” da cui si potranno trarre spunti per adattare le diverse attività ai più svariati contesti educativi. come già accennato, il valore pratico del volume sta nella grande varietà delle strategie e attività proposte e nella loro semplicità applicativa. ciò rende il lavoro estremamente “flessibile” e di grande utilità sia per gli insegnanti che per gli apprendenti. un unico appunto può riguardare il fatto che la bibliografia è disponibile solo inquadrando il codice qr nell'indice con la myapp della casa editrice pearson. forse una sezione nel volume dedicata interamente alla bibliografia sarebbe stata una scelta migliore e avrebbe contribuito a rendere il volume più agevole da utilizzare, specialmente nel caso di insegnanti non particolarmente a loro agio con le nuove tecnologie digitali. riferimenti anthony, edward (1963). approach, method, technique. english language teaching, 17, 63-67. bloom, benjamin s., engelhart, max, furst, edward j., hill, walter h., & krathwohl, david r. (1956). taxonomy of educational objectives, handbook i: the cognitive domain. david mckay co inc. cardona, mario (2004). apprendere il lessico di una lingua straniera. aspetti linguistici, psicolinguistici e glottodidattici. adriatica editrice. cardona, mario (2005). applicazioni dell'approccio lessicale nell'insegnamento dell'italiano l2. babylonia, 3/05, 19-23. lewis, michael (1993). the lexical approach. language teaching publications. lewis, michael (1997). implementing the lexical approach: putting a theory into practice. language teaching publications. oxford, rebecca (1990). language learning strategies: what every teacher should know. heinle & heinle publishers. willis, dave (1990). the lexical syllabus. a new approach in language teaching. collins. benatti e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 45-50 50 ruben benatti, università per stranieri di siena ruben.benatti@gmail.com it ruben benatti è assegnista di ricerca presso l'università per stranieri di siena sul tema dell'insegnamento della lingua inglese ad apprendenti non vedenti e ipovedenti tramite approccio contrastivo. ha conseguito un ma in linguistica presso l’universitá del piemonte orientale e un phd in linguistica e didattica della lingua italiana a stranieri presso l’universitá per stranieri di siena. negli ultimi tre anni e mezzo è stato lettore di lingua italiana all'università di szeged, presso la quale ha tenuto anche corsi di psicolinguistica, sociolinguistica e comunicazione interculturale. è stato assegnista di ricerca presso l'università del piemonte orientale dove ha insegnato lingua italiana ed è stato responsabile e coordinatore degli esami di certificazione cils. ha tenuto corsi di lingua e cultura italiana presso l'università di padova e i politecnici di milano e torino. è stato lettore e insegnante di italiano in vari istituti e università, in serbia, turkmenistan, australia, cina e guatemala. attualmente tiene corsi di italiano online per the really great teachers company e collabora come it service & consultancy presso tata consultancy services a budapest. en ruben benatti is a postdoctoral researcher at the università per stranieri di siena, where he studies english language teaching for blind and visually impaired learners using a contrastive approach. he completed his ma in linguistics at the universitá del piemonte orientale and his ph.d. in linguistics and teaching italian as a second language at the università per stranieri di siena. for the last three and a half years, he was a lecturer of italian as a second language at the university of szeged, where he also held courses in psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and intercultural communication. as part of his post doc activity at the università del piemonte orientale, he taught italian and was responsible for and coordinator of the cils certification exams. he also taught courses in italian language and culture at the university of padua and at the polytechnic institutes of turin and milan, and he was a lecturer and teacher of italian in several institutes and universities in serbia, turkmenistan, australia, china, and guatemala. he currently teaches online courses in italian for the really great teachers company and collaborates with it service & consultancy at tata consultancy services in budapest. es ruben benatti es investigador postdoctoral en la università per stranieri di siena, donde estudia la enseñanza del inglés a aprendientes invidentes utilizando un enfoque contrastivo. tiene una maestría en lingüística de la universitá del piemonte orientale y un doctorado en lingüística y didáctica de la lengua italiana para extranjeros de la universidad para extranjeros de siena. en los últimos tres años y medio ha sido profesor de italiano como lengua extranjera en la universidad de szeged, donde también ha impartido cursos de psicolingüística, sociolingüística y comunicación intercultural. como parte de su actividad postdoctoral en la universitá del piemonte orientale, enseñó italiano y fue responsable y coordinador de la certificación cils. ha impartido cursos de lengua y cultura italianas en la universidad de padua y en los institutos politécnicos de milán y turín. ha sido lector y profesor de italiano en varios institutos y universidades de serbia, turkmenistán, australia, china y guatemala. actualmente imparte cursos de italiano en línea para the really great teachers company y colabora como it service & consultancy en tata consultancy services en budapest. e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 2, december 2023, 1-8 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.2.2954 www.e-journall.org © pinnavaia & zanola 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. english for academic purposes (eap): new frontiers in learning to write in english laura pinnavaia università di milàno annalisa zanola università di brescià 1. aims1 writing is not simply àn àct of juxtàposing words on à pàge ànd producing gràmmàticàlly correct sentences. “writing às à text is hàrd to sepàràte from writing às process or writing às communicàtive purpose” (breeze, 2012, p. 2). every written composition is connected to à set of conventions ànd intentions, which àre situàted in à context of interpersonàl, sociàl, culturàl, occupàtionàl ànd disciplinàry pràctices. writing mày be regulàted by sociàlly prescribed norms às it mày be à meàns of personàl expression used by writers to show their àgency ànd their creàtivity (breeze, 2012, p. 2). at university level, writing stimulàtes thought ànd knowledge construction – it is à “stimulus to the mentàl fàculties, to the logicàl tàlent, to originàlity, to the power of illustràtion, to the àrràngement of topics, second to none” (newmàn, 1855, p. 319). one of the main issues with academic writing is the misunderstanding around its ontology – “what academic writing is” – and its epistemology “what it does” (molinari, 2022, p. 18). in many schoolbooks (see, for example, bailey, 2006), academic writing is associated to the characteristic features of formality, objectivity and impersonality. in other textbooks2, it is described as a practice that enables writers to transform knowledge. each ontological classification is the outcome of an epistemological finding and has pedagogical implications. for example, if a teacher defines academic writing as “impersonal,” they are likely to teach students texts with impersonal features, such as the passive voice. on the other hand, if a teacher considers academic writing as a “transformative practice,” they will teach their students several methods of reconfiguring and transforming knowledge (molinari, 2022, p. 18). indeed, there is not a standard academic text, but there àre severàl kinds of “àcàdemic writings” with different purposes. another problematic issue with the framing of academic writing is its classification as either a “skill” (hyland, 2006, p. 17) or as a “social practice” (lea & street, 1998, p. 159). on the one hand, a skill is conceived as the mechanical ability to know how to do something – for instance, knowing how to use grammar or how to spell a word regardless of the circumstances. as such, a skill is transferable to several contexts and corresponds to the technical knowledge of rules and techniques. on the other hand, a social practice is knowing that something is appropriate – for instance, knowing that the meaning of words is context-dependent or knowing that the use of the passive is inappropriate in certain texts. unlike skills, social practices are less easily transferable since they vary according to the social context (molinari, 2022, p. 20). social practices correspond to pràcticàl knowledge which is the àbility to “discern, judge ànd perform […] àcquired by living within the orgànised sociàl world” (hirst, 1998, p. 152). 1 this section wàs written by làurà pinnàvàià. 2 as àn exàmple of the textbooks thàt describe àcàdemic writing às à pràctice thàt enàbles writers to trànsform knowledge, see lillis et àl. (2015).  laura pinnavaia, università di milàno làurà.pinnàvàià@unimi.it pinnavaia & zanola e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 1–8 2 the skill-practice dichotomy influences the way in which academic writing is experienced, taught, discussed, and written about. historically, anglo-american instructors have adopted skills-based approaches based upon a technical and atomistic perception of academic writing. in this perspective, academic writing is understood as a set of transferable skills to be explained and acquired in isolated, transitory, and temporary ways without a specific purpose and independently of a specific discipline. as a result, students are required to learn sets of linguistic and textual items, such as lists of academic terms3 or prescriptive rules on the structure of paragraphs4.in contrast, advocates of social practice approaches have a more complex, holistic, and reflective idea of literacy (molinari, 2022, pp. 22-24). they see academic writing as a practice, that is, as an activity involving reflection and thought, social interaction, and a sense of purpose that changes according to the context ànd the writer’s will. since every pràctice involves stàndàrds of excellence, which the individuàl must accept and to use as a yardstick for their own performance (fitzmaurice, 2010, p. 47), writers must understand the standards of excellence that are internal to the practice of academic writing. in this respect, it must be underlined that the standards of excellence vary within higher education institutions in that every community of scholars determines what counts as “good” writing in their discipline (molinari, 2022, p. 27). although skills-based and social practice approaches attempt to give a definition of academic writing and of its attendant pedagogies, their reductive nature has problematic implications. by highlighting the formal features – grammar, lexis and genre – of academic texts, skills-bàsed writing pedàgogies enhànce à “culture of performàtivity” (màcfàrlàne, 2021) in which language is superior to content. moreover, by isolating the textual and linguistic features of academic texts from their social context, skills-based approaches overlook significant àcàdemic pràctices such às developing àn “àcàdemic voice” (see elbow, 1994; matsuda & tardy, 2008) or acquiring awareness of the text’s readership/audience (richardson, 1990). alternatively, by stigmatising the prescriptions and conventions of skills-based approaches, pedagogies related to writing as a social practice acknowledge the multiple and diverse nature of academic writing and are accused of relativising all forms of writing. allowing “ànything to count às ‘àcàdemic’” (molinari, 2022, p. 99), these approaches neglect the existence of an appropriate academic language and style and favour the subjectivity of the author to the detriment of socially just and objective knowledge. indeed, at the heart of the debate on practice approaches is the issue of what constitutes standards of excellence, internal or external, in academic writing. another debated topic is tension between agency – àcàdemic writers’ possibility of defining the skills thàt àre internàl to the practice of academic writing – and “structure” – the standards of excellence of academic writing imposed by the higher education institution. these debates usually develop around specific syntactic features – such as the use of the passive or active voice or the use of the first-person pronoun – which may be regarded as inherent or extrinsic properties of academic writing (molinari, 2022, pp. 29-31). in perspectives on academic writing in european higher education: genres, practices, and competences, otto kruse (2013, pp. 50-52) proposes an analysis of academic writing which appears to synthetise the principles of the skills-based and social practice approaches. the author does not consider academic writing as an isolated skill to be acquired and practised invariantly. instead, he sees academic writing as an activity, or set of complex skills, which is integrated in a range of neighbouring competences that may be summarised as follows: 1) “connections to disciplinàry knowledge”: àcàdemic writing must be relàted to disciplinàry knowledge (cf. social practice approaches) for content to be generated. although subject matter expertise is not intrinsic to writing competence, it can be considered às à “prerequisite for writing,” but àlso às the outcome of it. students create knowledge by writing and simultaneously learn disciplinary knowledge by researching and summarising it (kruse, 2013, p. 51). 2) “connections to process ànd proceduràl skills”: like disciplinàry knowledge, “process competence” is not only a necessary condition for academic writing, but also the result of it. writers learn the steps – such as idea generation, planning, revision etc. – and the recursive nature of the writing process under the support of academic writing instructors and develop process competence concurrently, as they write (kruse 2013, p. 51). 3) “connections to communicàtion ànd discourse knowledge”: àcàdemic texts require knowledge of the discourse practices, the citation styles (see hyland, 2000) and the authorial voice (see nelson & 3 as àn exàmple of the works thàt deàl with àcàdemic terms, see coxheàd (2011). 4 as àn exàmple of the works thàt provide prescriptive rules on the structure of pàràgràphs in àcàdemic writing, see bàiley (2006). english for academic purposes (eap): new frontiers e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 1–8 3 castelló, 2012) which chàràcterise the “discursive community” (cf. sociàl pràctice àpproàches) they are directed to. 4) “connections to medià use”: with the àdvent of new literàcies, àcàdemic writing requires writers to pàrticipàte in àn innovàtive “globàl community” (see coiro et al., 2008; leu et al., 2007;) where they must learn to handle the new media used to create, transmit, discuss, deliver, and publish a text. 5) “connections to genre knowledge”: genre understànding (see hyland, 2003; swales, 1990) or genre awareness (see devitt, 2009) are fundamental competences for academic writers, who must know what textual features characterise certain contextual purposes (cf. social practice approaches). genres regulate all writing processes in the academia and writers must be aware of the genres that characterise their academic community in order to be socialised into it (kruse, 2013, p. 52). 6) “connections to linguistic skills”: às skills-based approaches suggest, academic writing competence can also be measured on the level of language proficiency: from the use of basic linguistic skills – such as spelling, grammar and syntax – to the use of rhetorical means – such as metadiscourse, hedging, intertextuality, and self-reference (see kruse & chitez, p. 2012). the competence model shows that àcàdemic writing “is àn integràtive àctivity” (kruse, 2013, p. 50) thàt intertwines with à series of complex skills. it develops “in multidimensionàl ànd nonlineàr wàys” (rogers 2010, p. 374) only if all its related competences evolve and improve concurrently, and its progress relies on a considerable number of factors – such as student engagement, classroom practices etc. as a result, academic writing pedagogies should propose teaching models thàt meàsure writers’ skills ànd purposes àgàinst the overall goals of higher education (kruse, 2013, p. 52). as bourdieu et al. observe, “àcàdemic lànguàge is […] no one’s mother tongue” (1995, p. 4) ànd “neither is the speciàl register required in the different subjects” (golden & kulbràndstàd, 2021, p. 4). if both must be leàrned ànd àssimilàted àlso by students who speàk english às their first lànguàge, for students with à different l1, the chàllenges of àcàdemic writing in english às à second lànguàge àre even greàter. not only must they leàrn to operàte within specific registers of the english lànguàge, but they must àlso conform to the writing norms of the discipline or of the plàce they àre involved in, especiàlly if they àre internàtionàl students pursuing àn àcàdemic quàlificàtion in english in the west (zhàng, 2021, p. 147). in sum, non-nàtive speàkers of english encounter three màjor problems when fàced with àcàdemic writing: firstly, the “intellectuàl demànds” of the àcàdemià (i.e. the problem of conducting reseàrch; being àble to pàràphràse/synthesise; using referencing systems); secondly the “linguistic hurdles” (i.e. màstering àcàdemic english: writing elàboràte structured texts; using formàl register, objective style, fluency, àccuràcy, complexity) (breeze, 2012, p. 8); thirdly distinguishing between the “differences in rhetoricàl tràditions” (reseàrch in contràstive rhetoric hàs shown thàt there àre different writing conventions not only between the globàl north ànd south, ànd the globàl west ànd eàst, but àlso within the western world) (golden & kulbràndstàd, 2021, p. 4; zhàng, 2021, p. 155). it is these three àreàs of difficulty – intellectuàl demànds, linguistic hurdles, ànd differences in rhetoricàl tràditions – thàt this speciàl edition of e-journall will àddress. in the àttempt to promote the ideà thàt “students need specific instruction ànd guidànce if they àre to leàrn to write effectively for àcàdemic purposes” (breeze, 2012, p.8), this volume will feàture six contributions by professors ànd reseàrchers whose experience in teàching english writing hàs been invàluàble. eàch hàs been grouped àccording to one of the three àreàs of difficulty described àbove, ànd their works will offer cutting-edge insight into reseàrch-bàsed english writing pedàgogies. in light of the burgeoning use of english for specific academic purposes (esap) ànd english for scientific and professional purposes (espp) (see zànolà, 2023), ànd by offering new perspectives on how to mànàge the teàching of writing english, this volume àims to contribute to ànswer to the concerted need to give more time ànd spàce to the progenitor of àll these vàrieties, english for academic purposes (eap). 2. contributions5 the intellectuàl demànds needed when àpproàching à writing tàsk àre àt the heàrt of both shàron hàrtle’s ànd andreà nàvà’s contributions. hàrtle describes the results of àn investigàtion into à smàll corpus of c2 level àcàdemic writing consisting of the sub-genres of summàry ànd discussion leàrner lànguàge. her study reveàls thàt one problemàtic key àreà is collocàtion, reinforcing the ideà thàt àlthough eap teàching often focuses on speciàlized lexis, this mày àctuàlly be the àreà where àcàdemic writers need leàst help. whàt mày 5 this section wàs written by annàlisà zànolà. pinnavaia & zanola e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 1–8 4 càuse consideràble difficulty, on the other hànd, is lexicàl usàge. the àuthor therefore àlso discusses how this investigàtion informed the clàssroom implementàtion of dàtà-driven leàrning (ddl) to increàse leàrner àwàreness of ànd àbility to use collocàtions effectively in written àcàdemic english. nàvà investigàtes the “prehistory” of teàching l2 english àcàdemic writing – when writing instruction tàrgeted “composition writing” – through à càse study of the itàliàn context. first, the àuthor illustràtes how english writing màteriàls produced in itàly were few ànd fàr between until the end of the 20th century, ànd often published by smàll speciàlist publishers; then, he scrutinizes four such màteriàls published between the 1940s ànd the 1990s in order to ànàlyze the evolution of l2 english writing instruction. the findings of the ànàlysis show thàt, in the fàce of à stàgnànt institutionàl context, there wàs indeed àn evolution in writing conceptions ànd writing pedàgogy in itàly throughout the 20th century, which wàs to heràld developments in l2 english writing for àcàdemic purposes àt the beginning of the 21st century. as àn exàmple of the linguistic hurdles thàt l2 speàkers encounter when writing for àcàdemic purposes, tolulope akineseye’s essày dràws àttention to the metàdiscourse used by newly àdmitted undergràduàte students in nigerià. akinseye càrries out à mixed-methods study of the use of interàctive resources às discursive stràtegies in enhàncing the àcàdemic writing skills of esl undergràduàte students in nigerià. using à sàmple of 100 expository essàys, the àuthor presents à quàlitàtive ànàlysis of the types ànd usàges of discursive stràtegies employed, às well às à quàntitàtive ànàlysis of the frequency of occurrence of these stràtegies. the results reveàl thàt trànsitionàl màrkers, fràme màrkers, ànd code glosses were the most frequently used interàctive màrkers in the àcàdemic writing produced by the non-nàtive undergràduàte students, while evidentiàl ànd endophoric màrkers were used less frequently. these findings highlight the importànce of incorporàting interàctive resources in the teàching of àcàdemic writing skills to undergràduàte students in àn english second lànguàge (esl) context, so thàt students develop the àbility to produce more coherent, orgànized, ànd persuàsive àcàdemic writing thàt meets the expectàtions of àcàdemic writing in àn esl context. the linguistic hurdles in the field of legàl english educàtion àre the focus giulià pennisi’s essày. she investigàtes how textbooks for english acàdemic ànd legàl purposes (ealp) hàve responded to the chàllenges of làw school educàtion, including the fàct thàt the legàl profession is in à stàte of flux ànd thàt there seems to be increàsing interest of làw schools ànd àcàdemià in the communicàtive events thàt students will need to engàge in. this poses à pedàgogicàl chàllenge in terms of course structures, types of curriculà, ànd content of the màteriàls ànd textbooks provided for làw students. building on à solid review of previous pedàgogic contributions, the pàper begins diàchronicàlly with à sàmple of ealp-type textbooks. the ànàlysis of the nàture of the typology thàt constitutes the structure of contemporàry ealp textbooks àllows the àuthor to provide some insights into the development of ealp-type textbooks ànd their response to the chàllenges of legàl english educàtion. roxànne bàrbàrà doerr’s concern for the intellectuàlànd linguistic-bàsed difficulties of àcàdemic writing àre intertwined in àn essày where underexplored àreàs of eap reseàrch ànd pràctice àre exàmined in the blurred domàin of “àcàdemic style.” the àuthor presents à pilot study consisting in the detàiled quàlitàtive ànàlysis of à collection of àbstràcts from à phd seminàr on àcàdemic style (self)proofreàding. by employing à methodologicàl fràmework combining stylistics, error ànàlysis, ànd the càtegorizàtion of specific “àreàs of interest,” the pilot study highlights relevànt stylistic errors in àcàdemic writing. this ànàlysis àllows the àuthor to dràw conclusions on the requirements ànd implicàtions of introducing àcàdemic style to eap, càlling for the expànsion ànd customizàtion of eap courses ànd speciàlized seminàrs bàsed on the needs of the clàss ànd individuàls. these would benefit from the insights of teàchers, instructors, ànd lànguàge professionàls ànd reviewers àctively engàged in the àcàdemic editoriàl community. finàlly, the problems involved in writing thàt àrise from differences in rhetoricàl tràditions feàture in simonà agàtà giuffridà ànd annàlisà bonomo’s essày, which àrgues for the use of english tràvel nàrràtives ànd their interlinguàl trànslàtions às vehicles to foster interculturàl sensitivity ànd lànguàge àwàreness in the eap clàssroom. the àuthor performs à compàràtive ànàlysis of dàphne phelps’s british tràvel nàrràtive a house in sicily (1999) ànd its itàliàn trànslàtion una casa in sicilia (2001) to show how tràvel writing (àlso in trànslàtion) mày be àn opportunity for à reàppràisàl of whàt literàture mày hàve to offer in the eap context, especiàlly in terms of culture-specific lànguàge vàriàbility. the selected pàpers demonstràte the urgency, but àlso the subtlety, of engàging with à field às complex às eap, which is increàsingly striving for homogeneity ànd stàndàrdizàtion in àcàdemic writing. this àreà of reseàrch is further highlighted in càrlottà fiàmmenghi’s review of annàlisà zànolà’s recent volume on english for scientific and professional purposes (càrocci 2023), which focuses on lànguàge ànd communicàtion for english for academic purposes (eap): new frontiers e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 1–8 5 àcàdemic ànd professionàl purposes. written àcàdemic communicàtion hàs become àn importànt element in identity building, in strengthening peer interàction in scientific reseàrch, ànd in lending persuàsiveness to the disseminàtion of knowledge. this ties in with ànother key concept behind the design of this volume, nàmely the existence of internàtionàl ànd/or professionàl communities whose use of english is essentiàl for the àcquisition, trànsmission, ànd disseminàtion of knowledge ànd the improvement of pràctice. the following pàges àre intended to provide the reàder with à comprehensive ànd exhàustive perspective on how to àpproàch eap in àn efficient ànd effective mànner thàt meets the increàsingly sophisticàted needs of the àcàdemic, scientific, ànd professionàl communicàtion world. references bàiley, stephen (2006). academic writing: a handbook for international students (2nd ed.). routledge. breeze, ruth (2012). rethinking academic writing pedagogy for the european university. rodopi. bourdieu, pierre, pàsseron, jeàn-clàude & de sàint màrtin, monique (1995). academic discourse. linguistic misunderstanding and professorial power. polity press. coiro, julie, knobel, michele, lànksheàr, colin & leu, donàld j. 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(eds.), traditions of writing research (pp. 365–377). routledge. zhàng, làwrence jun (2021). crossing literàcy borders through writing: trànsformàtionàl àpprenticeship ànd repositioning of eal leàrners. in anne golden, làrs anders kulbràndstàd & làwrence jun zhàng (eds.), crossing borders, writing texts, being evaluated: cultural and disciplinary norms in academic writing (pp. 147–164). multilinguàl màtters. zànolà, annàlisà (2023). la lingua inglese per la comunicazione scientifica e professionale. càrocci. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079812331380364 http://wac.colostate.edu/books/lillis/ https://doi.org/10.1177/2096531120984786 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2007.04.002 english for academic purposes (eap): new frontiers e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 1–8 7 laura pinnavaia, università degli studi di milano laura.pinnavaia@unimi.it en laura pinnavaia (phd) is full professor of english language and linguistics at the university of milan (italy). her research interests in lexicology and lexicography have resulted in the publication of over forty articles, two co-edited monographs: insights into english and germanic lexicology and lexicography: past and present perspectives (polimetrica 2010); esempi di seconda mano. studi sulla citazione in contesto europeo ed extraeuropeo (di/segni 2019); and four authored monographs: the italian borrowings in the oed: a lexicographic, linguistic and cultural analysis (bulzoni 2001), introduzione alla linguistica inglese (carocci 2015), food and drink idioms in english: “a little bit more sugar and lots of spice” (cambridge scholars publishing 2018), an introduction to sociolinguistics: a glance at the english-speaking social and cultural worlds (carocci 2023). she is currently working on the history of writing instruction for native speakers of english. es laura pinnavaia (phd) es profesora titular de lengua y lingüística inglesas en la universidad de milán (italia). sus intereses de investigación en lexicología y lexicografía han dado lugar a la publicación de más de cuarenta artículos, dos monografías coeditadas: insights into english and germanic lexicology and lexicography: past and present perspectives (polimetrica 2010); esempi di seconda mano. studi sulla citazione in contesto europeo ed extraeuropeo (di/segni 2019); y cuatro monografías de autor: the italian borrowings in the oed: a lexicographic, linguistic and cultural analysis (bulzoni 2001), introduzione alla linguistica inglese (carocci 2015). food and drink idioms in english: “a little bit more sugar and lots of spice” (cambridge scholars publishing 2018), an introduction to sociolinguistics: a glance at the english-speaking social and cultural worlds (carocci 2023). actualmente trabaja en la historia de la enseñanza de la escritura para hablantes nativos de inglés. it laura pinnavaia (phd) è professoressa ordinaria di lingua e linguistica inglese presso l'università degli studi di milano (italia). i suoi interessi di ricerca in lessicologia e lessicografia hanno portato alla pubblicazione di oltre quaranta articoli, due curatele insights into english and germanic lexicology and lexicography: past and present perspectives (polimetrica 2010); esempi di seconda mano. studi sulla citazione in contesto europeo ed extraeuropeo (di/segni 2019); e quattro monografie: the italian borrowings in the oed: a lexicographic, linguistic and cultural analysis (bulzoni 2001), introduzione alla linguistica inglese (carocci 2015), food and drink idioms in english: “a little bit more sugar and lots of spice” (cambridge scholars publishing 2018), an introduction to sociolinguistics: a glance at the english-speaking social and cultural worlds (carocci 2023). attualmente sta lavorando alla storia dell'insegnamento della scrittura per i madrelingua inglesi. pinnavaia & zanola e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 1–8 8 annalisa zanola, università degli studi di brescia annalisa.zanola@unibs.it en annalisa zanola (phd) is full professor of english language and linguistics and director of the language centre at the university of brescia (italy). her research interests range from applied linguistics and phonetics (public speaking and workplace skills, grin verlag 2015) to the pragmatics of professional communication (global english in international business, bright pen 2012). her main focus is on the study of oral english proficiency, resulting in an edited special issue entitled oral communication in english (textus xxxv, 2022). her most recent research has led to the publication of a volume on english for scientific and professional purposes (carocci 2023), focusing on language and communication for professional purposes, and the latest trends in public speaking and academic writing. es annalisa zanola (phd) es catedrática de lengua y lingüística inglesas y director del centro linguistico di ateneo de la universidad de brescia (italia). sus intereses de investigación abarcan desde la lingüística aplicada y la fonética (public speaking and workplace skills, grin verlag 2015) hasta la pragmática de la comunicación profesional (global english in international business, bright pen 2012). su principal interés se centra en el estudio de la competencia oral en inglés, lo que le ha llevado a publicar un número de revista especial titulado oral communication in english (textus xxxv, 2022). sus investigaciones más recientes han dado lugar a la publicación de un volumen sobre el inglés con fines científicos y profesionales (carocci 2023), centrado en el lenguaje y la comunicación con fines profesionales y en las últimas tendencias en oratoria y escritura académica. it annalisa zanola (phd) è professoressa ordinaria di lingua e linguistica inglese e direttore del centro linguistico di ateneo dell’università degli studi di brescia (italia). i suoi interessi di ricerca spaziano dalla linguistica e fonetica applicate (public speaking and workplace skills, grin verlag 2015) alla pragmatica della comunicazione professionale (global english in international business, bright pen 2012). la sua attenzione principale è rivolta allo studio della competenza orale in inglese, che ha portato alla pubblicazione di un numero monografico di rivista, dal titolo oral communication in english (textus xxxv, 2022). le sue ricerche più recenti hanno condotto alla pubblicazione di un volume sull'inglese per scopi scientifici e professionali (carocci 2023), focalizzato sulla lingua e la comunicazione per scopi professionali e sulle ultime tendenze del public speaking e della scrittura accademica. e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 11, issue 1, june 2024, pages 63-67 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.1.3122 www.e-journall.org © branciari 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. recensione: cox, sarah (2023). meeting the needs of reunited refugee families. an ecological, multilingual approach to language learning. multilingual matters. francesca romana branciari università per strànieri di sienà book review received 5 may 2024; accepted 15 may 2024 abstract it meeting the needs of reunited refugee families. an ecological, multilingual approach to language learning di sarah cox analizza la situazione dei rifugiati in scozia, con un focus sulla figura della donna neoarrivata. partendo dall’esperienza in due precedenti casi studio in galles e germania, la ricerca esplora le sfide linguistiche e pratiche delle donne rifugiate appena arrivate nel regno unito in seguito a ricongiungimento familiare. il volume dimostra come la combinazione dell’approccio ecologico a quello decoloniale alle strategie di translanguaging possa essere efficace ed apprezzato dalle famiglie di rifugiati nei loro primi momenti in un nuovo pese. il volume costituisce un’esplorazione di ciò che significa davvero partire dal “day one”, esplorando l'integrazione, l'apprendimento linguistico e la solidarietà in modo approfondito e coinvolgente. parole chiave: multilinguismo, translanguaging, approccio ecologico, rifugiati, scozia en meeting the needs of reunited refugee families: an ecological, multilingual approach to language learning by sarah cox analyses the situation of refugees in scotland, with a focus on newly arrived women. drawing from the experience of two previous case studies in wales and germany, the research explores the linguistic and practical challenges faced by newly arrived refugee women in the uk following family reunification. the volume demonstrates how the combination of an ecological, decolonial approach, and translanguaging strategies can be effective and appreciated by refugee families in their early days in a new country. the volume constitutes an exploration of what it truly means to start from "day one," delving into integration, language learning, and solidarity in a comprehensive and engaging manner. key words: multilingualism, translanguaging, ecological approach, refugees, scotland es meeting the needs of reunited refugee families: an ecological, multilingual approach to language learning de sarah cox analiza la situación de los refugiados en escocia, con un enfoque en las mujeres recién llegadas. basándose en la experiencia de dos estudios de caso anteriores en gales y alemania, la investigación explora los desafíos lingüísticos y prácticos que enfrentan las mujeres refugiadas recién llegadas al reino unido después de la reunificación familiar. el volumen demuestra cómo la combinación de un enfoque ecológico, decolonial y estrategias de translenguaje puede ser efectiva y apreciada por las familias refugiadas en sus primeros días en un nuevo país. el volumen constituye una exploración de lo que realmente significa comenzar desde el "día uno", profundizando en la integración, el aprendizaje de idiomas y la solidaridad de manera integral y atractiva. palabras clave: multilingüismo, translenguaje, enfoque ecológico, refugiados, escocia  francesca branciari, università per strànieri di sienà f.branciari@studenti.unistrasi.it branciari e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 63-67 64 il volume meeting the needs of reunited refugee families. an ecological, multilingual approach to language learning di sarah cox esplora la situazione dei rifugiati in scozia, concentrandosi in particolare sulla figurà dellà donnà. pàrtendo dà due càsi studio precedenti, in gàlles e germànià, l’àutrice presentà il càso di un corso di cinque mesi di inglese lingua straniera (esol – english for speakers of other languages), che lei stessa conduce, nella città di glasgow. lo studio si inserisce durante le prime settimane di ambientamento di un gruppo di donne rifugiate, arrivate in scozia a seguito di ricongiungimento familiare, mettendo in luce le loro sfide linguistiche e pratiche nella vita di tutti i giorni. la scozia costituisce un territorio interessante poiché, nonostante sia un paese le cui strategie di integrazione accolgono e valorizzano le lingue minoritarie, le classi esol sono tenute quasi esclusivamente attraverso una pedagogia monolingue, che mette al centro la lingua inglese e crea intorno a sé delle inevitabili lacune. combinando un approccio decoloniale (phipps, 2019; smith, 1999) con il critical partecipatory action research (cpar) e il traslanguaging (blackledge & creese, 2010; garcía & li, 2014), la ricercatrice, qui con la duplice veste di insegnante, crea un ambiente multilingue restituendoci una visione unica sui primi momenti delle donne appena arrivate nel paese. il volume è diviso in tre sezioni: la prima, dal primo al quarto capitolo, fornisce il quadro teorico di riferimento, ma anche il contesto in cui si inserisce la ricerca esplorando due casi di studio precedenti che hanno costituito la base e il retroscena del caso in scozia; la seconda parte, che comprende il quinto capitolo, introduce il caso di studio in scozia mettendo in risalto la co-costruzione e l’impiego dell’àpproccio ecologico e multilingue; la terza e ultima parte restituisce i risultati dello studio attraverso le tre ecologie: relationship, place e language/languaging. il primo capitolo definisce il contesto migratorio del regno unito, il suo ruolo nella crisi mondiale dell’àccoglienzà del 2015/2016 e là nàrràzione che il governo e i medià britànnici hànno portàto àvànti rispetto àllà “crisi dei rifugiàti” nel pàese. là narrativa anti-rifugiati non fa altro che alimentare sentimenti di razzismo e pensieri anti-immigràzione, creàndo un àmbiente ostile àll’inserimento dei rifugiàti stessi. inoltre, i dati sulla presenza di rifugiati nel regno unito, se paragonati a quelli di altri paesi europei, sono notevolmente inferiori, come dimostrano i 400.000 richiedenti asilo in germania nel 2015, a fronte dei 40.000 in uk. tuttavia, la creazione di un ambiente ostile è stata possibile poiché alimentata in un momento in cui il tema dell’immigràzione dominàvà là nàrràzione pubblicà, fàcendo sì che il discorso sull’immigràzione e là necessità di contenerlà diventàsse un temà cruciàle per il governo. dà qui ànche l’ideà del monolinguismo come strumento di coesione, come necessità per gli immigrati per potersi integrare nella società. tale politica si discosta molto da quella scozzese, aperta alla pluralità di lingue e culture. lo dimostra anche la scelta di utilizzare il termine new scots (nuovi scozzesi) per designare i nuovi arrivati, che si dimostra essere molto più inclusivo e meno stigmàtizzànte di “rifugiàto” o “richiedente àsilo”. l’inclusività viene rispecchiàtà nellà politicà linguistica scozzese, la quale prevede la condivisione delle lingue di origine con la comunità ospitante (scottish government, 2018) e l’importànzà di màntenere là linguà d’origine nelle generazioni successive. il capitolo due presenta il quadro teorico di riferimento che fa da sfondo alla ricerca, costituito da quattro aree fondamentali: ecologia linguistica, multilinguismo, translanguaging e identità nell’àpprendimento delle lingue. l’àpproccio ecologico scelto dàllà ricercàtrice permette di collegàre l’àpprendimento dellà linguà con il processo di integrazione nel contesto fisico di glasgow, città che di per sé costituisce un ambiente superdiverso, favorevole ad esplorare un approccio di questo tipo e a sondare le possibilità del translanguaging, pràticà àncorà poco sistemàticà in questi contesti. difàtti, l’àpproccio ecologico, che fa da sfondo allo studio, si basa su due elementi chiave: la relazione lingua-àmbiente e l’interàzione trà le lingue nellà mente (haugen, 1972). a partire da questi due elementi intriseci nella definizione di approccio ecologico, l’àutrice dimostrà come questo si collegà perfettàmente con approcci multilingui e di translanguaging. l’àpproccio ecologico mette in relàzione l’àpprendimento di una lingua al contesto fisico circostante, sottolineàndo l’importànzà dell’interàzione internà delle lingue nei pàrlànti multilingui. si tràttà, dunque, di un approccio interdisciplinare e olistico, in cui la lingua è vista come indissolubilmente legata àll’àmbiente fisico e ai suoi utenti. un approccio che non va considerato separatamente dagli altri, ma complementare ad altri àpprocci pluràli. inoltre, vàlorizzàndo le lingue d’origine e includendole nel processo di àpprendimento in maniera significativa, il translanguaging contribuisce allo sviluppo di una solida identità multilingue. il terzo capitolo è dedicato a delineare il modo in cui i principi chiave della letteratura hanno configurato il disegno della ricerca e come la ricercatrice ha implementato un approccio ecologico multilingue all'apprendimento delle lingue all'interno del contesto di insegnamento. la ricerca è inquadrata come una spiràle iteràtivà di ricercà di àzione pàrtecipàtivà criticà (cpar), unà sceltà che si àdàttà àll’àpproccio decoloniale e che si sviluppa attorno alla ripetizione del processo plan-act-observe-reflect (pianifica, agisci, recensione: meeting the needs of reunited refugee families 65 e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 63-67 osservà, rifletti). in questo càpitolo l’àutrice identificà lo scopo dellà ricercà, definisce le domànde di ricercà che guiderànno il proseguo del làvoro, esplicitàndone le diverse fàsi. le domànde che guidàno l’intero studio sono: 1) cosa possiamo apprendere dal supporto all'apprendimento linguistico per i rifugiati nei casi di galles e germania e come questo apprendimento può essere applicato al contesto scozzese? 2) in quale modo possiamo supportare meglio le famiglie rifugiate riunite in scozia attraverso un approccio ecologico e multilingue all'apprendimento delle lingue? 3) quale significato ha questo approccio in termini di identità, potere e dominio dell'inglese all'interno del processo di apprendimento della lingua? dalle domande di ricerca si evince come l’obiettivo dellà ricercàtrice non sià esclusivàmente quello dell’àpplicàzione dell’àpproccio ecologico multilingue, affrontando il divario tra politica, teoria e pratica, ma intende spingersi oltre. andando a combinare questo approccio con quelli messi in luce precedentemente, la ricerca vuole migliorare la collaborazione con le donne rifugiate, consentendo loro di svolgere un ruolo più attivo nel processo di apprendimento della lingua inglese. le quattro fasi fondamentali in cui è articolata la ricerca sono: 1) interviste con specialisti del settore in galles, visita al brc di newport e osservazione lezione esol; 2) interviste con specialisti del settore in germania, visita al grc di francoforte e osservazione lezione di tedesco l2; 3) studio pilota a glasgow; 4) studio principale a glasgow. il quarto capitolo concentra l’àttenzione sui primi due momenti dellà ricercà in gàlles e in germànià, confrontàndo questi càsi con l’àpprendimento dell’inglese per i rifugiàti in scozià. nonostànte là presenzà di un ricco contesto bilingue e unà stràtegià esol che incoràggià l’utilizzo del gàllese in àulà, l’àutrice mette in luce come i risultàti di questo àpproccio dipendono dàll’àtteggiàmento personàle dell’insegnànte e, non di ràdo, vi è una completa assenza di lingue oltre quella inglese àll’interno della lezione. in germania, invece, si rileva un accesso più rapido ai corsi di lingua, dovuto anche a differenze sostanziali a livello strutturale e di modelli di finànziàmento. l’àccesso ài corsi di linguà diventà, pertànto, più àgevole, evitàndo le lunghe liste d’àttesa che ràppresentàno un ostàcolo àll’inserimento in unà clàsse esol in gàlles e in scozià. in entràmbi i contesti presi in esame, tuttàvià, si rilevà un profondo àncoràggio àll’ideà di poter utilizzàre più di unà linguà in clàsse esclusivamente se l’insegnànte ne hà unà conoscenzà consolidàtà. queste due esperienze sul càmpo permettono alla ricercatrice di avvalorare maggiormente la convinzione di una necessaria esplorazione di àpprocci multilingui pàrtendo dà unà posizione “svàntàggiàtà”, vàle à dire senzà necessàriàmente conoscere tutte le lingue parlate àll’interno del gruppo clàsse. il quinto capitolo è a sua volta suddiviso in due parti. la prima introduce lo studio pilota a glasgow, al quàle pàrtecipàno tre donne con i loro figli. il càpitolo discute l’àrticolàzione dello studio pilotà, mettendo in risalto come questa fase iniziale sia stata fondamentale per lo studio principale e come ha alimentato la spirale iteràtivà cpar. difàtti, là non piànificàzione è un elemento cruciàle di questà primà fàse. al momento dell’inizio dello studio pilota, la ricercatrice non ha a disposizione alcun dato sul gruppo che si andrà a costituire. non ne conosce le dimensioni, là provenienzà, l’età, il livello di alfabetizzazione non solo in inglese, ma anche nella propria l1. i primi momenti di incontro serviranno alla ricercatrice per delineare il profilo e le caratteristiche comuni dei partecipanti. a tal proposito, si riporta a titolo esemplificativo, una delle primissime attività multilingui presentàte dàll’insegnànte àncor primà di entràre in àulà. si tràttà di un’àttività di identificàzione delle lingue su un pànnello di benvenuto presente àll’ingresso dell’edificio che ospità le lezioni. l’insegnànte chiede di individuare le lingue che i partecipanti conoscono, soffermandosi poi sul tentativo di pronunciare la pàrolà “benvenuto” nellà linguà dell’àltro. questo primo momento, non solo dà letteralmente il benvenuto, ma segnà il punto di pàrtenzà per là ricercà, dove tutte le lingue sono le benvenute durànte e àll’interno dellà lezione. lo studio pilota rappresenta anche una sfida per la progettazione dei contenuti del corso, delineati a pàrtire delle esigenze dei pàrtecipànti, scegliendo màteriàli e metodi, in un’otticà di co-costruzione dei contenuti e degli obiettivi attraverso una pratica multilingue ed ecologica. nella seconda parte del capitolo cinque, l’àutrice illustrà il modo in cui il gruppo è pàssàto dàllo studio pilotà àllo studio principàle, offrendo unà panoramica delle sessioni di apprendimento. il livello di competenza delle partecipanti in lingua inglese, quasi completamente nullo se non per la conoscenza di alcune parole, rende necessaria la creazione di routine da parte della ricercatrice, in modo che le azioni e le richieste siano familiari e facilmente comprensibili. là terzà pàrte del volume, che si àpre con il sesto càpitolo, discute le tre “ecologie” emerse dài dàti, vàle à dire tre sottotemi principàli che hànno àcquisito rilevànzà àll’interno dello studio: relàzioni, luogo e lingua/languaging. il sesto capitolo si sofferma sulla prima ecologia, le relazioni, mettendo in luce l’equilibrio branciari e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 63-67 66 delle relazioni tra tutte le persone coinvolte nelle lezioni. difatti, durante il proseguo dello studio, tra le partecipanti si ha un clima sempre più disteso e familiare. la fiducia diventa un elemento chiave del lavoro condiviso durante le sessioni, non solo nei confronti del progetto, ma anche nel livello di fiducia che le partecipanti acquisiscono rispetto àl loro gràdo di àpprendimento. un àltro fàttore d’interesse è il coinvolgimento individuale anche al di fuori della lezione, come dimostra una partecipante arrivando in ànticipo e àiutàndo à predisporre l’àulà per là lezione. l’ecologià delle relàzioni si declinà ànche nei confronti dei rapporti tra le altre partecipanti, oltre ai rapporti intergenerazionali. il gruppo dello studio principale è costituito da sole donne, elemento che ha un impatto cruciale sullo studio stesso. le partecipanti non sono solo donne, ma sono anche madri che lavorano a lezione insieme alle loro figlie. non è raro, infatti, che l’àpprendimento dellà linguà nel contesto del ricongiungimento familiare di rifugiati sia una questione rilegata al genere, in cui le donne restano da parte. la determinazione delle partecipanti, il loro impegno e coinvolgimento dimostrà là loro voglià di indipendenzà e l’importànzà che hà per loro l’àpprendimento dell’inglese. il capitolo sette si concentra sul concetto di luogo nel quadro delle tre ecologie, riaffermando l’importànzà di inserire l’àpprendimento nel contesto fisico dellà città di glàsgow. l’àutrice presentà i luoghi in cui hà làvoràto con le pàrtecipànti durànte lo studio principàle, sottolineàndone l’importànzà àll’interno dellà ricercà. collegàre l’àmbiente fisico àll’àpprendimento risultà fondàmentàle in unà reàltà superdiversà come quella di glasgow, in cui è possibile vedere l’àpprendimento linguistico come un processo dinamico che mette in relàzione il luogo e là linguà. avere là possibilità di situàre l’àpprendimento in luoghi fisici dellà città permette di contestualizzarlo, portàndolo ànche fuori dàll’àulà, come nel càso in cui l’àutrice àspettà l’àutobus con le pàrtecipànti. speciàlmente nelle settimàne subito successive àll’àrrivo, è importànte inserire àttività di orientàmento in luoghi fisici, fàcilitàndo l’inserimento nellà comunità ospitànte. là rituàlità à cui l’àutrice fà riferimento nei capitoli precedenti, in particolare la preparazione delle bevande calde ad inizio lezione, trova spazio in questo capitolo nel modo in cui i rituali e la familiarità si estendono ai luoghi fisici. è il caso, ad esempio, del càmbiàmento dell’àulà dellà lezione, unà situàzione in cui chiunque può ritrovàrsi. l’àutrice racconta come alcune delle sue partecipanti reagiscono al ri-àdàttàmento à seguito del càmbio dell’àulà e di come l’àulà e il rituàle delle bevànde àbbiàno contribuito à creàre unà sortà di “càsà” per le lezioni. l’ottàvo càpitolo è dedicàto àllà terzà ecologià, quellà dellà lingua e del languaging. nella prima sezione viene presentàto il ruolo dell’ecologià linguisticà nel contesto del làvoro di translanguaging svolto nella ricerca, nellà secondà si esploràno i vàntàggi pràtici dell’àpproccio multilingue nellà ricercà e, nell’ultimà sezione, si discute l’impàtto dell’àpproccio multilingue oltre l’àspetto pedàgogico. uno dei concetti fondàmentàli àllà bàse di tuttà là ricercà è l’importànzà e là conseguente vàlorizzàzione dei repertori linguistici delle pàrtecipànti. questi assumono una rilevanza maggiore nella ricerca se si considera che le partecipanti hanno preso parte al corso con unà conoscenzà minimà d’inglese. là sceltà di àdottàre stràtegie di translanguaging è fondamentale nella ricerca, ma anche piuttosto naturale, poiché sarebbe stato in ogni caso impossibile utilizzare la sola lingua inglese, e comunque le partecipanti avrebbero usato la loro l1 per comunicare con le figlie durante le lezioni. l’uso dellà propria l1 si rivela di supporto, come le stesse partecipanti dichiarano nelle interviste al termine dello studio principale, dando loro una maggiore fiducia linguistica e mostrando gli effetti del concetto di ospitalità linguistica. le strategie di translanguaging si rivelano utili e di supporto, non solo nell’àpprendimento, mà ànche nellà possibilità di sviluppàre un’identità multilingue e interculturàle, sovvertendo le gerarchie linguistiche. un elemento interessante è dato dal fatto che la ricercatrice non ha una competenza elevata in tutte le lingue parlate dalle partecipanti, ma, nonostante ciò, ne fa uso. questo atteggiamento si rivela positivo non solo nelle possibilità di traslanguaging àll’interno dellà clàsse, mà ànche nella configurazione gerarchica docente-discente. l’insegnànte mette àllà provà le sue conoscenze nelle l1 delle pàrtecipànti, così come per loro è unà sfidà l’àpprendimento dellà linguà inglese. il capitolo nove conclude il volume riportando i principali risultati della ricerca e le raccomandazioni dell’àutrice, prima di passare a fornire ulteriori suggerimenti per future linee di ricerca. il volume dimostra come un àpproccio ecologico e multilingue àll’àpprendimento delle lingue è efficàce ed àpprezzàto dàlle famiglie di rifugiati nei loro primi momenti in un nuovo paese, mettendo in risalto la necessità e i benefici dell’àpplicàzione di questi àpprocci. là ricercà mette in luce là possibilità di utilizzare strategie di translanguaging ànche nei càsi in cui l’insegnànte non pàrlà le stesse lingue degli àpprendenti. il volume si rivolge in pàrticolàr modo à studenti e ricercàtori interessàti àll’àpplicàzione e alla progettazione didattica di approcci plurali, nonché a questioni di politica, pianificazione ed educazione linguisticà. inoltre, là conduzione dellà ricercà, l’orgànizzàzione di questà e i notevoli e numerosi spunti didattici, possono essere sicuramente utili à docenti che operàno nel settore dell’insegnàmento di unà secondà recensione: meeting the needs of reunited refugee families 67 e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 63-67 lingua, specialmente in contesti di prima accoglienza. nonostante la pluralità di temi affrontati e la complessità dellà ricercà e di tutte le sue fàsi, l’àutrice si preoccupà sempre di ricostruire il contesto di riferimento, con uno stile discorsivo, ma puntuale. inoltre, è pàrticolàrmente àpprezzàbile l’utilizzo delle note di càmpo nel corso di tutto il volume, le quali non soltanto sostengono la narrazione fornendo opportuni esempi, ma permettono anche di aprire una finestra direttamente sulla ricerca sul campo, rendendo il lettore partecipe di questa. questo fà sì che là letturà del volume si àrricchiscà di càràttere emotivo, gràzie àll’esperienzà personàle dellà ricercatrice, delle sue preoccupazioni e delle sue opinioni personali, generando empatia con la situazione. per tali ragioni, il volume è sicuramente godibile anche da chi non ha una conoscenza scientifica approfondita nel settore. lo studio vanta il fatto di offrire un supporto alle donne rifugiate nelle primissime settimane dopo il loro arrivo, permettendo loro di includere il resto della famiglia, elemento da non sottovalutare nella possibilità delle donne di partecipare alle lezioni. inoltre, la ricerca fornisce spunti pratici di applicazione di differenti approcci e strategie, alcune delle quali già ampiamente conosciute dalla comunità scientifica come il translanguaging, mà àncorà poco àpplicàte nell’insegnàmento. riferimenti bibliografici blackledge, adrian, & creese, angela. (2010). multilingualism: a critical perspective. continuum. garcía, ofelia, & wei, li (2014). translanguaging. language, bilingualism and education. palgrave pivot. haugen, einar (1972). the ecology of language: essays by einar haugen. stanford university press. phipps, alison (2019). decolonising multilingualism: struggles to decreate. multilingual matters. scottish government (2018). new scots: refugee integration strategy. https://www.gov.scot/publications/new-scots-refugee-integration-strategy-2018-2022/. smith, linda, tuhiwai (1999). decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples. zed books limited. francesca romana branciari, università per stranieri di siena f.branciari@studenti.unistrasi.it en francesca romana branciari is a phd candidate at the university for foreigners of siena. her main research interests include educational linguistics, migration linguistics, and the teaching of italian as a foreign language. she is currently conducting research on the spread of the italian language in great britain, with a focus on the maintenance of italian as a heritage language, in collaboration with the university of liverpool. es francesca romana branciari es doctoranda en la universidad para extranjeros de siena. sus principales intereses de investigación incluyen la lingüística educativa, la lingüística migratoria y la enseñanza de la lengua italiana a extranjeros. actualmente investiga, en colaboración con la universidad de liverpool, la difusión de la lengua italiana en gran bretaña, con especial atención a su mantenimiento como lengua de herencia. it francesca romana branciari è dottoranda presso l’università per stranieri di siena. i suoi principali interessi di ricerca riguardano la linguistica educativa, la linguistica migratoria e la didattica della lingua italiana a stranieri. attualmente, sta conducendo una ricerca sulla diffusione della lingua italiana in gran bretagna con un focus sul mantenimento della lingua italiana come lingua d’origine in collaborazione con l’università di liverpool. https://www.gov.scot/publications/new-scots-refugee-integration-strategy-2018-2022/ amezcuabrandlduranrodiguez_8.2docx_el_ma e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, october 2021, 185-214 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.249 www.e-journall.org © amezcua 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses: why social presence matters angélica amezcua university of washington anel brandl florida state university evelyn durán urrea lehman college estrella rodriguez florida state university received 28 april 2021; accepted after revisions 20 july 2021 abstract en the pandemic amplified the educational disparities that latinx students face in virtual courses. this research project describes spanish heritage language (shl) learners’ experiences with remote instruction, and it proposes using the community of inquiry model (garrison et al., 2000) and modified versions of the theory of social presence (fayram, 2017; hauck & warnecke, 2012; strong et al., 2012; whiteside, 2015) as guiding frameworks to obtain information about social presence (sp) aspects in the online classroom. a total of 126 shl learners took a validated online survey to evaluate the challenges of switching to a remote modality of instruction. this research emphasizes the need to design effective online courses that foster sp as a key element to diminish feelings of isolation and encourage active participation in the classroom. we propose that teaching presence is an important component of social presence in online shl courses, and we offer pedagogical implications for practitioners. key words: latinx students, spanish heritage language courses, online classes, social presence es la pandemia amplificó la disparidad educativa que el alumnado latino sufre en los cursos virtuales. este proyecto describe las experiencias del alumnado latino en las clases virtuales de español como lengua de herencia (shl) y propone el uso del modelo de la community of inquiry (garrison et al., 2000) y la teoría de la presencia social (junto con sus modificaciones: hauck & warnecke, 2012; fayram, 2017; strong et al., 2012; whiteside, 2015) como guía para entender la presencia social (ps) y sus factores en las clases virtuales. un total de 126 participantes respondieron a un cuestionario en línea validado para evaluar los retos que supuso el cambio a una enseñanza a distancia. los resultados indican la importancia de diseñar cursos virtuales efectivos que promuevan la presencia social como el elemento clave para disminuir el aislamiento y promover la participación activa en las clases. en este estudio proponemos que la presencia docente es un componente importante de la presencia social en la enseñanza virtual del español como lengua de herencia y ofrecemos implicaciones pedagógicas para el profesorado. palabras claves: alumnado latino, cursos de español como lengua de herencia, cursos en línea, presencia social it la pandemia ha aumentato le disparità educative che studenti/esse latini/e affrontano nei corsi a distanza. questo studio descrive le esperienze di apprendenti di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria (shl) nella didattica a distanza (dad), e propone l’uso del modello della community of inquiry (garrison et al., 2000) e della teoria della presenza sociale (con le sue variazioni: fayram, 2016; hauck & warnecke, 2012; strong et al., 2012; whiteside, 2015) come modelli per ottenere informazioni su aspetti della presenza sociale (sp) durante le lezioni online. 126 studenti hanno risposto a un questionario validato online per valutare le sfide poste dal passaggio alla dad. i risultati evidenziano la necessità di corsi online efficaci che promuovano la sp come fattore chiave per diminuire il senso di isolamento e incoraggiare una partecipazione attiva alla lezione. viene suggerita la presenza dell’insegnante come componente importante della sp nei corsi online di shl e vengono trattate le implicazioni pedagogiche per i docenti stessi. parole chiave: studenti/esse latini/e, corsi di spagnolo come lingua ereditaria, lezioni on-line, presenza sociale * angélica amezcua, university of washington aamezcua@uw.edu amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 186 1. introduction it has already been two years since many educational institutions moved to remote instruction due to covid-19. the pandemic not only brought uncertainties and challenges that led many schools to make this change, but it also amplified the social injustices people of color have faced throughout the years in the us. for instance, the health disparities that have affected the latinx community throughout the years increased during the pandemic, which resulted in the latinx community having the highest numbers of covid-19 cases and hospitalization rates. in fact, the latinx community made up 30% of the country’s covid-19 cases (“double jeopardy: covid-19,” 2020). also, the latinx community is one of the ethnic groups who has been heavily impacted financially; they account for 23% of the initial job losses because of the closure of the industries that depend on consumer spending (zamarripa & roque, 2021). another social injustice that has amplified with this pandemic is the educational inequality which impacts latinx students. the drastic change to remote learning reinforced latinx students’ struggles to stay in school and receive access to the appropriate technology for online learning. these inequalities illustrate the need to narrow the latinx achievement gap and close the digital divide. in a recent study on the key markers for a successful spanish heritage language (shl) program, beaudrie (2020) found that one of the common key markers that made a shl program successful was their use of technology either by implementing a flipped classroom model or incorporating digital tools such as digital storytelling, online reading tools, tele-tandem sessions, virtual discussion boards, among others. moreover, the program directors recruited for beaudrie’s study stated that the use of technology in the shl classroom was a great resource for individualized instruction. exploring the experiences of latinx students in online classes and examining effective ways to strengthen students’ social presence in these virtual spaces is imperative as shl programs expand throughout the us. thus, the objective of the current study is twofold. first, we bring to light the obstacles latinx youth have faced during the switch to remote instruction and how these obstacles have heightened since then. second, we propose the implementation of diverse elements of social presence (sp) in the shl course curriculum to address the disparities we have outlined previously. social presence refers to the “interaction with others for social and/or affective purpose within [asynchronous] and synchronous online language learning context” (fayram, 2017, p. 46). we conceptualize it as the connection between instructor and learners in the form of interaction for pedagogical purposes. these interactions can manifest as either instructor providing support to their students or students engaging in authentic and active learning. according to strong et al. (2012), sp is vital for diminishing students’ feelings of isolation, building trust and solidarity among students, and for creating a sense of community in remote and online classes. given that spanish heritage language courses’ primary goal is to promote spanish maintenance by reinforcing students’ linguistic confidence via speaking activities, we propose sp as a key element to foster students success and also improve their confidence in online courses (amezcua, 2019; beaudrie, ducar & potowski, 2014; valdés, 1996), we propose sp as a key element to foster students’ success in online classes. the current project adds to the scarce literature of teaching shl courses under new challenges like the pandemic. specifically, this study is the first of its kind as it brings together an analysis of shl courses, latinx students, and the implementation of sp practices in shl classrooms. shl students need a well-differentiated curriculum and pedagogy when compared to other language students because most of these students first language is spanish, which they learned through their interactions with their families while growing (beaudrie, ducar, & potowski, 2014). therefore, they have diverse language skills and also have different language needs; this study proposes the implementation of sp elements in the teaching of shl online courses to allow for substantial interactions that take into account latinx students’ abilities and needs. and this study proposes one in which sp and teaching presence is paramount particularly considering the new changes of the last year. some of the findings -which include suggestions from shl students themselvesoffer pedagogical implications for practitioners who teach shl learners in a virtual environment and proposes designing effective online courses that foster social presence to diminish feelings of isolation and encourage active participation. thus, with the growth of shl courses throughout the united states and the recent demand for the implementation of adequate online learning post-covid-19, the current research will not only be a steppingstone in designing effective online curriculum, but will also address and challenge the educational disparities latinx students continue to face. the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 187 2. theoretical framework the pandemic forced 55 million children in the u.s. to stay home, leaving many out of school, and others were not given adequate remote instruction (garcía & weiss, 2020). emerging data from this period shows a deep crisis in teaching and learning that has reframed the way educators now understand effective teaching and learning, particularly online. with the change to remote instruction, it has become evident the need for the effective integration of online instruction. recall that there are major differences between remote and online instruction. online classes have been offered at various institutions for years, and practices are established beforehand as students complete course requirements entirely online. clear expectations in this format are outlined from the beginning. it differs from a switch to remote instruction due to a health emergency of a course that otherwise would have been taught face to face. remote courses during the pandemic necessitated a flip from a traditional face-to-face format to an online format. the latter is the context in which this research is inserted. to examine students’ experiences with remote instruction, this study will make use of the community of inquiry model (garrison, anderson, & archer, 2000) and modified versions of the social presence model (fayram, 2017; hauck & warnecke, 2011; strong et al., 2012; whiteside, 2015). given the importance of community and sense of belonging for spanish heritage speakers in the spanish classroom ((fayram, 2017; hauck & warnecke, 2011; strong et al., 2012; whiteside, 2015), we opted for these models which position and center sp (the perceived reported experience of being with and interacting with classmates online) as the key element to attain effective online instruction. the community of inquiry model is a framework that identifies the elements that are crucial prerequisites for a successful higher education in a computer-mediation communication environment (garrison, anderson & archer, 2000). this model argues that learning occurs within the community through the interaction of three core elements: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence (garrison, anderson & archer, 2000). according to this model, the most basic component to succeed in higher education is cognitive presence, which is the extent to which the participants in any configuration of a community of inquiry (coi) can construct meaning through sustained communication. garrison, anderson, and archer (2000) mention that cognitive presence, the first core element, “is a vital element in critical thinking, a process, an outcome that is frequently presented as the ostensible goal of all higher education” (p. 89). the second core element,sp, refers to the participants’ ability in the community of inquiry to project their personal characteristics into the community, thus presenting themselves to the other participants as “real people.” according to this model, an essential aspect of establishing social presence in face-to-face settings is visual cues. when computer-conference participants have never met, the lack of visual cues that lead to effective relationships may present particular challenges to establish a social presence (garrison, anderson, & archer, 2000). however, according to kuehn (1993) and walther (1994), participants can develop techniques, such as the use of emoticons or other unconventional symbolic displays, to add affective components to computermediated dialogue. the third element of the model, teaching presence, consists of two general functions that, in an educational environment, are mainly the responsibility of the teacher. according to garrison et al. (2000), the first of these functions is the design of the educational experience. this includes the selection, organization, introductory presentation of course content, design, development of learning activities and assessment. the second function is facilitation, a responsibility that may be shared among the teacher and students. the teaching presence element has the goal to support and enhance social and cognitive presence in order to achieve the expected educational outcomes. the challenge educators face today is creating a coi in a virtual environment (garrison et al., 2000). thus, the coi model distinguishes between cognitive, social, and teaching presence as invariable elements that shape the main framework for formal higher-level online education analyses. garrison et al. (2000) state that these three elements of the coi can enhance or inhibit the quality of the educational experience and learning outcomes. the researchers have applied this model to identify and assess meaningful educational activities in an online environment and have proposed a template with a set of indicators of the three crucial elements for a fruitful coi. the examples of indicators of cognitive presence correspond to four phases of critical educational inquiry: triggering event (recognizing the problem, a sense of puzzlement), exploration (information exchange, discussion of ambiguities); integration (connecting ideas, creating solutions); resolution (vicariously apply new ideas, critically assess solutions). the examples of social presence indicators include emotional expression (emotions, autobiographical narratives); open communication (risk-free expression, acknowledging others, being encouraging); group cohesion (encouraging collaboration, helping, and supporting). the examples of teaching presence indicators include instructional management (structuring content, setting discussion topics, establishing discussion groups); building understanding (sharing personal meaning and values, expressing amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 188 agreement, seeking consensus); direct instruction (focusing and pacing discussion, answering questions, diagnosing misconceptions, summarizing learning outcomes or issues). see figure 1. figure 1. sample indicators, community of inquiry model (garrison, anderson, & archer, 2000) the template proposed by garrison et al. (2000) is intended to guide research into the optimal use of online teaching as a medium for realizing educational goals in a distributed learning context. the coi framework has been the basis for most content analysis work carried out in sp research to date, including language learning and language teacher education studies. the other framework that guides this study is hauck and warnecke’s (2012) social presence approach which emphasizes the social, cultural, and discursive implications of using computer mediated communication in teaching and provides valuable guidance. their research illustrates the impact of material design in generating sp. the researchers suggest that sp, especially “the individual’s ability to demonstrate his/her availability for and willingness to participate in interaction” (p. 98), is the central driving force for a successful coi. hauck and warnecke call for a fundamental reconsideration of garrison, anderson, and archer’s (2000) coi tripartite approach. specifically, hauck and warnecke (2012) propose to separate sp from cognitive and teaching presence. they position sp as the core element because they found in their study that sp is “the conditio sine qua non for learning in cmc contexts” (hauck & warnecke, 2012, p. 3) and a phenomenon that emerges through task performance in computer mediated communication. to complement hauck and warnecke’s (2012) argument for centering sp as a core element in online course curriculum, we also include strong et al. (2012), fayram (2017) and whiteside’s (2015) proposals on sp. strong et al. (2012) propose that to center sp as a key element in online courses, the assignments implemented should involve collaboration as well as interactions between students and instructors, institute authentic learning experiences that align with students’ interests and needs, and lastly, increase faculty support in these virtual classes. fayram (2017) argues that positive sp not only supports and facilitates language interactions, but it is also an essential aspect of communication in language learning. for this reason, she suggests adding language learning presence as a new concept to the sp framework. language learning presence includes any language learning through either focus on form(s) and/or focus on meaning; more specifically, this new concept alludes to perception (i.e., awareness of language learning) and language practice (i.e., nonactive learning and mechanical activities). whiteside (2015) proposal includes adding two key elements to the model of sp: (a) recognizing the prior knowledge and experiences of students and (b) promoting effective instructor involvement and instructional strategies and activities. 3. literature review and purpose of this study 3.1. the educational disparities of latinx students in higher education the achievement gap in education refers to any significant and persistent disparity in academic performance or educational attainment between different ethnic groups. latinx students for instance, in the last 30 years continue to have low academic achievement in reading and mathematics in comparison to the the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 189 white and asian students. also, latinx students are one of the groups with the highest dropout rates in the united states (mcfarland et al., 2019; naep, 2012). this is because latinx students face many obstacles in society and in education. in higher education institutions, some of these obstacles include hostile campus climate, lack of mentorship, and low financial aid which are significant factors that negatively affect their pursuit of college (pérez huber & cueva, 2012). the u.s. census bureau report (2019) states that less than 15% of the total latinx population have earned a higher education degree. it also calculated that from the total latinx population in 2018, 11.6 % of this community has a bachelor of arts (ba), 3.2% earned a master’s (ma), 0.55% obtained a professional degree, and 0.48% have a doctoral degree. this is in comparison to the total u.s. population where 14.5% have a ba, 6.3% earned a ma, 0.96% obtained a professional degree, and 1.36% have a doctoral degree. the pandemic and remote teaching intensified educational disparities and added new obstacles which have led to lower school retention rates. in los angeles, the second largest unified district in the us, it was reported that after march 2020, more than 50,000 black and latinx students in middle school and high school rarely attended virtual classrooms or interacted in the online platforms (esquivel & blume, 2020). this was not because of a lack of interest in school; rather it was the result of the digital divide where low-income communities do not have adequate internet access nor own a device besides a phone to connect to the online learning environment. before the pandemic, many low-income community students in higher education depended on their institutions’ internet access and computer labs to mitigate this digital inequality (katz, jordan, & ognyanova, 2021). the recent demand to switch to remote teaching impacted 16 million students who lacked adequate internet access or electronic devices, and even after resources were provided, only 4 million students were able to receive the resources necessary to participate in remote learning (tate, 2021). tate (2021) states the need to make online learning equitable and accessible to all students. he mentions that it is essential to keep fighting because not closing the digital divide will impact the quality of students’ education and their retention rates. another significant factor that hinders school retention rates is the level of students’ engagement in online classes. esquivel & blume (2020) found that latinx students were among one of the ethnic groups that participated the least in online classes. the authors reported that latinx students were likely to participate 10%-20% less than their white peers. the inability to engage students in online learning could be the reason why the number of first-generation college applicants is down 3% in comparison to last year before the pandemic. the free application for federal student aid (fafsa) applications also dropped 10% in comparison to last year (williams june, 2020). in fall 2020, the number of latinx, black and native american students attending school dropped 13%. incorporating and strengthening sp in the curriculum could increase students’ participation in the course. 3.2. social presence, a key element in online learning and teaching strong et al. (2012) highlighted the importance of incorporating collaborations and interactions among classmates and instructors, and overall, emphasized the significance of incorporating and reinforcing the sp approach in an online course. they stated that the absence of facial expressions, nonverbal communication, and physical presence in online courses diminishes students’ social presence (e.g., tu & mcissac, 2002). strong et al. (2012) used social presence theory and motivational theory to examine graduate students’ perception of the learning environment, social presence, and the overall satisfaction of the students. the participants were enrolled in an agricultural education e-learning course. a hundred and sixty-four students, mostly female (n=73) and white (n=97), volunteered to participate in the study and completed three surveys at the end of the course: a distance education learning environment survey, social presence scale, and a satisfaction scale. the findings showed that the ability to interact with other students and their autonomy in the course were the most positive components of e-learning that provided a richer experience in the course. sp, overall, had the largest effect on the participants’ satisfaction with the class. for example, students favored an active learning approach instead of lecture-based instruction, and students opted to develop a relationship with their classmates and for the opportunity to maintain their individual identity throughout the course. in sum, the study emphasized the importance of collaborations and interactions among the classmates and the instructor, and the significance of sp approach in an online course. the researchers explained that meeting the needs of students and working towards increasing students’ satisfaction in an online course is crucial to decrease dropout rates. amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 190 in another study, whiteside (2015) explored the level of sp in an online graduate-level programs designed to help k-12 school officials understand sp in a blended learning program. this study explored two different cohorts in a four-year data collection process. the participants were school officials. the first cohort consisted of seventeen participants, and the second cohort consisted of five participants. there was a mix of ages, genders, and races in each cohort. each cohort began their first face-to-face session in july with four onecredit courses during an intensive six-day session. the participants transitioned to two fifteen-week terms of online coursework and finally, returned to campus for a four-day, face-to-face facilitation for their final three credits. the researcher explored the following research questions, (a) how does sp affect blended learning programs and vice versa? and (b) how can coded online discussions, face-to-face observation notes, and interview transcriptions illustrate sp in a learning community? the method included coding the online discussions for sixteen online courses using pre-established sp coding schemes developed by rourke, anderson, garrison and archer (1999), polhemus, shih, and swan (2001), and swan (2002). it also included an examination of instructor and student interview transcriptions and the author’s observation notes from over a dozen face-to-face courses. after the data analysis, two key missing components of sp emerged as the differences between the two cohorts: (a) the importance of the knowledge and experience of the participants, and (b) the importance of the instructors’ involvement and the instructional strategies. instructor involvement refers to the instructor’s use and planning of community building activities to establish relationships and make social connections. according to the author, these two components are as central to sp as the categories in the original social presence coding scheme: affective, cohesive, and interactive. therefore, these two missing elements along with the social presence coding scheme were combined to form whiteside’s (2015) social presence model which now includes the following areas: community cohesion, affective association, instructor involvement, interaction intensity, and knowledge and experience. in addressing language learning in online courses, boothe (2017) expanded on the three components already presented in garrison et al. (2000), which relate to cognitive, social, and teaching presence for a successful online language learning environment. for boothe (2017) the three components are part of active learning strategies when course goals are present in classroom activities that allow for individual and group growth with the instructor as a facilitator to build it all. effective social presence is thus attained when students feel engaged in collaborations that allow them to learn the language. these factors help create a community of learning with multilayered effect and in which involvement from all parts is paramount. for language learning in particular, a cognitive presence connects with the achievement of course goals and objectives through student engagement in the language being taught. therefore, designing projects that motivate discussions and connect to student realities is paramount. an sp component leads students to interact with each other while maintaining individuality and the social aspect serves as a linkage among all course users. the teaching presence aspect is also important because students are able to develop skills in a language in which the instructor facilitates and creates opportunities for critical thinking and practical inquiry. boothe states that a strong teaching presence is relevant in online language courses since the instructor is the binding element in creating the community of learning. the instructor facilitates interaction and assumes a leadership role in the course by providing linguistic feedback which encourages further development in students. finally, constant reflection on a weekly basis helps consolidate the cognitive, social and teaching components while making needed throughout the semester or quarter. fayram’s (2017) study, one of the only studies that has analyzed virtual teaching, explored sp and its role in online language tutorials at the open university in milton keynes, england. the researcher examined the following: (a) how does a individual’s sp influence language learning, (b) how does another student’s sp influence the individual learner’s language learning and group, and (c) how does a tutor’s sp influence the individual learner and group learning? fayram (2017) drew on several fields to understand sp in an online language learning modality. first, the researcher used insights from the field of multimodality to understand the meaning-making potential of multimodal environments. the author also drew on coi (garrison et al., 2000) and vygotsky's sociocultural theory as frameworks to explore the importance of social interaction in learning. this study has an integrated methodology with a qualitative approach, and used mixed methods to collect data via questionnaires, interviews and recorded observations of online language tutorials offered to language students through an online platform. the participants in this study were language students at the open university. they had varying proficiency levels and were from different age groups. the participants were either studying french, german, italian, spanish, or chinese. the data was analyzed qualitatively via thematic the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 191 and discourse analysis with coding schemes to identify patterns of social presence in the data. the main finding of the study is that positive sp is important in online language learning to strengthen and facilitate language interaction, but its effect may depend on individual learner differences and emotional responses. fayram (2017) concludes that the effects of sp are dependent upon factors related to individual learner differences, emotional responses, as well as its interplay with teaching presence, and language learning presence (llp). llp is a new concept put forward in this study, and it refers to the type of presence that incorporates language learning (cognitive engagement with language rules), and language practice. for instance, the focus is on whether students can practice the language either in grammatical activities or freely using spanish. taken together, the findings of these studies indicate that establishing sp in online and remote instruction is essential to create a community of learning where students feel connected and can thrive. this is particularly important for our spanish heritage speakers who are different from second language learners. shl students can benefit from a differentiated curriculum designed with sp elements. the purpose of the present study is, therefore, to fill one of the gaps in shl education, which is online teaching. we aim to examine the experiences of students to determine whether there are elements of sp use currently in the shl course at the university level. additionally, the goal is to provide practitioners with pedagogical practices incorporating sp elements to increase student involvement and social connections with other students and instructors. 3.3. purpose of the study and research questions the previous review of literature exemplifies the impact of implementing and reinforcing sp in both content and language (not shl) online classes. the previous studies suggest that including elements of sp, such as collaborations and interactions among the classmates and the instructor in the online classroom, is essential to increase students’ active participation, satisfaction, and decrease dropout rates. given the fast-paced growth of shl courses, it is pivotal to analyze how such classes can also support students in the virtual classroom and contribute to creating an equitable education for latinx students, while reducing their anxiety level and increasing their possibilities to connect with each other. it is calculated that by the year 2028, latinx students will be 20 % of the total undergraduate population in higher education (national center of education statistics, 2020). therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine how shl courses could support latinx students’ academic journeys and increase the level of engagement by examining sp in these specialized classrooms. focusing on shl courses is a necessary stepping stone in analyzing how virtual classes could contribute to narrowing the disparities latinx students face, especially in remote learning even more now that both online learning and shl education continue to grow. thus, using the coi and sp frameworks, the research questions that guide the current study are: 1) what were students’ experiences in remote instruction in terms of level of anxiety, level of comfort, and feeling of connection with their peers and instructors? 2) in what ways do remote shl classes incorporate elements of social presence such as individual learner, teaching presence, and language learning presence in their virtual classes? 4. methodology 4.1. participants a total of 126 latinx students participated in the current study. they were all enrolled in shl classes at the intermediate and upper-intermediate level in two large universities in the northeast and southeast us. all students reported having no uncorrected visual or hearing impairments. their mean age was 20.2, and they all had been born in the united states or had indicated their age of arrival in the united states was between 3 and 11. the shl speakers from the southeast were undergraduate students at a large research university in florida where latinx students represent 17.6% of the full student body. these participants were taking a lowerintermediate course designed for shl speakers. for the most part, they are second-generation heritage speakers of cuban parents and first-generation puerto ricans who have attended english schools in the state. the lower-intermediate course offered at the same institution fulfilled the arts and sciences foreign language requirement which is normally completed in three semesters. in addition, this course is a prerequisite for all spanish majors. by the end of the course, students can recognize, analyze, and understand all spanish verb tenses, modes, and simple syntactic patterns. the curriculum focuses on reviewing stress rules and patterns, especially syllabification rules and accent marks. another objective of the course is for students to effectively amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 192 use formal variations of everyday vocabulary and formal patterns of written discourse of academic/formal spanish through various projects. the northeast shl speakers were students at a large college in new york city. the college is a senior liberal arts college of the city university of new york system. the college campus is located in the bronx, a borough of new york city with 1,418,207 people with a 56.4% population reporting hispanic origin (u.s. census report, 2021). the non-english language spoken by the largest group is spanish, spoken by 47.7% of the population. in addition, the college is recognized as a hispanic serving institution with an overall population of 13,000 undergraduate students. the hispanic/latinx make up 51.4% of the population and the students are mainly of dominican descent (approximately 58%) and the other latinx groups are puerto rican, mexican, mexican american, and central and south american. the northeast study participants were enrolled in six classes of the four shl courses at the beginnerintermediate (semester 1 and 2) and upper-intermediate (semester 3 and 4) levels offered in the language and literatures department. the curriculum for shl courses was designed taking into consideration the latinx population at the college and focus on vocabulary development, grammar, spelling, reading, and writing taught through a multiliteracy, critical, and dialectical approach (leeman & serafini, 2016; martínez, 2003). a computerized placement test is administered to establish student placement at the start of the language program. 4.2. research team our research team consists of two assistant professors and two teaching professors living and working in new york, florida, and washington, who each brought a range of experiences and perspectives to this study. author 1 is a latinx woman who was raised in mexico until she was 11 years old, speaks spanish as a first language, and started learning english when she immigrated to california. she is a shl speaker and is an assistant professor and director of the spanish heritage language program in seattle, washington. she teaches spanish to shl students. author 2 is a mexican woman, born and raised in mexico as a monolingual speaker of spanish. she immigrated to the u.s. at age 22 to pursue graduate school. she is now a bilingual teaching professor of spanish and linguistics in florida, where she coordinates the spanish heritage track for heritage bilingual students. author 3 is a latinx woman raised in northern mexico in a spanish monolingual household, who learned english as an adult, immigrated to the southwest u.s. for study and work in 2001, and now resides in the eastern united states. she is an assistant professor who teaches and directs the spanish hl track. author 4 is a hispanic woman raised in the caribbean region in a spanish-speaking household and who had resided in canada for an extended period before relocating to the southeast united states for study and work. she is currently teaching shl courses in florida. our perspectives are informed by our collective experiences in teaching shl courses and conducting research in the field of heritage language education. 4.3. data collection and instruments students’ linguistic background information was obtained by means of the bilingual language profile (blp) (birdsong, gertken, & amengual, 2012). the blp is used to register the language dominance of the heritage bilingual population. the blp does not characterize language dominance as simply a measure of what language in the bilingual is stronger or used more often. it rather captures the complexity of the linguistic patterns in place at home, at school or at work by relating language use and attitudes without disregard for proficiency skills. there are four sections in the blp: language history, language use, language proficiency and language attitudes with a continuous score of -218 to 218. participants responded to the english-spanish battery. a score of zero or close to zero indicated participant balanced bilingualism. in this study, average blp dominance in this group of participants revealed an index of -21.79 with the participating sample showing balanced bilingualism. as table 1 shows, the english dominance score was 144.47 and the spanish dominance was 166.26. table 1 also offers a summary of scores by sections. overall, participants reported using both languages at home and at school in equal measure. the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 193 table 1 students’ bilingual language profiles language language history language use language proficiency language attitudes total dominance english 32.23 30.52 49.94 31.78 144.47 spanish 26.78 30.52 54.48 54.48 166.26 students’ perceptions of remote instruction were obtained by a 30-question online survey. the online survey was designed to investigate spanish heritage bilinguals’ perceptions of remote instruction in their spanish heritage courses. we used the coi model (garrison et al., 2000) and the theory of sp (fayram, 2017; hauck & warnecke, 2012; strong et al., 2012; whiteside, 2015) as guiding frameworks to formulate the survey questions. the research team collaboratively wrote and chose these 30 questions to include in the survey. the 30 questions were intended to capture the elements of sp such as individual learner presence, language learning presence, and teaching presence. they also included open-ended questions that delve into shl’s perceptions of connectedness (to their instructors and peers in both formats), as well as their levels of motivation, interaction, and feeling of belonging as part of the qualitative analysis. another subset of questions was formulated to test whether shl students view their spanish class as a community and a community of learning. the online survey also contained questions that explore the level of anxiety, comfort, and connectedness in shl courses in both formats (remote vs. face-to-face) as represented by numerical data (percentages) for the quantitative analysis. appendix a presents the complete survey. 4.4. procedures once the researchers received institutional review board (irb) approval to work with human subjects, authors 2 and 4 contacted the shl instructors that taught at the university in florida and at the college in new york. author 3 asked the instructors if she could virtually visit their classroom to personally invite the students to participate in the study. no compensation was offered to the participants in the study. there was only one session for data collection where participants took the 30-minute survey plus the 10-minute blp. students spent an average of 40 minutes in both tasks. the participants first completed the online instruction survey, which had likert scale and open-ended questions, and then they moved to the blp. this is a multi-site project, and data collection in all sites had the exact same data collection procedure. 4.5. validity, reliability, and data analysis this study is a mixed methods analysis with a quantitative and a qualitative design. as part of the quantitative analysis, the researchers of the current study analyzed the numerical data obtained from the survey by calculating the mean response of participants to questions related to their level of anxiety, comfort, and connectedness. the authors also analyzed the open-ended questions as part of the qualitative analysis. the coding scheme used to analyze survey responses resulted from a combination of garrison et al. (2000), hauck and warnecke (2012), fayram (2017), whiteside (2015), and strong et al.’s (2012) proposals on the impact of material design and curricular activities to generate sp in the classroom. to analyze survey data, the authors first undertook a content analysis of survey responses as proposed by hauck and warnecke (2012). this analysis had a qualitative nature, which included expressions of emotions as reported by the students. hauck and warnecke (2012) also proposed adding individual learner presence (il) in the coding scheme, along with its affective expressions. whiteside (2015) provided the needed background to focus on instructor involvement as an important component of survey analyzes. this led to the inclusion of a second major code: teaching presence (tp), which provided a venue to evaluate particular pedagogical practices implemented with shls in a remote teaching environment. the social presence scale adapted from fayram (2017) was useful to include the remaining codes, language learning presence (lp) and lack or need for social presence (lnsp). this scale has been previously used validated in online course evaluations (cobb, 2009; swan et al., 2008), and has reported a cronbach’s alpha of .88 and an internal consistency of α = 94. whereas swan et al., (2008)’s was not fully adopted, part of their scale was adapted to reflect changes that had taken place with the switch to remote instruction in 2020. a central goal was to capture student anxiety (if any) via the surveys in a new modality of learning and knowing about educational disparities traditionally being faced by shl students, as outlined in the introduction. a central purpose in survey design was to investigate ways for the maintenance of a community of learning in the new teaching and learning environment. the social presence scheme adapted from fayram (2017) allowed to identify categories and themes to quantify findings across the four major codes. amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 194 the complete coding scheme is included in appendix b. to enhance the credibility and rigorousness of the current research, the four-person research team engaged in critical and sustained discussions of emerging ideas (rossman & rallis, 2017). specifically, they met online on a weekly basis to discuss the data, coding procedures, and to compile the data to be able to extrapolate patterns fitting into each category. the researchers utilized garrison et al. (2000), hauck and warnecke (2012), fayram (2017), strong et al.’s (2012), whiteside (2015) frameworks as priori codes, and this process yielded four major codes: individual learner, teaching presence, language learning presence, and lack or need for social presence. for each major code category, the authors also added more specific coding schemes. individual learner, for example, includes affective expression (values, emotion, emotional connection), interactive (social sharing which includes interaction and collaboration), and cohesive (acknowledgment, approval from instructors and/or peers). teaching presence refers to any connection and interactions for pedagogical purpose. this includes instructor support, authentic support, and active learning. language learning presence indicates the learning about the language either through a focus on form(s) and focus on meaning. the emphasis is on whether students were able to practice the language either in grammatical activities, or by freely using spanish with a focus on meaning approach. the latter category includes perceptions, an awareness of language learning of self and of participating with others for language learning purposes. it also includes language practices such as non-active learning and mechanical activities. additionally, to these three major code categories, it was also vital to count for lack or need for social presence, which considers any instance where students ask for more collaboration and activities where they can engage with their peers in specific classroom activities. this fourth major code also encompasses students’ suggestions for the instructor to interact more with them and incorporate activities that take into account students’ needs. the final coding scheme resulted a combination of codes outlined by fayram (2017) and strong et al. (2012) based on the theoretical tenets provided by garrison et al. (2000) and hauck and warnecke (2012). this made it possible to include past and more recent proposals pertaining to social presence theory with an emphasis on teaching presence and the need to address anxiety and isolation in shl students. 5. findings 5.1. levels of anxiety, comfort, and connection in the shl virtual classroom to answer research question one, the overall experience of the students, and based on the review of the literature, the analysis is centered in any instance of feelings of anxiety, level of comfort, and on their feelings of connection with their peers and instructors. for instances, when students were asked about their level of anxiety based on delivery mode, 42% students indicated feeling more anxious in remote courses and 20% reported feeling more anxious in face-to-face courses (see figure 2 below). figure 2. level of anxiety by delivery mode (remote vs. face-to-face) also, although many of the participants (49%) agreed that computer-mediated communication was an excellent medium for social interaction in remote courses, the quantitative analysis of student response indicated that shl speakers in shl courses experienced higher levels of anxiety that increased by 11-20% in remote instruction, as compared to face-to-face instruction. however, results also indicated that the level of face-to-face remote 0 10 20 30 40 50 le ve l o f a nx iet y ( in pe rce nta ge s) the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 195 anxiety experienced by these students decreased when students had their cameras off (0-10% range), as compared to when their cameras were on because it was required (91-100% range). see figure 3. the impact of having the camera on or off, is further explained by a student’ response in the open-ended questions, who said: “forcing students to have the camera on is a bit too much, i’m sure students will feel 10x more comfortable if they’re not forced to show their face.” figure 3. level of anxiety by camera mode with regards to levels of comfort with a face-to-face or online learning and teaching environment, the data revealed that students preferred participating in shl courses delivered face-to-face than in online courses. for instance, thirty-five students responded that they felt more comfortable participating in face-to-face, and this is in comparison to seventeen students who shared that they felt the most comfortable participating in remote environments. it is important to mention that forty-three students responded that they neither liked or disliked participating in face-to-face courses or online classes. when asked about their format preference for language learning, twenty-six students shared that they felt the most comfortable learning in a face-to-face environment, and twenty-six students also revealed that they were the most comfortable when learning in a remote environment. see figure 4. figure 4. comfort level by class format another aspect analyzed (related to the first research question) was the students’ level of connection either with their peers or instructor. overall, the average connection score reported for the online course was 33%, compared to 57% connection to classmates in the face-to-face course. students also reported a higher 20 level of connection to their instructors than their peers in both formats. however, students also reported that their classmates facilitated interactions in their online classes, which in turn influenced the frequency of their participation and the quality of their work. figure 5 presents the level of connectedness with peers and instructors based on the class format. camera on camera off 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 le ve l o f a nx iet y ( in pe rce nta ge s) 35 17 0 10 20 30 40 50 face-to-face remote le ve l o f c om for t in s hl c ou rse s (in pe rce nta ge s) amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 196 figure 5. level of connectedness with peers and instructors by the class format taking the time to understand students’ personal, social, and academic needs is even more necessary in the virtual classroom because doing so could reduce their level of anxiety, increase their comfort in the classroom, and strengthen feelings of connection with the students and instructors. as reflected in the previous findings, although students expressed a high level of anxiety, providing the option to have their cameras’ off gave them a sense of relief, which could explain the reported feeling of connection with the instructor even after having to transition to a virtual environment. 5.2 social presence in the shl classroom: individual learner, teaching presence and language learning presence the above findings provide an overview of the experiences of shl students in the classroom and, although most of them preferred face-to-face classes, some students reported high levels of comfort in participating and learning in virtual courses, as well as a 33% level of feeling of connection with their peers and instructors. in answering research question two, the authors will go in depth in understanding the participants’ answers about their experience in the virtual classes. specifically, the second research question investigated the expressions of sp elements such as individual learner, teaching presence, and language learning presence in the students’ virtual classes. for this question, the researchers conducted a qualitative analysis, and used the elements of the theoretical frameworks as a priori to find the patterns in the data. therefore, when students were asked about which projects and/or assignments in the shl course allowed them to expand their linguistic skills and confidence, the most common themes that emerged were interaction and collaboration in the classroom (individual learner), curriculum that focused on authentic learning and active learning (teacher presence), and language practice (language learning presence). undertaking a qualitative analysis allowed for introspective evidence that a quantitative analysis would not have been able to reveal. most of the participants shared that the assignments with opportunities to interact with their peers either in discussions and overall being able to participate in the course were the most impactful and meaningful for their language learning. students also stated that presentations/debates, course projects, and work helped expand and reinforce their spanish confidence. for instance, a student mentioned that “not so much as projects but [allowing] for constant group work. some students may be hesitant to ask the instructor for help when confused and are more likely to turn to a peer for help.” another student, when asked about the activity that helped them the most, mentioned that “definitely the class participation, since it encourages you to speak instructors classmates face-toface 64,33 57,2 online 46,75 32,48 64,33 57,2 46,75 32,48 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 le ve l o f c on ne cte dn es s ( in pe rce nta ge s) the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 197 spanish.” having opportunities to interact with each other in an online course strengthens their linguistic confidence, and it also allows participants to build a relationship and create a sense of community with their peers (strong et al., 2012). moreover, implementing activities such as group work will not only give students an active role in their education, but this engagement would be a big factor in retaining them in the online course. the analysis also revealed that the shl speakers experienced a stronger sense of sp when there was higher teaching presence. precisely, the assignments and activities implemented in the shl courses that focused on authentic learning and active learning strengthened students’ sp, and at the same time, allowed them to expand their linguistic skills. these assignments included presentations, community projects, and course projects. the course projects included blogs, autobiographies, and research papers. one student said that “presentations allowed for self-paced discovery of the language while allowing me to be creative.” another student also shared that “the community service project allowed me to use all my spanish skills that have been developing throughout the semester.” whiteside (2015) mentioned that incorporating students’ prior knowledge is vital to build their sp. thus, assignments such as autobiographies and community projects should beincluded in online courses because they are key in recognizing the knowledge students bring to the classroom and essential for active learning, which reinforces students’ sp. along with having assignments that allowed for authentic learning and active learning, the students mentioned that mechanical activities such as filling in the blanks or grammar assignments were helpful in their language learning. for example, one student shared that the activity “where we had to write our own sentence in spanish and practice our grammar was very beneficial.” students also found it very helpful when they learned about the different pronunciations, accents, and the use of lower-case and upper-case letters in spanish. fayram (2017) states that in addition to implementing activities that allow for interactions and collaboration, it is necessary to also incorporate activities and assignments that focus on forms to allow students to practice their language in a more technical way. in fact, when students were asked about their recommendations of how to improve the course some mentioned “i think it is vital to go over the basics like sentence structure, proper grammar, etc. because although many of us already speak spanish, we do not speak it at an educational level or professional.” hence, when designing the curriculum for an online course, it will be necessary to also include activities that will lead students to develop a metalinguistic awareness about their spanish, which could possibly contribute to students’ linguistic confidence. 5.3 lack or need for social presence in the shl classroom although in the previous section the data exemplified instances of sp, the findings also revealed that the participants called for implementation of effective activities that would lead to more and higher social presence. for instance, in the coding of the open-ended responses, the researchers of the current study found a high number of responses that indicated a need for the instructor to interact more with the students, and a need for the curriculum to take into consideration the needs of the students. the participants also asked for more collaboration and activities where they can engage with their peers. this major code category encompasses students’ suggestions for what activities not to include in an online course, and it also includes recommendations for the instructor to interact more with them and include tasks that take into account the students’ needs. as mentioned before, most of the students stated that they preferred face-to-face courses over online courses, and this preference could be understood by their responses when asked about what class projects, activities, or assignments they will not recommend for an online course. most of their answers focused on the opportunity to reinforce individual learner presence which includes affective expression, interactions, and cohesiveness (the capacity of students and instructor to form a close-knit unit to enhance social presence in the classroom). these activities included presentations and group work. one student, for example, mentioned that presentations could be an inconvenience because “some homes aren’t set up or allow students to feel comfortable.” another student also shared that “presentations live, or video projects are too hard, and having class at home adds a lot of difficult variables to that process.” these responses shed light to the social issues latinx students are facing and could explain why many students reported lower feelings of anxiety when they had their camera off during virtual classes. similarly, another student also explained that “i feel that online group work can be difficult, especially for students who may not have the same access to the internet as others.” the concern of having the camera off or on is also reflected in this student’s response: “forcing students to have the camera on is a bit too much, because they’re forced to show their face.” hence, making sure that amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 198 students have an adequate electronic device, whether they prefer to turn on or off their cameras and have internet access should be part of the curriculum design. another difficulty with group work is the lack of participation from all the members. one participant said that “group work in class doesn’t work as well for the online format” and this is because, as explained by another participant, “some people do not participate or are too shy or cannot turn[the] mic on.” another student stated that “i would not recommend online groups projects. either some of my fellow students would either not show, not do the work, or just does not communicate with the group.” a similar concern is reflected in the following student suggestion: surprisingly, i believe there should be less group work because many people do not really like to work together in groups online. it seems a little awkward to be randomly put in a group online and be forced to speak to them. i think most of the work can be done together in class where time would go by faster and stuff would be understood better. these responses show that implementing group work or dividing students in breakout rooms is not enough. hence, it is vital to always make sure that the group work activities are effective and will engage all of the classmates. not implementing effective group work could lead students to interpret these opportunities to interact and get to know their peers as a waste of time. ironically, when students were asked what type of activities they would recommend implementing in the online course, a high percentage of them said group work. one student recommended to implement “more projects that involve group work so you can work with your spanish with other colleagues.” other students called for the need for more authentic activities and more opportunities to interact with their peers which is a request to implement the elements of individual learner and teaching presence of sp in the curriculum. this request is reflected in the students’ responses to “promote material that enhances speaking in spanish with more confidence,” “incorporate more interactive learning,” and “include more student engagement.” thus, one way to lead students to become active learners is by incorporating group activities where students will be able to share their prior knowledge and collaborate with their peers. it is the duty of the instructor, therefore, to design group activities that will engage all students and motivate students to interact and collaborate even when they are not being supervised. in the recommendations, students also called for the need to increase teaching presence and wanted for their instructor to be more approachable and connect with students. overall, the students’ responses showed a need for a more supportive instructor in the online course. students wrote, for instance, that they recommended for the instructor to “be there for your students,” “not to grade them so harshly,” “be a more approachable teacher,” “to chill with the deadlines,” and “making sure the teacher confirms people are on the same page.” these responses point at the relevance of the instructor in a remote classroom as a key element in promoting sp. boothe (2017) and whiteside (2015) suggest that rather than dictating the pace, instructors’ role is to design meaningful tasks and to provide precise, as well as clear guidelines for students to meet the course’s expectations. in summary, the results of the analysis pointed at the need for more sp in the shl course. specifically, students’ comments indicated that they need a curriculum that fosters teaching presence in the online shl classroom. likewise, participants expressed the need for more collaboration and activities to engage with their peers. showing the importance of interaction between the instructor, the student, and their peers. also of importance, the authors found the value to reinforce individual learner through affective expression, interactions, and cohesiveness. students also shared needing more support from their instructor and suggested for the educator to be more compassionate with them, as well as to make sure that their students are on track with meeting their academic goals. 6. discussion and implications the pandemic and the sudden switch to remote learning was inevitable, but through this experience educators learned to adapt and grow in any circumstances and be prepared for anything. they should understand what elements could be included in an online course to retain and engage students throughout the class. this research study documents aspects that allowed students to feel connected with their peers and instructors. it also calls attention to students’ demand to increase sp in the shl courses. at a time when latinx, black and native american students’ attendance to higher education institutions has dropped 13% in just one year (williams june, 2020), giving these students a voice to change social practices in remote courses is essential. the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 199 the two educational disparities latinx students continue to face, even more now with the switch to remote learning, are lower retention rates and lack of accessibility to adequate technology and internet. although the authors cannot argue that implementing elements of sp will end these disparities, they do propose that providing latinx students the adequate support could mitigate social injustice, reduce feelings of isolation, and lack of support, which have been evident during the last year (strong et al., 2012; zamarripa & roque, 2021). thus, the researchers argue that online shl courses could be key in addressing such issues. for instance, although educators could not possibly provide students technological devices or internet access, they can take this issue into consideration when designing their curriculum. the findings show that students reported higher levels of anxiety in online courses, but this level decreased when students were allowed to leave their camera off. giving students this opportunity is necessary because they might feel less intimidated with their camera off, and they might also feel relief that they are not obligated to show their homes to strangers. as students mentioned, educators must get to know the needs of the students because on some occasions they cannot participate in group activities because their microphone does not work, or they do not have adequate internet access. educators, therefore, should also design alternative assignments for those students who are impacted by the digital divide. increasing sp in shl courses recognizes that students exhibit individual learning differences but could all greatly benefit from instructor involvement and investment as the central facilitator of classroom activities. reinforcing individual learner provided opportunities to collaborate with their peers, and as reflected in the findings, gave the participants a richer and more meaningful experience which could be crucial for decreasing dropout rates in online courses (garrison et al., 2000; strong et al., 2014). interactive and collaborative assignments also allowed students to build a relationship and create a sense of community among their peers, which led to higher levels of comfort in the online course, as well as a high feeling of connection with their peers and instructors. furthermore, teaching presence, centered on authentic learning and active learning, validated students’ experience because they were able to incorporate their prior knowledge and become active learners in their education. at the same time, students also asked for effective group work and more support from their instructor. students mentioned that they needed for the instructor to be “a more approachable teacher, “to try to connect more with students,” and ‘to be there for your students.” these needs, overall, call for an instructor to be compassionate and to support their students beyond just language needs. having an instructor who students feel connected to and can count on is even more crucial in online courses given that this learning environment can be lonely, confusing, and overwhelming. also, as boothe (2017) mentioned, the educator is the binding element in creating the community of learning, thus, reinforcing teaching presence will not only impact students’ class satisfaction, but it will also be a crucial element for their retention in the course. the present research emphasizes how crucial it is to increase sp in shl courses, not only for remote classes, but also in online courses as a long-lasting key element in these courses’ curriculum. the authors offer some pedagogical implications for practitioners who teach shl learners in a virtual environment, and these are motivated by the comments students provided themselves in survey questions and open-ended answers. the authors believe the findings can be applicable to both a remote and an online format. the two key elements of social presence that must be at the center of the curriculum are individual learner and teaching presence. to reinforce individual learner, the instructor should incorporate effective interactive and collaborative activities. however, the instructor must make sure that the group work assignments are well detailed, and it requires the participation of all the group members. the central components of teaching presence are instructor support, authentic learning, and active learning. incorporating authentic learning and active learning will provide students a sense of belonging in a classroom and build camaraderie among the students. thus, to reinforce authentic learning and active learning, the activities should elicit students’ prior knowledge, include real and relevant situations, and allow for self-paced discovery such as community projects, research projects, and debates. similarly important, the instructor must invest time in getting to know their students, be approachable, and make students feel supported. instructors can accomplish this by implementing elements of mentorship in their curriculum, providing personalized feedback, and sending weekly emails with reminders, resources, and encouraging messages. amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 200 7. conclusion and limitations this study illustrates the experiences of shl students in virtual classes by drawing on garrisonet al.’s coi (2000), and hauck and warnecke (2012), fayram (2017), strong et al. (2012), and whiteside’s (2015) sp approach in order to make sense of how shl courses have or have not incorporated elements of sp in virtual classes. the authors centered the analysis on the following sp components: individual learner, teaching presence, and language learning presence. through the analysis, the researchers have contributed to a portrayal of what each of these three elements looks like and could look like in shl virtual courses. the authors have shown that although most of the participants preferred face-to-face instruction, the instances of social presence in the virtual classroom mitigated some feelings of isolation and disconnection. this study contributes to the understanding that not requiring students to turn on their cameras could lower their level of anxiety. also, students’ level of comfort and feeling of connection increased when the curriculum and instructor reinforced individual learner and teaching presence. for example, the individual learner, a social presence element, was reinforced by implementing assignments and activities that allowed interaction and collaboration among classmates. however, the students pointed out that some breakout room activities were not effective because not all their peers participated in the activities. regarding teaching presence, students mentioned that the assignments that were the most helpful in their language learning, and increased their level of comfort, were those that included authentic scenarios and allowed for self-paced discovery such as blogs, research papers, presentations, debates, and discussions. in students’ recommendations, the major themes that emerged were the need for more instructor support and effective assignments for interactions and collaboration. these two recommendations are crucial, not only for the satisfaction of students, but are also key in providing students with the necessary support to stay in the course. thus, designing effective online courses that foster sp is essential to diminish feelings of isolation, encourage active participation, and to address one of the social injustices latinx students continue to encounter; lower retention rates due to the obstacles and inequalities they face in education. the current research project adds to the scarce literature of teaching online shl courses and offers pedagogical implications for practitioners. as the researchers move forward with this type of research, in future studies, it is needed to analyze individual learner differences and their impact in a remote learning environment. they also must examine the curriculum factors that may help modulate emotional responses when a course encourages social presence. additionally, to further explore the impact of sp in the shl course, they must also interview the instructors and the students. the data obtained will provide an understanding of the impact that reinforcing elements of sp in the shl course can have and how this course could contribute to increase the retention rate of latinx students in higher education. there is still a lot of work to be done to make remote and online learning equitable and accessible to all students, and it is essential to keep fighting for equitable education because not closing the digital divide will impact students’ quality education and their retention rates (tate, 2021). however, incorporating elements of sp is one step forward to addressing this social injustice. the pandemic brought many uncertainties, challenges, and amplified the social injustices people of color have faced throughout the years in the us, but as educators, we have the power to use the education platform to address such social injustices. as the shl field continues to grow, we must incorporate key elements in the curriculum, such as sp, to make sure students receive the necessary resources to complete the course, and to eventually graduate and meet their academic goals. overall, to take it a step further, implementing and fostering a strong sp in shl online curriculum could be the cornerstone to address the challenges latinx students have faced and continue to face in this challenging educational context. engaging students with course materials withenhanced social contact in a virtual format and with more instructor involvement can reduce the lack of engagement and could become important factors that contribute to higher retention rates of latinx students on higher education in both remote and online formats. references amezcua, angélica (2019). an analysis of spanish language maintenance in a hl classroom. spanish and portuguese review: graduate student journal of the american association of teachers of spanish and portuguese, 5, 73-85. beaudrie, sara, ducar, cynthia., & potowski, kim (2014). heritage language teaching (pp. 58-81). mcgraw-hill. the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 201 birdsong, david, gertken, libby m., & amengual, mark (2012, january 20). bilingual language profile: an easyto-use instrument to assess bilingualism. center for open educational resources and language learning. https://sites.la.utexas.edu/bilingual/ beaudrie, sara m. 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(2008). validating a measurement tool of presence in online communities of inquiry. e-mentor, 2(24), 1-12. tate, emily (2021, january 27). the digital divide has narrowed, but 12 million students are still disconnected. edsurge. retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-01-27-the-digital-divide-hasnarrowed-but-12-million-students-are-still-disconnected tu, chih-hsiung, & mcissac, marina (2002). the relationship of social presence and interaction in online classes. the american journal of distance education, 16(3), 131-150. u.s. census bureau (2019). educational attainment in the united states: 2018. retrieved from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2018/demo/education-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html u.s. census bureau (2021). 2020 census statistics highlight local population changes and nation’s racial and ethnic diversity. retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/2021/population-changes-nations-diversity.html valdés, guadalupe (1996). the teaching of spanish to bilingual spanish-speaking students: outstanding issues and unanswered questions. in cecilia colombi & francisco x. alarcón (eds.), la enseñanza del español a hispanohablantes: praxis y teoría (pp. 8-44). houghton mifflin. walker, ute (2017a). discursive construction of social presence and identity positions in an international bilingual collaboration. distance education, 32, 193-215. walther, joseph b. (1994). anticipated ongoing interaction versus channel effects on relational communication in computer-mediated interaction. human communication research, 20, 473-501. whiteside, aimee l. (2015). introducing the social presence model to explore online and blended learning experiences. online learning, 19(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.24059/olj.v19i2.453. wiliams june, audrey (2020, september 24). a first look at fall enrollment shows a 2.5% dip among undergraduates. the chronicle of higher education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-first-lookat-fall-enrollment-shows-a-2-5-dip-among-undergraduates. zamarripa, ryan, & roque, lorena (2021). latinos face disproportionate health and economic impacts from covid-19. center for american progress. https://americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2021/03/05/496733/latinos-facedisproportionate-health-economic-impacts-covid-19/. the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 203 appendix a remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses start of block: default question block this study has been reviewed and approved by the fsu’s irb office under the submission and study number study00001785. q8 florida state university lehman college you are being asked to voluntarily participate in this survey. we are doing this survey to gather information about students’ learning experiences with remote (on-line) instruction. if you choose to participate, you will be asked to take a survey that consists of two parts and it should not take more than 35 minutes. we will not record your name or any information that shows your identity, and you will not be signing this form. for the second section of the survey, only your name will be recorded. therefore, we will store your information in ways we think are secure. we will store electronic files in computer systems with password, encryption and other authentication protection. however, we cannot guarantee complete confidentiality. if you have any questions, please contact dr. anel brandl, abrandl@fsu.edu, 850-284-2466, or dr. evelyn durán-urrea, evelyn.duran@lehman.cuny.edu, 718-960-7727. if you have any questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant, or regarding the study and would like to talk to someone other than the researcher(s), you are encouraged to contact the fsu office for human subjects protection (ohsp) at (850) 644-7900. you may also contact the ohsp by email at humansubjects@fsu.edu, or by writing ohsp at 2010 levy avenue, research foundation building b, suite 276, tallahassee, fl 32306-2742. o i agree to participate in this study. (1) q1 i agree to participate in this study q2 should spanish heritage speakers take spanish heritage language courses instead of the regular spanish courses for second language learners? o strongly agree (8) o somewhat agree (9) o neither agree nor disagree (10) o somewhat disagree (11) o strongly disagree (12) amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 204 q3 my current spanish heritage language course is being delivered: o face-to-face (1) o remotely (on-line) (2) o hybrid (i can attend face-to-face lectures or access content remotely via on-line lectures) (3) o other (explain): (4) ________________________________________________ q4 rank the following heritage-class activities based on the anxiety they make you feel (1 = i feel the most anxious when i do...) drag the items up or down to rank them. ______ exams (1) ______ presentations (2) ______ everyday (3) ______ group work (4) ______ quizzes (5) ______ class participation (6) q5 rate your level of anxiety in spanish heritage language courses based on their delivery mode: much lower much higher not applicable 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 face-to-face heritage course () remote (on-line) heritage course () q6 rate your level of anxiety in regular spanish second language courses based on their delivery mode: much lower much higher not applicable 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 face-to-face regular language course () remote (on-line) regular language course () the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 205 q7 rate your level of anxiety during online class meetings when you are require to have your camera on/off: much lower much higher not applicable 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 camera on () camera off () q8 do you like to participate in spanish heritage courses delivered face-to-face? o like a great deal (1) o like somewhat (2) o neither like nor dislike (3) o dislike somewhat (4) o dislike a great deal (5) q9 do you like to participate in spanish heritage courses delivered remotely (on-line)? o like a great deal (1) o like somewhat (2) o neither like nor dislike (3) o dislike somewhat (4) o dislike a great deal (5) q10 how comfortable do you feel speaking spanish in face-to-face spanish heritage courses? (10 = very comfortable) 0 (0) 1 (1) 2 (2) 3 (3) 4 (4) 5 (5) 6 (6) 7 (7) 8 (8) 9 (9) 10 (10) amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 206 q11 how comfortable do you feel speaking spanish in remote spanish heritage courses? (10 = very comfortable) 0 (0) 1 (1) 2 (2) 3 (3) 4 (4) 5 (5) 6 (6) 7 (7) 8 (8) 9 (9) 10 (10) q12 rate your level of motivation in face-to-face spanish heritage language courses. 1 (1) 2 (2) 3 (3) 4 (4) 5 (5) q13 rate your level of motivation in remote (on-line) spanish heritage language courses. 1 (1) 2 (2) 3 (3) 4 (4) 5 (5) q14 rate how connected do you feel to instructors in your spanish heritage language course (remote/face-to-face): strongly disconnected strongly connected not applicable 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 connection to my instructor when heritage class is remote (on-line): () connection to my instructor when heritage class is face-toface: () q15 rate how connected do you feel to your classmates in spanish heritage course (remote/face-to-face): strongly disconnected strongly connected not applicable the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 207 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 connection to my classmates in remote (on-line) heritage class: () connection to my classmates in face-to-face heritage class: () q16 how well do people understand you as a heritage bilingual speaker in spanish heritage language courses? o extremely well (1) o very well (2) o moderately well (3) o slightly well (4) o not well at all (5) q17 how well do people understand you as a heritage bilingual speaker in regular spanish second language courses? o extremely well (1) o very well (2) o moderately well (3) o slightly well (4) o not well at all (5) amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 208 q18 how much do you feel like you fit in (belong) in spanish heritage language courses? o far too much (6) o moderately too much (7) o slightly too much (8) o neither too much nor too little (9) o slightly too little (10) q19 how much do you feel like you fit in (belong) in regular spanish second language courses? o far too much (6) o moderately too much (7) o slightly too much (8) o neither too much nor too little (9) o slightly too little (10) q20 does your sense of belonging in your spanish heritage language course decrease with remote (on-line) instruction? o definitely yes (1) o probably yes (2) o might or might not (3) o probably not (4) o definitely not (5) q21 please let us know if you agree or disagree with the following 8 statements: the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 209 q22 my spanish heritage language course feels like an on-line community of learning. o definitely yes (1) o probably yes (2) o might or might not (3) o probably not (4) o definitely not (5) q23 the instructor of my spanish heritage language course creates a feeling of an on-line community. o strongly agree (1) o somewhat agree (2) o neither agree nor disagree (3) o somewhat disagree (4) o strongly disagree (5) q24 the classmates in my spanish heritage language course create a feeling of an on-line community. o strongly agree (1) o somewhat agree (2) o neither agree nor disagree (3) o somewhat disagree (4) o strongly disagree (5) amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 210 q25 the instructor of my spanish heritage language course facilitates discussions (on-line). o strongly agree (1) o somewhat agree (2) o neither agree nor disagree (3) o somewhat disagree (4) o strongly disagree (5) q26 the classmates in my spanish heritage language course facilitate interaction (on-line). o strongly agree (1) o somewhat agree (2) o neither agree nor disagree (3) o somewhat disagree (4) o strongly disagree (5) q27 computer-mediated communication is an excellent medium for social interaction in the remote spanish heritage language course. o strongly agree (1) o agree (2) o somewhat agree (3) o neither agree nor disagree (4) o somewhat disagree (5) o disagree (6) o strongly disagree (7) the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 211 q28 interacting on-line with my classmates influences the frequency and/or quality of my work. o strongly agree (11) o somewhat agree (12) o neither agree nor disagree (13) o somewhat disagree (14) o strongly disagree (15) q29 which class projects and/or assignments in your spanish heritage language course allow you to expand your linguistic skills and confidence? ________________________________________________________________ q30 are there any class projects and/or assignments that you would not recommend for remote (on-line) instruction? ________________________________________________________________ q31 do you have any other recommendations to further improve spanish heritage language courses? ________________________________________________________________ q32 the last part of this questionnaire is a very brief survey to gather information about your bilingual experience. the second part of the survey will open automatically after you click on the continue button below. we thank you for your participation! end of block: default question block amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 212 appendix b social presence coding scheme 1. il individual learner 1. affective expression (value, emotions, emotional connection) 2. i interactive (social sharing): interaction and collaboration 3. c cohesive (acknowledgment, approval from instructors and/or peers this could be in the feedback and activities where students feel supported and where they can share resources, ideas, and experiences) 2. tp teaching presence: connection between interaction and pedagogical purpose. educator manages forms of interaction with learners for pedagogical purposes a. is instructor support b. aul authentic learning c. al active learning 3. lp ‘language learning presence’: learning about the language through focus on form(s) and focus on meaning. the focus of this is whether students were able to practice the language either in grammatical activities or freely using spanish and focused on meaning. this involves participation and collaboration. a. a perceptions: awareness of language learning of self and others and of participation with others for language learning purposes b. p language practice: (non-active learning, mechanical activities) 4. lnsp lack or need for social presence: here we can code the times students ask for more collaboration, or activities to engage with their peers. a. nii need for the instructor to interact more with the students b. nc need for the curriculum to take into consideration the needs of the students the switch to remote instruction in spanish heritage language courses e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 213 angélica amezcua, university of washington aamezcua@uw.edu en angélica amezcua is an assistant professor of spanish and director of the spanish heritage language program at the university of washington. angélica is also a researcher, an educator of spanish heritage language, and a linguistics activist who works in and outside the classroom towards reclaiming and promoting the use of spanish in a society with low ethnolinguistics vitality. in her current research, she examines how university spanish heritage language courses can play an important role in promoting the use of spanish in the united states, counteracting the devaluation of minority languages, and contributing to narrowing the latinx student achievement gap. es angélica amezcua es profesora asistente de español y directora del programa de español de herencia en la universidad de washington. angélica es también investigadora, educadora y activista que trabaja para reclamar y promover el uso del español en una sociedad con una vitalidad etnolingüística baja. en su investigación actual, examina cómo los cursos de español como lengua de herencia pueden desempeñar un papel importante en la promoción del uso del español en los estados unidos, así como ayudar a contrarrestar la devaluación de las lenguas minoritarias y contribuir a reducir la brecha académica dentro del alumnado latino. it angélica amezcua è ricercatrice di spagnolo e direttrice del programma di spagnolo lingua ereditaria presso l’università di washington. è anche ricercatrice, educatrice di spagnolo lingua ereditaria e linguista attivista dentro e fuori dall’aula nell’ambito della rivendicazione e promozione dell’uso dello spagnolo in una società dalla bassa vitalità etnolinguistica. la sua attuale ricerca tratta del ruolo importante dei corsi universitari di spagnolo lingua ereditaria per la promozione dell’uso di questa lingua negli stati uniti, al fine di contrastare la svalutazione delle lingue minoritarie e contribuire a ridurre il divario educativo di studenti e studentesse latini/e. anel brandl, florida state university abrandl@fsu.edu en anel brandl is a teaching professor of spanish and linguistics in the department of modern languages and linguistics at florida state university (fsu). she specializes in bilingual sentence processing and heritage language acquisition. her recent work focuses on spanish heritage language instruction. she created the spanish heritage track at fsu and developed courses in spanish as a heritage language and spanish for the professions. her work has appeared in the journals languages, hispania, issues in hispanic and lusophone linguistics, and the anthology multilingual is normal, among others. es anel brandl es profesora de español y lingüística en el departamento de lenguas modernas de la universidad estatal de florida. se ha especializado en el procesamiento bilingüe de oraciones y en la adquisición de lenguas de herencia. sus trabajos más recientes se enfocan en la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia. creó el itinerario de español como lengua de herencia en fsu y ha desarrollado cursos de este tipo así como de español para profesionales. sus trabajos han sido publicados en las revistas languages, hispania, issues in hispanic and lusophone linguistics, y en la antología multilingual is normal, entre otras. it anel brandl è docente di spagnolo e linguistica presso il dipartimento di lingue moderne e linguistica dell’università statale della florida (fsu). è specialista in processamento bilingue di frasi e in acquisizione di lingue ereditarie. i suoi più recenti lavori riguardano l’insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua ereditaria. ha creato il programma di spagnolo ereditario alla fsu, oltre a corsi di spagnolo lingua ereditaria e spagnolo per professionisti. i suoi lavori sono stati pubblicati, tra gli altri, da: languages, hispania, issues in hispanic and lusophone linguistics, e nell’antologia multilingual is normal. amezcua, brandl, durán, & rodriguez e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 185-214 214 evelyn durán urrea, university of new york evelyn.duran@lehman.cuny.edu en evelyn durán urrea is an assistant professor in the department of languages and literatures at lehman college of the city university of new york. her research interests include spanish in the united states and spanish as a heritage language. her most recent research has focused on assessment and placement of spanish heritage language learners and open educational resources initiatives. es evelyn durán urrea es profesora del departamento de lenguas y literaturas en el lehman college de la universidad de la ciudad de nueva york. sus intereses de investigación incluyen el español de los estados unidos y el español como lengua de herencia. su investigación más reciente se ha enfocado en la evaluación y en la ubicación en niveles de aprendices de español como lengua de herencia así como en iniciativas de recursos educativos abiertos. it evelyn durán urrea è professoressa presso il dipartimento di lingue e letterature del lehman college della city university di new york. i suoi interessi di ricerca comprendono lo spagnolo negli stati uniti e lo spagnolo lingua ereditaria. la sua ricerca più recente riguarda la valutazione e il livello degli apprendenti di spagnolo lingua ereditaria e le iniziative di risorse didattiche aperte. estrella rodríguez, florida state university ecrodriguez@fsu.edu en estrella rodríguez is research faculty in the school of communication science and disorders at florida state university. she investigates how culture and heritage language can be part of teaching and learning practices in children and adults. she has also developed courses for heritage language speakers. her work has been published in the heritage language journal, the american educational research journal, in languages, and in the journal of speech, language and hearing research. es estrella rodríguez es investigadora en la escuela de comunicación y desórdenes del habla de la universidad estatal de florida. su trabajo se centra en la cultura y la lengua de herencia como parte de la enseñanza y del aprendizaje en la infancia y en la edad adulta. también ha desarrollado cursos para hablantes de una lengua de herencia. sus trabajos han sido publicados en: heritage language journal, american educational research journal, languages y journal of speech, language and hearing research. it estrella rodríguez è ricercatrice presso l’istituto di scienze della comunicazione e disordini del linguaggio dell’università statale della florida. le sue ricerche riguardano il modo in cui la lingua e la cultura ereditarie possono essere parte delle pratiche di insegnamento e apprendimento per bambini e adulti. inoltre, crea corsi per i parlanti di lingua ereditaria. i suoi lavori sono stati pubblicati da: heritage language journal, american educational research journal, languages, e journal of speech, language and hearing research. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 1, july 2023, 39-57 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.1.2746 www.e-journall.org © scibetta 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. 39 oscillando tra sinofobia e sinofilia: un’analisi del discorso mediatico sui cinesi in italia ai tempi del covid andrea scibetta università per stranieri di siena received 19 march 2023; accepted after revisions 22 june 2023 abstract it questo contributo ha l’obiettivo di presentare un’analisi qualitativa condotta su un corpus di 48 testi giornalistici, raccolti da quotidiani italiani (n = 24) e giornali e/o portali web per cinesi d’oltremare residenti in italia (n = 24). il focus principale dell’analisi riguarda l’impatto della pandemia da covid-19 sulle vite dei cinesi e dei sinodiscendenti in italia. il framework metodologico dello studio assume una connotazione triplice. innanzitutto viene enfatizzato un approccio misto, che mette in relazione la grounded theory (charmaz, 2006) e la qualitative content analysis (ji & eun, 2014). lo strumento usato per mettere in pratica tale approccio è il software multifunzionale nvivo 11, un programma che finora è stato adoperato in diversi settori della conoscenza, come la sociologia, la psicologia e l’etnografia (pacifico & coppola, 2010). infine, per quanto riguarda il processo di etichettatura dei nodi concettuali codificati attraverso nvivo, un’ulteriore prospettiva è stata presa in considerazione, ovvero quella dei chinese discourse studies (shi-xu, 2014). i risultati dell'analisi contribuiscono ad interpretare, da varie angolature, diversi aspetti dell'impatto del covid-19 sulla vita di cinesi e sinodiscendenti in italia. parole chiave: chinese discourse studies, grounded theory, analisi qualitativa del discorso, pandemia covid-19 en this article introduces a qualitative analysis of a corpus of 48 articles, gathered from italian newspapers (n = 24) and newspapers and/or web portals addressed to chinese expatriates residing in italy (n = 24). the main topic of the analysis concerns the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the lives of chinese expatriates and people of chinese descent in italy. the methodological framework brings together grounded theory (charmaz, 2006) and qualitative content analysis (ji & eun, 2014), using the multidimensional software nvivo 11, a methodological instrument which has so far been mainly applied in sociology, psychology, and ethnography (pacifico & coppola, 2010). additionally, a further methodological perspective, chinese discourse studies (shixu, 2014), has been taken into consideration in the labeling of conceptual nodes coded through nvivo. the results contribute to a deeper understanding, from multiple perspectives, of how covid-19 impacted on the lives of chinese people and people of chinese descent in italy. key words: chinese discourse studies, grounded theory, qualitative content analysis, covid-19 es esta contribución tiene como objetivo presentar un análisis cualitativo realizado sobre un corpus de 48 textos periodísticos, recopilados de diarios italianos (n = 24) y periódicos y/o portales web para chinos residentes en italia (n = 24). el tema principal del análisis alude al impacto de la pandemia de covid-19 en la vida de los chinos y sinodescendientes en italia. el marco metodológico del estudio asume un enfoque mixto, que relaciona la grounded theory (charmaz, 2006) y el qualitive content analysis (ji & eun, 2014). la herramienta utilizada para poner en práctica este enfoque es el software multifuncional nvivo 11, programa que hasta el momento ha sido empleado en diversos campos del conocimiento, como la sociología, la psicología y la etnografía (pacifico & coppola, 2010). finalmente, en el proceso de etiquetado de los nodos conceptuales codificados a través de nvivo, se ha tenido en cuenta otra perspectiva, la de los chinese discourse studies (shi-xu, 2014). los resultados contribuyen a una comprensión más profunda, desde múltiples perspectivas, de cómo el covid-9 impactó en la vida de las personas chinas y de ascendencia china en italia. palabras clave: estudios del discurso chino, grounded theory, análisis cualitativo de contenido, pandemia de covid-19 * andrea scibetta, università per stranieri di siena scibetta@unistrasi.it http://www.e-journall.org/ scibetta e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 40 1. introduzione lo scoppio della pandemia da covid-19 in cina e la sua rapida diffusione a livello endemico in ogni parte del pianeta ha comportato una situazione emergenziale epocale, accompagnata quasi subito da una vera e propria ondata di sinofobia e atteggiamenti di aperto razzismo, talvolta sfociati in violenze fisiche, in molte aree di insediamento di cinesi d’oltremare (gao, 2022 inter alia). per dare un’idea della portata di tale irrigidimento nei confronti di cinesi/sinodiscendenti nel mondo, basti pensare che l’undicesima conferenza mondiale della international society for the study of chinese overseas (issco) è stata dedicata unicamente al tema “diasporic futures: sinophobia, techno-political strife, and the politics of care”1. come in tanti altri contesti, anche in italia si è assistito ad una proliferazione di atteggiamenti razzisti nei confronti delle persone cinesi in concomitanza con lo scoppio della pandemia e, soprattutto, con i primi casi di covid in lombardia, in veneto e in tutto il resto del paese. varie studiose hanno analizzato da vicino, con una certa rapidità, l’impatto negativo della pandemia su cinesi e sinodiscendenti in italia, sia da un punto di vista delle eteropercezioni e delle rappresentazioni sociali nei loro confronti, nonché della loro stigmatizzazione come “portatori di virus” (stafutti, 2020), sia per quanto riguarda la perdita di visibilità e di voce da parte di queste persone in relazione alla loro produzione artistico-culturale con l’arrivo del virus (pedone, 2020). i temi legati alla sinofobia e agli atteggiamenti razzisti e discriminatori nei confronti di cinesi e sinodiscendenti, sia sul piano verbale che su quello fisico, non sono nuovi nella società italiana (cfr. atzori, 2021; bai, 2021; candido, 2021; inter alia). a tali atteggiamenti si accostano spesso rappresentazioni sociali (moscovici, 2005) derivanti da un discorso mediatico dominante che tende a stereotipare negativamente o a stigmatizzare gruppi di cittadini stranieri, contribuendo a costruire immagini distorte dell’alterità (cfr. in particolare van dijk, 1991 in merito all’apparato teorico alla base dei fenomeni razzisti nella stampa). per quanto riguarda, nello specifico, la stretta interrelazione tra media e trasmissisone di rappresentazioni sociali connotate negativamente (e potenzialmente razziste) sui cinesi in italia, si rimanda a zhang (2019), con particolare riferimento al discorso (tanto pervasivo quanto poco fondato giuridicamente) sull’esistenza di mafie cinesi in italia, e ai dibattiti pubblici sulla presunta concorrenza sleale delle imprese cinesi in particolare nel distretto tessile di prato. a tale proposito si reputa interessante prendere in considerazione anche la categoria del “razzismo democratico” (faso, 2008; lunaria, 2017), che rispecchia quell’atteggiamento, di carattere più o meno velatamente discriminatorio, di alcuni giornalisti (indipendentemente dall’orientamento politico di riferimento del loro giornale) nei confronti di questioni che riguardano l’immigrazione e la presenza di persone di altre nazionalità in italia, e che fanno riferimento ad una rete semantica di concetti, come quelli di “etnia” o “culture altre”, che incentivano distorsioni percettive, esacerbando una retorica del “noi vs. loro” già forte nell’opinione pubblica (cfr. a tale proposito anche gallissot, kilani, & rivera, 2001). per quanto concerne in modo particolare il tema della sinofobia con l’arrivo del covid, anche nel discorso politico e in quello mediatico si sono colti subito i riflessi di un irrigidimento nei confronti della cina e dei cinesi d’oltremare. un numero rilevante di articoli di quotidiani italiani, infatti, a partire dal mese di gennaio 2020 si è concentrato da un lato a minimizzare episodi di sinofobia che hanno coinvolto anche volti famosi (è diventata celebre in questo senso la battuta razzista di buffon ad un tifoso cinese il 15 febbraio 2020: “hai il corona eh, ti guardo eh? (…) “cazzo sei di wuhan?”)2; dall’altro lato la stampa si è spesso dedicata ad alimentare una visione di “mistero” attorno alle “comunità cinesi” in italia, guardate allo stesso tempo con ammirazione e con sospetto per essere riuscite a contenere il contagio (emblematico è il titolo del corriere della sera “coronavirus, le “armi magiche” di pechino: perché i negozi cinesi hanno chiuso per primi”, del 12 marzo 2020)3. tali rappresentazioni, tuttavia, riflettono distorsioni percettive tutt’altro che nuove nei confronti di cinesi e sinodiscendenti: come riportato da numerosi studiosi, e come già anticipato sopra, infatti, il discorso 1 per avere maggiori informazioni sulle sessioni tematiche e sui principali temi trattati (ultima consultazione: giugno 2023), si veda il materiale al link https://issco.site/conferences. 2si veda l’articolo del corriere della sera del 15/02/2020 al link: https://www.corriere.it/sport/20_febbraio_15/buffonbattuta-cinese-coronavirus-fa-indignare-web-edb332ec-4fe5-11ea-a036-d715f3c65007.shtml (ultima consultazione: giugno 2023). 3 https://www.corriere.it/esteri/20_marzo_12/virus-armi-magiche-pechino-perche-negozi-cinesi-hanno-chiuso-primi64d7b092-648a-11ea-90f7-c3419f46e6a5.shtml (ultima consultazione: giugno 2023). https://issco.site/conferences https://www.corriere.it/sport/20_febbraio_15/buffon-battuta-cinese-coronavirus-fa-indignare-web-edb332ec-4fe5-11ea-a036-d715f3c65007.shtml https://www.corriere.it/sport/20_febbraio_15/buffon-battuta-cinese-coronavirus-fa-indignare-web-edb332ec-4fe5-11ea-a036-d715f3c65007.shtml https://www.corriere.it/esteri/20_marzo_12/virus-armi-magiche-pechino-perche-negozi-cinesi-hanno-chiuso-primi-64d7b092-648a-11ea-90f7-c3419f46e6a5.shtml https://www.corriere.it/esteri/20_marzo_12/virus-armi-magiche-pechino-perche-negozi-cinesi-hanno-chiuso-primi-64d7b092-648a-11ea-90f7-c3419f46e6a5.shtml oscillando tra sinofobia e sinofilia: un’analisi del discorso mediatico e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 41 mediatico dominante italiano è da molti anni intriso di stereotipi negativi e pregiudizi nei confronti di queste persone (cfr. chu, 2019; zhang, 2017, 2019; inter alia). allo stesso tempo, da parte cinese emerge in modo sempre più deciso un discorso mediatico e, soprattutto, politico teso ad enfatizzare una retorica della guerra che contrappone la repubblica popolare al covid, all’interno della quale il “modello cinese” di prevenzione dal virus viene individuato come l’unico possibile e in grado di salvare l’umanità (cfr. zhao, 2020 inter alia). questa politicizzazione della lotta al covid (rafforzata dalla cosiddetta “zero covid policy” inaugurata e portata avanti con insistenza da xi jinping fino al mese di dicembre 2022), si ripercuote tuttora sulle relazioni internazionali della repubblica popolare (costantino, 2020), nonché sulle stesse rappresentazioni artistico-letterarie legate alla pandemia da parte di cittadini cinesi (cfr. fumian, 2020; picerni, 2020 inter alia). 2. lo studio condotto: il dataset e l’impianto metodologico lo scopo di questo contributo è quello di descrivere i principali passaggi di un’analisi qualitativa, condotta su un corpus di articoli giornalistici di quotidiani italiani di larga diffusione e di giornali e portali web per migranti cinesi in italia, finalizzata a studiare l’impatto provocato dallo scoppio e dagli sviluppi della pandemia sulla vita sociale di cinesi e sinodiscendenti in varie parti del paese. ulteriori obiettivi collaterali si focslizzano sull’analisi del discorso mediatico in relazione alle interrelazioni simboliche fra i cinesi in italia e la loro madrepatria, sia per quanto riguarda il sostegno della repubblica popolare ai connazionali all’estero (in particolare sotto forma di aiuti forniti a questi ultimi e anche al sistema sanitario italiano) sia per ciò che concerne l’influenza esercitata da un discorso pubblico dominante in cina, che pone in primo piano la retorica della “via cinese” della lotta al covid come migliore modello di riferimento (fumian, 2020). 2.1. struttura e caratteristiche principali del dataset il corpus collezionato e analizzato è composto da un totale di 48 testi giornalistici, 24 dei quali provengono da quotidiani di larga diffusione in italia e 24 da giornali/portali di informazioni rivolti a persone cinesi/sinodiscendenti in italia. per quanto riguarda le sue caratteristiche generali, si tratta di un corpus interamente scritto, sincronico, bilingue, comparabile (per temi trattati nelle varie fonti, per numero di parole contenute nei due sotto-corpora e per il perioro temporale di riferimento), e contrastivo, formato da testi interi di carattere giornalistico, che sono stati poi codificati secondo una prospettiva principalmente corpus-driven (riccio 2016, p. 19;per i dettagli sulla codifica rimandiamo al paragrafo. 3). si tratta inoltre di un corpus relativamente rappresentativo per l’obiettivo generale dell’analisi, ovvero quello di indagare sull’impatto della pandemia sulla vita sociale, individuale e sulle percezioni delle/sulle persone cinesi/sinodiscendenti residenti in italia. bisogna specificare, comunque, che l’analisi qui proopsta non ha pretese di esaustività né di generalizzabilità delle conclusioni da essa derivate, anche se contribuisce a fornire interessanti spunti di riflessione sia per lo studio dei media sia per le implicazioni legate al temi indagati. nello specifico, i testi in lingua italiana sono stati raccolti da la repubblica (n = 6), la stampa (n = 6), il corriere della sera (n = 6) e la nazione (n = 6), mentre quelli in lingua cinese fanno riferimento a yidali shijie zhongguo意⼤利世界中国, noto al pubblico italofono anche come cina in italia (n = 8), ouzhou lianhe shibao 欧洲联合时报, noto in italiano come il tempo europa-cina (n = 8) e dal portale di notizie web yidali xinwen wang 意⼤利新闻⽹ (n = 8). la tiratura dei quotidiani italiani sopra menzionati è nota, così come la loro diffusione a livello nazionale; per quanto riguarda i giornali/portali di informazione cinesi consultati, al momento della selezione tutti gli articoli raccolti erano stati consultati da alcune migliaia di lettori, in qualche caso anche più di 10.000, dimostrando quindi a loro volta una discreta circolazione. tutte e tre le fonti in cinese, infatti, vantano una diffusione storica tra i migranti cinesi in italia. nello specifico, il primo dei tre rappresenta l’edizione italiana di china newsweek, periodico edito da china news, che conta 40 milioni di visualizzazioni al giorno. cina in italia nacque nel 2001 come periodico multitematico in lingua cinese e si attestò rapidamente tra le fonti più consultate dai cinesi in italia. nel 2007 la rivista diventò bilingue e negli ultimi anni, attraverso la costruzione e l’aggiornamento continuo del suo sito web, permette una vasta diffusione delle notizie quotidiane fra cinesi, sinodiscendenti e non solo. anche il tempo europa-cina e yidali xinwen wang rappresentano due punti di riferimento per l’accesso alle informazioni locali da parte di persone sinofone in italia: il primo naque in versione cartacea nel 1999, mentre il secondo venne inaugurato nel 2004 come portale di notizie riguardanti sia il contesto italiano sia quello cinese. scibetta e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 42 la lunghezza totale del sotto-corpus in lingua italiana ammonta a circa 12.300 parole, mentre quello in lingua cinese conta un totale di 19.100 caratteri. si specifica che il cinese è una lingua che processa i contenuti testuali per numero di caratteri, non per numero di parole (il concetto di “parola” nella lingua cinese è una importazione recente, introdotta sostanzialmente con l’inizio del periodo “coloniale” a metà xix secolo). considerando comunque che nel cinese standard contemporaneo più del 70% delle parole sono bisillabiche (abbiati, 2017), in questo caso è possibile fare una proporzione fra numero complessivo di parole del sottocorpus italiano e numero complessivo di caratteri del sotto-corpus cinese per dedurre che le parole dei due sotto-corpora sono pressoché equivalenti numericamente. al fine di verificare in modo più puntuale tale comparabilità numerica, si è ottenuto un ulteriore riscontro dell’equivalenza caratteri cinesi – parole italiane attraverso una traduzione in italiano dell’intero sotto-corpus cinese tramite il programma deepl4: da tale operazione deriva che il numero di parole italiane ottenute con la traduzione ammonta a 11.932, ovvero una mole estremamente vicina a quella del sotto-corpus italiano corrispondente. per quanto riguarda i criteri adottati per selezionare l’intero corpus in modo affidabile e per rendere comparabili i due sotto-corpora, specialmente in relazione agli obiettivi di analisi, si sono presi in considerazione i seguenti aspetti: – periodo temporale: si è scelto concentrarsi su avvenimenti e questioni che vanno dallo scoppio dei primi casi di covid in italia fino a tutta la seconda ondata, quindi indicativamente dal mese di febbraio a dicembre 2020. – aspetti della pandemia su cui è stato posto il focus. i temi trattati sono equamente rappresentati in entrambi i sotto-corpora e, nello specifico, riguardano i seguenti ambiti: l’impatto del covid sulle attività lavorative dei cinesi in italia (n = 5 fonti nel sotto-corpus italiano e n = 5 fonti nel sotto-corpus cinese); la pervasività del virus e i comportamenti virtuosi in termini di auto-isolamento e di adozione a livello informale di misure preventive da parte dei cinesi in italia (n = 5 fonti nel sotto-corpus italiano e n = 5 fonti nel sotto-corpus cinese); report periodici relativi alla pervasività del contagio in particolare in zone dove risiedono molte persone cinesi (n = 5 fonti nel sotto-corpus italiano e n = 5 fonti nel sotto-corpus cinese); le donazioni solidali da parte della repubblica popolare cinese verso l’italia e i cinesi d’oltremare e il ruolo attivo delle persone cinesi in italia nella promozione e nella distribuzione di tali donazioni (n = 4 fonti nel sotto-corpus italiano e n = 4 fonti nel sotto-corpus cinese); il racconto di episodi di sinofobia e atteggiamenti di razzismo o violenza nei confronti di cinesi in italia in concomitanza con lo scoppio della pandemia (n = 3 fonti nel sotto-corpus italiano e n = 3 fonti nel sotto-corpus cinese); le assenze da scuola dei bambini cinesi o sinodiscendenti e le implicazioni relative alla loro carriera scolastica e ai loro rapporti interpersonali (n = 2 fonti nel sotto-corpus italiano e n = 2 fonti nel sotto-corpus cinese). – criterio della pluralità geografica. al fine di ottenere una fotografia il più possibile rappresentativa dell’impatto della pandemia sui cinesi in italia, sono state selezionate notizie relative a diversi contesti geografici con una considerevole presenza storica di cittadini della repubblica popolare, ovvero prato, roma, milano, torino, napoli e padova, ma sono state prese in considerazione anche altre località urbane minori, principalmente localizzate in piemonte, in emilia-romagna e in toscana. la tabella 1 riassume le informazioni più importanti inerenti al corpus raccolto. 4 deepl è un software online che consente di svolgere traduzioni automatiche da una lingua di partenza a una lingua di arrivo, anche direttamente con caricamento di file word o pdf, con un alto grado di affidabilità. oscillando tra sinofobia e sinofilia: un’analisi del discorso mediatico e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 43 tabella 1 schema riassuntivo delle principali caratteristiche del corpus caratteristiche principali sotto-corpus in italiano sotto-corpus in cinese n. articoli consultati 24 24 quotidiani/portali di informazioni consultati la repubblica (n = 6), la stampa (n = 6), il corriere della sera (n = 6), la nazione (n = 6). yidali shijie zhongguo意⼤利世界中 国 (n = 8), ouzhou lianhe shibao欧洲 联合时报, (n = 8), yidali xinwen wang 意⼤利新闻⽹ (n = 8). n. parole/caratteri del sotto-corpus 12.300 parole 19.100 caratteri (11.932 parole ottenute con la traduzione in italiano del sottocorpus in questione). obiettivi dell’analisi indagare sull’impatto della pandemia sulla vita sociale, individuale e sulle percezioni delle/sulle persone cinesi/sinodiscendenti residenti in italia periodo temporale di riferimento febbraio-dicembre 2020. aspetti della pandemia analizzate impatto covid su attività lavorative dei cinesi in italia; pervasività del virus e comportamenti virtuosi dei cinesi in italia; report periodici sul contagio in zone dove risiedono molte persone cinesi; donazioni solidali da parte della repubblica popolare cinese verso l’italia e i cinesi d’oltremare; episodi di sinofobia e atteggiamenti di razzismo o violenza nei confronti di cinesi in italia; assenze da scuola di bambini cinesi o sinodiscendenti. contesti geografici considerati prato, roma, milano, torino, napoli e padova e località urbane minori in piemonte, emilia-romagna e toscana. 2.2. l’impianto metodologico alla base dello studio come citato nella sezione precedente, l’analisi condotta sul corpus raccolto riflette un approccio principalmente corpus-driven, poiché per buona parte dei processi di codifica è stato usato un metodo induttivo, elaborando ipotesi a partire direttamente dai dati. tuttavia, si ritiene opportuno precisare che quello utilizzato è un approccio misto, che mette in comunicazione paradigmi metodologici diversi e complementari, in parte basati anche su una prospettiva deduttiva. i costrutti teorico-metodologici di riferimento per tale approccio misto si rifanno alla grounded theory (charmaz, 2006), alla qualitative content analysis, da un punto di vista sia induttivo che deduttivo (mayring, 2000), e per quanto riguarda in particolare i processi di labeling dei nodi concettuali codificati, al filone dei chinese discourse studies (shi-xu, 2014). la grounded theory, ovvero la prospettiva che riflette in modo più consistente un approccio induttivo e corpus-driven, venne introdotta da glaser e strauss (1967) come “the discovery of theory from data— systematically obtained and analyzed in social research” (p. 1). come sottolineato nei vari documenti elaborati dal grounded theory institute, infatti, “grounded theory is an inductive methodology. although many call grounded theory a qualitative method, it is not. it is a general method. it is the systematic generation of theory from systematic research. it is a set of rigorous research procedures leading to the emergence of conceptual categories. (…) grounded theory can be used with either qualitative or quantitative data”. (grounded theory institute, 2013). la grounded theory si presenta quindi come un metodo di analisi che parte dai dati, grazie al quale la teoria stessa si costruisce, si negozia e si ridefinisce attraverso la codifica dei dati stessi. inizialmente venne usata per analisi di tipo sociologico, ma successivamente ha raggiunto una vasta gamma di applicazioni, che vanno dalla psicologia all’antropologia, dall’educazione alla etnolinguistica (bazeley & jackson, 2013). negli ultimi anni, in particolare grazie a charmaz (2006), si è affermata in seno alla grounded theory una corrente ispirata ad un approccio socio-interazionale, con la quale è stato messo in discussione il decentramento del ricercatore, enfatizzando invece un suo maggiore coinvolgimento, anche insieme ai partecipanti, nel caso di corpora basati su interviste, nella costruzione della teoria. questa versione “moderata” della grounded theory, che presuppone l’inclusione di un margine di soggettività del ricercatore nell’analisi, è quella presa in considerazione nel presente studio. scibetta e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 44 per fornire un esempio di applicazione del paradigma della grounded theory al processo di codifica, i due nodi nominati “resilienza dei cinesi in italia” e “strategie per ripensare attività lavorative cinesi in italia” (entrambi afferenti al tree node “pandemia e impatto sulla vita sociale”, come vedremo nel prossimo par.) emergono in modo implicito dall’analisi stessa, senza alcuna ipotesi formulata a priori da parte del ricercatore in relazione a questi due aspetti. l’altro pilastro su cui poggia l’impianto metodologico del presente studio è rappresentato dalla qualitative content analysis (qca), uno strumento usato principalmente per analizzare “the content of media text to enable similar results to be established across a group of text coders” (priest, roberts, & woods, 2002, p. 35). differentemente dalla grounded theory, dalla qca emerge una dimensione maggiormente soggettiva nell’interpretazione dei dati, che deriva dalla suddivisione di questo approccio in una dimensione induttiva e in una dimensione deduttiva, cui si può far riferimento in modo integrato ed organico. secondo un’accezione generale, infatti, la qca viene definita “a research method for subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns” (hsieh & shannon, 2005, p. 1278). in seno alla qca si predilige una prospettiva induttiva quando la conoscenza pregressa relativa al fenomeno studiato è limitata o frammentaria (elo & kyngäs, 2008), mentre si adotta una prospettiva deduttiva quando l’obiettivo dell’analisi è quello di validare/confermare un approccio teorico già esistente, oppure quello di manipolare in un una nuova cornice contestuale dati precedentemente raccolti (cho & lee, 2014). per fornire un esempio di codifica secondo la qca, il nodo denominato “sinofobia e diffidenza da attività cinesi” (v. par. 3) riflette un approccio deduttivo, poiché convalida una ipotesi già presente ancor prima di condurre l’analisi. l’ultima delle tre prospettive teorico-metodologiche che compongono l’approccio misto di cui ci si è avvalsi per condurre l’analisi è quella dei chinese discourse studies (shi-xu, 2014), un promettente filone di studi emerso nell’ambito dei più vasti cultural discourse studies (ivi), il cui obiettivo principale è quello di assumere una prospettiva interpretativa il più possibile decentrata rispetto ai criteri etnocentrici e anglocentrici che dominano e guidano la maggior parte dei lavori di discourse analysis, sia nel global north che nel global south, come riflesso di dinamiche neo-coloniali di condizionamento della conoscenza. come sottolinea shi-xu (2014), infatti, “mainstream discourse analysis, as well as communication studies, is basically western and in many respects westcentric (…) cultural discourse studies have yielded deeper, novel and practicable insights into culture-specific realities on the one hand and broadened and enriched international scholarly understanding on the other (p. 21)”. nello specifico, i chinese discourse studies sfidano l’anglocentrismo da un’altra prospettiva, quella della cosiddetta sinosfera, con i suoi universi simbolici e semiotici di riferimento. attraverso tale paradigma si rivendica la necessità di condurre discourse studies riguardanti il mondo cinese evitando di replicare schemi interpretativi di stampo anglosassone o occidentalista, e allo stesso tempo di fare uso di categorie di analisi più aderenti a impianti concettuali vicini alla tradizione cinese. con le parole di shi-xu (2014), infatti, “a culturally more concrete and particular paradigm of discourse studies directed at contemporary chinese culture and society, vis-à-vis the rampant westcentric, neocolonialist ways of understanding china as well as blind application and reproduction of such knowledge (pp. 193-4)”. i chinese discourse studies vengono quindi intesi in questa sede come uno strumento efficace in particolare nel processo di labeling dei nodi codificati, per rifuggire dalla tentazione di cadere nell’essenzialismo culturale e da meccanismi di orientalizzazione (dervin & machart, 2013). due esempi rappresentativi di labeling secondo la prospettiva dei chinese discourse studies sono dati dai nodi “elogio della/orgoglio per la zhongguo wenming中国⽂明 (“civiltà/civilizzazione cinese”, concetto con connotazioni specifiche e intriso di determinati aspetti simbolici in relazione al discorso politico mainstream, in particolare nell’era di xi jinping, n.d.a.)” e “richiamo a responsabilità huaren华⼈” (laddove per rivolgersi ai migranti si usa la parola huaren, che sottende l’idea di “cittadino cinese a tutti gli effetti”, con la carica simbolicoaffettiva che ne consegue, in contrapposizione al termine più diffuso per connotare in modo neutro i cinesi d’oltremare, ovvero huaqiao华侨, “migrante cinese”). lo strumento che ha permesso di svolgere il processo di analizzare dell’intero corpus è il software per l’analisi testuale nvivo 11 (bazeley & jackson, 2013; leech & onwuegbuzie, 2011), ovvero un programma multifunzionale con il quale è possibile codificare il corpus attraverso la costruzione di nodi concettuali gerarchici (tree nodes con i relativi child nodes) fino ad uno stato di apparente saturazione, secondo la prospettiva del researcher-denoted coding (baralt, 2011; hadley, 2017): tale prospettiva presuppone un ruolo preminente del ricercatore nella costruzione delle gerarchie di nodi, che vengono ricavate dal costrutto teorico oscillando tra sinofobia e sinofilia: un’analisi del discorso mediatico e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 45 che emerge durante l’analisi stessa, come riflesso dell’applicazione di metodologie di stampo induttivo, come quella che si rifà alla grounded theory (charmaz, 2006). inoltre, secondo tale paradigma, il processo di codifica non procede in modo lineare ma in modo circolare, poiché per monitorare le interrelazioni tra i nodi e la corenza interna di ognuno di essi è necessario svolgere revisioni costanti, che consentono di eliminare e uniformare nodi superflui (perché riscontrati in un numero troppo esiguo di testi o di riferimenti nei testi), o concettualmente troppo simili a nodi già esistenti. la codifica finale rispecchia quindi una serie di criteri di coerenza dettati dalla ricorrenza e dalla consistenza dei nodi codificati e gerarchizzati; anche la costruzione di tree nodes è rappresentativa della visione che porta il ricercatore a ricondurre sotto un medesimo “ombrello concettuale” nodi che trattano questioni più o meno specifiche, ma affini tematicamente. per controllare ogni singolo step dell’analisi, con l’obiettivo di garantire un grado di accuratezza e affidabilità nel monitoraggio delle codifiche, è stato usato un apposito coding journal, corredato da memos e appunti inseriti in concomitanza di passaggi specifici nelle varie fonti o nei vari nodi, attraverso i quali sono stati annotati i diversi passaggi intercorsi. sulla base dell’analisi svolta secondo i criteri esposti sopra, quindi, sono stati quindi codificati 62 nodi diversi, riuniti in quattro tree nodes che mettono a fuoco le macro-tematiche oggetto dell’analisi e che verranno illustrati nel prossimo paragrafo. tutti i testi sono stati quindi analizzati più volte, con livelli di coding density che spesso dimostrano la possibilità di codificare più nodi in concomitanza di una medesima espressione o di un medesimo paragrafo (si veda la figura 1 come esempio di coding density di un testo in cinese del quotidiano yidali shijie zhongguo, o cina in italia). figura 1. esempio di coding density di un testo di un articolo tratto da yidali shijie zhongguo, o “cina in italia” come verrà mostrato nei paragrafi seguenti, oltre ad aver condotto una codifica di tutti i testi raccolti, il corpus è stato interrogato attraverso queries di varia tipologia, in particolare attraverso il matrix coding, tecnica che ha permesso di comparare più fonti (o più gruppi di fonti) in base a particolari parametri (come ad esempio la ricorrenza e il numero di rifermenti a determinati nodi), o attraverso la text frequency. scibetta e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 46 3. analisi dei dati l’analisi condotta sul corpus raccolto, svolta secondo i criteri menzionati nel paragrafo 2, ha consentito di codificare un totale di 62 nodi, radunati in quattro tree nodes principali, denominati “attitudini nei confronti degli huaqiao华侨 (‘migranti cinesi’, n.d.a.)”, “dinamiche di visibilità, prestigio e legame con la madrepatria”, “gestione e sviluppi della pandemia” e “pandemia e impatto sulla vita sociale”, e che riflettono appunto i macrotemi ai quali è stata dedicata maggiore attenzione. il totale di references, ovvero porzioni più o meno lunghe di testo codificate in relazione ai 62 nodi, ammonta a 1.252: si specifica che, come è ben visibile dalla coding density del testo in lingua cinese riportato nella figura 1, molto spesso è stato possibile codificare una stessa reference anche con due o più nodi (lo stesso titolo dell’articolo della figura 1 è stato codificato con tre nodi diversi, i quali rappresentano il risultato di tre angolature interpretative diverse dell’estratto). il tree node “attitudini nei confronti degli huaqiao华侨” (figura 2) si compone di un totale di 15 child nodes disposti in due livelli gerarchici, per un totale di 388 references: i child nodes “percezioni e distorsioni”, “sinofilia” e “sinofobia” sono infatti child nodes di primo livello e a loro volta generano ulteriori sotto-nodi più specifici e coerenti con le tematiche cui essi si riferiscono. il child node “riferimenti ad atteggiamenti di condanna comportamenti di cinesi in italia”, invece, viene definito free node, poiché non genera ulteriori sottonodi da esso dipendenti. il focus principale di questo macro-nodo ruota intorno alle attitudini, sia negative che positive, alle percezioni e alle distorsioni rappresentative nei confronti dei cinesi residenti in italia durante il periodo analizzato. particolarmente numerosi sono gli episodi di sinofobia, talvolta sfociati in atteggiamenti di palese razzismo e/o di violenza fisica e verbale, riportati in special modo nel sotto-corpus italiano; rispetto a questi ultimi, invece, sono numericamente minori, anche se sempre piuttosto consistenti, i riferimenti che rispecchiano un atteggiamento di sinofilia e di elogio di comportamenti virtuosi dei cinesi in italia. il nodo “percezioni e distorsioni”, invece, fa principalmente riferimento a ipergeneralizzazioni e rappresentazioni stereotipate dei cinesi in italia, o direttamente da parte di giornalisti italiani (che molto spesso, ad esempio, insistono su una retorica intrisa di pregiudizi della “comunità cinese chiusa”, da cui deriva una percezione di continuo e ingiustificato sospetto e mistero), oppure da parte della popolazione locale. figura 2. articolazione interna del tree node “attitudini nei confronti degli huaqiao华侨” il tree node “dinamiche di visibilità, prestigio e legame con la madrepatria” (figura 3) raccoglie un totale di 12 altri nodi, con tre child nodes di primo livello (“retorica della lotta al covid”, “riconoscenza verso la cina” e “sistemi valoriali legati alla sinosfera”) che generano ulteriori sotto-nodi e due free nodes (“legame con la madrepatria” e “riferimento a collegamenti aerei con la cina”), per un totale di 135 references. in questo macro-nodo l’attenzione viene principalmente rivolta alle interazioni simboliche fra huaqiao e madrepatria, nonché all’impatto esercitato dalla repubblica popolare cinese su cinesi e sinodiscendenti all’estero, in termini di creazione e diffusione di un modello vincente di lotta al covid, cui vengono connessi “sistemi valoriali” legati alla sinosfera (e in particolare alla retorica e al discorso politico dell’era di xi jinping, cfr. fumian, 2020). vengono altresì inclusi in questo tree node riferimenti ad espisodi di elogio dell’altruismo cinese e di riconoscenza da parte delle istituzioni italiane nei confronti degli aiuti provenienti dalla repubblica popolare. oscillando tra sinofobia e sinofilia: un’analisi del discorso mediatico e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 47 figura 3. articolazione interna del tree node “dinamiche di visibilità, prestigio e legame con la madrepatria” il tree node “gestione e sviluppi della pandemia” (figura 4) è composto da 19 ulteriori nodi, tre dei quali sono child nodes di primo livello (“andamento contagi”, “gestione pandemia” e “percezioni legate a gestione pandemia”), che generano tutti ulteriori sotto-nodi più specifici, per un totale di 338 references. il principale focus qui è sulle traiettorie tracciate dagli sviluppi della pandemia, sia da un punto di vista di gestione politica a livello top-down sia per quanto riguarda alcune diffuse percezioni legate allo scoppio e al protrarsi dei contagi. in particolare, nel nodo “andamento contagi” ci si riferisce alle variazioni nel numero di contagiati in italia, in cina e fra i cinesi in italia, nonché alla pervasività del virus durante le principali ondate; il nodo “gestione pandemia” fa principalmente riferimento ad una dimensione politica, a livello transnazionale, nazionale e locale, cui spesso si accosta una comparazione tra la condotta istituzionale virtuosa da parte della repubblica popolare nella gestione dei contagi entro i propri confini e nella solidarietà con le altre aree del mondo colpite dal virus; il nodo “percezioni legate a gestione pandemia”, invece, va ad indagare sulla dimensione percettiva, da parte di cinesi e sinodiscendenti in italia, e da parte del resto dell’opinione pubblica italiana, nei confronti della gestione istituzionale della pandemia. scibetta © scibetta 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. 48 figura 4. articolazione interna del tree node “gestione e sviluppi della pandemia” oscillando tra sinofobia e sinofilia: un’analisi del discorso mediatico © scibetta 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. 49 il tree node “pandemia e impatto sulla vita sociale” (figura 5), infine, raccoglie 13 ulteriori child nodes e il maggior numero di references codificate, ovvero 391. nello specifico, questo macro-nodo ha 5 sotto-nodi di primo livello, tre dei quali danno origine ad ulteriori child nodes (“impatto e motivo e psicologico”, “mondo del lavoro”, “scuola e istruzione”) e due dei quali sono free nodes (“impatto pandemia su vita sociale” e “resilienza dei cinesi in italia”). il focus principale di questo tree node è sui vari aspetti della vita sociale, emotiva e psicologica sui quali è stato esercitato un particolare impatto dalla pandemia da covid. innanzitutto, si fa particolare riferimento ad una dimensione individuale da una prospettiva emotiva e psicologica (in modo specifico per quanto concerne sia la continua e ripetuta paura del contagio, sia una visibile propensione alla solidarietà verso i connazionali e verso la società locale) e anche da una prospettiva di interazione degli individui all’interno dei macro-contesti sociali. si dedica altresì particolare attenzione all’impatto, spesso negativo, esercitato dal virus sia sulle attività lavorative di cinesi e sinodiscendenti in italia e sulla frequenza scolastica dei figli, ma anche alla capacità di resistere alle difficoltà attraverso il mutuo soccorso e la ricerca di specifiche vie per rispondere in modo proattivo all’emergenza epocale causata dalla pandemia. figura 5. articolazione interna del tree node “pandemia e impatto sulla vita sociale” 4. risultati preliminari e implicazioni alla luce di quanto illustrato precedentemente in merito alle fasi di articolazione dell’analisi, in questo paragrafo verranno mostrati e discussi alcuni tra i risultati principali ottenuti attraverso specifiche indagini condotte sul corpus. innanzitutto, nella tabella 2 vengono riportati i nodi che sono stati rintracciati nella maggior parte di fonti e che riportano i numeri più alti di references. per ogni nodo viene riportata una reference di esempio dal sotto-corpus di lingua italiana e una dal sotto-corpus in lingua cinese (con l’aggiunta di una traduzione letterale in italiano). il nodo codificato nel maggior numero di articoli (21) e rintracciato nel maggior numero di references (87) è quello denominato “paura del contagio”, e fa particolare riferimento alla sensazione di timore di contrarre il virus, legata a specifiche circostanze o prolungata nel tempo, da parte di persone cinesi in italia. tale nodo emerge in modo bilanciato in entrambi i sotto-corpora e dimostra quanto sia stato pervasivo questo stato d’animo fin dallo scoppio dei primi casi di covid in italia. il secondo nodo più codificato (19 fonti e 56 references) è quello denominato “sinofilia ed elogio comportamenti virtuosi cinesi in italia” e riassume una serie di considerazioni positive espresse sia dall’opinione pubblica italiana nei confronti della grande responsabilità di cinesi/sinodiscendenti nella prevenzione dal virus, sia da parte di cinesi residenti in italia nei confronti della ricezione positiva di indicazioni provenienti dalla madrepatria sulle buone pratiche per contenere il contagio. anche questo nodo è stato codificato in modo abbastanza equo in entrambi i sottocorpora, anche se emerge in modo più evidente nei testi in lingua cinese. al terzo posto troviamo “impatto pandemia sulla vita sociale” (18 fonti, 52 references), che mostra quanto siano state forti le conseguenze (in genere negative) della pandemia sulla vita sociale delle persone cinesi/sinodiscendenti in italia. tale impatto scibetta e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 50 spesso si misura anche in relazione alla paura della pervasività del contagio e alla sua capacità di compromettere i rapporti sociali, lavorativi e addirittura la fiducia in istituzioni locali come le scuole dei figli (come dimostra appunto il nodo “pandemia e assenze da scuola”, codificato in 9 fonti e 44 references). un nodo fortemente codificato, peraltro soltanto nel sotto-corpus di giornali italiani, è quello denominato “retorica delle comunità” (17 fonti, 48 references): esso mette in luce un atteggiamento intriso di pre-comprensioni e stereotipi da parte dei giornalisti italiani, secondo molti dei quali esistono “comunità cinesi” coese, che si comportano in modo univoco e che spesso sono “chiuse” e “misteriose”. tale approccio, molto diffuso nel discorso mediatico relativo ai cinesi in italia, purtroppo spesso rischia di alimentare (più o meno implicitamente) rappresentazioni sociali distorte nell’opinione pubblica nei confronti di queste persone. un ultimo nodo che ha ricevuto molte codifiche (10 fonti, 45 references), in particolare nel sotto-corpus italiano, è quello chiamato “episodi di sinofobia”, con il quale emergono narrazioni di episodi di violenza verbale o fisica nei confronti di cinesi/sinodiscendenti, poiché sospettati di essere portatori e diffusori del virus in italia: un tema emerso drammaticamente anche in altri contesti globali, come negli stati uniti, come anticipato nel par. 1. tabella 2 nodi maggiormente codificati, con esempi dal sotto-corpus in italiano e dal sotto-corpus in cinese (con traduzione in italiano) nome nodi numero fonti numero codifiche esempio in italiano esempio in cinese paura del contagio 21 87 coronavirus, la chinatown spettrale di prato. "qui tutti in casa abbiamo paura". “我们华⼈都会尽可能地避免外出，但 其他⼈却好像什么事都没发⽣⼀样，照 常出⾏，这让我们感到⾮常害怕”。 (ita: “noi cinesi cerchiamo di evitare di uscire, ma altre persone si comportano come se nulla fosse, escono come di solito, e questo ci mette molta paura”). sinofilia ed elogio comportamenti virtuosi cinesi in italia 19 56 smentita l’ipotesi che i cinesi di prato da settimane abbiano iniziato una fuga verso la madrepatria per fare ricorso a un vaccino sperimentale, l’unica spiegazione al fenomeno dell’immunità è quella del lockdown applicato alla perfezione. 市⻓说：“在中国新年过后，⼤量的华 ⼈从中国返回普拉托，但是他们严格遵 守了隔离规定，他们⾃我隔离，留在家 中。 (ita: “il sindaco ha detto: ‘dopo aver trascorso il capodanno in cina, molte persone cinesi sono tornate a prato, ma hanno osservato in modo severo le regole di isolamento. si sono messe in autoisolamento e sono rimaste a casa”). impatto pandemia su vita sociale 18 52 coronavirus, la chinatown spettrale di prato. "qui tutti in casa abbiamo paura". 疫情暴发，不少国家关闭学校，开启⽹ 课模式，⽽⼀些地区仍在线下授课。 ⽆论哪种模式，对海外华⼈家⻓来说， 都是⼀个不⼩的挑战。 (ita: “con lo scoppio della pandemia molti paesi hanno chiuso le scuole e hanno iniziato a fare didattica online, ma in alcune zone si continua a insegnare offline. indipendentemente dal modello (didattico), secondo i genitori cinesi all’estero ciò rappresenta una grande sfida”). retorica delle comunità 17 48 la preoccupazione maggiore era che tra le comunità cinesi all’estero e le comunità locali si creassero conflitti, scoppiassero tensioni. /// oscillando tra sinofobia e sinofilia: un’analisi del discorso mediatico e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 51 episodi di sinofobia 10 45 psicosi coronavirus, cinese aggredita a torino: “hai il virus, vai via o ti ammazzo”. 昨天北⽅出现了⼏起对华侨侮辱甚⾄暴 ⼒的事件，意⼤利的传染源虽然还没找 到，但绝⼤多数⼈坚信病毒来⾃中国。 (ita: “ieri nel nord (italia, n.d.t.) si sono verificati diversi episodi di insulti e persino violenze contro migranti cinesi. nonostante l’origine del contagio in italia non sia stata ancora rintracciata, la maggior parte delle persone crede fermamente che il virus provenga dalla cina”). pandemia e assenze da scuola 9 44 oltre il 90 per cento delle famiglie cinesi residenti in italia hanno paura di mandare i loro figli a scuola e li terranno a casa. 送孩⼦上学，孩⼦每天出⼊校园，接触 外界环境，感染疫情的⻛险让家⻓担 忧。 (ita: “il fatto di accompagnare i figli a scuola, che i bambini ogni giorno entrino fra le mura di scuola e si trovino in un ambiente esterno di contagio, e il rischio di essere infettati preoccupa i genitori”). fra le analisi svolte, si ritiene opportuno riportare alcuni risultati derivanti da matrix coding queries ottenute incrociando la frequenza di codifiche di specifici nodi in relazione a giornali diversi oppure in relazione ai due sotto-corpora. la prima matrix coding query qui presentata (tabella 3) è quella che si riferisce al confronto relativo al numero di codifiche dei nodi che fanno capo al tree node “sinofobia” (a sua volta child node del macro-nodo “attitudini nei confronti degli huaqiao华侨”). tali nodi riguardano diversi aspetti legati alla sinofobia, che vanno dalla semplice narrazione di atteggiamenti razzisti o di violenza alla condanna aperta verso di essi. dalla query emerge che, mentre gli articoli de la stampa in particolare, ma anche de la repubblica e del corriere della sera, dedicano attenzione alla narrazione di questi aspetti, negli articoli de la nazione sono scarsi o addirittura assenti i riferimenti ad episodi di sinofobia, nonché alla condanna nei confronti di tali atteggiamenti. tabella 3 matrix coding query condotta sui nodi relativi alla sinofobia un’altra matrix coding query condotta (tabella 4) riguarda le codifiche relative alle varie articolazioni del tree node “percezioni e distorsioni” (dentro il macro-nodo “attitudini nei confronti degli huaqiao华侨”), sempre nei vari quotidiani italiani. in questo caso l’attenzione è rivolta in particolare al linguaggio utilizzato dai diversi giornali, più o meno intriso di generalizzazioni e di elementi di “razzismo democratico” (uno stile discorsivo che, di solito in modo involontario, può richiamare o produrre atteggiamenti di velato razzismo, cfr. faso, 2008), di pregiudizi e falsi miti nei confronti di cinesi/sinodiscendenti in italia, nonché di retoriche del “mistero” e delle “comunità coese e chiuse” citate precedentemente. ancora una volta il primato di codifiche spetta agli articoli de la nazione, che tendono quindi a caratterizzarsi come testi più intrisi di visioni stereotipate e di rappresentazioni distorte dei cinesi; decisamente più equilibrati in questo senso sembrano invece essere gli articoli de la repubblica e la stampa, anche se la rappresentazione iper-semplificata della/e “comunità cinese/i” sembra essere un tratto trasversale alle varie testate. giornale condanna episodi sinofobia episodi sinofobia minimizzazione episodi sinofobia racconto atteggiamenti razzisti o violenza sinofobia e diffidenza da attività cinesi corriere 4 8 1 2 7 nazione 0 2 0 2 2 repubblica 4 6 2 6 5 la stampa 9 24 0 17 2 scibetta e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 52 tabella 4 matrix coding query condotta sui nodi relativi a percezioni e distorsioni dei giornalisti italiani giornale generalizzazioni e razzismo democratico giornalisti pregiudizi e falsi miti nei confronti dei cinesi retorica mistero retorica comunità corriere 6 1 3 14 nazione 10 6 12 17 repubblica 0 9 3 6 la stampa 2 10 0 11 una terza matrix coding query, i cui risultati sono mostrati nella tabella 5, riguarda invece il confronto relativo al numero di codifiche del nodo “sinofilia ed elogio comportamenti virtuosi cinesi in italia” (anch’esso interno al macro-nodo “attitudini nei confronti degli huaqiao华侨”), sempre in relazione ai quattro quotidiani italiani qui presi in considerazione. dalla query emerge che la nazione, il giornale che è meno incline a raccontare e condannare episodi di sinofobia, paradossalmente è quello in cui trovano maggiore spazio riferimenti legati a comportamenti responsabili e virtuosi delle persone cinesi in italia, nell’adozione su iniziativa personale di strategie di prevenzione dal contagio al momento dello scoppio della pandemia, nel mantenimento di bassi livelli di infezioni fra connazionali e nelle molteplici iniziative di solidarietà anche verso la società italiana (diversi sono infatti i riferimenti alle donazioni volontarie di dispositivi di protezione). tabella 5 matrix coding query condotta sul nodo “sinofilia ed elogio comportamenti virtuosi cinesi in italia” giornale occorrenze corriere 4 nazione 16 repubblica 6 la stampa 11 i risultati delle ultime due matrix coding queries qui riportati riguardano comparazioni tra i due interi sotto-corpora. la prima delle due (tabella 6) ha come focus l’analisi della numerosità di codifiche relative ad alcuni child nodes dei macro-nodi “dinamiche di visibilità, prestigio e legame con la madrepatria” e “gestione e sviluppi della pandemia”. l’obiettivo è quello di misurare la consistenza con cui emergono nei due sottocorpora elementi retorici tipicamente legati ad un discorso mediatico e politico teso ad avvalorare, da un lato, il modello cinese di lotta al virus come modello vincente, e dall’altro lato a richiamarsi a meccanismi discorsivi che rimandano all’idea della guerra ad un nemico comune, il covid appunto. come si evince dalla tabella 6, per tutti i nodi analizzati si riscontra un forte squilibrio nel numero delle codifiche a favore dei giornali/portali di informazione in lingua cinese, che tendono molto spesso ad impostare il discorso sulla prevenzione del virus in termini di “guerra ad un nemico comune”. in questa guerra la cina, con le sue politiche restrittive di contenimento del contagio, associate ad un “universo valoriale” che si richiama principalmente al concetto cinese di wenming ⽂明 (“civiltà”, si veda la sezione 2.2.), viene rappresentata come il migliore modello possibile di lotta. oscillando tra sinofobia e sinofilia: un’analisi del discorso mediatico e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 53 tabella 6 matrix coding query condotta su alcuni nodi dipendenti dai macro-nodi “dinamiche di visibilità, prestigio e legame con la madrepatria” e “gestione e sviluppi della pandemia” giornali retorica del virus nemico comune retorica della guerra contro il covid elogio della orgoglio per la 中 国⽂明 richiamo a responsabilità 华⼈ presunta superiorità cina gestione della pandemia italiani 2 3 0 2 3 cinesi 10 9 12 28 15 l’ultima delle matrix coding queries qui presentate (tabella 7) incrocia il numero di codifiche relative ad alcuni specifici child nodes appartenenti ai macro-nodi “attitudini nei confronti degli huaqiao 华侨” e “gestione e sviluppi della pandemia”, comparando nuovamente i testi in italiano con quelli in cinese. in questo caso si va a indagare quanto siano pervasivi i discorsi sugli episodi di sinofobia (e la loro condanna) e quelli sulla sinofilia, sia relativamente all’elogio di comportamenti virtuosi di cinesi in italia sia per quanto riguarda gli aiuti solidali offerti alla popolazione italiana da questi ultimi o direttamente dalla repubblica popolare. se nel sotto-corpus in lingua italiana abbondano i riferimenti ad episodi di sinofobia (n = 40) avvenuti nei confronti di cinesi/sinodiscendenti in italia in particolare allo scoppio della pandemia, questo aspetto tende a passare in secondo piano nel sotto-corpus in lingua cinese (n = 6). in quest’ultimo, invece, maggiore attenzione viene dedicata alle questioni degli aiuti solidali della cina e dei cinesi all'italia o ai connazionali, o dell’elogio di comportamenti responsabili adottati da molti cinesi in italia per contenere il contagio. ciò potrebbe essere paradossalmente legato alla volontà, da parte cinese, di preservare la cosiddetta mianzi ⾯⼦ (“faccia”, intesa appunto in modo analogo all’accezione goffmaniana di “immagine sociale”, cfr. pan, 2000) nella cornice di questa emergenza epocale, prediligendo rappresentazioni che rafforzano il prestigio della cina e dei cinesi e tentando di minimizzare la portata simbolica di episodi negativi ascrivibili ad un sentimento anti-cinese. il concetto di mianzi, in particolare, è molto importante nella cultura dominante cinese, sia a livello interpersonale sia a livello istituzionale: definirlo unicamente come un gioco di equilibrio tra dinamiche di contegno e deferenza (goffman, 1956) appare limitante, poiché esso ha una relazione molto forte con un sistema di pensiero, quello confuciano, che ha condizionato la vita sociale dei cinesi per più di duemila anni e che ancora riesce a giocare una forte influenza anche nel mondo della politica e delle relazioni internazionali della repubblica popolare (scarpari, 2015). preservare la mianzi, quindi, diventa fondamentale per il singolo perché contribuisce a mantenere un’immagine sociale positiva e rassicurante, e per l’intero paese perché concorre a trasmettere un’idea di società “armoniosa” (per riprendere un termine caro sia all’ex presidente hu jintao sia all’attuale xi jinping). tabella 7 matrix coding query condotta su specifici nodi dei tree nodes “attitudini nei confronti degli 华侨” e “gestione e sviluppi della pandemia” 5. possibili applicazioni didattiche del presente studio alla luce dell’analisi esposta e dei risultati discussi sopra, appare utile soffermarsi sulle varie possibili applicazioni didattico-pedagogiche che possono scaturire dal presente studio. si reputa infatti interessante ipotizzare attività didattiche, con vari gradi di complessità e con vari livelli di articolazione interna, sia per apprendenti sinofoni di italiano sia per apprendenti italofoni di cinese. infatti, lavorando sulla testualità, e in particolare sul genere del testo giornalistico, si possono innanzitutto stabilire punti di connessione e di differenza tra il modo di costruire e articolare un discorso scritto in italiano e in cinese; si possono altresì verificare analogie e diversità nell’uso di determinati stili (come il giornali condanna episodi di sinofobia episodi di sinofobia aiuti solidali della cina e dei cinesi all'italia o ai connazionali organizzazione o contributo aiuti da parte di huaqiao 华侨 sinofilia ed elogio comportamenti virtuosi cinesi in italia italiani 17 40 14 11 37 cinesi 5 6 17 10 16 scibetta e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 54 cosiddetto stile spezzato, che sempre più caratterizza i testi di molti articoli giornalistici italiani e che impone usi interpuntivi e meccanismi di coerenza e coesione testuali molto particolari, cfr. palermo, 2013). a partire da tali possibili piani di comparazione, rimanendo su una prospettiva di analisi dell’intero testo, si possono sollecitare gli apprendenti a fare inferenze sui diversi meccanismi logico-concettuali (livello della coerenza) e di architettura del testo (livello della coesione) che governano gli articoli di giornale in italiano e in cinese. in relazione ai testi analizzati è poi possibile lavorare su vari livelli: quello interfrasale, andando per esempio a intercettare la frequenza di determinati connettori interfrasali in italiano oppure la tendenza alla giustapposizione di frasi in cinese, la quale implica un conseguente carico interpretativo per il lettore, che deve inferire i legami logico-semantici tra la frase principale e le coordinate o le subordinate (banfi, 2003); a livello frasale, per intercettare i punti di maggiore densità informativa all’interno di una frase, differenziando le frasi in termini di marcatezza sia a livello sintattico sia a livello pragmatico (verificando, ad esempio, quanto spesso compare la struttura tema-commento nei testi cinesi, cfr. arcodia & basciano, 2016); a livello lessicale, al fine di consolidare determinati campi lessicali relativi a temi di particolare attualità (come appunto, in questo caso, quello relativo alla diffusione endemica del covid-19). tali attività possono essere svolte in momenti diversi dell’unità didattica, a seconda degli obiettivi e delle operazioni cognitive che il docente intende sollecitare negli apprendenti: ci si può avvalere quindi di tecniche didattiche diverse, con cui si possono organizzare attività di motivazione/avvicinamento al testo/ai testi, analisi, sintesi, riflessione ed eventualmente verifica (per uno sguardo d’insieme sulle varie tipologie di tecniche didattiche, sia in relazione alle varie fasi delle unità didattiche sia in relazione alle diverse possibili articolazioni di unità didattiche/unità di lavoro/unità di apprendimento, si rimanda a danesi, diadori, & semplici, 2018). la comparazione di testi giornalistici in italiano e in cinese, infine, può essere utile anche a lavorare in profondità su abilità e competenze nel campo della traduzione testuale, sia da un punto di vista linguistico sia da un punto di vista legato alla trasposizione nella lingua di arrivo di contenuti di carattere socio-culturale o legati a specifici discorsi politici o settoriali (shei & gao, 2018). 6. considerazioni conclusive l’analisi qualitativa illustrata in questo articolo ha permesso di gettare uno sguardo, seppur parziale, sull’impatto della pandemia da covid-19 sulla vita sociale di cinesi e sinodiscendenti in italia. i risultati discussi nel paragrafo 4, in particolare, hanno consentito di individuare una serie di temi comuni ricorrenti sia negli articoli italiani che in quelli cinesi, spesso però illustrati e interpretati/interpretabili attraverso letture diverse. tra questi temi, il principale è rappresentato dalla paura del contagio e dalla percezione di pervasività del virus, questioni che producono tuttora tra i cinesi d’oltremare sensazioni di insicurezza diffusa nell’intraprendere le varie relazioni sociali (sono ad essi collegati, infatti, i nodi che riguardano le assenze da scuola e le difficoltà nell’organizzazione del lavoro). ulteriori temi emersi in modo preponderante dall’analisi sono quelli legati ad atteggiamenti sia di sinofobia della popolazione locale verso cinesi/sinodiscendenti, sia di sinofilia ed elogio (soprattutto da parte della stessa stampa e delle istituzioni) nei confronti di comportamenti virtuosi di questi ultimi e degli aiuti provenienti dalla repubblica popolare. nello specifico, in riferimento alla fase dello scoppio della pandemia, vi è nel sotto-corpus dei quotidiani italiani un focus maggiormente marcato sul racconto di episodi di sinofobia, razzismo e violenza, che tuttavia non trova piena corrispondenza negli articoli in cinese. in questi ultimi, infatti, la tendenza è quella verso la minimizzazione di tale tematica, accompagnata da una maggiore attenzione verso l’altruismo dei cinesi e gli aiuti solidali. come anticipato nel paragrafo 4, ciò può essere dettato dalla volontà di preservare la mianzi (“faccia”) dei cinesi all’estero, fornendo una narrazione rassicurante, insieme ad un’immagine forte della repubblica popolare come modello vincente di lotta contro un nemico comune dell’umanità. notevoli differenze si riscontrano altresì nella lettura più o meno stereotipata e/o intrisa di pregiudizi degli effetti della pandemia sui cinesi d’oltremare da parte dei vari quotidiani italiani. si prenda come esempio il numero di codifiche per i nodi “percezioni e falsi miti nei confronti dei cinesi” e “retorica del mistero” (v. tabella 4), che danno un’idea dei diversi approcci dei giornalisti delle diverse testate nei confronti della presenza di cinesi/sinodiscendenti in italia. allo stesso tempo, tuttavia, è interessante osservare che il quotidiano italiano maggiormente interessato da riferimenti che riportano atteggiamenti inclini agli stereotipi e alle generalizzazioni (o addirittura a fenomeni di “razzismo democratico”) da parte dei giornalisti, ovvero la oscillando tra sinofobia e sinofilia: un’analisi del discorso mediatico e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 39-57 55 nazione, oscilla anche verso l’enfatizzazione dell’elogio di comportamenti virtuosi dei cinesi. si tratta quindi di un approccio che tende a polarizzare le attitudini verso i cinesi in italia, alternando visioni potenzialmente negative a visioni edulcorate, come se fosse sottesa l’idea di rispecchiare quella doppia faccia dell’essenzialismo culturale in chiave orientalista (said, 1978; squarcini, 2006), che nell’ “oriente” intercetta appunto allo stesso tempo una fonte di fascinazione e un luogo simbolico per affermare una pretesa di superiorità dell’ “occidente”. infine, per quanto riguarda il sotto-corpus cinese, si rintraccia in modo ben visibile un fortissimo legame con la madrepatria e con una onnipresente retorica del “modello cinese” come unico modello possibile ed efficace di lotta al covid. si tratta di un’aderenza ai dettami del partito che trova una motivazione anche in virtù del fatto che questi giornali o portali web ricevono finanziamenti dalla repubblica popolare, e che pertanto sono chiamati ad allinearsi il più possibile con un discorso politico sempre più pressante e propagandistico. considerando che in proprio nell’affermazione appena riportata sopra si può inevitabilmente rintracciare un bias della ricerca, si reputa opportuno mettere in evidenza anche i limiti che questo studio presenta. innanzitutto, come già sottolineato nella sezione 2.1., poiché il corpus raccolto ammonta ad un numero ristretto di testi, le implicazioni tratte dall’analisi qui proposta non possono avere pretese di esaustività né di generalizzabilità. tuttavia, auspicando di poter ampliare il corpus raggiungendo un numero di testi maggiormente rappresentativo, si ritiene che le conclusioni dello sudio contribuiscano comunque a fornire interessanti spunti di riflessione, sia per lo studio dei media dei e sui cinesi in italia, sia per le implicazioni legate alle principali tematiche oggetto di indagine. un ulteriore limite è rappresentato dai diversi stili retorici con i quali vengono redatti i testi giornalistici nel contesto italiano e in quello cinese/sinofono: se è vero che nel modo di argomentare in cinese spesso si sottendono significati e concetti in modo implicito, è altrettanto vero che in tal caso il processo di codifica diventa più complesso e rischia inevitabilmente di trascurare riferimenti e nodi concettuali che possono essere soltanto intuiti “tra le righe” del testo. in conclusione, come sottolineato nel paragrafo. 5, si reputa interessante l’uso che si può fare del corpus raccolto anche in chiave didattico-pedagogica. comparare articoli in italiano e in cinese su temi analoghi, come quelli qui illustrati, può aiutare a stabilire analogie e differenze nell’organizzazione logico-concettuale (coerenza) e nell’architettura (coesione) di un testo giornalistico nelle due lingue, a costruire una serie di reti terminologiche bilingui itliano-cinese (in questo caso, ad esempio, in relazione al covid e al suo impatto sulla società) e a preparare il terreno per tradurre un testo da una lingua all’altra, osservandone le possibili variazioni inerenti all’organizzazione del 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(2018). the routledge handbook of chinese translation. routledge. shi-xu (2014). chinese discourse studies. palgrave macmillan. squarcini, federico (2006). ex oriente lux, luxus, luxuria: storia e sociologia delle tradizioni religiose sudasiatiche in occidente. società editrice fiorentina. stafutti, stefania (2020). noi rimaniamo: pandemia e comunità cinesi in italia. sinosfere: virus, voci, https://sinosfere.com/2020/06/13/stefania-stafutti-noi-rimaniamo-pandemia-e-comunita-cinesiin-italia/ van dijk, teun adrianus (1991). racism and the press. routledge. zhang gaoheng (2017). chinese migrants, morality and film ethics in italian cinema. journal of modern italian studies, 22(3), 385-405. https://doi.org/10.1080/1354571x.2017.1321935 zhang gaoheng (2019). the chinaman and the cinesina: gendering chinese migrants in italian novels. journal of romance studies, 19(1), 69-97. https://doi.org/10.3828/jrs.2019.4 zhao wei (2020). a shot of confidence. xi leads the battle against covid-19 outbreak toward victory. beijing review, 12. www.bjreview.com. andrea scibetta, università per stranieri di siena scibetta@unistrasi.it it andrea scibetta è ricercatore di lingua e letteratura cinese presso l'università per stranieri di siena, dove ha conseguito un dottorato di ricerca nel 2017 in linguistica e ddattica della lingua italiana a stranieri con una tesi sullo sviluppo delle competenze pragmatiche in italiano l2 da parte di apprendenti sinofoni. i suoi interessi di ricerca riguardano la didattica e la promozione della lingua cinese, la didattica plurilingue, l'acquisizione dell'italiano da parte di sinofoni. en andrea scibetta is a researcher in chinese language and literature at the università per stranieri di siena, where he got a phd in 2017 in linguistics and italian as a second language teaching with a dissertation about chinese students’ development of pragmatic skills in l2 italian. his scientific interests concern chinese language teaching and promotion, multilingual education, and chinese learners’ acquisition of italian as a second language. es andrea scibetta es investigador de lengua y literatura chinas en la università per stranieri di siena, donde obtuvo un doctorado en 2017 en lingüística y didáctica de la lengua italiana para extranjeros con una tesis sobre el desarrollo de competencias pragmáticas en italiano l2 por parte de los estudiantes sinófonos. sus intereses de investigación son la enseñanza y difusión de la lengua china, la enseñanza plurilingüe y la adquisición del italiano por parte de los sinófonos. https://sinosfere.com/2020/06/13/stefania-stafutti-noi-rimaniamo-pandemia-e-comunita-cinesi-in-italia/ https://sinosfere.com/2020/06/13/stefania-stafutti-noi-rimaniamo-pandemia-e-comunita-cinesi-in-italia/ https://doi.org/10.1080/1354571x.2017.1321935 https://doi.org/10.3828/jrs.2019.4 http://www.bjreview.com/ euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 2, december 2023, 32-43 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.2.2779 www.e-journall.org © nava 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. writing in english in italy– the ‘pre-history’ of academic writing andrea nava università degli studi di milano received 19 may 2023; accepted after revisions 14 october 2023 abstract en this article aims to investigate the evolution of l2 english writing instruction in the 20th century, focusing on the ‘pre-history’ of academic writing in italy – when writing was mainly viewed as an ancillary activity, often added to grammar/translation language classes. to shed some light on the principles underlying l2 english ‘composition’ writing instruction, the article illustrates the findings of the analysis of a sample of english writing materials published in italy between the 1940s and the 1990s. against the background of a mostly stagnant institutional context, english writing pedagogy appears to have evolved in italy throughout the 20th century as a result of wider social and cultural changes, as well as developments in applied linguistics. this evolution led to a reappraisal of the role of the learner writer, who was increasingly viewed as an active agent in the process of knowledge transformation. key words: english for academic purposes, teaching of writing, history of english language teaching, esl/efl writing, elt textbooks es este artículo tiene como objetivo investigar la evolución de la enseñanza de la escritura en inglés l2 en el siglo xx, centrándose en la "prehistoria" de la escritura académica en italia, cuando la escritura se consideraba principalmente como una actividad auxiliar, a menudo añadida en las clases de gramática/traducción de idiomas. para arrojar algo de luz sobre los principios subyacentes a la enseñanza de la escritura de "composición" en inglés como l2, el artículo ilustra los hallazgos del análisis de una muestra de materiales de escritura en inglés publicados en italia entre los años 1940 y 1990. ante un contexto institucional considerablemente estancado, la pedagogía de la escritura inglesa parece haber evolucionado en italia a lo largo del siglo xx como resultado de cambios sociales y culturales más amplios, así como de desarrollos en lingüística aplicada. esta evolución condujo a una reevaluación del papel del estudiante escritor, que cada vez era más visto como un agente activo en el proceso de transformación del conocimiento. palabras claves: inglés con fines académicos, enseñanza de la escritura, historia de la enseñanza del idioma inglés, escritura esl/efl, libros de texto elt it questo articolo si prefigge lo scopo di analizzare l’evoluzione della didattica della scrittura in inglese l2 nel xx secolo, incentrandosi sulla “preistoria” dell’insegnamento della scrittura accademica in italia, ovvero il periodo in cui la pratica didattica della scrittura in inglese consisteva in attività di composizione spesso proposte al termine di una serie di lezioni basate sul metodo grammatica-traduzione. si presenta un’analisi contenutistica di un campione di manuali per l’insegnamento della scrittura in lingua inglese pubblicati in italia tra gli anni quaranta e gli anni novanta del secolo scorso. se il contesto istituzionale in ital ia rimase sostanzialmente immutato nel periodo preso in esame, si assistette ad un’evoluzione della didattica della scrittura in seguito ad un mutato contesto socio-culturale e agli sviluppi della linguistica applicata. questa evoluzione ha portato a una rivalutazione del ruolo dell’apprendente nel processo di scrittura. infatti gli apprendenti venivano sempre più visti come proattivi nel processo di trasformazione della conoscenza. parole chiave: inglese per scopi accademici, didattica della scrittura, storia della didattica dell’inglese, scrittura in inglese lingua seconda/straniera, manuali per l’insegnamento dell’inglese  andrea nava, università degli studi di milano andrea.nava@unimi.it http://www.e-journall.org/ nava e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 32-43 33 1. writing in english in italy – a neglected skill? writing at the beginning of the 1990s, r. brodine, an english language instructor at an italian university, wistfully remarked that “[…] l2 writing […] may be viewed as a luxury in the present state of many italian faculties” (brodine, 1991, p. 46). the author refers to the institutional constraints that have routinely been put forward as the reason why writing has been given short shrift in english language instruction, i.e. overcrowded classes and understaffed english departments. however, beyond its reference to contextual constraints, this image of writing as an “indulgence” seems to be a suitable metaphor for the long journey that english writing instruction has undertaken in italy over the last hundred years. the starting point of this journey was a stage that, for lack of a better word, i shall call “composition writing1,” where writing appeared to be mainly viewed as an ancillary activity, often tagged on to grammar/translation teaching and aimed at the more motivated students. the final stage of this century-long journey, on the other hand, which has unfolded over the last two decades, can be encapsulated in the term “academic writing.” the focus of this paper will be on the “pre-history” of academic writing, i.e. the composition writing stage, and in particular on the decades between the 1940s and the 1990s. in this first part of the paper, i shall focus on one of the main stakeholders in the l2 english writing endeavour, teachers, and provide a brief overview of how english language professionals were trained in italy in the 20th century and what role writing in english played in this process. the role that modern foreign languages were to play in italian schools and as academic subjects for most of the 20th century was a result of policies that were implemented during the two decades of the fascist regime (il ventennio) and remained mostly unchanged until the 1970s. modern foreign languages did not carry with them prestige on a par with classical languages (latin and ancient greek); as degree options, they were hence viewed as “easier” subjects (e.g. balboni, 2009; pellandra, 2007). for the better part of the 20th century, the most popular route to becoming an english language professional was enrolling in a course in foreign languages and literatures (lingue e letterature straniere), which had been one of the three degrees that could be earned within the faculties of education (magistero) since 1935 (baldi & mercanti, 1964; di bello, mannucci & santoni rugiu, 1980; frabboni, genovese & preti, 2006). most universities – particularly those in smaller towns – had at least a faculty of education2, whose main aim was to train future secondary school teachers in the humanities3. courses in foreign languages and literatures were also found in a restricted number of specialized institutions4, while it was not until 1957 that modern foreign languages degree courses were set up in the more prestigious faculties of arts (lettere e filosofia) (nava, 2018a, 2018b). before the implementation of the liberalizzazione degli accessi (open access policy) process in 1969, whether and what kind of university an italian student could aspire to attend depended on the type of secondary school they had completed. the more geographically accessible degrees in foreign languages and literatures within magistero faculties were open to students that had attended a four-year secondary school aimed at training primary school teachers (istituto magistrale)5. the limited number of degree courses in foreign languages and literatures within faculties of economics and commerce admitted students who held a secondary school technical diploma in accounting and bookkeeping (istituto tecnico commerciale). when the 1 “composition” is taken to be the outcome of “composing,” defined by grabe & kaplan as the “combining of structural sentence units into a more-or-less unique, cohesive and coherent larger structure” (1996, p. 4). 2 the first faculties of magistero were set up in the universities of torino, firenze, messina and roma (turin, florence, messina and rome), and a few years later in the universities of urbino (1937) and cagliari (1938). several other faculties were created after the second world war, many of which as the only faculty of semiprivate university colleges destined to develop into full-fledged state universities in the course of the following decades. 3 along with degrees in lingue e letterature straniere, faculties of magistero also issued degrees in materie letterarie (italian, latin, history and geography), pedagogia (education) as well as a three-year university diploma aimed at those who wished to become heads of primary schools (diploma in vigilanza scolastica). 4 a degree in foreign languages and literatures was offered by what is now università degli studi di napoli l’orientale. the university of venice ca’ foscari (which was a specialized economics and commerce university college at the time) and the private università commerciale bocconi in milan hosted faculties of economics and commerce issuing degrees in foreign languages and literatures as well as in economics and commerce. by the 1960s, two other universities (bari, pisa) had set up courses in foreign languages and literatures within their faculties of economics and commerce. 5 access to foreign languages and literatures courses within faculties of both education and of economics and commerce was extended to diploma holders of istituto magistrale, istituto tecnico and liceo scientifico, as well as a handful of secondary schools specializing in foreign languages in the two decades following the end of the second world war. writing in english in italy– the ‘pre-history’ of academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 32-43 34 degree in modern foreign languages and literatures (lingue e letterature straniere moderne)6 was eventually introduced in 1957, access to faculties of lettere e filosofia was restricted to an elite of students – holders of diplomas from upper secondary schools specializing in the study of the classics (liceo classico). given their wider accessibility, for most of the 20th century, the magistero faculties most likely produced the highest number of english language teachers in italy. out of the seventeen courses that students were required to take over the four-year lingue e letterature straniere degree, only six were actually devoted to foreign languages. students took four year-long courses in the foreign language and literature they wished to specialize in (usually a choice among english, french, german and spanish) and two year-long courses in an additional language and literature7. the rest of the curriculum was devoted to courses in italian and latin literature, history, geography and philosophy – not unlike the curriculum that students reading degrees preparing future teachers of italian, latin, history and geography (materie letterarie) were supposed to follow. courses were usually assessed through final oral examinations. the only written foreign language exam students had to sit was a cultura generale (general knowledge) essay exam focusing on the main language and literature studied. this exam was administered at the end of the four-year course, after the oral language and literature exams had been passed, and it is not far-fetched to surmise that it was viewed as little more than an “add-on” to the main curriculum. its outcome certainly had little impact on the final mark, as it was only one of a total of 20 marks based on which the final mark was calculated. the cultura generale label has a long history and wide application in italian education, and is often associated with assessment. according to baldi and mercanti (1964), the type of writing in a foreign language required of would-be teachers at the end of their degree by means of a cultura generale exam consisted in a literary essay. i have not been able to find samples of actual cultura generale essay topics in english8, but hints as to the nature of foreign language writing that prospective teachers were tested in is arguably provided by cultura generale exam topics in italian. as an assessment of italian writing skills, cultura generale was introduced as a mandatory exam for all three degree courses issued by magistero faculties. it was also used as an entrance exam for faculty of magistero applicants, who were actually the only prospective university students required to sit a written test in order to be admitted to higher education9. samples of cultura generale essay topics in italian can be found in handbooks (e.g. guida all’esame scritto di ammissione alla facoltà di magistero, 1966) that provided “ready-made” examples of model essays. essays tended to focus on either literary authors (carducci, pascoli, d’annunzio. parlare di uno di questi grandi poeti10) or historical figures (napoleone e la sua storia11). the type of compositions students were required to produce were expository texts where they were supposed to display the breadth of their literary or historical knowledge. the wording of the first of the two essay titles provided above is particularly illuminating (parla di uno di questi grandi poeti), hinting with the word “parla” (talk, tell about) at the fact that the texts students were asked to produce were basically the written equivalent of the typical italian interrogazione12. in these essays, along with their literary or historical knowledge, students were presumably evaluated on whether they had mastered the formal written register. such a restricted view of writing likely also underpinned the cultura generale exams in english that would-be teachers sat at the end of their degree course. the overhaul of university access policies that stemmed from the student protests of the late 1960s was only one of the changes that affected italian higher education. universities were also given the freedom to devise curricula that departed from the ones issued by the ministry of education. a survey on the teaching of english in italian higher education that was carried out at the end of the 1970s (dodd, 1982) provides further 6 the languages degree course offered by faculties of lettere e filosofia was labelled lingue e letterature straniere moderne to highlight the fact that these faculties were the only ones which were also charged with teaching and researching the classics. 7 an optional third language and literature could be studied for two years. 8 italian universities are legally required to hold exam papers for only ten years. 9 this was part of the concorso (competitive admission exam) that those wishing to enrol in the faculty of magistero had to take. as another regulation dating from the fascist era, its intent was to limit the number of students who could access higher education and hence thwart the aspirations of social mobility of many young people from lower middle class backgrounds, who were more likely to hold a f our-year istituto magistrale than a five-year liceo diploma (e.g. charnitzky, 1996). 10 carducci, pascoli and d’annunzio. talk about one of these three great poets. 11 napoleon and his life story. 12 throughout their schooling, italian students are typically evaluated through oral exams – despite the fact that it is the written language that is traditionally the target of instruction (piemontese & sposetti, 2014). this engenders, as anderson pointed out, “a cultural bias towards a dynamic, orally-based mode to discourse production” (anderson, 1987, p. 137), which hardly prepares students for essay writing. nava e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 32-43 35 insights into the role of writing instruction for prospective italian teachers of english. the freedom granted to universities to propose alternative curricula led many of them to require students to sit written exams in the foreign languages throughout the four-year degree and not only at the end of the final year. the survey respondents, who were involved in the teaching of the english language and/or literature in degree programmes in foreign languages and literatures across italy, provided detailed information about the contents of lessons and the focus of exams. as regards writing in english, it emerged that, by the end of the 1970s, writing had become a target of instruction in the last two years of foreign languages degrees. the written exams for these final years tended to include compositions and/or literary appreciations, though there was a great deal of variation among universities. nevertheless, the impact on the actual addressees – future teachers of english – of what writing instruction and assessment was implemented was doubtlessly limited by the large percentage of non-attending students and the low level of students’ english proficiency at the onset of their higher education studies13. the aim of this first part of the paper was to consider the issue of english writing instruction in italy in the 20th century from the perspective of those who were mainly charged with delivering it – italian teachers of english. i have investigated the university training that english language professionals in italy typically underwent in the 20th century, and, in particular, the role of writing instruction and assessment in these university curricula. a view of writing as a display of previously learnt knowledge, rather than a process fostering knowledge development, and as a mere ‘”transcription” of oral discourse, seemed to underpin university curricular choices, such as the cultura generale essay exams. changes taking place at the end of the 1960s resulted in a reappraisal of instructional and assessment practices in universities. whether these had a significant impact on prospective teachers of english remains an open question, given the low number of them actually attending university courses regularly. while there was relatively little emphasis on writing, in either italian or a foreign language, as part of the training language professionals received in the 20th century14 from an institutional point of view, a small but increasing number of teaching materials targeting writing in english were being published in italy, authored by either english native speaking teachers or italian teachers of english. in the second part of the paper, i shall attempt to shed some light on the principles underlying english writing instruction in italy by investigating a sample of such materials. 2. principles out of practice: english writing materials published in italy (1940s1990s) short of observing (or relying on reports of) actual classroom teaching and/or accessing teachers’ cognitions about their practice, which is obviously hardly ever possible to do in historical research, textbook analysis provides invaluable insights into the ways approaches and methods have been taken up in specific contexts15. against a seemingly stagnant institutional context, as was the case of italian education in the 20th century, textbooks may offer us a glimpse into innovative teaching practices and the principles underlying them, and enable us to reconstruct the processes of adoption, appropriation and refashioning of teaching approaches and methods. figure 1 below lists materials aimed at teaching english composition/essay writing published in italy throughout the decades of the 20th century starting from the 1940s16. the catalogue of the biblioteca nazionale centrale di firenze, one of the two national legal deposit libraries in italy, was searched for italian-produced 13 an average of 37.8% of students regularly attended courses, though the percentage could be as low as 10% (turin university, faculty of lettere e filosofia). as for students’ english proficiency level at the start of their degree, according to dodd’s survey, an average of 19.5 % of students were beginners, 35.5% false beginners, 32% intermediate and 13% advanced. some universities admitted as many as 4 0% beginners; in particular, courses in foreign languages and literatures within faculties of magistero seemed to attracted lower level students (e.g. university of bologna, faculty of magistero, 30% beginners vs university of bologna, faculty of lettere and filosofia, 5% beginners). 14 the neglect of writing in university courses for english language professionals in italy mirrors the limited role granted to writing in efl/esl teaching methodology internationally for most of the 20th century. as pointed out by matsuda, in the usa, “the teaching of writing […] was not a significant part of the esl teacher’s preparation at least until the late 1950s”(2003, p. 17). 15 elt materials not only inform us of the actual take-up of methods but may also shed light on the type and nature of english that has acted as an input and normative reference for learners/users of english in different contexts and different historical periods. as summarised in yañez-bouza’s (2016) review, in historical english linguistics, elt materials (in particular, grammar books) have been used not only to identify “sources for the norms of present-day written standard english” but also “as evidence of language use, variation, and change” (2016, p. 165). 16 the number of english writing materials published in italy has increased exponentially since the beginning of the 21st century, although this is still a niche market compared to general english textbooks and certificate exam preparation materials. writing in english in italy– the ‘pre-history’ of academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 32-43 36 english language teaching materials featuring all of the following criteria: a) textbooks devoted entirely or predominantly to the teaching of writing (grammar translation textbooks with a limited number of composition prompts were excluded from the corpus); b) textbooks focusing on general/academic english (textbooks for english for specific purposes (zanola, 2023), e.g. business correspondence/writing handbooks, were excluded from the corpus); c) textbooks mainly aimed at classroom use (self-study handbooks for adult learners were excluded from the corpus). as shown in table 1, english writing textbooks tended to be produced in italy by small publishers, often specializing in university textbooks17, which reflected the niche appeal of these kinds of publications. table 1 italian-produced l2 english writing textbooks (1940s-1990s) years english writing textbooks 1940s1950s words and ideas: book for reading, conversation and essay writing, o. cavallucci, napoli, pironti editore english essays for university students, f. l. bell, napoli, casa editrice campa 1960s1970s the gym: raccolta di passi italiani e inglesi per l'esercizio alla versione, alla conversazione ed alla composizione in inglese, a. vricella, firenze, le monnier 1980s1990s reading and response: practice in advanced english essay-writing and discussion on classic themes, d. pacitti, pisa, ets composing with words: an approach to writing a university composition, v. lombardo, coopli iulm the rest of the paper will illustrate the findings of the analysis of four of the books in the corpus of italian-produced english writing textbooks18. the data for the analysis have been generated by a close reading and qualitative content analysis (e.g. cohen, manion, & morrison, 2018; selvi, 2019) of both the textual and the paratextual materials in each of the four books. the title of olga cavallucci’s 1953 handbook (words and ideas) hints at the basic philosophy enshrined in the book: a “command of words and ideas” is essential for a learner to be able to “speak and write .” (cavallucci, 1953, advice to the pupils). the book was probably meant to be used alongside a (grammar translation) textbook as a tool to develop “reading, conversation and essay writing” (cavallucci, 1953, advice to the pupils) and seems to target lower level (elementary/lower intermediate) students. composition writing is viewed as the natural final stage of a process starting from the reading of an input text (providing “words and ideas”), followed by the “appropriation” of those words and ideas through guided conversation and ending with the production of a short written output based on some of the vocabulary and content generated in the previous stages. the book is divided into five parts (see table 2) devoted to aspects of the natural world, animals, trades, etc. the lessons making up each part feature the same structure: a vocabulary section, where key words associated with the topic are listed according to parts of speech (with phrases being often chosen over single words: e.g. “the cock, (dim.) the cockerel: the head (the beak, the comb, the wattles), the wings, the tail, the feet, the spurs, the feathers (the plumage)” (cavallucci, 1953, p. 1), the input text, the italian translation of the vocabulary presented at the start of the lesson, notes on the input text (mainly the italian equivalents of selected words), questions on the text with answer prompts and the “proposed subject” for writing. 17 see also footnote 18 below. 18 the fifth book (lombardo, 1993) was issued by a university bookshop (cooperativa libraria iulm) and hence had hardly any circulation outside the university where the author worked. it was thus decided to exclude it from the qualitative analysis. nava e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 32-43 37 table 2 lessons in cavallucci (1953) animals the earth the sea town and village trades the cock hen and chickens the cat the dog the sheep the ass aquatic birds wild birds the zoo the garden the orchard the farm the fields the vineyards in the meadows in the mountains the beach the port fishing a suburban street the railway station the post-office at the stores the village market school is over the cinema the baker the mason the village blacksmith the potter the joiner the shoemaker the tailor like in cultura generale exams, writing is viewed as little more than the transcription of oral speech. in her prefatory advice to the pupils, the author emphasizes the importance of mastering the vocabulary listed at the start of each lesson and featured in the readings, which readers are urged to “commit to memory” (cavallucci, 1953, advice to the pupils) after translating the words they are unfamiliar with. besides this focus on vocabulary memorization, nothing is mentioned about the specific skills required in the writing process: “thanks to this acquisition of words and ideas, you will finally be able to answer the questions and – why not – to develop the subject proposed” (cavallucci, 1953, advice to the pupils). the input texts are poems and extracts from fiction meant as vehicles for “words and ideas,” not as models for the readers’ writing output. the short texts students are required to produce are mainly descriptive (“describe the most beautiful cock of your poultry yard and speak of his quarrelsome temper” (cavallucci, 1953, p. 11)), though a few expository and narrative prompts are also provided (“speak of the good qualities and shortcomings of the ass” (cavallucci, 1953, p. 26); “relate how the outcast duckling told his brethren swans of his sad adventure” (cavallucci, 1953, p. 94)). a final section of the book (“the pink pages”) features what the author calls, in her advice to the pupils, “essential elements for developing the proposed subjects,” (cavallucci, 1953, advice to the pupils) where the focus is again placed on vocabulary development, as if writing was simply a way of consolidating the breadth of one’s lexical knowledge. the beginning paragraph of one of these “developed subjects” is provided below: in the poultry yard of the farm there is a very beautiful (or a fine) cock (or a cockerel – or an old rooster). he is called clarion (or trumpet – or chanticleer) owing to his sonorous (shrill, deep-toned, startling, strident) cock-a-doodle-do. (cavallucci, 1953, p. 132) the format is reminiscent of “controlled composition exercises” (pincas, 1982), as students are provided with sentence structures featuring slots to be filled in by alternative lexical items. francis bell’s 1948 english essays for university students – rather unusually for the time – identifies a specific group of target readers: “students of english at the universities as well as those preparing for university courses and competitive examinations,” (bell, 1948, preface), thus also including prospective teachers in the book’s readership, as the mention of “competitive examinations” hints at19. this book may thus be viewed as the closest candidate to a preparation handbook for the english cultura generale written exam as a requirement for degrees in foreign languages and literatures. the “popular topics dealt with in the essays ,” (bell, 1948, preface) however, do not seem to include literary or historical themes, unlike the preparation guides for the italian cultura generale exams. as shown in table 3, the book is divided into two parts, roughly corresponding to two types of essay prompts (descriptive and narrative). 19 qualified teacher status could be obtained in italy through written and oral competitive examinations (concorsi) until the end of the 1990s, when the first postgraduate teacher preparation programmes were established. writing in english in italy– the ‘pre-history’ of academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 32-43 38 table 3 essay topics in bell (1948) part i part ii a view of naples from vomero the rainbow travelling in the city leisure hours moonlight street photographers the local coffee house at the party description of a party game springtime railways street personalities a sense of humour on “daylight savings” posters a visit to the opera habits nature* christmas time guy fawkes’ day the fireside descriptive essays of sport i. cricket ii. golf iii. fencing a visit to a cricket match football autumn a visit to the grottoes a road accident a swimming accident an alarming experience “coincidence” a lucky escape a school visit a school sports day an operation in hospital a storm travelling abroad a travelling adventure each essay prompt is followed by a sample essay intended as a model students are to imitate – a process which was thought to somehow lead to readers “developing their style of essay-writing.” (bell, 1948, preface). as the two extracts in table 4 show, the emphasis seems to be on exposing students to sophisticated vocabulary and different stylistic options, in the hope this would kickstart the process of finding their own “voice” – a rather tall order, given that the book is aimed at l2 english learner writers and that no notes on lexical, grammatical or stylistic issues are provided to help them ‘notice’ these features in the model texts . table 4 extracts from essays in bell (1948) moonlight street personalities moonlight; pale, delicate, in which nothing is ever completely and clearly revealed, enchanting the eye with mellow scenes so soothing after the strong light of day; a radiance that is always changing in intensity, silently caressing, wan, cold light, never dazzling, sometimes infinitely pale and feeble […] (bell, 1948, p. 17) […] you didn’t pay much heed to the voice below; it was only the sleeping subconscious brain that reacted: once awake you ignored the street voices and the street vendor’s voice included. in any case you are not particularly interested in what he is shouting about; selling something or other, naturally, but what has it got to do with you?! (bell, 1948, p. 33) while dissimilar in their structure and contents and aimed at students of different english proficiency levels, cavallucci’s and bell’s english textbooks share a view of writing as a way of displaying one’s “knowledge of decontextualised facts with little awareness of a reader beyond the teacher-examiner” (hyland, 2009, p. 9), who arguably plays the role of “editor or proofreader, not especially interested in the quality of ideas or nava e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 32-43 39 expression but primarily concerned with formal linguistic features” (silva, 1990, p. 13). writing is hence thought to provide l2 students with extra practice in accuracy and to foster vocabulary development. in some respects, bell’s collection of sample “essays” also betrays the influence of the “current traditional” (silva , 1990) approach in teaching l1 writing in anglo-saxon countries, in particular the usa, with its emphasis on exposing students to models as a way to hone their writing style. the underlying assumption – also shared by early applications of this approach to l2 writing in the usa – is that l1 and l2 writing processes are equivalent, and once l2 students reach an advanced knowledge of the l2 they are virtually indistinguishable from l1 writers. the current traditional philosophy in teaching writing was to develop into a highly structured approach heavily influenced by a revival of rhetorical studies (grabe & kaplan, 1996). this entailed not only exposing students to ready-made composition models, but also giving them step-by-step instructions in crafting the “building blocks” of the essay frame (introduction, body and conclusion). nonetheless, the output required of students in bell’s book and in many later writing handbooks, i.e. a “free composition” (matsuda, 2003), does not seem to match any genre of academic writing – rather, as pointed out by grabe and kaplan (1996), it represents a somewhat unique genre, whose application does not reach beyond the boundaries of the classroom. the third english writing textbook to be scrutinized, titled the gym, was published in 1970, and highlights a variety of possible uses in its subtitle20, including translation and speaking, as well as writing practice. the book features authentic extracts from the british and american press alongside composition prompts, which the author claimed originated from the careful analysis of the topics addressed in newspapers and magazines at the time. each chapter revolves around a reading text (with selected vocabulary translated into italian in footnotes) accompanied by comprehension/discussion questions and composition prompts. while the approach is still one of providing “ideas,” with little support given apart from lexical items mined from the input texts (“words”), among the composition prompts (see table 5) there are some which require students to develop argumentative texts and to explicitly “take sides” with one view or another. table 5 a sample of composition prompts in vricella (1970) composition prompts 1 at the present stage of human progress, is the hippies’ attitude justifiable? (154) 2 pornography and a progressed civilization: do you find any real connection between the two facts? (158) 3 beyond any doubt, we live all the time on the verge of catastrophe in these present days. (165) 4 one thing is to allow new ferments for the growth and development of a better academic situation and another one is irresponsible behaviour: which must be halted. (190) 5 pornography seems to be one of the worst ills of the present time. decency as well as reason and wisdom impose a limit to certain forms of so called liberties. (183) it is apparent that, while not underpinned by a new theoretical approach to writing, this book marks a change from previous materials. the argumentative orientation of some composition prompts, which displaces the learner writer from their “comfort zone” of a mere reproducer of facts, and the choice of topics to be discussed are likely the result of the influence of sociopolitical events taking place between the 1960s and the 1970s. students were at the forefront of protests in italy. at issue was not only the overarching italian school and university “funnel-like” structure, with its hurdles and access requirements dating from the fascist ventennio, but the top-down teaching approach that was the accepted norm at every level of the education system. protesters called for students’ voices to be heard in classrooms and for the changing world they lived in to become a worthwhile topic of discussion and critical investigation on a par with the traditional canon of historical and literary themes. like bell’s collection of essays, pacitti’s reading and response (1986) – the final book to be analyzed was written by a native english-speaking author who worked as a language instructor at an italian university. the book’s readership is singled out clearly on the back cover – not only by their assumed level of english proficiency (“advanced foreign students of english”) but also by their more academic interests in the learning of english, i.e. future english teachers (“the standard expected of third and fourth year undergraduates at the university of pisa,” referring of course to undergraduates in foreign languages and literatures). the subtitle, 20 raccolta di passi italiani e inglesi per l’esercizio alla versione. alla conversazione ed alla composizione in inglese . writing in english in italy– the ‘pre-history’ of academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 32-43 40 practice in advanced english essay-writing and discussion on classic themes, mentions the by now familiar aims of italianproduced writing textbooks developing not only “essay writing” but also “discussion” skills. the author singles out three shortcomings in his target readers’ english writing skills that his book is supposed to remedy. the first is what he calls a lack of “a command of appropriate set phrases and idioms” (pacitti, 1986, p. 11). arguably as a result of years of form-focused instruction and accuracy-driven assessment, italian advanced students of english are portrayed as being reluctant to stray from familiar “grammatically correct but unidiomatic english” (p. 11). different functional types of idiomatic expressions are identified as instrumental in raising students’ level of spoken and written english, and the teacher’s role is said to be one of aiding the students “in fleshing out from these extracts the various idiomatic expressions” (p. 11), and coming to acknowledge the phrase, and not the word, as “the basic unit of expression” (p. 11). the second shortcoming concerns readers’ limited “cultural scope” (p. 11), which the book aims to broaden by including extracts from essays and literature on “a variety of classic themes” (p. 11), from different parts of the world and historical periods. finally, the author highlights italian students’ limited experience of argumentation – arguably a result of the top-down schooling model at one time pervasive in italian education, where students were traditionally expected to acquire and reproduce pre-digested facts with little critical evaluation. pacitti remarks that “this approach constitutes such an obvious barrier to true knowledge, that one can only conclude that such true knowledge is not in fact the object of the exercise. one wonders what is” (1986, p. 12). to develop their inner “voice,” readers are thus encouraged to provide a critical response to the reading input. the reading texts (details on the extracts featured in the first ten chapters are illustrated in table 6) represent the core of the chapters. table 6 reading texts featured in the first ten chapters of pacitti (1986) reading texts 1 aristotle – extract from the poetics, tragedy 2 isaiah berlin – extracts from the hedgehog and the fox 3 jeremy bernstein – extract from einstein 4 william blake – night, the little black boy, the fly, a divine image, the angel, the smile, proverbs 5 anthony burgess – extract from introduction to a shorter’s finnegans wake; extract from foreword to a shorter finnegans wake – extract from foreword to a shorter finnegans wake 6 albert camus – extract from the myth of sisyphus 7 e h carr – extracts from what is history? the historian and his facts; society and the individual 8 chang heng – the bones of chuang tzu 9 noam chomsky – extract from reflections on language; extract from rules and representations the texts are followed by discussion questions and essay prompts (see figure 1). in his advice to the student, pacitti outlines a procedure for working through the book. the reading passages are first meant to be read to extract the gist and then to identify useful idiomatic expressions, which students are encouraged to try out in discussion and eventually in their essays. next, the passages should be read a third time to focus on the content, tackling the comprehension questions appended to each text. students are advised to write a précis of the texts and a short critical response, focusing on those aspects of the texts they are in agreement or disagree with and the reasons why. the last step is essay writing based on one of the prompts provided (see figure 1). nava e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 32-43 41 1. according to chomsky, what are some of the reasons that make language worth studying? 2. using as far as possible your own words, in what sense is language said to be a ‘mirror of the mind’? 3. what, in your view, might be other areas of human ability that are ‘not quite so amenable to direct investigation’? 4. what is the significance of russell’s question in the last paragraph? 5. consider the following statements, and then write an essay on one of them: ‘if language had been the creation of logic, instead of poetry, we should only have one’ ‘the mind of the hearer is just as active in transforming and creating as the mind of the speaker’ ‘all that related to language, that familiar but wonderful phenomenon, is naturally interesting if it is not spoiled by being treated pedantically’ ‘we do not learn language; rather, grammar grows in the mind’ ‘a knowledge of the name gives a surer knowledge of the thing’ ‘words signify man’s refusal to accept the world as it is’ (pacitti, 1986, p. 47) figure 1. sample discussion questions and essay prompts in pacitti (1986) the core of pacitti’s approach is again one of giving students “words and ideas” – words being interpreted as phrases used for a given rhetorical purpose, and ideas as originating from examples of published essays on a selection of classic themes. as in previous writing textbooks, the reading input is meant to be used for both discussion and writing practice. discussion is viewed as a lead-in to writing, as speaking aids students in the first step of appropriating knowledge but it is through writing that “true knowledge” is thought to develop. the book’s emphasis on students’ self-expression and the search for an authorial “voice” provide an echo of process-based writing approaches, which started to “revolutionize” l1 writing instruction in anglosaxon countries, notably the usa, in the 1960s, were the target of extensive research carried out by psychologists, educationalists and applied linguists in the following three decades, and began to be implemented in l2 writing instruction in the 1980s (grabe & kaplan, 1996). 3. the ‘pre-history’ of academic writing in italy: concluding remarks in this article, the ‘pre-history’ of teaching l2 english academic writing – when writing instruction targeted “composition writing” – has been investigated through a case study of the italian context. while syllabuses and curricula are often imposed top-down by local or national education agencies, whether and how such impositions get translated in the classroom is actually down to teachers, whose pedagogic decisions are influenced – among other factors – by their beliefs, attitudes and knowledge, which are often rooted in their experience as students. for this reason, in the first part of the article, the role of writing in italian university courses aimed at future teachers of english was scrutinized. for most of the 20th century, writing appeared to be a “luxury” that was tested rather than taught, both in italian and l2 english, and took up a fraction of the university curriculum aimed at would-be english language professionals in italian universities. what writing was required of students often amounted to knowledge telling (bereiter & scardamalia, 1987) and essays were a way of displaying students’ breadth of general knowledge, which usually involved providing chunks of information about literary or historical topics. against this backdrop, it is not surprising that english writing materials produced in italy were few and far between until the end of the 20th century and often published by small specialist publishers. to carry out an analysis of the evolution of l2 english writing instruction, four such materials published between the 1940s and the 1990s were scrutinized. the findings of the analysis show that, in the face of a stagnant institutional context, we do witness an evolution in writing conceptions and writing pedagogy in italy throughout the 20th century, which was to herald developments in l2 english writing for academic purposes writing in english in italy– the ‘pre-history’ of academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 32-43 42 at the beginning of the 21st century. this evolution does not seem to consist of discrete stages. as pointed out by silva in his history of l2 writing instruction in the usa, “[…] particular approaches achieve dominance and then fade, but never really disappear” (1990, p. 11). a focus on the textual product is present – in varying degrees – in all four books, even when the influence of process-oriented writing approaches starts to be detected. all books (bar bell’s) are also explicitly concerned with providing students with the “words” needed to craft a composition in english – although the view of what kinds of words italian students may need also undergoes an evolution, as breakthroughs in linguistics start to point to the pervasive role played by fixed and semi-fixed expressions and phrases in fluent speaking and writing. this emphasis on “language for composing,” however, sets the italian materials apart from english l1 product-based writing approaches as they evolved in the mid-20th century and were eventually applied to english l2 writing instruction in anglo-saxon countries. while the teaching of discourse features came to play an important role in those approaches as instruction increasingly focused on the “grammar” of the paragraph by having students develop a composition out of an introduction, a body and a conclusion, no such concern with step-by step paragraph development can be detected in the italian-produced english writing books targeted in this study. if one were to single out a turning point in the history of english writing instruction in italy, this would doubtless be the introduction of argumentative writing, which went hand in hand with the positioning of students as critical readers, as well as writers, rather than passive reproducers of pre-digested facts. the major driving force behind this turning point appears to be the changed sociocultural context in italy in the 1970s and the 1980s, with student protests and the free speech movement questioning the effectiveness of traditional teaching models and the exponential increase in students entering higher education changing the make-up of the student population. it was arguably this country-wide call for a more democratic access to knowledge that fed into a view of the learner writer as an active agent in the process of knowledge transforming (bereiter & scardamalia, 1987) – a view underpinning developments in academic writing which were to take place at the beginning of the following century. references anderson, laurie (1987). learning to write in l2 in institutional contexts. in richard duda & philip riley (eds.). learning styles (pp. 135-154). presses universitaires de nancy. balboni, paolo emilio (2009). storia dell’educazione linguistica in italia. dalla legge casati alla riforma gelmini. utet università. baldi, sergio, & mercanti, edgardo (1964). l'insegnamento della lingua inglese: metodologia e didattica. le monnier. bell, francis l. 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(2007). le radici del nostro mestiere. clueb. pincas, anita (1982). teaching english writing. macmillan. piemontese, m. emanuela, & sposetti, patrizia (eds.). (2014). la scrittura dalla scuola superiore all’università. carocci. selvi, ali fouad (2019). qualitative content analysis. in jim mckinley & heath rose (eds.). the routledge handbook of research methods in applied linguistics (pp. 440-452). routledge. silva, tony (1990). second language composition instruction: developments, issues, and directions in esl. in barbara kroll (ed.). second language writing: research insights for the classroom (pp. 11–23). cambridge university press. vricella, arsenio (1970). the gym: raccolta di passi italiani e inglesi per l'esercizio alla versione, alla conversazione ed alla composizione in inglese. le monnier. yañez-bouza, nuria (2016). early and late modern english grammars as evidence in english historical linguistics. in merja kytö & päivi pahta (eds.). the cambridge handbook of english historical linguistics (pp. 164-180). cambridge university press. zanola, annalisa (2023). la lingua inglese per la comunicazione scientifica e professionale. carocci. andrea nava, università degli studi di milano andrea.nava@unimi.it en andrea nava is an associate professor in english in the department of foreign languages, literatures, cultures and mediations of the università degli studi di milano. his research interests are mainly in the areas of grammaticography, second language acquisition and the history of language learning and teaching. es andrea nava es profesor titular de inglés en el departamento de lenguas extranjeras, literaturas, culturas y mediaciones de la università degli studi di milano. sus intereses de investigación se centran principalmente en las áreas de gramática, adquisición de segundas lenguas e historia del aprendizaje y la enseñanza de idiomas. it andrea nava è professore associato di lingua e traduzione inglese presso il dipartimento di lingue, letterature, culture e mediazioni dell’università degli studi di milano. i suoi interessi di ricerca si orientano verso la storia della grammaticografia, la linguistica dell’acquisizione e la storia degli insegnamenti linguistici. borroscolaro_8.2 e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages special issue, volume 8, issue 2, november 2021, 53–69 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.14.246 www.e-journall.org optimal and appropriate input in a second language: the potential of (modified-)elaborated input in distance and classroom learning ilaria borro university of portsmouth silvia scolaro1 università ca’ foscari di venezia received 21 april 2021; accepted after revisions 6 september 2021 abstract en instructors’ difficulties in judging whether linguistic material is suitable for their students' level seem to have been aggravated during the pandemic (conti, 2021). in this situation, there is the risk of exposing learners to inappropriate input, which can be detrimental to language acquisition. the proposed solution, (modified-)elaborated input, is designed to increase comprehensibility without sacrificing the richness of authentic input, which is crucial for language acquisition (long, 2015; 2020; o’donnel, 2009; yano, long, & ross, 1994). the features of elaborated input make its application beneficial in any kind of language course. in addition, in the context of online teaching, elaborated input can be a powerful tool to deal with the issue of input appropriateness. this work analyzes the theoretical underpinnings of elaborated and modified-elaborated input while providing a review of the existing empirical data supporting its effectiveness. keywords: input appropriateness, elaborated input, modified-elaborated input, distance learning es durante la pandemia se ha hecho más difícil para el profesorado valorar si el material lingüístico propuesto es adecuado para el nivel de su alumnado (conti, 2021). en esta situación, existe el riesgo de que el alumnado esté expuesto a input inapropiado, lo cual puede resultar perjudicial para la adquisición del idioma. la solución propuesta, input elaborado (modificado), está diseñada para aumentar la comprensibilidad sin sacrificar la riqueza del input auténtico, que es crucial para la adquisición del idioma (long, 2015; 2020; o'donnel, 2009; yano, long y ross, 1994). las características del input elaborado hacen que su aplicación sea útil en cualquier tipo de curso de idiomas. además, en el contexto de la enseñanza virtual, el input elaborado puede ser un instrumento eficaz para tratar el problema de la adecuación del input. este trabajo analiza los fundamentos teóricos del input elaborado y modificado-elaborado al tiempo que ofrece una revisión de los datos empíricos existentes que respaldan su efectividad. palabras claves: adecuación del input, input elaborado, input modificado-elaborado, aprendizaje virtual it durante la pandemia sono aumentate le difficoltà dei docenti nel giudicare l’adeguatezza materiale linguistico per il livello di competenza degli studenti (conti, 2021). in questa situazione sussiste il rischio di esporre gli apprendenti a input inappropriato, iche può compromettere l’acquisizione linguistica. la soluzione proposta è l’input (modificato-)elaborato, concepito per aumentare la comprensibilità senza sacrificare la ricchezza propria dell’input autentico, fattore cruciale per l’acquisizione linguistica (long, 2015, 2020; o’donnel, 2009; yano, long, & ross, 1994). le caratteristiche dell’input elaborato rendono la sua applicazione auspicabile in qualsiasi corso di lingua. inoltre, nel contesto dell’insegnamento a distanza, l’input elaborato può essere uno strumento efficace per far fronte ai problemi di appropriatezza dell’input. il presente lavoro analizza le basi teoriche dell’input elaborato e dell’input modificato-elaborato fornendo allo stesso tempo una revisione dei dati empirici che ne supportano l’efficacia. palabras clave: appropriatezza dell’input, input elaborato, input modificato, apprendimento a distanza * ilaria borro, university of portsmouth ilaria.borro@port.ac.uk 1 the present work stems from a close cooperation between the two authors. for the specific concerns of the italian academy, silvia scolaro is responsible for sections §1, §2 and §3; ilaria borro is responsible for sections §4, §5, §6 and §7. borro & scolaro e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 54 1. the impact of the pandemic on teaching in italy in the first months of 2020 as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, schools in italy, most of europe, and many other countries were forced to switch from in-person to distance teaching and learning. the change was unexpected and rapid, finding teachers often unprepared and inexperienced, hence generating a range of pedagogical problems. the present contribution aims to address one of them, input appropriateness, and to propose a possible solution.. in italy, the impact of the change from in-person to distance learning has been investigated through many surveys and questionnaires, which were sent out during the first few months of the pandemic. some of them targeted teachers and other learners, and were created by single schools, universities or associations. some dealt with general educational issues (e.g., giovannella, passarelli, & persico, 2020; indire, 2020a, 2020b; lucisano, 2020) while others especially focused on second language teaching and learning (celentin, daloiso, & fiorentino, 2020; conti, 2021, this issue; fragai, fratter, & jafrancesco, 2020). many problems in language teaching emerge from the survey given in july 2020 by gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue2 (graal) and described in conti (2021, this issue). responses from 136 language teachers point to some of the most problematic aspects of the shift to computer-mediated teaching/learning, such as a decrease in the global engagement of the students, i.e., in interaction, autonomy and personal initiative. one of the core aspects brought to light is the issue of the appropriateness of the input employed, which is the object of the present contribution. the data shows how, during the period of emergency distance learning, instructors felt they could not ascertain if the input provided in the second language was appropriate for the capabilities of their students. in the questionnaire, teachers answered the following question: to what degree did you perceive a difference between in-person and distance learning in terms of assessing whether the input proposed was appropriate for the learners’ level of proficiency? (conti, 2021, this issue) more than 50% of the respondents among the teachers stated that they found it more difficult to evaluate the appropriateness of the input used during online classes. about a third of them affirmed that they did not perceive any change, while only 16% saw an improvement. due to the lack of published empirical data specific to input appropriateness in online classes, this paper relies on the teachers’ perception and experience. the factors that could have had a negative impact on teachers’ impression of the input provided during online classes might be the reduction of reliance on paraverbal and non-verbal cues during computer-mediated lessons, the pressures of the novel emergency situation, and/or the lack of training on the use of information and communication technologies (icts) for language teaching and assessment (fragai et al., 2020; giovannella et al., 2020). on the latter factor, while some teachers had the benefit of being well into the term and having already assessed the students, other courses had either just started or not started yet. given perceived difficulties in assessing their students’ level, it is likely that during online classes instructors could have employed input that was either too difficult or too simple, in other words, not comprehensible enough or over-simplified. this being the case, students would be exposed to inappropriate input (de la garza & harris, 2017; long, 2020; long & doughty, 2009;), i.e., input that is not optimal for language acquisition and therefore lacks efficacy in terms of didactic action. the purpose of this work is to highlight how non-comprehensible and/or (over-)simplified input are detrimental to language acquisition, and to propose elaborated and modified-elaborated input as a possible solution, which is beneficial in both online and in-person teaching. in section 2, we detail the theoretical background for the psycholinguistic claims about issues with genuine and simplified input which are reported in sections 3 and 4. in sections 5 and 6, we respectively analyze the rationale and empirical evidence in support of (modified-)elaborated input, which is advisable not only in the distance-learning context but in any teaching modality and any language. the appendix reports an example of classroom application of modified-elaborated input. 2research and action group on language learning; retrieved from: https://www.graalblog.com/en/home/ the potential of (modified-)elaborated input e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 55 2. input in second language acquisition in order to discuss the role of input, the first step is to focus on the actual aim of language instruction. the general consensus in the literature is that the goal for language teaching is the creation of implicit rather than explicit knowledge (e.g., long, 2017; whong, gil, & marsden, 2014). the reason for prioritizing implicit knowledge over explicit knowledge is its positive : it is fast, durable, involved in real-time processing of language and therefore in comprehension and fluency. in addition, its automatic nature frees up cognitive resources so the speaker can concentrate on content and communication. in contrast, explicit knowledge is gained through intentional memorization, which makes its learning process faster and often preferred in classroom language instruction. however, it also requires time and a conscious effort to be applied, and it does not imply effective language use. crucially, implicit knowledge is acquired without awareness through meaningful language use and exposure, which makes the exposure of “communicatively embedded input” (vanpatten, 2017) essential for language acquisition. vanpatten defines input as “the language that a learner hears (or reads) that has some kind of communicative intent, that means that there is a message in the language that the learner is supposed to attend to” (2003, p. 26). the role of input is considered crucial in most of the leading linguistic, psycholinguistic and cognitive theories where it is considered as the main “data source” for language acquisition, activating implicit learning processes and mental representation of the language. according to generative linguistic theory, input is the catalyst to set language-specific parameters and substantiate intrinsic principles for second language acquisition (sla). usage-based approaches require larger quantities of input, while the declarative/procedural model involves input immersion to work towards a native-speaker like neurocognitive processing of the language (vanpatten, keating, & wulff, 2020). in the early stages of sla research, corder (1967) made an important distinction between input and intake: the first indicates the second language available to the learner, whereas the second refers to what is actually internalized (or, in corder’s terms, “intake,” p. 165) by the learner. between input and intake, a learner goes through a cognitive process: firstly, the input itself needs to be accessible to the learner, and secondly, the learner tries to process and encode it through the mental representation of the language. in order for this process to take place and result in proper l2 acquisition, the input to which learners are exposed must meet two criteria: first, it has to be comprehensible to the speaker; second, it has to be rich, that is, to mirror real language in use and to include the vocabulary and structures that learners need to acquire. finding a balance between these two features of optimal input constitutes a crucial challenge for language instructors, which can become even harder in the context of distance learning (conti, 2021, this issue). the next sections account for the psycholinguistic rationale of both comprehensibility and the richness of input, and for the threats to language acquisition deriving from exposure to language material that does not meet such requirements, i.e., authentic and simplified input. 3. comprehensibility and genuine input one possibility for language instructors is to use authentic material as a source of input, a technique that has also been proposed in online classes (celentin et al., 2020). while learners may be able to extract some benefits from authentic/genuine input (such as native speakers’ use of language and structures), there is a risk of it being non-comprehensible for non-native speakers (oh, 2001; chung, 1995; yano, long & ross, 1994). in the context of distance learning, this risk is even higher, due to the lack of students’ autonomy and interaction with teachers and peers (conti, 2021, this issue). the main theories of second language acquisition have maintained for decades that noncomprehensible input can be highly detrimental to language acquisition. even prior to krashen, many empirical studies focused on the belief that communicative, comprehensible input is necessary for language acquisition (hatch, 1983; long, 1981; wagner-gough & hatch, 1975). during the 70’s and 80’s, krashen (1985, 1989) formulated a hypothesis in sla, focusing on the importance of comprehensible input in terms of language acquisition. the input hypothesis states that a learner can improve only when the input received in a second language is just one step above the competence of the learner (the well-known “i+1”). krashen’s definition of comprehensible input is a small piece of language that is either heard or read and is marginally more complex than the learners’ present grammatical knowledge. if the language input is solely composed of structures that learners already know, or of features beyond their present skill set, it is ineffective for language acquisition. it has been shown that children and adults, in both hearing capable and hearing impaired in first and second language acquisition contexts, who are given only native speaker (ns) to ns models and not borro & scolaro e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 56 comprehensible input will either fail to acquire or minimally acquire a small repertoire of lexical items, for instance greetings, advertising slogans and other formulaic discourse. (for review, see long, 1981, 1983b). these observations bolster krashen’s views. for instance, dutch children do not learn german by consuming vast amounts of german tv (snow, van eeden, & muysken, 1981). hearing-capable children born to deaf parents do not acquire spoken language through tv, either, yet once normal conversational events for children are encountered, they will quickly match the level of their peers of the same age range. (piske & young-scholten, 2009; sachs, bard, & johnson, 1981). in these and other cases the quantity of the input is unlimited and its quality is unadjusted. therefore, incomprehensibility is the distinguishing characteristic. even if krashen’s theories have been criticized for not being well supported by empirical studies (e.g., gregg, 1984; spolsky, 1985); the input hypothesis in particular has contributed to the field by giving prominence to input as well as learners’ exposure to it (lichtman & vanpatten, 2021; white 1987). pienemann’s (1989) teachability hypothesis and learnability hypothesis, which have been researched for thirty years, offer a complementary perspective on the issue. according to pienemann’s research, interlanguage sequences develop on the basis of a universal hierarchy of procedural abilities that all speakers acquire in the same order when learning an l2, independent of the target language. these sequences are implicational: the procedures which determine a lower level are necessary to be able to process the ones for the next level and reflect the natural stages that learners will go through when learning a second language. accordingly, as stated by the theory of processability (ferrari & nuzzo, 2010; pallotti & zedda, 2006; pienemann, 1999, 2007; pienemann, 2011), the understanding of second language features can only happen if learners are able to process them at the moment of presentation. in other words, students will be able to intake (corder, 1967), and hence acquire, only those features they are ready to process at that specific stage of their learning path. in consequence, most l2 acquisition theories agree that teaching cannot alter the natural order of second language acquisition, but it can help speed up this process, while the premature teaching of inadequate language structure and features can lead to regression or fossilization. thus, the practical implications of the theory of processability are “that some structures are best learned if the specific instruction coincides with the learners’ next stage of development” (ollerhead & oosthuizen, 2005, p. 62) and that “for instruction to be effective it needs to target features that lie within the developmental stage next to that which the learner has already reached” (r. ellis, 2005, p. 11). this makes the appropriateness and comprehensibility of the input in second language teaching even more important. similarly, gass (1997) made clear the relation between apperceived input, comprehended input and intake. input is apperceived when a learner notices any input structure that requires decoding to be able to formulate a conceptual representation. input that is partially incomprehensible will attract the learners’ attention to the specific structure. thereupon, a cognitive correlation is made between internal language representation and external representation, which ultimately would result in acquisition, or intake (gass, 1997; vanpatten, 1990; white, 1987). thus, according to gass’s framework, input can become intake only if the amount of non-comprehensible language is limited and controlled. another theory of language instruction based on the importance of input is processing instruction by vanpatten and collaborators (lightbown, 2015; vanpatten, 2015; wong, 2015; inter alia). in their view, input can become intake only if it is correctly processed, therefore guiding learners in the process: “during the act of comprehension, learners are engaged in mapping meaning onto form. the internal mechanisms are working on the data found in the input to create language in the head. the mechanisms cannot do this if nothing in the speech stream is comprehensible” (vanpatten, smith, & benati, 2019, p. 45). in this context, comprehensibility is a sine-qua-non condition for acquisition to take place (vanpatten, keating, & wulff, 2020). accordingly, lichtman and vanpatten (2021) have recently reformulated krashen’s input hypothesis as follows: “the principal data for the acquisition of language is found in the communicatively embedded comprehensible input that learners receive. comprehension precedes production in the acquisition process” (p. 14). studies on vocabulary and reading comprehensibility give an essential contribution to this area of research, showing that 95-98% of vocabulary in a text should be understood by learners for learning to take place (hu & nation, 2000). another key theory providing a perspective on the issue is the interaction hypothesis by long (1996). in this framework, negotiation for meaning has a crucial role in facilitating acquisition by bridging input, internal learner capacities, particular selective attention, and output through interactional adjustments by the ns or more competent interlocutors. clearly, negotiation of meaning can take place only if the number of unknown items in the input does not exceed a certain amount, i.e., if input is not totally non-comprehensible. the potential of (modified-)elaborated input e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 57 from a different angle, it should be pointed out that it is widely acknowledged that language acquisition takes place while the learner is involved in meaningful communication, i.e., s/he is employing the language in an actual content delivery (e.g., n. ellis, 2005; long, 2015; paradis, 1994, 2004). this process cannot take place if the input is overwhelmingly non-comprehensible. further, the same authors point out that implicit processing of genuine input is likely to be flawed and misleading, due to factors such as low salience of important aspects of the l2, l1 interference, and blocking (vanpatten, 2004). therefore, pure implicit learning from authentic input is not the most efficient way of learning a language. consequently, some form of manipulation of the linguistic material that learners are exposed to is desirable, remaining in the context of meaningful communication. in summation, the literature agrees that when learners are facing input which is too difficult for their linguistic skills and socio-cultural competence, they may fail to recognize words, and there will be minimal to zero comprehension or understanding of meaning and little retention of any language feature. thus, if the input level is too far from the learner’s comprehension skills, it is likely that it will not become intake, nor is it likely to be integrated into the learner’s language system and therefore it is of very limited use for language acquisition. in addition, it will be stressful and overwhelm the students’ cognitive abilities. finally, it should be noted that comprehension is not at all a linear activity, but a convoluted process entwined with different factors, among which, extraand para-linguistic aspects have a relevant role. (nuzzo & grassi, 2016). in distance learning, these elements are weakened, which arguably makes comprehension more challenging for learners, thus requiring extra care on the teacher’s part. however, understanding alone is not a guarantee that learning will occur. rather, it only provides the foundation for learning to take place. for the process of acquisition to be likely, input also needs to be rich and relevant, as the next section illustrates. 4. richness and simplified input in a context where teachers are not adept at perceiving whether the input offered to their students is comprehensible enough, one of the natural, likely solutions practitioners may adopt is the employment of (over-)simplified materials. although we acknowledge that different strategies exist to make input more comprehensible during classroom instruction (facilitation through, e.g., pre and post-reading activities, conceptual maps, non-verbal cues, multi-modal exposure), in the present contribution we focus on the psycholinguistic effects on learning using simplified language material. simplified input, in this context, refers to texts made of short sentences and utterances, containing high frequency vocabulary and a strictly controlled range of syntactic constructions and verb tenses. other features include the avoidance of idioms and a low ratio of dependent to main clauses. the aim of simplifying texts is to boost comprehensibility, thus making processing possible even for learners with a limited knowledge of the target language. this kind of linguistic material is the most common in published textbooks (amoruso, 2010). in the 1980’s, citing sociolinguistic considerations, de mauro (1980) advocated for the utilization of simplified input in institutional communication or informative texts for a disadvantaged target, for instance, nonnative speakers or low-schooling subjects. he noted that it is common for institutional or bureaucratic texts to use obscure and complicated language. this makes comprehension for disadvantaged people difficult if not impossible, therefore limiting their access to services and knowledge. in his view, the failure in comprehension in these cases would constitute a violation of the citizens’ rights (de mauro, 1980). even though this sociolinguistic angle supports the employment of simplified input, when language learning is concerned, psycholinguistic and acquisitional considerations should have priority. when perceiving the proficiency level of a class is difficult, as in the case of distance teaching, employing simplified material may sound like a safe solution. however, it is crucial to point out that in the case of input simplification, comprehensibility is gained at a very high price: at the expense of language learning itself (long, 2015). indeed, on a psycholinguistic level, simplified input is of little use for acquisition, because what is removed from the material is often the very substance learners need to be exposed to in order to internalize the l2 (arici, cristofori, & maniotti, 2006). as mentioned above, the main aim of language instruction is the acquisition of implicit knowledge. the set of computational procedures that constitute implicit knowledge is created by tallying the likelihood of occurrence of constructions and the relative probabilities of their form-meaning connection, known as statistical learning (n. ellis, 2005). collecting examples of a structure allows learners to create generalizations, which then constitute the implicit representations employed when dealing with language in real time. borro & scolaro e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 58 therefore, for acquisition to take place the input must include the items that non-native speakers (nnss) need to learn, and to include them to an extent that mirrors the reality of language use outside the classroom, because “[f]requency of use determines availability of representation” (n. ellis, 2005, p. 306). such a need is even more compelling in a distance-learning environment, since the opportunity to encounter the target language in the real world is diminished due to social distancing and restrictions on travel. from the perspective of grammar acquisition, ortega (2019) stated that [i]f we only design instruction with sanitized language (simplified, sentence level […]), we strip meaning (social, personal, linguistic, nonlinguistic) out of grammar, we strip language of the cues that conspire to aid learners to construct their grammar. (n.p.) such considerations are just as relevant when it comes to lexicon. numerous empirical studies prove the role of frequency of exposure for learning both single-word vocabulary items (e.g., horst, cobb, & meara, 1998; rott 1999; tekmen & daloglu, 2006; waring & tataki, 2003; webb 2007; webb & chang, 2015; for a review, see uchihara, webb & yanagisawa, 2019 meta-analysis) and formulaic sequences (e.g., boers & lindstromberg, 2012; webb newton & chang, 2013). speakers’ sensitivity to frequency has also been demonstrated for low-proficiency learners in a recent study by northbrook and conklin (2019). the experiment is especially relevant since it was run in a foreign language (fl)-learning context, testing the effects of the input that learners receive from teaching materials and textbooks. thirty-five japanese learners of english at the beginner level were included in the study. the target items were twenty lexical bundles of three words, included in the textbooks that the students used over a three-year period. the experimental subjects completed a timed phrasal judgment task and a familiarity rating task, which showed that they were sensitive to the frequency of lexical bundles. this means that the actual input learners are exposed to, even if only intended as supporting context in displaying certain language features, influences student’s fluency. crucially, studies of the linguistic material in textbooks have shown that it is qualitatively different and follows very different distributional patterns from authentic native speaker language (long, 2015; northbrook & conklin, 2018; nguyen & ishitobi, 2012). there is thus a noticeable need for vocabulary and grammar structures to be statistically consistent in the input learners are exposed to. this is recognized and theorized in italy at an institutional level. the “manifesto per l’insegnamento della lingua italiana a studenti internazionali”3 (rastelli & bagna, 2020) is signed by 34 italian universities, and promotes the employment of rich, relevant and authentic input, advocating a usage-based model of language acquisition, where the frequency of exposure constitutes a core factor (spina, forti & grego bolli, 2020). in summation, there is compelling need for teaching materials which expose learners to an input capable of triggering statistical learning of the actual language spoken in the real world outside the classroom. it is unlikely that impoverished, simplified input comprises such material. in addition to the psycholinguistic level, one more aspect of simplified input that needs to be taken into account is relevance. simplified input tends to be stilted and dull, and its content to be impoverished and trivialized (arici, cristofori, & maniotti, 2006). moreover, commercially published materials aim at covering the widest possible audience, thus offering generic input which is of little use for the students’ specific communicative needs. the importance of learner-centeredness is widely acknowledged, and it should result in the design of relevant teaching materials which account for the actual context, domain and tasks which conspire to determine the linguistic needs of each learner (long, 2015). simplified input is hardly consistent with these considerations, and it is unlikely it will properly prepare the learner for language use in the real world. first, it exposes learners to language that has crucial differences from that spoken outside the classroom, thus undermining the chances for statistical learning to take place. second, because published materials are meant to be generic and valid for any purpose, barely meeting the actual linguistic needs of any specific learner, thus weakening their motivation. as yano, long and ross (1994) stated: linguistic simplification can be self-defeating to the extent that the purpose of a reading lesson is not the comprehension of a particular text, which learners are unlikely ever to encounter again outside the classroom, but the learning of the language in which the text is written, and/or the development of transferable, non-text-specific, reading skills. (p. 191) 3 manifesto for italian l2 teaching to international students. the potential of (modified-)elaborated input e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 59 5. elaborated and modified-elaborated input: rationale the previous sections show that when teachers are not able to verify their students’ level of comprehension, they may employ either oversimplified or genuine, non-comprehensible input. as explained, both scenarios are likely to have a detrimental effect on language acquisition, albeit for differing reasons. it should be noted that both genuine/complex and simplified input have beneficial features. namely, genuine input exposes the learners to the linguistic material they really need to learn, while simplified input is comprehensible and therefore processable. elaborated and modified-elaborated input constitutes a third option, which aims at keeping available for learners the useful features of both simplified and complex input, while overcoming their associated pitfalls. in other words, the goal is to improve comprehensibility without sacrificing the richness of genuine input. the concept of elaborated input comes from early studies of foreigner talk discourse, i.e., of the strategies nss adopt when communicating with low-proficiency nnss (long, 1980; 1983a, 1983b). these studies observed that l1 speakers rarely simplify their discourse, and rather modify the interaction structure of the conversation. this is achieved through devices such as repetition, confirmation checks, synonyms, antonyms, informal definitions, slower pace, making new topics salient (long, 2019). these devices are also employed, to a much lesser extent, in conversation among nss. this means that they imply a quantitative, not qualitative, difference in the input that l2 learners are exposed to. input elaboration employs the same devices. in both written and aural texts, this means that complex grammatical construction and low-frequency vocabulary are not avoided, rather they are made comprehensible by adding redundancy, repetition, paraphrasing, synonyms, more overt marking of grammatical and semantic relations, and full noun phrases in lieu of pronouns. the aim is to make texts more comprehensible, and therefore processable, while at the same time preserving the elements and features of the language, which thus become available for incidental learning. elaborated input therefore includes the benefits of both simplified input (comprehensibility) and genuine input (real language, unknown items available for learning). crucially, this is achieved through devices naturally emerging in ns-nns communication, and therefore with high ecological validity. finally, it should be noted that in simplified versions of texts a considerable amount of information is lost, and while this makes the input comprehensible, it also results in lower quality and conveys less information. elaborated texts, on the contrary, retain all the information borne by the genuine versions, together with the linguistic material necessary for triggering acquisition (long & ross, 1993). elaborated input has a clear psycholinguistic advantage over authentic input in terms of acquisition, as they make language comprehensible and therefore processable and available for learning. in the context of distance learning, the features of elaborated input can enable coping with the difficulties teachers claim to have when selecting linguistic materials for their lessons (conti, 2021, this issue). when teaching through a screen, it is harder, if not impossible, to catch the non-linguistic signals of difficulties in comprehension that are a crucial clue for teachers, helping them to decide how to adjust the input to their students’ level. examples of signals for comprehension issues may include, among others, confused looks, quiet clarification requests to peers, and excessive recourse to translating devices. when a class is held in person, teachers easily catch these cues and can promptly act accordingly through negotiation of meaning and recalibration of the input level. conversely, in computer-mediated teaching, such signals are hard if not impossible to perceive, especially when the students’ cameras are off, which is often the case.4 indeed, according to research carried out last year (conti, 2021, this issue), students were rarely asked to keep their webcams on (50% of the students were never asked so, and only 5% and 13% respectively were asked always and often). even with webcams on, it is harder to monitor the learners’ activities and comprehension during group work, which takes place in so-called breakout rooms, since teachers can join only one breakout room at a time, and it is impossible to have a good overview of the whole class’ work. similar observations are reported in an investigation about student interactions and class management during distance learning (fragai et al., 2020). language teachers reported difficulties in monitoring the students’ activities due to the loss of non-verbal communication, namely due to the impossibility of reading body language, gestures, and proxemics. 4 it should be noted that while distance learning makes it harder to perceive signals which are available in presence, it also offers different resources, such as the chat, which can be beneficially employed if the teacher is correctly trained (celentin et al., 2021; giacosa, 2021, this issue). this, however, is beyond the scope of the present contribution. borro & scolaro e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 60 in such a context it is difficult for teachers to assess their students’ level of comprehension in real time, and to take action and adjust the lessons accordingly. therefore, instruction has a greater chance of being more effective if the input proposed is suitable for a wide range of comprehension levels, as is the case with elaborated input, which includes both genuine-input features and devices to enhance comprehensibility. this means that the same elaborated text can be appropriate for learners with different levels of proficiency (oh, 2001). specifically, while higher-proficiency speakers will benefit from the genuine aspects of the language, lower-proficiency learners in the class will rely on comprehensibility devices such as high-frequency synonyms and repetitions, included in the same text. this constitutes an important aid for teachers in dealing with distance-learning classes, since it enables them to propose aural and written texts to students whose level of comprehension is not clear, with a reasonable confidence of meeting the linguistic needs of a wide range of proficiency levels. another point to consider is that due to lockdowns and travel restrictions, students will have fewer opportunities to be based in the country where the target language is spoken, and this will lead to reduced exposure to the target language in the real world. consequently, it is even more important for learners to be exposed to linguistic material which includes the features of genuine input and properly mirrors their frequency of occurrence in real language use. elaborated input constitutes such linguistic material, with the additional, crucial benefit of making genuine input structures comprehensible for l2 speakers. since elaborated input includes both genuine vocabulary and redundancy (e.g., appositional phrases), it often results in longer texts than both simplified and genuine input. for the same reason, sentences are often long, and syntactic complexity tends to be high. even though empirical studies have shown that this is not a relevant issue when it comes to comprehensibility and processing (see infra, § 6), teachers may want to avoid these undesirable side-effects of elaboration. the solution proposed here is modified-elaborated input. modifying elaborated input means to retain both nativelike language use and redundancy, while at the same time restoring normal sentence length and acceptable syntactic complexity. this is achieved mainly by splitting sentences into shorter ones and adding inter-sentential connectors in order to clarify the semantic relationships (kobayashi hillman, 2020). as further specified in the next section, empirical research about modified-elaborated input is still at an early stage, with only one experimental study available. even though there is a lack of empirical data, the current paper endorses this kind of instructional technique, based upon its strong theoretical rationale and promising potential for language acquisition. table 1 gives examples of genuine, simplified, elaborated and modified-elaborated input. table 1 example: genuine, simplified, elaborated and modified-elaborated text (formulated by the authors) genuine simplified elaborated modifiedelaborated amazed by the beauty, the hiker paused to stare at the mountain before wandering farther down the trail. the person walking in the mountains was impressed because the mountain was beautiful. he stopped and looked for a short time. then he started walking down. amazed, impressed, by the beauty, the hiker, the person walking in the mountains, paused to stare at and observe the mountain. then he started wandering, walking without clear direction, farther down the trail, continuing on the path in the mountain. amazed and impressed by the beauty, the hiker walking in the mountains paused. he stared at and observed the mountain, then he started wandering without clear direction farther down the trail of the mountain. 6. elaborated and modified-elaborated input: empirical evidence empirical studies of the effectiveness of elaborated input have focused on two main issues: comprehensibility and incidental vocabulary learning. among the studies about comprehensibility, one of the first and most relevant is yano, long and ross (1994). in their experiment, they compared genuine, simplified and elaborated input in a sample of 483 japanese learners of english. they selected 13 genuine texts and for each of them they created a simplified and an elaborated version. each participant was required to read the 13 passages in one of the three versions, and then to perform a comprehension test assessing replication, synthesis, and inference. their analysis showed the potential of (modified-)elaborated input e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 61 that subjects exposed to the simplified version scored statistically higher on the replication test. scores of those who read the elaborated text were higher than those from the genuine-input group, yet not enough to be statistically significant. synthesis items did not show any meaningful effect. however, when it came to the inference test, reading the elaborated version resulted in significantly higher scores than both simplified and genuine texts. this means that participants exposed to elaborated input were more capable of correctly linking the textual details in order to answer inference questions, which suggests a deeper processing of both language and information. such an outcome may be related to the elaboration theory (craik & lockhart, 1972; reder, 1982), which posits that redundancy of information can help the learner create stronger knowledge. therefore, elaboration can result in benefits not only at a linguistic level, but also for content delivery, although it is quite complex according to conventional readability criteria. the same authors have argued elsewhere (ross, long, & yano, 1991) that even though the processing burden may be higher in an elaborated text when compared to the unmodified version, due to sentence length and complexity, it is also true that the cognitive and psychological demand drops significantly. this is because redundancy and repetitions constitute a strong processing support for readers, who are allowed to find the same information repeatedly in the text. oh (2001) employed a similar design but added proficiency as a variable (high and low). she randomly assigned 180 korean college students to six experimental groups, two for each kind of input (genuine, simplified, elaborated). of each pair of groups, one was of low-proficiency students, and the other of highproficiency students. after reading the passages, participants performed a comprehension test including three parts: synthesis, replication and inference. on the synthesis test, only high-proficiency learners showed a statistically significant difference between genuine and modified (simplified and elaborated) texts. however, scores from replication and inference comprehension tests showed a significant benefit in both modifications for both levels of proficiency. such findings suggest that elaborated passages are as comprehensible as simplified input at both high and low levels of proficiency, with a significant benefit when compared to genuine input. this means that readers gain more information and therefore a deeper understanding when exposed to elaborated input rather than genuine input. this outcome is especially relevant in the context of the present contribution. oh’s (2001) study demonstrates that highand low-proficiency learners can be exposed to the same elaborated input and that it can be beneficial for their comprehension, irrespective of their level. such a finding corroborates the pedagogic proposal made here, i.e., the utilization of elaborated input in contexts, such as computer-mediated teaching, where it is hard for teachers to assess students’ level of comprehension. chung (1995) introduced a finer analysis of elaboration, by making a distinction between lexical and structural elaboration. lexical elaboration is operationalized as adding redundancy to unknown vocabulary items by means of synonyms, prepositional phrases, antonyms, definitions. structural elaboration, on the other hand, is defined as the redundancy added with the aim of making “existing logical relations explicit without adding new information” (chug, 1995, p. 39), through devices such as retention of full nps, repetition, and supplying omitted elements. the sample for the study comprised 484 learners of l2 english, who were exposed to nine passages in one of five versions: genuine, simplified, lexically elaborated, structurally elaborated or both lexically and structurally elaborated. the outcome of comprehension tests showed that both simplification and elaboration resulted in higher scores than exposure to unmodified texts, with no significant differences between the modified versions. this finding aligns with other existing studies in confirming the effectiveness of input elaboration for fostering comprehension. moreover, the lack of a statistically significant difference in comprehension scores between students exposed to simplified and elaborated input is especially relevant, as it proves that despite a higher degree of complexity, elaborated texts can replace simplified ones without undermining content delivery. in order for input elaboration to be worth implementing, however, it also needs to prove beneficial for language learning, as compared to simplified and genuine input. this is the focus © second line of empirical research about elaborated input. in addition to comprehension, chung’s (1995) study investigated incidental vocabulary learning as well, through both immediate and delayed formand meaning-recognition tests. outcomes showed the same pattern found for comprehension, with subjects exposed to simplified and elaborated input outperforming the genuine-text group. no significant difference emerged between text simplification and elaboration. it should be pointed out that in the context of this study, each target item occurred only once in the text, which makes it hard to expect significant incidental vocabulary learning. borro & scolaro e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 62 kim (2006) operationalized the difference between implicit and explicit elaboration and compared these conditions to typographical enhancement and a genuine, baseline text. outcomes from 297 english as a foreign language (efl) learners showed explicit elaboration to be significantly more effective than both baseline and implicit-elaboration conditions. such a finding contributes to proving the effectiveness of input elaboration, while providing practitioners with the information that implicit elaboration such as plain, appositive cues might not be as useful as more explicit signals such as connectors like “which means” before synonyms and definitions. further regarding appositive cues, godfroid, boers, & housen(2013) carried out an eye-tracking study involving pseudowords. these target items occurred in the experimental passages either alone (e.g., panilines) or clarified by preceding or following appositive cues marked by the word “or” (e.g., panilines or boundaries/boundaries or panilines). these conditions were compared to known words as a control condition. eye-tracking data from a sample of 28 students studying advanced english as a foreign language demonstrated that appositive cues were effective in drawing the participants’ attention to the target vocabulary items. the analysis of critical and post-critical areas of gaze duration suggested that the longer fixations recorded in the appositive-cure conditions signaled the process of sentence-integration, i.e., the creation and updating of representations of the unknown items through knowledge of already-known words. the study assessed vocabulary learning by means of a posttest, which did not show knowledge gains in any of the conditions. as in the case of chung (1995), the fact that each target item only occurred once in the passages can explain such a finding. however, eye-tracking literature has clearly linked increased attention and learning (e.g., conklin, pellicer-sanchez, & carroll, 2018). therefore, since they draw the learners’ attention to the target items, appositive cues can be safely considered as an effective learning aid in a teaching environment involving multiple occurrences of unknown words. urano (2000) randomly assigned 40 japanese learners of english to one of three reading conditions: genuine text, simplified text and elaborated text. according to his outcomes in meaningand form-recognition tests, elaborated input triggered incidental vocabulary learning, while simplification did not. in addition, reading times showed a comprehension benefit resulting from both elaborated and simplified texts, with no differences between them, thus confirming findings from the other studies (chung, 1995; oh, 2001; yano, long, & ross, 1994). o’donnell (2009) approached the subject from a slightly different perspective, focusing on literary texts and the need for authentic features in the texts. given her interest in the linguistic and rhetorical structure of readings, she did not include simplification in the experimental design, claiming that it would have been impossible to maintain the integrity of the text in such a condition. one-hundred and ninety-seven students were exposed to elaborated and unmodified versions of literary texts, and then performed both comprehension and vocabulary-gain tests. results showed that elaborated versions resulted in significantly higher scores in both tests as compared to genuine text, thus confirming the benefit of input elaboration for both text comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning. fewer studies investigated effects of elaboration on auditory input, and they present mixed results. loschky (1994) compared three types of auditory input: (a) baseline unmodified; (b) pre-modified, which included both simplification and elaboration; (c) interactive, which allowed learners to interact with interlocutors. subjects exposed to the interactive condition outperformed both baseline and modified groups in vocabulary and grammar posttests. such findings provide support for the interaction hypothesis (long, 1981, 1983, 1996). at the same time, no clear advantage of elaborated over baseline and simplified input is observed. the fact that elaborated and simplified input were provided together in the same experimental condition needs to be taken into account, since it makes the study less relevant to the present work’s aims. a more precise focus on elaboration is provided in toya’s (1992) study, which adopts for auditory input the same distinction between implicit and explicit elaboration adopted by kim (2006). scores from a vocabulary posttest show an advantage of both elaboration conditions over the exposure to baseline, unmodified input. further, explicit elaboration proved more effective than implicit elaboration. this can be related to two main factors: first, explicit elaboration involved a higher number of occurrences of the target items; second, subjects in the explicit-elaboration group were pre-informed of the following vocabulary test, which makes it controversial to state that they were exposed to incidental-learning conditions. the effects of modification on auditory input have only recently been investigated further in a recent work by kobayashi hillman (2020). in addition to focusing on the auditory-input research gap, it is also the first and only studyto empirically investigate the effects of modified-elaborated input. one-hundred and six l1chinese speakers of japanese as an l2 were exposed to one of four versions of aural passages: genuine, the potential of (modified-)elaborated input e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 63 simplified, elaborated, and modified elaborated. the comprehension and vocabulary posttests showed an advantage for elaborated input over the three other conditions. therefore, despite the strong rationale, modified-elaborated input did not prove to be more effective than simplified and genuine input for comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning from auditory input. since this is the only existing study of modified elaborated input, more empirical evidence is needed for conclusions to be drawn. to sum up, the empirical research provides solid evidence for the effectiveness of elaborated input, in both comprehension and learning level. providing learners with elaborated input proved to be beneficial over the exposure to simplified and genuine input, especially in reading. concerning the effectiveness of modifiedelaborated input, empirical research is at too early a stage to draw conclusions. still, its theoretical foundations and rationale are solid, which make future experimental studies of this technique an important part of the forthcoming research agenda in the field. with the present contribution, the hypothesis is formulated that the features of elaborated input make its utilization desirable not only in traditional, in-person lessons, but also in computer-mediated teaching. this is due to the possibility for elaborated input to be appropriate for a wider range of proficiency levels, which is extremely useful in contexts such as distance learning, where it is hard for teachers to perceive their students’ comprehension skills. this hypothesis is supported by oh’s (2001) study, which demonstrated that the same elaborated text was appropriate and beneficial for both highand low-proficiency students. however, there is no empirical research to date involving elaborated input and distance learning. this research gap ought to be filled in the future, especially given that distance learning has shown itself to have relevance and potential beyond the emergency context. in order to investigate this issue, a future experiment might compare the effectiveness for both comprehension and learning when learners are exposed to genuine, simplified, elaborated and modifiedelaborated input in the context of computer-mediated teaching. the study would take into account that statistical learning is central to the rationale for employing elaborated input. therefore, the experimental material would include a reasonable number of occurrences of the target items, which is necessary for statistical learning to be possible. furthermore, learning would be assessed not only with offline tests measuring explicit learning, but also with online tests such as priming, self-paced reading or eye-tracking, which are capable of showing implicit knowledge gains. to verify whether elaborated input is useful for dealing with situations where the students’ level of comprehension is not clear, the study would include a sample of participants with a range of different levels of proficiency. 7. conclusions the covid-19 pandemic forced a sudden shift from in-person to computer-mediated teaching. teachers and students had to face new pedagogical challenges, which have been especially demanding when language learning was involved. indeed, teachers’ interactions with students and students’ interactions among peers are some of the most negatively affected aspects of instruction in a distance learning environment, and they play a larger role in language classes than in many other disciplines. among the possible issues raised in the context of online language teaching, the present contribution chose to focus on the difficulty for teachers to understand whether the input proposed to their students was appropriate for their level. the existence of this problem is reported and confirmed in questionnaires investigating instructors’ perceptions during emergency distance teaching in 2020 (conti, 2021, this issue; fragai et al., 2020). indeed, computer-mediated lessons deprive teachers of the non-verbal clues that have a crucial role in their ability to assess their students’ level of comprehension. this leaves practitioners unsure about the kind of input fit for their classes, thus risking students being exposed to either oversimplified or noncomprehensible input. both of these scenarios can be highly detrimental for language acquisition and should therefore be avoided. the present contribution proposes elaborated and modified-elaborated input as a solution to this issue. elaboration increases input comprehensibility without stripping it of its richness, thus making it optimal for acquisition and appropriate for a wider range of proficiency levels. this can be especially useful when it is hard for teachers to have a precise idea of their students’ level, as is the casein distance-learning contexts. however, it should be noted that elaborated input has both a strong theoretical rationale and empiricallyproven effectiveness, which make it desirable for all l2s and for any learning setting and modality. borro & scolaro e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 64 to date, the use of elaborated input in language classes is less widespread than its theoretical and empirical foundations would justify. likewise, there are still areas of research to be investigated, such as its effectiveness in computer-mediated teaching, and the employment of modified-elaborated input. it is our aspiration that the difficulties emerging during distance teaching and 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(1990). attending to form and content in the input: an experiment in consciousness. studies in second language acquisition, 12(3), 287-301. vanpatten, bill (1996). input processing and grammar instruction. ablex publishing corporation. vanpatten, bill (2002). processing instruction: an update. language learning, 52(4), 755-803. vanpatten, bill (2003). from input to output. a teacher’s guide to second language acquisition. mcgraw-hill. vanpatten, bill. (2004). input processing in second language acquisition. in bill vanpatten, processing instruction: theory, research, and commentary (pp. 5-31). lawrence erlbaum associates publishers. vanpatten, bill (2015). processing instruction. theory, research and commentary. routledge. vanpatten, bill (2017). while we're on the topic.... principles of contemporary language teaching. the american council on the teaching of foreign languages. vanpatten, bill, smith, megan, & benati alessandro g. (2019), key questions in second language acquisition: an introduction. cambridge university press. vanpatten, bill, keating, gregory d., & wulff, stefanie (2020). theories in second language acquisition (3rd ed.). routledge. wagner-gough, judy, & hatch, evelyn (1975). the importance of input data in second language acquisition studies. language learning, 25, 297–308 waring, rob, & takaki, misako (2003). at what rate do learners learn and retain new vocabulary from reading a graded reader? reading in a foreign language, 15, 130–163. webb, stuart (2007). the effects of repetition on vocabulary knowledge. applied linguistics, 28, 46–65. webb, stuart, & chang, anna (2015). second language vocabulary learning through extensive reading with audio support: how do frequency and distribution of occurrence affect learning? language teaching research, 19(6), 667-686. webb, stuart, newton, jonathan, & chang, anna (2013). incidental learning of collocation. language learning, 63(1), 91–120. borro & scolaro e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 68 white, lydia (1987). against comprehensible input: the input hypothesis and the development of second language competence. applied linguistics, 8, 95-110. whong, melinda, gil, kook-hee, & marsden, heather (2014). beyond paradigm: the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of classroom research. second language research, 30(4), 551-568. wong, wynne (2015). the nature of processing instruction. processing instruction. in bill vanpatten (ed.) processing instruction. theory, research and commentary (pp. 33-63). routledge. yano, yasukata, long, michael h., & ross, steven (1994). the effects of simplified and elaborated texts on foreign language reading comprehension. language learning, 44, 189–219. ilaria borro, university of portsmouth ilaria.borro@port.ac.uk en ilaria borro recently completed a phd at the university of portsmouth (uk), with a dissertation on incidental second language learning. she has been teaching italian as a second language for ten years at universities, public institutions, and private institutions. at the same time, she contributes to research of second language acquisition through experimental studies, presentations at international conferences, and scientific publications. she is an active member of graal (group of research and action on language learning), contributing to teacher training and empirical research support, with the aim of disseminating research-informed practices of language teaching. es ilaria borro ha completado recientemente un doctorado en la universidad de portsmouth (reino unido), con una tesis sobre el aprendizaje incidental de segundas lenguas. ha enseñado italiano como l2 durante diez años en universidades, instituciones públicas y privadas. al mismo tiempo, ha contribuido a la investigación sobre adquisición de segundas lenguas a través de estudios experimentales, presentaciones en congresos internacionales y publicaciones científicas. es miembro activo de graal (gruppo di ricerca e azione sull'apprendimento delle lingue, grupo de investigación y acción sobre el aprendizaje de idiomas) donde contribuye tanto a la organización de eventos para la formación del profesorado de lenguas como al desarrollo de actividades de investigación, con el objetivo de difundir una enseñanza de idiomas basada en la investigación empírica y en la evidencia científica. it ilaria borro ha di recente conseguito un dottorato di ricerca presso la university of portsmouth (uk), con una tesi sull’apprendimento incidentale delle lingue seconde. da dieci anni insegna italiano a stranieri presso istituzioni accademiche, pubbliche e private. al contempo, contribuisce alla ricerca scientifica sull’acquisizione delle lingue seconde attraverso ricerche sperimentali, presentazioni a convegni internazionali e pubblicazioni. è membro attivo di graal (gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue), nel cui contesto contribuisce all’organizzazione di eventi di formazione per docenti di lingua e al sostegno di attività di ricerca, con lo scopo di diffondere una didattica delle lingue con salde basi scientifiche ed empiriche. the potential of (modified-)elaborated input e-journall, 8(2) (2021), pp. 53-69 69 silvia scolaro, l’università ca’ foscari di venezia silvyascolaro@hotmail.com en silvia scolaro is adjunct professor at ca’ foscari university (venezia, italy) working in the department of linguistic and cultural comparative studies as both an instructor and researcher. she holds a degree in oriental languages from ca’ foscari university and has acquired both master level i and ii certificates in teaching italian language to learners from the laboratory itals at ca’ foscari. in 2006, she co-founded one of the first schools in china to teach italian language to chinese students. she held the position of school director until 2012 when she returned to italy. in the interim, she has worked for italian universities in pavia, modena, and reggio emilia as an instructor of italian language. she attended a specialization course for special needs students in 2016. since 2020, she has been a member of the aitla (associazione italiana linguistica applicata, italian association of applied linguistics) and cooperates with graal (group of research and action on language learning). she has held her current position since 2019 and continues her research and teaching activities. es silvia scolaro es profesora contratada en la universidad ca’ foscari (venecia, italia) donde trabaja como docente e investigadora para el departamento de estudios lingüísticos y culturales comparativos. es licenciada en lenguas orientales por la universidad ca’ foscari y ha obtenido el máster de nivel i y ii en enseñanza de italiano como lengua extranjera del laboratorio itals de ca’ foscari. en 2006, cofundó una de las primeras escuelas en china para enseñar italiano a estudiantes de dicho país. ocupó el cargo de directora de la escuela hasta 2012, cuando regresó a italia. asimismo, ha sido profesora de italiano como lengua extranjera en algunas universidades italianas (pavía, modena y reggio emilia). en 2016, asistió a un curso de especialización para estudiantes con necesidades especiales. desde 2020 es miembro de aitla (associazione italiana linguistica applicata, asociación italiana de lingüística aplicada) y colabora con graal (grupo de investigación y acción sobre el aprendizaje de idiomas). ocupa su puesto actual desde 2019 y continúa su actividad como investigadora y docente. it silvia scolaro è docente a contratto presso l’università ca’ foscari (venezia), e lavora per il dipartimento di studi linguistici e culturali comparati sia come docente che come ricercatrice. ha conseguito la laurea in lingue orientali presso ca’ foscari e i master di i e ii livello nell’insegnamento dell’italiano a stranieri presso il laboratorio itals di ca’ foscari. nel 2006 ha co-fondato in cina una delle prime scuole per l’insegnamento della lingua italiana a studenti cinesi. ha occupato la posizione di direttrice didattica della scuola fino al suo rientro in italia, nel 2012. successivamente ha lavorato presso alcune università italiane (pavia, modena e reggio emilia) come docente di italiano a stranieri. nel 2016, ha frequentato un corso di specializzazione per studenti bes e con dsa. dal 2020 è membro dell’aitla (associazione italiana linguistica applicata) e collabora con graal (gruppo di ricerca e azione sull’apprendimento delle lingue). dal 2019 occupa la posizione corrente e prosegue nel suo lavoro di ricerca e di insegnamento. microsoft word fang & zhao 2022 ej.docx e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 2, december 2022, 51-54 issn 2376-905x https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.9.2.287 www.e-journall.org © fang 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. review: collins, luke c. (2019). corpus linguistics for online communication: a guide for research. routledge. yuhua fang universiti teknologi malaysia/wuhan qingchuan university rundong zhao china university of geosciences book review received 27 august 2022; accepted after revisions 7 october 2022 abstract en corpus linguistics for online communication: a guide for research, published by routledge, is a practical handbook for corpusbased online communication research. this volume introduces corpus-based online communication research methods for a variety of research topics with empirical case studies. the volume blends theoretical progress with practical application, making it a useful resource for researchers and scholars in online communication and related fields. key words: corpus linguistics, online communication, applied linguistics es corpus linguistics for online communication: a guide for research, publicado por routledge, es un manual práctico para la investigación de la comunicación en línea basada en corpus. este volumen presenta métodos de investigación de comunicación en línea basados en corpus para una variedad de temas de investigación con estudios de caso empíricos. el volumen combina progreso teórico con aplicación práctica, lo que lo convierte en un recurso útil para quienes estudian e investigan la comunicación en línea y otros campos relacionados. palabras clave: lingüística de corpus, comunicación en línea, lingüística aplicada it corpus linguistics for online communication: a guide for research, pubblicato da routledge, è un manuale pratico per la ricerca sulla comunicazione online basata su corpora. il volume presenta metodi di ricerca della comunicazione online basati su corpora, fornendo casi di studio empirici su vari argomenti di ricerca. il volume combina sviluppo teorico ad applicazioni pratiche, costituendo una risorsa utile per ricercatori e studiosi nel campo della comunicazione online e negli ambiti correlati. parole chiave: linguistica dei corpora, comunicazione online, linguistica applicata  yuhua fang, universiti teknologi malaysia/wuhan qingchuan university finn0904@qq.com fang & zhao e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 51-54 52 since the introduction of the world wide web in the 1990s, online communication as a unique form of language transmission has become a vital part of people's everyday lives. in language studies, corpus approaches enhance the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods, rendering research outcomes more observable and reproducible. however, few internet communication-related corpora exist at present and typically contain obsolete, unrepresentative data, serving as a sub-corpus of the general large-scale and balanced corpus. in the interim, despite the fact that some researchers have acknowledged and utilized corpora in online communication studies, they have confronted the challenge of usually employing the "name" rather than the "nature" of a corpus. the "nature" of corpus linguistics is the study of language in a diachronic or synchronic manner using linguistic theory as a guide, probability and statistics as a method, and language data as the object of study. nonetheless, a number of existing studies only focus on the "name" of the corpus: they have completed the production of the corpus but have not adopted the appropriate analytical processes to use the produced corpus in several dimensions, thus delivering only simple data suggestions. moreover, these studies usually interpret their data without the oversight of linguistic research paradigms and fail to achieve a better synthesis of rationalism and empiricism, which reflects the "nature" of corpus linguistics. therefore, luke curtis collins' corpus linguistics for online communication: a research guide fills a void in the field by providing a guide to the application of corpus linguistics to online communication study, ensuring that related research is conducted with a solid theoretical foundation in linguistics and a sound methodology. corpus linguistics for online communication: a guide for research is part of the routledge corpus linguistics guides series. the volume offers an instructional and practical guide to conducting research on various forms of online communication using corpus linguistics methodologies by providing practical tasks, and utilizing original data derived from online interactions. the volume is divided into four sections with nine chapters. the first section, comprised of chapters 1-3, presents the theoretical foundations of corpus linguistics to newcomers to the discipline. chapter 1 clarifies the meaning of corpus by means of examples from general and special corpora, multilingual corpora, ephemeral corpora, and multimodal corpora. chapter 2 gives a synopsis of corpus design, construction, and extraction methods. the basics of corpus analysis are presented in chapter 3. the author describes language features that can be queried using corpus analysis, such as tokenization, n-grams, lemmatization, part-of-speech tagging, collection, semantic categorization, images, and register, before introducing measures for quantifying language features, including frequency, keyness, dispersion, and statistical measures such as t-score, mutual information (mi), chi-squared, log-likelihood (ll), and effect size. for each subject mentioned in chapter 3, the author provides a clear and extensive definition as well as several examples, making this chapter quite helpful for those who are new to this field. in chapter 4, the second section, the author presents three online communication research topics that are compatible with corpus methodology. the first topic is online communication's structural properties: due to its heteroglossic nature, online communication language has distinct structures stemming from written and spoken language. taking tweets as an example, using wordlist statistics, zappavigna (2012, p.27) shows that compared to standard language, twitter language features more @ symbols, http indications, #topic tags, and rt (retweet) abbreviations than standard language. therefore, the corpus research approach can be applied to the linguistic structure characteristics of the online communication activities of varied media. the second topic is the communicative function of online communication. given that the network facilitates information flow between users, the communicative function is one of the most fundamental and essential aspects of online communication. for this topic, the author especially underlines that graphicons, the types of graphical devices most commonly seen in online contexts, which include emoji as well as stickers, gifs, images and videos, are undermining the function of traditional characters. thus, corpora can be used with other linguistic theories to examine the contextual structural interconnections or interpersonal functions of graphicons. for example, skovholt et al. (2014) used a corpus of 1,600 business emails for retrieval and analysis, which pragmatically revealed that in business online communication, the graphic expression :-) is used to express a positive attitude after signing to soften the tone following indicative discourses, and to strengthen the tone following emotional discourses. the third topic is identity, group, and power in online communication: extensive liberalization of online communication leads to online disinhibition, which enables scholars to study how individuals manipulate language for self-sculpting or other purposes. in this context, a combination of corpus analysis and sociolinguistics would be beneficial. hardaker and mcglashan (2016), for instance, collected misogynistic and sexually assaulting comments from social media after a british lady launched a feminist petition, and decided if each commentator represented criminal behavior by calculating its politeness index. as a result, the corpus method can be used to examine antisocial online communication activities such as flaming and trolling. review: corpus linguistics for online communication e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 51-54 53 chapters 5-8, the third section, demonstrates practical applications of corpus analysis in online communication research, with each of the four chapters containing an empirical case study based on corpus analysis. the research focus of chapter 5 is internet business communication. the author constructs a corpus consisting of images and texts collected from a company's facebook page and then investigates the corpus from four perspectives: visuals, non-standard language qualities, keywords, and social actions. results indicate that the company's facebook page postings make considerable use of advertising language and regional accents to develop its brand image and attract target customers. chapter 6 focuses on online education. the author investigates the acquisition of technical terminology by learners in a massive online open course (mooc) using the collocation network to illustrate the term “social face.” by comparing the collocations used by mooc learners with those in the british national corpus (bnc) and corpus of contemporary american english (coca), the author demonstrates that the mooc learners are still in the early stages of learning and do not have a complete understanding of the technical term. the research topic of chapter 7 is network news. the author generates a corpus of articles on the public health topic of super-gonorrhea from the daily mail and the guardian, then utilizes the ucrel semantic analysis system (usas) to identify and categorize the semantic categories of reader comments. according to the results, the audience groups for the two media are notably different, as are their emphasis on comment focus and comment approach. the research topic of chapter 8 is a dating app. the personal data and profiles of tinder users are gathered to construct a corpus. according to the 3-grams parameter, the combination of three words that regularly appears derived from the corpus, users' descriptions in the "brief introduction" column serve three pragmatic functions: self-definition, establishing anticipated relationship parameters, and encouraging others to connect. in this section, the author elaborates on the application of the corpus methodology in online communication research by using case examples covering a broad range of issues. the research techniques and results are described in detail and with clarity, providing a guide for readers to conduct similar research. the fourth section, chapter 9, explores the methodological challenges of corpus linguistics in general and suggests ways to apply corpus-based methods to online communication research. the author asserts that future corpus-based online communication research will be characterized by greater reflexivity and transparency, as well as increased emphasis on research ethics. moreover, as network resources continue to expand, online communication must adapt to fulfill the demand for decentralization, nondiscrimination, bottom-up design, universality, and consensus, which will become crucial study fields for online communication in corpus approaches in the future. beginning with theory and proceeding to case analysis, the volume's straightforward and logical organization shows beginners the core technique for doing online communication research in corpus approaches. in addition to listing corpus research fundamentals and essential keywords, this volume presents open access corpora and corpus tools for readers to practice. moreover, the volume includes reflective questions following each chapter's topic to assist readers to reflect on the chapter's material and broaden their research horizons. in addition, the author weaves the following two perspectives throughout the volume: first, multimodal corpus analysis plays a crucial role in the study of online communication. text in online communication is frequently supplemented by multimedia elements such as images and videos for audio-visual supplements, or even the other way around, with text serving as supplemental explanations for multimedia assets. after coding, multimodal corpus analysis helps quantify the relationship between different subjects in online communication and disclose how it affects the audience in this instance. second, moral ethics must constantly be considered during the corpus gathering process. the author emphasizes that particular themes or types of information within the field of online communication research are frequently extremely sensitive, and that researchers must respect public privacy, seek consent, anonymize, assess potential harm, and complete essential evaluations. in addition to the numerous positives, it is important to note that the corpus utilized in chapter 8 is not especially representative. the tinder user profile corpus has fewer than 10,000 words, which may result in ambiguous quantitative results. even though the size of the corpus is not the most crucial criterion, a corpus must be specified and produced in accordance with the study topic. before collecting data in chapter 8, the author sets the diverse genders and sexual orientations of users as variables. however, according to the data obtained by questionnaire, there are no responders of non-binary gender, and heterosexuality and homosexuality are the most prevalent sexual orientations, with fewer bisexuals, pansexuals, and asexuals. fang & zhao e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 51-54 54 therefore, to improve the capacity of the corpus and make it more exhaustive, it is important to broaden the scope of the survey questionnaire. nevertheless, the limitation does not affect the volume's value. overall, a corpus provides large and diverse database for online communication research, hence, making it more scientific and empirical. corpus linguistics for online communication: a guide for research is a helpful handbook for scholars performing online communication research through the corpus approach. this volume offers a concise and lucid guide to corpus linguistics and online communication study and provides inspiration for potential readers. as a result, they may use corpora in their future studies to produce more driving or interesting results with online data. references hardaker, claire, & mcglashan, mark (2016). “real men don't hate women”: twitter rape threats and group identity. journal of pragmatics, 91, 80-93. skovholt, karianne, gronning, anette, & kankaanranta, anne (2014). the communicative functions of emoticons in workplace emails: :-). journal of computer‐mediated communication, 19(4), 780-797. zappavigna, michele (2012). discourses of twitter and social media. continuum. yuhua fang, universiti teknologi malaysia/wuhan qingchuan university finn0904@qq.com en yuhua fang is a phd candidate at universiti teknologi malaysia and lecturer at wuhan qingchuan university. his research interests include corpus linguistics and translation studies. es yuhua fang realiza el doctorado en la universiti teknologi malaysia, y es docente en la wuhan qingchuan university. sus intereses de investigación incluyen la lingüística de corpus y los estudios de traducción. it yuhua fang è iscritto al corso di dottorato presso la universiti teknologi malaysia e docente alla wuhan qingchuan university. i suoi interessi di ricerca comprendono la linguistica dei corpora e gli studi traduttivi. rundong zhao, china university of geosciences siphon@cug.edu.cn en rundong zhao is a postgraduate student at the china university of geosciences (wuhan). his research interests include corpus linguistics and translation studies. es rundong zhao es estudiante de posgrado en la china university of geosciences (wuhan). sus intereses de investigación incluyen la lingüística de corpus y los estudios de traducción. it rundong zhao frequenta un corso di master presso la china university of geosciences (wuhan). i suoi interessi di ricerca comprendono la linguistica dei corpora e gli studi traduttivi. microsoft word 4.bhattacharya_9.1.docx e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 1, april 2022, 71–90 issn 2376-905x https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.1.266 www.e-journall.org © bhattacharya 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. medical communication and advocacy through eye-tracking aac: implications for applied linguistics usree bhattacharya university of georgia daniel tarquinio center for rare neurological diseases wisnu a. pradana university of georgia olivia datta university of georgia nicole cruz-díaz university of georgia xing wei university of georgia kaleigh anderson university of georgia received 19 november 2021; accepted after revisions 28 february 2022 abstract en historically, individuals with rett syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, have been cast as “silent angels,” “nonverbal,” and “speechless.” as a consequence, they have not been consulted in their medical care. recently, however, augmentative and alternative communication (aac) devices that use eye-tracking technology have facilitated communication for individuals with rett syndrome. yet, no prior research has investigated how such communication occurs within medical settings. through an applied linguistics lens that centers the analysis of language use, we construct a case report capturing how kalika, a child with rett syndrome, offers medical information. kalika’s device-mediated language use suggests multiple implications for applied linguistics scholars and language educators, including: broadening notions of speaking, increasing consideration of aac, exploring more device-mediated language use, extending multimodal considerations, nuancing notions of communicative competence, presuming competence, and, last but not least, more deliberately espousing principles of linguistic justice in our field. key words: rett syndrome, eye tracking, augmentative and alternative communication (aac), disability, medical communication es históricamente, los individuos con síndrome de rett, un trastorno raro del desarrollo neurológico, han sido presentados como “ángeles silenciosos”, “no verbales” y “mudos”. como consecuencia, estos individuos no han sido atendidos en consulta médica. recientemente, los dispositivos de comunicación aumentativos y alternativos (aac) que utilizan tecnología de seguimiento ocular han facilitado la comunicación de individuos con síndrome de rett. sin embargo, ningún estudio ha investigado cómo se produce dicha comunicación en entornos médicos. desde la perspectiva de la lingüística aplicada que analiza el uso del lenguaje, construimos un caso clínico que captura cómo kalika, una niña con síndrome de rett, proporciona información médica. el lenguaje mediado por dispositivos de kalika sugiere implicaciones para académicos de lingüística aplicada y educadores del lenguaje, que incluyen: ampliar las nociones del discurso y la consideración de aac, explorar más el uso del lenguaje mediado por dispositivos, ampliar las consideraciones multimodales, matizar las nociones de la competencia comunicativa, suponer competencia y apoyar deliberadamente los principios de justicia lingüística. palabras clave: síndrome de rett, seguimiento ocular, comunicación aumentativa y alternativa, discapacidad, comunicación médica it storicamente le persone con la sindrome di rett, un raro disturbo del neurosviluppo, sono state considerate "angeli silenziosi", "non verbali" e "senza parole"; questo ha comportato che non venissero consultati per le loro cure mediche. di recente, però, i dispositivi di comunicazione aumentativa e alternativa (caa) con tecnologia eye-tracking hanno facilitato la comunicazione di queste persone. nessuna ricerca ha però indagato come tale comunicazione avvenga in contesti medici. utilizzando una prospettiva di linguistica applicata che analizza l’uso del linguaggio, presentiamo un caso che illustra come kalika, una bambina con la sindrome di rett, offra informazioni mediche. il linguaggio di kalika, mediato da dispositivi, suggerisce, tanto agli studiosi di linguistica applicata quanto docenti ed educatori in ambito linguistico, molteplici implicazioni per ampliare le nozioni di parlato e la considerazione della caa, approfondire l'uso del linguaggio mediato da dispositivi, estendere le considerazioni multimodali, dettagliare le nozioni di competenza comunicativa, presumere la competenza, e sostenere in modo deliberato i principi di giustizia linguistica nel nostro campo. parole chiave: sindrome di rett, eye tracking, comunicazione aumentativa e alternativa caa, disabilità, comunicazione medica * usree bhattacharya, university of georgia ubhattacharya@uga.edu bhattacharya, pradana, wei, tarquinio, datta, anderson & cruz-díaz e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 72 1. introduction as demjén (2020) has noted, “most aspects of illness and healthcare are mediated by language” (p. 1). applied linguistics as a field, in particular, has deep ties to communication in medical settings and provides a powerful lens for elucidating the intricacies of high-stakes communication exchanges within them (udvardi, 2019). however, applied linguistics approaches remain limited in the study of medical settings, and are mostly absent in significant disability and rare disease contexts (demjén, 2020; pickering, 2020; roberts & satangi, 2003). our study intervenes within this neglected area, taking on brumfit’s (1995) call that a key charge of applied linguistics is to analyze “real-world problems in which language is a central issue” (in demjén, 2020, p. 2; see also patricia, 2019). we harness an applied linguistics perspective to frame a medical case report of a 5year-old child, kalika, with rett syndrome (a rare neurological disorder), who is medically classified as “nonverbal”, but powerfully uses an augmentative and alternative communication (aac) device to navigate medical settings. in the process of elucidating her purposeful languaging of medical and health-related information as well as advocacy of her own care using the device, we highlight important implications for applied linguistics scholars and educators. these include a call for: broadening notions of speaking; increasing consideration of aac; exploring more device-mediated language use; extending multimodal considerations; continuing complication of notions about communicative competence; presuming competence; and, last but not least, more deliberately espousing principles of linguistic justice. historically, individuals with rett syndrome have been characterized as “silent angels” (e.g., dziwota et al., 2016, p. 285), “nonverbal” (e.g., djukic et al., 2016, p. 52), and “speechless” (e.g., oldfors et al., 1990, p. 310). resulting from mutations on the x-linked mecp2 gene, rett syndrome occurs mostly in females, with a prevalence of about 1 in 10,000 to 23,000 girls worldwide (armstrong, 2005). children with rett syndrome develop somewhat “typically” until regression sets in, between one to two years of age (bartolotta, zipp, simpkins, & glazewski, 2011). regression marks the onset of a variety of symptoms, such as near total loss of verbal speech, poor fine and gross motor skills, development of hand stereotypies, breathing dysfunction, gastrointestinal difficulties, sleep disruption, and seizures, among others. due to the combination of the first three symptoms in particular, individuals with rett syndrome experience complex communication challenges. these challenges impact every aspect of daily life, but the stakes are particularly high from a medical perspective. given that the disease entails management of a wide variety of symptoms, individuals with rett syndrome frequently encounter medical settings and professionals across a range of disciplines (lotan, 2006). however, the communication challenges mean that their input is rarely and/or inadequately considered in their care. this has significantly impacted treatment of symptoms, restricted research into rett syndrome, and limited the development of robust outcome measures for clinical trials (which benefit from patient input), among other issues (see hou, bhattacharya, pradana, & tarquinio, 2020). fortunately, cutting-edge aac devices using eye-tracking technology have recently begun reshaping patients’ communicative possibilities. aac technology is powered by intentional eye gaze, which is largely preserved in rett syndrome. while such devices are prescribed out of medical necessity in rett syndrome, no previous study has explored how they are used in practice for providing medical information or for medical advocacy. situated within this gap in research, this study aspires to contribute to cross-disciplinary knowledge about the languaging of medical advocacy in a significant disability setting, with implications for applied linguistics scholars and educators more broadly. 2. complex communication aac refers to all the ways we share our thoughts that do not involve spoken language. there are two main types of aac: 1) unaided aac, i.e., ways of non-spoken communication without the use of external aid, e.g., facial expressions, gestures, eye-contact, and posture; and 2) aided aac, i.e., communication that involves external aids, e.g., writing a note, picture communication board, and speech generating devices. researchers across disciplines have noted the critical role of aac in improving the quality of life of individuals with complex communication repertoires, i.e., in assisting with daily needs, facilitating family and community engagement, and developing language and literacy skills (campbell, milbourne, dugan, & wilcox, 2006; floyd, smith canter, jeffs, & judge, 2008; kemp, 1999; kling, campbell, & wilcox, 2010; schall, targett, & wehman, 2006). importantly, pickering (2020) has argued that the field of applied linguistics can answer pullin, treviranus, patel, and higginbotham’s (2017) call for “new research tools as apparatus for engaging, accessible, and contextual participatory research” (p. 146). this study hopes to help craft a path forward in this area. broadly conceived language-focused investigations into the speech of individuals with complex communication challenges is useful in this regard; they do communicate in powerful, multimodal ways, even if medical communication through eye-tracking aac e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 73 it is not always recognized (beukelman & mirenda, 2005; pickering, 2020; townend, bartolotta, urbanowicz, wandin, & curfs, 2020). there has been limited research on this in rett syndrome. some researchers have explored the various ways that aac is used in dyadic communication among families with individuals with rett syndrome. for example, skotko, koppenhaver, and erickson (2004), studied a variety of strategies in parentimplemented story reading activities to enhance the communication and literacy skills in children with rett syndrome. one important finding was the effectiveness of multimodal engagement during reading mediated by various aac tools. additionally, koppenhaver et al. (2001) examined the supportive effects of resting hand splints, use of low tech aac systems, and parent training on labeling and symbolic communication of children with rett syndrome in story reading activities. there is also emerging interest in newer aac devices that track eye gaze to trigger speech (vessoyan et al., 2018). townend et al. (2016), for instance, investigated family perception on the use of eye tracking aac devices to promote communication of individuals with rett syndrome. the findings indicated that the device provided substantial benefits to mediate communication within families. further, wandin, lindberg, and sonnander (2021) examined the efficacy of communication intervention in individuals with rett syndrome and suggested that aided language modeling, responsive partner strategies, and the use of gaze-controlled devices could effectively increase expressive communication in individuals with rett syndrome. while these studies have illuminated the complex, rich, and multimodal communication possibilities that exist within a significant disability context like rett syndrome, deficit perspectives regarding communication challenges endure. 3. eye-tracking aac the idea of eye-tracking has garnered scholarly interest since the 1800s, but it was not until much later, in 2005, when the first eye-tracker was used as assistive technology to help individuals with communication disorders. an eye-tracking aac device allows a user to control a computer with one’s eye movements to generate speech (see vessoyan et al., 2018). many thousands of individuals now use eye-tracking aac devices to communicate. for individuals with complex communication challenges who have limited functional hand use, such as those with rett syndrome, eye-tracking aac devices hold revolutionary and lifechanging communicative potential. currently, there is nascent research on the use of eye-tracking aac devices for elicitation of medical/health information specifically. limited studies have involved individuals using aac devices across a variety of diseases, such as spinal muscular atrophy type ii and ewing sarcoma (costello, patak, & pritchard, 2010), neck cancer (rodriguez et al., 2012; happ, roesch, & kagan, 2005), head cancer (rodriguez et al., 2012), and pneumonia and lung cancer (happ, tuite, dobbin, divirgilio-thomas, & kitutu, 2004). these studies examined individuals’ use of eye-tracking to communicate with medical personnel and families using various types of aac devices, such as dynamyte (happ et al., 2004, 2005; costello, 2000), and software, such as boardmaker (costello, 2000). various themes were noted regarding the topic of communication. these include medical attention (costello et al., 2010; happ et al., 2005), personal care and comfort (e.g., happ et al., 2005; costello, 2000), psychosocial aspects (e.g., costello et al., 2010; costello, 2000), pain (e.g., costello, et al., 2010), feelings (e.g., happ et al., 2004; etchels et al., 2003), greetings (e.g., happ et al., 2005), and establishing relationships with others/general chit-chat (e.g., etchels et al., 2003). as noted earlier, information regarding how individuals with rett syndrome navigate medical information specifically is non-existent (in applied linguistics and beyond); in this manner, our study hopes to contribute new knowledge in this area. as we take the field into a new technological frontier, we hope that scholarly interest continues to grow in the affordances of aac devices for facilitating medical communication . 4. methods 4.1. participant at the time we began to collect the caregiver reports, kalika, the focal participant, was five years old. she was diagnosed with rett syndrome in 2018, at two and a half years of age. she met most developmental milestones until about a year and a half of age, after which she began to experience regression. prior to regression, she had a vocabulary of more than 80 words in bengali and english. in the ensuing years, she experienced a variety of symptoms, including anxiety, limited mobility, hand stereotypies and poor functional hand use, vision difficulties (accommodative esotropia, myopia, and astigmatism), seizures, sleep disruptions, cataplexy, kyphosis, swallowing difficulty, teeth grinding, and dystonia, among others. during the period of this study, she had a limited range of verbal production by mouth, a total of 5-6 words across both bengali and bhattacharya, pradana, wei, tarquinio, datta, anderson & cruz-díaz e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 74 english. kalika was prescribed an eye-tracking aac device in october 2018 and, after receiving it on her third birthday in december of 2018, used it daily. starting with a relatively restrictive speech software, which focused on basic needs, she transitioned to higher-level speech software, speaking hundreds of words a day. speech therapy services from speech and hearing clinic at a local university provided support in developing her language skills. she navigated the software both in english and bengali (the latter language section created by her mother on the device). though she began with just a few words, kalika made extensive progress in communicating using the aac device over time, and she used it daily at home, in school, and in other contexts. she also used the aac device for a variety of activities beyond communicating, including playing online games and painting using eye gaze software. 4.2. study design case reports are used in medical literature to offer a window into extraordinary and unanticipated issues and events (guidelines to writing a clinical case report, 2017). such reports also provide new perspectives on patients’ experiences (woolston & connelly, 2017), and have the potential to shed light on “important scientific observations that are missed or undetected in clinical trials” (rison, 2013, p. 3). the chief goal of this type of report is the development of a singular, particular, multi-layered portrayal of a single case (hyett, kenny, & dickinson-swift, 2014). importing this format within applied linguistics research, this study focuses on unusual observations related to medical and health communication (guidelines to writing a clinical case report, 2017), centering the use of language within the descriptions. we employed methods from qualitative case study design as well; we drew on specific data sources (anecdotes), aimed for triangulation, and conducted the coding process through qualitative means. this allowed us to treat the case report as we would have a qualitative study framed within the boundaries of applied linguistics research. for this report, our main goal was to arrive at a comprehensive, context-bound understanding of how kalika engaged in medical/health discourse using her eye-tracking aac device. we used a purposive sampling of one person with rett syndrome. given that rett syndrome is a rare neurological disorder, and that eyetracking aac communication had never previously been reported for medical and health information, a case report was particularly well suited to capturing its complexity. this combined approach is relatively novel within the literature on rett syndrome, allowing us to bridge applied linguistics and medicine through this unique structure. the study protocol was submitted for ethics review and the irb deemed that approval was not required given the nature and goals of the study. 4.3. data sources we used a variety of data sources to achieve triangulation, which entails “the observation of the research issue from (at least) two different points” (flick, 2004, p. 179). this allowed us to offer depth and detail on kalika’s language use. we considered data from two sources in this study, both involving kalika’s speech software td snap. the first involved eye-tracking language usage reports gathered from mytobiidynavox.com, an online tool supported by tobii to provide users with service and assistance in setting and managing their aac devices and getting feedback. the usage reports were connected to a concussion kalika had on april 29, 2020. they tracked the top 20 words and phrases that she said on her aac device from april 15, 2020 to may 15, 2020. secondly, we collected 50 written caregiver observational reports about kalika’s use of the aac device over a 14-month period. we coded the observational reports to focus on medical/health related information using the same approach that we employed for coding the usage reports. the research team reviewed the full data corpus to get a broader sense of how kalika used language related to health, then dove into it a second time, isolating and then coding data related to medical discourse more narrowly (see saldaña, 2021). the research team then examined salient patterns and used those to develop themes (e.g., “asking for assistance”). the themes organize the discussion section, leading us to new ideas and perspectives in understanding how medical and health-related language use is mediated through innovative aac devices. 4.4. the speech software: td snap kalika’s speech software, td snap, was loaded within her aac device with words and phrases stored in different cells that she could speak (i.e., “trigger”) with her eyes. a critical issue was the dwell time, which was set to a specific time. kalika learned within the first hour of using the aac device that any cell containing speech would be triggered only after she stared at a cell for that set dwell time. here is an example of this in practice. kalika was taken to her “occupations'' category page in her software, and asked: “who is joe biden?” medical communication through eye-tracking aac e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 75 kalika scanned the page quickly, and then paused for 0.4 seconds (the dwell time set for her) on the word she did wish to trigger: the occupation “president,” the last cell in the second row. this cell was one of 13 options for occupations (alongside six other options that were linked to other pages). she selected the correct response out of multiple possibilities; this provides clear evidence of her intentionality. figure 1. kalika communicating using her aac device td snap is described as “a comprehensive, evidence-based solution that makes communication, literacy and independence possible” (hagen, 2020, para. 2). it is organized around “core vocabulary, a small number of words that make up 70-90% of what we all use in many daily situations” (hagen, 2020, para. 3). core words are a popular organizing principle for such types of software because they “(a) are generic to many communication situations; and (b) allow for the generation of unique novel sentences” (mothapo, tönsing, & morwane, 2021, p. 296). the structural organization for the english (u.s.) version is that the main (core1) page has the words/phrases “i,” “you,” “it,” “is,” “want,” “like,” “do,” “go,” “help,” among others. from this page, one link takes the user to action verbs, and another link to different word forms (where, for example, can be turned into “be,” “was”). there is also a link to quickfires, which offers messages that can be used in various contexts, such as “don’t,” “mom,” “wait,” and “thank you.” additionally, there is a topics page, where individuals can find language concentrated around a specific topic. for example, kalika’s “arguing” page had phrases such as “you are mean.” another link takes users to little words which has words like “if” and “but.” there is also an all word lists page, which contains categories of different units, such as a descriptions page with adjectives. additional pages are embedded within these pages, such as positions within descriptions, with adjectives that only relate to location. in order to say one sentence with a subject, verb, and an object, kalika thus needed to navigate across multiple pages, and paused a mandatory 0.4 seconds to trigger (speak) any word or phrase. the per minute count of word production with such aac devices, thus, was low overall. importantly, kalika conveyed health-related information daily using a variety of pages on td snap. there were several different areas of her software which she routinely navigated for this purpose. under her all word lists category, for example, there was a feelings page. this page allowed her to express a range of feelings related to health and medical conditions, for example, “thirsty,” “hungry,” “sleepy,” and “sick.” another section of her software dealt with health-related feelings, this was the feelings page under the quickfires category. this section included items such as “can i tell you how i feel?” among others. under her personal needs section in quickfires, she could say things like “i don’t feel well” or “i am uncomfortable” or “something 1 underline indicates specific pages within the software. bhattacharya, pradana, wei, tarquinio, datta, anderson & cruz-díaz e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 76 is hurting me.” kalika also had access to pages specifically dedicated to health and medical issues. among these, there was an external body parts page with items such as “head,” “stomach,” and “nose”; internal body parts with items such as “nervous system,” “heart,” and “bowels”; health problems page with items such as “headache,” “fever,” and “tired”; medical items such as “shot,” “stethoscope,” and “bandage.” in addition, kalika also had certain topics pages that contained phrases useful in medical contexts. for example, her appointment page had “i want an earlier time,” “sorry that i am late,” and “i need an appointment.” in this manner, kalika had access to a wide range of vocabulary to express herself in medical (and other) contexts. figure 2. kalika’s pages specifically dedicated to health/medical issues 4.5. reflexivity given the qualitative grounding of this study, the authors engaged in reflexivity individually and as a team. the team involved the mother of the focal participant, her neurologist, the mother’s phd advisees, and graduate and undergraduate students who collaborated as part of an interdisciplinary rett communication lab. the reflexivity was modeled on previous work in this area (barry, britten, barber, bradley, & stevenson, 1999), which constructed it as “awareness of the researcher’s own presence in the research process” (barry et al., 1999, p. 30). this prior research showed that “[t]hrough sharing common ground, enabling multiple voices to emerge, and developing a productive dialectic, we have improved our conceptual thinking, capitalized on our multiple disciplines, and improved the rigor and quality of our research” (barry et al., 1999, p. 40). inspired by this work, the authors of this present study reflected on issues such as: how their backgrounds positioned them within the project; their perspectives on qualitative inquiry; the theories that framed their thinking; and their intellectual (and other) investments in the research. 5. findings the findings section highlights different ways in which kalika offered health and medical information using the eye-tracking aac device: the first section examines usage reports, and the second section entails anecdotes from medical visits. 5.1. behind the scenes: usage reports before and after a medical event the authors closely examined kalika’s language use with the eye-tracking aac device as revealed by usage reports generated online. the mytobiidynavox.com site stored such reports, capturing the top 20-most triggered lexical items (words, phases, and expressions) in td snap in a day for each subscriber. the data discussed here relates to a major medical event, in this case , a concussion kalika experienced after lunging and falling from a toilet the day after moving into a new home on april 29, 2020. the reports collected included her medical communication through eye-tracking aac e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 77 language use in the 14 days preceding and succeeding the event. the data was reviewed and coded, with the team isolating terms that related specifically to her health and medical condition. figure 3 outlines 13 select lexical items ( words and phrases) that were determined to be related to conveying medical/health information out of the full corpus. figure 3. lexical items related to medical/health communication we found that in the two weeks prior to the concussion, the mean of her word counts was 238.7, with a minimum of 108 words to a maximum of 361 words per day. on the day of the incident and the day after, she spoke a total of 427 lexical items and 479 lexical items respectively. figure 3 lists all of the words and phrases that kalika used to describe her medical/health state. the figure maps out the lexical items used to describe her medical/health state before, during, and after the concussion. before the concussion occurred, the health-related words used by her were limited to items such as “i feel sleepy” and “can i tell you how i feel.” when the concussion happened, the total number of healthrelated words uttered increased significantly. further, the range of words related to health/medical vocabulary expanded considerably. for example, in addition to the previously used health related words, she also used terms such as “uncomfortable,” “heavy,” “afraid,” “scared,” “sick,” and “something is hurting me.” 5.2. observational reports 5.2.1. observational report 1: participating in medical exams kalika used her aac device during eye appointments to assist her doctor in assessing her vision. kalika’s vision issues primarily revolved around the development of strabismus, which became noticeable a few days after her second birthday in late december of 2017. nine months later, her pediatric ophthalmologist conducted surgery to correct the turns in both of kalika’s eyes. in order to continue monitoring the health of her eyes, her ophthalmologist recommended that she attend eye appointments every four months. during one visit in january 2020, kalika sat on her father’s lap in the large patient chair. her mother helped her navigate between the aac device (set up on a chair in front of her) and an illuminated eye chart on a facing wall approximately 20 feet away. after a quick exchange of greetings, the ophthalmologist asked gently, “is it ok if i look at your eyes?” kalika turned quickly to her aac device and said: “yes.” after a physical examination of the eyes, the ophthalmologist started a shape matching exam: kalika was asked to match shapes bhattacharya, pradana, wei, tarquinio, datta, anderson & cruz-díaz e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 78 on her aac device with those on the eye chart. some of the shapes on the eye chart, it was discovered, were not available on her aac device (e.g., a shape that outlined a house). her mother quickly added the missing shapes to kalika’s shapes page, and the exam continued. kalika was then again directed to look at the eye chart and match the shapes there with what she was seeing on her aac device. next, the ophthalmologist flashed letters on the eye chart, which kalika had to match with letters on the alphabets page on her aac device. kalika matched two of the three shapes and letters correctly, which was consistent, according to the ophthalmologist, with measurements assessed by the physical examination of the eyes. kalika’s next eye appointment occurred in march 2021, delayed as a result of the pandemic. in order to prepare for the visit, kalika’s father called the office a few days prior to the appointment and was informed about the shapes and hotv visual acuity charts that kalika would be tested with during the upcoming visit. kalika was then familiarized with an updated shapes page and an hotv page (with just the letters h, o, t, v) over a two-day period. during the appointment, after kalika and the ophthalmologist shared brief greetings, kalika was told by the ophthalmologist that she was going to have to match the letter and shapes on the distant eye chart to the letters and shapes on her aac device. the first procedure was called “hotv single letter matching” and was conducted with both eyes open. the ophthalmologist stood close to the eye chart to draw kalika’s attention to it. it was noticed by her mother that kalika was giving the correct response, but in a delayed manner, by which time the doctor had moved on to the next letter. after discussing this delayed response with the ophthalmologist (likely a result of attention issues in rett syndrome [see rosa et al., 2016]), the process was slowed down, and kalika then gave four right answers of the six letters and shapes presented, which matched the results obtained through the physical eye examination. thus, using the aac device, kalika was able to successfully participate in eye exams over different visits. 5.2.2. observational report 2: describing symptoms kalika also routinely used her aac device to describe and discuss the impact of her symptoms. for example, in summer 2021 she developed what were characterized as head drops, diagnosed as either atonic seizures or a result of cataplexy (investigations were ongoing). when these drops first started, she appeared confused. one day in june, she asked “can what’s going on” right after a head drop, and then described her feelings: “worried, awful, weird, stressed.” later that day, she said “try doing stop” right before the head drops started, stating that she felt “confused, terrible, weird” afterward. this happened often: she described the aftereffect as making her feel “funny, dizzy, worried, worried” (july 1), “bad, afraid, hot, dizzy, awful” (july 6), and “afraid, afraid, sleepy, weird, weird, awful, awful, weird, weird, weird, weird, dizzy” (july 15), as some examples. she consistently used these words to describe her feelings, navigating between two pages of her feelings page, scrolling down to the second page herself to say “weird” and “dizzy” in particular. figure 4. kalika described her feelings related to symptoms using her aac device after a serious seizure at school on aug 12, she returned home and upon being asked by her parents how she felt, she said: “bad, bad, bad, bad.” perhaps most poignantly, on august 10, after two severe head drop medical communication through eye-tracking aac e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 79 sequences, kalika’s mother took her to her health problems page. the mother started trying to model saying “head drops,” but kalika said, “sick of pain.” she had to navigate across two sets of pages, with “sick” and “pain” on the same page and “of” on another in order to express this sentiment. 5.2.3. observational report 3: asking for assistance in july of 2021, about three weeks into the development of head drops, kalika began to appeal for help in stopping these before they occurred. she would alert caregivers to the head drops prior to their starting. on july 21st, for example, she told her parents: “your happen have and helped ask a stop more have” right before she started head drops. at speech therapy summer camp, the next day, she told her attending therapist: “help like stopping do” immediately prior to having head drops. the therapist reported this to the mother by text; after hearing kalika’s words, the therapist immediately stopped the activity they were engaged in and worked to calm her and support her. a few days later, on july 29, kalika told her father, who briefly stepped away from the breakfast table where they were eating: “stop having gone help help help your your your help ask ask do ask try stop happening” and then immediately started head drops. these were the only words she uttered in a ten-minute span and entailed navigation across three pages (2 core pages and action words). figure 5. kalika used the main page of her td snap to ask for help for seizures on august 11, as another example, in the middle of her physical therapy session at school, she informed her therapist: “i don’t feel very well” followed by “i am scared.” the therapist, alerted to the fact that she typically expressed these sentiments prior to the start of head drops, paused and made sure kalika was in a safe and comfortable position, just as the head drops commenced. the therapist outlined this incident in an email to the parents. a similar event occurred the next day when kalika was at school. she had a three-minutelong seizure which led to administration of diastat2 for seizure cessation as well as a call to her parents and emergency medical services. one of her teachers later messaged the parents to inform them that kalika went to her medical appointments page and said to her teacher: “i need an appointment please.” becoming alarmed, they prepared for a seizure, which started immediately after. while pleas for help were most consistently tied to head drops, they had previously occurred in other contexts as well. in december of 2020, for example, kalika had a virtual appointment with her rett specialist/neurologist. her parents wanted to discuss the worsening of two common rett syndrome symptoms that kalika was experiencing: hyperventilation and gastrointestinal issues. a day prior to the appointment, kalika was told by her parents that her specialist would be able to help her with those issues. as soon as the visit started, kalika greeted him and repeated “do help” several times. during a different visit, she listened intently to a discussion of her symptoms between her parents and her specialist. as her parents brought up bouts of severe forced breathing and hyperventilation, she interjected by saying, “out of breath stop,” navigating across three pages to do so. 2 diastat is a medication that treats increased seizures in individuals who are already on medications to control seizures. bhattacharya, pradana, wei, tarquinio, datta, anderson & cruz-díaz e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 80 5.2.4. observational report 4: reporting injuries kalika also used the aac device to provide information about injuries during multiple incidents. on the evening of september 8, 2020, kalika lunged off a living room sofa while watching a tv show, landing facefirst on the hardwood floor. blood poured out of her mouth at first, subsiding only after a few minutes. later, she expressed discomfort using her aac device: “i am uncomfortable,” but managed to eat reasonably well and go to sleep at her usual time. her father then checked her mouth again and noticed a gaping wound on her gums that continued to bleed. he rushed kalika to the emergency department at a hospital nearby, where they spent some three hours waiting before being seen by the attending physician. the physician examined her mouth and said that kalika only needed over the counter pain medications and would recover quickly. they returned home around midnight, with kalika barely stirring. the next morning, kalika’s mother asked her father whether the doctor had checked kalika all over for injuries or if he had only focused on her mouth. kalika’s father responded that it was the latter. realizing that she might have been injured elsewhere as well, kalika’s mother took her to the external body parts page and asked: “does anything else hurt apart from your mouth?” kalika said: “elbow, elbow.” it was not a word she had spontaneously uttered before. kalika’s father repeated: “elbow?” he rolled up kalika’s sleeves and checked her elbows, one of which showed large purple bruising that had been missed. figure 6. kalika selected the word "elbow" from different options on this external body parts page a similar incident occurred a few months later, on march 16, 2021. that evening, kalika appeared to be feeling unwell. she used her aac device to say that her “head hurt.” when asked if she was hurt anywhere else, kalika said “nose.” given no outward indications of injury to the nose, her parents figured that she had misspoken. the next morning, however, a small bruise appeared on the bridge of kalika’s nose. the parents were informed that she had taken a tumble in the backyard while in the care of another caregiver. she had fallen on her face, and the lenses had been knocked out of her glasses. the description of her head hurting and the injury to the nose then made sense. the bruise on her nose, likely the result of that fall, only became visible overnight. as a result of both of these incidents, kalika’s parents were able to note and attend to the injuries. 5.2.5. observational report 5: advocating during medical visits kalika also advocated for herself in a variety of ways during medical appointments. in january of 2021, for example, kalika and her parents had a meeting with her nutritionist. when the session started, kalika went to her topics page, then selected her advocacy page. when the nutritionist asked how kalika had been doing since they had last met, kalika said “let's review that.” then, as the nutritionist and her parents began discussing what the nutritional goals needed to be for the coming three weeks, kalika said “let's develop a medical communication through eye-tracking aac e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 81 plan.” further, while discussing melatonin gummy drops as an option for sleep disruption, the parents expressed concern about her ability to consume them. however, kalika said: “i can do it myself.” this made sense, the parents reported, since kalika had recently started practicing eating gummy worms during feeding therapy. next, when kalika’s father inquired about valerian root, an unfamiliar supplement, kalika said: “i want to discuss.” a discussion ensued. finally, when her mother brought up some of kalika’s gastrointestinal issues, kalika went to her topics/arguing page and said: “i can’t believe you said that!” she then protested by commenting “how embarrassing!” several times. the parents reported that this was one of the first appointments during which kalika followed along and participated throughout. furthermore, the parents reported that kalika used the eye-tracker extensively during interactions with her pediatric neurologist/rett specialist. previously we noted kalika’s description and discussion of symptoms and asking for help. once during discussions with her doctor about the use of a novel device to treat her hyperventilation, kalika repeatedly asked him, “please explain.” during the setup of a cylinder for this purpose, further, she repeatedly said, “i am totally lost,” and asked him to “slow down a little.” in this manner, kalika asked questions, made comments, and advocated for herself in the context of medical appointments. 6. discussion the data presented above elucidates the powerful and empowering ways in which kalika, who is medically classified as a “nonverbal” individual, offered valuable medical information using an eye-tracking aac device and compellingly self-advocated for her own care in medical contexts. the usage reports offered a powerful account of the change in kalika’s language, both quantitatively and qualitatively before, during, and after a medical event. as we saw in figure 3, the number of lexical items decreased to 231 words on the day her parents took her to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a concussion. the change in the number of words suggests a desire to communicate more as a result of the concussion, in order to describe her condition and to get attention and help. further, there was a qualitative change in the language kalika used after her concussion, demonstrating a greater preoccupation with healthrelated issues. we assess this from the fact that the range of medical/health-related vocabulary was noticeably more varied on the day of the concussion and thereafter. among the 20 frequently uttered lexical items during those two critical days, five of them suggested kalika’s feeling of discomfort and a need to convey her feelings, for example, “afraid,” “sick,” “can i tell you how i feel?,” “heavy,” and “i am uncomfortable.” figure 3 lays out how kalika’s use of health/medical-related language not only increased significantly after her concussion, but also drew on a wider range of language. the peak in terms of use of this kind of language, as well as in numbers of occurrences, also happened around the time of the concussion. the data from the usage reports thus offered us a useful glimpse of how an aac device was purposefully and meaningfully used by kalika to convey health and medical information. the observational reports offer supportive evidence as well. in the first observational report, for example, we saw how kalika gave consent for an eye exam. alderson, sutcliffe, and curtis (2006) have pointed out that regrettably, children are rarely asked for consent in medical contexts. this is tied to the fact that in general, children with disabilities are considered even less in discussions around consent, even though multiple studies have shown that “they have far higher levels of knowledge and competence relating to their condition” (alderson et al., 2006, p. 26). in obtaining consent from individuals with disabilities for whom communication is a profound challenge, aac can be a useful medium to elicit this (curran & hollins, 1994). the fact that kalika was able to explicitly consent to having her eyes examined was thus an important step. furthermore, she was able to offer valuable information about the state of her vision, by matching shapes and letters using her aac device. the ophthalmologist was, because of this, able to triangulate the findings from the physical exam with what kalika said. in this way, kalika was able to assist in the assessment of her own health. meanwhile, the second observational report highlighted how kalika used the aac device to describe how she felt as a result of the experience of her symptoms. her descriptions of how the seizures felt were not atypical. for example, she often described them as “weird,” which is not an uncommon description of a seizure. for example, lord tennyson used the word “weird” to describe seizures in the 1851 edition of the princess (see wright, 1987). linguistic analyses have suggested that descriptions of seizures may be clinically meaningful (see plug, sharrack, & reuber, 2010, 2011; schwabe, reuber, schondienst, & gulich, 2008). it is hoped that as kalika’s descriptions get more complex with age and language proficiency, she will be able to offer clinically meaningful descriptions of seizures if and when they occur. it is also powerful that kalika was bhattacharya, pradana, wei, tarquinio, datta, anderson & cruz-díaz e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 82 able to express a range of complex emotions related to her state of feeling, such as “sick of pain,” as a result of symptoms. the third observational report highlighted how kalika consistently asked for help and assistance to prevent or arrest a medical issue. as a result of her doing so, her parents, therapists, and teachers were able to offer assistance in three different settings (at home, at camp, and at school). they were able to anticipate the onset of head drops, ensure timely removal of hazards, and get her into a safe and comfortable position. the fourth observational report elucidated how kalika offered information about injuries, pain, or symptoms that may not be easily visible or noticeable. this is not an insignificant problem in rett syndrome. symons, byiers, tervo, and beisang (2013), for example, conducted a preliminary study and found that obstacles in communication led to “an increased risk that the problem of pain may be overlooked or discounted in this vulnerable population” (symons et al., 2013, p. 746). in their study, while a fourth of caregivers noted that their children (who all had rett syndrome) experienced “over a week of pain per month…of concern was that almost none of the respondents indicated that their daughters used words to communicate about pain” (symons et al., 2013, p. 746). kalika bringing attention to her elbow and nose in different falls offered important information to her parents, who then ensured that these injuries received appropriate medical care. because most individuals with rett syndrome have complex communication challenges and lack access to aac, they “are at risk for living with pain but not having it readily recognized” (symons et al., 2013, p. 7465). fortunately, kalika’s proficient use of the aac device offered her a way to bring attention to issues that caused pain. the final observational report shows how kalika advocated for herself in a variety of ways in medical contexts. the interaction with her nutritionist, for example, revealed how closely she followed the discussions and participated in the exchange. the interaction highlighted that she understood the necessity of reviewing the developments since the previous appointment. she also realized the importance of planning future goals. further, she was able to offer her opinion of being able to swallow gummies (contradicting her parents’ assessment of her chewing abilities) and to ask for further clarity on issues that she did not understand. this is something she also did with her neurologist. in this manner, she was able to advocate for herself and contribute to her treatment in a number of ways. it is remarkable of course, that kalika, notwithstanding her medical classification as “nonverbal,” was able to participate actively and meaningfully in high-stakes medical encounters. previous research has never captured this type of complex communication. we want to be clear, however, that shedding light on this previously unexamined area is not the sole purpose of this paper. this communicative portrait of kalika also offers valuable lessons for applied linguists and language educators, which we outline below. our suggestions are as follows: 1) broadening notions of speaking: part of what this study elucidates is the complexity of speech. spoken language continues to be in focus within the field of applied linguistics in largely normative ways (cruzferreira, 2018; phuong, 2019). kalika’s speech production, melding gaze, technology, and synthetic voice, demonstrates how this could be a generative area for deeper inquiry (see also chung & douglas, 2014). importantly, this study supports the expansion of the notion of “speaker,” since kalika’s speech goes beyond the typical research realms of mouth words. kusters, spotti, swanwick, and tapio (2017) have previously outlined the importance of the concept of repertoires instead, which encompasses “all the ‘means of speaking’ that users of a language know, know how to use, and use with a specific reasoning in mind, while they are engaged in a communicative encounter” (p. 222). kalika’s communication is better captured within this idea, since her speech includes (many times simultaneously) diverse resources such as verbalizations, vocalizations, gaze, gaze-triggered speech, and body movements, among others. further, this investigation revealed that, not only did kalika offer medical information in important ways through the device, but also that caregivers and medical professionals legitimized her speech. it was fortunate that kalika’s words were not dismissed because they were mediated by a device. in the same way, we hope applied linguists and educators recognize and legitimize different forms of speech, whatever the means or modalities of expression. 2) increasing consideration of aac: as chung and douglas (2014) put it, “aac is essential in enabling expressions of needs and emotions, establishing relationships, and promoting full participation for many students with significant disabilities” (p. 56). despite being central to modes of self-expression for many individuals with disabilities, aac remains largely marginalized in applied linguistics research. in fact, much of the scholarship in this area falls within communication disorders sciences. medical communication through eye-tracking aac e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 83 this is not a small area of neglect. beukelman and light (2020) state that some 5 million individuals use aac in the us context alone. as kalika’s speech showed in this study, aac language use has important real-world applications and should be considered a meaningful area of study for applied linguistics scholars. among other aspects, aac also offers a path to more inclusive research involving individuals with disabilities, which has traditionally been excluded in research (see feldman, battin, shaw, & luckasson, 2013; coons & watson, 2013). language educators would also benefit from learning about aacs given their growing popularity in use (especially in educational contexts). 3) exploring device-mediated language use: similarly, there remains a dearth of applied linguistics research examining device-mediated interactions (higginbotham & engelke, 2013). without aac and without her device, kalika would not have been able to navigate medical (or any other) encounters in such extraordinary ways. the aac device made language possible for her far beyond the few words she could speak by mouth. while digital language spaces have been generative and popular areas of study for applied linguists, technologically mediated language, as used by those with disabilities, remains sidelined. there are fascinating aspects to uncover, such as the fact that grammatical structures of language enabled by such devices are not exactly aligned with common speech practices (as can be seen with kalika’s language use here). given the growing population of aac device users (beukelman & light, 2020), this again needs to receive more attention within our field. 4) extending multimodal considerations: multimodality is not just a critical area for research in our field because of how it adds to our understanding of what is languaged, but in significant disability contexts, it can stand for the most powerful expressions of language itself (see, e.g., al zidjaly, 2012; al zidjaly, 2016; jewitt, bezemer, & o’halloran, 2016; kusters et al., 2017). this study shows us how multimodal expression–the eye activating speech–can be far more complex than is typically constructed within applied linguistics. continuing the expansion of our understanding of what multimodality means is a necessary and critical part of our move toward more inclusive and richer analysis within applied linguistics (kusters et al., 2017). 5) further complicating notions about communicative competence: there is some emerging research examining communicative competence within aac use in education and communication disorders (dethorne, hengst, fisher, & king, 2014; light & mcnaughton, 2014; radici, heboyan, mantovani, & de leo, 2020), but there is relative silence within applied linguistics. communicative competence is complex; it “invokes authenticity, plurality, and mobility, and links people’s ability to communicate with others with their moral valuation, rights to citizenship and belonging, and position in the hierarchies and structure of inequality, both local and non-local” (kataoka, ikeda, & besnier, 2013, p. 349). individuals with disabilities are often mired in structures of inequality and have to wrestle with constraints on access when it relates to these aspects. how multimodal, device-mediated language is used to navigate medical encounters across disciplines, within the interplay of potent (and often oppressive) social, cultural, and historical forces, is a powerful question to explore using the lens of communicative competence. there needs to be more focused analysis within high-stakes encounters, such as those kalika navigates, where using language appropriately could be a matter of life or death. in kalika’s case, communicative competence necessitates physical assistance; for example, within some of the contexts, kalika needed to be taken to a specific page so that she could offer important medical information (e.g., the hotv test). context-specific language is found in different pages, which she located by herself and was also often guided to by her caregivers. one possible question for us to consider as applied linguists, then, is how communicative competence is interactionally achieved when there is disability. 6) presuming cognitive competence: kalika’s use of language pushes against still prevailing attitudes regarding rett syndrome, that individuals are unable to communicate and have severe cognitive deficits (see fabio, castelli, marchetti, & antonietti, 2013). in this study, she offers a glimpse of communicative and cognitive life in rett syndrome that has mostly remained hidden until now. this paper offers evidence that such perspectives may be misleading and inaccurate; not only in rett syndrome but within other significant disability contexts as well, possibly, where communication functions as a major barrier in assessment. in rett syndrome, deficit perspectives have derived from bhattacharya, pradana, wei, tarquinio, datta, anderson & cruz-díaz e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 84 inappropriate assessment measures centering on speech and hand use that invariably fail when applied to individuals with the disorder. in the field of applied linguistics, it is accepted that appropriate assessment measures are key to the analysis of a learner’s language level. this study shows how critical it is to keep this in mind within the significant disability context as well, particularly because of how language use is used to frame and assess individuals’ cognitive abilities. 7) espousing linguistic justice: as henner and robinson (2021) pointed out, neglect of “disabled ways of languaging” (p. 2) is a process by which the larger field of “[l]inguistics reproduces and refracts structures of power” (p. 2). the authors assert that for linguistic justice, all inquiry within the entire field of linguistics must engage with disability. similarly, kusters et al. (2017) noted: “it [is] extremely important to pay attention to…asymmetries: people have differential access to languages, literacies, objects and other resources, and different uses of the senses” (p. 227). attending to these issues is an imperative, rather than a peripheral charge for applied linguists, if we are to aspire for linguistic justice in our field. ultimately, we call for applied linguists and language educators to broaden and humanize their understanding of how language circulates in the real world. it is our hope that this study can help offer a gentle but compelling nudge in that direction. 7. conclusion there are some caveats to keep in mind within this study. given that this study focused on a medical case report of a single participant, it is not possible to make claims about generalizability across the entire population of individuals with rett syndrome. the intent of this study is to show how one child with rett syndrome used an aac device purposefully for medical communication and advocacy, and to draw out lessons for the field of applied linguistics. individuals with rett syndrome are a heterogeneous group; for that reason, broad generalizations may be inappropriate. what we have, instead, is a picture of a new world of possibilities in terms of how individuals with significant communication challenges can language their world. we hope that future research will involve a more diverse population, extending the limited knowledge in this area. another important note to attend to is that kalika’s communication was facilitated but also limited by her device. the device imposed constraints in terms of how the language was pre-designed and structured; while the parents had made interventions and changes, those were minor overall. kalika’s talk and advocacy had to occur within mostly a pre-configured set of software cells, and therefore, communicative possibilities. as noted earlier, her first language was unavailable on td snap, and the small bengali section her mother devised was rudimentary. despite these constraints, the data reveals intriguing language use that merits further study. ultimately, this study offers a tantalizing glimpse of future possibilities where individuals with serious communication challenges can provide medical information in ways that were previously unimaginable. this is no small matter in a complex disease like rett syndrome, where accurate pain assessment is especially crucial (solodiuk & curley, 2003); the consequences of neglecting or misunderstanding medical issues can severely impact quality of life. understanding the patient experience is also critical for suitable drug development (morel & cano, 2017). at the cusp of gene therapy trials and other ground-breaking treatments being developed for rett syndrome (neul & chang, 2020), it is hoped that this exciting possibility is recognized and valued as a result of this study within the broader medical community. language will be central to these advancements; and there is room for applied linguists to break new ground in this high-stakes space. references alderson, priscilla, sutcliffe, katy, & curtis, katherine (2006). children as partners with adults in their medical care. archives of disease in childhood, 91(4), 300–303. https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2005.079442 al zidjaly, najma (2016). disability, discourse and technology: agency and inclusion in (inter)action. springer. al zidjaly, najma (2012). multimodality and disability. in carol a. chapelle (ed.), the encyclopedia of applied linguistics. wiley-blackwell. medical communication through eye-tracking aac e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 85 armstrong, dawna d. 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(2021). aided language modelling, responsive communication and eye-gaze technology as communication intervention for adults with rett syndrome: three experimental single case studies. disability and rehabilitation: assistive technology, 1– 15. https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2021.1967469 woolston, wendy, & connelly, lynne m. (2017). felty's syndrome: a qualitative case study. medsurg nursing, 26(2), 105–118. wright, barbara h. (1987). tennyson, the weird seizures in the princess, and epilepsy. literature and medicine, 6(1), 61–76. https://doi.org/10.1353/lm.2011.0022 usree bhattacharya, university of georgia ubhattacharya@uga.edu en usree bhattacharya is an associate professor in the department of language and literacy education within the mary frances early college of education at the university of georgia. her research is inspired by questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion in multilingual educational settings. motivated by her daughter's diagnosis of rett syndrome in 2018, her research currently explores language and literacy socialization within this rare disease context. es usree bhattacharya es profesora asociada en el department of language and literacy education del mary frances early college of education dell' university of georgia. su investigación se inspira en cuestiones de diversidad, equidad e inclusión en entornos educativos multilingües. motivada por el diagnóstico de síndrome de rett de su hija en 2018, su investigación explora en la actualidad la socialización a través del lenguaje y la alfabetización en este contexto de enfermedades raras. it usree bhattacharya è professoressa associata presso il department of language and literacy education del mary frances early college of education dell’university of georgia. la sua ricerca è ispirata da questioni di diversità, equità e inclusione in contesti educativi multilingue. motivata dalla diagnosi di sindrome di rett di sua figlia nel 2018, la sua ricerca esplora attualmente la socializzazione del linguaggio e dell'alfabetizzazione in questo contesto di malattia rara. medical communication through eye-tracking aac e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 89 wisnu a. pradana, university of georgia wisnu.pradana@uga.edu en wisnu a. pradana is a ph.d. student in the department of language and literacy education, mary frances early college of education, at the university of georgia. his research interests include rett syndrome and social justice issues surrounding persons with disability and their families. es wisnu a. pradana es estudiante de doctorado en el department of language and literacy education del mary frances early college of education dell' university of georgia. sus intereses en investigación incluyen el síndrome de rett y temas de justicia social que rodean a las personas con discapacidad y sus familiares. it wisnu a. pradana è uno studente di dottorato presso il department of language and literacy education, mary frances early college of education, all'university of georgia. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono la sindrome di rett e le questioni di giustizia sociale che riguardano le persone con disabilità e le loro famiglie. xing wei, university of georgia xing.wei@uga.edu en xing wei is a ph.d. candidate in the department of language and literacy education, mary frances early college of education, at the university of georgia. her research focuses on language modeling using aided augmentative and alternative communication (aac) devices for individuals with disabilities. es xing wei es 89icercar89 a doctorado en el department of language and literacy education del mary frances early college of education dell’ university of georgia. su investigación se centra en el modelado del lenguaje utilizando dispositivos de comunicación alternativa y aumentativa (aac) para personas con discapacidades. it xing wei è dottoranda di 89icercar presso il department of language and literacy education, mary frances early college of education, alla university of georgia. la sua ricerca si concentra sulla modellizzazione del linguaggio utilizzando dispositivi di comunicazione aumentativa e alternativa (aac) per gli individui con disabilità. daniel tarquinio, center for rare neurological diseases daniel@rareneuro.com en daniel tarquinio is a pediatric neurologist and epileptologist. he is the managing director of the center for rare neurological diseases. his research interests include the treatment of epilepsy in rett syndrome, validation and refinement of outcome measures for clinical research, and identification of neurophysiological predictors of outcome. es daniel tarquinio es neurólogo pediátrico y epileptólogo. es el director general del center for rare neurological diseases. sus intereses de investigación incluyen el tratamiento de la epilepsia en el síndrome de rett, la validación y el ajuste de medidas de resultados para la investigación clínica, y la identificación de indicadores de resultado neurofisiológicos. it daniel tarquinio è neurologo ed epilettologo pediatrico. è direttore del center for rare neurological diseases. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono il trattamento dell'epilessia nella sindrome di rett, la convalida e il perfezionamento delle misure di esito per la ricerca clinica, e l'identificazione di predittori neurofisiologici di risultati. bhattacharya, pradana, wei, tarquinio, datta, anderson & cruz-díaz e-journall 9(1) (2022), pp. 71–90 90 olivia datta, university of georgia olivia.datta@uga.edu en olivia datta is an undergraduate student at franklin college of arts and science at the university of georgia. she is majoring in biology and completing a certificate in disabilities studies. olivia is in the process of pursuing becoming a physician. es olivia datta es estudiante de licenciatura en la franklin college of arts and science at the university of georgia. ella se especializa en biología y está finalizando un diploma de estudios en discapacidad. olivia se encuentra en el proceso de formación para ser médico. it olivia datta è una studentessa universitaria al franklin college of arts and science dell'university of georgia. si sta specializzando in biologia e sta completando un diploma in studi sulle disabilità. olivia ha intrapreso il persorso di formazione per diventare un medico. kaleigh anderson, university of georgia kaleigh.anderson@uga.edu en kaleigh anderson is a graduate student in the department of communication science and disorders in the mary frances early college of education at the university of georgia. her research interests include social communication, neurodevelopmental disorders, and emerging aac technology. es kaleigh anderson es estudiante de posgrado en el department of communication science and disorders in the mary frances early college of education at the university of georgia. sus intereses de investigación incluyen la comunicación social, los trastornos del neurodesarrollo y la tecnología emergente de aac. it kaleigh anderson è una studentessa laureata presso il department of communication science and disorders del mary frances early college of education dell'university of georgia. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono la comunicazione sociale, i disturbi del neurosviluppo e la tecnologia aac emergente. nicole cruz-díaz, university of georgia nicole.cruz1@uga.edu en nicole cruz-díaz is a graduate student in the department of communication science and disorders in the mary frances early college of education at the university of georgia. she is speech-language pathologist certified (chile, 2014) with a graduate diploma in neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry in adults. her research includes rett syndrome in latinamerican contexts and bilingualism. es nicole cruz-díaz es estudiante de posgrado en el department of communication science and disorders in the mary frances early college of education at the university of georgia. es patóloga del habla y el lenguaje (chile, 2014) con un título de postgrado en neuropsicología y neuropsiquiatría en adultos. su investigación incluye el síndrome de rett en contextos latinoamericanos y bilingüismo. it nicole cruz-díaz è iscritta al programma post lauream presso il dipartimento di scienze della comunicazione e disturbi nel mary frances early college of education dell'university of georgia. è certificata come logopedista (cile, 2014) con un diploma di laurea in neuropsicologia e neuropsichiatria degli adulti. la sua ricerca comprende la sindrome di rett in contesti latino-americani e il bilinguismo. e-journall 4(1) 2017 samu euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   e-­‐journall,  volume  4,  issue  1,  july  2017,  pages  40-­‐61   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.6.92   www.e-­‐journall.org   1*contact:  borbala.samu@unistrapg.it   l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2: analisi  di  un  corpus  di   apprendenti  anglofoni   borbála  samu*1   università  per  stranieri  di  perugia   received  25  mar  2017;  received  in  revised  form  27  june  2017;  accepted  19  july  2017   abstract it l’imperativo in italiano e l’acquisizione di questo modo verbale sono relativamente poco studiati. questo studio intende sottolineare, da un lato, la distinzione fondamentale tra le forme dell’imperativo vero e proprio e le forme suppletive, e dall’altro, la differenza tra gli usi definiti prototipici nella letteratura e quelli effettivi in italiano contemporaneo. su queste basi si esamina l’acquisizione dell’imperativo in italiano l2 da parte di apprendenti anglofoni. i dati ricavati da un corpus di apprendenti specifico dimostrano che l’imperativo in italiano l2 è appreso tardi e con molte difficoltà. in più, gli apprendenti di competenza più elevata che padroneggiano la forma dell’imperativo lo usano meno rispetto agli apprendenti meno competenti. i motivi della difficoltà dell’acquisizione dell’imperativo e della tendenza a non utilizzarlo vanno cercati, da un lato, nella marcatezza morfologica di alcuni elementi del paradigma verbale, e dall’altro nel suo uso effettivo che si distanzia radicalmente dalla funzione del comando e che fa avvicinare le forme imperativali più frequenti ai regolatori di interazione, tendenzialmente invariabili. parole chiave: acquisizione dell’italiano l2, corpus di apprendenti, imperativo, marcatezza sociopragmatica, cortesia, marcatori pragmatici en few studies have examined the function and acquisition of the imperative in italian. the present study first aims to highlight the fundamental distinction between true imperative forms and suppletive forms. secondly, it seeks to draw attention to the difference between the imperative’s typical uses as defined in the literature and its colloquial uses in contemporary italian. with these distinctions in mind, the study examines the acquisition of the italian imperative by anglophone learners. data from a corpus of l2 italian learners reveal that the italian imperative is learned late and with much difficulty. further, more advanced italian learners who master the imperative mood use it less frequently than learners with a lower proficiency. on the one hand, the difficulty of acquiring the imperative and the tendency not to use it are explained by the morphological markedness of some elements of the verbal paradigm. on the other hand, the actual use of the imperative does not have a command function; instead, the most common imperative forms more closely resemble "regulators of interaction," which tend to be invariable. key words: acquisition of italian l2, learner corpus, imperative, sociopragmatic markers, courtesy, pragmatic markedness es el estudio de las funciones del imperativo en italiano y la adquisición de este modo verbal han recibido escasa atención. con este estudio se pretende, por un lado, subrayar las diferencias entre las tres formas del imperativo propiamente dicho y sus tres formas supletorias, y por otro, remarcar las diferencias entre sus usos definidos como prototípicos en literatura y sus usos efectivos en el italiano contemporáneo. para ello, se examina la adquisición del imperativo en italiano l2 por estudiantes anglófonos. el análisis de datos extraídos de un corpus de estudiantes de italiano l2 demuestra que el imperativo se aprende tarde y con dificultades. además, los aprendientes con competencias lingüísticas más altas y que dominan la forma del imperativo la usan menos que otros aprendientes con un grado inferior de competencia. las razones de la dificultad a la hora de aprender el imperativo y de la tendencia a no utilizarlo hay que buscarlos, por un lado, en la forma morfológica marcada de algunos elementos del paradigma verbal y, por otro, en su uso efectivo, que se aleja radicalmente de la función de mando y que, sin embargo, se acerca a la función de los reguladores de la interacción, que tienden a ser invariables. palabras clave: adquisición del italiano l2, corpus de estudiantes, imperativo, formas marcadas socio-pragmáticas, cortesía, marcadores pragmáticos © samu 2017. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2 e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 41   1. introduzione il   dare   ordini   è   una   delle   funzioni   di   base   del   linguaggio   verbale   umano.   in   termini   pragmatici,   l'ordinare   è   un   atto   linguistico   centrale   e   l’imperativo   ne   è   l’espressione   basica.   la   centralità   nozionale   dell’imperativo   farebbe   ipotizzare   un’apparizione   precoce   nell’interlingua   degli   stranieri   adulti.   si   osserva,   invece,   che   “l’imperativo  è  appreso   tardi,   e   con  molte  difficoltà,  dagli   stranieri”   (berretta,  1995,  p.  333).  la   domanda  principale  che  si  pone  in  questo  articolo  è  da  dove  derivi  questa  difficoltà.  questo  quesito  ci  porta   ad  esaminare  due  ambiti  distinti,  ma  strettamente  connessi  tra  di  loro:  uno  relativo  alla  forma  dell’imperativo   in  italiano  e  l’altro  relativo  al  suo  uso.  riguardo  alla  forma  ci  si  chiede  quali  siano  i  componenti  problematici   del   paradigma.   per   quanto   riguarda   invece   la   funzione   dare   ordini,   si   pone   la   domanda   della   frequenza   e   dell’uso   effettivo   dell’imperativo   nell’italiano   contemporaneo   e   quindi   della   presenza   dell’imperativo   nell’input   in   un   contesto   di   apprendimento   spontaneo   o   misto.   inoltre,   ci   si   interroga   su   quali   mezzi   alternativi  utilizzino  gli  apprendenti  e  i  parlanti  madrelingua  per  esprimere  le  stesse  funzioni  dell’imperativo.   partendo  da  queste  domande  nel  §2  si  cerca  di  definire   il   sistema  dell’imperativo  chiarendo  alcuni  concetti   chiave,   come   la   distinzione   tra   la   forma   indirizzata   alla   seconda   e   alle   altre   persone   e   la   specificità   dell’imperativo   negativo.   nella   seconda   parte   del   §2   si   presentano,   invece,   i   suoi   usi   principali   secondo   le   grammatiche,  messi  a  confronto  con   i  dati  estratti  da  un  corpus  di   lingua   italiana  contemporanea  (il  corpus   lip:  de  mauro,  mancini,  vedovelli,  &  voghera,  1993).     l’acquisizione   dell’imperativo   in   italiano   l2   è   un   ambito   relativamente   poco   studiato;   esistono   tuttavia   dei   lavori   fondamentali   (presentati   nel   §3),   dai   quali   emerge   chiaramente   il   problema   della   marcatezza,   formale   e   funzionale,   di   questo  modo  verbale.   il   concetto  della  marcatezza   si   dimostra,   infatti,   fondamentale  per  capire  perché  l’imperativo  appaia  tardi  e  con  tante  difficoltà  in  italiano  l2.  in  questo  studio   si  intende,  oltre  che  testare  su  dati  nuovi  la  sequenza  acquisizionale  proposta  in  precedenza,  approfondire  la   questione  della  marcatezza  funzionale  e  mettere  a  confronto  gli  usi  effettivi  dell’imperativo  in  italiano  con  gli   usi  nell’interlingua.     per   esaminare   l'acquisizione   dell'imperativo   in   italiano   l2   è   stato   creato   un   corpus   specifico   (presentato  nel  §4),  costituito  da  sedici  conversazioni  registrate  e  trascritte  e  da  venti  brevi  documenti  scritti,   con  il  monitoraggio  di  sedici  studenti  anglofoni,  le  cui  competenze  si  suddividevano  equamente  dal  livello  a1   al  livello  c1,  e  di  due  elementi  di  controllo  italiani.  nel  §5  si  illustrano,  da  un  lato,  la  sequenza  di  acquisizione   delle  forme  imperativali  e  le  strategie  alternative  all’imperativo  messe  in  atto  dagli  apprendenti  nei  vari  livelli   di   competenza   e,   dall’altro,   le   caratteristiche   discorsive   degli   imperativi   usati   dagli   stessi.   i   dati   dei   due   corpora  (il  corpus  lip  e  il  corpus  di  apprendenti)  ci  permettono  di  apportare  ulteriori  riflessioni,  sia  riguardo   al  paradigma,  sia  riguardo  alle  funzioni  dell’imperativo.  queste  considerazioni  ci  inducono  (nel  §6)  a  rivedere   la  definizione  stessa  dell’imperativo,  presentato  tradizionalmente  come  il  “modo  del  comando”.   2. imperativo:  il  sistema  e  gli  usi iniziamo   la   trattazione   dell’imperativo   con   alcuni   chiarimenti   di   ordine   terminologico.   il   termine   imperativo  è  utilizzato   in   letteratura   in  maniera  piuttosto  disomogenea.  è   implicito  nella  nozione  stessa  del   comandare  e  del  richiedere  che  il  comando  e  la  richiesta  siano  indirizzati  ad  una  persona  da  cui  ci  si  aspetta   che   siano   realizzati   (lyons,   1977).   gli   imperativi   orientati   al   destinatario   sono   generalmente   chiamati   imperativi   canonici   o   imperativi   in   senso   stretto.   i   comandi   diretti   alla   prima   persona   non   vengono   considerati  imperativi  da  alcuni  teorici  (per  es.  lyons,  1977).  si  usa  spesso  il  termine  esortativo  per  riferirsi  ai   comandi  alla  prima  persona.  sono  problematiche  anche  le  terze  persone.  si  usa  spesso  il  termine  iussivo  per   riferirsi  ai  comandi  alla  terza  persona  (aikhenvald,  2010).  cross-­‐linguisticamente  gli  imperativi  canonici  e  gli   imperativi  non  canonici  si  distinguono  in  quanto  questi  ultimi  tendono  ad  essere  più  marcati  formalmente  di   quelli   orientati   alla   seconda  persona.  gli   imperativi  di   seconda   singolare   sono   comunemente  espressi  dalla   radice  nuda  del  verbo  o  dalla  radice  +  vocale  tematica  (per  es.   it.  parla!)  (aikhenvald,  2010).  un  imperativo   indirizzato  al  ‘tu’  singolare  è  spesso  la  forma  più  breve  e  semplice  della  lingua  (una  delle  parole  più  brevi  in   latino   è   i!   ‘va’!’).   una   peculiarità   degli   imperativi   canonici   è   che   possono   apparire   (per   es.   in   certe   varietà   dell’italiano  del   sud)   in  una   forma   troncata   rispetto   alla   corrispondente   forma  all’indicativo,   una  proprietà   condivisa  con  il  vocativo  del  nome  proprio  che  può  comparire  con  l’imperativo,  come  nell’esempio  (1).   1) lucì,  vie’  qua!  (esempio  tratto  da  di  domenico,  2004,  p.  78) samu   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 42 l’imperativo  del  tu,  oltre  alle  specificità  della  sua  forma,  ha  delle  proprietà  sintattiche  particolari.  in   italiano  le  forme  imperativali  che  si  riferiscono  alle  persone  che  includono  direttamente  l’ascoltatore  (cioè  la   seconda   persona   e   plurale   e   la   prima   persona   plurale   inclusiva)   si   distinguono   formalmente   rispetto   alla   posizione  dei  clitici  (per  es.  lo  leggi  versus  leggilo!).  il  test  della  posizione  del  clitico  è  importante  in  italiano   per   contraddistinguere   l’uso   imperativale  di   varie   forme  che  altrimenti   coinciderebbero   con   l’indicativo   (v.   tabella  1).  in  italiano  le  grammatiche  tendono  ad  includere  nel  paradigma  dell’imperativo  oltre  alle  seconde   persone  anche  la  prima  plurale  e  le  terze  persone  oscurando  la  distinzione  tra  forme  di  imperativo  in  senso   stretto  e   forme  suppletive.  osserviamo,  con   l’aiuto  della  tabella  1  come  viene  di  norma  descritto   il  sistema   morfologico   dell’imperativo   italiano.   nella   grammatica   di   serianni   (1989)   troviamo   le   seguenti   esemplificazioni  delle  coniugazioni  dei  verbi  regolari  all’imperativo:     tabella 1 il paradigma dell’imperativo presente (in base a serianni, 2010, xi: 70, 74, 79, 80, 398) imperativo positivo imperativo negativo 1a pers. sing. 2a pers. sing. am-a tu tem-i tu serv-i tu obbed-isc-i tu non parl-are 3a pers. sing. am-i egli tem-a egli serv-a egli obbed-isc-a egli non parl-i 1a pers. plur. am-iamo noi tem-iamo noi serv-iamo noi obbed-iamo noi non parl-iamo 2a pers. plur. am-ate voi tem-éte voi serv-ite voi obbed-ite voi non parl-ate 3a pers. plur. àm-ino essi tém-ano essi sèrv-ano essi obbed-ìsc-ano essi non parl-ino   il   paradigma   è   composito   e   include   varie   forme   omofone   con   paradigmi   di   altri  modi.   le   seconde   persone,   che   costituisco   la   parte   centrale   del   paradigma   coincidono   con   le   seconde   persone   dell’indicativo   presente,  ad  eccezione  della  seconda  persona  singolare  dei  verbi  in  –are.  la  prima  persona  singolare  deriva   diacronicamente   dal   congiuntivo   (si   veda   meszler   &   samu,   2007)   e   coincide   anche   con   la   prima   persona   dell’indicativo   presente.   le   terze   persone   sono   forme   suppletive,   mutuate   dal   paradigma   del   congiuntivo   presente.1  per  quanto  riguarda  la  forma  cortese,  è  opportuno  fare  una  puntualizzazione.  il  congiuntivo  come   forma   cortese,   in   quanto   forma   suppletiva,   andrebbe   tenuto   distinto   dalle   forme   dell’imperativo   vere   e   proprie.  in  questo  studio  prendiamo  in  considerazione  solo  le  terze  persone  usate  con  funzione  di  appello  al   destinatario,   cioè   le   forme   cortesi,   ma   notiamo   che   in   italiano   possono   essere   usate   anche   in   senso   di   riferimento  alla  terza  persona  (per  es.  questa  lettera  sia  consegnata  immediatamente!  oppure  -­‐  c’è  un  signore   che   vorrebbe   parlare   con   lei.   -­‐   che   entri   pure!).   allo   stesso   modo   della   forma   cortese,   sarebbe   opportuno   riconsiderare  la  posizione  dell’imperativo  negativo  della  seconda  persona  singolare  all’interno  del  paradigma.   nelle   lingue  del  mondo,  gli   imperativi  negativi   (chiamati   anche  proibitivi)  possono  essere   formati  da  mezzi   diversi  rispetto  all’imperativo  positivo.  in  latino,  per  esempio,  si  utilizza  un  costrutto  perifrastico  e  in  italiano   si  ricorre  all’infinito.  i  proibitivi  possono  essere  speciali  anche  sotto  altri  aspetti,  come  per  esempio  riguardo   all’ordine  dei  costituenti.  infatti,  in  italiano  il  pronome  clitico  può  precedere  o  seguire  l’infinito  negativo  (non   ti   preoccupare,   non   preoccuparti).   riteniamo,   insieme   a   nuyts   e   auwera   (2016),   che   queste   proprietà   giustifichino,   almeno   in   alcune   lingue   come   l’italiano,   un   trattamento   distinto   del   proibitivo   dal   comando   positivo.   dalla   diversità   delle   forme   e   dall’omofonia   con   altri   paradigmi   risulta   chiara   la   complessità   dell’imperativo   italiano   per   lo   straniero;   inoltre,   si   spiega   perché   sia   problematico   parlare   globalmente   di   apprendimento  dell’imperativo.     dopo  aver  destrutturato   il   paradigma  dell’imperativo,  passiamo  ora   ad  osservare   le   caratteristiche   discorsive  delle   forme  imperativali,  partendo  da  una  definizione  tradizionale,  per  osservarle   in  due  corpora   che   rappresentano,   rispettivamente,   la   l1   e   la   lingua   target   dei   nostri   apprendenti.   studi   fondamentali   sull’imperativo  (aikhenvald,  2010;  kaufmann,  2012;  xrakovskij,  2001)  concordano  nell’identificare  il  suo  uso   prototipico   con   una   funzione   direttiva   (specificamente   quella   della   richiesta   o   del   comando).   gli   ordini,   i   comandi   e   le   richieste   hanno   qualcosa   in   comune   oltre   al   fatto   di   poter   essere   formulati   linguisticamente   tramite  il  modo  imperativo.  il  denominatore  semantico  comune  può  essere  riassunto  nella  formula  ‘dico  che   voglio  che  tu  lo  faccia’.  si  include  cioè  l’idea  che  il  parlante  voglia  che  l’ascoltatore  realizzi  l’azione  richiesta.   1nelle  seconde  e  terze  persone  singolare  notiamo  la  simmetria  diagonale  dei  morfi:  –i  e  –a  nel  sistema  dell’imperativo  di   seconda  e  di  terza  persona  singolare  tra  la  prima  coniugazione  da  un  lato  e  la  seconda  e  la  terza  dall’altro.   l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2 e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 43   scomponendo  il  significato  dell’ordine  si  possono  identificare  due  dimensioni  socio-­‐psicologiche  soggiacenti   al   suo   uso:   da   un   lato   la   volontà,   il   desiderio   e   il   grado   del   senso   di   urgenza   o   della   determinazione   del   parlante  nei  confronti  dell’azione  attesa  e  dall’altro  lato  il  grado  di  forza  e  la  scala  dell’autorità  tra  il  parlante  e   l’ascoltatore.   in   primo   luogo,   partendo   dalla   caratterizzazione   degli   usi   prototipici   dell’imperativo,   ci   si   aspetta   che   i   verbi   all’imperativo   codifichino   principalmente   azioni   che   portano   a   risultati   desiderati   dal   parlante.   in   più,   ci   potremmo   aspettare   manifestazioni   di   autorità   o   aspetti   di   obbligo   trasmessi   dall’imperativo.   tuttavia,   è   ben   noto   che   gli   imperativi   non   sono   usati   solo   per   svolgere   una   funzione   direttiva,   ma   coprono   un   ambito   semantico   molto   più   vasto.   i   verbi   all’imperativo   possono   conferire   permessi,  consigli,  suppliche,  preghiere  e  inviti  (serianni,  1989).  quindi,   in  secondo  luogo,  si  prevede  che  la   forza  degli   imperativi   possa   variare  da  un  ordine   stretto   che   implica   l’autorità   indiscussa  del   parlante   e   la   condiscendenza  del  destinatario,  ad  un  comando  debole  che  confina  con  il  suggerimento.  notiamo  inoltre  che,   nell’uso  nativo,  gli  imperativi  vengono  spesso  sostituiti  da  forme  indirette  di  direttivi,  con  forme  assertive  o   interrogative  contenenti  indicativi  (per  es.  adesso  lo  leggi  o  adesso  me  lo  leggi,  per  favore?   invece  di   leggilo!).   in  particolare,  nel  caso  dell’imperativo  di  cortesia,  come  nota  anche  diadori  (2000),  invece  di  dare  un  ordine   brusco  ad  un  interlocutore  da  cui  si  vogliono  tenere  le  distanze,  si  preferiscono  la  frase  interrogativa  o  altre   forme   indirette,   se   si   desidera   esprimere   l’ordine   in   termini   adeguati   ad   un   registro   di   alta   formalità.   una   forma   non-­‐imperativa   può   essere   preferita   per   ‘salvare   la   faccia’,   per   rispettare   l’etichetta   delle   relazioni   sociali  e  per  aggiungere  sfumature  all’atto  linguistico  direttivo  di  cui  l’imperativo  non  dispone.     vediamo   quindi   quali   sono   le   caratteristiche   d’uso   delle   forme   imperativali   nell’italiano   contemporaneo.  si  è  deciso  di  ricorrere  al  corpus  del  lessico  di  frequenza  dell'italiano  parlato  (corpus  lip,  de   mauro  et  al.,  1993),  il  quale  include  una  vasta  raccolta  di  testi  dell'italiano  parlato  e,  in  quanto  tale,  costituisce   un’integrazione  coerente  con  il  nostro  corpus,  essenzialmente  orale,  in  cui  l’elemento  nativo  è  molto  limitato   (v.  §4).  per  i   fini  di  questo  studio  sono  stati  estratti  dal  corpus  lip  i  verbi  all’imperativo  positivo  di  seconda   persona  singolare  presenti  nella  stessa   forma  anche  nel  nostro  corpus  di  apprendenti.  su  un   totale  di  2032   lemmi,  vediamo  nella  figura  1  i  primi  15  verbi,  con  le  rispettive  frequenze.  le  caratteristiche  dell’annotazione   del  corpus  lip  non  permettono  di  estrarre   forme  verbali  secondo   il  modo  verbale  utilizzato,  quindi  per  ora   non  disponiamo  di  statistiche  che  mettano  in  correlazione  la  frequenza  assoluta  di  tutti  i  verbi  e  la  frequenza   di   tutte   le   forme   imperativali   del   corpus.   tuttavia,   i   dati   permettono   di   identificare   le   principali   tendenze   nell’uso  dell’imperativo  in  italiano.       figura 1. frequenza dei verbi alla seconda persona singolare dell’imperativo nel corpus lip   i  verbi  che  ricorrono  con  la  frequenza  più  elevata,  senti,  guarda,  scusa,  aspetta  e  dai,   fungono  molto   raramente  da  imperativi  veri  e  propri.  i  seguenti  due  esempi  (esempi  2  e  3)  illustrano,  rispettivamente,  due   usi  tipici  di  senti  e  guarda.       samu   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 44 2)     senti  scusa  se  t’interrompo  gli  ho  comprato  una  crema  per  il  corpo  secondo  me  domani  avrà   l’avrà  finita  (lip  fa2)2         3)     ahah  ma  guarda  che  è  meglio  metterle  dentro  #  nelle  scatole  se   l’ambiente  è  sano  #  al   limite   le   copri  copri  il  tutto  con  un  lenzuolo  (lip  mb4)     negli  esempi  (2)  e  (3)  senti  e  guarda  svolgono  funzioni  pragmatiche  associate  alla  gestione  dei  turni  e   al   cambio   di   interlocutore.   nel   loro   volume,   ghezzi   e  molinelli   (2014)   distinguono   questi  marcatori   socio-­‐ interazionali,   chiamati  marcatori   pragmatici,   dai   marcatori   che   strutturano   il   discorso,   cioè   dai   cosiddetti   segnali  discorsivi3.  all’interno  dei  marcatori  pragmatici   i  verbi  senti   e  guarda   (insieme  a  ascolta   e  vedi),   che   rimandano  ad  un’attività  sensoriale  di  tipo  visivo  o  uditivo,  vengono  spesso  utilizzati  quali  segnali  allocutivi   di   richiamo   (ghezzi   &  molinelli,   2015,   p.   22),   come   nei   due   esempi   visti   sopra   (2-­‐3).   grazie   alla   funzione   fàtica,   focalizzata   sull’interlocutore,   questi   verbi   vengono   usati   per   mantenere   la   coesione   sociale   tra   gli   interlocutori  nel  cambio  di  turno,  soprattutto  nel  caso  di  turni  competitivi  -­‐  come  dimostra  waltereit  (2002).  i   segnali  allocutivi  di  richiamo  sono  utilizzati  anche  per  rinforzare  il  valore  di  ordine  o  di  richiesta  del  presente   dell’indicativo,  come  negli  esempi  (4)  e  (5).  notiamo  che  l’uso  del  presente  richiestivo  è  molto  frequente  nel   corpus  lip  anche  in  assenza  di  marcatori  pragmatici.     4)     senti  e  adesso  te  mi  dici  il  tuo  articolo  e  poi  vi  mando  via  così  va  fate  ricreazione  (lip  fc6)         5)     senti  mi  dai  un  altro  pezzettino  di  pane  piccolo  (lip  na1)     senza   pretesa   di   esaustività,   diamo   due   ulteriori   esempi   dell’uso   di   guarda   nel   corpus   lip.   nell’esempio   (6)   guarda   esprime,   al   pari   di   figurati,   dai,   ma   va’   o   va   là,  meraviglia,   sdegno   o   ironia   del   locutore.   con   questo   significato,   preceduta   dal   pronome   personale,   la   forma   imperativa   si   cristallizza   nell’espressione   tu  guarda!/ma   tu  guarda!   dove   il   pronome   non   è   in   funzione   di   soggetto,  ma   di   vocativo,   come  nota  manili  (1989).     6)     ma   guarda   comunque   con  questo  non   è   che   io   volevo  dire   che   sono   cioè   sono   contraria   no   io   sarei  favorevole  a  questo  discorso  riconoscimento  alla  eh  allo  stipendio  insomma  alle  casalinghe   (lip  fb19)     ad  uno  stadio  più  avanzato  di  perdita  del  valore  primario,  guarda  può  diventare  parte  di  un  sintagma   cristallizzato,  come  guarda  caso  nell’esempio  (7).     7)     c'è  quaresima  van  fatti  sacrifici  così  il  signore  chiede  ti  fanno  diventare  più  buono  e  viene  $  per   diventare   più   buono   e   allora   farò   questo   sacrificio   quest'altro   sacrificio   ma   guarda   caso   ci   scegliamo  sempre  i  sacrifici  più  facili  #  (lip  fd14)     la  tabella  2  mostra   la  distribuzione  d’uso  dei  verbi   senti   e  guarda,   con  un’evidente  predominanza   della  funzione  di  marcatore  pragmatico  sulla  funzione  imperativa  vera  e  propria.     tabella 2 senti e guarda nel corpus lip senti guarda sintagma cristallizzato 0 4 imperativo 10 50 marcatore pragmatico 361 265   2  negli  esempi  le  sigle  m,  f,  r,  n  indicano  la  città  in  cui  la  conversazione  è  stata  raccolta,  rispettivamente  milano,  firenze,   roma  e  napoli,  mentre  a,  b,  c  identificano  la  tipologia  di  conversazione.     3  bazzanella  (2001),  invece,  definisce  questi  elementi  segnali  discorsivi  interattivi  al  loro  interno  ulteriormente  suddivisi   in  funzioni  specifiche  (pp.  232-­‐246).   l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2 e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 45   il  terzo  verbo  più  frequente  nella  forma  imperativa  è  scusa.  la  formula  scusa  appartiene  al  gruppo  di   marcatori   interazionali  di  cortesia.  nel  corpus  lip  solo   in  parte  viene  utilizzata  effettivamente  per  chiedere   scusa  (come  nell’esempio  8).   in  altri  usi   (come  negli  esempi  9  e  10)   l’atto  di  scusarsi  non  è  presente,  scusa   funge  da  segnale  allocutivo  di  richiamo.     8)     secondo  me  scusa  se  ti  interrompo  (lip  fa3)         9)     ma  scusa  neanche  c'ero  io  a  casa  (lip  fa4)         10)     perché  a  berlino  scusa  non  hanno  aeroporti  là  (lip  fc5)     il  quarto  verbo,  aspetta,   conserva   il   suo  significato  originale,  ma  è  spesso  riferito  all’atto  del  dire  e   non   all’atto   del   fare.   in   particolare,   nell’esempio   (11)   è   impiegato   dal   parlante   per   prevenire   di   essere   interrotto.     11)   b:   lei  dice  guardi  signora  le  vie  sono  due  loro  hanno  provato  a  vedere  se  hanno  questi  soldi  eh   sempre  con  recondito  fatto  che  non  ci  stanno  i  contributi  però  mi  ha  detto  lui     a:   ma  no  ma  lui  dice     b:   aspe'  fammi  fini'  di  parlare  perché  ti  spiego  tutto  (lip  nb25)     anche   il   sesto   verbo   della   lista,   di’,   in   particolare   nella   forma   dimmi,   funge   frequentemente   da   marcatore  pragmatico.  nell’esempio  (12)  è  usato  per  concedere  il  turno  all’interlocutore.     12)   l:   insomma     a:   dimmi  serena  via     l:   la  voce     contrariamente   ai   tre   verbi   precedenti,   il   significato   di  dai,   il   quinto   verbo   della   nostra   lista,   nella   maggior  parte  degli  usi  si  allontana  radicalmente  dal  significato  originario  del  verbo.  si  tratta  di  un  verbo  di   scambio  che  diventa  marcatore  pragmatico  con  valore  esortativo,  come  nell’esempio  (13).  nell’esempio  (14),   invece,  dai  acquisisce  un  valore  epistemico:  il  parlante  invita  l’ascoltatore  a  dare  il  proprio  assenso  a  quanto   espresso.  nell’esempio  (15)  la  forma  imperativa  diventa  un’interiezione.     13)     vai  franca  provala  dai  (lip  fb14)         14)     perché   non   è   mica   moglie   dello   stato   la   signora   dai   se   lo   riconoscesse   lo   stato   non   lo   riconoscesse  il  marito  sarebbe  una  famiglia  infranta  (lip  fb18)         15)     ma  dai  li  lavi  in  lavatrice  ma  dai  (lip  ma2)     nell’esempio  (13)  accanto  a  dai,  compare  anche  vai,  che  nella  nostra  lista  occupa  il  settimo  posto,  con   un   significato   esortativo.   in   numerosi   casi   il   significato   originale   di  movimento   nello   spazio   acquisisce   un   significato   di   esortazione   a   procedere   in   un’azione,   come   nell’esempio   (16)   oppure   nel   discorso,   come   nell’esempio  (17).  inoltre,  ma  va’  o  va  là,  può  esprimere  meraviglia  o  sdegno  (esempio  18).     16)     okay  vedi  se  c'è  qualcun  altro  vai  (lip  ra8)         17)     bene  comunque  vai  dimmi  vai  (lip  fb14)         18)     ma  vai  che  schifo    (lip  ma11)     anche  se   in  misura  minore  rispetto  a  senti  e  guarda,  vai  e  dai  hanno  un  ampio  uso  quali  marcatori   pragmatici,  come  si  può  osservare  dalla  tabella  3.       samu   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 46 tabella 3 dai e vai nel corpus lip dai vai imperativo 23 68 marcatore pragmatico 140 68   dopo   la   rassegna  delle   caratteristiche  d’uso  delle   forme   imperativali   più   frequenti   in   italiano   (cioè   nella  lingua  target  dei  nostri  apprendenti)  vediamo  brevemente  quali  sono  i  verbi  più  frequenti  all’imperativo   in   lingua   inglese   (cioè   nella   l1   degli   apprendenti).   stefanowitsch   e   gries   (2003),   esaminando   un   corpus   inglese   (la   componente   britannica   dell’international   corpus   of   english)   hanno   riscontrato   un   profilo   discorsivo  degli   imperativi  nella   lingua   inglese  ben  diverso  da  quello  delineato  nella   letteratura  pragmatica   tradizionale   (v.  givón,  1989;  sadock,  1994;  wierzbicka,  1991).  nella   letteratura  pragmatica  anglosassone   il   verbo  più   tipicamente  usato  per   illustrare   l’imperativo  è  pass,  un  verbo  d’azione  che  comporta  un  risultato   letteralmente   tangibile,   richiesto   dal   parlante,   come   in   pass   the   salt!   [passa(mi)   il   sale!].   al   contrario,   gli   studiosi   mostrano   che   i   verbi   più   frequenti   non   sono   affatto   verbi   d’azione,   ma   verbi   come   per   es.   see   [vedere],  worry   [preoccuparsi],   remember   [ricordare],   note   [notare].   inoltre,   molti   verbi   d’azione   utilizzati   sono  atipici,  nel  senso  che  non  portano  a  risultati   tangibili,  come  look   [guardare],   listen   [ascoltare],  hang  on   [aspettare],  try  [provare].  i  primi  15  verbi  inglesi  più  strettamente  collegati  all’imperativo  sono  elencati  nella   figura  2.       figura 2. frequenza dei lessemi in lingua inglese più strettamente collegati alle costruzioni imperative, in base a stefanowitsch e gries (2003)   gli   autori   evidenziano   due   caratteristiche   dei   verbi   usati   più   frequentemente   all’imperativo.   la   prima,  che  le  azioni  richieste  sono  a  beneficio  dell’ascoltatore,  piuttosto  che  del  parlante  (o  per  lo  meno  sono   presentate  come  tali).  un  caso  molto  chiaro  tratto  dal  corpus   inglese  è  worry  che  si  incontra  esclusivamente   nella  formula  don’t  worry  [non  ti  preoccupare].  gli  unici  verbi  d’azione  con  risultati  tangibili  si  trovano  in  testi   di   istruzione.   la   seconda,   che   la   funzione   effettiva   di   numerosi   verbi   è   quella   di   dirigere   l’attenzione   dell’interlocutore   o   di   organizzare   il   discorso   (per   es.   tell   [dire],   listen   [ascoltare]).   gli   autori   concludono   asserendo   che   con   i   verbi   d’azione   tipici   gli   imperativi   vengono   apparentemente   usati   meno   dai   parlanti   inglesi.  la   lista  dei  verbi   inglesi   (figura  2)  e  quella  dei  verbi   italiani   (figura  1),  benché  risultanti  da  calcoli   diversi,   mostrano   delle   similitudini   niente   affatto   casuali.   sono   frequenti   in   entrambe   le   lingue   le   forme   imperativali  di  verbi  che  rimandano  ad  un’attività  sensoriale  di  tipo  visivo  o  uditivo  e  che  rivestono  funzioni   pragmatiche  (senti,  guarda,  vedi  in  italiano  e  see,  look,  listen  in  inglese),  di  verbi  fattitivi  (lascia  e  fai  in  italiano   e   let   in  inglese),  di  verba  dicendi  usati  per  organizzare  il  discorso  (di’  e  tell)  e  di  altri  verbi  d’azione  che  non   portano  a  risultati  tangibili,  come  aspetta/hang  on,  prova/try.  questi  esempi  sono  dimostrativi  del  fatto  che  la   funzione   primaria   delle   forme   più   frequenti   all’imperativo   (in   italiano   come   in   inglese),   non   sia   quella   del   comando   in   cui   il   parlante   impone   la   propria   volontà   sull’ascoltatore   per   far   compiere   un’azione,   ma   che   serva  principalmente  ad  assicurare  la  cooperazione  e  l’interazione  tra  parlante  e  ascoltatore.     l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2 e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 47   le   premesse   appena   presentate   ci   permettono   di   formulare   due   ipotesi   generali.   in   primo   luogo,   possiamo   aspettarci   che   i   vari   componenti   del   paradigma   presentino   diversi   livelli   di   difficoltà   agli   apprendenti   e   che  gli   elementi  morfologicamente  più  marcati   siano  appresi  più   tardi   rispetto  agli   elementi   meno   marcati   (argomento   affrontato   già   in   studi   precedenti,   come   si   vedrà   nel   prossimo   paragrafo).   in   secondo  luogo,  possiamo  prevedere  che   le  caratteristiche  d’uso  dell’imperativo  nella   lingua  target  (e  quindi   nell’input  al  quale  sono  esposti  gli  apprendenti  spontanei  e  misti)  e  nella  l1  influenzino  gli  usi  di  questo  modo   verbale  anche  nell’interlingua  e  che  possano  avere  effetti  anche  sui  modi  e  sui  tempi  della  sua  acquisizione.     3.  studi  precedenti  sull’acquisizione  dell’imperativo  in  italiano  l2   sull’imperativo  in  italiano  l2  monica  berretta  ha  pubblicato  due  articoli  pionieristici  nel  1993  e  nel   1995.   da   questi   studi   emerge   che   l’imperativo   in   italiano   l2   è   appreso   dagli   stranieri   tardi   e   con   molte   difficoltà.   sotto   questo   aspetto   l’apprendimento   dell’italiano   l2   divergerebbe   dall’acquisizione   della   lingua   materna,  nella  quale  invece  l’imperativo  è  tra  le  prime  forme  verbali  a  comparire4  (salustri  &  hyams,  2003;   salustri  &  hyams,  2006).   abbiamo  visto  nel  §2  che  il  paradigma  dell’imperativo  italiano  è  un  sistema  composito  che  include  sia   elementi   morfologicamente   poco   marcati,   sia   elementi   marcati.   monica   berretta   nei   due   articoli   citati   ha   messo   in   risalto   le   gerarchie   di   marcatezza   che   dovrebbero   determinare   la   sequenza   acquisizionale   delle   forme  dell’imperativo.  in  particolare,  fa  osservare  gli  effetti  della  marcatezza  nozionale  e  formale,  secondo  cui   il   singolare  deve  precedere   il   plurale,   la   forma  positiva  deve  precedere  quella  negativa.   inoltre,   la   studiosa   sottolinea  la  presenza  di  una  marcatezza  solo  formale:  “la  devianza  di  –a  per  la  seconda  singolare  rispetto  a  –i   e   il  conseguente  ritardo  nell’apprendimento  pure  a  parità  di  altri   fattori  (complessità   formale  e  nozionale)”   (berretta,  1995,  p.  345).   secondo   i  dati  presentati  dalla   studiosa,   compaiono  prima   imperativi   corretti   in   -­‐i   (verbi  in  –ere/–ire),  per  es.  senti,  metti,  dimmi.  nella  fase  successiva  la  marca  –i  è  sovraestesa  anche  a  verbi  in   –are,  per  es.  parli  -­‐  parla,  lasci  perdere  -­‐  lascia  perdere.  per  spiegare  la  sovraestensione  della  marca  –i  che  va   contro  la  tendenza  generale  degli  apprendenti  di  sovraestendere  invece  le  forme  della  prima  coniugazione  in   caso  di  allomorfia  (per  es.  rispondato,  credato)  berretta  chiama  in  causa  la  forza  del  morfo  –i  per  indicare  la   seconda   persona   (berretta,   1993):   in   una   prima   fase   di   sviluppo,   il  morfo  –i,   a   partire   dalla   desinenza   dei   verbi  regolari  in  –ere  e  –ire  all’imperativo  (rinforzato  dalla  seconda  persona  singolare  dei  verbi  all’indicativo   presente   in   tutte   le   coniugazioni),   si   estenderebbe  analogicamente  all’imperativo  dei  verbi   regolari   in  –are,   ipotesi   riassunta   nella   figura   3.   la   marcatezza   formale   della   seconda   persona   singolare   dei   verbi   in   –are   causerebbe   un   ritardo   sensibile   nell’apprendimento   della   forma   corretta,   che   nell’interlingua   apparirebbe   dopo  un  lungo  periodo  in  cui  si  generalizza  la  desinenza  –i.     figura 3. ipotesi dell’acquisizione delle forme imperativali in l2 prima fase   c’è  un  altro  elemento  disomogeneo  nel  sistema  che,  secondo  i  dati  di  berretta  (1995),  sembra  invece   acquisito  con  più  facilità.  si  tratta  della  forma  singolare  negativa  con  non  +  infinito  (per  es.  non  stare  qua,  non   ti   preoccupare),   marcato   rispetto   alla   forma   positiva.   secondo   la   studiosa,   il   suo   apprendimento   potrebbe   essere  favorito  dall'uso  nativo  dell'infinito  come  forma  di  istruzione  generica.  infatti,  in  italiano  l’infinito  può   sostituire  l'imperativo  quando  ci  si  rivolge  ad  un  esecutore  generico  (per  es.  allacciare  le  cinture!  circolare!).   la   sequenza   acquisizionale   delle   forme   imperativali,   secondo  berretta   (1995),   è   influenzata   non   solo   dalle   4  nell’interpretazione  di   questo  dato   è  utile   tenere  presente   che   la   frequenza  di   forme   imperativali   adulte   è  molto   alta   nell’input  al  quale  i  bambini  sono  esposti.  in  italiano  l1  la  frequenza  delle  forme  dell’imperativo  usate  dai  bambini  è  molto   alta:  40%  intorno  all’età  tra  2  anni  e  2  anni  e  4  mesi,  tale  frequenza  scende  allo  stesso  livello  degli  adulti  (15%)  verso  2   anni  e  6-­‐7  mesi  (salustri  &  hyams,  2006).   samu   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 48 gerarchie   di   marcatezza,   ma   anche   dalla   presenza   delle   forme   imperativali   nell’input   da   nativi.   berretta   osserva   che   tra   le   forme   è   molto   scarsa   la   frequenza   della   seconda   plurale   dell'imperativo   (e   anche   dell'indicativo)  nell’input.  secondo  la  studiosa  sarebbe  la  scarsità  delle  forme  nell’input  a  determinare  il  fatto   che  la  seconda  persona  plurale  dell’imperativo,  pur  essendo  identica  all’indicativo,  sia  rara  e  piuttosto  tarda   anche  nelle  produzioni  degli  apprendenti  (per  es.  smettetela  di  far  rumore,  chiudete  la  bocca,  non  fate  tardi).   possiamo   fare  due  ultime  previsioni   che   riguardano   le   forme  di   cortesia.  nella   sequenza  acquisizionale  dei   tempi  e  modi  verbali  presente  (infinito)  >  (ausiliare)  +  participio  passato  >  imperfetto  >  futuro  >  condizionale  >   congiuntivo  messa   in   luce  dagli   studiosi  del  progetto  di  pavia,   e   in  particolare  da  banfi   e  bernini   (2003),   il   congiuntivo  è  l’ultima  forma  verbale  ad  emergere  nell’interlingua.  quindi  ci  possiamo  aspettare  che  le  forme   cortesi   dell’imperativo,   espresse   dal   congiuntivo,   siano   tra   le   ultime   ad   essere   acquisite.   riassumendo,   secondo   gli   studi   di   berretta   (1993,   1995)   ci   si   aspetta   di   trovare   la   sequenza   di   apprendimento   dell’imperativo  illustrata  nella  figura  4.       figura 4. sequenza di apprendimento dell’imperativo (in base a berretta,1995)   riguardo  all’uso  dell’imperativo  berretta  nota   che  gli   imperativi   sono  piuttosto   rari   e   che   le   forme   che   emergono   nelle   interviste   compaiono   tipicamente   in   citazioni,   quindi   non   sono   usate   realmente   nei   confronti  dell’interlocutore.  gli  intervistati  tendono  a  “fuggire  in  forme  descrittive  e/o  impersonali,  ovvero  in   forme  del  tipo  ‘si  fa  così’,   ‘tu  guardi’  o   ‘si  deve  guardare’  in  luogo  degli  attesi  fa’  così,  guarda”  (1995,  p.  334)   anche   di   fronte   a   richieste   esplicite   di   dare   istruzioni.   la   studiosa   interpreta   l’atteggiamento   di   evitare   le   forme  dirette   come  una   reazione  alla  marcatezza   socio-­‐pragmatica  dell’uso  dell’imperativo.  porre   se   stesso   come   fonte   di   obbligo   per   l'interlocutore   è   un   comportamento   sociale   e   linguistico   piuttosto   marcato   fra   adulti,  evitato  per  ragioni  di  cortesia.  questa  ipotesi  configura  i  direttivi  -­‐  e  l'imperativo  in  particolare  -­‐  come   una   forma   socialmente   marcata,   e   per   questo   spesso   evitata   così   dai   parlanti   madrelingua,   come   dagli   stranieri  adulti.  la  scarsa  e  tarda  presenza  dell’imperativo  nell’italiano  l2  sarebbe  quindi  motivata,  oltre  che   dai  fatti  morfologici,  anche  da  fattori  socio-­‐pragmatici.   4.  il  corpus  e  la  metodologia   il  corpus  su  cui  abbiamo  testato  le  nostre  ipotesi  è  composto  da  un  insieme  di  casi  studio  individuali:   16  apprendenti  anglofoni  di  italiano  l2  di  vari  livelli  di  competenza  sono  stati  osservati  per  4  mesi.  prima  di   partecipare  alla  ricerca  gli  studenti  sono  stati  sottoposti  ad  un  test  scritto  e  orale  che  ha  permesso  di  definire   il   loro   livello   secondo   il   qcer.   disponiamo,   inoltre,   di   un   gruppo   di   controllo   formato   da   2   parlanti   madrelingua.  gli   informatori  sono  stati   intervistati  due  volte  (ad  una  distanza  di  circa  3  mesi),  ad  eccezione   dei  principianti   e  dei  parlanti  madrelingua.   si   tratta  quindi  di  uno   studio  prevalentemente   trasversale,   con   una  minima  estensione  longitudinale.  nella  tabella  4  elenchiamo  gli  informatori  raggruppati  secondo  la  loro   competenza  linguistico-­‐comunicativa.   tabella 4 i gruppi di informatori gruppo di livello elementare gruppo di livello intermedio gruppo di livello intermedio-avanzato gruppo avanzato gruppo di controllo competenza a1+ / a2 b1 / b1+ b2 b2+ / c1 madrelingua informatori br, ki, ra, ke jo, sa, me, tr ma, ak, fr, al ca, em, sh, ju ir, ch   tutti  i  soggetti  sono  ventenni,  studentesse  e  studenti  universitari  che  vivono  e  studiano  a  perugia.  gli   apprendenti  presi   in  esame  acquisiscono   la   lingua  spontaneamente  attraverso  contatti  con  parlanti  nativi  e   l’apprendono   anche   a   scuola,   tutti   presso   lo   stesso   istituto,   sotto   la   guida   di   insegnanti  madrelingua,  ma   il   seconda singolare dei verbi in –ere/ ire forma negativa seconda singolare con non + infinito seconda plurale seconda singolare dei verbi in –are forma di cortesia l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2 e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 49   peso   dell’apprendimento   scolastico   è   minore   (da   4   a   6   ore   di   studio   alla   settimana)   di   quello   dell’input   spontaneo.  si  tratta  quindi  di  un  apprendimento  di  tipo  misto5.  i  corsi  dispongono  di  sillabi  molto  dettagliati   che   non   sono   inclusi   in   questo   studio.   osserviamo   solo   che   l’imperativo   (informale   e   formale,   positivo   e   negativo)  è  introdotto  al  livello  b1  e  viene  rinforzato  al  livello  b2  (con  particolare  attenzione  alla  distinzione   tra   imperativo   formale   e   informale   e   la   posizione   dei   pronomi   clitici).   l’imperativo   non   è   trattato   esplicitamente  né  al  livello  elementare  (ad  eccezione  delle  formule  scusa,  scusi),  né  al  livello  avanzato.   i  dati  raccolti  includono  registrazioni  di  interviste  guidate  e  di  situazioni  verbali  autentiche  (sei  task   per  gli  apprendenti  di  livello  intermedio  e  avanzato  e  due  task  per  i  principianti  assoluti,  per  un  totale  di  sei   ore  e  mezzo)  e  brevi  documenti  scritti  (due  compiti  per  gli  apprendenti  di  livello  intermedio  e  avanzato).  ai   fini  di  questo  studio  nell’analisi  non  si  evidenzieranno  le  differenze  tra  varietà  scritte  e  orali.  tuttavia,  negli   esempi   citati 6  i   compiti   scritti   e   quelli   orali   si   distinguono   a   seconda   della   posizione   della   sigla   dell’informatore:  negli  esempi  tratti  da  conversazioni  la  sigla  precede  la  citazione,  mentre  nei  compiti  scritti   la  sigla  segue  il  passo  citato.  nella  tabella  5  si  riassumono  le  varie  componenti  del  corpus  di  apprendenti.     tabella 5 le componenti del corpus di apprendenti per livelli di competenza prima intervista seconda intervista compito scritto task orali conversazione libera compito scritto task orali conversazione libera a1+/a2 2 b1 / b1+ 1 3 1 1 3 1 b2 1 3 1 1 3 1 b2+ / c1 1 3 1 1 3 1 madrelingua 1 3 le  produzioni  del  gruppo  di  controllo  costituiscono  un  punto  di  riferimento  per  poter  paragonare  le   produzioni   degli   apprendenti   e   gli   usi   effettivi   in   italiano.   poiché   il   gruppo   di   controllo   si   è   rivelato  molto   esiguo,  è  stato  necessario  integrare  i  nostri  dati  con  quelli  del  corpus  lip  (v.  §2).   nell’impostare  la  raccolta  dati  si  è  tentato  di  proporre  agli  apprendenti  compiti  mirati  all’espressione   delle   funzioni   dare   ordini,   fare   richieste,   dare   istruzioni   e   in   cui   la   situazione   (il   numero   e   il   ruolo   degli   interlocutori)   induceva   gli   apprendenti   a   produrre   sia   forme   al   singolare   che   al   plurale,   in   situazioni   sia   informali   (in   cui   si   aspetta   la   comparsa   di   forme   di   imperativo   di   seconda   persona)   che   formali   (in   cui   si   dovrebbero  produrre  forme  di  cortesia).  i  task  comunicativi  proposti  agli  apprendenti  si  sono  ispirati  a  quelli   utilizzati  nel  progetto  di  pavia  (per  una  descrizione  dettagliata  sul  progetto  si  rimanda  a  bernini,  1994)  e  a   quelli   impiegati   nel   progetto   p-­‐moll   (modalität   im   längsschnitt   von   lernervarietäten),   uno   studio   longitudinale   condotto   da   norbert   dittmar   (1990)   in   germania   negli   anni   ottanta   che   documenta   l’acquisizione   naturale   della  modalità   in   tedesco   da   parte   di   apprendenti   polacchi   e   italiani   (si   veda   anche   skiba,   dittmar,  &  bressem,   2008).   da   quest’ultimo   progetto   è   stato   tratto   un   compito   in   cui   l’apprendente   deve  far  riprodurre  ad  un  parlante  nativo  una  storia  vista  in  precedenza  dandogli  istruzioni  verbali  (la  storia   racconta  un  episodio  in  cui  il  protagonista  ruba  un  posacenere  in  un  bar).  altri  stimoli  sono  stati  creati  ad  hoc,   come   per   esempio   le   immagini   che   introducono   dei   role-­‐play   in   cui   l’apprendente   è   indotto   ad   esprimere   ordini   e   richieste.   per   esempio,   si   chiede   all’apprendente   di   immedesimarsi   nel   ruolo   del   manager   di   un   centro  commerciale  (rappresentato  in  un’immagine  con  un  altoparlante  in  mano  e  dal  volto  preoccupato)  che   5  per   il   dibattito   sulla   compatibilità   tra   dati   di   acquisizione   spontanea   e   quelli   di   apprendimento   misto   o   guidato   si   rimanda  a  bettoni  (2001)  e  a  giacalone  ramat  (1993).   6    nelle  trascrizioni  delle  conversazioni   i  nomi  degli  apprendenti  vengono  indicati  prima  dei  passi  citati  con  sigle  di  due   lettere   fra   barre   oblique   e   gli   intervistatori   sono   indicati   con   \it\   seguito   da   un   numero.   in   presenza   di   intonazione   conclusiva,  l’enunciato  è  delimitato  dal  punto  fermo.  l’intonazione  ascendente  è  indicata  con  ^  e  l’intonazione  sospensiva   con  -­‐  a  fine  parola.  l’enfasi  è  indicata  con  due  punti  esclamativi,  a  inizio  e  a  fine  enunciato.  le  parole  pronunciate  a  volume   basso  sono  indicate  da  %  a  inizio  e  a  fine  parola.  la  cesura  intonativa  senza  pausa  si  segnala  con  la  virgola.  le  pause,  a   seconda   della   loro   lunghezza,   sono   indicate   da   +,   ++,   +++.   l’inizio   e   la   fine   di   discorso   in   sovrapposizione   fra   parlanti   diversi   sono   indicati  da  &.  l’autocorrezione  del  parlante  è   indicata  da  /.   il   testo  di  commento  (glosse  e  osservazioni)  è   inserito  tra  parentesi  quadre.  gli  elementi  in  inglese  sono  segnalati  da  un  asterisco  iniziale  e  finale.   samu   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 50 riceve   la  notizia  di  una  bomba  posizionata   in  uno  dei  negozi   e   che  deve   invitare   i   clienti   e   gli   impiegati   ad   evacuare   l’edificio,   seguendo   le   regole   di   comportamento   adeguate   al   caso.   in   un’altra   simulazione,   invece,   l’immagine  (che  rappresenta  vari  comportamenti  corretti  ed  errati  di  genitori  che  si  prendono  cura  dei  propri   figli)  costituisce  lo  stimolo  per  un  role-­‐play  in  cui  gli  apprendenti  rivestono  il  ruolo  di  un  assistente  sociale  di   fronte  ad  un  genitore  con  problemi  nell’accudire  il  figlio  neonato.  l’assistente  sociale  deve  dare  delle  severe   disposizioni  al  genitore.     prima  di  iniziare  l’analisi  e  di  poter  confrontare  i  nostri  dati  con  quelli  descritti  e  analizzati  dagli  studi   che   abbiamo   illustrato   nel   §3,   è   necessario   fare   due   osservazioni.   la   prima:   i   soggetti   studiati   da   monica   berretta  sono  apprendenti  di  l1  miste,  mentre  in  questo  studio  sono  stati  osservati  studenti  esclusivamente   anglofoni   (che   non   conoscono   nessun’altra   lingua   straniera   oltre   all’italiano).   la   seconda:   i   soggetti   di   berretta  sono  tipicamente  adulti  che  vivono  e   lavorano   in   italia  e  che  (a  poche  eccezioni)  non  sono  esposti   all’insegnamento  formale  della  lingua  italiana,  mentre  i  nostri  apprendenti  frequentano  regolarmente  corsi  di   italiano  e  ciò  comporta  una  differenza  nell’input  al  quale  possono  essere  sottoposti.     5.  analisi  dei  dati   in   questo   studio,   si   è   adottato   un   tipo   di   analisi   che   procede   dalla   funzione   alla   forma:   si   sono   esaminati  sia  gli  enunciati  in  cui  si  riconoscono  elementi  linguistici  ai  quali  è  affidata  in  italiano  l’espressione   delle   funzioni   dare   ordini   e   dare   istruzioni,   sia   contesti   semanticamente   modalizzati   in   senso   prescrittivo,   benché  con  mezzi  e  strategie  non  appartenenti  alla  lingua  target.  passiamo  ora  in  rassegna  le  produzioni  degli   apprendenti,  suddivise  secondo  i  livelli  del  qcer.  il  numero  delle  occorrenze  è  sintetizzato  nella  tabella  6.  le   forme  verbali  osservate  includono  tutte  le  espressioni  atte  a  dare  ordini  e  fare  richieste  (v.  riga  a).  il  51%  di   queste  forme  è  costituito  da  imperativi  formali  e  informali,  positivi  e  negativi,  al  singolare  e  al  plurale  (v.  riga   b).  ricordiamo  che  le  disparità  numeriche  sono  dovute  anche  al  numero  ridotto  di  task  al  livello  elementare  e   al  numero  di  apprendenti  (quattro  per  ciascun  livello)  contro  gli  informanti  madrelingua  (2).       tabella 6 le occorrenze verbali analizzate gruppo elementare gruppo intermedio gruppo intermedioavanzato gruppo avanzato gruppo di controllo totale a) forme verbali 54 244 222 269 136 926 b) imperativo 3 (5.5%) 189 (77,4%) 129 (58,1%) 139 (51,6%) 16 (11,7%) 476 (51,4%) nota: le forme dell’imperativo osservate includono imperativo positivo e negativo, formale e informale, singolare e plurale.   nelle   produzioni   degli   apprendenti   dei   livelli   a1   e   a2  molto   spesso   si   osserva   la   sovraestensione   della  prima  persona  singolare  dell’indicativo  alla   funzione  dell’imperativo  di  seconda  persona  singolare  (15   occorrenze   su   un   totale   di   54),   funzione   resa   chiara   solo   grazie   all’intonazione   e   all’implicito   situazionale.   l’esempio  (19)  riproduce  un  passaggio  di  un  compito  in  cui  due  apprendenti  (ki  e  br)  dovevano  dare  delle   istruzioni   ad   un   parlante   madrelingua:   l’apprendente   br,   vedendo   che   l’interlocutore   madrelingua   non   reagiva  alle  istruzioni  della  sua  compagna,  ha  riprodotto  la  stessa  forma  verbale  aggiungendo  una  particolare   enfasi  (!bevo!).     19)   \ki\   bevo  &  un  caffè  &.  [bevi  il  caffè!]     \br\   &  bevo  &  !bevo!  [bevilo,  bevilo!]     in   altri   casi   si   osserva   un   tentativo   di   formare   la   seconda   persona   (bevi,   prendi,   legge).   ma   l’intonazione   non   ci   permette   di   stabilire   che   si   tratti   effettivamente   di   imperativi:   potrebbe   essere   una   seconda   persona   singolare   dell’indicativo   (per   es.   bevi,   prendi)   oppure   una   terza   persona   singolare   del   presente  dell’indicativo  (per  es.   legge)  utilizzata  per  dare  istruzioni.  come  vedremo  più  avanti,  sia  i  parlanti   madrelingua,  sia  gli  apprendenti  più  competenti  usano  spesso  l’indicativo  per  dare  istruzioni  (adesso  ti  siedi  e   guardi  il  giornale  invece  di  siediti  e  guarda  il  giornale!).  inoltre,  l’uso  dell’indicativo  in  funzione  prescrittiva  è   possibile   anche   nella   lingua   inglese,   quindi   non   possiamo   escludere   che   sia   una   strategia   utilizzata   sin   dai   l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2 e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 51   primi  livelli.  è  frequente  anche  l’uso  dell’infinito7  (15  occorrenze  su  un  totale  di  54).  al  plurale  si  generalizza   la   prima   o   la   terza   persona   plurale   (andiamo,   continuano   al   posto   di   andate,   continuate).   nei   dati   non   compaiono   né   la   forma   negativa,   né   la   forma   di   cortesia.   abbiamo,   invece,   numerosi   esempi   senza   alcuna   forma  verbale;  il  significato  degli  enunciati  in  questi  casi  è  del  tutto  implicito  ed  è  interpretabile  solo  in  base   al  contesto.  l’esempio  (20)  può  essere  interpretato  pressappoco  in  questo  modo:  da  piazza  matteotti  girate  a   sinistra,  prendete  via  oberdan,  poi  a  sinistra  ci  sono  le  scale,  scendete  le  scale  e  continuate  lungo  corso  cavour.     20)   \ra\   piazza  matteotti  e  *now  i  forget  how  to  say  left*  sinistra^     \it3\   molto  bene.     \ra\   sì^  via  oberdan  e  sinistra  la  scala/&  la  scale  &     \it3\   &  uhm.  &     \ra\   e  continuano  +     \it3\   uhm.     \ra\   corso  cavour     l’omofonia  con  altri  paradigmi  verbali  rende  difficile   la  distinzione  delle   forme   imperative  e  quelle   indicative  in  assenza  di  pronomi  clitici.  nelle  produzioni  dei  principianti  questa  difficoltà  è  aggravata  dal  fatto   che  la  corrispondenza  forma-­‐funzione  risulta  molto  vaga.  nel  corpus  l’unica  forma  chiaramente  imperativale  è   la   formula   rilassati,   prodotta   tre   volte   all’interno   della   stessa   conversazione.   sostanzialmente   l’unica   osservazione   che   possiamo   fare   riguarda   le   forme   alle   quali   gli   apprendenti   ricorrono   per   dare   ordini   o   istruzioni,   tra   cui   spiccano   la   prima   persona   singolare   dell’indicativo   e   l’infinito   (complessivamente   30   occorrenze  su  54).  riassumiamo  le   forme  prodotte  dai  principianti  nella  tabella  7,   tenendo  presente  che   la   principale   strategia   alternativa,   cioè   l’omissione 8 ,   non   essendo   numericamente   quantificabile,   non   è   rappresentata.     tabella 7 mezzi linguistici usati dal gruppo di livello elementare forme verbali percentuali d’uso indicativo sing. 1 28% infinito 28% indicativo sing. 2 17% indicativo sing. 3 11% indicativo plur. 1 5% imperativo sing. 2 5% indicativo plur. 3 4% participio passato 2%   al  livello  b1  la  strategia  principale  nella  formazione  della  seconda  persona  singolare  sembra  essere   la   forma  composta  della   radice  +  vocale   tematica,  quindi  –a  nei  verbi   in  –are,  –e  nei  verbi   in  –ere   ed  –i  nei   verbi  in  –ire.  l’esempio  (21)  ci  permette  di  osservare  gli  esiti  in  –e  (prende)  e  in  –i  (apri).     21)   \tr\   prende  la  borsa  e  apri.     la   strategia   adoperata   dagli   apprendenti   è   particolarmente   vistosa   nei   verbi   della   seconda   coniugazione  (per  es.:  chiede,  sede,  beve,  mette,  mettelo  [sic],  ripete,  legge;  62  occorrenze  su  71  verbi  in  -­‐ere),   mentre  nella  prima  e  nella  terza  coniugazione  è  meno  visibile  perché  dà  come  esito  la  forma  coincidente  con  il   7  per   la   questione   dell’infinito   come   forma  basica   si   veda  banfi,   1990;  banfi  &  bernini,   2003;   berretta,   1990;   berretta,   1992;  berruto,  1991.   8  l’omissione  del  verbo  è  una  strategia  a  cui  gli  apprendenti  possono  ricorrere  per  vari  motivi:  per  esempio,  perché  non   possiedono   i   mezzi   lessicali   e  morfologici   necessari   per   esprimere   enunciati   completi   oppure   perché   sono   influenzati   dalla  loro  l1.  in  inglese,  in  effetti,  si  usano  comunemente  costrutti  senza  verbo  per  esprimere  ordini  e  richieste,  come  per   es.   two   black   coffees,   please   (per   ordinare   al   bar);   single   to   manchester   (per   chiedere   un   biglietto   alla   stazione).   l’omissione   del   verbo   all’imperativo   è   una   strategia   anche   dell’italiano   standard.   pensiamo   ai   comandi   nominali   per   indicare  ciò  che  si  chiede  o  si  ordina,  come  per  es.  due  caffè,  per  favore;  un  biglietto  andata  e  ritorno  a  roma.   samu   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 52 target  (paga,  cammina,  attraversa,  rilassa,  guarda,  prepara,  separa,  tira,  cucina,  usa,  taglia,  trova;  eschi  [esci],  sali).   la   strategia   di   formazione   della   seconda   singolare   in   –a,   –e,   –i   persiste   anche   tre   mesi   dopo   (cioè   nella   seconda  registrazione)  in  tutti  gli  apprendenti.  ci  sono  pochi  esempi  in  cui  compare  la  desinenza  –i  nei  verbi   in  –are  (paghi,  trovila;  2  occorrenze  su  67  verbi  in  -­‐are)  e  nei  verbi  in  –ere  (per  es.  bevi;  9  occorrenze  su  71   verbi  in  -­‐ere).  le  autocorrezioni  di  un’apprendente  potrebbero  costituire  un  indizio  per  capire  il  processo  di   generalizzazione  della  desinenza  in  –i:  nella  stessa  sequenza  produce  prima  paga  che  poi  corregge  in  paghi,  e   in   un’altra   sequenza   procede   allo   stesso  modo   con   il   verbo  bere,   iniziando   con   la   forma  beve   seguita   dalla   forma  bevi.  per  quanto  riguarda  la  seconda  persona  plurale,  si  registra  un’evoluzione  nei  mesi  intercorsi  tra  le   due  registrazioni.  durante  le  prime  registrazioni  gli  apprendenti  non  hanno  utilizzato  forme  imperativali  alla   seconda  persona  plurale:  hanno  esteso,  tutti  e  quattro,  la  seconda  persona  del  singolare  al  plurale.  c’è  un  solo   esempio   di   un   tentativo   di   formazione   del   plurale   dell’imperativo,   che   consiste   nella   sovraestensione   di   un’ipotetica   terza   persona   plurale   (prendeno).   durante   le   seconde   registrazioni,   invece,   gli   apprendenti   si   dimostrano   molto   più   consapevoli   nel   distinguere   la   seconda   persona   plurale   dalla   seconda   singolare.   al   plurale,  una  studentessa  percorre  nella  riflessione  tutta  una  serie  di  persone:  sing.  2  >  plur.  1  >  plur.  3.  >  plur.   2   (corri   >   non   correm   >   non   corrono   >   non   correte).   quest’ordine   rispecchia   ciò   che   abbiamo   osservato   dai   principianti,   cioè   che   la   seconda  persona   singolare   è   tra   le   prime   forme   ad   apparire,   seguita   dalla   prima   e   dalla   terza   plurale,   che   inizialmente   si   generalizzano   per   la   seconda   persona   plurale.   una   volta   trovata   la   desinenza   corretta,   l’apprendente   continua   a   produrre   solo   forme   corrette   di   seconda   persona   plurale   (v.   esempio  22).  al  livello  b1,  le  forme  di  seconda  persona  plurale  non  sono  molto  numerose:  11  occorrenze  su   244  forme  verbali  osservate.     22)   \sa\   !corri,  corri!  e  dopo  +++     \it1\   che  cosa  dici  ++  vedi,  c’è  anche  un  ascensore  ++  c’è  gente  nei  negozi,  devi  avvisare  tutti.     \sa\   facemo  un   facemo   le   scale   non   elevatore   e   +++  non   correm/non   corrono,  ma  ++  no.  non   correte,  ma  +  camminate  ++  all’*exit*  e  ++  telefonate  per  aiuta,  ahm  ++     compaiono  vari  esempi  di  imperativo  negativo  formato  con  non  +  forma  positiva  (non  cammina,  non   prendelo;  in  totale  12  occorrenze),  ma  ci  sono  solo  occorrenze  sporadiche  di  imperativo  negativo  formato  da   non   +   infinito,   benché  nella   forma  positiva   compaia   occasionalmente   l’infinito.   la   struttura   formulaica  non   preoccuparti  non  viene  ancora  analizzata  come  non  +  infinito  +  pronome,  come  si  deduce  dall’uso  del  doppio   clitico   nell’esempio   (23).   dal   momento   in   cui   sono   attestate   forme   positive   di   seconda   persona   plurale,   compaiono  anche  le  forme  negative  di  seconda  persona  plurale  corrette  (non  correte,  non  prendete).     23)   \sa\   non  ti  preoccuparti/non  vi  preoccupati  ++  per  tutti  i  suoi  cosi     gli   apprendenti   si   rendono   conto   di   dover   usare   forme   di   cortesia   nelle   situazioni   formali,   ma   le   forme   cortesi   vengono   per   lo   più   sostituite   dalle   forme   della   seconda   persona   singolare   (per   es.  da’,   fallo,   mette,  mettela,  tira,  prende,  prendelo,  solleva).  una  sola  apprendente  si  dimostra  particolarmente  consapevole,   durante  la  seconda  registrazione,  delle  forme  di  cortesia  e  usa  correttamente  vari  verbi  (per  es.  tenga,  canti,   non  lanci),  ma  le  forme  non  risultano  stabili  neanche  nel  suo  caso9.  la  forma  negativa  cortese  è  costruita  da   tutti   gli   apprendenti   con   non   +   imperativo   positivo   (non   butta,   non   da’,   non   lecca).   nella   tabella   8   si   riassumono  le  forme  utilizzate  dal  secondo  gruppo  di  apprendenti.                     9  i   quattro   apprendenti   del   livello   b1   hanno   trattato   nel   corso   del   semestre   l’imperativo   formale.   tra   di   loro   una   sola   studentessa   sembra   aver   interiorizzato   il   paradigma   dei   verbi   regolari   e   di   alcuni   verbi   irregolari,  ma   neanche   lei   usa   coerentemente  l’imperativo  formale  durante  l’intera  registrazione.   l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2 e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 53   tabella 8 mezzi linguistici usati dal gruppo di livello intermedio forme verbali percentuali d’uso imperativo sing. 2 64% verbi modali 9% forma cortese 7% indicativo 6% imperativo plur. 2 4% essere + aggettivo 3% infinito positivo 3% participio passato 2% imperativo plur. 1 1% infinito negativo 1%   al   livello   b1   gli   apprendenti   possiedono   una   consapevolezza  morfologica   più   elevata   rispetto   agli   apprendenti   principianti.   è   lecito   quindi   domandarsi   come   considerare   le   forme   imperativali   devianti   che   sono   numericamente  molto   elevate   (66   contro   90   verbi   coniugati   correttamente).   le   forme   devianti   sono   usate   dagli   apprendenti   con   un   significato   direttivo   e   nelle   istanze   in   cui   vengono   impiegati   dei   pronomi   clitici,   questi   ultimi   appaiono   correttamente,   alla   destra   del   verbo   anche   quando   la   desinenza   non   corrisponde  alla  desinenza  target  (per  es.  mettela,  prendelo).  nelle  statistiche  si  è  quindi  deciso  di  accorparle   alle  forme  corrette.  dalla  tabella  8  si  deduce  che  l’uso  dell’imperativo  è  predominante  rispetto  alle  strategie   alternative  messe  in  atto  dagli  apprendenti.  tra  queste  ultime  notiamo  l’uso  dei  verbi  modali  dovere  e  bisogna   (per  es.  non  devi  fare,  deve  comprarlo,  hai  bisogna  fare)  e  delle  espressioni  impersonali  di  necessità  (per  es.  è   necessario  che  tutti  usciamo),   sia   in   situazioni   formali   che   in   situazioni   informali.  gli   apprendenti   ricorrono   all’omissione  completa  del  verbo  solo  per  evitare  di  formulare  l’imperativo  di  cortesia.     nella  formazione  della  seconda  persona  singolare  persiste  l’uso  della  forma  radice  +  vocale  tematica   fino  al  livello  b2,  con  la  conseguente  produzione  di  forme  estranee  al  paradigma  italiano  (per  es.  prende,  beve,   mette,  tiene).  gli  esempi  non  sono  sempre  facili  da  interpretare  perché  gli  apprendenti  di  questo  livello  usano   spesso  descrizioni  in  funzione  prescrittiva.  nell’esempio  (24)  il  turno  di  ak  potrebbe  essere  interpretato  sia   come  descrizione,  sia  come  istruzione  (vedi,  mette),  mentre  nel  primo  turno  di  ma,  oltre  all’intonazione,  anche   la  posizione  del  pronome  ci  indica  che  si  tratta  di  un  imperativo  (rubala).     24)   \ak\   e  vedi  +  vedi  se  qualcuno  ah  +  circa  +  di  tu,  e  mette  la  posacendere  nella  borsa.     \it2\   !ah,  ok!     \ma\   !rubala!     \it2\   sì  sì.     \ma\   %  non  c’è  nessuno.  %     \ak\   e  poi^     \ma\   ok,  prende  il  caffè  di  nuovo  e  ritorna  la  tazzina/o  la  tazza  al  banco.     si   registra   un   aumento   delle   forme   in   –i   nella   prima   (per   es.   cammini,   guardi,   tagli,   mangi,   lasci,   contatti)   e   nella   seconda   coniugazione   (per   es.   prendi,  metti,   corri,   bevi,   siedi,   scrivi).   la   seconda   persona   plurale  nella  prima  registrazione  viene  sostituita   in  alcuni  casi  dalla  seconda  persona  singolare  (per  es.  vai,   gira,   segui),   mentre   durante   la   seconda   registrazione   è   formata   correttamente   da   tutti   gli   apprendenti   (camminate,  cominciate,  tagliate,  prendete,  stendete).   durante   la   seconda   registrazione  compaiono   le   forme  negative  al   singolare   con  non  +   infinito   (non   mangiare)  e  al  plurale  con  non  +  forma  positiva  (non  usate).  le  forme  negative  al  singolare  si  sovraestendono   anche  alle  forme  singolari  cortesi  (es.  non  dare,  non  gettare,  non  buttare).  nella  forma  di  cortesia  positiva  a  volte   si  utilizza  la  stessa  forma  dell’imperativo  informale  (per  es.  tira,  aggiusta,  prende,  mette),  ma  molto  più  spesso   si   fa   ricorso   alla   descrizione   (all’indicativo)   che   diventa   interpretabile,   grazie   al   contesto,   come   istruzione.   riassumiamo  le  forme  imperativali  e  le  strategie  alternative  utilizzate  dal  terzo  gruppo  nella  tabella  9.     samu   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 54 tabella 9 mezzi linguistici usati dal gruppo di livello intermedio-avanzato forme verbali percentuali d’uso imperativo sing. 2 43% verbi modali 23% imperativo plur. 2 10% infinito positivo 7% essere + aggettivo/avverbio 5% indicativo 5% infinito negativo 4% forma cortese 1% condizionale 1% verbi performativi 1%   rispetto  al   livello  b1,  negli  stessi  compiti  comunicativi  svolti  da  entrambi  i  gruppi,  notiamo  un  calo   nell’uso  dell’imperativo  di  seconda  singolare  (96  occorrenze  su  un  totale  di  222,  cioè  il  43%  rispetto  al  64%   del   livello   b1),   un   aumento   nella   produzione   dell’imperativo   plurale   (22   occorrenze,   cioè   il   10%   contro   il   4,5%  del   livello  b1)   e   nell’utilizzo   dell’infinito   in   forma  negativa   (9   occorrenze,   cioè   il   4%   contro   l’1%  del   livello   b1).   inoltre,   gli   apprendenti   utilizzano   ampiamente   verbi  modali   o   costrutti   impersonali   esprimenti   necessità   (per  es.   forse  può  tirare,  deve  prendere,  è   importante  che  la  gamba  è  più  lungo,   la  gamba  va  sotto).   compaiono   le  espressioni  performative   che   implicano  un  ordine  diretto,  una   richiesta  o  un   invito  a   fare   (o   non  fare)  qualcosa,  come  nelle  frasi  vi  ordino  di  uscire/vi  prego  di  uscire/è  proibito  uscire.  troviamo,  inoltre,  il   modo  condizionale,  utilizzato  anche   in   italiano  per  comandi   cortesi,   inviti,   richieste.   in  generale,   rispetto  al   livello   b1,   i   mezzi   alternativi   all’imperativo   sono   molto   più   ricchi   e   vengono   impiegati   soprattutto   in   situazioni  formali,  ma  non  mancano  esempi  di  forme  alternative  anche  in  situazioni  informali.   al   livello   avanzato   le   forme   sia   positive   che   negative   della   seconda   persona   singolare   e   plurale   sembrano  acquisite  stabilmente  (per  es.  aspetta,  riscalda,  lasciala,  riportalo;  prendi,  smetti,  chiedi,  mettilo,  rompi;   apri,   aprila;   non   aprire;   entrate,   andate,   prendete,   uscite).   riguardo   alla   forma   andate   notiamo   che   una   studentessa  produce  prima  nella  frase  la  forma  vate,  poi  si  corregge  immediatamente;  il  processo  reso  chiaro   dalla  riflessione  ad  alta  voce  attesta   il   tentativo  di  ricostruire   la   forma  plurale   in  base  alla  singolare  seconda   persona   dell’imperativo.   è   significativo   il   fatto   che   per   la   seconda   plurale   dell’imperativo   non   venga   sovraestesa   la   forma   equivalente   dell’indicativo,   ma   che   essa   venga   ricostruita   a   partire   dalla   forma   imperativale   meno   marcata   (singolare   seconda   persona).   ciò   spiega   anche   la   tendenza   a   generalizzare   la   forma  della  seconda  singolare  nelle  forme  della  seconda  plurale  nei  livelli  più  bassi.  gli  apprendenti  di  questo   livello  tendono  a  mitigare  la  forza  dell’imperativo  in  molte  situazioni  e  a  ricorrere  a  forme  meno  dirette  (per   es.   si   può   usare,   non   c’è   bisogno   di   essere,   si   prega   di   andare,   vi   prego   di   uscire),   come   quella   utilizzata   da   ju   nell’esempio  (25).     25)   \ju\   ok.  questo  è  il  momento  giusto  per  tirare  la  gamba  giù  così  diventa  più  stretto  il  nodo   l’ultimo  ostacolo   sembra   essere   costituito   dalla   forma  di   cortesia:   si   producono  pochissime   forme   (per   es.   prenda;   in   totale   3   occorrenze).   raramente   si   impiegano   forme   della   seconda   persona   singolare   dell’imperativo  (per  es.  prendi)  e  a  volte  riemerge  la  forma  radice  +  vocale  tematica  (per  es.  prende)  al  posto   della   forma   di   cortesia.   compare   anche   l’infinito   quale   forma   di   istruzione   generica   (17   occorrenze),   interpretabile  nel  contesto  come  istruzione  diretta  rivolta  all’interlocutore.  abbiamo  una  sola  occorrenza  per   l’imperativo  negativo  di   cortesia   con  non  +   congiuntivo   (non  si  preoccupi).  la   forma  negativa   cortese  viene   qualche  volta  sostituita  da  non  +   infinito,  oppure  non  +   imperativo   informale.  le  due  soluzioni  si  alternano   spesso   anche   all’interno   dello   stesso   enunciato,   in   forma   di   autocorrezione,   come   nell’esempio   (26).   è   da   notare  che  gli  stessi  apprendenti  maneggiano  il  congiuntivo  presente  nelle  subordinate  per  esprimere  dubbi  e   opinioni   con  agiatezza  e   con  una  correttezza   formale  piuttosto  elevata.  le   forme   imperativali   e   le   strategie   alternative  impiegate  dal  quarto  gruppo  sono  illustrate  nella  tabella  10.       26)   \em\   e  non  lasciare  il  bambino  nella/non  lascia  il  bambino  nella  +  nella  macchina.   l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2 e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 55   tabella 10 mezzi linguistici usati dal gruppo di livello avanzato forme verbali percentuali d’uso imperativo sing. 2 40% verbi modali 24% indicativo 8% infinito positivo 6% imperativo plur. 2 6% essere + aggettivo/avverbio/sostantivo 5% sì passivo 5% infinito negativo 3% forma cortese 1% imperativo plur. 1 1% verbi performativi 1%   rispetto   al   livello   b2   notiamo   un   ulteriore   calo   nell’uso   dell’imperativo   di   seconda   singolare   (108   occorrenze,   cioè   il   40%   rispetto   al   43%  del   livello  b2)   e   una   crescita   delle   strategie   alternative.   il   numero   delle   forme   cortesi   rimane   basso   (2   occorrenze   al   livello   intermedio-­‐avanzato   e   3   occorrenze   al   livello   avanzato).  a  questo  livello  gli  apprendenti  hanno  a  loro  disposizione  un  repertorio  molto  ricco  di  espressioni   alternative   adeguate   al   contesto   dal   punto   di   vista   sociolinguistico   e   pragmatico   a   cui   ricorrono   evitando   consapevolmente  ciò  che  costituisce  per   loro  una  difficoltà.  vengono  utilizzati  verbi  modali   (per  es.   lei  deve   inserire,   lei   può   stringere),   l’infinito   (per   es.   far   andare),   l’indicativo   nell’uso   di   descrizione   al   posto   dell’istruzione  (per  es.  la  gamba  va  sotto)  e  varie  espressioni  impersonali  (per  es.  non  si  può  dare).   passiamo   ora   alle   produzioni   dei   parlanti   nativi   a   cui   sono   stati   proposti   gli   stessi   compiti   comunicativi.   gli   esempi   di   impiego   sia   dell’imperativo   informale,   sia   dell’imperativo   formale   sono   molto   scarsi   (5   occorrenze   di   forme   cortesi   e   11   occorrenze   di   prima   e   seconda  persona  plurale).   è   interessante   osservare  l’esempio  (27)  in  cui  il  soggetto  intervistato  inizia  ad  utilizzare  le  forme  di  cortesia,  ma  dopo  aver   pronunciato   prendi   [lei],   non   fa   più   ricorso   all’imperativo   durante   l’intera   intervista.   nella   tabella   11   riassumiamo  le  forme  imperativali  e  le  strategie  alternative  utilizzati  dagli  informatori  madrelingua.     27)   \ir\   guardi,  è  molto  semplice.  sembra  difficile,  ma  non  lo  è.  innanzitutto  alzi  il  colletto  perché-­‐     \it2\   sì.     \ir\   ovviamente   la   cravatta   va  messa   sotto.   si   passa   la   cravatta   intorno   al   collo^   prendi   i   due   lembi,  uno  lo  deve  pass+  quello  di  sinistra  deve  essere  messo  sotto.     tabella 11 forme imperativali e strategie alternative di soggetti madrelingua forme verbali percentuali d’uso indicativo 55% verbi modali 15% sì passivo 7% imperativo plur. 2 7% forma cortese 4% infinito positivo 4% gerundio 3% essere + avverbio 2% andare + participio passato 1% condizionale 1% imperativo plur. 1 1%   dalla  tabella  11 risulta  chiaro  che  nel  corpus  non  abbiamo  nessuna  occorrenza  di  seconda  persona   singolare  dell’imperativo  usata  dagli   informatori  madrelingua.  nelle   richieste  dirette   i  parlanti  nativi  usano   principalmente   la   seconda   persona   singolare   dell’indicativo.   è   poco   usata   anche   la   forma   cortese;   si   samu   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 56 impiegano  numerose  forme  alternative  al  congiuntivo,  come  la  prima  persona  plurale  (per  es.  continuiamo  a   girarlo),   vari   costrutti   impersonali   (per   es.   è  meglio  se   tira  su),   verbi  modali   (per   es.  deve  passarlo)   e   varie   forme   passive   (per   es.   la   gamba   va  messa,   deve   essere   passato,   si   passa).   inoltre,   sono   usati   come   direttivi   alcuni   gerundi,   i   quali,   grazie   alla   loro  natura  non  marcata  dal   punto  di   vista  della  persona,   permettono  di   rivolgersi  all’interlocutore  in  una  maniera  indiretta. se   l’imperativo   in   funzione   di   comando   viene   usato   meno   con   l’aumentare   della   competenza   in   italiano,   vediamo   quattro   casi   in   cui   gli   apprendenti,   anche   quelli   più   competenti,   hanno   invece   utilizzato   coerentemente   l’imperativo.   il   primo   caso   riguarda   gli   ordini   dati   in   situazioni   di   emergenza   (come   negli   esempi   (22)  e   (23)  visti   sopra)  e  si  avvicina  all’uso  prototipico  dell’imperativo  descritto   in  §2,   in  quanto   in   queste   situazioni   sono   presenti   un   alto   grado   di   senso   di   urgenza   e   di   determinazione   del   parlante   nei   confronti  dell’azione  attesa.  tuttavia,  è  assente  la  disparità  nel  grado  di  forza  e  dell’autorità  tra  il  parlante  e   l’ascoltatore.  infatti,  le  azioni  sono  imposte  sul  destinatario  per  il  beneficio  di  quest’ultimo  e  non  del  parlante.   il  secondo  caso  riguarda  schemi  discorsivi  ricorrenti,  come  le  ricette  (esempio  28).   28)     riscalda   il   forno   a   350   of   /145   oc.  mescola   in   una   ciotola   una   tazza   di   farina   tipo   00,   un   cucchiaino  di  sale  e  mezza  cucchiaino  di  bicarbonato  /ju/     nei   testi   di   istruzione   troviamo   verbi   d’azione   con   risultati   tangibili,   ma   non   è   inclusa   l’idea   che   il   parlante   voglia   che   l’ascoltatore   realizzi   l’azione   richiesta.   infatti,   è   evidentemente   assente   il   beneficio   che   potrebbe  ricavare  il  parlante  dalla  realizzazione  dell’azione.  il  terzo  caso  include  richieste  che  servono  un  fine   comune,   come   la   corretta   esecuzione   di   un   compito   in   cui   parlante   ed   ascoltatore   sono   entrambi   coinvolti   (come   gli   ess.   (3)   e   (6)   relativi   al   task   del   posacenere   rubato   descritto   in   §4).   sembra   che   gli   apprendenti   ritengano  appropriato  l’uso  dell’imperativo  quando  il  parlante  e  l’ascoltatore  decidono  temporaneamente  di   entrare  in  un  rapporto  di  collaborazione  (similmente  a  quanto  descritto  da  myhill  e  smith  (1995))  e  quindi   l’uso  dell’imperativo  faccia  parte  di  un  “patto”.  nelle  medesime  situazioni  i  parlanti  madrelingua  hanno  invece   evitato  del  tutto  l’uso  dell’imperativo,  dando  maggior  peso  alla  cortesia  e  sottraendosi  al  gioco  rappresentato   dal   task.   il   quarto   caso   si   allontana   decisamente   dagli   usi   prototipici,   include   espressioni   che   riguardano   l’interazione  e  non  denotano  azioni  con  risultati  desiderati  dal  parlante.  le  azioni  richieste  sono  a  beneficio   dell’ascoltatore,  piuttosto  che  del  parlante,  come  negli  esempi  (12)  e  (13).     29)     fammi  sapere  se  io  ti  aiuto.  \ma\  [se  ti  devo  aiutare]         30)     dimmi  se  hai  voglia  d’aiuta  \ak\  [se  vuoi  che  ti  aiuti]     riguardano  l’interazione  e  si  allontanano  dagli  usi  prototipici  anche  i  casi  in  cui  i  verbi  all’imperativo   fungono   da   marcatori   pragmatici   (v.   §2).   negli   esempi   (31)   e   (32)   i   verbi   senti   e   guardi,   prodotti,   rispettivamente,   da   un   apprendente   di   livello   avanzato   e   da   un   parlante   madrelingua,   contribuiscono   ad   attivare  il  canale  comunicativo,  senza  agire  direttamente  sul  destinatario.     31)   \em\   senti.  cominciamo.         32)10   \ir\   guardi,  è  molto  semplice.  sembra  difficile,  ma  non  lo  è.  innanzitutto  alzi  il  colletto…   6.  conclusioni   come  abbiamo  visto  nell’analisi,  i  dati  hanno  confermato  solo  in  parte  le  previsioni  formulate  in  base   agli   studi   precedenti   (cfr.   §3)   rispetto   alla   sequenza   di   acquisizione   dei   componenti   del   paradigma.   si   è   verificata  l’ipotesi  riguardo  all’ordine  della  comparsa  della  seconda  persona  singolare  dell’imperativo  rispetto   alla  seconda  persona  del  plurale.  si  è  verificata  l’ipotesi  dell’acquisizione  tarda  del  congiuntivo,  ma  le  poche   occorrenze  si  concentrano  in  forme  di  routine  come  non  si  preoccupi,  quindi  è  discutibile  se  questi  elementi   possano  costituire  parte   integrante  di  un  paradigma  unico  pienamente   interiorizzato.  si  è  verificato  solo   in   parte   il   ritardo   nell’acquisizione   della   seconda   persona   singolare   dei   verbi   in   –are   e   non   si   è   verificata   l’acquisizione  relativamente  precoce  dell’imperativo  negativo  con  non  +  infinito.  in  quanto  segue  esponiamo   10  l’esempio  32  è  estratto  dall’esempio  27.   l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2 e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 57   una   revisione   delle   ipotesi   di   partenza   in   questi   ultimi   tre   ambiti   (cioè   la   seconda   persona   del   singolare,   l’imperativo  negativo  e  le  forme  cortesi).   nell'acquisizione  della  seconda  singolare  dei  verbi  abbiamo  visto  in  opera  due  strategie.  la  strategia   principale  degli  apprendenti  anglofoni  è   il   ricorso  ad  una   forma  particolare  del  verbo  che  si  compone  della   radice  e  della  vocale  tematica  del  verbo  (parla,  prende,  apri).  questa  strategia  dà  esiti  conformi  al  paradigma   italiano   nei   verbi   della   prima   e   della   terza   coniugazione,   che   conservano   la   vocale   tonica   all’imperativo   di   seconda   singolare,   rispettivamente   –a   e   –i.   nella   seconda   coniugazione   dà   esiti   distinti   dal   paradigma   dell’italiano11.  come  spiega  aikhenvald  (2010),  crosslinguisticamente  le  forme  più  comuni  dell’imperativo  di   seconda  singolare  sono  la  radice  "nuda"  del  verbo  o  la  radice  +  vocale  tematica.  l’imperativo  inglese  coincide   con  la  radice  “nuda”  del  verbo  (per  es.  go!).  gli  apprendenti  anglofoni  non  mutuano  semplicemente  la  forma   inglese  all’italiano  l2,  ma  costruiscono   la   forma   imperativale  a  partire  dagli  elementi  della   lingua   italiana  a   loro   disposizione12  e   arrivano,   in   una   maniera   sorprendentemente   omogenea,   ad   una   regola   ipotetica   che   prevede  la  formazione  dell’imperativo  aggiungendo  la  vocale  tematica  alla  radice,  regola  che  peraltro  dà  esiti   conformi   ad   uno   stadio   (diacronicamente   lontano)   della   lingua   italiana.   una   strategia   secondaria   a   cui   ricorrono   gli   apprendenti   anglofoni   è   quella   prevista   da   berretta:   sovraestendono   la   desinenza   –i,   quale   marca  di  seconda  persona  singolare,  ai  verbi  in  –are  e  solo  in  una  fase  di  acquisizione  successiva  compaiono   le   forme   corrette   in   –a.   scegliendo   questa   strategia,   gli   apprendenti   seguono   una   strategia   di   trasparenza,   secondo  un  ideale  rapporto  uno  a  uno  tra  forma  e  funzione.  quando  il  significato  e  la  funzione  di  un  elemento   grammaticale   è   chiaro   (in   questo   caso   il   morfo   –i   come   espressione   della   seconda   persona   singolare),   l’apprendente  tende  ad  utilizzare  la  forma  che  giudica  la  migliore  per  esprimerlo,   invece  di  utilizzare  forme   irregolari  meno   trasparenti.   applicando   strategie   di   trasparenza  morfosemantica   gli   apprendenti   creano   la   forma  analogica  in  –i  dell’imperativo  di  seconda  persona  singolare  dei  verbi  in  –are  (tipo  paghi!).  nella  figura   5   si   riassumono   le   varie   strategie   di   formazione   dell’imperativo   di   seconda   persona   singolare   in   italiano   standard  e  in  alcune  sue  varietà,  in  inglese  e  in  italiano  l2  di  anglofoni.  le  caratteristiche  (c)  e  (e)  della  terza   riga   si   riferiscono   alla   ricreazione   del   paradigma   da   parte   degli   apprendenti,   mentre   la   caratteristica   (b)   corrisponde  alla  formazione  dell’imperativo  in  inglese  e  l’esempio  (d)  a  quella  in  italiano.  la  caratteristica  (a)   si  riferisce  agli  imperativi  di  seconda  persona  singolare  in  certe  varietà  dell’italiano  del  sud  (v.  esempio  (1),   §2).  la  figura  5   illustra  due  aspetti   fondamentali  della  natura  dell’imperativo:  da  un   lato,   la  centralità  della   seconda   persona   e   la   possibilità   della   marcatezza   formale   minima.   sono,   infatti,   questi   due   aspetti   a   determinare  la  formazione  dell’imperativo  di  seconda  persona  singolare  nelle  varietà  appena  elencate.       figura 5. strategie di formazione dell’imperativo di seconda persona singolare in italiano, in inglese e in italiano l2   abbiamo  osservato  che  la  forma  negativa  dell’imperativo  di  seconda  persona  singolare  è  “deviante”   rispetto  al  sistema  dell’imperativo  positivo.  la  disomogeneità   formale  dell’imperativo  negativo  comporta  un   rallentamento  nell’apprendimento  perché  l’apprendente  non  può  ricavare  dall’input  un’equivalenza  chiara  e   11  in  italiano  la  seconda  persona  della  seconda  coniugazione  usciva  originariamente  in  –e,  conformemente  all’etimo  latino   e  fu  poi  sostituito  in  fiorentino  antico  da  –i,  modellato  sulla  terza  coniugazione  (cfr.  serianni,  1989;  tekavčić,  1980).   12  l’immagine  metaforica   della   nuova   lingua   come   costruzione   si   deve   a   hugo   schuchardt   e   a   federica   venier   che   ha   sottolineato  la  forza  di  questa  metafora-­‐guida  di  die  lingua  franca  (venier,  2012).   samu   e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 58 univoca  tra  forma  e  funzione.  la  forma  negativa  viene  resa  inizialmente  con  non  +  imperativo  positivo,  cioè   l’apprendente   “regolarizza”   il   sistema   seguendo   la   già   menzionata   strategia   di   trasparenza   (nella   seconda   persona   l’indicativo   positivo   è  parli,   l’indicativo   negativo   è  non  parli,   l’imperativo   positivo   è  parla!,   quindi   l’imperativo   negativo   è   non   parla!).   l’unica   forma,   non   analizzata,   a   comparire   precocemente   è   non   preoccuparti  (verbo  che  compare  con  una  frequenza  molto  elevata  nel  corpus   inglese  presentato  in  §2;  l’uso   frequente  di  questa   formula  potrebbe  essere  quindi  ricondotto  alla  l1).  una  volta  acquisita,   la   forma  non  +   infinito  diventa  molto  solida  nel  paradigma  e  si  generalizza  a  lungo  anche  al  plurale  e  alle  forme  cortesi.     il  congiuntivo  in  funzione  di  forma  cortese  dell'imperativo  emerge  molto  tardi.  ricorre  molto  di  rado   non  solo  nelle  produzioni  degli  apprendenti,  ma  anche  in  quelle  del  gruppo  di  controllo  costituito  da  parlanti   madrelingua.  questi  risultati  rinforzano  i  dubbi  sulla  fondatezza,  dal  punto  di  vista  teorico,  di  rappresentare  il   “paradigma  completo”  dell’imperativo  (v.  tabella  1)  e  sulla  necessità  di  operare  con  una  distinzione  chiara  tra   le  forme  di  imperativo  vere  e  proprie  e  le  forme  suppletive.  i  risultati  della  ricerca  evidenziano  la  posizione   particolare  dell’imperativo  rispetto  ad  altri  paradigmi  verbali:  nel  caso  dell’imperativo  non  possiamo  parlare   di  un  paradigma  unico  e  far  equivalere  (benché  si  faccia  solo  formalmente)  la  forma  cortese  alle  terze  persone   degli  altri  paradigmi.  a  margine  potremmo  aggiungere  che  l’acquisizione  delle  forme  cortesi  non  è  solamente   una  questione  morfologica,  ma  anche  sociolinguistica.  in  particolare,  se  la  lingua  di  partenza  non  distingue  tra   l’allocuzione   formale   e   l’allocuzione   informale   (come   l’inglese),   l’acquisizione   delle   forme   di   cortesia   sarà   collegata   anche   all’acquisizione   della   terza   persona   come   marca   di   ‘formalità’,   quindi   sarà   anche   una   questione  di  competenza  socio-­‐linguistica  nella  l2.   riflettendo  sulla  forma  abbiamo  visto  che  gli  apprendenti  più  competenti,  avendo  a  disposizione  una   vasta  gamma  di  mezzi   lessicali  e  morfosintattici,  usano  l’imperativo  formale  meno  rispetto  agli  apprendenti   meno   competenti   e   ricorrono   ad   altri   strumenti   che   possono   avere   la   stessa   efficacia   pragmatica.   nel   loro   caso   potremmo   appellarci   al   ruolo   del   monitor   di   krashen   (1985),   cioè   al   controllo   che   l’apprendimento   razionale   esercita   sulla   lingua   prodotta   dalla   competenza   acquisita.   abbiamo   notato   che   sin   dai   livelli   intermedi  gli  apprendenti  utilizzano  forme  assertive  contenenti  indicativi  e  una  crescente  varietà  di  strutture   indirette   al   posto  dell’imperativo  diretto   informale,   forme   che  possono   essere   interpretate   come   istruzioni   grazie   al   contesto   situazionale.   dai   nostri   dati   risulta   che   più   si   è   competenti   nella   l2,   più   gli   apprendenti   diventano  sensibili  al  valore  socio-­‐pragmatico  dell’imperativo  e  più  spesso  ricorrono  a  strutture  alternative   anche   quando   padroneggiano   pienamente   la   forma   (per   es.   al   livello   avanzato   vi   prego   di   uscire   invece   di   uscite  o  si  prega  di  andare  invece  di  andate).  si  sono  comportati  in  modo  molto  simile  anche  i  parlanti  nativi,   evitando  completamente  l’uso  dell’imperativo  canonico  e  usando  spesso  l’indicativo  nelle  situazioni  informali.   come   osserva   mencacci,   a   differenza   di   quel   che   si   potrebbe   pensare,   “sembra   di   poter   dire   che   solo   apparentemente  l’imperativo  esprime  il  comando  e  che,  anzi,  in  tale  impiego  non  è  poi  tanto  usato”  (1983,  p.   161).  le  produzioni  dei  madrelingua  sono  indicative  di  ciò  che  gli  apprendenti  ricevono  come   input:  da  una   parte,   le  forme  assertive  o  interrogative  contenenti   indicativi  che  sostituiscono  le  forme  dirette  dei  direttivi   (adesso   ti   alzi   per   alzati!,   lo   apri   tu?   per   aprilo!)   non   rende   certamente   facile   al   parlante   non   nativo   l'identificazione  delle  forme  specifiche  dell'imperativo;  dall’altra  parte  la  scarsità  dell’imperativo  formale  che   si   realizzano   per   lo   più   in   espressioni   di   routine   (tipo   guardi,   scusi)   non   permettono   agli   apprendenti   di   rinsaldare  le  forme  al  congiuntivo  in  questa  funzione.  inoltre,  non  è  da  escludere  che  la  tendenza  a  preferire   forme   alternative   all’imperativo   sia   rinforzata   anche   dalla   l1,   visto   che   l’imperativo   nella   funzione   di   comando  è  usato  poco  anche  in  inglese  (v.  §2).   la   causa  della   scarsità  di   imperativi  per  esprimere  azioni   imposte  all’ascoltatore  per  volontà  di  un   parlante  dotato  di  autorità  e  della  preferenza,   invece,  per  indicare  attività  suggerite  dal  parlante  a  beneficio   dell’ascoltatore  va  cercata  nelle  regole  di  cortesia  in  entrambe  le  lingue.  le  forme  imperativali  possono  essere   considerate  troppo  dirette  e  comportare  il  pericolo  di  ‘fare  perdere  la  faccia’  (nuyts  &  auwera,  2016).  questo   comportamento  si  situa  nel  contesto  sociolinguistico  in  cui  i  comandi  diretti  si  rifiutano  per  tutelare  la  libertà   di  azione  e  la  libertà  da  imposizioni  dei  parlanti13  (si  veda  il  principio  di  ‘faccia  negativa’  proposto  da  brown  &   levinson,  1987).  potremmo  quindi  affermare,  insieme  a  mira  ariel,  che  le  regole  di  cortesia  e  le  norme  sociali   sopprimono  alcuni  contenuti,  mentre  ne  promuovono  altri.  quindi,   il  discorso,  come  viene  sperimentato  dai   parlanti,  e  per  derivazione,  la  grammatica,  riflettono  questo  filtro  sociale  (ariel,  2008).  la  marcatezza  socio-­‐ 13  benché  i  principi  di  cortesia  siano  universali,  le  singole  regole  dipendono  da  norme  e  tradizioni  culturali  e  sono  quindi   specifiche  di  ciascuna  lingua.  la  forma  interrogativa  può  condividere  con  la  forma  imperativa  le  restrizioni  descritte  per   l’italiano  e  per  l’inglese:  in  molte  lingue  indigene  dell’australia  fare  domande  per  ottenere  informazioni  è  considerato  un   comportamento  intrusivo  e  viene  perciò  evitato  (nuyts  &  auwera,  2016).   l'acquisizione  dell'imperativo  in  italiano  l2 e-­‐journall  4(1)  (2017),  pp.  40-­‐61 59   pragmatica  dell’imperativo  e  la  conseguente  scarsità  nell’input  potrebbe  costituire  un’ulteriore  giustificazione   della   ricostruzione  del   paradigma  di   seconda  persona   singolare   “creativa”   (e   tendente   alla   fossilizzazione),   nonché  della  difficoltà  e  della  scarsità  di  occorrenze  di  imperativi  di  cortesia  nelle  varietà  di  apprendimento.     analizzando   gli   usi   effettivi   dell’imperativo   (§2),   abbiamo   notato   che   le   forme   imperativali   maggiormente  utilizzate  in  italiano  assolvono  principalmente  funzioni  socio-­‐interazionali.  l’imperativo  serve,   essenzialmente,   per   regolare   l’interazione   tra   il   parlante   e   l’ascoltatore,   per   dirigere   l’attenzione   dell’ascoltatore.  l’imperativo  ha   la  capacità  di   indirizzarsi  all’interlocutore  e  questa  capacità  è  strettamente   collegata  al   fatto  che  sia  tipicamente  indirizzato  ad  una  seconda  persona.  come  osservano  floricic  (2009)  e   floricic  e  molinu  (2012),  l’imperativo  è  nell’ambito  verbale  la  controparte  del  vocativo  nell’ambito  nominale.   e,  come  il  vocativo,  è  focalizzato  sull’interlocutore  e  non  presenta  specificazioni  morfologiche.  infatti,  venier   (2012)  suggerisce  che,     come   la  categoria  del  vocativo  è  quella  che  marca  sul  nome   la  differenza  benvenistiana  tra   persona  e  non  persona  [...],  così   l’imperativo  marca  la  stessa  distinzione  sul  verbo,  essendo   un  modo  dedicato  al  tu  e  sottraendo  dunque  il  verbo  all’apparente  distinzione  valoriale  tra  le   persone  che  lo  caratterizza  nelle  sue  forme  finite.  (p.  114)     le   forme   imperativali   che   assumono   funzioni   socio-­‐interattive   ed   espressive,   sono   reinterpretate   come  marcatori  pragmatici  e  perdono  il   loro  contenuto  originale  di  comando,   insieme  al   loro  status  verbale   per   diventare   imperativi   solo   nella   forma.   benché   nelle   grammatiche   italiane   l’imperativo   sia   tradizionalmente   annoverato   tra   i   modi   finiti   del   verbo   e   sia   incluso   nei   paradigmi   verbali,   nel   suo   uso   effettivo   presenta   uno   statuto   particolare.   da   un   lato,   benché   sia   collegato   ai   verbi,   è   una   modalità   dell’enunciato   e   non   solo   un  modo   del   verbo,   e   dall’altro,   è   formalmente   vicino   a   categorie   di   espressioni   tendenzialmente   invariabili   (come   per   es.   l’espressione   congratulazioni!) 14 .   ciò   spiega,   sul   versante   acquisizionale,  il  fatto  per  cui  certe  formule  appaiano  presto  nell’interlingua  (per  es.  guarda,  aspetta,  dimmi,   fammi  sapere,  non  ti  preoccupare)  e  senza  esitazioni  riguardo  alla  morfologia.  sul  versante 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 benjamins.   serianni,  luca  (2010  [1989]).  grammatica  italiana.  italiano  comune  e  lingua  letteraria.  novara,  italia:  de  agostini.   skiba,   romuald,   dittmar,   norbert,   &   bressem,   jana   (2008).   planning,   collecting,   exploring   and   archiving   longitudinal  l2  data:  experiences  from  the  p-­‐moll  project.  in  lourdes  ortega  &  heidi  byrnes  (a  cura   di),  the  longitudinal  study  of  advanced  l2  capacities  (pp.  73-­‐88).  new  york/london:  routledge.   stefanowitsch,  anatol  &  gries,  stefan  th.  (2003).  collostructions:  investigating  the  interaction  of  words  and   constructions.  international  journal  of  corpus  linguistics,  8,  209–223.   tekavčić,  pavao  (1980  [1972]).  grammatica  storica  dell’italiano.  vol.  2.  morfosintassi.  bologna,  italia:  il  mulino.   venier,  federica  (2012).  la  corrente  di  humboldt.  una  lettura  di  la   lingua   franca  di  hugo  schuchardt.  roma,   italia:  carocci.   waltereit,   richard   (2002).   imperatives,   interruption   in   conversation,   and   the   rise   of   discourse  markers:   a   study  of  italian  guarda.  linguistics,  40,  987-­‐1010.   wierzbicka,  anna   (1991).  cross-­‐cultural  pragmatics.  the  semantics  of  human  interaction.  berlin,  germania  /   new  york,  stati  uniti:  mouton  de  gruyter.   xrakovskij,  victor  s.  (2001)  (a  cura  di).  typology  of  imperative  constructions.  monaco,  germania:  lincom  europa.             borbala samu, università per stranieri di perugia borbala.samu@unistrapg.it it borbala samu ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca in linguistica storica presso l’università di manchester (regno unito) e successivamente il dottorato in linguistica applicata presso l’università per stranieri di perugia. attualmente lavora presso l’università per stranieri di perugia e presso umbra institute, un istituto americano di istruzione superiore operante a perugia: insegna nei corsi di lingua e cultura italiana e si occupa della formazione degli insegnanti di italiano a stranieri. le sue pubblicazioni riguardano da un lato la sintassi storica dell’italiano e dei volgari italiani antichi e dall’altro, l’acquisizione e la didattica dell’italiano l2. en borbala samu earned a phd in historical linguistics from the university of manchester (uk) and a second phd in applied linguistics from the university for foreigners in perugia. she currently works at the university for foreigners in perugia and at the umbra institute, an american institution of higher education operating in perugia. she teaches italian language and culture and collaborates in italian language teacher training courses. her publications cover the diachronic syntax of italian and structures of early vernaculars of italy, as well as the acquisition and teaching of italian l2. es borbala samu es doctora en lingüística por la universidad de manchester (reino unido) y en lingüística aplicada por la università per stranieri en perugia. en la actualidad trabaja en la università per stranieri de perugia y en el umbra institute, un instituto americano de instrucción superior que desarrolla su actividad en perugia. imparte clase en los cursos de lengua y cultura italiana y se ocupa de la formación de los profesores de italiano como lengua extranjera. sus publicaciones están relacionadas tanto con la sintaxis histórica del italiano y de las antiguas lenguas vernáculas italianas como con la adquisición y la enseñanza del italiano l2.   microsoft word pauletto_7.2.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  7,  issue  2,  october  2020,  28–50   issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.12.216   www.e-­‐journall.org       ©  pauletto  2020.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.       l’analisi  della  conversazione  per  valutare  l’autenticità  dei  materiali   audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2:  una  proposta  metodologica         franco  pauletto   stockholms  universitet,  romanska  och  klassiska  institutionen         received  17  february  2019;  accepted  after  revision  4  september  2020   abstract it questo studio di caso ispirato ai principi dell’analisi della conversazione prende in considerazione due conversazioni registrate tratte da un manuale per l’insegnamento dell’italiano l2 per analizzarne alcune caratteristiche salienti sulla base di quanto sappiamo sul parlato spontaneo a partire dagli studi dell’analisi della conversazione (schegloff, 2007). l’analisi dettagliata delle registrazioni ne mette in luce il carattere a tratti problematico, soprattutto per ciò che concerne la sequenzialità dell’azione, fatto che si traduce nella frequente assenza di coordinamento tra i turni di parola dei parlanti. altri fenomeni tipici dell’interazione verbale spontanea, quali sovrapposizioni e riparazioni, sono spesso assenti. in sostanza si tratta di conversazioni poco adatte ad un uso didattico che abbia tra i propri obiettivi anche quello di far riflettere gli apprendenti sulle specificità che caratterizzano il parlato in interazione. l’articolo vuole proporre un modello di analisi di questi supporti audio che prenda in considerazione la stretta relazione esistente tra lingua, struttura sequenziale del parlato e azione sociale. parole chiave: italiano l2, didattica, analisi della conversazione, sequenzialità, preferenza, competenza interazionale en this case study, inspired by the principles of conversation analysis, examines two recorded conversations from a manual for teaching italian as a second language. it analyzes certain salient characteristics of these conversations based on what we know about spontaneous speech from conversation analysis studies (schegloff, 2007). the detailed analysis of the conversations highlights their problematic nature, especially with regard to the sequentiality of actions, which results in the frequent absence of coordination between conversation shifts. other phenomena typical of spontaneous verbal interaction, such as overlaps and reparations, are often absent. in essence, these are conversations that are not suitable for instructional approaches that encourage learners to reflect on the details of spoken interaction. the article proposes an analysis model of these audio scripts that takes into consideration the close relationship between language, the sequential structure of speech, and social interaction. key words: l2 italian, teaching, conversation analysis, sequentiality, preference, interactional competence es este estudio de caso, inspirado en los principios del análisis de conversaciones, se centra en dos conversaciones grabadas que fueron extraídas de un manual para la enseñanza del italiano l2 para analizar algunas características sobresalientes en base a lo que sabemos sobre el habla espontánea a partir de los estudios del análisis de la conversación (schegloff, 2007). el análisis detallado de las grabaciones destaca el carácter a veces problemático, sobretodo en lo que respecta a la secuencialidad de la acción, lo que se traduce en la frecuente ausencia de coordinación entre los turnos de habla de los hablantes. otros fenómenos típicos de la interacción verbal espontánea, como superposiciones y reparaciones, a menudo están ausentes. de hecho son conversaciones que no son aptas para el uso didáctico que tiene entre sus objetivos el de hacer reflexionar a sus discentes sobre las peculiaridades de la interacción hablada. el artículo tiene como objetivo proponer un modelo de análisis de estos soportes de audio que considere la estrecha relación entre la lengua, la estructura secuencial del habla y la acción social. palabras clave: italiano l2, didáctica, analisis de la conversación, secuencialidad, preferencia, competencia internacional *  franco  pauletto,  stockholms  universitet,  romanska  och  klassiska  institutionen                  franco.pauletto@su.se   http://www.e-journall.org autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      29   1.  introduzione   questo  articolo  vuole  proporre  un  modello  per   la  valutazione  del  grado  di  autenticità  dei  materiali   d’ascolto  utilizzati  nell’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2.  studi  precedenti  (gillani  &  pernas  2013,  2014;  pernas,   gillani,  &  cacchione,  2011)  hanno  già  evidenziato  la  scarsa  autenticità  del  parlato  che  caratterizza  i  materiali   audio   che   accompagnano   i   manuali   d’italiano,   vista   la   frequente   assenza   di   molti   dei   tratti   tipici   delle   interazioni   verbali   quotidiane.   ciò   che   però   fino   ad   ora   non   è   stato   analizzato   è   il   livello   di   coerenza   sequenziale  delle   interazioni   verbali   presentate  nei  manuali   per   l’insegnamento  dell’italiano.  questo   studio   parte   dal   presupposto   che   l’interazione   verbale   è   ordinata   in   ogni   momento   (sacks,   1992,   p.   484),   che   l’avvicendamento   tra   i   parlanti   è   regolato   da   norme  precise,   ordinate   gerarchicamente   (sacks,   schegloff,  &   jefferson,  1974),  e  che   i   turni  di  parola  veicolano  azioni  organizzate   in  sequenze  complementari,  per  cui  un   saluto  proietta  come  possibile  risposta  da  parte  del/la  co-­‐partecipante  un  altro  saluto,  una  domanda  rende   sequenzialmente  rilevante  una  risposta  nel   turno  successivo  e  così  via.  a  partire  da  questi  principi,   l’analisi   dettagliata  di  alcuni  brani  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  ha  permesso  di  collocarli  agli  estremi  di  un   continuum  che  va  da  più  a  meno  autentico,  proprio  in  virtù  della  maggiore  o  minore  aderenza  a  queste  norme   tacite  -­‐  “seen  but  unnoticed”  (garfinkel,  1967,  p.  vii)  -­‐  su  cui  si  regge  l’interazione  verbale.  in  particolare,  nei   due  brani  audio  giudicati  meno  autentici  sono  frequenti  veri  e  propri  sfasamenti  di  tipo  sequenziale,  per  cui  a   un’azione   in   prima   posizione   (un   saluto,   una   domanda,   ecc.)   che   dà   inizio   a   una   sequenza,   non   sempre   corrisponde   un’azione   di   risposta   rilevante   e   in   posizione   contigua   (sacks,   1987):   il   risultato   è   una   conversazione   non   del   tutto   coerente   dal   punto   di   vista   sequenziale   e,   quindi,   interazionale.   ai   criteri   di   valutazione   del   grado   di   autenticità   già   individuati   in   precedenza,   sembra   dunque   essenziale   aggiungere   quelli  della  sequenzialità  e  della  preferenza  per  la  contiguità  tra  azioni  complementari.  dopotutto,  se  uno  degli   obiettivi   principali   dell'educazione   linguistica   è   insegnare   agli   apprendenti   ad   essere   competenti   a   livello   comunicativo   (hymes,   1967)   e,   ancor   più,   interazionale   (barraja-­‐rojan,   2011;   huth   &   taleghani-­‐nikazm,   2006;  kramsch,  1986)  nella  lingua  e  nella  cultura  di  arrivo,  forse  bisogna  iniziare  a  chiedersi  in  che  misura  i   dialoghi   proposti   dai   manuali   offrano   agli   studenti   di   lingue   dei   modelli   che   ricorrono   anche   nelle   conversazioni  quotidiane.   l’articolo  procederà  nel  modo  seguente:  saranno  prima  di  tutto  riassunti  gli  studi  che  in  precedenza   si   sono   occupati   dell’autenticità   dei   materiali   audio   a   uso   didattico.   di   seguito   verrà   presentato   il   quadro   teorico  e  metodologico  in  cui  questo  studio  si  colloca.  dopo  la  presentazione  dei  dati,  verrà  proposta  l’analisi   dettagliata  delle  conversazioni.  seguono  quindi  la  discussione  dei  risultati  e  le  conclusioni.     2.  studi  precedenti   gli  studi  che  si  iscrivono  in  quest’area  sono  poco  numerosi  sia  per  quanto  riguarda  l’italiano,  sia  per   l’inglese  e   le  altre   lingue.  wong  (2002)  parte  da  un  corpus  di   trenta   telefonate,   tratte  da  diversi  manuali  di   inglese   come   lingua   straniera   pubblicati   negli   anni   ‘90,   per   analizzarne   le   aperture.   il   risultato   dell’osservazione  è  che  in  nessun  caso  risultano  presenti  le  quattro  fasi  canoniche  delle  aperture  di  chiamata,   così   come   sono   state   descritte   nella   letteratura   analitico-­‐conversazionale:   (a)   appello–risposta,   (b)   identificazione–riconoscimento,  (c)  saluti,  e  (d)  convenevoli  (how-­‐are-­‐you  sequence;  schegloff,  1986,  p.  131).   secondo   l’autrice   lo   studio  dimostra   che   le   intuizioni   dei   parlanti   nativi   (e   dunque  degli   autori   di   supporti   didattici)  sulla  propria  lingua  non  sono  sufficienti  per  lo  sviluppo  di  materiali  autentici  per  i  libri  di  testo:  solo   l’analisi  approfondita  di  interazioni  spontanee  può  dare  un'idea  precisa  di  come  i  partecipanti  costruiscano  e   ricostruiscano  significati  e  di  come  i  parlanti  si  orientino  verso  le  azioni  sociali  (wong,  2002,  p.  54).   passando   all’italiano,   gillani   e   pernas   (2013)   analizzano   in   maniera   approfondita   sette   diversi   manuali  variamente  diffusi  nei  corsi  di   italiano  delle  escuelas  oficiales  de   idiomas  spagnole,  per  valutare   il   grado  di  autenticità  dei  dialoghi  in  essi  contenuti  e  il  tipo  di  attività  didattiche  ad  essi  legate.  per  delimitare  il   campo  di  indagine,  gli  autori  selezionano  due  ascolti  per  volume,  in  maniera  che  siano  omogenei  dal  punto  di   vista  del  genere  discorsivo.  le  conversazioni  vengono  analizzate  per  verificare  in  che  misura  vi  siano  presenti   tratti   tipici   del   parlato   spontaneo   quali   sovrapposizioni,   interruzioni,   co-­‐costruzioni,   false   partenze,   pause,   fenomeni  paralinguistici  di  varia  natura,  sgrammaticature,  ripetizioni,  correzioni  e  segnali  discorsivi  (gillani   &   pernas,   2013,   pp.   71-­‐72).   l’analisi   evidenzia   l’esistenza   di   un   continuum   tra   materiali   audio   inautentici   (ovvero   basati   su   copioni   recitati   in   laboratorio)   da   un   lato   e   materiali   semi-­‐autentici1  (improvvisati   più                                                                                                                             1  gli  autori  riservano  l’aggettivo  naturale  al  materiale  conversazionale  spontaneo  ottenuto  dal  vivo  senza  che  i  parlanti   siano  consapevoli  della  registrazione.   2  “practices  for  dealing  with  problems  or  troubles  in  speaking,  hearing,  and  understanding”  (schegloff,  2000b,  p.  207)   pauletto       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50  30   liberamente  sulla  base  di  un  canovaccio)  dall’altro:  nei  primi,  i  fenomeni  conversazionali  sopra  elencati  sono   virtualmente  assenti,  a  differenza  di  ciò  che  accade  nei  secondi.  questa  diversità  ha  delle  ricadute  anche  sul   piano   didattico,   in   quanto   il   numero   di   attività   mirate   alla   descrizione   e   all’utilizzo   dei   fenomeni   conversazionali   salienti   diminuisce   con   l’aumento   del   grado   di   inautenticità   delle   conversazioni   proposte.   insomma,   quanto   più   il  materiale   audio   è   innaturale,   tanto  meno   si   presterà   a   un   utilizzo   che   favorisca   il   miglioramento  della   competenza   interazionale  degli   apprendenti   (gillani  &  pernas,  2013,  p.  67).  a   risultati   molto  simili  giungono  gli  stessi  autori  in  uno  studio  di  poco  posteriore,  basato  su  un  corpus  simile:  come  nel   caso  precedente,   i  due  ricercatori  prendono  in  considerazione  alcune  caratteristiche  tipiche  del  parlato,  e  le   usano  per  classificare  l’input  orale  dei  manuali  analizzati  lungo  un  continuum  che  va  da  più  a  meno  naturale   (gillani  &  pernas,  2014).  nelle   conclusioni  gillani   e  pernas   sottolineano  come   l’adozione  di  materiali   audio   manipolati   (e,  dunque,  privi  di  molti  dei   tratti  dell’oralità)  venga  giustificata  con   la  motivazione  che   la   loro   gradualità   favorirebbe   negli   apprendenti   il   processo   di   acquisizione.   per   gli   autori,   invece,   l’attenzione   dovrebbe   essere   spostata   dalla   manipolazione   semplificativa   dei   testi   alle   strategie   di   apprendimento,   in   modo  che  ad  adattarsi  al  testo  siano  gli  studenti,  e  non  il  testo  agli  studenti  (gillani  &  pernas,  2014,  p.  463).  il   presente  studio  prende  spunto  da  questi  precedenti  ma  rispetto  ad  essi,  e  in  consonanza  con  il  lavoro  di  wong   (2002),   presterà  maggiore   attenzione   ad   aspetti   dell’interazione   verbale   quali   la   sequenzialità   delle   azioni   veicolate  dai  turni  di  parola,  il  concetto  di  preferenza  e  quello  di  intersoggettività.   3.  teoria  e  metodo   l’analisi  della  conversazione  (ac),  nata  negli  stati  uniti  negli  anni  ’60,  è  una  disciplina  sociologica  che   si  basa  sull’osservazione  di   interazioni  orali  spontanee,  ovvero  non  elicitate  a   fini  di  ricerca.  la  dimensione   sperimentale   è   dunque   assente.   a   differenza   di   ciò   che   accade   in   linguistica,   ambito   nel   quale   l’interesse   primario   verte   generalmente   sulla   lingua   come   sistema,   l’ac   si   concentra   sulle   azioni   che   gli   attori   sociali   realizzano  attraverso  il  parlato  e  altre  risorse  semiotiche.  questa  disciplina  non  tratta  il   linguaggio  come  un   sistema  autonomo  indipendente  dal  proprio  uso  quanto,  piuttosto,  come  un  insieme  di  risorse  semiotiche  di   varia  natura  che  i  partecipanti  “usano,  monitorano,  interpretano  e  manipolano”  (schegloff,  koshik,  jacoby,  &   olsher,   2002,   p.   15   [traduzione  mia])   al   fine   di   realizzare   le   proprie   azioni.   parlato-­‐in-­‐interazione   (talk-­‐in-­‐ interaction)  è  il  termine  in  uso  per  riferirsi  all'oggetto  di  ricerca  di  questa  disciplina  (drew  &  heritage,  1992,   p.   4).   obiettivo   di   fondo   è   lo   studio   dell'organizzazione   delle   azioni   sociali.   nella   prospettiva   analitico-­‐ conversazionale,  questa  organizzazione  è  prodotta   in  situ   dai  partecipanti,   che   si  orientano  per  dare   senso,   momento   per  momento,   a   ciò   che   sta   accadendo   nell’interazione   con   l’altro.   il   punto   di   vista   adottato   dal   ricercatore  è  dunque  emico  (pike,  1967),  ovvero  quello  dei  partecipanti  all’interazione.   uno  dei  concetti  centrali  dell’ac  è  che  esiste  ordine  in  ogni  momento  dell'interazione  (sacks,  1992,  p.   484):   il  parlato  è   sistematicamente  organizzato,  profondamente  ordinato  e  metodico.  un  secondo  principio   dell’ac  è  che  le  azioni  che  i  parlanti  realizzano,  turno  dopo  turno,  sono  condizionate  dal  contesto  locale,  che   esse   a   loro   volta   rinnovano:   nelle   parole   di   heritage   (1984a,   p.   242)   “[t]he   context   of   a   next   action   is   repeatedly  renewed  with  every  current  action”.  in  questa  prospettiva  dinamica,  i  turni  di  parola  dei  parlanti   non  possono  essere  adeguatamente  compresi  se  non  in  riferimento  all'ambiente  sequenziale  in  cui  vengono   prodotti.  a  partire  dalla  prospettiva  del  partecipante,  l'obiettivo  di  base  è  dunque  stabilire  quali  elementi  del   contesto   siano  di  volta   in  volta   rilevanti  per   i  parlanti   coinvolti,   in  ogni  momento  dell'interazione.  un  altro   principio  importante  è  che  nessun  dettaglio  di  ciò  che  viene  (video-­‐)registrato  può  essere  respinto  a  priori  in   quanto  disordinato,  accidentale  o  irrilevante  (heritage,  1984a,  p.  241).  sulla  base  di  questa  premessa,  l’ac  ha   sviluppato   un   sistema   di   trascrizione  molto   dettagliato   che   cerca   di   rappresentare   tutti   quegli   aspetti   del   parlato   spontaneo   normalmente   negletti   in   altri   ambiti   della   ricerca   linguistica:   sovrapposizioni,   silenzi   e   pause,   vocalizzazioni   di   varia   natura,   risate,   particelle   discorsive   ecc.   (per   una   discussione   dettagliata   cfr.   hepburn  &  bolden,  2017).     con   la   diffusione,   a   partire   dagli   anni   ’70,   di   tecniche   sempre   più   accessibili   e   sofisticate   di   videoregistrazione,  anche  aspetti  quali  il  linguaggio  non  verbale  e  la  direzione  dello  sguardo  sono  entrati  a  far   parte  delle  trascrizioni,  in  quanto  elementi  potenzialmente  decisivi  nella  descrizione  dell’interazione  faccia  a   faccia   (ford,   fox,  &  thompson,   1996).  quali   dati   primari   vengono   comunque   sempre   e   solo   considerate   le   (video-­‐)registrazioni,  delle  quali   le   trascrizioni  possono  solo  offrire  una  resa   incompleta  e   in  qualche  modo   selettiva,  funzionale  a  rendere  fruibili  i  dati  primari  sia  agli  analisti,  sia  al  pubblico.  un  ulteriore  principio  che   deriva  da  queste  premesse  è  che  in  ac  l'analisi  avviene  dal  basso  verso  l’alto  (bottom-­‐up)  ed  è  dunque  guidata   autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      31   dai  dati  (data-­‐driven).  la  rilevanza  di  fattori  contestuali  esterni  quali  potere,  genere  o  razza  diventa  tale  solo   quando  i  partecipanti  stessi  vi  si  orientano  esplicitamente  durante  l’interazione.     un  altro  modo  di  presentare  i  principi  dell’ac  è  in  relazione  alle  domande  di  ricerca  che  la  guidano.  il   quesito   essenziale   che   caratterizza   tutte   le   fasi   dell'analisi   dei   dati   è   "perché   questa   cosa   (accade   proprio)   adesso?"   (why   that   now?;   sacks   &   schegloff,   1973,   p.   76),   un   interrogativo   che   sussume   la   prospettiva   dell'interazione  in  quanto  azione  espressa  per  mezzo  di  forme  linguistiche  (e  multimodali)   in  una  sequenza   che  si  sviluppa  nel  tempo.  l’analisi  della  conversazione  ha  messo  in  luce  l’esistenza  di  alcune  organizzazioni   interazionali   cui   i   partecipanti   all’interazione   fanno   ricorso   in   modo   normativo   e   riflessivo:   si   tratta   del   sistema   di   presa   di   turno,   del   concetto   di   adiacenza,   della   nozione   di   preferenza   e   dei   meccanismi   di   riparazione.  queste  strutture  servono  ai  partecipanti   sia  da  modelli  d’azione  per   la  produzione  delle  azioni   sociali,  sia  come  punto  di  riferimento  per  l'interpretazione  delle  azioni  altrui.  l’analista  della  conversazione   se  ne  serve  allo  stesso  modo.     le   procedure   per   l’organizzazione   della   presa   di   turno   servono   a   dare   soluzione   al   ricorrente   problema  relativo  alla   selezione  del  prossimo  parlante,   in  modo  che  vi   sia  un  avvicendamento  ordinato   tra   locutori  durante   la  conversazione  (sacks  et  al.,  1974).   i   turni  di  parola  sono  composti  da  una  o  più  unità  di   costruzione  del  turno  (uct;  in  inglese,  turn  construction  units),  entità  linguistiche  di  dimensioni  e  complessità   variabili  che  possono  andare  da  singole  interiezioni  o  parole  (come  ad  esempio  “ah!”,  in  risposta  a  una  notizia   inattesa),   a   sintagmi,   frasi   e   interi   periodi.   queste   unità   formano   in   ogni   caso   enunciati   riconoscibilmente   completi  in  un  dato  contesto.  quando  il  turno  in  corso  si  avvicina  a  un  punto  in  cui  potrebbe  essere  trattato   dai   co-­‐partecipanti   come   adeguatamente   completo,   si   apre   la   possibilità   di   avvicendamento   tra   parlanti:   si   parla   in   questo   caso   di   punto   di   rilevanza   transizionale   prt   (in   inglese   transition   relevance   place).   in   corrispondenza   con   il   prt,   i   partecipanti   usano   alcune   tecniche   di   assegnazione   del   turno   (auto-­‐/etero-­‐ selezione)   organizzate   in  modo  gerarchico:   selezione  del   prossimo  parlante  da  parte  del   parlante   in   corso,   autoselezione  da  parte  di  un  altro  parlante  o,  nel  caso  in  cui  non  sia  stato  fatto  ricorso  a  una  delle  prime  due   possibilità,  ritorno  all’autoselezione  da  parte  del  parlante  in  corso.  il  sistema  di  avvicendamento  tra  parlanti  è   normativo,  il  che  non  esclude  che  sovrapposizioni  e  parlato  simultaneo  si  possano  verificare:  questo  perché  i   locutori  possono  scegliere  di   realizzare  specifiche  azioni   sociali   facendo  comunque  sempre  riferimento  alla   norma  che  vuole  che  parli  un  solo  partecipante  alla  volta  (one  party  talking  at  a  time;  schegloff,  2000a,  p.  1)   per  sottolineare  la  natura  affiliativa  o  disaffiliativa  delle  proprie  azioni.   i  turni  di  parola  incarnano  azioni:  queste  non  si  susseguono  caoticamente  durante  la  conversazione,   ma   in   sequenze.   con   il   termine   sequenzialità  ci   si   riferisce   al  modo   in   cui   un   enunciato   rende   evidente   la   propria   relazione   sia   con   ciò   che   lo   ha   preceduto,   sia   con   il   ventaglio   delle   azioni   che   esso   proietta   come   possibili  risposte  nel  turno  successivo.  come  tale,  la  sequenzialità  è  una  risorsa  centrale  nel  raggiungimento   dell'intersoggettività  tra  co-­‐partecipanti,  ovvero  di  uno  stato  di  mutua  comprensione  nella  conversazione.  in   questa  prospettiva  assumono  un  ruolo  centrale   le  coppie  adiacenti,   coppie  di   turni  organizzati   in  modo  che   alla   produzione   della   prima   parte   della   coppia   (per   esempio   un   saluto),   la   seconda   parte   della   coppia   (risposta  al  saluto)  diventa  condizionalmente  rilevante.  una  seconda  parte  di  coppia  adiacente  che  non  venga   prodotta   è   manifestamente   assente:   la   sua   produzione   rimane   dunque   rilevante,   anche   differita,   e   la   sua   eventuale  assenza  rende  necessaria  un’azione  rimediale  che  la  giustifichi.     la   nozione   di   preferenza   è   diretta   derivazione   dall'organizzazione   sequenziale   del   parlato   in   successioni   di   coppie   adiacenti.   il   concetto   di   preferenza   in   questo   caso   non   ha   nulla   a   vedere   con   la   dimensione  psicologica  e  individuale,  quanto  invece  con  problemi  di  affiliazione  e  disaffiliazione  in  relazione   alle   azioni   sociali   che   i   partecipanti   all’interazione   producono.   l’interazione   umana   è   caratterizzata   dalla   tendenza   a  mantenere   i   legami   di   solidarietà   tra   partecipanti   e   a   prevenire   o  minimizzare   le   possibilità   di   conflitto   (heritage,   1984a,   p.   265).   questa   propensione   strutturale   per   l’affiliazione   trova   come   propria   manifestazione  l’organizzazione  della  preferenza.  nel  caso  di  molte  coppie  adiacenti  ciò  significa  che  l’azione   in   prima   posizione,   quella   che   apre   la   sequenza,   rende   molto   spesso   rilevanti   due   azioni   di   risposta   alternative  e  mutuamente  escludenti:  sarà  quindi  possibile  rispondere  a  una  proposta  con  l’accettazione  della   stessa  (azione  preferita)  o  con  un  rifiuto  (azione  dispreferita).   il   carattere  diverso  di  queste  due  possibilità   diventa   evidente   quando   osserviamo   il   formato   che   assumono:   le   azioni   preferite   vengono   solitamente   prodotte  senza  esitazioni  o  ritardi,  mentre  quelle  dispreferite  si  caratterizzano  in  generale  per  la  presenza  di   ritardi,   esitazioni,   disfluenze,   silenzi,   segnali   discorsivi   e   anche   da   commenti   di   apprezzamento   e   giustificazioni   che   separano   in   minore   o   maggior   misura   la   prima   azione   dalla   seconda.   preferenza   e   progressività  dell’interazione  vanno  di  pari  passo:  “moving  from  some  element  to  a  hearably-­‐next-­‐one  with   nothing   intervening   is   the   embodiment   of,   and   the  measure   of,   progressivity.   should   something   intervene   pauletto       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50  32   between   some   element   and   what   is   hearable   as   a/the   next   one   (this)   will   be   heard   as   qualifying   the   progressivity  of  the  talk,  and  will  be  examined  for  its  import”.  (schegloff,  2007,  p.  15).  un’azione  di  risposta   preferita   è   dunque   affiliativa   e   favorisce   la   solidarietà   sociale   (heritage,   1984a,   p.   269),   al   contrario   delle   risposte   dispreferite,   il   cui   carattere   disaffiliativo   può   però   essere   ridotto   proprio   grazie   al   ricorso   a   mitigazioni,  scuse  e  giustificazioni.   infine,  l’ultimo  tassello  del  sistema  è  rappresentato  dalla  riparazione,  una  serie  di  pratiche  attraverso   le   quali   i   partecipanti   affrontano   vari   tipi   di   problemi   nella   produzione   e   nella   comprensione   del   parlato   emergente2.   le   procedure   di   riparazione   includono   tre   componenti   di   base:   la   fonte   del   problema   (il   cosiddetto  riparabile,  repairable,  ad  esempio  una  parola  non  familiare),  l’avvio  della  riparazione  (per  esempio   con  un  segnale  che  avvia  una  procedura  di  riparazione:  eh?,  come?,  chi?  ecc.)  e  la  soluzione  della  riparazione   (per  esempio  con  la  ripetizione  o  la  riformulazione  della  parola  non  familiare).  sia  il  locutore  che  ha  prodotto   quella   che   viene   trattata   come   la   fonte   del   problema   (self)   sia   il   destinatario   (other)   possono   avviare   una   procedura   di   riparazione   e/o   produrre   una   soluzione   al   problema.   viene   quindi   fatta   una   distinzione   tra   l'auto-­‐riparazione  auto-­‐iniziata,  nella  quale  il  locutore  all’origine  della  fonte  del  problema  inizia  e  completa  la   procedura   di   riparazione   in   modo   indipendente   (ad   esempio:   “è   proprio   un   piccolo   paesino   sui   se-­‐   quasi   settecento  metri   credo”3),   all’interno   dello   stesso   turno   di   parola,   e   autoriparazione   eteroiniziata,   in   cui   il   destinatario   di   quella   che   si   rivela   come   la   fonte   del   problema   avvia   la   procedura   e   il   locutore   produce   la   soluzione.  molto  meno  frequente,  per  le  sue  evidenti  implicazioni  sociali,  è  la  riparazione  iniziata  e  portata  a   termine  dal/la  co-­‐partecipante  (ad  esempio:  a-­‐  “è  venuta  anche  la  tua  amica  chiara?”  b-­‐  “vuoi  dire  clara.”  a-­‐   “ah,   scusa,   clara,   sì.”),   peraltro   tipica   di   alcuni   specifici   contesti   istituzionali   (l’interazione   in   classe,   ad   esempio).  la  riparazione  è  un  meccanismo  vitale  per  il  mantenimento  dell'intersoggettività  (robinson,  2014).   nulla,  in  linea  di  principio,  può  essere  escluso  dalla  classe  dei  riparabili  (schegloff  et  al.,  1977,  p.  363).   l’ac  è  una  disciplina  che  si  utilizza  per  lo  studio  delle  interazioni  spontanee  –  siano  esse  istituzionali   o  meno  –  e  quindi  non  elicitate.  si  tratta  dunque  di  attività  sociali  che  avrebbero  luogo  comunque,  anche  in   assenza  del   ricercatore.  come  abbiamo  già   avuto  modo  di   ricordare,   esse  vengono  di  norma   registrate   con   apparati   audio   e   (sempre   più   spesso)   video.   in   questo   studio,   l’ac   è   utilizzata   in  maniera   consapevole   per   rendere   evidente   la   distanza   variabile   che   intercorre   tra   i   dialoghi   oggetto   di   analisi   e   le   conversazioni   quotidiane,  a  partire  da  ciò  che  di  esse  sappiamo  grazie  agli  studi  condotti  in  questo  ambito  sin  dalla  fine  degli   anni  ‘60.         4.  i  dati     i  dati  sono  costituiti  da  due  conversazioni  tratte  da  universitalia  –  esercizi  (ue;  carrara,  2007),  di  cui   vengono  analizzati  ampi  estratti,  poi  messi  a  confronto  con  brani  audio  appartenenti  ad  altri  due  manuali  per   l’insegnamento  dell’italiano.  in  un  caso  la  conversazione  è  diadica  (shopping:  carrara,  2007,  p.  73),  nell’altro   coinvolge  tre  partecipanti  (il  semestre  ricomincia:  carrara,  2007,  p.  63)4.  gli  altri  ascolti  sono  stati   tratti  da   linea  diretta  –  1  (ld1;  conforti  &  cusimano,  1997)  e  da  volare  –  4  (v4;  catizone,  2003).     la  scelta  dei  materiali  qui  analizzati  è  stata  determinata  dal  diverso  processo  che  ne  ha  caratterizzato   la  produzione:  mentre  infatti   le  conversazioni  di  ue5  sono  basate  su  copioni  recitati   in  studio,  quelle  di  ld1   sono  interpretate  liberamente  dagli  attori  a  partire  da  un  canovaccio.  quelle  di  v4  sono  invece  caratterizzate   da  parlato  elicitato  senza  alcuna  traccia  da  seguire  da  parte  dei  parlanti  coinvolti,  che  non  sono  attori.  altro   elemento   che   ha   guidato   la   scelta   delle   due   registrazioni   di   ue   è   il   loro   diverso   quadro   partecipativo   (goffman,  1981;  goodwin  &  goodwin,  2004):  mentre  infatti  in  un  caso  si  tratta  di  una  conversazione  diadica   (shopping),  nell’altro  i  parlanti  coinvolti  sono  tre  (il  semestre  ricomincia).  nelle  conversazioni  di  tutti  i  giorni,   il   diverso   numero   di   partecipanti   a   un   evento   comunicativo   ha   evidenti   ricadute   sullo   sviluppo   della                                                                                                                             2  “practices  for  dealing  with  problems  or  troubles  in  speaking,  hearing,  and  understanding”  (schegloff,  2000b,  p.  207)   3  estratto  di  conversazione  informale  tra  conoscenti,  registrata  dall’autore  presso  l’università  di  stoccolma   4  questi  due  ascolti  –  unitamente  ad  altri  15  appartenenti  a  diversi  manuali  –  sono  stati  oggetto  di  analisi  approfondita   all’interno   di   un   corso   di   comunicazione   orale   in   italiano   offerto   dal   dipartimento   di   lingue   romanze   e   classiche   dell’università  di  stoccolma  nell’arco  di  tre  semestri,  tra  la  primavera  del  2019  e  la  primavera  del  2020.       5  le   tracce   audio   dei   due   volumi   di   universitalia   (libro   dello   studente   e   libro   degli   esercizi)   sono   varie:   accanto   a   conversazioni   come   quelle   qui   analizzate,   che   potremmo   etichettare   come   inautentiche   e   che   servono   soprattutto   a   documentare  gli  usi  pragmatici  dei  contenuti  linguistici  via  via  presentati  o  a  rivedere  e  fissare  il  lessico  presentato  nella   corrispondente   unità,   vi   sono   infatti   anche   molti   esercizi   di   fonetica   e   numerose   interviste   (anche   in   questo   caso,   differenziabili  a  nostro  avviso  tra  interviste  basate  su  uno  script  e  interviste  spontanee).   autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      33   conversazione:   ci   è   parso   utile   verificare   se   a   un   differente   quadro   di   partecipazione   corrispondessero   dinamiche  conversazionali  differenti.     si  tratta  in  tutti  e  tre  i  casi  di  materiali  prodotti  alcuni  anni  fa  e  non  più  in  commercio,  ma  che  sono   rappresentativi   dei   diversi   approcci   che   sottendono   tuttora   alla   produzione   delle   tracce   audio   che   accompagnano   sia   i   manuali   di   italiano   l2,   sia   altri   supporti   didattici   integrativi   per   l’insegnamento/apprendimento   della   lingua   italiana.   al   posto   delle   due   conversazioni   prescelte,   ve   ne   sarebbero   quindi   potute   essere   molte   altre,   più   o   meno   recenti   e   di   diversa   provenienza,   ma   dalle   caratteristiche   simili.   dato   il   carattere   esplorativo   dello   studio,   la   scelta   è   stata   limitata   al   materiale   qui   analizzato.  quello   che  viene  qui  presentato  è  uno   studio   la   cui  metodologia  può   tuttavia   essere  applicata   a   tutti  i  dialoghi  dello  stesso  tipo,  a  prescindere  dalla  loro  data  di  pubblicazione.  questa  osservazione  acquista   maggiore  rilievo  se  si  considera  che,  da  una  breve  ricognizione  operata  da  chi  scrive  su  alcuni  manuali  di  più   recente  pubblicazione,  il  parlato  inautentico  che  caratterizza  ue  sembra  molto  più  rappresentato  nei  supporti   audio  dei  manuali  oggi  in  commercio  rispetto  a  quello  semi-­‐autentico  di  ld1  e  v4.  per  ragioni  di  spazio  e  di   comparabilità,  il  presente  studio  si  limita  all’analisi  di  tracce  audio,  pur  nella  consapevolezza  che  nei  manuali   di  italiano  l2  sono  sempre  più  diffusi  anche  i  supporti  video:  questi  ultimi  saranno  oggetto  di  un’altra  ricerca   in  corso  di  realizzazione  (pauletto  &  ferroni,  in  preparazione).     ai   fini   dell’analisi,   i   passaggi   salienti   di   ogni   conversazione   saranno   (ri)trascritti   seguendo   le   convenzioni   in   uso   in   ambito   analitico   conversazionale   (cfr.   hepburn   &   bolden,   2017),   per   poi   essere   analizzati  e  messi   in  relazione  gli  uni  con  gli  altri.   in  appendice  è  presente  una  lista  dei  simboli  utilizzati   in   questo  tipo  di  trascrizione,  che  cerca  di  rappresentare  nella  maniera  più  fedele  possibile  molti  dei  fenomeni   che  caratterizzano  il  parlato:  profilo  intonativo,  sovrapposizioni,  silenzi  e  altri  fenomeni  paralinguistici  quali   la  velocità  di  elocuzione,  il  volume,  l’enfasi,  gli  allungamenti  vocalici,  inspirazioni,  segnali  di  risposta  (di  solito   definiti  “pause  piene”  in  studi  appartenenti  ad  altre  tradizioni)  e  altro.     alla   fine   del   lavoro   analitico   sarà   possibile   osservare   quali   siano   gli   elementi   che   concorrono   a   determinare   i   diversi   gradi   di   spontaneità   del   parlato   riprodotto   da   queste   conversazioni,   un   fatto   che   a   nostro  avviso  potrà  fornire  agli  insegnanti  spunti  di  riflessione  sia  teorica,  sia  metodologica.     5.  analisi   5.1.  sequenzialità  e  dispreferenza   l’estratto  1  è  tratto  dalla  conversazione  tra  elena  e  monica.  di  seguito  presentiamo  l’apertura  della   conversazione.  una  prima  cosa  che  si  può  osservare  è  che,  a  differenza  di  quanto  accade  nella  maggioranza   dei   materiali   d’ascolto   in   commercio,   i   rumori   di   fondo   (voci   di   altre   persone,   traffico,   rumori   di   piatti,   bicchieri,  stoviglie  o  passi),  così  utili  ad  attivare  le  conoscenze  pregresse  degli  apprendenti  (gillani  &  pernas,   2013,   p.   72-­‐73)   sono   totalmente   assenti:   è   dunque   impossibile   determinare   con   precisione   dove   le   due   parlanti   si   trovino   al   momento   dell’incontro.   leggendo   le   consegne   dell’esercizio   di   ascolto,   capiamo   che   elena  è  stata  al  mercato  e  che  monica  le  chiede  un  resoconto  di  tale  attività:         estratto 1. ue shopping 1 01 monica ciao elena. 02 (0.3) 03 allora? com’è andata al mercato? 04 (0.4) 05 elena ciao monica .hhhhh oggi giornata alla grande .hh   in  questo  brevissimo  scambio  possiamo  già  fare  alcune  osservazioni  interessanti.  la  conversazione  si   apre   con   il   saluto   di   monica   (riga   01),   che   però   non   ottiene   immediata   risposta   da   parte   di   elena   al   completamento  del  turno,  nello  spazio  di  rilevanza  transizionale  che  invece  renderebbe  legittimo  il  passaggio   di  turno  all’altra  partecipante.  come  abbiamo  già  visto  in  precedenza,  l’azione  di  monica  costituisce  la  prima   parte   di   una   coppia   adiacente   che   renderebbe   rilevante,   come   azione   preferita   in   posizione   contigua,   la   reciprocazione  del  saluto.  in  condizioni  normali,   l’assenza  di  qualsiasi  tipo  di  reazione  sarebbe  manifesta:  la   co-­‐partecipante   potrebbe   inferirne   la   presenza  di   qualche   tipo  di   problema   e   proprio   per   questo   potrebbe   prendere  avvio  uno  scambio  riparatore  (goffman,  2008).  in  questo  caso  ciò  non  avviene.  dopo  un  silenzio  di   0,3  secondi  (riga  02),  monica  si  autoseleziona  nuovamente  e  rivolge  a  elena  una  domanda  (riga  03),  che  per  il   proprio  formato  (la  presenza  di  “allora”  a  inizio  turno,  ad  esempio)  proietta  come  risposta  candidata  un  turno   esteso  di  carattere  narrativo  con  i  dettagli  sulla  visita  al  mercato.  è  qui  che  notiamo  un  secondo  sfasamento   pauletto       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50  34   sequenziale,   dal   momento   che   la   prima   azione   del   turno   di   elena   (riga   05),   prodotta   dopo   un   silenzio   piuttosto   rilevante   (0,4   secondi:   riga   04),   non   è   costituita   dalla   risposta   alla   domanda   immediatamente   precedente,   quanto   da   un   saluto   che   –   adesso   sì   –   reciproca   quello   iniziale   di  monica.   gli   studi   precedenti   evidenziano  la  tendenza  dei  parlanti  a  mantenere  la  contiguità  tra  turni  e  azioni:  sacks  (1987)  descrive  una   norma  generale  in  forza  della  quale,  ad  esempio,  se  due  domande  vengono  pronunciate  in  rapida  successione,   esse  riceveranno  risposte  in  ordine  inverso,  come  si  vede  nel  seguente  esempio  (sacks,  1987,  pp.  59-­‐60):     a:  well  that’s  a  good  uh  how  is  yer  arthritis.  yuh  still  taking  shots?           b:  yeah.  well  it’s,  it’s  awright  i  mean  it’s  uh,  hurts  one  ‘n  a  while  but  it’s  okay.     come   si   vede,   b   risponde   prima   alla   seconda   domanda   di   a,   e   poi   alla   prima.   in   questo   senso,   la   sequenzialità  dello   scambio   iniziale   tra  elena  e  monica  è  quantomeno  atipica.  altro  elemento  che  potrebbe   discostarsi   dalla   norma   è   la   mancanza   di   una   sequenza   di   convenevoli   dopo   quella   dei   saluti.   nelle   conversazioni   faccia   a   faccia,   l’organizzazione   sequenziale   è   molto   simile   a   quello   che   si   osserva   nelle   aperture  di  conversazione  al  telefono  (appello-­‐risposta,   identificazione-­‐riconoscimento,  saluti,  convenevoli),   anche   se   l’ordine   sembra   essere  meno   rigido,   grazie   alle   risorse   semiotiche   a   disposizione   dei   parlanti   in   copresenza  (liddicoat,  2011,  p.  292;  wong,  2002).  presentiamo  qui  di  seguito,  nell’estratto  2,   l’inizio  di  una   conversazione  tra  conoscenti  tratta  da  ld1  (conforti  &  cusimano,  1997:  lezione  1),  per  meglio  esemplificare  i   diversi  momenti  che  scandiscono  l’apertura  di  un  incontro  in  presenza:     estratto 2. ld1 ciao, come stai? 01 michele ciao luciana. 02 luciana ↑a::h ciao michele. 03 michele come stai? 04 (0.2) 05 luciana tlk6 eh bene. 06 (0.2) 07 luciana tu? 08 (0.4) 09 ? mf, 10 michele bene anch’io.= 11 luciana [mhm¿] 12 michele =g[razi]e. 13 luciana .hhhhhh e::::h senti posso presentarti la mia amica 14 hildegard? 15 (0.3)     i   rumori   di   sottofondo   ci   aiutano   a   collocare   i   co-­‐partecipanti   in   un   ambiente   affollato,   molto   probabilmente   un   bar   o   un   ristorante.   in   questo   caso,   alla   sequenza   costituita   dal   riconoscimento,   dall’identificazione  e  dai  saluti  (righe  01  e  02),  segue  canonicamente  quella  dei  convenevoli  (righe  03-­‐12).  ad   aggiungere   realismo   alla   scena   contribuisce   il   senso   di   sorpresa   espresso   da   luciana   nel   proprio   turno   di   risposta   (riga   02):   in   particolare,   la   particella   “↑a::h”,   che   fa   da   prefazione   al   suo   turno,   con   la   propria   particolare   configurazione  prosodica   (in   particolare   il   tono  marcatamente   alto)   rende  pubblico   il   carattere   inatteso   dell’evento.   ne   deduciamo   che   l’incontro   è   probabilmente   frutto   dell’identificazione   di   luciana   –   ancora  ignara  –  da  parte  di  michele  (de  stefani  &  mondada,  2018,  p.  254).  la  sequenza  dei  convenevoli  viene   chiusa   dalla   risposta   di  michele   (righe  10   e   12),   ratificata   da   luciana   con  un   segnale   di   risposta   (gardner,   2001)   prodotto   in   terza   posizione   (“mhm¿”:   riga   11),   a   chiusura   di   questa   fase   dell’interazione.   a   questo   punto,   a   sottolineare   il   carattere   di   pre-­‐sequenza   dei   saluti   negli   incontri   tra   persone   che   si   conoscono   (schegloff,  1979,  pp.  33-­‐34),  avviene  il  passaggio  a  una  nuova  attività,  chiaramente  marcato  alla  riga  13  dai   fenomeni  presenti  a  inizio  turno  (per  esempio  la  lunga  inspirazione  indizio  di  parlato  incipiente  e  la  particella   “e::::h”)   e   dal   segnale   discorsivo   “senti”   (fuschi,   2013).   pur   essendo   stata   realizzata   in   studio,   molto   probabilmente   sulla   base   di   un   canovaccio   (gillani   &   pernas,   2013,   pp.   66-­‐67),   a   differenza   della   prima   conversazione,  questa  conserva  dunque  i  tratti  tipici  delle  aperture  di  conversazione  spontanee,  soprattutto   per  ciò  che  riguarda  la  completezza  e  contiguità  delle  coppie  adiacenti.                                                                                                                               6  rumore  delle  labbra  che  si  schiudono   autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      35   aspetti   problematici   simili   a   quelli   osservati   nell’apertura   di   conversazione   tra   monica   e   elena   si   notano  anche  all’inizio  del  dialogo  a  tre  tra  elisa,  marco  e  massimo  (estratto  3).  anche  in  questo  caso,  non  vi   sono   effetti   sonori   di   sottofondo   che   consentano   di   ricostruire   il   possibile   contesto   nel   quale   questa   interazione  ha  luogo.  la  conversazione  all’inizio  coinvolge  solo  due  delle  tre  persone  presenti:     estratto 3. ue il semestre ricomincia – 1   01 elisa ↑oh guarda chi c’è, (.) marco finalmente. (0.2) 02 al↑lora? come va¿ 03 (0.6) 04 elisa tornato dalle ferie? 05 (0.3) 06 elisa cos’hai fatto di bello? 07 (0.3) 08 marco tlk .hhh bene bene::::. eccomi qua. (0.3) pronto a 09 ricominciare, (…)   come  nel  caso  dell’apertura  di  conversazione  tra  monica  e  elena,  notiamo  anche  qui  l’assenza  di  una   risposta  rilevante  in  almeno  tre  diverse  occasioni:  marco  infatti  non  risponde  all’azione  di  riconoscimento  di   elisa  (riga  01),  e  non  dà  avvio  a  uno  scambio  di  saluti.  elisa,  d’altra  parte,  passa  direttamente  alla  sequenza   dei   convenevoli   (riga   02),   che   però,   di   nuovo,   non   vengono   reciprocati   dall’amico:   a   questa   azione   segue   infatti  un  silenzio  prolungato  (0,6  secondi:  riga  03),  seguito  da  una  nuova  domanda  di  elisa  (riga  04)  che,  data   la   propria   natura   polare,   renderebbe   un   “sì”   o   alternativamente   un   “no”   come   risposte   condizionalmente   rilevanti  nel  turno  di  risposta  adiacente.  la  risposta  di  marco  invece  latita,  e  al  suo  posto  troviamo  un  nuovo   silenzio  (riga  05),  seguito  da  una  domanda  aperta  di  elisa  (riga  06),  che  in  questo  caso  proietta  come  risposta   preferita   un   turno   esteso   di   tipo   narrativo.   soffermandoci   per   ora   solo   sull’inizio   del   turno   di   marco,   noteremo  subito  un  problema:  esso,   infatti,  non  pare  tanto  rispondere  all’ultima  domanda  di  elisa  (riga  06:   “cos’hai   fatto   di   bello?”),   quanto   alla   prima   (riga   02:   “allora?=come   va¿”),   contravvenendo   così   anche   in   questo   caso   alla   preferenza   per   la   contiguità   tra   azioni   complementari   (sacks,   1987,   pp.   59-­‐60).   abbiamo   dunque   tre   potenziali   coppie   adiacenti   che   rimangono  monche   e   il   cui   completamento,   quando   c’è,   è   mal   posizionato,  come  nel  caso  della  risposta  di  marco  (righe  08-­‐09).     ritorniamo   ora   alla   conversazione   tra   elena   e  monica,   per   osservarne   un   ulteriore   estratto.   come   abbiamo  detto  in  precedenza,  la  domanda  di  monica  (“allora?  com’è  andata  al  mercato?”)  sembra  proiettare   come  azione  preferita  in  seconda  posizione  un  turno  di  risposta  esteso:  in  effetti,  la  parlante  selezionata  inizia   a  offrire  un  resoconto  dettagliato  della  propria  visita  al  mercato  (estratto  4,  righe  05-­‐08).           estratto 4. ue shopping 2 05 elena ciao monica .hhhhh oggi giornata alla grande. .hh ho 06 trovato un sacco di cose per l’inverno. guarda, .hhhhh 07 fantastici questi stivali neri vero? .hhhhh ottanta euro. 08 .hh mi piace un sacco la punta rotonda. 09 monica tlk .hhhh sì. 10 (0.2) 11 e (poi) quest’anno si usa un casino. 12 (0.6) 13 monica ma che numero porti? li posso provare un atti[mo?] 14 ellena [.hh] il 15 trentotto, (0.2) sì*sì fai pure. 16 monica .hhhh eh sì. proprio belli. 17 (0.4) 18 monica quasi quasi me li prendo anch’io. 19 (0.5)   disponendo  della  sola  registrazione  audio,  non  ci  è  dato  sapere  quale  sia   la  configurazione  spaziale   che  assumono  monica,  elena  e  gli  oggetti  acquistati  da  quest’ultima,  per  cui  dovremo  cercare  di  analizzare  ciò   che  accade  solo  a  partire  dalla  traccia  sonora.  ciò  che  possiamo  osservare  è  quello  che  monica  non  fa,  durante   il   turno   di   elena.   prima   di   tutto,   pur   in   presenza   di   un   enunciato   di   per   sé   completo   dal   punto   di   vista   sintattico,  prosodico  e  pragmatico,  monica  non  risponde  in  modo  apprezzabile  al  turno  informativo  di  elena   (riga   05:   “oggi   giornata   alla   grande”),   che   oltretutto   veicola   una   valutazione   estremamente   positiva.   è   al   pauletto       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50  36   completamento   di   ogni   singola   unità   di   costruzione   del   turno   (uct)   infatti   che   si   apre   quello   spazio   di   opportunità   definito   punto   di   rilevanza   condizionale,   all’interno   del   quale   può   avvenire   il   lecito   avvicendamento   tra   parlanti.   sappiamo   poi   che   i   turni   informativi   in   seconda   posizione   (informings:   cfr.   couper-­‐kuhlen   &   selting,   2018,   pp.   268-­‐270),   turni   cioè   che   rispondono   a   una   richiesta   di   informazioni,   rendono   rilevante   la   produzione   di   un   ulteriore   turno   di   risposta   in   terza   posizione   (news   receipt   o   newsmark)   che  dia   ricevuta  della  nuova   informazione  e   che  nel   contempo   indichi   come   il   ricevente   sia  ora   aggiornato  rispetto  a  qualcosa  di  cui  prima  non  era  al  corrente  (heritage,  1984b).  non  rispondendo,  monica   sembrerebbe  così  trattare  come  non  degna  di  nota  o  addirittura  problematica  l’informazione  appena  ottenuta   da   elena.   a   seguire,   monica   si   autoseleziona   per   produrre   una   nuova   uct   dal   carattere   informativo   (“ho   trovato  un  sacco  di  cose  per  l’inverno”:  righe  05-­‐06)  completata  la  quale,  tuttavia,  la  co-­‐partecipante  si  astiene   nuovamente   dal   reagire,   sia   pure   in   maniera   minima.   monica   dunque   prosegue,   compiendo   due   azioni   diverse:   mostra   a   elena   un   paio   di   stivali   ed   esprime   (presumibilmente   allo   stesso   tempo)   su   questi   una   valutazione   estremamente   positiva   (righe   06-­‐07).   questa   parte   del   turno   è   composta   da   una   prima   uct   costituita  dal  solo  verbo  ‘guardare’,  in  forma  imperativa  (“guarda”;  riga  06)  e  con  intonazione  discendente7,  e   da  una  seconda  uct  con  la  quale  monica  esprime  la  valutazione  (“fantastici  questi  stivali  neri”;  riga  07).  non   solo:  monica  completa  il  turno  producendo  una  ulteriore  uct:  si  tratta  di  una  domanda  retorica  (“vero?”),  un   tag  che  renderebbe  rilevante  una  risposta  da  parte  di  elena  nel  turno  adiacente.  il  formato  del  turno  di  per  sé   (ad   esempio   l’esibizione   dell’oggetto   e   il   tag   finale)   ha   caratteristiche   capaci   di   mobilitare   un’azione   responsiva   (stivers   &   rossano,   2010).   inoltre,   sappiamo   che   nelle   conversazioni   spontanee   il   turno   di   valutazione   è   spesso   seguito   da   segnali   di   ricevuta   (acknowledgements:   per   esempio   “mhm”)   o   da   turni   valutativi   prodotti   dal   co-­‐partecipante   (pomerantz,   1975,   1984).   mentre   un   segnale   di   ricevuta   indica   un’affiliazione  solo  parziale,  i  turni  valutativi  in  seconda  posizione  sono  normalmente  formulati  in  maniera  da   segnalare  accordo   con   l’assessment   precedente   (de  stefani,   2011,  p.  379).   il   fatto   che  monica  non   risponda   potrebbe  quindi  far  presagire  un  incipiente  disaccordo  da  parte  sua,  possibilità  che  però  viene  smentita  di  lì  a   poco  quando  lei  stessa  formulerà  una  valutazione  molto  positiva  (riga  16:  “eh  sì.  proprio  belli.”).  la  risposta  di   monica   ci   pare   dunque   manifestamente   assente.   assente   risulta   pure   una   nuova   risposta   all’incremento   informativo   che   elena   produce   immediatamente   dopo   (“ottanta   euro.”;   riga   07):   come   gli   informings   in   seconda  posizione,  sappiamo  infatti  che  anche  le  offerte  di  informazioni  in  prima  posizione  (news  deliveries;   couper-­‐kuhlen  &  selting,  2018,  pp.  266-­‐268)  proiettano  come  risposta  rilevante  la  produzione  di  un  qualche   tipo  di  segnale  di  ricevuta  (“davvero?”  o  “ah!”  sarebbero  possibili  candidati),  che  invece  anche  in  questo  caso   è   assente.   di   nuovo,   monica   dà   l’impressione   di   non   essere   una   partecipante   molto   attenta   a   ciò   che   sta   avvenendo.   elena   chiude   il   proprio   turno   esteso   valutando   positivamente   un   dettaglio   dell’oggetto   che   sta   esibendo  (“mi  piace  un  sacco  la  punta  rotonda”;  riga  08).  è  a  questo  punto  che  monica  si  autoseleziona,  ma   diventa   difficile   capire   a   che   cosa   risponda   il   “sì”   che   apre   il   suo   turno   (riga   09).   non   sembra   rispondere   all’ultima   valutazione   di   elena,   dal   momento   che   non   si   tratta   di   una   valutazione   affiliativa   in   seconda   posizione   e   che   quella   di   elena   non   è   una   valutazione   dal   carattere   generale   ma   l’espressione   di   una   preferenza   personale.   paradossalmente,   con   questo   sì   la   parlante   sembrerebbe   confermare   di   essere   a   conoscenza  della  predilezione  di  elena  per  gli  stivali  con  la  punta  tonda,  esibendo  un  accesso  alle  esperienze  e   ai  sentimenti  a  queste  legati  che  sono  in  realtà  di  proprietà  della  sola  parlante  (sacks,  1992,  p.  244).  in  ogni   caso,   elena   si   autoseleziona   di   nuovo,   producendo   un   ulteriore   turno   informativo   (news  delivery)   in   prima   posizione  (“e  (poi) quest’anno  si  usa  un  casino.”;  riga  11).  come  abbiamo  visto  in  precedenza,  ciò  renderebbe   rilevante  una  risposta  da  parte  della  co-­‐partecipante  sotto  forma  di  segnale  di  ricevuta,  qui  invece  assente.  il   turno  di  elena  è   infatti  seguito  da  un  silenzio  rilevante,  superiore  al  mezzo  secondo  (riga  12),  dopo  il  quale   elena  si  autoseleziona  ancora  per  fare  a  monica  due  domande  in  rapida  successione  (“ma  che  numero  porti?  li   posso   provare   un   atti[mo?]”;   riga   13).   come   abbiamo   osservato   in   precedenza,   anche   in   questo   caso   la   contiguità  fra  azioni  che  si  osserva  nelle  interazioni  di  tutti  i  giorni  non  viene  rispettata:  l’ordine  delle  risposte   di  monica  segue  infatti  l’ordine  delle  domande  di  elena  (righe  14-­‐15).  nemmeno  il  turno  successivo  di  monica   (“eh   sì.   proprio   belli.”; riga   16),   una   valutazione   positiva   che   renderebbe   rilevante   l’espressione   di   affiliazione  da  parte  di  elena,  riceve  risposta.  l’ultimo  turno  esaminato  in  questa  sezione  segue  un  ulteriore   silenzio  (riga  17)  ed  è  l’annuncio  di  un  futuro,  possibile  corso  d’azione  da  parte  della  stessa  parlante  (“quasi   quasi  me  li  prendo  anch’io.”;  riga  18).  un  annuncio  forma  la  prima  parte  di  una  coppia  adiacente  che  di  norma   vede,  in  seconda  posizione,  un’azione  di  risposta  costituita  da  una  valutazione  positiva  o  negativa,  a  seconda   del   carattere  dell’annuncio   stesso   (terasaki,   2004,   pp.   175-­‐176).  anche   in   questo   caso,   l’azione  di   risposta                                                                                                                             7  questo  aspetto,  unito  alla  susseguente  inspirazione,  ci  fa  escludere  che  si  tratti  di  un  segnale  discorsivo.   autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      37   rilevante   è   assente   (si   osservi   il   silenzio   prolungato   alla   riga   19),   fatto   che   in   condizioni   normali   potrebbe   generare,  nuovamente,  inferenze  negative.  il  fatto  che  presso  un  prt  possa  avvenire  un  avvicendamento  tra  i   parlanti  non  significa  ovviamente  che  ciò  debba  avvenire.  ciò  che  vogliamo  sottolineare  è  che  nessuna  delle   occasioni  disponibili  per  esibire  il  proprio  ascolto  attivo,  la  propria  partecipazione  alla  conversazione,  è  stata   sfruttata  dalle  due  partecipanti.  vedremo  in  seguito  ciò  che  avviene  in  conversazioni  più  spontanee.   ora  osserviamo  altri  esempi  di  questa  mancata  corrispondenza   tra  azioni   in  prima,   in  seconda  e   in   terza   posizione   anche   nella   conversazione   a   tre   (estratto   5)   che   abbiamo   già   iniziato   ad   analizzare.   nella   sequenza  che  proponiamo  a  seguire  viene  coinvolto  anche  il  terzo  partecipante,  massimo:     estratto 5. ue  il semestre ricomincia – 2 17 elisa .hhhh beati voi, (0.2) io invece sono rimasta qui e 18 ho lavorato come al solito al museo.*.hhhhh non vi 19 dico che divertimento. (0.2) però almeno ho avuto 20 il tempo di preparare l’esame di storia moderna. 21 .hhhhhh vabbè dai. 22 (0.5) 23 elisa massimo e tu? che cosa hai fatto. sei andato a parigi 24 poi? 25 (0.3) 26 massimo .hh eh sì. .hh €sono st(h)ato a p(h)arigi::€ luglio e 27 agosto..hhhhhh ma:: di parigi ho visto ben poco. 28 (0.3) 29 massimo sono andato a cercare materiale per la tesi. .hhhhhhh 30 però ora::: f::: conosco tutte le biblioteche della 31 città.*hhh. 32 (0.4) 33 marco ↑a:::h, 34 (0.3) 35 marco tlk sei stato a pa↑rigi? 36 (0.5) 37 marco ma ↑dove hai dormito? 38 (0.4) 39 massimo .hhhhh da::: luca.   nel   proprio   turno   elisa   offre   almeno   due   informazioni   nuove:   la   permanenza   in   città   per   lavoro,   segmento  che  ha  il  carattere  della  lamentela  (righe  17-­‐19),  e  la  preparazione  di  un  esame  universitario  (righe   19-­‐20).  in  entrambi  i  casi  si  tratta  di  news  deliveries,  che  tuttavia  non  ricevono  risposta  da  parte  dei  due  co-­‐ partecipanti   in   prossimità   dei   rispettivi   prt.   alla   riga   21   il   turno   esteso   di   elisa   giunge   alla   propria   conclusione   ma   anche   in   questo   caso   nessuno   tra   i   parlanti   co-­‐presenti   si   autoseleziona.   dopo   un   gap   piuttosto  lungo  (0,5  secondi;  riga  22)  elisa  riprende  il   turno  di  parola  e   interroga  massimo  (righe  23-­‐25),   il   quale  produce  un  turno  di  risposta  articolato  (righe  26-­‐31).  marco  ed  elisa  avrebbero  diverse  opportunità  per   rendere  manifesto   il  proprio   ruolo  di   ascoltatori   attivi:  1)   alla   fine  della   seconda  uct  del   turno  di   risposta   (“sono   st(h)ato   a  p(h)arigi::   luglio   e   agosto.”;   righe  26-­‐27),   con   la   quale  massimo   risponde   alla   richiesta  di   informazioni  di  elisa  dando  un’informazione  nuova;  2)  alla  fine  della  terza  uct  (“ma::  di  parigi  ho  visto  ben   poco.”;  riga  27),  un  altro  segmento  informativo  inedito  con  il  quale  d’altra  parte  massimo  sembra  prevenire   una   possibile   elaborazione   della   sequenza   da   parte   di   elisa   in   termini   di   ulteriori   domande   su   ciò   che   ha   visto/fatto  a  parigi;  3)  alla   fine  della  quarta  uct  (“sono  andato  a  cercare  materiale  per   la  tesi.”;  riga  29),  di   nuovo   un   informing;   4)   alla   fine   della   quinta  uct   (“però   ora:::   f:::   conosco   tutte   le   biblioteche   della   città.”;   righe  30-­‐31),  turno  che  rappresenta  l’esito  (upshot)  di  quanto  ha  appena  raccontato.  si  tratta  in  tutti  e  quattro   i  casi  di  azioni  che  proiettano  come  potenziale  risposta  preferita  in  terza  posizione  un  riconoscimento  anche   minimo,   sotto   forma  di   segnale  di   ricevuta  che  sottolinei   l’informatività  del   turno  precedente   (per  esempio   “ah!”)  o  che  indichi  retrospettivamente  l’assenza  di  problemi  di  comprensione  da  parte  degli  ascoltatori  (per   esempio   “mhm.”).   queste   occasioni,   però,   non   vengono   sfruttate   né   da  marco   né   da   elisa.   vediamo   che   la   risposta   di   marco   è   posizionata   in   maniera   sfasata   dal   punto   di   vista   sequenziale:   la   particella   che   fa   da   premessa   al   suo   turno   (“↑a:::h,”;   riga   33)   indica   infatti   che   il   viaggio   di   massimo   a   parigi   è   per   lui   un’informazione  nuova  (cfr.  heritage,  1984b),   il  che  fa  supporre  che  questo  turno  possa  rispondere  più  alla   domanda  di  elisa  (righe  23-­‐24),  o  alla  prima  parte  del  turno  di  risposta  di  massimo  (righe  26-­‐27),  con  il  quale   pauletto       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50  38   la  domanda  di  elisa  riceve  conferma  ed  elaborazione.  notiamo  poi  che  il  turno  successivo  di  marco  (“tlk  sei   stato  a  pa↑rigi?  riga  35),  una  domanda  che  proietterebbe  un  “sì”   (e  un’elaborazione)  come  azione  preferita   nel  turno  successivo,  non  ottiene  alcuna  risposta.  in  condizioni  normali,  questa  assenza  sarebbe  manifesta  e   potrebbe  dare   il  via  a  una  sequenza  di   riparazione.  qui  questo  non  accade.  dopo  un  silenzio  di  0,5  secondi   (riga   36)   marco   si   autoseleziona   nuovamente   e   pone   un’ulteriore   domanda   allo   stesso   partecipante   (“ma   ↑dove  hai  dormito?;  riga  37),  che  questa  volta  elicita  con  successo  una  risposta  coerente  da  parte  di  massimo   (“.hhhhh  da:::  luca..”;   riga  39).  di  nuovo,   l’impressione  un  po’  paradossale   che  si  può   trarre  dall’ascolto  di   questa  conversazione  è  che   i  partecipanti  non  stiano  seguendo  con  attenzione,  momento  per  momento,   ciò   che  stanno  dicendo  e  facendo  le  altre  persone  presenti  come  invece  farebbero  delle  persone  in  una  situazione   naturale.  di  questa  sequenzialità  atipica  troviamo  traccia  anche  in  altri  casi.  vediamo  un  altro  estratto  della   conversazione  tra  elena  e  monica  (estratto  6):     estratto 6. ue shopping – 3     25 elena no↑:::↓: .hhh è la ven↓totto .hhhh mi vanno benissimo. 26 .hhh be’ non sono di certo larghi, .hh ma secondo me mi 27 stanno bene. .hhh poi a me piace il viola. .hh con una 28 bella maglietta bianca stanno da dio. 29 (.) 30 monica tlk .hhhhhhh come quella lì che vedo nella borsa? 31 (0.4) 32 monica ↑ma quante cose hai comprato? 33 elena .hhh un sacco.   in  questa  occasione,  il  primo  ostacolo  può  essere  identificato  nel  fatto  che  il  referente  della  domanda   prodotta  da  monica  (“come  quella  lì  che  vedo  nella  borsa?”;  riga  30)  è  “una  bella  maglietta  bianca”  (righe  27-­‐ 28),  mentre   la   valutazione   complessiva   di   elena   (“stanno   da   dio”,   riga   28)   riguarda   i   pantaloni   che   lei   ha   appena  descritto  (righe  25-­‐27),  e  non  una  maglietta  bianca.  a  questo  primo  sfasamento  di  tipo  referenziale,   ne  segue  un  secondo  di  tipo  sequenziale:  la  domanda  di  monica,  infatti,  non  riceve  risposta,  come  dimostra  il   silenzio   di   0,4   secondi   che   segue   (riga   31).   monica   si   autoseleziona   subito   dopo,   per   produrre   una   nuova   domanda   (riga   32):   in   questo   caso   la   coppia   adiacente   trova   finalmente   completamento   con   il   turno   di   risposta  di  elena  (riga  33).  lo  stesso  fenomeno  diventa  evidente  nel  prossimo  estratto:     estratto 7. ue shopping – 4   36 elena .hhh ormai mi conoscono mi €fa(h)nno pure€ lo sconto, 37 .hhh non è carina? 38 (0.3) 39 elena semplice*di cotone, .hhhh proprio quella che cercavo. 40 monica tlk .hhhh sì non è male. .hhhhhhhh ce n’è anche di altri 41 colori?     anche  qui,  la  richiesta  di  conferma  di  elena  (riga  37)  rimane  senza  risposta.  la  parlante,  dopo  un  silenzio  di   0,3   secondi   (38)   si   autoseleziona   nuovamente   per   produrre   una   descrizione   del   capo   di   abbigliamento.   la   stessa  assenza  di  reazione  si  nota  anche  dopo  altri  turni  informativi  in  prima  posizione  (news  deliveries):       estratto 8. ue shopping – 5 40 monica tlk .hhhh sì non è male. .hhhhhhhh ce n’è anche di altri 41 colori? 42 elena .hhhhhhh be’ i soliti, (.) bianca nera verde rossa, 43 .hhhh poi c’è anche un bel giallo che quest’anno va di 44 moda. 45 monica tlk .hhhhhhhh e la ↑tua che taglia è? 46 (0.3)           autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      39   estratto 9. ue shopping – 6   52 elena (…) .hh dieci euro l’ho pagata. 53 non è tanto no? 54 monica tlk .hhh be’ no di certo se la compri in un negozio ti 55 costa almeno il triplo. 56 (0.8) 57 elena .hhh e poi mi sono comprata questa gonna di jeans per 58 quindici euro. estratto 10. ue shopping – 7       64 elena .hhhhhhhh ecco è tutto h. ho fatto fuori, (0.2) tutti i 65 soldi che ho guadagnato con la traduzione per il prof. 66 di economia, .hhh e per i prossimi mesi sono a posto. 67 monica tlk .hhhh sai che ti dico? .hhh la prossima volta vengo 68 con te. (.)   in  tutti  e  tre  i  casi,  i  segmenti  informativi  di  elena  (righe  43-­‐44:  “poi  c’è  un  bel  giallo  che  quest’anno   va  di  moda”;  righe  64-­‐66:  “ecco  è  tutto  h.  ho  fatto  fuori,  (0.2)  tutti  i  soldi  che  ho  guadagnato  con  la  traduzione   per  il  prof.  di  economia”)  e  di  monica  (righe  54-­‐55:  “se  la  compri  in  un  negozio  ti  costa  almeno  il  triplo”)  non   ottengono  nel  turno  contiguo  alcun  tipo  di  ratifica  da  parte  della  co-­‐partecipante,  la  quale  invece  negli  estratti   9)  e  11)  produce  nel  turno  immediatamente  successivo  un’azione  in  prima  posizione,  che  dunque  dà  inizio  a   un   nuovo   corso   d’azione:   nell’estratto   9)   una   domanda   (riga   45),   nell’estratto   11)   l’annuncio   di   un   futuro   corso   d’azione   (riga   67-­‐68).  nell’estratto   numero   10),   invece,   il   turno   informativo   è   seguito   da   un   silenzio   prolungato  (riga  56),  dopo  il  quale  ad  autoselezionarsi  è  elena,  che  continua  con  il  proprio  resoconto  senza,   appunto,  mostrare  alcun  orientamento  rispetto  all’informazione  appena  ricevuta.   il   fatto   che   ai   partecipanti   si   presenti   in  maniera   ricorsiva   la   possibilità   di   autoselezionarsi   per   la   presa   di   turno   in   prossimità   di   ogni   prt   non   implica   che   essi   lo   facciano   sistematicamente.   a   questo   proposito,  stivers  e  rossano  (2010)  propongono  che  azioni  differenti  in  prima  posizione  abbiano  la  capacità   di  mobilitare  in  grado  diverso  delle  azioni  di  risposta  in  seconda  posizione,  soprattutto  a  causa  della  diversa   formattazione  del  turno.  la  responsività  delle  azioni  in  prima  posizione  è  in  generale  maggiore  in  contesti  in   cui  non  esiste  accesso  visuale  tra  i  co-­‐partecipanti  (per  esempio  al  telefono),  proprio  per  compensare  questo   problema  inerente  la  situazione  comunicativa.  i  due  studiosi  evidenziano  poi  come  per  alcune  azioni  in  prima   posizione  meno  canoniche  (valutazioni,  annunci,  noticing)  l’assenza  di  risposta  in  seconda  posizione  sia  una   eventualità  molto  più  comune  di  quanto  non  avvenga  per  altri  tipi  di  azione  in  prima  posizione  più  canonici   (domande,   richieste,   inviti   ecc.):   nel   caso   delle   azioni   meno   canoniche,   un’assenza   di   risposta   verrebbe   insomma   problematizzata   meno   frequentemente.   ciò   si   deve   soprattutto   alla   formattazione   del   turno   (prosodia  e  sintassi  interrogativa)  o  all’accesso  sbilanciato  all’informazione  (stivers  &  rossano,  2010,  pp.  27-­‐ 29).  detto  questo,   l’osservazione  dei  dati   reali   dimostra   che  anche  nel   caso  delle   azioni  meno   canoniche   la   risposta,  sia  essa  costituita  da  semplici  segnali  di  ricevuta  o  da  azioni  incorporate  (movimenti  della  testa  e/o   del  corpo,  gesti  ecc.),  è  molto  frequente.  la  sua  sistematica  assenza  (per  quanto  ci  è  dato  sapere,  in  assenza  di   dati  video),  nelle  due  conversazioni  analizzate,  rappresenta  un  aspetto  a  nostro  modo  di  vedere  problematico   di  queste  conversazioni,  anche  in  prospettiva  didattica.   a  dimostrazione  del  fatto  che  questo  tipo  di  criticità  non  riguarda  tutti  i  supporti  audio  che  corredano   i  manuali  di  italiano  l2/ls,  riportiamo  qui  di  seguito  l’estratto  di  una  conversazione  telefonica  proveniente,   ancora  una  volta,  da  ld1  (conforti  &  cusimano,  1997:  lezione  6).  anche  in  questo  caso  la  conversazione  viene   recitata  da  attori,   i  quali   tuttavia   improvvisano  a  partire  da  un  canovaccio  anziché   interpretare  un  copione.   chiara  telefona  all’amico  alfredo,  che  nei  giorni  precedenti  l’ha  cercata  insistentemente  ma  senza  successo.  si   è  appena  conclusa  la  fase  di  apertura  della  chiamata:       estratto 11. ld1 la sicilia ti è piaciuta?   01 alfredo (…) e:::h senti, m::: sei stata ancora 02 in giro per lavoro? 03 (.) 04 chiara mf n(h)o=n(h)o:: öhöh €sono andata in vacanza caro mio.€ 05 alfredo ↑a::::h in vac[anza be]ne. e= 06 chiara [heh*€sì*sì.€] 07 alfredo =do[ve?] pauletto       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50  40   08 chiara [tlk] .hhhh sono stata: in*e::h sicilia perché: ho::: 09 <vinto un viaggio premio della azienda.> 10 alfredo [↑a:::::::h. ] 11 chiara [della mia azi]enda. 12 alfredo ben[e.] 13 chiara [sì]*s[ì.] 14 alfredo [be]ne. bene, ma: da sola? 15 chiara tlk no*no*no:. con e:h con alcuni colleghi sempre 16 dell’a[zienda.*è s]tata, .hhhhhh un viaggio: guarda è stato un= 17 alfredo [ mh*↑mh.] 18 chiara =viaggio splendido d[evo dire. veramente,] 19 alfredo [bene. e dove siete] stati in sici[lia?] 20 chiara [ tlk] ma 21 guarda praticamente abbiamo girato tutta l’i[sola, ] .hhhhhh= 22 alfredo [mh*↑mh.] 23 chiara =e: abbiamo visitato le città più importa[n t i :]:::*m:::= 24 alfredo [mh*↑mh.] 25 chiara =palermo cata[nia ag]rigen[to::, ]= 26 alfredo [mh*↑mh.] [mh*↑mh.] 27 chiara =.hhhhh[h ed è] stata, ^::::: poi= 28 alfredo [mh*↑mh.] 29 chiara =siamo andati anche sull’etna. 30 alfredo ↑ah. (0.2) però.   la  conversazione  in  questa  fase  si  regge  fondamentalmente  sulle  domande  che  alfredo  pone  a  chiara   (righe   01-­‐02;   05   e   07;   14;   19).   a   differenza   di   quanto   abbiamo   osservato   fino   ad   ora,   in   questo   caso   la   conversazione   fluisce   grazie   al   monitoraggio   attento   dei   turni   altrui   che   entrambi   i   partecipanti   operano,   momento  per  momento,  per  tutta  la  durata  dell’estratto:   lo  notiamo  in  particolare  per  la  grande  quantità  di   segnali   di   risposta   (gardner   2001)   regolarmente   prodotti   da   alfredo   in   prossimità   dei   prt   e   in   corrispondenza  con  i  nuclei  informativi  più  rilevanti.  abbiamo  quindi  “bene”  (righe  05,  12,  14  e  19),  che  qui   funge  sia  da  valutazione,  sia  da  segnale  di  cambiamento  di  attività  (precede  sistematicamente  le  domande  che   alfredo  pone  a  chiara,  marcando  dunque  il  suo  passaggio  dal  ruolo  di  ascoltatore  a  quello  di  parlante);  “ah”   (righe  05,  10,  30),  che  viene  utilizzato  da  alfredo  con  due  diverse  configurazioni  prosodiche  per  segnalare  il   carattere   inedito   dell’informazione   appena   ricevuta;   “mh=↑mh.”,   come   segnale   di   ricevuta,   con   il   quale   alfredo   da   un   lato   sottolinea   la   ricezione   fino   a   quel   momento   non   problematica   del   turno   della   co-­‐ partecipante  e  dall’altro  rinuncia  a  prendere  la  parola.  le  azioni  dei  due  parlanti  sono  finemente  coordinate,   non   vi   sono   coppie   complementari  monche   e   –   a   differenza   di   quanto   accade   nelle   due   conversazioni   qui   analizzate  –  in  nessun  caso  i  turni  di  parola  sono  separati  da  silenzi  difficilmente  giustificabili  sotto  il  profilo   sequenziale:   le   sovrapposizioni   sono   invece   numerose,   come   sovente   avviene   nelle   conversazioni   di   tutti   i   giorni,  e  nell’estratto  esaminato  non  sono  mai  competitive  (cfr.  schegloff,  2000a).  un’ultima  nota  riguarda  la   presenza  di  un  altro  fenomeno  pervasivo  nel  parlato  di  tutti  i  giorni  e  del  tutto  assente  sia  nell’interazione  tra   elena  e  monica,  sia  in  quella  che  coinvolge  elisa,  marco  e  massimo:  la  riparazione,  termine  ombrello  che  serve   a   definire   le   pratiche   utilizzate   per   ristabilire   la   progressività   dell’interazione   quando   questa   si   inceppa   a   causa  di  problemi  di  comprensione,  ricezione  o  produzione  del  turno  in  corso  o  di  quello  precedente.  qui  la   riparazione   è   presente   in   ben   due   occasioni   (righe   09   e   11:   “un   viaggio   premio   della   azienda.   della   mia   azienda”;  righe  16  e  18:  “è  stata,  .hhhhhh  un  viaggio:  guarda  è  stato  un  viaggio  splendido  devo  dire”)  nell’arco   di  pochi  secondi.     tra   le   pratiche   interattive   tipiche   del   parlato   è   presente   anche   la   risata.   la   risata   in   interazione   è   stata   studiata   in   contesti   sia   istituzionali   sia   ordinari,   ed   è   stato   possibile   descriverne   l’alto   livello   di   organizzazione  a  livello  dei  turni  e  delle  sequenze.  un  aspetto  notevole  di  questo  fenomeno  è  che,  a  differenza   di  quanto  avviene  con  il  parlato  (one  at  a  time),  è  accettabile  per  i  partecipanti  ridere  assieme,  anche  se  non  è   necessario  farlo  per  forza  simultaneamente  (jefferson,  sacks,  &  schlegoff,  1977,  p.  2).  la  risata  è  dunque  un   fenomeno   interazionalmente   co-­‐costruito:   jefferson   (1979)   ha   mostrato   come   essa   spesso   ricorra   come   risposta  a  un  invito  a  ridere  veicolato  dal  turno  precedente  attraverso  fenomeni  come  “laugh-­‐relevant  sounds   and/or   bodily   displays”   (ford   &   fox,   2010,   p.   340).   vediamo   ora   che   cosa   accade   nella   conversazione   “il   semestre  ricomincia”:       autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      41   estratto 12. ue il semestre ricomincia – 3     23 elisa massimo e tu? che cosa hai fatto.*sei andato a parigi 24 poi? 25 (0.3) 26 masssimo .hh eh sì. .hh €sono st(h)ato a p(h)arigi::€ luglio e 27 agosto, .hhhhhh ma:: di parigi cho visto ben poco. 28 (0.3)   nella  parte   iniziale  del   turno  di   risposta  di  massimo  (riga  26)  possiamo  osservare  alcuni   fenomeni   che   fanno  pensare  a  una  risata   incipiente:   in  particolare   la  voce  allegra  (smiley  voice;  qui  rappresentata  dal   simbolo   “€”   ai   margini   del   segmento   caratterizzato   dal   fenomeno)   e   alcune   particelle   di   aspirazione   intervallate   (interpolated   particles   of   aspiration:   cfr.   potter   &   hepburn,   2010)   all’interno   delle   parole   “st(h)ato”  e  “p(h)arigi”.  tralasciando   il   lieve  ritardo  con   il  quale  massimo  risponde  alla  domanda   formulata   dall’amica,  che  non  si  discosta  da  quanto  già  visto  nel  resto  dell’interazione,  è  tuttavia  difficile  rintracciare  nel   turno  di   parola   di   elisa   (righe  23-­‐24)   quegli   elementi   che  potrebbero   fare  di   esso  un   invito   a   ridere   (voce   allegra,   particelle   di   aspirazione,   variazione  del   tono   e  del   volume,   respirazione  udibile   ecc.).  d’altra  parte,   nemmeno   il   turno  di   risposta   di  massimo   è   trattato   come  un   laughable   dai   co-­‐partecipanti,   che   infatti   non   reagiscono  in  alcun  modo  (si  veda  il  silenzio  di  0,3  secondi  alla  riga  28).  diventa  quindi  impossibile  stabilire  a   che   cosa   risponda   questa   risata   incipiente,   che   sembra   piuttosto   veicolare   –   ancora   una   volta   –   un’azione   sfasata  rispetto  al  contesto  sequenziale  locale.   in  questo  paragrafo  abbiamo  messo  in  luce  come  nelle  due  conversazioni  analizzate  siano  frequenti   tanto   lo   sfasamento   sequenziale   tra   azioni   come   l’assenza   tout   court   di   azioni   di   risposta   quando   queste   sarebbero   invece   condizionalmente   rilevanti.   abbiamo   anche   messo   in   evidenza   come   i   materiali   audio   prodotti  in  studio  presentino  caratteristiche  diverse  a  seconda  della  modalità  di  registrazione:  in  particolare,   quelli   prodotti   a   partire   da   un   canovaccio   (e   quindi   non   recitati   a   partire   da   un   copione   preparato   in   precedenza,   ma   improvvisati   a   partire   da   una   traccia)   esibiscono   in   maggior   misura   i   fenomeni   tipici   del   parlato  e  non  presentano  le  incoerenze  sequenziali  emerse  invece  nell’analisi  delle  conversazioni  recitate.  nel   prossimo   paragrafo   ci   occuperemo   più   in   dettaglio   di   un   altro   fenomeno   che   nelle   due   conversazioni   esaminate  assume  contorni  peculiari:  la  presa  di  turno.       5.2  presa  di  turno   sacks  et   al.   (1974)  descrivono   in  maniera  organica   il   sistema  di  presa  di   turno  nelle   conversazioni   spontanee,  osservando  come  i  parlanti  si  avvicendino  regolarmente  nella  gestione  del  turno  di  parola,  e  come   nella   stragrande  maggioranza  dei   casi   a  parlare   sia  una   sola  persona  alla   volta   (“one  party  talks  at  a  time”;   (sacks  et  al.,  1974,  p.  700).  essi  sottolineano  poi  come  le  transizioni  tra  parlanti  avvengano  di  norma  senza   silenzi   (gaps)  o   sovrapposizioni   (overlaps)   tra   i   turni  di  parola,   o   con   silenzi   e   sovrapposizioni  molto  brevi   (sacks   et   al.,   1974,   pp.   700-­‐701).   secondo   studi   più   recenti,   il   40%  dei   passaggi   di   turno   sarebbe   in   realtà   caratterizzato  da  sovrapposizioni  mentre   la  maggioranza  delle  transizioni  (tra   il  51  e   il  55%)  avviene   in  un   tempo  inferiore  ai  200  millisecondi  (ms)  (heldner  &  hedlund,  2010,  p.  563).  inoltre,  silenzi  o  sovrapposizioni   di  durata  inferiore  ai  120  ms  non  sono  percepiti  come  tali  dai  parlanti.  osserviamo  ora  che  cosa  accade  nella   continuazione  della  conversazione  tra  monica  e  elena:               estratto 13. ue shopping 8   16 monica quasi quasi me li prendo anch’io. 17 à (0.5) 18 elena .hhhh poi guarda, (0.2) ho trovato questi pantaloni per 19 quaranta euro. 20 à (0.4) 21 monica tlk .hhh sì. (0.2) bellini. (.) ma quel colore viola non 22 mi convince molto. .hhhhhhh e poi non ↑sono un po’ 23 piccoli? 24 à (0.3) 25 elena no↑:::↓: .hhh è la ven↓totto .hhhh mi vanno benissimo. 26 .hhh be’ non sono di certo larghi, .hh ma secondo me mi 27 stanno bene. .hhh poi a me piace il viola. .hh con una 28 bella maglietta bianca stanno da dio. 29 (.) pauletto       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50  42   30 monica tlk .hhhhhhh come quella lì che vedo nella borsa? 31 à (0.4) 32 monica ↑ma quante cose hai comprato? 33 elena .hhh un sacco.   se  si  eccettuano  i  passaggi  di  turno  alle  righe  29  (con  un  silenzio  di  100  ms  circa)  e  33  (turno  che  in   ogni  caso  inizia  con  una  inspirazione  di  300  ms),  per  il  resto  osserviamo  con  regolarità  la  presenza  di  silenzi   anche   cospicui   tra   un   turno   e   l’altro   (per   esempio   alla   riga   17,   con   una   durata   di   500  ms),   e   in   ogni   caso   costantemente  superiori  ai  200  ms  sopra  accennati.  nelle  interazioni  di  tutti  i  giorni  il  ritardo  nella  risposta   può  essere  in  molti  casi  l’indicatore  di  qualche  problema  e  spesso  prefigura  un  disaccordo  (pomerantz,  1984,   p.  70).  studi  su  corpora  molto  ampi  hanno  dimostrato  che  in  presenza  di  gap  superiori  a  300  ms  aumentano   le   possibilità   che   il   turno   di   risposta   abbia   forma   dispreferita   (kendrick   &   torreira,   2015).   nel   caso   della   conversazione   tra   monica   ed   elena,   invece,   questi   silenzi   solo   occasionalmente   precedono   delle   azioni   di   risposta  di   tipo  dispreferito   o   non   allineato:   l’unico   caso   osservabile   è   un   turno   valutativo  moderatamente   negativo  di  monica   (cfr.  estratto  13:   righe  21-­‐23),   caratterizzato  da  diversi   fenomeni   (inspirazione   iniziale,   silenzio  intraturno  ecc.)  che  lasciano  intravvedere  la  possibilità  di  una  emergente  discrepanza  nell’assessment   dei  pantaloni  acquistati  da  elena,  evento  che  poi  si  materializza  nel  prosieguo  del  suo  turno.  nel  resto  dei  casi,   il   silenzio   tra   turni   contigui   sembra   invece   rientrare   nella   categoria   della   atipicità.   rivediamo   a   questo   proposito  l’estratto  della  conversazione  tra  elisa,  marco  e  massimo  già  analizzato:     estratto 14. ue il semestre ricomincia – 4   17 elisa .hhhh beati voi, (0.2) io invece sono rimasta qui e 18 ho lavorato come al solito al museo.*.hhhhh non vi 19 dico che divertimento. (0.2) però almeno ho avuto 20 il tempo di preparare l’esame di storia moderna.= 21 .hhhhhh vabbè dai. 22 à (0.5) 23 elisa massimo e tu? che cosa hai fatto.*sei andato a parigi 24 poi? 25 à (0.3) 26 massi .hh eh sì. .hh sono st(h)ato a p(h)arigi:: luglio e 27 agosto, .hhhhhh ma:: di parigi cho visto ben poco. 28 à (0.3) 29 massi sono andato a cercare materiale per la tesi. .hhhhhhh 30 però ora::: f::: conosco tutte le biblioteche 31 della città.*hhh. 32 à (0.4) 33 marco ↑a:::h,   oltre   alla   già   rilevata   problematicità   a   livello   delle   azioni   complementari,   osserviamo   che   sin   dall’inizio   lo   scambio   tra   elisa,   marco   e   massimo   si   distingue   per   un   avvicendamento   tra   parlanti   caratterizzato  dalla  sistematica  presenza  di  silenzi  più  o  meno  pronunciati  tra  un  turno  e  l’altro  (si  vedano  i   gap   alle   righe   22,   25,   28   e   32),   che   in   nessun   caso   fanno   da   premessa   ad   azioni   di   tipo   dispreferito   (e/o   disaffiliativo)  nel  turno  che  segue.  si  tratta  di  un  leitmotiv  in  questo  tipo  di  dialoghi  che  si  può  ipotizzare  trovi   la  propria  ragione  d’essere  non  tanto  in  valutazioni  di  tipo  pedagogico  quanto  nelle  esigenze  di  produzione  di   questo  tipo  di  materiale  didattico.     un   fenomeno  speculare  a  quello  degli  avvicendamenti  di   turno  con  gap   sistematico  è  costituito  dal   fatto  che  tanto  nella  conversazione  tra  monica  ed  elena  quanto  in  quella  che  coinvolge  elisa,  marco  e  massimo   sono  del  tutto  assenti  le  sovrapposizioni  tra  turni  di  parola,  siano  esse  terminali  o  dovute  all’uso  di  segnali  di   risposta   da   parte   dei   co-­‐partecipanti   nella   loro   veste   di   ascoltatori.   per   dare   la  misura   della   frequenza   di   questo   fenomeno   nel   parlato   quotidiano,   riportiamo   di   seguito   l’estratto   di   una   conversazione   tra   due   persone  tratta  da  v4  (2003):  la  registrazione  è  stata  realizzata  al  fine  di  produrre  del  materiale  da  ascolto,  ma   le   persone   coinvolte   non   hanno   ricevuto   alcuna   consegna   particolare   da   seguire   e   in   questa   fase   stanno   facendo  conoscenza.  si   tratta  di  una  conversazione  elicitata,  nel  senso  che  non  avrebbe  avuto   luogo  se   i  co-­‐ partecipanti  non  fossero  stati  invitati  a  interagire  dai  responsabili  della  produzione  del  materiale  didattico  in   questione,  e  dunque  non  naturale,  ma  ha  tutte  le  caratteristiche  della  spontaneità  (gillani  &  pernas,  2013):  è   cioè  una  conversazione  che  presenta  molti  dei  tratti  che  caratterizzano  il  parlato  quotidiano,  non  prevedendo   autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      43   nessun  copione  da   interpretare,  né  un  canovaccio  da  seguire.  roberto  e  virginia  stanno  parlando  da  alcuni   minuti:  nella  parte  iniziale  della  conversazione  (non  riportata  qui)  roberto  ha  descritto  a  virginia  la  propria   relazione  con  i  genitori  e  con  la  sorella.  esauritosi  questo  topic,  roberto  pone  a  virginia  la  domanda  con  cui  ha   inizio  l’estratto  (riga  01):     estratto 15. v4 rapporti con i genitori   01 roberto e invece tu sei figlia unica¿ 02 (0.2) 03 virginia io figlia unic[a quindi] non ho= 04 roberto [ah dai.] 05 virginia =ter[mini di p](h)arag(h)on(h)e.= 06 roberto [ahh.*haha] 07 virginia =.hhhhh hhhhhh. chiaramen[te. ] .hhh comunque io= 08 roberto [°hm*m:.°] 09 virginia =questo me rm:: me lo ricordo qu[esto aspe]tto proprio:::= 10 roberto [ °m:::.°] 11 virginia proprio::: questo tentativo di dividere padre:::, .hhhhh eh e 12 madre[:: e di e]sser io per loro: il:: ö::h= 13 roberto [ °hm*m:.°] 14 virginia =centro dell’attenzion[e, .hhhh]h (.) questo= 15 roberto [°hm*m::::.° ] 16 virginia =(s<mi era fortissimo>) forse anche perché i= 17 miei [eran s]eparati. .hhhhh e::: quin::di ci tenevo proprio= 18 roberto [°m:::.°] 19 virginia =a:: mant[enerli separati a mantenere queste] identità= 20 roberto [ah*ah*ah, ho capito. ho capito.] 21 virginia =separa[te,] 22 roberto [ ma] da subito erano separa[ti?]   la   risposta   di   virginia   alla   domanda   di   roberto   è   molto   articolata,   occupando   senza   soluzione   di   continuità   il   suo   turno   fino   alla   seguente   domanda   di   roberto   (riga   22).   ciò   che   qui   interessa  mettere   in   risalto  è   la  varietà  di  risorse  messe  in  campo  da  roberto,  nella  sua  (temporanea)  qualità  di  ascoltatore,  per   indicare   la   propria   attenzione   e   il   coinvolgimento   continuato   nella   narrazione   della   parlante   in   corso.   in   particolare,  è  costante  da  parte  di  roberto  l’uso  di  segnali  di  risposta,  e  in  particolare  di  ricevute  (righe  8,  10,   13,  15  e  18)    e  di  segnali  di  cambiamento  di  stato  (change-­‐of-­‐state  tokens;  righe  04  e  20;  cfr.  heritage,  1984b).   i  segnali  di  risposta  sono  interessanti  in  quanto  oggetti   linguistici  con  i  quali  il  parlante  compie  almeno  due   azioni:   come  già   sottolineato   in  precedenza,   da  un   lato   ratificare   la   ricezione  non  problematica  del   parlato   immediatamente   precedente,   dall’altro   rinunciare   a   prendere   il   turno.   essi   sono   particolarmente   frequenti   durante   i   turni   estesi   (narrazioni,   istruzioni   ecc.),   a   dimostrazione   della   capacità   dei   partecipanti   di   fare   previsioni  molto  sofisticate  e  precise  sullo  sviluppo  del  turno  in  corso:  queste  particelle  vengono  infatti  quasi   sempre  prodotte  in  prossimità  del  punto  di  rilevanza  transizionale,  ovvero  del  momento  in  cui  l’uct  in  corso   di  produzione  è  vicina  al  proprio  completamento  sintattico,  prosodico  o  pragmatico,  aprendo  alla  possibilità   che   si   realizzi  un  avvicendamento   tra   i  parlanti.  a  questo   tipo  di   sovrapposizione,   che   come  abbiamo  visto   non   rappresenta   un   tentativo   di   presa   del   turno   in   competizione,   possiamo   aggiungere   nella   nostra   descrizione  la  sovrapposizione  di  tipo  transizionale  che  si  può  osservare  alla  fine  dell’estratto  (righe  21-­‐22).   questo  tipo  di  accavallamento  è  minimo  e  –  come  dice  il  nome  –  transitorio,  verificandosi  quando  il  prossimo   parlante   inizia   il   proprio   turno   di   parola   in   prossimità   del   completamento   dell’ultimo   elemento   di   un   enunciato  altrimenti  possibilmente  completo  (jefferson,  1984,  pp.  12-­‐13).  un’altra  sovrapposizione  da  parte   di   roberto,   più   consistente   ma   di   nuovo   non   competitiva,   si   può   osservare   alla   riga   20,   verso   la   fine   dell’estratto:  in  questo  caso,  il  fatto  di  capire  il  tipo  di  relazione  che  intercorre  tra  i  genitori  di  virginia  (che   sono  separati  da  quando  lei  aveva  sei  anni)  si  dimostra  di  capitale  importanza  per  apprezzare  la  spiegazione   che   la   parlante   sta   offrendo:   questo  display  of  understanding   (heritage,   1984,   pp.   320-­‐323)  molto   esplicito   viene  prodotto  da  roberto  in  sovrapposizione,  dopo  che  virginia  ha  elevato  questa  nuova  informazione  (righe   16-­‐17)   allo   status   di   possibile   causa   addizionale   (“forse   anche   perché   i   miei   eran   separati”)   del   proprio   atteggiamento  nei   confronti   dei   genitori.   infine,   osserviamo  all’inizio  dell’estratto   la   risata  di  roberto   (riga   06)   in   parziale   sovrapposizione   con   il   turno   di   virginia   (riga   05).   la   risata   di   roberto   risponde   al   turno   precedente  di  virginia  (riga  03),  trattandolo  come  laughable.  la  sua  risata  inizia  (e  termina)  quando  il  turno   di  virginia  non  è  ancora  giunto  a  un  possibile  completamento:  è  interessante  notare  come  virginia  a  sua  volta   pauletto       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50  44   inizi  a  rispondere  alla  risata  di  roberto  appena  questa  si  è  conclusa,  come  testimonia   la  presenza  di  alcune   particelle  intervallate  di  aspirazione  all’interno  della  parola  “p(h)arag(h)on(h)e”,  che  completa  la  sua  uct.  la   risata,  a  differenza  di  quanto  avevamo  osservato  nell’estratto  12),  si  rivela  in  questo  caso  una  realizzazione   interattiva  e  finemente  coordinata  tra  i  partecipanti.     per  concludere  questa  sezione  e  mettere  in  rilievo  il  valore  del  silenzio  nella  conversazione  di  tutti  i   giorni,  proponiamo  un  ultimo  estratto  proveniente  ancora  una  volta  da  ld1  (conforti  &  cusimano,  1997).  la   conversazione   coinvolge   tre   persone:   l’impiegato   di   un’agenzia   viaggi   e   due   clienti   (anna   e   rita;   an   e   ri).   l’apertura,  molto  breve,  si  è  appena  conclusa,  e  una  delle  due  clienti  (anna)   introduce   la  ragione  della   loro   visita  (riga  03):     estratto 16. ld1 in treno o in aereo?   03 anna .hhhhh e:hm:: senta io vorrei qualche informazione. 04 impiegato benissimo. [dica pure.] 05 anna [ .hhhhhh] 06 (0.2) 07 anna e:::::h che possibilità ci sono per andare a monaco di baviera? 08 impiegato s::ì. (.) m::: come¿*in treno o in aereo? 09 (0.6) 10 anna e:::::h, 11 rita che f[acciamo?] 12 anna [che facc]iamo? 13 (.) 14 rita prendiamo l’aereo? 15 anna .hhhhhhh mah*h., 16 (0.2) 17 rita [quant’è*hh.? ] 18 anna [quanto costa in ae]reo? 19 impiegato .hhhhh mah in aereo ci sono:: diverse tariffe. le più 20 economiche sono tutte intorno al mezzo milione. 21 (0.2) 22 anna mezzo miliono guarda rita per me è troppo. 23 (0.2) 24 rita ma [da:i, ] 25 anna [prendiamo il] ↑tre[no. ] 26 rita [ma n]o:: anna dai in treno: ci vuole un 27 sacco di tempo. .hhhhh[hh] 28 anna [ma] h.öh scusa, e::h quanto tempo ci vuole 29 in treno? 30 impiegato .hhhhh mah in treno ci vogliono circa dodici ore. 31 (0.4) 32 rita tlk così <tanto>? 33 impiegato [eh beh,] 34 rita [( [ )] 35 anna [ ] da:::i [il te]mpo passa in fretta::. 36 impiegato [ mhm.]   l’episodio  ruota  intorno  alla  richiesta  formulata  da  anna  (“e:::::h  che  possibilità  ci  sono  per  andare  a   monaco  di  baviera?”;  riga  07).  ad  essa,   l’impiegato  risponde  aprendo  un’espansione  inserita8  (cfr.  schegloff,   2007,  p.  97-­‐114):  la  domanda  con  cui  risponde  alla  cliente  è  finalizzata  infatti  ad  ottenere  una  specificazione   necessaria   a   procedere   con   la   propria   consulenza   (riga   08).   è   a   questo   punto   che   incontriamo   il   primo   silenzio  rilevante  (riga  09),  giustificato  in  questo  caso  dal  fatto  che  le  due  amiche  non  hanno  ancora  preso  una   decisione  in  merito  e  pertanto  non  possono  rispondere.  ce  lo  dicono,  appunto,  il  gap  di  oltre  mezzo  secondo   indicatore  di  una  incipiente  risposta  dispreferita,  l’esitazione  all’inizio  del  turno  di  risposta  di  anna  (“e:::::h”;   riga  10)  e  la  domanda  che  le  partecipanti  si  pongono  mutuamente  (righe  11  e  12).  le  due  clienti  non  chiudono   l’espansione   aperta   dall’impiegato   alla   riga   08,   ma   ne   aprono   a   loro   volta   un’altra,   facendo   entrambe,   in   sovrapposizione,   una   domanda   relativa   al   prezzo   di   un   biglietto   aereo   (righe   17   e   18):   dalla   risposta                                                                                                                             8  un’espansione  inserita  è  costituita  da  una  coppia  adiacente  (prima  e  seconda  parte  di  coppia)  che  si  inserisce  tra  la   prima  e  la  seconda  parte  di  un’altra  coppia  adiacente.   autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      45   dell’impiegato  dipenderà  la  loro  decisione  e,  dunque,  la  chiusura  della  prima  espansione  inserita.  al  turno  di   risposta  dell’impiegato  (righe  19-­‐20)  non  segue,  come  negli   informings  canonici,  un  segnale  di  ricevuta  (per   esempio  “ah”  o  “va  bene”):  notiamo  invece  un  gap  contenuto  (riga  21)  e  a  seguire  (riga  22)  il   turno  con  cui   anna  esprime   il  proprio  disaccordo  rispetto  alla  proposta  precedentemente   formulata  da  rita   (“prendiamo   l’aereo?”;   riga   14).   insomma,   il   silenzio   fa   da   premessa   ad   una   risposta   dispreferita   dal   punto   di   vista   sequenziale  e  disaffiliativa  sul  piano  della  relazione  tra  le  partecipanti.  a  questo  punto  si  apre  tra  le  due  una   fase   di   negoziazione   che   si   conclude   con   l’apertura   da   parte   di   anna   di   una   ulteriore   espansione   inserita   (righe  26-­‐27;  “e::h  quanto  tempo  ci  vuole  in  treno?”):  alla  risposta  dell’impiegato  (riga  30)  che  chiude  questa   sequenza,  segue  un  ulteriore  gap  di  0,4  secondi  (riga  31)  che  fa  da  preludio  alla  valutazione  negativa  di  rita   (riga  32),  azione  che  rende  più  che  plausibile  un  possibile,  successivo  rifiuto.  a  differenza  di  quanto  abbiamo   osservato   nelle   due   conversazioni   tratte   da   ue,   i   silenzi   di   questo   breve   estratto   sono   sequenzialmente   giustificati,   configurandosi   come   segnali   premonitori   di   dispreferenza   e   anche   disaffiliazione.   ancora   una   volta,  un  dialogo  registrato  in  studio  a  partire  da  un  canovaccio  mostra  di  rappresentare  in  maniera  più  fedele   le  caratteristiche  del  parlato  spontaneo  rispetto  al  parlato  recitato  sulla  base  di  un  copione  proprio  delle  due   conversazioni  oggetto  di  questo  studio.               in  questo  paragrafo  abbiamo  avuto  modo  di  vedere  come  i  due  dialoghi  di  ue  si  caratterizzino  per  un   sistema  di  presa  di  turno  che  potremmo  definire  atipico,  nel  senso  che  i  silenzi  a  volte  anche  consistenti  tra   un  turno  e  l’altro  vi  rappresentano  la  norma,  e  d’altra  parte  non  sono  quasi  mai  degli  indicatori  affidabili  del   carattere   dispreferito   del   turno   successivo.   abbiamo   poi   messo   a   confronto   questo   tipo   di   configurazione   sequenziale  con  quello  di  due  conversazioni  che  hanno  tutti  i  tratti  della  spontaneità,  essendo  state  registrate   in   condizioni   sensibilmente   diverse.   i   due   brevi   estratti   provenienti   da   v4   e   ld1   ci   hanno   permesso   di   osservare  come  il  parlato  di  tutti  i  giorni  sia  costituito  da  una  trama  fitta  di  azioni  che  dipendono  dal  contesto   locale   e   che   a   loro   volta   rinnovano   tale   contesto   (heritage,   1984a,   p.   242).   abbiamo   anche   visto   che   i   partecipanti  producono  le  proprie  azioni  molto  spesso  in  sovrapposizione  per  esibire  –  tra  le  altre  cose  –  la   propria  costante  attenzione  e  partecipazione  all’evento:  in  poche  parole,  per  esibire  il  proprio  ascolto  attivo.   in  questo  modo,  riflessivamente,  si  costruisce  l’intersoggettività.       6.  discussione  e  conclusioni   obiettivo   di   questo   studio   era   quello   di   proporre   un   modello   per   la   valutazione   del   grado   di   autenticità  delle  conversazioni  audioregistrate  che  accompagnano  i  manuali  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano   l2.  l’analisi  di  ampi  estratti  di  due  conversazioni  tratte  da  universitalia  esercizi  (carrara,  2007)  ne  ha  messo   in   luce   diverse   problematicità,   soprattutto   per   ciò   che   concerne   le   sequenze   d’azione:   abbiamo   notato   in   particolare   che  alcune  coppie  adiacenti   rimangono  monche,  nel   senso   che  all’azione   iniziatrice  di   sequenza   spesso   non   corrisponde   un   turno   di   risposta.   in   altri   casi,   l’azione   responsiva   è   presente,   ma   si   trova   in   posizione  dislocata  (sfasata)  e  non  adiacente.  abbiamo  poi  messo  a  confronto  questo  stato  di  cose  con  l’analisi   di   estratti   provenienti   da   altri   due   manuali.   la   diversa   natura   dei   materiali   audio   che   li   accompagnano   (parlato  recitato  liberamente  a  partire  da  un  canovaccio,  nel  caso  di  linea  diretta  1,  e  parlato  elicitato  senza   tracce   da   seguire,   nel   caso   di   volare   -­‐   4)   si   riverbera   nel   comportamento   dei   partecipanti   all’interazione,   molto  più  in  linea  con  quello  descritto  dalla  letteratura  analitico-­‐conversazionale  e,  quindi,  molto  più  vicino  al   parlato  naturale.  questo  significa  che  le  azioni  dei  partecipanti  tendono  ad  essere  contigue  (ad  un’azione  in   prima   posizione   segue   cioè   un’azione   di   risposta   in   seconda   posizione)   e   che   il   fenomeno   delle   coppie   adiacenti  monche  vi  è  assente.     per  quanto  riguarda  il  sistema  di  presa  di  turno  e,  in  generale,  la  temporalità  dei  due  dialoghi  tratti  da   universitalia  esercizi,  è  stata  osservata  la  sistematica  presenza  di  silenzi  più  o  meno  prolungati  tra  i  turni  di   parola  dei  parlanti.  il  confronto  con  i  due  estratti  provenienti  da  volare  –  4  e  da  linea  diretta  1,  ha  consentito   di  evidenziare  che  nelle  conversazioni  spontanee  (a  cui  i  dialoghi  di  volare  –  4  e  da  linea  diretta  1,  sono  stati   assimilati   sulla   base   delle   evidenze   analitiche)   i   silenzi   tra   un   turno   e   l’altro,   soprattutto   se   prolungati   (e,   dunque,   superiori   ai   300  ms),   sono   l’eccezione,   e  non   la   regola,   e  normalmente   sono   indicatori   abbastanza   affidabili   di   un  problema   incipiente:   in   genere,   un  disaccordo  o  un  problema  di   comprensione   che  mette   a   repentaglio   la  progressione  dell’attività   in  corso  e  che  deve  quindi  essere  riparato.  per  quel  che  concerne   il   quadro  di  partecipazione,  possiamo  concludere  che  nelle  registrazioni  tratte  da  universitalia  esercizi  questa   variabile  non  ha  alcuna  influenza  sullo  sviluppo  delle  conversazioni  analizzate.  nel  caso  della  conversazione  a   tre   (“il   semestre   ricomincia”),   in   assenza  di   informazioni   supplementari,   all’inizio   è   addirittura   impossibile   inferire  la  presenza  del  terzo  partecipante.     pauletto       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50  46   questa   ricerca   integra   i   risultati   degli   studi   precedenti   (gillani  &  pernas,   2013,   2014)  mettendo   in   luce  come  queste  conversazioni  recitate  a  partire  da  copioni  siano  problematiche  soprattutto  a   livello  delle   sequenze  d’azione  e,  quindi,  da  un  punto  di  vista  squisitamente  strutturale.  l’assenza  di  un’ampia  gamma  di   fenomeni  tipici  del  parlato  (segnali  di  risposta,  sovrapposizioni  ecc.),  già  segnalata  nelle  ricerche  precedenti,   viene  confermata  anche  in  questa  sede.   in   generale,   il   raffronto   tra   il   parlato   recitato   dei   dialoghi   di   universitalia   esercizi   e   quello   più   spontaneo  degli  altri  due  manuali  ci  ha  permesso  di  osservare  come  la  responsabilità  di   far  progredire  una   conversazione  ricada  normalmente  su   tutti   i  partecipanti:   tanto  sul  parlante   in  corso,  quanto  su  chi   riveste   transitoriamente   i   panni   dell’ascoltatore.   in   contesti   quotidiani   i   partecipanti   a   una   conversazione   sono   in   grado   di   dare   costantemente   prova   della   loro   capacità   di   ascolto,   attraverso   una   gamma  molto   variata   di   risorse   semiotiche   sia   verbali,   sia   incorporate,   che   concorrono  a   sostenere   la  progressività  dell’azione  e,   in   ultima  analisi,   l’intersoggettività   (robinson,  2014).  nelle  due  conversazioni  esaminate,   le  persone  coinvolte   non  sembrano  invece  sempre  in  grado  di  esibire  il  tipo  di  ascolto  attivo  e  –  più  in  generale  –  di  partecipazione   tipici  dei  parlanti  impegnati  in  conversazioni  spontanee,  né  sembrano  sempre  in  grado  di  produrre  azioni  di   risposta  sequenzialmente  coordinate  con  quelle  veicolate  dai  turni  prodotti  dai  co-­‐partecipanti.     bisogna  ricordare  che  i  parlanti  madrelingua  acquisiscono  implicitamente  le  abilità  che  costituiscono   la   competenza   interazionale   (barraja-­‐rojan,   2011):   in  particolare   l'uso  di   segnali   di   risposta,   la   capacità  di   produrre   azioni   adiacenti,   l’organizzazione   preferenziale,   le   norme   che   regolano   la   presa   di   turno,   ecc.   la   competenza   interazionale   richiede,   tra   le   altre   abilità,   un   timing   preciso   e   la   rapida   analisi   dei   turni   dei   parlanti  in  corso,  capacità  quest’ultima  che  consente  di  fare  previsioni  in  tempo  reale  sul  probabile  momento   in  cui  i  turni  in  fase  di  produzione  giungeranno  a  conclusione.  si  tratta  di  manovre  delicate  e  complesse  che   richiedono   il   costante,  mutuo  monitoraggio   da   parte   dei   partecipanti   (cfr.   sacks   et   al.,   1974).  descrivere   il   funzionamento  di  un  sistema  così  complesso  è  impossibile  per  un  madrelingua:  l’analisi  della  conversazione  è   però   riuscita   a   delineare   in   modo   dettagliato   il   modo   in   cui   interagiscono   i   membri   di   una   particolare   comunità,   ed   è   per   questo   che,   a   nostro   avviso,   questa   disciplina   può   offrire   agli   insegnanti   strumenti   e   conoscenze  che  possono  essere  trasferiti  agli  apprendenti  di  italiano  l2.  la  base  didattica  per  un’operazione   di   questo   tipo   dovrebbe   dunque   essere   costituita   da   conversazioni   naturali   (video-­‐)registrate   e   adeguatamente   trascritte:   i   dialoghi   recitati   a   partire   da   copioni,   come   quelli   di   universitalia   esercizi   qui   analizzati,  poco  si  prestano  a  un  lavoro  analitico  e  didattico  di  questo  genere,  dal  momento  che  molto  spesso   sono   retti   da   un   sistema   di   norme   estraneo   a   quello   dell’interazione   così   come   noi,   parlanti   nativi,   la   conosciamo.   se  vogliamo  che   i   nostri   apprendenti  diventino  dei  partecipanti   interazionalmente   competenti   nella  lingua  e  nella  cultura  di  arrivo,  dobbiamo  quindi  usare  dei  materiali  didattici  adatti  allo  scopo.  esistono   oggigiorno  molti   corpora   che  documentano   il   parlato-­‐in-­‐interazione  quotidiano9:   essi   sono   tuttavia  pensati   per   un   uso   scientifico   più   che   didattico,   fatto   che   ne   rende   l’utilizzo   in   classe   particolarmente   gravoso   dal   punto  di  vista  della  selezione  dei  brani  audio  e  della  loro  preparazione  a  fini  pedagogici.  assenti,  per  quel  che   ci   è   dato   sapere,   le   banche   dati   video.   in   questo   senso,   il   ruolo   delle   registrazioni   (audio   e   video)   che   accompagnano   i   manuali   di   italiano   in   commercio   è   ancora   fondamentale,   in   quanto   esse   offrono   al/la   docente  una  base  di  dati  abbondante  e  pronta  all’uso.  per   il   futuro,  è  auspicabile   la  produzione  di  materiali   audio  e  video  che  facciano  tesoro  dei  risultati  delle  ricerche  in  ambito  pragmatico  e  analitico  conversazionale   realizzate   anche   per   l’italiano   negli   ultimi   decenni.   in   attesa   che   questi   supporti   didattici   vedano   la   luce,   i   dialoghi   recitati   a  partire  da  un  canovaccio   (simili   a  quelli  di  linea  diretta   -­‐  1)  e  quelli   elicitati  ma  privi  di   qualsiasi   traccia   da   seguire   (simili   a   quelli   di   volare   -­‐   4)   sembrano   riunire   le   migliori   caratteristiche   per   imbarcarsi  in  una  impresa  pedagogica  che  abbia  come  fine  quello  di  rendere  sensibili  alle  caratteristiche  della   comunicazione   quotidiana   i   nostri   apprendenti.   qui   abbiamo   voluto   offrire   un   modello   utile   a   valutare   l’adeguatezza  di  tali  materiali  a  questo  scopo.         riferimenti   barraja-­‐rohan,  anne-­‐marie   (2011).  using   conversation   analysis   in   the   second   language   classroom   to   teach   interactional  competence.  language  teaching  research,  15(4),  479–507.                                                                                                                             9  per  una  rassegna  dei  corpora  di  italiano  parlato  esistenti,  si  veda  ad  esempio   https://accademiadellacrusca.it/it/contenuti/banche-­‐dati-­‐corpora-­‐e-­‐archivi-­‐testuali/6228   autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      47   couper-­‐kuhlen,   elizabeth,   &   selting,   margret   (2018).   interactional   linguistics.   studying   language   in   social   interactions.  cambridge  university  press.   de  stefani,  elwys  (2011).  «ah,  petta  ecco  io  prendo 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 linguistics.  annual  review  of  applied  linguistics,  22,  3–31.     schegloff,  emmanuel  a.,  &  sacks,  harvey  (1973).  opening  up  closings.  semiotica,  7,  289–327.   stivers,  tanya,  &  rossano,  federico  (2010).  mobilizing  response.  research  on  language  and  social  interaction,   43(1),  3–31.   terasaki,   alene   k.   (2004).   pre-­‐announcement   sequences   in   conversation.   in   gene   h.   lerner   (a   cura   di),   conversation  analysis:  studies  from  the  first  generation  (pp.  171–223).  john  benjamins.   wong,  jane  (2002).  “applying”  conversation  analysis  in  applied  linguistics:  evaluating  dialogue  in  english  as  a   second   language   textbooks.   international  review  of  applied  linguistics  in  language  teaching,  40(1),   37–60.       materiali  didattici   carrara,  elena  (2007).  universitalia.  corso  di  italiano.  esercizi.  alma  edizioni.   catizone,  piero  (2003).  volare  4.  corso  di  italiano.  alpha  &  beta  verlag.   conforti,  corrado,  &  cusimano,  linda  (1997).  linea  diretta  1.  guerra  edizioni.       autenticità  dei  materiali  audio  per  l’insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50      49     appendice   convenzioni di trascrizione del parlato (adattato da de stefani, 2016) (.) pausa breve (0.2) pausa cronometrata [ ] inizio e fine di sovrapposizione . intonazione finale , intonazione continuativa ; intonazione continuativa con leggera discesa ? intonazione interrogativa ¿ intonazione intermedia tra la continuativa e l’interrogativa ↑ ↓ marcato ↑ innalzamento o ↓ abbassamento del tono di voce : in be:ne allungamento (0,1 secc. per «:») sì*sì pronuncia allacciata .h inspirazione (0,1 secc. per «h») h. espirazione (0,1 secc. per «h») °certo° volume basso ancora volume alto certo enfasi ce(h)rt(h)o pronunciato ridendo €certo€ tono ilare >occhei< pronuncia veloce <occhei> pronuncia lenta ( ) segmento incomprensibile (occhei) segmento di difficile ascolto = continuazione del turno oltre la fine della riga                                             pauletto       e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  28–50  50     franco pauletto,  stockholms universitet, romanska och klassiska institutionen   franco.pauletto@su.se it franco pauletto ha una lunga esperienza come insegnante di italiano l2. ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca nel 2017 e sta attualmente svolgendo un postdottorato biennale presso l’università di stoccolma. si è occupato di interazioni tra genitori e figli in famiglie italiane e svedesi, dell’uso di alcuni segnali discorsivi in interazione e dell’acquisizione dell’italiano l2 da parte di apprendenti svedesofoni, sempre a partire dalla teoria e dal metodo dell’analisi della conversazione. en franco pauletto has extensive experience as a teacher of italian as a second language. he earned his ph.d. in 2017 and currently holds a two-year postdoctoral researcher position at the university of stockholm. he has studied the interactions between parents and children in italian and swedish families, the use of certain discourse markers, and the acquisition of italian as a second language by swedish-speaking learners within the theoretical and methodological framework of conversation analysis. es franco pauletto tiene una larga experiencia como profesor de italiano l2. recibió su doctorado en 2017 y actualmente está cursando un postdoctorado bienal en la universidad de estocolmo. su enfoque de estudio incluye las interacciones entre padres e hijos en familias italianas y suecas, con el uso de las señales discursivas en interacción y la adquisición del italiano l2 por parte de discentes de habla sueca, siempre partiendo de la teoría y del método del análisis de conversación.   e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 1, april 2022, 52–70 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.1.264 www.e-journall.org © pauletto 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. pautas atípicas. las conversaciones en los materiales auditivos para la enseñanza de español l2 publicados en suecia franco pauletto stockholms universitet isabelle ahlström stockholms universitet received 20 october 2021; accepted after revisions 25 january 2022 abstract es este estudio de caso utiliza el análisis de la conversación para examinar la interacción verbal en las conversaciones didácticas de tres manuales de español como lengua extranjera (de ahora en adelante ele) empleados en la educación secundaria sueca. la observación de dichas conversaciones revela algunos patrones problemáticos en cuanto a la secuencialidad de las acciones, a la presencia sistemática de silencios entre turnos de palabra y, en general, a la falta de coordinación entre co-participantes. otros fenómenos típicos de la interacción espontánea, como por ejemplo los solapamientos entre turnos de palabra, las reparaciones o las co-construcciones faltan por completo en los materiales analizados. en la perspectiva de una enseñanza de idiomas comunicativa y orientada a la acción, el artículo sostiene que en la preparación de este tipo de soportes didácticos habría que tener más en cuenta la estrecha relación existente entre lengua hablada y acción social. palabras clave: análisis de la conversación, comprensión auditiva, ele, enseñanza de ele, suecia, interacción, secuencialidad, acción social en this case study adopts the theory and method of conversation analysis to examine recorded dialogues in three textbooks for spanish as a foreign language used in swedish secondary education. the analyses of these conversations reveal some problematic patterns regarding the sequence of actions, the systematic presence of gaps between turns at talk, and a frequent lack of coordination between co-participants. other phenomena that are typical of spontaneous interactions, such as overlaps between turns, repair sequences or co-constructions, are completely missing in the analyzed materials. from the perspective of communicative and action-oriented language teaching, the article maintains that in the preparation of this type of pedagogical supports, the authors should consider the close relationship between spoken language and social action. key words: conversation analysis, listening comprehension, spanish as a foreign language, spanish as a foreign language teaching, sweden, interaction, sequentiality, social action it questo studio di caso si avvale dell’analisi della conversazione per esaminare le interazioni verbali nelle conversazioni didattiche di tre manuali di spagnolo come lingua straniera adottati presso le scuole secondarie svedesi. l’osservazione di queste conversazioni rivela alcune costanti problematiche relativamente alla sequenzialità delle azioni, alla presenza sistematica di silenzi tra i turni di parola e, in generale, alla mancanza di coordinamento tra i co-partecipanti. inoltre, altri fenomeni tipici dell’interazione spontanea, come, per esempio, le sovrapposizioni dei turni, le riparazioni e le co-costruzioni mancano del tutto nei materiali analizzati. nell’ottica di una glottodidattica comunicativa e orientata all’azione, questo studio sostiene che la stretta relazione esistente tra lingua orale e azione sociale dovrebbe essere tenuta in maggiore considerazione nella preparazione di questo tipo di materiali didattici. parole chiave: analisi della conversazione, comprensione orale, spagnolo come lingua straniera, insegnamento di spagnolo come lingua straniera, svezia, interazione, sequenzialità, azione sociale 🖂 franco pauletto, stockholms universitet franco.pauletto@su.se conversaciones en los materiales auditivos para la enseñanza de español l2 e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 53 1. introducción según el currículo nacional sueco de lenguas modernas el objetivo de la enseñanza de idiomas es que el alumnado desarrolle por un lado conocimientos sobre la lengua meta y, por el otro, una versatilidad comunicativa tal que le permita utilizar la lengua en diferentes contextos (skolverket, 2011). en este sentido, las actividades de comprensión auditiva en el aula de ele son extremadamente importantes, puesto que le proporcionan al aprendiz un input indispensable (vandergrift & goh, 2012). field (2008) pone de relieve la escasa importancia que tradicionalmente se le ha prestado a la destreza auditiva, ya que para el progreso en el aprendizaje de una lengua siempre se han considerado fundamentales aspectos como el vocabulario, la gramática y el hecho de poder expresarse oralmente o por escrito. wilson (2008) opina que el desarrollo de la destreza auditiva tiene suma importancia, siendo ésta imprescindible para estar al tanto de lo que ocurre en el mundo, ya que, si no entendemos a nuestro interlocutor, no podremos llevar a cabo ninguna actividad propiamente comunicativa. al vivir en un país no hispanohablante como suecia1, el aprendiz de ele se encuentra en evidente desventaja al no poder aprovechar el entorno social como recurso pedagógico (álvarez montalbán, 2007). de esta manera, para la mayoría del alumnado el aula es en muchos casos el único lugar donde es posible escuchar, leer, escribir y hablar el idioma meta. es cierto que la posibilidad de utilizar las tic (tecnologías de información y comunicación) existe, pero ha supuesto un reto didáctico complicado en el ámbito de las lenguas extranjeras (en sueco moderna språk, “lenguas modernas”), ya que el alumnado no posee los niveles lingüísticos adecuados para explotar todas las posibilidades que –en principio– el acceso a las nuevas tecnologías brinda (bardel, falk & lindqvist, 2016). si el objetivo de la enseñanza de idiomas es que los aprendices, al final del proceso, puedan utilizar de forma autónoma y eficaz la lengua meta fuera del aula, es importante entre otras cosas que los materiales didácticos que presentan el input oral tengan características parecidas a las de las conversaciones espontáneas2 (widdowson, 1978), ya que pueden servir como recurso y modelo para desarrollar la competencia interaccional de los aprendices (batlle, 2020; batlle & suárez, 2020). por consiguiente, el objetivo de este trabajo es averiguar en qué medida se acercan a las características interaccionales del habla cotidiana (“talk-in-interaction”; schegloff, 2007, p. xiii) los materiales auditivos para la enseñanza del español l2 que acompañan tres manuales de ele dirigidos a estudiantes suecos de educación secundaria. con este fin, se contrastarán algunas conversaciones didácticas incluidas en dichos manuales con lo que sabemos acerca del habla en interacción gracias a los estudios que se han realizado en este ámbito en las últimas cinco décadas (véase kasper & wagner, 2014). hasta ahora se han publicado pocos estudios en esta área, tanto en lo referente al español como a otras lenguas, pero todos ellos coinciden en destacar la escasa correspondencia entre los patrones observados en los diálogos didácticos y lo que suele ocurrir en las interacciones cotidianas en aspectos como la estructura secuencial (pauletto, 2020; wong, 2002), la extensión y densidad léxica de los turnos de habla, la falta de fenómenos como pausas, vacilaciones, comienzos fallidos (“false starts”), repeticiones, backchannels y solapamientos (gillmore, 2004, 2007), la escasa presencia de secuencias tan importantes como las de reparación (batlle & suárez, 2020) y, en general, la ausencia de dinamismo y creatividad en los diálogos (padilla garcía, 2012). el presente estudio se propone integrar los resultados hasta aquí obtenidos en este ámbito, esta vez a partir de datos suecos (referidos al español). en la próxima sección se introducirá el marco teórico a partir del cual se ha llevado a cabo esta investigación. 2. teoría y método: el análisis de la conversación en este estudio se hará un uso aplicado del análisis de la conversación (ac, de aquí en adelante), al aplicar unos conocimientos generales sobre el habla en interacción a otros tipos de interacciones verbales (ten have, 2007, pp. 173-212; para otros ejemplos de usos aplicados del ac véase andré, 2018; batlle, 2020; batlle & suárez, 2020; bernsten, 2002; chepinchikj & thompson, 2016; pauletto, 2020; wong, 2002). las conversaciones didácticas aquí analizadas en principio no reúnen las condiciones ecológicas necesarias para 1 según el servicio nacional sueco de estadística (statistiska centralbyrån) en el año escolar 2016/17 el español fue el idioma extranjero más elegido – después del inglés, que sin embargo goza de un estatus muy distinto a las demás lenguas en el contexto escolar sueco – entre los estudiantes suecos de secundaria, con un 47% de las preferencias, seguido por el alemán, con el 23%, por el francés, con el 18%, y por “otros idiomas”, con el 12% (https://www.scb.se/hittastatistik/artiklar/2018/drygt-halften-laser-moderna-sprak-pa-gymnasiet/). 2 en el contexto de este estudio los adjetivos espontáneo, cotidiano o auténtico han de entenderse como "(t)he features that identify a text as a discourse sample produced by native speakers", es decir, ‘(l)as características que identifican un texto como ejemplo de discurso producido por hablantes nativos’ (batlle & suárez, 2020, p. 3). pauletto & ahlström e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 54 llevar a cabo un análisis de este tipo, al ser diálogos basados en un guion que se interpreta a favor de una audiencia de oyentes. no obstante, creemos interesante examinarlas como actuaciones que pretenden ofrecer al alumnado un modelo de lo que es la interacción entre nativos, y queremos hacerlo partiendo de los conocimientos acumulados sobre el habla en interacción, para resaltar similitudes y diferencias y así intentar establecer si estos materiales pueden representar una base fiable para emprender la exploración del uso situado de la lengua meta en la clase de idiomas. el ac es un enfoque teórico surgido en el ámbito sociológico que estuvo profundamente influenciado por la etnometodología (garfinkel, 1967). la perspectiva etnometodológica se manifiesta en el ac en el hecho de que esta disciplina hace suyo el punto de vista del participante: partiendo del procedimiento de prueba del turno siguiente (“next turn proof procedure”; vázquez carranza, 2019, p. 36) cada turno de palabra demuestra la interpretación del turno anterior por parte del hablante actual. esto permite analizar lo que los participantes hacen, turno tras turno (sacks, jefferson, & schegloff, 1974, p. 729), partiendo de una perspectiva émica, es decir, la perspectiva propia del ambiente secuencial en el cual la acción social se produce (seedhouse, 2004)3. una asunción importante en el ac es que la conversación es fundamentalmente metódica y organizada, al ser producida y mantenida por los hablantes mismos en su orientación mutua (sacks, 1984, p. 22). la intersubjetividad entre individuos se basa por lo tanto en la posibilidad de que los sujetos sincronicen mutuamente sus conciencias al percibirse en el aquí y ahora de la interacción contingente. en este proceso, cada acción producida por los hablantes (preguntas, saludos, quejas etc.) a la vez depende de y renueva el contexto de interacción, de forma tal que cada turno de palabra tiene una doble orientación: hacia atrás – al responder al turno anterior – y hacia adelante, al constituir el contexto a partir del cual el turno siguiente deberá ser producido4. a partir de estas premisas, las/los analistas de la conversación buscan e identifican patrones recurrentes en las interacciones cotidianas, enfatizando la posición secuencial en la que se encuentra el rasgo distintivo e identificando la función que dicho rasgo desempeña en ese lugar. por consiguiente, el interrogativo fundamental del ac, “why that now?” (“¿por qué (ocurre) esto, ahora?”; schegloff & sacks, 1973, p. 299), captura el interés de la disciplina por los actos sociales en el contexto de la interacción cotidiana (seedhouse, 2004, p. 3). en el próximo apartado se presentarán los datos y la metodología adoptada en el presente estudio. 3. datos y metodología los datos sobre los cuales se basa este trabajo consisten, por un lado, en tres diálogos pertenecientes a tres distintos manuales de ele utilizados en los cursos de tercer nivel del bachillerato sueco, y por el otro, en ejemplos provenientes de conversaciones espontáneas en español5. los manuales se eligieron consultando en un foro público a dieciocho profesores y profesoras de ele de distintos institutos de secundaria suecos: los que resultaron ser los más utilizados por el profesorado del foro –y que por eso decidimos incluir en nuestro corpus– fueron caminando 3 (westermann, gustafsson, waldenström, & wik-bretz, 2016), vistas 3 (rönnmark & quintana, 2012) y la próxima estación 3 (gröndahl, fernández garcía, liven, lund moss & rosén, 2018). el segundo paso consistió en escuchar el material para encontrar audios comparables por duración y cuadro de participación (goffman, 1981). por ello, el primer criterio fue encontrar conversaciones de entre dos y cuatro participantes, evitando los monólogos. se encontraron así varias grabaciones que cumplían con dichos criterios. dado el carácter cualitativo del presente estudio, al final se eligieron las tres más comparables en términos de duración y cuadro de participación (una por cada manual) para delimitar el corpus y favorecer un 3 “(t)he perspective from within the sequential environment in which the social actions were performed” (seedhouse, 2004, p. 3). 4 “(e)l contexto da forma a los enunciados de los participantes en la interacción y, a su vez, lo dicho contextualiza lo que se va a decir consecutivamente, por lo que el contexto también es un elemento que se renueva constantemente” (batlle, 2015, p. 68; véase también heritage, 1984, p. 280). 5 además de los ejemplos tomados de sacks (1992, 1987) y de vázquez carranza (2019), se han utilizado a este efecto dos conversaciones pertenecientes al corpus val.es.co (valencia español coloquial; http://www.valesco.es/), un corpus de español coloquial creado a partir de 1990 por el profesor antonio briz y su grupo de investigación en la universidad de valencia (grupo val.es.co. 2014; briz & grupo val.es.co. 2003, 2002). para facilitar la comparación con los demás ejemplos, los extractos del corpus val.es.co aquí analizados se han transcrito de nuevo utilizando las convenciones de transcripción empleadas en ac. http://www.valesco.es/ conversaciones en los materiales auditivos para la enseñanza de español l2 e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 55 análisis más detallado de los extractos6. el diálogo “el partido” (caminando 3) tiene una duración de 03:04 minutos, “la moda y la identidad” (próxima estación 3) de 02:37 minutos, y el audio “y tú, ¿cómo eres?” (vistas 3) de 02:02 minutos. finalmente, se contrastaron los resultados del análisis de estos datos con los conocimientos que tenemos acerca del habla en interacción. las conversaciones analizadas fueron transcritas según las convenciones utilizadas en ac (jefferson, 1984, 2004), para poder representar todos los detalles potencialmente relevantes, como, por ejemplo, volumen de la voz, inspiraciones, énfasis, alargamientos vocálicos, risas, solapamientos, etc. 4. análisis 4.1. la toma de turno en la conversación cotidiana la interacción verbal está organizada en turnos de habla, los cuales incorporan las distintas acciones sociales llevadas a cabo por los participantes (vázquez carranza, 2019, p. 55). en la conversación cotidiana, la alternancia entre hablantes es un proceso coordinado y colaborativo que se ve condicionado por varios factores locales. en primer lugar, el cambio de hablante no es preestablecido7 sino que ocurre en tiempo real, en el transcurso de la interacción, y es negociado localmente. en segundo lugar, lo más común es que una sola persona hable en cada momento. por último, los solapamientos entre más de un hablante son por lo general breves y transitorios (sacks, schegloff, & jefferson, 1974, p. 706). los turnos de habla están constituidos por unidades de construcción de turno (uct de aquí en adelante; en inglés “turn-constructional unit”, tcu; sacks et al., 1974, p. 704) las cuales pueden coincidir con distintas unidades lingüísticas, tales como partículas discursivas, sintagmas nominales, frases sencillas o incluso oraciones complejas (sacks et al., 1974, p. 702). veamos aquí un ejemplo: extracto 1. (adaptado de vázquez carranza, 2019, p. 57) 01 ((suena el teléfono)) 02 m: bueno. 03 p: e:h buenas tardes [es: 04 m: [hola pedro 05 p: hola cómo está señora? 06 m: muy bien y tú? 07 p: muy bien gracias... el turno en la línea 02 está compuesto por una sola uct, lo que vendría a ser un adjetivo, y que aquí representa la respuesta ritualizada a la llamada telefónica (línea 01). el turno en la línea 05 de esta conversación, en cambio, está constituido por dos ucts: “hola” (un saludo) y “¿cómo está señora?” (una frase de cortesía formulada como frase interrogativa). el turno en la línea 06 está otra vez compuesto por dos ucts: “muy bien” (la respuesta ritualizada a la pregunta del turno anterior) y “y tú?” (otra pregunta). las ucts forman turnos potencialmente acabados en el momento en que llegan a ser completas a nivel sintáctico y/o prosódico y/o pragmático, en cuyo caso se puede producir la transición del turno a otro hablante (sacks et al., 1974, p. 703). a este espacio interaccional se le llama lugar pertinente para la transición (lpt, de aquí en adelante; en inglés “transition-relevance place”, trp; sacks et al., 1974, p. 704; vázquez carranza, 2019, p. 56), es decir, el momento en el cual es legítima la transición del turno entre participantes. si volvemos al ejemplo (1), vemos que en la línea 03 el hablante está a punto de producir una nueva uct después del saludo (e:h buenas tardes), pero la nueva uct se solapa con la respuesta del otro hablante, el cual evidentemente considera el saludo como un posible turno completo y procede a contestar con un turno de reconocimiento. la transición entre participantes se logra a través de algunas normas organizadas de forma jerárquica: 1) el hablante actual selecciona al siguiente hablante (sacks et al., 1974, pp. 703-704) con una pregunta directa, con el uso de los pronombres personales o nombrando directamente al otro hablante. 6 las demás grabaciones, aquí no consideradas, comparten con estas los rasgos principales: entre ellos, la temporalidad y la secuencialidad problemáticas y la ausencia de muchos de los fenómenos que caracterizan el habla en interacción, como solapamientos, reparaciones, turnos de apoyo, co-construcciones etc. 7 a no ser que haya una organización local de la toma de turno específica, como ocurre en algunos ámbitos institucionales, como por ejemplo en las entrevistas o durante una ponencia o en la interacción en clase. pauletto & ahlström e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 56 2) el próximo hablante se autoselecciona. si el hablante que tiene el turno no selecciona al siguiente, quienquiera puede tomar el turno en concomitancia con un lpt. 3) si las dos anteriores posibilidades no se realizan, el hablante actual, en correspondencia con un lpt, se autoselecciona manteniendo el turno (sacks et al., 1974, pp. 703-704). cada vez que una uct llega a ser potencialmente completa, la transición entre hablantes se puede lograr de forma legítima, en correspondencia con el lpt. observemos el extracto siguiente: extracto 2. (adaptado de vázquez carranza, 2019, p. 67) 01 c: yo puedo ir a la iglesia.=a la iglesia puede 02 ir el quien quiera. 03 m: exacta[mente 04 c: [a poco no, 05 m: exactamente aquí podemos ver a c mantener el turno en correspondencia con un posible lpt (línea 01, después de “iglesia”), a m auto-asignarse el turno en correspondencia con un lpt (líneas 03 y 05) y a c autoseleccionarse en proximidad de un lpt pero con un ligero solapamiento (línea 04). en el siguiente extracto, en cambio, vemos un típico caso de heteroselección (es decir, de selección del hablante siguiente por parte del hablante actual): extracto 3. (adaptado de vázquez carranza, 2019, p. 68) 01 v: quién es sheila durcal? 02 r: la hija de rocío durcal. 03 v: ah. en este caso v selecciona directamente a r con su pregunta (línea 01). r responde, ofreciendo la información requerida (línea 02) y v cierra la secuencia, autoseleccionándose en correspondencia con un lpt para producir un recibo informativo (línea 03). para resumir, existe un mecanismo que gobierna la toma de turnos que los participantes gestionan de forma local. el sistema opera en solo dos ucts a la vez: la actual y la siguiente, de manera que el hablante actual tiene inicialmente derecho a producir una sola uct y, en el primer punto de posible finalización, la transición a un siguiente hablante se convierte en una posibilidad relevante. veremos en el próximo apartado cuál es la situación en los diálogos didácticos. 4.2. la toma de turno en los diálogos didácticos en las conversaciones de los tres manuales de ele, el sistema que acabamos de describir se encuentra reflejado, aunque con matices. analizaremos ahora un extracto de “el partido” de caminando 3. antonio comenta con su tía sonsoles el partido de fútbol que los dos están viendo juntos, en un estadio. extracto 4. (caminando 3; an= antonio; so = sonsoles) 01 an enrique ha quedado suspendido para el resto del partido. me 02 cago en la leche. 03 (0.8) 04 so ay cómo te emocionas antonio. seguro que: no quieres 05 sentarte en el club de los ultras? 06 (1.1) 07 an shhh. 08 (.) 09 an ¿ahora qué pasa? 10 (0.1) 11 an sí. tiro libre para el málaga.=un balón alto que va por 12 encima de la defensa.=el portero se ­lanza y ↑go::l, 13 (0.3) 14 an ↑sí::: ya te dije que son la leche. conversaciones en los materiales auditivos para la enseñanza de español l2 e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 57 primero vemos a antonio producir una observación (“noticing”; enrique ha quedado suspendido para el resto del partido.; línea 01), asimilable a una queja, para después volver a autoseleccionarse –manteniendo así el turno en correspondencia con un posible lpt– y producir una interjección que subraya y enfatiza el carácter de queja del turno (me cago en la leche.; línea 02). después de un silencio significativo8 (línea 03), se autoselecciona sonsoles, la cual produce a su vez una observación (ay cómo te emocionas antonio.; línea 04) para luego volver a autoseleccionarse: su pregunta dicotómica, en clave irónica (líneas 04-05), no recibe ninguna respuesta directa. la falta de reacción por parte de antonio contrasta con los resultados de los estudios interaccionales sobre la ironía, según los cuales a una evaluación irónica del hablante el receptor suele responder bien de manera afiliativa, con risas o con otro turno de respuesta irónico, o de manera seria y argumentada, en el caso de que no haya entendido la ironía inherente en el turno anterior (clift, 1999). en este caso, el turno de sonsoles es seguido por un silencio de más de un segundo (línea 06). en su respuesta (línea 07), antonio en primer lugar acalla a la co-participante mediante una interjección directiva (shhh), para luego producir una pregunta retórica (¿ahora que pasa?; línea 09) en lo que parece el comienzo del relato de un periodista para su público radiofónico (líneas 11-12): la descripción momento por momento de la acción que lleva al gol no parece de hecho ir dirigida a sonsoles, puesto que ella también tiene acceso visual directo a la acción en curso. al igual que en los dos anteriores extractos, en este diálogo didáctico también observamos ejemplos de los tres tipos de selección: el hablante actual selecciona (sin éxito) al próximo hablante (sonsoles, líneas 04-05); el hablante actual se autoselecciona para mantener el turno en correspondencia con posibles lpts (ambos, líneas 01-02; 04-05; 1112); el co-participante se autoselecciona cerca de un lpt (sonsoles, línea 04). como observan sacks et al., “transitions from (one turn to a next) with no gap and no overlap are common. together with transitions characterized by slight gap or slight overlap, they make up the vast majority of transitions” (1974, p. 700). en trabajos posteriores, tanto jefferson (1984) como schegloff (2000) subrayaron la frecuente presencia de ligeros silencios entre turnos, llegando schegloff a hablar de una sílaba (150-200 ms) como “normal value for the transition space”. en un estudio experimental posterior, heldner y edlund (2010) muestran que los solapamientos en las conversaciones cotidianas también ocurren con frecuencia, de forma tal que en correspondencia con el lpt se observan en un 40 % de los casos. si comparamos los dos extractos a la luz de lo anterior, podemos ver similitudes, pero sobre todo notables diferencias. entre las similitudes, se encuentra el hecho de que se vean reflejados todos los tipos de autoy heteroselección del próximo hablante. entre las diferencias, se observa, en primer lugar, el hecho de que en el diálogo de caminando 3 los turnos de los participantes estén separados por silencios sistemáticos y más o menos prolongados (en tres casos, iguales o superiores a 0,3 segundos). esto no ocurre en los tres extractos anteriores, donde además podemos observar un solapamiento entre turnos (extracto (2), líneas 03-04). en segundo lugar, la manera de participar en la interacción tiene carácter distinto, en el sentido de que en los tres primeros ejemplos los hablantes van exhibiendo en el transcurso de la interacción, momento por momento, su análisis atento de lo que está ocurriendo gracias a las características de proyectabilidad9 del turno de habla (batlle, 2015). en el extracto (4), en cambio, la impresión es que antonio a veces esté hablando como si sonsoles no estuviera presente (líneas 1112). podemos observar los mismos fenómenos en un breve extracto de la conversación “la moda y la identidad”: extracto 5. (la próxima estación 3 –nu=nuria; em=empleada) 01 em qué tal el vestido? 02 (0.6) 03 nu bue:no, no estoy segura del color. 04 (0.7) 05 nu es muy amarillo.=normalmente prefiero el negro. 06 (0.5) 07 em pues, atrévete a probar algo nuevo. el amarillo está muy 08 de moda esta primavera. 09 (17.5) 8 según kendrick y torreira (2015), un silencio de más de 300 ms es suficiente para proyectar que una acción preferida en un formato preferido es menos probable, aunque aún posible. después de silencios de 700 a 800 ms o más, la proporción de acciones no preferidas se vuelve mayor que la de las preferidas y prácticamente todas las respuestas tienen un formato de turno no preferido (kendrick y torreira, 2015, p. 32). 9 “la proyección de un turno (…) guarda una estrecha relación con la habilidad que un hablante tenga de predecir cómo actúa interaccionalmente su interlocutor” (batlle, 2015, p. 32). pauletto & ahlström e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 58 aquí notamos para empezar la presencia de todos los mecanismos de selección del próximo hablante (heteroselección: línea 01; autoselección cerca de un posible lpt o coincidiendo con un posible lpt: líneas 05 y 07; mantenimiento del turno en el caso de que nadie se autoseleccione: línea 05). por otra parte, se observa otra vez la presencia constante de silencios (“gaps”) prolongados entre turnos a la vez que no siempre los hablantes parecen orientarse hacia las acciones de los coparticipantes: véase por ejemplo la falta de ratificación por parte de la empleada a la evaluación moderadamente negativa de nuria (no estoy segura del color; línea 03) o la ausencia de reacción por parte de nuria al turno informativo en primera posición (“news delivery”; couperkuhlen & selting, 2018, p. 269) de la empleada (líneas 07-08), una acción que normalmente hace relevante en el turno siguiente una respuesta mínima que subraye el carácter informativo del turno anterior (“newsmark”; couper-kuhlen & selting, 2018, pp. 268-273). otra observación que podemos hacer, y que se puede extender a todas las conversaciones didácticas observadas, tiene que ver con el formato de los turnos: por lo general, siempre se trata de oraciones breves, sintácticamente completas y lexicalmente sencillas. la temporalidad atípica de la conversación didáctica y la escasa orientación de los participantes hacia la acción en desarrollo parecen así rasgos típicos de los diálogos de los manuales de ele analizados. schegloff y sacks (1973) afirman que los silencios prolongados entre turnos de palabra suelen prefigurar problemas de preferencia, de tal forma que, si un silencio relevante ocurre después de una acción en primera posición, dentro de un par adyacente, esto puede ser interpretado por parte del hablante como un aviso de que la respuesta será de alguna manera problemática (kendrick & torreira, 2015). el concepto de preferencia en este caso no tiene nada que ver con la dimensión psicológica e individual, sino con problemas de afiliación y desafiliación (sobre el concepto de des/afiliación en interacción véase stivers, 2008) en relación con las acciones sociales que producen los participantes en la interacción. en la conversación cotidiana, los participantes pueden elegir entre una amplia gama de posibilidades a la hora de llevar a cabo una acción de respuesta. el concepto de preferencia tiene que ver, por un lado, con las diferentes maneras de realizar dichas acciones (atkinson, 1984, p. 53) y, por el otro, con la necesidad subyacente de mantener la solidaridad social entre los participantes (heritage, 1984, p. 268). pomerantz (1984) hace una distinción entre turnos preferentes (“preferred”) y no preferentes (“dispreferred”), señalando cómo algunos turnos de respuesta pueden resultar problemáticos a nivel social mientras que otros no lo son. por ejemplo, la aceptación de una invitación –en cuanto respuesta– tiene una estructura simple y se suele producir con rapidez y sin perturbaciones que alejan la primera acción de la segunda. sin embargo, los turnos no preferentes, como por ejemplo el rechazo de una invitación, suelen tener una estructura más compleja, además de ser acompañados por explicaciones y/o justificaciones –indicadores frecuentes de que la respuesta ofrecida no es la preferente– y suelen producirse con retraso, titubeos y partículas pragmáticas de varios tipos que retrasan la producción de la respuesta verdadera, entorpeciendo de esta forma la progresión de la interacción10, como el siguiente extracto demuestra: extracto 6. (sacks, 1987, p. 58) a: yuh comin down early? b: well, i have a lot of things to do before getting cleared up tomorrow. i don’t know. i wprobably won’t be too early.11 como subraya sacks en su análisis, la respuesta negativa de b en este caso es mitigada al máximo y literalmente empujada hacia el final del turno de respuesta, de forma tal que no solamente debilita la solidaridad social, sino que también retrasa el avance de la interacción)12. como ejemplo de lo que ocurre en 10 “if an agreeing answer occurs, it pretty damn well occurs contiguously, whereas if a disagreeing answer occurs, it may well be pushed rather deep in to the turn that it occupies.” (sacks 1987, p. 58) 11 a: vas a venir pronto? b: bueno, tengo muchas cosas que hacer antes de liberarme mañana. no sé. nes probable que no llegue demasiado temprano. 12 “ya sea una palabra, un turno, una secuencia, o las acciones y actividades que estos encauzan, cuando conversamos con otros, solemos continuar hasta dar por terminado lo que hemos iniciado. aunque destacar esto parezca una trivialidad, estamos ante un principio universal que gobierna el habla en interacción y que denominaremos progresividad. en una conversación, se espera que un próximo turno avance la trayectoria de acción iniciada por el turno anterior, que una siguiente palabra en un turno avance el desarrollo de la acción de ese turno, que una sílaba lo haga respecto de la palabra en curso, y así la interacción prosiga el curso que tiene señalado en cada nivel de detalle. […] (e)n la conversación, la conversaciones en los materiales auditivos para la enseñanza de español l2 e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 59 las conversaciones cotidianas, podemos observar el siguiente extracto: b le está relatando a sus compañeros de carrera, a y c (nacho), un problema que ha tenido con otra persona: extracto 7. (adaptado de val.es.co, p. 174) 01 b es que si↑empre, .hhh se descojona pero a mí no me hace 02 ni puñetera gracia porque yoyo quiero hacerme 03 resúme↑nes, (0.9) y estoy 04 (toda [la) semana ( )] 05 a [(¿te) estás (descojonando de) noso]tras? ((a nacho)) 06 (1.6) 07 a pero coño nacho con↑testa:. 08 (2.8) 09 b se le ha comido la lengua el gato. 10 (0.3) 11 c no jodas. el turno de b (líneas 01-04) tiene todas las características de una queja dirigida a una persona ausente (“third-party complaint”; traverso, 2009). no sabemos cuál es la orientación espacial de los hablantes al no existir datos visuales, pero lo que ocurre a continuación es bastante elocuente: a se autoselecciona cuando el turno de b todavía no ha alcanzado un posible lpt, para dirigirse a c (nacho) con un turno interrogativo que sintácticamente es una pregunta polar y sin embargo incorpora un reproche hacia el compañero por su actitud no afiliativa (línea 05). en casos como estos, la respuesta preferente por parte del acusado sería la desmentida inmediata (“not at fault”; dersley & wootton, 2000). la falta o el retraso en la producción de dicha desmentida, en cambio, suelen preceder a alguna forma de admisión de culpabilidad (dersley & wootton, 2000). en este caso, no se realiza ni la una ni la otra opción. retrospectivamente, la acción de c se puede caracterizar como manifiestamente ausente (“noticeably absent”; schegloff, 1968): por esta razón, después de un silencio prolongado (línea 06), a solicita de forma agravada una respuesta por su parte (línea 07), que c sin embargo no ofrece. después de otro silencio extremadamente largo (línea 08), b ofrece una justificación indirecta (“vicarious account”; sterponi, 2009) en clave irónica, que es finalmente rechazada por c (línea 11). lo que observamos en el extracto (7) es que el silencio entre la primera y la segunda parte de una pareja adyacente es un indicador bastante fiable de la presencia de algún tipo de problema incipiente a nivel interaccional y de que el turno siguiente, si se produce (algo que no ocurre en (7)), tendrá con mucha probabilidad forma no preferente. resumiendo, vemos que entre las conversaciones auténticas y las de los manuales hay algunas similitudes y muchas diferencias: entre las primeras, el hecho de que todos los tipos de selección del próximo hablante se vean reflejados. entre las segundas, en lo que se refiere a los manuales, hemos observado la presencia de silencios sistemáticos y prolongados entre turnos (en ningún caso relacionados con problemas interaccionales) y la escasa orientación de los hablantes hacia las acciones de los co-participantes. en el próximo apartado analizaremos la secuencialidad de las acciones llevadas a cabo por los participantes a través de sus turnos de palabra. 4.3. secuencialidad de las acciones en la conversación cotidiana la interacción es un proceso colaborativo en el cual los hablantes, a través de cada turno de palabra, cumplen acciones que responden a las acciones anteriores y que proyectan sobre el turno siguiente la relevancia de cierto tipo de acción de respuesta por parte del/de la co-participante. sacks (1987) identificó un patrón importante en la organización de las secuencias: la preferencia por la contigüidad entre turnos en la conversación cotidiana, es decir, por la producción inmediata de una acción de respuesta en segunda posición (la segunda parte de un par adyacente) a la acción en primera posición (la primera parte), sin que otros elementos se interpongan entre ellas (sacks, 1987, pp. 59-60). con la expresión par adyacente se denomina justamente esta unidad secuencial básica de la interacción verbal: dos turnos contiguos, producidos por dos hablantes distintos y diferenciados entre una primera parte y una segunda parte (saludo-saludo, preguntarespuesta, oferta-aceptación/rechazo de la oferta, etc.; schegloff & sacks, 1973; vázquez carranza, 2019, pp. progresividad es una preferencia de carácter general a la que se orientan los participantes.” (raymond & olguín, en prensa, p. 128). pauletto & ahlström e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 60 60-61). cualquier acción en primera posición, dentro del par adyacente, proyecta la relevancia de una respuesta específica en la segunda posición (el turno siguiente). como demuestra lo que ocurre en el extracto (7), la falta de una acción relevante en segunda posición es manifiesta e implica consecuencias a nivel de la interacción (schegloff, 1968, 2007, p. 19). ahora, para enfatizar el carácter colaborativo, secuencial y temporalmente constituido de la conversación, antes de analizar los diálogos didácticos desde el punto de vista secuencial vamos a describir otros tres fenómenos típicos del habla en interacción que contribuyen significativamente a su organización y que nosotros utilizaremos para evaluar hasta qué punto las conversaciones didácticas pueden considerarse “espontáneas”: nos referimos a las prácticas de reparación, a los turnos de apoyo y a las enunciaciones conjuntas. las prácticas de reparación tienen como objetivo solucionar problemas recurrentes (“problems in hearing, speaking, and understanding”; schegloff, jefferson & sacks, 1977, p. 361) que ponen en entredicho la intersubjetividad (batlle, 2015, pp. 28-30) entre participantes a la vez que entorpecen la progresividad de la interacción. un procedimiento de reparación incluye tres componentes básicos: la fuente del problema (una palabra mal pronunciada o desconocida, por ejemplo), el inicio de la reparación (con una señal que indica el inicio del procedimiento) y la solución de la reparación (la reformulación de la palabra mal pronunciada, por ejemplo). tanto el hablante que ha originado el problema como el receptor pueden iniciar el procedimiento de reparación y/o producir la solución. de esta forma, distinguimos, entre otras, entre la reparación auto-iniciada y auto-resuelta, en la que la persona que produce el problema también inicia y completa la reparación de forma independiente, y la reparación hetero-iniciada y auto-resuelta, en la que el co-participante inicia el procedimiento y el hablante produce la solución (vázquez carranza, 2019, pp. 77-87). a continuación, veremos un ejemplo de reparación auto-iniciada y auto-resuelta: extracto 8. (adaptado de val.es.co, p. 146) 01 c pero qué to(0.3) no:: he tenido un fa↑llito me 02 de(h)cía:=[hih] 03 b [per]o yo qué sé pero yo no ↑sé,] 04 c [( )] 05 (0.5) 06 b tantas:, si tienen tantos fal(0.2) fam:: >o sea< 07 si tienen tantas [faltas ( ,)] 08 c [¿sabes por qué se ha pres]entao? porque le 09 caducaba el teórico. 10 (0.6) 11 b a::h. aquí la fuente del problema reside en el referente “faltas”, que la hablante consigue reparar (línea 07) en el mismo turno, después de algunos titubeos y de dos intentos fallidos (si tienen tantos fal(0.2) fam:: >o sea<; línea 06). en muchos casos, sin embargo, el proceso es puesto en marcha por el/la co-participantes: veamos a continuación el extracto de una conversación telefónica: extracto 9. (adaptado de vázquez carranza, 2019, p. 78; an = antelmo; ch = chelita) 01 an: bueno. 02 ch: sí hola buenos días. 03 an: hola: 04 ch: qué milagro que te dejas oír o↑ye↓ 05 (0.5) 06 an: mandé? 07 ch: qué milagro que te dejas escuchar 08 an: heheheh hehe.hh [no pues es quehh..hh es que me fui a: 09 ch: [sordo: en este caso, la fuente del problema se encuentra en el turno de chelita (qué milagro que te dejas oír o↑ye↓; línea 04): después de un silencio de 0,5 segundos, que de por sí puede proyectar algún problema, antelmo inicia la reparación en el turno siguiente (línea 06), solicitando con mandé? una repetición del turno entero, lo cual indica que el problema no esté localizado en algún elemento aislado del mismo sino que afecta a conversaciones en los materiales auditivos para la enseñanza de español l2 e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 61 todo el turno de palabra. el resultado de la reparación se puede apreciar en el siguiente turno de chelita (línea 07): obsérvese en particular la reformulación de la segunda parte y el volumen más alto utilizado por la hablante (qué milagro que te dejas escuchar). la respuesta de antelmo (línea 08) nos indica que el turno de chelita ha sido analizado como un reproche amistoso (véase la risa de antelmo al comienzo del turno y la subsiguiente justificación). los turnos de apoyo son señales a través de las cuales el oyente toma el turno de forma transitoria en correspondencia con o cerca de un lpt para ratificar el seguimiento no problemático del turno prolongado del/de la co-participante hasta ese momento (cestero, 2000). podemos observar el fenómeno en el extracto siguiente. tres amigas están hablando de la utilidad del carnet de conducir: extracto 10. (adaptado de val.es.co, p. 146) 01 a no es lo mis[mo:.] 02 c [no t]iene tanta necesidad pero hay gente 03 que sí que la tiene. entiendes? 04 a mhmh. 05 (0.4) 06 c es que::, (0.6) es crearte tú la necesidad. 07 (1.0) 08 c no:: (eh) yo desde luego:, (0.2) ( ) me lo tengo que 09 sacar.=lo que pasa que::, 10 (.) 11 c .hhh eh a’más es muy bueno [(vas) esperand]o:::, (.)= 12 b [para: para::,] 13 c =terminar la carrera tienes trabajo y qué::? 14 b y[a:.] 15 c [qué] le vas a decir. mamá llevamé? 16 (0.2) 17 a [( )] 18 b [ cla]ro:. 19 c o sea. yo lo tengo claro. me lo tengo que sacar. c está argumentando a favor del carnet de conducir: su turno, constituido por múltiples ucts, no es interrumpido en ningún momento por sus co-participantes (con la excepción del intento abortado de toma de turno por parte de b, lejos del lpt, y que parece en continuidad con el anterior turno incompleto de la misma hablante; líneas 08-09, 12). por otra parte, vemos que tanto a como b, en varias ocasiones, y siempre en proximidad de o en correspondencia con un lpt, producen unos turnos de apoyo de distinto tipo (↑mh↓mh, ya, claro) con los cuales ratifican la comprensión no problemática del turno in fieri de c y, en general, manifiestan su escucha activa (líneas 04, 14 y 18). terminamos esta breve reseña describiendo otro fenómeno que pertenece a la dimensión secuencial y cooperativa del habla y que subraya el alto grado de coordinación epistémica entre participantes: las enunciaciones conjuntas o co-construcciones (helasvuo, 2004; lerner, 1991; sacks, 1992, pp. 647-655). esta práctica se caracteriza por la producción colaborativa de turnos de habla entre dos o más hablantes, y es un fenómeno colaborativo en la medida en que se compone de la secuencia de dos turnos de habla, de los cuales el segundo se produce en continuidad con el primero, al que completa: extracto 11. (sacks, 1992, p. 651) a: you were / / trying to be b: (i hid my anger,) a: you were trying uh b: -to play along with us.13 13 a: estabas // intentando ser b: (escondí mi enfado) a: estabas intentando eh pauletto & ahlström e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 62 aquí vemos que la frase “you were trying to play along with us” es producida por dos personas distintas. el hecho de que un participante pueda terminar una frase aún incompleta añadiendo elementos sintácticamente coherentes es evidencia directa de la capacidad de examinar en tiempo real los turnos de los co-participantes (sacks, 1992, p. 651) y, en general, de la naturaleza colaborativa de la interacción humana. los fenómenos descritos hasta ahora representan las prácticas organizadas (harvey sacks habla en este sentido de “machinery”, maquinaria; sacks, 1992, p. 226) que permiten a los hablantes analizar momento a momento la conducta interaccional de los co-participantes para producir acciones coherentes, inteligibles y calibradas en tiempo real. veamos en el siguiente párrafo cuál es la situación en las conversaciones didácticas que hemos analizado. 4.4. secuencialidad de las acciones en los diálogos didácticos a pesar de su frecuencia en el habla en interacción y de su relevancia a nivel interaccional, las prácticas que acabamos de detallar no están representadas de ninguna manera en los diálogos de los manuales de ele analizados. a continuación, veremos cuáles son las características de dichas interacciones desde el punto de vista secuencial. el primero es el extracto del inicio de la conversación de próxima estación ya examinada en el extracto (4): extracto 12. (próxima estación 3; em = empleada; ma = maría) 01 em ↑hola. 02 (0.9) 03 em ¿os puedo ayudar en algo? 04 (0.4) 05 ma sí gracias. 06 (0.5) 07 ma quería probarme aquel vestido amarillo del escaparate. 08 (0.4) 09 em ¿y qué talla usas? 10 (0.5) 11 ma normalmente uso la talla treinta y ocho. 12 (0.7) 13 ma ¿dónde están los probadores? 14 (0.7) 15 em están allí al fondo. 16 (10.6) aquí vemos a la empleada saludar a la cliente al principio del encuentro (↑hola.; línea 01). un saludo es una acción que inicia una secuencia, al proyectar otro saludo como respuesta preferente en segunda posición. sin embargo, al turno de la empleada le sigue un silencio de casi un segundo (línea 02), después del cual la empleada vuelve a autoseleccionarse para ofrecer ayuda (¿os puedo ayudar en algo?; línea 03). después de otro silencio (línea 04), la cliente responde aceptando el ofrecimiento (sí gracias; línea 05). en este caso, no hay ratificación en el turno siguiente por parte de la empleada, ni siquiera en forma mínima, por ejemplo de turno de apoyo (por ejemplo vale, perfecto o muy bien). después de otro silencio (línea 06), maría vuelve a autoseleccionarse, especificando en qué consiste la ayuda que necesita (línea 07). después de otro gap importante (línea 08), la empleada –en lugar de ratificar en el turno siguiente la información proporcionada por la cliente– pasa directamente a la formulación de una pregunta técnica (línea 09), la cual parece proyectar una posible oferta de asistencia en la búsqueda de la prenda adecuada, una vez recibida la información relevante. en realidad, la respuesta de la cliente (normalmente uso la talla treinta y ocho; línea 11) no recibe por parte de la empleada ninguna validación. la siguiente pregunta de la cliente (¿dónde están los probadores?; línea 13) recibe una respuesta en forma preferente por parte de la empleada (están allí al fondo; línea 15): sin embargo, la secuencia se cierra sin ninguna expresión de agradecimiento por parte de la cliente para clausurar de forma preferente este encuentro de servicio. rutinas esenciales a nivel social son así pasadas por alto en un material didáctico que por otra parte pretende ofrecer a los aprendices de otro entorno cultural un modelo a seguir b: -seguirnos el juego. conversaciones en los materiales auditivos para la enseñanza de español l2 e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 63 tanto a nivel lingüístico como pragmático. encontramos otro ejemplo de pareja adyacente incompleta (y de desfase pragmático) en el siguiente extracto: extracto 13. (caminando 3; an = antonio; ta = taquillero) 01 an hola. 02 (.) 03 an queremos dos entradas para el partido por favor. 04 (0.9) 05 ta muy bien. 06 (0.2) al igual que en el ejemplo anterior, el saludo que da inicio al encuentro de servicio (línea 01) no recibe respuesta por parte del taquillero. antonio, después de una micropausa, pasa directamente a la transacción (línea 03). situación similar en el siguiente diálogo. es el primer día de clase en un instituto y julia entabla una conversación casual con tamara, otra estudiante: extracto 14. (vistas 3; ju = julia; ta = tamara) 01 ju ↑hola. 02 (0.4) 03 ju puedo sentar↑me:? (.) o está ocupado? 04 (0.5) 05 ta no::::. (.) €claro que no.€ 06 (0.2) 07 ta €siéntate. siéntate.€ 08 (0.5) 09 ju mira, (0.3) soy nueva aquí, (.) y no conozco a nadie. 10 (0.4) como podemos ver, al saludo de julia (línea 01) no le corresponde una respuesta adecuada por parte de tamara: después de un silencio de 0,4 segundos (línea 02), julia se vuelve a autoseleccionar y formula su petición (línea 03). observamos también que al turno de tamara (línea 07) julia no responde de alguna manera, cuando la acción de la co-participante proyectaría una expresión de agradecimiento o una ratificación como acción preferida en el turno siguiente. este patrón, con acciones en primera posición dentro de un par adyacente que no reciben una respuesta adecuada y/o preferente en segunda posición, es sorprendentemente frecuente en las grabaciones analizadas. veamos a continuación otro ejemplo proveniente esta vez del manual caminando 3: extracto 15. (caminando 3; an= antonio; so = sonsoles) 01 an ya sa­bes que yo soy del málaga de toda la vida. 02 (0.6) 03 so ¿no me di:gas? 04 (0.8) 05 so ¿pero el málaga son los azules o los rojos? 06 (0.6) 07 an ay no seas tonta. 08 (0.5) 09 an claro que son los azules. aquí vemos a antonio producir un turno informativo (ya sabes que yo soy del málaga de toda la vida; línea 01). el turno es seguido por un silencio largo (línea 02), después del cual sonsoles se autoselecciona, reaccionando al enunciado de antonio (¿no me di:gas?; línea 03). el turno tiene carácter irónico y se puede clasificar como una burla (“tease”; drew, 1987) que pone de manifiesto cómo la información recibida no es nueva o sorprendente para sonsoles. este tipo de turno suele recibir respuestas que van desde la risa (con consiguiente reconocimiento del carácter irónico del turno anterior) hasta respuestas que, al contrario, tratan de forma literal (es decir, seria) la acción anterior (drew, 1987, pp. 221-222). antonio, sin embargo, no pauletto & ahlström e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 64 reacciona. con un cambio de trayectoria abrupto, después de otro silencio importante (línea 04), sonsoles vuelve a autoseleccionarse para dirigirle al co-participante una pregunta (¿pero el málaga son los azules o los rojos?; línea 05): después de otro silencio pronunciado (línea 06), antonio responde de manera no preferente (ay no seas tonta; línea 07), al no contestar directamente a la pregunta. en realidad, con su acción antonio parece poner en duda la sinceridad misma de la pregunta de sonsoles, la cual, sin embargo, no reacciona a una afirmación que en otro contexto podría incluso tener implicaciones negativas para su imagen (“face”; goffman 1955). después de otro gap relevante (línea 08), antonio contesta a la pregunta, aclarando la duda y subrayando la redundancia de la pregunta de sonsoles (claro que son los azules; línea 09). otro ejemplo del fenómeno (junto con la constante presencia de silencios entre turnos de palabra) proviene del diálogo de vistas 3 ya analizado en (13). extracto 16. (vistas 3; ju = julia; ta = tamara) 01 ju mira, (0.3) soy nueva aquí, (.) y no conozco a nadie. 02 (0.4) 03 ju estoy tan ner­viosa que me muero. 04 (0.7) 05 ju es que el primer día es horroroso y a la ­ve:z, (0.2) 06 superexcitante. 07 (0.5) 08 ju me llamo julia. 09 (0.2) 10 ju y tú:? 11 (0.5) 12 ta €yo: soy tamara.€ esta secuencia empieza justo después de la secuencia inicial de saludos. vemos a julia producir un turno informativo (mira, (0.3) soy nueva aquí, (.) y no conozco a nadie; línea 01) seguido por un silencio (línea 02). normalmente, en las conversaciones espontáneas, los participantes subrayan el estatus de la información recibida (nuevo/conocido) respondiendo de forma acorde en el turno siguiente (couper-kuhlen & selting, 2018, pp. 276-279). aquí, en cambio, tamara no reacciona de ninguna manera. seguidamente, julia vuelve a auto-seleccionarse y produce otro turno informativo (estoy tan nerviosa que me muero; línea 03): en este caso, hace explícito un problema (un ejemplo de “troubles telling”; jefferson, 1988) que podría hacer relevante en el turno siguiente una muestra de afiliación por parte de tamara, que tampoco llega. de hecho, este turno de julia viene seguido por otro silencio consistente (línea 04), que en condiciones normales podría ser el reflejo de la actitud poco o nada afiliativa de la otra persona. como tamara no reacciona, julia sigue y produce una evaluación (es que el primer día es horroroso y a la ve:z, (0.2) superexcitante.; líneas 05-06) que sirve para justificar su estado anímico. en este caso también, la investigación en ac ha demostrado que después de un turno de evaluación suele haber respuestas de confirmación y también segundas evaluaciones del mismo tipo, en ocasiones incluso intensificadas (pomerantz, 1984). después de otro silencio relevante (línea 07), julia sigue con su monólogo: se presenta (me llamo julia; línea 08), seleccionando a continuación a tamara (y tú:?; línea 11), la cual, finalmente, contesta de forma preferente (línea 20), después de otro silencio prolongado (línea 12). el análisis pormenorizado de los extractos nos permite concluir que estos fenómenos son transversales, al caracterizar todas las grabaciones de los tres manuales examinados. en el último extracto vamos a analizar, entre otros, el fenómeno de las parejas adyacentes desplazadas, algo que no ocurre en los datos espontáneos que hemos tomado en consideración. unos amigos están teniendo una conversación distendida: extracto 17. (próxima estación 3; nu = nuria; ja = jaime; ma = maría) 01 nu te veo diferente jaime. 03 (1.1) 03 nu es que tienes nuevo corte de pelo? 04 (0.7) 05 ja no. no me he cortado el pelo. pero seguid adivinando. 06 (0.7) 07 ma tus gafas son nuevas? conversaciones en los materiales auditivos para la enseñanza de español l2 e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 65 08 (0.8) 09 ma no. no es eso. 10 (0.6) 11 nu aho:ra si. lo veo. 12 (1.1) 13 nu llevas u:na camisa nueva. 14 (0.6) 15 nu y qué bien te queda el color. 16 (0.9) 17 ja correcto nuria. 18 (0.7) 19 ja casi siempre llevo camisas blancas pero dicen que el 20 amarillo está muy de moda esta primavera. aquí vemos a nuria realizar una observación (un “noticing”), es decir, la primera parte de un par adyacente (te veo diferente jaime.; línea 01). después de un predecible silencio (línea 02), nuria se autoselecciona nuevamente para dirigirle a jaime una pregunta que requiere un sí o un no como respuesta preferente en el turno siguiente (es que tienes nuevo corte de pelo?; línea 03). jaime responde a la pregunta con un no, respetando por lo tanto su polaridad (línea 05), y mantiene el turno invitando a las amigas a que sigan adivinando. esta vez, después de otro largo silencio (línea 06), se autoselecciona maría, cuya pregunta polar proyecta, otra vez, un sí o un no como respuesta preferente (línea 07). después de otro silencio pronunciando (línea 08), y sin que jaime conteste, la misma maría descarta su anterior hipótesis (línea 09). a continuación observamos otro silencio (línea 10), un pre-anuncio por parte de nuria (aho:ra si.=lo veo.; línea 11), seguido por otro silencio muy relevante (línea 12) y por el turno de la misma hablante (llevas u:na camisa nueva; línea 13). la suposición de nuria proyectaría una confirmación o una desmentida como respuestas preferentes en el turno siguiente por parte de jaime. sin embargo, después de otro silencio (línea 14), es nuria la que vuelve a auto-seleccionarse para producir una nueva uct sintácticamente ligada a la anterior (véase la conjunción y al comienzo del turno: y qué bien te queda el color; línea 15): es un cumplido que haría relevante una ratificación de algún tipo como respuesta14 en el turno siguiente. en cambio, después de otro silencio (línea 16), jaime, en lugar de responder a dicho cumplido, confirma la exactitud de la observación producida por nuria en el turno anterior (correcto nuria.; línea 17), rompiendo así la contigüidad entre acciones que conforman un par adyacente. este turno de jaime no es seguido por ninguna reacción por parte de nuria, en forma por ejemplo de evaluación (bien) o de ratificación (vale), como sería de esperar en un caso como este (sobre respuestas candidatas véase pomerantz, 1988). después de otro silencio muy largo (línea 18), jaime se autoselecciona nuevamente, y su turno informativo (líneas 19-20) exhibe, una vez más, escasa orientación hacia las acciones de sus co-participantes. para resumir: en el extracto hay un par adyacente contiguo (líneas 03 y 05; obsérvese sin embargo el silencio de 0,7 segundos entre los dos turnos), un par adyacente desplazado, es decir no adyacente (líneas 13 y 17), y tres primeras partes de pares adyacentes que no reciben ningún tipo de respuesta, es decir, pares adyacentes mutilados (líneas 01, 15 y 17). en definitiva, se trata de un comportamiento inusual comparado con lo que acontece en las conversaciones de todos los días, aun sin tener en cuenta la constante presencia de largos silencios entre un turno y otro. 5. conclusiones en este estudio de caso hemos analizado a partir del método y de la teoría del análisis de la conversación (schegloff, 2007) tres grabaciones de audio incluidas en tres manuales de español l2 utilizados en el bachillerato sueco. el objetivo era averiguar en qué medida se acercan o se alejan de los patrones interaccionales observables en las conversaciones espontáneas. nuestro estudio se alinea con las investigaciones realizadas anteriormente en este ámbito: se ve así confirmada la ausencia de fenómenos relevantes en el habla en interacción como los solapamientos, las disfluencias o los turnos de apoyo (gilmore, 2004), así como la escasa coherencia secuencial de algunas prácticas (wong, 2002), la presencia esporádica de las prácticas de reparación (batlle & suárez, 2020) –del todo ausentes en nuestro estudio– y la existencia de 14 contestar a un cumplido es una acción socialmente compleja: “most compliment responses lie somewhere in between acceptances and agreements on the one hand and rejections and disagreements on the other hand” (pomerantz, 1978, p. 81). pauletto & ahlström e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 66 fenómenos peculiares como los pares adyacentes desplazados o mutilados (pauletto, 2020), que reflejan la problemática coherencia discursiva de estos materiales. por otra parte, hemos podido averiguar cómo en los diálogos didácticos la toma de turno no se diferencia notablemente de la que se realiza en las interacciones cotidianas: todos los tipos de autoy heteroselección del hablante se ven de hecho reflejados en los extractos de los manuales. sin embargo, y a diferencia de lo que suele ocurrir en las conversaciones espontáneas, los turnos de palabra de dichos diálogos suelen estar separados entre sí por silencios sistemáticos y prolongados que casi nunca son indicio de algún tipo de problema incipiente en el turno de respuesta, dado que en la mayoría de los casos aparecen seguidos por turnos preferentes (es decir, por turnos que favorecen la solidaridad social y la progresión de la interacción). en cambio, en las conversaciones naturales, los silencios superiores a 300 ms pueden ser precursores de respuestas no preferentes o, en algunos casos, manifiestamente ausentes. en cuanto a la secuencialidad de las acciones, hemos descrito en general una frecuente falta de coordinación entre hablantes, evidente en la ausencia de participación y de atención al/a la co-participante (véase por ejemplo la inexistencia de turnos de apoyo). este fenómeno resulta a veces en verdaderos fallos a nivel pragmático. en este sentido, la secuencialidad se puede entender en algunos casos como mermada o fallida, ya que los pares adyacentes se caracterizan en ocasiones por ser incompletos (véanse los extractos (11), (12), (13), (14) y (15)) o desplazados (extracto (16)). además, faltan por completo prácticas como las reparaciones, los turnos de apoyo o las co-construcciones que, como hemos podido explicar, son fenómenos centrales en el habla en interacción, al contribuir a la secuencialidad, a la progresividad de la interacción y al mantenimiento de la intersubjetividad entre participantes. a todo esto, podemos añadir un hecho que salta a la vista comparando las mismas transcripciones: los turnos de palabra de las conversaciones didácticas suelen ser breves, sintácticamente completos y sin perturbaciones de ningún tipo (alargamientos vocálicos, inspiraciones, autorreparaciones etc.). observando las conversaciones que ocurren de forma natural, en cambio, vemos que el entramado de acciones simultáneas es mucho más complejo, con contribuciones de distinta amplitud y complejidad sintáctica, y turnos que a veces se quedan incompletos y/o se vuelven a reanudar por varias razones contingentes (reparaciones, interrupciones etc.). resumiendo, a pesar del carácter exploratorio y cualitativo del presente estudio, parece evidente que hay sensibles diferencias entre las conversaciones de los manuales de ele y la conversación auténtica: como afirman hale, nanni y hopper, “(r)eal communication is much more complicated and interdependent than textbooks have led (students) to believe” (2018, p. 66). desde el punto de vista didáctico, los materiales de audio (y video) son un input importante tanto para los/las aprendices, en cuanto al contacto con la lengua meta hablada, como para los/las docentes, siendo un material listo para el uso en su práctica didáctica. sin embargo, si el único input oral que recibe los/las aprendices es similar al de los audios aquí analizados, esto puede acarrear problemas a nivel del desarrollo de la competencia interaccional, ya que el alumnado no habrá sido sensibilizado a los aspectos centrales y más complejos de la organización secuencial de la lengua hablada. por consiguiente, nos parece necesario un replanteamiento en la forma de construir estos materiales didácticos, que invierta la tendencia a la simplificación y que permita tanto al profesorado como al alumnado disponer de materiales que reflejen de forma más fiel y sistemática lo que ocurre en las interacciones reales en la lengua meta. de esta forma, la clase de lenguas podrá convertirse en un lugar donde a quien aprende se le ofrezca la oportunidad de convertirse en hablante intercultural (“intercultural speaker(s)”; kramsch, 1998), es decir, en personas interaccionalmente competentes y capaces de negociar significados entre marcos conceptuales culturalmente variables. 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(2008). how to teach listening. pearson education. wong, jean (2002). applying conversation analysis in applied linguistics: evaluating dialogue in english as a second language textbooks. iral international review of applied linguistics in language teaching, 40, 37-60. manuales de enseñanza gröndahl. sara, fernández garcía, david, liven, ingvild, lund moss, gro eli & rosén, espen (2018). próxima estación 3. liber. rönnmark, inger & quintana, eulalia (2012). vistas 3. sanoma utbildning. westerman, ninni, gustafsson, åsa, waldenström, elisabet & wik-bretz, meret (2016). caminando 3. natur & kultur. convenciones de transcripción (0.7) el número entre paréntesis indica la duración de un silencio en segundos o décimas de segundos; (.) el punto entre paréntesis indica un silencio de duración inferior a 0,2 segundos; [ ] los corchetes indican el punto en que el solapamiento empieza y termina; = este símbolo indica que la transcripción del turno en curso sigue dos líneas más abajo; >why< palabra(s) producida(s) rápidamente; <why> palabra(s) producidas lentamente; ↓↑ las flechas indican el subir y / o el bajar de la entonación; wo:rd “:” indica un alargamiento de la vocal / consonante de una décima de segundo por cada “:”; . indica entonación final; , indica entonación suspensiva; https://www.skolverket.se/undervisning/gymnasieskolan pauletto & ahlström e-journall, 9(1) (2022), pp. 52–70 70 ? indica una subida de la entonación; ( ) indica que lo que dice el/la hablante no es inteligible; (why) palabra / enunciado de difícil comprensión (“best guess”); why indica un incremento del volumen; w(h)y indica la presencia de partículas de risa interpoladas; €why€ tono alegre (“smiley voice”); ((xx)) texto que describe una acción encarnada (“embodied action”); wh indica la interrupción de la palabra o de la enunciación (cut-off); .hh indica inhalación (0,1 segundos por “h”); hh. indica exhalación (0,1 segundos por “h”). (adaptado de vázquez carranza, 2020, p. 16-17) franco pauletto, stockholms universitet, romanska och klassiska institutionen franco.pauletto@su.se es franco pauletto tiene una larga experiencia como profesor de italiano l2. recibió su doctorado en 2017 y actualmente está cursando un postdoctorado bienal en la universidad de estocolmo. su enfoque de estudio incluye las interacciones entre padres e hijos en familias italianas y suecas, con el uso de las señales discursivas en interacción y la adquisición del italiano l2 por parte de discentes de habla sueca, siempre partiendo de la teoría y del método del análisis de conversación. en franco pauletto has extensive experience as a teacher of italian as a second language. he earned his ph.d. in 2017 and currently holds a two-year postdoctoral researcher position at the university of stockholm. he has studied interactions between parents and children in italian and swedish families, the use of certain discourse markers, and the acquisition of italian as a second language by swedish-speaking learners within the theoretical and methodological framework of conversation analysis. it franco pauletto ha una lunga esperienza come insegnante di italiano l2. ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca nel 2017 e sta attualmente svolgendo un postdottorato biennale presso l’università di stoccolma. si è occupato di interazioni tra genitori e figli in famiglie italiane e svedesi, dell’uso di alcuni segnali discorsivi in interazione e dell’acquisizione dell’italiano l2 da parte di apprendenti svedesofoni, sempre a partire dalla teoria e dal metodo dell ’analisi della conversazione. isabelle ahlström, stockholms universitet, isabelle.ahlstrom@gmail.com es isabelle ahlström es profesora en la escuela secundaria superior sueca. está especializada en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras (español e inglés) y en la producción y evaluación de materiales didácticos para la enseñanza de las l2, partiendo de los principios del análisis conversacional. en isabelle ahlström works as a teacher in a swedish high school. she specializes in teaching foreign languages (spanish and english) and in the production and analysis of l2 teaching materials, based on the principles of conversation analysis. it isabelle ahlström lavora come professoressa in una scuola secondaria di secondo grado svedese. è specializzata nell’insegnamento di lingue straniere (spagnolo e inglese) e nella produzione e analisi di materiali didattici per l’ insegnamento delle l2, a partire dai principi dell’analisi della conversazione. 1. introducción 2. teoría y método: el análisis de la conversación 3. datos y metodología 4. análisis 4.1. la toma de turno en la conversación cotidiana la interacción verbal está organizada en turnos de habla, los cuales incorporan las distintas acciones sociales llevadas a cabo por los participantes (vázquez carranza, 2019, p. 55). en la conversación cotidiana, la alternancia entre hablantes es un p... 4.2. la toma de turno en los diálogos didácticos 4.3. secuencialidad de las acciones en la conversación cotidiana 5. conclusiones bibliografía euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 2, december 2023, 113-116 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.2.2953 www.e-journall.org © fiammenghi 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. review: zanola, annalisa (2023). la lingua inglese per la comunicazione scientifica e professionale. carocci carlotta fiammenghi university of brescia received 19 october 2023; accepted after revisions 23 november 2023 abstract en the text is a review of la lingua inglese per la comunicazione scientifica e professionale by annalisa zanola, published in 2023 by carocci. the book introduces espp (english for scientific and professional purposes) as a new research area in english language and linguistics, which aims at exploring the efficiency and effectiveness of native and non-native speakers of english in professional contexts. it is divided into four chapters, each exploring one dimension of espp: from an overview of english for scientific popularization and professional communication (chapter 1) to an exposition of the main characteristics of written and oral espp (chapters 2 and 3), to an analysis of its possible applications in medicine, economics, law, and engineering (chapter 4). in this volume, professionals, together with their language instructors, will find useful materials to understand, and to master, the main characteristics of english for their own scientific and professional purposes, while scholars in applied linguistics will find interesting insights into theories and practices regarding english for scientific and professional communication. key words: english for scientific and professional purposes (espp), english language teaching, english language learning, academic writing es el texto es una reseña de la lingua inglese per la comunicazione scientifica e professionale de annalisa zanola, publicado en 2023 por carocci. el libro presenta el espp (english for scientific and professional purposes) como una nueva área de investigación, cuyo objetivo es explorar la eficiencia y eficacia de los hablantes nativos y no nativos de inglés en contextos profesionales. se divide en cuatro capítulos, cada uno de los cuales explora una dimensión del espp: desde una visión general del inglés para la divulgación científica y la comunicación profesional (capítulo 1) hasta una exposición de las principales características del espp escrito y oral (capítulos 2 y 3), pasando por un análisis de sus posibles aplicaciones en medicina, economía, derecho e ingeniería (capítulo 4). en este volumen, los y las profesionales, así como sus docentes, encontrarán materiales útiles para comprender y dominar las principales características del inglés para sus propios fines científicos y profesionales, mientras que los estudiosos de la lingüística aplicada hallarán interesantes perspectivas sobre teorías y prácticas relativas al espp. palabras clave: inglés para fines científicos y profesionales, enseñanza del inglés, aprendizaje del inglés, escritura académica it nel testo viene recensito il volume la lingua inglese per la comunicazione scientifica e professionale, scritto da annalisa zanola e pubblicato nel 2023 da carocci. il volume introduce una nuova area di ricerca nell’ambito della lingua e linguistica inglese, l’espp (english for scientific and professional purposes), tesa all’esplorazione dell’efficacia e dell’efficienza con cui i parlanti (nativi e non nativi) si esprimono in lingua inglese all’interno di contesti professionali. il volume è diviso in quattro capitoli, ciascuno dei quali esplora una dimensione dell’espp: partendo da una panoramica dell’inglese per la popolarizzazione scientifica e la comunicazione professionale (capitolo 1) si passa all’esposizione delle caratteristiche principali dell’espp scritto e orale (capitoli 2 e 3), per arrivare all’analisi delle sue possibili applicazioni nell’ambito medico, economico, giuridico, e dell’ingegneria (capitolo 4). all’interno di questo volume, professionisti e insegnanti troveranno dei materiali utili per comprendere, e per padroneggiare, le caratteristiche principali dell’inglese per i propri scopi scientifici e professionali; studiosi di linguistica applicata vi troveranno invece spunti interessanti sulle teorie e pratiche dell’inglese per la comunicazione scientifica professionale. parole chiave: inglese per la comunicazione scientifica e professionale, insegnamento della lingua inglese, apprendimento della lingua inglese, scrittura accademica  carlotta fiammenghi, university of brescia carlotta.fiammenghi@unibs.it about:blank mailto:carlotta.fiammenghi@unibs.it carlotta fiammenghi e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 113-116 114 eap (english for academic purposes), egap (english for general academic purposes), esap (english for specific academic purposes), esp (english for special purposes), elf (english as a lingua franca) are only some of the numerous acronyms that are well known to scholars of applied linguistics, especially in the case of those focusing on second/foreign language teaching and learning. yet, professor annalisa zanola’s latest volume, la lingua inglese per la comunicazione scientifica e professionale, edited by carocci, convincingly argues for the need to adopt espp (english for scientific and professional purposes), both in the classroom and as a topic for academic enquiry. the theorization of espp stems from the necessity to help adult learners of english to become linguistically, as well as pragmatically, competent, so as to avoid inadequate or inappropriate language use, especially in light of the increasingly international, multilingual, and multicultural nature of work and professional environments. indeed, the needs expressed by adult learners of english – be they academics or professionals, in the natural sciences or the humanities – are totally different from those expressed by younger students. in fact, adult learners expressing themselves in english at work may participate in conversations at advanced levels, discuss topics that require sophisticated skills, and be expected to share their knowledge with colleagues, clients and customers, as well as other experts in the field. therefore, the greatest challenges for these learners lie in the quality of communication, in understanding the communicative context, and in choosing an appropriate register. furthermore, when trying to make appropriate lexico-grammatical choices, they must also take stock of the communicative purpose, audience type, and communicative context. often, learners are (painfully) aware that their linguistic abilities can have very real consequences on their professional performance and even their future career options. starting from this premise, the author defines espp as a new research area in english language and linguistics, which aims at exploring the efficiency and effectiveness of native and non-native speakers of english in professional contexts. she suggests developing this research area both inside and outside academia as a corrective to the european tradition of esp, in order to reinforce the idea that this long-standing tradition of teaching and researching esp could be updated and strengthened, so as to facilitate learners’ personal as well as professional growth. the demands from professionals in various fields are quite significant, as is the number of academic studies on the subject; however, the specific research questions on written and oral communication required by the world of work in second-language and foreign-language contexts still seem to lack adequate and satisfactory answers. the four chapters of the volume attempt to provide such answers. chapter 1 offers an overview of the concept of english for scientific popularization and professional communication. it starts by sketching its history starting from the 1960s-80s, going through the 1990s and the new millennium, to conclude with future perspectives offered by the evolution from esp to espp. it proceeds by exploring the different dimensions of english for scientific and professional communication, highlighting the difference between formal and informal texts and contexts. indeed, despite the fact that academic english is considered formal by nature, professionals who are expressing themselves in english need to be able to recognize – and adapt to – the different levels of formality required by the various situations and relationships developing in their workplace. therefore, they need the ability to effectively discriminate between, for example, research articles, press releases, company reports, meeting agendas, minutes (for written communication), as well as between seminars, pitch presentations, job interviews, meetings with customers/clients or with co-workers. they may need to adjust their language and register choices accordingly, paying attention to their lexico-grammatical, argumentative, as well as stylistic choices. these can also be informed by intercultural components: the author specifically delves into the pragmatic concept of politeness and its realization through hedging, which aims at creating the psychological conditions that are conducive to cross-cultural communication by avoiding conflict, minimizing threatening acts and mitigating impositions. the chapter then closes with a discussion of the different genres of scientific and professional popularization, both written and oral. the tables effectively exemplifying formal and informal (academic) texts, which can be of practical use to espp learners, are of particular interest to the teacher of espp who intends to adopt the volume for classroom teaching. chapter 2 and chapter 3 are at the core of the volume, as they are devoted to the description and exposition of the scientific foundations of espp. more specifically, chapter 2 deals with written espp skills, providing the basics of syntax, semantics, and textual pragmatics, with the goal of examining and developing academic, as well as espp, writing skills. the author discusses the numerous factors influencing the production of written texts (such as the recipient, aim, textual organization, and style) and accompanies readers through the process of drafting a written espp document, organizing information and revising for fluency and clarity. review: la lingua inglese per la comunicazione scientifica e professionale e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 113-116 115 this section is rich in diagrams and tables comparing examples of successful vs. unsuccessful language choices; moreover, the author presents and discusses several real-life examples of scientific and popularizing academic texts from a number of disciplines (medicine, economics and finance, law, and engineering) which are valuable for instructors and learners alike. these analyses aim at underscoring the characteristics of written academic texts (such as density, abstraction, objectivity, and rigour) by highlighting the specific ways in which information is arranged and presented, the specialised vocabulary that is used throughout, and the lexicogrammatical features that characterise written academic productions, such as passives and nominalizations. moreover, the author underscores the competencies and skills needed to first devise and then produce a written academic text, namely the ability to contextualize, to summarize, to assess and discriminate between sources, and to sustain agreement as well as dissent. chapter 3 focuses on oral espp skills, providing the basics of phonetics and phonology and delving into the question of teaching and learning pronunciation and prosody. the chapter then closes with an overview of public speaking in the academic and professional environment, outlining the intercultural, personal, and contextual factors which are likely to influence the success – or otherwise – of a performance. this chapter in particular appears to be clearly informed by the author’s extensive knowledge of and experience in researching and teaching oral communication and public speaking in professional contexts. finally, chapter 4 illustrates some possible areas of application, once again showing the peculiar characterization of some contexts in particular, namely economics and finance, law, medicine, as well as theoretical and applied engineering. for each context, the author briefly examines the history of the applied linguistics studies that focussed on that specific context and language, helping to define its specific lexicogrammatical characteristics. she then proceeds to describe the different profiles of contemporary professionals and language experts helping learners to navigate these languages; and describes some possible audio and visual aids, together with some practical cases and descriptions of users and contexts which are supported by updated and annotated bibliographical notes. of note here is the special attention devoted to new technologies (such as chats, videoconferences, and online shared documents) which have now steadily entered and profoundly influenced professional communication, and which should therefore be integrated into espp materials and curricula. as was stated at the beginning, the text convincingly argues for the introduction of the acronym espp (english for scientific and professional purposes) to complete and maybe substitute the more familiar, but also more generic, esp (english for special purposes). indeed, esp does not seem to adequately respond to the increasing and increasingly specialised requirements of adult workers who have to use english as a second/foreign language in their everyday scientific and professional (academic) environment. since the main aim of the volume is to lay the theoretical foundations of espp, the section devoted to the main application areas of espp is in its nascent stage and awaits further research. nevertheless, professionals, together with their language instructors, will find useful materials in this volume to understand, and to master, the main characteristics of english for their own scientific and professional purposes, while scholars in applied linguistics will find interesting insights into theories and practices regarding english for scientific and professional communication. carlotta fiammenghi e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 113-116 116 carlotta fiammenghi, university of brescia carlotta.fiammenghi@unibs.it en carlotta fiammenghi (phd) is a research fellow in language and communication at the department of medico-scientific specialties, radiological sciences and public health of the university of brescia (italy). she is also contract lecturer of business english (b2) at the department of economics and management of the university of brescia. she got her phd from the university of milan (italy) with a dissertation in corpus-assisted discourse analysis on the newspaper coverage of the mmr vaccine controversy in the united kingdom. her research areas include discourse analysis, newspaper discourse and medical english. es carlotta fiammenghi (phd) es investigadora en lengua y comunicación en el departamento de especialidades médicocientíficas, ciencias radiológicas y salud pública de la universidad de brescia (italia). también es docente de inglés comercial (b2) en el departamento de economía y gestión de la universidad de brescia. obtuvo su doctorado en la universidad de milán (italia) con una tesis sobre análisis del discurso asistido por corpus acerca de la cobertura periodística de la polémica sobre la vacuna triple vírica en el reino unido. sus áreas de investigación incluyen el análisis del discurso, el discurso periodístico y el inglés médico. it carlotta fiammenghi (phd) è assegnista di ricerca presso il dipartimento di specialità medico-chirurgiche, scienze radiologiche e sanità pubblica dell’università degli studi di brescia (italia). è anche docente a contratto di business english (b2) presso il dipartimento di economia e management dell’università degli studi di brescia. ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca presso l’università degli studi di milano (italia), con una tesi in linguistica inglese e analisi del discorso assistita dai corpora, che si è concentrata sul tema della copertura mediatica dell’ipotesi di correlazione tra vaccino trivalente mpr e insorgenza di autismo nella stampa britannica. le sue principali aree di ricerca includono l’analisi del discorso, il discorso giornalistico e l’inglese per la medicina. mailto:carlotta.fiammenghi@unibs.it microsoft word pizziconi_7.2.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  7,  issue  2,  october  2020,  116–119   issn  2376-­‐905x       http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.12.222   www.e-­‐journall.org   © pizziconi 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       review:  balboni,  paolo  e.  (2018).  a  theoretical  framework  for  language   education  and  teaching.  cambridge  scholars  publishing.         sergio  pizziconi   università  per  stranieri  di  siena     book  review     received  18  august  2020;  accepted  after  revision  28  august  2020   abstract en the volume is a reflection on the status of educational linguistics as a field of investigation in its own right. the author’s objective is to outline a theoretical framework for language education and teaching that is independent from the cultural features of the context in which the language curriculum is implemented. this goal seems to be intended by the author as a way to organize the many and often fragmentary trends and threads of research in the field and to provide scholars and practitioners with a benchmark against which they can contrast their research and professional practice decisions. key words: educational linguistics, language education, language teaching, theoretical paradigms es este volumen es una reflexión sobre la situación de la lingüística educativa como campo de investigación independiente. el objetivo del autor es trazar un marco teórico para la educación lingüística y la enseñanza de lenguas que no dependa de las influencias culturales del ámbito en el que se aplica el currículo lingüístico. parece ser que el autor entiende este objetivo como una forma de organizar las numerosas y con frecuencia fragmentarias tendencias y vías de investigación en este campo y de proporcionar a los estudiosos y profesionales un esquema de referencia con el que puedan contrastar sus decisiones tanto en la investigación como en la práctica profesional. palabras clave: lingüística educativa, educación lingüística, enseñanza de idiomas, paradigmas teóricos it il volume è una riflessione sullo status della linguistica educativa come ambito di ricerca a sé stante. il fine dell'autore è quello di individuare una cornice teorica per l'educazione linguistica e l'insegnamento delle lingue che sia scevro dalle influenze culturali del luogo in cui il curriculum linguistico è progettato. l'obiettivo sembra essere inteso dall'autore come un modo di riorganizzare le molte e spesso frammentarie tendenze e direzioni di ricerca nel settore e di fornire a studiosi/e e a praticanti uno schema di riferimento rispetto al quale confrontare le proprie scelte di ricerca e di pratica professionale. parole chiave: linguistica educativa, educazione linguistica, insegnamento delle lingue, paradigmi teorici * sergio  pizziconi,  università  per  stranieri  di  siena   sergio.pizziconi@unistrasi.it http://www.e-journall.org/ review:  a  theoretical  framework  for  language  education  and  teaching   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  116-­‐119 117     this  book,  entitled  a  theoretical  framework  for  language  education  and  teaching,  is  the  type  of  work   that  is  meant  to  recap  the  reflections,  arguments,  hypotheses,  and  findings  of  a  long-­‐lasting  academic  career.  it   is   the   result   of   a   “theoretical   and   epistemological   self-­‐reflection”   (p.   2)   about   the   status   of   educational   linguistics   as   an   operational   science   and   its   academic   standing.   paolo   balboni   organizes   definitions,   theoretical  background,  and  inter-­‐disciplinary  influences  (in  the  etymological  sense  of  “between  disciplines”   as  opposed  to  the  ideas  of  multidisciplinarity  and  of  desirable  syncretism  that  interdisciplinarity  is  supposed   to   achieve;   at   this   stage,   balboni   is   only   looking   for   knowledge   flows   between   disciplines)   to   support   a   comprehensive   approach   to   linguistic   education.   the   goal   is   to   arrive   at   a   theoretical   framework   that   is   universal  and  non-­‐cultural  specific.  to  this  end,  balboni  proposes  a  set  of  definitions  and  models  that  frame   the  scientific  discipline  and  the  concrete  practice  of  language  education  and  teaching.  as  the  author  states,  the   ultimate   aim   is   to   provide   a   global   scientific   community  with   theoretical   tools   to   discuss   findings,   analyze   data,  and  verify  hypotheses,  which  are  collected  locally. the   first   eight   chapters   of   the   book   comprise   the   bulk   of   the   theoretical   reflection.   the   first   two   chapters   introduce   the   overall   design   of   the   book.   they   define   the   object   of   study,   or   put   differently,  what   needs  to  be  theoretically  framed  and  how  the  framing  is  enacted.  in  the  first  chapter,  the  words  language  and   education  are  defined.  the  former  includes  any  type  of  language  in  which  learners  can  get  formal  or  informal   training:  l1,  l2,   foreign   language,  ethnic   language,   language  of   instruction,   lingua   franca,  classical   language,   and  also  artificial  language;  they  all  determine  different  contexts  for  the  process  of  teaching/learning.  for  the   latter   term,   balboni   proposes   two   possible   roles   of   the   teacher:   either   a   main   character   who   “guides   the   process”  (pp.  21–23)  or  a  stage  director  who  “facilitates  the  process”  (pp.  21–23).     the   second   chapter   moves   from   the   distinction   between   hard   and   soft   sciences   and   positions   educational  linguistics  in  the  area  of  those  sciences  that,  according  to  edgar  morin’s  (1990)  tripartite  scheme,   deal  with   complexity.   the  other   epistemological   paradigms  being   the   reductionism,   typical   of   hard   sciences   and  simplification,  enacted  by  “soft  sciences  when  they  try  to  work  like  hard  sciences”  (p.  26).  in  order  to  cope   with   complexity,   balboni   proposes   that,   for   such   an   operational   science   as   educational   linguistics,   a   set   of   complex   models   is   necessary   to   describe   the   multi-­‐faceted   and   multi-­‐dimensional   process   of   language   teaching/learning.   the   complexity   is   also   increased   because   operational   sciences   are   transdisciplinary—as   opposed   to   theoretical   sciences   that   are   “monodisciplinary”   (p.   34)—and   their   knowledge   base   must   be   capable  of  shaping  specific  behaviors,   such  as   “syllabus  design,   lexical  acquisition,  comprehension  activities   and  so  on”  (p.  30).   in   chapters   3   to   8,   balboni   proposes   a   series   of   these   complex  models.   they  will   substantiate   the   eight   hypotheses   that   he   collects   in   chapter   9   as   the   description   of   his   theoretical   framework   and   the   conclusion   to   the   volume.   the  models   that   balboni   presents   are   either   in   the   form   of   declarations   that   is,   statements  “based  on  a  verb  like  is,  is  made  of,  has  and  the  like”  (p.  29)  or  in  the  form  of  “procedures,  based  on   the   if...   then...  sequence”   (p.  29)  which  shows  a  declaration  and  a   consequence.   in  balboni’s  design,   the   fact   that  declarations  can  be  easily  verified  or  falsified  warrants  the  solidity  of  his  theoretical  construct.   chapter   3   discusses   the   contribution   of   language   sciences,   socio-­‐cultural   sciences,   neuro-­‐ psychological   research,   and  pedagogical   and  methodological   research   to   the   field  of   educational   linguistics.   the  chapter  is  a  wealth  of  references  to  major  works  in  the  four  scientific  areas  mentioned  above  that  have   been   feeding   the   knowledge   base   of   educational   linguistics,   which,   according   to   balboni,   needs   to   be   organized  in  a  hierarchical  structure:  a  theory  of  language  education  (approach),  the  way  in  which  theory  is   translated  into  an  educational  process  (method),  and,  finally,  the  way  the  educational  project  is  implemented   in  concrete  teaching/learning  situations  (action).  this  hierarchical  structure  is  the  major  contribution  to  the   eight   hypotheses   balboni   presents   in   his   final   framework   in   chapter   9.   but   the   distinction   between   the   application   and   the   implication   paradigms   (pp.   37–39)   is   also   central   to   the   definition   of   the   disciplinary   status  of  educational  linguistics.  according  to  balboni,  educational  linguistics  does  not  simply  apply  pieces  of   knowledge  which   the   sciences  mentioned  above   arrived   at.   so,   for   instance,  we  know   from  sociolinguistics   that  more  often  than  the  alleged  standard,  in  real  situations,  speakers  use  other  varieties  of  the  language.  we   could  apply  this  piece  of  knowledge  in  the  language  class  by  teaching  these  other  varieties.  conversely,  from   that   very   same   piece   of   knowledge,   educational   linguists   start   a   process   in   which   the   other   varieties   are   observed   in   situation   and,   finally,   decide   which   varieties,   when   and   how   they   must   be   introduced   in   the   course  syllabus. chapters  4  and  5  discuss  general  and  specific  objectives  of  language  education,  respectively.  because   of   the   culture-­‐independent   design   of   the   theoretical   framework,   balboni   resorts   to   a   very   comprehensive   perspective  about  the  general  objectives  of  language  education.  in  chapter  3,  he  had  already  pointed  out  the   pizziconi    e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  116-­‐119  118   centrality   of   linguistic   and   meta-­‐linguistic   competencies   to   develop   all   other   semiotic   abilities.   here,   he   remarks   the   instrumentality   of   language   to   both   thought   and   relations   among   people.   in   this   sense   he   introduces  the  me-­‐you-­‐world  paradigm,  according  to  which  language  is  crucial  for  the  self-­‐actualization  of  the   individuals   (me).   this   only   happens   when   individuals   have   already   undergone   both   the   culturalization   process,  which   brought   them   to   fit   in   the   societal   and   cultural   context   they  were   born   into   and   grew   into   (world),  and  the  socialization  process,  which  brought  them  to  establish  relations  with  other  individuals  (you).   the  paradigm  is  rather  flexible  and  encompasses  both  native  and  non-­‐native  language  learning.  moreover,  it   clarifies   that   balboni's   design   of   the   framework   recognizes   variation   inherent   to   the   language-­‐learning   process   at   the   individual   and   cultural   level.   the   chapter   closes  with   an   application   of   the   paradigm   to   the   issue   of   ethical   language   education   that   is   centered   around   the   right   to   self-­‐actualization   of   every   single   learner.  the  specific  objectives  of  language  education  are  discussed  in  chapter  5  with  an  integrated  approach   in   which   linguistic,   extra-­‐linguistic   (kinetics   or   gestural   competence,   proxemic   code,   based   on   distance   between   interlocutor,   and   objectual   codes,   that   is   clothes,   status   symbols   etc.),   and   socio-­‐pragmatic   and   (inter)cultural   competences  are   connected   to   the  performance   in   communicative  events.  balboni  maintains   that  if  this  multidimensional  perspective  on  the  aims  of  language  education,  which  is  derived  from  all  of  the   sciences  he  listed  in  chapter  3,  is  true,  then  the  educational  linguist  should  help  design  a  language  curriculum   that  trains  learners  in  all  these  competences  and  performance  instances,  namely  communicative  events.  the   remainder   of   the   chapter   provides   readers   with   copious   and   well-­‐organized   practical   examples   of   these   dimensions  of  language  education. chapters  6,  7,  and  8  analyze  the  connections  between  language  education  and  more  general  semiotic   education,   literary   education,   and   the   training   in   languages   for   specific   purposes,   respectively.   balboni   had   already   clarified   the   privileged   status   of   verbal   languages   because   of   their   capability   to   be   used   as   meta-­‐ languages   in   any   field   of   knowledge.   in   chapter   6,   he   details   this   primacy   by   showing   how   the   study   of   semiotic  codes  is  enriched  by  notions  of  text,  coherence,  cohesion,  and  the  generative  power  of  combination   of  a  short   list  of  smaller  units,   in  the  same  way  that  verbal   languages  are  generated  from  single  sounds  and   graphical  signs.  balboni  explicitly  justifies  chapter  7’s  focus  on  the  connection  between  literary  education  and   language  education:     literature—above  all  if  the  traditional  canon  is  widened  to  include  operas,  songs  and  films  as  forms   of  poetry  and  drama—is   fundamental   to  achieve  a  person's  self-­‐actualization  which   is   the   final  and   the  highest  aim  of  education,  including  language  education.  (pp.  115–116)     it  is  not  clear  how  wide  the  extension  of  the  traditional  canon  is  in  balboni's  idea:  did  he  mean  to  also  include   graphic  novels,  speeches,  tv  series,  comics,  the  performance  of  standing  comedians,  newspaper  articles  and   cartoons,  or  even  printed  or  audio-­‐visual  advertisements?  the  way  literacy  studies  are  continuing  to  question   and   stretch   the   concept   of   the   literary   canon   seems   to   be   welcomed   by   balboni,   who   mentions   not-­‐so-­‐ common   examples   of   literary   texts,   such   as   songs   and   music   video   clips,   and   provocatively   distinguishes   between  literature  with  capital  l,  and  literature.  the  chapter  discusses  when,  how,  and  what  literary  texts  are   to  be  included  in  both  native  and  non-­‐native  language  education.  the  focus  on  languages  for  specific  (special)   purposes   (lsp)   in   chapter   7   reaffirms   the   comprehensive   role   of   language   education   in   any   schooling   and   training  system.  the  specificities  of  the  language  used  to  deal  with  any  type  of  discipline,  whether  scientific,   technological,  humanistic,  or  even  vocational  should  be  of  major  importance  to  the  educational  linguist  and  to   the  teacher  of  the   language  of   instruction,  whether   it   is  native  or  non-­‐native  to  the   learners.  very  often   it   is   taken  for  granted  that  the  linguistic  competence,  understood  broadly,  that  is  acquired  in  the  general  language   curriculum  will  be  sufficient   for   learners  to  talk  about  the  other  disciplines  studied  at  school  and  that  their   teachers  will  cope  with  language  issues.  however,  balboni  points  out  that  language  teachers  do  not  consider   themselves  prepared  to   tackle   issues   in  subject  disciplines   they  have  not  been   trained   in.  he  also   indirectly   suggests  that  the  professors  of  those  subject  disciplines  might  not  have  the  meta-­‐linguistic  tools  to  tackle  the   language  of  their  disciplines  beyond  definitions  of  single  terms  in  their  own  native  language  let  alone  in  a  clil   context  with  a   language  that   is  an  l2  to  them.  after  concisely  describing  the  main  features  of  lsps,  balboni   suggests  what  language  teachers  should  be  able  to  train  their  students  to  do  when  using  language  to  study  a   different  discipline. balboni's   quest   for   a   general   theoretical   framework   which   is   culture-­‐independent   and   possibly   universal  should  not  be   interpreted  as  wishful,  naive  thinking.  on  the  contrary,   it  must  have  been  driven  by   the   fear   of   the   senior   scholar   that   the   fragmentariness   of   a   plethora   of   situated   studies   might   hinder   the   possibility  of  a  more  organized  and  structured  approach  to  educational  linguistics  and  might  threaten  its  very   review:  a  theoretical  framework  for  language  education  and  teaching   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  116-­‐119 119   nature   as   a   field   of   investigation.   throughout   the   book,   balboni   makes   it   clear   that   the   way   syllabi   are   designed   and   implemented  must   necessarily   vary   according   to   culture   as  well   as   according   to   the   specific   group  being  trained.  he  also  points  out  that  differences  can  also  be  determined  at  the   individual   level.  only   one  example  will  suffice  to  show  this  awareness  and  the  way  balboni  means  to  comprise  it  in  his  theoretical   framework.  in  the  first  flowchart  in  which  he  presents  the  if...  then...  procedure,  he  writes:     if   the   approach   level   points   out   that   each   person   is   unique   as   far   as   aptitude,   types   of   intelligence,  cognitive  and  learning  style,  etc.  are  concerned,  and  they  have  the  right  to  have   their  peculiar   features  respected;  then  the  method  level  must  provide  curricula,  syllabi  and   course   organisation   models,   etc.   that   make   for   individual   characteristics   to   be   respected;   then  the  action  level  must  provide  a  catalogue  of  activities  that  help  all  students  activate  their   faculty  of  language,  not  only  the  holistic  or  the  analytical  ones,  not  just  the  introverted  or  the   extroverted  ones.  (p.  60,  emphasis  due  to  the  re-­‐presentation  of  balboni’s  original  flowchart   as  linear  text)   balboni  also  touches  on  the  way  the  concrete  implementation  of  the  language  curriculum  is  affected   by  teachers’  diversity,  considering  the  way  their  curiosity  and  personal  proclivities  may  play  a  role  when  they   cope  with  literary  texts  or  lsps.  and,  finally,  he  is  also  aware  that  “each  school  system  has  its  own  traditions   and   beliefs   about   what   a   non-­‐native   language   syllabus   is   and   about   what   to   include   in   a   course   so   that   students  are  ready  to  face  national  exams”  (p.  99).   nonetheless,  balboni's  idea  of  a  universal  and  culture-­‐independent  theoretical  framework  shows  one   way   it   should   be  according   to   the   scientific   evidence   used   and   generated   by   educational   linguistics.   in   this   sense,  his   framework  can  work  as  a   sort  of  benchmark  against  which  every  single,   specific   choice,  whether   strategical  or  tactical,  can  be  contrasted  to  prompt  the  decision  maker  to  justify  diverging  solutions.  for  this   reason,   this   volume  can  be  of   some  help   for   the  young   scholar  who   is   approaching   the   field  of   educational   linguistics.   at   the   same   time,   it   can   serve   as   a   valuable   resource   for   more   experienced   scholars,   who   can   consult   it   as   a   checklist   to   verify   whether   their   research   has   taken   into   proper   consideration   all   the   dimensions  of  the  process  of  language  education.       references   morin,  edgar  (1990).  introduction  à  la  pensée  complexe.  (introduction  to  complex  thinking).  esf  éditeur.       sergio pizziconi, università per stranieri di siena sergio.pizziconi@unistrasi.it en sergio pizziconi has an italian doctorate in linguistics and in teaching italian as a foreign language and an american ph.d. in english with an emphasis in applied linguistics. he has taught courses in linguistics and composition in both italian and american universities. he currently works as researcher and professor of english language and translation at the university for foreigners of siena. his research interests are in cognitive linguistics, languages for specific purposes, and first/second language acquisition and teaching es sergio pizziconi tiene un doctorado en italia en lingüística y enseñanza del italiano como lengua extranjera y otro doctorado en estados unidos en inglés con énfasis en lingüística aplicada. ha impartido cursos de lingüística y composición en universidades italianas y estadounidenses. actualmente trabaja como investigador y profesor de lengua y traducción de inglés en la universidad para extranjeros de siena. sus líneas de investigación se centran en la lingüística cognitiva, lenguas con fines específicos y adquisición y enseñanza de l1 y l2. it sergio pizziconi ha conseguito un dottorato di ricerca in italia in linguistica e didattica dell’italiano a stranieri e un ph.d. negli stati uniti in inglese con enfasi in linguistica applicata. ha insegnato discipline linguistiche e composizione in università italiane e americane. attualmente, è ricercatore a td tipo a di lingua e traduzione inglese presso l'università per stranieri di siena. i suoi interessi di ricerca sono in linguistica cognitiva, lingue per scopi specifici, e acquisizione e insegnamento di l1 e l2. microsoft word gigilioni & patat_7.2.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  7,  issue  2,  october  2020,  51–69   issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.12.206   www.e-­‐journall.org       © giglioni 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       pedagogical  implications  of  teaching  codes  of  ethics  at  tertiary  level:     an  italian  case  study         cinzia  giglioni   sapienza università di roma        ellen  patat   università  degli  studi  di  milano  and  università  degli  studi  di  milano  bicocca           received  15  january  2020;  accepted  after  revisions  18  september  2020   abstract en the study investigates the use of codes of ethics in teaching english as a foreign language (efl) to students enrolled in a firstlevel master’s course in marketing management in an italian public university. according to bhatia (2002), genre-specific documents such as codes of ethics have the potential to “sensitise and prepare students to meet the communicative demands of disciplinary communication” (p. 13). within the theoretical framework of genre analysis and its possible implications for language teaching, this paper focuses on learners’ perceptions and achievements in efl learning using corporate codes of ethics, presented to students both theoretically and on a practical level. a pre-questionnaire, preand post-test, and abridged post-treatment questionnaire were used to collect data. the goal of the five-week study was to demonstrate that genre pedagogy caters to learners’ needs, raises rhetorical and genre awareness, and fosters language awareness at a micro-textual, lexico-syntactical level. key words:  codes of ethics, language teaching, english for specific purposes, genre-based instruction es este estudio es investiga el uso de los códigos de ética en la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera (le) a los alumnos de un máster en mercadotecnia en una universidad pública italiana. se espera que los códigos revelen su potencial de “sensibilizar y preparar a los alumnos a fin de poder estar a las alturas de las exigencias comunicativas en comunicación disciplinaria” (bhatia, 2002, p.13 [traducción nuestra]). dentro del marco teórico del análisis de género y sus posibles implicaciones para la enseñanza de idiomas, este trabajo se enfoca en las percepciones y resultados de los estudiantes de inglés le, a quienes se les han presentado códigos de ética empresarial desde un punto de vista tanto teórico como práctico. para obtener los datos, se han utilizado una encuesta antes del tratamiento, una prueba tanto antes como después y una versión reducida de la encuesta post tratamiento. el objetivo de este estudio de cinco semanas es demostrar que la pedagogía de los géneros se vincula con las necesidades de los principiantes, porque, por un lado, solicita su conocimiento retórico y de género, y, por otro, favorece, a nivel microtextual, su conocimiento del léxico y de la sintaxis de la lengua extranjera. palabras claves: códigos de ética, didáctica de idiomas, inglés especialístico, enseñanza basada en el género it questo studio indaga l’uso dei codici etici nell’insegnamento dell’inglese come lingua straniera (ls) a studenti di un master in marketing management di un’università pubblica italiana. ci si aspetta che i codici rivelino la loro potenzialità nel “sensibilizzare e preparare gli studenti a soddisfare i bisogni comunicativi della comunicazione di una data disciplina” (bhatia, 2002, p. 13 [traduzione nostra]). avendo come quadro teorico di riferimento l’analisi del genere e le sue possibili implicazioni nella didattica delle lingue, il presente studio si focalizza sulle percezioni e i risultati di studenti di inglese ls, ai quali vengono presentati i codici etici aziendali da un punto di vista sia teorico sia pratico. per raccogliere i dati sono stati impiegati un questionario preliminare, un pre-test, un posttest e un questionario ridotto finale. questo studio, durato cinque settimane, si è proposto di dimostrare che la pedagogia dei generi testuali va incontro ai bisogni dei discenti, perché, da una parte, sollecita la loro consapevolezza retorica e dei generi testuali, dall’altra favorisce, a livello microtestuale, la loro consapevolezza del lessico e della sintassi della lingua straniera. parole chiave: codici etici, didattica delle lingue, inglese per scopi specifici, insegnamento basato sui generi testuali *  cinzia  giglioni,  sapienza  università  di  roma                     cinzia.giglioni@uniroma1.it http://www.e-journall.org giglioni  &  patat   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 52   1.  introduction     the  pivotal  importance  of  english  in  the  field  of  international  business  is  evident,  thus  the  relevance   of  developing  business  communication  skills   in  english   to  prepare  speakers  of  other   languages   for  a   future   professional   environment   seems   unquestionable.   enhancing   learners’   communicative   competence   implies   concentrating  not  only  on  grammar  but  also   the  sociolinguistic  and  pragmatic  aspects  of   language   (hymes,   1971),   while   focusing   on   sociocultural   and   discourse   rules   (canale   &   swain,   1980).   hence,   a   pedagogical   approach   based   on   an   authentic   learning   environment   (oliver,   herrington,   &   reeves,   2006;   herrington,   reeves,   &   oliver,   2014)   and   authentic   materials   (gilmore,   2007;   peacock,   1997;   ruiz-­‐garrido   &   palmer-­‐ silveira,  2017)  is  particularly  advisable  in  an  english  for  specific  purposes  (esp)  class.  within  this  framework,   with  reference  to  companies’  social  engagement  and  public  image  (andrade,  hamza,  &  xara-­‐brasil,  2017),  the   study  of  codes  of  ethics  (coes)  seems  to  meet  the  need  to  focus  on  corporate  discourse  at  a  tertiary  level  to   build  students’  competitive  profiles.       coes  are  corporate  documents  that  have  become  “one  of  the  most  common  tools  of  implementation   of  ethical  principles  into  business  practice”  (krč,  2015,  p.  2).  they  could,  therefore,  be  considered  useful  tools   in   fostering   language   awareness   and   proper   vocabulary   use,   which   will   ultimately   contribute   to   the   enhancement  of  learners’  communication  skills.  based  on  the  classic  definition  of  genre  proposed  by  swales   (1990),  whereby  “the  principal  criterial  feature  that  turns  a  collection  of  communicative  events  into  a  genre  is   some   shared   set   of   communicative   purposes”   (p.   46),   emphasizing   the   establishment   of   discourse   communities   and   prototypicality   (pp.   49–58),   it   would   be   safe   to   claim   that   coes   represent   a   specific   corporate  genre.  at  this  point,  some  preliminary  remarks  about  coes  should  be  made.  coes  are:     specialized   texts   addressed   to   insiders   but,   like   other   corporate   documents   (i.e.   annual   reports),   expected  to  also  be  read  by  external  stakeholders   available   and   easily   downloadable   from   companies’   websites   (and   can   potentially   reach   a   huge   audience)   examples  of  specialized  discourse   written  to  guide  behavior  (content-­‐wise)   a  relatively  new  genre  in  linguistic  research   a  new  genre  in  pedagogical  research;  at  the  time  of  the  present  study,  no  research  on  their  potential   use  in  esp  courses  is  to  be  found  in  italy.     in   the  present   case   study,   the   focus   is  on   the   field  of  esp,   in  particular  on  genre-­‐based   instruction   (gbi),  where  the  codes  and  their  authenticity  become  an  asset  in  language  teaching.  they  present  a  twofold   advantage,   providing   exposure   to   real   language   use,   and,   in   terms   of   content,   offering   the   opportunity   to   explore  both  the  corporate  values  and  principles  that  regulate  institutions  in  which  members  engage  in  social   and  business  relations.      this  study   is  grounded  on  two  beliefs:  the   first   is   that  students  can  substantially  contribute   to   the   development  of  teaching  tools  and  practices  alike  by  actively  participating  and  working  on  the  sources  used   during  the  esp  lesson;  the  second  is  that  a  genre  approach  could  be  considered  a  useful  method  in  teaching   students   to   understand   and   reflect   on   why   genre   conventions   are   specified   and   needed   in   corporate   environments.  this  study  thus  follows  hyland’s  belief  that  “genre  pedagogies  enable  teachers  to  ground  their   courses  in  the  texts  that  students  will  have  to  work  with  in  their  target  contexts,  thereby  supporting  learners   to   participate   effectively   in   the   world   outside   the   esl   classroom”   (hyland,   2017,   p.   148).   the   study   will   present  insights  resulting  from  the  use  of  coes  in  teaching  business  english  to  a  group  of  non-­‐native  speakers   of  english  enrolled   in  a  one-­‐year  master  program  in  marketing  management  at  a  public  university   in  milan   (italy)  in  the  academic  year  2019-­‐2020.  although  italy  is  one  of  the  few  countries  that  requires  its  students  to   have   reached   at   least   a   b2   level   at   the   end   of   upper   secondary   education   (european   commission/eacea/eurydice,   2017),   most   graduates   don’t   comply   with   this   requirement   and   newly   recruited   workers   typically   encounter   difficulties   to   accomplish   english-­‐related   activities.   the   study   therefore  aimed  to  evaluate  the  didactic  impact  of  using  coes,  a  genre  that  is  new  to  the  italian  domain  of  esp,   by  discussing  two  main  hypotheses  related  to  one  research  question:       rq:  what   is   the   impact  of  using  coes  written   in  english   in  a  business  english  course   for  l1   italian   speaking  learners  of  english  as  a  foreign  language?   teaching  codes  of  ethics   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 53   hp.   1:   generating   awareness   of   coes’   main   features   is   functional   in   the   enhancement   of   students’  linguistic  competence.     hp.  2:  coes  assist  in  developing  business-­‐related  communicative  competence.       2.  theoretical  framework   in  the  context  of  language  teaching  and  learning,  a  growing  interest  in  genre  theory  and  its  possible   pedagogical  application  has  attracted  growing  attention  in  the  last  two  decades.  although  definitions  of  genre   vary,   a   rather   intuitive   notion   of   genre   derives   from   the   idea   that   discourse   involves   conventional   use   of   stable   utterance   groups,  which   follow   recognizable   patterns   that   suit   the   accomplishment   of   certain   social   goals  (cap  &  okulska,  2013).  this  notion  prompted  both  scholars  and  educators  toward  the  introduction  of   genre-­‐based   instruction   (gbi)   as   an   esl   solution   to   speed   up   the   mastery   of   english   language-­‐related   activities.  genre  pedagogies   can  meet   students’   needs   in   a  way   that   general  english   instruction,  which   can   focus  on  “abstract  prescriptions  of  disembodied  grammars”  (hyland,  2007,  p.  148),  may  not.      on   the  one  hand,  defining  a  genre  may  be  a   theoretical  minefield:  what  components  or  stages  are   essential?  what   is   their   order   and   how   does   it   change   across   different   discourse   domains?  what   are   the   conventional   characteristics   that   typify   a   given   genre?  whose   recognition   counts   the  most   in   identifying   a   genre   (the   communicator’s   or   the   analyst’s)?   on   the   other   hand,   gbi   is   attractive   in   terms   of   benefits   for   students  when/if  general  english  instruction  fails.  in  genre  classes,  language  awareness  means  moving  away   from   vague   descriptors   such   as   adequate   knowledge   of   grammar/syntax/vocabulary   and   towards   understanding   how   language  works   in   human   interaction,  with   special   attention   to   the   texts   students  will   need  to  use  in  a  particular  target  context.   within   the   present   framework,   we   define   genre   as   “abstract,   socially   recognized   ways   of   using   language”  (hyland,  2007,  p.  149),  or,  more  comprehensively,  “a  type  of  discourse  that  occurs  in  a  particular   setting,  that  has  distinctive  and  recognizable  patterns  and  norms  of  organization  and  structure,  and  that  has   particular   and   distinctive   communicative   functions”   (richards   &   schmidt,   2010,   p.   245).   furthermore,   it   could  be   seen  as   the   “functional   relationship  between  a   type  of   text   and  a   type  of   situation”   (coe,  2002,  p.   197)   or   as   “rhetorical   actions   that  writers   draw   on   to   respond   to   perceived   repeated   situations”   (hyland,   2003b,  p.  22).  concisely,   these   last   two  definitions  emphasize  a   fundamental  aspect:  the  correlation  of   the   written  production  to  situational  instances.     the  popularity  of  genre-­‐based  instruction  (gbi)  may  be  traced  back  to  the  1980s  following  criticism   of  product-­‐based  and  process-­‐based  approaches  to  language  teaching.  in  the  1990s,  not  only  did  genre-­‐based   analysis   (gba)   respond   to   the   limitations   presented   by   the   process   approach   (ahn,   2012;   feez,   2002;   paltridge,   2007),   but   it   was   also   later   combined   in   a   resultant   process-­‐genre   approach   (assaggaf,   2016;   babalola,  2012;  badger  &  white,  2000;  ghufron,  2016).   increasing  attention  was  devoted   to   the  concept  of   gba   in   language   teaching   and   learning   (ahn,   2012;   chandler,   1997;   hyland,   2007;   swales,   1990)   as   it   emphasizes  both  the  linguistic  knowledge  and  the  social  context  of  a  text.     among  major  approaches  to  gbi—esp  (english  for  specific  purposes)  and  eap  (english  for  academic   purposes),   sfl   (systemic   functional   linguistics)   (hyland,   2003b),   and   rgs   (rhetorical   genre   studies)   (ahn,   2012;   artemeva,   2004;   johns,   2008)—esp   concentrates   on   identifying   the   key   features   of   genres   that   are   employed   in  both  academic  and  professional   settings   (ahn,  2012,  p.  3).  according   to  bhatia   (2002),   genre-­‐ based  analysis  in  esp  means:   investigating   instances   of   conventionalized   or   institutionalized   textual   artefacts   in   the   context  of  specific  institutional  and  disciplinary  practices,  procedures  and  cultures  in  order   to  understand  how  members  of  specific  discourse  communities  construct,  interpret  and  use   these  genres  to  achieve  their  community  goals  and  why  they  write  them  the  way  they  do.  (p.   6)       as   the   development   of   professional,   institutional   and   critical   literacies   highly   relies   on   cultivating   reflective  knowledge  approaches  (alessi,  2016,  p.  61),  it  is  believed  that  once  the  recurring  features  of  a  genre   are   presented,   learners  will   be   able   to   display   greater   awareness   towards   the   language   and   produce   their   own  examples.   in  gbi,   students  are  provided  with  explicit  explanations   in  social  context   (hyland,  2003b,  p.  18)  so   that  they  can  find  the  recurring  structure  by  themselves  (ahn,  2012).  they  are  then  to  analyze  texts  in  their   contexts,  “exploring  the  ‘natural  history’  of  written  communication  in  their  ecosystem”  (breeze,  2012,  p.  69).   giglioni  &  patat   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 54   combining   the   linguistic   (bottom-­‐up)   and   the   social   context   (top-­‐down)   approaches   (breeze,   2012)   could   support   students’   knowledge   of   the   linguistic   traits   that   are   used   in   specific   contexts   such   as   corporate   writing.  few  studies  have  explored  genre-­‐based  pedagogy  at  an  undergraduate  level,  instead  focusing  either   on   ethnographic   research   (johns,   1997,   2007)   or   developing   writing   competencies   for   l2   primary   school   students   (ahn,   2012).  however,   the   genre-­‐based   approach   is   popular   in   business   and   legal   english,  where   scholars   concentrated   on   increasing   students’   awareness   of   organizing   information   in   writing   (paltridge,   2001),  of  linguistic  characteristics  (freedman,  1999),  of  lexico-­‐grammatical  features  and  generic  structures  of   a  discussion  genre   essay   (nagao,   2019),   of   the   reader-­‐writer   relationship,   and  of   learners’  writing   abilities   (feez,  2002;  viriya  &  wasanasomsithi,  2017).   in   italy,  scholars  have  recently  examined  genre  or  discourse-­‐ informed   esp   language   awareness   components   in   course   content   in   14   italian   universities   through   a   questionnaire  distributed  to  25  academics  (alessi,  2016);  others  focused  on  italian-­‐english  language  crossing   in  tourism  discourse  by  analyzing  a  small  corpus  of  english  tourist  texts  about  italy  (cappelli,  2013).   due  to  the  fast-­‐paced  and,  quite  often,  highly  specialized  communication  in  an  international  setting,   esp   learners   need   to   be   knowledgeable   in   business   discourse.   thus,   analyzing   authentic  material,   namely   material   that   “is   produced   by   companies   for   use   by   their   employees,   for   client   information,   or   for   general   publicity”   (ellis   &   johnson,   1994,   p.   157),   has   a   fundamental   role   in   teaching   business   english.   company-­‐ specific  materials  may  include  annual  reports,  product   information,  newsletters  and  magazines  or  other  pr   material,  company  videos,  correspondence,  reports  and  memos,  minutes  of  meetings,  contracts,  manuals,  and   written  instructions  (ellis  &  johnson,  1994;  sampath  &  zalipour,  2010).  this  study  focuses  on  codes  of  ethics.     2.1  codes  of  ethics:  a  genre  in  corporate  communication       a   coe   could   be   considered   a   guideline   designed   to   establish   a   principled   corporate   environment,   ultimately  fostering  ethically  correct  behavior  and  practices.  the  adoption  of  coes  supports  the  creation  of  a   “moral   community”   where   employees   “as   the   members   of   a   profession   are   bound   together   by   common   aspirations,  values,  and  training”  (frankel,  1989,  p.  110).  previous  steps  of  the  research  that  were  carried  out   by   one   of   the   authors   of   this   paper   (giglioni,   2020),   showed   that   italian   coes   tend   to   follow   a   legalistic   tradition,  as  they  are  bound  by  the  terms  of  legislative  decree  n.231/2001  (gazzetta  ufficiale,  2001),  which   introduced  the  concept  of  the  liability  of  institutions.  this  concept  is  quite  opaque  in  the  anglo-­‐saxon  world,   where  commitment-­‐oriented  codes  are  prevalently  used   instead.  as  underlined  by  giglioni   (2019),   the   two   previously   defined   types   of   codes—i.e.   legalistic   and   commitment-­‐oriented   (catenaccio   &   garzone,   2017;   frankel,  1989)—entailed  some  recurring   traits  at  both  macro  and  micro-­‐textual   levels.  as   to  macro-­‐textual   level,  the  legalistic,  small-­‐sized  codes  generally  display  lists,  definitions,  and  a  contract-­‐style  layout,  and  they   do  not   resort   to  visuals,  whereas   in   large-­‐sized,   commitment-­‐oriented  codes,   it   is  possible   to   find,   together   with  the  ceo’s  message,  comprehension  aids,  ad  hoc  titles,  and  visuals.  with  reference  to  the  micro-­‐textual   level,   on   the   one   hand,   legalistic   codes   present   formal   words,   phraseological   units,   attempts   at   extreme   precision,   the  overuse  of   shall,   and  nominalization;  on   the  other  hand,   commitment-­‐oriented   codes   include   the  use  of  short  sentences,  a  more  personal  style  (e.g.  first-­‐person  plural  pronoun),  simple  and  clear  lexicon,   and   figurative   language.   the   rationale   upon   which   this   paper   is   based   is   that   students   can   be   taught   to   identify  the  typical  traits  of  the  two  code  types,  thus  reaching  a  twofold  objective:  enhancing  foreign  language   awareness  and  learning  specific  contents.   in   the   study  of  coes,  previous   research  mainly   focused  on  socio-­‐psychology   (fairfax,  2007);   cross-­‐ cultural  studies   (langlois  &  schlegelmilch,  1990;  singh  et  al.,  2005;  wood,  2000);   the  relationship  between   codes  and  perceptions  of  ethical  behavior   (adams,  tashcian,  &  stone  2001;  pierce  &  henry,  1996;  somers,   2001);  perceptions  of  code  users  (kaptein,  2011);  linguistic  data  (chua,  2015;  farrell  &  farrell,  1998;  holder-­‐ webber   &   cohen,   2012;   long   &   driscoll,   2008;   pollach,   2003);   content   description,   overlapping,   and   effectiveness  (farrell  &  cobbin,  2000;  holder-­‐webb  &  cohen,  2012;  krippendorff,  2013;  stevens,  2008;  singh,   201;  wood  &  rimmer,  2003);  and  comparative  content  analysis  of  corporate  coes  (andrade,  hamza,  &  xara-­‐ brasil,  2017)   to  mention  some.  however,  a   lack  of  studies  on   the  pedagogical   implications  of  using  coes   in   esp   courses   is   to   be   noted.   if   compared   to   other   corporate   documents,   such   as   annual   reports,   memos,   minutes   of   meetings,   etc.,   coes   provide   narratives   that   could   contribute   to   learners’   understanding   of   corporate  dynamics  from  an  ethical  point  of  view,  thus,  shaping  their  future  behaviors  in  and  approaches  to   their   companies.   the   exposure   to   authentic   language   and   genre   can   be   valuable   for   the   students   as   it   can   empower  them  to  manipulate  and  work  with  professionally  useful  information.  at  the  same  time,  it  can  foster   teaching  codes  of  ethics   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 55   foreign  language  acquisition  through  “an  explicit  understanding  on  how  target  texts  are  structured  and  why   they  are  written  the  way  they  are”  (hyland,  2007,  p.  151).     3.  methodology   3.1.  research  design   the  setting  of  the  present  study  is  a  public,  italian-­‐medium  university  in  milan,  italy,  where  students   have  the  opportunity  to  attend  a  first-­‐level  master  program  (60  cfu)  comprehensive  of  an  80-­‐hour  business   english  course.  the  course  is  designed  to  familiarize  students  with  various  aspects  of  business-­‐related  topics.   the  syllabus,  which  was  developed  by  one  of  the  researchers  and  taught  by  the  other  researcher,  follows  the   classic   subdivision   in   foreign   language   teaching   based   on   the   four   macro   skills,   in   accordance   with   the   european  common  framework  b1-­‐b2   levels.  based  on   their  prior   language   level,  which  was  assessed  with   one-­‐to-­‐one  interviews  at  the  beginning  of  the  course,  students  were  divided  into  two  groups:  14  in  group  a   (b1  ecf)  and  10  in  group  b  (b2  ecf)  (see  3.1.1).       in  order  to  ensure  its  validity,  multiple  methods  were  used  in  this  study,  where  a  quasi-­‐experimental   framework  was  followed.  the  study  is  “an  empirical  inquiry  that  investigates  a  contemporary  phenomenon  in   depth  and  within   its  real-­‐world  context,  especially  when  the  boundaries  between  phenomenon  and  context   may  not  be  clearly  evident”  (yin,  2014,  p.  16).  the  study,  which  extended  over  a  period  of  time  of  five  weeks,   started  by  asking  the  participants  if  they  wanted  to  take  part  in  it  anonymously,  then  asked  them  to  fill  in  a   pre-­‐questionnaire   (see   4.1)   and   complete   a   pre-­‐test.   anonymity   was   ensured   by   eliminating   all   direct   identifiers   (name,   surname,   id   number)   and   instead   referring   to   students   as   s1,   s2,   etc.   one   student  was   responsible  for  collecting  all  electronically  submitted  questionnaires  and  collectively  sending  them  to  one  of   the  researchers.   after  a   four-­‐hour  session  consisting  of   teaching  functions  and  the  textual  organization  of  corporate   codes   of   ethics   and   following   a   set   of   exercises   (see   table   1)   assigned   in   self-­‐study,   a   post-­‐test   and   an   abridged   questionnaire   in   the   students’   native   language   were   employed.   building   on   ellis   and   johnson’s   (1994)   suggestions   on   how   to   use   company  material   in   teaching   business   english,   several   activities   were   designed  for  the  present  course  and,  in  particular,  the  four  hour  session.  adapting  the  charts  created  by  ellis   and   johnson   (1994,   pp.   157–167)   for   other   types   of   corporate   documents   (e.g.   annual   reports,   contracts,   correspondence,   reports   and   memos,   minutes   of   meetings),   table   1   presents   the   skills,   language,   and   activities   that   were   taken   into   account   to   devise   the  material   for   the   lessons   and   the   activities   that   were   distributed  among  the  students  both  in  class  and  during  the  self-­‐study  sessions.       table 1 language activities using codes of ethics in a business english class skills language activities reading coes (scanning and detail reading) vocabulary jigsaw reading listening comparing / contrasting info transfer information exchange formality: passive form, nominalization, phraseological units, modal ‘shall’ comparing written / oral language use understanding coes company’s philosophy, values, principles explain: summarize, paraphrase making presentations presenting information   considering   that   genres   could   affect   students’   learning,   whether   they   are   taught   explicitly   or   not   (devitt,   2009),   and   that   any   genre   pedagogy  must   use   some  particular   genre,   at   least   as   examples   (devitt,   2009),   in-­‐class   activities   concentrated   on   raising   and   gauging   students’   awareness.   pre-­‐reading   exercises,   which  involved  skimming  and  scanning  two  coes,  each  representative  of  one  type  of  coes,  focused  on  coes’   potential   target   audience,   authors,   and   context   of   release.   small   sections   of   the   texts   were   then   analyzed   concentrating  on  grammatical,  lexical,  and  semantical  features.  jigsaw  reading  of  selected  sections  of  the  two   codes   allowed   students   to   work   on   their   speaking,   paraphrasing,   and   summarizing   skills.   students   were   particularly   keen   on   extensively   discussing   ethical   principles   and   evaluating   the   norms,   comparing   and   contrasting   them   with   their   previous   personal   experiences.   the   researchers   then   selected   two   new   (to   giglioni  &  patat   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 56   students)   coes.   a   new   set   of   exercises,   which   were   assigned   in   the   two-­‐hour   session   of   self-­‐study,   were   modelled  on  the  activities  carried  out  in  class.       3.1.1.  participants   participants  of  this  study  included  24  students  aged  22-­‐281  (11  males  and  13  females)  enrolled  in  a   first   level,  one-­‐year  master  program  in  marketing  management   in  a  public  university   in  milan  (italy)   in   the   academic   year  2019-­‐2020.  most   of   the   students  were   italian  native   speakers   (91.6%,  n=22)   and   two  were   bilingual   (italian   being   one   of   the   languages   together  with   us   english   or   dutch).   all   participants   reported   having  previous  knowledge  of  english  at  varying  levels,  generally  ranging  between  an  a2  and  a  b2  level  (ecf)   according  to  their  self-­‐evaluations2.  almost  half  (41.6%,  n=10)  of  the  students  had  spent  some  time  (from  a   minimum   of   2  weeks   to   a  maximum   of   1   year)   in   an   english-­‐speaking   country,   either   on   a   study   holiday   abroad   or   for   a   temporary   job.   the   majority   had   also   studied   one   or   more   foreign   languages:   spanish,   german,   french,   russian,   and   chinese3.   students   held   a   previous   degree   in   the   fields   of   communication   (29.1%,  n=7),  management   (25%,  n=6),  marketing   (20.8%,  n=5),   foreign   languages  and  economics   (12.5%,   n=3),  tourism  (4.16%,  n=1),  and  psychology  (4.16%,  n=1).       3.1.2.  data  collection,  instruments,  and  data  analysis     the  data  for  this  study  was  collected  through:  1)  a  pre-­‐questionnaire  designed  to  evaluate  students’   general  knowledge  of  coes  that  was  electronically  administered  (via  email)  in  class  (response  rate  100%);  2)   a  pre-­‐test  to  assess  students’  critical  thinking  skills  and  linguistic  competence,  3)  and  a  post-­‐test  to  evaluate   post-­‐treatment   knowledge   in   analyzing   a   coe;   4)   an   abridged   post-­‐questionnaire.   the   questionnaire,   developed   according   to  kothari’s   (2004)   guidelines,   consisted  of   10  open-­‐ended  questions   in   the   students’   native  language  (italian).     as  no  studies  of  this  kind  were  found  in  the  relevant  literature,  the  pre-­‐test  was  developed  following   previous  research  by  one  of  the  authors  of  this  paper  which  focused  on  the  distinctive  features  of  coes  at  both   macro   and   micro-­‐textual   level   (giglioni,   2019).   the   framework   for   the   study   is   experimental   and   has   its   foundations  in  the  idea  of  testing  findings  in  class  (the  second  author  was  the  students’  instructor).  the  post-­‐ test  involved  a  re-­‐analysis  of  data  after  the  treatment.   in   agreement   with   the   reflections   provided   by   nyumba,   derrik,   and   mukherjee   (2018)   on   the   weakness   of   focus   group   discussions   and   semi-­‐structured   interviews,   an   abridged   questionnaire   in   the   students’  native  language  was  then  opted  for  and  submitted  at  the  end  of  the  five-­‐week  period.  the  questions   mainly  focused  on  participants’  perceptions  on  the  use  of  coes  in  the  esp  course.   a  quantitative  analysis  was  conducted  on  the  data  collected  from  the  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐tests.  due  to  the   small   sample   of   the   experimental   group,   the   compare   mean   and   proportion   measurements   were   implemented.  as  to  questionnaires,  quantitative  and  qualitative  approaches  were  used.  response  categories   were  identified  by  using  a  text  analyzer  and  by  further  scanning  the  alphabetically  sorted  responses.  positive   individual  responses  were  then  subjected  to  quantitative  analysis.       4.  findings   4.1.  questionnaires     ten  open-­‐ended  questions  (see  appendix  a)  were  addressed  to  the  24  participants.  to  guarantee  a   degree  of  certain  conformity,  it  was  decided  to  ask  the  questions  and  allow  students  to  answer  in  italian,  their   native   language,   so   they  could  be  more  effective   in  communicating   their   ideas.  the  questionnaire  was  sent   electronically   to   the   students   and   sent   back   to   one   of   the   researchers   upon   its   completion   (the  maximum   allocated  time  was  15  minutes).     the  first  question  (q1)  to  which  the  participants  were  asked  to  respond  explored  their  knowledge  of   coes.  while  12.5%  (n=3)  of  the  students  claimed  to  ignore  the  definition  of  coe,  the  vast  majority  provided   its  meaning   by   using   the  words   insieme   (“set”   in   english:   23%)   and   regole   (“rules”:   28%)  or   its   synonyms                                                                                                                             1  22  -­‐  12.5%  (n=3);  23  -­‐  41.6%  (n=10);  24  -­‐  25%  (n=6);  25  -­‐  8.3%  (n=2);  26  -­‐  4.1%  (n=1);  27  -­‐  4.1%  (n=1);  28  -­‐  4.1%   (n=1).   2  after  one-­‐on-­‐one   interviews,   the   instructor  separated  the  students   into   two  groups:  14  were  considered  at  a  b1   level   and  10  at  a  b2  level.     3  spanish  79.1%  (n=19);  german  29.1%  (n=7);  french  29.1  %  (n=7);  russian  4.1%  (n=1);  chinese  4.1%  (n=1);  no  other   foreign  language  8.3%  (n=2).     teaching  codes  of  ethics   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 57   (regolamenti,   norme),   and   comportamento   (“behavior”:   19%).  when   asked   about   the   hypothetical   content   (topics)   of   coes   (q2),   the  most   recurring  words  were   rispetto   (“respect”:   occurrences   5,   frequency   2.1%),   which  was  provided  by  16%  (n=9)  of  the  respondents,  condotta  e  comportamento  (“conduct,”  “behavior”)  by   26%   and   ambiente   sociale   (“social   environment”)   by   26%.   only   7%   (n=4)   mentioned   etico   or   morale   (“ethical,”   ”moral”).   as   to   style   (q3),   42%  believed   that   a   coe  would   present   a   communicative   style,   4%  a   legalistic  style,  and  35%  both.  participants  justified  the  “communicative”  and  “both”  answers  by  emphasizing   the  link  between  the  ethical  aspect  (a  more  contract-­‐like  type  of  document)  and  its  target  audience  (a  generic   public).   some   examples   of   the   students’   answers   are   as   follow:   s1   claimed,   “i   expect   the   code   of   ethics   to   present  both  a  direct  and  legalistic  communication  style  because  i  believe  legal  support  is  fundamental;”  s2   wrote,   “although   it   is  an  official  document,   i  expect  a  direct  communication  style  as   it   is  addressed  to  each   individual.”     questions  4,  5,  6,  and  7  concentrated  on  the  writers,   the  moment  of  writing,   the  retrieval  of  codes,   and   the  reasons   for  writing  codes  of  ethics   in   the   first  place.  the  authors   (q4)  were   thought   to  be   lawyers   (25%),   the   company   itself   (14%),   administrators   (32%),   or   “other   subjects”   (11%),   including   an   expert   in   law,  sociology  or  economics,  or  a  person  who  is  not  necessarily  linked  to  the  administration.  concerning  the   moment  of   code  writing   (q5),   almost  half   of   the   students   (48%)  believed   that   the   code  was  written  at   the   moment  the  company  is  founded,  whereas  36%  responded  that  a  coe  can  be  written  when  needed.  two  such   students  claimed  that,  “an  ethical  code  is  written  when  it  is  necessary  to  codify  the  behavior  of  people  within   a  social  context  or  an  organization,”  and  “when  a  clarification  about  the  guiding  behaviors  to  be  followed  in  a   company  is  needed.”  as  to  the  reasons  for  writing  a  code  (q6),  the  majority  of  the  participants,  62%  (n=16),   claimed  that  a  coe  is  required  for  “establishing  the  rules,”  15%  (n=4)  for  “keeping  a  balance,”  8%  (n=2)  for   “making  the  code  available,”  and  12%  (n=3)  stated  that  rules  change  so  codes  are  needed.  the  retrieval  of  a   code   was   the   subject   of   question   7.   only   6%   of   the   participants   did   not   know   where   to   retrieve   such   document,  whereas  35%  assumed  it  would  be  on  a  company’s  website,  29%  in  paper  format  at  the  company,   and   26%   suggested   other   alternatives   such   as   on   the   company’s   intranet,   in   a   book   dictating   corporate   principles,  within  the  company’s  statute,  “exposed  somewhere  visible,”  or  “among  official  documents.”     question  8  aimed  at  understanding  how  familiar  participants  were  with  corporate  documents.  when   asked   about   their   knowledge   of   other   textual   genres   in   corporate   communication,   25%   declined   any   knowledge,  while  53%  provided  other  examples,  such  as   financial  statements  (10%),   reports,   journals,  and   business  plans.     as   to   the  usefulness  of  knowing  coes  (q9),   relevant  answers   focused  on  understanding  values  and   rules   (41%)  and  behaving   in  a   correct  manner  or  avoiding  mistakes   (31%).  most   importantly,  when  asked   about   the  utility   for  english   learning  of   studying  coes   (q10),  all  but   two  students   thought   that  working  on   coes  could  contribute   to   the   improvement  of   their   language   learning  process:   for  vocabulary  enhancement   (n=14),  content-­‐wise  (n=14),  or  at  syntactical  level  (n=2).  four  participants  provided  a  positive  answer,  but   did  not  justify  it,  whereas  eight  found  it  could  be  stimulating  or  could  improve  their  knowledge  of  corporate   dynamics  (table  2).     table 2 questionnaire, q10 (see appendix a) n = number of occurrences (multiple answers were evaluated separately) yes, to improve vocabulary yes, for linguistic structures yes, content wise yes (no motivation) yes, other (stimulating / corporate dynamics) not at my level number of occurrences* 14 2 4 4 8 2 *when students gave multiple answers, each was evaluated and counted separately   4.2.  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐tests     pre  and  post-­‐tests  consisted  of  the  analysis  and  re-­‐analysis  of  two  coes—selected  by  the  researchers   and   submitted   to   students—which   included   features   that   well   represented   the   difference   between   giglioni  &  patat   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 58   committed-­‐oriented   (code   v4)   and   legalistic   (code   b)   styles   at   both   macro   and   micro-­‐textual   levels   (see   appendix  b).     the  two  codes  and  a  word  file  with  instructions  for  students  and  charts  to  be  completed  were  sent   via   email   to   the   participants   and   then   sent   back   (100%   overall   response   rate)   to   one   student   who   was   responsible  for  collecting  all  the  questionnaires  and  forwarding  them  to  the  researcher  after  the  allocated  45   minutes.  besides  detecting  the  presence  of  the  features,  or  lack  of  thereof,  participants  were  asked  to  provide   at   least  one  example  for  each  feature.  this  proved  particularly  useful   to  double-­‐check  results,  especially  for   features  at  a  lexico-­‐syntactical  level.       4.2.1.  macro-­‐textual  level     table  3  shows  the  distribution  of  the  participants’  analysis  of  the  traits  of  legalistic  and  commitment-­‐ oriented  codes  at  a  macro-­‐textual  level  (appendix  b)  during  the  pre  and  post-­‐test  phases.       table 3 percentage of correctly-identified5 features in participants’ analysis of coes at a macro-textual level, preand post, by group and by code   the  lists,  definitions,  visuals,  and  ceo’s  message  were  easily  detected  in  both  codes  in  both  tests.  in   the   pre-­‐test,   50%   of   the   participants   identified   the   presence   of   comprehension   aids   in   code   v   and   their   absence  in  code  b.  however,  only  16%  (n=4)  pinpointed  a  clear  example  from  code  v.  of  those,  8.3%  (n=2)   presented   the  q&a  section  as  an  example.  only  one  participant  demonstrated  awareness  of   this   feature  by   claiming  that  comprehension  aids  are  “pages  with  few  words  to  sum  up  a  concept.”  based  on  the  post-­‐tests,   the   majority   of   the   examples   that   were   provided   were   correct,   and   few   students   (n=4)   still   had   doubts   regarding  this  trait.     the   contract-­‐style   layout   was   identified   by   91.7%   of   the   24   participants   in   code   b,   and   the   lack   thereof   in   code   v  was   identified   by   the   same   percentage.   as   far   as   the   code’s   shortness   or   lengthiness   is   concerned,  a   tendency   towards  consistency  was  demonstrated  by  most  of   the  participants;  however,   in   the   pre-­‐tests,   16.6%  presented   inconsistencies   in   their   own   answers,   and   4.2%   expressed   clear   doubts.   in   the   pre-­‐test,   62.5%   of   the   consistent   answers   considered   code   v   to   be   long   and   12.5%   considered   it   short,   whereas   54.1%   considered   code   b   short   and   20.8%   long.   in   the   post-­‐test,   the   majority   in   both   groups   considered  code  v  to  be  long  and  code  b  to  be  short.                                                                                                                               4  the  commitment-­‐oriented  code  that  was  submitted  to  students  was  vodafone  code  of  ethics  (vodafone,  2018),  while  the   legalistic   code  was  burberry   ethical   trading   code  of   conduct   (burberry,   n.d.).   both   codes  were   included   in   the   corpus   which  had  been  investigated  by  one  of  the  authors  of  this  paper  in  previous  steps  of  the  research  (giglioni,  2019).   5  “correctly-­‐identified”  =  positive  responses,  which   indicate  students’  awareness  of   the  presence  of   features.  responses   that  were  close  to  the  correct  answer  were  also  included  in  this  category.  for  instance,  in  the  case  of  comprehension  aids,   both  “q&a  section”  and  an  explanation  such  as  “pages  with  few  words  to  sum  up  a  concept”  were  evaluated  as  correct.   group a group b code v code b code v code b pre post pre post pre post pre post legalistic lists 85.7 78.6 100 100 90 88.9 100 100 definitions 92.9 78.6 78.6 71.4 100 66.7 90 100 contract-style layout 0 0 100 92.9 20 22.2 80 88.9 no visuals 0 0 100 100 0 0 100 100 short code 21.4 7.1 71.4 92.9 20 0 80 88.9 commitment-oriented ceo’s message 100 100 0 0 100 100 0 0 comprehension aids 28.6 57.1 35.7 0 80 77.8 30 0 ad hoc titles 92.9 92.9 7.1 7.1 90 88.9 50 11.1 visuals 100 100 0 0 100 100 0 0 long code 64.3 92.9 50 7.1 70 88.9 20 11.1 teaching  codes  of  ethics   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 59   91.7%  reported  the  use  of  ad  hoc  titles  in  code  v;  nevertheless,  when  it  came  to  giving  an  example,   25%  did  not  provide  any,  33.3%  gave  an  unrelated  and  thus  incorrect  example,  and  41.6%  provided  a  correct   example.  as   to   code  b,   the  majority   (70.8%)   stated   that   there  were  no   such   titles   in   the  document.   those   reporting  their  presence  either  confused  ad  hoc  titles  with  the  formal  titles  of  the  sections  or  defined  them  as   “explanation  titles.”  the  post-­‐tests  confirmed  the  same  understanding.       4.2.2.  micro-­‐textual  level     table  4  shows  the  distribution  of  the  participants’  analysis  of  the  traits  of  legalistic  and  commitment-­‐ oriented  codes  at  a  micro-­‐textual  level.     table 4 percentage of correctly-identified features in participants’ analysis of coes at a micro-textual level, preand post, by group and by code     in  the  pre-­‐tests,  formal  words  were  found  in  code  b  by  the  majority  of  the  participants  (87.5%)  but,   besides  a  generic  “use  of  professional   language,”  only  a   few  specific  examples  were  provided:  “we  comply,”   “to  uphold   in  relation   to   its  own  employees,”  and  “b.   is  committed   to  working  collaboratively.”   in   the  post-­‐ tests,  code  b  was  still  considered  (91.3%)  to  be  the  code  with  more  formal  words,  and  participant  provided   sound   examples   to   support   the   idea   (“for   instance,”   “in   accordance   with,”   “sustainable   employment,”   “requirement,”  “disproportionally,”  and  “hence”).   the   traits,   phraseological  units   and  nominalization,   received   the  highest   rates  of  not  answered   in   the   pre-­‐test,  while   they  were   supported   by   suitable   examples   in   the   post   test.   group  a   displayed   a   higher   percentage  of  not  answered  than  group  b  in  the  post-­‐tests.  while  examples  were  not  given  in  the  pre-­‐tests   even  when  an  answer  was  provided,  in  the  post-­‐tests  50%  of  the  students  in  group  b  and  28.5%  in  group  a   provided  a  correct  example.   the  trait,  overuse  of  shall,  which  is  common  in  legal  documents  to  imply  obligation,  was  considered   to   be   present   in   code   b   and   absent   in   code   v   by   the   majority   of   the   participants,   87.5%   and   83.3%,   respectively.  in  the  post-­‐test,  this  percentage  greatly  varied  in  group  a,  where  all  participants  did  not  notice   the  overuse  of  the  central  modal  verb  in  code  v,  thus  aligning  with  group  b’s  answers.     even   though   the  participants’  perceptions  may  have  differed   in   the  pre-­‐test,  an  overall   consistency   was  shown  when  it  came  to  the  use  of  short  and  long  sentences.  in  both  the  pre-­‐test  and  the  post-­‐test,  it  was   considered  that  code  v  displayed  a  prevalence  of  short  sentences  and  code  b  that  of  long  sentences.     as  to  impersonal  style,  the  data  that  was  retrieved  in  the  pre-­‐tests  point  to  a  lack  of  impersonal  style   in   both   codes,   and   the   few   examples   that   were   provided   were   not   clear   enough   to   draw   more   precise   conclusions.   12.5%   (n=3)   indicated   the   use   of   personal   pronouns   in   the   example   box.   in   the   post-­‐tests,   consistency  between  the  two  groups  was  noted;  they  both  stressed  the  lack  of  an  impersonal  style  in  code  v   and  its  presence  in  code  b.   group a group b code v code b code v code b pre post pre post pre post pre post legalistic formal words 28.6 42.9 78.6 92.9 20 22.2 100 88.9 phraseological units 0 21.4 21.4 50 40 33.3 30 11.1 extreme precision 42.9 42.9 71.4 85.7 50 44.4 100 100 overuse of shall 7.1 0 85.7 92.9 0 0 100 100 nominalization 21.4 50 0 57.1 20 55.6 50 33.3 long sentences 21.4 14.3 50 92.9 20 22.2 90 88.9 commitment-oriented prevalence of short sentences 57.1 64.3 35.7 7.1 80 66.7 10 11.1 no impersonal style 28.6 78.6 35.7 14.3 50 66.7 40 22.2 simple, clear lexicon 85.7 100 42.9 21.4 90 100 10 11.1 figurative language 21.4 14.3 7.1 14.3 60 77.8 0 0 giglioni  &  patat   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 60   in   contrast,   resorting   to   a   simple   lexicon   seemed   to  be   a  more  easily   comprehensible   trait.   in   fact,   87.5%  of  the  students  in  the  pre-­‐tests  and  100%  in  the  post-­‐tests  believed  that  a  simple  and  clear  lexicon  was   preferred  in  code  v  but  not  in  code  b,  where  58.3%  in  the  pre-­‐tests  and  73.9%  in  the  post-­‐tests  emphasized   its  absence.     figurative   language  was  another   rather  problematic   trait   in   its   interpretation  based  on   the  data  of   the  pre-­‐tests.  one  participant  wrote,   “images   and  metaphors,”   and   another  wrote,   “customer   obsessed,”   as   examples.  the  post-­‐tests   showed  a  divergence  between   the   groups,   as  group  a  was   still   uncertain,   and  no   examples  were   to  be   found.  group  b   retrieved  examples   from  code  v   (i.e.,   “innovation  hungry,”   “customer   obsessed,”  “we  voice  our  opinions”)  and  ascertained  the  absence  of  figurative  language  in  code  b.           4.3.  abridged  final  questionnaire       this  section  presents  the  views  of  23  of   the  24  study  participants  (one  student  was  absent)  on  the   implementation   of   coes   in   the   esp   course.   the   23   participants   were   asked   to   answer   two   open-­‐ended   questions:  q1.  perché  potrebbe  essere  utile  conoscere  un  coes?  elabora.  (trans.  why  could  it  be  useful  to  know   the  content  of  coes?  explain).  q2.  ritieni  che  lo  studio  dei  codici  etici   in  inglese  possa  aiutarti  a  migliorare  la   conoscenza  della   lingua   inglese?  elabora.   (trans.  do  you  believe  studying  codes  of  ethics   in  english  can  help   you   in   your   language   learning   process?   explain).   as   with   the   pre-­‐treatment   questionnaire,   to   guarantee   conformity,   it  was  decided  to  formulate  the  final  questionnaire  questions  in  italian  and  to  allow  students  to   answer  in  italian.  the  questionnaire  was  sent  electronically  to  the  students  right  before  administration  and   sent  back   to   the   researchers  upon   its   completion   (the  maximum  allocated   time  was  15  minutes)  using   the   same  procedure  of  the  pre-­‐questionnaire.       the  answers  to  the  first  question,  which  mirrored  q9  of  the  pre-­‐treatment  questionnaire,  conveyed  a   positive  approach  to  coes,  which  were  perceived  as  useful  tools  to:  “conoscere  la  cultura  aziendale”  (“get  to   know   the   corporate   culture”),   “comunicare   al   mondo   esterno   i   valori”   (“share   company   values   with   outsiders”),   but   also   “per   entrare   nella   realtà   aziendale”   (“to   enter   the   corporate   environment”),   and   “per   sapere   come   comportarsi”   (“to   know   how   to   behave”).   hence,   coes   were   mainly   perceived   as   valuable   instruments   to:   get   to   know   a   company’s   values   (46%),   with   the  word,   conoscere   (to   know)   recurring   21   times;  to  better  understand  suitable  corporate  behaviors  (20%),  with  valori,  (values)  recurring  11  times;  to   define  a  company’s  public  image  (15%),  and  to  identify  a  company’s  organization  (11%).  additionally,  three   participants  reported  the  usefulness  of  knowing  coes  in  preparing  for  a  job  interview.  one  student  stressed   the  link  between  language  use  and  code  writing  in  defining  a  company’s  email  language:  “infatti  sullo  stile  si   riflette  anche  l’intento  del  codice  […]  spesso  le  aziende  lo  adottano  per  migliorare  la  propria  imagine.”  (“the   purpose  of  the  coe  is  reflected  in  its  style  […]  companies  often  implement  codes  to  improve  their  image.”)     the  second  question,  which  paralleled  q10  on  the  pre-­‐treatment  questionnaire,  aimed  at  assessing   students’  perceptions  of  the  impact  of  learning  about  coes  on  their  language  competence  and  enhancement.   table  5,  like  table  2,  shows  the  answers  that  were  provided  by  the  participants,  who  believed  that  studying   coes  improves  their  vocabulary  (n  =  22),  their  knowledge  of  specific  linguistic  structures  (n  =  8)  and  content   (n  =3),  and  their  preparation  for  a  future  professional  environment  (n  =  10).  one  answer  was  off-­‐topic.       table 5 responses to abridged questionnaire q2 yes, to improve vocabulary yes, for linguistic structures yes, content wise yes, other (prepare for work / job interview) not at my level offtopic number of occurrences* 22 8 3 4 0 1 *when students gave multiple answers, each was evaluated and counted separately   5.  discussion     the  present  study  applied  a  genre-­‐based  approach  to  providing  students  with  the  necessary  tools  to   analyze   a   specific   type   of   corporate   document   (i.e.,   coes)   that   feature   distinctive   patterns   and   norms   of   organizations.  this  gave   the  students   the  opportunity   to  work  with  authentic  material,   thus  exploring  both   the  natural  written  communication  and  the  institutional  environment  of  material  (breeze,  2012).  one  of  the   responsibilities   of   esp   teachers   is   to   make   students   aware   of   and   sensitive   students   to   sociolinguistic   teaching  codes  of  ethics   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 61   variables,   which   ultimately   play   a   central   role   in   numerous   situational   frames   echoed   in   common,   professional   settings   and   situations.   through   the   designed   activities,   which   focused   on   several   skills   (see   table   1)   following  ellis   and   johnson’s  model   (1994),   students  were   able   to   explore   the   codes   both   from  a   textual  and  a  communicative  perspective,  with  the  aim  to  stimulate  reflection  and  discussion  on  topics  that   are   intrinsically   related   to   the   master   course   in   marketing   and   management   they   attend.   the   active   interaction   and   discussions   that   the   activities   spurred   served   as   useful   sources   to   enable   students   to   understand  contexts  and   the   language  used   in   those  contexts.  the  results  underline   that   the  exploration  of   authentic  material  may  help  second  language  learners  in  communicating  and  feeling  prepared  to  meet  a  new   english-­‐speaking  working  environment.         as  far  as  the  macro-­‐textual  level  is  concerned,  while  the  presence  or  absence  of  visuals  and  the  ceo’s   message  were   quite   intuitively   and   easily   detected,   thus   providing   an   almost   homogenous   response,   some   features   (e.g.,   comprehension   aids)   led   to   doubt   and   uncertainty   during   the   pre-­‐test   but   were   mostly   pinpointed   in   the  post-­‐test.  although  ad  hoc  titles  were  still  confused  with  simple  titles,  a  clear  progress   in   trait  recognition  was  recorded  after  the  treatment,  and  the  trends  that  were  displayed  by  the  two  groups  at   the  macro-­‐textual  level  of  analysis  were  similar  (see  table  3).       in  contrast,  the  micro-­‐textual  analysis  posed  some  challenges,  especially  for  the  less  proficient  group.   indeed,  group  a  seems  not  to  perform  as  well  as  group  b.  the  examples  of  specific  traits  that  were  presented   were  few  and  often  incorrect  in  the  pre-­‐tests  for  both  groups,  whereas  they  were  more  relevant  in  the  post-­‐ tests,  especially  for  group  b.  it  may  be  safe  to  claim,  then,  that  the  absence  of  correct  examples  is  connected  to   a   higher   level   of   difficulty   in   detecting   the   traits   (compared   to   their   greater   ease   in   identifying   traits   at   a   macro-­‐textual  level).  multi-­‐word  lexical  units  with  partially  or  fully  transferred  meanings  and  nominalization   were  processes  that  students  were  especially  unfamiliar  with  during  the  pre-­‐test.  nevertheless,  as  illustrated   by  the  percentage  and  examples  in  the  post-­‐test,  students’  cognizance  of  these  structures  improved  with  the   treatment.   hence,   the   post-­‐treatment   post-­‐test   results   illustrated   participants’   greater   awareness   of   the   lexical  and  syntactical  aspects  of  language  in  relation  to  formality.  overall,  the  post-­‐treatment  re-­‐analysis  of   the   two   codes   strengthened   the   validity   of   hp.   1   (i.e.,   generating   awareness   of   coes’   main   features   is   functional  in  the  enhancement  of  students’  linguistic  competence).  moreover,  with  regard  to  the  pre-­‐test  and   its  analysis  at  a  micro-­‐textual   level,  several  answers  were  not  provided  (na=not  answered),  whereas  in  the   post-­‐tests  not  only  were  there  more  answers,  but  they  were  also  supplemented  with  more  relevant  examples.   essentially,   especially   for  proficient   learners,   coes   can  be   claimed   to   represent   a   useful   source   to   enhance   overall  language  skills.     as  to  hp.  2  (i.e.,  coes  assist  in  developing  business-­‐related  communicative  competence.),  on  the  basis   of   the  post-­‐treatment  answers  to  the  abridged  questionnaire,   it  may  be  worth  nothing  that  the  participants   established  a  connection  between  the  codes  and  their  future  work  experience,  as  they  seem  to  see  codes  as  a   useful   source   of   information   on   a   company’s   values   and   public   image.   albeit   in   a   small   percentage,   the   participants  thought  that  retrieving  information  on  a  company  before  a  job  interview  could  be  an  asset  for  a   potential  candidate.  this  reiterates   the  coes’  belonging   to   the  category  of   institutionalized   textual  artefacts   that  display  a  specific  discourse  that   is  typical  of  a  specific  community  (bhatia,  2002)  and  emphasizes  their   correlation  to  the  social  context  (breeze,  2012;  hyland,  2003).  furthermore,  as  shown  in  table  2  and  table  5,   participants’  beliefs  changed  slightly:  after  the  treatment  they  all  started  seeing  coes  as  an  effective  source  of   business-­‐related  vocabulary.  on  the  one  hand,  no  correlation  between  long  sentences  and  extreme  precision   in  legalistic  codes  was  noticed.  this,  most  probably,   indicates  that  the  level  of  precision  is  not  associated  to   the  number  of  words  used  to  the  express  ideas.  on  the  other  hand,  all  answers  highlighted  simple  lexicon  in   short  sentences  with  a  personal  style   that  was  mainly   traced   in   the  use  of  personal  pronouns  and  a   lack  of   passive  voice,  which  is  typical  of  a  commitment-­‐oriented  code.  this,  of  course,  does  not  necessarily  mean  that   the  students  clearly  connected  the  traits,  but  simply  suggests  that  such  features  are  correlated.       overall,   then,  coes  could  be  aptly   integrated   in  esp  syllabi   to  encourage  a   focus  on  several   textual   and  communicative  features  at  once.  as  mentioned  before,  coes  cover  a  wide  range  of  useful  aspects  for  esp   instructors.   first,   they   help   students   in   identifying   intuitive   language   patterns,   communication   techniques,   and   ethical   norms   used   in   corporate   environments,   which   convey   a   generic   behavioral   conduct   that   individuals  should  adopt  on  a  day-­‐to-­‐day  basis.  second,  the  study  of  coes  can  help  students  develop  a  greater   awareness   of   a   specialized   discourse.   third,   coes   can   be   taught   by   combining   a   top-­‐down   (genre   move   structure)  with  a  bottom-­‐up  (textual  features)  approach  based  on  students’  needs.   as  a  first  step,  instead  of  just  examining  the  linguistic  text,  esp  teachers  can  guide  students  to  think   about  how   these   specialized   texts   relate   to   corporate   life.   in   the  present   case,   students  were  attending   the   giglioni  &  patat   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 62   master   program   to   obtain   a   more   competitive   profile.   hence,   students’   active   participation,   in-­‐class   involvement,   and   future   expectations   were   key   factors   in   linking   classroom   experience   to   real   life.   the   decision   to   study  coes   stemmed   from   the   observation   that,   in   the   field   of   international   business,   properly   communicating  is  english  is  based  on  a  set  of  conventions;  thus,  students  should  be  provided  the  necessary   codes  to  establish  concrete  and  meaningful  connections  with  the  professional  world.  this  is  indeed  the  case   for   coes,   as   they   are   corporate   documents   written   to   guide   behavior.   furthermore,   working   on   the   coes   stimulated  relevant  discussions  on  language  use,  communication  techniques  (see,  for  example,  ad  hoc  title  or   figurative  language  use),  and  ethical  principles  that  can  be  distinctive  in  corporate  behavior.       6.  conclusion     in   conclusion,   though   relying   on   a   small   sample,   the   present   study   suggests   that   using   coes   can   positively   impact   an   esp   class.   in   response   to   the   ever-­‐changing   corporate   dynamics,   it   is   important   for   instructors   to   adapt   their   approach   in   teaching   by   integrating   sources   of   specialized   discourse.   in   at   esp   classroom,  material   selection   is  of  great   importance   for   task-­‐based  and  effective   learning.   in   this  study,   the   researchers  found  that  the  analysis  of  coes  that  was  carried  out  collectively  in  class  and  in  self-­‐study  fostered   students’   reflections   on   corporate   communication   and   enhanced   their   linguistic   competence.   learners’   perceptions  indicated  that  coes  could  be  potentially  useful  pedagogical  tools  both  in  vocabulary  acquisition   in  a  second  language  as  well  as  in  engaging  students  in  expanding  their  knowledge  of  corporate  behaviors.     as  contextually  situated  texts,  coes  are  corporate  documents  that  are  deemed  essential  in  the  study   of  business  discourse.  they  play  a  clear  role  in  fulfilling  the  need  of  providing  non-­‐native  speakers  with  the   necessary   skills   to   communicate   in   an   overtly   globalized   corporate   environment,   where   english   is   the   dominant  business  language.  to  the  authors’  knowledge,  studies  on  the  implementation  of  coes  as  teaching   tools   are   still   underrepresented   in   literature,   especially   in   italy.   the   present   study   is   hoped   to   offer   a   contribution  to  the  field  through  a  genre-­‐based  approach.  it  started  by  exploring  the  students’  knowledge  of   coes,  it  then  analyzed  the  acquisition  of  linguistic  and  formal  traits  of  corporate  writing,  and,  subsequently,   focused  on  the  students’  perceptions  of  the  implementation  of  the  approach.  within  the  five-­‐week  period  set   for   the   investigation,   results   showed   that   traits   at   a   macro-­‐textual   level   were   easily   identifiable   by   both   groups,  whereas  the  micro-­‐textual  analysis  proved  to  be  slightly  more  challenging.  nonetheless,  both  groups   involved   in   the   study   came   to   the   conclusion   that   working   on   coes   could   help,   particularly,   in   terms   of   acquiring  new  vocabulary,  raising  language  awareness,  and  understanding  corporate  dynamics.       7.  limitations  of  the  study     this   research  was   a   first   step   into   the   study   of   the   implementation   of   coes   into   the   syllabus   of   a   business   english   course.   despite   the   relatively   small   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 english  in  academic  and  research  settings.  cambridge  university  press.   viriya,   chayata,   &   wasanasomsithi,   punchalee   (2017).   the   effect   of   the   genre   awareness   approach   on   development  of    writing  ability.  international  forum  of  teaching  and  studies,  13(1),  11–22.     vodafone  (2018).  code  of  conduct.  retrieved  from  https://www.vodafone.com/business/code-­‐of-­‐conduct   wood,   greg,   &   rimmer,   michael   (2003).   codes   of   ethics:   what   are   they   really   and   what   should   they   be?   international  journal  of  value-­‐based  management,  16(2),  181–195.   yin,  robert  k.  (2014).  case  study  research:  design  and  methods.  sage.     giglioni  &  patat   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 66   appendix  a         questionnaire rispondi alle seguenti domande (trans. please answer to the following questions) 1. sai cos’è un codice etico? (trans. do you know what a code of ethics is?) 2. quali argomenti ti aspetti vengano trattati in un codice etico? (trans. what topics do you think are treated in a code of ethics?) 3. ti aspetti uno stile comunicativo diretto o legalistico? (trans. do you expect a direct communicative style or a legalistic style?) 4. chi scrive un codice etico? (trans. who authors a code of ethics?) 5. quando si scrive un codice etico? (trans. when are codes of ethics issued?) 6. perché un codice etico viene redatto? (trans. why are codes of ethics written?) 7. premesso (se non lo sai) che un codice etico è un documento diffuso dalle aziende quotate, secondo te dove si può trovare o dove lo cercheresti? (trans. considering – if you don’t know – that a code of ethics is a corporate document issued by listed companies, where do you think you can retrieve it?) 8. quali altri generi testuali nella comunicazione istituzionale d’azienda conosci? (trans. what other corporate documents are you familiar with?) 9. perché potrebbe essere utile conoscere un codice etico? (trans. do you think it could be useful to become familiar with codes of ethics?) 10. qual è, secondo te, l’impatto dello studio dei codici etici in inglese sul tuo apprendimento della lingua? elabora. (trans. how do you think the study of codes of ethics can affect foreign language acquisition? explain.)   teaching  codes  of  ethics   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 67   appendix  b                                     preand posttests a) analyze the two codes of ethics by completing the chart below: • put a + if the feature is present and a – if it is not present • provide an example (include the page number and the code’s name; v for vodafone and b for burberry) for each feature. feature vodafone example burberry example 1 lists 2 definitions 3 contract-style layout 4 no visuals 5 short code 6 ceo’s message 7 comprehension aids 8 ad hoc title 9 visuals 10 long code use the space below for the examples – just make sure to write the number of the feature and the code’s name (v for vodafone and b for burberry). b) analyze the two code of ethics given by completing the chart below: • put a + if the feature is present and a – if it is not present • provide an example (include the page number) for each feature. features vodafone example burberry example 1 formal words 2 phraseological units 3 extreme precision 4 overuse of “shall” 5 nominalization 6 prevalence of short sentences 7 no impersonal style 8 simple, clear lexicon 9 figurative language 10 prevalence of long sentences use the space below for the examples – just make sure to write the number of the feature and the code’s name (v for vodafone and b for burberry). giglioni  &  patat   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 68             cinzia giglioni, sapienza università di roma cinzia.giglioni@uniroma1.it en cinzia giglioni is assistant professor at the department of political sciences, sapienza university of rome. she was an adjunct professor for several years in different universities in italy, teaching both ba and first level master’s degree students. her research interests span from second language acquisition to discourse analysis, especially in the context of language for specific purposes (lsp) research. her most recent contributions focus on the linguistic aspects of corporate and political communication. she has presented papers at several international conferences and symposia and has published the results of her research in journals and edited volumes. she regularly collaborates with various international research groups, including clavier (the corpus and language variation in english research group) and geras (groupe d’etude et de recherche en anglais de spécialité). es cinzia giglioni es investigadora y docente en el departamento de ciencias políticas en la universidad “la sapienza” de roma. ha enseñado como profesor con contracto por diversos años en varias universidades de italia, especialmente con alumnos a nivel de licenciatura y de primer curso de master. sus campos de investigación abarcan desde el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras hasta el análisis de discurso, sobre todo en el ámbito del lenguaje para fines específicos. sus contribuciones más recientes se enfocan en los aspectos lingüísticos de la comunicación empresarial y política. ha participado en varias conferencias y congresos internacionales, además de publicar los resultados de sus investigaciones en revistas y volúmenes. colabora de forma estable con varios grupos de investigación internacional como clavier (the corpus and language variation in english research group) y geras (groupe d’ etude et de recherche en anglais de spécialité). it cinzia giglioni è ricercatrice presso il dipartimento di scienze politiche della sapienza, università di roma. ha insegnato come docente a contratto per diversi anni in varie università in italia in corsi sia triennali sia di master. i suoi interessi di ricerca vanno dall’apprendimento della lingua straniera all’analisi del discorso, in particolare nel contesto del linguaggio per scopi specifici. i suoi contributi più recenti si focalizzano sugli aspetti linguistici della comunicazione aziendale e politica. è stata relatrice a vari convegni e simposi internazionali e ha pubblicato i risultati della sua ricerca in riviste e volumi. collabora regolarmente con vari gruppi di ricerca internazionali, come clavier (the corpus and language variation in english research group) e geras (groupe d’ etude et de recherche en anglais de spécialité) teaching  codes  of  ethics   e-­‐journall  7(2)  (2020),  pp.  51–69 69     ellen patat, università degli studi di milano and università degli studi di milano bicocca ellenpatat@gmail.com en ellen patat, phd, is presently teaching in the department of foreign languages and literatures at the università degli studi di milano (italy), as well as business english at università degli studi di milano bicocca (italy) and english for specific purposes (esp) at the università dell’insubria (italy). she previously taught english for academic purposes (eap) and italian as foreign language at bahçeşehir university (istanbul, turkey) and italian as fl and translation at yeditepe university (istanbul, turkey). following her degree in foreign languages and literatures, she completed her phd in multilingualism and comparative literatures at the università degli studi di udine (italy), an ma in conference interpreting (emci) at boğaziçi university (istanbul, turkey) and a second ba in italian language and culture for foreigners at consorzio icon. her main areas of interest are modern and contemporary travel literature, eap and esp, language teaching, and translation studies. es ellen patat actualmente enseña en el departmento de lenguas y literaturas extranjeras en la università degli studi di milano (italia), además de impartir inglés empresarial en la università degli studi di milano bicocca (italia) e inglés para fines específicos (esp) en la università dell’insubria (italia). anteriormente había enseñado inglés para fines académicos (eap) e italiano le en la universidad de bahçeşehir (istanbul, turquía), además de italiano y traducción en la universidad de yeditepe (istanbul, turquía). después de licenciarse en lenguas y literaturas extranjeras, se doctoró en multilingüísmo y literaraturas comparadas en la università degli studi di udine (italia), consiguió un master en interpretación de conferencias en la universidad de boğaziçi (istanbul, turquía) y una segunda licenciatura en lengua y cultura italianas para extranjeros en consorzio icon. sus intereses académicos son la literatura moderna y contemporánea de viajes, inglés para fines académicos y específicos, enseñanza de idiomas y estudios de traducción. it ellen patat, attualmente insegna nella facoltà di lingue e letterature straniere all’università degli studi di milano, insegna inoltre business english (inglese commerciale) all’università degli studi di milano bicocca e inglese per scopi specifici (esp) all’università dell’insubria. è stata anche docente di inglese per scopi accademici (eap) e italiano come lingua straniera alla bahcesehir university di istanbul, e di italiano come lingua straniera e di traduzione alla yeditepe university di istanbul. dopo la laurea in lingue e letterature straniere, ha conseguito il dottorato in multilinguismo e letterature comparate all’università degli studi di udine, un master in interpretariato di conferenza alla boğaziçi univeristy di istanbul e una seconda laurea in lingua e cultura italiana per stranieri presso il consorzio icon. le sue aree di ricerca sono la letteratura di viaggio moderna e contemporanea, eap e esp, l’insegnamento della lingua e traduzione. ole_link2 ole_link1 microsoft word martinezadrian_7.1.docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  7,  issue  1,  february  2020,  59-­‐77   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.11.191   www.e-­‐journall.org     © martínez-adrián 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       the  use  of  previously  known  languages  and  target  language  (english)   during  task-­‐based  interaction:  a  pseudolongitudinal  study  of     primary-­‐school  clil  learners         maría  martínez-­‐adrián   the  university  of  the  basque  country         received  3  may  2019;  received  in  revised  form  8  july  2019;  accepted  15  august  2019   abstract en (pseudo)longitudinal studies of the use of previously known languages (pkl) and the target language (tl) during interaction are still scarce in content and language integrated learning (clil) contexts, particularly those with young learners. this paper examines the use of pkls (basque-spanish) and the tl english in various categories (appeals for assistanceclarification requests-metacomments-discourse markers-private speech) in two groups of clil learners (grade 5 and 6) during dyadic interaction. a greater use of pkls in older learners was found, especially in less cooperative and more external to the task strategies. as regards tl use, both groups performed similarly, except for metacomments, where younger learners made a slightly higher use. when comparing pkls to tl use, both grade learners resorted to basque-spanish more frequently than to english, except for metacomments. learners seem to use their language repertoire for task-management purposes. nonetheless, they still resort to pkls to keep the flow of speech. key words:  clil, use of previously known languages, task-based interaction, primary-school learners, l3 english es los estudios pseudolongitudinales sobre el uso de lenguas previamente conocidas (lpcs) y de la lengua meta (lm) en tareas de interacción son aún escasos en contextos de aprendizaje de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras (aicle), y más aún con jóvenes aprendices. este trabajo examina el uso de lpcs (euskera-castellano) y la lm (inglés) en varias categorías (peticiones de ayuda-peticiones de clarificación-metacomentariosmarcadores de discurso-habla privada) en dos grupos de aprendices aicle (5º y 6º curso) durante una interacción diádica. se encontró un uso mayor de lpcs en el grupo de mayor edad, especialmente en estrategias menos cooperativas y más externas a la tarea. con respecto al uso de la lm, ambos grupos tuvieron resultados similares, excepto en los metacomentarios, donde los estudiantes más jóvenes la usaron ligeramente más. al comparar lpcs con lm, los estudiantes de ambos cursos recurrieron a las lpcs con más frecuencia que al inglés, excepto en los metacomentarios. los estudiantes parecen utilizar su repertorio lingüístico para fines de gestión de tareas, pero aún recurren a las lpcs para mantener el flujo del habla. palabras clave: aicle, uso de idiomas conocidos, tareas de interacción, estudiantes de educación primaria, inglés como l3 it gli studi (pseudo)longitudinali sull'uso delle lingue già note e della lingua d’arrivo (tl) in interazione sono ancora scarsi nei contesti di apprendimento integrato di lingua e contenuto (clil), in particolare quelli con apprendenti di giovane età. questo lavoro esamina l'uso di lingue già note (basco-spagnolo) e dell'inglese come tl in varie categorie (richieste di assistenza e di chiarimenti, metacommenti, marcatori discorsivi di discorsi privati) in due gruppi di studenti clil (classi di 5a elementare e 1a media) durante l'interazione diadica. è emerso un maggiore utilizzo delle lingue già note nei discenti più grandi, soprattutto nelle strategie meno collaborative e più esterne al task. in merito all’uso della lingua di arrivo, entrambi i gruppi hanno agito similmente, ad eccezione dei metacommenti, che gli studenti più giovani hanno usato leggermente di più. quando si confronta l’uso delle lingue già note con quello della tl entrambi i gruppi fanno ricorso allo spagnolo-basco più frequentemente che all'inglese, ad eccezione dei metacommenti. gli studenti sembrano usare il loro repertorio linguistico per la gestione dei task. tuttavia, ricorrono ancora alle lingue già note per mantenere il flusso del discorso. parole chiave: clil, uso di lingue già note, interazione basata sui task, studenti delle scuole elementari, inglese come l3     *    maría  martínez-­‐adrián,  the  university  of  the  basque  country                    maria.martineza@ehu.eus     martínez-­‐adrián   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 60   1.  introduction   the   investigation   of   the   use   of   previously   known   languages   (henceforth   pkl)   during   task-­‐based   interaction  has  attracted  the  attention  of  researchers  in  both  english  as  a  second  language  (esl)  and  english   as   a   foreign   language   (efl)   settings.   very   recently,   the   emergence   of   content   and   language   integrated   learning   (clil)   programmes  has   led   to   a   growing  body   of   research   studies   analyzing   the   effect   of   a  more   natural   and   intense   input   provided   in   these   settings   on   the   use   of   previously   known   language-­‐based   strategies   (i.e.,  garcía  mayo  &  hidalgo  gordo,  2017;  garcía  mayo  &  lázaro   ibarrola,   2015;  lázaro   ibarrola,   2016;  martínez-­‐adrián,  in  press;  martínez-­‐adrián  &  gutiérrez-­‐mangado,  2015a).  most  of  these  investigations   have  compared  clil  learners  to  non-­‐clil  learners,  but  (pseudo)longitudinal  studies  of  clil  learners  across   age  and  proficiency  (arratibel-­‐irazusta  &  martínez-­‐adrián,  2018,  2019;  lázaro  ibarrola  &  garcía  mayo,  2012),   which  could  shed  more  light  on  the  development  of  strategy  use,  are  still  few  in  number  in  clil  settings,  and   even  more  limited  with  young  leaners  (azkarai  &  imaz  agirre,  2017).  in  addition,  a  more  detailed  analysis  of   the  different  functions  and  patterns  of  both  pkl  and  target  language  (tl)  use  is  needed.  this  paper  will  try  to   fill   these   gaps   by   examining   the   use   of   pkl   (basque   and   spanish)   and   the   tl   (english)   in   appeals   for   assistance,   clarification   requests,   metacomments,   discourse   markers   and   private   speech   in   two   different   age/proficiency   groups  of   primary   school   learners   (grade  5   and  6)   immersed   in   a   clil   context   during   the   performance  of  a  communicative  task  in  dyads.  the  article  is  structured  as  follows:  the  first  section  presents   an   overview   of   the   literature   as   regards   the   use   of   pkl   during   oral   production.   research   questions   are   subsequently  addressed  in  section  2,  while  the  methodology  is  described  in  section  3.  results  are  presented   and   discussed   in   sections   4   and   5,   respectively.   the   last   section   concludes   the   paper   and   offers   future   research  lines.     2.  literature  review   2.1.  the  use  of  previously  known  languages  during  task-­‐based  interaction   research   on   task-­‐based   interaction   has   shown   that   the   use   of   pkl   during   the   performance   of   communicative   tasks   is  more   the   norm   rather   than   the   exception   and   has   been   reported   to   have   positive   effects  for  language  learning  (storch  &  aldosari,  2010).  to  the  present  date,  a  great  bulk  of  studies  in  esl  and   efl  settings  with  mainstream  learners  has  been  conducted,  particularly  with  adults  (i.e.,  alegría  de  la  colina   &   garcía   mayo,   2009;   azkarai,   2015;   azkarai   &   garcía   mayo,   2015;   di   camilla   &   antón,   2012;   storch   &   aldosari,  2010;  swain  &  lapkin,  2000).  these  studies  have  focused  on  the  extent  of  use  and  functions  of  pkl.   in   terms   of   amount,   adults   have   not   been   found   to   draw   extensively   on   prior   linguistic   experience.   with   regard   to   functions,   learners  mainly   employ   pkl   for   a  metacognitive   function,   phatics   and   for   vocabulary   searches   (i.e.,   alegría   de   la   colina   &   garcía  mayo,   2009;   azkarai   &   garcía  mayo,   2015;   storch   &   aldosari,   2010).  the  extent  to  which  learners  rely  on  their  previous  linguistic  experience  seems  to  depend  on  a  variety   of   factors   such   as   proficiency   (di   camilla  &  antón,   2012;   storch  &  aldosari,   2010;   swain  &  lapkin,   2000),   onset  age  (cenoz,  2001,  2003),  gender  (azkarai,  2015;  ross-­‐feldman,  2005),  task-­‐type  (alegría  de  la  colina  &   garcía  mayo,   2009;   storch   &   aldosari,   2010;   storch   &  wigglesworth,   2003)   and   task-­‐modality   (azkarai   &   garcía  mayo,   2015).  more   limited   research   is   available   on   younger   learners   (pinter,   2007;   shintani,   2012,   2014;  tognini  &  oliver,  2012).  in  particular,  studies  providing  a  detailed  examination  of  the  functions  of  pkl,   as  documented  in  research  on  adult  learners,  are  nearly  non-­‐existent  for  younger  learners.       2.2.  research  in  clil  settings   the   use   of   pkl   when   performing   communicative   tasks   in   english   has   recently   been   the   focus   of   several  studies  conducted  in  clil  settings.  in  clil  programmes,  more  intense  and  natural  input  is  provided   to   students   as,   in   addition   to   english   as   a   school   subject,   they   receive   content   lessons   through   the   foreign   language  (coyle,  2007;  dalton-­‐puffer,  2011).  the  greater  amount  of  exposure  received  in  these  programmes   leads   the   learner   to  attain  a  higher   command  of   the  tl   (lasagabaster,  2008;  martínez-­‐adrián  &  gutiérrez-­‐ mangado,   2015b;   navés   &   victori,   2010;   ruiz   de   zarobe,   2008)   and   in   turn   to   a   lower   reliance   on   pkl   (gallardo-­‐del-­‐puerto  &  gómez-­‐lacabex,  2013,  2017;  garcía  mayo  &  lázaro   ibarrola,  2015;  lázaro   ibarrola,   2016;  martínez-­‐adrián,  in  press;  martínez-­‐adrián  &  gutiérrez-­‐mangado,  2015a).  some  of  these  investigations   on   the   use   of   previously   known   language-­‐based   strategies   during   oral   production   have   compared   clil   to   non-­‐clil   learners   (gallardo   del   puerto,   2015;   garcía  mayo  &  hidalgo   gordo,   2017;   garcía  mayo  &   lázaro   ibarrola,   2015;   lázaro   ibarrola,   2016;   martínez-­‐adrián,   in   press;   martínez-­‐adrián   &   gutiérrez-­‐mangado,   2015a;  pladevall  ballester  &  vraciu,  2017)  and  others,  lower  in  number,  offer  (pseudo)longitudinal  studies  of   the  use  of  previously  known  languages   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 61   clil  learners  (i.e.,  arratibel-­‐irazusta  &  martínez-­‐adrián,  2018,  2019;  lázaro  ibarrola  &  garcía  mayo,  2012).   among   these   studies,   either   comparative   or   (pseudo)longitudinal   in   nature,   some   have   centered   on   secondary-­‐school   learners   (i.e.,   arratibel-­‐irazusta   &   martínez-­‐adrián,   2018,   2019;   lázaro   ibarrola,   2016;   lázaro   ibarrola  &  garcía  mayo,  2012;  martínez-­‐adrián  &  gutiérrez-­‐mangado,  2015b)  while  primary-­‐school   learners   are   currently   the   focus   of   several   investigations   (i.e.,   azkarai   &   imaz   agirre,   2017;   gallardo   del   puerto,  2015;  garcía  mayo  &  hidalgo  gordo,  2017;  garcía  mayo  &  lázaro  ibarrola,  2015;  gutiérrez-­‐mangado,   2015;  martínez-­‐adrián,  in  press).  in  fact,  several  researchers  have  called  for  more  research  on  the  acquisition   of  foreign  languages  by  primary-­‐school  learners  in  an  effort  to  maximize  their  learning  opportunities  (garcía   mayo,  2018).  clil   studies  on   the  use  of  pkl  during   interaction  have  mainly  examined  age  and  proficiency   effects   (arratibel-­‐irazusta  &  martínez-­‐adrián,   2018,   2019;   lázaro   ibarrola  &   garcía  mayo,   2012;   pladevall   ballester   &   vraciu,   2017),   whereas   findings   for   gender   and   task   type   have   not   been   analysed   in   depth   (azkarai  &  garcía  mayo,  2017;  azkarai  &  imaz  agirre,  2017).     in  the  case  of  clil  studies  with  secondary-­‐school  learners,  martínez-­‐adrián  and  gutiérrez-­‐mangado   (2015a)   compared   the   oral   production   of   a   group   of   clil   learners   to   a   group   of   non-­‐clil   learners.   participants  performed  an  oral  narration  task  in  front  of  a  researcher,  which  was  subsequently  examined  in   terms   of   the   use   of   the   first   languages   (l1s)   (basque   and   spanish)   in   interactional   strategies   and   transfer   lapses.  a   lower  use  of   the  l1s  and  a  greater  use  of   the  tl  (english)  was   found   in  the  case  of  clil   learners.   this  study  also  confirmed  a  negative  correlation  between  general  proficiency,  lexical  richness  and  use  of  pkl.   in   addition   to   the   use   of   pkl   in   interactional   strategies,   other   comparative   studies  with   secondary-­‐school   learners  have  analysed  the  production  of  discourse  markers.  lázaro  ibarrola  (2016)  compared  a  group  of  15   clil  learners  to  a  group  of  11  non-­‐clil  learners  at  time  1  when  they  were  in  their  2nd  year  of  compulsory   secondary  education  and  subsequently  at  time  2  when  they  were  in  the  4th  year.  all  instances  of  discourse   markers   including   those   in   english   and   those   in   basque   and   spanish   were   considered.   in   addition,   the   learners’   use   of   other   hesitation   phenomena,   namely,   non-­‐lexical   discourse   markers   was   also   taken   into   account.  the  use  of  the  l1s  (basque  and  spanish)  did  not  decrease  with  time  and  no  differences  were  found   between  clil  and  non-­‐clil   (basque  and  spanish)   learners.  few   instances  of  discourse  markers   in  english   were  produced,   the  most  common  of   them  being   ‘well’,  which   is  employed   in   textbooks  and  teacher   talk.  a   difference  was  found  between  clil  and  non-­‐clil  learners  in  the  use  of  non-­‐lexical  discourse  markers,  with  a   higher  production  on  the  part  of  non-­‐clil  learners.  clil  students  were  able  to  use  discourse  markers  in  the   l1s  while  non-­‐clil  learners  were  in  a  previous  stage  of  development  and  use  more  hesitation  phenomena.     other  investigations  with  secondary  school   learners  are  (pseudo)longitudinal  studies  of  one  or  two   groups   of   clil   learners.   lázaro   ibarrola   and   garcía   mayo   (2012)   tackled   the   use   of   the   l1   in   discourse   markers   and  appeals   for   assistance   as  well   as   the  morphosyntactic  development  of   a   group  of   15-­‐year-­‐old   students  immersed  in  a  clil  context  in  the  basque  country.  the  use  of  the  l1  significantly  decreased  over  the   two-­‐year   period   investigated,   while   morphosyntax   experienced   significant   development.   however,   the   production   of   english   discourse   markers   was   uncommon.   arratibel-­‐irazusta   and   martínez-­‐adrián   (2018)   explored  the  use  of  pkl  (l1  spanish/second  language  (l2)  basque)  in  appeals  for  assistance,  transfer  lapses,   codes-­‐switching  and  discourse  markers  in  an  oral  narration  task  in  two  different  age/proficiency  clil  groups   of  third  language  (l3)  english  learners.  both  groups  shared  the  same  onset  age  (year  3)  but  differed  in  length   and  amount  of  exposure.  the  analysis  of  the  results  did  not  yield  statistically  significant  differences  between   the   groups   except   for   the   production   of   foreignizings,   which   were   more   frequent   in   the   younger   group.   however,  the  intragroup  analysis  revealed  how  less  proficient  learners  preferred  to  use  more  implicit  appeals   and  employed  borrowings  and  foreignizings  in  similar  proportions,  while  older  learners  preferred  to  use  both   explicit  and  implicit  strategies  and  showed  a  tendency  to  use  borrowings  (a  more  communicative  option).  as   for   the   different   categories   examined,   discourse   markers   were   the   most   common   manifestation   of   prior   linguistic   experience.   in   a   follow-­‐up   study   involving   the   same   groups   of   learners,   arratibel-­‐irazusta   and   martínez-­‐adrián   (2019)  delved   into   the  use   of   previous   linguistic   knowledge   (l1   spanish/l2  basque)   as   a   communication  strategy  (appeals  for  assistance  and  transfer)  together  with  tl-­‐based  strategies  (holistic  and   analytic   strategies).   no   differences   between   the   two   age/proficiency   groups   were   observed.   as   for   the   distribution  of  categories,  holistic  strategies  were  the  most  employed,  a  finding  attributed  to  the  overriding   effect   of   clil   as   reported   in   other   investigations   with   young   learners   that   have   analysed   self-­‐reported   opinions   (martínez-­‐adrián,   gallardo-­‐del-­‐puerto,   &   basterrechea,   2019).   in   other   words,   even   if   these   participants   were   considered   low-­‐proficient   learners,   they   were   exploiting   strategies   more   typical   of   advanced  learners,  a  result  that  might  be  due  to  the  type  of  input  received  in  their  clil  lessons,  which  is  full   of  reformulations  in  the  tl.  in  addition,  the  use  of  previously  known  language-­‐based  strategies  was  found  to   martínez-­‐adrián   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 62   correlate   negatively   with   both   the   level   of   proficiency   and   receptive   vocabulary.   however,   no   significant   correlations  were   found   in  the  case  of  tl-­‐based  strategies.  likewise,   the  analysis  did  not  yield  a  significant   correlation  between   the  use  of  pkl  and   the  use  of  tl-­‐based  strategies.  thus,   at   this  point  of  development,   previously  known  language-­‐based  strategies  still  coexist  with  the  use  of  tl-­‐based  strategies.   as  regards  clil  studies  conducted  with  young  learners,  most  of  them  have  examined  the  effect  of  the   instructional   context   (clil   vs.   non-­‐clil).   these   studies,   with   a   cross-­‐sectional   or   (pseudo)longitudinal   design,  have  compared  clil  to  non-­‐clil  learners  (gallardo-­‐del-­‐puerto,  2015;  garcía  mayo  &  lázaro  ibarrola,   2015;   garcía   mayo   &   hidalgo   gordo,   2017;   garcía   mayo   &   imaz   agirre,   2017;   gutiérrez-­‐mangado,   2015;   martínez-­‐adrián,  in  press;  pladevall  ballester  &  vraciu,  2017).     gallardo-­‐del-­‐puerto   (2015)   looked   into   data   from   primary   school   learners   performing   a   peer   interaction  task.  two  groups  of  clil  learners  in  grades  4  and  6  were  compared  to  two  age-­‐matched  non-­‐clil   learners   in   terms   of   their   production   of   codeswitching   and   transfer   lapses   in   a   dyadic   story-­‐telling   task.   younger  and  older  clil   learners  produced   fewer   instances  of   codeswitching  and   transfer   lapses   than   their   non-­‐clil  counterparts,   these  differences  reaching  significance  only   in   the  case  of   the  older   learners.  as   for   the   distribution   of   functions,   codeswitching,   borrowings   and   foreignizings  were   far  more   frequent   in   non-­‐ clil  than  in  clil,  while  clil  learners  produced  more  calques  than  non-­‐clil  students.  this  study  contrasts   with  previous   investigations   that  claimed   that   foreignizings  are  characteristic  of  higher  proficiency  (=clil)   learners  (agustín  llach,  2014;  celaya,  2008;  celaya  &  ruiz  de  zarobe,  2010).   martínez-­‐adrián   (in   press)   explored   the   use   of   interactional   strategies   (appeals   for   assistance,   clarification   requests   and   metacomments)   in   the   l1   (spanish)   and   the   tl   (english)   in   the   same   sample   analyzed   by   gallardo-­‐del-­‐puerto   (2015).   the   results   indicated   that   non-­‐clil   learners   produced   more   instances  of  l1  use  in  interactional  strategies  and  that  greater  differences  emerged  as  grade  level  increased.   in   addition,  metacomments  were   the  most   common  manifestation   of   l1  use   in   both   years   in   the  non-­‐clil   groups,  which  suggested  that  non-­‐clil  learners  were  not  so  accustomed  to  interacting  in  the  tl  and  not  so   well   equipped   to   perform   content   tasks   in   the  tl.   a   qualitative   inspection   of   the   results   also   showed   that   some  differences  between  groups  in  their  preference  for  either  the  l1  or  the  tl  existed  in  the  case  of  appeals   and   clarification   requests.  nevertheless,  metacomments  were   always  produced   in   the   l1   in   both   groups,   a   finding  in  line  with  previous  classroom  observation  data  (gené  gil,  juan  garau,  &  salazar  noguera,  2012).   using  the  same  sample  as   in  gallardo-­‐del-­‐puerto  (2015)  and  martínez-­‐adrián  (in  press),  gutiérrez-­‐ mangado  (2015)  investigated  the  pseudolongitudinal  development  of  clil  and  non-­‐clil  learners  as  regards   l1  use  in  interactional  strategies,  transfer  lapses  and  codeswitching.  non-­‐clil  learners  used  the  l1  in  these   three  categories  in  the  two-­‐year  period  examined,  while  a  decrease  in  appeals  for  assistance  and  an  increase   in  borrowings  was  attested  in  the  clil  learners.  the  analysis  of  the  data  indicated  that  older  learners  seemed   to  favour  more  uncooperative  strategies  rather  than  more  cooperative  ones  (i.e.,  appeals).   garcía  mayo  and  lázaro  ibarrola  (2015)  studied  the  effect  of  clil  and  age  in  the  oral  interaction  of   40  age-­‐  and  proficiency-­‐matched  dyads  in  terms  of  conversational  adjustments,  repetitions  and  l1  use.  clil   learners  displayed   slightly  higher   linguistic   abilities,   a   finding   supporting  previous   studies   comparing  clil   and  non-­‐clil   learners  and  were   found   to  negotiate  more  and   to   resort   to   the  l1   less   frequently   than  non-­‐ clil  learners.  as  for  the  effect  of  age,  older  children  in  both  contexts  were  reported  to  negotiate  less  and  to   use  the  l1  more  frequently  than  younger  children.   garcía  mayo  and  hidalgo  gordo   (2017)   compared  a  group  of  clil   learners   to  a  group  of   non-­‐clil   learners  at  time  1,  when  they  were   in  the  3rd  year  of  primary  education  and  at  time  2,  when  they  were   in   their  4th  year.  both  groups  completed  a  jigsaw  task  that  was  subsequently  codified  according  to  the  following   l1  functions:  metacognitive  talk,  vocabulary  (appeals,  borrowings  and  foreignizings)  and  discourse  markers.   the  examination  of  the  results  revealed  that  l1  use  as  a  whole  was  quite  limited  at  both  testing  times,  but  a   greater  use  was  observed  at  time  2  in  both  groups,  even  though  it  only  reached  significance  in  the  non-­‐clil   group.  vocabulary  was  the  function  most  served  by  the  l1  in  both  groups  in  the  two  school  years,  a  finding  in   line  with  other  investigations  exploring  young  learners  in  a  clil  setting  (azkarai  &  garcía  mayo,  2017).  as  for   the   effect   of   the   instructional   setting,   non-­‐clil   learners   relied   on   the   l1   to   a   greater   extent   than   clil   learners,   especially   in   the   case   of   learners’   use   of   the   l1   for   vocabulary   purposes.   when   dealing   with   metacognitive  talk  and  discourse  markers,  the  instructional  setting  did  not  have  a  great  influence.  as  regards   the  effect  of  age  on  functions,  only  a  statistically  significant  difference  was  found  in  the  metacognitive  use  in   favour  of  the  older  non-­‐clil  group.     these  results  are  partially  in  line  with  garcía  mayo  and  imaz  agirre  (2017)  who  also  considered  the   impact  of   the   learning  context   (clil  vs.  non-­‐clil)  on  l1  use  adopting  a   longitudinal  perspective.  27  dyads   the  use  of  previously  known  languages   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 63   participated  in  the  study.  in  particular,  two  groups  of  clil  learners  were  compared  to  two  groups  of  non-­‐clil   learners   at   two   different   data   collection   times.   in   addition,   younger   learners  were   also   compared   to   older   learners  in  each  instructional  setting  in  order  to  examine  the  effect  of  age.  at  two  data  collection  times,  non-­‐ clil  learners  were  found  to  use  the  l1  to  a  greater  extent  than  their  clil  counterparts.  however,  while  the   use  of  the  l1  decreased  in  the  non-­‐clil  groups  over  time,  in  the  clil  groups  it  remained  stable  across  time  in   the  younger  group  of  learners,  while  an  increase  was  observed  in  the  group  of  older  clil  learners.  the  nature   of  the  task,  which  could  have  been  not  so  motivating  for  students,  could  have  yielded  these  results  in  the  clil   group.   as   regards   the   effect   of   age,   at   time  1,   older   non-­‐clil   learners  were   significantly   found   to  make   a   greater  use  of   the  l1.  at  time  2  older   learners   in  both   instructional   settings  employed   the  l1   to  a   greater   extent  with  significant  differences.     other   longitudinal  studies  comparing  clil  to  non-­‐clil   learners  during  task-­‐based   interaction  have   controlled  for  amount  of  exposure,  a  factor  that  could  explain  the  existence  of  some  contradictory  findings  in   the   literature.  pladevall  ballester  and  vraciu  (2017)  examined  l1  use   in   the  oral  production  of  5th  and  6th   grade   primary   school   learners   over   a   period   of   two   academic   years.   content   and   function   words,   codeswitching,   lexical   transfer   (i.e.,   borrowings,   foreignizings)   and   interactional   strategies   were   codified.   interactional   strategies  were   further   broken   down   into  metacognitive   strategies,  metatalk   strategies,   task-­‐ related  interactional  strategies  and  private  speech.  the  examination  of  the  results  indicated  a  decrease  in  l1   use   as   l2   proficiency   increased   in   both   clil   and   non-­‐clil   learners.   primary   school   learners   were   also   reported  to  make  use  of  their  l1  as  a  compensatory  strategy  during  l2  production  irrespective  of  the  type  of   instruction   (clil   vs.   non-­‐clil)   received.   in   terms   of   interactional   strategies,   metatalk   and   private   speech   were  the  most  common  functions  in  both  groups  at  the  beginning  of  the  study,  while,  at  the  very  end,  the  l1   preserved   its   regulatory   function   but   its   scaffolding   role   disappeared.   in   the   case   of   lexical   transfer,   borrowings   and   foreignizings   decreased   with   proficiency   in   both   groups   and   the   same   applied   to   codeswitching.     apart   from   these   investigations   that   have   compared   clil   to   non-­‐clil   learners,   others   are   pseudolongitudinal   studies   of   different   age/proficiency   groups   of   young   clil   learners   (azkarai   &   imaz   agirre,   2017),   though   limited   in   number   and   examining   the   interaction   of   age   with   other   variables   (i.e.   gender).  this  line  of  research  is  particularly  interesting  as  it  could  shed  more  light  on  the  development  of  the   use  of  pkl  during  task-­‐based  interaction  across  age.  azkarai  and  imaz  agirre  (2017)  examined  gender  effects   on   the   amount  of   l1  use   in  grade  3   and  4  primary-­‐school   learners  while  performing   a   spot-­‐the-­‐difference   task.  boys  were  found  to  make  use  of  the  l1  to  a  greater  extent  than  girls,  and  this  difference  was  even  more   marked  in  grade  4  learners.  boys  seemed  to  employ  the  l1  to  avoid  communication  breakdowns,  while  girls   showed  a  more  restricted  use  of  the  l1.   the  overview  of  the  literature  on  l1  use  during  task-­‐based  interaction  has  shown  a  growing  body  of   research  in  this  area.  however,  it  has  uncovered  several  gaps  that  still  need  to  be  filled.  first,  studies  aimed  at   the   analysis   of   the   development   of   use   of   pkl   across   age   are   needed.   second,   a   detailed   analysis   of   the   different  functions  and  most  common  manifestations  of  pkl  and  tl  use  is  advocated,  as  to  the  knowledge  of   the  author,   just  one   investigation   involving  younger   learners  has  been  conducted   in   this  respect  (martínez-­‐ adrián,  in  press).  thus,  the  present  article  will  contribute  to  these  gaps  by  examining  the  use  of  pkl  (basque   and  spanish)  and  the  tl  (english)  in  appeals  for  assistance,  clarification  requests,  metacomments,  discourse   markers  and  private  speech  in  two  different  age/proficiency  groups  of  primary  school  learners  (grades  5  and   6)   immersed   in   a   clil   context,   while   performing   a   communicative   task   in   pairs.   the   following   research   questions  will  be  addressed:     -­‐ rq   1.   are   there   any   differences   between   both   age/proficiency   groups   in   terms   of   the   amount   of   basque/spanish  use?   -­‐ rq2.   are   there   any   differences   between   both   age/proficiency   groups   in   terms   of   the   amount   of   english  use?   -­‐ rq3.   do   learners   in   each   group   show   a   preference   for   either   basque/spanish   or   english   in   the   categories  analyzed?   -­‐ rq4.   among   the   categories   examined,   which   ones   are   the   most   commonly   served   by   basque/spanish?     -­‐ rq5.  among  the  categories  examined,  which  ones  are  the  most  commonly  served  by  english?       martínez-­‐adrián   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 64   3.  methodology   3.1.  participants   the   study   was   carried   out   in   a   clil   context   in   a   mid-­‐sized   town   in   the   basque-­‐autonomous   community  where  basque  and  spanish  co-­‐exist  as  official  languages.  90  basque-­‐spanish  bilingual  learners  of   l3  english  from  a  semi-­‐private  school  participated  in  the  study.  all  of  them  had  been  exposed  to  spanish  and   basque   since   birth   and/or   early   childhood   in   the   school-­‐context1.   they   were   enrolled   in   an   early   partial   immersion  programme  in  which  half  of  the  subjects  are  taught  in  spanish  and  the  other  half  in  basque,  except   for  the  english  as  a  foreign  language  class  and  some  content  subjects  that  are  in  english.     all  participants  started  learning  english  at  age  4  and  were  enrolled  in  a  clil  programme  at  age  8.  in   fifth-­‐  and  sixth-­‐years  of  schooling,  learners  are  exposed  to  english  in  the  classroom  context  for  5  to  7  weekly   hours  in  lessons  scheduled  as  english  as  a  school  subject  (3  hours  in  5th  year  and  4  hours  in  6th  year),  as  well   as  in  content  lessons  such  as  science,  arts  and  crafts  or  physical  education  (3  hours  in  5th  year  and  4  hours  in   6th   year).   at   the   time   of   the   data   gathering,   5th   year   learners   had   received   714   hours   of   exposure,   and   6th   graders  884  hours.  as  for  their  english  proficiency,  the  proficiency  level  test  administered  at  the  outset  of  the   study  indicated  that  5th  year  learners  were  in  a2-­‐,  and  6th  year  ones  in  the  a2  level  (cefr;  council  of  europe,   2001).  participant  characteristics  are  summarized  in  table  1.   table 1 participant characteristics learner groups clil 5 (n = 50) clil 6 (n = 40) grade 5 6 age (years) 10 11 onset age 3.93 4.28 exposure (academic years) 6.5 7.5 hours of exposure to english 714 884 hours of clil exposure 162 291 proficiency level a2a2 3.2.  instruments  and  data  analysis   at   the   beginning   of   the   study,   learners   completed   both   a   questionnaire   on   their   personal   and   linguistic  background  (languages  known,  amount  of  time  learning  english  (at  school  and/or  extramurally)  as   well   as   a   proficiency   level   test,   consisting   of   the   reading,   listening   and   writing   sections   of   the   cambridge   english   flyers   (see   http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/young-­‐learners-­‐english/flyers/testformat/).   subsequently,  students  worked  in  pairs  to  narrate  a  story  in  english  with  visual  support  provided  by  a  series   of  wordless  pictures.  this   task   type  has  been  widely  used   for  similar  research  purposes  with  primary-­‐  and   secondary-­‐school   children   in   clil   and   non-­‐clil   settings   (i.e.,   arratibel-­‐irazusta   &  martínez-­‐adrián,   2018;   garcía   mayo   &   lázaro   ibarrola,   2015;   lázaro   ibarrola   &   garcía   mayo,   2012;   martínez-­‐adrián,   in   press;   martínez-­‐adrián  &  gutiérrez-­‐mangado,  2015a,  2015b).  these  vignettes  were  selected  from  the  disney  movie   aladdin   (1992)2.   as   for   the   procedure,   12   pictures   were   distributed   to   the   5th   and   6th   graders   (6   to   each   member  of  the  dyad).  at  the  beginning  of  the  task,  participants  could  not  see  each  other.  each  dyad  member   had   to   describe   the   pictures   assigned,   which   had   been   randomly   presented.   then,   working   together,   they   ordered   the   image   and   took   turns   telling   the   story   according   to   the   order   that   they  had   agreed  upon.   the   participants  were  asked  to  perform  the  task  naturally,  drawing  on  all  of  their  available  resources,  without  the   assistant’s  help  for  vocabulary  queries.  even  if  this  type  of  task  has  been  found  to  be  achievable  and  beneficial   for   middle   school   children   (see   garcía   mayo,   2018   for   a   review   of   empirical   findings   related   to   child   interaction  in  task-­‐based  efl  contexts)  and  have  been  used  in  a  wide  range  of  studies  with  young  children  in   an   efl   context   (i.e.,   garcía   mayo   &   lázaro   ibarrola,   2015;   garcía   mayo   &   hidalgo   gordo,   2017;   lázaro   ibarrola  &  azpilicueta  martínez,  2015;  martínez-­‐adrián,  in  press),  prior  to  the  administration  of  the  task,  the   researchers  ensure  that  the  task  was  appropriate  for  the  learners  tested  by  having  several  meetings  with  the                                                                                                                             1  learners  had  one  of  three  profiles:  l1  spanish/l2  basque,  l1  basque/l2  spanish,  l1  spanish/l1  basque.   2  to  avoid  one  student  in  the  dyad  taking  on  a  lead  role,  pairings  were  made  based  on  each  member’s  similar  knowledge   about  the  aladdin  story.       the  use  of  previously  known  languages   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 65   school  teachers.  in  addition,  it  was  piloted  with  similarly  aged  children  so  as  to  detect  potential  problems  and   make  modifications  accordingly.     all   the   narrations   were   videotaped   and   later   on   transcribed   and   codified   in   childes   format   (macwhinney,  2000).  the  oral  data  was  codified  in  terms  of  basque/spanish  use  and  english  use  in  appeals   for   assistance,   clarification   requests,   metacomments   and   discourse   markers,   following   the   categorization   from  our  previous  studies  (see  martínez-­‐adrián,  in  press,  with  primary-­‐school  children;  arratibel-­‐irazusta  &   martínez-­‐adrián,  2018,  2019,  with  secondary-­‐school  learners).  apart  from  that,  the  use  of  private  speech  has   been   incorporated   in   the   present   study   in   line   with   other   investigations   conducted   with   child   learners   (pladevall  ballester  &  vraciu,  2017).  in  what  follows,  a  description  of  the  categories  along  with  illustrations   from  our  database  will  be  provided.     3.2.1.  appeals  for  assistance   appeals   for   assistance   (also  known  as   interactional   strategies,   cenoz,   2003)   are   “direct   or   indirect   appeals  to  the  interlocutor  in  order  to  get  help  to  produce  a  specific  term  in  english  .   .   .  they  are  considered   intentional  and  present  a  marked  interrogative  intonation  pattern”  (cenoz,  2003,  p.  5).  example  1  illustrates   an  appeal  for  assistance  in  spanish  and  example  2  in  english:     1)   ch2:   ¿cómo     se  dice                  señor?   how     do  you  say  man   how     do  you  say  a  man?     2)   ch2:   how  do  you  say  a  magical  thing?  [meaning  lamp]     3.2.2.  clarification  requests   these   are   cases   in   which   the   learner   elicits   clarification   (muñoz,   2007).   example   3   provides   an   example  of  clarification  in  basque  and  example  4  in  english:   3)   ch2:   eh  #     ba  ###    hau     then            this     so,  this?     4)   ch1:   all?     3.2.3.  metacomments   these  are  instances  in  which  the  learner  comments  on  the  communicative  situation  (muñoz,  2007),   as  in  example  5  (use  of  spanish)  and  example  6  (use  of  english):     5)   ch1:   no  sé  esta  misma  es  que  yo  no  me  lo  he  leído.   i  don’t  know  this  one  is  that  i  have  not  read  it   i  don’t  know,  just  this  one,  because  i  haven’t  read  it     6)   ch1:   this  is  the  last  [one].     3.2.4.  discourse  markers   also  called  phatics,  discourse  markers  are  “lexical  items  such  as  well,  so,  you  know,  etc.,  which  do  not   have  meaning  and  whose  basic   function   is   to   facilitate   the   flow  of   speech”   (lázaro   ibarrola  &  garcía  mayo,   2012,  p.  140),  as  shown  in  example  7  (use  of  spanish)  and  example  8  (use  of  english):     7)   ch1:   bueno,  princesa,  eso  es  una  princesa?   well,  princess,  that  is  a  princess     8)   ch2:   and  this  picture,  is  a,  well  there  is  aladdin  and  evil  and  evil  is  eh  eh  attacking  aladdin.     martínez-­‐adrián   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 66   3.2.5.  private  speech   private  speech  refers  to  those  segments  of  the  interaction  primarily  used  for  self-­‐regulatory  purposes   (pladevall   ballester   &   vraciu,   2017),   as   depicted   in   example   9   (use   of   spanish)   and   example   10   (use   of   english):       9)   ch2:   ay  the  umm  the  ay  ay  eh  eeh  #  ay  no  sé  the  eeh  this  (pointing  at  the  character).   ay  the  umm  the  ay  ay  eh  eeh    ay  not  know  the  eeh  this   the  the  i  don’t  know  the  this     10)   ch2:   to  the  ###  i  don’t  know.     to   perform   statistical   analyses,   data   were   entered   into   spss   19   (imb   corp.   2010),   and   both   descriptive   and   inferential   analyses   were   computed.   in   the   case   of   descriptive   analyses,   both   means   and   standard   deviations   were   calculated   for   the   different   categories.   kolmogorov-­‐smirnov   tests   were   run   to   verify   the   normality   of   distribution   of   the   samples.   as   data   did   not   follow   a   normal   distribution,   mann-­‐ whitney  u  tests  were  used  for  inter-­‐group  comparisons  and  friedman  tests  together  with  wilcoxon’s  signed   rank  tests  were  conducted  for  intragroup  comparisons.  statistical  significance  was  indicated  at  the  p  <  .01**   and  p  <  .05*  levels.  marginally  significant  differences  were  indicated  at  the  p  <  .09#  level.     4.  results   to   answer   the   first   two   research   questions,   intergroup   comparisons   regarding   the   use   of   basque/spanish  in  each  category  as  well  as  the  use  of  l3  english  are  provided.  table  2  shows  the  results  for   the  total  use  of  pkl  (spanish/basque).     table 2 spanish/basque use during interaction: descriptive and inferential statistics learner groups instances of spanish/basque use mann-whitney u test z significance clil year 5 m = 17.00 (sd = 16.02) −2.905 **0.004 clil year 6 m = 28.63 (sd = 25.31)   as   can  be   observed   in  table   2,   older  clil   learners  made   a   higher   use   of   pkl.   this   difference  was   highly  significant  from  a  statistical  point  of  view.  the  differences  were  particularly  evident  in  metacomments,   discourse   markers   and   private   speech,   as   depicted   in   table   3.   the   l3   (english)   was   also   used   for   these   categories   in   both   groups   (see   table   4).   the   analysis   of   the   results   indicated   that   both   learner   groups   employed  l3  english  with  the  same  frequency,  except   for   the  category  metacomments   in  which  a  statistical   tendency   was   found   in   favour   of   year   5   learners.   in   order   to   give   an   answer   to   the   last   three   questions,   intragroup   comparisons   were   carried   out.   tables   5-­‐6   display   the   findings   concerning   the   use   of   basque/spanish  compared  to  english  in  each  category.     table 3 instances of basque and spanish use by categories: descriptive and inferential statistics learner groups mann-whitney u test categories clil year 5 clil year 6 z significance appeals m = 4.10 (sd = 3.86) m =3.85 (sd = 2.80) −0.229 0.819 clarification requests m = 1.20 (sd = 2.00) m = 0.93 (sd = 1.54) −0.404 0.686 metacomments m = 7.70 (sd = 9.47) m = 15.48 (sd = 20.42) −2.752 **0.006 discourse markers m = 3.02 (sd = 4.11) m = 6.28 (sd = 6.02) −3.319 **0.001 private speech m = 0.98 (sd = 1.46) m = 2.10 (sd = 2.82) −2.131 *0.033       the  use  of  previously  known  languages   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 67   table 4 instances of l3 english use by categories: descriptive and inferential statistics learner groups mann-whitney u test categories clil year 5 clil year 6 z significance appeals m =0.20 (sd = 0.40) m =0.10 (sd = 0.30) −1.293 0.196 clarification requests m = 0.56 (sd = 0.95) m = 0.30 (sd = 0.56) −0.999 0.318 metacomments m = 14.26 (sd = 10.07) m = 11.30 (sd = 11.46) −1.922 #0.055 discourse markers m = 0.04 (sd = 0.198) m = 0.65 (sd = 3.48) −1.165 0.244 private speech m = 0.96 (sd = 1.52) m = 0.73 (sd = 1.43) −1.216 0.224   table 5 comparison of instances of basque/spanish use to l3 english use by categories in year 5: descriptive and inferential statistics language use wilcoxon rank test categories l1/l2 (spanish/basque) l3 (english) z significance appeals m = 4.10 (sd = 3.86) m = 0.20 (sd = 0.40) −5.381 **0.001 clarification requests m = 1.20 (sd = 2.00) m = 0.56 (sd = 0.95) −1.710 #0.087 metacomments m = 7.70 (sd = 9.47) m = 14.26 (sd = 10.07) −3.204 **0.001 discourse markers m = 3.02 (sd = 4.11) m = 0.04 (sd = 0.198) −5.106 **0.001 private speech m = 0.98 (sd = 1.46) m = 0.96 (sd = 1.52) −0.285 0.775   table 6 comparison of instances of basque/spanish use to l3 english use by categories in year 6: descriptive and inferential statistics language use wilcoxon rank test categories l1/l2 (spanish/basque) l3 (english) z significance appeals m = 3.85 (sd = 2.80) m = 0.10 (sd = 0.30) −5.188 **0.001 clarification requests m = 0.93 (sd = 1.54) m = 0.30 (sd = 0.56) −2.581 *0.010 metacomments m = 15.48 (sd = 20.42) m = 11.30 (sd = 11.46) −0.805 0.421 discourse markers m = 6.28 (sd = 6.02) m = 0.65 (sd = 3.48) −4.726 **0.001 private speech m = 2.10 (sd = 2.82) m = 0.73 (sd = 1.43) −2.840 **0.005   in  both  groups,  the  tendency  was  to  resort  to  their  pkl  more  frequently  than  to  english  in  appeals  for   assistance,  clarification  requests  and  discourse  markers.  this  preference  reached  significance  in  both  groups.  in   the  case  of  private  speech,  no  differences  in  year  5  students,  while  a  significantly  greater  use  of  basque/spanish   was  observed  in  year  6  learners.  as  regards  metacomments,  year  5  students  preferred  to  use  english  in  a  highly   significant  manner,  whereas  the  inexistence  of  significant  differences  was  obtained  in  year  6  students,  a  finding   that  seems  to  indicate  a  more  balanced  use  of  both  languages  in  this  category.  figure  1  depicts  the  descriptive   comparison  of  the  use  of  spanish/basque  in  the  different  categories  among  year  5  students.     figure 1. categories served by basque/spanish in year 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 metacomments appeals discourse markers clarification requests private speech martínez-­‐adrián   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 68   as   illustrated   by   figure   1,  metacomments,   followed  by   appeals   and  discourse  markers,  were  most   commonly   served   by   the   use   of   basque/spanish.   clarification   requests   and   private   speech   were   the   categories  with  the  least  use  of  these  languages.  in  order  to  see  whether  these  differences  were  statistically   significant,   a   friedman’s   test   was   conducted.   statistically   significant   differences   emerged   (chi-­‐ square=324.708;  p-­‐value=0.001),  and  therefore  post-­‐hoc  analyses  were  conducted.  a  wilcoxon’s  signed  rank   test   showed   that   metacomments   significantly   differed   from   the   other   categories.   in   addition,   statistically   significant  differences  were  also  observed  among  appeals,  discourse  markers  and  clarification  requests,  while   no  differences  emerged  between  clarification  requests  and  private  speech.  table  7  presents  the  summary  of   these  results.  the  same  descriptive  analysis  was  carried  out  for  year  6  (figure  2).     table 7 use of basque/spanish: wilcoxon’s signed rank test for year 5 categories z significance clarification requests-appeals −4.842 **0.001 metacomments-appeals −2.432 *0.015 discourse markers-appeals −2.124 *0.034 private speech-appeals −4.753 **0.001 metacomments-clarification requests −5.032 **0.001 discourse markers-clarification requests −3.605 **0.001 private speech-clarification requests −0.621 0.534 discourse markers-metacomments −3.158 **0.002 private speech-metacomments −4.890 **0.001 private speech-discourse markers −4.101 **0.001 figure 2. categories served by basque/spanish in year 6     as  in  year  5,  metacomments  were  the  most  common  manifestation  of  basque/spanish  use,  followed   by   discourse  markers   and   appeals   for   assistance.   the   use   of   these   languages  was   less   common   in   private   speech,   and   even   less   in   clarification   requests.   the   friedman   test   indicated   the   existence   of   significant   differences   across   these   categories   (chi-­‐square=  292.418;  p-­‐value=0.001).   consequently,   post-­‐hoc   analyses   were  conducted.  the  wilcoxon’s  signed  rank  test  (table  8)  confirmed  the  existence  of  significant  differences   between  metacomments  and  the  rest  of  the  categories.  similarly,  the  differences  between  appeals,  discourse   markers,  clarification  requests  and  private  speech  were  significant  or  nearly  significant.  figure  3  shows  the   descriptive  analysis  for  the  use  of  english  in  the  different  categories  explored.           0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 metacomments appeals discourse markers clarification requests private speech the  use  of  previously  known  languages   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 69   table 8 use of basque/spanish: wilcoxon’s signed rank test for year 6 categories z significance clarification requests-appeals −4.443 **0.001 metacomments-appeals −5.144 **0.001 discourse markers-appeals −1.853 #0.064 private speech-appeals −2.876 **0.004 metacomments-clarification requests −5.376 **0.001 discourse markers-clarification requests −4.784 **0.001 private speech-clarification requests −2.465 *0.014 discourse markers-metacomments −3.033 **0.002 private speech-metacomments −5.306 **0.001 private speech-discourse markers −3.904 **0.001     figure 3. categories served by l3 english in year 5 the   use   of   english   was   prevalent   in   metacomments,   while   the   use   of   this   language   in   the   other   categories   was   scarce.   particularly,   the   use   of   english   discourse   markers   was   nearly   non-­‐existent.   the   friedman  test  revealed  the  existence  of  significant  differences  across  these  categories  (chi-­‐square  =  324.708;   p  =  0.001).  a  wilcoxon’s  signed  rank  test  indicated  that  metacomments  significantly  differed  from  the  rest  of   the   categories.   statistically   significant   differences   emerged   among   the   other   categories,   except   for   the   contrast  between  private  speech  and  clarification  requests  (see  table  9).       table 9 use of english: wilcoxon’s signed rank test for year 5 categories z significance clarification requests-appeals −2.640 0.008* metacomments-appeals −6.156 0.001** discourse markers-appeals −2.530 0.011* private speech-appeals −3.571 0.001** metacomments-clarification requests −6.155 0.001** discourse markers-clarification requests −3.342 0.001** private speech-clarification requests −1.335 0.182 discourse markers-metacomments −6.156 0.001** private speech-metacomments −6.141 0.001** private speech-discourse markers −4.073 0.001**   0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 metacomments appeals discourse markers clarification requests private speech martínez-­‐adrián   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 70   figure   4   shows   the   results   for   the   use   of   english   by   year   6   learners.   year   6   students   also   made   substantial   use   of   english   in   metacomments   compared   to   the   other   categories,   in   which   the   use   of   this   language  was   less   frequent.   in   particular,   appeals  were   the   least   frequently   used   category.   the   interaction   among   these   categories  was   significant   (chi-­‐square   =   292.418;  p  =   0.001).   post-­‐hoc   analyses   showed   that   metacomments  significantly  differed  from  the  rest  of  the  categories.  statistically  significant  differences  were   obtained  between  the  rest  of  the  categories,  except  for  the  contrast  between  discourse  markers  and  appeals   for  assistance,  as  well  as  discourse  markers  and  clarification  requests  (table  10).         figure 4. categories served by l3 english in year 6 table 10 use of english: wilcoxon’s signed rank test for year 6 categories z significance clarification requests-appeals −1.890 0.059# metacomments-appeals −5.092 0.001** discourse markers-appeals −0.647 0.518 private speech-appeals −2.724 0.006* metacomments-clarification requests −5.219 0.001** discourse markers-clarification requests −1.016 0.310 private speech-clarification requests −2.041 0.041* discourse markers-metacomments −5.089 0.001** private speech-metacomments −5.164 0.001** private speech-discourse markers −1.771 0.077#   5.  discussion     in  this  section,  the  five  research  questions  of  the  study  will  be  answered.  as  regards  the  first  research   question   (are   there   any   differences   between   both   age/proficiency   groups   in   terms   of   the   amount   of   basque/spanish  use?),  the  intergroup  analysis  showed  a  greater  use  of  pkl  in  year  6  learners,  a  result  in  line   with   findings   from  other  studies  carried  out   in  a  clil  context   (arratibel-­‐irazusta  &  martínez-­‐adrián,  2018;   garcía  mayo  &  hidalgo  gordo,  2017;  garcía  mayo  &  imaz-­‐agirre,  2017;  garcía  mayo  &  lázaro  ibarrola,  2015).   this  greater  use  of  basque/spanish  is  especially  reflected  in  metacomments,  discourse  markers  and  private   speech.   due   to   older   learners’   cognitive   maturity   and   on   economy   grounds,   they   seem   to   make   use   of   strategies   that   are   less   cooperative   and   more   external   to   the   task.   in   fact,   studies   conducted   with   clil   learners   (both   primary-­‐school   learners   and   adolescents)   have   shown   the   use   of   pkl   to   be   prevalent   in   metacomments  and  discourse  markers,  and  this  use  did  not  decrease  as  age  increased  (arratibel-­‐irazusta  &   martínez-­‐adrián,   2018;   gutiérrez-­‐mangado,   2015;   lázaro   ibarrola,   2016)3.   as   regards   more   cooperative                                                                                                                             3   also   note   that   private   speech,   an   underresearched   category   in   clil   studies,   was   also   maintained   over   the   period   examined  in  the  study  by  pladevall  and  vraciu  (2017).   0 2 4 6 8 10 12 metacomments appeals discourse markers clarification requests private speech the  use  of  previously  known  languages   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 71   strategies  (appeals  for  assistance  and  clarification  requests),  the  intergroup  analysis  did  not  yield  statistically   significant   differences.   but   despite   the   inexistence   of   statistically   significant   differences,   the   descriptive   means   point   to   a   greater   use   by   year   5   learners.   in   previous   investigations   with   young   clil   learners   (gutierrez-­‐mangado,  2015),  similar  tendencies  were  observed  for  these  two  categories.  these  strategies  are   more   internal   to   the  task,  and  we  could  claim  that  use  decreases  as  age  and  proficiency   increase.  a  greater   gap   in  proficiency  could   likely  result   in  statistically  significant  differences   in  these  categories.  nevertheless,   the  results  from  the  present  study  contrast  with  lázaro  ibarrola  and  garcía  mayo  (2012).  in  their  longitudinal   study   with   secondary-­‐school   learners   in   which   a   wider   gap   in   proficiency   existed,   l1   use   in   appeals   for   assistance  and  discourse  markers  decreased  as  proficiency  increased.   even   if   a   higher   use   of   basque/spanish   was   observed   in   the   older   group   of   learners,   as   in   other   investigations  with   young  clil   learners   (garcía  mayo  &  hidalgo  gordo,   2017;  garcía  mayo  &   imaz  agirre,   2017;   garcía  mayo   &   lázaro   ibarrola,   2015),   the   underlying   reasons   cited   in   these   investigations   for   this   higher  use  are  not  applicable  to  our  sample.  unlike  the  older  learners  in  these  investigations,  for  whom  the   task  performed  may  not  have  been  very  appealing  or   in  other   cases   (e.g.  when   task   repetition  was  carried   out)  not  so  motivating  the  second  time  they  performed  the  task,  the  older  learners  in  the  present  study  were   highly  engaged  while  carrying  out  the  task.  their  attitude  towards  performing  a  different  task  from  the  one   used   in  the  aforementioned  studies  suggested  that  the  task  was   indeed  attractive  to  them.  thus,  we  cannot   really  argue  that  low  motivation  explains  the  higher  use  of  pkl  on  the  part  of  older  learners.  the  higher  use   of  pkl  by  older  learners  seems  to  be  a  trend  and  deserves  further  investigation  in  future  studies.   with  respect  to  the  second  research  question—are  there  any  differences  between  both  age/proficiency   groups  in  terms  of  the  amount  of  english  use?—both  groups  were  able  to  perform  the  categories  examined  in   english,  a  result   in   line  with  the  bilingual  nature  of   the  educational  programme  in  which  the   learners  were   immersed.  the  use  of  both  basque/spanish  and  english  was  evident  in  the  different  categories.  these  results   contrast   with   the   findings   obtained   in   previous   investigations   with   younger   learners   (martínez-­‐adrián,   in   press)  in  which  similar  categories  were  examined.  in  particular,  metacomments  were  always  produced  in  l1   spanish  in  martínez-­‐adrián  (in  press),  while  both  basque/spanish  and  english  were  employed  in  the  present   study.  the  differences  existing  in  the  clil  programmes  in  which  learners  were  enrolled  in  these  studies  could   account   for   these   results.   in   the   present   study,   learners   received   instruction   in   content   subjects   such   as   science,  arts  and  crafts  and  physical  education  exclusively  in  english.  in  martínez-­‐adrián  (in  press),  years  4   and  6  learners  were  receiving  half  of  their  lessons  in  english  and  half  in  spanish4.     in   terms   of   quantity,   the   intergroup   analysis   revealed   that   english   was   employed   in   similar   proportions  in  years  5  and  6  as  in  previous  investigations  in  which  a  small  gap  in  age  and  proficiency  was  not   so  big  as  to  result  in  statistically  significant  differences  (see  arratibel-­‐irazusta  &  martínez-­‐adrián,  2019,  with   secondary-­‐school   learners   and   oral   production;   martínez-­‐adrián   et   al.,   2019,   with   self-­‐reported   opinions   gathered  from  the  same  sample  tested  in  the  present  study),  except  for  the  metacomments  category  in  which   a  statistical  tendency  was  found  in  favour  of  year  5  learners.  this  result  is  related  to  the  answer  to  the  next   research  question,  which  centered  on  language  preference  in  each  category.  in  the  case  of  this  category,  year   5  preferred  the  use  of  english  over  basque/spanish.  as  neither  interviews  with  the  teachers  of  this  group  of   learners  nor  the  observation  of  the  lessons  were  carried  out,  the  advocacy  for  a  more  english-­‐only  policy  in   the  year  5  group,  which  could  explain  this  result,  remains  tentative.     as   for   the   third   research   question—do   learners   in   each   group   show   a   preference   for   either   basque/spanish  or  english  in  the  categories  analyzed?—  in  year  5  a  significantly  higher  use  of  basque/spanish   was   observed   in   nearly   all   the   categories   except   for   metacomments,   in   which   statistically   significant   differences   emerged   in   favour   of   english  use.  a   similar   pattern  was   attested   in  year  6,   even   though   in   the   category   metacomments,   learners   used   basque/spanish   and   english   in   similar   proportions   given   the   inexistence   of   statistically   significant   differences   in   this   respect.   nevertheless,   even   if   the   analysis   did   not   yield  statistical  significance,  the  descriptive  means  point  to  a  tendency  to  increase  the  use  of  basque/spanish   over  english  in  this  category.     in   general,   the   trend   is   for   learners   to   use  basque/spanish   to   a   greater   extent   than  english   in   the   categories  examined  when   they  are   interacting,  as   it   is   the   language  shared  by  both  members  of   the  dyads   (see  arratibel-­‐irazusta  &  martínez-­‐adrián,  2018  and  lázaro  ibarrola,  2016  for  similar  results  in  the  category                                                                                                                             4  also  note  that  the  present  study  and  martínez-­‐adrián  (in  press)  differ  in  design,  as  martínez-­‐adrián  (in  press)  compared   clil  to  non-­‐clil  learners  in  years  4  and  6,  no  inferential  analysis  was  carried  out  when  contrasting  the  use  of  english  and   spanish,  and  the  task  performed,  although  similar  in  procedure,  differed  in  terms  of  the  visual  stimuli  employed.   martínez-­‐adrián   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 72   discourse  markers).  however,  the  category  metacomments  deserves  further  examination  as  a  preference  for   english   existed   among   year-­‐5   students   and   a   more   balanced   use   of   basque/spanish   and   english   was   observed   in   year-­‐6   learners.   what   these   results   reveal   is   that   english   is   special   for   the   performance   of   metacomments.  this  category   is  specifically   linked  to   the  task  procedure.  learners  use  english  to  a  greater   extent   or   as   much   as   they   use   basque/spanish   when   they   have   to,   among   other   things,   move   the   task   forward,when  they  have  to  classifiy  the  pictures  or  when  they  have  to  order  them.  in  this  respect,  the  more   functional   use   of   english   is   observed.   we   should   not   overlook   the   fact   that   english   is   a   language   of   communication  rather  than  an  object  of  study  in  clil  programmes  (martínez-­‐adrián  &  gutiérrez-­‐mangado,   2015a),   which   could   explain   the   use   of   english   for   metacognitive   purposes.   this   result   also   aligns   with   martínez-­‐adrián   et   al.’s   study   (2019)   in   which   the   preference   for   the   use   of   english   in   paraphrases   was   evident   in   the   same   learners’   self-­‐reported   opinions.   in   that   study,   this  was   explained   in   light   of   the   input   provided  to  clil  learners  and  the  fact  that  learners  use  the  foreign  language  as  a  means  of  communication,   which  might  lead  them  to  manipulate  the  tl  to  a  higher  rate  compared  to  mainstream  learners.  even  if  the   use  of  english  in  paraphrases  or  descriptions  is  slightly  different  from  its  use  in  metacomments,  what  seems   to  be  clear  is  that  the  use  of  english  as  a  language  of  communication  in  clil  lessons  may  be  the  underlying   reason  for  both  episodes.     if  we  tackle  the  differences  between  year  5  and  year  6  learners  in  terms  of  metacomments,  even  if  we   observed  a  similar  use  of  basque/spanish  and  english  in  year  6  learners,  the  tendency  seems  to  augment  the   use   of   their   pkl.   it   seems   as   if   these   year   6   learners   were   more   practical   and   were   guided   by   economy   principles  to  solve  the  task  in  a  faster  way  (lin,  2015).  this  is  not  surprising  as  the  same  learners  in  year  6   were   found   to   show   a   preference   for   more   communicative   options,   such   as   borrowings,   to   avoid   communication  breakdowns  in  the  self-­‐report  questionnaire  administered  to  them  in  martínez-­‐adrián  et  al.   (2019).   in   fact,   other   studies   with   primary-­‐school   learners   have   reported   similar   tendencies   (gutiérrez-­‐ mangado,   2015)   and   the   same   applies   to   secondary-­‐school   learners   (arratibel-­‐irazusta  &  martínez-­‐adrián,   2018).  on  the  other  hand,  year  5  learners  seem  to  be  more  conservative  by  using  the  language  of  instruction   to  a  greater  extent  while  making  comments  related  to  the  task.  however,  this  argument  remains  tentative  due   to  the  lack  of  questionnaires  or  interviews  carried  out  with  these  learners  and  their  teachers  about  the  use  of   basque/spanish   and   english   in   their   classes.   the   use   of   more   qualitative   data   on   the   language   policy   implemented  in  each  class  would  undoubtedly  illuminate  the  discussion  of  the  results.     all  in  all,  what  these  results  seem  to  evince  is  that,  even  if  english  is  widely  used  in  metacomments,   basque/spanish   use   overrides   the   use   of   english   in   the   rest   of   the   categories.   this   aligns   with   previous   research   studies   in   which   previously   known   language-­‐based   strategies   coexist   with   the   use   of   tl-­‐based   strategies   (arratibel-­‐irazusta   &   martínez-­‐adrián,   2019;   martínez-­‐adrián,   in   press;   martínez-­‐adrián   et   al.,   2019;   pladevall   ballester   &   vraciu,   2017).   this   suggests   that   these   learners   are   functioning   in   a   bilingual   mode,  rather  than  in  a  monolingual  mode  (martínez-­‐adrián,  in  press).   in  response  to  the  fourth  research  question—among  the  categories  examined,  which  ones  are  the  most   commonly  served  by  basque/spanish?—metacomments  are  the  most  common  manifestation  of  the  use  of  pkl,   followed  by  appeals   for   assistance   and  discourse  markers   in  year  5.  a   similar   result   is   obtained   in  year  6.   these  are  the  functions  characterized  by  a  greater  use  of  the  l1  in  previous  investigations  with  both  children   (azkarai  &  garcía  mayo,   2017;   garcía  mayo  &  hidalgo  gordo,   2017;  martínez-­‐adrián,   in   press)   and   adults   (alegría   de   la   colina   &   garcía   mayo,   2009;   arratibel-­‐irazusta   &   martínez-­‐adrián,   2018;   azkarai   &   garcía   mayo,  2015;  storch  &  aldosari,  2010).  the  use  of  basque/spanish  in  metacomments  allowed  the  learners  to   progress   in   their   completion   of   the   task   and   comply   with   task   requirements.   similarly,   the   use   of   these   languages  in  appeals  for  assistance  regarding  deliberations  over  vocabulary  and  in  discourse  markers  to  keep   the  flow  of  speech  prevented  them  from  communication  breakdowns.  in  fact,  the  use  of  appeals  for  assistance   was  also  one  of  the  strategies  that  ranked  higher  in  frequency  in  the  self-­‐report  questionnaire  administered   to  the  same  learners  in  martínez-­‐adrián  et  al.  (2019).     the   least   used   functions   were   clarification   requests   and   private   speech.   the   lower   use   of   l1s   in   clarification   requests   has   also   been   attested   in   research   with   younger   learners   (azkarai   &   garcía   mayo,   2017).  private  speech   is   similarly  uncommon   in  other   investigations  with  children   (garcía  mayo  &  hidalgo   gordo,  2017)  as  well  as  in  studies  with  adults  conducted  in  an  efl  setting  (alegría  de  la  colina  &  garcía  mayo,   2009).     finally,  in  response  to  the  last  research  question—among  the  categories  examined,  which  ones  are  the   most   commonly   served   by   english?—metacomments   were   the   most   productive   category   in   both   years.   students   employed   the   language   of   instruction,   which   together   with   spanish,   was   also   used   for   task   the  use  of  previously  known  languages   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 73   management.   this   finding   could   be   related   to   the   use   of   the   tl   in   clil   programmes   with   a   meaningful   purpose.  however,   the  use  of  english   is  uncommon   in  discourse  markers  and  appeals   for  assistance.  other   studies   have   also   reported   the   inexistence   of   english   discourse   markers   in   clil   learners’   discourse   (arratibel-­‐irazusta  &  martínez-­‐adrián,  2018;  lázaro  ibarrola,  2016).  likewise,  when  learners  noticed  a  gap  in   knowledge   while   interacting,   they   preferred   to   use   basque/spanish   rather   than   english,   so   the   communicative   flow  of   speech  would  not  be   interrupted  and  doubts   concerning  vocabulary   items  could  be   solved  much  more  effectively  and  efficiently.  in  this  fashion,  the  message  can  be  conveyed.       6.  conclusion   the  goal  of  this  study  has  been  to  examine  the  use  of  pkl  (basque  and  spanish)  and  the  tl  (english)   in  appeals  for  assistance,  clarification  requests,  metacomments,  discourse  markers  and  private  speech  in  two   different   age/proficiency   groups   of   primary   school   learners   (grades   5   and   6)   immersed   in   a   clil   context,   while   performing   a   communicative   task   in   pairs.   in   terms   of   amount,   there  were   differences   between   age   groups,  with  greater  use  of  pkl  among  the  older  learners,  especially  in  less  cooperative  strategies  and  those   more  external   to   the   task  (metacomments,  discourse  markers  and  private  speech).  as   for   the  use  of   the  tl   (english),   the   analysis   indicated   that   both   age   groups   behaved   in   a   similar   way,   except   with   regard   to   metacomments,  which  younger  learners  used  slightly  more  frequently.  the  intragroup  analysis  revealed  that   both  age  groups  resorted  to  basque/spanish  more  frequently  than  to  english,  except   for  metacomments,   in   which   the   younger   group   preferred   to   use   english,   while   older   learners  made   use   of   basque/spanish   and   english   in   similar   proportions.   the   fact   that   english   has   a   more   functional   use   in   clil   settings,   as   the   language   of   communication   in   these   meaning-­‐oriented   settings,   could   account   for   the   use   of   english   for   metacognitive  purposes  by  these  learners  during  dyadic  interaction.  in  terms  of  types,  a  similar  pattern  was   observed  as  regards  the  most  common  manifestation  of  basque/spanish  use  and  english  use.  metacomments,   followed  by  discourse  markers  and  appeals  for  assistance  were  the  categories  most  commonly  served  by  pkl.   in  the  case  of  tl  use,  metacomments  were  widely  employed.  what  this  analysis  indicates  is  that  learners  use   their   language  repertoire  for  task-­‐management  purposes,  a   finding  which  could  be  ascribed  to  the  bilingual   nature  of  the  clil  programme  in  which  they  were  immersed.     in  the  light  of  the  results,  two  main  pedagogical  implications  may  be  drawn.  the  examination  of  the   findings   has   shown   the   beneficial   effect   of   clil   on   the   learners’   use   of   their   language   repertoire   for   task-­‐ management   purposes.   however,   the   less   balanced   use   of   their   pkl   and   the   tl   attested   in   appeals   for   assistance   indicates   the   need   for   more   tl-­‐based   strategies   (i.e.,   use   of   synonyms,   descriptions,   reformulations)  among  students  or  the  enhancement  of  paraphrasing  during  teachers’  discourse,  which  could   provide  students  with  rich  and  repeated  modeling  (dalton-­‐puffer,  2016,  as  cited  in  pavón  &  ramos,  2019).  it   is  not  a  matter  of  banning  the  use  of  their  pkl,  but  of  making  students  aware  of  other  strategies  that  could   help   them   during   interaction   when   they   might   feel   stuck.   similarly,   more   systematic   activities   aimed   at   practicing   tl   lexical   discourse   markers   could   promote   the   development   of   more   natural   speech.   taken   together,  these  two  measures  could  boost  learners’  flow  of  speech  in  the  tl.  by  integrating  the  development   of  strategy  use  in  the  curriculum,  we  would  be  contributing  to  a  more  balanced  use  of  learners’  pkl  and  the   tl,  as  advocated  by  recent  research  (see  martínez-­‐adrián,  gutiérrez-­‐mangado,  &  gallardo-­‐del-­‐puerto,  2019).   in   other  words,   gradually   bridging   pkl   and   the   tl   in   the   everyday/academic   register   could   lead   to  more   optimal   communication   and   maximize   the   effectiveness   of   clil   in   terms   of   both   content   and   language   learning  (lo  &  lin,  2019).   for   future  research,  as   indicated   in  martínez-­‐adrián  et  al.   (2019),   statistical  correlations  should  be   conducted   between   learners’   self-­‐reported   opinions   and   their   performance   during   oral   interaction.   in   general,  a  call   for  more  research  along  these   lines  has  been  made   in   the   literature  (gao,  2007).  this   line  of   research  is  especially  inexistent  in  studies  on  young  learners.  similarly,  longitudinal  investigations  will  shed   more  light  on  how  the  use  of  pkl  and  the  tl  evolve  over  time.  likewise,  more  qualitative  data  (observations,   interviews   with   both   learners   and   teachers   in   different   subjects)   would   elucidate   some   of   the   arguments   provided  in  the  discussion  of  the  results.  the  impact  of  different  types  of  pairings  and  task-­‐modality  effects   are  also  worth  investigating  so  as  to  explore  the  best  learning  conditions  for  young  learners.  finally,  a  follow-­‐ up   study   comparing   the   performance   of   clil   to   non-­‐clil   leaners   will   allow   us   to   reach   more   robust   conclusions  concerning  the  effect  of  more  intense  and  meaningful  input  during  clil  lessons.         martínez-­‐adrián   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  59-­‐77 74   acknowledgements   the   author   would   like   to   acknowledge   the   grants   awarded   by   the   spanish   ministry   of   economy   and   competitiveness   (ffi2012-­‐32212)   and   (ffi2016-­‐74950-­‐p)(aei/feder/ue),   the   university   of   the   basque   country  (upv/ehu)  (ufi  11/06)  and  the  basque  government  (it904-­‐16).         references   agustín  llach  ,  maría  del  pilar  (2014).  l1  use  in  children  efl  learners  in  traditional 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university of the basque country maria.martineza@ehu.eus en maría martínez-adrián is an associate professor at the upv/ehu and a member of the laslab group (www.laslab.org), highlighted by the basque government for excellence in research. she has co-edited the volume contemporary approaches to second language acquisition published by john benjamins (spanish association of applied linguistics award 2014), a special issue on l1 use in clil/cbi settings published by the international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, and the monograph crosslinguistic influence: from empirical evidence to classroom practice published by springer. her work has appeared in books published by multilingual matters and springer, as well as in journals such as resla, ijes, itl, jicb, ltr, eujal, iral and injal, among others. es maría martínez-adrián ejerce como profesora titular en la upv/ehu y es miembro del grupo consolidado de excelencia laslab (www.laslab.org),. ha coeditado el volumen contemporary approaches to second language acquisition [acercamientos contemporáneos a la adquisición de segundas lenguas] publicado por john benjamins (premio de la asociación española de lingüística aplicada, 2014), una edición especial sobre el uso de la l1 en entornos aicle/ibc publicada por el international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism [revista internacional de educación bilingüe y bilingüismo], y la monografía crosslinguistic influence: from empirical evidence to classroom practice [influencia interlingüística: de la evidencia empírica a la práctica en el aula] publicada por springer. asimismo, cuenta con capítulos de libro publicados por multiligual matters y springer, al igual que artículos en revistas académicas como resla, ijes, itl, jicb, ltr, eujal, iral y injal, entre otras. it maría martínez-adrián è professoressa associata all'upv/ehu e membro del gruppo laslab (www.laslab.org), lodato dal governo basco per eccellenza nella ricerca. ha co-curato il volume contemporary approaches to second language acquisition pubblicato da john benjamins (premio dell'associazione spagnola di linguistica applicata 2014), un fascicolo speciale sull'uso di l1 in contesti clil/cbi pubblicato dall'international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, e la monografia crosslinguistic influence: from empirical evidence to classroom practice pubblicata da springer. il suo lavoro è apparso in libri pubblicati da multilingual matters e springer, oltre che, tra l’altro, su riviste come resla, ijes, itl, jicb, ltr, eujal, iral e injal.   microsoft word 6.porter_7.1.docx euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  7,  issue  1,  february  2020,  78-­‐107   issn  2376-­‐905x     doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.11.187   www.e-­‐journall.org     © porter 2020. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       learning  french  sound/spelling  links     in  english  primary  school  classrooms         alison  porter   university  of  southampton         received  1  may  2019;  received  in  revised  form  12  july  2019;  accepted  30  september  2019   abstract en two classes (n = 45) of 9to 11-year-old children in different english primary schools experienced weekly french phonics instruction as part of a foreign language (fl) learning programme. the underpinning rationale of the phonics instruction was that systematic and explicit fl phonics could contribute to the development of fl phonological decoding, operationalised as reading aloud individual word cards. the study explored progression in learning french sound/spelling links over this period with data from a sub-sample of students (n = 23) from both classes. additional variables such as fl general proficiency and fl literacy, as well as l1 reading age, spelling age, and teacher assessed literacy levels were collected to explore relationships with the development of french phonological decoding. this study found that french sound/spelling links developed slowly but showed significant gains between midand post-test and that learning appeared resistant to attrition evidenced by delayed post-test scores. successful phonological decoders were likely to be successful fl learners generally and proficient in l1 literacy. key words: young fl learners, early fl literacy instruction, fl phonics es dos clases (n = 45) de niños de 9-11 años en diferentes escuelas primarias de inglés experimentaron semanalmente instrucción fónica francesa como parte de un programa de una lengua extranjera (le). este modelo pedagógico se implementó porque la instrucción fonética sistemática y explícita de una le podría contribuir al desarrollo de la decodificación fonológica en la le, esta última medida en la lectura en voz alta de tarjetas de una sola palabra. el estudio observó la progresión en el aprendizaje de sonido/ortografía con datos de una submuestra de estudiantes (n = 23) de ambas clases. otras variables fueron consideradas para observar su correlación con el desarrollo de la decodificación fonológica en francés: el nivel de competencia lingüística y alfabetización en la le, el nivel de lectura en la primera lengua, el nivel de ortografía y los niveles de alfabetización del profesor. con este estudio se descubrió que la relación sonido-grafía se desarrolló despacio, pero con resultados positivos entre las pruebas durante y después de la instrucción. además, el aprendizaje se resistió al fenómeno de atrición, como mostraron los resultados de las segundas pruebas después de la instrucción. los que decodificaban los aspectos fonológicos con éxito tenían más probabilidades de aprender una le con éxito y con una competencia avanzada en su lengua materna. palabras clave: jóvenes estudiantes de le, aprendizaje temprano de una le, instrucción fónica en la le it come parte di un programma per l’apprendimento di una lingua straniera (ls), due classi (n = 45) di bambini tra i 9 e gli 11 anni in due scuole primarie inglesi hanno sperimentato settimanalmente lezioni di francese con il metodo fonetico. l’ipotesi alla base del metodo è che l’istruzione fonetica sistematica ed esplicita in ls contribuisca allo sviluppo della decodificazione fonologica in ls espressa dalla lettura ad alta voce di schede con una singola parola. lo studio analizza la progressione nell’apprendimento della corrispondenza fonema/grafema attraverso i dati di un sotto-campione di studenti (n = 23) ins entrambe le classi. sono stati raccolti dati aggiuntivi relativi a variabili quali la competenza complessiva e l’alfabetizzazione in ls, insieme all’età di lettura in l1, l’età di scrittura e il livello di alfabetizzazione, stabilito dall’insegnante, al fine di analizzarne il rapporto con lo sviluppo della decodificazione fonologica in francese. da questo studio emerge che le corrispondenze fonema/grafema in francese si sviluppano lentamente ma evidenziano progressi significativi tra il test in itinere e il post-test e che quanto appreso pare resistere all’attrito come dimostrato dai punteggi del post-test differito. inoltre, è risultato che apprendenti abili nella decodificazione fonologica avessero un’alta probabilità di essere apprendenti di ls complessivamente competenti e con un alto livello di alfabetizzazione in l1. parole chiave: giovani apprendenti di ls, alfabetizzazione in una ls, metodo fonetico in una ls *  alison  porter,  university  of  southampton                  a.porter@soton.ac.uk learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 79   1.  literature  review   1.1.  the  importance  of  fl  literacy  in  england       foreign   language   study   is   now   compulsory   in   english   primary   schools   and   was   included   in   the   primary   national   curriculum   (dfe,   2013)   from   key   stage   2   (ages   7-­‐11).   the   curriculum   aims   to   develop   practical   communication   skills   in   one   language,   to   create   foundational   language   skills   as   preparation   for   ongoing   language   learning   and   to   develop   cultural   and   intercultural   awareness.   it   includes   fl   literacy   (reading  and  writing)  and  requires  children  to  “discover  and  develop  an  appreciation  of  a  range  of  writing”   (p.   193),   as  well   as   practical   skills   such   as:   understanding   and   responding   to  written,   authentic   text   (dfe,   2013).  there   are   specific   attainment   targets  which   relate   to   reading   for  meaning   and   reading   aloud  which   include  the  ability  to  link  sounds,  spellings  and  word  meaning.       the   importance   of   fl   literacy   as   a   component   of   the   development   of   practical   language   skills   and   cultural   awareness   is  widely   accepted   (koutsompou,   2015).   however,   little   is   known   about   the   efficacy   of   particular  approaches   to   teaching   literacy   in  fl   school   settings   such  as   in   the  uk.  research  has   found   that   reading   strategy   instruction   supported   reading   comprehension   and   fl   motivation   in   english   secondary   schools   (macaro  &  erler,  2008)  and  reading  comprehension   in  english  primary  schools   (macaro  &  mutton,   2009).  a  recent,   large-­‐scale  project  in  secondary  schools  examined  to  what  extent  three  different  pedagogic   approaches—phonics  instruction,  strategy  instruction,  or  text  experience  without  explicit  instruction—could   contribute  to  fl  (french)  linguistic  and  non-­‐linguistic  outcomes.  all  approaches  noted  statistically  significant   improvements   in  fl  reading  aloud,  fl  vocabulary,  and  fl  reading  comprehension  (woore,  graham,  porter,   courtney,  &  savory,  2018).  however,   the  phonics   group  made  more  progress   at  fl   reading  aloud   than   the   other   conditions,   and   the   strategies   group   improved  most   for   self-­‐efficacy   in  french   reading   (woore  et   al.,   2018).         learning  fl   sound/spelling   links   in  english   schools   is   noted   to  develop   slowly   (cable   et   al.,   2010;   woore,   2011)   and   unsystematically   (woore,   2011).   french   reading   aloud  was   particularly   problematic   for   primary   school   learners,  who   tended   to   be   influenced   by   knowledge   and   application   of   l1   sound/spelling   links   (cable   et   al.,   2010;   porter,   2014).   similarly,   in   secondary   schools,  woore   (2007)   found   that   after   18   phonics   lessons   only   the   two   strongest   l1   readers   made   successful,   unscaffolded   analogies   to   single   graphemes.  he  also  noted  that  the  weaker  l1  readers  tended  to  use  larger  syllabic  units  and  attributed  this  to   less  well-­‐developed  phonemic  awareness.  in  other  words,  a  period  of  focused  fl  phonics  instruction  did  not   appear  to  compensate  for  the  influence  of  l1  knowledge  and  skills.       as  fl   reading  and  writing  are   important   in   the  development  of  fl   skills   and  attitudes   towards  fl   learning,   it   is  essential   that  research  continues  to   investigate  the  effectiveness  of  particular  pedagogic   tools   and   the  process  of   learning   literacy   in  fl   classrooms.  phonics   is  often  practised,   as   a  pedagogic   tool,   in  fl   settings  based  on   assumptions   grounded   in   the  popularity   of   phonics   instruction   in  l1  english   classrooms   and  evidence   concerning   its   contribution   to  word   recognition   skills   in   alphabetic   languages   (adams,  1990;   castles,   rastle   &   nation,   2018).   from   a   process   perspective,   whilst   l2   reading   has   been   researched   and   theorised   with   bilingual   and   multilingual   populations,   there   is   little   evidence   about   the   processes   or   outcomes   for   learning   to   read   in  fl   settings.  again,   assumptions   cannot  be  made   that  pedagogic   tools   and   learning   processes   identified   in   l1   and   l2   settings  will   be   readily   transferable   to   beginner   fl   classrooms,   known  to   lack  the  rich  and  regular   input  which  supports   learning  in  l1  and  l2  settings  (garton,  copland  &   burns,  2011;  graham  et  al.,  2017).       1.2.  learning  to  read  in  a  first  language  (l1):  the  importance  of  word  recognition       it  is  now  widely  accepted  that  rapid  and  accurate  word  recognition  is  a  fundamental  skill  in  reading   for  meaning  (adams,  1990;  oakhill  &  beard,  1999;  stanovich  &  stanovich,  1999;  vellutino  &  fletcher,  2005).   word  recognition  is  accessed  by  either  a)  decoding  spellings  into  sounds  then  retrieving  meaning  (sub-­‐lexical   route)  or  b)  retrieving  meaning  directly  from  spellings  (lexical  route)  (castles,  rastle,  &  nation,  2018).       1.2.1.  the  process  of  developing  l1  word  recognition       phonological   decoding,   involving   the   mapping   of   letters   or   groups   of   letters   onto   corresponding   sounds  (ziegler,  perry,  &  zorzi,  2014),  is  essential  in  word  recognition.  sight  word  recognition  is  believed  to   develop   in  stages  or  “overlapping  waves”  of  phonological  decoding,  starting  with  a  partial  alphabetic  phase   where  connections  are  made  between  a  few  sounds  and  their  corresponding  letters,  usually  initial  and  final   consonants  (ehri,  2014,  p.  5;  ehri,  1999).  this  development  is  accompanied  by  spelling  development  which   porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 80   starts   with   written   words   generated   from   a   relatively   small   number   of   learned   letters   e.g.   giraffe   =   jrf   (castles   et   al.,   2018).  development   of   links   between   sound   and  print   is   known   as   “orthographic  mapping”   (ehri,  2014:  5)  or  “orthographic  learning”  and  comprises  both  word-­‐specific  links  between  sound  and  print,   along   with   awareness   of   the   probabilistic   occurrence   of   letters   and   letter   combinations   in   a   particular   language  (castles  et  al.,  2018,  p.  19).  eventually  “spellings,  pronunciations  and  meanings  of  specific  words  in   memory”  are  bound  together  and  written  word  meaning  is  accessed  directly  in  memory  rather  than  indirectly   through  decoding  (ehri,  1999,  pp.  88-­‐96;  ehri  1992,  p.  108).       1.2.2.  l1  phonological  decoding  and  word  recognition       phonological   decoding   is   also   believed   to   influence   how   representations   of   written   words   are   formed/stored   in   memory,   and   it   remains   accessible   even   in   skilled   readers   (castles   et   al.,   2018).   share   (1999)   suggests   that   phonological   decoding   is   “item-­‐based”   or   depends   on   frequency   of   exposure   to,   and   active   decoding   of,   written   forms   (p.   96).   in   other   words,   phonological   decoding   supports   the   learning   of   written  forms  of  words  throughout  all  stages  of  reading  development  (the  self  teaching  hypothesis;  share,   1999).  phonological  decoding  of  embedded  non-­‐words  whilst  reading  connected  texts  was  found  to  support   children’s   word   recognition   and   spelling   (share,   1999;   ricketts,   bishop,   pimperton,   &   nation,   2011).   the   process  of  actively  decoding  the  written  form  seems  to  lead  to  improved  “lexical  quality”  and  the  “precise”  yet   “flexible”   mental   storage   of   written   forms   (castles   et   al.,   2018,   p.   21).   kaefer   (2016)   too   posits   that   phonological  decoding  activates  explicit  awareness  of  orthographic  knowledge  (spelling,  word  recognition)  in   early  readers  (mean  age  5  years  10  months).       1.3.  learning  to  read  in  a  first  language  (l1):  skills  that  underpin  phonological  decoding       in   an   l1,   word   recognition   involves   “turning   listeners   into   readers”   (stuart,   masterson,   &   dixon,   1999,  p.  100),  and  the  phonological  decoding  processes  outlined  previously  are  predicated  on  learned  skills   involving   “lower   level   verbal   processing   mechanisms”   (koda,   1992,   pp.   52-­‐57)   such   as   phonological   awareness,   phonological   recoding,   and   verbal   working   memory   (mcbride   chang   &   ho,   2005,   p.   119).   phonological  awareness   is   “one  of   the  best  predictors  of   literacy  outcomes”  (henbest  &  apel,  2017,  p.  304)   and   involves   the   ability   to   segment   and   manipulate   spoken   words   (verhoeven,   2011).   this   sensitivity   involves  skills  such  as  syllable  identification,  the  ability  to  manipulate  (delete/exchange)  phonemes  in  spoken   words,  and  sensitivity   to  onset-­‐rime,  or  sounds  before  and  after   the  nucleus  of  a  syllable  (antony,  lonigan,   driscoll,  phillips,  burgess,  &  cantor,  2002,  pp.  68,  87).  these  skills  are  deemed  essential  in  recognising  how   sounds   map   onto   their   respective   letters   (ehri,   1999,   p.   102).   morphological   awareness   or   the   ability   to   identify,   reflect   on,   and   manipulate   the   smallest   units   of   meaning   are   also   an   important   factor   in   word   recognition,   spelling,   and   reading   comprehension   (apel,   wilson-­‐fowler,   brimo,   &   perrin,   2012;   deacon   &   kirby,  2004).     1.4.  teaching  word  recognition:  the  role  of  phonics  in  l1  english  reading  instruction       phonics   instruction   is   currently   practised   in  many   english   l1   school   education   contexts   (england,   usa,   canada,   australia,   new   zealand)   as   a   means   of   developing   foundational   reading   skills   through   phonological   decoding   (department  of  education,   science  &  training,   2005;  national  reading  panel,   2000;   the  rose  review,  2006).  whilst  phonics-­‐only  approaches  to  teaching  early  reading  remain  contentious  (wyse   &   styles,   2007),   there   is   evidence   that   teaching   approaches   which   combine   phonics   or   code   instruction   (sound/letter  links)  with  meaning-­‐focused  activities  (understanding  text)  resulted  in  faster  reading  progress   in  primary  school  children  (adams,  1990;  chall,  1967).  meta-­‐analyses  of  experimental  research  have   found   that   systematic   phonics   instruction   which   promotes   the   learning   of   sound/letter   links   in   targeted   and   sequenced   programmes,   had   a   statistically   significant   effect   on   reading   accuracy   (ehri,   nunes,   stahl,   &   willows,   2001;   torgerson,   brooks,   &   hall,   2006),   reading   comprehension   (ehri   et   al.,   2001),   and   spelling   (ehri  et  al.,  2001).         commercial   phonics   packages   such   as   jolly   phonics   (lloyd  &  wernham,   1992)   or   read  write   inc.   phonics   (miskin,  2011)  promote  pedagogic   routines   involving  production  of   isolated  phonemes   to  segment   sounds  in  spoken  words,  picture  mnemonics  to  memorise  letters  and  exemplar  words  which  model  the  target   sound/spelling   links.   these   activities   are   supported   by   research   which   showed   that   articulatory   gestures   supported  memorisation  of  sound/spelling  links  and  word  reading  performance  when  coupled  with  practice   in   segmenting  words   (boyer  &  ehri,   2011)   and   that   letter  names   supported  by  picture  mnemonics   lead   to   faster   learning   of   sound/spelling   links   (shmidman  &  ehri,   2010).  however,   as   phonics   instruction   “instils”   learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 81   rather   than   “installs”   the   code   (gough   &  wren,   1999,   p.   75),   it   is   essential   that   phonics-­‐related   skills   are   operationalised   through   reading   aloud   which   involves   applying   sound/spelling   links   knowledge   (hatcher,   hulme,   &   ellis,   1994).   recall   that   this   is   likely   to   lead   to   fine-­‐quality   lexical   representations   stored   in   the   learner’s  memory  (castles  et  al.,  2018).  it  is  further  argued  that  frequent  and  diverse  read  aloud  texts  support   word  recall  and  new  word  spelling  (rosenthal  &  ehri,  2011).         to   conclude,   systematic   phonics   instruction   supports   word   recognition   and   is   therefore   recommended  by  researchers  as  a  valuable  pedagogic  tool  in  l1  literacy  development  (castles  et  al.,  2018).  it   is   also   important   to   note   that,   as   the   ultimate   goal   of   any   reading   instruction   programme   is   reading   comprehension,   secure   and   automatized   word   recognition   is   only   one   part   of   a   complex   developmental   process.   other   factors   likely   to   influence   reading   comprehension   outcomes   include   oral   language,   parsing,   inferring,   comprehension  monitoring,  exposure   to  print,  morphological  awareness,   reading  motivation,  and   cognitive  resources  such  as  working  memory  (castles  et  al.,  2018;  perfetti  &  stafura,  2014).       1.5.  learning  to  read  in  an  l2   1.5.1.  a  repeated  process  –  shared,  underlying  skills  and  knowledge       learning  to  read  in  a  second  or  additional  language  is  a  “repeated  process”  (koda,  2008,  p.  74)  and   involves  a  constantly  active  “two  language  processing  system”  (grabe  &  stoller,  2002,  p.  35).  research  in  bi-­‐ /multi-­‐lingual   settings  has  determined   that   some   foundational   l1  decoding   related   skills   are   evident   in  l2   literacy  development.  l1  phonological  awareness  supported  children’s  l2  reading  development  (durgunoğlu,   nagy,  &  hancin-­‐bhatt,  1993)  and  predicted  l2  word  reading  skills  (lesaux  et  al.,  2008).  opinions  vary  as  to   whether  these  l1  resources  are  available  in  the  early  stages  of  l2  oral  development  (genesee,  geva,  dressler   &   kamil,   2008,   p.   68)   or   whether   a   particular   level   of   l2   competence   is   required   (interdependence   hypothesis;  cummins,  1979).         however,  it   is  important  to  note  that  differences  in  orthographies  and  syllabic  structures  as  well  as   participant  age  are  likely  to  play  a  role  in  cross-­‐linguistic  transfer  of  l1  literacy  skills  (genesee  et  al.,  2008).   for  example,  goswami  (2006)  posits   that  readers  of  l1  english   learn  to  map  sounds  with   letters   in  chunks   (psycholinguistic  grain  size  theory)  due   to   the   consistency  of  english  at   rime   level.  on   the  other  hand,  l1   readers  of  more  transparent  orthographies  such  spanish,  with  consistent  1:1  mappings  between  sound  and   print,  will  have  recourse  first  to  decoding  at  the  individual  phoneme  level  (landerl,  2006,  p.  518).         interestingly,   in   fl   settings,   a   bi-­‐directional   influence   for   foundational   l1   literacy   skills   has   been   noted.  clusters  of  l1  skills  such  as  spelling,  word  decoding,  phonological  awareness,  vocabulary,  and  reading   comprehension   influenced   fl   attainment   and   aptitude   in   high   school   (sparks   &   ganschow,   2012;   sparks,   patton,  ganschow,  &  humbach,  2009).  these  researchers  had  earlier  identified  that  similar  l1  skills  acted  as  a   foundation  for  l2  proficiency,  arguing  that  weak  phonological  processing  could  negatively  influence  both  l1   and  l2   learning   (linguistic   coding  deficit  hypothesis;   sparks  &  ganschow,  1991).  research   in   younger  fl   classrooms  has  evidenced  bi-­‐directionality  of  phonological  awareness  influence,  finding  that  l2  phonological   awareness   can   also   support   the  development   of   l1  phonological   awareness   in   learners   aged  7-­‐8   (murphy,   macaro,  alba,  &  cipolla,  2014).     1.5.2.  a  different  process-­‐  new  sounds  and  new  mappings       word   recognition   and   phonological   decoding   rests   upon   phonological   awareness   (deemed   transferable)   but   also   on   orthographic   mapping   or   the   development   of   links   between   sounds   and   their   respective   letters   (ehri,   2014).   in   an   l1,   these   sounds   are   already   secure   and   just   need   to   be  mapped   to   letters.  however,  in  an  l2  or  fl,  sounds  and  letters  will  either  need  to  be  learned  “from  scratch”  (i.e.,  new  fl   sounds  linked  to  new  fl  letter/s)  or  re-­‐mapped  (i.e.  existing  letters/sounds  linked  to  different  counterparts).         in   terms   of   remapping,   koda   (2007)   argues   for   a   process   where   l1   knowledge   and   skills   are   transformed  into  additional  l2  competencies  through  exposure  to  l2  print.  however,  this  seems  problematic   bearing  in  mind  that  l1  readers’  knowledge  and  decoding  skills  are  likely  to  have  transformed  from  effortful   to  automatized  through  the  process  of   learning  l1  reading  (castles  et  al.,  2018;  ehri,  2014;  1999).  the  task   for  learners  of  l2/fl  re-­‐mappings  will  likely  involve  adapting  automatized  l1  sound/spelling  mappings,  and   automatized  cognitive  language  learning  mechanisms  are  believed  to  be  particularly  resistant  to  adaptation   (mitchell,  myles,  &  marsden,  2019).         although   there   is   little   evidence   concerning   the   learning   of   novel   phonology   in   fl   settings,   l2   phonological  acquisition  has  been  extensively  investigated.  whilst  recognising  important  differences  between   l2   and   fl   contexts   in   terms   of   input   quality,   extent,   and   intensity,   theories   relating   to   l2   phonology   porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 82   acquisition  could  give  some  insight  into  the  process  of  learning  novel  sounds  when  an  l1  phonological  system   is  well  established.       opinions  differ   regarding  ease  of  acquisition  of  l2  phonology.  for  some,  novel   sounds  are  deemed   harder   to   learn   either   due   to   entrenched   l1   phonological   representations   or   because   they   require   the   creation  of  new  l2  sound  categories  (escudero  &  boersma,  2004;  lado,  1957).  others  assert  that  dissimilar   sounds  are  easier  to   learn  as  they  are  more  likely  to  be  perceived  and  therefore  result   in  “new  l2  phonetic   categories”   (speech  learning  model;   flege,   1995).   crucially,   l2   sounds  will   differ   from  monolingual   sound   acquisition  as  l2  sounds  will  interact  with  the  l1  and  presumably  subsequent,  additional  languages  over  an   individual’s  lifespan  (flege,  1995;  nimz,  2018).         for   example,   french   nasal   sounds,   for   example,   vowels   (often   novel   for   learners)   have   proved   problematic  showing  variation  across  advanced  learners  and  particular  types  of  nasal  vowels:  <on>  /ɔ̄/was   the  most  accurately  produced  but  <in>  /ɛ̄/  was  the  least  accurately  produced  and  tended  to  be  substituted  by   <an/en>  /ɑ̄/  (adeline  charlton,  2014;  neveu  et  al.,  2010).  foreign  language  instruction  seems  to  assist  the   development   of   novel   french   nasal   vowels   and   shifts   in   phonological   representations   occur   between   proficiency   levels   (martinez,   2016).   interestingly,   once   learners   are   literate   in   their   l1,   orthographic   knowledge  influences  the  perception  and  production  of  l2  phonology  (bassetti  &  atkinson,  2015;  escudero  &   wanrooij,  2010;  nimz,  2018).  l1  orthography  is  indiscriminately  activated  when  written  cues  are  involved  in   sound  perception  and  this  has  an  ambivalent  effect  on  perception  (escudero  &  wanrooij,  2010).  it  should  also   be   noted   that   other   factors,   such   as   l1   syllable   structure,   l1   phonotactics,   and   individual   differences,   influence  l2  sound  perception,  particularly  of  vowels  (tyler,  best,  faber,  &  levitt,  2014).       1.6.  teaching  fl/l2  reading        bearing  in  mind  issues  such  as  transfer  of  l1  related  skills  and  competencies,  the  instructional  task   for   teachers   differs   from   that   of   teaching   children   to   read   in   an   l1.   assumptions   should   not   be  made   that   pedagogic  tools  and  approaches  relevant  in  the  l1  will  automatically  have  the  same,  or  indeed  any,  effect  on   fl  development.       clearly  when   learning   to   read   in  a  second  or  subsequent   language,   the   learner   is  not  a   tabula   rasa   (porter,   2014).   firstly,   a   learner   approaches   l1   reading   with   a   fairly   extensive   l1   spoken   vocabulary,   internalised  l1  grammar,  and  l1  phonological   inventory.  the  6-­‐7  year  old   (grade  2)  native  speaker  has  an   average  l1  root  word  vocabulary  of  5200  words,  rising  to  8400  words  by  age  11  (biemiller  &  slonim,  2001).   in  instructed  l2/fl  contexts,  the  starting  point  is  somewhat  different.  often,  literacy  instruction  in  the  fl/l2   languages  classroom  is  initiated  after  the  development  of  oral  skills  and  it  is  suggested  that  l2  phonological   decoding   has   limited   effectiveness   unless   the   oral   representation   of   the   word   is   already   known   (grabe   &   stoller,   2002,   p.   42).   however,   in   fl   settings   where   instructional   time   is   limited,   waiting   for   the   right   or   optimum  time  to  introduce  decoding  and  focused  literacy  instruction  may  not  be  a  pedagogical  option.  on  the   other  hand,  it  appears  as  though  the  essential  foundational  literacy  skills  of  phonological  awareness  may  be   available  to  learners  if  they  are  already  developed  in  the  l1.  it  is  also  likely  that  increasing  cognitive  maturity   of  children  in  the  later  stages  of  primary  school  (when  fl  instruction  generally  commences)  may  assist  in  the   teaching  and  learning  of  fl  literacy.       to   summarise,  word   recognition   is   a  key   skill   in  developing  fl   literacy  and   is  underpinned  by   the   knowledge  and  application  of  fl  sound/spelling  links.  research  indicates  that  teaching  fl  word  recognition   is  likely  to  be  a  shared  and  yet  different  process  to  its  development  in  the  l1.  already-­‐literate  learners  could   bring  transferable  skills  to  the  task  of  fl  word  recognition,  such  as  phonological  awareness,  relative  cognitive   maturity,   and   shared   sound/spelling   links.   however,   some   l1   skills—sound   perception,   knowledge   of   fl   sound/spelling   links,   and  fl   oral   vocabulary—are   likely   to   complicate   the   learning  process.   it   is   therefore   important   that,   in   primary   fl   settings,   research   is   conducted   to   explore   the   potential   effectiveness   of   l1   literacy  pedagogic  practices  and  curricular  expectations.     2.  method       the  study  set  out  to  investigate  whether/how  children  studying  french  as  a  new  fl  made  progress   at  reading  aloud  fl  word  cards  during  and  after  a  23-­‐week  teaching  programme  which  comprised  systematic   and  explicit   phonics   instruction   in  french   (research  question  1).  the   test  measures   also   aimed   to   contrast   how  successfully   the   children   read  aloud  known  (familiar)  words   that   they  had  practised  every  week  with   how   they   decoded   novel   (unfamiliar)   words   (research   question   2).   lastly,   the   study   aimed   to   evaluate   learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 83   whether  there  were  any  relationships  between  l1  literacy  measures,  fl  proficiency  scores,  and  reading  aloud   performances  at  each  test  time  (research  question  3).  these  analyses  would  account  for  influential  factors  in   the  learning  process  and  therefore  possibly  explain  some  of  the  variation  in  fl  reading  aloud  outcomes.     -­‐ rq1:   to   what   extent   do   learners   engaged   in   systematic   and   explicit   fl   phonics   instruction  make   progress  in  reading  aloud  familiar  and  unfamiliar  fl  words  at  mid-­‐,  post-­‐,  and  delayed  post-­‐test?   -­‐ rq2:  are  performances  on  reading  aloud  familiar  and  unfamiliar  word  cards  different  at  mid-­‐,  post-­‐,   and  delayed  post-­‐test?   -­‐ rq3:  to  what  extent  are  l1  literacy  measures  and  fl  global  proficiency  scores  related  to  fl  reading   aloud  proficiency  at  each  test  time?     2.1.  sample       this  study  took  place  in  two  english  primary  schools.  the  total  sample  (n  =  45)  was  tested  at  three   main   test   points:   pre-­‐,   post-­‐,   and   delayed   post-­‐test   on   reading   aloud   in   sentences.   the   focus   of   this   paper   concerns  a  sub-­‐sample  of  students  (n  =  23)  who  were  tested  on  all  the  main  measures  plus  word  card  reading   aloud  at  mid-­‐test  (approximately  10  teaching  weeks  after  the  phonics  instruction  commenced),  post-­‐test  (23   weeks  after),   and  delayed  post-­‐test   (7  weeks  after   the   teaching  programme   finished).  the  mean  age  of   the   sub-­‐sample  was   10.07   years   (minimum   9.10,  maximum   11.0)   and   the   children  were   taught   in  mixed-­‐year   classes  (england  years  5  &  6;  us  grades  4  &  5).  all  of  the  children  spoke  english  as  their  l1.  although  some   had  exposure   to  other   languages  at  home  (e.g.  nepalese,  arabic,  dutch),   these  were  not  spoken  as  primary   home   languages.   both   schools   were   not   in   areas   of   social   deprivation   and   were   situated   in   small,   rural   villages.  the  fl  provision  in  both  settings  was  identical:  the  same  french  teacher  (the  researcher)  taught  one   50-­‐minute  fl  lesson  per  week.  this  teacher/researcher  had  worked  in  school  1  for  2  years  and  school  2  for  6   years  prior  to  the  research.     it  should  be  noted  that  the  mixed-­‐year  class   in  school  1,   in  particular  those  children  in  year  6,  had   had   one   year   less   cumulative   instruction   than   the  year   6   children   in   school   2.  no   children   had  previously   received   systematic   and   explicit   french   phonics   instruction,   and   fl   literacy   generally   had   not   been   given   special   or   sustained   emphasis.  nonetheless,   there  was   only   one   significant   difference   in   fl  pre-­‐test   scores   between   schools,   which   concerned   fl   reading   aloud   scores.   parents   and   guardians   were   approached   for   informed  consent,  and  the  children’s  verbal  consent  was  sought  in  order  to  conform  to  ethical  requirements   for   school-­‐based   teaching  and   learning   research.  this  was  an  action   research  study  so   there  was   flexibility   within   the   design   to   adapt   and   amend   teaching   practices.   however,   in   order   to   support   robustness   and   generalizability/transferability,   the  principles  underpinning  the  overarching  teaching  programme  (of  which   fl  phonics  instructed  formed  a  component)  and  those  principles  underpinning  the  specific  strand  of  phonics   instruction  are  outlined  below.       2.2.  pedagogic  principles  for  literacy  instruction       this  small-­‐scale  study  aimed  to  build  a  phonics   instruction  programme  which  could  assist  primary   school   learners  of  french  as  a  fl,  with  extremely   limited   input,   to  start   to  develop  fl  sound/spelling   links.   the  teaching  programme  included  a  weekly  phonics  component  which  formed  part  of  lessons  which  aimed  to   develop   both   fl   oracy   and   literacy   skills.   the   phonics   instruction   specifically   had   three   overarching   principles  based  on  the  extant  literature  regarding  l1  phonics  instruction.     2.2.1.  principle  1:  focus  on  fl  sounds         first,   it   was   crucial   to   develop   distinctive   fl   sounds   (phonology)   as   phonics   instruction   involves   linking  known  sounds  to  letters.  this  task  required  the  development  of  distinctive  new  or  adapted  phonemes   such  as  nasal  vowels.  rather  than  aiming  for  native-­‐like  pronunciation,  distinctive  fl  sounds  were  evidenced   by  sounds  which  were  clearly  differentiated  in  production  from  their  closest  l1  counterparts.         there   are   particular   french   phonemes  which   do   not   have   exact   counterparts   in   the   l1   (e.g.   nasal   vowels  /ɔ̄/,  /ɑ̄/,  /ɛ̄/,  /ɶ̄/).  furthermore,  some  french  phonemes  have  similar  english  counterparts  and  could   therefore   be   difficult   to   discriminate   (e.g.   french   front   rounded   vowel   /y/   versus   the   similar   english   back   rounded   vowel   english   /u:/).   bearing   in   mind   the   l2   phonological   development   literature,   the   pedagogic   programme  therefore  comprised  a  small  element  which  focused  on  fl  sound  perception  (discrimination)  and   production.       porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 84   2.2.2.  principle  2:  systematic  and  explicit  phonics  instruction       in  line  with  commercial  phonics  packages  (e.g.,  read  write  inc.  or  jolly  phonics)  sounds  and  letters   were  taught  explicitly  and  in  a  planned  order  (table  1).  less  attention  was  given  to  phonological  awareness   such  as  the  ability  to  segment  spoken  words  into  sub-­‐lexical  units—individual  phonemes  and/or  onset-­‐rime   or  syllables—as  this  knowledge  was  assumed  to  transfer  from  the  l1  (e.g.,  genesee  et  al.,  2008;  lesaux  et  al.,   2008).    however,  children  were  occasionally  asked  to  segment  spoken  words   into  syllables  and  to  segment   and  blend  written  words.     table 1 target fl sound/spelling links sound letters exemplar gesture visual links with l1 pre-lesson letter names alphabet week 1 final silent letters pets, <p>, <e>, <t>, <s> week 2-5 /ɔ̄/ <on> cochon (pig) finger on nose snout picture of pig novel fl sound/existing l1 grapheme /y/ <u> and <û> putois (ferret) fingers pinching nose (smell) picture of ferret novel fl sound/ existing l1 and novel fl grapheme /j/ <ll> billet (ticket) taking a ticket picture of train ticket existing l1 sound/existing but different l1 grapheme week 6 /ɑ̄/ <an> and <en> enfant (child) rocking a baby picture of baby novel fl sounds/existing l1 grapheme /ɛ̄/ <in>, <ien>, <ein> singe (monkey) arms bent at sides picture of monkey novel fl sounds/existing l1 and novel fl graphemes weeks 7-11 practice all previous sound/spelling links week 12 /e/ <e>, <er>, <ez>, <et> éléphant (elephant) arm imitating trunk picture of element novel fl sound/existing l1 and novel fl graphemes /o/ <eau>, <o>, <ô>, <au> océan (ocean) arm moving like a wave picture of ocean novel fl sound/existing l1 and novel fl graphemes week 13-20 practice all previous sound/spelling links       sounds  and  their  corresponding  letters  were  also  presented  through  an  exemplar  word,  e.g.  cochon,   which  aimed  to  allow  for  associative  learning  and  the  possibility  that  this  could  be  used  through  analogy  to   decode   the   same   grapheme   in   unfamiliar  words.   it  was   anticipated   that   the   learning   of   fl   sound/spelling   links  would  be  facilitated  by  shared  links  with  english  but  that  learning  to  adept/amend  existing  mappings  or   learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 85   creating   entirely   novel   ones   would   be   more   problematic.   the   sounds   and   their   links   were   taught   on   a   cumulative  basis  so  that,  as  a  new  sound  was  introduced,  previous  sound/spelling  links  were  still  practised   regularly.     2.2.3.  principle  3:  applying  sound/spelling  links  through  reading  aloud  practice       it   was   also   deemed   necessary   to   offer   children   opportunities   to   practise   applying   these   sound/spelling   links   through   reading   and   writing   opportunities.   weekly   spelling   activities   involving   core   vocabulary   (not   phonics   exemplar   words)   supported   the   children’s   learning   of   links   between   sounds   and   letter   in   french.   the   children   were   asked   during   a   sequence   of   tasks   designed   to   support   vocabulary   memorisation,  to  recall  a  word  orally  from  a  visual  cue  and  then  to  attempt  to  write  this  word  from  memory   (having  seen  the  written  form  several  times  previously).  wherever  possible,  core  vocabulary  was  utilised  to   teach  phonics  sound/spelling  links  such  as  ondule  (slither)  <on>  =  /ɔ̄/and  fourrure  (fur)  <u>  =  /u/.  it  should   be   noted   that   these   words   were   chosen   to   support   broader,   communicative   language   use   rather   than   act   solely   as   practice   for   the   phonics   element   of   the   instructional   programme.   in   reading   aloud   opportunities   such   as   stories   and   pairwork,   peer-­‐assessed   reading   of   sentences   were   used   to   practise   phonological   decoding.   again,   these   stories   were   mostly   focused   on   meaning-­‐related   activities   in   line   with   integrated   approaches  to  reading  but  comprised  occasional  decoding  opportunities  (adams,  1990).       2.3.  procedures       the  reading  aloud  test  battery  targeted  specific,  taught  fl  sound/spelling  links  as  well  as  a  broader   range   of   linguistic   skills   and   knowledge.   due   to   the   lack   of   existing   resources   for   testing   phonological   decoding  in  primary  school  learners  of  french,  test  items  were  designed  by  the  teacher/researcher.  as  there   was  no  pilot  sample  with  similar  language  learning  experience  in  terms  of  age,  language,  and  extent  of  input,   these  tests  were  not  piloted.  the  broader  linguistic  fl  assessment  tasks  were  closely  aligned  with  classroom   activities   and   designed   to   test   the   constructs   of   fl   general   proficiency   and   fl   global   literacy.   these  were   administered   at   pre-­‐,   post-­‐,   and   delayed   post-­‐test.   the   post-­‐test   was   conducted   immediately   after   the   instructional   programme   ended,   and   the   delayed   post-­‐test   was   completed   seven  weeks   later.   the   general   proficiency  construct  comprised  an  oral  vocabulary  recognition  test  and  an  elicited  imitation  test  designed  to   measure   developing   interlanguage.   the   fl   global   literacy   tests   involved   reading   aloud   target   words   in   sentences  (with  illustrative  pictures  to  support  meaning)  and  reading  for  global  meaning  and  detail  of  a  short   text.  an  additional  reading  aloud  test  was  implemented  during  the  teaching  programme  in  order  to  capture   any  development  in  a)  applying  sound/spelling  links  through  decoding  familiar  exemplar  phonics  words  and   b)  applying   these   taught  sound/spelling   links   in  novel  contexts   (unfamiliar  words).  this   test  was  delivered   with  a  sub-­‐sample  of  pupils  (n  =  23)  at  mid-­‐test,  post-­‐test  and  delayed  post-­‐test.  the  whole  sample  (n  =  45)   took  the  fl  reading  aloud  word  card  test  at  post-­‐test  and  delayed  post-­‐test.       2.4.  research  instruments   2.4.1.  fl  general  proficiency:  receptive  vocabulary  and  elicited  imitation       this   variable   was   addressed   through   two   complementary,   general   proficiency   (non-­‐literacy)   measures.  the  fl  receptive  vocabulary  test  was  based  on  the  peabody  picture  vocabulary  test  (dunn  &  dunn,   2007)  and  the  elias  british  picture  vocabulary  scale  (dunn,  dunn,  whetton,  &  burley,  1997).  lexical  items   which  had  been  taught  over  previous  years  where  chosen  and  individual  worksheets  were  completed.  from  a   spoken  cue  (provided  by  the  teacher),  the  children  had  to  circle  the  picture  which  correctly  represented  each   lexical   items.   some   items   were   discrete   words   (e.g.,   le   père   –   father)   and   some   were   formulaic   utterances/constructions  (j’adore  faire  du  cheval  –  i  love  horseriding).  the  pictorial  cues  were  familiar  to  the   children  as  they  were  largely  derived  from  historic  teaching  materials  used  by  the  teacher.      the  fl   elicited   imitation   test  was   designed   to   show  developing   implicit   (subconscious)   l2   knowledge   (erlam,  2006).  learners  listened  to  utterances  incorporating  particular  syntactic  or  morphological  demands,   such  as   interrogatives  or  negation,  and  were  asked  to  repeat  them  after  a  short  gap.  prior  to   listening,  they   were   guided   to   process   the   utterances   for   meaning   by   being   warned   that   they   would   have   to   answer   questions  about  the  utterances  after  they  had  heard  them.  all  the  stimuli  were  designed  to  be  long  enough  to   exceed  working  memory   capacity   and   therefore   could   only   be   reformulated   by   accessing  meaning   and   re-­‐ constructing  the  utterance  from  interlanguage.  for  example,  the  sentence  xavier,   il  n’aime  pas  aller  à   l’école   (xavier  does  not   like  going  to  school)  was  elicited  to  explore   learning  of  negation  expressed  through  dislike.   elicited   imitation   is   deemed   an   efficient   way   of   accessing   spontaneous   oral   ability   in   young   learner   porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 86   classrooms  where  there  are  often  practical  constraints  such  as  the  amount  of  available  test  time  (campfield,   2015).   to   measure   performance,   reproductions   were   marked   by   target-­‐like   syllables.   each   utterance,   regardless   of   length,   could   achieve   a  maximum   score   of   4   and   syllabic   errors  were   deducted   from   this   as   required  (lonsdale,  graham,  kennington,  johnson,  &  mcghee,  2008).  therefore,  a  sentence  with  two  syllable   errors  (non-­‐target-­‐like  reproduction)  would  receive  a  mark  of  2.  often  elicited  imitation  tests  with  younger   learners   are   marked   on   a   rating   scale   such   as:   3   =   mainly   target-­‐like   reproduction   to   0=unintelligible   production.  it  was  felt  that  a  syllabic  scoring  mechanism  might  give  a  better  indication  of  the  extent  of  fl  oral   processing   (reproduction   in   terms   of   sentence   length   and   complexity)   rather   than   an   arguably   more   subjective  rating  scale  which  focused  on  evaluation  of  overall  accuracy  of  sentences.  a  small  sample  of  post-­‐ test  scores  were  second-­‐marked  by  the  same  rater  with  a  reliability  score  of  67%.       2.4.2.  fl  literacy  proficiency:  reading  aloud  (sentences)  and  reading  comprehension       for  the  fl  reading  aloud  (text)  test,  short  sentences  illustrated  with  pictures  were  read  aloud  by  each   child.  for  example,  monsieur  laurent  travaille  au  marché  (mr  laurent  works  on  the  market)  was  constructed   to  elicit  reproduction  of  specific,  underlined  sound/spelling  links.  individual  words  (containing  instructed  fl   sound/spelling)  were  scored  for  target-­‐like  recoding,  and  a  clear  scoring  scheme  was  set  out  to  contribute  to   rater   reliability.   recoding  was   strictly  marked   to   reflect   explicitly   taught   characteristics   of   fl   sounds   and   their  links  to  letters.  in  other  words,  recoding  of  <on>  was  only  deemed  target-­‐like  (scoring  1  =  correct)  if  it   reflected  nasality  /ɔ̃/.  even  though  /ɒn/  would  have  been  largely  intelligible  to  a  sympathetic  speaker  of  the   language,  it  was  marked  incorrect  as  production/discrimination  of  novel  fl  phonology  was  an  integral  part  of   the  instructional  programme.  second  marking  by  the  same  rater  yielded  a  reliability  score  of  83%.  this  test   was  conducted  on  a  one-­‐on-­‐one  basis,  during  lesson  time  in  a  private  setting  at  each  school.         the   fl   reading   comprehension   test   aligned   with   primary   fl   learning   outcomes   including:   “understand  the  main  points  and  some  detail  from  a  short  written  passage”  and  “reading  texts  for  enjoyment   or  information”  (dfes,  2005,  p.  57).  a  short  passage  with  11  (8%)  unfamiliar  words  was  designed  as  a  police   report   concerning   a   robbery.   questions   were   presented   in   children’s   l1   and   designed   to   test   reading   for   understanding  of  the  main  points  and  some  detail.  responses  were  designed  to  require  “limited  production”   (mckay,  2006,  pp.  106,  186)  in  that  children  could  identify  the  meaning  by  selecting  a  picture.  for  instance,   for   the  question   “what   item  was   stolen?”   children   could   choose   from  pictures   of   a  wallet,   a   bag   and   some   house  keys.  it  was  anticipated  that  this  would  mitigate  cognitive  loading  effects  for  children  with  weaker  l1   literacy.  scoring  was  dichotomous,  and  this  test  was  conducted  using  individual  worksheets  in  a  whole  class   setting  without  conferring.  children  were  allowed  approximately  15  minutes  to  complete  the  test.     2.4.3.  fl  phonics:  read  aloud  word  card       this   test  was   designed   in   line  with   action   research   principles   and   cycles   of   research  where   initial   investigations   yield   new   or   more   refined   lines   of   inquiry.   the   teacher/researcher   deemed,   during   the   instructional  programme,   that   learning  and  applying  exemplar  sound/spelling   links  was  challenging  for  the   children.   she   felt   it  would  be   interesting   to  uncover  how  progress  was  unfolding  with   respect   to  decoding   exemplar  phonics  words  and  also  whether  this  knowledge  was  being  applied  to  novel  contexts.  with  this  in   mind,  illustrated  word  cards  were  designed  (arguably  more  as  a  formative  assessment  tool  than  as  a  research   instrument).  at  mid-­‐test,  due  to  time  constraints,  a  small  number  of  pupils  (n  =  23)  were  tested.  the  children   were   selected   based   on   their   fl   reading   aloud   performance   at   pre-­‐test   (sentence)   from   each   third   of   the   scoring  range   (table  2).  the  children  were  each  asked   to   shuffle   the  cards  and   then  read  aloud  each  word   whilst  being  audio-­‐recorded.  each  child  sat  alone  in  the  corridor  outside  the  classroom  at  mid-­‐test  whilst  the   teacher   taught   the  rest  of   the  class.  no   feedback  was  given  at  any  stage.  at  post-­‐test  and  delayed  post-­‐test,   this  word  card  measure  was   incorporated   into   the  overall   test  battery  and  delivered  on  a  one-­‐to-­‐one  basis   with   the   teacher/researcher   in   a   private   room.   each  word   card   had   a   picture   for  meaning   (figure   1).   for   every   targeted  fl  sound/spelling   link   there  was  a  card  with   the  phonics  exemplar  word  and  card  with   the   same  grapheme,  in  a  different  position,  in  an  unfamiliar  word.               learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 87   table 2 l2 reading aloud pre-test, quartile breakdown pre-test read aloud scoring (max 10) participants low (0-2) 8 mid (3-4) 10 high (5-6) 5 total participants 23     cochon ongle figure 1. example of exemplar phonics word card     2.4.4.  underlying  l1  literacy  measures       in  line  with  national  data  collection  in  english  primary  schools  at  the  time,  this  study  had  access  to  a   range  of  standardised  l1  literacy  test  scores  (reported  on  a  national  level  by  school  and  child)  and  classroom-­‐ based  informal  teacher  assessments.  these  were  deemed  potentially  important  in  explaining  the  influence  of   l1   literacy  on  fl  reading  aloud  performances.  children’s  chronological  reading  ages  were  collected  using  a   standardized   new   group   reading   test   (gl   assessment,   2018).   this   test   comprises   two   parts:   sentence   completion  (decoding  with  some  comprehension)  plus  passage  comprehension  where  children  are  tested  on   a  range  of  comprehension  skills.  the  single  word  spelling  test  (gl  assessment,  2018)  was  also  administered   by   the   regular   class   teachers   to   determine   children’s   chronological   spelling   age   through   spelling  words   in   context  (sentences).  this  is  also  a  standardized,  commercially  produced  test.         in  addition  to  these  standardized  tests,  the  children’s  regular  class  teachers  (not  the  researcher  who   was   their   longstanding   yet   visiting   fl   teacher)   undertook   ongoing   formative   assessments   of   each   child’s   progression   in   all   curricular   subjects.   these   teacher-­‐centred   assessments,   backed   up   by   observation   and   other  classroom  data  such  as  examples  of  children’s  work,  were  then  linked  to  levels  of  attainment  which  at   the   time   formed   part   of   the   national   curriculum.   whilst   levels   have   now   been   eliminated   formally   from   government   documentation,   they   are   still   sometimes   referred   to   by   teachers   as   a  means   of   benchmarking   pupils’  performances  against   their  peers  and  previous  cohorts.  national  curriculum   levels   ranged   from  1-­‐6   with  the  idea  that,  by  the  end  of  primary  school,  expected  attainment  for  children  would  reach  level  4.  each   level  was  accompanied  by  descriptors  for  each  subject  and  had  sub  categories  (1c  was  the  bottom  sub-­‐level   within  level  1  whilst  1a  was  the  top  sub-­‐level).  to  facilitate  statistical  analysis,  these  levels  were  converted  to   a  continuous  scale  e.g.  level  1c  was  1  and  level  6a  was  18.  numerical  levels  were  assigned  to  each  child  for  l1   reading  (reading  aloud,  comprehension)  and  l1  writing  (spelling,  complexity,  genre,  cohesion).         porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 88   3.  results       a  shapiro-­‐wilk  test  (as  n  equalled  <50)  showed  that  assumptions  of  normality  were  violated  for  33%     of  the  pre-­‐  and  post-­‐test  fl  constructs.  given  that  result,  and  bearing  in  mind  the  relatively  small  sample  size,   subsequent   statistical   analyses   were   conducted   using   non-­‐parametric   techniques.   mann   whitney   u-­‐tests   were  conducted  to   identify  whether   there  were  any  differences  between  sub  samples   in  each  school   for  l1   and  fl  read  aloud  measures  at  pre-­‐,  post-­‐,  and  delayed  post-­‐test  times.  no  differences  were  found  between   school  or  gender.     3.1.  to  what  extent  do  learners  engaged  in  systematic  and  explicit  fl  phonics  instruction  make   progress  in  reading  aloud  familiar  and  unfamiliar  fl  words  at  mid-­‐,  post-­‐,  and  delayed  post-­‐ test?       sections   3.1.1   and   3.1.2  will   report   on  whole-­‐sample   performances   for   reading   aloud   familiar   and   unfamiliar  word  cards,  during  and  immediately  after  the  instructional  programme  (at  mid-­‐test  and  post-­‐test).   descriptive  statistics  will  portray  the  extent  and  nature  of  developing  of  fl  reading  aloud  scores  at  both  test   times.   sections   3.1.3   and   3.1.4  will   then   use   statistical   techniques   to   establish  whether   any   improvements   were  statistically  significant  in  reading  a)  familiar  word  cards  and  b)  unfamiliar  word  cards.       3.1.1.  reading  aloud  familiar  and  unfamiliar  word  cards  at  mid-­‐test       by  mid-­‐test,  which  was  conducted  10  weeks  after  the  fl  phonics  instruction  commenced,  descriptive   statistics  showed  that  progress  reading  familiar  word  cards  was  slow  overall  (mean  score  1.13;  median  score   1.00)  out  of  a  maximum  score  of  5  (table  3).         positive  skewness  and  kurtosis  values  indicated  that  scores  at  this  test  time  were  clustered  towards   the  lower  end  of  the  scoring  range  (figure  2).  however,  the  range  of  scores  showed  that  whilst  one  child  (out   of  the  23  participants)  had  scored  close  to  full  marks,  others  had  made  no  progress  (seven  children  scored  0)   reading   familiar  words.  despite  weekly   lessons  which   involved  practising  production  and  discrimination  of   fl  sounds,  fl  phonological  decoding   (spellings   to   sound),  and  reading  aloud  of   familiar   (exemplar)  words,   learners   had   made   little   progress   at   reading   aloud   the   practised   words   mid-­‐way   through   the   teaching   programme.         table 3 descriptive statistics, mid-test, reading aloud word cards (n = 23) mid-test mean median mode sd range skewness kurtosis min max familiar words (max 5) 1.13 1.00 .00a 1.100 0 4 1.096 1.168 unfamiliar words (max 5) .3042 .00 .00 .653 0 2 1.994 2.934 note. a = multiple modes learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 89     figure 2. distributions of read aloud familiar words at mid-test   unfamiliar  word  card  reading  scores  were  less  variable  (range  0  to  2).  eighteen  children  scored  zero   whilst   two   children   scored   2  marks   at  mid-­‐test   points.   almost   no   progress  was   evidenced   at  mid-­‐test   for   reading  unfamiliar  word  cards  (unfamiliar  mean  .3043;  median  .00)  and  again  skewness  and  kurtosis  showed   scores  weighted  toward  the   lower  end  of  the  range  (figure  3).  perhaps  unsurprisingly,  bearing  in  mind  the   limited  progress  for  familiar  (exemplar)  words,  the  children  had  also  made  scant  progress  at  applying  learned   sound/spelling  links  to  novel  contexts.       figure 3. distributions of read aloud unfamiliar words at mid-test     porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 90   3.1.2.  reading  aloud  familiar  and  unfamiliar  word  cards  at  post-­‐test       by  post-­‐test,  at   the  end  of  fl  phonics   instruction  (23  weeks   in   total),  descriptive  statistics  showed   that   progress   reading   familiar   word   cards   had   improved   (mean   score   2.174;  median   score   2.00)   out   of   a   maximum  score  of  5  (table  4).       table 4 descriptive statistics post-test reading aloud word cards (n = 23) mid-test mean median mode sd range skewness kurtosis min max familiar words (max 5) 2.174 2.00 1.00 1.230 0 4.5 -.040 -.708 unfamiliar words (max 5) .9130 1.00 .00 .950 0 3 .535 -.934   a  change  in  skewness  values  (now  negative)  indicated  that  scores  were  clustered  towards  the  mid  or   higher  end  of  the  score  range.  however,  positive  kurtosis  values  indicated  that  there  remained  a  heavy  tail  of   scores  in  the  lower  marks  (figure  4).  two  children  scored  4/4.5  and  two  children  scored  0  reading  familiar   words.  in  other  words,  the  range  was  still  wide  between  top  and  bottom  scores  but  the  lowest  scorers  were   less   numerous.   after   23   weeks,   the   sample   seemed   to   be   making   progress   in   reading   aloud   familiar   (exemplar)  words.     however,  scant  progress  was  evidenced  at  post-­‐test  for  reading  unfamiliar  word  cards  (mean  .9130;   median  1.00)   and   again   skewness   and  kurtosis   showed   scores   tended   towards   the   lower   end  of   the   range   (figure  5).  unfamiliar  word  card  reading  scores  showed  slightly  different  variability  (range  0  to  3  maximum)   with  10  children  scoring  zero  and  1  child  scoring  the  top  mark  of  3  at  post-­‐test.  23  weeks  after  the  weekly   phonics   instruction   commenced,   most   children   were   still   unable   to   consistently   apply   their   developing   knowledge  of  fl  sound/spelling  links  to  novel  contexts     figure 4. distributions of read aloud familiar word cards at post-test     learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 91   figure 5. distributions of read aloud unfamiliar word cards at post-test     3.1.3.  reading  aloud  familiar  word  cards:  differences  between  mid-­‐test  and  post-­‐test       in  this  and  the  following  section,  scores  between  mid-­‐  and  post-­‐test  are  compared  for  both  kinds  of   word  cards  separately  to  evaluate  whether  reported  improvements  were  of  statistical  significance.  wilcoxon   signed  rank  tests   (table  5)  show  that   the  scores   for   familiar  reading  aloud  word  cards  between  mid-­‐  and   post-­‐test   were   significantly   different.   target-­‐like   decoding   at   post-­‐test   was   significantly   higher   (median   2.000)  than  at  mid-­‐test  (median  1.000),  z  =  3.533,  p  =  <0.0001,  r  =  0.52,  moderate  effect  size.  so  by  the  end  of   the   teaching   programme,   there   was   a   significant   improvement   in   children’s   familiar   word   reading   aloud   scores.     table 5 mid-test to post-test familiar fl reading aloud word cards – wilcoxon signed rank tests (n = 23) median z p s.e. effect size (cohen’s d) mid-test post-test fl word card familiar reading aloud 1.000 2.000 3.533 <.0001 19.245 0.52 note. max score familiar words 5; unfamiliar words 5.   3.1.4.  reading  aloud  unfamiliar  word  cards:  differences  between  mid-­‐test  and  post-­‐test       wilcoxon  signed  rank  tests  (table  6)  show  that  unfamiliar  reading  aloud  word  cards  between  mid-­‐   and  post-­‐test  were  significantly  different.  target-­‐like  decoding  at  post-­‐test  was  significantly  higher  (median   1.000)  than  at  mid-­‐test  (median  .000),  z  =  2.617,  p  =  .007,  r  =  0.40,  moderate  effect  size.  this  meant  that  the   children  became  significantly  better  at  reading  aloud  unfamiliar  word  cards  between  the  mid  and  end  point  of   the   teaching  programme.   it   is,  however,   important   to  note   that  medians  and  means   for  both  kinds  of  word   cards  at  mid-­‐  and  post-­‐test  were  still  below  the  mid-­‐point  of  the  scoring  range.     table 6 mid-test to post-test unfamiliar fl reading aloud word cards – wilcoxon signed rank tests (n = 23) median z p s.e. effect size (cohen’s d) mid-test post-test fl word card reading aloud .000 1.000 2.617 .007 10.937 0.40 note. max score familiar words 5; unfamiliar words 5. porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 92       sections  3.1.5  will  now  turn  to  performance  at  delayed  post-­‐test  approximately  7  weeks  after  all  fl   instruction  had  finished.  this  will  evaluate  the  durability  of  any  learning  and  explore  whether  there  was  any   observed   attrition   related   to   word   reading   aloud   in   both   familiar   and   unfamiliar   contexts.   descriptive   statistics  will   first   explore   the  nature  of   change   (section  3.1.5),   and   inferential   statistics  will   then   compare   performances   between   post-­‐   and   delayed   post-­‐test   (familiar   and   unfamiliar   words   treated   separately)   to   evaluate  whether  any  observed  differences  were  statistically  significant  (sections  3.1.6.  and  3.1.7.).     3.1.5.  reading  aloud  familiar  and  unfamiliar  word  cards  at  delayed  post-­‐test       by  delayed  post-­‐test,  which  was  conducted  7  weeks  after  the  fl  phonics  instruction  ended  (with  no   french  language  input  in  between),  descriptive  statistics  show  a  dip  in  means  (to  1.8696  out  of  a  maximum  of   5)  but  not  in  medians  (table  7).       table 7 descriptive statistics delayed post-test reading aloud word cards (n = 23) mid-test mean median mode sd range skewness kurtosis min max familiar words (max 5) 1.8696 2.00 .00 1.440 0 4.5 .136 -1.093 unfamiliar words (max 5) .6957 .00 .00 .974 0 3 1.331 .876   a   reversal   in  skewness  scores   (table  7,  figure  6)  was  also  noted  which   illustrated   that   scores  had   shifted   from  the  higher   range   (at  post-­‐test)  back   to   the   lower  range   (by  delayed  post-­‐test).  this   confirmed   that  reading  aloud  of   familiar  fl  word  cards  had  suffered  attrition  once  the  weekly  fl  instruction  (phonics   and  language)  had  ceased.     figure 6. distributions of familiar read aloud word cards at delayed post-test   for  unfamiliar  word  cards  the  mean  had  decreased  slightly,   from  an  already   low  point  at  post-­‐test.   interestingly,   the  range  of  scores   for   familiar  and  unfamiliar  words  were   identical   to   those  at  post-­‐test  and   the  skewness  and  kurtosis  values  remained  positive  (figure  7).  it  seemed  as  though  progress  in  reading  aloud   of   sound/spelling   links   in   unfamiliar   contexts   was   resistant   to   instruction   during   the   programme   and   therefore  scores  were  not  particularly  impacted  once  the  fl  instruction  finished.       learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 93   figure 7. distributions of unfamiliar read aloud word cards at delayed post-test     3.1.6.  reading  aloud  familiar  word  cards:  differences  between  post-­‐test  and  delayed  post-­‐test   wilcoxon  signed  rank  tests  were  conducted  to  evaluate  the  extent  of  attrition  in  students’  scores  on   word  card  read  aloud  tests  (table  8)  with  a  bonferroni  correction  applied  for  repeated  tests  (p  =  .0125).  for   familiar  word   card   reading   between   post-­‐test   and   delayed   post-­‐test   (table   8),   target-­‐like   decoding   clearly   was  not  significantly  lower  at  delayed  post-­‐test  (median  =  2.000)  than  familiar  word  card  reading  at  post-­‐test   (median  =  2.000),  z  =  -­‐1.613,  p  =  .107.  in  other  words,  there  was  no  significant  attrition  between  post-­‐test  and   delayed  post-­‐test  for  children  reading  aloud  familiar  words.     table 8 post-test to delayed post-test familiar fl reading aloud word cards – wilcoxon signed rank tests (n = 23) median z p s.e. effect size (cohen’s d) post-test delayed post-test fl word card reading aloud 2.000 2.000 -1.613 .107 20.767 n/a note. max score familiar words 5; unfamiliar words 5.   3.1.7.  reading  aloud  unfamiliar  word  cards:  differences  between  post-­‐test  and  delayed  post-­‐test       for   unfamiliar   word   card   reading   (table   9)   between   post-­‐test   and   delayed   post-­‐test,   target-­‐like   decoding  was  not  significantly  lower  at  delayed  post-­‐test  (median  .000)  than  unfamiliar  word  card  reading  at   post-­‐test  (median  1.000),  z  =  -­‐1.155,  p  =  .248.  so,  there  was  also  no  significant  attrition  between  post-­‐test  and   delayed  post-­‐test  for  unfamiliar  word  card  reading.     table 9 post-test to delayed post-test unfamiliar fl reading aloud word cards – wilcoxon signed rank tests (n = 23) median z p s.e. effect size (cohen’s d) post-test delayed post-test fl word card reading aloud 1.000 .000 -1.155 .248 12.124 n/a note. max score familiar words 5; unfamiliar words 5.   overall,  then,  moderate  statistically-­‐significant  progress  was  made  for  familiar  words  between  mid-­‐   and  post-­‐test   and   for  unfamiliar  words  between  mid-­‐  and  post-­‐test.  neither   familiar  nor  unfamiliar  words,   porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 94   examined  separately,  showed  any  significant  difference  between  post-­‐  and  delayed  post-­‐test.  so  the  learning   of   sound/spelling   links   observed   in   both   familiar   and   unfamiliar   contexts   was   relatively   long-­‐lasting.   nonetheless,  it  is  important  to  contextualise  the  nature  of  the  significant  differences  across  test  times  and  test   conditions.  the  shape  of  the  distribution  of  scores  for  familiar  word  cards  changed  between  mid-­‐  and  post-­‐ test  but  the  spread  of  scores  were  still  centred  around  the  lower  scoring  range.     3.2.  are  performances  on  reading  aloud  familiar  and  unfamiliar  word  cards  different  at  mid-­‐,   post-­‐,  and  delayed  post-­‐test?       now  the  analyses  will   focus  on  whether  word   familiarity  affects  fl  reading  aloud  performances  as   the  descriptive  data  examined  so  far  suggests  this  is  likely.  sections  3.2.1  to  3.2.3  will  take  each  test-­‐time  in   isolation   and   explore  whether   fl   reading   aloud   outcomes   for   familiar   versus   unfamiliar  word   cards  were   statistically  different.  alongside  comparison  of  group  medians,  a  more  detailed  examination  of  performances   will  be  covered  in  section  3.2.4  at  the  level  of  word  card.       3.2.1.  reading  aloud  familiar  versus  unfamiliar  word  cards  at  mid-­‐test       children’s   scores  were   compared,   using  wilcoxon   signed   rank   tests,   between   tasks   (familiar   and   unfamiliar  word  cards)  at  each   time  point.  this  was   to  discern  whether   there  was  a  difference  at  each   test   time   between   reading   familiar,   exemplar   words   (rehearsed,   whole   word   pronunciation)   compared   to   unfamiliar   words   (application   of   fl   decoding   and   therefore   fl   sound/spelling   link   knowledge).   table   10   shows   that   mid-­‐test   familiar   word   card   decoding   was   significantly   higher   (median   =   1.000)   than   for   unfamiliar  word  card  reading  (median  =   .000),  z  =   -­‐3.368,  p  =  0.001,  r  =   -­‐0.49,  medium  effect  size.   in  other   words,   at   mid-­‐test   there   was   a   marked   difference   in   overall   performance   when   reading   aloud   familiar   compared  to  unfamiliar  words.   table 10 mid-test familiar versus unfamiliar fl reading aloud word cards – wilcoxon signed rank tests (n = 23) median z p s.e. effect size (cohen’s d) familiar unfamiliar fl word card reading aloud 1.000 .000 -3.368 .001 17.367 -0.49 note. max score familiar words 5; unfamiliar words 5.   3.2.2.  reading  aloud  familiar  versus  unfamiliar  word  cards  at  post-­‐test   similarly,   table   11   shows   that   at   post-­‐test,   familiar   word   card   decoding   was   significantly   higher   (median  2.000)  than  unfamiliar  word  card  decoding  (median  1.000),  z  =  -­‐3.851,  p  =  <0.001,  r  =  -­‐0.57,  medium   effect   size.   by   post-­‐test   the   pattern   continued   that   familiar  word   learning   (reading   aloud)  was   better   than   unfamiliar  word  reading.       table 11 post-test familiar versus unfamiliar fl reading aloud word cards – wilcoxon signed rank tests (n = 23) median z p s.e. effect size (cohen’s d) familiar unfamiliar fl word card reading aloud 2.000 1.000 -3.851 <.0001 24.668 -0.57 note. max score familiar words 5; unfamiliar words 5.   3.2.3.  reading  aloud  familiar  versus  unfamiliar  word  cards  at  delayed  post-­‐test   finally,  table  12  shows  that  at  delayed  post-­‐test,  familiar  word  card  decoding  was  still  significantly   higher  (median  2.000)  compared  to  unfamiliar  word  card  decoding  (median  .000),  z  =  -­‐3.521,  p  =  <0.001,  r  =  -­‐ 0.52   medium   effect   size.   this   demonstrates   that   at   all   test   points   familiar,   exemplar   words   were   more   successfully  decoded  than  unfamiliar  words.         learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 95   table 12 delayed post-test to familiar versus unfamiliar fl reading aloud word cards – wilcoxon signed rank tests (n = 23) median z p s.e. effect size (cohen’s d) familiar unfamiliar fl word card reading aloud 2.000 0.000 -3.521 <.0001 22.864 -0.52 note. max score familiar words 5; unfamiliar words 5.   3.2.4.  reading  aloud  by  word  card  at  each  test  time   performances  across  familiar  and  unfamiliar  word  cards  at  all  test  times  were  also  examined  through   analysis   of   each   word   card.   a   breakdown   shows   that   overall   performances   were   centred   around   specific   sound/letter  links  (figure  8).  broadly  speaking,  novel  fl  sounds  linked  to  existing  l1  spellings  were  learned   best   in   familiar  words   (singe,  cochon,  enfant).  those   sounds  which  were  either   a)   similar   to   an  existing  l1   sound  /y/  or  b)  an  extant  l1  sound  /j/  which  required  a  different  mapping  were  learned  slowest.  this  was   not  particularly  affected  by  order  of  presentation:  /j/  as  in  billet  was  recoded  less  successfully  than  /ɛ̄/  as  in   singe,   yet   /j/   had   been   presented   earlier   in   the   teaching   programme.   sounds   that   were  most   successfully   decoded   in   post-­‐test   familiar   conditions   were   likely   to   show   relative   success   at   post-­‐test   unfamiliar   conditions,   although   singe/câlin   proved  an  exception.   it   is   important   to  note   that  grand   (unfamiliar)  didn’t   perform  as  differently  as  expected  although  this  is  likely  because  the  children  chose  to  use  this  word  as  part   of   their   extended   reading/writing  work   (the  adjective   formed  part  of   the   core   taught  vocabulary)   and   it   is   also  a  “false  friend”  (false  cognate)  in  english.         figure 8. performance at each test time for specific word cards/sound-spelling links (max score per word/test time 23)       3.3.   to   what   extent   do   l1   literacy   measures   and   fl   global   proficiency   scores   relate   to   fl   reading  aloud  proficiency  at  each  test  time?       this   research   question   seeks   to   identify   whether   particular   underlying   constructs,   known   to   influence  fl  reading,  could  explain  any  of   the  variance   in   this  study’s  fl  reading  outcomes.  firstly,  section   3.3.1   describes   the   nature   of   l1   proficiency   across   the   sample   and   then   explores   the   potential   for   relationships  between  l1  literacy  measures  and  fl  reading  aloud  performances  at  each  test  time.       porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 96       3.3.1.  l1  literacy  measures  and  fl  reading  aloud  performance       descriptive   statistics   (table  13)   show   the   range  of  l1   literacy  achievement  across   the   sub-­‐sample.   mann  whitney  u  tests  were  conducted  and  confirmed  that  there  were  no  significant  differences  in  l1  baseline   literacy  scores  between  school  1  and  school  2.     table 13 descriptive statistics for all l1 literacy-related measures baseline l1 scores mean median mode sd range skewness kurtosis min max ngrt l1 reading age 12.709 12.07 13.02 1.675 9.0 15.0 -.003 -.221 swst l1 spelling age 10.517 10.07 10.02a 3.211 7.08 17.0 -1.118 5.115 nc reading levels (max 14) 9.96 10.07 10.00 2.383 6 14 2.383 -.319 nc writing levels (max 14) 9.35 10.00 10.00 1.991 5 13 -.189 -.325 note. a = multiple modes exist       these  data  were  examined  using  spearman’s  rho  correlation  coefficients  to  establish  whether  there   were  relationships  between  the  individual  measures  of  l1  literacy  proficiency.  strong  positive  relationships   were   found   between   both   national   curriculum   reading   levels   (teacher-­‐assessed)   and   ngrt   standardised   reading  scores  rs  =  .809**  sig  <  .0001  (*  =  .05  alpha;  **  =  .001  alpha).  moderate  relationships  were  also  found   between  national  curriculum  writing   levels   (teacher-­‐assessed)   and  swst  standardised   spelling   scores   rs   =   .556**  sig  =  .006.  ngrt  and  swst  scores  also  correlated  moderately  rs  =  .580**  sig  =  .004.  correlational  tests   also  showed  that  across  all  times  l1  literacy  measures  showed  positive  and  significant  relationships  with  fl   reading  aloud  outcomes  (flra  -­‐  table  14).     table 14 relationships between l1 literacy-related outcomes and fl reading aloud at all test times mid-test flra (fam-unfam) post-test flra (fam-unfam) delayed post-test flra (fam-unfam) rs sig rs sig rs sig l1 reading age ngrt .583** .003 .513** .012 .568** .005 l1 spelling age swst .693** <.0001 .645** .001 .701** <.0001 nc reading levels .691** <.0001 .583** .004 .767** <.0001 nc writing .516** .012 .614** .002 .713** <.0001       whilst   the   influence  of  l1  reading  age  on  fl  reading  aloud  remained  significant  at  all   test   times,   it   diminished   slightly   after   the   teaching   programme,   evidenced   by   slightly   lower   rs   values.   interestingly,   l1   spelling   and   teacher-­‐assessed   nc   levels   show   highest   rs   values,   and   therefore   strongest   relationships,   at   delayed   post-­‐test   although   with   the   exception   of   nc   writing,   these   did   not   result   in   different   values   of   statistical  significance.  spelling  age  is  the  most  influential,  continuously  showing  rs  values  above  .6  (strong).     3.3.2.  global  fl  scores  (literacy  and  general  proficiency)         section   3.3.2   turns   to   examine   fl   global   performances   (collected   from   additional,   combined   fl   measures)   to   establish   whether   fl   word   card   reading   aloud   scores   at   each   test   time   were   related   to   underlying   fl   proficiency.   firstly,   global   literacy   and   general   proficiency   scores   at   each   test   time   were   examined  to  determine  whether  fl  learning  occurred  during  the  teaching  cycle  and  if  any  attrition  occurred   between  post-­‐  and  delayed  post-­‐test  (tables  15-­‐17).  these  composite  scores  were  derived  from  the  following   learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 97   datasets:  global  fl   literacy  comprised  fl  reading  aloud  (target-­‐like  production  of  specific  sounds/word)   in   sentences  plus  fl  reading  comprehension  (reading  for  global  meaning  and  detail).  it  should  be  recalled  that   the  reading  aloud  task  was  different  from  the  fl  reading  aloud  word  card  task  reported  in  rq1  and  rq2.  fl   general   proficiency  was   derived   from   fl   receptive   vocabulary   (recognising  words   and   linking   to   pictorial   representations)  plus  fl  elicited  imitation  (sentence  reproduction).       at   pre-­‐test,   fl   global   literacy   and   general   proficiency   scores   showed  wide   ranges   in   achievement   across  the  sample  with  scores  for  spoken  language  measures  ranging  between  15-­‐57  marks  out  of  a  total  of   116  (receptive  vocabulary,  n  =  29;  elicited  imitation,  n  =  87).  for  fl  literacy,  scores  were  similarly  diverse   with   children’s   performances   ranging   from   1   to   9.5   out   of   a   total   of   18   (reading   aloud,   n   =   10;   reading   comprehension,  n  =  8  –  table  15).  by  post-­‐test,  both  means  and  medians  had  risen,  but   it  should  be  noted   that   there  was   still   a   substantial   range   in  achievement   scores   in  both  fl  general  proficiency  and  global  fl   literacy  variables  (table  16).  at  delayed  post-­‐test,  both  means  and  medians  had  risen  slightly  for  fl  general   proficiency  and  had  dropped  slightly   for  the  fl  global   literacy  scores  (table  17).  again,   the  range   in  scores   remained  wide  between  the  higher  and  lower  achievers.     table 15 descriptive statistics pre-test fl general proficiency and fl global literacy (n = 23) pre-test mean median sd range skewness (s.e. skewness) kurtosis (s.e. kurtosis) min max fl general proficiency (max 116) 36.609 41.000 9.981 15.0 57.0 -.822 (.481) .950 (.935) fl global literacy (max 18) 5.370 5.500 2.2270 1.0 9.5 .247 (.481) -.250 (.935)   table 16 descriptive statistics post-test fl general proficiency and fl global literacy (n = 23) post-test mean median sd range skewness (s.e. skewness) kurtosis (s.e. kurtosis) min max fl general proficiency (max 116) 45.391 46.000 10.4174 21.0 66.0 -.413 (.481) .346 (.935) fl global literacy (max 18) 6.957 6.500 2.4117 3.5 13.0 .482 (.481) .176 (.935)   table 17 descriptive statistics delayed post-test fl general proficiency and fl global literacy (n = 23) post-test mean median sd range skewness (s.e. skewness) kurtosis (s.e. kurtosis) min max fl general proficiency (max 116) 46.652 48.000 10.7602 26.0 67.0 -.304 (.481) -.379 (.481) fl global literacy (max 18) 6.500 6.500 2.5628 2.5 12.5 .433 (.481) -.130 (.935)       learners’   progress   on   fl   general   proficiency   and   fl   literacy   constructs   will   now   be   explored   to   illustrate  broader  fl  learning  during  the  overall  teaching  programme  (tables  18  and  19).  as  these  tests  also   comprised  two  literacy-­‐related  test  items,  it  is  interesting  to  note  progress  made  beyond  the  sub-­‐skills  of  fl   phonological  decoding  measured  through  the  fl  reading  aloud  word  card   test.  these  analyses  also  explore   whether  this  broader  fl  learning  was  durable  by  examining  scores  between  post-­‐  and  delayed  post-­‐test.       table  18  shows  that  from  pre-­‐test  to  post-­‐test  (immediately  after  the  teaching  programme),  students   made  statistically  significant  progress  across  both  fl  combined  measures.  global  general  proficiency  scores   porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 98   (pre-­‐test  mdn   =   39.609;   post-­‐test  mdn   =   45.391,   z   =   2.930,   p   =   0.56;   r   =   0.43)   and   global   literacy   scores   increased  moderately   (literacy:   pre-­‐test  mdn   =   5.50;   post-­‐test  mdn   =   6.50;   z   =   2.930,   p   =   .003;   r   =   0.43).   between  post-­‐test  and  delayed  post-­‐test,  medians  either   remained   the  same  or   increased  slightly  but  were   not  statistically  significant  (table  19),  showing  that  the  fl  learning  was  relatively  durable.     table 18 pre-test to post-test fl general proficiency and fl global literacy scores – wilcoxon signed rank tests (n = 23) median z p s.e. effect size (cohen’s d) pre-test post-test fl general proficiency 39.609 45.391 3.771 <.0001 30.763 0.56 fl global literacy 5.50 6.50 2.930 .003 28.666 0.43 note. max score fl general proficiency 116; fl global literacy 18.   table 19 post-test to delayed post-test fl general proficiency and fl global literacy scores – wilcoxon signed rank tests (n = 23) median z p s.e. effect size (cohen’s d) pre-test post-test fl general proficiency 45.391 46.652 1.123 .261 30.708 0.17 fl global literacy 6.50 6.50 -1.051 .293 26.646 -0.16 note. max score fl general proficiency 116; fl global literacy 18.   in  table  19,  comparison  of  fl  global  literacy  scores  using  a  wilcoxon  signed  rank  test  shows  that  there   was  no  significant  difference  in  scores  between  post-­‐test  (mdn  =  6.50)  and  delayed  post-­‐test  (mdn  =  6.50),  z  =   -­‐1.051,  p  =   .293,  thereby  showing  that  the  progression  made  in  fl  literacy  during  the  teaching  intervention   appeared   relatively   long-­‐term.   however,   general   proficiency   scores   increased   slightly   (though   not   significantly)  between  post-­‐test   (mdn  =  45.391)  and  delayed  post-­‐test   (mdn  =  46.652),   z  =  1.123,  p  =   .261,   small   effect   size   r   =  0.17).   section  3.3.3  will   turn   to   global   fl  proficiencies   (general   proficiency   and  global   literacy)  to  establish  whether  these  abilities  were  related  to  the  fl  word  card  reading  aloud  scores  at  each   test  time.       3.3.3.  global  fl  and  fl  reading  aloud  scores   the  relationships  between  fl  general  proficiency  and  fl  global  literacy  with  fl  reading  aloud  (word   card)  outcomes  at  all  test  times  were  explored  using  spearman’s  rho  correlations  (table  20).  all  pre-­‐test  fl   outcomes   (with   the   exception   of   fl   global   literacy   at   mid-­‐test   flra)   showed   statistically   significant   relationships  with  word   reading   outcomes   at  mid-­‐,   post-­‐,   and   delayed   post-­‐test   times.   the   influence   of   fl   outcomes  increased  in  strength  immediately  after  the  teaching  programme  (at  post-­‐test)  and  also  at  delayed   post-­‐test.  general  proficiency  and  literacy-­‐based  fl  outcomes  showed,  broadly  speaking,  the  same  strength  of   influence  at  post-­‐test,  evidenced  by  similar  rs  values.       table 20 relationships between combined fl outcomes and fl reading aloud word card (familiar and unfamiliar) at all test times mid-test flra (fam-unfam) post-test flra (fam-unfam) delayed post-test flra (fam-unfam) rs sig rs sig rs sig pre-test fl general proficiency .480* .020 .486* .019 .568** .005 pre-test fl global literacy .379 .074 .561** .005 .570* .005 post-test fl general proficiency .643** .001 .552** .006 .626** .001 post-test fl global literacy .612** .002 .605** .002 .690** <.0001 delayed post-test fl general proficiency .501* .015 .535** .009 .562** .005 delayed post-test fl global literacy .583** .004 .786** <.0001 .781** <.0001 learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 99   whilst  it  seems  likely  from  extant  literature  that  these  fl  and  l1  variables  could  be  predictors  of  fl   outcomes   including   fl   reading   aloud   outcomes,   the   sample   size   (n   =   23)   precluded   statistical   analysis   to   identify  such  predictors  (field,  2014).     4.  discussion   4.1.  to  what  extent  do  learners  engaged  in  systematic  and  explicit  fl  phonics  instruction  make   progress   in  reading  aloud   familiar  and  unfamiliar  fl  words  at  mid-­‐,  post-­‐  and  delayed  post-­‐ test?       for   familiar  word   card   reading   aloud,   the   children  made   slow  but   statistically   significant   progress   both  during  and  immediately  after  the  fl  phonics  teaching  programme.  the  slow  progression  is  evidenced  by   a   low  mean   2.174/median   2.00   at   post-­‐test   out   of   a   total   score   of   5.   unfamiliar  words   and   application   of   sound/spelling   links  showed  similar  patterns.  ten  weeks   into   the  phonics   instruction  programme  this  sub-­‐ sample   (n  =  23)  had  made  almost  no  progress   in  applying   learned  fl  sound/spelling   links   to  novel  words.   the   children’s   progression   (for   unfamiliar   word   cards)   between   mid-­‐   and   post-­‐test   was   slow   (mean   .9130/median  1.00  at  post-­‐test)  but  statistically  significant  with  a  moderate  effect  size  (rs  =  .40),  likely  due  to   a   zero-­‐starting   point.   these   findings   resonate   with   prior   research   in   a   similar   context   which   found   that   sound/spelling   links,   particularly   those   taught   in   french   (an   irregular   orthography)   developed   slowly   and   that  children’s  reproductions  tended  to  reflect  l1  sound/spelling  links  (cable  et  al.,  2010).  an  investigation  of   phonics  instruction  conducted  in  english  secondary  schools  (children  aged  11-­‐13)  found  that,  after  16  weeks   of   systematic  and   targeted  weekly   sessions,   some  participants   still   failed   to   successfully  decode  written  fl   non-­‐words   through  a   sound-­‐alike   test   (woore  et   al.,   2018).   it   seems   likely   that  development  of  fl   reading   aloud  skills   in  both  familiar  and  unfamiliar  contexts   is  a   long-­‐term  pedagogic  endeavour  and,  consequently,   progress  may  have  been  further  hindered  by  the  relatively  low  amounts  of  weekly  instructional  time,  which  is   known  to  affect  primary  fl  outcomes  (graham  et  al.,  2017).       like  other  primary  and  secondary  school  studies  (cable  et  al.,  2010;  woore  et  al.,  2018),  this  study   found   that   the   range  of  performances  was  diverse  at   all   test   times.  almost  one   third  of   the   sample   (n  =  7)   scored  zero  for  reading  familiar  words  at  mid-­‐test,  ten  weeks  after  the  phonics  instruction  commenced  and,   after  23  weeks  of   learning,   there  were  still   children  who  were  unable   to   recognise  and  pronounce   familiar   words   and   to   decode   unfamiliar   words.   correlational   analyses   showed   that   during   and   after   the   teaching   programme   both   l1   reading   proficiency   and   fl   proficiencies   were   related   to   achievement   at   fl   reading   aloud.   it   could   be   possible   that   the   learners   who   apparently   made   no   progress   following   the   phonics   instruction  programme  had   lower  l1   literacy  skills.   it  should  also  be  noted  that,   in   this  sample,  l1  spelling   ages   showed   considerable   range   (7.08   years   to   17.0   years).   this   measure   was   found   to   have   strong   relationships  with  fl  outcomes   in   this   study  and  l1  spelling   is  also  known   to  be   influenced  by  l1  phonics   instruction  (castles  et  al.,  2018),  therefore  l1  spelling  ranges  could  have  explained  some  of  the  range  in  fl   reading  aloud  scores.  perhaps  the  phonics  pedagogy  should  have  focused  more  systematically  on  practising   writing  both  exemplar  and  other  words  incorporating  the  targeted  sound/spelling  links.  on  a  broader  scale,  it   should  be  noted  that  diversity   in  fl  outcomes  is  a  known  phenomenon  in  fl  education  for  young  learners.   other  studies  across  europe  have  found  that  fl  oracy  and  literacy  scores  vary  considerably  amongst  learners   of  the  same  ages;  even  within  the  same  classes  (cable  et  al.,  2010;  enever  et  al.  2011;  graham  et  al.,  2017).         finally,   the   kinds   of   sound/spelling   links   taught   also   appeared   to  matter   to   some   extent.   the   best   performances  at  post-­‐test  for  familiar  words  centred  around  novel  fl  sounds  (e.g.,  nasal  vowels)  which  had   to   be   linked   to   existing   l1   spellings.   those   involving   extant   l1   sounds   which   required   new  mappings   to   different  fl   spellings   seemed  more  problematic.  this  perhaps   could  be   explained  by   the  distinctiveness  of   novel  fl  sounds  which  are  easier   to  perceive  and  therefore   link  and/or  remap  to  their  respective  spellings   (flege,  1995).  it  should  also  be  noted  that  the  phonics  instruction  which  involved  both  gestures  and  pictures   worked  particularly  well  as  clues  for  the  articulatory  properties  of  nasality.  for  example  the  nasal  vowel  /ɔ̃/   was  linked  to  the  exemplar  word  coch<on>  (pig).  this  was  accompanied  by  a  picture  of  a  pig  and  whole  class   enactment   of   an   action  which   involved   pushing   the   tip   of   the   nose   to   resemble   a   snout  whilst   saying   the   sound.  this,  of  course,  drew  attention  to  the  nasality  and  potentially  acted  as  a  retrieval  cue  for  articulatory   properties.   however,   no   phonetic   analysis   of   sound   perception   or   production   was   involved   in   the   study,   therefore  this  explanation  should  be  treated  with  caution.     porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 100   4.2.  are  performances  on  reading  aloud  familiar  and  unfamiliar  word  cards  different  at  mid-­‐,   post-­‐  and  delayed  post-­‐test?       similar  patterns   for   familiar  and  unfamiliar  words   showed   that   learners  made  slow  but   significant   progress  at  reading  both  word  types  during  the  teaching.  comparison  of  familiar  versus  unfamiliar  word  card   performance  at  each  test  time  also  showed  consistently  significant  differences.  in  other  words,  just  10  weeks   after  the  phonics  programme  started,  familiar  words  were  more  successfully  decoded  than  unfamiliar  words   (p  =  .001;  rs  =  0.49  moderate).  this  preference  was  replicated  at  post-­‐test  (p  <  .0001;  rs  =  -­‐.057)  and  delayed   post-­‐test  (p  <  .0001;  rs  =  -­‐.052).  at  each  time  point  learners  were  significantly  better  at  reading  familiar  words   compared  to  unfamiliar  words.       these  results  show  that  enhanced  practice  and  exposure  is  key  in  phonics  instruction  in  developing   reading   aloud   of   familiar   and   unfamiliar  words.   it   demonstrates   the   importance   of   familiarity  with  words   (item-­‐based  learning)  to  ensure  accurate  decoding,  in  line  with  l1  literature  (share,  1999)  and  frequency  of   presentation  (share,  1999).  this  could  also  be  linked  to  active  decoding  and  the  development  of  better  quality   lexical  representations  (spelling,  sound  and  meaning)  in  memory  (castles  et  al.,  2018;  ehri,  2014).  however,   there   are   a   number   of   complex   issues   surrounding   the   difference   in   performance   between   known   and   unknown   words.   perhaps   the   multimodal   (enhanced)   nature   of   presentation   of   phonics   exemplar   words   (written   words,   pictures,   gestures   plus  meaning)   could   have   boosted   the  memorisation   of   familiar   words   such  as  s<in>ge  (monkey)  (boyer  &  ehri,  2011).         due   to   frequency  of  presentation  and   rehearsal,   it   is  possible   that   these  exemplar  words  were  not   actually  phonologically  decoded  in  a  conscious  manner  and  could  have  been  linked  as  whole  word  forms  to   their  corresponding  phonological  representation.  it  is  also  feasible  that  the  children  had  memorised  the  oral   form   of   the  word   and   could   have   generated   this   from   the   picture   on   the  word   card   but   it   is,   nonetheless   interesting,  that  when  the  visual  was  presented  alongside  the  written  form,  some  learners  were  still  unable  to   suppress  the  corresponding  l1  mappings  and  produced  a  non-­‐target-­‐like  form  for  the  familiar  word  after  23   weeks  of  phonics   instruction.  again,   this   seems   to  suggest   that   learning  fl  sound/spelling   links   takes   time   and   plenty   of   practise.   historic   pedagogic   advice   and   anecdotal   teacher   opinion   contends   that   fl   reading   should  be  avoided  until   reliable  phonological  representations  of  words  have  been  established  so   that   these   will  counteract  l1-­‐based  mispronunciations  (hurrell,  1999).  this  study   instead  suggests   that  print-­‐induced   l1   mispronunciations   will   result   regardless   of   timing   for   l1   literate   learners.   it   seems   possible   that   increasing   success   rates   at   post-­‐test   show   that   early   opportunities   to   tackle   fl   reading   can   yield   eventual   target-­‐like   decoding.   however,   as   section   5.1   notes,   it   is   beyond   the   remit   of   this   study   to   attribute   any   outcomes  directly   to   the   efficacy   of   fl  phonics   instruction   and  pedagogic   recommendations  would   benefit   from  further  research.       evidently  the  phonological  decoding  of  unfamiliar  words  is  the  bona  fide  indicator  of  application  of   conscious   sound/spelling   link   knowledge.   however,   particular   sound/spelling   links   which   were   more   successfully  realised  in  familiar  forms  performed  better  in  unfamiliar  contexts  too,  and  this  seems  to  indicate   that  there  could  be  a  link  between  memorisation  of  exemplars  and  conscious  phonological  decoding.  whilst   not   a   focus   of   analysis,   learners   tended   to   make   l1   related   errors   when   phonological   decoding   such   as   substituting   on   =   /ɒn/   for   on   =   /ɔ̃/.   this   seems   to   show   that   a   degree   of   automatized   l1   phonological   decoding  was   indeed  activated,  even   for  conscious  or  effortful  decoding  of  unfamiliar  words  and  successful   performance   could   have   indicated   whether   children   were   able   to   override   these   automatized   l1   sound/spelling   link  knowledge.   it   appears   that,  whilst  many  of   them  were  making  progress   in   this   regard,   reading   in   an   additional   language   is   a   dual   (or   multiple)   language   affair,   and   overriding   competing   l1   knowledge  is  challenging  (cable  et  al.,  2010;  grabe  &  stoller,  2002;  koda,  2008;  woore,  2009).  perhaps  the   learners   could   have   benefited   from   more   opportunities   to   apply   practised   sound/spelling   links   in   novel   contexts,   thereby   strengthening   recall   of   fl   sound/spelling   link   knowledge.   the   phonics   instruction   programme  could  have  included  more  opportunities  to  practise  reading  a  range  of  unknown  words.     4.3.   to   what   extent   do   l1   literacy   measures   and   fl   global   proficiency   scores   relate   to   fl   reading  aloud  proficiency  at  each  test  time?       statistical  analyses  showed  that  all  l1  literacy  measures  (both  standardised  test  scores  and  teacher   assessments)  correlated  strongly  and  positively  at  all  test  times  with  fl  word  reading  aloud  test  scores.  this   indicated,   as   expected   from   the   literature,   that   successful   l1   readers   and   writers   were   likely   to   be   more   successful   at   fl   reading   aloud.   wider   research   has   found   that   young   learners   fl   literacy   and   indeed   fl   learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 101   outcomes   generally   are   likely   to   be   influenced   by   l1   literacy   (courtney   et   al.,   2017;   sparks   &   ganschow,   2012).  the  relationships  between  l1  literacy  and  fl  word  card  reading  aloud  decreased  very  slightly  at  post-­‐ test,  then  increased  again  at  delayed  post-­‐test.  this  was  despite  the  differences  between  post-­‐test  scores  and   delayed   post-­‐test   scores   not   being   statistically   significant.   it   seems   possible   that   this   could   relate   to   a   particularly   low   start   for   fl   reading   aloud   scores   which   increased   immediately   following   the   fl   phonics   instruction  programme.   it   could  also   show   that   some  of   the   lower  achieving  l1   literacy   learners   increased   their  fl  reading  aloud  skills  as  their  l1  literacy  skills  were  improving  too.  this  was  not  evidenced  as  the  l1   data   collection  was   focused  on   the  beginning  of   the   school   year,   however,   it   is   likely   that   l1   literacy   skills   would   be   boosted   markedly   during   the   last   two   years   of   primary   school   when   pupils   are   preparing   for   national  standardised  literacy  and  numeracy  tests.         both  l1  reading  age  and  l1  spelling  age  were  influential  at  all  test  times,  although  spelling  age  was   marginally  more  important,  tending  to  demonstrate  strong  rather  than  moderate  relationships.  this  could  be   because  the  l1  reading  age  test  examines  word  recognition  and  reading  comprehension  by  asking  student  to   select   the   correct   written  word   from   a   range   of   options   to   complete   a   gapped   sentence,   whilst   the   swst   spelling   test   involves   typing   or   writing   a   target   word   in   a   gapped   sentence   from   an   auditory   cue   (e.g.   orthographic  decoding).  arguably  the  swst  would  act  as  a  more  direct  indicator  of  l1  relationships  between   sounds   and   letters.   it   could   also   be   relevant   to   note   that   the   swst   scores   showed   greater   range   than   the   ngrt  scores  and   this  perhaps   influenced   the   statistical   analyses.  this   could  also   reflect   links  with  phonics   knowledge  and  spelling  evidenced  in  the  l1  literature  (rosenthal  &  ehri,  2011).       interestingly,   fl  outcomes  were   generally   related   to  fl   reading   aloud  word   card   scores   at   all   test   times,  with  the  exception  of  fl  global  literacy  scores  at  mid-­‐test.  so,  if  learners  were  high  achievers  at  either   fl   literacy   or   fl   global   proficiency,   then   they   tended   to   score   higher   for   fl  word   card   reading   aloud.   as   discussed  in  the  results  section,  the  sample  size  was  not  large  enough  to  explore  these  variables  as  predictors,   so  it  is  impossible  to  discern  whether  these  fl  proficiencies  are  likely  to  have  determined  performance.  it  is   also   important   to   note   that   relationships   between   fl   outcomes   and   fl   reading   aloud   could   have   been   mediated  by   other   factors   such   as   learner   self-­‐efficacy   and  motivation,   as   earlier   young   learner   fl   studies   have  noted  links  between  attitudinal  factors  and  learning  outcomes  (courtney,  2017;  graham  et  al.,  2017).       5.  conclusion       to   summarise,   over   the   course   of   a   23-­‐week   programme   of   systematic   weekly   phonics   activities   where  french  sound/spelling   links  were   taught  and  practised,   learners  made  steady  progress.  the  reading   aloud   process   showed   great   variation   inter-­‐participant,   but   the   overall   learning,  whilst   slow,   tended   to   be   durable  and  was  evident  at  least  seven  weeks  after  the  instructional  programme  finished.  the  influence  of  l1   literacy-­‐related  skills,  particularly  l1  spelling  age,  was   important   for  fl  reading  outcomes.   in  other  words,   skilled   l1   readers   had   a   clear   advantage   for   reading   aloud   fl  words.   for   all   learners,   familiar   fl   phonics   exemplar  words  were  more  accurately  read  aloud  than  unfamiliar  words,  but  after  23  weeks  of   instruction,   progress  applying  learned  sound/spelling  links  to  novel  (unfamiliar)  contexts    started  to  emerge.  this  study   shows   that   learning   to   read   aloud   fl   words   is   a   slow   process   but   that   children   do   make   progress.   on   a   broader  scale,  this  study  confirmed  that  young,  beginner  fl  learners  are  able  to  make  meaningful  progress  in   limited  input  classroom  settings.  it  was  also  apparent  that  whilst  l1  literacy  skills  have  facilitative  role  in  fl   outcomes,  the  process  of  re-­‐mapping  (and/or  suppressing)  l1  sound/spelling  links  is  a  complex  and  arduous   one.     5.1.  limitations       it  is  important  to  recall  that  this  was  not  a  direct  evaluation  of  the  phonics  instructional  programme   alone,   as   the   children  were   engaged   in   a   rich   programme   of   oracy   and   literacy   activities,   which   has   been   documented   in   the   supplementary   materials.   this   is   in   line   with   wider   literacy-­‐related   research   which   evidences  the  importance  of  both  phonics   instruction  and  meaning-­‐based  text  activities  to  support   learning   (adams,  1990).  to  evaluate  the  direct  implications  of  the  phonics  instruction  package,  one  school  would  have   had  to  have  only  the  phonics  instructional  programme.  as  little  is  known  about  best  practice  for  fl  phonics   instruction   or   its   effectiveness,   this   study   undertook   to   investigate   the   possible   outcomes   and   learning   processes  in  a  limited  input,  limited  timeframe  fl  setting.  it  is  also  important  to  consider  that  teacher  factors   such  as   linguistic  ability,   language  specialist   training,  and  teaching  time  are   likely  to  underpin  fl  outcomes   (graham  et  al.,  2017)  and  could  have  influenced  progression  in  this  context.  arguably,  the  teacher/researcher   porter   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 102   stance   meant   that   this   study   was   implemented   by   someone   who   was   heavily   invested   in   the   teaching/learning  process.       5.2.  a  future  research  agenda       as   it  cannot  be  assumed  that   the  benefits   for  phonics   in  english  l1   literacy   learning  can  simply  be   transferred   to   any   fl   context,   future   research   should   aim   to   investigate   the   effectiveness   of   fl   phonics   in   primary  schools  in  a  controlled  experiment.  it  would  also  be  useful  to  examine  the  learning  of  sound/spelling   links  of  different  foreign  languages  in  young  learner  instructed  settings  as  well  as  the  teaching  and  learning  of   fl  literacy  for  learners  with  different  l1  (non-­‐alphabetic)  backgrounds  such  as  chinese.       funding   this   study  was   funded   through   an  esrc  university   of   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andrea   g.   (2014).   perceptual   assimilation   and   discrimination  of  non-­‐native  vowel  contrasts.  phonetica,  71(1),  4–21.   vellutino,  frank  r.  &  fletcher,  jack  m.  (2005).  development  dyslexia.  in  margaret  j.  snowling  &  charles  hulme   (eds.),  the  science  of  reading:  a  handbook  (pp.  362-­‐378).  oxford,  united  kingdom:  blackwell.   verhoeven,  ludo  (2011).  second  language  reading.  in  michael  l.  kamil,  david,  pearson,  elizabeth  b.  moje,  &   peter  afflerbach  (eds.),  handbook  of  reading  research  (pp.  661-­‐683).  new  york/london:  routledge.   woore,  robert  (2009).  beginners’  progress  in  decoding  l2  french:  some  longitudinal  evidence  from  english   modern  foreign  languages  classrooms.  language  learning  journal,  37(1),  3-­‐18.   woore,  robert  (2011).  investigating  and  developing  beginner  learners’  decoding  proficiency  in  second  language   french:  an  evaluation  of  two  programmes  of   instruction.  unpublished  phd  thesis.  oxford:  university   of  oxford.   woore,  robert,  graham,  suzanne,  porter,  alison,  courtney,  louise  &  savory,  claire  (2018).  foreign  language   education   unlocking   reading   (fleur):   a   study   into   the   teaching   of   reading   to   beginner   learners   of   french  in  secondary  school.  oxford,  united  kingdom:  university  of  oxford.   wyse,   dominic   &   styles,   morag   (2007).   synthetic   phonics   and   the   teaching   of   reading:   the   debate   surrounding  england’s  rose  report.  literacy,  41(1),  37-­‐42.           learning  french  sound/spelling  links   e-­‐journall  7(1)  (2020),  pp.  78-­‐107 107     alison porter, university of southampton a.porter@soton.ac.uk en alison porter is a lecturer in applied linguistics at the university of southampton. her primary research area is young language learning in instructed settings. she is particularly interested in the teaching and learning of foreign language literacy and has participated in teaching and learning research in both early (ages 5-7) and late (ages 9-11) primary school classrooms. she also taught foreign languages in english primary schools for ten years. most recently, dr. porter collaborated on a large-scale teaching intervention study in early secondary school classrooms (ages 11-13) which aimed to evaluate the effects of different types of reading instruction: phonics and strategy use. in 2017, dr. porter established a southampton university primary languages (supl) research and practice partnership with emeritus professor ros mitchell. supl currently collaborates with 20 local primary schools to co-construct, implement, and evaluate foreign language literacy practices in classrooms. participating teachers are concurrently trained in classroom research methods, and several smallscale investigations have already resulted. dr. porter is also a member of the research in primary language network (ripl), founded by the university of essex, which engages with practitioners on a local level as well as national stakeholders in a bid to inform policy and sustainability issues relating to primary foreign language provision. es alison porter es una profesora de lingüística aplicada en la universidad de southampton. su área de investigación es principalmente el aprendizaje de la lengua en niños en un contexto educativo. se ocupa sobretodo de enseñanza y aprendizaje de alfabetización de una lengua extranjera y ha contribuido en investigaciones sobre la enseñanza y el aprendizaje tanto en niños de 5-7 años como en los de 9-11 años. impartió clases de lenguas extranjeras en escuelas primarias durante diez años. más recientemente, la profesora porter ha colaborado a un estudio a gran escala sobre la intervención de la enseñanza en las escuelas secundaria (11-13 años de edad) que tenía como objetivo evaluar los efectos producidos por diferentes tipos de enseñanza de lectura: instrucción fónica y uso estratégico. en 2017, la profesora porter estableció la asociación southampton university primary languages (supl) research and practice junto con el profesor émerito ros mitchell. hoy en día supl colabora con 20 escuelas primarias locales para desarrollar juntos, implementar y evaluar las practicas de alfabetización de lenguas extranjeras en clase. los docentes que participan son formados al mismo tiempo en métodos de investigación desarrollando ya numerosas investigaciones a pequeña escala. la profesora porter es también miembro de research in primary language network (ripl), fundado por la university of essex, que se relaciona con tanto con profesionales a nivel local como con stakeholders a nivel nacional con el intento de informar sobre cuestiones de política y sostenibilidad relacionadas con la oferta de la lengua extranjera en la escuela primaria. it alison porter è ricercatrice in linguistica applicata presso l’università di southampton. la sua area di ricerca principale è l’apprendimento linguistico dei bambini in contesto di istruzione formale. è particolarmente interessata all’insegnamento e apprendimento della letto-scrittura nella lingua straniera e ha partecipato a ricerche sull’insegnamento e apprendimento in classi iniziali (5-7 anni) ed avanzate (9-11) nella scuola primaria. ha inoltre insegnato lingua straniera nella scuola primaria inglese per dieci anni. ultimamente, porter ha collaborato a un ampio studio sull’intervento didattico in classi iniziali della scuola secondaria (11-13 anni) finalizzato alla valutazione degli effetti di tipi diversi di insegnamento della lettura: il metodo fonetico e l’uso di strategie. nel 2017, porter ha stabilito una collaborazione dell’università di southampton con il professore emerito ros mitchell per southampton university primary languages (supl) research and practice (supl). attualmente, supl collabora con 20 scuole locali per la creazione, implementazione e valutazione di pratiche di alfabetizzazione per la classe. gli insegnanti coinvolti vengono al contempo istruiti sui metodi di ricerca per la classe e ne sono già derivati diversi studi su piccola scala. porter è anche membro della research in primary language network (ripl) fondata dall’università dell’essex, che si confronta con gli operatori del settore a livello locale e con le parti interessate a livello nazionale nel tentativo di orientare questioni di politiche e sostenibilità relative all’insegnamento delle lingue straniere nella scuola primaria. microsoft word gracia+2023+ej_final.docx e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 1, july 2023, 63–68 issn 2376-905x https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.1.2808 www.e-journall.org © gracia 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. review: friedrich, patricia (ed.) (2023).the anti-racism linguist, a book of readings. multilingual matters. emilia gracia arizona state university book review received 5 june 2023; accepted after revisions 8 june 2023 abstract en this text is a review of the anti-racism linguist: a book of readings, edited by patricia friedrich and published in 2023 by multilingual matters. the volume features nine distinct chapters written by authors from brazil, thailand, japan, and the united states who, via personal narratives, share their experiences with (anti)racism in teaching, research, and publishing in applied linguistics and other related fields. the authors explain key terminology, concepts, and theories needed to understand and discuss anti-racism in language use. authors also provide recommendations for change in editorial, research, and pedagogical practices that readers could implement to help counter racism in their contexts. key words: anti-racism, applied linguistics, pedagogy es el siguiente texto es una reseña de the anti-racism linguist, a book of readings, editado por patricia friedrich y publicado en 2023 por multilingual matters. el volumen presenta nueve capítulos distintos escritos por autores de brasil, tailandia, japón y los estados unidos que, a través de relatos personales, comparten sus experiencias con el (anti)racismo en la enseñanza, la investigación y la publicación en lingüística aplicada (y campos relacionados). los autores explican la terminología clave, los conceptos y las teorías indispensables para comprender y discutir el antirracismo en el uso del lenguaje. los autores también brindan recomendaciones para el cambio en las prácticas editoriales, de investigación y pedagógicas que los lectores podrían implementar para ayudar a contrarrestar el racismo en sus contextos. palabras clave: antirracismo, lingüística aplicada, pedagogía it questo testo è una recensione del libro the anti-racism linguist, a book of readings, curato da patricia friedrich e pubblicato nel 2023 da multilingual matters. il volume comprende nove capitoli distinti scritti da autori provenienti da brasile, tailandia, giappone e stati uniti i quali, tramite racconti personali, condividono le loro esperienze con l’(anti)razzismo nell’insegnamento, nella ricerca e in pubblicazioni di linguistica applicata (e campi correlati). gli autori spiegano terminologie, concetti e teorie chiave necessari per comprendere e discutere l’antirazzismo negli usi linguistici. gli autori inoltre forniscono consigli per cambiamenti nelle pratiche editoriali, di ricerca e pedagogiche che i lettori possano implementare nei loro contesti per aiutare a contrastare il razzismo. parole chiave: antirazzismo, linguistica applicata, pedagogia * emilia gracia, arizona state university emilia.gracia@asu.edu gracia e-journall 10(1) (2023), pp. 63–68 64 1. overview of the volume the anti-racism linguist: a book of readings, edited by patricia friedrich, presents nine chapters of content that discuss issues concerning race and language via personal narratives combined with research studies (e.g., autoethnographies and literature reviews). authored by scholars in the field of applied linguistics, these chapters articulate authors’ different perspectives and experiences with language and race in academic contexts where english language teaching is central. the chapters identify common instances in which linguistic discrimination intersects with race and ethnicity within academic contexts, and the authors call for anti-racist practices to be implemented on an institutional level by pedagogues and scholars. although all chapters advocate for institutional change through anti-racist pedagogy, they differ in contextual perspectives and author positionality: authors are academics from thailand, japan, brazil, and the united states, who are working either in brazil or the united states. each chapter offers unique takeaways and action items for practitioners and scholars to implement in their contexts. 2. individual chapters chapter 1, written by the volume editor herself, introduces the book by detailing its purpose and goals, while defining key concepts used throughout the chapters. friedrich, who also wrote chapters 6 and 9, explains that one purpose of this collection is to bring diverse, personal narratives to the forefront of academic conversations by blending them with more “objective” or “scientific” thought, as friedrich describes it. friedrich explains that the authors represented in this volume are individuals who come with a variety of lived professional and personal experiences in the east, west, and global south. by sharing their experiences in writing, the authors create new knowledge for those interested in anti-racist pedagogical practices. in her introduction, friedrich gives a brief overview of the book’s chapters, raising two important points for readers to consider: 1) the distinction between institutional racism and individual racist practices, and 2) the primary concern and focus of the chapters on historically minoritized populations. friedrich refers to institutional racism as policies, practices, and beliefs that negatively affect minoritized groups of people in their respective institutions or systems (educational, health, residential, etc.), and individual racism as racist actions performed by individuals against minoritized groups of people. friedrich states that in this volume, some authors give examples of both types of racism without stating which they are referring to specifically, and this is because authors frequently engage with both types and move between them frequently. friedrich also alerts readers to the authors’ focus in this volume on historically marginalized populations such black, indigenous, and people of color (bipoc) and other marginalized identities as the primary victims of racism. she notes that some readers may take issue with this if they hold the belief that historically non-marginalized populations (i.e., white, cisgender, heterosexual men) also experience racism and/or discrimination, and she argues that not mentioning this as a possibility is unfair. other concepts that are defined in this chapter include, but are not limited to: anti-racism, diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, decoloniality, epistemological racism, intersectionality, and linguistic justice. given friedrich’s clear and comprehensive explanations of key terms and concepts in this chapter, readers are inspired to approach the forthcoming chapters with confidence. in chapter 2, aya matsuda, a scholar of applied linguistics who specializes in world englishes, presents teaching english as an international language (teil) as a pedagogical approach that, if implemented, could decolonize traditional english language teaching (elt) practices. matsuda begins the chapter with a brief explanation of how her perspective on racism and elt has taken shape over the years, and how her own identity as a japanese woman in an anglo-american academic context has led her to advocate for anti-racist practices in tesol. she states that until recently, she had refrained from participating in discussions around tesol and race due to the complexity of the topic and the nuanced language, dichotomies, and essentialization that can surface. drawing on the work of pennycook (1994) and motha (2014), matsuda reiterates the idea that elt in itself is an act of colonization, and that although teil is not free of colonial roots, it can be utilized to minimize the impact of colonization in english language teaching (elt), as educators adapt their teaching to meet the needs of the students in their context. this can be done by viewing english as an international language, eliminating native speaker standards and preference for native speaker teachers, in addition to providing students with the opportunity to discuss their experiences, as learners of english, with racism. matsuda argues that by adopting a teil framework, educators can help fight racism and bring (some) justice to their learners. in chapter 3, gabriel nascimiento analyzes frantz fanon’s (2008) view of racism via language as a zone of non-being, and argues that the field of applied linguistics must be committed to anti-racism in order to review: the anti-racism linguist e-journall 10(1) (2023), pp. 63–68 65 eliminate this zone of non-being. fanon’s concept of non-being originates from the idea that modernity and “western” humanism have positioned the white, western world as a human zone of being, while racializing and dehumanizing the rest of the world as non-white in a zone of non-being. nascimiento, who identifies as a black brazilian scholar of linguistics at a university in brazil, elaborates on fanon’s work through his own previous research on the positionality of black english teachers in brazil and their experiences teaching english as a foreign language (efl). data show that less than a quarter of efl teachers in brazil are black and that this is due to english language education being accessible to only the wealthiest people in brazil and the community’s negative perceptions of black efl teachers’ competence. the author discusses the racialization of languages such as portuguese, french, and english in postcolonial contexts (e.g., brazil, martinique, and the united states), reviewing research illustrating how black individuals must perform white varieties of their national languages in order to progress academically and professionally. nascimiento calls for social justice in elt in brazil and beyond, as the findings mentioned above can be compared to the reality of elt in other postcolonial contexts. chapter 4 presents narrative-based research concerning discrimination in language use, teaching, and learning. chatwara suwannamai duran shares her linguistic autoethnography, which touches on several common issues regarding attitudes and perceptions of standard vs. non-standard language use in her native language (thai) and her second language (english). the author reflects on how her assumptions and attitudes about non-standard varieties of language changed throughout time, from her childhood in thailand to being an international student in the united states to becoming a researcher and professor of sociolinguistics. duran acknowledges the negative perceptions of non-standard thai that she had while growing up and her preference for standard english when she first came to the united states as an international student. she recounts how her exposure to non-standard varieties of english in the united states helped to dissipate her linguistic ignorance, especially after she began to do qualitative research in sociolinguistics and teach courses at a university with a diverse student population. through her autoethnographic research, duran found that linguistic ignorance can change with time, as a result of exposure to differences. in chapter 5, clarissa menezes jordão, juliana zeggio martinez, and eduardo henrique diniz de figueiredo, all from the global south, contribute to an ongoing discussion about racism in the context of brazilian academia. all three authors are brazilians who, in a brazilian context, identify as white, middle-class, cisgender, and educated, and acknowledge their positions of privilege within their societal and professional contexts as applied linguists at a prestigious university. they also acknowledge that their racial identity may be understood differently outside of brazil, as this social construct varies according to societal context. each author narrates an anecdote concerning racism in academic contexts. one recounts her experience as an international student where she was one of the few white students in the program. another tells his story about being a thesis supervisor for a racial studies specialization. finally, a third discusses her experience of rejection in the realm of publishing in anglophone academia. all authors concur that they had been nearly oblivious to the role racism and coloniality play in the field until they had their experiences. zeggio martinez did not realize what it meant to be white in an unfair world until she studied abroad and was one of the few white students in her cohort. this gave her a perspective on the assumptions she previously held about seeing herself as neutral in an unjust, postcolonial context. once she realized that she was racially different from her peers, she understood that she had previously always seen herself as part of “the norm” and that this allowed her to be oblivious to the experiences of those who were not white. she listened to stories told by her peers about being black in a racist world, and how they felt their bodies did not belong in certain places. it was then that she realized that knowledge ought not to be “disembodied,” or separated from the body of the knower. diniz de figueiredo had to confront the fact that he had ignored the significance of racism in language when asked to supervise a thesis project on the topic. this was when the author had to confront his ignorance on the topic, and it was then that he realized that previously not needing or wanting to know about this topic was, in itself, a privilege he had. menezes jordão realized, through an experience where she was rejected for publication, that her english was not “academic enough” for publication purposes. this led her to realize that she had been positioned as a scholar of the global south, trying to cross the “abyssal lines,” defined by friedrich in the first chapter (citing santos [2007]) as invisible demarcations that divide social realities into different spaces (black/white, east/west, etc.). in this case, menezes jordão was crossing from the global south to the global north, and was denied entry in spite of her privileges in brazil. the authors conclude by presenting a collective interpretation of what can be gleaned from their narratives. one common theme observed in their narratives is that of invisibility; prior to their experiences, the first two authors had not previously been aware of their visibility as white scholars and the invisibility that students and professors of color experience throughout gracia e-journall 10(1) (2023), pp. 63–68 66 their lives. they had separated the embodied experience that people of color suffer in a colonized world from language and education, until they were faced with experiences where they became aware of racism in said context. as the authors point out, however, this is not surprising, as brazil has a long history of making bodies invisible in order to erase black and indigenous identity for the sake of a feigning equality. the other common theme between the three authors was that of an abyssal line and whiteness. epistemic racism, a form of systemic racism that exists to discriminate against types of knowledge and knowers themselves, was witnessed by the third author when her submission for publication was discarded because her writing did not fit within abyssal lines of the colonized standards of white, anglophonic academia. the first two authors identified invisible, abyssal lines in their own contexts, created and perpetuated by academic activity. the authors collectively agree that anti-racist work can be done by making abyssal lines visible through inviting other scholars and students to discuss issues of racism and language inside and outside of academia, promoting an anti-racist stance in their work. chapter 6, written by the volume editor, presents a discussion about the challenges of being anti-racist while honoring multiple identities. by means of personal narrative, friedrich explains how race, ethnicity, language, and national origin intersect and shift according to one’s location. she describes how her own identity has been perceived by others according to her location and language use therein. the author identifies as a multilingual latinx scholar of brazilian origin and european ancestry, who works in a us university context as a professor of applied linguistics. she describes how in various occasions over the years that she has lived in the united states, people have made incorrect assumptions about her identity. for example, at times interlocutors have (mis)identified her as an anglo-american woman by only seeing her name and written works, and in other contexts as a woman of color, and an immigrant from brazil among others. she reflects on how interlocutors made immediate judgements about her accent or lack thereof. in academic circles, she may be admired by colleagues for her ability to speak four languages, but when speaking portuguese in a public space among strangers she may face linguistic prejudice as bystanders may assume that she does not speak english. positionality is a key concept that the author uses to explain her experiences of fluid identity based on the context and interlocutors. the author acknowledges that although her experiences are not as severe as those of others, it is important to discuss these experiences in order to create spaces for anti-racist dialogue to occur, since being an anti-racism linguist includes expressing ideas that are anti-racist. friedrich then discusses the discrimination she experienced in her own creative work. the author had written a novel that was set in brazil; however, the publisher rejected her work on the premises that it was not stereotypically brazilian enough. she then published her work with a mid-sized publisher and received three awards. she reflects on how large publishers are limited in the scope of work they find acceptable and are willing to publish (i.e., conventional “western” narratives), and that explains the low percentage of authors of color that get published. she encourages readers to buy books from small and mid-sized publishers and to commend the large publishers when they do publish authors of minoritized groups. the author explains that linguistic discrimination also happens in academia when non-native speakers face rejection from reviewers with comments telling them to go learn more english. it appears that academic journal editors identify non-native speaker mistakes, differentiate them from native speaker mistakes, give harsher criticism to non-native speakers, and reject their work more frequently. if anti-racist linguists are in editorial positions, they can advocate for scholars that face linguistic discrimination. lastly, the author discusses embodiment in scholarship, stating that when an author states their race, ethnic background, languages, etc., readers can understand the lens through which the scholar speaks, thus calling attention to the idea that these bodily descriptions matter. in chapter 7, tracey mchenry addresses a historically contentious teacher-student interaction in us schools—the use of student names in the classroom—by providing commentary on historical facts and reviewing literature on the topic. the author begins the chapter by acknowledging the politics of naming. she gives, as an example, the political controversy witnessed in the us government’s naming of the highest mountain in north america, located in the state of alaska, the author’s home state. the mountain was originally named “denali” by the koyukon athabascans, but was changed to “mount mckinley”, and then back to denali again in 2015. she affirms that names are a highly important part of a person’s identity, as they represent one’s heritage language, ethnic, racial, religious background, and even socioeconomic status. the author reminds readers that over the past century new immigrants often anglicized their names upon arriving to ellis island, and teachers were encouraged to assign anglo names to immigrant students so that they would assimilate more easily into anglo-american culture. the author reviews research studies concerning the discrimination that african americans face in the workforce when potential employers disregard resumes with names that index review: the anti-racism linguist e-journall 10(1) (2023), pp. 63–68 67 an african american identity. in addition, she reviews research about teacher expectations of student academic success that concluded that teachers are more likely to have lower expectations for students with non-anglo names, associating them with low socio-economic status and otherness. at the tertiary level, research shows that professors were more likely to answer emails from chinese students who used anglo first names, than those who used their chinese first names. in reviewing the literature and discussing findings such as these, the author concludes that there is much bias and discrimination in practices that involve names. hence, the author urges teachers to give importance to student names, to let students know that they are encouraged to use the name they want to use, to try to pronounce students’ names correctly, and to call them by the names they want to be called. the author mentions various resources for teachers to use. for example, she mentions, “my name, my identity,” a program in california public schools with a website that includes an online course and resources for teachers to learn about the importance of student names and what they can do in the classroom to promote inclusion and diversity. the author concludes this chapter by stating that anti-racist pedagogues must make students aware of their right to use their names in the classroom, and call them by the names they choose. chapter 8 focuses on anti-racist practices in the context of teaching history. authors luciana c. de oliveira (professor of education in the united states) and joy beatty (phd student of education in the united states) give examples of what a history curriculum designed from an anti-racist perspective looks like. before revealing what aspects of a specific history curriculum are considered anti-racist, readers are given short explanations of key concepts that frame an anti-racist perspective of history and the teaching of it. oliveira and beatty explain that anti-racist pedagogy is culturally sustaining when educators help students maintain the linguistic and cultural knowledge they inherited (from their communities of origin which have been marginalized) while simultaneously giving students the opportunity to acquire cultural competence in the dominant culture so that they may critique it. the authors refer to the south to mean populations that have been historically oppressed and marginalized due to capitalism and colonization. they emphasize that it is important that the knowledges of these communities be validated, and that marginalized people have the voices and agency to use these knowledges. a prominent concept highlighted in this chapter is the idea that counternarratives must be used in the history classroom. the goal of using counter-narratives in the history classroom is for students to partake in an interrogative process where commonly taught historical narratives rooted in eurocentric paradigms are questioned, thus decolonizing the history curriculum. the authors insist that decolonizing the classroom is a daily practice and show sample curriculum materials that can help teachers accomplish this task. one example is an assignment where students are given a calendar showing a holiday with two names (columbus day and indigenous peoples’ day) with then a set of critical thinking questions about the narratives and historical figures celebrated on this day, including which narratives are dominant and which are counter. the authors also share the culturally responsive teaching protocol they developed to help teachers identify and address linguistic racism in various media. the authors conclude the chapter by reminding readers that anti-racist pedagogy involves the consistent use of counter-narrative approaches that validate the experiences of the oppressed and challenge the dominant, colonial narratives, giving students the ability to critically interrogate history. chapter 9, the concluding chapter, serves as a final commentary from friedrich, the volume editor, about the concept of human dignity, a principle which has guided her scholarship in relation to anti-racism in linguistics. the author defines human dignity as the idea that all human beings are intrinsically worthy despite their socioeconomic status, and she argues that it is an improved alternative to human rights because dignity encompasses rights and much more. the author continues to explain what human dignity looks like in language use. included here is the idea that humans have linguistic rights, or the right to learn and use any language they need or want and receive acknowledgement for their language use. applying the dignity framework to language use would mean questioning the words we use and how they affect others. using language that is racist violates human dignity. human dignity can instead be upheld in the language classroom when teachers implement dignity-enhancing practices like offering them alternative vocabulary to use in sentences or role-playing scenarios of conflict and showing students how to respond without attacking others. another example of this is helping students understand the difference between criticizing a person’s action versus a person themselves. lastly, the author states that multilingualism itself can promote anti-racism as it helps us to see alternative perspectives which leads to empathy and greater understanding between different groups of people. 3. conclusion overall, this volume presents a fascinating collection of personal narratives from scholars and practitioners in the humanities (with applied linguists accounting for the majority) who are committed to antigracia e-journall 10(1) (2023), pp. 63–68 68 racist work where it is needed in language teaching and research. at first glance, one might misjudge this volume as being interesting only to those who care about theoretical knowledge. however, this volume proves itself to be useful to practitioners who actively teach language (or even history) in any context (k-16, domestic and international), due to chapters such as 4, 7, 8 and 9, which give actual samples of curriculum and questions teachers can ask themselves and others. in the back of the book, one may also find a series of commonly asked questions about how to be an anti-racism linguist with answers from several authors in the volume. practitioners and researchers in many contexts will find these questions and the answers to them to be insightful. anyone who works or interacts in contexts where language is used and racism is existent is bound to find this volume to be inspiring and enlightening. references fanon, franz. (2008). pele negra mascaras brancas [black skin white masks]. edulfba. motha, suhanthie. (2014). race, empire, and english language teaching: creating responsible and ethical antiracist practice. teachers college press. pennycook, alastair. (2014). the cultural politics of english as an international language. routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315843605 santos, boaventura de sousa. (2007). para além do pensamento abissal: das linhas globais a uma ecologia de saberes [beyond abyssal thinking: from global lines to an ecology of knowledge]. novos estudos cebrap, 79, 71–94. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0101-33002007000300004 emilia gracia, arizona state university emilia.gracia@asu.edu en emilia gracia is a ph.d. candidate in linguistics and applied linguistics at arizona state university. she is also an instructional professional at asu global launch, where she teaches english to international students, trains international teachers, and designs online language courses. her research interests include second language pragmatics, computerassisted language learning, critical pedagogy, and raciolinguistics. es emilia gracia es doctoranda en lingüística y lingüística aplicada en la arizona state university (estados unidos) y experta en didáctica en asu global launch, donde enseña inglés a estudiantes internacionales, capacita a profesores internacionales y diseña cursos de lengua en línea. sus intereses de investigación abarcan la pragmática de segundas lenguas, el aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por computador, la pedagogía crítica y la raciolingüística. it emilia gracia è iscritta al dottorato in linguistica e linguistica applicata presso l’arizona state university (stati uniti) ed è esperta di didattica presso l’asu global launch dove insegna inglese a studenti internazionali, forma insegnanti internazionali e progetta corsi di lingua online. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono la pragmatica delle lingue seconde, l’apprendimento linguistico attraverso le tecnologie informatiche, la pedagogia critica e la etnolinguistica. cucinotta_2025_ej euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 12, issue 2, november 2025, 76-79 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.2.3474 www.e-journall.org © cucinotta 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. reseña: benati, alessandro g. (2024). second language teacher education. a cognitive and evidence-based perspective. bloomsbury. giacomo cucinotta università ca’ foscari di venezia book review received 10 august 2025; accepted after revisions 13 october 2025 abstract es el volumen reseñado ofrece una exposición clara y bien fundamentada de los principios que subyacen a la moderna didáctica de idiomas, dirigida principalmente a estudiantes de didáctica de lenguas y a quienes se ocupan de su formación. el autor presenta la materia dentro de un marco cognitivo que integra la investigación académica con la práctica en el aula. la obra destaca por su enfoque en los principios modernos de la enseñanza de lenguas, como la importancia de proporcionar un input de calidad y actividades significativas. sin embargo, presenta ciertas limitaciones en el tratamiento de los factores afectivos en el aprendizaje de lenguas y carece de referencias bibliográficas directas que faciliten una profundización autónoma. a pesar de algunas limitaciones editoriales, el libro se valora como un recurso útil para la formación inicial en didáctica de idiomas. palabras clave: formación del profesorado, enseñanza de lenguas, manual de enseñanza, didáctica de idiomas. en the volume presented in this review provides a clear and well-founded overview of the principles underlying modern language teaching, chiefly directed at undergraduate students in language teaching and teacher trainers. the author presents the subject within a cognitive framework that integrates academic research with classroom practice. the book highlights key principles of modern language education, such as the importance of high-quality input and meaningful activities. however, it presents some limitations in addressing the affective factors of language learning and lacks direct bibliographical references to facilitate further independent study. despite some editorial shortcomings, the book is considered a valuable resource for language teacher education programmes. keywords: teacher education, language teaching, textbooks, language pedagogy it il volume presentato in questa recensione offre una trattazione chiara e ben fondata dei principi alla base della moderna glottodidattica e si rivolge principalmente a studenti delle lauree triennali in didattica delle lingue e a chi si occupa di formazione. l’autore espone la questione all’interno di un quadro cognitivo che integra i risultati della ricerca accademica con la pratica in classe e sottolinea l’importanza di alcuni principi fondamentali dell’insegnamento linguistico, come l’importanza di input di qualità e di attività significative. risulta, tuttavia, poco approfondito nel trattare i fattori affettivi dell’apprendimento linguistico e manca di riferimenti bibliografici diretti che facilitino un approfondimento autonomo. nonostante alcune carenze editoriali, il libro è comunque da considerarsi come una risorsa utile per la formazione iniziale in didattica delle lingue. parole chiave: formazione docenti, insegnamento delle lingue, libri di testo, didattica delle lingue 🖂 giacomo cucinotta, università ca’ foscari di venezia giacomo.cucinotta@unive.it reseña: second language teacher education e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 76-79 77 second language teacher education: a cognitive and evidence-based perspective se distingue por su enfoque en la didáctica de lenguas desde una perspectiva moderna y basada en la evidencia; por lo tanto, se alinea con los principios más recientes de la investigación en la adquisición de segundas lenguas. alessandro benati estructura su exposición de manera accesible, proporcionando una base teórica fundamentada sin descuidar su aplicabilidad en el aula. el volumen está diseñado para estudiantes de grado en formación como docentes de idiomas, integrando resúmenes concisos ("in a nutshell"), actividades reflexivas ("reflect on this") y cuestionarios de autoevaluación, recursos que facilitan la interiorización progresiva de los contenidos. el volumen está estructurado en once capítulos, correspondientes a las diversas facetas de la didáctica de lenguas. los primeros dos capítulos establecen los fundamentos teóricos al examinar los ingredientes básicos del aprendizaje y el desarrollo del sistema lingüístico en la mente del aprendiente. el capítulo 3 evalúa los efectos de la instrucción formal, sopesando los beneficios y límites de una enseñanza explícita. a partir del capítulo 4, el enfoque se desplaza hacia la práctica en el aula: primero, se define el concepto de "lengua" y su relevancia pedagógica, para luego, en el capítulo 5, explorar formas dinámicas de organizar la clase. los capítulos 6 y 7 se centran en el corazón del enfoque comunicativo, detallando estrategias para crear un entorno rico en input y para desarrollar la competencia comunicativa de los estudiantes. los últimos tres capítulos abordan cuestiones metodológicas cruciales: el capítulo 8 se dedica a la enseñanza de la gramática y a la corrección de errores; el capítulo 9 ofrece una guía para el diseño de tareas didácticas eficaces; y el capítulo 10 explora el uso de la tecnología como herramienta de apoyo. cierra la obra un capítulo final que recopila y responde a las preguntas frecuentes sobre enseñanza/aprendizaje de idiomas. uno de los aspectos más destacados de la obra es su capacidad para sintetizar los pilares fundamentales de la didáctica de lenguas modernas. benati enfatiza la primacía de un input comprensible y significativo como motor esencial de la adquisición, desestimando enfoques anticuados basados en la instrucción explícita de reglas gramaticales. además, resalta la importancia de actividades comunicativas que fomenten la construcción y la negociación del significado en contextos auténticos. uno de los aciertos más notables y valientes del volumen es, sin duda, la decisión pedagógica del autor de minimizar la exposición historiográfica para centrarse casi exclusivamente en los hallazgos empíricos recientes y en los enfoques de enseñanza que hoy gozan de un sólido respaldo científico. mientras que muchos manuales introductorios optan por un recorrido diacrónico por la historia de la didáctica de lenguas —un enfoque que, si bien puede ofrecer una visión panorámica completa, corre el riesgo de dedicar un tiempo precioso a teorías hoy consideradas obsoletas—, benati adopta una perspectiva radicalmente pragmática. esta elección resulta especialmente beneficiosa para el futuro profesorado. en lugar de perderse en los meandros de debates teóricos superados, se le ofrece un acceso más directo a los principios metodológicos que la investigación actual considera más eficaces para promover la adquisición de una segunda lengua. de este modo, la obra no solo facilita una comprensión más ágil de los fundamentos, sino que se posiciona como una herramienta formativa de gran pertinencia, orientada a la acción y a la práctica informada, en perfecta sintonía con las exigencias de la enseñanza de idiomas contemporánea. el lenguaje del libro es preciso y bien calibrado para un público que se acerca por primera vez a la materia. el autor consigue una prosa clara, directa y capaz de evitar los tecnicismos innecesarios y el simplismo excesivo; el resultado es un texto que, si bien es siempre accesible, nunca resulta laxo o impreciso. esta accesibilidad se manifiesta en la exposición de conceptos teóricos complejos y en la definición de nociones clave de la disciplina, facilitando la comprensión de los fundamentos, incluso sin conocimientos previos en la materia. en este sentido, hay que reconocer que, cuando benati propone actividades prácticas, demuestra una notable habilidad para diseñar tareas que invitan a trabajar con la lengua y no meramente sobre la lengua. este es, sin duda, uno de los méritos del libro, ya que alinea la práctica propuesta con el principio fundamental de que el aprendizaje se consolida a través del uso significativo y comunicativo. sin embargo, es precisamente esta calidad la que deja a quien lee con el deseo de más, ya que la cantidad de ejemplos de aplicación directa en el aula es limitada. el futuro profesorado se beneficiaría enormemente de ver cómo los principios teóricos se materializan en actividades adaptadas a distintos contextos de enseñanza/aprendizaje. por ello, si bien el texto sienta bases sólidas, su uso en un programa de formación docente debería ser complementado con un repertorio mucho más amplio y diversificado de ejemplos prácticos que muestren la flexibilidad de los principios expuestos. en su trabajo, el autor consigue mostrar los beneficios y la validez del enfoque comunicativo en la enseñanza de idiomas; pero, en varias ocasiones, las explicaciones se desarrollan principalmente en contraste con el enfoque formalista. este planteamiento, aunque pertinente, podría haberse ampliado para incluir una mayor consideración de otros enfoques metodológicos, teniendo en cuenta que gran parte del alumnado de cucinotta 78 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 76-79 hoy en día ya ha recibido una formación lingüística en marcos didácticos que van más allá de la tradición formalista. si bien cuenta con muchos méritos, la obra presenta ciertas deficiencias. en primer lugar, aunque benati reconoce la relevancia de los factores afectivos en el aprendizaje de segundas lenguas (motivación, ansiedad, autonomía, etc.), estos aspectos reciben un tratamiento somero; lo cual es especialmente notable si se considera que, en la última década, la investigación en lingüística aplicada ha destacado el papel de las variables afectivo-emotivas en la adquisición de idiomas. asimismo, el volumen adopta un enfoque teórico predominantemente innatista, lo que podría haberse enriquecido con una integración más equilibrada de otras perspectivas contemporáneas, como los modelos basados en el aprendizaje estadístico, la teoría de la mente o la pragmática. en segundo lugar, otro punto crítico es la ausencia de referencias bibliográficas directas en el desarrollo del texto. si bien cada capítulo incluye una sección con lecturas recomendadas, la falta de citas explícitas dificulta la verificación de fuentes, especialmente en lo que respecta a estudios sobre metodologías didácticas y mecanismos de aprendizaje, lo que complica el contraste autónomo con la literatura científica existente, en particular con fines de investigación o para la elaboración de una tesis. finalmente, algunos elementos dan la impresión de que el libro se habría beneficiado de una revisión editorial más exhaustiva, ya que presenta algunas repeticiones innecesarias, errores tipográficos y pasajes contradictorios en la exposición de algunos conceptos. además, la insistencia del autor en repetir algunos conceptos clave (como la indiscutible importancia del input comprensible) genera una sensación de redundancia que podría haberse mitigado con una estructura argumentativa más variada. a este respecto, el estilo de redacción tiende a ser reiterativo, con un uso excesivo de la voz pasiva, lo que afecta la fluidez de la lectura. en cuanto a la presentación visual, el uso de esquemas y gráficos es escaso y, en los casos en los que se incluyen, su efectividad podría mejorarse. todos estos son elementos que se podrían ajustar con una revisión más minuciosa. a pesar de sus limitaciones, second language teacher education: a cognitive and evidence-based perspective constituye un recurso valioso para la formación inicial en didáctica de lenguas. su claridad expositiva y su énfasis en la fundamentación empírica lo convierten en una herramienta muy útil para estudiantes de didáctica de lenguas, así como para profesorado que busca actualizarse en los principios esenciales de la disciplina. la falta de profundidad en algunas teorías más modernas y la ausencia de referencias directas pueden ser complementadas con otras fuentes que asimismo aborden de manera más equilibrada las dimensiones cognitivas y afectivas del proceso de adquisición de idiomas. la elección de condensar toda la perspectiva histórica en apenas tres páginas —que podrían parecer pocas pero resultan del todo suficientes— indica que la intención del volumen no es la erudición histórica, sino la competencia práctica del futuro profesorado. esta orientación se traduce en un esfuerzo constante por dirigir la atención no solo hacia los mecanismos de adquisición lingüística, sino también hacia su aplicación en el aula de idiomas. en este sentido, destaca que los ejemplos de actividades propuestos induzcan a trabajar con la lengua en situaciones comunicativas significativas, lo cual constituye un principio clave para una didáctica de lenguas moderna. el libro incluye una variedad de ejercicios que van desde actividades de comprensión conceptual hasta tareas más aplicadas, como el diseño de secuencias didácticas y el análisis de interacciones en clase. estos ejercicios representan uno de los puntos fuertes de la obra, ya que fomentan una aproximación activa a los contenidos teóricos. la ausencia de claves de corrección o modelos de respuesta limita su efectividad para el aprendizaje autónomo; aun así, las actividades representan tareas desafiantes para un público con poca experiencia docente. su potencial, por tanto, se aprovecha al máximo dentro de un curso de didáctica que incluya ejercitaciones prácticas, ya que este contexto guiado es el marco ideal para ofrecer la retroalimentación y la variedad de ejemplos aplicados que el libro no proporciona. en conclusión, second language teacher education. a cognitive and evidence-based perspective de alessandro benati cumple su función como introducción a la didáctica de lenguas desde una perspectiva basada en la evidencia. su enfoque teórico es sólido y su claridad expositiva lo hace accesible, aunque el libro se beneficiaría de una edición más atenta y de un tratamiento más equitativo de los factores afectivos del aprendizaje. cabe destacar su contribución a la consolidación de principios esenciales de la moderna enseñanza de segundas lenguas y su potencial como material de formación inicial, especialmente si se complementa con lecturas adicionales. reseña: second language teacher education e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 76-79 79 giacomo cucinotta, università ca’ foscari di venezia giacomo.cucinotta@unive.it es giacomo cucinotta, natural de varese, de segunda generación, estudió mediación y ha impartido clases de italiano como segunda lengua y como lengua extranjera (l2 y le) durante doce años, tanto en italia como en el extranjero. obtuvo el doctorado en la universidad ca’ foscari de venecia, institución con la que sigue colaborando en investigaciones relacionadas con la psicología del aprendizaje y la enseñanza de lenguas, así como, especialmente, con la formación del profesorado. sus principales ámbitos de interés son la motivación y la ansiedad de hablar en lengua extranjera. en giacomo cucinotta, a second-generation native of varese, studied language mediation and has taught italian as a second and foreign language (l2 and ls) for twelve years in italy and abroad. he earned his phd at ca’ foscari university of venice, where he continues to collaborate on research related to the psychology of language learning and teaching, and, above all, to the training of future teachers. his main areas of interest are motivation and foreign language speaking anxiety. it giacomo cucinotta, varesino di seconda generazione, ha studiato mediazione ed ha insegnato italiano l2 e ls per dodici anni in italia e all'estero. ha conseguito il dottorato presso l'università ca’ foscari di venezia, ateneo con cui collabora dedicandosi alla ricerca relativa alla psicologia dell'apprendimento/insegnamento delle lingue e, soprattutto, alla formazione di chi vuole diventare insegnante. i suoi principali ambiti d'interesse sono la motivazione e l'ansia di parlare in lingua straniera. nuzzo & santoro_4.2 euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   special  issue,  volume  4,  issue  2,  december  2017,  1-­‐27   issn  2376-­‐905x   doi  http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.7.116   www.e-­‐journall.org     ©  nuzzo  2017.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.     apprendimento,  insegnamento  e  uso  di  competenze  pragmatiche  in   italiano  l2/ls:  la  ricerca  a  partire  dagli  anni  duemila         elena  nuzzoa*,    elisabetta  santorob   auniversità  degli  studi  roma  tre   buniversidade  de  são  paulo       received  24  november  2017;  received  in  revised  form  16  december  2017;  accepted  21  december  2017 abstract it l’attenzione alla componente pragmatica nell’ambito dell’apprendimento e dell’insegnamento dell’italiano come lingua seconda è un fenomeno molto giovane, che si sta però sviluppando con una certa vivacità: nasce da qui l’idea di dedicare un numero monografico di e-journall alla pragmatica dell’italiano l2/ls. in questo contributo introduttivo si offre una panoramica degli studi che, a partire dagli anni duemila, si sono occupati di apprendimento, insegnamento e uso dell’italiano l2/ls in relazione a fenomeni pragmatici, con particolare attenzione alle due aree tematiche che hanno ricevuto maggiore attenzione: la realizzazione di atti linguistici e i segnali discorsivi utili alla gestione della testualità e dell’interazione. si propone poi una rapida ricognizione di ricerche che affrontano altri ambiti tematici connessi alla pragmatica dell’italiano l2, come per esempio la struttura informativa degli enunciati o i meccanismi che regolano la conversazione. a conclusione di questa panoramica si mostrerà come i lavori raccolti nel presente numero speciale si inseriscono nel quadro delineato contribuendo ad ampliare la ricerca sulla pragmatica dell’italiano l2/ls. parole chiave: pragmatica, italiano l2/ls, atti linguistici, segnali discorsivi en the attention paid to pragmatics in the teaching and learning of italian as a second language is a recent phenomenon. this young but lively area of research has inspired the present special issue of e-journall. this introductory essay offers a survey of studies since year 2000 that have dealt with the learning, teaching, and use of italian as an l2/fl in relation to pragmatic phenomena, with special attention to the two sub-fields that have received the greatest attention: the realization of linguistic acts, and useful discourse markers for the management of textuality and interaction. this is followed by a brief recognition of research that tackles other topics related to the pragmatics of l2 italian, for example the information structure of utterances, or the mechanisms that regulate conversation. the conclusion of this overview will demonstrate how the papers brought together in this issue fit into and simultaneously contribute to the expansion of research on italian l2/fl pragmatics. key words: pragmatics, italian l2/fl, speech acts, discourse markers es la atención que se presta al componente pragmático en la enseñanza/aprendizaje del italiano como segunda lengua es un fenómeno muy reciente y que, sin embargo, se está desarrollando con cierta intensidad; de aquí nace la idea de dedicar una monografía de e-journall a la pragmática del italiano como l2/le. en esta introducción nos centramos en el abanico de estudios que, a partir del año 2000, se han ocupado del aprendizaje, enseñanza y uso del italiano como l2/le relacionándolo con fenómenos pragmáticos y centrando la mirada en las dos áreas temáticas que más atención han recibido: la realización de actos lingüísticos y los marcadores discursivos útiles para gestionar la textualidad y la interacción. proponemos, además, una incursión rápida en las investigaciones que se ocupan de otros temas relacionados con la pragmática del italiano como l2, como, por ejemplo, la estructura informativa de los enunciados o los mecanismos que rigen la conversación. para terminar esta panorámica, enseñaremos de qué manera las tareas recogidas en este número especial se insertan en el marco esbozado y contribuyen a ensanchar la investigación sobre la pragmática del italiano como l2/le. palabras clave: pragmática, italiano como l2/le, actos de habla, marcadores del discurso                                                                                                                                         *  contatto:  elena.nuzzo@uniroma3.it   nuzzo  &  santoro   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27  2   1.  introduzione1   in  un  contributo  di  qualche  anno  fa  apparso  su  un  volume  intitolato  la  linguistica  italiana  all’alba  del   terzo  millennio  (iannàccaro,  2013),  tre  studiose  appartenenti  al  gruppo  di  lavoro2  cui  si  deve  la  nascita  della   ricerca  sull’acquisizione  dell’italiano  come  lingua  seconda  affermavano  che  “solo  recentemente  anche  in  italia   e  per  l’italiano  l2  le  prospettive  di  studio  della  pragmatica  e  dell’interazione  in  seconda  lingua  hanno  iniziato   a  riscuotere  un  certo  interesse”  (giacalone  ramat,  chini,  &  andorno  2013,  p.  172).  un  paio  di  anni  dopo,  chini   (2015,  p.  14)  ribadiva  che  “la  dimensione  pragmatica  delle  interlingue,  pur  essendo  da  tempo  presente  negli   studi   di   l2,   è   stata   tematizzata   in   modo   specifico   e   più   sistematico   soprattutto   dagli   anni   ‘90   a   livello   internazionale  .  .  .,  in  area  italiana  solo  in  anni  recenti”.  l’attenzione  alla  componente  pragmatica  nell’ambito   dell’apprendimento   e   dell’insegnamento   dell’italiano   come   lingua   seconda   è   dunque   un   fenomeno   molto   giovane,  che  si  sta  però  sviluppando  con  una  certa  vivacità.  abbiamo  pertanto  ritenuto  opportuno  stimolare   l’ampliamento   degli   studi   in   questo   settore   con   il   contributo   di   esperti   che   a   vario   titolo   si   occupano   di   didattica   dell’italiano   a   stranieri,   anche   perché   siamo   convinte   che   l’insegnamento   della   pragmatica   debba   fondarsi  sui  risultati  della  ricerca  e  non,  come  troppo  spesso  ancora  accade,  sulle  intuizioni  degli  insegnanti  e   degli   autori   di   libri   di   testo   (bettoni,   2006;   boxer,   2003).   nasce   da   queste   riflessioni   l’idea   di   dedicare   un   numero  monografico  di  e-­‐journall  alla  pragmatica  dell’italiano  l2/ls.   individuare   nella   produzione   di   un   parlante   non   nativo   un   errore   morfosintattico   o   lessicale   è   piuttosto  facile  anche  per  chi  non  si  occupa  di  apprendimento  e  insegnamento  delle  lingue;  riconoscere  una   inadeguatezza  pragmatica,  invece,  può  risultare  difficile  persino  per  un  insegnante,  soprattutto  nel  caso  in  cui   la   lingua   che   insegna   non   sia   quella   materna   (nuzzo,   2011).   accade   quindi   spesso   che   gli   usi   linguistici   pragmaticamente  inappropriati  per  una  certa  lingua-­‐cultura  non  vengano  colti  come  tali  dal  parlante  nativo   di   quella   lingua-­‐cultura,   ma   siano   percepiti   come   manifestazioni   del   carattere   (personale   o   ‘etnico’)   dell’interlocutore   non   nativo.   i  pragmatic   failures   (thomas,   1983)   dei   parlanti   non   nativi   generano   quindi   facilmente   incomprensioni   e   malintesi   che   possono   compromettere   la   relazione   tra   le   due   parti   e   anche   rafforzare   stereotipi   e   pregiudizi.   il   rischio   di   un’interpretazione   caratteriale   del   mancato   rispetto   delle   consuetudini   pragmatiche   da   parte   dei   parlanti   non   nativi   tende   a   crescere   in   maniera   direttamente   proporzionale   al   loro   livello   di   competenza   in   l2:   quando   il   parlante   nativo   avverte   nell’interlocutore   non   nativo   una   buona   padronanza   grammaticale   e   lessicale   della   lingua   tende   ad   attribuire   le   “stranezze”   pragmatiche  a  caratteristiche  della  persona  piuttosto  che  a  questioni  di  competenza  linguistico-­‐comunicativa   (gass  &  selinker,  2008,  p.  288).  è  quindi  importante  che  i  docenti  di  l2/ls  acquisiscano  consapevolezza  della   dimensione   pragmatica   della   lingua   che   insegnano,   e   siano   in   grado   di   guidare   gli   allievi   alla   scoperta   dei   fenomeni   linguistici   che   appartengono   a   tale   dimensione   (santoro,   2013).   un’altra   ragione   per   la   quale   appare   opportuno   fare   oggetto   di   insegnamento   gli   aspetti   pragmatici   della   lingua   obiettivo   quando   si   progetta  un  intervento  didattico  è  la  difficoltà  di  sviluppare  spontaneamente  la  competenza  pragmatica  nella   l2.  come  riporta  bardovi-­‐harlig  (2001,  p.  29),  diversi  studi  rivelano  come  gli  apprendenti  ai  quali  non  viene   offerto  alcun  insegnamento  nella  pragmatica  della  l2  tendano  ad  avere  problemi  nell’usare  la  lingua  obiettivo   in  modo   appropriato   al   contesto   comunicativo,   anche   se   si   trovano   in   situazioni   di   immersione   linguistica.   alcuni  autori   (per  es.  rose,  2005)   suggeriscono  che   la  difficoltà  ad  acquisire   in  modo  spontaneo  gli   aspetti   pragmatici  della  l2  dipenda  dal  fatto  che  il  rapporto  tra  le  funzioni  pragmatiche  e  i  fattori  contestuali  cui  sono   connesse  spesso  non  risulta  abbastanza  saliente  per  gli  apprendenti,  e  quindi  rischia  di  passare  inosservato   anche   dopo   una   lunga   esposizione   all’input   in   assenza   di   un   intervento   didattico   che   stimoli   il   noticing.   quando  poi  ci  si  trova  in  contesto  di  lingua  straniera,  e  quindi  il  contatto  con  la  lingua  obiettivo  è  pressoché   limitato  alla  lezione  scolastica,  l’insegnamento  della  pragmatica  risulta  ancora  più  necessario  (kasper,  2001).   nei  paragrafi  che  seguono  cercheremo  di  offrire  una  panoramica3  degli  studi  che  a  partire  dagli  anni   duemila  sono  stati  dedicati  all’apprendimento,  all’insegnamento  e  all’uso  dell’italiano  come  l2  in  relazione  a   fenomeni   pragmatici,   concentrandoci   in   particolare   sulle   due   aree   tematiche   che   hanno   ricevuto  maggiore   attenzione:  i  mezzi  di  espressione  necessari  per  la  realizzazione  di  specifici  atti  linguistici  e  i  segnali  discorsivi   utili  alla  gestione  della  testualità  e  dell’interazione,  specialmente  quella  orale.  dedicheremo  poi  un  paragrafo                                                                                                                                           1   il   contributo   è   frutto   della   stretta   collaborazione   tra   le   autrici;   per   quanto   riguarda   la   stesura  materiale,   e.   nuzzo   è   responsabile  dei  §§  1,  3,  4  e  5,  e.  santoro  del  §  2.   2  ci  riferiamo  al  gruppo  del  noto  progetto  di  pavia.   3  non  abbiamo  alcuna  pretesa  di  esaustività.  ci  scusiamo  quindi  con  coloro  che,  pur  essendosi  occupati  dei  temi  affrontati   qui,  non  risultano   inclusi  nella  presente   rassegna.  abbiamo   inoltre   intenzionalmente  escluso   lavori  non  pubblicati   (per   esempio  tesi  di  laurea  o  di  dottorato)  o  in  corso  di  stampa.   la  pragmatica  in  italiano  l2/ls   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27   3   a  una  rapida  ricognizione  di  ricerche  che  affrontano  altri  ambiti  tematici  connessi  alla  pragmatica  dell’italiano   l2,  come  per  esempio  gli   strumenti   linguistici   che  permettono  di  organizzare   la  struttura   informativa  degli   enunciati,   i   meccanismi   che   regolano   la   conversazione   o   la   riflessione   sulle   competenze   pragmatiche   in   generale,  e  sulla  loro  valutazione.  trasversale  alle  diverse  aree  di  interesse  appena  menzionate  è  il  tema  della   cortesia  linguistica  che,  come  vedremo,  viene  toccato  in  maniera  più  o  meno  esplicita  in  molti  degli  studi  presi   in  considerazione  nella  nostra  rassegna.     come  emergerà  nella  presentazione  dei  singoli  lavori,  in  alcuni  casi  la  ricerca  su  questi  temi  rientra   nell’ambito  della  pragmatica  interlinguistica  (o  delle  interlingue)  e  adotta  una  prospettiva  acquisizionale,  con   osservazioni  longitudinali  o  trasversali  che  mirano  a  rendere  conto  della  componente  evolutiva  nelle  varietà   d’apprendimento,   oppure   comparativa,   con   il   confronto   tra   il   comportamento   linguistico   dei   parlanti   non   nativi  e  quello  dei  nativi,  o  ancora  didattica,  con  focalizzazione  sul  ruolo  dell’insegnamento  nello  sviluppo  di   determinate   competenze   pragmatiche.   in   altri   casi   si   preferisce   invece   una   prospettiva   contrastiva,   spesso   realizzata  come  confronto  tra  il  comportamento  linguistico  di  due  popolazioni  di  parlanti  che  rappresentano   rispettivamente   la   lingua   d’origine   e   la   lingua   obiettivo   in   un   possibile   percorso   di   apprendimento   (pragmatica   cross-­‐  o   transculturale),   oppure   come  analisi   della   comunicazione  verbale   tra  parlanti  nativi   e   non  nativi  della  lingua  oggetto  di  interesse  (pragmatica  interculturale).   sono  queste  le  prospettive  di  indagine  che  abbiamo  suggerito  nel  lanciare  l’invito  alla  partecipazione   al  presente  numero  speciale.  a  conclusione  della  nostra  panoramica  sugli  studi  a  partire  dagli  anni  duemila,   vedremo  dunque  come  i  lavori  raccolti  nel  numero  speciale  si  inseriscono  nel  quadro  delineato  contribuendo   ad  ampliare  la  ricerca  sulla  pragmatica  dell’italiano  l2/ls.     2.  gli  atti  linguistici     una   parte   della   nostra   ricognizione   di   studi   che   riguardano   la   pragmatica   nell’ambito   dell’apprendimento   e   dell’insegnamento   dell’italiano   l2/ls   è   stata   dedicata,   come   si   è   detto,   ai   lavori   che   prendono  come  riferimento  la  teoria  degli  atti  linguistici  che  scioglie  l’iniziale  dicotomia  postulata  da  austin   tra  constatativi  e  performativi   in  favore  di  un’idea  più  generale  di  atto  linguistico  dotato  di  forza  illocutoria   (austin,   1962).   l’atto   linguistico   presuppone   dunque   un   “agire”   −   e   anche   un   “far   agire”,   come   afferma   kerbrat-­‐orecchioni  (2001)  −  che  va  oltre   il  semplice  significato  per  osservare,   tra   le  altre  cose,   l’intenzione   comunicativa  dei  parlanti  e  analizzare  la  dimensione  interazionale  del  linguaggio.  a  partire  dalle  riflessioni  e   dagli   approfondimenti   intorno   al   concetto   di   atto   linguistico,   la   pragmatica   si   consolida   come   disciplina,   riconoscendo   un’unità   di   analisi   che   consente   di   classificare   e   quindi   di   differenziare.   i   successivi   studi   di   searle  (1969,  1976,  1979),  oltre  a  proseguire  quelli  iniziati  dal  suo  predecessore,  fanno  passi  avanti  proprio   in  questa  direzione.  in  italia  un  importante  contributo  è  stato  dato  da  sbisà  (2001,  2002,  2009  [1989])  con  la   sua  proposta  per  la  classificazione  degli  atti  linguistici  e  la  sua  analisi  sul  ruolo  dell’interazione.   anche  nell’ambito  della  pragmatica   che  si  occupa  del   confronto   tra  più   lingue,  dell’insegnamento  e   dell’apprendimento  di  una  seconda  lingua  e  dell’interazione  tra  parlanti  nativi  e  non  nativi,  uno  dei  punti  di   partenza  usati  con  maggiore  frequenza  è  quello  dell’atto  linguistico,  che  permette  di  delimitare  uno  spazio  di   osservazione  e  di  muoversi  alla  ricerca  di  ricorrenze,  analogie  e  differenze  tra  i  diversi  gruppi  studiati.  tra  i   vantaggi  di  approcci  di  questo  tipo  si  può  annoverare  il  fatto  che  facilitano  il  confronto  e  offrono  la  possibilità   di  rendere  meno  disomogenee  le  prospettive  adottate  dai  diversi  studiosi.   per   questi   studi   vale   quanto   si   è   già   evidenziato   in   precedenza:   sono   stati   svolti   esaminando   l’evoluzione   di   parlanti   non   nativi   in   contesti   di   apprendimento   spontaneo   (come   in   nuzzo,   2007a)   nell’acquisizione  di  competenze  per  la  realizzazione  di  determinati  atti  linguistici;  oppure  verificando  l’effetto   di   determinate   strategie   didattiche   (per   es.   gauci,   2012);   o   ancora   osservando   se   l’autoapprendimento   modifica  le  realizzazioni  degli  apprendenti  (santoro,  2013).   la   ricognizione  mostra   −   e   lo   rivedremo   in   dettaglio   di   seguito   −   che   l’atto   linguistico   ad   oggi   più   studiato  è  la  richiesta,  probabilmente  perché  si  tratta  di  un  atto  che,  per  dirla  con  brown  e  levinson  (1987),  è   minaccioso  per  la  faccia  (è  un  face  threatening  act  -­‐  fta)  visto  che  mette  in  gioco  tanto  la  faccia  positiva  del   parlante   quanto   quella   negativa   dell’interlocutore,   stimolando   quindi   in   modo   particolare   l’uso   di   accorgimenti   che   confluiscono   in   quello   che   si   è   soliti   chiamare   mitigazione   (come   preferisce   caffi,   1999,   2001,   2007)   o   attenuazione   (si   veda   briz   &   albelda,   2013)   spesso   interpretata   come   manifestazione   di   cortesia  linguistica,  pur  non  avendo  sempre  e  soltanto  questa  funzione.   briz  e  albelda  individuano  quelli  che,  a  loro  giudizio,  sono  i  tre  grandi  obiettivi  dell’attenuazione:  (1)   autoprotezione,  quando  il  parlante  vuole  tutelarsi,  evitando  o  riducendo  il  suo  legame  con  quanto  afferma;  (2)   prevenzione,   quando   l’intenzione   è   prevenire   una   possibile   minaccia   all’immagine   dell’altro   al   fine   di   nuzzo  &  santoro     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27  4   raggiungere   un   obiettivo   o   di   evitare   conflitti;   (3)   riparazione,   quando   l’obiettivo   è   riparare   una  minaccia   all’immagine   dell’altro   o   una   intromissione   nello   spazio   altrui   (briz   &   albelda,   2013,   p.   302-­‐303).     detto   questo,  è  evidente  che  solo  quando  entrano   in  gioco  sia   l’io   che   il   tu   si  può  parlare  di   cortesia,  visto  che   la   cortesia  è  “una  cosa  a  due”,  potremmo  dire  prendendo  spunto  da  quanto  afferma  lo  stesso  briz  (2003,  p.  26),   così   che   non   sempre   la   mitigazione   coincide   con   la   cortesia.   diminuire   la   forza   illocutoria   può   infatti   rispondere,  oltre  che  a  preservare  le  relazioni  sociali,  anche  a  soddisfare  bisogni  pratici,  ovvero,  aumentare  le   possibilità  di  vedere  andare  a  buon  fine  l’atto  linguistico  realizzato  (una  richiesta  esaudita,  una  protesta  che   sortisce  effetto,  una  richiesta  di  scuse  che  viene  accettata  ecc.),  o  bisogni  identitari,  spesso  definiti  proprio  in   base  alle  caratteristiche  di  ogni  lingua  e  cultura.     il   campo   è   ampio   e   gli   studi   che   sono   stati   realizzati   sul   tema   sono   numerosi,   ma   qui   ci   basterà   ricordare  che  la  mitigazione  si  realizza  attraverso  l’uso  di  elementi  che  intervengono  per  modificare  la  forza   illocutoria   dell’atto   linguistico.   negli   studi   presi   in   esame,   si   tratta   di   categorie   frequentemente   utilizzate   come   base   per   l’analisi   e   come   strumenti   che   permettono   di   osservare   e   valutare   non   solo   il   grado   di   competenza   pragmatica,   ma   anche   la   percezione   di   certi   atti   linguistici.   una   classificazione   adattata   per   l’italiano   da   nuzzo   (2007a)   è   quella   elaborata   per   il   noto   progetto   requests   and   apologies:   cross-­‐cultural   speech  act  realization  patterns  (ccsarp)  (blum-­‐kulka,  house,  &  kasper,  1989)  che,  come  dice   il   titolo,  si  è   occupato   di   due   atti   linguistici,   le   richieste   e   le   scuse,   confrontando   lingue   tra   cui   l’inglese,   il   francese,   il   tedesco   e   l’ebraico,   per   provare   a   scoprire   in   che   modo   si   differenziavano   tra   loro   e   in   quali   aspetti   presentavano  eventuali  somiglianze.  nella  classificazione  utilizzata  per  ccsarp,  ripresa  nella  maggior  parte   delle  ricerche  sul  tema,  si  distinguono  atto  principale  (head  act)  e  atti  di  supporto  (supportive  moves)  o  sotto-­‐ atti  e  si  osserva  la  presenza  e  l’uso  dei  modificatori,  che  possono  essere  interni  o  esterni  all’atto  principale  e   sono  suddivisi  in  diverse  categorie  (morfosintattici,  lessicali,  discorsivi).   altri   atti   linguistici   presi   in   considerazione   con   una   certa   frequenza   per   gli   studi   empirici   sono   le   scuse   e   le   proteste.   anche   per   questi   atti   linguistici   vale   quanto   detto   per   le   richieste:   si   tratta   di   atti   minacciosi  per  la  faccia  che  creano  quindi  situazioni  in  cui  si  può  prevedere  una  forte  presenza  di  strategie  di   mitigazione.   oltre   a   richieste,   scuse   e   proteste,   sono   stati   realizzati   in   maniera   piuttosto   isolata   studi   sui   complimenti  (de  marco,  2011),  su  complimenti  e  inviti  (nuzzo,  2015a)  e  sui  ringraziamenti  (nuzzo,  2013).  è   recente   l’inizio  di  ricerche  sulle  disdette  (cortés  velásquez  &  nuzzo,  2017)  che  ha  adottato  una  prospettiva   cross-­‐culturale   (inizialmente   confrontando   italiano   e   spagnolo   colombiano   e,   in  maniera  meno   sistematica,   anche  altre  lingue),  ma  riflettendo  sulle  ricadute  didattiche  anche  per  l’italiano  l2  di  uno  studio  che  osserva   differenze  e  analogie  tra  due  o  più  lingue  o  culture.   in  seguito  descriveremo  brevemente  e  in  ordine  cronologico  di  pubblicazione  gli  studi  che  rientrano   nelle  categorie  citate.  una  tabella  riassuntiva  alla  fine  di  questa  sezione  (tabella  1)  ha  lo  scopo  di  ricapitolare   quanto  si  dirà,  soprattutto  riguardo  a  atti  linguistici  studiati,  distribuzione  geografica  degli  studi  e  tipo  di  dati   utilizzati.   sono  ancora  rari  −  e  per  questa  ragione  non  verranno  presentati  in  modo  più  dettagliato  −  gli  studi   che  uniscono  allo  studio  degli  atti  linguistici  la  componente  prosodica  come  accade  per  esempio  in  de  meo  e   pettorino  (2011),  maffia  (2015),  vitale,  pellegrino,  de  meo  e  rasulo  (2015),  vigliano,  yoshimoto  e  pellegrino,   (2016)   e   vitale,   boula   de  mareüil   e   de  meo   (2017).   gli   atti   linguistici   studiati   in   questa   prospettiva   sono   ancora   le   richieste,   ma   anche   ordini,   concessioni,   domande   e   asserzioni.   in   questi   studi   si   presentano   i   risultati   di   ricerche   sperimentali   che   analizzano   lo   sviluppo   della   competenza   prosodico-­‐pragmatica   in   l2,   confrontando   i   dati   di   parlanti   nativi   e   non   nativi.   oltre   a   condurre   analisi   spettroacustiche,   i   ricercatori   hanno  eseguito  anche  test  di  riconoscimento  dell’atto  linguistico  prodotto.   iniziamo   la   descrizione   dallo   studio   di   nuzzo   (2006)   che   fa   riferimento   già   nell’introduzione   alla   mancanza  di  ricerche  dedicate  agli  atti  linguistici  che  si  siano  occupati  di  italiano  l2.  il  lavoro  apre  quindi  un   nuovo   filone   utilizzando   dati   elicitati   tramite   role   play   aperti   spontanei,   così   denominati   perché,   pur   prevedendo  un   ruolo  a  e  un   ruolo  b,  non   imponevano   limiti   di   tempo  né  presupponevano   cambiamenti  di   identità.  le  partecipanti  sono  tre  apprendenti  intermedie  di  italiano  residenti  in  italia  con  le  quali  sono  state   realizzate  diverse  registrazioni  a   intervalli  di  circa  tre  settimane  nell’arco  di  cinque  mesi.  per   il  confronto  è   stato   utilizzato   un   corpus   di   parlanti   nativi   composto   da   81   interazioni   dialogiche.   il   corpus   completo   comprende  proteste,  scuse  e  richieste  ed  è  stato  utilizzato  in  maniera  parziale  e  analizzando  diversi  aspetti  in   questo  e  nei  due  studi  successivi.  in  questo  primo  lavoro  l’autrice  si  dedica  solo  alle  proteste  che  vengono  qui   osservate  sulla  base  di  una  classificazione  dei  possibili  sotto-­‐atti  e  dei  modificatori  (mitigatori  e  rafforzatori).   sono  stati   identificati  nove  sotto-­‐atti  suddivisi   in  due  gruppi  a  seconda  che  prevedessero  o  meno   l’esplicita   attribuzione  di  responsabilità  all’interlocutore.   i  dati  mostrano  che   le   tre   informanti,  abbandonato   lo  status   la  pragmatica  in  italiano  l2/ls   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27   5   iniziale   di   “weak   complainer”   (trosborg,   1995),   producono   in   un   primo   momento   proteste   che   risultano,   seppure   in   misura   diversa,   piuttosto   aggressive.   ciò   avviene,   da   una   parte,   perché   all’interlocutore   si   attribuisce  responsabilità  diretta  dell’evento  per  il  quale  si  protesta,  dall’altra,  per  lo  scarso  uso  di  mitigatori   che   i   parlanti   nativi   adoperano   invece   con   frequenza.   nelle   successive   osservazioni   l’aggressività   tende   a   diminuire,  anche  perché  si  impara  a  usare  in  modo  più  equilibrato  mitigatori  e  rafforzatori.  si  nota,  tuttavia,   che   non   si   superano   certi   stadi,   probabilmente   perché   gli   elementi   più   frequentemente   usati   dai   parlanti   nativi   per   mitigare   la   forza   illocutoria   delle   proteste   sono   segnali   discorsivi,   sempre   di   difficile   riconoscimento  e  apprendimento  da  parte  dei  parlanti  non  nativi.   all’analisi   delle   proteste   si   unisce   anche   quella   delle   richieste   e   delle   scuse   nel   secondo   studio   di   nuzzo   (2007a).   i  dati  mostrano  un  progressivo  avvicinamento  delle   tre  apprendenti  alle  caratteristiche  dei   tre  atti  linguistici  di  parlanti  nativi,  con  le  scuse  che  sembrano  presentare  minori  difficoltà  e  le  proteste  che   sono   invece   tendenzialmente  più   complesse  da  gestire.   l’autrice  attribuisce  al   grado  di  maggiore  o  minore   convenzionalizzazione  dei  tre  atti  il  diverso  comportamento  delle  apprendenti  e  osserva  che  le  loro  maggiori   difficoltà,   ma   anche   i   più   evidenti   progressi,   si   riscontrano   nell’uso   dei  modificatori   della   forza   illocutoria   interni  all’atto  principale,  con  una  preferenza  per  quelli  lessicali.  pur  non  riuscendo  a  ipotizzare  effettivi  stadi   di   acquisizione,   la   ricerca   verifica   che,   in   genere,   la   grammatica   precede   la   pragmatica,   sebbene   non   sia   possibile  affermarlo  per  tutte  le  forme  che  compaiono  nei  dati  analizzati.   nel  terzo  studio  di  nuzzo  (2007b)  si  prende  in  esame  la  gestione  dell’intero  scambio  comunicativo  al   fine   di   verificare   come   si   trasforma   nel   tempo   la   capacità   di   organizzare   l’interazione   per   raggiungere   lo   scopo  comunicativo.  in  questo  lavoro  viene  analizzata  solo  una  delle  tre  apprendenti  e  il  corpus  è  costituito   da  17  richieste  e  13  proteste.  l’autrice  parte  da  una  descrizione  della  varietà  di  interlingua  dell’apprendente   che  definisce  post-­‐basica,  visto  che  si  constata   la  presenza  di  elementi  di  morfologia   lessicale  e  verbale  e  di   sintassi   che   la   attestano.   prosegue   analizzando   gli   atti   linguistici   prodotti   dall’informante   utilizzando   tre   indicatori:   (a)   livello   di   partecipazione   allo   scambio,   (b)   scelta   degli   argomenti   e   (c)   pianificazione   del   discorso.  l’osservazione  longitudinale  permette  di  verificare  un  aumento  della  partecipazione,  una  selezione   più  adeguata  degli  argomenti  e  una  gestione  che  si  avvicina  via  via  a  quella  dei  parlanti  nativi.   in  generale,   sembra  quindi  che  a  una  maggiore  padronanza  della  l2  corrisponda  un  incremento  dell’abilità  a  gestire  i  due   atti   linguistici   selezionati,   pur   essendo   presenti  maggiori   difficoltà   nelle   proteste   che   esigono   una   lunga   e   complessa  negoziazione  e  sono  tendenzialmente  più  minacciose  per  la  faccia.   si   concentra   solo   sulle   richieste   lo   studio   esplorativo   di   vedder   (2007)   che   mira   a   investigare   il   rapporto   tra   competenza   grammaticale   e   competenza   pragmatica   in   italiano   l2,   utilizzando   il   livello   linguistico  complessivo  e  la  complessità  sintattica  delle  produzioni  degli  apprendenti.  i  soggetti  dello  studio   sono   46   studenti   universitari   olandesi   (23   coppie)   con   un   livello   linguistico   definito   dall’autrice   basso-­‐ intermedio  e  misurato  tramite  la  realizzazione  di  un  cloze.  l’analisi  riguarda  l’uso  dei  modificatori  interni  ed   esterni  che  compaiono  nelle  richieste  risultanti  da  role  play  aperti,  eseguiti  a  coppie  a  partire  da  uno  stimolo  e   con  l’attribuzione  di  un  ruolo  a  (cliente)  e  un  ruolo  b  (commesso  di  una  libreria).  non  è  stata  confermata  dai   dati   né   l’ipotesi   della   correlazione   tra   uso   di   modificatori   e   complessità   sintattica,   né   quella   tra   livello   linguistico  e  competenza  pragmatica.  fanno  eccezione  solo  i  modificatori  morfosintattici,  per  quanto  si  tratti   spesso  di  forme  isolate  e  routinizzate  con  un’alta  frequenza  nell’input.   nuzzo   (2009)   analizza   richieste   per   ottenere   informazioni   e   suggerimenti.   i   dati   utilizzati   per   lo   studio   provengono   dal   corpus  variabilità   nell’interlingua   parlata   -­‐   vip   (pallotti,   ferrari,   nuzzo,   &   bettoni,   2010).   nello   studio   in   esame   vengono   prese   in   considerazione   registrazioni   di   quattro   apprendenti   adolescenti,  residenti  in  italia  da  diversi  anni  e  con  un  livello  linguistico  complessivo  avanzato,  nel  corso  dello   svolgimento  di  compiti  comunicativi   finalizzati  al  raggiungimento  di  un  obiettivo.  a  questo  fine  alle  ragazze   venivano  fornite  istruzioni  e  persone  da  contattare  per  telefono  che  avrebbero  potuto  fornire  le  informazioni   necessarie.  sono  state  realizzate  quattro  registrazioni  nel  corso  di  tre  anni.  per  l’analisi  si  è  deciso  di  limitarsi   alla   prima   mossa   di   richiesta,   considerata   conclusa   quando   si   riconosceva   l’avvenuta   ricezione   da   parte   dell’interlocutore.   nelle   104   mosse   di   richiesta   selezionate   sono   state   studiate,   oltre   alla   struttura   complessiva  dell’atto  nella  sua  componente  interazionale,  la  varietà  e  la  frequenza  dei  modificatori,  mettendo   a   confronto   le   quattro   apprendenti   con   due   parlanti   italiane.   i   risultati   mostrano   un   significativo   avvicinamento   delle   parlanti   non   native   verso   le   caratteristiche   delle   richieste   delle   due   ragazze   italiane.   i   turni,   all’inizio  molto   lunghi   e   informativamente   densi,   diventano   via   via   più   brevi,   l’eccessiva   esplicitezza   diminuisce  e  anche  tramite  l’uso  dei  modificatori  si  manifesta  una  più  chiara  consapevolezza  pragmatica.   è  ancora  quello  della  richiesta  di  informazioni  e  di  suggerimenti  l’atto  linguistico  esaminato  in  nuzzo   (2010a)   con   gli   stessi   soggetti   dello   studio   appena  descritto   e   con   lo   stesso   compito   comunicativo   (corpus   nuzzo  &  santoro     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27  6   vip).   in  questo  articolo   l’autrice  privilegia   il   confronto   tra  parlanti  native  e  non  native,   soffermandosi   sugli   atti  iniziali  di  richiesta  che  separa  da  quelli  aggiuntivi  e  analizza  la  struttura  e  la  frequenza  dei  modificatori.   le  differenze  sono  considerate  significative  a  tutti  i  livelli  di  analisi  e  provocano  effetti  su  tutta  l’interazione:   mentre  le  parlanti  native  costruiscono  le  richieste  coinvolgendo  l’interlocutore  e  utilizzando  strategie  per  non   far  pesare  gli  obblighi   che  provengono  dalla   richiesta,   le  apprendenti  non  sembrano  agire   linguisticamente   con   la   stessa   cautela.   il   loro   più   ridotto   uso   di   modificatori   è   uno   degli   indicatori   di   questo   tipo   di   comportamento   che   si   rivela   ancora  più  distante  dalle   ragazze   italiane  nelle   richieste   aggiuntive.   lo   studio   conferma   ancora   una   volta   l’importanza   di   dedicare   spazio   alla   dimensione   pragmatica   nell’insegnamento   dell’italiano  l2  e  sottolinea  che  l’uso  di  corpora  di  italiano  parlato  potrebbe  essere  uno  strumento  di  grande   utilità  a  questo  fine.   ancora  uno  studio  sui  dati  del  corpus  vip  viene  presentato  nel  contributo  di  ferrari  e  nuzzo  (2011)   che   si   propone   di   osservare,   in   prospettiva   longitudinale,   il   rapporto   tra   competenze   in   grammatica   e   pragmatica   e   focalizza   in   particolare   il  modo   in   cui   si   influenzano   reciprocamente   complessità   sintattica   e   modulazione   della   forza   illocutoria.   per   analizzare   la   complessità   sintattica   dei   turni   sono   state   prese   in   considerazione   la   lunghezza   dell’unità   di   produzione   e   la   quantità   di   subordinate.   osservando   in   modo   specifico   la   complessità   sintattica,   si   conclude   che   le   richieste  delle  parlanti  native  presentano  una   sintassi   semplice  con  turni  brevi  e  poche  subordinate  che  produce   l’effetto  di  negoziazione  della  richiesta.  all’inizio   delle  osservazioni   le  apprendenti  adottano  la  strategia  opposta,  condensando  molte  informazioni   in  un  solo   turno   e   lasciando   poco   spazio   di   negoziazione   all’interlocutore.   nel   corso   del   tempo   le   richieste   delle   apprendenti  tendono  ad  assomigliare  di  più  a  quelle  delle  parlanti  native  visto  che,  riducendo  la  complessità   sintattica,   diventano   più   caute   e   adeguate.   la   competenza   grammaticale   sembra   quindi   in   questo   caso   precedere  quella  pragmatica:  le  apprendenti  sono  in  grado  di  produrre  strutture  sia  semplici  che  complesse,   ma   acquisiscono   solo   nel   tempo   la   consapevolezza   pragmatica   che   consente   loro   di   scegliere   in   modo   appropriato  all’effetto  pragmatico  desiderato.   in   leone   (2011)   l’attenzione   si   rivolge   alla   protesta   elicitata   tramite   la   registrazione   di   una   conversazione  semispontanea  tra  due  parlanti  nativi  ai  quali  è  stata  presentata  una  situazione  comunicativa,   assegnata   una   parte   e   dato   l’argomento   dello   scambio,   oltre   che   indicazioni   sull’interlocutore.   l’autrice   analizza  la  protesta,  denominata  nel  titolo  “litigio  scortese”,  suddividendola  in  tre  fasi  e  ne  osserva  i  gradi  di   intensità   prendendo   in   considerazione   modificatori,   atti   di   supporto   e   interrogative   retoriche.   a   seguire   propone  che  l’analisi  realizzata  venga  utilizzata  come  materiale  nella  classe  di  lingua,  fornendo  indicazioni  su   come   ciò   potrebbe   avvenire   e   facendo   riferimento   agli   studi   che   hanno   mostrato   la   maggiore   efficacia   dell’istruzione  esplicita  rispetto  a  quella  implicita.   parte   da   questa   prospettiva   il   lavoro   di   de   marco   (2011)   che   sceglie   l’atto   linguistico   del   complimento,  esaminandone  soprattutto  le  risposte.    vengono  presentati  i  risultati  di  uno  studio  per  il  quale  è   stata   messa   a   punto   una   sperimentazione   didattica   che   ha   coinvolto   otto   studenti   indonesiani   e   cinque   arabofoni,   suddivisi   in  due  gruppi.   entrambi   i   gruppi  hanno  partecipato   a   tre   incontri   di  due  ore   ciascuno,   durante  i  quali  è  stata  fatta  una  riflessione  sull’atto  linguistico  in  questione.  in  uno  dei  due  gruppi  l’istruzione   sui  complimenti  è  stata  esplicita;  all’altro  gruppo,  che  ha  utilizzato  lo  stesso  materiale,  non  sono  invece  stati   forniti   spunti   per   una   riflessione   metapragmatica.   l’autrice   descrive   dettagliatamente   tutte   le   fasi   della   sperimentazione  e  analizza  in  particolare  i  risultati  di  pre-­‐test  e  post-­‐test  basati  sulle  risposte  ai  complimenti.   nel   pre-­‐test   gli   apprendenti   hanno   compilato   un   dct   scritto   e   un   test   a   scelta   multipla   in   cui   dovevano   scegliere   tra   sei   risposte;   nel   post-­‐test   è   stato   proposto   che   scrivessero   tre   dialoghi   utilizzando   diverse   strategie  di   risposta  al  complimento  e  che  compilassero  ancora  un   test  a  scelta  multipla  simile  a  quello  del   pre-­‐test.  i  risultati  mostrano  un  notevole  aumento  della  capacità  di  alternare  strategie  di  risposta  da  parte  del   gruppo  sperimentale,  confermando  quindi  che  l’istruzione  esplicita  permette  di  ottenere  risultati  positivi.   gauci   e  nuzzo   (2012)   si   inseriscono  nel   filone   degli   studi   sperimentali   che   si   propongono   l’analisi   degli   effetti   dell’insegnamento   sulla   competenza   pragmatica.   in   questo   lavoro   l’esperimento   si   concentra   sull’atto   linguistico   della   richiesta   e   in   particolare   sugli   effetti   dell’insegnamento   implicito   ed   esplicito   di   modificatori   lessicali   e   grammaticali,   intesi   come   elementi   non  necessari   da   un   punto   di   vista   semantico   o   morfosintattico   che   servono   a   modulare   la   forza   illocutoria   di   un   atto   linguistico.   l’esperimento   è   stato   realizzato  con  50  apprendenti  adolescenti  maltesi  tutti  di  uno  stesso  liceo  e  divisi  in  tre  classi:  una  classe  ha   ricevuto  istruzioni  esplicite  di  pragmatica  (in  particolare  sull’uso  dei  modificatori),  a  una  seconda  sono  invece   state   fornite   istruzioni   implicite,   mentre   la   terza   ha   proseguito   le   sue   lezioni   normalmente,   ovvero   senza   nessun   riferimento   alla   pragmatica.   agli   apprendenti   è   stato   proposto   un   test   costituito   da   un   discourse   completion  test  (dct)  scritto  e  da  un  role  play  chiuso  eseguito  prima  del  trattamento  didattico  (t1)  e  subito   la  pragmatica  in  italiano  l2/ls   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27   7   dopo   (t2).   gli   stessi   test   sono   stati   eseguiti   anche   da   parlanti   nativi   così   che   si   avesse   a   disposizione   un   corpus   di   riferimento.   prima   del   trattamento   didattico   i   test   realizzati   mostrano   che   la   quantità   di   modificatori   utilizzata   dai   parlanti   non   nativi   è   molto   inferiore   rispetto   a   quella   dei   parlanti   nativi,   confermando   una   delle   ipotesi   di   partenza.   dopo   il   trattamento   didattico   aumenta   in   entrambi   i   gruppi   sperimentali   il  numero  di  modificatori  che  resta  invece  invariato  nel  gruppo  di  controllo.  nonostante  anche   l’ipotesi   sull’efficacia   dell’insegnamento   venga   confermata,   le   autrici   procedono   a   un’ulteriore   analisi   osservando  separatamente  i  dati  dei  dct  e  quelli  del  role  play  e  accorgendosi  così  della  presenza  di  differenze   sostanziali  nello  scritto  e  nell’orale  che  suggeriscono   la  realizzazione  di  altre  ricerche  che   tengano  conto  di   questa  variabile.   siamo   ancora   nell’ambito   della   ricerca   sull’effetto   dell’istruzione   implicita   ed   esplicita   sulla   competenza  pragmatica  con  il  lavoro  di  gauci  (2012)  sulle  proteste  che  parte  dallo  stesso  corpus  dello  studio   precedente.  l’unica  differenza  è  che  per  questo  studio  le  attività  per  la  raccolta  dei  dati  (dct  scritto  e  un  role   play  chiuso)  sono  state  realizzate  non  in  due,  ma  in  tre  momenti:  prima  dell’inizio  dell’esperimento  (pre-­‐test,   t1),   subito  dopo   il   trattamento  didattico   (post-­‐test,  t2)  e  una   terza  volta  come  post-­‐test   ritardato   (t3).  gli   apprendenti  che  hanno  partecipato  alle  tre  fasi  sono  42  e  i  dati  sono  stati  confrontati  anche  questa  volta  con   un  corpus  di  italiani.  la  situazione  iniziale  è  abbastanza  simile  a  quella  riscontrata  osservando  i  modificatori   nelle  richieste,  ma   i   risultati   sono  diversi  poiché   il  progresso  dopo   l’istruzione  risulta  modesto,  è  superiore   nella  classe  che  ha  ricevuto  istruzioni  implicite  e  si  verifica  solo  con  il  test  scritto.  l’altro  dato  interessante  è   che  al  t3  gli  effetti  positivi  riscontrati  sembrano  confermati.   nel  volume  di  nuzzo  e  gauci  (2012)  vengono  in  parte  riprese  le  ricerche  precedenti  già  descritte  su   richieste   e   proteste.   si   amplia   il   quadro   teorico   e   si   fanno   dialogare   nella   prospettiva   della   pragmatica   interlinguistica  il  corpus  vip  (sei  apprendenti  e  due  parlanti  native)  e  quello  costruito  per  mettere  alla  prova   gli   effetti   dell’istruzione   in   un   contesto   formale   di   insegnamento.   i   dati   del   corpus   sulle   richieste   di   informazioni  e  di  suggerimenti  evidenziano  il  passaggio  attraverso  vari  stadi,  così  come  descritti  da  kasper  e   rose  (2002),  per  cui  dalle   formule  fisse  si  passa  all’uso  di  espressioni  e   formule   indirette.  solo   in  seguito  si   amplia  il  repertorio  pragmalinguistico  con  gli  ultimi  due  stadi  −  detti  espansione  pragmatica  e  messa  a  punto  −   che  sembrano  mescolarsi  visto  che  all’aggiunta  di  nuove   forme  corrisponde  una  più  adeguata  modulazione   degli   atti   linguistici.   nella   seconda   parte   del   volume   si   affronta   la   questione   dell’insegnamento   delle   competenze  pragmatiche.  come  si  è  già  visto,   in  principio,  confermando  la   letteratura  sul  tema,   l’intervento   didattico  mirato  produce  risultati,  anche  se  la  consapevolezza  degli  apprendenti  è  più  pragmalinguistica  che   sociopragmatica,   forse   anche   per   il   tipo   di   aspetti   che   si   è   scelto   di   portare   in   classe.   l’altra   questione   interessante  è  che,  mentre  nelle  richieste  il  progresso  e  la  differenza  tra  i  gruppi  è  più  lineare,  nelle  proteste   compaiono  maggiori  difficoltà  di  interpretazione,  forse  dovute  al  fatto  che  la  protesta  è  un  atto  più  complesso   e  che  in  italiano  viene  prodotta  in  modo  non  convenzionalizzato  rendendo  più  difficile  identificare  ricorrenze   e  riprodurle  come  parlanti  non  nativi.   la   richiesta   è   l’atto   linguistico   selezionato   anche   in   santoro   (2013)   che   presenta   uno   studio   realizzato  con  16  apprendenti  brasiliani  di  italiano  ls.  i  dati  per  l’esperimento  sono  stati  elicitati  tramite  role   play  semi-­‐aperti,  eseguiti  a  coppie,  iniziati  con  una  situazione-­‐stimolo  fornita  solo  a  uno  dei  due  interlocutori.   gli  apprendenti  sono  stati  registrati  una  prima  volta  (t1)  senza  aver  ricevuto  alcun  tipo  di  istruzione  specifica   in  pragmatica  e  una  seconda  volta  (t2)  quando  metà  di  loro  aveva  solo  proseguito  il  normale  corso  e  l’altra   metà  aveva  invece  realizzato  in  autoapprendimento  il  percorso  sulle  richieste  del  repository  online  lira4.  per   l’analisi   sono   stati   presi   in   esame   i   modificatori   e   la   lunghezza   degli   atti   di   supporto,   in   particolare   il   preambolo  o  preparazione  della   richieste.   i   risultati  mostrano  un   incremento  del  numero  di  modificatori   e   una   complessificazione   degli   atti   preparatori   nel   gruppo   che   ha   seguito   il   percorso,   apparentemente   confermando  l’efficacia  dell’istruzione  esplicita.  lo  studio  fornisce  una  prima  evidenza  circa  la  possibilità  di   utilizzare  materiale  disponibile  in  rete  per  lo  sviluppo  della  competenza  pragmatica.   nuzzo  (2013)  presenta  uno  studio  esplorativo,  focalizzato  sull’atto  linguistico  del  ringraziare,  che  si   propone   di   prendere   in   esame   l’input   di   manuali   di   italiano   l2.   la   sua   analisi,   basata   su   variabili   sociopragmatiche  (distanza  sociale  e  obiettivi  dell’atto   linguistico)  e  strategie  pragmalinguistiche  (struttura   dell’atto   principale   e   modificatori),   confronta   50   situazioni   di   ringraziamento   presenti   in   17   manuali   e                                                                                                                                           4   lira   (lingua/cultura   italiana   in   rete   per   l’apprendimento)   è   un   repository   online   dedicato   all’insegnamento   della   pragmatica   in   italiano  l2,  risultato  di  un  progetto  firb  e  realizzato  con  la  collaborazione  dell’università  per  stranieri  di   perugia,  dell’università  di  bologna,  dell’università  di  verona  e  dell’università  di  modena  e  reggio  emilia.     nuzzo  &  santoro     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27  8   altrettante   tratte  da  26  episodi  di   tre  diverse   serie   televisive.   si   conferma  quanto   già   verificato   in   ricerche   precedenti   realizzate   su   altre   lingue   −   soprattutto   l’inglese   −   e   cioè   che   i   libri   di   testo   di   italiano   l2   non   contribuiscono  per  lo  sviluppo  della  competenza  pragmatica  perché  offrono  un  input  pragmatico  inadeguato,   mentre  l’uso  del  parlato  televisivo  sembra  avvicinarsi  a  quello  “reale”  così  che  può  essere  un  buon  supporto   per  insegnanti  e  autori  di  manuali  che,  ancora  troppo  spesso,  partono  solo  dalla  loro  competenza  di  parlanti   nativi  non  supportata  da  corpora  di  riferimento.     nel   lavoro  del   2014  nuzzo   e  gauci   riprendono   la   questione  dell’insegnamento  della   pragmatica   in   classe   per   approfondire   l’analisi   dei   modificatori   nelle   richieste.   essendo   stato   verificato   negli   studi   precedenti  che  la  pragmatica  è  insegnabile  e  che  l’insegnamento  produce  risultati  decisamente  superiori  alla   semplice  esposizione,  la  questione  che  resta  aperta  è  quella  del  tipo  di  istruzione  che  sia  da  considerare  più   efficace,  visto  che  la  revisione  della  letteratura  pubblicata  sul  tema  mostra  risultati  meno  omogenei  di  quanto   fosse  inizialmente  sembrato  (cfr.  takahashi,  2010).  diversi  fattori  sembrano  influenzare  i  risultati  tra  cui  gli   elementi  che  si  sceglie  di  insegnare  e  il  tipo  di  metodologie  utilizzate  per  la  raccolta  dei  dati  che  valutano  gli   esiti   delle   sperimentazioni.   le   autrici   si   soffermano   su   quest’ultimo   punto   evidenziando   le   caratteristiche   delle   diverse  metodologie   a   partire   dal   loro  maggiore   o  minore   grado   di   spontaneità.   dopo   un   accenno   a   vantaggi  e  svantaggi  di  alcuni  strumenti,  ci  si  concentra  sul  role  play  e  sul  dct  scritto.  il  primo  è  considerato   “a  metà  strada”  sotto  diversi  punti  di  vista  dato  che  permette  di  mantenere  una  certa  spontaneità  e,  al  tempo   stesso,   di   controllare   le   variabili;   il   secondo  è   tuttavia   lo   strumento  più   spesso  utilizzato  nelle   ricerche  del   campo  perché  comunque  permette  di  avere  accesso  alla  produzione  dell’informante,  ma  ottenendo  molti  più   dati  in  meno  tempo  e  con  il  pieno  controllo  di  molte  variabili.  lo  studio  espone  i  risultati  dei  dati  già  visti  in   gauci  (2012),  gauci  e  nuzzo  (2012)  e  nuzzo  e  gauci  (2012),  ma  approfondisce   l’analisi  della  metodologia  e   sottolinea   la  differenza   tra   conoscenza  dichiarativa  e  procedurale,   concludendo  che  uno   strumento   come   il   dct  scritto  è  più  adatto  a  mettere  in  luce  la  conoscenza  dichiarativa,  mentre  quella  procedurale  può  essere   meglio  valutata  da  strumenti  come  il  role  play.   il   tema  del   contributo  di  nuzzo   (2015a)  è   il   confronto   tra  manuali  di   italiano  l2  e   serie   televisive,   sempre  partendo  da  studi  precedenti  che  hanno  verificato,  da  una  parte,  la  povertà  dell’input  dei  manuali  e,   dall’altra,   la   somiglianza   tra   il   parlato   filmico   e   quello   reale.   in   questo   caso   l’obiettivo   è   l’analisi   dell’adeguatezza  pragmatica  dei  campioni  selezionati  per  gli  atti   linguistici  degli   inviti  (10  nei  manuali  e  10   nelle  serie  tv)  e  dei  complimenti  (solo  4  nei  manuali  e  10  nelle  serie  tv).  la  metodologia  è  simile  a  quella   utilizzata  nel  lavoro  precedente  sui  ringraziamenti:  si  sono  analizzati  gli  atti  principali  e  i  modificatori  interni   ed   esterni   con   una   tassonomia   specifica   che   include   anche   le   risposte   ed   è   stata   adattata   per   l’italiano   considerando   studi   precedenti.   analizzando   i   dati   colpisce   intanto   il   poco   spazio   dato   ai   complimenti   nei   manuali  (come  si  è  detto  in  5  manuali  sono  stati  trovati  solo  4  esempi).  a  parte  ciò,  anche  in  questo  caso  si   osserva   nei   manuali   una   scarsa   varietà   e   una   frequenza   più   limitata   di   modificatori   rispetto   alle   serie   televisive.  gli   studi   andrebbero  proseguiti,  ma  è   ancora  una  volta   evidente   che  autori  di  manuali   e  docenti   dovrebbero  basarsi  meno  sulla  loro  competenza  come  parlanti  nativi  e  di  più  su  studi  empirici,  sui  corpora  o,   se  non  altro,  sul  parlato  di  film  e  serie  tv.   lo  studio  esplorativo  di  silva  neto  e  santoro   (2015)  parte  dal  presupposto  che   la  percezione  della   cortesia,   intesa   non   solo   in   senso   tecnico,   sia   diversa   tra   italiani   e   brasiliani   e   sottopone   a   verifica   questa   ipotesi   iniziale   facendo   valutare   da   41   italiani   (21   residenti   in   italia   e   20   in   brasile)   e   41   apprendenti   brasiliani  (19  principianti  e  22  di  livello  intermedio/avanzato)  otto  video  contenenti  richieste  inviati  tramite   un  formulario  online.  i  video  sono  stati  selezionati  a  partire  da  un  corpus  molto  più  ampio  di  richieste  e  scuse   (santoro,  2012)  che  contiene  registrazioni  di  parlanti  nativi  di  italiano  che  hanno  eseguito  a  coppie  role  play   definiti  dalle  ricercatrici  semi-­‐aperti  perché  partono  da  uno  stimolo  iniziale,  ma  senza  imporre  ai  partecipanti   limiti  di  tempo  o  numero  di  turni.  sono  stati  selezionati  per  l’esperimento  video  che  contengono  richieste  con   e   senza   modificatori,   con   alta   e   bassa   distanza   sociale   e   con   alto   e   basso   grado   di   imposizione   perché   si   potesse  testare  se  l’effetto  prodotto  sugli  informanti  poteva  essere  motivato  dalla  presenza/assenza  di  questi   elementi.  i  partecipanti  dovevano  indicare  un  livello  di  cortesia  utilizzando  una  scala  likert  con  un  punteggio   da   1   a   5   e   avevano   poi   a   disposizione   uno   spazio   per   giustificare   la   loro   scelta.   i   risultati   sono   stati   categorizzati   sulla   base   delle   risposte   ottenute   e   mostrano   che   l’ipotesi   iniziale   viene   solo   parzialmente   confermata   visto   che   in   generale   i   livelli   di   cortesia   attribuiti   dai   quattro   gruppi   non   permettono   di   identificare   nette   differenze,   a   eccezione   di   un   unico   video.   è   interessante   osservare   che   tra   gli   elementi   utilizzati  per  giustificare   la  propria  scelta  gli   informanti  privilegiano  modificatori   lessicali  e  morfosintattici,   allocutivi  e  grado  di  familiarità  tra  gli  interlocutori.  per  quanto  non  si  siano  constatate  differenze  che  separino   nettamente  italiani  e  brasiliani,  si  osserva  la  tendenza  a  un  avvicinamento  dei  risultati  nel  caso  del  contatto   la  pragmatica  in  italiano  l2/ls   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27   9   prolungato  con  l’altra  lingua/cultura,  verificato  grazie  alla  divisione  di  ogni  gruppo  in  due  sottogruppi.   nel  contributo  di  gauci   (2015)  vengono  esaminati  ancora  una  volta   i  dati  del   corpus  su  richieste  e   proteste   già   descritti   per   studi   precedenti   della   stessa   autrice.   oltre   ai   già   citati   dct   scritto   e   al   role   play   chiuso,  per  questo  lavoro  è  stato  eseguito  un  dct  a  scelta  multipla  al  fine  di  testare  anche  la  consapevolezza   metapragmatica.   si   riafferma   l’insegnabilità   della   pragmatica   grazie   all’osservazione   dei   risultati   nei   due   gruppi   sperimentali   (istruzione   implicita   ed   esplicita)   e   si   sottolinea   l’importanza   dello   sviluppo   della   consapevolezza   metapragmatica   verificata   attraverso   il   riconoscimento   dell’adeguatezza   di   richieste   e   proteste  nelle  classi  sperimentali  e  non  nel  gruppo  di  controllo.  si  osserva  tuttavia,  anche  dopo  il  trattamento   didattico,  un  uso  dei  modificatori  non  sempre  comparabile  a  quello  dei  parlanti  nativi  per  quanto  riguarda  sia   la   capacità   di   differenziare   i   contesti,   che   la   scelta   dei   modificatori.   non   avendo   osservato   importanti   differenze  tra  il  gruppo  che  ha  ricevuto  istruzioni  implicite  e  quello  che  ha  invece  ricevuto  istruzioni  esplicite,   l’autrice  propone   che  nell’insegnamento  della  pragmatica   si   selezionino,   a   seconda  delle   situazioni,   diverse   metodologie  sul  continuum  implicito-­‐esplicito.  l’altra  questione  su  cui  si  torna,  riprendendo  quanto  affermato   in   nuzzo   e   gauci   (2014),   è   l’importanza   degli   strumenti   utilizzati   per   la   fase   di   valutazione   e   della   realizzazione  di  post-­‐test  ritardati.   come  per  quelli  del  2013  e  del  2015,  anche  nel  suo  studio  del  2016  nuzzo  confronta  diverse  fonti  di   input   per   l’insegnamento   della   pragmatica   in   italiano   l2.   in   questo   caso   l’autrice   si   concentra   su   ringraziamenti   e   complimenti   e  mette   a   confronto  manuali   didattici,   serie   televisive   e   parlato   spontaneo.   i   dati  per  i  ringraziamenti  sono  50  occorrenze  tratte  da  17  manuali  (10  di  livello  a1/a2  e  7  di  livello  da  b1  a   c1)   e   altrettante   tratte   da   tre   serie   televisive.   per   i   complimenti   vengono   esaminate   20   occorrenze   di   complimenti  selezionate  a  partire  da  8  manuali  (5  di  livello  a1/a2  e  3  di  livello  b1/b2),  una  serie  televisiva  e   parlato  spontaneo  (lip  e  registrazioni  di  conversazioni   in   famiglia).  anche  questa  ricerca  conferma  che  nei   manuali   la   presentazione   degli   atti   linguistici   è   tendenzialmente   povera   soprattutto   in   relazione   ai   modificatori   utilizzati   e   alla   varietà   di   contesti   e   situazioni   comunicative.   il   parlato   filmico   si   rivela   al   contrario   molto   più   ricco   e   “somigliante”   al   parlato   spontaneo.   l’autrice   suggerisce   sulla   base   di   questi   risultati  che  venga  più  spesso  utilizzato  in  classe  e  per  l’elaborazione  di  materiali  didattici.   parte   da   una   riflessione   sul   possibile   materiale   da   utilizzare   in   classe   per   l’insegnamento   della   pragmatica   dell’italiano   l2   anche   il   contributo   di   spadotto   e   santoro   (2016)   per   il   quale   è   stata   condotta   un’analisi   dei  modificatori   e   degli   atti   di   supporto   presenti   nel   parlato   di   parlanti   nativi.   i   video   esaminati   fanno  parte  dello  stesso  corpus  utilizzato  per  lo  studio  silva  neto  e  santoro  (2015)  citato  sopra.  i  video  sono   stati  scelti  tenendo  conto  delle  variabili  distanza  sociale  e  grado  di  imposizione.  tanto  i  modificatori  quanto   gli   atti   di   supporto   sono   stati   analizzati   osservandone   la   frequenza,   il   tipo   e   la   funzione   che   sono  poi   stati   messi  in  relazione  con  le  due  variabili  selezionate.  i  risultati  evidenziano  un  significativo  effetto  di  entrambe   le  variabili,  anche  se  l’uso  di  modificatori  e  atti  di  supporto  aumenta  soprattutto  nei  casi  di  richieste  “difficili”   e  non  altrettanto  con  alta  distanza  sociale.  va  notata  anche  la  varietà  tanto  dei  modificatori  utilizzati,  quanto   delle  funzioni  e  della  posizione  degli  atti  di  supporto.  si  tratta  dunque  di  una  conferma  della  differenza  tra  il   materiale   in   genere   semplificato   dei   manuali   e   la   maggiore   ricchezza   presente   anche   in   dati   elicitati   di   parlanti  nativi.   richieste  prodotte  da  apprendenti  brasiliani  di  italiano  e  da  parlanti  nativi  sono  l’oggetto  dello  studio   di   santoro   (2016).   le   richieste   sono   state   elicitate   tramite   role   play   semi-­‐aperti   e   l’obiettivo   dell’autrice   è   verificare  come  vengono  costruite   le   sequenze   interazionali   e   che   tipo  di   rapporto   si   crea   tra   interazione  e   illocuzione,   considerato   che   la  definizione  di   ciò   che   si   fa  quando   si   dice  qualcosa   riguarda,   più   che   la   sola   realizzazione  di  un  atto   illocutorio  da  parte  di  un  parlante  e   le  sue   intenzioni,   il  risultato  dell’interazione  di   entrambi  i  partecipanti  e  prevede  la  comprensione  e  la  ricezione  di  un  interlocutore.  sia  per  i  parlanti  nativi   che  per  i  parlanti  non  nativi,  la  sequenza  interazionale  segue  lo  schema  ternario  greimasiano  manipolazione-­‐ azione-­‐sanzione.   la   fase   della   manipolazione   è   quella   più   complessa   e   comprende   sempre   elementi   preparatori   di   vario   tipo   −   probabilmente   da   interpretare   come   il   riconoscimento   della  minaccia   presente   nella   richiesta   −   tanto   che   a   volte   non   si   arriva   alla   formulazione   di   una   richiesta   diretta.   si   passa   poi   all’azione  dell’interlocutore  che  conferma   la  ricezione  della  richiesta  e  si  conclude  con  un  ringraziamento  o   altre   forme  meno   esplicite   di   riconoscimento   dell’azione   realizzata.   nelle   sequenze   delle   richieste   si   sono   osservate  più  analogie  che  differenze  così  che  sembra  esistere  una  sorta  di  regola  comune  nell’ordine  della   sequenza  interazionale  almeno  nelle  due  lingue  e  culture  prese  in  esame.   gauci,   ghia   e   caruana   (2016)   si   sono   dedicati   a   un   aspetto   ancora   poco   studiato   in   italiano   l2:   la   formazione  dei  docenti.  per  verificare  la  competenza  pragmatica  di  15  docenti  maltesi  in  formazione  è  stato   chiesto   loro   di   completare   un   dct   scritto   e   di   eseguire   un   role   play   orale   che   si   proponevano   di   elicitare   nuzzo  &  santoro     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27  10   richieste   e   proteste.   gli   atti   linguistici   prodotti   sono   poi   stati   valutati   da   parlanti   nativi   esperti   di   italiano   (raters)   sulla   base   di   criteri   prestabiliti.   i   risultati   evidenziano   nel   complesso   una   buona   competenza   pragmatica  dei  partecipanti  che  può  essere  dovuta,  secondo  gli  autori,  alla  costante  esposizione  all’italiano.  si   osserva  tuttavia  in  alcuni  casi  un  certo  distanziamento  dagli  usi  dei  parlanti  nativi  che  gli  autori  propongono   di  superare  con  interventi  didattici  mirati.   trubnikova  (2017)  seleziona  l’atto  linguistico  delle  scuse  che  analizza  prendendo  in  considerazione  il   concetto  di  appropriatezza  a  partire  dalle  teorie  sulla  cortesia.  l’obiettivo  è  confrontare  strategie  e   formule   utilizzate   da   10   apprendenti   russi   di   italiano   con   quelle   usate   da   altrettanti   parlanti   nativi   di   russo   e   di   italiano.  i  dati  per  la  ricerca  sono  stati  elicitati  tramite  dct  scritti.  per  analizzare  le  scuse  l’autrice  parte  dalla   distinzione  tra  espressione  di  dispiacere  e  richiesta  di  perdono  e  identifica  diverse  mosse  di  sostegno  di  cui   terrà   conto.   la   richiesta   di   perdono   è   il   tipo   di   scusa   più   frequente   nei   dati   analizzati   che   si   unisce   all’espressione  di  dispiacere  nel  caso  dei  parlanti  nativi  di  italiano,  i  quali  tuttavia  usano  talvolta  solo  mosse  di   sostegno   e   non   vere   e   proprie   scuse.   l’autrice   osserva   una   distribuzione   delle   occorrenze   di   mosse   di   sostegno  delle  scuse,  cosa  che  non  permette  di   identificare  una  preferenza  da  parte  dei  tre  gruppi.  l’analisi   viene   poi   approfondita   osservando   l’uso   di   formule   e   di   espressioni   non   convenzionalizzate   per   verificare   soprattutto  il  comportamento  linguistico  dei  parlanti  non  nativi.   cortés   velásquez   e   nuzzo   (2017)   analizzano   le   disdette   di   appuntamenti   e   propongono   che   i   dati   dello  studio  transculturale  da  cui  derivano  vengano  considerati  come  fonte  di  input  per  l’insegnamento  di  una   l2.  in  particolare  osservano  nello  studio  in  che  modo  gli  italiani  disdicono  un  impegno  già  preso  e  quali  sono   gli   schemi   più   frequenti   e   i  modificatori   utilizzati   che   cambiano   talvolta   anche   in   base   al   tipo   di   rapporto   esistente   tra   gli   interlocutori.   lo   strumento   utilizzato   per   elicitare   i   dati   è   un   dct   compilato   da   186   informanti  che  hanno  scritto  che  cosa  avrebbero  detto  in  tre  diverse  situazioni.  gli  autori  osservano  i  sotto-­‐ atti  che  compaiono  con  maggiore  frequenza  nelle  558  disdette  esaminate  e  verificano  gli  schemi  più  frequenti.   l’impossibilità   di   compiere   l’azione   per   cui   ci   si   era   impegnati   (cancellation)   è   la   strategia   di   disdetta   più   frequente  nei  dati  analizzati,  spesso  seguita  da  una  manifestazione  di  dispiacere  o  da  una  richiesta  di  perdono   (remedial  move)  e  da  una  giustificazione  (explanation).     la   scuola   primaria   è   il   campo   di   ricerca   dell’ultimo   studio   della   nostra   rassegna.   ferrari   e   zanoni   (2017)   basano   il   loro   studio   esplorativo   su   una   sperimentazione   educativa   di   ricerca-­‐azione   svolta   con   bambini   di   8-­‐9   anni.   l’atto   linguistico   selezionato   è   la   richiesta,   non   solo   per   verificare   in   che  modo   viene   prodotta  dai  bambini  e  con  quali  sequenze  interazionali,  ma  anche  per  osservare  la  loro  capacità  di  riflettere   sui  diversi  modi  di  “dire  la  stessa  cosa”,  confrontando  usi  linguistici  differenti.  gli  informanti  coinvolti  sono  51   allievi,   di   cui   33   monolingui   italiani   e   18   bilingui   con   una   lingua   familiare   diversa   dall’italiano,   tutti   scolarizzati  in  italia.  i  dati  analizzati  provengono  dalla  sperimentazione,  da  un  corpus  costituito  da  role  play  e   da  riflessioni  metapragmatiche.  l’analisi  permette  di  concludere  che  i  bambini  in  questa  fascia  d’età  sono  già   competenti   dal   punto   di   vista   pragmatico,   sebbene   le   loro   richieste   siano   formulate   in  maniera   semplice   e   diretta  e  manchino  ancora  una  gestione  più  fluida  dell’interazione,  una  maggiore  varietà  di  atti  di  supporto  e   una  distribuzione  più  efficace   su  diversi   turni.   secondo   le  autrici,  queste   lacune  potrebbero  essere  colmate   con   l’insegnamento   esplicito   di   elementi   pragmatici.   di   fatto,   le   riflessioni   metapragmatiche   spontanee   o   elicitate  hanno  mostrato  che  i  bambini  sono  in  grado  di  riflettere  sul  rapporto  tra  variabili  sociopragmatiche  e   linguistiche.   i   risultati   della   ricerca   offrono   spunti   per   decidere   che   tipo   di   materiale   didattico   offrire   per   stimolare  la  competenza  comunicativa  e  pragmatica  a  scuola,  oltre  a  far  pensare  a  protocolli  per  proseguire  la   ricerca.  conclusa  la  descrizione  degli  studi,  proponiamo,  come  annunciato,  la  tabella  1  che  ricapitola  quanto  è   stato  fatto  ad  oggi  in  questo  campo.  oltre  a  permettere  di  visualizzare  chi  si  è  occupato  di  questi  temi  e  dove,   la   tabella   consente  di   avere  un  quadro  degli   atti   linguistici   finora   studiati.   in  particolare,  nelle   colonne   che   abbiamo   intitolato   partecipanti   e   strumenti   abbiamo   indicato   le   informazioni   essenziali   sulle   diverse   metodologie   di   raccolta   dei   dati   che   sono   state   utilizzate   dai   diversi   ricercatori,   sui   soggetti   che   sono   stati   studiati  e  su  come  in  ogni  studio  sono  stati  pensati  possibili  confronti  tra  parlanti  non  nativi  e  parlanti  nativi   per  poter  analizzare  i  risultati  ottenuti.             nuzzo  &  santoro   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27  11   tabella 1 studi su atti linguistici e italiano l2 studio paese atti linguistici partecipanti strumenti nuzzo (2006) italia proteste 3 apprendenti di livello intermedio role play aperti nuzzo (2007a) italia richieste, proteste, scuse 3 apprendenti di livello intermedio role play aperti nuzzo (2007b) italia richieste, proteste 1 apprendente germanofona residente in italia role play aperti vedder (2007) olanda richieste 23 coppie di apprendenti di livello basso-intermedio role play aperti nuzzo (2009) italia richieste di informazioni e suggerimenti 4 apprendenti adolescenti di livello intermedio/avanzato corpus vip nuzzo (2010) italia richieste di informazioni e di suggerimenti 4 apprendenti adolescenti di livello intermedio/avanzato corpus vip ferrari e nuzzo (2011) italia richieste di informazioni e di suggerimenti 4 apprendenti adolescenti di livello intermedio/avanzato corpus vip leone (2011) italia proteste 2 parlanti nativi 1 conversazione semispontanea de marco (2011) italia complimenti 8 apprendenti indonesiani e 5 arabofoni dct scritto, scrittura di dialoghi e scelta multipla gauci e nuzzo (2012) italia e malta richieste 50 adolescenti maltesi dct scritto e role play chiuso gauci (2012) malta proteste 42 adolescenti maltesi dct scritto e role play chiuso nuzzo e gauci (2012) italia e malta richieste, proteste parte 1: 6 apprendenti adolescenti di livello intermedio/avanzato parte 2: 42 adolescenti maltesi parte 1: corpus vip 4 parte 2: dct scritto e role play santoro (2013) brasile richieste 16 apprendenti brasiliani di livello intermedio role play semi-aperti nuzzo (2013) italia ringraziamenti -17 manuali di italiano l2 26 episodi di 3 serie televisive nuzzo e gauci (2014) italia richieste 42 adolescenti maltesi dct scritto e role play chiuso nuzzo (2015) italia complimenti, inviti -5 manuali di italiano l2, 5 serie tv silva neto e santoro (2015) brasile richieste 19 apprendenti brasiliani principianti e 22 di livello intermedio/ avanzato; 21 italiani residenti in italia e 20 residenti in brasile questionari online gauci (2015) malta richieste, proteste 42 adolescenti maltesi dct scritto e role play chiuso dct a scelta multipla nuzzo (2016) italia ringraziamenti, complimenti -manuali, serie televisive, lip e conversazioni in famiglia spadotto e santoro (2016) brasile richieste 12 parlanti nativi role play semi-aperti santoro (2016) brasile richieste 5 coppie di parlanti nativi e 5 di parlanti non nativi 40 role play semi-aperti registrati in audio e video gauci, ghia e caruana (2016) malta richieste e proteste 15 docenti in formazione (livello c1) 5 valutatori italiani dct scritti e role play trubnikova (2017) russia scuse 10 parlanti nativi di russo 10 parlanti nativi di italiano 10 parlanti russi di italiano l2 dct scritti cortés velásquez e nuzzo (2017) italia disdette 186 parlanti nativi di italiano dct scritti ferrari e zanoni (2017) italia richieste 33 bambini monolingui italiani e 18 bilingui con una lingua familiare diversa dall’italiano produzioni orali, role play e riflessioni metapragmatiche nuzzo  &  santoro     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27  12   3.  i  segnali  discorsivi     nella   grande   grammatica   italiana   di   consultazione   (renzi,   salvi   &   cardinaletti,   1995)   carla   bazzanella   definisce  i  segnali  discorsivi6  come     quegli  elementi  che,  svuotandosi  in  parte  del  loro  significato  originario,  assumono  dei  valori   aggiuntivi   che   servono   a   sottolineare   la   strutturazione  del   discorso,   a   connettere   elementi   frasali,   interfrasali,   extrafrasali   e   a   esplicitare   la   collocazione   dell’enunciato   in   una   dimensione   interpersonale,   sottolineando   la   struttura   interattiva   della   conversazione.   (bazzanella,  1995,  p.  225)     poco  oltre  l’autrice  ricorda  che  la  loro  funzione  “può  essere  individuata  solo  all’interno  del  discorso;   la   loro   classificazione  non  ha  quindi  una  base  morfologica  o   lessicale,  ma   funzionale”   (p.  225),   e   sottolinea   come  queste  forme  siano  caratterizzate  dalla  “rilevanza  del  contesto,  sia  linguistico  che  extralinguistico,  che   incide   sul   loro   uso   e   sulla   loro   interpretazione”   (p.   225).   si   tratta   pertanto   di   oggetti   pragmatici   per   eccellenza,  che  non  possono  essere  interpretati  se  non  in  dipendenza  dal  contesto.     il  fatto  che  i  segnali  discorsivi  non  siano  necessari  nella  costruzione  della  frase  e  che  manifestino  un   grado  elevato  di  polifunzionalità  li  rende  particolarmente  resistenti  all’acquisizione,  anche  a  livelli  avanzati  di   competenza  linguistica  (borreguero  zuloaga  &  gómez-­‐jordana  ferary,  2015,  p.  23).  eppure,  questi  elementi   risultano   tendenzialmente   ignorati,   se   non   addirittura   censurati,   nell’input   didattico   fornito   dai  manuali   di   lingua   italiana   per   stranieri,   e   nell’insegnamento   dell’italiano   l2   in   generale   (pugliese,   2015,   p.   165).   la   difficoltà  che  l’uso  dei  segnali  discorsivi  presenta  per  i  parlanti  non  nativi  e  la  loro  importanza  nello  sviluppo   della  competenza  testuale  e   interazionale  degli  apprendenti  ha  recentemente  suscitato   l’interesse  di  diversi   studiosi  che  si  occupano  di  apprendimento  e  insegnamento  dell’italiano  l2.  sebbene  l’acquisizione  dei  segnali   discorsivi  italiani  rimanga  un  territorio  ancora  relativamente  inesplorato  (cfr.,  tra  altri,  borreguero  zuloaga,   2009;   nigoević   &   sučić,   2011),   secondo   una   tendenza   che   peraltro   riguarda   le   lingue   seconde   in   generale   (borreguero   zuloaga   &   thörle,   2016),   una   buona   parte   della   ricerca   su   aspetti   pragmatici   dell’italiano   l2   realizzata   a   partire   dagli   anni  duemila   si   è   rivolta   proprio   a   questi   elementi,   indagati   secondo   prospettive   diverse,  anche  se  talvolta  convergenti  o  sovrapponibili.     alcuni   studi   considerano   i   segnali   discorsivi   soprattutto   in   relazione   alla   competenza   testuale   e   all’organizzazione  del  discorso  o  alla  capacità  di   interagire  e  quindi  alla  gestione  dei  turni  di  parola  (per  es.   guil  et  al.,  2008),  altri   li  analizzano  nella   loro  funzione  di  meccanismi  di  modulazione  della  forza  illocutoria   (per   es.   guil   2009;   pauletto   &   bardel,   2015);   alcuni   si   concentrano   su   una   specifica   popolazione   di   apprendenti  (per  es.  guil,  2015;  ferroni  &  birello,  2016),  altri  considerano  apprendenti  di  varia  provenienza   (per   es.   ferraris,   2004;   de   marco   &   leone,   2016);   alcuni   lavori   sono   focalizzati   su   un   singolo   segnale   discorsivo  (per  es.  pugliese,  2015;  solsona  martínez,  2015),  oppure  su  un  gruppo  (per  es.  andorno,  2007b)  o   su   una   sotto-­‐classe   (per   es.   borreguero   zuloaga   &   pernas,   2009)   definiti   dal   ricercatore,  mentre   altri   non   stabiliscono   a   priori   i   segnali   discorsivi   oggetto   di   indagine,   ma   considerano   la   macrocategoria   nel   suo   complesso,   concentrandosi   di   volta   in   volta   su   quelli   presenti   nei   dati   analizzati   (per   es.   ferroni  &  birello,   2015;   jafrancesco,   2015).   partendo   da   quest’ultima   distinzione,   nei   prossimi   paragrafi   si   propone   una   rassegna   cronologica   dei   principali   lavori   dedicati   all’argomento   a   partire   dagli   anni   duemila.   abbiamo   escluso  dalla  ricognizione  le  ricerche  che  prendono  in  considerazione  dati  di  produzione  scritta,  assumendo   con   bazzanella   (2011)   che   i   segnali   discorsivi   siano   “elementi   linguistici   .   .   .   diffusi   in   specie   nella   lingua   parlata”.   la   presentazione   sintetica   degli   studi   è   seguita,   anche   per   questa   sezione,   dalla   tabella   2   che   riassumele   loro   caratteristiche   essenziali:   autore/i,   contesto   geografico   di   svolgimento,   segnali   discorsivi   oggetto  d’indagine  e  tipo  di  dati  utilizzati.       3.1.  lavori  focalizzati     tra   i   primi   lavori   dedicati   a   specifici   segnali   discorsivi   in   italiano   l2   nel   periodo   considerato   troviamo   quello   di   ferraris   (2004),   che   analizza   la   presenza   di  ma   in   diverse   varietà   di   apprendimento   dell’italiano.  la  ricerca  è  basata  su  due  corpora  di  registrazioni:  uno  di  parlanti  nativi  con  età  compresa  tra   due   anni   e  mezzo   e  undici,   e   uno  di   parlanti   di   italiano  l2   con  diverse  l1   e  nazionalità.  dal  punto  di   vista   semantico  ma  segnala  una  relazione  avversativa  con  diverse  sfumature,  mentre  dal  punto  di  vista  testuale  è                                                                                                                                           6  abbiamo  deciso,  seguendo  bazzanella,  di  utilizzare   l’etichetta  terminologica  segnali  discorsivi  pur  essendo  consapevoli   che   altre   denominazioni   sono   state   proposte   per   questa   classe   di   parole   difficile   da   delimitare   e   da   inquadrare   in   una   tipologia  sistematica  (cfr.  bazzanella,  1990).   la  pragmatica  in  italiano  l2/ls   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27   13   spesso   utilizzato   per   marcare   alcuni   aspetti   dell’articolazione   del   discorso.   i   risultati   mostrano   che   gli   apprendenti  usano  segnali  di   collegamento  già  nelle  prime   fasi  di   acquisizione,   e   che  ma   è   frequentemente   usato  dai  soggetti  sia  per  esplicitare  relazioni  semantiche  sia  per  esprimere  valori  pragmatici  e  testuali.   incontriamo   poi   alcuni   studi   condotti   da   cecilia   andorno   a   partire   dai   dati   del   progetto   di   pavia.   andorno  (2007a)  esamina  longitudinalmente  lo  sviluppo  e  l’uso  di  sì,  no,  così  in  varietà  iniziali,  nel  quadro  di   modelli  acquisizionali  di  tipo  funzionale.  lo  studio  mira  da  un  lato  a  mostrare  come  si  sviluppano  i  diversi  usi   di   queste   particelle   e   dall’altro   a   fornire   spiegazioni   per   i   percorsi   evolutivi   osservati   attraverso   le   loro   diverse  proprietà  sintattiche.  altri  due  lavori  di  andorno  (2007b,  2008b)  si  concentrano  sulle  modalità  d’uso   di  anche,   invece,  ma,   però   nel   loro   valore   connettivo,   per   verificare   direzioni   evolutive   che   possono   essere   indice   dello   sviluppo   di   una   competenza   discorsiva.   i   risultati   suggeriscono   che   l’uso   metatestuale   dei   connettivi  di  contrasto,   impiegati  cioè  come  modificatori  a   livello  di  proposizione  e  di  atto   linguistico,  sono   più  tardi  a  comparire  rispetto  a  quelli  che  agiscono  a  livello  di  referenti  e  stati  di  cose.   numerosi   sono   i   lavori   realizzati   nell’ambito   del   progetto   coordinato   dal   gruppo   a.ma.dis   (adquisición  de  marcadores  discursivos)7,  che  vede  la  collaborazione  di  studiosi  spagnoli  e  italiani,  a  partire   da  un  corpus  di  interazioni  semi-­‐guidate  tra  studenti  ispanofoni  e  parlanti  nativi  di  italiano.  lo  studio  di  guil   et  al.  (2008)  prende  in  considerazione  diversi  segnali  discorsivi  con  funzione  interattiva  per  la  distribuzione   dei   turni   e   analizza   l’uso  di  questi   elementi   in   relazione  alla   cortesia   linguistica;   l’ipotesi  di  partenza  è   che   l’uso   dei   segnali   discorsivi   sia   rivelatore   della   competenza   discorsivo-­‐interattiva   dell’apprendente,   intesa   come   capacità   di   costruire   il   testo   dialogico   e   di   relazionarsi   linguisticamente   con   gli   altri.   la   ricerca   di   borreguero  zuloaga  e  pernas  (2009)  ha  come  obiettivo  principale  quello  di  osservare  come  le  interruzioni  nel   sistema   della   presa   dei   turni   possano   fungere   da   strategie   sia   di   cortesia   sia   di   scortesia.   i   risultati   suggeriscono  una  parziale   rielaborazione  della   tassonomia   delle   interruzioni   proposta   da  bazzanella  –   con   l’aggiunta  di  un  nuovo  tipo:  le  eterocorrezioni  –  e  una  gerarchia  dei  tipi  basata  sul  maggiore  o  minore  grado  di   cortesia.   guil,   pernas   e   borreguero   zuloaga   (2010)   si   focalizzano   sull’analisi   di   alcuni   comportamenti   linguistici  interpretabili  come  scortesi  e  anticortesi.  sia  le  interazioni  simmetriche  sia  quelle  asimmetriche  si   caratterizzano   per   l’atteggiamento   collaborativo   manifestato   dai   partecipanti.   tuttavia,   si   possono   identificare   diversi   comportamenti   scortesi   che   non   vengono   interpretati   come   tali   dagli   interlocutori:   ciò   sosterrebbe   l’ipotesi   secondo   cui   in   un   contesto   di   apprendimento   linguistico   cambiano   i   criteri   che   permettono  di  classificare  come  scortese  una  mossa  conversazionale.  questa  osservazione  può   inserirsi  nel   quadro   teorico   più   ampio   della   distinzione   stabilita   da   briz   (2004)   tra   cortesia   codificata   e   cortesia   interpretata,   essendo   il   contesto   dell’apprendimento   un   buon   esempio   della   seconda.   nelle   interazioni   simmetriche  si  individuano  inoltre  fenomeni  di  anticortesia  nell’uso  di  disfemismi  e  nell’introduzione  di  temi   scabrosi,  con  i  quali  si  cerca  di  rafforzare   i   legami  sociali   tra   i  parlanti.   il   lavoro  di  bazzanella  e  borreguero   zuloaga  (2011)  ha  come  scopo  un  primo  approccio  all’analisi  contrastiva  di  due  segnali  discorsivi  –  l’italiano   allora  e  lo  spagnolo  entonces  –  tra  i  quali  esistono  evidenti  parallelismi  nelle  diverse  funzioni  pragmatiche  che   svolgono   nel   discorso   e   nei   valori   semantico-­‐discorsivi   che   acquistano,   soprattutto   nello   sviluppo   conversazionale.   tuttavia   negli   usi   interazionali   di   entrambi   gli   elementi   esistono   alcune   differenze   che   spiegano  le  difficoltà  da  parte  degli  apprendenti  ispanofoni  di  italiano.     si   concentra   sempre   sull’apprendimento   dell’italiano   da   parte   di   ispanofoni,   ma   al   di   fuori   del   progetto  a.ma.dis,   il   contributo  di  solsona  martínez  (2011),  dedicato  al  segnale  discorsivo   insomma   con  un   obiettivo  prevalentemente  didattico.  l’autrice  analizza  lo  statuto  grammaticale  e  lessicale  di  insomma,  e  il  suo   trattamento  lessicografico  in  dizionari  monolingui  e  bilingui,  per  poi  passare  alla  presentazione  delle  funzioni   pragmatiche  e  discorsive  di  questo  segnale  discorsivo,  illustrandole  con  esempi  da  fonti  diverse:  stampa,  testi   letterari,   canzoni,   film,   linguaggio   colloquiale   orale   o   tratto   da   chat,   blog   e   forum   in   internet.   analogo   nell’impostazione,  e  sempre  orientato  all’insegnamento  dell’italiano  a  ispanofoni,  è  il  contributo  che  la  stessa   autrice  (solsona  martínez,  2015)  dedica  qualche  anno  dopo  alle  funzioni  e  agli  usi  di  cioè.   rientra  ancora  nel  progetto  a.ma.dis  la  ricerca  di  guil  (2015),  che  analizza  l’uso  dei  segnali  discorsivi   bene,  be’,  va  bene  e  va  be’   in  apprendenti   ispanofoni.  l’autrice  nota  che   le   forme  apocopate,  che  hanno  solo   una  funzione  di  marcatore  discorsivo  –  contrariamente  alle  forme  non  apocopate,  nelle  quali  bene  mantiene  il   suo  valore  avverbiale  in  certi  usi  –  sono  meno  frequenti  nell’interlingua  degli  apprendenti  e  che  le  funzioni  di                                                                                                                                           7   marcadores   discursivos   y   construcción   interaccional   del   diálogo   en   italiano   l2   -­‐   segnali   discorsivi   e   costruzione   interazionale   del   dialogo   in   italiano   l2,   interamente   dedicato   ai   segnali   discorsivi   in   parlanti   non   nativi   dell’italiano,   specialmente   con   l1   spagnolo   (http://www.parlaritaliano.it/index.php/it/progetti/29-­‐segnali-­‐discorsivi-­‐e-­‐costruzione-­‐ interazionale-­‐del-­‐dialogo-­‐in-­‐italiano-­‐l2).   nuzzo  &  santoro     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27  14   demarcazione  discorsiva  e  di  riformulazione  sono  raramente  assunte  da  segnali  discorsivi  ma  più  spesso  da   pause  piene,  e  talvolta  dal  marcatore  spagnolo  bueno.   pugliese   (2015)   prende   in   esame   il   segnale   discorsivo   figurati,   soprattutto   dal   punto   di   vista   didattico.  dopo  aver  richiamato  le  caratteristiche  pragmatiche  dei  segnali  discorsivi  in  generale,  e  considerato   le   poche   descrizioni   linguistiche   di   figurati   disponibili   in   letteratura,   l’autrice   discute   una   prospettiva   metodologica  adatta  per  l’insegnamento  dei  segnali  discorsivi  come  componenti  imprescindibili  della  lingua   parlata   e   come   elementi   essenziali   in   una   didattica   attenta   alla   gestione   delle   interazioni   verbali.   l’autrice   presenta  quindi  una  proposta  didattica  rivolta  a  studenti  di  italiano  l2  su  figurati  e  su  altri  segnali  discorsivi   frequenti  nella  lingua  parlata.   de  marco  (2016)  presenta  uno  studio  esplorativo  che  osserva  l’uso  dei  segnali  discorsivi  però,  allora   e  quindi  da  parte  di  apprendenti  con  diverse  l1  e  diversi  livelli  di  competenza  (tre  di  livello  a2/b1  e  due  di   livello  b2/c1).  l’analisi  mira  a  descrivere   le   funzioni,   la  distribuzione  e  alcune  caratteristiche  acustiche  dei   tre   segnali   in   conversazioni   semi-­‐spontanee   tra   gli   apprendenti   e   due   parlanti   nativi,   suggerendo   una   possibile  sequenza  di  emersione  dei  segnali  discorsivi  nell’italiano  l2.  i  risultati  mostrano  che  gli  apprendenti   usano  una  varietà  di  segnali  discorsivi,  ma  che  alcune  funzioni  emergono  solo  nei  parlanti  con  un  livello  più   alto  di  competenza  nella  l2.   ferroni  e  birello  (2016)  riportano  i  risultati  di  uno  studio  il  cui  obiettivo  principale  è  verificare  come   vengono   trattati   i   segnali   discorsivi   in   un  manuale   di   italiano   ls   caratterizzato   da   un   approccio   orientato   all’azione.  dall’analisi   delle   proposte   didattiche   emerge   che   la   riflessione   su   questi   elementi   linguistici   è   abbinata  a  proposte  di  attività  interattive  significative,  in  cui  lo  studente  ha  un  preciso  scopo  da  raggiungere,   che  offrono  delle  opportunità  di  riutilizzo  dei  segnali  discorsivi  analoghe  a  quelle  che  possono  prodursi  al  di   fuori  dell’aula.   il   lavoro  di  fiorentini   (2016)   indaga   il   comportamento  di  una  sottoclasse  dei   segnali  discorsivi,   gli   indicatori  di  riformulazione,  in  una  specifica  situazione  di  contatto  linguistico,  la  val  di  fassa  (trentino  alto-­‐ adige),   dove   i   parlanti   hanno   a   disposizione   un   repertorio   bilingue   italiano-­‐ladino.   lo   studio   dei   segnali   discorsivi  nella  conversazione  bilingue  permette,  grazie  alle  strategie  impiegate  dai  parlanti  in  questi  contesti,   di  analizzarne  in  maniera  approfondita  le  caratteristiche  peculiari;  i  segnali  di  riformulazione  risultano  in  tal   senso   di   particolare   interesse,   poiché   sono   qui   impiegati   in   una   gamma   più   ampia   di   funzioni   rispetto   a   quanto  accade  nei  contesti  monolingui,  applicandosi  anche  al  cambio  di  lingua.   lo   studio   di  mascherpa   (2016)   prende   in   esame   l’uso   di   alcuni   segnali   discorsivi   caratterizzati   da   polifunzionalità  sintagmatica  (ma  e  però,  quindi  e  allora)  da  parte  di  apprendenti  di  livello  b1  e  b2.  l’analisi   considera   tre   fattori:   la   posizione   strutturale,   il   significato   primario   e   la   funzione   comunicativa.   a   dispetto   delle   somiglianze   di   significato   tra   le   coppie   di   segnali   discorsivi   osservate,   sul   piano   dello   sviluppo   acquisizionale   si   notano   delle   differenze   legate   al   loro   spettro   funzionale.   lo   studio   mette   quindi   in   luce   alcune  relazioni  tra  sequenza  acquisizionale  e  polifunzionalità,  descrivendo  la  varietà  d’uso  di  alcuni  segnali   discorsivi  metatestuali  e  cognitivi  nel  passaggio  da  uno  stadio  post-­‐basico  intermedio  a  uno  avanzato.   pauletto   e   bardel   (2016)   analizzano   il   tipo   di   azioni   che   parlanti   nativi   e   non   nativi   dell’italiano   compiono  introducendo  i  loro  turni  di  risposta  con  il  segnale  discorsivo  be’.  l’articolo  comincia  con  un’analisi   di  come  parlanti  nativi  di  italiano  utilizzano  be’,  per  poi  passare  all’analisi  quantitativa  e  qualitativa  dell’uso  di   be’  in  apprendenti  con  diversi  livelli  di  competenza  impegnati  in  diversi  tipi  di  interazioni  con  parlanti  nativi   di  italiano.  i  risultati  suggeriscono  che  sia  i  parlanti  nativi  sia  gli  apprendenti  di  livello  intermedio  e  avanzato   realizzano  una  varietà  di  azioni  sociali  premettendo  be’  alle  loro  risposte.     3.2.  lavori  non  focalizzati   anche  tra   le  ricerche  che  prendono   in  considerazione   la  macro  classe  dei  segnali  discorsivi  nel  suo   complesso   incontriamo   un   contributo   di   andorno   (2008a):   si   tratta   di   un   lavoro   acquisizionale   di   taglio   longitudinale   che   indaga   il   ruolo   dei   segnali   discorsivi   nella   strutturazione   dei   turni   nel   parlato   di   alcuni   apprendenti   con   un   livello   di   competenza   linguistica   da   iniziale   a   intermedio.   il   lavoro  mira   da   un   lato   a   esplorare,   attraverso   la   classe   dei   segnali   discorsivi,   se   sia   possibile   individuare   percorsi   evolutivi   di   competenza   discorsiva;   dall’altro   a   sostanziare   le   ipotesi   di   correlazione   fra   competenza   linguistica   e   competenza  comunicativa  suggerite  da  alcuni  modelli.  considerata  dal  punto  di  vista  dei  segnali  discorsivi,  la   competenza   discorsiva   pare  muovere   in   due   direzioni:   verso   l’assunzione   di  maggiori   responsabilità   nella   regia   del   dialogo   e,   e   in   un   secondo   tempo,   verso   l’aumento   della   capacità   di   esprimere   complessità   concettuale.   si   possono   osservare   correlazioni   con   il   percorso   evolutivo   morfosintattico,   che   procede   anch’esso   verso   una   maggior   autonomia   comunicativa   anche   grazie   all’acquisizione   di   risorse   espressive   la  pragmatica  in  italiano  l2/ls   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27   15   nuove:   mentre   lo   sviluppo   di   segnali   interattivi,   finalizzati   alla   gestione   delle   mosse   di   dialogo,   sembra   procedere  ed  evolvere  fin  dalle  prime  fasi  di  sviluppo  della  competenza  linguistica,  solo  con  il  consolidamento   di  una  competenza  post-­‐basica,  dotata  di  strumenti  morfosintattici  che  consentono  una  più  ampia  autonomia   espressiva,   si   assiste   all’espansione   della   classe   dei   segnali   metatestuali,   che   gestiscono   l’architettura   concettuale  del  testo.   troviamo  poi   ancora  due   studi   realizzati   nell’ambito  del   gruppo  a.ma.dis   (cfr.   §3.1).  bini   e  pernas   (2008)  partono  dall’ipotesi  che  i  segnali  discorsivi  compaiano  nelle  conversazioni  degli  apprendenti  fin  dalle   prime  fasi  di  acquisizione.  l’ipotesi  risulta  confermata  dai  risultati  dell’analisi  di  quattro  studenti  spagnoli  di   livello   elementare,   i   quali,   nella   costruzione   del   testo   dialogico,   utilizzano   una   gran   varietà   di   segnali   discorsivi   con   le   funzioni   identificate   da   bazzanella   (1995)   nell’italiano   di   parlanti   nativi.   anche   nelle   interlingue  osservate  si  nota   inoltre,   come  nel  parlato  dei  nativi,   la  polifunzionalità  dei  segnali  discorsivi.   il   lavoro  di  guil  (2009)  si  focalizza  sull’uso  dei  segnali  discorsivi  come  meccanismi  di  espressione  dell’intensità.   i  dati  mostrano  come  la  necessità  di  esprimere  l’intensità  nell’interazione  spinga  gli  apprendenti  a  utilizzare   segnali  discorsivi  polifunzionali  e  altri  strumenti  adatti  già  a  partire  da  livelli  iniziali  di  acquisizione.  a  livelli   superiori   di   competenza   in   l2   emergono   considerevoli   differenze   tra   gli   apprendenti,   a   seconda   della   maggiore   o   minore   frequenza   del   contatto   con   l’italiano   al   di   fuori   delle   situazioni   accademiche:   chi   ha   ricevuto  input  nelle  varietà  colloquiali  mostra  maggiore  competenza  nell’uso  dei  segnali  discorsivi  e  di  altri   meccanismi  utili  alla  costruzione  interattiva  del  discorso.   nigoević   e   sučić   (2011)   esplorano   la   produzione   dialogica   in   italiano   da   parte   di   apprendenti   di   lingua   materna   croata,   con   particolare   attenzione   ai   segnali   discorsivi,   allo   scopo   di   determinare   la   loro   competenza   interazionale  e  pragmatica.  gli  apprendenti  sono  suddivisi   in  diversi  gruppi   in  base  alla  durata   dell’istruzione   (principianti,   intermedi,   avanzati)   e/o   al   tipo   di   ambiente   di   apprendimento   (studenti   universitari,  corsi  di  lingua  straniera,  full  immersion).  l’analisi  si  concentra  soprattutto  sulla  frequenza  d’uso   e   su   alcune   funzioni   dei   segnali   utilizzati,  mettendo   in   relazione   l’uso   di   questi   elementi   pragmatici   con   il   livello  di  competenza  e  il  contesto  di  apprendimento,  e  indagando  gli  effetti  di  un’eventuale  influenza  della  l1.   lo   studio   di   pernas,   gillani   e   cacchione   (2011)   riporta   dapprima   i   risultati   di   un’osservazione   sull’acquisizione   dei   segnali   discorsivi   da   parte   di   apprendenti   ispanofoni,   per   poi   passare   in   rassegna   i   manuali  di  italiano  più  usati  nelle  scuole  spagnole  che  insegnano  lingue  straniere  agli  adulti,  con  particolare   riferimento  alla  dimensione  testuale  e  ai  segnali  discorsivi  in  particolare.  propone  infine  una  selezione  delle   attività   didattiche   che   risultano   maggiormente   in   linea,   da   un   lato,   con   un   approccio   autenticamente   comunicativo  e,  dall’altro,  con  i  risultati  acquisizionali.   de  marco   e   leone   (2013)   è   uno   studio   pilota   che  mira   a   investigare   da   un   lato   le   differenze   nella   funzione   pragmatica   e   nella   distribuzione   dei   segnali   discorsivi   in   situazioni   di   interazione   mediata   dal   computer  e  faccia  a  faccia,  e,  dall’altro,  eventuali  correlazioni  tra  l’uso  dei  segnali  discorsivi  e  la  competenza   linguistica.  i  dati  sono  stati  raccolti  videoregistrando  tre  parlanti  di  italiano  l2  (di  livello  tra  a2  e  b2)  mentre   conversano  con  un  parlante  nativo  faccia  a  faccia  e  tramite  videochiamate  al  computer.  la  ricerca  mostra  che   la   differenza   tra   gli   ambienti   faccia   a   faccia   e  mediato   dal   computer   emerge   solo   nel   discorso   dei   parlanti   meno   esperti   (a2).   infatti,   gli   apprendenti   meno   avanzati   mostrano   una   tendenza   a   usare   più   segnali   discorsivi  con  funzione  interazionale  (soprattutto  orientati  al  destinatario)  nel  contesto  faccia  a  faccia  che  in   quello  virtuale.  al  contrario,  non  emergono  differenze  degne  di  nota  nell’uso  dei  segnali  discorsivi  da  parte   dei  due  parlanti  più  esperti.   ferroni  e  birello  (2015)  analizzano  i  segnali  discorsivi  utilizzati  in  contesti  interattivi  tra  apprendenti   di   italiano  come   lingua  straniera   le  cui   lingue  materne  sono   il  portoghese  brasiliano  e   il  catalano/spagnolo.   confrontando   i   due   corpora,   emerge   che   i   due   gruppi   di   informanti   si   comportano   in   modo   analogo,   utilizzando  talvolta  segnali  discorsivi  nella  lingua  materna.  la  categoria  dei  segnali  interattivi  più  frequente  è   quella  dei   fatismi  e  dei  meccanismi  di  approvazione,  mentre   i   segnali  metatestuali   sono   totalmente  assenti.   quando   i   segnali   discorsivi   sono   espressi   in   lingua  materna,   generalmente  manca   attività   di   negoziazione,   perché  prevale  nei  parlanti  il  desiderio  di  portare  a  termine  il  compito  loro  assegnato.   il  lavoro  di  gallina  (2015)  presenta  alcune  evidenze,  tratte  dal  corpus  lips  (lessico  italiano  parlato   da  stranieri),  sugli  usi  di  forme  e  sequenze  connettive  esplicite  da  parte  di  apprendenti  con  varie  l1  e  diversi   livelli  di  competenza.  all’interno  degli  elementi  di  connessione  considerati,   l’autrice  include  anche  il  gruppo   dei   “connettivi   interazionali”   (p.   205),   rifacendosi   alla   tassonomia   dei   segnali   discorsivi   proposta   da   bazzanella.   dallo   studio   emerge   che   al   crescere   del   livello   di   competenza   aumentano   sia   il   numero   di   occorrenze  dei  connettivi  utilizzati  sia  la  gamma  dei  tipi  e  delle  funzioni  che  ogni  tipo  può  assumere.     nuzzo  &  santoro     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27  16   tabella 2 studi sui segnali discorsivi (sd) in italiano l2/ls   studio paese sd considerati strumenti ferraris (2004) italia ma interviste ad apprendenti spontanei e guidati andorno (2007a) italia sì, no, così corpus di pavia andorno (2007b) italia anche, invece, ma, però corpus di pavia andorno (2008a) italia tutti corpus di pavia andorno (2008b) italia anche, invece, ma, però corpus di pavia guil et al. (2008) spagna segnali con funzione interattiva per la distribuzione dei turni corpus del progetto a.ma.dis. bini e pernas (2008) spagna tutti corpus del progetto a.ma.dis. borreguero zuloaga e pernas (2009) spagna segnali con funzione interattiva per la distribuzione dei turni corpus del progetto a.ma.dis. guil (2009) spagna tutti corpus del progetto a.ma.dis. guil, pernas e borreguero zuloaga (2010) spagna segnali con funzione interattiva per la distribuzione dei turni corpus del progetto a.ma.dis. nigoevic ́ e suc ̌ic ́ (2011) croazia tutti questionario e interviste registrate con apprendenti di l1 croato bazzanella e borreguero zuloaga (2011) italia e spagna allora e entonces corpus del progetto a.ma.dis. pernas, gillani e cacchione (2011) spagna tutti manuali scritti e/o pubblicati da italiani per stranieri diffusi presso i centri linguistici spagnoli solsona martínez (2011) spagna insomma vari tipi di testi in italiano tratti da stampa, narrativa, cinema, chat, blog, forum, conversazioni orali. de marco e leone (2013) italia tutti videoregistrazioni di conversazioni faccia a faccia e in videochiamata tra apprendenti e parlanti nativi ferroni e birello (2015) brasile e spagna tutti registrazioni audio di apprendenti con l1 portoghese brasiliano o spagnolo e catalano gallina (2015) italia tutti corpus lips: lessico italiano parlato da stranieri guil (2015) spagna bene, be’, va bene e va be’ corpus del progetto a.ma.dis. jafrancesco (2015) italia tutti parlato dialogico di studenti universitari stranieri in mobilità pauletto e bardel (2015) svezia tutti interazione tra un’apprendente svedese e una parlante nativa pugliese (2015) italia figurati corpus lip/badip solsona martínez (2015) spagna cioè vari tipi di testi in italiano tratti da stampa, narrativa, cinema, chat, blog, forum, conversazioni orali. de marco (2016) italia però, allora e quindi conversazioni semi-spontanee tra apprendenti e parlanti nativi de marco e leone (2016) itali tutti interazioni in presenza e in scambi mediati dal computer tra diverse coppie composte da un parlante nativo e un apprendente ferroni e birello (2016) brasile e spagna va bene, ok, allora, certo!, no dai, beh, dai, e va bene, eh no, eh sì, ma, dunque, va bene ok, sì certo dai corso d’italiano per stranieri bravissimo! 3-b1; registrazioni audio e video di apprendenti con l1 portoghese brasiliano fiorentini (2016) val di fassa indicatori di riformulazione interviste e conversazioni in ladino con parlanti bilingui italiano/ladino mascherpa (2016) italia allora, quindi, però, ma registrazioni di monologhi, dialoghi e discussioni di gruppo di apprendenti semi-guidati pauletto e bardel (2016) svezia be’ interazioni tra studenti e parlanti nativi di italiano la  pragmatica  in  italiano  l2/ls   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27   17   jafrancesco  (2015)  presenta  i  risultati  di  una  ricerca  trasversale  condotta  su  un  corpus  di  parlato  di   studenti   universitari   in   mobilità   accademica,   inseriti   in   percorsi   formativi   di   italiano   l2   presso   il   centro   linguistico   di   ateneo   dell’università   di   firenze.   il   principale   obiettivo   dello   studio   è   indagare   l’italiano   di   stranieri  relativamente  a  questo  tratto  specifico,  al  fine  di  individuare  eventuali  sequenze  acquisizionali  e  di   contribuire   a   delineare   lo   sviluppo   della   competenza   sociopragmatica   degli   apprendenti   nei   livelli   di   competenza  proposti  nel  quadro  comune  europeo  di  riferimento  per  le  lingue.  si  analizza,  in  particolare,  l’uso   dei  segnali  discorsivi  nel  parlato  dialogico  degli   informanti  nei   livelli  basico,   indipendente  e  competente  del   qcer,   evidenziando   i   principali   macrofenomeni   emersi,   con   l’intento   inoltre   di   riflettere   su   come   i   dati   dell’acquisizione  dell’italiano  l2  possono  rappresentare  un  punto  di  riferimento  per  la  definizione  di  percorsi   formativi  coerenti  con  i  processi  naturali  di  sviluppo  della  competenza.   pauletto  e  bardel  (2015)  osservano  apprendenti  svedesi  e  si  concentrano  sulla  funzione  attenuatrice   dei  segnali  discorsivi  in  un  più  ampio  lavoro  dedicato  alle  strategie  di  mitigazione  nelle  interlingue  avanzate.   gli   autori   partono   dall’ipotesi   che   gli   stili   conversazionali   sono   culturalmente   marcati,   ma   che   nelle   interazioni   interculturali   si   produce   una   ristrutturazione   continua   a   partire   dalla   percezione   che   i   partecipanti  hanno  della  situazione  via  via  che  evolve.  ciò  è  apparentemente  confermato  dalla  conversazione   analizzata   tra   una   parlante   nativa   italiana   e   un’apprendente   svedese:   il   numero   elevato   di   meccanismi   di   mitigazione  da  parte  della   seconda  diminuisce  nel   corso  dello   scambio  comunicativo,  per   trovare  un  punto   d’equilibrio  con  l’interlocutrice.       de   marco   e   leone   (2016)   esplorano   l’uso   dei   segnali   discorsivi   da   parte   di   apprendenti   con   l1   differenti   (due   parlanti   di   ucraino,   due   di   portoghese-­‐brasiliano,   due   di   anglo-­‐americano,   uno  di   spagnolo-­‐ messicano   e   uno   di   inglese-­‐britannico).   ipotizzano   inoltre   una   possibile   sequenza   di   acquisizione   di   tali   segnali  nelle  interlingue  di  apprendenti  con  una  diversa  competenza  nella  lingua  target.       4.  altri  fenomeni  pragmatici     atti  linguistici  e  segnali  discorsivi  non  possono  certo  esaurire  gli  ambiti  tematici  coperti  dalla  ricerca   sull’italiano  l2  in  prospettiva  pragmatica,  sebbene,  come  abbiamo  accennato  all’inizio,  si  tratti  probabilmente   dei  due  settori  ai  quali  si  è  dedicata  maggiore  attenzione  negli  ultimi  anni.   diverse  ricerche  connesse  con  l’apprendimento  e  l’uso  dell’italiano  da  parte  di  parlanti  non  nativi  si   sono   concentrate,   soprattutto   in   prospettiva   acquisizionale,   su   un’area   di   studi   situata   all’interfaccia   tra   pragmatica,  sintassi  e  testualità,  ossia  l’organizzazione  della  struttura  informativa  della  frase,  con  particolare   riferimento   al   trattamento   di   topic   e   focus   e   agli   ordini  marcati.   in   questo   ambito   troviamo   per   esempio   i   lavori  di  chini  (2002,  2009,  2010),  bettoni,  di  biase  e  nuzzo  (2009),  biazzi  e  matteini  (2010),  carroll  e  natale   (2010),   rosi   (2010),   benazzo   e   andorno   (2010),   benazzo   et   al.   (2012),   turco,   dimroth   e   braun   (2015),   andorno  e  turco  (2015),  borreguero  zuloaga  (2015),  nuzzo  (2015b),  repetto  (2015).   un’altra  direzione  di  ricerca  che  ha  visto  un  certo  sviluppo  in  relazione  all’uso  dell’italiano  da  parte  di   parlanti   non   nativi,   osservati   specialmente   in   interazione   con   i   nativi   e   quindi   nella   prospettiva   della   pragmatica  interculturale,  è  quella  che  riguarda  i  meccanismi  di  gestione  della  conversazione.  già  intorno  al   1990  e  negli  anni  a   seguire  si  erano  mossi   in  questa  direzione   i   lavori  del  progetto  pixi   (cfr.  per  es.  aston,   1988;  gavioli  &  mansfield,  1990;  zorzi,  brodine,  gavioli,  &  aston,  1990),  dedicati  agli  scambi  conversazionali   negli   incontri   di   servizio,   soprattutto   in   prospettiva   transculturale   ma   anche   interlinguistica,   e   quelli   di   gabriele   pallotti   (1999a,   1999b,   2001,   2002),   incentrati   sulle   strategie   sviluppate   da   una   bambina   non   italofona   per   imparare   ad   agire   efficacemente   nell’interazione   quotidiana   nel   suo   ambiente,   la   scuola   dell’infanzia.  hanno  continuato  questa  linea  di  indagine  soprattutto  i  lavori  di  biazzi,  dedicati  alle  sequenze  di   riformulazione  (biazzi,  2004,  2008)  e  di  co-­‐costruzione  (biazzi,  2009,  2011),  ma  anche  ricerche  come  quelle   di   leone   (2011),   mikolic   (2012),   salvati   (2015),   sordella   (2015)   e   zanoni   (2016)   possono   rientrare   nella   stessa  linea.   la  nostra  ricognizione  ha  inoltre  incontrato  alcuni  lavori  nei  quali  l’apprendimento  e  l’insegnamento   dell’italiano   da   parte   di   parlanti   non   nativi   sono   stati   indagati   in   relazione   ad   altre   aree   connesse   con   la   pragmatica,  come  per  esempio  l’uso  degli  allocutivi  (formentelli  &  hajek,  2013;  nuzzo,  2005)  o  i  meccanismi   linguistici  associati  alle  strategie  della  cortesia  (guil,  1999,  2007),  nonché  un  certo  numero  di  studi  dedicati   genericamente   alla   competenza   pragmatica   in   italiano   l2,   sia   dal   punto   di   vista   acquisizionale   (per   es.   scibetta,  2016;  visigalli,  2015)  sia  dal  punto  di  vista  didattico  (per  es.  del  bono  &  nuzzo,  2015;  ferrari,  2016;   ferrari,   nuzzo   &   zanoni,   2016;   nuzzo,   2010b;   nuzzo   &   zanoni,   2012;   santoro,   2014).   nel   tema   della   competenza  pragmatica  ci  sembra  possa  rientrare  la  ricerca  sviluppatasi  intorno  al  costrutto  dell’adeguatezza   nuzzo  &  santoro     e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27  18   funzionale,   intesa  come   la  capacità  di  portare  a   termine  un  compito  comunicativo,  che  richiede  di  veicolare   efficacemente   un  messaggio   nei   termini   delle  massime   conversazionali   di   grice.   in   tempi  molto   recenti   gli   studi  sulla  valutazione  dell’adeguatezza  funzionale  hanno  interessato  anche  l’italiano  l2  (cfr.  kuiken,  gilabert,   &  vedder,  2010;  kuiken  &  vedder,  2014;  kuiken  &  vedder,  2017;  vedder,  2016).     5.  i  contributi  del  numero  speciale  su  pragmatica  dell’italiano  come  lingua   seconda/straniera     tra   le   diverse  prospettive   di   indagine   richiamate  nell’introduzione   (§1),   il   primo   lavoro   incluso   in   questo  numero  speciale  adotta  quella  della  pragmatica  interlinguistica  di  tipo  comparativo,  che  mette  cioè  a   confronto  il  comportamento  linguistico  dei  parlanti  non  nativi  con  quello  dei  nativi.  politeness  norms:  a  pilot   study  on  the  accomplishment  of  apologies  by  learners  of  italian,  di  talia  walker,  considera  apprendenti  con  l1   inglese  australiano  e  si   focalizza  su  tre  principali  aree  di   indagine:  (i)   il  modo  in  cui   le  variabili  sociali  della   situazione   proposta   vengono   valutate   dai   partecipanti,   (ii)   l’uso   degli   allocutivi   formali,   e   (iii)   l’uso   dei   modificatori   della   forza   illocutoria   all’interno   dell’espressione   esplicita   di   scuse.   lo   studio   rivela   che,   nonostante  i  partecipanti  mostrino  tendenze  in  linea  sia  con  la  cortesia  linguistica  dell’italiano  sia  con  quella   dell’inglese   australiano,   quest’ultima   emerge   in  modo   più   evidente,   suggerendo   qualche   interferenza   delle   norme  di  cortesia  dell’inglese  australiano  sull’uso  della  l2  e  qualche  difficoltà  nella  negoziazione  dello  spazio   interculturale.   anche   i   due   lavori   successivi   rientrano   nell’ambito   della   pragmatica   interlinguistica,  ma   hanno   un   taglio   acquisizionale,   con   osservazioni   trasversali.   l’articolo   di   sara   colombo,   intitolato   “ciao   prof!”   la   pragmatica  del  saluto  negli  apprendenti  di  madrelingua  tedesca,  indaga  in  questa  prospettiva  l’atto  linguistico   del   saluto,   confrontando,   sulla   base   di   un   questionario   aperto,   le   produzioni   di   parlanti   italiani   e   di   apprendenti   con   l1   tedesco   e   livelli   diversi   di   competenza   in   italiano.   i   risultati  mostrano   comportamenti   linguistici   analoghi   tra   i   due   gruppi   nella   strutturazione   dei   saluti,   sebbene   si   noti   un’espansione   del   repertorio  delle  forme  di  saluto  utilizzate  direttamente  proporzionale  all’aumento  del   livello  di  competenza   in  italiano.     politeness   strategies   in   complaints   in   italian:   a   study   on   ifl   learners   and   italian   native   speakers,   di   eleonora   marocchini,   riporta   i   risultati   di   uno   studio   su   studenti   olandesi   di   italiano   di   livelli   diversi   e   confronta   gli   schemi   di   realizzazione   delle   proteste,   con   particolare   attenzione   agli   strumenti   linguistici   utilizzati  per  l’espressione  del  giudizio  e  per  la  richiesta  di  riparazione,  e  all’uso  dei  modificatori  della  forza   illocutoria.   i   dati   sembrano   confermare   quanto   emerso   in   precedenti   studi   dedicati   allo   sviluppo   di   competenze   pragmatiche   nella   formulazione   delle   proteste:   gli   apprendenti,   sebbene   con   il   crescere   della   competenza  linguistica  si  avvicinino  agli  schemi  di  realizzazione  riscontrati  tra  i  parlanti  nativi,  continuano  a   utilizzare  un  numero  sistematicamente  inferiore  di  strumenti  di  modificazione  della  forza  illocutoria.     il   quarto   contributo   incluso   nel   numero   speciale   rientra   sempre   nell’ambito   della   pragmatica   interlinguistica,  ma  con  un  interesse  specifico  per  il  ruolo  della  didattica.  la  protesta  in  italiano  l2:  un  caso  di   autoapprendimento   della   pragmatica,   di   maria   vittoria   ottaviani   e   ineke   vedder,   rende   conto   di   un   esperimento   condotto   con   sei   studenti   universitari   di   madrelingua   olandese   che   si   sono   cimentati,   sulla   piattaforma  multimediale  online  lira,  in  un  percorso  di  autoapprendimento  della  pragmatica  relativo  all’atto   della   protesta   in   italiano   l2.   i   partecipanti   sono   stati   coinvolti   nella   registrazione,   prima   e   dopo   la   fase   di   autoapprendimento,  di  due  role  play  ad  alto  e  basso  grado  di  familiarità.  i  risultati  suggeriscono  che  i  benefici   dell’uso  di  lira  si  manifestano  non  tanto  a  livello  di  produzione  linguistica,  bensì  a  livello  di  consapevolezza   pragmatica,  con  conseguenze  sia  sulla  ricezione  che  sull’elaborazione  di  un  atto  di  protesta.     il   lavoro   di   diego   cortés   velasquez,   intitolato   cancelar   una   cita   como   estrategia   de   rechazo   postergado:   resultados   e   implicaciones   didácticas   de   un   estudio   transcultural,   rientra   nella   prospettiva   transculturale,  e  analizza  l’atto  linguistico  della  disdetta  dell’ultimo  minuto  come  possibile  strategia  di  “rifiuto   posticipato”   a   un   invito   in   parlanti   nativi   di   italiano   e   spagnolo   colombiano.   i   risultati,   discussi   dall’autore   anche   alla   luce   delle   loro   ricadute   didattiche,   mostrano   che   fra   i   due   gruppi   esistono   alcune   differenze   importanti   nella   percezione   di   come   l’atto   di   disdetta   debba   essere   arricchito   da   modificatori   della   forza   illocutoria,  suggerendo  che  per  i  colombiani  la  disdetta  rappresenti  una  strategia  maggiormente  routinizzata   che  per  gli  italiani.     i   cinque   contributi   ospitati   nel   numero   speciale   affrontano   quindi,   da   prospettive   diverse   e   con   differenti  obiettivi  specifici,  uno  dei  temi  che  hanno  guidato  la  ricerca  di  ambito  pragmatico  sull’italiano  come   lingua  seconda/straniera:  le  modalità  di  realizzazione  degli  atti  linguistici.  prendendo  in  esame  atti  poco  o  per   la  pragmatica  in  italiano  l2/ls   e-­‐journall  4(2)  (2017),  pp.  1-­‐27   19   nulla   studiati   in   precedenza   per   l’italiano,   aggiungono   alcuni   utili   tasselli   che   ampliano   e   arricchiscono   un   campo  di  indagine  giovane  ma,  crediamo,  destinato  a  espandersi.     chiudono   il   numero   speciale   le   recensioni   di   ada   valentini   e   di   jacopo   torregrossa,   dedicate   rispettivamente   ai   volumi   collettanei   pragmatica   e   interculturalità   in   italiano   lingua   seconda   a   cura   di   e.   santoro  e  i.  vedder  (firenze,  franco  cesati,  2016),  e  il  parlato  in  [italiano]  l2:  aspetti  pragmatici  e  prosodici,  a   cura  di  marina  chini  (milano,  franco  angeli,  2015).             riferimenti  bibliografici     andorno,   cecilia   (2007a).   apprendere   il   lessico:   elaborazione   di   segnali   discorsivi   (sì,   no,   così).   in  marina   chini,  paola  desideri,  maria  elena  favilla  &  gabriele  pallotti  (a  cura  di),  imparare  una  lingua:  recenti   sviluppi  teorici  e  proposte  applicative.  atti  del  vi  congresso  di  studi  aitla  (pp.  95-­‐122).  perugia,  italia:   guerra.   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elena nuzzo è professore associato di didattica delle lingue moderne all’università roma tre, dove svolge attività di ricerca e insegnamento negli ambiti della linguistica acquisizionale ed educativa, con un interesse specifico per l’italiano come lingua seconda. le sue principali direzioni di ricerca includono le applicazioni pratiche della teoria degli atti linguistici nell’ambito della didattica delle lingue e il rapporto tra acquisizione e insegnamento, allo scopo di individuare modalità di intervento didattico in grado di coniugare il rispetto dei percorsi naturali dello sviluppo linguistico con le esigenze della pratica di classe. en elena nuzzo is associate professor of modern languages at the università roma tre, where she teaches and researches in the fields of second language acquisition and teaching with a focus on italian as a second language. her main research interests include practical applications of speech acts theories to second language learning and the relationship between language acquisition and teaching. her goal is to identify those instructional interventions that can respect the natural path of linguistic development while also being successfully implemented in the language classroom. es elena nuzzo es profesora asociada de didáctica de las lengua modernas en la universidad roma tre, donde desarrolla su actividad de investigación y enseñanza en el área de lingüística adquisicional y educativa, con especial interés hacia el italiano como segunda lengua. sus principales líneas de investigación incluyen las aplicaciones prácticas de la teoría de los actos lingüísticos en el ámbito de la didáctica de las lenguas y la relación entre adquisición y enseñanza, con el fin de identificar esas modalidades de intervención didáctica capaces de conciliar el respeto de los caminos naturales del desarrollo lingüístico con las exigencias de la práctica en el aula.       elisabetta santoro,  universidade de são paulo esantoro@usp.br it elisabetta santoro è dal 2003 docente del corso di lingua e letteratura italiana dell’universidade de são paulo (usp, brasile). insegna tanto al corso di laurea quanto alla scuola di master e dottorato (programa de pós-graduação em língua, literatura e cultura italianas) che attualmente coordina. si dedica alla ricerca soprattutto nel campo della pragmatica cross-culturale e interlinguistica, occupandosi in particolare dei rapporti tra parlanti brasiliani e italiani e di apprendimento e insegnamento dell’italiano. coordina un gruppo di ricerca che focalizza questi ambiti di studio al quale partecipano ricercatori che analizzano dati non solo di italiano e di portoghese brasiliano, ma anche di portoghese europeo, di diverse varietà di spagnolo e di tedesco. en elisabetta santoro is professor at the universidade de são paulo (usp, brazil) where she has taught since 2003 in the italian language and literature program. she teaches and coordinates courses both at the graduate and postgraduate level (programa de pós-graduação em língua, literatura e cultura italianas). her main research interests are crosscultural pragmatics and interlinguistics. specifically, she investigates the relationship between italian and brazilian speakers, and teaching and learning of italian. those topics are also the focus of a research group that she coordinates: the researchers not only deal with data from italian and brazilian portuguese, but also from european portuguese, different varieties of spanish, and german. es elisabetta santoro es profesora desde 2003 de lengua y literatura italiana en la universidad de são paulo (usp, brasil). enseña cursos de licenciatura y también cursos en la escuela de máster y doctorado (programa de pósgraduação em língua, literatura e cultura italianas), que actualmente coordina. su área de investigación es, especialmente, la pragmática intercultural e interlingüística. se ocupa, sobre todo, de las relaciones entre hablantes brasileños e italianos y del aprendizaje y enseñanza de italiano. coordina un grupo de investigación con enfoque en estas temáticas y en el que participan investigadores que analizan no solo datos de italiano y de portugués brasileño, sino también de portugués europeo, de diferentes variedades de español y alemán.   euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 3, issue 2, december 2016, pages 60-62 issn 2376-905x doi http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.5.71 www.e-journall.org © banas 2016. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. we are not amused: failed humor in interaction by nancy bell is a 184-page study of failed humor during interaction. the book is aimed at two primary audiences: people interested in the academic study of humor and people with an interest in conversational interaction. we are not amused relies on applied linguistics but also includes work from sociology, psychology, communication, and anthropology, among others. unique in its focus, this book makes an important contribution to both discourse analysis and the study of humorous communication. by carefully analyzing a wide range of specific examples of failed humor, bell is able to share valuable insights as to how failed humor illuminates theoretical issues about human communication, evident in conversational partners as well as society as a whole. chapter 1, “introduction,” explains failed humor as well as justifies its study. additionally, the chapter includes background information important to understanding the study, specifically the following: language and interaction, context and the emergence of meaning, linguistic creativity, formulaicity, and competence and performance, as well as face and politeness. perhaps most importantly, the first chapter introduces the primary research method—discourse analysis of largely the qualitative variety—employed in the service of three main goals: to identify the ways humor can fail, to identify the interactive structure of episodes of failed humor, and to examine the social consequences of failed humor. the chapter concludes with an overview of the book’s structure, briefly previewing each of the following chapters. overall, the chapter accomplishes a great deal and leaves readers well prepared for the analysis that follows. * contact: jbanas@ou.edu bell, nancy. (2015). we are not amused: failed humor in interaction. berlin, germany/boston: de gruyter mouton. john banas*1 university of oklahoma book review received 20 march 2016; received in revised form 28 april 2016; accepted 10 may 2016 abstract en this review examines we are not amused: failed humor in interaction by nancy bell, the first systematic examination of humorous miscommunication. situating failed humor broadly as a (mis)communication phenomenon, the text provides an impressive range of conversational data to support each level of analysis. key words: failed humor, interaction, conversation es esta reseña examina la obra we are not amused: failed humor in interaction de nancy bell, el primer estudio sistemático del humor en la comunicación fallida. el humor fallido se presenta en general como un caso de comunicación (fallida) y el volumen ofrece una amplia gama de datos para cada uno de los niveles de análisis de este fenómeno. palabras clave: humor fallido, interacción, conversación it questa recensione esamina we are not amused: failed humor in interaction di nancy bell, il primo studio sistematico sul comico nella comunicazione fallace. l’umorismo mancato viene presentato in generale come un fenomeno di comunicazione (fallace) e il volume offre un’ampia gamma di dati a supporto di ognuno dei diversi livelli di analisi di questo fenomeno. parole chiave: umorismo mancato, interazione, conversazione http://www.e-journall.org/ banas 61 e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 60-62 chapter 2, “conceptualizing failed humor,” delves deeper into the definition and meaning of failed humor. the second chapter begins by examining how three seminal theoretical orientations to humor contribute to our understanding of failed humor. using superiority/hostility theories, release theories, and incongruity theories, bell does an excellent job explaining the theories and their relationship to contemporary understandings of humor in general, and then she (to borrow her phrasing) turns “the theory upside-down” (p. 21) to reveal how each theory might make sense of failed humor. she concludes that incongruity theory is best equipped to deal with the failure of humor. this section of the book especially resonated with me as i begin teaching my class on humor and communication by examining these (and other) theories of humor. this section of the book is a perfect fit for any teacher who includes theories of humor in his/her course. after the theoretical section of chapter 2, bell details how competence and performance are useful for analyzing failed humor. the chapter concludes with how failed humor was identified in her study, as well as a thorough explanation of her data set, which includes data from observations, self-reports, previous publications, the corpus of contemporary american english (davies, 2008-), television/movies, and elicitation. chapter 3, “failed humor as miscommunication,” places failed humor in the context of conversation trouble, or miscommunication. the chapter begins with a review of several central concepts necessary to understand miscommunication. afterwards, sources of miscommunication are described and a framework for addressing failed humor is presented. the framework uses and expands on bell and attardo’s (2010) seven levels of failure that produce miscommunication. after presenting a revised framework for understanding failed humor, which includes locutionary factors, linguistic rules, ambiguity, pragmatic force of utterances, message form, humorous frame, joke incongruity, joke appreciation, joke (meta)messages, and humor support, bell shifts her focus to research on interactional structure and how unsuccessful communication repair is negotiated. the revised framework and repair will serve as the foundation of the analyses that are covered in the remainder of the book. chapter 4, “triggers of failed humor”, expands on the first six levels of the model from the previous chapter in order to explore the ways communication can fail at each level during serious or non-serious discourse. this chapter, as well as the chapters to follow, present the main analyses of the book. with the background, definitions, and framework established, bell offers examples of each type of trigger with accompanying analysis. chapter 4 convincingly argues that failed humor and serious talk share many of the same triggers; however, there are important differences in how interlocutors manage the miscommunication between failed humor and failed serious conversation. for example, the interlocutors in failed humor are more likely to forego repair, perhaps because humor is perceived as less significant than serious communication. chapter 5, “triggers of failure specific to humor,” continues the analysis from the previous chapter using bell’s framework for understanding failed humor, but the focus now is on the final four levels of her revised framework, which are triggers exclusive to humor rather than inherent to all communication. these levels include joke incongruity, joke appreciation, joke (meta)messages, and humor support. scholars of linguistics are likely to be especially intrigued by this portion of the book as it breaks new ground in the study of humor, as well as in applied linguistics more generally. chapter 6, “managing failed humor in interaction,” addresses in greater detail the strategies used by both speakers and hearers in the management of failed humor. both speaker and audience management of failure are discussed. from the audience perspective, lack of understanding and lack of appreciation are considered. failed humor is considered through the lens of face saving and face threats: speakers wish to minimize damage to face, and hearers wish to preserve their identity as possessing a good sense of humor while simultaneously signaling failure to the speaker. the analyses revealed that the type of failure largely predicts the type of response. chapter 7, “failed humor and society,” focuses on the larger issues related to failed humor. considering failed humor and social action, the issues of humor for solidarity and humor, power, and subversion are examined. deliberately failed humor is explored. the chapter considers the power of humor to unite and divide people and dives deeper into issues of marginalization. this chapter is particularly provocative and, without many of the technical discourse analyses presented in chapters 5 and 6, will likely be more palatable for less methodologically sophisticated audiences. review: we are not amused e-journall 3(2) (2016), pp. 60-62 62 chapter 8, “conclusion,” summarizes the findings, presents implications for the study of language and humor, and ends with directions for future research. the chapter opens with a clever question and answer format. the results of the book are summarized by answering the research questions from chapter 1. the implications are thought-provoking and the directions for future research will hopefully inspire other noteworthy studies. this impressive book is a must for scholars of humor or scholars of conversational interaction. although i am not an applied linguist and my method is experimental social science rather than discourse analysis, i found the analysis both fascinating and persuasive. the commitment to discourse analysis is a strength as well as its biggest limitation. the methodological specificity of the book will be an obstacle for scholars not well-versed in discourse analysis. however, scholars of humor can learn a great deal from the careful and thorough analyses presented in this book. those who teach courses on humor will also find this book quite useful, whether used in its entirety or as supplementary material when discussing conversational humor and/or failure of humor. the book is smart and—it should be mentioned—a great deal of fun. references bell, nancy, & attardo, salvatore (2010). failed humor: issues in non-native speakers’ appreciation and understanding of humor. intercultural pragmatics, 7(3), 423-447. davies, mark. (2008). the corpus of contemporary american english: 520 million words, 1990-present. available online at http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/. john banas, university of oklahoma jbanas@ou.edu en john banas has an ma in communicology from the university of hawaii at manoa and a phd from the university of texas at austin. his research interests are in applied persuasion and interpersonal communication, both of which include humor research. he is an associate professor of communication at the university of oklahoma. es john banas obtuvo un máster en comunicología por la university of hawaii en manoa y un doctorado por la university of texas en austin. sus áreas de investigación incluyen la persuasión aplicada y la comunicación interpersonal, y el humor es parte de ambas. banas es profesor titular de universidad de ciencias de la comunicación en la university of oklahoma. it john banas ha ottenuto un master in comunicologia presso la university of hawaii a manoa e un dottorato presso la university of texas a austin. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono la persuasione applicata e la comunicazione interpersonale, ed entrambe comprendono lo studio del comico. banas è professore associato di scienze della comunicazione presso la university of oklahoma. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 11, issue 2, december 2024, pages 74-83 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.2.3072 www.e-journall.org © uysal & sayer 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. human capital, social mobility, and tesol: an interview with peter sayer huseyin uysal the education university of hong kong peter sayer the ohio state university interview received 3 february 2024; accepted 22 october 2024 abstract en this interview explores the intersection of social mobility and inequalities in tesol (teaching english to speakers of other languages) through an interview with peter sayer. his research focuses on the complexities of tesol within multilingual contexts, particularly in mexico and the united states. he challenges the myth of international english as a force in alleviating poverty and promoting social change. peter sayer discusses the implications of human capital theory on english education, critiquing its focus on skills acquisition. he advocates for a plurilingual approach through translanguaging by emphasizing the importance of leveraging students’ linguistic repertoires in the classroom. peter sayer envisions the directions of his future research in tesol in practice and aims to bridge theory and practice while addressing the challenge of making english education more relevant and accessible to students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. keywords: human capital theory, poverty, social mobility, tesol es esta entrevista explora la intersección entre la movilidad social y las desigualdades en tesol (teaching english to speakers of other languages) a través de una entrevista con peter sayer. su investigación se centra en las complejidades de tesol en contextos multilingües, particularmente en méxico y ee.uu. peter sayer cuestiona el mito del inglés internacional, poniendo en duda su papel en la reducción de la pobreza y la promoción del cambio social. discute las implicaciones de la teoría del capital humano en la enseñanza del inglés, criticando su enfoque en la adquisición de habilidades. aboga por un enfoque plurilingüe a través del translanguaging, destacando la importancia de aprovechar los repertorios lingüísticos de los estudiantes en el aula. peter sayer imagina que las futuras líneas de investigación en tesol deben estar arraigadas en la práctica, con el objetivo de cerrar la brecha entre la teoría y la práctica, y hacer que la educación en inglés sea más relevante y accesible para estudiantes de diversos contextos socioeconómicos. palabras clave: movilidad social, pobreza, teoría del capital humano, tesol it questa intervista esplora l'intersezione tra mobilità sociale e disuguaglianze nell’ambito di tesol (teaching english to speakers of other languages) attraverso un’intervista con peter sayer. la sua ricerca si concentra sulle complessità del tesol in contesti multilingue, in particolare in messico e negli stati uniti. peter sayer mette in discussione il mito dell'inglese internazionale, interrogandosi sul suo ruolo nell'alleviare la povertà e nel promuovere il cambiamento sociale. discute le implicazioni della teoria del capitale umano nell'istruzione in lingua inglese, criticandone l'accento sull'acquisizione di competenze. promuove un approccio plurilingue tramite il translanguaging, sottolineando l'importanza di sfruttare i repertori linguistici degli studenti in aula. peter sayer immagina che le future direzioni di ricerca nel tesol debbano essere radicate nella pratica, con l'obiettivo di colmare il divario tra teoria e pratica, affrontando al contempo la sfida di rendere l'istruzione in inglese più rilevante e accessibile agli studenti provenienti da diversi contesti socioeconomici. parole chiave: mobilità sociale, povertà, teoria del capitale umano, tesol  huseyin uysal, the education university of hong kong huysal9@gmail.com http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.271 interview with peter sayer: human capital and social mobility in tesol e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 74-83 75 1. introduction on december 21, 2023, huseyin uysal interviewed peter sayer via zoom to explore the intersection of social mobility and inequalities faced by language learners. the aim of the current interview is to delve into the complexities of these topics and their implications for teaching english to speakers of other languages (tesol) and social change. the conversation touches on issues such as social class, tesol, and translanguaging, aiming to disclose insights into the role english language education plays in facilitating socioeconomic mobility and addressing existing inequalities. peter sayer discusses his research in teaching english in mexico and the philippines, examining the myth of international english as a neutral and universal medium that provides equal opportunities. he highlights how this perception often masks the power dynamics and inequalities inherent in the spread of english, particularly its role in perpetuating poverty and limiting access to economic and social resources for marginalized communities. he explores hidden curricula in working-class schools and advocates for a plurilingual approach through translanguaging in tesol. peter sayer serves as a professor in the department of teaching and learning at the ohio state university. he started his career as an esl instructor in oregon, and concurrently engaged in activism and community work supporting immigrant communities. after moving to mexico, he spent eight years teaching at the universidad autónoma benito juárez de oaxaca and earned an ma in applied linguistics. then, he completed his phd in language and literacy at arizona state university and then joined the faculty at the university of texas at san antonio. his academic focus lies in applied linguistics and educational sociolinguistics, particularly concerning language learners in bilingual and esol programs. he has worked in partnership with the mexican secretaria de educación pública on multiple projects in mexico, conducted workshops and facilitated study abroad programs in colombia, peru, and saudi arabia. 2. the interview huseyin uysal: thank you for accepting to participate in this interview and sharing your insights with us. i want to start by asking about your recent research interests. what are you working on right now? and how did your past research and teaching experience shape your current research agenda? peter sayer: thanks for the opportunity to talk to you. you have seen that a lot of my work has come from working as an english teacher in mexico back in the day, so that is where i got my start. as a researcher, i am particularly interested in the context of teaching english in mexico. i see that mexico is a very multilingual country, that is a post-colonial setting where there is a national language, spanish. there are lots of local, indigenous languages, and then, of course, there is english as the preeminent international language. as a sociolinguist, i think that a context with that dynamic is really interesting for giving us insights into how tesol happens in lots of other different contexts. i just got back from the philippines a couple of days ago, which is sociolinguistically very different and has a historical relationship with english that is quite different from mexico, but still, there are some of those same tensions and certainly the colonial history of the united states and spain, in the philippines. those things are really interesting for me because i tend to conduct my research through the lens of language ideologies, which is a critical lens for looking at how something like the act of a teacher in a classroom teaching english happens in these very contested ideological spaces (see sayer, 2012). that is my broader research agenda. now i am based here in the united states, in ohio. i was in texas before. wherever i am, i do ethnographic work. i am really interested in how a particular context and the dynamics of languages and multilingualism in that space shape the ways that we as teachers in class interact with students. that in a nutshell is my research agenda. in my position here at ohio state, i have the opportunity to work with a lot of doctoral students. a lot of my research is collaborative with my doctoral students. more recently, our students in classrooms in turkey, indonesia, and in chinese language classrooms particularly, are looking at issues of multilingual approaches, translanguaging and things like that. we find that there are a lot of connections across international tesol contexts. for example, ideologies of native speakerism affect language teachers in many places. the specific dynamics are different maybe in turkey or indonesia than in mexico, but by using an ethnographic approach and with a shared theoretical lens, we can examine how multilingual education is shaped by broader ideologies across different contexts. uysal & sayer e-journall, 10(2) (2024), pp. 74-83 76 huseyin uysal: in what ways does the myth of international english challenge the belief that learning english can alleviate poverty? how is this myth connected to broader social change? peter sayer: at least in the sense that i think of the myth of international english, it goes back to the work of alastair pennycook (see pennycook, 2006, 2017). it pushed us to think about questioning some of the assumptions we have about english as an international language. the idea that giving more people access to english and the spread of global english, at least in terms of how it reaches across countries and races across the socioeconomic spectrum, was automatically a good thing, especially for poor people. if you want to help poor people, you should give them more english. that is not just a myth or an idea, but it has been a policy that has been pushed by particularly the world bank when they talked about modernizing the education system of many socalled developing countries. a lot of that is going to push them to think about getting english further and further down the basic education curriculum. within this idea, the solution is to teach them english, make their education system better or more modern. it has been a policy that has been pushed on various levels and has been actively taken up as part of the curriculum now in various places. so, that is what i see and understand about the myth of english. in my work, mexico is a case study about how that happens. the costs associated with implementing these massive expansions of english education, especially for developing countries, is very high. i think the idea and myth that more english is automatically better is worth questioning (see sayer, 2015a, 2015b). huseyin uysal: how does the hidden curriculum of work manifest in english lessons in working-class schools, and what skills and dispositions does it aim to inculcate in students? peter sayer: the idea of a hidden curriculum is not particular to language education. it comes from marxist educational theorists like paul willis, and particularly jean anyon. the hidden curriculum does not just happen in workingclass schools, it happens across the socioeconomic spectrum. what i was trying to show there was inspired by jean anyon’s work (e.g., anyon, 1981, 2014). it is about the idea of how english opens doors, and how english is automatically going to help and give more opportunities to working-class kids or kids further down on the socioeconomic spectrum. if you are interrogating that myth, as you asked me in the previous question, what i want is to see what actually happens at the classroom level. i am interested in connecting across macro, meso or micro levels and understanding what happens. if you are talking about this at a policy level, like the world bank and these kinds of broader neoliberal forces, then i am interested in understanding what that means when you are looking at the relationship and the interaction between students and teachers. how those broader forces translate to how we as individuals in our everyday lives go about things, and to what extent we have agency backed upon the world versus all the various often invisible or unconscious ways that the structures impose themselves on. i had the opportunity to collaborate with the mexican ministry of education on their program, which was the expansion and implementation of english in their elementary or primary level schools. i had the chance to visit and observe about 100 different english classes in public schools in 12 different states and across a range of neighborhoods with different socioeconomic levels. when you walk into a school, you know right away what kind of neighborhood you are in and what resources are there. you get to know the demographics of the school, like where that school falls on the socioeconomic spectrum. the question that the ministry tasked us with was how well the english program was being implemented. i understood it later while looking at this whole giant database of all these videos. i would consider it to be very well-implemented in some ways in some schools, but in other schools, maybe not so much, in terms of what i consider effective pedagogy for teaching english. in some places, kids were actively engaged in meaningful tasks that built their communicative competence in english, but in other schools they spent the whole class copying sentences and grammar rules from the board. the key is, though, is that these differences were not random. it was not just based on the years of experience of the teacher, but many more variables that they gave us to look at in terms of how things were being implemented. i had the chance to interview the teachers who taught at multiple schools. some were teaching at a more well-off school and some at a much less-resourced school. you hear it literally in the way that they would explain what they thought they were doing in their classes, particularly across the different types of classes. for example, as i explained in the aila review article (sayer, 2019), it was really about the very rote activity of copying very accurately things from the board. if you do not have resources, interview with peter sayer: human capital and social mobility in tesol e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 74-83 77 the teacher will not be doing creative things, like small-group role plays and things that we consider more effective, at least based on the principles of commutative language teaching. often, you see students spending hours and hours on copying things, and when you think about why the teacher would do that, their rationale for it would be that they need to make sure they can master the basics first, the most basic elements down there, like repeat that mantra again. this is what anyon argues about what paul willis said, that is for workingclass kids, who are getting working-class jobs. the kind of skill that you are trying to inculcate is having the stamina to be able to copy something for hours and hours, doing something very dull and repetitious, but doing it very efficiently and very accurately. if you think about particularly the working class having this idea of being in a factory and doing a very repetitive job over and over again, but with a lot of stamina, that makes sense. they would think they are doing it quickly, efficiently, and accurately. it makes sense if you are thinking about how the work and the hidden curriculum is shaping the ways that the teachers are thinking about what they are supposed to be doing, even the expectations that they have for students versus when you compare that to what more well-off students were doing. they were doing these role plays and mostly using english in a way that focuses on them expressing their own meanings and using it for communicative purposes beyond just the copying and repetition. it is not just this random thing. it just happens that some teachers teach this way. you can see within this dataset a clear pattern that seems to match up with that idea of how the hidden curriculum operates across socioeconomic levels. huseyin uysal: how does human capital theory view education as an investment in individuals? what implications does this theory have for the role english education plays in promoting socioeconomic mobility? peter sayer: i do not have an economics background. i am an applied linguist and work in education. that is my training. i do not claim to be an expert on understanding economic theories like human capital theory, but as i said i am interested in connecting and explaining what’s happening in language classrooms to larger forces. my rather rudimentary understanding of human capital theory, as an educational linguist, is that the goal of a country’s education system is to give students—its future workforce—the skills that the country’s companies and businesses need them to have. in terms of language, they need them to have certain linguistic skills, like english, because that is what will be needed to be competitive in the global marketplace. it is a neoliberal idea of, as you said, education as an investment in developing the individual’s skills with an aim to train them with what the future workforce will require. so, as a researcher when i was trying to understand this pattern i was seeing in the classroom, some students developing communicative skills in english, others copying grammar rules or doing rote learning. i was trying to understand why i see these kids practicing english or learning english in a particular way versus those other kids. there is a social class issue going on here. as a researcher, trying to understand your data there and analyzing and seeing these patterns, the next bit is, “how do i explain that now?”. if i have a theoretical framework coming into it of language ideologies and an awareness of social class, that is where i had to do a lot of background reading honestly to figure out how i make sense of this. language ideologies, based largely on the work of linguistic anthropologists like irvine and gal (1995), are basically the ways that our personal thinking about languages is shaped by broader beliefs. i was doing background reading and looking at particularly applied linguists who were connecting the spread of global english to theories of neoliberalism, trying to understand what exactly neoliberalism is and how it works1. i was reading on the context of mexico and tracing the history of how mexico as a member of the organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd), which sets certain priorities for member states,, decided to invest 10’s of millions of pesos in english. they had to train about 100,000 english teachers now to be able to implement this program of english at the elementary school level. it is a huge investment, and why did they do that? it turned out there was this report that is connected to the international achievement standards of program for international student assessment (pisa), where they compare all the countries. this 2022 pisa report (oecd, 2023) just came out last week. if we rewind to 15 years ago, the pisa report came out and put mexico at the very bottom of the oecd countries. they freaked out. they commissioned this report essentially by economists, and the economists said something about their education system being bad at producing human capital. i think that is bizarre. i did not think of our education system as trying turn children into human capital. i am not an 1 for a collection of papers on this topic covering brazil, puerto rico, and the united states, see alonso and villa galán’s (2023) special issue on raciolinguistic perspectives of labor in the americas. uysal & sayer e-journall, 10(2) (2024), pp. 74-83 78 economist, and i do not think about it that way. again, if you are seeing it through a very neoliberal lens, that is how you frame it. in a nutshell, human capital theory is the idea that you are training your workers to have the right skills in order to essentially maximize the profits of companies and corporations. that is what makes your country globally competitive in this global marketplace. when you read it like that, you are thinking about english as inculcating this certain set of skills. we are teaching kids english, but for working-class kids, teaching english is less about intercultural communication, or all the things that we as educators think of as the reasons for teaching english. in terms of human capital theory, giving them this very particular set of skills. it is less about teaching the linguistic stuff that we as english teachers would think of, and more about this idea of being able to do these sorts of rote jobs very efficiently. so when you are looking at education through the lens of human capital theory, we see it’s a very efficient way to train your working-class kids to do working-class jobs or middle-class kids to do middle-class jobs. as bourdieu says (bourdieu & passeron, 1990), that is how social class reproduction happens, and how inequities are passed down to the next generation. so rather than disrupting it – this myth of english is somehow automatically alleviating poverty (pennycook, 2006) – it ends up sort of feeding into that same cycle of reproduction rather than seeing english as this magic wand that helps social mobility, at least at certain level when you see it through that line. i want to believe, like the promise of english and this program in mexico, for example, that investing in helping kids learn english actually will open doors for them. i want to see how that can actually work and how we fulfill that promise to actually provide opportunities for social mobility for kids through the teaching of english. huseyin uysal: considering the rapid expansion of english language education in public schools in latin america, how can tesol educators balance the goal of providing greater access to english with the risk of perpetuating existing social inequalities? drawing on critical theorists’ examinations of class, education, and social reproduction, how can tesol educators address the challenge of social stratification in language classrooms? peter sayer: that is a really good question. when you start talking about human capital theory and social reflection, we are all pawns of the neoliberal system. you get depressed, like that negative way of seeing it, which i think is the reality of things. on the other hand, i am an eternal optimist. as a critical applied linguist, i think that it is not enough just to critique and say, “look at all these bad things and these are all the terrible ways that the system reproduces itself.” we should try to offer something positive and have our work help illuminate those sorts of situations in a way that other scholars and the teachers themselves can then say, “actually that does help me to think about my work a little differently.” through the mexico project, we are trying to turn that into a series of professional development workshops and materials that would get teachers to reflect on the reality of it and think about approaching their teaching in a way that is not race-blind or social class blind. if you are approaching it from that way like “we are all equal,” then you do end up reproducing those social inequities. so, if you want to disrupt the system, and think about the extent that you have agency as a teacher in your classroom, even working within the curriculum, the materials and textbooks, you have a lot of what nancy hornberger (hornberger et al., 2018) would call “implementational space” for your particular view of the world and language policy to help them see that they are empowered to do certain things. if you can, help them come at it with that critical consciousness. this is my teaching philosophy and greater goal. i do not have to go back to thinking of it like, “i need these poor kids to have the basics and therefore i am going to have them copy off the board.” if we can raise that awareness, that is part of the critical consciousness that we as educators can have and get them to think about how they teach in their particular context to their particular group of students, in a way that responds to what i consider social justice issues. in the mexico project i was doing, we were observing dozens and dozens of classrooms. also, we were doing these focus group interviews with parents. i talked to lots of parents to get their sense of the idea of multiple stakeholders. i was trying to understand it not only from the students’, teachers’, and administrators’ views, but also from the parents’ views because i think that is what gets left out a lot in that work. it was interesting to hear the parents talking about how they thought of english, why they thought it was important, and what they wanted from the english program. so, that phrase, “inglés abre puertas” meaning “english opens doors,” just came up again. as the researcher, when you hear the exact same phrase being said through multiple interviews, there is your code, that is the pattern. so, “english opens doors” was just an obvious pattern, a thing to focus on just again, because i was hearing literally the same expression being used (see sayer, 2018). getting back to connecting that to the myth of international english and what i thought of it, it is that very particular expression that they are using that articulates the myth of interview with peter sayer: human capital and social mobility in tesol e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 74-83 79 international english. the myth that english is going to open doors for you, the myth of english automatically leading to social mobility. that is where i went with that idea of “english opens doors.” but when people are sometimes giving me examples like, “so and so, they learned english and now look they have got this great job,” it is not always a myth. for some people, that becomes a reality, and people were giving me these examples of the exception that proves the rule, but it was something that people latched on to. at least for them, it is proof that english does have the possibility of opening doors for you. so, then that reaches the question of when it actually works, for whom it works, and under what conditions. as educators, how do we try to facilitate that to the extent that we have agency and can control things in the classroom? i think it is very important for this kind of research to figure out how to translate that into something that is like professional development that is, in a practical sense, helpful for teachers. so, i would say in a general sense, critical consciousness is an important thing to try to do in your workshops. but if you are doing a professional development workshop with teachers or teaching a course or something with either pre-service or in-service teachers, you should think that it is going to be very context-specific and think again about what that means in a particular classroom or a particular context. huseyin uysal: i want to change the direction of our conversation a bit. how does the concept of translanguaging challenge and transform traditional perspectives on tesol, moving from a monolingual to a plurilingual orientation? why is this shift significant in recognizing and leveraging students’ linguistic repertoires? peter sayer: i approach things as a sociolinguist who is interested in questions of languages, ideologies, and things like that, so i naturally came to translanguaging through that approach. i was not trained in translanguaging, which has been around since the 90s. everybody cites the williams (1994) thing, but it was ofelia garcía who brought it to our attention and theorized it more. it was late 2010 or 2011 and i had not read ofelia’s work yet. i did not even know the concept of translanguaging. i had just moved to san antonio, texas, and i was doing a project and ethnographic work in classrooms in a neighborhood in san antonio. i was interested in those sorts of multilingual approaches. i had been trained to analyze language mixing as code-switching, a very linguistic approach. i was in a bilingual classroom, lots of spanish and english were being mixed. all of this is a good place to look at code-switching, because of course kids are code-switching a lot and the teacher code-switches, and english is going on and all that good stuff. i want to acknowledge that the work that sociolinguists did on codeswitching was critical at the time and laid the foundation for what we now think of as translanguaging. i was analyzing it as a code-switch. i had my data, millions of examples, lots of observations, and recorded stuff. when i was working through my data, thinking of it through my orientation towards language ideologies, trying to think of what was going on as a pedagogical problem here in this classroom, i picked up ofelia garcía’s book (garcía, 2009) and started re-thinking my approach to my data, which became the sayer (2013) piece. i came to this idea of translanguaging and saw how she was defining it as bilingual meaning-making and things like that. that was my light bulb moment. when you find a concept that you did not know existed, but it fits your data as a researcher, that i guess is the light bulb moment. so that is where i came to this idea of translanguaging, and her way of explaining things through the students’ full multilingual repertoire was such a good fit for what i was seeing. it helped me understand the data in a new way. we have tried more and more to articulate this multilingual turn in tesol and understand what that means beyond the role of l1, which is also important. that is not to say that it is not something on a practical level that we want to worry about, but we have been theorizing and developing this more. ofelia garcía was working within bilingual education context, and lots of different international tesol contexts. that is how i have been understanding more and more what the plurilingual turn in tesol is about. i think translanguaging is a way of connecting things like ideologies and funds of knowledge. even now, i am rethinking funds of knowledge through this translanguaging lens. it allows me to theorize and make these different connections in a way that helps me understand more what that idea of a multilingual turn should be about. uysal & sayer e-journall, 10(2) (2024), pp. 74-83 80 huseyin uysal: can you give us a specific example of how garcía’s work helps you look at your data in a new way? peter sayer: for example, during a science lesson i was observing, there was a group of second graders working on a diagram, labelling the parts of a spider. the diagram showed the spider carrying an egg sac, and one of the girls seemed confused about what it was and how to label it, since it did not appear in the picture of the spider in the book, and she says to her classmates: “no entiendo porque la araña carga arriba this little puffy thing.” [“i do not understand why the spider is carrying…”]. so, when i was initially analyzing my data, i coded that as an intrasentential code-switch, because she switched from spanish to english in the same sentence. that codeswitching lens helped me count up and organize my data neatly, but when i came across garcía’s work on translanguaging, i realized that it gave me a way to ask the questions that were, to me at least, more important about what was going on there, why and how the girl was using her linguistic resources to make meaning and solve this particular problem she had of making sense of the diagram. the shift from code-switching to translanguaging for me was a shift from looking at the language students used as the object of study to moving to understanding the students’ multilingual language practices as the main focus. huseyin uysal: how does this connect to the multilingual turn in tesol? peter sayer: i think it is part of the same phenomenon. probably the concept of translanguaging has really exploded among academics in applied linguistics in the last 10 years because it fits so well with the direction the field was already moving. i remember lourdes ortega gave a plenary talk at aaal (american association of applied linguistics) in 2010. i think it was on the “bilingual turn in sla” (second language acquisition). then, a special issue in tesol quarterly on multilingual approaches in tesol (see taylor & snoddon, 2013), and then stephen may’s (2014) book the multilingual turn came out after that. so, there was already an impetus for scholars thinking and working in that direction, and translanguaging further called into question the strong english monolingual bias that has unconsciously influenced work in tesol and second language acquisition. huseyin uysal: what are some new research directions that you would like to see in tesol? how do you envision the new scholarship contributing to the advancement of the field and addressing existing challenges? peter sayer: another area that i have worked on is the idea of linguistic landscape, which is a social semiotic approach to looking at how languages are represented in public spaces on signs or even graffiti (gorter, 2006; shohamy & gorter, 2009). my interest in linguistic landscape is looking at it as a pedagogical resource for students (see sayer, 2010). i have written and done ethnographic language learning projects through linguistic landscape (see sayer, 2020). as a sociolinguist, when you are interested in the language that is happening around you, the linguistic landscape obviously fits into that way of looking at things. as i am thinking about it more, taking interest and sort of seeing, i remember years and years ago, in an interview with a teacher, they were talking about the difficulty of teaching english to their students in mexico. as they described it, english is very distant to them. they used this metaphor of english being close to you and therefore relevant to your everyday life, versus english being very far away or very distant from you. i thought that was an interesting metaphor to capture why some students seem to like english. they saw it as something that they wanted. it was relevant to them because it is something they can do. on the other hand, for other students, it is a compulsory subject that they really do not care about. thinking of it as a challenge for him, he said something in an interview at least 15 years ago, and it has stuck with me. for the teacher, the key is to take english and bring it close to the students. teachers somehow need to relate it to their everyday lives. to me, that was the main takeaway there. for my research, i think about not just theorizing it on an abstract level, which is again helpful for us as scholars to understand that the problems are theorized from them, but the praxis part of it, and the theory to practice. so, i theorize from the practices and what is happening in classrooms, but also have my work be relevant to the practice itself. as far as your question about research directions, i like having that research praxis happen and keep it grounded in practice. i theorize from practice, and then also help form practice in a very direct and practical way. then, i also help teachers with the challenge of what it means for them to make the language interview with peter sayer: human capital and social mobility in tesol e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 74-83 81 closer to the student, referring to that teacher’s metaphor, and closer to use in ways that make it more relevant. linguistic landscape, funds of knowledge, and translanguaging… for me, these are a part of where i want to go with things. huseyin uysal: it was truly a great pleasure to chat with you, peter. peter sayer: thanks for the opportunity. references alonso, lara, & villa galán, laura (2023). raciolinguistic perspective on labor in the americas: introduction to this special issue [guest editorial]. international journal of the sociology of language, 2023(282), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2023-0051 anyon, jean (1981). social class and school knowledge. curriculum inquiry, 11(1), 3–42. https://doi.org/10. 1080/03626784.1981.11075236 anyon, jean (2014). radical possibilities: public policy, urban education, and a new social movement (2nd ed.). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203092965 bourdieu, pierre, & passeron, jean-claude (1990). reproduction in education, society and culture [la reproduction: éléments pour une théorie du système d’enseignement] (richard nice, trans.). sage. 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(2023). pisa 2022 results: the state of learning and equity in education (vol. 1). oecd publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/53f23881-en pennycook, alastair (2006). the myth of english as an international language. in sinfree makoni, & alastair pennycook (eds.), disinventing and reconstituting languages (pp. 90–115). multilingual matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853599255-006 pennycook, alastair (2017). the cultural politics of english as an international language. routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315225593 sayer, peter (2010). using the linguistic landscape as a pedagogical resource. elt journal, 64(2), 143–154. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccp051 sayer, peter (2012). ambiguities and tensions in english language teaching: portraits of efl teachers as legitimate speakers. routledge. sayer, peter (2013). translanguaging, texmex, and bilingual pedagogy: emergent bilinguals learning through the vernacular. tesol quarterly, 47(1), 63–88. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.53 sayer, peter (2015a). “more & earlier”: neoliberalism and primary english education in mexican public schools. l2 journal, 7(3), 40–56. https://doi.org/10.5070/l27323602 sayer, peter (2015b). expanding global language education in public primary schools: the national english programme in mexico. language, culture and curriculum, 28(3), 257–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/0 7908318.2015.1102926 sayer, peter (2018). does english really open doors? social class and english teaching in public primary schools in mexico. system, 73, 58–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2017.11.006 https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2023-0051 https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.1981.11075236 https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.1981.11075236 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203092965 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971131 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444817000428 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444817000428 https://doi.org/10.1787/53f23881-en https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853599255-006 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315225593 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315225593 https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccp051 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.53 https://doi.org/10.5070/l27323602 https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2015.1102926 https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2015.1102926 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2017.11.006 uysal & sayer e-journall, 10(2) (2024), pp. 74-83 82 sayer, peter (2019). the hidden curriculum of work in english language education: neoliberalism and early english programs in public schooling. aila review, 32(1), 36–63. https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.00020. say sayer, peter (2020). ethnographic language learning projects through the linguistic landscape. in david malinowski, hiram maxim, & sébastien dubreil (eds.), language teaching in the linguistic landscape: mobilizing pedagogy in the public space (pp. 327–347). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03055761-4_14 shohamy, elana, & gorter, durk (eds.). (2009). linguistic landscape: expanding the scenery. routledge. taylor, shelley, & snoddon, kristin (2013). pluralism in tesol: promising controversies. tesol quarterly, 47(3), 439–445. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.127 williams, cen (1994). arfarniad o ddulliau dysgu ac addysgu yng nghyd-destun addysg uwchradd ddwyieithog [an evaluation of teaching and learning methods in the context of bilingual secondary education]. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of wales, bangor. https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.00020.say https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.00020.say https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55761-4_14 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55761-4_14 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.127 interview with peter sayer: human capital and social mobility in tesol e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 74-83 83 huseyin uysal, the education university of hong kong huysal9@gmail.com en huseyin uysal holds a phd degree in curriculum and instruction with a specialization in esol/bilingual education from the university of florida. he is currently a research assistant professor at the education university of hong kong. his research interests are primarily centered on three areas: 1) fairness, justice and equity in tesol, 2) english learner reclassification, and 3) plurilingualism at public schools. he is serving as the editor-in-chief of the journal of education for multilingualism, and the associate editor of the journal of education, language, and ideology. es huseyin uysal tiene un doctorado en currículo e instrucción con una especialización en educación esol/bilingüe de la universidad de florida. actualmente es profesor asistente de investigación en la universidad de educación de hong kong. sus intereses de investigación se centran principalmente en tres áreas: 1) equidad, justicia e igualdad en tesol, 2) reclasificación de estudiantes de inglés, y 3) plurilingüismo en las escuelas públicas. es editor en jefe de la journal of education for multilingualism y editor asociado de la journal of education, language, and ideology. it huseyin uysal ha conseguito un dottorato in curriculum e istruzione con una specializzazione in educazione esol/bilingue presso l'università della florida. attualmente è ricercatore presso l'education university of hong kong. i suoi interessi di ricerca si concentrano principalmente su tre aree: 1) equità, giustizia e uguaglianza nel tesol, 2) riclassificazione degli studenti di inglese, e 3) plurilinguismo nelle scuole pubbliche. è direttore responsabile del journal of education for multilingualism e vicedirettore del journal of education, language, and ideology. peter sayer, the ohio state university sayer.32@osu.edu en peter sayer is a professor of multilingual language education at the ohio state university. his scholarly work is in applied linguistics and educational sociolinguistics, with a focus on language learners in bilingual and esol programs. from 20092017, he collaborated with the mexican secretaria de educación pública on various projects related to the implementation of the programa nacional de inglés, the national english program for public elementary schools, and in this capacity has worked extensively with schools and teachers throughout mexico. he has also led workshops and study abroad programs for teachers in peru, colombia, and saudi arabia. he was a fulbright scholar in mexico during the 2011-2012 period. es peter sayer es profesor de educación multilingüe en la universidad estatal de ohio. su trabajo académico se centra en la lingüística aplicada y la sociolingüística educativa, con un enfoque en los estudiantes de programas bilingües y de inglés como segunda lengua (esol). del 2009-2017, colaboró con la secretaría de educación pública de méxico en varios proyectos relacionados con la implementación del programa nacional de inglés, el programa nacional de inglés para las escuelas públicas de primaria, y en esta capacidad ha trabajado extensamente con escuelas y profesores en todo méxico. también ha dirigido talleres y programas de estudios en el extranjero para profesores en perú, colombia y arabia saudita. fue becario fulbright en méxico durante el periodo 2011-2012. it peter sayer è professore di educazione linguistica multilingue presso la ohio state university. il suo lavoro accademico si concentra sulla linguistica applicata e la sociolinguistica educativa, con un focus sugli studenti dei programmi bilingui e di esol. dal 2009-2017, ha collaborato con la secretaría de educación pública del messico in diversi progetti relativi all'implementazione del programa nacional de inglés, il programma nazionale di inglese per le scuole elementari pubbliche, e in questa veste ha lavorato ampiamente con scuole e insegnanti in tutto il messico. ha anche guidato workshop e programmi di studio all'estero per insegnanti in perù, colombia e arabia saudita. è stato borsista fulbright in messico durante il periodo 2011-2012. e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 11, issue 2, december 2024, 53-73 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.2.2936 www.e-journall.org © cucchi 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. research-based projects and reflective journals to promote student engagement in a remote online english linguistics course for professional business communication costanza cucchi università cattolica del sacro cuore di milano received 21 november 2023; accepted 19 september 2024 abstract abstract en the covid-19 pandemic spurred research on the strategies and tools used in remote online teaching to support student engagement. the present study aims to contribute to this research strand by illustrating how two tools that were implemented for this purpose, i.e. research-based projects and reflective journals, were integrated in a remote online english linguistics course for professional business communication during the pandemic. a content analysis of students’ perceptions was conducted through the n-vivo software programme and feedback on the course was examined. results indicated that projects and journals positively impacted on students’ skills, knowledge and attitudes by enhancing interest and reducing the sense of isolation resulting from the lockdowns. it is therefore suggested that research-based projects and journals potentially support student engagement in learning settings which may negatively affect engagement, such as remote online courses. key words: teaching of english linguistics; research-based learning; reflective journals; remote online learning; student engagement es la pandemia del covid-19 impulsó la investigación sobre las estrategias y herramientas que se utilizan en la enseñanza virtual a distancia para apoyar la participación de los estudiantes. el presente estudio fue llevado a cabo durante la pandemia y tiene como objetivo contribuir a esta línea de investigación ilustrando cómo se integraron en un curso virtual a distancia de lingüística inglesa para la comunicación profesional empresarial dos herramientas que fueron implementadas con este propósito, proyectos basados en investigación y diarios de reflexión. se llevó a cabo un análisis de contenido de las percepciones de los estudiantes a través del programa de software n-vivo, y se examinó la valoración sobre el curso. los resultados mostraron que los proyectos y diarios tuvieron un impacto positivo en las habilidades, conocimientos y actitudes de los estudiantes al mejorar su interés y reducir la sensación de aislamiento que resultaba de los confinamientos. por tanto, se sugiere que los proyectos y diarios basados en investigación apoyan de forma potencial la participación de los estudiantes en entornos de aprendizaje que pueden afectar de forma negativa dicha participación, como son los cursos a distancia impartidos de manera virtual. palabras clave: enseñanza de lingüística inglesa; aprendizaje basado en investigación; diarios de reflexión; aprendizaje remoto en línea; participación estudiantil it l’avvento della pandemia di covid-19 ha dato origine a un filone di ricerca sulle strategie e sugli strumenti utilizzati per l’apprendimento da remoto, a supporto del coinvolgimento dello studente a distanza. questo studio si pone lo scopo di contribuire a tale filone, illustrando il modo in cui i progetti basati sulla ricerca e i diari di riflessione sono stati integrati nell’insegnamento da remoto di linguistica inglese, per il corso di comunicazione professionale per l’impresa. facendo uso del programma software nvivo, è stata condotta un’analisi delle impressioni degli/delle apprendenti e dei feedback in merito al corso. i risultati mostrano come questi progetti e diari abbiano un impatto positivo sulle abilità, atteggiamenti e conoscenze degli e delle apprendenti, rafforzando l’interesse e riducendo la sensazione di isolamento indotta dal lockdown. lo studio suggerisce, quindi che i progetti basati sulla ricerca e i diari di riflessione possano essere di supporto per il coinvolgimento dell’apprendente, in circostanze di apprendimento che potrebbero invece incidere in negativo, come nel caso dei corsi online da remoto. parole chiave: insegnamento della linguistica inglese; apprendimento basato sulla ricerca; diari di riflessione; apprendimento online da remoto; coinvolgimento dell’apprendente  costanza cucchi, università cattolica del sacro cuore costanza.cucchi@unicatt.it http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.271 http://www.e-journall.org/ cucchi e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 54 1. introduction as is well known, following the outbreak of covid-19, in-person teaching was suddenly replaced by remote online teaching, i.e. teaching accessible exclusively through the internet (radić et al. , 2021), which involved major changes in higher education (hereafter he) courses. in addition to illustrating these changes, research on the teaching of languages, translation and linguistics in he stimulated reflection on contents, as well as on teaching strategies and tools. in various cases, learner-centred strategies promoting student engagement (e.g. collaço, 2017; kuh, 2009; tight, 2020; trowler & trowler, 2010) were used, for example, the flipped-classroom (atabekova et al., 2021; luporini, 2020; radić, 2021; schmied, 2021; zhang & chen, 2021) and project-based learning (freddi, 2021; zhang & chen, 2021), thus showing how these strategies may be adapted to remote online teaching. in in-person teaching, research-based projects (hereafter rbps) and reflective journals (hereafter rjs) were used to support engagement in various disciplines, including the teaching of linguistics (e.g. chisholm & godley, 2011; erlinda, 2018; filimonova, 2020; wyatt & pasamar márquez, 2015; voorhees & vorobel, 2021 on rbps; ghaouar, 2012; fang & reng, 2018 on rj). however, to the best of my knowledge, the implementation of these tools has not yet been investigated in remote online linguistics courses, which could negatively affect student engagement. during the covid-19 pandemic, student engagement was further threatened because not only were courses taught remotely, but opportunities to socialise were drastically reduced due to the lockdowns. the present study aims to illustrate how rbps and rjs were integrated in a remote online course of english linguistics for professional business communication which was held during the covid-19 pandemic and targeted third year bachelor students of the faculty of linguistic sciences and foreign literatures at the università cattolica del sacro cuore, milan, as will be further described in section 5.1. to investigate whether rbps and rjs were effective in supporting learning in terms of student engagement at a time characterised by markedly reduced socialisation, a content analysis of the students’ rbps and rjs was conducted using the nvivo software programme. the students’ preferences regarding the course topics were examined to obtain feedback on the course. the paper is organised as follows. section 2 focuses on rbps, while section 3 addresses rjs. the research questions and the methodology are presented in section 4 and 5, respectively. section 6 illustrates the organisation of the course of english linguistics which is the object of the present study and explains how rbps and rjs were integrated in the course. section 7 analyses the advantages and difficulties of writing a rbp or keeping a rj as perceived by the students and section 8 examines students’ preferences in terms of course topics. section 9 concludes the study. 2. research-based projects the present section addresses the teaching/research nexus, i.e. the rationale which underlies rbps and related approaches (sub-section 2.1), and illustrates how the nexus may be implemented in teaching practice (sub-section 2.2). sub-section 3 deals with rbls with specific regard to the teaching of linguistics. 2.1. the teaching/research nexus the teaching/research nexus, which shapes much of the identity of he teachers, should be integrated in students’ he. according to healey’s (2005) framework, which is expounded in many of his works (e.g. healey & jenkins, 2009a, 2009b, 2021; jenkins & healey, 2005, 2009; jenkins et al., 2007), there are four approaches through which the teaching/research nexus may be implemented and which differ with respect to content and degree of students’ involvement. regarding content, research-led teaching and research-tutored teaching emphasise content disciplinary knowledge rather than the research methodologies through which disciplinary knowledge is gained. while research-led teaching generally consists in the traditional, teacher-focused transmission of knowledge, research-tutored teaching is student-focused: students are therefore guided through published research and engage in critical discussion of the findings (healey, 2005; healey & jenkins, 2021). on the contrary, research-oriented teaching and research-based teaching emphasise the methodologies by which knowledge is produced. while research-oriented teaching is teacher-focused, research-based teaching is student-focused. in healey and jenkins’ words: “[research-based teaching] require[s] students to undertake research and inquiry. [...]. this means that students become producers of knowledge not just consumers”. (healey & jenkins, 2021, p. 6) research-based projects and reflective journals to promote student engagement e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 55 various terms are interchangeably used to refer to the research-based teaching approach: researchbased learning (rbl) (zeschel, 2010), inquiry-based learning (ibl), guided inquiry, teaching research links/nexus, discovery learning, inductive teaching and learning (spronken-smith et al. 2007), inquiry and undergraduate research (healey & jenkins 2021, p. 12; spronken-smith et al. 2007). problem-based learning (pbl), which refers to investigating “complex, real-world problems with more than one solution” (filimonova, 2020, p. e2), is related to inquiry-based learning (ibl) in a way that spronken-smith et al. (2007, p. 3) call “contentious”. indeed, ibl and pbl are generally regarded as overlapping terms. however, unlike ibl, the term pbl is often applied to questions to which answers already exist, usually takes place in collaborative groups, and covers a shorter span of time, ranging from a class to a few weeks (dale et al., 2003). as the terms suggest, in all the above approaches students take some responsibility for establishing contents, identifying and using resources, as well as assessing their learning, while the teacher acts as a facilitator (spronken-smith et al., 2007). thus, students will understand the subject matter more deeply (healey, 2005, p. 1) and develop their research skills. the benefits of rbl for students were effectively summed up by erlinda (2018, p. 1220): having clear ideas how learning, teaching and research might be more meaningfully integrated; learning how to conduct literature searches, collecting and analyzing data, starting thinking like a specialist or scientist, achieving more sophisticated level of intellectual development, promoting the acquisition of research knowledge and skills, understanding scientific findings, analysing literature critically, speaking effectively and acting as a leader with clear career goal. filimonova (2020, pp. e3-e4) reported that, as compared to lecture instruction, pbl results in enhanced motivation, better retention and application of knowledge, as well as improved mastery of transferable skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving and collaboration. other benefits are increased ability to design a product, preparation for real work, sense of accomplishment and overall satisfaction (filimonova, 2020, pp. e3-e4). despite their differences, there is agreement that rbl, ibl and pbl are all forms of active learning (e.g. healey, 2005; healey & jenkins, 2009b; erlinda, 2018; filimonova, 2020), grounded in constructivism, where students build their learning in interaction with others and with the environment. the benefits of active learning are, among others, improved academic achievement and better interpersonal relationships among the students. learners generally also perceive greater social support and increased self-esteem (filimonova, 2020). 2.2. the teaching/research nexus in teaching practice in teaching practice, the difference between research-led, research-tutored, research-oriented and research-based teaching is generally not clear-cut. as claimed by zeschel (2010, p. 5), “[a]ctual teaching [...] often combines elements of more than one of these idealised types”. similarly, jenkins and healey (2005, p. 21) stated that “[m]any teaching and learning activities may involve a mixture of the four approaches”. however, at least to some extent, it is important for university students to experience research-based activities (healey & jenkins, 2009b) so as to develop skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving. one of the strategies for linking teaching and research in courses and curricula consists in progressively developing students’ understanding of research processes, by incorporating research-based teaching – or inquiry-based-learning – to various extents in activities and courses (jenkins et al., 2007). as explained by spronken-smith et al. (2007, p. 3), [i]nquiry-based learning can go from a rather structured and guided activity, particularly at lower levels (where the teacher may pose the questions and give guidance in how to solve the problem) through to independent research where the students generate the questions and determine how to research them. since, as shown in section 2.1, rbl is a form of active learning, some of the activities indicated in healey and jenkins (2021) as building the teaching/research nexus unsurprisingly coincide with those which promote student engagement, e.g. instructor-guided discussions (williams & villaneuva, 2011), team-based learning (marss, 2011), undergraduate research (holmes & beins, 2011) and reflective journaling (fritson et al., 2011). cucchi e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 56 2.3. research-based learning in teaching linguistics in a recent study, filimonova (2020) claimed that, because of its scientific rigour, linguistics is ideal for implementing research-based learning. in her words: because linguistics is a data-driven, research-based, and highly analytical discipline, it offers many opportunities for development of higher-order thinking skills, including critical thinking, scientific reasoning, and interdisciplinary research and reporting. (filimonova, 2020, p. e1) research shows how rbl and related approaches were implemented in various courses in linguistics. for example, chisholm and godley (2013) reported on inquiry-based activities aimed to raise awareness of dialect, prejudice and power in a high school. in he, wyatt and pasamar márquez (2015) dealt with qualitative research in a ‘starting language research’ course, while voorhees and vorobel (2021) showed how undergraduate research was integrated in a ‘language and culture’ course serving as an introduction to linguistics, with a focus on ethnographic and case studies research methods. erlinda (2018) illustrated the research-based activities in a pragmatics course, while filimonova (2020) illustrated the pbl component of an ‘introduction to linguistics’ course. surprisingly, although spanning across several disciplines as diverse as engineering, medicine, business, sport and tourism, education, geography, archeology, arts and english as native language, healey and jenkins (2021) did not contain any case-study in linguistics. besides illustrating the course contents and organisation, some studies also provided an insight into the students’ perceptions of rbl and related approaches. for example, wyatt and pasamar márquez (2015) relied on student rjs and student interviews to obtain general feedback on the proposed activities. instead, erlinda (2018) and filimonova (2020) conducted a content analysis, respectively of open-ended questionnaires, and of student end-of-year reflections and self-evaluations, by coding and counting the emergent themes. students reported better understanding of research methods (wyatt & pasamar márquez, 2015), enhanced research skills and critical thinking skills, as well as increased responsibility and motivation (erlinda, 2018). filimonova (2020) found other benefits, such as application of knowledge gained in the course to real life, increased motivation and attention to detail. issues regarded time management (erlinda, 2018; wyatt & pasamar márquez, 2015) and the difficulty of the assignments (filimonova, 2020). for a few students, group work was also an issue: they reported, for example, lack of organisation and lack of leadership in the groups (wyatt & pasamar márquez, 2015). 3. reflective journals according to rivera and colleagues (2020, p.1), reflection supports self-directed learning and is “crucial” for learning from experience. grounded in students’ discovery (kessler & lund, 2004, p. 20), reflective learning is the opposite of assimilative learning, which implies accepting beliefs as true without challenging them (hubbs & brand, 2005). although reflective practice can take an “infinite number” of forms (rivera et al., 2020, p. 2), the most popular one is the rj (rivera et al. 2020, p. 1). in journals, students are offered stimuli and are asked to link them to their pre-existing knowledge or experience by recording their thoughts and feelings about their academic and professional achievements (muncy, 2014; park, 2003). reflection may consist in mere observation, in integrating theory with practice or in connecting experiences (rivera et al., 2020, p. 4). as a genre, the journal “falls roughly between the diary and the log” (park, 2003, p. 184). a journal may be written by an individual student and is referred to as a learning journal, personal journal, student journal, learning log, or simply a journal (park, 2003, p. 184). however, a journal may also be written by multiple authors and, in that case, it is called collaborative (liuoliene & metiūniene, 2009, p. 33) or team journal (hubbs & brand, 2005: 66). research on rj regards disciplines which are strongly practice-oriented and require self-reflection, such as clinical education (e.g. fortson & sisk, 2007; jarvis & baloyi, 2020; lasater & nielsen, 2009; ruiz-lópez et al., 2015;) and language teaching. in the latter field, rjs were used, for example, with student teachers (e.g. biria & haghighi irani, 2015; matsuda & matsuda, 2001; munalim, 2017; schulze & ittner, 2021) and with learners of english (e.g. jafarigohar & mortazavi, 2013), also to support reflection on cultural diversity while abroad (e.g. mynard, 2008; prikhodko, 2014). applications of journaling to the teaching of linguistics appear scant. ghaouar (2012) reported on using journals during lessons to enhance content understanding, while fang research-based projects and reflective journals to promote student engagement e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 57 and reng (2018) showed how journals were incorporated into a university optional course of global englishes to help students reflect on their attitudes to the type of english spoken by non-natives. the benefits of journaling consist in encouraging independent learning, learning from experience, supporting the integration of new and old information, helping students identify what they do not understand and understand their learning processes (liuolienė & metiūnienė, 2009; park, 2003). journaling also enhances students’ transferable skills, such as problem-solving, creativity and group interaction. students reported that journaling increased memorisation of concepts (bouldin et al., 2006), ability to link theory with practice (bouldin et al., 2006; watson, 2010) and enhanced critical thinking skills (kessler & lund, 2004, p. 20). students transitioning to work were also helped to reflect on their behaviour (edgar et al., 2013; lutz & paretti, 2019). research also showed that learners got better marks when keeping a journal (fritson et. al., 2016). 4. research questions the present study focuses on the use of rbps and rjs in a course of english linguistics for professional business communication held during the covid-19 pandemic and aims to answer the following research questions: rq 1) how were the rbps and rjs integrated into the remote online course of english linguistics for professional business communication? rq 2) what were the advantages and difficulties of doing a rbp / keeping a rj as perceived by students? rq 3) what were the students’ preferred topics? the answer to rq 1 intends to contribute to the literature on rbps and rjs by showing an example of use of these tools in a course of english linguistics. the answer to the rq 2 aims to examine whether students perceived rbps and rjs as useful tools for supporting their engagement in a remote online course, an aspect that is currently unexplored in the literature. the answer to rq 3 may provide useful indications for future editions of the course while, more generally, revealing topics and areas that deserve more attention in similar courses. 5. methodology sub-section 5.1 provides background information about the course which is the object of the present study, while sub-section 5.2 outlines the instruments and procedures adopted to answer the research questions illustrated in section 4. 5.1. context and participants the course in english linguistics for professional business communication, which has been taught by the author of the present study since the academic year 2007/08, targets third year bachelor students of the languages for companies degree programme of the faculty of linguistic sciences and foreign literatures at università cattolica del sacro cuore, milan. the degree programme aims to train students to become professionals who can manage business relations in different countries and includes a compulsory internship in a company or other organisation, e.g. an embassy or a hotel. the study of two languages for three years – which the students choose among english, french, german, russian, spanish, arabic and chinese – and the study of business disciplines such as business economics, marketing and business finance lie at the core of the students’ curriculum. the study of all languages is organised as follows. each year, students attend practical language classes (120 hours in each language) taught by language instructors (collaboratori esperti linguistici). at the end of the year, the students’ communicative competence is tested through an oral and a written exam. the practical language classes are complemented by a 30-hour institutional linguistics course in each language. the focus is on phonological features (first year), lexico-grammatical features (second year) and professional business communication (third year). given their large number, students of english in each year are divided into two groups (a-k and l-z), respectively attending the course in october-december and february-may. the present study deals with the two editions of the course held in the academic year 2020/21. in that year, a total of 360 students took the final exam. due to the spread of covid-19, staff were allowed to opt for online synchronous teaching or dual-mode teaching – i.e. with some of the students in class and others cucchi e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 58 attending the online synchronous classes from home. since in dual-mode teaching the teacher is supposed to interact with the students in class as well as with those attending from home, who may intervene live or via chat, managing dual-mode courses is particularly difficult. therefore, it was decided to hold the two editions of the course remotely. incidentally, due to governmental regulations prohibiting in-person teaching, dual-mode classes had to be changed into remote online ones twice during the academic year. all remote online courses at università cattolica del sacro cuore took place via blackboard1, the university learning platform. 5.2. instruments and procedures of analysis the contents and teaching methods of the english linguistics course for professional business communication (section 6) result from the author’s reflective account of the activities performed in the academic year 2020/21 and provide an answer to rq 1. to answer rq 2 (section 7), a content analysis was performed on the students’ perceptions of the advantages and difficulties in doing a rbp or keeping a rj in time of lockdown or restricted mobility. content analysis was chosen since it was adopted in previous studies regarding students’ perceptions on the use of journals, in order to identify emergent themes (e.g. biria & haghighi irani, 2015; craig et el., 2016; mynard, 2008; ruiz-lópez et al., 2015; sage & sele, 2015), and offer the students’ experience “in [...] [their] words and voices” (craig at al., 2016, p. 181). to answer rq 3 (section 8), all the submitted rbps and rjs were manually scanned for students’ content preferences and responses to the topics were qualitatively investigated. 6. the english linguistics course for professional business communication: an outline the present section answers rq 1, i.e. how were the rbps and rjs integrated into the remote online course of english linguistics for professional business communication? sub-section 6.1 illustrates the teaching approach and the contents of the course, while sub-section 6.2 shows how rbps and rjs were related to course. sub-section 6.3 addresses how the students’ knowledge and skills were assessed at the end of the course. subsection 6.4 details the number of rbps and rjs produced by the students and analysed in sections 7 and 8. 6.1. teaching approach and disciplinary contents with reference to section 2.2, the approach adopted in the remote online course is research-oriented (healey, 2005), i.e. it is teacher-focused and has an emphasis on research methodologies, as well as on course contents. in the specific case, the teacher emphasised the research methods and models used in english linguistics. however, the course had some research-oriented (healey, 2005) elements, i.e. the emphasis on research methodologies was, at least in part, student-focused, since students were invited to consider texts from a researcher’s perspective. for example, blackboard wikis, which enable students to collaboratively write texts, were set up for students to analyse texts, which were later discussed and corrected in the remote online sessions. the aim of the course was to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to interact effectively and write appropriate texts in professional situations. to reach this aim, selected constructs and methodologies for the analysis of spoken and written discourse were illustrated and students were guided in their application to different business genres. in terms of course contents, the belf (business english as a lingua franca) paradigm was introduced at the beginning of the course (kankaanranta, 2008; kankaanranta & louhiala-salminen, 2013; kankaaranta & planken, 2010; louhiala-salminen et al., 2005) and it was stressed that the paradigm was formulated on the basis of surveys and the analysis of authentic texts. these revealed that business texts written by non-native speakers often contain grammatical and lexical inaccuracies which do not hinder communication. therefore, effectiveness is considered more important than correctness within the belf paradigm. students were then guided to reflect on some of the features which make texts effective: appropriateness to the situational and cultural context, politeness and conformity to generic norms. more specifically, students were guided to identify the elements which affect the degree of formality of texts and were then introduced to halliday and hasan’s (1989) model, which enables one to analyse the environment in which a text is set with reference to the purpose of the text, the participants, and the role played by language. the context of culture was tackled with reference to hall and reed hall (1990) and hofstede (hofstede, hofstede & minkov, 2010), who devised models for comparing national differences across countries. in 1 https://www.anthology.com/products/teaching-and-learning/learning-effectiveness/blackboard. research-based projects and reflective journals to promote student engagement e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 59 linguistics, the two cultural models may be used for cross-cultural comparison. hofstede’s model was applied to illustrate an example of cross-cultural analysis of website texts, drawing on (cucchi (2010). since appropriateness also implies conformity to generic norms, reference was made to bhatia’s (1993) genre analysis. since contextual parameters may affect the degree of (in)formality and (in)directness which is perceived as appropriate, the main features of spoken discourse (carter & mccarthy, 2006) and the basics of politeness theory (brown & levinson, 1987) were studied within a sample of authentic texts, taken for example from the meetings and negotiations offered in koester (2004). the basics of conversation analysis (sacks et al., 1974) were also introduced, so that students may use the conventions which conversationalists rely on as yardsticks against which to compare workplace communication. the textbooks used in the course were cucchi (2016) and cucchi and murphy (2011). 6.2. research-based project and reflective journals students could choose whether they wanted to produce a written assignment, which they would submit for assessment at the end of the course. if they decided to produce the assignment, they could choose either a rbp or a rj. both assignments could be written individually or in pairs. some students asked for permission to write the assignments in groups of three. given the sense of isolation which characterised the lockdowns during the covid-19 pandemic, the permission was granted. no specific word limit was indicated for the assignments, and students were asked to write about ten pages. the rbp consisted in a written paper in which the students were asked to apply the methodological tools which they had acquired in the course to texts/experiences of their own choice. figure 1 shows an outline of the instructions given to the students and explained in a remote online session. analyse two topics of your choice with reference to the content of the course. which aspects shall i analyse? examples are: features of english as business english as a lingua franca; cultural differences; relation between text and context; informal features; politeness strategies; generic moves. what type of data shall i collect? authentic written texts (e.g. job application letters, sales promotion letters, for your information letters, e-mails, ads, signs, pictures, sections from corporate websites); transcriptions of oral authentic texts or of oral texts in films (e.g. job interviews, phone calls, meetings, presentations); interviews to people; personal experiences, reported in writing. where can i take the data from? your internship (e.g. company, hotel, language school, embassy); other companies or organisations (e.g. language school, embassy); your travels, relations with foreigners, texts in english in your city/town; the internet the least interesting option. how shall i analyse the data? this depends on the type of data and on what you want to find out. your analysis may be focused on: a single text; more texts of the same type (e.g. job application letters). your analysis may be cross-cultural cucchi e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 60 you can compare: a text in english with its italian counterpart; a text in native english with an equivalent in non-native english. figure 1. instructions for rbps. rbps had been introduced as an obligatory requirement in the course in the academic year 2017/18. after the outbreak of covid-19 in february 2020, rbps were made optional. at the same time, rjs were introduced as an alternative to rbps, since it was thought that students might find it difficult, in time of lockdown or restricted mobility, to collect the authentic texts and experiences which were at the core of rbps. in their rjs, students were asked to record the activities which they were requested to perform (figure 2). in your rj, please record: when you did the activity; your partner (colleague) in the activity, if any; the title of the activity; your doubts about the information you collected, if any. your achievements; your impressions. figure 2. instructions for rjs. rjs aimed to enhance the students’ motivation, by keeping them engaged in the course, and to help them critically reflect on the topics and on their own learning by keeping a written account of their tasks as well as of their doubts and their learning preferences. 6.3. assessment of the research-based projects and of the reflective journals at the end of the course, students’ knowledge of the course contents and their ability to apply them to short texts was assessed through a blackboard test (20 items), which consisted of 18 or 19 fill-in-the blanks items, with one or two multiple choice or true-or-false items2. the test was administered remotely, with randomised questions and no possibility of backtracking. the set time to complete the test was 25 minutes. a raw score of 8 was fixed to correspond to 18/30, while 20 corresponded to 30/303. in optional rbps and rjs students had the opportunity to further demonstrate their understanding of the course topics and their skill in applying them. rbps and rjs were collected through the ‘assignment’ blackboard facility, which enables the examiner to download all the assignments with a single click. assignments were worth a maximum of three points, which were added to the mark which the students obtained in the test. the assignment score was based on detailed assessment of one topic chosen by the students, following the indications in figure 3. in your rbp/rj, choose the topic you think you dealt with best and explain the reasons why you chose it. explain advantages and difficulties in doing a rbp / keeping a rj in time of lockdown or restricted mobility. if you worked in pairs, state your impressions about your collaboration. figure 3. instructions for the submission of rbps and rjs. 2 the ‘test’ blackboard function enables the instructor to choose among various formats. it was decided to include mainly fill-in the-blank items in the test because, in this format, students were required to understand what type of word is needed, instead of recognising it, and write the word correctly. 3 since blackboard provides scores on the basis of the answers fed into the system by the examiner, the answers considered wrong by the system were manually checked. when considered correct, points were added to the test score. research-based projects and reflective journals to promote student engagement e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 61 6.4. research-based projects and reflective journals as data for analysis a total of 85 assignments, comprising 60 rbps and 25 rjs, were submitted for assessment and analysed in the present study. tables 1 and 2 detail whether the assignments were written individually, in pairs, or in threes. table 1. composition of the rbp data set research-based-projects n. individual 17 in pairs 32 in threes 11 total 60 table 2. composition of the rj data set reflective journals n. individual 10 in pairs 9 in threes 6 total 25 7. advantages and difficulties in research-based projects and reflective journals the present section answers rq 2, i.e. what were the advantages and difficulties of doing a rbp / keeping a rj as perceived by students? sub-section 7.1 explains the nature of the coding procedures followed to guarantee a rigorous analysis of the data. the students’ perceptions of the advantages and difficulties in writing a rbp or a rj are examined in section 7.2. 7.1. coding and data analysis coding is “a major approach to qualitative data analysis” (cohen et al. 2018, p. 668) which consists in “the ascription of a category label to a piece of data, decided in advance or in response to the data that have been collected”. like all qualitative research, the coding process is inherently subjective. dörnyei (2007, p. 38), for example, pointed out that qualitative research is “essentially interpretive”, i.e. “the research outcome is ultimately the product of a researcher’s subjective interpretation of the data”. in addition, “qualitative research is concerned with the subjective opinions, experiences and feelings of individuals” (dörnyei, 2007, p. 38). for these reasons, the quality criteria of validity and reliability, which originated in quantitative research, were substituted, in the qualitative research paradigm, by alternative notions such as ‘trustworthiness’, ‘authenticity’, and ‘rigour’ (dörnyei 2007, p. 49). it is therefore crucial that the researcher provides a detailed account of the procedures s/he followed and presents the findings in “rich-contextualised detail” (dörnyei, 2007, p. 49). to answer rq 2), a word document which contained the students’ observations on the advantages and difficulties in doing a rbp or keeping a rj was created for analysis and elicited through the instructions provided in figure 3. the students’ observations were coded by the author following the rigorous procedures suggested in cohen et al. (2018). as explained by the authors, to perform coding “the researcher goes through the text, marking it with codes (labels) that describe that text” (cohen et al., p. 668). to decide the codes of analysis, two opposite procedures may be used. according to the original grounded theory model (glaser & strauss, 1967), qualitative research should be entirely based on data observation and should not start with literature reviews, since these may bias the researcher’s observation of the data (cohen et al., 2018, pp. 71416). on the contrary, the revised model (strauss and corbin 1990, 2014), which was adopted in the present cucchi e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 62 study, includes deduction and the testing of hypotheses. consequently, in the present study literature reviews were considered as important sources of hypothesis generation for the creation of codes. to decide the codes of analysis, students’ observations were read multiple times to familiarise with the contents and decide the labels to identify the themes mentioned by the students. first, the sentences in the document, which represented the coding units, were annotated using open-coding4. the codes were in part derived from the data and in part from the literature reviews, in a fruitful interplay between inductive and deductive processes, which ensured that “the complexity and comprehensiveness of the data” (cohen et al., p. 669) was retained. axial codes5 were later identified. to code the texts, the content analysis software programme n-vivo6, which also counts the number of mentions of the identified themes, was used. at times, the same unit was coded using more than one category, which is considered “desirable since it maintains the richness of the data” (cohen et al., 2018, p. 677)7. 7.2. findings: the students’ perceptions the present section illustrates the results of the qualitative analysis of the emergent themes in the students’ perceptions, by providing excerpts from their assignments. the excerpts are in their original form and may contain lexico-grammatical mistakes. permission was granted by students to use their assignments for research purposes. table 3 supports the qualitative analysis, showing the emergent themes and the number of their mentions in the students’ assignments. the themes were identified in the students’ rbps and rjs, in response to the stimulus “explain advantages and difficulties in doing a rbp / keeping a rj in this time of lockdown or restricted mobility. if you worked in pairs, state your impressions about your collaboration”8. in the examples, rbp and rj indicate the type of assignment. initials of the students who completed the assignment are provided in parentheses, thus also indicating whether the assignment was carried out individually, in pairs, or in threes. table 3. advantages and difficulties in doing a rbp/keeping a rj in time of lockdown/restricted mobility. themes n. of mentions skills 84 learning 50 feelings of well-being 39 means of communication 36 pandemic 35 internship 9 lessons 3 regarding the ‘skills’ they acquired, students mentioned collaboration (n=37), organisation and time management (n=26) and research skills (n=21). regarding collaboration, which was mentioned in the wording of the assignment, the students positively regarded various aspects linked to teamwork, such as the greater chances of interacting, finding new ideas, comparing multiple perspectives, linking ideas, learning from each other, increasing creativity, solving problems and completing tasks. some of these aspects are represented in 4 an open code is “simply a new label that the researcher attaches to a piece of text to describe and categorise that piece of text” (cohen et al. 2018, p. 671). 5 an axial code is “a category label ascribed to a group of codes whose referents (the phenomena being described) are similar in meaning. (e.g. concern the same concept)” (cohen et al. 2018, p. 671). 6 https://lumivero.com/products/nvivo/ 7 dörnyei (2007, p. 61) mentions peer checking as a possible strategy to obtain feedback on coding, but stresses that “it is often difficult to find someone who is both competent and ready to engage in this time-consuming activity”. 8 the type of assignment chosen by the students, as well as their decision to work individually or in collaboration, may have impacted on the emergent themes. however, the present analysis does not intend to quantitatively investigate the distribution of these themes across the two variables, also considering that the size of the rbp and of the rj data sets is markedly different. research-based projects and reflective journals to promote student engagement e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 63 (1). students who focused on the difficulties involved in collaboration stated that they successfully dealt with them (2). 1) we decided to do this assignment together because working in team increases collaboration and allows brainstorming. [...] [o]thers in a team can help you to see things from a different point of view. three people are always better than one for solving problems, finishing off difficult tasks, and increasing creativity. (rbp a.l., g.m., s.m.) 2) the fact that we had to work in three, at first has been kind of difficult, only because at first we had to compare our answers trying to reach a common point of view. after a while though, we managed to work very well together and we are satisfied of what we had achieved. (rj f.f., g.g., g.m.) the students reported positive feelings of well-being: enjoyment and interest (n=17), sense of achievement (n=14) and social support (n=8). for some students, interest (3), sense of achievement (4) and increased social support (5) derived from their collaboration. 3) it was interesting to create a project together because we had the possibility to discuss our ideas and compare the final results. (rbp m.m., m.s.) 4) we were able to collaborate, supporting each other in case of doubts, and we couldn’t be more satisfied of the final result! (rbp s.b., m.g.b.) 5) despite all the difficulties we faced for the realization of this project caused by the measures of social distancing, we felt closer than ever in writing the project because we felt really involved in our assignment. (rbp a.c., n.m.f.) however, interest (6), sense of achievement (7) and even increased social support (8) were also reported by students who wrote their assignments individually 6) it was a really good activity for me, very stimulating. i worked alone because due to the corona virus pandemic i couldn’t meet with my friends, so i decided to do it by myself. again, this decision made it more stimulating and interesting. (rj c.f.) 7) if i had to find a downside, i would say that keeping a rj is not as easy as it seems to be, because it took me time to do all the task. but it was worth it! (rj c.l.) 8) i believe that writing a rj gave me the opportunity to explain what i had learned, and which were the most difficult parts to understand. in a way the rj was a kind of “friend”, studying the same subject, to whom i could explain all my doubts and certainty about this subject. (rj l.g.) while some students perceived collaborating in distant mode as difficult (9), others did not mention problems and, on the contrary, appreciated the role of technology (10). as illustrated in tables 1 and 2 (section 6.4), some students decided to work on their own. in this case, there were very few mentions of the reasons (11). 9) it was very difficult to get together to do this project. in fact we had to do everything via chat and video calls, we adapted to this tough time of the pandemic. (rbp i.d., e.f.) 10) working together was not demanding, and organising work from home was quite feasible. (rbp s.b., m.g.b.) 11) i decided to do it alone and i would probably do the same choice even if i was at university. indeed, i do not like working in team very much, even if i know that it is important to share ideas and opinions. (rj c.l.) cucchi e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 64 the second most frequently mentioned skill after ‘collaboration’ was ‘organisation’. students very frequently mentioned the means of communication which enabled them to work collaboratively in distant mode (12). in this respect, there were mentions of the fact that that working from home helped students save time (13). occasionally, reference was made to work management, in particular to task distribution (14). however, organisation skills were also required when working individually (15). 12) we used apps such as skype, teams and facetime to make video-calls, in order to interact live and coordinate the job. (rbp – m.m., e.s.) 13) the pro of working with technology is that we waste less time because we don’t need to use public transport to get to our destination, for this reason we have more time to study since we go back to what we were doing as soon as we close the call. other than this we can also organize things last minute because we only need to turn on our computers. (rbp – d.a., s.a.) 14) we divided the found materials and we discussed them together. (rbp – n.c., a.r., f.s.) 15) the only disadvantage i could find in keeping a rj is that it needs to be completed constantly and therefore it requires much time and effort. however, i believe that to reach every goal time and effort need to be invested. (rj – l.g.) a few mentions regarded research stages – data collection (n=8), deciding content of the assignment (n=6), data analysis (n=4), organisation of the findings (n=3) – which pointed to the fact that some students realised that they were practising their research skills. at times, students specified how they chose the topics and organised the findings (16) or how they managed to collect the authentic texts to be analysed (17). there were very few mentions of the process of analysis: one student, however, made an interesting comment on the enhancement of her analytical skills (18). 16) based on our internships and experiences, we decided the structure of the project and defined the most relevant aspects to be analysed. (rbp s.b., m.g.b.) 17) this project was really interesting, because gave me the opportunity to discover and analyze the communication in the work field. i did not find it difficult, because i collected the material by asking my family and friends. (rbp – c.c.) 18) in composing the rj, the hardest part for me was to observe every little detail and then write them out. at the very same time, this is also an advantage, because after practicing all along, i became more attentive, so that's also why i put it in one of my most precious achievements. (rj – s.l.) regarding ‘learning’, mentions mainly regarded ‘enhancing knowledge’ (n=40). (19) shows a mention of enlarging knowledge (n=15) and (20) of deepening knowledge (n=11). 19) when i started writing this project i had no idea how many things could be learned through conversation analysis. (rj – a.c.) 20) we particularly enjoyed doing the rj since it has enabled us to better understand the topics and to get interested into the subject. (rj – v.a., m.g.b.) there were a few mentions (n=9) of the chance to link theory and practice, labelled ‘application of knowledge’ (21), and of the chance to observe the type of communication used in the workplace (n=5), labelled as ‘workplace’ (22). 21) doing a task every week helped me better understand topics and it also made me realize that studying theoretical concepts does not mean knowing how to put them into practice. (rj – e.b.) research-based projects and reflective journals to promote student engagement e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 65 22) we really enjoyed working on actual emails and challenging ourselves getting into the real professional world. (rbp – s.m.r., v.t., b.v.) another category which emerged from the data was ‘revising’ (n=10): it was felt that assignments were a chance to revise content, test skills and correct mistakes (23). 23) i believe that writing a rj gave me the opportunity to explain what i had learned, and which were the most difficult parts to understand. (rj – l.g.) the ‘pandemic’ category revealed how the students felt during the lockdown. generally, working remotely was perceived as more difficult (24) and students wished they could have worked in-person (25). 24) working during a pandemic was challenging, because the restrictions didn't allow us to meet freely. (rbp – g.b., m.c., v.e.) 25) since we are facing a difficult time of our lives with various restrictions, it was not possible to meet as much as we desired despite living close to each other. (rbp – b.m., g.f.) however, a few students reported that technological devices enabled them to work in a way which they were already familiar with (26). the ‘means of communication’ category gave an insight into the wide variety of tools which students who worked collaboratively used to replace face-to-face meetings: e-mails, whatsapp, skype, teams, zoom and facetime. 26) working together during this quarantine has not been so difficult as one might think. i was able to video call my partner and, as we already had done this before during normal classes at university (we both are far from xxx [city name]), we didn’t have much difficulties. (rj – c.p., c.l.) the ‘internship’ category revealed that, at least for some students, it had a key role for the choice of the topics in their research-based projects (27). few mentions regarded the lessons (28). 27) after doing my first internship in a firm, i decided to write down my impressions and integrate what i have studied to what i was doing. the best way to do so was to write this project. (rbp – f.o.) 28) in this course i had the chance to interact with other people and with [...] [the professor], who allowed us to take the floor many times in order to express our opinions about some topics we dealt with during our lessons. i really appreciated the fact of talking and having some kind of debates with our professor, because in such a way the lessons were very productive. moreover, [...] [the professor] offered us another means of communication, the so-called wikis, which are collaborative papers that we can use to work together on a given topic. these wikis have been the main source for the writing of my essay. (rj – a.b.) 8. the students’ preferred topics the present section answers rq 3, i.e. what were the students’ preferred topics? a word document which contained a list of the topics which students had chosen for assessment in their rbps and rjs and their comments on their choice was created for analysis in response to the instructions provided in figure 3 (section 6.4). this prompted the students to think critically about their work. table 4 shows the number of students’ assignments in which each topic or methodology was mentioned. cucchi e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 66 table 4. topics chosen by students in rbps and rjs. topic n. of students’ assignments in which the topic is mentioned e-mails 17 spoken feature 15 websites 15 culture 13 sales promotion letters/e-mails 4 belf 3 job application letters 3 context of situation 2 interview on the use of english in companies 2 genre analysis 1 meetings 1 negotiations 1 phone calls 1 politeness theory 1 total 79 a few assignments contained no indications regarding the students’ preferred topic, while in other cases more than one topic was mentioned; for this reason the total number of mentions in table 4 (i.e. 79) does not match the total number of assignments in tables 1 and 2 in section 6.4 (i.e. 85). in addition, some assignments contained no explanation of the reasons why specific topics were chosen. further, in a few cases students mentioned more than one topic, explaining that they had analysed specific texts from multiple perspectives (29). the mention of more than one topic generally pointed to high awareness of the methodologies, as well as of the genres tackled in the course. 29) i decided to analyze […] belf and the features of informality in email communication. this choice was guided by my personal interest of the topics. i chose […] belf […] for a funny reason. i don’t even remember how many times, i made fun of my father because of the weird english he speaks and during the second lesson of the course, i discovered that it was, somehow, a recognized language. as soon as he got home, i told him about the existence of belf and he was surprised just like me that the language that he and his clients use in emails is not so wrong as we thought it was. and for this reason, i decided to put it first, because it reminds me of my father and something that we’ve always joked about, but, unfortunately, i can no longer do because it is a language in its own right. (rj – a.b.) as shown in table 2, the students’ favourite genres were e-mails and websites. the students’ choices were based on the perceived centrality of these genres in their everyday lives and in the business domain (30). moreover, students felt that the importance of both genres had increased during the covid-19 pandemic (3132). 30) i think that studying how to write an appropriate and correct business email will help me in the future, when working in a company and having to relate with colleagues, employers, clients, and suppliers. (rbp – s.b., m.g.b.) research-based projects and reflective journals to promote student engagement e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 67 31) since the beginning of our university experience we have been sending emails very frequently in order to communicate with professors and companies (above all now thanks to our curricular internship experience). such email exchanges with companies and professors started to be even more frequent since the outbreak of the pandemic. (rbp – m.b.) 32) during this pandemic, corporate websites have become very important to present companies and sell their products and services online. (rbp – g.l., i.m.) other topics which attracted the students’ attention were the features of spoken discourse and culture. the analysis of spoken features was seen as a chance to reflect about what is generally taken for granted in conversation (33), as well as of closely examining the language used in films and tv series (34), one of the main sources of informal contact with english (pavesi & ghia, 2020). 33) the topic i liked the most during the course is the analysis of spoken features. i found it very interesting, since i have never thought about the fact that a simple telephone conversation with a friend could have so many technical aspects that we are used to using, even if we are not aware of them. in fact, i had already studied the features of written texts before, during other courses, but none of my teachers focused on the importance of spoken discourse in our life. (rj – c.l.) 34) we decided to analyze a portion of a script from one of our favorite tv series: ‘how to get away with murder’. our decision is purely based on the fact that we find it very interesting to be able to closely analyze the sentences spoken by the characters. (rbp – l.f., b.c.) students felt that cultural models could contribute to their understanding of the cultures of the people who use english as a lingua franca (35), of their native culture (36), of the cultures linked to the languages they study and of the cultures which they got to know during their internship (37). 35) [culture] is an essential issue [...] regarding the business field, because the world is more and more globalized and, even if the language used to communicate is english (belf), in most cases, culture influences how english is spoken. (rj – a.b.) 36) the topic analyzed is romanian and italian cultures. the reasons why i chose romanian culture and italian culture are: for first i was born in romania, and i grew up there studying, so i understood the differences between these two cultures. (rbp – b.c.) 37) i had the opportunity to work for two months for xxx, an italian company operating in the industrial sector. [...] decided to focus my analysis on three countries that are considered to be the most important for the company in terms of turnover and number of orders: these are the netherlands, germany, and czech republic. (rbp – g.g.) albeit much less frequent, comments on other topics were found. (38) refers to the context of situation, while (39) is related to politeness. 38) [the context of situation] [...] should be considered fundamental as it is mirrored in the language we use (and vice versa) [...]. [...] the context is necessary for both translation and comprehension. we were amazed by its significance since it is something that we usually do not even notice [...]. [...] [o]nce we have studied it, we could not do without it. [...] we decided to examine in depth this topic and to consider it as one of the most valuable learnings acquired during our studies. (rj – m.q., s.z.) 39) the concept of positive and negative face was a new topic for us: in studying positive and negative politeness strategies we learnt how to express ourselves and to mitigate the so called “face threatening acts” during everyday and business conversations. (rj – c.m., c.v., d.v.) cucchi e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 53-73 68 9. discussion and conclusions the present study has shown how rbps and rjs were integrated into a remote online university course grounded in linguistics, a topic which was given limited attention in the literature. the use of these pedagogic tools may be adapted to similar he courses, both in-person and online. this study has also explored whether rbps and rjs were successful in supporting student engagement in a remote online course, which is an aspect which had not been investigated in previous literature. the content analysis of the students’ perceptions has shown that rbps and rjs supported student engagement during the covid-19 pandemic, at a time when opportunities to socialise were drastically reduced. overall, the positive results mentioned in the literature regarding in-person teaching have been confirmed. in particular, students stated that rbps and rjs had a major influence on the skill of collaborating, thus confirming filimonova’s findings (2020) regarding the teaching of linguistics. many other aspects mentioned in the literature emerged from the students’ writings. with respect to skills, beside collaboration, the students mentioned organisation and time management (filimonova, 2020) as well as research skills (erlinda, 2018; filimonova, 2020). moreover, the students perceived that their learning was positively affected in terms of breadth and depth (healey, 2005) and considered the assignment as a chance to apply acquired knowledge (bouldin et al., 2006; filimonova, 2020: pp. e3-e4; park, 2003: p. 185; rivera et al., 2020, p. 4; watson, 2010) and to link theory and practice (bouldin et al., 2006; watson, 2010). thus, it was confirmed that “the act of writing is associated with learning or the enhancement of learning” (liuolienė & metiūnienė, 2009: 33). finally, students reported that completing the assignment improved their well-being by enhancing their interest (erlinda, 2018; filimonova, 2020) and their sense of achievement, as well as their perception of greater social support (filimonova, 2020). these positive results suggest that rbps and rjs may be used to support engagement even in remote online learning. given the positive effects of rbps and rjs on students’ skills, knowledge and attitudes, an issue to be considered when using them is whether to make assignments, which were optional in the present case, an obligatory part of the final assessment, so that all the students are required to engage in rbps or rjs and may benefit from them. a further issue to be considered is whether to use the assignments for formative assessment, therefore providing feedback to the students during the course, since the feedback provided in this form was found to lead to better outcomes (jafarigohar & mortazavi, 2013). in the course that was illustrated in this study, time constraints linked to the high number of students unfortunately make these solutions unviable. the study also aimed to analyse the students’ preferred topics, in order to obtain possible indications about future editions of the course as well as, more generally, about students’ interests. e-mails and websites were shown to be the favourite course topics, i.e. students preferred the genres which are closer to their everyday experience and whose importance grew during the pandemic. these were followed by spoken features and culture. research methodologies, such as genre analysis and politeness, were very rarely mentioned. this may point to the greater interest, on the students’ part, in research outcomes rather than in research methodologies. this result also suggests that methodological aspects are probably harder for students to grasp and should be paid special attention. the study also has a documentary character: it provided insights into the difficulties experienced by students while learning remotely during the covid-19 pandemic and showed the key role played by various means of communication – e-mails, whatsapp, skype, teams, zoom and facetime – which enabled students to quickly adapt to the new circumstances, thus collaborating and breaking the isolation characterising the lockdowns. regarding the limitations of the study, it should be considered that comments on collaboration were invited in the wording of the assignments, and this may have affected the indication of this skill as the most positively affected by rbps and rjs. in addition, a desire to please the teacher may have led the students to focus on positive results. however, this latter limitation is shared by previous studies based on the students’ views (e.g. biria & haghighi irani, 2015; 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(2010). research-based learning in the linguistics classroom. in said sahel, & ralf, vogel (eds.). 11. norddeutsches linguistisches kolloquium (nlk2010 hamburg) (pp. 1-21). costanza cucchi, università cattolica del sacro cuore di milano costanza.cucchi@unicatt.it en costanza cucchi, phd in applied linguistics and communication, is an associate professor in english language, linguistics and translation at the faculty of linguistic sciences and foreign literatures at the università cattolica del sacro cuore in milan. she has published on english in corporate communication, the relationship between language and national identity, and language teaching with specific regard to intercultural aspects. she teaches undergraduate courses in english linguistics for professional communication, english linguistics and negotiation strategies, holds workshops in intercultural communication for master students, and is involved in teacher training. es costanza cucchi es doctora en lingüística aplicada y comunicación, y profesora titular de lengua inglesa, lingüística y traducción en la facultad de ciencias lingüísticas y literaturas extranjeras de la universidad católica del sagrado corazón de milán. sus publicaciones han tratado el inglés en la comunicación empresarial, la relación entre lengua e identidad nacional y la enseñanza en lenguas con especial atención a aspectos interculturales. imparte cursos de grado sobre lingüística inglesa para la comunicación profesional, lingüística inglesa y estrategias de negociación, realiza talleres sobre comunicación intercultural para estudiantes de máster, y participa en la formación de docentes. it costanza cucchi, dottore di ricerca in linguistica applicata e comunicazione, è professoressa associata di lingua, linguistica e traduzione inglese presso la facoltà di scienze linguistiche e letterature straniere dell’università cattolica del sacro cuore di milano. è autrice di pubblicazioni sull’inglese nella comunicazione aziendale, sulla relazione tra lingua e identità nazionale, e sull’insegnamento della lingua con particolare riferimento agli aspetti interculturali. insegna ai corsi di laurea triennale di comunicazione per l’impresa, linguistica inglese e strategie di negoziazione, tiene seminari sulla comunicazione interculturale per studenti master ed è coinvolta nella formazione docenti. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2021.52.1260 e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 11, issue 1, june 2024, 1-17 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.1.2906 www.e-journall.org © facciani 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. parents’ multilingual storytelling in the school setting: exploring influence on family language practices chiara facciani university for foreigners of siena received 29 august 2023; accepted after revisions 22 february 2024 abstract en the family language policies (flp) that parents establish while communicating with their biand multilingual children are essential to the development of their children’s linguistic repertoire and multilingual development. the involvement of parents in the implementation of multilingual pedagogies in preschool settings can play a fundamental role in fostering awareness on topics related to multilingualism. this paper explores school-based multilingual storytelling activities conducted by parents in a preschool in northern italy. the activity was designed as part of the project l’altroparlante (carbonara & scibetta, 2020), an italian network of schools which adopted multilingual pedagogies at curricular level. the findings suggest that involving parents in multilingual pedagogies has an influence on family language use as they encourage children’s linguistic diversity awareness and parents’ biliteracy planning. parents’ involvement in multilingual pedagogy can be a useful strategy to build inclusive home-school collaborations and to guide parents in reflecting about their flp and in shaping storytelling activities in their home languages. key words: multilingual pedagogies, multilingual storytelling, home-school collaboration, family language policies es las políticas lingüísticas familiares (plf), que las familias adoptan en la comunicación con sus hijos e hijas bio multilingües, son esenciales para desarrollar el repertorio multilingüe en la infancia. la participación de los progenitores en la realización de prácticas pedagógicas multilingües en entornos prescolares puede desempeñar un papel fundamental en la promoción de la conciencia sobre el multilingüismo. en este artículo se examinan actividades de storytelling multilingüe realizadas por las familias de una escuela infantil del norte de italia. la actividad es parte del proyecto l’altroparlante (carbonara & scibetta, 2020), una red de escuelas italianas que han adoptado metodologías multilingües a nivel curricular. se observa que la participación de las familias en actividades escolares multilingües también influye en la lengua utilizada en el hogar, ya que estas fomentan tanto la conciencia de la diversidad lingüística en los niños y las niñas como la planificación de una alfabetización bilingüe por parte de los progenitores. la participación de las familias en la formación multilingüe podría ser una estrategia útil de colaboración inclusiva entre familia y escuela, para guiar la reflexión sobre las plf y ayudarles a crear sus propias actividades de storytelling en los idiomas hablados en su hogar. palabras clave: pedagogía multilingüe, storytelling multilingüe, colaboración familia-escuela, políticas lingüísticas familiares it le politiche linguistiche familiari (flp) adottate dai genitori nella comunicazione con i loro figli bio multilingui sono essenziali per ampliare il loro repertorio multilingue. coinvolgere i genitori nella realizzazione di pratiche multilingui può promuovere la consapevolezza su alcuni temi del multilinguismo nei genitori stessi. l’articolo esamina attività di storytelling multilingue realizzate dai genitori degli alunni di una scuola materna del nord italia. l’attività fa parte del progetto l’altroparlante (carbonara & scibetta, 2020), una rete di scuole italiane che adotta metodologie multilingui a livello curricolare. i risultati suggeriscono che il coinvolgimento dei genitori in attività scolastiche multilingui influisce sulla lingua usata in famiglia, poiché esse incoraggiano i bambini alla consapevolezza sulla diversità linguistica, e i genitori alla programmazione di un’alfabetizzazione bilingue in famiglia. la partecipazione dei genitori alle attività scolastiche multilingui può essere utile per instaurare collaborazioni casa-scuola inclusive, per guidare alla riflessione sulle flp e alla creazione autonoma di attività di storytelling nelle varie lingue parlate a casa. parole chiave: pedagogia multilingue, storytelling multilingue, collaborazione casa-scuola, politiche linguistiche familiari  chiara facciani, university for foreigners of siena. chiara.facciani@unistrasi.it http://www.e-journall.org/ facciani e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 2 1. introduction classrooms across the globe are becoming more linguistically and culturally heterogeneous, yet most educational systems remain based on monolingual practices. in addition, schools that offer bilingual programs do so by considering mainly languages with a prestige status such as english and by keeping the languages of instruction separated (cummins, 2021). this is also the case for italian mainstream education, where the languages brought to the classroom by students with migratory backgrounds tend to disappear and where multilingual speakers are constrained into an italian-only language policy. in limited contexts around the world (carbonara & scibetta, 2022; cuny nysieb, 2021; duarte & günther-van der meij, 2020; little & kirwan, 2019), things are now slowly changing as research draws attention to the positive outcomes of recognising and validating the use of all the languages of the classroom in the teaching and learning process for both emergent bilingual and monolingual students. this growing attention on multilingual pedagogies points to benefits for both monolingual and multilingual children (carbonara, 2022; juvonen & källkvist, 2021; ascenzi-moreno & espinosa, 2018; maynard & armand, 2016) as well as for the whole educational community (carbonara & scibetta, 2022; cummins, 2019; creese & blackledge, 2010). due to the lack of materials in the minority languages, multilingual pedagogies often include the involvement of parents to provide linguistic input in other languages (which are not the school’s main language). even though bi/multilingual parents play an essential role in the multilingual classroom activities (i.e., translating words, reading stories in their mother tongue, illustrating culture-specific traditions), research is yet to investigate if and how parent-led activities in a multilingual pedagogy influence family language practice as part of family language policies. this study explores the influence of multilingual pedagogies, with a specific focus on multilingual storytelling and on parents whose children attend a public nursery school in northern italy. the paper investigates the ways in which multilingual pedagogies (and in particular storytelling activities) have an influence on family language practices. specifically, it examines the impact of multilingual storytelling activities on the participants of the study and on their language use and biliteracy practices with their children in the home setting. the extent to which the involvement of parents in multilingual pedagogies have an impact on parents and on children is also investigated. additionally, the expected results are designed to support educators in building inclusive and participatory home-school collaborations while guiding multilingual parents in shaping reading activities in the home languages with their children from an early age. 2. theoretical framework in this section, the two main theoretical perspectives that this study draws from are presented, and previous studies on similar issues are discussed. section 2.1 focuses on the concept of multilingual pedagogies, with specific attention to the involvement of parents in multilingual classroom activities (e.g., storytelling activities). section 2.2 describes literacy activities (e.g., storytelling activities) as part of family language policies. 2.1. multilingual pedagogies the term multilingual pedagogies refers to educational instructions that include the development of classroom activities based on the recognition of the students’ linguistic repertoires and on the fact that all the languages in the class are considered as valuable tools for learning. moving away from a monolingual ideology and from the separation of languages that characterises bilingual school programs around the world, the term multilingual pedagogies indicates different pedagogical approaches such as the translanguaging pedagogy developed by the cuny-nysieb (cuny-nysieb, 2021), the council of europe’s “éveil aux langues” (awakening to languages) approach (council of europe, 2012), and the “identity text” approach (cummins & early, 2006). despite some differences, these pedagogies share a common understanding of the importance of drawing on students’ mother tongues and of the positive effects that this practice can have on the entire class. research that investigated the implementation of multilingual classroom activities highlighted the positive outcomes of adopting multilingual teaching and learning strategies without having a negative impact on learning the school language. further studies also reported the development of students’ metalinguistic awareness (leonet et al., 2020; candelier, 2017), the positive impact on emergent bilinguals’ literacy outcomes (carbonara et al., 2023; kirwan, 2020; ascenzi-moreno & espinosa, 2018), the creation of inclusive and democratic classroom environments (menken et al., 2018; brown, 2012), a change in the educators’ attitude towards bilingualism and multilingualism (scibetta & carbonara, 2020) and a positive influence on the learning process of another language (cummins, 2000; hopp & thoma, 2021; turnbull, 2019). parents’ multilingual story-telling in the school setting e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 3 2.1.1. parents’ involvement in multilingual pedagogies as outlined by lotherington (2008), no matter how polyglot, no teacher adopting multilingual pedagogies can be expected to know how to communicate in all the languages of each child in the class. for this reason, amongst the actors involved in the implementation of multilingual pedagogies in the classroom, parents play a significant role. as described in the european union report eurydice (2019), almost all european educational systems stress the importance of the collaboration with parents and carers as it is considered essential for pupils’ integration (eurydice, 2019). in this vein, research underscored the relevance of involving parents in school life (e.g., attending school meetings, helping with homework) and creating positive homeschool relations since these can influence students’ academic outcomes (santos et al., 2016; wilder, 2014; jeynes, 2012). nevertheless, the same european report (eurydice, 2019) also specifies that, according to some school headteachers, when parents do not speak the majority language (e.g., the school language) their involvement and collaboration in school activities tend to be lower (eurydice, 2019). similarly, kirsch and bergeron-morin (2023) specify that parental involvement can be difficult because of existing power relations which do not allow parents with minority home languages to be heard and valued in the school setting. the collaboration with parents in the context of multilingual pedagogies can contribute to overcoming such power barriers and creating a more inclusive school environment. 2.1.2. parents’ collaboration through storytelling previous studies examined the potential of direct involvement of bi/multilingual parents with a migratory background in the multilingual activities as part of multilingual pedagogies. for instance, there are studies which analysed parents’ involvement in a variety of activities such as homework, translation of words, and reading activities (armand et al., 2021; cummins & early, 2006; hélot & young, 2006; kambel, 2019; kirsch & bergeron-morin, 2023; svensson & svensson, 2022). amongst the multilingual activities that parents can be involved in, storytelling has the potential to create meaningful linguistic exposure. stories can help to establish a positive attitude towards other languages (krashen, 2004), moreover, given its oral and social dimension, storytelling can be an emotionally positive experience for the students (masoni, 2018). in addition, exposure to storytelling in other languages can foster students’ listening and comprehension skills (hemmati et al., 2015) and support understanding and word memorising processes (cabrera & martı́nez, 2001). despite considering parents’ direct involvement in the multilingual activities, current research has not examined the influence of parent-led multilingual activities on family language practices. hence, in this study, the involvement of parents in the implementation of multilingual storytelling activities will be examined, together with the influence of such activities on family language practices. 2.2. family language policies despite the assumption which characterises the italian society as monolingual, the linguistic reality of many italian households can indeed be described as bilingual or multilingual. an increasing number of students whose parents migrated to italy, grow up with more than one language, i.e., the home language and the language of instruction. the growing field of research into family language policy (flp) investigates the dynamics and motivations that determine the loss and maintenance of immigrant groups’ and translational families’ home languages (curdt-christiansen, 2013). research on flp has investigated a variety of issues such as (1) the influence of macro-level language policies (e.g., national language policy, language in education policy) on flp dynamics (lane, 2010; canagarajah, 2008), (2) parents’ language planning at home through specific strategies such as one parent-one language or minority language-only at home (baker, 2011; caldas, 2012), (3) parents’ attitudes and ideology and how they affect flp (piller & gerber, 2018) and (4) everyday bi/multilingual family interactions (hiratsuka & pennycook, 2020; van mensel, 2018; soler & zabrodskaja, 2017). while it is essential for each family to formulate and implement its unique flp, research suggests a significant positive impact when children are exposed to two or more languages from an early age. contrary to potential concerns, such exposure has been shown to not negatively impact language development; instead, it actively supports and enhances it (cummins, 1979; sorace, 2007). 2.2.1. storytelling as a family language practice within the framework of flp, language planning is an integral component, encompassing deliberate strategies and decisions made by families to actively support the development and maintenance of specific languages within the household. reading activities at home fall into the variety of strategies parents might adopt. the languages in which the parents decide to carry out storytelling practices at home depends on the facciani e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 4 flp, with a specific focus on the language identified for the home literacy. storytelling is a normal activity parents engage in with their children (helms-park et al., 2022) and, amongst other literacy practices, has the potential to develop children’s early skills such as phonological awareness and vocabulary outcomes (niklas & schneider, 2017; tamis-lemonda et al., 2014). drawing on these considerations, it can be said that (the parental) home language literacy is fundamental to the development of the children’s multilingual repertoire (schalley & eisenchlas, 2022; de houwer, 2020; unsworth et al., 2019). this seems to be particularly significant for emergent bilinguals who receive their education in their l2, and whose exposure to their l1 might be limited to the home environment. in these circumstances, multilingual pedagogies (carbonara & scibetta, 2020; cummins & early, 2010) can play a fundamental role to foster parents’ awareness on topics related to bi/multilingualism and language choices, and to support their storytelling practices at home. 3. study method: research context, participants and data collection this paper examines the influence of parent-led multilingual pedagogies (i.e., multilingual storytelling activities) on family language practices as part of family language policies. the participants of the study took part in a multilingual activity which entailed bi/multilingual parents reading children picture books in italian and in their home languages in an early years department. this paper intends to investigate whether and how multilingual parent-led storytelling activities in class influence family language practices. 3.1. research context the study took place in a nursery section of an early years department at a school in northern italy. since 2021, the early years department has been taking part in the project l’altroparlante (carbonara & scibetta, 2020), a network of italian schools that since 2016 have adopted multilingual pedagogies at curricular level. l’altroparlante is a transformative action-research project (garcía & kleyn, 2016) where researchers from the university for foreigners of siena (carbonara & scibetta, 2022) and teachers from six italian schools co-design and implement multilingual pedagogies in class. drawing on previous theoretical and practical implementations of multilingual pedagogies (i.e., de mauro’s democratic linguistic education (2018); cummins and early’s identity text approach (2006); the cuny-nysieb’s translanguaging pedagogies (2021); the pluralistic approaches of the council of europe (council of europe, 2012)), l’altroparlante project’s main goal is to support the development of students’ multilingual repertoires and to create inclusive and democratic learning environments that accept and value linguistic and cultural diversity. in order to do that, a variety of activities are carried out such as training courses and workshop sessions with teachers on topics regarding multilingualism, regular meetings with teachers to co-plan multilingual activities, and presentations with parents regarding multilingual activities at school and at home. by focusing on parent’s involvement, this study builds on the l’altroparlante project whereby different aspects of multilingual pedagogies were already investigated such as (1) teachers’ practices and beliefs regarding multilingual pedagogies (carbonara & scibetta, 2022; carbonara, 2022), (2) students' perspectives and uses of their multilingual repertoires (scibetta & carbonara, 2020) and (3) the influence of multilingual pedagogies on students’ literacy outcomes (carbonara et al., 2023; carbonara, 2022). 3.2. data collection the participants of this study are mothers (n=15) whose children attend the nursery section where the study was conducted. the participants were recruited with the support of the school staff that has a direct connection with the parents and that offer an italian language course to support minority language mothers to learn the language of their children’s schooling, i.e. italian. the data collection process was divided into three phases. the first phase, conducted in march 2023, included the administration of a sociolinguistic questionnaire to the participants of the study. the questionnaire was designed in three sections to collect the following information: (1) participants’ socio-demographic and linguistic information; (2) participants’ attitudes towards bi/multilingualism; (3) participants’ reading habits at home. with the help of professional translators and interpreters, the questionnaire was translated into the home languages of the participants, allowing them to freely choose the language to use when filling in the questionnaire (n=3 replied in urdu; n=5 in english; n=5 in arabic; n=2 in italian). the second phase of the data collection, in the months of april and may 2023, was the observation of the storytelling activities in class. this phase was designed in the following way: parents’ multilingual story-telling in the school setting e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 5 1. two visits to the local library with the participants’ italian language teacher (the first visits were aimed at allowing the participants to familiarise themselves with the place; the second visit allowed each participant to choose one book or picture book for the storytelling activity in class) 2. two sessions with the school staff to read and familiarise with the materials chosen 3. three storytelling sessions in class. the storytelling activities in class involved 74 children, with 59 children belonging to families with a migratory background. the age of the students that attended the storytelling activities ranged between 3 and 5 years old and their linguistic repertoires involved their home language (mainly urdu, punjabi and arabic) as well as italian, which is the language of instruction. the third phase, in june 2023, included carrying out two focus groups with the same participants to test whether the activities had an influence on family language practices. the focus groups were conducted with two professional mediators. one focus group, involving 10 participants, was carried out with the support of an urdu and punjabi mediator and the other focus group, including 5 participants, was conducted with an arabic mediator. each focus group lasted approximately 90 minutes. with regards to the ethics, participants’ consent was collected at the beginning of the study. moreover, privacy authorization forms for the minors that attended the storytelling activities were gathered. in this paper, the data collected through the questionnaires is analysed through descriptive statistics to understand the participants’ background and their family language practices, with a specific focus on the home language. in addition, the data collected through the class observations was coded into categories in order to scrutinise the intervention’s dynamics (klette & blikstad-balas, 2018). finally, the data collected through the focus groups was transcribed and the analysis was conducted with the use of the software nvivo, following the qualitative content analysis framework (mayring, 2000). according to this method, the researcher conducts a data-driven analysis where categories (‘nodes’), which is to say recurring patterns in the data, can be identified. the qualitative (assigning the categories) and quantitative (the frequency of the categories) analysis is systematic and context dependent as it is committed to understanding and reporting participants’ viewpoints (hoffman et al., 2012; mayring, 2014; schreier, 2014). moreover, the patterns are then classified into existing theoretical categories (e.g., family language policies, multilingual storytelling, home literacy, etc.). 3.3. participants the sociolinguistic questionnaire made it possible to collect information on the participants’ background as well as on their family language policies with a particular focus on storytelling activities at home prior to the multilingual activities. the participants are all female and their age ranges from 27 to 40 years old. they are all stay-at-home parents and live in a small town in northern italy. they come from india (n=5), pakistan (n=5), morocco (n=4) and egypt (n=1). the participants identified their mother tongues as arabic (n=5), punjabi (n=6), urdu (n=2), urdu and punjabi (n=2). all the participants are resident in italy and their time spent in italy ranges from 6 to 19 years. more than half of the participants (54%) are university-educated, 27% have a high school diploma, 13% have a middle school diploma and 7% did not provide information on their education. as described in section 3.2, the participants attend an italian language course organised by the school their children attend. according to their self-evaluation of their knowledge of italian, 56% of the participants describe their speaking skills as ‘intermediate’, 25% as ‘good’ and 19% as ‘basic’. in addition, 46% of the participants described their italian reading skills as ‘excellent’, 40% as ‘good’, 7% ‘intermediate’ and 7% as ‘basic’. regarding their writing skills in italian, 40% of the participants described them as ‘good’, 33% as ‘intermediate’ and 7% as ‘excellent’. finally, 60% of the participants described their listening skills in italian as ‘good’, 27% as ‘excellent’, 6.5% as ‘intermediate’ and 6.5% as ‘basic’. regarding the participants’ linguistic background and family language policy, the data collected shows that most of the participants (n=13) live with their husband or partner while the rest (n=2) live with their extended family. as table 1 shows, the majority (n=9) describes their family language policy as bi/multilingual, while the others (n=6) describe it as monolingual (e.g., arabic-only, and urdu-only). facciani e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 6 table 1 the language used at home language(s) at home number of participants family language policy arabic-only 4 monolingual urdu-only 2 monolingual arabic and italian 1 bilingual urdu and italian 1 bilingual urdu and punjabi 1 bilingual punjabi and english 1 bilingual urdu, english and italian 1 multilingual punjabi, english and urdu 4 multilingual to better define their flp, further questions were asked in relation to the specific home activities and practices that the participants carry out with their children, such as language use while sharing a meal and watching television as table 2 below shows. table 2 language use during specific home activities home activities never rarely sometimes often always use of italian while sharing a meal 0% 20% 26% 27% 27% use of home language while sharing a meal 0% 20% 20% 20% 40% use of italian while watching tv 0% 0% 23% 31% 46% use of home language while watching tv 0% 18% 27% 18% 37% the answers to these questions show two different practices. firstly, the activity of watching tv tends to happen more often in italian compared to the same activity in the home language. this might be influenced by the monolingual italian tv screening. secondly, amongst the participants, those who replied ‘always’ or ‘often’ to both questions regarding the activities (share a meal and watch tv) in their home language, are the ones that share arabic as a home language. in relation to this, participants that described their practices as involving many languages were also asked what determines which language to use. 33% of the participants replied that the language choice depends on which language their child will understand better, 28% said it depends on what language comes to their mind, 28% said it depends on where they are and 11% on what they are talking about. regarding storytelling activities, the questionnaire made it possible to collect data on the participants’ reading and storytelling practices at home. participants were asked if there are moments dedicated to reading with their children at home and, if there are, how often and in which language(s). the majority of the participants (n=13) answered ‘yes’ when asked whether there are moments dedicated to storytelling at home, two participants (n=2) answered ‘no’ and one participant did not reply. moreover, the participants were asked in which language storytelling is conducted at home as the table 3 below shows. table 3 reading and storytelling practices at home storytelling practices never rarely sometimes often always storytelling activities in italian 0% 27% 13% 27% 33% storytelling activities in the home language 13% 0% 20% 27% 40% similarly to the data presented in table 2, the data presented in table 3 shows that the majority of the participants that replied ‘always’ regarding storytelling in their mother tongue are arabic speakers. moreover, the same participants also replied ‘rarely’ to storytelling in italian. on the contrary, the participants whose mother tongue is punjabi, explained that storytelling takes place more often in italian. in addition, the same participants also pointed out that, if they read in a language different from italian they usually read in english. in addition, the questionnaire aimed to understand if the parents could access materials to conduct readings in multiple languages (i.e. home language and italian) and if they were satisfied with the resources parents’ multilingual story-telling in the school setting e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 7 available to raise their children with more than one language. most of the participants (n=10) declared they did not have materials at their disposal to read in their home language. similarly, the same number of participants (n=10) stated they were not satisfied with the available resources. the data presented in this section made it possible to identify the participants’ language use at home and their habits in relation to storytelling. drawing from this context, the following sections illustrate the analysis and findings. 4. analysis and findings this section will discuss the main findings of the study. first, section 4.1 describes the data collected through class observations and section 4.2 outlines the results related to the influence of the activity on family language practices. 4.1. the storytelling activities in class three sessions dedicated to multilingual storytelling were carried out through class observations. the books, picture books and silent books were selected by the participants at the local library with the help of their italian language teacher and they covered topics appropriate to the children’s age group (3-5 years old) such as animals, friendship, etc. the storytelling was conducted by the parents in urdu, punjabi, arabic, english, italian and wolof. these activities were organised in a common room where the parents entered and waited for the children. each child knocked at the door and asked for permission to enter the room in the language they wanted, similarly the parents replied in their mother tongues. through this introductory moment, a new ‘shared’ multilingual space was created where all the languages brought by the parents and the children were accepted, valued, and used. the observations made it possible to identify two similar but different activities: (1) plenary storytelling moments and (2) small-group storytelling moments. during the (1) plenary storytelling moments, the 15 participants were divided into couples with one participant reading in italian and one participant reading in her mother tongue. the reading was conducted with the students arranged in a semi-circle and the two participants sitting in front of them. to support the children’s comprehension and participation, the storytelling was carried out in a dialogic way by asking them questions and translations, and by giving verbal and non-verbal confirmation. moreover, the participants adopted strategies such as emphasizing key words with the tone of voice, with gestures, and in some cases, with the support of a projector where the book’s pages were screened. despite the participants’ familiarity with the materials, as detailed in section 3.2, their actions remained spontaneous as they independently decided how to engage during the activities. the second type of storytelling activity that was identified through class observations was organised in (2) small groups. each group was led by a parent that read the same book that the children had listened to during the plenary reading. this activity was more informal and allowed a greater participation from the children. parents allowed children to speak, they asked them questions, pointing to pictures in the books, and added information. table 4 below illustrates the participants involved in every session and the activities conducted. the observation made it possible to see that the parents’ participations were different. some mothers were more open and eager to speak to the entire class in both their mother tongue and in italian, whereas other mothers only used italian while communicating ‘outside’ the storytelling moments. finally, through the observation, a participatory and inclusive environment was observed which offered an example of direct home-school collaboration which benefited the three parties involved: the children’s interest and participation showed their positive reaction to the activity, the teachers were able to see the parents with their children in an informal but still school-related setting, and the mothers experienced a new kind of involvement with the school by becoming the protagonists of the activity since they brought their linguistic knowledge to the class facciani e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 8 table 4 storytelling activities in class session participants involved location activities languages session 1 26 students, 2 teachers, 16 parents1 common room 1. students’ entering the room 2. plenary storytelling conducted by 6 participants 3. small group storytelling conducted by 6 participants italian, arabic, urdu; wolof1 session 2 24 students, 2 teachers 16 parents common room 1. students’ entering the room 2. plenary storytelling conducted by 4 participants 3. small group storytelling conducted by 6 participants italian, arabic, punjabi, english session 3 24 students, 2 teachers 16 parents common room 1. students’ entering the room 2. plenary storytelling conducted by 6 participants 3. small group storytelling conducted by 6 participants italian, urdu, punjabi, arabic 4.2. the focus groups: after the activities drawing on the context described in the previous sections, the analysis of the focus groups conducted after the storytelling activities is presented in this section. in order to do that, excerpts of the focus group transcriptions are provided. since the focus groups were conducted with mediators, the excerpts report the interpretation provided by them and not the participants’ direct speech. the analysis of the data collected through the focus groups and conducted through nvivo software identified 8 codes structured into main nodes and child nodes (sub-nodes) that represent the recurring patterns in the participants’ discourse. in this paper, the excerpts related to the influence of the multilingual storytelling activities on family language practices and language use are presented and analysed. 4.2.1. parents’ experience during the storytelling activities in general, the participants described the activity as a positive experience to them. amongst the 12 references identified through the node ‘participants positive experience’, 10 references draw attention to the confidence that reading in italian and in their home language gave to the participants, whereas 2 references describe the emotion of pride that the participants felt while reading in their mother tongue. for instance, participant 3 explains that the activity helped her to reduce her fear and anxiety of reading in italian. excerpt 1, p3 p3: dice che è stata una bella occasione. prima fare una frase (in italiano) era difficile magari per la paura o il primo step, adesso invece non ha più ansia e quando i bambini chiedono (di leggere) riesce a farlo. p3: she says it was a great opportunity. before making a sentence (in italian) was difficult perhaps due to fear or the first step, but now she no longer has anxiety and when the children ask (to read) she manages to do it. the participant’s words suggest that removing these negative sensations while reading in italian, allowed her to read a story in italian at home whenever her children wanted to. hence, it could be said that the acquired confidence has an influence on the literacy practices at home with a specific focus on those moments where the child requests a reading moment in italian. similarly, participant 4 explains that the multilingual activity allowed her to acquire confidence in reading in italian. 1 in total, the number of the parents involved in the activity is 16, yet one participant (wolof mother tongue speaker) did not fill in the questionnaire and did not participate in the focus group. parents’ multilingual story-telling in the school setting e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 9 excerpt 2, p4 p4: gli ha dato più confidenza, è passata la paura di leggere in italiano. p4: it gave her more confidence, the fear of reading in italian has disappeared. on a similar note, the positive sensations felt by the participants are also related to the practice of reading in their mother tongue. excerpt 3 reports participant 12’s pride in reading in her mother tongue. excerpt 3, p12 p12: ha detto che si sentiva fiera perché comunque era una sua lingua che leggeva davanti agli italiani che comunque per lei sono stranieri. ma si sentiva proprio fiera a usare la sua lingua. p12: she said she felt proud because in any case it was her language that she read in front of italians who are foreigners to her anyway. but she felt really proud to use her language. participant 12’s words highlight her pride in reading in her mother tongue (i.e., arabic) in front of italians. similarly, participant 14 also stresses the sensation of pride she felt. excerpt 4, p14 p14: ha provato un senso di orgoglio leggendo la storia nella madrelingua p14: she felt a sense of pride reading the story in her native language in opposition to these positive feelings, the corpus also includes two references to the participants feeling uneasy when reading in their mother tongue in class. for instance, participant 10 describes the storytelling experience in her mother tongue as ‘strange’. excerpt 5, p10 p10: ha detto che si sentiva un po' strano, perché comunque parlava arabo in mezzo agli italiani p10: she said she felt a bit strange, because she was speaking arabic among the italians on a similar note, participant 13 also defines the experience as ‘strange’. excerpt 6, p13 p13: si sentiva un po' nello spazio. sì, perché era un po' strano. p13: she felt a bit in space. yes, because it was a bit strange. participant 13’s use of the expression ‘in space’ suggests that these kinds of activities are not the norm, hence reading in arabic in an italian nursery school felt as out of the ordinary. 4.2.2. classroom activity influence on flp in addition to the participants’ sensations regarding the storytelling activity, the analysis also identified the main node ‘influence on the language use at home’, comprising 22 references. amongst these, four child nodes (sub-nodes) can be identified, e.g., ‘children linguistic diversity awareness’, ‘multilingual storytelling practices’, ‘library visits’ and ‘language use at home’. regarding the node, ‘children linguistic diversity awareness’, participants reported occasions in which their children, after having attended the storytelling activity in class, expressed interest and awareness in language diversity. for instance, one participant reported that her son, after having been exposed to the multilingual storytelling activity in class, started asking her mother to translate one italian word in punjabi (e.g., the home language) but also in wolof (e.g., one of the languages involved in the activity) since he was exposed to that language during the activity. excerpt 7, p5 p5: allora ha detto che suo figlio ha imparato questa abitudine che chiede in italiano una parola in punjabi, chiede come significa in italiano, però chiede anche in wolof, ma lei il wolof non lo sa. p5: then she said that her son has acquired this habit that he asks in italian a word in punjabi, he asks how it is in italian, but he also asks in wolof, but she doesn't know wolof. facciani e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 10 the excerpt underscores that amongst the implications of carrying out multilingual storytelling activities, children’s linguistic diversity awareness should be considered. more specifically, children’s appreciation and curiosity regarding other languages and, in general of language diversity. similarly, participant 8 explained that after hearing her mother reading in urdu in the class, her children asked whether in pakistan stories exist too. excerpt 8, p8 p8: lei ha detto che quando ha letto la storia in urdu, i bambini hanno chiesto ‘mamma anche in pakistan esistono le storie?’ ‘certo che ci sono le storie’ lei ha detto. sono entrati in un altro mondo ha detto. p8: she said that when she read the story in urdu, the children asked ‘mom do stories exist in pakistan too? ‘of course, there are stories’ she said. they have entered another world she said. participant 8’s words highlight two issues. firstly, that one of the consequences of the multilingual activities is their children becoming aware of language diversity, with a specific focus on the fact that stories ‘exist’ in multiple languages and, as the child put it ‘in other countries too’. secondly, by saying ‘they have entered another world’ the participant suggests that such activities open a new world for the children, since they get exposed to a new reality that incorporates more languages. the analysis made it possible to identify that the request to reproduce the reading came from the children. for instance, participant 4 explains that she read in italian to her younger son, yet, after the activity, he asked her to read in punjabi too. excerpt 9, p4 p4: con mio figlio piccolo leggo in italiano e lui chiede mamma tu leggere anche in punjabi. p4: with my little son i read in italian, and he asks ‘mum, you read in punjabi too’. similarly, participant 1 shares that her daughter wants the storytelling moments to be alternated in urdu and in italian. excerpt 10, p1 p1: lei adesso alterna, sua figlia a volte vuole ascoltare in urdu a volte in italiano. p1: she now alternates, her daughter sometimes wants to listen in urdu sometimes in italian. in addition, the data suggests that on other occasions, the multilingual storytelling activity is suggested by the mothers. for instance, participant 5 explains that she repeated the multilingual storytelling at home, whereas before she was only using board books with simple words to read to her child. excerpt 11, p5 p5: è il primo anno che è entrato qua e magari anche prima lei non dava importanza alle storie. magari portava qualche libricino con i nomi di frutta o degli animali. invece per lei adesso è più interessante proprio alla storia. lo ripropone (attività storytelling). p5: it's the first year she has come here and maybe before that she didn't give importance to the stories. maybe she brought some little books with the names of fruit or animals. instead, for her now it is more interesting precisely the story. she reproposes it (the storytelling). this excerpt highlights that the influence in this case is not only on the language itself but on the literacy experience as a whole. the participant used to read books with simple vocabulary to her child, whereas after the storytelling activity, her interest shifted to the story as a narrative, and she replicated the storytelling practice at home. excerpts 9, 10 and 11 made it possible to identify that the multilingual class activity also had an influence on the storytelling activities at home, suggesting that the school practice encouraged both mothers and children to repeat the activity in the home setting. in a broader sense, the activity seems to have had an influence also on language use. the participants gave examples of tending to use two languages at home more frequently (home language and italian) after the activity and reported their children’s growing interest in their home language. participant 2 explains that, after parents’ multilingual story-telling in the school setting e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 11 the activity, she started using both languages (punjabi and italian) more, for example by asking her children to translate punjabi words into italian. excerpt 12, p2 ha cambiato perché lei chiede ai bambini che cosa significa. lei dice una parola in punjabi e i bambini dicono la traduzione. she changed because she asks the kids what it means. she says a word in punjabi and the children say the translation. on a similar note, participant 14 reports her children’s interest in punjabi (her mother tongue) after the class activities. excerpt 13, p14 però è stato bello perché così almeno il suo interesse (dei figli) è aumentato anche in punjabi. but it was nice because at least his interest (of her children) also increased in punjabi. this is in line with previous studies within the l’altroparlante project, that underscored that valuing all the languages of the class had a positive effect on emergent bilinguals since they feel included and valued and, as a consequence, they feel prone to use their home language more often (carbonara & scibetta, 2020). finally, the last sub-node identified in the analysis is related to the development of a new habit of going to the library. as explained in section 3.2, the visits to the local public library were part of the activity and they took place before the reading activity in the class. in relation to this, from the corpus of data collected, two references mentioned the new habit of going to the library. for instance, participant 3 reported that after the activity she now goes to the library with her son to choose books. excerpt 14, p3 e quindi è arrivato l’interesse di andare in biblioteca, di scegliere il libro, di portare il suo bambino. adesso vanno (in biblioteca) lei e il suo bambino. and so, the interest in going to the library, to choose the book, to bring your child arrived. now she and her child go (to the library). as excerpt 11 also underscored, excerpt 14 highlights the impact of the activity on the whole literacy perspective. in this case, the reference is the practice of going to the library and of choosing the books to read to her child. 5. discussion and conclusion the study presented in this paper investigated the influence of parent-led multilingual activities in class on family language practices. the participants were involved in multilingual storytelling activities in class, with the intention of making home languages visible and creating an inclusive and democratic learning environment. the findings show that parent-led storytelling activities influence family language practices in various ways. firstly, in relation to the parents, the qualitative analysis conducted shows that the activity implemented had an influence in terms of boosting parents’ confidence in reading in italian at home and pride while reading in the mother tongue in class. moreover, the findings also suggest that the implementation of multilingual pedagogies that directly involve the parents can support them in creating bi/multilingual storytelling moments at home. as reported in the previous section, parents reproduced the same activity at home, they managed to satisfy their children’s request of reading in a specific language, and they took interest in storytelling, suggesting that the activity enhanced reflection on family language policies and on the planning and practice of literacy moments at home. in addition, the activity encouraged parents’ visits to the local library. secondly, in relation to the children, the analysis illustrates that children can benefit from multilingual learning activities in terms of language diversity awareness, development of interest in their home language and in storytelling. these findings are consistent with prior research that underscores the positive influence on children's development and learning when educators and parents collaborate (aleksić et al., 2024; lastikka & lipponen, 2016). in the context of this intervention, the direct participation of parents in classroom activities not only influenced home language practices but also impacted home literacy activities. this suggests that the facciani e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 12 collaborative efforts contributed to enhancing children's development in different ways such as in terms of children’s curiosity towards languages, and questions, and demand for reading. furthermore, drawing from the participants’ background detailed in section 3.3, it can be asserted that the socio-educational backgrounds of the participants likely played a role in the predominantly positive outcomes of the activity. unlike some other studies (ankrum, 2016; svensson et al., 2022), where parents with migratory or low socio-economic background faced challenges in collaborating with schools, in this study, most participants have an educational background and were in the process of learning italian. this factor may have positively influenced their engagement and collaboration. in addition, the observations make it possible to identify that involving parents created a positive and participatory home-school collaboration. the moments dedicated to the multilingual reading changed the usual class settings in two ways. first, parents became the centre of an activity which directly involved them as protagonists. secondly, the activity stressed the attention on the knowledge (the mother tongues) brought by the parents into the school environment. this aligns with prior research on multilingual education (cunynysieb, 2020; cummins, 2019), which emphasizes that this approach helps to address challenges related to parents' involvement and collaboration, particularly in overcoming language barriers and differences in educational approaches (svensson, 2022), in reshaping discourses of power and control over languages different from the majority one (cunningham, 2019) and in valuing parents’ contribution to education (barnett et al., 2020). as highlighted in the literature (kirsch & bergeron-morin, 2023; kao, 2004), one of the problems of building positive home-school collaboration and involvement is the language barrier. in this case, placing the home language and the parents at the centre of the activity makes it possible to ‘give a voice’ to the parents and to value all the languages as suggested by the participants’ feeling of pride. this is also consistent with european recommendations (european commission, 2014) that advocate for the promotion and appreciation of family involvement in early childhood services, especially of immigrant parents who may encounter issues of segregation and exclusion. overall, this paper offered insights into the involvement of parents in literacy activities in class as part of multilingual pedagogies. therefore, it contributes to studies in the fields of multilingual pedagogies and early literacy. the limitation of this study could be identified as the small number of parents that took part in the study. this was mainly because many parents do not regularly attend the italian language class and, therefore, did not attend all the visits to the library and prepare for the storytelling practice. nevertheless, despite being limited to a small context, this study might have implications for other nurseries since the activities presented could be replicated in other contexts. by planning multilingual pedagogies that involve parents, educators can support the creation of inclusive and participatory home-school collaborations which, in the short and long term, can benefit all the actors (parents, children and educators) involved. 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göteborgs universitet. svensson, sofia, donoso, alejandra, & svensson, gudrun (2022). strategies for collaboration between school and parents: homework in general and translanguaging homework in particular. humanette, 84-112. https://doi.org/10.15626/hn.20224805 tamis-lemonda, catherine s., luo, rufan, & song, lulu (2014). parents’ role in infants’ language development and emergent literacy. in susan h. landry & cary l. cooper (eds.), wellbeing in children and families (pp. 91-110). wiley blackwell. turnbull, blake (2019). translanguaging in the planning of academic and creative writing: a case of adult japanese efl learners. bilingual research journal, 42(2), 232-251. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2019.1589603 unsworth, sharon, brouwer, susanne, de bree, elise, & verhagen, josje (2019). predicting bilingual preschoolers’ patterns of language development: degree of non-native input matters. applied psycholinguistics, 40(5), 1189-1219. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0142716419000225 van mensel, luk (2018). ‘quiere koffie?’ the multilingual familylect of transcultural families. international journal of multilingualism, 15(3), 233-248. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2018.1477096 wilder, sandra (2014). effects of parental involvement on academic achievement: a meta-synthesis, educational review, 66(3), 377-397. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2013.780009 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108669771 http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446282243 https://doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2020.1768397 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198568773.003.0014 https://doi.org/10.15626/hn.20224805 https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2019.1589603 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0142716419000225 https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2018.1477096 https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2013.780009 parents’ multilingual story-telling in the school setting e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 1-17 17 chiara facciani, university for foreigners of siena chiara.facciani@unistrasi.it en chiara facciani is a postdoc fellow at the linguistic centre of the university for foreigners of siena. in 2022, she completed a phd in translation, interpretation, and interculturality from the university of bologna, focusing on communicative interactions in multilingual and superdiverse settings, as well as on multilingual speakers’ language ideologies. she is currently coordinating the l’altroparlante project, a network of italian schools that implement translanguaging pedagogy at the curricular level. her research interests include multilingual education, bilingualism, and interactional sociolinguistics. es chiara facciani es investigadora postdoctoral en el centro lingüístico de la universidad para extranjeros de siena. en 2022, terminó su doctorado en traducción, interpretación e interculturalidad por la universidad de bolonia, centrándose en las interacciones comunicativas en contextos multilingües y de superdiversidad, así como en las ideologías lingüísticas de hablantes multilingües. actualmente es la coordinadora del proyecto l'altroparlante, una red de escuelas italianas que realiza actividades pedagógicas translingüísticas a nivel curricular. su campo de investigación incluye la formación multilingüe, el bilingüismo y las interacciones sociolingüísticas. it chiara facciani è una assegnista di ricerca per il centro linguistico dell’università per stranieri di siena. nel 2022, ha concluso il dottorato di ricerca in traduzione, interpretazione e interculturalità all’università di bologna, concentrandosi sulle interazioni comunicative in contesti multilingui e di super-diversità, nonché sulle ideologie linguistiche dei parlanti multilingue. attualmente è la coordinatrice del progetto l’altroparlante, una rete di scuole italiane che realizza attività pedagogiche translinguistiche a livello curricolare. il suo campo di ricerca include la formazione multilingue, il bilinguismo e le interazioni sociolinguistiche. e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 2, december 2023, 9-31 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.2.2748 www.e-journall.org © hartle 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. from learner corpus to data-driven learning (ddl): improving lexical usage in academic writing sharon hartle università degli studi di verona received 19 may 2023; accepted after revisions 14 october 2023 abstract en despite considerable discussion in the literature (flowerdew & peacock, 2001; hyland, 1998; tang, 2012) competent english academic writing is still a problem which needs to be solved. english for academic purposes (eap) teaching often focuses on specialized lexis, which may, however, be the area where academic writers need least help. the study of a small corpus of c2 level academic writing which consisted of the sub-genres of summary and discussion writing revealed that one key area which is problematic is collocation. this paper presents the results of this small corpus investigation into learner language and how it informed the classroom implementation of data-driven learning (ddl) to increase learner awareness of and ability to use collocations effectively in written academic english. the article briefly describes the corpus and the resulting teaching procedure adopted. the first step of this procedure is familiarization followed by experimentation using sketch engine (skell). key words: learner corpora, data-driven learning, english for specific academic purposes (esap), academic lexis analysis, collocation es a pesar de una considerable discusión en la literatura (flowerdew & peacock, 2001; hyland, 1998; tang, 2012), la escritura académica competente en inglés sigue siendo un problema que necesita ser resuelto. la enseñanza de inglés con fines académicos (eap) a menudo se centra en léxico especializado, que, sin embargo, podría ser el área donde los escritores académicos necesitan menos ayuda. el estudio de un pequeño corpus de escritura académica de nivel c2, que constaba de los subgéneros de resumen y de discusión, reveló que una de las áreas problemáticas clave es la colocación. este artículo presenta los resultados de esta pequeña investigación de corpus sobre la lengua de los y las aprendices, y explica cómo informó la implementación en el aula del aprendizaje basado en datos (data driven learning-ddl) para aumentar la conciencia del aprendiz y su capacidad para usar colocaciones de manera efectiva en el inglés académico escrito. el artículo describe brevemente el corpus y el procedimiento de enseñanza resultante adoptado. el primer paso de este procedimiento es la familiarización, seguida de la experimentación con el uso de sketch engine (skell). palabras claves: corpus de aprendices, aprendizaje basado en datos, inglés con fines académicos específicos (esap), análisis del léxico académico, colocación it nonostante l’esistenza di un'ampia discussione in letteratura (flowerdew & peacock, 2001; hyland, 1998; tang, 2012), la competenza nella scrittura accademica in inglese rimane ancora un problema da risolvere. l'insegnamento dell'inglese per scopi accademici (eap) spesso si concentra su lessico specializzato, che potrebbe, tuttavia, essere l'area in cui gli accademici necessitano di meno aiuto. lo studio di un piccolo corpus di scrittura accademica di livello c2, composto dai sottogeneri di riassunto e discussione, ha rivelato che una delle aree problematiche è la collocazione. questo articolo presenta i risultati di questa indagine su un piccolo corpus di lingua appresa e come essa ha orientato l'attuazione in classe dell'apprendimento guidato dai dati (data driven learning ddl) per aumentare la consapevolezza degli apprendenti e la capacità di utilizzare le collocazioni in modo efficace nell'inglese accademico scritto. l'articolo descrive brevemente il corpus e la procedura di insegnamento risultante adottata. il primo passo di questa procedura è la familiarizzazione, seguita da sperimentazione con l'uso di sketch engine (skell). parole chiave: corpus di apprendenti, apprendimento guidato dai dati, inglese per scopi accademici specifici (esap), analisi del lessico accademico, collocazione  sharon hartle, university of verona sharon.hartle@univr.it http://www.e-journall.org/ hartle e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 10 1. introduction academic work submitted to peer review often meets with requests for non-native speaker authors to seek native speaker revision of the english. the aim of this article is not to debate the whys and wherefores of peer review but, nevertheless, at least one interesting conclusion may be drawn from this common request. this is the fact that the need for both university students and academics to improve their level of written english is still very much an issue. this has been discussed widely in the broader esp literature (flowerdew & peacock, 2001; hyland, 1998; tang, 2012) but is still a problem, which is far from being solved (ennis & mikel petrie, 2020; hartle et al., 2022; littlewood, 2014). the use of appropriate lexis is of particular importance when establishing an academic register, and awareness of academic lexis is key when developing academic skills such as reading (hyland & tse, 2009). this is certainly the case when writing, as academic writing is a register that needs to be learned since there are no “native users of academic language” (lew et al., 2018). english for academic purposes (eap) teaching often focuses on the development of lexis but this tends to be the specialized lexis required for specific disciplines, which may be the area where academic writers need least help. what may cause considerable difficulty, on the other hand, is lexical usage (hyland 2006; flowerdew, 2015). for this reason, the learner corpus 22 (lc22), which this paper draws on, was developed at the university of verona, department of foreign languages and literatures, as the central component of a learner language production study, undertaken to inform the development of a learning design model for academic english writing courses coordinated by our department. it is a small corpus of c2 level academic writing, produced by post-graduate students, which consists of the sub-genres of summary and discussion writing. although the project is still in its infancy and the corpus is to be extended to provide a diachronic view of learner production, it provided us with a cross-sectional snapshot of some of the strengths and weaknesses of learner writing. initial findings revealed the problematic usage of lexis, and in particular effective word choice and collocation. this, in turn, led us to choose a data-driven learning (ddl) approach, which we hoped would also develop learner independence, for our courses. this paper focuses on the key, initial results of this small corpus investigation into learner-generated language and the way in which the findings, subsequently, informed the classroom implementation of datadriven learning. the aim was to help students of eap improve their awareness of and ability to use collocations effectively in written academic english. the article briefly describes the research design of the academic writing study itself, together with the corpus, its compilation, and its analysis. the second part of the article describes the resulting two-step learning design, which was implemented in english for specific academic purposes (esap) courses. in this approach, learners are firstly familiarized with common collocation errors and secondly, they are introduced to corpus interfaces designed for language learning. a guided discovery approach (bruner, 1961) is used to help them to experiment with ddl to improve their own use of collocations when writing. the main tool used for this is the sketch engine for language learning (skell)1, a freely accessible interface, which enables tailored web searches for a range of collocations and synonyms. 2. collocation in language learning linguists traditionally define collocation as co-occurrence over a range of a few words to either side of a specific item (halliday, 1994; sinclair, 1991), without necessarily considering their semantic properties (macis & schmitt, 2017). from a pedagogical viewpoint, however, the focus is rather on collocation as phraseological, lexical combinations which co-occur, but which also have a reciprocal relationship of varying degrees. these are largely determined by convention, such as ‘miss’ as a verb which collocates with the noun ‘train’, rather than ‘lose’ which italian l1 speakers may choose, transferring ‘perdere’ into the english ‘lose’ without considering that the meaning will vary in the collocation. mutual reciprocity, first suggested by firth, with his widely cited phrase “you shall know a word by the company it keeps” (firth, 1957) may refer to different distributions, but the most useful notion for learners is that the meanings are created by the reciprocity of the collocates. this reciprocity may be considered to fall on a continuum from weak to strong (conzett, 2001), or free to restricted (nesselhauf, 2003), where, for instance, ‘a friendly dog’ has weak reciprocity. in an expression such as to ‘throw in the towel’, on the other hand, the reciprocity is strong, depending on what conzett refers to as the expectation created by one element in the collocation that the other will co-occur. 1 sketch engine for language learning (skell) https://www.sketchengine.eu/skell/skell-web-interface-for-englishlanguage-learning/ (last accessed april 8, 2023). https://www.sketchengine.eu/skell/skell-web-interface-for-english-language-learning/ https://www.sketchengine.eu/skell/skell-web-interface-for-english-language-learning/ improving lexical usage in academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 11 2.1. advanced l2 learner usage problems l2 learner difficulty with collocation has often been seen to be problematic in language production (bahns & eldaw, 1993; durrant & schmitt, 2009; granger & bestgen, 2014) particularly at intermediate to advanced levels. two aspects which emerge from the literature, are, firstly, the question of frequency, in that low frequency, or rare collocations, tend to be under-used (granger & bestgen, 2014). secondly, restriction, as mentioned above, is also an issue (durrant & schmitt, 2009). what is noticeable from the results of such research, is, also, that learners tend to mismatch those collocations that are in the middle of the free-restricted range. this refers to the choice of constituent parts that can combine with other elements as well, such as ‘missing’ and ‘trains’, where the collocation cannot be considered fixed. ‘miss’, indeed, may collocate with a range of items, and has different meanings resulting from the reciprocity relationships: ‘miss (feel nostalgic) my friends’, ‘miss (not do something in time) the deadline’, ‘miss (not reach) a target’. conzett (op. cit., p. 70) advises focusing pedagogically on medium strength items, which, when combined, are possibly more useful for learners than extremely rare or fixed items, questioning a tendency to focus on teaching low frequency items at advanced levels. the question of which items to focus on is also problematic (timmis, 2008); therefore, it may be more appropriate to increase learner independence, so that they can exercise their own agency in choosing the collocations that they themselves need. 2.2. eap in a digital post covid-19 age discussion of the effectiveness of technology and digital tools in language teaching, over the years, has often referred to the twin aspects of learner autonomy and agency – which have emerged also from emergency remote teaching (ert) studies (green et al., 2020; whittle et al., 2020). definitions of autonomy range from holec’s notion of complete responsibility for learning being in the learner’s own hands (holec, 1981) to more nuanced interpretations (benson, 2007; little, 1991). agency is linked to autonomy, and implies, to some extent, the learner’s investment in their own learning (bourdieu & (translated by) nice, 1984; norton, 2013). in the case of our learners the investment is particularly strong as their future careers may depend on their ability to publish in academic english. ahearn views agency as “the socioculturally mediated capacity to act” (ahearn, 2001 p. 112) and in a pedagogical context this means both providing opportunities for learner involvement in the process, and developing mutual mediation between teachers and learners in that process (hartle, 2020; larsen-freeman, 2019; van lier, 2008). it has long been recognized that an effective lexical repertoire means more than simply having knowledge of word meanings in particular contexts, but of developing an awareness of lexical complexity (lewis, 1993; i. s. p. nation, 2001; shin & nation, 2008; timmis, 2008). familiarizing learners, therefore, with digital tools that may increase independence in the development of their own lexical repertoires, may aid competence as well as increasing both agency and investment and, ultimately, lead to improved performance on academic writing tasks. our courses aim to foster a ddl approach to the study of lexis for precisely this reason. 2.3. data-driven learning the term ddl, coined by tim johns at the end of the twentieth century (johns, 1986, 1991), advocates an enquiry-based approach involving learner corpora searches designed to answer questions related to language usage. this involves the use of computational tools to analyze corpora data, allowing learners to identify and study frequent word combinations and patterns of language use (chen & baker, 2010). ddl has proved to be particularly effective for learning academic language, as it enables identification and use of key academic lexis and collocation patterns (biber et al., 2004; hyland, 2008). although the approach was initially met with enthusiasm (boulton, 2017; sinclair, 2004), this waned at the turn of the century due partly to restricted access to many corpora, and to the investment into developing the skills required for teachers and learners to use the corpus analysis tools available at that time. considerable effort was needed to choose appropriate, naturally occurring language for pedagogical use, particularly in international contexts (prodromou, 1996; widdowson, 1991), which also detracted from its popularity. the advent of digital interfaces, however, that enable ease of access to corpora, may make ddl once more attractive nowadays both to teachers and learners (boulton, 2017). user-friendly interfaces, which are widely available, may be extremely valuable for learners seeking to develop their awareness and use of lexical patterning, particularly where collocation is concerned. hartle e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 12 3. background to the study as mentioned in the introduction, our original hypothesis regarding the problematic use of academic english by academics at all levels, was that the issues were probably related not only to grammar but also to lexis. one measure that may alleviate this is intervention at an early stage, helping young academics to develop effective strategies that support their writing (barnau & ferková, 2022; basturkmen & wette, 2016). academic english courses provided by our department tend to be limited, 40-hour intensive courses, which are offered annually to postgraduate students, although general english courses are also available to them in the university language centre. as a result of this limited duration and from the reflections of past course participants, (hartle & cavalieri, forthcoming) a key aspect of such short courses, is one of increasing learner autonomy, an essential consideration for our learning design. before we could develop the teaching model itself, however, the target content also needed to be identified clearly. this was a case of identifying both strengths that could be encouraged in learner writing and weaknesses that needed to be addressed. consequently, it was decided to conduct a pilot study based on a local corpus, which aimed to answer two main research questions: 1) what are the principal grammatical and lexical strengths in advanced, learner academic writing? 2) what are the principal grammatical and lexical weaknesses in advanced, learner academic writing? at a later stage another question was added to these to aid the development of our teaching model: 3) what resources may be developed to aid lexical acquisition and competence? drawing on both corpus linguistics and thematic analysis (clarke & braun, 2014), the research methodology adopted was a mixed methods approach, chosen because, as stated by dörnyei (2007) “a mixed methods inquiry offers a potentially more comprehensive means of legitimizing findings than do either qual or quan methods alone.” (p. 62). the quantitative analysis, in our case, was the study of the corpus data. the theoretical framework adopted to conduct the study was computer aided error analysis (cea) (dagneaux et al., 1998), which was adapted to meet local needs. our methodology was an adaptation of traditional cea, focused on identifying errors, which we altered because we aimed to determine effective, as well as problematic, language choices. in our annotation of the corpus, therefore, we focused not only on errors but also on effective language choices that were higher than the production expected at a b1 level. the annotation process will be described in greater detail in section 4.2. 3.1. the corpus lc22 and the reference corpora the lc22 corpus itself is small, which is characteristic of learner corpora for various reasons including the labour intensive nature of cea annotation, the fact that it was part of a local, pilot study but also because specialized, smaller corpora may reveal “context-specific aspects of discourse, which are not always evident in larger ones” (o’keefe et al., 2007, p. 182). small corpora are, indeed, widely used to investigate specific discourse patterns, including patterns to inform learning design (bondi, 2001). in our case, the corpus data required interpretation, if the results were to reflect the reality of the learners involved in producing the texts. corpora, such as the bnc or coca, for instance, tend to classify latin-derived lexis as having less frequent occurrences, but in our context, where the main l1 being used is italian, latin-derived lexis is common, even though its choice may not always reflect appropriate usage. frequency has generally been considered an effective indicator of difficulty for the acquisition of lexis for some time now, as it is thought to be “a rational basis for making sure that learners get the best return for their vocabulary learning effort" (nation & waring, 1997, p. 15). this, however, would mean correlating less frequent occurrences with increased difficulty, which, with latin-derived items, such as “incapable”, “integration” or “radical”2 to list just a few, may not be the case in our context. the next question was which reference corpus to choose. mcenery and his colleagues (2019) speak of a disconnect between second language acquisition (sla) research and learner corpus research (lcr). they refer to a 2019 special edition of the modern language journal3 entitled sla across disciplinary borders. this issue considers sla across different disciplines including corpus linguistics (duff & byrnes, 2019). the volume 2 items extracted from the lc22 corpus. 3 the special issue is available in open access at this link: (last accessed july 14, 2023). improving lexical usage in academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 13 consisted of 15 contributions in all, from which three papers refer to corpus linguistics. despite the widely held belief that learner corpora should inform language learning and teaching, not one of these articles referred to learner corpora. this suggests that the reference corpora that educators and course developers commonly refer to are still native speaker (ns) ones. identifying effective language production may, indeed, not be a question of complying with often unrealistic ns norms, but of being able to communicate effectively (graddol, 2006; kirkpatrick, 2007). identifying effective language use, however, is complex as a boundary has to be established. effective communication for those with a lower level of linguistic competence, such as a2 for instance, is not the same as it is for those with a higher level of competence. most of the language produced by our participants was actually classified at a b1 level and, for this reason, the boundary for the level of language production considered to be particularly effective was set at b1+ in our study. our benchmark for effective lexical production was both ns and non-native speaker (nns) production, and three sources were used as reference corpora to establish this: the british national corpus (bnc)(bnc consortium, 2007), the corpus of contemporary american english (coca)(davies, 2020), and the english vocabulary profile (evp)4. the latter is an interface which draws on a range of nns texts, both written and spoken, and was analyzed by means of search options provided by text inspector5. this is an interface which enables searches of both ns and nns data, which we used to determine the cefr productive levels of participants, compared against frequencies of ns usage. the choice to have three reference corpora was determined by the aim of referencing our local data not only with ns but also with nns norms. the specific methodology applied to the analysis of corpus data will be described in section 4. the findings from the corpus analysis were then supplemented by means of the thematic, qualitative analysis of interviews, conducted with the participants for the purposes of triangulation6, in a constructivist approach where the researcher drew on what timmis (2008) refers to as “professionally informed intuition” (p. 7) to interpret the results. the study, therefore, involved three main stages: firstly the testing of the participants and the text production stage, followed by the compilation and analysis of the corpus itself, and finally the development of the course learning design based on the results from the corpus analysis together with the findings from the interviews. 3.2. participants and texts the participant sample, which, being a pilot study, was very small, consisted of 21 learners, (16 females, 5 males) whose level of english was c2 according to the common european framework guidelines (council of europe, 2001). they were recruited by means of convenience sampling as they were all post graduate students attending english language ma courses at the university of verona, and their level was tested at the beginning of the study. a univariate analysis of test scores was carried out before potential participants were admitted to the study. the participants took the university language centre, english c2 level test, which focuses on productive, academic writing and presentation skills at this level7. this testing was conducted to ensure consistency in the levels of the participants. all 21 participants scored overall marks, which fell between 60 and 95 percent, and were therefore within an acceptable c2 range. the mean score was 78.713 and there was a standard deviation of 11.36, meaning that within the range there was some variance. this, however, was to be expected and was useful for the study as it facilitated comparison between higherand lower-level performances. 4 this publication has made use of the english vocabulary profile. this resource is based on extensive research using the cambridge learner corpus and is part of the english profile program, which aims to provide evidence about language use that helps to produce better language teaching materials. see http://www.englishprofile.org for more information. the english vocabulary profile has been compiled from both the cambridge learner corpus (clc) (lexical computing limited on behalf of cambridge university press and cambridge english language assessment, 2017) and the cambridge english corpus (see https://www.cambridge.es/en/about-us/cambridge-english-corpus). additional sources for the c levels research have included reference lists relevant to academic english and frequency data on idioms. the evp is a work in progress whose aim is descriptive rather than prescriptive. 5 text inspector is available at: https://textinspector.com/ (last accessed april 9, 2023). 6 the analysis of the interviews is beyond the scope of this paper. 7 in this language test, although the focus is on the productive skills of writing and speaking, test-takers are provided with input which may be audio, audiovisual or text based, so it involves integrated skills. https://www.englishprofile.org/ https://textinspector.com/ hartle e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 14 in the preparatory stage of the study, the participants were shown a short video documentary8 and asked to write a short 200-word summary. they were then shown the documentary again and asked to write a longer 800-word discursive discussion of one main idea that they found interesting, and they were asked to adopt a neutral, academic style. these texts formed the content of the lc22 corpus and were grouped into two sub-corpora: summaries and discussions. written consent was provided by all the participants, enabling their texts to be used anonymously both in the study and the resulting dissemination of the research findings. 4. methodology: compiling and annotating the corpus 4.1. the lc22 corpus: three stages at the end of the preparatory stage described in section 3.2, 42 texts in total had been generated. the lc22 corpus was then compiled by subdividing the learner texts into the two main sub-corpora. as this was a pilot study, developed mainly to inform local learning design, the resulting corpus was small, as discussed in section 3.1., counting 19,193 tokens (17,121 words). only 2,219 of the words, however, were discrete items due to repeated instances of many of the words, since all the participants discussed the same subject matter from the documentary. compilation of the corpus involved three main stages, and actually resulted in three different corpora. the first corpus was compiled in plain text and analyzed with the aid of text inspector to ascertain the levels of lexical sophistication (jimènenz catalán & fernandez fontecha, 2019; kyle & crossley, 2015)9, using the evp, bnc and coca as cross-referencing benchmarks. the texts were analyzed for a range of features such as readability, lexical diversity or metadiscourse markers. our primary interest was in the lexical diversity and sophistication features, which enabled us to determine the overall scores and corresponding cefr levels of the lexis in the texts. this, in turn, enabled us to ensure that the levels of the texts reflected the participants’ levels before undertaking the study itself. the second stage was to create a ‘raw’ corpus in the sketch engine (kilgarriff et al., 2014): the text entered was plain text and this was then annotated with automatic part of speech (pos) tagging. this was to enable basic searches such as corpus size, accurate frequency of occurrences, wordlists and to conduct searches for keyness. this made a descriptive analysis of discrete tokens, such as specific concordances, possible but did not allow for structural exploration, which was of primary interest for our study of learner language production, levels and specific strengths or weaknesses. consequently, a third corpus was then compiled, which was annotated manually in xml and uploaded to the sketch engine, where it was automatically tagged for pos. this xml annotated corpus provided us with the opportunity to conduct searches for specific patterns using structural corpus query language (cql) exploration, so that searches could be made for specific patterns such as effective verb/noun collocation or problematic word choice. all of these had been identified by qualitative analysis during the annotation phase, which is worth describing in more detail. 4.2. xml annotation coding the data in xml and then uploading the corpus into the sketch engine enabled us to provide overarching metadata such as the sub-corpus, the participants’ l1, the identity code number of the texts, which were also related to the participants so that t8d1, for instance, was the discussion text provided by participant number eight. metadata regarding the participant’s l1, gender, mark on the initial pre-test and the year was also included, since this corpus will be expanded to cover other years as well as 2022. this can be seen in figure 1. the different metadata enable a range of different analysis options such as searching, for instance, for specific participants, gender or level ranges. 8 the documentary was the bbc2 broadcast “history of now: the story of the noughties” https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pyn3l (last accessed april 10, 2023), and provided on dvd for unit 6 of speakout advanced (clare & wilson, 2012). 9 lexical sophistication often refers to the frequency of unusual words in a text. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pyn3l improving lexical usage in academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 15 figure 1. an extract from the xml annotated corpus the data was coded into two macro language-production categories: general language production and infelicities. the examples in figure 1 all belong to the general language production category. these examples were then tagged for problematic or effective language choice. choices that were tagged as problematic were assigned the number “1” as part of the tag, such as “’tag=wc’”, where the 1 means there was an error. in figure 1, for instance, ‘tag=“wc1” in the first row, is an example of word choice: in this case the choice made was “about”, and it is problematic from a semantic viewpoint, in the context: “there were two themes about* this talk,” which would be better expressed as “there were two themes in this talk,” when the tag includes the number 2, such as ‘tag=”wc2”’ in the fourth row, it is an instance of effective language production. in this case, the choice of the noun “pursuit”, which is a non-frequent lexical item in both the bnc and coca and was classified as c2 level in evp, is used appropriately in the context of the phrase “the pursuit of eternal youth”. the third tag, which is ‘lev1’, refers to the specific language item being analyzed, so that ‘lev1=”adjn2” in row six refers to a choice of the effective adjective/noun collocation “eternal youth”. the annotation was informed by the system methodology outlined in the louvain error tagging manual, version 2.0 (granger et al., 2022), although, as previously mentioned, this was adapted for our local needs, as the louvain methodology does not deal with effective language production. one issue that was encountered was the need for the multiple tagging of certain items, because of their language functions in the discourse. “pursuit”, for instance, was tagged as an effective word choice of the noun itself (row four) but then was also tagged as an effective noun/preposition collocation (row five). this enabled us to make precise structural exploration searches, but it also determined the choice of keeping the second corpus, which was pos tagged but not annotated manually, to provide an accurate overview of corpus size and frequency of specific occurrences. 5. overall findings and discussion the initial, overall findings confirmed our original hypothesis that problematic areas to focus on in academic english writing courses are related not only to grammar but primarily to lexis, with the caveat that this refers to advanced levels, like the level of the participants in this study. figure 2 shows that 24% of the effective language production was related overall to effective collocations of various different types. 10% referred to effective word choice. the most problematic area was word choice, with 18% of problematic language production in this category, which refers to the choice of the wrong word because of its meaning. the fifth largest category, which was also problematic, was collocation. what was interesting to see here, was, that although we had expected to see problematic uses with collocation, there was actually considerable evidence of effective usage. there was also both problematic and effective word choice, which tends to suggest that a learning design should highlight the effective usage and also provide learners with the tools to enhance this. a major category of problematic usage was verbs, which is generally related to problems either of morphological form or of inappropriate tense choices. hartle e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 16 figure 2. an overview of the general findings figure 3. an overview of the infelicities the second macro category was related to infelicities, and figure 3 shows an overview of this area. the participants were asked to write in a neutral, academic style, but it was clear from the analysis of their production that they were not able to do this. this was suggested by instances of formal language, often related to conjunctions that were present in texts, where informal choices such as contractions or informal lexical choices were also common. the informal elements were mainly related to lexical choice, such as “little”, which, when referring to size, tends to be informal, or discourse features such as the choice of “really” as a premodifier. examples of these choices can be seen in table 1. table 1 register choices over informal over formal i’m not speaking about…lots of…incredible…really…little…nice furthermore…contrary to…thus…in the following… consequently when applying the lens of level to the exploration, what is revealed is that the main difference between lower and higher-level production is related to the use of collocations, as can be seen in figures 4 and 5. 59% of effective language production was related to collocations in higher-level production compared with 40% in the lower-level range. effective and less effective word choice was balanced at higher levels, whereas at the lower ones 12% of the production was problematic from the viewpoint of word choice, and only 4% was classified as being effective (higher than a b1 level). ineffective collocation accounted for only 5% at higher levels, whereas this was slightly higher, at 8%, in lower-level production. the discussion, in this paper, therefore, will mainly focus on the results of the collocation analysis, even though the areas of lexical choice from the semantic viewpoint would also be worthy of investigation. improving lexical usage in academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 17 figure 4. an overview of higher level (92-95% marks) figure 5. an overview of lower level (60-63% marks) 5.1. collocation and lexical phrases effective collocation, in our corpus, included a range of specific collocation types but the most common patterns tended to be verb/noun and adjective/noun collocations. this category also included lexical phrases or frames (benson, 1994; koprowski, 2005; lewis, 1993; nattinger & decarrico, 1992), that is items with a fixed lexical element that frames an idea. in the first example in table 2, for instance, the frame is “no matter how good or bad… was”. the lexical phrase here: “no matter how good or bad” may remain fixed and then used to frame various ideas. in this case it was “their youth”, but it could be a range of items such as “their education, their relationships, their salary”, to name just a few. it may be useful for learners to focus on fixed items , such as these lexical frames, to develop the quality of their written production. a more detailed overview of the data retrieved from the two levels of analysis introduced in the previous section, can be seen in appendix but illustrative instances will be discussed here. examples are taken from the higher and lower c2 levels in order to show differences which may appear within the range of a single level. the examples in table 2 show that there seems to be more experimentation with language that is part of the personal repertoire of the learner, such as the use of the frame “no matter how good or bad… was” or the verb/noun collocation “massive change”, at higher levels. in contrast, at lower levels, the effective frames tended to be items that may have been presented explicitly in class, such as “what interested me… was”, or had been taken directly from the video documentary that the participants had viewed in the preparatory stage. one example of this is “now the different generations are less aware of each other.” the choice of less frequent lexis, possibly indicating a wider lexical repertoire, is also evident at higher levels in the choice of items that are collocated, such as “huge impact”, “fixed rendezvous” or “radical changes”, in the adjective/noun collocations, whereas lower-level production often relies on the choice of higher frequency items such as “everyday lives”, “cultural phenomenon”, “parallel world”. as was noted earlier, although items such as both “cultural” and “phenomenon” may be classified as low frequency in ns corpora, in our context, where the majority of the participants were italian l1 speakers, these are latin-derived items that are easily accessible to them. “phenomenon” was classified as c1 in the evp, but is easily comprehensible for our participants. hartle e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 18 table 2 examples of common effective (tagged as 2) and problematic (tagged as 1) lexical phrase or collocation choices grouped according to level language choice higher level lower level lexical phrase (lp2 ) no matter how good or bad their youth was... they tend to live the lifestyle of a teenager what interested me in particular about this video was... now the different generations are less aware of each other. verb noun (vn2) (this generation has) seen a massive change represent a full commitment emulate youngsters ...disorientating our society deal with dangers attach too much importance adjective noun (adjn2) huge impact fixed rendezvous radical changes everyday lives cultural phenomenon parallel world verb noun (vn1) gains a lot of profit have possibilities live the present make some experiences noun preposition (nprep1) desire of break the rules this tendency to a form of ‘perpetual childhood’ the reason of many social changes the same possibilities of young people adjective noun (adjn1) a stylish, young garment a consistent amount (money) deep changes ambiental problems 5.2. problematic language choices greater experimentation is evident at higher levels, although it may lead to problematic choices such as “a stylish young garment”, where the presence of “stylish, young” tends to point to a collocation with a person or animate entity, and not “garment”. this experimentation may be interpreted as a positive aspect of the learning process, but providing tools for learners to check the appropriacy of their choices may lead to more effective communication, which is required when writing academically at higher levels. a similar problem can be seen in the choice of a “consistent amount of money”, where “consistent” does not usually collocate with “amount” and perhaps “considerable” would have been a better choice. at the lower levels, collocation choices, such as “deep changes” or “ambiental problems”, point rather to a more basic transfer from the l1 to the l2, and the morphologically creative adaptation of l1 terms such as “ambientale” to create something the writer considers to sound english (ambiental*), when the learner lexicon is not developed enough for them to be able to express themselves effectively. these initial findings tend to underline the fact that in order to foster effective academic writing habits our learners need to be made aware of their strengths and weaknesses and then to be provided with the tools that will enable them to develop their own lexical repertoires. 6. focus on the learning design as a result of these initial findings, in our academic writing courses it was decided to focus particularly on the development of lexis and mainly collocation. a second objective was to develop lifelong learning skills and explore the use of available resources as an aid to lexical choice in writing. this, it was hoped, would foster greater independence and agency (ahearn, 2001) in our learners. the learning design involves a two-step approach. the first stage is a focus on familiarization and reflection, which aims to introduce learners to the concept of collocation and to reflect on both effective and less effective usage. this is important because a lack of knowledge about collocation itself and its importance in moulding effective communication may hamper learners at the outset. this stage involves guided-discovery (bruner, 1961) strategies, where learners analyze improving lexical usage in academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 19 and reflect on peer writing, by exploring an annotated, learner-friendly corpus, created in markin10. they are guided inductively, by means of the pedagogically informed (timmis, 2008) annotation, provided by the teacher but generated from learner production, to notice the strengths and the weaknesses in the discourse produced. the second step is one of experimentation and is where ddl is applied in a more personalized way. learners are familiarized with a range of freemium or free corpus interfaces, such as skell, which will be considered in more depth in this paper, although they were also introduced to other interfaces such as the english corpora11 or just the word12. this step involves analysis and reflection as well but also experimentation as learners personalize the language they wish to explore: a key factor if investment in the language being learned (norton, 2009) is to be encouraged. 6.1. the first step: teacher compiled corpora on markin this step involves the compilation of another corpus, which is pedagogical in nature. it is compiled by teachers from learner-generated writing. the software used is martin holmes’ markin (holmes, n.d.), which is a desktop programme, that is not new, but is easy to use for both teachers and learners, and has proved popular over the years in our context. figure 6 shows the interface with default coding options on the left (red for problematic, and green for effective language choice). these default options are fairly generic, however, and a button that just says ‘good’, for instance, may not be helpful enough for learners to see why a particular choice is effective. the buttons, in fact, can be personalized by teachers according to need and new ones can be added and saved for future use, and comments can also be added for greater granularity. the corpus data itself can simply be entered, by typing or pasting, into the white central space and the programme will automatically convert the final document into html, so no coding is required. figure 6. the markin interface with default coding options figure 7 shows an example of a text, which was not part of the lc22 corpus, but produced in class13. as can be seen, the texts are anonymized and only certain features of the text have been coded, in the interests 10 this software was developed by martin holmes and was used as a desktop programme for the development of pedagogically friendly corpora. http://www.cict.co.uk/markin/index.php (last accessed april 10, 2023). 11 this interface enables access to a range of corpora such as british, american and internet english, as well as the global web-based english corpus, which provides data from 20 different countries. the interface is available at https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/ (last accessed april 12, 2023). 12 just the word draws on the bnc but provides clearly organized collocational output that is learner friendly. it is available at http://www.just-the-word.com/ (last accessed april 12, 2023). 13 consent was given for publication. http://www.cict.co.uk/markin/index.php https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/ http://www.just-the-word.com/ hartle e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 20 of guiding learner analysis. the red labels indicate problematic areas whereas the green ones are effective features. the numbers refer to notes and, as can be seen in the example, this enables teachers to provide much more precise discussions as to why a choice may not be appropriate. in this case, the choice of “aspects” would collocate better with the idea of language change, and the teacher has explained the semantic prosody of intentionality, more commonly found with “modification”. figure 7. a text in markin after it has been coded for use in class 6.1.1. classroom procedure the procedure used in the first step involved five stages: 1) teacher prepares learner texts and determines aspects to highlight for guided discovery; 2) teachers develop the corpus, which is coded and annotated; 3) learners analyze the texts either in or outside class. this stage may involve further structuring from the teacher, such as asking the learners to focus on three aspects that they find interesting or useful. these may then be further discussed with peers and the whole class; 4) learners analyze their own texts and correct or edit them. this may be done individually or together with their peers in pair or group work; 5) class discussion is held on the most effective or problematic aspects of their writing; 6) this work is extended by setting further writing tasks or discussions such as explorations of emergent problematic language choices or reflection on concepts such as collocation itself, which may require clarification. this procedure enables learners to invest, in norton’s terms (2010, 2013), in their own agency and their personal learning process by working on their own or their peers’ writing. they also exercise their agency by then deciding how they would like to edit their personal work as a result of their analysis, or which language areas are key for them to focus on. the issue of developing learners’ lexical repertoires can then be addressed by introducing them to easily accessible online corpus interfaces, such as skell. in order for learners, however, to be able to develop their own repertoires, they must firstly be familiarized with the use of corpus interfaces. 6.2. the second step: deconstruction, reflection and the exploration of online corpus interfaces and developing personalized lexical repertoires the initial procedure adopted in the second step is also one of reflection and guided discovery: learners are asked to look at a very short text in their l1 and to identify possibly problematic features. as is shown in figure 8, the text is firstly presented and learners are encouraged to reflect and discuss potential problems in general terms. the first two questions focus specifically on language awareness items but the third and fourth ask them to consider the nature of corpora and how they differ from dictionaries, as this, in the past, has proved to be a valuable reflection. for many learners, indeed, this may be their first encounter with corpora, and it is important that they realise that corpora interfaces are particularly useful when searching for issues of language usage. in the second activity, the text, which has previously been deconstructed into language chunks, can be improving lexical usage in academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 21 analyzed. this approach aims to sensitize learners firstly to the collocation issues that may emerge. “dare l’importanza”, for instance, cannot simply be transferred into “give importance” in english, and knowledge of collocation may help learners to realize this. learners may not know the answers to these questions, but the aim is to arouse curiosity and whet learner appetites. figure 8. initial guided reflection in step two following these reflections, the next stage is to provide learners with the reference tools, that will help them to answer questions about language usage. figure 9 shows the next stage on this journey, which is one of applying corpus search skills to answer the questions arising from the analysis of the language chunks (see figure 8). as can be seen, the students are also led to reflect on the type of questions that can be answered by using dictionaries, which often involves searches for meanings rather than answers to the lexico-grammatical problems that can better be answered by the corpus interface.14 the questions provide a guided procedure which helps learners to familiarize themselves with the range of searches that can be conducted using different resources. 14 dictionaries, which include traditional ones such as the longman dictionary online https://www.ldoceonline.com/ but also more contemporary interfaces such as reverso context https://context.reverso.net/translation/ , are also explored as learners use these sites and can be helped to develop a constructive but critical approach to such use. both resources were last accessed on april 12, 2023. https://www.ldoceonline.com/ https://context.reverso.net/translation/ hartle e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 22 figure 9. guided introduction to searching skell learners are shown the skell interface and how to access the word sketch feature, initially using the word “crisis”, for instance. the resulting output, which is shown in figure 10, is very clearly organized according to specific pos collocations for exploration, which is appropriate for use by learners. figure 10. skell output for the ‘crisis’ word search improving lexical usage in academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 23 learners then consider the different verb/noun collocations and they then choose one option to explore further. in one group, on our course, for instance, ”precipitate a crisis” was chosen and learners then analyzed the output in context for that choice (figure 11). figure 11. skell output for ‘precipitate a crisis’ in context the skell algorithm searches several corpora, uploaded to the sketch engine, for up to forty different occurrences of this item, which are all different and learners can then study this output for register, collocation but also for lexical phrases or frames. since the findings from our study have shown lexical frames to be a key element in what was perceived to be effective language the next step was introduced specifically to foster learner awareness of and competence in the use of frames. this is an experimental phase, where learners are asked to experiment with their own examples. 6.2.1. experimentation procedure: working with lexical frames the procedure used was the following: 1) learners choose an example from the skell output in context (see figure 11); 2) the example is analyzed. if the choice is “this event precipitates a family crisis”, for instance, the resulting frame may look like this: “this _________ precipitated a ___________ crisis”; 3) learners then generate their own personalized examples such as “the speech precipitated a political crisis”; 4) examples are discussed in class; 5) learners then explore other collocations that they may require in their own writing and generate language frames such as “this election precipitated a national crisis”; 6) this work may be extended by learners sharing their findings or testing each other. hartle e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 24 7. conclusion in conclusion, the learning design of our esap course was developed as a direct result of the findings from the pilot study. the study, although limited to our local context, provided us with valuable insights into learner needs and confirmed our initial hypothesis as to the problematic issue of collocation. what also emerged, however, was learners’ effective use of collocation, which included lexical frames. our research informed the ddl pedagogical framework which we developed for our academic english writing courses. the learning design combined elements of awareness raising, reflection and analysis. our course work did not focus only on the remedial area of error correction, although this was a part of it, but also on the recognition of effective language choices. our design integrates the skills of analysis, fostered by means of guided discovery, and reflection to enhance greater understanding of the contributing factors when writing academically, and experimentation with the language learners themselves choosing which collocations they need to focus on in their own writing. this enables learners to invest in their own learning process, and such investment may lead to increased 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collocation findings grouped according to higher and lower levels the collocations are reported with some context, for ease of interpretation. some errors, related to other language areas, such as the wrong word form choice, have been left in the reported examples. higher levels: (90-95% marks on pre-test) coll2: 85 instances, which equates to 39,516.5 per million tokens the first 21 occurrences of general effective collocation in higher-level participants including lexical phrases it deals mostly the change of people’s behaviour the story of the noughties tells us where… various speakers give their opinions about the issue they all point out the fact that… you no longer need to be young to act young as long as you can afford it adults no longer act like adults but rather like… massive change the only way of communication was… (the television)that not everybody could afford breathing fresh air time has changed the meeting space (in particular) through the most famous social network in the world. reachable everywhere and everytime. a fixed rendezvous they can’t control what their children and their friends are doing. a friend of mine mix reality and their life with what is happening act two different roles improving lexical usage in academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 29 coll1: 16, which equates to 7,438.4 per million tokens all 16 occurrences of general ineffective collocation in higher-level participants including lexical phrases it deals on the change gains a lot of profit many have possibilities the desire of (break the rules) you can have facebook (on a mobile phone) (our parents) follow the mould ‘kidulthood’ is made up by two nouns. globalisation has much influenced… (every aspect of our life) synonym with… stylish young garment thoroughly discussed taking part of the discussion do this tendency (to a form of ‘perpetual childhood’) (possess) a consistent amount… amount to money lower levels (60-63% marks on pre-test) coll2: 77 instances, which equates to 27,827.97 per million tokens the first 21 occurrences of general effective collocation in lower-level participants including lexical phrases what interested me in particular the idea of a new adult lifestyle the current century from different points of view everyday lives they are obviously influenced by let’s analyse these aspects in more details significant changes similar to the nineties without any kind of real need view that period as a new “golden age” a terrible economic or world crisis seem to be unable to solve these problems conscious of the difficulties tend to create a parallel world convinced that limits don’t exist is due to the fact that attach too much importance hartle e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 30 coll1: 29, which equates to 10,480.66 per million tokens the first 21 occurrences of general ineffective collocation in lower-level participants (60-63 marks) including lexical phrases (society has) deeply changed reason of (many social changes) guarantee to (their children) the same of (young people) have a reality an equal reality doing operations (with reference to medical procedures) live the present time live (well) our middle age deep changes ambiental problems thinking to the crisis go on retire discuss about (the phenomenon) spend money in (something) make some experiences give a bad example different than the past convinced that limits don’t exist is due to the fact that the principal activities improving lexical usage in academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 9-31 31 sharon hartle, università degli studi di verona sharon.hartle@univr.it en sharon hartle is an associate professor in the department of foreign languages and literatures at verona university. she is specialized in english language teaching (elt) pedagogy and didactics and works specifically in the field of english for specific purposes (esp). she has worked for years in the field of e-learning with a particular focus on multimedia lesson design for elt in blended learning contexts. her research interests also extend to include english language assessment, english medium instruction (emi) and she is currently researching inclusive, accessible foreign language learning. es sharon hartle es profesora asociada en el departamento de lenguas y literaturas extranjeras de la universidad de verona. está especializada en pedagogía y didáctica de la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa (elt) y trabaja específicamente en el campo del inglés con fines académicos (esp). ha trabajado durante años en el campo del e-learning con especial atención al diseño de materiales multimedia para elt en contextos de blended learning. sus intereses en el campo de la investigación se extienden también a la evaluación de la lengua inglesa y la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera (emi – english medium instruction). actualmente investiga sobre el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras accesible e inclusivo. it sharon hartle è professoressa associata presso il dipartimento di lingue e letterature straniere dell'università degli studi di verona. è specializzata nella pedagogia e didattica dell'insegnamento della lingua inglese (elt) e lavora in particolare nel campo dell'inglese per scopi specifici (esp). da alcuni anni lavora nel campo dell'e-learning con un particolare interesse per lo sviluppo di materiali multimediali per l'elt in contesti di blended learning. i suoi interessi di ricerca comprendono anche la valutazione della lingua inglese, l'istruzione in inglese (english medium instruction emi) ed è attualmente impegnata nella ricerca sull'apprendimento inclusivo e accessibile delle lingue straniere. ej banks 10.11 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 12, issue 2, november 2025, 1-14 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.2.3160 www.e-journall.org © banks 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. passive voice, first person pronouns, and mental process verbs in biological sciences research articles david banks université de bretagne occidentale received 5 july 2024; accepted 29 september 2025 abstract en this paper sets out to study the use of passive forms, first person pronouns, and process types in the biological research article. recent studies carried out on a small sample of articles in the physical sciences have suggested that in physical sciences research articles, there are two available models: one using many passive forms and avoiding first person pronoun subjects; and the other using few passives but first person pronoun subjects readily. the object of this study is to consider a similar sample from the biological sciences, and to compare them with the previously studied physical sciences articles. the six biological research articles that have been studied here, show restrained use of passives and a significant use of first person pronoun subjects. overall, the relational process is the most common type, but the material process is the most frequent in some articles. relational process is the most common type overall, but material process is the most frequent in some articles. within mental process, cognitive process is the most common type, followed by processes of a mathematical nature. most first person pronoun subjects occur with mental process verbs. key words: biological sciences, first person pronoun, passive, process type, research article es este artículo tiene por objetivo estudiar el uso de las formas pasivas, los pronombres de primera persona y los tipos de proceso en el artículo de investigación biológica. estudios recientes realizados sobre una pequeña muestra de artículos en las ciencias físicas sugieren que, en el artículo de investigación de ciencias físicas, existen dos modelos disponibles: uno que utiliza muchas formas pasivas y evita sujetos con pronombres en primera persona; y otro que utiliza pocas pasivas pero emplea con facilidad los sujetos con pronombres en primera persona. el objetivo de este estudio es considerar una muestra similar de las ciencias biológicas y compararla con los artículos de ciencias físicas previamente estudiados. los seis artículos de investigación biológica analizados muestran un uso moderado de la voz pasiva, y la mayoría utiliza pocos sujetos con pronombres en primera persona. el proceso relacional es el tipo más común, pero el proceso material es el más frecuente en algunos artículos individuales. dentro de los procesos mentales, el proceso cognitivo es el tipo más común, seguido de los procesos de naturaleza matemática. la mayoría de los sujetos en primera persona aparecen con verbos de proceso mental. palabras clave: ciencias biológicas, pronombre de primera persona, voz pasiva, tipo de proceso, articulo de investigación it questo lavoro si propone di analizzare come le forme passive, i pronomi di prima persona e i tipi di processo sono utilizzati negli articoli scientifici nell’ambito della biologia. studi recenti, condotti su un piccolo campione di articoli nell’ambito delle scienze fisiche, suggeriscono che i testi di tali pubblicazioni tendono a seguire due modelli: uno che impiega frequentemente la forma passiva ed evita i soggetti con pronomi di prima persona, e un altro che, al contrario, privilegia l’uso dei pronomi di prima persona ma che ricorre a un numero relativamente ridotto di forme passive. lo scopo del presente studio è esaminare un insieme comparabile di testi pubblicati nell’ambito delle scienze biologiche e confrontarne i modelli linguistici con quelli identificati in precedenza nelle scienze fisiche. l’analisi dei sei articoli appartenenti all’ambito della ricerca biologica rivela un uso moderato della voce passiva, mentre la maggior parte presenta un impiego limitato dei pronomi di prima persona come soggetto. i processi relazionali sono la tipologia più comune, sebbene in alcuni articoli individuali prevalgano i processi materiali. tra i processi mentali, quelli cognitivi sono i più frequenti, seguiti da quelli di natura matematica. la maggior parte dei pronomi di prima persona compare in combinazione con verbi di cognizione. parole chiave: scienze biologiche, pronome di prima persona, passivo, tipi di processo, articoli scientifici * david banks, université de bretagne occidentale david.banks@univ-brest.fr banks 2 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 1. introduction the nature of the passive would appear to be simple, but, in fact, writers do not agree about what actually constitutes a passive verb. i consider that the passive is a verb form made up of the verb to be followed by a past participle. a number of writers, over a long period, have considered that the verb to get followed by a past participle, the so-called get-passive, constitutes an alternative to the passive with to be (chappell, 1980; hatcher, 1949; hundt, dallas, & nakanish, 2024). however, almost fifty years ago i wrote that “the get passive is not a passive in any meaningful sense of the term, but an independent structure with its own semantic properties” (banks, 1986, p. 74). i still believe this to be the case. consequently, in this study consideration of the passive is restricted to the “be-passive.” it is also restricted to the full finite verb. some commentators include rankshifted non-finite clauses functioning as qualifiers (post-modifiers) in their count of passives. pullum, (2014, p. 62), who refers to this as a “bare passive” gives the following example: (1) one of its ads shows a washed-out manager, arms folded, sitting in a corner.1 this involves considering such phrases as being derived from “full” forms (perhaps a hangover from generative grammar). i feel that one should take a text as it stands, and not add in elements which are not there; thus, i consider such phrases to be reduced relative clauses (quirk, greenbaum, leech, & svartvik, 1985), (in (1), the reconstructed full form might be with his arms (which were) folded), and not passives. in the early 1960s, barber initiated contemporary studies of scientific texts. his seminal study (barber, 1962) considers a number of features of scientific writing including the passive. the rare earlier studies (e.g. savory, 1953) did not get beyond remarks on technical vocabulary. until recently, it has been generally believed that use of the passive was an important feature of scientific writing, and numerous studies in the late 20th century suggested a passive rate of about 30% of finite verbs for this genre. barber’s own figure is 33%2, the tables in huddleston (1971) suggest a figure of 32%, and in banks (1994), i found a passive rate of 31%. some writers (e.g. seoane, 2010) consider passives as a percentage of those verbs which could have a passive form. this means interest is concentrated on the choice of the scientific writer. my interest, however, is in the impact of passives on the text as a whole, and hence i give passives as a percentage of all finite verbs. use of the passive in scientific writing has been variously interpreted, with some claiming that the passive voice is used to maintain what is seen as the “impersonal” nature of scientific text (cooray, 1967; ding, 2002; hundt, schneider, & seoane, 2016); others argue that the passive is used for reasons related to thematic structure, whereby the writer places what he is interested in, the object of his study or the ongoing experiment, in thematic, hence in initial position in the clause, thus triggering, in many cases, the use of a passive verb (arnold et al., 2013; banks, 2008a, 2008b; halliday, 1988; leong ping, 2014; rodman, 1981). this use of the passive continued despite the fact that many style manuals and instructions for authors recommended avoiding the passive. bennett (2009) studied a large number of style manuals and found that in general they argued in favour of using the active form. more recently however, seoane and her collaborators (seoane, 2006; seoane & loureiro-porto, 2005; seoane & williams, 2006) have suggested that the use of the passive is in decline in scientific writing. they found that there was a rapid and dramatic change in the late 20th century, which was even more marked in american than in british english. they suggest that this is not necessarily a move to a more colloquial style, but is influenced by “the democratization of society and the pressure to convey scientific knowledge as efficiently and clearly as possible” (seoane, 2006, p. 206). they also point out differences between differing disciplines and subdisciplines (hundt et al., 2016; hundt, röthlishberger, & seoane, 2018; seoane & hundt, 2018). if there is indeed a reduction in the use of the passive in scientific writing, then it would be natural to expect an increase in the use of first person pronoun subjects. rather than expressing a process which has the human author as agent in a passive form, this would be expressed in the active with a first person pronoun subject. the use of first person pronouns in scientific texts has been studied over a fairly long period by hyland and his collaborators. they point out that there are differences between different disciplines, but suggest that the increase in the use of first person pronouns is more marked in the biological sciences than elsewhere. hyland and jiang (2017) claim that, in their corpus, use of first person pronouns in biology rose by 213% between 1965 and 2015. these changes are mainly from 1985 onwards, and indicate a willingness on the part of scientific writers to be more overtly present in their texts (hyland, 2001, 2002, 2010; hyland & jiang, 2016, 1 relevant parts of examples are printed in bold. 2 percentages throughout this paper are rounded to the nearest integer. any discrepancies are due to rounding. passive voice, first person pronouns and mental process verbs in the biological sciences research article e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 3 2017, 2018). an increase in the use of first person pronouns, but with differences between disciplines was also noted by lafuente millán (2010). martínez (2005) noted different rates of first person pronoun use in the various rhetorical sections (introduction, method, results, discussion) of biology research articles. in banks (2017), i suggested that there was some evidence for a reduction of the passive, at least in the physical sciences, with a corresponding rise in the use of first person pronoun subjects. i put forward the conjecture that this was due to the fact that mathematical modelling had been introduced in the physical sciences, but not in the biological sciences, from the late 19th century onwards (banks, 2008a). this in itself leads to the use of verbs of a mathematical nature, that is, involved with mathematical calculation, which can be classed as expressing a type of mental process. mental process verbs seem to be more conducive to the use of first person pronoun subjects, probably because of the more personal nature of the activity involved. in a recent study (banks, 2021), attempting to test these hypotheses, i looked at six sample texts; these were all articles in the physical sciences taken from the 2018 proceedings of the royal society a. i found that while the overall passive rate was close to the late 20th century norm of 30%, there was considerable variation between individual articles, with two having considerably more, and two considerably less than this figure. half of the sample texts used first person pronouns to some extent, and where these were used it was almost always with mental or verbal processes, very rarely with material processes. there seemed to be two basic models in operation: a “traditional” model using the passive extensively, and avoiding first person pronouns, and a “progressive” model, with a reduced rate of passives and using first person pronouns readily. some texts were hybrids of these two basic models. the present study attempts to show how passives and first person pronouns are used in the biological research article, and to investigate to what extent the claims that use of the passive is declining, and that of first person pronoun subjects increasing are justified. while the results of this study are of interest in their own right, they will also be of interest to those involved in the teaching of academic writing in the biological sciences. students need to learn not only what the correct forms are, but also when it is appropriate to use them. this is crucial, particularly for non-anglophone students, who will be required to publish in a language which is not their mother tongue (cooke, 1993). hinkel notes the difficulty that non-anglophone students have with, for example, the passive, and concludes that “the practically requisite usage of passive voice in constructing formal written discourse also needs to be taught intensively” (hinkel, 2004, p. 24). in the following sections i will give details of the corpus, and then consider the incidence of passive forms and first person pronoun subjects, and their relationship to different process types. 2. corpus and method the present paper is an attempt to look at the situation in the biological sciences, which have received rather less attention from researchers than the discourse of the physical sciences (banks, 2017). to do this, i have taken six sample texts (see appendix) from the 2019 proceedings of the in the following sections i will give details of the corpus, and then consider the incidence of passive forms and first person pronoun subjects, and their relationship to different process types. royal society b, thus paralleling the physical sciences articles used in banks (2021). no particular selection criteria were used. these were simply the first that were freely available on the royal society’s website. the selection is therefore haphazard, if not strictly random in the technical sense. the total number of words in the main texts of these articles is 28838 (aanen 3937; benevento 5018; byrne 4428; kopperud 4479; madin 6421; senior 4555 – see full entries in the appendix). the papers have between two and seven co-authors, with a total of 27 co-authors for the six papers. it is impossible to know whether the articles were drafted by native speakers of english, but it can be noted that while only 12 of the 27 co-authors have typically anglophone names, the co-authors give a total of 45 affiliations, since some of them give two, or even three institutional addresses, and of these, 40 are in anglophone countries (uk, usa australia, new zealand), and only 5 in non-anglophone countries (netherlands, sweden, norway). in addition to the authors themselves, the recommendations of referees, editors and copy-editors may have influenced the final forms of these texts. without an extensive sociological study, it is impossible to judge the degree of influence that these other actors may have had. the sample is very small, and is closer to a set of six case studies than even a mini-corpus (banks, 2005a). on the other hand, there is no reason to think that this selection is not representative, and it is not unreasonable to take the results found here as being of the right order, unless subsequently shown to be otherwise. the random nature of the selection reduces the possibility of bias, and increases its global representativity. the details of the sample texts are given in the appendix. in the course of this paper, they will each be referred to by the first-named author. banks 4 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 the theoretical background of the paper is systemic functional linguistics (banks, 2005b, 2019; halliday & matthiessen, 2014), but i trust that any technical terms are sufficiently transparent to be understood by readers who are less familiar with this approach. the study will consider the incidence of passives and first person pronoun subjects, the distribution of process types, and the relationships between these features. in what follows i shall look at the incidence of passive forms and first person pronoun subjects. i shall then look at the distribution of process types, of all verbs, of passive verbs, and of verbs with first person pronoun subjects. 3. passives table 1 gives the incidence of passives for each article as a percentage of all finite verbs. non-finite passive verb forms were not included in the count. finite verbs have particular significance as the fulcrum of the clause, and attract a grammatical subject and, unless they are intransitive, a complement. table 1. passives article no. % no. of finite verbs aanen 41 16% 252 benevento 66 25% 265 byrne 55 22% 249 kopperud 36 12% 295 madin 80 21% 378 senior 78 28% 274 overall 356 20% 1713 in the physical sciences articles previously studied the overall passive rate was 29%, but with wide variation between individual articles from 1% to 53%. two of the six had a high rate, two low, and two were close to the overall rate. in the biological articles studied here, the overall rate of passive use is 20% of finite verbs, notably less than the formerly supposed norm of about 30%. senior is the closest to this figure with 28%, while kopperud has the lowest rate with 12%. hence, these six articles can be thought of as being relatively restrained in their use of the passive, and this would be consistent with the hypothesis that there has been a reduction in passive use. it is also well below the rate of 29% found in the six physical sciences articles studied previously, but where some articles, nevertheless, displayed greater diversity. 4. first person pronoun subjects table 2 gives the numbers of first person pronoun subjects of active verbs (there are no first person subjects of passives, and, although theoretically possible, such would be unlikely in any case) and the percentage of finite verbs which have such subjects. since there are no single-authored articles in the sample, first person pronoun subjects are exclusively we. table 2. first person pronoun subjects. article no. % aanen 22 9% benevento 12 5% byrne 9 4% kopperud 69 23% madin 23 6% senior 25 9% overall 160 9% in the physical sciences articles studied, the overall rate of finite verbs with a first person pronoun subject was 11%, with a range of none at all to 33%. one article uses them extensively, two moderately, but the others use them hardly at all. in these biological articles, the overall rate of finite verbs with a first person pronoun subject is 9%. it should be noted that only overt pronouns were counted. hence this does not include elided pronouns which occurred as the putative subjects of coordinate verbs. however these are fairly rare; passive voice, first person pronouns and mental process verbs in the biological sciences research article e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 5 there are only nine such cases in the whole corpus, seven of them in kopperud. however, the overall rate masks the fact that while five of the articles have rates of less than 10%, one, kopperud, stands out, with the much higher rate of 23%. since kopperud also has the lowest rate of passive use, this may indicate some degree of correlation between restrained use of passives and a high rate of first person pronoun subjects. this hypothesis is not supported by the figures for the full set of articles. this can be seen in table 3, where passive use and rates of first person pronouns are compared. table 3. passives and first person pronouns. article passives first person pronouns aanen 16% 8% benevento 25% 5% byrne 22% 3% kopperud 12% 26% madin 21% 8% senior 28% 9% overall 20% 10% kopperud is paleontological in nature, and there may be sub-disciplinary influences at play (biber & gray, 2013), although this is a feature which it shares with byrne, where the rate is only 3%. the patterns found here are considerably different to those found in the review of the six physical sciences articles, where the use of passives varied considerably in different articles (from 11% to 53%), and where three of the articles virtually eschewed the use of first person pronouns altogether, and another used them extensively (33%). hence, the results for this sample would seem to suggest that for the biological sciences, use of the passive is standard but not excessive, and use of first person pronoun subjects is restrained, but in exceptional individual cases, such as kopperud, may be high. however, the idea that there is a simple correlation between use of passives and that of first person pronouns is not borne out. moreover, these results do not corroborate earlier studies which claimed that use of the first person pronoun was particularly prominent in the biological field (hyland & jiang, 2017). 5. process types it is of interest to know whether a specific process type favours the use of either passives, or first person pronouns subjects. i use a set of five process types based on those provided for in systemic functional linguistics (banks, 2005b, 2019; halliday & matthiessen, 2014). the five process types are material, mental, relational, verbal and existential. even within the systemic functional approach there is a fairly wide range of attitudes to the analysis of process types, from a more grammatical to a more conceptual point of view (o’donnell, zappavigna, & whitelaw, 2008). my analyses are to the conceptual pole of this cline. moreover, i do not use the category of behavioural process which is commonly used in systemic functional linguistics. for example, some commentators (e.g. matthiessen, 1995) suggest that verbs of communication that project (i.e. can be followed by direct or indirect speech, e.g. say) are cases of verbal process, while those that do not (e.g. talk) are cases of behavioural process. this does not seem to me to be coherent, and moreover, they do not correspond to the original definition of behavioural process as being between material and mental processes (halliday, 1985). the reasons why i do not use the category of behavioural process are explained in detail in banks (2016). material process are actions or events of a physical nature. (2) in the bacterial species dinoroseobacter shibae, at high density, bacteria switch from exponential to linear growth and quorum sensing regulates this switch. (aanen)3 mental processes are events of a cerebral nature. 3in text references have been omitted from examples. banks 6 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 (3) this has been interpreted as a result of the ecological release of mammals following the extinction of many species, including all non-avian dinosaurs, during the cretaceous/palaeogene (k/pg) mass extinction event. (benevento) relational processes link two entities, or an entity and one of its characteristics. (4) the ectoneural portion has a distinct neuroepithalium containing neuronal cell bodies and an underlying neuropile that contains axons, analogous to the grey and white matter of the vertebrate spinal cord, respectively, as well as in the presence of radial glia as the supporting framework. (byrne) verbal processes are processes of communication. (5) we thus hypothesized that, through spatially constrained herbivory due to one or both of these indirect mechanisms, marine reserves could affect halo prevalence and/or size by altering herbivore and/or predator populations. (madin) existential processes are statements of existence. (6) while there are substantial advantages to text-mining genus/species age-observation data, we recognize several avenues for improvement in this study. (kopperud) table 4 gives the distribution of process types for the six articles in the sample. table 4. process types article material mental relational verbal existential no. % no. % no. % no. % no. % aanen 102 40% 45 18% 94 37% 11 4% benevento 82 31% 57 22% 98 37% 28 11% byrne 85 34% 16 6% 137 55% 11 4% kopperud 92 31% 51 17% 127 43% 17 6% 8 3% madin 156 41% 54 14% 141 37% 18 5% 9 2% senior 79 29% 70 26% 109 40% 12 4% 4 1% overall 596 35% 293 17% 706 41% 97 6% 21 1% overall, the commonest process type is relational, accounting for 41% of the finite verbs. relational process is also the most frequently used type in four of the individual articles (benevento, byrne, kopperud, senior). however, in aanen and in madin the most frequent process type is material. material process is the second commonest type in the other four articles, where relational process was the most frequent. mental process is the third commonest process type overall, and in all of the individual articles. this contrasts fairly starkly with the six physical sciences articles i looked at, where, although relational process was the commonest process type overall and in four of the individual articles, mental process was the most frequent in two, second in two, and third in two. material process was the third commonest type overall, and in four individual articles, being second most frequent in the other two. hence, mental process seems to have a much less important place in the writing of biological articles than in the writing of articles in the physical sciences. 6. mathematical processes at the time when the first scientific research articles were published, in 1665, the physical sciences were largely experimental, and, therefore, used a relatively large number of material processes. the late 19th century saw a vast increase in the use of mathematical techniques, and this is reflected in the scientific writing of the time. in banks (2008a), i noted “an explosion of mathematical themes in the physical sector from the late nineteenth century on” (p. 175), and concluded “the importance acquired over a short period from the nineteenth century on by the mathematical modelling of physical problems is reflected in the use of mathematical items as thematic choices” (p. 175). in the course of the 20th century, these techniques involved passive voice, first person pronouns and mental process verbs in the biological sciences research article e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 7 the use of mathematical modelling, with the gradual use of computers for the purpose, particularly from about 1960 onwards. however, although this was the case for the physical sciences, mathematics did not seem to have made the same impact on the biological sciences, at least up to 1980 (banks, 2008a). the question arises as to what type of process is encoded by verbs of a mathematical nature. since events of a mathematical type, at least when they can be attributed to a human, are of a cerebral type, it seems reasonable to consider them a type of mental process. i would claim that this remains the case where an instrument, such as a computer is involved. in fact, it is likely that in modern scientific research all mathematical calculations are carried out using a computer, even where this is not specifically stated. in systemic functional linguistics it is usual to distinguish three types of mental process: cognitive, perception and affective (banks, 2005b, 2019; halliday & matthiessen, 2014). to this, some would add a separate class of desiderative processes (thompson, 2004). in these six articles we commonly find cognitive processes: (7) little is known about how asm is affected by dietary macronutrient content. (senior) there are also a small number of perception processes: (8) more often, herbivores have been observed to be less abundant or not significantly different in gbr no-take reserves relative to fished reefs. (madin) there are no examples of the affective or desiderative types in these six articles. i am suggesting that for genres of this type, we should recognize a further mathematical type of mental process. it is true that in many genres these could reasonably be conflated with mental cognitive processes. in genres, such as political journalism, legal documents, or sports reports, one would not expect to find many, if any, verbs of a mathematical nature; therefore, isolating them as a distinct group would not be warranted, but their frequency in scientific genres means that it is useful to distinguish them as a separate group. (9) the mst was calculated based on the distance between occupied grid cells across function space. (benevento) (10) we then model α and β over the macronutrient space captured by the diets. (senior) since mathematical processes have proved to be an important type in articles in the physical sciences, it is interesting to see to what extent it has made an impact on the biological sciences. mathematical processes are included in the count of mental processes given above. table 5 gives the distribution of cognitive, perception and mathematical types of mental process. table 5. types of mental process. article cognitive perception mathematical no. % no. % no. % aanen 30 67% 1 2% 14 31% benevento 34 60% 6 11% 17 30% byrne 14 88% 2 13% kopperud 39 76% 5 10% 7 14% madin 42 78% 6 11% 6 11% senior 29 41% 5 7% 36 51% overall 188 64% 25 9% 80 27% as can be seen, cognitive processes are by far the most common type of mental process overall, accounting for 64% of the mental processes, and this is the case in five of the individual articles, senior being the single exception. this probably indicates that senior’s use of process types, compared to the other articles in the sample, concentrates more on the calculation of the results, and less on the argumentation, than they do. this contrasts with the situation for the six physical sciences articles studied, where mathematical processes were the most frequent overall, and in five of the individual articles. if the incidence of these types of mental process is calculated as percentages of all finite verbs, the results given in table 6 emerge. banks 8 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 table 6. mental process types as percentage of finite verbs article cognitive perception mathematical aanen 12% *4 6% benevento 13% 2% 6% byrne 6% 1% kopperud 13% 2% 2% madin 11% 2% 2% senior 11% 2% 13% overall 11% 1% 5% cognitive processes account for between 11% and 13% in all articles except byrne, where the rate is 6%. perception processes never account for more than 2%. mathematical processes account for 5% overall, and with the exception of senior where the rate is 13%, they never account for more than 6%. in contrast, in the physical sciences articles studied, mathematical processes accounted for 18% overall, with a range of 8% to 25%. cognitive processes accounted for 11% overall, with a range of 10% to 13%. so, while the incidence of cognitive processes is virtually the same in both the physical and biological articles, the incidence of mathematical processes is much less in the biological articles than in the physical. perception processes are very rare in both the physical and the biological articles, 1% of the mental process in the former, 2% in the latter. 7. passives and process types if we now look at the process types of finite verbs in the passive form, the results given in table 7 emerge. table 7. process types of passives article material mental relational verbal no. % no. % no. % no. % aanen 22 54% 14 34% 3 7% 2 5% benevento 16 24% 33 50% 8 12% 9 14% byrne 38 69% 7 13% 4 7% 6 11% kopperud 21 58% 7 19% 4 11% 4 11% madin 37 46% 35 44% 5 6% 3 4% senior 25 32% 38 49% 10 13% 5 6% overall 159 45% 134 38% 34 10% 29 8% this means that, overall, 45% of the passive verbs encoded material processes, 38% mental processes, 10% relational and 8% verbal. once again, there is a fairly strong contrast with the articles in the physical sciences where mental processes accounted for the majority of passive forms overall and in each of the individual articles. the overall rate was 62%, and the rate in individual articles ranged from 47% to 82%. here, overall the majority of passives occur in the material process category, and in four of the individual articles (aanen, byrne, kopperud, madin). this goes hand in hand with the fact that material processes are more frequent in these biological articles than in the physical sciences sample. in two of these biological articles (benevento and senior), mental processes do account for the highest percentage of passive forms. on the other hand, in kopperud and byrne the percentage of mental process passives seems particularly low, 19% and 13% respectively. it is important to note that the relatively high percentage of passive relational processes, given that relational processes do not passivize readily. here, they are more frequent than verbal process passives. since relational processes do not frequently passivize, it is probably worth giving some examples to show the sort of process that has been included in this category. (11) insular dwarfism and gigantism, which are also geologically rapid. macroevolutionary phenomena, can be accompanied by little or no change in overall morphology. (benevento) 4 an asterisk in a table indicates that although there were some examples they accounted for less than 0.5%. passive voice, first person pronouns and mental process verbs in the biological sciences research article e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 9 (12) asteroids are particularly amenable to the investigation of cns regeneration because the rncs are located on the ectodermal surface, rather than being internalized in development as they are in the other echinoderms. (byrne) (13) diets either rich in protein or fat content were associated with a great deal of among-individual variation in the age at death. (senior) some might consider these to be adjectival or pseudo-passives, but an active variant is easy to construct for (11) (little change accompanied ...), and even for (12) and (13) this is not impossible (we locate ..., we associate ...). in the physical sciences articles analyzed, not only were mental processes the commonest type of passive, but within mental process passives the most commonly used type was mathematical, accounting for 60% of the mental process passives. the cognitive type accounted for 36%, and perception 5%. table 8 shows that this is not the case for the biological articles studied. table 8. mental process and passives article cognitive perception mathematical no. % no. % no. % aanen 11 79% 3 21% benevento 18 55% 1 3% 14 42% byrne 6 86% 1 14% kopperud 7 100% madin 26 74% 3 9% 6 17% senior 14 37% 24 63% overall 82 61% 5 4% 47 35% here, cognitive processes are by far the commonest type of mental process passive, accounting for 61% of the sample, with mathematical processes accounting for 35%. cognitive is the most frequent type in five of the individual articles, senior being the exception. 8. first person pronoun subjects and process type we will now turn our attention to the process types of verbs with first person pronoun subjects. the numbers of first person pronoun subjects and the percentages of verbs with such subjects are given in table 9. table 9. process types and first person pronouns article material mental relational verbal no. % no. % no. % no. % aanen 2 10% 17 81% 2 10% benevento 8 62% 5 38% byrne 3 38% 5 63% kopperud 28 36% 33 43% 6 8% 10 13% madin 16 53% 9 30% 5 17% senior 1 4% 22 92% 1 4% overall 50 29% 94 54% 7 4% 22 13% although some of the figures are relatively small, it is clear that for these articles the commonest process type with first person pronoun subjects is mental, and this is the case in all individual articles except madin. the figure 54% is, however, considerably less than that found in the physical sciences articles, which was 76%. moreover, here 29% of the verbs with first person pronoun subjects occur in material process, with half of the articles (byrne, kopperud and madin, though in byrne the raw numbers are very small) having a fairly high percentage ranging from 36% to 53%. this contrasts strongly with the situation found in the physical sciences articles where first person pronoun subjects hardly ever occurred with material process verbs, occurring in only one of the articles, and accounting for only 1% overall. the fact that the majority of banks 10 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 first person pronoun subjects occur with mental processes does not seem unreasonable. a person’s acts (material processes) can, in principle, be replicated by someone else, but no-one else can have their thoughts or feelings (mental processes). hence there is something more personal about mental processes which lends them to first person subject use. this tendency, however, seems to be much stronger in the physical than the biological sciences, perhaps because of the greater incidence of mathematical processes in that subgenre. since the figures in table 9 are already fairly small, it is evident that those for individual mental process types will be even smaller. these are given in table 10. table 10. mental process and first person pronoun subjects. article cognitive perception mathematical no. % no. % no. % aanen 8 47% 9 53% benevento 6 75% 1 13% 1 13% byrne 5 100% kopperud 26 79% 7 21% madin 9 100% senior 8 36% 3 14% 11 50% overall 62 66% 4 4% 28 30% despite the paucity of the raw numbers, perhaps it is worth noting that overall the cognitive processes account for two-thirds of the mental process sample with first person pronoun subjects. at the same time, in two individual articles (aanen and senior) mathematical processes with first person pronoun subjects are more common than cognitive processes. 9. final thoughts in these six articles, we have seen that the rate of passive use is relatively modest, at 20% of finite verbs. it would require a diachronic study to ascertain whether passive use in the biological sciences has reached a peak, and is leveling off as seems to be the case in the physical sciences, or whether passive use is still rising at this point. there is a relatively low rate of first person pronoun subjects. they appear with only 9% of the finite verbs, but in individual cases the rate may be much higher, which is the case of one of the six articles in the sample studied here. the most frequent process type in this sample is relational process, though material processes, the second most common overall, may be the most frequent in individual cases. this contrasts with the small sample of physical sciences articles studied (banks, 2017), where mental processes were more common than material processes. within mental process, cognitive processes are the most common type followed by mathematical processes. this contrasts with the physical sciences articles where mathematical processes were the most frequent. when passive forms are considered, material processes account for more passives than mental processes. this contrasts with the physical sciences articles where mental process passives were more common than material. within mental process, cognitive mental passives are more frequent than mathematical passives. the majority of finite verbs with first person pronoun subjects are examples of mental process. this is true also of the physical sciences articles, but where in the physical sciences articles mental processes account for 76% of the verbs with first person pronoun subjects, in the biological articles the rate is only 54%. these facts are probably interrelated. the relatively low incidence of first person pronoun subjects is probably due to the low rate of mental processes, since first person pronoun subjects tend to occur with this process type. the low rate of mental processes is itself partly due to the relatively low incidence of mathematical processes. the biological field still includes an interest in visible organisms and their description, which do not require the degree of mathematical modelling necessary in many areas of the physical sciences such as particle physics. it is perhaps these facts which account for the lack of direct correlation between the incidence of first person pronoun subject and passives. passive voice, first person pronouns and mental process verbs in the biological sciences research article e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 11 while the sample of six articles studied here is far too small to give anything like firm conclusions, the points raised might be considered to provide food for thought, and taken as indicators of possible future fruitful research. such research might include carrying out similar analyses of a larger sample, and on different subgenres, and carrying out a diachronic study to show the direction and speed of the changes taking place. moreover, while these results are interesting in themselves, and can act as indicators for future research, they will also be of interest to those involved in the teaching of english for academic purposes. students need to know, for example that, (to the extent that these results can be taken as representative) use of first person pronoun subjects now seems to be permissible in the scientific research article; nevertheless, this has to be tempered by the knowledge that first person pronoun subjects are more likely to occur with mental process verbs. this is particularly true of the physical sciences, but also the case, if even to a lesser extent, in the biological sciences. taking such factors into account will enhance the chances of non-english-speaking researchers successfully playing a part in an increasingly competitive international scene. references arnold, jennifer e., kaiser, elsi, kahn, jason m., & kim, lucy k. 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(2005). native and non-native writers’ use of first person pronouns in the different sections of biology research articles in english. journal of second language writing, 14(3), 174-190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2005.06.001 matthiessen, christian (1995). lexicogrammatical cartography: english systems. tokyo, international language sciences. o’donnell, michael, zappavigna, michele, & whitelaw, casey (2008). a survey of process type classification over difficult cases. in carys jones, & eija ventola (eds.). new developments in the study of ideational meaning from language to multimodality, (pp. 47-64). continuum. pullum, geoffrey k. (2014). fear and loathing of the english passive. language & communication, 37, 60-74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2013.08.009 quirk, randolph, greenbaum, sydney, lech, geoffrey, & svartvik, jan (1985). a comprehensive grammar of the english language. longman. rodman, lilita (1981). the passive in technical and scientific writing. journal of advanced composition. 2(1-2), 165-172. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20865498 savory, theodore h. (1953). the language of science. andré deutsch. passive voice, first person pronouns and mental process verbs in the biological sciences research article e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 13 seoane, elena (2006). changing styles: on the recent evolution of scientific british and american english. in christiane dalton-puffer, dieter kastovsky, nikolaus ritt, & herbt schendl (eds.). syntax, style and grammatical norms: english from 1500-200. (pp. 191-209). peter lang. seoane, elena (2010). the effect of prominence hierarchies on modern english long passives: pragmatic vs. syntactic factors. miscelánia, 41, 93-106. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20109295 seoane, elena, & hundt, marianne (2018). voice alternation and authorial presence: variation across disciplinary areas in academic english. journal of english linguistics, 46(1), 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424217740938 seoane, elena, & loureiro-porto, lucía (2005). on the colloquialization of scientific british and american english. esp across cultures, 2(1), 106-116. seoane, elena, & williams, christopher (2006). changing the rules: a comparison of recent trends in english in academic scientific discourse and prescriptive legal discourse. in marina dossena, & irma taavitsainen (eds.). diachronic perspectives on domain-specific english. (pp. 255-276). peter lang. thompson, geoff (2004). introducing functional grammar (2nd edn.). arnold. appendix analyzed papers from the proceedings of the royal society b for the year 2019 aanen, duur k. & debets, alfons j.m. (2019). mutation-rate plasticity and the germline of unicellular organisms. proceedings of the royal society b, 286 (1902). benevento, gemma louise, benson, roger b.j. & friedman, matt (2019). patterns of mammalian jaw ecomorphological disparity during the mesozoic/cenozoic transition. proceedings of the royal society b, 286 (1902). byrne, maria, mazzone, franca, elphick, maurice r., thorndyke, michael c. & cisternas, paula (2019). expression of the neuropeptide salmfamide-1 during regeneration of the seastar radial nerve cord following arm autotomy. proceedings of the royal society b, 286 (1901). madin, elizabeth m.p., harborne, alastair r., harmer, aaron m.t., luiz, osmar j. atwood, trisha b,. sullivan, brian j. & madin, joshua s. (2019). marine reserves shape seascapes on scales visible from space. proceedings of the royal society b, 286 (1901). kopperud, bjørn tore, lidgard, scott & liow, lee hsiang (2019). text-mined fossil biodiversity dynamics using machine learning. proceedings of the royal society b, 286 (1901). senior, alistair m., solon-biet, samantha m., cogger, victoria c., le couteur, david g., nakagawa, shinichi, raubenheimer, david & simson, stephen j. (2019). dietary macronutrient content, age-specific mortality and lifespan. proceedings of the royal society b, 286 (1902). banks 14 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 1-14 david banks, université de bretagne occidentale david.banks@univ-brest.fr en david banks is an emeritus professor at the université de bretagne occidentale in france. he has an ma in philosophy from the university of cambridge (uk), a doctorate in english linguistics from the université de nantes (france), and an hdr from the université de bordeaux 2 (france). he is former head of the english department, director of erla (equipe de recherche en linguistique appliquée) and chairman of aflsf (association française de la linguistique systémique fonctionnelle). he is author or editor of over 30 books and has published over 140 academic articles and book chapters. his book the development of scientific english, linguistic features and historical context (equinox), won the esse language and linguistics book award in 2010. his research interests include the diachronic study of scientific text and the application of systemic functional linguistics to english and french. his extra-mural interests include poetry, choral singing, and coastal rowing. es david banks es profesor emérito en la université de bretagne occidentale, en francia. tiene una maestría en filosofía por la universidad de cambridge (reino unido), un doctorado en lingüística inglesa por la université de nantes (francia), y una hdr (habilitación para dirigir investigaciones) por la université de bordeaux 2 (francia). ha sido jefe del departamento de inglés, director de erla (equipo de investigación en lingüística aplicada) y presidente de la aflsf (asociación francesa de lingüística sistémico-funcional). es autor o editor de más de 30 libros, y ha publicado más de 140 artículos académicos y capítulos de libros. su libro the development of scientific english, linguistic features and historica context (equinox) obtuvo el premio al mejor libro en lengua y lingüística de la esse en 2010. sus líneas de investigación incluyen el estudio diacrónico del texto científico y la aplicación de la lingúística sistémicofuncional al inglés y al francés. entre sus intereses extracurriculares se encuentran la poesía, el canto coral y el remo costero. it david banks è professore emerito presso l’université de bretagne occidentale in francia. ha conseguito un master in filosofia presso l’università di cambridge (regno unito), un dottorato in linguistica inglese presso l’université de nantes (francia) e un hdr (higher degree by research) presso l’université de bordeaux 2 (francia). è stato direttore del dipartimento di inglese, direttore dell’erla (équipe de recherche en linguistique appliquée) e presidente dell’aflsf (association française de la linguistique systémique fonctionnelle). è autore o curatore di oltre 30 volumi e ha pubblicato più di 140 articoli accademici e capitoli di libri. il suo volume the development of scientific english: linguistic features and historical context (equinox) ha vinto nel 2010 l’esse language and linguistics book award. le sue aree di ricerca comprendono lo studio diacronico dei testi scientifici e l’applicazione della linguistica sistemico-funzionale all’inglese e al francese. tra i suoi interessi extra-accademici figurano la poesia, il canto corale e il canottaggio costiero. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 11, issue 2, december 2024, 84-87 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.2.3277 www.e-journall.org © heras 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. reseña: muñoz-basols, javier, fuertes gutiérrez, mara y cerezo, luis (eds.) (2024). la enseñanza del español mediada por tecnología. de la justicia social a la inteligencia artificial (ia). routledge cristina inés heras universidad nacional de la plata book review received 21 october 2024; accepted after revisions 2 november 2024 abstract es la enseñanza de español mediada por tecnología: de la justicia social a la inteligencia artificial es un libro que presenta, desde un abordaje muy amplio, la enseñanza del español en entornos tecnológicos. esta obra, editada por javier muñoz-basols (universidad de sevilla y oxford university), mara fuertes gutiérrez (open university) y luis cerezo (american university), fue publicada por la editorial routledge que forma parte del grupo taylor & francis. es importante destacar el gran aporte que significa esta obra tanto para personas que se dedican a la investigación como para docentes que componen la comunidad científica a cargo de enseñar y diseminar el español en el mundo, ya que es de acceso abierto (open access), hecho que se hace posible gracias al apoyo del programa hispanex y de otras instituciones mencionadas por los editores. el libro está explícitamente dirigido a profesorado y futuro profesorado, a investigadores y a quienes dirigen centros de enseñanza de lenguas segundas y extranjeras en general y de español en particular. palabras clave: enseñanza de español, lenguas extranjeras, tecnología, inteligencia artificial en la enseñanza de español mediada por tecnología: de la justicia social a la inteligencia artificial is a book that explores, from a broad perspective, the teaching of spanish in technological environments. edited by javier muñoz-basols (university of seville and oxford university), mara fuertes gutiérrez (open university), and luis cerezo (american university), it is published by routledge, part of the taylor & francis group. this work represents a significant contribution to both researchers and educators within the scientific community dedicated to teaching and promoting spanish worldwide. notably, it is available as open access, made possible through the support of the hispanex program and other institutions acknowledged by the editors. the book is specifically aimed at teachers and prospective teachers, researchers, and directors of second and foreign language teaching centers in general, and spanish language teaching centers in particular. keywords: spanish language teaching, foreign languages, technology, artificial intelligence it la enseñanza de español mediada por tecnología: de la justicia social a la inteligencia artificial è un libro che presenta, tramite un approccio molto ampio, l’insegnamento dello spagnolo in ambienti tecnologici. questa opera, editata da javier muñoz-basols (università di siviglia e università di oxford), mara fuertes gutiérrez (open university) e luis cerezo (american university), è stato pubblicato da routledge, parte del gruppo taylor & francis. è importante evidenziare il grande contributo di questo lavoro sia per i ricercatori che per gli insegnanti che fanno parte della comunità scientifica che si occupa di insegnare e diffondere lo spagnolo nel mondo, visto che si trova in open access, grazie al supporto del programma hispanex e di altre istituzioni menzionate dagli editori. il libro è indirizzato esplicitamente agli insegnanti e ai futuri insegnanti, ai ricercatori, a coloro che sono a capo di centri di insegnamento di lingue seconde e straniere in generale e di centri di insegnamento dello spagnolo nello specifico. parole chiave: insegnamento dello spagnolo, lingue straniere, tecnologia, intelligenza artificiale  cristina inés heras, universidad nacional de la plata cristinaheras6@gmail.com como se expresa en la introduccio n al volumen, es la intencio n ofrecer en esta serie, routledge advances in spanish language teaching, publicaciones de gran calidad con autores de prestigio indiscutido que hayan http://www.e-journall.org/ reseña: la enseñanza del español mediada por tecnología e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 84-87 85 abordado me todos y teorí as innovadoras. asimismo, la serie busca, y este volumen lo logra, ofrecer abordajes en las a reas de lingu í stica aplicada y aspectos sociales y culturales en la adquisicio n de lenguas segundas y extranjeras. por su parte, los editores dejan en claro en el artí culo que cumple las veces de pro logo que el propo sito del libro es tanto compartir experiencias y te cnicas utilizadas durante la pandemia en el contexto de ensen anza y aprendizaje de lenguas como anticipar la ensen anza de lenguas mediada por el uso de inteligencia artificial (mun oz-basols et al. 2023; mun oz-basols y fuertes gutie rrez 2024b). por otro lado, se propone introducir el modelo ppi (planificar, personalizar e implementar) en la capacitacio n a docentes para el uso de tecnologí as con la intencio n de que la ensen anza de lenguas mediada por tecnologí a sea exitosa. sin lugar a duda, se trata de una obra de un indiscutido valor acade mico y muy amigable para la comprensio n y aplicacio n en situacio n de aula presencial, hí brida o virtual. a mi entender esta obra es la primera gran contribucio n de relevancia sobre el tema dentro del a mbito de la ensen anza del espan ol como lengua segunda o extranjera de acceso abierto. la organizacio n general se encuadra dentro de tres partes (i. planificar las necesidades tecnolo gicas; ii. personalizar la ensen anza y el aprendizaje; iii. implementar recursos tecnolo gicos), un artí culo inicial y un epí logo. dentro de esta estructura, el volumen esta compuesto por doce capí tulos de autores y autoras pertenecientes a instituciones de distintas procedencias, tales como egipto, estados unidos, irlanda, italia y reino unido. cada capí tulo va marcando distintos momentos en el proceso de la ensen anza de espan ol en contextos virtuales. se contemplan aspectos vinculados al acceso a la tecnologí a y la justicia social, a la motivacio n y al manejo de la ansiedad, así como a la evaluacio n, y se concluye con el epí logo en el que se expone la realidad que se nos presenta frente a la irrupcio n de la inteligencia artificial (ia). en el artí culo inicial o pro logo, los editores presentan el modelo ppi (planificar, personalizar e implementar), el cual propone el manejo de herramientas y recursos que permitan un “empoderamiento tecnolo gico” tanto del profesorado como del alumnado en la ensen anza y aprendizaje de la lengua. este abordaje contempla tres momentos fundamentales en la sistematizacio n de la tarea docente: 1) planificar las necesidades tecnolo gicas; 2) personalizar la ensen anza y el aprendizaje; y 3) implementar recursos tecnolo gicos. le siguen a este primer artí culo tres partes que se corresponden con los tres momentos del modelo presentado (planificar, personalizar e implementar), y la obra cierra con un epí logo que aborda la tema tica de los nuevos escenarios mediados por la tecnologí a y ma s especí ficamente la ia. la primera seccio n se enfoca en la planificacio n de necesidades tecnolo gicas y ofrece un marco metodolo gico y pra ctico. el capí tulo inicial, de melinda dooly y anna comas-quinn, presenta el tema de la brecha digital en la que se reflejan las desigualdades socioecono micas. las autoras analizan co mo la tecnologí a puede operar como una valiosa herramienta para lograr una educacio n ma s equitativa, accesible y justa en la ensen anza de idiomas. el segundo artí culo, de marta gonza lez-lloret, aborda el disen o de programas y currí culos en entornos virtuales utilizando el modelo addie (ana lisis, disen o, desarrollo, integracio n, evaluacio n), que considera la metodologí a, los materiales, la formacio n docente y la incorporacio n de la tecnologí a para lograr una ensen anza de idiomas efectiva. el tercer capí tulo, escrito por inmaculada go mez soler y marta tecedor, se centra en el ana lisis de las creencias, actitudes y competencias del profesorado respecto del aula virtual. los resultados de una encuesta hecha a docentes de espan ol muestran que la formacio n en competencias digitales es relevante a la hora de utilizar herramientas tecnolo gicas en la educacio n virtual. cierra esta primera parte de esta obra el cuarto artí culo en el que daria mizza y fernando rubio presentan perspectivas pra cticas basadas en las directrices propuestas por el disen o universal para la instruccio n (dui), con el fin de lograr un entorno participativo para el aprendizaje de lenguas (epal) en el aula de espan ol. el fin u ltimo es lograr el “efecto de redundancia”, vale decir, una ensen anza ma s clara y comprensible donde se presta especial atencio n a la diversidad de aprendientes. la segunda parte, que aborda la personalizacio n de la ensen anza y el aprendizaje, esta encabezada por la investigacio n de luis cerezo e i n igo yanguas, quienes investigan el impacto de la tecnologí a sobre la motivacio n del alumnado y ofrecen recomendaciones pedago gicas para lograr resultados positivos. el capí tulo sexto de este volumen, redactado por zsuzsanna ba rka nyi, se centra en aspectos afectivos en entornos de clases virtuales. se aborda la ansiedad y se destaca que esta variable afectiva impide la participacio n activa de muchos aprendientes, razo n por la cual el profesorado debe saber co mo gestionarla en todos los niveles y contextos de ensen anza. en el se ptimo capí tulo, escrito por javier mun oz-basols y mara fuertes gutie rrez, se trata, en primer lugar, el modo de gestionar y fomentar la interaccio n segu n el entorno virtual en el que se desarrolle, sea este sí ncrono o así ncrono, presencial, hí brido o virtual. luego, se hace una revisio n crí tica de las habilidades necesarias para ejercer una labor facilitadora de la interaccio n, se presenta un estudio de caso y finalmente se heras e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 84-87 86 hacen recomendaciones para fomentar la interaccio n y optimizar la competencia comunicativa del alumnado. cierra este bloque sonia bailini con su aporte sobre evaluacio n y feedback en entornos virtuales de aprendizaje. esta autora realiza una revisio n de los tipos de evaluacio n (diagno stica, del aprovechamiento o del rendimiento, certificativa, formativa y sumativa, entre otros) y ofrece algunas recomendaciones para la elaboracio n y gestio n de evaluaciones en lí nea mediante el aprovechamiento de las tics. el siguiente bloque, muestra co mo implementar recursos tecnolo gicos. robert blake, lillian jones y cory osburn presentan el capí tulo enseñanza híbrida, en línea y aula invertida. se busca que el aprendiente se convierta en un ser multilingu e en un mundo real y digital. se aborda tambie n la ensen anza en lí nea desde una visio n interaccionista para finalmente ofrecer pautas pra cticas para el disen o de un curso de lengua extranjera en lí nea. asimismo, se busca fomentar la capacidad humana de ser homo fabulans, o narrador nato en los aprendientes para que puedan trazar su propia ruta de aprendizaje. en el de cimo capí tulo sobre inmersión lingüística digital (ild) e intercambios virtuales, carlos soler montes y olga juan-la zaro explican co mo aplicar la ild de manera efectiva en el aula virtual. durante este proceso, el alumnado desarrolla tanto competencias sociolingu í sticas como interculturales adema s de la capacidad de incrementar su motivacio n debido a la mejora de las habilidades digitales. siguiendo con la utilizacio n de recursos tecnolo gicos en la ensen anza de lenguas, ana oskoz presenta en el siguiente capí tulo la efectividad de de la inmersio n lingu í stica digital (ild), cuyos materiales (los po dcasts e historias digitales) permiten practicar la comprensio n y expresio n orales, adema s de potenciar la motivacio n y la competencia digital del alumnado. con el duode cimo capí tulo se cierra la tercera parte del libro en el que se afianza el modelo ppi. luis cerezo y joan-toma s pujola nos proponen la pedagogía lúdica digital (pld) que consiste en el uso de videojuegos, minijuegos, realidades extendidas y robots para mejorar la experiencia del aprendizaje. asimismo, los autores profundizan en los principales marcos teo ricos relacionados con este enfoque. adema s, aportan indicaciones para aprender contenidos le xicos o gramaticales con estos medios digitales. el volumen se cierra con el capí tulo 13 que, a modo de epí logo, presenta las oportunidades de la inteligencia artificial (ia) en la ensen anza y el aprendizaje de lenguas. javier mun ozbasols y mara fuertes gutie rrez hacen hincapie en la capacidad transformadora de la ensen anza mediante el uso de la ia generativa como aliada para mejorar la planificacio n curricular, la personalizacio n del proceso de ensen anza y aprendizaje, y la implementacio n de recursos y actividades. asimismo, se presenta el marco imi+ (integración, multimodalidad e interacción + literacidad digital y pensamiento crítico) cuyo objetivo es incorporar la traduccio n aplicada en la ensen anza de una l2 teniendo en cuenta su naturaleza multimodal e interactiva en la comunicacio n. este marco tambie n contempla la necesidad imperiosa de fomentar un espí ritu crí tico para poder valorar de manera analí tica y reflexiva el material proporcionado por la tecnologí a. en suma, como dije al principio de esta resen a, esta obra viene a cubrir un vací o que se vení a sintiendo en el a mbito de la ensen anza del espan ol pero que tranquilamente puede aplicarse a la ensen anza del lenguas segundas y extranjeras en su totalidad. asimismo, la generosa decisio n de ofrecer este volumen con acceso abierto es y sera de gran ayuda puesto que permite que el valioso aporte de esta obra pueda llegar a todos los puntos del planeta y muy especialmente a quienes nos encontramos en la “periferia”, donde acceder a conocimiento de calidad puede complicarse debido a la falta de recursos. mi ma s sentido agradecimiento a todas las personas que han participado en esta obra por su generoso aporte. en cuanto a la procedencia de los autores y las autoras de esta obra, me atrevo a sugerir que, debido al paí s de donde escribo (argentina), serí a muy enriquecedor el intercambio con profesorado y con investigadores e investigadoras de latinoame rica en futuros trabajos, incorporando tambie n aspectos de la glotopolí tica de estas latitudes. referencias reseña: la enseñanza del español mediada por tecnología e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 84-87 87 muñoz-basols, javier, neville, craig, lafford, barbara y godev, concepción (2023). “potentialities of applied translation for language learning in the era of artificial intelligence”. hispania 106(2), 171–194. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpn.2023.a899427 muñoz-basols, javier y fuertes gutiérrez, mara (2024). “interacción en entornos virtuales de aprendizaje [interaction in virtual learning environments]”. en javier muñoz-basols, mara fuertes gutiérrez y luis cerezo (eds.), la enseñanza del español mediada por tecnología. de la justicia social a la inteligencia artificial (ia): routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003146391 cristina inés heras, universidad nacional de la plata cristinaheras6@gmail.com es cristina inés heras es profesora en lengua y literatura inglesas, magíster en lingüística de la universidad nacional de la plata, investigadora e intérprete inglés/español. en la actualidad se desempeña como docente en la universidad nacional de la plata y luján en la asignatura lectocomprensión en inglés lengua extranjera y como evaluadora de español como lengua extranjera. trabaja como coordinadora operativa del área de español como lengua segunda y extranjera (else) del idhics (instituto de investigaciones en humanidades y ciencias sociales) de la facultad de humanidades y ciencias de la educación-unlp. ha impartido cursos, talleres y conferencias sobre temas relacionados con su área de investigación: el análisis del discurso y la didáctica de la lectocomprensión en lenguas extranjeras, los géneros discursivos y la multimodalidad en la enseñanza de idiomas. dicta regularmente seminarios de posgrado en la universidad de sevilla y en la especialización en enseñanza de español como lengua segunda y extranjera de la unlp. participa en un proyecto de investigación sobre la enseñanza de la oralidad en lenguas extranjeras radicado en el centro de estudios e investigaciones lingüísticas (ceil) idhics-fahce. ha publicado artículos sobre sus temas de investigación en actas de congresos y publicaciones de prestigio internacional. en cristina inés heras is a teacher of english language and literature, master in linguistics at the universidad nacional de la plata, researcher and english/spanish interpreter. she currently teaches at the national university of la plata and luján in the subject reading comprehension in english as a foreign language and as an evaluator of spanish as a foreign language. she is the coordinator of the area of spanish as a second and foreign language (else) at idhics (institute for research in humanities and social sciences) of the college of humanities and education sciences-unlp. she has taught courses, workshops and conferences on topics related to her area of research: discourse analysis and didactics of reading comprehension in foreign languages, discourse genres and multimodality in language teaching. she regularly teaches graduate seminars at the university of seville and in the specialization in teaching spanish as a second and foreign language at the unlp. she participates in a research project on the teaching of orality in foreign languages at the centro de estudios e investigaciones lingüísticas (ceil) idhics-fahce. she has published articles on her research topics in conference proceedings and publications of international prestige. it cristina inés heras è professoressa di lingua e letteratura inglese, master in linguistica alla universidad nacional de la plata, ricercatrice e interprete inglese/spagnolo. al momento insegna all’università nazionale di la plata e luján la materia comprensione scritta in inglese come lingua straniera ed è valutatrice di spagnolo come lingua straniera. è la coordinatrice dell’area di spagnolo come lingua seconda e straniera (else) all’idhics (istituto per la ricerca negli studi umanistici e nelle scienze sociali) del college di studi umanistici e scienze dell’educazioneunlp. ha tenuto corsi, workshop e conferenze su temi relativi alla sua area di ricerca: analisi del discorso e didattica della comprensione scritta nelle lingue straniere, generi del discorso e multimodalità nell’insegnamento delle lingue. tiene regolarmente seminari universitari all’università di siviglia e nella specializzazione nell'insegnamento dello spagnolo come lingua seconda e straniera all’unlp. partecipa ad un progetto di ricerca focalizzato sull'insegnamento dell’oralità nelle lingue straniere al centro de estudios e investigaciones lingüísticas (ceil) idhics-fahce. ha pubblicato articoli sui suoi temi di ricerca in atti di convegno e pubblicazioni di prestigio internazionale. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpn.2023.a899427 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003146391 mailto:cristinaheras6@gmail.com mailto:cristinaheras6@gmail.com microsoft word falcone 2025 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, special issue, volume 12, issue 1, june 2025, pages 144147 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.1.3405 www.e-journall.org © falcone 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. book review: fei victor lim and mercedes querol-julián (eds.) (2024), designing learning with digital technologies. routledge. mariasophia falcone università degli studi di bergamo received 13 may 2033; accepted 3 june 2025 abstract en designing learning with digital technologies, edited by fei victor lim and mercedes querol-julián (2024), is an insightful contribution to the ever-evolving conversation about how digital tools shape and influence teaching and learning practices. grounded in multimodal and socio-semiotic theory, the volume centers the role of educators and teachers as empowered designers of learning. with a specific focus on post-pandemic teaching realities teaching realities, yet not limited by them, it offers empirical studies, theoretical insights, and practical tools to support innovative, inclusive, and sustainable digital pedagogy across a range of educational and cultural contexts. key words: digital pedagogy, multimodality, blended learning, learning design es diseñando el aprendizaje con tecnologías digitales, editado por fei victor lim y mercedes querol-julián (2024), es una contribución perspicaz al debate en constante evolución sobre cómo las herramientas digitales moldean e influyen en las prácticas de enseñanza y aprendizaje. basado en la teoría multimodal y sociosemiótica, el volumen se centra en el papel de educadores y docentes como diseñadores empoderados del aprendizaje. a partir de un enfoque específico en las realidades docentes pospandémicas, pero sin limitarse a ellas, ofrece estudios empíricos, perspectivas teóricas y herramientas prácticas para apoyar una pedagogía digital innovadora, inclusiva y sostenible en diversos contextos educativos y culturales. palabras clave: pedagogía digital, multimodalidad, aprendizaje combinado, diseño de aprendizaje it progettare l'apprendimento con tecnologie digitali, a cura di fei victor lim e mercedes querol-julián (2024), è un contributo approfondito al discorso, in continua evoluzione, su come gli strumenti digitali possano plasmare e influenzare le pratiche di insegnamento e apprendimento. basato sulla teoria multimodale e socio-semiotica, il volume pone al centro il ruolo degli educatori e degli insegnanti come coloro incaricati della progettazione dell'apprendimento. con un accento posto sulle realtà di insegnamento post-pandemiche, anche se non limitato a questo, il volume offre studi empirici, panoramiche teoriche e strumenti pratici al fine di supportare una pedagogia digitale che possa essere innovativa, inclusiva e sostenibile, orizzontale ad una serie di contesti educativi e culturali. parole chiave: pedagogia digitale, multimodalità, apprendimento misto, progettazione dell'apprendimento  mariasophia falcone, università degli studi di bergamo mariasophia.falcone@guest.unibg.it shortened title e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 144147 145 designing learning with digital technologies explores how educators can create meaningful, effective, and relevant learning experiences using a wide range of digital tools and resources in a post-pandemic world. it offers a multimodal perspective on how digital technologies are reshaping teaching and learning practices, particularly in response to the now-structural need for blended learning (peters et al., 2020; lim & toh, 2020). central to this approach is the repositioning of teachers as designers of learning (kress & selander, 2012; selander, 2008;), moving beyond traditional views of educators as mere transmitters of knowledge. edited by fei victor lim and mercedes querol-julián, the volume brings together a diverse group of scholars working in multimodality, digital literacies, and across different teaching levels. their contributions span current research areas such as genre analysis, embodied teaching, and multiliteracies, offering insights into how digital technologies influence the production and transmission of knowledge in educational contexts. by highlighting the educational potential of digital media, the volume draws on the multiliteracies framework and contributes to the growing field of multimodal studies in education. therefore, it will be of interest to researchers and educators focusing on digital learning and multimodal literacies. similarly, readers will find both theoretical insights and practical applications across varied educational and cultural contexts. the book is structured into five main parts, each exploring key areas in the design of learning with digital technologies. part i, designing learning, introduces the book’s theoretical foundations and presents the teachers’ role as a central designer of learning. parts ii to v develop this perspective through specific thematic focuses: digital learning designs, digital learning with embodied teaching, digital learning interactions, and digital multimodal literacies. more specifically, the volume opens with a chapter by lim and querol-julián that maps the central themes and contributions, making the case for rethinking the teacher’s role as a designer of learning. subsequently, chapter 2 by selander explores the theoretical foundations of the designs for learning perspective, addressing questions of knowledge, recognition, and identity in digitised education. he argues that, as media shape meaning-making, learning design choices are essential for fostering inclusive and futureoriented teaching practices. in chapter 3, lumsden, djonov, and slatyer introduce the multimodal community of inquiry, a framework combining a multimodal social semiotic approach with the community of inquiry model, and applied to tesol teacher education courses to illustrate how platform affordances and instructors’ pedagogical values influence the design of online learning environments. chapter 4, by rennie and smyth, examines the design of heutagogical learning experiences in online higher education. drawing on case studies from their own teaching, the authors propose strategies to support learner autonomy, self-determination, and capability development through flexible digital design. their approach mainly emphasises student-led exploration and the effective use of digital resources to foster self-directed learning. concluding the second part of the volume, chapter 5 authored by komninos introduces a set of tools for monitoring the metasemiotic awareness of learners towards multimodal texts, to be used to assess the development of multiliteracies and, ultimately, to inform pedagogical design and support improvements in teaching practices. the third part begins with chapter 6, where sindoni explores the teacher’s gaze as a semiotic resource in video-mediated educational settings. in particular, through an analysis of user-generated content on different social media platforms, sindoni investigates its implications for teacher training in digital contexts. chapter 7, by bao and feng, examine the multimodal design of award-winning english language teaching microlectures where they identified patterns in teachers’ use of camera angles, background music, and visual settings. in chapter 8, crawford camiciottoli analyses opencourseware videos to explore the role of gesture and prosody in teaching phrasal verbs through the use of corpus and multimodal annotation tools to illustrate how embodied communication can enhance language comprehension with significant practical implications for language teaching. the fourth section opens with chapter 9, where santamaría-urbieta examines the use of asynchronous video tools in foreign language learning, focusing on the platform flip to show how digital interactions can foster student engagement and promote informal learning communities. in chapter 10, carciu and muresan present a cross-national multimodal learning exchange aimed at developing communication competencies in english. the aim is to integrate digital collaboration into language education. chapter 11, co-authored by koh, lim, and jonathan, focuses on wiread+, a platform for supporting collaborative critical reading. as, the authors explain, the platform’s theoretical foundation and its analytics features can support the tracking of student interaction and foster their deeper engagement with texts. the final portion of the volume, beginning at chapter 12 by beltrán-palanques, explores online video game reviews as a pedagogical tool for esp by analyzing their multimodal features and evaluating their role in developing students’ critical thinking and multimodal literacy. chapter 13, by karatza and lim, discusses the author 146 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 144147 creation of a pedagogic metalanguage for primary students engaging with websites. the chapter outlines turning research findings into practical classroom applications from research to practice and highlights teachers’ roles in adapting metalanguage resources to specific classroom contexts. gilje, closes the volume with chapter 14, by examining students’ digital multimodal compositions in norwegian secondary schools. using video data and student outputs, he analyses how learners negotiate meaning through semiotic choices, while emphasizing the importance of teacher guidance in fostering multimodal literacy. the volume builds on the tradition of multimodal and socio-semiotic research in education (o’halloran et al., 2017; hafner & pun, 2020), while advancing the urgent conversation prompted by kalantzis and cope (2020) on how the covid-19 pandemic has exposed fundamental limitations in traditional models of education and accelerated the need for pedagogical change. in particular, the book responds to their call for pedagogies grounded in multimodal design, by contributing to a broader scholarly effort to rethink education in light of the growing importance of digital media in teaching and learning. it also addresses recent calls for the systematic integration of digital multimodal texts in educational practice, building on prior work that has analysed the structures and communicative functions of such texts (e.g., adami & jewitt, 2016; bezemer & kress, 2017; zappavigna, 2020). in doing so, the contributors offer empirical evidence in how educators may effectively leverage these digital resources. moreover, the volume maintains a clear and consistent empirical orientation, with chapters grounded in diverse and often international contexts and educational settings. this not only grants it a broad scope but also ensures that its insights remain applicable across a wider range of teaching and learning environments. in this regard, the volume’s current geographical and institutional representation, while diverse, could serve as a starting point for future expansions that further reflect the truly global impact of the pandemic. in this sense, there is the potential for continued dialogue and broader inclusion in subsequent work. ultimately, two aspects stand out. first is the consistently teacher-centric approach. during the pandemic, teachers and educators bore the full responsibility of managing both technology and pedagogy, being expected to adapt rapidly and perform efficiently with minimal preparation. the volume, instead repositions educators as empowered designers of learning, reflecting a clear willingness to move beyond tokenistic or deterministic uses of technology in favour of pedagogy and agency. second, the volume’s engagement with post-pandemic realities is both current and relevant, responding to current teaching demands while offering critical reflections on how digital learning has evolved. now, a few years on, what was once described as the post-pandemic period increasingly appears not as a temporary phase but as a structural feature of contemporary education. for this reason, designing learning with digital technologies offers timely insights and frameworks that hopefully align with and help shape this ongoing transformation, in support of educators and researchers. references adami, elisabetta, & jewitt, carey (2016). editorial special issue: social media and the visual. visual communication, 15(3), 263–270. bezemer, jeff, & kress, gunther (2017). young people, facebook and pedagogy: recognizing contemporary forms of multimodal text making. in michalis kontopodis, christos varvantakis, & cristof wulf (eds.), youth, tube, media: qualitative insights and international perspectives (pp. 22–38). routledge. hafner, christoph a., & pun, jack (2020). editorial special issue: english for academic and professional purposes in the digital era. relc journal, 51(1), 3–13. kalantzis, mary, & cope, bill (2020). after the covid-19 crisis: why higher education may (and perhaps should) never be the same. educational philosophy and theory, 40(1), 51-55. kress, gunther, & selander, staffan. (2012). multimodal design, learning and cultures of recognition. the internet and higher education, 15(4), 265–268. lim, fei victor, & toh, weimin (2020). how to teach digital reading? journal of information literacy, 14(2), 24– 43. o’halloran, kay l., tan, sabine, & marissa e, kwan lin (2017). multimodal analysis for critical thinking. learning, media and technology, 42(2), 147–170. shortened title e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 144147 147 peters, michael a., fazal rizvi, gary mcculloch, paul gibbs, radhika gorur, moon hong, yoonjung hwang , zipin, l., brennan, m., robertson, s., quay, j., malbon, j., taglietti, d., barnett, r., chengbing, w., mclaren, p., apple, r., papastephanou, m., burbules, n., jackson, l., jalote, p., kalantzis, m., cope, b., fataar, a., conroy, j., misiaszek, g., biesta, g., jandrić, p., choo, s., apple, m., stone, l., tierney, r., tesar, m., besley, t., & misiaszek, l. (2020). reimagining the new pedagogical possibilities for universities post-covid19. educational philosophy and theory, 54(6), 717–760. selander, staffan (2008). designs for learning – a theoretical perspective. designs for learning, 1(1), 10–22. zappavigna, michele (2020). digital intimacy and ambient embodied copresence in youtube videos: construing visual and aural perspective in asmr role play videos. visual communication, 22(2), 297– 321. mariasophia falcone, l’università degli studi di bergamo, italia mariasophia.falcone@guest.unibg.it en mariasophia falcone is an adjunct professor of english language at the university of bergamo, italy, where she previously held a postdoctoral research position working on extended reality applications in esp teaching. she holds a ph.d. in english language and linguistics from the university of modena and reggio emilia. her research focuses on corpusassisted discourse analysis, digital media, and the use of xr technologies in language learning and teaching. es mariasophia falcone es profesora adjunta de lengua inglesa en la universidad de bérgamo, italia, donde anteriormente ocupó un puesto de investigación postdoctoral en aplicaciones de realidad extendida en la enseñanza de esp. tiene un doctorado en lengua inglesa y lingüística por la universidad de módena y reggio emilia. su investigación se centra en el análisis del discurso asistido por corpus, los medios digitales y el uso de tecnologías xr en el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de idiomas. it mariasophia falcone è docente a contratto di lingua inglese presso l’università degli studi di bergamo, dove ha ricoperto in precedenza il ruolo di assegnista di ricerca, lavorando sulle applicazioni della realtà estesa nell’insegnamento dell’inglese per scopi specifici. ha conseguito un dottorato di ricerca in scienze umanistiche presso l’università di modena e reggio emilia. la sua attività di ricerca si concentra sull’analisi del discorso assistita da corpora, sui media digitali e sull’uso delle tecnologie xr nell’apprendimento e nell’insegnamento dell’inglese. e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 11, issue 1, june 2024, 18-35 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.1.2633 www.e-journall.org © forcelini 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. focusing on derivational-driven cognate patterns to promote vocabulary acquisition in spanish jamile forcelini doo young kim sam houston state university received 12 may 2023; accepted after revisions 5 february 2024 abstract en cognates have been heavily incorporated into second language (l2) vocabulary instruction as they share form and meaning across languages and have demonstrated an advantage for learning. the present article aims to measure the effects of explicit, cognate, derivational-driven instruction in l2 spanish. 49 intermediate-low spanish learners participated in the experiment and completed a preand post-lexical decision task in spanish, followed by a language history questionnaire. 25 learners composed the explicit instruction group and 24 composed the control group. results from a three-way anova (2x4x2) analyzing reaction times and accuracy demonstrate that both explicit and control groups process cognates and non-cognates faster in the post-test. however, participants in the explicit instruction group process cognates less accurately and non-cognates more accurately in the post-test, which could be attributed to the activation of formal lexical features of the instruction intervention. results are interpreted in light of the nature of l2 instruction and lexical representation. key words: cognates, derivational patterns, vocabulary instruction, explicit instruction es los cognados se han incorporado ampliamente a la enseñanza de vocabulario l2, ya que comparten forma y significado en varias lenguas y han demostrado ser una ventaja para el aprendizaje. el objetivo de este artículo es medir los efectos de la instrucción explícita de cognados y derivaciones en español como segunda lengua (l2). 49 estudiantes de español preintermedio participaron en el experimento y completaron una tarea de decisión léxica (pre y post), seguida de un cuestionario sobre su historial lingüístico. 25 alumnos formaron el grupo de instrucción explícita y 24 el grupo de control. los resultados de anova de 3 factores que analiza los tiempos de reacción y precisión demuestran que tanto el grupo de instrucción explícita como el de control procesan cognados y no-cognados más rápido en la prueba posterior; sin embargo, los participantes en el grupo de instrucción explícita procesan los cognados con menor precisión y los no cognados con mayor precisión en la prueba posterior, lo que podría atribuirse a la activación de las características léxicas formales del tipo de instrucción (explícita). los resultados se interpretan a la luz de la naturaleza de la instrucción en la l2, así como de la representación léxica. palabras clave: cognados, patrones de derivación, instrucción de vocabulario, instrucción explícita it le parole affini vengono proficuamente incorporate nella didattica del lessico della l2 poiché hanno uguali forma e significato in più lingue. questo articolo esplora gli effetti dell’insegnamento esplicito basato sul processo di derivazione e sulle parole affini nello spagnolo l2. 49 apprendenti di spagnolo di livello pre-intermedio hanno completato una prova di decisione lessicale (pre e post) in spagnolo, seguita da un questionario sull questionario sulla storia della lingua. di questi, 25 sono stati assegnati al gruppo di insegnamento esplicito, 24 al gruppo di controllo. i risultati emersi con anova a tre vie (2x4x2) per analizzare i tempi di reazione e accuratezza rivelano che entrambi i gruppi elaborano più rapidamente parole affini e non affini nel post-test. tuttavia, nel posttest il gruppo di insegnamento esplicito compie un’elaborazione delle parole affini in modo meno accurato e delle non affini in modo più accurato. ciò potrebbe essere attribuito all’uso di caratteristiche di lessico formale nell’insegnamento. si interpretano i risultati alla luce della natura dell’insegnamento della l2 e della rappresentazione lessicale. parole chiave: falsi amici, schemi derivazionali, insegnamento del vocabolario, insegnamento esplicito  jamile forcelini, sam houston state university jmfpf3@gmail.com http://www.e-journall.org/ focusing on derivational-driven cognate patterns e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 19 1. introduction previous studies on vocabulary acquisition in general have focused on vocabulary and language proficiency (hazenberg & hulstijn, 1996; hu & nation, 2000), vocabulary and lexical frequency (coxhead, 2000; hu & nation, 2000; nation, 2001), explicit versus implicit learning (ellis, 1994), and incidental versus intentional learning (ellis & he, 1999; horst, cobb, & meara, 1998; kelly, 1986; qian, 1996). although over 30 years of research in l2 vocabulary acquisition has been promoted (bogaards & laufer-dvorkin, 2004), several linguistic and pedagogical-related factors that can impact vocabulary instruction and acquisition remain unexplored— for example, understanding how lexical1 connections develop and how lexical features2 may be decisive for l2 development (ard & homburg, 1983; dressler, 2001; hancin-bhatt & nagy, 1994; nagy, 1993). as in the case of cognates, words that share form and meaning across languages, learners can make l1-l2 lexical connections if exposed to efficient teaching practices that consider shared lexical features as they may not automatically transfer from one language to another (tre ville, 1996). the present article proposes a cognate vocabulary activity that controls for derivational structural properties, word length, and lexical frequency values. this study aims to answer the following questions: 1) what is the role of explicit instruction in the processing and acquisition of new words (cognates) in l2 spanish? 2) do l2 spanish learners benefit from the english-spanish cognate overlap during l2 lexical processing? 3) do l2 spanish learners benefit from explicit instruction during l2 lexical processing? the goal is to optimize lexical processing and learning through predictable word-formation patterns. although vocabulary research has been extensively explored and cognate words remain a reasonable starting point for vocabulary teaching, further research can focus on explicitly exploring cognate instruction practices in the classroom and verifying their effectiveness. 2. theoretical background 2.1. research on cognate training and awareness cognate awareness entails making connections among cross-linguistic cognates based on their structural (formal and semantic) relationships (ellis, 1994). a series of empirical studies have investigated the degree of cognate awareness and the role of cognate-oriented training in different environments. different studies have focused on reading tasks, cognate (morphological) awareness (hipfner-boucher, pasquarella, chen & deacon, 2016), memorization, and direct instruction (carlisle, 1988) and have shown a facilitative effect on l2 vocabulary learning. these studies included adolescent and adult bilinguals learning different languages such as spanish, english, french, dutch, polish, and arabic. studies conducted by hancin-bhatt and nagy (1994) and nagy, garcí a, durgunog lu, & hancin-bhatt (1993) worked with spanish-english bilinguals and reading tasks. while nagy et al. (1993) focused on cognate knowledge through reading and vocabulary multiple-choice tests, hancin-bhatt and nagy (1994) focused on production tasks by applying lexical matching and translation tasks into l2 reading. both studies show that participants can recognize english cognates based on their spanish knowledge, and consequently, cross-linguistic cognate suffixation patterns facilitate lexical recognition compared to non-cognate patterns. in addition, different cognate studies (ard and homburg, 1983; cunningham and graham, 2000; harley, hart, & lapkin, 1986) also examined different language combinations, proficiency exams and achievement tests. while ard and homburg (1983) looked at spanish and arabic (l1)-english (l2) learners, cunningham and graham (2000) and harley et al. (1986) focused on english-spanish and english-french bilinguals compared to monolingual learners, respectively. besides the language combinations, harley et al. (1986) and cunningham and graham (2000) also compared traditional and immersion language learners. ard and homburg (1983) demonstrate that spanish (l1) learners outperformed arabic learners because of their ability to map spanish-english cognates. harley et al. (1986) and cunningham and graham (2000) showed that immersion learners outperformed monolinguals and traditional bilingual learners. the studies above have reported positive outcomes associated with l2 cognate processing and learning. however, an important issue is the transparency of how classroom-based and vocabulary tasks occurred, as several studies lack such descriptions. as a result, language instructors are unable to replicate such 1 the terms lexical items and vocabulary are used interchangeably and defined as the body of words one holds cognitively in one language. 2 lexical features: orthographical, phonological, and semantic characteristics of a word. forcelini & kim 20 e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 findings and deliver effective and practical l2-vocabulary lessons on the structural differences and similarities among cognates in two or more languages. the following section shows studies that examined the impact of explicit morphological instruction on cognate acquisition. revisiting these studies demonstrates that cognate awareness is supported, but such practices are often limited to explicit or visual presentation of overlapping lexical features. 2.2. research on cognate explicit morphological instruction the exploration of explicit instruction in the analysis of cognate transfer and acquisition has been a subject of interest in various studies, as evidenced by the works of caplan-carbin (1995), dressler, carlo, snow, august & white (2011), jime nez, garcí a, and pearson (1996), molna r (2010), schmitt (1997), tonzar, lotto, & job (2009), and tre ville (1996). these investigations have consistently reported positive pedagogical outcomes associated with incorporating explicit instruction in vocabulary learning. such instructional approaches typically involve thoroughly examining explicit cognate-lexical similarities, incorporating metalanguage to elucidate cognate-lexical compositions, and decode semantic information. an integral aspect of this method is the explicit analysis of a word's grammatical classification, including its part of speech, thereby facilitating the decoding of the meaning of new cognate words in the second language (l2) through the utilization of previously acquired knowledge of cognate words in the first language (l1), exemplified by pairs such as "education" in english and "educacio n" in spanish. caplan-carbin (1995) observed a group of english-german bilinguals while jime nez, garcí a. & pearson, (1996), and dressler (2000, as cited in august, carlo, dressler & snow 2005) observed spanish-english bilinguals in their studies. participants were explicitly instructed about cognates and performed better when inferring meaning from cognates while reading (caplan-carbin, 1995; dressler, 2000; jimenez et al., 1996). the authors argue that such ability is associated with systematic and phonological cognate transparency. like dressler (2000), caplan-carbin (1995) and molna r (2010) also incorporate explicit instruction on cognates' structural similarities with hungarian (l1)-romanian (l2)-english (l3) trilingual speakers. explicit instruction on the l2-l3 lexical structural similarities was beneficial, as participants outperformed the control group. molna r (2010) affirms that cognate-based instruction prepares trilinguals to use their lexical knowledge in subsequent vocabulary acquisition. explicit vocabulary training builds lexical connections, enhancing vocabulary acquisition. cognate instruction can assist learners in overcoming difficulties while reading in l2 (nagy et al., 1993). tonzar et al. (2009) and tre ville (1996) have also encountered positive training effects with italianenglish and english-french bilinguals undergoing vocabulary learning and recognition tasks. results show cognates outperforming non-cognates on lexical retrieval. tre ville (1996) concludes that the presence of cognates per se does not result in automatic recognition benefits, but training allows learners to benefit from cognate structural similarities. these results support claims that l1 shapes l2 lexical acquisition (schmitt & mccarthy, 1997), as it enables lexical mappings between languages. in addition, processing views hypothesize longer and deeper vocabulary engagement, manipulation, and examination results produce stronger retention that contributes to acquisition. the studies above support stimulating l1-l2 lexical connections to promote l2 vocabulary acquisition and show facilitative results related to classroom practices. an issue arises as cognate awareness initiatives (ard & homburg, 1983; carlisle, 1988; cunningham & graham, 2000; hancin-bhatt & nagy, 1994; harley et al., 1986; nagy et al., 1993), or cognate explicit instruction practices (caplan-carbin, 1995; dressler et al., 2011; molna r, 2010; schmitt & mccarthy, 1997; tonzar et al., 2009; tre ville, 1996) lack a detailed description of how such pedagogical interventions (awareness or explicit training) took place in the classroom. knowing the learners’ processes engaged in and an account of the lexical choices included in the activity is essential to verify the instructional intervention’s validity and reliability. a series of studies have not revealed cognate facilitation results (lightbown & libben, 1984; otwinowska-kasztelanic, 2009; rodriguez, 2001; schmitt, 1997; singleton, 2006). however, some authors advocate in favor of cognate training and awareness to compensate for the perceived lack of cognate recognition patterns. both lightbown and libben (1984) and soufra (2001) examined teenage bilinguals performing production tasks. lightbown and libben (1984) examined french-english bilinguals narrating a film containing cognates, and soufra (2001; as cited in singleton, 2006) examined english-modern greek bilinguals while translating. results confirm that learners transfer language (soufra, 2001) but sometimes fail to recognize cognates, even the most orthographically noticeable ones. learners seem to avoid using cognates at first to prevent the risk of using false cognates, as seen in schmitt (1997). after surveying japanese-english bilinguals focusing on derivational-driven cognate patterns e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 21 about their vocabulary learning strategies, schmitt (1997) observed that looking for lexical structural similarities was the last option participants selected. lastly, otwinowska-kasztelanic (2009) had polish-english bilinguals (different l2 proficiency levels) complete a survey and recognized that some learners were often unaware of morphophonological overlap between languages. these findings support previous claims from swan (1997), who states that structural lexical similarities do not necessarily lead to l2-lexical transfer. 2.3. lexical processes and cognate instruction when revisiting previous research on cognate instruction, there is a general emphasis on the positive role of interlexical l1-l2 resemblance (tre ville, 1996) as well as the importance of language processing (dressler et al., 2011; jime nez et al., 1996), awareness (otwinowska-kasztelanic, 2009; tre ville, 1996), and explicit instruction (caplan-carbin, 1995; dressler et al., 2011; molna r, 2010; tre ville, 1996) in l2-vocabulary processing and acquisition. in addition, many studies seem to support a connectionist view of language learning as a theoretical framework, which claims that learning derives from the process of strengthening and weakening neural connections obtained from frequent stimuli in the input. these studies also align with the noticing hypothesis (schmidt; 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995), which requires conscious input notice for processing and learning. barcroft’s (2002) topra model (type of processing – resource allocation) explores the interface between lexical-semantic and structural memory processes. the model states that lexical processes require form, meaning, and mapping trade-offs. these trade-offs are needed because processing sources are limited; thus, processing demands are adjusted and rearranged. for example, less memory is available for lexicalsemantic processing when processing lexical form. because cognates share form and meaning across languages, the processing load is minimal, explaining why learners can fail to recognize cognate formation lexical patterns across languages. learners may fail to allocate memory resources to process form and meaning (sunderman & forcelini, 2021). both semantic and formal processes must occur to build on a new lexical representation. structurally oriented tasks may be the key to pushing learners to form cognate form-meaning l2 lexical mappings. former vocabulary instruction propositions often relied on intuitive practices presenting written lexical items and their correspondence with cross-linguistic forms or definitions. a plausible motivation for such practices is that words are generally less flexible for generalizations than linguistic units such as phonology and syntax. cognates, however, allow for generalizations due to their formal features and have been heavily incorporated into vocabulary instruction. because cognates demonstrate learning advantages (schmidt, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995), several pedagogical practices have shown how learners use their l1 cognate knowledge to build l2 vocabulary. however, as seen above, classroom-based studies often lack a detailed understanding of what factors play a role in l2 cognate acquisition. avoiding intuitive practices is key to maximizing vocabulary learning, as several studies show learners cannot recognize l2 cognates effortlessly and systematically. however, some studies also mention that cognate training and awareness can compensate for the lack of cognate recognition patterns. therefore, it is fundamental to know how lexical items are processed and become acquirable in l2 and what transforms intuitive knowledge into conscious and available information so that learners can derive lexical patterns across languages. this article presents and tests an explicit derivational-driven intervention that controls cognate formation patterns, such as derivational properties and lexical length and frequency. this proposition is theoretically based on otwinowska-kasztelanic’s (2015) processing accounts, classified as the online association of formal and semantic units from the input. for instance, lexical processes include visually retrieving lexical features that compose a given word and retrieving means associating visual elements from a word with pre-stored lexical information from long-term memory. if learners can match semantic, orthographical, and phonological mentally represented lexical items to target words they see, then lexical processing takes place successfully. in sum, processing new words can be defined as building a mental representation in the lexicon and matching a lexical path for retrieval (otwinowska, 2015). barcroft’s (2002) topra model also guides the present activity proposition. this intervention exposes learners to vocabulary sets that can be processed together due to their similar structural properties. although cognates are classified as words that share form and meaning across two or more languages, cognates can still differ based on their structural formation patterns. for example, the english-spanish cognate words train-tren and education-educación are equally classified as cognates. however, the lexical derivational patterns in education-educación can help learners identify common lexical forcelini & kim 22 e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 characteristics to derive meaning from new l2 cognate encounters. in other words, not all cognates are created equal (aguinaga-echeverrí a, 2017; schwartz, kroll, & diaz, 2007). in addition to previous cognate-based studies, vocabulary instruction practices such as the input-based incremental (ibi) approach to l2 vocabulary instruction (barcroft, 2004, 2006) have been contemplated to develop the present activity. the ibi approach considers a learner’s limited processing resources. it provides comprehensible vocabulary input, allowing learners to process words in the input by promoting meaningoriented situations, enabling them to make form-meaning connections. it also allocates sufficient time for vocabulary production, as shown to be beneficial in previous research (barcroft, 2007; mcnamara and healy, 1995; royer, 1973). these opportunities foster lexical connections, promoting long-lasting vocabulary acquisition. unlike the ibi approach that focuses on words that do not share formal similarities across languages (non-cognates), the activity presented in this article focuses on cognates as they present structural and semantic overlap and use such similarities as pedagogical tools for vocabulary instruction. previous studies such as hancin-bhatt & nagy (1994) and barcroft (2004) examined spanish–english morphological knowledge in cognate recognition among fourth-eighth grade learners. the present study attempts to reconfirm such findings with adult learners and incorporate an explicit derivational-driven intervention to reinforce morphological and lexical patterns across languages. 3. methods the present study investigates the effects of explicit instruction on lexical processing and acquisition of spanish cognates and non-cognates. in sum, this study intends to answer the following questions: what is the role of explicit instruction in the processing and acquisition of new words (cognates) in l2 spanish? do l2 spanish learners benefit from the english-spanish cognate overlap during l2 lexical processing? do l2 spanish learners benefit from explicit instruction during l2 lexical processing? 3.1. participants forty-nine learners participated in the experiment; twenty-five composed the explicit instruction group and twenty-four the control group. participants' ages in this group varied from 18-30 (mean age 21.5). all participants were enrolled in the third and fourth-semester spanish semesters (second year of spanish instruction) and spanish for the professions (second year of spanish instruction) at the college level. these learners were voluntarily recruited from different classes, with a minimal level of language proficiency and l2spanish vocabulary knowledge, which was needed for the study’s experimental tasks. in addition, as these learners are still developing their l2 skills, the effects of language instruction can be more salient. 3.2. tasks 3.2.1. lexical decision task (ldt) all groups performed preand immediate post-lexical decision tasks (ldt) in spanish as the main measure of l2 representation. in an ldt, a string of letters appears on the screen, while participants must covertly read the string of letters and decide by using a keypad if the written token is a real word in spanish. all words presented were screen-centered, in arial font and size 40 on a white background. during word recognition, an ldt prompts learners to engage in a lexical search that can match the visual lexical stimuli presented (sunderman & schwartz, 2008), and shared orthographical, phonological, and semantic aspects of the word are activated within and between languages. accuracy and reaction times (rts) were recorded. for the following reasons, a lexical decision task was chosen to assess lexical processing sensitivity in online contexts. sunderman and schwartz (2008) state that when word recognition and competition are studied using a lexical decision task, students are prompted to search for words that fit the visual lexical stimuli given. as a result, regardless of the kind of visual or auditory exposure, all orthographical, phonological, and semantic components of the word are recovered during the lexical search (dijkstra & van heuven, 2002). because of this, words from various languages that have characteristics may trigger identical orthographical, phonological, or semantic representations during lexical retrieval, which would delay proper word identification. the lexical decision task lasted between 15–20 minutes. figure 2 displays an excerpt from the lexical decision task (ldt). focusing on derivational-driven cognate patterns e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 23 figure 2. excerpt from the lexical decision task (ldt). 3.2.2. language history questionnaire (lhq) to determine whether their linguistic background varied significantly, a language history questionnaire (lhq) was included as an instrument of students’ proficiency as an individual measure. the questionnaire was composed of 35 questions that requested information from each participant regarding their age, gender, country of origin, native language, and language spoken at home. besides allowing participants to self-rate their spanish language skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening), it also collects data regarding the number of languages each participant has been exposed to and the duration of such exposure(s). the language proficiency rating present in the questionnaire varied from a scale of 1 (least proficient) to 10 (extremely proficient). participants consistently exposed to languages (l3) other than spanish were excluded from the study. 3.2.3. language proficiency in terms of language proficiency, self-reports in english proficiency, based on a one-way anova, did not reveal a significant overall effect on english reading with less than 0.05 of the p-value among participants in each group. in terms of language proficiency, self-reports in spanish proficiency, based on a one-way anova, did not reveal a significant overall effect on spanish reading with less than 0.05 of the p-value among participants in each group. in sum, there were no statistical differences among the participants’ self-reported english and spanish proficiency levels among all treatment groups. as a result, no statistically significant differences among all participants’ self-report proficiency allow us to compare their results. table 1 presents the proficiency means of all participants in english and spanish. table 1 language proficiency ratings in english and spanish explicit instruction mean std dev. control mean std dev. f. p. english 9.36 .952 9.29 1.083 .055 .815 spanish 4.32 1.345 4.92 1.248 2.585 .115 3.3. task materials a total of 405 words were included in the study. semi-identical cognates, non-cognates, nonce cognates in spanish, and pseudowords were included in the ldt. only cognates were included in the treatment phase. a total of 135 words were english-spanish cognate words, 90 non-cognate words, 90 nonce cognates, and 90 nonce words. all words included in the experiment were extracted from cognate dictionaries (nash, 1997). in addition, cognates used by previous cognate studies (comesan a et al., 2012; schwartz et al., 2007) were also used as models for creating the stimuli of the present study. all cognate words included in the experiment followed the same formation rules presented in the explicit cognate tutorial. words included in the experiment that could be assigned a biological gender were only used once in one gender (feminine or masculine). still, priority was given to masculine default words (e.g., humano). in addition, cognates whose stems allowed for different lexical derivations and/or inflections were only used once in the experiment to avoid priming/skewed processing reactions. for example, the word difference was excluded from the stimuli because the word different was already included. although both words are cognates, only one stem representation was included. forcelini & kim 24 e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 a total of 90 non-cognate words in spanish were included as control words in the stimuli. non-cognate words matched in length and frequency compared to spanish cognates and pseudo-cognates. all non-cognate words were selected from the textbook así lo veo (leeser, vanpatten, & keating, 2011), which participants use in their third and fourth spanish language level courses. all cognate and non-cognate frequency values, part of speech, and word length (based on the number of letters) were obtained from the nim software (guasch, boada, ferre & sa nchez-casas (2013). lastly, a total of 90 pseudowords in spanish were also included. all nonce words were generated from the websites fake word generator (feldarkrealms.com) and soybomb.com. fake work generator generates scripts based on pronounceable and frequent words derived from english, old english, japanese, german, and latin. soybomb.com generates nonce words based on a frequency list of phonemes present in legitimate english words. nonce words were also normalized by six native spanish speakers using a likert acceptance scale from 1-5. words categorized as 1 and 2 were excluded from the stimuli. the motivation to include pseudowords is because it decreases the possibility of a lexical decision being performed based on superficial characteristics of the word formation by itself (de groot, 2011). all words included in the study were subdivided into three different cognate lists. all words included in list 1 matched their equivalent words in lists 2 and 3 regarding word length, frequency, and word type (cognate, non-cognate, and nonce cognate). word length was controlled in the experiment by matching the number of letters across the words used across two languages (english-spanish) used in the present study. words varied from five to 15-letter words. regarding frequency, the cognate words included in all three lists were subdivided into 15 frequency rates ranging from 0.886 to 924.38 (frequency per million). frequency values were obtained from the nim software (guasch, boada, ferre , & sa nchez-casas, 2013), along with part of speech and word length regarding letter count. out of all real words included in the experiment, a total of 104 words were classified as nouns, and 53 words were classified as adjectives. in addition, no word could receive both nominal and adjectival classification, as in the word ‘positivo’ ‘positive’. no verbal or adverbial forms were included. table 2 below presents the word frequency distribution by cognate types included in the stimuli. in terms of word frequency, a one-way anova reveals no significant difference among english words' frequency across all three lists. list 1(m = 103.59, sd = 113.10), list 2 (m = 104.72 sd = 113.35) and list 3 (m = 95.92, sd = 133.59). the frequency values in english were chosen as all participants were l1 english speakers at the beginning stages of learning l2 spanish. thus, participants' chances to make lexical connections can be controlled as their l1 lexical frequency was considered. table 2 one-way anova for word frequency by word list n mean frequency std. deviation list 1 training 45 103.59 113.10 list 2 ldt a 90 104.72 113.35 list 3 ldt b 90 95.92 133.59 in terms of word length, a one-way anova reveals no significant difference among the length of words across all three lists. list 1(m= 8.22, sd= 1.66), list 2 (m= 8.29 sd= 1.87) and list 3 (m= 9.29, sd= 2.01). table 3 summarizes the results of a one-way anova for word length in each word list included in the experiment. there was not a significant difference between word length across all three lists [f (2, 402) = .027 p = .974] at the p<0.05 level. table 3 one-way anova for word length by each word list n mean length std. deviation list 1 training 45 8.22 1.66 list 2 ldt a 90 8.29 1.87 list 3 ldt b 90 9.29 2.01 focusing on derivational-driven cognate patterns e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 25 3.4. lexical structure of stimuli (cognate words) another key difference between previous accounts on derivational-driven cognate instruction is that the present activity focuses on controlling lexical formation patterns such as word length, frequency, and derivation status to determine cognate retention and acquisition predictability. the cognate formation patterns included are: (1) english cognates ending in consonants (‘n’ and ‘t’) receive an extra vowel ‘o’/ ‘a’ in spanish as in ‘human’, ‘humano’. stress patterns fall on the penultimate syllable (paroxytones). (2) english cognates ending in ‘ent’ receive an extra vowel ‘e’ in spanish, as in ‘accident’, ‘accidente’. stress patterns fall on the penultimate syllable (paroxytones). (3) english cognates ending in ‘ical’ substitute ‘a’ and ‘l’ (al) to the vowel ‘o’ in spanish as in ‘logical’, ‘lógico’. stress patterns fall either on the penultimate syllable (paroxytones) or the antepenultimate syllable (proparoxytones). (4) english cognates ending in ‘ist’ receive an extra vowel ‘a’ in spanish, as in ‘capitalist’, ‘capitalista’. cognates in this category can be challenging for l2 learners because the termination ‘a’ is applied for both biological and grammatical genders. thus, a ‘capitalist concept’ or a ‘capitalist idea’ are expressed as ‘un concepto (masc) capitalista’ and ‘una idea (fem) capitalista’, respectively. the stress pattern from this category falls on the penultimate syllable (paroxytones). (5) english cognates (adjectives) ending in ‘ive’ replace ‘e’ for ‘o’ or ‘a’ in spanish, as in ‘decisive’, ‘decisivo’. stress patterns fall on the penultimate syllable (paroxytones). (6) english cognates ending in ‘ce’ replace ‘e’ for ‘i’ and ‘a’ in spanish as in ‘intelligence’, ‘inteligencia’. all words in this category are grammatically feminine in spanish, and the stress pattern falls on the penultimate syllable (paroxytones). (7) english cognates (nouns) ending in ‘tion’ replace ‘t’ for ‘c’ and add an acute accent mark over the last vowel ‘o’ in spanish as in ‘condition’, ‘condición’. all words in this category are grammatically feminine in spanish. (8) english cognates (adjectives) ending in ‘ous’ exclude ‘u’ and add ‘o’ or ‘a’ in spanish as in ‘delicious’, ‘delicioso’. stress patterns fall on the penultimate syllable (paroxytones). (9) english cognates (nouns) ending in ‘ty’ replace ‘t’ and ‘y’ (ty) for ‘dad’ in spanish as in ‘identity’, ‘identidad’ and are grammatically feminine in spanish. the stress pattern found in this category falls on the penultimate syllable (paroxytones). (10) english cognates (nouns and adjectives) ending in ‘ary’ will replace ‘y’ for ‘i’ and ‘o’ (io) or ‘i’ and ‘a’ (ia) in spanish as in ‘legendary’, ‘legendario’. the stress pattern falls on the penultimate syllable (paroxytones). (11) english cognates (nouns) ending in ‘gy’ replace ‘y’ for ‘i’ and ‘a’ (ia) in spanish as in ‘biology’, ‘biologia’. all words in this category are grammatically feminine in spanish, and the stress pattern changes from the antepenultimate syllable in english to the penultimate syllable in spanish. lastly, in condition (12), english cognates (nouns and adjectives) are often identical. cognates in this category usually end in ‘al’, ‘ble’, ‘ar’ or ‘or’ as in ‘mental’, ‘sociable’, ‘rectangular, ’and ‘motor’, respectively. gender assignment varies among “identical” cognates as they depend on the part of speech, and the stress pattern also shifts. for cognates ending in ‘al’,‘ar’ or ‘or’, the stress in english falls under the second or penultimate syllable and on the last syllable in spanish as in ‘local’ /ˈloʊkəl/, /lo'kal/; similar, /ˈsɪmələr/, /simiˈlar/ and ‘terror’ /ˈterər/, /teˈr̄or/. for cognates ending in ‘ble’, the stress in english falls under the last syllable and on the penultimate syllable in spanish as in ‘flexible’/ˈfleksəbəl/, / flekˈsiβle/. some words in this category vary in stem in one letter, usually resulting from deleting one extra consonant as in ‘different’, ‘diferente’ or the insertion of the vowel ‘e’ as in ‘special’ ‘especial’. consonant deletion from english to spanish occurs with the consonants ‘f’ and ‘l’. regarding lexical stress patterns and diacritics, spanish words in which stress falls in the antepenultimate or third syllable (proparoxytones) carry an acute accent mark over the syllabic nucleus as in ‘logical’, ‘lógico’. the accentuation patterns found in these cognates also change between languages. lastly, all words from categories 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, and 12 are subject to the biological gender of the leading noun or subject pronoun in spanish, in the case of adjectives. table 4 displays all formal cognate patterns, examples, and differences in stress patterns. forcelini & kim 26 e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 table 4 cognate tutorial sample categorization words suffixation correspondence sample cognate word stress grammatical gender part of speech english spanish english spanish english spanish spanish consonant o, a compact compacto 1. 2 1.2.3 flexible adj ent e president presidente 1. 2. 3 1.2.3.4 flexible noun/ adj ical ico classical clásico 1. 2. 3 1.2.3 flexible adj ist ista activist activista 1. 2. 3 1.2.3.4 flexible noun ive ivo alternative alternativo 1. 2.3.4 1.2.3.4.5 flexible adj ce cia relevance relevancia 1. 2. 3 1.2.3.4 feminine noun tion ción edition edición 1. 2. 3 1.2.3 feminine noun ous oso delicious delicioso 1. 2. 3 1.2.3.4.5 flexible adj ty dad identity identidad 1.2. 3.4 1.2.3.4 feminine noun ry rio contrary contrario 1.2.3 1.2.3 flexible noun/ adj gy gia biology biología 1.2.3.4 1.2.3.4 feminine noun frequent identical spelling central central 1.2 1.2 flexible noun/adj 3.5. procedure after taking the pretest (ldt), participants from the explicit instruction group (experimental group), watched an online tutorial to explicitly present overlapping lexical formation patterns among semi-identical cognates in english and spanish. the goal of cognate-based explicit vocabulary instruction was to push learners to pay attention to the shared lexical features among cognates to make form-meaning connections and benefit from overlapping morphophonological features during cognate processing. the tutorial was based on the cognate-derivational patterns that english and spanish share, which overlap between these languages. the tutorial was streamed via computer. participants watched the tutorial individually at a laboratory and were allowed to pause it and take notes during this phase. the tutorial was expository only, and no debates on its content were carried out afterward. the cognate-explicit tutorial has been designed for intermediate-low l2 consecutive learners of spanish whose l1 is english. it targeted learners taking regular spanish classes for three semesters or more. participants watched an online tutorial on orthographical features/ lexical suffixation in english with its corresponding cognate in spanish. the tutorial was presented as an animated video that lasted five minutes. the tutorial was visually presented, and no audio accompanied the animated and visual content. the tutorial started with a brief introduction defining cognates. following the cognate definition, it presented twelve different rule-driven cognate categories that learners could follow to recognize and/or generate real cognates in spanish. after presenting all 12 cognate rules, participants saw a chart containing all previously presented lexical rules. to counteract the effects of priming, participants only saw one instance of each cognate word per treatment or task. figure 2 displays an excerpt from the video tutorial. figure 2. excerpt from cognate tutorial after watching the tutorial, participants also performed a lexical decision task (post ldt). participants’ overall length of instruction ranged from 20 to 25 minutes. the control group watched a fictional show in spanish with unrelated content between pre-and post-ldts. unlike the explicit instruction group, which watched a video focusing on derivational-driven lexical patterns of cognate composition and was invited focusing on derivational-driven cognate patterns e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 27 to ask questions about the video and pause/ take notes, the control group only watched a video with the same duration as the instructional intervention. the content of the unrelated video was carefully analyzed to ensure that no intentional input was provided to the control group that could directly affect the participants’ post-test. 4. results to compare the performance of the control and experiment groups before and after treatment, the variance was analyzed to measure reaction times and accuracy when processing different types of words: cognates, non-cognates, nonce cognates, and nonce words. the key is manipulating different types of lexical overlap to measure its impact on word processes. 4.1. reaction times in terms of reaction times or how fast participants processed different types of words, a three-way anova (2x4x2) was conducted. to ensure true cognitive processing measures were used and consequently were not affected by exceptionally fast or slow responses, data was trimmed in the following manner. reaction times faster than 300ms or slower than 5000ms were excluded since they were considered outliers. means for each condition were calculated for both target cognate types and matched controls for each participant. next, standard deviations were found for each participant’s mean. reaction times above or below 2.5 standard deviations of the participant’s means were also excluded from the data. the variables included in the analysis were word type (cognates, non-cognates, nonce cognates, nonce words), test (pre and post), and instruction (explicit instruction and control). the results revealed no threeway interactions among any of the variables (word type, test, and treatment) [p-value=.793]. no significant two-way interactions between word types and test [p-value=.615] nor word type and treatment were found [pvalue=.885]. similarly, no two-way interactions were detected between the test (pre/post) and treatment (instruction vs. control) [p-value=.562]. for single effects, there was no effect between treatment types (instruction vs. control) [p-value=.144]. an effect was found between tests (pre/post) [p-value<.001]. in general terms, participants process all word types faster in the post-test than in the pre-test. cognates are processed faster in the post-test (mean=2228, sd=252) than in the pre-test, (mean=2337, sd=205) [p-value<.001]. non-cognates are processed faster in the post-test (mean=1966, sd=214) than in the pre-test (mean=2088, sd=216) [p-value<.001]. nonce cognates are processed faster in the post-test (mean=2628, sd=583) than in the pre-test (mean=2892, sd=598) [p-value<.001]. nonce words are processed faster in the post-test (mean=2439, sd=624) in comparison to the pre-test (mean=2616, sd=507)[p-value=.004]. when focusing on between word processing, an effect was found for word types [p-value<.001]. participants process non-cognates (mean=2024, sd=224) faster than cognates, (mean=2283, sd=236) regardless of the group intervention (instruction/control). results show that both groups processed noncognates (mean=2024, sd=224) faster than cognates (mean=2283, sd=236). nonce words (mean=2528, sd=573) are processed faster than nonce cognates (mean=2761, sd=603) and are processed slower than cognates (mean=2283, sd=236), and nonce cognates are processed slower than non-cognates (mean=2024, sd=224). nonce words (mean=2528, sd=573) are processed faster (mean=2528, sd=573) than nonce cognates by both groups. table 5 comparison of processing effects by word type (rts) faster slower non-cognates (writer/escritor) > cognates (compact/compacto) non-cognates (writer/escritor) > nonce words (axsec) cognates (compact/compacto) > nonce cognates (elementa) cognates(compact/compacto) > nonce words (axsec) non-cognates (writer/escritor) > nonce cognates (elementa) nonce words (axsec) > nonce cognates (elementa) forcelini & kim 28 e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 4.2 accuracy in terms of accuracy or how precise (correct trials) participants processed different types of words, a three-way anova (2x4x2) was conducted. the variables included in the analysis were word type (cognates, non-cognates, nonce cognates, and nonce words), test (pre and post), and instruction (explicit instruction and control). the results revealed no three-way interactions between word types, treatment, and test [pvalue=.259], neither does it reveal a two-way interaction between test x instruction [p-value=.801]. however, it does reveal two-way interactions between word type x instruction [p-value=.002] and word type x test [pvalue=<.0001]. single effects in terms of word type were observed [p-value<.001]. there was no single effect between tests [p-value=.007]. no single effect was found between instruction types [p-value=.162]. results show that accuracy rates seem to decrease on cognates; however, cognates are not processed significantly less accurately in the post-test (mean=56.9, sd=047) compared to the pre-test (mean=59.3, sd=052) [p-value=.999]. non-cognates, on the other hand, are processed more accurately in the posttest (mean=60.4, sd=064) compared to the pretest, (mean=57.2, sd=040) [p-value<.001]. similarly, nonce cognates are processed more accurately in the post-test (mean=84.2, sd=011) compared to the pretest (mean=77.6, sd=010) [p-value<.001]. lastly, nonce words are not processed less accurately in the post-test (mean=68.1, sd=056) compared to the pre-test (mean=67.9, sd=043), [p-value=.409]. when comparing processes between word types in terms of accuracy, nonce cognates (mean=80.9, sd=.115) are processed more accurately than cognates (mean=58.2, sd=.051) as well as non-cognates (mean=58.8, sd=.056). on the other hand, nonce words (mean=68.0, sd=.051) are processed more accurately than non-cognates (mean=58.8, sd=.056). lastly, nonce cognates (mean=80.9, sd=.115) are processed more accurately than nonce words (mean=68.0, sd=.051). table 6 comparison of processing effects by word type (acc) more accurate less accurate nonce cognates (elementa) > cognates (compact/compacto) nonce cognates (elementa) > non-cognates (writer/escritor) nonce words (axsec) > non-cognates (writer/escritor) nonce cognates (elementa) > nonce words (axsec) 5. discussion and conclusion the current study aimed to offer insight into the effective use of cognates throughout teaching. when looking at the effects of instruction on the processing of cognates and non-cognates in spanish, results show cognates and non-cognates are processed significantly faster in the post-test. results can be interpreted as one of the following regarding the effects of instruction and/or input on word processing and learning. on the one hand, it can show that formal isolated instruction (explicit) can benefit the processing of l2-spanish real words because both cognate and non-cognate words presented faster processing times in the post-test. on the other hand, it can indicate that instruction does not strongly affect the processing of l2-spanish real words because the control group (input only) also showed faster reaction times in the post-test. regarding reaction times, the present results are still unable to support previous claims from otwinowska (2009), who states that l2 cognate retrieval is possible even for beginner-level learners but only achievable if learners are trained to notice this type of vocabulary. as seen above, both the explicit instruction and control groups display faster reaction times in the post-test. hence, one possible interpretation for the present results is that explicit instruction focusing on formal lexical (cognate) may have failed to demonstrate an effect in the post-test as results show they do not differ from regular l2 input (control group). the results of the current study are partially misaligned with the cognate facilitation effect and earlier studies that have demonstrated cognates to be processed more quickly as well as more accurately than noncognates costa, caramazza, & sebastian-galles, 2000; de groot & keijer, 2000; de groot, 1992, 1993; de groot, dannenburg, & van hell, 1994; de groot & comijs, 1995; dijkstra et al., 1998; dijkstra, grainger, & van heuven, 1999; dijkstra & van hell, 2001; ellis & beaton, 1993; kroll et al., 1998; lemhofer & dijkstra, 2004; lotto & de groot, 1998; schelletter, 2002; van hell & de groot, 1998). the results of the current study confirm those of earlier research (comesan a et al., 2012; dijkstra et al., 2010), which demonstrated that cognate processes are not necessarily facilitative. when comparing processes focusing on derivational-driven cognate patterns e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 29 between word types, participants process non-cognates faster than cognates in the post-test, regardless of the group intervention. results also show that nonce words are processed faster than nonce cognates by both groups. this seems to be a predictable pattern given that nonce words lack overlapping lexical features (semantics, orthographic, and phonological) between languages and do not activate cognitive competition for lexical retrieval. interestingly, however, because nonce cognates are processed slower than nonce words, participants are trying to process nonce words that look like real cognates because they share some lexical features (semantics, orthographic, and phonological) with real cognates. in addition, nonce cognates are processed slower than non-cognates by both groups. as seen before, even though the lack of semantic property can allow nonce words to be processed faster, in the case of nonce cognates, it seems that the induced formal (orthographic and phonological) overlapping features with real cognates can activate real words in the bilingual brain and impose longer processing times. similarly, comparing processes between word types for accuracy rates revealed that non-cognates and nonce cognates are processed more accurately in the post-test. the lack of overwhelming overlapping lexical features and cognitive activation (for nonce cognates) may be responsible for accurately rejecting these words as cognates in spanish. cognates, however, are not processed differently in the post-test. these results are undoubtedly unanticipated, given that previous research has shown the positive impact of cognate awareness (dressler, 2001; hancin-bhatt & nagy, 1994). the overlapping features between cognates do not seem enough to sustain the lexical transfer and ultimate acquisition of corresponding lexical items in l2. these findings support previous claims from swan (1997), who states that structural lexical similarities do not necessarily lead to l2-lexical transfer. the results from the present study are surprisingly unable to support previous findings on cognate awareness (ard & homburg, 1983; dressler, 2001; hancin-bhatt & nagy, 1994; nagy, 1993) and explicit instruction on the formal features cognates share (caplan-carbin, 1995; dressler, 2011; molna r, 2010; schmitt & mccarthy, 1997; tonzar, lotto & job, 2009; tre ville, 1996). hence, previous claims by robinson (1995), who concludes that "consciousness at the level of rule awareness facilitates learning" (p. 334). the fact that learners did not present higher accuracy when processing cognate words in spanish may also be related to the overall duration of explicit instruction (tutorial-based). participants’ overall length of instruction ranged from 20 to 25 minutes. to counteract the effects of priming, participants from the current study have only seen one instance of each cognate word per treatment or task. according to elgort and warren (2014), successful vocabulary learning requires a higher volume of lexical encounters for second-language learners who are less skilled. instead of using a lexical judgment task, it is possible that other measurement tools (such as surveys, cloze tests, narrative, translation, and multiple-choice recognition tasks, to mention a few) could have yielded different findings. because previous studies are showing the positive effects of implicit instruction through delayed post-tests (benati, 2005, 2013; benati & batziou, 2018; keating & farley, 2008; lee & benati, 2007b; vanpatten, farmer & clardy, 2009; vanpatten & ferna ndez, 2004), it is possible to consider similar outcomes can be found with the inclusion of delayed post-tests. when recalling the present study questions: 1) what is the role of explicit instruction in the processing and acquisition of new words (cognates) in l2 spanish? 2) do l2 spanish learners benefit from the englishspanish cognate overlap during l2 lexical processing? 3) do l2 spanish learners benefit from explicit instruction during l2 lexical processing? results demonstrate that explicit instruction failed to demonstrate superior learning gains when compared to the control group results. in addition, because learners did not present higher accuracy when processing cognate words in spanish and neither were cognates processed faster than other word types, participants did not seem to benefit from the english-spanish cognate overlap during l2 lexical processing. lastly, similar to results addressing question one, l2-spanish learners did not benefit from explicit instruction during l2 lexical processing compared to regular input exposure (control group). future analyses involving more prolonged exposure to different types of vocabulary instruction can yield different or more robust results on the effects of instruction on vocabulary acquisition. as mentioned earlier, participants have only engaged in an immediate post-test to measure the effects of instruction on l2vocabulary acquisition. having included a delayed post-test could have shown different results on the impact of instruction on lexical processing and acquisition, as has been demonstrated in previous research (benati, 2005, 2013; benati & batziou, 2018; keating & farley, 2008; lee & benati, 2007b; vanpatten, farmer, & clardy, 2009; vanpatten & ferna ndez, 2004). the type of instruction applied in the present study was explicit, as it focused on bringing overt awareness to specific and predictable lexical derivational patterns that spanish and english cognates share. future research can compare the role of different types of instruction in cognate acquisition, such as comparing the effects of explicit and implicit instruction on cognate learning. as rieder (2004) claims, studies on forcelini & kim 30 e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 understanding these differences in vocabulary learning and instruction are still scarce. the nature of implicit and explicit learning on l2-vocabulary remains unclear as vocabulary acquisition is often defined as incidental, intentional, attended, and unattended (rieder, 2004). these constructs may overlap but can certainly be investigated in future studies. the present study has exciting implications for classroom language instruction, as it can inform instructors about the types of instructions that may or may not benefit learners. regarding promoting cognatebased language development, the results above have shown that input alone in the target language is sufficient. the presence of input in l2-spanish will allow learners to make lexical form-meaning connections to process cognates in spanish accurately. hence, studies on the impact of vocabulary instruction can help instructors determine which, if any, are the most effective pedagogical interventions in the classroom. understanding how lexical connections between languages work and how word factors such 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(2001). crosslinguistic influence in the acquisition of greek as a foreign language (doctoral dissertation, trinity college dublin). sunderman, gretchen, & forcelini, jamile (2021). quality of lexicosemantic representations in l2 spanish. in spanish vocabulary learning in meaning-oriented instruction (pp. 112–129). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315100364-7 sunderman, gretchen, & schwartz, ana (2008). using cognates to investigate cross-language competition in second language processing. tesol quarterly, 42, 19-33 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.15457249.2008.tb00145.x swan, michael (1997). the influence of the mother-tongue on second language vocabulary acquisition and use. in nicholas. schmitt & michael. mccarthy (eds.), vocabulary: description, acquisition, and pedagogy. cambridge university press. tokowicz, natasha, & degani, tamar (2010). translation ambiguity: consequences for learning and processing. in bill. van. patten & jill. jegerski (eds.), research on second language processing and parsing. john benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.53.12tok tonzar, claudio, lotto, lorella, & job, remo (2009). l2 vocabulary acquisition in children: effects of learning method and cognate status. language learning, 59(3), 623–646. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14679922.2009.00519.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00519.x tre ville, marie-claude (1996). lexical learning and reading in l2 at the beginner level: the advantage of cognates. the canadian modern language review, 53, 173–190. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.53.1.173 https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.53.1.120 https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1973.32.1.195 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728902000214 https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/11.2.129 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0267190500002476 https://doi.org/10.1080/01690960500463920 https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853598579-014 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315100364-7 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1545-7249.2008.tb00145.x https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1545-7249.2008.tb00145.x https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.53.12tok https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00519.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00519.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00519.x https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.53.1.173 forcelini & kim 34 e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 van hell, janet g., & de groot, annette m.b. (1998). conceptual representation in bilingual memory: effects of concreteness and cognate status in word association. bilingualism: language and cognition, 1, 193– 211. doi: 10.1017/s1366728998000352 jamile forcelini, sam houston state university jmfpf3@gmail.com en jamile forcelini is an assistant professor at sam houston state university. her research investigates bilingual and trilingual lexical processes, the role of instruction on second language vocabulary acquisition, as well as the nature of trilingualism and multilingualism. dr. forcelini’s work can be found in different publications such as body language, culture shock and para-linguistic protocols in portuguese (forcelini, j., 2023); portuguese language learning by spanish speakers in a linguistic immersion context (forcelini, j., 2023); the quality of lexicosemantic representation in l2 spanish (sunderman. g & forcelini, j., 2021); the processing of typological similar languages among trilingual speakers of spanish, english, and portuguese (forcelini, j.,2020); and when more is less: the effect of a third language on a second language (forcelini, j., & sunderman, g., 2020). she is currently working on the effects of online vs face-to-face instruction on pre-intermediate l2 learners of spanish. es jamile forcelini es profesora asistente en sam houston state university. sus investigaciones se centran en los procesos léxicos bilingües y trilingües, el papel de la enseñanza en la adquisición de vocabulario en una segunda lengua y la naturaleza del trilingüismo y el multilingüismo. el trabajo de la dra. forcelini se puede encontrar en diferentes publicaciones como body language, culture shock and para-linguistic protocols in portuguese (forcelini, j., 2023); portuguese language learning by spanish speakers in a linguistic immersion context (forcelini, j., 2023); the quality of lexicosemantic representation in l2 spanish (sunderman. g & forcelini, j., 2021); the processing of typological similar languages among trilingual speakers of spanish, english, and portuguese (forcelini, j.,2020); y when more is less: the effect of a third language on a second language (forcelini, j., & sunderman, g., 2020). actualmente está trabajando en los efectos de la enseñanza en línea frente a la enseñanza presencial en estudiantes de español preintermedio l2. it jamile forcelini è una ricercatrice alla sam houston state university. la sua ricerca mira ad esplorare i processi lessicali bilingue e trilingue, il ruolo dell’insegnamento sull’acquisizione del vocabolario nella lingua seconda, così come la natura del trilinguismo e del multilinguismo. il lavoro della dottoressa forcelini può essere trovato in diverse pubblicazioni come body language, culture shock and para-linguistic protocols in portuguese (forcelini, j., 2023); portuguese language learning by spanish speakers in a linguistic immersion context (forcelini, j., 2023); the quality of lexicosemantic representation in l2 spanish (sunderman. g & forcelini, j., 2021); the processing of typological similar languages among trilingual speakers of spanish, english, and portuguese (forcelini, j.,2020); e when more is less: the effect of a third language on a second language (forcelini, j., & sunderman, g., 2020). attualmente si sta occupando di studiare gli effetti dell’insegnamento online rispetto a quello in presenza nei discenti di livello pre-intermedio di spagnolo l2. focusing on derivational-driven cognate patterns e-journall, 11(1) (2024), pp. 18-35 35 doo young kim, sam houston state university dkim@shsu.edu en doo young kim is an associate professor of statistics and data science at sam houston state university in huntsville, texas. his main research interest is statistical learning with time-dependent information, and he has written articles with data sets from various fields of study. in his pre-tenure period from fall 2018 to spring 2023, dr. kim focused on expanding his research experience by working with people from different research areas and analyzing data from diverse research fields. for example, dr. kim proposed several effective statistical models to help people make decisions on matters related to health science, environmental science, finance, sports, etc. since his tenure in fall 2023, dr. kim has focused more on developing new statistical tools that can be generally effective for any data set from many fields of study. dr. kim is also interested in teaching statistical learning algorithms and programming with the statistical language r. dr. kim believes that the most important role of a statistician is “delivering the true voice from the complicated information.” es doo young kim es profesor titular de estadística y ciencia de datos en sam houston state university en huntsville, texas. su principal interés de investigación es el aprendizaje estadístico con información dependiente del tiempo, y ha escrito artículos con conjuntos de datos de diversos campos de estudio. en su periodo previo a recibir su permanencia académica (tenure), desde otoño de 2018 hasta la primavera de 2023, el dr. kim se centró en ampliar su experiencia en investigación trabajando con personas de diferentes áreas de investigación y analizando datos de diversos campos de investigación. por ejemplo, el dr. kim propuso varios modelos estadísticos eficaces para ayudar a las personas a tomar decisiones sobre asuntos relacionados con las ciencias de la salud, las ciencias ambientales, las finanzas, los deportes, etc. desde que recibió la permanencia académica en otoño de 2023, el dr. kim se ha centrado más en el desarrollo de nuevas herramientas estadísticas que puedan ser eficaces en general para cualquier conjunto de datos de muchos campos de estudio. el dr. kim también está interesado en enseñar algoritmos de aprendizaje estadístico y programación con el lenguaje estadístico r. el dr. kim cree que el papel más importante de un estadístico es “entregar la verdadera voz de la información complicada”. it doo young kim è professore associato di statistica e data science alla sam houston state university a huntsville, texas. la sua area principale di ricerca è l’apprendimento statistico con informazioni time-dependent e ha scritto articoli con dataset provenienti da vari campi di ricerca. dall’autunno del 2018 alla primavera del 2023. kim ha ampliato il suo campo di ricerca lavorando con persone di altre discipline e analizzando dati da diversi settori. ne è un esempio la proposta di usare modelli statistici efficaci ad aiutare le persone nei loro processi decisionali in materia di scienze della salute, scienze dell’ambiente, finanza, sport, ecc. da quando è strutturato, nell’autunno del 2023, im si è dedicato allo sviluppo di nuovi strumenti statistici che possono essere utilizzati in maniera efficace per l’analisi di dataset di diversi settori. inoltre, la sua sfera di interesse include l’insegnamento di algoritmi di apprendimento statistico e programmazione con l’uso di r. kim crede che il ruolo più importante di uno statistico sia “estrapolare la vera voce da informazioni complesse”. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 2, december 2023, pp. 62-77 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.2.2768 www.e-journall.org © pennisi 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. ealp textbooks and the challenges of legal english education giulia adriana pennisi università degli studi di palermo received 19 may 2023; accepted after revisions 14 october 2023 abstract en over the last thirty years english for academic purposes (eap) has expanded, cutting across the domains of specialised discourse, and has shifted its focus to meet the needs of large numbers of non-native speaking students at the university level. in this regard, english for academic legal purposes (ealp) can be defined as the teaching and learning of legal english as an esp subject that includes the academic dimensions of eap. this paper investigates how ealp textbooks has responded to the challenges of law school education. reflecting on the pedagogic contributions of carrick and dunn (1985), candlin, bhatia, and jensen (2002), and prinsloo (2015), this paper begins diachronically with a sample of ealp-type textbooks from the point where prinsloo completed his analysis. drawing on these reviews, this paper attempts to provide some insights into the development of ealp-type textbooks and their response to the challenges of legal english education. key words: textbooks, ealp, specialised language, legal language, education es durante los últimos treinta años, el inglés para fines académicos (ifa) se ha expandido, abarcando todos los dominios del discurso especializado y ha cambiado su enfoque para satisfacer las necesidades de un gran número de estudiantes de habla no nativa a nivel universitario. en este sentido, el inglés para fines académicos jurídicos (ifaj) puede definirse como la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del inglés jurídico como un área del inglés para fines específicos (ife) que incluye las dimensiones académicas del ifa. este artículo investiga cómo los libros de texto de ifa han respondido a los desafíos de la educación en la facultad de derecho. reflexionando sobre las contribuciones pedagógicas de carrick y dunn (1985), candlin, bhatia y jensen (2002), y prinsloo (2015), este artículo comienza diacrónicamente con una muestra de libros de texto de tipo ifaj a partir del momento en que prinsloo completó su análisis. partiendo de estas revisiones, este artículo intenta proporcionar algunas ideas sobre el desarrollo de libros de texto de tipo ifaj y sobre su respuesta a los desafíos de la educación jurídica en inglés. palabras claves: libros de texto, ifaj, lenguaje especializado, lenguaje jurídico, educación it negli ultimi trent'anni l'inglese per scopi accademici (eap english for academic purposes) si è ampliato, oltrepassando i domini del discorso specialistico, e ha spostato la sua attenzione per soddisfare le esigenze di un gran numero di studenti non madrelingua a livello universitario. a tal riguardo, l'inglese per scopi legali accademici (ealp english for academic legal purposes) può essere definito come l'insegnamento e l'apprendimento dell'inglese giuridico, una disciplina afferente all'inglese per scopi speciali (esp english for specific purposes) che include le dimensioni accademiche dell'eap. il presente lavoro analizza come i libri di testo di inglese per scopi accademici abbiano risposto alle sfide dell'istruzione nelle scuole di giurisprudenza. riflettendo sui contributi pedagogici di carrick e dunn (1985), candlin, bhatia e jensen (2002) e prinsloo (2015), questo articolo inizia diacronicamente con un campione di libri di testo di tipo ealp a partire dal momento in cui prinsloo ha completato la sua analisi. partendo da queste rassegne, il presente lavoro cerca di fornire alcuni spunti di riflessione sullo sviluppo dei libri di testo di tipo ealp e sulla loro risposta alle sfide dell'educazione all'inglese giuridico. parole chiave: libri di testo, inglese per scopi legali accademici, linguaggio specialistico, linguaggio giuridico, istruzione  giulia adriana pennisi, università di palermo giuliaadriana.pennisi@unipa.it about:blank ealp textbooks and the challenges of legal english education e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 63 1. eap and ealp over the last thirty years, english for academic purposes (eap) has expanded, cutting across the various domains of specialised discourse, and has gradually shifted its focus to meet the needs of large numbers of non-native speaking students at the university level (hyland 2006, 2009; johns 2013; swales 2004;; williams 2014). according to a survey conducted by alqahtani (2011) on british eap courses, the term ealp (i.e., english for academic legal purposes) was first used by the british council in 1975, and then it extended to the united states (hyland & hamp-lyons 2002). by that time, important developments had occurred in the field of linguistics and applied linguistics, with pioneering scholars such as bhatia (1993) and halliday (1993), who began to consider language and language teaching as resources for communication that might vary considerably in lexis and syntax according to the context where they occur. in the meantime, english was increasingly developing as a world language, particularly in those areas where speaking and writing in english is the key to access the international academic community and participate in the global economy, such as europe, japan, china, latin america, and francophone africa, to name just a few. a noteworthy aspect is the fact that english is currently the most popular language studied as a second or foreign language, even though it is not the language with the greatest number of native speakers. according to ethnologue1, mandarin chinese is the largest language in the world when counting only first language native speakers (nss), followed by spanish, while english comes in third place before hindi (table 1). table 1 languages with the most nss native speakers (nss) 2022 mandarin chinese >1,000,000,000 spanish 600,000,000 english > 400,000,000 hindi > 400,000,000 on the other hand, when considering second language speakers, english is the most spoken language in the world, followed by mandarin chinese, hindi and spanish. table 2 languages with the most nss and nnss nss and non-native speakers (nnss) 2022 english > 1,200,000,000 mandarin chinese < 1,200,000,000 hindi < 800,000,000 spanish > 400,000,000 to provide some reasons why eap is in great demand, we might recall flowerdew and peacock’s (2001) explanation about the “need for english”: these nnss, of course, are not only attracted to learn the language of the english-speaking countries because they want to sell their products there. they also want to gain access to their technology and expertise. this is another reason for the large numbers of overseas students studying in the english-speaking countries and the even greater numbers studying through the medium of english in their home countries, where it is a second language. the international language of research and academic publication is english and anyone who wishes to have ready access to this material needs to know the language. (p.10) the current statistics on the large numbers of nnss learning and studying through the medium of english, and the development of eap as a discipline worldwide, further confirm the soundness of flowerdew and peacock’s (2001) observation at the present time. 1 https://www.ethnologue.com/insights/most-spoken-language/ (last accessed on july 25, 2023). pennisi e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 64 as regards the development of eap as a discipline, it might be interesting to look at the comments and observations provided by some of the best-known authors in the field of linguistics and applied linguistics over the past decades. according to coffey (1984), eap is characterised by two dimensions: the first, english for specific academic purposes, studies language structure, vocabulary, etc. and is related to a specific academic subject; whereas english for general academic purposes concerns general study skills (i.e., listening, speaking, etc.) and is related to academic courses. likewise, dudley-evans and st john define (eap) “any teaching that relates to a study purpose” (1998, p. 34). flowerdew and peacock notice that “eap is normally considered to be one of the two main branches of english for specific purposes (esp), the other being english for occupational purposes (eop)” (2001, p. 11). with reference to the increasing growth of interest in eap, hyland observes that “english for academic purposes (eap) has evolved rapidly over the past twenty years or so. from humble beginnings as a relatively fringe branch of english for specific purposes (esp) in the early 1980s, it is today a major force in english language teaching and research around the world” (2006, p. 1). then, “the fact that eap cuts across the various domains of specialised discourse”, williams writes, “has led to a shift of focus as regards the needs of large numbers of non-native speaking university students” (2014, p. 3). anthony concludes that “perhaps the most influential branch of esp is english for academic purposes (eap), which focuses on esp in academic settings” (2018, p. 13). eap certainly covers different domains and practices including study-skills teaching as well as general english, and provides students with language knowledge and instruction that relate to the specific communicative needs and practices of specific groups in academic contexts. in this regard, flowerdew and peacock not only define eap “the teaching of english with the specific aim of helping learners to study, conduct research or teach in that language”, but they also consider it as “an international activity of tremendous scope” (2001, p. 8). english for specific purposes (esp) and eap have been traditionally differentiated, basing the difference on the functions of language. deriving from the larger field of esp, eap has emerged as the teaching of english focused mainly on academic contexts at all proficiency levels (hyland & hamp-lyons 2002), and characterised by a range of interdisciplinary influences for its research methods, theories and practices (flowerdew 2016). in this regard, english for academic legal purposes (ealp) can be defined as the teaching and learning of legal english, that is, an esp subject that includes the academic dimensions of eap (prinsloo 2015). in an attempt to make a taxonomy of all the disciplines included in the circle of world english, prinsloo (2015) suggests that english language teaching (elt) might serve as a hypernym referring to a field of research across those disciplines. more specifically, elt includes esp, eap, and english for professional purposes (epp) or english for occupational purposes (eop) (figure 1). figure 1. the taxonomy of elt (adapted from prinsloo 2015, p. 18) eap is considered to be one of two branches of esp, the other being epp/eop. each of these branches can be further subdivided according to the academic fields or occupations with which it is concerned. therefore, eap may be separated into english for academic legal purposes (ealp), which could in turn be subdivided into english for law students (i.e., the academic field), and english for paralegals (i.e., the occupation). to give an example, an english course designed to help students read economics textbooks could clearly be eap, while a course designed to teach learners how to participate in business meetings or take phone calls with clients is unquestionably characterized by an eop dimension (flowerdew & peacock 2001, p. 12). elt eap english for law students ealp epp / eop ealp english for paralegals esp ealp textbooks and the challenges of legal english education e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 65 incidentally, the distinction between the two major branches of esp is not straightforward because some academic courses could be described as eop as much as eap. moreover, prinsloo (2015, p. 17) observes that such a distinction between the academic and professional use of english seems to be restrictive because the cognitive, social, and linguistic demands of academia and practice are also evident in one of the objectives of clinical legal education, which involves the role of lawyers in the society (johnson 2020). for this reason, ealp can be defined as the teaching and learning of legal english as an esp subject that includes the academic dimensions of epp (prinsloo 2015). by recalling johns (1997), flowerdew and peacock claim that such a conclusion strengthens the idea that eap specialists should encourage “students and subjects specialists to collaboratively examine the interactions of ‘texts, roles and contexts’” (2001, p. 19). in the case of ealp courses, given its specific syntactic features, foreign words, complex sentences, nominalizations, passive constructions and impersonal writing style (bhatia 1993; gibbons 2014; tiersma 2006; venturi 2010), legal english has been traditionally considered not unlike a foreign language to both nss/l1 and nnss/l2 language learners across the domain of english academia (hyland 2009; johns 2013; swales 2004; williams 2014). legal scholars and applied linguists have attempted to solve language problems in the field of language pedagogy (halliday 1993; trask 2007) and in ealp courses in particular by demonstrating a move away from language in isolation and towards a consideration of discourse in context (flowerdew & peacock 2001, p. 19). in light of this theoretical background, the present paper investigates how english for ealp in textbooks published over the past three decades has evolved and responded to the challenges of law school education. reflecting on the pedagogic contributions of carrick and dunn (1985), candlin, bhatia and jensen (2002), and prinsloo (2015), this paper begins with a diachronic approach by means of a sample of ealp-type textbooks (2013-2022) starting from the point where prinsloo completed his analysis. in contrast with dated ealp textbooks, the analysis conducted by prinsloo (2015) between 2002 and 2013 revealed an integrated pedagogic approach to the teaching of english skills. as prinsloo (2015) demonstrates, the developments in ealp-type textbook contents and general structure challenge the assumption that eap is substantially different from epp based on the distinction of purpose, focus and skill acquisition. drawing on these reviews, this paper attempts to demonstrate whether this trend has recently changed somehow, or has been confirmed and eventually progressed. 2. textbooks in legal english courses generally speaking, textbooks serve an important role in teaching and learning activities. according to graves (2000, p. 175) a textbook is a book used as a model source of information for the formal study of a subject (especially in schools and colleges) and a useful instrument for teaching and learning. the unesco international bureau of education (ibe)2 provides this definition of textbook(s): a written source of information, designed specifically for the use of students, on a particular subject or field of study that is usually developed based on a syllabus and geared towards meeting specific quality and learning requirements. school textbooks pertain to an instructional sequence based on an organized curriculum. ideally they serve as a complement to a good teacher and an inquiring learner. (adapted from: unesco 2003a and unesco ibe 2006). academic tbs help readers who are entering a specific disciplinary field to access the established knowledge which characterises and shapes that disciplinary field (bhatia 1989). generally seen as a written text, the main function of tbs is to introduce novices to a specific discipline (shahab, rashidi, sadighi & mortaza, 2020). in the case of legal english courses, tbs tend to reflect the complex linguistic needs of law school and legal practice (dolin 2007; edelman 2010; hess 2002; kennedy 2004). in this regard, gibbons considers “the extreme complexity and unusual nature” of legal language that “poses a substantial problem, particularly for the many countries where the language of the law is not the mother tongue of those involved in the legal system” (1999, p. 291). as he clearly points out, lawyers in training need help to master not only technicalities and the legal concepts that they represent, but also the convoluted grammatical structures in which much legislation is framed. this places considerable demands upon the teachers and curriculum designers responsible for teaching english to these law students. they themselves may have trouble in understanding the cognitive complexity of legal documents, 2 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000223059 last accessed on july 25, 2023). https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000223059 pennisi e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 66 and the linguistic realisation of that complexity. once understood, training students to master it is a pedagogical challenge p. 291).overall, “law school is generally recognized as an intellectually strenuous and linguistically demanding curriculum” (prinsloo 2015, p. 5). more specifically, this perception is based on three principal assumptions: the main lexico-grammatical features of legal language, which are usually characterised as follows: (i) inclusion of archaic words and foreign expressions especially from latin and french; (ii) frequent repetition of fixed syntactic structures; (iii) long and convoluted sentences with intricate patterns of coordination and subordination. this makes legal english a foreign language to both nss and nnss law students (bhatia 1989, 1993; danet 1980; gibbons 2014; tiersma 2006; venturi 2010); law students enter academia with limited legal language knowledge and skills (dolin 2007; edelman 2010; gerkman & cornett 2017; sullivan et al., 2007); the use of unsuitable instructional methods with only casual attention to teaching students how to use legal thinking in the actual law practice. unlike other professional education, legal syllabus design pays little attention to direct training in professional practice (bhatia 2008; linden & johnson 2020; sullivan, colby, wegner, bond & shulman 2007) an isolated syllabus design. although some students might be able to manage the textual features of some professional genres, (bhatia, 2008; candlin, bhatia & jensen, 2002; carrick & dunn, 1985; linden & johnson, 2020; stuckey, 2007) they would still be detached from the professional world (bhatia, 2008, p. 161). in 2007, the carniege foundation report on the state of american law schools called for significant changes in legal education in north america. it recommended an integrated approach to legal education3. in order to bring together the two sides of legal knowledge, i.e., the “formal knowledge and experience of practice” and “advances in legal education,” the report provided some recommendations to law schools, such as: (i) joining lawyering, professionalism and legal analysis from the start; (ii) designing the syllabus and course programs so that students and faculty weave together various kinds of knowledge and skills; (iii) integrating legal analysis, training for practice and development of professional identity (sullivan et al., 2007, pp. 8-10).4 the carnegie foundation report also noticed a significant limitation in legal education, in that legal courses and programs generally pay little attention to direct training in legal practice. following the publication of the carnegie foundation report, a curriculum reform was implemented in many american law schools, with some of them providing experiential learning courses. in its attempt to merge formal knowledge and practical experience, the legal discourse academia has been paired with research in linguistics, which had already started to be more interested in language literacy, teaching, and pedagogy, particularly in the field of ealp (balcom & kozar, 1994; halliday, 1993; trask, 2007). 3. methodological framework since the 1960s and 1970s, legal scholars, applied linguists, and educators have attempted to solve language problems, especially in the field of language pedagogy (halliday 1993; trask 2007) and, in particular, ealp. over the past three decades in particular, two significant studies reviewed appropriate samples of legal writing tbs. more specifically, carrick and dunn (1985) reviewed a sample of 11 legal writing tbs published between 1980 and 1985. the second review, conducted by candlin, bhatia and jensen (2002), included 37 legal writing tbs published between 1985 through 2002. prisloo (2015) reflected on the pedagogic contributions 3 the carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching was established in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of congress as an independent policy and research center called to “do and perform all things necessary to encourage, uphold, and dignify the profession of the teacher and the cause of higher education. today the mission of the foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life.” over last few years, the carnegie foundation has examined education in medicine, clergy, nursing, engineering, and law https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/about-us/foundation-history/ (last accessed on july 25, 2023). 4 http://archive.carnegiefoundation.org/publications/pdfs/elibrary/elibrary_pdf_632.pdf (last accessed on july 25, 2023). https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/about-us/foundation-history/ http://archive.carnegiefoundation.org/publications/pdfs/elibrary/elibrary_pdf_632.pdf ealp textbooks and the challenges of legal english education e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 67 provided by carrick and dunn (1985) and those by candlin, bhatia and jensen (2002), and departed diachronically with a sample of ealp-type tbs where candlin, bhatia and jensen (2002) had concluded. the methodology i present here is mostly inspired by prinsloo’s (2015) analysis of ealp tbs. above all, i rely on prinsloo’s (2015, pp. 8-9) data collection procedure and qualitative content analysis for the selection of a data collection type and the identification of a typology of tbs (creswell, 2014; douglas, 2022; lichtman, 2013; shenton, 2004; teddlie & yu 2007). in order to make it useful for the analysis developed here, i have slightly modified and expanded his model. the data collection procedure is based on the purposive sampling technique (i.e. search criteria), where units are selected because they have characteristics that match the samples, i.e., the ealp-type tbs, that constitute the qualitative data (figure 2). figure 12. methodological framework (adapted from prinsloo 2015) in the data collection process, the first step was to identify the sample of ealp-type tbs. in order to do so, tbs were identified as public documents available at the university libraries in the public domain. then, the literature search strategy was based on: the time frame; types of ealp tbs; target readers / users; countries selected; significant part of the ealp tbs; and search terms / phrases. the time frame for the data collection was set between 2013 and 2022, and the types of ealp tbs that were selected did not include tbs that focus primarily on general language or any other topic that might not be considered specific to legal courses. this, however, did not imply that tbs have chapters / sections dealing with general language, for instance, were excluded a priori from the data collection. the university law students were identified as the target readers / interested users of the ealp tbs from the uk and us, the selection of which was based on the accessibility of the university libraries. after identifying the objectives of the research, librarians at the department of political science and international relations5 and i conducted searches using the following key words / phrases: legal english, practical legal english, legal knowledge/skills. in order to broaden the perspective, the searches were conducted by using related and slightly different key search phrases, such as: english for academic legal purposes, lawyering skills, legal english, thinking like a lawyer, clinical legal education. the results of this initial search of key terms were indicative of the larger categories of the qualitative content analysis. as the ealp tbs collected were explored by means of the different search 5 dems, university of palermo (italy). method qualitative content analysis coding procedure: 1. terms ; 2. tb groups; 3. content clusters coding results discussion and interpretation data collection procedure search criteria literature search pennisi e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 68 terms, the investigation of the tbs’ titles, prefaces, and tables of contents were crucial to determine inclusion in the final corpus. the second step of research consisted in the qualitative content analysis aimed at the identification of typologies of tbs through the examination of their communicative content, as shown in figure 2 (i.e., coding procedure, coding results, discussion of results). the ealp tbs typologies identified were the following: skillbased tbs, law school tbs, academic legal language tbs, legal skills tbs, clinical legal skills tbs (see appendix). more specifically, in this phase the collected data where qualified based on the recognition of connections among ealp in order to: (i) validate the inclusion of texts identified by the key words/phrases search (prisloo 2015); (ii) identify interrelationships among ealp tbs typologies (benaquisto, 2008; dörnyei, 2007; prinsloo. 2015); (iii) facilitate descriptions and increase the credibility of the qualitative content analysis (creswell, 2014). 4. results and discussion in recent years, a market for ealp-type textbooks has emerged, together with the increasing development of ealp-type courses. since the 1980s, three significant studies have reviewed appropriate samples of legal textbooks (see table 3 below). more specifically, − the 1st study was conducted by carrick and dunn (1985), who reviewed a corpus of 11 legal tbs published between 1980 and 1985. they categorised the tbs based on legal content and writing skills and identified five categories of tbs. with the exception of the category that focuses on legal research skills, the other categories were mainly based on writing skills (carrick and dunn 1985, pp. 674-675; prinsloo, 2015); − the 2nd study was conducted by candlin, bhatia and jensen (2002), who reviewed 37 legal tbs published between 1985 and 2002. by placing particular emphasis on instructional approaches, they identified four categories of tbs and the associated pedagogic approaches which prinsloo (2015: 7) has categorised as follows: ▪ lexico-grammar based tbs adopting a scientific-modernist approach (i.e., grammar translation and direct methods, the authoritative role of teachers and the students’ passive role as recipients of knowledge); ▪ rhetoric-based tbs promoting active student collaboration through teacher facilitation; ▪ content-based legal english tbs that are considered more comprehensive than tbs which focus mainly on legal terminology; ▪ ealp tbs that expose students to legal discourses and genres in social contexts. − the 3rd study was conducted by prisloo (2015), who reviewed a corpus of 44 ealp-type tbs published between 2002 and 2013. he distinguished tbs by means of a skill-based approach: ▪ tbs that focus on law school skills which mainly aim to prepare students for law school admission tests and academic essay writing (predominantly for the american-based law school system); ▪ academic legal english tbs including different academic legal linguistic skills aimed at the 1st year of law school education. in particular, these tbs present a larger skills set than that surveyed by carrick and dunn (1985) and candlin, bhatia, and jensen (2002); ▪ legal skills tbs that cover a diverse set of skills throughout law school and embrace the four categories of skills; ▪ clinical legal skills tbs that focus on lawyering skills and the legal process needed in legal practice. ealp textbooks and the challenges of legal english education e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 69 table 3 ealp tbs studies (1985 – 2015) 1985 carrick and dunn 2022 candlin, bhatia and jensen 2015 prinsloo course-based typology (based on writing skills and legal content) 11 tbs (1980-1985) pedagogy-based typology (based on pedagogic approaches) 37 tbs (1985-2002) skill-based typology 44 tbs (2002-2013) law school tbs grammar-based books general legal writing law school examination books lexico-grammar based books (scientific approaches) academic legal language tbs (i.e., aimed at the 1st year of law school education; do not cover pre-law school skills) rhetoric-based books (rhetorical approaches) ealp tbs (content-based approaches) legal research / legal bibliography books books that include content (eap approaches) legal skills tbs (cover the diverse set of legal skills) legal brief writing and argumentation clinical legal skills (include the skills of practice, i.e. drafting, advocacy, mediation, etc.) − the research presented here (i.e., the 4th study) has been conducted on a corpus of 48 ealptype tbs starting from the point where prisloo (2015) concluded, and published between 2013 and 2022. in particular, this research distinguishes (see table 4 and table 5) tbs based on a layered-based learning curriculum: ▪ tbs that focus on law school skills that are mainly aimed to prepare students for the law school admission test and academic essay writing (for both the american and the uk law school system) and account for 12.50% (5 tbs) of the corpus; ▪ academic legal english tbs that cover different academic legal linguistic skills aimed at the 1st year of law school education. they present a larger skills set than that surveyed by prisloo (2015) and focus primarily on communication skills for academic and practical purposes. they account for 42,50% (17 tbs) of the corpus; ▪ legal skills tbs that cover the most comprehensive set of skills throughout law school. they may present specific legal content, with a focus on both academic legal language and skills used during law school. they mostly neglect the set of linguistics needed after law school. they account for 22,50% (9 tbs) of the corpus; ▪ clinical legal skills tbs that focus on lawyering skills which are needed in legal practice. these skills overlap with academic legal language skills. however, they focus on more productive skills typical of substantive and procedural law. these tbs are mainly for an american-based law school system. they account for 22,50% (9 tbs) of the corpus. pennisi e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 70 table 4 ealp tbs studies (1985 – 2022) 1985 carrick and dunn 2022 candlin bhatia and jensen 2015 prinsloo 2022 present research course-based typology 11 tbs (1980-1985) pedagogy-based typology 37 tbs (1985-2002) skill-based typology 44 tbs (2002-2013) layered / practical skills and competencies typology 40 tbs (2013-2022) law school tbs law school tbs / legal guided tbs (law school education and linguistic skills needed prior to and at the beginning of law school) grammar-based books general legal writing law school examination books lexico-grammar based books (scientific approaches) academic legal language tbs (i.e., aimed at the 1st year of law school education) academic tbs (a broad spectrum of academic legal linguistic skills, i.e., focus mainly on communication skills; specific content may pose pedagogic problems in foreign jurisdictions) rhetoric-based books (rhetorical approaches) ealp tbs (content-based approaches) legal research / legal bibliography books books that include content (eap approaches) legal skills tbs (cover the diverse set of legal skills) legalistic skills tbs (mostly comprehensive, they attempt to cover the professional, academic and career skills) legal brief writing and argumentation clinical legal skills (include the skills of practice, i.e. drafting, advocacy, mediation, etc.) productive skills set within procedural and substantive law tbs (emphasis on ethical legal epistemology and legal practice) table 5. ealp textbooks and the challenges of legal english education e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 71 ealp tbs studies (2015 and 2022) 2015 prinsloo 2022 present research scaffolded / skill-based typology 44 tbs (2002-2013) layered / practical skills and competencies typology 40 tbs (2013-2022) law school tbs (15,90% 7 tbs) law school tbs / legal guided tbs (law school education and linguistic skills needed prior to and at the beginning of law school) (12,50% 5 tbs) academic legal language tbs (i.e., aimed at the 1st year of law school education) 52,27% 23 tbs) academic tbs (a broad spectrum of academic legal linguistic skills, i.e., focus mainly on communication skills; specific content may pose pedagogic problems in foreign jurisdictions) (42,50% 17 tbs) legal skills tbs (cover the diverse set of legal skills) (15,90% – 7 tbs) legalistic skills tbs (mostly comprehensive, they attempt to cover the professional, academic and career skills (22,50% 9 tbs) clinical legal skills (include the skills of practice, i.e. drafting, advocacy, mediation, etc.) (15,90% – 7 tbs) productive skills set within procedural and substantive law tbs (emphasis on ethical legal epistemology and legal practice) (22,50% 9 tbs) the literature review revealed that between 1980 and 2002, legal english tbs focused primarily on writing instruction, with an almost exclusive emphasis on grammar, legal content, and general writing skills (prinsloo, 2015). a qualitative content analysis of a sample of 44 ealp-type tbs, published between 2002 and 2013, revealed an ever-increasing shift toward multi-skills instruction across the law school and academic curricula (prinsloo, 2015). increasingly, from 2013 to 2022 contemporary tbs aim to encourage a comprehensive set of skills that is more geared to the needs of legal professions. in this regard, cracking the case method, legal analysis for law school success. academic and career success series (bergman, 2022) represents a clear example of law school tbs / legal guided tbs, whereas legal english (haigh, 2018) and legal terminology (kent & brown, 2018) serve as two fitting examples of legal academic tbs. in the case of legal skills tbs, a prime example can be seen in lawyers' skills. legal practice course manuals (webb et al., 2019), and the category of clinical legal skills tbs is well represented by legal english comprehensive competence: reading, writing and professional skills (gao, 2021). confirming what prisloo (2015) discovered in his analysis conducted between 2002 and 2013, the research conducted on publications between 2013 and 2022 demonstrates that more recent tbs, such as those belonging to the legalistic skills category, tend to provide a comprehensive spectrum of expertise and pedagogic skills. these contemporary examples show a merging trend of purposes of eap and epp in response to clinical legal education and the needs of legal professions. in the end, contemporary ealp textbooks are designed according to a layered typology that addresses the law school skills that are needed during law school education, and the practical skills and competencies that are required during professional training and legal practice. 5. final remarks generally speaking, legal education has been facing difficult challenges, with law schools striving to position themselves within a rapidly changing world. given the fact that the legal profession, not unlike many other jobs and occupations, is in a state of flux, the challenge is providing law students with proper and up-todate academic courses and programs. such an academic innovation requires tailored ealp tbs which might help both students and teachers to keep up with the recent challenges of a dynamic and evolving education. particularly in the field of ealp courses, there seems to be increasing interest on the part of law schools and academia in the communicative events that students will need to engage in, and the spoken and written genres in which they need to become functionally competent. this poses a pedagogical challenge in terms of course structures, types of curricula, and content of the materials and textbooks provided for law students. this reflects belcher’s (2009) observation about “needs-responsive materials and methods” in academia. as she noticeably writes, https://www.amazon.it/paul-bergman/e/b000apxp5m/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1 https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=julian+webb&text=julian+webb&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=lianhong+gao&search-alias=stripbooks pennisi e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 72 another scaffolded approach, aiming not just at genre awareness but also acquisition of a sequence of progressively more challenging genres [...] involves a careful cline of instructor support: first immersing students in genre samples, thus providing a text and context-rich environment, followed by teacher modelling of text construction, collaborative text construction, independent generation of texts, and finally critical reflection on what has been learned about the genre itself (as well as related domain knowledge) both how it enables and how it constrains (p. 9-10). this paper has explored how ealp textbooks , published over the past three decades, have evolved and responded to the challenges of law school education. reflecting on the pedagogic contributions of carrick and dunn (1985), candlin, bhatia and jensen (2002), and prinsloo (2015), the analysis began diachronically, with a sample of ealp-type textbooks from the point where prinsloo (2015) concluded his research. drawing on these reviews, this paper has attempted to provide some insights into the recent development of ealp-type tbs and their response to the challenges of legal english education, such as the typology that constitutes the structure of contemporary ealp textbooks. future research might consider the impact of a scaffolded approach in law university courses and curricula design, such as 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(2007). language and linguistics: the key concepts. routledge. venturi, giulia (2010). legal language and legal knowledge management applications. in enrico francesconi, simonetta montemagni, wim peters & daniela tiscornia (eds.) semantic processing of legal texts: where the language of law meets the law of language (pp. 3-26). springer-verlag. williams, christopher (2014). the future of esp studies: building on success, exploring new paths, avoiding pitfalls. asp 66. retrieved from http://journals.openedition.org/asp/4616. http://journals.openedition.org/asp/4616 ealp textbooks and the challenges of legal english education e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 75 appendix 1st category tbs that focus on law school skills account for 12.50% of the corpus (5 tbs) bergman, paul 2022 (2017). cracking the case method, legal analysis for law school success (academic and career success series). west academic publishing. finch, emily & fafinski, stephan (2013). an introduction to legal reasoning. the university of chicago press. krieger, stephan h., neumann, richard k. & mcdonald hutchin, renée (2020). essential lawyering skills: interviewing, counselling, negotiation, and persuasive fact analysis. aspen publishing. lambarth, michael a. (2014). a really basic introduction to english law and the english legal system. createspace independent publishing platform. moore, imogen & newbery-jones, craig (2022). the successful law student: an insider's guide to studying law. oxford university press. 2nd category academic legal english tbs accounts for 42,50% of the corpus (17 tbs) barkan, steven, bintliff, barbara, whisner, mary & , susan t. (2015). assignments to fundamentals of legal research, 10th and legal research illustrated. west academic. barbett, daniel l. (2016). legal reasoning and objective writing: a comprehensive approach. aspen publishing. davies, michael (2019). the legal english grammar guide: the best guide to the grammar of english for lawyers. kdp print us. fielding, henry (2018). legal writings. forgotten books. finch emily & fafinski, stefan (2014). employability skills for law students. oxford university press. haigh, rupert (2018). legal english. routledge. hanson, s., , t. & , b. (2021). learning legal skills and reasoning. routledge. kent, kauffman & brown, gordon (2018). legal terminology. pearson. kuney, george (2020). legal drafting in a nutshell. west academic. margolis, ellie, , kathryn & neumann, richard (2017). legal reasoning and legal writing. wolters kluwer. masood, maher (2016). red lines in english legal terminology. lap lambert academic publishing. nedzel, nadia e. (2021). legal reasoning, research, and writing for international graduate students. wolters kluwer. newmann, richard k., entrikin, lyn j. & simon, sheila (2019). legal writing. wolters kluwer. parastatidou, sofia, d’andria ursoleo jacopo & gralton, kate (2021). legal english. mylab. strong, stacie (2022). how to write law essays & exams. oxford university press. vandevelde, kenneth j. (2019). thinking like a lawyer: an introduction to legal reasoning. routledge. volokh, eugene (2016). academic legal writing: law rev articles, student notes, seminar papers, and getting on law. west academic. 3rd category legal skills tbs account for 22,50% of the corpus (9 tbs) afshin, zila & kourosh, akef (2015). legal english: in morgan’s international construction contract management. lap lambert academic publishing. alexander, larry & sherwin, emily (2021). advanced introduction to legal reasoning. edward elgar pub. berenguer, elizabeth e. (2020). the legal scholar’s guidebook. aspen publishing. https://www.amazon.it/paul-bergman/e/b000apxp5m/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1 https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=michael+a+lambarth&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.directtextbook.com/author/barbara-bintliff https://www.directtextbook.com/author/mary-whisner https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=mr+michael+john+davies&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=henry+fielding&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=sharon+hanson&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.directtextbook.com/author/ellie-margolis https://www.directtextbook.com/author/richard-neumann https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=utf8&field-author=richard+k.%c2%a0+neumann+jr.&text=richard+k.%c2%a0+neumann+jr.&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=digital-text https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_2?ie=utf8&field-author=j.+lyn+entrikin&text=j.+lyn+entrikin&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=digital-text https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_3?ie=utf8&field-author=sheila+simon&text=sheila+simon&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=digital-text https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=larry+alexander&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_2?ie=utf8&field-author=emily+sherwin&search-alias=stripbooks pennisi e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 76 kiser, randall (2019). soft skills for effective lawyers. cambridge university press. porto, brian (2021). rhetoric, persuasion, and modern legal writing: the pen is mightier. x lexington books. rahman, shaid, armgardt, matthias & nordtveit kvernenes, hans c. (2021). new developments in legal reasoning and logic: from ancient law to modern legal systems. springer nature. riley, alison (2014). common law legal english and grammar: a contextual approach. hart pub ltd international. webb, julian, maughan, caroline, maughan, mike, keppel-palmer, marcus & , andrew (2019). lawyers' skills (legal practice course manuals). oxford university press. wellford slocum, robin & nerger, gina (2022) legal reasoning, writing, and other lawyering skills. carolina academic press. 4th category clinical legal skills tbs account for 22,50% of the corpus (9 tbs) canham, natalie & mason, catherine (2020). advanced legal english. global legal english ltd. costello natasha & kulbicki, louise (2022). practical english language skills for lawyers: improving your legal english. routledge. davies, michael (2017). legal english skills for lawyers: a guide to english for legal professionals. legal english uk. gao, lianhong (2021). legal english comprehensive competence: reading, writing and professional skills. lap lambert academic publishing. haig, rupert (2020). international legal english: a practical introduction for students and professionals. routledge. hoffman, craig (2019). practical legal english: writing as a u.s. lawyer. west academic. romantz, david & vinson, kathleen e. (2019). legal analysis: the fundamental skill. carolina academic press. spencer, maureen & spencer, john (2022). evidence concentrate. law revision and study guide. oxford university press. weston walsh, kathrin (2017). the legal english manual: handbook for professional legal language and practical skills. beck c. h. https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=shahid+rahman&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_2?ie=utf8&field-author=matthias+armgardt&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_3?ie=utf8&field-author=hans+christian+nordtveit+kvernenes&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=julian+webb&text=julian+webb&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_2?ie=utf8&field-author=caroline+maughan&text=caroline+maughan&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_3?ie=utf8&field-author=mike+maughan&text=mike+maughan&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_4?ie=utf8&field-author=marcus+keppel-palmer&text=marcus+keppel-palmer&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=natalie+canham+and+catherine+mason&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=natasha+costello&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_2?ie=utf8&field-author=louise+kulbicki&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=lianhong+gao&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=craig+hoffman+(author)&search-alias=stripbooks https://www.amazon.it/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=utf8&field-author=kathrin+weston+walsh&search-alias=stripbooks ealp textbooks and the challenges of legal english education e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 62-77 77 giulia adriana pennisi università degli studi di palermo giuliaadriana.pennisi@unipa.it en giulia adriana pennisi is associate professor in english language and translation at the university of palermo (italy). her research is focused on specialised languages with a particular attention to the lexico-grammatical and textual analysis of discourse genres within multilingual and multicultural contexts. she is associate research fellow at the institute of advanced legal studies (ials), sir william dale visiting fellowship, university of london, where she is responsible for the “legislative drafting and language” project. her latest publications include “legislative drafting and gender: some linguistic insights into english and italian” in m. mousmouti (ed.) gender sensitive lawmaking in theory and practice, routledge (2024); “interdisciplinary dynamics and generic conventions: the case of clinical ethics committees” in g. tessuto et al. (eds.) professional discourse across medicine, law, and other disciplines: issues and perspectives, cambridge scholars publishing (2023); “tackling online disinformation. the construction of ‘trustworthiness’ and ‘best practices’ in the european commission discourse on covid-19” in lingue e linguaggi, 47 (2022). es giulia adriana pennisi es profesora asociada de lengua inglesa y traducción en la universidad de palermo (italia). su investigación se centra en lenguajes especializados con especial atención al análisis léxico-gramatical y textual de géneros discursivos dentro de contextos multilingües y multiculturales. es investigadora asociada en el institute of advanced legal studies (ials), visiting fellowship sir william dale de la universidad de londres, donde es responsable del proyecto “redacción y lenguaje legislativo”. sus últimas publicaciones incluyen “redacción legislativa y género: algunas ideas lingüísticas sobre inglés e italiano” en m. mousmouti (ed.) gender sensitive lawmaking in theory and practice, routledge (2024); “interdisciplinary dynamics and generic conventions: the case of clinical ethics committees” en g. tessuto et al. (eds.) discurso profesional en medicina, derecho y otras disciplinas: problemas y perspectivas, cambridge scholars publishing (2023); “abordar la desinformación en línea. la construcción de la ‘confiabilidad’ y las ‘mejores prácticas’ en el discurso de la comisión europea sobre el covid-19” en lingue e linguaggi, 47 (2022). it giulia adriana pennisi è professore associato di lingua e traduzione inglese presso l’università degli studi di palermo (dipartimento di scienze politiche e relazioni internazionali). il suo ambito di ricerca riguarda prevalentemente i linguaggi specialistici con particolare attenzione all’analisi lessico-grammaticale e testuale dei discourse genres in contesti multilinguistici e multiculturali. giulia adriana pennisi è anche associate research fellow presso l’institute of advanced legal studies (ials), sir william dale visiting fellowship, università di londra, dove è responsabile del progetto di ricerca in “legislative drafting and language”. le sue pubblicazioni più recenti includono “legislative drafting and gender: some linguistic insights into english and italian”, in m. mousmouti (ed) gender sensitive lawmaking in theory and practice, routledge (2024); “interdisciplinary dynamics and generic conventions: the case of clinical ethics committees”, in g. tessuto et al. (eds) professional discourse across medicine, law, and other disciplines: issues and perspectives, cambridge scholars publishing (2023); “tackling online disinformation. the construction of ‘trustworthiness’ and ‘best practices’ in the european commission discourse on covid-19” in lingue e linguaggi, 47 (2022). gerkman, alli, & cornett, logan (2017). foundations for practice: the whole lawyer and the character quotient. iaals, the institute for the advancement of the american legal system, 1-41. microsoft word burden_8.1.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  8,  issue  1,  march  2021,  53–75 issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.13.218   www.e-­‐journall.org     © burden 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       lipstick  on  pigs:  critical  discourse  and  image  analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in   u.s.  children’s  esl  textbooks         amy  burden   university  of  memphis     received  25  july  2020;  accepted  after  revisions  6  february  2021   abstract en gender equality in language learning has received considerable attention in research on classroom policy and materials. within studies of materials like language learning texts, most research focuses on content analyses of character roles and images, with sometimes purposeful exclusion of non-human characters. however, non-humans in children’s picture books comprise almost 60% of the characters children read. therefore, their representations of gender, including biases, overt sexism, and covert sexism should be examined. in this study, i examine gendering of non-human characters using corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis. additionally, i use critical image analysis to discuss pictorial gendering of non-human characters within 12 textbooks in two of the united states’ most widely used textbook series for language learning in elementary schools. results indicate a strong preference for aggressive and adventurous male characters, male supremacist ideologies, and the suppression of female agency. key words: corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, textbook analysis, gender and language, english as a second language (esl), critical image analysis es la igualdad de género en el aprendizaje de idiomas ha recibido una atención considerable en la investigación sobre la política y los materiales en el aula. dentro de los estudios sobre materiales como los textos para el aprendizaje de idiomas, la mayoría de las investigaciones se centran en el análisis del contenido de los roles y las imágenes de los personajes, con una exclusión de los personajes no humanos. sin embargo, los personajes no humanos de los libros ilustrados para niños representan casi el 60% de los personajes que leen los niños. por lo tanto, deben examinarse sus representaciones de género, incluyendo los prejuicios, el sexismo manifiesto y el sexismo encubierto. en este estudio, examino la representación de género de los personajes no humanos utilizando la lingüística de corpus y el análisis crítico del discurso. además, utilizo el análisis crítico de la imagen para analizar el género pictórico de los personajes no humanos en 12 libros de texto de dos de las series de libros de texto más utilizados en estados unidos para el aprendizaje de idiomas en las escuelas primarias. los resultados indican una fuerte preferencia por personajes masculinos agresivos y aventureros, ideologías de supremacía masculina y la supresión de la agencia femenina. palabras clave: lingüística de corpus, análisis crítico del discurso, análisis de libros de texto, género y lenguaje, inglés como segunda lengua, análisis crítico de la imagen it l’uguaglianza di genere nell'apprendimento delle lingue è stato oggetto di notevole attenzione nella ricerca su norme scolastiche e sui materiali didattici. la maggior parte degli studi sui testi per l'apprendimento delle lingue si concentra sull'analisi del contenuto dei ruoli e delle immagini dei personaggi con l'esclusione, a volte intenzionale, di personaggi non umani. tuttavia quasi il 60% dei personaggi nei libri illustrati per bambini è non umano. pertanto, dovrebbero essere esaminate le rappresentazioni di genere, inclusi pregiudizi, sessismo palese e sessismo nascosto di tali personaggi. in questo studio si esamina la rappresentazione del genere di personaggi non umani usando la linguistica dei corpora e l’analisi critica del discorso. inoltre, viene utilizzata l'analisi critica delle immagini per discutere la rappresentazione del genere di personaggi non umani all'interno di 12 libri in due delle serie di libri di testo più utilizzate negli stati uniti per l'apprendimento delle lingue nelle scuole elementari. i risultati indicano una forte preferenza per personaggi maschili aggressivi e avventurosi, ideologie suprematiste maschili e soppressione dell'agire femminile. parole chiave: linguistica dei corpora, analisi critica del discorso, analisi dei libri di testo, genere e linguaggio, inglese come seconda lingua, analisi critica delle immagini * amy  burden,  university  of  memphis                  amy.k.burden@gmail.com http://www.e-journall.org burden       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75  54   1.  introduction   when  considering  one’s   favorite  childhood  stories,  at   least  one  tale  with  fantastical  characters  may   come  to  mind.  these  characters  permeate  children’s  spaces—amplified,  reinvented,  and  reimagined  through   various   forms  of   technology   in  both  social  and  academic  contexts.  curriculum  writers  often  choose   literacy   materials  from  published  children’s  literature,  adapting  them  to  fit  the  target  level,  age,  and  teaching  context.   the  resulting  schoolbooks  are  often  relied  upon  not  just  for  content  area  learning,  but  also  for  reinforcing  a   society’s  cultural  values  and  norms,   including  gender  roles  which  can   involve  gender  bias  and  stereotyping   (witt,   2001).  we   know   that   children’s   interactions  with   books   have   the   potential   for   not   only   gender   role   assimilation,   but   also   for  promoting   social   change   (capuzza,   2020).  as   such,   it   should   come  as  no   surprise   that  books  used   in  u.s.  english  as  a  second   language  (esl)  classrooms  as   language   learning  curricula  carry   great  weight,  as  they  are  often  viewed  and  accepted  more  readily  by  the  children  whose  teacher  has  chosen   and  read  these  books  to  them  (wharton,  2005).   children’s   literature   and   english   language   learning   literacy   texts   have   historically   limited   the   potential   of   female   agents   (blumberg,   2015).  however,  most   historical   studies   have   ignored   the   roles   that   non-­‐human   characters   play   in   offering   potential   opportunities   for   male   and   female   agents   and   readers   (sunderland,  2015).  while  some  scholars  have  examined  gender  in  children’s  literature  or  language  learning   texts,   few   have   employed   systematic   linguistic   analysis   to   study   gendering   of   non-­‐human   characters   in   language  learning  texts.  as  many  language  learning  texts  adapt  full  length  picture  books  or  literature  for  use   in  language  learning,  it  is  imperative  that  we  understand  what  these  fantastical  characters  are  communicating   to   young   language   learners   acquiring   language,   literacy,   and   social   norms   simultaneously   from   these   texts   (harro,  2000).     in  this  study,  i  engaged  in  the  previously  unnavigated  realms  of  language  learning  material  study  by   examining   the   linguistic   and   visual   gendering   of   non-­‐human   characters   within   12   english   language   development   (eld)   textbooks   adopted   by   the   two   largest   eld  markets   in   the   united   states,   the   states   of   california  and  texas.  together,  these  markets  represent  2.4  million  young  readers  each  year  (sanchez,  2017).   i  had  two  research  questions:       1) how  are  gendered  non-­‐humans  represented  discursively?     2) how  are  gendered  non-­‐humans  represented  visually?       to   answer   these   questions,   i   employed   critical   multimodal   linguistic   analysis   through   critical   discourse   analysis   and   visual   analysis.   critical   multimodal   linguistic   study   is   rare   in   current   empirical   research   of   gender   in   language   learning   materials,   and   the   study   of   non-­‐human   characters   in   linguistic   analyses   are   new   to   this   field.   to   increase   the   validity   of   linguistic   analysis,   i   employed   computational   software   to  analyze   linguistic  phenomena  related   to  non-­‐humans,  a   technique  of   corpus  study   first  used   in   textbook  gender  analysis  by  yang  (2011).   i  built  my  analysis  and  recommendations  upon  what   is  currently   known  about  gender  representations  of  non-­‐human  characters  in  children’s  materials. 2.  literature  review   first,   it   is   necessary   to   explain   what   is   meant   by   non-­‐human   characters.   these   are   agents   within   works  of   fiction  and  sometimes  non-­‐fiction   that  are  not  human.  these  are  often  animals  gendered   through   nomenclature,  appearance,  and  personification.  they  are  also  fantastical  characters  like  fairies,  giants,  trolls,   and  other  mythical  creatures.  included  here  are  gods  and  goddesses,  which  are  part  of  religious  and  folkloric   texts.  these  can  also  be  personified  objects,  such  as  toys  and  other  household  items.  “non-­‐human  characters”   can  even  include  elements  of  nature  that  are  personified  and  gendered  in  works  of  literature.     2.1.  gender  and  children’s  fiction   a   genre   that   has   received   considerable   attention   with   regard   to   gender   is   children’s   fiction.   researchers   have   analyzed   the   stories   themselves   for   thematic   representation,   considered   how   children   receive  and  act  upon  fiction  stories,  as  well  as  studied  how  children  perceive  gender  within  them.  however,   very  little  has  been  done  to  analyze  the   language  of  children’s  fiction.  instead,  most  research  has  settled  on   content   analyses.   in   contemporary   analysis   of   content,   children’s   literature   has   been   found   to   consistently   stereotype   characters   into   gendered   binaries   and   demonstrate   gender   inequality   between   characters,   analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in  u.s.  children’s  esl  textbooks e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75   55 content,   and   pictures   (crisp   &   hiller,   2011;   mattix   &   sobalak,   2014;   mcgrabe,   fairchild,   graurholz,   pescosolido,  &  tope,  2011).  these  works  show  that  there  are  more  male  protagonists  with  more  interesting   activities  than  female  characters  or  non-­‐binary  characters.  males  are  given  greater  autonomy  and  traits  such   as  bravery.  females  are   less  often  central   to   the  stories  and  are  more   likely   to  engage   in  maternal   roles  of   understanding,  sympathizing,  and  comforting.  as  hamilton,  anderson,  braudus,  and  young  (2006)  describe  in   their  study  of  parents  in  children’s  fiction,  females  are  far  more  often  engaged  in  homemaking  activities.   other   studies   have   confirmed  uptake   of   gendered   stereotypes  when   children   are   repeatedly   given   reading  materials  that  contain  them,  demonstrating  the  profound  roles  children’s  fiction  play  in  the  formation   of  ideologies  on  gender.  one  notable  and  recent  example  is  hill  and  jacob’s  (2020)  project  wherein  circle  time   sessions  were  recorded  and  analyzed  while  gender  ambiguous  stories  were  read,  with  explicit  conversations   about   gender.   the   authors   found   that   children   perceived   gender   based   on   adornment,   coloring,   posture,   activities   the   characters   engaged   in,   and   the   names   given   to   them.   this   study   found   that   children   made   similar  comments  regarding  gender  regardless  of  the  human  or  non-­‐human  nature  of  the  characters,  and  they   tended  to  assign  gender  binaries  even  to  ambiguously  drawn  and  ambiguously  described  characters.       2.1.1.  visual  analysis  in  children’s  fiction     visual  analyses  of  gender  in  children’s  fiction  have  historically  found  that  visuals  do  support  the  text   in   terms   of   gendering   (nilsen,   1971,   1977;   sunderland,   2010).   thus,   as   caldecott   winning   books   place   females   within   the   home   through   role   allocation,   images   of   females   are   likewise   in   the   home,   wearing   domestic   clothing   (sunderland,   2010).   in   particular,   nilsen   (1977)   remarked   on   the   overuse   of   aprons   in   illustrations   for   female   characters.   in  more   contemporary   studies,   visual   analysis   has   demonstrated  more   egalitarian   attempts   at   character   representation,   with  more   options   for   children’s   picture   books   featuring   gender   ambiguous   characters   or   characters   who   identify   as   lgbtqia   or   who   are   drawn   as   less   stereotypically  or  traditionally  feminine  or  masculine  (capuzza,  2020;  hill  &  jacobs,  2020).  however,  in  terms   of   frequency   of   visual   occurrence   or   being   alone   in   an   image,   males   experience   far   greater   visual   representation  in  contemporary  children’s  fiction  than  females  (hamilton  et  al.,  2006;  mcgrabe  et  al.,  2011).     2.1.2.  thematic  analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in  children’s  fiction   little   work   has   been   done   to   examine   gender   representation,   biases,   or   sexism   within   children’s   literature   focusing   on   non-­‐human   agents.   even   fewer   studies   have   been   conducted   through   linguistic   analysis.  the  first  work  examining  non-­‐humans  for  gender  representation  within  children’s  literature  was  by   nilsen   (1971).   publishers   at   this   time   recommended   authors   write   fewer   books   with   female   protagonists   because  while  girls  would  read  about  male  or  female  protagonists,  boys  would  not  read  about  female  leads.   teachers  were  requested  to  find  more  books  with  male  protagonists  for  classroom  use  as  well,  to  encourage   boys  and  girls  to  participate.  nilsen  uses  the  terms  “boys’  books”  to  refer  to  books  with  male  protagonists  and   “girls’  books”  to  refer  to  books  with  female  protagonists.  in  her  study  of  gender  in  caldecott-­‐winning  picture   books,  she  compared  “boy’s  books”  with  “girl’s  books,”  examining  characters’  activity,  characters’  size  within   illustrations,   and   gendered   themes   about   romance,   domesticity,   and   adventure.   in   these   analyses,   she   examined  non-­‐human  stories  separately  from  human  stories.  she  considered  the  use  of  gendered  pronouns   and  compared  them  to  anthropomorphic  illustrations  and  found  that  even  when  illustrations  did  not  gender   the   character,   the  masculine  pronoun  was  used,   suggesting   that  unless   the   character   is  drawn  with   female   traits   it   is   automatically   male.   she   found   that   male   non-­‐human   characters   were   an   incredibly   common   occurrence   in  children’s  award-­‐winning   literature,  naming  dr.  seuss  books   for   their   ratio  of  7   to  1  male   to   female   characters.   she   also   examined   the   personality   traits   of   these   characters   and   found   distinct   stereotypical  attitudes  constructed   for  male  and  female  non-­‐humans.   in  addition  to   identifying   female  non-­‐ humans  in  mothering  roles,  books  portrayed  females  as  fashion  conscious,  sick,  and  lonely.     bradley   and   mortimer   (1972)   examined   picture   books   from   the   school   library   service’s   recommended   lists   and   found   that   for   anthropomorphized   male   characters,   there   was   greater   activity,   autonomy,   exploration,   bravery,   disobedience,   mastery   of   skills,   and   aggression   than   for   females,   besides   having   a   greater   quantifiable   presence   in   the   stories.   female   anthropomorphized   characters   displayed   no   autonomous  behavior  and  instead  were  consistently  victims.   in  a  study  by  mcgrabe  et  al.   (2011),  an  examination  of  caldecott  award  winning  books  from  1900-­‐ 2000   demonstrated   minimal   improvement   over   time   in   representation   of   female   non-­‐human   characters.   they   found   that  male   animals   are   central   characters   in   23%   of   books   per   year,   compared   to   female   non-­‐ human  centralization  of  7%.  they  found  that  as  of  1990,  disparity   in  gender  for  animal  characters  was  still   burden       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75  56 two  males   to   every  one   female.  they  posited   that   these  disparities  pointed   to   the   symbolic   annihilation  of   women  and  girls  particularly  through  female  animals.     finally,   ferguson’s   (2018)   analysis   of   the   top   100   children’s   books   for   2017   saw   that   60%   of   characters  were  non-­‐human  and  73%  of   those  non-­‐human  characters  were  male.  ferguson  also   found   that   males  were  more   likely   to   be   dangerous   creatures,   such   as   dragons,   bears,   and   tigers,  while   females  were   smaller   and  meeker   such   as   birds,   cats,   and   insects.   from   these   content   analyses,   we   can   glean   that   non-­‐ humans  have  played  a  large  role  in  children’s  literature  for  decades,  and  that  they  are  still  much  more  likely   to  be  male  than  female  or  neuter.       2.1.2.1.  linguistic  analyses  of  non-­‐humans  in  children’s  fiction   in   2010,   sunderland   questioned  whether  nilsen’s   (1977)   assertions   about   gendered   pronouns   for   non-­‐humans  could  still  be  true  and  called  for  up-­‐to-­‐date  research  on  this  topic.  in  fact,  as  of  2012,  sunderland   claimed   that   most   work   to   date   had   focused   on   content   in   gendered   fiction,   such   as   roles   and   actions   of   protagonists.   she   advocated   for   and   produced   work   that   engages   the   language   of   gendered   fiction   for   analysis—what   the   characters   were   like,   did,   and   said—and   how   this   was   linguistically   presented.   she   advocated  for  linguistic  analysis  which  she  described  as  “looking  closely  at  language  in  a  principled  and  often   systematic  way”  (p.  63).  samples  of   linguistic  analysis  of  gendered  fiction  include  analysis  of  titles  of  books   for  gender,  character  naming,  male  and  female  pronoun  use,  and  physical  and  emotional  adjectives.  in  even   more   current   work,   sunderland   (2015)   pushed   for   the   field   to   examine   gender   in   non-­‐human   characters   within  language  textbooks  both  linguistically  and  visually.  this  work  seeks  to  respond  to  her  prompting.   beyond  nilsen’s  (1977)  study  of  gendered  pronouns  mentioned  earlier,  lieberman  (1986)  explored   hans   christian   anderson   fairytales   through   linguistic   focalization,   or   the   construal   of   different   characters’   points  of  view.  he  identified  beauty  as  an  asset  for  fairytale  females  such  as  the  little  mermaid.  the  andersen   version  of  this  tale  uncommonly  provides  her  point  of  view  more  often  than  the  prince.  through  a  feminist   linguistic  analysis,  the  researcher  examined  how,  for  the  want  of  love,  the  mermaid  sacrificed  her  literal  voice   and  her  necessary  tail  to  be  near  the  prince.       2.1.2.2.  visual  analyses  of  non-­‐humans  in  children’s  fiction   in  nilsen’s  (1971)  paper  on  gender  in  caldecott  winning  picture  books,  she  coined  the  term  “occult  of   the   apron”   to   describe   the   overwhelmingly   female   uniform   for   children’s   literature   books.   she   recounted   images  of  non-­‐human  characters  as  well—mother  alligator,  mother  rabbit,  mother  donkey,  and  mother  cat— all   wearing   aprons.   she   wrote   of   the   need   to   investigate   picture   book   illustrations   because   these   were   promoted  for  children  during  their  most  impressionable  life  stages.  she  blamed  artists  for  many  of  the  issues   surrounding  male-­‐centric   illustrations.  at   that   time,   freelance  artists  were   three   times  as   likely   to  be  male.   thus,   when   they   illustrated   children’s   literature,   they   drew   from   their   impressions   and   memories   of   childhood  unless  the  text  itself  directed  them  otherwise.     in   their  examination  of  notable  children’s  books   from  1995-­‐1999,  gooden  and  gooden  (2001)  also   found   greater   instances   of  male   animals   (116)   over   female   animals   (78)   in   illustrations.   they   argued   that   continued   imbalance   in  gender  representation  and  the  continued  gender  stereotyping  was  harmful   to  male   and  female  readers.  yabroff  (2016)  noted  that  most  illustrations  in  the  top  100  booklists  from  scholastic  and   time  did  not  have  gendered  illustrations  but  relied  on  the  text  to  gender  the  non-­‐human  characters  for  them.   this   linguistic   gendering   where   pictorial   gendering   is   not   present   is   an   important   reason   to   conduct   multimodal   analyses   to   glean   a   thicker   description   of   gender   representations   for   the   most   common   characters  in  children’s  readers.  the  common  framework  for  these  studies  was  content  analysis,  which  relied   on  head   counts   to  determine   stereotyping  and   representation.  however,   counts   alone   should  not  be   solely   relied  upon  to  examine  the   issues  of  non-­‐human  gender  representation  and  the  possible  harmful  effects  on   young  readers.     2.2.  gender  and  esl  texts    as  this  project  aims  to  examine  gendering  in  children’s  esl  texts,  it  is  additionally  necessary  to  focus   on  not  just  children’s  picture  books  but  on  child  and  adult  esl  texts.  over  the  last  three  decades,  both  content   and   linguistic   analysis   of   textbooks   for   gender   construction   have   investigated   sexist   language,   female   visibility,  firstness,  and  gender  stereotypes  (giaschi,  2000;  hartman  &  judd,  1978;  mustapha,  2015;  porreca,   1984).  hartman  and  judd  (1978)  defined  “firstness”  as  “a  subtler  convention  of   language.   .   .   the  ordering  of   analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in  u.s.  children’s  esl  textbooks e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75   57 sex  pairs  like  male  and  female,  mr.  and  mrs.,  brother  and  sister,  husband  and  wife,  which  are  usually  ordered   with  the  male  first,  with  the  single  exception  of  ladies  and  gentlemen”  (p.  390).  these  studies  have  provided   quantitative  and  qualitative  data  on  the  unequal  treatment  of  gender  in  educational  materials.  while  research   regarding   gender   in   american-­‐made   esl  materials   is   virtually   non-­‐existent,   gender   role   representation   in   english   language  textbooks   in  english  as  a   foreign   language  (efl)  contexts  outside  of   the  united  states  has   been  studied  more  recently  and  with  greater  depth.  these  studies  demonstrate  a  perpetual  display  of  women   in  more  stereotypically  feminine  professions  and  men  experiencing  a  wider  variety  of  roles  allocated  to  them   within  the  text  (amerian  &  esmaili,  2015;  pakuła,  pawelczyk,  &  sunderland,  2015;  sadeghi  &  maleki,  2016;   yaghoubi-­‐notash  &  nouri,  2016).  sadeghi  and  maleki  (2016)  and  yaghboubi-­‐notash  and  nouri  (2016)  both   employed  van   leeuwen’s   approach   to   critical   discourse   analysis   (cda)  with   an   emphasis   on   social   actors.   pakuła   et   al.   (2015)   examined   polish   efl   textbooks   at   varying   age   levels   and   found   that   women   were   relatively   powerless   next   to   men   within   the   texts.   women   and   men   had   different   roles,   representing   conventional   and   gendered   stereotypical   role   allocation.   their   study   was   incredibly   thorough,   examining   both  texts  and  their  consumption.     linguistic  study  of  textbooks  in  efl  and  esl  contexts  has  consistently  revealed  that  women  are  given   secondary   roles   in   classroom   materials   twice   as   often   as   men   (chankseliani,   silova,   palandjian,   mun,   &   zholdoshalieva,   2018;   curaming   &   curaming,   2020;   lee,   2014;   porreca,   1984;   samadikhah   &   shahrokhi,   2015).  through  an  examination  of  linguistic  representation—pronouns,  nouns,  and  other  gendered  grammar   markers,   research   has   consistently   shown  males   in   first   positions   (e.g.,   as   lead   character)   within   learning   materials  at  least  twice  as  often  as  females  (graham,  1974;  porreca,  1984;  samadikhah  &  shahrokhi,  2015).  in   other   contexts,   however,   efl   textbooks   have   demonstrated   improvements   in   this   area.   for   instance,   in   parham’s  (2013)  analysis  of  children’s  efl  textbooks   in   iran,  she   found  nearly  equal   linguistic  visibility   for   male  and  female  human  characters.  in  hong  kong,  lee  and  collins  (2015)  compared  the  same  textbook  series   from  1988  to  its  updated  2005  version  and  found  significant  improvements  in  this  area.       2.2.1.  visual  analysis  in  esl  texts   there  are  two  frameworks  that  are  commonly  employed  in  visual  textbook  analysis:  giaschi’s  critical   image   analysis   (2000)   and   van   leeuwen’s   visual   social   actor   network   plus   representation   and   viewer   network   (2008),  where  visual  social  actor  network  examines  exclusion  and   inclusion,   and  representation   and   viewer   network   examines   distance,   relation,   and   interaction.   giaschi’s   framework   is   derived   from   fairclough’s   cda   and   contains   seven   questions   for   analyzing   gaze,   agency,   and   body   language.   in   van   leeuwen’s  framework,  analysis  includes  who  is  and  is  not  included,  who  could  have  logically  been  included,   character  agency,  cultural  representations,  and  individual  vs.  group  members  on  display,  as  well  as  relative   distance  between  viewer  and  character  in  image  and  angle  of  gaze.   from  the  current  efl  context  and  the  historical  esl  context,  we  see  evidence  of  textbooks  containing   more  male  images,  more  males  at  work,  and  more  male  dominated  images  (hartman  &  judd,  1978;  porreca,   1984;  yang,  2016).  a  historical  look  at  esl  texts  from  porreca  (1984)  noted  that  men  were  displayed  at  work   five   times   as   often   as   women.   in   more   recent   studies,   there   is   movement   towards   equality   in   gender   representation  pictorially  (lee,  2014;  samadikhah  &  shahrokhi,  2015;  yang,  2016).  lee’s  (2014)  comparison   of  hong  kong  english  textbooks  from  1988-­‐2005  claimed  that  while  there  were  still  significantly  more  men   than  women   in   the   images,   there  were  more  women-­‐only   images,   and  more  women  and  men   represented   equally  in  images  in  the  2005  edition  of  the  text.  visual  analyses  of  textbooks  produced  for  the  iranian  school   system   in  amerian  and  esmaili’s   (2015)   investigation  of  the  american  headway  series   showed  more  male-­‐ only   pictures   and  more  male-­‐dominant   pictures.   only   24%  of   images   showed   equal   numbers   or  male   and   female   characters.   in   each   of   these   studies,   however,   the   analysis   was   based   on   a   simple   counting   of   characters   to  determine  gender  equity  pictorially.  dabbagh’s   (2016)  study   in   the   iranian  efl  context  more   thoroughly   applied   van   leeuwen’s   framework   to   visual   analysis,   examining   gaze,   space,   distance,   body   display,   and   activity   in   addition   to   the   simple   counts   conducted   by   previous   studies.   dabbagh   found   that   males  were  1.5  times  more  active   in   images,  males   looked  at  the  viewer  more  often  than  females  and  were   framed  in  close  ups  more  often.  yet,  dabbagh  found  greater  balance  in  spaces  such  as  work  and  home  images   with  males   and   females,   and   he   found   similarities   in   body   display   such   as   clothing   choice   that   represents   religious  ideologies  regarding  dress.   giaschi  (2000)  conducted  critical   image  analysis  (cia)  on  texts   in  the  eastern  european  and  asian   contexts.   in   his   2000   study,   he   found   that   women’s   heads   were   often   inclined   towards   a   man.  when   the   woman’s  gaze  was  averted  and  the  man’s  gaze  was  upon  her,  his  facial  and  body  language  showed  physical   burden       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75  58 signs  of  tension  or  anger.  mustapha  (2015)  used  giaschi’s  framework  to  examine  gender  positioning  through   visual  images  in  esl  books  in  nigeria.  he  employed  four  parts  of  the  cia  framework  to  conduct  his  analysis   and  found  that  males  within  the  nigerian  elt  context  were  positioned  visually  as  inherently  superior,  strong,   and  in  control   in  professions,  social  activities,  and  conflicts,  but   inferior   in  the  domestic  domain  to   females.   females  were  only  viewed  as  superior  in  the  domestic  domain.       2.2.2.  non-­‐humans  in  esl  texts   there   are   limited   studies   examining   non-­‐human   gendering   in   language   learning   materials.   often,   non-­‐humans   are   explicitly   removed   from   analysis   in   language   learning  materials,   despite   their   prevalence   and   importance   to   child   learning   (curaming   &   curaming,   2020;   parham,   2013).   in   bhattacharya’s   (2017)   small-­‐scale  study  of  indian  english  language  learning  textbooks,  using  content  and  linguistic  analysis,  just  one   section   was   given   to   non-­‐human   gendered   characters.   in   this   section,   bhattacharya   found   that   masculine   pronouns   gendered   otherwise   neutral   characters.   she   brought   attention   to   the   fact   that   in   hindi,   several   animal   names   are   feminine,   but   the   english   descriptions   of   them   used   masculine   pronouns.   she   also   described   how   the   use   of   metaphors   positioned   male   non-­‐human   characters   as   powerful,   strong,   and   aggressive.  similarly,  in  an  analysis  of  early-­‐literacy  textbooks  in  kazakhstan  and  kyrgyzstan,  chankseliani  et   al.  (2018)  found  that  animals  and  insects  were  humanized  to  promote  ideologies  of  ethicized  and  gendered   moral   education.   a   study   of   the   language   showed   foxes   to   be   predominantly   female   through   naming   and   pronoun  use,  and  to  be  described  as  sly  and  dishonest,  whereas  bears  and  wolves  were  male  and  “less  smart.”     just   a   few   studies   of   non-­‐humans   in  esl  materials   have   examined   images.   in  yang’s   (2016)   visual   analysis  of  hong  kong  primary  english   language  texts,   the  author  determined  that  non-­‐human  characters  –   while   not   gendered   in   the   same  ways   as   humans,  were   still   gendered   and   often   in   exaggerated  ways.   the   study  noted  clothing  and  accessories  such  as  handbags  to  ensure  readers  understood  the  gender  of  the  non-­‐ human   character.   the   study   of   kazakhstan   and   kyrgyzstani   early   literacy   books   described   above   (chankseliani  et  al.,  2018)  found  that  anthropomorphism  of  insects  and  animals  also  translated  to  images  that   were   gendered   stereotypically.   bears,   bees,   and   other   animals   wore   traditional   clothing   and   exemplified   gendered   stereotypes   of   women   and   men   in   their   societies   to   reinforce   heteronormative   and   nationalist   ideologies  of  “normalness”  of  gendered  and  ethnic  divisions.     3.  rationale  for  current  study   in   a   given  year,   in  well-­‐known  collections  of   children’s   literature   (e.g.,   caldecott  winners,  top  100   booklist,  etc.),  between  27%  and  60%  of  children’s  books  contain  non-­‐human  characters  (sunderland,  2010).   using   images   of   non-­‐humans   for  marketing  purposes   is   a   proven   strategy   that   demonstrates   the  power   of   non-­‐human  characters  over  the  child  as  consumer  (karpyn  et  al.,  2017;  veer,  2013).  harju  and  rouse  (2018)   describe  books  with  non-­‐human  characters  as  “featur[ing]  anthropomorphized  protagonists  who  stand  in  for   human  characters,  imparting  moral  and  social  codes  through  their  attributes  and  actions”  (p.  456).  this  is  not   only  true  for  original,  non-­‐paraphrased,  or  adapted  works  sold  in  bookstores;  classroom  texts  featuring  non-­‐ human  characters  are  also  shown   to   teach   lessons  about  morality  and  social  norms.  and,  while  children   in   classrooms  are  socialized  to  trust  their  teachers  and  therefore  to  believe  what  their  teachers  share  with  them   through  the  curriculum,  english  language  learners  are  even  more  prone  to  take  up  the  social  codes  within   the  narratives  of  non-­‐humans,  as  they  are  simultaneously  acquiring  language,   literacy,  content,  and  cultural   norms.   with   the   prevalence   and   relative   importance   non-­‐humans   play   in   conveying   what   is   valued   to   children,   it   is   surprising   that,   in   2021,   no   greater   depth   of   work   has   been   conducted   into  what  messages   about  gender  roles  and  ideology  are  being  conveyed  and  potentially  taken  up  by  this  more  vulnerable  group   of  children  in  u.s.  public  schools.  thus,  this  study  seeks  to  better  understand  the  way  language  and  images  of   non-­‐human   characters   portray   gender   roles   and   ideologies   in   english   language   learning   textbooks.   implications   of   this   research   will   affect   how   educators   both   choose   the   best   reading   passages   for   their   language   learning   students,   but   also   how   they   might   use   texts   to   open   discussions   to   promote   efforts   of   critical  literacy  in  language  learning.       4.  methods   4.1.  data     while  many  nations  publish  curriculum  on  a  national  level,  in  the  united  states,  states  decide  on  the   textbooks  used   in   the   classroom.  as  texas   and  california   have   the  highest   student   populations,   publishers   analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in  u.s.  children’s  esl  textbooks e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75   59 often   write   curriculum   with   these   two   contexts   in   mind,   or   in   collaboration   with   these   two   boards   of   education   (boes).  books   created   for  texas   and  california   educational   contexts   are   then  marketed   to  other   states  as  well.  therefore,  texas  and  california’s  boes  often  make  curricular  choices  that  affect  the  books  read   across  the  united  states.  in  other  words,  two  large  educational  governing  bodies  with  their  own  political  and   ideological  motivations  tell  publishers  what  they  would  like  to  see  and  read,  and  those  books  are  published   nationwide  (blumberg,  2015).  for  this  reason,  i  examined  12  textbooks  from  two  series  published  by  rigby,  a   houghton  mifflin  company,  and  benchmark  education  company  for  the  texas  and  california  esl  classrooms,   examining  gender  representation  and  positioning  linguistically  and  pictorially  through  systematic  analysis.   the   first   series,   california   benchmark   advance:   texts   for   english   language   development,   is   a   benchmark  education  textbook  series  printed  in  2018  and  currently  adopted  by  california’s  public  schools,   the   largest   school   system   in   the   united   states   for   english   language   learners.   this   text   is   also  printed   and   distributed  to  schools  nationwide  without  the  california  standards  for  language  learning.  the  second  series,   on  our  way   to  english:  texas,  was  printed  by  houghton  mifflin  company   in  2014  and   is   currently  adopted   through  2022  by  texas,  the  state  with  the  second  largest  population  of  english  language  learners  nationally.   this  series   is  also  printed  nationally  and   is  currently  adopted   in   its  national   form  in  louisiana  and  florida.   these  texts  are  designed  to  meet  learners  of  various  ages  and  proficiency  levels  and  considers  kindergarten   to  be  the  first  or  beginner  year  of  english  for  most  language  learning  pupils.  thus,  as  the  texts  progress  from   kindergarten  through  fifth  grade,   the  pupils  are  progressing   in  grade   level  and  proficiency   level,  placing  5th   grade  students  at  an  advanced   level  of  english   language  proficiency   in   reading  with  scaffolded  writing  and   speaking   activities.   i   examined   6   books   in   each   series   from  kindergarten   through   5th   grade.   as   these   texts   contained  exercises,  quizzes,  vocabulary,  and  grammar  explanations   in  addition  to  reading,   i  chose  to   focus   only  on  readings  that  gave  explicit  instructions  to  learners  to  produce  language.  while  reading  in  general  in   the   second   language   is   beneficial   for   acquisition,   i   am   concerned   with   readings   that   contained   both   instructions   for   production   and   references   to   gender,   because   i   wanted   to   focus   on   the   students’   opportunities   for   engagement   with   the   readings   that   reference   gender.   for   each   series,   optional   supplementary   materials   exist,   but   there   are   no   instructions   or   references   to   these   supplements   in   the   principal  textbooks,  and  they  are  sold  separately  from  the  textbook  series.     4.2.  corpus  linguistics    to  examine  these  texts  through  systematic  linguistic  modes  of  inquiry,  i  employed  corpus  linguistics   to  gather  and  analyze   the  data  within   the  12  books  using  a  sample  corpus  approach  (leech,  2007).  corpus   linguistics  is  defined  as  procedures  for  analyzing  some  set  of  machine-­‐readable  texts  deemed  appropriate  to   study  a  set  of  research  questions.  the  set  of  texts  is  called  the  corpus  and  is  usually  too  large  to  rely  on  hand   and   eyes   alone   (mcenery   &   hardie,   2012).   i   specifically   employed   antconc   as   a   computational   tool   for   organizing   and   managing   my   data   (anthony,   2019).   this   allowed   me   to   have   more   accurate   quantitative   analysis  of  linguistic  features  of  the  texts.  yang’s  (2011)  study  used  concordancing  techniques  similar  to  the   methodology  of  the  current  study,  examining  collocations  of  he/she,  man/women/woman  boy/s,  girl/s  in  a   series  of  primary  textbooks,  but  yang’s  study  was  limited  by  the  small  size  of  her  corpus  (14,340  words)  and   by  her  restriction  to  collocation.  this  study  is  based  on  a  much  larger  corpus—benchmark  advance  contains  a   corpus  of  44,757  words,  and  on  our  way  to  english  contains  a  corpus  of  18,039  words—and  includes  a  wider   range  of  gender-­‐concerned  features  and  is  as  such  more  on  par  with  more  recent  corpus  studies  such  as  lee   and  collin’s  (2016)  corpus  study  of  29,216  words.     all   the   texts  were  entered  electronically  and   then  edited  manually.   i   first  annotated   the  corpus   for   linguistic   references   to   gender,   then   performed   collocational   and   concordance   analyses   on   these   readings.   specifically,   i   annotated   all   gendered   nouns:   proper   names;   terms   like   “man/en,”   “woman/en,”   “girl/s,”   “boy/s;”   familial   terms   denoting   gender   such   as   “aunt,”   “uncle,”   “brother,”   “sister,”   “husband,”   “wife,”   “nephew,”  “niece,”  “son,”  “daughter,”  “mother,”  “father,”  “grandmother,”  “grandfather;”  and  their  derivatives,   both   in   english   and   spanish   (such   as   “abuelo”   and   “abuela”).   next,   i   annotated   all   mentions   of   gendered   pronouns:  “he,”  “him,”  “she,”  “her/s,”  “his”  and  their  derivatives,  such  as  versions  ending  in  the  suffix  “-­‐self.”  i   considered   and   annotated   linguistic   stereotyped   words,   such   as   “master”   and   the   “–man/en”   and   “-­‐ess”   suffixes.   then,   i   annotated   address   titles   that   refer   to   gender,   such   “mrs.,”   “ms.,”   and   “mr.,”   in   addition   to   “mister”  and  “miss.”  from  these  annotations,  i  then  labelled  collocated  adjectives.  next,  i  labelled  verbs  that   collocated  with  “she”  and  “he,”  as  these  are  the  most  frequently  occurring  representations  of  male  and  female   agents  within  the  texts.  i  used  the  clusters  tool  to  identify  the  verbs  within  five  words  to  the  left  and  right  as  a   means  of  identifying  the  kinds  of  activities  associated  with  males  and  females,  following  the  example  of  lee   burden       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75  60 and   collins   (2015).   i   additionally   annotated   the   readings   to   denote   genre   and   human   or   non-­‐human.   to   analyze  gender  representation  in  the  series,  i  used  frequency  counts  and  collocational  analysis.  the  word  list   tool  was  used  to  configure  token  versus  types  of  words  in  each  series.  the  collocate  tool  was  used  to  examine   the  verbs  associated  with  male  and  female  agents,  and  the  concordance  tool  elicited  frequencies  of  individual   words  and  phrases  in  a  kwic  (key  word  in  context)  format,  which  shows  collocates  of  the  word  chosen  and   identifies  common  phrases.     4.3.  critical  discourse  analysis   following   data   collection   through   antconc,   i   chose   fairclough’s   framework   for   cda.   cda   is   a   derivative   of   critical   theory,   which   is   any   theory   concerned  with   the   critique   of   ideology   and   domination.   fairclough’s  approach   to  cda  reflects  an  examination  of   the  power  behind  discourse,  not   just   the  power   in   discourse.  there  are  two  main  assumptions  of  cda:  language  is  a  social  event  that  is  related  to  the  speaker’s   selection   of   vocabulary   and   grammar   that   is   “principled   and   systematic”   (fowler,   hodge,   kress,   &   trew,   1979),  and  the  purpose  of  cda  is  to  make  clear  the  opaque  linguistic  elements  that  lead  to  or  protect  unequal   distributions  of  power   (wodak  &  meyer,  2001)   to  ultimately   change   the  existing   social   reality   (fairclough,   2015).     my  study  relied  on  two  stages  of  cda  known  as  description  and  interpretation.  description  entails  a   linguistic  uncovering  of  the  text  and  regards  the  grammar  and  vocabulary  present  as  choices  from  among  the   options  available  depending  on  the  genre.  to  interpret  the  features  of  the  text,  it  is  important  to  realize  what   other  ways  meaning  could  have  been  made  morphologically  or  grammatically.  interpretations  are  generated   by  what   is   in   the   text   (description)   and  what   is   “in”   the   interpreter   in   addition   to   the   sometime   religious,   sociopolitical,   and   historical   powers   of   the   society   in   which   the   discourse   is   being   produced   (fairclough,   2015).       4.4.  visual  analysis   many  previous  studies  that   included  visual  analysis  relied  on  frameworks  for  analyzing  people  and   therefore   had   to   eliminate   non-­‐humans   from   their   investigations   (curaming   &   curaming,   2020;   parham,   2013).  those  that  have  attempted  to  analyze  non-­‐humans  in  the  same  way  they  analyzed  humans  have  found   that  these  methods  fall  short  (hill  &  jacobs,  2020;  yang,  2016).  however,  when  studies  relied  on  principles  of   gendered  anthropomorphism  as  an  art  sub-­‐genre,  their  analyses  were  more  relevant  in  their  findings  relative   to   their   context   (chankseliani   et   al.,   2018;   nilsen,   1971,   1977;   perea,   2018;   yarbrough,   2011).   cibos   and   hodges  (2009)  categorized  the  key  elements  necessary  to  achieve  gendered  anthropomorphism  as  anatomy,   rhythm,  mass,  facial  features,  and  functional  details.  anatomy  entails  making  curvier  lines  for  female  bodies   and   sharper   lines   for  male   bodies.   rhythm   refers   to   the   consistent   exaggeration   needed   for   those   lines   to   ensure  viewers  understand  the  maleness  and  femaleness  of  the  characters,  such  as  rounded  bellies  on  male   bears  and  elongated  torsos,  fingers,  and  toes  on  females.  mass  refers  to  the  exaggeration  of  weight  needed  to   mimic  both  animal  size  and  gender:  greater  weight  for  bears  in  general,  but  even  more  so  for  male  bears  than   for  females.  facial  features  commonly  exaggerated  to  denote  male  vs.  female  are  lips,  fuller  for  females  than   for   males.   functional   details   refer   to   coloring   and   patterns,   clothing,   and   accessories   with   suggestions   to   remove  decorative  items  like  bracelets,  earrings,  and  skirts  from  male  animals.  thus,  after  cataloguing  each   image  within  nvivo  and  annotating  it  for  traits  of  gendered  anthropomorphism,  following  cibos  and  hodges   series   of   drawing   manuals   beginning   in   2009,   i   noted   that   with   non-­‐human   characters,   clothing,   facial   features,  coloring,  and  mass/size  were  the  most  frequently  conveyed  visual  markers  for  gender  within  these   two   series.   earlier   studies   of   non-­‐humans   in   children’s   books   and   learning   materials   concluded   that   gendering   most   often   happens   through   coloring,   clothing,   physical   features,   and   postures   (burke   &   copenhaver,  2004;  hill  &  jacobs,  2020;  perea,  2018;  yang,  2016).  i  first  annotated  images  based  on  whether   the   character   was   an   animal   or   a   mythical   creature   and   whether   it   was   gendered   pictorially   and/or   linguistically  as  male  or  female.  if  an  image  contained  no  visible  gendering  (i.e.,  it  was  drawn  as  anatomically   accurate  for  the  kind  of  animal  it  represented),  i  eliminated  it  from  my  visual  analysis.  i  then  gave  each  image   a  mark  for  containing  one  of  the  traits  of  gendered  anthropomorphism,  such  as  facial  features  that  gender  the   character,  clothing/adornment,  coloring,  and  size.         analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in  u.s.  children’s  esl  textbooks e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75   61 5.  findings   5.1.  description  phase  of  linguistic  analysis   through  repeated  close  readings  of  both  series,  which  i  will  refer  to  as  benchmark  (california)  and   oowte   (texas),   i   catalogued   types,   token   appearances,   gender,   and   non-­‐human   form   of   characters   (e.g.,   robot,  dwarf),  as  well  as  short  descriptions  and  linguistic  references  and  page  numbers  for  each  occurrence.  i   then   compiled   a   table   to   demonstrate   the   linguistic   gendering   of   non-­‐human   characters   by   both   series   in   table  1.  table  1  also  shows  that  benchmark  had   far  more  stories  and  poems  about  animals  and  other  non-­‐ human  characters  than  did  oowte,  which  predominantly  featured  human  stories.     table 1 gender of non-human characters by series gender benchmark oowte male 88 15 female 28 5 non-gendered 3 0   5.1.1.  nouns  and  pronouns   linguistic  gendering  in  these  texts  was  predominantly  demonstrated  using  pronouns.  sometimes,  the   names   of   the   characters   were   helpful   in   determining   gender,   as   with   the   fairy   tinkerbell   in   a   peter   pan   retelling  in  benchmark  advance.  i  did  not  rely  solely  on  proper  nouns  for  linguistic  gendering  but  looked  for   pronouns  to  confirm.     the  ratio  of  male  to  female  non-­‐human  characters  was  quite  high  in  benchmark  at  3.14  to  1.  oowte   had  fewer  non-­‐human  characters  but  shared  a  similar  ratio  of  3:1  male  to  female.  these  findings  are  nearly   double  those  of  gooden  and  gooden  (2001)  who  examined  caldecott  and  other  notable  picture  books  from   1995-­‐1999  and  found  a  ratio  of  1.5:1,  but  on  par  with  ferguson’s  (2018)  study  of  children’s  picture  books  at   2.4:1  suggesting  that  these  textbooks  are  moving  in  the  same  direction  as  current  children’s  picture  books— more  male  centric—for  non-­‐human  gender  representation.     i  also  examined  character  types  and  found  that  male  non-­‐humans  were  more  likely  to  be  large  than   were  female  non-­‐humans  and  more  likely  to  be  aggressive  creatures  such  as  bears  and  lions.  these  findings   are  represented  in  figure  1  for  the  benchmark  series.  i  did  not  present  a  chart  for  oowte  as  it  was  almost   completely  small  animals  for  males  and  females.     figure 1. non-human gendering by size benchmark   there  were  characters  in  each  series  that  were  only  male,  such  as  dogs  and  badgers.  there  was  just   one  occurrence  total   in  both  series  of  a  fox  being  female.  non-­‐human  females  in  each  book  were  frequently   small   female,   20,  18%   small   male,  50,   46%   large   male,  29,   27%   large   female,   10,  9%   burden       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75  62 quite  small  such  as  ladybugs,  snails,  beans,  beetles,  ants,  birds,  and  fairies.  however,  there  were  female  cows,   a   giraffe,   a   dragon,   and   a   giant  within   the   two   series.   there   are   also   a   few   small  male   animals,   such   as   a   mosquito,  a  gnat,  and  a  crawfish,  although  these  small  males  each  accomplished  something  huge  using  their   size  to  their  advantage.  for  example,  the  mosquito  was  blamed  for  a  never-­‐ending  night  in  an  african  folktale   (benchmark,  grade  1  unit  6),  and  the  gnat  boasted  about  taking  down  the  king  of  beasts  in  the  retelling  of  the   aesop  tale  (benchmark,  grade  4  unit  2).  overall,  there  were  both  more  tokens  and  more  types  of  male  non-­‐ humans  than  female  non-­‐humans  (2:1)  in  both  benchmark  and  oowte,  as  shown  in  figure  2.       figure 2. non-human character types   5.1.2.  adjectives   through   an   examination   of   adjectives,   males   were   frequently   described   by   character   traits   that   emphasized  intelligence,  such  as  “clever,”  “cunning,”  “intelligent,”  and  “crafty”  as  in  “crafty  fox”  (benchmark   grade   1   unit   4   and   grade   3   unit   6),   “clever   raven”   (benchmark   grade   5   unit   8),   and   “wise   friend   fox”   (benchmark  grade  2  unit  6).  the  adjective  “little”  is  used  only  for  females.     in  oowte,  females  are  often  characterized  as  less  intelligent  than  males  as  in  “fox  and  crow”  where   the  male  fox  flatters  the  crow  through  compliments  of  her  beauty.  she  sings  for  him,  dropping  her  cheese  to   do  so.  he  then  pokes  fun  at  her  before  taking  the  cheese  and  running  away.       1)     between  bites  of  the  cheese,  the  grinning  fox  said,  “you  have  a  voice,  madam,  i  see,  but  what  you   want  is  wits.”  (oowte  kindergarten).     another  example  is  a  female  cow  in  benchmark  grade  1  who  “knew  not  how”  to  thank  the  farmer  boy   for  getting  her  home.     females  are  also  characterized  as  being  slow  in  contrast  to  their  faster  male  characters.  an  example   of  this  is  of  kate  the  country  mouse  in  “city  mouse  country  mouse”  (benchmark  grade  1)  where  kate’s  slow   quiet  life  is  too  boring  for  clyde,  the  city  mouse.  kate  does  not  like  the  speed  at  which  life  moves  in  the  city   and  returns  home,  happy  to  be  in  the  quiet  countryside.      when   females   are   able   to   accomplish   something,   this   often   surprises   the   male   characters   as   in   “tortoise  and  the  hare”  (benchmark  kindergarten),  “how  the  beetle  got  her  coat”  (benchmark  grade  2),  and   snail  in  “how  water  came  to  dry  lands”  (oowte  grade  4).  in  each  of  these  stories,  the  female  is  described  in   ways  that  emphasize  her  slowness.  tortoise  is  described  as:     2)     …plodded  along,  slowly  putting  one  foot  in  front  of  the  other  as  tortoises  do.  "i  may  be  slow,"  said   tortoise,  "but  i  always  try  hard  to  do  my  best.       the  beetle  has  this  description:       3)     “the  beetle  crawls  so  slowly,”  he  thought.  “she  can't  possibly  win!’”     snail  has  several  adjectives  to  describe  the  intensity  of  her  slowness:       male types, 11 male types, 47 female types, 5 female types, 23 0 10 20 30 40 50 oowte benchmark analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in  u.s.  children’s  esl  textbooks e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75   63 4)     snail  was  small  and  slow.   5)       the  people  watched  as  snail  went  slowly  to  the  ocean.  some  shook  their  heads  and  said,  "she's  so   small,  and  the  bottle  is  so  big!”     6)     when  snail  finally  returned,  everyone  was  asleep.  slowly,  the  exhausted  snail  climbed  the  hill  to   her  home.  she  was  so  tired  that  she  dragged  the  water  bottle  on  the  ground.     in   each   of   these   tales,   the   female   must   overcome   the   obstacle   of   slowness   with   some   other   characteristic  she  possesses:  the  tortoise  and  the  snail  are  both  determined;  the  beetle  can  fly.       5.2.  interpretation  phase  of  linguistic  analysis   5.2.1.  males  supreme  vs.  females  demeaned   these  stories  perpetuate  gender  stereotypes   that   females  are   the  weaker,   fairer  sex  as  well  as   less   intelligent  than  males.  this  has  been  a  trope  for  centuries  and  promotes  consumeristic  ideologies  of  male  and   female  worth  based  on  physical  features.  magazines  often  push  airbrushed  versions  of  super-­‐sized  males  and   wafer-­‐thin  females  onto  consumers  as  “real”  beauty,  thus  encouraging  the  sales  of  products  that  promise  this   beauty   to   the   consumer   (talbot,   2010).   females  who   appear   helpless   and   in   need   of   rescue   are   a   familiar   trope   of   femininity   as   espoused   by   jhally   (2010)   in   his   documentary   on   gender   in   advertising,   codes   of   gender.   jhally  demonstrated  how  masculinity   is   constructed   through   large  males   centering   themselves  and   directing   their  gaze  at   the  camera,  whereas   femininity  was  constructed   through  wafer   thin   females  placing   themselves   off-­‐balance   through   postures   of   brokenness,   or   through   facial   features   that   denote   uncertainty   such   as   biting   the   lip   or   laughing   hysterically   with   face   upturned.   these   images   construct   the   tropes   of   masculinity   and   femininity   that   sell   products   and   promote   hegemonic  masculinity   as   a   social   norm.   these   descriptions  of  masculine  and  feminine  non-­‐humans  act  in  a  similar  nature,  emphasizing  what  hegemonic  and   indeed  toxic  masculinity  supports  in  male  and  female  physique  and  behavior.  an  additional  note  to  remember   about  these  images  is  that  they  were  drawn  for  these  textbooks,  not  taken  from  the  original  sources  such  as   aesop’s  tales.  these  images  were  drawn  in  the  21st  century  for  texts  published  in  2014  and  2018.  so,  while   words  may   reflect   older   ideologies   or   ideologies   from   other   cultures,   the   illustrators   had   options   to   draw   characters   anatomically   correct   and   to   avoid   these   linkages.   while   the   exact   consumeristic   ideologies   expressed  here  have  not  been  reported  in  efl  contexts,  chankseliani  et  al.  (2018)  claimed  that  non-­‐humans   emphasized  ideologies  of  nationhood  and  traditional  femininity  for  the  kazakhi  context.  therefore,  it  appears   that,  as  the  u.s.  is  a  highly  consumeristic  society,  the  ideologies  emphasized  by  these  non-­‐humans  are  in  line   with  priorities  of  the  capitalist  government  in  which  the  texts  are  created.     additionally,   adjectives   that   consistently   place  male   non-­‐humans   as   intelligent   by   nature   continue   the  stereotype  that  male=smart  and  promote  a  dangerous  binary  that  “others”  females  or  discourages  female   readers   from   pursuing   traditionally  male   enterprises.   power   is   then   granted  when   discourses   present   the   dominant   forms  as   the  default   and  other  more  diverse   forms  as   “other”   (talbot,   2010).  demeaning   female   characters   through   adjectives   of   diminutive   size   and   intellect   are   part   of   a   traditional   male   supremacist   ideology  linking  masculinity  with  achievement  and  femininity  with  physical  appearance.  interestingly,  in  the   kazakhi  context,  while  females  were  also  seen  as  small  and  males  as  large,  adjectives  tended  to  paint  females   as  sly  and  dishonest  and  males  as  unintelligent  (chankseliani  et  al.,  2018).  in  each  example  above,  it  was  the   appearance  of  the  female  that  had  to  be  overcome  in  order  for  her  to  achieve,  whereas  the  male  appearance   was   not   questioned   but   instead  was   assumed   normative.   tortoise,   beetle,   and   snail   all   verbally   agreed   to   complete  the  physical  challenges  they  undertook  but  were  questioned  and  undermined  through  descriptions   that  depicted   them  as   incapable,   despite  what   they   claimed   to  be   able   to  do.   ignoring   the   voices  of   female   agents  and   instead   focusing  on   their  physical  or  perceived  mental   flaws  has  damaging  effects  on  society  as   evidenced  by  recent  studies  demonstrating  children  as  early  as  age  six  have  taken  up  the  stereotype  that  boys   are   smarter   than   girls   and   defer   to   them   in   classroom   situations   (bian,   leslie,   &   cimpian,   2017).   this   is,   however,  an  unfortunate  and  pervasive  issue  in  the  united  states  called  “mansplaining”  by  popular  culture,  in   which  a  woman’s   voice   is   ignored   in   favor  of   a  male  who   takes  over,   explaining,   typically   to   a   female,   in   a   condescending   or   patronizing  manner.   these   examples   qualify   as   “mansplaining”   as   the   female   voices   are   ignored,   and  male   voices   explain   to   them   using   demeaning   language  why   they   cannot   complete   the   tasks   they’ve  agreed  to  (conner,  mccauliff,  shue,  &  stamp,  2018).     burden       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75  64 5.2.2.  foregrounded  males  vs.  backgrounded  females   there  were  multiple  instances  in  these  series  where  the  female  was  backgrounded  through  linguistic   suppression   or   linguistic   backgrounding,   which   is   similar   to   findings   from   samadikhah   and   shahrokhi’s   (2015)  study  of  two  efl  series.  one  example  of  female  backgrounding  is  in  the  folktale  “how  water  came  to   dry  lands.”  here,  there  are  two  named  female  characters,  blue  bird  woman  and  snail.  blue  bird  woman  has   one  job  in  the  story,  telling  chief  deer  man  what  she  has  heard  from  the  townspeople.  he  takes  it  from  there   and  the  story  continues  and  finishes  without  her.  while  blue  bird  woman  is  one  character  type,  she  is  only   referenced  twice  in  the  tale,  and  her  presence  is  backgrounded  through  passive  verbs  and  fewer  descriptors.   she  had   the  ear  of   the  people  and  could  have  played  a   larger  role   than  what  she  was  given.   in   fact,  when   i   searched   for   the   origins   of   this  navajo   tale,   i   found   a  much   stronger   female   presence   for   this   character   in   published  folklore.  in  the  retelling  by  geri  keams  (1998),  the  character  in  charge  was  named  “first  woman”.   there  was  no  deer  man  who  took  over  when  blue  bird  woman  found  out  the  townspeople  were  grumbling   about  water.   in   fact,   the   only   blue   bird  woman   i   found   in   native   american   folklore  was  married   to   high   horse.   she   was   a   princess   in   lakota   mythology   (schell   &   woldstad,   2012).   this   suggests   an   unfortunate   homogenization   of   indigenous   peoples   by   the   writer   of   this   piece,   in   addition   to   the   unnecessary   steps   oowte   took   to   background   the   original   female   protagonist   in   its   retelling.   thompson   (1990)   calls   this   “concealing,”   which   is   when   a   text   disguises   or   hides   the   working   of   power   through   hiding   some   of   the   information  and   telling  only  half-­‐truths.   in   the  lakota  myth   told  by  schell   and  woldstad   (2012),  blue  bird   woman  has  significantly  more  power  than  she  is  allocated  in  the  oowte  textbook.  additionally,  in  the  keams   retelling  (1998),  first  woman  is  the  chief  and  snail  is  called  “snail  girl,”  and  her  image  is  quite  magnificently   drawn  (see  figure  3  for  comparison  between  the  oowte  image  and  the  image  in  keams  [1998]).  however,  in   the  oowte  retelling,  her  gender  is  only  obtained  through  pronouns  that  are  used  to  describe  her.  finally,  the   titles   are   quite   different.   in   the   oowte   title   “how  water   came   to  dry   lands”,   the   passive   voice   is   used— “water  came.”  this  acts   to  suppress   the  actions  of  snail  who   is   the  one  responsible   for  bringing  water.  the   retelling   by   keams   is   titled   “snail   girl   brings   water,”   which   puts   the   female   protagonist   in   first   position   within  the  title  and  gives  the  title  active  voice,  with  snail  girl  taking  the  action  upon  the  water.         figure 3. “snail” (oowte) vs. “snail girl” (keams, 1998) within   benchmark’s   grade   2   unit   2,   the   folktale,   “rough-­‐faced   girl”   propels   a   non-­‐human   male,   warrior   named   invisible   one,   to   the   foreground,   which   conflicts   with   other   retellings.   through   a   hasty   promise  from  an  invisible  yet  still  somehow  handsome  warrior,   invisible  one,  that  whoever  can  see  him  he   will  marry,  a  man’s  rough-­‐faced  daughter  makes  an  unlikely  match.  in  the  textbook  retelling,  the  father  and   the  invisible  one  negotiate  the  marriage  agreement,  and  rough-­‐faced  girl  does  not  speak.  not  only  does  her   value  come  from  her  appearance  and  her  marriage,  but  this  story  also  removes  the  female  character’s  agency   and  choice  by  excluding  her  voice  in  the  marriage  arrangement.  it  is  assumed  that  the  female  character  will   be  better  off  married  to  the  handsome  invisible  being,  and  that  she  needs  no  say  in  the  matter.  these  stories   continue  to  reflect  a  sexist  and  patriarchal  ideology  through  the  hidden  curriculum,  which  links  achievement   to  masculinity  and  physical  appearance  to  femininity.     analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in  u.s.  children’s  esl  textbooks e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75   65 i  discovered  the  origins  of  “rough-­‐faced  girl”  and  realized  the  depth  at  which  this  tale  was  altered  by   the  writers  of  this  series.  rafe  martin,  an  award-­‐winning  storyteller  who  has  been  a  keynote  speaker  at  myth,   folklore,   and   storytelling   conferences   internationally   wrote   rough-­‐faced   girl   from   his   studies   of   the   algonquin  peoples  and  their  story  of  the  female  mystic  on  the  shores  of  lake  ontario  (martin,  2011).  in  his   telling,  the  focus  is  on  rough  faced  girl’s   inner  character,  not  her  appearance,  with  little  space  given  to  the   invisible  one.  it  was  she  who  sought  the  marriage  alliance  with  the  warrior,  not  her  father,  showing  agency   and  choice  for  the  female  protagonist.  it  was  also  the  invisible  one’s  sister  who  negotiated  the  marriage,  not   the   invisible  one  himself,   further  demonstrating  how   the   textbook  version  chose   to  propel   the  non-­‐human   male  into  the  foreground.  in  fact,  sister  and  rough-­‐faced  girl  have  far  more  lines  than  invisible  one.  these   two  women  dominate  martin’s  (1992)  retelling.     interestingly,  the  alongonquin  tale  has  a  family  of  three  sisters,  but  benchmark’s  version  eliminates   one  sister.  so,  through  eliminating  one  female  character,  diminishing  the  autonomous  voice  of  rough-­‐faced   girl   and  sister   and  giving   greater   voice   to   the   invisible  one,   purposeful   steps  were   taken  by   the   author   to   diminsh   and   exclude   females   from   the   text   about   a   female   mystic   while   simultaneously   propelling   the   invisible   one   to   the   foreground,   further   promoting   patriarchal   ideas   about   the   need   for  males   to   care   for   females.   additionally,   this   misleading   retelling   of   these   indigenous   folktales   falsely   implies   an   offensive   eurocentric   view   on   masculinity   and   femininity   that   was   not   present   in   the   original   while   presenting   indigenous  peoples  as  homogenous.       5.2.3.  males  go  out  vs.  females  stay  in   there  are  multiple  verb  examples  that  demonstrate  the  adventurous  nature  of  males,  which  is  often   contrasted  by  the  more  quiet,  complacent  nature  of  females.  from  a  male  dog  following  his  owner  to  school   (benchmark  k),  pigs  leaving  home  to  build  their  own  homes  (benchmark  k)  to  millie  the  female  goat  happily   waiting  on  the  children  to  come  to  her  pasture  to  play  (benchmark  k),  and  city  mouse  country  mouse,  where   kate  country  mouse  is  content  to  stay  home  while  her  male  city  cousin  lives  an  adventurous  life,  the  reader   frequently   notices   females   going   home   or   staying   home.   for   instance,   in   benchmark   k,   mother   fox  waits   patiently   at   home   for   her   son   to   go   to   the   hen’s   coop   and   grab   her   for   dinner.   there   were   36   readings   featuring  a  male  non-­‐human  going  out,  a  female  non-­‐human  staying  home,  or  both  out  of  64  non-­‐human  tales.   these  findings  are  like  mcgrabe  et  al.’s  (2011)  study,  which  found  female  parents  in  children’s  picture  books   were  more  likely  to  be  within  the  home,  caregiving.  crisp  and  hiller  (2011)  found  that  males  in  their  study   did   more   interesting   activities   than   females,   which   is   also   like   this   esl   context.   this   pattern   constructs   females  as  inactive  and  peripheral,  with  less  agency  than  males.  i  found  that  there  were  more  verbs  and  more   concrete  action  verbs  collocated  with  males  than  females.  verbs  collocating  with  male  characters  tended  to  be   highly  active,  and  males  contained  a  greater  variety  of  action  verbs   than   females.  female  actions   tended  to   exist  within  the  home  and  were  related  to  domestic  arts.  this  pushes  the  ideology  of  gender  essentialism,  an   ideology   present   in   the   post   industrial   revolution  america   and   proliferated   in   the   contemporary   christian   church.   popular   christian   authors   such   as   nancy   lee   demoss   tout   this   as   biblical   and   therefore   rational,   which  normalizes  this  ideology  in  modern  christian  families.  ironically,  demoss  describes  this  ideology  in  her   book  lies  women   believe   and   the   truth   that   sets   them   free,   where   she   claims   that   god  wired  men   to   be   providers   and   protectors,   who   are   therefore   not   well   suited   to   childcare   and   homemaking,   and   that   god   wired   women   for   nurturing   and   emotional   support,   making   them   perfect   for   childcare   and   homemaking   (wolgemoth,  2018).  thus,  heteronormative  waspish  (white  anglo-­‐saxon  protestant)  values  are  perpetuated   in   these   texts   through   verb   use   and   non-­‐human   gender   roles.   these   ideologies   have   kept   women   under   employed  and  underpaid  since  the  industrial  revolution  and  are  used  to  rationalize  discrimination  and  the   gender  pay  gap  (beaty,  2017).     5.3.  description  phase  of  visual  analysis   in   benchmark   advance   california,   44   animals   and   34   mythical   creatures   were   visually   gendered   through  gendered  anthropomorphism,  meaning  that  78  characters  were  visually  gendered  in  this  series  in  at   least  one  of  the  four  categories  of  gendered  anthropomorphism  studied  (see  table  2).  this  means  that  67%  of   characters  who  were   linguistically   gendered  were  also  visually  gendered   in   some  way.  there  were   several   images   of   characters   in   this   series   that   were   either   photographed   or   drawn   as   completely   anatomically   correct   so   there  were  no   traces   of   gendering,  which   explains   the  difference  between   images   and   linguistic   references.  sixty-­‐two  percent  of   linguistically  male  characters  were  also  pictorially  gendered,  while  82%  of   linguistically  female  characters  were  also  pictorially  gendered.  this  may  point  to  the  use  of  the  generic  “he”   burden       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75  66 for  animals  within  this  series.  additionally,  this  may  point  to  a  more  purposeful  use  of  the  pronoun  “she”  or  of   female  proper  nouns  and  purposeful  use  of  female  traits  in  illustrations.       table 2 benchmark gendering of non-human characters gendering type male female totals linguistic 88 28 116 pictorial 55 23 78   in  oowte,  14  animals  and  13  mythical  creatures  were  visually  gendered,  for  a  total  of  27  (see  table   3).  81%  of  non-­‐human  characters  were  both  linguistically  and  visually  gendered.  this  shows  that  characters   were  more  often  visually  gendered  than  linguistically  gendered.  one  reason  for  this  is  that  some  characters   went  unnamed  or  undescribed  but  were  pictured   in   the  stories.  within  oowte,  non-­‐human  gendering  was   done  both  linguistically  and  visually  at  about  the  same  rate,  but  there  was  additional  gendering  that  occurs   through  the  illustrations  only.  as  there  were  far  fewer  gendered  non-­‐human  characters  in  oowte,  less  firm   conclusions  can  be  drawn  about  visual  representation  overall.       table 3 oowte gendering of non-human characters gendering type male female totals linguistic 16 6 22 pictorial 20 7 27   5.3.1.  definition  of  terms  for  visual  analysis   following   cibos   and   hodges’s   (2009)   instructions   on   gendered   anthropomorphism,   i   noted   four   features  consistently  evident  in  these  series.  first,  adornment  is  any  form  of  accessory  or  article  of  clothing   worn  by  the  character.  anthropomorphic  characters  are  most  often  clothed  to  represent  stereotypical  dress   codes  for  male  and  female  humans.  secondly,  according  to  cibos  and  hodges  and  much  of  children’s  picture   book  illustration  research,  male  non-­‐humans  are  larger  than  females  of  the  same  species.  they  also  point  to   greater   curving   lines   in   shape   for   female   anthropomorphized   characters.   thus,   size   and   shape   refer   to   the   curves  or  lack  thereof,  using  anatomical  renderings  as  a  baseline,  as  well  as  comparative  size  of  each  gender   of  character  by  species.  third,  i  examined  the  colors  used  on  clothing,  skin,  and  fur,  referring  to  stereotypes   regarding  pastels  for  females  and  primary  colors  for  males.  finally,  gendered  facial  features  included  rounded   “doe”   eyes   for   females   versus   the  more   simplistic   black   dot   eyes   that   are   norm   in   cartoon   styling   of   non-­‐ humans,  particularly  animals.  additionally,   full   lips,  use  of  make-­‐up  (rouge,  eye  shadow,  eye   liner,  mascara,   and   lipstick),   and   fuller   cheekbones   characterized   female   facial   features.   tables   4   and   5   summarize   the   occurrences  of  each  these  features  of  visual  gendering  for  males  and  females,  divided  by  series.     table 4 benchmark visual gendering by category gender adornment size/shape coloring facial features male 39 13 9 21 female 11 9 4 11 totals 50 22 13 32 table 5 oowte visual gendering by category gender adornment size/shape coloring facial features male 6 5 3 1 female 2 3 2 2 totals 8 8 5 3 analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in  u.s.  children’s  esl  textbooks e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75   67 5.4.  interpretation  phase  of  visual  analysis   5.4.1.  adornment   as  shown  in  tables  4  and  5,  adornment  was  the  most  common  way  illustrators  gendered  non-­‐human   characters,  which  aligns  with  studies   from  efl  contexts  (chankseliani  et  al.,  2018;  sunderland,  2010;  yang,   2016).  females  were  gendered  through  facial  features  or  through  adornment  in  equal  occurrences  (11  times).   males  tended  to  have  few  human  additions,  while  the  few  female  creatures  were  likely  to  contain  more  than   one  marker.  figure  4  demonstrates  this  phenomenon,  as  the  fox  has  no  discernable  male  or  female  features,   but  his  mother  has  what  appears  to  be  eyeliner  on  her  eyes,  a  roller  in  her  “hair,”  and  a  blue  apron  tied  on.   otherwise,  she  is  drawn  the  same  as  the  male  fox.         figure 4. benchmark. grade 1 unit 4, “the fox and the little red hen”   female  characters  in  domestic  clothing  also  insinuate  gender  essentialism,  supporting  the  language   in   this   series   that   a  woman’s  place   is   in   the  home.  this   is   in   line  with  visual   analyses   in   children’s  picture   books   in   the   1970’s,   where   nilsen   noted   the   phenomenon   of   the   apron   on   every   woman,   and   from   the   kazakhi  context  of  chankseliani  et  al.’s  (2018)  efl  study.  figure  5  demonstrates  how  adornment  was  used  to   gender  the  characters  who  are  supposed  to  be  the  different  tastes—sweet,  salty,  tangy,  and  spicy.  the  female   characters   had   stereotypical   female   hairstyles—pigtails   for   the   female   child   and   a   beehive   hairdo   for   the   adult   female.   and   like   the   fox   in   figure   4,   the   female   in   figure   5   also   wears   make-­‐up.   this   time,   she   is   wearing  lipstick.  further,  cat-­‐eyeglasses  and  a  dress  adorn  the  female  adult,  while  the  female  child  also  wears   a  dress.  the  adult  male  is  dressed  in  a  collared  button  up  shirt,  suggesting  white  collar  work  attire.  these  are   not  only  gendered  clothing  and  accessories,  but  dated  as  well,  harkening  back  to  1950’s  united  states,  where   2  out  of  3  women  worked  within  the  home.         figure 5. oowte, grade 4 unit 8, “chef jeff’s nose”   5.4.2.  size  and  coloring   illustrators   and   photographers   commonly   used   size   to   make   a   character   masculine.   female   characters  were  sometimes  drawn  smaller  than  male  characters  in  the  same  image  and  of  the  same  character   burden       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75  68 type.  one  example  is  the  giant  in  “molly  whuppie”  where  the  giant  is  huge,  but  “his  wife”—the  only  name  she   is  ever  given—appears  average  height  (figure  6).         figure 6. benchmark, grade 4 unit 6, “molly whuppie” size  and  coloring  were  used  in  this  series,  though  not  to  the  extent  of  adornment  or  facial  features.   when  coloring  did  occur,  it  accompanied  adornment  such  as  a  pink  dress  for  a  female  bear  or  a  blue  pair  of   overalls  for  a  male  rabbit,  such  as  the  one  in  figure  7  from  benchmark  grade  4  unit  6.  while  the  pink/blue   dichotomy   was   not   exclusively   used   to   gender   (see   figure   4   for   a   female   in   blue),   blue,   brown,   and   red   clothing  were  used  9  times  for  males,  while  and  pinks  and  purples  were  used  4  times  for  females.  this  is  an   interesting   difference   from   yang’s   (2016)   study   of   coloring   in   an   efl   context,   in   which   color   was   not   a   significant  marker  of  non-­‐human  gender   in   the   series  analyzed.  the   “pink   is   for  girls,  blue   is   for  boys”   is  a   strict  and  socially  constructed  gender  norm  and  marketing  ploy  promoting  “gender  normal”  products  starting   with  the  1980’s  as  a  reaction  to  the  second  wave  feminist  movement,  pushing  back  on  their  goals  of  gender   equality.   thus,   these   texts   support   a   heteronormative   ideology   of   gender-­‐color   associations   (wolchover,   2012).       figure 7. benchmark, grade 4 unit 6, “rabbit and coyote” one   important   instance  of  gendering   for  adornment  and  coloring  was  a  comic  about  a  dog  and  cat   fight   in   the  oowte   kindergarten   text   (figure   7).   the  male   dog  was   colored   shades   of   brown,   and   the   cat   shades  of  lavender.  so,  while  a  reader  might  judge  the  dog  anatomically  correctly  colored  for  any  dog,  the  cat   was  overtly  femininized  in  appearance.  it  shifts  the  balance  away  from  their  species  and  onto  their  gender  in   a  superfluous  manner,  which  is  what  thompson  (1990)  calls  “fragmenting”  or  separating  agents  (in  this  case   animals)   to   divide   and   rule.   the   illustrator   emphasizes   the   sex   differences   between   the   characters   analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in  u.s.  children’s  esl  textbooks e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75   69 unnecessarily   to   split   them   into   different   groups.   this   shift   takes   the   “cat   fight”   out   of   an   animal-­‐based   scenario   and   insinuates   that   the   cat   fight   is   a   female   behavior,   thus  perpetuating   the   stereotype   of   the   cat   fight   as   a   “sexy,   ineffective,   and   amusing”   characteristic   of   women   (reinke,   2010,   p.   163).   this   is   also   a   phenomenon   described   by   pakuła,   pawelczyk,   and   sunderland   (2015)   as   “multimodal   disambiguation,”   or   when  the  gender  or  sexuality  of  the  characters  is  not  integral  to  the  story,  but  either  the  linguistic  or  visual   mode  genders  or  sexualizes  the  characters.       figure 8. oowte, kindergarten unit 5, “mack’s bad day” interestingly,   the   cat   is   never  named,   but   is  made   linguistically   female   through   the  pronoun   “she.”   however,  the  dog  is  given  the  name  “mack”  in  addition  to  being  gendered  with  the  pronoun  “he.”  naming  the   male   gives   him   more   power   than   the   unnamed   female,   as   named   characters   are   more   often   principal   characters  while  unnamed  characters  play  peripheral  roles.  the  very  existence  of  this  tale,  with  a  male  dog   and  female  cat  is  quite  stereotypical.  women  are  often  compared  to  cats  in  fiction  stories  historically  (biggle,   1900;   earl,   1895).   st.   george   jackson  mivart,   author   of  the  cat:   an   introduction   to   the   study   of   backboned   animals,  especially  mammals  (1881)  theorized  that  these  connections  are  made  because:       the   cat   also   is   favoured  by   that  half  of   the  human  race  which   is   the  more   concerned  with   domestic  cares;  for  it  is  a  home-­‐loving  animal  and  one  exceptionally  clean  and  orderly  in  its   habits,  and  thus  naturally  commends  itself  to  the  good  will  of  the  thrifty  housewife.  (p.  1)       mivart   highlighted   the   connection   to   historical   notions   of   femininity   such   as   cleanliness   and   domesticity.   others   claim   the   link   is   because   cats   are   sensitive   creatures   and   frightened   by   harsh   treatment—again   stereotypically  like  historical  representations  of  females.     the  premise  of  the  text  itself  is  somewhat  problematic  in  that  it  was  created  in  2014  for  an  audience   through   2022   yet   refers   to   stereotypes   about   females   from   the   19th   and   20th   century,   going   so   far   as   to   highlight  the  femaleness  of  the  cat  through  coloring,  eye  shape,  and  adornment.  the  dog’s  collar  is  red,  while   her  collar   is  pink,  making  them  adorned   in  masculine  and  feminine  colors,  respectively.  along  with  naming   the   male,   these   strategies   work   together   to   give   the   male   character   dominance   in   the   story,   despite   the   aggressive   behavior   of   the   female.   this   follows   de   beauvoir’s   (1949)   hegelian   approach   to   the   historical   othering  of  women.  de  beauvoir  made  sense  of  this  “othering”  by  claiming  that  males  were  dependent  on  the   female’s   inferiority  for  their  status  and  power.  in  this  cartoon,  the  male  dog  gains  status  using  coloring  and   naming  over  the  unnamed  female  cat.       5.4.3.  facial  features   the   most   common   way   gender   was   conveyed   in   non-­‐human   faces   was   through   eye   shape   or   lip   shape.  female  animals  often  had  slanted,  alluring  eyes  with  long  curled  eyelashes  while  male  animals  did  not   have  eyelashes,  or  they  were  not  apparent.  non-­‐gendered  eyes  were  round  and  cartoonish.  see  figure  9  for  a   side-­‐by-­‐side   comparison   of   eye   shape   between   a   female   and   male   animal.   exaggerated   eye   lashes   are   a   popular   trope   of   femininity   in   characters   that   harkens   back   to   the   days   of   roman   naturalist   pliny   the   younger,  who  alleged  that  long  eye  lashes  were  a  sign  of  female  chastity—that  she  lost  them  after  having  sex.   thus,  the  equating  of  chaste  femininity  with  exaggerated  eye  lashes  has  been  reproduced  and  sexualized  for   burden       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75  70 centuries   not   just   in   cartoons,   but   in   fine   art   and   poetry   as   well   (olson,   2009).   in   figure   9,   the   text   uses   stereotypically   masculine   adjectives,   “big”   and   “long,”   but   creates   a   feminine   slant   and   long   lashes   to   the   character’s   eyes,   in   addition   to   a   full   lip   with   pinkish   red   coloring.   this   is   noticeably   absent   in   the   male   penguin  next  to  her.  stereotypically  masculine  features,  such  as  a  five  o’clock  shadow  are  absent.  he  is  drawn   in  a  more  simplistic  cartoonish  style.     figure 9. oowte, kindergarten unit 2, “big race”   i  found  this  to  be  true  consistently  within  both  series.  females  were  given  extra  artistic  development   to  ensure  their  gender  was  apparent  visually,  but  male  characters  were  not.   it   is  simply  assumed  then  that   male  is  the  unmarked  animal  norm,  and  female  is  marked,  or  othered,  in  multiple  ways.  lee  described  this  as   one  form  of  linguistic  sexism  known  as  “male  as  norm”  ideology  (2015).  butler  (1999)  described  othering  as   one  type  of  normative  violence  wherein  the  male  subject  is  signified  and  the  female  subject  is  marked  “off.”   this   is  a  common  strategy  employed  by   illustrators   in   these  series:   to  assume  a  non-­‐human   is  male  unless   drawn  with  female  stereotypical  add-­‐ons.   fifty-­‐six  percent  of  non-­‐human  characters  with  female  gender  markings  had  more  than  one  gender   marker   in   the  benchmark   series.   thirty-­‐four  percent   of   non-­‐human   characters  with  male   gender  markings   had  more  than  one  gender  marker.  this  affirms  the  hypothesis  that  in  this  series,  non-­‐humans  are  presumed   to   be  male  more   often   unless   add-­‐ons   are   drawn   to   give   female   characteristics.   fewer  markers   lessen   the   intensity   of   visual   gendering.   in   this   series   however,   visual   gendering  was   done   in   a   way   that   gave  more   power   to   male   characters,   such   as   through   adornment   for   a   white-­‐collar   worker   and   a   larger   size   than   females,  such  as  in  the  drawing  in  figure  5.  figure  5  shows  that  it  is  the  male  who  does  the  talking  through  a   speech  bubble.  he  is  drawn  larger  and  in  workwear.  these  characteristics  give  him  status  in  the  image.  the   mother  is  colored  purple  and  put  in  a  dress  and  heels,  with  long  lashes  peering  over  her  cat-­‐eye  glasses.  her   head   also   appears   to   be   sporting   a   beehive   hairdo   of   the   1960’s.   she   is   drawn   smaller   than   the  male,   but   larger   than   the   male   and   female   children.   even   her   name   “sweet”   is   a   common   pet-­‐name   for   females   in   society  that  feminists  have  tried  to  squash  from  our  vocabulary  as  it  often  accompanies  a  justification  of  male   privileges  as  this  very  image  suggests  (talbot,  2010).   what  is  perhaps  the  most  important  discovery  was  the  prevalence  of  visual  othering  that  takes  place   with  non-­‐human   characters   in   these  widely   read   textbooks.   yabroff   (2016)  noted   that  scholastic   and   time   magazine   top  100   children’s   books  often  had  neuter   illustrations  but   linguistic   gendering.  the   same   is   not   true   for   these   12   texts.   characters   who   are   drawn   neuter   are   assumed  male   as   gendering   happens  more   intensely  with   females,   effectively   othering   them.   in   the   image   analysis   of   gendered  non-­‐humans,   this  was   accomplished  visually.       6.  implications  and  conclusion   this  study  uses  several  new  perspectives   in  analyzing  esl  textbooks  made   in   the  united  states   for   u.s.   public   schools   through   linguistic   analysis   of   gender   representation   of   non-­‐humans,   followed   by   an   analysis   of   the   visuals   in   language   textbooks.   instead   of   simple   frequency   counts   of  male   and   female   non-­‐ humans  or  a  relaying  of  the  activities  they  engaged  in  visually,  this  study  analyzed  how  gender  is  represented   analysis  of  non-­‐humans  in  u.s.  children’s  esl  textbooks e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75   71 via  the  language  of  the  texts  and  how  gender  is  visualized  in  illustrations  of  non-­‐humans.  gender  stereotyping   was   prominent   in   illustrations   through   various   gendered   anthropomorphic   strategies:   facial   features,   adornment,   coloring,   and   size.   linguistic   analysis   supported   the   visuals   in  many   respects   as  well,   such   as   descriptive  adjectives  that  construct  male  characters  as  larger,  stronger,  and  more  intelligent  and  females  as   smaller,  weaker,  and  less  intelligent.     as  the  descriptions  and  interpretations  indicate,  these  textbooks  are  continuing  outdated  ideologies   of   male   supremacy,   gender   essentialism,   and   heteronormativity   using   the   socio-­‐political   mechanisms   of   patriarchy.  these  images  were  drawn  to  create  an  understanding  of  the  texts,  thus  their  agreement  visually   and  linguistically.  they  are  also  drawn  for  individuals  to  relate  to  the  images  through  their  anthropomorphic   features.  however,  recent  research  demonstrates  that  readers  do  relate  to  ambiguously  drawn  non-­‐humans   and   that  multimodal   disambiguation   is   unnecessary   (hill   &   jacobs,   2020).   these   texts   create   unnecessary   binaries  for  gender  norms,  behaviors,  and  roles.  so,  though  i  believe  the  intent  was  to  create  characters  that   were  relatable  and  that  aligned  with  the  text  to  support  comprehension  and  for  language  learning  purposes,   the  texts  and  images  herd  children  into  distinct  binaries  and  may  ostracize  or  intimidate  readers  who  do  not   naturally  fit  into  these  strict  categories.  additionally,  perpetuating  outdated  gender  roles  through  non-­‐human   characters—who  have  demonstrated  to  be  effective  marketing  tools—continues  to  harm  society  as  a  whole.   these   ideologies   are   outdated   and   permit   a   hidden   curriculum   of   male   supremacy.   in   a   post-­‐ industrialized   society,   the   notion   that   physical   size   makes   one   more   powerful   is   no   longer   true   when   confronted   with   the   true   power   of   machines   and   computers,   which   can   be   created   and   run   by   anyone.   secondly,  the  ideology  of  male  supremacy  through  intelligence  is  not  accurate  despite  its  proliferation  here.   in  2018,  women  made  up  56%  of  college  attendees.  in  2017,  53%  of  phds  were  earned  by  women  (mccarthy,   2018).  the   texts  promote  discourses  of   traditional  masculinity  and  consumeristic   ideologies  of  beauty   that   continue   an   institutionalized   political-­‐social   system  of  male   dominance   by   presenting   these   stereotypes   as   natural  and  therefore  immutable.  critical  theorist  janks  (2014)  wrote:  “there  is  a  great  deal  at  stake  in  how   we   decide   what   is   and   is   not   part   of   nature”   (p.   154).   naturalization   is   one   of   thompson’s   modes   of   operations  of   ideology.   if  a  society  names  something  as  natural,   then  we  think   it   is  unchangeable,  absolute,   and  there  is  no  need  for  further  action.  this  leads  us  to  draw  conclusions  based  on  cultural  beliefs,  not  facts.   when   comparing   these   findings  with   studies   in   efl   contexts,   these   sources   are  more   in   line  with   historical   studies   from  the  1980’s  and   from  efl  contexts   in  eastern  europe  now  but  hold  more   traditional   patriarchal   ideologies  when   compared   to   texts   in   an   asian   context   (lee,   2014;   lee   &   collins,   2015;   yang,   2016).  the  united  states  has  more  work  to  do  to  catch  up  to  the  advances  being  made  in  these  nations.  when   comparing  results  with  children’s  literature  books,  the  findings  in  these  esl  texts  are  unfortunately  similar  in   simple  counts  of  male  and  female  non-­‐humans,  activities,  and  gender  roles  to  those  caldecott  award-­‐winning   books  from  the  last  century  and  into  current  day  (ferguson,  2018;  gooden  &  gooden,  2001;  mcgrabe  et  al.,   2011).  there  are  stories  in  each  series  of  this  study  that  are  adapted  from  caldecott  winner  picture  books  or   from  classic  fables  and  fairy  tales  to  be  suitable  for  various  levels  of  esl  instruction.  thus,  it  is  not  completely   surprising   to   find   these   similarities   exist.   yet,   as   evidenced   in   this   study,   there   are   original   works   and   adaptations  of  folktales  that  are  altered  to  fit  the  patriarchal  hegemony  of  u.s.  culture.     educators   can   respond   to   these   texts   through   critical   literacy,   having   conversations  with   students   that   promote   critical   consciousness   and   language   acquisition.   teachers   should   use   ambiguously   gendered   protagonists   from   children’s   literature   to   get   at   the   deeper   meanings   of   gender   and   performance   while   challenging  the  naturalness  of  the  textbook  readings.  research  notes  that  without  proper  teacher  training  on   how  to  recognize  gender  bias,  many  teachers  will  miss   it.  sadker  (2000),  a   teacher   trainer,   researcher,  and   author,   described   how   each   time   he   begins   a   teacher-­‐training   workshop,   he   is   reminded   of   the   “gender   blindness”  most  educators  have.  a  specific  recommendation  for  raising  teacher  consciousness  of  gender  bias   is  through  training  teachers  to  examine  their  own  textbooks  for  gender  bias  through  linguistic  principles  of   discourse  analysis,  such  as  that  proposed  in  tesol  connections  (burden,  2020).  with  additional  training  on   identifying   and   responding   to   bias,   teachers   who   may   not   have   complete   control   over   the   texts   in   their   classrooms  can  create  a  space  for  critical  discussions  and  reflections  while  keeping  the  current  series  in  the   curriculum.   simultaneously,   more   endeavors   to   create   a   progressive   curriculum   employing   critical   pedagogies   should   be   undertaken   in   conference   with   publishers   so   that   future   editions   of   these   texts   demonstrate  marked  improvements  in  these  areas.           burden       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  53–75  72 7.  limitations  and  future  research   there  were  several   limitations  to  this  study  that  should  be  examined  in  future  research  endeavors.   first,  this  study  examined  kindergarten  through  fifth  grade  textbooks,  while  middle  and  high  school  english   language  development  texts  were  excluded.  i  focused  only  on  printed  words  and  images,  but  many  textbooks   now   include   listening   prompts   on   a   cd   or   mp3   that   would   provide   another   layer   of   linguistic   study   and   potential   influence   on   the   learner's   reception   of   gender  messaging.   in   addition,   i   decided   to   only   examine   texts  that  contained  instructions  to  the  student  for  language  production  but  examining  texts  without  explicit   instructions   to  produce   the   language   could  be   included   for   a   fuller  picture  of   gender   representation   in   the   series.  however,  concerns  over  how  much  of  the 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girls   and   blue   for   boys?   livescience.   https://www.livescience.com/22037-­‐pink-­‐girls-­‐blue-­‐boys.html   wolgemuth,  nancy  (2018).  lies  women  believe:  and  the  truth  that  sets  them  free  (2nd  ed.)  moody.   yang,  chi  cheung  ruby  (2011).  gender  representation  in  a  hong  kong  primary  english  textbook  series:  the   relationship  between   language  planning  and   social  policy.  current   issues   in  language  planning,  12,   77–88.   yang,   chi   cheung   ruby   (2016).   are   males   and   females   still   portrayed   stereotypically?   visual   analyses   of   gender   in   tow  hong  kong  primary  english  language   textbook   series.  gender  and  education,  28(5),   674–692.   yabroff,  jennie  (2016,  january  8).  why  are  there  so  few  girls  in  children's  books?  the  washington  post.     https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/08/why-­‐are-­‐there-­‐so-­‐few-­‐girls-­‐in-­‐ childrens-­‐books/     yaghoubi-­‐notash,  massoud,  &  nouri,  zahra  (2016).  inclusion/exclusion  and  role  allocation  in  marketized  efl   syllabus:  gender  from  cda  perspective.  journal  of  language  teaching  &  research,  7(1),  110–117.   amy burden,  university of memphis amy.k.burden@gmail.com en amy burden (phd, the university of memphis; matl, the university of southern mississippi) is an adjunct professor of english at the university of memphis, where she teaches english rhetoric and composition and linguistics. she also holds an english language fellowship through the u.s. department of state at angeles university foundation, philippines, where she offers tesol courses for undergraduate and graduate programs and provides tesol workshops throughout the region. her research interests center on critical discourse analysis of gender representations in children’s reading materials and the promotion of critical literacy in tesol and english pedagogy. secondary interests include technology enhanced language learning (tell) with an emphasis on digital tools to advanced second and foreign language acquisition. es amy burden (phd, universidad de memphis; matl, universidad del sur de mississippi) es catedrática adjunta de inglés en la universidad de memphis, donde enseña retórica, composición y lingüística inglesa. también es titular de una beca de lengua inglesa a través del departamento de estado de estados unidos para la fundación universitaria de ángeles, en filipinas, donde imparte cursos de inglés como segunda lengua en los programas universitarios de grado y postgrado y ofrece talleres de inglés como segunda lengua en toda la región. sus intereses de investigación incluyen las representaciones de género en los materiales de lectura de niños a través del análisis crítico del discurso, la promoción de la alfabetización crítica en inglés como segunda lengua y la pedagogía del inglés. sus intereses secundarios incluyen el aprendizaje de lenguas a través de la tecnología con énfasis en las herramientas digitales para la adquisición avanzada de segundas lenguas y lenguas extranjeras. it amy burden (dottorato, the university of memphis; matl, the university of southern mississippi) è docente a contratto di inglese presso la university of memphis, dove insegna scrittura e retorica inglese e linguistica. è anche titolare di una borsa di studio per la lingua inglese assegnata dal dipartimento di stato americano presso la angeles university foundation nelle filippine, dove insegna inglese come lingua seconda sia nei corsi di laurea che in quelli di master e dottorato e dove organizza anche seminari sull’insegnamento dell’inglese come lingua seconda. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono la rappresentazione di genere nei materiali di lettura per ragazzi usando la metodologia dell’analisi critica del discorso, e l’alfabetizzazione critica nell’insegnamento dell’inglese come lingua seconda e nella pedagogia. gli interessi secondari includono l’apprendimento potenziato delle lingue tramite le tecnologie, con un’enfasi sugli strumenti digitali per l’apprendimento avanzato di lingue straniere. https://www.livescience.com/22037-pink-girls-blue-boys.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/08/why-are-there-so-few-girls-in-childrens-books/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/08/why-are-there-so-few-girls-in-childrens-books/ ole_link12 ole_link11 gasparetto 2022 ej e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 9, issue 2, december 2022, 55-60 issn 2376-905x https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.9.2.288 www.e-journall.org © gasparetto 2022. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. recensione: santipolo, matteo (2022), educazione e politica linguistica. teoria e pratica. bulzoni editore. federico gasparetto università per stranieri di siena book review received 15 september 2021; accepted after revisions 31 october 2022 abstract it educazione e politica linguistica. teoria e pratica analizza i vari aspetti linguistici che costituiscono la politica, la consapevolezza e l’educazione linguistica. il volume affronta questioni teoriche, analizza casi studio e presenta i risultati di due progetti attuati dal gruppo di ricerca dell’autore. l’obiettivo è di riflettere sull’importanza della consapevolezza linguistica come primo elemento per un’educazione linguistica e una politica efficaci. parole chiave: educazione linguistica, politica linguistica, consapevolezza linguistica, diritti linguistici en educazione e politica linguistica. teoria e pratica (language education and policy. theory and practice) explores the various linguistic aspects that make up language policy, awareness, and education. the volume addresses theoretical issues, analyzes case studies, and presents the results of two projects implemented by the author's research group. the aim is to reflect on the importance of language awareness as the first element for effective language education and policy. keywords: language education, language policy, language awareness, language rights es educazione e politica linguistica. teoria e pratica analiza los diversos aspectos lingüísticos que conforman la política, la conciencia y la educación lingüísticas. el volumen aborda cuestiones teóricas, analiza estudios de caso y presenta los resultados de dos proyectos implementados por el grupo de investigación del autor. el objetivo es reflexionar sobre la importancia de la conciencia lingüística como elemento principal para una educación y una política lingüísticas eficaces. palabras clave: educación lingüística, política lingüística, conciencia lingüística, derechos lingüísticos * federico gasparetto, università per stranieri di siena f.gasparetto@studenti.unistrasi.it gasparetto e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 55-60 56 il volume educazione e politica linguistica. teoria e pratica di matteo santipolo, affronta il tema della stretta relazione che intercorre tra la politica linguistica e l’educazione linguistica e le implicazioni che esse chiamano in causa. il volume espone alcuni casi studio internazionali, ma si concentra sulla situazione italiana, in particolare la regione veneto nella quale sono stati proposti progetti di educazione e pianificazione linguistica. il veneto è una regione interessante da questo punto di vista perché luogo di immigrazione, risultando così un importante laboratorio in cui sperimentare percorsi di educazione linguistica adeguati al contesto. si può suddividere l’opera in tre parti: una prima sezione che illustra concetti più teorici come l’acquisizione e la consapevolezza linguistica, il ruolo odierno nella politica linguistica, la complessità del concetto di diritto linguistico e la questione dell’identità linguistica in contesto migratorio; una seconda parte si può intravedere nei capitoli che affrontano la tematica della varietà linguistica e le sue implicazioni nell’educazione linguistica; la terza parte, infine, illustra due esempi di intervento didattico a due livelli differenti del sistema scolastico. chiude il libro un capitolo che opera una riflessione più filosofica a proposito delle implicazioni della consapevolezza plurilingue sulle scelte di politica linguistica individuale nell’ambito della produzione letteraria. il volume si apre con un’osservazione circa le molte dimensioni che assume la consapevolezza linguistica. essa ha un ruolo fondamentale nel processo di acquisizione e di conseguenza diventa importante nell’educazione linguistica intesa nel suo senso più ampio, comprendente la formazione del personale, la didattica e le metodologie e la politica linguistica in senso lato. la consapevolezza è importante anche rispetto all’identità plurilingue in quanto avere coscienza di sé e della propria identità permette di comprendere e interpretare la pluralità. anche la didattica chiama in causa la consapevolezza nella misura in cui essa dovrebbe costituire l’obiettivo primario dell’educazione linguistica; in stretta relazione con la didattica, la consapevolezza linguistica riguarda anche la competenza grammaticale se intesa come consapevolezza metalinguistica. risulta importante, nel processo di apprendimento anche la coscienza rispetto alla valutazione, che deve essere vista come un momento formativo e di crescita, eliminando la dimensione di giudizio. il percorso di educazione linguistica deve portare alla piena autonomia dell’apprendente rispetto al proprio modo di imparare; per questo motivo l’educazione linguistica deve essere vista in senso olistico, orientata cioè al pieno sviluppo umano, mantenendo al centro del suo operato la consapevolezza linguistica. il secondo capitolo analizza il ruolo della politica linguistica e i vari attori chiamati in causa da essa. la pianificazione linguistica agisce su aspetti (status e corpus) che si posizionano su due assi del linguaggio: l’asse sintagmatico e l’asse paradigmatico. lo status è l’intervento relativo alla regolamentazione normativa di diritti linguistici di un determinato gruppo e dalla promozione della stessa, in questo caso si agisce sull’asse paradigmatico; il corpus invece riguarda in particolar modo la forma e i tratti della lingua. a questo proposito, tra i vari casi riportati, può essere utile ripercorrere a titolo di esempio la scelta operata dal kazakistan. la lingua kazaka è stata scritta, durante la sua storia, in molti alfabeti diversi (arabo, latino e cirillico) legati ai vari momenti storici dal paese; nel 2017 il presidente ha chiesto al parlamento di avviare una politica volta alla sostituzione dell’alfabeto cirillico con quello latino. questa scelta top-down trova giustificazione nell’idea di rafforzare il senso di appartenenza nazionale, dare un’immagine più moderna del paese e facilitare l’acceso della popolazione alle tecnologie e alla lingua inglese. l’obiettivo non è tanto l’esclusione del russo dal repertorio plurilingue, bensì quello di consolidare una situazione già esistente. si può ipotizzare che questo tipo di operazione, sebbene si tratti soprattutto di corpus planning, probabilmente avrà ricadute anche sullo status; infatti, la distinzione tra i due campi di intervento non è netta e spesso gli interventi di pianificazione riguardano tanto lo status quanto il corpus. all’interno della pianificazione linguistica, un ruolo determinante è giocato dall’educazione linguistica: essa si basa sia sullo status sia sul corpus, ma influisce su essi e a sua volta ne viene influenzata perché le scelte relative al mondo educativo ricadono sia sui percorsi formativi del personale docente e delle nuove generazioni, sia sulla lingua stessa, mettendo in moto uno scambio reciproco tra status, corpus e acquisition planning. nel volume è ulteriormente sottolineato il ruolo di coloro che non agiscono direttamente su queste dimensioni, ma le possono ciononostante condizionare: si tratta dei promotori linguistici, i quali possono essere primari (ad esempio, per quanto riguarda l’italiano, la società dante alighieri o gli istituti italiani di cultura) o derivati (ad esempio, il gruppo rock dei måneskin). il terzo capitolo affronta la questione dei diritti e dei doveri linguistici. per tal fine, viene operata una riflessione rispetto al termine diritto, che viene definito come comprendente sia i diritti che i doveri degli individui; santipolo distingue tre tipologie di diritti linguistici rifacendosi alle definizioni di poggeschi (2010), secondo cui esistono tre tipologie di diritti linguistici. diritti di prima specie, che si riferiscono ai diritti fondamentali e della tutela della lingua dominante in un dato contesto; qualora i diritti di prima specie siano recensione: educazione e politica linguistica e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 55-60 57 molto forti, possono tramutarsi in diritti di seconda specie, ovvero al riconoscimento anche minimo dato dal fatto che esistono tutele per le minoranze. vi sono poi i diritti di terza specie rivolti al riconoscimento di diritti agli stranieri. rispetto a questi ultimi le azioni di pianificazione linguistica devono concentrarsi sul mantenimento della lingua immigrata (secondo la distinzione operata da bagna, barni, & vedovelli 2007) e sull’apprendimento della lingua ufficiale del paese, in modo tale da rispettare un diritto e mettere nelle condizioni gli individui di assolvere un dovere. rispetto a quanto detto a proposito di lingua e identità e di lingua come prodotto per antonomasia della cultura, l’autore propone di rivedere il concetto di ius culturae e trasformarlo in ius linguarum, visto come il diritto di preservare la propria lingua madre, ma allo stesso tempo il dovere e l’opportunità tutelata di apprendere la lingua del paese di arrivo, al fine di portare a termine il processo di comprensione della nuova realtà linguistica e culturale. il quarto capitolo si concentra sulla descrizione macrosociolinguistica degli immigrati in veneto. il veneto è caratterizzato da una complessa situazione sociolinguistica, nella quale si identificano repertori che vanno dall’italiano standard fino al dialetto, con presenze di lingue minoritarie storiche e recenti; proprio il dialetto risulta ancora molto usato e sembra che italiano dialetto tendano a convivere anche in contesti formali. questo fenomeno fa sì che il dialetto diventi strumento di socializzazione importante per gli immigrati, siano essi italiani trapiantati o stranieri; si possono dunque individuare due tipi di semidialettofonia (intesa come una parziale competenza in dialetto di un alloglotto): semidialettofonia primaria o di ritorno, relativa ai veneti non dialettofoni nativi e una semidialettofonia secondaria esplicitata dai non veneti. quest’ultima si può suddividere in altre due categorie, la semidialettofonia secondaria interna, caratteristica dei non veneti italofoni, e la semidialettofonia secondaria esterna, propria dei non veneti e non italofoni provenienti dall’estero. questo comportamento linguistico appare come una risposta a una necessità sociale, oltre che comunicativa: sembra che la semidialettofonia sia una scelta non solo legata a una migliore comunicazione, ma atta a ridurre la distanza tra sé e la comunità di accoglienza. di conseguenza, la realtà nella quale un immigrato si trova a vivere chiama in causa questioni tanto identitarie, quanto linguistiche. d’altra parte, la definizione stessa dell’identità è legata a stretto giro alla dimensione linguistica, ed è sulla costruzione e decostruzione dell’identità che santipolo identifica comportamenti diversi rispetto agli immigrati di prima e di seconda generazione. per ciò che concerne la prima generazione, il processo di incontro con la nuova realtà culturale provoca spesso un percorso traumatico di decostruzione e ricostruzione della propria identità, dando vita a un “limbo identitario”, come viene definito dallo stesso autore, che si esprime con una competenza linguistica insicura. in questo caso, la semidialettofonia potrebbe non significare una rimodulazione dell’identità, ma sarebbe da considerare come una strategia comunicativa. coloro che appartengono alla seconda generazione (intesa come coloro che o sono nati fuori dall’italia ma hanno raggiunto il paese prima del terzo anno di vita, o sono nati in italia da genitori stranieri) presentano una semidialettofonia più simile a quella primaria, tuttavia si possono ravvisare due aspetti che la distanziano da essa: i ragazzi di seconda generazione sono semi-italofoni per quanto riguarda la cognitive academic language proficiency (calp), ed essa è, auspicabilmente, in costante miglioramento; inoltre, per quanto riguarda l’identità sono in gioco più aspetti che rendono la loro situazione complessa e nella quale incidono fattori sia sociali che personali. per queste ragioni santipolo afferma che il mondo educativo dovrà fare fronte e rispondere alla questione identitaria posta dalle persone immigrate, pensando all’educazione linguistica come il luogo in cui considerare la lingua strumento di sviluppo e affermazione dell’identità singola e collettiva. il quinto capitolo si concentra sulla variazione dell’italiano e sul modello di lingua necessario da proporre in classe. la lingua non è un elemento monolitico, sempre uguale nel tempo e nello spazio, ma di fronte ai naturali cambiamenti si creano due schieramenti opposti: coloro che percepiscono nell’innovazione il segnale di un degrado linguistico e, inevitabilmente, sociale e coloro che si fanno promotori di tali mutamenti intravedendone un segnale di vitalità linguistica e, appunto, culturale. se il fine dell’educazione linguistica è fornire tutti gli strumenti necessari ad agire in modo libero e consapevole, una strategia possibile sembra essere quella della classi a modelli variabili (cmv) che identifica come obiettivi le esigenze comunicative degli apprendenti. il modello cmv fonda il suo funzionamento sul principio per il quale la variabilità linguistica fornisce la possibilità di scegliere tra diverse forme che si traducono in potenzialità comunicative, pragmatiche ed espressive. questo tipo di orientamento è tanto più importante se si guarda alla situazione della scuola italiana in merito al livello linguistico degli studenti, per i quali si può parlare di analfabetismo ristretto. ma proprio grazie a un’adeguata educazione linguistica il parlante può diventare capace di gestire tutti i registri e i repertori di una lingua e, quindi, capace di agire all’interno della società. il sesto capitolo mette in luce l’importanza della questione della varietà nell’ambito della glottodidattica dell’inglese. l’inglese è una lingua policentrica, il cui cambiamento è influenzato da cause gasparetto e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 55-60 58 glottoendogenetiche e glottoesogenetiche: esso è parlato non solo dai nativi, ma anche da non nativi in un rapporto dei primi rispetto ai secondi di 1 a 5. questi ultimi, oramai, hanno un ruolo preponderante nel mutamento linguistico, e ne deriva una realtà sociolinguistica molto complessa che non può più essere ignorata in un corso di inglese. di conseguenza si rende necessaria una riflessione su quale varietà insegnare ai non nativi e la questione non è di poco peso, se si considera la summenzionata dimensione globale della variazione di questa lingua. occorre ragionare sulla varietà-modello tenendo presente tutti gli elementi in gioco nella variazione: tra il continuum dei parlanti nativi e quello dei parlanti non nativi si possono distinguere tre tipologie di inglese: english, english as a lingua franca e english as an international language. in riferimento a ciascuna di esse, sarà importante lavorare sulle competenze relative alla pronuncia, al lessico, e alla cultura e pragmatica (allontanandosi da una visione statica britain-centered). a questo proposito è opportuno sensibilizzare gli insegnanti rispetto a questa realtà; se si guarda all’italia, si può notare un profilo molto variegato delle figure che insegnano la lingua straniera. infatti, solo nella scuola di i e ii grado operano docenti con competenze linguistiche e glottodidattiche, mentre nella scuola dell’infanzia e primaria si tratta di docenti che hanno un livello di lingua pari al b2 e non sempre posseggono competenze specifiche nell’insegnamento di una lingua straniera. l’autore auspica un cambiamento nella concezione della figura professionale del docente di lingua che tenga più in considerazione le competenze sociolinguistiche e glottodidattiche. il capitolo sette si concentra sull’analisi della variazione come risorsa, cercando di superare l’idea di varietà come problema. come si è potuto constatare, la variabilità linguistica solleva molte problematiche, tra cui appunto la scelta di quale varietà-modello insegnare. se da un lato sembra condivisa la scelta di proporre la varietà standard di una determinata lingua, dall’altro si pone il problema dell’efficacia comunicativa intesa in senso glottodidattico. d’altra parte, la varietà risulta difficile da gestire sia per gli insegnanti che per gli studenti. i primi possono avere poche competenze meta-sociolinguistiche o la complessità del repertorio sociolinguistico può essere un ostacolo difficile da superare, oppure ancora può risultare difficile recuperare materiale autentico e adattarlo al livello della classe; allo stesso modo gli apprendenti possono trovare troppo complessa la gestione di questi input, a un grado tale da portare a una demotivazione. si presenta dunque il problema di come la varietà possa essere presentata. a questo proposito si può pensare a un modello basato su tre concetti: coscienza, consapevolezza e competenza sociolinguistica, secondo una scala crescente di difficoltà. per quanto riguarda la l1 il grado di competenza sociolinguistica è fondamentale al fine di ottenere la piena consapevolezza nelle scelte linguistiche, mentre nel caso delle lingue straniere sarà necessario trovare un equilibrio tra obiettivi raggiungibili e obiettivi impossibili. la scuola infatti ha il compito di offrire modelli sociolinguistici formativi e spendibili nell’agire quotidiano, per perseguire questo scopo è importante che i modelli scelti rispondano davvero alle esigenze educative degli apprendenti. l’ottavo capitolo propone la questione dell’apprendimento linguistico in età precoce e della formazione del personale docente. per fare ciò porta come esempio un progetto concreto di educazione linguistica all’interno di un percorso universitario. si tratta del corso di inglese all’interno del corso di laurea in scienze dell’educazione e della formazione dell’università di padova, nella sede di rovigo. l’insegnamento dell’inglese non trovava uno spazio adeguato: le ore di insegnamento linguistico si erano ridotte nel corso degli anni e non era prevista una formazione glottodidattica; nell’anno accademico 2019/’20 è stata fatta un’operazione di ristrutturazione del corso al fine di venire incontro ai nuovi bisogni educativi degli studenti universitari. il corso è stato pertanto rimodellato con lo scopo di migliorare il livello linguistico e dare competenze di base rispetto alle metodologie e alle tecniche didattiche di una lingua straniera. inoltre, uno degli obiettivi del corso era sviluppare consapevolezza a proposito del bilinguismo precoce. il corso prevede dunque un monte ore dedicato all’approfondimento delle conoscenze di lingua inglese e una parte dedicata alla didattica. il cambiamento ha portato una maggiore partecipazione degli studenti sia in termini quantitativi che qualitativi, allo stesso modo, il rendimento finale degli studenti ha subito un incremento. nel capitolo seguente, il nono, si affronta di nuovo la questione della pianificazione linguistica in ambito educativo utilizzando la descrizione di un progetto per ragazzi di origine straniera, di prima o seconda generazione, che frequentano gli istituti tecnico-professionali nella provincia di rovigo (servie po.li.s “potenziamento della lingua dello studio” realizzato con il finanziamento del rotary club di rovigo e la collaborazione della società dante alighieri, comitato di rovigo). il progetto si poneva tre obiettivi: la sensibilizzazione delle famiglie e degli apprendenti coinvolti, il miglioramento delle competenze linguisticodisciplinari degli allievi, e la sensibilizzazione dei docenti, soprattutto delle materie scientifiche, rispetto al loro ruolo di educatori linguistici. per quanto riguarda il lavoro portato avanti con gli allievi e le allieve, gli incontri (per un totale di 30 ore) si sono concentrati sullo sviluppo della calp in modo tale da fornire loro strumenti utili per gestire la lingua in specifiche situazioni comunicative (ad es., la stesura di una relazione). per il recensione: educazione e politica linguistica e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 55-60 59 personale docente, si è scelto di organizzare un ciclo di seminari incentrati sulla glottodidattica e la lingua dello studio, con l’obiettivo di sviluppare la consapevolezza circa il loro ruolo all’interno del percorso educativolinguistico. era prevista una valutazione da parte degli insegnanti tesa a osservare un eventuale cambiamento rispetto alla partecipazione, alla consapevolezza di sé e alla gestione del lavoro in aula. è stata chiesta una valutazione simile anche ai ragazzi e da entrambe si è potuto evincere un sensibile miglioramento su tutti e tre gli aspetti. il decimo capitolo riflette sulle scelte di politica linguistica individuale nell’ambito della produzione letteraria. nel caso della letteratura, la scelta di quale lingua utilizzare per raccontare una determinata storia porta con sé risvolti di natura politica, intesa in senso lato. il bilinguismo letterario infatti può diventare a tutti gli effetti una diglossia letteraria se la discriminante della lingua da adottata risiede nella tematica scelta o nei destinatari che si vogliono raggiungere. inoltre, la letteratura contribuisce alla modificazione della varietà standard di molte lingue, agendo sia sul corpus che sullo status di una determinata lingua o varietà. di conseguenza, coloro che scelgono di scrivere in una determinata lingua possono diventare agenti del cambiamento linguistico. il volume è rivolto soprattutto a studenti e ricercatori interessati alle questioni di politica, pianificazione ed educazione linguistica; tuttavia l’impianto e la trattazione serrata ma divulgativa rendono l’opera un punto di riferimento per chiunque sia interessato alle tematiche trattate. inoltre, i dati presentati e le riflessioni operate potrebbero essere utili a chi si occupa a livello professionale di gestione di percorsi educativi a livello primario, secondario e universitario. in particolare, i capitoli riguardanti la questione della varietà-modello della lingua inglese mettono in luce problematiche reali, offrendo una riflessione che potrebbe essere utile a docenti o dirigenti scolastici. la questione della varietà e del posto che essa dovrebbe occupare nella didattica non è un tema nuovo, ma qui trova giustificazione perché viene posta, ancora una volta, nel solco delle scelte consapevoli che possono essere fatte tanto dai docenti quanto dai discenti. l’opera infatti ha il pregio di fornire una riflessione informata sull’importanza della consapevolezza linguistica e del suo profondo legame con l’educazione e la politica. pertanto, le considerazioni a proposito della varietà linguistica rilevano una dimensione importante, spesso ignorata, nelle scelte educative di un paese. le esperienze riportate sono perciò molto utili a osservare esempi concreti di un modello di educazione linguistica capace di rispondere ai bisogni di un territorio. il volume, che è una raccolta organizzata di precedenti articoli rielaborati comparsi su riviste di settore, offre contenuti stimolanti da più punti di vista e dà un sentito contributo al dibattito sulle politiche linguistiche, per il quale c’è ancora poca attenzione in italia, paese di riferimento dell’autore. la prospettiva adottata risulta originale proprio grazie alla consapevolezza linguistica, che diventa la lente attraverso cui leggere i casi studio presentati e le esperienze descritte. riferimenti bibliografici bagna, carla, barni, monica, & vedovelli, massimo (2007). italiano in contatto con lingue immigrate: nuovi modelli e metodi per il neoplurilinguismo in italia. in carlo consani & paola desideri (a cura di), minoranze lingusitiche. prospettive, strumenti, territori (pp. 270-290). carocci. poggeschi, giovanni (2010). i diritti linguistici. un’analisi comparata. carocci. gasparetto e-journall 9(2) (2022), pp. 55-60 60 federico gasparetto, università per stranieri di siena f.gasparetto@studenti.unistrasi.it it federico gasparetto è dottorando in linguistica educativa presso l’università per stranieri di siena. la sua ricerca si concentra sui fenomeni del plurilinguismo nelle scuole italiane all’estero e sulle ricadute di questi fenomeni. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono lo studio del multilinguismo nella società contemporanea, in particolare in contesti educativi e l’analisi delle politiche educative e linguistiche. è tutor didattico presso l’università telematica degli studi iul, ha esperienza come docente di scuola superiore di primo grado e come docente di italiano per stranieri. en federico gasparetto is a phd candidate in educational linguistics at the università per stranieri di siena (italy). his research focuses on the phenomena of plurilingualism in italian schools abroad and on its educational implications. his research interests include the study of multilingualism in contemporary society, particularly in educational contexts, and the analysis of educational and language policies. he is a teaching tutor at the iul telematic university, and he has experience as a junior high school teacher and as a teacher of italian to foreigners. es federico gasparetto es doctorando en lingüística educativa en la università per stranieri di siena (italia). su investigación se centra en fenómenos del plurilingüismo en las escuelas italianas en el extranjero y en sus implicaciones didácticas. sus intereses de investigación incluyen el estudio del multilingüismo en la sociedad contemporánea, particularmente en contextos educativos, y el análisis de políticas educativas y lingüísticas. es tutor de enseñanza en la universidad telemática iul, tiene experiencia como profesor de secundaria y como profesor de italiano para extranjeros. microsoft word er_8.1.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  8,  issue  1,  march  2021,  87–92   issn  2376-­‐905x       http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.13.234   www.e-­‐journall.org   © er 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.       review:  kagan,  olga,  carreira,  maria  m.,  &  hitchins  chik,  claire  (eds.).   (2017).  the  routledge  handbook  of  heritage  language  education:  from   innovation  to  program  building.  taylor  &  francis.         simay  birce  er     johannes  gutenberg  university    vytautas  magnus  university     book  review     received  16  january  2021;  accepted  after  revision  21  february  2021   abstract en the routledge handbook of heritage language education successfully contextualizes heritage language education initiatives across a wide range of languages and geographical settings. it comprises an impressive range of studies that cover all levels of education and show the institutionalization process of heritage language education initiatives. the book is recommended reading for researchers, scholars, educators, language planners, and practitioners. key words: heritage language, institutionalization, minority language, innovation es the routledge handbook of heritage language education contextualiza con éxito las iniciativas educativas realizadas en el campo de las lenguas de herencia en una amplia gama de entornos geográficos. incluye una impresionante variedad de estudios que abarcan todos los niveles educativos y muestran el proceso de institucionalización de las iniciativas de enseñanza de las lenguas de herencia. el libro está dirigido a investigadores, académicos, responsables de planificación lingüística y profesores de lenguas. palabras clave: lenguas de herencia, institucionalización, lenguas minoritarias, innovación it the routledge handbook of heritage language education inquadra con esito positivo le iniziative di percorsi educativi che riguardano lo studio delle lingue ereditarie in numerose aree geografiche. il lavoro comprende una gamma sorprendentemente vasta di studi che riguardano tutti i livelli di istruzione, e rivela il processo di istituzionalizzazione delle iniziative a livello educativo riguardanti le lingue ereditarie. il libro è rivolto a ricercatori, studiosi, responsabili delle politiche linguistiche e insegnanti di lingua. parole chiave: lingue ereditarie, istituzionalizzazione di percorsi educativi, lingue minoritarie, innovazione * simay  birce  er,  johannes  gutenberg  university  &  vytautas  magnus  university   simer@students.uni-­‐mainz.de http://www.e-journall.org/ er   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2021),  pp.  87–92  88 1.  introduction     recent   significant   developments   in   heritage   language   (hl)   education   have   enhanced   the   understanding  of  hl  teaching  and  consolidated  hl  education  as  an  emerging  field  in  education  (felices-­‐de  la   fuente,  2020).  a  heritage  language  refers  to  the  home  language  of  a  bilingual  speaker  who  is  dominant  in  the   main   societal   language   (polinsky,   2018).  growing   awareness   of  hl   education,   a   greater   appreciation   of  hl   programs,  and  attempts  by  schools  to  build  or  improve  hl  teaching  programs  have  led  to  renewed  interest  in   hl   teaching   across   the   world.   with   recently   developed   pedagogical   approaches   to   foster   hl   competence,   more  and  more  traditional  language  teaching  programs  have  been  replaced  by  education  programs  promoting   multilingualism.  for  example,  positive  pedagogical  changes  were  documented  thanks  to  increased  visibility  of   hls  in  23  new  york  city  schools  participating  in  the  cuny-­‐nysieb  project  (menken,  pérez  rosario,  &  guzmán   valerio,  2018).  elsewhere,  a  report  by  the  minnesota  department  of  education  (2018)  shows  an  increase  in   primary   home   languages   other   than   english.   in   addition,   leonard,   vitrella,   and   yang   (2020)   published   a   report   on   the   2019   summit,  which   drew   attention   to   the   need   to   engage  more  hl   learners   and   created   a   series  of  calls  to  action  for  students,  families,  teachers,  educational  institutions,  and  state  agencies  to  develop   and  promote  hl  programs.  european  policies  identifying  multilingualism  as  a  goal  for  european  citizens  have   also  led  to  an  increase  in  the  number  of  hl  teaching  programs  in  europe.  recent  developments  such  as  these   have  made  it  necessary  to  revisit  the  routledge  handbook  of  heritage  language  education:  from  innovation  to   program  building,  published  in  2017  and  edited  by  olga  kagan,  maria  m.  carreira,  and  claire  hitchens  chik.     agnes   he   (2010)   refers   to   hls   as   “the   language[s]  of   the   heart”   (p.   66).   as  hls   are   the   very   first   languages  that  children  are  exposed  to  within  the  family  setting,  these  languages  have  a  special  meaning  for   heritage  speakers.  as  the  hl  speaker  population  grows,  the  need  to  promote  hl  acquisition  and  maintenance   is   also   expanding.   an   increasing   number   of   educational   institutions   have   recently   begun   to   support   hl   development  or  to  offer  instruction  in  hls,  but  the  question  arises  of  whether  to  teach  these  languages  as  l1   or  l2.  heritage  speakers  fit  neither  into  the  model  of  a  monolingual  native  speaker  nor  into  that  of  a  balanced   bilingual  (chang,  2016).  therefore,  it  is  vital  that  educational  institutions  foster  pedagogical  innovation  in  hl   teaching  and  meet  the  linguistic  needs  of  this  special  group  of  speakers.     the  title  of  the  handbook  implies  to  its  readers  that  its  aim  is  to  introduce  innovative  approaches  to   hl   teaching   within   the   framework   of   institutionalization.   the   volume   adopts   ekholm   and   trier’s   (1987)   definition  of  institutionalization,  which  refers  to  the  assimilation  of  an  innovation  into  an  organization,  such  as   a   school,   until   it   becomes   stable   and   routinized.   this   explanation   points   out   how   innovation   and   institutionalization   are   interrelated   in   an   education   context.   the   studies   in   this   handbook   successfully   represent  the  process  of  institutionalization,  through  the  acceptance  of  changes  in  teaching  (e.g.,  the  adoption   of  a  new  curriculum  or  new  teaching  practices  by  different  educational  institutions).     with   31   chapters   by  50   authors,   this   handbook  makes   significant   contributions   to   the   field   of   hl   education,  which  is  itself  an  emerging  field.  it  reaches  a  wide  audience  by  covering  all  levels  of  education  on   an   international   hl   teaching   spectrum   and   enriching   it   with   carefully   designed   studies.   these   studies   are   likely   to   appeal   to   researchers,   language  planners,   and  practitioners  who  would   like   to   establish   a  new  hl   education  program  or  adopt  a  new  curriculum  or  approach.  the  handbook’s  significant  contributions  to  the   field   lie   in   the   compilation  of   an   impressive  number  of   studies   and   in   the  diversity  of   educational   contexts   described.       2.  summary  of  content     the  handbook  is  a  single  volume  comprised  of  studies  on  22  languages,  conducted  by  researchers  in   various   areas   of   the   world.   the   volume   is   divided   into   seven   parts,   each   of   which   includes   four   to   five   chapters.  its  31  chapters  cover  all  levels  of  education  and  encompass  studies  focusing  on  hls  spoken  by  both   immigrant   and   diasporic   communities.   these   studies   investigate   hl   education   practices   within   the   framework  of  institutionalization,  on  both  the  micro-­‐  and  macro-­‐levels.     the   first   part   of   the   volume   is   devoted   to   the   changing  demographics   of  hl   communities   in  many   parts  of  the  world.  the  five  chapters  in  this  part  provide  a  historical  overview  of  changing  demographics  and   immigration  patterns;   they  also  cover   immigrant   languages  and  hls   in  europe,  australia,   the  united  states,   latin   america,   and   canada.   for   example,  wiley   and   bhalla’s   chapter   (chapter   3)   on   the   demographics   of   heritage   and   community   languages   in   the  united  states  enables   readers   to   gain   insight   into   the   sources   of   linguistic   diversity   in   the  united  states  by   comparing   historical   and   current   census   data.  wiley   and  bhalla   identify   a   disconnect   between   the   top   10   languages   spoken   in   u.s.   homes   and   the   most   popular   foreign   review:  the  routledge  handbook  of  heritage  language  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  87–92 89   languages  offered  in  the  u.s.  schools.  this  chapter  concludes  with  useful  recommendations  to  adopt  a  broader   and  more  comprehensive  national  policy  that  embraces  the  multilingual  reality  of  the  united  states.   the  second  and  third  parts  of  the  handbook  introduce  hl  education  paradigms  initiated  by  minority   communities   such   as   after-­‐school   programs   and   all-­‐day   pre-­‐,   primary,   and   secondary   schools.   the   nine   chapters   in  parts   2   and   3   outline   the   stages   of   institutionalization   of   these   community   initiatives   and   the   process  of  adopting  innovation.  chapter  6,  by  uriu  and  douglas,  describes  how  a  japanese  weekend  school  in   california  went  through  a  significant  institutional  change  by  adopting  a  new  hl  curriculum.  implementation   of   the   new   curriculum   was   well-­‐known   to   the   authors   through   their   own   involvement   in   the   curricular   change.   the   chapter   presents   a   very   realistic   picture   of   adopting   an   innovative   curriculum,  acknowledging   negative  developments   such   as   skeptical   parents,   overburdened,   overworked,   and   underpaid   teachers,   and   the   loss   of   a   third   of   the   students   as   well   as  more   than   half   of   the   teachers.   a   particular   strength   of   this   chapter  is  the  way  that  it  reflects  students’,  parents’,  teachers’,  and  the  school  administration’s  perspectives  on   the  challenging  political  process  of  initiating  a  curricular  change,  and  recounts  how  the  school  overcame  this   crisis.   the   authors   conclude   that   although   there   is   still   a   long   road   ahead   of   them   to   fully   stabilize   the   curriculum,  they  are  making  progress.       chapter   12   (by   bourgerie)   takes   a   close   look   at   how   chinese   education   has   evolved   in   line   with   political   and   cultural   changes   in   the   cambodian   chinese   diaspora.   the   historical   overview   of   chinese   presence  in  cambodia,  the  background  of  the  chinese  language,  the  number  of  chinese  dialect  speakers  and   chinese   populations   in   cambodia   offers   important   contextualization   to   readers   with   limited   or   no   background   knowledge   on   chinese   as   an   hl   in   cambodia.   the   author   first   identifies   factors   such   as   the   teachers’  backgrounds  and  the  students’  levels  of  language  use  at  home  and  elsewhere,  literacy  levels,  ethnic   identity,  and  religion,  before  delving  into  the  issues  of  the  pedagogy  and  approaches  used  in  teaching  chinese   as   an   hl   in   four   schools   in   cambodia   and   comparing   these   with   those   used   in   mainland   china.   the   examination  of  these  factors  enables  readers  to  understand  the  reasons  for  shifting  attitudes  towards  chinese   language  in  cambodia  and,  accordingly,  perceptions  about  chinese  hl  education  as  a  professional  asset.       the  nine  studies  in  parts  4  and  5  of  the  handbook  investigate  to  what  extent  public  education  systems   meet  the  linguistic  needs  of  hl  speakers  and  how  societal  and  governmental  policies  and  ideologies  shape  the   organization   of   these   paradigms.   in   chapter   15,   kagan   depicts   the   vivid   multilingual   landscape   of   the   metropolitan  area  of  los  angeles  and  investigates  whether  the  local  high  schools  offer  the  languages  spoken   by  the  ethnic  communities  that  they  serve.  kagan’s  findings  highlight  a  disparity  between  the  languages  used   by  residents  and  the  foreign  languages  and  hls  offered  by  the  schools  in  the  region.  the  chapter  is  limited  to   one  specific  area  and  a  small  number  of  interviewees  and  survey  respondents.  however,  it  achieves  its  goals   by  identifying  the  vital  need  for  schools  to  offer  instruction  in  languages  spoken  by  the  community  in  which  a   school   is   located.   it   also   highlights   the   importance   of   offering   these   languages   in   a   way   that  meets   the   linguistic   needs   of   both   foreign   language   and  hl   learners.  with   this  goal   in  mind,   the   author  moves   on   to   describe  successful  hl  programs  and  concludes  with  useful  recommendations  for  schools  to  make  the  most  of   the   linguistic   and   cultural   richness   of   their   surrounding   communities.   the   chapters   in   part   5   continue   to   exemplify  the  institutionalization  of  various  types  of  hl  programs  in  public  schools  from  japan,  new  zealand,   lithuania,  norway,  sweden,  and  germany.     part   6   addresses   the   presence   of   hls   in   higher   education.   in   chapter   25,  nielsen‘s   framework   of   “arabic-­‐as-­‐resource”   or   “arabic-­‐as-­‐problem”   engages   readers   with   the   teaching   of   arabic   as   hl   in   danish   higher  education  and  helps  readers  to  understand  the  status  of  arabic  in  danish  media,  politics,  and  language   education  policies.  the  author  outlines  key  issues  in  the  design  of  arabic  programs,  which  were  expected  to   achieve   short-­‐term   economic   goals   in   danish   postsecondary   education,   in   addition   to   the   challenges   that   arabic  hl  learners  face.     the  last  part  of  the  volume,  part  7,  addresses  hl  maintenance.  the  four  chapters  in  this  part  provide   examples  from  learning  chinese,  turkish,  korean,  and  yiddish  as  hls  in  formal  and  informal  contexts.  pfaff,   dollnick,   and   herkenrath   present   an   outstanding   chapter   on   turkish   hl   maintenance   in   germany.   their   chapter,  chapter  29,  shows  how  an  extensive  collaboration  between  formal  and  informal  structures  may  lead   to   an   increase   in   support   for   hl   instruction.  this   chapter   documents  macro-­‐level   demographic   and   social   factors   affecting   turkish   in   germany,   including  micro-­‐level   language   programs.   the   authors   come   to   the   uneasy  conclusion  that  the  institutionalization  of  turkish  hl  education  in  germany  is  controversial;  although   there  is  a  great  deal  of  support  for  turkish,  language  instruction  is  still  not  available  for  all  hl  learners  and  hl   classes  are  still  very  restricted  in  mainstream  schools.   er   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2021),  pp.  87–92  90     one  of  the  main  messages  of  this  handbook  concerns  the  integration  of  hl  education  in  a  manner  that   is   not   limited   by   bottom-­‐up   attempts.   to   do   this,   the   authors   opt   for   a   common   approach   of   institutionalization  through  innovation  to  investigate  hl  teaching  programs.  therefore,  in  order  to  identify  to   what   extent   hl   education   programs   are   institutionalized,   the   studies   present   evidence   from   educators,   directors,   families,   and   students   through   observations,   interviews,   surveys,   and   linguistic   biographies.   this   volume  diverges  from  others  in  its  field  because  it  does  not  attempt  to  present  ideal  models  for  teaching  hls.   in  addition,  although  the  field  of  hl  education  has  yet  to  be  fully  developed,  the  volume  consists  of  studies  on   hl  maintenance  in  formal  education  contexts,  unlike  others  that  mainly  focus  on  the  home  setting.       3.  analysis  and  evaluation     the   routledge   handbook   of   heritage   language   education   covers   a   wide   range   of   languages   and   geographical   settings.   despite   the   immense   scope   of   the   book,   the   concept   of   institutionalization  provides   readers  with   a   common   framework   for  approaching  different  hl  programs   in   various   educational   settings.   while   the   studies   in   each   part   present   a   number   of   approaches   to   hl   education,   certain   indicators   of   institutionalization   are   identified   in   the   volume   such   as   linguistic   resources,   teacher   qualifications,   and   funding.   these   indicators   enable   readers   to   compare   the   degree   of   institutionalization   of   different   hl   education  paradigms  and  initiatives.     one   of   the   main   strengths   of   the   book   is   the   way   it   successfully   contextualizes   hl   education   initiatives   through  a  number  of   studies   conducted   in  various  parts  of   the  world.  each   study   introduces   the   teaching  of  a  non-­‐dominant  language  in  a  different  educational  setting.  these  studies  provide  readers  with  a   comprehensive  historical  and  methodological  overview  of  the  hl  programs,  as  well  as  demographic  analyses,   information  on   the  status  of   foreign/minority   language   instruction   in   the  mainstream  education  systems  of   the  host  countries,  multilingual  practices   in  particular  cities,  and   language   ideologies  within   immigrant  and   host  communities.  a  well-­‐presented  background  of   the   status  of  hls   and  multilingual  practices   in   the  host   countries  helps  readers  to  gain  a  better  understanding  of  hl  teaching  initiatives.     another   strength   of   the   book   is   its   engagement   with   micro-­‐   and   macro-­‐levels   of   hl   teaching   initiatives.  hl  teaching  programs  are  evaluated  through  both  the  work  of  researchers  and  linguists,  as  well  as   through   the   statements   of   families,   students,   and   teachers  who  are   actively   involved   in   this   process.  direct   statements   from   teachers   and   members   of   executive   committees   are,   for   example,   used   in   the   study   conducted   on   brazilian   complementary   schools   in   london   and   barcelona   (chapter   8).   the   sixth   chapter,   concerning  a  japanese  weekend  school  in  california,  presents  perspectives  of  teachers,  parents,  and  students.   these   studies,  with   their  use  of   personal  narratives,  enhance   insight   into   the  possible   challenges   and   risks   inherent  to  the  process  of  adopting  a  new  curriculum,  while  suggesting  ways  to  overcome  these  obstacles.     one  of  the  shortcomings  of  the  handbook  is  that,  although  it  covers  all  levels  of  education  in  various   types   of   educational   institutions,   it   does   not   detail   the   efficiency   and   outcomes   of   these   hl   education   programs   or   long-­‐term   consequences   of   the   innovations   made   by   adopting   a   new   approach,   strategy,   or   curriculum.  the  outcomes  of  these  programs  are  not  only  significant  to  understanding  the  impacts  of  different   approaches  to  institutionalization,  but  also  to  helping  educators,  administrators,  and  policymakers  to  decide   what  kind  of  models  or  strategies  to  adopt  in  establishing  or  improving  an  hl  teaching  program.  the  “lessons   learned”   section   of   the   introduction   does   present   useful   tips   from   the   studies   in   the   book   about   the   requirements  and  challenges  of  the  institutionalization  of  hl  practices  into  the  curriculum.  devoting  an  entire   chapter  to  learning  outcomes,  however,  could  have  been  of  greater  help  to  readers  and  offered  better  insight   into  comparing  different  hl  teaching  approaches  and  models.     this   handbook   is   immensely   useful   for   hl   scholars   and   educators   and   it   makes   significant   contributions  to  the  field  of  hl  education.  it  deepens  an  understanding  of  hl  education  by  emphasizing  that  it   is   an   issue   that   must   be   tackled   on   an   international   level.   the   variety   of   theoretical   and   pedagogical   approaches—including   bottom-­‐up   education   program   initiatives,   introduced   by   many   researchers—is   another   tremendous   achievement   of   this   book.   the   handbook   may   also   be   useful   for   comparing   and   contrasting  the  experiences  of  other  teachers  and  administrators   in  diverse  educational  settings  around  the   world.       4.  conclusion     the   book   sheds   light   on   innovations   in  hl   teaching   pedagogy   and   provides   a   broad   outline   of   hl   education  programs  across  various  parts  of  the  world.  most  of  the  studies  are  conducted  by  researchers  who   review:  the  routledge  handbook  of  heritage  language  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  87–92 91   are  members  of   the  minority   speech   communities   in  which   they   conduct   their   research.   these   studies   and   observations  help  readers  gain  better  insight  into  the  status  of  immigrant  languages  and  hls.  the  theoretical   and  practical  overviews  of  the  educational  paradigms  make  a  significant  contribution  to   future  work  in  this   area  through  identifying  the  limitations  of  the  studies  and  introducing  novel  approaches.     mobility  in  the  21st  century  and  the  changing  face  of  multilingualism  are  well-­‐reflected  in  the  book.  a   limitation   of   the   handbook   is   the   fact   that   learning   outcomes   from   the   hl   education   programs   are   not   addressed  in  the  studies.  however,  diverse  approaches  to  hl  education,  teaching  methods,  assessment  tools,   and  language  teaching  materials  present  readers  with  a  rich  source  of  hl  maintenance  practices  that  may  be   adapted  and  applied  by  educators  working  in  and  with  minoritized  communities.     the  handbook’s  dedication   to  parents  and  educators   indicates  an  appreciation  of   their  diligent  and   often   voluntary  work,   in   the   face   of  many   challenges,   to  maintain   their   community   languages   or   hls.   the   efforts   made   by   these   dedicated   people   result   in   inspiring   bottom-­‐up   hl   teaching   initiatives.   in   sum,   the   handbook   contributes   to   the   field   of   hl   education   by   encouraging   other   minority   speech   communities   to   create   bonds,   to   collaborate   as   a   means   to   learn   from   each   other’s   experiences,   and   to   initiate   teaching   programs.   the  handbook   is  worth   reading   for   those  who   intend   to  establish  and  maintain   sustainable   and   successful  minority  language  teaching  programs.           references     chang,  charles  b.  (2016).  bilingual  perceptual  benefits  of  experience  with  a  heritage  language.  bilingualism:   language  and  cognition,  19(4),  791–809.     ekholm,  mats,  &  trier,  uri   (1987).   the   concept   of   institutionalization:   some   remarks.   in  matthew  b.  miles,   mats   ekholm,  &  roland  vandenberghe   (eds.),  lasting   school   improvement:   exploring   the   process   of   institutionalization  (pp.  13–21).  acco.       felices-­‐de   la   fuente,   maria   del   mar,   chaparro-­‐sainz,   álvaro,   &   rodríguez-­‐pérez,   raimundo   (2020).   perceptions   on   the   use   of   heritage   to   teach   history   in   secondary   education   teachers   in   training.   humanities  and  social  sciences  communications,  7(123),  1–10.   he,   agnes   weiyun   (2010).   the   heart   of   heritage:   sociocultural   dimensions   of   heritage   language   learning.   annual  review  of  applied  linguistics,  30,  66–82.     leonard,  danyika,  vitrella,  alex,  &  yang,  kaying  (2020).  power,  politics,  and  preservation  of  heritage  languages.   coalition   of   asian   american   leaders   (caal)/evolving   education.   https://caalmn.org/wp-­‐ content/uploads/2020/07/caal-­‐ee-­‐heritage-­‐languages-­‐paper.pdf   menken,  kate,  pérez  rosario,  vanessa,  &  luis  alejandro,  guzmán  valerio  (2018).  increasing  multilingualism  in   schoolscapes:  new  scenery  and  language  education  policies.  linguistic  landscape,  4(2),  101–127.   minnesota   department   of   education   (2018).   english   learner   education   in   minnesota:   fall   2018   report.   https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed599023.pdf   polinsky,  maria  (2018).  heritage  languages  and  their  speakers.  cambridge  university  press.       https://caalmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/caal-ee-heritage-languages-paper.pdf https://caalmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/caal-ee-heritage-languages-paper.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed599023.pdf er   e-­‐journall,  7(2)  (2021),  pp.  87–92  92 simay birce er, johannes gutenberg university & vytautas magnus university simer@students.uni-mainz.de en simay birce er is an m.a. student in the international joint-degree program in sociolinguistics and multilingualism at johannes gutenberg university and vytautas magnus university. her research interests include multilingualism in education, the teaching of english as a foreign language, and sociolinguistics. es simay birce er es estudiante de maestría en un programa internacional de título conjunto en sociolingüística y multilingüismo de la universidad johannes gutenberg y la universidad vytautas magnus. sus intereses de investigación incluyen el multilingüismo en la educación, la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera y la sociolingüística. it simay birce er frequenta il master nel programma congiunto in sociolinguistica e multilinguismo all’università di johannes gutenberg e l’università di vytautas magnus. la sua attività di ricerca include il multilinguismo nell’istruzione, l’insegnamento dell’inglese come lingua straniera e la sociolinguistica. ole_link4 ole_link3 willoughby_2025_ej (2) euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 12, issue 2, november 2025, pages 80-83 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.2.3472 www.e-journall.org © willoughby 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. review: sindoni, maria grazia, & moschini, ilaria (eds.) (2022). multimodal literacies across digital learning contexts. routledge. audrey willoughby university of milan book review received 5 august 2025; accepted 9 october 2025 abstract en es this review looks at multimodal literacies across digital learning contexts, edited by maria grazia sindoni and ilaria moschini with a focus on how it might be useful for language educators working in digital classrooms. the review takes the volume as a starting point for thinking through teaching practices, especially how educators might make better use of digital tools and multimodal approaches. this review highlights ideas that can help teachers reflect on their roles not just as instructors, but as people who shape learning experiences that value students’ voices, agency, and different ways of making meaning. the volume offers examples of how multimodal thinking plays out in real educational settings from early childhood to university, touching on topics like digital storytelling, translanguaging, and assessment with multiple modes in mind. this review highlights how the book can support language teachers, teacher trainers, and curriculum designers in rethinking what counts as learning and how to support it in more inclusive and creative ways. in doing so, it underscores the volume’s value not only as a contribution to multimodality research but also as a resource for reimagining language learning environments. keywords: multimodality, pedagogy, digital learning, learning design, teaching. esta reseña analiza el volumen multimodal literacies across digital learning contexts, editado por maria grazia sindoni e ilaria moschini, centrándose en su posible utilidad para el profesorado de lenguas que trabaja en aulas digitales. la reseña toma el volumen como punto de partida para reflexionar sobre las prácticas docentes, en particular sobre cómo el profesorado puede aprovechar mejor las herramientas digitales y los enfoques multimodales. se destacan ideas que pueden ayudar al profesorado a reflexionar sobre su papel como instructores y como personas que promueven experiencias de aprendizaje que valoran las voces, la autonomía y las diversas formas de construcción de significado de los estudiantes. el volumen presenta ejemplos de cómo el pensamiento multimodal se manifiesta en contextos reales de todos los niveles educativos abordando temas como la narración digital, el translanguaging y la evaluación, teniendo en cuenta múltiples modos de expresión. esta reseña destaca cómo el libro puede apoyar a quienes enseñan lenguas, forman al profesorado o diseñan currículos a la hora de repensar qué se entiende por aprendizaje y cómo promoverlo de manera más inclusiva y creativa. de este modo, se subraya el valor del volumen como recurso para reimaginar los entornos de aprendizaje de lenguas y para la investigación sobre multimodalidad. palabras clave: multimodalidad, pedagogía, aprendizaje digital, diseño de aprendizaje, enseñanza de lenguas. it questa recensione esplora il volume multimodal literacies across digital learning contexts, a cura di maria grazia sindoni e ilaria moschini, con attenzione alla sua possibile utilità per docenti di lingue che operano nelle aule digitali. la recensione prende spunto dal volume per riflettere sulle pratiche didattiche, in particolare su come chi insegna possa fare un utilizzo migliore di strumenti digitali e approcci multimodali. si evidenziano idee che invitano i docenti a riflettere sul proprio ruolo come veicolatori di conoscenze e come soggetti che promuovono esperienze di apprendimento aperte alla pluralità di voci, autonomie e modalità espressive di chi apprende. il volume offre esempi di come il pensiero multimodale si manifesti in contesti reali, dall’infanzia all’università, affrontando temi quali la narrazione digitale, il translanguaging e la valutazione attraverso diversi modi comunicativi. la recensione evidenzia come il libro possa supportare chi insegna le lingue, forma i docenti o progetta i curricula nel ripensare che cosa si intende per apprendimento e come promuoverlo in modo più inclusivo e creativo. in tal modo, si sottolinea il valore del volume come contributo per reimmaginare gli ambienti di apprendimento linguistico e per la ricerca sulla multimodalità. parole chiave: multimodalità, pedagogia, apprendimento digitale, progettazione didattica, insegnamento * audrey willoughby, university of milan audrey.willoughby@unimi.it book review: multimodal literacies across digital learning contexts e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 80-83 81 published by routledge in 2022 as part of the routledge studies in multimodality series, multimodal literacies across digital learning contexts is an edited collection that brings together voices from across the field of multimodality, digital communication, and education. the volume is edited by maria grazia sindoni, professor of english linguistics and translation at the university of messina, and ilaria moschini, assistant professor of english language and linguistics at the university of florence. it gathers fourteen chapters organized into three sections: early childhood education, secondary and higher education, and teacher-focused pedagogical practices. as a reviewer coming from a background in applied linguistics and language teaching, i read this book with an eye toward what it might offer educators not just in terms of theoretical framing, but in the way it can inform daily teaching practices, shape how learning environments are designed, and support teachers in rethinking the materials they create. i’m especially interested in how this volume might help teachers integrate multimodal perspectives in meaningful, grounded, and practical ways without needing to reinvent their practices from scratch or adopt digital tools that don’t serve clear instructional purposes. the review that follows is written as a reflective walkthrough of the volume for teachers and teacher educators wondering, “how can this book deepen my understanding of multimodality in the context of using digital tools and practices more creatively and effectively in today’s classrooms?”. the editors open the volume with an important reminder that, although digital texts are often described as multimodal, the ways we teach with and about them rarely reflect the full complexity of how meaning actually works across visual, aural, spatial, and linguistic resources. they highlight the fact that multimodality isn’t something new introduced by technology, but part of every human communicative act. framing education through that lens pushes us to think beyond tools and toward practices, and prompts us to consider how we can design learning experiences that make room for students’ full communicative repertoires. the first two chapters following the editors’ introduction offer distinct theoretical perspectives. in chapter 1, “a sensational theory of designed experience: replacement parts for a theory of multimodality”, qing archer zhang and james paul gee reconceptualize multimodality through a theory of embodied learning and lived sensation. their approach is theoretical, grounded in conceptual reflection. chapter 2, “pedagogies for digital learning: from transpositional grammar to the literacies of education”, by bill cope and mary kalantzis, introduces five principles of “reflexive pedagogy” using design-based research developed through the cgscholar platform. for educators, these opening chapters are a kind of gentle provocation. they don’t demand total reinvention, but they do raise questions about what we’re doing when we ask students to create or engage with digital texts. are we asking them to express meaning using all the resources available to them? are we scaffolding reflection and choice-making? are we recognizing the multimodal literacies they already bring with them? the early sections of this book offer a space to pause and reflect on these everyday practices with care and intentionality. part i turns attention to young learners and their early encounters with digital media. chapter 3, “stars, scores and cheers. a social semiotic critique of "fun" learning in commercial educational software for children” by gunhild kvåle, uses critical multimodal discourse analysis to examine “fun” educational apps that often reinforce ideas of conformity and correctness under the guise of entertainment. chapter 4, “storytelling with children in informal contexts: learning to narrate across the offline/online boundaries”, by maria bortoluzzi, elisa bertoldi, and ivana marenzi, presents a qualitative case study from an italian teacher training program, using observation and elan annotation to explore how storytelling across physical and digital spaces can empower children to construct their own narratives. chapter 5, “multilingual children’s expressions of participation in preschools using digital tablets” by petra petersen, draws on ethnographic fieldwork in swedish preschools to explore how digital tablets support language development and social participation among children from minority language backgrounds. chapter 6, “watching the sound: sign-making in musical expressiveness of children with motor-related disabilities made through eye tracking software” by záira bomfante dos santos, clarice lage gualberto, and sônia maria oliveira pimenta, uses classroom observation and interviews to examine the role of assistive tools in supporting diverse learners. chapter 7, “popularizing scientific knowledge for children: a multimodal perspective” by giuliana diani, employs multimodal textual analysis of a children’s climate change website to examine how verbal and visual modes work together to support understanding. these chapters encourage teachers of young learners to rethink what counts as literacy, and how we might expand our materials and methods. imagine a teacher working with multilingual children reframing digital storytelling not as a polished “product,” but as a process in which children combine image, voice, gesture, and language to express themselves and make sense of their experiences. in another audrey willoughby e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 80-83 82 classroom, a student with dyslexia might use a visual mind-mapping tool to plan ideas for a class project, organizing thoughts through icons, color-coded connections, and short voice notes, highlighting their understanding in ways that don’t rely on extended written text. part ii focuses on learners in secondary and higher education. chapter 8, “exploring multimodality in video podcasting to enhance intercultural awareness in the east asian context” by martin parsons, mikel garant, and larry walker, uses classroom-based action research and student-produced video podcast data from university courses in japan and china. chapter 9, “recognition of student resources in digital environments” by arlene archer, is based on meta-analysis and classroom case studies in south africa to rethink assessment as recognition of learner diversity. chapter 10, “theory and practice of the common framework of reference for intercultural digital literacies (cfridil)” by maria grazia sindoni, elisabetta adami, styliani karatza, ilaria moschini, and sandra petroni, details the development of a flexible assessment framework based on a multi-country pilot study involving students’ digital productions and teacher feedback. these chapters connect with the increasing push in education to move away from teacher-led instruction and toward classrooms where students’ lived literacies are welcomed and built upon. rather than framing learners as blank slates, these chapters position them as creators who are already participating in multimodal meaningmaking outside of school, and more than capable of bringing those abilities into academic work. a language teacher reading these chapters might find themselves rethinking familiar assignments. instead of only analyzing a media text, why not ask students to create one, using video, images, and their voices to explore a topic they care about? this isn’t about using tech for its own sake, but rather about recognizing students’ fluency in multimodal expression and offering space for that in classrooms. part iii shifts the focus to teachers themselves. chapter 11, “preparing for teaching digital literacies in the curriculum disciplines: meta-semiotic knowledge and pedagogy” by pauline jones, annette turney, wendy nielsen, and helen georgiou, draws on reflective practitioner narratives and professional development data to explore how teachers build multimodal awareness. chapter 12, “analyzing attitudinal stance in opencourseware lectures: an experimental mixed-method approach” by belinda crawford camiciottoli, uses corpus-assisted multimodal discourse analysis to investigate the interpersonal tone of academic lectures available on opencourseware platforms. chapter 13, “making science easier to access: investigating academic social networks as ‘composites of connotations’” by flavia cavaliere, uses critical discourse analysis to examine how scholars construct their identities on academic platforms like researchgate. chapter 14, “teaching, learning and assessment of multimodal digital academic numeracy practices” by robert prince, draws on classroom-based qualitative data to propose new ways of teaching numeracy through visual and multimodal strategies. for those who train future teachers or lead professional development, these chapters offer concrete examples of how we can shift conversations from “what tech do i use?” to “how do i make learning experiences that are meaningful, inclusive, and attuned to the full range of how a group of students might communicate?” for teachers themselves, the chapters offer thoughtful models and a chance to reflect on how we are preparing ourselves (and not just our students) for this kind of learning. outside of the language education sphere, this book holds important insights for professionals and researchers working in multimodality, digital media studies, educational technology, literacy studies, and curriculum theory. anyone interested in how communication, learning, and design intersect in digital contexts, especially through a social semiotic lens, will find this volume a valuable resource for expanding perspectives on meaningmaking in contemporary education. in bringing together such a wide range of perspectives, the volume cannot possibly cover every aspect of multimodal literacies in equal depth. certain areas, such as assessment practices and informal learning contexts, are touched on only briefly, and the geographical coverage, while diverse, is not global. far from diminishing its contribution, this selectivity underscores how expansive the field has become and points to directions for future inquiry. at the same time, because digital tools evolve so quickly, the studies included here serve as an important benchmark, offering insights that will continue to inspire new investigations as technologies and classroom practices continue to develop. multimodal literacies across digital learning contexts doesn’t hand readers a step-by-step guide or a definitive framework. instead, it offers something more expansive: an open-ended invitation to rethink how we understand learning and how we create the conditions for it. the digital tools and practices this book explores aren’t presented as magic solutions, but in the hands of thoughtful educators, they can become meaningful ways to recognize learners’ voices, support their agency, and create more responsive classrooms book review: multimodal literacies across digital learning contexts e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 80-83 83 in context. it invites educators to see their classrooms as spaces of multimodal design, their students as active meaning-makers, and their materials as dynamic, layered texts. references huang, cheng-wen (2022). book review: multimodal literacies across digital learning contexts. multimodality & society, 2(4), 451–453. https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795221126802 audrey willoughby, university of milan audrey.willoughby@unimi.it en es it audrey willoughby is a doctoral candidate in linguistics at the university of milan, in the department of languages, literatures, cultures and mediations. she earned her master’s degree in applied linguistics from texas a&m university– commerce, where she wrote her thesis humor markers in computer-mediated communication, and also completed a graduate certificate in tesol. her research examines how humor is realized semiotically in short-form video platforms, drawing on multimodal discourse analysis to investigate meaning-making in digital performance media. in addition to her academic work, audrey has over ten years of experience as an english language instructor in international schools and public universities in both the usa and italy, and has served as a clil coordinator in the italian educational context. audrey willoughby es doctoranda en lingüística en la universidad de milán, en el departamento de lenguas, literaturas, culturas y mediaciones. obtuvo el máster en lingüística aplicada en la texas a&m university–commerce, donde elaboró su tesis humor markers in computer-mediated communication, y completó asimismo un certificado de posgrado en tesol. su investigación analiza cómo se manifiesta el humor desde una perspectiva semiótica en las plataformas de vídeo de formato breve, utilizando el análisis del discurso multimodal para estudiar la construcción de significado en los medios digitales. además de su actividad académica, audrey cuenta con más de diez años de experiencia como profesora de lengua inglesa en centros escolares internacionales y universidades públicas tanto en estados unidos como en italia, y ha desempeñado el cargo de coordinadora de aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras (aicle) en el contexto educativo italiano. audrey willoughby è dottoranda in linguistica presso l’università degli studi di milano, presso il dipartimento di lingue, letterature, culture e mediazioni. ha conseguito la laurea magistrale in linguistica applicata presso la texas a&m university-commerce, con una tesi dal titolo humor markers in computer-mediated communication. possiede inoltre il graduate certificate in tesol (teaching english to speakers of other languages). la sua ricerca esplora la resa dell’umorismo a livello semiotico nelle piattaforme digitali di video brevi. attraverso l’analisi del discorso multimodale, vengono studiati i processi di costruzione del significato nei media digitali performativi. oltre all’attività accademica, audrey vanta oltre dieci anni di esperienza come docente di lingua inglese in scuole internazionali e università pubbliche, sia negli stati uniti che in italia, e ha ricoperto il ruolo di coordinatrice clil (content and language integrated learning) nel contesto educativo italiano. microsoft word giacosa pulcini 2025 ej euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, special issue, volume 12, issue 1, june 2025, pages 36–52 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.1.3269 www.e-journall.org © giacosa & pulcini 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. innovation in course design to teach business discourse: students’ feedback and insights1 antonella giacosa università di torino virginia pulcini università di torino received 9 october 2024; accepted 19 march 2025 abstract en this paper describes a course in english language and linguistics addressed to ma students majoring in english for international communication at the university of turin italy). the course was especially designed for this degree program and integrated the use of language corpora, principles of multimodality, visual and verbal communication in company websites, as well as the analysis of corporate crises. the study draws on feedback gathered from students through an end-of-course questionnaire during the academic year 2023-24. the findings reveal that students appreciated active participation through a hands-on approach and group work on selected case studies. their responses indicate an openness to new learning methods, though they remain attached to traditional content-based approaches, particularly in assessment. as established models make students resistant to change, this study demonstrates that educational innovation requires student active involvement and an engaging approach. key words: business discourse, esp teaching, multimodality, digital communication, cmc, students’ feedback es en este artículo se describe un curso de lengua y lingüística inglesas dirigido a estudiantes de máster de la especialidad de inglés para la comunicación internacional de la universidad de turín (italia). el curso se diseñó para esta titulación e integraba el uso de corpus lingüísticos, principios de multimodalidad, comunicación visual y verbal en sitios web de empresas, así como el análisis de crisis empresariales. el estudio se basa en las opiniones recogidas de los estudiantes a través de un cuestionario de final de curso durante el curso académico 2023-24. los resultados revelan que los estudiantes apreciaron la participación activa a través de un enfoque práctico y el trabajo en grupo sobre casos prácticos seleccionados. sus respuestas indican una apertura a nuevos métodos de aprendizaje, aunque siguen apegados a los enfoques tradicionales basados en los contenidos, especialmente en la evaluación. dado que los modelos establecidos hacen que los estudiantes se resistan al cambio, este estudio demuestra que la innovación educativa requiere la participación activa de los estudiantes y un enfoque atractivo. palabras clave: discurso empresarial, enseñanza de inglés con fines específicos, multimodalidad, comunicación digital, comunicación para la gestión de crisis, comentarios de los estudiantes it l’articolo descrive un corso di lingua e linguistica inglese rivolto agli studenti della lm in lingue straniere per la comunicazione internazionale dell'università di torino (italia). il corso è stato progettato per il corso di laurea e ha integrato l'uso di corpora, i principi della multimodalità, la comunicazione visiva e verbale nei siti web aziendali e l'analisi delle crisi aziendali. lo studio si basa sul feedback degli studenti raccolto tramite un questionario di fine corso. i risultati rivelano l’apprezzamento per la partecipazione attiva attraverso un approccio pratico e il lavoro di gruppo su casi di studio selezionati. le loro risposte indicano un'apertura verso nuovi metodi di apprendimento, anche se rimangono legati ad approcci tradizionali basati sui contenuti, in particolare nella valutazione. poiché i modelli consolidati rendono gli studenti resistenti al cambiamento, questo studio mostra che l'innovazione didattica richiede il coinvolgimento attivo degli studenti e un approccio coinvolgente. parole chiave: discorso aziendale, insegnamento dell’inglese specialistico, multimodalità, comunicazione digitale, comunicazione per la gestione delle crisi, feedback degli studenti � antonella giacosa, università di torino antonellamaria.giacosa@unito.it 1 even if the paper is the product of continuous collaboration among the authors, antonella giacosa is responsible for sections 2 and 4, virginia pulcini is responsible for sections 1 and 3. giacosa & pulcini e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 37 1. teaching english for occupational and professional purposes in higher education in the course of the new millennium, both secondary and higher education have been compelled to introduce major changes into their programs and syllabi to meet the many challenges of contemporary society, such as the digital revolution, the internationalization agenda and the demands of a highly diversified labor market (mautner & reiner, 2017). in addition, a working knowledge of english has become a prerequisite for most occupational and professional careers all over the world, which has led to an increase in the demand for the study of english as a foreign language (efl) (gnutzmann & intemann, 2008), english-medium instruction (emi) in higher education (wilkinson & gabriëls, 2021; molino, dimova & kling, 2022) and a tremendous boost in teaching and learning english for specific purposes (esp), especially in the area of business communication (garzone & giordano, 2020; sing, 2017). a notable shift has also occurred within the italian university context and especially degree courses that traditionally provide tuition in modern languages. up to a few decades ago their syllabi would mainly address the educational needs of prospective language teachers and focus almost exclusively on the study of literature and translation. nowadays many students choose to major in modern languages to find a job in other occupational and professional settings. to meet students’ interests and cater for the needs of the current job market, new degree courses specialize in modern languages in combination with a growing variety of occupational and professional sectors such as hospitality and tourism management, international communication and cooperation, television, cinema and new media, fashion and design, business and marketing.2 one of the first innovative degree courses, still not mainstream in italian academia to this day, is the ma program in foreign languages for international communication, which has been offered at the university of turin since 2004. this program was designed to provide students with advanced, specialized competence in two foreign languages, the ability to communicate effectively in intercultural situations and interdisciplinary knowledge of the historical, social, cultural, and economic aspects of the geographical areas in which the foreign languages are spoken. in addition, the course offers background knowledge of social, economics and legal sciences, as well as advanced competences in digital skills.3 with these objectives in mind, and in line with the expected achievements set by the dublin descriptors,4 the course in english language and linguistics was gradually redesigned to meet the learning needs of these students. experimentation on the present-day syllabus started in a.y. 2019-20 and continued throughout the following years. the modular structure here described reflects the program implemented in a.y. 2023-24, which consists of three main topics: corpus linguistics (18 hours) web communication of multinational companies (18 hours) communication and miscommunication in times of crisis (18 hours). in this paper we will report on this english language and linguistics course and on the feedback provided by the students who attended it in a.y. 2023-2024 in greater detail. the goal is to assess how students were impacted by a syllabus combining linguistic and professional aspects, which is an innovative approach for students majoring in english. the research question leading up to this paper is the following: rq: in students’ opinion, how did the integration of linguistic and work-related aspects in an ma course in english language and linguistics impact their learning experience? to address this goal, this paper first delves deeper into the pedagogical principles that inspired its design and how the development of general and specialized competence in the use of english and specific topics relevant to esp were combined (section 2). second, it presents and discusses the answers to an end-of-course questionnaire provided by the students who attended the course (section 3). finally, it draws data-driven 2 universitaly.it 3 https://www.lingue.unito.it/do/home.pl/view?doc=lauree_magistrali/lingue_straniere_comunicazione_ internazionale.html 4 for the qualifications that signify the successful completion of the second cycle in higher education (ma level) see: https://ehea.info/media.ehea.info/file/wg_frameworks_qualification/71/0/050218_qf_ehea_580710.pdf (accessed october 2024) innovation in course design to teach business discourse 38 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 pedagogical conclusions that could contribute to the innovation and improvement of esp courses at the level of higher education (section 4). 2. a student-centred project-based approach: the case study the primary learning goal of the students enrolled in the ma course in foreign languages for international communication is to strengthen their proficiency, not only in terms of general language skills but also in the area of professional communication, starting from an already advanced level tested through an admission test (c1 level of the common european framework for languages). to develop their language competence, students majoring in english are offered a 50-hour course running through the academic year, which focuses on english for academic purposes (eap), especially reading and writing, and leads to a final summary writing test. in combination with the practical language work, students are offered a 54-hour curricular course in one semester, focussed on content-based academic subjects in the area of english linguistics. the results of the two courses are combined to obtain the necessary credits. the curricular course, which is the object of the present paper, aims to expand students’ competencies in english for special purposes (esp) – particularly in business english (be) – and help them familiarize with some theoretical models and analytical tools that may allow students to observe and analyze the english language used in professional and digital communication. the following sections highlight the considerations that inspired the syllabus design. 2.1. syllabus design: inspiring teaching principles and contextual considerations several aspects were considered while planning the syllabus for this course. be is a complex strand of research in the dynamic field of professional communication. it is informed by management and organization studies and impacted by e-technologies, the increasing volume of international trade and global integration (du-babcock, 2006). therefore, the study of be requires an interdisciplinary approach encompassing language pedagogy – i.e. the communicative uses of the language – as well as the knowledge and the training of skills related to corporate globalization and digital competence. this is in line with the recommendations of previous research on higher education degree programmes for business, which advocates for integrating language teaching practices in english as a foreign language (efl) with the development of soft applied skills regarding business communication and workplace knowledge (ainsworth, 2012; sing, 2017). the integration of professional and educational factors has been indicated as a necessary step to bridge the gap between the learning experience offered at the level of higher education and the skills required by the work environment, as highlighted in recent accounts of needs analysis (lung, 2014; tardy, 2012). in today’s globalized world, esp students not only need to acquire language skills but also – and most importantly – comprehension strategies and techniques that go far beyond strictly linguistic competence (gnutzmann, 2011; held, mcgrew & goldblatt, 1999). they must be trained to join a professional community and effectively communicate with the public, external stakeholders and within the organization they will be a part of (gerristen & nickerson, 2009). furthermore, they need to be flexibly competent to cope with a complex environment requiring a multifaceted communicative competence encompassing multicultural, specialized language and context-related aspects (sing, 2017). this complex competence requires understanding as conceived by contemporary learning theories and promoted by the dublin descriptors for higher education. according to gardner’s multiple intelligences theory, we understand an idea when we can apply disciplinary knowledge, skills, methods, and ways of thinking to new situations in which we do not know the ‘correct’ answer yet (gardner, 2006). the concept of understanding as the application of knowledge is in line with the educational goals inspiring contemporary university pedagogy. higher education must help students develop an advanced skill set involving the ability to deeply understand and manage complexity, develop original ideas, apply problem-solving skills, and effectively communicate conclusions to various audiences (bologna working group on qualifications frameworks, 2005). this is crucial in every field but especially in foreign languages. language education, including efl education, must have a transformative goal, which can only be achieved through cultural reflection and understanding within a critically oriented pedagogy (weniger & kiss, 2013). the ultimate goal is to facilitate students’ development of intercultural communicative competence (icc), which is the ability to relate to new people from other contexts for which they have not been directly prepared (abid & moalla, 2019). the emergence of english as a lingua franca (elf) in business makes be classes a fertile environment for teachers to integrate language skills with global cultural awareness and soft skills related to global business communication (abid, 2021; ainsworth, 2012). to meet the various needs of contemporary be students, the syllabus was articulated into three different modules, as described in the following section. giacosa & pulcini e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 39 2.2. a task-based approach to a three-module course a task-based approach was chosen to encourage active student engagement with the course contents. task-based language teaching (tblt) is based on communicative language teaching and focuses on using authentic language to complete meaningful tasks in the target language (harmer, 2008). the teacher acts as a facilitator and chooses relevant tasks while encouraging the students to actively participate and contribute by integrating their personal experiences into their language learning environment (long, 2015). this enhances the mainstream communicative teaching style for be, which within the esp field has traditionally focused on lexical items, grammatical structures and discourse functions, by organizing learning around tasks needed to become part of a professional community (lambert, 2010). this contextualized teaching method favors active student engagement through hands-on activities that the students carry out under the teacher’s supervision individually or in groups by exploring possible applications of knowledge referring to the business world. three main areas were chosen to help students gain a comprehensive understanding of the various aspects of business communication. first, to enhance student proficiency in esp and enable them to familiarize with e-technologies, they were introduced to corpus linguistics (mcenery & hardie, 2011). as pinpointed in jaworska (2017), the use of corpora has provided relevant insights into frequent lexico-grammatical and pragmatic aspects of be. our students familiarized with the main concepts and the application of this methodology to the study of general and specialized vocabulary. corpus-informed learning is considered an effective digital learner-centred approach to efl and esp, as students can examine language features – such as concordances, collocations and phraseologisms – that are useful to increase their proficiency in general and specialized discourse by means of digital tools. this was tested by integrating a more traditional, content-based form of assessment – a multiple-choice test – with an active exploration of lexical and morpho-syntactic patterns. for the latter, they were asked to draw a lexical profile of a phraseologism or a collocation by working on corpora available on sketch engine, a corpus query software (kilgarriff, rychly, smrz & tugwell, 2004) (see appendix 1). second, students familiarized with the multimodal communication of companies and organizations for the construction of their own identity. after being introduced to the concepts and tools of multimodal analysis (kress & van leuwen, 2001; machin, 2016), they were tested through a traditional individual content-based quiz and a more creative activity, namely the collaborative analysis of the “about us” sections of corporate websites (handler, 2017). this task required them to analyze the multimodal orchestration of company web pages in groups while disentangling the combination of resources for meaning-making in digital texts and online interactions (such as speech, writing, still and moving images, music and sounds, layout etc.) put in place by companies to establish their corporate identity (see appendix 2). in line with the common framework of reference for intercultural digital literacies (cfridil)5, this activity had different goals. while analyzing the use of digital tools and the understanding of their affordances in business communication, they increased their digital fluency,6 i.e. the ability to discover, evaluate, and use information and technology effectively and ethically. given the global reach of the companies analyzed, they increased their intercultural communication skills, namely the ability of making meaning in socio-culturally diverse contexts as well as community-specific practices. in addition to the aforementioned abilities, this activity aimed to help students develop the so-called “transversal skills” (i.e. use, management and awareness of “soft” skills, including personal and relational skills such as emotional intelligence, stress management and team building). third, the students explored crisis management communication (henceforth cmc), namely the strategic use of words to manage information and meaning during a crisis aiming at restricting reputational damage (coombs, 2021). this transdisciplinary approach to communication covers a series of subtopics such as crisis management, the ongoing approach to communication, the qualities of the spokesperson, the role of social media in communication strategies, and the spread of misinformation and fake news. first, the students became familiar with the details of a crisis and analytical tools to analyze the crisis as such and how internal – within the company – and external communication – with the public – were managed. after the first 5 this framework integrates digital literacies and proficiency in english for international communication and can be used as a guidance and reference in the context of intercultural digital literacies. it draws on the common european framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment (cefr), which was integrated and expanded to cover digital aspects of communication in the 3-year project eu-made4ll, european multimodal and digital education for language learning (sindoni, adami, moschini & karatza, 2019). 6 this term refers to the ability to discover, evaluate, and use information and technology effectively and ethically (law, woo, de la torre & wong, 2018) innovation in course design to teach business discourse 40 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 introductory lesson on the basic concepts of cmc, they explored the field in groups under the teacher’s supervision. they analyzed representative case studies and actively applied analytical tools that helped them reflect on business practices and communication choices. finally, they were given a list of crises7 involving companies and were asked to choose one, analyze it and summarize their findings in a written report. the various steps of this module rely on case studies, a teaching and learning method borrowed from business studies methodology (ainsworth, 2012). this is a complex activity for students majoring in foreign languages for various reasons. on the one hand, it presents students with information and terminology that are typical of the business world they are still not familiar with. on the other hand, it requires them to critically analyze different speech acts from multiple sources to identify possibly biased and manipulative communicative strategies for a favourable narration of a crisis. this module encourages students to develop higher-order thinking skills and favours critical thinking (anderson & krathwohl, 2001). despite acknowledging the benefits of this method, research on the use of case studies in be classes has recommended a gradual introduction in the syllabus (esteban & cañado, 2004). in line with these recommendations, students gradually assimilated the terminology and necessary information by analyzing case studies individually and in groups, discussing their findings in class and asking for further clarifications in q&a sessions. finally, they were asked to apply their knowledge to understand a complex situation and use the appropriate terminology to describe it. in addition to encouraging students’ active engagement, the tasks in the three modules required students to increase their motivation and enhance their learning. since they replicate the job of professionals in a real workplace, these tasks qualify as examples of authentic assessment (aa), a contextualized approach to teaching and assessing involving higher-order thinking skills (villarroel, bloxham, bruna d., bruna c., & herrera-seda, 2017; villarroel, boud, bloxham, bruna d. & bruna c., 2019). this approach to evaluation was deemed an effective way to assess real competences and 21st-century skills, such as critical thinking, which are crucial for new generations of students (atmojio, 2021; giacosa, 2023). this approach is deeply rooted in a constructivist conception of knowledge and focuses on curriculum goals, the enhancement of individual competence, and the integration of instruction and assessment (atmojio, 2021; tessaro, 2014). the constructivist approach is recommended in language teaching because it is learner-centred and encourages learners to actively participate in their learning process, rather than passively receiving information. learners are encouraged to experiment with the language, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes. the following section on the students’ feedback will show how this pedagogic proposal impacted their learning. 3. monitoring students’ feedback through end-of-course questionnaires 3.1. methodology: the questionnaire to monitor the outcomes of the experimentation, we created an end-of-course questionnaire to collect valid and reliable data on student satisfaction and suggestions for improvement. this is considered an effective tool to collect feedback from students and provide strategic-level information aiming at improving the quality of higher education courses (watson, 2003; richardson, 2005).8 the end-of-course questionnaire was created with a google form and sent by email to the 76 students who attended the course in a.y. 2023-24. we received 53 responses, corresponding to a 70%response rate. the majority of the respondents were females (88.7%) and a minority were males (11.5%), a proportion that generally reflects the composition of the student population enrolled in degree courses in modern languages. the questionnaire included 12 questions focused on the students’ learning experience that aimed to measure the linguistic, digital and multimodal input students felt to have acquired through hands-on activities and group work on case studies. the answers will be presented below with some meaningful comments provided by the students. 7 examples of articles introducing case studies to be analyzed: https://www.theguardian.com/usnews/2023/jun/30/disney-female-employees-wage-disparity-lawsuit https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/09/italian-oil-firm-eni-lawsuit-alleging-early-knowledgeclimate-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/feb/02/netflix-accidentally-posts-guidelines-for-cracking-down-onpassword-sharing?cmp=share_androidapp_other 8 at the university of turin, all students must fill out an evaluation form (called edumeter) for all the courses they have attended before enrolling and sitting examinations. this is one of the tools available for monitoring the quality of teaching. by contrast, this end-of-course questionnaire was created for internal purposes only, to collect students’ feedback on the specific contents of the english language and linguistics course. giacosa & pulcini e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 41 3.2. findings the initial set of questions (n. 1-2) asked students which modules of the course had helped them the most to improve their english proficiency. the module on corpus linguistics was selected by the largest share of the respondents (47.2%), followed by cmc (37.7%) and multimodality (15%). the respondents considered the module on corpus linguistics a new, interesting way to expand their vocabulary (words, collocations, phraseologisms and morpho-syntactic patterns) through the use of digital tools. what emerged from the comments was that students felt they had acquired autonomy in the analysis of vocabulary and experienced the pleasure of “discovering” lexical patterns, thus empowering their agency as learners. having access to authentic language was also positively considered because it is an opportunity to understand how language is used by native speakers, which is considered the most desirable model by most italian efl learners. here are some examples of comments reported verbatim: 1) analyzing the corpora, i discovered new terms, new syntactic structures and many idioms. 2) it allowed me to understand how words are naturally used by native speakers and with which words they most frequently collocate. 3) it provided me with new tools for the investigation of the english language. 4) it was interesting analyzing corpora using sketchengine tool (i’ve never used it before) this improved also my digital skills learning how to surf through it those who selected cmc justified their choice by stating that this module helped them familiarize with the language used in real-life situations and taught them to appropriately communicate in specific professional settings. in other words, students experienced the pragmatic dimension of discourse and developed greater awareness of communication strategies that help speakers respond to a critical situation and repair their own reputation. another positive aspect of this module in relation to the acquisition of language competence was the assignment of a written paper, which made students focus on their writing skills. here are some relevant comments: 5) the module is more linked to real-life situations. 6) cmc helped me understand how to manage a hypothetical company crisis in real life through linguistic features and effective communication strategies. 7) while writing the final paper on cmc i learned new vocabulary and useful expressions used in academic language. 8) the choice of the multimodality module by a smaller number of students was explained by the useful exposure to new language during classroom interaction and in the reading assignments. 9) it was an interesting and interactive way to learn about english 10) strong presence of new terms and expressions. 11) because i have explored this topic with many readings that have allowed me to improve my english proficiency the following set of questions (n. 3-4) asked students which module of the course had helped them the most in developing useful skills for their future professional life. a large majority of respondents answered these questions by indicating the module on cmc (67.9%), followed by multimodality (22.6%) and corpus linguistics (9.4%). here the situation is reversed, as corpus linguistics was considered somewhat unrelated to their future job, whereas cmc was seen as closely connected to their specific field of specialization – business communication in international environments – and the world of work. comments related to this question were particularly elaborate and truly enthusiastic, detailing the many advantages that this module had offered. in particular, students appreciated the interdisciplinary nature of this topic –encompassing communication science, business discourse, sociology and rhetoric – and its relevance to both the world of business and present-day events. some students pointed out the importance of training future managers to handle complex situations ‘from within’, find solutions and adequate responses to crises arising in different professional settings, cope with stressful situations, and communicate effectively through different media. the wide range of stimulating case studies discussed in class and the one they chose for their final report offered students the opportunity to develop a critical perspective towards real-life events, also considering that facts may now be skewed by the deliberate spread of misinformation, disinformation and fake news. innovation in course design to teach business discourse 42 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 12) with this module i learnt how to handle crisis situations, what kind of approach to take and what language to use. i think this module is perfect for the kind of work we should do once we have finished this university course. 13) i would like to work in a company, in the communication area, and this module has taught me how to communicate properly with stakeholders, in particular in times of crisis. 14) i was able to understand business mechanisms concerning company communication that i did not know before, in particular about the importance of speed of communication both internally within the company and externally (e.g. on social media or the website) in the event of a company crisis. 15) cmc module helped me improve my ability to manage stressful situations, work under pressure and adapt quickly to unpredictable events. students who opted for the lessons and activities focused on multimodality gave several reasons: they seemed to enjoy getting to know more about visual communication, company websites of known and new brands and navigating online. students appreciated the proposed group activities, which stimulated group discussion and decision-making for the presentation of a company’s “about us” section. 16) considering our nowadays work fields, most of them are based on the use of websites, hence knowing how to develop them in a multimodality sense was useful for me. 17) multimodality module helped me the most to develop useful skills for my future professional life because working in a team i had the chance to learn and improve how to coordinate my work with that of my colleagues and how to manage group projects. figure 1 displays the data analyzed so far, showing that the modules on corpus linguistics and cmc were rated higher for the development of english competence and cmc and multimodality emerged as the modules that helped the most to develop professional skills. figure 1. skills developed in the three modules of the course question 5 aimed to find out how familiar students were with multimodality before attending the course. this information can be useful to redress the complexity of the reading material and the classroom activities. in fact, this is what emerged from the students’ feedback. the answers were based on a scale from 1 to 5, ranging from minimum (‘i did not know about it’) to maximum familiarity (‘i was already familiar with this approach’). as shown in figure 2, 40.4% of respondents selected a mid-range value (3), 23.1% and 5.8% had a high degree of familiarity (4 and 5), and 9.6% and 20.2% opted for a low level of familiarity (1 and 2). overall, a medium to high level of familiarity emerged from the data (69.3% summing up values 3, 4 and 5). this trend was to be expected, given that many students are familiar with digital technology and capable of navigating digital devices. moreover, they had also attended a course in visual communication in their first year. this fact suggests that an update of the approach and the materials used in this module is necessary to stimulate students’ interest and motivation. giacosa & pulcini e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 43 figure 2. students’ familiarity with multimodality question 6 asked what students felt they had learned about multimodality that they did not know before the course. the answers to this question highlighted the fact that the course provided a theoretical framework (the field of semiotics and the notion of ‘mode’ as a semiotic resource to express meaning) to help them systematize the analysis of websites and made them more aware of the resources and strategies available to web-designers to enhance the efficacy of corporate communication. here are some comments: 18) i didn’t know that it was a specific strategy used by companies to convey or focus on specific meanings. 19) before studying this module i never paid enough attention to how a company’s website is structured and now i see things differently. question 7 focused on the contribution of the english language and linguistics course in further developing students’ digital skills. in this case, the scale from minimum (only a little= 1) to maximum (very much= 5) weighed more on a positive input for strengthening students’ digital skills: in fact 38.5% selected a mid-range score (3), 34.6% a high score (4), and 15.5% the highest (5), against 9.6% (2) and 1.9% (1) that selected lower scores. overall, the sum of the mid and high scores (88.6%) indicates that the exposure to corpora, websites and materials (including the moodle platform of the course) contributed to students’ familiarity with technology, although it is important to stress that the curricular course was primarily about english language and linguistics. innovation in course design to teach business discourse 44 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 figure 3. development of digital skills question 8 was about their opinion on the digital component of the english language and linguistics course: this confirmed a positive perception about their improvement in digital skills: in fact, 64.2% selected the option ‘i learned something new about digital technology’ and 34% selected the option ‘i learned many new things about digital technology’; only a small fraction (1.8%) opted for the option ‘i did not really learn anything about digital technology’. these answers provide an even higher positive perception of the digital component of this course (98% by adding ‘i learned something new’ and ‘i learned many new things’). as previously mentioned in relation to questions 3 and 4, a large majority of course attendees declared their preference for the module on cmc. question 9 asked them to place the main positive characteristics of this module, offering a choice among 4 options, in order of importance. the positive characteristic that received the highest rating was ‘its interdisciplinary nature’ (43%), followed by ‘its relevance to the world of business’ (34%) and ‘its connection to present-day events’ (34%) and finally ‘the importance for the training of future managers’ (32%). these results suggest that, in this initial phase of university life, students’ opinions are mostly influenced by the academic preferences that led them to choose this degree course, i.e., a variety of different disciplines that are not normally found in degree courses in modern languages. the connection to the world of business and present-day events are also considered strong motivating drivers, while they may not see themselves as future managers yet, although more than one third of the respondents recognize this as a positive characteristic of this course. questions 10 and 11 were focused on the activities that students considered particularly useful for enriching their academic competence. again, these activities had to be placed in order of importance. in addition, respondents were asked to provide free comments. surprisingly, the activities placed in first position by the highest number of students were the online tests. comments underlined the importance of ‘studying notions’ and being formally tested. the two tests that students had to take were multiple-choice quizzes based on the reading assignments about corpus-linguistics and multimodality. this preference indicates that italian students are accustomed to written and oral assessment tests and feel the need to be guided by the tutor. 20) thanks to the intermediate tests, we had the opportunity to gradually study the notions, internalize them and apply them. 21) with online tests i have less anxiety, while presentations put more pressure on me the q&a activities in class were the next most appreciated tasks carried out during the course. these were guided by various types of prompts such as videos or short articles that students had to work on in groups, followed by peer-to-peer and class discussions. giacosa & pulcini e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 45 22) q&a activities in class: encouraged critical thinking and engagement. asking questions and participating in discussions could have deepened your understanding of the subject. the next activities that received appreciation from students were the preparation and delivery of two digital presentations supported by slides (see appendix 1 and 2), which required the additional submission of written scripts. the first presentation consisted in the lexical profile of a phraseologism or collocation; the second was the analysis of the “about us” webpage of a company. these presentations were delivered in groups either in class or recorded as an mp-4 file and uploaded on the moodle platform of the course. scripts were uploaded on the moodle platform for evaluation. the writing of the scripts was placed in fourth position in terms of usefulness for enriching the students’ academic competence. 23) i really enjoyed the presentations, i believe it’s easier to understand and learn something when put into practice. 24) i think the two powerpoint presentations were really useful for learning to speak in front of an english-speaking audience about a research work that i had done myself 25) also the lessons delivered by the tutor on the theoretical content of the course were appreciated by students, although they rank only in fifth position. 26) the tutor's presentation of the theory was very useful to understand something new. 27) in my opinion it is essential to have the explanation of theory and new concepts, but to really learn them it is important to have something real to apply it to (ie. the cases). 28) the last activity in order of usefulness was corpus-based research on phraseology, for the reasons well described in the following comment. 29) although it was instructive to learn notions about corpora, i put the corpus part at the end because i found it too "static and decontextualized." overall, the impression was that some students were not very keen on technology and found it difficult to access and use the corpus-query tools presented in class with sufficient ingenuity and independence. to conclude, the final question 12 asked students to suggest improvements for the english language and linguistics course the following year. the majority (54%) thought that the course was already wellbalanced and had no suggestions. about a third (35%) recommended more practical activities to be done in class and 9% would encourage more discussion in class. this partly confirms the positive evaluation given to q&a activities during classroom time: it seems that students liked working in groups and discussing issues among themselves (they often resorted to italian, although they were encouraged to speak english during classes), whereas they were more reluctant to speak up and actively participate in open debates. 4. discussion and conclusion recent research has highlighted the need for tertiary education to bridge the gap between the academic syllabi and the work environment to better prepare students for the challenges of an increasingly digital, complex, intercultural and changeable work environment (section 1). this paper has reported on a taskbased educational experiment which consisted in three modules helping ma students majoring in english reach various goals (section 2). on the one hand, they were offered the possibility to increase their understanding and proficiency regarding lexical and pragmatic aspects of eap and esp. to this end, they were provided with the analytical framework and tools to examine visual and verbal texts belonging to different genres and having different scopes (company web pages, newspaper and magazine articles, press releases, etc.). on the other hand, they were actively engaged in autonomous, hands-on activities related to business communication to sharpen their occupational and digital skills. while planning the course syllabus, we adopted a student-centred approach to encourage active student engagement and the development of critical-thinking and soft skills in addition to language proficiency. after introducing the guiding principles and outlining the course structure, we presented the student feedback obtained through an online questionnaire. measuring the teaching efficacy of degree programmes, curricular courses and all types of educational activities at all levels of education has become a very common practice to provide quality assurance and academic recognition of institutions. our end-of-course questionnaire was designed and implemented for internal purposes only, to collect students’ feedback and insights on the choices made as far as contents, skills and assessment were concerned. this feedback allows us to evaluate how the students reacted to an innovative educational approach in higher education courses for english majors that innovation in course design to teach business discourse 46 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 differed from traditional methods (section 3). in the following sections we will first discuss the findings against the background of our inspiring principles of the course in order to answer our research question: in students’ opinion, how did the integration of linguistic and work-related aspects in an ma course in english language and linguistics impact their learning experience? then, we will draw the main pedagogical implications while providing suggestions for future research. 4.1. assessing course quality through students’ feedback and insights to assess the impact of the course on learning, we can analyze our students' perspectives with reference to three areas: language proficiency, workrelated skills, and digital competence. our students’ feedback indicates that the three course components have been beneficial (albeit to varying degrees) in improving their linguistic skills. our students appreciated being confronted with authentic language while working on corpora and real cases of crisis management communication. they increased their knowledge and comprehension of general and specialized vocabulary and became aware of pragmatic and strategic aspects of the language they had never reflected upon. they felt that the linguistic and multimodal analytical tools they used made them more autonomous in actively producing quality written texts where they could apply theoretical principles. therefore, our task-based approach proved successful in helping students sharpen their reading and writing skills by encouraging them to actively apply the knowledge and approaches – especially corpus linguistics – presented in the course. this aligns with the so-called dublin descriptors, which recommend teachers to help students apply theoretical knowledge and develop the ability to talk to various audiences. indeed, in their open comments, students reported that the course increased their ability to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of esp and more effective competence in producing clearer written and oral texts. this increased contextual sensibility in the use of english is intertwined with work-related skills, the second area of competencies our course aimed to develop. similarly, the three components were perceived as useful in helping students prepare for their future careers. although the students’ preferences in this area mainly referred to cmc, the comments show that the other two modules also contributed to developing occupational skills. so, the choice of combining them in one course proves effective as it allows students to acquire various skills they can apply once they enter the job market. the majority of students prefer cmc due to its practical applications in the field of business communication, which is a fascinating and complex area that many of our students are likely to pursue as a career. however, the module on multimodality was also appreciated because it allowed students to work on visual components – a relevant aspect of our contemporary society – in a brand-based context. it was appealing because they had the opportunity to investigate the multimodal semiotic contexts of the companies they deal with in their everyday lives as consumers and might work for in future. those two components made them feel as if they were gaining an insider’s view of their future work field that might help them in their professional life. in this respect, corpus linguistics seemed less effective, as it was chosen by few students. given the educational value of a corpus-based approach in the literature on business communication teaching, we will try to highlight the benefits of this approach for increasing general and professional language proficiency in our future courses. this seems relevant also regarding the third area of interest of our paper, namely students’ digital skills. as illustrated in section 3, the majority of our students perceived the course as beneficial to increase their digital competence. despite being familiar with the digital world, they experienced it for the first time from a professional perspective. while using corpus-based tools like sketch engine or more familiar resources like videos and software for visual presentations, they experimented with an active and digitally enhanced approach to language learning. in addition to achieving in-depth comprehension of lexical and pragmatic structures, they actively used them while creating oral and written digital presentations. this result is encouraging, as it shows that the course complied with recommendations from various stakeholders at the international level to increase students’ digital literacy and fluency. however, also in this third area, the module of cmc gained more appreciation than corpus linguistics or multimodality. this is surprising, as the digital component also plays a relevant role in the other two areas. as highlighted in section 3, this may be explained by the job-oriented approach of ma students, which make them view the topics and activities they consider more connected to their future careers in a better light. in the future academic years, we will continue to implement the digital aspects of the course and help students master corpus-based tools and grasp the variety of their possible applications to language learning and for professional purposes. giacosa & pulcini e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 47 4.2. suggestions for improvement and pedagogical considerations the findings have shown that students positively evaluated the interdisciplinary approach we adopted in the course. their answers show that the organization in three different modules proved effective, which confirms the recommendations for the integration of not-strictly linguistic components in courses in business communication that has been suggested in previous studies. students considered the course well-balanced and appreciated the collaborative activities. they were guided and supported by the teacher and their peers while using different analytical tools that helped them focus on different aspects of the language and increase various skills. this is relevant not only because it appealed to various types of students’ intelligences and allowed them to express their different talents and abilities. it contributed to sharpening our students’ comprehension of the semiotically complex contemporary world where intercultural, digital and linguistic aspects are intertwined. while pursuing their active approach, the course has provided students with tools they will use in their academic and future careers. when asked for suggestions for improvement, they did not question the type of modules or activities. on the contrary, they appreciated them and grasped the benefits of this well-rounded approach for the development of their language and professional skills. the only suggestion they provided refers to the implementations of class discussions. this confirms that students appreciate an active involvement in the course and the possibility to work in teams. this aligns with the recommendations for a shift in higher education from a lecturer-centred and theoretical approach to a student-centred approach that encourages students to actively engage with the contents and their peers. however, students’ answers show that there is room for improvement. students’ responses show a willingness to adapt, indicating their openness to new learning methods. at the same time, their strong attachment to traditional, content-based approaches – especially in assessments – suggests a reluctance to fully embrace change. on the one hand, we aimed to provide them with a comprehensive approach encompassing traditional content-based testing with tasks that would elicit an active, critical and creative behaviour (e.g. the case study). on the other hand, we found it surprising that some students considered the former as their preferred way of gaining knowledge. although they were a minority, this shows that they experienced traditional approaches to teaching that favored the concept of effective learning as the acquisition of notions. in other words, this indicates that, at least at the university level, students are still taught traditionally, which makes them consider conventional forms of testing the most effective tool to assess their learning. this suggests that established models continue to play a significant role in the learning experience, making students resistant to change. therefore, to contribute to innovation in higher education courses, it seems necessary to actively involve students and increase their awareness of the benefits of a more creative, student-centred and engaging approach. in our future courses, it may be useful to discuss learning strategies and goals in order to include students in the process of necessary 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(2012). writing and language for specific purposes: overview. in carol a. chapelle (ed.), the encyclopedia of applied linguistics (pp. 6266-6274). wileyblackwell. tessaro, fiorino (2014). compiti autentici o prove di realtà? authentic tasks or reality tests? formazione e insegnamento 12 (3), pp. 77–88. https://doi.org/10.7346/-fei-xii-03-14_07. villarroel, verónica, bloxham, susan, bruna, daniela, bruna, carola, & herrera-seda, costanza (2017). authentic assessment: creating a blueprint for course design. assessment & evaluation in higher education, 43(5), pp. 840–854. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1412396 villarroel, verónica, boud, david, bloxham, susan, bruna, daniela, & bruna, carola (2019). using principles of authentic assessment to redesign written examinations and tests. innovations in education and teaching international, 57(1), pp. 38–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2018.1564882 watson, sarah (2003). closing the feedback loop: ensuring effective action from student feedback. tertiary education and management, 9(2), 145-157. weniger, csilla, & kiss, tamas (2013). culture in english as a foreign language (efl) textbooks: a semiotic approach. tesol quarterly, 47(4), 694–715. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.87 wilkinson, robert & rené gabriëls (2021). the englishization of higher education in europe. amsterdam university press. innovation in course design to teach business discourse 50 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 appendix 1. extracts from students’ presentations (concordance of the idiom ‘keep an eye on’ and word sketch of the verb ‘explore’) giacosa & pulcini e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 51 appendix 2. screenshots from students’ presentations (diesel’s about us page; l’oréal’s rhetorical strategies) innovation in course design to teach business discourse 52 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 36–52 antonella giacosa, university of turin antonellamaria.giacosa@unito.it en antonella giacosa (phd) has been an efl teacher in secondary schools for over 20 years and has collaborated with the english department at the university of turin since 2017. she is an educational linguist with an interest in innovative, intercultural, and transdisciplinary approaches to elt. she is part of research teams that foucs focused on the internationalization and innovation of curricula , both in italy and abroad. she has recently published her first book, effective multimodal interaction for online and hybrid teaching: data-driven insights (2024, palgrave macmillan). es antonella giacosa (phd) ha sido profesora de efl en centros de educación secundaria durante más de 20 años, y colabora con el departamento de inglés de la universidad de turín desde 2017. es lingüista educativa interesada en enfoques innovadores, interculturales y transdisciplinarios de la enseñanza de inglés como lengua extranjera. forma parte de equipos de investigación centrados en la internacionalización y en la innovación de los planes de estudio, tanto en italia como en el extranjero. recientemente ha publicado su primer libro, effective multimodal interaction for online and hybrid teaching: data-driven insights (2024, palgrave macmillan) it antonella giacosa (phd) insegna efl nelle scuole secondarie di primo e secondo grado da oltre 20 anni e dal 2017 collabora con il dipartimento di inglese dell'università di torino. è una linguista dell'educazione con un interesse per gli approcci innovativi, interculturali e transdisciplinari all'elt. fa parte di gruppi di ricerca sull'internazionalizzazione e l'innovazione dei curricula presso la sua scuola e istituti universitari, sia in italia che all'estero. recentemente ha pubblicato il suo primo libro, effective multimodal interaction for online and hybrid teaching: data-driven insights (2024, palgrave macmillan). virginia pulcini, university of turin virginia.pulcini@unito.it en virginia pulcini is full professor of english language and linguistics at the university of torino, italy (department of foreign languages, literatures and modern cultures). she has published works in several fields of english linguistics, english language teaching, lexicology, lexicography and contact linguistics. she has recently published the monograph the influence of english on italian. lexical and cultural features (2023, de gruyter). es virginia pulcini es catedrática de lengua y lingüística inglesa en la universidad de turín (departamento de lenguas y literaturas extranjeras y culturas modernas). cuenta con publicaciones en diversos campos de la lingüística inglesa, como la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa, la lexicología, la lexicografía y la lingüística de contacto. recientemente ha publicado la monografía the influence of english on italian. lexical and cultural features (2023, de gruyter). it virginia pulcini è professoressa ordinaria di lingua e linguistica inglese presso l'università di torino (dipartimento di lingue e letterature straniere e culture moderne). ha pubblicato in diversi campi della linguistica inglese, tra cui l'insegnamento della lingua inglese, la lessicologia, la lessicografia e la linguistica di contatto. recentemente ha pubblicato la monografia the influence of english on italian. lexical and cultural features (2023, de gruyter). microsoft word staggini_8.1.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  8,  issue  1,  march  2021,  76-­‐81   issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.13.238   www.e-­‐journall.org   ©  staggini  2021.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.   recensione:  pavesi,  maria,  &  ghia,  elisa  (2020).  informal  contact  with   english.  a  case  study  of  italian  postgraduate  students.  edizioni  ets.         giulia  staggini     università  degli  studi  di  genova       book  review     received  9  march  2021;  accepted  after  revisions  18  march  2021   abstract it informal contact with english. a case study of italian postgraduate students tratta dell’acquisizione informale della lingua inglese in contesto italiano. il volume, infatti, dopo una rassegna dei principali studi acquisizionali attorno al tema, illustra e descrive i risultati dell’indagine condotta su studenti dell’università di pavia riguardo al loro rapporto con media e input in lingua inglese. il testo presenta un focus specifico sui benefici e sull’impatto dei testi audiovisivi in generale, e dei testi audiovisivi sottotitolati in particolare. parole chiave: acquisizione informale, linguistica acquisizionale, lingua inglese, input audiovisivi en informal contact with english. a case study of italian postgraduate students examines informal english acquisition in the italian context. after a review of major studies of informal acquisition, the volume describes the results of a study conducted with students at the università di pavia (italy) regarding their engagement with english-language media. specifically, the text focuses on the benefits and impact of input from audiovisual materials and, in particular, audiovisual materials with subtitles. key words: informal acquisition, acquisitional linguistics, english language, audiovisual input es informal contact with english. a case study of italian postgraduate students se ocupa de la adquisición informal de la lengua inglesa en el contexto italiano. tras un análisis de los principales estudios adquisicionales sobre el tema, el volumen ilustra y describe los resultados de una investigación llevada a cabo con estudiantes de la universidad de pavía (italia) sobre su relación con los medios y el input en lengua inglesa. el texto se centra especialmente en los beneficios y el impacto del input procedente de materiales audiovisuales, en particular, de aquellos que incluyen subtítulos. palabras clave: adquisición informal, lingüística adquisicional, lengua inglesa, input audiovisual * giulia  staggini,  università  degli  studi  di  genova                  stagginigiulia@gmail.com http://www.e-journall.org recensione:  informal  contact  with  english.  a  case  study  of  italian  postgraduate  students   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  76-­‐81 77   il   volume   di   maria   pavesi   ed   elisa   ghia,   informal   contact   with   english.   a   case   study   of   italian   postgraduate   students   (edizioni   ets),   ha   come   obiettivi   principali:   illustrare   lo   status   dell’acquisizione   informale  della   lingua   inglese   in  vari  contesti   culturali,  geografici  e  sociolinguistici;   riflettere  sulle  modalità   attraverso   cui   avviene   il   contatto   informale   con   la   lingua   inglese   da   parte   di   studenti   universitari   italiani;   analizzare   gli   strumenti   e   i   mezzi   attraverso   cui   tale   contatto   avviene;   indagare   il   profilo   di   coloro   che   accedono   informalmente   alla   lingua   inglese   (e   alle   lingue   lote:   languages   other   than   english);   analizzare   eventuali   pattern   che   prevedano   le   tendenze   comportamentali   degli   studenti   nella   fruizione   di   input   in   inglese;  indagare  l’efficacia  percepita  dagli  studenti  nel  processo  di  acquisizione  della  l2.     il   volume   si   rivolge   principalmente   ad   accademici   e   ricercatori   dei   settori   della   linguistica   acquisizionale,   della   didattica   delle   lingue   moderne   e   della   linguistica   educativa;   tuttavia,   i   dati   illustrati   potrebbero  risultare  particolarmente  interessanti  anche  per  le  comunità  di  pratica  dei  docenti  universitari  e   dei   collaboratori   esperti   linguistici   nella   didattica   della   lingua   inglese   poiché,   come   specificato   da   pavesi   e   ghia,  i  contesti  di  apprendimento  sono  sempre  più  fluidi  e  meno  rigidamente  distinti  tra  formali  ed  informali.     il  volume  è  diviso  idealmente  in  due  parti:  i  primi  due  capitoli  costituiscono  la  premessa  teorica  entro   cui  si  iscrive  la  ricerca  condotta,  che  è  illustrata  nei  restanti  capitoli.  la  prima  parte  tratta  dello  status  attuale   della   lingua   inglese   in   vari   contesti   culturali   e   geografici,   e   descrive   le   ricerche   attorno   al   tema   dell’acquisizione   informale   presenti   nella   letteratura   scientifica.   la   seconda   parte   del   volume,   invece,   si   focalizza  sul  caso  studio  e  analizza:  le  motivazioni  per  cui  la  ricerca  è  stata  condotta;  gli  obiettivi  perseguiti;  le   metodologie   applicate   sia   in   fase   di   somministrazione   del   questionario   che   in   fase   di   analisi   dei   dati;   le   implicazioni  acquisizionali  derivate  dall’analisi  dei  risultati  ottenuti.     nello   specifico,   il  capitolo  1   intitolato,   “the  macro-­‐context:  english   in  a  globalised  world”,   illustra   come  e  quanto  i  paesaggi  linguistici  di  vari  contesti  culturali  siano  cambiati  recentemente  e,  con  essi,  la  lingua   inglese.  l’inglese  non  può  essere  definito  come  un’unica   lingua  né  come  un   insieme  di  varietà,  bensì  come:   “una   serie   di   fenomeni   eterogenei”   (ferguson,   2015,   p.   12),   il   cui   status   sociolinguistico   ne   permette   la   definizione   di   “multilingua   franca”,   perché   la   lingua   inglese   è   usata   in   contesti   plurilingui   e   fa   parte   del   repertorio  linguistico  dei  parlanti  plurilingui,  indipendentemente  dall’uso  o  meno  che  essi  ne  fanno  a  livello   interattivo.   l’inglese   è,   infatti   la   lingua   della   comunicazione   internazionale,   l’unica   lingua   ipercentrale   (de   swaan,   2001)   che,   grazie   ai  media   tecnologici   e   digitali,   continua   a   diffondersi   sempre   di   più,   senza   limiti   spazio-­‐temporali.  pavesi  e  ghia  sottolineano  che,  nonostante  il  ruolo  ipercentrale  dell’inglese,  gli  investimenti   effettuati  per  il  suo  apprendimento  e  insegnamento  sono  inferiori  rispetto  alle  aspettative  in  vari  contesti,  tra   cui  quello  italiano.  secondo  indagini  statistiche  recenti  (eurostat,  2016;  gazzola,  2014),  il  tasso  di  esclusione   linguistica   risulta   ancora   elevato   e   la   competenza   linguistica   in   lingue   diverse   dalla   lingua-­‐madre   risulta   essere  bassa  tra  i  cittadini  italiani,  specialmente  se  paragonata  alla  competence  (e  anche  alla  performance)  dei   cittadini   nord   europei,   a   conferma   del   fatto   che   il   divario   europeo   nord-­‐sud   esiste   e   persiste.   a   livello   statistico,   tuttavia,   emerge   un   altro   dato   significativo:   il   contatto   con   l’inglese   avviene   sempre   di   più   attraverso  modalità   informali;   in   particolare,   attraverso  media   come   internet,   la   televisione   e   la   radio,   ed   attività  come  la  lettura  e  i  viaggi  (eurobarometer,  2012).  tra  i  media,  internet  ricopre  un  ruolo  predominante   anche   nella   fruizione   di   quegli   input,   come   film   e   serie,   che   precedentemente   sfruttavano   piattaforme   differenti.  andando  ad  analizzare  il  contesto  italiano,  non  solo  si  può  notare  un  allineamento  rispetto  ai  trend   appena  menzionati;   ma,   secondo   le   indagini   invalsi   2019,   esperienze   di   contatto   informale   con   l’inglese   sembrerebbero  essere  alla  base  di  performance  migliori,   specialmente  nelle  abilità  di  comprensione  orale  e   scritta.     nel   capitolo   2,   “informal   language   learning”,   pavesi   e   ghia   ripercorrono   gli   studi   acquisizionali   riguardo  all’apprendimento  informale  presenti  in  letteratura.  anzitutto,  analizzano  le  varie  etichette  che  sono   state   date   a   tale   tipo   di   acquisizione   linguistica:   da   out-­‐of-­‐school   a   out-­‐of-­‐the   classroom;   da   extramural   a   extracurricular.   inoltre,  benson  (2011)  conia   l’etichetta  lbc  (language  learning  beyond  the  classroom)  che   indica  un  modello  di  apprendimento  informale  a  quattro  variabili:  luogo,  tipo  di  didattica,  grado  di  formalità,   attività  di  controllo.  se   tutte  queste  definizioni  ruotano  attorno  alla  variabile  spazio,  nel  modello  di  sockett   (2014),  oile  (online  informal  learning  of  english),  è  la  variabile  intenzionalità  a  giocare  un  ruolo  essenziale,   perché  l’apprendimento  informale  viene  definito  come  quel  tipo  di  acquisizione  linguistica  in  cui  non  c’è  un   obiettivo  esplicito  di  apprendimento  di  una  l2,  ma  semplicemente   la  volontà  di  comunicare.  la  distinzione   tra   apprendimento   accidentale   e   intenzionale   era   già   stata   proposta   da  hulstijn   (2003)   che   sosteneva   che   questo  tipo  di  acquisizione  linguistica  si  basasse  sul  fatto  che  l’attenzione  dell’apprendente  non  è  sulla  forma   della   lingua,   ma   sulla   semantica,   sul   significato.   dopo   aver   definito,   secondo   varie   prospettive,   l’apprendimento   informale,   pavesi   e   ghia   specificano   che   apprendimento   informale   non   significa   staggini       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  76-­‐81  78   apprendimento  dei  registri   informali;  anzi,  molti  media  e   input  che  fungono  da  canale  di  contatto  informale   con  la  lingua  presentano  molteplici  varietà  diacroniche,  diastratiche  e  diatopiche  di  inglese  (tuttavia,  con  una   preponderanza  di  registri  colloquiali).  tra  tutti  gli  input  accessibili,  i  testi  audiovisivi  sono  tra  quelli  più  fruiti   e  i  cui  benefici  sono  stati  maggiormente  studiati  in  letteratura,  si  pensi  agli  studi  di  caruana  a  malta  (2006),  e   a  quelli  di  arnbjörnsdóttir  e  ingvarsdóttir  (2018)  in  islanda.  difatti,  indipendentemente  dal  medium  usato  (il   web,   il   cinema,   la   televisione),   la  multimodalità   e   la   complessità   semiotica  dei   testi   audiovisivi   favoriscono   l’acquisizione  informale  della  l2,  in  particolar  modo,  delle  abilità  di  comprensione  orale  e  di  comunicazione   interazionale.     “an   italian   case   study:   aims,   questionnaire   and   participants”   è   il   titolo   del   terzo   capitolo   che   introduce  gli  obiettivi,  i  partecipanti  e  il  questionario  al  centro  dello  studio  condotto.  l’indagine,  inizialmente   parte   del   progetto   di   ricerca   migra-­‐ti-­‐n   (2015-­‐2017)   dell’università   di   pavia,   si   basa   su   due   principali   domande   di   ricerca,   chiaramente   esplicitate   dalle   autrici:   1)   qual   è   il   grado   di   esposizione   informale   all’inglese  del  campione  di  studenti  universitari  italiani?  2)  qual  è  il  tasso  di  esposizione  informale  all’inglese   tra   gli   studenti   universitari   italiani   attraverso   gli   input   di   natura   audiovisiva   (in   particolare,   testi   sottotitolati)?  come  viene  chiarito  dalle  domande  di  ricerca,  il  profilo  su  cui  lo  studio  si  incentra  riguarda  gli   studenti   universitari   italiani,   in   particolare   studenti   delle   lauree   magistrali   (in   psicologia,   ingegneria,   farmacia,  biologia,  chimica,  scienze  politiche,  matematica  e  altre)  perché  meno  esposti  ad  un  insegnamento   formale   della   lingua   inglese   (avendo   solitamente   già   terminato   la   formazione   linguistica)   e   con   maggiori   esperienze   all’estero,   ad   esempio:   partecipazione   a   programmi   erasmus,   scambi   internazionali,   periodi   di   studio  e/o  lavoro  in  paesi  esteri.  inoltre,  questo  profilo  di  apprendenti,  ovvero  giovani  adulti,  è  stato  al  centro   di  studi  paralleli  sul  contatto  informale  con  l’inglese  condotti  in  altri  paesi.  gli  studenti  intervistati  (n  =  305)   sono   dell’università   di   pavia,   un   ateneo   di  media   grandezza,  multidisciplinare   con   studenti   provenienti   da   varie   regioni   d’italia   e,   per   questi   motivi,   adatto   a   fare   da   sfondo   all’indagine.   il   questionario,   strumento   ampiamente  usato  nell’ambito  degli  studi  acquisizionali,  è  stato  ideato  con  l’intento  di  esplicitare  il  grado  di   esposizione   all’inglese,   le   risorse   utilizzate   e   preferite   dagli   studenti   nel   contatto   con   la   lingua   e   i   benefici   percepiti   dagli   stessi   a   livello   linguistico.   il   questionario   consta  di   83  domande,   sia   aperte   che   chiuse,   ed   è   suddiviso  in  tre  parti:  la  prima  indaga  sociolinguisticamente  gli  informanti;  la  seconda  si  incentra  sul  contatto   con  l’inglese  attraverso  film  e  serie  tv  e  web;  l’ultima  analizza  il  rapporto  degli  studenti  con  altri  media  come   youtube,   i   social   network,   i   blog   e   i   videogiochi.   il   capitolo   si   chiude   con   un’istantanea   del   profilo   degli   intervistati:  la  maggioranza  ha  iniziato  a  studiare  inglese  alle  scuole  primarie;  due  terzi  dichiarano  di  avere  un   livello  b1/b2  di  inglese  e  soltanto  il  16%  dichiara  di  avere  un  livello  avanzato;  circa  la  metà  degli  intervistati   dichiara  di  conoscere  due  lingue  straniere  e  soltanto  il  23%  più  di  due.     il  capitolo  4,  “informal  exposure  to  english.  sources  of  input,  patterns  of  access,  participant  profiles”,   analizza  i  dati  sul  contatto  informale  degli  studenti  con  l’inglese  attraverso  vari  media,  cercando  di  delineare   il   grado   di   esposizione   alla   lingua   e   le   modalità   attraverso   cui   questo   si   esplica.   in   generale,   i   media   più   utilizzati  in  inglese  sono:  le  pagine  web  (92%),  i  testi  delle  canzoni  (87%),  i  social  network  (79%),  youtube   (77%),   film,   serie   web   e   tv,   programmi  web   e   tv   (71%).   tra   i   media  meno   utilizzati   nella   l2,   invece,   si   collocano:   forum   e   blog   (22%-­‐30%),   videogiochi   (25%)   e   email   (19%).   pavesi   e   ghia   sottolineano   che   l’accesso  ad  un  determinato  input  non  è  necessariamente  direttamente  proporzionale  alla  durata  di  fruizione:   youtube,   ad   esempio,   per   la   natura   stessa   dei   contenuti   proposti,   viene   fruito   per  meno   di   30  minuti   per   sessione   da   circa   il   40%   degli   studenti   intervistati.   al   contrario,   i   film   e   le   serie   (fruite   sempre   di   più   in   modalità  binge  watching)  prevedono  durate  di  esposizioni  più  prolungate.  interessanti  sono  i  dati  riguardanti   l’interazione:   il   46%   degli   intervistati   ha   dichiarato   di   interagire   in   inglese   e   la   maggioranza   di   loro   lo   fa   attraverso  la  mediazione  della  macchina,  confermando  quanto  la  computer-­‐human  interaction  stia  assumendo   un  ruolo  essenziale  oggigiorno.  sulla  base  dei  dati  ottenuti,  dei   tassi  di  esposizione  e  durata,  e  applicando   i   principi  dell’analisi  fattoriale,  ghia  e  pavesi  individuano  tre  cluster  con  l’obiettivo  di  identificare  i  tratti  latenti   e   comuni   al   modo   in   cui   gli   intervistati   entrano   in   contatto   con   la   lingua   inglese.   il   primo   gruppo,   caratterizzato   dal   fattore   internet,   raggruppa   tutte   le   risorse   tradizionalmente   fruite   online:   videogiochi,   social  media,   blog   e   forum.   il   secondo  cluster   riguarda   tutti   gli   input   che  presentano   testi   audiovisivi:   film,   serie,  programmi,  videogiochi.   il   terzo  gruppo  è  caratterizzato  dal   fattore   interazione:   social  network,  blog,   forum.   mentre   all’interno   dei   primi   due   cluster   è   possibile   osservare   delle   correlazioni   tra   le   variabili   proposte,  il  terzo  gruppo  non  presenta  pattern  che  siano  in  grado  di  prevedere  le  tendenze  comportamentali   degli  utenti  nel  contatto  con  la  lingua  inglese.  in  base  alla  durata  e  alla  frequenza  di  esposizione  ad  input   in   inglese,  le  autrici  hanno  suddiviso  gli  intervistati  tra  due  poli:  utenti/apprendenti  ad  alta  esposizione  (6%)  ed   utenti/apprendenti   a   bassa   esposizione   (21%).   la   stragrande  maggioranza   (73%)   si   attesta   come  utente   a   recensione:  informal  contact  with  english.  a  case  study  of  italian  postgraduate  students   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  76-­‐81 79   media  esposizione.  tuttavia,   applicando  gli   stessi  principi  di   calcolo  ai   soli   input   audiovisivi,   si  nota   che  gli   intervistati   ad   alta   esposizione   sono   il   51%,   a   conferma   del   fatto   che   questo   tipo   di   input   è   tra   i   più   significativi  nello  studio  sul  contatto  informale  con  la  lingua  inglese.     il   capitolo   5,   infatti,   è   interamente   incentrato   sui   dati   raccolti   a   partire   dalle   34   domande   del   questionario   dedicate   agli   input   audiovisivi   e,   in   particolare,   ad   input   sottotitolati.   anzitutto,   le   autrici   evidenziano  un  dato  importante:  i  cambiamenti  di  piattaforma  nella  fruizione  di  film  e  serie.  le  piattaforme   internet-­‐based,   infatti,  coerentemente  con  altri  studi  recentemente  condotti  in  letteratura,  vengono  preferite   dalla   maggioranza   degli   intervistati   rispetto   alla   televisione   oppure   al   cinema,   perché   maggiormente   accessibili,  perché  permettono  modalità  di  binge-­‐watching  e  re-­‐watching,  e  perché  offrono  varie  combinazioni   di  lingue  e  sottotitoli.  dei  216  studenti  che  hanno  risposto  di  fruire  frequentemente  di  audiovisivi,  il  54%  ha   dichiarato  di  guardare  film  sia  in  lingua  originale  (in  inglese,  quindi)  che  nella  versione  doppiata  in  italiano.   soltanto   il  22%  predilige  guardare  sempre   la  versione  originale.   i  principali  motivi  dichiarati  dagli  studenti   nella  scelta  della  versione  in  inglese  rispetto  a  quella  doppiata  riguardano:  il  desiderio  di  imparare  la  lingua  e   la   volontà   di   coglierne   sfumature   sia   di   natura   prettamente   linguistica   che   soprasegmentale,   preferendo   l’autenticità  dell’interpretazione  e  delle  voci  degli  attori  a  quelle  dei  doppiatori  italiani,  la  cui  qualità,  tuttavia,   non   viene  messa   in  discussione  dagli   intervistati.   per   quanto   riguarda   le   serie  web   e  tv,   fruite   in  maggior   quantità  rispetto  ai   film,   le  percentuali  sono  simili,   tuttavia,  si  riscontra  un  numero  maggiore  di   intervistati   (pari  al  32%)  che  preferisce  guardarle   in   lingua  originale.  similmente  ai   film,   i  motivi  dichiarati  riguardano   principalmente  la  volontà  di  apprendere  l’inglese.  pavesi  e  ghia,  poi,  illustrano  i  dati  riguardo  ai  sottotitoli:  la   maggioranza   degli   intervistati   ne   fa   uso   sia   nel   caso   di   film   (87%),   sia   nel   caso   di   serie   tv   (83%),   principalmente   per   migliorare   la   comprensione   del   testo,   sia   nel   caso   di   sottotitoli   intralinguistici   che   interlinguistici.   rispetto   a   questi   ultimi,   75   studenti   hanno   dichiarato   di   sceglierli   per   motivazioni   legate   anche  all’analisi  della   resa   traduttiva.  tra   i   fattori   che   invece   fanno  propendere  per   la  scelta  di  non  usare   i   sottotitoli  troviamo:  la  difficoltà  di  lettura,  dovuta  alla  scarsa  permanenza  in  video,  e  la  natura  distrattiva  del   testo  stesso.  tra  i  generi  filmici  preferiti,  si  riportano:  la  commedia,  i  film  e  le  serie  d’azione  e  d’avventura,  e  i   thriller.   infine,   nel   capitolo,   si   descrivono   i   risultati   riguardo   alla   percezione   dei   benefici   da   parte   degli   studenti:   circa   l’80%   ha   affermato   di   aver  migliorato   la   propria   competenza   nella   l2   dopo   l’esposizione   a   input  audiovisivi.  in  particolare,  sono  state  indicate  le  abilità  di  comprensione  orale,  di  arricchimento  lessicale   e  di  interazione  comunicativa  come  quelle  maggiormente  migliorate.     il   sesto   capitolo,   “accessing   english   informally:   italian   postgraduate   students   in   a  wider   context”,   analizza   il   profilo   generale   risultante  dai  dati   ottenuti   con   la   somministrazione  del  questionario   e  mette   in   evidenza  parallelismi  e  differenze  rispetto  ad  altri   contesti   culturali.   in  particolare,   le  autrici   rilevano  come   l’interesse   suscitato   dai  media,   e   soprattutto,   da   quelli   di   natura   audiovisiva,   sia   trasversale,   indipendente   dagli   interessi   curriculari   degli   studenti   che,   eccetto   nel   caso  di   coloro   che   fanno  parte   dei   dipartimenti   di   filologia  e  linguistica,  sono  poco  affini  alle  discipline   linguistiche.   inoltre,  si  evidenzia   il  carattere  piuttosto   ricettivo   anziché   interattivo   delle   attività   preferite,   tutte   caratterizzate   però   dalla   multimodalità.   le   medesime  tendenze  si  riscontrano  anche  nei  paesi  europei  che,  per  tradizione,  usano  il  doppiaggio  e   in  cui,   quindi,   c’è   una   minor   possibilità   di   esposizione   ad   input   audiovisivi   in   inglese:   francia   e   germania,   ad   esempio.  kusyk  (2017)  ha  condotto  delle  indagini  su  larga  scala  su  studenti  universitari  che  si  approcciavano   al   modello   oile   e   ha   rilevato   come   anche   in   questi   contesti   culturali   prevalgano   attività   di   tipo   ricettivo   (guardare   serie   e   film,   accedere   a   youtube,   leggere   pagine   web)   a   discapito   di   quelle   interattive.   lievi   discrepanze  si  notano  nella  scrittura  delle  email,  a  cui  gli  studenti  tedeschi  sono  più  abituati,  e  nella  fruizione   dei   social   media,   perché   gli   intervistati   italiani   hanno   dichiarato   di   usare   anche   l'inglese   molto   più   assiduamente  rispetto  agli   intervistati  di  francia  e  germania.  differenti  sono,   invece,   i   livelli  di  competenza   riscontrati:  gli   studenti   tedeschi,   infatti,  hanno  un   livello  superiore  rispetto  alla  media  di   italiani  e   francesi.   ciò   influisce   anche   sulle  modalità   di   accesso   a   film   e   serie:  mentre   gli   studenti   tedeschi   preferiscono   non   aggiungere  i  sottotitoli,  gli  studenti  francesi  optano  per  sottotitoli  interlinguistici  e  quelli  italiani  propendono   leggermente   per   i   sottotitoli   intralinguistici.   nell’europa   del   nord,   invece,   l’esposizione   all’inglese   risulta   maggiore  e  di  natura  più  interattiva,  confermando  il  divario  nord-­‐sud  riguardante  l’accessibilità  e  l’accesso  a   risorse  plurilingui.  infine,  le  autrici,  dopo  aver  passato  in  rassegna  vari  studi  che  sostengono  i  benefici  degli   input  audiovisivi  rispetto  all’acquisizione   linguistica,  dedicano  spazio  anche  a  speculazioni  sull’esp  (english   for  specific  purposes),  cioè  sull’inglese  settoriale.  gli  audiovisivi,  difatti,  sono  risorse  utili  ed  efficaci  anche  per   apprendere   gerghi   e   linguaggi   specifici,   ad   esempio:   il   linguaggio   della   fisica   e   della   scienza   (the  big  bang   theory),  il  gergo  medico  (grey’s  anatomy),  il  lessico  tecnologico  (sherlock).   staggini       e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  76-­‐81  80   il   capitolo   7,   “shifting   landscapes”,   oltre   a   fare   da   chiosa   al   volume,   offre   interessanti   spunti   per   riflessioni   future   specialmente   riguardo   al   sottile   confine   tra   esl   (english   as   a   second   llanguage),   efl   (english   as   a   foreign   language)   e   elf   (english   as   a   lingua  franca),   e   all’impiego   sempre  più  massiccio   di   risorse  online,  specialmente  nel  periodo  storico  contingente  che  stiamo  vivendo.     il  volume  di  pavesi  e  ghia  ben  esplicita  le  metodologie  applicate  in  fase  di  ricerca  e  di  raccolta  dati,   manifestando   in   modo   trasparente   i   limiti   del   questionario   sottoposto:   mancanza   di   parametri   per   la   valutazione  dell’intensità  e  della  frequenza  per  alcune  attività  quali  l’ascolto  della  musica  e  la  consultazione  di   pagine   web;   la   probabile   sopravvalutazione   della   competence   in   inglese   da   parte   degli   intervistati;   l’alterazione   delle   risposte   date   dagli   studenti   in   base   alle   aspettative   percepite;   limiti,   per   altro   comuni   a   molte   indagini   basate   sulla   somministrazione   di   questionari.   inoltre,   a   questa   chiarezza   e   trasparenza   metodologica  corrisponde  una  chiarezza  espositiva  che  rende  questa  pubblicazione  coerente  con  gli  obiettivi   dichiarati.  in  conclusione,  il  volume  non  soltanto  risulta  estremamente  interessante  ma  è  anche  significativo   poiché  getta  le  basi  per  ricerche  più  approfondite  sull’apprendimento  informale  in  contesto  italiano,  contesto   su  cui  ancora  risultano  scarse  le  indagini  presenti  in  letteratura.           riferimenti  bibliografici   arnbjörnsdóttir,  birna,  &  ingvarsdóttir,  hafdís  (eds.).  (2018).  language  development  across  the  life  span.  the   impact  of  english  on  education  and  work  in  iceland.  springer  international  publishing.   benson,   phil   (2011).  language   learning   and   teaching   beyond   the   classroom:   an   introduction   to   the   field.   in   benson,  phil  &  reinders,  hayo  (eds.),  beyond  the  language  classroom  (pp.  7–16).  palgrave  macmillan.   caruana,  sandro  (2006).  trilingualism  in  malta.  maltese,  english  and  italiano  televisivo.  international  journal  of   multilingualism,  3(3),  159–172.   de  swaan,  abram  (2001).  words  of  the  world:  the  global  language  system.  polity  press.   eurobarometer  (2012).  special  eurobarometer  386:  europeans  and  their  languages.  european  commission.   eurostat  (2016).  eurostat.  disponibile  a:  https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-­‐explained/index.php   ferguson,  gibson  (2015).  introduction:  attitudes  to  english.  in,  andrew  linn,  neil  bermel,  &  gibson  ferguson,   (eds.),  attitudes  towards  english  in  europe  (vol.  2)  (pp.  3–24.).  mouton  de  gruyter.     gazzola,   michele   (2014).   partecipazione,   esclusione   linguistica   e   traduzione:   una   valutazione   del   regime   linguistico  dell’unione  europea.  studi  italiani  di  linguistica  teorica  e  applicata,  43(2),  227–264.   hulstijn,  jan  h.  (2003).  incidental  and  intentional  learning.  in  catherine  j.  doughty,  &  michael  h.  long  (eds).,   the  handbook  of  second  language  acquisition  (pp.  349–381).  cambridge  university  press.   invalsi  (2019).  rapporto  prove  invalsi  2019.  disponibile  e:  https://invalsi-­‐areaprove.cineca.it   kusyk,  meryl  (2017).  les  dynamiques  du  développement  de  l’anglais  au  tarvers  d’activités  informelles  en  ligne:   une   étude   exploratoire   auprès   d’étudiants   français   et   allemands.   [tesi   di   dottorato   non   pubblicata].   university  of  strasbourg/karlsruhe  university  of  education.   sockett,  geoffrey  (2014).  the  online  informal  learning  of  english.  palgrave  macmillan.                       https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php https://invalsi-areaprove.cineca.it recensione:  informal  contact  with  english.  a  case  study  of  italian  postgraduate  students   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  76-­‐81 81   giulia staggini,  università degli studi di genova stagginigiulia@gmail.com it giulia staggini è dottoranda in digital humanities presso l’università degli studi di genova. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono: la didattica delle lingue moderne con approcci multimodali; l’applicazione di input di realtà virtuale e immersiva all’insegnamento delle lingue; e la glottodidattica accessibile per apprendenti con disturbi specifici dell’apprendimento e bisogni linguistici specifici. ha esperienza nell’insegnamento dell’italiano a stranieri (università della tuscia) ed è cultrice di lingua e traduzione inglese (università per stranieri di siena). è coautrice dell’edizione nazionale delle traduzioni delle opere italiane nel mondo (entradit.it). en giulia staggini is a ph.d. candidate in digital humanities at the università degli studi di genova. her research interests include: modern language teaching through multimodal approaches; the application of virtual and immersive reality inputs to language teaching; and accessible language teaching for learners with specific learning disabilities and specific language needs. she has experience in teaching italian to foreigners (university of tuscia) and is an english language and translation expert (university for foreigners of siena). she is co-author of the edizione nazionale delle traduzioni delle opere italiane nel mondo (national edition of translations of italian works in the world; entradit.it). es giulia staggini es estudiante de posgrado en digital humanities en la universidad de génova. sus intereses de investigación incluyen: la didáctica de las lenguas modernas desde una perspectiva multimodal; la aplicación de input de realidad virtual e inmersiva a la enseñanza de lenguas; y la glotodidáctica accesible para los discentes con trastornos específicos de aprendizaje y necesidades educativas especiales. tiene experiencia en la enseñanza del italiano a extranjeros (universidad de la tuscia) y es experta en lengua y traducción inglesa (universidad para extranjeros de siena). es co-autora de la edizione nazionale delle traduzioni delle opere italiane nel mondo (entradit.it)       ej banzina 2025 10.11 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 12, issue 2, november 2025, pages 58-75 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.2.3423 www.e-journall.org © banzina 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. students smarter than teachers? gen z efl students’ perceptions of english pronunciation learning and teaching elina banzina stockholm school of economics in riga, latvia received 5 june 2025; accepted 30 october 2025 abstract en generation z l2 learners, who are immersed in english audiovisual content from an early age, might feel more comfortable with the pronunciation of english than their generation x or millennial non-native efl teachers. this paper explores how gen z l2 learners in northeastern europe use english extramurally, how they rate their own and their teachers’ english pronunciation, and whether they aspire to sound native-like. the data was collected from 140 college-level first year students through questionnaires and interviews. the main findings are that, first, gen z students rate their own pronunciation as fairly advanced, reporting extramural english as a greater influence than their english teachers’ input, and second, view their non-native english teachers’ pronunciation as less native-like than their own, yet generally rate their teachers as acceptable models of english pronunciation. consequently, this paper proposes that gen z students might benefit from an alternative type of pronunciation teaching. key words: pronunciation teaching, extramural english, informal language learning, non-native english teachers, gen z, accentedness es los aprendientes de l2 pertenecientes a la generación z, expuestos al contenido audiovisual en inglés desde una edad temprana, pueden sentirse más cómodos con la pronunciación del inglés que sus profesores de efl no nativos pertenecientes a la generación x o a la generación millennial. este trabajo analiza cómo el alumnado de l2 de la generación z del noreste de europa utiliza el inglés en contextos extraescolares, cómo evalúan su propia pronunciación y la de sus docentes, y si aspiran o no a sonar como hablantes nativos. los datos de este estudio se recopilaron a partir de cuestionarios y entrevistas realizadas a 140 estudiantes de primer curso universitario. los principales resultados muestran, en primer lugar, que el alumnado de la generación z valora su propia pronunciación como bastante avanzada, atribuyendo al inglés extracurricular una influencia mayor que al input recibido de sus docentes. en segundo lugar, perciben la pronunciación del profesorado no nativo de inglés como menos cercana al modelo nativo que la suya propia, aunque en general la consideran un modelo aceptable. en consecuencia, este artículo propone que el alumnado de la generación z podría beneficiarse de un enfoque alternativo en la enseñanza de la pronunciación. palabras clave: enseñanza de la pronunciación, inglés extracurricular, aprendizaje informal de idiomas, profesores de inglés no nativos, generación z, acento it è verosimile che i membri della generazione z, grazie all’esposizione costante all’inglese attraverso contenuti audiovisivi fin dall’infanzia, si sentano più a loro agio nella pronuncia dell’inglese l2 rispetto ai loro docenti millennial o appartenenti alla generazione x. questo articolo esplora come gli apprendenti l2 della generazione z dell’europa nord-orientale usino l’inglese in contesti extrascolastici, come valutino la propria pronuncia e quella dei loro insegnanti, e se aspirino o meno a una pronuncia simil-nativa. i dati per questo studio sono stati raccolti tramite questionari e interviste a 140 studenti universitari del primo anno. i principali risultati mostrano, in primo luogo, che gli studenti della generazione z considerano il livello della propria pronuncia piuttosto avanzato, grazie più all’inglese extramurale che all’input dei loro insegnanti. in secondo luogo, percepiscono la pronuncia dei loro insegnanti non nativi come meno simile a quella nativa rispetto alla propria, pur considerandoli generalmente modelli accettabili di pronuncia inglese. di conseguenza, questo articolo propone che gli studenti della generazione z possano trarre beneficio da un modo diverso di insegnare la pronuncia. parole chiave: insegnamento della pronuncia, inglese extramurale, apprendimento informale delle lingue, insegnanti di inglese non madrelingua, gen z, accento 🖂 elina banzina, stockholm school of economics, riga; department of languages and communication elina.banzina@sseriga.edu banzina e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 59 1. introduction due to advances in technology and media, learners in efl contexts now experience much greater exposure to english than in the past. individuals born slightly before the year 2000 and later, often referred to as “digital natives”, have grown up surrounded by technologies; as a result, their exposure to screen devices and audio-visual content in english is unprecedented. generation z, or, unof`icially, the youtube generation, are characterized by skilful mastery of digital technologies and fully immersed in the digital world. they are constantly connected and can hardly imagine a world with no access to wi-fi; losing their phone would mean losing a part of themselves (luttrell & mcgrath, 2021). this has undeniably left a mark on their level of comfort with the english language. this generation now attends institutions of secondary and tertiary education, which must adapt to learners who receive as much—or often more—english input outside the classroom as inside it (lindgren et al., 2013; puimège & peters, 2019). pronunciation, one of the hardest aspects of the english language to teach, now seems to be within an easy reach for generation z. this can potentially change the power dynamic in the classroom, with the students often `inding themselves in a more favourable position than their teachers, who are most likely generation x or millennials and have not had the luxury of an early exposure to the sound of english, as is often re`lected in their pronunciation (e.g., hendriks & van meurs, 2022). all of these considerations motivated the current study, which aims to explore students’ exposure to english outside the classroom: the sources they use, the variety of english they are exposed to the most in a northeastern-european setting, and whether the age of exposure and the amount of time spent on extramural english has had an effect on their con`idence with english pronunciation and their views of their teachers. does it matter to them that their teacher speaks with an accent that may be more pronounced than their own? how do gen z students rate their own pronunciation compared to that of their teachers? do students look down on teachers who fail to reach native pronunciation? these are relevant concerns that affect every non-native english teacher who might feel more and more insecure about their own pronunciation (kralova, 2019; whitehead, 2023) in relation to the growing abilities of their students. additionally, it is unclear whether the exposure to mostly native-generated content has made the students more eager to attain a native-like accent. admittedly, the pronunciation classroom has changed: for many students immersed in digital media, intelligibility and comprehensibility goals are becoming increasingly redundant, and teachers might need to `ind new goals, which will also be discussed in this paper. overall, this study is an attempt to explore the new realities of the digital world from a student’s perspective—an effort which might either alleviate teachers’ fears and insecurities or, conversely, exacerbate them. 2. literature review generation z learners have been surrounded by digital technology since early childhood. the age at which young children have been reported to actively engage with screen media themselves has reached as little as four months, compared to four years in 1970 (radesky & christakis, 2016). as many parents will admit, these days screen media often work as a paci`ier for children up to the age of 3 and as a solution for parents under stress (brauchli, 2024). not only has the age of exposure changed, but also the amount of screen time young children accumulate: the amount of time young children are exposed to screens has been found to range from an average of 12 h in a typical week in the uk (funk et al., 2009) up to 2.5 hours a day in the u.s., with older children getting progressively more screen time (rideout & robb, 2020). in such a context, the presence of english in contemporary media is overwhelming: out of the top 20 most popular and highest-grossing youtube channels in the world, at least 10 are in the english language, mostly american english (world population review, 2025); moreover, on-demand entertainment and video streaming services such as net`lix offer a wide variety of child-directed options such as cartoons, movies and tv shows in english, and english serves as the primary language for video games. language learning effects of the exposure to audiovisual content via television, social media or gaming beyond formal instruction have been reported quite extensively in the research literature (de wilde et al., 2020; muñoz et al., 2018; reinhardt, 2019; sockett & kusyk, 2015; toffoli et al., 2013). the term used in the `ield for out-of-class, incidental language learning experience, where learning happens while the learners’ attention is devoted to a speci`ic activity, such as listening to music or playing computer games, is “extramural english” (ee), established by sundqvist (2009). research reveals that exposure to extramural english has positive effects on language pro`iciency both before formal instruction starts and during it. puimège and peters (2019) found that dutch-speaking children of ages 10 – 12 who had still not received formal english instruction but were frequently exposed to english via computer gaming, streaming videos, or watching tv, already demonstrated gen z efl students’ perceptions e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 60 knowledge of 2,356 – 3,157 word families in english that they acquired independently. both the amount of exposure to digital audio-visual input and the number of words learned incidentally while involved in the process increased with age. a study by de wilde and eyckmans (2017) with 30 flemish primary-school-age children demonstrated their substantial knowledge of english—listening, reading comprehension, writing and speaking—before they started formal english classes in school, and further tests revealed that their english scores were strongly related to their computer use and computer gaming—a `inding corroborated by lefever (2010) with icelandic children of primary school age without any formal training in english who demonstrated signi`icant gains in english learning based on their exposure to media and computer games alone. the effectiveness of gaming has speci`ically been explored by a number of studies, which have consistently found encouraging results: jensen (2017) reported signi`icantly better performance on vocabulary tests in danish young learners who were actively engaged in gaming. similarly, in a study with 11-12-year-old swedish children sylvén & sundqvist (2012) demonstrated signi`icant gains in vocabulary growth among frequent players versus those who played less or did not play at all. additionally, video gaming has been shown to have far-reaching effects that extend beyond vocabulary acquisition: larger vocabulary has been associated with improved writing performance and higher grades in english overall (sundqvist & wikström, 2015), and playing video games has been shown to promote autonomous, self-directed language learning (chik, 2014). research is mixed and gender-speci`ic with regard to which extramural activities young learners engage with most: in terms of the mean hours that young learners devote to them daily, according to a study that surveyed the parents of 10-11 year-old children from seven different european countries on their incidental language learning habits (lindgren et al., 2013), listening to music in english took the lead, followed by watching subtitled movies and tv programs, and playing online video games. other studies (e.g., jensen, 2017; peters, 2019), however, found that gaming was the top activity among boys, and signi`icantly contributed to their english pro`iciency. however, the relative learning bene`its of these different modes of incidental english learning—gaming, watching, or listening to music—have still not been clearly established in the literature. while some studies show that subtitled movies and television programs contribute most to language learning in general (kuppens, 2010; lindgren et al., 2013), gaming has been shown to have the strongest effect on boys’ language pro`iciency speci`ically because gaming is more popular among boys than girls (jensen, 2017; muñoz, 2016). additionally, the learning bene`its of exposure to `ilms and animated series in english are most pronounced in countries that provide subtitled rather than dubbed or voiced-over tv programming. this allows children in belgium (peters, 2018), sweden (sundquist, 2009), denmark (muñoz et al., 2018), or iceland (jóhannsdóttir, 2018), for example, to be immersed in authentic english in their households from an early age. in contrast, in european countries such as germany, switzerland, france or italy, dubbing or voice-over programming have traditionally been the norm (de riso, 2025; krüger, 2023; pavesi & ghia, 2020). this may reduce learners’ access to original-english audio, thus potentially delaying the onset of extramural english exposure and limiting the amount of english input they receive. this is also the case in northeastern europe, which is the focus of this study, where children’s programming on tv is generally dubbed and thus creates less favourable conditions for language acquisition in childhood. passive exposure to english via television and online media has been shown to also have positive effects on pronunciation learning. a study with young french adult learners of english showed that their speech contained a mixture of british and american phonetic features; the fact that they were only exposed to british english in school led to the conclusion that they had inadvertently picked up american english sounds from the media they consumed (yibokou, 2023). similarly, research with norwegian teenage learners showed a blend of british and american phonetic features, with the american ones likely prevailing due to the pervasive in`luence of american english in media and popular culture (rindal & piercy, 2013). in a study with adult learners, wisniewska and mora (2020) showed that watching captioned audiovisual material led to improvements in speech processing and gains in pronunciation production when the focus was on meaning, which is the most natural way of viewing tv. in a similar experiment, schef`ler and baranowska (2023) demonstrated that watching a tv series with and without subtitles while attention is actively directed to the meaning of the audiovisual material led to improvements in production—but not when l1 subtitles were provided. together, these `indings suggest that frequent exposure to authentic english-language audiovisual media with a focus on meaning can have a positive effect on learners’ pronunciation. the studies focus on adult or young-adult learners, for whom pronunciation learning from media can be partially intentional, and who can make use of subtitles to advance their speech learning. more research is needed to assess how and to what extent early onset and intensity of extramural english exposure in`luence the phonetic dimension of learners’ speech. the current study focuses on students’ self-perceptions and therefore contributes to the `ield by showing how banzina e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 61 students’ self-assessment of their pronunciation correlates with the onset and amount of exposure to audiovisual input in english. having outlined the effects of extramural english learning on the learners themselves, we now turn to their non-native english teachers, who are increasingly confronted with the reality of self-taught digital natives—students who enter school with a substantial command of english acquired prior to formal instruction and who continue to expand their language skills alongside their classroom learning. generally, as hannibal jensen & lauridsen (2023) demonstrate, teachers recognize the vocabulary-building bene`its of extramural learning and appreciate the increased motivation to learn english that extramural exposure brings to the classroom. and yet, on a more personal level, this often presents a challenge to non-native english teachers who are generation x or mostly millennials, meaning that digital english entered their lives at a much later age; to a certain extent, this de`ines their english pro`iciency and pronunciation. a number of studies document the anxieties and sense of inadequacy experienced by non-native english teachers: in the asian context, korean efl teachers often sensed a great deal of insecurity about their own pronunciation (whitehead, 2023) and chinese efl teachers admitted that they felt inferior to native english speakers in terms of speaking, pronunciation, vocabulary, reading and listening (tang, 1997). research on european non-native english teachers demonstrates a similar sense of inferiority and anxiety, for example, among slovak english teachers (kralova, 2019) and dutch english teachers (el ouastani, 2022). such feelings of inadequacy and fraudulence, self-doubt, low self-ef`icacy have been described in research literature on non-native english teachers as the so-called impostor syndrome, and have been reported among pre-service english teachers (bernat, 2009). non-native english-speaking teachers (nnests) are right to feel anxious, as students are often prejudiced against and critical of them, often believing that accentedness is an indication of their subpar competence and poorer teaching abilities overall, in comparison to what a native speaker could bring (e.g., hendriks & van meurs, 2022; rubin & smith, 1990). the idealized native-speaker model is often still the norm among nonnative english learners, who view native english-speaking teachers (nests) more favourably (ghanem & kang, 2021; kelch and santana-williamson, 2002) and also wish to sound native-like (aiello & mongibello, 2019; newbold, 2022; timmis, 2002). this occurs despite the strong advocacy for nnests as being just as effective as nests and the obvious misalignment between native-speaker ideals and the global nature of english (mahboob, 2010). gen z students, however, are immersed in english content daily—mostly of american origin— which may result in even higher expectations of native-like pro`iciency and raise the bar for nnests. given these added pressures from increasingly english-savvy learners, where does the non-native english teacher stand from the perspective of gen z students? do nnests live up to the models gen z students hear daily on social media – and do they expect them to? the current study thus focuses speci`ically on the pronunciation aspect of the english language to explore gen z’s perceptions of their own pronunciation, the pronunciation of their teachers, and students’ exposure to extramural english. no other studies have explored this aspect, so this study sought to answer the following research questions: 1) what are gen z students’ perceptions of which audiovisual activities in the english language have shaped their pronunciation skills the most? how frequently do gen z students receive audio visual input outside the classroom, and is there a correlation between the intensity of this input and the age at which it started, and selfand peer-assigned pronunciation scores? 2) how do gen z students rate their non-native english teachers’ pronunciation in comparison to their own pronunciation and evaluate its acceptability? 3) how important is sounding native-like to gen z students? what are their aspirations with regard to their english pronunciation? we hypothesize that it is audiovisual input, rather than their teachers at kindergarten or school, that has mostly shaped students’ pronunciation, and that such input is most likely american. while television programs and `ilms in the northeastern european context are typically dubbed or voiced-over rather than subtitled, which limits learners’ exposure to authentic content, we assume that children’s active engagement with the rich online audiovisual content on digital devices may have partly compensated for the lack of subtitled television. as a result, we also expect that students have adopted a more critical stance of their gen x or millennial teachers’ pronunciation in response to the intensive audiovisual input they are exposed to daily. in keeping with the `indings of newbold (2022), we anticipated that students would set the bar high for their own pronunciation and wish to sound native-like, which might make them evaluate the lack of native-like speech patterns in their non-native teachers’ pronunciation more critically. we hypothesized that there could be a gen z efl students’ perceptions e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 62 negative association between one’s self score and the teacher score, whereby the more in`lated self-perceived pronunciation score is, the lower the score s/he might assign to their teacher. to answer these questions, a survey was selected as the primary data collection method to gather quantitative and qualitative data with elements of peer assessment for greater reliability; interviews with 14 participants were also conducted to triangulate the data. 3. methods 3.1 participants the participants of this study were 18 and 19-year-old `irst-year university students attending a business and economics program in latvia (n = 141), where english was the medium of instruction. the sample was a convenience sample, with 59% male and 41% female participants, as there are traditionally more male students in the business and economics program. while the group was international, most of the students were latvian (n=108). the rest of the nationalities were divided as follows: 16 were russian, 5 were estonian, 4 were lithuanian, and 1-2 students were from china, belarus, ukraine, georgia, uzbekistan, and kazakhstan. all participants had received formal instruction in english at school and passed a rigorous written english entrance test, which selected candidates at the c1 level of the european cefr system, as well as an interview for the business and economics program. since the focus of this study is on students’ experiences with non-native english teachers, 12 participants who reported having had native english teachers in school or studying in a high school abroad were removed from the sample. however, not all respondents replied to all the questions in the questionnaire, therefore the number of responses in the analysis varied between 141 and 117. the data were collected at the end of the `irst semester, after semester grades were assigned and course evaluations received, using the qualtrics platform, on student laptops while in the classroom environment; participation in the survey was entirely voluntary and anonymous, with students creating code names for themselves. 3.2 data collection instruments and procedure student perceptions were `irst gathered via a questionnaire consisting of 18 short questions (see appendix 1 for the complete questionnaire). the study is based on students’ perception, so the measures of hours spent on out-of-class activities and the age of activity onset were self-reported. while other studies have used parental surveys to gather this information, we speculated that that would not be an appropriate instrument at the fairly mature age of 18-19 and relied on self-reported data. the questionnaire was administered in class, in person, as it had an interactive component to it that could not have been completed in an online format at home. to this end, the researcher approached the students at the end of a microeconomics lecture, held in a large auditorium that could accommodate all 140 students, and prompted them in english to open their laptops and access the questionnaire that had been emailed to them shortly before the class. after entering the demographic information, the students were instructed by the researcher (and the written prompt) to form random groups of 3 to 4 students, create code names for themselves to ensure anonymity for research purposes, and share these with their partners. then, they were each asked to read aloud the `irst 5 sentences of the rainbow passage, a standard text that features most english phonemes and is commonly used by speech-language professionals to assess speech, and rate each other’s pronunciation in a real-time setting on a scale from 0 – 100, assigning a score to each individual under a code name. the peerscore was used to assess the validity of the self-perception score. afterwards, the students continued completing the questionnaire on their own, either in class or later at home. the survey included quantitative questions, such as whether the participants wished to sound native-like or whether they believed their nonnative english teacher was a good model of english pronunciation, and qualitative questions, such as students’ earliest memories with english or the perceived greatest in`luences on their english pronunciation. we purposefully kept the questions open (e.g., “who/what has affected your pronunciation the most?”) to allow a wide range of responses, varying from “teachers in formal education” to out-of-school activities such as “gaming” or “watching tv”. the quantitative questions included 13 multiple-choice, numeric-scales, and likertscale questions with 5 responses (see appendix 1). all tests were run in ibm spss statistics 30. the data were analysed as follows: `irst, a pearson correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationships between self-reported hours spent on extramural english, the age at which exposure to extramural english had started, and student self-scores. a multiple regression analysis was then conducted to examine the impact of hours spent on extramural english banzina e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 63 and the age of exposure to extramural english on student self-scores, the dependent variable. the association between self-reported scores, peer scores and teacher scores was explored with the help of correlation analyses and t-tests. additionally, a manova was conducted to examine gender effects in the dataset as previous research has identi`ied gender as a strong variable (e.g., jensen, 2017; peters, 2019). the questionnaire was followed by individual interviews with the researcher three weeks later. once again, the sample was a convenience sample, as the interviews were conducted in english with the same yearone students, but this time as part of a speech and accent elective course that is taught by the researcher. the speech and accent elective course traditionally features individual face-to-face meetings, the `irst of which discusses the speech learning experiences and preferences that are instrumental to the course. for the purposes of this study, up to 5 open and closed questions that were speci`ic to and informative for the study were added to the existing questions. the researcher took notes during these interviews. after the course was completed and grades assigned, a permission to use the data for the purposes of this study was asked and obtained from each student, thus ensuring the utmost con`identiality. thematic analysis, which is a data analysis method that helps identify, code and analyse reoccurring patterns of meaning or themes within the data, was used to analyse the interview data. braun & clarke (2006) proposed a 6-phase coding framework for thematic analysis—familiarization with the data, generation of codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, de`ining themes, reporting the `indings—and this method was used to identify themes and patterns in the data. 4. results 4.1. the survey the quantitative part of the survey started with questions about the frequency of audiovisual input students have received (“how many hours a day did you spend on english media (audio, video) before entering our school?”) and the age of exposure (“at what age did you start consuming english content (audio, video)?”). student responses indicated that the average number of hours they spent on watching, listening to, or interacting with english media was 4 hours daily (m = 4.47; sd = 2.48), and that the average age they started to actively engage with english audiovisual media was 7 years old (m = 7.21; sd = 3.04). the majority of the students—81%—reported that they consumed american-speaking media; only 9% reported using britishspeaking media and 6% indicated that they were exposed to both varieties; 4% preferred australian, canadian and “non-native” media. to identify the type of the input received, students were asked to report the main in`luences on their pronunciation by answering an open-form question (see figure 1). figure 1. student responses to the question “what/who has affected your pronunciation the most?”, expressed as percentages. the majority of respondents (97 students, or 66%) cited their exposure to audiovisual input via media (youtube; cartoons; tv programs and movies; audiobooks; music) and computer games as the main sources of in`luence that have shaped their speech; 29 students, or 20%, indicated that their kindergarten, primary and secondary teachers were their main in`luence; `inally, 13% mentioned their experiences abroad or communication with english speakers as their main sources of in`luence. finally, students were asked to 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% interaction with speakers of other languages elementary, high school teachers preschool teachers audiobooks computer games cartoons music tv shows, movies youtube gen z efl students’ perceptions e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 64 describe their earliest childhood memory associated with english in an open format that would reveal whether it included technologies, which would be in line with the “digital natives” narrative. the results showed that the human factor was the most memorable, with students most vividly remembering their english learning experiences in preschool (28%) or later in school (24%), followed by 39% of students who recalled watching cartoons or playing videogames (cartoon network, nickelodeon, youtube videos and xbox were the most often mentioned sources of input), and `inally 9% of students remembered actually using english with friends from abroad or when travelling abroad as their `irst memory. interestingly, although students mentioned more experiences in preschool as their `irst exposure than at later stages of education, only 2 out of 29 responses included kindergarten teachers as the main in`luence on their pronunciation. given the intensity of the mostly american input students receive daily, the next questions assessed students’ perceptions of their own pronunciation skills in relation to the input they receive, the assessment of their pronunciation skills by their fellow students compared to their own assessment, and students’ views on their high school english teachers’ pronunciation compared to their own. bivariate correlations of these variables are provided in table 1. table 1. pearson’s correlation coefficients for the self-assigned self-scores and teacher scores, and self-scores and peer scores. ** p < 0.01. significance scores n correlation one-sided p two-sided p self-score & teacher score 117 -0,044 0,320 0,640 self-score & peer score 117 0,332** 0,000 0,000 pearson’s correlation analyses revealed a signi`icant positive correlation between self-scores and peer scores (r = 0.33; p = 0.000), but no correlation was found between self-scores and teacher scores (r = -0.04; p = 0.64), which goes against the hypothesis we established. further, a statistically signi`icant yet moderately strong negative correlation was found between the age of exposure to audiovisual media and the hours put in daily (r = -0.32; p = 0.000), whereby the lower the age of `irst exposure, the more hours the participants were likely to spend on extramural english. by the same token, a moderately strong and statistically signi`icant positive association was observed between one’s self-score and hours spent on extramural english activities daily (r = 0.31, p < 0.01). however, no signi`icant correlation was found between the age of `irst exposure to extramural english and one’s self-score (r = -0.17; p = 0.03). these `indings informed the subsequent multiple regression analysis by highlighting potential key predictors. we conducted a multiple regression analysis with students’ pronunciation self-scores as the dependent variable, and two predictors: hours of received audiovisual english input and the age at which frequent exposure began (table 2). table 2. results of the multiple regression model for pronunciation self-scores (**p≤0.01). model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. b std. error beta 1 (constant) 74,435 4,005 18,584 0,000 age of exposure -0,301 0,364 -0,078 -0,828 0,409 hours of ee 1,462 0,488 0,281 2,996 0,003 r 0,315** r2 0,1** adjusted r2 0,08** f 6,28** n 116,0 banzina e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 65 the regression model could explain 32% of the variance (r2 = 0.32, adjusted r2 = 0.08). despite the low r2, which indicates more scattered data around the regression lines, the overall model was signi`icant (f(2, 114) = 6.28, p < 0.01), demonstrating a trend. hours of english input received daily were positively associated with pronunciation self-scores (β = 0.28, p < 0.01), while the age of exposure had no predictive value. with regard to the relationship between self-scores and teacher scores, and self-scores and peer scores, paired sample t-tests were further performed to compare the means between these groups (table 3). table 3. mean ratings and 95% confidence intervals of the differences between students’ self-rated pronunciation, peer assessment, and student assessment of their teachers’ pronunciation. scores m 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper self-score 78,59829 76,4330 80,7635 peer score 81,14530 79,4385 82,8521 teacher score 71,18803 66,8333 75,5428 a critically important aspect lies in the fact that the scores students assigned to their own pronunciation (m = 78.60; sd = 11.82) were signi`icantly higher than the scores they assigned to their english teachers’ pronunciation (m = 71.19; sd = 23.78), t (117) = 2.97, p < 0.01, d = 0.27). there was no signi`icant difference between self-scores (m = 78.60; sd = 11.82) and peer scores (m = 81.19; sd = 9.29) at the α = 0.01 level (t (117) = 2.18; p = 0.03) (see table 3). to examine the potential gender effects, a manova with three dependent variables—self-, peerand teacher-scores—was further performed; the analysis did not detect any statistically signi`icant gender effects on the combined dependent variables (wilks' λ = 0.95, f(3,96) = 1.82, p=0.15, η2=0.05). as a follow-up question to students rating their teachers’ pronunciation, students were asked to assess whether their teacher, was a good model of english pronunciation, with 4 likert-scale answers: “excellent”, “good”, “average”, and “poor” (figure 2). figure 2. student responses to the question:” was your high school english teacher a good model of english pronunciation? the responses ranged evenly across the “excellent” to “poor” continuum, with 39 students (28%) believing their teachers were excellent role models, 43 students (31%) assessing them as “good” role models, and an identical number of students—38, or 28%—deeming them to be average role models. only 18 students (13%) considered their teachers to be poor role models of english pronunciation. the subsequent question returned the focus to students, asking if they believed their own pronunciation needed improvement. out of the 5 likert scale options, most students (44%) gave a “probably yes” answer, 24% were less sure about that, selecting “might or might not”, and an equal number of students (14%) were either of the opinion that they “de`initely” needed improvement or “probably not”. finally, 4% answered with “de`initely not”. 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% poor average good excellent gen z efl students’ perceptions e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 66 further, we inquired whether students wished to sound native-like, by asking “how important is sounding native-like to you?” (figure 3). . figure 3. student responses to the question: “how important is sounding native-like to you”? the majority of students—41% and 26%—responded that it was “moderately important” or only “slightly important”, respectively. 15% admitted that it was “very important”, while 13% indicated it was “not at all important”. the minority (6%) admitted it was “extremely important” for them to sound native-like. the next question zeroed in on the speci`ic variety of english to see whether students’ exposure to mostly american content de`ined their aspirations, by asking “are you striving for british or american pronunciation?” with 4 options, “american”, “british”, “other” and “not striving” (figure 4). figure 4. student responses to the question: “are you striving for a british or american pronunciation?” the majority of respondents—54%—indicated that they were “not striving” at all; 29% were pursuing “american” english, 14% were pursuing “british”, while 4% were aiming for some “other variety”. finally, when asked “if you were given a chance to sound more native-like in english or more persuasive in english, which one would you pick?”, the overwhelming majority (75%) selected “sounding persuasive” rather than “sounding native-like”, indicating that sounding native-like was in fact not the priority for most. 4.2. the interviews in this study, a thematic analysis was conducted to examine data from the interviews with the students (n = 14). thematic analysis was carried out following the six phases outlined by braun and clarke (2006), which include familiarization with the data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, de`ining and naming themes, and producing the `inal report. the themes identi`ied in the data included: (1) american 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% not at all slightly important moderately important very important extremely important 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% other not striving american british banzina e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 67 content on social media as a dominant in`luence; (2) the increasing use of english with same-language peers; (3) english teachers’ pronunciation not matching the native speaker model; (4) students’ tolerance of nonnative english accents; (5) the low priority given to pronunciation instruction in schools; (6) the preference for native english-speaking teachers. most interviewees noted that their teachers were non-native speakers who aimed for a british accent with different success rates ranging from “a nice british accent” to “she pronounced “this” and “three” as [zis] and [sri:]”. the most common verb used among the respondents was “tried”—“the teacher tried to sound british”— acknowledging the teachers’ effort yet subtly suggesting that the outcome fell short of the students’ expectations. however, only two interviewees admitted that the accent bothered them because it was “forced” or “russian”, which was a native language not shared with the interviewee; 12 out of 14 respondents indicated that they were either not bothered by the accent at all, did not pay attention to it, or even liked it – “it was pleasant to listen to”. one student pointed to the generational gap by tolerantly stating that “at that time, teachers were taught that way, and that’s how they continue”. moreover, as seems to be the reality in most schools according to the interviewees, the pedagogical focus was on building vocabulary, developing writing skills and preparing for the `inal exams, so students ranked pronunciation much lower than the other skills due to external factors. as one respondent noted in a sweeping statement, “in latvian schools, no-one cares about pronunciation”, thus referring both to the pronunciation of the teachers and the generally low priority given to pronunciation teaching in class in general. most of the respondents noted that pronunciation instruction in class was limited to “the teacher only correcting mispronounced words if there were any” and “teaching how to pronounce advanced vocabulary” by “asking us to repeat the words“, thus taking the form of incidental corrections rather than a planned, systematic component of classroom teaching. one student noted that the teacher would only correct students’ pronunciation when reading shakespeare plays, indicating that instruction was also context-dependent. interestingly, with respect to the variety of english promoted in class, a few students reported that the teacher was accepting of different varieties and advised students “to stick to one way of pronouncing, and she did not say which was better, but asked us to be consistent”. one respondent, however, remarked that “the teacher enforced british pronunciation, but she failed miserably” because the students, according to the respondent, were not willing to give up their existing accents. this issue emerged only in the last few interviews, therefore its extent could not be fully explored, but the limited data indicate that treating a speci`ic accent as a prescriptive norm creates student resistance, especially in a context where global media have already shaped learners’ pronunciation preferences. most students, however, agreed that having a native-english-speaking teacher would be nice as “it could motivate me” in general, but there was no special interest in learning the pronunciation aspect of the language. next, the interviews uncovered another interesting observation: with the exception of two interviewees, most claimed to regularly engage in code-switching between their native language and english when talking to their friends who share the same `irst language. two individuals claimed to hold extended conversations exclusively in english with their same-language peers. this serves as additional evidence for the great in`luence of extramural english on gen z learners. the reasons cited for code switching were the fact that “certain topics are easier to express in english”, “emotions and everyday topics are easier to convey in english”, or “we use it just for practice”. these responses underscore the level of comfort students have developed with the english language, or, as some interviewees put it, “i often think in english” or “english is in our heads, and we don’t want to translate it”. this `inding aligns with de wilde and eyckmans (2017), who found that flemish children would sometimes use english rather than their l1 among themselves; the motivations behind such a choice, however, were not explored. 5. discussion this study was motivated by the practical concerns and questions that surround classroom pronunciation teaching and might be on many english teachers’ minds: if students have been exposed to nativelike english since an early age, what does their increased pro`iciency mean for nnests and pronunciation teaching in general? previous research has shown that extramural english has positively affected children’s vocabulary and grammar, and studies with young adults and adolescents have demonstrated a link between extramural english and pronunciation; the extent to which early and frequent exposure to extramural english can shape learners’ pronunciation and perceived accentedness, however, remains unclear. the present study is an exploration of english learners’ perceptions and relies on self-reports, thus it cannot make claims of causality, and reliability can be questioned in some instances (e.g., students citing their age of exposure to english, which will be addressed in greater detail in the next section). nevertheless, the study gen z efl students’ perceptions e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 68 does yield some interesting `indings about their pronunciation learning patterns, how the youth view their teachers’ pronunciation in response to the digital input they receive daily, how they rate their own performance, and whether they believe there is room for improvement. these observations are mostly placed in the geographical context of northeastern europe. despite variability in students’ and teachers’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds, the shared regional characteristics among these countries provide a meaningful context. the geographical area does matter, as studies from countries that broadcast subtitled movies and programs, such as belgium, the netherlands, denmark, iceland, or sweden show that children acquire english early, and to a great extent, due to subtitled tv that lets them hear original english input (kuppens, 2010; lindgren & muñoz, 2013; peters, 2018; lefever, 2010). in latvia, for example, voice-overs are commonly used in broadcast television programs, especially in children’s programming; the option to manually switch the media language to english is a fairly recent addition, and even then, it is not always possible. it is not surprising, then, that watching youtube has been cited as the main and most reliable source of accessible english-language content for students, likely due to the platform’s easy access. students also report watching movies and tv shows in english, all of which they identify as the most signi`icant in`luences on their pronunciation—surpassing the in`luence of their teachers. that answers our `irst research question about whether it is in-class experiences or out-of-class experiences that students feel have contributed to their pronunciation learning the most, and it seems that these days the in`luence of extramural english is so profound that classroom teaching in many cases is merely assisting the learning that is happening outside the classroom. this carries important implications for classroom teaching. students’ responses indicated that the average number of hours they spent on extramural english was 4 hours daily; the question speci`ically targeted their experiences before they started college, the intense curriculum of which might have affected this number considerably. the current study demonstrated that the input participants received was mostly american english (81%), which is not surprising, given that the most popular tv and youtube channels are american. consequently, 70% of respondents indicated that it was youtube, cartoons, tv programs and movies, and in very few instances, audiobooks and podcasts that had shaped their speech. this content forms the lens through which they see and hear english, and it is what teachers encounter in the classroom. the results con`irm previous ̀ indings of out-of-school exposure to english (kuppens, 2010; lindgren & muñoz, 2013; peters, 2018), which demonstrated that the main sources of extramural english were cartoons, tv shows, movies, youtube videos, songs, and computer games. contrary to the hypothesis that exposure to english audiovisual media would occur at an earlier age, the average age at which the respondents started to actively engage with it was cited as 7 years old. compared to studies that described preschool children’s active engagement with technologies (e.g., radesky & christakis, 2016), this might appear relatively late. a potential explanation is that children’s television programming in northeastern europe is generally dubbed or voiced-over, with the exception of music channels, leaving parents’ digital devices as the primary—and not particularly convenient—source of english-language media. another explanation for this might be that 18and 19-year-olds, or any adult for that matter, have dif`iculty providing a precise date for their `irst exposure at an early age due to the so-called “childhood amnesia” that prevents people from recalling early memories consistently up until the age of 6 – 8 (nelson et al., 2004) – precisely the age that the average respondent dated their `irst experiences to in our case. it was our hope that through parents’ reminiscing, photos and videos from that age, or via inferential strategies participants could reconstruct memories from that time, but the relatively high age of extramural english onset data suggests otherwise. furthermore, the correlational analyses showed that the age of exposure showed no correlation with pronunciation self-scores and had no predictive value in multiple regression, which is in line with ojima et al. (2011), who showed ̶ in the case of japanese primary school children ̶ that the hours spent on extramural english was a better predictor of their ability to semantically process spoken english than the age of their `irst exposure, or munoz (2014), who demonstrated that there is a stronger correlation between the amount of input received and measures of oral performance than the age at which exposure to english began. these and other studies (e.g., muñoz & singleton, 2011) challenge the long-standing critical period hypothesis (lenneberg, 1967; johnson & newport, 1989), which traditionally posits that earlier exposure to a language leads to more native-like attainment. while success in pronunciation acquisition is often associated with an early start, studies on l2 phonetic/phonological learning have similarly found that it is possible for late learners to achieve native-like performance in pronunciation (bongaerts et al., 1997), suggesting that attainment depends less on the mere age of onset and more on the extent and quality of the input received (flege et al., 2021). indeed, we found a moderately strong and signi`icant correlation between the hours spent on extramural english and one’s self-reported and peer-assessed pronunciation skills, indicating that the amount of input does matter—not only banzina e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 69 for speaking, reading and writing but also for pronunciation. the correlation, however, was not as strong as we expected, and we hypothesize that the age of 18 might be too late to reliably establish a connection between the amount of input and pronunciation pro`iciency as the audiovisual exposure may have changed considerably over the years (especially, if it started early); therefore, recent years might not be representative of the amount of exposure received in childhood. in response to research question 2, we further hypothesized that the intensive english input that gen z students receive outside the classroom would have made them competent and con`ident english users, and this con`idence would make them rate their own pronunciation fairly highly while being excessively critical of pronunciation that does not match the native-like pronunciation norms they have been exposed to via media; in many cases, this would include their non-native teachers. the `indings of our study showed that on a continuum from 0 to sounding native-like, the average student rated their own pronunciation in the top quartile of the scale (m = 78.60), which is fairly close to sounding native-like and indicates a high level of con`idence or competence, or both. this score showed a high correlation with the score their peers provided and there was no statistically signi`icant difference between the means, which provides some validity to the self-assessment. the next question of interest to this study then was how the students viewed their english teachers’ pronunciation in comparison to their own. the results revealed that their teachers’ pronunciation was rated as slightly below the students’ skill level (m = 71.90), showing that we have reached a point where students believe they are in fact doing better than their non-native teachers in certain aspects of english, which con`irms some of the fears and insecurities that teachers have about their own pronunciation. there is naturally great variability in their teachers’ pronunciation, with some having attained a more native-like pronunciation than others, so the `inding that students consistently rated themselves higher than their teachers—even across a diverse range of teacher pronunciation skills—adds to the robustness and generalizability of the results. additionally, there was no correlation between one’s self-score and teacher score: we anticipated that a high self-score could show a negative association with teacher score, making the self-assured student more critical of the non-native speakers around them. that, however, was not the case as no relationship was found. the question that arises, however, is whether the perceived lower score automatically marks the teacher as inferior and not a good model of english pronunciation because of their (mild) accent. are non-native accents viewed more negatively? the good news is that only 13% of students believed their teachers were poor role models; the majority, or 59% of students, believed that their non-native teachers were “excellent” or “good” role models in terms of pronunciation, demonstrating a great degree of acceptance of accents that might not perfectly match native-like norms. in fact, acceptance is a common pattern that interweaves the data and describes the gen z participants – acceptability in terms of the pronunciation of those around them and being content with their own pronunciation, which is also the answer to research question 3. contrary to our hypothesis that we advanced based on duryagin and dal maso (2022), newbold (2022) and timmis (2002) that demonstrated students’ eagerness to sound native-like, our respondents did not exhibit a comparable level of enthusiasm or preoccupation with achieving native-like speech. if anything, there was doubt palpable in student responses in whether their pronunciation need improvement – only 14% clearly indicated that they needed improvement, with most providing a cautious “probably yes” response, but 42% stating openly that they probably or clearly did not need any improvement. moreover, only 21% admitted that sounding native-like to them was “very” or “extremely important”, with most settling for a more modest “moderately” (41%) or “slightly important” (26%), or “not important at all” (13%). in line with this demonstrated contentment with the current state of their pronunciation, students also indicated that they were not particularly interested in sounding american – only 29% were pursuing american english, with most —54%—pointing out that they were happy with their current pronunciation and were not striving for any particular variety. this `inding mirrors earlier research from norway, which demonstrated a widespread preference among teenagers for a neutral accent over a native-like pronunciation (rindal & piercy, 2013). overall, gen z students come across as less critical and less fault-`inding of themselves and those around them, and such acceptance of differences and deviations from the “norm” has indeed been shown to characterize this generation (pew research center, 2020). this is good news for the multilingual, non-native-english-speaking world, where the shift from native-speaker-focused english toward international mutual intelligibility—the essence of which is captured in jenkins’ (2000) lingua franca core— and toward a multilingual, multicultural approach emphasizing language functionality and the teacher’s expertise rather than the variety they speak (mahboob, 2010) has been slow. the students thus seem to be accepting of local english varieties and practices, and their digital experience with the native-variety evidently gen z efl students’ perceptions e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 70 does not prevent them from appreciating—and speaking—the local variety, which then enables them to operate in a variety of phonetic environments. at the same time, it should be noted that the observed fairly moderate ambition to sound native-like in the current study could not be attributed to a less rigorous program or less motivated students, as ours is a top school in the region, and competition is `ierce. as proof that students are in fact motivated, the next question offered a choice between pragmatic and functional pronunciation teaching/learning goals and purely aesthetic goals; namely, students were offered a choice in the last question to pick persuasive english or native-like english as a goal. subsequently, an overwhelming 75% admitted that if given a chance, they would wish their english teacher would help them sound more persuasive or charismatic, which could help them in their careers. since students in the european context have often reached a high degree of intelligibility and comprehensibility, to a large degree owing it to their frequent and intensive exposure to english extramurally, teachers can offer their students new goals that can help them advance professionally, namely, sounding more assertive and persuasive. persuasiveness in certain instances is language-speci`ic and can be achieved with speci`ic phonetic means. for example, in the english language, consonant reinforcement, or extreme consonant lengthening with added articulatory energy, is a frequently used feature to convey a greater degree of assertiveness, importance and authority (see banzina, 2024); practicing a lower pitch and a deeper, hallower sound via lowering of the larynx would help students convey their leadership potential and sound more native-like at the same time (esling & wong, 1983; klofstad, 2016); similarly, falling intonation patterns—unlike rising, which are common in student production nowadays—would signal con`idence and certainty (jiang & pell, 2017). working on persuasiveness goals lets students focus on select native-like pronunciation aspects that are of professional signi`icance and yield tangible bene`its. such communicative goals could serve as a realistic alternative to sounding simply native-like, as most features can be easily mastered by non-native speakers. 6. conclusions teachers now have to adapt their teaching practices not only to include the latest technologies, but also to accommodate the fact that, due to these technologies, students feel more comfortable with english than ever. the fact that they grew up with a tablet or a smartphone means that they have been exposed to english content way earlier in their lives than their teachers, who had to adapt to the digital world at some point in their lives. generation z, in fact, were born into the digital world and were exposed to their share of english via social media sites and cartoons starting from at pre-school age, as per learners’ account of their earliest memories. they spend hours every day listening to and watching native speakers online, and this input has undoubtedly shaped their own pronunciation. this study zeroed in on digital natives’ perception of the importance of nativelike pronunciation, their teachers’ pronunciation and their own, and showed that students are con`ident about their pronunciation, with intelligibility and comprehensibility—the fundamentals of one’s ability to be understood in a foreign language—generally not being a problem in the setting of northeastern europe. conditioned by the native input they receive daily, they tend to view their non-native english teachers’ pronunciation as slightly inferior to their own. however, they generally do not see it as a problem and exhibit the same relaxed con`idence about their own pronunciation, not striving to sound perfectly native-like but being fairly content with the level of functional pronunciation they have already achieved. for teachers in the european context, this often means they can focus on goals other than pronunciation, or on more advanced pronunciation goals, such as persuasiveness in communication. with respect to research in general, the limitations of this study could be addressed in future work by using more objective and external assessments of both students’ and teachers’ pronunciation, such as evaluations by trained phoneticians instead of selfreports. references aiello, jacqueline, & mongibello, anna (2019). supporting efl learners with a virtual environment: a focus on l2 pronunciation. journal of e-learning and knowledge society, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1444 banzina, elina (2024). exploring phonetic cues to persuasive oral presentation: a study with british english speakers and english l2 learners. language teaching research, 28(5), 1777-1796. https://doi.org/10.1177/136216882110376 banzina e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 71 bernat, eva (2008). towards a pedagogy of empowerment: the case of ‘impostor syndrome’ among pre-service non-native speaker teachers in tesol. english language teacher education and development, 11(1), 18. bongaerts, teo, van summeren, chantal, planken, brigitte, & schils, erik (1997). age and ultimate attainment in the pronunciation of a foreign language. studies in second language acquisition, 19(4), 447-465. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263197004026 brauchli, valérie, sticca, fabio, edelsbrunner, peter, von wyl, agnes, & lannen, patricia (2024). are screen media the new paci`iers? the role of parenting stress and parental attitudes for children's screen time in early childhood. computers in human behavior, 152, 108057. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.108057 braun, virginia, & clarke, victoria (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa chik, alice. 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(2020). can captioned video bene`it second language pronunciation? studies in second language acquisition, 42(3), 599–624. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263120000029 world population review (2025). top youtubers by country 2025. yibokou, kossi seto (2023). in`luence of television series on pronunciation. in denyze toffoli, paul sabatier, geoffrey sockett, and meryl kusyk, (eds.), language learning and leisure: informal language learning in the digital age (pp. 121-140). de gruyter mouton. gen z efl students’ perceptions e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 74 appendix online survey questions 1. create a short code name for yourself (for anonymity purposes), enter it in the space below, and tell it to your classmates. now ask 3 of your classmates to rate your pronunciation as you read the following: “when the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. the rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. these take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. there is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. people look, but no one ever finds it.” 2. now rate the pronunciation of 3 of your classmates as they read the same passage. write down each classmate's (i) code name and (ii) score from 0 (poor) to 100 (native-like): 3. at what age did you start consuming english content (audio, video)? 4. what is your earliest childhood memory using english? 5. what/who has affected your pronunciation the most? 6. how many hours daily did you spend on english media (audio, video) before entering our school? 7. do you mostly consume british or american content, or do you prefer other english varieties? (a) american; (b) british; (c) other (specify) 8. are you striving for a british or american pronunciation, if at all? (a) american; (b) british; (c) other (specify) 9. please rate your english pronunciation now, from 0 (poor) to 100 (native-like): 10. does your pronunciation need improvement? – select choice 11. how important to you is sounding native-like? – select choice 12. your high school english teacher was: (a) a native english speaker; (b) a non-native english speaker 13. if your high school english teacher was a non-native speaker, please rate their pronunciation from 0 (poor) to 100 (native-like): 14. was your high school english teacher a good model of english pronunciation? – select choice 15. did your high school english teacher address pronunciation in class? – select choice 16. if “yes”, what features did your teacher address, and how? 17. if “yes”, was pronunciation a special component of your english class? 18. if you were given a chance to sound more native-like in english or more persuasive in english, which one would you pick? – select choice banzina e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 58-75 75 elina banzina, stockholm school of economics in riga, department of languages and communication elina.banzina@sseriga.edu en elina banzina is an assistant professor at the stockholm school of economics in riga. her research focuses on english pronunciation learning and teaching, second-language speech perception and production, and the phonetics, use, and perception of persuasive speech in english from a cross-linguistic perspective. es elina banzina es profesora adjunta en la escuela de economía de estocolmo en riga. su investigación se centra en el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de la pronunciación del inglés, la percepción y la producción del habla en una segunda lengua, y la fonética, el uso y la percepción del discurso persuasivo en inglés desde una perspectiva interlingüística. it elina banzina è ricercatrice universitaria presso la stockholm school of economics di riga. la sua ricerca si concentra sull'apprendimento e l'insegnamento della pronuncia inglese, sulla percezione e la produzione del parlato in una seconda lingua e sulla fonetica, l'uso e la percezione del discorso persuasivo in inglese da una prospettiva interlinguistica. microsoft word strong 30.06.docx euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, special issue, volume 12, issue 1, june 2025, pages 115-143 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.1.3335 www.e-journall.org © strong 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. moving from theory to practice: applying the four meta-literacy model to the business communication classroom jane strong university of wisconsin-eau claire received 31 january 2025; accepted 9 june 2025 abstract en the multiple mixed-method case studies approach responds to the need for multimodal literacy and multiliteracies assessment in higher education to address the current digital workplace communication gap. the 4ml theoretical model for digital multimodal communication provided the basis for a scoring rubric and an analytical framework for multimodal content analysis. the model was an effective tool for diagnosing multimodal composers’ literacy levels in digital literacy, multimedia skill literacy, multimodal design literacy, and rhetorical literacy. additionally, the visual analysis of undergraduate multimodal slide decks provided qualitative insight into multiliteracies’ strengths and gaps. the findings support the use of the 4ml model in business and professional communication classrooms to enhance digital multimodal communication competencies. key words: multimodal communication, multiliteracies, multimodal literacy, digital literacy es este estudio de casos múltiples y de método mixto responde a la necesidad de evaluar la alfabetización multimodal y las multialfabetizaciones en la educación superior para abordar la brecha de comunicación digital en el contexto laboral. el modelo teórico 4ml para la comunicación multimodal digital sentó las bases para una rúbrica de puntuación y un marco analítico para el análisis de contenido multimodal. el modelo resultó ser una herramienta eficaz para diagnosticar los niveles de alfabetización de los compositores multimodales en alfabetización digital, habilidades multimedia, diseño multimodal y retórica. además, el análisis visual de presentaciones multimodales de estudiantes universitarios proporcionó una perspectiva cualitativa sobre las fortalezas y las deficiencias de la multialfabetización. los hallazgos respaldan el uso del modelo 4ml en las aulas de comunicación empresarial y profesional para mejorar las competencias de comunicación multimodal digital. palabras clave: comunicación multimodal, multialfabetizaciones, alfabetización multimodal, alfabetización digital it lo studio, di casi diversi e condotto con metodo misto, risponde alla necessità di valutare le alfabetizzazioni multimodali e multiple a livello d’istruzione superiore, per far fronte al divario di comunicazione digitale sul posto di lavoro. il modello teorico 4ml per la comunicazione digitale multimodale ha posto le basi per una rubrica di valutazioni e un quadro analitico per l’indagine di contenuti multimodali. il modello è risultato uno strumento utile a determinare i livelli di competenza multimodale degli autori, la competenza nella manualità multi-digitale, la competenza nella progettazione multimodale e la competenza retorica. in più, l’analisi visuale di slide multimodali di studenti ha fornito una prospettiva qualitativa sui punti di forza e di debolezza delle alfabetizzazioni multiple. i risultati supportano l’uso del modello 4ml nei corsi di comunicazione aziendale e professionale, per migliorare le competenze digitali multimodali. parole chiave: comunicazione multimodale, alfabetizzazioni multiple, alfabetizzazione multimodale, alfabetizzazione digitale  jane strong, university of wisconsin-eau claire strongje@uwec.edu strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 116 1. introduction a digitally literate workforce is essential in a business environment characterized by technological disruption (weritz, 2022). as new communication technologies rapidly disrupt the digital workplace, organizations must hire competent employees and develop their current workforce. to meet these demands, corporations must identify skills gaps within their human capital to upskill or reskill employees. the business communication environment is both digital and multimodal (dias et al., 1999), necessitating an understanding of digital multimodal communication and related literacies for those training the future workforce. despite ongoing discussions in academic and professional literature about closing the skills gap (brent, 2011; coffelt, et al., 2019; winiarski, 2023), gaps remain, particularly in visual communication. employers often categorize visual communication as either nonverbal communication or data visualizations (coffelt et al., 2019), highlighting the need for shared terminology in multiliteracies and multimodal communication when training professional communicators. professional communication has evolved, making monomodal communication rare. common workplace artifacts now combine text with images, icons, charts, shapes, color, layout, audio, and hyperlinks to enhance meaning and support accessibility. slide decks, created in software like powerpoint, keynote, and google slides, are ubiquitous in the workplace and are inherently multimodal (serafini, 2014). twenty-first-century business communication is characterized by multimodal ensembles such as slide decks, data visualizations, social media posts, and email marketing. although slide decks are widely used, their effectiveness has been questioned, with issues like "death by powerpoint" (tufte, 2003) and poor use of presentation software causing excessive cognitive load (knaflic, 2015). professional communicators need multiple literacies, including visual and multimodal communication, to navigate the digital multimodal landscape effectively. the new "visual economy" (canva, 2024) dominated by digital multimodal ensembles has transformed workplace communication, with consumers expecting engaging and visually rich messaging. to address the workplace gap, business communication programs in higher education must train students to be multimodally literate communicators in digital spaces. a common approach is to require students to create and present multimodal slide decks for summative projects. however, evaluating multimodal literacy and assessing multimodal communication ensembles remains challenging. instructors need to understand what it means to be multimodally literate to train their students effectively. the purpose of this research is to examine how the four meta-literacies (4ml) model can be used to evaluate students' digital multimodal communication literacy, addressing both the workplace communication gap and the multimodal communication assessment gap in the literature. this multiple case study used the 4ml model to evaluate student slides created at the beginning and end of the semester, following explicit instruction in digital multimodal communication. 2. literature review 2.1. digital multimodal communication dias et al. (1999) argued that modern business communication is characterized by multimodality. daily workplace communication is digitally crafted using combinations of modes that together make new meaning. ubiquitous communication artifacts like email and slide decks include multiple modes in one communication piece. examples of common modes incorporated into decking and emails include color, layout, text, shapes, sound, icons, and images. not only does digital multimodal communication provide deeper, richer meaning than monomodal communication, it can reach a more diverse audience because it does not rely exclusively on textual language to communicate. 2.2. multimodal literacy assessment multimodal literacy is rooted in the work of the new london group (cazden et al., 1996) who called for new pedagogies that incorporate multiliteracies to prepare learners for communication in a new digital landscape. multimodality was coined by kress (kress, 2010; lauer, 2009) to describe the communication phenomenon of multiple modes combining to create new meaning. old mono-communication forms were being disrupted by innovative technologies which made it easier to combine textual and visual communication into a single message through digital technologies. with the advent of the world wide web, visual communication was no longer an afterthought or decorative add-on when constructing messages. effective content creators applying the four meta-literacy model 117 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 were those who could integrate visual information with textual information to craft rich multimodal messages that could be decoded with ease and added depth of meaning. professional and business communication scholarship has recognized the need to train communicators to be multimodally literate (andrews, 2022; bourelle et al., 2017; brumberger, 2007; coffelt et al., 2022; lauer, 2009). as noted, closing the gap studies in workplace communication have shown multimodal literacy to be lacking. coffelt et al. (2019) suggested the training “devoted to writing, speaking, and visualizing” should be “foregrounded in multimodal communication” (p. 434). the terms multimodality and multimodal literacy have created challenges for scholars and instructors in higher education. reid et al. (2016) encountered challenges in a cross-disciplinary study on faculty use of the term multimodality in their pedagogy. although multimodality was the more correct term, they chose to use multimedia instead because it would be “most familiar and meaningful to those outside” composition and communication scholarship (p. 6). by not explicitly using multimodal terminology when describing the communication phenomena, a “shared vocabulary” will be difficult to achieve (p. 17). bourelle et al. (2017) called for the infusion of multimodal pedagogies into online courses to train students in skills that will “serve students in the workplace long after the class has ended” (p. 82). the authors emphasize the explicit use of multimodal terminology, definitions, and practices to enable learners to be multiliterate communicators. for “without the explicit emphasis on multimodal literacy, students fail to see the connection between what they are being asked to do and what they are expected to learn” (p. 83). as indicated, digital multimodal communication is a skill that needs to be taught and a concept that needs to be explicitly discussed in business communication classrooms. to reach that objective, alternative assessment approaches need to be implemented that are more suited to multiliteracies pedagogy and multimodal literacy. a theory-based multimodal design rubric was posited by hung et al. (2013) for formative assessments of slide decks in a higher education setting. the five dimensions directly corresponded to the literacies put forth by the new london group (cazden et al.,1996). the rubric was created for “practical application” of multiliteracies and multimodal theory (p. 4). according to the authors, their rubric design allows users to adapt the rubric to their own purposes by adding to the criteria. in their action research study, hung et al. used the rubric to assess slide deck presentations created by university students. over the 18-week course, student slide deck presentations were assessed three times. students were split into two groups for the study: a control and an exploratory group. the first assessment using the theory-based rubric was a formative assessment that served as a baseline for the study. following the baseline assessment, the learners received instruction in multimodality and delivered a second presentation. all students met with their instructor to receive oral feedback on their oral performances, but only the exploratory group were introduced to the multimodal rubric and received explicit feedback based on it. the final presentation was scored again using the same rubric. the summative assessment was used by researchers to make comparisons across the three presentations. compared to the control group, the exploratory group performed better across the five dimensions of the rubric following revisions of their slide decks. both groups noted, in a learning perception survey, the effectiveness of the formative assessment to support their learning process in multimodal content creation. 2.3. research gap the present study addressed multimodal assessment gaps in the literature. hung et al. (2013) expressed the “urgent need” for alternative assessment devices to support student digital multimodal literacy development and attainment (p. 409). the need for multimodal evaluation tools was also expressed by tan et al. (2020) who argued for assessment tools to measure “students’ multimodal literacies” (p. 107). the next section will provide background for the 4ml model. 3. theoretical background of the 4ml model the 4ml model for digital multimodal communication (strong, 2022) was constructed in response to the complex and swiftly evolving communication environment in modern workplaces (ross et al., 2020; sparks et al., 2016). workplace communication demands have evolved and continue to evolve as new technologies disrupt traditional communication norms and practices. digital transformation requires that employees possess the ability to multimodally express ideas across multiple channel choices (mcgrail et al., 2021). to address this need, higher education courses must be equipped with digital multimodal pedagogies to train students to be effective communicators in the workplace. multimodality and multiliteracies are difficult concepts that have been criticized by educators as being too theoretical to have any practical classroom use strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 118 (cloonan, 2011). the 4ml model addresses the need for an approachable model in digital multimodal communication that has practical pedagogical value in business communication classrooms. it addresses terminology troubles that plague multimodality and multiliteracies (tseronis & forceville, 2017). 3.1. foundations of the 4ml model multimodality asserts that all communication is constructed of multiple semiotic modes that harmoniously combine to create meaning (kress, 2010). additionally, others have concluded that all digital text is multimodal in nature (tan et al., 2015). rooted in the semiotic tradition and multimodality, the 4ml model is underpinned by the early work of saussure and peirce (deely & semetsky, 2017; rose, 2007). other theorists like barthes (1967), halliday (1978), and kress (2010) contributed to the evolution of social semiotics and multimodal theory. in 1994, the new london group met to discuss the need for new pedagogies to address the new digital landscape (cazden et al., 1996). as witnesses to a remarkable period of digital disruption, the group of ten scholars envisioned a new worker who possessed multiple literacies to effectively communicate across digital multimodal spaces. to say their seminal work on multiliteracies and multimodality has been influential is an understatement. scholars from a variety of traditions and disciplines have noted how important multiliteracy development is (liang & lim, 2021). since the late 20th century, multiliteracies and multimodality have become intertwined and synonymous (lauer, 2009). in the 4ml model, multiliteracies and multimodality are used interchangeably (strong, 2022). strong (2022) previously discussed the digital workplace skills gap. digital multimodal communication skills are essential in the workplace (lodewick, 2022). according to experts, a digital workplace gap exists with nearly 75% of workers lacking the digital multimodal skills demanded (conklin, 2022). employees lack multimodal communication competencies in areas such as digital content creation, content design, and data visualization creation (solis, 2022). slide decks made in presentation software like powerpoint and google slides are ubiquitous in the workplace (knight, 2015). the digital communication technology requires composers to select and combine multiple semiotic modes for meaning making. despite prioritizing slide decks as multimodal content creation projects to train professional communicators for digital workplaces (brumberger, 2005), bad slide decks persist. 3.2. development of the 4ml model strong (2022) used qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis (qims) to construct the 4ml model for digital multimodal communication. originally developed for social work research, qims is a structured approach for handling a large body of diverse literature to achieve a synergistic understanding, or “web of knowledge,” of the phenomenon (aguirre & bolton, 2014, p. 283). the interpretive methodology results in a broader understanding of the topic and is used to “develop theory and to inform practice” (p. 279). researchers employing this method are encouraged to “cast a broad net” when collecting the body of literature for the study (p. 284). the characteristic wide net includes books, grey literature, and studies from multiple disciplines. qims is an interpretive rather than an aggregate approach found in meta-analysis types of methods (leary & walker, 2018). the iterative rather than linear nature of qims allows the researcher to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the phenomenon while following cross disciplinary trails in the literature. using qims, a number of frameworks were examined using keyword searches and the new london group’s (cazden et al., 1996) article as foundation (strong, 2022). close readings and memo taking of frameworks and taxonomies allowed for comparisons and connections—both explicit and implicit. a chronology of nine frameworks were chosen for the data corpus and included in the analytical template (cazden et al., 1996; cook, 2002; eshet-alkalai, 2004; feerrar, 2019; gallagher, 2020; mcgrail et al., 2021; ng, 2012; selber, 2004; sindoni et al., 2022). themes were extracted from each framework which were used for category construction in a process which was both inductive and deductive. the categories subsequently became the meta-literacies dimensions—digital literacy, multimedia skill literacy, multimodal design literacy, and rhetorical literacy. concurrently, definitional literature was collected in a separate qims analysis involving keyword searches (digital literacy, multimedia literacy, multiliteracies, multimodal literacy, multimodality, rhetorical literacy) and following the threads to find the original definitions for the four meta-literacies. the broad net unearthed related literacies such as computer literacy, data literacy, information literacy, media literacy, rhetorical literacy, silicon literacy, and visual literacy. an analytical table was used to extract the themes and construct the definitions for the four meta-literacies. applying the four meta-literacy model 119 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 3.3. construction of the 4ml model the former comprehensive study of multiliteracies and multimodality resulted in the 4ml model for digital multimodal communication (strong, 2022). in multimodality and multiliteracies, shared terminology and definitions are key to having a shared understanding. lauer (2009) makes a strong case for the importance of naming and having a shared language in multimodality and multiliteracies. the term meta-literacy was coined to describe the four dimensions or “definitional buckets” in digital multimodal communication (strong, 2022, p. 57). the term is closely related to metaliteracy--a term used in library science (mackey & jacobson, 2011). metaliteracy, in information science, carries the idea that the learner has a growing awareness of their own multiple literacies and how each literacy functions (senapatiratne, 2021). this meta-awareness helps them in their development of needed skills and competencies. the use of meta-literacies in the 4ml model is informed by these ideals. the four dimensions for the 4ml model for digital multimodal communication are digital literacy, multimedia literacy, multimodal design literacy, and rhetorical literacy (strong, 2022). the sections that follow will provide definitions and key information about each meta-literacy. 3.3.1. digital literacy digital literacy is defined in the 4ml model as the “ability to locate and critically evaluate information in multiple modalities found on a variety of digital spaces, and to demonstrate respectful and responsible use of information and intellectual property in digital multimodal communication” (strong, 2022, p. 170). simply put, digital communication is the respectful and responsible use of information and intellectual property (e.g. information, images, brand logos, charts, data). this complements one of the early definitions of digital literacy from paul gilster who wrote the 1997 book digital literacy. he wrote that digital literacy is “the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers” (p. 1). gilster’s (1997) definition has been widely circulated since that time and informed both feerrar (2019) and eshet-alkakai’s (2004) digital literacy frameworks. interestingly, eshet-alkalai’s digital literacy framework is a “top 10” digital literacy framework with over 655 citations for the work (pangrazio et al., 2020, p. 447). although the term has been muddied (see lauer, 2009; secker, 2018; tseronis & forceville, 2017), the central concept of respectful and responsible use of information has been included in digital and multimodal frameworks since the 1990s. categories extracted from a chronology of meta-literacies and multiliteracies frameworks to construct the 4ml model (strong, 2022) that encapsulate digital literacy concepts are ethical literacy (cook, 2002; feerrar, 2019; gallagher, 2020), information literacy (eshet-alkakai, 2004; ng, 2012), functional literacy (selber, 2004), online etiquette literacy (ng, 2012), and originality (mcgrail et al., 2021; sindoni et al., 2022). 3.3.2. multimedia skill literacy in the 4ml model, strong (2022) defined multimedia skill literacy as the “technical skills and competencies needed to create, curate, and distribute using digital multimodal communication technologies” (p. 170). multimedia was a term that kress (2010) took exception to. he argued that its use created confusion between “past practices” and “present givens” (p. 30). kress did offer an important distinction between multimedia and multimodality. kress perceived multimedia as “cultural technologies of dissemination” and multimodality as “cultural technologies of representation” (pp. 30-31). lauer (2009) created clear boundaries between multimedia and multimodality describing multimedia as the production process (skill) and multimodality as the design process (design). competency has early connections to literacy in digital spaces. in the late twentieth century, digital literacy was described as “core competencies” needed to survive the internet age (gilster, 1997, pg. 28). the connection between competencies, or skills, and multiliteracies is a theme throughout the literature as theorists struggled with the balance between theory and technological skill. literacies from other frameworks that informed digital literacy as a dimension of the 4ml model (strong, 2022) are technical literacy (cook, 2002; ng, 2012), technological literacy (gallagher, 2020), digital technologies (sindoni et al., 2022), reproduction literacy (eshet-alkakai, 2004), and functional literacy (selber, 2004). 3.3.3. multimodal design literacy multimodal design literacy is described as the “ability to effectively communicate meaning through multiple modalities such as language, text, audio, visual, gestures, facial expression, design choices, color, animation, and other semiotic resources in digital multimodal communication environments” (strong, 2022). strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 120 multimedia and multimodality are often used as synonyms for each other to avoid confusion when addressing audiences outside academia. as multimedia is widely understood, some scholars have intentionally used the term over the more accurate term multimodality. adding to the confusion, multimedia and multimodality are terms used interchangeably in multiliteracies and multimodal communication literature. for ball (2012), the usage depends upon the audience. students are more familiar with multimedia than they are with multimodality. despite terminology debates in multimodality and multiliteracies, reid et al. (2016) chose to use multimedia over multimodal for the survey instrument in their multimodal communication study because of audience familiarity with multimedia. in the multimodal and multiliteracies scholarship, mode has been commonly associated with design (bourelle et al., 2017). multimodal design literacy was constructed using qims methodology and is informed by the following literacy categories: photo-visual literacy (eshet-alkakai, 2004), multimodality (ng, 2012), multimodal literacy (gallagher, 2020), mode and meaning (mcgrail et al., 2021), and multimodal orchestration (sindoni et al., 2022). 3.3.4. rhetorical literacy in the 4ml model, strong (2022) defined rhetorical literacy as possessing the “social, cultural, and emotional acumen needed to make appropriate rhetorical choices about communication including audience evaluation, purpose, and persuasive devices (ethos, pathos, logos) for digital multimodal communication” (p. 170). simply put, it shows evidence of purposeful and audience-centric communication. as kress (2010) explained, social semiotic multimodality “demands a rhetorical approach to communication” (p. 26). rhetorical literacy is a common theme throughout multiliteracies literature. one of the earliest multiliteracies frameworks was constructed by cook (2002). cook postulated six literacies to inform 21st century technical writing because the historical frames that guided business communicators were no longer adequate. the existing frameworks did not “fully articulate the multiple literacies necessary” for workplace success (p. 8). another early conceptual framework for multiliteracies was proposed by selber (2004) in his book, multiliteracies for a digital age. selber’s model, “the conceptual landscape of computer multiliteracies program,” included the following three categories: functional literacy, critical literacy, and rhetorical literacy. bourelle et al. (2017) emphasized the importance of considering the audience and purpose in "any given rhetorical situation” including multimodal compositions in business and technical communication (p. 224). rhetorical literacy is informed by other framework categories including rhetorical literacy (cook, 2002; gallagher, 2020; selber 2004), social literacy (cook, 2002), social-emotional literacy (eshet-alkakai, 2004), critical literacy (selber, 2004), social-emotional dimension (ng, 2012), socio-cultural literacy (gallagher, 2020), audience (mcgrail et al., 2021), and transversal skills (sindoni et al., 2022). 3.4. simplified terminology strong (2022) recognized the need for simplified terminology to apply the four dimensions of the 4ml model to business communication. to provide practical application, the 4ml theoretical model postulated one-word descriptors for each dimension. for digital literacy, the prevailing theme was responsibility for information being used and communicated. for multimedia literacy, the theme was skill in creating and distributing digital multimodal communication. for multimodal communication, the theme was design knowledge for incorporating semiotic modes and design theories. for rhetorical literacy, the theme was audience indicating the need for audience and situational analysis. although the one-word descriptors may be too narrow in scope, there remains a need for simplified language to bridge the theoretical to the practical. more work needs to be done to make the 4ml framework more approachable for business communication practitioners and trainers. 4. methodology this multiple case investigation tests the 4ml theoretical model as an assessment tool in a higher education classroom. the intent of the study is to respond to the following research questions using a mixed method approach: how can the four meta-literacies model be used to evaluate multimodal artifacts in a business communication classroom? how does a visual analysis of slide decks inform the four meta-literacies model? applying the four meta-literacy model 121 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 4.1. study design as part of the mixed method study, a scoring rubric was used to evaluate student created slide decks from two semesters of a single undergraduate business communication course. a multimodal content analysis (ledin & machin, 2020; serafini, 2022; serafini & reid, 2023) of the slide decks was conducted in order to construct themes. the multiple case study involved two stages of analysis: within-case and cross-case (merriam, 1998). case one, which examined multimodal slide deck ensembles from spring semester 2022, was completed first. case two followed with an examination of slide decks from fall semester 2022. once each case was completed, cross-case analysis was performed to examine patterns across the two cases (yin, 2018). in this inquiry, the two cases were separate semesters of the same business communication course (bcom 308: technology for business communication). the undergraduate class was an elective course offering for the business communication certificate at a midwestern university in the united states. while the certificate was housed in the business communication department within the college of business, non-business students could add the certificate to their degree. even so, most students in the class were business majors. students were either juniors or seniors due to course prerequisites. enrollment demographics varied by semester. in spring 2022, the course had 12 female-identifying and 8 male-identifying students. in fall 2022, enrollment included 9 female-identifying and 14 male-identifying students. this study drew from existing data found in the canvas learning management system archives. in both spring 2022 and fall 2022, undergraduate business students completed a personal audit slide deck presentation of their use of communication technologies. following the initial project, students received explicit instruction in the 4ml model for digital multimodal communication. their final course project was a personal pitch deck, much like a visual resume, to highlight their achievements, strengths, and skills. the course outline, learning objectives, syllabus, and major assignments remained consistent from spring semester 2022 to fall semester 2022. the same instructor and lecture slide decks were used for both semesters, ensuring consistency in instruction and content delivery. the course workflow can be seen in figure 1. figure 1. bcom 308 course workflow 4.2. data collection following approval by the university’s review board, existent data was collected from two semesters of the bcom 308: technology for business communication course. artifacts collected for the study included self-audit slide deck presentations and personal pitch deck presentations. all decks were completed in powerpoint software. in spring 2022, all enrolled students created screencasts of their audit presentations and strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 122 shared the presentations via a discussion board on the canvas learning management system. because they used a variety of software to create the screencasts, only 17 out of the original 20 self-audit presentations were still available because the links had expired. all 20 pitch decks were still available for collection and analysis. for the fall 2022 semester, there were 23 students enrolled. one student did not complete the self-audit assignment, so only 22 slide decks were collected. similarly, for the pitch deck, 22 slide decks were submitted. 4.3. data analysis initial audit slide decks and end-of-the-semester pitch decks were evaluated for this study. the decks were rubric scored and comparisons were made in-case and cross-case. multimodal content analysis was conducted on the slide decks to construct overall themes that inform the 4ml model. 4.3.1. rubric scoring using 4ml rubrics are useful for evaluating literacy in higher education (knight, 2006; oakleaf, 2009;). the scoring framework offers an objective diagnostic tool to examine areas of strengths and areas for improvement guiding both instructors and students (makani-lim et al., 2014). rubric design includes categories, indicators, and scoring strategy (reddy & andrade, 2010). the categories for the scoring rubric used in this study were the four meta-literacies taken from the 4ml model for digital multimodal communication—digital literacy, multimedia skill literacy, multimodal design literacy, and rhetorical literacy. similar to oakleaf (2009), the analytical rubric provided a score for each separate category. the scoring strategy incorporated a scale of 1-5 (figure 2). the strategy was informed by hung et al. (2013) who used a 5-point analytical rubric to assess multimodal composition in slide decks with (1) representing poor cohesion and (5) representing excellent cohesion to the design criteria. the scoring rubric was tested and refined before applying to the entire data corpus. because slide decks are digital multimodal ensembles, each slide deck was evaluated as one unit. 4ml scoring rubric for digital multimodal communication ensembles definition mastery 5 points proficient 4 points developing 3 points emerging 2 points beginning 1 point digital literacy demonstrates ethical and respectful use of content, provides proper attribution, avoids privacy issues, shows respectful reuse content (e.g., follows brand style guides for aspect ratio and color) demonstrates complete mastery of the skills and competencies demonstrates considerable mastery of the skills and competencies demonstrates partial mastery of the skills and competencies. most criteria are met. demonstrates limited mastery of the skills and competencies. many criteria are not met. demonstrates no mastery of the skills and competencies. multimedia skill avoids use of presets and defaults (templates, color schemes, fonts, layouts), demonstrates advanced skills (transitions, animation), shows ability to produce related artifacts (e.g., pdf, jpeg, png, screencast, notes), knowledge regarding pixel size, checkered demonstrates complete mastery of the skills and competencies demonstrates considerable mastery of the skills and competencies demonstrates partial mastery of the skills and competencies. most criteria are met. demonstrates limited mastery of the skills and competencies. many criteria are not met. demonstrates no mastery of the skills and competencies. applying the four meta-literacy model 123 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 backgrounds show lack of knowledge re: file types multimodal design demonstrates consistent and intentional use of multiple modes (color, images, fonts, shapes, layout composition, movement to support message, use of salience to focus message, shows congruency between design and message, demonstrates knowledge of gestalt principles, shows creativity in design demonstrates complete mastery of the skills and competencies demonstrates considerable mastery of the skills and competencies demonstrates partial mastery of the skills and competencies. most criteria are met. demonstrates limited mastery of the skills and competencies. many criteria are not met. demonstrates no mastery of the skills and competencies. rhetorical literacy appropriate for audience (i.e., accessibility, cognitive load), creates for audience appeal not self-appeal, purpose is evident, shows logical flow of information and organization, demonstrates credibility through professionalism (including grammar), constructs a persuasive communication demonstrates complete mastery of the skills and competencies demonstrates considerable mastery of the skills and competencies demonstrates partial mastery of the skills and competencies. most criteria are met. demonstrates limited mastery of the skills and competencies. many criteria are not met. demonstrates no mastery of the skills and competencies. figure 2. criteria for scoring 4.3.2. multimodal content analysis multimodal content analysis (mmca) is a systematic, interpretivist visual methodology underpinned by multimodality theories and qualitative content analysis (serafini, 2022). unlike quantitative content analysis approaches characterized by large data sets, mmca studies tend to focus on “manageable data sets” that fall somewhere between 20 and 100 units of evaluation (serafini, 2022, p. 79). social semiotic multimodal researchers recognize that multimodal texts have multiple meaning-making potential as modes combine to create new meaning shaped by sociocultural influences. slide decks, also referred to as presentation slides, are a widely used form of multimodal texts that require creators to “think visually and often multimodally” (hung et al., 2013, p. 401). they are an example of “digital ensembles that utilize more than one mode to represent meaning potentials” (serafini, 2022, p. 78). mmca applies both inductive and deductive reasoning into its multiple-step process. the construction and utilization of an analytical framework is central to the strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 124 methodology. the analytical framework categories are developed inductively from the data corpus itself following close readings and theoretical memo taking, or deductively from categories developed in previous studies (serafini, 2022). the analytical template will often go through multiple iterations as it is tested and refined and retested using samples from the data corpus. case: participant id: assignment: definition 5 4 3 2 1 0 notes digital literacy demonstrates ethical and respectful use of content, provides proper attribution, avoids privacy issues, shows respectful reuse content (e.g., follows brand style guides for aspect ratio and color) multimedia skill avoids use of presets and defaults (templates, color schemes, fonts, layouts), demonstrates advanced skills (transitions, animation), shows ability to produce related artifacts (e.g., pdf, jpeg, png, screencast, notes), knowledge regarding pixel size, checkered backgrounds show lack of knowledge re: file types multimodal design demonstrates consistent and intentional use of multiple modes (color, images, fonts, shapes, layout composition, movement to support message, use of salience to focus message, shows congruency between design and message, demonstrates knowledge of gestalt principles, shows creativity in design rhetorical literacy appropriate for audience (i.e., accessibility, cognitive load), creates for audience appeal not self-appeal, purpose is evident, shows logical flow of information and organization, demonstrates credibility through professionalism (including grammar), constructs a persuasive communication additional notes: figure 3. the analytical template the visual analysis was conducted concurrently with the rubric scoring using the same analytical template (figure 3). memo taking and close reading, characteristics of multimodal content analysis (serafini, 2022), were incorporated into the analysis phase. the rubric scoring form and the qualitative analytical template were combined into one analytical template due to the overlapping categories—digital literacy, multimedia skill literacy, multimodal design literacy, and rhetorical literacy. the analytical template with the scoring rubric was tested on five slide deck ensembles and improvements were made prior to applying it to the entire data corpus. figure 4 illustrates the data analysis process. applying the four meta-literacy model 125 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 figure 4. data analysis process 5. results the mixed method inquiry allowed for the examination of the 4ml theoretical model as both a quantitative and qualitative analytical tool to gauge digital multimodal communication literacies levels in a business communication course. by examining slide deck ensembles from two separate cases, the goal was to test the tool and address the multimodal literacy assessment gap in the literature. 5.1. rubric scoring results the analytical rubric scoring results of the multiple case study are divided into three sections (1) case one: spring 2022, (2) case two: fall 2022, and (3) cross-case results. the numerical results section addresses the research question: how can the 4ml model be used to evaluate multimodal artifacts in a business communication classroom? table 1 average scores per meta-literacy dimension spring 22 audit spring 22 pitch fall 22 audit fall 22 pitch digital literacy 1.35 2.75 1.41 2.95 multimedia skill 2.06 3.05 1.68 3.14 multimodal design 1.91 3.25 1.50 3.14 rhetorical literacy 2.12 3.43 1.91 3.50 strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 126 5.1.1. case one: spring 2022 slide decks were evaluated using the 4ml model as an analytical scoring rubric based on a five-point scale. each of the meta-literacies—digital literacy, multimedia skill literacy, multimodal design literacy, and rhetorical literacy—was given a score. for analysis, each slide deck was considered a unit of analysis, and all the scores were averaged to create a composite score. for spring 2022, the total number of slide deck ensembles that were evaluated was 37 including 17 audit decks and 20 personal pitch decks. average scores are listed in table 1. for audit decks, the overall average scores ranked from lowest to highest is as follows: digital literacy (1.35), multimodal design literacy (1.91), multimedia skill literacy (2.06), and rhetorical literacy (2.12). digital literacy scores indicate a need for targeted instruction in digital literacy in higher education. the higher average scores for rhetorical literacy suggest effective instruction in previous courses in the curriculum. multimodal design literacy was lower than multimedia skill suggesting composers had more skill than design acumen. created following explicit instruction in the 4ml dimensions, the personal pitch decks ranked from lowest to highest as follows: digital literacy (2.75), multimedia skills literacy (3.05), multimodal design literacy (3.25), and rhetorical literacy (3.43). the ranking is similar to the initial audit decks with digital literacy having the lowest scores and rhetorical literacy the highest. multimodal design literacy is higher in ranking for the pitch deck, which may suggest more targeted instruction in that area. when comparing scores from the initial audit slide deck and the final pitch deck, the digital literacy dimension saw the most significant average growth at 104%. multimodal design literacy had the next highest growth rate at 70%. rhetorical literacy rates grew at 62%, and multimedia skill showed a 48% growth rate. although slide deck scores show students began the semester with a low baseline rate of digital literacy, targeted instruction led to improvement in this area. improvement in rhetorical literacy supports the conjecture that the curriculum provides a strong foundation as students effectively applied audience, purpose, and rhetorical appeals in different assignments and contexts. the overall growth supports the 4ml model as an effective tool for enabling multiliteracies growth. 5.1.2. case two: fall 2022 the sample size for fall 2022 was 22 audit slide decks and 22 personal pitch decks, totaling 44 decks. using the analytical rubric based on the 4ml model, each deck was analyzed similarly to case one. the overall scores were averaged to evaluate both within the case and across cases. for the initial audit deck, the average scores ranked from lowest to highest are digital literacy (1.41), multimodal design literacy (1.50), multimedia skill literacy (1.68), and rhetorical literacy (1.91). digital literacy was the lowest, indicating a need for focused instruction in that dimension. rhetorical literacy was the highest baseline literacy, suggesting students are receiving a solid foundation in other business communication courses. for the final personal pitch decks, the average score ranking from lowest to highest are digital literacy (2.95), multimedia skill literacy and multimodal design literacy (3.14), and rhetorical literacy (3.50). multimedia skill literacy and multimodal design literacy are consistently ranked in the middle, suggesting literacy layering (cook, 2002) and interconnectedness (mcgrail et al., 2021). when analyzing the growth between the audit decks and the pitch decks, both digital literacy and multimodal design literacy had the highest percentage of growth at 109%. this was followed by multimedia skill literacy at 87% growth and rhetorical literacy at 83% growth. substantial growth percentages suggest the efficacy of the 4ml model not only as a scoring device, but also as a framework for targeted instruction in digital multimodal communication dimensions. 5.1.3. cross-case analysis results to examine overall patterns and increase generalizability, a cross-case analysis was conducted (merriam, 1998; yin, 2018). the total number of slide deck ensembles that were scored with the analytical rubric was 81. when comparing the average audit decks scores, digital literacy was the only literacy lower in spring 22 (1.35) than fall 22 (1.41). otherwise, the other three literacies were higher in spring 22 than fall 22. although the audit deck assignment had the same criteria, the delivery modality differed. with some covid restrictions still in place, the spring 22 audit decks were presented as screencasts. analysis of the slide decks was conducted using the screencasts available. in contrast, the fall 22 audit decks were presented face-to-face. applying the four meta-literacy model 127 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 a cross-case comparison of pitch decks also shows overall literacy levels as lower in spring 22 than in fall 22 except for multimodal design literacy which was slightly higher in the spring (3.25) than in the fall (3.14). although the multimodal design literacy level was lower in fall 22, the growth rate was 109% compared to a 70% growth rate in spring 22. the increased growth rate may indicate more focused instruction in that dimension for fall 22. overall, a clear ranking pattern emerged in cross-case results, with digital literacy ranking lowest and rhetorical literacy the highest on audit and pitch decks for both cases. the pattern suggests that multimodal composers may struggle with their digital literacy while performing better in rhetorical literacy. despite having the lowest ranking, digital literacy had the highest cross-case growth rate (106.5%) followed by multimodal design literacy (89.5%). although rhetorical literacy rates are ranked highest, slide deck average scores showed that this dimension had a 72.5% overall growth rate, suggesting students were building on prior knowledge. although there is a clear pattern of ranking in the 4mls, the relatively small sample size should be noted. it would be interesting to see if, in future studies, the ranking remains consistent. 5.2. multimodal content analysis the entire data corpus consisting of 81 slide deck ensembles was analyzed using multimodal content analysis (serafini, 2022). the purpose of the qualitative inquiry was to satisfy the research question: how does a visual analysis of slide decks inform the four meta-literacies model? in multimodal content analysis, themes are constructed through a multiple coding process similar to grounded theory (serafini & reid, 2023; strauss & corbin, 1990). the six themes constructed from a visual analysis of multimodal slide deck ensembles follow. 5.2.1. the invisibility of digital literacy a number of slide decks in the case study were curiously devoid of any secondary source material, a measure of digital literacy and responsibility. the multimodal composers chose not to include any photographs, stock images, brand icons, quotes, or other outside sources in their slide deck content and design. the resulting decks had a sterile and generic feel to the overall aesthetic, which consequently showed an overall lack of effort. at first glance, it did seem as though the scoring rubric category for digital literacy could account for this anomaly. the indicators for the digital literacy category examined use of citations, adherence to fair use and copyright guidelines, inclusion of a source slide, use of footnotes and/or in-text citation, respectful use of brand icons, data literacy, etc. the challenge with a five-point rubric was how to score the slide deck within the category when students showed no evidence. lack of supporting evidence could be due to lack of effort, but it could also reveal a lack of knowledge and ability to respectfully use other’s content. by not including outside source material to support their ideas and message, they actually revealed some of the lowest levels of digital literacy. an example from fall 22 shows an audit deck with only four slides; a green monochromatic template is applied to it (see figure 5). the template decoration is the same on every slide with thicker lines and more visual weight on the right side. within the gradation of greens is a white open space reserved for the content creator to add their touch. the student creator added minimum text to the first slide. the agenda was added to the topic where the template layout would have it and four bullet points with no more than four words per bullet point. overall, the agenda slide had 13 words and provided little information and even less visual interest. the next two slides with the same green decorating template included a screenshot image from the student’s spreadsheet showing their audit data. the screenshots overlapped the template design background, and a few bullet points of information were included below the screenshot. the fourth and final slide included the conclusion title and one bullet point with a full sentence written in first person. the slide deck looked as if it had been created in less than ten minutes and lacked any outside information. strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 128 figure 5. green template slide deck screenshot 5.2.2. from decor to design: moving creators to higher literacy levels the old design adage, form follows function, is as relevant to the digital age as it was before. digital multimodal communicators with lower levels of literacies miss the important distinction between designing and decorating. composers choose to decorate their slides to make them appealing to their audience—or more often, to themselves—rather than using design elements to support the message. when presenters choose to decorate rather than design, the decorative elements add no communicative value or at times may detract from the message. with too much visual information, audiences may experience cognitive overload (mayer & moreno, 2003) which causes them to disengage from the presentation. one way multimodal composers decorate their presentations rather than design their presentation is by selecting a slide pre-set theme. instead of making multimodal design decisions that add to meaning making, slide deck creators defer those key visual communication choices to a designer who created a good-looking deck for that generic purpose alone. as slide deck creators move away from template use, they avoid hidden biases that audiences may bring from another presentation that uses the same slide deck template. another example is seen in figure 6 which was taken from fall 22 data. the audit deck is created from a popular template found on slides carnival, a website that provides free templates for google sheets, powerpoint, and canva (slides carnival, 2024). the undergraduate student applied the creative pitch deck template from this site to their entire deck. some of the keywords attributed to this particular template are creative, informational, multipurpose, project presentation, and swot analysis. the template incorporates light colored, sketchy drawings of objects from a bird's eye view of one’s desk. on the bottom of the slide is a laptop with ear buds, to the left is a cup for coffee or tea, and on the top right is a tablet. other smaller items like pens, a calculator, headphones, and a notebook are all radiating out from the center. the background is a mid-tone grey and the title text color is a tomato red. the body text is black and the bullet points are also tomato red. the text is layered over the sketchy decorative drawings on the background of the slide. the overlap creates unnecessary visual noise and makes decoding of the text a bit more challenging. applying the four meta-literacy model 129 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 figure 6. popular template from slide carnival strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 130 5.2.3. contrasting competencies: the duality of multimodal communication choices the use of templates by multimodal creators often signals lower levels of multimedia skills literacy. rather than learning the tools to create effective multimodal ensembles, some students will use templates. the use of a template does not hide skill deficit well but can easily expose low literacy levels. once creators who lack software knowledge apply their chosen template to the slide deck, they find themselves constrained by it because they don’t have the skill to make the changes. orphaned text boxes—text boxes that have been created but have no textual information inside—are one indicator that the multimodal composer lacks understanding of layout features and slide construction. the interesting phenomenon that came from this multimodal content analysis was that a choice that reveals a lack of literacy in one meta-literacy might raise the literacy level in another. the template is a good example of this. although template use exposes lack of multimedia competency, it raises multimodal design ratings because the template layout is designed with clear hierarchy. an audit slide deck example from fall 22 shows a common slide deck template with a navy background and teal colored overlapping triangle with a slight shadow (see figure 7). the bottom right hand triangles are larger to provide visual weight to the bottom of the slide deck, while smaller triangles are on the top opposite corner. the layered triangles give the impression of layers of paper that are strewn across a workspace when one is busily working on a project. the undergraduate student has added text and two brand icon images to the slide. the brand icon images include a white background indicative of a jpeg image file rather than a png file, which is characterized by a transparent background. although the white background adds visual noise, the icons are viewable, whereas if they had a transparent background they would get lost in hue. the white text on the dark blue background provides high contrast, so the information is readable to the audience. although the template is a poor multimodal design choice because the triangles create visual noise and distract, rather than support, the overall message, the template layout does provide clear hierarchy with the title font size being the salient information on the slide. figure 7. navy template with triangles applying the four meta-literacy model 131 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 5.2.4. the interplay of literacies: the influence of multimodal decisions across the framework as noted by strong (2022) and others (cook, 2002; feerrar, 2019; gallagher, 2020; mcgrail et al., 2021), multimodal literacies are interconnected. also described as synergistic layering, the concept of overlapping of literacies originated with cook (2002). in multimodal communication, a slide deck composer might decide to use a childish, cartoon character on one of their slides for a formal, business professional presentation. the design choice is a poor one when other slides in the slide deck include high quality photographs. the incongruent slide deck design scheme indicates lower multimodal design literacy. this carries over to rhetorical literacy as audiences might perceive the creator as having lower credibility because of their poor design choice. an example of the interplay of multimodal choices is provided from a spring 22 audit deck screencast (see figure 8). the multimodal composer chose a black and white color scheme to show professionalism and formality much like wearing a black and white tuxedo ensemble semiotically communicates a formal occasion. the slide backgrounds were white and had a high contrast with the black banners and white text. for the slide deck, the undergraduate business student included images that were predominantly grey-scale with cool colors to support the overall feeling of formality. the slide composition was formal in arrangement with images and shapes in symmetrical balance. the uniform design and effective use of multimodal elements shows a higher level of multimodal design literacy. a screenshot taken of the screencast recording shows the slide deck prominently behind a small thumbnail image of the presenter in the lower right-hand corner. the presenter is casually attired wearing a carhartt stocking hat in stark contrast to the formal and professional slide deck they are presenting. figure 8. formal slide with informal delivery 5.2.5. lost in hue and other poor saliency issues in multimodal design, salience plays an important role. by employing color and contrast techniques along with design principles, the multimodal composer is able to focus their audience’s attention and to communicate hierarchy (serafini, 2014). salience is a way to visually express significance to audiences (kress, 2010). it reduces eye movement and improves decoding of information. when a multimodal slide deck lacks saliency because of poor design choices, viewers may become confused and disengaged. two examples from the case study show how poor saliency in digital multimodal communication reveals students’ levels of multimodal design literacy. example one is taken from spring 22 (see figure 9). the personal pitch deck slide has a saturated teal background. featured prominently on the slide is a horizontal bar chart with spearmint green bars which are barely discernable against the teal. the textual elements on the slide are white which creates a high contrast with the saturated background hue. the analogous color scheme was ineffective because the salient information from the graph was lost to the viewer. strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 132 figure 9. bar chart elements are difficult to see example two is a fall 22 audit deck with a different type of salience issue (see figure 10). the slide is cluttered with visual information and the viewer is uncertain where to focus. on this slide, the background is also a saturated hue with a contrasting white title. the high contrast between the white text and the blueberry background uses saliency to create hierarchy, but the overall message is lost in the messiness of the slide. against the blue background, there are 18 different brand logos related to communication technology that, at first glance, seem to be scattered around the slide in a haphazard manner. after viewing the slide for a moment, it is possible to discern two possible categories of logos, as some white space roughly separates the groupings. the most salient logos are the snapchat social media logo and the google slides logo. both logos are yellow hues which are complementary to the background. in visual weight, the tiktok logo fights for attention because of its black background. the red and pink logos like instagram, canvas, and powerpoint scattered about the screen cause more eye movement. figure 10. multiple icons on bright blue slide background applying the four meta-literacy model 133 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 5.2.6. errors and ethos: the impact of basic literacy on rhetorical intentions in the 4ml model (strong, 2022), basic literacy was posited to be foundational to the theoretical model rather than a sub-category. through a multimodal content analysis of student slide decks, it became apparent that student work riddled with spelling, punctuation, grammar, and capitalization errors have a direct impact on the perceived credibility of the multimodal composer. an example of this can be taken from the pitch deck assignment, where undergraduate business majors were asked to compose a multimodal slide deck as a visual resume. in persuading a potential employer, the slide deck creator chose to highlight some of their high school and college achievements. on the high school accomplishment slide, there are four bullet points (see figure 11). the first bullet point includes the high school name with obvious capitalization errors. the next bullet point proudly proclaims the mascot for the school. the third bullet point signals completion of advanced placement courses that have the potential of college credit if students score high enough. the final bullet point cites receipt of high academic honors with the adjective written out of sequence. excluding bullet point two, which has no rhetorical value, the juxtaposition of claims to high academic achievement against obvious basic grammar mistakes leads one to question the student’s credibility. the purpose of the next slide in the same deck is to highlight academic achievements at the university level (see figure 12). the visual support on the slide is an image of the university seal that includes the word excellence prominently displayed. the idea of excellence sharply contrasts with the textual information that includes an apostrophe error. figure 11. high school accomplishments for visual resume strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 134 figure 12. university accomplishment slide 6. discussion 6.1. interpretation of results when considering the results of the current mixed-methods study, it is important to recall the central purpose, which was to test the 4ml model in digital multimodal communication as an assessment tool. the theoretical model was the foundation for the analytical scoring rubric and the analytical template for multimodal content analysis. from this lens, key findings will be discussed. the key finding is that overall the 4ml was an effective tool for evaluating digital multimodal communication artifacts to determine the literacy levels of composers across four dimensions. the case study examined the intervention of explicit instruction in the 4ml model and measured growth from the audit deck baseline to the personal pitch deck final project. by consistently applying a standardized rubric, the result was measured growth in all four meta-literacies. the intervention of explicit instruction in digital literacy, multimedia skill literacy, multimodal design literacy, and rhetorical literacy was intended to “develop learners’ meta-semiotic awareness and metalanguage of multimodal texts” (tan et al., 2020, p. 110). in terms of overall growth, undergraduate multimodal composers had the most significant growth in their digital literacy, most notably in fall 22. this supports the argument for explicit instruction in digital literacy skills, which includes information literacy in the 4ml model (strong, 2022) for business students (makani-lim et al, 2014). multimodal design literacy was another dimension where growth was measured. multimodal composers scored highest in rhetorical literacy in both slide deck projects for both semesters. a rhetorical approach to business communication is emphasized across the program, so undergraduate students at this particular university would bring in that prior knowledge. as it relates to the 4ml model, strong (2022) postulated the synergistic nature of the meta-literacies dimensions which support earlier research noting that literacies are layered (cook, 2002), interconnected (feerrar, 2019; lauer, 2009; mcgrail et al., 2021), and overlapping (ng, 2012). although meta-literacies overlap, clear multiliteracies boundaries must be created for there to be an effective evaluation of multimodal communication. a surprising finding was the consistency of ranking for the literacies across the multimodal slide deck projects and cross case. rubric scores showed digital literacy as the lowest, while rhetorical literacy was the highest. the initial decks for both spring 22 and fall 22 ranked multimodal design as the second lowest dimension. spring 22 pitch decks showed multimedia skill as the second lowest, while the fall 22 pitch decks had both multimodal design and multimedia skill ranked equally the second lowest. the ranking supports calls for more multimodality in the professional communication curriculum (coffelt et al., 2022) and for multimodal communication evaluation tools (hung et al., 2013). it also supports the argument that students should be explicitly taught multimodal terminology (tan et al., 2020) in order to have a shared understanding (lauer, 2009). applying the four meta-literacy model 135 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 6.2. implications the theoretical implications of the present study support the use of the 4ml model in digital multimodal communication as both a quantitative and qualitative assessment tool. the efficacy of the model as a rubric scoring tool to diagnose multimodal creators’ literacy in a business communication course has been shown. each of the four meta-literacies were also used as categories in an analytical framework for multimodal content analysis. the multimodal analysis resulted in themes that provided qualitative information about how slide deck multimodal construction and decision-making reveals literacy strengths and gaps. practical and pedagogical implications from the mixed-methods inquiry indicate that educators who wish to understand their students’ digital multimodal communication literacies can use the 4ml model in formative evaluations for diagnostic purposes. the information could be used for targeted instruction to improve learning outcomes. the 4ml model could also be used at the curricular level to plan curriculum and instruction that supports digital multimodal communication literacy development. additionally, it can be used as a guide for examining existing curriculum for multiliteracies gaps. business colleges should consider leveraging other resources like the university library services to help create digital and information literacy instruction (makani-lim et al, 2014). 6.3. limitations as with all studies, there are limitations. the study was limited by the sample size, which was within bounds for the qualitative multimodal analysis, but low for quantitative inquiry. the study looked at only multimodal slide deck compositions from the beginning of the semester and from the end of the semester, but did not examine other multimodal artifacts created in the course, so it may not fully represent student work. not all student slide decks were available because this was a past course and links had expired. although assignments were the same in both cases, consistency in explicit instruction may have varied semester over semester. another limitation was that the study was conducted by a single researcher. the study design included a standardized analytical tool for consistency in analysis, multiple cases to allow for cross-case examination, and a mixed-method approach for triangulation. despite these efforts, researcher bias should always be factored. 6.4. future research future research is needed to explore the 4ml model as a multimodal assessment tool in other contexts and with larger sample sizes. the current study was narrowly focused on slide decks as a multimodal communication ensemble. other multimodal artifacts should be explored including data visualizations, social media posts, multimodal presentations, and other digital content. an intriguing direction is to explore different generative ai tools as a multimodal composer to determine meta-literacies strengths and gaps. this could provide valuable information about how multimodal content creators approach their use of the tool and what interventions should be made when using generative ai to support multimodal communication construction. 7. conclusion the mixed method study began with an overview of the digital workplace gap highlighting the need for more multimodality in business and professional communication courses (coffelt et al., 2022). with the need for more multimodal content in higher education classrooms comes the need for effective evaluation tools to evaluate students’ multiliteracies and support their development of multimodal competencies (hung et al., 2013; tan et al., 2019). the 4ml theoretical model in digital multimodal communication provided the foundations for the quantitative and qualitative examinations of undergraduate students’ multimodal communication ensembles. the scoring rubric for the 4ml model indicated a consistent ranking pattern in multimodal communication literacies. by employing a visual analysis of the decking, constructed themes provide more information about digital multimodal communication literacies in professional communication. overall, the study demonstrated that the 4ml model is an effective evaluation, intervention, and visual analysis tool. strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 136 references aguirre, regina t., & bolton, kristin w. 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(2018). case study research and applications: design and methods. sage publications. jane strong, university of wisconsin–eau claire strongje@uwec.edu en jane strong, ph.d., is an assistant professor in the department of business communication and information systems at the university of wisconsin–eau claire. she teaches courses in data visualization, business writing, and business presentations. her research explores digital multimodal literacy, professional identity, workplace attire, and the visual dimensions of professional communication, including slide design and data visualization. es jane strong es doctora y profesora adjunta del departamento de comunicación empresarial y sistemas de información de la universidad de wisconsin-eau claire. imparte cursos de visualización de datos, redacción empresarial y presentaciones empresariales. su investigación explora la alfabetización digital multimodal, la identidad profesional, la vestimenta laboral y las dimensiones visuales de la comunicación profesional, incluyendo el diseño de diapositivas y la visualización de datos. it jane strong, dottore di ricerca, è ricercatrice nel dipartimento di comunicazione aziendale e sistemi informativi dell’università del wisconsin-eau claire. tiene corsi di visualizzazione dei dati, scrittura commerciale e presentazione aziendale. la sua ricerca esplora le competenze digitali multimodali, l’identità professionale, l’immagine personale sul lavoro e la dimensione visuale della comunicazione professionale, che include la progettazione di slide e la rappresentazione grafica di dati. strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 140 appendix a table s1 rubric scoring for spring 22 audit decks digital literacy multimedia skill multimodal design rhetorical literacy 1 4.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 2 1.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 3 3.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 4 1.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 5 1.0 1.0 2.0 2.0 6 7 1.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 8 9 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 10 2.0 4.0 2.0 2.0 11 1.0 2.0 3.0 3.0 12 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 13 1.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 14 1.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 15 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 16 17 1.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 18 1.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 19 1.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 20 1.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 applying the four meta-literacy model 141 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 appendix b table s2 rubric scoring for spring 22 pitch decks digital literacy multimedia skill multimodal design rhetorical literacy 1 3.0 3.0 4.0 3.0 2 3.0 3.0 4.0 3.0 3 2.0 3.0 2.0 3.0 4 3.0 2.0 4.0 4.0 5 2.0 3.0 2.0 4.0 6 2.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 7 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 8 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 9 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 10 2.0 2.0 3.0 3.5 11 3.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 12 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 13 2.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 14 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 15 2.0 2.0 3.0 3.0 16 2.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 17 3.0 3.0 2.0 3.0 18 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 19 3.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 20 4.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 strong e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 142 appendix c table s3 rubric scoring for fall 22 audit decks digital literacy multimedia skill multimodal design rhetorical literacy 1 1.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 2 1.0 1.0 2.0 2.0 3 4 2.0 2.0 4.0 5.0 5 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 6 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 7 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 8 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 9 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 10 3.0 4.0 1.0 3.0 11 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 12 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 13 4.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 14 1.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 15 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 16 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 17 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 18 1.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 19 2.0 2.0 1.0 3.0 20 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 21 1.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 22 1.0 2.0 3.0 1.0 23 1.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 applying the four meta-literacy model 143 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 115–143 appendix d table s4 rubric scoring for fall 22 pitch decks digital literacy multimedia skill multimodal design rhetorical literacy 1 2 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 3 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.0 4 4.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 5 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 6 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 7 3.0 3.0 2.0 3.0 8 3.0 3.0 5.0 5.0 9 2.0 3.0 2.0 3.0 10 4.0 4.0 4.0 5.0 11 4.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 12 3.0 3.0 2.0 3.0 13 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 14 2.0 4.0 2.0 3.0 15 4.0 5.0 5.0 4.0 16 2.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 17 3.0 3.0 2.0 3.0 18 2.0 2.0 4.0 4.0 19 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 20 2.0 3.0 2.0 3.0 21 3.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 22 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.0 23 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 11, issue 1, may 2024, 36-62 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.1.2803 www.e-journall.org © compagnoni & serragiotto 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. “we all contributed to tell stories to the best of our abilities”: cooperative digital storytelling to promote students’ positive interdependence in an online course of italian as a foreign language1 ilaria compagnoni graziano serragiotto università ca’ foscari di venezia received 2 june 2023; accepted 22 november 2023 abstract abstract en positive interdependence is defined as a mutual relationship between people who are driven to achieve the same task goals considered as the foundation of collaborative language learning, it can surface in group activities of digital content creation. digital storytelling may enhance skills of positive interdependence as it enables digital narratives to be told through mixed media (robin, 2016). however, prolonged exposure to technology might cause distraction, motivation loss, and fatigue among language students, hampering the establishment of positive interdependence. to encourage interdependent interactions in digital learning environments, this study presents the results of educational activities conducted using the thinglink and storymaps platforms by learners of italian as a foreign language during an online language course. the results stemming from online questionnaires, transcript analyses, and focus group interviews highlight how students’ positive interdependence can be boosted by telling stories through immersive technologies. key words: digital storytelling, language pedagogy, task-based interaction, technology-supported learning es la interdependencia positiva se define como la relación recíproca entre las personas orientadas a conseguir los mismos objetivos. considerada como el fundamento del aprendizaje lingüístico colaborativo, esta puede emerger en actividades grupales de creación de contenido digital. el storytelling digital puede mejorar estas habilidades de interdependencia positiva, ya que permite narrar las historias digitales de forma multimodal (robin, 2016). sin embargo, una exposición prolongada a la tecnología puede causar distracciones, pérdida de motivación y fatiga entre el alumnado, lo que dificulta que se establezca interdependencia positiva. este estudio presenta los resultados de las actividades realizadas utilizando las plataformas thinglink y storymaps por estudiantes de italiano como lengua extranjera durante un curso en línea, con el fin de fomentar las interacciones interdependientes en entornos de aprendizaje digitales. los resultados de cuestionarios en línea, análisis de expedientes académicos y entrevistas en grupos focales resaltan cómo se puede impulsar la interdependencia positiva del alumnado al contar historias a través de tecnologías inmersivas. palabras clave: storytelling digital, didáctica, interacciones basadas en tareas, aprendizaje asistido por la tecnología it l’interdipendenza positiva è la relazione di dipendenza reciproca tra persone orientate al raggiungimento di obiettivi comuni. considerata il fondamento dell’apprendimento linguistico collaborativo, essa traspare in attività di gruppo incentrate sulla creazione di contenuti digitali. lo storytelling digitale può sviluppare queste abilità di interdipendenza positive permettendo di narrare racconti virtuali multimodali (robin, 2016). tuttavia, l’esposizione prolungata alle tecnologie può causare distrazione, perdita di motivazione e stanchezza, ostacolando il manifestarsi di interdipendenza positiva. per incoraggiarne l’insorgenza in ambienti di apprendimento digitale, questo articolo mostra i risultati di attività educative condotte con le piattaforme thinglink e storymaps da parte di studenti di italiano come lingua straniera. i risultati ottenuti da questionari online, analisi delle trascrizioni verbali e focus group, evidenziano come l’interdipendenza positiva si rafforzi attraverso storie interattive narrate con le tecnologie immersive. parole chiave: storytelling digitale, didattica, interazioni basate sui task, apprendimento supportato dalla tecnologia  ilaria compagnoni, università ca’ foscari di venezia ilaria.compagnoni@unive.it 1 this article is the result of a collaboration between both authors. specifically, sections 3, 4, and 5 were written by ilaria compagnoni and sections 1, 2, and 6 are attributed to graziano serragiotto. http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.271 http://www.e-journall.org/ cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 37 1. introduction described as the practice of “telling stories with a mixture of digital media, including text, pictures, recorded audio narration, music, and video” (robin, 2016, p. 18), digital storytelling has been at the center of many pedagogical inquiries as it stimulates students’ imagination, creativity, and content memorization, as well as enhances active learning. in fact, by situating language practices in virtual contexts and allowing for the creation and interpretation of meaning through multimodal communication channels, digital storytelling platforms are likely to encourage students’ collaboration in achieving activity goals (nicoli et al., 2022). this participation may surface in goal-oriented behaviors such as mediation strategies, clarification seeking, and turn-taking. these behaviors can be considered manifestations of positive interdependence, a rapport that is established between individuals interacting to achieve mutual task goals (johnson & johnson, 2005). from a language education perspective, the successful establishment of positive interdependent relationships can increase linguistic production as students engage in collaborative meaning-making activities mediating the best solutions to achieve activity goals. however, as in-person education is increasingly blended with online learning, interdependent relationships in remote task-based language activities are challenged by students’ potential disengagement, distraction, loss of motivation, fatigue, and cognitive overload. to counteract these phenomena, desktop-based immersion in goal-oriented language activities may nurture positive interdependence as discussions unfold during goal-oriented meaning-making activities. specifically, nonimmersive virtual reality (non-ivr) involves users in computer-generated experiences available on desktops and is used as a tool for remote interactions with other individuals (cummings & bailenson, 2016). in this respect, 360° virtual tours can be considered examples of non-ivr and will be indicated in this paper with the term virtual field experiences (vfes), coined by oguilve et al. (2022). reflections on pedagogy and tool usage highlight the necessity to investigate non-immersive virtual reality as a way to foster students’ interdependence toward creating immersive and engaging digital stories. an interdependence-based inquiry on learning italian as a foreign language is an element of novelty in the literature on educational technology, which is presented in this paper through the results of a case study on 13 participants who conducted language activities with the non-immersive virtual reality applications thinglink and storymaps. this study addresses the following research question: what is the impact of digital storytelling activities conducted with the use of non-ivr on the positive interdependence of students of italian as a foreign language in online learning contexts? the underlying hypothesis postulates that using vfes and the non-ivrbased digital storytelling application storymaps can boost students’ positive interdependent relationships in online learning contexts. the study will depart from pedagogical considerations of evolving competencies underpinning tech-based language education, digital storytelling, positive interdependence, task-based language learning, and virtual reality. subsequently, it will describe the methodological underpinnings and the materials used in the interventions as well as present the data collected during task-based activities. results will be discussed in terms of measuring students’ positive interdependence surfacing from meaning-making activities, clarification seeking, and turn-taking. lastly, conclusions will prompt further pedagogical reflections on collaborative digital language learning practices and highlight potential thematic research areas for future interventions with non-ivr tools. 2. literature review educational research has increasingly focused on language learning practices that are digital, interconnected, and participatory. in fact, through digital language learning, students develop various forms of literacies which are essential for professional collaborations and social interactions. these skills were initially defined in terms of reading, speaking, listening, and writing, only to be incorporated into the multiliteracies framework described by leu et al. (2013) and kalantzis and cope (2012). the term multiliteracies encompasses the assumptions that: a) the development of technologies for information and communication entails changes in skillsets, strategies, dispositions, and social practices; b) students need to develop new skills to ensure their full participation in global communities; c) literacies are set to constantly change together with the technologies fostering their development; and d) new literacies are multifaceted. thus, a key element of language pedagogy is represented by students’ interconnection and participation, which constitute the backbone of cooperative language learning. in fact, with evolving digital language learning practices, social skills, and meaning-making are developed through foreign language acquisition and production. hence, language activities become opportunities to explore, evaluate, create, and conceptualize digital materials (kalantzis & cope, 2012; paesani et al., 2015). this has encouraged the creation of learning experiences of compagnoni & serragiotto 38 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 collaborative digital storytelling for students to express their agentive capabilities through shared and multimodal communication channels. by allowing users to combine digital media in online platforms to share their life experiences, digital storytelling can foster multimodal language production in collaborative activities. from a pedagogical perspective, conducting group-based digital storytelling tasks can encourage the development of critical thinking skills and coherent narratives in the target language. students can craft sharable narratives of personal and instructional content through an integrated language learning approach fostering the exchange of ideas, feedback provision, negotiation of group decisions, as well as evaluation and interpretation of real-life situations (meletiadou, 2022; shahid & khan, 2022). moreover, digital storytelling enables language students to share decisional practices to achieve collaborative reasoning and story planning (nicoli et al., 2022). it has also been attested that by narrating virtual stories and presenting their contents to the public, learners can improve their pronunciation skills and transcode communication into visual stimuli (nair & yunus, 2021). consequently, classifications of the types of literacies fostered through digital storytelling can be expanded beyond reading, listening, speaking, and writing; and integrated into a comprehensive development of academic, cognitive, affective, technological, and social skills through highly contextualized social linguistic practices. examples include reported enhancement of motivation, creativity, participation, and multimodal content production and personalization (alismail, 2015; ohler, 2013). additional interventions showed how the use of digital storytelling can improve students’ willingness to enter into l2 discourse by communicating through text modes in technology-mediated language activities (shen et al., 2022). studies reported that the use of digital storytelling for language learning purposes can promote authentic vocabulary acquisition, and linguistic production through students’ involvement in real-like language learning practices, as well as effective self-assessment through product evaluation and peer feedback (arroba & acosta, 2021). studies have also shown how language structures are acquired when students jointly work on digital storyboarding as they compartmentalize language structures into learnable blocks and discuss story-making stages of setup, conflict resolution, and design challenges (fu et al., 2022). therefore, digital storytelling activities can involve students in using multimedia to plan and design artifacts following group choices. digital stories are also ways for students to reflect on personal experiences while evaluating other people’s opinions and creating shared digital imagery (petit, 2020). group reflections originating from these collaborative creations facilitate knowledge transfer in communicative and digital real-life contexts. in this process, students engage in mediation strategies aimed at identifying common ground in discussing the creation of digital stories. in doing so, learners devise strategies of social mediation, laying the foundations of collaborative language learning as they rely on one another to accomplish task goals. as for mediation strategies, they can be associated with behaviors of positive interdependence and represent key components of social language learning. positive interdependence is a fundamental social behavior as human beings develop contextuallydriven, mutually beneficial relationships to attain common goals (deutsch, 1949). these bonds also induce the establishment of trust, cooperation, constructive power, and conflict resolution amongst group members who collaborate in meaning-making activities and achieve compromises between parties (johnson & johnson, 2005; laal, 2013; rusbult & van lange, 2003). by doing so, individuals share and construct task understanding, target group efforts towards goal achievement by recognising the value of other people’s perspectives, and encode messages using social inferences, speakers’ feedback, and language output (ellis, 1999). when applied to language education, these competencies can be fostered through group-oriented, task-based language activities that involve students in constructively solving disagreements for the sake of successful goal attainment. in these activities, individuals can apply social mediation strategies, which are considered manifestations of positive interdependence in their capacity to favour interpersonal connections for social and cognitive development (comoglio & cardoso, 1996; kelley et al., 2003; johnson & johnson, 2010). from the standpoint of teaching italian as a foreign language (fl), mediation strategies are considered to manifest in expressing opinions and requesting information through conditional and subjunctive moods, and are taught at preintermediate levels of proficiency (arcangeli et al., 2014; giorgi, 2009). what remains to be investigated are the task structures supporting positive interdependent relationships and the integration of effective tools in language learning activities for group efficiency and linguistic mediation. task-based language learning (tbll) is a learner-centred methodology focused on enhancing learners’ communication skills in real-life contexts. the main tenet of the method is that language is acquired through cooperative interactions that engage students in goal-oriented, meaning-making activities where they learn content and practice language skills through peer communication and artifact use (hampel, 2010). this entails that students apply cognitive practices to select, classify, order, and value information as they choose cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 39 suitable language structures to attain activity goals. specifically, in an initial pre-task phase, students are provided with activity instructions and tool training before being involved in planning and presenting their work, sharing group reports, and attending to linguistic forms by discussing and practicing specific language features. since learners mediate messages both linguistically and conceptually, they also assist one another in performing group tasks, thus perceiving the added value of teamwork while performing activity goals. the communication affordances created within such learning contexts constitute the link between tbll and technology, as methodological implementations of action-oriented language learning approaches are combined with enhanced opportunities for goal attainment (overdijk et al., 2012). a key element of digital tools is that they act as mediators between individuals and task contents, implying that the successful establishment of interdependent relationships is dependent upon technological affordances of goal attainment facilitation, multi-user access, platform accessibility, and ease of use (cerratto pargman et al., 2018; thorne, 2016). however, even though many investigations have been conducted on digital tools in language education, research on their impact on students’ positive interdependence in online-only learning environments within tbll frameworks is scarce, especially concerning learning italian as a fl. to address these gaps and provide potential solutions to solve them, it is useful to discuss potential digital tools to boost students’ positive interdependence. analyzing the use of virtual reality for language learning purposes becomes particularly significant when considering its immersive properties. broadly defined as an “advanced form of human-computer interface that allows the user to interact with and become immersed in a computer-generated environment in a naturalistic fashion” (eichenberg, 2012, p. 3), virtual reality is typologically divided along the parameters of immersion. described as the technical capability to deliver an illusion of reality that has a profound impact on users’ behaviors (dincelli & yayla, 2022; slater & wilbur, 1997), immersion characterizes immersive virtual reality (ivr) as a comprehensive digital experience where virtuality predominates over reality, since it is accessed with head-mounted displays (hmds) and hand controllers, physically disconnecting users from the real world. conversely, immersion afforded by non-immersive vr (non-ivr) is only partial, as users rely on screen interfaces to access and experience virtual activities, viewing them on two-dimensional monitors or mobile devices and using peripheral devices to enable device interactions which help to maintain real-world awareness (kaplan-rakowski & gruber, 2019). however, despite its different characteristics, non-ivr is also characterized by educationally-relevant features that boost interdependence in language learning activities. in fact, non-ivr has been analyzed in language education to support virtual work in the form of collaborative virtual environments (cves), wherein team members interact in the same digital space while being physically located elsewhere (horvat et al., 2022). designed to enhance user collaborations, cves contribute to make virtual spaces shared worlds of interpersonal relations and co-constructed relationships (galimberti et al., 2010). subsets of cves are virtual field experiences (vfes), that are particularly relevant for language learning as they represent flexible and interactive 360° scenarios embedding audio, video, and multimodal resources (oguilve et al., 2022). these experiences involve users in virtual explorations through the use of keyboards and other peripheral accessories, enabling interface scrolling, clicking, and dragging as they unpack interactive digital contents. in other words, users are involved in sensorial explorations of visually stimulating spaces where their critical skills are enhanced through collaborative discoveries and meaning-making. in this way, learning through vfes becomes a form of interdependence-supporting telepresence, where virtual immersion is capitalized on to enhance learning through digital storytelling and boost cognitive and interpersonal skills, as well as group efficiency in achieving task goals (jantakoon et al., 2019). in other words, motivated by the immersive scenarios they experience, students can engage in co-creative, story-making practices in which they transfer thoughts and emotions and transcode them into language output related to sharing and mediating opinions and decisions (liu et al., 2018; ribeiro et al., 2016; schmoelz, 2018). given the high pedagogical impact of immersive activities and the immediate applicability of teamwork and digital skills acquired through task completion, there are reasons to believe that virtually immersive digital storytelling activities can support positive interdependence among language students. what needs to be analyzed are examples of tools enabling the creation of customizable and sharable digital stories in the target language. the popularity of digital storytelling applications has resulted in their implementation in language learning activities that integrated virtual narrations with multimedia components and web publishing technologies, which encouraged students’ active learning and collaboration towards content creation (tahriri, tous, & movahedfar, 2017). types of digital storytelling platforms used in language education include social network (whatsapp, instagram, snapchat and tiktok), digital story sites (storify, storybook, historypin, storybird, animoto, thinglink) and mobile-integrated storytelling apps (izi.travel, storymaps). one that has compagnoni & serragiotto 40 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 been extensively used for pedagogical purposes is thinglink, an ad-free subscription software enabling the incorporation of 360° photos, sounds, videos and texts that can be incorporated within tours referring to places in the real world (fielding, 2019; pokrzycka, 2022). when this study was conducted, the application was free of charge and dedicated to teachers, students and third-sector professionals willing to create interactive tours and presentations for educational purposes. thinglink applications in tbll have been used to develop students’ curiosity, exploration skills and vocabulary learning (lai, 2017; roslan & sahrir, 2020; compagnoni, 2022) as well as train teachers on integrating thinglink into the school curriculum (durham, 2022; sanderson et al., 2022). however, data is missing on the potential uses of thinglink to enhance positive interdependence in a foreign language learning context. whilst this might be due to technological constraints limiting multi-user content editing, it is also true that the application features might hinder users’ platform navigation and readability. a digital storytelling platform whose features might overcome such constraints is storymaps, which enables users to create engaging and interactive digital stories. due to its user-friendly design and content customizability, the platform has been used to enhance students’ agency, content understanding, and memorization through hands-on group activities (albanese & rossetti, 2023; cyvin et al., 2022). however, no evidence has been found of interventions conducted in language pedagogy with storymaps to boost students’ positive interdependence. despite the paucity of research on using thinglink and storymaps in language pedagogy, it is believed that when incorporated into classroom activities, they might shed light on students’ positive interdependent strategies in fl production. overall, while the literature on cooperative learning has been quite prolific, it has failed to consider positive interdependence as a pivotal component of cooperation. additionally, deficiency of research/research gap on positive interdependence in language learning have also led to a lack of guidelines on classroom implementations of effective digital tools and methodologies supporting explorative, engaging, and immersive language learning activities. to target these gaps, this study outlines language activities fostering interdependence through fl use. specifically, by considering vfes and digital storytelling features embedded in thinglink and storymaps as forms of non-ivr, this study involved learners of italian as a fl in interactive digital storytelling activities through web-based explorations and critical assessments of culturally relevant scenarios. results of online interventions were analyzed through classroom observations, questionnaires, and focus group interviews, as well as through descriptions of the linguistic interactions occurring during the creation of digital stories. 3. methodology an experiential intervention was structured according to a task-based methodology comprising participants’ exposure to the non-ivr platform thinglink, a task phase of story creation on storymaps, and post-activity reflections on the use of non-ivr. the study targeted the analysis of the impact of non-ivr-based digital storytelling on the deployment of positive interdependence strategies by fl learners. aspects of performance and perception by collecting textual and spoken data documenting participants’ cooperative interactions as well as their responses to pre and post-task questionnaires and a focus group interview. in this paper, the term “interventions” is synonymous with the language learning sessions conducted with the use of the non-ivr platforms thinglink and storymaps to enquire about participants’ deployment of positive interdependence strategies. 3.1. participants data was collected from 13 participants aged between 23 and 65 years old. the majority possessed an intermediate language proficiency in italian, a language they were studying for personal and professional interests. some participants were working in italy (5), others were pursuing an academic degree in an italian institution (8). french was the native language spoken by the majority of participants (7), followed by spanish (3), russian (2), and german (1). all participants were fluent english speakers and had been exposed to vfes through museum galleries and property tours. 3.2. recruitment methods participants were recruited voluntarily from students affiliated with the school of international education of ca’ foscari university of venice and the department of social, political, and cognitive sciences of the university of siena. following positive replies to email invitations, a pre-activity questionnaire was distributed to participants one month before the start of the interventions. the aim was to enquire about cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 41 participants’ knowledge of italian culture, grammar features related to subjunctive and conditional moods, and their motivation to study italian. additional questions consisted of investigating participants’ digital habits, experience with online learning, remote teamwork, and vfes. the responses obtained from this preliminary investigation enabled the researcher to tailor activity contents to students’ needs and abilities. 3.3. class conduction the interventions lasted a total of 12 hours and were conducted twice a week for 2 hours at a time on the platform zoom in november 2022. before participating in the sessions, participants were requested to sign a consent form outlining the research aims, data collection, and storage methods as well as privacy protection procedures. upon returning the signed consent forms, participants were sent invitations to join zoom classes which were recorded from an institutional account. participants were encouraged to keep their videos and microphones on. in the first part of the zoom sessions, participants worked together before being divided into breakout rooms. in these breakout rooms, they conducted group explorations of 360° environments on the platform thinglink, working on interactive tags with language content aimed at enhancing their familiarity with the structural parameters of digital storytelling. subsequently, they used storymaps for story creation and padlet to provide peer feedback (figure 1). . figure 1. activity sequence conducted during the interventions 3.4. activity structure study participants were involved in tasks distributed across the duration of the online language course. table 1 outlines activity contents and the platforms used to attain task goals. compagnoni & serragiotto 42 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 table 1 task-based structure of the interventions phases description platforms pre-task completion of a pre-task questionnaire. brainstorming 1: training on using thinglink to conduct explorations of vfes. brainstorming 2: grammar review of conditional and subjunctive moods and gamified practice on kahoot! brainstorming 3: training on using storymaps through the exploration of digital stories. kahoot!, thinglink, storymaps, google drive task cycle 1. task students discuss and select story topics. they write content, finalize and publish their stories. storymaps, google drive 2. planning students plan and rehearse their group presentations. 3. report students conduct group presentations of their stories. post-task 1. analysis as group presentations unfold, non-group members provide their feedback on designated padlet boxes while listening to the presentations. subsequently, participants are guided in the analysis of subjunctive and conditional forms used during the interactions. padlet, google drive, google modules 2. practice students practice subjunctive and conditional moods during focus group interviews. they also respond to a survey consisting of qualitative (openended) and quantitative (likert-scale) questions. completion of a post-task questionnaire and a focus group interview. 3.5. design checklist the creation of interdependence-fostering language learning experiences on thinglink was underpinned by structural as well as linguistic considerations resulting from the vfes design checklist outlined by oguilve et al. (2022) and adapted to the study aims (table 2). table 2 design checklist for creating interdependence-fostering vfes on thinglink. goals icons media what are the goals of the experience? how are they clarified to students? are icons clear and consistent? are they coherently distributed within the exploratory space? do resources and media represent reliable and multiple perspectives? do they affect the learning experience? are there the right amount of content to explore? language content organization group engagement do the activities encourage users to deploy interdependence-oriented language output? would learners know where to start and how to engage with the materials? does content organization promote understanding? do activities promote group exploration and engagement? how are learners involved in collaborative goal attainment? 3.6. activity contents during the first two classes, the participants conducted two thinglink-based activities where they explored interactive maps. both experiences contained virtual tags with links to google drive documents and surveys created with google modules. activities included listening to recordings and answering related questions, as well as completing short reading comprehension activities. the participants explored the environments by working in zoom breakout rooms in four groups, which remained the same throughout the cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 43 course. after brainstorming potential topics, participants discussed story contents and engaged in spoken and written production of italian. examples of thinglink vfes and the digital stories created on storymaps are shown in figures 2 and 3. the arrows in figure 2 indicate the transitions between different thinglink environments while the pictures in figure 3 represent three stories created with storymaps. figure 2. vfes conducted with the platform thinglink. figure 3. screenshots of three digital stories created on storymaps. compagnoni & serragiotto 44 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 3.7. data collection methods data was collected via a mixed-method design combining preand post-task questionnaires, class observations, and focus group interviews. two weeks before starting the activities, a pre-task questionnaire was distributed via email to the participants. it consisted of 39 items on participants’ demographic information, knowledge of italian culture and grammar as well as conditional and subjunctive moods, tested through gapfilling exercises. further questions collected information on technology use and habits, digital skills, and online learning, as well as previous exposure to vfes and participants’ beliefs on using immersive tools for language learning. aspects of positive interdependence were identified by using 13 parameters of the symlog model of bales (1950) to analyze group interactions. table 3 list of parameters for analyzing interdependent group interactions based on bales’ symlog model (1950). manifestations of positive interdependence providing information to others accepting help from others and giving thanks minimization of disagreement collaborative work participation in decision-making showing and stating understanding through verbal and body language requesting information asking for opinions and suggestions display of group dedication, faithfulness, and loyalty giving up personal aspirations for the sake of group goals controlling/limiting the abilities of other people to express opinions inviting other people to intervene seeking feedback the 13 parameters listed in table 3 were selected because they facilitated an initial overview of the potential interdependent behaviors surfacing among study participants. following this initial analysis, participants’ verbal interactions were transcribed with the software nvivo and analyzed to record manifestations of positive interdependence surfacing as mediation strategies. positive interdependent output was analyzed using the 13 parameters of bales’ symlog model (1950) outlined in table 3. subsequently, the guidelines of the council of europe (2020) were followed to map participants’ positive interdependent strategies and group them according to the parameters they belonged to. the guidelines that were followed corresponded to those cited on the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) of the council of europe (2020). they are outlined in table 4. table 4 parameters used to analyze positive interdependence amongst the participants’ linguistic and behavioral output. parameters of positive interdependence as mediation strategies establishing conditions developing ideas collaborating in groups facilitating collaborative interactions  comprehension and signaling of misunderstandings, offer solutions to address them  adjustment of questions and intervention in group interactions  help addressing delicate situations  define team goals and compare options on how to achieve them  refocus conversations suggesting ways to proceed collaborating to construct meanings  give instructions  check group understanding  refocus conversations on topics that matter  intervene supportively to focus group attention  explain the rules of collaborative discussion  get the group back on track with new instructions  encourage participation and balance contributions with turn-taking cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 45  discourage disagreements and propose alternatives leading group work managing interactions  expand people ideas and contributions  pose questions that invite reactions  consider pro and cons and both sides of an issue  highlight important issues in a task and steps to solve it  contribute to collaborative decision-making and co-develop ideas  summarize and report what others have said encouraging conceptual talk  ask questions simulating logical reasoning  encourage members to elaborate their thinking  build on ideas  give appropriate feedback to help conversations going data collection was corroborated by the completion of a post-task questionnaire aiming at collecting information on participants’ enjoyment as well as collaboration, language practice, sense of presence, perceived usability, and usefulness of vfes and storymaps to attain activity goals. the latter parameters were measured with a scale of 41 items in a seven-point likert scale format (witmer & singer, 1998). additional parameters related to user comfort were collected using the simulator sickness questionnaire (ssq) elaborated by kennedy et al. (1993). completing these questions allowed participants to self-assess their learning process while using thinglink vfes and storymaps. lastly, a focus group interview was conducted to collect information on whether using the two applications facilitated the emergence of positive interdependence amongst study participants. information was collected through individual answers to verbal questions and written feedback following group discussions. 4. analysis the analysis unfolds from a mixed-methods inquiry on qualitative data collected from behavioral observations, open-ended questions, and focus group interviews as well as quantitative information arising from preand post-task surveys. observations of students’ interactions and a content analysis of transcriptions revealed composite positive interdependent interactions unfolding from task stages. concerning the pre-task questionnaire, relevant data emerged from technological competence, language proficiency, and motivation. in terms of tech-savviness, figure 4 shows that majority of participants rated their competence as advanced (69.2%) and stated they used phones and computers between 2 and 8 hours a day. they were also confident in their ability to create digital materials and navigate computer functions and did not rate the difficulty of using conditionals and subjunctives as high, despite low performances in subjunctive forms. compagnoni & serragiotto 46 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 figure 4. participants’ scores in answering questions on the use of conditional and subjunctives. the sentences they had to complete are listed in the x-axis while the y-axis displays the percentages of successful performance. as for the post-activity questionnaire, significant data arose in terms of types of positive interdependence developed amongst students concerning skill transferability and descriptions of likes and dislikes of the immersive experiences they conducted. figure 5 shows that, in terms of perceptions of transferability of the learned skills, judgments were expressed as very low (vl), low (l), high (h), or very high (vh). on the other hand, table 5 displays participants’ answers to the two qualitative questions embedded in the online questionnaire, consisting of “what did you like the most about these experiences?” and “what did you like the least about these experiences?”. figure 5. judgements expressed in the post-task questionnaire by the participants in relation to the question “how would you rate the applicability of each skill to your professional and social life?” 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 digital storytelling storyboarding (graphical outline of the presentation) mediation strategies speaking practice in italian virtual interactions with digital items (e.g: 360° pictures, interactive tags...) virtual interactions with classmates (e.g.: screensharing, writing on shared documents...) vl l h vh 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 penso che lui ... italiano credevo che lui ... più vecchio se tu venissi, .... volentieri .. mangiarei del sushi questa sera a cena spero che tu ... studiato subjunctive subjunctive conditional conditional subjunctive correct answers incorrect answers cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 47 table 5 selection of participants’ answers to the questions “what did you like the most about these experiences?” likes about the immersive experiences “what did you like the least about these experiences?” dislikes about the immersive experiences a. the opportunity to speak italian, and exchange some ideas with people from all over europe. e. the time was very limited, and it was not clear from the beginning that additional time would be needed. b. the interactivity of the platforms and sharing or bouncing ideas with classmates. exploring an italian city (siena), its culture and art, and performing tasks on a virtual map, i really liked this experience since i felt it was like a game, a quest. f. it can be a little bit complicated to work in groups when it has to be on a platform (for example: storymaps, just one person had access to the map of the group so it restricts the opportunity to completely use this platform). maybe, some work should be done individually. c. the fact that there was no time for being bored. it was very interactive, and the fact that we often were in breakout rooms gave us autonomy. i think this is the key when you are online. also, the repartition of activities during the 12 hours was very well done. g. documents downloading, creating new accounts. d. it was very practical and real. we were introduced to a new way of learning the language which i found very interesting and motivating. h. maybe i would have liked to improve my italian grammar. when asked to rate in the questionnaire whether the digital stories created on storymaps were the results of joint group decisions, 72.7% of the participants replied it was evenly spread between group members. focusing on the creative story process, most participants positively rated the easiness of reaching agreements using storymaps, stating they were facilitated to use as it enabled them to hear each other’s opinions, share ideas, and understand content. table 6 participants’ responses to the post-task survey question: “do you feel that the digital story created by your group on storymaps is more the result of your decisions, your partners’ decisions, or both?” parameters results more mine 9.1% my partner’s 18.2% both 72.7% to obtain further information related to the emergence of positive interdependence as mediation strategies, a content analysis was conducted on participants’ transcriptions using the parameters of table 4. resulting patterns of positive interdependence were grouped into five main areas: instruction provision, collaborative meaning-making, clarification seeking, participation encouragement, and language negotiation. unabridged transcripts from participants’ verbal interactions have been provided in table 7 together with their english translations. table 7 examples of positive interdependence surfacing from participants’ interactions in creating content on storymaps and discussing the interpretation of a piece of art present in the vfes experiences. a. instruction provision and mediation of language use s1: melancolico con la “e”. s1:(while writing story contents on storymaps) melancolico with an “e”. s2: dove la “i”? non è “milancolico”? s2: where the “e”? isn’t it “milanconico”? s1: no è con la “e” e poi la “n”. s1: no it is with “e” and then “n”. s2: ah ok. s2: ah ok. compagnoni & serragiotto 48 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 s1: come scrive, così? guardate se sto scrivendo giusto. “ha una intenzione per attrarre la gente…”. s1: how do you write it, like this? (in the shared screen, she hovers over the word she has just written). check if i am writing it correctly. (starts reading out loud what she has written in italian) “ha una intenzione per attrarre la gente…”. s2: ha intenzione di attrarre la gente a siena. attrarre con due “r”. s2: (corrects a missed “r” in the verb “attrarre” emphasizing the “r”) he has the intention to attract people to siena. “attrarre” with two “r”. s1: così? s1: like this? s2: sì. s2: yes. b. meaning-making, clarification seeking, participation encouragement s3: l’artista? se faccio un errore ditemo, perché non scrivo bene in italiano… s3: (while examining a sculpture in the thinglink vfe) the artist you mean? if i make a mistake please let me know because i do not write well in italian (shares her screen as she is typing in the document) s4: tranquilla! s4: don’t worry! s3: ok, io penso che la nubilità è una forma di intimità? intimità…intimità…tipo, la donna perché dà l’impressione a chi guarda di essere nella vita della donna. non so se è chiaro? s3: ok, i think nudity is a form of intimacy? intimacy…intimacy... (the participant pauses as she looks for the word) for instance, the woman because she gives the impression to the onlooker to be in the life of the woman. i am not sure if i am clear. s4: può essere che sta esprimendo qualcosa per l’artista, non lo so, ora cerco. che cosa ne pensi? s4: it could be that she is expressing something for the artist, i don’t know, i am looking for it. what do you think? s3: penso che un pittore voleva imparare a disegnare il corpo, il corpo della donna, il corpo dell’uomo. questo era necessario per essere raffigurato nuda e per sapere, per imparare come disegnare il corpo. s3: i think that a painter wanted to learn how to draw the body, the body of the woman, the body of the man. this was necessary to be represented naked and to know, to learn how to draw the body. s4: si io penso che questa donna si chiama siena perché la città si chiama siena e ha una storia… ha una storia nel fondo può essere il letteratura. non lo so. o di arte non lo so. ma si è l’autore di questo e sta facendo un’arte con questa nubilità. s4: yes, i think this woman is called siena because the city is called siena and it has a history….it has a history deep within and it could be literature. i don’t know. or of art, i don’t know. but yes, the author is making art with this nudity. s3: non so cosa vuoi dire quando dici “fare un arte” …cosa vuoi dure quando dici “l’artista sta facendo un’arte con la nubilità?” s3: i don’t get what you mean when you say «making art»…what do you mean when you say “the artist is making an artwork with nudity”? data from focus group interviews revealed further information in terms of the positive interdependence emerging between participants during the activities. as the participants preferred to conduct the interviews in italian, english translations have been provided together with the original transcripts. table 8 selection of participants’ answers to focus group questions targeted at understanding the deployment of positive interdependence during non-ivr activities. transcribed and translated extracts from focus group interviews a. penso che la cosa che mi è piaciuto di più è forse che tutte noi abbiamo contribuito a raccontare storie al meglio di come potevamo. a. i think the thing i liked the most was that we all contributed to telling stories to the best of our abilities. b. tutte noi tre parlavamo ed esprimevano le idee. nessuna stava a dire niente. erano tutte attive per proporre idee e suggestioni. b. all three of us talked and expressed ideas. nobody stood there and said nothing. we were all active in proposing ideas and suggestions. c. sì penso che il più importante nel nostro gruppo è di dare idee e di anche ascoltare le idee dell’altra per poter fare un bel lavoro. c. i think the most important thing in our group was to propose ideas and also listen to other people’s ideas to do a good job. cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 49 d. abbiamo collaborato e preso delle decisioni in gruppo per organizzarsi a pensarci. penso che abbiamo preso soggetti che ci piacevano quindi era facile da condividere. d. we collaborated and made group decisions to organize ourselves in our thinking process. i think we all decided on topics we liked and that made it easy to share [ideas]. further information on group management was collected through answers to the questions on the group activities conducted during the focus group interviews, as participants described the strategies of positive interdependence they deployed during the non-ivr activities (table 9). written contents were provided in their unabridged version, together with their corresponding translations. table 9 written information provided by the participants in response to the question “how did you manage the organization of group work during the activities you have conducted? discuss this in your groups and write down the content of your decisions”. participants’ feedback on group management a. prima di tutto abbiamo ascoltato / sentito quello che l’atra persona voleva compartire così avevamo un scambio de idee. abbiamo anche parlato molto, quindi la comunicazione ha stato il mezzo più importante per costruire le idee e il progetto. abbiamo avuto una considerazione reciproca per aiutarci durante la attività. abbiamo condiviso la nostra conoscenza e abbiamo abbracciato le idee che scambiavamo. anche abbiamo fatto un scambio di email e whatsapp costantemente per comunicare. a. first of all, we listened to what the other person wanted to share so that we could exchange ideas. we talked a lot, so communication was the most important tool to construct ideas and design the project. we considered each other to help us during the activities. we shared our knowledge and [positively] received the ideas we shared. we have also had a constant exchange of emails and [messages on] whatsapp to communicate. b. eravamo velocissime, attive e abbiamo espreso facilmente le idee. abbiamo collaborato e preso delle decizioni in grupo. abbiamo dato delle idee pero anche abbiamo ascoltato e accetato le idee degli altri. ci siamo organizati e siccome ci piaceva la tema e stato facile di dividersi i ruoli. b. we were fast and active and we easily expressed our ideas. we have collaborated and made group decisions. we have also given ideas as well as listened to and accepted the ideas of others. we organized ourselves and since we liked the topic it was easy to divide roles between each other. c. tuuti eravano interesante per questa attività, ma alle fine abbiamo scelto quelli che sembravano per noi più interesante. dopo abbiamo visto che un po dificile metere in sieme il lavoro di tutte. ma con aiuta di whatsapp ci abbiamo organizato meglio. c. we were all interested in this activity but in the end we picked those [topics] that seemed more interesting to us. afterward, we noticed that it was a bit difficult to combine the work of all of us. however, with the help of whatsapp, we better organized ourselves. d. abbiamo fatto un buono lavoro, abbiamo organizzato tutto in un modo semplice ed efficiente. abbiamo ascoltato ciascuna opinione di ognuno. non avevamo ruoli, ma ci siamo capiti bene alla fine e tutti hanno parlato, scritto, letto e dato le sue informazione sul cibo, perché a tutti piace il cibo. d. we did a good job, we organized everything simply and efficiently. we listened to the opinions of each other. we did not have roles but we understood each other well in the end and everyone has spoken, written, read, and provided their information on food because we all like food. 5. discussion in discussing positive interdependence arising from students’ interactions in non-ivr, it is important to consider its impact on behavioral aspects resulting from interactions with technology. in terms of the latter parameter, a preliminary analysis of positive interdependent behaviors revealed high rates in participants’ proficiency with technology, which is likely to have facilitated interaction flow as participants directed their actions towards goal achievement while intuitively navigating the platforms. it is also possible that the combination of technological savviness, linguistic competence, and immersion favored by the non-ivr platforms thinglink and storymaps encouraged participants to select mediation strategies as the most transferrable skills acquired during group interactions and perceive the digital stories created by their groups as the product of collaborations (table 6). in terms of the latter parameter, potential failures in acknowledging partners’ contributions might signify that positive interdependence did not manifest between participants. this could be due to the inability of participants to simultaneously work on the digital stories published on storymaps, which prevented them from exercising shared agency of the final project and flawlessly conducting compagnoni & serragiotto 50 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 group work (table 5, f). despite these results, the positive aspects of the conduction of group work outweighed the negatives as participants praised application interactivity, autonomy in directing group work towards sharing ideas, as well as the ability to speak italian whilst talking to people from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds (table 5, a, b, c, d). participants also stated to have been collaboratively involved in the activities by working on application contents while taking part in gamified quests (table 5, b). moreover, transcripts from the participants’ focus groups showed that they identified the ability to attentively listen to contributions from other participants as a key element of group success (table 8, c). in particular, they claimed to have provided creative contributions to the best of their abilities and mediated their ideas with the rest of the group (table 8, d). this highlighted the deployment of positive interdependence, which participants further enhanced by meeting outside of classroom hours to organize and complete their story projects. these communication strategies facilitated participants in attaining task goals and reaching optimal levels of positive interdependence (table 8, a, b, d, table 9, a, b, c, d). the results obtained from analyzing survey responses were further confirmed by transcript analysis, which revealed the appearance of positive interdependence in the form of mediation strategies as users facilitated cooperative interactions, collaborated in language-based meaning-making, and encouraged conceptual talk (table 7). specifically, interdependence surfaced as individuals summarized group decisions and added their contributions to ideas proposed by group members. by doing so, they directed group decisions toward goal attainment and engaged in seeking partners’ clarifications as they monitored each other’s written production in creating virtual content (table 7, b). moreover, participants supervised the creation of written input, thus covering positions of leadership whilst allowing for other members’ creative input to surface (table 7, a). furthermore, content interactivity and exploration favored collaboration through the exchange of ideas and stimulated spatial group exploration. in terms of experiential downsides, participants complained about the lack of focus on grammar in favor of group activities of content creation (table 5, h). digital storytelling appeared to offset some of the downsides of prolonged tech exposure including the distribution of information load across participants, which reduced distraction and disengagement from group activities. moreover, curiosity was enhanced by the explorative possibilities afforded by the applications thinglink and storymaps which contributed to engaging the participants in taslk-oriented language production. the immersion afforded by interacting with the platforms also stimulated creativity and favored role division and cooperation in goal attainment. this appeared to favor the co-construction of interdependent relationships in immersive virtual spaces, as cited by galimberti et al. (2010). the joint use of digital storytelling and non-ivr also appeared to involve users in highly cooperative activities as they mediated decisions and effectively reached task objectives, hence confirming what was stated in the literature in terms of the benefits of digital storytelling for cooperative group activities (ribeiro, moreria & da silva, 2016; liu et al., 2018; schmoelz, 2018). however, downsides were noted in participants’ tendencies to download materials from digital repositories unincorporated in the targeted digital applications, which slowed down group performance (table 5, g). participants also stated that limited time availability and instructional clarity were detrimental to activity completion (table 5, a). despite the relevance of the data obtained during the interventions, the number of participants in this study was rather small. therefore, further investigations could include a wider population sample sourced from schools and academic institutions. from a technical perspective, the seamless integration of cloud units into immersive digital platforms might facilitate group participation and minimize efforts of platform management. therefore, in integrating immersive technologies into language education practices of positive interdependence, it is important to consider technological affordances facilitating the sharing of opinions and ideas as well as multi-user manipulations of digital materials, collaborative meaning-making, and goal orientation in the target language. despite these limitations, this discussion highlighted the importance of interdependence-supporting inquiries and the role of immersive technologies in encouraging students’ linguistic and social competencies in light of their transferability to real-world situations. with regards to declinations of positive interdependence in task-based communication, particular focus could be placed on strengthening students’ mediation strategies in the target language whilst cooperating in digital product creation. these pedagogical implications could also be included in methodological reflections on teacher training related to the use of non-ivr technologies in language learning settings. particular focus might be placed on evaluating teachers’ experiences with immersive technologies in terms of acceptance, perceived usability, and ease of use. providing the conduction of preliminary assessments of teachers’ and students’ needs in their educational contexts, investigations of this kind are deemed to be of pivotal importance in providing teachers with guidelines on how to use non-ivr tools to encourage language learning through digital social practices. further inquiries could also focus on whether language students involved in ivr activities may boost cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 51 positive interdependence by cooperatively working on the creation of digital products within immersive virtual environments. 6. conclusion the study provided an initial overview of the current literature on digital storytelling and immersive technologies as well as their implications for language education. considerations on cooperative learning and task-based methodologies were drawn to highlight gaps in the literature on investigating ways to boost students’ positive interdependence in digital language learning contexts. in fact, with the increasing implementation of virtual technologies in social and professional contexts, focusing on students’ positive interdependence can make students better fl communicators and collaborators. data surfaced from combinations of behavioral observations and content analysis of participants’ transcripts and survey answers. by conducting interactive language learning activities in non-ivr environments, participants engaged in meaning-making, valued personal contributions to goal attainment, and monitored each other’s target language production. despite lacking time and the 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(2016). engineering conditions of possibility in technology-enhanced language learning. in catherine caws & marie-josée hemel (eds.),. language-learner computer interactions. theory, methodology and call applications (pp.: 241-246). john benjamins publishing company. witmer, bob g., & singer, micheal j. (1998). measuring presence in virtual environments: a presence questionnaire. presence: teleoperators and virtual environments, 7(3), https://doi.org/10.1162/105474698565686 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.02.002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00472395221112599 https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.4n.3p.144 https://doi.org/10.1162/105474698565686 cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 55 appendix pre-task questionnaire ● section 1: personal information 1. what are your first and last names?* 2. what is your age?* 3. which languages do you speak?* 4. amongst the languages you listed above, which one(s) do you consider as native?* ● section 2 knowledge of italian language and culture 1. how would you rate your competence in italian? (beginner a1, beginner improver a2, pre-intermediate b1, intermediate b2, advanced c1, native-like c2)* 2. how many years have you been studying italian for? (less than 1 year, between 2 and 4 years, more than 4 years)* 3. why are you studying italian?* 4. in which contexts do you practice your italian skills the most? (select all that apply)* a. talking to locals b. interacting on social media with italian speakers c. using language learning applications d. watching films/tv series/news in italian e. reading books/websites in italian f. self-studying coursebooks g. interacting in online learning communities h. interacting in business contexts/professional lives i. other 5. what do you like the most about italian culture? (select all that apply) * a. art and design b. literature c. language d. food & wine e. fashion f. tourism g. history h. business i. music j. theatre k. local traditions l. sport & leisure m. other ● section 3 knowledge of italian grammar 1. choose the verb that best completes the sentence "penso che lui ... italiano"* a. parla b. parli c. parlava d. answer unknown 2. choose the verb that best completes the sentence "credevo che lui ... più vecchio"* a. sia b. era c. fosse d. anwer unknown 3. choose the verb that best completes the sentence "se tu venissi, .... volentieri"* a. esco b. uscire c. uscirei compagnoni & serragiotto 56 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 d. answer unknown 4. choose the verb that best completes the sentence "... mangiare del sushi questa sera a cena"* a. volevo b. vorrei c. volli d. answer unknown 5. choose the verb that best completes the sentence " spero che tu ... studiato"* a. abbia b. hai c. avevi d. answer unknown 6. was it difficult to complete the sentences above?* 1 2 3 4 not at all extremely ● section 4 technology use and habits 1. how competent are you with technology use? (beginner, intermediate, advanced)* 2. how often do you use your personal computer on a daily basis? (less than 2 hours per day, between 2 and 8 hours per day, more than 8 hours per day)* 3. what do you use it for? (select all that apply)* a. work (nonuniversity related) b. academic work (writing essays, exam preparation, course readings...) c. gaming d. blogging e. desktop publishing/editing (adobe photoshop, canva...) f. writing and data management (word, excel or mac equivalents...) g. cloud-based video conferencing (zoom, google meet...) h. other 4. how often do you use your mobile phone on a daily basis? (less than 2 hours per day, between 2 and 8 hours per day, more than 8 hours per day)* 5. which purposes do you use it for? (select all that apply)* a. social media (including messaging) b. phone calls (not requiring internet connection) c. gaming d. email management e. mobile publishing/editing (e.g.: canva, photo editor...) f. cloud-based video conferencing (e.g.: zoom, google meet...) g. other 6. do you use language learning applications? (yes/no)* 7. if you answered "yes", which one(s)? 8. which of the following platforms have you used for attending online classes? (select all that apply)* a. zoom b. google meet c. microsoft teams d. skype e. whatsapp f. facebook g. youtube h. i have never attended online classes on any platform i. other ● section 5 digital skills 1. i know how to copy and move files such as documents, images and videos between folders, devices or on the cloud* j. i don't know how to do it cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 57 k. i can do it with help l. i can do it on my own m. i can do it with confidence and, if needed, i can support/guide others 2. i know how to create a profile in digital environments for personal or professional purposes* a. i don't know how to do it b. i can do it with help c. i can do it on my own d. i can do it with confidence and, if needed, i can support/guide others 3. i know how to create something new by mixing different types of content, like text and images* a. i don't know how to do it b. i can do it with help c. i can do it on my own d. i can do it with confidence and, if needed, i can support/guide others 4. when i face a technical problem, i am able to find solutions on the internet* a. i don't know how to do it b. i can do it with help c. i can do it on my own d. i can do it with confidence and, if needed, i can support/guide others ● section 6 online learning 1. have you ever worked with teams online? (yes/no)* 2. if you answered "yes", could you briefly describe your online teamwork experience? 3. have you ever led teams online? (yes/no)* 4. do you agree or disagree with the following statements?* (1 – strongly disagree, 2 – disagree, 3 – agree, 4 – strongly agree) a. online language learning improves students' language skills b. online language learning boosts interactions amongst learners c. online language learning accelerates task completion d. online language learning improves coursework management e. it is intuitive and fast to learn how to use online language learning resources f. anybody can easily learn a language in online learning contexts g. online language learning can smoothly be integrated in academic curricula ● section 7 virtual reality 1. are you interested in using virtual reality for language learning purposes?* 1 2 3 4 not at all extremely 2. have you ever had a virtual reality experience? (yes/no)* 3. if you answered "yes", could you briefly describe it? 4. if you had a virtual reality experience, did you like it? (yes/no) 5. could you briefly explain why? 6. imagine that you were using virtual reality for language learning purposes. would you agree or disagree with the following statements? (select one answer for each row)* (1 – strongly disagree, 2 – disagree, 3 – agree, 4 – strongly agree) a. virtual reality improves language learning b. virtual reality boosts interactivity amongst classmates c. virtual reality enhances opportunities of authentic language use d. it is simple to find information and details in virtual reality environments e. virtual reality is user-friendly and intuitive post-task questionnaire ● section 1 language learning with virtual reality compagnoni & serragiotto 58 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 1. did you enjoy the experience of learning italian with virtual reality? (yes/no)* 2. what did you like the most about this experience?* 3. what did you like the least about this experience?* 4. how would you rate the applicability of each skill to your professional and social life? * (1 very low, 2 – low, 3 – high, 4 very high) a. digital storytelling b. presentation planning c. speaking practice in italian d. virtual interactions with digital items (e.g: virtual objects...) e. avatar interactions with my classmate 5. do you feel that virtual reality improved your italian language skills? (yes/no)* 6. if you answered "yes", how do you think you will use the language skills you have acquired?* 7. think about your experience of learning italian through virtual reality and rate your agreement with the following statements* (1 – strongly disagree, 2 – disagree, 3 – agree, 4 – strongly agree) a. virtual reality facilitated language interactions with my classmate b. virtual reality was useful for collaboration c. the use of virtual reality facilitated me in requesting the help of my classmate when there were issues with task conduction d. using hand controllers and vr headset facilitated language interactions with my classmate e. conversations flowed as easily as they would in face-to-face contexts 8. do you feel that the digital tour created with your partner is more the result of your decisions, your partner's decisions or both? (more mine, my partner's, both)* 9. think about your experience with virtual reality and rate your agreement with the following statements* (1 – strongly disagree, 2 – disagree, 3 – agree, 4 – strongly agree) a. i found it difficult to interact with my classmate in virtual reality b. i felt inhibited from expressing my opinions in virtual reality c. i felt prevented from being a group leader in virtual reality d. i felt virtual reality prevented me from proposing new ideas to my classmate 10. did you find it easy to reach an agreement with your partner on selecting tour destinations when immersed in virtual reality? (yes/no)* 11. why?* 12. after your experience, do you feel more inclined to use virtual reality for collaborative language learning purposes? (yes/no)* ● section 2 sense of presence in virtual reality 1. how much were you able to control the events?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all able to completely 2. how responsive was the environment to actions that you initiated or performed?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all responsive very responsive 3. how natural did your interactions with the virtual environment seem?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not natural at all very natural 4. how much did the visual aspects of the environment involve you?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all completely 5. how much did the auditory aspects of the environments involve you?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all completely 6. how natural was the mechanism which controlled changing between the different environments?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not natural at all very natural 7. how compelling was your sense of objects moving through space?* cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 59 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all compelling very compelling 8. how much did your experiences in the virtual environments seem consistent with your real world experiences?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all consistent very consistent 9. were you able to anticipate what would happen next in response to the actions you performed?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all completely 10. how completely were you able to actively survey or search the environments using your vision?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all completely 11. how well could you identify sounds?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not well at all very well 12. how well could you localise sounds?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not well at all very well 13. how well could you actively survey or search the virtual environment using touch?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not well at all very well 14. how compelling was your sense of moving around inside the virtual environment?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all compelling very compelling 15. how closely were you able to examine objects?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not close at all very close 16. how well could you examine objects from multiple viewpoints?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not well at all very well 17. how well could you move or manipulate objects in the virtual environmental experience?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not well at all very well 18. how involved were you in the virtual environment experience?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all involved very involved 19. how much delay did you experience between your actions and expected outcomes?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 full delay no delay 20. how quickly did you adjust to the virtual environment experience?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 i did not adjust to it at all it took me less than a minute to adjust to it 21. how proficient in moving and interacting with the virtual environment did you feel at the end of experience?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not proficient very proficient 22. how much did the visual display quality interfere or distract you from performing the assigned tasks or required activities?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all completely 23. how well could you concentrate on the assigned tasks or required activities rather than on the mechanisms used to perform those tasks or activities?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all completely 24. how much did the control devices interfere with the performance of assigned tasks or with other activities?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all completely 25. how completely were your senses engaged in these experiences?* compagnoni & serragiotto 60 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not engaged at all completely engaged 26. to what extent did events occurring outside the virtual environment distract you from your experience in the virtual environment?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all very much 27. overall, how much did you focus on using the display and control devices instead of the virtual experience and experimental tasks?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all very much 28. were you involved in the experimental task to the extent that you lost track of time?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all completely 29. how easy was it to identify objects through physical interaction, like touching an object, walking over a surface, or bumping into a wall or object?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not easy at all very easy 30. were there moments during the virtual experiences when you felt completely focused on the task or environment?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all many 31. how easily did you adjust to the control devices used to interact with the virtual environments?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all completely 32. was the information provided through different senses in the virtual environment (e.g., vision, hearing, touch) consistent?* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not at all completely ● section 3 postactivity comfort with virtual reality 1. general discomfort* 1 2 3 4 none severe 2. fatigue* 1 2 3 4 none severe 3. headache* 1 2 3 4 none severe 4. eye strain* 1 2 3 4 none severe 5. difficulty focusing* 1 2 3 4 none severe 6. salivation increasing* 1 2 3 4 none severe 7. sweating* 1 2 3 4 none severe 8. nausea* 1 2 3 4 none severe 9. difficulty concentrating* 1 2 3 4 none severe cooperative digital storytelling e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 61 10. "fullness of the head"* 1 2 3 4 none severe 11. blurred vision* 1 2 3 4 none severe 12. dizziness with open eyes* 1 2 3 4 none severe 13. dizziness with closed eyes* 1 2 3 4 none severe 14. vertigo* 1 2 3 4 none severe 15. stomach awareness* 1 2 3 4 none severe 16. burping* 1 2 3 4 none severe ● section 4 usability of virtual reality 1. i think that i would like to use vr for language learning purposes more often* 1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree strongly agree 2. i found performing vr lessons unnecessarily complex* 1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree strongly agree 2 i thought using vr for language learning purposes was easy* 1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree strongly agree 3. i think that i would need the support of a technical person to be able to use vr for language purposes again* 1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree strongly agree 4. i found the various functions in this system were well integrated* 1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree strongly agree 5. i thought there was too much inconsistency in this system* 1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree strongly agree 6. i would imagine that most people would learn very quickly to use vr for language learning purposes* 1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree strongly agree 7. i found the system very cumbersome to use* 1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree strongly agree 8. i felt very confident using the system* 1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree strongly agree 9. i needed to learn a lot of things before i could get going with this system* 1 2 3 4 5 strongly disagree strongly agree compagnoni & serragiotto 62 e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 36-62 ilaria compagnoni, università ca’ foscari di venezia ilaria.compagnoni@unive.it en ilaria compagnoni is a phd candidate at the ca’ foscari university of venice (italy). her research focuses on educational technology applied to language learning. specifically, she analyzes students’ interactions using immersive and nonimmersive virtual reality, which she also investigates in tech-based teacher training practices. es ilaria compagnoni es doctoranda en la universidad ca' foscari de venecia (italia). su investigación se centra en la tecnología educativa aplicada al aprendizaje de idiomas. en concreto, analiza las interacciones del alumnado en el uso de realidad virtual inmersiva y no inmersiva. también investiga la realidad virtual en las prácticas de formación docente basadas en tecnología. it ilaria compagnoni è dottoranda all’ università ca’ foscari di venezia (italia). la sua ricerca è incentrata sulle tecnologie educative applicate all’apprendimento delle lingue straniere. si occupa specificatamente dell’analisi delle interazioni tra studenti in realtà virtuale immersiva e non immersiva che esamina anche in contesti di formazione di insegnanti alle tecnologie educative. graziano serragiotto, università ca’ foscari di venezia serragiotto@unive.it en graziano serragiotto is full professor of educational linguistics and teaching italian to foreigners at the ca’ foscari university of venice. he is also the director of the “laboratorio itals”, where he conducts research on language assessment and teaching methodologies for language educators. es graziano serragiotto es catedrático de lingüística educativa y didáctica de lenguas modernas en la universidad ca' foscari de venecia (italia). también es director del “laboratorio itals” donde realiza investigación sobre evaluación lingüística y metodologías didácticas del profesorado de lenguas extranjeras. it graziano serragiotto è professore ordinario in educazione linguistica e didattica delle lingue moderne all’ università ca’ foscari di venezia. è anche direttore del laboratorio itals dove svolge ricerca nell’ambito della valutazione linguistica e sulle metodologie didattiche di insegnanti di lingue straniere. euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 11, issue 2, december 2024, pages 1-26 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.2.3078 www.e-journall.org © panzavecchia 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. diverse voices, dynamic classrooms: exploring changing demographics, pedagogical shifts, and training perspectives in maltese multilingual primary classrooms. michelle panzavecchia institute for education, malta received 19 april 2024; accepted 7 october 2024 abstract en malta is a small island in the mediterranean sea with a history of foreign occupation and british colonisation. although bilingualism is a quintessential feature of being maltese, recent, rapid, and unprecedented demographic shifts are altering the country's linguistic landscape from a bilingual to a multilingual one. this situation is mirrored in maltese schools, with classrooms becoming more linguistically and culturally diverse. this paper explores how 145 maltese primary school educators perceive and approach teaching students with diverse language and cultural backgrounds by examining their attitudes toward employing flexible language strategies, such as code-switching. the results of this research highlight the evolving dynamics of language use in malta and the resulting impact on its educational system. this requires the reassessment of professional development initiatives in light of the current migration patterns. the aim of this study is to ultimately develop guidance and customize practical training and consultation sessions focused on culturally and linguistically responsive teaching. key words: multilingual education, multilingual teaching practices, professional development, fluid language practices es malta es una pequeña isla en el mediterráneo con una historia de ocupación extranjera y colonización británica. el bilingüismo es una característica esencial de la identidad maltesa; sin embargo, los recientes y rápidos cambios demográficos están transformando el panorama lingüístico del país, pasando de ser bilingüe a multilingüe. esta situación se refleja en las escuelas maltesas, donde las aulas son cada vez más diversas desde el punto de vista lingüístico y cultural. este artículo explora cómo 145 docentes de educación primaria en malta perciben y abordan la enseñanza a estudiantes con diversos antecedentes lingüísticos y culturales, analizando sus actitudes hacia el uso de estrategias lingüísticas flexibles, como el cambio de código. los resultados de esta investigación arrojan luz sobre la dinámica evolutiva del uso del lenguaje en malta y el impacto resultante en su sistema educativo. esto exige una revisión de las iniciativas de desarrollo profesional a la luz de los patrones migratorios actuales. el objetivo de este estudio es, en última instancia, desarrollar orientación y sesiones de formación práctica y consulta personalizadas, centradas en una enseñanza cultural y lingüísticamente receptiva. palabras clave: educación multilingüe, prácticas de enseñanza multilingües, desarrollo profesional, prácticas lingüísticas fluidas it malta è una piccola isola nel mediterraneo con una storia di occupazioni straniere e colonizzazione britannica. il bilinguismo è un elemento essenziale dell'identità maltese; tuttavia, recenti e rapidi cambiamenti demografici stanno trasformando il panorama linguistico del paese da bilingue a multilingue. questa situazione si riflette anche nelle scuole maltesi, dove le classi stanno diventando sempre più linguisticamente e culturalmente diversificate. questo articolo esplora come 145 educatori della scuola primaria maltese percepiscono e affrontano l'insegnamento a studenti con diversi background linguistici e culturali, esaminando i loro atteggiamenti verso l'uso di strategie linguistiche flessibili, come il code-switching. i risultati di questa ricerca evidenziano le dinamiche in evoluzione dell'uso linguistico a malta e il conseguente impatto sul sistema educativo. questa situazione richiede una rivalutazione delle iniziative di sviluppo professionale alla luce dei modelli migratori attuali. l'obiettivo di questo studio è infine sviluppare linee guida e sessioni di formazione pratica e consulenza su misura, incentrate su un insegnamento culturalmente e linguisticamente responsivo. parole chiave: educazione multilingue, pratiche didattiche multilingui, formazione docenti, pratiche linguistiche fluide 🖂 michelle panzavecchia, institute for education, malta michelle.panzavecchia@ilearn.edu.mt mailto:michelle.panzavecchia@ilearn.edu.mt diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 2 1. introduction the past few decades have seen a significant global increase in human mobility and migration flows, leading to widespread linguistic and cultural diversity across europe and beyond. this has resulted in the prevalence of multilingual classrooms, with students speaking a variety of native languages, and some not using the school’s language(s) of instruction within their home environments (dockrell, papadopoulos, mifsud et al., 2023; duarte & günther-van der meijb, 2022; van laere, rosiers, van avermaet et al., 2017). migrant children are among the most vulnerable in society, making their protection and support a critical humanitarian and policy issue in many european countries. these students often face the challenge of learning and being evaluated in the official language(s) of education, which can lead to them underachieving when compared to their native-born peers (eurydice, 2019). additionally, children who lack support for their native language in educational settings often experience social and academic disadvantages (oecd, 2012). in today's educational landscape, it is imperative for educators to receive proper training to leverage the advantages of multilingualism and multiculturalism (duarte & günther-van der meijb, 2022). this training should be designed in ways that equip educators to meet the diverse needs of all students and to support the development of children's cultural identities and linguistic heritage while preparing them for a globalised world. this can be accomplished through teaching methods that incorporate flexible language strategies like code-switching and translanguaging (garcía, johnson, seltzer & valdés, 2017), programs that emphasise the global value of english (cenoz, 2019), and initiatives that support the preservation of the host country’s language(s) (panzavecchia & little, 2019, 2020). creating effective and equitable learning environments is crucial for the success of these children and requires pedagogical approaches that are responsive to the local multilingual context. a pivotal starting point for understanding education in these settings is to examine the perspectives and practices of educators themselves (dockrell et al., 2023; michala, manoli, lavidas & koustourakis, 2024; wagner, 2021). this paper is a follow-up to a doctoral study focusing on bilingual maltese teachers’ identities and the ways in which their backgrounds impact their perceptions and pedagogical practices (see panzavecchia, 2020). the present research is a continuation of the original study, with a much larger sample size and additional insights related to teaching within multilingual environments. the first original qualitative study focused on the views of nine maltese teachers in relation to their bilingual identities and their experiences related to bilingual and multilingual classrooms. this follow-up study was deemed necessary due to the rapidly occurring demographic changes on the island of malta and its experience of the global trend of linguistic diversity, within the context of its unique bilingual situation which forms part of its historical legacy. it explores teaching within multilingual classrooms due to the island’s current transformation from a bilingual to multilingual society as a result of ongoing demographic shifts (ariza, calleja,vassallo gauci, 2019; bonello, 2020; caruana, scaglione, vassallo gauci, 2019; farrugia, 2017; panzavecchia, 2023; paris & farrugia, 2019). this state of affairs is mirrored in our schools through the arrival of a number of non-maltese children speaking a variety of languages (camenzuli, lundberg, gauci, 2023). this has inevitably impacted our schools both culturally and linguistically, and is the source of both enrichment and challenges. one such challenge sees maltese teachers increasingly faced with teaching young students who do not speak either english or maltese. language is one obstacle which prevents students from ethnic minorities from fully benefiting from education. however, it is often argued that the primary challenge lies in schools that fail to effectively address student diversity. educators play a critical role in overcoming these barriers, as they possess significant potential to foster the holistic inclusion of diverse students. nevertheless, it has been observed that achieving positive change requires appropriate support systems to be in place (parnis & schembri, 2023). the current study is an attempt to address such challenges by gathering data from educators in relation to their experience of multilingual classrooms, and their perceived needs in this respect. this study was conducted through a mixed-methods approach, which included the dissemination of an online questionnaire to all primary state-school teachers in malta. the questions are related to the ways in which maltese primary school teachers are supporting multilingual students, together with their viewpoints regarding the use of fluid language practices such as code-switching. the aim of this study is to shed more light on the current situation, and to eventually offer schools guidance and practical training and consultation sessions that are tailor-made to specific needs on how to mitigate challenges related to linguistically diverse classrooms. the results of this research illuminate the changing aspects of language use that malta is currently experiencing, together with the resulting impact on its educational system. this necessitates the revisiting of professional practice and professional development, in light of the current migration trends which are resulting in classrooms becoming more linguistically and culturally diverse. multilingual education and cross-linguistic pedagogies are the way forward within ever-increasing globalised societies (baker, 2011; beres, 2015; garcía, 2009; garcía et al., 2017; garcía and wei, 2014; milton, 2011, 2016; ; milton & panzavecchia, 2019a). the results of this study are indicative of the rapidly panzavecchia e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 3 changing demographic makeup of the maltese primary classroom, marked by an unprecedented linguistically diverse environment. in this respect, the need for customised professional development training sessions was expressed by the large majority of the participants. maltese teachers are open to employing innovative linguistic pedagogies as required by the island’s changing demographic composition; however, they feel the need to be equipped with the necessary skills to legitimise organically occurring fluid language practices, and to provide a socially just and equitable education for all. 2. the maltese context the island of malta is situated in the middle of the mediterranean sea. maltese is the national language of malta, whilst the constitution of malta states that both maltese and english are official languages on the island. when malta joined the european union (eu) in 2004, maltese also became an official language of the eu. while the majority of maltese people are considered bilingual, there exists significant variation in proficiency levels among speakers (vella, 2012). the maltese language is semitic in its foundations; however, it is written in a latin script and in a left-to-right direction (francesconi, 2010; paris & farrugia, 2019). it also merges elements of english and romance languages owing to its strategic position and history of foreign occupation. the prevalent use of the english language is linked to the island’s colonial heritage, which lasted until 1964 (see panzavecchia & little, 2019). the sociolinguistic situation in malta is one of a widespread societal bilingualism without diglossia since neither of the two languages is assigned a high or low function and both are used in most domains (camilleri grima, 2013). malta is, however, currently experiencing unprecedented and rapid demographic shifts, which are resulting in an inevitable linguistic shift from bilingualism to multilingualism. 3. recent demographic shifts on the island ever since 2002, malta has been perceived to be a symbolic gateway into europe, resulting in an influx of asylum seekers and refugees due to shifting migration patterns and globalisation. malta joined the eu in 2004, which further increased transnational migration, as more eu citizens are choosing to make malta their home (international organisation for migration, 2016). additionally, malta’s 2021 national census reveals that malta’s demographic makeup has also been impacted by the importation of foreign labour by the government to sustain economic growth over the past few years. currently, one fifth of malta’s population and over a quarter of malta’s workforce is made up of foreign nationals. the past decade has seen an increase of over 95,000 non-maltese nationals on the island (borg, 2023). the population of malta stood at just over half a million in 2021, making it the most densely populated country in the eu with 1,649 residents per square kilometre (malta is 27 km long and 14.5 km wide). italians make up the large majority of non-maltese living on the islands, followed by british residents. other common nationalities residing in malta include indian, filipino, serbian, bulgarian and libyan populations. in the 2012/2013 school year, the number of migrant pupils in maltese schools stood at 1,890. in 2021/22, this number increased to 6,819, hence in 9 years the number has more than tripled (national statistics office, 2024). at the same time, the number of maltese births is steadily decreasing since malta has the lowest fertility rate in europe (eurostat, 2021). maltese primary schools host the largest percentage of non-maltese children, standing at 15% of the schools’ population in 2020/21 (national statistics office, 2023). this state of affairs is inevitably impacting schools both culturally and linguistically. 4. the present study the current paper is a follow-up of a doctoral study conducted in 2020, with the aim of reaching a larger sample size, capturing new insights pertinent to the evolving scenario, and gathering data related to the way educators are supporting the ever-increasing number of multilingual students in their classrooms. this encompassed an exploration of their current practices and perceptions of implementing fluid language pedagogies, and an assessment of their perceived training requirements on this topic. this study aimed to paint a more comprehensive picture of the situation, ultimately paving the way for the development and provision of customised consultation sessions, tailor-made professional development, and comprehensive support in addressing these educational challenges. 4.1. the participants the total population for this study comprised 145 participants, encompassing a diverse range of roles within the educational sector, including teachers, supply teachers, activity teachers, learning support educators (lses), kindergarten educators (kges), and members of the senior leadership team (slt). it is worth noting that kindergarten educators have been included in this study because of an overlap between kindergarten and the initial phase of primary education in malta, as the first two years of primary education diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 4 are considered an extension of the two-year kindergarten period (eurydice, 2023). in maltese state schools, kindergarten classes are in fact generally located within primary schools and the head of primary school is also responsible for this cohort. the majority of respondents were teachers, followed by learning support educators. teaching experience among the participants ranged between 0 – 20 years, with most participants having over 20 years of school practice. the majority of respondents hold a bachelor’s degree, followed by those holding a diploma and a master’s degree respectively. there was an even distribution of educators in the early years and junior years, with approximately half of the participants teaching in each sector. table 1 participants’ employment status employment status % teacher 62.33% learning support educator 22.6% senior leadership member 9.59% kindergarten educator 4.79% total 99.32% invalid 0.68% total 100% table 2 participants’ teaching experience teaching experience % 5 – 10 years 24.66% 10 – 20 years 22.6% 0 – 5 years 22.6% total 97.95% invalid 2.05% total 100% table 3 level of education distribution among participants highest academic qualification % bachelor’s degree 47.26% diploma 28.08% master’s degree 17.81% a’ levels 4.11% o’ levels 1.37% total 98.63% invalid 1.37% total 100% 4.2. methods for this study, a mixed methods approach was employed, administering a comprehensive questionnaire that incorporated both quantitative and qualitative elements. the multiple-choice question responses were subjected to statistical analysis. initially, the data was cleaned and subsequently analysed using descriptive statistical methods. quantitative data analysis was performed with datatab software, from which percentage responses were extracted. the data derived from the open-ended questions underwent thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006), providing a qualitative exploration of participants' perspectives and insights. the gathered data was categorised based on similarities, differences, and other panzavecchia e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 5 relevant factors, and was colour-coded for organisation. overlapping themes were examined and refined, while newly emerging themes were further subdivided into sub-themes. this dual-method strategy facilitated a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the research topic, combining the strengths of numerical precision with the richness of qualitative insights. an online questionnaire was developed for the purpose of this study, with the aim of gathering data from educators in relation to their experiences of multilingual classrooms and their perceived needs in this respect. the questionnaire included an information section related to the scope and nature of the study, highlighting the fact that participation was completely voluntary, whilst guaranteeing the respondents’ privacy since all data is anonymous and therefore cannot be traced back to the participant as an individual. additionally, the participants were advised that the questionnaire would take approximately 10–15 minutes to complete. the questionnaire consisted of 27 questions, out of which 17 were multiplechoice questions, and 10 were open-ended questions where the participants were free to voice their personal opinions on the subject. some of the multiple-choice questions also provided participants with the opportunity to express their own views and provide additional comments, ensuring a comprehensive exploration of their perspectives. the questions focused on their linguistic backgrounds and bilingual identities, their experience related to teaching children with diverse language backgrounds, the benefits and challenges related to multilingual classrooms, the strategies employed for effective communication and teaching within linguistically diverse classrooms, their viewpoints on monolingual approaches and on fluid language practices, and the level and type of support they feel both educators and students require within multilingual teaching and learning environments. this questionnaire, together with an explanatory email, were systematically distributed to all heads of primary state schools in malta, who were then responsible for disseminating the survey to their respective staff members for voluntary participation in the project. prior to initiating this process, ethical approval was obtained from both the researcher's institution and the ministry for education, sport, youth, research, and innovation. a copy of this questionnaire can be found in the appendix of this article. 145 participants responded to the online questionnaire. the national statistics office (2023) reports 3651 educators working in the primary sector in malta; this sample is 3.97% of the total population, which gave the researcher a margin of error of 3.57% with a confidence interval of 95%. 5. results the results of this research indicate that the participating educators are fluent in both maltese and english and use both languages equally and interchangeably in their daily communication. most of the respondents are also fluent in the italian language. code-switching is a typical feature of bilingual and multilingual speakers (baker, 2011; paradis, genesee, crago, 2011; wei, 2007), and the findings show that fluid language practices, such as code-switching and translanguaging, are organically employed by the large majority of the respondents; however, the participating educators are paradoxically unsure of their benefits and how to use them strategically in the classroom (panzavecchia, 2020, 2023). the findings show that the large majority of participants are currently teaching in multilingual classrooms, without being given appropriate support, guidance, and training. educators appear to be striving to reach out to all the children in their care; however, this is mainly done out of their own initiative, and not linked to professional training (scaglione & caruana, 2018). the participating educators seem to be open and willing to improve practice given the appropriate training, for which the large majority reported a dire need. in this respect, educators need to be offered professional development and training programs which would enable them to legitimately implement bilingual and multilingual pedagogies advantageously (beres, 2015; garcía et al., 2017; garcía & wei, 2014; milton, 2011, 2016; milton & panzavecchia, 2019a), which would in turn guarantee inclusion and social justice within linguistically diverse classrooms (wei, 2023). the rest of the findings have been split up into sections pertinent to the scope of this study. verbatim quotes are also included in the data, which was analysed thematically. this approach serves to enhance the validation of this study, providing participants with a "voice", and allowing readers to comprehensively grasp the interviewees' expressed views and sentiments regarding their experiences related to teaching within multilingual environments. 5.1. participants’ linguistic background 93.8% of the respondents consider maltese to be their mother tongue, or the language they feel most comfortable communicating in, whilst the same percentage consider english to be their second language. a small number of participants mentioned other languages, notably italian as either their l1 or l2 (first or second language respectively). all participants feel they are very, or quite proficient, in the second language. 80% of participants speak other languages apart from their l1 and l2, with italian also diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 6 being spoken by the large majority of educators, including those who listed multiple languages (three or more languages) as forming part of their repertoire. this linguistic scenario is depictive of the sociolinguistic situation in malta, which is one of a widespread societal bilingualism without diglossia. it also evidences the prominence of the italian language, which is at times spoken as a third language in malta (ariza et al., 2019), as a result of the countries’ geographical proximity, historical and commercial ties, and italian media exposure (caruana, 2007; caruana, cremona, & vella, 2013). figure 1. other languages spoken by participants (not including maltese and english) 5.2. linguistic and cultural demographics in maltese classrooms 80.3% of the participants stated that they were teaching children with diverse language backgrounds (other than maltese and english), whilst 83.3% claimed that they had never received training related to teaching in multilingual classroom environments. in contrast, the participants who had received some form of training credited this to specific modules in their academic studies or self-sought professional development. only one respondent claimed to have received school-based professional development on the topic. this is indicative of an educator workforce which is not being adequately supported and trained to navigate the shifting linguistic and cultural dynamics of maltese classrooms (milton & panzavecchia, 2019b; panzavecchia, 2020; panzavecchia, 2023; panzavecchia & little, 2019; scaglione & caruana, 2018). panzavecchia e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 7 figure 2. training related to teaching in multilingual classroom environments received by participants 90% of the participants had a classroom of 20 or over children in class, which is indicative of largely populated classrooms in malta. 34% of the participants claimed to have between 0-10% of their class consisting of non-maltese/migrant children, whilst 17% had between 11%-20%. the study revealed a diverse linguistic landscape in the classrooms, with participants reporting the presence of children speaking a wide array of languages. notably, some teachers mentioned children conversing in categories such as 'indian,' 'african,' 'syrian,' 'pakistani,' or 'egyptian,' unwittingly attributing these labels to languages, when, in fact, they do not represent distinct linguistic entities. table 4 percentage of non-maltese/migrant children in participants’ classes non-maltese/migrant students % 0 – 10% 33.56% 11 – 20% 17.12% 21 – 40% 15.07% 61 -80% 11.64% 41 – 60% 10.27% 81 – 100% 8.9% total 96.58% invalid 3.42% total 100% diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 8 table 5 languages spoken by children in participants’ classrooms. 5.3. multilingual strategies employed by maltese primary educators when asked about the strategies employed to address language barriers and to promote effective communication among multilingual students, the participants were given a list of possible answers from which they could choose more than one option and/or add their own ideas. the majority of respondents stated that they were using scaffolded instruction for different proficiency levels in class (durán & palmer, 2014), thus breaking down complex tasks or concepts into more manageable steps. participants also claimed that they were striving to provide clear instructions, offering support as students progressed through each step. respondents further mentioned incorporating diverse and culturally relevant content, reflecting the background and experience of the students (wagner, 2021). additionally, they also used a language buddy system (sclafani, 2017), pairing students for language brokering and to support each other in learning the target language, whilst sharing their mother tongue. other notable responses encompassed encouraging language use (gort & sembiante, 2015), where some educators created opportunities for students to use their native languages during certain parts of the day with technology integration by using language learning apps and online translation tools to facilitate communication and language development. paradoxically, the selection of self-sought professional development emerged on the lower end of the response spectrum. this might be indicative of a teacher workforce which does not generally pursue independent learning unless it reaps tangible rewards, such as promotion or a salary increase, and where training is usually provided by third parties. this mentality could also be linked to malta’s culture of competitive achievement, where the educational system is heavily reliant on examinations, and therefore based on extrinsic, rather than intrinsic motivation (panzavecchia, 2020). these findings confirm the analysis conducted by the european commission in 2019, which indicates that over half of all service teachers in malta are either unmotivated to attend continuing professional development (cpd) courses or face challenges in doing so due to additional responsibilities. the promotion of more self-directed learning for personal and professional growth is therefore crucial in today’s evolving classroom demographics (back, 2020; gorter & arocena, 2020; menken & sanchez, 2019; panzavecchia, 2020). when asked about the strategies employed to teach the children in class, respondents were once again provided with a list of options, allowing them to choose multiple responses and/or contribute with their own ideas. the use of visual aids was mentioned by the large majority of participants, followed by code-switching, translating and revoicing (gort & sembiante, 2015), language buddies (sclafani, 2017), and technology integration (van laere et al., 2017). the use of flexible assessment methods appeared at the lower end of the response spectrum. when enquired about their level of confidence when employing these strategies, nearly half of the participants expressed confidence, a substantial 36% felt uncertain, and 14% did not feel confident. the participating educators exhibited initiatives, creativity, and proactiveness related to teaching within multilingual environments. however, the results of this study indicate that this is done out of their own free will, without a clear association with professional guidance and training (panzavecchia & little, 2019; scaglione & caruana, 2018). in this respect, although it appears that maltese educators are willing to category language local maltese, english european italian, french, german, portuguese, romanian, spanish, dutch, polish, slovak, croatian, czech, ukrainian, serbian, russian, hungarian, swedish, macedonian, bulgarian, estonian, lithuanian, latvian, albanian, greek, irish, armenian, slavic asian chinese, japanese, cantonese, turkish, urdu, filipino, hindi, tamil, sinhala, malayalam, thai african arabic, somali, tigrinya, nigerian language, afrikaan other sign language panzavecchia e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 9 address the realities of their linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms, half of the participants are either unsure or do not feel confident about the strategies they are employing (ariza et al., 2019; farrugia, 2017; scaglione & caruana, 2018;). this indicates that teachers need to be “explicitly taught ways to incorporate heteroglossic ideologies” into their pedagogy (goodman & tastanbek, 2020, p. 1). it also underscores the necessity for systemic structural support to facilitate the incorporation of multilingual pedagogies into both education and teacher training programs (szelei, pinho, tinoca, 2021). table 6 confidence in applying multilingual strategies in class confidence % yes 47.95% not sure 35.62% no 13.7% total 97.26% invalid 2.74% total 100% 5.4. incorporating culturally and linguistically relevant material participants were also asked whether they try to incorporate culturally and linguistically relevant material into their classes. responses were varied, but it appears that the majority of educators do endeavour to incorporate such resources in order to make their classrooms more inclusive. however, for a substantial number of participants, the extent of using such material is mainly limited to labelling items around the classroom in different languages. other mentioned material was related to games, stories in reading comprehensions, books, flashcards, word banks, and video clips. a few participants stated that they organised multicultural days and involved students in multicultural projects throughout the year. they also endeavoured to include children’s cultural backgrounds, especially during christmas and easter activities. one participant stated that their school’s christmas concert has now moved away from religious themes or associations and is merely a celebration of love and kindness. excerpt 1. representative resources i make sure my resources are representative. i make sure i know greeting words in their languages. i strive to learn about their countries and mention things in passing. i have the crayola skin tone set that has every possible skin tone in class (not just ‘peach’). i celebrate their feasts and try to increase awareness of them within the school. excerpt 2. cultural exchange i have students engage in projects that involve communication with peers from different language backgrounds, fostering cultural exchange. although these responses are very encouraging, highlighting an educator workforce that is attempting to provide inclusive education for all, there were also several other teachers who stated that they do not manage to incorporate culturally and linguistically relevant material in class. this was attributed to a lack of available resources, together with time constraints and uncooperative students. excerpt 3. loaded curricula curriculum and assessment and students’ academic level don’t allow for much flexibility. excerpt 4. time constraints and student resistance as an ethics teacher, the syllabus allows me to draw from different cultures. when i was a class teacher it was much harder, as there were time constraints, syllabus and more resistance from students to learn maltese and english. 5.5. participants’ understanding of code-switching the large majority of participants has a clear understanding of what code-switching entails and described it as alternating between two or more languages in conversation or switching between languages during lessons to ensure mutual understanding. two participants believed that it was similar to diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 10 translanguaging. both code-switching and translanguaging refer to an organic switching between languages for various communicative purposes, and both can occur spontaneously or be used intentionally for pedagogical reasons. translanguaging is a broader term that includes a range of language practices, possibly encompassing code-switching (garcía, 2009), reflecting a different understanding of bilingual cognition (otheguy et al., 2015, 2019), with overlapping aspects between the two (baker & wright, 2017; goodman & tastanbek, 2020). the key distinction is that code-switching involves switching between two separate, distinct languages, while translanguaging views language as a unified, fluid system from which speakers draw according to their particular requirements at any given time (goodman & tastanbek, 2020; otheguy et al., 2019). it is also interesting to note that some respondents appeared to draw parallels between code-switching and translation, potentially reflecting a perceived overlap in their features (see pintado gutiérrez, 2021). 5.6. participants’ views on code-switching in the classroom there was a clear division of opinions related to participants’ views on the use of code-switching in the classroom. the general feeling is that although teachers wish to maintain distinct languages, they also believe that this could inevitably create related complexities, particularly for children who are not fluent in either english or maltese. what emerged strongly was the fact that almost half of the respondents were not in favour of this practice, stating that it is ‘inappropriate’, ‘tiresome’ or ‘problematic’. most of these respondents used the word ‘confusing’ to justify their aversion to this practice. some participants voiced their concerns that students would not learn much this way. one participant also claimed that it was school policy to discourage children from using their own languages in class. this is very concerning since it evidences a deficit model of education, where the focus is on maltese and english, thus disregarding the heritage language and often resulting in social challenges and academic setbacks associated with home languages not being adequately celebrated and valued (micallef cann & spiteri, 2014; panzavecchia & little, 2019, 2020; scaglione & caruana, 2018). however, the majority of these educators was still using fluid language practices in class because they felt they had no other option, stating that this practice was ‘inevitable’, and ‘having no other way’, or doing it ‘only because it is absolutely necessary’, ‘as a last resort’ and because it is ‘the only way’, or ‘unavoidable’. excerpt 5. it is a must there is no other way, otherwise children will not understand. in state schools we try our best to give instructions and explanations in maltese, but when having more than half the students who do not speak maltese, code-switching is a must. excerpt 6. splitting oneself in two mhux sew li għalliem wieħed jinqsam fi tnejn. bilfors trid tagħmilha għax hemm min jifhem bil-malti aktar milli bl-ingliż, u viċi-versa. (translation from maltese to english): it is not right that a teacher is required to split themselves in two! you have to do it because there are those who understand maltese better than english and vice-versa. excerpt 7. maltese, maltese – english, english i encourage learners to speak in maltese if they are using this language. whilst when speaking in english they should speak this language properly too. code-switching can cause language confusion. my motto is maltese, maltese – english, english! excerpt 8. i do not encourage it yes, as most of my students switch. even from dialectical arabic to modern, standard arabic. i have to use it but i do not encourage it as maltese students find it easier to talk in english rather than using the maltese language. 5.7. potential language endangerment as observed above, the fact that native maltese children are encountering problems with communicating in maltese was also mentioned by some of the participants. other participants argued that english was rapidly becoming the main instructional language in maltese schools to enable better communication. one participant commented that they believe they had recently increased their use of english in order to maximise understanding, whilst another stated that they were now using mostly english in class. this is indicative of a shift to ‘an english-only medium of instruction’ in maltese classrooms, since teachers are finding it easier to use the english language predominantly and sometimes exclusively in order panzavecchia e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 11 to reach out to the migrant, non-maltese-speaking children in their care (camilleri grima, 2018, p. 38). this also corresponds with the results documented in the most recent national census, indicating that 23.4% of maltese children under 10 years old grew up speaking english as their main language (national statistics office, 2023). the fact that maltese would no longer be a required form of communication within an increasingly globalised society may also equate to language endangerment. for some participants, the maintenance of the maltese language is indeed a problem in itself, as they voiced their concerns about the possible, eventual extinction of the language as a result of the increasing numbers of non-maltese children in class. 5.8. language islands within multilingual environments one participant stated that they discourage code-switching and speaking in different languages, because some children tend to say ‘bad words’ in their language during these instances. another related concern was linked to migrant learners who speak a common language and sometimes tended to form language groups. this often hinders integration with the rest of the class since it excludes other students from joining in, and because the groups themselves do not feel the need to further integrate. the creation of these language islands is also problematic for teachers who may feel isolated and experience a lack of class control within multilingual environments (panzavecchia, 2020; ticheloven, blom, leseman et al., 2019). 5.9. participants’ views on the benefits of code-switching. half of the participants were conversely keen on using fluid language practices in class, recognising the benefits of this practice within linguistically diverse classrooms. in this respect, the fact that this practice is ‘helpful’, ‘beneficial’, ‘effective’, ‘motivational’ and that it ‘encourages better communication’ and ‘maximises understanding’ emerged strongly. excerpt 9. use of non-verbal communication yes, especially with foreigners to help them integrate and learn more certain things. i tend to switch from maltese to english in order to translate what i say, so that i make sure that everyone is understood. at times translating into english is not good enough as i have children who barely understand english. so, i use hand gestures and pointing and use of visual aids so that i make sure they are understanding. excerpt 10. a normal way to communicate it is normal for a child to code-switch when exposed to multiple languages. when a child code-switches, i show him/her that i understood and then i repeat the whole sentence in one language, it could be l1 or l2. it is important not to correct the child continuously as you may hinder him from speaking. by showing that you understand him, even by gestures in the beginning and using single words will encourage language development. excerpt 11. a natural and valid linguistic behaviour i recognise code-switching as a natural and valid linguistic behaviour, often influenced by cultural background and social context. by encouraging code-switching, it contributes to an inclusive and culturally rich environment where students feel comfortable expressing themselves. plurilingual pedagogies are currently being promoted in malta through initiatives such as the national literacy strategy, which acknowledges the fact that code-switching is an important element of bilingual societies and endorses access to different languages in schools (ministry of education and employment, malta, 2014). the language education policy profile for malta (council of europe, strasbourg, 2015) also promotes the idea of a plurilingual society where competence in multiple languages may naturally lead to switching between languages when and as the situation demands. other local policies and documents have also recently been changing guidelines on the use of code-switching as a learning tool (see the malta ministry for education and employment’s a language policy for the early years in malta and gozo, 2016; a language policy for the junior years in malta and gozo, 2023). code-switching is in fact now considered a widely shared and valid practice within bilingual and multilingual environments, and therefore embracing the concept of language mixing as a pedagogical tool may effectively be the way forward for language education in malta. diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 12 5.10. the use of multiple languages versus monolingual approaches in class participants were asked their opinion about the use of multiple languages and monolingual strategies in class. the findings show that the vast majority of participants perceive multiple language approaches as challenging to implement, describing plurilingual approaches as ‘stressful’, ‘uncomfortable’, ‘confusing’, ‘time-consuming’, and ‘not easy’. what emerged strongly was the fact that since these educators cannot speak the different languages spoken by the students in class, they feel that using multiple languages is not a possibility. other participants claimed that they did not feel confident employing these strategies, attributing this once more to a lack of training in the area. once again, the fear of language loss was voiced by some participants. there was also talk of potential discrimination towards maltese students when multiple languages are used as a way to accommodate all students. there were also a number of respondents who believe that using multiple languages in class may lead to problems related to classroom dynamics and classroom management. excerpt 12. challenging classroom dynamics i think there is a lack of training and when used incorrectly this approach may cause classroom dynamics which can be quite challenging, especially when students start to insult each other instead. excerpt 13. more stress for educators we already have maltese and english, the command both of which leaves much to be desired in some cases. i do not think that more languages than these two are a good idea. moreover, including a third or more languages in class would most likely imply less time on task and more stress for the educators. excerpt 14. i am not a walking encyclopaedia i am not a walking encyclopaedia and the limited time to my lessons forbids me to translate everything into the children’s mother tongue (5 different languages!). these findings indicate that this section of maltese educators, despite seemingly acknowledging that linguistically diverse students are on the increase and that this warrants a potential reconsideration of pedagogy, are somewhat still traditional in their perceptions of how language should be used in class. these ideas stem from uncertainty, lack of confidence, lack of knowledge, and concern, especially about their lack of mastery in the different languages spoken in class. there is also the misguided perception that utilising multilingual strategies requires a teacher to be proficient in all the languages represented in class. wei (2023, p. 6) contends that including the use of multiple languages and fluid linguistic practices such as translanguaging as pedagogy requires ‘a different mindset’ on the part of educators, which shifts the role of a classroom teacher into that of a co-learner. wei believes that a diverse student community provides rich ‘funds of knowledge’ through which there could be a wealth of opportunities for mutual gain. in this scenario not only is the focus on an inclusive classroom, ‘but also to engage in real-world meaning making and identity exploration, which are crucial yet often neglected aspects of learning’. educators are often viewed as a solution to a perceived ‘language problem’ brought about by demographic changes; however, they are still provided with ‘tools’ which were developed prior to the current influx of migrants in alignment with vertovec’s (2007) concept of superdiversity. hence, the concept of categorising languages as l1 or l2, together with the prevailing perceptions of bilingualism needing to be revisited and reassessed (garcía, 2017, p. 15). some participants believe that encouraging the children to communicate in maltese and english is imperative for effective integration into our society, advocating minimising the use of the students' heritage language. this points once again towards a misguided deficit model of education. maltese schools do not fully capitalise on the “extent and value of immigrant children’s language repertoires and of the potential benefits that could result if children’s languages of origin were adequately exploited” (scaglione & caruana, 2018, p. 141). mother tongue support programs are practically non-existent within the maltese educational system, for a variety of pragmatic reasons, mainly related to a lack of financial and human resources. it is impractical to anticipate teachers mastering proficiency in every home language spoken by their students; however, they can endeavour to create learning settings that incorporate students' native languages, implement initiatives which encourage parental participation at various levels, and establish particular moments during their lessons for linguistically diverse students to use their mother tongue. this approach aims to counteract the ‘linguistic hierarchies that exist in school’ (garcía & seltzer, 2016, p.24). in this scenario, students would be organically linking the multiple languages present in class, ‘fulfilling a scaffolding function offering temporary bridges between languages’ (duarte, 2020, p. 12), whilst aiming ‘to acknowledge and safeguard the linguistic rights of migrants, including tcns’ (caruana & santipolo, 2021, p. 148). panzavecchia e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 13 excerpt 15. the importance of communicating in our national languages while it is important for students to feel like they belong, and i allow students to translate where needed. i do insist that they try to communicate in the national languages – i see it as part of their entitlement to acquire these languages in order to better function in society. for example, good mornings might be exchanged in any language, however, discussions are in english or maltese. conversely, another section of participants does believe that multilingual, as opposed to monolingual, practices should be the way forward within our evolving classrooms. these educators argue that monolingual practices within linguistically diverse classrooms evidence a ‘selfish’ and ‘unfair’ way of teaching, lacking inclusivity, which in turn adds to disruption in the classroom due to student disengagement and lack of interest. they also mention the fact that learning multiple languages helps with language transfer (brooks & kempe, 2014). one participant also believes that monolingual approaches may hinder speech and cognitive development, whilst another commented that multilingual children outperform monolingual students in areas beyond language skills (bialystok, craik & luk, 2008; bialystok, 2011). excerpt 16. children feel unaccepted the child may feel foreign and not accepted. sometimes i look up words in the child’s language and their face lights up when they hear their mother tongue at school. excerpt 17. language transfer language development needs other languages to develop. example in maltese it is beneficial to connotate certain words to other words from another language, as the words may be similar, and students may be able to relate to the new words more. example wieħed in maltese is similar to arabic wahid [ واحد]. 5.11. support needed by educators and non-maltese children within multilingual classrooms. educators were asked to give their views on the kind of support required by both educators and non-maltese children to enhance teaching and learning within multilingual classrooms. in this respect, training for educators was once again high on the list of responses. educators voiced their need for ‘mentoring with follow up’, ‘professional development sessions’, ‘specialised courses’, ‘workshops’, and ‘demonstration lessons’. one participant also stated that when training was provided, this was usually done by lecturers who do not have any experience in multilingual classrooms, whilst another suggested sharing experiences with other educators as a means of mutual support (see panzavecchia, 2020). excerpt 18. more training for educators training! i have had foreign students in my class for multiple years, and i was not given any training when it came to adopting an mfl (maltese as a foreign language) program. i did this through my own volition and because i felt that these children needed the opportunity to learn at their own pace and not be involved in the mainstream classes at once. excerpt 19. training on how to reach various parents more help in how to reach parents better. we currently have help at school to target parents from arabic speaking families, but we have no support to reach learners from chinese families. additionally, a substantial number of participants hold that children who cannot communicate in the two national languages require more time outside the classroom, be it during pull-out classes, or during induction courses which are held specifically for non-maltese children before they are integrated into class. the prevailing sentiment among these educators is a need to fully or partially shift responsibility for these students, advocating induction classes, or their segregation in specialised schools, as a way to resolve the challenges related to linguistic diversity. this scenario presents concerns linked to integration, with students separated from their peers sometimes struggling to access the main curriculum, if too much emphasis is placed on language acquisition above content acquisition (nilsson & bunar, 2016). excerpt 20. pull-out programs pull-out programs for maltese and/or english. all other lessons in mainstream classrooms. i think that support is being given and non-english speaking students are attending induction classes, which is giving a lot of benefits to these students as they are then able to integrate in the mainstream after a few months. diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 14 excerpt 21. grouping children in a special school they need to be grouped in an international school for a long period of time, that is … more than a year, before attending mainstream schooling. they need to be grouped depending on the level attained after sitting for a formal assessment at national level. all educators teaching in this school need to attend a degree in teaching maltese and english to multilingual students. educators also mentioned the need for peer preparation programs for students in order to foster inclusion and to understand and welcome diversity in class. another point that emerged strongly was the need for in-class support. educators believe that the employment of specialised teachers or classroom assistants, trained in culturally and linguistically responsive teaching, would significantly contribute to improving the teaching and learning experience. other important themes that arose are linked to the need for reduced class sizes and more investment in resources. one theme which emerged clearly was related to the need for programs which would encourage more parental involvement, since this is believed to be pivotal for academic success (ariza, 2000; attard tonna, calleja, galea et al.2017). respondents also remarked that some parents seem to disregard the host country’s languages, focusing solely on their mother tongue when communicating with their offspring. excerpt 22. acquisition of maltese as a prerequisite motivation on a larger scale, even parents are demotivated to speak the language. there should be pressure from the state to enforce the acquisition of maltese as a prerequisite to working and living here. a language barrier for migrant learners can arise as a result of a lack of parental involvement. the achievement of this involvement is challenging due to language and cultural barriers, coupled with ‘entitlement gaps’. maltese parents may feel entitled to actively participate in their children's education, while migrant parents may not ‘feel empowered enough to do so’ (attard tonna et al., 2017, pp. 86-87). ariza (2000) warns against attributing behaviour solely to linguistic or cultural differences. migrant parents may seem disengaged from their children's education due to unawareness or discomfort with cultural expectations, contrary to typical practices in westernised societies. additionally, migrants often view language as a crucial connection to their lives and identities (mazzaferro, 2018) and this connection may carry varied significance across different generations (little, 2017; wilson, 2020). teacher training related to immigrant children’s parental involvement is therefore warranted in this situation (ariza et al., 2019). parental involvement initiatives should include educational programs focusing on current pedagogy, migrant learner inclusion, eliminating racial intolerance, and promoting diversity. 5.12. concluding insights from participants at the end of the questionnaire, participants were asked to include some final reflections on the situation. 62 participants added their own ideas on their experiences of teaching within multilingual environments. the large majority of these responses was emotionally charged, where it was very evident that participants were feeling ‘overwhelmed’, ‘exhausted’, and ‘unprepared’ in class. their responses were akin to a cry for help, with some comments containing subtle racial and xenophobic undertones, reflecting an 'us' and 'them' sentiment. these perceptions may be linked to the general feeling which might be prevailing on the maltese islands related to the large influx of non-maltese nationals, which has contributed to the country being densely populated, bringing about challenges within the country’s infrastructure, education, and healthcare. excerpt 23. inclusion detrimental to maltese students this culture of including foreign students within our educational system comes to the detriment of certain maltese students. one must keep in mind the reality that when a maltese student goes abroad to a foreign country, the foreign educational facility will not cater for our maltese speaking student to the detriment of their local student. the maltese student is left to find private and expensive paid education where the english language is used, while foreign students in malta receive free education, which comes with parents’ expectations, not normally found in their originating countries. excerpt 24. focus on integration unless the country makes it mandatory for all workers to have working use of maltese and english (as seen in countries such as sweden, denmark, germany, austria etc.), things will never improve. the working class, maltese included, will continue to be exploited and systemic injustices will persist. teaching is a political act but unfortunately most teachers i know do not consider it as such. a multilingual classroom should not focus only on inclusion but also on integration. the two aspects work panzavecchia e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 15 together. it should be give and take – wherein one is free to express their culture and beliefs but in an informed manner within this context. we must teach upon the context of a pluralistic society. excerpt 25. cultural clashes i am sorry to say that some cultures do not fit in our traditional classrooms and children from these countries just run away from class and cause trouble. excerpt 26. unrealistic expectations it is not fair for us, as maltese citizens, to be pushed aside to accommodate and include people from different countries and this by no means suggests in any way whatsoever any form of racism on my part. but even as a language, maltese is losing its value: even maltese families talk to their children in english, then they come to school not knowing their mother tongue which to me is just disgraceful. we need to support foreign students by all means, but not at the expense of exhausting teachers in trying to figure out how to communicate with them, given the ridiculous workload and pressure and unrealistic expectations coming from those who are in authority that teachers face. excerpt 27. taking a huge toll on teachers it is taking a huge toll on us teachers, apart from the situation being what it is nowadays, we have to deal with language barriers, adapted work for students who eventually end up doing the same exam paper at the end of the year, code-switching and not being able to do proper maltese lessons, while it is our native language. we need the situation to change for the better, not everyone keeps closing their eyes in regards to this. however, notwithstanding perceived challenges, it is important to acknowledge that the situation is not viewed as entirely negative by the participants. a substantial number of educators also voiced their strong beliefs about the benefits of multilingualism and multiculturalism, stating that there is a need to ‘embrace diversity’ since ‘multicultural and multilingual education is beneficial for all’. excerpt 28. they learn from each other the best thing about having multilingual students is that they learn from each other. moreover, i believe that it helps children to learn to become more diversity-friendly as they grow up. excerpt 29. an opportunity for growth this phenomenon brings many challenges, but it is also an opportunity for growth, and we should support each other to focus on what can be gained from this situation, while supporting our educators who are feeling overwhelmed and helpless at times. 5.13. implications, recommendations, and limitations owing to its geographical position, malta’s diverse heritage has been shaped significantly by influences from europe and north africa. paradoxically, however, the maltese exhibit a surprisingly homogeneous identity that has demonstrated a notable resistance to foreign influences and multiculturalism, making a potential shift to a multicultural society ‘slow and difficult’ (debono, 2021, p. 9). in the words of fsadni and pisani (2012, p. 24), a critical look at maltese history not only makes a mockery of any notion of some pure ‘natural’ identity or culture, but also draws attention to the transformative nature of maltese society and the diversity therein. indeed, 7000 years of emigration, immigration and colonial rule renders any essentialist discourse on what it means to be ‘maltese’ as nonsense and the ‘threat to the maltese way of life’ as somewhat ambiguous. demographic shifts on the island are happening rapidly, and it is clear that not all people are willing to welcome migrants. even when they do, they may not be equipped to meet all the needs of the migrants and their families, be they cultural or linguistic (bezzina & vassallo, 2019; scaglione & caruana, 2018). as a result of the sharp influx of migrants flocking to our islands, the general maltese perception of multicultural education and multiculturalism is tainted with feelings of ‘mistrust, deep concern and anxiety’ (bezzina & vassallo, 2019, p. 214). maltese people feel that the island is too small to accommodate the present dense population brought about by immigration (debono, 2021). they also believe that migrants contribute to the strain on the country's welfare system and exacerbate issues related to crime (european commission, 2017). diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 16 attitudes towards third-country nationals (tcns) seem to be more negative compared to those towards migrants from the eu (debono, 2021). 63% of respondents in a 2017 eurobarometer survey feel that immigration from outside the eu is a problem rather than an opportunity for the island. in a general opinion survey of the maltese population conducted by the faculty of social wellbeing at the university of malta, nearly half of maltese surveyed (48%) stated that immigrants are more of a burden to the country, while only 16% think that immigrants do more to strengthen the country (azzopardi, bonnici, marmara, 2021). the human rights directorate ‘turning the tables’ 2021 report finds that barriers encountered in education stem from wider social and attitudinal challenges, in particular ‘a lack of cultural knowledge and education, especially among older teachers not used to teaching in a multicultural context and for whom the increased number of migrant learners is a cause for distress and resistance rather than a welcome opportunity for learning and interaction that can ultimately benefit all students’ (p. 18). as a result of the lack of support for both students and teachers, educators often perceive the inclusion of migrant students as problematic (chircop, 2022) the addition of several other languages in maltese classrooms ‘has put maltese-english bilingualism out of balance’ (camenzuli et al., 2023, p. 3), as teachers are now finding themselves faced with a situation where being fluent in maltese and english, and to a lesser extent italian, is simply not sufficient to meet the requirement of all students in class. the quality of education students receive is significantly influenced by the attitudes of teachers towards diversity (chircop, 2022). these ideas towards migrant students appear to be ‘framed in an “us” and “them” paradigm’ (chircop, 2022, p. 156). chircop contends that educators rarely questioned the dominant culture, which positions those who fall within its range of acceptable qualities as insiders, while those deemed different and undesirable as being outsiders, and thus comprehending and embracing diversity within the school context can only be achieved once educators grasp these constructions. (chircop, 2022, p. 156) this aligns with the idea that schools, and the country in general, must eradicate discrimination, xenophobia, exclusion, and racism, fostering integration beyond ethnic, cultural, and religious differences (attard tonna et al., 2017; european commission, 2017). teachers’ views may also point to a lack of adequate training on the subject, especially at a cpd level. pedagogical training tailored to the needs of migrant students is not offered to educators, except for occasional two-hour sessions of continuing professional development that some schools may have organised. as a result, schools are predominantly left to their own devices, and formulate their own policies based on what they believe works best for their specific context (chircop, 2022). the participating educators believe that teachers should be taught about current research on language practices, which would in turn legitimise their naturally occurring plurilingual practices in class. however, the results of this study also contradictorily indicate a lack of actively pursued self-sought professional development. a large number of participating educators believe that pull-out classes and well-organised induction hubs may offer the best solution to the problem, arguing that migrant children and their families should be obligated to learn maltese and english before being allowed to join regular classes. this indicates that notwithstanding the fact that a number of respondents seem to understand the need to shift towards plurilingual pedagogies, they still advocate monolingual approaches which align with a subtractive bilingualism/multilingualism model (baker, 2011). the findings highlight the need for innovative pedagogies, including cross-linguistic strategies such as garcía’s (2009) concept of transglossia, based on the interrelation of languages within a globalised society, with an emphasis on more authentic opportunities to apply concepts learned, and where children can actually put language to use. ironically, maltese teachers are still hesitant about how and when to use naturally occurring, fluid language practices legitimately in their classrooms, and how they can judiciously utilise these strategies as pedagogical tools for the benefit of all the students in their care. in this respect, the participants recognise the need for formal guidelines and training on how to support students struggling with malta’s two official languages. 6.1. pedagogical implications the main findings of this research focus on educators’ experiences and challenges related to linguistic diversity within their multilingual classrooms. the participants voiced their concerns related to communication difficulties and a lack of training programs for educators. these concerns may stimulate change in maltese education systems, with the aim of improving the experience of both educators and students. this can be accomplished through innovative teaching approaches, such as cross-linguistic panzavecchia e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 17 strategies, programs promoting the preservation of the maltese language, and initiatives highlighting the global significance of the english language. it also involves creating school environments that support, value, and celebrate children’s cultural identities and linguistic heritage. additionally, the findings indicate that educators should have greater authority in decision-making related to professional training, curricula, syllabi, and teaching methods to cater for the needs of all students under their care. in this respect, following the results of this study, professional development and consultation sessions will be developed and offered to educators within maltese state schools in an attempt to address these issues and to improve aspects of bilingual and multilingual primary education in malta, and possibly beyond. the proposed training sessions have been driven by the views of the participants and are by no means all encompassing. it is therefore important to point out that training would merely be a starting point and hopefully a catalyst for change, and that therefore, additional research on the topic, together with the development of further professional development sessions, is highly recommended. 6.2. limitations research focusing on multilingual classrooms and fluid language practices is on the increase: however, it is interesting to note that there are few studies which specifically relate to teachers’ perspectives and views on language pedagogy. the aim of this study is also to bridge this gap in the literature, particularly at a local level. this is being done within the limitations of the study, keeping in mind that, owing to time constraints and the number of participants, the drawn conclusions are not representative of all maltese educators. however, notwithstanding the limitations of this research, the results are indicative of some of the challenges that educators in malta are currently facing. additionally, the participants’ viewpoints may be used as a valid and significant resource to recommend further studies and make suggestions for future implications. this research may also serve as a means of supporting educators who may be going through the same experiences, as they realise they share common challenges related to bilingual and multilingual settings. ultimately, the insights gleaned from this study can be selectively implemented to offer recommendations to educational institutions, policy-making bodies, and programs for initial teacher training and professional development, aiming to enhance practice in culturally and linguistically responsive teaching. 6.3. conclusion this research focuses on the experiences of maltese educators in view of increasingly diverse student populations as a result of demographic shifts on the island. the results of the study present implications related to the maltese educational system, pedagogy in multilingual classrooms, and teacher training. fluid language practices are naturally and spontaneously occurring within bilingual and multilingual environments; however, educators need to be supported in ways which would enable them to legitimately harness cross-linguistic practices as pedagogy. this requires training programs and clear recommendations that would empower them to employ multilingual pedagogies advantageously, as opposed to viewing them as a last resort (beres, 2015; chircop, 2022; garcía et al., 2017; garcía & wei, 2014; milton, 2011, 2016; milton & panzavecchia 2019a). the participating educators share common concerns related to challenges faced by the teaching profession and educational system as a result of changing populations on the island. these unprecedented demands are being addressed by the maltese education authorities, and as a result, the island is currently undergoing a paradigm shift in education (panzavecchia & little, 2019; 2020). this is highlighted by the redesigning of policies and documents focusing on mitigating challenges brought about by increasingly superdiverse classrooms (vertovec, 2007), and through initiatives that support the integration of learners into mainstream education. however, the results of this study also highlight the fact that educators are reluctant and do not feel adequately trained and guided to support all the children in their care (ariza, et al., 2019; farrugia, 2017; scaglione & caruana, 2018). the findings presented in this study evidence a teacher workforce which is open and willing to improve practices if given appropriate support and training. such upskilling may ease any ambivalence educators may feel when implementing multilingual language strategies in a natural and effective manner (panzavecchia, 2023). the participants also expressed concerns on potential language loss, advocating for an increased focus on preserving the maltese language within a continuously expanding multilingual community. furthermore, there is a demand for additional investment in human resources and culturally inclusive, multilingual material, which would ensure that every child's linguistic and cultural identity is not only acknowledged but also celebrated. additionally, this research shows that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and the particular context of each specific school, together with the classroom intake and population of each individual year, needs to be taken into consideration when designing programs. diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 18 these proposals should serve as a point of departure, but require adaptations based on the individual requirements of each educator and on further research in the area. the proposed professional development sessions would be developed based on the educators’ feedback together with the most recent research on the subject. however, they are not aimed at providing a general solution for all, but to suggest ways by 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(the language you feel most comfortable communicating in). o maltese o english 6. what do you consider to be your second language? o maltese o english 7. how do you feel about your proficiency in the second language? o very proficient o quite proficient o not proficient diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 24 8. do you speak any other languages apart from maltese/english? o yes o no 9. if yes, which other language/s do you speak? 10. are you presently teaching children with diverse language backgrounds (children having different first languages/mother tongues, other than english and maltese)? o yes o no 11. have you ever received training related to teaching in multilingual classroom environments? o yes o no 12. if yes, please specify what kind of training was received. 13. what are the main benefits of teaching in multilingual classroom environments? (you may choose more than one answer). o cultural awareness and sensitivity: in a multilingual classroom, students and teachers are exposed to diverse cultures and backgrounds. this exposure fosters cultural awareness, empathy, and sensitivity, promoting a more inclusive and respectful learning environment. o enhanced language skills: exposure to multiple languages in the classroom can significantly improve students' language skills. o improved communication skills: in a multilingual classroom, students often need to find creative ways to communicate effectively, especially if they share limited language proficiency. o global perspective: exposure to multiple languages and cultures in the classroom helps students develop a more global perspective. they can understand global issues, appreciate diversity, and collaborate with people from different linguistic backgrounds more effectively. o increased empathy and inclusivity: students in a multilingual classroom learn to be more empathetic towards their peers, especially those who are learning a new language. o positive teacher development: teaching in a multilingual classroom challenges educators to develop innovative teaching strategies and cater for diverse learning needs. it can lead to professional growth and improve the overall quality of teaching. 14. what are the greatest challenges related to teaching in multilingual classroom environments? (you may choose more than one answer). o communication barriers: language barriers can hinder effective communication between students and teachers. o language proficiency variability: students in a multilingual classroom may have varying levels of proficiency in different languages. it can be challenging for teachers to cater for individual needs and ensure that all students are appropriately challenged and supported. o curriculum adaptation: creating a curriculum that accommodates students from diverse linguistic backgrounds can be complex. o limited teaching resources: finding appropriate teaching materials and resources for each language represented in the classroom can be a daunting task. the availability of textbooks, educational materials, and language-specific resources may be limited. o teacher training and professional development: not all teachers may be adequately prepared to teach in multilingual classrooms. training and professional development programs focused on strategies for teaching in diverse linguistic settings are essential but not always readily available. o classroom management: multilingual classrooms can be dynamic and diverse, which may require different approaches to classroom management. teachers need to establish an inclusive and respectful environment where all students feel valued and engaged. o parent and community involvement: involving parents and the community in a multilingual classroom can be challenging if language barriers exist. 15. how many children are there in your class? o less than 10 o 10 20 o over 20 panzavecchia e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 25 16. what is the percentage of non-maltese/migrant children in your class? o 0 10% o 11 20% o 21 40% o 41 60% o 61 80% o 81 100% 17. what are the languages spoken by the children in your class? 18. what strategies do you employ to address language barriers and promote effective communication among multilingual students? (you may choose more than one answer). o multilingual resources: providing instructional materials, handouts, and resources in multiple languages spoken by students in the classroom. o culturally relevant content: incorporating diverse and culturally relevant content that reflects the backgrounds and experiences of the students. o multilingual support: utilising multilingual support, such as parents, other students, and/or colleagues to act as interpreters to help facilitate communication between teachers and students who speak different languages o scaffolded instruction: breaking down complex tasks or concepts into smaller, manageable steps. providing clear instructions and offering support as students progress through each step. o language buddies: pairing students who speak different languages as language buddies to support each other in learning the target language and share their respective languages. o technology integration: utilising language learning apps, online translation tools, and language-specific software to facilitate communication and language development. o flexible assessment methods: offering a variety of assessment methods that allow students to demonstrate their understanding in different ways, such as presentations, projects, or written assignments. o culturally responsive teaching: developing lessons and activities that integrate students' cultural backgrounds and experiences, creating a more inclusive and familiar learning environment. o professional development: engaging in self-sought research and seeking professional development for teachers to enhance skills in addressing linguistic diversity, cultural responsiveness, and effective communication strategies. o encouraging language use: creating opportunities for students to use their native languages (including code-switching) in classroom discussions and activities, fostering a sense of identity and belonging. 19. what strategies do you employ to teach the children in your class? (you may choose more than one option). o translation o code-switching o language groups o visual aids o multilingual resources o culturally relevant content o language buddies o multilingual support (colleagues, students, parents) o technology integration o flexible assessment methods 20. do you feel confident about employing these strategies? o yes o no o not sure 21. do you incorporate culturally and linguistically relevant materials and resources in your teaching? if yes, please provide examples. 22. what is your understanding of code switching, and do you encourage it in your classroom? why or why not? 23. how do you feel about the use of multiple languages to support learning among your multilingual students? diverse voices, dynamic classrooms e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 1-26 26 24. what are your thoughts on using monolingual approaches (strictly using the target language/one language) for teaching multilingual students? 25. what kind of support do you feel that non-maltese children require to help them learn within a multilingual environment? 26. what kind of support do you feel you require to help you teach within a multilingual environment? 27. are there any additional comments or insights you would like to share regarding teaching multilingual students? thank you for participating in this questionnaire! michelle panzavecchia, institute for education, malta michelle.panzavecchia@ilearn.edu.mt en michelle panzavecchia is a full-time senior lecturer at the institute for education in malta. she is also a visiting senior lecturer at the university of malta. she previously worked as an assistant head of school, and as an educator in the early and junior years. michelle holds a phd in the field of bilingualism, multilingualism, and english language teaching from the university of sheffield, uk. she also holds a m.sc. in language and communication impairment in children from the university of sheffield, uk, and a b.ed. (hons.) from the university of malta. her research domains include: bilingual and multilingual education, language identity and education, fluid and crosslinguistic practices, english language teaching, culturally and linguistically responsive teaching, early childhood and primary education, language and communication impairment in children, academic writing, and qualitative research methods. es michelle panzavecchia es profesora titular a tiempo completo en el instituto de educación de malta. también es profesora visitante en la universidad de malta. anteriormente trabajó como subdirectora de escuela y como docente en los primeros años de educación infantil y primaria. michelle tiene un doctorado en el campo del bilingüismo, multilingüismo y enseñanza del inglés de la universidad de sheffield, reino unido. también cuenta con un m.sc. en trastornos del lenguaje y la comunicación en niños por la universidad de sheffield, reino unido, y una licenciatura en educación (con honores) por la universidad de malta. sus áreas de investigación incluyen: educación bilingüe y multilingüe, identidad lingüística y educación, prácticas lingüísticas fluidas e interlingüísticas, enseñanza del inglés, enseñanza cultural y lingüísticamente sensible, educación infantil y primaria, trastornos del lenguaje y la comunicación en niños, escritura académica y métodos de investigación cualitativa. it michelle panzavecchia è docente senior a tempo pieno presso l’istituto di educazione di malta. è anche docente senior visitatrice presso l'università di malta. in precedenza, ha lavorato come vice-preside e come insegnante per la prima infanzia e la scuola primaria. michelle ha conseguito un dottorato di ricerca nel campo del bilinguismo, multilinguismo e insegnamento della lingua inglese presso l'università di sheffield, regno unito. ha anche un master in disturbi del linguaggio e della comunicazione nei bambini presso l'università di sheffield e una laurea in scienze dell'educazione (con lode) presso l'università di malta. i suoi ambiti di ricerca includono: educazione bilingue e multilingue, identità linguistica e educazione, pratiche linguistiche fluide e interlinguistiche, insegnamento della lingua inglese, insegnamento culturale e linguistico-rispondente, educazione della prima infanzia e primaria, disturbi del linguaggio e della comunicazione nei bambini, scrittura accademica e metodi di ricerca qualitativa. mailto:michelle.panzavecchia@ilearn.edu.mt e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 11, issue 2, december 2024, 88-91 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.2.3237 www.e-journall.org © sileo 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. review: talaván, noa, lertola, jennifer, and fernández-costales, alberto (2024). didactic audiovisual translation and foreign language education. routledge. angela sileo università degli studi di milano book review received 21 november 2023; accepted 19 september 2024 abstract abstract en foreign language educators are constantly on the lookout for innovative ways to engage students and improve learning outcomes. didactic audiovisual translation and foreign language education by noa talaván, jennifer lertola, and alberto fernándezcostales (2024) promises to be a valuable resource in this quest, championing the use of didactic audiovisual translation (dat) as a powerful pedagogical tool. key words: foreign language education, english as a foreign language, audiovisual translation, didactic audiovisual translation, competence development es los docentes de lenguas extranjeras buscan constantemente metodologías innovadoras para involucrar a los estudiantes y mejorar los resultados en el proceso de aprendizaje. didactic audiovisual translation and foreign language education de noa talaván, jennifer lertola y alberto fernández-costales (2024) se revela como un recurso valioso a la luz de este objetivo, abogando por el uso de la didáctica de la traducción audiovisual (dat por su sigla en inglés) como poderosa herramienta pedagógica. palabras clave: enseñanza de idiomas, inglés como lengua extranjera, traducción audiovisual, didáctica de la traducción audiovisual, desarrollo de competencias it gli insegnanti di lingue straniere ricercano costantemente metodi innovativi per coinvolgere gli studenti e migliorare i risultati nel processo di apprendimento. didactic audiovisual translation and foreign language education di noa talaván, jennifer lertola e alberto fernández-costales (2024) si rivela una risorsa preziosa alla luce di questo obiettivo, sostenendo che l'uso della didattica della traduzione audiovisiva (dat nella sua sigla inglese) sia un potente strumento pedagogico. parole chiave: insegnamento delle lingue straniere, inglese come lingua straniera, traduzione audiovisiva, didattica della traduzione audiovisiva, sviluppo delle competenze  angela sileo, universita degli studi di milano angela.sileo@unimi.it http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.271 http://www.e-journall.org/ mailto:angela.sileo@unimi.it review: didactic audiovisual translation and foreign language education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 88-91 89 in the rapidly evolving context of foreign language education, there is a constant need for cutting edge approaches that engage students and improve learning outcomes. the recent publication didactic audiovisual translation and foreign language education by noa talava n, jennifer lertola, and alberto ferna ndez-costales (routledge, 2024) makes a significant contribution to this search, by presenting didactic audiovisual translation (dat) as a powerful and valuable pedagogical tool. recent years have witnessed a significant increase in dat research, as evidenced by the work of hornero-corisco and gonzalez vera (2020) and bianchi (2015). a pioneering contribution to dat came from talava n (2013; 2019), who demonstrated the benefits of active subtitling in efl classrooms. dat is an emerging area of research, traditionally linked to fll (foreign language learning) and connected with neighbouring fields. the interest in this line of enquiry has been increasing and has called for an updated monograph to “set the bases of dat as a discipline in its own right, providing the necessary methodological ground […] to specify all possibilities, combinations and potential benefits of the various didactic avt modes” (talava n et al., 2024, p. 5). didactic audiovisual translation and foreign language education shows the countless benefits of employing dat as a language teaching tool. these benefits include fostering motivation through engagement with affective factors, promoting autonomous learning, stimulating cognitive development, encouraging social and oral interaction through teamwork and pair-work, developing literacy, language and cultural awareness and competence, promoting students’ mediation skills, and offering structured learning through scaffolding activities (pp. 55-63). the positive impact of dat is also acknowledged by european institutions, which have actively supported its development through funded projects, such as le-vis (learning via subtitling, 2006-2008) – the first project to set the basis for international collaboration in dat – and its follow-up project clipflair (foreign language learning through interactive revoicing and captioning of clips, 2011-2014), which offered task-based and ready-to-use dat activities for several target languages on a user-friendly platform, making it accessible for teachers and learners alike (p. 13). the structure of the volume effectively guides readers through the theoretical background and practical applications of dat. to this end, the first part of the book is devoted to an updated review of the literature arranged based on the various sub-branches of dat. however, going beyond a mere exploration of dat’s theoretical discourses, the book also explores its practical application. it guides educators in preparing lesson plans for each dat modality, including didactic subtitling, dubbing, and audio description. accompanying assessment models provide valuable tools for assessing student progress. importantly, this thought-provoking book emphasizes the broader pedagogical potential of dat in language education (le) by demonstrating its effectiveness not only in foreign language (fl) learning but also in teaching learners’ first language (l1), minority languages, and even bilingual education programs (p. 1). this book contains six chapters. the opening chapter introduces dat as a discipline and offers a wellcurated review of key publications since the early 2000s, including seminal monographs by lertola (2019) and talava n (2013), and several ph.d. theses (from talava n’s 2009 dissertation to bayern’s in 2023). the strong foundation for understanding the theoretical framework of dat is followed by chapter 2, which explores the educational benefits of different avt modes. research demonstrates how dubbing, subtitling, audio description (ad), and voice over (vo) all contribute to successful language learning. in fact, they not only appeal to affective factors, such as motivation and engagement, but also reduce stress and anxiety. in addition to this, avt promotes autonomous learning and interaction, thus developing the cefr’s 4 “cs” (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity) across education levels and types, from infancy to higher education. teacher training programs, clil (content and language integrated learning), and emi (english medium instruction) approaches are also highlighted as potential areas for avt implementation. chapters 3, 4, and 5 delve into didactic subtitling (ds) and didactic sdh (subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing), didactic dubbing (dd) and didactic voice over (dvo), and didactic audio description (dad) and didactic free commentary (dfc), respectively. since dat is not meant to train students as possible audiovisual translators, general guidelines accompany each task, as students might be tackling with avt tasks for the first time. subtitling, to start with, can occur either interlingually, i.e., between two distinct languages, or intralingually, when the source and target languages coincide. an example of the latter can be found in productions specifically tailored for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (sdh). also didactic subtitling (ds; see chapter 3) also takes on multiple forms based on translation type and direction. the main types are: sileo e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 88-91 90 a) intralingual (that is, subtitling within l2, thus rephrasing the source text by resorting to condensation and reformulation strategies, such as the omission of unnecessary elements), more suited for intermediate to advanced proficiency levels (b1 to c2); b) interlingual (meaning, subtitling from or into students’ l1/l2, also known as direct/standard and reverse subtitling, respectively), recommended for a1 to b1 levels; c) creative ds, in other words either didactic keyword captions or pre-spotted subtitling: the former simulates a fill-in-the-gaps exercise, while the latter can be used as a final scaffolded step where spotting is done, and students only insert linguistic content. creative ds involves recreating the source text by reproducing a different version of the original dialogues, either intraor inter-lingually (direct/standard or reverse). didactic subtitling allows learners to enhance a series of integrated skills, including listening and written comprehension, mediation, and writing skills, in addition to oral production, vocabulary acquisition, grammar content, and cultural awareness. didactic dubbing (dd) and didactic voice over (dvo) also include three types (see chapter 4): intralingual, interlingual, and creative. didactic dubbing and didactic voice over ask students to produce a script and, subsequently, an l1/l2 audio from a video in l2. these tasks enhance oral comprehension (audiovisual receptive skills), writing/spelling and speaking/pronunciation skills (audiovisual productive skills) in a contextualized, structured, guided, thorough, and authentic way (talava n et al., 2024, p. 107). they also promote audiovisual mediation skills, in the same manner as ds and didactic sdh, as learners are supposed to provide a service by ensuring access to the original audiovisual message for a receiver who cannot access it otherwise. each dubbing or voice-over type and direction (standard, reverse, or creative) can be used for any proficiency level, but the selected video needs to be pondered appropriately. in contrast, both didactic audio description (dad) and didactic free commentary (dfc; chapter 5) might be either intersemiotic or creative. these two avt modes entail revoicing techniques: the former translates the visual content into words during the silent intervals between utterances. originally developed for the sake of accessibility, it provides visually impaired audiences with the visual information they could not access otherwise. dfc translates and adapts the original dialogues into an l2 by adding clarifications (if necessary) or comments on intercultural elements. in both modes, learners need to revoice – to record – a previously-prepared script. dad and dfc can enhance all language skills, plus mediation, in an integrated manner. moving beyond theory, the book provides practical resources for educators. each category of dat techniques explored in chapters 3-5 is accompanied by practical examples and lesson plan samples as developed by the tradilex project. tradilex (audiovisual translation as a didactic resource in foreign language education) is an ongoing national research project sponsored by the ministry of science and innovation in spain. it has developed and designed a total of 60 lesson plans, 5 short-term didactic sequences on one avt mode each, and a long-term didactic sequence which combines five different modes (p. 5). the main outcomes are illustrated in the first chapter of this book. the intended audience for this volume includes academics, practitioners, and postgraduate students interested in dat, who have been previously introduced to the pedagogical applications of avt in language education (p. 6). in this sense, teacher training is crucial for introducing re-writing and re-voicing avt modes into language classes, primary and secondary education not excluded. unfortunately, dat has so far been primarily employed in higher education and degrees in translation and modern languages (p. 147). the book acknowledges the need for continued exploration in dat. the conclusions offer insights into several areas for future research endeavours. one focus is the long-term impact of dat on learners’ language competence, thus aiming to understand the lasting effects of this innovative approach. the limited number of participants involved in the mentioned projects so far calls for more intensive and extensive analyses, which need to employ a combination of both qualitative and quantitative assessment methods and tools, such as interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, and classroom observations. in addition, this work encourages investigating dat scope by exploring further avt modes e.g., videogame localization and respeaking. the use of dat for accessible and inclusive language education is another area requiring further exploration. while future research could explore the long-term impact of dat on learners, the book’s contribution to the field is undeniable, as it empowers educators with a versatile and engaging tool to turn classrooms into dynamic spaces for language acquisition. https://plataformavirtual.tradilex.es/ review: didactic audiovisual translation and foreign language education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 88-91 91 references baeyens, lucas (2023). enhancing the pronunciation of problematic english consonants for spanish learners through intralingual dubbing activities. unpublished doctoral dissertation. universidad de zaragoza. bianchi, francesca (2015). subtitling science: an efficient task to learn content and language. lingue e linguaggi, 15, 20-25. hornero corisco, ana marí a, & gonzalez-vera, pilar (2020). audiovisual translation tools for the assessment of hard of hearing students. language value, 13(1), 58-77. lertola, jennifer (2018). from translation to audiovisual translation in foreign language learning. trans. revista de traductología, 22(22), 185-202. lertola, jennifer (2019). audiovisual translation in the foreign language classroom: applications in the teaching of english and other foreign languages. research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2019.27.9782490057252 talava n, noa (2009). aplicaciones de la traducción audiovisual para mejorar la comprensión oral del inglés. unpublished doctoral dissertation. universidad nacional de educacio n a distancia, uned. talava n, noa (2013). la subtitulacio n en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras. audiovisual translation tools for the assessment of hard of hearing students. language value, 13(1), 58–77. talava n, noa (2019). using subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing as an innovative pedagogical tool in the language class. ijes, 19(1), 21-40. talava n, noa, lertola, jennifer, & ferna ndez-costales, alberto (2024). didactic audiovisual translation and foreign language education. routledge. angela sileo, università degli studi di milano angela.sileo@unimi.it en angela sileo obtained a phd in humanities at the university of rome tor vergata, where she co-founded a research group (trade, translation and adaptation from/into english) in 2019. she is now a post-doc research fellow at the university of milan where she is involved with a project on elt and accessibility. she teaches english to hearing and dhh students for the ba in translation and interpreting in lis (italian sign language) and list (tactile italian sign language) at the university of milan – bicocca, where she had the chance to implement an innovative and deaf-inclusive approach to efl by using didactic subtitling. she has published extensively on audiovisual translation, and more specifically on lip sync and linear sync. es angela sileo consiguió su doctorado en humanidades por la universidad de roma tor vergata, donde cofundó un grupo de investigación (trade, translation and adaptation from/into english) en 2019. actualmente es becaria de investigación por la universidad de milán, con un proyecto sobre elt y accesibilidad. enseña inglés a estudiantes sordos y oyentes en el curso de grado en traduzione e interpretazione in lis (lingua dei segni italiana) e list (lingua dei segni italiano tattile) de la universidad de milán bicocca, donde tuvo la oportunidad de implementar un enfoque innovador y sordo-inclusivo para enseñar inglés como lengua extranjera a través de la didáctica de subtítulos. ha publicado monografías, artículos y ensayos sobre la traducción audiovisual, en particular sobre el doblaje y el sync lineal. it angela sileo ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca in studi umanistici presso l'università degli studi di roma tor vergata, dove ha co-fondato un gruppo di ricerca (trade, translation and adaptation from/into english) nel 2019. attualmente è assegnista di ricerca presso l'università degli studi di milano, con un progetto su elt e accessibilità. insegna inglese a studenti sordi e udenti presso il corso di laurea in traduzione e interpretazione in lis (lingua dei segni italiana) e list (lingua dei segni italiana tattile) dell'università degli studi di milano bicocca, dove ha avuto l'opportunità di implementare un approccio innovativo e deaf-inclusive all'insegnamento dell'inglese come lingua straniera utilizzando la sottotitolazione didattica. ha pubblicato monografie, articoli e saggi sulla traduzione audiovisiva, in particolare sul doppiaggio e sul sync lineare. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2019.27.9782490057252 e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 1, july 2023, 58-62 issn 2376-905x https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.1.2715 www.e-journall.org © obanos-gil 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. reseña: lázaro-ibarrola, amparo (2023). child l2 writers. a room of their own. john benjamins. maría puy obanos-gil universidad pública de navarra book review received 15 march 2023; accepted after revisions 3 april 2023 abstract es las tareas y los procesos de escritura realizados en segundas lenguas ofrecen a los estudiantes oportunidades no solo para mejorar sus habilidades de escritura y comprender contenidos, sino también posibilidades reales de desarrollo y aprendizaje de la segunda lengua. partiendo de esta premisa, lázaro-ibarrola revisa los fundamentos teóricos que avalan estos beneficios de la escritura y analiza los resultados de los estudios que han investigado las tareas de escritura en segundas lenguas entre participantes de la etapa escolar de primaria. esta monografía, además, propone nuevas líneas de investigación y ofrece una serie de pautas pedagógicas para implementar las tareas de escritura en las aulas. palabras clave: tareas de escritura, adquisición de segundas lenguas, alumnado de primaria, contexto de aprendizaje escolar en writing assignments and the process of writing in a second language offer students opportunities to improve their skills in writing and understanding content as well as concrete chances to learn and develop the second language. starting from this premise, lázaro-ibarrola reviews the theoretical foundations underpinning the benefits of writing and analyzes the results of studies investigating writing tasks in second languages for primary school participants. this monograph also proposes new avenues of research and offers a series of pedagogical guidelines to implement writing tasks in the classroom. keywords: writing tasks, second language acquisition, primary students, learning in school settings it i task e i processi di scrittura in una lingua seconda offrono agli studenti l’opportunità di migliorare non solo le abilità di produzione scritta e di comprensione dei contenuti, ma anche possibilità concrete di apprendere e sviluppare la lingua seconda. con queste premesse, nel suo libro, lázaro-ibarrola ripercorre le teorie a difesa dei benefici della scrittura e analizza i risultati di ricerche su task di scrittura in lingua seconda svolti da alunni della scuola primaria. inoltre, questa monografia propone nuovi percorsi di ricerca e offre una serie di linee guida pedagogiche per mettere in pratica i task di produzione scritta in classe. parole chiave: task di scrittura, acquisizione di una lingua seconda, apprendenti della scuola primaria, contesto di apprendimento scolastico * maría puy obanos-gil, universidad pública de navarra mpuyog@gmail.com http://www.e-journall.org/ reseña: child l2 writers e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 58-62 59 en los últimos años, la investigación sobre la adquisición de segundas lenguas y, más específicamente, aquella centrada en su instrucción y aprendizaje, ha puesto de manifiesto las oportunidades que ofrecen las actividades de escritura para el aprendizaje y desarrollo de la segunda lengua o lengua extranjera (manchón, 2011). las investigaciones han destacado, entre otros beneficios, el desarrollo lingüístico derivado de los procesos mentales involucrados en la escritura y en el feedback correctivo (leow, 2021). se ha desarrollado, además, en años recientes, un creciente interés por el alumnado de primaria, considerado el grupo más numeroso que recibe enseñanza reglada de una segunda lengua en muchos países. sin embargo, los estudios realizados hasta la fecha con participantes menores de 12 años son muy escasos. haciéndose eco de estos intereses de investigación, el libro child l2 writers. a room of their own, escrito por amparo lázaro-ibarrola, es una exhaustiva monografía de los estudios realizados hasta la fecha sobre el proceso de escritura en inglés como segunda lengua y cuyos participantes son estudiantes de primaria con edades comprendidas entre los 9 y los 12 años. el volumen forma parte de la colección trends in language acquisition research publicada por john benjamins. amparo lázaro-ibarrola tiene una dilatada experiencia como docente e investigadora y en los últimos años ha centrado su investigación en el aprendizaje del inglés de los estudiantes más jóvenes, concretamente en el estudio de las tareas de escritura (writing tasks). como docente, su investigación persigue siempre unos objetivos de mejora pedagógica y manifiesta un claro interés por trasladar los resultados de las investigaciones a la práctica escolar. por estas razones, el libro no solo se centra en ofrecer un análisis crítico de la investigación realizada en este campo, sino que además señala las limitaciones de dichas investigaciones y propone una serie de objetivos para estudios futuros, así como una guía pedagógica para trasladar los avances de la investigación al aula. en este sentido, este volumen cubre un importante vacío existente en la literatura del aprendizaje de segundas lenguas, ya que muy pocos estudios se han dedicado a la etapa infantil y menos aún a analizar el proceso de escritura en segundas lenguas entre estudiantes tan jóvenes. de hecho, la mayor parte de los estudios (23 de 29) analizados por lázaro-ibarrola se realizaron entre 2018 y 2022, lo que refleja la escasa atención dedicada hasta hace unos años a esta etapa educativa. el enfoque teórico de esta obra se sustenta en el cambio de paradigma sobre la escritura que ha tenido lugar en la última década. la escritura ha pasado de ser vista como una habilidad comunicativa que debe aprenderse, a valorar precisamente las posibilidades de aprendizaje implícitas en el proceso de escritura en una segunda lengua. este cambio de paradigma conocido en inglés como writing to learn (manchón, 2011) resalta los beneficios que la producción escrita conlleva para el aprendizaje de un idioma. entre ellos, destaca el mayor uso de los recursos cognitivos, que a su vez implica prestar más atención a los aspectos formales del lenguaje y, por tanto, una mayor precisión en su uso (manchón, 2023; ortega, 2012; roca de larios & coyle, 2021). por otro lado, no hay que olvidar que las tareas de escritura a las que se refiere esta monografía se llevan a cabo dentro de un contexto escolar, es decir, por medio de la instrucción de un docente y siguiendo un curriculum educativo. en consecuencia, las características de la adquisición de la lengua en este contexto (denominado isla, siglas en inglés de instructed second languge acquisition) difieren de los entornos que pueden definirse por oposición como naturales (sla, second language acquisition). en este contexto de aprendizaje escolar debe priorizarse la investigación de los procesos asociados con el aprendizaje explícito (leow, 2015, 2018) y, al mismo tiempo, dicha investigación no puede dejar de tener presentes las implicaciones pedagógicas de sus resultados (leow, 2019). en este sentido, los objetivos del libro persiguen no solo una aclaración científica de conceptos y resultados investigadores en el ámbito de las tareas de escritura, sino también su trasvase a la docencia. por ello, este volumen va dirigido tanto a investigadores e investigadoras como a estudiantes del área de la adquisición de segundas lenguas. además, gracias a su enfoque pedagógico y a la guía ofrecida para la transferencia a las aulas de los avances investigadores, también interesará a docentes y a editores de libros de texto. el libro, que se divide en una introducción y siete capítulos, se organiza en dos grandes bloques. en la primera parte (capítulos 1 a 5) se desgranan las singularidades de los niños como escritores en la segunda lengua, teniendo en cuenta su desarrollo cognitivo y el particular contexto educativo en el que se desarrolla su aprendizaje. en tal sentido, se detalla la influencia positiva que tiene la escritura en el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. en esta primera parte se analizan también los distintos estudios seleccionados, 29 en total, con el objetivo de comprender el proceso de escritura en la segunda lengua por parte del alumnado de los últimos cursos de primaria. en concreto, estos estudios se centran en la escritura colaborativa, el feedback correctivo escrito, la repetición de tareas de escritura y el efecto de la motivación sobre dichas tareas. estos son los obanos-gil e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 58-62 60 criterios que lázaro-ibarrola tuvo en cuenta para la inclusión de las investigaciones en la monografía: (i) la posición epistemológica de los estudios: centrada en la escritura basada en tareas (task based); (ii) el objetivo de los estudios: análisis del proceso de escritura y de las variables que lo afectan y sus consecuencias en la calidad textual; (iii) las tareas de escritura: desarrolladas en distintas etapas, incluyendo como mínimo dos textos; (iv) la edad de los participantes: entre 9 y 12 años. el segundo bloque de contenido (capítulos 6 y 7) recoge las principales conclusiones de los 29 estudios analizados y detalla las líneas de investigación que quedan abiertas para futuros estudios. este bloque culmina con una útil guía donde lázaro-ibarrola establece las implicaciones pedagógicas derivadas de la investigación y propone de forma concisa, en diez pautas, una serie de recomendaciones para implementar la producción de la escritura en el aula. el primer capítulo del libro aboga por la necesidad de entender los rasgos específicos de los niños como estudiantes, su desarrollo y sus características cognitivas. se aborda la relevancia de la escritura en el contexto educativo en general y los beneficios que conlleva para el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. describe también la complejidad de la recogida de datos cuando se trabaja precisamente con unos participantes tan jóvenes, y concluye el capítulo con un resumen de las principales teorías sobre la adquisición de segundas lenguas que influyen en los procesos de las tareas de escritura. el aprendizaje colaborativo y sus beneficios abren el segundo capítulo, que continúa con una definición del término escritura colaborativa y de los principios teóricos que lo sustentan en el campo de la adquisición de lenguas. seguidamente, se analizan tanto los estudios realizados con personas adultas como los que se centran en estudiantes jóvenes en este campo de la escritura colaborativa. finaliza el capítulo con un resumen de los aspectos comentados más importantes así como de los resultados más relevantes obtenidos en los estudios. el tercer capítulo está dedicado al feedback correctivo que habitualmente va unido a las tareas de escritura en el ámbito escolar. lázaro-ibarrola justifica la necesidad del feedback como parte esencial del aprendizaje, y trata las diferentes técnicas de feedback correctivo divididas en dos grupos. por un lado, aquellas que se centran en los aspectos más formales del lenguaje: correcciones directas y “dictogloss”, y por otro lado, las técnicas con un enfoque más globalizador como los modelos y las reformulaciones. en el último apartado se ofrece un resumen de los principales resultados, así como las limitaciones de los estudios y futuras líneas de investigación. la importancia de la repetición en el aprendizaje inicia el capítulo cuarto en el que se discute la relevancia de la repetición en las tareas de escritura. tras ofrecer un resumen de los principales estudios realizados hasta la fecha en este campo, se resumen las ideas clave y se dan recomendaciones para estudios futuros. finaliza esta primera sección con el capítulo quinto centrado en la motivación. así, se analiza el rol de la motivación en la etapa escolar y en concreto en la educación primaria. el capítulo avanza con un resumen del conocimiento científico obtenido sobre la motivación en el campo de la adquisición de lenguas para concluir con la motivación en las tareas de escritura (task motivation) y un análisis de los estudios realizados hasta la fecha sobre este constructo. la segunda parte del libro comienza con un pertinente repaso de las principales ideas tratadas hasta este punto en la monografía y continúa con las limitaciones de los estudios realizados. consecuentemente, se exponen también las principales líneas de investigación que todavía deben abordarse. es decir, se establece un puente entre el conocimiento adquirido y los vacíos que todavía quedan por explorar. el último capitulo del libro refleja claramente la inclinación pedagógica del monográfico. lázaroibarrola realiza una defensa de la necesidad de tener siempre presentes y de incluir exhaustivamente las implicaciones pedagógicas en todos los estudios. por esta razón, se discuten varios conceptos que son de relevancia para la docencia de segundas lenguas, como la capacidad de los niños para escribir en inglés y responder al feedback correctivo, o la importancia de tener en cuenta su desarrollo cognitivo a la hora de llevar a cabo la producción escrita o de ofrecerles diferentes tipos de feedback. para culminar esta reflexión pedagógica, se proponen diez pautas para implementar la escritura en el aula. se debe resaltar la claridad de la estructura de este volumen, que cuenta con un índice detallado y un glosario de términos. la división en dos grandes bloques, el primero más analítico y el segundo globalizador de las principales ideas y con un enfoque pedagógico, asimismo, resulta muy acertada. destaca igualmente el equilibrio que se logra entre aspectos que son muy complejos pero que resultan a su vez complementarios como son la teoría lingüística, el análisis de los estudios realizados y sus resultados y su relevancia pedagógica. en cada capítulo se establece una sección para cada uno de estos aspectos clave y reseña: child l2 writers e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 58-62 61 se progresa de forma lógica de la teoría a la investigación para culminar con los consejos pedagógicos. esta estructura ayuda a entender cada uno de los temas tratados, a reflexionar sobre las cuestiones de investigación que todavía quedan pendientes, y a trasladar las conclusiones al aula de primaria. otro aspecto reseñable es el valor que oportunamente se concede a la comprensión de la etapa de la infancia objeto de estudio, profundizando en los aspectos cognitivos y psicológicos de su desarrollo. tampoco se descuidan factores afectivos como la motivación, que es un elemento esencial para el aprendizaje de idiomas (dörnyei, 2001) y que, como sugiere la autora, convendría medir en este tipo de estudios. el innegable valor pedagógico de este libro se traduce también en una defensa del empoderamiento del profesorado como agente esencial en el proceso investigador. se recomienda aumentar su participación, por ejemplo, recogiendo los datos de los estudios. las relaciones entre quienes imparten docencia y quienes se dedican a la investigación han sido objeto de preocupación y análisis ya que, aunque a menudo comparten los mismos objetivos, parece haber una brecha entre ambas comunidades (sato & loewen, 2022). artículos recientes han propuesto también una mayor implicación y participación directa del profesorado en los proyectos de investigación para superar esta fisura y promover actividades con soporte teórico y empírico en el aula (leow, thinglum, havenne, & tseng, 2022). en suma, esta monografía sobre la investigación de las tareas de escritura centrada en el alumnado de primaria viene a cubrir un vacío en la teoría y en el análisis científico de la adquisición de segundas lenguas. el equilibrio entre la profundidad teórica, el riguroso análisis de los estudios realizados y su indudable vocación pedagógica convierten a este libro en un referente tanto para investigadores o investigadoras como para estudiantes de lingüística aplicada, docentes de lenguas y editores o editoras de libros de texto. referencias dörnyei, zoltan (2001). new themes and approaches in second language motivation research. annual review of applied linguistics, 21, 43-59. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0267190501000034 leow, ronald p. (2015). explicit learning in the l2 classroom: a student-centered approach. routledge. leow, ronald p. (2018). explicit learning and depth of processing in the instructed setting: theory, research, and practice. studies in english education, 23(4), 769-801. http://dx.doi.org/10.22275/see.23.4.01 leow, ronald p. (2019). from sla> isla> ill: a curricular/pedagogical perspective. in ronald p. leow (ed.), the routledge handbook of second language research in classroom learning (pp. 483-491). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315165080-33 leow, ronald p., & suh, bo-ram (2021). theoretical perspectives on l2 writing, written corrective feedback, and language learning in individual writing conditions. in rosa m. manchón & charlene polio. (eds.), the routledge handbook of second language acquisition and writing (pp. 9-21). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429199691-3 leow, ronald, thinglum, anne, havenne, maude, & tseng, rina (2022). bridging the gap between researchers and teachers: a curricular perspective. the modern language journal, 106(3), 564-582. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/modl.12799 manchón, rosa m. (ed.) (2011). learning-to-write and writing-to-learn in an additional language. john benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.31 manchón, rosa m. (2023). the psycholinguistics of second language writing. in alene godfroid & holger hopp (eds.), the routledge handbook of second language acquisition and psycholinguistics (pp. 400-412). routledge. ortega, lourdes (2012). epilogue: exploring l2 writing–sla interfaces. journal of second language writing, 21(4), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2012.09.002 ortega, l. (2020). the study of heritage language development from a bilingualism and social justice perspective. language learning: a journal of research in language studies, 70(1), 15–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12347 roca de larios, julio, & coyle, yvette (2021). learners' engagement with written corrective feedback in individual and collaborative l2 writing conditions. in rosa m. manchón & charlene polio (eds.), the routledge handbook of second language acquisition and writing (pp. 81-93). routledge. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0267190501000034 about:blank about:blank http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/modl.12799 about:blank https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2012.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12347 obanos-gil e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 58-62 62 sato, masatoshi, & loewen, shawn (2022). the research–practice dialogue in second language learning and teaching: past, present, and future. the modern language journal, 106(3), 509-527. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12791 maría puy obanos-gil, universidad pública de navarra mpuyog@gmail.com es maría puy obanos-gil es investigadora en formación en el instituto i-communitas de la universidad pública de navarra donde cursa estudios de doctorado. su investigación se centra en la retroalimentación correctiva escrita en el aprendizaje de segundas lenguas. es licenciada en filología inglesa por la universidad del país vasco, tiene un máster en lingüística aplicada por la university of hull en inglaterra y un máster en profesorado de educación secundaria por la universidad pública de navarra. en maría puy obanos-gil is a trainee researcher at the i-communitas institute of universidad pública de navarra (spain), where she is a doctoral student. her research centers on written corrective feedback in second language learning. she holds a bachelor’s degree in english philology from the universidad del país vasco in spain, a master’s degree in applied linguistics from the university of hull in england, and a master’s degree in secondary education from the universidad pública de navarra. it maría puy obanos-gil svolge ricerca presso l’istituto i-communitas dell’universidad pública de navarra (spagna), dove è dottoranda. la sua ricerca riguarda il feedback correttivo relativo alla produzione scritta nell’apprendimento di lingue seconde. è laureata in filologia inglese presso l’universidad del país vasco in spagna, ha ottenuto il master in linguistica applicata nell’university of hull in inghilterra e uno in insegnamento nella scuola secondaria presso l’universidad pública de navarra. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12791 berchio_2025_ej (1) euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 12, issue 2, november 2025, 84-89 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.2.3479 www.e-journall.org © berchio 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. book review: hiratsuka, takaaki (2024) native-speakerism and transspeakerism. entering a new era. cambridge university press. giulia berchio institut de plurilinguisme / pädagogische hochschule graubünden book review received 18 august 2025; accepted 24 september 2025 abstract it questa recensione ha l’obiettivo di descrivere la struttura e i contenuti del volume native-speakerism and trans-speakerism. entering a new era di takaaki hiratsuka, edito nel 2024 dalla cambridge university press, e di porre in rilievo aspetti salienti della ricerca effettuata dall’autore. in particolare, vengono fatte emergere le ragioni che hanno dato modo all’interesse di ricerca nei confronti delle nozioni di nativismo e di antinativismo di farsi strada, e vengono poste in evidenza le proposte avanzate per far progredire la ricerca e la pratica nel campo dell’educazione linguistica, liberando le persone che operano in questo campo (future/i insegnanti e ricercatrici/ricercatori, insegnanti di scuola secondaria in servizio, docenti d’università) dalla visione dicotomica “parlante nativa/o” vs. “parlante non nativa/o”. la recensione si conclude con alcune riflessioni di chi scrive sui pregi del volume, sulle potenziali criticità e sui possibili gruppi destinatari dei contenuti dell’opera. parole chiave: nativismo, antinativismo, egemonia linguistica, parlanti native/i, parlanti non native/i en this review aims to describe the structure and content of the volume native-speakerism and trans-speakerism. entering a new era by takaaki hiratsuka, published in 2024 by cambridge university press, and to emphasise the relevant aspects of the study carried out by the author. in particular, it presents the reasons that have driven the research on the notions of native-speakerism and trans-speakerism and it highlights the proposals introduced to advance in the analysis and practice of this subject in the field of language education, in an attempt to free those working in this field (future teachers/researchers, secondary school teachers in service, university professors) from the dichotomous perspective of "native speaker" vs "non-native speaker. the analysis concludes with some reflections by the author of the review on the virtues of the volume, including potential criticisms and addressees of the work. key words: native-speakerism, trans-speakerism, linguistic hegemony, native speakers, non-native speakers es esta reseña tiene como objetivo describir la estructura y el contenido del volumen native-speakerism and trans-speakerism. entering a new era de takaaki hiratsuka, publicado en 2024 por cambridge university press, y destacar los aspectos relevantes del estudio realizado por el autor. en particular, se presentan las razones que han impulsado la investigación sobre las nociones de nativismo y antinativismo, y se evidencian las propuestas introducidas para hacer avanzar los análisis y la práctica de estos temas en el campo de la educación lingüística, intentando liberar a las personas que trabajan en este ámbito (futuro profesorado e investigadores/investigadoras, docentes de secundaria y de universidad) de la visión dicotómica de "hablante nativo" vs "hablante no nativo". se concluye con algunas reflexiones de la autora de la reseña sobre las virtudes del volumen, las potenciales críticas y sus posibles destinatarios. palabras clave: nativismo, antinativismo, hegemonía lingüística, hablantes nativos/as, hablantes no nativos/as * giulia berchio, institut de plurilinguisme / pädagogische hochschule graubünden / universität bern giulia.berchio@unifr.ch book review: native-speakerism and trans-speakerism. entering a new era. e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 84-89 85 attraverso un lavoro di revisione della letteratura e un’indagine narrativa, la ricerca qualitativa di takaaki hiratsuka, presentata nel volume native-speakerism and trans-speakerism. entering a new era, edito nel 2024 dalla cambridge university press, si propone di approfondire la nozione di native-speakerism applicata alla lingua inglese e le sue implicazioni per il mondo accademico e per il campo dell’educazione linguistica. nello specifico l’autore, docente e ricercatore nell’ambito delle scienze linguistiche applicate presso la graduate school of international studies della ryukoku university in giappone e parlante non nativo dell’inglese, affronta il problema della debole presenza di studi teorici o empirici sul tema del native-speakerism inglese condotti da parlanti non-native/i di tale lingua (non-native english speakers, abbreviato in nnes nel testo originale) provenienti, in questo specifico caso, dal contesto giapponese. come risposta a tale problema viene proposto un cambio di paradigma verso il trans-speakerism, un concetto che permetterebbe alle persone che operano nell’ambito dell’educazione linguistica e della ricerca in e sulla lingua inglese di vedere riconosciute le proprie abilità e competenze in questo settore, indipendentemente dalla propria lingua madre. il volume è suddiviso in sette capitoli. il capitolo 1 introduce le premesse dello studio e gli obiettivi. dapprima l’autore formula una considerazione sulla capacità della lingua madre di stabilire una connessione tra le/i parlanti e la società. tuttavia, allo stesso tempo sottolinea che la lingua madre può avere un potere limitante, in particolare se confrontata con meccanismi di egemonia linguistica da parte di altre lingue. nello specifico, le lingue in gioco nel contesto di questo studio sono il giapponese e l’inglese, dove l’inglese ha il ruolo di lingua non nativa nel repertorio di parlanti di lingua madre giapponese che operano nel campo dell’educazione linguistica inglese, sia in qualità di (future/i) insegnanti e ricercatrici/ricercatori di inglese sia come docenti d’università. per approfondire il problema sollevato, l’autore si è proposto di indagare il vissuto di tali figure. l’obiettivo era quello di ottenere un quadro articolato del modo in cui le loro vite sono influenzate dal concetto di native-speakerism e di ragionare sulle nuove opportunità che un concetto maggiormente flessibile come quello di trans-speakerism potrebbe offrire, soprattutto per ciò che concerne la riduzione dei bias che la dicotomia “parlante nativa/o” vs “parlante non nativa/o” ha contribuito ad alimentare. il capitolo 2 intende far luce, da una parte, sulla genesi del concetto di native-speakerism e, dall’altra, vuole porre in evidenza ciò che la letteratura scientifica sul tema ha già o non ha ancora detto. relativamente al concetto di native-speakerism, l’autore pone in evidenza come la globalizzazione abbia dato adito a un incontro più intenso tra parlanti dell’inglese come lingua nativa (nes, ovvero native english speakers) e parlanti dell’inglese come lingua non-nativa in contesti come la scuola. inoltre, viene rilevato come ciò abbia generato fenomeni di legittimazione del native-speakerism e dell’uso del repertorio e della storia linguistica di un’/un insegnante come metro per misurare le sue competenze in termini pedagogici. da qui la proposta che questa dicotomia si ammorbidisca e venga valorizzato il continuum tra le due etichette, nel tentativo di conferire maggior dignità alle singole capacità, non esclusivamente linguistiche, di ciascun individuo operante in ambito educativo. nello stesso capitolo l’autore descrive il processo di revisione sistematica della letteratura sul nativespeakerism, per portare a compimento il quale ha utilizzato principalmente google scholar e indicato, come termine di ricerca, “native-speakerism”. inoltre, il protocollo per la revisione prevedeva che della selezione facessero parte esclusivamente contributi a) contenenti tale termine non solo nel testo ma anche nel titolo, b) scritti in inglese, c) in cui l’inglese fosse oggetto di studio (insegnanti di inglese/insegnamento della lingua inglese) e d) pubblicati previo rigoroso processo di peer-review. in tutto, la revisione si è basata su 63 contributi (22 studi teorici e 41 studi empirici) e ha evidenziato come esistano pochi studi che si concentrino su parlanti non native/i dell’inglese (future/i insegnanti e ricercatrici/ricercatori, insegnanti di scuola in servizio, docenti d’università). l’autorevolezza e l’imprescindibilità di tali figure che, attraverso le proprie testimonianze, potrebbero arricchire e far progredire il campo d’indagine che si sviluppa attorno alla nozione di nativespeakerism appaiono infatti, in base alla revisione della letteratura sul tema, ancora sottovalutate. questo porta hiratsuka a rivendicare un approccio più umano alla ricerca, che tenga conto delle voci di tutte le persone il cui agire è influenzato (e spesso limitato) da una determinata ideologia. l’autore rileva altresì come oltre ad approcci metodologici più inclusivi manchino anche studi capaci di proporre ideologie alternative. la resistenza al cambiamento nello specifico ambito di questa ricerca viene valutata vieppiù insostenibile, dal momento che le/i parlanti non native/i della lingua inglese nei contesti in cui l’inglese viene insegnato come lingua straniera costituiscono la maggior parte. l’autore prosegue con una critica nei confronti delle/dei parlanti native/i dell’inglese che si esprimono a favore di una riconcettualizzazione del concetto di native-speakerism. cita, a questo proposito, l’esempio di rivers (2018), il quale afferma che le categorie estreme esistono solo nella mente di chi crede in queste berchio e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 84-89 86 distinzioni, e sottolinea come il proprio pensiero si trovi in contrasto con quest’ultimo: secondo hiratsuka, infatti, appartenere alla categoria delle/dei parlanti non native/i dell’inglese permette in realtà di percepire in modo netto la distinzione tra le due categorie “native/i” vs “non native/i”, visibile già a partire dalla letteratura scientifica sul tema, dove è più folta la presenza di fonti sulle/sui parlanti native/i. vengono sollevate, poi, altre criticità, in particolare relativamente alle strategie che le/i parlanti native/i metterebbero in atto per distogliere l’attenzione dal tema della discriminazione di parlanti non native/i dell’inglese negando, di fatto, l’esistenza di esigenze specifiche da parte di questa categoria e la difficoltà che essa incontra nell’ottenere un reale riconoscimento. riflettendo sull’ampia diffusione del termine native-speakerism, hiratsuka pensa infine che sia ancora più necessario ponderare il passaggio ad altre terminologie che darebbero maggior dignità alle categorie delle/dei parlanti non native/i dell’inglese. il prodotto di tale riflessione è la proposta del termine transspeakerism, approfondito al capitolo 3. l’autore pone l’accento sull’importanza che siano soprattutto le/gli insegnanti di inglese a dover mappare e a far conoscere la realtà vissuta dalle/dai parlanti non native/i dell’inglese, a porre in evidenza le proprie percezioni, così da potersi sentire maggiormente legittimate/i ad agire in quel campo. il capitolo 3 è dedicato ad approfondire l’obiettivo ultimo del volume, ovvero quello di proporre un cambio di paradigma dalla nozione di native-speakerism a quella di trans-speakerism. come afferma hiratsuka, l’avvio di questa riflessione è stato possibile grazie alla lente della pedagogia critica, che permette di ragionare sui temi della riproduzione dei privilegi per certi gruppi, incoraggiando la ricerca di soluzioni che privilegino l’eterogeneità del panorama del mondo dell’educazione – linguistica, in questo caso – e smantellando etichette dicotomiche che alimentano meccanismi nocivi di messa a confronto, passibili di sfociare in atteggiamenti discriminatori. agendo in questa cornice disciplinare, l’autore spiega di aver indagato, con la collaborazione dei suoi dottorandi, l’impatto della nozione di native-speakerism sulla vita delle persone che lavorano nell’ambito della ricerca e dell’insegnamento dell’inglese come parlanti non native/i di questa lingua e di aver posto le basi per la nascita della nozione alternativa di trans-speakerism. il consolidamento di questo percorso di ricerca è avvenuto attraverso uno studio multiplo di caso, sul quale si basa il presente volume. tale studio ha previsto la raccolta (online) audio e video di testimonianze di parlanti non native/i dell’inglese in merito alle loro percezioni, alle emozioni, ai valori e alle esperienze che caratterizzano il loro rapporto con le due nozioni native-speakerism e trans-speakerism. nel chiarire il proprio approccio al lavoro di indagine l’autore sottolinea l’importanza del paradigma di ricerca come “guide for readers to descern the study’s underlying interpretive framework” (p. 50) e la responsabilità di chi conduce la ricerca di rendere tale paradigma trasparente. in questo caso, il paradigma scelto è quello costruttivistainterpretativo, che prevede un lavoro di co-costruzione del sapere, sapere che non è ricavato dal rapporto gerarchico tra chi ricerca e chi partecipa alla ricerca ma che pone al centro un processo di co-creazione e cointerpretazione. le/i partecipanti a questo studio di caso sono tutte/i residenti in giappone e parlanti dell’inglese come lingua non nativa: quattro insegnanti di scuola secondaria, quattro future/i insegnanti di scuola secondaria o ricercatrici/ricercatori e quattro docenti d’università. per effettuare il campionamento, l’autore riporta di aver scelto il metodo maximum variation samplying, che permette al campione di essere il più possibile diversificato, qui nello specifico in termini di età, genere, formazione ed esperienze vissute in ambienti anglofoni. il livello di inglese delle/dei partecipanti allo studio è stato autovalutato. i dati sono stati analizzati attraverso un procedimento induttivo (raccolta dati, estrazione dei temi e spiegazione teorica dei temi estratti), tenendo sempre costante l’obiettivo di co-creazione delle storie di ciascuna/ciascun partecipante. nei capitoli 4, 5 e 6 l’autore si concentra sui risultati, dedicando ogni capitolo a un gruppo target. ciascun capitolo presenta la stessa struttura: in linea con la tipologia di ricerca qualitativa adottata – l’indagine narrativa – vengono in un primo momento presentate le testimonianze dei singoli componenti di ciascun gruppo target. si tratta di quattro estratti di intervista per ogni capitolo, intitolati con il nome (fittizio) della persona intervistata, dai quali emergono aspetti delle esperienze personali e formative in relazione alla lingua inglese e alle nozioni di native-speakerism e trans-speakerism. i due paragrafi successivi alle serie di narrazioni di ciascun gruppo target contengono un commento dell’autore sui contenuti di tali narrazioni, prima sul concetto di native-speakerism, poi di trans-speakerism. seguono un paragrafo dedicato alla cornice concettuale che emerge dalle testimonianze di ogni gruppo e le considerazioni conclusive per ciascuno di essi. il capitolo conclusivo del volume si divide in tre sezioni. nella prima vengono riprese le considerazioni dell’autore sui risultati dell’indagine per ciascuno dei tre gruppi target. in generale, viene posta in evidenza la necessità di riflessioni sistematiche sul tema del native-speakerism e del trans-speakerism, le quali book review: native-speakerism and trans-speakerism. entering a new era. e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 84-89 87 permetterebbero a tutti i gruppi di orientarsi maggiormente nel dibattito terminologico e ideologico, accrescendo le possibilità di inserirvisi in modo agentivo. per quanto riguarda il gruppo delle/degli insegnanti di scuola secondaria in servizio, lo studio ha ad esempio rilevato la necessità di sviluppare materiali didattici maggiormente inclusivi dal punto di vista dei gruppi rappresentati, ovvero delle persone che parlano l’inglese, così da avere un’idea più diversificata di questa lingua e delle sue/dei suoi parlanti. seguono le conclusioni relative al gruppo delle future e dei futuri insegnanti e ricercatrici/ricercatori, dove le misure prospettate per contrastare l’opposizione tra native-speakerism e trans-speakerism consisterebbero, ad esempio, in una nuova distribuzione dell’importanza degli obiettivi nell’ambito della formazione. nello specifico, hiratsuka sottolinea qui l’importanza di considerare alla pari concetti quali la precisione linguistica, l’efficacia comunicativa e la qualità della vita di queste figure. infine, relativamente al gruppo delle e dei docenti d’università rileva la necessità che queste/i agiscano come promotrici e promotori del nuovo paradigma trans-speakerism e che il loro lavoro di divulgazione venga reso più sostenibile dalle case editrici e da tutte le figure che lavorano nel campo dell’editoria, che dovrebbero essere orientate a proporre politiche linguistiche di pubblicazione più inclusive e meno anglocentriche. nella seconda parte delle conclusioni vengono illustrati i limiti dello studio e conseguentemente proposte nuove vie di ricerca. nello specifico, viene posto l’accento sul fatto che per poter validare il concetto di trans-speakerism e comprendere quali ostacoli potrebbero impedirne la diffusione dovrebbero essere potenziate le linee di ricerca in questo ambito. in particolare, si incoraggiano nuovi studi condotti con ampi campioni provenienti da diversi contesti: ad esempio, viene segnalata l’importanza di prevedere confronti non inclusi nella presente indagine, in particolare quello tra insegnanti locali di inglese (lta, cioè local teachers of english), ovvero appartenenti al contesto giapponese (in questo caso) e assistenti madrelingua inglese (alt, cioè foreign assistant language teacher). secondo l’autore, i risultati dovrebbero poi poter confluire agevolmente nei moduli per la formazione delle/dei future/i insegnanti, contribuendo a mitigare visioni monolitiche e normative della competenza linguistica derivate dal successo, fino al giorno d’oggi, della nozione di native-speakerism. la terza sezione della parte conclusiva è fermamente ancorata alla storia personale dell’autore. il volume termina infatti con la descrizione del suo percorso accademico, culminato nel 2023 portandolo a rappresentare, come chairperson, il convegno sull’educazione linguistica più grande del giappone (jalt). per l’autore, questo ruolo diventa carico di significato e sintomo di un passo concreto verso un cambio di paradigma, quello dal native-speakerism verso il trans-speakerism, considerato come possibile solo se ad essere allenata e applicata è anche la nozione trasversale di growth mindset. secondo hiratsuka, infatti, una “mentalità di crescita” permetterebbe a chi agisce nel settore dell’educazione linguistica di vedere il proprio profilo identitario e il proprio ruolo di parlante, studentessa/studente o insegnante sempre in divenire, in costante evoluzione e orientato alla resilienza, alla perseveranza, all’individuazione delle opportunità di crescita, intellettuale e personale. in generale, il pregio di questo volume consiste, a parere di chi scrive, nella capacità dell’autore di analizzare in profondità il proprio ruolo di docente e ricercatore, riflettere sulle proprie esperienze in relazione alla nozione di native-speakerism e individuare i bisogni non solo della propria categoria ma di tutte le figure il cui profilo formativo e professionale si sviluppa entro il contesto accademico di cui l’autore fa parte. come parlante non nativo dell’inglese e formatore di future/i insegnanti di inglese della scuola secondaria e di ricercatrici/ricercatori, hiratsuka appare infatti consapevole delle conseguenze causate dalla visione dicotomica “parlante nativa/o” vs “parlante non nativa/o” e non si attarda nel proporre delle alternative ideologiche che conferirebbero maggior dignità all’agire pedagogico di ciascuna attrice e di ciascun attore del mondo dell’educazione linguistica. inoltre, dal punto di vista metodologico appare cosciente di possibili bias nel suo approccio alla ricerca (ad esempio, a p. 22 vi è un’autocritica nei confronti della scelta del termine di ricerca “native-speakerism” nel corso della revisione della letteratura, che può aver limitato l’accesso a contributi altrettanto pertinenti anche se privi di quel termine nel titolo), della limitatezza dello studio e delle sue possibilità di sviluppo (p. 141), che potrebbe nel futuro coinvolgere un maggior numero di gruppi target da contesti diversi da quello giapponese, permettendo così di soppesare meglio le probabilità che la nozione di trans-speakerism abbia successo. un aspetto critico del lavoro, non tanto in termini di struttura o di metodologia ma di prodotto della ricerca, potrebbe consistere invece nel fatto che, nonostante siano state coinvolte le figure sulle quali il concetto di native-speakerism appare esercitare il suo effetto più diretto, la riflessione sul cambio di paradigma verso il trans-speakerism rischia di rimanere perlopiù su un piano ideologico (e idealista). il lavoro di hiratsuka, come già sottolineato, ha dato una voce a parlanti non native/i dell’inglese che operano nell’ambito della ricerca e berchio e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 84-89 88 dell’insegnamento delle lingue, alle e ai quali la ricerca, come rilevato dalla revisione della letteratura sul tema, non aveva finora dedicato uno spazio adeguato. tuttavia, seppur l’autore sia riuscito a elicitare, da un lato, il loro malcontento nei confronti dell’egemonia del native-speakerism e, dall’altro, a individuare gli elementi che permetterebbero di raggiungere un riconoscimento maggiore (puntare di più sulla consapevolezza interculturale, sulla professionalizzazione delle e degli insegnanti e sul concetto di global englishes), rimane il dubbio relativo al se e al quanto tempestivamente l’augurio di un cambio di paradigma possa essere tradotto in azioni concrete. certamente, alcuni spunti vengono forniti direttamente dall’autore, che sottolinea come siano state già prese alcune iniziative in ambito accademico (come precedentemente menzionato, il suo ruolo al convegno jalt del 2023 costituirebbe già un segnale di cambiamento). dall’altra parte, però, anche se sembra vi sia il virtuoso intento di preparare un terreno adatto alla crescita del dibattito non solo all’interno del contesto universitario, il volume non sembra fornirci elementi a sufficienza per valutare quante possibilità esso potrebbe avere di permeare sistematicamente il mondo della scuola e di trovare risposte a domande quali, ad esempio: in che modo si possono costruire reti virtuose tra il mondo della ricerca e della pratica, accrescendo così le probabilità di circolazione delle idee e l’instaurarsi dei dibattiti nati in accademia anche all’interno della scuola? come si può aumentare la partecipazione di insegnanti non native/i dell’inglese a eventi scientifici, divulgativi e formativi come il citato jalt, frequentato non solo da figure dell’accademia ma anche da insegnanti che, come afferma hiratsuka, sono tuttavia principalmente native/i dell’inglese? in conclusione, la natura metodologica di questo studio, che pone in evidenza, per mezzo di narrazioni, le esperienze e le percezioni di gruppi target che agiscono nell’università e nella scuola (insegnanti, future/i insegnanti e ricercatrici/ricercatori, docenti d’università non native/i dell’inglese) in merito alle nozioni di native-speakerism e trans-speakerism, rende il testo una lettura indicata a tutte le persone che, agendo con tali ruoli nell’ambito dell’educazione linguistica e delle scienze linguistiche applicate, si confrontano quotidianamente con dinamiche che pongono al centro il valore delle lingue (sia come veicolo comunicativo sia come oggetto di studio) e vorrebbero saperne di più su come etichette ben acclimatate come quella di nativespeakerism (estendibile ad altre lingue oltre all’inglese) possano influenzare il proprio pensiero, le proprie azioni pedagogiche e il proprio approccio alla ricerca. l’ampia gamma di attrici e attori dell’educazione rappresentata nel volume costituirebbe inoltre un incentivo, a parere di chi scrive, per avvicinare settori in parte diversi e con esigenze diverse allo stesso dibattito, gettando così basi utili alla creazione di un terreno comune di contenuti sul tema affrontato; una premessa, quest’ultima, di fondamentale importanza nell’ottica di stabilire connessioni tra la ricerca e la pratica (becker, 2024). bibliografia becker, anna (2024). applied linguistics communities of practice: improving the research practice relationship. applied linguistics (45)2, 272–286. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amad010 rivers, damian j. (2013). institutionalized native-speakerism: voices of dissent and acts of resistance. in stephanie a. houghton and damian j. rivers (eds.), native-speakerism in japan: intergroup dynamics in foreign language education (pp. 75–91). multilingual matters. book review: native-speakerism and trans-speakerism. entering a new era. e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 84-89 89 giulia berchio, institut de plurilinguisme / pädagogische hochschule graubünden giulia.berchio@unifr.ch it giulia berchio è attualmente collaboratrice scientifica presso l’alta scuola pedagogica dei grigioni e l’istituto di plurilinguismo di fribourg, dove si occupa di progetti di ricerca e sviluppo e dell’organizzazione di eventi relativi all’apprendimento e all’insegnamento delle lingue. ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca in scienze del linguaggio presso l’université de fribourg con una tesi sulla struttura informativa di parlanti adulti bilingui italiano/svizzero-tedesco. en giulia berchio is currently a research associate at the graubünden university of teacher education and the institute of multilingualism in fribourg, where she works on research and development projects and organises events related to language learning and teaching. she obtained her phd in language sciences from the université de fribourg with a thesis on the information structure of bilingual italian/swiss german adult speakers. es giulia berchio es actualmente colaboradora científica en la escuela pedagógica de los grisones y en el instituto de multilingüismo de friburgo, donde se ocupa de proyectos de investigación y desarrollo, y de la organización de eventos relacionados con el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de idiomas. obtuvo el doctorado en ciencias del lenguaje por la universidad de friburgo con una tesis sobre la estructura informativa de hablantes adultos bilingües italiano/alemán suizo. microsoft word parini 2025 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, special issue, volume 12, issue 1, june 2025, pages 74–97 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.1.3176 www.e-journall.org © parini 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom ilaria parini università del piemonte orientale received 17 september 2024; accepted 21 february 2025 abstract en youtube’s technology allows users to automatically obtain intralingual subtitles for the videos that are uploaded on the platform. as youtube is owned by google, it uses the google automatic speech recognition system (google voice) to synchronize the subtitles with the speakers’ utterances. in order to go one step further and produce automatic interlingual subtitles within a wide range of foreign languages, google combines its asr system with its machine translation system (google translate). however, despite ongoing improvements in technology, automatic captioning can fail to convey the message accurately. this can cause a series of cascading errors, leading the machine translation system to mistranslate or to hinder overall accuracy. this paper presents the results of a study conducted with a group of students at the university of turin on the topic of marketing, to focus on the potential of using youtube’s automatic subtitles to enhance their listening skills and use of specialized vocabulary. key words: audiovisual translation, foreign language education, esp, marketing, automatic subtitling es la tecnología de youtube permite a los usuarios obtener automáticamente subtítulos intralingüísticos para los videos subidos a la plataforma. como youtube es propiedad de google, utiliza el sistema de reconocimiento automático de voz de google (google voice) para sincronizar los subtítulos con las intervenciones de los hablantes. para ir un paso más allá y generar subtítulos automáticos interlingüísticos en una amplia gama de idiomas extranjeros, google combina su sistema de reconocimiento de voz con su sistema de traducción automática (google translate). sin embargo, a pesar de los avances tecnológicos, los subtítulos automáticos pueden no transmitir el mensaje con precisión. esto puede provocar una serie de errores en cascada, lo que lleva al sistema de traducción automática a traducir incorrectamente o afectar la precisión general. este trabajo presenta los resultados de un estudio realizado con un grupo de estudiantes de la universidad de turín sobre el tema del marketing, centrado en el potencial del uso de los subtítulos automáticos de youtube para mejorar sus habilidades de escucha y el uso de vocabulario especializado. palabras clave: traducción audiovisual, enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, esp, marketing, subtitulación automática it la tecnologia di youtube consente agli utenti di ottenere automaticamente sottotitoli intralinguistici per i video caricati sulla piattaforma. poiché youtube è di proprietà di google, utilizza il sistema di riconoscimento vocale automatico di google (google voice) per sincronizzare i sottotitoli con gli interventi dei parlanti. per fare un ulteriore passo avanti e generare sottotitoli automatici interlinguistici in un'ampia gamma di lingue straniere, google combina il suo sistema di riconoscimento vocale con il sistema di traduzione automatica (google translate). tuttavia, nonostante i progressi tecnologici, i sottotitoli automatici non sono sempre in grado di trasmettere il messaggio con precisione. questo può causare una serie di errori a cascata, portando il sistema di traduzione automatica a tradurre in modo errato o a compromettere l'accuratezza complessiva. questo saggio presenta i risultati di uno studio condotto con un gruppo di studenti dell'università di torino sul tema del marketing, e si focalizza sul potenziale dell’uso dei sottotitoli automatici di youtube per migliorare le competenze di ascolto e l’uso del vocabolario specialistico. parole chiave: traduzione audiovisiva, insegnamento della lingua straniera, esp, marketing, sottotitolazione automatica  ilaria parini, università del piemonte orientale ilaria.parini@uniupo.it youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 75 1. introduction this paper intends to contribute to the field of foreign language teaching and learning through the use of audiovisual translation. more specifically, it focuses on the use of automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom in order to enhance students’ listening skills and acquisition of specialized terminology. indeed, in the course of the last few decades, audiovisual translation (avt) has emerged as one of the most dynamic and rapidly expanding domains within the discipline of translation studies. this does not really come as a surprise if we consider how saturated our society is with moving images on the screen and how the latter influence our reception and consumption of information, working and social relationships, education, and entertainment. due to the current proliferation of audiovisual texts and products, today’s language learners are undoubtedly proficient with a wide range of digital media. this exposure, and the extremely important role that social media and digital interactions play in our lives, results in language learners’ proficiency in the multimodal nature of audiovisual material, which employs various codes to construct meaning. it has long been acknowledged that audiovisual works can have multiple educational benefits. as stressed by díaz cintas and fernández cruz (2008, 201–202), “video permits students to see and appreciate how native speakers interact in everyday conversation, providing them with linguistic cues (regional accents, registers, and grammatical and syntactical structures), as well as paralinguistic cues (body language, gestures), allowing them to see language in use in a cultural context”. consequently, the integration of videos has become increasingly common in foreign language classrooms, especially with the advent of digitization and the development of technology. the availability of audiovisual content has further increased due to the growth of online video-sharing and social media platforms, whether they are free, like youtube or vimeo, or on payment, like prime, disney+ or netflix. these sites give users the option to watch their favourite films, tv shows, or documentaries in their original languages and in their translated versions, whether dubbed or subtitled. this offers both teachers and students the possibility to use this extensive collection of content for teaching and learning purposes (see adams & díaz cintas, 2022, p. 10). despite its undeniable cross-cultural significance, the role of translation in foreign language classrooms has historically been ambiguous. this ambiguity can be largely attributed to the dominance of educational paradigms like the communicative approach, which emphasizes the exclusive use of the target language in the classroom. consequently, translation was banned from many foreign language teaching and learning contexts for a long time (adams & díaz cintas, 2022, p. 11). however, the value of translation in the foreign language curriculum has been increasingly recognized over the past few decades. recent literature on language teaching indicates a resurgence in the use of translation activities in classrooms. this shift can be largely attributed to the implementation of the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) (council of europe, 2001), which not only emphasizes the acquisition of the four foundational language skills—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—but also highlights the practical application of these skills in a multilingual world. the cefr stresses the importance of learners’ ability to mediate between speakers of different languages who cannot communicate directly, especially through activities of interpretation and translation. this emphasis on mediation is further supported by a report from the european commission (2013), which presupposes that if language learning enables learners to perform mediation activities, then explicit teaching of translation and interpretation could enhance these abilities alongside other areas of language use. the report suggests that translation activities can foster a deeper understanding of both source and target languages, as well as their cultural contexts (adams & díaz cintas, 2022, p. 11). the return to translation in language education has contributed to a wider recognition of its benefits. undoubtedly, translation can foster a more comprehensive understanding of linguistic structures and cultural nuances, and consequently, improve learners’ overall language competence (cook, 2010). moreover, it allows learners to draw connections between their native language and the foreign language, thus promoting bilingual and bicultural proficiency (carreres, 2006). more recent studies also highlight the cognitive benefits of translation in language learning. in fact, it encourages analytical thinking and problem-solving, as learners must handle linguistic and cultural differences to convey meaning accurately (laviosa, 2014). furthermore, translation exercises can improve attention to detail and precision in language use as students engage with different aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. indeed, the evolving role of translation in foreign language education reflects a shift towards more integrated and practical approaches to language learning. by including translation in the curriculum, educators can provide learners with valuable skills that are increasingly relevant in today’s interconnected world. this parini 76 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 approach not only enriches linguistic competence but also prepares learners to effectively communicate across cultural and linguistic boundaries. translation, including audiovisual translation (avt), has become increasingly popular in second language acquisition since the turn of the century. the emergence of didactic avt (dat) as a distinct field, as noted by talaván (2020), has demonstrated the benefits of subtitling and dubbing audiovisual texts in developing traditional language skills and promoting intercultural competence. these practices, in fact, conform to the updated versions of the cefr (council of europe, 2018, 2020), which emphasize intercultural competency. as a consequence, the use of avt in foreign language education has become a significant area of research, marked by experimental studies which explore the impact of various avt practices like subtitling, dubbing, and audio description in language classrooms. such activities not only motivate students but also enhance their linguistic and intercultural competences. indeed, students’ exposure to digital technologies and various media formats during avt activities contributes to the development of transferable skills and reinforces the educational value of incorporating avt practices in language learning environments (adam & díaz cintas 2022). one of the main reasons to introduce audiovisual texts into educational settings is to provide learners with examples of oral communication in realistic contexts. this was traditionally achieved through passive observation, in contrast, recent research and practice (sokoli & zabalbeascoa terrán, 2019) have shifted towards engaging learners actively through action-oriented tasks. educators and researchers who implement active audiovisual translation tasks have observed that this not only promotes receptive and productive language skills but also improves critical thinking, pragmatic and intercultural awareness in both the first (l1) and second languages (l2). furthermore, such tasks develop learners’ ability to extract and infer information from multisemiotic texts combining multiple modes of communication, such as visual and auditory elements (bolaños-garcía-escribano & navarrete 2022, p. 104). the adoption of avt tasks that involve active engagement, such as dubbing and subtitling video clips, has become rather popular in recent years. this approach has become particularly influential in foreign language education (fle) scholarship over the past few decades (incalcaterra mcloughlin, lertola, & talaván, 2018, 2020), with projects such as sublanlearn (2009–2012), levis (2006–2008), clipflair (funded by the european commission from 2011 to 2014), pluritav (2016–2019), babelium (2013–2015), and, finally, the tradilex project (2019 ongoing). all these projects have significantly contributed to various lines of enquiry and experimental research within the field and represent a remarkable step forward in the use of audiovisual translation as a didactic tool in foreign language education. by promoting action-oriented tasks and emphasizing mediation skills, they aim to enhance language competence and prepare students for effective communication in a globalized world (lertola, 2019; navarrete & bolaños garcía-escribano 2022; talaván, 2020). 2. subtitling in the foreign language classroom in recent decades, the use of subtitles as a tool to improve foreign language learning (fll) has received considerable attention from researchers all over the world. europe, indeed, has emerged as a prominent centre for investigating the efficacy of subtitles in foreign language education, mostly due to the proactive initiatives led by the european commission aimed at promoting multilingualism (gambier, 2008, p. 12). early research conducted by scholars such as vanderplank (1988, 1990), danan (1992), and d’ydewalle and van de poel (1999) provided evidence that subtitled videos can significantly help language learning. these studies demonstrated that the integration of auditory and visual elements can effectively “facilitate formal and incidental language learning” (danan, 2015, p. 41). vanderplank (1988) had already stressed the advantages of using subtitles by showing how they help learners associate spoken language with its written form, thus improving both listening and reading skills. his subsequent research (1990) further emphasized the practical applications of subtitled texts in reinforcing language learning. moreover, danan (1992) investigated how subtitles improve vocabulary acquisition by providing contextual clues that help in understanding and learning new words. similarly, d’ydewalle and van de poel (1999) highlighted the role that subtitles play in conveying cultural differences and social contexts, which are crucial for developing pragmatic and intercultural competence. the european commission’s efforts to promote multilingualism have significantly contributed to the widespread adoption of subtitles in language education. by supporting projects that integrate subtitles into fll, the commission has established new best practices and fostered innovative approaches within this field (council of europe, 2001). research, indeed, shows that subtitles can substantially improve language learning youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 77 by providing learners with visual and auditory stimuli that reinforce vocabulary acquisition, listening comprehension, and overall language proficiency (vanderplank, 2016). subtitles, in fact, offer contextualized language exposure, enabling learners to see and hear words as they are used in authentic settings, which is crucial for developing a deeper understanding of the target language. contemporary studies continue to explore and confirm the advantages of using subtitles in language learning. for example, pujadas and muñoz (2019) found that subtitled videos significantly improve listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition among language learners. moreover, subtitles also serve as an effective bridge between spoken and written language, helping learners to develop the skills which are necessary to decode and understand linguistic structures (díaz cintas & remael, 2007). the european commission’s initiatives have also highlighted the role of subtitles in promoting cultural awareness and intercultural competence. by exposing learners to diverse linguistic and cultural contexts, subtitles help them develop a distinct understanding of different cultures and communication styles (kruger, szarkowska, & krejtz, 2015). this cultural dimension is particularly important in a globalized world, where effective communication across languages and cultures is increasingly essential. in addition, the integration of subtitles into digital learning platforms and online resources has made language education more accessible and adaptable to different learning needs (kruger, hefer, & matthew, 2013). in general, it is possible to claim that the role of subtitles in foreign language learning has evolved from a niche interest to a widely recognized and researched pedagogical tool. as research and practice continue to evolve, the role of subtitles is likely to expand, offering innovative solutions for language educators and learners. 3. technological advancements in subtitling subtitling has become increasingly popular in recent years, both as a professional practice and as an activity undertaken by amateurs. this growth in importance can be attributed to the rapid advancement of technology, which has helped the development of automatic subtitling solutions. these innovations, which will be examined in detail in this paper, aim to provide fully automated subtitles that enable quick understanding and an overall comprehension of audiovisual products. audiovisual machine translation projects have evolved in distinct phases that correspond to advancements in machine translation technology: rule-based, statistical, and neural methodologies (karakanta 2022: 92). each phase marks significant progress in the pursuit of effective audiovisual machine translation solutions. the initial phase of audiovisual machine translation projects focused on rule-based machine translation (rbmt). these early systems lacked the flexibility and sophistication necessary to handle the complexities of audiovisual content, such as contextual subtleties and accurate timing alignment. the advent of statistical machine translation marked the next significant phase. the sumat project (2011-2014) exemplifies this stage, where statistical machine translation systems were trained using human-transcribed, compressed, and time-coded subtitles for eleven different language pairs. while statistical machine translation technology actually brought some productivity gains, it still lacked the precision required for professional subtitling (karakanta, 2022, p. 94). the main limitation of statistical machine translation was its inability to consistently produce translations that were both contextually accurate and synchronized with audiovisual content. subsequent projects, including eu-bridge (2012-2015) and alst (2013-2015), moved beyond pure translation to integrate speech recognition and automatic speech recognition with machine translation. these initiatives enhanced the subtitling process by combining the advantages of automatic speech recognition technologies with advanced machine translation systems. the goal was to automate the transcription of spoken content and then translate it, streamlining the entire workflow from speech to subtitled text. this integration represents a more holistic approach to audiovisual machine translation, addressing both the transcription and translation phases within a unified system. the most recent phase involves the adoption of neural machine translation, which offers significant improvements over previous machine translation technologies. in fact, neural machine translation systems use deep learning techniques to produce more accurate and contextually appropriate translations. juang and rabiner (2005, p. 2) assert that the ambition to automate speech recognition has been a technological goal for a long time. in fact, speech recognition technology started to be popular in the mid2000s, with a peak in popularity around 2006. during this period, the respeaking technique emerged as a prevalent method and effectively replaced manual stenotyping. respeaking involves a trained professional, known as a “respeaker,” who listens to the source audio and clearly repeats it into a speech recognition engine that utilizes acoustic and language models, and subsequently transcribes the repeated speech into text. since parini 78 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 the respeaking process depends on a human mediator to convert speech into intralingual subtitles, it is classified as a “speaker-dependent” speech recognition technology. the initial transcription produced through this method captures the core content of the spoken language but requires additional processing to refine the text. this refinement is essential to transform the raw transcription into precise and well-formed subtitles suitable for viewers. therefore, the role of a post-editor is crucial in this phase. the post-editor undertakes several detailed tasks to ensure the subtitles are accurate and synchronized with the audio. this includes segmentation (where the text is divided into manageable units), alignment (ensuring the text matches the spoken dialogue), and timecoding (to synchronize the subtitles with the audio and visual elements on the screen). these perfectionist processes are necessary to meet the visual constraints of the medium and to provide a smooth viewing experience. unlike respeaking, automatic speech recognition technologies operate without the need for a human professional. these technologies use an acoustic model, a lexicon model, and a language model, which collectively process and analyze the audio input received via a microphone. because of this independence from a human mediator, automatic speech recognition is categorized as a “speaker-independent speech recognition technology.” automatic speech recognition technologies, described by ciobanu and secară (2019, p. 92) as “language-specific computer programs that convert spoken input into written text in the language of the original speech,” have significantly transformed our interaction with digital content. they have become integral to numerous applications, enhancing accessibility and user experience across various domains. in fact, they are now commonly embedded in everyday tools such as virtual assistants (e.g., siri, alexa), transcription services, and language learning applications (parini forthcoming). the development of these technologies was mainly steered by the desire to minimize human involvement in the transcription process. by automating the conversion of speech to text, they have streamlined many processes, making them a crucial component in modern digital applications. as far as translation is concerned, efforts to integrate automatic speech recognition into interlingual translation processes actually started when this technology was in its early developmental stages (aliprandi et al. 2014. p. 2) and the advancement of technology has had its positive outcomes. indeed, the “technological turn” described by jiménez-crespo (2019, p. 26) has had a deep impact on the field of translation studies, with a particularly significant effect on the audiovisual translation sector. as global media consumption habits continue to evolve and the demand for localized content increases, translation tools have had to undergo constant upgrading to keep pace (burchardt, 2016, p. 206). as a consequence of this dynamic environment, machine translation has become an integral component of the subtitling process. traditional mt systems are being replaced by avant-garde technologies such as neural machine translation and speech translation. these innovations aim to simplify and accelerate the complex, traditionally human-driven workflows involved in subtitling, thus promoting the development of fully automatic subtitling solutions. in fact, the integration of neural machine translation and speech translation technologies into subtitling not only increases efficiency but also ensures that high volumes of audiovisual content can be localized quickly to meet the increasing demand. however, despite these advancements, the role of human subtitlers remains indispensable. automatic subtitling solutions, although efficient, do not always grasp the nuances and subtleties of language, cultural references, or humour. indeed, professional subtitlers bring a level of expertise and sensitivity to these aspects, ensuring that the subtitles not only convey the literal meaning but also the intended tone and context, which is something that often cannot be achieved through automatic subtitles. in fact, even if fully automatic subtitling systems offer promising capabilities in terms of speed and efficiency, the role of human supervision is essential to maintain the quality and cultural relevance of translations. this is why hybrid models that combine neural machine translation and post-editing by human translators are being increasingly adopted. these models take advantage of machines’ rapid processing capabilities while ensuring that the final output is polished and culturally appropriate. in brief, the “technological turn” has significantly transformed translation studies and the avt sector, which was driven by evolving media consumption patterns and the increasing demand for localized content. the integration of advanced machine translation technologies into subtitling workflows marks a significant step forward in the field. however, as these technologies continue to develop, further academic research is essential to fully understand their impact and optimize their implementation in the translation industry (jiménez-crespo 2019, p. 26; burchardt 2016; karakanta 2020; ferrara 2023, p. 32, parini forthcoming). research and development therefore aim at improving the accuracy and context-awareness of machine translation systems for subtitling. innovations such as neural machine translation and speech translation are youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 79 at the forefront of these efforts, with the purpose of enhancing the quality of automated subtitles (karakanta 2020). nevertheless, even if neural machine translation has greatly improved the quality of translations, it is necessary to keep in mind that subtitling is a written form of spoken language and functions within the dynamic and diverse realm of entertainment, which includes, among others, various lexicons from fields like news, education, lifestyle, sports, law, and teenage slang (bywood et al. 2017, p. 495). these distinguishing characteristics are responsible for the fact that technology is still not fully capable of handling the specific demands of subtitling and has to rely on extensive human intervention. indeed, as will be seen in the following sections of this paper, automatic intralingual and interlingual subtitles are still flawed to various extents, and human intervention in a post-editing phase is still necessary if we want to obtain an accurate text. 4. applications of automatic speech recognition technologies and machine translation: the case of youtube one notable application of automatic speech recognition technologies is youtube’s auto-captioning system, introduced in 2009 and continuously refined since then. the evolution of youtube as an open video platform reflects broader shifts in the media landscape and changes in content distribution methods. this transformation has significantly challenged traditional mass media, which relied on a linear, top-down model of content dissemination (lee 2021, p. 2; ferrara 2023, p. 54; parini forthcoming). historically, the global media market was divided into territories based on cultural and linguistic differences, where each country was associated with specific languages and media content. however, digital and technological developments have radically changed the way audiences engage with media. these innovations have led to the rise of various online platforms that enable the immediate distribution of media content (lee 2021, p. 1). this shift has moved away from the traditional top-down approach, allowing users to engage with and distribute content in a more interactive manner, and redefining the media landscape as a result. youtube’s development occurred within a participatory culture, which emphasizes collective effort and voluntary user contributions (o’hagan 2009, p. 97). this culture signifies a shift where consumers become active contributors and producers of content (burgess & green 2018, p. 12). these users, known as “prosumers,” blur the distinction between content creators and audiences by engaging in both the production and consumption of audiovisual content. the launch of youtube in may 2005 marked a significant moment in digital media evolution. founded by paypal employees chad hurley, steve chen, and jawed karim, youtube aimed to democratize video sharing by making it accessible to non-expert users (burgess & green 2018, p. 2). in fact, its user-friendly interface allowed anyone to upload and watch videos. the success of youtube was accelerated when a nike advertisement became the first video to reach one million views, highlighting the platform’s potential for making content viral and fostering its appeal to advertisers (mcfadden, 2023). youtube also introduced interactive and social features that facilitated user engagement and community building. this means that users could subscribe to channels and share videos via embedded links, thus promoting a networked environment of content creators and viewers (burgess & green, 2018, p. 2). the platform’s early success exemplifies how technological innovation can transform media landscapes by enabling individuals to actively participate in digital culture. it has played a pioneering role in video-sharing platforms and it continues to influence global media consumption patterns. moreover, youtube offers features that enhance user interaction. in fact, users can curate playlists, rate videos with a 5-star system, and view their personal watch history (mcfadden, 2023). the platform also allows for direct interaction between viewers and creators through comments, which have been the primary mode of communication and engagement since its inception (lee 2021, p. 4). these features foster a sense of community, allowing users to not only consume content but also engage in discussions, share feedback, and contribute to the evolving content landscape. the ability to rate videos and create playlists personalizes the viewing experience, while commenting simplifies the dialogue between creators and audiences, enriching the platform’s social dimensions (ferrara 2023, p. 55). in october 2006, google purchased youtube, thus boosting its popularity. since 2007, youtube has launched several initiatives to enhance accessibility and support content creators. a significant development was the introduction of a captioning method to make web-based video content accessible to deaf and hard-ofhearing users (smith, crocker & allman 2017, p. 115). during this period, youtube also launched its partner programme, allowing content creators to monetize their videos through semi-transparent banner parini 80 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 advertisements. through its collaboration with google, youtube raised its video quality standards and integrated licensed music features. these enhancements not only broadened youtube’s capabilities but also reinforced its position as a transformative force in the digital landscape by prioritizing accessibility, monetization opportunities, and content diversity (ferrara 2023, p. 56). youtube has long been associated with globalization and “neo-babelianism,” highlighting the importance of mutual understanding among people of different languages (cronin 2003, p.59; ferrara 2023, p. 56). the platform’s main aim has always been to ensure its content is comprehensible and accessible worldwide, an objective which was helped by the integration of automated technologies. this is why youtube integrated automatic speech recognition between 2008 and 2009 to provide automatic intralingual subtitles and improve accessibility. auto-captioning was initially limited to english-language videos (tokusei, 2010). later, machine translation was implemented on the platform, with the purpose of providing interlingual subtitles in various languages. therefore, google integrated its automatic speech recognition system, google voice with its machine translation system, google translate, which was a statistical machine translation system at the time (turovsky, 2016). this integration marked a significant step as it allowed users to obtain automatic intralingual and interlingual subtitles, supporting youtube’s mission to improve global accessibility and inclusivity through technological innovation by overcoming language barriers. by 2011, youtube had enabled access to intralingual auto-captions for videos, providing nearly 40 million videos with captions that were automatically generated from their audio content (ellis 2011). after the integration of automatic translation, it became able to produce subtitles in over 50 languages, which created videos that were comprehensible to audiences from different linguistic backgrounds (ferrara, 2023, p. 57; parini, forthcoming). however, in spite of these technological advancements, it is not possible to claim that automatic subtitles, whether intralingual or interlingual, manage to convey the message accurately. in fact, even though harrenstien (2010) reported that speech recognition algorithms had achieved a 20% reduction in error rates by 2010, and varga (2021, p. 38) highlighted remarkable improvements in 2013, when youtube’s automatic subtitling integrated a speech recognition system based on deep neural networks, the quality of subtitles produced by youtube is still far from being high. this fact has led to widespread dissatisfaction among users and content creators who recommended manual captioning, believing it would produce more accurate and reliable subtitles compared to those generated automatically. researchers and companies, including google, have recognized the limitations of automatic captioning (smith, crocker & allman, 2017, p. 117). automatic speech recognition errors during auto-captioning often result in inaccuracies or misspellings, thus affecting the quality of both the captions and translated subtitles. google translate, which currently supports 133 languages (caswell, 2022), relies heavily on accurate initial captions in order to produce reliable translations. consequently, flaws in intralingual caption quality have a direct impact on the accuracy of translated content, which in turn affects comprehension across different linguistic audiences. in short, even if fully automatic subtitling solutions improve the global accessibility and dissemination of multimedia content, it often fails to provide viewers with accurate understanding. effective subtitle translation necessitates both linguistic accuracy and synchronization with the audiovisual context, ensuring that subtitles appear and disappear in harmony with the spoken dialogue. the absence of accurate time-coding can result in subtitles that are out of sync with the audio, which affects viewer comprehension. in fact, google translate faces difficulties in processing segmented strings of completed sentences, which is essential for generating accurate interlingual subtitles. moreover, inadequate punctuation in intralingual subtitles often results in translated sentences that are syntactically inaccurate, leading to errors and compromising clarity. in order to maintain meaning and readability, it is necessary to ensure that google translate handle text segments that are structured and punctuated according to subtitle formatting. furthermore, automatic speech recognition technologies face significant linguistic challenges, including disambiguating homophones, recognizing named entities (people, institutions, brands), and identifying technical or specialized language (bolaños garcía-escribano and díaz-cintas, 2023; ciobanu and secară, 2019, p. 98; freitas and liu, 2017 karakanta, negri & turki, 2020, p. 63; karakanta, 2022; o’brien, 2022; volk, 2008), as well as dealing with variations in accents, pronunciations, and common speech patterns like pauses, hesitations and repetitions, which are typical of spoken language. this can cause a series of cascading errors, leading the machine translation system to mistranslate or to affect overall accuracy. youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 81 the final part of this paper will present results from a study conducted with a group of students at the university of turin, italy, to illustrate how these new technologies in the field of audiovisual translation can be a useful instrument in teaching and learning marketing discourse for foreign language learners. 5. a practice-based study this last part of the paper will present the results of a practice-based study involving 60 italian students enrolled in the 2nd year of the ma degree programme in foreign languages for international communication of the university of turin, italy. as reported on the webpage of the degree programme: “the degree course aims to build professional figures who interact with companies and international organizations in intercultural situations: linguistic and cultural mediators (communication area) in italian and foreign companies, in public administration, in local authorities; management, responsibility or consultancy functions in international organizations, and in international cooperation projects1.” the topic of marketing discourse, therefore, is undoubtedly of deep interest for the students. the study took place within the context of the course in english language and linguistics during academic year 2023-2024. the course is composed of two modules, taught by other professors. the former focuses on corpus linguistics, whereas the latter deals with machine translation. the last three lessons (2 hours each) of the second module – taught by the author were dedicated to audiovisual translation and specifically automatic subtitling. it is important to stress that the three lessons took place on three subsequent days during the same week, so the students did not have much time to assimilate and process the information required for the study. these three lessons were aimed at showing the students the differences between translating and post-editing a written text with the aid of machine translation (which was the focus of the second module, which lasted 24 hours altogether) and post-editing and translating the subtitles of a spoken text while improving their listening skills and their competence in specialized terminology. in fact, according to karakanta (2020), the application of machine translation in subtitling closely mirrors its use in conventional text translation. machine translation systems can process subtitle content either as individual subtitle lines or as consolidated blocks of text that encompass several subtitle lines. the distinction lies in how the content is prepared and presented to the machine translation system. when machine translation is used with a time-coded transcription, it benefits from the preparatory work of professionals who have segmented the text into appropriate units and provided precise timing cues. this pre-segmentation is crucial, as it ensures that the machine translation system can accurately align the translated text with the corresponding audiovisual content. the timing cues help in maintaining synchronization between the subtitles and the video, which is a fundamental requirement for effective subtitling. however, in the absence of such preparatory work, as in the case of youtube’s intralingual subtitles, machine translation systems process the text similarly to any other translation task. this means that the system does not inherently account for the specific requirements of subtitling, such as the necessity to match the duration and pace of the spoken dialogue with the on-screen text. consequently, without professional input to segment and time-code the text, the machine translation output often does not meet the distinct demands of subtitling, leading to issues in readability and synchronization. moreover, as will be seen in further detail, the fact that the machine translation system operates starting from a text which was originally spoken, gives rise to further difficulties. 5.1. methodology the students had no training in audiovisual translation and professional subtitling, so the first lesson was dedicated to the introduction of the main features and the main constraints which should ideally be kept in consideration when producing professional subtitles, such as the length of each subtitle, its duration on the screen, and other rules related to line breaks (making reference to the netflix guidelines, which can be retrieved online)2. they were then introduced to the main features of both intralingual and interlingual subtitles in the specific case of youtube. finally, we watched a video, which is a ted talk entitled “12 secrets of marketing and you won’t believe what happens next”, which lasts 13.02 minutes and can be retrieved at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3geop8th478. ted talks are delivered live to an audience during conferences organized by the ted organization. a diverse group of speakers presents their ideas and 1 https://www.lingue.unito.it/do/home.pl/view?doc=/i_corsi/profili_professionali.html&tab=6 (translated from italian) 2 https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com/hc/en-us/articles/215758617-timed-text-style-guide-general-requirements (accessed november 2024) parini 82 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 experiences on various topics to educate both the live audience and viewers at home. in fact, these talks are not confined to the event location, as they are also recorded and made available online. specifically, they are published on the official website (www.ted.com) and platforms like facebook and, most importantly for the study presented in this paper, youtube. the internet and the shift towards online videos have enabled widespread distribution, resulting in ted talks gaining increasing attention and interest from global viewers and listeners. thus, ted fulfils its mission of sharing knowledge and connecting people through its mantra, namely, “ideas worth spreading.” the talk, released in 2015, is delivered by naimul huq, an alumnus of the morehead-cain scholars program at unc, who is currently working as a social media associate at wcg in austin. in the video, he focuses on bettering the tools available to companies, specifically health-care companies, and making them more user-friendly in order to encourage customer interaction. the videoclip was divided into 4 segments (each one was about 3-minute long). the students were divided into groups of 4-5 people. each group was instructed to work on a specific segment (more groups could work on the same segment). during the second lesson, we first watched the video together in class with the intralingual subtitles activated (performed by google voice). secondly, students were provided with a template on google drive with the transcription of the intralingual subtitles (which can be downloaded through various online websites). at this point they were supposed to 1) identify the various mistakes, 2) classify them, 3) edit and correct the subtitles and provide their version on the template. this phase of the study particularly aimed at honing the students’ listening skills, as quite a few of the mistakes were due to the speech recognition system’s misunderstanding of the spoken output of the ted presenter. during the third lesson, the students were asked to activate the italian interlingual subtitles, download them, and 1) identify the mistakes, 2) classify them, 3) edit and correct the subtitles and provide their version on the template on google drive. finally, the students were tasked with examining the root causes of the errors found in the interlingual subtitles and discussing them in class. their goal was to corroborate the hypothesis according to which these mistakes predominantly stemmed from word misrecognitions by the automatic speech recognition system. these initial misrecognitions were believed to trigger a chain reaction of subsequent errors (the so-called “cascading errors”, soffritti, 2018, p. 337). besides the more general purpose of identifying and classifying the inaccuracies of both interlingual and intralingual mistakes (which can be found in any video uploaded on youtube), which presupposes a proficient level of the students’ mastery of the language, and in particular their listening skills, the study aimed at focusing on specific terminology related to marketing discourse. in fact, the goal was also to enhance students’ awareness in relation to the topics presented, and to improve their familiarity with them and the related lexis. 5.2. analysis of intralingual subtitles the students identified four main problems in the intralingual subtitles: lack of adherence to the norms related to the formal requirements of subtitles, misrecognition of common words, misrecognition of entity names, and misrecognition of specialized terminology. 1) formal requirements (lack of punctuation; timing; line breaks) the most immediate and evident problem was the absence of punctuation in the intralingual subtitles. this omission meant that the subtitles were not structured as complete sentences. additionally, the subtitles failed to meet general standards regarding duration, which stipulate a minimum of 1 second and a maximum of 6-7 seconds per subtitle, as well as line treatment principles, which guide the proper way to break text into two lines3. essentially, these intralingual subtitles were mere transcriptions of every spoken word by the speaker, which were roughly but often inaccurately synchronized with his speech. moreover, the lack of punctuation not only disrupts sentence structure but also affects the readability and comprehension of the 3 for example, according to the guidelines provided by netflix, the line should be broken after punctuation marks, before conjunctions, and before prepositions, whereas the line break should not separate a noun from an article, a noun from an adjective, a first name from a last name, a verb from a subject pronoun, a prepositional verb from its preposition, or a verb from an auxiliary, reflexive pronoun or negation. youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 83 subtitles. without clear sentence demarcations, viewers struggle to follow the intended meaning, leading to confusion and a diminished viewing experience. in addition, failing to adhere to duration guidelines results in subtitles that are either too brief to be read comfortably or too lengthy to keep pace with the spoken content. this inconsistency in timing disrupts the natural flow of watching and understanding the video. the improper handling of line breaks can also lead to awkward splits in the text, making it harder for viewers to read and comprehend the subtitles smoothly (parini forthcoming). therefore, when required to post-edit the intralingual subtitles, the first thing that the students had to do was to reconstruct the sentences by adding punctuation in order to make them meaningful. the table below shows an example from the very incipit of the talk: table 1. transcription of intralingual subtitles showing lack of formal requirements and post-edited version intralingual subtitles post-edited subtitles i'm going to reveal to you the 12 steps to winning at marketing and what happens next is that well there are only four steps create share some kind of magical process and profit in order to succeed in marketing you have to create something representative of yourself and your audience and distribute it in the right way in reality there is some assembly required the one idea i want to express today is that marketing is complex because it strives to understand human beings and human beings are perplexing but you have the tools to understand them you just need to look for the right things and there are 12 steps we’ll start with the voice i'm going to reveal to you the 12 steps to winning at marketing, and what happens next is that, well, there are only four steps: create, share, some kind of magical process, and profit. in order to succeed in marketing, you have to create something representative of yourself and your audience, and distribute it in the right way. in reality, there is some assembly required. the one idea i want to express today is that marketing is complex, because it strives to understand human beings, and human beings are perplexing. but you have the tools to understand them, you just need to look for the right things. and there are 12 steps. we’ll start with the voice. as can be observed, although the post-edited subtitles do not follow the guidelines that are usually required in professional subtitling, as far as time and space constraints are concerned (we should not forget that these students have no real training in subtitling, and that this is not the focus of the study), punctuation was added so the that sentences could provide a complete sense of what the presenter is actually saying, even in a written form. 2) misrecognition of common words the intralingual subtitles contain instances of misrecognition of words by google voice. some examples are reported in table 2 below: table 2 transcription of intralingual subtitles containing examples of misrecognition of common words and post-edited version intralingual subtitles post-edited subtitles red bull has a loud voice but it’s not just loud it’s one of the strongest brand voices on earth not just among beverages or pickme ups their promise is wings an alternate reality where you can freef fall from the edge of space at the speed of sound or perfect that kickflip red bull has a loud voice, but it’s not just loud, it’s one of the strongest brand voices on earth. not just among beverages or pick-me-ups, their promise is “wings”: an alternate reality where you can free fall from the edge of space at the speed of sound or perfect that kickflip. she actually drew it on a napkin in less she actually drew it on a napkin in less than a minute parini 84 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 than a minute and then she spent a whole year with bor justifying her intuition and then she spent a whole year with boards justifying her intuition they made a laptop for young people it’s a tablet and a computer and one they made a laptop for young people: it’s a tablet and a computer in one. social conversation is volunteered on the other hand it's a public declaration of our beliefs we check into our favorite haunts we spit vitrio about cable companies social conversation is volunteered. on the other hand, it’s a public declaration of our beliefs. we check into our favorite haunts. we spit vitriol about cable companies. overall, google voice rather accurately transcribed the words uttered by the presenter. no real cases of misrecognition of homophones were found, although some words were misunderstood and mistranscribed, as will also be seen in the following sections. 3) misrecognition of entity names as previously mentioned, proper names, institutions, and brands can be difficult for automatic speech recognition technologies to recognize and accurately transcribe. in the videoclip that the students analysed in class, this is probably the category which presented the highest number of errors, which are reported in table 3. table 3 transcription of intralingual subtitles containing examples of misrecognition of entity names and post-edited version intralingual subtitles post-edited subtitles the field of visual identity was pioneered by gordon lipincott the field of visual identity was pioneered by gordon lippincott liping cot introduced evolution lippincott introduced evolution paul aare is one of the most prolific and active designers in the world paula share is one of the most prolific and active designers in the world when polisher was tasked with designing the logo of city bank she actually drew it on a napkin in less than a minute when paula share was tasked with designing the logo of citi bank she actually drew it on a napkin in less than a minute many of you will recognize this building the morhead planetarium houses the offices of the oldest merit scholarship in the country many of you will recognize this building. the morehead planetarium houses the offices of the oldest merit scholarship in the country the morhead kane’s audience is adaptive and the branding needed to be adaptable it needed to be built on the latest technologies the website needed to be current responsive and flexible the morehead cain’s audience is adaptive and the branding needed to be adaptable, it needed to be built on the latest technologies, the website needed to be current responsive and flexible. marketing used to be driven by focus groups but like the elementary particles in heisenberg’s unc c principal experiments when we're observed we change our behaviors marketing used to be driven by focus groups but like the elementary particles in heisenberg’s uncertainty principle experiments when we’re observed we change our behaviors. fer got rid of the viva viagra ads when they realized that men were searching on google about questions about ed that were completely different from what they were saying on forums pfizer got rid of theviva viagra ads when they realized that men were searching on google about questions about ed that were completely different from what they were saying on forums. youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 85 they wanted to prove how powerful it was so they recruited clams casino to produce and vic mena to mc they wanted to prove how powerful it was so they recruited clams casino to produce and vic mensa to mc this was the genius of the marketers over there they called it us today and they said how do you figure out what you're going to include in your wrapup this was the genius of the marketers over there. they called usa today and they said: “how do you figure out what you’re going to include in your wrap-up?” proctor and gamble was going to scrap the yellow spice brand and my friend at widen kennedy knew that the audience which was made up mostly of women who make the consumer decisions in the household needed to be talked to so they came up with this campaign and it had uh kind of keo ree sort of character surfer dude speaking directly to the audience procter and gamble was going to scrap the old spice brand and my friend at wieden-kennedy knew that the audience, which was made up mostly of women, who make the consumer decisions in the household, needed to be talked to so they came up with this campaign and it had uh kind of keanu reeves sort of character surfer dude speaking directly to the audience language itself is evolving the language the english that we use today is different from the english of baywolf language itself is evolving. the english language that we use today is different from the english of beowulf. it is interesting to observe that the misrecognition of entity names includes proper names of people whose activities were/are connected to the marketing world (gordon lippicott, paula share), actors (keanu reeves), musicians/singers (vic mensa), brands (procter and gamble, old spice, pfizer), institutions (morehead cain), advertising agencies (wieden-kennedy), newspapers (usa today), theories in physics (heisenberg’s uncertainty principle), as well as old english epic poems (beowulf). it is also worth noting that in the video of the ted talk the camera focuses on the presenter most of the time, mainly with close-up shots, but from time to time it is possible to see that there is a big screen behind him which projects some slides related to what the presenter is talking about. this sometimes turned out to be helpful for the students, as they could see some of the names (specifically, paula share’s and morehead cain’s) on the screen, and were therefore facilitated in the task of post-editing. 4) misrecognition of specialized terminology as already pointed out, one of the main objectives of this study was to focus on the specialized terminology related to the field of marketing. in this case, the students managed to identify quite a few words or phrases which had not been accurately caught by google voice. in some cases, the students were not familiar with the terminology: therefore the proposed exercise turned out to be useful not only to enhance their listening skills but also to improve their lexical competence, as well as their knowledge of topics belonging to a specialized semantic field. the table below reports some examples: parini 86 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 table 4. transcription of intralingual subtitles containing examples of misrecognition of specialized terminology and post-edited version intralingual subtitles post-edited subtitles if we’re in a focused group of moms we’re unlikely to admit to sharing junk food with our kids if we’re in a focus group of moms we’re unlikely to admit to sharing junk food with our kids she actually drew it on a napkin in less than a minute and then she spent a whole year with bor justifying her intuition she actually drew it on a napkin in less than a minute and then she spent a whole year with boards justifying her intuition declining sales and sheriff voice meant that they were losing out declining sales and share of voice meant that they were losing out if you haven’t seen a peso model in your marketing classes yet you will it sensor paid earn shared and own and it stands for your advertising which is scalable your external endorsements which are credible your your shared media property like social which makes you authentic and your website which is where you define who you are if you haven’t seen a peso model in your marketing classes yet you will. it stands for paid, earn, shared and own, and it stands for your advertising, which is scalable, your external endorsements, which are credible, your shared media property, like social, which makes you authentic, and your website, which is where you define who you are. we worked with 1 adla on a campaign called two days beat for hp we worked with one adla on a campaign called #2daysbeat for hp a “focus group” is defined by the online cambridge dictionary as “a group of people brought together to discuss what they think about a particular product, advertisement, or subject, as part of a company’s market research”4 and it is labelled as belonging to the specialized terminology related to the marketing semantic field. a “board” (a polysemic word) may refer to various referents. with reference to the semantic field of business, the online cambridge dictionary defines it as “the group of people who are responsible for controlling and organizing a company or organization”5 the “share of voice” is defined by the online cambridge dictionary as “the degree to which people see a company’s advertisements, etc. in a particular market, compared to those of competitors”6. this phrase is also labelled by the dictionary as belonging to the specialized terminology related to the marketing semantic field. as far as the peso model is concerned, kernez (2022) claims: the peso model in marketing is important because it combines various marketing techniques and activities to create and build a strong presence. marketing using the peso model optimizes your content in every sphere, from sharing your content to engaging your customers. the peso model consists of four arenas: paid media, earned media, shared media and owned media. in this case, it is worth noting that the students did not manage to report the verbs that contribute to the creation of the acronym in their correct form. in fact, they put the verbs “earn” and “own” in their base or present form, whereas the verbs should all be in the past participle form (paid, earned, shared, owned). this is even more interesting if we consider the fact that in that specific moment of the video the camera focuses on the slide on the screen behind the presenter, where the following image is projected (and the four verbs are clearly visible): 4 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/focus-group 5 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/board 6 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/share-of-voice youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 87 figure 1. peso model as represented on the screen behind the presenter. finally, the initialism adla (which pertains to the field of the specialized terminology used in marketing) stands for “awareness, demand, lead, acquisition.” this framework outlines the steps of a customer’s journey from first encountering a product or service to making a purchase. below is an overview of each stage (hussin & hishan, 2022, p. 1538): 1) awareness: the initial phase where potential customers become aware of the product or service. marketing efforts focus on increasing visibility and recognition through advertising, social media, public relations, and content marketing. 2) demand: following awareness, the goal is to create interest and desire for the product or service. this involves educating potential customers about its benefits and value through targeted campaigns, informative content, and engaging promotions. 3) lead: in this phase, interested potential customers (leads) are identified and captured, typically by collecting contact information via forms, sign-ups, or other lead generation tactics. the focus is on nurturing these leads to convert them into potential buyers. 4) acquisition: the final stage is converting leads into paying customers. this involves closing the sale through effective sales strategies, personalized follow-ups, special offers, and ensuring a smooth purchasing process. the goal is to secure the customer’s commitment, leading to a completed transaction. by using the adla framework, marketers can strategically guide potential customers through each stage of their journey, optimizing efforts to drive sales and business growth. therefore, it is essential to stress how this exercise has managed to enhance the students’ knowledge of some topics related to their field of study. 5.3. analysis of interlingual subtitles as previously discussed, since interlingual subtitles are generated by google translate starting from the intralingual subtitles created by google voice, the inaccuracies noted earlier will inevitably affect the accuracy of the interlingual subtitles. this phenomenon is referred to as “cascading errors” (soffritti, 2018, p. 337). 1) formal requirements (lack of punctuation, timing, line breaks) the intralingual subtitles of the video clip, as noted, lack punctuation, resulting in subtitles that are not formed as complete sentences. the intralingual subtitles are essentially just transcriptions of every word the speaker utters that are somewhat synchronized with his speech but not always accurate. this lack of structure in the intralingual subtitles impacts the interlingual subtitles significantly. the translation ends up being a parini 88 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 sequence of words rather than coherent sentences. furthermore, the machine translation often struggles with grammatical and syntactic accuracy because it cannot determine the subject or object of the verbs. consequently, the translated sentences frequently contain errors that render them incomprehensible. here follows the automatic interlingual subtitles of the passage that was analysed (and post-edited) in the previous section: table 5. transcription of intralingual subtitles showing lack of formal requirements, the corresponding interlingual (italian) version and their post-edited version intralingual subtitles interlingual subtitles post-edited subtitles i’m going to reveal to you the 12 steps to winning at marketing and what happens next is that well there are only four steps create share some kind of magical process and profit in order to succeed in marketing you have to create something representative of yourself and your audience and distribute it in the right way in reality there is some assembly required the one idea i want to express today is that marketing is complex because it strives to understand human beings and human beings are perplexing but you have the tools to understand them you just need to look for the right things and there are 12 steps we’ll start with the voice ti svelerò i 12 passaggi per vincere nel marketing e quello che succede dopo è che beh, ci sono solo quattro passaggi per creare una sorta di processo magico e condividere un profitto. per avere successo nel marketing devi creare qualcosa rappresentativo di te stesso e del tuo pubblico e distribuiscilo nel modo giusto in realtà è necessario un po’ di assemblaggio l’idea che voglio esprimere oggi è che il marketing è complesso perché si sforza di comprendere gli esseri umani e gli esseri umani lasciano perplessi ma tu hai gli strumenti per capirli devi solo cercare le cose giuste e ci sono 12 passaggi inizieremo con la voce vi svelerò i 12 passaggi per avere successo nel marketing. e quello che succede dopo è che beh, ci sono solo quattro passaggi: creare, condividere, una sorta di passaggio magico e profitto. per avere successo nel marketing, bisogna creare qualcosa che rappresenti te stesso e il tuo pubblico e distribuirlo nel modo migliore. in realtà, è richiesto una sorta di assemblaggio. l’idea che voglio esprimere oggi, è che il marketing è complesso perché si sforza di comprendere gli esseri umani, e gli esseri umani lasciano perplessi. ma voi avete gli strumenti per comprenderli, dovete solo osservare le cose giuste. ci sono 12 passaggi. iniziamo con la voce. indeed, apart from the presence of a comma in line 3 and a full stop in line 5, punctuation is completely missing. the passage, reflecting the original source text, sounds rather like a sort of “stream of consciousness”. however, there are other oddities that can be noticed from a syntactic point of view. first of all, the speaker is talking directly to his entire audience (who are actually present in the room) using the second personal pronoun, which can be interpreted as a singular or as a plural pronoun in english. in the interlingual subtitles, google translate always rendered it with the italian singular pronoun (“ti svelerò…”, “devi creare…”, “di te stesso e del tuo pubblico…”, “tu hai gli strumenti per capirli…”, “devi solo cercare le cose giuste…”, etc.), which, in this context, does not sound accurate, as he is speaking to a large number of people. moreover, at times the lack of punctuation is a source of syntactic ambiguity. for example, in the sentence “per avere successo nel marketing devi creare qualcosa rappresentativo di te stesso e del tuo pubblico e distribuiscilo nel modo giusto”, the verb “distribuiscilo” is syntactically incorrect within the context that is provided (the correct form would be “distribuirlo”, as it depends on the italian modal verb “devi” and should consequently be in the infinitive form). if we observe the post-edited version of the subtitles of the passage performed by one group of students, first of all we can observe that the form of the verbs in the second pronoun has often been rendered as a plural pronoun (“vi svelerò i 12 passaggi…”, “voi avete gli strumenti…”, “dovete solo osservare…”). however, surprisingly, it was sometimes rendered with the singular form (“bisogna creare qualcosa che rappresenti te stesso e il tuo pubblico”), which turns out to be rather inconsistent. 2) misrecognition of common words youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 89 the intralingual subtitles contain few instances of misrecognition of words by google voice. some examples are reported in table 6: table 6 transcription of intralingual subtitles containing examples of misrecognition of common words, the corresponding interlingual (italian) version and their post-edited version intralingual subtitles interlingual subtitles post-edited subtitles red bull has a loud voice but it’s not just loud it’s one of the strongest brand voices on earth not just among beverages or pickme ups their promise is wings an alternate reality where you can freef fall from the edge of space at the speed of sound or perfect that kickflip red bull ha una voce forte ma non è solo forte è una delle voci di marchio più forti sulla terra non solo tra le bevande o i pickme ups la loro promessa è wings, una realtà alternativa in cui puoi cadere in libertà dal limite dello spazio alla velocità del suono o con il perfetto kickflip. red bull lascia un segno, ma non è tutto, è uno dei marchi pionieri in ambito globale, non solo tra le bevande o energizzanti. la loro promessa è un “paio di ali”, una realtà alternativa in cui puoi cadere liberamente dai confini dello spazio alla velocità del suono o eseguire perfettamente un trick. they made a laptop for young people it’s a tablet and a computer and one per cui hanno realizzato un laptop i giovani sono un tablet, un computer e uno è stato realizzato un computer portatile per i giovani che è un tablet e un computer e uno. social conversation is volunteered on the other hand it’s a public declaration of our beliefs we check into our favorite haunts we spit vitrio about cable companies la conversazione sociale è volontaria d’altro canto è una dichiarazione pubblica delle nostre convinzioni controlliamo nei nostri luoghi preferiti sputiamo al vetriolo sulle società via cavo la conversazione sociale è volontaria. d’altro canto è una dichiarazione pubblica delle nostre convinzioni. ci ritroviamo nei nostri luoghi preferiti. sputiamo vetriolo sulle società via cavo. in the first excerpt, we can note that google translate left the phrase “pickme ups” unaltered, as the machine translation probably associated ups with the shipping company, which, combined with “pick me” probably seemed plausible to the software. however, the students who post-edited this chunk of speech correctly translated it into “energizzanti”. a “pick-me-up”, indeed, is a noun compound which is defined by the online collins dictionary as “something, often food or drink, that gives you more energy or makes you feel better”7, and since the speaker is talking about red bull, the students could easily detect the mistake. in the same passage, google translate left the noun “wings” untranslated. this noun obviously refers to red bull’s famous claim “red bull gives you wings”, which, however, in italian sounds like “ti mette le ali”. leaving the noun in english, therefore, does not achieve an effect of functional equivalence, as the italian spectator is used to reading/hearing the word “ali” when talking about red bull, and not “wings”. this is a clear example of a cascading error, where the misrecognition of the word by google voice has an impact on its translation performed by google translate. the italian students who worked on this passage managed to grasp this nuance and translated the word as “un paio d’ali” (literally, “a pair of wings”). interestingly, the misspelling of the word “free” as “freef” in the intralingual subtitles did not have any repercussion on the interlingual subtitles (“free” was translated as “cadere”, which is the exact equivalent of “free”). however, “to free fall” is commonly translated as “lanciarsi in caduta libera” in italian, whereas the interlingual subtitles rendered the phrase with the literal, but less fluent, phrase “cadere in libertà”, and the italian students post-edited the subtitles with the likewise uncommon phrase “cadere liberamente”. moreover, the students (mis)translated the word “kickflip” (which had been maintained in the interlingual subtitles, as it is an anglicism used in italian in the field of skateboarding8) with the generic word “trick” (which is still an anglicism, but with a much more generic meaning). 7 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pick-me-up 8 https://www.fillow.it/blog/2021/10/dizionario-dello-skateboard/ parini 90 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 in the second passage, the interlingual subtitles present more than one inaccuracy. first of all, the preposition “for”, which is part of the benefactive complement phrase “for young people”, was completely ignored, so that the phrase was translated into “un laptop i giovani” (instead of “per i giovani”) in the italian interlingual subtitles. secondly, the lack of punctuation, already observed in the previous sections, produces a completely meaningless sentence (the subject of the verb “be” is not the laptop about which the speaker is talking, but the young people for whom the tablet has been made): “i giovani sono un tablet, un computer e uno”). finally, the misrecognition of the word “in” as “one”, which had already been pointed out in the previous section, caused a cascading error in the interlingual subtitles, as it was translated literally as “uno”. once again, the final outcome is a meaningless sentence. it is worth noting that the italian students who worked on the post-edited version of this passage did not identify this error and translated “and one” literally as “e uno”. in the third passage, we can see that the word “vitriol”, which was mistranscribed in the intralingual subtitles as “vitrio”, was correctly translated as “vetriolo” in the interlingual subtitles. however, google translate performed a syntactic mistake by adding the preposition “al” (“sputare al vetriolo”), whereas, from a syntactic point of view, the correct phrase in italian would be “sputare vetriolo”, as “vetriolo” becomes the direct object of the verb “sputare”. this is exactly how the group of italian students who worked on this passage translated the phrase. however, it ought to be noted that the most common collocation in italian is “sputare veleno”, whereas “vetriolo” usually collocates with “al” (e.g. “commenti al vetriolo”), though not with the verb “sputare”. this is probably why google translate added the preposition “al”9. 3) misrecognition of entity names as previously mentioned, proper names, institutions, and brands can be difficult for automatic speech recognition technologies to recognize and accurately transcribe. in the videoclip the students analysed in class, this is probably the category that presented the highest number of errors, which are reported in table 7. table 7. transcription of intralingual subtitles containing examples of misrecognition of entity names, the corresponding interlingual (italian) version and their post-edited version intralingual subtitles interlingual subtitles post-edited subtitles the field of visual identity was pioneered by gordon lipincott il campo dell'identità visiva è stato aperto da gordon lipincott il campo della visual identity è stato lanciato da gordon lippincott. liping cot introduced evolution interlingual subtitles missing lippincott ha portato ad un’evoluzione paul aare is one of the most prolific and active designers in the world paul aare è uno dei designer più prolifici e attivi al mondo paula share è una delle designer più prolifiche e attive al mondo when polisher was tasked with designing the logo of city bank she actually drew it on a napkin in less than a minute quando la lucidatrice è stata incaricata di disegnare il logo della city bank lo ha effettivamente disegnato su un tovagliolo in meno di un minuto quando paula share è stata incaricata di disegnare il logo della citi bank lo ha disegnato su un tovagliolo in meno di un minuto many of you will recognize this building the morhead planetarium houses the offices of the oldest merit scholarship in the country molti di riconoscerai questo edificio, il planetario morhead ospita gli uffici della più antica borsa di studio al merito del paese molti di voi riconosceranno il morhead, un planetario che ospita gli uffici della più antica borsa di studio per merito del paese. the morhead kane’s audience is adaptive and the branding needed to be adaptable it needed to be built on the latest technologies the website needed il pubblico di morhead kane è adattivo e il marchio doveva essere adattabile doveva essere costruito sulle tecnologie più recenti il sito web doveva essere reattivo e flessibile il pubblico di morehead cane è flessibile e il marchio doveva essere versatile. doveva essere costruito sulle tecnologie più recenti. 9 the corpus italian web 2020 on sketch engine reports only 5 instances of concordances of the verb “sputare” followed by the noun “vetriolo”, whether it reports 1,641 instances of concordances of the verb “sputare” followed by the noun “veleno”. youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 91 to be current responsive and flexible il sito web doveva essere attuale, reattivo e flessibile. marketing used to be driven by focus groups but like the elementary particles in heisenberg’s unc c principal experiments when we're observed we change our behaviors il marketing era guidato da focus group ma, come le particelle elementari negli esperimenti principali unc c di heisenberg, quando siamo osservati, cambiamo i nostri comportamenti il marketing un tempo era guidato da gruppi di discussione, ma, come le particelle elementari negli esperimenti di heisenberg sul principio di indeterminazione quando veniamo osservati cambiamo i nostri comportamenti fer got rid of the viva viagra ads when they realized that men were searching on google about questions about ed that were completely different from what they were saying on forums di cui sbarazzarsi gli annunci di viva viagra quando si sono resi conto che gli uomini cercavano su google domande su ed che erano completamente diverse da ciò che dicevano sui forum la pfizer ha eliminato la pubblicità del viva viagra quando si è resa conto che gli uomini cercavano su google domande sulla de (disfunzione erettile) che erano completamente diverse da quello che dicevano sui forum. they wanted to prove how powerful it was so they recruited clams casino to produce and vic mena to mc volevano dimostrare quanto fosse potente, quindi hanno reclutato clams casino come produttore e vic mena come mc volevano dimostrare quanto fosse potente hanno reclutato clams casino per la produzione e vic mena per fare da mc. this was the genius of the marketers over there they called it us today and they said how do you figure out what you're going to include in your wrapup questo è stato il genio degli esperti di marketing laggiù, ci hanno chiamato oggi e hanno detto come fai a capire cosa includere nel tuo riepilogo questo è stato il colpo di genio degli esperti di marketing. hanno chiamato us today e hanno chiesto: “come fate a capire cosa includere nel vostro riepilogo?” proctor and gamble was going to scrap the yellow spice brand and my friend at widen kennedy knew that the audience which was made up mostly of women who make the consumer decisions in the household needed to be talked to so they came up with this campaign and it had uh kind of keo ree sort of character surfer dude speaking directly to the audience proctor and gamble stava per eliminare il marchio delle spezie gialle e il mio amico di widen kennedy sapeva che il pubblico, composto principalmente da donne che prendono le decisioni di consumo in casa, aveva bisogno con cui parlare, quindi hanno ideato questa campagna e aveva una specie di personaggio di keo ree, surfer dude, che parlava direttamente al pubblico procter and gamble stava per eliminare il marchio old spice e il mio amico alla wieden+kennedy sapeva che bisognava comunicare con il loro pubblico, composto principalmente da donne che prendono le decisioni di consumo in casa. così hanno ideato questa campagna con un personaggio come keanu reeves, un surfista che parlava direttamente al pubblico language itself is evolving the language the english that we use today is different from the english of baywolf la lingua stessa sta evolvendo la lingua, l'inglese che usiamo oggi è diverso dall'inglese di le organizzazioni baywolf la lingua stessa sta cambiando la lingua. l’inglese che usiamo oggi è diverso da quello di beowulf. it is worth noting that the misrecognition of entity names observed in the previous section led to a series of cascading errors in the italian interlingual subtitles. in fact, most of the mistranscriptions of entity names were left unaltered in their translation. in one specific case (namely, the misrecognition of the name of the newspaper usa today as “us today”) led to a sentence whose meaning is totally different from what the presenter is actually saying (as it becomes “ci hanno chiamato oggi”, meaning “they called us today”, where “us” is an object pronoun and “today” is an adverb of time”). on the other hand, the post-edited version of the subtitles performed by the students presents an accurate rendering of the entity names (except just one case, namely vic mena, which was not corrected as vic mensa). interestingly, the students added the meaning of the acronym de (in the original “ed”), by making use of a strategy of explicitation, presumably to clarify what it parini 92 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 refers to. moreover, the students recognised the reference to the actor keanu reeves (which was not recognised by google voice and consequently by google translate), although the presenter clearly refers to the role he played in the film point break (“surfer dude”), which was released in 1991 before the students were born. finally, as mentioned, the fact that the intralingual subtitles simply transcribe what the presenter says without punctuation and without intervening on certain features which are typical of spontaneous spoken language (such as hesitations and repetitions), gives rise to syntactic errors. this is especially clear in the last example, where, while correctly post-editing the name of the epic poem beowulf, the students did not notice that the presenter was actually saying “language itself is evolving. the language, the english that we use today, is different from the english of beowulf”. their first sentence, indeed, can be back translated as “language itself is changing the language”, which is not correct. 4) misrecognition of specialized terminology as previously noted, a key goal of this study was to examine the specialized vocabulary used in the marketing field. the students were able to detect several instances where google voice had inaccurately transcribed words or phrases in the intralingual subtitles. in some situations, the students were unfamiliar with the terminology themselves, making the exercise beneficial not only for developing their listening abilities but also for expanding their vocabulary and deepening their understanding of concepts within this specialized area. the table below reports the interlingual subtitles of the passages that were analysed in the previous section, as well as the post-edited versions performed by the students: table 8. transcription of intralingual subtitles containing examples of misrecognition of specialized terminology, the corresponding interlingual (italian) version and their post-edited version intralingual subtitles interlingual subtitles post-edited subtitles if we’re in a focused group of moms we’re unlikely to admit to sharing junk food with our kids se facciamo parte di un gruppo concentrato di mamme difficilmente ammetteremo di condividere cibo spazzatura con i nostri figli se facciamo parte di un focus group di mamme difficilmente ammetteremo di condividere cibo spazzatura con i nostri figli she actually drew it on a napkin in less than a minute and then she spent a whole year with bor justifying her intuition lo ha effettivamente disegnato su un tovagliolo in meno di un minuto e poi ha trascorso un anno intero con bor giustificando la sua intuizione in effetti lo ha disegnato su un tovagliolo in meno di un minuto e poi ha trascorso un anno intero con i consigli esecutivi per giustificare la sua intuizione declining sales and sheriff voice meant that they were losing out il calo delle vendite e la voce dello sceriffo significavano che stavano perdendo terreno. il calo delle vendite e del peso pubblicitario significava che stavano perdendo successo. if you haven’t seen a peso model in your marketing classes yet you will it sensor paid earn shared and own and it stands for your advertising which is scalable your external endorsements which are credible your your shared media property like social which makes you authentic and your website which is where you define who you are se non hai ancora visto un modello in peso nelle tue lezioni di marketing, lo farai con il sensore pagato, guadagnerai condiviso e possiedi e rappresenta la tua pubblicità scalabile, le tue sponsorizzazioni esterne che sono credibili, la tua proprietà multimediale condivisa come i social che ti rende autentico e il tuo sito web, dove definisci chi sei se non avete ancora visto un modello peso nei vostri corsi di marketing, lo vedrete. questo viene condiviso ed è di proprietà e sta per la vostra pubblicità che è scalabile e le sponsorizzazioni esterne che sono credibili. le vostre proprietà mediatiche condivise come social, che vi rende autentici, e il vostro sito web che è il luogo in cui definite chi siete. youtube’s automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 93 we worked with 1 adla on a campaign called two days beat for hp abbiamo lavorato con 1 adla su una campagna chiamata two days beat for hp abbiamo lavorato con un’adla su una campagna chiamata "due giorni di vita" per hp. in this case as well, it is possible to note that some of the errors present in the intralingual subtitles led to cascading errors in the intralingual subtitles. first of all, in the first passage, the phrase “focused group” was translated literally as “gruppo concentrato”. the group of students who performed the post-editing version of the subtitles, however, identified the mistake and correctly translated it into “focus group”. in the second passage, as seen in the section about intralingual subtitles, google voice misinterpreted the word “board” (meaning “committee”) and transcribed it as “bor” (a non-existing word). google translate maintained the word in the interlingual subtitles (another case of cascading error). while the students who worked on this passage rendered it as “consigli esecutivi”, the correct terminology would actually be “consigli d’amministrazione”. the third passage presents another case of a cascading error. indeed, as google voice misinterpreted the phrase “share of voice” as “sheriff voice”, google translate rendered it literally as “la voce dello sceriffo”, which makes the sentence completely meaningless. the students who performed the post-edited version of this passage translated the phrase as “calo del peso pubblicitario”, which is an acceptable translation, although italian marketing discourse uses the english phrase10. moving on to the following passage, it is evident how the intralingual subtitles do not convey the exact meaning of what the speaker is referring to. first of all, “peso model” is written in lower case letters (as in the intralingual subtitles), which makes it difficult to understand that he is referring to an acronym. moreover, the italian intralingual subtitles have inserted the preposition “in” (“un modello in peso”), which makes it even harder to realize that peso is actually the name of this specific model, so it could be interpreted as the currency used in southern american countries, such as mexico and argentina. furthermore, the intralingual subtitles misrecognized the phrase “it stands for” (followed by the four words whose initials form the acronym: paid, earned, shared and owned) as “it sensor”, which causes a cascading error in the interlingual subtitles. indeed, google translates renders the sentence as “con il sensore pagato, guadagnerai, condiviso e possiedi”, which makes no sense. interestingly, whereas the group of students who had worked on the post-editing phase of the intralingual subtitles of this passage had managed to identify and render the meaning of the passage quite accurately (except for the tense of the verbs), the students who worked on the post-editing phase of the interlingual subtitles failed in this objective, so their italian proposal of the passage presents many inaccuracies (“questo viene condiviso ed è di proprietà” literally means “this is shared and it is owned”). finally, the last passage cannot be considered an efficient translation upon considering both the automatic interlingual translation and their post-edited version. indeed, as observed in the previous section, adla is an initialism (where each letter is spelled out individually). by transcribing it with lower case letters the intralingual subtitles are not accurate, and such lack of accuracy was maintained both in the interlingual subtitles and their post-edited version. 6. concluding remarks the aim of this paper was to contribute to the field of foreign language teaching and learning by exploring the use of audiovisual translation (avt). specifically, it investigated how automatic subtitles can be employed in english as a second language (esl) and english for specific purposes (esp) classrooms. the objective was twofold: it aimed at enhancing students’ listening skills by analysing automatic intralingual subtitles provided by speech recognition systems and detecting potential errors in the transcription of the spoken output, and it sought to improve the acquisition of specialized terminology in the specific field of marketing discourse, as the video that was analyzed focused on this topic. the study has confirmed the fact that, although incorporating automatic speech recognition and machine translation into platforms like youtube has significantly expanded public access to information and entertainment, and despite significant advancements in these technologies in recent years, achieving perfect accuracy remains a challenging goal. in fact, although youtube aspires to create a fully automated interlingual subtitling system capable of generating subtitles in various languages without human involvement, this ambitious target is proving to be quite complex at present. it is true that the primary purpose of these subtitles 10 https://ahrefs.com/blog/it/share-of-voice/ parini 94 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 74–97 is to provide users with a basic understanding of the content uploaded to the platform, and they generally fulfil this role effectively. nonetheless, accuracy continues to be a considerable concern. it has to be noted that the study was based only on one video clip, and that the students had a very limited amount of time to work on it and perform the tasks they were required to carry out. three lessons (lasting two hours each) are not sufficient to provide them with the necessary skills. therefore, it would be necessary to dedicate more time both to the students’ training in this field and to the time allotted to study the content of the material more in depth and obtain more significant results. in spite of these limitations, the study has provided interesting insights. first of all, the students learned that analyzing automatic intralingual subtitling and detecting the errors they contain can be a useful exercise to practice, and hopefully enhance, their listening skills (something they did not have the chance to do by working only on written texts). secondly, they had the opportunity to improve the specialized terminology related to one of their fields of study. last but not least, they practiced their skills in post-editing texts, which is a necessary ability if they are to become mediators. 7. references adams, heather, & díaz cintas, jorge (2022). special issue: audiovisual translation in the foreign language classroom – introduction. revista de lenguas para fines específicos, 28(2), 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journal for language technology and computational linguistics, 24(3), 113–125. https://doi.org/10.21248/jlcl.24.2009.124. juang, bing-hwang & rabiner lawrence r. (2005). automatic speech recognition–a brief history of the technology development. georgia institute of technology. atlanta rutgers university and the university of california. santa barbara 1(67), 1–24. zabalbeascoa terrán, patrick, torres, olga & sokoli, stavroula (2012). conceptual framework and pedagogical methodology. clipflair foreign language learning through interactive revoicing and captioning of clips. lifelong learning programme key activity 2. languages, multilateral project. d2.1. clipflair. http://clipflair.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/d2.1conceptualframework.pdf ilaria parini, università del piemonte orientale, italia ilaria.parini@uniupo.it en ilaria parini is senior lecturer in english language, linguistics and translation at the university of eastern piedmont, italy. her research interests include audiovisual translation, literary translation, translation of non-standard varieties, as well as manipulation and censorship in translation. she is a member of the european association for screen translation, the european society for translation studies, the inter-university i-land centre (identity, language and diversity), the interuniversity research centre on metaphors (cirm), aia (italian association for the study of english), and esse (european society for the study of english). es ilaria parini es profesora contratada doctora de lengua, lingüística y traducción inglés en la universidad del piemonte oriental, italia. sus áreas de investigación incluyen la traducción audiovisual, la traducción literaria, la traducción de variedades no estándar y la manipulación y censura en la traducción. es miembro de la european association for screen translation, la european society for translation studies, el centro interuniversitario i-land (identidad, lengua y diversidad), el centro interuniversitario de investigación sobre metáforas (cirm), la aia (italian association for the study of english) y la esse (european society for the study of english) it ilaria parini è ricercatrice tenure track di lingua, linguistica e traduzione inglese presso l’università del piemonte orientale, italia. i suoi ambiti di ricerca includono la traduzione audiovisiva, la traduzione letteraria, la traduzione di varietà non standard e la manipolazione e censura nella traduzione. è membro della european association for screen translation, la european society for translation studies, ill centro interuniversitario i-land (identità, lingua e diversità), il centro interuniversitario di ricerca sulle metafore (cirm), dell’aia (associazione italiana di anglistica) e della esse (european society for the study of english). microsoft word vangehuchten 2025 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, special issue, volume 12, issue 1, june 2025, pages 7–35 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.1.3174 www.e-journall.org © basanta, vangehuchten, & van herck 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones: una propuesta didáctica para el aula de español de los negocios almudena basanta universidad de amberes lieve vangehuchten universidad de amberes rebecca van herck universidad de radboud received 15 july 2024; accepted 8 january 2025 abstract es en el actual contexto b2c (business to consumer, de negocio a consumidor), y pese al auge de los nuevos medios de comunicación, las empresas optan por gestionar las reclamaciones de manera individual a través del correo electrónico y originan, de esta manera, un género de comunicación profesional único. en este estudio, analizamos los rasgos pragma-discursivos de este género para facilitar su aprendizaje en el aula de español como lengua extranjera para fines profesionales. examinamos tres aspectos de un corpus de español peninsular: la estructura discursiva específica de estos mensajes de respuesta; las estrategias defensivas y acomodativas o complacientes que se usan en ellos y la realización lingüística de la voz humana conversacional. presentamos una propuesta didáctica que aborda estas particularidades mediante ejercicios que incrementan el espíritu crítico del alumnado su conocimiento de la lengua así como de la cultura que transmite. así, se les capacita para tomar decisiones comunicativas adaptadas a la situación lingüística y cultural, sin limitarse a una mera traducción automática desde su primera lengua. key words: lenguas para fines específicos, español para los negocios, respuestas electrónicas a quejas, análisis de corpus en despite the rise of new means of communication, in the current b2c (business to consumer) context, businesses opt to individually handle complaints via email, thus giving rise to a unique professional communication genre. in this study, we analyze the pragmadiscursive characteristics of this genre to facilitate classroom learning of spanish as a foreign language for professionals. we examine three aspects of a corpus of peninsular spanish: the specific discursive structure of these response messages; the defensive, accommodating, or helpful strategies that are used in them; and the linguistic production of the conversational human voice. we present a didactic proposal that approaches these aspects through exercises that increase the critical attitude of learners and their knowledge of the language and culture that it conveys. in this way, they will be prepared to make communication decisions that are adaptable to linguistic and cultural situations and not limited to a mere automatic translation from their first language. palabras clave: language for specific purposes, spanish for business, electronic responses to complaints, corpus analysis it nell’attuale contesto b2c (business to consumer, dall’impresa al consumatore), nonostante l’ascesa dei nuovi mezzi di comunicazione, le aziende scelgono di gestire i reclami individualmente tramite posta elettronica, e in tal modo creano una tipologia di comunicazione professionale unica. nel presente studio, analizziamo le caratteristiche pragmatico-discorsive di questa tipologia per facilitarne l’apprendimento nella classe di spagnolo come lingua straniera per scopi professionali. esaminiamo tre aspetti di un corpus dello spagnolo peninsulare: la struttura discorsiva specifica per tali messaggi di risposta, le strategie utilizzate, difensive ed espansive oppure accomodanti, e la realizzazione linguistica della voce umana conversazionale. si presenta una proposta didattica che tratta tali peculiarità attraverso esercizi che incrementino il pensiero critico degli apprendenti, la loro conoscenza della lingua e della cultura che veicola. in questo modo si è formati nel prendere decisioni comunicative adatte alla situazione linguistica e culturale, senza limitarsi ad una mera traduzione automatica dalla propria lingua. parole chiave: linguaggi specialistici, spagnolo per le imprese, mail di risposta a reclami, analisi di corpus  lieve vangehuchten, universidad de amberes lieve.vangehuchten@uantwerpen.be la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 8 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 1. introducción desde hace algún tiempo, en la enseñanza de las lenguas con fines específicos, tanto l1 como l2 y ln, se afirma que la renovación curricular es indispensable (breeze, 2020; darics, 2019; darics & clifton, 2019; darics & koller, 2019). en este sentido, la adquisición de los aspectos discursivos y pragmáticos de la comunicación profesional resulta primordial. con la creciente digitalización y multimodalidad de la comunicación, también aumenta la hibridación de los géneros y discursos profesionales, por lo que precisamente en estas competencias debería centrarse la nueva generación de cursos de lenguas con fines específicos (lsp, por su sigla en inglés) (gee, 2014; hyland, 2002). como subrayan hartle, facchinetti and franceschi (2022), la enseñanza eficaz de las lsp requiere un enfoque dinámico que tenga en cuenta estas necesidades comunicativas cambiantes de la práctica profesional. esto requiere considerar el desarrollo de las competencias transversales, la mediación, la alfabetización informacional, el multilingüismo y la multiculturalidad. en efecto, los estudiantes no solo deben aprender a comunicarse eficazmente en distintas lenguas, sino también a adaptarse a las diversas formas y canales de comunicación utilizados en los entornos profesionales modernos. además, deben ser capaces de participar en interacciones interculturales complejas y comprender cómo los matices culturales pueden afectar al significado y la eficacia de su comunicación (sanz gil, 2021). de hecho, el aumento de los contactos internacionales en la mayoría de los ámbitos de la vida social, académica y económica contribuyen al incremento de la necesidad de una enseñanza especializada de idiomas. el trabajo de márquez reiter & hidalgo dowling (2020) corrobora esta afirmación al argumentar que la globalización ha incrementado significativamente las demandas de competencias comunicativas profesionales, tanto en la necesidad del dominio de la lengua, como en la flexibilidad comunicativa intercultural. ahora bien, la enseñanza de lsp en lenguas extranjeras, al igual que la educación en general, está viviendo tiempos disruptivos. genai ha provocado un verdadero cambio de paradigma (muñoz-basol, fuertes gutiérrez & cerezo, 2024). los estudiantes son ahora capaces de preparar un texto prácticamente sin errores. naturalmente, esto plantea a los profesores de lsp el reto de adaptar su docencia. las investigaciones de hsu & ching (2023) y rashid, duong-trung & pinkwart (2024) sugieren que las tecnologías de ia están cambiando tanto la forma de aprender de los estudiantes como el papel de los profesores en la enseñanza. de ahí que este reto también encierre una oportunidad. como muestra el estudio de gil de montes garín & oliva sanz (2023), es crucial que los profesores y departamentos responsables de la enseñanza de las lsp actualicen sus propios conocimientos y habilidades, rediseñen sus cursos y aprovechen esta oportunidad para convertirse en expertos en comunicación profesional. el uso de genai como asistente lingüístico para sus alumnos ofrece a los profesores el tiempo y la oportunidad de desplazar su atención de la corrección lingüística hacia análisis más profundos de la pragmática y el discurso. anthony (2018) apoya esta actitud al enfatizar cómo la integración de la tecnología en la enseñanza de idiomas lsp permite a los profesores dedicar más tiempo a desarrollar habilidades de otro orden en sus estudiantes. esta situación permite guiar mejor a los estudiantes en el desarrollo de habilidades de pensamiento crítico y de comunicación estratégica, indispensables en un entorno profesional. esta disrupción en el mundo de la educación subraya más que nunca la necesidad de una enseñanza basada en la investigación, que parta del análisis de datos auténticos e involucre al alumnado. johns (2013) sostiene que el uso de materiales auténticos en la enseñanza no solo incrementa la relevancia y el compromiso de los estudiantes, sino que también mejora su capacidad para utilizar la lengua en contexto. en este sentido, el trabajo de flowerdew (2008) ofrece ideas sobre cómo los enfoques basados en corpus y el análisis de datos del lenguaje natural pueden integrarse en la enseñanza de lsp y proporcionar a los alumnos las herramientas necesarias para abordar retos comunicativos complejos. al implicar activamente a los estudiantes en el análisis y la interpretación de estos datos, se les puede formar para que reflexionen de forma crítica sobre su uso del lenguaje y tomen decisiones estratégicas que aumenten su eficacia comunicativa. de este modo, comprenderán mejor de qué manera funciona la lengua en distintos contextos profesionales y cómo pueden adaptar y mejorar sus propias competencias lingüísticas para responder mejor a las exigencias de su futuro entorno profesional. en este artículo, compartimos una propuesta concreta para el aula de lsp que profundiza en el funcionamiento del correo electrónico profesional de respuesta a una reclamación. este tipo de discurso y, en particular, este género digital de respuesta a quejas, precisa de una competencia pragmático-discursiva para comunicar, el webcare. así se denomina la atención al cliente en línea y la gestión de la reputación a través de las redes sociales y otras plataformas digitales, que desempeña un papel crucial en las operaciones empresariales modernas (kelleher & miller, 2006). según van noort & willemsen (2012), un webcare eficaz es esencial para mantener la satisfacción y la lealtad de los clientes, especialmente en un momento en el que los consumidores utilizan cada vez más los canales digitales para expresar sus quejas y opiniones. las empresas basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 9 que gestionan con éxito las opiniones y quejas de los clientes mediante webcare, resuelven problemas inmediatos, además de mejorar la reputación general de su marca y contribuir al éxito a largo plazo (einwiller & steilen, 2015; van vaerenbergh, varga, de keyser & orsingher, 2018). esto supone que el webcare constituye un género relevante y valioso para los estudiantes que cursan estudios empresariales a nivel académico. se trata de formar profesionales capaces de responder con rapidez y precisión a las consultas de los clientes y adoptar un enfoque comunicativo estratégico que respalde los valores de marca y la reputación de sus futuros empleadores. sin embargo, estos contenidos no se abordan suficientemente en los materiales de español con fines profesionales como lengua extranjera. villalba ibáñez (2021) señala en su estudio que resulta muy sorprendente que el énfasis se ponga exclusivamente en cómo el usuario formula la queja y en los medios lingüísticos necesarios para transmitirla. en ninguno de los materiales examinados se trata la respuesta escrita a la reclamación, pese a que estos cursos están dirigidos a formar a los futuros profesionales que se dedicarán a la atención de los clientes. por lo tanto, es útil desarrollar actividades didácticas de aprendizaje basadas en investigaciones empíricas que cultiven las habilidades pragma-discursivas necesarias para formular una respuesta de manera efectiva. de ahí que en este estudio presentemos, en primer lugar, los resultados de un análisis de género de correos electrónicos de respuesta a reclamaciones en el sector español de las telecomunicaciones. y, más tarde, propongamos un enfoque didáctico basado en este análisis que ayude a los estudiantes a desarrollar estas competencias esenciales ya mencionadas. 2. la paradoja personal-profesional del webcare en español peninsular 2.1. datos y metodología como base para este estudio, partimos de un corpus existente de respuestas a correos electrónicos de reclamación del sector español de las telecomunicaciones (van herck & vangehuchten, 2024). este corpus consta de 44 respuestas auténticas de correo electrónico a reclamaciones de clientes de siete empresas de telecomunicaciones diferentes de españa. los datos se recogieron en el periodo comprendido entre febrero de 2020 y marzo de 2020. los temas principales de los correos electrónicos se refieren a problemas de facturación, cuestiones contractuales y problemas con la calidad de los productos o servicios. elegimos específicamente centrarnos en el sector de las telecomunicaciones, al tratarse de un servicio muy utilizado, cuyo sector es conocido por el elevado número de reclamaciones de los clientes, especialmente en españa (gobierno de españa, 2019). en total, está compuesto por 655 palabras, con una media de 83,1 palabras por correo electrónico. estos correos electrónicos de respuesta a las quejas se encuentran publicados por los clientes en las redes sociales (facebook y twitter/x). para garantizar la privacidad, sólo se seleccionaron las interacciones cliente-empresa públicamente disponibles y se anonimizaron todos los correos electrónicos. después los sometimos a un análisis en tres partes: en primer lugar, examinamos la estructura genérica de estos correos, analizando los movimientos; a continuación, comprobamos la presencia de estrategias de respuesta defensiva y acomodativa o complaciente; por último, en el plano retórico, analizamos el contenido de la voz humana conversacional (chv según las siglas en inglés). a continuación, presentamos brevemente los marcos teóricos que constituyeron la base de los análisis. para estudiar la estructura de los (sub)movimientos (moves y submoves) utilizamos el marco de van herck, de cock & fastrich (2022), que ofrece una visión detallada y sistemática de los elementos estructurales que caracterizan la gestión profesional de las reclamaciones por correo electrónico. esta perspectiva resulta invaluable para desarrollar prácticas de comunicación eficaces en contextos empresariales, al ayudar a las empresas a abordar las interacciones con los clientes de forma estructurada y adaptada a sus necesidades. este tipo de análisis de movimientos permite comprender la estructura del género, ya que cada movimiento corresponde a una unidad discursiva con una finalidad comunicativa bien definida en el texto (upton & cohen, 2009). van herck et al. (2022) determinaron en su estudio que los correos electrónicos de respuesta a reclamaciones se caracterizan por seis movimientos: apertura, reconocimiento de la reclamación, posicionamiento de la marca, tratamiento transaccional de la reclamación, observaciones finales y cierre. en cada uno de los movimientos pueden distinguirse submovimientos, que los investigadores clasificaron según su prototipicidad. los submovimientos típicos, que aparecen entre el 76% y el 100% de los correos electrónicos, son el saludo, el agradecimiento, la conclusión, la despedida y la firma. estos elementos de comunicación clara y estructurada son esenciales para proporcionar la satisfacción del cliente. los submovimientos convencionales, que aparecen entre el 51% y el 75% de los correos electrónicos, son la disculpa y la declaración. estos submovimientos muestran la responsabilidad y transparencia de la empresa, la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 10 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 algo crucial para restablecer la confianza. los submovimientos opcionales, que se producen entre el 26% y el 50% de los correos, incluyen expresiones de empatía, referencia al contenido, mejora de servicios/productos, consulta y contacto futuro. aunque se producen con menos frecuencia, desempeñan un papel importante para mostrar la orientación al cliente y el esfuerzo por mejorar. los submovimientos menos frecuentes, que solo aparecen en el 25% de los correos electrónicos, son identificación, motivo del contacto, confirmación de recepción, referencia a normas, llamada a la acción, futura compra/marketing y solicitud de feedback. estos submovimientos se aplican para fines comunicativos específicos, como fomentar una mayor interacción o recoger las opiniones de los clientes, y aportan información valiosa para mejorar los productos y servicios. en cuanto al análisis de las estrategias de respuesta, partimos del estudio de revisión de lopes, dens, de pelsmacker & malthouse (2023). los autores hacen una distinción básica entre las defensivas y las complacientes. entre las estrategias defensivas, se encuentran la denegación, la culpabilización de la víctima, la culpabilización de un tercero y el autoelogio o realce de los propios méritos. estas estrategias se deben manejar con cautela, ya que pueden conducir a una escalada de la queja, a una menor fidelidad del cliente y a un daño a la reputación a largo plazo. las estrategias complacientes, por otro lado, resultan bastante más recomendables y pueden consistir en una derivación a un servicio especializado, una medida correctiva y/o compensatoria, disculpas y una expresión explícita de empatía. investigaciones anteriores, citadas en lopes et al. (2023), han demostrado que los clientes que reciben un trato empático y orientado a la búsqueda de soluciones tienen más probabilidades de convertir sus experiencias negativas en un boca a boca positivo y de repetir sus compras. aunque las disculpas y la empatía ya se contemplan en el análisis genérico de los (sub)movimientos, volvemos a incluirlas en esta sección para disponer de un análisis exhaustivo de las estrategias presentes en el corpus. la tercera parte del análisis se refiere al uso de la voz humana conversacional (chv, en inglés). resulta evidente que uno de los inconvenientes de la comunicación digital es su escasa riqueza mediática en comparación con los canales tradicionales. la falta de estrategias de comunicación no verbales y paraverbales, como las expresiones faciales y el tono, dificulta que los trabajadores de la web transmitan empatía y comprensión. así pues, para superar este reto, los empleados pueden emplear estrategias comunicativas alternativas que les permitan enfatizar su conexión personal y su compromiso con el cliente. en este estudio, nos basamos en la operacionalización de este concepto adaptada al español peninsular por van herck & vangehuchten (2024). las tres categorías principales son personalización del mensaje, uso informal del lenguaje y retórica invitadora. la personalización incluye el uso del nombre del cliente; el uso del nombre del empleado; el dirigirse directamente al cliente en lugar de fórmulas impersonales; y el dirigirse personalmente en nombre del empleado en primera persona, singular o plural, en lugar de impersonalmente en tercera persona con el nombre de la empresa. el uso informal del lenguaje se identifica a partir de la presencia de abreviaturas; elementos tipográficos no verbales como mayúsculas y signos de puntuación; expresiones informales, incluso en saludos y frases de despedida; y, or último, característico del español, el uso de la segunda persona del singular. la tercera categoría, la retórica de invitación, se centra en propiciar activamente un diálogo con el cliente, afirmando que el empleado volverá a ponerse en contacto (directamente), proporcionándole la posibilidad al cliente (indirectamente) o emplazándole a una acción inmediata (llamada a la acción). 2.2. análisis y resultados la siguiente tabla (tabla 1) presenta los resultados del análisis de submovimientos, mostrando la presencia en números absolutos y en porcentajes, calculados sobre el total de correos. también proponemos un ejemplo del corpus en cada caso. basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 11 tabla 1 movimientos y submovimientos 1 apertura % example saludo 95.5% (42) estimado cliente: identificación 2.3% (1) soy pablo, su asesor personal. 2 acuse de recepción motivo del contacto 43.2% (19) nos ponemos en contacto contigo para pedirte disculpas por las molestias ocasionadas acuse de recibo 4.5% (2) hemos recivido (sic) tu reclamación gratitud 47.7% (21) por último, le agradezco la confianza que mantiene con nosotros. disculpas 56.8% (25) disculpa las molestias. empatía 2.3% (1) son muchos los clientes que opinan lo mismo que usted que no es justo que tenga que pagar la persona que llama y no la que tiene contratado este servicio; es cierto que la locución le avisa, pero muchas veces este aviso llega demasiado tarde y es muy fácil que se le cobre si no está muy atento. referencia de la reclamación 27.3% (12) me dirijo a vd. en contestación a la reclamación que nos ha formulado sobre el importe de las facturas […] 3 posicionamiento de la marca referencia a estándares 0.0% (0) / mejora 4.5% (2) […] e informarte que dejamos registrada tu queja para seguir mejorando en todo lo posible. marketing 15.9% (7) queremos aprovechar la ocasión para recomendarle que visite dos secciones en www.razónsocial.es, que pueden resultarle de utilidad: […] 4 tramitación investigación 36.4% (16) hemos analizado tu caso en detalle. explicación 61.4% (27) ya que no nos consta apertura de ninguna incidencia en nuestro sistema conclusión 86.4% (38) por este motivo, no podemos estimar su reclamación. acción necesaria del cliente 27.3% (12) para enviar reclamación escrita debe enviarnos una carta (mejor certificada) a: […] indique también el cif de su empresa, su nombre y explicar bien todo. […] 5 conclusiones contacto futuro 50.0% (22) si tiene alguna u otra (sic) consulta, no dude en contactar con nosotros. compra futura 0.0% (0) / solicitud de comentarios 0.0% (0) / 6 cierre despedida 81.8% (36) un saludo, firma 72.7% (32) departamento de atención al cliente aunque la estructura prototípica de los submovimientos del corpus es en gran medida similar a la del marco de van herck et al. (2022), se constatan algunas diferencias notables. en primer lugar, en este corpus, la gratitud representa solo un submovimiento opcional, aunque el marco lo considera típico. en segundo lugar, la mención de razón de contacto, poco frecuente según el marco, en nuestros datos aparece como un submovimiento opcional y, por tanto, considerablemente más presente. por último, el submovimiento empatía solo consta una vez en todo el corpus, mientras que es opcional según el marco. se constata la importancia de tener en cuenta la linguacultura del estudio, en este caso, el español peninsular. en efecto, aunque la investigación ha demostrado que, en general, la estructura de un correo electrónico de respuesta a una queja presenta la misma estructura genérica, aparecen diferencias culturales en los submovimientos. así, por ejemplo, la menor frecuencia del submovimiento de gratitud es coherente con la tendencia del español la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 12 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 peninsular a no dar las gracias en los encuentros profesionales, como confirman los estudios pragmáticos sobre la ausencia de gratitud ritual en el español peninsular (hickey, 2005; pablos-ortega, 2010; placencia & mancera rueda, 2010). en cuanto a los resultados anómalos relativos a los submovimientos razón de contacto, por un lado, y empatía, por otro, podemos atribuirlos a la denominada paradoja personal-profesional del mundo comercial español peninsular (lorenzo-dus, 2014). es cierto que españa suele asociarse a un estilo de comunicación cálido y empático, pero existen investigaciones empíricas que demuestran que los hablantes de español peninsular muestran una tensión, en determinados contextos, profesionales entre la disyuntiva de parecer comprometidos y personales, por un lado, pero seguir utilizando un lenguaje que se perciba como suficientemente profesional y comercial, por otro (fernández amaya, 2022). esta paradoja puede explicar la menor frecuencia de la empatía como submovimiento autónomo, mientras que el motivo del contacto, un submovimiento práctico y repetitivo que suele expresarse con expresiones formulaicas, resulta más presente. la tabla 2 muestra los resultados del análisis de las estrategias de respuesta, en números absolutos y en porcentajes, calculados sobre el total de correos. también proponemos un ejemplo del corpus en cada caso. tabla 2 estrategias de respuesta 1 defensivas % example denegación 34.1% (15) […]le informamos que no podemos atender su solicitud, ya que no nos consta apertura de ninguna incidencia en nuestro sistema. culpar a la víctima 18.2% (8) le indicamos que le han cobrado la permanencia, porque es usted quien ha solicitado la baja del adsl y no por una incidencia en nuestro sistema. culpar a un tercero 9.1% (4) lamentamos comunicarle que por motivos tecnicos ajenos a razónsocial no podemos activar su servicio de acceso a internet + llamadas. autoelogio de las mercancías 13.6% (6) le recordamos que en www.razónsocial.es encontrará las tarifas de movil mas competitivas del mercado, entre ahora y descubralas. media 18.8% 2 acomodativas o complacientes redirección 27.3% (12) si necesita más detalle sobre este tema, le sugerimos contactar directamente con el dpto. de bajas. corrección y/o compensación 15.9% (7) sigo realizando un seguimiento diario a tu caso y he puesto en marcha todas las herramientas de las que dispongo para poder resolver tu gestión. disculpas 56.8% (25) nos ponemos en contacto contigo para pedirte disculpas por las molestias ocasionadas, […] empatía 2.3% (1) son muchos los clientes que opinan lo mismo que usted que no es justo que tenga que pagar la persona que llama y no la que tiene contratado este servicio; es cierto que la locución le avisa, pero muchas veces este aviso llega demasiado tarde y es muy fácil que se le cobre si no está muy atento. media 25.6% las cifras de los análisis de las estrategias de respuesta, al igual que las de la estrategia genérica, muestran una doble imagen. por un lado, aparece una clara voluntad de centrarse en el cliente, ya sea ofreciendo disculpas y buscando soluciones directamente, o redirigiendo. las estrategias de respuesta complacientes se recogen entonces en un 25,6% de los correos electrónicos por término medio. sin embargo, el porcentaje medio de estrategias defensivas también se constata como muy elevado, debido principalmente al alto porcentaje de correos que niegan la queja (34,1%) o que trasladan la culpa al propio cliente (18,2%). aunque, como se ha mencionado anteriormente, la investigación en webcare desaconseja estas estrategias basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 13 defensivas, consideramos que la cultura de cortesía positiva que existe en españa, acompañada de un estilo de comunicación directo y poco mitigado con el que el interlocutor pretende exculparse en la medida de lo posible, mostrando confianza en sí mismo y asertividad (lorenzo-dus, garcés-conejos blitvich & bou-franch, 2011; lorenzo-dus & bou-franch, 2013), explica su amplia presencia en nuestro corpus. en resumen, observamos también en el análisis de las estrategias de respuesta la tensión entre el deseo de orientarse al cliente y un enfoque empresarial y orientado a los negocios. los resultados del análisis de chv figuran en la tabla 3. de nuevo, proporcionamos las cifras absolutas y los porcentajes, calculados sobre el total de correos, así como un ejemplo del corpus en cada caso. tabla 3 voz humana conversacional (chv) 1.personalización % example nombre del cliente 34.1% (15) estimado sr. hernández: nombre del empleado 25% (11) p. hernández / atención al cliente dirigirse al cliente con pronombres personales: tú o usted 100% (44) me dirijo a usted en respuesta a su reclamación de fecha 21/02/17, autor singular (con pronombre personal.): yo 25% (11) he revisado tu reclamación con el número cc-2973214, autor plural (con pronombre personal.): nosotros 90.9% (40) en cuanto sepamos algo, nos pondremos en contacto contigo media 55% 2. discurso informal abreviatura 27.3% (12) nos dirigimos a usted en respuesta a su correo electrónico enviado el pasado mar., 13 de ene. de 2015 0:20. señales no verbales 9.1% (4) en el caso de ser así, indicarle que la instalación del dispositivo no es opcional. interjecciones 0% (0) / expresión informal 52.3% (23) respesto a tu desestimiento tiene (sic) 14 días para hacerlo, eso es verdad. trato informal (tú) 54.5% (24) disculpa la tardanza. saludo informal / despedida 43.2% (19) un saludo, media 31.1% 3. retórica de invitación estimular el diálogo: directo 6.8% (3) lo he reclamado para que lo agilicen y se pongan en contacto cuanto antes contigo al número de teléfono que me has facilitado. estimular el diálogo: indirecto 36.4% (16) si tiene cualquier duda llame al 12345. estimular el diálogo: llamada a la acción 22.7% (10) para solventar el problema tienes que contactar con nosotros al 12345 y pedir hablar con el departamento de averías. media 21.9% respecto a la primera categoría, es decir, la personalización, se observa que en el 100% de los correos aparece una apelación personal con tú o usted, aunque solo se dirijan al cliente por su nombre en algo más de un tercio de los correos. además, se constata que el empleado prefiere no destacar demasiado: solo se conoce su nombre en el 25% de los correos electrónicos y, en más del 90,9%, habla desde una perspectiva de "nosotros”. así pues, los autores de los correos parecen optar decididamente por una voz corporativa, incluso a expensas de un estilo más personal y atractivo. en cuanto a la segunda categoría, la informalidad, los datos parecen divididos y reflejan la paradoja personal-profesional mencionada anteriormente: la mitad de los correos utilizan el tuteo en combinación con expresiones informales, mientras que la otra mitad se ciñe al lenguaje formal. por último, en la categoría retórica de invitación, se recurre de forma muy limitada a que el empleado mantenga activamente la comunicación (6,8%), y a que se llame al cliente a la acción (22,7%). esto constituye una forma indirecta de informar al cliente de cualquier otra opción de comunicación (36,4%). además, en dos correos encontramos la solicitud explícita y reforzada con elementos paralingüísticos de no la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 14 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 seguir comunicando, una manifestación totalmente en contra de los propios principios de la chv, cuyo objetivo es mantener el diálogo, mostrando compromiso: estimado cliente: en referencia a su peticion 8345582, le informamos que no podemos atender su solicitud, ya que no nos consta apertura de ninguna incidencia en nuestro sistema. por favor no responder a este email. para cualquier peticion o consulta debe dirigirse a hola@razónsocial.com o llamando al 12345. un saludo equipo razónsocial podemos concluir que la escasa presencia de la retórica invitacional en los datos también ilustra que, aunque la cultura española peninsular sea de acercamiento, caracterizada por relaciones solidarias y estrechas, manifestarlo en un contexto profesional se siente inapropiado y da lugar a un estilo de comunicación orientado al trabajo, más bien formal y distante o poco implicado. aunque debemos ser prudentes a la hora de generalizar los resultados de este análisis al tratarse de un corpus de tamaño muy modesto, creemos que su potencial didáctico es considerable. de ahí que presentemos en la siguiente sección una propuesta didáctica diseñada para descubrir los rasgos pragma-discursivos de este género en español peninsular. 3. propuesta didáctica 3.1. la perspectiva postcomunicativa en la enseñanza para fines específicos como sostienen gonzález sánchez & andión herrero (2021), la era postcomunicativa también ha llegado a la enseñanza de las lenguas para fines específicos (lsp) con el objetivo principal de formar a los estudiantes para que lleguen a ser profesionales internacionales críticos, capaces de enfrentarse a contenidos discursivos diversos, así como a las complejidades de los entornos laborales multilingües y multiculturales. de este modo, se pasa de formar comunicadores de éxito a formar actores sociales que puedan asumir sus responsabilidades en la sociedad cada vez más diversa, como también se argumenta en el volumen complementario del mcer (2018). el método comunicativo sigue siendo un elemento clave, pero cada vez más se integra en enfoques que se centran en el desarrollo de competencias transversales, tales como el razonamiento crítico, la alfabetización informacional y la mediación (atienza & garcía, 2024; sánchez cuadrado, 2022; sanz gil, 2021). el dominio de los géneros y la comprensión de sus propiedades, como las estructuras textuales específicas y las formulaciones discursivas pragmáticas, y el conocimiento de los matices socioculturales, se consideran aspectos cruciales del uso profesional de la lengua que pueden ayudar a desarrollar estas competencias (bhatia, 2016). la elaboración didáctica de este estudio propone un enfoque pragma-discursivo basado en la investigación, con tareas lingüísticas construidas a partir de datos auténticos1 seleccionados a según los resultados de la investigación y su relevancia. esto refuerza el compromiso de los estudiantes al trabajar con ejemplos desafiantes que también podrán encontrar en su futura vida profesional. este enfoque garantiza que los actos comunicativos se produzcan en un contexto significativo. para que sea eficaz, las tareas deben alcanzar un cierto nivel de complejidad, para estimular a los alumnos a pensar de forma estratégica y crítica sobre su uso de la lengua en contextos profesionales, y a utilizar sus destrezas comunicativas de forma óptima para este fin. por este motivo, recomendamos que las actividades se lleven a cabo con un público que disponga de, al menos, el nivel b2 del mcer, con los conocimientos necesarios de vocabulario y gramática ya adquiridos. para la elaboración concreta de las tareas, nos basamos principalmente en la metodología utilizada en muñoz-basols & pérez sinusía (2021, el enfoque por géneros en lsp), pérez & schnitzer (2022, el enfoque por tareas en lsp) y arroyo martínez (2022, multimodalidad en lsp). proponemos una estructura que permite descubrir inicialmente el género de forma inductiva y sondear sus conocimientos previos indirectos sobre el mismo. a continuación, presentamos una serie de actividades dirigidas a aprender a reconocer y analizar activamente las características relevantes del género en cuanto a estructura de movimientos, estrategias de respuesta y tono de voz humana conversacional. la tercera fase se centra en ejercicios comunicativos, trabajando progresivamente de lo receptivo a lo productivo. en la cuarta y última fase, se enuncian algunas tareas de reflexión para transferir los conocimientos y destrezas adquiridos, de modo que los alumnos sean capaces de aplicarlos en nuevas situaciones comunicativas. todos los ejercicios se basan en datos auténticos, principalmente del estudio presentado en la sección anterior, pero también ofrecemos ejemplos del sector de la aviación. el tiempo estimado para realizar los ejercicios de las cuatro fases son cuatro horas. no obstante, se 1 al tratarse de textos auténticos, aparecen frecuentemente faltas de acentuación, ortografía o puntuación. basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 15 recomienda tratar los contenidos en dos clases diferentes para que los aprendices dispongan de un periodo de asimilación de los contenidos y agudicen su reflexión crítica al respecto. todos los ejercicios están concebidos para ser trabajados en pequeños grupos. dejamos a consideración del profesor crear subgrupos si se ajusta mejor al perfil del alumnado y a los objetivos del curso. en el anexo se pueden consultar nuestras sugerencias de corrección y algunas notas para ampliar la información 3.2. entrar en materia: exploración inductiva en la primera fase, los alumnos descubren el género de forma inductiva y se les reta a activar sus conocimientos previos indirectos sobre el género. esto crea una base para el análisis y la comprensión posteriores. 3.2.1. aquí tienes dos correos electrónicos auténticos. ¿cuál te parece mejor? ¿por qué? ¿comunica claramente su mensaje, es coherente, el lenguaje es correcta, está ordenado, resulta cortés, no es agresivo? ¿otras razones? estimado cliente. el servicio [nombre servicio], se oferta junto con la contratación de su plan fusión, siendo gratuito durante un año, no obstante, si usted no desea disfrutarlo debe gestionarlo a través de la página web de [nombre servicio], “nombreservicio.razónsocial.es”, accediendo con su clave y seleccionando el botón de baja. le saluda atentamente. centro de reclamaciones razónsocial su satisfacción, nuestro objetivo figura 1. correo 1 buenos días [nombre], ante todo pedirle disculpas por lo que ha sucedido. son muchos los clientes que opinan lo mismo que usted que no es justo que tenga que pagar la persona que llama y no la que tiene contratado este servicio; es cierto que la locución le avisa, pero muchas veces este aviso llega demasiado tarde y es muy fácil que se le cobre si no está muy atento. como le he dicho antes yo no puedo anular o hacer que desaparezca este servicio, ya que supondría cambiar todas las líneas de [razónsocial]. sí que es verdad que si hace la reclamación y la hacen más clientes tendrá más peso para que esto cambie pronto. para enviar reclamación escrita debe enviarnos una carta (mejor certificada) a: [razónsocial] servicio de defensa del cliente [dirección] en este escrito exprese su queja sobre el servicio “llamadas perdidas. mensajes dictados”. indico escriba un teléfono contacto móvil. indique también el cif de su empresa, su nombre y explicar bien todo. puede indicar también u correo electrónico. atentamente. [nombre apellido] em@il: razónsocial.pymes@telefonica.es tel: 12345 www.razónsocial.es/empresas figura 2. correo 2 la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 16 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 3.2.2. ¿has escrito alguna queja electrónica? ¿mediante un formulario en la página web correspondiente o con un correo electrónico? ¿has recibido una respuesta? ¿te ha parecido correcta? 3.2.3. busca en internet un correo electrónico en español que exprese una queja por un producto o por un servicio y la respuesta recibida. puedes mirar en las páginas oficiales de una empresa en facebook o en twitter y usar estas palabras clave: #queja, #reclamación, #reclamar, #insatisfecho o #respuesta. si lo has encontrado, posiblemente es que el usuario no quedó satisfecho. y a ti, ¿te parece correcta la respuesta? ¿por qué? ¿tiene una estructura apropiada? ¿se trata de una cuestión de estilo? ¿crees que el tono que se usa en la respuesta es correcto? ¿qué elemento te parece que falla? 3.3. actividades de análisis y comprensión crítica en la segunda fase, las actividades se centran en reconocer y analizar activamente las características relevantes del género, incluida la estructura de los (sub)movimientos, las estrategias de respuesta y el tono de voz humana conversacional. este análisis refuerza la comprensión crítica de cómo puede utilizarse eficazmente el lenguaje en contextos profesionales específicos y qué características presenta un correo electrónico de respuesta a una queja para ser considerado correcto. aquí proponemos un resumen de los resultados del análisis para su uso didáctico en el aula: la estructura del movimiento genérico de los correos electrónicos muestra diferencias importantes con otras linguaculturas, por ejemplo, la menor frecuencia de agradecimientos y empatía, la mayor frecuencia de indicación del motivo del contacto y el acuse de recepción; también suelen aparecer una mención de comercialización y una indicación de futuro contacto. estas conclusiones subrayan la importancia de las diferencias culturales en la comunicación profesional y la necesidad de incorporarlas a la enseñanza. permiten a los estudiantes aprender cómo los factores culturales afectan a la manera de comunicarse en los negocios y cómo adaptar sus propias habilidades comunicativas a diferentes contextos. el análisis de las estrategias de respuesta muestra que existe una tensión entre las estrategias defensivas y las complacientes. aunque las estrategias complacientes, por ejemplo, disculpas y otras medidas orientadas a la solución, se prefieren por su orientación al cliente, las estrategias defensivas, como negar la queja o desviar la culpa, están muy presentes en el corpus español. esto brinda una excelente oportunidad para enseñar a los estudiantes el impacto de las distintas estrategias de respuesta en el nivel de satisfacción del cliente y en la reputación corporativa, además de ayudarles a desarrollar prácticas de comunicación eficaces. es importante que los estudiantes comprendan que, pese a que las estrategias complacientes sean generalmente las recomendadas, las estrategias defensivas manifiestan su utilidad en ciertas situaciones. así, por ejemplo, las estrategias defensivas pueden reducir la percepción negativa del cliente sobre el agravio y proteger la imagen de la empresa en casos donde la responsabilidad no está claramente definida. además, las estrategias defensivas pueden valerse de recursos de atenuación para evitar una negación directa, como i) la impersonalidad, que oculta a los participantes en la interacción (por ejemplo, hay un problema en la cumplimentación de su solicitud en lugar de se ha equivocado al cumplimentar su solicitud); ii) las estructuras concesivo-opositivas (por ejemplo, entendemos su malestar, sin embargo, en estos momentos no disponemos de la opción que solicita); iii) el uso de palabras neutras o eufemísticas como algún tiempo o situación en lugar de retraso o problema. por último, el análisis retórico sugiere que, a pesar del estilo de comunicación cálido y empático característico de la cultura española, los contextos profesionales requieren a menudo un enfoque más formal y orientado al trabajo. esto constituye una importante oportunidad de aprendizaje para los estudiantes, que pueden explorar cómo equilibrar profesionalidad y empatía en su propio estilo de comunicación. el lenguaje chv, con elementos de personalización como el uso del nombre del cliente o del empleado y de pronombres personales (yo/nosotros/tú/usted), así como elementos informales como el uso de la segunda persona del singular, fórmulas de saludos y despedidas, y la evitación errores para mostrar cuidado y atención, puede ser una herramienta eficaz. en este contexto, conviene llamar la atención sobre la repercusión de una redacción descuidada, ya que los errores tipográficos y lingüísticos restan calidad a la respuesta y provocan que el cliente se sienta tratado como de segunda clase, lo que reducirá el impacto positivo del "esfuerzo percibido" (cambra fierro, melero polo & sesé oliván, 2013). basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 17 3.3.1. ejercicios para reconocer los movimientos ejercicio 3.3.1.1. en el siguiente ejemplo hemos marcado en gris cuatro movimientos característicos de los correos en español peninsular. ¿puedes seleccionar el nombre del movimiento en esta lista e identificarlo? agradecimiento acuse de recepción disculpa razón del contacto mención de comercialización referencia a las normas o estándares de la empresa propone una acción posterior estimado/a [nombre], en respuesta a tu reclamación con número de expediente 180934039 realizada en 05 de septiembre de 2018, te informamos a continuación del detalle de las actuaciones que hemos efectuado hasta el momento: regularización de la factura con referencia j617058433: periodo facturado del 15/07/2018 al 14/08/2018 importe facturado: 43,43 € conceptos regularizados: regularización sobre el importe total facturado importe regularizado total: 41.75 €. impuestos indirectos incluidos importe regularizado que verás en tu factura: 34.50€. impuestos indirectos no incluidos estas regularizaciones se verán reflejadas en tu próxima factura correspondiente al periode facturado del 15/12/2029 al 15/01/2030. recuerda que para cualquier otra consulta o sugerencia puedes ponerte en contacto con nosotros en nuestra página web www.razónsocial.com o a través de nuestro teléfono gratuito de atención al cliente, 12345 desde cualquier fijo y móviles razónsocial, o en el 12345 desde móviles de otros operadores. recibe un cordial saludo, razónsocial figura 3. correo 3 ejercicio 3.3.1.2. pon en orden las ocho partes de este correo de respuesta: figura 4. correo 4 me dirijo a vd. en contestación a la reclamación que nos ha formulado sobre el importe de las facturas que se relacionan en el pie, para informarle de que se ha analizado su caso en detalle y no hemos encontrado incidencia alguna relacionada con las cuestiones que nos plantea. en consecuencia, sentimos comunicarle que el importe es correcto. director territorio sur le saludo atentamente, estimado cliente: [firma] nombre apellido por último, le agradezco la confianza que mantiene con nosotros y quiero aprovechar esta ocasión para comunicarle que si dispone de acceso a internet, podrá consultar sus facturas en www.razónsocial.es/factura y conocer día a día la evolución de su consumo antes de ser emitidas. la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 18 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 ejercicio 3.3.1.3. marca en este correo el acuse de recepción, mención de la razón de contacto, mención de comercialización y la propuesta de acción posterior que caracterizan a los correos de respuesta a una queja en español peninsular: estimado cliente: nos dirigimos a usted en respuesta a su correo electrónico enviado 30/05/2016. en primer lugar, le agradecemos por ponerse en contacto con nosotros vía correo electrónico hemos recibido su solicitud para trámites de los servicios contratados con razónsocial, sin embargo es necesario que usted se dirija a nuestros canales habituales de atención al cliente o bien a través de mi razónsocial. finalmente deseamos agradecerle la utilización del servicios que razónsocial pone a su disposición en nuestra página web recordándole que estaremos encantados de atenderle para los procesos correspondientes a la línea de bajas. sin otro particular aprovechamos la ocasión para enviarle un cordial saludo. atentamente departamento de atención al cliente razónsocial. figura 5. correo 5 ejercicio 3.3.1.4. señala en este correo los movimientos que caracterizan a las respuestas a una queja electrónica: ¿tiene acuse de recepción? ¿menciona la razón del contacto? ¿termina con una mención de comercialización? ¿propone una acción posterior? si no te parece apropiado, haz las correcciones necesarias. buenos dias nombre. hemos recivido tu reclamación confirmamos entonces que el cobre de los 24€ es correcto, en este caso importe generado adicional por la baja de la linea sin aviso previo para amortización del termrinal registrado a venta a plazos, te indicamos que no hay penalizaciones de la linea ya que no hay compromisos de permanencia, si no que en este caso se debio proceder a gestionar a este tramite cuando la lina ya no estaba activa. de igual forma si presentas alguna duda adicional : te pedimos que te pongas en contacto con el servicio de soporte online de razónsocial.com. cordial saludo servicio razónsocial.com figura 6. correo 6 3.3.2. ejercicios para reconocer las estrategias de respuesta (defensiva/complaciente) ejercicio 3.3.2.1. verifica si este correo dispone de buenas estrategias de respuesta: ¿correcta ortografía y puntuación? ¿se usan palabras de significado positivo o neutro? ¿se reconoce el problema del cliente, aunque se descargue a la empresa de responsabilidad? ¿se propone al cliente una solución o se le ofrece una compensación? ¿se proporcionan disculpas? ¿se agradece al cliente su iniciativa? basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 19 hola, en contestación a tu reclamación número 1-21080975083 hemos verificado en sistemas y se ha desestimado tu solicitud por los siguientes motivos: ya que se confirma el estado de la velocidad en la parte del adsl esta corecta su velocidad no hay problemas algunos y esta todo corecto y se enviar un tecnico alli en un plazo de 7 a 15 dias un cordial saludo, figura 7. correo 7 ejercicio 3.3.2.2. ¿encuentras en este correo elementos defensivos como el autoelogio, la negación de la responsabilidad o del problema, la atribución de la culpa a la víctima o a terceras personas? estimado cliente, mediante la presente, confirmamos recepción de su reclamación de fecha 09/07/2018 15:46:12. en primer lugar, lamentamos el retraso de su vuelo ab1234 operado desde gva a bcn en fecha de 02/07/2018. [nombreempresa] hace todos los esfuerzos para operar sus vuelos puntualmente, no obstante, determinados vuelos quedan afectados por circunstancias fuera del control efectivo de [nombreempresa] que son impredecibles e inevitables, causando retrasos y cancelaciones en los vuelos. en relación con su reclamación de compensación, [nombreempresa] ha realizado un análisis profundo de su caso, el cual queda dentro del ámbito de aplicación del reglamento (ce) n° 261/2004 (el “reglamento”) y la jurisprudencia de desarrollo dictada por el tribunal de justicia de la unión europea. en su caso, no obstante, lamentablemente debemos informarle que no procede el pago de ninguna compensación en tanto que el vuelo llegó a su destino con un retraso inferior a las tres (3) horas respecto de su horario previsto. una vez más, rogamos acepte nuestras más sinceras disculpas por los inconvenientes causados debido al retraso de su vuelo. atentamente, departamento de atención al cliente [nombreempresa] figura 8. correo 8 ejercicio 3.3.2.3 ¿puedes reconocer en este correo elementos de estrategia complaciente, como disculparse, mostrar empatía, redireccionar el problema o proponer una acción de corrección o compensación? estimado cliente, gracias por contactar con nosotros a través del canal on line. en relación al e-mal recibido, te informamos que la resolución de tu reclamación es no procede, ya que el departamento encargado no evidencio reporte de avería para sus servicios. atentamente te saluda inicial. apellido / atención al cliente figura 9. correo 9 la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 20 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 ejercicio 3.3.2.4 y en este, ¿puedes reconocer elementos de estrategia complaciente? estimado cliente: nos dirigimos a usted en respuesta a su correo electrónico enviado 30/05/2016. en primer lugar, le agradecemos por ponerse en contacto con nosotros vía correo electrónico hemos recibido su solicitud para tramites de los servicios contratados con razónsocial, sin embargo es necesario que usted se dirija a nuestros canales habituales de atención al cliente o bien a través de mi razónsocial. finalmente deseamos agradecerle la utilización del servicios que razónsocial pone a su disposición en nuestra página web recordándole que estaremos encantados de atenderle para los procesos correspondientes a la línea de bajas. sin otro particular aprovechamos la ocasión para enviarle un cordial saludo. atentamente departamento de atención al cliente razónsocial. figura 10. correo 10 ejercicio 3.3.2.5 lee estos dos correos de respuesta a una queja con estrategias diferentes. ¿cuál te parece más efectivo? ¿puedes reconocer elementos defensivos como el autoelogio, la negación de la responsabilidad o del problema, o culpar a la víctima o a terceras personas? ¿puedes reconocer elementos de estrategia acomodativa o complaciente, como disculparse, mostrar empatía, redireccionar el problema o proponer una acción de corrección o compensación? estimada sra [apellido], nos ponemos en contacto con usted con respecto al vuelo ab1234 dme bcn del 28/08/2019. en respuesta a su petición, le informamos que usted esta reclamando el vuelo incorrecto, los datos correctos serían: ab1234 17/08/19 bcndme reciba un cordial saludo. departamento de atención al cliente [nombreempresa] figura 11. correo 11 apreciado sr. [apellido].: en respuesta a su reclamación por daño en equipaje, le informamos de que, según las condiciones de la compañía (a las que puede acceder en el apartado “información útil” de nuestra página web www.[nombreempresa].com), no se aceptan artículos considerados como frágiles, valiosos o perecederos. permítanos aclararle que todos los artículos que son transportados en bodega tienen que ir debidamente embalados para que puedan soportar eventuales golpes durante el viaje y/o la manipulación en la zona aeroportuaria. así pues, rechazamos cualquier tipo de responsabilidad al respecto si usted tomó la decisión de facturar algún objeto considerado como frágil, valioso o precedero. le recordamos que usted leyó y aceptó explícitamente las condiciones descritas en el momento de realizar su reserva de vuelo. finalmente le hacemos saber que para atender cualquier duda o comentario deberá dirigirse por correo postal a: [nombreempresa] equipajes [calle] [número] [códigopostal] [ciudad] o bien contactarnos al número de teléfono 123456789. reciba un cordial saludo. atentamente, [nombreempresa] equipajes 123456789 figura 12. correo 12 basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 21 ejercicio 3.3.2.6 mejore este correo con alguno de estos recursos: mitigar el error del cliente con una forma impersonal en lugar de la acusación directa no debió haber recibido el terminal. usar una estructura del tipo entendemos su malestar, sin embargo, el plazo de devolución se ha sobrepasado. escribir palabras neutras o eufemísticas como excedido o sobrepasado en lugar de cerrado. verificar la ortografía y la puntuación. estimado a/ sr. [oculto] gracias por ponerse en contacto con el servicio de atención al cliente de razónsocial. de antemano pedimos excusas por el tiempo de respuesta a su solicitud indicamos que: hermos verificado en el sistema que la ot de entrega esta cerrada, como se lo han informado anteriormente usted tenia un plazo de 14 dias, asi mismo no debio haber recibido el terminal, debio haberlo devuelto. ya no puede hacer devolución le recordamos que estamos encantados de atender sus consultas . reciba un cordial saludo departamento de atención al cliente de razónsocial. figura 13. correo 13 3.3.3. ejercicios para reconocer el lenguaje chv (personal, informal, invitador) ejercicio 3.3.3.1 aquí tienes una parte de un correo de respuesta a una queja con elementos que cortan la comunicación con el cliente. ¿puedes identificarlos? ¿te parece apropiado? ¿puedes proponer una mejora o corrección? por favor no responder a este email. para cualquier petición o consulta debe dirigirse a hola@razonsocial.com o llamando al 12345. un saludo equipo razonsocial figura 14. correo 14 ejercicio 3.3.3.2 señala qué elementos son más apropiados para personalizar un correo de respuesta: 1. estimado cliente: 2. estimado [nombre]: 3. estimado señor [apellido]: 4. hola: 5. le saluda atentamente, servicio de atención al cliente de razón social 6. le saluda atentamente, nombre + apellido 7. le saluda atentamente, nombre 8. por favor, no responda a este correo, es meramente informativo. 9. un saludo, atención al cliente online 10. recibe un cordial saludo, razón social figura 15. saludos y despedidas la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 22 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 ejercicio 3.3.3.3 señala qué elementos de chv encuentras en el siguiente correo: ¿es personalizado? ¿aparece el nombre del cliente y del empleado? ¿es formal o informal? ¿qué saludo y despedida utiliza? ¿usa el tuteo o la forma de usted? ¿hay expresiones informales, contracciones o abreviaturas? ¿aparecen emoticonos o mayúsculas? ¿hay faltas de concordancia o errores? ¿crees que se invita al cliente a mantener el diálogo o a hacer alguna acción que solucione su problema? ¿muestra empatía con el cliente? ¿la empresa o el empleado se compromete de alguna manera? hola, hemos abierto la gestión número mm-[oculto] para que deje de recibir de comunicaciones de [razón social]. este proceso tiene un tiempo de gestión que puede tardar más de diez días laborables, en los cuales, puede recibir alguna llamada, ya que requiere de una intervención en sistemas. lamentamos las molestias ocasionadas. un saludo, [oculto] equipo [razón social] figura 16. correo 15 ejercicio 3.3.3.4 señala qué elementos de chv encuentras en el siguiente correo: ¿es personalizado? ¿aparece el nombre del cliente y del empleado? ¿es formal o informal? ¿qué saludo y despedida utiliza? ¿usa el tuteo o la forma de usted? ¿hay expresiones informales, contracciones o abreviaturas? ¿aparecen emoticonos o mayúsculas? ¿hay faltas de concordancia o errores? ¿crees que se invita al cliente a mantener el diálogo o a hacer alguna acción que solucione su problema? ¿muestra alguna empatía con el cliente? ¿la empresa o el empleado se compromete de alguna manera? hola. he revisado tu reclamación con el número cc-2973214 y todavía está pendiente de revisión, lo he reclamado para que lo agilicen y se pongan en contacto cuanto antes contigo al número de teléfono que me has facilitado. disculpa la tardanza. un saludo. figura 17. correo 16 ejercicio 3.3.3.5 lee este correo de respuesta a una queja y busca qué elementos del lenguaje chv lo convierten en una respuesta personalizada lo convierten en una respuesta que transmite informalidad lo convierte en un correo que invita al cliente a reaccionar estimado [nombre], gracias por utilizar en canal online de razónsocial. nos ponemos en contacto contigo para pedirte disculpas por las molestias ocasionadas, e indicarte que para obtener dicha factura de cancelación debes de acercarte a una tienda razónsocial para hacer la entrega del ruter y podrás solicitar un albarán de comprobación de cancelación del contrato. te pedimos disculpas por las molestias ocasionadas. atentamente te saluda, [inicial,apellido]/ atención al cliente si necesitas contactar nuevamente conmigo puedes hacerlo pulsando aquí: http://www.razónsocial.es/on/cac/respuesta.htm?id=aed62890001539785137670 figura 18. correo 17 basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 23 ejercicio 3.3.3.6 lee este correo de respuesta a una queja y busca qué elementos del lenguaje chv lo convierten en una respuesta personalizada lo convierten en una respuesta que transmite informalidad lo convierte en un correo que invita al cliente a reaccionar estimado cliente: ya hemos solucionado tu reclamación. hemos analizado tu caso en detalle y hemos comprobado que no procede indemnización por interrupción del servicio ya que la avería ha sido resuelta en el plazo establecido. lamentamos sinceramente las molestias que hayamos podido ocasionarte. gracias por tu confianza y recuerda que estamos a tu disposición para aclararte tus dudas o comentarios sobre este o cualquier otro asunto. equipo razón social figura 19. correo 18 3.4. actividades comunicativas la tercera etapa consiste en ejercicios comunicativos que van progresivamente de las destrezas receptivas a las productivas. esto garantiza que los estudiantes amplíen y perfeccionen sus competencias comunicativas paso a paso. ejercicio 3.4.1 aquí tienes un correo de respuesta: añade los movimientos necesarios, como el acuse de recepción, mención de comercialización, explicación del motivo de contacto. escribe elementos de chv como personalización del cliente o el empleado, saludo y despedida correctos, invitación a interactuar, muestra de empatía, o compromiso de la empresa o el empleado, etc. buenos tardes, para solventar el problema tienes que contactar con nosotros al 12345 y pedir hablar con el departamento de avería. saludos. figura 20. correo 19 ejercicio 3.4.2 este correo de respuesta no ha satisfecho al cliente. escríbelo de nuevo teniendo en cuenta las características del género textual: los movimientos, las estrategias y los elementos de chv. hola, después de revisar tu caso, lo único que podemos hacer es remitirte a tienda. desde aquí no podemos hacer nada ya que es la misma persona encargada en ella la que a través de una denuncia nos pidió el bloqueo de tu terminal y otros muchos. tienes que ir hablar con ella. hasta la próxima! figura 21. correo 20 la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 24 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 ejercicio 3.4.3. este correo de respuesta no ha satisfecho al cliente. escríbelo de nuevo teniendo en cuenta las características del género textual: los movimientos, los elementos de chv y las estrategias apropiadas. figura 22. correo 21 ejercicio 3.4.4. trabajas con el equipo de atención al cliente en una empresa de telecomunicaciones y tienes que responder a la siguiente queja con la ayuda del chat gpt. prepara un prompt para solicitar una respuesta que respete las características del género de respuestas a quejas por correo electrónico, con los movimientos, estrategias y uso de lenguaje con chv que hemos analizado. analiza si la respuesta se ajusta a estas características. si es necesario, modifica el prompt. verifica y ajusta la respuesta. motiva los cambios. buenos días: mi mujer [nombre y apellido + documento de identidad] y yo, [nombre y apellido + documento de identidad], teníamos un vuelo el día 12 de abril de 2023 desde el aeropuerto de [ciudad + país] con salida prevista a las 21.45 hora local y llegada prevista a las 13.10 a [ciudad + país], después de una conexión en el aeropuerto de [ciudad + país]. aquí le envío la referencia de los billetes: [xxxxxxx]. el primer vuelo [referencia del vuelo] salió con un retraso de tres horas y diez minutos, de manera que perdimos la conexión prevista en [ciudad + país] con referencia [número de vuelo]. allí nos asignaron un nuevo vuelo [referencia del billete y del vuelo] que también sufrió un retraso de cuatro horas y quince minutos. llegamos a nuestro destino con un retraso total de siete horas y media. debido a la larga espera en el aeropuerto de [ciudad + país], que además se encontraba lleno de pasajeros y sin sitio para sentarse o comer, accedimos a un lounge que nos supuso un coste de 50€ por persona. con este correo solicitamos una compensación por los trastornos que nos supuso el retraso de las siete horas y media, así como el rembolso de los 100€ de la entrada en el lounge. gracias por adelantado. un saludo, [nombre + apellido] figura 23. correo 22 3.5. actividades de reflexión en la cuarta y última fase se introducen tareas de reflexión para transferir los conocimientos y destrezas adquiridos. esto permite a los estudiantes aplicar estos conocimientos de forma creativa y flexible en nuevas situaciones comunicativas, como por ejemplo de interculturalidad, lo que resulta esencial para su desarrollo como profesionales internacionales con sentido crítico. basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 25 ejercicio 3.5.1 aquí tienes una parte de correo de respuesta a una queja con elementos de informalidad que también muestran descuido. relacionado con su servicio le informamos que los decuentos son un benificio adcional de razónsocial los cuales son sensibles a cambios mdificaciones e incluso aboliciones no estan implicitios en ningun contrato figura 24. correo 23 ¿qué impresión te causa este correo? ¿te parece profesional? ¿transmite respeto hacia los grupos de interés? ¿puedes proponer una mejora o corrección? ¿qué herramientas online puedes encontrar para evitar este tipo de faltas? utilízalas para corregir este ejemplo. ejercicio 3.5.2 aquí tienes una respuesta a una queja en inglés y la traducción al español usando una herramienta de traducción automática. ¿te parece correcta la traducción? ¿qué elementos no te resultan naturales en español? ¿cómo puedes cambiarla para que resulte más apropiada? ¿has observado que las respuestas a quejas por correo electrónico de gran bretaña se orientan a la persona, con movimientos de empatía, agradecimiento y disculpa, y las de españa se orientan al negocio, mencionando a la razón de contacto, al contacto futuro y a la comercialización? dear miss firstname lastname, i’m sorry you’ve had to contact us about the issue with your companyname account. this clearly isn’t the kind experience we want you to have with us, and i can imagine you’re probably feeling quite frustrated by now. as a manager in the ceo’s office, i’m going to take care of this for you from here. the first thing i need to do is really understand what’s happened, and to do this, i’d like to speak to you and hear your point of view. please expect a call from me in the next 24 working hours. i have two numbers for you: your home number and your mobile number. if you’d prefer me to ring you on a different number, please e-mail me with this number and when you’re free to talk. if you’d rather call me, my direct line is 0123456789. if i’m not at my desk i’ll endeavour to return your call as soon as possible. thanks for your patience, and i look forward to speaking to you soon so i can get this sorted for you. kind regards, firstname lastname companyname figura 25. correo 24 la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 26 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 estimada sra. nombre y apellido: lamento que haya tenido que ponerse en contacto con nosotros por el problema con su cuenta de nombredelacompañía. está claro que esta no es la clase de experiencia que queremos que tenga con nosotros, y puedo imaginar que probablemente se sienta bastante frustrada en este momento. como gerente de la oficina del ceo, voy a ocuparme de esto por ti desde aquí. lo primero que tengo que hacer es entender realmente lo que ha pasado, y para ello me gustaría hablar contigo y escuchar tu punto de vista. por favor, espera una llamada mía en las próximas 24 horas laborables. tengo dos números para ti: el de tu casa y el de tu móvil. si prefieres que te llame a otro número, envíame un correo electrónico con ese número y cuándo estás libre para hablar. si prefieres llamarme, mi línea directa es 01234566789. si no estoy en mi despacho, intentaré devolverte la llamada lo antes posible. gracias por tu paciencia y espero poder hablar contigo pronto para solucionarlo. un cordial saludo, nombre apellido nombre de la empresa figura 26. correo 25 ejercicio 3.5.3 piensa en lo que has aprendido sobre cómo responder adecuadamente a una queja. ¿crees que este conocimiento también puede aplicarse a las quejas que no provienen de particulares, sino de otros grupos de interés de la empresa? identifica y lista los diferentes grupos de interés que pueden presentar quejas, además de los clientes particulares (ej.: accionistas, proveedores, empleados, competencia, etc.). utiliza genai para generar ejemplos de quejas provenientes de diferentes tipos de grupos de interés para el sector de la telecomunicación y de la aviación. solicita que la ia cree quejas específicas para cada grupo identificado. analiza las quejas generadas y discute las diferencias y similitudes entre los distintos grupos de interés. considera el impacto potencial en la empresa. selecciona una de las quejas generadas y escribe una respuesta utilizando las estrategias y el lenguaje que has aprendido. comparte tu respuesta con tus compañeros de clase y discute la efectividad de tu enfoque. basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 27 ejercicio 3.5.4 lo que has aprendido para responder a quejas por correo electrónico, ¿se puede aplicar a quejas de otro tipo, por ejemplo, las reseñas en plataformas como booking.com o tripadvisor? aquí tienes una reseña con una queja y su respuesta. ¿es igual que una queja por correo electrónico y su respuesta? comenta aspectos similares y diferentes respecto a destinatario, estilo y estructura. habitaciones pequeñas pero correctas disliked el parking es muy incómodo (a parte de que por la obra de la calle el acceso se hace bastante complicado). no merece la pena pagarlo, aunque el recepcionista que nos atendió a la llegada nos presionó bastante con el tema. liked habitación muy reducida en tamaño, pero con todos los servicios requeridos. la cama es muy cómoda. las frases motivacionales por todo el hotel tienen su gracia, y me gustó mucho el árbol de la autoestima junto al ascensor. ¡buenos días nombre! muchas gracias por habernos elegido en tu estancia en madrid. observo que reservasteis las habitaciones dobles pequeñas. estas habitaciones son más pequeñas que las doble (de ahí que el precio sea mucho más barato), intuyo que por eso mismo reservasteis este tipo de habitación :) en cuanto al parking es un poco estrecho, pero maniobrando bien se aparca sin problemas. nuestro compañero te indicó que era mejor aparcar en el hotel que fuera, puesto que si no se tiene la etiqueta medioambiental la comunidad de madrid puede multarte. de ahí las recomendaciones de nuestro recepcionista. esperamos volver a verte muy pronto para que vuelvas a disfrutar de todos nuestros servicios. que tengas un día fantástico, y recuerda: te mereces ser feliz :) figura 27. reseña de queja y su respuesta 4. conclusión con este estudio, pretendíamos demostrar el potencial de un enfoque basado en la investigación para la enseñanza académica de la comunicación con fines específicos, que aspira a convertir a los alumnos en usuarios críticos del discurso y prepararlos para la complejidad y diversidad de la comunicación profesional en un mundo global y digitalizado. para ello, realizamos un análisis pragma-discursivo de género de un modesto corpus de webcare en español peninsular. el análisis brindó valiosas perspectivas sobre la estructura, las estrategias y el estilo comunicativo de los correos electrónicos de respuesta a reclamaciones dentro del sector español de las telecomunicaciones, así como algunos rasgos lingüísticos específicos. la integración de la investigación aplicada en la enseñanza de lsp puede enriquecer el enfoque didáctico y el contenido del plan de estudios, concretamente en lo que respecta a las estrategias de comunicación digital y multimodal. mediante el uso de datos auténticos de webcare, hemos desarrollado una aplicación didáctica concreta, en consonancia con la evolución de las demandas comunicativas del entorno profesional digital. este enfoque, que se centra en el uso de tecnologías digitales y materiales multimodales, ofrece nuevos métodos y prácticas de enseñanza que forman a los estudiantes para las realidades de la comunicación profesional moderna. pone de relieve la relevancia de la multimodalidad y el giro digital en la enseñanza de idiomas, además de subrayar el alcance de los 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de septiembre de 2018, … razón del contacto: regularización de la factura con referencia j617058433: propuesta de acción posterior: … puedes ponerte en contacto con nosotros … mención de comercialización: nuestra página web www.razónsocial.com o a través de nuestro teléfono gratuito de atención al cliente, 12345 desde cualquier fijo y móviles razónsocial, o en el 12345 3.3.1.2. estimado cliente: me dirijo a vd. en contestación a la reclamación que nos ha formulado sobre el importe de las facturas que se relacionan al final de este correo, para informarle de que se ha analizado su caso en detalle y no hemos encontrado incidencia alguna relacionada con las cuestiones que nos plantea. en consecuencia, sentimos comunicarle que el importe es correcto. por último, le agradezco la confianza que mantiene con nosotros y quiero aprovechar esta ocasión para comunicarle que, si dispone de acceso a internet, podrá consultar sus facturas en www.razonsocial.es/factura y conocer día a día la evolución de su consumo antes de ser emitidas. le saludo atentamente, [firma] nombre apellido director territorio sur 3.3.1.3. acuse de recepción: hemos recibido su solicitud para trámites de los servicios contratados con razonsocial… mención de contacto: nos dirigimos a usted en respuesta a su correo electrónico enviado 30/05/2016. mención de comercialización: … servicios que razonsocial pone a su disposición en nuestra página web … propuesta de acción posterior:… es necesario que usted se dirija a nuestros canales habituales de atención al cliente o bien a través de mi razonsocial. 3.3.1.4. acuse de recepción con el verbo recibir. razón del contacto: …que solicitaba la revisión del pago de 24€. termina con la mención de comercialización después del saludo, en forma de firma. propone la acción posterior de ponerse en contacto con el servicio de soporte online. lo podemos corregir así: buenos días nombre: hemos recibido tu reclamación del xx/xx/xxxx que solicitaba la revisión del pago de 24€. te confirmamos que ese cobro es correcto al tratarse del importe adicional para amortizar el terminal registrado a venta a plazos generado por la baja de la línea sin previo aviso. nos complace indicarte que no hay penalizaciones de la línea dado que no hay compromisos de permanencia, sino que se debió proceder a gestionar este trámite cuando la línea no estaba activa. si tuvieras alguna duda más, por favor ponte en contacto con el servicio de soporte online de razonsocial.com, será un placer ayudarte o darte una información más precisa. el objetivo de nuestra empresa es conectar a clientes satisfechos. un cordial saludo, [inicial apellido] servicio razonsocial.com] 3.3.2.1. faltan comas (,) y puntos (.), acentos gráficos, hay errores de ortografía o de escritura descuidada. ¿se usan palabras de significado negativo: desestimar, problemas? no se reconoce el problema del cliente y se descarga a la empresa de responsabilidad. no se entiende bien, pero parece que propone una solución y enviar un técnico. no se proporcionan disculpas. la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 32 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 no se agradece la iniciativa del cliente. 3.3.2.2. autoelogio: [nombredelaempresa] hace todos los esfuerzos para operar sus vuelos puntualmente, … negación de la responsabilidad:… no procede el pago de ninguna compensación en tanto que el vuelo llegó a su destino con un retraso inferior a las tres (3) horas respecto de su horario previsto. culpar a la víctima o a terceras personas: … por circunstancias fuera del control efectivo de [nombredelaempresa] que son impredecibles e inevitables, etc. 3.3.2.3. no aparecen elementos de estrategia complaciente. 3.3.2.4. hay algunos elementos de estrategia complaciente, como mostrar empatía con el verbo agradecer y una despedida cordial; redireccionar el problema o proponer una acción de corrección o compensación redireccionando el problema hacia los canales habituales o mirazonsocial. 3.3.2.5. elementos de estrategia defensiva como negar la responsabilidad o el problema (usted esta reclamando el vuelo incorrecto; según las condiciones de la compañía …); culpar a la víctima (usted tomó la decisión, usted leyó y aceptó). elementos de estrategia complaciente: como mostrar empatía (permítanos aclararle; le recordamos; los datos correctos serían …); redireccionar el problema (para atender cualquier duda o comentario deberá dirigirse …). 3.3.2.6. estimado/a sr(a) [apellido]: gracias por haberse puesto en contacto con el servicio de atención al cliente de razonsocial. de antemano, le pedimos disculpas por el tiempo de respuesta a su solicitud. hemos verificado en el sistema que se sobrepasó la ot de entrega, pues como le han informado anteriormente, el plazo era de 14 días. asimismo, no se debió haber aceptado el terminal. entendemos su malestar, pero la devolución ya no sería posible. le recordamos que estamos encantados de atender sus consultas. reciba un cordial saludo, [inicial + apellido] departamento de atención al cliente de razonsocial.com. 3.3.3.1. la instrucción de no responder escrita en mayúsculas. un ejemplo de mejora o corrección es: en lugar de responder a este email, estaremos encantados de atender su petición o consulta en … 3.3.3.2. algunos elementos apropiados para personalizar un correo de respuesta son estos saludos y despedidas, con sus correspondientes formas en femenino: estimado [nombre]; estimado señor [apellido]; le saluda atentamente, / nombre + apellido; le saluda atentamente, / nombre. 3.3.3.3. no aparece el nombre del cliente ni del empleado. saludo y despedida informal con la forma usted; algunos errores (*recibir de comunicaciones), faltan comas (,). muestra alguna empatía con el cliente al lamentar la situación. 3.3.3.4. sin nombre del cliente ni del empleado. saludo y despedida informal; uso de tuteo. muestra empatía con el cliente al disculparse. el empleado se compromete al solicitar a los servicios que actúen. 3.3.3.5. elementos del lenguaje chv para personalizar como la identificación del cliente y el empleado; el uso de la 2° persona del singular (contigo, te, necesitas) transmite informalidad e invita al cliente a reaccionar con verbos modales deber y poder. basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 33 3.3.3.6. no hay elementos del lenguaje chv para personalizar; usa la 2° persona del singular (tu, te, recuerda) para transmitir informalidad e invita al cliente a reaccionar con la fórmula estamos a tu disposición para … 3.4.1. + 3.4.2. + 3.4.4. aquí hay un ejemplo de un posible correo de respuesta con los movimientos necesarios (acuse de recepción, mención de comercialización, explicación del motivo de contacto), una estrategia de respuesta adecuada y elementos de chv (personalización del cliente o el empleado, saludo y despedida correctos, invitación a interactuar, muestra de empatía o compromiso de la empresa o el empleado, etc.): buenas tardes [nombre]: hemos recibido tu correo del xx/xx/xxxx, gracias por haberte dirigido a nosotros. te escribimos para confirmarte que, aunque durante unas horas no estuviera disponible el servicio de internet en tu zona, se trata de un problema ajeno a nuestra voluntad. por supuesto, lamentamos mucho que la conexión se mantenga irregular y te proponemos que contactes con el servicio de averías a través del teléfono 12345. sin duda, mis compañeros tendrán una solución para ti, ya sabes que nuestro objetivo es mantener conectados a clientes satisfechos. saludos cordiales, nombre y apellido] equipo de [razonsocial] www.razonsocial.com 3.5.1. considera el principio del "esfuerzo percibido" (cambra fierro et al., 2013) que mencionamos más arriba, como uno de los factores decisivos para la evaluación positiva del servicio postventa. de ahí la importancia de cuidar la redacción para que el cliente se sienta valorado. 3.5.2. reflexiona sobre las diferencias que existen entre las linguaculturas en cuanto a la formulación, a pesar de que la estructura genérica sea bastante parecida. en el citado estudio de van herck & vangehuchten (2024) destaca en particular la diferencia entre el enfoque orientado hacia el cliente de los datos británicos y el enfoque orientado hacia los negocios de los datos españoles. 3.5.3. este ejercicio sirve para iniciar una reflexión sobre la comunicación externa e interna de una empresa hacia los diferentes grupos de interés. 3.5.4. el objetivo de este último ejercicio es reflexionar acerca de otros géneros que forman parte del webcare, como las reacciones a las reseñas online. se puede aprovechar para introducir conceptos relacionados importantes, como el newom (negative electronic word of mouth) y el prosumidor, es decir, el consumidor que se transforma en productor de información en la red, y explicar su importancia para la reputación de una empresa (aced, 2018). la competencia pragma-discursiva en las respuestas por correo electrónico a reclamaciones 34 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 almudena basanta, universidad de amberes almudena.basanta@uantwerpen.be es almudena basanta es doctora en lingüística y profesora asistente en el departamento de lingüística de la universidad de amberes, donde imparte clases de sintaxis y de español económico y comercial en el programa de grado. también es miembro del language acquisition research laboratory de la universidad de ottawa (canadá). actualmente sus líneas de investigación abordan la descripción y el análisis de aspectos teóricos y aplicados del español para fines específicos. en almudena basanta is a doctor of linguistics and assistant professor in the department of linguistics at the university of antwerp, where she teaches syntax and economic and business spanish in the undergraduate program. she is a member of the language acquisition research laboratory at the university of ottawa (canada). her current research interests include the description and analysis of theoretical and applied aspects of spanish for specific purposes. it almudena basanta ha un dottorato in linguistica ed è ricercatrice presso il dipartimento di linguistica dell’università di amberes, dove tiene corsi di sintassi e di spagnolo economico e commerciale nel programma di laurea. membro del language acquisition research laboratory dell’università di ottawa (canada). attualmente le sue linee di ricerca riguardano la descrizione e l’analisi degli aspetti teorici e applicati dello spagnolo per scopi specifici. lieve vangehuchten universidad de amberes lieve.vangehuchten@uantwerpen.be es lieve vangehuchten es profesora titular de español para fines específicos en la universidad de amberes. sus intereses de investigación se centran en la descripción y el análisis del español para fines específicos con objetivos teóricos (análisis del discurso y de los géneros) y aplicados (adquisición de l2 y pedagogía), por ejemplo, en relación con la competencia oral y escrita, la terminología y las dimensiones socioeconómica y sociocultural. en lieve vangehuchten is a full professor of spanish for specific purposes at the university of antwerp. her research interests focus on the description and analysis of spanish for specific purposes with theoretical (discourse and genre analysis) and applied (l2 acquisition and pedagogy) objectives, for example, in relation to oral and written proficiency, terminology, and socioeconomic and sociocultural dimensions. it lieve vangehuchten è professoressa ordinaria di spagnolo per scopi specifici presso l’università di amberes. i suoi interessi di ricerca si concentrano sulla descrizione e l’analisi dello spagnolo per scopi specifici con obiettivi teorici (analisi del discorso e dei generi) e applicati (acquisizione della l2 e pedagogia), ad esempio, nella relazione con la competenza orale e scritta, la terminologia e la dimensione socioeconomica e socioculturale. basanta, vangehuchten & van herck e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 7–35 35 rebecca van herck, universidad de amberes rebecca.vanherck@ru.nl es rebecca van herck es profesora adjunta en el centro de estudios lingüísticos de la universidad de radboud (países bajos). terminó su doctorado en la universidad de gante (bélgica) en 2021 con una disertación sobre las respuestas por correo electrónico a las quejas de los clientes. lleva a cabo investigaciones en el campo de la comunicación empresarial con un enfoque en la atención online (webcare) utilizando métodos cualitativos y cuantitativos. en rebecca van herck is an assistant professor at the centre for linguistic studies at radboud university (netherlands). she completed her phd at ghent university (belgium) in 2021 with a dissertation on email responses to customer complaints. she conducts research in the field of business communication with a focus on online care (webcare) using qualitative and quantitative methods. it rebecca van herck è docente a contratto presso il centro di studi linguistici dell’università di radboud (paesi bassi). ha concluso il dottorato presso l’università di gand (belgio) nel 2021 con una tesi sulle risposte tramite posta elettronica ai reclami dei clienti. conduce ricerche nel campo della comunicazione d’impresa con un focus sul supporto online (webcare) utilizzando metodi qualitativi e quantitativi. e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 2, december 2023, 95-112 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.2.2758 www.e-journall.org © bonomo & giuffrida 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. the use of travel narratives to foster intercultural sensitivity and language awareness in the esp and eap classrooms: the case of a house in sicily by daphne phelps and its italian translation una casa in sicilia1 annalisa bonomo università degli studi di enna “kore” simona agata giuffrida università degli studi di catania received 21 april 2022; accepted 22 october 2023 abstract en this study argues for the use of english travel narratives and their interlingual translations as vehicles to foster intercultural sensitivity and language awareness in the eap classroom. both travel writing and interlingual translation have been, in fact, successfully used in academic environments, as shown by an increasing scholarly interest over the past decades. moreover, the relationship between travel and language can be explored, in cronin’s words, “in the context of a nomadic theory of translation” where “the translating agent like the traveller straddles the borderline between the cultures” (cronin, 2000, p. 2). in light of these considerations, this study performs a comparative analysis of daphne phelps’s british travel narrative a house in sicily (1999) and its italian translation una casa in sicilia (2001) to show how travel writing (also in translation) may be an excellent opportunity for a reappraisal of what literature may have to offer in the eap context. key words: travel, writing, translation, phelps, eap es este estudio aboga por el uso de narrativas de viajes en inglés y sus traducciones interlingüísticas como vehículos para fomentar la sensibilidad intercultural y la conciencia lingüística en el aula de eap. tanto las narrativas de viajes como las traducciones interlingüísticas se han utilizado con éxito en entornos académicos, tal como demuestra el creciente interés por su estudio en las últimas décadas. además, la relación entre los viajes y la lengua puede explorarse, en palabras de cronin, “in the context of a nomadic theory of translation” donde “the translating agent like the traveller straddles the borderline between the cultures” (cronin, 2000, p. 2). a la luz de estas consideraciones, este estudio lleva a cabo un análisis comparativo de las narrativas de viajes británicas de daphne phelps en a house in sicily (1999) y su traducción italiana una casa in sicilia (2001) para mostrar cómo la narrativa de viajes (también traducida) puede ser una excelente oportunidad para reevaluar qué puede ofrecer este tipo de literatura al contexto de eap. palabras clave: viajes, escritura, traducción, phelps, eap it il presente studio presenta la narrativa di viaggio inglese e la sua traduzione interlingue come veicoli di una possibile spinta verso una sensibilità interculturale e una consapevolezza linguistica all’interno delle classi eap. tanto la narrativa di viaggio che la traduzione sono, infatti, stati usati con successo in diversi contesti accademici come dimostrato dal crescente interesse scientifico nei loro riguardi negli ultimi decenni. in più, la relazione tra viaggio e lingua può essere esplorata, secondo cronin, “in the context of a nomadic theory of translation” where “the translating agent like the traveller straddles the borderline between the cultures” (cronin, 2000, p. 2). alla luce di tali considerazioni, questo lavoro propone un’analisi comparata tra la narrativa di viaggio a house in sicily (1999) di daphne phelps e la sua traduzione italiana una casa in sicilia (2001) al fine di dimostrare come scrivere il viaggio (anche in traduzione) possa rappresentare un’eccellente opportunità di rivalutazione di quanto la letteratura possa offrire in contesti di apprendimento eap. parole chiave: viaggio, scrittura, traduzione, phelps, eap  simona agata giuffrida, università degli studi di catania sagiuffrida@gmail.com 1 sections 1, 2, and 2.1 were written by annalisa bonomo. sections 3, 4, 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 were written by simona agata giuffrida. section 5 was written by both the authors. http://www.e-journall.org/ bonomo & giuffrida e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 96 1. introduction an important strand in the development of successful esp (english for special purposes) and eap (english for academic purposes) programs implies what richards et al. called “the process of determining the needs for which a learner or a group of learners requires a language and arranging the needs according to priorities” (1992, p. 242). if so, the needs to be taken into account in devising syllabuses, materials and courses involve the subject matter and specific language skills. however, as jordan notes, learners may feel they have some “wants” too, “which may conflict with the views of sponsors, course designers, etc.” (1997, p. 26). for example, “a language course may focus on reading and writing because that will be the core of the subjectcourse the students will be attending. the students, however, may feel they want to develop their spoken english more, as this is their weakest skill.” (jordan, 1997, p. 26) at first sight, “needs and wants” seem to follow logical procedures, being steadily interpreted as static and inflexible. however, this engenders from the false assumption that learning itself can be only a systematic affaire. on the contrary, studies in cross-cultural disciplines and a non-essentialist paradigm, as sustained by victoria and sangiamchit, recognise that “individuals can simultaneously belong to different small cultures (holliday, 1999), such as a sports club, a volunteer organisation, and an occupational membership. (…) furthermore, there is recognition that an individual’s identity is not about ‘some fundamental essence of character’ but rather ‘a continuous process accomplished through actions and words’ (baxter, 2016, p. 28, qtd. by victoria and sangiamchit 2021, pp. 4 5)2. accordingly, the multifaceted nature of culture defies teachers’ choices as regards their instructional methods, intended tasks, and materials, especially when dealing with foreign language learning and intercultural competence. in this respect, esp/eap environments may incorporate some intercultural activities in order to help students to fulfil what zaghar calls “three elemental aims, cognitive, affective and behavioural” (2017, p. 505), and teachers are expected to design syllabuses based on the improvement of their learners’ intercultural aptitudes and managerial skills. this leads to a wealth of published books and articles3 on the implementation of teaching methods and learning tasks, which can stand on students’ perceptions of their communicative needs, learning-centred approaches, and the multidimensional nature of the teaching/learning process. indeed, the main trends of esp have been variously investigated in the last decades, in order to outline, as ostbye noted in 1997, all the possible boundaries “between esp and english for academic purposes (eap), or esp and english for occupational purposes (eop), such as the classification purposed under the aegis of the british council in 1975” (p. 94). however, within such a “repertoire of options” (hyland, 2004, p.46), in the 1980s swales (1981) in particular demonstrated how a genre perspective could offer some interesting insights and meaningful tools for thoughtful teaching of communicative events even in esp and, consequently, in eap contexts, as content and style are relevant issues of genre analysis in esp, drawing on “concepts of community and social purposes” (hyland, 2004, p. 44), and thus showing individuals within their own frameworks while they are telling their stories. for these reasons, an esp and eap approach to genre in teaching may offer teachers and students possible advantages, such as: – an efficient way of identifying the texts learners will need to write in a particular context; – a means of sequencing and grouping texts; – a description of the typical features of key genres that students can draw on for their own communicative purposes in their professional or academic lives; – an ability to understand what happens in real-world-interactions and a means to participate in these interactions; – a way of seeing how genres are interrelated in real life and an authentic context for developing skills in a range of spoken and written genres; – an understanding of the roles and purposes of writers and readers – why someone would write and read the genre. (hyland, 2004, pp. 46-47). 2 conversely, the essentialist model sees individuals as “passive bearers of a stable set of characteristics and identities that they share with a group of people. this view is associated with a large culture, nation-based perspective favouring geographic borders as a way of conceptualising culture,” see victoria and sangiamchit, 2021, p. 4. 3 see, among the others, guardado and light 2020; , hafner and miller, 2019; hyland and wong 2019. the use of travel narratives to foster intercultural sensitivity and language awareness e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 97 as genres are not strictly rule-governed systems, they also include a series of choices and constraints that can be effectively incorporated to esp and eap language classrooms. furthermore, some genres in literature can be seen as useful vehicles more than others in fostering intercultural sensitivity and language awareness. in light of these considerations, this paper investigates english travel narratives and their italian translations according to a “revisited” genre perspective that establishes literature as a vital intercultural tool in esp and eap classes and, more generally, in language teaching. in fact, both travel writing and interlingual translation have been successfully used in academic environments, as demonstrated by an increasing scholarly interest over the past decades (see, among others, bayyurt & akcan, 2015; beaven & borghetti, 2014; buden et. al., 2009; byram & feng, 2006; wu, 2021). against this background, the study performs a comparative analysis of daphne phelps’s british travel narrative a house in sicily (1999) and its italian translation una casa in sicilia (2001). venuti’s strategies of domestication and foreignization, together with the “deforming”4 tendencies of berman’s negative analytic of translation, will be key tools in evaluating phelps’s novel and its italian version. thus, the potential eap learner will be made aware of all the critical interculturally-sensitive areas of the source text and how these are mirrored in translation. in the same vein, the study will illustrate how travel writing (also in translation) can be interestingly explored as a good way to serve eap learners’ needs, being, as such, an excellent opportunity for a reappraisal of what literature may have to offer in the eap context. 2. the use of travel narrative as eap curriculum renewal literature is rarely found in esp or eap syllabuses or efl (english as a foreign language) textbooks. this stems from the general belief that a focus on literary items and vocabulary could even hinder the language learning process. on the contrary, literature and english language teaching have always been intertwined, especially when asked to foster learners’ language awareness, critical thinking and intercultural understanding. in tatzl’s words, foreign language education (fle) and general english teaching have traditionally comprised literature as a form of art in classrooms. according to ur, students in fle should learn to use the language to build personal relationships, work in business, and embark on further studies. these goals are rather universal, as also esp aims at such competencies, but the texts used in general english and esp differ fundamentally. literature in esp is closely linked to reading for information and comprises subject-specific texts (e.g., from biology or mathematics), journalistic texts (e.g., from newspapers or magazines), instructional texts (e.g., from manuals, guidelines, or standards), and descriptive texts (e.g., from travel guides or commercial brochures). literature in general english, however, is often connected with reading for pleasure and rests on popular literature (e.g., contemporary fiction) and literature as art in the forms of poetry, drama, and prose in the canon. notwithstanding this established and reasonable demarcation, there may be niche roles of literature in esp contexts as well. (2020, introduction, emphasis added) of course, there may be possible disadvantages of using literature in esp/eap classes, as it may generally involve difficult and bookish language and long texts that are time-consuming to teach. moreover, the cultural context of some works may be alien to students, leading them to consider literature irrelevant for their academic tasks. in contrast, fiction abounds with descriptions of scenery and landscapes, which may be strongly beneficial to certain esp/eap goals, as they may support descriptive writing tasks in the context of travel-related activities or advertising in business. for example, in jiménez’s words, “most contemporary travel books depict the changing conditions of modernising societies, reflecting the philosophical and existential views of the traveller. (…) moreover, most travel books offer a vehicle for students to challenge assumptions, explore various critical topics, and discuss new ideas from diverse perspectives” (2001, p. 85). numerous studies have reported that the relationship between reading and writing is a beneficial one, both for native and non-native english-speaking learners (see gillespie & lerner, 2008; gonzalez and miller, 2020; grabe 2003; strickland, mandel morrow, 2000). thus, a literature-based syllabus can design cognitive strategies for eap students in terms of the use of the language, thinking in the language and valuing the language 4 the expression deformed refers to the system of textual deformation in tts that prevents the foreign coming through. berman’s examination of the forms of deformation has been called negative analytic of translation (see berman (1985) 2000, pp. 284-297). bonomo & giuffrida e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 98 they are learning. moreover, literature is an entrancing and entertaining guide in building vocabulary, an essential skill for esp and eap students in improving their composing process and syntactic flexibility. in fact, according to perkins and jiang (2020), the use of literary texts in eap classes requires teachers to use a broad spectrum of techniques in order to foster the conscious use of reading selections and regulate class discussions about them. such a battery of tests might include the following: (1) cloze exercises; (2) teaching lexical sets and semantic functions; (3) establishing set discriminations; (4) practice infrequently occurring collocational groups of particular fields; (5) identification of the base form of words; (6) affix drills; (7) paired-associate compositions; (8) synonym and antonym exercises; and (9) contextualised practice with word forms (for further information, see wright, 2015, pp. 160-161). (perkins & jian, 2020, p. 52) indeed, these are all language activities of higher education contexts where english is the medium of an elaborate language experience that advocates some gradual release of responsibility from a teacher-centred instruction to a student-centred high performance. however, while eap generally deals with “the teaching of english with the specific aim of helping learners to study, conduct research or teach in that language” (flowerdew and peacock, 2001, p. 8), academic writing (and teaching) is not as rigid or literate as it used to be. admittedly, it is distinguished by the following characteristics: – eap is goal directed – students learn english because they need it; – eap courses are based on needs analyses – which specify clearly what students have to do in english; – most eap courses are fixed term – short professional courses or longer foundation courses – in preparation for academic courses; – students may need specialist language, but not necessarily – courses are defined by the activities the students will engage in. – a very high level of proficiency may not be required students need to succeed in their aims. (robinson 1991, pp. 2-5) qtd. by frydrychova klimova (2012, pp. 311-312) nevertheless, in terms of dealing with setting up curriculum renewals, eap programs may significantly vary due to different organizing constraints and perspectives on language learning. these may involve change and innovations in order to nurture a receptive working and learning environment, which stimulates students’ willingness and responsiveness to their needs. certainly, “the extent to which innovations are accepted by potential adopters is strongly influenced by perceived attributes of innovations. some attributes (e.g. visibility, trialability, feasibility) lead to positive attitudes, whereas others (e.g. complex) can create immediate barriers” (stoller, p. 2001). for these reasons, can the use of narrative and literary texts be discussed in terms of eap curriculum renewal? if eap methodology and pedagogy go further in writing about teaching, the answer may be yes, especially when actively encouraging learners in an eap environment who are most typically adults and usually have “more maturity, more personal agency, and a greater sense of purpose” (bell, 2022, p. 6). the way language is used on particular occasions cannot be wholly predetermined by the untroubled theoretical issues of those eap concerns “generally regarded as a hand-maiden to those ‘proper’ disciplines which are more directly engaged in the serious business of constructing knowledge or discovering truth” (hyland, 2006, p. 34). as such, the use of literary texts in eap contexts can be evaluated in terms of pointless concerns or exceedingly ambitious tasks; however, it is certainly worth mentioning in terms of possible eap curriculum renewal. more specifically, travel narrative implicitly involves skills such as self-awareness, managing conflict and stereotypes and evaluating cultural differences, all things that are much needed in contexts of student mobility and higher education. in addition, while many readers believe the most important focus of travel narrative deals with specific places or definite destinations, as carr points out, “works of travel are also about sampling the tastes of other times and places, of course, and yet they are also about looking for something else. the best of them appear to extend well beyond the constraints of travel, a term that seems almost incidental to the writers’ intention” (carr, 2004, p. 59). as the quote highlights, it is a matter of definition. at first, determining what travel narratives are and what they are not may seem to be a relatively straightforward matter; however, it is not. unquestionably, as burgin notes, “travel narrative means a book in which one or more travellers take a voluntary trip to one or more places and share their personal thoughts, perceptions, reactions, and experiences. these narratives are intended to be read and enjoyed in a linear manner, from start to finish, and not referred the use of travel narratives to foster intercultural sensitivity and language awareness e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 99 to simply on an as needed basis” (2013, p. xiv). in the same way, travel implicitly involves questions of identity and self, and other relationships, pointing up how complex and strongly heterogeneous these notions may be. 2.1. interlingual translation of travel narrative in eap classrooms critical writing on travel should also offer some interesting room for the relationships between travellers and languages. the use of appropriate language choices, a focus on practical writing exercises and the discussion of students’ experience of travel in terms of language knowledge and practice, confirms travel as being clearly endowed with high educational potential. likewise, studies in travel writing now adopt critical positions that account for competing forces and fruitful domains of scholarly and academic inquiry. they negotiate with “translation, transculturation, cosmopolitanism and world literature as symptoms of the globalised university’s growth ambitions” (culbert, 2018, p. 346). this wealth of material intersects conditions of intercultural knowledge, which makes texts converge between languages and cultures; such a crossing frontier can fruitfully work in eap learning contexts as well. in fact, as bassnett notes, moreover, just as translators exercise a high degree of individual creativity in their rewriting, so the travel writer negotiates between cultures, bringing to a target audience his or her subjective impressions of a journey undertaken. this role is akin to that of the translator, who is, above all, a mediator between cultures, a janus-faced being who inhabits two different worlds and whose task is to bring those worlds into contact. (bassnett, 2019, p. 550, emphasis added). when dealing with translating travel narratives, creativity, rewriting and mediation are all translation strategies specifically engaged in abridgments, paratextual commentary, or localising practices, according to specific contingencies of the target audience. as such, translation-based activities in esp/eap teaching/ learning contexts can also disclose important issues that have been hitherto very scarcely researched for a seemingly obvious but unsubstantiated reason. as mažeikienė argues in fact, “translation as a teaching method was associated with the grammar-translation method for a very long time and, consequently, the use of translation in teaching a foreign language (and the use of l1 in l2 instruction) have been unduly criticised” (2019, pp. 513-514). rather, leonardi (2009) maintains that “translation is more and more frequently evaluated as a positive form of interference aimed at enriching rather than harming learners’ competence and performance skills. the use of translation in language classes might, of course, have some limitations but also benefits should be explored and taken into consideration” (2009, p. 143). for example, among some of the problems that have been historically faced by translators of travel narratives, there is the translation of terms from exotic realia, hardly untranslatable words that can carry the bulk of the source text they are rendering in a foreign language. thus, translators have drawn on a wide range of strategies in order to handle such unfamiliar concepts, ranging from cases of extensive omissions to glosses, borrowings, foreignizing or domesticating versions to the use of “lexical exoticism” effects, for which, as cronin argues, words become the souvenirs brought home to the expectant reader (…). they operate as signs of the untranslatable but is a space of translation. the reality that is happening in a foreign language is being conveyed to the reader in the language of the narrative; in other words, it is being continuously translated into that language but foreign words remain as witting or unwitting reminders of how fraught the process of translation is in the first place (2000, p. 40). with many societies around the world confronting complex issues of globalisation and cultural hybridisation in all literary contexts, and with the new critical frameworks that have emerged in travel writing studies since the 1980s, travel writing itself “situates” experiences, feelings and scenarios within fictitious or real geographical spaces more than other genres. in this sense, it works as a felicitous medium to discuss the areas visited or travelled to, providing information such as location, landscapes, food, aspects of nature, religious beliefs, traditions and customs, among others. this means that the relationship between travel and language (also in translation) can be explored, in cronin’s words, “in the context of a nomadic theory of translation,” where “the translating agent like the traveller straddles the borderline between the cultures” (2000, p. 2). it seems that, just as the translation of non-fictional writing was overlooked for many years, as scholars of translation studies focused almost solely on fictional forms, so the role of the translator as facilitator in the international transmission of knowledge has only recently attracted critical attention. bonomo & giuffrida e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 100 likewise, translation is a real-life and natural activity; this means that the quality of translation can be discussed in classroom, thus encouraging students to spot mistakes, adaptations, omissions, etc. so as to provide suggestions which can improve the target text in terms of their language awareness. since academics should speak as well as they write and translate, translation can definitely be considered a prestigious “textual, communicative, and cognitive activity, involving decision-making, problem-solving skills and expert knowledge” (fois, 2021, p. 61). these skills are all part of the eap agenda. in view of all this, the following section focuses on daphne phelps’s british travel narrative a house in sicily (1999) and its italian translation una casa in sicilia (2001) in order to show how “translation is not only the means of producing travel writing, in a metaphorical sense, but very often also the represented subject in travel writing. such representation is sometimes disguised, as though everything happens in the traveller’s language, and is sometimes marked by salient linguistic foreignness.” (wu 2021, pp. 404-405) the results of such an interlingual relationship between the two texts will be looked into in terms of positive intervention during the learning progress and acquisition of eap skills. 3. a house in sicily: one narrative, two “translations” settling in a “house” abroad does not just refer to the title of the memoir at hand, a house in sicily (1999), but to a literary subgenre that has gained marketing fortune since the 1990s, particularly in italy. known under an array of definitions (settlement literature, home-abroad books, relocation memoirs, etc.), these narratives reiterate the “topos of life among the locals” (mastellotto, 2013; ross, 2010, p. 122), in which expatriates have to grapple with the challenges of living in an alluring foreign land while their identities are reassessed and reconstructed through the transformative experience of building or renovating a home abroad. the story of daphne phelps (1911-2005) only partially re-enacts this paradigm. casa cuseni – today a guest house and a museum located in the touristic site of taormina – was neither built nor renovated; in fact, the reader learns about the author’s misadventures when trying to sell the house she had inherited from her uncle, sir robert kitson, in the gloomy aftermath of wwii. she eventually rescued casa cuseni from being torn apart or sold to local mafiosi, and profitably converted it into a locanda for artists, poets and intellectuals. more a collection of tales than a memoir, phelps’s writing resists dwelling on her inner world and makes room for the newness and inconsistencies of her outer world. much like her uncle did in painting, she sketches vivid and unconventional portraits of local inhabitants and famous guests, peeking into the lives of a small, evolving community, whose nuances and voices she catches with an insightful eye across half a century. one may wonder what makes this travel memoir an interesting read in the eap classroom. empirical evidence of the potential of travel writing in enhancing intercultural sensitivity and defamiliarization has foregrounded the key role of learners’ cultural positionality their localness in the aesthetic experience (giuffrida, 2016). this potential is best unlocked when learners act as unintended readers of travel narratives featuring home environments, with their own cultural patterns variably displayed, albeit refracted, by a foreign authorial stance. i have named this kind of reader, and the associated reading strategy, locally-situated (ls): the locally-situated reader (lsr) is a de-centring device predicated on subverting the ideological construct of the implied reader, by having local readers, to whom the text is not addressed, flout the instructions set out by the writer to invite preferred interpretations. as a result of using the lsr strategy, the referential pact between the writer and the reader is sabotaged, and ls learners are encouraged to construct their own meanings rather than the official ones, opening up the possibility of new, alternative semiosis (giuffrida, 2016, p. 37). a case in point is phelps’s memoir and its italian rendition, una casa in sicilia (2001), translated by anna lovisolo. though it may seem naturally built into it, the lsr strategy is, in fact, challenged by the italian translation, as the ls reader – now intentional and italian-speaking – is meant to inhabit the same socialisation space as the other, thus allowing for a domestication of the foreign element and a flattening of its forms of hybridization. to restore a foreignizing lens, a dialogic framework, where the source text and the target text are compared and contrasted using a set of analytical tools, is therefore needed. this is to counter the domesticating effects of the italian-speaking readership, which the english account was never intended for, not to mention the interpretive bias of the italian translator (born and based in milan), which will be assessed reflectively. within this framework, localised students of eap will be able to observe their discursive community from an anglophone perspective across two intersecting layers of translation: the use of travel narratives to foster intercultural sensitivity and language awareness e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 101 1) a cultural translation, where the author “translates” the italian-speaking community for english-speaking readers; 2) an interlingual translation, where that very same community is “translated” back into italian for italian readers. interestingly, the two texts exhibit contrasting translational strategies. phelps’s english departs from current standard usage at many levels, reflecting how multifarious and transformative her sicilian life had been, culturally and linguistically. her narrative highlights discursive heterogeneity and resists assimilation to domestic codes in ways that will be illustrated in section 4. in translational terms, her strategy can be referred to as “foreignizing" (venuti, 1995). lovisolo’s dominant strategy, on the other hand, is largely “domesticating”, insofar as she minimizes or utterly conceals the foreign identity of the source text, thus prioritizing transparency over opacity, message content over language texture, homogenization over heterogeneity. her preference for standard italian and no register variations stems from a need for a broader, interregional audience. the demand for a readable and, therefore, marketable story is consistent with the publishing decision to allure italian readers, who are also targeted as prospective tourists, the ultimate goal being not so much the life of an unknown british author as, in fact, promoting casa cuseni. this is illustrative of how fluency is always ideologically laden and translation a purposeful act subjected to commodification, as well as to political and economic constraints. this therefore represents major issue for eap students to reflect upon. 4. translation manipulations for eap students as shown by the empirical data i have collected (giuffrida, 2016), as well as the textual analysis that follows, the lsr strategy can be a crucial factor when designing eap courses in which intercultural understanding and language awareness are fostered by reading and translating travel literature. in terms of teaching practice, i advocate a kind of travel literature in which local learners will benefit from a cognitive vantage point as insiders within the intercultural dynamic at play. here they will find themselves somehow mirrored in the culture(s) represented through a dual defamiliarising lens: the foreign-language text and its l1 translation. this kind of setting is conducive to alternative hermeneutic ways, not to mention its potential for intercultural sensitivity development. the focus on localization acts as a magnifying glass, allowing local readers to see more insightfully than someone alien to the cultural practices being explored. for instance, my knowledge of the sicilian dialect has allowed me to detect its absence in the translated text and, at the same time, its disguised presence in the source text; this, in turn, has brought to light manipulative interventions on the source text that would otherwise have gone unnoticed to light. this unusual perspective can be tremendously beneficial to the eap learner in terms of basic interpersonal communication skills (bics) as well as cognitive academic language proficiency (calp). what i envisage as catalyst to these skills is not just the sheer act of translating, but a broader range of tasks where intercultural communication and language awareness intertwine and enhance each other: namely, reading effectively and reflectively, commenting on and comparing translations, evaluating and negotiating viable solutions, focusing on the process rather than the end result, manipulating and reshaping the target text, assessing one’s own interpretive bias (critical cultural awareness). my commentary, which is meant to model such tasks, will tackle some critical interculturally-sensitive areas where translation manipulations are most likely to occur (from punctuation and culture-specific lexis to more complex stylistic features, such as idiolects), sometimes providing alternative renditions as a comparative and reflective tool. 4.1. narrator speech: domesticating effects on interlanguage and local color in the fl (foreign language) classroom, a third perspective is the symbolic space where learners can find their own meanings when using the foreign language and one of the central goals of intercultural learning (kramsch, 2009). quite similarly, phelps carves out a dimension in which she is simultaneously an outsider and an insider, a “third space” where she accommodates to cultural differences and eventually finds a voice of her own (bhabha, 1994). while creatively embedded in the textual geography and in the articulatory structures of the source text, this space of negotiation and meaning reconstruction is flattened out in translation. a house in sicily provides a close rendering of the foreign at prosodic, syntactic and lexical levels. local dialects are often echoed in speech utterances, and italian-sounding structures and registers are easily detectable. phelps constructs her persona as a speaker and a translator of the italian language. accordingly, she bonomo & giuffrida e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 102 portrays herself while performing oral or written translations, sometimes even counterfeiting the message to save the day. a unique interlanguage flavor saturates the narrative, building on “code switching” and “code mixing” effects (loanwords and instances of non-translation, calque renderings). in the target text, in contrast, calque renderings are inevitably made invisible and naturalized due to literalism in the translator’s strategy. there are countless examples of this in this domain. let us note a few: table 1 interlanguage effects calques from italian target text i can arrange myself (p.164) she “adapted herself” (p.190) preoccupied by (p.117) embracings (p.119) he reproved me (p.126) ingratiate (p. 21) denounced (p. 53) ‘disobligated’ himself (p. 64) inaugurate (p.155) advise (p.156) brought to the light of day (p. 75) riesco ad adattarmi (p. 215) si arrangiava (p. 248) preoccupato (p.165) abbracci (p.160) mi rimproverava (p.166) ingraziarsi (p. 44) denunciata (p. 75) si è sdebitato (p. 93) inaugurare (p. 205) avvisare (p 205) ha dato alla luce (p. 106) unsurprisingly, the narrative is also interspersed with lexical exotica, which bring local color to the conversation, either blending in or colliding with the author’s discourse. in phelps’s account, they are always italicised and construct effects of code mixing and code switching (e.g. “i was una persona seria,” p. 164, “it sounded very mafioso”, p. 31”, “my uncle never missed a festa”, p. 29, “he used these to fare la fuga”, p. 70). lexical exotica are further used to: – show the impossibility for the writer to bridge a cultural gap and translate the other in her own terms; – allow native voices to resonate in their own idiom; – signal that the conversation took place in the foreign language so as to authenticate the portraits being shown; – encapsulate cross-cultural adaptive behaviors or cultural conflicts. sometimes, when tackling a culture-specific phrase, the writer provides the anglophone readers with an imperfect explanation, which is omitted in translation on account of its redundancy to an italian audience. the effect of this intervention is subtractive, causing a major loss in hybrid formations and meaning variance. in the source text, this kind of redundancy entails interesting – linguistic and cultural – clashes, as words are sometimes mistranslated (terroni, or people of the earth, p. 80; ‘lo ho due muglieri’ i have two women, p. 78; ‘tiriamo’ – we drag along, p. 195), or misspelled (sotto voce/sottovoce, femina/femmina). such incorrect renderings engender coinages, creative adaptations or false cognates which, if left undomesticated, would add to the productivity of the target text and enhance its “foreignness.” 4.2. narrator speech: domesticating effects on diction, syntax and discourse a bakhtinian perspective is well known to have opened up new possibilities for exploiting the distinctive heteroglossia of the travel genre. phelps’s narrative also invites a dialogic reading, as it is the locus where multiple speech styles and socio-ideological languages intertwine with the authorial voice. this polyphonic quality generates instances of cultural hybridization involving the narrator and the character discourse, which pose great challenges for the translator. as it journeys back into italian, phelps’s travel memoir undergoes some major manipulations, which mostly affect discursive heterogeneity. sections 4.2 and 4.3 provide evidence of noticeable discrepancies in narrator, as well as in character, speech. the analysis carries out a comparative reading of the translation and the source text so as to foreground various expressions of difference; it draws on venuti’s strategies of the use of travel narratives to foster intercultural sensitivity and language awareness e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 103 domestication and foreignization (venuti, 1995), alongside berman’s negative analytic (2000). lewis’s notion of “abusive” fidelity epitomizes the main argument among these scholars, that is, to redirect translators’ attention “to the chain of signifiers, to syntactic processes, to discursive structures, to the incidence of language mechanisms on thought and reality formation” (2000, p 270). in keeping with the eap agenda and its focus on language awareness, the analysis sets out to reflect upon the translator’s interpretive choices and the social determinations underlying them. 4.2.1. patterns of punctuation punctuation markers encode phelps’s own voice, her timbre, her unique pacing. they are revealing of her character and can be seen as part of her stylistic signature. let us consider the following extracts: table 2 patterns of punctuation in translation source text target text my strange sicilian life had its roots at the turn of the century, but i was only born eleven years later. in 1900 robert hawthorn kitson, my mother’s brother, arrived in sicily. he had travelled down through italy looking for the perfect place to build his house, and when he came to taormina on the east coast of the island, he was enchanted by its magical beauty and by the overwhelming view of etna – the highest and most active volcano in europe.(p. 1, my bold) la mia singolare vita in sicilia affonda le radici alla svolta del secolo scorso, benché (lit. although) io sia nata soltanto undici anni dopo. robert hawthorn kitson, il fratello di mia madre, approdò in sicilia nel 1900, dopo aver attraversato (lit. after having crossed) l’italia verso sud alla ricerca del (lit. in search for) luogo ideale dove costruirsi una casa. quando giunse a taormina, sulla costa orientale dell’isola, rimase incantato dalla sua bellezza magica, mentre (lit. while) la vista dell’etna, il vulcano attivo più alto d’europa, lo lasciò senza fiato.(p. 13, my bold and my english translations) at messina i changed into my deepest black. it was only five months since my uncle’s death and i had never worn mourning. but i was thankful i had changed in time. to have appeared in ordinary clothes would have led to disaster at the very beginning. i would have shocked everyone profoundly. (p.17, my bold) appena arrivata a messina, mi vestii di nero da capo a piedi. la morte di mio zio era avvenuta cinque mesi prima e naturalmente (lit. naturally) non mi ero messa a lutto, tuttavia ringraziai il cielo per essermi cambiata in tempo, perché (lit. because) mostrarmi con abiti normali avrebbe causato una vera catastrofe: avrei scioccato tutti. (p. 32, my bold and my english translations) both excerpts are telling examples of “transparent” translation. though seemingly faithful, they both fail to deliver the author’s intended register (informal, straightforward) and tenor (blunt without being judgmental). furthermore, the second excerpt, by simply replacing “never” with “naturalmente”, endows the narrative with an ironic undertone that was not explicit in the source text. the major translation manipulation, according to berman’s analytic, is “rationalization” (along with clarification, expansion, and many others), which primarily subverts punctuation, sentence structuring and sequencing. standard italian norms of fluency value hypotactic phrasing over fragmentariness and parataxic order, and seek to enhance cohesion via the “explicitation” of clause connectors (e.g. “mentre” “naturalmente”, “perché”, etc), order of syntax and degree of abstraction (e.g. the noun “ricerca” in place of the verb “looking for”). this inevitably winds up disrupting the rhythmic flow and destabilizing meaning. as illustrated in the next section, phrases like “the highest and most active volcano in europe” lose their prominence when typographical markers such as em-dashes are replaced by commas. 4.2.2. narratorial “asides”: parenthesis and em-dashes a distinctive feature of phelps’s style is her slightly dickensian use of round brackets and em-dashes to set off narrative asides and drag her readers out of the narration. in particular, the extensive use of these devices enables the author to – enclose questions, doubts, reactions, and passing comments, which are often humorous or ironical; – construct a foreign eye’s observations as a voice over; bonomo & giuffrida e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 104 – convey a unique oral quality to the narrative; – create an internal structure emulating the writer’s thought processes. a parenthetical styling affects rhythm and pace in ways that are not always acceptable according to reception standards. unsurprisingly, the italian translator keeps most of the bracketed comments, but favors the use of commas over em-dashes. let us assess the fallout of these manipulations in the next set of examples: table 3 em-dashes in translation source text target text the corso was the nightly setting for the passeggiata, when all social classes would walk slowly up and down to meet their friends and to drink, gossip and gamble. at least, the men of the working classes did – they kept their women at home. (p. 3, my bold). il corso era il luogo della passeggiata serale, dove i cittadini di ogni ceto sociale si incontravano con gli amici per bere e per fare pettegolezzi e scommesse. soltanto gli uomini, però, perché (lit. but, because) le donne dovevano stare chiuse in casa. (p. 15, my bold and my english translation). as children in england, we had all been excited by my uncle’s many, brightly coloured paintings of the sicilian puppets theatre, with its crowded audiences of men, old and young – there never seemed to be any women. (p. 150, my bold). ricordo che in inghilterra noi bambini ci emozionavamo di fronte ai dipinti di mio zio che raffiguravano a vivaci colori il teatro delle marionette siciliano, con la sua folla di spettatori, composta di uomini vecchi e giovani, dove però (lit. but where) non comparivano mai le donne. (p. 199, my bold and my english translation). there, on steps high above and in front of what seemed the whole male population noto – there wasn't a woman in sight – i had to jab an unsterilised needle into her thigh. (p. 143, my bold). là, in cima ai gradini e di fronte a quella che sembrava l’intera popolazione maschile di noto, dovetti infilarle un ago non sterilizzato in una coscia. (p.189). these passages are about the old-fashioned custom of sicilian men to “keep their women at home” at social gatherings, much to the writer’s dismay. due to the removal of dashes (replaced by cohesive devices) and the rationalizing of syntax and grammar, the repeating sentence loses much of its original trenchancy. undoubtedly, phelps intended to exploit the interruptive effect of the em-dashes to make an emphatic statement about women’s segregation, thus creating a “subtext that carries the network of word-obsessions” (berman, 2000, p. 292). the last excerpt illustrates how this subtext crumbles in translation. here a disjointed aside re-enacting the statement about women is omitted to preserve coherence, thus silencing the writer’s voice altogether. 4.2.3 typographical devices: emphatic italics emphatic italics enable the author to strategically draw attention to certain words. associated with prosodic patterns in spoken language, they confer tonic prominence and emphatic vigor. dialogue lines are charged with emotional hues that can only be appreciated by reading them out loud. in phelps’s narrative they highlight culture-specific patterns and encode intonation. however valuable, they disappear in translation, since the only italicized items are the lexical exotica. table 4 emphatic italics in translation source text target text despite my original amazement, i have followed don roberto’s example and so far – i touch wood as we do and iron as italians do – i have not regretted it. (p. 24) a dispetto del mio iniziale stupore, ho seguito le sue orme e fino a ora, toccando legno come facciamo noi e ferro come fanno gli italiani, non mi sono pentita. (p. 40) "then you must get a medical certificate saying you must stay here for your health.' (...) 'of course i can get one, but i prefer to stay here on honest grounds.' 'signorina, please be reasonable! 'i wasn't sure who was being unreasonable. (pp. 48-49) “allora si deve procurare un certificato medico in cui si affermi che lei deve restare qui per problemi di salute”. (...)” naturalmente me lo posso procurare, ma preferirei restare qui senza sotterfugi”. “signorina, per favore, sia ragionevole!” non ero sicura di sapere chi di noi due fosse irragionevole. (p. 71) the use of travel narratives to foster intercultural sensitivity and language awareness e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 105 as a result, conversation is impoverished and depersonalized. for instance, as both dashes and italics are dropped in the line “i touch wood as we do and iron as italians do”, the resolution of the chiastic we/italians in a tertiary space of negotiation is softened. in the second extract, translation fails to convey the frustration of a young, inexperienced daphne as she struggles with red tape, and weakens the cultural clash inscribed in the dichotomy reasonable/unreasonable. 4.3. character speech: domesticating effects on idiolects: the case of “don ciccio” halfway between individualization and typization, don ciccio – the local don and phelps’s unsolicited protector – first appears as a caricature resembling anglophone superheroes or villains. his act is paralleled to superman (“arms folded, eyes flashing”, p. 102), the godfather (“the head of the mafia”, p. 102; “leader of men”, p. 122), and robin hood (“he gives to the poor”, p. 103). he is ironically introduced in the foreigner’s terms, as this is how he would be understood by a contemporary anglophone readership. these domesticating images, however, are deconstructed as his personality is unfolded and fleshed out in conversation. the chapter dedicated to don ciccio – an ensemble of all the encounters phelps had with him over thirty years – takes the reader on a journey peppered with unexpected incidents, jarring revelations and comic scenes. don ciccio’s developing portrait is reassessed and reshaped at every meeting, adding more contradictory and intriguing features to a characterization which is by no means easy to pinpoint. phelps gifts her “protector” with a unique and recognizable voice that brings him alive. being an uneducated peasant, don ciccio’s italian is clumsy, rooted in dialect and therefore often calqued or untranslated. his popular, uncultivated register lends a distinctive color to his speech. language quirks and idiosyncrasies are key to individualizing a character. they form what is commonly referred to as “idiolect,” which, in the case of don ciccio, includes a great repertoire of rhetorical devices: – malapropisms, misspellings and deviations from standard pronunciation of english (“we have excellent communications in newi yorki”, p. 107); – sicilian-sounding syntax and dialectal interferences; – simplified grammar, limited range of vocabulary; – non-standard italian register; – emphatic, “pontifical” tone, achieved through repeated usage of anaphoric structures; – taglines, expressive colloquialisms and local color; – intersections with narratorial asides, with comic effects. table 5 don ciccio’s idiolect taglines and recurring rhetorical devices – shut up! (all occurrences at p. 104) – you know nothing about it! (p. 106, 107) – you plug it in and nothing happens. (twice at p. 106) – under my protection (p. 105, 106) – at my disposal (p. 106, 107, 108) – an individual (meaning “a bad, unpleasant person”, p. 105) – trouble (as in “problem”, calque of sicilian “trùbbulu”, p. 105, 106) – simple! (used as interjection, especially in sicilian, meaning “easy”, p. 105) – of course (meaning “certainly”, possible calque of sicilian “’ca certu”, often italicized, p.104,121,127) – very + adjective (calque of sicilian “veru”, p. 106, 113 and three times at p. 124 ) – “all you have to do” and “you have but to do” (calque of sicilian form of obligation “aviri a fari”, p. 105, 106, 107) – night and day (calque of the sicilian phrase “notti e journu”, used emphatically, p 106, 118) – signorina (seven times, p. 105, 109, 111) – beautiful (five times, p. 106, 113, 115, 118, 124) sicilian dialect is, for don ciccio, “his usual form of speech” (p. 104). the strips of conversation that phelps is piecing together from memory cannot have been in italian, a language that her character hardly knew, but in “the very different dialect into which he kept slipping” (p. 104). being an essential part of don ciccio’s idiolect, a touch of sicilian cadence resurfaces in his talk through punctuation markers, emphatic italics and rearranged syntax. for example, when don ciccio’s genuine affection for daphne (“mr dafferty”) – and perhaps his twisted sense of “chivalry” – makes him announce: “but mr dafferty it is for you that i would wish to do bonomo & giuffrida e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 106 something” (p. 124), his line echoes the sicilian “ma è pi tìa ca vulissi fari quacchi cosa”. two clues make it noticeable. firstly, the phonological surface of “would wish” is a better imitation of “vulissi” than the more common “wish” or “would like”; secondly, the italics allow the author to stress the pronoun “you”, thus marking don ciccio’s dialectal inflection. lovisolo’s translation “ma, mr dafferty, è per lei che io desidero fare qualcosa” (p. 164), drops the italics and prefers the polished and polite “desidero” over the more direct and vernacularsounding “voglio” or “volessi”; on the contrary, the english rendering reverberates some accents and phonological traits that a local reader would hardly miss. 4.3.1 don ciccio’s idiolect in translation the stylistic idiosyncrasies that make up don ciccio’s linguistic footprint are smoothed out into a domesticated translation that privileges standard usage and polished italian. this section not only exemplifies the extent to which a domesticating translation impinges on a character’s discursive patterns; it also aims to assess alternative, perhaps more “abusive” translations – prompted by a local reader such as myself – in order to experiment with the “chain of signifiers,” as should occur in the eap classroom. let us look at two brief excerpts, both featuring major manipulations: rhetorization and destruction of vernacular networks. table 6 don ciccio’s idiolect in translation – set 1 source text target text my translation 'signorina, i know this world. you must trust no one, neither your brother, nor your sister, nor your father, nor your aunt. only your mother can you trust – she is of the same flesh. ‘ (p.109) “signorina, io conosco questo mondo: non si deve fidare di nessuno, nemmeno di suo fratello o di sua sorella, di suo padre o di sua zia. solo di sua madre si può fidare, che è carne della stessa carne. (p.149) “signorina, io conosco questo mondo: di nessuno si deve fidare, né di suo fratello né di sua sorella, né di suo padre, né di sua zia. solo di sua madre si può fidare, che è carne della sua carne. don ciccio furiously slapped him down, shrieking: 'you shut up. you know nothing about it, shut up! (…) i will speak and when i reach a suitable place i will stop and the signorina will translate. you shut up!’(p.104) …ma don ciccio lo stroncò subito con ira gridando: “stai zitto. non ne sai niente, tu; taci”. (…) “parlo io, e quando arriverò a un punto appropriato mi fermerò e la signorina tradurrà. tu taci!” (p.144) don ciccio lo stroncò subito con ira gridando: “tu statti muto, che non ne sai niente. muto!”. (…) “io parlo, e quando arrivo al punto giusto mi fermo e la signorina traduce. tu muto!” a conspicuous discrepancy in translation, one that venuti would deem “symptomatic” of its status, occurs when a character’s speech register does not match his sociolinguistic background. this is most evident in the improper use of “taci” (“shut up”) instead of a coarser, more conversational “zitto” or “muto”, the last being closer to vernacular use (“mutu”). it seems rather improbable that an illiterate man like don ciccio would communicate in spotless, standard italian. one can hardly miss, for instance, the underlying sicilian inflection of the italicized no one, which brings valuable information to the translator. the tonic prominence of no one suggests reversing the word order instead of translating literally. this allows the text to mirror the symmetrical “only your mother can you trust,” and stress the anaphoric structure (nor/né) of the source text, thus preserving don ciccio’s knack for emphatic speech. furthermore, “will” forms should always be rendered with the present indicative (“parlo,” “mi fermo,” “traduce”), as synthetic future does not exist in sicilian. my rendering of “‘you shut up. you know nothing about it” is an example of popular (slangy) italian, as it incorporates the multipurpose “that” (“che” polivalente) to make it sound “incorrect” (“tu statti muto, che non ne sai niente”). in the last passage, a proud don ciccio tells daphne about the time he bravely rescued a young baroness from being raped and “dishonoured.” this piece depicts the comical effects conveyed by the narrator’s bracketed asides in character speech, where the intertwining of contrasting registers becomes apparent and adds to the enjoyment of the reader. the use of travel narratives to foster intercultural sensitivity and language awareness e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 107 table 7 – set 2 don ciccio’s idiolect in translation – set 2 source text target text my translation 'i will give you an example; i will tell you the story of the little baronessina. she was very young, she was very beautiful and very rich. an elderly avvocato wished to marry her and asked her parents for her hand. but he didn't please them.’ (the baronessina evidently wasn't consulted.)' so they said no. so he kidnapped the baronessina. you realise of course, mr dafferty, that had there been any publicity, had the police or the press known, she would have been unmarriageable. so they summoned me and within twenty-four hours she was back at home perfetta and completa’. (the kidnapper was clearly a slow starter.) 'of course mr dafferty i hope that never…but if…’ (p.124, my bold) “le faccio un esempio; le racconterò la storia della baronessina. era molto giovane, molto bella e molto ricca. un anziano avvocato desiderava sposarla e ne chiese la mano ai suoi genitori. ma lui non risultò simpatico alla famiglia”. (la baronessina evidentemente non era stata consultata.) “così dissero di no. allora lui rapì la baronessina. lei capisce, mr dafferty, che se ci fosse stata pubblicità di sorta, se la polizia o la stampa l’avessero saputo, per lei poi sarebbe stato molto difficile sposarsi. dunque mi convocarono e nel giro di ventiquattr’ore lei era di nuovo a casa, perfetta e completa”. (il rapitore evidentemente non aveva avuto molta fretta.). naturalmente, mr dafferty, spero che mai… ma se dovesse…” (p.164) “ci faccio un esempio; ci racconto la storia della baronessina. era giovanissima, era bellissima e ricchissima. un vecchio avvocato se la voleva maritare e ci chiese la mano ai suoi genitori. ma a loro non ci piaceva”. (la baronessina evidentemente non era stata consultata.) “allora ci dissero di no. allora lui rapì la baronessina. certo mr dafferty, lo capisce che se facevano pubblicità, se lo veniva a sapere la polizia o i giornali, lei non si poteva maritare più. allora mi vennero a chiamare e nel giro di ventiquattr’ore lei era di nuovo a casa, perfetta e completa”. (il rapitore evidentemente non aveva avuto molta fretta.) certo mr dafferty non sia mai… ma se…” the following table comprises some of the “abusive” interventions i made on lovisolo’s translation in the tale of the “baronessina” so as to retain some of the rhetorical effects of the original text and counteract the homogenizing bias of standard italian usage. unlike the previous examples, this excerpt lends itself to a more creative, rather than a literalist, rendition. my adjustments have attempted to restore the amusing counterpoint between the author’s discursive patterns and don ciccio’s eccentric style. table 8 don ciccio’s idiolect in translation foreignizing alternatives to lovisolo’s translation of the tale of the “baronessina”. – future tenses (“i will give” “i will tell”) are shifted to present (“ci faccio” “ci racconto”), as it is the case with non-standard italian varieties. they have taken up the “ci” particle pleonastically, in compliance with don ciccio’s illiterate register. – the repetition of “very” is likely to have marked a sequence of three superlative forms in don ciccio’s original tale. this is because the structure “very + adjective” is an anglicism (e.g. “very long” translates into “veru longa” in sicilian dialect). – the verbs “piaceva” and “maritare” (“maritari” in sicilian) are a calque of “please” and “marry”. – the repetitive “so” constructs a pattern that needs restoring and is translated as “allora”, more colloquial and idiomatic. – personal pronouns are omitted, unless used emphatically. – a reversed order in “se lo venivano a sapere la polizia o i giornali”, “se la voleva sposare”, “lo capisce” is more common in spoken italian; – the adverb “of course” is a recurrent pattern in don ciccio’s idiolect and appears twice in this passage, which suggests opting for the same word (“certo”), to stress its rhetorical effect; – the words “pubblicità di sorta” and “stampa” are replaced with less abstract alternatives. – the idiomatic “non sia mai” is preferred over the literalist “spero che mai”. – an uneducated peasant such as don ciccio would likely not be familiar with conditionals and subjunctives (“se ci fosse stata” “l’avessero saputo” “sarebbe stato”), which are thereby shifted into the italian imperfect (“facevano”, “venivano a sapere” “non si poteva”). – the verbal phrase “mi vennero a chiamare” is a more colloquial rendition of “they summoned me”. bonomo & giuffrida e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 108 5. closing remarks both travellers and translators negotiate linguistic alterity, but “while travel writing is associated with recasting the foreign textually and visually for readers back home, translation is similarly concerned with transporting the foreign into the target language and culture and adapting it to meet the target audience’s expectations” (martin & pickford, 2012, pp. 1-2). when cultural difference is highlighted, an outsider’s “translation” of the host community tends to rely on foreignizing strategies, such as non-standard language usage, literal translation, dialogism and “local color”. similarly, when the translating language is the native’s, a “naturalization” of the foreign – and its various forms of hybridization with the traveller’s culture – is to occur, leading to loss at lexical, prosodic and syntactic levels. devising eap programs with an extensive use of reading literary texts (and travel narrative can be one of the most fertile sub-genres within this framework, especially when learners are locally-situated and play the role of natives in the cultural representation), together with commentaries on the translation of these texts, can play an interesting role in the learning process. such a process involves collecting and organizing information within a given text and communicating and understanding the concepts with high-order thinking and appropriate cognitive skills. being so, the notion of travel itself, as self-exploration in terms of language awareness and intercultural understanding, comes to the fore, interweaving bics and well-developed calp skills, which enable it to find some room in eap programs. given these considerations, this paper has shown how travel writing may undergo a process of layering and variation that makes it deviate from standard norms in the settlement accounts of expatriates. in narratives such as a house in sicily by daphne phelps, where echoes of the native voices and instances of cultural hybridization construct a heterogeneous discourse, the author virtually becomes a foreigner in their own language. homogenizing translations that minimize foreignness and hybridity will inevitably obliterate this linguistic variation. hence, the ostensible evocation of the foreign through calque renderings and stylization should evolve from a destabilizing to a stabilizing norm. for this reason concerning pedagogical implications and the possible applications in research, academic and professional settings can benefit from the genre’s focus on such culture-specific variability, which restores literature’s sifgnificant potential in promoting language learning in academic communicative practices. references bassnett, susan (2019). translation and travel writing. in nandini das & tim youngs (eds.), the cambridge history of travel writing (pp. 550-564). cambridge university press. bhabha, homi k. 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(2023), pp. 95-112 111 annalisa bonomo, università di enna “kore” annalisa.bonomo@unikore.it en annalisa bonomo is associate professor of english language and translation at kore university (enna). her current research interests lie manly in the field of multilingualism, intercultural communication, world englishes and translation studies; she co-edits the international series “in-between spaces: le scritture migranti e la scrittura come migrazione” (edizioni sinestesie) which muses both synchronically and diachronically on the connections between language matters, multi-ethnicity, literature(s) and identities. she has been speaker in numerous national and international meetings and conferences about english language and literature. her publications include world englishes and the multilingual turn (cambridge scholars, 2017) and discutere di plurilinguismo nell’epoca della complessità (guerra, 2012). she has also published several articles in national and international journals and volumes. es annalisa bonomo es profesora asociada de lengua inglesa y traducción en la universidad de kore (enna). sus intereses de investigación actuales se centran principalmente en el campo del multilingüismo, la comunicación intercultural, los ingleses mundiales y los estudios de traducción. es co-editora de la serie internacional “in-between spaces: le scritture migranti e la scritura come migrazine” (edizioni sinestesie), que reflexiona de forma sincrónica y diacrónica sobre las conexiones entre cuestiones lingüísticas, multiétnicas, literatura(s) e identidades. ha presentado numerosas ponencias en congresos nacionales e internacionales sobre lengua y literatura inglesa. sus publicaciones incluyen world englishes and the multilingual turn (cambridge scholars, 2017) y discutere di plurilinguismo nell’epoca della complessità (guerra, 2012). también ha publicado varios artículos en revistas académicas y volúmenes nacionales e internacionales. it annalisa bonomo è professore associato di lingua inglese e traduzione presso l’università di enna “kore”. da anni svolge attività di ricerca nel campo dei translation studies e della comunicazione interculturale, con particolare attenzione al plurilinguismo investigato alla luce dei world englishes e ai fenomeni linguistico-culturali legati al tema migratorio. relatrice a numerosi convegni nazionali e internazionali, e coordinatrice di due gruppi di ricerca internazionali, dal 2017 è co-direttrice della collana internazionale di studi transdisciplinari sulla “migrazione” dal titolo in-between spaces: le scritture migranti e la scrittura come migrazione, edita da edizioni sinestesie. relatrice a numerosi convegni nazionali e internazionali sulla lingua e letteratura inglese annovera tra le sue pubblicazioni i volumi world english(es) and the multilingual turn (cambridge scholars publishing, 2017) e discutere di plurilinguismo nell’epoca della complessità (guerra edizioni, 2012). è inoltre autrice di numerosi articoli scientifici apparsi su riviste e volumi nazionali ed internazionali specializzati. bonomo & giuffrida e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 95-112 112 simona agata giuffrida, università di catania sagiuffrida@gmail.com en simona agata giuffrida has a ph.d. in anglo-american studies, is a freelance scholar and translator, and is a teacher trainer and a teacher of english literature and language in universities and secondary schools. her research interests cover the fields of foreign language education, with a focus on intercultural communicative competence, travel literature, translation studies and language and culture pedagogy. her doctoral dissertation concerned original methods for enhancing intercultural communication skills via literary texts, particularly travel writing. she was a visiting scholar at the school of education of the university of durham, and a lecturer of esp in the university of catania and the kore university in enna. her papers and research articles have been accepted and published in international academic journals. es simona agata giuffrida tiene un doctorado en estudios angloamericanos. es académica y traductora independiente, formadora de docentes y profesora de literatura y lengua inglesa en universidades y centros de secundaria. sus intereses de investigación incluyen los campos de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras con un enfoque en la competencia comunicativa intercultural, la literatura de viajes, los estudios de traducción y la pedagogía de la lengua y de la cultura. en su tesis doctoral propone métodos originales para mejorar las habilidades de comunicación intercultural a través de textos literarios y, en particular, de la literatura de viajes. ha sido profesora visitante en la facultad de educación de la universidad de durham y profesora de esp en la universidad de catania y la universidad kore en enna. sus artículos de investigación han sido aceptados y publicados en universidades y revistas académicas internacionales. it simona agata giuffrida ha un dottorato di ricerca in studi inglesi ed angloamericani, è traduttore, formatore e docente di lingua e cultura inglese presso le scuole secondarie. i suoi interessi scientifici riguardano i campi dell'insegnamento delle lingue straniere con particolare attenzione alla competenza comunicativa interculturale, la letteratura di viaggio, la traduzione e la pedagogia cross-culturale. la sua tesi di dottorato ha sviluppato metodi originali per promuovere le abilità interculturali nella classe di lingua straniera mediante percorsi centrati sul potenziale della scrittura di viaggio. ha svolto attività di ricerca presso la school of education, università di durham ed è stata docente di esp presso l’università catania e l’università kore di enna. i suoi interventi ed articoli sono stati accettati e pubblicati in riviste accademiche internazionali. e-journall, euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 11, issue 2, december 2024, 27-52 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.11.2.2977 www.e-journall.org © spaliviero 2024. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through a course on language learning strategies and multilingual education camilla spaliviero università ca’ foscari venezia received 21 november 2023; accepted 19 september 2024 abstract abstract en several studies have explored the effects, on teacher cognition, of language teacher education regarding multilingual approaches. however, research on the impact of teacher training in multilingual education and language learning strategies in and across two or more third languages is limited. this study aims to understand the impact of a university course regarding the use of multilingual approaches to develop language learning strategies in both italian and spanish as third languages. it focuses on the development of multilingual language awareness in a group of preand in-service teachers, with particular attention to their collaboration. to achieve this, the article examines the changes in their beliefs and teaching practices during the course. data were collected through teachers’ diaries and the teaching materials they produced. results confirm the efficacy of teacher training in using multilingual approaches to develop learning strategies in and across languages by stimulating teachers’ reflections, engaging them in operative tasks, and promoting their collaboration. key words: multilingual language awareness, language learning strategies, multilingual education, preand in-service teachers, impact evaluation es varios estudios han explorado los efectos, en la cognición docente, de la formación del profesorado de idiomas sobre los enfoques multilingües. sin embargo, la investigación sobre el impacto de la formación en la educación multilingüe y las estrategias de aprendizaje de idiomas en y entre dos o más terceras lenguas es limitada. el objetivo de este estudio es entender el impacto de un curso universitario sobre el uso de enfoques multilingües para desarrollar estrategias de aprendizaje de idiomas en italiano y español como terceras lenguas. el enfoque está en el desarrollo de la conciencia lingüística multilingüe en un grupo de profesores en formación y en servicio, con especial atención a su colaboración. para ello, el artículo explora los cambios en sus creencias y prácticas didácticas durante el curso. los datos se recogieron a través de los diarios de los profesores y los materiales didácticos que produjeron. los resultados confirman la eficacia de la formación docente en el uso de la educación multilingüe para desarrollar estrategias de aprendizaje en y entre más idiomas al estimular la reflexión de los profesores, proponer tareas operativas y promover su colaboración. palabras clave: conciencia lingüística multilingüe, estrategias de aprendizaje de idiomas, educación multilingüe, docentes en formación y en servicio, evaluación del impacto it diversi studi hanno esplorato gli effetti sulla cognizione docente della formazione relativa agli approcci plurilingui. tuttavia, l’impatto della formazione inerente alla didattica plurilingue e alle strategie di apprendimento linguistico in e tra due o più lingue terze è stato scarsamente studiato. questo studio mira a comprendere l’impatto di un corso universitario riguardante l’uso degli approcci plurilingui per sviluppare le strategie di apprendimento linguistico in italiano e spagnolo come lingue terze. il focus è sullo sviluppo della consapevolezza linguistica plurilingue in un gruppo di docenti in formazione e in servizio, con particolare attenzione alla loro collaborazione. a tal fine, l’articolo esplora i cambiamenti nelle loro convinzioni e pratiche didattiche avvenuti durante il corso. i dati sono stati raccolti attraverso i diari tenuti dagli insegnanti e i materiali didattici da loro prodotti. i risultati confermano l’efficacia della formazione dei docenti sull’uso della didattica plurilingue per sviluppare le strategie di apprendimento in e tra più lingue attraverso lo stimolo alla riflessione, lo svolgimento di compiti operativi e la promozione della loro collaborazione. parole chiave: consapevolezza linguistica plurilingue, strategie di apprendimento linguistico, didattica plurilingue, docenti in formazione e in servizio, valutazione dell’impatto  camilla spaliviero, università ca’ foscari venezia camilla.spaliviero@unive.it http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.15.271 http://www.e-journall.org/ spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 28 1. introduction in response to the increased linguistic and cultural heterogeneity of postmodern societies, the development of the younger generation’s multilingual and intercultural competences has become a central issue in european union policy initiatives (byram, fleming, & sheils, 2023; le pichon-vorstman, siarova, & szőny, 2020; little, 2019). teachers play a pivotal role in the multilingual turn in language education, since their beliefs and teaching practices influence students’ learning outcomes and beliefs regarding both the value and the use of all linguistic resources in the classroom (conteh & meier, 2014; duarte & günther-van der meij, 2018; guarda, & hofer, 2021; may, 2014). the relationship between language teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices, as well as the impact of language teacher education (lte) on the same, have attracted considerable research interest (e.g. barcelos & kalaja, 2013; barnard & burns, 2012; borg, 2003, 2006, 2012, 2018a, 2018b; guskey, 2002a; kubanyiova, 2012; kubanyiova & feryok, 2015). in the course of the last decades, several investigations have focused on teachers’ ideologies and actions in relation to multilingual education (e.g. alisaari, heikkola, commins & acquah, 2019; arocena, cenoz & gorter, 2015; burner & carlsen, 2022, 2023; calafato, 2020; de angelis, 2011; goltsev, olfert & putjata, 2022; haukås, 2016; lundberg, 2019; michala, manoli, lavidas, & koustourakis, 2024; otwinowska, 2014, 2017; sundqvist, gyllstad, källkvist & sandlund, 2021). overall, despite teachers’ positive beliefs regarding multilingualism, findings revealed that the implementation of multilingual approaches remains challenging due to a persistent lack of guidance perceived by the teachers. therefore, the topic of teacher professionalization in multilingual education, involving both preand in-service teachers’ biographical experiences and reflections, requires urgent attention (garcía & kleyn, 2013; putjata, brizić, goltsev, & olfert, 2022; vetter, & slavkov, 2022). recently, an increased number of studies have examined teachers’ perceived impact of lte regarding multilingual education (e.g. barros, domke, symons, & ponzio, 2021; duarte, & günther-van der meij, 2018, 2022; gorter, & arocena, 2020; hinger, hirzinger-unterrainer, & schmiderer, 2020; lorenz, krulatz, & torgersen, 2021; pohlmann-rother, lange, zapfe, & then, 2023; portolés & martí, 2020; schroedler & fisher, 2020). nevertheless, little is known about the effects of lte in multilingual education and language learning strategies in and across two or more third languages (l3s), also related to teachers’ collaboration (haukås, 2016; li, 2020). on this basis, the present study aims to explore the impact of a course, taught at an austrian university, regarding the use of multilingual approaches to develop language learning strategies in both italian and spanish as l3s. it focuses on the development of multilingual language awareness as perceived by a group of preand in-service teachers, with particular attention to their collaboration. to address this, the study investigates two main aspects: 1) the extent to which the course influenced teachers’ beliefs about using multilingual approaches to enhance language learning strategies in and across languages; 2) how the course affected their teaching practices in applying these multilingual strategies. the article will first present the theoretical underpinnings of the impact of professional development on teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices, as well as teachers’ multilingual language awareness. second, it will describe the main features of the course and the study’s research methodology. third, it will present the analysis and discussion of the data, which was gathered through teachers’ diaries and the teaching materials they produced. the reduced sample size, the single-course study, and the short period of data collection limit the generalizability of the conclusions, but the promising findings encourage further research on the topic. 2. the impact of professional development on language teacher cognition teacher cognition (tc) corresponds to “the unobservable cognitive dimension of teaching” (borg, 2003, p. 81). it deals with teachers’ mental sphere (beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, emotions, identity etc.), and refers to all components of the teaching and learning process (teachers, students, subjects, materials, methods etc.) (borg, 2012). tc exerts a profound impact on teachers’ professional lives. on the one hand, it is influenced by teachers’ prior experiences (schooling and professional coursework), other elements of their inner worlds (values, feelings, motivation etc.), and the specific features of their own teaching contexts (psychological, social, environmental etc.). on the other hand, tc shapes classroom practice and is transformed in turn by the experiences that teachers accumulate throughout their careers (borg, 2006; kubanyiova, & feryok, 2015). https://www.taylorfrancis.com/search?contributorname=eva%20m.%20hirzinger-unterrainer&contributorrole=author&redirectfrompdp=true&context=ubx https://www.taylorfrancis.com/search?contributorname=katrin%20schmiderer&contributorrole=author&redirectfrompdp=true&context=ubx enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through multilingual education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 29 research on language tc has considered both teachers’ beliefs and their relationship with teaching practices (kubanyiova & feryok, 2015). beliefs can be defined as “specific views about what is considered to be true” (borg, 2018b, p. 202). teachers’ beliefs are dynamic and divided into clusters, of which the earlier ones are more resistant to change. they therefore provide a basis for action and are related to teachers’ development throughout the process they undergo when learning how to teach (barcelos & kalaja, 2013). the mutual relationship between teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices has been demonstrated by numerous studies (e.g. borg, 2003; buehl & beck, 2014; sercu & st. john, 2007; tamimy, 2015). nevertheless, discrepancies have been detected due to cognitive and contextual factors, such as teachers’ prior knowledge and sociocultural settings (barcelos & kalaja, 2013; barnard & burns, 2012; borg, 2018a). investigating the design, implementation, and effects of professional development interventions (pdis), involving both preand in-service teachers, contributes to enhancing the understanding of tc (borg, 2006; guskey, 2002b; johnson, 2018; kubanyiova & feryok, 2015). research into the impact of pdis reveals the extent to which new inputs produce meaningful changes regarding teachers’ perceptions of the training content and implementation of new teaching practices, with respect to both their specific educational contexts and students’ needs (borg, 2018a; kubanyiova, 2012). however, pdis can affect tc as long as teachers’ beliefs are taken into appropriate consideration through explicit reflective practices (barcelos & kalaja, 2013; borg, 2003; farrell, 2007). moreover, changes in tc proved to be more effective when pdis foster social interaction, including teachers’ exchange of experiences and expertise (barnard & burns, 2012; darling-hammond, hyler, & gardner, 2017). teachers’ collaboration can be promoted through various strategies, such as working in groups to analyze pre-existing teaching materials and design new ones. despite its relevance in lte, this sociocultural feature of tc has been underexplored. as li (2020) reported, “there is often a lack of detail on how teachers’ knowledge, understandings and beliefs are evident in their interactional work. … there is a need to examine how cognition is displayed in social interaction as an object in and through talk” (p. 51). due to the complex nature of teacher change, the way in which pdis impact on teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices can vary according to external and internal factors (teachers’ profiles, the content of pdis, teacher educators’ competences etc.), as well as to the direction of their reciprocal influence (teachers either first change their beliefs and then implement new teaching practices, or vice versa) (guskey, 2002a). it is also essential to distinguish between the impact that teachers perceive pdis would have on their teaching practices and a direct verification as to whether their actions have actually changed (borg 2018b; farrell, 2007). in any case, including an operative-based component in pdis supports teachers’ understanding of the innovation of content and methodological proposals (borg, 2018a). to date, studies regarding the impact of pdis on language tc have especially involved pre-service teachers and scarcely focused on teachers’ interaction (borg, 2015; kubanyiova, 2012). the present study intends to contribute to this research field by considering the teacher professionalization of both current and future teachers, as well as by exploring their collaboration during a pdi. the research focuses on both teachers’ beliefs and their instructional skills, regarding the ability of designing new teaching materials, and includes reported changes in their teaching practices (borg, 2018b). 3. teachers’ multilingual language awareness to educate students in today’s superdiverse classroom, lte programs must foster the “multilingual turn” in teacher professionalization (conteh & meier, 2014; may, 2014; putjata et al., 2022). both preand inservice teachers must be trained to teach learners with heterogeneous home language practices, as well as to enhance the multilingual competences of all students (garcía & kleyn, 2013; vetter & slavkov, 2022). as reported by several authors (e.g. de angelis, 2011; haukås, 2016; jessner, 2018; otwinowska, 2014, 2017), to become competent in the field of multilingual education, language teachers must have the following traits: be multilingual themselves. have developed metalinguistic language awareness (mla) and cross-linguistic language awareness (xla). be familiar with multilingual theories. be able to implement multilingual approaches. be sensitive to students’ individual differences. be interested in collaborating with other teachers to promote multilingual education. spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 30 traditionally, teachers’ language awareness included their own language proficiency, mla, and ability to transmit linguistic and intercultural knowledge to students (andrews, 2007; andrews & lin, 2018; haukås, 2018; hiver & whitehead, 2018; wright, 2002). in line with the growing heterogeneity of globalized societies, this umbrella term has recently been expanded (hélot, frijns, van gorp, & sierens, 2018; svalberg, 2016). today, teachers’ multilingual language awareness includes teachers’ xla, knowledge of multilingualism, ability to implement multilingual approaches, and psycholinguistic knowledge of students’ differences (cenoz, gorter, & may, 2017; garcía, 2008; hufeisen & neuner, 2004; jessner, 2006; otwinowska, 2014). teachers must therefore not only be able to guide students to reflect on a single language by identifying its specific system, structures, and patterns, but also train learners to relate their previously known languages with the target language(s) by consciously using language learning strategies in and across languages (otwinowska, 2017; vetter & jessner, 2019). indeed, teachers’ xla is closely related to their own multilingualism and responsive to the awareness of similarities and differences between students’ linguistic repertoires and the taught language(s) (ellis, 2016). to promote a successful implementation of multilingual education, teachers need to be trained by playing the dual role of students and teachers, in that order. as otwinowska (2014) points out, “teachers’ own plurilingual awareness must be developed first [emphasis added], so that they can help their students to take advantage of their previous learning experiences and the knowledge of languages they already possess” (p. 100). since teachers’ perceptions of multilingualism and multilingual education deal especially with their personal and professional experiences, they must be made aware of their monolingual mindsets and practices through both reflexive and operative tasks in order to deconstruct them (putjata et al., 2022; vetter & slavkov, 2022). only if teachers understand how to learn multilingually, will they be able to teach effectively in a multilingual context. as jessner (2018) states, the development of multilingual awareness requires “teacher training that focuses on developing language and language learning awareness among the teachers, students, and teachers as learners, since language learning is a life-time process [emphasis added]” (p. 269). moreover, research has demonstrated the positive effects of teachers’ collaboration across language subjects to support linguistic diversity, but it has also revealed its poor implementation due to institutional and interpersonal reasons that are related to school policies and teachers’ beliefs (creese, 2005; jessner, 2018). as a result, new pdis fostering language teachers’ interaction are required, so that participants can become aware the benefits of such interaction and start applying it in their practice (e.g. aalto & tarnanen, 2017; davison, 2006; giles, 2022; haukås, 2016; yoon, 2023). considerable literature about teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices regarding multilingual education has shown that teachers in fact tend to display a more positive attitude towards students’ linguistic and cultural diversity compared to what they actually practice in their classroom, due to their restricted knowledge of multilingual approaches (burner & carlsen, 2023). among the latest studies, alisaari et al. (2019) examined 820 teachers’ ideologies and actions in different school levels and subjects in finland. their beliefs about multilingualism were mainly positive, but most of them were implementing monolingual teaching practices without considering students’ linguistic repertoires as learning resources. similarly, sundqvist et al. (2021) investigated 139 english teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices at swedish secondary schools. although almost all had a positive opinion of multilingualism and half had often discussed the idea of teaching in a multilingual classroom, 22% considered multilingualism a problem within the school context, and only 15% had been trained in multilingual education. equally, burner and carlsen (2022) explored 21 teachers’ qualifications, perceptions, and teaching practices at a secondary school for newly arrived students in norway. despite having some basic knowledge of multilingual approaches, these teachers believed that language learning occurs stepwise and focused on norwegian rather than valuing students’ previously known languages. at the same time, recent investigations have shown the benefits of pdis regarding multilingual education in teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices, whilst confirming the complexities of teacher change. for example, gorter and arocena (2020) showed the positive evolution of 124 in-service teachers’ ideologies regarding separating languages, mixing languages, and languages supporting each other in the basque country, after attending a pdi on multilingual approaches that they intended to implement in the near future. likewise, schroedler and fisher (2020) demonstrated the interdependence between positive beliefs and structured opportunities to engage with topics related to multilingualism and linguistic diversity provided to 296 preservice teachers who participated in a teacher training course on multilingualism at the university of hamburg. conversely, portolés and martí (2020) investigated 121 pre-service teachers’ beliefs about the teaching of english in the valencian community and found that, although they became more favorable towards multilingualism after being trained in multilingual education, monolingual bias still persisted in their enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through multilingual education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 31 ideologies. lorenz et al. (2021) researched the impact of a monthly pdi on multilingual education on 3 english teachers at a norwegian primary school, and discovered that, despite developing positive beliefs about multilingualism, teachers still failed to employ multilingual education systematically. to sum up, teachers could have positive views on multilingualism, also thanks to pdis, but seem to possess limited knowledge of how to implement multilingual approaches, which makes them reluctant to apply such approaches regularly. therefore, it is essential to build teachers’ multilingual language awareness by developing innovative pdis and exploring their impact (garcía, 2008). however, too few studies have investigated the effects of pdis regarding multilingual education that engage teachers as both learners and practitioners, while fostering collaboration among them (haukås, 2016; jessner, 2018; otwinowska, 2014). little is known about teachers’ multilingual language awareness, and to what extent they implement multilingual approaches to support the cross-linguistic transfer of language learning strategies (haukås, 2018; hiver & whitehead, 2018). moreover, research regarding teacher training in multilingual education and language learning strategies in and across two or more l3s is scarce (hinger et al., 2020). to the best of my knowledge, no investigation has explored the impact of a pdi regarding the use of multilingual approaches to develop language learning strategies in italian and spanish as l3s. this study aims to fill this gap. 4. the research context the study was carried out during a course regarding the use of multilingual approaches to foster the simultaneous acquisition of two l3s (italian and spanish), as well as the cross-linguistic transfer of language learning strategies. the course was held by the researcher at an austrian university in a. y. 2021-22. austria aligns with european language policies that encourage learning multiple languages at school. the austrian education system supports language learning from an early age, starting with the study of the first foreign language (typically english) in primary education. in secondary education, students introduce a second foreign language among a wide range of options (typically french, italian, and spanish). both italian and spanish are usually offered as optional subjects in the gymnasium (the grammar school branch), where a second modern foreign language or latin becomes compulsory from the third grade onwards (council of europe, 2008a, 2008b)1. recent statistics show that, although french is still the second most commonly learned foreign language, the percentage of students studying it has slightly fallen over the past decade. in contrast, spanish has gained increasing popularity and is now learned by more than 20% of students. italian is primarily taught in regions with historical ties and geographical proximity to italy, such as tyrol and carinthia, and is studied by 15% of students (european commission/eacea/eurydice, 2023). the course was developed throughout nine lessons, which took place over eight weeks, for a total of 27 hours. preliminary knowledge of both italian and spanish was required (an a2 level at least). oxford’s (1990) taxonomy of language learning strategies was adopted due to its widespread employment in third language acquisition (tla) (jessner, 2018). although all multilingual approaches were introduced in accordance with the purposes of the course, integrated didactic approach (ida) to the studied languages and pedagogical translanguaging (pt) were mainly implemented (candelier & manno, 2023; cenoz & gorter, 2021). during the course, teachers both experimented and created multilingual activities while collaborating. after a short theoretical introduction (lessons 1-2), they focused on four teaching units (tus) created by the researcher in both l3s (lessons 3-6). each tu developed different language skills and language learning strategies through ida and pt, adhered to the goals of quality education, gender equality, and reduced inequalities of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development (united nations, 2015), dealt with multilingual and intercultural topics (the connection between language, culture, and identity, the relationship between standard language and language varieties, inclusive language etc.), and included authentic materials (excerpts of literary texts, ted talks, articles etc.) and social mediation methods (peer education, cooperative learning). then, working in groups, teachers created and presented new tus, aimed at developing language learning 1 for further information on the austrian education system, see https://www.bmbwf.gv.at/en/topics/school/school_syst.html, https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-educationsystems/austria/teaching-and-learning-general-lower-secondary-education, https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/austria/teaching-and-learning-general-uppersecondary-education. https://www.bmbwf.gv.at/en/topics/school/school_syst.html https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/austria/teaching-and-learning-general-lower-secondary-education https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/austria/teaching-and-learning-general-lower-secondary-education https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/austria/teaching-and-learning-general-upper-secondary-education https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-education-systems/austria/teaching-and-learning-general-upper-secondary-education spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 32 strategies in the same l3s and through the multilingual approaches, content, and resources they had experimented (lessons 7-8). finally, teachers wrote individual reflection papers on the course (lesson 9). 5. the study the study explored the impact of course participation on the development of teachers’ multilingual language awareness. it investigated changes in language tc related to the enhancement of language learning strategies in both italian and spanish as l3s through the implementation of multilingual education. two research questions (rqs) were formulated: rq1: to what extent did the course impact on teachers’ beliefs regarding the use of multilingual approaches to develop language learning strategies in and across languages? rq2: to what extent did the course impact on teachers’ teaching practices regarding the use of multilingual approaches to develop language learning strategies in and across languages? by examining teaching practices, teachers’ perceptions regarding their collaboration were also investigated. 6. method the research adopted a qualitative approach, followed a constructivist paradigm, and consisted of a single, instrumental, and longitudinal case study (denzin & lincoln, 2005; hatch, 2002; yin, 2018). research into the impact of lte on tc has traditionally followed qualitative approaches by focusing on individual or small groups and examining their cognitive, affective, and behavioral development throughout a prolonged period (borg, 2012, 2015; kubanyiova, 2012). prospective impact evaluations should be preferred to retrospective ones, since they ensure the wide distribution of more reliable information during pdis through multi-stage data collection (borg, 2018b). moreover, qualitative approaches are recommended for researching multilingual education within multilingual contexts, since they foster participants’ reflection on teaching and learning languages against the backdrop of discrepancy between the linguistic diversity of today’s societies and the persistence of monolingual norms (dooly & moore, 2017). in this study, primarily textual data were collected to investigate how teachers interacted with multilingual approaches to develop language learning strategies in a natural setting and throughout the entire course. the objective was to provide a detailed description of the training process, as well as to investigate the change in teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices by examining their subjective multiple interpretations and co-constructed understandings of the course content (borg, 2018b; cohen, manion, & morrison, 2017; creswell, 2014). 6.1. participants the study involved a multilingual group of six teachers (n=5 female, n=1 male), aged 20-50+ (n=2 aged 20-30, n=1 aged 31-40, n=2 aged 41-50, n=1 aged 50+), of austrian (n=5) and spanish (n=1) nationality. half had spanish-speaking backgrounds (venezuelan, peruvian, and cuban). their mother tongues were spanish (n=4) and german (n=3) (one teacher indicated both, having been born in austria and spent their teenage years in spain). they spoke between four and eleven further languages and language varieties (german/spanish, english, italian, french, slovenian, portuguese, latin, catalan, galician, basque, and leonese). their selfassessed language level in spanish (n=1 level a2-b1, n=5 level c2) was higher than in italian (n=2 level b1-b2, n=4 level b2-c1). half were already working as teachers (n=1 of italian, n=1 of spanish, n=1 of both english and italian), whereas the other half were still training. more than half (n=4) were already familiar with language learning strategies, whereas the others had no prior knowledge of them. all teachers were enrolled in the university and attended the course on a voluntary basis. this background information was collected at the beginning of the course through a preliminary questionnaire. on that occasion, the objectives and procedures of the study were introduced, and informed consent was obtained. data confidentiality and anonymity were promised and secured by pseudonyms (cohen, manion, & morrison, 2017; dörnyei, 2007). enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through multilingual education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 33 6.2. procedure changes in tc as a result of pdis can be detected by introspective and ethnographic instruments that allow teachers’ beliefs to emerge through their own words, show the interplay between teachers’ thinking and actions, and refer to contextual factors (borg, 2019). in this study, data were gathered from teachers’ diaries and the analysis of the teaching materials they had produced. 6.2.1. teachers’ diaries teachers were asked to keep two types of diaries (see appendix). all questions aimed at investigating teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices indirectly, an approach that was more likely to produce a clear and sincere response than directly asking for opinions on a specific topic (borg, 2018b). the questions were written in both italian and spanish. teachers could choose to answer in either language to give full rein to their indepth reflections. one teacher chose italian, while the others preferred spanish. the diaries followed an interval-contingent design (bolger, davis, & rafaeli, 2003) since teachers were expected to provide their impressions on a lesson-by-lesson basis. the aim was to stimulate retrospective, well thought-out, and accurate reflections to increase teachers’ awareness of their tc, as well as their multilingual language awareness, throughout the training process (dörnyei, 2007; moon, 2006). diary 1 was administered in lessons 3-8. it included three reflective questions, presented separately, exploring teachers’ training in language learning strategies (lessons 3-6), working in groups (lesson 7), and sharing ideas among colleagues (lesson 8). teachers were required to share their perceptions of the tus by answer these questions in public forum posts on the platform of the course within a week (after the end of a lesson and before the beginning of the next one). diary 2 was administered in lesson 9. it consisted of three reflective questions, submitted together, examining teachers’ overall perceptions of the course (questions 2-3 were inspired by davies & dart, 2005; borg, 2018b). to encourage the elaboration of personal and detailed ideas, teachers were asked to answer by writing individual reflections at the end of the lesson. all teachers succeeded in keeping regular records of the investigated aspects. the teachers’ diaries included a total of 8,791 words, with an average of 1,465 words per teacher. 6.2.2. teaching materials the teaching materials, gathered in lesson 8, consisted of two tus produced by two groups of three teachers. data collection was based on three criteria that were connected with the competences that the teachers were expected to develop by means of the course: − the enhancement of language competences and mla: whether the activities fostered the improvement of reading, listening, writing, or speaking skills, as well as the ability to reflect on languages. − the development of xla: whether the activities promoted the training of a variety of language learning strategies to foster the cross-linguistic transfer. − the use of multilingual approaches: whether the activities supported the development of multilingual competences through ida and pt. 6.3. analysis an interpretive content analysis procedure was adopted for a detailed and contextualized understanding of tc (borg, 2012; denzin & lincoln, 2005; dörnyei, 2007). data from teachers’ diaries were transcribed in word documents, and transferred to nvivo 12 together with the teaching materials. all were read thoroughly, divided into separate codes (initial coding), clustered, and compressed into broader and significant categories (second-level coding) (creswell, 2014). the codes were both predetermined and emerging: predetermined codes were identified deductively from the reference literature (e.g. “developing multilingual and intercultural competences” referred to an effective l3 course) and from the three abovementioned criteria; emerging codes materialized inductively from data analysis (e.g. “demanding” referred to collaboration among colleagues). the iterative process of data analysis made it possible to verify preliminary interpretations and include new themes. to support claims, extensive references to teachers’ primary data were provided through relevant quotes and a detailed description of the teaching materials. spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 34 7. results results are presented according to the rqs, concerning teachers’ beliefs (rq1) and teaching practices (rq2). 7.1. teachers’ beliefs to answer rq1, data from diary 1 (question 1: “which multilingual language learning strategies are useful to you, as a teacher?”) and diary 2 (question 2: “in your opinion, which characteristics should an effective l3 course have today?”) were considered. 7.1.1. diary 1 each tu focused on a specific language skill (reading, listening, writing, or speaking), and aimed to develop all language learning strategies (metacognitive, affective, social, compensation, memory, and cognitive) through both ida and pt. this connection is shown in table 1, which presents a list of all tus (first column), as well as the lists of all strategies and approaches (second and third columns) used in each tu. to reflect on each tu, teachers considered all the developed language learning strategies through the two multilingual approaches. table 1 teaching units, language learning strategies, and multilingual approaches as far as reading strategies are concerned (tu1), teachers observed that metacognitive strategies can be fostered by dividing the lesson into before, during, and after reading activities, as well as by including final self-assessment exercises. although affective strategies concern students’ individual characteristics, teachers recognized that they can be used to encourage students to express their opinions, fight their fears of being penalized because of mistakes, and express their satisfaction with their language progress. teachers noted that social strategies allow students to gain confidence in sharing their ideas and in verifying the comprehension of a text through pair and group work, which stimulates the exchange of questions and reflections. they also considered that compensation strategies are essential to gain a global understanding of a text through activities to be carried out both before reading and while examining the text from different points of view. finally, teachers noted that involving students’ entire linguistic repertoires contributed to training memory and cognitive strategies. this can be seen in excerpt 1 and excerpt 2: excerpt 1. “teachers should create links between the languages known by students and the target language to facilitate memorizing the content they have just learned. one way to create such links is to tell anecdotes. i personally will not forget that “ma chi ti è?” [a dialect expression from an italian text in tu1] is not used by all italians, or even by the professor. cognitive strategies are relevant too, since comparing languages makes similarities and differences visible. this is also possible by reflecting on translations and revisions in order to understand whether the original essence of the text has been preserved or lost.” (ana) excerpt 2. “i would love to implement cognitive strategies in my language class, dealing especially with interlingual comparison, but it is very difficult, as they are an unknown concepts for many of the students. i am interested in understanding how to apply them and i hope to find new ideas during the course.” (lilli) teaching units language learning strategies multilingual approaches tu1: reading skills and strategies tu2: listening skills and strategies tu3: writing skills and strategies tu4: speaking skills and strategies metacognitive strategies affective strategies integrated didactic approaches social strategies pedagogical translanguaging compensation strategies memory strategies cognitive strategies enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through multilingual education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 35 ana’s reflection (excerpt 1) highlights giving value to students’ prior linguistic knowledge to enhance their understanding and retention of new content. the anecdote she provided underscores the effectiveness of such connections in clarifying linguistic and cultural nuances. lilli’s comment (excerpt 2) emphasizes the challenges teachers face when introducing cognitive strategies to students who are unfamiliar with them. her interest in finding practical ways to implement these strategies shows the need for teacher training to bridge this gap. as concerns listening strategies (tu2), teachers recognized the relevance of metacognitive strategies to plan, organize, and self-assess the acquisition of oral competences. by referring to the k-l-w chart, teachers observed the utility of metacognitive strategies throughout the tu. at the beginning, it activates students’ previous knowledge, interests, and motivation. during the tu, it allows the teacher to adapt activities according to students’ preferences and needs. at the end, it stimulates students’ reflections on their own progress and difficulties, which teachers should take into account when planning the following lessons. teachers noted that the promotion of social strategies through peer education and cooperative learning stimulates interaction both before and after the listening activities. these procedures also contribute to training affective strategies in order to reduce the anxiety that students may experience while listening to the foreign language. teachers considered that compensation strategies, which are promoted through images, synonyms, and periphrases, are fundamental to both introduce and accompany listening activities. they also observed that memory strategies can be enhanced by including multilingual and intercultural activities, such as matching untranslatable words and expressions to the corresponding languages and identifying the most interesting concept in a listening practice and later discussing them in groups. teachers realized that cognitive strategies can be trained through a variety of activities aimed at practicing communicative content with different purposes, such as revising listening comprehension through debates, summaries, and comparisons between languages. as regards translation, teachers claimed that comparing anglicisms and english loan words in italian, spanish, and other languages to explore word origins can serve as a valuable tool for promoting reflection on language functioning and providing practical applications in multilingual classrooms. this can be observed in excerpt 3 and excerpt 4: excerpt 3. “i thought translation was not always an adequate technique to promote cognitive strategies, since the target language should be used as much as possible. instead, i realized that it is useful to reflect on the functioning of languages.” (jan) excerpt 4. “the activities focused on comparing both anglicisms and english loan words in italian, spanish, and other languages showed me how to apply cognitive strategies within the multilingual classroom. the training of cognitive strategies gave me new ideas for future activities, so that students can become more and more autonomous in using them.” (lilli) jan’s observation (excerpt 3) illustrates the initial hesitation some teachers may feel about using translation to promote cognitive strategies. however, its usefulness in fostering a deeper understanding of language functioning demonstrates that translation is a powerful tool in the multilingual classroom, as it balances target language use with the comparison of structures across languages. lilli’s reflection (excerpt 4) reveals the practical advantages of integrating cognitive strategies into multilingual teaching. her positive experience with linguistic comparisons inspired innovative activities and demonstrated the potential of cognitive strategies to empower learners to take ownership of their language development. during tu2, teachers’ reflections moved from considering one single strategy to analyzing multiple strategies within the same multilingual exercise. this can be noticed in excerpt 5: excerpt 5. “listening to a language and then discussing the same topic in another language involves a simultaneous use of social, compensation, memory, and cognitive strategies, and thus supports multiple language acquisition at many levels. it is like a strategy bombardment!” (ana) spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 36 ana’s comment (excerpt 5) emphasizes the dynamic and multifaceted nature of multilingual activities, which support a holistic approach to language learning by integrating multiple strategies. her description of this process as a “strategy bombardment” highlights the required intense engagement. as for writing strategies (tu3), teachers observed that metacognitive strategies can be effectively taught by dividing the written process into several steps, such as building a semantic map to organize ideas, employing labels in bilingual word walls, and encouraging peer correction. despite reaffirming the subjective components of affective strategies, teachers acknowledged the importance of choosing a motivating topic to promote students’ writing. furthermore, teachers realized how different strategies can be combined within the same multilingual exercise, and are therefore “difficult to circumscribe” (vega). teachers stated that prewriting activities play a crucial role in engaging students, fostering their motivation, and preparing them for written production by actively involving multiple strategies. this can be seen in excerpt 6 and excerpt 7: excerpt 6. “brainstorming, applied at both individual and group levels and including more than one language, is an infallible strategy to motivate students to speak freely. at the same time, students train affective, social, and compensation strategies while being introduced to the topic of the lesson.” (inés) excerpt 7. “we spent a lot of time on preparatory activities, in which all strategies were somehow involved. in my opinion, this aimed at enhancing multilingual skills, considering students’ individual differences, and involving them actively in written production, which is more difficult than passive reception.” (ana) inés’s observation (excerpt 6) demonstrates the effectiveness of brainstorming as a pre-writing activity in multilingual contexts. by engaging students in more than one language, it fosters the simultaneous use of multiple strategies, setting the stage for more structured writing tasks. ana’s reflection (excerpt 7) highlights the importance of dedicating time to preparatory activities that integrate various strategies and languages, thus creating an inclusive learning environment and facilitating successful written production. by reflecting on writing exercises, teachers emphasized the effectiveness of collaboratively constructing a bilingual text, reading each other’s writing, and discussing revisions in multiple languages. these activities helped integrate various strategies, support peer interaction, and encourage the development of multilingual skills. this can be noticed in excerpt 8: excerpt 8. “these activities are very complete because they combine all the strategies we have studied. the cooperative activity fosters peer interaction in both italian and spanish, as well as peer learning of new strategies. as regards the compensation, memory, and cognitive strategies, by writing an argumentative text, students seek favorable and contrary theses, revise their previous knowledge of the topic, consider what they have just read and discussed with their peers, elaborate their ideas, and practice both italian and spanish. by doing multilingual activities, students are also encouraged to compare further languages by translating, using synonyms etc.” (vega) vega’s comment (excerpt 8) reveals the comprehensive nature of multilingual writing activities. her detailed account illustrates how cooperative activities can foster peer interaction in multiple languages by promoting mutual learning and the simultaneous use of several strategies. these activities help students develop critical thinking skills and deepen their understanding across languages. as regards speaking strategies (tu4), teachers realized the importance of training all strategies through cooperative exercises like jot thoughts, the observation of posters and leaflets, the reading of articles in both italian and spanish, and the revision of either grammar or vocabulary content in the two l3s. they understood that social and affective strategies can be promoted through pair and group discussions, which activate students’ previous knowledge, support the exchange of opinions and, by doing so, reduce their anxiety about discussing complex and challenging topics. teachers noted that compensation, memory, and cognitive strategies can be fostered by using multilingual sources, as well as bilingual word walls regarding the most enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through multilingual education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 37 relevant content and vocabulary connected to the topic of the lesson. teachers concluded that the whole set of strategies should be developed, especially through cooperative activities such as the debate, where students subsequently support opposing theses using the two l3s. this can be observed in excerpt 9 and excerpt 10: excerpt 9. “during speaking activities, students should regulate their own emotions and focus on the content, since they must argue both for and against a thesis. in this way, they use various strategies: besides affective and cognitive strategies, they collect information to support their ideas (metacognitive strategies), share the opinions of their group and interact with those who defend an opposite position (social strategies), speak fluently in both italian and spanish although they do not know all the terms that they would otherwise use in their mother tongue (compensation strategies), use key words and concepts dealing with the topic of discussion (memory strategies).” (jan) excerpt 10. “the speaking activities involve all strategies. looking for vocabulary and arguments to support an idea you disagree with and in various languages is a double challenge, which requires the use of compensation, memory, and cognitive strategies. students train all the aspects of social strategies, too: cooperation, interaction, empathy.” (inés) jan’s reflection (excerpt 9) demonstrates the multifaceted demands of speaking activities, which require students to use several strategies to manage emotions, articulate ideas in multiple languages, and collaborate effectively. inés’s observation (excerpt 10) reinforces the complexity of such activities and emphasizes their role in strengthening meaningful communication and building confidence in a multilingual setting. teachers also agreed on the importance of carefully choosing the topic of discussion, which should be appropriate and challenging in terms of students’ age, language skills, and interests in order to foster their participation and contribute to developing affective and social strategies. teachers recognized that oral production can be facilitated by introducing similar topics and grammar and/or vocabulary content in previous lessons, as experienced in tu3, dealing with inclusive language focused on italian and spanish connectives, and tu4, regarding family systems in italy and spain, with the revision of italian and spanish connectives. this can be observed in excerpt 11: excerpt 11. “choosing a topic that is closely linked to the previous written activities is of the utmost importance. in this way, students already have a general knowledge of the vocabulary related to the theme and of how to support their ideas in multiple languages. this is useful not just to train affective and social strategies, since speaking about a completely new topic would be more difficult and counter-productive, but also to enhance metacognitive, compensation, memory, and cognitive strategies. the oral activities probed the issue more deeply and fostered information retrieval, repetition, and integration.” (ana) ana’s comment (excerpt 11) underscores the value of continuity in topic selection by emphasizing how linking oral activities to prior written exercises can create a smoother transition for students. it not only reduces anxiety by building on familiar vocabulary and content across languages, but also engages various strategies, promotes meaningful participation in discussions, and improves multilingual competences. 7.1.2. diary 2 according to teachers, today an effective l3 course should aim to: train mediation skills. develop multilingual and intercultural competences. teach all language learning strategies through multilingual approaches. spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 38 as regards the training of communicative competence by paying attention to mediation skills, teachers referred to the austrian school system, which has changed in recent decades due to globalization. they also mentioned the classes where they were either teaching or doing university internships, which included many foreign students and austrian learners with migrant backgrounds. teachers highlighted the close relationship between language and culture, and stressed the importance of teaching students not just to express their own ideas but also to consider their interlocutors’ needs, opinions, and emotions. they considered that students should be trained to become more empathetic and flexible, while facilitating and managing interaction in and across languages, to recognize and overcome risks of misunderstanding. this can be noticed in excerpt 12: excerpt 12. “an effective l3 course should include a balanced mix of all language learning strategies considering the context of a globalized world in which many languages and cultures interact. students should learn to develop their emotional intelligence, which does not mean losing their roots or the denial/replacement of their own culture and convictions. they should learn effective communication skills, be aware if these are not working, adapt their language and communicative style, listen actively, and try to solve possible conflicts.” (inés) inés’s reflection (excerpt 12) highlights the importance of teaching students to cultivate adaptability and manage communication flexibly in a multilingual and multicultural world. her emphasis on balancing language learning strategies with the development of empathy and active listening underscores the need for students to mediate across languages and cultures while maintaining their own cultural identity. concerning the development of multilingual and intercultural competences, teachers stressed the importance of acknowledging and giving value to students’ linguistic and cultural diversity. students should be guided to consciously employ their previously known languages and past language learning experiences in order to connect them with the target language(s). to this end, they agreed on the essential contribution of multilingual approaches, especially ida and pt. this can be seen in excerpt 13, excerpt 14, and excerpt 15: excerpt 13. “today an effective l3 course should be communication-oriented and open to individual differences, as we perceive them in our classes. students’ pre-existing knowledge must be considered when planning the lessons. teachers must finally move away from ‘medieval’ methods based only on grammar and vocabulary learning. instead, they should exploit the characteristics of the school context and reinforce students’ learning strategies.” (lilli) excerpt 14. “teachers should promote students’ participation in the l3 classroom by focusing on the comprehension and transmission of ideas, collaborating with peers, and exploiting entire linguistic repertoires, instead of considering only grammatical and lexical correctness, and error correction. this would give value to students’ individual differences and reduce anxiety about speaking a foreign language.” (layla) excerpt 15. “the course should draw on all students’ previous linguistic and cultural knowledge to foster the interaction between languages. no matter how good students’ level of proficiency is, if they ignore the sociocultural, geographical, and historical framework related to the target language, they will never understand its pragmatic dimension and will encounter misunderstandings. according to the types of course, teachers can employ a variety of multilingual approaches. the integrated didactic approach and pedagogical translanguaging are particularly suitable for transferring language learning strategies across languages.” (vega) lilli’s reflection (excerpt 13) underscores the need for modern l3 courses to prioritize meaningful communication. her comment advocates for more dynamic and inclusive teaching methods that develop enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through multilingual education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 39 language learning strategies while valuing students’ entire linguistic repertoires. layla’s observation (excerpt 14) reinforces the need to move beyond traditional teaching methods to embrace the uniqueness of each student, promote diversity, and support a multilingual learning environment. vega’s comment (excerpt 15) highlights the role of multilingual and intercultural approaches, such as ida and pt, in drawing on students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds and fostering deeper language understanding and exchange. as regards teaching all language learning strategies, teachers considered the benefits of using multilingual education to facilitate transfer across l3s. for example, ana explained that she had already started to successfully implement multilingual approaches with a mexican student. this can be noted in excerpt 16: excerpt 16. “an effective l3 course should take advantage of students’ multilingual repertoires. communicating does not simply mean translating a sentence from one language to another or using prefabricated expressions. students must learn to exploit all their linguistic resources and manipulate information in different languages by interacting in multilingual contexts. during my current university internship, i have been flanking a mexican student and have realized the usefulness of implementing language learning strategies through multilingual approaches to support his acquisition and keep him engaged. this student has worked in collaboration with an austrian classmate to develop the same task using both spanish and german. as a result, they have exchanged their knowledge and learned from each other. mediation strategies as well as multilingual and intercultural competences are useful for the whole class, since they foster students’ participation and give value to individual differences.” (ana) ana’s comment (excerpt 16) highlights the many advantages of using multilingual approaches. her experience with a mexican student and an austrian classmate exemplifies how mediation strategies not only support individual learners but also create a more collaborative environment, fostering peer learning and helping all students develop multilingual and intercultural competences. 7.2. teachers’ teaching practices rq2 was answered using data gathered from diary 1 (question 2: “how was creating multilingual activities by working in group?”, question 3: “how was observing your colleagues’ multilingual activities and receiving feedback about yours?”), diary 2 (question 1: “consider your initial expectations: did the course meet them? why?”, question 3: “which is the most significant change that the course will bring to your teaching practices?”), and the teaching materials. 7.2.1. diary 1 teachers viewed collaboration with their colleagues as an enriching experience at the cognitive, emotional, and social level. they believed that the creation of new tus by working in groups was: motivating: teachers discovered new opinions and different perspectives regarding the development of the same task, felt stimulated to provide ideas, and learned from their colleagues’ teaching experiences. collaborative: teachers realized that working in groups allowed them to plan lessons faster, strengthen their proposals, learn to reach compromises and agreements, as well as respect and value everyone’s skills. lilli claimed as follows: “each of us has unique capacities. one is fastest at writing, the other is good at finding vocabulary… we divided the activity so that each participant could do what she/he does best”. demanding: teachers found it complicated to consider many different elements, such as choosing the topic, defining students’ language proficiency level, planning preparatory activities. jan wrote: “adapting the resources for a b1 level was difficult. however, having been given many concrete examples beforehand, and having learned both the strategies and the use of multilingual approaches, it was easier than it would have been without this preparation during the course”. spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 40 engaging: teachers enjoyed producing new materials, exchanging ideas, and listening to their colleagues’ viewpoints. inés sustained the following: “i always like working in groups. collecting different ideas and not just focusing on oneself is much more fun for me”. affective: teachers helped each other to overcome difficulties, got to know their colleagues better, established emotional ties. teachers also appreciated the mutual presentation of tus and the ensuing debate. each teacher described a part of the group’s activities, highlighting the multilingual approaches on which they were based and the language learning strategies they intended to develop. the other group asked questions, made observations and comments, as did the researcher, who moderated the discussion. teachers considered such tasks: stimulating: teachers improved their critical skills by analysing their colleagues’ activities and discovered alternative exercises aimed at developing the same skills through ida and pt. layla stated as follows: “it was fascinating to me that my focus in observing presentations regarded these questions: does the other group have activities in common with us? what ideas justify their choices?”. constructive: teachers reinforced their knowledge and competences in both language learning strategies and multilingual approaches by explaining their application in the tus, as well as by listening to the other group doing the same. this enabled them to expand their repertoire of activities and receive constructive feedback. vega wrote: “i have collected new ideas and exercises that i can add to what my group has already produced. it will all be useful in my future classes”. varied: teachers appreciated the diversity of the tasks, the opportunity to get actively involved, and the chance to apply what they had learned during the course. supporting: thanks to the exchange with their colleagues, teachers felt more confident with their own ideas, better understood the strengths and the weaknesses of their activities, and found confirmation of the competences they had developed during the course. they claimed as follows: “through the debate i felt more convinced of both the exercises and my ideas on language learning strategies and multilingual approaches” (ana); “thanks to the other group’s feedback it is easier to evaluate effective proposals, as well as the aspects that should be improved or included” (vega); “the inclusion of multilingualism in all our activities and at different levels (cognitive, social, metacognitive etc.) demonstrates that at the end of the course we all agree on the fact that students’ linguistic background must be considered in every language lesson” (lilli). 7.2.2. diary 2 with respect to their initial expectations about the course, teachers: learned new language learning strategies. enhanced their multilingual competences. innovated their teaching practices. all teachers learned new language learning strategies to simultaneously teach two l3s through multilingual approaches by both reflecting on the language learning strategies used in the four tus, and designing their own activities. teachers recognized that discussing the topics of the course was beneficial at both learning and teaching levels, since they learned how to transfer the use of multilingual approaches from students’ to teachers’ perspectives. this can be seen in excerpt 17 and excerpt 18: excerpt 17. “we reflected on language learning strategies and multilingual approaches by playing both the students’ and the teachers’ roles. by doing so, i understood how these strategies and approaches can help me while learning, and how i could implement them while teaching.” (ana) excerpt 18. “reflecting on my own learning preferences, learning styles, and types of intelligences allowed me to better understand students, as well as to be more aware of these factors enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through multilingual education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 41 when planning a lesson. observing and creating activities permitted me to recognize the variety of strategies and the reasons for their use, in order to design well-balanced activities that could be appropriate for every student.” (jan) ana’s observation (excerpt 17) illustrates how teachers can benefit from adopting the dual perspective of both students and teachers. by reflecting on her own experience, ana felt she had enhanced her overall approach to multilingual education. jan’s comment (excerpt 18) underscores the importance of self-awareness in teaching, which enabled him to design more effective activities tailored to the diverse needs of his students. the pre-service teachers felt that designing their own tu enhanced their multilingual competences. this can be observed in excerpt 19: excerpt 19. “while creating the activities in groups, we were required to use italian and spanish and it is also in this way that you learn, isn’t it?”. (layla) layla’s comment (excerpt 19) emphasizes how the process of creating activities in multiple languages directly contributed to fostering her multilingualism. by engaging in group work and using several languages, she gained hands-on experience that reinforced her multilingual competences in a practical context. for in-service teachers, both the reflections on and the design of activities modernized their teaching practices. this can be noticed in excerpt 20: excerpt 20. “i learned new approaches and rediscovered strategies. after more than twenty years at school, one might end up doing similar activities and preparing them without considering the theories on which they are based. now i feel that my toolbox has been renovated. it is also clearer to me why i am using certain activities, so i can design a lesson with greater awareness.” (lilli) lilli’s observation (excerpt 20) underscores the transformative impact of the pdi in making her lesson design more intentional and informed. after years of teaching, lilli felt she had reconnected with the theoretical foundations of her practices and refreshed her teaching toolbox. the most significant change that the course brought to teachers’ teaching practices was a greater awareness of: the need for a balanced use of all language learning strategies. the benefits of using multilingual education to foster the cross-linguistic transfer of language learning strategies. teachers realized the importance of mastering and applying all the language learning strategies they intend to use in their future lessons in a balanced way. by carrying out the four tus and reflecting from students’ perspectives, they experienced the benefits of developing not just direct, but also indirect, strategies, something that had been neglected by both their former language teachers and themselves (the in-service ones) due to lack of knowledge. as a result, teachers understood the importance of valuing students’ individual differences, exploiting their previous knowledge, fostering peer education and cooperative learning, and stimulating self-assessment. this is necessary to implement more inclusive teaching practices and promote autonomy in language learning, as can be seen in excerpt 21, excerpt 22, and excerpt 23: excerpt 21. “the course started an awareness-raising process regarding the reasons why i use certain strategies and how i design a lesson. i have learned that affective strategies are extremely varied, and i should therefore pay more attention to students’ individual differences, which is not always easy when classes are numerous.” (lilli) spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 42 excerpt 22. “this course had a profound impact on the planning of my lessons. i am currently teaching italian to a small but heterogeneous group of adult learners. therefore, strategies play a key role. the aspect that i want to put more into practice is self-assessment, since i have noticed its usefulness in supporting autonomous learning. i also intend to employ more social strategies, which i have not done so much due to my own learning preferences – now i am aware of that!” (jan) excerpt 23. “compared to the foreign languages courses that i attended at school, this course showed me the importance of investigating students’ previous knowledge and experience, including many preparatory and retrospective exercises, such as the k-w-l chart, and providing students with the best conditions in which to carry out activities, also using multiple languages.” (layla) lilli’s observation (excerpt 21) highlights her growing awareness of the importance of affective strategies in language learning, despite the challenge of accommodating diverse individual needs, particularly in large classes. jan’s comment (excerpt 22) reveals how the pdi increased his self-awareness, which in turn positively influenced his lesson planning, especially in incorporating self-assessment and social strategies. layla’s reflection (excerpt 23) underscores the significance of building on students’ prior knowledge in multiple languages to create better conditions for carrying out language activities. teachers also agreed on the potential of using multilingual approaches to promote the cross-linguistic transfer of language learning strategies, considering the multilingual context in which they were living, training (pre-service teachers), and working (in-service teachers). this can be observed in excerpt 24, excerpt 25, excerpt 26, and excerpt 27: excerpt 24. “this course really changed the way i learn, and i intend to teach. the most significant change was realizing that multilingual education has many benefits, whereas monolingual education has become obsolete. we live in a complex multicultural society, where students’ multilingual backgrounds should be leveraged instead of overlooked. students’ resources have the potential to enhance language learning, besides representing personal and interpersonal enrichment. multilingual education gives value to students’ diversity and can be adapted according to their motivations, types of intelligence, cognitive styles etc.” (ana) excerpt 25. “within the european context, with many languages in regular contact, multilingual education is essential. the course showed me that students’ previous linguistic and cultural knowledge should be used as a ‘bridge’ to teach a new language, strengthen memory, promote creativity, and enhance cognitive flexibility.” (inés) excerpt 26. “i have learned how to include all students’ languages, which i have not always done. we did discuss their experiences with other cultures, but i have never implemented exercises using, for example, the strategy of interlinguistic comparison. i would very much like to implement it in my classes and now i have some ideas about how it will work.” (lilli) excerpt 27. enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through multilingual education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 43 “i will include more activities based on the multilingual approaches i experienced during the course. i have seen that there is no danger for students in mixing languages. on the contrary, these approaches facilitate their delimitation and differentiation, although the languages are very similar. moreover, using various languages at the same time enhances students’ linguistic repertoires.” (vega) ana’s observation (excerpt 24) highlights the transformative impact of multilingual education by emphasizing its advantages over monolingual approaches. her comment reflects her intention to implement multilingual approaches to promote students’ multilingualism while addressing their communicative needs in a globalized society. inés’s reflection (excerpt 25) reinforces the pivotal role of multilingual education in contexts where several languages and cultures are in regular contact. lilli’s comment (excerpt 26) reveals her growing understanding of how to integrate students' linguistic and cultural experiences into language teaching, as well as her eagerness to apply these insights in her future lessons. vega’s observation (excerpt 27) demonstrates a change in her approach towards multilingual education, particularly her newfound confidence in mixing languages in the classroom. 7.2.3. teaching materials the two tus that were produced by the teachers presented both common and different features concerning the enhancement of students’ language competences and mla, the development of their xla, and the use of multilingual approaches. all activities were designed for austrian secondary schools with german as a first/second language. target students attended l3 italian classes at a b1 level. both tus focused on the training of spoken interaction and production, and included writing activities. only one contained reading exercises, and none comprised listening tasks. the first group’s tu concerned poverty eradication. it aimed at raising awareness as to the great extent of poverty across continents, stimulating reflections on individual contributions to change the situation, expanding vocabulary in the semantic field of poverty, debating the causes and possible solutions of poverty, and using connectors to justify personal opinions. the second group’s tu dealt with independence movements in scotland, the veneto region, and carinthia. it aimed at increasing students’ historical, political, social, and cultural knowledge of european movements for autonomy, expanding vocabulary in the semantic field of independence, debating the advantages and disadvantages of autonomy, and comparing the three case studies. both tus included activities fostering reflection on languages, as well as the cross-linguistic transfer of language learning strategies: metacognitive strategies were developed throughout the tus, such as in preparatory speaking activities, the planning of the task, and final self-assessment exercises. for example, in the second group’s tu, teachers included the k-l-w chart to activate students’ previous knowledge, interests, and motivation at the beginning of the tu, adapt the activities to students’ preferences and needs during the tu, and stimulate students’ reflections on their own progress and difficulties at the end of the tu. affective strategies were enhanced by alternating different types of activities to meet individual variables. teachers introduced exercises to be carried out individually, in pairs and in groups; in addition to speaking skills, these aimed at developing writing and reading competences. for example, in the first group’s tu, teachers combined the plenary discussion of the causes and possible solutions of poverty with the writing of the main ideas in pairs. social strategies were implemented through peer education and cooperative learning activities such as jot thoughts and debate. for example, in the second group’s tu, teachers designed a group work asking students to observe the images of scottish and venetian geography and flags, individually write their ideas about the regions using sheets of two different colors, discuss their answers, and choose the three most representative pieces of information for each region to share with the whole class. compensation strategies were fostered by stimulating students to determine the meaning of words in context, paraphrase and use synonyms, drawing on their mother tongue. for example, in the first group’s tu, teachers introduced a brainstorming activity regarding the definition of poverty connected to the observation of a graph on poverty rates in europe, germany, and austria, written in german. memory strategies were promoted by drawing on students’ previous knowledge of the topic of the lesson through initial brainstorming exercises. for example, in the first group’s tu, teachers spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 44 introduced a second brainstorming exercise concerning the main characteristics of poverty in four continents, asking students to work in four main groups and discuss their previous knowledge on the assigned continent. cognitive strategies were supported by encouraging interlinguistic comparisons of vocabulary. for example, in the second group’s tu, teachers highlighted the same key words in two different articles, written in english and italian, regarding scottish and venetian independence movements respectively. students were asked to decorate a multilingual word wall with such key words, including a full column in german and two empty columns to be completed in english and italian. both tus also aimed at developing students’ multilingual competences through ida and pt. all teachers adapted the activities they had experienced, such as the multilingual cooperative brainstorming (jot thoughts), multilingual primary sources (graphs in german, articles in italian and english, quino’s comics in spanish etc.), multilingual word wall, multilingual cooperative speaking groups (debate), and self-assessment activities of the skills and strategies that were being trained to the new teaching context. the main differences between the two tus regarded the materials that were used, and the involved languages. the first group’s tu included photos of people living in poverty, graphs in german regarding percentage data on poverty in europe, and quino’s comics written in spanish. teachers introduced activities in italian, german, and the other languages known to the students. for example, students were asked to carry out a brainstorming activity in german regarding the main characteristics of poverty in four continents, write the main ideas developed throughout the discussion in italian, and decorate in a multilingual word wall with the key words of the debate, including a full column in italian and two empty columns to be completed in german and other languages. the second group’s tu included photos of political demonstrations, images of proindependence slogans, timelines, and articles written both in italian and english. teachers added activities in italian, german, and english. for example, students were asked to work in groups and identify the political message conveyed in a set of images of pro-independence slogans, write their opinions in german, italian, and english, and present their main ideas to the entire class by speaking in italian about the veneto region and in english about scotland. 8. discussion the data collected from this study provided a clear picture of the impact of a course regarding multilingual approaches and language learning strategies in both italian and spanish as l3s on the development of teachers’ multilingual language awareness. despite the small number of participants, the data analysis has highlighted some interesting aspects concerning changes on language tc that deserve further discussion. regarding the effects of course participation on teachers’ beliefs (rq1), by implementing the four tus all teachers acknowledged the potential of using a variety of language learning strategies to train different language skills, particularly in a multilingual learning environment. however, there were significant differences in their initial understanding of the strategies. some teachers readily identified their interplay within the same multilingual activity. conversely, other teachers initially linked each strategy to specific activities and struggled to understand how strategies could be transferred across l3s given their previous learning and teaching experiences. over time, all teachers realized the impossibility of isolating strategies and became aware of their powerful combination through multilingual education. these findings prove the influence of both internal and external factors on language tc, including teachers’ biographical experiences, personal beliefs, and teaching contexts (borg, 2006; kubanyiova & feryok, 2015). although there was general agreement on the need to teach all language learning strategies, teachers’ perceptions of their importance evolved differently. for some, the focus was on fostering social and affective strategies to build students’ confidence, reduce anxiety, and motivate language learning. others were more concerned with applying cognitive strategies effectively in multilingual classrooms. nevertheless, through discussions with colleagues during in-person lessons and on the course’s platform, teachers developed a broader awareness of students’ diversity, especially in multilingual settings. as a result, they recognized the importance of distributing all language learning strategies carefully to engage the entire classroom while taking into consideration students’ individual differences. these findings confirm the potential of exploring the impact of pdis to broaden the understanding of language tc (borg, 2006; guskey, 2002b; johnson, 2018; kubanyiova & feryok, 2015). they also demonstrate the relevance of stimulating teachers’ reflections during lte to encourage their beliefs to emerge and possibly change (barcelos & kalaja, 2013; borg, 2003; farrell, 2007). in enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through multilingual education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 45 addition, they show the contribution of teachers’ interactions in stimulating changes in language tc, starting with the analysis of pre-existing teaching materials through group work (barnard & burns, 2012; darlinghammond, hyler, & gardner, 2017). teachers agreed on the positive impact of multilingual education on the improvement of their multilingual skills, mla, and xla across multiple l3s by carrying out the four tus from students’ perspectives. some teachers reported feeling empowered by the process. their reflections from teachers’ perspectives allowed them to increase their knowledge of multilingual theories, become more aware of their own individual differences, and empathize with students’ linguistic and cultural diversity. some teachers mentioned that they changed their minds about the potential of using specific techniques to train language learning strategies and, overall, about multilingual education. therefore, teachers considered that today an effective l3 course should aim to develop mediation skills, multilingual and intercultural competences, and language learning strategies in and across languages through multilingual approaches. to justify their ideas, they referred not only to their professional backgrounds and the multilingual austrian education system, but also to their personal reactions to the four tus. these findings are consistent with the existing literature on the benefits of making teachers play the role of students during lte to develop their multilingual language awareness (jessner, 2018; otwinowska, 2014; putjata et al., 2022; vetter & slavkov, 2022). as far as the impact of course participation on teachers’ teaching practices (rq2) is concerned, by designing their own tus, teachers learned how to promote the training of all language learning strategies through ida and pt within the l3 classroom. besides enhancing their multilingual competences, teachers recognized that this task contributed to expanding their knowledge of language learning strategies and innovating their teaching practices. teachers felt that they became more aware of both the importance of balanced inclusion of all language learning strategies, and the advantages of implementing multilingual approaches to foster their cross-linguistic transfer. pre-service teachers felt that the course significantly broadened their pedagogical toolkit, and expressed excitement about using the new teaching approaches they had learned in their future classes. in-service teachers realized that they had been only partially implementing multilingual education to train students’ language learning strategies due to their previous language learning experiences, teaching preferences, and lack of knowledge. they also deconstructed and overcame their prejudices about the negative effects of involving multiple languages in the l3 classroom. therefore, they found it easier to envision integrating multilingual approaches into their current teaching practices. these findings are consistent with the discrepancies between teachers’ positive beliefs about multilingualism and their monolingual teaching practices (alisaari et al., 2019; burner & carlsen, 2022, 2023; sundqvist et al., 2021). results also demonstrate the positive effects of pdis on multilingual education on teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices, especially when interaction is promoted (barnard & burns, 2012; borg, 2003, 2018a; buehl & beck, 2014; darling-hammond et al., 2017; gorter & arocena, 2020; guskey, 2002b; johnson, 2018; kubanyiova, 2012; schroedler & fisher, 2020; sercu & st. john, 2007). as concerns teachers’ collaboration, they experienced the benefits of both working in groups to design their own tus, and critically discussing their activities in plenary sessions to support multilingual education. teachers approached the task of creating multilingual activities differently. some embraced the challenge as an opportunity for creativity and collaboration, enjoying the process of tailoring activities to their students’ multilingual contexts. others initially found it difficult due to the need to balance diverse students’ needs and language proficiencies. however, while working together, all teachers found the task instructive, enjoyable, and emotional, thanks to the heterogeneous composition of the groups. although their tus presented both common and different features, all adapted the course content and approaches to the multilingual austrian education system. all teachers were satisfied with the debate that followed the presentation of their tus and found it inspiring, enriching, interesting, and encouraging. they felt that these discussions enhanced their ability to examine their colleagues’ tus, revise their own activities, and explain their instructional choices regarding the use of ida and pt to train language learning strategies in and across languages. as a result, teachers strengthened their knowledge of multilingual theories, improved their abilities in applying multilingual approaches, and experienced the advantages of collaborating with colleagues. in accordance with the reference literature, results show the efficacy of developing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through pdis that focus on recognizing and overcoming monolingual teaching practices by engaging teachers in multilingual and collaborative tasks, such as creating new teaching materials through group work (creese, 2005; haukås, 2016; jessner, 2018; li, 2020; putjata et al., 2022; vetter & slavkov, 2022; yoon, 2023). the course promoted significant changes in language tc, but the extent and nature of these changes will depend on each teacher’s unique school context and readiness to integrate new teaching approaches into spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 46 their classroom practices. in fact, despite the encouraging results, some significant limitations in the data collection process can be identified. first, the sample size was modest in scale, although it was diverse in terms of linguistic repertoires, prior knowledge, and work experiences. second, the study was highly context-specific, as it was confined to teachers attending an austrian university and focusing on two l3s within the same family of romance languages. third, the research focused on teachers’ change over a period of two and a half months, which was relatively short, despite being consistent with the longitudinal study design (borg, 2012). data regarding teaching practices were based either on teachers’ future intentions or their self-reported implementation of the course content in their current practices (university internship and school lessons). the long-term effects of the course on teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices were not investigated (guskey, 2002b). 9. conclusion due to the rapidly changing linguistic and cultural education systems, it is essential to investigate changes in language tc in relation to lte programs (conteh & meier, 2014; may, 2014; putjata et al., 2022), and more specifically those regarding multilingual education and language learning strategies in and across two or more l3s. this study examined the impact of a course regarding the use of ida and pt to develop language learning strategies in italian and spanish as l3s on the development of teachers’ multilingual language awareness. it focused on the changes in the beliefs and teaching practices of a group of both preand in-service teachers, with special attention to their dual role of students and teachers, as well as their collaboration. although findings are limited in terms of their broader applicability, they show that teachers’ multilingual language awareness was strengthened on many levels. by playing the dual role of students and teachers, reflecting explicitly on their beliefs and teaching practices, and working together, participants acquired the qualities that a competent language teacher in multilingual education should possess (de angelis, 2011; haukås, 2016; jessner, 2018; otwinowska, 2014, 2017). by implementing the four tus, they enhanced their multilingual skills, mla, and xla, discovered ida and pt, and became more sensitive towards students’ individual differences. by designing their own tus, they applied their knowledge of multilingual theories, integrated multilingual approaches in their lesson planning, and experienced the benefits of collaboration. consequently, teachers felt more prepared to both value students’ linguistic repertoires and develop the multilingual competences of the entire classroom (garcía & kleyn, 2013; vetter & jessner, 2019; vetter & slavkov, 2022). therefore, they expressed their intention to foster inclusive and autonomous tla by developing students’ language learning strategies in and across languages using ida and pt . based on these results, future pdis on multilingual education should include more extensive opportunities for teachers to adopt students’ perspectives, engage in reflective practice, and collaborate. incorporating a variety of multilingual approaches and providing ongoing support for reflecting on and implementing language learning strategies in and across languages could further help teachers adapt to dynamic multilingual school contexts. to extend the impact of this study, future research should involve a larger sample of both preand inservice teachers to enhance the generalizability of findings. including additional data collection instruments, such as classroom observations and follow-up interviews after the pdis, would provide deeper insights into the long-term effects of teachers’ professional development on language tc (burner & carlsen, 2023; guskey, 2002b). the continued use of qualitative instruments like teachers’ diaries could offer richer data on the nuanced changes in teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices over time. comparative studies across different languages and educational contexts, both in austria and internationally, would also provide a broader understanding of the impact of pdis on multilingual education and language learning strategies in and across languages, thus highlighting differences and similarities in teachers’ experiences. addressing these suggestions could enhance the understanding of how to effectively support language teachers in leveraging multilingual educational environments, while promoting the development of their multilingual language awareness. acknowledgments i wish to express my gratitude to the teachers who participated in the course and made a significant contribution to the research. i thank professor jaime climent de benito and professor cristina gavagnin for enhancing teachers’ multilingual language awareness through multilingual education e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 47 their 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(2018). case study research and applications: designs and methods. thousand oaks: sage. yoon, bogum (2023). classroom study of teacher collaboration for multilingual learners: implications for teacher education programs. action in teacher education, 45(2), 124–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2023.2175739 https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2018.1515206 https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2022.2114804 https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/eujal/html https://doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2019-0040 https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.21832/9781788927383/html https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2015.2249 https://sdgs.un.org/goals https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/persons/eva-vetter(1b7563d2-a77a-4a7e-a761-609be6d84274).html https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/introduction-advances-in-the-study-of-third-language-acquisition-and-multilingualism(bc9b71ae-e083-4220-9315-85defb725b4d).html https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/introduction-advances-in-the-study-of-third-language-acquisition-and-multilingualism(bc9b71ae-e083-4220-9315-85defb725b4d).html https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.35.1 https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2023.2175739 spaliviero e-journall, 11(2) (2024), pp. 27-52 52 appendix teachers’ diary 1 1) which multilingual language learning strategies are useful to you, as a teacher? (lessons 3-6) 2) how was creating multilingual activities by working in group? (lesson 7) 3) how was observing your colleagues’ multilingual activities and receiving feedback about yours? (lesson 8) teachers’ diary 2 1) consider your initial expectations: did the course meet them? why? (lesson 9) 2) in your opinion, which characteristics should an effective l3 course have today? (lesson 9) 3) which is the most significant change that the course will bring to your teaching practices? (lesson 9) camilla spaliviero università ca' foscari venezia camilla.spaliviero@unive.it en camilla spaliviero is a post-doctoral research fellow in educational linguistics at ca' foscari university of venice and an adjunct professor in teaching italian l2 at the universities of bologna and ferrara. her research interests include second and foreign language acquisition related to multilingual education, intercultural education, and the use of literary texts and digital resources in the language classroom, with a focus on language learning strategies and language teacher education. es camilla spaliviero es investigadora postdoctoral en lingüística educativa en la universidad ca' foscari de venecia y profesora adjunta en didáctica de italiano l2 en las universidades de bolonia y ferrara. sus intereses de investigación incluyen la adquisición de lenguas segundas y extranjeras relacionada con la educación multilingüe, la educación intercultural y el uso de textos literarios y recursos digitales en el aula de idiomas, con un enfoque en las estrategias de aprendizaje de idiomas y la formación del profesorado de lenguas. it camilla spaliviero è assegnista di ricerca in linguistica educativa presso l'università ca' foscari di venezia e professoressa a contratto in didattica dell’italiano l2 presso le università di bologna e ferrara. i suoi interessi di ricerca includono l'acquisizione di lingue seconde e straniere relazionata alla didattica plurilingue, all'educazione interculturale e all'uso di testi letterari e risorse digitali nella classe di lingua, con un focus sulle strategie di apprendimento linguistico e sulla formazione dei docenti di lingue. 6.2.1. teachers’ diaries borg, simon (2019). language teacher cognition: perspectives and debates. in xuesong gao (ed.), second handbook of english language teaching (pp. 1149–1170). edinburgh: springer. cenoz, jasone, gorter, durk, & may, stephen (eds.) (2017). language awareness and multilingualism. new york: springer. cohen, louis, manion, lawrence, & morrison, keith (2017). research methods in education. new york: routledge. creswell, john w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. thousand oaks: sage. davies, rick, & dart, jess (2005). the ‘most significant change’ (msc) technique: a guide to its use. melbourne: mande. davison, chris (2006). collaboration between esl and content teachers: how do we know when we are doing it right? international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 9(4), 454–475. https://doi.org/10.2167/beb339.0 de angelis, gessica (2011). teachers’ beliefs about the role of prior language knowledge in learning and how these influence teaching practices. international journal of multilingualism, 8(3), 216–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2011.560669 denzin, norman k., & lincoln, yvonna s. (2005). the sage handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage. dooly, melinda, & moore, emilee (2017). introduction: qualitative approaches to research on plurilingual education. in emilee moore & melinda dooly (eds.), qualitative approaches to research on plurilingual education (pp. 1–10). https://doi.org/10.147... dörnyei, zoltán (2007). research methods in applied linguistics. oxford: oxford university press. michala, myrto, manoli, peggy, lavidas, konstantinos, & koustourakis, gerasimos (2024). what if there is linguistic and cultural diversity in contemporary classrooms? secondary school teachers’ attitudes, practices, and challenges towards student mult... moon, jennifer a. (2006). learning journals. a handbook for reflective practice and professional development. new york: routledge. otwinowska, agnieszka (2014). does multilingualism influence plurilingual awareness of polish teachers of english? international journal of multilingualism, 11(1), 97–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2013.820730 otwinowska, agnieszka (2017). english teachers’ language awareness: away with the monolingual bias? language awareness, 26(4), 304–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2017.1409752 oxford, rebecca l. (1990). language learning strategies. what every teacher should know. boston: heinle. pohlmann-rother, sanna, lange, sarah désirée, zapfe, laura, & then, daniel (2023). supportive primary teacher beliefs towards multilingualism through teacher training and professional practice. language and education, 37(2), 212–228. https://doi.org/1... portolés, laura, & martí, otilia (2020). teachers’ beliefs about multilingual pedagogies and the role of initial training. international journal of multilingualism, 17(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2018.1515206 putjata, galina, brizić, katharina, goltsev, evghenia, & olfert, helena (2022). introduction: towards a multilingual turn in teacher professionalization. language and education, 36(5), 399–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2022.2114804 schroedler, tobias, & fisher, nele (2020). the role of beliefs in teacher professionalisation for multilingual classroom settings. european journal of applied linguistics, 8(1), 49–72. https://doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2019-0040 sercu, lies, & st. john, oliver (2007). teacher beliefs and their impact on teaching practice: a literature review. in manuel jimenez raya & lies sercu (eds.), challenges in teacher development: learner autonomy and intercultural competence (pp. 41–64... sundqvist, pia, gyllstad, henrik, källkvist, marie, & sandlund, erica (2021). mapping teacher beliefs and practices about multilingualism: the development of the multibap questionnaire. in päivi juvonen & marie källkvist (eds.), pedagogical translangu... euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 1, july 2023, 1–20 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.1.2646 www.e-journall.org © gao 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. weaving game and task into content-language integration: proposing a game-mediated dual learning model yuchan (blanche) gao arizona state university received 26 january 2023; accepted after revisions 26 may 2023 abstract en content-based instruction, task-based language teaching, and game-mediated learning are three pedagogical approaches that are perceived as effective in second and foreign language education. these approaches not only share common ground in a sociocultural and functional view of language learning but also share popularity as engaging classroom strategies in elementary, middle, and high school contexts. however, challenges may exist in ensuring content and language dual learning goals, designing language learning tasks, or implementing game-mediated activities. therefore, this study seeks to describe the conceptual and methodological alignment among these approaches by reviewing recent research. moreover, a game-mediated dual learning model is proposed to pinpoint a series of design components for language educators to consider when they integrate the aforementioned three approaches. key words: game-mediated learning, task-based language teaching, content-language integration, dual learning es la instrucción basada en el contenido, la enseñanza de idiomas basada en tareas y el aprendizaje basado en juegos son tres enfoques pedagógicos que se perciben como efectivos en la enseñanza de segundas lenguas y lenguas extranjeras. estos enfoques no solo comparten una visión sociocultural y funcional del aprendizaje de idiomas, sino que también gozan de popularidad como estrategias atractivas en las aulas de primaria y secundaria. sin embargo, pueden existir desafíos para garantizar objetivos de aprendizaje dual de contenido e idioma, diseñar tareas de aprendizaje de idiomas o implementar actividades mediadas por juegos. por lo tanto, este estudio pretende describir la alineación conceptual y metodológica entre estos enfoques mediante la revisión de investigaciones recientes. además, se propone un modelo de aprendizaje dual mediado por juegos para identificar una serie de componentes de diseño que los educadores de idiomas deben considerar cuando integran los tres enfoques susodichos. palabras claves: aprendizaje basado en juegos, enseñanza de idiomas basada en tareas, integración de lenguas y contenidos , aprendizaje dual it l’istruzione basata sul contenuto, l’apprendimento linguistico basato su task e l’apprendimento mediato dal gioco sono tre approcci pedagogici considerati efficaci nell’insegnamento di lingue seconde e straniere. questi approcci condividono la visione socioculturale e funzionale dell’apprendimento linguistico e risultano strategie di insegnamento coinvolgenti dalla scuola dell’infanzia alla scuola secondaria. tuttavia, possono presentarsi delle sfide nel tentativo di garantire obiettivi di apprendimento duale di lingua e contenuto, nel progettare task di apprendimento linguistico o nell’implementare attività mediate dal gioco. pertanto, questo studio cerca di descrivere l’allineamento concettuale e metodologico tra questi approcci esaminando ricerche recenti. inoltre, viene proposto un modello di apprendimento duale mediato dal gioco per definire una serie di elementi progettuali che i/le docenti di lingua dovrebbero considerare quando integrano i tre approcci sopracitati. parole chiave: apprendimento mediato dal gioco, insegnamento linguistico basato su task, integrazione di lingua e contenuto, apprendimento duale * yuchan (blanche) gao, arizona state university blanche.gao@asu.edu http://www.e-journall.org/ gao e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 2 1. introduction in light of the call for more communicative language teaching practices, three approaches have emerged over the past four decades that are considered to be effective in second and foreign language teaching and learning (l2tl). these approaches consist of content-based instruction (cbi), task-based language teaching (tblt), and game-mediated learning (gml). they are rooted in a sociocultural orientation of learning where emphasis is placed on providing opportunities for learning through activities that are student-centered, foster social interaction, and have real-world connections. given the theoretical alignments and methodological commonalities among these approaches, several second language (l2) scholars have already explored their relationship. for instance, ortega (2015) commented on the special issue that made the first attempt at exploring research interfaces between the fields of tblt and cbi1, and suggested that educators and researchers in both subfields share the vision of the inseparability of language and meaning. moreover, the author pointed out that the fruitful integration of new digital and social technologies has raised possibilities for innovative practices that ensure engaging and effective content-language integrated practices. game-mediated learning (gml) approaches have gained increased attention as an emerging technology in the field of learning in general, and more specifically in l2 research. it is argued that, with a careful design, games can promote deep and meaningful learning by immersing players in quests that prompt them to engage with active learning (gee, 2003). similarly, in l2 learning, game-mediated approaches not only increase learner motivation by allowing learner choices, but also provide a space for social interaction and realworld connection (sykes & reinhardt, 2012). integrating these approaches can potentially create a multilayered learning environment in which students are prompted to practice and learn both content and target language in a playful and efficient way by completing games and tasks. on the basis of this need, the present paper seeks to discuss some theoretical alignments and instances of methodological compatibility among cbi, tblt, and gml. in the following sections, i will first provide an overview of the three approaches and their key assumptions and rationale. next, i will explore the highlights of their compatibility of integration by reviewing the current theoretical and empirical literature. lastly, a pedagogical model of how to use game-mediated and task-based activities to support content-language integrated learning is proposed, followed by a discussion of its implications and future implementations. 2. the three approaches to better explain the relationship among the aforementioned three approaches, figure 1 illustrates the overlapping connections and where the game-mediated dual learning model may be fitted. the following subsections provide a brief discussion of each approach and some of their key assumptions. figure 1. visual representation of the game-mediated dual learning model 1 the author (ortega, 2015) used the term content and language integrated learning (clil) in the original article. various terms have been used in the literature to describe the integration of content and language, yet these names refer to similar content-language integrated practices (for a more in-depth discussion on this, see cenoz, 2015). this study therefore uses “content-based instruction” (cbi) as an overarching term that encompasses different variations of content-language integrated practices. proposing a game-mediated dual learning model e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 3 2.1. content-based instruction originated in canadian immersion programs, cbi refers to the concurrent study of language and subject matter (brinton et al., 1989). the practice of cbi is supported by several second language acquisition theories and empirical studies (grabe & stoller, 1997). in particular, this view of ‘form plus content’, as opposed to “form versus content”, is in line with the sociocultural orientation of l2 learning. from this perspective, learning takes place when learners use language to communicate, solve problems, and engage in other meaningful activities (banegas, 2012; grabe & stoller, 1997). in content-based classrooms, students are exposed to a large amount of incidental language learning through the learning of content. this incidental language learning is contextualized and embedded within relevant discourse that is specific to the subject matter. moreover, there is greater flexibility and adaptability for teachers to build activities that promote increased opportunities to learn the targeted language through learning content knowledge, and vice versa, into the curriculum. according to stoller (2008), cbi has been used as an umbrella term that encompasses forms of cbi ranging from the extent of immersion (e.g., 90% using the second language, content-based themes in language classes) and educational levels (e.g., preschool, higher education). to better paint the picture of these variations, met (1999) described a continuum of content and language integration with one end being language-driven (e.g., theme-based language classes), while the other is content-driven (e.g., immersion). depending on the curricular contexts and student population, educators have the flexibility to choose and adapt different models along this continuum to better provide opportunities for both content and language learning. in addition, the integration of content and language has commonly been recognized as content-language integrated learning in europe, and is considered a synonym for cbi (coyle et al., 2010; dalton-puffer, 2007; ruiz de zarobe, 2008). 2.2. task-based language teaching tasks have been investigated from a sociocultural perspective to promote learning by understanding how learners make sense and learn from the tasks they are asked to perform (ellis, 2018; ellis et al., 2019). the central claim of sociocultural l2 learning theory is that “participants always co-construct the activity they engage in, in accordance with their own socio-history and locally determined goals” (ellis, 2018, p. 33). unlike the psycholinguistic view of task, performance depends on the task-participant interaction, as opposed to the inherent properties of the task itself (appel & lantolf, 1994). the interaction between the learners, the teachers, and the setting is crucial for task-based researchers who adopt a sociocultural orientation, and thus focus on the process of accomplishing tasks and how such a process may contribute to language acquisition (ellis, 2018). moreover, sociocultural-oriented scholars believe that task participants could make sense of and make attempts to perform tasks that are beyond their current abilities by collaborating with other participants in order to scaffold each other’s attempts. according to ellis et al. (2019), tasks can be defined based on the following criteria: 1) a primary focus on meaning, 2) the presence of a gap, 3) learners’ reliance on their own linguistic and nonlinguistic resources, and 4) a clearly defined communicative outcome. on the other hand, non-tasks or less “task-like’ workplans, such as vocabulary cloze exercises, may also exist. with the advancement of technologies, tasks have been redefined in the context of technology-and-task integration. based on prior task definitions, gonzalez-lloret and ortega (2014) identified five definitional features of a technology-mediated task that is optimal for language learning, including: 1) a primary focus on meaning: a preplanned language goal that is embedded within the task should exist; 2) goal orientation: a clear communicative goal and outcomes resulting from the task should exist; 3) learner-centeredness: the task should be based on learners’ needs and wants, as well as allow learners to use their linguistic and non-linguistic resources to complete the task; 4) holism: the task should be authentic, relevant to learners, and directly related to real-world activities; 5) reflective learning: the task should involve cycles of reflection for learners to use their intellectual knowledge and personal growth. gao e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 4 as the authors suggested, technologies should be carefully chosen and planned into the tasks, rather than being used as translations or extensions of existing tasks or exercises. moreover, different technologies (e.g., online websites, teleconferences, games) contain different affordances for l2 learning and teaching. as a result, the use of certain technologies should be justified by the degree of how they serve the overall educational purposes. to do this, we should follow the tblt cycles that begin with needs analysis, task selection and sequencing, materials and instruction development, teaching, assessment, and evaluation (norris, 2009). 2.3. game-mediated language learning by employing one of the most fast-growing emerging technologies, game-mediated learning has received expanding attention in the field of l2tl in recent years. drawing on previous definitions, sykes and reinhardt (2012) pointed out several key components of a game, including voluntary play, binding rules, goal orientation, differing outcomes, and an internal rewarding system. they further emphasized that not all games contain all these features, so it is important to examine the gameplay experiences and players’ behaviors to further characterize the identification of an activity that is also a game. in line with the sociocultural view of l2 learning, a game can be viewed as a social practice, a new form of literacy, and “a productive model for gameinformed pedagogy that can transform language learning experiences” (sykes & reinhardt, 2012, p. 3). in the context of l2tl, reinhardt (2019) drew on the ecological concept of affordance and identified a list of affordances for game-mediated l2 learning. for instance, the multimodal nature of games supports contextualized language learning, and especially the use of narratives. moreover, games allow for goal-oriented learning and feedback mechanisms. additionally, games provide opportunities for language development through social interaction and collaboration. a flourishing body of research on game-mediated l2tl has been developed in and out of classrooms. to conceptualize the uses of games, reinhardt and sykes (2014) proposed a framework for research and practice in digital games. this framework entails three broad methods for utilizing different kinds of games and differing ways of incorporating games into curriculum. for example, game-enhanced approaches refer to the use of commercial-off-the-shelf (cots) games that are designed for entertainment purposes. gameenhanced research seeks to investigate how games are used for learning in the wild or how they can be adopted in l2 classrooms. game-based practices are defined as the adoption of educational games depending on how specific game design or game-based environments can afford l2tl. lastly, game-informed perspectives draw from game and play principles and seek to understand how to use parts of concepts of game and play to transform learning experiences. examples of this approach include gamified learning activities and language play. 3. blending them all as shown in the overlapping areas in the venn diagram in figure 1, prior research has explored the relationships between the aforementioned approaches (e.g., task-based content integration, game-mediated task design, and game-mediated content-integration). to develop an updated understanding of the recent literature, a selective review of empirical articles that were published from 2012 to 2023 was conducted. the databases used in this study included a combination of searches in several representative journals in the field of l2 learning and teaching (i.e., llt, calico, system, recall, call, tesol quarterly, tesol journal, computer & education) and a key word search in google scholar. the search terms contained four sets of combinations that aimed to cover all studies that focused on at least two of the three approaches: 1) “games and content based learning or content based instruction or content language integrated learning or content integrated approaches”; 2) “games and task based language teaching or task based language learning or task based learning or task based approaches”; 3) “games and content integrated approaches and task based approaches”; 4) “game”, “play”, “task”, “content.” the inclusion and exclusion criteria that were followed in this review are listed below: 1) the search was limited to titles, abstracts, and keywords; 2) a focus on english as the targeted learning language was placed; proposing a game-mediated dual learning model e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 5 3) the included studies were conducted in l2 learning contexts (i.e., english as a second language (esl) and english as a foreign language (efl)), not when english was the students’ first language; 4) the included articles were limited to peer-reviewed and empirical studies (i.e., studies that reported empirical findings); 5) the included studies were carried out in formal classroom settings, as opposed to informal, extramural learning, or learning in the wild; 6) the method of intervention used in the included studies was game-mediated, as opposed to simulation or virtual worlds. game-mediated practices include the use of entertainment, educational games, or game-/play-informed elements (e.g., gamified applications). an overview of the included articles can be found in table 3 in the appendix. the analytical process involves two steps, beginning with an initial coding stage in which i reviewed and determined if the articles employed any combination of the three approaches. a total of 21 articles (n = 21) were divided into three categories according to the instructional approaches used, including i) game-mediated content integration (n = 9), ii) game-mediated task design (n = 9), and iii) game-mediated dual learning (n = 3). in the second stage, i conducted an in-depth reading of the included articles in terms of learning interventions (i.e., the game-mediated activities and tasks used in the studies), pedagogical mediation, learning outcomes, and a general description of the learning context and student population. in the next sections, i will discuss the key findings in relation to how these approaches might be used in combination with one another. 3.1. task-based content integration as indicated in the top left overlap in figure 1, cbi and tblt both appeared in the 1980s, in light of the call for more communicative language teaching methods (bygate, 2016). these pedagogical approaches not only share roots in communicative teaching but also present commonalities that allow methodological connections to be made to maximize the potential of each approach (lopes, 2020). by focusing on learning across disciplinary divides and through social interaction, cbi and tblt depart from the traditional language teaching method where language is learned in isolation and relies on textbook activities (lopes, 2020). despite such similarities, there are four major differences in focus that lie between these two approaches, as illustrated in table 1 (ellis et al., 2019; ortega, 2015). however, it is not hard to see that these differences exist at the level of focus rather than that of fundamental incompatibility. in fact, as lopes (2020) has suggested, tblt can be used to address some of the challenges posed by cbi. to help tackle the challenges faced by both clil and tblt, researchers encouraged the combination of the two approaches. for example, meyer (2010) suggested that the authentic communication and frequent negotiation of meaning that were fostered by language tasks enabled greater depth of content learning. scott and beadle (2014) also pointed out that tblt could promote authentic communication and pushed language output through the use of the target language in interaction. moreover, lopes (2020, p. 8) argued that “… tblt provides the scaffolding needed for clil classes to strike a balance between the cognitive and linguistic demands”. table 1 comparing content-based instruction (cbi) and task-based language teaching (tblt) cbi tblt conceptualizing ‘meaning’ content and subject matter learning experiential and goal-oriented learning age groups school age learners college level students educational focus foreign language teaching contexts outside the school contexts educational effectiveness balanced and mutually beneficial learning between language and content transfer of learning from classroom tasks to authentic tasks in the real-world note. adapted from ellis et al., 2019, p. 18 and ortega, 2015, p. 103. gao e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 6 3.2. game-mediated task design comparisons have been made between the design of a game and the design of a language learning task since they are similarly goal-oriented (purushotma et al., 2009), as depicted in the bottom overlap in figure 1. meanwhile, games can be perceived as more authentic and meaningful tasks as they integrate aspects of narrative, play, and social interconnectedness (purushotma et al., 2009). sykes and reinhardt (2012) also sustained that games are player-driven by nature, which means they embed different means for players to create and engage with authentic experiences. by adopting games or learning from game design, we make the learning task more learner-driven by endowing them with the agency or illusion of agency that learners drive their own learning. prior studies have attested to the similarities between game design and task design and suggested that gameplay itself can be seen as a language learning task. for example, in a study investigating the effectiveness of a digital game-based task on the acquisition of word knowledge, rasti-behbahani and shahbazi (2020) adopted a commercial adventure point-and-click pc game (haunted hotel: death sentence-collectors’ edition) and a walkthrough which is a guide to the game. the authors believed that adventure games are pedagogically suitable for this study because players engage with a series of tasks that require them to locate objects by searching the game interface, combining collected objects, or solving issues in previous tasks. the study recommended that a game-based task was more effective than a traditional vocabulary learning task, especially in terms of overcoming the complexity of vocabulary acquisition. with a focus on grammar learning, kao (2020) and his collaborator (reynolds & kao, 2019) used an educational game (english extras in business with a, an, and the) to support the acquisition of the english article system. when designing the game used in the study, the authors foregrounded the feedback mechanic that provided both just-in-time and summative feedback. in particular, this game incorporated awareness raising and focused tasks (e.g., answering questions about specific english article uses) to ensure the practice and learning of the targeted linguistic form. both studies reported positive effects on using the game in providing awareness-raising opportunities for the targeted linguistic form, stronger retention when combined with written corrective feedback (reynolds & kao, 2019), and more focused correction of article errors (kao, 2020). focusing on a tabletop role-playing game, mccollum (2023) identified a list of in-game tasks that are parallel to intermediate and advanced level speaking functions according to the actfl2 proficiency guidelines. the author claimed that the value of games for l2 learning included student motivation and potential increases in their interpersonal communication skills and linguistic proficiency (mccollum, 2023). additionally, game-mediated task design can be developed in combination with other technological affordances, such as place-based features and augmented reality (ar). sydorenko et al. (2019) investigated a quest-type mobile ar game (chronoops) that was designed for language learning purposes. this game was narrative-driven and intentionally designed as a series of open-ended, under-specified tasks. as the authors suggested, when games are designed to fit the conceptualization of a technology-mediated task (gozalez-lloret & ortega, 2014), they may provide useful environments for social interaction and language learning. in their study, students attended to the lexical items that were relevant to the ar tasks and physical locations. moreover, strong goal-oriented collaboration was found between language learners and expert speakers. in short, these studies suggest that researchers tended to select or design games based on task criteria and guidelines that have been established in the task literature, and they reported the positive effectiveness of games that featured a task-based design. in addition, having students design simple games from scratch has become a popular learning tool in fostering game-mediated task learning. in butler’s (2018) study, she invited elementary students to design computer games with potential for l2 learning based on the key elements they were asked to identify from games (e.g., challenging, instant feedback) and vocabulary learning (e.g., repeating and reviewing, multiple modalities). the author argued that it is necessary to incorporate learning elements to make activities in games into meaningful tasks for learning that require students to reflect on useful game and learning elements, and that game design is a valuable learning task. one further study recognized the coherence between the use of tasks and other l2 pedagogical approaches in the context of using games as the pedagogical intervention, and sustained that the combination of tblt and other strategies might result in more enhanced learning outcomes (liu & chu, 2010). the authors designed a context-aware ubiquitous-learning environment (hello) that embedded several learning games to help engage seventh graders in different learning activities. according to the authors, ubiquitous games blend real-world and virtual environments in which players can partially play 2 actfl stands for the american council for the teaching of foreign languages; more information on this can be found at https://www.actfl.org/. proposing a game-mediated dual learning model e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 7 games involving physical objects while playing a portion of the game involving virtual objects. the authors further explained that one of the games in this system (campus story game) was designed based on collaborative tblt strategy in which players listened to sample stories and then collaboratively edited a story. another study explored the combination of tasks and games in a flipped learning environment and suggested that secondary school students thus improved their communication skills and gained more confidence in speaking english (muntrikaeo & poonpon, 2022). the authors used a web-enhanced tool named educaplay where teachers can create interactive learning activities for students. several online game templates, such as matching, fill-in-the-blanks, and dialogue games, are available. these online language games are defined as activities with rules, goals, and fun elements, and used to provide a fun and more relaxing atmosphere for l2 learning (muntrikaeo & poonpon, 2022). in this study, tasks are described as meaning-focused activities that involve learners in understanding, manipulating, creating, or interacting in the target language to accomplish a communicative or no—linguistic result (muntrikaeo & poonpon, 2022). in particular, this study followed a pre-, during, and post-task design of the intervention. on the other hand, one study concluded that tasks are not always useful when compared to a self-directed approach (i.e., students do not need to follow the task sequence during gameplay) in the context of using an educational ar game-based system (hsu, 2017). 3.3. game-mediated content integration as presented in the top right overlap in figure 1, games have been utilized in supporting content learning and led to positive results in a variety of disciplines, such as mathematics, science, and social studies (plass et al., 2020). in contrast, the use of games in facilitating content-language dual learning has rarely been discussed. several studies have pointed out the effectiveness of serious games and how they facilitate both content and l2 learning. serious games are typically designed for education and training purposes (johnson et al., 2005) and are claimed to increase learning motivation and learning performance, and have the potential to facilitate subject content learning (chen & hsu, 2020). in chen and hsu’s study (2020), they sought to examine if university students acquire both content and vocabulary knowledge at the same time by using an interactive serious game (playing history). they recorded learning gains in both vocabulary and history knowledge, and concluded that serious game can be both fun and educational. focusing on teaching vocabulary for specific purposes (learning nursing content), soyoof et al. (2022) had university students play a serious game (saving lives) and suggested increased knowledge in both healthcare content and english vocabulary. meanwhile, although other studies did not define their games as serious games, they attempted to incorporate content learning as part of the learning goals involved in the design of the games. for instance, baturay et al. (2022) designed a 2d-mobile single player tutorial game (envglish) that aims to provide a practice opportunity for students (age 13) to develop english vocabulary, grammar, and reading skills while studying about environmental awareness. the learning of content (environmental awareness) is achieved when players answer questions about global environmental awareness to level up in the game. moreover, dourda et al. (2014) designed a plot-driven, web-based detective game (whodunit) for students (age 11-12) to solve a number of problems that relate to the suspect’s whereabouts. throughout the completion of this game, students were able to practice the targeted language as well as the geography-related content. additionally, students’ reading skills, lexicon, motivation and collaboration were reported to be enhanced. 4. bringing it all together: proposing a game-mediated dual learning model one goal of the present paper is to propose an instructional model that integrates three existing and interconnected pedagogical approaches to provide more and diverse opportunities for l2 practices. this intersection has not been systematically investigated at the time of writing this paper. the present study thus introduces a game-mediated dual learning model that utilizes the playful nature of games, applies the compatibility between game design and task design, and aims to provide more opportunities to deliver contentlanguage integrated dual learning experiences. in this section, i will start by highlighting a few key principles from the literature on content-language integration, task, and game. i will then discuss the implementation of this model by proposing a pedagogical template. selected examples from a classroom study will also be discussed to provide more empirical insight. 4.1. a content-language integrated view the proposed model begins with a content-language integration component that entails the integrated view that l2 learning is enhanced in the context of subject content learning. this view moves away from the gao e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 8 traditional conviction that language is learned in isolation and reflects the sociocultural orientation of learning, as well as the functional view of language learning (banegas, 2012; grabe & stoller, 1997). as stated in the seven strong rationales for cbi, grabe and stoller (1997) argued that cbi promotes incidental language learning, supports contextualized learning, offers increased opportunities for dual learning practices, and allows greater flexibility and adaptability to be built into the curriculum. this content-language integration can take place at all educational levels (e.g., elementary, secondary, higher education) and in all learning contexts (e.g., formal and informal, esl and efl, language and content classes). to better characterize the different possibilities of content-language integration, i adopt met’s (1999) continuum that ranges from total immersion (approximately 90% of second language instruction) to the language-driven end (language classes with frequent use of content and theme-based courses). depending on the target student population and the particular instructional context, intermediate variations of the models exist, such as sheltered courses and adjunct models (which purposefully connect language courses with subject-matter courses). sheltered courses are commonly implemented at secondary and post-secondary levels, especially in second language learning contexts. a sheltered course “is taught in a second language by a content specialist to a group of learners who have been segregated or ‘sheltered’ from native speakers” (brinton et al., 1989, p. 15). the goal of sheltered courses is to deliver the same amount of content instruction while making an evident accommodation of the instructional language, such as using simple grammar or repetition, based on the students’ level of language proficiency. sheltered courses are therefore considered to be positioned at the content-driven end of the continua (dueñas, 2004). 4.2. a task-based design the second component in this model emphasizes the role of task-based design. tasks are argued to be effective in l2 learning and teaching and have been both theoretically and empirically supported by prior literature (e.g., ellis et al., 2019). tasks have also been conceptualized on a continuum ranging from communicative activities that take form-focused approaches (ellis, 2009) to everyday activities that reflect real-world interaction (long, 1985; 2016) (smith & gonzález-lloret, 2021). within the literature on technology-mediated tblt, gonzález-lloret and ortega (2014) have recommended educators to follow the five, previously defined definitional features of a task. among them, two features are of especially great importance in the stage of task design, i.e. being meaning-focused and goal-oriented. in determining whether a task is meaning-focused as opposed to form-focused, evidence of incidental language learning should be present even if there is a preplanned language learning goal (gonzález-lloret & ortega, 2014). this means that learners participate in tasks that require them to naturally use the targeted language to solve problems. for example, in a content-driven class, students might be working on a learning task about physics but use english as the instruction and working language. when a task is meaning-focused, it is also likely to be goal-oriented, that is, to include some communicative purposes through the design of the task (gonzález-lloret & ortega, 2014). the task plans offer a “language-and-action experience”, which means that the decisions that learners make during the task’s completion result in different outcomes (gonzález-lloret & ortega, 2014, p. 6). 4.3. a game-mediated learning environment the last component deals with the role of games in supporting task-based and content-integrated l2 learning. according to prior and current l2 research, we know that games have the potential to be used in various learning contexts with different student populations (sykes & reinhardt, 2012; reinhardt & sykes, 2014). particularly in dual-learning environments, game-mediated activities that might promote dual learning contain either explicit and/or implicit opportunities for both content and language learning (e.g., chen & hsu, 2020; dourda et al., 2014; soyoof et al., 2022). explicit opportunities for dual learning can be achieved by solving problems that are directly tied to the content area and/or language learning, such as using equations to solve physics problems or matching definitions to the target vocabulary. implicit opportunities for dual learning refer to the use of content or language knowledge to solve problems, such as, using knowledge of speed and momentum to build bridges in a video game. although students might not explicitly produce the targeted vocabulary or grammatical structures in their speech, they demonstrate an understanding of the meaning and/or usage of the linguistic form in the completion of tasks. moreover, it is important to examine what players do when they participate in game-mediated activities and identify their affordances for both content and l2 learning. this shares similarities with task design in l2tl, in that learners engage in tasks that either target form-focused language practice or tasks that encourage learners to use the targeted language to solve problems. proposing a game-mediated dual learning model e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 9 4.4. challenges in content-language integration one challenge that exists in content-driven cbi models (e.g., sheltered courses) is the lack of knowledge and strategies necessary for teachers and l2 material designers to design and scaffold opportunities for l2 learning (dueñas, 2004; lopes, 2020). this lack of opportunities for language learning is not limited to sheltered courses but involves all content-driven cbi models. in fact, both content and language learning should be carefully planned because an overemphasis on content learning might hinder the accuracy and development of l2, which later affects content learning (pica, 2002). to do so, educators could consider using game-mediated activities that help deliver learning experiences in a more playful and engaging format. game-mediated activities refer to a careful selection of existing entertainment or educational games, or the design of wraparound activities (sykes & reinhardt, 2012) that are tailored to the learning targets. examples of wraparound activities include redesigning the learning activities so as to make them about the game content and/or gameplay (e.g., write a brief reflection journal about the gameplay process and identify what physics knowledge was used) or integrating some of the game elements into the learning activities (e.g., a list of spythemed and puzzle-based tasks designed to target both physics and english practices). note that the incorporation of game elements here is somewhat different from gamification, which is the adding of game elements, typically incentive systems, to the existing learning activity without necessarily redesigning the activity itself (plass et al., 2020). 4.5. challenges in task-based design meanwhile, another challenge that is faced by task designers, especially those having the goals of providing ample opportunities for content-language dual learning, consists in designing tasks that are both engaging and effective (ellis et al., 2019). specifically, task-based instruction might not be useful when implemented alone due to a lack of opportunities to engage in tasks during instruction time, fear, shyness, or even the refusal to use the target language when performing tasks (carless, 2002; littlewood, 2007; mcdonough & chaikitmongkol, 2007). to help with this, educators could turn to game-mediated activities. gameplay itself can be a language learning task. a parallel between game design and task design has long been argued by l2 scholars (sykes & reinhardt, 2012). games, and especially games that are designed for entertainment purposes as opposed to educational purposes, are typically designed to prioritize content rather than form. players interact with the game by reading or listening to the in-game dialogue or instruction, which is set in the targeted language, and making decisions on how to proceed in the game. games may also be used as part of learning tasks that aim to deliver interactive and collaborative task experiences. in co-play scenarios (e.g., co-op, multiplayer), players interact with one another through communication, collaboration, or competition, and thus make decisions on how to play the game. additionally, players might search for resources in the larger game community by participating in fandoms, tutorials, streamings, or other social activities. in short, games are meaning-focused, outcome-based, social activities that provide player-learners with varied opportunities for social interaction and collaboration. by participating in these problem-solving interactions, players are assumed to use some level of the targeted language if the language is part of the instruction. apart from using games as a whole, certain elements or techniques in game design may be borrowed to enhance the design of language learning tasks. one example that has already been commonly adopted is gamification. gamification refers to simply adding the incentive system to the learning activities without necessarily redesigning the activity (plass et al., 2020). however, gamified products have been critically defined as “chocolate covered broccoli” (klopfer, 2008) that might be extrinsically motiving at first but will not last long once the learners figure out that it is just another sugar-coated exercise. on the other hand, game-based learning refers to the redesigning of learning activities that either fully or partially utilize game elements. for example, game-based task design might incorporate the role of narratives and set up a fictional world in which learners take on imaginary roles and persona. to summarize, there are three key components in this game-mediated dual learning model, namely content-language integration, task-based design, and game-mediated activities. the first component calls for an integrated view of l2 learning through the simultaneous learning of subject content. although this model has potential for both content-driven and language-driven paradigms, the current iteration of the model emphasizes content-driven classrooms. hence, the goal of this model is to provide opportunities for both content and language learning. the second component focuses on task-based design, as tasks have traditionally been adopted as a way to design learning activities that are goal-oriented and meaning-focused, which has shown its effectiveness in promoting dual learning. however, tasks that are created by task designers are not always perceived or implemented as engaging activities. one possible reason for this is that the tasks are gao e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 10 instruction-driven as compared to learner-driven; in other words, learners do not have enough agency or choice while they engage with task completion (sykes & reinhardt, 2012). one way to help design learner– driven tasks is to use or learn from game design in developing l2 tasks. games are structured on the notion of providing agency, or the illusion of agency, to players. this player-driven design allows opportunities to include learners in defining their own goals of learning or carrying out the learning activities (sykes & reinhardt, 2012). for instance, we can give learners a selection of tasks from which to choose or offer differing paths to complete the task and reach targeted learning goals. this learner-driven design helps create tasks that are relevant to the learning goals, but also give in-depth consideration to the varied learning experiences that students might have with the tasks. as for the selection and implementation of games or game elements, reinhardt and sykes’ (2014) framework has provided a useful guide to understand the broad uses of l2 tasks that can be designed or modified based on games that are cots or educational, as well as wraparound activities that can be used to ensure more explicit and implicit dual learning with, through, and about games. 5. practical implications: introducing a game-mediated dual learning design framework another goal of the present study is to provide a design framework for researchers and educators using game-mediated activities in redesigning a task-based and content-integrated l2 learning environment. as shown in table 2 below, this design framework aligns with the previously proposed game-mediated dual learning model in which three key components are described along with specific guiding questions. in the first component (i.e., content-language integration), practitioners identify their pedagogical within the contentlanguage continuum (met, 1998), then they individually identify opportunities for both content and language learning. i borrowed some guiding elements from lopes’ (2020) template used to design tasks for content and language-integrated learning. the second component is the incorporation of a task-based design. this component directs practitioners to think deeply about specific ways to ensure opportunities for dual learning delivery and have the potential to be authenticated by learners. to do this, practitioners first reflect on how meaning is emphasized in the tasks. in other words, they consider what kinds of explicit and/or implicit learning opportunities are present when students complete the tasks. then, they examine the communicative goals of the tasks by focusing on which tasks promote communication and what kind of communication (e.g., collaboration, negotiation) is embedded in said tasks. lastly, practitioners consider how these tasks can allow learners to choose and drive their own learning. the third component is the use of game-mediated activities. this component provides guidelines for practitioners to inspect game-mediated activities in terms of their affordances for content-language dual learning and task-based design. when considering the types of tasks, i adopted prabhu’s (1987) typology of task types, which include information gap, reasoning gap, and opinion gap tasks. this typology is considered the most useful source and based on how the information in a task is handled by the participants (ellis et al., 2019). as an addition to the explanations of each design framework component, table 2 contains authentic examples from an empirical study that was conducted in a u.s. high school in 2022. accordingly, , i explored the use of game-mediated activities in a sheltered physics class for english language learners in a high school in the u.s. in the present study. the intervention consisted of two parts: 1) playing a video game named bridge construction portal that is commented to practice basic physics knowledge, and 2) completing researcherdesigned wraparound activities that were designed for dual-learning targets in the participating class. the video game that was used in this project was rated “very positive” in the steam community and recommended as an online game to practice simple physics knowledge. in this game, players are new employees at a science test lab, and their job is to build bridges, ramps, slides, and other constructions based on the given materials and scenarios in the test chamber. if the construction is successful, the designed bridges safely transport the test vehicles from the entrance to the exit door; however, if it fails, the vehicles will fall into deadly acid pools. this game was selected due to its relevance in providing opportunities for utilizing simple physics concepts as well as its popularity among public players. moreover, this is an online laptop-based game, which made it easier to implement in a classroom setting. although this game was designed for single players, participants in this study were instructed to co-play by making design decisions and task completion decisions together. proposing a game-mediated dual learning model e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 11 table 2 the design framework of a game-mediated dual learning model design components guiding questions and examples 1. content-language integration 1.1 identify the dual learning model how is content-language integration reflected in the study? this is a sheltered ell physics course in which all students are ells, and the instructor is a content expert who has minimum training in working with linguistically diverse students. 1.2 identify opportunities for content learning what are the content learning targets? ➔ content area: high school physics ➔ topic(s) or question(s) addressed (knowledge): speed and momentum ➔ content skills to be developed: understand the concepts of speed and momentum (e.g., newton’s laws) use physics equations to solve problems about speed and momentum ➔ materials: a textbook titled “physics a first course” selected by the teacher a free online website titled “the physics classroom” ➔ processing information from the provided materials: use newton’s third law to explain various situations explain the relationship between newton’s third law and momentum conservation 1.3 identify opportunities for language learning what are the language learning targets? ➔ specific linguistic knowledge vocabulary: newton’s third law, momentum, impulse, law of conservation of momentum ➔ language learning skills be able to verbally explain the problem-solving process when working on physics problems 2. task-based design 2.1 focus on meaning how is language learning explicitly or implicitly designed in the task(s)? students explicitly use the targeted vocabulary and grammar during the language-oriented wraparound activities. students implicitly use everyday english and/or science-specific english to work on tasks together during the gameplay and physics-oriented wraparound activities. 2.2 orient learning goals what are the communicative goals reflected in the task(s)? during gameplay, students communicate with each other in deciding how to build bridges to successfully transport the testing vehicle. they may or may not use the physics vocabulary, but they will have to use physics concepts to complete the in-game quests. during the wraparound activities, students collaborate on completing the tasks. they might discuss the task completion and/or how to distribute the roles when working together. the gameplay is set up to be co-play in groups of three students. apart from interacting with the game, players need to communicate with one another to collectively make decisions. players will remain in the same group to complete the wraparound activities. https://www.physicsclassroom.com/ gao e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 12 2.3 design learner-driven experiences to what degree do learners have choices to design and/or complete the task(s)? students’ learning experiences are guided by a brief story design that asks them to find the mole in their class. to do this, students will play the video game as they apply their language and physics knowledge, as well as communication and collaboration skills. in addition, students are given wraparound activities that are designed to purposefully practice their language or physics knowledge and skills. instructional feedback is provided through the in-game feedback (e.g., a quick pop-up window explaining what the object is or what the next step should be), the wraparound activity hint system (e.g., special spy note providing detailed information regarding students’ answers), and instructor’s real-time feedback. 3. game-mediated activities 3.1 represent dual learning goals 3.1.1 how is dual learning represented in the game-mediated activities? content and language learning are explicitly planned in the completion of wraparound activities. these activities are designed to be either physics-oriented or language-oriented. dual learning is also implicitly embedded in the play of the game. players need to use their knowledge of the english language and physics to make decisions on how to build bridges to safely transport the testing vehicles. 3.2 follow a task-based design what kinds of tasks are embedded in game-mediated activities (e.g., information gap, reasoning gap, or opinion gap)? since the game is puzzle-based, players need to analyze the given situations and make in-game decisions. when playing as a group, students make use of the information that each of them gathers while providing reasons for certain moves, and exchange options to reach conclusions. the wraparound activity implements a spy-themed narrative design and a hint system that requires players to solve puzzles that lead to the final secret message. for example, players will receive numbers, letters, words, or hints based on the answers they provide for the physics or language problems. these puzzles will eventually lead players to solve the question as to which of the players is a mole in this mission. by working on the physics or language-related tasks, as well as the game puzzles, students apply skills such as dissecting information, providing reasoning, and exchanging opinions. note. ell stands for english language learners. once the participants finished each level of the game, they were given one physics-related wraparound activity (figure 2) and one language-related activity (figure 3). additional instructional support to gamemediated learning has been considered beneficial (dixon et al., 2022; wouters & oostendorp, 2013), especially when using a cots game that is not specifically designed for language learning (sykes & reinhardt, 2012). this study incorporated an alternating design of the learning tasks, namely, gameplay → wraparound activity → gameplay. in this manner, the target content and language skills were built into the larger gaming experience by participating in the learning activities that were designed based on the gameplay content. this alternating design is different from isolating gameplay from the supplementary instructional materials that had typically been used in previous relevant research studies. the goal of the intertwined task completion of gameplay and wraparound activities aimed at generating diverse opportunities for participants to think about science, talk about science, and do science in a fun and reflective manner. the design of the physics-related activities was based on the instructional materials used by the instructor. the language-related activities were designed to practice the targeted vocabulary, grammatical structures, as well as simple reading and writing skills, especially in the discourse of high school science. these learning targets were identified based on the instructional proposing a game-mediated dual learning model e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 13 materials (the knowledge and skills the instructor sustained learners already had or should have) and the game (what language or game-specific content might confuse during the gameplay). figure 2. example of a wraparound activity that targets physics learning gao e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 14 figure 3. example of a wraparound activity that targets language learning this project concluded with a final mission in which participants pieced together all the hints that they received after completing each wraparound activity. this hint system design was inspired by the reward system that is typically embedded in puzzle games. it motivates players internally by prompting them to discover the puzzle pieces and the hidden messages, as compared to simply adding the incentive system to the tasks. the design behind the final task also followed a problem-solving structure that had previously been introduced to the students. this structure is commonly used and taught in science education and is reinforced in this project (see figure 4). proposing a game-mediated dual learning model e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 15 figure 4. final task that mirrors physics problem-solving 6. conclusions the present study seeks to highlight the compatibility between three existing pedagogical approaches (i.e., cbi, tblt, and gml) in l2 education by reviewing current theoretical articles and empirical studies. in particular, this paper identifies the complementary overlaps among these approaches and introduces a potentially stronger instructional model integrating the three approaches. in addition, an instructional model of game-mediated dual learning is proposed. this model is intended not to be prescriptive or exhaustive, but rather serves as a starting point for an ongoing investigation into how to best design, evaluate, and implement game-mediated activities that are task-based in supporting content-language dual learning. for l2 researchers, this study answers the call for more investigation of the common ground and differences among l2 perspectives and approaches (ortega, 2015) and explores the interface among three existing l2 pedagogies that hold mutual benefit to both research and educational communities. moreover, l2 educators can benefit from using the template as a framework in guiding their understanding of how to implement game-mediated activities in their classrooms. lastly, game designers, especially those who seek to bridge the gap between learning and game design, may also benefit from this study in learning the potential ways to implement game mechanics and the design of wraparound activities to create more and diverse opportunities for learning. games exist in various types and genres, and provide different affordances for l2tl. as we begin to explore this new and existing field of game-mediate dual learning, it is important to remember that there is no single way of utilizing games, designing tasks, or creating dual learning experiences. just as a group of professionals come together and work to design a game, the further development of a game-mediate dual learning model calls for a combined effort bringing different perspectives together and explores interdisciplinary issues and topics. references banegas, darío luis (2012). integrating content and 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(2008). ten key principles for designing video games for foreign language learning. accessed november 14, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=wll_fac reinhardt, jonathan (2019). gameful second and foreign language teaching and learning theory, research, and practice. springer. reinhardt, jonathan, & sykes, julie (2014). special issue commentary: digital game and play activity in l2 teaching and learning. language learning & technology, 18(2), 2-8. scott, david & beadle, shane (2014). improving the effectiveness of language learning: clil and computer assisted language learning. european commission. smith, bryan, & gonzález-lloret, marta (2021). technology-mediated task-based language teaching: a research agenda. language teaching, 54(4), 518-534. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444820000233 stoller, fredericka l. (2008). content-based instruction. in n. van deusen-scholl, nelleke & n. h. hornberger, nancy h. (eds.), encyclopedia of language and education. vol. 4: second and foreign language education (pp. 59–70). springer. sykes, julie, & reinhardt, jonathan (2012). language at play: digital games in second and foreign language teaching and learning. pearson. wouters, pieter, & van oostendorp, herre (2013). a meta-analytic review of the role of instructional support in game-based learning. computers & education, 60(1), 412-425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.07.018 included studies for literature review: azkarai, agurtzane, & imaz agirre, ainara (2016). negotiation of meaning strategies in child efl mainstream and clil settings. tesol quarterly, 50(4), 844-870. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.249 baturay, meltem h., yastibaş, ahmet e., ekşi, gonca y., & çinar, cafer a. (2022). a game-based content and language-integrated learning practice for environmental awareness (envglish): user perceptions. in handbook of research on acquiring 21st century literacy skills through game-based learning (pp. 510531). igi global. butler, yuko g. (2015). the use of computer games as foreign language learning tasks for digital natives. system, 54, 91-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.10.010 butler, yuko g. (2018). motivational elements of digital instructional games: a study of young l2 learners’ game designs. language teaching research, 21(6), 735-750. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168816683560 chen, hao-jan howard., & hsu, hsiao-ling (2020). the impact of a serious game on vocabulary and content learning. computer assisted language learning, 33(7), 811-832. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2019.1593197 chung, liang-yi, & chang, rong-chi (2017). the effect of gender on motivation and student achievement in digital game-based learning: a case study of a contented-based classroom. eurasia journal of mathematics, science and technology education, 13(6), 2309-2327. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.01227a dourda, kyriaki, bratitsis, tharrenos, griva, eleni, & papadopoulou, penelope (2014). content and language integrated learning through an online game in primary school: a case study. electronic journal of elearning, 12(3), 243-258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4781.00133 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444820000233 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.07.018 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.249 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.10.010 https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168816683560 https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2019.1593197 https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.01227a gao e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 18 fu, qing-ke, lin, chi-jen, hwang, gwo-jen, & zhang, lixin (2019). impacts of a mind mapping-based contextual gaming approach on efl students’ writing performance, learning perceptions and generative uses in an english course. computers & education, 137, 59–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.04.005 hsu, ting-chia (2017). learning english with augmented reality: do learning styles matter? computers & education, 106, 137–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.12.007 kao, chian-wen (2020). the effect of a digital game-based learning task on the acquisition of the english article system. system, 95, 102373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102373 lin, chi-jen, hwang, gwo-jen, fu, qing-ke, & chen, jing-fang (2018). a flipped contextual game-based learning approach to enhancing efl students’ english business writing performance and reflective behaviors. journal of educational technology & society, 21(3), 117-131. liu, tsung-yu, & chu, yu-ling (2010). using ubiquitous games in an english listening and speaking course: impact on learning outcomes and motivation. computers & education, 55(2), 630-643. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.02.023 mccollum, robb m. (2023). developing speaking proficiency in online courses through tabletop role-playing games. in maria-del-mar suárez, walaa m. el-henawy (eds.) optimizing online english language learning and teaching. english language education, vol 31 (pp. 237–253). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27825-9_12 muntrikaeo, kuntida, & poonpon, kornwipa (2022). the effects of task-based instruction using online language games in a flipped learning environment (tgf) on english oral communication ability of thai secondary students. english language teaching, 15(3), 9-21. pitura, joanna, & terlecka-pacut, elżbieta (2018). action research on the application of technology assisted urban gaming in language education in a polish upper-secondary school. computer assisted language learning, 31(7), 734-763. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2018.1447490 rasti-behbahani, amin, & shahbazi, maryam (2020). investigating the effectiveness of a digital game-based task on the acquisition of word knowledge. computer assisted language learning, 125. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2020.1846567 reynolds, barry l., & kao, chian-wen (2021). the effects of digital game-based instruction, teacher instruction, and direct focused written corrective feedback on the grammatical accuracy of english articles. computer assisted language learning, 34(4), 462-482. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2019.1617747 soyoof, ali, reynolds, barry l., shadiev, rustam, & vazquez-calvo, boris (2021). a mixed-methods study of the incidental acquisition of foreign language vocabulary and healthcare knowledge through serious game play. computer assisted language learning, 1-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2021.2021242 sydorenko, tetyana., hellermann, john., thorne, steve. l., & howe, vanessa. (2019). mobile augmented reality and language-related episodes. tesol quarterly, 53(3), 712–740. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.507 teo, timothy, khazaie, saeed, & derakhshan, ali (2022). exploring teacher immediacy-(non) dependency in the tutored augmented reality game-assisted flipped classrooms of english for medical purposes comprehension among the asian students. computers & education, 179, 104406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104406 theologou, evaggelia, & papadopoulos, isaak m. (2015). clil community of students: a longitudinal project for developing content-based material within a learning community in primary education. mibes transactions, 9(2), 71-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.04.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.12.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102373 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.02.023 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27825-9_12 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27825-9_12 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27825-9_12 https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2018.1447490 https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2020.1846567 https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2019.1617747 https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2021.2021242 https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.507 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104406 proposing a game-mediated dual learning model e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 19 appendix table 3 included publications in this selective literature review included databases included studies language learning and technology (llt) v16 (2012)-v26 (current) none computer-assisted language instruction consortium (calico) v29 (2012)-v39 (current) none system v40 (2012)-v108 (current) butler (2015) kao (2020) computer-assisted language learning (call) v25 (2012)-v35 (2022) chen & hsu (2020) pitura & terlecka-pacut (2018) rasti-behbahani & shahbazi (2020) reynolds & kao (2021) soyoof et al. (2022) recall v24 (2012)-v34 (2022) none tesol journal + tesol quarterly azkarai & agirre (2016) sydorenko et al (2019) computer & education liu & chu (2010) fu et al. (2019) teo et al (2022) hsu (2017) other journals identified from google scholar butler (2018) baturay et al. (2022) chung & chang (2017) dourda et al (2014) lin et al (2018) mccollum (2023) muntrikaeo & poonpon (2022) thelogou & papadopoulos (2015) gao e-journall, 10(1) (2023), pp. 1–20 20 yuchan (blanche) gao, arizona state university blanche.gao@asu.edu en yuchan (blanche) gao earned her ph.d. in learning, literacies, and technologies from the mary lou fulton teachers college at arizona state university. her interdisciplinary work lies at the intersection of second language acquisition and pedagogies, learning technologies (with a focus on digital games), and instructional design. she received her ba degree in linguistics from southern illinois university and her med degree in curriculum and instruction and tesol certificate from the university of virginia. she has worked as a secondary school esol instructor and curriculum director, as well as a university instructor, in the united states and china. es yuchan (blanche) gao recibió su doctorado en aprendizaje, alfabetismos y tecnologías del mary lou fulton teachers college at arizona state university en los estados unidos. su trabajo interdisciplinario queda en la intersección de la adquisición de idiomas segundas y pedagogías, aprendizaje de las tecnologías (enfocado en juegos digitales), y diseño instruccional. recibió su bachillerato en lingüística de la southern illinois university, y su maestría en currículo e instrucción y certificado en tesol (enseñanza de inglés como segunda lengua) en la university of virginia. ha trabajado como maestra de inglés como lengua secundaria y directora de currículo en la escuela secundaria y también como instructora a nivel universitario en los estados unidos y china. it yuchan (blanche) gao ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca in apprendimento, alfabetizzazione e tecnologie al mary lou fulton teachers college presso l’arizona state university. il suo lavoro interdisciplinare si trova all’intersezione tra l’acquisizione e le pedagogie di una seconda lingua, le tecnologie di apprendimento (con un focus sui giochi digitali) e la progettazione didattica. ha conseguito la laurea in linguistica presso la southern illinois university, il master in curriculum e istruzione e il tesol presso la university of virginia. ha lavorato come docente di inglese come lingua seconda e direttrice del curriculum in una scuola secondaria e anche come docente in università negli stati uniti e in cina. ej staggini 8.11 (1) euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 12, issue 2, november 2025, pages 15-36 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.2.3371 www.e-journall.org © staggini 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. the impact of immersive educational environments on productive and receptive vocabulary in dyslexic university students of efl: a case study giulia staggini università di siena received 25 march 2025; accepted 24 september 2025 abstract en this study investigates the impact of immersive educational environments (iees) on english vocabulary acquisition among university students with specific learning disorders, particularly dyslexia. grounded in universal design for learning and the italian framework for inclusive language education, the research combines inclusive pedagogical theory with innovative technological tools. a mixed-method case study was conducted at the university of genoa, involving 92 students in an experimental online english course. results revealed that iees enhanced learners’ motivation, engagement, and lexical performance—particularly in vocabulary retention and contextual usage. compared to traditional methods, immersive and multisensory environments provided higher accessibility and supported both receptive and productive vocabulary development. the study also highlights dyslexic students’ specific needs, including preferences for visual, interactive content and structured, transparent instruction. while limitations exist, findings support iees as promising tools for inclusive language education, offering new pathways to address diverse learner profiles in higher education. key words: inclusive language learning, efl, immersive educational environments, vocabulary es este estudio analiza el impacto de los entornos de aprendizaje inmersivos (eais) en la adquisición de vocabulario en inglés por parte de estudiantes universitarios con trastornos específicos del aprendizaje, en particular dislexia. basada en el universal design for learning y en el marco italiano para la educación lingüística inclusiva, la investigación combina teoría pedagógica inclusiva con herramientas tecnológicas innovadoras. el estudio de caso, realizado en la universidad de génova con la participación de 92 estudiantes en un curso experimental de inglés en línea, mostró que los eais incrementaron la motivación, la participación y el rendimiento léxico, especialmente en la retención y el uso contextual del vocabulario. en comparación con los métodos tradicionales, los entornos inmersivos ofrecieron mayor accesibilidad y favorecieron tanto el desarrollo receptivo como el productivo del léxico. asimismo, se identificaron las preferencias de los estudiantes con dislexia por contenidos visuales e interactivos y por una instrucción clara y estructurada. aunque se reconocen algunas limitaciones, los resultados confirman a los eais como herramientas prometedoras para una educación lingüística inclusiva. palabras clave: aprendizaje lingüístico inclusivo, inglés como lengua extranjera (efl), entornos de aprendizaje inmersivos, léxico it il presente contributo esplora l’impatto degli ambienti educativi immersivi sull’acquisizione del lessico inglese da parte di studenti universitari con disturbi specifici dell’apprendimento (dsa), in particolare con dislessia. a partire dalla teoria dello universal design for learning e in base ai principi del quadro italiano per l’educazione linguistica inclusiva, lo studio integra approcci pedagogici inclusivi con strumenti tecnologici innovativi. la ricerca si basa su uno studio di caso con 92 studenti, coinvolti in un corso online sperimentale di lingua inglese presso l’università di genova. i risultati mostrano come gli ambienti immersivi abbiano incrementato motivazione, partecipazione e competenze lessicali, soprattutto nella memorizzazione e nell’uso contestuale del lessico. rispetto ai metodi tradizionali, l’approccio immersivo e multisensoriale ha garantito maggiore accessibilità e favorito lo sviluppo sia ricettivo sia produttivo del lessico. lo studio evidenzia, inoltre, le preferenze degli studenti con dsa per contenuti visivi, multimediali e interattivi e per un’organizzazione didattica chiara e strutturata, confermando il potenziale degli ambienti immersivi per un’educazione linguistica inclusiva. parole chiave: apprendimento linguistico inclusivo, inglese come lingua straniera, ambienti educativi immersivi, lessico 🖂 giulia staggini, università di siena giulia.staggini2@unisi.it staggini e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 16 1. introduction language acquisition poses significant challenges for individuals with dyslexia, largely due to sociobiopsychological factors commonly associated with this learning disorder. these factors include limited working memory, heightened anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and struggles with recognizing and distinguishing phonemes—and consequently, graphemes (daloiso & melero rodríguez, 2016; kormos & kontra, 2018)—especially in opaque languages such as english. as a result, second language learning for dyslexic individuals requires targeted instructional strategies that support vocabulary retention, sound discrimination, and sustain motivation throughout the language acquisition process. most scientific literature on these strategies primarily focuses on children and learners in compulsory education, with relatively little research on adult learners. however, higher education (he) plays a pivotal role in both the social and personal development of students with dyslexia, whose learning is addressed within the broader framework of special educational needs (sen)—a label referring to educational support needs rather than students’ personal traits. as hartley (2015, p. 416) observes, he provides a transformative experience, “enabling them to flourish and derive the benefits of participating in higher education.” moreover, the transition from high school to university represents a critical period for identity formation, requiring students to develop self-regulation and selfdetermination skills (bellacicco, 2018). higher education also significantly impacts career prospects. although individuals with sen experience a higher unemployment rate (46.2%) compared to those without sen (25.9%), research from the academic network of european disability indicates that completing an academic career improves their chances of securing employment and reduces the likelihood of experiencing discrimination (bellacicco, 2018). over the past three decades, several international initiatives, including unesco’s 1994 salamanca statement and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, have promoted inclusive and sustainable he. these efforts have also encouraged research into the educational needs of individuals with dyslexia. among the instructional approaches identified as effective, technology-related methods have gained increasing attention, particularly multisensory approaches that provide diverse input, stimulating multiple semiotic channels simultaneously (ohene-djan & begum, 2008). one of the most innovative tools capable of effectively implementing the multisensory approach is extended reality (xr), specifically immersive educational environments (iees). these tools have demonstrated significant efficacy in language learning by providing contextual learning and promoting cross-cultural competence (peixoto, 2021), enhancing intrinsic motivation (kontra, 2019), facilitating the retention of new words and expressions (chen, 2016; cheng, yang, andersen, 2017), and improving overall vocabulary accuracy (legault et al., 2019). this paper explores the potentialities of iees for learners with dyslexia and presents the results of a case study investigating the impact of iees on english as a foreign language (efl) vocabulary acquisition for university students with dyslexia. it first outlines the theoretical framework underpinning inclusive language learning theories, emphasizing the crucial role of technology in supporting vocabulary acquisition for this profile. it then presents findings from a case study involving italian university students, demonstrating how iees can positively impact their vocabulary acquisition and overall language learning experience. 2. vocabulary acquisition processes in dyslexic learners vocabulary has long been recognized as a fundamental component of language proficiency in foreign language or second language (l2) learning, as extensively documented in the literature (read, 1988; laufer, 1998; schmitt, 2000; meara, 2002). it plays a crucial role in both comprehension and production, serving as the basis for communication. however, studying vocabulary acquisition presents several challenges, including defining what constitutes a "word," addressing both denotative and connotative meanings, and fostering not only memorization but also the ability to use and master vocabulary across different dimensions—formal, structural, semantic, and metaphorical (fontecha & gallego, 2012). since the 1980s, l2 vocabulary research has distinguished two main types: receptive and productive vocabulary. receptive vocabulary includes words that learners understand in written or spoken form, while productive vocabulary refers to words that they can actively use in speaking or writing. typically, receptive vocabulary develops earlier and is larger in size (nation & meara, 2013). however, both are essential for language acquisition. as nation and meara highlight, vocabulary focus should be based on learner needs and the utility of words, often assessed through frequency and range. schmitt (2008) identifies two primary goals: 1) vocabulary size, i.e., the number of words needed for comprehension, and 2) vocabulary depth, referring to the impact of immersive educational environments in dyslexic university students of efl e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 17 accurate and appropriate use of lexical items. this includes understanding meanings, recognizing collocations, and forming lexical associations. while researchers largely agree on what learners should acquire in terms of vocabulary, approaches to teaching and learning vocabulary vary. a widely used method is meaning-focused input, which promotes incidental learning through exposure to language. as nation and meara (2013) emphasize, such learning is cumulative and requires repeated encounters for deeper word knowledge. while effective for native speakers, l2 learners often benefit more from deliberate strategies like glossing, repeated exposure, and contextual practice (nation & meara, 2013; schmitt, 2008). alternatively, the meaning-focused output approach centers on productive use through speaking and writing. though more demanding, strategies like writing tasks, storytelling, role-play, and group work can support vocabulary development by fostering communication and contextual learning (newton, 1995; schmitt, 2008). despite its challenges, this approach often leads to greater engagement, encouraging learners to practice outside the classroom and supporting informal learning (pavesi & ghia, 2020; schmitt, 2008; wang et al., 2015). regardless of type or approach, acquiring, storing, and using new vocabulary requires several cognitive functions such as memorization, word recognition and retrieval, and abstractness. for learners with dyslexia, thus, developing both receptive and productive vocabulary is particularly challenging due to multiple interrelated factors. firstly, difficulties in their first language can affect l2 vocabulary acquisition processes. research indicates that dyslexic learners’ challenges with l1 word decoding, phonological awareness, and dictation often hinder l2 acquisition. additionally, accuracy and speed in l1 reading are strong predictors of l2 reading difficulties (kirby et al., 2010; kormos et al., 2019). moreover, while l1 status is only an indicator and not a direct correlation, several studies have demonstrated that underdeveloped l1 word decoding negatively impacts l2 reading comprehension (daloiso & melero rodríguez, 2016; kormos & kontra, 2018). biological and psychological factors also significantly impact the cognitive processes underlying l2 vocabulary acquisition. dyslexic learners often have weak phonological awareness, making it difficult for them to recognize different phonemes and reproduce sounds. this challenge hampers the conversion of receptive vocabulary into productive vocabulary. dyslexic individuals also struggle with discerning sounds and associating them with corresponding graphemes, particularly in opaque languages such as english and french (lovegrove, 1991; kirby, 2018). additionally, dyslexic learners often have limited orthographic processing skills, which are essential for recognizing and using different orthographic units crucial for lexical development (rakhlin, cardoso-martins, grigorenko, 2013). these linguistic challenges are often linked to bio-psychological factors such as underdeveloped working memory, limited executive functioning skills, and high levels of anxiety (daloiso & melero rodríguez, 2016; irshad et al., 2022). studies (kirby, 2018; kormos & kontra, 2018) have shown that dyslexic individuals often have underdeveloped working memory, making it difficult to store, retain, and retrieve information. consequently, learners with dyslexia, particularly dyslexia, struggle to memorize new words and build receptive vocabulary, often resulting in a smaller l2 vocabulary compared to non-dyslexic individuals. even when information is retained, individuals with dyslexia often have difficulties organizing and using it effectively due to, difficulties in abstract thinking, organization, and planning. also, vocabulary acquisition is particularly affected by emotions; for this reason, learners with dyslexia’s high levels of anxiety cause them to have an emotional barrier. in educational settings, anxiety is especially evident during reading tasks, such as timed assessments (bellacicco, 2018; cardinaletti, 2018). although anxiety levels tend to decrease after compulsory schooling, university students with learning difficulties often exhibit higher vulnerability compared to their neurotypical peers (carroll & iles, 2006; irshad et al., 2022; staggini, 2024). this increased vulnerability leads to heightened social anxiety, lower self-esteem, and reduced language motivation, ultimately negatively impacting language performance. while these key elements negatively impact l2 acquisition in dyslexic individuals, it is also essential to acknowledge positive influences such as creativity and visual thinking that are fundamental in developing productive vocabulary. although defining creativity remains complex and recent studies (erbeli, peng & rice, 2022; gutiérrez-ortega, 2023) indicate no significant differences in overall creativity between dyslexic and non-dyslexic individuals, it has been demonstrated that they often excel in specific categories of the construct of creativity, such as visuality, fluency, originality, and elaboration, particularly in adulthood. studies using the torrance test of creative thinking and other models (bigozzi et al., 2016; chakravarty, 2009; cockcroft & harthill, 2004; kapoula et al., 2016) have demonstrated that individuals with dyslexia generate numerous staggini e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 18 original ideas, rely on visual memory and multimodal strategies as coping mechanisms, and exhibit original information processing. considering these key elements, researchers in inclusive language education and second language acquisition have developed various approaches that apply multimodal strategies, visual memory, motivation enhancement, and transparent, linear instructional designs to support learners with dyslexia, and learners with sen in general. the following section will describe the inclusive teaching theories and approaches that have been used in the case study. 3. inclusive language teaching theories and approaches the concept of inclusive language teaching refers to teaching strategies that make language learning accessible to all types of learners, regardless of their biological, socio-economic or cultural condition, thus including learners with dyslexia (daloiso, 2012). regarding this concept, various l2 acquisitional theories have been systematized, among them: universal design for learning (udl), and the italian framework for inclusive language teaching, both emphasizing a shift from product to process, attention to individual learners, multidimensional accessibility, and elimination of language barriers (daloiso, 2012; daloiso & melero rodríguez, 2016; rose et al., 2006). the italian framework for inclusive teaching originates from 1990s psycholinguistics and teaching theory, which prioritized communicative competence over formal language aspects. inductive methods, allowing learners to infer rules from examples, proved more effective as they engaged with the language process (balboni, 2011). by the 2000s, research shifted focus from considering learners’ need universal to acknowledging learner diversity across three macro areas: learning styles, cultural differences, and language differences. although learning styles are debated (panzavolta & mori, 2019), their functional use remains crucial in inclusive teaching as they relate to different memorization processes and emphasize the importance of learners developing personalized strategies for language acquisition. therefore, when teaching foreign languages from an inclusive and accessible perspective, educators should take into account the predominant learning styles of their students, especially those with dyslexia who often rely on non-verbal learning styles not commonly use in both compulsory schooling and higher education (daloiso, 2012). as for cultural differences, this framework not only encourages respect for different cultures but also fosters curiosity and engagement with them, emphasizing multiculturalism and cultural competence, aspects that are often overlooked in language education (caon et al., 2019; daloiso, 2012). since culture is deeply intertwined with language, effective strategies for inclusive learning in mixed-ability classrooms—where students have varying language proficiency levels—include simplified written tests (beneficial for foreign students as well), alternative evaluation methods (often used for students with dyslexia), and progressively challenging activities that gradually increase in complexity, enabling students to develop skills in a structured manner (kormos & kontra, 2018). regarding multidimensional accessibility, the italian framework for inclusive language teaching asserts that learners with specific language needs should be provided with resources that ensure physical, psychological, and methodological access to language learning. physical accessibility involves removing barriers such as architectural obstacles that hinder school entry or materials like books and handouts that contain visual barriers (e.g., fonts unsuitable for dyslexic learners). psychological and cognitive accessibility addresses the cognitive overload experienced by students with special needs, whether due to limited l2 comprehension (as seen in foreign students) or distinct brain functioning (as in students with dyslexia). teachers should implement accessible strategies to alleviate this cognitive burden and foster motivation (kontra, 2019). from a methodological perspective, educators should prioritize accessible and inclusive teaching strategies such as formative communicative approach, which has proven effective, as it emphasizes communication, pragmatics, and learners' bio-psycho education over grammar and rigid structural aspects (kormos & kontra, 2018; kontra, 2019). this method assumes that language acquisition is best achieved in authentic communicative settings, where learners can apply their skills contextually, adapting to different speakers, registers, and situations. accordingly, teachers should use authentic materials and prioritize contextualized input. additionally, since language learning enhances relational abilities by exposing learners to diverse cultures and communication styles, educators should also focus on soft skills and metacognitive competence (daloiso, 2012). another crucial component is phonological competence, particularly for students with dyslexia, who often have underdeveloped phonological awareness and difficulty processing phonemes, and consequently graphemes. teaching l2 sounds explicitly helps these learners recognize and use them the impact of immersive educational environments in dyslexic university students of efl e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 19 accurately. however, as with grammar, phonological instruction should not rely on repetitive listening and memorization, but should instead incorporate authentic materials like recorded conversations, debates, speeches, and audiovisual content (films, tv series) or immersive scenarios that provide phonetic examples in real-life contexts (daloiso, 2012; staggini & cersosimo, 2021). the universal design for learning theory is grounded on similar assumptions. the udl model originated from universal design, a discipline initially studied and developed in architecture to create accessible environments, particularly for individuals with sensory disabilities. by applying this concept of "accessibility" to education, in the late 1990s, rose and meyer at the center of applied special technology (cast), in the usa, established a theoretical framework to enhance educational inclusivity through technology (rose et al., 2006; cumming & rose, 2022). grounded in cognitive science and neuroscience, udl examines how the brain learns by recognizing, processing, and valuing patterns and abstract concepts (cytowic, 1996). for example, reading requires pattern recognition in words and structures, but individuals with dyslexia may have atypical recognition systems, impacting their ability to process information (rose, 2006). additionally, the affective networks, which regulate emotions and motivation, also influence learning, and impairments in these networks can hinder a student’s ability to engage, prioritize, and focus (balboni, 2011; cumming & rose, 2022). cast’s framework is structured around three core principles: multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement. the first principle emphasizes providing information through varied modalities to accommodate diverse learning needs, including students with disabilities such as blindness or deafness. the second principle focuses on multiple means of expression, recognizing that students differ in their capacity to navigate learning environments and demonstrate knowledge, necessitating flexible assessment and instructional approaches. lastly, the engagement principle highlights the need for diverse motivational strategies, considering that students have varying preferences in learning environments—some thrive on novelty, while others require stability (kontra, 2019; rose, 2006). these principles have been operationalized through 31 checkpoints (see fig. 1) published by cast in 2018, offering guidelines to enhance accessibility in teaching (nave, 2021). moreover, cast's recommendations extend to comprehension strategies, emphasizing the role of context, multimodal aids, and alternative forms of expression to accommodate students with diverse linguistic and cognitive profiles. ultimately, udl promotes technological integration to ensure equitable access to learning for all students. among the teaching strategies and tools promoted and suggested by cast, technology enhanced learning (tel) and other technological tools are indeed described as very effective and productive in enhancing both educators’ lesson planning and teaching, by optimizing their time and resources, and students’ learning processes, by providing them with assistive technology that compensates their impairments, and by offering diverse multimodal learning input. to summarize, while the italian framework for inclusive language education stems from psycholinguistic and communicative language teaching, prioritizing pragmatic and communicative competences, udl originated from architecture and design and is based on cognitive sciences, focusing on how the brain processes and organizes knowledge. moreover, while udl is a general educational framework applicable across disciplines, the italian one was specifically developed to address dyslexic students’ dyslexia language needs. despite these slight differences, both the theories align in their commitment to inclusive and adaptive education, promoting learner diversity, accessibility, and multimodal approaches to teaching. their complementary nature suggests that integrating both perspectives can enhance inclusive language education by combining neurological insights with practical, language-specific pedagogical strategies. for this reason, the case study presented in this paper adopts both the theories, combining the technological-driven nature of udl, and the practical pedagogical approach to grammar and vocabulary acquisition of the italian framework. staggini e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 20 figure 1. cast’s guidelines for inclusive and accessible teaching. 3.1. technology enhanced learning as a supporting teaching approach as previously mentioned, technology plays a pivotal role in inclusive language education, especially within udl. technology may serve as an assistive instrument, compensating for several types of impairments: text-to-speech software for blind or visual-impaired individuals, more readable and accessible fonts for dyslexics, or automatic captioning for deaf or hard of hearing individuals. however, according to cast, general technological tools—those not specifically designed to support individuals with disabilities or other conditions—can also significantly contribute to learning (cumming & rose, 2022). while assistive technology (at) primarily compensates for students' underdeveloped abilities or lack of competencies due to special educational needs, more conventional technological tools can serve as learning aids or as educational platforms for technology-enhanced learning. tel is a pedagogical approach that relies primarily on digital tools to support learning (bayne, 2015). the term tel is frequently used interchangeably with e-learning or computerbased learning and refers to the intersection between education and digital technology with the aim of improving students’ learning experiences (bayne, 2015). specifically, tel encompasses a range of approaches that use technology to support learning, particularly within he, where it was initially developed. in 2009, the higher education funding council for england identified three key benefits of tel: efficiency, enhancement, and transformation. tel has been shown to improve the effectiveness of udl, as technology-rich environments offer flexibility, adaptability, and multimodality. in this regard, burgstahler (2008, p. 29) highlights that: flexible components are built into digital materials to benefit students with learning disabilities; with attention issues; with behavioral problems; or with physical or sensory disabilities. they also benefit those who are learning a new language; who have attention deficits; or who have other characteristics that make taking notes, reading, understanding auditory information, paying attention, handwriting, or spelling difficult. conversely, traditional paper-based materials, such as textbooks and worksheets, struggle to align with the three principles of udl (dinmore, 2014; edyburn, 2010). notably, integrating tel with udl has the impact of immersive educational environments in dyslexic university students of efl e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 21 proven beneficial for all students, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. "embedding these principles at the initial stage of the design process is a crucial element in mainstreaming inclusive teaching and learning principles for all students" (dinmore, 2014, p. 34). furthermore, tel has demonstrated effectiveness in language learning. in the early 2000s, researchers began exploring the impact of the internet on language acquisition, identifying numerous advantages. one major benefit is that digital technologies provide access to diverse learning materials, including both traditional and multimedia resources—such as articles, books, websites, and social media, alongside videos, podcasts, films, and tv series (chapelle, 2007). additionally, tel positively affects the affective filter in language learning, as it creates a low-anxiety environment where students can practice at their own pace (pino, 2008). moreover, learners requiring repeated input or reinforcement activities can benefit from computer-based learning, which allows unlimited practice opportunities. therefore, flexibility and adaptability stand out as two of tel’s most valuable features (mcdonough, 2001; pino, 2008). another crucial advantage of tel is its role in fostering intercultural competence—an often-overlooked yet essential component of language learning. digital tools, particularly the internet, have significantly expanded opportunities for students to engage with speakers from diverse cultural backgrounds, facilitating natural and spontaneous exposure to the target language both in formal and informal educational settings. studies have demonstrated that tel effectively enhances intercultural competence by enabling learners to interact with native speakers or other language learners across different cultural contexts, both through synchronous and asynchronous communication (trepule et al., 2015). digital learning, finally, is particularly beneficial for students facing physical, economic, or logistical barriers to education, including those unable to commute, students with chronic illnesses requiring hospitalization, and individuals from disadvantaged economic backgrounds. thus, tel, together with other innovative approaches, is effective as an inclusive educational model (benigno et al., 2018; rahman & dar, 2022). 3.2. the multi-sensory approach for inclusive language education as previously discussed, students with dyslexia often experience challenges in visual and auditory perception, and have different brain functioning, which affect their language processing. while compensatory tools are valuable aids, and technology in general provides them with different types of media and input, it is also essential to adopt teaching approaches that actively stimulate their cognitive processing. one of the most effective methods for enhancing perception and language processing is the multi-sensory approach which aligns with the principles of udl and the guidelines of the italian framework for inclusive language education (ahmad et al., 2012; moustafa, 1999). the multi-sensory approach, also known as the visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile (vakt) approach, originated in the 1950s and was systematically developed in the 1980s (murphy, 1997). it involves the use of multiple sensory modalities—such as seeing, hearing, touching, and moving—to reinforce learning. research has demonstrated that engaging learners through various sensory channels enhances memory retention, text-decoding, and comprehension, aspects that are often underdeveloped in students with dyslexia. for example, graham and freeman (1986) developed a spelling strategy that required students to say, write, trace, and recall words, primarily relying on visual and tactile memory. similarly, sparks and miller (2000) suggested integrating tactile and kinesthetic techniques into foreign language learning, advocating for practices such as pronouncing syllables while writing them to strengthen spelling and pronunciation. crombie (2000) further emphasized that multi-sensory learning supports students with dyslexia by ensuring that no single learning channel is excluded. the author highlighted the importance of differentiation—offering varied input to maximize the potential of all learners—and recommended strategies such as using pictures, word cards, videos, and audio materials to improve vocabulary, reading, and pronunciation skills. since the 2000s, researchers have increasingly recognized the potential of integrating technology with the multi-sensory approach to support learners with sen, with dyslexia specifically (ahmad et al., 2012; ohenedjan & begum, 2008). digital tools can easily provide multi-sensory input, combining auditory, visual, and tactile activities in a single platform. for instance, crombie (2000) highlighted the effectiveness of text-tospeech and voice-to-text software for spelling and pronunciation practice. moreover, interactive multimedia resources—such as videos, animations, and graphics—have been shown to enhance reading comprehension and language acquisition by engaging multiple senses simultaneously. gamification has also emerged as a powerful tool within the multi-sensory approach. the dyslexia activity system (das) in the uk, for example, provides interactive learning environments for children staggini e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 22 with dyslexia through activities like word-image associations, drag-and-drop exercises, and short videos, all of which have been shown to enhance memory and motivation (ohene-djan & begum, 2008). more recently, virtual reality (vr) has been recognized as an effective medium for language learning, as it immerses students in a simulated environment where they can interact with objects and use multimodal and kinesthetic strategies aligned with multi-sensory principles (kurniawati et al., 2020; peixoto et al., 2021). the next section will explore the role of immersive reality resources in inclusive language learning, examining their application in the teaching of english as a foreign language for dyslexic students. in conclusion, the multi-sensory approach provides effective strategies for supporting students with dyslexia by engaging multiple sensory modalities to enhance language processing and comprehension. its integration with technology further amplifies its benefits, offering interactive and adaptive learning experiences that cater to diverse needs. as advancements in digital tools and immersive environments continue to evolve, they hold great potential for fostering inclusive language education. 4. immersive educational environments immersive environments are computer-generated 3d simulations that vary in their degree of virtuality. the modern concept of virtuality is directly connected to the concept of virtual reality (vr), which was introduced by lanier in the 1980s to describe simulated three-dimensional environments that users perceive as real. until recently, vr has often been used as a broad term encompassing various forms of immersive realities (lavalle, 2023). however, scholars argue that this usage is inaccurate and instead advocate for the term extended reality (xr) as a more appropriate umbrella term (doolani et al., 2020). xr encompasses all real and virtual environments combined and consists of vr, ar, and mixed reality (mr) as well. while ar retains a stronger connection to reality, vr is highly immersive, creating experiences that feel distant from the physical world. any immersive environment, either ar or vr-based, should provide a certain degree of immersion and presence. recently, scholars have made a clear distinction between these two concepts. immersion refers to the level of sensory engagement provided by an immersive system—essentially, the degree of sensory fidelity. in contrast, presence is a subjective experience, where users perceive themselves as being inside the virtual environment. this perception is reinforced by the way the human sensory system responds to virtual elements and interacts with them (berkman & akan, 2018) these environments have broad applications, spanning industries such as marketing, advertising, medicine, and space engineering. one of the most rapidly growing fields is education, where immersive technologies are leveraged to create immersive educational environments (iees). iees provide fully interactive, multisensory learning experiences that foster engagement and active participation. these environments align with principles of inclusive language theories, which emphasize the cognitive benefits of stimulating multiple senses simultaneously—especially for learners with dyslexia (mulders et al., 2020; peixoto et al., 2021). research suggests that iees improve knowledge retention, comprehension, and engagement (clarke et al., 2008; mulders et al., 2020). iees provide multimodal input, multisensory stimulationfundamental for the application of the multisensory approach; foster engagement and motivation together with lifelong learning (mulders et al., 2020); and support active learning and task-based learning (peixoto et al., 2021). when referring to language learning in particular, iees have been studied to be very beneficial (chen, 2016; cheng et al., 2017; legault et al., 2019; staggini & cersosimo, 2021). iees provide situated learning (dawley & dede, 2014) aligning with constructivist teaching theories by immersing learners in realistic language scenarios. instead of rote memorization, students acquire language skills through practical application, fostering communicative and pragmatic competencies. consequently, cultural competence is enhanced, as iees allow learners to experience cultural environments virtually. as peixoto and colleagues (2021, p. 48958) state, iees “[...] allow the freedom and opportunity to recreate real world circumstances and places of cultural importance for the user to be immersed without the expense needed for an educational trip.” by simulating multilingual and multicultural contexts, iees promote multilingualism and improve l2 vocabulary competence through exposure to both oral and written language, leading to better retention and accuracy (cheng et al., 2017; legault et al., 2019). these aspects also support inclusivity, as students from diverse backgrounds can access culturally enriched learning experiences. furthermore, iees captivate learners by immersing them in interactive language environments, significantly boosting engagement and motivation (dawley & dede, 2014). peixoto and colleagues (2021, p. 48960) emphasize: “the high levels of motivation and satisfaction shown by users when using ivr certainly contribute to a significant increase in the very levels of learning efficacy and success.” the impact of immersive educational environments in dyslexic university students of efl e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 23 for students with dyslexia, motivation and engagement are critical, as they often struggle with low self-esteem and learning anxiety. research indicates that vr and ar technologies can provide significant benefits: “some forms of virtual reality, for example, augmented reality, keep the students busy [...] they get interaction with the content; they amuse during learning and make the learning process easy” (bjekić, obradović, & bojović, 2020, p. 40). iees help learners with dyslexia by presenting content in an engaging, interactive format. studies show that ar and vr-based learning enhances attention and improve working memory, making learning more efficient (rodríguez-cano et al., 2021). additionally, iees have potential in improving dyslexic learners’ ability to decode and reproduce letters as well, supporting them in both reading and speaking tasks (bhatti et al., 2020). in summary, while research on iees is still emerging and mainly focuses on children as learners, studies have shown that these environments boost motivation and engagement, support memory retention, and enhance vocabulary acquisition through interactivity, multimodality, and multisensory input, promoting inclusive language learning practices. 5. the case-study this study stems from the need to apply existing research on the benefits of vr and immersive environments for language learners to adult learners with dyslexia—an often-overlooked profile. by doing so, it aims to bridge a gap in recent studies. the case study explores two key research questions: (1) what are the educational needs of university students with dyslexia learning english? (2) do iees positively impact vocabulary acquisition in these learners, as they do for dyslexic children? the main reasons why university students were targeted are because english proficiency at the b1 level for ba’s degree students and b2 level for ma’s degree students is a requirement in the italian higher education system and research (bellacicco, 2018; cardinaletti, 2018) shows that dyslexic students face significant difficulties in passing these exams and in improving their language performance due to previous difficulties, high levels of anxiety, difficulties in decoding academic texts, and different learning styles that are often ignored by lecturers. in order to answer these questions, mixed-method research strategies—explorative surveys, performance tests, and satisfaction questionnaires—were used to collect data. the research consisted of two main phases: gathering data about university students with dyslexia’s needs, expectations, former school backgrounds, bias, and language difficulties; and administering an experimental online immersive course specifically designed on the data previously gathered. the experimentation occurred between 2022 and 2024 and involved the students at the university of genoa: 720 students (666 students without dyslexia and 54 students with dyslexia) participated in the first phase; and 92 dyslexic students took part in the second phase. in the next sections, both phases’ methods and data will be described in detail, with a special focus on the performance tests assessing vocabulary acquisition. finally, the results will be discussed, highlighting the pedagogical role of iees. 5.1. preliminary study: students with dyslexia’s profiling data during the experiment’s first phase, participants’ educational needs were analyzed through a questionnaire administered to both students with dyslexia (n=54) and neurotypical students (n=666) to explore potential differences. all participants had failed the b1-level english exam at least once, as the survey assessed the students’ feedback, needs and opinion about the university's mandatory recovery course. the questionnaire was available in both italian and english, though all students chose the italian version. it included 21 items in five sections: (i) personal data (e.g., l1, degree program, language background); (ii) course organization (clarity, transparency, duration); (iii) exercises and usability (effectiveness, clarity, platform accessibility); (iv) graphic design and readability; and (v) content and engagement (interest, usefulness, motivation). the structure was based on the italian accessibility framework (caon et al., 2019; daloiso, 2012) and udl principles, assessing transparency, multimedia integration, and engagement. data was analyzed through descriptive and statistical methods (levène, t-tests, and cohen’s d where applicable). regarding personal data, most participants were women (65.8%), aged 21–25. the majority spoke italian as their first language (94.3%), followed by spanish (2.1%), french (1.1%), arabic (0.8%), chinese (0.7%), portuguese (0.4%), and others (0.1% each). item 2, focusing on past language-learning difficulties, is a particularly revealing data. it showed that 68.61% (494 students) had experienced challenges, while 31.39% (226 students) had not. among students with dyslexia, 85.2% reported difficulties, compared to 67.3% of neurotypical peers. a chi-square test staggini e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 24 confirmed a significant association (χ² = 7.446, p = 0.006), with cramér's v (v = 0.102, p = 0.006) indicating a mild but meaningful link between dyslexia and language learning struggles. for course organization (ii), 30% of students with dyslexia had trouble with complex instructions and were three times more likely to report difficulties in decoding texts. while 76% of all students approved of the course length, 43% of dyslexic students preferred shorter, more digestible lessons. on exercises (iii), 82% found them useful overall, but 33% of dyslexic students disagreed. text-heavy exercises were problematic for 60% of students with dyslexia, versus only 15% of neurotypical students. significant differences emerged in layout and readability (iv), especially in items 7 (cohen’s d = 0.316), 8 (d = 0.383), and 10 (d = 0.297), reflecting dyslexic students’ greater need for structured, transparent teaching. item 15 (d = 0.417) underscored challenges with moodle layout, spacing, and fonts. item 17 confirmed specific issues: 31.48% of dyslexic students struggled with formatting and font size, versus 13.23% of neurotypical students who reported no issues. in terms of content and engagement (v), while not statistically significant, descriptive data indicated the importance of images and videos for dyslexic students’ comprehension (items 6, 16). additionally, 64% of dyslexic students favored gamified and interactive content to support focus, compared to 28% of students without dyslexia. in conclusion, the educational needs analysis confirms that students with dyslexia face more difficulties in understanding content, maintaining focus, and engaging with tasks than their peers. there is a notable association between dyslexia and language learning struggles. moreover, visual design and digital readability are key factors, though multimedia aids help dyslexic students contextualize l2 content, poor layout and formatting can act as barriers. 5.2. the online experimental course: participants and design phase based on the above-described analysis of needs and with the aim to explore the potentialities of iees for vocabulary acquisition in students with dyslexia, an experimental online intensive b1 english course was designed for university of genoa students who had not passed the mandatory proficiency exam. open to all enrolled students with a dyslexia certification, the course was developed in collaboration with the university’s disability and learning disorders office and the language centre, which provided data on students needing support. eligible students were invited via email and posters, and participation was voluntary. a total of 92 students enrolled, split into an experimental group (52 students) and a control group (40 students). due to high dropout rates, only 24 students completed the experimental course and 15 the control course. the only variable between the two groups was the use of iees (via thinglink) for the experimental group, while the control group engaged with traditional non-immersive materials. a three-unit online recovery course was structured around the theme of travel, a highly engaging topic (diadori et al., 2009). the theoretical framework followed online education design principles, ensuring accessibility and effectiveness. the course focused on: unit 1 (london): functional, grammatical, and lexical skills, including present simple vs. present continuous, expressions of courtesy, and british english. unit 2 (dublin): descriptive skills, past tense distinctions, and vocabulary related to memory and personal experiences. unit 3 (new york): future tenses, conditional forms, vocabulary related to plans, expectations and desires, and american english exposure. each unit emphasized written and oral comprehension, integrating multisensory learning in line with udl principles. the course incorporated authentic materials, and flexible and customizable resources, ensuring accessibility for students. the total duration of the course was about 25 hours over four weeks, divided into: 6 hours of instructional delivery; 11 hours of structured activities; 8 hours of individual study. each module included: an introductory video and descriptive text; grammar and vocabulary lessons; interactive activities (immersive for the experimental group, traditional for the control group); writing tasks in discussion forums; self-reflection questionnaires on study strategies and progress; and finally, satisfaction surveys and performance tests. the experimental group engaged with thinglink-based immersive environments, enhancing engagement through interactive 360° visuals and gamified learning, while the control group followed a more traditional approach. however, both courses presented clear and systematic layouts, readable the impact of immersive educational environments in dyslexic university students of efl e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 25 fonts, and a clear module structure to accommodate dyslexic students’ need for structured, redundant, and transparent learning. 5.2.1 instruments: immersive educational environments the immersive scenarios in the experimental course were created using thinglink, a platform that supports interactive experiences across pc, tablets, and mobile devices, offering medium-low immersion. when used with headsets, it enables a medium-high level of immersion, simulating a virtual reality experience. thinglink allows the integration of diverse resources, such as 360° images, infographics, guided tours, and vr content, with additional features introduced in 2023. for the experimental group, explorable 360° images were used, sourced from street view download 360, ensuring high-definition representations of real-world locations. these images were uploaded to thinglink and paired with on-site audio recordings from youtube, featuring 3d sound effects to enhance immersion and multisensory input. since continuous background audio can sometimes hinder learning (dhimolea et al., 2022), students could pause playback as needed. thinglink also supports interactive tags, enabling text and multimedia integration (audio, video, images); embedded web content (e.g., british council, cambridge resources); scenario-based activities; and guided tours. the experimental online course was organized into a structured sequence that combined entry-level assessment, instructional delivery, and reflective practice. it begins with an introductory phase, where participants first complete a survey designed to profile their expectations, needs, and difficulties, followed by an entry-level test made up of progressively challenging questions to assess their starting competence. once these initial steps are completed, learners can access the three learning modules, each of which follows the same progression. after an introductory video accompanied by a short descriptive text, so to mix multimodal and multisensory input, students engage with communicative and grammatical content whose main aim was to practice vocabulary. each module also includes two sets of digital activities, consisting of reading comprehension and use of english exercises specifically designed to test both receptive and productive vocabulary. in the experimental course these activities are embedded in immersive scenarios, while in the control group they are delivered in a list format on moodle. learners then complete a writing task in a dedicated forum to test their productive vocabulary competence. each module concludes with a short satisfaction survey and a performance test aligned with the objectives of the unit. the course ends with a final satisfaction survey and a comprehensive test assessing the knowledge acquired throughout the program, with a specific focus on both receptive and productive vocabulary. learners who successfully complete all stages receive a statement of attendance, formally recognizing their participation (see appendix a). in the experimental course, scenarios functioned as gamified virtual escape rooms, where students unlocked progress by answering quiz questions based on completed activities (see figure 2). the interface used color-coded symbols for navigation: red → scenario introduction and cultural video white → additional textual and cultural insights numbered icons → sequential learning activities green key → final quiz unlocking the next scenario. if it was incorrect, thinglink provided hints, or students could seek support from a tutor. each immersive scenario was explorable, which in itself guaranteed multisensory learning by combining spatial navigation with multimodal content. iees were built around authentic materials, where every video or audio resource was accompanied by corresponding images and written text. to further guide learners’ comprehension, visual hierarchy was created through the use of color-coded text, italics, and boldface. in addition, the thinglink platform provided integrated assistive technologies—such as speech-to-text software, automatic translation, pictionary, and other accessibility tools—that reinforced the multisensory design. this combination of immersive, multimodal exploration and assistive features not only fostered inclusivity but also proved particularly beneficial for students with dyslexia, who could process, connect, and retain information more effectively when supported by multiple input channels. staggini e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 26 figure 2. one of the immersive scenarios specifically designed for the online inclusive efl course of the experimentation. 6. assessing vocabulary learning: a mixed-methods data analysis at the end of each module, students were requested to complete a writing task and take a performance test to assess productive and receptive vocabulary. writing tasks were based on simple prompts concerning personal experiences in the present, in the past, and in the future, so as to explore learners’ productive vocabulary. in order to do that, an assessment rubric was designed. it was based on several parameters: clarity, topic coherence, complexity, register, use of linkers, grammar correctness, detailed descriptions, and logic coherence. for the first four parameters, a maximum of 1 point was given. for the rest, a maximum of 2 points was given. for each task, the maximum total score could be 12. receptive vocabulary, on the other hand, was tested by use-of-english exercises and reading tasks with cloze tests, included in the final performance test. this included 25 items testing reading comprehension, grammar, listening, and use of english. to analyze all the items, qualitative and quantitative methods were used, including descriptive and statistical analysis— wilcoxon tests and the mann-whitney u test for independent samples, mainly. let us start by analyzing the overall performance of both groups. to assess whether immersive environments positively impacted learning outcomes, we compared the experimental and control groups (table 1). the lowest initial test score was recorded by a participant in the experimental group (4.40/30), whereas in the control group, the minimum score was 6.00/30. however, in the final test, the lowest score was from the control group (14.60/30), while the minimum in the experimental group was slightly higher (15.93/30). this suggests that the average progress between the two tests was greater in the experimental group. regarding the highest scores, both groups achieved a maximum of 29.75/30 in the initial test. however, in the final test, the highest score in the control group decreased to 28.60/30, while the experimental group reached a perfect 30/30. the most notable difference is in the mean scores. the control group had a lower starting average (17.07/30) compared to the experimental group (18.76/30). this trend continued in the final test, with average scores of 20.73/30 in the control group and 23.26/30 in the experimental group, indicating a greater improvement in the experimental group. the impact of immersive educational environments in dyslexic university students of efl e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 27 table 1 descriptive analysis of the final performance test scores group minimum mean std. dev 25th perc median max control group (t0) 6.00 17.07 5.22 14.35 17.02 29.75 control group (t4) 14.60 20.79 4.72 17.60 19.60 28.60 experimental group (t0) 4.40 18.76 6.50 14.83 18.23 29.75 experimental group (t4) 15.93 23.26 4.32 18.90 23.17 30 to further verify these findings, non-parametric wilcoxon tests were conducted on both groups. statistical analysis confirmed that the experimental group showed greater improvement. 6.1. receptive vocabulary data analysis beyond overall performance, we examined the specific test items assessing lexical competence and receptive vocabulary in the final test. specifically: items 1, 2, 3 → a2-level reading comprehension exercise with multiple-choice questions; item 7 → b1-level matching exercise (definitions-words); item 11 → b1plus-level “use of english” exercise with selection of the correct word; item 15 → b2-level matching exercise (words-context); items 20, 21, 22 → b2 plus-level reading comprehension exercise with multiple-choice questions. statistical analysis did not identify any significant differences. however, descriptive analysis highlighted interesting data. table 2 shows the mean scores per item: table 2 descriptive analysis of the final performance test items regarding receptive vocabulary item max points experimental group’s mean control group’s mean 1 1 1 1 2 1 0.63 0.60 3 1 1 1 7 2 1.72 1.39 11 3 2.67 2.27 15 1 1.95 1.87 20 1 0.67 0.60 21 1 0.71 0.47 22 1 0.54 0.53 with the exception of items 1 and 3, where all participants answered correctly—likely due to these items being at an a2 level and therefore manageable for all students—the experimental group achieved higher average scores across all other lexical competence items. this suggests that immersive environments contribute positively to lexical acquisition. in particular, the experimental group outperformed the control group in items 7, 11, and 15, which were english exercises specifically designed to assess students’ ability to infer meaning and use vocabulary in context. these exercises were better performed by the experimental group, confirming that visual contextualization and engaging, interactive educational environments significantly support students with dyslexia in decoding texts and understanding nuanced meanings. the results also indicate that the immersive and visually enriched environment helped these students not only grasp new vocabulary more effectively but also apply it accurately within appropriate contexts. this aligns with staggini e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 28 existing research underscoring the benefits of multi-sensory learning for dyslexic students, particularly in the realm of receptive language skills. moreover, in the final reading comprehension assessment, which featured texts at a b2 level of proficiency, the experimental group demonstrated superior reading skills despite the increased difficulty. they performed better in decoding unfamiliar words, matching definitions and contexts to appropriate vocabulary, and in understanding the general meaning of complex texts. these findings reinforce the research hypothesis, as the quantitative analysis confirms that the use of iees not only boosts lexical competence but also enhances overall reading comprehension. 6.2. productive vocabulary data analysis to assess productive vocabulary, mann-whitney u tests were conducted on the three writing tasks scores of both groups. additionally, a qualitative analysis was conducted. to begin, descriptive analysis shows that the overall average scores are higher in the experimental group (except for writing task n.3 as one participant of the experimental group decided to write song lyrics instead of coherently answering the prompt). to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference in the distribution of each numerical variable (evaluation criteria) between the two groups, mannwhitney u test for independent samples was conducted. if the p-value is below 0.05, the null hypothesis is rejected (the distributions of evaluation criteria scores are equal in both groups) concluding that the distributions are significantly different. we are going to focus on task 1, as the majority of participants completed it, so it is more reliable. the analysis identified significant differences in the four evaluation criteria (see appendix b): vocabulary complexity; use of textual linkers; accuracy of descriptions; and textual coherence. the final results indicate a statistically significant advantage for the experimental group, further supporting the research hypothesis that iees positively influence student performance. to further explore these findings, we conducted a qualitative content analysis within our mixedmethod research framework. writing task 1, which involved self-presentation, hobbies, and abilities, was completed by the majority of students in both groups. however, 20 out of 24 students in the experimental group completed the task, compared to only 8 out of 15 in the control group, indicating higher engagement from the experimental group. notable differences emerged between the two groups’ writing performances: students in the experimental group produced longer and more complex texts, incorporating intricate grammatical structures such as hypothetical sentences, superlatives, and comparatives. they also included more personal details, showing higher levels of descriptive accuracy and vocabulary complexity—further confirming the results of the quantitative analysis. writing task 2, which required describing a meaningful memory, was stimulating for both groups. however, only 33.3% of the control group completed the task, compared to 66.7% of the experimental group. while control group students demonstrated a relatively good level of grammatical accuracy, the experimental group once again stood out for producing more elaborate texts and for their willingness to experiment with new vocabulary. writing task 3, which focused on future plans, expectations, and desires, proved challenging for both groups. nevertheless, 16 out of 24 students in the experimental group completed the task, while only 3 out of 15 students in the control group did so. this suggests a significant difference in motivation levels and highlights the greater difficulty experienced by the control group when dealing with abstract or future-oriented writing tasks. it is important to note that higher levels of motivation—particularly intrinsic motivation—emerged among the students in the experimental group. many of them expressed a strong willingness to learn english and other languages as a means of broadening their knowledge and fulfilling aspirations such as traveling abroad [e.g., s.15, experimental group: “i like studying english. my dream is to travel around the world, i would like to know all of the planet”; s.16, experimental group: “one of my goals is to travel around the world and maybe, one day, move to england or the u.s.a., in atlanta”; s.3, experimental group: “i chose to study languages because i love helping people to communicate and understand each other”; s.17, experimental group: “i would like to see the world in order to find my way”]. by contrast, students in the control group did not express any language-learning motivation in any of the three tasks, with the exception of student 3. however, this case reflected an instrumental rather than an intrinsic orientation [s.3, control group: “i’m studying it (english) because i need a university degree in order to work in italian public schools”]. the impact of immersive educational environments in dyslexic university students of efl e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 29 overall, the writing tasks revealed consistently higher levels of engagement, linguistic experimentation, and expressive ability among students in the experimental group. their increased task completion rates, more complex language use, and greater willingness to elaborate on personal experiences suggest that immersive and visually rich learning environments foster not only improved lexical and grammatical skills but also enhance students’ confidence and motivation to express themselves in writing. these qualitative observations support and reinforce the findings from the quantitative analysis, confirming the positive impact of immersive educational environments on the written performance of students, particularly those with learning differences. 7. results and discussion this study examines how immersive educational environments influence motivation and vocabulary acquisition in university students with specific learning disorders. the main key findings are about: specific language needs, and the impact of iees on motivation, and consequently, on word retention and lexicon acquisition. about language needs, the study reaffirmed the persistent challenges that students with dyslexia face in l2 learning, including difficulties with comprehension, independent study, and text readability. compared to their neurotypical peers, these students struggled more with processing instructional content, highlighting the need for greater structure and clarity in teaching materials. a lack of systematic instructional design was identified as a key factor contributing to these challenges in both native and foreign language acquisition. additionally, among these learners’ needs, the preference for multimedia materials relying on visuality stands out clearly. also, readable content and flexible learning environments are identified as relevant. about the l2 learning process, the case-study shows that the experimental group showed higher motivation, engagement, and completion rates compared to the control group. the immersive course was perceived as more transparent, structured, and accessible, enhancing student participation. about vocabulary, students in the experimental group produced more complex and diverse lexical structures, demonstrating enhanced vocabulary retention. motivation played a crucial role in lexical acquisition, reinforcing findings in previous studies (fontecha & gallego, 2012). it is important to highlight that, while this study provides valuable insights into the impact of immersive educational environments on university students with dyslexia, certain limitations should be acknowledged, and areas for improvement identified. a key limitation is the small sample size, with only 39 out of 92 participants completing the study, restricting the generalizability of findings. another challenge is the lack of standardized profiling tools for dyslexic students, making cross-context comparisons difficult. existing diagnostic categories often overlook comorbidities like adhd or anxiety, which significantly affect learning. refining classification methods would improve data accuracy and deepen our understanding of individual learning needs. building on these insights, future research should involve larger samples and examine additional language competencies, including listening comprehension, grammar accuracy, and intercultural competence. given the interconnected nature of language skills, a holistic approach would provide a more comprehensive understanding of how iees influence overall proficiency. another area of exploration is whether iees have the same impact in different languages. since english is an opaque language with complex spelling and pronunciation rules, it would be valuable to study whether immersive environments yield similar benefits in transparent languages like italian or spanish. early findings suggest comparable advantages, but further research is needed. lastly, the study raises questions about applying inclusive course design strategies beyond dyslexic students. learners with visual impairments, for example, face similar challenges in digital learning environments. investigating cross-disability accessibility strategies could contribute to more universally inclusive online learning models. in conclusion, this study represents an early effort to explore how to enhance language performance— particularly vocabulary acquisition—through a holistic approach. by addressing the specific needs of university students with dyslexia and 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(2021). design of a virtual reality software to promote the learning of students with dyslexia. sustainability, 13(15), 8425. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158425 rose, david h., harbour, wendy s., johnston, catherine sam, daley, samantha g., & abarbanell, linda (2006). universal design for learning in postsecondary education: reflections on principles and their application. journal of postsecondary education and disability, 19(2), 135-151. schmitt, norbert (2008). instructed second language vocabulary learning. language teaching research, 12(3), 329-363. schweighofer, patrick, & ebner, martin (2015). aspects to be considered when implementing technologyenhanced learning approaches: a literature review. future internet, 7(1), 26-49. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi7010026 the impact of immersive educational environments in dyslexic university students of efl e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 33 sparks, richard l., & miller, karen s. (2000). teaching a foreign language using multisensory structured language techniques to at-risk learners: a review. dyslexia, 6(2), 124-132. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-0909(200004/06)6:2<124::aid-dys152>3.0.co;2-3 staggini, giulia (2025). how virtual learning environments can boost language learning inclusivity in higher education. in edulearn25 proceedings (pp. 7203-7209). iated. 10.21125/edulearn.2025.1782 staggini, giulia (2024). immersive educational environments to enhance l2 motivation and vocabulary in efl students with dyslexia. unpublished phd. thesis, università degli studi di genova. staggini, giulia, & cersosimo, rita (2021, july). vr-island: virtual reality, inclusion and special language needs. in proceedings of the 14th biannual conference of the italian sigchi chapter (pp. 1-2). https://doi.org/10.1145/3464385.346747 trepule, elena, tereseviciene, margarita, & rutkiene, ausra (2015). didactic approach of introducing technology enhanced learning (tel) curriculum in higher education. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 191, 848-852. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.340 wang, han-chung, huang, hung-tzu., & hsu, chun-chieh (2015). the impact of choice on efl students' motivation and engagement with l2 vocabulary learning. taiwan journal of tesol, 12(2), 1-40. staggini e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 34 appendix appendix a the impact of immersive educational environments in dyslexic university students of efl e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 35 appendix b staggini e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 15-36 36 giulia staggini, università di siena giulia.staggini2@unisi.it en giulia staggini is a research fellow in english language teaching and applied linguistics at the university of siena. she holds a phd in digital humanities from the university of genoa, with research focused on enhancing l2 motivation and vocabulary acquisition in dyslexic learners. she is currently adjunct professor in english language at the universities of pavia and milan. her work explores language learning accessibility, and innovative digital tools in education. she is also actively engaged in studies on audiovisual translation and the role of audiovisual input in l2 teaching. es giulia staggini è assegnista di ricerca in didattica della lingua inglese e linguistica applicata presso l’università di siena. ha conseguito il dottorato in digital humanities presso l’università di genova, con una ricerca incentrata sui processi di acquisizione lessicale in studenti universitari con dislessia. attualmente è docente a contratto di lingua inglese presso le università di pavia e milano. le sue attività di ricerca riguardano l’accessibilità nell’apprendimento linguistico e l’uso di strumenti digitali innovativi. si occupa inoltre di traduzione audiovisiva e di input audiovisivo nella didattica della lingua inglese. it giulia staggini è assegnista di ricerca in didattica della lingua inglese e linguistica applicata presso l’università di siena. ha conseguito il dottorato in digital humanities presso l’università di genova, con una ricerca incentrata sui processi di acquisizione lessicale in studenti universitari con dislessia. attualmente è docente a contratto di lingua inglese presso le università di pavia e milano. le sue attività di ricerca riguardano l’accessibilità nell’apprendimento linguistico e l’uso di strumenti digitali innovativi. si occupa inoltre di traduzione audiovisiva e di input audiovisivo nella didattica della lingua inglese. microsoft word soriano florez_8.1.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  8,  issue  1,  march  2021,  82–86   issn  2376-­‐905x       http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.13.239   www.e-­‐journall.org   © soriano flórez 2021. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license.   review/reseña:  paulsrud,  bethanne,  tian,  zhongfeng,  &  toth,  jeanette   (eds.).  (2021).  english-­‐medium  instruction  and  translanguaging.   multilingual  matters.           irene  soriano  flórez     universidad  complutense  de  madrid       book  review     received  5  march  2021;  accepted  after  revision  20  march  2021   abstract en this text reviews english-medium instruction and translanguaging, edited by paulsrud, tian, and toth, published this year (2021) by multilingual matters. the book comprises eleven empirical studies from across the globe, by different authors, raising awareness of the multiple possibilities, challenges, and considerations that emerge when addressing translanguaging in english-medium instruction (emi) today. the authors of this volume inspire new research paths towards translanguaging theory, practice, and policy. key words: translanguaging, english-medium instruction (emi), linguistic repertoire, l1 use es este texto es una reseña de english-medium instruction and translanguaging de paulsrud, tian y toth, publicado este año (2021) por multilingual matters. el libro recoge once estudios empíricos procedentes de todo el mundo y de distintos autores, que permiten conocer las múltiples posibilidades, consideraciones y retos que surgen al abordar el translenguaje en contextos de inglés como medio de instrucción (imi) hoy en día. los autores de este volumen abren nuevas vías de investigación sobre la teoría y la práctica asociadas al translenguaje y sobre políticas educativas que lo incorporen. palabras clave: translenguaje, inglés como medio de instrucción (imi), repertorio lingüístico, uso de la l1 it questo testo recensisce english-medium instruction and translanguaging di paulsrud, tian e toth, pubblicato quest’anno (2021) da multilingual matters. il libro, che raccoglie undici studi empirici di diversi autori provenienti da tutto il mondo, permette di conoscere le molteplici possibilità, le considerazioni e le sfide originate dall’occuparsi di translanguaging in un contesto di inglese come lingua d’istruzione (emi). le autrici e l’autore del volume indicano nuovi sentieri di ricerca sulla teoria e la pratica associate al translanguaging e sulle politiche educative che lo includono. parole chiave: translanguaging, inglese come lingua d’istruzione (emi), repertorio linguistico, uso della l1 * irene  soriano  flórez,  universidad  complutense  de  madrid   irensori@ucm.es   http://www.e-journall.org/ review/reseña:  english-­‐medium  instruction  and  translanguaging   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  82–86 83 1.  overview  of  the  volume   english-­‐medium   instruction  and  translanguaging,  edited  by  paulsrud,  tian,  and  toth,  offers  a   fresh,   global,  and  well-­‐documented  look  at  the  interplay  of  english-­‐medium  instruction  (emi)  and  translanguaging   theory  and  pedagogy.  the  book  is  organised  in  eleven  compelling  and  comprehensible  chapters.  together,  the   chapters  present  cutting-­‐edge  empirical   research,  which  unpacks  current  practices  and  provides  reflections   on  language  use  in  the  emi  classroom,  from  primary  school  to  higher  education.     while   the   chapters   differ   in   the   linguistic   ecologies  and  geographical   contexts   they   address   (south   africa,  malawi,   kenya,  hong  kong,   japan,  maldives,   cambodia,   kazakhstan,   turkey   and   italy),   they   point   at   common  goals  which  constitute  the  main  themes  of  this  volume.  one  of  these  themes  is  an  understanding  of   the   emi   classroom   as   an   intrinsically   multilingual   space,   in   which   pedagogical   use   of   the   full   linguistic   repertoires  of  both  students  and  teachers  should  be  accepted  and  promoted  for  meaning  making.  that  theme   is  highlighted  all  over  the  volume,  together  with  an  opposition  to  dominant  monolingual  ideologies  and  their   colonial   underpinnings   regarding   english   as   the   only   medium   of   instruction   in   emi.   a   second   theme   addressed  in  the  volume  is  the  need  to  acknowledge  and  to  raise  awareness  of  the  fluidity  of  language  use  that   happens   inside   classrooms,   as  well   as   to   encourage   emi   stakeholders   to   recognise   the   role   of   the   home   languages  as  a  valuable  tool  for  learning.  this  giving  of  prestige  to  local  languages  also  implies  a  demand  to   determine   policy   from   a   bottom-­‐up   approach   that   reflects   and   legitimises   such   translanguaging   reality.   finally,  the  editors of  the  volume  point  out  that  research  on  practices  in  emi  university  classrooms—practices   that   address   learners   and   teachers’   beliefs   and   that   transcend   the   monolingual   medium   of   instruction   principle—is  still  very  limited  and,  hence,  they  encourage  it.      as   paulsrud,   tian,   and   toth   foreground   in   the   introduction,   the  main   contribution   and   primary   innovation  of   this  book   lies   in  presenting  a  pedagogical  approach   that  allows  room  to  understand  different   possibilities  when   translanguaging   and   emi   coexist,  not   only   for   communicating   and   learning,   but   also   for   challenging  monolingual   ideologies  and  existing  hierarchies,   fostering  social   justice,  and  developing  identity   and  educational  policy.  the  volume  closes  with  a  fantastic  epilogue,  a  reflection  by  ute  smit,  which  places  the   focus   on   “translanguaging   emi”   (p.   257)   and   on   the   transformative   potential   that   translanguaging   encompasses  for  english-­‐medium  educational  settings.     2.  individual  chapters     in  chapter  1,  sahan  and  rose  advocate  for  a  broader  interpretation  of  the  “e”  in  emi:  one  that  does   not   restrict   itself   to   english-­‐only   language   practices,   but   that   also   embraces   and   normalises  multilingual   practices.  their  understanding  of   the  emi  classroom  as  an   inherently  bi-­‐/multi-­‐lingual  space,  co-­‐created  by   non-­‐monolingual   students   and   teachers,   is   supported   by   the   various   empirical   studies   they   review,  which   point  at  the  advantages  of  fluid  language  use,  namely  l1  use.  translanguaging  practices,  conceptualised  in  this   chapter  as  an  educational  tool,  are  shown  to  engage  the  entire  linguistic  repertoire  of  students  and  teachers,   who   make   meaning   simultaneously   in   different   languages   to   support   content   knowledge   learning   and   teaching.   in  chapter  2,  adamson  and  fujimoto-­‐adamson  explore  pedagogical  practices  of   translanguaging   in   the   japanese  higher   education   (he)   context,   through   an   intrinsic   case   study   at   a  university   established   in   2009,   whose  main   field   of   study   is   regional   development   and   international   studies.   the   authors   combine   multiple  methods,  such  as  semi-­‐structured   interviews,  questionnaires,  recordings  of  student-­‐to-­‐student  and   language  advisor-­‐to-­‐student  interaction,  discourse  analysis  and  a  collaborative  autoethnography  from  which   to   draw   emi   findings.   the   authors   report   l1   and   l2   interaction   practices   to   be   apparent   within   content   faculty   to   address   international   issues,   to   provide   scaffolding,   for   classroom   management   and   in   their   teaching  materials,  among  others.  the  authors  consider  that  teaching  and  learning  in  emi  programmes  with   mixed  proficiency  levels  brings  to  light  the  opportunities  and  challenges  of  translanguaging  practices  and,  in   this   sense,   they   view   the   scaffolding  of   the  l2   content   as  necessary   in   order   for   less  proficient   students   to   access  that  content.  in  this  context,  this  chapter  aims  at  highlighting  the  need  of  regarding  translanguaging  as   student-­‐determined  (p.  69)  and  of  regulating  policies  apropos  of  translanguaging.     through   chapter   3,   reilly   shares   a   linguistic   ethnography   of   language   beliefs   and   practices   in   malawian   universities   to   pinpoint   university   classrooms   as   spaces   created   by   translanguaging,   where   students   and   staff   can  make   use   of   their  multilingual   repertoires   (12  malawian   languages,  with  chichewa,   chinyanja,  and  chiyao  being  the  most  commonly  spoken  languages)  for  the  purposes  of  both  socialising  and   engaging  with   course   content.   despite   this  multilingual   reality,   the   strict   english-­‐only   emi   language   policy   soriano  flórez   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  82–86  84 does  not   acknowledge  universities   as   translanguaging  spaces.   the   author  underlines   the  need   to   challenge   monolingual  ideologies  and  to  legitimise  this  multilingual  reality  by  embracing  a  translanguaging  perspective.   such  a  perspective  would  value  student  and  staff  languages  and  guarantee  that  learners  acquire  the  essential   skills  to  thrive  in  both  a  global  context  and  the  local  environment.  this  shift,  reilly  argues,  would  represent  a   valuable  decolonising  move,   an   opportunity   to   “disrupt   and   transcend   language   ideologies   from   the  global   north”  (p.  78).   chapter   4,   by   luckett   and   hurst-­‐harosh,   addresses   how   translanguaging   pedagogies   in   the   humanities  and  social  sciences  in  south  africa  can  support  student  engagement,  motivation,  meaning-­‐making,   and   conceptual   relationships.  they   focus   on   a   first-­‐year   course   in   a  degree   programme   in   the   humanities   faculty  at  the  university  of  cape  town.  students  in  this  degree  come  mainly  from  disadvantaged  schools  and   the   programme   aims   at   redressing   previous   inequalities   “effected   during   apartheid   and   structurally   reproduced   through   the  continued  poor  quality  of  education   for  black  people   living   in   townships  and  rural   areas”   (p.   96).  the   authors   carefully   choose   13  essays  which   incorporate   instances   of   translanguaging  and   which   had   been  written   by   students   as   part   of   a   language   history   task.   six   of   the   essays   were   written   in   english  and   isixhosa;   two   in  english,   isixhosa,  and  sesotho;   three   in  english   and  afrikaans;   one   in  english,   afrikaans,   and   isixhosa;   and   one   in   english,   afrikaans,   and   arabic.   luckett   and   hurst-­‐harosh   analyse   the   different  meanings  students  make  when  they  are  allowed  to  write  using  their  full   linguistic  repertoires.  the   authors   group   the   data   into   four   “constellations”   (p.   98)   that   are   charged   by   sets   of   values   and   beliefs:   language  attitudes,   language  and   identity,   language  education  policy,  and   language  and  cultural  knowledge.   based  on  their  findings,  luckett  and  hurst-­‐harosh  assert  that  a  pedagogical  approach  that  regards  language   as  repertoire  and  resource   fosters  social   justice.  they  state   that,   in   this  case,   this  approach   is   implemented   despite   the   lack   of   a  multilingual   language   policy  at   this  higher   education   institution,  but   that   educational   language  policy  should  be  created  to  “respond  to  bottom-­‐up  practice”  (p.  94).  the  study  is  noteworthy  in  how   it   highlights   the   value   students   give   to   home   languages   as   conveyors   of   cultural   knowledge   and   how   it   foregrounds  multilingualism  as  the  future  for  language  practice  in  south  africa.     in  chapter   5,   crisfield,   gordon,   and   holland   present   a   case   study   of   an   international   english-­‐only   programme  at  a  private   junior  school  (grades  1-­‐5)   in  kenya   that   implemented  a   translanguaging  pedagogy   balancing  kiswahili  and  english.  the  authors  demonstrate  how  such  an   international  programme  facilitates   learning  while  providing  strong  bonds  with  the  local  culture  and  language.  they  argue  that  a  genuinely  ethical   model   of   education   should   consider   and   take   care   of   the   linguistic   needs   of   the   students,   “as   a   necessary   element  of  their  overall  development”  (p.  107).  the  authors  express  the  ethical  imperative  to  create  bilingual   programmes   that   incorporate   a   translanguaging   pedagogy   in   their   curriculum,   so   that   local   and   home   languages  and  students’  cultural  capitals  can  be  brought  to  light  and  developed  together  with  english.   throughout  chapter  6,  mohamed  explores  translanguaging  practices  in  the  maldives  through  a  case   study  based  on  storytelling  tasks.  in  this  context,  she  evaluates  how  four  children  (6-­‐11  years  old),  who  are   exposed  to  dhivehi,  arabic,  and  english,  use  their  linguistic  resources  to  both  create  and  tell  stories.  she  then   examines  how  the  children’s  narrations  are  influenced  when  their  language  use  is  limited  to  dhivehi,  arabic,   or   english.   in   general,   she   found   that   children   deliberately   shift   languages   for   reasons   of   “clarifying,   elaborating,   seeking   agreement,   using   specific   terminology,   confirming   and   self-­‐monitoring”   (p.   142).   restraining  the  use  of  one  language  then  was  detrimental  to  children’s  linguistic  competence,  as  well  as  to  the   development  of  children’s   identity.  as  a  result,  mohamed  argues  that  educational  policies  ought  to   integrate   translanguaging  pedagogy  and  practice.   in  chapter  7,  in  the  context  of  content-­‐based  emi  lab  classes  in  secondary  schools  in  hong  kong,  pun   introduces   how   translanguaging   provides   a   space   to   scaffold   higher-­‐order   thinking   and   the   acquisition   of   abstract   scientific   knowledge.   the   author   judiciously   analyses   classroom   interactions   to   point   at   the   pedagogical  functions  of  students’  l1  (cantonese)  and  l2  (english)  translanguaging  to  develop  higher-­‐order   thinking  and  scientific  english.  pun  found  that  the  teachers  made  flexible  use  of  the  l1  to  formulate  higher-­‐ order  questions  that  facilitated  the  understanding  of  both  complex  scientific  concepts  and  of  the  l2,  through   repetition  of  l2  content.  pun  emphasises  the  need  to  acknowledge  the  key  value  of  translanguaging  for  emi   teacher   training   and   pedagogy,   arguing   that  more   attention   should   be   paid   to   form-­‐focused   instruction,   in   order   “to  provide  students  with  more  opportunities   for  l2   learning  alongside   the  development  of   scientific   knowledge”  (p.  169).   in  chapter  8,  boun  and  wright  present  english/khmer  translanguaging  perceptions  and  practices  in   a  master  of  education  (med)  programme  at  a  university  in  cambodia.  in  so  doing,  they  address  the  views  of   both  faculty  members  and  students  regarding  attitudes  and  academic  and  linguistic  needs  regarding  the  use   review/reseña:  english-­‐medium  instruction  and  translanguaging   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  82–86 85 of  khmer  and  english  in  the  programme.  their  findings  suggest  that  the  use  of  khmer  occurs  mainly  in  group   discussions,  in  presenting  new  information,  in  describing  key  aspects  after  a  presentation  in  english,  or  to  use   humour  in  class.  the  authors  observe  that,  because  of  khmer’s  function  in  humourous  interactions,  students   are  eager  to  use  khmer,  together  with  english.  interestingly,  the  authors  also  observe  that  students’  literacies   and   language   learning   benefit   from   these   translanguaging   practices,  which   facilitate   academic   content   and   offer  “greater  opportunities  for  success  than  if  the  programme  is  conducted  entirely  in  khmer  or  english”  (p.   191).     in  chapter   9,   dalziel   and   guarda   focus   readers’   attention   on   a   european,   italian   higher   education   setting  to  analyse  translanguaging  patterns  in  student  language  practices  and  the  function  of  these  patterns  in   emi.  they  illustrate  how  translanguaging  promoted  content  knowledge  and  prevented  domain  loss  of  italian   for   emi   students   and   that   translanguaging   also   helped   international   students   to   assimilate   into   the   local   society  by  discussing  meaning  with   their  classmates.  the  authors  note   that   these   translanguaging  practices   were   commonplace,   regardless   of   teachers’   and   students’   stated   belief   in   using   only   english.   however,   learners   regarded   these   practices   as   fully   acceptable   solely   in   student-­‐to-­‐student   and   group   work   interactions.   yet,   in   these   interactions,   translanguaging   was   used   for   meaning-­‐making   functions,   task   instructions,   fostering   cooperation,  verbalising  academic   content,  and   indicating   cultural   identity,   therefore   ultimately  strengthening  content  and  language  learning.  in  this  line,  the  authors  underline  the  relevance  and   usefulness  of   “transliteracy   practices”   (p.   204),  by  which   students   access   their   full   linguistic   repertoire   for   literacy  input  and  output  in  a  flexible  manner.   chapter   10,   written   by   goodman,   kerimkulova,   and   montgomery,   explores   how   translanguaging   practices  are  regarded  by  kazakhstani  students  in  an  english-­‐medium  university.  goodman,  kerimkulova,  and   montgomery   state   that   students,   who   have   strong   proficiency   levels   in   english,   do   not   consider   translanguaging  a  helpful  pedagogical  practice.  nevertheless,  after  graduation,  alumni  translanguage  actively   at  work  by  adapting   their  use  of  russian,  kazakh,  or  english   flexibly  and  strategically.  this   translanguaging   allows  them  to  reuse  and  modify  academic  practices  that  they  have  previously  acquired,  transferring  them  to   a  new,  working  context.  in  this  way,  despite  struggling  to  produce  different  textual  genres  in  russian,  due  to   “absence   of   experience   and   training   in   writing   and   doing   research   in   the   language,   unawareness   of   terminology   and   unfamiliarity   with   structure”   (p.   230),   the   alumni   are   able   to   use   their   shifting   among   languages   to  adjust   to   the  employer   requirements.  this   chapter   shows   that   translanguaging   is   an   effective   strategy  towards  enhancing  transfer  of  academic  skills  beyond  emi.   in   the   last   chapter   of   this   book,   chapter   11,  probyn   reveals   the   controversy   surrounding   emi   and   linguistic  ecologies  in  south  african  schools,  where  most  of  the  speakers  of  african  languages  are  almost  only   exposed   to   english   inside   the   classroom.   probyn   ably   analyses   planned   and   spontaneous   in-­‐class   translanguaging  practice  to  ponder  how  these  practices  may  inform  the  development  of  “context-­‐appropriate   translanguaging   pedagogies”   (p.   250)   and   change   “entrenched   language-­‐in-­‐education   ideologies”   (p.   255)   towards  social  justice  in  south  african  education.  moreover,  in  the  face  of  a  lack  of  teaching  guidelines  around   the   functions   of   students’   local   languages   in   learning,   the   author   advocates   for   a   teacher   training   that   incorporates  a  translanguaging  pedagogy  that  can  be  followed  and  scaffolded,  for  student  teachers  to  learn  a   flexible  translanguaging  practice  dependent  on  different  linguistic  environments.     3.  conclusiones  (translingual)   together,   the  chapters  above  highlight   the  main  theme  of  this  review:  the  need  to  place  students  at   the   centre   of   translanguaging   pedagogies   and   to   normalise   multilingual   practices   in   content   learning   environments,  thereby  challenging  monolingual  ideologies  and  preserving  local  languages.  yet,  these  chapters   also  make  clear  the  need  for  more  empirical  research  conducted  at  the  university  level,   in  order  to  describe   the  operationalisation  of  a  translanguaging  pedagogy  in  higher  education  contexts,  with  a  focus  on  students’   strategies   and   disciplinary   views   of   their   learning.   this   way   forward   echoes  mazak   and   carroll’s   (2016)   edited   volume,   translanguaging   in   higher   education:   beyond   monolingual   ideologies,   which   contemplates   various  challenges  that  the  implementation  of  translanguaging  practices  pose  in  higher  education  institutions,   such   as   providing   future   teachers   with   “the   discourse   to   explain   and   justify   their   use   of   translanguaging   practices”   (p.   182).   in   order   to   consider   how   english-­‐medium   educational   realities   at   university   are   influenced   by   forces   that   operate   simultaneously   at   local   and   global   levels,   such   empirical   research  would   benefit   from   dafouz   and   smit’s   dynamic   road-­‐mapping   framework   (2020),   a   sociolinguistic   and   ecolinguistic  model  to  holistically  analyse  english-­‐medium  education  in  multilingual  university  settings.     soriano  flórez   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  82–86  86 en  conclusión,  el  presente  volumen  ofrece  una  visión  exhaustiva  y  global  de  la  teoría  y  la  práctica  del   translenguaje  en   la  actualidad,  revelando  la  necesidad  de  continuar   investigando  este   fascinante  camino.  en   este  sentido,  al  final  del  libro  los  autores  indican,  a  modo  de  colofón  a  una  lectura  fructífera,  una  serie  de  áreas   que   requieren   estudio,   entre   otras,   el   translenguaje   como   medio   de   instrucción.   así,   los   autores   inspiran   nuevas   vías   de   investigación   sobre   la   teoría,   la   práctica   y   la   política   educativa   y   lingüística   asociada   al   translenguaje.  en  esta  línea,  se  trata  de  un  libro  relevante  para  un  amplio  público  de  lectores,  desde  maestros   a   profesores   de   secundaria   y   universidad,   futuros   profesores,   investigadores,   responsables   de   política   lingüística  y  alumnos  universitarios.  en  definitiva,  este  es  un  libro  interesante  para  todos  aquellos  que  deseen   enriquecerse   en   esta   materia   y   contribuir   positivamente   al   desarrollo   de   la   educación   desde   un   enfoque   práctico   y   socialmente   justo,   que   abarque   y   fomente   el   uso   de   los   repertorios   lingüísticos   al   completo,   incorporando  de  manera  pedagógica  las  lenguas  maternas  a  los  procesos  de  aprendizaje  y  comunicación.         references   dafouz,   emma,   &   smit,   ute   (2020).   road-­‐mapping   english   medium   education   in   the   internationalised   university.  palgrave-­‐mcmillan.   mazak,   catherine   m.,   &   carroll,   kevin   s.   (eds.)   (2016).  translanguaging   in   higher   education:   beyond   monolingual  ideologies.  multilingual  matters.             irene soriano flórez, universidad complutense de madrid irensori@ucm.es en irene soriano flórez is a ph.d. student in english linguistics at the universidad complutense de madrid (ucm) and a member of the international shift research project, “understanding the internationalisation of higher education from the student perspective.” her main academic interest centers on multilingual practices and policies within the internationalisation of higher education. es irene soriano flórez es estudiante de doctorado en lingüística inglesa en la universidad complutense de madrid (ucm) y miembro del proyecto de investigación internacional shift, “understanding the internationalisation of higher education from the student perspective”. su principal interés académico se centra en las prácticas y políticas multilingües en el contexto de la internacionalización de la educación superior. it irene soriano flórez è dottoranda in linguistica inglese presso la universidad complutense de madrid (ucm). partecipa al progetto di ricerca internazionale shift, “understanding the internationalisation of higher education from the student perspective”. la sua principale area di studio è quella delle pratiche e delle politiche multilingui nel contesto di internazionalizzazione istruzione superiore. ole_link4 ole_link3 ej pagliara 10.11 euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, volume 12, issue 2, november 2025, pages 37-57 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.2.3289 www.e-journall.org © pagliara 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui accademici in italiano l1/l2 francesca pagliara università degli studi “roma tre” received 6 november 2024; accepted 14 october 2025 abstract it lo studio analizza le chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui tra studenti universitari italofoni e internazionali, e docenti. la fase di chiusura di una conversazione è cruciale per la gestione dell'immagine sociale e delle relazioni interpersonali. sebbene studi precedenti abbiano esplorato questo tema in diverse lingue, l'italiano formale, in particolare nel contesto accademico, è stato meno indagato. l'obiettivo è identificare le strategie utilizzate dagli studenti per concludere le conversazioni e confrontare le modalità di chiusura tra madrelingua e non madrelingua. lo studio si basa su un corpus di interazioni orali tra studenti universitari italofoni e internazionali e i loro docenti. i risultati indicano che gli studenti universitari, italofoni e internazionali, tendono a organizzare le chiusure con una struttura comune, comprendente una fase di pre-chiusura, una fase di transizione e uno scambio finale. tuttavia, si rileva una variabilità nell'uso delle espressioni e delle strategie, influenzata dalla conoscenza delle norme sociopragmatiche specifiche del contesto accademico. parole chiave: analisi della conversazione, chiusure conversazionali, italiano accademico, italiano l2, discorso istituzionale en the study investigates conversational closings in conversations between italian international university students, and lecturers. to close a conversation is crucial for the handling of social image and interpersonal relations. although previous studies have explored this issue in different languages, formal italian, particularly in the academic context, has been less investigated. the aim of this study is to identify the strategies used by learners to end conversations and to compare the closing patterns between native and non-native italian speakers. the study is based on a corpus of oral interactions between italian-speaking and international university students and their teachers. the results indicate that both university students tend to organize closings with a similar structure, including a pre-closing phase, a transition phase and a final exchange. however, there is variability in the use of expressions and strategies, influenced by linguistic competence and knowledge of sociopragmatic norms specific to the academic context. key words: conversational analysis, closings, academic italian, italian l2, institutional talk es el estudio investiga los cierres conversacionales en interacciones entre estudiantes universitarios italófonos e internacionales, y profesores. la fase de cierre de una conversación es crucial para la gestión de la imagen social y las relaciones interpersonales. aunque estudios anteriores han explorado esta cuestión en distintas lenguas, el italiano formal, en particular en el contexto académico, ha sido menos investigado. el objetivo de este estudio es identificar las estrategias utilizadas por los estudiantes para poner fin a las conversaciones y comparar las modalidades de cierre entre hablantes nativos y no nativos de italiano. el estudio se basa en un corpus de interacciones orales entre estudiantes universitarios italohablantes e internacionales y sus profesores. los resultados indican que los estudiantes universitarios italohablantes e internacionales tienden a organizar los cierres con una estructura común, que incluye una fase de pre-cierre, una fase de transición y un intercambio final. sin embargo, se observa variabilidad en el uso de expresiones y estrategias, influida por la competencia lingüística y el conocimiento de las normas sociopragmáticas propias del contexto académico. palabras clave: análisis de conversación, cierres conversacionales, italiano académico, italiano l2, discurso institucional 🖂 francesca pagliara, università degli studi “roma tre” francesca.pagliara@uniroma3.it pagliara e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 38 1. introduzione il presente studio si focalizza sull'analisi delle sequenze di chiusura nelle conversazioni formali faccia a faccia tra studenti e docenti universitari, nel contesto del ricevimento. la fase conclusiva di un'interazione comunicativa rappresenta un punto cruciale della conversazione, dove si intrecciano fattori di cortesia, norme sociolinguistiche e strategie di tutela della "faccia sociale" (brown e levinson, 1987). nella fase di chiusura di uno scambio comunicativo, i partecipanti negoziano il termine della conversazione, bilanciando il desiderio di concludere l’interazione con la necessità di mantenere relazioni positive. le chiusure, pertanto, sono il risultato di un delicato equilibrio tra ef^icienza comunicativa e rispetto delle convenzioni sociali, come evidenziano diversi studi (cameron, 2001; coppock, 2005; zhang, 2024). del resto, già sacks e schlegoff (1973, p. 289) sottolineano che le conversazioni non si “^iniscono solamente”, ma devono essere chiuse, attraverso un elaborato rituale, nel quale i partecipanti mettono in atto diverse strategie volte a preservare la faccia reciproca e rafforzare lo status relazionale. nonostante l'importanza delle sequenze di chiusura nell’economia generale della conversazione, la ricerca su di esse è stata meno approfondita rispetto a quella sulle aperture, principalmente a causa della dif^icoltà nell'individuare con precisione l'inizio della chiusura e della complessità della sua struttura. inoltre, la chiusura è in^luenzata da numerosi fattori contestuali, quali il tipo di interazione e la relazione tra i partecipanti. precedenti studi condotti su lingue come l'inglese (schegloff & sacks, 1973; clark & french, 1981), il greco e il tedesco (pavlidou, 1997, 1998), il giapponese (okamoto, 1990; takami, 2002) e il tedesco (harren & raitaniemi, 2008) hanno evidenziato sia tratti comuni che differenze nelle modalità di chiusura e nelle espressioni rituali impiegate: da una parte, questi studi evidenziano che le chiusure conversazionali (cc) sono “universali” e tendono a includere tre sotto-sequenze, la pre-chiusura, i turni di transizione e lo scambio terminale; dall’altra, mostrano che tra le varie lingue e culture prese in esame emerge una differenza nell'uso degli item lessicali utilizzati come segnali di pre-chiusura, che risultano sensibili a una molteplicità di parametri sociali (tipo di relazione tra gli interlocutori, genere di appartenenza ecc.). in^ine, gli studi registrano la variabilità interculturale da cui le chiusure sono caratterizzate: se in alcune lingue la chiusura viene gestita attraverso meccanismi di ridondanza, come ad esempio in greco (pavlidu, 1999), in altre, come il tedesco o il portoghese, è norma non dilungarsi (pavlidu, 1999; sieberg, 2003); questa variabilità interculturale, inoltre, al livello intralinguistico è soggetta a ulteriori variabili sociali, come ad esempio la distanza sociale (schwitalla, 2003). la letteratura esistente sulle cc presenta una lacuna signi^icativa riguardo all'italiano formale, e in particolare all'italiano accademico, lasciando aperta la questione dell'organizzazione sequenziale della chiusura in questo speci^ico contesto. il presente studio mira a colmare tale gap, analizzando in dettaglio le componenti delle sequenze di chiusura per identi^icare le strategie adottate dai partecipanti, attraverso l’analisi di registrazioni audio di colloqui con docenti universitari. in particolare, lo studio si propone di confrontare le modalità di chiusura utilizzate da studenti universitari parlanti nativi di italiano (pn) con quelle di studenti parlanti non nativi (pnn), al ^ine di evidenziare eventuali convergenze e differenze signi^icative. 2. quadro teorico: l’analisi della conversazione l'analisi della conversazione (ac) è un approccio di ricerca interdisciplinare, radicato nell'etnometodologia1, che si dedica allo studio empirico delle interazioni sociali umane attraverso l'analisi di conversazioni naturali. si tratta di un'indagine “induttiva, microanalitica e qualitativa” (hoey & kendrick, 2018, p. 152), che mira a svelare le strutture e i metodi con cui i partecipanti organizzano e danno senso alle loro interazioni verbali (talk-in-interaction, psathas, 1995). l'ac considera la conversazione come un processo dinamico e collaborativo, attraverso il quale i partecipanti costruiscono e mantengono un ordine sociale signi^icativo (flick, 2009, p. 34). a partire dai principi fondanti stabiliti da harvey sacks, emanuel schegloff e gail jefferson nel loro articolo del 1974, a simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation, l'ac si concentra sull'analisi di registrazioni audio o video di interazioni reali, trascritte minuziosamente per rivelare le sequenze di azioni sociali che compongono la conversazione. le unità fondamentali dell'analisi conversazionale includono: il turno, l'unità di base della partecipazione alla conversazione; l'azione comunicativa, l'atto linguistico compiuto 1 l'etnometodologia è un approccio sociologico che studia i metodi e le pratiche attraverso cui gli individui organizzano e danno senso alla loro vita quotidiana. si concentra sull'analisi dei “metodi” che le persone usano per rendere conto delle loro azioni e interazioni e per costruire e mantenere l'ordine sociale (garqinkel, 1967). chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui accademici in italiano l1/l2 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 39 all'interno di un turno; la coppia adiacente, la sequenza di due turni correlati, come domanda e risposta (sacks et al., 1974). la gestione dei turni di parola è il meccanismo cruciale per l'organizzazione della conversazione, in quanto ha lo scopo principale di assicurare l’alternanza ordinata tra chi partecipa alla conversazione; al contempo le sovrapposizioni, le interruzioni e le pause sono fenomeni altamente signi^icativi, che possono rivelare dinamiche di potere, e strategie comunicative, atteggiamenti interpersonali (sacks et al., 1974) e ^inanco dinamiche di potere (bazzanella, 1994; orletti, 2000). alla nozione formale di turno, gli analisti della conversazione aggiungono quella funzionale di azione comunicativa, con cui si indica un'azione linguistica che un parlante compie all'interno di uno scambio conversazionale attraverso il proferimento di un enunciato2. le azioni comunicative tendono a essere organizzate in sequenze complementari, dette coppie “adiacenti” (sacks & schegloff, 1973). esempi di coppie adiacenti sono i saluti in apertura e chiusura di conversazione, la domanda e la risposta, l’accettazione/il ri^iuto di un invito o di un’offerta, la giusti^icazione/le scuse per un rimprovero. quando la azione della seconda parte della coppia adiacente soddisfa le aspettative che la azione contenuta nella prima parte attiva, viene detta preferenza o azione preferita. quando le aspettative sono disattese si parla di dispreferenza o azione dispreferita (schegloff et. al., 1977). azioni preferite e dispreferite sono strutturalmente diverse: le prime tendono ad essere generalmente più brevi e semplici, e quindi meno marcate sul piano formale (levinson, 1983), mentre le seconde si caratterizzano per una maggiore lunghezza e complessità, da ricondursi al lavoro rimediale che il parlante fa per riparare la dispreferenza, af^inché l’interazione possa concludersi con successo. 2.1. la conversazione istituzionale la conversazione istituzionale caratterizza gli scambi in cui “gli interlocutori hanno obiettivi conversazionali orientati al raggiungimento di uno scopo (goal) o alla realizzazione di un compito (task) convenzionalmente associato ad una istituzione" (drew & heritage, 1992, p. 22). un dialogo in un uf^icio amministrativo, in un tribunale, in ospedale, in una segreteria, gli incontri di servizio ecc. sono esempi di conversazioni istituzionali (boxer, 2012). tipicamente la conversazione istituzionale si caratterizza per essere formale ed asimmetrica ed è sensibile al ruolo sociale: tra i partecipanti allo scambio vi è un agente (agent) che rappresenta l’autorità in grado di fornire soluzioni, servizi ecc. a un utente (client) che presenta un bisogno di informazioni, di ricevere un servizio ecc. (heritage, 2004). in una tale situazione comunicativa si realizza un modello di comunicazione asimmetrica, risultato della disuguaglianza nei ruoli sociali e della diversa distribuzione delle conoscenze tra i partecipanti (boxer, 2012). questo ambito di studio dell’ac comporta anche una ride^inizione dell’oggetto di interesse: dall’analisi dei turni e delle coppie adiacenti, gli analisti della conversazione passano a studiare i modi in cui chi partecipa alla conversazione interagisce; l’analisi dettagliata di come chi parla interagisce porta alla luce le norme che regolano l’interazione. il progetto pixi (pragmatics of italian/english cross-cultural interaction) di gavioli and mans^ield (1990) è il primo che sposta l’analisi dalla conversazione ordinaria (everyday talk) a quella istituzionale (institutional talk): mettendo a confronto conversazioni di servizio in italiano e inglese, rileva che la gestione delle dispreferenze varia da cultura a cultura. in italiano, infatti, un’eventuale risposta dispreferita è seguita da un lavoro rimediale post-riparatorio; in inglese la azione dispreferita è preceduta da una spiegazione, ovvero la gestione della dispreferenza avviene con un lavoro rimediale pre-riparatorio. sempre in riferimento a conversazioni formali, lo studio di bazzanella (1994) rileva che interruzioni e sovrapposizioni sono rare in contesti formali: esse sono tipiche piuttosto nei contesti informali, in cui hanno prevalentemente la funzione di conferma, piuttosto che di vera e propria sottrazione del turno di parola al locutore. secondo la studiosa, la frequenza delle interruzioni e delle sovrapposizioni sarebbe quindi un indicatore dell’alto grado di interazione tra interlocutori che, attraverso questo meccanismo conversazionale, partecipano attivamente alla costruzione del discorso. il lavoro di orletti (2000), in^ine, mostra che anche in situazioni di evidente asimmetria comunicativa, come le interazioni in classe o tra parlanti nativi e non nativi3, i partecipanti negoziano attivamente i loro ruoli, 2 la nozione di azione comunicativa richiama quella di atto linguistico, rispetto a cui, tuttavia, implica una dimensione interattiva e per questo “interpreta meglio l’ordinamento sequenziale e l’avvicendamento con cui gli atti vengono compiuti dagli interlocutori nel corso della “conversazione” (coulthard, 1977, pp. 101-102). 3 questo tipo di interazioni sono considerate “prototipicamente asimmetriche” (orletti, 2000, p. 111), in quanto il pn detiene conoscenze e competenze linguistiche e culturali ampiamente sviluppate per poter agire attivamente nella comunità di appartenenza, mentre il non nativo no; spesso, l’asimmetria è accentuata dal ruolo che pn e pnn rivestono pagliara e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 40 sfumando i con^ini del potere interazionale. ciò avviene attraverso strategie comunicative che permettono di adattare l'interazione al contesto speci^ico (come, ad esempio, la scelta di ridurre il proprio spazio discorsivo4). 2.2. le chiusure conversazionali tra le fasi in cui è organizzata la conversazione, per il presente studio sono rilevanti le cc. l’uscita da una conversazione è un’attività strutturata tipicamente in due fasi: la pre-chiusura e lo scambio terminale. la pre-chiusura ha la funzione di rendere manifesto che la conversazione si appresta ad essere terminata, attraverso particolari elementi lessicali detti “segnali di prechiusura” (sacks & schegloff, 1973, p. 303), come ad es. bene, allora, ok ecc. una volta rati^icato l’accordo di terminare la conversazione si può procedere alla vera e propria fase di chiusura, tipicamente realizzata con la formulazione dei saluti, in coppie adiacenti (1): (1) 1 a: okay 2 b: okay 3 a: bye, bye 4 b: bye. (schegloff & sacks, 1973: 317) spesso i segnali di pre-chiusura sono organizzati in maniera ridondante in più di una coppia adiacente mediante la ripetizione di azioni comunicative (2): (2) a: … and, uh, uh, we’re gonna see if we can’uh tie in our plans a little better. b: ok// dine a: alright? b: right a: okay, boy b: okay a: bye// bye b: g’night (sacks & schegloff, 1973: 307) questo fenomeno di ridondanza trova ragione nel fatto che la sequenza conclusiva della conversazione può avere luogo solo quando gli interlocutori si siano mutualmente mostrati d’accordo sul non introdurre ulteriori argomenti (sacks & schegloff, 1973). infatti, proprio dopo la fase di pre-chiusura, conversazionalmente si apre uno “spazio di opportunità” (button, 1987, p. 133), in cui il parlante, tramite un segnale di contrasto, può introdurre un argomento non menzionato prima, ma comunque pertinente allo scambio (unmentioned mentionable, sacks & schegloff, 1973, p. 303): (3) a: ok, thanks b: ok, dear a: oh, by the way, i would just like to tell you that i like the new program i have been listening to for a while, that’s uh// b: good girl (sacks & schegloff, 1973: 327) per chiudere adeguatamente una conversazione, dunque, è necessario sia saper utilizzare gli adeguati nell’interazione: di dominanza istituzionale il nativo (nei vari ruoli amministrativi, solidali, assistenziali, educativi, ecc.), di subordinazione il non nativo (spesso, nella condizione di bisogno linguistico, assistenziale, sanitario, ecc.). 4 allo studio della negoziazione dello spazio conversazionale e in particolare al fenomeno delle interruzioni si è dedicato bilmes (1997), analizzando le strategie attraverso cui i parlanti segnalano l'interruzione e rivendicano i propri diritti di parola. l'autore si concentra sui segnali verbali, come ad esempio "un minuto" oppure "lasciami qinire" e non verbali (ad es. aumento del volume), impiegati per indicare un'interruzione subita. al contempo, blimes evidenzia come i parlanti che intervengono possano segnalare la propria interruzione come azione intenzionale, rivelando cosı̀ che l’interruzione è un'azione negoziata tra i parlanti. chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui accademici in italiano l1/l2 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 41 segnali per comunicare le proprie intenzioni, sia saper riconoscere il valore di un determinato segnale per adeguare il proprio comportamento allo scambio e, in ultimo, ma non per importanza, sapere quali luoghi della sequenza sono eventualmente deputati al rilancio della conversazione. la mancata conoscenza delle norme pragmatiche delle cc espone facilmente chi parla a un fallimento pragmatico5 (aston, 1995; bardovi-harlig, 1991). questo aspetto è tanto più sensibile quando si parla in una lingua straniera. se infatti gli studi sulle cc da una parte hanno dimostrato che esse sono universali, dall’altra la struttura della sequenza varia da lingua a lingua e da cultura a cultura: ad esempio, basti pensare che, mentre in molte delle lingue occidentali è necessario realizzare foneticamente i segnali di chiusura6, in lingue come il nepalese, al contrario, è adeguato concludere un incontro di servizio solo con il ringraziamento seguito dal silenzio, senza lo scambio terminale di saluti (bardovi-harlig & zoltan, 1991). per quanto riguarda l’italiano, gli studi sulle cc evidenziano da una parte il ruolo del ringraziamento e dall’altra la variabilità strutturale delle cc in scambi istituzionali o di servizio. lo studio di zorzi (1990), confrontando conversazioni di servizio in italiano e inglese, rileva che il ringraziamento nelle cc svolge un ruolo cruciale nel rati^icare il completamento del lavoro di riparazione, specialmente a seguito di sequenze dispreferite tra commessi e clienti. tuttavia, è importante notare che l'analisi si concentra su una speci^ica sequenza di riparazione che precede la chiusura, piuttosto che sulla chiusura stessa. la struttura di queste sequenze dispreferite varia signi^icativamente tra le due lingue. in italiano, una risposta dispreferita viene tipicamente formulata immediatamente dal commesso, seguita da un'azione riparatoria successiva. al contrario, in inglese, il commesso tende a introdurre la risposta dispreferita con una spiegazione preliminare, gestendo la dispreferenza attraverso un'azione riparatoria preventiva. questo evidenzia una ricerca comune, da parte dei parlanti di entrambe le lingue, di una sequenza preferita, sebbene con strategie conversazionali differenti. zorzi (1990, p. 23) sottolinea che la chiusura di un incontro è possibile solo dopo che gli interlocutori hanno raggiunto una sequenza preferita, risolvendo i “problemi transazionali” come l'offerta delle informazioni richieste o la negoziazione di soluzioni alternative accettabili. in altre parole, la chiusura avviene quando le aspettative conversazionali sono soddisfatte, portando alla rati^icazione dell'incontro. l'assenza di tale risoluzione può condurre a un fallimento sia sul piano transazionale (il richiedente non ottiene ciò che desidera) sia su quello conversazionale (mancanza di elementi chiave nella chiusura, come ringraziamenti e saluti). aston (1995) sostiene invece che, oltre alla gestione della dispreferenza, il ringraziamento fa parte di un processo di negoziazione locale7 che coinvolge l'allineamento referenziale e di ruolo. in particolare, lo studioso individua che nelle sequenze di chiusura i parlanti hanno due necessità principali: rendere reciprocamente manifesto di essere d’accordo sui contenuti affrontati nello scambio e darsi conferma reciproca dei propri ruoli sociali. il primo aspetto è chiamato allineamento referenziale (referential alignment), mentre il secondo allineamento al ruolo sociale (role alignment). quando gli interlocutori ritengono di aver suf^icientemente negoziato questi due aspetti, la conversazione può essere chiusa con successo. auer, couper-kuhlen & müller (1999) mettono in discussione la struttura canonica del cc proposta da sacks & schegloff (1973), trovando che la forma più ricorrente in italiano sembra essere una variante estesa della struttura minima. fele (1999) mostra che il ringraziamento da solo può concludere gli incontri di servizio, mentre de stefani (2006) analizza i cc nelle interazioni al supermercato, rilevando che le sequenze dispreferite portano a chiusure più complesse. nel complesso, gli studi italiani evidenziano l'importanza del ringraziamento nelle cc e i fattori di gestione locale che ne in^luenzano la struttura e la funzione. 3. obiettivi dello studio e criteri di analisi poiché gli studi di ac dimostrano che la chiusura di una conversazione richiede una sequenza di azioni e di strategie interazionali che rendano manifesto ai partecipanti che si sta transitando verso la ^ine della 5 il fallimento pragmatico si veriqica quando un parlante, pur utilizzando una lingua grammaticalmente corretta, non riesce a comunicare efqicacemente l'intenzione desiderata a causa di una violazione delle norme sociolinguistiche o delle aspettative culturali dell'interlocutore (thomas, 1983). 6 come ad esempio in inglese, lingua in cui smettere di parlare e rimanere in silenzio non è un modo adeguato di chiudere la conversazione, perché il silenzio dopo un turno di parlato non è un segnale di chiusura, ma indica il riqiuto di parlare (button, 1987; sacks, 1992; schegloff & sacks, 1973). 7 le conversazioni hanno due livelli di organizzazione: un sistema di gestione locale e un'organizzazione generale. un esempio di sequenze della conversazione che concorrono alla sua organizzazione generale sono le aperture e le chiusure. tra i meccanismi di gestione locale della conversazione, invece, si annovera, ad esempio, il turn-taking (levinson, 1983). pagliara e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 42 conversazione ed evidenziano che è necessario che chi apprende una lingua straniera sia consapevole di come sono organizzate le cc nella lingua target per non incorrere in fallimenti pragmatici, il presente studio vuole rispondere alle seguenti domande di ricerca: quali segnali di pre-chiusura sono impiegati da studenti universitari pn di italiano e quali dai pnn? con quale frequenza i pn e i pnn avviano la sequenza di chiusura nel colloquio con un o una docente? con quante e quali azioni conversazionali si sviluppa la chiusura? chi avvia lo scambio terminale? qual è la sua struttura? da che cosa dipende la lunghezza delle cc nei pn e nei pnn? nel presente studio risultano rilevanti le nozioni strutturali inerenti alle sequenze che costituiscono la sequenza di chiusura, ovvero la fase di pre-chiusura (pc), gli spazi di opportunità che qui vengono chiamati turni di transizione (tt) e lo scambio terminale (st); salienti risultano anche le categorie di analisi, quali allineamento referenziale e al ruolo sociale. nel dettaglio, si speci^ica che per le pc si analizza chi avvia la sequenza e quali espressioni vengono scelte come segnali di apertura di questa sequenza. si osserva chi avvia la sequenza perché si ipotizza che le cc siano sensibili al ruolo sociale degli interlocutori: in uno scambio asimmetrico c’è, infatti, una distribuzione complementare di diritti e doveri sul piano conversazionale (marcarino, 2001, inter alia, per una sintesi delle caratteristiche della conversazione asimmetrica). questa distribuzione avviene perché ogni interazione è modulata da un frame, cioè da una cornice cognitiva in base alla quale i parlanti orientano azioni linguistiche e non (goffman, 1974). il colloquio con il docente è un momento del discorso accademico in cui l’interazione tra studente e docente è assimilabile agli incontri istituzionali (boxer, 2002), cioè a quelle interazioni asimmetriche in cui c’è un’autorità preposta a soddisfare bisogni o a indicare norme a chi la interpella. nel colloquio con il docente universitario, lo studente si rivolge al docente per bisogni legati allo studio o alle procedure amministrative; in tal senso è dunque fruitore di un servizio che il professore per ruolo istituzionale garantisce. dato questo frame, si ipotizza quindi che lo studente, in quanto “fruitore del servizio”, sia detentore del diritto di chiudere lo scambio più del professore, su cui pesa maggiormente il dovere di essere disponibile all’ascolto e al confronto, per il ruolo istituzionale ricoperto. si ritiene inoltre che la cc che viene avviata in linea con il ruolo sociale e con la distribuzione dei diritti/doveri comunicativi appena delineata, nel contesto del colloquio con il professore, sia un’azione preferita che linearmente porta all’uscita dalla conversazione; al contrario si ipotizza che, se la se cc è avviata da chi ha meno il “diritto conversazionale” di farlo, la sequenza avrà caratteristiche strutturali tipiche di un’azione dispreferita, quali maggior lunghezza e lavoro rimediale. per quanto riguarda i turni di transizione, invece, si osserva con quali azioni conversazionali vengano essi realizzati e in quanti turni. analizzare quali siano le azioni conversazionali fatte per concludere la conversazione è rilevante dal punto di vista interlinguistico, per veri^icare se le scelte dei pn e dei pnn siano assimilabili oppure no. osservare con quanti turni venga realizzata la sequenza è rilevante per osservare come i pn e i pnn organizzino la sequenza dei turni di transizione, importante per un’uscita coordinata dallo scambio. in^ine, per lo scambio terminale si osserva come venga realizzato (se tramite coppie adiacenti, se attraverso i saluti o se attraverso altri atti linguistici, come ad esempio i ringraziamenti, ecc.) e con quali espressioni linguistiche, per veri^icare se queste siano adeguate al tenor della conversazione. 3.1. la raccolta dei dati per gli scopi della presente ricerca, è stato analizzato un campione di interazioni comunicative tra studenti universitari italofoni e internazionali e i loro docenti. i dati sono registrazioni audio fatte presso l’università di roma tre nel 2017. per quanto riguarda i pn, le registrazioni sono state fatte durante l’orario di ricevimento di alcune docenti del dipartimento di lingue e culture straniere: il campione è composto da 15 colloqui spontanei, pari a 197 minuti. per raccogliere le produzioni orali dei pnn, invece, sono stati proposti agli studenti dei role-play aperti e spontanei8, nei quali viene simulato il colloquio con un professore 8 con ‘aperto’ si intende un role-play strutturato su una situazione stimolo iniziale che lascia libertà al parlante di costruire l’andamento della conversazione, senza limiti di tempo o di turni (nuzzo & gauci, 2012). con ‘spontaneo’ si indica qui un tipo di role-play che ha consentito allo studente di mantenere la propria identità (kasper & rose, 2002). il role-play spontaneo quindi ovvia a quella criticità propria delle tracce generaliste, in cui un apprendente assume un ruolo qittizio lontano dalla propria esperienza e dai propri scopi comunicativi: l’interpretazione di un ruolo diverso dalla propria identità, infatti, è stato dimostrato che inqicia la naturalezza del dato linguistico (kasper, 2000). la conversazione ottenuta quindi è chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui accademici in italiano l1/l2 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 43 universitario. il canovaccio proposto ai pnn prevede che lo studente mantenga il proprio ruolo e un intervistatore interpreti il ruolo del docente. le situazioni stimolo sono state create a partire da situazioni reali individuate nel campione dei dialoghi spontanei dei pn: in questo modo la traccia del role-play riproduce non solo un compito comunicativo reale in una situazione verosimile, ma anche gli scopi comunicativi tipici degli studenti universitari. il campione dei pnn è dunque composto da 147 conversazioni registrate audio, pari a 192 minuti di parlato. i dati sono stati trascritti ortogra^icamente secondo il sistema chat9 (mcwhinney, 2000) e codi^icati mediante software specializzato, che ha consentito un’analisi quantitativa approfondita. 3.2. i soggetti dello studio i soggetti che hanno partecipato allo studio sono 15 studenti pn (14 donne e 1 uomo), iscritti al corso di laurea triennale in lingue e mediazione interculturale presso l'università roma tre, di età compresa tra i 19 e 28 anni. tale campione, pertanto, ri^lette principalmente la popolazione studentesca delle facoltà umanistiche con indirizzo linguistico. il campione di studenti pnn è composto da 147 studenti internazionali presenti nell’università di roma tre in quanto aderenti a vari programmi di mobilità, tra cui erasmus, accordi bilaterali, marco polo e turandot. la maggior parte frequenta un corso di italiano l2 presso il centro linguistico di ateneo (cla) dell'università roma tre, con livelli di competenza linguistica compresi tra a2 e c1, determinati tramite test di piazzamento. gli studenti pnn, prevalentemente di età compresa tra i 19 e i 26 anni, provengono da diversi paesi europei (spagna, germania, francia) ed extra-europei (brasile, nord africa, cina), con una prevalenza di lingue prime quali spagnolo, francese e tedesco. il campione è prevalentemente femminile (98 donne e 47 uomini) e ri^lette le tendenze statistiche degli studenti in mobilità internazionale in italia, come evidenziato da bettini et al. (2015)10. 4. analisi e risultati si riportano in successione i dati risultanti dall’analisi del campione dei colloqui degli studenti pn (§ 4.1) e quelli dei pnn (§ 4.2). 4.1. le chiusure conversazionali in italiano l1 per quanto riguarda l’analisi delle pre-chiusure nel campione dei dialoghi dei pn, in prima battuta si osserva che sono prevalentemente gli studenti ad avviare la sequenza di chiusura (tabella 1): tabella 1 avvio delle pc nei dialoghi degli studenti pn avvio delle sequenze di chiusura nei dialoghi dei pn studente docente tot. 61,5% (8) 38,5% (5) 100% (13) ciò che più si avvicina al parlato spontaneo, perché il role-play, cosı̀ come è stato disegnato per elicitarla, in primo luogo permette al pnn di mantenere la propria identità reale, in secondo luogo è inerente a compiti comunicativi che verosimilmente lo studente affronta all’università e, inqine, richiede la pianiqicazione on line come nel parlato spontaneo. 9 https://talkbank.org/0info/manuals/chat.pdf 10 al qine di ottenere dati il più possibile autentici e spontanei, il reclutamento dei partecipanti è stato differenziato tra pn e pnn. per il gruppo dei pn, la raccolta dati del gruppo dei pn è avvenuta precedentemente a quella dei pnn, qino al raggiungimento circa 200 minuti di parlato, ritenuti sufqicienti per l'analisi. tuttavia, la raccolta dati per il gruppo pnn ha presentato sqide logistiche signiqicative: l'assenza di studenti internazionali durante gli orari di ricevimento dei docenti ha, infatti, reso impraticabile l'utilizzo della stessa metodologia. si è reso dunque necessario adottare un approccio alternativo, considerato il più vicino possibile al parlato spontaneo: l’elicitazione dei dati tramite role-play aperti e guidati, come descritto nel paragrafo 3.1. il reclutamento dei pnn è pertanto avvenuto presso il centro linguistico di ateneo, e le tracce per i role-play sono state elaborate a partire da interazioni reali osservate nel campione dei pn. sebbene questa variazione metodologica abbia portato a una certa eterogeneità nel campione, è fondamentale sottolineare che l'obiettivo primario dello studio rimane il confronto delle abitudini linguistiche tra pn e pnn. i dati dei pn hanno infatti primariamente la funzione di termine di paragone, per analizzare le differenze e le somiglianze nei modelli di interazione rispetto ai pnn. pur riconoscendo le variazioni nella raccolta dei dati, si è cercato di minimizzarne l'inqluenza attraverso un'attenta progettazione dello studio e una chiara deqinizione degli obiettivi comparativi, afqinché fosse possibile condure l'analisi interlinguistica tra pn e pnn per osservare scelte linguistiche reali. pagliara e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 44 nell’interazione con lo studente, il professore, in base al proprio ruolo istituzionale, è a disposizione dello studente e interagisce in funzione dei bisogni di quest’ultimo. nella fase di uscita dalla conversazione, dunque, il docente in virtù del suo ruolo tende a non avviare la sequenza di chiusura, bensı̀ a lasciare l’opportunità di farlo allo studente. in base al set sociopragmatico che il rapporto studente-docente in ambito universitario proietta (tracy & carjuzaa, 1993)11 , si può ritenere che l’avvio della sequenza di chiusura da parte degli studenti sia l’azione comunicativa preferita. nei casi in cui la cc non è avviata da uno studente, si assiste, infatti, a un’espansione della sequenza di chiusura attraverso l’introduzione di nuovi argomenti, che creano il presupposto per azioni rimediali12, come si può vedere nell’estratto riportato qui di seguito (es. 4): (4) 1. d: mi sa che la devo lasciare perché mi sa che ci sono un po' di persone che aspettano. c'è tutto qui, questo per esempio. per quello se lo vuole lo posso prestare, per esempio, però faccia una cosa insomma un pochino sistematica magari e:hm cercando: su. 2. v: ah e poi qui volevo chiederle riguardo alla, al titolo, come vogliamo:? perché cioè io ho fatto la domanda alla preliminare, però quella.> 3. d: <adesso ci pensiamo, adesso al titolo ci pensiamo un attimo con calma, io sono negata ai titoli eh. 4. v: ok. 5. d: tenga presente questo, quindi se lo trova lei un titolo, è meglio, però insomma lo troveremo, va bene? 6. v: allora e questo aspetti.> 7. d: <però potrebbe essere “saper più lingue, de^inizioni” cioè.> 8. v: “confronto tra de^inizioni”. 9. d: # sı̀, se può intanto far entrare quella dopo. v: posso prendere anche questo, o:? # grazie, arrivederci, arrivederci. nell’es. (4), la pc viene avviata dal professore, sotto l’urgenza di ricevere gli altri studenti in ^ila per il ricevimento. il fatto che l’avvio della chiusura da parte del professore, nella situazione speci^ica del colloquio, possa considerarsi sul piano conversazionale un’azione dispreferita è visibile proprio nella organizzazione della sequenza: la studentessa non risponde con l’azione preferita di rati^icare l’avvio della chiusura, ma inserisce, in maniera interruttiva violando anche le norme del turn-taking,, un altro topic nella conversazione che ritarda l’uscita dalla conversazione; questa infatti si conclude dopo otto turni, con uno scambio ^inale unilaterale, in cui la studentessa espleta insieme il rituale di ringraziamento e dei saluti. per quanto riguarda la pc, si osservano anche quali sono le espressioni che vengono impiegate dagli studenti pn come segnali che comunicano l’intenzione di avviarsi verso la ^ine dello scambio (tabella 2): tabella 2 segnali di pre-chiusura utilizzati dagli studenti pn nelle pc segnali percentuale tot va benissimo /va bene perfetto ok / ok ok altro tot. 56,25% 18,75% 12,50% 12,50% 100% (18) (6) (4) (4) (32) 11 tracy e carjuzaa (1993), sulla scia del modello dei face threatening acts di brown e levinson (1987), chiamano la percezione dello status accademico faccia istituzionale e la percezione delle abilità e competenze faccia intellettuale11. nella loro analisi, riscontrano che l’interazione orale accademica è caratterizzata da una costante ricerca di equilibrio tra la volontà di ottenere un riscontro positivo sulle capacità intellettuali e la volontà di non apparire saccenti e arroganti, da parte di tutti i membri accademici, di qualsiasi grado gerarchico (studenti, laureati, dottorandi, ricercatori, professori associati e ordinari). questi tratti sociopragmatici che caratterizzano il rapporto tra studenti universitari e professori hanno delle ricadute pragmalinguistiche e conversazionali. il colloquio tra docente e studente, infatti, sembra essere caratterizzato da una distribuzione degli atti linguistici (bardovi-harlig & hartford, 1990), e in ottica conversazionale è stato rilevato che anche la distribuzione dei tipi di azioni comunicative (tracy & carjuzaa, 1993) e della quantità di parlato e di silenzio riqlette l’asimmetria dei ruoli sociali (boxer & cortes-conde,1997; orletti, 2000). 12 “rimediale” rispetto all’azione di chiudere la conversazione prima che si compia soddisfacimento dei bisogni dello studente. chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui accademici in italiano l1/l2 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 45 dai risultati emerge che non ci sia una grande varietà nella scelta di espressioni che segnalano l’avvio della sequenza di pc. l’espressione di gran lunga più utilizzata è va bene, compresa la sua variante con il superlativo va benissimo; seguono l’espressione perfetto e il segnale discorsivo ok, nella sua forma singola o reduplicata ok ok. oltre alla poca varietà delle espressioni, si nota anche che i segnali di pre-chiusura impiegati dai pn si caratterizzano per essere scelte di registro tendenzialmente informale: l’uso del superlativo è infatti riconducibile al registro colloquiale (lindbladh, 2015)13, come anche quello dell’aggettivo perfetto, utilizzato come segnale discorsivo di conferma; l’impiego di ok è proprio delle varietà informali. per quanto riguarda l’analisi dei turni di transizione, si rileva la tendenza preponderante tra i pn a strutturare la cc inserendo una sequenza di turni di transizione (tabella 3): tabella 3 percentuale dei tt nelle cc degli studenti pn segnali percentuale tot cc con turni di transizione cc senza turni di transizione tot. 85% 15% 100% (11) (2) (13) dai dati emerge che le sequenze di turni di transizione individuate vengono sviluppate dai pn prevalentemente per avere la conferma reciproca della chiusura della conversazione, come mostra l’esempio qui di seguito (5): (5) 1. a: ok, va benissimo. allora giusto il tempo di capire un po’ come funziona> 2. d: <sı̀, faccia un po’ di esperimenti. 3. a: allora la ringrazio professoressa, alla prossima volta.> 4. d: <arrivederci. 5. a: arrivederci. in (5errore. l'origine riferimento non è stata trovata.), i tt servono per menzionare e chiudere de^initivamente l’ultimo argomento trattato nel dialogo: lo studente avvia la cc con i segnali di pre-chiusura ok, va benissimo seguiti da un’espressione di commiato che serve a porre le condizioni per un futuro contatto con la docente (giusto il tempo di capire un po’ come funziona); la professoressa conferma (sì. faccia un po’ di esperimenti) e lo studente ringrazia e saluta (grazie mille, professoressa. alla prossima volta.). a questo punto ai due interlocutori è chiaro che non ci siano altri argomenti di cui parlare e viene cosı̀ formulato lo scambio terminale (d: <arrivederci. a: arrivederci.). le azioni fatte in questi tt hanno una funzione sostanziale nell’economia globale della conversazione: per tutto lo scambio la docente e lo studente parlano lungamente di come impostare una matrice di calcolo per l’analisi di dati linguistici; l’argomento richiede lunghe sequenze espositive, descrittive e diverse sequenze di negoziazione del signi^icato. nel momento del congedo, dunque, la funzione dei turni di transizione, pur nella loro semplicità, non è solo fatica (sacks & schelegoff, 1973), ma necessaria agli interlocutori per confermare la reciproca comprensione su tutto quello che è stato detto, ovvero per il referential alignment (aston, 1995). attraverso questo semplice esempio si osserva che la sequenza funziona come una sorta di macro-atto interazionale14 in cui gli interlocutori co-costruiscono una chiusura coordinata della conversazione, cercando sia concludere tutti gli argomenti di cui hanno parlato sia di mantenere i rapporti di cortesia. si dà anche il caso in cui gli studenti sfruttino la pre-chiusura come “spazio di opportunità” (button, 1987) per uscire momentaneamente dalla sequenza di chiusura e introdurre nuovo materiale topicale (es. 6): 13 lindbladh (2015) rileva che nelle pre-chiusure il segnale utilizzato prevalentemente dai parlanti nativi di italiano è va bene (o va be’). già bazzanella (2001) categorizza va bene tra i segnali discorsivi che sono usati nella sequenza conclusiva della conversazione, sia come segnali di risposta che come segnali di pre-chiusura. jafrancesco (2015) registra che va bene è il segnale discorsivo d’elezione per cedere il turno anche per i parlanti di italiano l2. nel corpus analizzato da lindbladh (2015) tutte le chiusure sono avviate da va bene, mentre solo due dal superlativo va benissimo e solamente due non contengono né va bene né sue forme alterate o derivate. lindbladh (2015, pp. 276-277) indica che “le due chiusure che non contengono nessuna di queste forme (va bene, va benissimo, va be’; nda) si trovano in contesti formali nei quali la sequenza conclusiva è breve, e contengono frasi pre-conclusive come niente, non importa, grazie e la ringrazio”. la studiosa, quindi, deduce che nelle chiusure conversazionali formali non sia d’uso impiegare i segnali discorsivi quali va bene e simili. 14 riley (1979) distingue tra atto illocutivo e atto interattivo e annovera le sequenze di chiusura tra gli atti interattivi. pagliara e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 46 (6) 1. t: <ok va bene. e: dovrebbe essere tutto. grazie. # e invece la registrazione non la devo inviare, solo trascrivere, giusto? 2. d: # bella domanda, ah ah, non ci ho pensato, però, in realtà, forse quella me la potreste inviare via mail, perché no? 3. t: ok, sı̀, va bene. 4. d: se riuscite, insomma, sı̀, magari mando su questo se mi ricordo mando una mail per <per >// dirlo anche agli altri. 5. t: va bene. # grazie, arrivederci. 6. d: arrivederci rilanciare lo scambio dopo il segnale di pre-chiusura, oltre a contravvenire alle norme che regolano la chiusura di un’interazione, rallentandone la sua progressività, in una relazione asimmetrica si può leggere anche come un compito linguistico di non semplice realizzazione, poiché minaccia la faccia negativa (brown & levinson, 1987) dell’interlocutore, in quanto limita la sua libertà di chiudere lo scambio e lo impegna a continuare l’interazione. in (6), ad esempio, la studentessa utilizza la sequenza per inserire una nuova richiesta, introdotta dal segnale di contrasto (e invece); nel fare questo, cerca tuttavia di rendere manifesta la sua intenzione di chiudere la conversazione tramite l’uso di molteplici segnali di pre-chiusura e molteplici atti di ringraziamento, entrambi ripetuti in più turni (ok, va bene. e: dovrebbe essere tutto; ok, sì, va bene), sia precedenti, sia successivi all’atto di richiesta. tramite questa organizzazione della sequenza, la studentessa, dunque, in maniera ridondante comunica alla propria interlocutrice che, pur aggiungendo un ulteriore argomento, sarà breve e presto avverrà la chiusura della conversazione. passando all’analisi delle azioni comunicative realizzate per la gestione locale delle cc, risulta che gli studenti pn ne facciano cinque: ringraziare, confermare, chiudere l’ultimo argomento, blandire e congedarsi (tabella 4): tabella 4 azioni nei tt nei colloqui dei pn azioni percentuale tot ringraziare confermare chiudere ua blandire richiedere congedarsi tot. 44% 27% 14% 6% 6% 3% 100% (15) (9) (5) (2) (2) (1) (36) ringraziare è la azione più frequente, presente nel 44% dei casi, e talvolta è presente all’interno della stessa sequenza con occorrenze multiple (es. 7). segue la conferma di quanto detto dal professore, riguardo a un argomento o ad accordi (es. 8). di più bassa frequenza sono invece i casi in cui gli studenti pn scelgono di chiudere l’ultimo argomento trattato (14% dei casi; es. 9)15. in^ine, in due soli casi ciascuno, si rintracciano azioni per blandire il docente (es. 10). in un solo caso una studentessa si congeda esplicitando l’urgenza ad andarsene (11). (7) 1. m: <ok, ok grazie mille. 2. d: va bene. 3. m: perfetto, grazie. 4. d: non dimentichi il manuale. 5. m: ah no, sı̀ # va bene. 6. d: va bene? ci vediamo dopo. 7. m: sı̀ ci vediamo tra poco, sı̀, grazie. 15 questa azione, infatti, è fatta prevalentemente dal professore. in questo studio, le azioni del professore non sono state analizzate per la diversità del materiale raccolto per i pn e per i pnn. chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui accademici in italiano l1/l2 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 47 (8) 1. d: <e intanto se riesce a esplorare un po’ queste cose nei ritagli, eh.> 2. m: <certo. (9) 1. d: sı̀, poi stereotipo qui proprio quest'idea del del agganciare molto l'immagine: ehm tradizionale a tutta a tutta la realtà di que:l que:l di quel luogo quindi, sarà sı̀, un elemento di cultura non tutti si vestiranno cosı̀ *castillan*, insomma.> 2. v: <no, no quindi, ehm, erano questi i miei dubbi. (10) 3. d: <focalizza meglio e l'indice. va bene? 4. s: perfetto, la ringrazio, sempre gentile.> (11) 1. f: grazie professoressa. ora scappo.> complessivamente, dunque, all’interno dei turni di tt si osserva che gli studenti pn scelgano di fare azioni collaborative a vantaggio della cortesia. per quanto riguarda la fase di transizione, dall’analisi dei dati risulta che essa viene realizzata prevalentemente in più turni, nei quali si distribuiscono le varie azioni (tabella 5). tabella 5 numero dei tt nei colloqui dei pn turni di transizione percentuale tot più turni di transizione unico turno di transizione tot. 85% 15% 100% (9) (2) (11) la distribuzione delle azioni su più turni permette di saggiare progressivamente la disponibilità dell’interlocutore a chiudere lo scambio o, mutatis mutandis, di veri^icare che non ci siano ulteriori argomenti di cui parlare, e in ultima analisi, ad evitare un commiato brusco. nell’esempio (12) qui di seguito, questo meccanismo si osserva bene: (12) 1. m: <ok, ok grazie mille. 2. d: va bene. 3. m: perfetto, grazie. 4. d: non dimentichi il manuale. 5. m: ah no, sı̀ # va bene. 6. d: va bene? ci vediamo dopo. 7. m: sı̀ ci vediamo tra poco, sı̀, grazie. arrivederci. 8. d: arrivederci. 9. m: arrivederci. l’esempio (12) è estratto da un lungo colloquio, in cui la studentessa chiede spiegazioni su una esercitazione d’esame. si nota, infatti che la studentessa e la professoressa fanno una serie di azioni per confermare l’un l’altra che non ci sono altri argomenti in sospeso e transitare verso la chiusura ^inale (m: <ok, ok grazie mille. d: va bene. m: perfetto, grazie.; d: va bene? ci vediamo dopo. m: sì ci vediamo tra poco, sì, grazie). più nel dettaglio, si nota che la professoressa fa azioni di controllo, mentre la studentessa conferma e ringrazia. sembra dunque che le interlocutrici, a fronte della lunga conversazione avuta, sentano il bisogno di coordinarsi su un’uscita non brusca, prima di terminare de^initivamente lo scambio. in^ine, in merito allo scambio terminale, il risultato è di assoluta uniformità: nel 100% dei casi il saluto ^inale è espresso con la formula di saluto arrivederci, realizzata nella maggior parte dei casi all’interno di una coppia adiacente (tabella 6): pagliara e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 48 tabella 6 st nei colloqui dei pn scambio terminale percentuale tot scambio terminale realizzato tramite coppia adiacente scambio terminale mutilo scambio terminale non realizzato tot. 85% 16,75% 1,25% 100% (11) (2) (1) (13) in tutti e due i casi di scambio terminale mutilo, è il professore che non risponde al saluto, come nell’esempio (13): (13) 1. d: # sı̀, se può intanto far entrare quella dopo. 2. v: posso prendere anche questo, o:? # grazie, arrivederci, arrivederci. 4.2. le chiusure conversazionali in italiano l2 anche nel campione dei dialoghi degli studenti pnn, rispetto all’analisi degli avvii delle pc, sono gli prevalentemente gli studenti a iniziare la sequenza (tabella 7): tabella 7 avvio delle pre-chiusure nei dialoghi dei pnn studente docente tot. 85% (112) 15% (20) 100% (132) le sequenze avviate dagli studenti (14) e quelle avviate dall’intervistatore nel ruolo del docente (15) sono simili per lunghezza e struttura: (14) 1. s: ah, d'accordo, perfetto. grazie a lei. 2. d: prego, allora aspetto la sua e-mail. 3. s: ok. grazie a lei. 4. d: arrivederci. 5. s: d'accordo. (15) 1. d: va bene. allora, ecco il libro. mi raccomando fra dieci giorni però me lo riporti, perché è comunque un libro che mi serve. 2. s: va bene, perfetto. 3. d: va bene, arrivederci. 4. s: grazie, ciao. 5. d: arrivederci. in entrambi i casi, è infatti possibile osservare che la struttura della cc è molto simile e non subisce variazioni al cambiare dell’interlocutore che l’avvia. nei colloqui dei pnn, dunque non emerge, almeno sistematicamente, che la lunghezza della cc dipende da chi avvia la sequenza. per quanto riguarda l’analisi delle espressioni che vengono impiegate come segnali di pc, si rileva una considerevole varietà, tuttavia, talune forme hanno una frequenza d’uso molto bassa; per rendere più agevole la fruizione dei dati, è parso dunque opportuno aggregare le varie espressioni individuate nel campione in base alla loro funzione svolta sul piano testuale. dallo spoglio dei dati è emerso che le espressioni di pc sono ascrivibili alle categorie delle marche di accordo e dei demarcativi16 (tabella 8): 16 le marche di accordo sono elementi attraverso i quali il locutore ricerca un riscontro, in termini di comprensione e/o compiacenza, da parte del destinatario. sono spesso utilizzati come strumento di tuning con l’interlocutore (va bene? giusto? vero?). i demarcativi sono segnali discorsivi che servono ad articolare e delimitare le parti del discorso (allora, poi, dunque, ecc.). si cfr. bazzanella (1995). chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui accademici in italiano l1/l2 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 49 tabella 8 segnali di pre-chiusura utilizzati dagli studenti pnn nelle pc marche/demarcativi segnali percentuale tot marche di accordo 88,80% (223) va bene / benissimo 52,60% (132) ok 29,00% (73) perfetto 6,40% (16) d'accordo 0,40% (1) vale 0,40% (1) demarcativi 11,20% (28) (ho) capito 4,78% (12) allora 3,60% (9) è tutto 1,60% (4) chiaro 0,80% (2) terminato 0,40% (1) aggiornato 0,40% (1) tot. 100% (251) l’espressione di gran lunga più utilizzata è va bene, insieme alla sua variante va benissimo, attestata nel 52,60% dei casi; seguono ok, che ha una frequenza d’uso del 29%, e perfetto, con una frequenza d’uso del 6,4%. le altre espressioni occorrono sporadicamente, con percentuali d’uso al di sotto del 5%. sul piano della variabilità del registro, anche le scelte dei pnn si mostrano orientate verso il registro colloquiale: come tra i pn, per confermare si riscontra l’uso del superlativo va benissimo, l’uso di ok e dell’aggettivo perfetto, propri delle varietà informali. per segnalare la pc idiosincratico è l’uso di ho capito, allora e del forestierismo vale, trasferito dalla l1. in particolare, allora viene utilizzato con la funzione di conferire valore conclusivo alla sequenza che introduce (16; 17): (16) 1. s: allora cosı̀ va bene. grazie. 2. d: va bene, niente, aspetto tutti i documenti allora. 3. s: grazie, professore. 4. d: arrivederci. (17) 1. d: va bene. 2. s: ehm, ehm, allora io non ho domande. 3. d: va bene, allora arrivederci. 4. s: arrivederci. questa funzione di allora è già stata registrata in studi precedenti sull’uso dei segnali discorsivi da parte di apprendenti di italiano l2: la letteratura è infatti concorde nel registrare che allora è uno dei connettivi maggiormente utilizzati dagli apprendenti con molteplici funzioni, tra cui quella conclusiva che emerge già nelle interlingue iniziali (bazzanella et al. 2008; ferraris, 2001; jafrancesco, 2015). passando ai turni di transizione nel campione dei pnn, la loro presenza è nettamente preponderante: (tabella 9): tabella 9 cc con turni di tt nei colloqui degli studenti pnn cc percentuale tot cc con turni di transizione cc senza turni di transizione tot. 98,50% 1,50% 100% (130) (2) (132) pagliara e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 50 per quanto riguarda quali azioni conversazionali vengono fatte nei turni di transizione, dall’analisi risulta che gli studenti pnn ringraziano, confermano, chiudono l’ultimo argomento e blandiscono (tabella 10): tabella 10 azioni conversazionali nei tt dei colloqui degli studenti pnn azioni percentuale tot ringraziare confermare chiudere ua blandire richiedere tot. 56% 39% 4% 1% 1% 100% (117) (81) (10) (3) (3) (214) in ultima istanza, osservando in quanti turni vengano realizzati i tt, risulta che l’81% di essi sono organizzati in più turni, mente il 19% in un unico turno (tabella 11): tabella 11 schema di realizzazione dei tt nei colloqui degli studenti pnn tt percentuale tot più turni di transizione unico turno di transizione tot. 81% 19% 100% (105) (25) (130) i dati mostrano dunque che i anche pnn tendono a organizzare la cc realizzando più turni di transizione in cui ringraziano, chiudono gli ultimi argomenti trattati, confermano la comprensione degli argomenti trattati, degli accordi presi o degli appuntamenti futuri, per uscire gradualmente dalla conversazione. i turni di transizione, seppur in misura ridotta, vengono utilizzati dai pnn anche per introdurre anche nuovo materiale topicale (es. 18): (18) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. d: è libero? alle due? s: sì, sì, va bene. d: va bene, allora torni qui con [/] alle due e vediamo insieme questi esercizi che non ha capito bene. cc s: ok, perfetto. d: va bene, allora l’aspetto più tardi. s: ehm, più [/] ah, ok, ok. d: ok? s: ehm io ehm dopo può ehm portare: mio esercizio e cosa che io *he* *guardado* *en* la *web* ehm più cosa che m/#i voglio [/] mi [vogliarı̀a], no [parole incomprensibili] a fare mi tempo libero e sapere cosa che può fare *por* [esemplo] in un viaggio a firenze> d: <mhm, mhm> s: <che cosa e perché. e mi piace molto sapere cosa di italia e monumenti. d: ok, allora per quello c’è l’attività on line, no?> s: <mhm, mhm (assenso)> d: <lei appunto segue moodle quindi queste cose le trova lı̀. io> s: <mhm, mhm> d: <non ho tempo ovviamente per fare queste cose in orario di ricevimento. qui al ricevimento se vuole possiamo giusto controllare> s: <mhm, mhm> d: <questi esercizi che per lei sono un po’ dif^icili. s: ok. d: va bene? s: va bene d: allora l’aspetto alle due. l’aspetto alle due, quando torna alle due. chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui accademici in italiano l1/l2 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 51 20. 21. 22. s: ah, ok. ehm, buongiorno d: arrivederci s: arrivederci in (18) lo studente avvia la pc e all’invito della docente a tornare, risponde con “ok, perfetto”, manifestando di non avere altro da aggiungere; la docente interpreta la conferma dello studente come segnale di pc, tuttavia, prima di chiudere de^initivamente la conversazione, a causa dell’esitazione dello studente (ehm, più [/] ah, ok, ok), fa una azione di controllo (ok?) che lascia il turno al suo interlocutore. lo studente a questo punto sfrutta l’opportunità per inserire un nuovo argomento (mi [vogliarìa], no [parole incomprensibili] a fare mi tempo libero e sapere cosa che può fare *por* [esemplo] in un viaggio a firenze) che espande la sequenza di numerosi turni prima dello scambio terminale. la sequenza è interessante perché lo studente menziona un argomento non “menzionabile” (sacks & schegloff, 1973, p. 303; § 2.2), come si nota dalla reazione della professoressa (ok, allora per quello c’è l’attività on line, no?> … <lei appunto segue moodle quindi queste cose le trova lì. io>… <non ho tempo ovviamente per fare queste cose in orario di ricevimento). l’aggiunta del nuovo argomento può considerarsi generalmente un’azione dispreferita nell’economia della sequenza di chiusura, perché, come suggerito sopra, frena la progressività dell’interazione, ormai proiettata verso la chiusura, in questo caso aggravata da una richiesta non pertinente. la docente cosı̀ è portata a fare del lavoro rimediale sia per gestire più localmente il ri^iuto della richiesta sia più globalmente per riorganizzare la sequenza di chiusura, cosı̀ che, al turno (18) si ritrova la stessa sequenza iniziale, caratterizzata dalla pc, dalla transizione per controllare che non ci sia altro né altri dubbi e, alla ^ine, lo scambio ^inale. osservando in ultima battuta lo st nel campione dei pnn, si rileva che esso è realizzato prevalentemente attraverso una coppia adiacente di saluti; nel 16% dei casi, tuttavia, si riscontra il mancato completamento della coppia, e solo in due casi lo scambio terminale non è realizzato (tabella 12): tabella 12 st nei colloqui dei pnn scambio terminale percentuale tot scambio terminale realizzato tramite coppia adiacente scambio terminale mutilo scambio terminale non realizzato tot. 82% 16% 2% 100% (109) (21) (2) (132) negli scambi terminali mutili è sempre lo studente pnn a non realizzare la seconda parte della coppia adiacente, non rispondendo al saluto, come in (19), dove lo studente ringrazia, il docente espleta il rituale di ringraziamento e saluta; al saluto, tuttavia, non viene data risposta da parte dello studente. questo tipo di schema in fase di chiusura crea una sorta di vuoto conversazionale, spesso compensato dall’interlocutore che reduplica la forma di saluto: (19) 1. s: ah, bene. grazie mille. 2. d: prego. arrivederci, aspetto la sua relazione. 3. s: grazie. 4. d: prego, arrivederci. nei casi di mancata realizzazione dei saluti, si osserva la costante che i pnn usano il ringraziamento come azione conclusiva: questo pattern si riscontra in tutti e ventuno gli scambi terminali mutili. il ringraziamento non seguito da saluti è dunque la azione che sancisce l’uscita dalla conversazione (ess. 20; 21): (20) 1. d: va bene? a posto. grazie 2. s: a te. (21) 1. s: ok, grazie mille. 2. d: prego. i dati analizzati in dettaglio mostrano che gli studenti pnn utilizzano una varietà di espressioni di saluto, che sono state raccolte nella (tabella 13): pagliara e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 52 tabella 13 saluti nei colloqui dei pnn scambio terminale percentuale tot arrivederci ciao altro arrivederla tot. 77% 10% 9% 4% 100% (83) (11) (10) (4) (108) l’espressione arrivederci si attesta come maggioritaria con una frequenza d’uso del 77%, tuttavia si osserva che occorre anche una formula di saluto francamente informale come ciao, presente nel 10% dei casi. si nota anche la presenza del saluto formale arrivederla che, secondo lo standard, sarebbe la forma linguisticamente accurata e pragmaticamente adeguata a una relazione caratterizzata da alta distanza sociale (renzi, 2012), come il rapporto docente-studente. tra le formule di saluto comprese in “altro” si individuano: due occorrenze dell’espressione ci vediamo, due di buona giornata, una delle espressioni a presto, a più tardi, a domani e buongiorno e due casi di affermazioni, quali ok, d’accordo. la maggior parte delle espressioni di saluto rilevate appartengono al registro neutro, adeguato alla situazione (a presto, a più tardi, a domani, buongiorno, buona giornata); l’espressione ci vediamo e l’uso delle affermazioni ok per chiudere lo scambio, invece, si caratterizzano per essere sbilanciata verso l’informalità. si vuole notare, in^ine, la presenza tra i pnn della formula di saluto di più recente diffusione, anch’essa propria del neo-standard come buona giornata. renzi (2012, p. 64) le de^inisce formule di “saluto augurio”, il cui uso si limita al commiato e non è legato alla distanza sociale: valgono infatti sia nella relazione paritaria tra amici sia in quelle asimmetriche (ad es., studenti /professore; piotti, 2019, p. 24). 5. discussione conclusiva questo studio ha esaminato le chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui tra studenti e docenti all’università. complessivamente dall’analisi delle cc si rileva che sia i pn sia i pnn strutturano la chiusura della conversazione in tre sotto-sequenze: la pre-chiusura, la transizione e lo scambio ^inale. in entrambi i campioni qui esaminati, la pc è avviata prevalentemente dagli studenti. questa tendenza nell’organizzazione dei turni e delle sequenze può essere letta come l’attualizzazione pragmalinguistica dell’assetto sociopragmatico dell’interazione docente-studente: il colloquio con il docente è infatti un tipo di institutional talk (bardovi-harlig & hartford, 1993; bonvillain, 2019; boxer, 2002; erickson e schultz, 1982), in cui i ruoli sono distribuiti e l’interazione è gestita in termini di diritti e di vincoli conversazionali, rispetto a cui i parlanti si allineano in base al proprio ruolo nell’interazione (goffman, 1967). attraverso l’elaborazione quantitativa dei dati, si è visto che gli studenti pn avviano la pc nel 85% dei casi, mentre i pnn nel 65%. in base a questo risultato puramente quantitativo, sembra quindi che il “diritto conversazionale” di chiudere lo scambio sia maggiormente a favore dello studente. oltre ai parametri socio-pragmatici, tuttavia, i risultati ottenuti sembrano indicare che sulla struttura delle cc si ri^lettano anche fattori locali della gestione della conversazione, quali l’allineamento referenziale e il ruolo (aston, 1995, p. 77). af^iancando all’analisi quantitativa un’analisi qualitativa, infatti, emerge che quando è il professore ad avviare la pc, l’intera sequenza di chiusura si espande per effetto del lavoro rimediale del professore; si sono visti casi in cui il professore si profonde in più azioni conversazionali attraverso cui dà consigli, suggerimenti e stabilisce appuntamenti futuri e casi in cui viene chiamato a gestire il rilancio della conversazione attraverso nuovo materiale topicale aggiunto dallo studente. lo studio ha permesso di osservare che questo accade in due situazioni: in primo luogo, quando il professore percepisce come necessario assicurarsi che non ci siano sospesi né incomprensioni sugli argomenti trattati; una cc può avere luogo, infatti, solo quando gli argomenti trattati siano stati tutti adeguatamente chiusi e questo fatto venga mutualmente riconosciuto dagli interlocutori. in secondo luogo, l’espansione della cc si ha invece quando lo studente utilizza la pc come “spazio di opportunità” (button, 1987) per aggiungere altri argomenti, senza incorrere in un fallimento pragmatico. l’espansione della cc tramite l’aggiunta di nuovi topic, tuttavia, avviene di rado nel campione: tra i pn si registrano solo due rilanci della conversazione e tra i pnn tre. questo risultato è singolare rispetto ai dati sulle cc di conversazioni telefoniche analizzate da sacks & schegloff (1973), dove il rilancio della conversazione menzionando gli argomenti menzionabili nelle pc è molto frequente. la minor frequenza di rilanci della conversazione nella fase di pre-chiusura può essere ricondotta chiusure conversazionali nei colloqui accademici in italiano l1/l2 e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 53 alla natura degli scambi qui analizzati, sia perché faccia a faccia, sia perché di carattere formale-istituzionale. rispetto a una conversazione telefonica, infatti, il parlato faccia a faccia richiede minor coordinamento agli interlocutori per uscire dalla conversazione (aston, 1995). inoltre, uno scambio formale è “per default monotipico” (levinson, 1983, p. 316) e pertanto rende poco necessario ai parlanti negoziare in fase di chiusura argomenti menzionabili non ancora non menzionati. nel caso speci^ico, il colloquio con il docente è lo spazio che lo studente ha a disposizione per soddisfare i propri scopi comunicativi e per questo è ragionevole che lo scambio sia compiuto in maniera esauriente, senza il bisogno di rimandare le richieste, come accade nelle conversazioni informali17. l’espansione delle cc, quando esse sono avviate dal professore, si osserva bene nel campione dei pn, mentre è maggiormente variabile in quello dei pnn. nelle cc avviate dal professore a colloquio con gli studenti non madrelingua, infatti, non si registra regolarmente un’espansione della sequenza. questo fenomeno si pensa che sia dovuto alla natura del task somministrato che, per il canovaccio situazionale che proietta, porta i partecipanti a costruire uno scambio più ef^icientemente orientato al raggiungimento dello scopo. nelle pre-chiusure gli studenti sia pn sia pnn utilizzano elementi lessicali di registro neutro, come va bene o diafasicamente sbilanciati verso un registro colloquiale e tipici dell’italiano neostandard, come ok e perfetto. nel registrare questo fenomeno, che non può giovarsi del confronto con precedenti ricerche sull’uso delle formule di chiusura in italiano, si vuole tuttavia suggerire una lettura in chiave sociopragmatica: il colloquio tra docente e studente, tra i tipi di discorso istituzionale, si colloca probabilmente su un piano di formalità minore rispetto ad altri rapporti istituzionali e, a giudicare dai dati qui analizzati, risulta caratterizzato non solo da scelte e comportamenti linguistici che ne confermano la formalità, ma anche da scelte e comportamenti linguistici che creano vicinanza, ^iducia e solidarietà tra docente e studente. in altri termini, dai dati a disposizione, sembrerebbe che gli studenti facciano una sorta di lavoro conversazionale volto a rimodulare tutta una serie di parametri relazionali (distanza vs vicinanza, ad esempio), che una volta istaurati, abbassano il ^iltro affettivo (krashen, 1981). tra i pnn la varietà delle forme impiegate come segnali di pre-chiusura aumenta e comprende in misura maggiore elementi demarcativi, come ho capito, terminato, allora, con funzione conclusiva. tra i segnali di pc, le marche di accordo come va bene, ok, perfetto ecc. sono nettamente prevalenti nei due campioni: il loro uso pervasivo nelle pc è motivato dal fatto che, come ha dimostrato beach (1993), nella conversazione funzionano da shifter discorsivi, sono cioè espressioni che consentono al parlante di segnalare che lo scambio avuto è soddisfacente e che si può transitare alla successiva fase della conversazione; nel caso delle pc, questi shifter sono impiegati per transitare alla chiusura vera e propria. secondo aston (1995), questi segnali, oltre a esplicitare che non si ha più niente da dire, sono utilizzati dal parlante per sollecitare la chiusura ^inale, manifestando che né l’allineamento referenziale né quello di ruolo sono problematici. questo meccanismo è particolarmente evidente in quegli scambi del campione qui analizzato in cui la docente tramite azioni di controllo vuole assicurarsi che per lo studente sia tutto chiaro; lo studente, infatti, procede per azioni conversazionali di conferma sempre più esplicite e supportate anche dal ringraziamento. per quanto riguarda i turni di transizione, dall’analisi risulta che questa sequenza è presente nella maggioranza assoluta delle cc sia degli studenti pn sia di quelli pnn, ed è realizzata prevalentemente in più turni. i tt vengono utilizzati durante i colloqui con il docente soprattutto per avere la conferma reciproca della chiusura della conversazione, e solo marginalmente per introdurre un nuovo argomento, come visto anche dall’analisi delle pc. nei tt le azioni conversazionali organizzate da entrambi i gruppi di studenti sono prevalentemente tre: ringraziare, confermare e chiudere l’ultimo argomento. in particolare, è massivo l’uso del ringraziamento e della conferma che spesso hanno occorrenze multiple nella medesima sequenza. inoltre, il ringraziamento è l’unica azione conversazionale che rimane presente anche nelle sequenze di transizione realizzate con un unico turno. la prevalenza di ringraziamenti e conferme sembra indicare dunque che la sequenza dei tt sia strutturata da parte degli studenti in maniera tale che risulti manifesto il loro allineamento al quadro referenziale e al ruolo che rivestono nell’interazione. l’allineamento referenziale è rati^icato tramite la conferma e la chiusura dell’ultimo argomento. il ringraziamento, invece, permette di rati^icare l’allineamento relazionale. come ha già mostrato lo studio di aston (1995) sui ringraziamenti nelle cc, infatti, solo quando l’allineamento referenziale e di ruolo è considerato soddisfacente dagli interlocutori, la conversazione può essere chiusa. conferma e ringraziamento, pertanto, sono motivate da bisogni di gestione locale della 17 la letteratura è concorde nel riconoscere che atti linguistici delicati, come ad esempio richieste e proteste, vengono differiti il più possibile, nelle conversazioni informali, talvolta qino alla chiusura (sacks & schegloff, 1973). pagliara e-journall, 12(2) (2025), pp. 37-57 54 conversazione, cioè, sono le azioni che permettono che la conversazione venga chiusa in maniera pragmaticamente adeguata. questo dato viene confermato anche dalla rilevazione nel campione di alcuni scambi in cui la chiusura avviene senza lo scambio terminale, ma il ringraziamento e l’eventuale risposta della professoressa prego sono sempre presenti ed evidentemente considerati suf^icienti per chiudere la conversazione. la presenza costante dei ringraziamenti, anche nelle cc più brevi, è un indicatore interessante di che cosa per lo studente, pn e soprattutto pnn di italiano, sia più saliente nell’organizzare le chiusure: dai dati qui esaminati, sembra che nel colloquio con il professore ringraziare sia una delle azioni imprescindibili pragmaticamente, non solo perché è un atto linguistico a vantaggio della cortesia positiva, ma anche perché è un tassello dell’organizzazione della sequenza di chiusura funzionale a contrassegnare lo scambio come scambio formale. in maniera economica, dunque, il parlante utilizza questa azione per chiudere lo scambio, manifestando la propria consapevolezza circa la distanza sociale e la natura della conversazione appena svolta. per lo scambio ^inale, in^ine, l’uso di arrivederci è dominante, sia tra i pn sia tra i pnn, confermando anch’esso una tendenza a connotare il colloquio formale con tratti del registro più colloquiale. solamente tra i pnn si riscontra l’uso di arrivederla, che sarebbe la formula di saluto dell’italiano standard adeguata alle situazioni formali (canobbio, 2003) ed è senz’altro notevole rilevare che essa ricorra solamente nel gruppo dei pnn e mai in quello dei pn. riferimenti bibliogracici aston, guy (1995). say thank you: some pragmatic constrains in conversational closings. applied linguistics, 16(1), 57–86. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/16.1.57 auer, peter, & couper-kuhlen, elizabeth, & müller, frank (1999). language in time. the rhythm and tempo of spoken interaction. oxford university press. bardovi-harlig, kathleen, & hartford, beverly s. 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accepted 26 march 2025 abstract en the digitization of the world is continuously developing, with corporate genres migrating to the web. annual corporate reports (acr) now appear in digital formats ranging from static pdfs to interactive websites. this shift significantly impacts report narratives, which are often enhanced by corporate videos, as they represent a versatile communication tool. this is particularly relevant for students, who are naturally digitally literate and accustomed to visual and auditory content. our study has two objectives. from a research perspective, we aim to identify key multimodal features of video ceo statements (vcs). from a pedagogical standpoint, we will demonstrate how these videos enhance students' multimodal literacy within corporate digital genres. this, in turn, could improve essential business communication skills, including leadership, audience engagement, and digital communication strategies, thus equipping students with competencies that are vital for today’s corporate landscape. key words: annual report, video ceo statements (vcs), corporate discourse, multimodal literacy, non-verbal communication es la digitalización en el mundo actual está en evolución constante, con la migración de géneros corporativos a la web. las memorias anuales aparecen ahora en formatos digitales, desde pdf estáticos hasta sitios web interactivos. este cambio afecta significativamente a la narrativa de dichas memorias, a menudo enriquecida con vídeos corporativos, una herramienta de comunicación versátil. esto es especialmente relevante para los estudiantes, que por naturaleza están alfabetizados digitalmente y acostumbrados a contenidos visuales y auditivos. nuestro estudio tiene dos objetivos. desde el punto de vista de la investigación, pretendemos identificar las características multimodales clave de los videos que complementan las declaraciones escritas de los directores generales. desde el punto de vista pedagógico, demostraremos cómo estos vídeos mejoran la alfabetización multimodal de los estudiantes dentro de los géneros digitales corporativos. esto, a su vez, podría mejorar las habilidades esenciales de comunicación empresarial, incluido el liderazgo, la participación y compromiso de la audiencia y las estrategias de comunicación digital, dotando a los estudiantes de competencias vitales para el panorama empresarial actual. palabras clave: memoria anual, video-declaraciones de los directores generales, discurso corporativo, alfabetización multimodal, comunicación no-verbal it la digitalizzazione del mondo è in continuo sviluppo con la migrazione dei generi aziendali sul web. le relazioni annuali delle aziende appaiono ora in formato digitale, passando da pdf statici a siti web interattivi. questo cambiamento ha un impatto significativo sullo stile narrativo delle relazioni stesse, spesso arricchite da video, strumenti versatili di comunicazione. questo è particolarmente importante per gli studenti, che sono naturalmente alfabetizzati al digitale e abituati a contenuti audio e video. il nostro studio ha due obiettivi. dal punto di vista della ricerca, ci proponiamo di identificare le principali caratteristiche multimodali dei comunicati video di amministratori delegati. da un punto di vista pedagogico, dimostreremo come questi video migliorino l'alfabetizzazione multimodale degli studenti all'interno dei generi digitali aziendali. questo, a sua volta, può migliorare le competenze di base della comunicazione aziendale, tra cui le capacità di leadership, il coinvolgimento del pubblico e le strategie di comunicazione digitale, dotando gli studenti di competenze vitali per il panorama aziendale odierno. parole chiave: relazione annuale, video dichiarazioni di ad, discorso aziendale, alfabetizzazione multimodale, comunicazione non verbale  miguel f. ruiz-garrido, universitat jaume i mruiz@uji.es the development of a new multimodal genre for corporate communication 99 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 1. introduction the annual report (ar) is a genre which has been widely studied over the past few decades (el-haj et al., 2020; michelon et al., 2022; sai et al., 2019), offering a detailed overview of a firm’s financial performance, operations, and strategic initiatives over the course of a financial year (lord, 2002). it is a means of communication between a company and its shareholders, stakeholders, investors, and the general public (abdullah et al., 2017). it is written at the end of a financial year and then made available to the public, and comprises quantitative information, narratives, photographs, tables, and graphs, becoming a legitimate and trustworthy medium to communicate information about the firm’s financial performance (yuthas et al., 2002). an ar is “commonly divided into two sections, with the statutory required financial statements usually assigned either to a rear section, or to a separate volume” (stanton et al., 2004, p. 57). this document, especially the executive statements or narrative sections of the ar (including the chairman’s and the ceo statements), has two main purposes: to inform and to promote the company; the former is a legal (statutory) requirement for multinational companies in most countries (rowbottom & lymer, 2010), and the latter is the result of an intention to use the document to generally show the positive views of the company, sometimes understood as a marketing tool (cadiz dyball, 1998). however, this view can also be influenced by external factors (palmersilveira & ruiz-garrido, 2014), although the company may try to minimize these issues and highlight the firm’s achievements. furthermore, previous research, such as giordano et al. (2019), confirms the hybrid nature of the annual report genre, as it seeks to expand its target audience to both specialist and non-specialist readers. this genre and the documents it contains also go beyond mere economic results; for some time now, they have also been of great relevance when it comes to social issues, which can be of interest not only to regular stakeholders, but also to new ones, many of whom are non-specialist readers (baier et al., 2020). furthermore, this hybridity is also seen because the genre is the object of interest of many researchers from a wide variety of fields using different analytical approaches (exclusively linguistic or multimodal, among others) (hynes, 2009). like other essential corporate documents, ars have been subject to digitization. the digitization of the world is not only a fact but is also in continuous evolution, as many genres are migrating to the web (hafner, 2018). indeed, the digital transformation of the world, which accelerated due to the covid-19 pandemic has changed the way many businesses work nowadays (dal mas et al., 2020; vaska et al., 2020), with many becoming “smart factories” (lasi et al., 2014). this is something that companies have also suffered: like a natural breaching experiment, digitization has disrupted organizational and societal processes (faraj et al., 2021). many firms, for example, have noticed that they need to change the way they have traditionally communicated with their potential stakeholders (aula & mantere, 2008), seeking ways to improve this communicative need. some time ago, garzone (2007) noted that corporate genres have been migrating to the web, and this has progressed in different ways so that now they are accustomed to presenting a corporate image worldwide (tang et al., 2015). in the case of annual corporate reports (acr), as giglioni (2020) adds, these have usually been transferred to the digital environment in a static .pdf (downloadable) format, like the traditional hard copy, sometimes called an interactive report because they integrate hyperlinks to other sections or even sites outside the document itself. however, acrs can also be found in a richer online format, similar to a website. these digital acrs “may have an impact on the disclosure of corporate narratives. this is exemplified by the online, abridged version of the narrative sections, where companies purposely select what information to present to their readers” (giglioni, 2020, pp. 31-32). we can therefore agree that the presentation and delivery of acrs are shifting “towards a more visual-based communicative approach” (giglioni, 2020, p. 32). some companies are also adding a video to the message of the executives, reinforcing the idea of the hybridization of the genre as it becomes more digitized and multimodal in form. in giglioni’s work (2020), an exceptional presence of video narratives is mentioned, opening up the possibility of adding corporate videos to the narrative sections of acrs, which to our knowledge has not been studied. 2. video ceo statements (vcs) as mentioned above, using the digital world to improve communication with stakeholders is a fact of life today (bilinski, 2024). well aware of the power of video as a communication tool, companies are using different platforms to disseminate contents (sharma, 2022). according to ditlevsen and kastberg (2020, p. 195), corporate videos refer to “all audiovisual instantiations of corporate communication efforts”. this broad definition can include different topics (e.g., video newsletters or ceo speeches), addressed to different target audiences (e.g., external stakeholders or employees) and different roles (e.g., human resources department to ruiz-garrido & palmer-silveira 100 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 provide orientation or training to employees). thus, corporate videos have become “a potent, multifaceted and multipurpose corporate communication medium”, supporting “the discursive construction of corporate identity” (ditlevsen & kastberg, 2020, p. 196), and they are even used to repair the image of firms when necessary (jaworska, 2023). ceos (chief executive officers) have a leading position within multinational companies and can be considered the main asset of the company’s corporate identity; they make executive decisions for the organization, and their reputation has a clear influence on the market behavior of the company, and even on its share value (gaines-ross, 2000). they determine the corporate social responsibility of firms, and their rhetoric is fundamental not only for reporting facts, but also for influencing future corporate strategic choices (beldad & von rosenstiel, 2024; hung, 2011; marais, 2012). drawing on previous literature (aritz et al., 2017; fairhurst, 2007; nielsen, 2009), a discursive focus is needed to analyze how leadership is achieved interactionally in organizational settings. discourse should be both a representation of reality and a way of engaging the audience to understand all the benefits that the firm can offer: corporate narrative researchers highlight the need to focus not on what is disclosed, but on how a particular issue is disclosed (hossain, 2017). ceos nowadays try to offer an aura of positivity turning to mass media to convey their messages, offering a clear image of control, which is especially important in harsh times. in their public disclosure of favorable (and unfavorable) data, ceos consider many factors: corporate ethics, integrity and, more importantly, discursive models (amernic & craig, 2013; ruiz-garrido & palmer-silveira, 2023). in this sense, corporate videos show the potential to promote and exploit multimodal and multimedia channels (crawford camiciottoli, 2022) and, as valeiras-jurado et al. (2018) have already said, the need to persuade stakeholders through diverse oral professional discourses is reinforced by different semiotic modes, including words, gestures, and intonation. apart from informative messages (often linked to events) and promotional recordings, ceos also use videos to accompany and complete traditional letters to shareholders, offering financial communication to viewers in a plain and engaging way, trying to enhance an attractive image among potential stakeholders. however, “when taking technology a step further, the use of video for oral financial communication is instead still rather underdeveloped” (crawford camiciottoli, 2022, p. 78). it is also understudied (costa-sánchez, 2017; ditlevsen & kastberg, 2020). ceos are already aware of the importance of appropriate communication, and in response to the call of helfat and peteraf (2015), it has become a must to study verbal and non-verbal communication, as they are relevant components of managerial cognitive skills (banker et al., 2024; choudhury et al., 2019). to do so, a multimodal approach to the development of video ceo statements (vcss) is necessary. 3. multimodal communication in business discourse multimodal discourse analysis focuses on a set of modes that help speakers convey a message to their audience. these semiotic modes are used in a communicative act to enhance the communication process (norris, 2004; o'halloran, 2011). firms aim at harnessing semiotic resources in innovative ways to produce discourses that serve their strategic goals (machin, 2013; jaworska, 2023). following valeiras-jurado and bernad-mechó (2022), we identify three different types of modes: embodied, which are modes controlled by the speaker’s verbal and non-verbal language; disembodied, which are external elements that can affect the audience; and filmic, which define those semiotic resources that go through a production and editing process. while embodied and disembodied modes are present in all oral communication processes, the use of filmic modes can greatly enhance the ability to convey a message in a video recording as well as emphasize certain engagement resources, and this is something that vcs authors know well. those modes must be seen as a holistic communicative process with a single common goal: to convey a message. this is called a multimodal ensemble, implying the combination of different modes in only one communicative act (bernad-mechó, 2021; valeiras-jurado & bernad-mechó, 2022). modal coherence plays an important role in the process, that is, the consistent use of modes without contradicting each other. particularly when it comes to embodied and disembodied modes, non-verbal communication plays a key role in business, complementing (and in many cases reinforcing) the ability to carry out commercial interactions. non-verbal communication is just as important as verbal communication, as they both work together in the communication process; the former can even replace the latter in some specific cases, often being easier to interpret (ibrahim et al., 2022). although attention is often focused on what is said, the associated non-verbal signals can be crucial to the effectiveness of communication. as blahova (2015, p. 14) points out “[m]ost of the time, this process is unconscious, so it requires a bit of effort to pay closer attention the development of a new multimodal genre for corporate communication 101 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 to non-verbal cues we send or receive”. non-verbal communication, which includes examples of embodied modes, such as gestures, facial expressions, posture, tone of voice and eye contact, among others, but also disembodied modes, such as the speaker’s outfit or the setting, reinforce the content of the spoken message (ruiz-garrido & palmer-silveira, 2023). in a business environment, this consistency between verbal and nonverbal communication can create trust and credibility (ciuffani, 2017). for example, leaders who communicate a strategic vision using a firm tone of voice and open body language strengthen trust in their message. non-verbal signals are important features when expressing attitudes and emotions that are not always explicit in verbal discourse (liu et al, 2024; wisankosol, 2018). in a business environment, this can affect the dynamics of working relationships, both between colleagues and between superiors and subordinates (larson & kleiner, 2004). a manager who communicates empathy and understanding through gestures, tone of voice or the right keywords can foster a more collaborative and motivating work environment (jia et al., 2017). this indicates the importance of analyzing how interpersonal relationships play a role in organizational life and how, in turn, non-verbal communication contributes significantly to building these relationships. eye contact, open posture and affirmative gestures, for example, often convey respect and attention (sauter, 2017) facilitating the creation of trust between employees, customers and business partners. similarly, non-verbal behavior that reflects disinterest or hostility can undermine these relationships creating friction. assuming this, non-verbal communication can help to manage (and even resolve) conflicts and misunderstandings. some business activities can greatly benefit from the use of non-verbal communication. in business negotiations, non-verbal communication can provide insight into the other party’s thoughts and intentions, and a close observation of some gestures and movements can help a businessperson to understand his/her likelihood of closing a deal, providing cues about the level of agreement or disagreement, sincerity, or interest (pugu et al., 2024; teodorescu, 2013). similarly, controlling those gestures and body movements can help any ceo to express their message appropriately. this is particularly relevant in the context of pre-recorded and edited video messages (filmic modes), which are often created to share information with prospective stakeholders. in the present study, we focus on videos that accompany the ceo statements included in annual reports presented on the internet. despite their relatively recent appearance, the use of video ceo statements (vcss) has increased in recent years, especially after the 2020 pandemic, and allows firms to share information with prospective shareholders. these documents, for research purposes, can be understood as a new genre or, at least, as a new genre variation, and have become the focus of our current research. we have observed these are used by ceos in order to give information about the financial performance of the company (unsurprisingly the most prominent aim of most annual reports), but also to talk about the firm’s strategy, to analyze the industry’s trends, to thank the employees for their work and to introduce information about sustainability. additionally, these corporate videos, when compared to traditional annual reports, help firms to reach a wider audience, enhancing company branding and gaining trust and credibility. 4. aim of the study our study has two main objectives:  identifying the main features of video ceo statements accompanying the message in online annual reports.  showing ways to exploit video ceo statements to develop students’ multimodal literacy to improve students’ business communication skills. 5. methodology the first part of the next section will develop the analysis of a selected multi-sectorial dataset of 10 vcss available on the internet. all the selected companies are multinational corporations, offering a diverse range of products and services. we are interested in examining the structure of this type of video to identify common features may identify a general structure similar to that observed in written corporate statements (palmer-silveira & ruiz-garrido, 2014). we will then examine the content of these videos to ascertain whether they can be used to create a taxonomy based on their function. then, from a multimodal standpoint, we will study how the use of this new digital genre can engage the audience (the shareholders) in a dynamic way (through the use of prosody, the type of images and shots selected, or the length of the sentences uttered). finally, we will apply our findings to show the potential of this new digital genre and its features for the english for business communication classroom. the dataset selected for this study is the following: ruiz-garrido & palmer-silveira 102 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 table 1 list and features of companies analyzed companies year sector country duration on website speaker securitas group 2020 security service sweden 2:43 no male telenor group 2018 telecommunications norway 3:22 yes male boels rental 2020 equipment rental company netherlands 2:56 yes male barco 2020 technology belgium 4:43 yes male fresenius medical care 2021 health care services germany 5:49 yes male commonwealth bank of australia 2021 finances australia 4:08 no female visa 2022 finances usa 6:53 yes male hugo boss 2020 fashion germany 2:20 yes male koppers 2020 chemical usa 5:30 yes male georg fischer (gf) 2020 manufacturing switzerland 3:48 no male in this part of the study, we will pay attention to the following features which help to define this new approach to corporate communication: a. taxonomy: differences between lecturing and interviewing styles b. structure: different sections that tend to appear in these recordings c. common topics analyzed d. visual aids e. engagement resources the data was collected from different searches conducted on the internet (google and youtube), through the combination of several words (i.e., annual reports, video, ceo letter, ceo messages, ceo statements, ceo video, chairman statement, message to shareholders), sometimes using snowball sampling. although those digital videos seem to be an excellent pedagogical material (girón-garcía & fortanet-gómez, 2023), they also seem to be “… an understudied corporate communication tool.” (costa-sánchez, 2017, p. 139). in selecting the videos, we tried to prioritize their availability online (webpages and official media platforms), to choose items of a similar length and year of publication, representing a diverse selection of economic sectors, and vcss which contained similar contents to the written statements of the companies examined. all in all, we came up with around 20 vcs from which we selected the ones shown in table 1 to start our research. those in the table are representative of the larger pool of videos gathered. all were viewed and comparisons were made between them. afterwards, we also checked the content components of the recordings using atlas.ti software (atlas.ti scientific software development gmbh, 2023), to confirm our observations. for the visual aids and engagement resources we complemented our watching with grape-mars software (ruiz-madrid et al., 2023). the development of a new multimodal genre for corporate communication 103 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 6. results and discussion 6.1. taxonomy regarding the taxonomy of these video ceo statements, we can observe that in the selected dataset there is a predominance of a lecturing style, where we often see a talking head (the ceo) looking directly at the camera. the speaker tends to stand while speaking, and they tend to use only one shot, often edited in postproduction from two different camera positions. visually speaking, these tend to be simple videos, and the skill of the final editor makes all the difference. a second option, also found in our dataset, is an interview style, based on a series of questions asked verbally or written on screen. it attempts to offer a more documentary approach to the genre. in one of the recordings the interviewer is asking a question, but more often, these videos are presented to suggest that someone behind the camera is interviewing the speaker, and the ceo is responding directly to that person, who is not seen in the final recording. in a way, this presents an active approach of the ceo when talking to the camera, although we can see exceptions to this rule. 6.2. structure as for the structure observed in these texts, it should be noted that there is not a clear-cut structure and that it is rather up to the people who create these videos to decide on the general structure of the final cut. in some cases, videos simply summarize the most interesting facts and figures from the printed ceo statements; in others, they choose to change the original order of the different pieces of information presented in the written version. in any case, our dataset has allowed us to see that there are some common general sections that are repeated from the written ceo statements that appear in these videos. to sum up, there are four (genre-based) moves that seem to be paramount regarding the general structure of these video statements. first, all the videos in our dataset focus on the current situation of the company, analyzing the firm’s performance over the past year in great detail. this is an aspect that is also a fundamental part of the structure of the written version, becoming in some ways the most important element of these texts. ceos are clearly aware that it should appear in this visual approach to their customers/investors. a second element that appears in all the recordings analyzed, and which forms an integral part of the overall structure of the video ceo statement, is a detailed analysis of the financial and economic issues that underpin the company’s position in today’s market. ceos always address the relevance of various economic fluctuations in their company’s overall performance and try to explain them in an optimistic manner for the listener. while this positive approach to financial and economic issues can also be seen in the written version of these statements, in these video recordings there is usually a third element to consider, which is a forecast of future activities and efforts, underlining the perpetually dynamic character of the business. ceos take great care to present an engaging attitude throughout their videos, but this is especially a must when presenting what the company intends to achieve. from a present-oriented perspective, these videos often highlight a bright future for the company, and this has become an integral part of the overall structure of the ceo video statements analyzed. finally, as a fourth key element, ceos comment on various social issues to convey a positive image of the company. they pay attention to the welfare of the planet, the proper use of resources for charities, or the satisfaction of their employees and their families, among many other strategies that are used to better position the company in the eyes of the public and give it an edge over its competitors. 6.3. common topics in the context of the verbal mode, we also examined the type of topics addressed by the videos that make up our dataset. considering that the video ceo statements were collected in recent years, the first common topic observed is ways for companies to overcome the problems faced since 2020 (mainly the covid19 crisis and the war in ukraine), always indicating the difficulties suffered, and the solutions adopted by the companies. another common theme is a summary of the reliability of the measures taken to overcome these external problems and their impact on the companies’ balance sheets, always confirming positive results. in this attempt to present a positive image, another common topic is an explanation of the specific improvements made by the companies, mainly in terms of turnover, the launch of new products/services or the opening up of new markets. ruiz-garrido & palmer-silveira 104 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 some other recurring topics were also noted, such as the presentation of new challenges and strategies for the future of the company, as well as some rules and recommendations to link the company’s present with future decisions to be taken. in addition, and reinforcing aspects observed in the written version of the ceo statements, these videos emphasize the concept of corporate values and fundamental operational objectives. other topics such as sustainability and the reinforcement of environmental issues, which are mandatory for companies in many countries, are also included in this video format. in addition, a relatively new concept also observed in our dataset is the introduction of information related to the process of digitization. 6.4. visual aids different visual aids (disembodied or filmic modes) are used to convey information in these vcss. there are two basic ways of doing this: using two cameras to record the same message from two positions in order to provide more editing options (figure 1), or using only one camera to record the same message twice, at different distances from the speaker, in order to combine the shots later in the editing suite (figure 2). in both cases, the editing table becomes a relevant addition to the topic, as these closer and different shots try to add rhythm to the recording and increase the engagement of the overall recording. in our view, this attempt to create a more flexible and engaging rhythm is basic to understand the firms’ attempts to work with this new video format. in some cases, the camera becomes the focus of attention, and we can see it functioning to highlight the company’s interest in revealing the truth (figure 3); the aim seems to make the audience aware of the importance of the medium used, trying to present a more active image/perspective than traditional ceo statements by clearly showing that the recording process requires a further effort, something that the editors of the video make clear through the use of these specific shots. this is probably done to add an image of interaction with the audience, possible stakeholders who can then feel closer to the message being shared by the firm’s ceo. similarly, transparency and trust-building are additional values that this kind of shots can convey. as suggested by these recordings, a multifaceted approach involving varied modes is employed to offer a novel perspective on traditional ceo statements. the positioning of the speaker, the placement of the camera to emphasize specific traits (hands, eyes, full body), the selection of angles, and other visual choices are instrumental in enhancing the information value of the final video. figure 1. two camera shots the development of a new multimodal genre for corporate communication 105 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 figure 2. two distances figure 3. camera as the object of attention we have also seen the use of a chroma key background (figure 4), the use of full-screen graphs in motion (figure 5) and the use of full-screen moving image displays (figure 6), different resources used to increase the communicative process of the videos and offer a more dynamic and attractive image of both the ceo and the company. all of these visual aids are deliberately used in the videos to improve the company's image and become a way of promoting the company to viewers. once again, the significance of post-production editing serves to augment the engaging capabilities for chief executive officers to communicate information, rendering it more enticing for prospective stakeholders to analyze the array of assets introduced to the audience through these videos. figure 4. chroma key background ruiz-garrido & palmer-silveira 106 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 figure 5. graphs in motion full screen figure 6. full-screen moving image (imagine movement clockwise) our dataset has also helped us to identify two visual resources that have been implemented in the editing of the final version of the vcs. firstly, the editors have the possibility to divide the screen into two halves, one with the speaker on the left and the other with a graph that subsequently appears on the right (figure 7). another possibility, also observed in the videos analyzed, is the use of a small image that appears in the top right-hand corner of the screen while the speaker introduces a concept (figure 8), a system that is commonly depicted in newscasting. additionally, in a third and much simpler possibility, we can see that video editors often interrupt the image of the speaker by introducing a regular slide on the screen for a few seconds (figure 9). the development of a new multimodal genre for corporate communication 107 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 figure 7. speaker and graph combination figure 8. top-right image and speaker combined figure 9. regular slide ruiz-garrido & palmer-silveira 108 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 6.5. engagement resources it is imperative to emphasize that the videos discussed above are characterized by a multimodal structure and should be analyzed in their entirety as a cohesive unit. the objective of this study is to deconstruct these multimodal units to identify the modes and resources employed to enhance the effectiveness of the message conveyed. it is crucial to acknowledge that the primary objective of this study is to develop a comprehensive, overarching analysis of the videos, rather than undertaking a meticulous, detailed examination. the fact that a video format is used to introduce the information of a typical ceo statement allows the speakers to use basic expressions to engage their potential audience (verbal mode). the use of greetings such as “hello, shareholders” or “hello, shareholders, customers, partners and employees around the world” implies an initial attempt to get closer to the audience and engage them in the message. the use of a final “thank you” in all videos is also important from an engagement perspective. in addition, the frequent use of the inclusive “we”, implying that the members of the company are a team, is another means of strengthening the connection between the speaker and the audience. some of the more commonly used strategies (embodied mode) to engage the viewer are constant eye contact with the audience (seen when greeting or thanking, above), and continuous hand movements to emphasize the different concepts explained on screen (see figures 7 and 8, for an illustration of both features). speakers often smile at the camera when talking to the audience or when talking to other people who appear in the video statement. smiling implies positivity, and in some cases, the videos show moving images of people smiling or looking at landscapes where natural beauty is used to reinforce the positive image mentioned above as well as the ideas expressed at those moments. the constant use of moving images also increases the attractiveness of the message, and video producers know this (as part of the filmic modes), as they focus on the different brands of the company in the moving images, on the different new products or technical innovations introduced by the company, or even on the active role of the company as such, through the use of some images of directors with shovels or of the company's workers. these videos are therefore used to offer a more attractive and engaging image of the company, an active and committed institution which one should reward with trust and investments. 7. concluding remarks the study of these new video genres is emerging in the world of corporate communication, with a clear purpose: to reach a wide range of possible stakeholders. companies are trying to get closer to their audience, which is often made up of people interested in their products/services and also willing to invest in economically sound companies. it is the ceo of the company who tries to project this positive image through these videos, with the aim of becoming more familiar to the (current and prospective) stakeholders, knowing that companies today need to gain trust and credibility in society. as explained, this is a crucial way to construct the corporate image of multinationals. to do this, ceos appear to choose between the two techniques mentioned above: they can use a lecturing style, giving the audience hints about the current (and future) situation of the company, or they can use an interviewing style, answering some questions that the audience might ask the speaker. in both cases, the objective is to present a positive image of the company through a well-designed piece of information, thus achieving the communicative purpose previously established by the ceo. additionally, our study has also found that the content is quite similar to the written version of the ceo statement. the topics are those that have been expected in ceo statements in annual reports in the past, although they are often presented in a different order, giving greater relevance to social issues. from a multimodal point of view, we have seen that there is a multimodal ensemble, as verbal features are combined with non-verbal ones, including embodied, disembodied, and filmic modes. visual aids, as an example of filmic modes in our dataset, are paramount as part of the promotional genre that the video ceo statement has become, as well as building trust by showing evidence of what is said. additionally, their use, accompanied by the embodied modes speakers employ or the disembodied ones, also increases engagement, an aspect that companies are keen to work on. the humanized discourse fulfilled by the ceo’s emotions and attitudes is an asset of multimodal discourse that the written statement can hardly achieve. thus, every single verbal and non-verbal feature in combination has become essential to engage the audience and gain its trust. the development of a new multimodal genre for corporate communication 109 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 8. pedagogical implications the analysis of how ceos deliver this type of discourse can be used in the business communication classroom to enhance students' ability to analyze corporate communication from a different perspective and delve into the specific features of what can be defined as leadership communication. by analyzing the diverse features used by ceos in their video-recorded messages, students can enhance their public speaking skills, focusing on those engagement characteristics that can better involve their audience. indeed, the objective of these messages is to reinforce the corporate identity of the firm and, subsequently, enhance the image of corporate identity among potential stakeholders, who constitute the target audience of these messages. we should bear in mind that companies tend to prioritize creating a positive corporate image, and the use of these new resources can help our students to better focus on the real needs of these firms, thus increasing their chances of working with reputable international corporations one day. multimodal literacy, understood as the ability to understand, orchestrate and use multiple modes effectively to construct meaningful works (girón-garcía & bernad-mechó, 2024), is a key skill that students must master nowadays. it is becoming increasingly challenging to identify courses that are exclusively focused on a single genre. lecturers often use digitized materials and platforms for various reasons, including practicality, proximity, and motivation (nash et al., 2024). students must familiarize themselves with multimodal discourse, as they are already aware that texts and genres are no longer limited to a single mode (huang & xia, 2024). learning about each mode (embodied, disembodied and filmic) and how they should create a modal orchestration and use it coherently is a current need. it is not only that they need to be aware of the use and purposes of each, but they also should learn how to implement them in their future jobs. to keep up with the evolving trends in business communication, it is important to incorporate digital genres into the business communication curriculum (hartle et al., 2023; lim and tan, 2018; nervino, 2023). these materials are authentic, readily available on platforms such as youtube, linkedin, and instagram, and free of charge. they facilitate the students’ active participation in the learning process (fortanet-gómez & edomarzá, 2022; girón-garcía & fortanet-gómez, 2023). furthermore, these videos have been created with the objective of engaging the audience, prospective stakeholders. consequently, different engagement strategies are often employed, regardless of the mode, always bearing in mind that we are dealing with digitized genres (bernad-mechó & valeiras-jurado, 2023; bondi et al., 2015; xia & hafner, 2021). 9. further research this initial experience has allowed us to understand that this is an area that can benefit from further research. we believe it is necessary to expand the dataset, including a thorough analysis between different sectors, speakers of different nationalities, or even whether there are differences in the gender of the presenters. our aim will be to look for more similarities (or dissimilarities) among ceos. based on this preliminary study, we need to do more quantitative studies on the quantifiable aspects and put more emphasis on the effect of the combination of the different modes involved in the presentations. it is this orchestration of modes that enhances companies' ability to engage and persuade stakeholders to pay closer attention and therefore merits a more thorough analysis. we also want to study how companies create and release these videos over time, trying to observe how they can improve the way they present information about their companies in a simple and engaging way. this study, over time, may give us clues about how ceos really present their message and what information they consider most interesting for potential stakeholders. finally, we would also like to select and analyze specific sections of these recordings from a multimodal perspective, looking at different features that may be of great interest to the audience (i.e. how good/bad news is delivered, how the use of future targets may interfere with present information, or how social issues are presented to the general audience). further studies are needed to share and learn from teaching experiences about how multimodal literacy and multimodality can be integrated into business communication classes. learners, because of their generation, may already know a great deal about digitized genres and how they work, from a user’s perspective. what teachers must do is help them learn about the best ways of orchestrating different modes and making them coherent to best serve the purposes they have in mind. ruiz-garrido & palmer-silveira 110 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 98–114 acknowledgements this study has been supported by two projects: project pid2021-127827nb-i00 funded by mcin/aei/10.13039/501100011033 and erdf a way of making europe, and project pla de 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(2021). engaging the online audience in the digital era: a multimodal analysis of engagement strategies in ted talk videos. ibérica, 42, 33–58. https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.42.33 yuthas, kristi, rogers, rodney, & dillard, jesse f. (2002). communicative action and corporate annual reports. journal of business ethics, 41(1–2), 141–157. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1021314626311 miguel f. ruiz-garrido, universitat jaume i (spain) mruiz@uji.es en miguel f. ruiz-garrido (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9647-1039) is a member of the research group grape and an associate professor at universitat jaume i (castelló, spain). his main research fields are english for professional and academic purposes (e.g., english for business communication, multimodal discourse analysis). he has published in international journals (business and professional communication quarterly, ibérica, esp today, british journal of educational technology, system) and for international publishers (rodopi, routledge, john benjamins). es miguel f. ruiz-garrido (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9647-1039), miembro del grupo de investigación grape, es profesor titular en la universitat jaume i (castelló, españa). sus principales campos de investigación son el inglés con fines profesionales y académicos (por ejemplo, inglés para la comunicación empresarial, análisis del discurso multimodal). ha publicado en ámbito internacionales tanto en revistas (business and professional communication quarterly, ibérica, esp today, british journal of educational technology, system) como editoriales (rodopi, routledge, john benjamins). it miguel f. ruiz-garrido (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9647-1039), membro del gruppo di ricerca grape, è professore associato presso la universitat jaume i (castelló, spagna). i suoi principali ambiti di ricerca sono l’inglese per scopi professionali e accademici (ad esempio, l’inglese per la comunicazione aziendale, l’analisi del discorso multimodale). ha pubblicato in riviste internazionali (business and professional communication quarterly, ibérica, esp today, british journal of educational technology, system) e presso case editrici accademiche (rodopi, routledge, john benjamins). juan carlos palmer-silveira, universitat jaume i (spain) palmerj@uji.es en juan c. palmer silveira (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4032-7353) is a member of the grape research group and works as an associate professor at universitat jaume i (castelló, spain). his main fields of research are writing techniques in english, as well as english for professional and academic purposes. he has published in international journals (comunicar, relc, ibérica, business and professional communication quarterly, the reading matrix, british journal of educational technology) and for international publishers (peter lang, rodopi, farleigh dickinson, routledge, john benjamins, narcea). es juan c. palmer silveira (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4032-7353), miembro del grupo de investigación grape, trabaja como profesor titular en la universitat jaume i (castelló, españa). sus principales campos de investigación son las técnicas de escritura en inglés, así como el inglés con fines profesionales y académicos. ha publicado en contextos inetrnacionales en revistas (comunicar, relc, ibérica, business and professional communication quarterly, the reading matrix, british journal of educational technology) y editoriales (peter lang, rodopi, farleigh dickinson, routledge, john benjamins, narcea). it juan c. palmer silveira (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4032-7353), membro del gruppo di ricerca grape, è professore associato presso la universitat jaume i (castelló, spagna). i suoi principali ambiti di ricerca riguardano le tecniche di scrittura in inglese, nonché l’inglese per scopi professionali e accademici. ha pubblicato in riviste internazionali (comunicar, relc, ibérica, business and professional communication quarterly, the reading matrix, british journal of educational technology) e presso case editrici accademiche (peter lang, rodopi, farleigh dickinson, routledge, john benjamins, narcea). euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages volume 10, issue 2, december 2023, 44-61 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.10.2.2756 www.e-journall.org © akinseye 2023. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. exploring interactive metadiscourse as a practical approach to enhancing academic writing skills of newly admitted undergraduate students in nigeria tolulope akinseye university of ibadan received 20 april 2023; accepted after revisions 17 october 2023 abstract en academic writing is a crucial aspect of undergraduate education, particularly for students in english as second language (esl) contexts. this study investigates the use of interactive resources as discursive strategies in enhancing the academic writing skills of esl undergraduates in nigeria. a sample of 100 expository essays was used. the research employs both qualitative and quantitative designs. the qualitative component analyses the types and usages of discursive strategies employed in the selected expository writing, while the quantitative component involves the occurrence of these strategies. the results reveal transitional markers, frame markers, and code glosses were the most frequently used interactive markers in academic writing, while evidential and endophoric markers were used less frequently. these findings underscore the pedagogical significance of incorporating interactive resources into the teaching of academic writing skills for esl undergraduate students. key words: academic writing skills, interactive metadiscourse, esl undergraduates in nigeria, discursive strategies es la escritura académica es un aspecto crucial en la educación universitaria, especialmente para estudiantes de inglés como segunda lengua (esl). este estudio investiga el uso de recursos interactivos como estrategias discursivas para mejorar las habilidades de escritura académica de los estudiantes universitarios de esl en nigeria. se utilizó una muestra de 100 ensayos expositivos. en la investigación se ha utilizado un diseño cualitativo y cuantitativo. el análisis cualitativo observa los tipos y usos de estrategias discursivas empleadas en los escritos expositivos seleccionados, mientras que el cuantitativo atiende a la ocurrencia de estas estrategias. los resultados revelan que los marcadores de transición, los marcadores de estructura y las glosas de código fueron los marcadores interactivos más utilizados en la escritura académica, mientras que los marcadores evidenciales y endofóricos se usaron con menos frecuencia. estos hallazgos subrayan la importancia pedagógica de incorporar recursos interactivos en la enseñanza de habilidades de escritura académica para estudiantes universitarios de esl. palabras clave: habilidades de escritura académica, metadiscurso interactivo, estudiantes universitarios de esl en nigeria, estrategias discursivas it la scrittura accademica è un aspetto cruciale dell’istruzione universitaria, in particolare, per gli studenti di inglese come seconda lingua (esl). questo studio indaga l’utilizzo delle risorse interattive come strategie discorsive per lo sviluppo delle competenze di scrittura accademica degli studenti universitari in nigeria. è stato usato un campione di 100 testi espositivi. la ricerca utilizza un approccio sia qualitativo che quantitativo. l’analisi qualitativa indaga i tipi e gli usi delle strategie linguistiche impiegate nei testi espositivi selezionati, mentre quella quantitativa studia l’occorrenza di queste strategie. i risultati rivelano che i connettivi di transizione, di struttura ed esplicativi sono i marcatori interattivi usati con più frequenza nella scrittura accademica rispetto a quelli di evidenziazione ed endoforici. questi risultati sottolineano la valenza pedagogica che assume l’integrazione di risorse interattive nell’insegnamento delle competenze di scrittura accademica per gli studenti universitari di inglese come lingua seconda. parole chiave: competenze di scrittura accademica, metadiscorso interattivo, studenti universitari di inglese lingua seconda, strategie discorsive  tolulope akinseye, university of ibadan tolulopeakinseye01@gmail.com about:blank exploring interactive metadiscourse as a practical approach to enhancing academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 45 1. introduction the increasing emphasis placed on improving english language proficiency and communication skills, especially in non-native english-speaking countries, has developed in response to the challenges brought about by the globalization and internationalization of higher education on the one hand, and the growing importance attributed to english as the predominant medium of instruction worldwide on the other. english for academic purposes (eap) has become an increasingly important field of study for students, who are non-native english speakers, and it is particularly crucial for those who want to succeed in academic writing and communication, as english is the dominant language of higher education and research worldwide. however, learning to write effectively in english is often challenging, especially in a second language context, where students are not familiar with the discourse and rhetorical conventions of academic writing. recently, there have been increasing concerns raised by major employers in nigeria about the inadequate linguistic and communicative skills of many nigerian university graduates. therefore, it has become imperative to pay closer attention to the course content and teaching methodology of the use of english course to address these challenges and improve the language and communication skills of nigerian university students. given the importance of actively engaging students in the process of selecting appropriate vocabulary, constructing meaningful sentences, and applying academic writing conventions to effectively convey their ideas and thoughts with precision and clarity, it is necessary for stakeholders to devise effective strategies that can improve the english writing skills of these students. one such strategy is the use of discursive markers, which are words and phrases that help to structure discourse. these markers are particularly useful in academic writing, where the organization and coherence of ideas are essential. research has shown that the use of discursive markers can have a significant impact on the quality of academic writing produced by non-native english speakers. according to rustipa (2014), the practice of efl writing can be beneficial for students as it allows them to delve into organizing their ideas, thinking critically, analyzing information, and developing their ability to critique. in particular, the use of interactive markers has been found to be effective in enhancing the coherence and organization of ideas in writing. interactive resources, in the context of this paper, refer to words, phrases, or elements used as markers to facilitate effective communication and coherence within a written text. these resources enable readers to follow the flow of ideas and understand the relationships between different parts of the text. while these markers are often included in english language teaching materials, their usage in the context of academic writing is not always emphasized. as such, many students may not be aware of their importance, and this is where the role of the instructor is crucial. by providing explicit instruction on the use of discursive markers and incorporating them into writing assignments, instructors can help students develop the skills needed to produce effective academic writing. in this article, we will explore the use of interactive resources as discursive strategies to enhance the english writing skills of newly admitted undergraduate students. we will focus specifically on the use of discursive markers in expository essays, which are often assigned to students in the first year of undergraduate studies. we will examine the impact of these markers on the organization, coherence, and overall quality of the essays produced by the students. additionally, the inference from the findings can be integrated into english language teaching materials and curricula to better prepare students for academic writing in a second language context. 2. english for academic purposes english for academic purposes (eap) is a specialized branch of english language instruction that has developed from the larger field of english for specific purposes (esp). eap is defined by its focus on teaching the english language, specifically to facilitate learners’ study or research through the medium of english (flowerdew & peacock, 2001, p. 8; hyland & hamp-lyons, 2002, p. 1). this approach to language learning is defined by its emphasis on equipping learners with the linguistic and academic skills necessary for success in academic settings. one key feature of eap is its emphasis on teaching english in a way that is closely aligned with the demands of academic research. this means that eap courses often focus on developing the specific skills and strategies that students may need to succeed in academic settings, such as reading academic texts, writing research papers, and participating in academic discussions. in addition, eap often incorporates elements of academic content into language instruction, helping students build their academic vocabulary and knowledge in specific subject areas. overall, eap is a specialized approach to english language instruction that is designed akinseye e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 46 to meet the unique needs of learners in academic settings. by equipping students with the linguistic and academic skills necessary for success in their studies, eap plays an important role in promoting academic success and intercultural understanding. the emergence of eap had a distinct genesis, as recounted by bob jordan in the initial edition of jeap. the development of the field in britain had a unique starting point: in the 1960s, language support that was provided to international students tended to be on an ad hoc, part-time basis. as problems occurred or developed during studies, some kind of part-time help may have become available, often linked to elt teacher-training courses in the departments of education. this sometimes led to the development of short courses, e.g. four weeks at the beginning of the students’ studies. birmingham university appears to have been the first to be seriously concerned about the needs of overseas students. vera adamson, who had joined the university in 1958, was appointed in 1962 to advise overseas students and to start induction courses. this involved analyzing students’ problems, developing some teaching materials as well as teaching part-time, and trying to devise an analytical test.(jordan, 2002, p.70) moreover, an integral aspect of eap is the need for conducting a thorough needs analysis of diverse learners to design the syllabus, develop materials, select texts, set learning goals and tasks, and evaluate the success of courses and programs. in fact, needs assessment forms the very foundation of the entire eap process, as underscored by carkin's (2005) overview of eap. over the years, numerous notable scholars have conducted critical analyses in the field of eap. examples of such scholars include bridgeman and carlson (1983), johns (1981), hutchinson and waters (1987), and munby (1978). needs analysis is now considered an essential step in developing english language provision in any new situation, as recognized by zughoul and hussein (1985). however, coleman (1988) has problematized some of the existing needs models as discounting learners as individuals, and assuming that identifying needs necessarily leads to satisfying them, advocating for a more comprehensive and nuanced approach. 2.1. nigerian university system and english for academic purposes (eap) kimbrough (2013) observes that the university is a place where intellectual collisions occur. kimbrough's (2013) observation posits that the university functions as a nexus wherein intellectual collisions are brought to fruition. in an attempt to establish a university where such collisions can occur, dr. nnamdi azikiwe, nigeria’s first president, pioneered the establishment of the university of nigeria, nsukka, with a strong emphasis on balanced learning and creating informed individuals exposed to both scientific and humanities knowledge. the university introduced the general studies programme (gsp) to provide essential knowledge in science and humanities while also emphasizing the development of english language skills. by the provision of the decree and the recommendation of the national universities commission (nuc), other nigerian universities established units of general studies (university of maiduguri, 2015). the curriculum for the gsp was developed by a combined team of british and american experts, showcasing the university’s commitment to enhancing students’ english language competence as a vital tool for academic success and effective communication in society. typically, first-year university students, regardless of their english proficiency level, frequently arrive at their institutions with inadequate skills in the english language. therefore, it is of paramount importance to bolster and enrich the language competencies of first-year university students during the early stages of their academic voyage. this proactive approach enables students to achieve elevated levels of academic accomplishment and equips them more effectively to confront future professional obstacles and actively participate in societal contexts. while certain factors, such as diverse educational backgrounds, regional language influences, and limited exposure to english as a medium of instruction, may influence students’ language abilities upon university entry, the general studies programme endeavors to tackle this challenge. by employing supplementary strategies and support systems, the program strives to enhance english language proficiency among incoming students. in response to the growing need for effective communication in english across academic and professional settings, course designers in esp have been consistently seeking ways to enhance university students’ proficiency in fundamental language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. these skills are typically encompassed within the domain of eap and are an integral component of the curriculum of the use of english and communication skills in nigerian universities. by prioritizing the development of these exploring interactive metadiscourse as a practical approach to enhancing academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 47 core competencies, esp course designers aim to equip students with the necessary language skills to succeed in academic and professional contexts where english is used as the medium of communication. as stated by adegbite (2012, p.2), the introduction of the use of english as a course in nigerian tertiary institutions is aimed not only at improving the students’ communicative competence, but also at enabling them to learn their courses effectively and perform well in both academic and social settings. thus, when developing a use of english course for nigerian university students, it is ideal for the course objectives, content, and materials to not only address the communication needs of the university setting, but also meet the expectations of future employers or clients in case students opt for self-employment. additionally, the use of english instructors must identify the language skills that students require to achieve overall competence in the target language. therefore, the use of english curriculum should prioritize the receptive skills of listening and reading and the productive skills of speaking and writing, in addition to teaching grammar. wei and flaitz (2005) argue that eap plays a crucial role in helping english as a second language (esl) students develop the necessary language skills to succeed in their academic and professional pursuits. mo (2005) further asserts that providing pre-university students, such as first-year nigerian university students, with ample opportunities to develop their eap skills can equip them with a solid foundation in academic english, thereby enhancing their ability to learn more effectively at an advanced level. furthermore, in order to enhance the language proficiency of nigerian university students in english, which is the official language and medium of instruction in the country, the nigerian national universities commission (nuc) introduced the use of english courses in the curriculum of nigerian universities. the institution of general studies in nigerian universities originated with the university law 1961, (e.n.l. no 21, of 1961, status 6) as “the college of general studies,” included in the thirty-six colleges listed for establishment. afterwards, the national universities commission (nuc) approved minimum academic requirements for general studies in all nigerian universities in 1989. the incorporation of diverse language skills within the curriculum of an eap course has the potential to greatly enhance the literary abilities of students, thereby augmenting their proficiency in the numerous skills required to excel in their academic pursuits. within the nigerian context, new university students undergo a comprehensive english language course during their first year of study, which is meticulously crafted to facilitate the acquisition of precise and effective language usage. the course primarily focuses on bolstering the grammar and writing skills of students. as such, this course sets a strong foundation for the students to excel in their academic pursuits, as evidenced by a specific assignment given in the form of writing. this particular essay writing assignment was chosen as it provided an ideal opportunity for the students to apply the fundamental principles of grammar and writing that they had acquired during the initial three weeks of their academic program. the primary aim of this investigation is to evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction in english grammar and usage in this course by analyzing students’ proficiency in academic writing. through this analysis, the study intends to provide insights into the most effective methods of teaching basic grammar and writing skills to students in higher education. the findings of this research will thus inform pedagogical approaches to teaching english for academic purposes and contribute to the development of more effective teaching practices in this field. 2.2. cohesion and coherence in academic writing according to mawardi, 2011, p. 1), writing is one of the core language skills, alongside speaking, listening, and reading. it is considered fundamental for students to learn because it is a productive skill that demonstrates their proficiency in using the language and highlights talented students in this area. furthermore, writing provides a platform for students to express their ideas and thoughts on paper (harsyaf & izmi, 2009, p. 4). to fulfil this objective, it is essential to ensure that writing exhibits unity, coherence, and appropriate development. when it comes to writing, it is considered a form of discourse that should be well-constructed and possess cohesion and coherence to ensure unity. as noted by halliday and hasan (1989, p.2), a text or paragraph that employs cohesion and coherence is indicative of good writing. cohesion refers to the linguistic devices and techniques used to connect various parts of a text, such as conjunctions, pronouns, and repetition. coherence refers to the overall clarity and logical flow of a text, which is achieved through the proper arrangement and organization of ideas and information. therefore, to produce a well-written text, it is crucial to use appropriate cohesive devices and ensure that the text exhibits coherence in terms of its organization, structure, and ideas. by doing so, the text will have a unified and cohesive character, which will enhance its clarity and effectiveness in conveying its intended message to the readers. in other words, cohesion and akinseye e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 48 coherence refer to the logical and linguistic connections between different parts of a sentence, paragraph, or text, which ultimately contribute to a unified whole. these elements are crucial in conveying the intended message of the author accurately. when a text exhibits coherence, the writer has established a clear connection between sentences, paragraphs, and overall structure, making it easy for the reader to follow and understand. this connection not only benefits the writer, but also the reader. in cohesion, the flow and connection of a written text arise from the linguistic links between its surface elements. as a result, the reader can better comprehend the content and meaning of the text. in recent years, the increasing number of students in english-speaking countries has prompted scholars in cohesion studies to shift their focus to cohesion usage in second learner (l2) students' writing. a key concern in this area is the relationship between cohesion and writing quality among l2 students. however, the findings have been somewhat inconsistent (liu & braine, 2005). while some researchers have found no direct correlation between cohesion and writing quality (see castro, 2004), others have reached the opposite conclusion. for instance, chiang (2003, p. 471) contends, through his analysis of cohesive conditions and perception of writing quality in l2 learners’ writing, that cohesion is “the best predictor of writing quality.” yang and sun (2012) came to a similar conclusion and demonstrated that the proper use of cohesive ties was significantly correlated with writing quality. although it remains unclear whether there is a definite correlation between cohesion and writing quality, it is generally accepted that cohesion is an important aspect of l2 learners’ writing quality. therefore, in the realm of academic writing, writers must engage in critical thinking and logically present their ideas to persuade their readers. they are expected to sequence their thoughts effectively so that their arguments are coherent and understandable to the reader, as emphasized by scholars such as jones (2011) and hyland (2005). furthermore, writers must utilize metadiscourse, which comprises various linguistic devices, to effectively communicate their propositions and engage their audience. 3. theoretical framework the term “metadiscourse” was first introduced by zelling harris in 1959 to explore language in practical use and how writers can influence the reader’s comprehension of a text (hyland, 2005). in essence, metadiscourse refers to the linguistic cues employed to structure a discourse or convey the writer’s attitude towards its subject matter or audience (hyland, 2005). effective utilization of these markers in academic essays can substantially enhance their overall quality. various models have been proposed in attempts to conceptualize metadiscourse, including those by schiffrin (1980), williams (1981), sinclair (1991), kopple (1985), and crismore et al. (1993). nonetheless, hyland (2005) presented the most extensive framework for investigating metadiscourse, which is adopted in this study. to resolve the longstanding debate surrounding metadiscourse, hyland (2004) established three crucial principles for reevaluating its theoretical foundation. the first principle asserts that metadiscourse, distinct from the propositional aspects of discourse, is an essential component of textual meaning that considers the reader’s needs, existing knowledge, understandings, relative status, and intertextual experiences about the context. the second principle states that these markers embody the interaction between the writer and the reader in various ways. the third principle clarifies that metadiscourse only pertains to relations that are internal to the discourse, rather than external or experiential. hyland (2005) categorizes metadiscourse markers into two groups: interactive and interactional markers. interactive markers relate to discourse organization and represent the writer’s evaluation of which section or idea requires more explanation to limit and direct potential misunderstandings of the text. interactional markers pertain to the strategies used to regulate the writer’s personality in the text, as well as the level of reader involvement (hyland, 2005). exploring interactive metadiscourse as a practical approach to enhancing academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 49 table 1 a model of metadiscourse in academic texts (hyland, 2005) category function examples interactive resources help to guide reader through the text transition markers express semantic relation between main clauses in addition/but/thus/and frame markers refers to discourse acts, sequences, or text stages finally/to conclude/my purpose is endophoric markers refer to information in other parts of the text note above/see figure/in section 2 evidential markers refer to source of information from other texts according to x/(y, 1990)/z states code glosses help readers grasp meanings of ideational material namely/e.g./such as/in other words interactional resources involve the readers in the argument hedges without writer’s full commitment to proposition might/perhaps/possible/about boosters emphasize force or writer’s certainty in proposition in fact/definitely/it is clear that attitude markers express writer’s attitude to proposition unfortunately/i agree/ surprisingly engagement markers explicitly refer to or build relationship with reader consider/note that/you can see that self-mentions explicit reference to author(s) i/we/my/our however, the present study is focused on the examination of interactive markers, given their critical role in various types of writing, particularly for esl learners. interactive markers are considered fundamental since they facilitate the presentation of ideas and information coherently and convincingly to the readers (hyland, 2005). furthermore, interactive markers provide writers with a mechanism to regulate the flow of knowledge and express their intended interpretations with precision (hyland, 2005). the taxonomy of interactive markers encompasses five categories, namely, endophoric markers, evidential markers, code glosses, transition markers, and frame markers. 3.1. metadiscourse and interactive markers in academic writing in recent years, the focus on academic writing has shifted towards recognizing the importance of rhetorical and interactive features within written texts, and in particular in highlighting the social relationship between writers and their readers (franzosi& vicari, 2018; hyland & jiang, 2018; pérez-llantada, 2010; qin &uccelli, 2019). this perspective emphasizes the role of readers in comprehending the author’s intentions and their stance towards the subject matter. within this context, one crucial aspect that has gained attention is the use of metadiscourse markers to enhance the organization and effectiveness of academic writing. several experimental studies have been conducted to explore the impact of explicit instruction on metadiscourse markers and their influence on learners’ writing performance in both first and second-language contexts. feng and hu(2014) conducted a comparative investigation of interactive metadiscourse across the fields of applied linguistics, education, and psychology. utilizing hyland’s metadiscourse framework, the study examined the presence and usage of five types of interactive metadiscourse, along with their subtypes, in a corpus comprising 120 research articles. the analyses yielded noteworthy disparities in the frequency of reformulators, comparative and inferential transitions, sequencers, and non-linear references across different research paradigms. additionally, marked variations were identified in the utilization of exemplifiers, comparative transitions, linear references, and integral citations among the disciplines investigated. these observed differences can be explained in terms of the distinct epistemological perspectives underlying qualitative and quantitative research paradigms, as well as the diverse knowledge-sharing structures prevailing in the respective disciplines under investigation. furthermore, mardani (2017) investigated the effect of metadiscourse explicit instruction on listening comprehension among a sample of 50 undergraduate students. the participants were divided into two groups: the experimental group, which received instruction on metadiscourse markers alongside a process-based approach, and the control group, which only received instruction through the process-based approach. the results indicated that explicit instruction on metadiscourse significantly improved students' listening comprehension. this study emphasizes the importance of metadiscourse markers as a crucial aspect of language learning and suggests the need for further attention from researchers in this area. akinseye e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 50 similarly, vahid, dastjerdi, and shirzad (2010) and taghizadeh and tajabadi (2013) conducted experimental studies to evaluate the impact of metadiscourse marker instruction on the writing performance of learners. while their research solely centered on instructing metadiscourse markers without teaching explicit writing skills, both studies demonstrated that providing metadiscourse instruction positively influenced learners’ writing proficiency. in an esl context such as nigeria, there remains a relatively limited exploration of interactive resources in academic writing. this gap in research presents an opportunity for further investigation into the use and effectiveness of metadiscourse markers in improving writing skills among nigerian university students and other esl learners. as the literature on interactive resources in academic writing expands, it becomes increasingly apparent that interactive features in a text play a pivotal role in organizing the content to facilitate readers in discerning the writer’s intentions. these features contribute to the surface cohesion of the text while also influencing the comprehension of the propositional material. the function of interactive features encompasses linking various segments of the text, providing elaborations, signaling different stages of the text, and referring to information located elsewhere in the same text. by performing these functions, interactive features not only enhance the coherence of the text but also engage in an internal dialogue with readers, reflecting the writer’s assessment of how to effectively present information in a manner that is both understandable and persuasive to specific readers. 3.2. previous studies on metadiscourse numerous studies conducted in various parts of the world have explored the usage of metadiscourse in the academic writing of university students. for example, tan and eng (2014) investigated the use of metadiscourse among malaysian undergraduates and found that both groups of writers preferred the use of interactional metadiscourse over interactive metadiscourse. also, anwardeen, luyee, gabriel, and kalajahi (2013) examined the usage of metadiscourse in the argumentative writing of malaysian college students and observed that students tend to use textual metadiscourse instead of interpersonal metadiscourse, committing several errors in their usage. in the efl context, gholami, nejad, and pour (2014) conducted a study on the use of metadiscourse devices in the argumentative essays of efl undergraduates and found that the students made various errors, with overuse of metadiscourse devices being the most common. in a recent study, shafique, shahbaz, and hafeez (2019) compared research articles written by native english and pakistani writers and found that pakistani writers tend to use more interactive markers, while interactional markers are frequent in native english academic writers. in nigeria, there have been limited studies that have explored the use of metadiscourse among university students. however, haruna et al. (2018) conducted a study examining the metadiscoursal choice and its influence on the success of final year undergraduates’ academic writing, where they found that many of the students did not use or wrongly used the devices. additionally, akinseye (2021) examined the metadiscursive markers in l2 phd theses abstracts of five disciplines in nigerian university and showed the predominance of interactive metadiscourse markers across the disciplines. these studies demonstrate the importance of investigating the use of metadiscourse in undergraduate writing and highlight the need for further research in this area. 4. methodology this study employs a mixed-methods approach, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative designs. the qualitative component examines the types and usages of discursive strategies employed in expository writing. on the other hand, the quantitative component shows the frequency of occurrence of these strategies. the study uses a sample of 100 expository essays on the topic of “the realities of virtual learning in the university of ibadan: the pros and cons.” the expository essay genre was specifically chosen, as it required the students to present a clear and coherent explanation or analysis of a topic, utilizing a structured and organized approach to support their arguments. the sample are drawn from the population of newly admitted students who had received basic english grammar and writing skills instruction during their first three weeks of the academic program. they are also students who represent a range of academic disciplines and levels of proficiency in english language. the participants were administered a writing task to evaluate their writing proficiency. specifically, they were instructed to compose an essay of approximately 350 words in response to a provided writing prompt. it is worth noting that the anonymity of the students was ensured throughout the process. exploring interactive metadiscourse as a practical approach to enhancing academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 51 5. data analysis 5.1. transitional markers as a discursive strategy in the selected expository essay transitional markers, also known as logical connectors, are used to establish semantic relationships between main clauses or sentences in a discourse. these markers are considered as metadiscourse when they serve an internal function within the discourse rather than an external one, helping the reader to interpret the connections between ideas presented. common examples of transitional markers include “in addition,”“thus,”“and,”“moreover,“ furthermore,”“therefore,” and “on the other hand.” by using these markers, the writer can guide the reader through the logical progression of their argument, making it easier to follow and understand. instances of this are as follows: table 2 distribution of transitional markers in the expository essays transitional markers frequency percentage in addition/additionally 19 10.38 furthermore 20 10.92 unfortunately 4 2.19 moreover 9 4.91 however 31 16.94 in conclusion 30 16.4 in summary 1 0.55 also 18 9.84 but 6 3.3 surprisingly 1 0.55 subsequently 1 0.55 amazingly 1 0.55 thus 3 1.64 as a result 4 2.19 therefore 5 2.73 despite that/in spite of 5 2.7 conclusively 2 1.09 similarly 3 1.64 on the other hand 5 2.73 nevertheless/nonetheless 5 2.73 in contrast/in contrary 2 1.09 hence 2 1.09 similarly 3 1.64 now 1 0.55 although 1 0.55 consequently 1 0.55 total 183 100 let us consider some examples from the texts: example 1 1) however, the use of online classes has its advantages and its disadvantages…. (text 1) 2) …in conclusion, online classes have come to stay in nigeria particularly at the premier university of ibadan, although, it has some disadvantages but yet its advantages are very much akinseye e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 52 important and as such, it is easier, convenient, teaches students how to use internet better, and it is modern in nature…. (text 1) example 2 1) …however, it is quite understandable that the university did not want to put the lives of students at stake…. (text 8) 2) …in conclusion, new things require a new system, so adequate provisions should be made by the university management to strike a balance between the physical and virtual learning and cover up the lapses pertaining to the smooth running of the virtual learning process…. (text 8) generally, the marker, “however” is one of the most commonly deployed transitional markers in most academic writing, and specifically the most deployed in the analyzed essays as shown in the frequency table above. in examples 1(1) and 2(1) above, the transitional marker is used to make a shift in focus from the preceding information, and to signal a contrast respectively. it indicates that the following statement or argument may be different or contrary to what has been said before. it helps to connect ideas and create coherence in the text by showing the relationship between the preceding and subsequent information. in the given text in 1(1), “however” marks a shift in focus from the advantages of virtual learning to a consideration of the university’s priority for students’ safety. this shift in focus helps to maintain coherence in the discourse by acknowledging the possible concerns or limitations that may affect the implementation of virtual learning. on the other hand, the second use of “however” in 2(1) introduces a contrast between the benefits of virtual learning and the challenges faced by students in an esl context. also, the usage highlights the limitations or disadvantages of virtual learning, specifically in the context of students who may have difficulty accessing or affording the necessary tools for online classes. by introducing this contrast, the writer acknowledges the reality of the situation and opens up the possibility for further discussion or analysis of these challenges. thus, when readers encounter the word “however,” they expect that the writer is going to provide a counterargument or a limitation to what they have previously said. it alerts the readers that the writer is acknowledging a different perspective or presenting an alternative interpretation of the information presented. in this way, the word “however” helps to improve the coherence and logical flow of the text and makes the writer’s argument more nuanced and sophisticated. furthermore, the next commonly used transitional marker in the analyzed text is “in conclusion.” in academic writing, it is used as a discourse marker to signify to the reader that the writer is summarizing the main points or reiterating the thesis statement in the final paragraph of the text. this phrase aids the writer in organizing the text and guiding the reader through the arguments, while providing closure and a sense of finality to the text. by utilizing this marker, the writers emphasize the significance of their key points and create a lasting impression on the reader. by using "in conclusion,” in example 1(1) above, the writer signals that he/she is wrapping up the discussion and restates the thesis that online classes have come to stay in nigeria despite their disadvantages. the conclusion also suggests that further improvements could be made to the virtual learning system to address the challenges faced by students and lecturers, indicating a call for action to improve the system. also, in example 2(2) above, “in conclusion” is used as a discourse strategy to summarize the key points and provide a closure to the essay. the use of “in conclusion” allows the writer to bring together the main ideas on a clear note, emphasizing the importance of finding a balance between the physical and virtual learning systems in tertiary institutions in nigeria. however, if it is overused or misused, it can become repetitive and may weaken the impact of the argument. it is important to use it appropriately and sparingly to avoid diminishing its effectiveness. additionally, writers should aim to use other discourse markers that signal the end of the essay or argument, such as “to sum up” or “in summary,” to add variety to their writing and keep the readers engaged. as an esl teacher, it may be helpful to introduce other alternatives and encourage students to experiment with different ways to signal the end of their writing. it is also important to note that some analyzed essays misuse the word “conclusively” instead of “in conclusion.” let us consider the example below: example 3 exploring interactive metadiscourse as a practical approach to enhancing academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 53 1) …conclusively, it would seem best to adopt an open-minded view of technology implementation that would enhance the learning environment as some students still find it difficult to adapt to the new system…. (text 3) in the sample provided above, the word “conclusively” is used inappropriately because it is not a suitable transitional phrase to conclude the essay, as it is not preceded by any arguments or evidence that would be logically concluded. precisely, “conclusively” refers to a way that settles an issue or decision; decisively, and in this context, it is not appropriate to use it to conclude the argument or present a final decision. instead, the student could have used a more appropriate transitional phrase such as “in summary” or “to sum up,”“conclusion” or “in conclusion.” so, the sentence should be revised as: “in conclusion, it would seem best to adopt an open-minded view of technology implementation that would enhance the learning environment as some students still find it difficult to adapt to the new system.”in the context of teaching english as a second language, it is crucial to teach students on the proper usage of transitional phrases. by teaching these phrases, students can effectively organize their ideas and connect them in a cohesively and understandably. failing to use appropriate transitional phrases can result in confusion and misunderstandings, ultimately hindering effective communication. therefore, esl teachers need to prioritize teaching the correct use of transitional phrases to their students. a few other transitional markers in the analyzed texts include: example 4 2) …subsequently, this pandemic forcefully brought about a new pattern of lifestyles called the "the new normal…. (text 3) 3) furthermore, most students lack the ability to focus on screens. (text 3) 4) moreover, students also develop bad posture and other physical,mental or emotional problems due to staying haunched in front of a screen. (text 3) 5) additionally, virtual system has denied science students access to the laboratory. (text 3) transitional markers like “subsequently”, “furthermore,”“moreover,” and “additionally,” as used in the text above can be used as discursive strategies in academic writing to connect ideas and present a logical argument. the use of “subsequently” in example 4(2) above serves as a discursive strategy by linking the previous discussion to the new idea introduced in the sentence. its discourse function is to show a relationship between two or more events or actions, indicating that one occurred after the other. in the clause above, it is used to connect a piece of writing by indicating the chronological order in which it occurred. it shows the causal relationship between the pandemic and the new pattern of life, which had a significant impact on people’s lives and led to “the new normal.” in other words, the transitional marker emphasizes the importance of the change that occurred due to the pandemic. it helps the writer to present information in a clear and organized way, making it easier for the reader or listener to follow the logical progression of their argument or narrative and helps the reader understand the cause-and-effect relationship between the two events. similarly, “furthermore” in 4(3) above is used to add new information to a previous statement or idea. its discursive function is to indicate that the following information builds upon, supports, or strengthens the previous idea. it provides additional evidence to support the writer’s argument. in the context of the selected essays, it is used to introduce additional disadvantages of virtual learning after the first disadvantage has been discussed. it connects the two ideas in the text and indicates that the following information builds upon the previous point. it shows that the lack of focus on screens is not just a personal issue, but a widespread problem among students. using “furthermore” as a transitional marker provides additional evidence or support for the main point. it signals to the reader that the writer is building on a previous point and is introducing new information that strengthens the argument. in addition, the use of “furthermore” helps students vary their sentence structure and create a more interesting and engaging piece of writing. in sample 4(4) above, the word “moreover” reveals an additional point that strengthens the previous idea. it is used to connect two ideas that are related and to introduce an idea that builds upon the previous argument. in the essay, “moreover” is used to introduce an additional point to support the advantages of virtual learning. it emphasizes the benefits of virtual learning, such as the efficiency of the virtual learning tools used akinseye e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 54 by lecturers, which in turn makes it easier for lecturers to deliver lessons to students. it supports the argument that there are negative consequences associated with screen time, and specifically highlights the physical and mental health impacts on students. also, in sample 4(5), the use of “additionally” is a discursive strategy that introduces a new point to support the writer's argument. this marker introduces a new point that reinforces or supplements the previous point(s). apart from its function of connecting ideas and arguments, it further shows that the writer has considered multiple perspectives on a topic. in one instance, it highlights the negative impact of virtual systems on science students who require laboratory access, providing further evidence for the argument that online learning may not be suitable for all subjects. in another context, it indicates that the writer is about to present another advantage of virtual learning having already presented some benefits earlier. in other words, it shows the relationship between the previously discussed advantages of virtual learning and the new one about to be presented. 5.2. frame markers as a discursive strategy in the selected expository essay frame markers are linguistic devices used to organize and structure texts for readers, with the primary purpose of aiding comprehension and facilitating effective communication. these markers can be categorized into four subtypes based on their functions: sequencers, topicalizers, discourse labels, and announcers. sequencers refer to markers that indicate the chronological or logical order of information, such as “firstly,”“secondly,”“finally,” or “to sum up.” topicalizers, on the other hand, signal shifts in topic or focus, and include markers like “with regard to,”“as for,” and “speaking of”. discourse labels are markers that introduce or label a discourse unit, such as “the main point,”“the problem,” or “the solution,” while announcers indicate the speaker or writer’s intention or purpose, such as “my aim,”“my intention,” or “i propose.” further examples of frame markers include “finally,”“my purpose,”“firstly,”“to sum up,”“in short,”“return to,”“in regard to,” and “aim.” by using these markers, writers structure their writing in a way that is easy to follow and understand, and guide readers through the various stages of the discourse. table 3: distribution of frame markers in the expository essays frame markers frequency percentage to begin with/to start with 2 3.85 firstly/first 14 26.92 secondly/second 14 26.92 thirdly 3 5.77 in the first place/first of all 3 5.77 finally 8 15.38 on a final note 1 1.92 last/lastly 5 9.62 first and foremost 2 3.85 total 52 100 some instances from the text include: example 5 1) firstly, relating virtual learning to transportation, students love the idea of not waking early to catch the morning bus, not running down to the lecture room, not having to miss breakfast. they can receive lectures in the comfort of their rooms, whereby they get to maximize their time effectively…. (text 15) 2) secondly, most classes online are recorded and so it is accessible to the students at any time, they can re-listen to it over and over again unlike physical class where they can’t record because using your phone during the class is a punishable offense…. (text 15) exploring interactive metadiscourse as a practical approach to enhancing academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 55 3) thirdly, students have access to other materials apart from the material the school lecturers are using to lecture, which is an advantage to them…. (text 15) 4) finally, the main reason behind virtual learning in the university of ibadan is to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which has been achieved to a high rate, so virtual learning may not be convenient to all but it has helped to keep both the students and their lectures alive…. (text 15) in example 5(1) above, the discourse function of “firstly” is to express the first main point or argument that the writer or speaker makes. it is used to introduce the first idea in a series of ideas or arguments that will be presented in the text or speech about the pros and cons of virtual learning at the university of ibadan. this marker is a common discourse marker used to signal the beginning of a new argument or idea in academic writing, particularly in esl situations, as it helps to organize and structure the ideas in a clear and logical manner. in this context, it introduces the first advantage of virtual learning, which is related to transportation. the use of “firstly” allows the reader to anticipate additional points that later follow, and further helps to guide them through the writer’s argument. in example 5(2), the discourse function of the word “secondly” is similar to that of “firstly.” it points to the second main point or argument in the series. it helps to organize the text or speech by showing the reader that the writer is moving on to a new idea. the use of “secondly” in the text above introduces the second point that supports the argument being made about the pros of virtual learning. the writer uses “secondly” to transition smoothly from the first point about transportation to the second point about the accessibility of recorded lectures. in the sampled essay, “secondly” is used as a discourse marker to present the second supporting point or argument. it is very useful in organizing ideas while writing and making clear connections between different points, thus improving the coherence of the text. in 5(3), “thirdly” is used in a similar way to “firstly” and “secondly,” but here, it signals the third main point or argument in the series. the marker introduces the third advantage or benefit of virtual learning after introducing the first and the second benefits of virtual learning. this point underscores the fact that virtual learning provides students with access to additional materials beyond what is presented by their instructors, which is a significant benefit for them. in 5(4) above, the discourse function of “finally” signals the final main point or argument in the series. it indicates that the writer is ending the series of ideas or arguments and is summarizing the text about the pros and cons of virtual learning and offering a final evaluation of virtual learning. the use of “finally” in this context shows that the writer is ready to present the last point, which is the main reason behind the implementation of virtual learning in the university of ibadan. this final point serves as a concluding thought to the entire discussion and emphasizes the importance of virtual learning in the current context. generally, in academic writing, using these markers can also improve coherence and cohesion, which are important factors in achieving a higher level of writing proficiency. they help to connect ideas, indicate transitions between paragraphs, and provide a clear roadmap for the reader to follow. however, it is important to use these frame markers appropriately and effectively. overuse or misuse of these words can make the writing seem repetitive or unskilled. it is also important to vary it rather than relying too heavily on one particular word. 5.3. endophoric markers as a discursive strategy in the selected expository essay endophoric markers are linguistic devices that refer to other elements within the same text, such as words, phrases, or sentences. these markers provide additional information or context by referencing other parts of the text and are used to help guide the reader towards the writer’s intended interpretation. the process of employing endophoric markers involves providing supporting arguments and additional information that is made available by referencing specific elements within the text. by doing so, the writer can steer the reader towards a preferred interpretation by emphasizing or clarifying certain aspects of the text. also, an endophoric marker could refer back to a previously mentioned noun or a repeated phrase that serves to reinforce a particular idea or theme. by using endophoric markers effectively, writers can help ensure that their message is communicated clearly and effectively to their intended audience. examples include: “noted above….,” “in section 2 above….” etc. akinseye e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 56 table 4 distribution of endophoric markers in the expository essays endophoric markers frequency percentage it (virtual learning) 38 73.1 this (virtual learning) 12 23.1 i, we, us, you 2 3.85 total 52 100 example 6 1) it is a recent system of learning that has been popularized due to the coronavirus pandemic…. (text 11) 2) this learning system has its pros and cons which shall be addressed in subsequent paragraphs….(text 11) example 7 3) as this is the first time we will be using this learning means… and helps us adapt and advance further from archaic ways and methods to technological ways that are easier. (text 13) the mostly deployed endophoric marker is the pronoun “it.” in 6(1) above, the endophoric marker “it” is a versatile and commonly used linguistic device in english. it refers back to a previously mentioned or implied element within a text, thereby creating coherence and connecting different parts of the text. in the text provided, “it” is used as an endophoric marker several times to refer back to the concept of virtual learning that was introduced at the beginning of the text. by doing so, the writer is able to present the points in a clear manner, thereby pointing the readers back to the main subject matter “virtual learning,” while also highlighting its advantages and disadvantages. similarly, in 6(2), “this” is used to refer back to a concept, argument, or idea that was introduced earlier in the text. in the text provided, “this” is used as a deictic reference to refer to a specific point earlier made by the writer. in the context of the sample above, the pronoun refers back to the concept of virtual learning that was introduced in the previous sentence. by using “this” in such away, the writer is able to create a clear link between the two sentences and maintain coherence in the text. also, in 7(3), the discourse function of the pronouns “we” and “us” is to refer to a group of people that includes the writer and at least one other person. these pronouns create a sense of unity, inclusivity, and shared responsibility among the group members. in discourse, “we” and us" are used to express solidarity, establish a sense of belonging, and to emphasize commonalities among group members. by using “we” and “us,” the writers are able to position themselves as members of a group and to express opinions, experiences, and ideas that are shared by the group. in the given text, “we” and “us” are used as endophoric markers to refer to the writer and other students who are experiencing the realities of virtual learning at the university of ibadan. it suggests that the writer is not alone in their thoughts and opinions about virtual learning. it also gives a collective voice to the students, making their views more impactful and persuasive. 5.4 code glosses as a discursive strategy in the selected expository essay in order to convey their intended message effectively, writers often employ additional language or phrasing to clarify or elaborate upon the ideas that they have already presented. this can take the form of rephrasing or restating the same information in different words, explaining the concept in more detail, or providing examples or context that help to illustrate the meaning. one way writers can signal to readers that they are providing additional information is through the use of certain linguistic markers or signposts, such as the expressions “in other words,” “for example,” or “such as.” these terms help to signal that the writer is providing a further explanation of a particular term or concept, and can help to guide the reader towards a better understanding of the writer’s intended meaning. example 8 1) for example the advantages of virtual learning is there first it’ll be able to cover the curriculum faster, the students can have a wider source of knowledge by using the internet, it’s more efficient in terms of learning…. exploring interactive metadiscourse as a practical approach to enhancing academic writing e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 57 2) for example , if a student needs to travel that doesn't mean such student won't be able to attend classes because all what the student needs to do is just to have access to the internet and such student will be able to attend the class…. 3) for instance, the university of ibadan has many populations, it will be very difficult for people to maintain social distance…. 4) learning is an online-based platform that offers students new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences online through the use of internet and social media platforms such as zoom, telegram and whatsapp…. in example 8(1), 8(2) and 8(3) above, “for example” and “for instance” provide a specific instance or illustration of something that has been mentioned or is being discussed. it shows the reader that the following information is a concrete example that clarifies or expands upon a previous point or idea. both are commonly used in persuasive writing or speaking to support an argument or claim by providing evidence or demonstrating the validity of a statement. in the given text, the discourse function of "for example" is to provide specific instances that support the writer’s argument regarding the advantages and disadvantages of virtual learning. in 8(1), the writer uses “for example” to highlight some of the advantages of virtual learning, such as faster coverage of the curriculum and wider access to knowledge through the internet. the use of “for example” here helps to illustrate and clarify the writer’s points, making it easier for the reader to understand the benefits of virtual learning. on the other hand, in 8(2), the discourse strategy of “for example” is used to provide concrete instances that illustrate the advantages of virtual learning, while in 8(3), the discourse function of “for instance” in the text provides an illustration of the point being made. in this case, it explains how the adoption of virtual learning in nigeria’s higher learning institutions, including the university of ibadan, has been a response to the covid-19 outbreak. it provides a specific instance of a broader trend, in order to make the point more concrete and tangible. 5.5. evidential markers as a discursive strategy in the selected expository essay in academic discourse, evidentials are linguistic devices that are employed to refer to external sources of information, such as other academic publications, research studies, or expert opinions. the purpose of using evidentials is to support or strengthen the arguments being made in the text by incorporating external evidence that lends credibility and validity to the author’s claims. evidential markers are typically expressed in the form of academic attributions or citations, which provide the necessary information about the source being referenced, such as the author’s name, publication title, date, and page numbers. these markers help to not only credit the original source but also enable readers to locate and verify the information themselves, thereby enhancing the overall quality and reliability of the text. in academic writing, the use of evidentials is considered a vital aspect of scholarly research, as it helps to establish the author’s credibility and expertise and demonstrates their familiarity with existing research and literature in their field. by incorporating evidentials effectively, writers can convey their ideas and arguments more convincingly, and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in their respective disciplines. examples include: “according to x;”“z states.” example 9 1) according to simonson and schlosser (2006)virtual learning is defined as that learning that can functionally and effectively occur in the absence of traditional classroom environments…. (text 79) the only instance of evidential in the entire essay is exemplified above in 79(1). the discourse function of “according to” is to introduce an external source of information or an opinion from a specific person, typically an expert or authority, that supports or adds credibility to the writer’s argument or claim. in academic writing, “according to” is often used to attribute a statement, finding, or theory to a specific academic source, such as a journal article or book. this helps the writer to establish authority and expertise by demonstrating knowledge of existing research and literature in the field, while also providing evidence to support their argument. in the instance above, it provides information that is based on the authority or research of schlosser and simonson (2006) and is using it to support the argument about the benefits of virtual learning. the phrase “according to”is commonly used in academic writing to introduce evidence or support for a claim, and is often followed by akinseye e-journall, 10(2) (2023), pp. 44-61 58 a citation or attribution. in this case, it helps to establish the credibility and validity of the author’s argument by providing a reliable source for the information presented. however, the use of evidentials is not commonly found in the analyzed expository essays of students due to various factors. firstly, students may not fully understand the significance of incorporating external evidence to bolster their arguments. secondly, they may lack the necessary skills or knowledge to locate and properly cite relevant sources to support their claims. thirdly, they may lack confidence in their ability to critically analyze and evaluate sources, and may rely excessively on their own subjective viewpoints or personal experiences. moreover, students may perceive the use of evidentials as unnecessary, particularly if they are writing for a less formal or academic audience. finally, inadequate instruction or limitations in the curriculum may contribute to students’ lack of proficiency in using evidentials effectively. 6. results and discussion the overall results, as presented in table 5 below, highlight the distribution of various interactive markers in the analyzed texts. table 5 overall distribution of interactive markers in the expository essays interactive markers frequency percentage transitional markers 183 62.24 frame markers 52 17.69 code glosses 6 2.04 evidential markers 1 0.34 endophoric markers 52 17.69 total 294 100 the findings of this study underscore the significance of incorporating interactive resources as viable discursive strategies in the teaching of academic writing to undergraduate students in an esl context. the study demonstrates that these resources can enhance the coherence and cohesion of academic writing produced by esl students. therefore, educators need to integrate these strategies into their teaching methods to help students improve their academic writing skills. one significant finding from the study is the high frequency of transitional markers in the analyzed essays. transitional markers are used to indicate the sequence of ideas, show contrast, compare, and emphasize with certain points. therefore, incorporating transitional markers in academic writing can enhance the coherence and clarity of the text. furthermore, frame markers are a viable tool in introducing and concluding ideas, emphasizing key points, and providing context for the argument. therefore, they are important in helping readers to follow the argument and understand the purpose of the text. also, endophoric markers are important in academic writing because they help to maintain coherence and avoid repetition because they can be used to refer to a previously mentioned idea, introduce a new idea, or provide a link between ideas. these markers can help to organize the ideas in the writing and enhance its clarity. it is therefore essential for educators to focus on teaching these strategies to their students so that they can produce more effective academic writing. moreover, the study highlights the importance of not overlooking less frequently used markers such as evidential markers and code glosses. these markers can also play a crucial role in enhancing the persuasiveness and coherence of academic writing. for instance, evidentials help to establish the credibility of the argument and demonstrate the writer’s knowledge of the field, while code glosses help to clarify the meaning of technical terms and ensure that the reader is not confused or distracted by unfamiliar vocabulary. thus, educators should not underestimate the teaching of these markers and should integrate them into their teaching methods. by incorporating interactive resources in the teaching of academic writing skills, educators can help esl students produce more coherent, organized, and persuasive academic writing. exploring interactive metadiscourse as a practical approach to enhancing 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(1985). english for higher education in the arab world: a case study of needs analysis at yarmouk university, the esp journal, 4(2), 132–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0272-2380(85)90016-2 tolulope a. akinseye, university of ibadan, nigeria tolulopeakinseye01@gmail.com en tolulope a. akinseye (ph.d.) is a lecturer at the department of english, university of ibadan, nigeria, and a fellow of the alexander von humboldt foundation, germany. her research interests include discourse studies, functional and applied linguistics es tolulope a. akinseye (ph.d.) es profesora del departamento de inglés de la universidad de ibadan, nigeria, y miembro de la fundación alexander von humboldt, alemania. sus intereses de investigación incluyen los estudios del discurso y la lingüística funcional y aplicada. it tolulope a. akinseye (ph.d.) è ricercatrice presso il dipartimento di inglese dell’università di ibadan, nigeria, e membro della fondazione alexander von humboldt, in germania. i suoi interessi di ricerca riguardano gli studi sul discorso, la linguistica funzionale e applicata. https://doi.org/10.1177/003368829302400207 http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v7n7p26 https://doi.org/10.22099/jtls.2012.412 https://doi.org/10.2307/357609 http://writing.berkeley.edu/tesl-ej/ej32/a3.html https://www.jstor.org/stable/20865521 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2011.09.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0272-2380(85)90016-2 feng, cao, & hu, guangwei (2014). interactive metadiscourse in research articles: a comparative study of paradigmatic and disciplinary influences. journal of pragmatics, 66, 15-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2014.02.007 microsoft word ainsworth+&+pulcini_2025 ej euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, special issue, volume 12, issue 1, june 2025, pages 1-6 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.1.3380 www.e-journall.org © ainsworth & pulcini 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. multimodality and the digital turn in teaching business discourse. an introduction to the special issue judith ainsworth mcgill university in montreal, canada virginia pulcini università di torino received 9 april 2025; accepted 30 may 2025 1. digital technologies and multimodal discourse the study of digital discourse emerged through the use of diverse mediated discourses to communicate information. the discourse analytical tools that had been originally formulated to analyse language use were then extended to the analysis of digital discourse and to studies on digital business discourse (bargiela-chiappini, 2009; darics, 2015, 2016). however, common patterns of interaction in the digital world are changing and new patterns of interaction have emerged, particularly those concerning socio-semiotic resources for online configurations of forms of interaction such as video, blogging and social networking (sindoni, 2013). the dynamic combination of multiple symbols and semiotic resources within a specific communication context has resulted in the emergence of multimodal discourse (liu et al., 2024). thus the analysis of discourse includes various semiotic resources and the study of a diverse array of mediated communication modalities including words, images, colour and sounds in the interactive and compositional meaning-making process (kress & van leeuwen, 2001). these new interactive modalities blur the distinction between oral and written discourse in digital texts. they challenge the current way of conducting linguistic analysis as simply analysing oral and written texts, and require multimodal frameworks of analysis (sindoni, 2013). in many ways, multimodality should always be part of digital discourse studies, as it has been considered a core concept in sociocultural linguistics and discourse analysis for some time (kress & van leeuwen, 2001). given the increasingly multimedia and multimodal nature of digital communication and the growing complexity of multimedia formats and media, the study of language symbols, both verbal and nonverbal, provides a broader socio-semiotic perspective to digital discourse studies (thurlow et al., 2020). in this way, speech and writing are considered language modes and, as semiotic resources, on a par with image, colours, sound, etc. (sindoni, 2013). liu et al. (2024) stress that discourse is a core research object with language as a key component of multimodal discourse studies (mds). the authors find that applying semiotic resources across social media, identity, literacy, politics, education and gender illustrates mds’s broad scope and focus on knowledge construction and cognition, thus demonstrating interdisciplinary trends. while the literature in the field of multimodal studies is wide and varied for a number of disciplines, liu et al.’s (2024) bibliometric analysis of mds revealed that the study of multimodal discourse emerged gradually over the last 25 years. in fact, 2012 was the year when publications in multimodal discourse studies started to noticeably increase. on the other hand, of the most frequently discussed topics, only 17 publications concerned business disciplines compared to the top category, linguistics, with 496 publications. overall, social sciences and humanities benefitted the most from multimodal discourse studies. thus, this special issue fills this gap by providing a collection of activities for teaching and learning multimodal business discourse that are specifically tailored to the business communication context.  virginia pulcini, university of turin virginia.pulcini@unito.it ainsworth and pulcini e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 1-6 2 one example of a multimodal business discourse study is garzone’s (2009) exploration of multimodal corporate communication in the campbell soup website. she discovered the extensive and effective use of multimodal resources that depict the company’s distinctive american identity. another example is portman’s (2020) social semiotic analysis of instagram, which is used for corporate marketing focussing on food visualisation by two grocery chains in switzerland. although the depicted food was banal, the semiotic resources employed by the two grocery chains gave the impression that the food was more related to social hierarchies of taste and privilege. drawing on the social semiotic approach to multimodality, xia (2023) analysed how visual and verbal resources are strategically employed and combined in ted talks to explain complicated scientific knowledge to lay audiences. the results offer strategies for disseminating more engaging and accessible knowledge, as well as expanding semiotic and communicative repertoires that are increasingly crucial in the digitally driven world we live in. furthermore, students must understand these socio-semiotic resources and their meaning making in specific communicative contexts in order to produce effective multimodal communication for the digital age, and to be able to respond to the digital demands of the job market. instructors need new pedagogical tools to help them move from conventional teaching practices, such as the curricula and qualitative assessment measures that categorise and judge individual performance, to more fluid learning and teaching practices in the context of multiliteracies and new pedagogies oriented towards multimodal digital texts, practices and communities (sindoni & moschini, 2022). therefore, this special issue fills this gap by providing studies of innovative multimodal pedagogical practices. 2. challenges for teaching multimodal business discourse a growing number of university students, both native and non-native speakers of english, expect to acquire high-level digital communication skills and competences to successfully handle business communication in their future careers. these students belong to the so-called ‘generation z’ (born between 1997 and 2012), an age group with innate digital fluency, active use of social media and expert consumption of visual and aural communication. in the digitalised information age, workers need to manage strategic collaboration activities and information flows within and across organisations (pfeffermann & gould, 2017). indeed, digitalised information has led them to reassess management discourse, particularly the use of multimodal discourse. thus, lecturers and trainers in higher education are faced with new pedagogical challenges to answer the needs and expectations of these new cohorts of highly digitalised learners. the manifold facets of business communication and the great variety of genres, both written and oral (garzone & gotti, 2011) have been strongly impacted by the overwhelming power of the visual component and by the use of digital technologies. remediation of traditional channels of communication (ranging from brochures to web based genres) and resemiotisation (from verbal texts to a range of semiotic resources) have modified the way communication takes place today. lecturers and trainers are challenged by the rapidly evolving media and the new forms of digital communication more than ever, and are therefore called upon to reshape their materials and methods. these redesigned materials and methods must train students to identify and analyse the grammar of visual discourse (kress & van leeuwen, 2001) and how business communication takes shape through new media. without previously analysing the discourse of online genres such as emails (roshid et al., 2022), blogs, text messages, forums (angouri & tseliga, 2010) and networked interactions (mckee & porter, 2017), students may run the risk of appearing impolite (decock & depraetere, 2018), miscommunicating, reducing productivity and harming business relationships (davis et al., 2009), or sending the wrong signals (skovholt & svennevig, 2013). another ongoing issue is declining literacy (sindoni, 2013). only in the last ten years have multimodal discourse studies emphasised solving social and educational issues. recent developments in multimodal literacy suggest that the integration of multimodal discourse analysis in various disciplines, as well as the broad application of multimodal resources and pedagogies, have a positive effect on digital literacy in social media and language learning contexts (liu et al., 2024; sindoni, 2013). thus students and instructors need to understand various symbols, both verbal and non-verbal, and their collective influence on the construction of effective multimodal discourse. in spite of the need for new forms of digitalised communication pedagogies, previous research into teaching business communication has mainly focused on business discourse (ainsworth, 2020; alessi & jacobs, 2016; bargiela-chiappini, 2009; bargiela-chiappini et al., 2013; darics, 2015; mautner & reiner, 2017; pfeffermann & gould, 2017), genre approaches and models to teach business communication (ainsworth, multimodality in business discourse e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 1-6 3 2021; daly & davy, 2016; jonsson & blåsjö, 2020; szanajda & ou, 2017) and language for business (darics & koller, 2018). less attention has been paid to teaching semiotic strategies that take into consideration the multimodal dimension of business communication (hartle et al., 2022). even less emphasis has been placed on pedagogical approaches for teaching business discourse (ilie et al., 2019; mautner, 2016). thus, students need to learn new discourse strategies for effective online communication in business contexts (darics, 2016; jensen, 2009). they need to understand the role of online discourse and methods to socially and professionally construct appropriate discursive interactions in the evolving digital business economy (pfeffermann & gould, 2017). other elements to consider are broader developments in society, particularly societal values, attitudes and beliefs, which bring new ideas and new contents involving profound changes in discursive practices and patterns of interaction. the complexities of teaching business discourse have increased as communication flows have intensified (pfeffermann & gould, 2017). moreover, different organisational and professional discourse communities need to be considered when developing teaching methods and materials (brueckner et al., 2018). therefore, academics need to consider the impact of different contexts on new teaching modes and practices in multimodal business discourse that mirror the evolving socioeconomic environment of this digital age. 3. contributions drawing from scholars, teachers and practitioners in the fields of business discourse and business communication, the papers included in this special issue exploit the impetus of digital technology and multimodal resources in communication to propose the application of innovative pedagogical approaches and materials to the esp classroom. the project was initiated on the occasion of the abc europe, africa and middle east conference held in naples in january 2023. the paper by basanta, vangehuchten and van herck addresses the goal to teach esp students to handle professional email messages in response to online complaints, a professional skill also known as ‘webcare’ that requires specific pragmatic-discursive competence. on the basis of a corpus of authentic responses to complaints about products or services in the field of telecommunications, the authors first present a theoretical framework to identify the presence of defensive and/or accommodating response strategies as well as, at the rhetorical level, the content of the conversational human voice (chv). then they propose the application of this analytical model to the teaching of language mediation strategies specific to the genre of email messages in the cultural context of spanish business discourse. this paper contains a wealth of example activities leading students to recognize discourse moves and submoves in email discourse, learn to use defensive vs accommodating strategies, safeguard the company’s reputation, show empathy and propose an effective resolution for the customer’s complaint. in order to meet the learning needs of ma students in a department of modern languages specializing in international communication, giacosa and pulcini describe a course in english language and linguistics in which students study corporate crises. the authors redesigned the course combining the observation of language patterns through the use of professional communication language corpora and the multimodal analysis of company websites. the teaching method was task-based to stimulate student engagement and critical thinking through practical group activities. this paper particularly examines students’ feedback obtained by tutors through an end-of-course questionnaire, a common practice in higher education to provide quality assurance. the results confirm that the modules of cmc and multimodality helped the most to develop students’ professional skills; the module on corpus linguistics contributed to the development of english competence; the choice of this course’s content and pedagogical framework greatly contributed to the refinement of students’ digital skills. overall, the strong interdisciplinary nature and relevance to the world of business were the most appreciated characteristics of this course. meredith’s paper deals with and stresses the importance of blended mobility for training students in international business communication. in the face of increasingly ai-driven work environments, the benefits of a course aimed at developing ‘human intelligence’ skills such as intercultural competencies, communication skills, problem-solving, critical and analytical thinking are presented and discussed. the outcomes of the blended program that involved business students from universities in the united states and hungary in 2022, 2023 and 2024 emerge from the analysis of students’ self-reflection narratives. digital media literacy appears to be the starting point for the learning of a much wider range of ‘employability skills’ that are fostered by the combination of technology-based and short-term physical contact, including ‘real world’ experience, selfainsworth and pulcini e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 1-6 4 awareness, adaptability, conflict resolution and increased confidence to successfully face an increasingly interconnected and globalized world. parini proposes the introduction of audio-visual material with automatic subtitles in the esl/esp classroom to improve students’ listening, translation and post-editing skills. after an exhaustive overview of audio-visual translation and of technological advances in the generation of interlingual and intralingual subtitles through the application of automatic speech recognition and machine translation, the author presents a microteaching experience with a ted talk video on the topic of marketing, broadcast by youtube. students were first encouraged to identify, classify and correct mistakes in the intralingual subtitles generated by the speech recognition system and subsequently to analyze the ‘cascading’ errors in the automatic intralingual italian subtitles. the benefits of this activity may not only impact on students’ language competence but also on their exposure to and engagement with sophisticated digital technology, which, despite its remarkable progress, cannot do without human supervision to guarantee high standards. the digital format of annual corporate reports is an example of genre migration in business communication to the digital environment, moving away from a traditional paper or static pdf format to a multimodal artifact. a collection of video ceo statements is analyzed by ruiz-garrido and palmer-silveira from a multimodal perspective in order to pursue the attendant goal of exploiting these materials in the esp classroom to enhance students’ business communication skills. videos are indeed a new digital genre and a powerful medium to inform stakeholders about the company’s performance and present a positive narrative of its identity. moreover, the authors claim that “the humanized discourse fulfilled by the ceo’s emotions and attitudes is an asset of multimodal discourse that the written statement can hardly achieve”. the authors suggest that the use of these materials may greatly contribute to the development of students’ public speaking competence, engagement strategies and leadership skills. the final paper by strong presents a model to assess digital multimodal communication literacy, based on 4ml (four meta-literacies), i.e. digital literacy, multimedia skill literacy, multimodal design literacy and rhetorical literacy, which she summarizes using the descriptive labels of ‘responsibility’, ‘skill’, ‘design’ and ‘audience’. in order to evaluate the efficacy of this model, a case study conducted in a business communication course in the united states in 2022 and based on the evaluation of student-created presentation slides, is described in detail. the researcher used a scoring rubric to evaluate two sets of students’ slide decks in different semesters, to which a visual analysis of multimodal content was added. the results of this study show that digital literacy (the ability to present information in digital format) was the initial lowest skill, while rhetorical literacy (the appropriate and audience-centric use of language) was the initial highest skill. the intervention of explicit instruction determined an overall growth of all meta-literacies, but digital literacy was the skill that scored the most significant improvement. this study shows that a model for a structured, systematic evaluation of users’ digital and multimodal skills may have a strong diagnostic power to implement adequate training of digitally literate workforce and content creators for communication in the new digital business landscape. references ainsworth, judith (2020). un/ethical leadership: a critical discourse analysis of a ceo’s email to team members. in j. s. fernández-vázquez, r. c. álvarez-delgado, & á. sancho-rodríguez (eds.), ethics in business communication: new challenges in the digital world (pp. 197-232). peter lang. ainsworth, judith (2021). an ecolinguistic discourse approach to teaching environmental sustainability: analysing chief 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(2020). visualizing digital discourse: interactional, institutional and ideological perspectives (vol. 21). walter de gruyter. xia, sichen (2023). popularizing science in the digital era: a multimodal genre perspective on ted talk videos. taylor & francis. judith ainsworth, mcgill university in montreal, canada judith.ainsworth2@mcgill.ca en judith ainsworth (phd) is a course lecturer of management and professional communication at mcgill university in montreal, canada and visiting faculty in the humanities and social sciences department at ashesi university (ghana) and the beijing foreign studies university (china). she served as president of the association for business communication (2023-2024) and is currently serving as immediate past president (2025-2026) and president of the abc business communication research foundation (2025-2026). es judith ainsworth (phd) es profesora titular de la asignatura management and professional communication en la universidad mcgill en montreal, canadá y profesora visitante en el departamento de humanidades y ciencias sociales de la universidad ashesi (ghana) y en la beijing foreign studies university (china). ha sido presidenta de la association for business communication (2023-2024) y actualmente es immediate past president (2025-2026) de la asociación y presidenta de la abc business communication research foundation (2025-2026). it judith ainsworth (phd) è docente titolare dell’insegnamento management and professional communication presso l'università mcgill di montreal, in canada e docente ospite presso il dipartimento di humanities and social sciences dell'ashesi university (ghana) e presso la beijing university of foreign studies (cina). è stata presidente della association for business communication (2023-2024) e attualmente ricopre il ruolo di immediate past president (2025-2026) dell'associazione ed è presidente della abc business communication research foundation (2025-2026). virginia pulcini, università degli studi di torino virginia.pulcini@unito.it en virginia pulcini is full professor of english language and linguistics at the university of turin (italy). she is deputy director of the department of foreign languages, literatures and modern and head of the research commission. es virginia pulcini es profesora catedrática de lengua y lingüística inglesa en la universidad de turín (italia). es vicedirectora del departamento de lenguas y literaturas extranjeras y culturas modernas y jefa de la comisión de investigación. it virginia pulcini è professoressa ordinaria di lingua e linguistica inglese presso l'università di torino (italia). è vicedirettrice del dipartimento di lingue e letterature straniere e culture moderne ed è ed è responsabile della commissione ricerca.. microsoft word meredith 2025.docx euroamerican journal of applied linguistics and languages e-journall, special issue, volume 12, issue 1, month 2025, pages 53–73 issn 2376-905x http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.1.12.1.3286 www.e-journall.org © meredith 2025. this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. insights from combining coil & short-term study abroad: using blended mobility to enhance international business communication learning michael j. meredith kenan-flagler business school, university of north carolina at chapel hill, usa received 4 november 2024; accepted 9 april 2025 abstract en rapid cultural and digital transformations are disrupting higher education. focusing on unique areas referred to as “human intelligence” (hi) is critical to meet students’ changing needs. this paper explores the design, pedagogy, and outcomes of an international business communication course integrating a blended mobility model. this study investigates student outcomes in a blended mobility format combining a coil course with a brief study abroad experience, culminating in a cross-cultural team presentation to a real business client. content analysis of student reflections identifies core learning outcomes, comparing and expanding upon blended mobility “employability skills”. five additional skills emerged, consistent with intercultural competency communication research as well as ten sub-themes related to belonging. findings highlight the potential of blended mobility to foster “hi” professional skills as well as a sense of belonging among student participants. key words: international business communication, blended mobility, learning outcomes, human intelligence (hi), relational/belonging, pedagogy es las rápidas transformaciones culturales y digitales están alterando radicalmente la educación universitaria. es fundamental concentrarse en áreas específicas denominadas «inteligencia humana» (ih) para satisfacer las necesidades cambiantes de los estudiantes. este artículo explora el diseño, la pedagogía y los resultados de un curso de comunicación empresarial internacional que integra un modelo de movilidad mixta. este estudio investiga los resultados de los estudiantes en un formato de movilidad que combina un curso coil con una breve experiencia de estudios en el extranjero, que culmina con una presentación grupal intercultural a un cliente real. el análisis de las reflexiones de los estudiantes identifica los principales resultados del aprendizaje, comparando y ampliando las “competencias de empleabilidad” de la movilidad combinada. surgieron cinco habilidades adicionales, coherentes con la investigación sobre la comunicación de la competencia intercultural, así como diez subtemas relacionados con la pertenencia. los resultados resaltan el potencial de la movilidad mixta para fomentar las competencias profesionales «hi», así como el sentimiento de pertenencia entre los estudiantes participantes. palabras clave: comunicación empresarial internacional, movilidad mixta, resultados del aprendizaje, inteligencia humana (ih), relaciones/pertenencia, pedagogía it rapidi cambiamenti culturali e digitali stanno rivoluzionando l'istruzione universitaria. per soddisfare le esigenze in evoluzione degli studenti, è fondamentale concentrarsi su aspetti specifici, definiti come “intelligenza umana” (hi). qui si esplora progettazione, didattica e risultati di un corso di comunicazione aziendale internazionale che integra un modello di mobilità mista. questo studio analizza i risultati degli studenti in mobilità mista che combina un corso coil con una esperienza di studio all'estero, culminata in una presentazione interculturale di gruppo a un cliente reale. l'analisi del contenuto delle riflessioni degli studenti rivela i principali risultati dell'apprendimento, confrontando e ampliando le “competenze di occupabilità” della mobilità mista. dallo studio emergono cinque competenze aggiuntive, coerenti con la ricerca sulla comunicazione delle competenze interculturali e dieci sottotemi legati all'appartenenza. i risultati evidenziano il potenziale della mobilità mista nel promuovere le competenze professionali di hi e il senso di appartenenza degli studenti partecipanti. parole chiave: comunicazione aziendale internazionale, mobilità mista, risultati dell'apprendimento, intelligenza umana (hi), relazioni/appartenenza, pedagogia  michael j. meredith, kenan-flagler business school, university of north carolina at chapel hill, usa michael_meredith@kenan-flagler.unc.edu meredith 54 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 1. introduction technology continues to transform higher education, including allowing increased global interconnectedness and the development of new instructional techniques. interest and attention to the internationalism of higher education has seen dramatic increase and can be viewed as a contemporary trend driven by western nations (ainsworth, 2013; tight, 2022). as institutions of higher education navigate a complex landscape reshaped by digital transformation, the need for innovative pedagogical approaches has become urgent and necessary. for instance, research conducted by gartner forecasts that generative ai will disrupt and transform education in ways yet to be fully understood (sheehan et al., 2023). a recent forbes article speculates that generative ai and other technology will progressively replace professor roles, along a continuum from assistance to full replacement, potentially as early as 2035 (andriole, 2024). in response, new teaching modes and practices, including those in business discourse, must adapt by developing instructional approaches to contribute to this digital age. thus, a pressing question arises: how should higher education and the professorate respond? the answer may lie in embracing and helping to steer technological change. emerging technologies present opportunities to attract students, enhance student (and staff) experiences, and improve educational outcomes (fernadnez et al., 2023). all organizations must come to grips with how ai will impact them, but certain invaluable abilities and traits that are wholly (or mostly) human skills and that will be in more demand than ever in the age of ai cannot be easily replicated (forbes technology council, 2024). business schools, in particular, should lead the way in engaging students with technology and creating curricula that prioritize fostering the unique, what i call “human intelligence” (hi), skills—those nuanced, “human touch” capabilities not easily replaced by machines. some “new” curriculum ideas, suggested on a recent harvard business publishing webinar, highlighted “soft skills” such as creativity, critical thinking, prompt engineering, teamwork, empathy, and collective intelligence (lefevre & shrier, 2023), which would certainly fit the bill as areas of hi. other areas, deeply rooted in the human experience and likely challenging for ai and machines to replicate fully, include but are not limited to: emotional intelligence, intuition, moral and ethical reasoning, adaptability, wisdom, interpersonal skills, and self-awareness. pedagogy methods, such as problem-based and experiential learning, offer considerable promise for enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes. to this end, alongside technological adaptation, important hi skills fostering international awareness and cultural competence are crucial for preparing students for the global business environment that will be increasingly impacted by ai. cross-cultural communication strategies are essential for business professionals to navigate the increasingly interconnected world. collaborative online international learning (coil) projects—a type of experiential learning model—leverage virtual conferencing to connect classrooms across countries and cultures, bridging gaps in knowledge, and fostering global understanding (università cattolica del sacro cuore, 2021). these virtual exchanges support active learning through positive interdependence and the development of rapport between individuals working towards shared goals (johnson & johnson, 2005; compagnoni & serragiotto, 2024). this approach aligns with calls for innovative technological and pedagogical offerings to create novel educational services—identified as an imperative for future research (rahmadi, 2024) and represents a forward-thinking strategy preparing students for international collaboration. this study represents a further investigation into the outcomes reported by students participating in a blended mobility program—a coil course augmented by a brief study abroad experience—developed in partnership between universities in the united states and hungary. this inquiry takes up calls for further investigation into the deployment of collaborative skills, transferable to digital and real-life settings of professional and social nature (compagnoni & serragiotto, 2024) and exploring qualitative outcomes of international teaching and learning practices to help better inform institutions of higher education (eiras, 2024). through qualitative analysis of student reflections, this research examines self-reported outcomes, uncovering thematic insights into how blended mobility programs might better prepare students for digital and real-world professional contexts. 2. short-term study abroad, coil, and blended mobility 2.1. the rise of coil in higher education with today’s demanding and rapidly changing environment in the professional world, cultivating international and cross-cultural teamwork and business communication skills is vital; however, these blended mobility to enhance international business communication learning 55 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 important skills remain underdeveloped in many undergraduate curricula (escudeiro & escudeiro, 2018) despite the known promise of virtual education in business contexts (e.g., taras et al., 2013). facilitating transnational relationships—such as bilateral university partnerships—could offer an intriguing and beneficial path for skill enhancement. scholarship exploring the rationale, implementation, and outcomes of such collaborations remains needed (fehrenbach & huisman, 2022). short-term study abroad often offers students a more affordable option than longer duration study-abroad; short-term study abroad offers a number of increased intercultural communication skills (e.g., drews & myer, 1996; campbell, 2016; coker, heiser, & taylor, 2018) as well as broadening knowledge of global business practices (e.g., marlowe et al., 1998; henthorne et al., 2001). likewise, initial studies show that coil experiences have been met positively by students as a valuable format for building skills within undergraduate international business classes and can have a positive impact on their ability to work in global teams (garcia et al., 2023). traditional coil courses seek to enhance student learning by incorporating an international education component co-developed and co-taught by professors from different countries. this setup allows students to engage in online collaborative group projects that foster sustained interaction and communication in a guided, cross-cultural setting (liu & shirley, 2021). by integrating this type of virtual exchange, coil courses allow faculty and students to collaborate with global peers in co-taught, culturally-focused online environments, promoting intercultural awareness, disciplinary content knowledge, as well as essential skills in communication and teamwork (vahed & rodriguez, 2021). faculties collaborate to design diverse learning activities, such as shared assignments, co-teaching sessions, guest lectures, social engagements, group projects, and other undertakings, to offer students multiple points of interaction. coil has become increasingly popular as a tool for developing intercultural competence among students who might otherwise lack access to study or internship abroad programs. since 2015, italy’s università cattolica del sacro cuore has coordinated multiple coil projects, with u.s. and european partners, covering a variety of management courses including business communication (università cattolica del sacro cuore, 2021). three key elements of coil—pedagogy, technology, and cross-cultural learning—have been found to strengthen the integration of multicultural perspectives and can offer unique learning experiences for both students and faculty (asojo et al., 2019). research supports coil’s effectiveness in fostering intercultural competence in higher education students (e.g., hackett et al., 2023) and suggests additional benefits for developing other key workplace skills (mestre-segarra & ruiz-garrido, 2022). importantly, a sense of belonging has been reported via technology-based and blended learning environments. a sense of belonging is created when students feel included and connected to a group, class, subject, and/or institution (armelli et al., 2021; mendoza & venables, 2023; metzger & taggart, 2020; peacock & cowan, 2019). technology-based learning, through coil has been positively associated with an increased sense of connectedness and belonging among college students. for instance, a recent study on coil outcomes found significant improvements in intercultural competence as well as an enhanced sense of global community and belonging among undergraduate students from partnered u.s. and u.k. institutions (nowak et al., 2023). similarly, u.s. and dutch students reported perceptions of personal growth, intercultural sensitivity, intercultural competence, and professional development (harris & seo, 2024). another study observed that students in a u.s. international business class valued coil-based experiences for fostering empathy, understanding of global issues, connections with international peers, and perceived applicability of these skills in the workplace (garcia et al., 2023). instructors looking to implement coil should be mindful of potential challenges, including coordinating across time zones, motivating team members, managing group dynamics, addressing language and content requirements, and growing students’ intercultural communication competences. establishing a final task as a common goal, supporting baseline technological competency, and preparing for logistical difficulties require proactive planning and preparation (mestre-segarra & ruiz-garrido, 2022). faculties also report difficulties in sourcing high-quality, relevant materials, often needing the creation of custom resources (orzech, zhang, & greenfield, 2023). supporting students’ cognitive development, critical thinking, and self-confidence can enhance engagement and commitment but may require extra instructional effort (vahed, 2022). 2.2. the rise of blended mobility courses in higher education blended mobility can be defined as virtual mobility (e.g., coil) plus physical mobility (e.g., short-term study abroad). blended mobility combines joint online teaching and learning phases with periods of short-term physical mobility to one (or both) partner universities. this approach allows for a deeper, more sustained cross-cultural engagement to enrich and reinforce global/intercultural learning outcomes. in the wake of the meredith 56 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 global pandemic, which necessitated a shift to online education, some universities are now exploring blended mobility as a durable model for international learning (giralt et al., 2022). contributing to the emergence of this new type of mobility are the new universities alliances throughout europe. recognizing its potential, the european commission (2022) has promoted blended mobility as an integral component of future educational frameworks, particularly within the erasmus+ program. the european universities initiative aims at establishing cooperation between higher education institutions from across europe, supported through erasmus+ funding. despite this growing interest, blended mobility research is relatively sparse. helm and o’dowd’s (2020) position paper about virtual exchange suggests that blended mobility supports a range of 21st century “employability skills” including media and digital literacy, communication, global awareness, empathy, critical and analytical thinking, foreign language proficiency, and intercultural competencies. additionally, they note early returns on the erasmus+ research adds the employability skills of teamwork and problem-solving. this range of skills aligns with areas of hi and requires added research support. implementing a blended mobility course offers potential high outcome rewards but often comes with challenges. in a study by malichova, marton, and tokarcikova (2022), researchers reported on a blended mobility initiative aimed at enhancing teaching methods, business and social skills, and simulating real-word work environments that was developed by a consortium of twelve universities and one registered organization. although challenges were noted, such as logistical and coordination issues, the program yielded encouraging outcomes for students. in another study, perfolz and lopez-varela (2022) evaluated the outcomes of a blended mobility course by surveying students on whether the course facilitated international learning. results showed that 75% of students felt the course fully met this goal and an additional 20% agreed it was effective to a considerable extent. however, the study also listed challenges, primarily in the planning stages, such as financial framework, availability timeframes, personnel capacity with division of labor, and technical aspects. 2.3. an overview of the blended mobility course for this study at the university of north carolina’s kenan-flagler business school, students can enroll in faculty-led courses that involve short-duration international travel. these courses, known as global immersion electives (gie), typically consist of a sequence of pre-departure curricula leading to an in-country experience. the in-country component usually includes company visits, sightseeing, and cultural immersion activities. upon return, students participate in a debriefing session. in 2017, partially in response to student surveys expressing interest in a more extended client engagement, the blended mobility course was developed in collaboration with two professors from the corvinus university of budapest’s business and management program. the course was first offered during the spring term of 2018. in addition to the standard gie short-duration study abroad activities in hungary, the course incorporates a coil component. it consists of a project-based learning experience, via cross cultural teams, working together on an actual client engagement with the culminating task of a case competition while in-country. pedagogically, the course has three phases: 1) pre-departure (including coil experience); 2) in-country; and 3) debrief and reflection. early in the pre-departure phase, students are placed into “global” teams. a typical team consists of two students from kenan-flagler working with two students from corvinus. a class normally consisted of 8-12 cross-cultural teams, and the professors make an effort to mix the teams based upon student experience, background, interest of study, etc. each institution conducts separate, face-to-face “local” sessions for its students as well as online, synchronous joint sessions at mutually agreed upon times as part of the coil component. early in the engagement, all students attend a virtual kickoff meeting with the client, where they receive an overview of the project, and ha the opportunity to ask questions. throughout the pre-departure phase, student teams are expected to independently meet at least once per week. the pre-departure work lasts from january to the arrival in hungary in mid-march. table 1 outlines the pre-departure activities associated with the course. blended mobility to enhance international business communication learning 57 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 table 1 phase 1 pre-departure activities associated with the course grouping description activities & deliverables (us institution) local class sessions 4 face-to-face classes at (institution) class 1: course introduction, ice breakers, syllabus review, assignment briefings, journaling assignment kickoff class 2: hungarian culture exploration (globesmart, team presentations), travel logistics and preparation checklist class 3: maximizing the experience (session with career services), in-class smart goals exercise class 4: travel logistics and safety, project consultation (us institution) student homework activities students complete assignments, including some asynchronous work, to develop skills review globesmart self-analysis and compare with hungarian averages complete async module on working in virtual teams earn ibm design thinking badge work on journaling/self-analysis project research readings on hungarian culture, cross-cultural teaming, developing team norms, running meetings, consulting methodologies, design thinking, basics of using mural, etc. joint sessions 7 virtual meetings us institution + hu intuition class 1: introductions, icebreakers, overview, testimonials from past participants class 2: client kickoff meeting (come with questions) class 3: working in intercultural teams and case solving tips class 4: data, financials, and consulting methodologies class 5: ideation (multistep exercises facilitated on the mural platform) class 6: client consultation (come with questions) class 7: client presentation best practices: structure, story, delivery, and slide design global team virtual working sessions 4 meetings (minimum) teams schedule regular meetings designed to generate team bonding, socializing, learn from each other, and work on the client project. teams normally use other mediums to communicate as well including email, whatsapp, social media, text messages, etc. global team project consultation 2 virtual meetings us professor sources experienced consultants to provide two half-hour checkpoint consultation sessions with each student team. the in-country student experience (phase 2) spans over seven days (excluding travel time). during this phase, student teams worked on their projects in designated morning time blocks, with additional opportunities to meet during scheduled free time. toward the end of the week, students participate in a case competition, presenting their project solutions to a panel of judges composed of client representatives and professors. the competition is structured in two flights. the top team, from each flight, advances to a final presentation in front of all teams; afterward, a winner is selected. while the case competition is the culminating task of the trip, sightseeing, cultural immersions, company visits, socials, and opportunities to explore budapest are highly enriching aspects of the short-term study abroad program. table 2 overviews the in-country experience. meredith 58 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 table 2 phase 2 in-country key activities day key activities for the day 1 afternoon arrival, orientation, walking tour, welcome dinner 2 budapest sightseeing & cultural immersion (full-day) 3 morning: working session with student groups afternoon: cultural immersion/sightseeing evening social coordinated by hu students 4 morning: working session with student groups afternoon: cultural immersion & company visit evening social coordinated by hu students 5 morning: working session with student groups afternoon: company visit evening: team prep/free time 6 morning: case competition (2 flights of student presentations) lunch with client and hu institution administration afternoon: finalist presentation round, winners announced, and team pictures evening: farewell dinner, awards ceremony, and t-shirt swap with hungarian students and faculty 7 sightseeing/cultural immersion in small towns outside of budapest phase 3 focuses on reflection and debrief. approximately three weeks after the in-country experience, participating unc kenan-flagler students have a final class session. for this meeting, students write a single-spaced, two-page minimum reflection capturing the course experiences that had the greatest impact on them. students are given latitude on their reflection but encouraged to consult their journal and consider personal, intercultural, and professional growth. during the final class, students share their insights. additionally, a representative from the career services team lead a series of exercises (such as review of smart goals, providing sample resume language, and practice answering common interview questions) designed to help students maximize the career impact of their experience. 2.4. purpose of the study and research questions overall, coil courses are increasing in popularity, and research is burgeoning. blended mobility courses are less common but offer an intriguing option in higher education, resulting in increased attention; blended mobility is getting more funding as part of the erasmus+ 2021-2027 program (european commission, 2022). however, research on blended mobility remains limited, highlighting a need for further investigation into its outcomes. this study aims to explore the specific areas in which students self-report benefits from participating in a blended mobility course, focusing on both professional skill development and relational aspects. accordingly, this inquiry addresses the following research questions: rq1: which of helm and o’dowd’s (2020) proposed blended mobility “employability” skill outcomes were supported by student experiences? rq2: what, if any, additional “employability” skills do students report being fostered by the blended mobility experience? rq3: what perceptions of relational connectedness or belonging do students report through participation in blended mobility (nowak et al., 2023)? blended mobility to enhance international business communication learning 59 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 3. methodology 3.1. research design & participants this study employed thematic analysis and a qualitative descriptive approach to analyze open-ended, narrative self-reflection accounts from students at unc kenan-flagler, who participated in the blended mobility course. the course is an elective, typically capped at 20 students per cohort, to ensure an immersive experience, personalized interaction, and manageable team numbers for the case competition. the data for this study was collected over a three-year period from three iterations of the course, encompassing spring 2022, 2023, and 2024. all self-reflections submitted by kenan-flagler students during these three cohorts were included, resulting in n = 58 undergraduate students. all participants were enrolled in the gie to hungary. of these participants, n = 18 were women and n = 40 were men. participants’ ages ranged from 18-22 at the time of data collection. all participants took part in the coil+ course for roughly nine consecutive weeks, leading to the short-term study abroad period. the self-reflection assignment, completed by all n = 58 kenan-flagler business school students, provides key insights into their experiences and evaluation of the blended mobility course, allowing for a comprehensive analysis of student-reported outcomes. these reflections are particularly valuable for understanding perceived impacts on personal, intercultural, and professional development. students were instructed to write at least two single-spaced pages for their reflection. the average text length of completed assignments was 3 pages (range of 2-5 pages). the average word count was 1,415 with a range of 483-2,980 words per assignment. the hungarian students did not complete a similar self-reflection exercise, so their data were not captured as part of this study. 3.2. data collection and procedures as previously noted, kenan-flagler students were asked to reflect and capture some of the course experiences that made the greatest impact on them. the assignment was to create a written reflection document (two-page, single space minimum), and students submitted the assignment to the course canvas site. the reflection assignment prompt is included in the appendix. data were collected to ensure participant anonymity. participants’ names and personal information were removed from the collected data and replaced with codes. 3.3. data analysis a thematic analysis was conducted by the researcher and a trained research assistant to analyze participants’ self-reflection narratives and identify recurring themes, trends, and professional development. thematic analysis provides a structured approach for identifying common themes and gaining insights into participants’ experiences, beliefs, and/or attitudes. this study followed the six-step process developed and recommended by braun and clarke (2008): 1) familiarizing; 2) coding; 3) generating themes; 4) reviewing themes; 5) defining; and 6) naming themes. this same approach was effectively applied, in a similar recent study, creating insights from student reflections in a traditional coil context (harris & seo, 2024). the researcher and an assistant began by thoroughly reading participants’ assignments to become familiar with the data, making initial notes to capture preliminary impressions. categories were established with the assistance of concepts reported in previous research; specific codes were generated to represent key concepts within the data. the codes were manually examined and organized into potential themes, which were subsequently reviewed to ensure they captured meaningful aspects of the participants’ experiences. re-readings were conducted to confirm that each theme was well-supported by the data. in the final step, the themes were refined and defined. terms and concepts from existing coil, blended mobility, and intercultural communication literature were considered to enhance the rigor and contextual relevance of the findings. 4. findings 4.1. results for rq1 as previously noted, helm and o’dowd (2020) suggest that blended mobility can foster a variety of 21st century “employability skills,” including media and digital literacy, communication skills, global awareness, empathy, critical and analytical thinking, foreign language skills, intercultural competencies, teaming, and problem-solving. given the relative scarcity of research devoted to blended mobility, finding support for these skills advanced our understanding of student outcomes. the thematic analysis of student reflections in this meredith 60 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 study supported these nine employability skills as outcomes of the blended mobility experience, with the need to contextualize two themes. first, for digital media literacy, student experiences, as noted in the extracts in table 3, do not represent a direct reference to how they learned, discovered, or improved their knowledge of technologies. rather, students articulate how using a specific digital technology or platform helped them to learn, discover, and improve other sets of skills. however, as discussed by dezuanni (2016), a key consideration for digital media literacy is tapping into these literacies for connecting student identities to broader educational purposes. thus, the media literacy theme does not relate to the precursor student learning to use a digital platform; rather, participant extractions showcase how gaining/possession digital literacy was leveraged to an enhanced learning outcome. thus, this term was reclassified as “digital technology enabled learning.” second, since all course activities and student interactions were conducted in english, the “foreign language skills” component was reflected less in terms of multilingual proficiency and more as a skill in sense-making and overcoming communicative barriers across cultural contexts. this nuanced interpretation still highlights reported communication growth. further, even though the majority of participants’ l1 is english, they had to communicate with other students, academics, and professionals whose l1 is not english. this necessarily involves a new set of language adaptations, both at the oral and written modes, because the context of communication is no longer a natural l1 context but rather a context where english is used as a lingua franca; l1 speakers, thus, often acquire a new set of oral and written skills that enable them to communicate with non-natives (triki, giacosa, & li, 2023). table 3 provides sample quotes, three per proposed employability skill, from student reflections for each of the seven employability skills, illustrating the breadth and depth of the students’ skill development through their blended mobility experience. using themes from helm & o’dowd’s white paper, the nine emergent themes are: 1) digital technology enabled learning: media and digital media incorporates a broad set of skills related to effectively using digital technologies including the ability to find, evaluate, use, share, and create content using digital devices. here, students discuss the outcomes of using digital platforms versus learning about the platforms in the first place. 2) communications skills: the ability to effectively convey, receive, and interpret messages. students discuss professional communication enhancements. 3) global awareness: key aspects include cultural sensitivity, global issues, economic realities, and global citizenship. 4) empathy: the ability to understand and share feelings, thoughts, experiences, and experiences of others, as well as responding with compassion. students expressed a greater ability to place themselves in someone else’s shoes to build deeper connections, improve communication, and collaborate more effectively. 5) critical and analytical thinking: closely related cognitive skills that involve evaluating information and making reasoned decisions to solve problems. 6) foreign language skills: in this context, as previously stated, this skill was reflected less in terms of multilingual proficiency and more in sense-making and overcoming communicative barriers across cultural contexts. 7) intercultural competency: the ability to effectively and appropriately interact with people from different cultural backgrounds. 8) teaming: students frequently discussed the importance of working cohesively within their cross-cultural teams. they emphasized how the experience taught them to navigate interpersonal dynamics, appreciate diverse perspectives, and contribute meaningfully toward objectives. 9) case/problem-solving: the project-based nature of the course encouraged students to develop strong problem-solving skills. working on a real client case pushed them to analyze situations, ask questions, seek information, and propose feasible solutions. blended mobility to enhance international business communication learning 61 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 table 3 sample student responses supporting helm & o’dowd’s employability outcomes of blended mobility theme sample of student responses digital media enabled learning “utilizing tools like globesmart’s profile survey and cultural guides doing our joint virtual class sessions, my teammates and i were able to evaluate our respective strengths and weaknesses as well as address (and refine) some of the general preconceived notions we held.” “working virtually with (hu students) before traveling to hungary was truly a game-changer, meeting them online offered me a glimpse into the dynamics of real-world international business collaboration. it also served as a great icebreaker for our group, helping to break down any barriers, which built invaluable team rapport.” “i found the “inclusive virtual meetings” module particularly helpful in learning how to effectively communicate across cultures...during this module, i found myself reflecting on past projects that i had completed on diverse teams and imagining how our outcomes would have changed if some of these cross-cultural communication strategies had been implemented. in most cases, our work produced would have been of higher caliber, due to a higher general understanding of the goals and needs of each member within the team. after completing the module, i internalized some of the most helpful tips i learned, such as sending meeting itineraries to team members prior to a meeting virtually as well as following up after meetings with the responsibilities/tasks of each member to be completed prior to the following meeting.” communication skills “my group’s performance during presentation day gave me a boost of confidence as we effectively communicated out ideas and told the story of our recommendation convincingly. the experience proved to me that i can be an effective communicator in a professional setting.” “i believe this program significantly shaped my communication style and social behaviors for the better. before this program…i was (or arguably still am a bit) naturally awkward and shy. in our in-class “goal-setting assignment,” i challenged myself to improve my networking skills and intercultural awareness; through the experiences i will detail, i believe i’ve done both.” “the case competition was a completely new experience for me, as i have not done any prior work like this…within all kinds of academic settings, i personally dread presenting in front of people. i always have this fear i am not good at it and have issues formulating my thoughts. however, this experience made me realize that i am not an entirely bad presenter although i do have lots of room for improvement. i am completely capable of presenting in front of different people…what i thought was going to be the worst presentation of my life turned into one of my best because i had become comfortable…” global awareness “through conversation, i was able to learn more about the cultural significance of each hungarian dish and the stories behind them. i also learned that for hungarians it isn’t just about cooking it was also about preserving tradition, sharing stories, and building connection with others.” “…it was the warmth and hospitality of the hungarian people that truly touched my heart. from the joyful vendors at the markets to the friendly locals i met at cafes, each encounter was a reminder of the power of human connection to transcend language and cultural barriers.” ”having gotten used to only seeing the wealthiest parts of budapest, this moment placed me face-to-face with the fact that homelessness, poverty, pain and suffering exist all around the globe. this moment showed me that hungary wasn’t all that different from the us. while the culture, time zone, food, and climate may have changed, financial inequality hadn’t.” meredith 62 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 empathy “throughout my time in hungary, i had to reframe my perspective on the world and push myself to be more open to empathizing with experiences vastly different than the ones i already know. one of my most eye-opening experiences happened at szechenyi, where a few of us met a young woman a little bit older than us who is currently fleeing ukraine. she told us her story, explaining the details of suddenly having her life ripped out from under her and her family torn apart. i was struck by how sudden all of it was, and how similar she was to me.” “i learned to navigate through situations that were outside my previous realm of experiences (i.e., traveling out of my home country for the first time alone), honing critical life skills such as adaptability, problem-solving, and empathy.” “i feel more connected to other human beings than i ever have before, and feel empowered to think more empathetically every day, especially with the troubles of today’s world. as i graduate in may and enter a full-time position as a consultant this fall, i feel prepared and confident in my own strengths and distinct perspective. these experiences and lessons give me new context for working in international teams and with international clients, i walk away from this experience knowing that there is much to learn from others… ” critical and analytical thinking “the project we undertook with (client) was a practical application of our coil coursework. it demanded not just cultural awareness but strategic thought, leadership, and a global mindset. exploiting the theories and frameworks we had all learned pre-arrival, my team and i developed strategic recommendations tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities (client) would face entering the us market. this project was a way for testing our accumulated knowledge and the consulting skills we had honed in preparation.” “we had to navigate new logistical complexities, coordinate in a foreign environment under tight deadlines, reconcile the theoretical specs of our analysis with the practical realities of (client) faced, and ensure our strategies were not only innovative but also actionable within the constraints of the u.s. market.” “not only did the project help me learn to think outside the box through my own thinking and that of my peers, but it also reinforced my interest in analyzing the financial aspects of companies. this gives me even more confidence and eagerness to become a financial analyst and perform on the job in the years to come.” foreign language skills “going to budapest was the first time i didn’t speak the language. i remember going to mass at st. stephen’s basilica completely in hungarian and feeling lost. and words on the street signs were so long and full of constants. i joked saying that i would have given up learning hungarian as a kid if i had been born there as their language seemed so complex and difficult to learn. however, i was very glad to learn that most people in the city spoke english well.” “and amongst the laughter, there were moments of challenge and growth, like the time i attempted to correctly pronounce the longest hungarian word which is "megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért" with my hungarian friends. despite the tongue-twisting struggle, it became a shared joke among us, a lighthearted reminder of the beauty and complexity of the hungarian language.” “it seems silly to admit that one of the most formative experience i had during the in-country portion of our program was teaching my teammates american slang, but it’s the truth…yet not slang we taught them had as significant an impact as “cooking” and “cooked”, two similar-yetconstraining terms…for reasons unbeknownst to me, these words unlocked something in our teammates; they absolutely loved them and started sing the describe everything we did…through initiating simple and silly conversation, i believe i got to know our teammates on a deeper level, and this strengthened our working relationship and allowed us to collaborate more freely than we did virtually.” blended mobility to enhance international business communication learning 63 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 intercultural competency “getting to know the hungarian students also forced me out of the comfort zone as i found it a bit challenging at first to break the ice…being around them (hungarian students) taught me how to break outside of my comfort zone, more easily start the conversation, and take an interest in others.” ‘getting to know them (hungarians) not only deepened my appreciation for diversity but also taught me to approach differences with an open mind and genuine curiosity. witnessing their willingness to share ideas, even when controversial, highlighted the importance of open dialogue and cultural exchange in fostering mutual understanding and collaboration.” “the intercultural aspect of the gie was one of the most impactful, as it exposed me to the complexities and nuances of cross-cultural communication and collaboration…i learned to recognize and appreciate cultural differences while finding common ground to foster meaningful connections.” teaming “we created a psychologically safe environment where no one was afraid to share ideas, this let our creativity shine.” “for me, this experience was a lesson in different working styles, managing expectations, and leveraging strengths. i also learned critical skills like navigating team meetings with time-zone differences, staying adaptable in constantly changing situations, and building meaningful crosscultural relationships.” “we learned that effective collaboration under pressure was not just about dividing tasks, but also about converging different viewpoints into a unified, strategic direction, these experiences were instrumental in fostering a mindset that views obstacles not as setbacks but as opportunities for learning and growth.” case/problem solving “(by) working closely with my teammates and receiving guidance from our professors i was able to improve my design thinking, problem-solving, presentation, and teamwork skills.” “conducting market research, analyzing data and developing recommendations for our client allowed me to hone my problem-solving skills and critical thinking abilities. moreover, presenting our findings to the client and receiving feedback was a valuable learning experience that enhanced my communication and presentation skills.” “i have done a few case competitions before, but this was a real problem a company was facing which made the experience more authentic...the experience developed me heavily professionally.” 4.2. results for rq2 4.2.2 support for additional employability skills in addition to the nine employability skills proposed by helm and o’dowd (2020), thematic analysis of student reflections revealed five additional skills reported developed through the blended mobility experience. while the following concepts are somewhat inherently interconnected to the previous skills, they are mutually exclusive as determined and coded by the research team. these emerging skills were highlighted by students as key takeaways from the program, enhancing their readiness for complex, real-world environments: 1) gaining “real world” experience: many students noted the value of applying classroom knowledge to the real problem set provided by the client. working on an actual client project allowed them to experience the practical applications of their coursework. meredith 64 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 2) self-awareness: reflections indicated that students gained a deeper understanding of their own strengths, weaknesses, and perspective. this self-awareness emerged as they navigated different roles and challenges, prompting them to consider their impact and growth areas. 3) adaptability: students highlighted adaptability as essential for describing situations requiring quick adjustments such as changing schedules, cultural norms, and project needs. 4) conflict resolution: students discussed the need to navigate disagreements and rejections productively. 5) increased confidence: many students reported increased confidence in their professional abilities and resilience. the immersive, hands-on nature of the course contributed to their sense of accomplishment and readiness for future challenges. table 4 provides sample quotes illustrating each of these five additional skills, three per additional employability outcome, from student reflections. table 4 additional employability outcomes of blended mobility based on student responses theme sample of student responses gaining practical, “real world” experience “…i felt that i was able to improve my teamwork skills by working with foreign partners who had different mannerisms and coming up with creative solutions for problems we faced. these skills are very transferable to many fields and aspects of life, and i can see this benefitting me professionally in both the far and near future.” “moreover, this journey has been instrumental in my professional growth, equipping me with essential skills such as consulting frameworks, teamwork, and communication (skills).” “the opportunity to work on a real business project for [client name] also helped me gain insights about international business and how it differs from the practices i previously took for granted in the us. for example, when creating a discounted cash flow model for our [client name] financial projections, we had to use a much higher weighted average cost of capital assumption to account for hungary’s extremely high treasury bond yields. there were also other factors to consider, such as the fact that european cities are often more compact and more walkable.” growing in self-awareness “after visiting hungary, i experienced many things that challenged what i thought about myself and about the world in general. interacting with the hungarians showed me a whole new perspective. for example, i learned that in every trip i make, i come back home with not only new memories and new friends, but also with a deeper understanding of myself and fresh insights into the world.” “we had a conversation about what we appreciated about each other one night. i learned that i came off as a very genuine person who isn’t afraid to admit “embarrassing” things about myself. that completely threw off my self-impression. i’m very caught up in people-pleasing. to hear that i came off as vulnerable and authentic helped me realize how i compensate for my people-pleasing tendencies by being honest and transparent. i would never have known that about myself if i hadn’t had these conversations.” “my time in hungary has significantly shifted my perspective on the world and my place within it. living and studying in a foreign country compelled me to develop a greater self-awareness and self-sufficiency…this journey was as much about self-discovery as it was about exploration of the world, shaping a more nuanced understanding of my values and aspirations. adaptability “these experiences have taught me the importance of adaptability, the value of diverse perspectives, and the strength found in community.” “to make progress in our meetings, my american colleague and i took on the challenge of starting our conversations. for me this was quite difficult at first since i am pretty reserved blended mobility to enhance international business communication learning 65 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 myself, but i learned to overcome and adapt. if i did not come out of my shell, we were not going to make any progress. i found though that i was able to understand and adapt to their cultural differences quite effectively...: “quickly adapting to communication styles, time zone differences, language barriers, and cultural norms will make a huge impact on my work-life relationships and an understanding that knowing my team enables better teamwork will motivate me to get to know them on a deeper level.” conflict resolution “i also learned how to work with conflict. (classmate) and i often bounced ideas off one another and frequently disagreed. i learned how to both take a rejection and respectfully give a rejection”. “the biggest learning moment for me was on wednesday, the day before presenting. it was the last hour and that teammate was complaining about the executive summary. he didn’t like the way the three of us had done it. i was frustrated because we had all been working on it and if he contributed then we wouldn’t be wasting time on this conversation. i quickly realized this mindset would not be helpful and took a deep breath. instead of being annoyed, i had him sit down and asked him questions about to figure out what he didn’t like about the executive summary and how we could go about making a new one together. it led to a good conversation where we shared our opinions and created an executive summary that in the end was better than the previous two versions. both of us walked away happy because we both felt heard and validated.” “i will not go into detail, but in one case, i lost respect for someone due to their personal actions on the trip, yet i had to work and travel with this individual for a week. fortunately, it was not someone i worked directly with. the question became: how do i separate personal and professional feelings on a trip of this nature to avoid any potential conflict? my solution, right or wrong, was to only attempt a professional relationship with the person and distance myself during any free-time. in consideration of this person’s feelings, i made no sign of being dismayed at their behavior and they would not have known my true thoughts about them. i mention this subject only because i believe it is important to recognize that in any professional setting, there will be people who you will need to work with effectively despite personal feelings.” increased confidence “when it came to my turn to speak during our presentation, i lost that sense of fear and didn’t stumble over any thoughts or words as i went slightly off-script. i felt confident and the anxiety turned into an exhilarating feeling as i realized i had somewhat gotten over a long-time hurdle in my public-speaking journey. even during the challenging q&a, i felt poised as i formulated thoughts right before i spoke them.” “i’ve noticed a newfound confidence in my ability to navigate complex cultural situations, a skill sharpened by the necessity to adapt quickly in a foreign context. moreover, the team-building, leadership experiences, and consulting slide design frameworks have further informed my approach to group projects and class discussions, enriching my contributions and interactions with peers.” ‘the main lesson that i learned from this project experience is to trust myself and realize that i am valuable and here for a reason…i believe that it is a combination of self and collaborative reflection that leads to effective and successful growth in character and professional development.” 4.3. results for rq3 as noted, recent research highlights that coil experiences offer relational benefits, such as fostering a sense of global community and belonging. for instance, a public health course between u.s. and u.k. higher meredith 66 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 education institutions found a significant change in students’ knowledge of cultural worldview, as well as reported positive impacts on a sense of belonging (nowak et al., 2023). the current study found that blended mobility fosters relational benefits. in fact, every student (n = 58) reported at least one statement that could be categorized as experiencing a relational benefit from the course. a thematic analysis of student reflections identified ten sub-themes that characterize the relational dimensions fostered by the blended mobility experience: 1) broad cultural connection: students reported a sense of connection to the broader cultural environment, finding value in a shared experience and/or feeling part of a global community. 2) bonding among u.s. institution students: this category reflects stated accounts of enhanced camaraderie and/or support among classmates from their own institution, fostering closer-knit peer group—especially during the in-country travel phase. 3) bonding between students from the peer institution: students highlighted the relationships they built with their hungarian peers as meaningful and projected to be long-lasting. 4) interpersonal insights/overcoming misconceptions: students noted personal growth from overcoming preconceived notions, gaining a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives, and dispelling stereotypes thought direct interactions. 5) u.s. faculty/staff closeness: an expression of appreciation for connecting with faculty and staff. 6) peer institution faculty appreciation: students shared positive experiences working with the partner institution. 7) seeking to expand personal network: several students mentioned a desire to continue building their networks inspired by the connections formed during the course. 8) physical acts of promoting bonding: acts such as hiking, exploring, and even hugging were cited as catalysts for deepening student connections with peers. 9) improved intrapersonal self-talk: students reported enhanced self-concept. 10) spiritual connection or growth: multiple students described moments of spiritual awakening or growth, particularly during travel, which added a deeper layer of personal reflection and sense of connectedness. table 5 provides a representative quote for each of these sub-themes. table 5 relational benefits & belonging outcomes of blended mobility based on student responses sub-theme sample of student responses broad cultural connection “in that moment, surrounded by laughs and the smell of this delicious plate, i felt a huge sense of connection to the people and the culture of hungary.” bonding among u.s. institution students “i was impressed by how everyone from unc kenan-flagle clicked together as a group and became friends…” bonding between students from peer institution “this planted the most important takeaway from the entire trip: people are people, no matter where you go. my worries of not being able to culturally connect with the hungarians faded away; because at the end of the day, we were all united by the same things: the feeling of being embarrassed, wanting to make friends, fears of loneliness, hopes of grandeur and happinesswe were all deeply human at the end of the day and that was universal. overall, what started as deep fear over not getting to know the hungarians well due to cultural barriers…faded over the week as i would come to make some of the closest bonds i’ve had thus far in college.” interpersonal insights / overcoming misconceptions “i was also was able to challenge my preconceptions about certain groups of people within the actual class as well; interacting with (and befriending) i most likely would have never spoken to on campus otherwise helped me realize that a lot of the things i held close to my heart were not necessarily true, but i operated as if they were cold, hard facts.” blended mobility to enhance international business communication learning 67 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 faculty / staff closeness “(faculty and staff) were all so understanding, funny, and nice. i do not think it would have been the same without you, and i thank you for who you all are. this course, this trip, and everything about this experience will go down as one of the best things i’ve done in my life.” peer institution faculty appreciation “one of my favorite parts of this gie has been the opportunity to engage with diverse cultures and perspectives. interacting with the hungarian students and faculty has broadened my worldview and made me reconsider my beliefs.” seeking to expand personal network “i feel that my network of fellow students and friends that i can rely on has grown exponentially and has made me want to become more involved with campus life and to further build these meaningful networks.” physical acts promoting bonding i am very used to simply hugging; i learned just how uncommon that is in hungary, even between close friends. what become funny as that after we discussed this, to show respect, our hungarian teammates would hug (us), as each other, every single time we saw each other. improved intrapersonal self-talk “any time i tried to engage with others, i convinced myself that i was encroaching on their preorganized groups…all of my preconceived notions were in my head. in the end, i created new relationship with my peers, something my introverted self oftentimes struggles to accomplish.” spiritual connection or growth “being in such a beautiful places of worship in budapest took my breath away and i felt like i was reconnecting with god in my own way. i remember kneeling at one of the pews in the basilica and saying a few prayers. being in that moment almost brought me to tears because it was overwhelmingly fulfilling to feel so connected to god again.” 5. discussion and implications blended mobility and intercultural communication are crucial components for modern business education, especially in the ai age. by 2027, an estimated 60% of higher education institutions will adopt a hybrid operating model that combines physical and digital capabilities to create a unified environment for learning, teaching, research, and operations (sheehan, riley, farrell, et al., 2023). blended mobility and intercultural business communication offer impactful components for modern business education. this shift aligns with the goals of aacsb-accredited business schools to make a positive impact on business, society, and the global community. as ai continues to transform industries globally, the ability to navigate diverse cultural contexts and adapt to various environments has become crucial. business schools that prioritize these skills are not only preparing their students for current challenges but also equipping them with the tools to navigate future uncertainties. as ai and machine learning continue to evolve, the ability to work effectively in diverse environments and communicate across cultures will be invaluable to the human experience. blended mobility can help equip students with these skills, ensuring they are prepared for the complexities of ai-driven workplaces. intercultural communication skills are essential for business students to thrive in a globalized world. blended mobility, which combines physical and virtual mobility, allows students to gain international experience without the need for extensive travel. this approach not only broadens their cultural understanding but also enhances their ability to communicate effectively across diverse environments. the combination of blended mobility and intercultural communication could foster a more dynamic and resilient workforce. the present inquiry aimed at exploring the self-reported student experiences with a blended mobility course found support for a range of hi learning outcomes. this research highlights the specific skills and themes that emerge from blended mobility experiences. helm and o’dowd’s (2020) position paper promoted the importance of blended mobility in cultivating student employability skills. nine of the skills noted in their manuscript—digital technology enabled learning, communication skills, global awareness, empathy, critical and analytical thinking, foreign language skills, intercultural competency, teaming, and problem-solving—were supported with the current research. five related, but differentiated, themes—gaining of practical, real-world experience, growth in self-awareness, adaptability, conflict resolution tools, and confidence—all emerged as well. meredith 68 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 previous research has shown that participation in technology-based and coil learning is positively associated with a higher sense of belonging among college students (long, 2016; nowak, et al., 2023). this study indicates that a sense of belonging extends—and perhaps deepens—through blended mobility. every student participant noted at least one positive relational, belonging outcome. ten relational subthemes emerged from the student responses: cultural connection, bonding among u.s. institution students, bonding between students from the peer institution, interpersonal insights/overcoming misconceptions, u.s. faculty/staff closeness, peer institution faculty appreciation, seeking to expand personal network, physical acts of promoting bonding, improved intrapersonal self-talk, and spiritual connection or growth. many, if not all, of the major themes from this study’s analysis have been covered in the literature on virtual intercultural exchange and/or short duration study abroad. however, the findings of this study underscore the potential of blended mobility to foster a wide-range of employability skills and relational benefits for students and seemingly exceeding the outcomes possible from a traditional coil-only program or a short duration study abroad-only experience. further, the belonging outcomes extended across all students and ten subthemes emerged. thus, the blend of coil and short-duration travel abroad seems to have a synergistic effect on outcomes—especially related to hi skills and belonging. the support for a range of hi skills in this study offers a useful conversation into stimulating teaching practices and curricula design that can help meet the increased demands of an ai-equipped landscape. this study has identified reported student support for the varied rich outcomes of a combined coil experience with cultural immersion. further research into blended mobility courses is necessary to more fully understand their impact. research involving participants from other universities might help complement or further inform this study. seeking and comparing insights from the host institution would be potentially enlightening. blended mobility programs, such as the one explored in this study, illustrate a type of impactful educational approach that can provide students with meaningful, real-world experiences and expand their ability to operate in a globalized context. by embracing blended mobility and intercultural communication, higher education institutions can ensure their graduates are well-rounded, globally competent, and ready to make a positive impact in the business world. despite the fact that implementing blended mobility well comes with a range of costs, these findings imply that blended mobility is a promising model for educators and program designers. supporting faculty with training and resources tailed to blended mobility can help address challenges related to coordination, cultural integration, student engagement, and more. 6. limitations and conclusions since this study used a thematic analysis, the findings cannot be generalized to all contexts. the results are based solely on self-reporting; the study’s aim was to assess the students’ reflections on personal growth as related to their participation and engagement within the course program. additionally, insights were collected from one of the two participating institutions. collecting student’s first language information, ethnic belonging, and other variables may have added deeper insights into student intercultural experiences. in sum, this study highlights blended mobility as a powerful approach for preparing students to thrive in a globally interconnected world. the rise of digital advancements, particularly generative ai, calls for higher education to embrace technological innovations wile reinforcing hi aspects of education. this study suggests that blended mobility offers a valuable avenue for enhancing human-centered skills that technology alone cannot fully replicate. the strong student sentiment captured in reflection statements such as, “i would like to begin by saying that this 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(2022). examining students’ reflections on a collaborative online international learning project in an iclhe context. system, 105, 1-15. nowak, amy versnik, gray, marzell, omodara, damilola, & gibson, linda (2023). creating a sense of global community and belonging through collaborative online international learning. journal of teaching and learning with technology, 12, 120-128. retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jotlt/article/view/36248 o’dowd, robert (2018). from telecollaboration to virtual exchange: state-of-the-art and the role of unicollaboration in moving forward. journal of virtual exchange, 1 (1), 1–23. o’dowd, robert., & lewis, tim (eds.), online intercultural exchange: policy, pedagogy, practice. routledge. pp 69–82. orzech, mary jo, zhang, jie, & greenfield, victoria (2023). building global relationships: open education resources and collaborative online international learning courses. journal of educational technology systems 52(2), 145-164. https://doi.org/10.1177/00472395231206812 peacock, susi, cowan, john, irvine, lindesay, & williams, jane (2020). an exploration into the importance of a sense of belonging for online learners. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 21(2), 18–35. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v20i5.4539 blended mobility to enhance international business communication learning 71 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 perfolz, rene, & lopez-varela, asun (2022). internationalization of teaching and learning through blended mobility: potentials of joint international blended courses and challenges in their implementation. education science, 12, 810. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12110810 rahmadi, imam fitri (2024). research on digital transformation in higher education: present concerns and future endeavors. techtrends. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-024-00971-0 sheehan, tony, riley, paul, farrell, grace, mahmood, saher, calhoun williams, kelly, & thayer, terri-lynn (2023). gartner research predicts 2024: education automation, adaptability and acceleration [white paper]. gartner. https://emt.gartnerweb.com/ngw/globalassets/en/content/documents/predicts-2024-education-automation-adaptability-and-acceleration-reskin.pdf taras, vas, caprar dal v., rottig, daniel, sarala riikka m., zakaria norhayati, zhao, fang, jiménez, alfredo, wankel charles, lei, weng si, minor, michael s., bryła, pawel, ordeñana xavier, bode alexander, schuster, anja, vaiginiene, erika, froese, fabian jintae., bathula, hanoku, yajnik, nilay, baldegger, rico, & huang, victor zengyu (2013). a global classroom evaluating the effectiveness of global virtual collaboration as a teaching tool in management education. academy of management learning and education, 12(3), 414–435. tight, malcolm (2022). internationalism of higher education beyond the west: challenges and opportunities—the research evidence. educational research and evaluation, 27(3-4), 239-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2022.2041853 triki, nesrine, giacosa, antonella, & li, bin. (2023). construing virtual intercultural experiences: a transitivity analysis of pronominal use in students’ reflective journals. lingua (286), 1-26. università cattolica del sacro cuore (6 aug 2021). a shift toward collaborative online international learning. the chronicle of higher education, 67(24). vahen, anisa (2022). factors enabling and constraining students’ collaborative online international learning experiences. learning environments research, 25, 895-915. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-021-09390-x vahed, anisa, & rodriguez, krista (2021). enriching students’ engaged learning experiences through the collaborative online international learning project. innovations in education and teaching international, 58(5), 596-605. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2020.1792331 meredith 72 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 appendix the following prompt represents the student participant’s final selfreflection assignment used for the blended mobility course each analyzed semester. this prompt generated the data coded for this study. final reflection assignment upon completion of this gie, i want you to reflect and capture some of the experiences that have made the greatest impact on you. please write a reflection document (minimum 2 pages, single spaced document using business writing best practices (including bold headings)). be ready to discuss your reflections in our wrap-up class. content considerations: revisit the "curiosity" journal assignment; include a focus on personal, intercultural, and professional growth. i'll consider content, structure, depth of learning self-reflection, overall work quality, and creativity! blended mobility to enhance international business communication learning 73 e-journall, 12(1) (2025), pp. 53–73 michael meredith, kenan-flagler business school michael_meredith@kenan-flagler.unc.edu en michael meredith is a clinical professor of management & corporate communication for the kenan-flagler business school and serves as a collaborative online international learning (coil) faculty fellow with the office of the vice provost for global affairs for the university of north carolina at chapel hill. his teaching, research interests, and consulting work relate to professional communication, messaging, international and global business, leadership, artificial intelligence (ai), technology, pedagogy, consulting skills, megatrends, go-to-market strategy, sales, and persuasion. his professional experience includes positions in management, sales, finance, and consulting. in addition to his professional roles at the kfbs, he routinely engages in consulting and executive coaching client work. he holds a phd in communication from bowling green state university, an mba from ohio university, a case method teaching certification from harvard business, and dual bs degrees from ohio university. es michael meredith es profesor de gestión y comunicación corporativa en la kenan-flagler business school y está afiliado al programa collaborative online international learning (coil) de la oficina del vicerrector de asuntos globales de la universidad de carolina del norte en chapel hill. su rol docente, intereses, investigaciones y consultorías están relacionados con la comunicación profesional, la mensajería, los negocios internacionales/globales, el liderazgo, la inteligencia artificial (ia), la tecnología, la pedagogía, las habilidades de consultoría, las megatendencias, la estrategia de salida al mercado, las ventas y la persuasión. su experiencia profesional incluye puestos de gerencia, ventas, finanzas y consultoría. además de sus funciones profesionales en la kfbs, trabaja habitualmente como consultor y coach ejecutivo para clientes. tiene un doctorado en comunicación de la bowling green state university, una maestría de la ohio university, una certificación en enseñanza de metodología de casos de la harvard business school y una doble licenciatura de la ohio university. it michael meredith è docente a contratto con profonda esperienza professionale nel campo della comunicazione e del management presso la kenan-flagler business school ed è affiliato al programma di apprendimento internazionale collaborativo online (coil) presso l'ufficio del vice rettore per gli affari globali della university of north carolina a chapel hill. la sua attività didattica, i suoi interessi di ricerca e il suo lavoro di consulenza riguardano la comunicazione professionale, la costruzione dei messaggi, il business internazionale e globale, la leadership, l’intelligenza artificiale (ia), la tecnologia, la pedagogia, le competenze consulenziali, i megatrend, le strategie di ingresso sul mercato (go-to-market), le vendite e la persuasione. la sua esperienza professionale comprende ruoli in ambito manageriale, vendite, finanza e consulenza. oltre ai suoi incarichi accademici presso il kfbs, svolge regolarmente attività di consulenza e executive coaching per clienti. è in possesso di un dottorato in comunicazione presso la bowling green state university, un mba presso la ohio university, una certificazione in case method teaching presso la harvard business school e una laurea triennale duale presso la ohio university. microsoft word petrocelli_8.1.docx e-­‐journall,  euroamerican  journal  of  applied  linguistics  and  languages   volume  8,  issue  1,  march  2021,  20–52   issn  2376-­‐905x     http://doi.org/10.21283/2376905x.13.227   www.e-­‐journall.org   ©  petrocelli  2021.  this  work  is  licensed  under  a  creative  commons  attribution  4.0  international  license.       pre-­‐service  teacher  education:  observing  senior  teachers  through  the   theoretical  lens  of  ellis’s  principles  of  instructed  language  learning         emilia  petrocelli     università  per  stranieri  di  siena     received  20  october  2020;  accepted  after  revisions  6  january  2021   abstract en the study is based on a training project completed in italy as part of a qualifying course for high school teachers of l2 english. the project moves around the framework that rod ellis proposed in 2010 on the relationship between second language acquisition and language pedagogy and it argues the need for student teachers (sts) to take the role of classroom researchers during their learning process and carry out critical observations through a solid theoretical lens, such as the 10 principles for instructed language learning by ellis (2005a, 2005b). three case studies are analyzed to explore how sts observed classroom activities armed with the knowledge of the principles. data is based on feedback they gave during seminar discussions and remarks made in written reports. moreover, a follow-up survey of informants after five years’ in-service practice questions whether and how this experience influenced the quality and degree of their understanding of teaching and learning. considering these results, suggestions are made for future implementations of this kind of project. key words: instructed language learning, second language teacher education, language pedagogy, communicative approach, italian secondary school, english as a foreign language (efl) es el estudio se basa en un proyecto de capacitación realizado en italia como parte de un curso de cualificación para profesores de inglés como l2 de educación secundaria. el proyecto se inspira en el marco que rod ellis propuso en 2010 sobre la relación entre la adquisición de segundas lenguas y la pedagogía lingüística, y sostiene que los profesores en formación necesitan asumir el papel de investigadores dentro del aula durante su proceso de aprendizaje y realizar una observación crítica a través de una lente teórica sólida como los 10 principios para el aprendizaje de idiomas instruido de ellis (2005a, 2005b). el análisis de tres estudios de caso explora cómo los estudiantes observaron las actividades de aula armados con el conocimiento de dichos principios. los datos se basan en los comentarios que hicieron durante los debates del seminario y en las observaciones realizadas en los informes escritos. además, una encuesta de seguimiento de los informantes después de cinco años de docencia cuestiona si esta experiencia influyó, y de qué manera, en la calidad y el grado de comprensión de los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje. teniendo en cuenta estos resultados, se hacen sugerencias para futuras implementaciones de este tipo de proyectos. palabras clave: aprendizaje de idiomas instruido, capacitación de profesores de segundas lenguas, enseñanza de la lengua, enfoque comunicativo, educación secundaria italiana, inglés como lengua extranjera it lo studio si basa su un progetto di tirocinio inserito in un corso di abilitazione per docenti d’inglese nella scuola superiore (tfa). il progetto si ispira al quadro teorico proposto da rod ellis nel 2010 sul legame tra acquisizione della l2 e didattica delle lingue e si basa sull’idea che i tirocinanti debbano effettuare le osservazioni in classe vestendo i panni di ricercatori, con una lente teorica solida come i 10 principi per l’insegnamento delle lingue di ellis (2005a, 2005b). l’analisi esplora il processo di formazione dei tirocinanti in tre casi studio e le modalità in cui essi si sono mossi nell’osservazione delle lezioni di lingua, armati della conoscenza dei principi di ellis. i dati includono le riflessioni dei tirocinanti durante le discussioni seminariali e nelle loro relazioni di fine percorso. inoltre, dopo cinque anni d’insegnamento di ruolo, quegli stessi tirocinanti sono stati intervistati per ricevere informazioni su se e come questa esperienza abbia influenzato la qualità e il livello della loro consapevolezza dei processi d’insegnamento e apprendimento. sulla base dei risultati, vengono avanzate alcune proposte per lo sviluppo di questo tipo di progetti. parole chiave: apprendimento della lingua, formazione per docenti di lingua, didattica, approccio comunicativo, scuola secondaria italiana, inglese come lingua straniera *  emilia  petrocelli,  università  per  stranieri  di  siena                  petrocelli@unistrasi.it http://www.e-journall.org pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        21   the   focus   of   this   paper   is   the   need   to   situate   second   language   teacher   education   (slte)   in   italy   within   a   theoretical   framework   which   can   be   accessed   and   shared   by   second   language   acquisition   (sla)   researchers,  teacher  educators,  and  language  teachers.  the  study  recounts  a  2015  training  project  designed   for  those  aspiring  to  teach  english  as  a  second  language  in  high  school.  specifically,  the  project  consisted  of  a   group   of   seminars   held  within   a  wider   course   on   efl   teaching  methodology.   this   course  was   part   of   the   italian  tirocinio  formativo  attivo  (tfa,  active  formative  training),  a  now  defunct  one-­‐year  teacher  qualifying   course  which  included  up  to  400  hours  of  school  practicum.   the  outline  of   the  project   followed  the  framework  that  professor  rod  ellis  (2010)  created  to  guide   the   relationship   between   sla   and   language   pedagogy   (lp),   arguing   that   there   is   a   need   to   “design   and   implement  an  sla  course  for  teachers  that  can  be  […]  investigated  empirically”  (p.  197).  the  theoretical  lens   through   which   classrooms   were   observed   during   this   training   course   was   guided   by   ellis’s   principles   for   successful  instructed  language  learning  (2005a,  2005b),  which  “draw  on  a  variety  of  theoretical  perspectives   and   are   offered   as   ‘provisional   specifications’   for   a   learning-­‐centered   language   pedagogy”   (ellis,   2005b,   p.   209).   trainees’   reflections  on  observations  of   senior   teachers’  practices  during   the  course  and   five  years   later  were  analyzed  to  investigate  the  effect  that  this  kind  of  learning  experience  had  on  the  student  teachers   (sts).   the   purpose  was   to   find   out  what   the   sts   gained   as   a   result   of   applying   the   theoretical   lens   of   the   principles   for   instructed   language   learning   (ellis,   2005a,   2005b)  both   in   their   immediate  observations   and   afterwards,  as  they  became  in-­‐service  teachers.  an  examination  of  the  data  will  help  determine  whether  this   model  can  be  transferrable  and  applicable  elsewhere.   this  research  attempts  to  respond  to  the  needs  of  the  italian  teacher  training  and  enrolment  scheme,   which  has  not  had  the  opportunity  to  stabilize  itself  into  a  solid  and  well-­‐rooted  system  because  of  frequent   governmental   alternation   between   left-­‐   and   right-­‐wing   parties.   each   winning   coalition   often   nullified   decisions  taken  by  the  preceding  rival  one  without  considering  the  impact  this  instability  would  have  on  the   efficiency  of  the  teacher  training  system  and  on  the  creation  of  a  shared  set  of  values  for  teachers’   identity.   over   the   years,   practicums   have   been   included   sporadically   in   teacher   education   plans;   simultaneous   and   consecutive  models  have  alternated  and  even  coexisted;  universities  have  been  involved  intermittently;  pre-­‐ service   courses   (when   included)   have   varied   in   terms   of   length   and   enrolment   requirements;   procedures   have   changed.   a   teacher   training   project   like   the   one   proposed   here   could   help   solidify   the   collaboration   between   sla   research   and   lp   in   the   shaping   of   educational   pathways   to   train   teachers  who   can   critically   assess  teaching  practices  and  make  choices  with  methodological  awareness.   a   theoretical   tool   for   observations   in  pre-­‐service   school   practicum   is   offered   to  prevent   sts  being   sent   into   teaching   apprenticeships   without   any   tools   to   assess   senior   teachers’   practices   as   sometimes   happens  (cf.  richards,  1998;  richards  &  nunan,  1990;  singh  &  richards,  2006;  ur,  1996;  wallace,  1991).  the   reason  why  ellis’s  principles  (2005a,  2005b)  were  chosen  is  because  they  were  drafted  upon  the  request  of   educational  institutions  (the  ministry  of  education  in  new  zealand)  and  thus  were  specifically  conceived  for   the   learning   of   languages   in   schools.   guidelines   have   been   proposed   by   others,   but   they  were   focused   on   somehow  propaedeutic  issues  to  the  principles  and  on  the  quality  of  language  teaching  in  general  classroom   contexts   (brown,   2000,   2001;   lightbown,   2001)   or   in   the   university   context   (allwright,   2003).   also,   since   ellis’s   principles   are   offered   as   “provisional   specifications”,   they   are   open   to   be   discussed,   interpreted,   investigated   so   teachers   can   access   them   actively   and   critically.   in   this   regard,   it   is   argued   that   ellis’s   principles   for   successful   instructed   language   learning   (2005a,  2005b)   could   favorably  be  used  by   a   shared   community  of   educators   in  sl   (second   language)   teacher  preparation   courses  as   a   solid   tool   for   classroom   observation,  as  an  aid  to  strengthen  sts’  background  knowledge,  as  an  enforcement  to  their  self-­‐assessment   and  as  a  point  of  reference  in  their  later  teaching  career.     1.  the  theoretical  models  of  the  study   1.1.  bridging  the  divide  between  sla  and  lp  through  teacher  education   the   following  outline  covers   the   theoretical  background  of   this  study,  presenting  studies   that  have   attempted  to  bridge  the  gap  between  sla  and  lp  within  the  context  of  teacher  education.  particular  attention   is  given  to  a  fundamental  element  that  structured  my  project:  the  features  of  the  nexus  ellis  proposed  in  2010   to  guide   the  relationship  between  sla  researchers,   classroom  researchers,   teacher  educators  and   language   teachers.  also,  particular  reference  is  made  to  erlam’s  research  in  teacher  education  contexts  which—like  my   project—was  based  on  ellis’s  nexus  (2010)  and  more  specifically  on  the  principles   for   instructed  language   petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    22   learning  (ellis,  2005a,  2005b),  used  both  as  a  filter  to  access  sla  theoretical  knowledge  and  as  the  model  for   evaluation  of  teaching  practices.   the  divide  between  sla   research  and  lp  has  been  widely   acknowledged.   stewart   (2006)  and  han   (2007)  relate  that  the  teaching  english  to  speakers  of  other  languages  (tesol)  organization  attempted  to   bridge   this   gap.   the   sla   researchers,   mostly   teachers   themselves,   were   increasingly   concerned   with   the   growing  range  of   issues  brought   to   light  by   the  research  but  which  were  not  always  raised   for  pedagogical   reasons  (ellis,  1997;  erlam,  2008).     if   on   the  one  hand,   some  argue   there   can  be  no  divide   since   theory   is   in   fact  practice,   then  on   the   other,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  theory  and  practice  are  conceived  and  performed  differently  in  sla  and   in  lp.  for  example,  the  theory  of  the  researchers  is  more  explicit  and  involves  technical  knowledge  whereas   the   theory   of   teachers   is   often   translated   in   terms   of   the   action   it   provokes;   it   is   implicit   and   based   on   practical  knowledge  (cf.  ellis,  2008,  2010;  schon,  1983).  undoubtedly  researchers  and  teachers  communicate   through   different   discourses   (gee,   1990)   and   have   different   perspectives   and   needs,   related   to   their   own   distinct   contexts.   clarke   (1994)   sees   a   kind   of   dysfunction   in   this   theory/practice   discourse   caused  by   the   peripherical  position  assigned  to  teachers  who  are  often  seen  only  as  disciples  of  theoreticians.  he  argues  this   dysfunction   can   be   resolved   if   teachers   value   themselves  more   and   put   their   own   experience   of   language   teaching  first.   in  search  of  ways  to  bridge  the  divide  between  theory  and  practice,  ellis  (2010)  proposes  a  number   of   strategies   that   can   be   used   by   sla   researchers   to   facilitate   “the   process   by  which   technical   knowledge   about  sla  can  interface  with  teachers’  own  practical  knowledge  of  teaching”  (p.  198).  strategies  can  be  based   on   implications   sections   of   research   reports,   the   preparation   of   summaries   or   stories   accessible   to   practitioners,   collaborative   research   among   researchers   and   teachers,   action   research   and   exploratory   practice.  these  strategies  are  mutually  supportive.  still,  they  raise  questions  regarding  what  sla  can  offer  to   teachers  and  how  it  can  have  a  meaningful  impact  on  what  teachers  do.  seeking  answers,  ellis  examines  the   nexus   between   sla   and   lp   that   connects   sla   researchers,   classroom   researchers,   teacher   educators   and   language   teachers.   teacher   education   is   the  most   appropriate   field   of  mediation  between   sla   and  lp,   and   teacher   educators   can   play   several   functions:   they   can   share   information   about   sla,   mentor,   and   raise   awareness.  researchers  can  take  the  role  of  teacher  educators  and  teachers  can  act  as  classroom  researchers.   with  this  perspective,  he  proposes  a  set  of  eleven  principles  that  can  guide  the  relationship  between  sla  and   lp.     the  principles  are  meant  to  be  used  as  a  guide  to  design  an  sla  course  for  foreign  language  teaching   programs.  they  identify  which  sla  topics  may  be  relevant  to  teachers  and  explain  how  theory  and  technical   knowledge  can  interface  with  teachers’  practical  knowledge.   principle  1  states  that  teachers  should  be  helped  to  develop  or  modify  their  own  existing  theory  on   the  way  in  which  learners  acquire  the  l2  under  instructed  learning.  ellis  adds  that  the  theory  that  teachers   develop   should   be   explicit.   principle   2   addresses   the   topics   covered   in   sla   courses,   which   need   to   be   demonstrably   relevant   to   teaching.   to   assess   relevance,   handbooks   for   teachers   could   be   consulted   or   teachers  themselves  could  be  invited  to  identify  the  topics  that  fit  their  needs  the  most.  principle  3  holds  that   topics  should  consist  of  “ideas”  rather  than  “models”.  principle  4  stresses  that  texts  must  be  comprehensible   to   teachers.  the  articles  proposed  should  primarily  be  reports  of   classroom  research  (principle  5)  and  any   proposition  arising  from  sla  theory  should  always  be  presented  as  a  “provisional”  specification  (principle  6).     according  to  principle  7,  the  sla  course  should  encourage  teachers  to  experience  and  reflect  on  the   process  of  learning  another  language  or  create  debates  where  they  can  relate  what  they  learn  in  the  course  to   their   own   experience   of   teaching   an   l2.   to   solidify   the   link   between   technical   and   practical   knowledge,   awareness-­‐raising  tasks  based  on  l2  data  or  on  sla  texts  can  be  used  (principle  8).  these  can  guide  teachers   to  discover  and  reflect  on  the  “ideas”  presented   in  the  text.  ellis  highlights  erlam’s  (2008)  report  of  her   in-­‐ service  workshop  for  teachers  as  a  good  example  of  awareness  raising  activities.   principle  9  argues  for  the  need  for  teachers  not  only  to  become  users  of  sla  research  but  also  to  be   researchers  in  their  own  classroom.  this  can  be  done  through  collaborative  research  with  an  sla  researcher,   action  research  or  exploratory  practice.  it  is  important  that  the  issues  relate  to  teachers’  own  understanding   of   language   pedagogy.   as   for   the   role   of   the   sla   researcher,   it   “should   be   that   of   facilitating   the   teacher’s   research   by   providing   relevant   information   from   sla   and   helping   to   develop   appropriate   data   collection   instruments   and  procedures”   (ellis,   2010,  p.  196).  ellis   suggests   encouraging   teachers   to  disseminate   their   own  research  through  presentations  or  other  forms  of  reporting.  this  is  important  to  bridge  the  gap  between   pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        23   “researchers”   and   “teachers”.   principle   10   highlights   the   ideal   that   the   teacher   is   the   one  who   “ultimately   determines   the   relevance   of   sla   constructs   and   findings   for   teaching”   (p.   197)   and   that   it   is   the   sla   researcher  who   determines   the   relevance   of   the   findings   of   teacher   research   for   sla.   lastly,   principle   11   implies  that  teacher  educators  need  to  evaluate  their  courses  to  establish  which  “ideas”  were  more  useful  to   help  teachers  develop  or  modify  their  beliefs  on  instructed  language  learning.   in   brief,   in   order   to   bridge   the   divide   between   sla   and   lp,   it   is   necessary   that,   whenever   sla   researchers   operate   as   teacher   educators,   they   abandon   the   working   structure   of   the   academy   and   allow   teachers  to  have  their  say.  on  the  other  hand,   teachers  should  recognize  the  validity  and  importance  of   the   technical   knowledge   that   sla   research   can   convey.   in   this   respect,   ellis   (2010)  points   out   that   “somewhat   surprisingly,  there  have  been  relatively  few  studies  of  how  teacher  educators  approach  sla  when  functioning   in  these  different  roles  and  even  less  of  what  impact  they  have  on  teachers”  (p.  193).     mcdonough   (2006)   investigated   whether   teacher   education   had   any   effect   on   trainees’   actual   teaching.  she  involved  a  group  of  teaching  assistants  in  action  research  within  a  graduate-­‐level  seminar.  after   she   provided   the   students   with   experience   in   conducting   classroom   research,   they   demonstrated   an   expanded  view  about  research  and  understood  the  distinction  between  qualitative  and  quantitative  research.   they   used   the   experience   to   change   their   teaching   practice   and  worked   on   action   research   even   after   the   seminar.   other   studies   predominantly   investigated   the   effects   that   knowledge   of   sla   can   have   on   trainees’   beliefs   about   language   learning.   badger,   mcdonald,   and   white   (2001)   elicited   the   beliefs   about   language   learning   of   students   taking   an   undergraduate   course   in   sla.   the   students   were   asked   to   respond   to   lightbown  and  spada’s   (1993)  questionnaire  at   the  beginning  and   the  end  of   the  course.  while   the  control   group  not   taking   the   course  did  not   show  any   significant   changes,   the   students   involved   in   the  sla  course   demonstrated   a   shift   from  a   stronger   to   a  weaker   behaviorist   view   in   that   they   became   less   convinced   on   issues  related  to  imitation  and  l1  interference.  peacock  (2001)  performed  a  longitudinal  study  on  teachers’   beliefs   about   l2   learning.   a   cohort   of   146   pre-­‐service   teachers   were   followed   for   three   years   through   classroom   observations   and   instruments   which   included   self-­‐report   questionnaires.   the   investigation   showed   that   the   beliefs   of   these   sts   actually   varied   very   little   over   the   three   years.   peacock   suggests   that   trainers  should  actively  guide  reflection  among  trainees  to  challenge  sts’  beliefs  over  time.     farrell   (2003,   2006)   investigated   the   transition   from  a   teacher   education  program   to   life   in   a   real   classroom   for   a   first-­‐year   english   language   teacher   in   singapore.   beginning   language   teachers   are   often   shocked   by   the   gap   between   their   idealized   visions   of   teaching   and   the   realities   of   the   classroom;   farrell   suggests  that  the  use  of  a  “story  structure”  framework  (setting  –  complication  –  resolution)  may  be  one  way   of   avoiding   the   disillusionment   created   by   some   first-­‐year   teaching   experiences.   angelova   (2005)   also   examined   the   development   of   a   mixed   group   of   teacher   trainees.   they   were   asked   to   follow   some   short   lessons  in  bulgarian,  a  language  they  did  not  know,  to  complete  a  journal,  and  to  take  over  some  discussion   after  the  lessons.  although  data  showed  few  overall  changes  in  the  vision  of  teaching,  the  trainees  found  the   short  lessons  they  were  given  more  useful  than  traditional  teacher  education.     watzke  (2007)  investigated  the  variation  of  pedagogical  content  knowledge  across  time.  he  analyzed   the  beginning   teaching   experiences  of   nine   teachers   of   french,  german,   and   spanish  during   their   first   two   years  of  teaching  at  the  high  school  level  through  reflective  journals,  classroom  observations,  and  interviews.   the   results   show   that   the   theoretical   knowledge   supporting   communicative   language   teaching   (clt)   develops  as  pedagogical  content  knowledge  through  a  process  of  teaching,  conflict,  reflection,  and  resolution   which  is  specific  to  the  in-­‐service  classroom  context.     erlam’s   (2008)   study   focuses   on   the   attempt   to   bridge   the   divide   through   the   mediation   of   the   teacher  educator  and  also  examines   the  necessary  background  knowledge  needed   for  successful  clt.  first,   she  gathered  case  studies  of  senior   language  teachers  who  showed  evidence  of  the  use  of  the  principles  for   instructed   language   learning   (ellis   2005a,   2005b)   in   their   teaching   practices   (erlam,   sakui,   &   ellis,   2006).   then,  during  a  workshop  for  support  services  language  advisors  in  new  zealand  (nz),  taking  the  role  of  both   teacher   educator   and   researcher,   she   gave   a   key  word   for   each   principle   and   opened   a   discussion   on   the   reasons  why   some  principles  had  not  been  evidenced   in   the   case   studies.  the  discussion  also   included   the   relevance  of  each  principle  and  the  constraints  to  each  in  the  context  of  day-­‐to-­‐day  work  (erlam,  2008).  the   participants   chose   to   use   the   principles   in   professional   development   sessions   with   both   primary   and   secondary   school   language   teachers.   once   advisors   started   to   use   the   principles   in   their   observations   and   evaluations  of  teaching  practice,  they  met  again  and  were  encouraged  to  discuss  in  small  groups  the  relevance   they  gave   to   specific  principles.   it  was  also  agreed   that  advisors   should   take  one  principle  as  key   focus   for   petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    24   each  year  and  enforce  its  use  amongst  teachers.  when  later  the  ministry  of  education  (moe)  in  nz  promoted   a   further   project  with   the   aim   of   helping   language   teachers   in   primary   schools,   advisors   chose   to   use   the   principles   as   a   key   component   of   the   program.   they   first   presented   the   principles   to   teachers,   who  were   encouraged  to  do  action  research  to  test  the  application  of  the  principles  in  class,  then  they  used  a  “progress   standard”  document  designed   to   assess   the  participants’   teaching  practice   according   to   the  principles.   the   outcomes  of  this  project  have  substantial  implications  for  teacher  education  which  here  played  a  central  role   in  linking  theory  to  practice.   other  studies  have  been  carried  by  erlam  on  slte  which  focused  on  the  observation  of  teachers  in  a   year-­‐long   professional   learning   program   (teaching   professional   development   program   -­‐   tpdl)   that   she   directed  in  new  zealand  for  several  years.  what  is  important  for  the  design  of  my  study  is  that  erlam  (2016)   designed   this   course   around   ellis’s   principles   for   instructed   language   learning   (ellis,   2005a,   2005b).   the   tpdl   program   that   erlam   (2016)   described   aimed   to   encourage   teachers  who  were   already   fluent   in   one   language   to   learn   another,   so   that   they   could   be   beginner   language   learners   again,   reflect   on   this   learning   experience   with   the   eyes   of   teachers,   and   sit   international   language   exams.   also,   it   aimed   to   empower   practitioners  with  general  as  well  as  specific  sla  pedagogical  skills  through  a  course  run  at  a  university  for  a   total   of   eight   days,   in   four   blocks.   moreover,   teachers   were   offered   ‘in-­‐school   support’   in   that   they   were   visited   four   times   over   the   course   of   the   year   by   an   in-­‐school   support   facilitator   (issf),   who   recorded   meaningful   utterances   to   discuss   them   with   the   teacher   through   two   evaluation   tools,   the   eps   and   the   progress   standards.   the   tools  were   adapted   from   the   case   studies   carried   out   by  erlam  et   al.   (2006)  with   regard  to  the  application  of  ellis’s  principles  (2005a,  2005b).  in  2015,  erlam  reported  that  about  48  primary   and  secondary  school  language  teachers  who  had  completed  the  tpdl  (2015a).  during  the  program,  they  had   been   introduced   to   tblt   and   they   had   tried   out   language   tasks   in   their   classroom   practice.   facilitators   observed  them  and  helped  them  assess  their  practices.  a  telephone  interview  was  conducted  one  year  after   this   experience   to   re-­‐evaluate   it   and  detect  difficulties   teachers  might  have   come  across.  this  was  done   to   draw  conclusions  on  what  could  be  better  implemented  in  the  future  sla  pedagogy  courses  based  on  tblt.   erlam  was   able   to   evaluate   the   effectiveness   of   the   professional   development   program   and   determine   the   aspects   of   task-­‐design  which  were  difficult   for   teachers,   in   order   to  dismantle   any   risk  of   ambiguity   in   the   process  of  teaching  task  criteria  (see  also  erlam,  2015b).   the  problem  space  for  my  work  is  situated  within  the  studies  mentioned  above.  it  tries  to  implement   an   slte   project   based   on   ellis’s   principles   (2005   a,   2005b)   and   make   it   adherent   to   the   italian   national   context  and  requirements.  it  tries  to  expand  erlam’s  (2008,  2015a,  2016)  studies,  shifting  from  education  for   teacher   advisors   or   for   in-­‐service   teachers   to   one   for   sts   and   from   the   context   of   a   workshop   or   a   professional  development  course  to  the  context  of  a  qualifying  course.  my  study  examines  the  effects  of  a  set   of   seminars   in   the   tfa   course,   designed   within   ellis’s   framework   (ellis,   2010)   on   sts’   methodological   awareness  and  beliefs.   it   argues   that   students  need   to  be   co-­‐researchers  during   their   learning  process  and   practicum   and   to   be   offered   a   solid   theoretical   lens   to   do   critical   observations,   like   the   ten   principles   for   instructed   language   learning   (ellis,   2005a,   2005b).   the   principles   are   presented   below,   together   with   the   studies  which  investigate  their  application  in  the  classroom  and  their  perceived  applicability  for  teachers.  the   principles  are  thus  held  to  be  a  valuable  theoretical  lens  for  observations  in  pre-­‐service  school  practicum.     1.2.  the  principles  for  instructed  language  learning  (ellis  2005a,  2005b):  a  theoretical  lens  for   pre-­‐service  teachers’  classroom  observations   ellis’s  principles  for  instructed  language  learning  (2005a,  2005b)  can  be  seen  as  a  general  education   document  of  quality  teaching  derived  from  sla  research.  they  are  offered  as  “provisional  specifications”  (in   line   with   stenhouse,   1975)   and   therefore   they   are   not   self-­‐imposed,   but   rather   lend   themselves   to   be   something   that   teachers   and   teacher   educators   can   discuss,   interpret,   trial,   and   engage  with   (erlam   et   al.,   2006,  p.  2).  research  has   largely  attempted   to  direct   teachers   in  second   language  classroom  practices  with   specific   guidelines   drawn   by   scientific   investigation   (cf.   allwright,   2003;   brown,   2001,   2002;   lightbown,   2000)   but  what  makes   the   principles   a   particularly   appropriate   theoretical   lens   in   pre-­‐service   courses   for   school   teachers   is   that   they  originate   from  the  precise  needs  and  requests  of  educational   institutions.  they   are  thus  conceived  for  all  second  language  teachers  but  particularly  for  those  practicing  in  schools.     the   principles   were   outlined   within   a   project   commissioned   by   the   new   zealand   ministry   of   education  (moe)  in  2005.  the  research  project  had  two  main  objectives.  as  for  the  first,  professor  rod  ellis   was  asked  to  present  an  overview  of  second  language  acquisition  (sla)  and—in  light  of  that—introduce  a   pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        25   set   of   principles   that   could   help   teachers   direct   themselves   towards   effective   classroom   practices   and   evaluate  their  own  language  teaching  (ellis,  2005a,  2005b).  the  second  objective  was  to  present  case  studies   of   teacher   practices   and   beliefs   to   find   evidence   of   the   ten   principles   in   the   classroom   and   to   investigate   second  language  pedagogy  in  light  of  these  beliefs  and  practices  (erlam  et  al.,  2006).   the  two  projects  attempted  to  bridge  the  gap  between  sla  and  lp  (e.g.,  erlam,  2015,  2016)  and  were   soon   followed   by   the   publication   of   new   specific   guidelines   for   learning   languages   in   new   zealand.   these   guidelines   replaced   those   from   the   former   curriculum   (e.g.,   east,   2012;  ministry   of   education,   2007,   2010,   2011).  the  principles  have  also  been  disseminated  beyond  nz  to  research  areas  in  ghana,  iran,  vietnam  and   south  korea,  as  will  be  later  discussed.   the  10  principles  are  listed  here.  ellis’s  discussion  will  be  summarized  further  on  in  the  analysis.       principle   1   -­‐   instruction   needs   to   ensure  that   learners   develop   both   a   rich   repertoire  of   formulaic  expressions  and  a  rule-­‐based  competence.   principle  2  -­‐  instruction  needs  to  ensure  that  learners  focus  predominantly  on  meaning.   principle  3  -­‐  instruction  needs  to  ensure  that  learners  also  focus  on  form.   principle  4  -­‐  instruction  needs  to  focus  on  developing  implicit  knowledge  of  the  second  language   while  not  neglecting  explicit  knowledge.   principle  5  -­‐  instruction  needs  to  take  into  account  the  learner’s  built-­‐in  syllabus.   principle  6  -­‐  successful  instructed  language  learning  requires  extensive  second  language  input.   principle  7  -­‐  successful  instructed  language  learning  also  requires  opportunities  for  output.   principle   8   -­‐   the   opportunity   to   interact   in   the  second   language   is   central   to   developing   second  language  proficiency.   principle  9  -­‐  instruction  needs  to  take  account  of  individual  differences  in  learners.   principle  10  -­‐  in  assessing  learners’  second  language  proficiency,  it  is  important  to  examine  free   as  well  as  controlled  production.     each   principle   is   sustained   by   guidance   on   how   to   apply   it   and   by   a   variety   of   theoretical   perspectives,  the  main  one  being  the  computational  model  of  second  language  learning  (lantolf,  1996),  which   holds   that  acquisition  works  by  way  of   cognitive  processing  of   input  and  output.  clt  conceived  within   the   framework  of  task-­‐based  language  teaching  (tblt)  methodology  is  the  baseline  to  the  whole  set  of  principles   and   the  moe  guidelines   supported   the   idea  of  moving   from   less  effective   communicative   teaching   towards   tblt  (e.g.,  east,  2012).   ellis   (2005a,   2005b)   acknowledged   the   limitations   of   the   computational   model,   which   does   not   include   reflections   on   the   sociocultural   aspects   of   learning.   he   admitted   that   there   were   sometimes   controversial   aspects   to   sla   and   all   these   considerations   led   him   to   caution   that   the   principles   should   be   considered  as  provisional  specifications,  citing  stenhouse  (1985).  ellis  reviewed  the  principles  in  2014  within   the  context  of  sociocultural  theory,  for  which  learning  takes  place  within  social  interaction.  interaction  is  not   seen  only  as  an  input-­‐output  process  but  more  as  an  important  mediator  for  language  acquisition  because  the   simple   act   of   “talking   about   language   leads   to   learning”   (ellis,   2014,   p.   42).   as   a   result   of   this   review,   principles  11  and  12  were  added.     principle  11  –  learners  need  to  engage  collaboratively  in  talk  about  linguistic  problems  and  try   to  agree  on  solutions  to  them.   principle   12   –   instruction   needs   to   take   into   account   the   subjective   aspect   to   learning   a   new   language.     as  mentioned  above,  a  second  project  was  funded  by  the  nz  moe  in  2005,  which  studied  teachers’   beliefs  and  classroom  practices  in  light  of  the  ten  principles  (erlam  et  al,,  2006).  six  teachers  were  invited  to   participate.  the  participants  of  the  research  were  two  teachers  of  french  as  a  foreign  language  (fl)  and  two   of   japanese   fl.   these   teachers   were   considered   by   the   moe   to   be   models   of   “best   practice”.   meaningful   common   aspects   emerged   from   the   case   studies,   although   each   teacher   translated   their   conception   of   pedagogy   into   different   classroom   practices.   as   for   the   main   findings,   there   appeared   to   be   no   clear   understanding   of   “built-­‐in   syllabus,”   and   this   led   to   the   conclusion   that   “the   easiest   way   to   ensure   that   teaching  is  compatible  with  the  learner’s  built-­‐in  syllabus  is  not  to  follow  a  structural  syllabus”  (erlam  et  al.,   2006,   p.   40).   when   reporting   the   results   connected   to   principle   2,   researchers   pointed   out   that   teachers   petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    26   seemed   to  make   little   use   of   tasks,   especially   in   junior   classes.   given   the  misconception   that   tasks  mainly   involved  free  production,  these  were  postponed  to  later  years  when  they  could  be  performed  more  easily  by   learners.   this  may  be   connected   to   the   fact   that   opportunities   for   output   (principle   7)   seemed   to   increase   according   to   the  proficiency   level  of   learners,  who  were  on  occasion  asked   to  produce  mostly  oral  but  also   written   texts,   and   that   interaction   (principle   8)   seemed   to   take   place   mainly   in   modelled   conversation   patterns   where   little   evidence   of   negotiation   of   meaning   was   found,   although   teachers   were   agreeable   to   scaffolding   learners  while  producing  texts.  also,   tasks  were  sometimes  confused  with   language  exercises  as   role-­‐plays.  according  to  erlam  et  al.    (2006),  there  was  “a  need  […]  for  teachers  to  think  through  more  fully   what  a  ‘task’  is  and  how  they  can  incorporate  them  into  lessons  for  learners  at  all  levels”  (p.  39).   research   studies  were   carried  out   to   investigate   teachers’   adherence   to   the   ten  principles   and   the   challenges  and  difficulties  language  instructors  faced  in  implementing  language  teaching  efficiently.  they  all   globally  confirmed  the  conclusions  drawn  by  erlam  et  al.  (2006)  regarding  the  application  of  the  principles,   despite  the  obvious  divergences  emerging  in  the  different  contexts.  howard  and  millar  (2009),  for  example,   pointed   out   that   teachers   in   south   korea   had   concerns   about   priority   issues,   which   they   saw   as   major   obstacles  to  the  implementation  of  the  principles:  secondary  school  and  university  placement  examinations,   the  high  student/teacher  ratios,  and  the  teachers’  level  of  proficiency  in  english.  what  is  more,  the  teachers  in   the  study  had  never  received  meaningful  training  on  language  acquisition  theories,  group  work  management   or   issues   related   to   individual   differences.   clt   appeared   to   them   as   incompatible   with   the   south   korean   socio-­‐cultural  background.  the  same  concerns  applied  to  the  indonesian  context,  investigated  by  kartikawati   and  andriani  (2017),  and  the  iranian  context,  analyzed  by  bagheri  and  mehrnoush  (2013),  where  lack  of  time,   number  of  students  per  class,  the  national  testing  system,  and  the  structure  of  language  books  came  out  as  the   most  meaningful   constraints.  another   conclusion   that  bagheri   and  mehrnoush  drew  was   that,   surprisingly,   teachers  in  private  schools  had  a  stronger  awareness  of  the  principles  and  disseminated  them  more  widely  in   classes.   connor  and  nazari  (2020)  studied  the  perceived  relevance  and  applicability  of  the  ten  principles  in   adult   english   foreign   language   (efl)   learning   environment   in   qatar,   this   time   including   students   in   the   analysis.   results   showed   that   students   and   teachers   agreed   on   the   importance   of   some   principles   but   not   others,  especially  those  regarding  focus  on  meaning  vs.  focus  on  form.  teachers  in  qatar  seemed  to  make  use   of  the  “strong”  version  of  clt  (howatt,  1984)  while  students  seemed  partial  to  the  “weak”  version,  which  is   blended  with  more  traditional  methods   like  explicit  grammar   lessons.  furthermore,  despite  being  aware  of   the  importance  of  interaction,  many  learners  felt  embarrassed  when  interacting  in  english  in  groups.     elsewhere,   i  have  presented   similar   research   focusing  on   the  practices  applied  by   fifteen  efl  high   school  teachers   in  italy  according  to  the  principles  (petrocelli,  2020,   in  press).  the  challenges  that  teachers   faced  in  implementing  the  specifications  were  mainly  the  high  number  of  students  per  class  and  the  structure   and   requirements   of   general   english   (ge)   certification   exams.   as   for   the   application   of   the   principles,   the   results  present  a  complex  picture,  indicating  the  existence  of  two  macro  groups  of  practitioners.  one  smaller   group  was  made   up   of   four  more   traditional   teachers  who   advocated   the   use   of   grammar-­‐translation   and   more  structured  methods  of  teaching  whereas  the  other  consisted  of  seven  teachers  who  aligned  with  more   communicative   approaches   and   applied   task-­‐based   teaching,   despite   sometimes   having   a   low   level   of   awareness   and   without   always   applying   all   the   task   components,   especially   the   need   to   achieve   a   clearly   defined,   non-­‐linguistic   goal.   between   these   two   macro   groups   stood   the   four   remaining   teachers,   who   alternated  between  approaches.  the  internal  constraints  of  the  most  traditional  group  of  teachers  seemed  to   block  them  from  rearranging  their  teaching  methodology  into  a  more  communicative  approach.  their  initial   teacher   education   background,   which   occurred   at   the   beginning   of   their   30-­‐year   long   career,  may   further   complicate   this  unwillingness  or   inability   to  adapt   to  clt.  this   imprint  was  evidently  hard   to   redefine  and   update  in  subsequent  years.   thus,  varying  contexts  clearly  have  an  impact  on  the  quality  of  teachers’  performance  but  what  we   mainly  see  from  the  data  is  that,  globally,  there  is  little  awareness  of  the  theory  that  leads  to  a  solid  form  of   clt  practice.  this  originates  not  only   from  contextual  constraints  but  also   from  a   lack  of  cohesive,  organic,   clear,   and   straightforward   plan   of   transmission   of   theory   to   practice   through   pre-­‐service   and   in-­‐service   teacher  education  pathways.   the   reason   for   the   success   of   the   nz   project   “is   that   it   made   technical   knowledge,   that   is,   sla   research,  accessible  to  teachers”  (erlam,  2008,  p.  263),  as  widdowson  (1993)  had  suggested.  the  principles   for   instructed   second   language   learning   give   teachers   access   to   the   knowledge   of   the   community   of   sla   researchers,   never   before   available   to   them,   in   an   immediate   and   direct   way.   the   principles   offer   clear   pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        27   concepts   in   a   commonly   accepted   basic,   but   substantial,   technical   language   that   teachers   can   easily   comprehend  and  share  amongst  all  sla  professionals,  whether  examining  their  own  practices  autonomously   or  with  the  guidance  of  a  mediator  such  as  an  advisor  or  teacher  educator.   this   is  the  reason  why  i  decided  to   implement  a  qualifying  course  for  pre-­‐service  teachers  offering   the  principles  for  instructed  language  learning  (ellis  2005a,  2005b)  as  the  bulk  of  the  necessary  knowledge   toolkit   for  sl  teachers  and  why  i  decided  to  shape  the  course  according  to  the   framework  that  ellis   (2010)   proposed,  meant  to  solidify  the  nexus  between  sla  and  lp  through  the  mediation  of  teacher  education.  we   have  seen  from  previous  research  how  strongly  the  imprint  of  pre-­‐service  teacher  education  can  influence  the   identity   of   practitioners   and   how   difficult   it   sometimes   has   been   for   some   to   rearrange   their   approach   to   conform  to  new  theories.  this  is  why  i  think  it  is  fundamental  that  early  bird  teachers  start  their  service  in  an   educational   environment   that   offers   them   a   solid   theoretical   lens   through   which   they   can   construct   their   methodological   awareness,   reflect  on   their   teaching  beliefs   and  perform  structured  observations  of   second   language  classes  in  their  practicum.     field  observation  within  the  classroom  practicum  plays  a  key  role  in  this  qualifying  course.  research   has   shown   that   the   focus  of  most  slte  programs  has  primarily  been  on   subject  knowledge   rather   than  on   pedagogy.   in  many   cases,   sts   are   sent   into   teaching   apprenticeships  without   any   tools   to   critically   assess   senior   teachers’   practices   and   with   the   understanding   that   they   are   simply   apprentices,   whereas   the   practicing   teachers   are   complete   experts,   which   is   not   necessarily   true   (cf.   burns   &   richards,   2018).   the   presence  of  a  practicum  in  a  qualifying  course  for  pre-­‐service  teachers  has  a  significant  role  in  that  it  involves   active   learning  and  allows  sts   to  view  sla   ideas  applied   in  real   teaching  contexts.  this   is  essential   to  help   shape  their  professional  identity,  facilitate  cooperation  with  teachers  and  supervisors,  establish  relationships   with  students  and  colleagues  and  help  manage   the  classroom  (burns  &  richards,  2018).  unfortunately,   the   presence  of  a  practicum  has  been  quite  unstable  in  italy,  and  thus  sts  have  not  had  the  chance  to  grow  and   develop   within   such   a   framework.   as   stated   above,   the   italian   teacher   education   system,   which   will   be   outlined   in   the   next   paragraph,   is   characterized   by   a   substantial   instability   for   both   the   teacher   education   system   and   the   enrolment   procedures,   given   the   frequent   governmental   turnovers.   this   study   in   fact   emerged  from  an  attempt  to  contribute  to  the  creation  of  solid  educational  pathways,  which  can  both  shape   new  teachers  and  eventually  also  nurture  in-­‐service  ones  during  their  career.     1.3.  pre-­‐service  teacher  education  in  italy   as  ellis  (2010)  points  out  when  outlining  the  relationship  between  the  actors  involved  in  the  sla-­‐lp   nexus,   the  roles   they  perform  “are,   to  some  extent  at   least,  determined  by   the  wider  context   in  which   they   operate”   (p.   191)   and   therefore   it   is   necessary   to   outline   the   latest   history   and   policies   of   the   italian   educational   system   in   order   to   understand   how   a   more   solid   connection   between   sla   researchers   and   language  pedagogy  in  the  teacher  education  field  could  be  beneficial  to  teachers’  education.     the   italian   type   of   enrolment   for   new   teachers   has   frequently   varied   over   past   decades.   this   has   prevented  mentoring  institutions  from  stabilizing  organic  forms  of  initial  teacher  education  and  identifying  a   shared  set  of  background  knowledge  and  competences  for  new  teachers,  second  language  teachers  included.   as  barbieri  (2010)  points  out,  in  the  last  two  decades  there  has  been  a  frequent  alternation  of  left-­‐  and  right-­‐ wing  parties  and  the  turn-­‐taking  winning  coalition  frequently  nullified  previous  legislation.  the  impact  of  this   instability  on  the  teacher  training  system  was  not  taken  into  account  by  decision  makers.  as  a  result  of  this   marginalization,  the  italian  teacher  education  system  remains  underdeveloped,     [lacking]  sound  experiences  in  order  to  make  decisions,  and  very  weak,  and  it  is  exposed  to   the  wind  of  political  changes:  instead  of  growing  as  an  autopoietic  system,  able  to  give  itself   the  rules  of  working,   it  depends  on  external  decisors,  often   in  strong  distony  with   the  real   need  of  a  school  system  and  a  teacher  training  system  strictly  connected  and  functionally  co-­‐ operating  (barbieri,  2010,  p.  24).       this   is  because  while  political  decision-­‐making  tends  to   focus  on  the  short   term,   teacher  education   needs  a   long   time   to  stabilize   innovation.  what   is  more,   for  decades,   the  national   training  system  has  been   alternating  between  the  so-­‐called  simultaneous  model,   in  which  the  professional  skills  are  embedded  in  the   whole   educational   curriculum,   and   the   consecutive   model,   where   a   strong   disciplinary   competence   is   required,  followed  by  a  one-­‐  or  two-­‐year  program  of  teaching-­‐oriented  curriculum.  this  ultimately  increases   the  discrepancy  and  decreases  the  uniformity  in  teacher  education  across  all  levels.   petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    28   in  1999  an  opportunity  for  uniformity  arose  when  all  future  secondary  teachers  in  the  italian  school   system  were  to  receive  a  consistent  type  of  academic  training.  a  consortium  of  universities  in  each  region  was   created  with  the  institution  of  the  scuola  di  specializzazione  all'insegnamento  secondario  (ssis,  interacademic   graduate   school   of   secondary   school   teacher   training.).   this   decision   allowed   the   implementation   of   commonly   shared   educational   pathways   among   universities   as   well   as   between   mentors   from   both   the   academic  world   and   secondary   schools.   this   exchange   permitted   universities   to   offer   a   strong   theoretical   disciplinary  knowledge  and  high   schools   to  offer   the  possibility   for   sts   to  put   these   theories   into  practice.   this  collaboration  had   little   time  to  be  nurtured  and  metabolized  because   it  only   lasted  until  2009  when   it   was  suspended  by  political  turnovers.   fortunately,   the   collaboration   between   universities   and   secondary   schools   continued   through   tirocinio   formativo   attivo   (tfa,   active   formative   training),   which   replaced   ssis   courses   in   2010,   with   a   shortened  time  span  of  one  academic  year.  tfa  programs  were  managed  by  universities  in  collaboration  with   regional  authorities.  sts  carried  out  their  practicum  under  guidance  of  a  school  tutor  in  host  schools.  course   topics  were  defined  at   the  national   level   and   included  pedagogical   competences,  disciplinary   contents,   and   active   training   and   observation   in   schools   for   approximately   400   hours.   unfortunately,   this   attempt   at   a   uniform   and   standardized   approach   to   teacher   education   was   also   eradicated   by   subsequent   political   decisions.     today  there  is  no  longer  pre-­‐service  training  for  secondary  school  teachers  since  entry  requirements   for   the   teaching  career  were  redefined  by  law  107   in  2015.  based  on   the  results  of  a   compulsory  national   competitive   examination   taken   after   graduation,   the   top   tier   of   competitors   is   awarded   teaching   contracts   that   last   three   years   during   which   a   sort   of   apprenticeship   must   be   carried   out.   in   the   first   year,   newly   employed  teachers  are  required  to  complete  50  hours  of  compulsory  training,  20  hours  of  which  through  an   online  platform  offering  opportunities  for  communication,  discussion,  and  exchange  of  materials  among  other   apprentices.  this  is  followed  by  a  two-­‐year  paid  internship  at  the  end  of  which  secondary  school  teachers  are   awarded  a  permanent  national  contract.   this  whole  system  implies   that  new  teachers   learn  predominantly  by  doing  and  therefore   they  are   not  exposed  to  teaching  methodologies,  nor  are  their  beliefs  questioned  or  discussed  before  they  start  their   teaching   career.   not   only   did   this   ministerial   move   eliminate   the   chance   to   experiment   and   stabilize   the   innovations  carried  out  by  former  legislation  but  it  also  blocked  the  avenues  of  collaboration  that  had  been   established   among   researchers,   teacher   educators   and   schools   through   either   ssis   or   tfa   courses.   this   means   that   now,   italy   is   arguably   taking   a   risk   by   sending   new   teachers   into   class   without   any   tools   to   critically  self-­‐assess  their  teaching  practices.   the  education  and  training  monitor  by  the  european  commission  (2019)  has  reported  that  italy   is   among   countries   that  will   have   to   replace   around  half   of   their   secondary   school   teaching  workforce   in   the   next   decade.   this   implies   that   there   is   and   there  will   be   a   need   to   train   new   teachers   and   it   is   evermore   necessary  to  share  practices  and  pursue  common  forms  of  second  language  teacher  education.   the   european   profile   for   language   teacher   education   (epostl,   2007)   reflects   this   urge   toward   uniformity   not   only   in   italy   but   in   the   whole   of   europe   in   the   specific   field   of   second   language   teacher   education.   while   offering   a   frame   of   reference   through   descriptors   that   provide   a   systematic   way   of   considering  competences,  the  profile  advises  that  these  descriptors  should  not  be  considered  as  a  checklist  of   dos  and  don’ts  but  rather  as  a  stimulus  for  researchers,  teacher  educators,  sts  and  teachers  to  discuss  what   learning  and  teaching  principles  feed  into  each  competence.  in  other  words,  the  epostl  does  not  address  the   theoretical  background  needed  for  sts  to  understand  that  the  behaviors  and  practices  they  apply  respond  to   specific  theoretical  views  and  have  specific  effects  on  language  learning  processes.  as  said  before,  my  work   tries  to  offer  this  background  knowledge  through  ellis’s  (2005a,  2005b)  principles  for  successful   instructed   language   learning  within   the   framework  of  a  course  design  that  has  specifically  been  created  to  strengthen   the  nexus  between  sla  and  language  pedagogy  (ellis,  2010).     1.4.  purpose  of  the  study  and  research  questions   the   purpose   of  my   study   is   to   examine   the   effects   of   a   group   of   seminars   designed  within   ellis’s   (2010)  framework  and  held  within  a  qualifying  teacher  course  to  encourage  sts’  methodological  awareness.  i   will   examine   what   the   sts   learned   to   determine   whether   this   project   is   transferrable   and   applicable   elsewhere.   in   particular,   sts’   observations   of   senior   teachers’   classroom   practices   through   the   theoretical   lens   of   the   principles   for   instructed   language   learning   (ellis   2005a,   2005b)   will   be   taken   as   evidence   of   the  evolution  of  the  students’  capabilities  to  recognize  and  understand  successful  language  teaching  practices   pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        29   and   to   apply   the  principles   later   on   in   their   career.   their   understanding   of   the   contextual   constraints   that   shape  those  practices  will  also  be  considered.  as  mentioned  earlier,  the  study  argues  that  students  need  to  be   co-­‐researchers   during   their   learning   process   while   being   offered   a   solid   theoretical   lens   to   do   critical   observations.     thus,  i  can  frame  my  research  questions  in  the  following  terms:     what   did   the   sts   gain   by   being   asked   to   learn   and   apply   the   theoretical   lens   of   the   principles   for   instructed  language  learning  (ellis  2005a,  2005b)  in  their  observations  of  senior  teachers’  practices?   how  have  these  sts  evolved  into  in-­‐service  teachers  in  terms  of  their  own  understanding  of  language   teaching  practices  through  the  lens  of  the  principles?     2.  methodology   2.1.  design  for  the  group  of  seminars  on  the  principles  in  pre-­‐service  teacher  education   the   project   that   i   present   draws   on   a   reflective   model   of   teacher   education   integrated   into   a   craft/apprenticeship  model.  the  approach  acknowledges  that  the  participants  are  mostly  un-­‐experienced  sts   who   have   not   thoroughly   engaged   with   practices   in   classrooms   nor   hold   strong   beliefs   to   sustain   these   practices.   i  organized  a  group  of  seminars  on  the  principles  (ellis,  2005a,  2005b)  within  a  wider  course  i  held   on  efl  teaching  methodology  for  the  tfa  teacher  qualifying  course  held  at  the  university  for  foreigners  of   siena  in  2015.  this  course  was  held  fully  in  english  and  designed  for  postgraduates  in  english  language  and   literature  who  wanted  to  become  efl  teachers  in  italian  lower  and  upper  secondary  schools.  seven  sts  took   part  in  the  course.  the  seminars  were  cyclical  and  were  focused  on  specific  principles  each  time.  each  cycle  of   seminars  included  these  phases:     preparatory  phase:   students   read   excerpts   from   articles   related   to   the   principles   that   would   be   presented   in   the   following   cycle   of   seminars.   this   phase  helped   familiarize  with   the   issues   raised  by   each  principle   and  warm  up  on  the  specific  vocabulary  (e.g.,  built-­‐in  syllabus,  focused  task,  …).       phase  1:   the   principles   were   presented   by   the   trainer   and   discussed   in   the   group.   students   thus   had   the   chance   to   match   the   concepts   shown   in   the   readings   with   the   principle   presented.   the   following   debate  gave  way  to  clarification  of  doubts  and  sharing  of  ideas.     phase  2:   field  observations  were  carried  out  through  a  questionnaire  on  the  principles.  when  needed,  specific   teaching  behaviors  or  possible  exchanges  of  ideas  with  the  observed  teachers  were  jotted  down  on  a   notebook.  this  was  done  to  increase  the  trainees’  awareness  of  the  theory  behind  teachers’  practices   and  their  ability  to  observe  classroom  behaviors  critically  and  with  solid  argumentation  drawn  from   sla  research.  also,  trainees  had  the  chance  to  envisage  the  challenges  teachers  face  every  day,  which   can  create  obstacles  to  the  application  of  some  clt  practices.     phase  3:   trainees   gave   their   feedback   on   field   observations   through   group   discussion.   this   activity   was   a   chance  for  the  trainee  to  check  whether  their  understanding  of  the  practices  in  light  of  the  principles   were   shared   by   everyone,   to   clarify   doubts,   to   leave   issues   open   for   re-­‐discussion   after   new   observations.       phase  4:   trainees  wrote  their  final  report  on  the  overall  experience.  the  aim  of  this  activity  was  to  help  sts   structure  the  narrative  of  their  learning  activities  and  in  so  doing  evaluate  the  experience  according   to  what  was  particularly  beneficial  for  their  growth  and  development  as  qualified  teachers.         petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    30   ellis’s  (2005a,  2005b)  principles  were  introduced  at  a  stage  where  sts  had  already  become  familiar  with  the   clt   approach   and   the   methods   and   techniques   connected   to   it.   in   particular,   sts   had   come   across   the   presentation,  production  and  practice  (ppp)  paradigm,  which  combines  clt  with  more  traditional  methods,   and   the   tblt   paradigm,   which   is   the   baseline   for   the   principles   in   that   it   more   effectively   addresses   the   demands  of  a  student-­‐centered  classroom  where  language  is  used  as  it  is  in  natural  communication  (cf.  ellis,   2003).  despite  some  adaptation,  the  overall  criteria  for  the  outline  of  the  group  of  seminars  i  hereby  present   are  derived  from  ellis  (2011,  p.  19),  in  which  he  gives  a  practical  example  of  a  unit  on  corrective  feedback  as   part  of  an  sla  course  for  teachers  within  the  framework  for  the  sla-­‐lp  nexus.       aim:   the   aim   was   to   introduce   content   concepts   through   the   principles   (ellis,   2005a,   2005b)   and   then   encourage  sts  to  observe  senior  teachers’  practices  through  the  theoretical  lens  offered  by  the  specifications.   the  purpose  was   to  give   students  a  practical   tool  derived   from  sla   theory   to  do   critical  observations,  and   thus  to  develop  their  capability  to  recognize  and  understand  successful  language  teaching  practices,  as  well  as   to  understand  the  contextual  affordances  and  constraints  that  shape  those  practices.       text   (in   the   preparatory   phase):   ellis   (2005a)   -­‐   students   were   told   about   the   principles   that   would   be   presented   in   the  next   seminar   and   they  were   asked   to   read   excerpts   from   the   following   studies   related   to   each  principle  as  preliminary  work  on  the  topic.     principle  1:  lewis,  1993;  foster,  2001;  myles,  2004.     principle  2:  dekeyser,  1998;  ellis,  2003;  long,  1996.   principle  3:  ellis,  2001;  richards,  2007.   principle  4:  dekeyser,  1998;  ellis,  1993  ;  krashen,  1981.   principle  5:  krashen,  1981;  pienemann,  1989.   principle  6:  krashen,  1981.   principle  7:  ellis,  2003;  skehan,  1998;  swain,  1995.   principle  8:  lantolf,  1996,  2000;  long,  1996.   principle  9:  dörnyei,  2001.   principle  10:  ellis,  2003;  norris  &  ortega,  2000.     supporting   research   articles   (in   preparatory   phase   and   in   phase   1):   excerpts   from   studies   and   theory   related  to  each  principle  were  offered  to  help  sts  identify  key  constructs  and  empower  them  with  technical   vocabulary  (input,  output,  interaction,  types  of  tasks,  etc.).  reference  to  these  excerpts  was  made  during  the   trainer’s  presentation  of  the  principles  in  the  seminar  as  to  make  the  connection  clear  between  the  excerpts   and  the  principles.  particular  attention  was  given  to  the  principles  outlined  in  ellis  2005b  across  the  whole   series  of  seminars.  most  of  the  reading  was  carried  out  during  the  seminars.     evaluation  of  “ideas”  (in  phase  1):  after  the  lecture  where  supporting  literature  was  examined,  examples  of   good   practices   were   raised   in   problem-­‐solving   activities   on   the   applicability   of   each   specification.   each   principle  was  discussed  and  the  sts  were  invited  to  give  their  feedback  or  hypothesize  possible  modifications   according  to  their  beliefs.       awareness-­‐raising  task  (in  phase  2):  sts  were  asked  to  trace  evidence  of  the  application  of  the  principles   during  their  practicum,  which  consisted  of  efl  classroom  observation  in  lower  and  upper  secondary  schools.   the   seven   sts  were   primed   to   use   the   questionnaire   during   theory   classes.   during   field   observation   they   were  also  asked  to  jot  down  descriptions  of  specific  student  and  teacher  behaviors  related  to  the  use  of  the   principles  and  to  exchange  views  of  beliefs  on  instructed  learning  with  the  observed  teachers.     questionnaire   (appendix):   the   questionnaire   was   composed   of   yes/no   questions,   some   of   which   were   followed   by   scaled   questions.   the   questions   were   drawn   from   the   description   of   the   principles   that   ellis   proposed,  with  guidance  on  how  to  operationalize  them  (2005a,  2005b).  the  questions  were  discussed  with   sts  before  observations  so  that  they  could  raise  questions  or  propose  adjustments.  entries  were  structured   simply   to  aid  sts   to  detect  behaviors  clearly.  sts  observed  a   total  of  15   teachers  during   their   lessons   for  a   minimum  of  10  hours  for  each  teacher.       pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        31   research   project   (phase   3):   the   results   of   the   observations   were   discussed   in   plenary   sessions   of   the   seminars.  each  principle  was  analyzed  in  terms  of  whether  the  senior  teacher  appeared  to  have  used  it  and   with  which  practice   or   strategy.  moreover,   since   some   teachers  were   observed  by  more   than  one   st,   data   were   compared   and   any   form   of   discrepancy   in   responses   was   examined   through   vivid   and   constructive   discussion,  which  offered  sts  the  possibility  to  further  increase  their  awareness  of  teaching  methodologies.       evaluation  (phase  4):  at  the  end  of  the  course,  sts  were  asked  to  produce  a  written  report  on  this  experience   in  which  they  were  asked  to  present  the  theory  that  they  had  learned,  describe  the  most  significant  practices   observed,  comment  on  to  those  practices,  and  reflect  on  how  their  beliefs  and  level  of  awareness  had  changed   over  the  course  of  the  seminars.       2.2.  data  collection   data  was  collected  through  the  following  methods  and  during  the  following  phases  of  the  seminars.     2.2.1.  questionnaire  on  the  application  of  the  principles  (during  phase  2)     sts  were   asked   to   trace   evidence   of   the   application   of   the   principles   during   their   observations   by   way   of   a   questionnaire   designed   to   elicit   such   practices   (appendix).   they   were   primed   to   use   the   questionnaire  during  theory  classes.     2.2.2.  in-­‐depth  discussions  after  observations  (during  phase  3)   a  field-­‐observation  notebook  was  used  during  discussions  with  a  single  page  for  each  principle.  the   researcher  completed  a  set  of  field  notes  for  each  plenary  class  of  the  seminar  by  jotting  down  observed  sts’   comments   relevant   to   each   principle.   in   terms   of   research   ethics,   prior   consent   was   obtained   from   informants.       2.2.3.  student  teachers’  written  reports  (during  phase  4)   in  their  final  reports,  sts  were  asked  to  describe  and  comment  on  the  most  meaningful  practices  they   observed   in   class.   the   students’   qualitative   notes   provide   evidence   of   the   growing   sophistication   in   sts’   understanding  of  teaching  and  learning  through  ellis’s  principles  along  with  heightened  awareness  regarding   the  contextual  constraints  facing  teachers.  the  seminars  were  held  in  english  but  the  report  was  written  in   italian,  so  the  quotes  from  reports  will  be  translated.     2.2.4.  questionnaires  to  three  of  the  sts  after  five  years’  in-­‐service  experience     five  years  after  the  tfa  course,  three  of  the  seven  teachers  were  asked  to  respond  to  a  questionnaire.   questions  were  related  to  the  role  the  principles  had  played   in  their   teaching  approach,  how  they  felt   their   teaching   competencies   had   developed   during   the   course   and   after   it,   and   the   way   in   which   classroom   observations  contributed  to  the  development  of  their  methodological  awareness.  they  were  also  asked  if  they   were  satisfied  with  the  seminars  and  if  they  would  transfer  the  model  to  other  teacher  qualifying  courses.   2.3.  case  studies   data   is   shared   through   the  case  studies  of   three  sts.  the  objective   is   to  discover   if   the  sts,  armed   with  the  knowledge  of  the  principles,  were  able  to  observe  classroom  activities  through  that  theoretical  lens   and   whether   and   how   it   then   influenced   the   quality   and   degree   of   their   understanding   of   teaching   and   learning.  the  most  meaningful  feedback  that  they  gave  during  the  seminar  discussions  and  the  remarks  that   they  made  in  the  written  reports  were  used  as  qualitative  notes.   studying  the  answers  on  the  questionnaires  completed  after  five  years’  in-­‐service  experience  aided  in   understanding  if  these  former  sts  actually  saw  a  reward  in  having  received  this  type  of  pre-­‐service  education.   did  they  find  that  the  principles  were  actually  useful  for  their  teaching  orientation?  do  they  remain  useful?   benedetta,  chiara,   and  giuseppe’s   cases  were   chosen  because   they  narrate   three  different   learning   stories  and  offer  three  different  perspectives  on  the  principles.  benedetta  was  particularly  interested  in  the   teaching  of  english  for  specific  purposes  (esp),  so  she  was  able  to  envision  the  principles  being  used  in  this   kind  of  context.  she  also  had  the  chance  to  observe  particularly  good  practices  by  teachers  who  implemented   tblt.  chiara’s   story   is   interesting  because  she  observed   two   teachers  with  diametrically  opposed   teaching   styles   and   had   the   chance   to   increase   her   awareness   of   the   dos   and   don’ts   of   clt   practices.   this   also   petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    32   happened  to  giuseppe,  who  enriched  the  discussions  with  insightful  comments  related  to  assessment  as  well   as  to  the  influence  of  ge  certification  exams  on  classroom  teaching  practices.  importantly,  the  comments  they   raise,  especially  giuseppe’s,  often  integrate  not  only  sla  but  also  pedagogical  insights.  therefore,  these  case   studies  could  be  regarded  as  “a  means  of  bridging  theory  and  practice  and  demonstrating  the  complexity  of   teaching  as  a  profession”  (crandall,  2000,  p.  40).     3.  data  analysis   3.1.  case  study  a  (benedetta)   3.1.1.  feedback  after  classroom  observations   when  benedetta  started  her  tfa  course,  she  had  taught  efl  in  a  private  language  school  for  a  total  of   55  hours  at  an  elementary  and  advanced  level,  so  she  had  had  minimal  teaching  experience.  benedetta  spent   10  hours  observing  in  a  lower  high  school  and  150  in  an  upper  high  school,  which  was  divided  into  two  areas:   a  lyceum  focused  on  applied  science  and  a  technical  college.  secondary  education  in  italy  lasts  eight  years  and   is   divided   in   two   stages:   scuola   secondaria   di   primo   grado   (lower   secondary   school),   also   known   as   scuola   media,  and  scuola  secondaria  di  secondo  grado  (upper  secondary  school).  the  middle  school  lasts  three  years   from  the  age  of  11  to  age  14,  and  the  upper  secondary  from  14  to  19.  the  first  two  years  of  upper  high  school   are   compulsory;   the   remaining   three   years   are   voluntary.   there   are   three   types   of   scuola   secondaria   di   secondo  grado  and  students  can  choose  what  type  to  attend:  liceo  (lyceum),  istituto  tecnico  (technical  college),   istituto  professionale  (vocational  college).   in  her  practicum,  benedetta  observed  classes  and  taught  some  lessons  under  guidance  of  her  school-­‐ tutors.  since  she  was   interested   in  esp,  she  chose  to  observe  also  some  of   these  classes,  so  she  was  able  to   spot  the  presence  of  principles  in  this  specific  context.  she  carried  out  her  observations  in  the  last  three  years   of  italian  secondary  school,  where  students  are  required  to  learn  general  and  specialized  language  uses.  they   study  english  literature  in  the  lyceum  or,  if  they  attend  a  technical  school,  they  must  learn  the  esp  related  to   their   field   of   study   (chemistry,   electronics,   information   technology,   mechanics,   energy,   etc.).   benedetta   observed  esp  classes  in  a  lyceum  with  one  teacher,  and  at  a  technical  school  in  the  specialization  of  chemistry   and  mechanics  with   another   teacher.   although   she   observed   four   teachers   in   total,  most   of   her   comments   regard  two  who  both  taught  in  upper  high  school  classes.  she  pointed  out:     excerpt  1.     i  was  particularly   interested   in   two  classes  of   the  second  biennium  of  upper  high  school   (3rd  and  4th  year),  both  with  a  b1  level  going  to  b2  (cefr  -­‐  common  european  framework,   council  of  europe,  2001).  the  approach  used  can  be  defined  as  clt  since   the  priority   is   that  students  speak  english  in  real  and  active  contexts.     as  for  principle  1,  benedetta  saw  that  formulaic  chunks  were  used  as  a  type  of  recast  (long,  1996,  p.   436)  for  higher-­‐level  students.  she  noticed  the  two  teachers  tended  to  change  the  sentence  components  that   were   structured   incorrectly   without   interrupting   the   flow   of   speech   and—once   the   oral   production   was   finished—asked   the   students   to   repeat   the   utterance   to   help   them   memorize   the   correct   pattern.   during   seminars,  benedetta  said  she  thought  teaching  formulaic  chunks  would  be  a  monotonous  activity   for  either   teachers   and   students,   but   seeing   senior   teachers   performing   activities   like   the   ones   mentioned,   she   understood   how   formulaic   chunks   could   be   also   simply   presented   through   the   repetition   of   the   correct   word/phrase  in  teachers’  feedback,  in  a  way  that  she  thought  useful  but  not  invasive.   she   also   noticed   how   these   two   teachers   performed   practices   which   were   primarily   meaning-­‐ oriented  (principle  2).  one  of  them,  in  particular,  stressed  that  her  main  concern  was  to  keep  communication   going.   benedetta   recounted   the   experience   of   seeing   these   teachers   perform   tasks   in   esp   classes.   for   example,   in   the   fourth  year  of   the   lyceum,  students  usually   study  shakespeare’s  hamlet.  the   teacher  asked   her  class  to  watch  the  zeffirelli  version  of  the  tragedy,  then  divided  it  into  groups  and  asked  each  to  analyze   one  character  and  present  it  to  the  rest  of  the  class.  the  goal  was  to  outline  the  actions  of  each  character  and   determine  which  had  the  greatest  responsibility  for  the  tragic  end.  to  do  this,  a  class  discussion  was  opened,   and  students  were  asked  to  use  their  own  linguistic  resources  to  express  their  opinion  and  come  to  a  common   decision.   a  teacher  in  the  mechanics  esp  class  proposed  a  task  on  “pros  and  cons  of  the  electric  engine.”  the   teacher  reported  students’  feedback  on  the  whiteboard.  she  then  divided  the  class  into  four  groups,  who  were   pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        33   asked  to  write  two  lists,  each  with  five  pros  and  five  cons.  finally,  students  had  to  debate  in  plenary  to  make  a   shared   decision   on   the  most   relevant   advantages   and   disadvantages.   students  were   then   asked   to  write   a   brief  summary  on  the  topic  discussed  in  class.  in  the  same  class,  the  teacher  presented  the  topic  “alternative   and  green  fuels,”  and  students  were  asked  to  prepare  a  presentation  in  groups  with  the  aid  of  the  internet   and  their  mechanics  books.  the  presentation  had  to  include  elements  like  types  of  fuel,  ways  of  production,   and  costs.  each  group  had  to  choose  a  speaker  to  present  their  findings.  benedetta  commented:     excerpt  2.     the   meaning-­‐oriented   activities   in   these   esp   classes   show   how   the   student-­‐teacher   interaction  can  be   less  asymmetrical   than   in   the  ge  classes,   since  often  students  are   the   experts  of   the  meanings  conveyed.  what   is  more,  being  your   teacher’s   teacher  definitely   increases  motivation  and  self-­‐esteem.     benedetta  reported  having  seen  these  teachers  insert  focus  on  form  activities  (principle  3)  at  the  end   of   this   kind  of   lessons,  mostly   by  writing   the   frequent  mistakes  of   the   students   on   the  blackboard,   thus   to   favor  reflection  strategies  and  metalinguistic  awareness.  she  recounted  having  viewed  a   lesson  where  form   was  retrieved  from  students’  implicit  knowledge  (principle  4).  benedetta  said  she  was  captivated  by  the  way   in   which   one   of   the   two   teachers   presented   future   prediction   through   a   brainstorming   activity   on   “what   worries  you  about  the  future?”  she  recorded  students’  feedback  on  the  whiteboard  and,  in  doing  so,  elicited   expressions  and  structures  used  for  this  function.  whenever  students  produced  non-­‐targeted  utterances,  the   teacher  would  simply  write  them  correctly  on  the  whiteboard  to  encourage  students’  autonomous  processing   of   language  data.  she  then  divided  the  class  into  four  groups.  each  group  was  asked  to  create  two  lists,  one   with   five  negative  predictions  and  one  with   five  positive  ones.   students   then  had   to  debate   in  plenary  and   agree  on  the  best  and  the  worst  prediction  for  the  future.  it  was  only  at  the  end  of  the  task  that  the  teacher   took   a  moment   to   reflect   on   the   explicit   knowledge   about   the   future   tense   that   had   arisen   spontaneously   through  the  exercise.     benedetta   commented   that   this   teacher   showed  consideration  of   the  built-­‐in   syllabus   (principle  5)   since   she  only  presented  new   input  when   students  were  developmentally   ready;   the   teacher   also  used   the   advantages  of   the   inductive  approach  by   leading   the   learners   through   the  discovery  of  grammar  by  way  of   tasks.   she   showed   appreciation   for   the   approach   used,   which   clearly   promoted   students’   interaction,   participation,  critical  thinking  for  a  deeper  understanding  of  the  language.  benedetta  pointed  out  that  the  two   teachers  made  extensive  use  of  english   in  class   (principle  6),   complete  with  videos  and  realia.   instructions   were  provided  in  english  and  repeated  several  times  until  completely  understood  but  this  does  not  mean  that   italian  was  completely  avoided.  these  teachers  used  it  after  having  tried,  with  no  success,  to  make  themselves   understood  through  rephrasing  and  miming.  also,  italian  was  used  when  the  teacher  or  the  students  wanted   to  capture  each  other’s  attention  at  an  emotional  or  affective  level,  for  example  by  telling  jokes.     as   for   the   output   (principle   7),   benedetta   noticed   that   the   teachers   who   advocated   for   the   importance   of   communicative   approaches   tended   to   use   scaffolding   techniques   to   co-­‐construct   the   output   with  their  students  and  help  them  develop  fluency  and  automaticity.  they  tried  to  use  some  specific  language   elements  during  the  lesson.  for  example,  benedetta  reports  about  expressions  that  related  to  the  main  topic   of  the  lesson,  like  pre-­‐modified  elements  that  are  typical  of  esl  uses  (“a  compact  battery-­‐operated  black  and   white   printer”)   and   did   not  mind   students   using   them   in   the   output   even   if   deep   understanding   of   these   elements  had  not  taken  place  yet.  as  for  interaction,  benedetta  realized  how  challenging  it  was  for  students  to   be  involved  in  it  and  for  teachers  to  promote  it  in  class.  she  wrote  on  her  final  report  (principle  8):     excerpt  3.     the  complexity  of  interlocution  derives  from  multiple  challenging  factors:  you  cannot  plan   what   you   are   going   to   say,   you  must   negotiate,   you  must   be   ready   for   the   unexpected.   what  is  more,  the  spoken  language  is  more  fragmentary,  more  immediate,  with  a  weaker   cohesive   structure   than   the  written   language.   it   is   not   surprising   to   see   that   interaction   represents  the  major  challenge  for  both  the  teacher  and  the  learner.         petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    34   benedetta  reported  two  experiences  that  were  significant  illustrations  of  how  any  situation,  moment   or  form  of  input  can  become  a  catalyst  for  valuable  interaction.  she  mentioned  having  seen  teachers  start  the   lesson  with  themes  like  “the  secrets  of  a  longer  life”  or  “healthy  food  vs  junk  food”  asking  students  to  give   their  ideas,  thus  giving  way  to  debates  that  were  so  involving  that  they  lasted  almost  the  whole  lesson.  in  this   way,  benedetta  said,  “meaning  is  actively  co-­‐constructed  through  the  negotiation  of  each  interlocutor.”   these  teachers  also  helped  students  participate  in  language-­‐related  activities  that  were  beyond  their   current  level  of  proficiency  and  offered  a  full  range  of  contexts  for  learners’  interaction.  benedetta  reported   on   the   use   of   authentic   materials   (newspaper   articles,   literary   texts,   films,   tv   series,   etc.)   to   start   conversation   activities,   in  which   the   teacher   encouraged   the   use   of  words   and   expressions   newly   learned   through  the  input.  this  happened  often  in  the  esp  classes,  where  on  some  occasions  students  were  already   familiar  with  the  topics  presented  in  the  input  materials  (in  fact,  sometimes  they  were  more  knowledgeable   than  the  teachers)  but  had  not  yet  learned  the  terms  in  english.  benedetta  reflected  on  how  interaction  can   only  occur  under  these  conditions:       excerpt  4.     a   positive   environment,   harmonious   relationships   among   interlocutors,   interest   for   the   topic,   which   lower   the   affective   filter   (krashen,   1981)   and   increase  motivation,  making   communication  become  more  effective     she   was   therefore   able   to   realize   how   important   it   is   to   take   account   of   individual   differences   in   learners   as  well   as   of   their   preferences   (themselves,   their   life,   their   tastes,   their   opinions)   (principle   9).   she   mentioned  how  in  the  final  year  of  lyceum,  a  teacher  introduced  a  module  on  “the  dystopian  novel”  asking   students  to  read  and  comment  on  excerpts  by  orwell,  huxley,  bradbury  and  golding.  the  teacher  explained   that  students  in  this  class  were  particularly  interested  in  this  type  of  novel  and  were  eager  to  find  out  about   novels  that  they  had  not  come  across  in  their  personal  reading.  benedetta  commented,       excerpt  5.     in  this  way,  the  approach  to  literature  becomes  more  student-­‐centered.     as  for  analysis  or  assessment  (principle  10),  benedetta  stated  that  in  her  short  teaching  experience   she   had   never   given   her   students   open   tests,   especially   task   completion   or   role-­‐plays.   but   during   the   observations,   she  watched   students   perform  both   oral   and  written   free   productions   and   seen  moments   in   which  students  were  asked  to  present  a  powerpoint  presentation  to  their  peers.  she  said  that  this  helped  her   to  have  a  clearer  idea  of  how  to  assess  free  production.     3.1.2.  feedback  5  years  after  the  tfa  course   in   2016,   soon   after   the   tfa   course,   benedetta   and   all   the   trainees   who   followed   the   tfa   course   became   in-­‐service   teachers   after   passing   a   competitive   public   exam.   benedetta   ended   up   teaching   in   the   upper  high  school  where  she  had  done  her  practicum,  so  she  had  the  chance  to  collaborate  with  her  former   tutors.   she  states  that  the  knowledge  of  the  principles  helped  improve  her  teaching  practices:     excerpt  6.     especially   in   adopting   a  more  meaning-­‐oriented   approach   through   task-­‐based   activities   (e.g.,   internet  projects,  web  quests)  and  in  giving  students  more  opportunities  for  output   in   the   classroom   (e.g.,   role-­‐plays,   class   discussions,   referential   questions)   as   well   as   providing  corrective  feedback  when  needed  (e.g.,  recasting)  (principles  2,  3,  and  7).     before  becoming  a  qualified  teacher,  she  claims  she  instinctively  applied  principles  6,  8,  and  9.  in  fact   she  regularly  exposed  students  to  real-­‐life  input  and  gave  them  opportunities  to  interact  and  negotiate  input   through  cooperative  learning.  she  was  also  particularly  attentive  of  students’  different  learning  strategies,  so   she  would  encourage  them  to  share  their  learning  techniques  through  the  vark  test.  this  test  was  primarily   developed  by  the  lincoln  university  of  new  zealand  in  1998  (fleming,  2009).  it  helps  learners  identify  their   learning  styles   through  visual,  aural,   reading,  writing,  and  kinesthetic   (vark)   instruments.  this  experience   sensitized  benedetta  to  the  fact  that  identifying  and  employing  appropriate  learning  styles  can  help  select  the   pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        35   right  teaching  styles  for  everyone.  on  the  other  hand,  benedetta  did  not  have  awareness  of  principles  1  and   10   before   the   seminars.   so,   after   the   seminars   she   started   to   adopt   more   rote-­‐learning   strategies   with   beginning  and  intermediate  students  within  the  framework  of  a  lexical  approach  (e.g.,  teaching  them  a  lexical   chunk   as   one   unanalyzed   item).  when   it   comes   to   assessment,   she   says   she   now  uses   open   tests   like   task   completion  or  role-­‐plays,  which  she  did  not  often  employ  before  the  tfa  course.  at  present,  she  would  like  to   apply  principle  5  more.  she  could  not  imagine  teaching  without  a  textbook  and  admits  that  could  be  a  mental   and  structural  constraint  so  she  hopes  that  she  can  become  more  detached  from  it  as  her  expertise  grows.   benedetta   claims   the   seminars   helped   her   become  more   aware   of   the   importance   of   applying   the   principles  during  the  learning  and  teaching  process  and  she  feels  that  all  principles  are  useful.     excerpt  7.     the  questionnaire  was  a  powerful  observation   tool  during  my  year  as  a   student   teacher   since  it  helped  me  notice  many  aspects  of  which  i  would  not  otherwise  be  aware.  it  was  a   consciousness-­‐raising  tool  as  it  made  me  deeply  aware  of  my  own  teaching  style.     she   is   grateful   to   have   been   given   the   opportunity   to   observe   senior   teachers   in   the   classroom   environment  because  she  learned  so  much  from  their  expertise  in  every  aspect  of  language  teaching  and  she   thinks  the  principles  could  definitely  help  other  sts  develop  their  teaching  skills.       excerpt  8.     it  was  a  fundamental  step  in  becoming  the  teacher  that  i  am  today      it   is   important   to  highlight   the   fact   that  none  of   the   senior   teachers  observed  were  native  english   speakers.   there   are   often   strong,   unjustified   prejudices   against   non-­‐native   english   teachers   despite   their   qualification   and   experience.   it   is   meaningful   to   see   that   no   specific   reflections   on   the   topic   were   raised,   neither  by  benedetta  nor  by  the  other  trainees  on  their  beliefs  associated  with  native  speakerism;  this  could   be  a  sign  of  their  general  appreciation  of  the  professional  role  and  the  competence  in  english  of  their  senior   teachers.     3.2.  case  study  b  (chiara)   3.2.1.  feedback  after  classroom  observations   when  chiara  started  her  tfa  course,  she  had  had  some  experience  teaching  italian  as  an  sl  and  efl   in   two   italian   private   schools.   she   then   spent   eight   months   as   teaching   assistant   in   germany.   the   only   teaching  experience  she  had  held  in  italian  high  schools  was  in  a  lyceum  for  three  weeks,  when  she  oversaw   six  classes.  chiara  did  her  practicum  in  an  upper  high  school  and  in  a  lower  high  school,  but  since  she  spent   only   one  week   in   the   latter,  most   of   the   remarks   she  made   in   the   seminar   discussions   and   in   the   reports   regard  her  experience  in  upper  high  school.  this  school  was  a  lyceum,  divided  into  two  sections,  one  focused   on   languages,   the  other  on  biology.   chiara  had   the   chance   to  both   view   lessons   and   try  out   some   teaching   practices  with  the  supervision  of  her  tutors.   during  classroom  discussions,  chiara  explained  she  had  become  particularly  intrigued  by  the  sharp   differences  of   the  practices  of   two  teachers  who  worked   in  the  same  school  and  taught   in  the  same  grades.   therefore,  she  raised  many  comments  on  these  differences.  these  two  teachers  will  be  referred  to  as  a  (with   a  stronger  clt  approach)  and  b  (more  inspired  by  traditionalist  views).   as   for   principle   1,   chiara   said   that   teacher   b   did   not   seem   to   push   students   to   learn  memorized   patterns.  she  tended  to  interrupt  them  to  correct  their  pronunciation  or  translate  words  they  did  not  know.   chiara   commented   that   this   clearly   did   not   increase   student   self-­‐esteem   or   the   development   of   their   communicative   strategies.   teacher   a   instead   helped   students   build   a   repertoire  of   formulaic   expressions.   words  and  phrases  were  written  on   the  whiteboard,  and  students  were  asked   to  keep  record  of   them   in  a   copybook.  chiara  pointed  out  that  this  was  a  great  help  for  them  to  memorize  the  words.   as  for  principle  2,  chiara  did  not  give  accounts  of  activities  that  respond  to  the  criteria  of  a  task.  for   example,  students  were  asked  to  prepare  and  present  projects  in  group  work.  during  their  presentations,  the   teacher   encouraged   students   to   use   their   own   linguistic   resources   to   communicate   effectively   but   these   exercises  in  situational  language  practice  cannot  be  considered  as  plain  communicative  tasks  because  there  is   petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    36   no   information   gap   and   no   non-­‐linguistic   outcome.   despite   this,   chiara   described   teacher   a’s   practices   as   mostly  focused  on  communicative  skills  in  real  life  situations,  and  she  claimed:     excerpt  9.     as  lakoff  (1999)  argues  with  his  theory  of  embodiment,  you  learn  if  you  use  the  language,   not  if  you  memorize  grammar  rules  mechanically.       chiara   recounted   how   teacher   a   made   sure   that   content   related   to   form   (principle   3);   this   was   presented   through   referential  questions   that  pushed   students   to   elicit   language  practices  and   thus  become   more   aware  of   them.   she  preferred   to   guide   students   through  awareness  of   form  by  way  of   focused   tasks.   chiara  also  witnessed  moments  of  corrective  feedback  followed  by  guided  reflection  of  grammar  mistakes  in   activities   that  were  not  primarily   aimed  at   the   improvement  of   grammar  mastery.   for   example,   teacher  a   spent   much   time   correcting   students’   open   written   responses   connected   to   a   reading   activity.   regarding   teacher  b,  chiara  pointed  out:     excerpt  10.     grammar  rules  are  presented  briefly  in  italian,  often  with  no  examples  on  the  whiteboard   but  only  reading  the  rule  on  the  textbook.  students  are  just  pushed  to  learn  from  the  book   at   home.   these   are   episodes   of   focus   on   forms,   which   involve   a   primary   emphasis   on   linguistic  structures.     as  for   implicit  knowledge  (principle  4),  teacher  a  was  well  practiced  in  negotiating  meaning  to  fill   linguistic  gaps  that  might  block  communication.   in  so  doing,  she  used  elicitation  or  clarification  requests  to   help  learners  process  the  language  data  of  the  input  and  become  aware  of  the  choice  of  language  necessary   for   effective   communication.   if   needed,   when   students   had   finished   speaking,   she   spent   time   encouraging   awareness.  in  case  mistakes  were  made  only  by  distraction,  she  did  not  insist  on  reflection  but  recast  only  to   reformulate   the   utterance   into   a   correct   version   without   interrupting   communication.   on   the   contrary,   teacher  b   tended   to   interrupt   students   frequently   to   correct   them  when   they   spoke   (“no,   that’s  wrong!”).   self-­‐correction  was  not  encouraged,  and  learners  were  not  invited  to  question  how  structural  features  work.   online  planning  was  not  allowed  when  students  were  pushed   to  verbalize   their   implicit  knowledge.  chiara   adds:     excerpt  11.     the  explanation  of  grammar  rules   is  done  in  italian  through  a  constant  comparison  with   italian   structures,   which   on   the   one   hand   facilitates   the   learning   of   the   rule   but   on   the   other  tends  to  create  confusion  in  learners,  in  my  opinion.     chiara   noticed   that   peer   correction   helped   students   retrieve   information   from   their   implicit   knowledge  of  form.  she  argued:     excerpt  12.     the  explanation  students  can  have  from  their  peers  becomes  a  sort  of  scaffolding  for  them.   also,   those   who   explain   can   benefit   from   this   activity   because   they   have   the   chance   to   revise  forms  and  make  ideas  clearer  for  themselves.     teacher  a  seemed   to   take  consideration  of   the  built-­‐in  syllabus  by  making  sure   that   learners  were   developmentally   ready   to   acquire   specific   features,   but   she   preferred   to   expand   the   time   needed   to   teach,   rather  than  modify  the  order  of  the  syllabus  in  the  textbook  (principle  5).  for  example,  chiara  recounted  that   the   teacher   changed   the   topic   of   a   class   when   she   realized   her   students   had   never   come   across   some   preparatory   content   in   the   years   before.   to   chiara,   this   showed   “a   great   level   of   expertise   and   flexibility.”   instead,  an  excessive  use  of  textbooks  was  made  by  teacher  b.  chiara  observed  students  who  were  correcting   a  reading  activity  for  homework:         pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        37   excerpt  13.     every  activity  is  corrected  entirely  by  one  student.  turns  are  taken  according  to  the  order   of  desks  in  the  room.  the  students  in  the  other  part  of  the  room  are  thus  sure  it  will  not  be   their   turn   to   correct  until   the   following  15  minutes,   so   they  do  not   feel  motivated   to  be   focused   on   what   the   rest   of   the   class   is   doing.   these   activities,   if   presented   in   a   more   involving  way,  would  be  very  useful  for  the  development  of  students’  comprehension  skills   but   instead   in   this   way   they   only   aid   the   ‘best   ones   in   class’,   also   because   they   are   corrected  quickly  with   the   rush   of   reaching   the   end  of   the  unit,   independently   from   the   actual  needs  of  the  students.     in  terms  of  input  exposure  (principle  6),  chiara  pointed  out  that  teacher  b,  whose  practices  seemed   to  cling  more  to  grammar-­‐translation  methods,  made  little  or  no  use  of  english  in  class.  she  intended  to  wait   to  use  l2  until  students  had  reached  a  level  of  communicative  autonomy.  opportunities  for  exposure  to  input   were   more   often   proposed   by   teacher   a.   the   same   happened   for   the   output   (principle   7).   the   more   traditional   teacher   seemed   to   constantly   push   students   to   produce   correct   output   and   did   not   always   collaborate   to   sustain   their   productions.   teacher   a,   conversely,   promoted   interaction   (principle   8)   and   tended   to   use   scaffolding   techniques   to   co-­‐construct   the   output  with   her   students   and   help   them   develop   fluency  and  automaticity:     excerpt  14.     teacher   a   collaborates   with   her   students   in   negotiation   of   meaning   to   solve   communication   breakdowns.   she   suggests   possible   solutions   in   english   to   finish   the   sentence  the  student  might  be  trying  to  say.       at   higher   levels,   chiara   reported   several   moments   of   real   interaction   and   collaborative   communication.   in   the   lyceum,   students   were   often   asked   to   give   personal   opinions   on   the   historical   or   literary  works  studied  and  this  gave  way  to  fruitful  debate.  some  teachers  were  prone  to  modify  the  spatial   setting  of  the  seats  to  create  a  more  communicative  setting  to  aid  circle  time  or  group  work  activities.  teacher   b   did   not   create   contexts   where   students   had   a   reason   to   attend   to   language,   which   means   she   did   not   stimulate  students  to  speak  for  a  real  communicative  purpose,  but  for  the  purpose  of  simplistic  exercises.  for   example,   she   asked   students   to   perform   a   role-­‐play   in   pairs.   the   dialogue   was   scripted   in   the   language   coursebook  in  an  area  dedicated  to  word  expansion.  the  subject  was  food  shopping.  it  included  blank  areas   that  students  had  to  fill  in  with  the  newly  learnt  names  of  groceries.  thus,  interaction  was  confined  to  some   degree   of   text/input   manipulation,   which   could   not   be   considered   as   a   task.   as   for   principle   9,   chiara   considered  individual  difference  firstly  in  terms  of  the  relationship  that  teachers  establish  with  their  students.     excerpt  15.     teacher  a  enters  class  with  a  smile,  asks  students  to  take  their  seats  with  an  affectionate   mood;   she   calls   students   by   their   names   and   sometimes   with   nicknames   derived   from   their  names  or   surnames   (e.g.,   “can  you  please   stop   talking,  rebecchina,   darling?”).   it   is   totally   the   opposite   with   teacher   b   instead,   who   enters   the   classroom   only   sometimes   smiling.   sometimes   she   looks   indifferent   and   she   does   not   seem   to   have   the   same   good   relationship  with  her  students  as  the  other  teacher  has.     also,  chiara  raised  an   interesting  comment  on  the  motivational  constraints   that  can  emerge  with  a   grammar-­‐translation  method  applied  to  young  students:     excerpt  16.     this   approach   only   works   when   students   show   strong   intrinsic   motivation,   they   are   willing  to  deepen  their  knowledge  by  practicing  outside  of  school  but  surely  this  does  not   have   a   positive   effect   on   weaker   and   less   motivated   students,   since   it   does   not   take   account  elements  like  cognitive  styles  or  learning  strategies.  this  means  that  often  weaker   learners  of  english  start  hating  english,   thinking   it   is  a   “difficult”   subject,  and  raise   their   affective   filter.  learning  a   language   instead  should  occur   in  a   relaxing  environment  with   no  anxiety.       petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    38   as  for  assessment  (principle  10),  chiara  observed  that  no  task-­‐based  assessment  was  used  in  either   written  or  oral  texts.  also,  chiara  reported  having  seen  much  grammar  assessment  performed,  especially  by   the   classes   of   teacher   b,   who   asked   students   to   prepare   and   present   group   projects.   during   their   presentations,  the  teacher  corrected  them  in  pronunciation  and  grammar.  feedback  was  given  in  italian.  at   the   end   students  were   asked   to   read   but   the   teacher   constantly   interrupted   their   reading   to   correct   their   pronunciation.  in  her  final  reports  chiara  pointed  out:       excerpt  17.     the   idea   that   teaching   must   regard   practical   language   uses   through   clt   is   still   not   commonly   spread   among   all   teachers.   to   this   end,   i   hope   there   is   soon   going   to   be   a   turnover  of  efl  teaching  staff.     3.2.2.  feedback  after  5  years  from  the  tfa  course   chiara  has  become  a   lower  high  school   teacher.  five  years  after   the  tfa  course,  she  acknowledges   that  the  principles  helped  her  improve  her  teaching  approaches  and  practices:     excerpt  18.     …because   before   getting   to   know   them,   i   actually   did   not   have   almost   any   teaching   experience  at  all.  so,  i  had  the  chance  to  start  teaching,  having  the  principles  in  mind,  and  i   could  use   them  as  a  point  of  reference  when  i  didn’t  know  exactly  how  to  react   to  some   students’  response  or  how  to  manage  certain  situations.     chiara  said  that  she  did  not  know  the  principles  at  the  start  of  the  seminars  and  she  found  principle  4   particularly  interesting,  as  she  had  never  reflected  on  the  difference  between  implicit  and  explicit  knowledge   and  learning  process  in  the  students’  minds.  before  the  seminars  she  intuitively  followed  principles  9  and  10   without   actual   knowledge   of   them.   for   example,   she   understood   instinctively   that   teachers  must   take   into   account  that  each  student  has  his/her  own  language  level  and  cognitive  styles,  but  she  had  never  thought  of   that  explicitly  and  actually  put  these  thoughts  into  words:       excerpt  19.     before  attending  the  tfa  course,  i  did  not  know  much  about  learning  theories  or  didactic   methods  and  through  my  studying  of  the  principles  and  the  observation  of  other  teachers;   i  realized  that  teaching  material  can  be  modified  and  adapted  to  the  students’  needs.  their   “built-­‐in-­‐syllabus”   changes   due   to   different   factors   and   they   may   not   be   ready   to   start   learning  a  certain  topic  one  year,  differently  from  other  students  of  the  same  age  attending   the  same  class.     the  questionnaire  was  useful  as  an  observation  tool  to  chiara  in  that  when  observing  the  classes  of   senior  teachers,  she  knew  that  she  could  not  base  her  judgement  exclusively  upon  her  own  ideas,  so  having  a   questionnaire  as  a  point  of  reference  was  very  useful  to  take  notes  in  class  and,  consequently,  to  increase  her   teaching  competence  level.       excerpt  20.     when  i  observed  senior  teachers,  i  learned  a  lot  both  from  what  i  considered  to  be  actions   i  would   not   implement   (such   as   too  much   grammar   during   a   lesson   or   boring   and   long   homework   corrections),   but   also   from   the   good   practices   of   those   i   considered   “good   teachers.”  some  examples  of  good  practices  could  be  motivating  the  students  with  songs,   poetry  reading  or  videos  or  using  everyday  life  references  to  explain  grammar  rules.     the  observation  questionnaire  became  a  point  of  reference  in  chiara’s  future  teaching  career.  when   she  started  teaching  on  her  own,  she  studied  it  carefully  and  felt  more  prepared  to  enter  the  classes,  knowing   better  what   to   expect   from   students   and   how   to  manage   the   various   learning   situations.   chiara   considers   communication   among   students   a   vital   element   to   learn   a   foreign   language   so   she   would   like   to   apply   principles  6  and  8  more  extensively.  however,  one  constraint  to  their  application  is  that  teenage  students  are   not   always   happy   to   speak   english   in   front   of   the   teacher   and   other   italian   classmates,   because   they   fear   pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        39   making  mistakes  and  “losing  face”.  another  constraint  that  she  sees  is  difficulty  using  the  target  language  as  a   medium  of  instruction  due  to  the  average  level  of  lower  high  school  students  and  the  significant  presence  of   learners  with   special   needs.   chiara   thinks   that   seminars   organized  within   this   framework   should  be  made   available  to  student  teachers,  because  she  thinks  it  is  vital  to  be  offered  the  opportunity  to  observe  someone   else’s  classes  before  starting  to  teach.  she  strongly  believes  the  principles  could  be  used  as  good  guidelines   for  student  teachers  in  their  learning  process  in  the  future:       excerpt  21.     …because  they  represent  the  perfect  decalogue  to  refer  to  when  experiencing  teaching  for   the  first  time,  when  doing  observations,  when  trying  to  put  theory  into  everyday  practice.     3.3.  case  study  c  (giuseppe)   3.3.1.  feedback  after  classroom  observations   at  the  start  of  the  tfa  course,  giuseppe  had  had  a  one-­‐year  teaching  experience  in  a  private  language   school  and  he  had  also  gained  some  degree  of  experience  assisting  special  needs  students.  giuseppe  spent  10   hours  observing  in  a  lower  high  school  and  150  in  the  same  upper  high  school  as  benedetta.     giuseppe  was  particularly  interested  in  issues  related  to  assessment  as  well  as  in  the  influence  of  ge   certification   exams   on   classroom   teaching   practices.   ge   certifications   awarded   by   accredited   international   exam  groups  like  cambridge  assessment  and  are  often  requested  by  universities  and  in  the  business  world  in   italy.  in  fact,  italian  universities  require  b1  or  b2  level  certification  before  undergraduate  degrees  are  given,   and  many   private   companies   consider   the   possession   of   a   certification   as   a   prerequisite   for   employment.   according   to   italian   teaching   guidelines,   learners   should,   on   average,   reach   a1+/a2   at   the   end   of   lower   secondary  schools,  a2+/b1  after  the  first  two  years,  and  b2  by  the  end  of  upper  secondary  school  (at  the  age   of   18).   so,   although   the   guidelines   are   well-­‐structured   according   to   the   cefr,   secondary   school   final   certificates  are  unfortunately  not  given  much  value  by  either  universities  or  businesses.  therefore,   schools   are  pushed  by  families  and  executives  to  either  use  textbooks  aimed  at  preparing  for  certification  exams  or,   ideally,  to  run  extra  courses  in  the  afternoon  to  train  students  for  this  kind  of  exam.     there  is  a  problem  associated  with  the  management  of  these  courses.  for  bureaucratic  and  economic   reasons,   internal   teachers   are   generally   favored   for   extra   courses,   but   some   are   unwilling   to   teach   them   because   they   are   already   overloaded   by   the   work   with   the   curricular   classes.   if   this   happens,   since   the   employment  process  of  external  teachers  is  quite  complicated  and  expensive,  schools  sometimes  choose  not   to  implement  extra-­‐curricular  courses,  which  pushes  students  to  private  language  schools.  nevertheless,  the   teaching  autonomy  advocated  in  the  italian  guidelines  is  undeniably  influenced  by  the  need  to  help  students   familiarize  themselves  with  the  structure  and  requirements  of  certification  exams.  giuseppe  said  that  the  first   thing  that  struck  him  about  the  school  was  its  formulation  of  two  main  objectives.  the  first  was  to  constantly   try   and   improve   the   quality   of   the   curriculum   to   help   every   single   student   with   every   single   cultural   background,   attitude   or   ability   reach   his/her   highest   potential.   the   second   was   to   prepare   students   for   european   skills   certification   exams   run  by   companies   external   to   the   school   (ecdl,  ge  exams,   cisco,   etc.),   defined  as  a  necessary  passport  to  the  world  of  university  and  business.   as  giuseppe  pointed  out,   the   first   objective   is   clearly  pedagogical,   but   the   second  one   includes   the   issue   of   certifications.   he   argued   that   the   dichotomy   of   these   objectives   was   reflected   in   the   consequent   dichotomy  residing  in  the  sometimes-­‐divergent  teaching  approaches  of  the  efl  teachers  in  the  school.  to  give   evidence  of  this  he  often  raised  the  example  of  two  teachers  he  observed,  whom  i  will  refer  to  as  teachers  c   and  d.  teacher  c  was  particularly   interested  in  certification  and,  according  to  giuseppe,  he  seemed  to  align   more  with   a   structuralist   approach   and   the   ppp  model.   as   for   teacher   d,   she  was  more   likely   to   use   clt   practices,  tblt,  and  student-­‐centered  pedagogical  approaches.   giuseppe   reports   that   this   difference  was   visible   in   the  way   in  which   the   two   teachers   related   to   formulaic   expressions   (principle   1).   teacher  d   preferred   to   push   students   to   use   formulaic   expressions   in   class  to  make  learners  internalize  the  chunks  while  using  them.  teacher  c,  on  the  other  hand,  did  not  seem  to   encourage   their   use,   and   the   rule-­‐based   competence   of   the   students   was   significantly   challenged   by   his   corrections,  especially  regarding  the  way  students  pronounced  words.  giuseppe  commented:         petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    40   excerpt  22.     i  do  not  agree  with  this  approach.  teacher  c  continuously  corrects  pronunciation  mistakes   with  reference  to  the  standard  british  accent  and  sometimes  these  corrections  are  out  of   place  because  they  relate  to  areas  which  do  not  regard  the  efficacy  of  the  message  and  so   they  seem  to  me  rather  aimed  at  the  teacher’s  own  self-­‐pleasing  need,  really.     as  for  principle  2,  giuseppe  said  that  concern  about  classroom  control  discouraged  teacher  c  from   using  communicative  approaches.  he  consequently  proposed  more  structured  activities  which  tended  to  play   a   double   role:   on   the   one   hand,   they   allowed   learners   to   build   up   a   well-­‐rooted   knowledge   of   linguistic   elements   and   on   the   other,   they   permitted   strong   control   over   students,   keeping   them   focused   and   quiet.   what,   according   to   giuseppe,   characterized   teacher   d   was   that   she   instead   gave   primary   importance   to   meaning  practices.  giuseppe  recalled  having  seen  the  teacher  divide  the  class   into  groups  and  propose  that   each  create  a  video  project.  in  the  video,  students  were  required  to  reproduce  a  scene  from  a  movie  they  liked   or  from  a  script  they  were  free  to   invent  and  write  collaboratively.  giuseppe  particularly   liked  this  practice   and  commented  as  follows:     excerpt  23.     -­‐ students  are  encouraged  to  express  their  own  creativity.   -­‐ students  learn  through  cooperation.   -­‐ their   talents,   either   visual,   auditive   or   kinesthetic,   are   respected   and   used   for   the   benefit  of  the  group.   -­‐ students   can   give   their   contribution   no  matter  what   their   level   of   english   is   and   can   adapt  parts  of  the  script  with  their  own  language  resources.   -­‐ each   student   can   offer   his/her   competence   in   extra-­‐linguistic   skills   like   acting   skills,   editing  skills,  or  social  skills,  for  the  benefit  of  the  group.   -­‐ students  learn  more  vocabulary  and  discover  new  communicative  contexts  through  the   watching  and  the  making  of  movie  scenes.     teacher   c   made   intensive   use   of   corrective   feedback   and   was   particularly   careful   towards   non-­‐ formative   utterances   whereas   the   other   intervened   little   and   only   when   there   was   a   communication   breakdown  because   of   the   use   of   non-­‐targeted   forms.   she   believed   that   structuring   lessons   excessively   on   specific  linguistic  forms  could  be  counterproductive  to  the  language  learning  process.  in  his  report,  giuseppe   commented:     excerpt  24.     teacher   d   explains   grammar   rules   […]   but   her   explanations   always   arise   from   communicative  contexts,  be  it  through  the  reading  of  a  text  that  does  not  revolve  around   language   forms,   or   listening   to   a   conversation   or   to   a   song,   etc.   while   explaining   how   structures  work,  she  leads  students  to  reflect  on  how  they  have  been  used  in  the  context   given.     regarding   issues   related   to   implicit   and   explicit   knowledge   (principle   4),   giuseppe   pointed   out   in   discussions  that  he  saw  teacher  c  enforce  explicit  knowledge  by  asking  students  to  memorize  grammar  rules   from  the  book  at  home  and  do  the  related  exercises,  which  were  then  discussed  and  corrected  in  class.  when   this  happened,  the  lessons  revolved  around  one  topic  of  grammar  and  the  use  of  metalanguage  (either  in  l1   or  l2)  was  significant.   self-­‐correction  was  not  encouraged,  and   learners  did  not   tend   to   raise  questions  on   how   structural   features  work.   teacher   d   instead   negotiated  meaning   and   allowed   online   planning   to   help   learners  retrieve  information  from  their  implicit  knowledge  and  increase  their  awareness  of  them.  giuseppe   observed   that   she   treated   language   as   an   object   to   study   when   she   proposed   a   type   of   “irregular   verbs   challenge”   game,   where   students   were   divided   into   teams   and   in   turns   had   to   guess   the   meaning   and   paradigm  of  irregular  verbs  to  win.     as   mentioned   before,   giuseppe   was   particularly   interested   in   the   influence   ge   exams   have   on   teaching  practices   in  school  and  in  the  discussion  about  principle  5  many  issues  were  raised  regarding  this   aspect.  first,  giuseppe  mentioned  the  choice  that  teachers  make  with  regard  to  the  textbook.  he  pointed  out:     pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        41   excerpt  25.     in  his   first   year   in   a  new  school,   a   teacher  will   be   in   charge  of   several   classes,   each  one   with  a  heterogeneous  identity.  his/her  task  in  an  upper  high  school  will  be  to  help  these   students   reach   a   b2   level   of   communicative   competence.  with   great   probability,   in   this   new  school   the  department  will   have   chosen   to  use   a  ge  exam  preparation   coursebook.   this  means  that  all  the  exercises  and  the  activities  in  the  coursebook  will  be  modelled  on   ge   certification   standards.   so,  what  will   be   the   challenges   that   this   teacher  will   have   to   face?  on  the  one  hand,  he/she  will  have  to  come  to  terms  with  the  fact  that  surely  weaker   students  will  not  be  able  to  do  all  the  activities  and  keep  pace  with  the  coursebook  units.   on   the   other,   if   the   teacher   decides   to   readjust   the   syllabus   for   the   benefit   of   weaker   students,  he/she  will  have  to  give  reasons  to  school  superiors  and  department  colleagues   for  this  decision.     there  was  some  mismatch  between  what  teachers  taught  from  textbooks  and  what,  in  fact,  students   took  in.  but  the  need  for  teachers  to  work  organically  as  a  department  with  the  goal  of  leading  students  to  b2   evidently  did  not  make   them   feel   at   ease  with   the   idea  of   reorganizing   the   syllabus   in   their   classes.  as   for   teacher  c,  giuseppe  noted  that  his  objective  was  solely  that  his  students  succeed  in  doing  the  activities  well,   and   he   did   not   pay   much   attention   to   the   development   of   their   general   competences,   which   consist   of   knowledge,  skills,  existential  competence,  and  ability  to  learn  (council  of  europe,  2002).  giuseppe  says:     excerpt  26.     i  think  this  teacher  is  a  certifier,  rather  than  an  educator  and  in  my  opinion  this  approach   does  not  fulfill  the  school’s  educational  mission.     teacher  d  made  sure  that  her   lessons  were  structured  according  to  her  students’  actual  needs  and   attitudes,  so  she  adjusted  the  syllabus  or  her  practices  to  align  to  her  classes’  abilities  and  requirements.  as   for  language  input  (principle  6),  again  giuseppe  noticed  that  teacher  c  used  very  little  english  as  opposed  to   teacher  d  who  made  her  best  efforts  to  maximize  her  use  of  english.  she  made  wide  use  of  gestures  and  facial   expressions  to  avoid  instructing  in  italian  especially  in  early  years,  and  this  contributed  to  create  a  joyful  and   relaxing  atmosphere.  giuseppe  noticed  attention  to  both  written  and  oral  output  (principle  7)  across  all  levels   for  both  teachers.  for  teacher  c,  many  activities  were  connected  to  ge  certifications.  for  example,  students   were  asked  to  observe,  describe,  and  compare  two  pictures,  and,  for  the  written  output,  they  were  asked  to   write   essays,   reports,   articles,   and   reviews,   as   requested   in   the   first   certificate   exam   by   cambridge   assessment.     when  dealing  with  principle  8,  giuseppe  had  interesting  reflections  on  what  actually  aids  interaction   and   again  he   emphasized  one   central   idea:   students   are  more   apt   to   interact   if   the   environment   that   their   teacher  offers  is  welcoming,  warm  and  non-­‐judgmental.  looking  at  the  non-­‐verbal  communication  of  the  two   teachers,  he  argued  that  the  approach  and  the  amount  of  interaction  they  proposed  was  proportional  to  their   own  willingness  to  establish  a  communicative  relationship  with  their  students.     excerpt  27.     teacher  c:     enters  the  classroom  without  looking  at  the  students;  says  hello  silently  and  quickly  takes   the  coursebook  from  his  handbag;  puts   teaching  objects  (book,  bag,  cd  player,  …)  on  his   teaching   desk   that   in   a   way   create   a   barrier   between   him   and   his   students;   calls   the   students  by  their  surname  (rarely  by  their  first  name).     excerpt  28.     teacher  d:   enters  the  classroom  and  smiles  at  her  students;  she  stops  and  waits  until  they  all  say  hello   and  then  while  standing,  she  asks  how  everybody  is  doing;  she  makes  it  so  that  the  desk  is   emptied  of  any  object  that  might  create  a  barrier  between  her  and  the  class  but  she  rarely   sits   because   she   prefers   to   be   closer   to   the   students;   sometimes   she   sits   amongst   the   students;  she  calls  everybody  by  name  or  with  nicknames  deriving  from  their  surname.     petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    42   these  reflections  automatically  led  to  considerations  related  to  principle  9.  the  grammar-­‐translation   approach  and  the  lexical  approach,  exemplified  by  teacher  c,  were,  according  to  giuseppe:       excerpt  29.     …less   “empathetic”   approaches   because   they   require   less   interaction   amongst   learners   and  do  not  involve  their  individual  aspects  and  motivational  components.       giuseppe   argued   that   assessment   (principle   10)   is   the   area   where   the   dichotomy   between   clt   approaches  and  more  traditional  approaches  is  more  evident.     excerpt  30.     one   the   one   hand  we   have   teachers  who   almost   exclusively   use   grammar   tests;   on   the   other   we   have   teachers   who   make   up   their   own   tests   according   to   the   needs   and   backgrounds  of   their   learners.  through   these   tests   they   can  obtain   information  on   their   students’  progress  and  thus  plan  activities  accordingly.     for   teacher   c,   grammar   tests,   gap-­‐filling,   and   ge   certificate   exams   were   a   basis   for   much   of   the   written  and  oral  assessment.  for  example,  teacher  c  extensively  prepared   first  or   second  year   students   to   observe  a  photograph  and  then  talk  about  the  themes  related  to  the  photos.  teacher  d,  instead,  was  observed   by  giuseppe  giving  her  students  a  test  she  had  created  specifically  for  them.  students  were  asked  to  listen  to  a   pop   song   whose   lyrics   expressed   feelings   of   frustration   and   doubt.   teacher   d   asked   students   to   find   connections  between  the  song  and  the  sentimental  world  of  hamlet,  a  character  they  had  previously  studied.   after   listening   to   the   song,   students  were   given   a   handout  with   the   lyrics   and   had   to   fill   in   the   gaps  with   words  from  a  list.  then,  sentences  taken  from  parts  of  the  lyrics  had  to  be  transformed  using  a  key  word  that   needed   to   be   inserted   in   a   second   sentence,   which   had   a   gap   in   it.   students   had   to   use   the   key   word   to   complete   the   second   sentence   so   that   it  would   have   the   same  meaning   as   the   first.   this   activity  was   also   structured  as  practice  for  the  writing  part  of  ge  certificate  exams,  but   instead  of  being  standardized,   it  was   customized   for   those   specific   students.   after   this   kind   of   priming   activity,   students  were   asked   to   answer   open  questions  that  guided  them  to  the  analysis  of  the  text  and  the  similarities  that  could  be  found  between   hamlet’s  feelings  and  their  own  feelings.   it  was  clear  to  giuseppe  why  the  classes  taught  by  teacher  c  had  not  reached  the  same  assessment   level   as   the  ones  of  teacher  d.   in  his   opinion,   it   all   depended  on   these   two   totally  different   approaches   in   assessment.       3.3.2.  feedback  after  5  years  from  the  tfa  course   according  to  giuseppe,  the  knowledge  of  the  principles  helped  him  improve  his  teaching  approaches   and  practices.  before  learning  them:     excerpt  31.     i  used  to  teach  in  a  less  reflective  way,  sometimes  neglecting  the  importance  of  a  balance   between   focus   on   meaning   and   focus   on   form.   now   i   try   to   take   into   proper   account   learners’  built-­‐in  syllabus  in  order  to  plan  lessons  that  can  be  stimulating  on  both  aspects   and   that   include   an   assessment   phase   made   also   of   uncontrolled   performance   through   which  i  can  get  a  clearer  idea  of  their  second  language  learning  process.     before   the  tfa  course,  he  had  not  been   formally   introduced   to  many  of   the  principles  because   the   course  was  his  first  opportunity  to  study  sla  theories.  despite  this,  he  instinctively  applied  principles  1,  2,  6,   7,   and   8.   he  mentions   that   he   had   had   some   ideas   about   the   importance   of   respecting   learners’   different   learning  styles  but  had  never  really  reflected  on  how  this  could  be  part  of  lesson  planning.  he  used  to  focus   more  on  the  object  of  learning,  the  language,  and  little  on  the  learning  process.  the  observations  through  the   theoretical  lens  of  the  principles  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  understand  that:       excerpt  32.     …even   senior   teachers   should   be   open   and   ready   to   reconsider   their   approaches   and   practices  when  they  are  not  successful   pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        43   they  also  helped  him  understand  that  successful  instruction  is  based  on  prior  accurate  planning  and   successful  interaction  in  the  classroom.     excerpt  33.     i   learned   that   there  are  no  one-­‐size-­‐fits-­‐all   teaching  practices,   that   teachers   should  keep   their   eyes   and   ears   open   to   students   at   any   time,   that   teachers   should   never   feel   good   enough   to   teach  everybody  everything  but   they   should  be   ready   to   learn   from  students,   show   them   their   feelings,   create   a   favorable   learning   atmosphere,   have   no   prejudices   towards  learners  and,  finally,  that  every  day  is  a  good  day  to  put  on  a  smile  and  show  the   learners  that  learning  can  be  fun.     giuseppe   thinks   that   no   principle   is   less   useful   than   the   others   and   that   any   prospective   teacher   should   learn   to   observe   their   own   and   other   teachers’   practices   through   ellis’s   principles.   today,   while   teaching,  he  says  he  always  tries  to  leave  enough  space  for  interaction,  both  teacher-­‐learner  and  peer-­‐to-­‐peer.   in  addition,  he  tries  to  dedicate  more  time  to  students’  performances  without  focusing  too  much  on  errors,  at   least  at  an  early  stage.  he  would  like  to  apply  principle  10  more  extensively:     excerpt  34.     sometimes   having   too   many   students   in   the   same   classroom   with   different   levels   of   proficiency  can  represent  a  constraint  due  to  the  fact  that  free  productions  require  more   time  and  effort  to  be  prompted  and  then  analyzed.  i  wish  i  could  have  less  paperwork  to   do  and  more  time  to  set  the  scene  for  more  creative  work  with  the  learners.     giuseppe  strongly  disagrees  with  the  ministerial  decision  to  stop  the  tfa  course  because  in  second   language  learning  both  theoretical  background  and  classroom  observation  are  fundamental  for  a  prospective   teacher.   he   hopes   that   the   practicum  will   be   reintroduced   because,   in   his   experience,   teaching   cannot   be   improvised,  rely  solely  on  traditional  methods  or  be  accomplished  through  rote  repetition.     4.  conclusions     as  we  have   seen,   the  way   in  which   slte   for  pre-­‐service   teachers   is   generally   organized  has   some   limitations.  researchers,   teacher  educators,  and  school-­‐tutors  do  not  usually  manage  to  work  cooperatively   because  courses  and  practicums  are  often  organized  separately.  this  means  that  sts  do  not  receive  enough   structured   preparation   to   maximize   the   learning   experience   of   their   practicum.   furthermore,   practicums   have   been   offered   quite   sporadically   in   te   programs,   since   conflicting  ministerial   decisions   have   at   times   removed   them   from   pre-­‐service   qualifying   courses.   as   we   have   seen,   at   present   italy   has   no   pre-­‐service   courses  whatsoever.   competitors  win   teaching   positions   and   start   their   practicum  while   teaching,  without   having  received  prior  theoretical  knowledge  or  technical  knowledge  apart  from  their  own  personal  studies  or   experience  that  they  may  have  gained  through  supply  teaching  jobs.   the  project  that  i  proposed  was  an  attempt  to  bridge  the  gap  between  sla  and  lp  through  teacher   education.   it   privileged   classroom   observation,   putting   sts   in   the   role   of   co-­‐researchers  who   investigated   teaching   practices   through   the   solid   theoretical   lens   of   the   ten   principles   (ellis,   2005a,   2005b).   this   was   possible  because  the  italian  te  system  was  living  a  virtuous  moment,  in  that  it  offered  tfa  courses,  based  on   the   idea   of   an   active   practicum   (tirocinio   attivo)   being   the  main  way   to   attain   an   educational   background   (formativo).  a  positive  characteristic  of  this  project,  as  reported  by  sts,  is  that  it  gave  them  the  chance  to  view   what  was  really  happening  in  italian  schools,  not  to  learn  from  results  derived  from  external  contexts.  but,  for   this  model  to  be  further  applicable  in  the  italian  context,  different  decisions  must  be  made  in  italy  and  pre-­‐ service   teacher   education  with   practicum  must   be   reintroduced.   evmorfia,   another   st   of   the   group  whose   feedback  has  always  been  very  deep  and  straightforward,  comments:     excerpt  35.     as   far   as   the   enrolment   issue   is   concerned,   i   believe   it   is  wrong   to   create   soft   and  hard   paths  to  recruitment  and  we  need  a  coherent  and  unified  mode  of  teaching  qualification.   the  lack  of  unified  admission  requirements  has  led  to  different  thoughts  of  teaching.  this   multi-­‐ramification   sometimes   impedes   communication   among   teachers,   as   we   talk   and   petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    44   think  in  different   languages.  the  tfa  has  been  a  highly  selective  competition  and  can  be   kept   like   that   but   we   need   to   standardize   it.   finally,   i   believe   that   when   the   course   is   organized   by   valid   organizations   and   supported   by   competent   personnel,   it   can   be   extremely  useful  for  teachers  not  only  as  “corso  abilitante”  (qualifying  course)  but  also  as   life  long  learning  and  training  for  in-­‐service  teachers.     the  problems  connected  to  slte  are  widely  discussed  in  literature,  as  is  the  lack  of  solid  and  organic   learning   experiences   through   practicum   (cf.   richards,   1998;   richards   &   nunan,   1990;   singh   &   richards,   2006;  ur,  1996;  wallace,  1991).  practicums  are  often  based  on   the  assumption   that   senior   teachers  can  be   models   to  sts  but,   in   fact,   teachers  are   individuals  who  often  make  different  choices   from  what  sla  would   prescribe.   apart   from   italy,   the   experience   outlined   in   this   study   could   be   applicable   in   other   countries,   especially  in  europe,  with  the  necessary  modifications  linked  to  each  national  context.  the  recent  survey  data   of  the  2019  education  and  training  monitor,  which  contains  a  dedicated  analysis  of  school  teachers  in  the  eu,   stresses  the  importance  of  induction  and  mentoring  programs  at  the  early  stages  of  careers  and  the  necessity   for  solid  structured  practices,  since  european  education  systems  are  confronted  with  a  number  of  challenges   relating   to   teachers   and   several   countries   already   face   or   are   about   to   face   shortages.   in   this   regard,   the   education  and  training  monitor  states  that:     a   high-­‐quality   induction   with   classroom   experience,   good   opportunities   for   professional   trainings   and   appraisal   methods   focused   on   teachers’   development   needs   have   been   identified  as  three  common  policy  elements  in  countries  where  learning  outcomes  are  good.   (european  commission,  2019,  p.  26)     i   found   inspiration   from  studies   like  erlam  (2008)  and  ellis  (2010)  to  present  a  project  where  sla   research  “was  not  seen  as  a  set  of  studies  conducted  by  a  group  of  experts,  but  a  process  that  teachers  could   be   encouraged   to   join   in   and   contribute   to,   as  well   as   researchers”   (tarone  &   allwright,   2005,   as   cited   in   erlam,  2008,  p.  264).  this  was  done  by  presenting   the  principles   (ellis,  2005a,  2005b)   in  seminar   lectures,   discussing   them,   operationalizing   them   through   an   observational   questionnaire   and   then   giving   sts   the   chance  to  observe  senior  teachers’  practices  through  this  theoretical   lens.  sts  were  encouraged  to  view  the   principles   as   a   source   of   open   reflections   which   could   take   several   directions   and   perspectives   along   the   sla/lp  continuum.  this  is  why,  as  seen  from  the  case  studies,  each  st  reflected  on  either  methodological  or   pedagogical  concerns  depending  on  their  areas  of  interest.     this  is  in  line  with  what  erlam  (2008)  did  when  she  shared  discussion  on  the  principles  and  former   case  studies  (erlam  et  al.,  2006)  with  teaching  advisors  in  nz:  “the  view  of  knowledge  was  process-­‐oriented   (korthagen   et   al.,   2006);   that   is,   knowledge   was   seen   as   a   subject   that   could   be   created   by   the   learners   themselves  (freudenthal,  1978)  rather  than  as  a  created  subject.”  (erlam,  2008,  p.  264).  sts  had  the  chance  to   become   classroom   researchers,   learn   the   rigor   and   efficacy   of   research,   investigate   the   psychological   and   structural  constraints  on  teaching,  and  make  discoveries  about  their  own  beliefs  and  identities.  the  aim  was   to  make   them   the   protagonists   of   their   learning   experience   and   not   simply   containers   to   be   filled   in  with   notions.   another  positive  outcome  of  the  project  was,  of  course,  that  it  gave  sts  a  horizon  of  reference  in  their   later  career.  as  seen,  all  sts  in  the  case  studies  confirmed  that  seminars  on  the  principles  were  fundamental   to   supporting   intuitive   knowledge  with   specific   scientific   knowledge.   they   gained   confidence   through   this   type   of   observation   and   all   of   them  mentioned   that   the   principles   were   extremely   useful   for   their   future   teaching  choices.  it  might  be  surprising  to  find  out  that  before  the  tfa  course,  trainees  were  not  so  familiar   with  sla   theories   applied   to   the   language   classroom.  this  definitely  depends  on   their  university   curricula,   which   focused   more   on   issues   related   to   literature   and   general   linguistics,   as   is   the   case   for   almost   all   prospective   efl   teachers   in   italy.   a   wider   offer   of   sla   related   content   would   be   advisable   for   university   curricula  designed  for  english  language  experts  who  wish  to  specialize  in  teaching  efl.   the  discussions  carried  out   in  the  seminars  also  gave  sts  the  opportunity  to  reflect  on  and  discuss   the  practices  observed;  this  is  something  that  they  often  have  little  time  or  chance  to  do  with  their  peers  now   that   there   are   enrolled   teachers.   the  most   positive   result   of   the  project  was   that   all   seven  of   the   sts  who   followed  the  seminars  passed  the  subsequent  state  competition  against  a  huge  number  of  competitors  vying   to  be  assigned  a  permanent  teaching  contract.  this  means  that  their   level  of  preparation  fully  responded  to   national  requirements.     pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        45   in   light  of   these  results,  projects   like  these  could  be  carried  out   in  other  slte  pre-­‐service  contexts.   what  should  be  guaranteed  is  a  solid  integration  between  the  theoretical  course  and  the  practicum,  as  well  as   the  meaningful  involvement  of  host  schools  with  motivated  senior  teachers  who  align  to  clt  practices.   implications   for   slte   training   beyond   this   project   are   logical   not   only   for   pre-­‐service   but   also   in-­‐ service  education.  as   seen   in  previous   studies,   those   in-­‐service   teachers  who  embrace  clt  mostly  have  an   intuitive  approach  to  its  practices  rather  than  formal,  technical  training  on  the  principles,  so  structuring  more   courses  on  the  principles  could  definitely  help  homogenize  teacher  beliefs  and  clt  practices  in  school.  senior   observations   through   the   lens   of   the   principles   could   be   substituted   in   favor   of   peer-­‐to-­‐peer   observations.   these   could   be   later   discussed   through   reflective   talks   amongst   colleagues   and   a   tutorial   leader.   the   principles  could  be  favorably  used  for  self-­‐assessment  along  the  whole  teaching  career.  obviously,  since  what   is  lacking  today  is  a  convergent  and  organic  pathway  which  would  contribute  to  and  strengthen  the  identity   of  clt  in  schools,  it  goes  without  saying  that  ministries  should  collaborate  with  sla  and  lp  experts  in  order   to  implement  a  unitarian  educational  pathway  for  all  language  teachers.     to   improve   the  design  of   the  project,  more  hours   should  be  dedicated   to   the   seminars  unless   sla   theories   were   included   in   the   university   curricula   designed   for   prospective   efl   teachers,   as   it   would   be   advisable.  unfortunately,  as  stated  above,  in  italy  most  undergraduate  educational  pathways  for  prospective   teachers   of   efl   tend   to   focus   primarily   on   literature   and   general   linguistics,   so   teacher   trainees   approach   courses  without  an  adequate  prior  knowledge  of  sla  theories.  the  principles,  in  fact,  relate  to  a  whole  world   of   theories   of   sla   which   cannot   be   summarized   or   studied   solely   as   an   overview.   a   limitation   is   that   principles   11   and   12,  which  ellis   added   in   2014,  were   not   included   in   the   seminar   discussions,   nor   in   the   observations,  so  seminar  time  should  be  added  to  accommodate  discussion  of  these  additions.  not  doing  so   would  definitely  be  a  loss  since  these  last  two  principles  refer  to  relevant  issues  that  were  raised  by  sts  based   on   an   implicit   level   of   knowledge   and   it   would   be   appropriate   to   promote   formal   reflective   talks   and   observations  on  them.         acknowledgements   my  deep  gratitude  goes  to  professor  rod  ellis  for  inspiring  me  along  the  course  of  my  studies  in  new   zealand   and   for   offering   sla   and   language   pedagogy   such   useful   guidelines   as   the   principles.   my   appreciation  also  extends   to  rosemary  erlam  who  kindly  offered  me  valuable  background  material   for   this   analysis.  lastly,  this  study  would  not  have  been  possible  without  the  precious  work  and  feedback  offered  by   all   the   trainees   involved   in   the   tfa   course,   especially   benedetta   burroni,   chiara   di   maria,   evmorfia   kalovidouri  and  giuseppe  trotta  for  this  article.         references   allwright,  dick  (2003).  exploratory  practice:  rethinking  practitioner  research  in  language  teaching.  language   teaching  research,  7(2),  113–141.   angelova,  maria  (2005).  using  bulgarian  mini-­‐lessons  in  an  sla  course  to  improve  the  kal  of  american  esl   teachers.   in   nat   bartels   (ed.),   applied   linguistics   and   teacher   education   (vol.   4):   educational   linguistics  (pp. 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appendix questionnaire on instructed second language learning in italian high schools based on ellis (2005b) name of observer: _____________________type of school: scuola secondaria di i grado / ii grado classes where observation was carried out: medie / primo biennio / secondo biennio / quinto anno principle 1 instruction needs to ensure that learners develop a rich repertoire of formulaic expressions and a rulebased competence 1. does the teacher engage students in the use of formulaic expressions? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 2. are students required to learn rote-memorized patterns of grammar? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively principle 2 instruction needs to ensure that learners focus predominantly on meaning 3. does the teacher propose activities in which students focus on the meaning of lexical items? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 4. does the teacher propose activities in which students focus on the meaning of grammatical structures? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather / extensively 5. does the teacher propose activities in which students focus on pragmatic meaning (i.e. the highly contextualized meanings that arise in acts of communication)? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively principle 3 instruction needs to ensure that learners also focus on form 6. is form taught through lessons designed to teach specific grammatical features? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 7. is form taught through focused tasks (i.e. tasks that require learners to comprehend and process specific grammatical structures in the performance of the task)? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 8. is there incidental attention to form through corrective feedback? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively principle 4 instruction needs to be predominantly directed at developing implicit knowledge of the l2 while not neglecting explicit knowledge 9. are there any attempts to verbalise students’ implicit knowledge as to make them consciously aware of how a structural feature works? yes / no petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    50   if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 10. are students pushed to use metalanguage (either in l1 or l2), that is the ability to understand and do explanation of rules? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 11. does the teacher allow time for online planning as to facilitate students’ access to their own explicit knowledge? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 12. does the teacher engage learners in consciousness-raising tasks, i.e. in thinking and communicating about language, so that the language point becomes the topic that is talked about? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively principle 5 instruction needs to take into account the learner’s ‘built-in syllabus’ 13. does the teacher adopt a zero grammar approach that makes no attempt to predetermine the linguistic content of a lesson (i.e. a task-based approach)? yes / no 14. does the teacher ensure that learners are developmentally ready to acquire a specific target feature before introducing it? yes / no 15. does the teacher reorder and restructure the syllabus sequence proposed in the textbook? yes/no 16. does the teacher focus the instruction on explicit rather than implicit knowledge as the former is not subject to the same developmental constraints as implicit knowledge? yes / no principle 6 successful instructed language learning requires extensive l2 input 17. is the target language the medium as well as the object of instruction? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 18. does the teacher create opportunities for learners to receive input outside the classroom (i.e. through graded reading, surveys, activities which require the use of internet, …)? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather / extensively principle 7 successful instructed language learning also requires opportunities for output 19. does the teacher make learners perform both in written and oral output? yes / no if so, to what extent? written a little / much / rather /extensively oral a little / much / rather /extensively 20. does the teacher create opportunities for learners to produce pushed output (when learners are pushed to use the tl accurately and clearly)? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 21. does the teacher create opportunities for learners to produce structured output in the development of activities that encourage learners to use newly learned tl? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 22. are learners required to use their own linguistic resources when producing output? pre-­‐service  teacher  education   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52        51   yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 23. are learners required to use a predetermined set of forms? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively principle 8 the opportunity to interact in the l2 is central to developing l2 proficiency 24. does the teacher create contexts of language use where students have a reason to attend to language? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 25. does the teacher provide opportunities for learners to use the language to express their own personal meanings? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 26. does the teacher help students to participate in language-related activities that are beyond their current level of proficiency? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 27. does the teacher offer a full range of contexts for learners’ interaction? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively principle 9 instruction needs to take account of individual differences in learners 28. does the teacher employ strategies to develop and maintain their students’ intrinsic motivation? yes / no 29. does the teacher try to teach at a pace that is not too fast and not too slow? yes / no 30. does the teacher use a variety of learning activities? yes / no principle 10 – in assessing learners’ l2 proficiency it is important to examine free as well as controlled production 31. does the teacher assess language by way of metalinguistic judgement (e.g. grammaticality judgment test)? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 32. does the teacher assess language by way of selected response (e.g. multiple choice)? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 33. does the teacher assess language by way of constrained constructed response (e.g. gap filling exercises)? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively 34. does the teacher assess language by way of free constructed response (e.g. a communicative task)? yes / no if so, to what extent? a little / much / rather /extensively petrocelli   e-­‐journall,  8(1)  (2021),  pp.  20–52    52   emilia petrocelli,  università per stranieri di siena petrocelli@unistrasi.it en emilia petrocelli is an upper secondary school teacher of english as a foreign language. in 2017-2018, she was assigned the role of lecturer of italian language and culture in south korea by the italian ministry of foreign affairs. she has been an adjunct professor in english language and translation strategies for the university for foreigners in siena as well as a teacher trainer on issues related to efl teaching methodologies, clil methodology, and italian second language acquisition. she holds a ph.d. in linguistics and teaching methodology of italian as a second language from the università per stranieri in siena. part of her ph.d. research was carried out under the supervision of professor rod ellis at the university of auckland (new zealand), where she also worked as a research assistant and teacher of italian as a second language. es emilia petrocelli es profesora de inglés como lengua extranjera en educación secundaria. en 2017-2018, fue lectora de lengua y cultura italiana en corea del sur a través del ministerio de asuntos exteriores italiano. ha sido profesora adjunta de lengua inglesa y estrategias de traducción en la universidad para extranjeros de siena, así como formadora de profesores en temas relacionados con las metodologías de enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera, la metodología del aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras (clil) y la adquisición del italiano como segunda lengua. es doctora en lingüística y metodología de enseñanza del italiano como segunda lengua por la universidad para extranjeros de siena. una parte de la investigación para su tesis doctoral se realizó bajo la supervisión del profesor rod ellis en la universidad de auckland, en nueva zelanda, donde también trabajó como asistente de investigación y profesora de italiano como segunda lengua. it emilia petrocelli  è docente di lingua e civiltà inglese nella scuola secondaria. nel 2017-2018 è stata lettrice di lingua e cultura italiana in corea del sud su mandato del ministero degli affari esteri. è docente a contratto di lingua e traduzione inglese all’università per stranieri di siena e formatrice su temi legati ai metodi d’insegnamento delle lingue seconde seconda e clil. ha conseguito il dottorato in linguistica e didattica della lingua italiana a stranieri presso l’università per stranieri di siena. una parte del lavoro di ricerca per la sua tesi di dottorato è stata condotta sotto la supervisione del professor rod ellis all’università di auckland, in nuova zelanda. in questa stessa università ha lavorato come assistente di ricerca e insegnante di italiano come lingua seconda.